I’ve seen bodies mashed, crushed, dismembered, stuffed into suitcases, blackened like meat on a grill, floating, bloating, with flies swarming their flesh and maggots wriggling out of their eyes. I have, in short, an intimacy with death.
But nothing prepared me for the horror in cabin 4044.
I stared at my own smoldering corpse, into the blackened sockets of my melted eyes, and ice raked my spine and splintered my bones, shivering all the way down to my frozen fingertips.
You knew this day would come, whispered a voice in my head. And then, as my nose wrinkled, Ugh, I smell like bacon.
Giggles. Oh dear. Not beneficial. Couldn’t I try to approach my death with some dignity? No? Well… fine. Ignoring my own bubbling hysteria, I held my napkin over my nostrils and leaned in. Cross-legged in a lotus position, hands cradled and thumbs touching, crispy me (hehe) held the pose of a meditating monk. From the liquor bottles scattered around the burnt wreckage as well as the pose, I’d started the fire myself. But what induced such madn—
Glowing white light suddenly emanated from the blackened sockets. I gasped, tumbling backwards over the coffee table.
When I sat up, the light was gone.
It did not reappear during the half hour I charged my phone, keeping one leery eye on my corpse while I used the ship’s spotty wifi for research.
A Mysterious Contagion
According to Google, the worst cruise disaster in modern times involved the partial capsizing of a vessel after a captain’s error led to a rock tearing open the hull. Of the four thousand passengers, 34 drowned.
Another ship infamously dubbed the “poop cruise” had its engines catch fire, and passengers were stranded for nearly a week on board without electricity or toilet facilities.
But the Seastar was not destined for any ocean or weather related incident, but rather, a contagion. And while coronavirus and norovirus have both afflicted cruise ships in recent years, no virus—not even rabies—could explain the self-mutilation. To say nothing of the virulence. A mortality rate of 100%? That was unheard of in nature. There should be some survivors, if only by happenstance.
Or is it because…
A terrible chill spread up the flesh of my arms, and a thought lodged like an ice pick in my skull: What if the doom of the Azure Seastar isn’t happenstance—but deliberate? Are there no survivors because someone doesn’t want there to be?
Numb at the implication, I set down my phone. But how? Why? A thousand passengers and crew… If there was someone planning such a disaster, how would I identify them? And why would anyone commit such an atrocity? My gut tightened, and I got up and ventured out to the upper decks.
Deck 9
Cold. Cold. Cold. The chill in my bones deepened with each hand I brushed. Passengers glared as I fumbled around, dismissing me as either blind or mentally feeble. The blindness was somewhat accurate—I couldn’t see under the electric lighting in the swanky interior, since my eyes were seeing six days in the future, when the Seastar would be plunged into blackout. I depended on my phone’s feeble flashlight as I navigated the sea of guests around the bar and lounge areas. But no matter how many arms and hands I bumbled into—COLD!
With no accidental survivors, I was becoming more and more convinced the Seastar’s doom must be deliberate, but I was still very much in the dark—literally and figuratively—about why.
The most useful discovery of the evening came after my collision with a heavyset older man whose drink I spilled. Noticing me sweeping around my phone’s pitiful beam and assuming I’d lost something, he offered to lend me a more powerful flashlight from his cabin.
“It’s one of those high powered ones if you want it.” He smiled, and I stared, every hair on my neck standing on end.
“Uh… Something on my face?” His smile turned into a confused frown under my phone’s light.
“N-no. Yes, a flashlight would be very helpful, thank you.”
“This way. Name’s John, by the way.” His grin returned.
Oh God—I’d recognized him. Glass chewing man. He had a name now.
I am ashamed to admit that I tried not to speak to him too much on the way to his cabin, despite his doing me a kindness. It’s so much harder to face death with names and histories attached. I remained standing outside his cabin door, looking incredibly guilty as he emerged and set into my hand the flashlight. When I turned it on, it sent a floodlight straight down the corridor one end to the other. In addition to this useful tool, the encounter brought a critical insight.
His clothes. Glass chewing involved a different outfit. So, the catastrophe would not strike tonight.
Pool deck
After brushing roughly a billion COLD hands, as the overnight crowd began thinning, I took myself out to a lounger (being unwilling to overnight in my cabin wreathed in the fumes of my own chargrilled corpse).
Voices woke me in the dead of night.
The moon and stars offered the only illumination over the pitch sea, and I shambled groggily to the rail. It struck me that the wind had died—the Seastar was stationary.
Out on the pale peaks of waves, a rescue craft bobbed up and down.
“Looks like some idiot went overboard,” complained a voice behind me.
A cluster of passengers had gathered. One—with the authority of an experienced cruiser—mentioned the possibility of a suicide jumper. “It shouldn’t affect our itinerary much,” declared the man. “These things happen at sea, you know. After the rescue, he or she—let’s call them Passenger X—will be taken to the infirmary and monitored by security…”
I didn’t hear the rest of his words, because I was too busy smacking my forehead as I burst, “The INFIRMARY!” Good fucking gracious, was my brain already barbecue? I suspected a contagion, yet hadn’t thought to search the infirmary? Snatching up my flashlight, I headed downstairs, but the lower decks were cordoned off.
A jovial crewman explained that passenger access was restricted during rescue operations.
“Also, it’s three in the morning,” he added, sipping coffee from a styrofoam cup. “The infirmary will open—I think around eight?”
“Which deck?”
“Deck two.” He gladly explained the layout when I asked. The lower decks also included crew quarters, a crew lounge, mess hall, the engine room, kitchens, food storage, the “highway” used for quickly trafficking trolleys from one end of the ship to the other, the infirmary, various machinery rooms, a brig, a morgue—“We mostly use it for like, chilling flowers and stuff like that though,” he added with a grin. There was also a third staircase near the stern of the ship—the aft stairwell—used regularly only by staff but opened to passengers in cases of emergency.
As he rattled off this list, I could feel myself plunging deeper into despair. This ship was so enormous, and so much of what lay below was off limits to passengers. Furthermore, there were no windows below! How was I going to make my way in the blackout? Even with John’s flashlight, the prospect was daunting.
But first things first, Cass, I told myself. The infirmary.
Infirmary
At 8am sharp I stepped into the infirmary. The waiting room was as ordinary as they come, complete with boring magazines and cheap office chairs and—because it was deep in the interior—pitch dark to my sleep-deprived eyes.
“Morning, Sweetie! How can I help you today?” The secretary at the front desk tipped her head toward me, revealing a glimpse of another face beneath my flashlight—mouth gaping and mangled, every tooth pulled out. Blissfully unaware that she was sharing her chair with her own corpse, the secretary smiled and gave me a clipboard of paperwork for check in.
While I filled out the forms by flashlight, footsteps shuffled near the desk, and the secretary struck up a conversation with someone I assumed was a nurse. My ears pricked when they gossiped about last night.
“… did you hear about the rescue? When they pulled him out of the water, he wasn’t breathing...”
I pretended to be engrossed in the forms.
“… As soon as they revived him, he started screaming and screaming.”
“Oh my god… seriously?”
“Yeah, and he was like, super aggressive. They had to sedate him.”
“Oh my god…”
“It’s really weird… they’re saying he might have come from another ship, and it might’ve been, like… days… that he was out on the water!”
So this Passenger X who was pulled in last night had just been drifting out on the ocean? He wasn’t a jumper? And he was “screaming and screaming”—like, perhaps, someone maddened? I was about to abandon my forms and search for this Passenger X when the secretary all but gave me a heart attack by materializing in front of me out of the dark. She took the paperwork and informed me the nurse was ready. I was directed to a small examination room—one of three, I noted as I swept my beam around the infirmary. Examining tables, chairs, computers. No sign of any screaming passenger. Where would they have brought him?
The nurse, a young woman in a hijab, asked me the typical questions, typing my responses into a computer with a cracked, dead screen.
“Is he all right? The man who was rescued?” I asked. “Was he drifting long?”
She responded pertly, “We’re still trying to ascertain. But don’t worry, he’s being helped—um….” Her brow scrunched as she shone a light into each of my eyes.
Of course. I forgot to warn her.
“That’s so strange…” she murmured. “Are you wearing contact lenses?”
“No. My eyes are very black. Even under a flashlight they don’t reflect any light. They’ve been that way since I was four years old. I was dead for nearly an hour from drowning, but revived, and everything came back normal except for my eyes.” I’d always believed my horrific visions were the result of my near-death experience, as if I wasn’t supposed to come back, and brought a little bit of death with me, just in my eyes.
“Wow! What a wild story!” The nurse exclaimed.
“You have no idea,” I replied, looking at her corpse peering out at me from under the examination table, all jammed around the base.
A knock on the door cut our exam short before I could warn her (not that it would make any difference). She asked me to wait for a few moments and stepped out.
When she did not immediately return, I slipped away in search of Passenger X.
Highway
The moment I stepped out of the infirmary and away from the nearby elevator lounge, it became evident I’d left the passenger areas. All veneer of luxury was stripped away, leaving bare walls interrupted only by occasional stacks of boxes. The flashlight’s wide beam swept along the massive corridor that I was guessing was the “highway.” My footsteps resounded on concrete. Nothing but sterile, windowless white—or at least it had been white, once.
I tried not to look too closely at the crimson streaking the walls or the corpses I stepped over. The origin of the contagion was definitely down here. Even through the napkin held over my nose, I could taste death here—
Hello? What was this?
In one section of the corridor, the walls and floor had rippled. Almost as if a shockwave had left indentations, bending and shattering the concrete. But what could have done that?
The lights flickered.
I froze.
It wasn’t my flashlight’s beam. That remained steady. The lights—the overhead lights—flickered, casting the hall in blinking flashes of crimson streaks and white walls.
Then the lights came on.
All the bodies vanished.
“Oh,” I said, blinking against the sudden brightness. “Oh.” The smell was gone, too. No scent of death. Though there was something else. A strangely metallic, tangy smell. Like lightning and copper.
I shut off my flashlight, turning a slow circle as I gawked at the stark white walls, the flat gray floor, the dazzling fluorescent lighting so bright it almost blinded me. It struck me that I was seeing the ship right now. Not six days in the future, but NOW, before the blackout, before the outbreak. The same whitewashed hallway as all the other passengers saw.
Why? What had happened to my vision? Had I lost my special sight? Or—
Someone was standing in the corridor.
I froze.
The hairs on my neck prickled, and a knot of dread twisted my gut.
The man stood halfway down the highway, slouched and bedraggled. His clothes were crushed and faded, hanging off him like from hangers of bone. His limp hair draped in messy curls around his unshaven face. And his eyes—those eyes! The same eyes I’d seen looking at me from the deep end of a public swimming pool when I was just a child. The same eyes I’d seen staring emptily from John’s glass-chewing corpse, and from the mangled nurse under the table. All the dead have the exact same look in their eyes. One glance at those pale blue orbs—
This man was dead. I was certain of it.
Yet he was standing.
“You,” I said. “You… are you the passenger who—”
The dead man’s lips spread, baring teeth in what might have been a sick imitation of a grin, or a grimace.
“HEY!!!”
I jumped as a voice called out behind me.
An officer in a security uniform strode out from an unmarked door, eyes on the dead man. The security officer said, “Ma’am, stay back.” His gaze never left the dead man. “Sir, if you could please come with me—”
“No!” I cried. “Don’t!”
But the security officer was already marching forward, and the dead man’s hands lifted in stiff parody of surrender. He turned and began shuffling away under the officer’s escort. And then—his teeth bared. Suddenly the dead man had his arm around the officer, mouth clamping on his ear as the officer howled. He was eating him—no, tongue wriggling—licking him?
—whispering?
The officer shoved the dead man aside and collapsed against the wall. I rushed forward, but skidded to a halt as the dead man’s grinning face turned toward me. Terror seized me at the sudden revelation that I was next. He took a wobbly step—
The lights shut off.
Swearing, I fumbled for my flashlight. Switched on the beam. Shrieked when it fell across a hand—but it was just the security officer reaching for me, asking, “Hey—hey, are you all right, Ma’am?” He winced, rubbing at his ear like a dog bothered by a whistle only it could hear. Then he said into his phone, “He assaulted me and got away. I’ve got another passenger here—”
The stench wafted back. Gore once again splattered the walls. I was once more seeing six days into the future, and clapped my napkin to my mouth to stop myself from retching at the return of the smell. But I wasn’t really thinking about all that.
No, because my heart slammed my ribs and my breath ripped ragged from my throat, and every hair stood on end as if I’d been struck by lightning. Whatever it was the crew of the Seastar had hauled from the ocean, it certainly hadn’t been living when they “rescued” it. And the proof was in those overhead lights. Merely being in proximity to Passenger X, my vision had been pulled into the present. Like he was a magnet drawing my sight into his field. But if death was the thing my black, lightless eyes usually glimpsed, then what exactly was Passenger X? And if he could affect my vision, not to mention animating a dead man’s corpse… how was I going to have any hope of stopping him?
[Part 1] [Part 2]

Acts I to III are available in my previous posts. This act is the longest of all and thus, I've been forced to divide it into two posts. Make sure you're comfortable. Enjoy your read!
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Act IV: The Clouds Burst (1/2)

Maisie's evasion
While Ramsay is secretly covering them in the control room, Wu and Theo enters Katia Lesser's lab and with Rod Drummond's unexpected help (he's tired of working for Biosyn and intend to get out of the valley), they neutralize the scientist and frees Maisie from her cell. They then cross the other secret labs within Biosyn's Citadel and we several interesting elements:
- Dissected animals are seen in one of the labs while others are suffering medical experiments.
- In one of the sections, there are ten rooms. Nine of them are empty and in the tenth one, there are nothing but locusts, which surprise Theo. However, Drummond points out they don't exactly look like ordinary locusts (they're only slightly bigger than modern locusts. They could even be portrayed by real locusts (a bit enlarged by visual tricks) if this was a film) and noticing Wu's guilty look, the two men and Maisie realize he had a role in their creation). But he doesn't have the time to give explanations about those locusts.
- Another room has a window which overlooks a large dark bunker-like hall. In its darkness, they glimpse the shape of a large theropod with raised dorsal spines and crocodile-like scutes but when he sees the creature a bit more clearly, Drummond says something like "Those idiots made their cheap Godzilla knockoff!", recognizing the creature from the short film he mentioned to Wu in the Drinking Confession scene. He calls the mysterious theropod an "Ugly bastard" and a perversion of real dinosaurs.
After the labs, they head for the metro station just as planned but due to his lame leg (in TRQ, it was pierced by one of the Indoraptor's claws), Wu can't go with them and decides to stay in order to win some time for them. He and Maisie have a last look/exchange, with the teenager finally showing Wu some genuine respect and gratitude. Wu gives Theo a flash drive, urging him to send its content to Guillaume Vuillier of the WDMC as it contains the evidences of a scourge Biosyn intend to release soon. They separate, with Wu going in the opposite direction.
While the guards are chasing Wu, Maisie, Theo and Rod enter the metro and picks one of the stations on the eastern side of Auronzo (actually one of the observation towers). The metro leave the Citadel, following the valley loop. However, the metro system was badly designed and it can only follow the loop in a clockwise direction, forcing them to make a considerable detour and waste precious minutes.
Wu is soon caught and Dodgson's arrival in the control room prevents Ramsay from further helping the fugitives. Seeing one of the metro heading east, Dodgson has it stopped halfway of its journey and orders the guards to go inside the tunnels and bring back Maisie. Aware that Wu betrayed him, Dodgson takes a tablet and activates a certain Prometheus protocol.
Underground, Maisie, Theo and Drummond are forced to leave the metro and they try to find an exit before the guards can catch them. They find a door on the side and breaking it, they enter another smaller tunnel. However, the ground is slippery and they fall, descending further down into the darkness.
When the guards sent in the tunnels tell Dodgson that they lost Maisie, the CEO has a fit of anger.
The old amber mines
After their fall, Maisie, Theo and Drummond discover that they're in the old amber mines, which Biosyn exploited until their depletion, and search for an exit. Drummond also mentions that the valley's underground is like a cheese and that he wouldn't be surprised if some tunnels lead outside of the valley, which would explain all the incidents which occurred in the past year. During their crossing of the mines, they find several human skeletons or remains. It's implied that it's all the undesirable people who trespassed into the valley (governments' and rival companies' spies, anti-Biosyn activists...).
Should the giant temnospondyl be scrapped from the frozen lake sequence, it's probably going to be included here, as there are underground rivers and reservoirs by the mines.
Aviano Air Base
At Aviano Air Base, at the very gates of the Alps, Jessica Bigelow boards a US air force helicopter which takes her to Auronzo.
Prometheus Protocol
Wu is brought to Dodgson, which shows him a screen. Wu is aghast as it's a Twitter feed with the following hashtag #MadScientistWu, which is trending. Dodgson then explains that he had a file containing evidences of Wu's ethical misbehaviour (his work on the Indominus and Indoraptor, and especially the use of human DNA in their making ..) be made and ready to be sent to the media at once should he betray him. His reputation being destroyed for good, Wu breaks down and Dodgson orders the guards to bring him to Dr Lesser's lab and put him in Maisie's cell. Several characters (Ramsay, Pellegrino, Chapman, Everett...) watch Wu being led away by the guards.
With Mia Everett being nearby, Dodgson declares that Biosyn shouldn't have accepted a single InGen employees within its ranks has they have been nothing but traitors and burdens, before announcing to Mia he finally decided to pull the plug on her research program, as her rival and his team have much more promising results and shall be soon covered in glory.
Raiding and Betrayal
While the afternoon reaches its end, Owen, Dougal and Kayla end up near one of the Sanctuary's seven observation towers. There's no one inside and Kayla suggest entering it to raid some of the supplies it contains. She also tells her two companions that there is a metro station beneath each of the towers, stations connected to the Citadel by the tunnels. Thinking they could infiltrate the Citadel by those tunnels, Dougal agrees with her plan and the trio enters the tower and steal the needed supplies but a drone has spotted them. Just as they are about to follow the tunnels, they notice flashlights, those of incoming Biosyn guards. They climb back to the top of the tower but a security vehicle parks in front of the building and other guards step out of it. Surrounded, the trio prepare for a siege inside the tower but just as the guards are about to enter, Kayla points her weapon on Dougal's head and tells Owen to drop his or his colleague dies.
From the nearby forest, Claire witnesses the capture of her two colleagues and watches the Biosyn Security vehicle taking Kayla and the prisoners to the Citadel while the sound of helicopters approaching can be heard.
The board arrives
The helicopter(s) transporting Biosyn's board of directors lands on the Citadel's helipad and its passengers (which include Nathan Quinn and Zoe Murdoch) are welcomed by Dodgson and Ramsay.
Obstinacy
At the same time, Jessica Bigelow is brought to the Citadel and asks to see Dodgson but Murdoch stands in her way, claiming he's very busy. The CIA agent insists and Dodgson finally listens to what she has to say. But he wants to carry on with his event whatever happens, but reassure her as for Biosyn's most important research: They're already on a hard-drive in his office.
The cells
We cut to Owen and Dougal as they are locked up in a cell in the Security HQ. Kayla is standing outside, next to Pellegrino who's interrogating the two men about their mission and Claire's whereabouts. The smuggler reveals to the two WDMC agents that powerful friends suggested to her to let herself be arrested by the Italians as they expected they'll use her as a Trojan horse. She adds that there's nothing personal, she's just thinking about herself. While Pellegrino carries on with her questions, Kayla leaves the Security HQ and meets Bigelow by its exit (telling the audience that Kayla's powerful friends are the CIA). She asks her about their next moves and the CIA agent answers that the two of them will leave the valley with Dodgson and his escort. Back in the cell, Owen and Dougal hope Claire will succeed.
Unleashed dragon
As she's nearing the Citadel, Claire is spotted by a patrol of mercenaries or a drone. They chase after her and in her flight, she ends up in an enclosed part of the Sanctuary with several paddocks and cages. Several of them contain animals and it's implied that it's where Biosyn keeps those it just acquired or bred before releasing them in the valley. One of the cages contains a tyrannosaur and just as the mercenaries are about to catch her, Claire releases the predator and the mercenaries panic, triggering the rex's attack. It kills them before turning towards Claire, who's crouched and not making a single move. The rex sniffs her lengthily and Claire notices it's the animal she saw the day before, which left the droppings she used to mask her scent... The rex leaves Claire alone and disappears in the woods, heading north while Claire heads in the opposite direction. On the way, she sees a mysterious large theropod (she and the audience have visual obstacles which prevents them from clearly seeing it but we know it's the one from the bunker under the Citadel) being transported towards the western part of the valley.
In the besiegers' camp
While the sun is setting, a meeting is held in one of the besiegers camp's tents. Among the attendees are Vuillier, Nyamu, Viscontini, the leader of the Carabinieri Colonel Orlando Pasolini, and those of the Italian and Austrian Special Forces (and Pazzi through videoconference as he's still in Rome). They're talking about Biosyn's defenses and forces, the species which might be encountered in the Sanctuary, eventual negotiation strategies, the WDMC agents' mission, the grey guards who are in the valley and currently heading to the Citadel... Argument breaks out as some (like Pazzi) advocates for an immediate offensive, to surprise Dodgson and prevent him from fleeing or preparing some nasty surprise, while others want to wait until dawn, to let time for the grey guards and the eventual surviving WDMC agents to accomplish their mission in addition of avoiding sending men in a valley full of deadly animals in the dark of the night. Pazzi is for an immediate offensive and gives his blessing to colonel Pasolini.
Worried about the fate of his agents, Vuillier contacts the grey guards, which are already heading to the Citadel, following a path in the uplands.
The US spies
From a nearby wood, some people are seen spying the camp and northern entrance of Biosyn's lands. We cut to a meeting room inside the CIA's headquarters at Langley where Gibbon and his colleagues just received news that an offensive is about to start at Auronzo. Some ask the head of the DSD news about his agent inside Biosyn's Citadel.
Open the gates
Bigelow, with Ramsay's help, is trying to persuade Dodgson to cancel the event, take the hard-drive with the key research, and secretly evacuate Auronzo before ordering the control room to open the gates and let the Italian authorities in. While those would be searching through the Citadel, they would leave the area by the mountains before heading to a secret safehouse. Dodgson complains that the only help the US government sends is her but she mockingly retorts that the US won't risk a war with Italy and Austria just because of him and that had he been more careful, all that mess wouldn't have happened.
Watching footage of the besiegers' camp, Dodgson finally orders the opening of the northern gate. He and Ramsay then go to the auditorium, where Biosyn's board and other important figures are waiting for the CEO.
The convoy
Believing Dodgson finally surrendered, Colonel Pasolini and most of his Carabinieri enter Biosyn's lands while the Italian and Austrian Special Forces remain in the camp. After passing by the mercenaries (who were ordered by Dodgson to stand down) and the airstrip, the convoy enters a narrow pass through the mountains, the same one through which the hunters were brought to the Sanctuary.
Chips
In the Citadel's auditorium, Dodgson begins his presentation with a speech about how dinosaurs and other de-extinct animals were used since InGen first cloned them. At the same time, all the non-essential employees are gathered in the cafeteria and locked there by the mercenaries on his orders while others are deployed in some of the Citadel's most strategic locations (the control room, the labs' entrance...)
Meanwhile, the Carabinieri convoy has entered the Sanctuary and following the main road to the Citadel, they pass by the lake seen in A bed in the trees scene and several animals, including predators, which do nothing but watch the convoy. Drones are seen flying above the Italian vehicles. However, just as the Citadel is visible in the distance, the convoy stops when the first vehicle notices that a fallen tree is lying across the road. While it's quite large, said tree is still light enough to be moved by a group of people and with a lot of effort. Colonel Pasolini orders for a certain number of his men to get out and move the tree out of their way but while they start accomplishing their task, the Carabinieri feels the ground trembling beneath their feet and they and those still in the vehicles see ripples in the water puddles along the road. A racket starts to be heard in the woods on both sides of the road and in the distance, trees can be heard being jostled or even falling. Aware that large dinosaurs must be nearby, Pasolini orders his men to get back inside the vehicles and to the last in the convoy to return to the last crossroads and search another way to the Citadel. But just as said vehicle turns around, a tree falls across the road, larger than the one ahead of the convoy. The latter is now stuck between the two fallen trees and when they see human silhouettes running away from the one behind the convoy, the Carabinieri realize that they've fallen into an ambush (hearing the Carabinieri's communications on the radio, Vuillier and Viscontini wonder what treachery Dodgson has planned). Meanwhile, the drones have returned over the convoy and the racket in the woods gets closer and closer and the people in the convoy glimpse three large necks rising from the forest: argentinosaurs, charging argentinosaurs. Frightened at such a sight, the Carabineri are struck with fear and just as the sauropods are about to burst out of the forest at any second, a dreadful booming sound (similar to that of the orcs horns in Battle of the Five Armies; or the reapers' sound from the Mass Effect series) comes from speakers on some nearby elevation and in response, the sauropods let out a deafening bellow heard across much of the Sanctuary. Before they can take action, the Carabinieri are attacked by the argentinosaurs and their suite of small predators.
In the control room, Pellegrino witnesses the attack through some drone visuals and is wondering how it happened. She orders the technicians to send a signal in the sauropods' brain chips (during the Inspection scene at the beginning of the story, Pellegrino explain to the group that the Sanctuary animals are chipped) in order to make them stop but when they try to send the signal, the get an error notification, and one of the technicians say that either the chips fried and are driving the animals mad, or they were hacked. Pellegrino then asks to deactivate the aerial defense system to let the besiegers fly their helicopters into the valley but she's told that some program recently inserted prevent them from doing that for the entire duration of the prenstation. Powerless, the head of security watches the argentinosaurs crushing vehicles and men under their feet, and their suites of small predators harassing them. She's even more surprised when a few Ankylosaurus (first glimpsed in the news montage when the report talks about "tailored dinosaurs". Compared to those from the fossil record and those made by InGen, those Ankylosaurus are bigger and more high-legged, giving them enhanced mobility. Design-wise, it's basically the one from the actual JW films, albeit perhaps more intimidating) join the fray. Having suspicions, she head for the auditorium.
After learning that Pasolini and his Carabinieri fell into an ambush, an offensive is launched against the walls of Biosyn lands. Vuillier and Viscontini watch the Italian and Austrian Special Forces engaging the mercenaries defending the walls by the airstrip. They hope they'll soon make a breach so they can reach the convoy before it's too late (they know they can't send helicopters due the pterosaurs acting as the Citadel's aerial defense).
In the valley, one of the Carabinieri notice that the animal isn't acting on its own will (it's seen blocking its movements for a short moment, like someone resisting to a possession) and even seems in pain.
We cut to the auditorium and his observation is confirmed, with Dodgson explaining to the board of directors that thanks to chips (originally designed by Mantah Corp but Dodgson being Dodgson, he doesn't mention that and instead give the credit to the team rival of Mia's), they can control the animals like puppets. He precise that while the chips work well on some animals, trials have failed with others (like the raptors). On the auditorium's giant screen, various diagrams and footage of trials are seen.
We then follow another POV, that of technicians inside a command centre-like room. The technicians are sitting in front of monitors and each of them is seen typing on keyboards, giving instructions to the argentinosaurs' and ankylosaurs' chips (on the monitors, the audience can notice that they give names to each of the animals. For example, the three Argentinosaurus are named Brontes, Steropes, and Arges; after three of the cyclops from Greek Mythology). Through their drones or even micro cameras attached to the dinosaurs, they see the Carabinieri fleeing northwards while some of the Italians retaliate to the attack by shooting on the dinosaurs. But their weapons are ineffective against the argentinosaurs' hide and the ankylosaurs' armours. On the order of a mercenary officer, the technicians send a second wave of animals.
The speakers make once again their awful booming sound, exacerbating the animals' aggressiveness, and the second wave emerges from the forest. Before the scene cuts, we see it's made of, among other things, a Gigantoraptor (named Jabberwocky on its controlling technician's monitor), a couple of Quetzalcoatlus, probably some medium-large theropods like Allosaurus or Carnotaurus, a Biosyn Triceratops, and maybe even some Hyaenodon/sabre-toothed felid (depends on which will appear in the fighting pit in Malta) and Gigantopithecus recently imported to Auronzo. Many of those new attackers wear armor pieces comparable to those of police and military dogs or horses.
In the auditorium, the giant screen ends up showing the battle occurring in the valley. Dodgson's audience gasps when they see the drones' footage. One of the board members ask: "It's from a video game? Right?"
NOTE: I fear that there might be too many animals and different species involved in the battle. The mandatory ones are the following: Argentinosaurus (maybe have more than three individuals? The Brontes-Steropes-Arges trio could be seen charging abreast, evoking from afar a single three-headed gigantic beast) and their suite, Triceratops (which will illustrate itself soon and show how it's different from InGen's trikes), Gigantoraptor (in order to have a faster and more agile creature in the lot), and another player foreshadowed in earlier scenes (you'll know which when we'll return to the battle).
Sneaking into the Citadel
While battle just broke out further west, a Biosyn guard posted by a large gate carved at the base of the mountain near the Citadel spots a hooded silhouette under the trees: Claire. She retreats into the darkness and as a huge reward has been promised to anyone who would capture Vuillier's she-wolf, he runs after her. However, just like the colleagues she killed the day before, she lures him into an ambush and neutralizes him. She then steals his uniform and badge, and use the latter to open the gate, entering in an underground corridor, large enough to allow the transportation of large animals like the mysterious big theropod she glimpsed earlier. She follows it towards the Citadel.
Unbeknownst to her, the grey guards have also started their infiltration in the Citadel, by walking down the slopes behind the central tower. After neutralizing the few Biosyn guards positioned there, they enter the garden around the tower. In the latter's shadow, they split up in four groups, each heading into different parts of the Citadel:
- Cesare, Olivares and another are tasked with entering the labs.
- Perez, Al-Damiri and a third team member must take over the control room at the top of the tower.
- Chapuy and two others are tasked with searching the archives under the tower and preventing anyone from destroying the documents.
- Massoud, Kapakas and Papadopoulos must find the cells and free the WDMC agents if they're there.
The Battle of Auronzo
Following the road, the retreating Carabinieri reach the Valley's main river and the bridge the convoy crossed on the way just a few minutes ago. However, a controlled animal charging from the other side of the river prevents the first Carabinieri from taking it and they are forced to cross the cold waters of the river itself (it's thigh-deep at best) while the controlled animals are right on their heels. Several Carabinieri get killed during the crossing while some of their colleagues are cut off from them and must escape into the woods on the southern side of the river. Luckily, the controlling technicians didn't notice them. Once Pasolini and his remaining men are all on the other side of the river with the few vehicles they could have gotten out of the ambush site, the controlling technicians have their animals stopped just at the edge. A last animal codenamed Quasimodo arrive on the battlefield, a large Biosyn-made predator which visually, looks like a perversion of the real animal which makes up its base genome: It's the monstrous theropod from the bunker, an Acrocanthosaurus whose DNA was spliced with that of other animals, including crocodile (due to the croc fetish of some Biosyn executives) in order to be bigger and more "Monstrous and cooler-looking" than InGen's Acrocanthosaurus (yes, it's just JWD's Giganotosaurus with a different name). The apex predator makes his way through the other animals, which are seen looking at him with fright (in case of the smaller species) or irritation (in case of the Argentinosaurus and the other megaherbivores) but still controlled, they can't run away or fight it. As they're not controlled by the chips, the members of the Argentinosaurus' suite are showing aggression and one of them dares to attack him, but Quasimodo just grabs it in the air and eats it, discouraging the others from attacking as long as the sauropods won't. Quasimodo then stops in front of the bridge and looks at the Carabinieri on the other side. Confronted to this surreal sight, Pasolini don't know if they shall continue their retreat northwards or wait and hope for reinforcements' arrival.
While the animals are eerily standing still by the river, Dodgson exposes an idea to the board: They will bred new animals which aren't in their official catalogue, secretly release them in various parts of the globe, create "controlled" incidents and then get contracted by governments to capture the animals (capture which will be very easy with the chips, barely an inconvenience...) and send them to Auronzo. Biosyn will be both the disease and the cure, getting profits from this endless cycle of incidents and capture and obtaining absolute control on genetic power while their remaining competitors will die one by one. Basically, they'll soon become the equivalent in the Bio-engineering world of the British East India Company, something InGen aspired to be before crumbling. The CEO adds that his friends within the US government are already very interested by this technology.
Hidden in a technical room right behind the auditorium's stage, Pellegrino heard Dodgson bragging about controlling the animals. Realizing that he's so mad that he is slaughtering her fellow countrymen just to sell a technology, she takes a potentially fatal decision.
Back at the camp near the airstrip, Viscontini tells Vuillier that someone within the Italian government must have warned Dodgson, explaining how he got the time to do his nasty preparations. As the Special Forces just defeated the mercenaries guarding the northern entrance of Biosyn's lands and took the airstrip, Vuillier and Nyamu join them, asking for a weapon and climbing into one of their vehicles, refusing to stay safely in the camp while their friends and colleagues are in danger of death within the valley.
The speakers let out a third blast and hearing it, the few Carabinieri south of the river turn towards its origin. They see the speaker and an movable antenna on a nearby ridge and are aware that it must have something to do with the animals' unnatural behaviour. They rush towards it, hoping to save their comrades.
Irritated by the third blast, the controlled animals stamp and growl/bellow for a moment, before their controlling technicians orders them to move forward, as they were ordered to crush the Carabinieri before the arrival of their allies. While the other animals cross the river, Quasimodo the monstrous Acrocanthosaurus takes the bridge, accelerating his pace little by little before roaring and dashing on the Carabinieri. Aware that they'll be all slaughtered within a few minutes if they just stand there, Pasolini ordered to his men a few moments before to scatter in every direction and flee as long as possible in order to win time while the remaining vehicles will be either used to carry a maximum amount of men to the nearest shelter (could be the Hunting Lodge) before coming back and picking up those they can. Pasolini volunteers to stay on foot.
While flying between the speakers and the river, one of the drones spot the Carabinieri left south of the river. Noticing those troublemakers, the controlling technicians recall two of the animals from the battlefield (probably one of the Argentinosaurus and the Gigantoraptor).
On the other side of the river, the rest of the controlled animals have started attacking Pasolini and his men. The argentinosaurs charge through the forest and crush the Carabinieri like ants while their predatory auxiliaries harass them; the trike basically acts like a giant version of the boar from Australian horror film Razorback, charging, goring with its horns, and cutting off limbs with its sharp beak; Quasimodo devour several of the Italians... Colonel Pasolini ends up killed by one of the creatures and his death ruins the morale of his men who are about to rout.
Meanwhile, reactions among Dodgson's audience are varied:While some are captivated, others are not sure what to think about using the Carabinieri as guinea pigs, and one or two are disgusted. Nathan Quinn has a neutral attitude (he's interested by the technology but even if he strongly disapproves the actual demonstration and the bloodbath, he doesn't show it) while Ramsay avoid looking at the screen.
Hearing one of the Argentinosaurus bulldozing its way through the forest behind them just as they are about to reach the speakers and the antenna, the other Carabinieri start to run but during their race, they are surprised by the Gigantoraptor when it kills one of the Carabinieri, acting a bit like an oversized terror bird. They are forced to climb into a tree near a cliff's edge in order to escape it, with even another of the Carabinieri sacrificing himself to let the others climb high reach its targets, the Gigantoraptor tries to climb on the tree but to no avail, as it's too big. However, the tree bends and ends up uprooted under its assaults. Our characters are now hanging on an horizontal tree which will probably soon fall if the theropod keeps kicking it under its controller's command. They can't escape by one end as the Gigantoraptor is waiting for them and to make matters worse, the Argentinosaurus appears below the cliff and it can raise its head almost high enough to grab our characters. They can't escape.
Sneaky as a viper
After passing by the entrance of the large bunker where the monstrous Acrocanthosaurus was contained, Claire decides to pass by the vents after hearing some guards.
The Goblins of Nublar
During their journey through the amber mines, Maisie, Theo and Drummond stumble upon a lone Pectinodon. Remembering what he said earlier about the network of tunnels and its potential exits leading out of the valley, Drummond realize that the Pectinodons, and not the raptors, were involved in several of the external incidents (including the one from the Prologue). As he had to capture some of those creatures in a post-apocalyptic Nublar for Mills and Wu while he was part of Wheatley's mercenary company, Theo warns his companions about the danger of those animals. Maisie remembers having seen babies of those animals in the manor's basement along all the others Mills sold in his secret auction. The lone Pectinodon let out a series of calls and soon, an entire pack threatens our protagonists.
Ensue a scene where they have to repel them (Drummond tries to use the portable horn he has in his bag in order to scare the pectinodons but they're not impressed) and flee. However, Theo is bitten during that scene and his two companions notice this during a brief moment of respite. Maisie hopes they could perhaps find some cure but Theo answers that while one exists, they won't reach it in time. He adds that the venom will drive him mad (as seen in JPTG and mentioned in TRQ) and turn him into a danger for them. While his mind is still clear, he give Wu's flash drive to Maisie, has farewell words with her, asks Drummond to take care of her, and then runs back to where they came from, intending to win some time for them. While Maisie and Rod flee, Theo stands in the tunnel, preventing the pectinodons from going any further. He battles them to the death, taking several to the grave with him. An alternative could be him attracting a maximum of pectinodons in a room where he either provokes a crumbling, either a flooding, something that kills Theo and his attackers.
Finding a ladder, Maisie and Drummond follows it and climb out of the mines, narrowly escaping the pectinodons. They are back to the surface, somewhere in the northern part of the valley, not far from the dam. The palaeontologist then takes the traumatized teenager to the nearest tower, where they rest and resupply for a time.
Turning the Tide
Just as hope seems lost for the Carabinieri in the western part of the valley, a group of Shantungosaurus steps out from the forest and when the speakers on the trailer let out another blast to infuriate the controlled Gigantoraptor and Argentinosaurus nearby, the hadrosaurs, pissed by the sound made, attack the speakers and in the process, destroy also the antenna which sends the signals to the controlled animals' chips.
Freed of the mercenaries' control, the animals stop for a moment and most being scared by the gunshots or having no interest in killing the humans in front of them, just leave. However some like the Triceratops or Quasimodo carry on with their attacks due to their natural instincts but when the Special Forces finally arrive from the north, they hesitate and after being intimidated by the newcomers, they retreat and disappear in the forest' darkness. The surviving Carabinieri start to rally to their allies.
Witnessing the shift in the situation, Dodgson is frustrated and leaves the auditorium, tasking Ramsay with trying to reassure the board. He calls Bigelow, telling her to meet him at his office. On the way, the CEO is cornered by Pellegrino and some of her men, mostly Italians, who point their pistols on him. The head of security tells Dodgson he's under arrest and orders him to cease this madness and surrender to the authorities. However, the putschists are surrounded in their turn by Dodgson's bodyguards and some mercenaries, and all except Pellegrino are gunned down. While she is neutralized and taken to the cells, Dodgson hurries to the Citadel's central tower. By the entrance of his office, Bigelow and Kayla are waiting for him. They enter his office and Dodgson starts cleaning his computer and putting his most precious belongings in a bag, including the hard-drive with Biosyn's most important research. The CEO also orders some men to destroy the archives.
At the top of the tower, Isabella Perez, Sherif Al-Damiri and their companion reach the control room and while they're securing it, Vincent Chapuy and his two comrades have to fight the men sent by Dodgson to the archives. Perez orders the technicians to deactivate the aerial defense system and the pterosaurs are seen moving away, letting the Special Forces (accompanied by Viscontini) fly to the battlefield. A couple of their helicopters go directly to the Citadel, engaging the mercenaries defending it.
While the dead or wounded Carabinieri are taken off the valley before the scavengers show up, the others regroup and with the Special Forces' ground forces, march to the Citadel where they intend to soon end the battle. Vuillier contacts Cesare, asking him about his progress. Cesare and his two companions haven't yet entered the labs, as Dodgson deployed seasoned mercenaries and not simple guards at their entrance, offering a hard resistance.
While the Citadel's defenders are engaged with the Special Forces dropped by the helicopters, Armand Massoud, Angelos Papadopoulos and Lydia Kapakas enter the Security HQ and free Owen and Dougal after a small fight with the gaolers. Pellegrino is also freed. The Raptor Whisperer asks one of the gaolers where Victoria is. She's in the kennels, in the lower levels. While Owen rushes to the kennels, the three grey guards, Dougal and Pellegrino head for the atrium.
Running out of time (his computer is having some issues), Dodgson sends his last forces to the Citadel's atrium, where a shootout occurs. With the cafeteria no longer guarded, the non-essential employees try to break out. Meanwhile several Biosyn guards drop their weapons and surrender when they see Pellegrino collaborating with the besiegers.
Dodgson's joker card
The defenders lose ground and as they are about to be caught between the Carabinieri, the Italian and Austrian Special Forces, the Massoud-Kapakas-Papadopoulos trio and Pellegrino's followers, one of the Biosyn guard calls for a ceasefire. The fight stops and Dodgson appears on top of the stairs which lead to the main courtyard. Bigelow, Kayla and his bodyguards are with him (while Ramsay is seen arriving from the Auditorium) and Dodgson has his bag with him. Seeing the CIA agent, the trio of grey guards hurls threats and insults at her, declaring she'll pay for Digby who died in Malta because of her treachery.
Dodgson look at his enemies: Vuillier, Nyamu and Viscontini down in the atrium, standing in front of the Carabinieri; the grey guards, Dougal and Pellegrino on one of the floors. He talks to them, congratulating them for taking the valley from him, before adding that they won one battle but not the war. Just as he is about to get arrested, he unveils his joker card: Should he be imprisoned or killed, his agents abroad have the order of releasing the content of nine containers he sent across the globe: Swarms of genetically-modified locusts designed to eat every crop but Biosyn's (a montage show trucks carrying the same containers as those seen in the airstrip. They park in the countryside of the following regions: US Midwest, India, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Egypt, China, Argentina, Australia, and Germany). Should the locusts be freed, they would trigger a global famine, with people being forced to turn to Biosyn if they want to eat. Even if Dodgson doesn't leave Auronzo alive, Biosyn will have a future as it will be the only entity which could ensure mankind's survival in this apocalyptic scenario.
New attackers
Meanwhile, three helicopters arrive from the opposite side of the valley. At first, it's believed that they are others Special Forces helicopters but as no one on the besiegers' camp ordered them to head for the Citadel, some try to contact the oncoming aircrafts, to no avail. Fearing some ill shift in situation, Vuillier suggest his allies to take cover. One of the besiegers' helicopter tries to intercept the trio of helicopters but they shoot it down and it crashes in the eastern part of the valley, near one of the observation towers. Everyone in the atrium is surprised, including Dodgson, and rushes to shelter while two of the helicopters fire missiles in several of the Citadel's key locations, including the atrium, the helipad (destroying the board's helicopters) and the cafeteria, and spray the control room (Perez is hit while one of the technician accidently release the animals contained in the kennel when he falls dead head first on his console. The freed animals not only include Victoria but also dilophosaurs among other things). After that, they distract those of the besieging forces and attack the Citadel's defenders. Many casualties are inflicted among the besiegers and Biosyn employees.
Dodgson regains consciousness just after the attack, which killed his bodyguards and projected Bigelow and Kayla away. Next to him, Ramsay is still unconscious. He sees the third helicopter of the attackers landing in the courtyard and debarking a squad of armed men who directly rushes to the laboratories. As soon as they're gone, Dodgson grabs his bag, wakes Ramsay up, and takes advantage of the situation to escape, towards the nearest elevator. He chose one of the lower levels, that of the garages. The elevator blocks itself halfway and the two Biosyn executives must force their way out while chaos has taken over the rest of the building.

Today's additions are:

• Gueze - Bourasse pas (Tags: experimental, covers, doom, folk, improvisation, solo artist, Albertville) [Independent]
  
• Shawn E. Hansen, Mike Pride & Clayton Thomas - DREAMBAND (Tags: clayton thomas, experimental, experimental & avant garde, jazz, metal, avant-garde, free jazz, mike pride, new music, noise, shawn e. hansen, synthesizer, Goshen) [Mike Pride]
  
• The Body - I Shall Die Here / Earth Triumphant (Tags: experimental, Portland) [Independent]
  
• David T. Little - Black Lodge (Tags: classical, New York) [Cantaloupe Music]
  
• Kid Millions and Sarah Bernstein - Forest Park Live (Tags: experimental, nyc, art rock, free jazz, improvisation, noise music, Brooklyn) [Island House]
  
• Gorgeous - Sapsucker (Tags: rock, brooklyn, experimental, math rock, noise pop, post-punk, New York) [Independent]
  
• Non Serviam - Death Ataraxia (Mini-Album) (Tags: black metal, death metal, industrial sludge, metal, anarchist black metal, breakcore, cybergrind, darkwave, deathgrind, deathrock, digital hardcore, grindcore, punk hardcore, sludge metal, trap metal, Paris) [Independent]
  
• TERRA BUILDER - Solar Temple (Tags: metal, black death, black metal, death doom, death metal, deathgrind, dissonant, doom, german, germany, grind, grindcore, hardcore, powerviolence, sludge, sludge metal, Germany) [Transcending Obscurity]
  
• Travis Orbin - Travis Orbin (This Is a Self-Titled Record) (Tags: experimental, funk, jazz, metal, progressive, rock, Selbyville) [Independent]
  
• Phonem - Maïlys Maronne - Geometriks (Tags: Paris) [Onze Heures onze]
  
• Tangled Thoughts of Leaving - Oscillating Forest (Tags: experimental, post-metal, post-rock, prog, progressive rock, improv, instrumental, noise, noise rock, Perth) [Independent]
  
• KEN mode - VOID (Tags: metal, noise metal, noise punk, noise rock, post-hardcore, sludge, Winnipeg) [Art of Fact]
  
• Adjy - June Songs Vol. 1 (Tags: chattanooga, mediums not genres, pop, tennessee, Chattanooga) [Independent]
  
• Whalesong - Leaving a Dream (Tags: industrial metal, metal, doom metal, drone, drone doom, experimental, industrial, industrial metal, no wave, noise rock, post-metal, post-punk, post-rock, sludge metal, Tarnowskie Góry) [Independent]
  
• Risin Sabotage - Macabre (Tags: stoner rock, hard rock, rock, acid rock, desert rock, doom, fuzz, metal, psychedelic rock, stoner rock & metal, Kyiv) [Independent]
  
• Solarium - Aube/Nocturne (Tags: jazz, rock, concept album, double album, folk, montreal, quebec, Montreal) [Independent]
  
• Linda May Han Oh - The Glass Hours (Tags: jazz, australian, bass, electric bass, groove, upright bass, New York) [Biophilia]
  
• Thantifaxath - Hive Mind Narcosis (Tags: black metal, dark descent records, metal, canada, Colorado) [Dark Descent]
  
• After Ours - Music For Cats (Tags: jazz, beat music, crossover jazz, experimental, head nod jazz, South Bend) [Independent]
  
• Sarah Pagé - Voda (Tags: experimental, ambient, contemporary, harp, hope, instrumental, mortality, movements, mythology, vitality, voda, water, Montreal) [Backward Music]
  
• Dream the Electric Sleep - American Mystic (Tags: indie, progressive, rock, post-prog, post-rock, prog, Lexington) [Independent]
  
• Anton Lukoszevieze - Arrival (Tags: Classical) [Astral Spirits]
  
• Sophie Ellis-Bextor - HANA (Tags: Pop, Singer & Songwriter) [Cooking Vinyl Limited]
  
• ASH Trio - Ash (Tags: Alternative) [Moojal]
  
• Guillaume Perret - Guillaume Perret & the Electric Epic (Tags: Jazz) [Breakz]
  
• Cloutchaser - Metallica (Tags: Rock) [Choke Artist]
  

I'm preferably looking for the 2023 codes from my ISO list. My ISO list is at the bottom of the list, titles in bold are my top wants.
UNTOUCHED: 20th Century Women - VUDU - HD A Quiet Place: Part II - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Adaptation - MA/VUDU - 4K Alice in Wonderland (1951) - MA/VUDU - HD Alita: Battle Angel - MA/VUDU - 4K Ambulance - MA/VUDU - 4K American Psycho - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Amsterdam - MA/VUDU - HD Antlers - MA/VUDU - HD Assassination Nation - MA/VUDU - HD Atlantis: 2-Movie Collection - MA/VUDU - HD Avatar: The Way of Water - MA/VUDU - HD Babylon - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Beast - MA/VUDU - HD Black Adam - MA/VUDU - 4K Black Widow - MA/VUDU - 4K Bodies Bodies Bodies - VUDU - 4K Boy Erased - MA/VUDU - HD Brother Bear: 2-Movie Collection - MA/VUDU - HD Bullet Train - MA/VUDU - HD Chaos Walking - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Christopher Robin - MA/VUDU - HD Cinderella: 3-Movie Collection - MA/VUDU - HD Cloverfield - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Cool Hand Luke - MA/VUDU - 4K Creed III - VUDU - 4K Cruella - MA/VUDU - 4K Daybreakers - VUDU - 4K Dear Evan Hansen (Studio Code) - MA/VUDU - 4K Death on the Nile - MA/VUDU - 4K Disobedience - MA/VUDU - HD Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - MA/VUDU - 4K Don't Worry Darling - MA/VUDU - HD Downton Abbey: A New Era - MA/VUDU - HD Dumbo (1941) - MA/VUDU - HD Dune - MA/VUDU - 4K Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Edward Scissorhands - MA/VUDU - HD Encanto - MA/VUDU - 4K Eternals - MA/VUDU - 4K Everything Everywhere All At Once - VUDU - 4K Evil Dead Rise - MA/VUDU - HD Fantasy Island - MA/VUDU - HD Father Stu - MA/VUDU - HD Firestarter - MA/VUDU - HD Freaks of Nature - MA/VUDU - HD Free Guy - MA/VUDU - 4K Gallipoli - VUDU or iTunes - HD Green Book - MA/VUDU - HD Green Lantern: Beware My Power - MA/VUDU - 4K Halloween Ends - MA/VUDU - 4K Halloween Kills - MA/VUDU - 4K Highlander - VUDU - 4K Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Honest Thief - MA/VUDU - HD How to Talk to Girls at Parties - VUDU - HD Indignation - VUDU - HD Interstellar - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Jackass Forever - VUDU or iTunes - HD/4K John Wick: Chapter 4 - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Jojo Rabbit - MA/VUDU - 4K Jungle Cruise - MA/VUDU - 4K Kingsman: 2-Movie Collection - MA/VUDU - 4K Last Christmas - MA/VUDU - HD Last Night in Soho - MA/VUDU - 4K Leave No Trace - MA/VUDU - HD Let Him Go (Studio Code) - MA/VUDU - 4K Lightyear - MA/VUDU - 4K Love, Simon - MA/VUDU - HD Mad Max: 4-Movie Collection - MA/VUDU - 4K Memory - MA/VUDU - HD Men - VUDU - HD Missing - MA/VUDU - HD Mission: Impossible - 6-Movie Collection - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Moonfall - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Morbius - MA/VUDU - 4K Mortal - VUDU or iTunes - HD Mortal Kombat (2021) - MA/VUDU - 4K Nomadland - MA/VUDU - HD Nope - MA/VUDU - HD Once Upon a Deadpool - MA/VUDU - HD One Ranger - VUDU or iTunes - HD/4K Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Ordinary People - VUDU or iTunes - HD Orphan: First Kill - VUDU or iTunes - HD/4K Paranormal Activity: The Ultimate Chills Collection - VUDU or iTunes - HD Peter Pan: Return to Neverland - MA/VUDU - HD Peter Rabbit: 2-Movie Collection - MA/VUDU - HD Plane - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Polite Society - MA/VUDU - HD Professor Marston and the Wonder Women - MA/VUDU - HD Rambo: 5-Movie Collection - VUDU - 4K Ratatouille - MA/VUDU - 4K Raya and the Last Dragon - MA/VUDU - 4K Ready or Not - MA/VUDU - HD Red Eye - VUDU - 4K Red Rocket - VUDU - HD Redeeming Love - MA/VUDU - HD Renfield - MA/VUDU - HD Repo! The Genetic Opera - VUDU - HD Reservoir Dogs - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Rocky: The Knockout Collection - VUDU - 4K Rogue (2020) - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Ron's Gone Wrong - MA/VUDU - 4K Saint Maud - VUDU - HD Scream (2022) - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Seriously Red - VUDU - HD She Said - MA/VUDU - HD Sleeping Beauty (Signature Collection) - MA/VUDU - HD Soul - MA/VUDU - 4K Spell - VUDU or iTunes - HD/4K Spider-Man: 3-Movie Collection - MA/VUDU - 4K Spider-Man: No Way Home - MA/VUDU - 4K Spies in Disguise - MA/VUDU - 4K Spinning Gold - MA/VUDU - HD Spirit Untamed: The Movie - MA/VUDU - HD Spontaneous - VUDU - HD Stillwater - MA/VUDU - HD Studio 666 - MA/VUDU - HD Swiss Army Man - VUDU - HD Teen Spirit - MA/VUDU - HD The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection - MA - 4K The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection Vol. 2 - MA - 4K The Amazing Spider-Man: 2-Movie Collection - MA/VUDU - 4K The Aristocats - MA/VUDU - HD The Art of Self-Defense - MA/VUDU - HD The Banshees of Inisherin - MA/VUDU - HD The Batman - MA/VUDU - 4K The Best of Mickey Collection - MA/VUDU - HD The Black Phone - MA/VUDU - HD The Bob's Burgers Movie - MA/VUDU - 4K The Cabin in the Woods - VUDU or iTunes - 4K The Card Counter - MA/VUDU - HD The Craft: Legacy - MA/VUDU - HD The Dentist Collection - VUDU - HD The Exorcism of God - VUDU or iTunes - HD The Fabelmans - MA/VUDU - 4K The French Dispatch - MA/VUDU - HD The Green Knight - VUDU - 4K The Grudge (2020) - MA/VUDU - HD The Hunchback of Notre Dame: 2-Movie Collection - MA/VUDU - HD The Invisible Man (2020) - MA/VUDU - HD The Invitation - MA/VUDU - HD The Jungle Book (1967) - MA - HD The Jungle Book 2 - MA/VUDU - HD The Killing of a Sacred Deer - VUDU - HD The Last Duel - MA/VUDU - 4K The Lion King: 2-Movie Collection - MA/VUDU - HD The Little Mermaid - MA/VUDU - 4K The Lobster - VUDU - HD The Lodge - MA/VUDU - HD The Lost Boys - MA/VUDU - 4K The Lost City - VUDU or iTunes - 4K The Maltese Falcon - MA/VUDU - 4K The Man Who Invented Christmas - MA/VUDU - HD The Marksman - MA/VUDU - HD The Menu - MA/VUDU - HD The Monster - VUDU - HD The Night House - MA/VUDU - HD The Prestige - MA/VUDU - 4K The Princess and the Frog - MA/VUDU - 4K The Remains of the Day - MA/VUDU - 4K The Rescuers: 2-Movie Collection - MA/VUDU - HD The Shawshank Redemption - MA/VUDU - 4K The Super Mario Bros. Movie - MA/VUDU - 4K The Terminator - VUDU - HD The Unholy - MA/VUDU - HD The Whale - VUDU - HD The Woman King - MA/VUDU - 4K Thor: Love and Thunder - MA/VUDU - 4K Ticket to Paradise - MA/VUDU - HD Tolkien - MA/VUDU - HD Turning Red - MA/VUDU - 4K Umma - MA/VUDU - HD Unbreakable - MA/VUDU - 4K Uncharted - MA/VUDU - HD Underwater - MA/VUDU - HD Vivo - MA/VUDU - HD Voyagers - VUDU or iTunes - 4K Wall-E - MA/VUDU - 4K Wander Darkly - VUDU or iTunes - HD West Side Story - MA/VUDU - 4K Where'd You Go, Bernadette - MA/VUDU - HD Wreck-It Ralph - MA/VUDU - 4K X-Men: Dark Phoenix - MA/VUDU - 4K Yesterday - MA/VUDU - HD You Were Never Really Here - VUDU - HD
SPLIT: 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure - GP - HD Bambi II - MA/VUDU - HD Danger Close - VUDU - HD Spies in Disguise - MA/VUDU - HD The Book of Henry - iTunes - HD The French Dispatch - MA/VUDU - HD The Guest - iTunes - 4K
MY ISO LIST: 2023: 65 / A Good Person / Maximum Overdrive / Creed III 4K / The Running Man 4K / Shazam! Fury of the Gods 4K / Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania 4K / The Italian Job 4K / Moving On / Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre / Knock at the Cabin / Superman I-IV 5-Film Collection 4K / Champions / Deep Impact 4K / Supercell / Jesus Revolution / The Man Who Fell to Earth 4K / Magic Mike's Last Dance / Marlowe / Righteous Thieves / Transfusion / Confess, Fletch / Mickey and Friends: 10 Classic Shorts / Warner Bros 100th 25-Film Collection, Vol. One, Two, Three, Four / Missing / Plane / Babylon 4K / M3GAN / Seriously Red / Alice, Darling / A Man Called Otto / The Whale / Women Talking / B'Twixt Now and Sunrise / Devotion / Puss in Boots: The Last Wish / Rocky: The Knockout Collection 4K / Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody / Empire of Light / The Inspection / The Old Way / The Price We Pay / The Remains of the Day 4K / 3 Days of the Condor / The Fabelmans / Strange World / Mickey and Minnie: 10 Classic Shorts / Spoiler Alert / Big Night / Bones and All / The Diving Bell and the Butterfly / Event Horizon 4K / Gallipoli / Young Sherlock Holmes / Mindcage / Rock Dog 3: Battle the Beat / Violent Night / Double Jeopardy 4K / Till / She Said / Armageddon Time / Prey for the Devil
2022: Tár 4K / Gigi and Nate / American Murderer / Call Jane / Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile / Ticket to Paradise / 48 Hrs. / Another 48 Hrs. 4K / Adaptation. 4K / Amsterdam / Better Off Dead / The Warriors / Don't Worry Darling 4K / Bros / The Good House / The Inhabitant / Jerry and Marge Go Large / Three Thousand Years of Longing / Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm / Saturday Night Fever 4K / The Classic Christmas Specials Collection 4K / Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. / The Polar Express 4K / Columbia Classics Collection: Volume 3 4K / The Invitation / Fall / Mack and Rita / Orphan: First Kill / Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank / Rumble / Beast / Frankenweenie / The Limey 4K / Paranormal Activity: The Ultimate Chills Collection / Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection Vol. 2 4K / Catch Me If You Can / DC League of Super-Pets / Mean Girls / Vengeance / Fatal Attraction 4K / Real Genius 4K / Where the Crawdads Sing / Minions: The Rise of Gru / Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris / American Carnage / Stalag 17 / Event Horizon 4K / Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts / Lilo and Stitch: 2-Movie Collection / Vivo / The Bob's Burgers Movie / Angel Heart 4K / Galaxy Quest / Memory / After Yang / The Bad Guys 4K / Cinderella / Giant 4K / The Emperor's New Groove: 2-Movie Collection / Father Stu / Fatherhood / The Rescuers: 2-Movie Collection / 1776 4K / The Untouchables 4K / Malignant 4K / Teen Titans Go! and DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse / Umma / Extreme Prejudice / Infinite / Top Secret / The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection Vol. 2 4K / Dog / Blacklight / The Outfit / Cyrano / The Exorcism of God / The Humans / The King's Daughter / C'mon C'mon / Marry Me / Ordinary People / Red Rocket / Redeeming Love / Rugrats 3-Movie Collection / Belfast / Escape from L.A. 4K / Looper 4K / Almost Famous 4K / Clifford the Big Red Dog / The Addams Family 2

Prices FIRM - CashApp/Venmo/PayPal Friends & Family
Disney/Marvel titles are split codes. Only redeem what you pay for. Thank you.
12 Monkeys (1995) (MA/4K) $3.50
12 Years a Slave (2013) (MA/HD) $3.50
13 Hours: Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) (Vudu/4K) $5.50 (Vudu/HD) $2 (iTunes/4K) $3
1917 (2019) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $3.50
2 Guns (2013) (MA/HD) $4.75 (iTunes/HD) $3.50
2012 (2009) (MA/4K) $6.50
21 Jump Street (2012) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $2.75
22 Jump Street (2014) (MA/HD) $4.50
355, The (2022) (MA/HD) $5.75
47 Meters Down (2017) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
47 Ronin (2013) (MA/4K) $5.75 (iTunes/4K) $4 (MA/HD) $3.50
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) (MA/HD) $5.75
A Clockwork Orange (1972) (MA/4K) $6.50
A Man Called Otto (2022) (MA/HD) $7.25
A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4.25
A Monster Calls (2016) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.75
A Vigilante (2018) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.50
A Wrinkle in Time (2018) (MA/HD) $3
Abominable (2019) (MA/4K) $7.50 (MA/HD) $6.25
Action Point (2018) (Vudu/HD) $2.25 (iTunes/4K) $1.50
Ad Astra (2019) (MA/HD) $4.75
Adventures of Tintin (2011) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
After Earth (2013) (MA/HD) $2.50
Aladdin (1992) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $3.25 (GP/HD) $2.25
Aladdin (2019) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.25 (GP/HD) $1.50
Alice in Wonderland (1951) (GP/HD) $5.50
Alien (1979) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5
Alien 3 (1992) (MA/HD) $5.50
Alien Collection 1-6 (MA/HD) $19.50 1-4 (MA/SD) $9
Alien Resurrection (1997) (MA/HD) $5.50
Aliens (1986) (MA/HD) $5.50
Alita: Battle Angel (2019) (MA/4K) $5.50 (MA/HD) $4
All The Money In The World (2017) (MA/HD) $4.25
All the Way (2016) (GP/HD) $3.50 No Port
Aloha (2015) (MA/HD) $2.50
Amazing Spider-Man (2012) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $4.50
Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $5.50
Ambulance (2022) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $4
American Beauty (1999) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6
American Gangster (Extended Edition) (2007) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $6.25
American Made (2017) (MA/4K) $7.25 (MA/HD) $4.25
American Sniper (2014) (MA/4K) $6.50
American Underdog (2021) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Amsterdam (2022) (MA/HD) $5 (GP/HD) $3.75
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) (iTunes/HD) $2
Angry Birds Movie (2016) (MA/HD) $3.75
Antlers (2021) (MA/HD) $5.50 (GP/HD) $4
Ant-Man (2015) (MA/4K) $6.25 (iTunes/4K) $5 (MA/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $2.25
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) (MA/4K) $8 (iTunes/4K) $6.25 (GP/HD) $3.25
Apollo 11 (2019) (MA/HD) $6.25
Apollo 13 (1995) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $4.75
Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm (2022) (MA/HD) $4.75
Artist, The (2011) (MA/HD) $6
Atomic Blonde (2017) (MA/4K) $5 (iTunes/4K) $3.25 (MA/HD) $2.25
Avengers 1-4 (MA/4K) $25 (iTunes/4K) $20 (GP/HD) $7.75
Babylon (2022) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/4K) $6.25
Back to the Future (1985) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.25
Back to the Future Collection 1-3 (MA/4K) $15 (MA/HD) $7.50
Bad Boys Collection 1-3 (MA/HD) $12
Bad Boys for Life (2020) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $3.50
Bad Guys, The (2022) (MA/4K) $8 (MA/HD) $4.25
Bad Moms (2016) (MA/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Bad Times at The El Royale (2018) (MA/4K) $7.75 (MA/HD) $5.75
Bambi (1942) (MA/HD) $6.25 (GP/HD) $4.50
Bambi II (2006) (MA/HD) $6.25 (GP/HD) $4.50
Band of Brothers (2001) (GP/HD) $3.75 No Port
Bank Job, The (2008) (Vudu/HD) $3.25
Banshees of Inisherin (2022) (GP/HD) $4.50
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (2022) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $4.50
Batman Year One (2011) (MA/4K) $5
Batman, The (2022) (MA/4K) $5.25 (MA/HD) $3
Batman: Soul of the Dragon (2021) (MA/4K) $6
Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2022) (MA/4K) $7.50
Batman: The Long Halloween Deluxe Edition (2022) (MA/HD) $6
Battle: Los Angeles (2011) (MA/4K) $6.50
Battleship (2012) (MA/4K) $4.50 (MA/HD) $1.75 (iTunes/4K) $3
Beast (2022) (MA/HD) $5.75
Beauty and the Beast (1991) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $4.75 (GP/HD) $2
Beauty and the Beast (2017) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $3.25 (GP/HD) $2
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) (MA/HD) $5 (GP/HD) $3.50
Beguiled, The (2017) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4
Being John Malkovich (1999) (MA/HD) $3.50
Beirut (2018) (MA/HD) $4.75
Ben-Hur (2016) (Vudu/HD) $2.50
BFG, The (2016) (MA/HD) $5.25 (GP/HD) $3.50
Big (1988) (MA/HD) $5.75
Big Wedding (2013) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.75
Billy Elliot (2000) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.25
Black Adam (2022) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $4.25
Black Panther (2018) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) $4.25 (GP/HD) $1.75
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $3.75 (GP/HD) $2.50
Black Phone, The (2021) (MA/HD) $5
Black Swan (2010) (MA/HD) $4.50
Black Widow (2021) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $4.75 (GP/HD) $3.25
Blacklight (2022) (MA/HD) $4.25
Bleed for This (2016) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4
Blockers (2018) (MA/HD) $3
Blood Father (2016) (Vudu/HD) $4
Bloodshot (2020) (MA/HD) $4
Blues Brothers + Unrated (1980) (MA/4K) $7
Bob's Burgers Movie (2022) (MA/HD) $3.25 (GP/HD) $2.25
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) (Vudu/4K) $6.75
Bodyguard, The (1992) (MA/HD) $5
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) (MA/4K) $5 (MA/HD) $3.25
Bolt (2008) (MA/HD) $8 (GP/HD) $5.50
Bond: Goldfinger (1964) (Vudu/HD) $7
Bond: Skyfall (2012) (Vudu/HD) $1
Bond: Spectre (2015) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
Book of Henry (2017) (iTunes/HD) Ports $5
Book of Life (2014) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Booksmart (2019) (MA/HD) $5.25
Boss Baby (2017) & Family Business (2021) (MA/HD) $5.75
Boss Baby: Family Business (2021) (MA/HD) $4.50
Bourne Collection 1-5 (MA/4K) $25 (iTunes/HD) $19 (MA/HD) $15
Boy Next Door, The (2015) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5.25
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) (MA/4K) $7
Braven (2018) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Breakdown (1997) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.75
Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (2008), Sixteen Candles (1984) (MA/HD) $11.50
Breakthrough (2019) (MA/4K) $6.50
Brian Banks (2019) (MA/HD) $4.25
Bridge of Spies (2015) (MA/HD) $5.25 (GP/HD) $3.75
Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack (2017) (MA/HD) $3.25 (iTunes/HD) $1.25
Broken City (2013) (MA/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/SD) $1.25
Broken Hearts Gallery (2020) (MA/HD) $3.75
Brothers (2009) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (1992) (MA/HD) $5.75
Bullet Train (2022) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $4.25
Cake (2014) (MA/HD) $5.25
Call Me by Your Name (2017) (MA/HD) $5.75
Call of the Wild (2020) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $1.50 (GP/HD) $1.25
Call, The (2013) (MA/HD) $4.50
Captain America: Civil War (2016) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) $5 (GP/HD) $2.25
Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014) (MA/4K) $7.50 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $6 (GP/HD) $2.25
Captain Marvel (2019) (MA/4K) $5 (iTunes/4K) $4 (GP/HD) $1.75
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) (MA/HD) $3.25
Carrie (2013) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
Cars 1-3 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $15.50 (GP/HD) $9
Casablanca (1943) (MA/4K) $6.25
Casper (1995) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3.75
Catch the Bullet (2021) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Change-Up, The (2011) (Unrated) (2011) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5.50
Chappie (2015) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $3.75
Charlie's Angels (2000) (MA/4K) $7.75
Charlie's Angels (2019) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $5.50
Chronicles of Riddick (Unrated Director's Cut) (2004) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5
Cinderella (1950) (MA/HD) $5.75 (GP/HD) $3.75
Cinderella (2015) (MA/4K) $7.50 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.50 (GP/HD) $2.50
Cinderella 'Camila Cabello' (2021) (MA/HD) $4.50
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2002) (MA/HD) $6.50
Citizenfour (2014) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
Clerks III (2022) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5.50
Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.50
Clueless (1995) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.25
Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) (MA/HD) $6.25
Coco (2017) (MA/4K) $6.50 (iTunes/4K) $5.25 (GP/HD) $2.25
Colombiana (Unrated) (2011) (MA/HD) $4.25
Concussion (2015) (MA/HD) $3
Constantine: The House of Mystery (2022) (MA/HD) $3.50
Contraband (2012) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2
Contractor (2022) (Vudu/4K) $7 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Counselor, The (2013) (MA/HD) $3
Creed Collection 1-3 (Vudu/HD) $12
Creed III (2023) (Vudu/4K) $9
Croods (2013) & A New Age (2020) (MA/HD) $6.75
Croods (2013) (MA/HD) $3.50
Croods: A New Age (2020) (MA/HD) $5
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001) (MA/4K) $7.75
Cruella (2021) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $3.50 (GP/HD) $2.50
Cult of Chucky (Unrated) (2017) (MA/HD) $3.75 (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Daddy's Home 1-2 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
Daddy's Home 2 (2017) (Vudu/4K) $4.50 (iTunes/4K) $2 (Vudu/HD) $2.25
Daniel Craig Collection 5-Movie (Vudu/4K) $20
Darkest Minds, The (2018) (MA/HD) $4.75
DC League of Super-Pets (2022) (MA/4K) $8 (MA/HD) $5
Dead Man Down (2013) (MA/HD) $4.75
Deadpool (2016) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2
Deadpool 2 (2018) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $3.25
Dear Evan Hansen (2021) (MA/HD) $4.25
Death on the Nile (2022) (MA/4K) $7.50 (MA/HD) $5 (GP/HD) $3.50
Death Wish (2018) (Vudu/HD) $2.25
Dentist Collection 1-2 (1996-1998) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
Descent, The (2005) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
Detective Knight Collection 1-3 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $15 $5.75 Each
Detroit (2017) (iTunes/4K) Ports to MA $4.75
Devil Wears Prada (2006) (MA/HD) $5.75
Devil's Due (2014) (MA/HD) $2.75
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (2017) (MA/HD) $2
Die Hard (1988) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $4
Die Hard 1-5 (MA/HD) $16 $4.75 Each
Disaster Artist, The (2017) (Vudu/HD) $6.25
Disneynature Born in China (2017) (MA/HD) $5.25
DisneyNature: Bears (2014) (MA/HD) $5.50 (GP/HD) $3.50
District 9 (2009) (MA/4K) $6.50
Do the Right Thing (1989) (MA/4K) $6
Doctor Strange (2016) (MA/4K) $6.50 (iTunes/4K) $4 (MA/HD) $3.50 (GP/HD) $1.75
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $2.75 (GP/HD) $2
Dog (2022) (Vudu/HD) $3
Dolittle (2020) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $3.50
Don't Breathe 2 (2021) (MA/HD) $7.50
Don't Let Go (2019) (MA/HD) $4
Don't Worry Darling (2022) (MA/HD) $5.50
Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022) (MA/HD) $3.75
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who (2008) (MA/HD) $6.50
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012) (MA/HD) $3.25 (iTunes/HD) $2.25
Dracula Untold (2014) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $2.75 (iTunes/4K) $4
Dragonheart 5-Movie (MA/HD) $15
Dredd (2012) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.50
Drive (2011) (MA/HD) $4.50
Duff, The (2015) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Dumbo (2019) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) $5.25 (GP/HD) $2.50
Dune (2021) (MA/4K) $5.50
Dunkirk (2017) (MA/4K) $6.50
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) $5 (MA/HD) $3
Early Man (2018) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.25
Echo Boomers (2020) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4
Eddie the Eagle (2016) (MA/HD) (iTunes/4K) $6
Elvis (2022) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $4
Elysium (2013) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $3.25
Empire State (2013) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Encanto (2021) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) (GP/4K) $3.50
Equalizer (2014) (MA/HD) $3.75
Equalizer 2 (2018) (MA/4K) $7.25 (MA/HD) $2.75
Escape Plan: The Extractors (2019) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Eternals (2021) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $3
Everest (2015) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $3 (iTunes/4K) $4
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) (Vudu/4K) $7.50
Expendables 1-3 (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Extreme Prejudice (1987) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
F9: The Fast Saga + Director's Cut (2021) (MA/4K) $5.25 (MA/HD) $3.25
Fabelmans (2022) (MA/HD) $6.50
Faculty, The (1998) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6.50
Fantastic Beasts Collection 1-3 (MA/HD) $7.75
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022) (MA/4K) $5.25 (MA/HD) $3
Fantasy Island (2020) (MA/HD) $7
Fast & Furious Collection 1-9 (MA/HD) $10
Father Stu (2022) (MA/HD) $5.50
Ferdinand (2017) (MA/HD) $3.50
Field of Dreams (1989) (MA/4K) $7.50 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $6
Fifth Element (1997) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $6
Fifty Shades of Black (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3.50
Fifty Shades of Grey 3-Movie + Unrated (MA/HD) $9.75
Finding Dory (2016) (MA/4K) $5.75 (iTunes/4K) $3.50 (GP/HD) $1.25
Finding Nemo (2003) (MA/4K) $6.75 (iTunes/4K) $5.25 (GP/HD) $3
First Man (2018) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $4.25
First Purge (2018) (MA/HD) $4.50
Five Feet Apart (2019) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3
Forbidden Kingdom (2008) (Vudu/HD) $5
Ford v Ferrari (2019) (MA/4K) $7.75 (MA/HD) $4.75
Founder, The (2017) (Vudu/HD) $5 (iTunes/HD) $5.50
Fox and the Hound 2, The (2006) (MA/HD) $4 (GP/HD) $3
Foxcatcher (2014) (MA/HD) $4.50
Frank & Lola (2016) (MA/HD) $4.75
Frankenstein (1931) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
Free Guy (2021) (MA/4K) $7.50 (MA/HD) $4.75 (GP/HD) $3.25
Frozen (2013) (MA/4K) $5.50 (MA/HD) $3.50 (GP/HD) $1.50
Frozen 2 (2019) (MA/4K) $4.50 (MA/HD) $4 (GP/HD) $1.75
Frozen Sing-Along Edition (2014) (MA/HD) $3.75 (GP/HD) $1.75
Full Metal Jacket (1987) (MA/4K) $6.50
Fury (2014) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $4.50
Future World (2018) (Vudu/HD) $4
Galaxy Quest (1999) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6
Gambler (2014) (Vudu/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Gangs of New York (2002) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.50
Gate, The (1987) (Vudu/SD) $4.25
Get on Up (2014) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4.50
Get Out (2017) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3.75
Ghost In The Shell (2017) (Vudu/HD) $2.25 (iTunes/4K) $2.75
Ghostbusters (1984) (MA/HD) $3.50
Ghostbusters + Extended (2016) (MA/HD) $3
Ghostbusters II (1989) (MA/HD) $3.50
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) (MA/4K) $7.50 (MA/HD) $3.50
Gifted (2017) (MA/HD) $5
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) (MA/HD) $6
Girls Trip (2017) (MA/HD) $1.50 (iTunes/HD) $1
Glass (2019) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $4.50
Glory (1989) (MA/4K) $7.75
Godfather (1972) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/4K) $4.75
Godfather Trilogy (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $14
Godzilla (1998) (MA/4K) $6.50
Gone Baby Gone (2007) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
Good Boys (2019) (MA/HD) $3.75
Good Dinosaur (2015) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.50 (GP/HD) $3
Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017) (MA/HD) $6.50
Goosebumps (2015) (MA/HD) $5
Goosebumps 2 (2018) (MA/4K) $7.50 (MA/HD) $6.50
Grease (1978), 2 (1982), Live! (2016) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $14
Great Wall (2016) (MA/HD) $2.50
Green Book (2018) (MA/4K) $7.25 (MA/HD) $5
Green Hornet (2011) (MA/HD) $6.50
Green Lantern: Beware My Power (2022) (MA/HD) $3
Green Mile, The (1999) (MA/4K) $6
Groundhog Day (1993) (MA/4K) $8
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) $4.75 (MA/HD) $4 (GP/HD) $1.75
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) (MA/4K) $6.75 (iTunes/4K) $4.25 (GP/HD) $1.25
Half Brothers (2020) (MA/HD) $5.75
Halloween (2018) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $4.25
Halloween Ends (2022) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $4.50
Halloween Kills (2021) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $4.25
Hancock (2008) (MA/4K) $6.50
Happy Death Day (2017) (MA/HD) $6
Happy Death Day 2U (2019) (MA/HD) $6
Hate U Give (2018) (MA/4K) $7.75 (MA/HD) $4.50
Hateful Eight (2015) (Vudu/HD) $2
Heat: Director's Definitive Edition (1995) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $5.25
Heavy Metal (1981) (MA/4K) $6.50
Hellboy (Director's Cut) (2004) (MA/4K) $6.50
Hercules (1997) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $5.50
Hidden Figures (2016) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2
Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) (MA/HD) $4.50
Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5
Hobbs & Shaw (2019) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $3.75
Hocus Pocus (1993) (MA/4K) $6.75 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.75 (GP/HD) $2.25
Holiday Inn (1942) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3
Home Alone (1990) (MA/HD) $4
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) (MA/HD) $3.50
Hotel Transylvania (2012) (MA/HD) $6
Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) (MA/HD) $6.75
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $4.50
House of 1,000 Corpses (2003), Devil's Rejects (2005), 3 From Hell (2019) (Vudu/HD) $6
House of Gucci (2021) (iTunes/4K) $5
House of the Dragon: Season 1 (2022) (Vudu/4K) $9 (Vudu/HD) $5.50
House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $3.75
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) (MA/4K) $6.50
How to Train Your Dragon Collection 1-3 (MA/HD) $7.50 $4.75 Each
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $4.25
Howard the Duck (1986) (MA/4K) $7
Hugo (2011) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.75
Hulk, The (2003) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $6.25
Hunger Games Collection 1-4 (Vudu/HD) $6 (iTunes/4K) $12
Hunt, The (2019) (MA/HD) $5.75
Huntsman: Winter's War - Extended Edition (2016) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3
I Can Only Imagine (2018) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007) (MA/HD) $3.50
Ice Age (2002) (MA/HD) $5
Ice Age: Collision Course (2016) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.25
Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) (MA/HD) $4.50
Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) (MA/HD) $6
Identity Thief (2013) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3.75
Ides of March (2011) (MA/HD) $5.25
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) (MA/HD) $5.75
Impossible, The (2013) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.75
In the Heights (2021) (MA/4K) $5
Incredible Hulk (2008) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $5.25
Incredibles (2004) (MA/4K) $7.75 (iTunes/4K) $6.25 (GP/HD) $4.75
Incredibles 2 (2018) (MA/4K) $6.25 (iTunes/4K) $4.50 (GP/HD) $2
Independence Day (1996) (MA/4K) $7.75 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.50
Independence Day: Resurgence (2014) (iTunes/4K) $2 (MA/HD) $1.50
Indiana Jones 1-4 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $20
Inferno (2016) (MA/HD) $3.25
Inglorious Bastards (2009) (MA/4K) $7
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) (MA/HD) $6
Inside Out (2015) (MA/4K) $5.75 (iTunes/4K) $4.25 (GP/HD) $1.50
Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) (MA/HD) $5.25
Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) (MA/HD) $6.50
Instructions Not Included (2013) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Internship (2013) (MA/HD) $3.25
Interview, The (2014) (MA/HD) $3.50
Into the Woods (2014) (MA/HD) $4 (GP/HD) $2.25
Invisible Man (2020) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $3.75
Iron Man (2008) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) $7 (GP/HD) $3
Iron Man 1-3 (MA/4K) $21 (iTunes/4K) $16 (GP/HD) $7.50
Iron Man 2 (2010) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) $6.50 (GP/HD) $3
Iron Man 3 (2013) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) $3 (MA/HD) $2.25 (GP/HD) $1.50
Isle of Dogs (2018) (MA/HD) $4.75
It Comes at Night (2017) (Vudu/HD) $6.25
It Follows (2015) (Vudu/HD) $4.25
Jack Reacher Collection 1-2 (iTunes/4K) $7
Jackass Forever (2022) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3
Jackie (2016) (MA/HD) $4.25
Jacob's Ladder (1990) (Vudu/HD) $3.50
Jane Got a Gun (2016) (Vudu/HD) $5.75
Jason Statham 6-Movie (Wild Card, War, Bank Job, Transporter 3, Crank, Crank 2) (Vudu/HD) $11.50
Jaws (1975) (MA/4K) $6.25 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.75
Jaws (1975) Jaws 2 (1978) Jaws 3 (1983) Jaws: The Revenge (1987) (MA/HD) $15.50
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.50
Jingle All the Way (1996) (MA/HD) $5.25
John Wick Collection 1-3 (Vudu/4K) $16 (iTunes/4K) $14 (Vudu/HD) $8
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $15
Jojo Rabbit (2019) (MA/HD) $6.75
Joy (2015) (MA/HD) (iTunes/4K) $4
Jumanji (1995) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $6
Jumanji: Next Level (2019) & Welcome to the Jungle (2017) (MA/HD) $7.50
Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) (MA/4K) $7.75 (MA/HD) $5.50
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2017) (MA/4K) $5.50 (MA/HD) $2 (MA/SD) $1
Jungle Cruise (2021) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $3.75 (GP/HD) $3
Jurassic Park (1993) (MA/4K) $5.25 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (MA/HD) $3
Jurassic Park III (2001) (MA/4K) $6.50 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (MA/HD) $3.50
Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997) (MA/4K) $6.50 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (MA/HD) $3
Jurassic World (2015) (MA/4K) $5.25 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (MA/HD) $2.75
Jurassic World Collection 1-5 (MA/4K) $20 (iTunes/4K) $17.50 (MA/HD) $10
Jurassic World Collection 1-6 (MA/4K) $23.50 (MA/HD) $11.50
Jurassic World: Dominion + Extended Cut (2022) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $4.25
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $1.75
Justice League x RWBY Super Heroes and Huntsmen Part One (2023) (MA/HD) $4
Justice Society: World War II (2021) (MA/4K) $5.50
Katy Perry: Part of Me (2012) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.75
Kick-Ass 2 (2013) (MA/HD) $5.25 (iTunes/HD) $5
Kicks (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5
Kid Who Would Be King (2019) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $4.75
Kidnap (2017) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Kill the Messenger (2014) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5
Killer Elite (2011) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3.25
Killerman (2019) (Vudu/HD) $2.25 (iTunes/HD) $1.75
Killing Lincoln (2013) (MA/HD) $5.25
King Kong (2005) (MA/4K) $5.75 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (MA/HD) $3.50
King of Staten Island (2020) (MA/HD) $4.75
King's Man (2021) (MA/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $3.50
Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016) (MA/HD) $2.50
Kung Fu Panda Collection 1-3 (MA/HD) $12.50
L.A. Confidential (1997) (MA/HD) $5.75
Last Christmas (2019) (MA/HD) $6.50
Last Full Measure (2020) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.50
Last Night in Soho (2021) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $5.75
Last Vegas (2013) (MA/HD) $3
Lawless (2012) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) (Vudu/HD) $2.25
Legion of Super Heroes (2023) (MA/HD) $5.50
Les Miserables (2012) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Let Him Go (2020) (MA/HD) $3.75
Let's Be Cops (2014) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2.50
Life (2017) (MA/HD) $2.50
Light of My Life (2019) (Vudu/HD) $2.50 (iTunes/HD) $2
Lightyear (2022) (MA/4K) $5 (MA/HD) $2.75 (GP/HD) $2
Like a Boss (2020) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $2.25
Lion (2016) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Lion King (1994) (MA/4K) $7 (iTunes/4K) $4.50 (GP/HD) $2.75
Lion King (2019) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) $4 (GP/HD) $1.25
Lion King 1 1/2 (2004) (MA/HD) $6.50
Lion King 2: Simba's Pride (1998) (MA/HD) $6.75 (GP/HD) $5.25
Little Mermaid (1989) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.75 (GP/HD) $3.75
Little Monsters (1989) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
Live Die Repeat: Edge Of Tomorrow (2014) (MA/4K) $6.50
Lodge, The (2019) (MA/HD) $5.75
Logan Lucky (2017) (MA/HD) $1.50 (iTunes/4K) $2.25
London Has Fallen (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3.75
Lone Survivor (2013) (MA/4K) $6.75 (iTunes/4K) $2 (MA/HD) $1.50
Long Shot (2019) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4
Longest Ride (2015) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $1.50
Looper (2012) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $3
Lords of Salem, The (2012) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Lost City, The (2022) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6
Love Actually (2003) (MA/HD) $5.50
Love, Simon (2018) (MA/HD) $3
Luca (2021) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $3.75 (GP/HD) $3.25
Lucy (2014) (MA/HD) $2
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (2022) (MA/HD) $5.50
Ma (2019) (MA/HD) $5.25
Mad Max Collection 1-4 (Vudu/4K) $20
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2
Madagascar Collection 1-4 (MA/HD) $14
Maleficent (2014) (MA/4K) $5.75 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3 (GP/HD) $1.25
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (GP/HD) $1.75
Mama (2013) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3.50
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $1.75
Mamma Mia! The Movie (2008) & Here We Go Again (2018) (MA/HD) $6.50 $4.50 Each
Martian - Extended Cut (2015) (MA/4K) $7.75 (MA/HD) $5.25
Martian (Theatrical) (2015) (MA/4K) $7.25 (MA/HD) $3.25
Mary Poppins (1964) (MA/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $3
Mary Poppins Returns (2018) (MA/4K) $6.50 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $2
Matrix Collection 1-4 (MA/4K) $18.50
Matrix: Resurrections (2021) (MA/4K) $5
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) (MA/HD) $5.75
McFarland, USA (2015) (MA/HD) $6.25 (GP/HD) $4.50
Memory (2022) (MA/HD) $3.50
Men (2022) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Men in Black Collection 1-3 (MA/HD) $15.50
Menu (2022) (MA/HD) $5.50 (GP/HD) $4
MIB: International (2019) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $4.75
Mickey & Minnie 10 Classic Shorts - Volume 1 (2023) (MA/HD) $5.75 (GP/HD) $4
Midsommar (2019) (Vudu/HD) $5.75
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016) (MA/HD) (iTunes/4K) $4.50
Million Dollar Arm (2014) (MA/HD) $4
Minions (2015) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2.75
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) & Minions (2015) (MA/HD) $8
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $5.25
Miracles From Heaven (2016) (MA/HD) $4.50
Mission: Impossible Collection 1-6 (Vudu/4K) $25 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $20
Mitchells Vs. The Machines (2021) (MA/HD) $4.50
Moana (2016) (MA/4K) $7 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.75 (GP/HD) $2
Money Monster (2016) (MA/HD) $3.25
Monster Hunter (2020) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $4.25
Monster Trucks (2016) (Vudu/HD) $2.25
Monster's Ball (2001) (Vudu/HD) $6.25
Monsters University (2013) (MA/4K) $6.75 (iTunes/4K) $5.75 (GP/HD) $3.50
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) (MA/4K) $7.25
Monuments Men (2014) (MA/HD) $2
Moonfall (2022) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5
Morbius (2022) (MA/4K) $5.25 (MA/HD) $3.25 (MA/SD) $2.25
Mortal Engines (2018) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $3.25
Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind (2022) (MA/HD) $5.50
Mother! (2017) (Vudu/HD) $3.50
Mountain Between Us (2017) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $1.50
Mr Popper's Penguins (2011) (MA/HD) $6
Much Ado About Nothing (2013) (Vudu/HD) $4.25
Mulan (1998) (MA/4K) $6.75 (iTunes/4K) $5.75 (GP/HD) $3
Mulan (2020) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $4 (GP/HD) $2.25
Muppet Movie (1979) (MA/HD) $7.50 (GP/HD) $6
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4
My Dinner with Herve (2018) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $3
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $5.25
Natural, The (1984) (MA/4K) $5
Nebraska (2013) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.25
Neighbors (2014) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2
New Mutants (2020) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $5.25 (GP/HD) $2.75
News of the World (2020) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $3.75
Night at the Museum 3-Movie (MA/HD) $13.50 $6 Each (MA/SD) $9
Night Before (2015) (MA/HD) $4.75
Night House, The (2021) (MA/HD) $5 (GP/HD) $3
Night School (Extended) (2018) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $3.75
Ninth Gate, The (1999) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
No Country For Old Men (2007) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
No Time to Die (2021) (iTunes/4K) $3.50
Nobody (2021) (MA/HD) $5.25
Non-Stop (2014) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Nope (2022) (MA/HD) $5.75
Nope (2022), Get Out (2017) & Us (2019) (MA/HD) $10
Norm of the North (2016) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Northman (2022) (MA/4K) $7.25 (MA/HD) $4.50
Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $3 (GP/HD) $2.50
Oblivion (2013) (MA/4K) $7 (iTunes/4K) $3.50 (MA/HD) $2.25
Olaf's Frozen Adventure Plus 6 Disney Tales (2017) (MA/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $3
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) (MA/HD) $5
On the Basis of Sex (2019) (MA/HD) $4.50
Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood (2019) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $5
Onward (2020) (MA/4K) $5.50 (MA/HD) $4 (GP/HD) $2.25
Oranges, The (2011) (MA/HD) $4.50
Other Woman (2014) (MA/HD) $2.25
Ouija (2014) & Origin of Evil (2016) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $9
Overboard (2016) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.75
Pacific Rim Uprising (2018) (MA/4K) $7.75 (MA/HD) $4.50
Pain & Gain (2013) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Paper Towns (2011) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.50
ParaNorman (2012) (iTunes/HD) $5
Passengers (2016) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $2.75
Passion of the Christ (2004) (MA/HD) $10
Paul (2011) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4.50
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015) (MA/HD) $4.25
Paw Patrol: The Movie (2021) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $5
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $6
Pearl (2022) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
Peppermint (2018) (iTunes/HD) $1.75
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) (MA/HD) $2.25
Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $1.75
Peter Rabbit (2018) & 2 (2021) (MA/HD) $8.50 $4.75 Each
Peter Rabbit (2018) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $4.75
Phantom Thread (2017) (MA/HD) $3.75
Philadelphia (1993) (MA/4K) $7.75
Philomena (2013) (Vudu/HD) $2
Pinocchio (1940) (MA/HD) $5.50 (GP/HD) $3.75
Pirate Fairy (2014) (MA/HD) $3.25
Pitch Perfect (2012) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $2.75 (iTunes/4K) $3.75
Pitch Perfect Collection 1-3 (MA/HD) $11.50
Pixels (2015) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $5.50
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) (iTunes/HD) $3.75
Planes: Fire & Rescue (2014) (MA/HD) $4 (GP/HD) $2
Planet of the Apes 1-3 (Newer) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $12
Playing with Fire (2019) (iTunes/4K) $1.50 (Vudu/HD) $2
Pocahontas (1995) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $5
Pompeii (2014) (MA/HD) $3.50
Poms (2019) (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Post, The (2017) (MA/HD) $2.75
Predator (1987), 2 (1990), Predators (2009), Predator (2018) (MA/HD) $11
Predator (2018) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $3.50
Premium Rush (2012) (MA/HD) $3.25
Prey for the Devil (2022) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6
Princess and the Frog (2009) (iTunes/4K) $5.50 (GP/HD) $3.25
Prometheus (2012) (MA/HD) $1.75
Prophecy Collection 1-5 (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $14.50
Psycho (1960) (MA/HD) (iTunes/4K) $5
Psycho (1960), Rear Window (1954), The Birds (1963), Vertigo (1958) (MA/4K) $17
Public Enemies (2009) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6.25
Purge, The (2013) (MA/4K) $6.50 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3
Purge: Anarchy (2014) (MA/4K) $5.75 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.75
Purge: Election Year (2016) (MA/4K $5.50 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3
Puss in Boots (2011) (MA/4K) $6.75
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) (MA/HD) $7.50
Queen & Slim (2019) (MA/HD) $4.50
R.I.P.D. (2013) (MA/HD) $3.25 (iTunes/HD) $3
Race (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2.75
Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) (MA/4K) $5.25 (iTunes/4K) $4.50 (GP/HD) $1.50
Rambo Collection 1-5 (Vudu/HD) $14
Rambo: First Blood (1982) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) (Vudu/4K) $6.75 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $2.50
Rescuers Down Under (1990) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $4
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) (MA/HD) $2.25
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017) (MA/4K) $7.25 (MA/HD) $3.25
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $4.50
Respect (2021) (iTunes/4K) $4.75
Revenant, The (2015) (MA/4K) $5.25 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3.25
Ricki And The Flash (2015) (MA/HD) $4.50
Riddick - Unrated Director's Cut (2013) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4
Riddick Collection 1-3 (Unrated) (MA/HD) $14
Ride Along 1-2 (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5 $2.75 Each
Rio 2 (2014) (MA/HD) $2.25
Risen (2016) (MA/HD) $4.50
Road to El Dorado (2000) (MA/HD) $5.50
Robin Hood (2010) (MA/4K) $6.25
Robin Hood (Animated) (1973) (MA/HD) $3.75 (GP/HD) $2.75
RoboCop (1987) (Vudu/HD) $7.25
Robots (2005) (MA/HD) $6.75
Rock Dog (2016) (Vudu/HD) $4.25
Ron's Gone Wrong (2021) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $5.25 (GP/HD) $3.50
Rumble (2022) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $5.75
Run Lola Run (1998) (MA/HD) $6.50
Rush (2013) (MA/HD) $2.75 (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Russell Madness (2015) (MA/HD) $4
Safe (2012) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $1.75
Saint Maud (2020) (Vudu/HD) $6
Santa Clause (1994), 2 (2002), 3 (2006) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $10.50 (GP/HD) $6.50
Saving Mr. Banks (2013) (MA/HD) $4.75 (GP/HD) $2.75
Saw Collection 1-7 (Vudu/HD) $10
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) (MA/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $5.25
Scream 5 (2022) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
Scream Collection 1-3 (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $13.50
Second Act (2018) (iTunes/HD) $1.50
Secret Garden, The (2020) (iTunes/4K) $4.25
Secret Headquarters (2022) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/4K) $6
Secret Life of Pets 1-2 (MA/HD) $7.50
Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $5
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4.50
Seriously Red (2022) (Vudu/HD) $6.75
Sessions, The (2012) (MA/HD) $4.50
Sex Tape (2014) (MA/HD) $3
Shallows, The (2016) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD $4
Shang-Chi (2021) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $4.75 (GP/HD) $3
Shaun of the Dead (2004) (MA/4K) $4
Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), World's End (2013) (MA/HD) $10
Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) (Vudu/HD) $4
Shawshank Redemption (1994) (MA/4K) $6
Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) & Shazam! (2019) (MA/HD) $10.50
Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) (MA/4K) $9 (MA/HD) $8
She's Having a Baby (1988) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
Shooter (2007) (Vudu/HD) $5.75
Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) (MA/4K) $7.75 (MA/HD) $3.75
Sideways (2004) (MA/HD) $5.25
Silent Night, Deadly Night: 3-Film Collection (1989-1991) (Vudu/HD) $6
Silver Linings Playbook (2012) (Vudu/HD) $2
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) (Vudu/HD) $6.25
Sing 2 (2021) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $3.50
Sing Collection 1-2 (MA/HD) $6
Singin' in the Rain (1952) (MA/4K) $6.50
Sinister (2012) (Vudu/HD) $3 (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Sisters (Unrated) (2015) (MA/HD) $4 (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Sixteen Candles (1984) (MA/HD) $5.25 (iTunes/HD) $4.25
Skeleton Twins (2014) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Skyscraper (2018) (MA/4K) $5.25 (MA/HD) $1.75
Sleepless (2017) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $1
Smile (2022) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/4K) $6.75
Smokey and the Bandit (1977) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $3.75
Smurfs 2 (2013) (MA/HD) $3.25
Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) (MA/HD) $3.25
Snake Eyes (2021) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4.25
Snatched (2017) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $1
Snitch (2013) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $1.75
Snow White and the Huntsman (Extended) (2012) (iTunes/4K) $3.50 (MA/HD) $2.50
Son of God (2014) (MA/HD) $1.25
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) (Vudu/4K) $6.50 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Soul (2020) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $3.75 (GP/HD) $2.25
Southpaw (2015) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Southside With You (2016) (Vudu/HD) $3.50
Space Between Us, The (2017) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5
Space Jam (1996) (MA/4K) $5
Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) (MA/4K) $5
Speed (1994) (MA/4K) $5.25
Spider-Man (2002) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $5.50
Spider-Man 2 (2004) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $5.50
Spider-Man 3 (2007) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $5.50
Spider-Man Collection 1-8 (MA/HD) $26
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) (MA/4K) $8 (MA/HD) $4
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) (MA/4K) $8 (MA/HD) $1.75
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $3.75
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2003) (MA/HD) $5
Split (2017) (MA/4K) $6.75 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2.75
Spy (Unrated) (2015) (MA/HD) $2
Spy Game (2001) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5.75
Stand Up Guys (2012) (Vudu/HD) $2.75
Star Trek 1-3 (Vudu/4K) $18 (Vudu/HD) $9.50 (iTunes/4K) $13.50
Star Trek Beyond (2016) (Vudu/HD) $1.75 (iTunes/4K) $3.25
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) (Vudu/HD) $1.75 (iTunes/4K) $3.25
Starship Troopers (1997) (MA/4K) $6.50
Still Alice (2015) (MA/HD) $3
Stillwater (2021) (MA/HD) $5
Straight Outta Compton (Unrated Director’s Cut) (2015) (MA/4K) $7.50 (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Strange World (2022) (GP/HD) Ports to MA $4.25
Strangers: Prey at Night (2018) (MA/HD) $3.50
Stronger (2017) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
Stuber (2019) (MA/HD) $4.75
Studio 666 (2022) (MA/HD) $6.75
Suicide Squad, The (2021) (MA/4K) $5
Super Troopers (2002) (MA/HD) $5.75
SW: A New Hope (1977) (MA/4K) $7 (iTunes/4K) $6.25 (GP/HD) $3.50
SW: Empire Strikes Back (1980) (MA/4K) $7 (iTunes/4K) $6.50 (GP/HD) $3.50
SW: Force Awakens (2015) (MA/4K) $5.25 (iTunes/4K) $3.50 (GP/HD) $1
SW: Last Jedi (2017) (MA/4K) $5.75 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (GP/HD) $1
SW: Phantom Menace (1999) (MA/4K) $7.50 (iTunes/4K) $6.50 (GP/HD) $3.50
SW: Return of the Jedi (1983) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) $6.50 (GP/HD) $3.50
SW: Revenge of the Sith (2005) (MA/4K) $7.50 (GP/HD) $3.50
SW: Rise of Skywalker (2019) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) $4.75 (GP/HD) $2.25
SW: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) (MA/4K) $6.50 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (GP/HD) $1.25
SW: Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) (MA/4K) $7 (iTunes/4K) $5 (GP/HD) $3.50
Sword in the Stone (1963) (MA/HD) $6.25 (GP/HD) $3.75
Taken Collection 1-3 (MA/HD) $9
Tangled (2010) (MA/4K) $8 (MA/HD) $5 (GP/HD) $3.75
Tarzan (1999) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $5
Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse (2022) (MA/HD) $4.75
Terminator (1984) (Vudu/HD) $7
Terminator: Genisys (2015) (Vudu/HD) $1.75 (iTunes/4K) $3
Theory Of Everything (2014) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4
Think Like a Man (2012) & Two (2014) (MA/HD) $9
This Is 40 (2012) (MA/HD) $3.75 (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Thor (2011) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $7 (GP/HD) $3.50
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $3.25 (GP/HD) $2
Thor: The Dark World (2013) (MA/4K) $7 (iTunes/4K) $4.50 (GP/HD) $2.25
Till (2022) (iTunes/4K) $6.50
Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2014) (MA/HD) $6 (GP/HD) $4
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4.50
Titanic (1997) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.75
TMNT Out of the Shadows (2016) (iTunes/4K) $4
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) (MA/4K) $6.25 (iTunes/HD) $4.50
Tomorrowland (2015) (MA/HD) $5.50 (GP/HD) $3.50
Top Gun: Maverick (2022) (Vudu/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $5.75
Total Recall + Extended (2012) (MA/HD) $5 (Theatrical) $4
Toy Story 1-4 (MA/4K) $23 (iTunes/4K) $21 (GP/HD) $11.50
Toy Story of Terror! (2013) (MA/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $3
Trading Places (1983) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Training Day (2001) (MA/4K) $6.50
Trainwreck (2015) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $1.50
Transformers 1-5 (Vudu/4K) $30 (Vudu/HD) $23
Trauma Center (2019) (iTunes/4K) $3.25
Triple 9 (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2.50
Trolls (2016) (MA/HD) $1.25
Trolls Collection 1-2 (MA/HD) $6
Tully (2018) (MA/HD) $5.75
Turning Red (2022) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $4 (GP/HD) $2.75
Umma (2022) (MA/HD) $4.75
Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6.75
Unbreakable (2000) (MA/4K) $6 (GP/HD) $3.75
Unbroken (2014) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3
Uncharted (2022) (MA/4K) $5.50 (MA/HD) $3.25
Under the Skin (2014) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
Underworld: Blood Wars (2016) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $2.25
Unforgiven (1992) (MA/4K) $6.50
Unhinged (2020) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Up (2009) (iTunes/4K) $7.50 (MA/HD) $6.75
Up in Smoke ‘Cheech and Chong’ (1978) (Vudu/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Upside, The (2017) (iTunes/HD) $2
Us (2019) (MA/HD) $5.25
Van Helsing (2004) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.75
Venom (2018) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $3.25
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $3.50
Vice (2015) 'Bruce Willis' (Vudu/HD) $2.50
WALL-E (2008) (iTunes/4K) $8 (GP/HD) $5.50
Walt Disney Animation Studios Shorts Collection (2015) (MA/HD) $5.50 (GP/HD) $4
Warcraft (2016) (MA/4K) $5 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2.25
Watch, The (2012) (MA/HD) $4.25
Waterworld (1995) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $6
Way, Way Back, The (2013) (MA/HD) $5.25
Weird Science (2008) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6
Welcome to Marwen (2018) (MA/4K) $3.50
West Side Story (2021) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) (GP/HD) $2.50
What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.25
When the Game Stands Tall (2014) (MA/HD) $4.50 (MA/SD) $1.75
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) (MA/HD) $4.50
Whiplash (2014) (MA/HD) $5.75
White House Down (2013) (MA/HD) $3.50
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2022) (MA/HD) $5.75
Widows (2018) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $1.75
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) (MA/4K) $5
Wind River (2017) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5
Wings (1927) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4
Witch, The (2016) (Vudu/HD) $3.50
Wolf Man (1941) (MA/4K) $6.50
Wolverine (Unrated) (2013) (MA/HD) $3.75
Woman King (2022) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $5.50
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) (MA/4K) $5
Won't Back Down (2012) (MA/HD) $4
Wreck-It Ralph (2012) (MA/4K) $8 (GP/HD) $4.25
X (2022) (Vudu/HD) $6.75
X2: X-Men United (2003) (MA/HD) $6.25
X-Men (2000), X2 (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) (MA/HD) $15
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2.50
X-Men: First Class (2010), Days of Future Past (2004), Apocalypse (2014) (MA/HD) $11
Yesterday (2019) (MA/HD) $4.50
Zathura (2005) (MA/HD) $7
Zero Dark Thirty (2012) (MA/HD) $3
Zootopia (2016) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) $5 (MA/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $3.25

Just imagine this scene, it can happen if you choose to:
"You felt it, you felt the sex being parted by my long's fingers, as your thighs are being forced to widen to accommodate me being lodged beneath you. My tongue slippery and warm; it glided to you from opening up to your clit, which I nipped at with my teeth. Your gasp filled the empty room. I repeated the same action again, and again. Eventually, your thighs are already quivering, and I continue sucking your clit while momentarily rocking your world as your eyes squeezed shut."
Yes, I'm quite a gentleman and would want to get you off first before me. Did that get your attention? If so, below is the {insert boring generic fact sheet here} details about me, what I'm looking for:
Male, 25 years old (as you guessed from the title lol)
I hope you love a tall guy because I'm 6'5! (200 cm). I'm probably going to need to put some effort into kissing you (I'm sure you're worth it) . I'm in decent shape, not quite fat or obese.
White, Hispanic, Euro mixed. Quite a bit of a hybrid.
Clean, clean, and did I say clean? You won't have to worry about any STD'S/STI'S around me, I can assure you that.
Located on east San Jose, near east ridge mall. I normally can’t host but since my landlords are out of the country for a couple of weeks, I’ll be able to sneak you in and host you no problem at the moment. (:
Let's meet up for some drinks at Starbucks or a movie perhaps? A little window-shopping? For sure, you like to get to know you a bit more before the NSFW part of our story happens. Your hobbies, interests, goals, your life story, etc. If we vibe and hit it off well, I could get you a cute dress while we're at it. (: Then we can head back to your place or mine(temporarily) , where the action begins.
I'm open to any age and ethnic/career backgrounds, as well as if you're single or in an open relationship/marriage.
Message me so we can fulfill your pleasures today. (: Please no dudes. I'm straight.

Here are all of the new US CCS (Level 3 fast-charging) stations that rolled out in May 2023, according to the Department of Energy. These chargers are suitable for most new EVs on the market, except for:

1. Tesla drivers who haven't bought the official CCS adapter yet. Certain older Teslas need additional work done to accept the adapter.
2. Leaf owners like me, and some owners of older cars that also use CHAdeMO. If you drive a Leaf, or an older CHAdeMO car, see my matching post in leaf.

Some of these chargepoints will be "refreshes," e.g. the provider replaced them with faster chargers etc. Some may be incorrect. This report is only as good as the Alternative Fuels Data Center data.
There were 222 CCS charge points added or refreshed in May 2023, which is up from 171 in April. For comparison, there were only 74 new CCS charge points in May 2022. Things are speeding up.
"What about CCS charging at Tesla superchargers?" Tesla is in the process of rolling out their "magic dock" for non-Tesla cars, but so far in very few locations. If they start doing this at scale and reporting it to the Alternative Fuels Data Center then it will be reflected here.
"What about Ford vehicles with NACS (Tesla) plugs?" They are not on sale yet. Current-generation Ford vehicles have CCS plugs. The next generation will have NACS (Tesla) plugs, but will also support CCS via an adapter.
If you'd like to know about new chargers along your routes right away, or just prefer not to check this list monthly when new openings are rare in your area, I've set up a free service that provides email notifications as soon as they open. You can sign up at evpov.com. Or not! I don't really have a business plan here, I built it to help EV owners like myself.
To streamline this post, multi-chargepoint locations are listed with the number of chargepoints first, so that's why the post is shorter than in previous months.

➡ AR (1) Franklin's Charging Little Rock 724 Woodrow St Little Rock, AR 72205 ➡ AZ (6) 942 E Parma Street (US-CMK-NVL-2A) 942 E Parma Street Gila Bend, AZ 85337 (1) Kroger Frys 62 (Mesa, AZ) 554 W Baseline Rd Mesa, AZ 85210 ➡ CA (1) Fairfield Inn & Suites 8700 Spectrum Pkwy Bakersfield, CA 93308 (1) MOSSY CDJR DC 1 1875 Auto Park Ave Chula Vista, CA 91911 (3) DC CORRIDOR CHEVRON C DC 2 25032 W Dorris Ave Coalinga, CA 93210 (1) South Coast Collection (SoCo) 3303 Hyland Ave Costa Mesa, CA 92626 (1) SCPPA SCPPA CPE200T 1160 Nicole Ct Glendora, CA 91740 (1) Chase Bank - 925 N Hacienda Blvd 925 N Hacienda Blvd La Puente, CA 91744 (1) WOODLANDHILLS ABB 24KW 01 22006 Erwin Street Los Angeles, CA 91367 (1) 7071 - Merced, CA (2020 Childs Ave) 2020 Childs Ave Merced, CA 95341 (1) Mojave Air & Spaceport (Building 1) 16922 Airport Blvd Mojave, CA 93501 (1) BMW MONROVIA OFF NETWORK 01 1425 Mountain Ave Monrovia, CA 91016 (1) Albertsons 1345 (Morro Bay, CA) 730 Quintana Road Morro City, CA 93442 (1) 3333 Fruitvale Ave 3333 Fruitvale Ave Oakland, CA 94602 (1) 7126 - Oakley, CA (5540 Bridgehead Road) 5540 Bridgehead Road Oakley, CA 94561 (1) CircleK - Palm Desert, CA 78005 Country Club Dr Palm Desert, CA 92211 (1) Hilton Garden Inn 20 Advantage Ct Sacramento, CA 95834 (1) BoA Hillcrest CA0-120 (San Diego, CA) 737 UNIVERSITY AVE San Diego, CA 92103 (1) WinCo Foods - Vacaville #60 855 Davis St Vacaville, CA 95687 ➡ CO (1) CITY OF ASPEN RIO GRANDE L3 427 Rio Grande Pl Aspen, CO 81611 (4) CSG EV BOULDER PL4 1500 Pearl St Boulder, CO 80302 (5) 1 Flatiron Crossing (US-ME8-73R-2B) 1 Flatiron Crossing Broomfield, CO 80021 (1) CircleK - Colorado City, CA 8950 S Interstate 25 Colorado City, CO 81004 (2) GPM INVESTMENTS 4590 DC1 8105 N Academy Blvd Colorado Springs, CO 80920 (2) KUM & GO CRAIG PL2 700 East Victory Way Craig, CO 81625 (1) DINO WELCOME DINOSAUR PL1 101 Stegosaurus Freeway Dinosaur, CO 81610 (2) PIKES PK CHARGE BA.CA.MI LLC #2 11027 US-24 Divide, CO 80814 (4) ANNEX SITE GEORGETOWN PL4 1120 Argentine Street Georgetown, CO 80444 (4) KUM & GO RIFLE PL4 705 Taugenbaugh Boulevard Rifle, CO 81650 (2) KUM & GO SB SPRINGS PL2 80 Anglers Drive Steamboat Springs, CO 80487 ➡ CT (1) BOA East Hartford CT2-120 (Hartford, CT) 805 E Main Street East Hartford, CT 06108 (1) HARTFORD BMW ABB OUTSIDE 1 Weston Park Rd Hartford, CT 06120 ➡ DE (1) First State Chevrolet 22694 DUPONT BLVD GEORGETOWN, DE 19947 ➡ FL (1) JNKNS JACKSONVI DC FAST 2 11107 Atlantic Blvd Jacksonville, FL 32225 (1) Simon Tampa Premium Outlets (Lutz, FL) 2300 Grand Cypress Dr Lutz, FL 33559 (1) Starbucks 9200 FL-228 Macclenny, FL 32063 (1) Ocean Cadillac 17800 Ipco Road Miami, FL 33162 (1) Sun Plaza 6339 W Colonial Dr Orlando, FL 32818 (1) Simon Orlando Vineland (Orlando, FL) 8200 Vineland Ave Orlando, FL 32821 (1) Simon Tyrone Square (St Petersburg, FL) 6901 22nd Ave N Peterburg, FL 33710 (1) BHY CHARGER 1 9915 E Adamo Dr Tampa, FL 33619 (1) Chase Bank - 5601 Red Bug Lake Rd 5601 Red Bug Lake Rd Winter Springs, FL 32708 ➡ GA (1) GEORGIA POWER EPICENTER DC1 135 riverside parkway SW Austell, GA 30168 (1) JACKSON EMC GAINESVILLE 1000 Dawsonville Highway Gainesville, GA 30501 ➡ IL (1) Castle Chevrolet North 175 N Arlington Heights Rd Elk Grove Village, IL 60007 (1) Sunrise Chevrolet 414 E N Ave Glendale Heights, IL 60139 ➡ IN (1) AVON HYUNDAI SALES 8775 E 36 Avon, IN 46123 (1) SHRM CHRG MERCEDESBENZFW 7227 W Jefferson Blvd Fort Wayne, IN 46804 (1) HOC CHARGERS CHARGER #1 4200 E 96th St Indianapolis, IN 46240 (1) Sullivan Cadillac 4040 SW College Rd Ocala, IN 34474 ➡ KS (1) HATCHETT FRONT_WEST 11200 E Central Ave Wichita, KS 67206 (1) HATCHETT BACK EAST 11330 E Central Ave Wichita, KS 67206 ➡ KY (1) JEFF WYLER FH EXPRESS 250 949 Burlington Pike Florence, KY 41042 ➡ LA (1) All Star Automotive 12730 Airline Highway Baton Rouge, LA 70817 (1) Target T1469 (Monroe, LA) 4103 Pecanland Mall Dr Monroe, LA 71203 ➡ MA (6) MASSPORT TNC 4 226 Porter St Boston, MA 02128 (2) MASSPORT TAXI 4 56 Harborside Dr Boston, MA 02128 (1) Littleton Electric Light & Water Department 39 Ayer Road Littleton, MA 01460 ➡ MD (2) POTOMAC EDISON ROCKY GAP DC1 16701 Lakeview Rd NE Flintstone, MD 21530 ➡ ME (1) DARLINGS HYUNDA SALES CHARGER 2 439 Western Ave Augusta, ME 04330 (2) IRVINGOIL ME-FFLD-L3-0001 206 Center Rd Fairfield, ME 04937 (1) MOBIL ONTHEWAY STATION 1 1930 Lisbon Street Lewiston, ME 04240 (1) MOBIL ONTHEWAY STATION 2 1938 Lisbon St Lewiston, ME 04240 ➡ MI (1) Belle Isle DC Fast Charge 176 Lakeside Dr Detroit, MI 48207 (1) Meijer 254 (Hudsonville, MI) 4075 32nd Ave Hudsonville, MI 49426 (1) Evergetic Charging Spa 330 South Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard Lansing, MI 48915 (1) Genesis Cadillac 19900 E Nine Mile Road St Clair Shores, MI 48080 (1) MBSTL ENTRANCE ABB 1048 Hampton Avenue St. Louis, MI 63139 (1) Range USA Ypsilanti 660 James L Hart Pkwy Ypsilanti, MI 48197 ➡ MN (1) WINNER GAS BROOKDALE DR 1500 Brookdale Dr Minneapolis, MN 55444 ➡ MO (1) GM - Allen Christian Buick GMC Inc 724 W Business US Highway 60, Dexter, MO 63841 (1) Store 290 Joplin - 2101 S. 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Maple Ave Marshfield, WI 54449 

I would love your help with figuring out my itinerary! It is me (46), my husband (46), son (18), and daughter (15), all in decent shape although my daughter is not very active but she loves nature and animals. We’re going July 8-15. Right now the tentative plan is this:
July 8 - land in Kalispell at 1pm, get rental, stock up at grocery store in Columbia Falls, explore Apgar Village and visitors center, stay at Lake McDonald Lodge.
July 9 - out the door by 6am, drive to Logan Pass, hike the Highline (haven’t decided if we’ll do it all the way to the loop or not), GTTSR stops & Lake McDonald later in the day. Stay at Lake McDonald Lodge.
July 10 - Trail of the Cedars/Avalanche Lake Trail, GTTSR. Stay at Rising Sun.
July 11 - Out by 6am to Logan Pass, Hidden Lake trail. Any GTTSR stops we missed. St Mary Visitors Center. Many Glacier boat tour at 3pm. Stay at Many Glacier.
July 12 - Out by 5:30am, walk to Grinnell Glacier trail (we couldn’t get boat reservation). Fishercap Lake that evening. Stay at Many Glacier.
July 13 - another hike near Many Glacier - possibly Iceberg Lake or Cracker Lake? Or we might just sleep in and drive to Waterton when we wake up, drive Red Rock Canyon, stay at Prince of Wales hotel. Might try staying up late to see Milky Way somewhere.
July 14 - Bears Hump trail or boat tour. Drive to Two Medicine. Boat tour and Twin Falls Hike at 3pm. Stay at Mountain Pine Motel.
July 15 - Try to see sunrise at Two Medicine Lake. Drive to airport.
Questions:
-Is Waterton worth it or should we try to stay at Many Glacier one more night?
-Does this seem doable for healthy but slightly lazy teenage girl? The waking up wouldn’t be a problem, but the hiking concerns me a little. She’s done lots of hikes in the past but no 10 milers.
-I would like to see the Milky Way one night and get sunrise and sunset pictures - not sure where to fit those in.
Any changes/suggestions would be very much appreciated! We’ve been to many national parks but I’m finding Glacier to be a challenging one to plan. Thank you!!

Hey there, readers! Here's chapter five for your reading pleasure! Please consider leaving a comment or review as those really do just pick me right up!
I've Been Reincarnated as a Bunny Girl?! (Chapter 5)
by
ShadowDragon88
A fine drizzle was coming down on the town of Starlight Rose. A familiar wolf-kin beasta in red robes that appeared to be shimmering despite the cloudy gloom of the day was walking along the main road. In his right hand, he held a long polished oak staff, topped with a red glowing gemstone the size of his fist. In his left hand, held away from his body, was a tan leather satchel, the drawstring tied in a knot. It appeared full, and seemed to shudder and wriggle. Felixin smiled and nodded to passing villagers.
​
"Hey there, Felixin," came the rumbling voice of Earl Shatterknuckle. The blonde dwarf, presently wearing just simple brown leather trousers, fell in step beside his taller friend. Felixin looked down at the dwarf, whose smaller frame was bulging with muscles, with blue and gold glowing tattoos tracing intricate spider-web-like symbols across his chest and arms, smiling back.
​
"Good day to you, Earl," the wolf said. There was a spitting-chittering sound coming from the bag, making Felixin pause and frown before giving the satchel a good whack with his magical staff. "Quiet, you!" he hissed at it.
​
"Caught yourself another evil spirit, eh?" Earl said with a smirk.
​
"Oh yes, and this one was quite the nasty piece of work. I'm on my way back to my lab to properly dispose of it. I think it's from some destroyed remnant of Eld technology, one of the ones that gained sentience, or at least some spiritual semblance to it," Felixin said as he gave the bag another whack when it started to make some electronic beeping sounds.
​
"Oh?" Earl asked, curious. "I remember more than once we had some nasty run-ins with Eld-tech back when we were adventurers."
​
"I remember you and Melthi being the ones to turn the blasted machines on, both times when cautioned not to," Felixin said pointedly, making the dwarf chuckle.
​
"What can I say? We're both curious by nature!"
​
"Yes, that's one word for it," Felixin said with a smile, remembering his adventuring days and the party of friends he would regularly travel with. "Anyways. For some reason, about six years ago, they suddenly became much more prevalent. Thankfully, their numbers have been dropping back down over the years."
​
"What makes you think this one is from Eld tech?"
​
"It kept saying 'Does not compute!' over and over again, while also identifying some kind of rabbit threat." Felixin's mood seemed to shift and his ears laid back on his head, while his tail dipped, almost long enough to drag on the ground behind him. "And when it mentioned rabbits, it made me think of my little princess."
​
Earl rolled his eyes as he reached up and clapped the town wizard on the back. "Ah, Kiana'll be back to visit before you know it."
​
"I know... it's just, one minute she was this little delicate baby girl, and the next minute, she was this amazing young woman, all ready to up and go out."
​
"Didn't Kiana kick down a couple of brick walls when she was a baby?" Earl asked, scratching his head. Felixin waved a dismissive paw at that.
​
"Pure coincidences. Those walls were clearly unsound and improperly constructed, so much so that when she was having one of her tantrums just a little punch or kick was enough to send them tumbling down. We're lucky she wasn't hurt or scared, just confused and curious more than anything. Anyways, I just get so worried when I think of her, out there on the open road. Just so... vulnerable. Thankfully I made sure to instill in her a proper sense of caution." Earl snorted at that.
​
Meanwhile...
​
Kiana let out a roar of fury as her trusted tetsubo connected with the raised steel shield of the bandit before her. The metal dented and warped just as the bandit, shield and all, became airborne. They traveled in an arc straight towards a stone tower connected to an old run-down fort the bandits had holed up in. The screaming man smashed into the top of the tower, crumbling it, his screams instantly going silent.
​
"Fire!" Kiana heard a deep voice shout. There were several blasts and, thanks to Kiana's speed, she watched as five cannonballs headed in her direction. To the ordinary person, the black metallic spheres were probably nearly impossible to follow. To Kiana, it looked as though they were moving incredibly slow. She simply stepped aside from four of them, letting them explode into the nearby hillside. As the fifth one hurtled her way, she crouched slightly, raising her tetsubo like a baseball bat. She swung and smacked the cannonball, her tetsubo making a loud DING, and sent it flying right back where it had come from. The two bandits manning the cannon were obliterated along with the weapon itself, as well as a good chunk of the fort wall.
​
"She's some kind of demon!" one of the bandits cried. The man, really more of a boy, no older than Kiana, leapt down from the fort wall onto a carriage they had recently stolen from some traveling aristocrats. He then leapt onto the ground and sprinted out into the forest, stripping off the black cloak with the red eye in the center.
​
"DAMMIT!" the bandit leader cursed, pulling off his tricorn hat and dabbing his bald sweaty head with a handkerchief. While the remaining men were busy barring the windows or reloading and firing the cannons, he was gnashing his teeth. After a moment's hesitation, he pointed to a nearby subordinate. "You! Follow me. We'll unleash the troll on her."
​
The other bandit paled, audibly gulping. "Th-the troll? Are you sure th-that's wise?" Just as he finished asking that, another cannonball destroyed another cannon, making the entire structure shudder.
​
"We don't have any other options. Hopefully, after it kills her, it'll be injured enough for us to finish it off... or the other way around if she kills it." The other bandit grimaced at the options laid before them, but nodded solemnly. Outside, Kiana smacked another cannonball back at the cannon that fired it, being careful not to send it flying towards the base of the tower. According to one of the kidnapped merchants that had managed to escape and make it all the way to town, the cells where the bandits were holding their ransom victims were all on the ground floor. Kiana stopped when she heard a loud guttural roar, followed by a rapid series of loud BOOMs. Bandits ran by the windows and open holes of the fort, while the front gate slowly opened.
​
Out stumbled a massive creature. Its flesh was a dark brown, and had a texture not unlike tree bark. Its long arms and legs were thicker than the old oak trees in the forest near Starlight Rose. Its gnarled hands, with thick thorn-like protrusions sticking from the knuckles, balled into fists, fists that were as big as Kiana was tall. Its barrel-chest heaved, with white criss-crossing scars in its bark-flesh. It didn't have much in the way of a neck, and its head looked just like a tree stump, complete with root-like tendrils wriggling back and forth. It's mouth was partially concealed by the tendrils, until it reared back and opened its gaping maw, revealing rows of broken yellow teeth, to let out a bellow that shook the ground. From the top of its head grew two slightly spiraling branch-like horns.
​
"These idiots somehow managed to get a forest troll?" Kiana asked out loud, a smirk appearing on her face. "And this was only a gold-ranked quest? Something tells me I'm in for a sweet bonus."
​
The beast stopped as its knot-like eyes, of which there were at least seven, caught sight of the bunny girl. Up above from the second story windows and holes and from on the roof, the remaining bandits, many of them injured, looked down. Most were smirking, some of the more foolish ones shouted out taunts. The bandit leader stood there, looking grim-faced, but taking some satisfaction in knowing that despite their losses today, the annoying source of their problems was about to end, one way or another.
​
Kiana stuck the end of her tetsubo into the dirt, large and surprisingly quick thudding steps shaking the ground. The beast was lumbering towards Kiana, who didn't look the least bit afraid. While not intelligent enough to be truly sentient, the troll did have enough sense to know that its prey should be running. And the fact that it was just calmly standing there, staring at it, only angered it further. With a final roar, the forest troll charged forward. It balled up a massive fist, and swung straight for Kiana. Kiana swung her own fist, the two colliding.
​
There was a very loud, sickening crunch and pop. The bandits looked down in shock and horror as where the now screaming troll's fist and forearm had been, there was a bloody and jagged stump that ended just above the right elbow. The troll screeched and lunged at Kiana, hoping to impale her on its horns. But the bunny girl simply kicked, knocking the head clean off the rest of its body. The head bounced off a tree and rolled for a bit, settling in the dirt, a look of surprise on the stump-like face. The rest of the body tumbled over three times before coming to a rest near the make-shift stables, where the carriages and horses of the abducted nobles were kept. Kiana looked back up at the fort, making the majority of the bandits shrink back and shudder. A few of them began to wave white tablecloths hastily tied to sticks and tree branches.
​
A short time later the bandits, now in shackles, were being marched to the mechanical cart as the local sheriff and his deputies led them. Except for the severely injured ones, who were shackled to stretchers and loaded up into a seperate mechanical carriage. Kiana looked on as bodies were checked for possible survivors, there being very few to find, as the merchants and a few nobles were led by deputies out from the fort. Kiana smiled at them and nodded to their looks of awe, some of them having gotten a good look at the show of force the petite bunny girl had demonstrated. Ignoring the ones who shrank back away from her in fright, Kiana spotted the sheriff, a large older man in his mid-fifties with salt and pepper close-cropped hair and a matching mustache. He was wearing the classic green cloak, directing his deputies. He turned to face her as she approached.
​
"I think that's all cleared up," Kiana said, her voice chipper, belaying the fact she had a smattering of blood and gore staining her fur.
​
"I'd have to agree with you, young lady," Sheriff Tonsol said, his voice even. In truth, he had tried to avoid enlisting the aid of any adventurers until pressure from various merchants and nobility forced his hand. And even then he had expected it to involve a large party and, more than likely, some lives lost from the hostages. He was a little surprised when the girl reached into her satchel to produce a clipboard with a form on it, as well as an ink pen.
​
"In that case, would you mind signing this form indicating that I completed the job satisfactorily?" Tonsol looked at the form for a minute, and then his mouth curved upwards. He let out a chuckle and signed his name on the indicated line, writing in the date as well.
​
"Satisfactorily is putting it lightly, miss," he said, handing the clipboard and pen back to the bunny girl. "I had no idea that they had a forest troll in their possession. I went ahead and bumped up the reward."
​
"Oh wow, thank you, sir!" Kiana said, looking excited.
​
Tonsol smiled, something his deputies claimed to be a rare sight to behold. "Well, you earned it. I'm just glad you were able to get them to surrender without harming any hostages. Well, without them harming any more than the ones they did last time someone came out here to free them."
​
"I'm glad I could help!" Kiana said, bowing a little. "Now, I'm going to head back into town." She spread her arms wide and indicated to herself. "I'm really in need of a bath at this point."
​
"If you don't mind waiting a minute, you can ride back to town with us. It's faster than walking."
​
"Oh, thanks for the offer, but I'm good." Kiana waved, before jogging back to where she'd left her tetsubo and pack, Mirabelle coiled around it protectively. She grabbed the items up, quickly looking through the travel pack to make sure she still had everything, and nodded to herself, satisfied. She slipped the pack onto her back, then scooped her pet snake into her arms, and started to jog down the road in the direction of the town of Hengecliffe. Picking up speed, she rapidly became a blur, and in just a few seconds she was coming to a sliding stop in front of the town gates, startling a couple of bored-looking guards.
​
She greeted them and let Mirabelle down before they let her inside. They stared at the snake with the big pink ribbon around its neck slithering obediently behind the bunny girl. She stopped off at the local guild hall to drop off the signed paperwork and collect her now even heftier reward. She noticed a few stares in her general direction, and some unhappy grumbling from some fellow adventurers, but otherwise no one said anything.
​
Kiana then headed to the town inn where she still had a room for another night. Thankful again that this world had indoor plumbing, with hot water to boot, Kiana wasted no time in stripping off her gore-coated clothes, which she would wash in the laundry room down the hall, and enjoyed a nice steamy shower. She didn't have to worry about possible intruders, as Mirabelle sat coiled on the bed, ever vigilant.
​
"Today was a good day," Kiana said, stepping out of the shower and drying herself off, a feat that took several minutes with a towel. This left her gray and white fur all fluffed-out, which led to her brushing it out. Kiana had grown accustomed to the care and maintenance of her fur, taking pride in keeping it clean. She then donned her underwear and a cream-colored sundress from her pack, carefully putting her dirty clothes in the laundry sack in her pack. She smiled and stroked Mirabelle's head, the snake letting out a contented purr-like hiss.
​
"I'm going to go out and enjoy the rest of the afternoon in town. You stay here and guard the pack, okay?" she asked, slipping her mithril knuckles into her dress pockets, along with a small money pouch. Mirabelle hissed, thumping her tail on the bed in response, curling up tighter around Kiana's belongings.
​
"Good girl," she praised, before heading out, locking the door behind herself for good measure. Kiana smiled as she stepped out onto the paved sidewalk, carriages passing by on the street. Hengecliffe was much larger than Starlight Rose, with paved streets and even streetlights. Centrally located in a region of plains, it served as a trading hub. Kiana walked along, noticing a few men and women looking her over. Some seemed to do so with distaste, more than likely not enjoying the sight of a beasta. But most seemed to be pleasant people observing a new face.
​
"Well now, if my eyes are not deceiving me, it seems that an angel from the heavens has decided to grace us mere mortals with her presence." Kiana's ears twitched at the sound of the male voice. She paused and turned, looking down an alley, where a man leaning up against the side of a building stood, looking her over. He was wearing brown leather trousers, a white linen shirt, and a belt with a large buckle which, matching the large buckles on his boots, made him look a bit like a pirate. The goatee and the cutlass sheathed at his side were also not helping.
​
"Hello, beautiful," he said, giving Kiana a wink. Kiana rolled her eyes, and moved to keep walking, only to find a squat bald man standing in her way, grinning sinisterly. Kiana checked behind herself and saw another man, a larger one with a completely shaved head, arms crossed with a club under one arm. "Now, how about we all go somewhere more... private," the pirate-looking moron asked, giving Kiana a smug wink.
​
"Wow, you idiots have no idea just how badly you messed up," Kiana said, walking into the alley, the two guys following right behind her. The men chuckled. Passersby stopped when they heard three loud thuds coming from the alley, all of which made the nearby buildings shudder. They saw a bunny beasta girl walking out, brushing some dust off her sundress. She smiled and waved and continued on her way, leaving behind three broken figures. Two were lying in craters in the pavement of the alley, while the third, this one with a cutlass laying at his booted feet, was standing... his head laying all the way back in a hole in the brick wall right behind him.
​
Later that evening...
​
Kiana was sitting just outside the town walls on a hill, watching the stars come out. After sixteen years, it still mystified her to look up at the night sky, and not see any of the old constellations. She smiled as a shooting star streaked its way across the sky. Suddenly, Kiana felt a surge of energy just course through her. Her eyes faintly started to glow with the blue light, and she felt a strange pulsing in her chest. Looking around, she felt a strange magnetic pull coming from the south.
​
Starting as a jog, Kiana soon found herself sprinting outright across the countryside. She ran, as a blur, following the pull, her eyes gradually glowing brighter and brighter, shining with the crackling blue energy. Then, she came to a stop. She stood at the foot of a mountain, itself part of a larger range. Looking up at the mass of rock and ice, she could see broiling clouds up over it, flashes of lightning briefly illuminating the rocky and snowy peaks. With one such flash, Kiana saw something move. Something big. Kiana's glowing eyes went wide.
​
"Oh wooooooooow," she said, her jaw hanging open. There were rumbles as the giant coiled mass shifted. Several avalanches were caused by the serpentine body, buried under tons and tons of snow. At the very peak of the mountain, a gargantuan head rose.
​
"Is that a giant... cobra?" Kiana asked under her breath. Indeed, that was what the creature that seemed to dwarf the Spire appeared to be. In the light of the lightning, she saw that its scales were a deep blue, almost purple. There were stripes running down its back, but they were glowing a bright bioluminescent blue. That same glow radiated from the creature's reptilian eyes, and the inside of its hood. The same glowing blue as Kiana's eyes.
​
"What... are you?" Kiana asked, quietly.
​
I can ask the same of you, little one, a deep female voice hissed in Kiana's head. She winced and looked around. She then looked back up at the creature, her veins flooded with adrenaline. There was another flash of lightning, and in that very instant, the creature's head was bent down low, right in front of her. Kiana almost jumped back, but stopped herself. As the snake-entity looked her over with an eye that was twice as tall as she was, Kiana felt a sense of calm overtake her.
​
"Are you... a storm dragon? A real storm dragon?" Kiana asked, reaching out and touching the creature's cheek with her hand. It flicked out a blood red tongue, its mouth curling up a little at the corners.
​
That is something that little ones like to call my kind, she said. Kiana figured right then and there that this was a female.
​
"A monk said that... my spirit is like one of yours," Kiana said, breathlessly.
​
Your soulsong feels similar to one of our kind, little one, she said, turning her head and gently nuzzling the top of Kiana's head, making her ears lay flat. The storm dragon's head was almost as large as the entirety of her hometown.
​
"My... soulsong?" Kiana asked. The monk she had met hadn't said anything about them.
​
The song of your innermost being. It stands out from the loud and noisy cacophony that happens when most little ones gather together in large groups. Yours is beautiful, and a little... fluttery. The dragon gave her a wink. She reared up and opened her mouth. Electricity danced between the dragon's fangs, before she shot out a sonic boom. The raging storm above abated, the clouds dispersing, leaving only a crystal clear night sky for miles and miles around. She then turned and looked down at Kiana. The bunny girl felt the storm dragon's gaze. She felt a radiating warmth coming from her. It reminded Kiana of her mother.
​
It was so nice to meet you, little one. It was quite the pleasant surprise to awaken to. She let out a proud roar, and her body began to undulate. Sections of the mountain range began to crumble as large sections of mountain were crushed and smashed by the body slamming into them. The body of the dragon rose into the air, beginning to gracefully slither about. Levitating there, partially coiled, the sheer size of the storm dragon just boggled the bunny girl's mind.
​
"Will I see you again?" Kiana asked, feeling a little sad. She had just met this beautiful and amazing being, and already they were leaving.
​
Of course, little one, the mental voice in her mind chuckled warmly. I have listened to your beautiful soulsong, and I have shared my soulsong with you.
​
"I... I don't understand what that means," Kiana said, confused.
​
You will, little one, she said, you are still young, but my soulsong has resonated within you. When you stop and listen, it will become easier and easier to hear it. And thus, the bond has begun to form. In time, you shall understand. With a flick of the creature's tail, there was a flash of lightning that radiated from within the hood, and she was gone. Kiana stood there, her eyes readjusting to the dark.
​
"This world is so awesome," she said, a smile on her face, as she began to job back towards town. She figured that if the town gates were closed and locked, she could just jump over the wall.
​
Meanwhile...
​
The lone figure stood in the dark, staring at where the great serpent had been levitating. They were sitting on a log in a small clearing, where they had set up camp. The individual in question was polishing their armor when a gray blur had shot right past them. And then, where it had been heading, the giant serpent, an actual storm dragon, arose. They sat there in stunned silence. They knew right then and there, that it had been a sign from the gods. As they unsheathed their katana, it began to thrum with magical energy, the blade becoming engulfed in bright purple flames.
​
The light of the purple flames illuminated his green face, glinting off his polished tusks. "Soon, the war shall begin," said the orc, sheathing the blade and cutting off its purple light. The same purple light shone from his eyes.
​
Name: Kiana
​
Species: Beasta (Rabbit-Kin)
​
Age: 16
​
Skills: Sibling Wrangler, Babysitter, Puppy-Dog Eyes, Master Martial Arts, Brawling, Heavy Weapon Proficiency, Sarcasm Mastery, Eyerolling Mastery, Beast Taming Level 3
​
Class: (Official) Master-Level Dragon Monk: Storm Dragon School, Storm Dragon Hatchling.
​
​
Str: 141
Int: 12
Dex: 140
Cha: 12
Wis: 10
Con: 172
Languages: Common, Draconic
​
Equipment: Adventurer's Pack, Steelwood Tetsubo, Mastercraft Mithril Knuckles (x2), Rope (25 Ft.), Canteen (Full), Road Rations, Spare Clothes, Bedroll, Health Potion (x2), Books (x3)
I really hope that you enjoyed the new chapter! Thank you for reading so far!
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Original prompt: [WP]You awake from cryo-freeze to find the world hasn't changed a bit, but you have. You are the first live subject to survive the revival process. Only, you're not the person they say you are. You remember your death. This isn't your original body. Now you must survive. (link)
As I opened my eyes, it felt like the harsh light of day was digging straight into my brain. Around me was a grassy field with a few scattered trees. Familiar trees... Eerily so, as if they hadn't grown or changed at all since the last time I'd seen them. I wasn't sure how long it had been since I'd last seen them, but I was confident it had been a while. I could feel my memories flowing back, but it was not a comfortable process.
A few buildings stood in the distance, and I began walking toward them. It became immediately obvious that the ground was entirely artificial. The soil felt like it was made of rubber, and my bare feet were already sore from being abraded by the rough edges from where the soft plastic grass blades had been ripped out of a mold. The trees didn't seem much better, being made of hollow metal with plastic leaves, then smeared with latex to vaguely resemble an actual tree.
The buildings were part of a small hamlet, and were the only interesting thing in the field. Any other direction would've led to a reinforced concrete wall buried behind plastic foliage, so I had no qualms with getting straight to the point this time. I entered the hamlet cautiously, and found that it was just as artificial as its surroundings. The buildings looked like they were made of clay with thatch rooves, but on closer inspection were made of painted concrete. As I peered inside one of the buildings, it was obvious that the thatch roof was for show, as the concrete building didn't have an opening at the top.
The inhabitants were hardly any better. A mixture of holograms, animatronics, and cardboard cutouts, the ones that moved did so predictably and mechanically, and none of them even made a plausible facsimile of humanity. I recognized every one of the "people" in the hamlet, down to their names. It wasn't my first time in this town, and I felt like there was good chance it wouldn't be my last.
"Welcome traveler! Feel free to enjoy our quaint little town, and sample our hospitality, but be careful of the monster that lives in the mountains!" said Jeremy, the cardboard cutout standing outside the front of the hamlet said. He wore a suit of armor that seemed asynchronous with the impoverished vibe of the place he was guarding, but since he was made of cardboard I doubted it would alter his combat efficacy at all.
I didn't bother responding to Jeremy, since he would just repeat one of three lines that I already knew by heart. Instead, I headed down to the market in the center of town. The first stall was the fish merchant. He only sold salmon, cod, tuna, and herring, despite the fact that none of those fish could possibly live in the tiny fishing hole next to the hamlet and there was no ocean anywhere in the entire region. Also, the fish he sold came in cans, which seemed like a bit more of a red flag in hindsight.
"Howdy, stranger! Come check out my catch of the day! And don't forget, if you catch anything interesting, bring it here and I'll prep it up for ya!" The animatronic fishmonger said. His name was Finley, but I only knew that because of the nametag on his shirt, none of his lines involved giving that information.
I looked out at the fishing hole outside of town. I knew from experience that the pool of liquid was not water, but a highly corrosive acid that had been dyed blue, and would kill a person if they fell in. The fish-shaped bath toys floating on and just under the surface were corroded from the chemical, and were far slipperier than they had any right to be. Suffice to say I would not be partaking in the fishing minigame this time around.
Instead of engaging with the merchant, I followed the mechanical track he was mounted on back to the hut that was designated as his house, and walked inside. I remembered stowing something here... yes, there it was, a jar of gunpowder. It had been a pain in the backside to make, given that almost everything in this place seemed to be made of plastic and metal, and most things seemed to reset whenever I... "respawned", so I was glad to see it was still there.
My plan was going to be risky, so I needed to get it exactly right, and I needed to make sure I knew that it had been done, so I quickly went to the house that had my name on it. Well, the name of the character I was meant to represent, nobody in this region called me by my actual name. A hologram of a woman stood in the entry hall.
"Good morning Donnie! Won't you lie down and tell your dear mother all about your adventure?" she asked. Dolores was obviously not my real mother, but she did sort of "anchor" my memories, so it was good to visit her every so often. I lay down on the couch next to the hologram, which shifted to the sitting position. There were no in-between frames, so Dolores just seemed to snap into being seated, but I was familiar enough with that by now.
I felt a hum under my back, then got back up and headed for the door.
"Have fun on your adventure, sweetie!" Dolores said as I left.
Before leaving the hamlet, I walked back over to Jeremy, and tore the halberd off him, along with a segment of his arm (it was all part of the same piece, I couldn't really detach it without doing that). Then I strolled over to the inn, where the only fireplace in the region was roaring. I lit the tip of the cardboard halberd on fire and began jogging out of town and down the road.
I passed the valley of trials without trouble, having finished the area several times previous lives. The forest of wonders was no more problematic, though it did take a bit of time just due to the confusing layout. Getting past the monster cavern was slightly trickier due to carrying a lit torch, but I'd died enough times to know how to get through without trouble. Hell, none of the holographic monsters or mechanical boobytraps even went off this time.
Finally, I reached the segment I was looking for. A segment of actual solid stone wall among all the artificial material in the region. Knocking on the wall with my knuckles, I tracked down the spot I needed, a metal plate with open space behind it that had been decorated to look like the rest of the wall. I carefully sprinkled some black powder on the ground around the base of the metal plate and dumped out the jar on one side of it, then stepped back and tossed the burning halberd at the pile of explosive dust and ducked behind a rock as it went off.
As I had hoped, the metal plate was actually a metal door, and had been knocked off its hinges by the blast. I quickly ran up and pried it the rest of the way open, then sprinted into the tiled halls behind it. There was a room labelled "maintenance" just past the door, full of animatronic parts and cardboard cutouts. Some of them were in good repair, some were damaged (often in familiar ways, since I was probably the one that damaged them). I simply passed through the room and passed into a different hallway.
I ran into a young man wearing a lab coat as I ran down the hall. His name was Paul, but he had been an intern last I'd seen him and he now seemed to be a full-fledged employee. A look of recognition struck his face when he saw me.
"Dr. Corbin? Where on earth have you been?" he asked.
"Let's just say that we may need to take that whole 'clone adventure theme park' idea back to the drawing board," I said. "And if I ever see that rat-fink Franklin again, I'm going to wring his skinny neck."

Social media posts suck the life out of me, so I apologize for the delay
May 20, 2023 we climbed the north face of Mt Hood. Our guides called it the “North Face Direct”. I haven’t been able to find a route description based on that name on the Internet, but a shitty MS Paint drawing of the route is attached. The area is to left of the “gullies” and admittedly, the drawn route is just a guess once I get through the “chute” above and to left of Eliot Glacier.
Left camp at 3:30. It did not freeze overnight, so the snow was slushy, and we post holed a lot. Some minor rock fall as it warmed up, some small slow-motion wet avalanches. Summited at 11AM. Descended down Cooper Spur.
I have only been climbing 4 years (and I am 64), and we take 2 trips a year. Took up ice climbing a couple years ago. We have been to 20,000 ft in Ecuador, and wanted to try something more technical. This was a very challenging and rewarding climb. We had the whole north face to ourselves.
Four days later we climbed West Rim Crater (we flew out from Iowa, and wanted to get more bang for our buck). Very different climb. Stayed at Timberline lodge. The snow froze overnight and made conditions way better than on the north face. We took the Snow Cat to above the Palmer lift, dropped our skis, summited by 6AM, descended/skied down, and were eating huckleberry pancakes at Huckleberry Inn by 11:00AM.
Always love to visit Oregon!

[←Chapter 58] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 60→]
The hinterlands of Karkos were beautiful, in their own way. Efrain of course preferred the older, denser forests, not least because they tended to be far more interesting magically, but he couldn’t deny the charm of the low rolling hills. It didn’t take the company long before they found a road cutting between sunken fields and began to file two by two toward the distant mountains.
The earth was soft with the first rains, and Efrain noted that Tykhon sunk its webbed feet into it with obvious relish. Had he been designed for wet environs, then? A ridiculous image of the large creature swimming in the blue-green waters of the Emyaka came alive. Then Efrain the mount’s perfect willingness to throw itself into the waterfall on the giant’s spine.
The soldiers, having started the trek earlier in the morning, looked grey with fatigue. At the sight of the fields and mountains however, they’d perked up, and now were chatting casually as they made their way between the sparse trees. Efrain came to ride alongside the Niethe captain as they picked their way across.
“End’s almost in sight,” Efrain said.
“Almost,” she agreed, “though I have no fondness for the mud, so I hope that we get onto proper cobbles soon enough.”
“There should be a proper road or two, somewhere around here,” he said, “we’re still among the outer farms.”
To his surprise, it did not take them very long at all to find the broader, well trodden dirt of a road. Two hundred years of expansion and development had clearly widened the reach of Karkos. They were making a fine clip then on the dry, well packed earth, weaving between flooded patties of still-growing rice and great expanses of mature green-yellow rye. Peasants, labouring in the fields, often looked up and shaded their eyes, gawking at the sudden appearance of the soldiers. A few ran toward houses in the distance, even as some soldiers professed loudly that they were here in peace.
“War’s left a scar on this place?” Efrain said, not recalling any major conflict.
“They were spared the worst of it, unlike Ennen’Alla,” said Damafelce, “they fell in line quickly after that. Most of their conflicts are with pirates out to the south and east. They keep them well suppressed to please Angorrah, and to keep their own money flowing.”
“That must earn them some token good will at least,” Efrain said, craning his head to try and get a look at the city, and failing.
“Indeed,” Damafelce snorted, gripping the reins of her horse tighter.
Efrain decided not to press the point any further, but rather shift to the subject.
“So then, where are you going to house all these men? I hardly think any one inn will suffice for a hundred… hundred and fifty? Men.”
“They’ll make do somehow. We are knights of Angorrah after all,” she said, gesturing to a standard, “most of the cowards will come to heel. Those who aren’t know better than to try a row.”
“You sound like you have an axe to grind with them,” Efrain said dryly.
“It’s in the past,” Damafelce said, “I’m simply laying out the situation, as I see it.”
“Fair enough,” Efrain said, “have you ever been on a boat before?”
“Many times. How do you think I got here?” she said, giving him an odd look.
Efrain decided to leave off as they marched past a thicket of what looked like hazel. The woman had given him enough to mull over, even if she didn’t realise it. It was the better part of noon when they reached the inner farms, marked by a transition to smaller, well maintained fields, and larger buildings.
They broke for a brief lunch, there on the road, not bothering to clear a spot, or some to even dismount. Efrain, atop Tykhon, was approached by Naia, chewing on some kind of meat ration.
“Well, lord Efrain,” he said, swallowing the last of it, “we’re finally here, at little quicker than I’d hoped. I suppose old memories stirred me on.”
“Uh-huh,” Efrain said, neglecting to mention that this was a narrowing of the window they’d agreed upon the previous day.
“In any case, we are to meet with the leaders of the city. Riders I sent just returned bearing word. I would like you to be there as my guest, if you wouldn’t mind,” he said.
“Of course,” Efrain said, not bothering to second guess the commander.
“Damafelce,” he said, with a feigned pitiable expression on his face, “I regret to inform you that you’ll be in charge of supervising the soldiers and their accommodations.”
“You’re joking?” Damafelce said, looking unimpressed, “First you leave me in charge of a siege, now I’m cleaning their mess?”
“Precisely.”“If you’re not careful, I’m going to become general before you,” she said, holding up her hand in what was presumably some obscene gesture.
“Not if you don’t learn to delegate,” he said with a laugh, before turning back and trotting toward the front of the line.
“Does that mean I can shove my work off to others like you?” she called, before rolling her eyes.
“I see you two get along well,” Efrain said.
“If by ‘get along’, you mean he leaves me all the boring work,” she snorted.
“Well, it’s always useful to have someone to blame if things go wrong,” Efrain said, “the church’s been doing it to me for the past five centuries.”
That got him a laugh from Damafelce, and a promise to be more mindful of the less fortunate like himself. Within ten minutes, they were riding along, and soon came to a copse before a cobble bridge spanning a shallow river. Beyond lay a proper road, cut stones marching off into the distance. Still a distance away, they could see the outer wall of Karkos, wrapped in sea mists. Naia wheeled on his horse, and made for the troops to gather before him.
“All of you are here as representatives of Angorrah and the church,” he said, “keep to yourselves, answer questions when asked, and no insults, no drunkenness, and for Lost’s sake, if I hear that you start a quarrel with our hosts, I’ll have you pilloried in the central square for the whole city to stone you. Understood?”
A broad yell of assent rose among the assembled tropes, and they set off across the bridge and cobbles. The sun had arced low over the sky, and was starting to paint the mountains in red and purple when they finally arrived, following the curve of the road. It pushed through the farmlands and curled around and out towards the sea, where large beaches of white sand met the turquoise waters. It then moved back and wound its way up a sequence of small but steep hills, before coming untoward the main gate.
The city had indeed greatly increased in size since Efrain had last been to the peninsula. This outerwall was not only relatively new, but twice the height of the old one and made of stone, rather than log palisades. On top, guards armed with bows and dressed in colourful yellow and black surcoats came to point and speak about the newcomers.
The heavy gate was lifted, a drawbridge set across what looked to be a natural river that coursed just outside the walls. At the forefront, there was a company of guards in plate and mail, bearing the standards of several of the great houses of the city, for no single one claimed dominion over the defence. The captain of the guard, a reedy man whose thickness of face was disguised by a considerable moustache, rode forward to herald himself and the city's defence.
“We have been expecting you, commander Naia,” he said, “the council of the wise would meet you within the city. We have prepared appropriate accommodation for your numbers, outside the city walls.”
Naia nodded, clearly having expected it.
“In that case, I will dispatch a contingent of soldiers to escort their men to their lodgings on the beach, if you don’t mind,” said the captain, gesturing for a couple men to come forward.
“Of course,” Naia said, “Captain, this is my right-hand, Damafelce. She’ll be overseeing the soldiers while I am in the city. Any complaints of their behaviour, should I not be available, should be addressed to her, and she will deal with the offenders.”
The captain nodded, not showing any surprise that a Niethe woman was of such import. Damafelce quickly smothered any sourness on her face at the prospect, and wheeled around, leading the bulk of the soldiers away. What was left were Efrain, the two paladins and their charges in a wagon, Naia and two of his captains.
“You’ll have to dismount and leave your creatures here,” said the captain, gesturing to a series of stonework stalls, seemingly built into the hill, “they will be well kept, I assure you. Only…”
His eyes fell upon Tykhon, who regarded him impassively.
“I must apologise, for I have never seen such a beast,” he said.
“Oh, he’ll be harmless,” Efrain said, sliding off his back, “though I don’t think the stables would be the best place for him.”
There was a trick with animals, particularly intelligent ones and magical attuned creatures, of which Tykhon was both. They might not be able to understand such abstract concepts like ‘north’, but direction was on the table, if articulated properly. Efrain used the memory of the white sand beaches to the south, and like lightning, Tykhon shot away, off the road and down toward the beach. The captain was left, mouth open as he watched the mount disappear down the hill.
“I’ve sent him to the beach,” Efrain said, “I think he’ll enjoy it there. No harm will come of it, unless someone should unwisely try to hunt him, though he’ll probably rather run than fight.”
“I’ll inform the patrols,” said the man, looking with not inconsiderable concern at the beaches in the distance.
“Well,” Naia said, also disgruntled at the haste of Tykhon, “now that that’s sorted, we’d best not keep the committee waiting. After you captain.”
The guard dismounted, and they passed by spearmen guarding the open gate. What they emerged out to was a cacophony - multistory buildings of brick and timber were packed closely together, open shop fronts bustling with people. All parted as the guard cleared a path, and stared at the visitors that walked behind them. The ringing of blacksmith hammers, the hawking of street-merchants and artisans, the strumming of various instruments and songs of the bubbly Karkosian language carried between the warm light of paper lanterns.
Soon, the street curved downwards to match the slope of the hill, the shops becoming a series of stepped counters and balconies. Out before them stretched the expanse of the cities, the buildings becoming larger, more colourful and more ornate as they approached the intersection with the sea and rose up the side of the mountains. In the centre of the street was a great wooden platform on wheels, and attached to a great series of pulleys and ropes passing along wooden posts, packed with crates and boxes. Behind it was a tower, with stacks of stones threaded through with the rope, presumably a counterweight of some kind.
Past that was the Karkos that Efrain remembered, built directly on three shallow lagoons that were sheltered somewhat from storms.
Still, even that was changed, the buildings, mostly stepped pyramids of stone, and the canals that surrounded them were now monstrously large, dripping with plants and vibrant stonework. High bridges and suspended streets of wood clung to their side, allowing boat traffic to cross beneath. He could even see, between the gaps of tall, multi storey towers built on top of the surrounding ziggurats, the Grand Square, where he’d often gone for recitations of poetry and plays. There was a familiar warm feeling in his heart - it was good to be back, even with such changes as they were.
“The committee wishes to meet you in the grand square,” said the captain, “it is some distance to the canal. I understand you have been travelling for some days now, we may take down the lift if you so wish.”
The assembled group agreed that they would be grateful for the chance to rest their legs, and they were ushered onto the platform. At the captain’s signal, they began to gain speed with the rest of the goods, controlled only through the tautness of the thick ropes. Efrain examined the cables as the wheels turned, sending them down inexorably to the end of the road, where it sank below the blue waters.
As they trundled down, Naia and the city captain began speaking in hushed Karkosian. Efrain leaned back against a stack of crates, pretending not to understand the conversation like Naia’s captains, who were visibly annoyed.
“Who is waiting for us?” asked Naia, “it’s been some years since I’ve been in the city.”
“The selected houses for the committee range commander,” said the captain, “most are of established blood, though there is an upstart. The houses of Perlago, Bramste, Frane, have elected to send representatives. Asssenda is an upstart house.”
“Only four?” said Naia, his brow furrowing, “what has happened? Why aren’t the other great houses there?”
“With due respect,” said the commander, “your message was rushed. Some of the house leaders might not have even received it. There are some that didn’t show for… other reasons, but they are largely consumed with the preparations for the Festival, commander.”
“Festival? What-” Naia said, before slapping his head, “by the gods. I completely forgot.”
The commander nodded, as Efrain tried to place his memory of the various festivals and feasts of Karkos. There were certainly several that fell broadly in the summer, but this had to be-
Oh.
“Oh dear,” said Naia, “this will… I had plans to commission a ship, perhaps several for the soldiers. We couldn’t hope to find one for days.”
“It’s unlikely, commander,” said the captain, “your timing was unfortunate.”
“If I had known, I wouldn’t have rushed,” laughed Naia, “the gods are intent on mischief it would seem.”
The captain of the guard laughed with him and agreed.
“Well, I suppose that is something we’ll have to discuss with the representatives,” said Naia, “after our trials, perhaps it would be good for the men to enjoy the Festival.”
“Of course, commander,” said the captain impassively as they continued down the hill.
There was scant conversation to eavesdrop upon as they made their way into the entrance of the launch, where the cobbles disappeared under the water. There were several, magnificently accented boats waiting for them, each piloted by large, powerful, and equally colourful polemen.
Efrain hopped from the platform’s edge onto the waiting boat, hardly disturbing it compared to Naia’s captain who clambered in after him. They pushed off the launch and turned into the canal, a corridor of intricately carved stone and multi coloured lanterns. As they picked up speed, Efrain noted the banners that were set out, large, thick, and, like everything else, intensely coloured. People on the bridges and walkways above stopped to turn and point at the travellers.
“Your name poleman?” asked Efrain in the formal Karkosian manner.
To his credit, the man betrayed only the slightest surprise that Efrain could speak the language fluently.
“Aman. How may I be of service?” he responded as he sent them forwards with another long stroke.
“I don’t mean to disturb your work, but I would like to know, if you have any knowledge, of course, of some of the city’s happenings.” Efrain said, happy that he could easily recall some of the more obtuse grammar, “It’s been some years since I’ve been in the city.”
“Of course,” said Aman, “that is wise. The houses come together for the festival, putting aside their quarrels. Only…”
Efrain waited patiently as they turned past another bridge, and moved to the south.
“There are two outstanding houses,” he said, looking around as if someone might be listening, “Madros and Carim, their dispute is most grievous.”
“Give it to me in brief, young man,” said Efrain, listening intently.
It seemed that two, he was assured, most venerable, sons of the two houses had gotten into a dispute that culminated in violence. The Madros son, first son of the family no less, had gotten a dire putrefaction that threatened his life. This naturally led to accusations of poisoned blades and dishonourable schemes, and an already fraught situation escalated. Apparently, the second son of Carim had hidden somewhere in the city, while the rest of the noble houses tried to calm the Madros.
“Still, the eldest houses have chosen not to intervene,” he said.
“Any particular reason why?” said Efrain.
“It’s not for this humble servant to know, but rumours run abound. Nothing certain,” said the man, keeping his eyes fixed on manoeuvring through the canals.
“I see, thank you,” said Efrain as they were propelled through an opening in a building that cut over the river. Servants were speaking in hushed tones as they passed the interior dock, loading barrels onto waiting boats. Finally, they emerged onto the grand square, a massive flat piece of interlocking masonry edged with bridges and steps. They were in the late stages of preparation, long sequences of covered tables and stalls spanned with ribbons and banners.
At the centre of the square there was a party of richly dressed individuals of various descriptions. All were heralded by bannermen carrying the standards of their houses. Efrain noted that it was mostly younger scions or older, presumably distant and less important members of the families that were represented.
As Naia’s party was assembled, they were introduced to the representatives of Karkos. Amicio Bramste, Veniz Peralgo, Audientore Frane, Keiren Assendra. The captain of the city guard, as well as the master of the docks were there, and one pudgy, bespectacled man, dressed in black. Unable to contain his excitement, the man rushed forward, stared directly at Efrain, and loudly proclaimed:
“Mentor Avencia, of the Belacore Academy! What a wonder and an honour to meet you, master Efrain!”
Naia stared at Efrain, the assembled nobles stared at Efrain, the paladins stared at him, the children, the master of the docks and the captain of the city guard. All looking as Efrain simply took the man’s hand.
‘Academy’? Efrain thoughts raced, ‘Belacore’ academy? What does that have to do with m- oh. Oh no.
[←Chapter 58] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 60→]

While Fort Stockton, Texas, might not be the first place that springs to mind when considering hidden jewels, this little community offers plenty of pleasant surprises that are just waiting to be explored. Fort Stockton, located in West Texas, is home to a fascinating history, outdoor activities, one-of-a-kind sights, and delectable regional food that are easily accessible from our hotel in Fort Stockton. Join us to discover its undiscovered wonders which are must-see on your trip. History of Fort Stockton
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Conclusion
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First, Next
Chun shuffled in her chair, she was only a mortal boar-kin, why did she have the misfortune of taking the hidden master up to his room. Now this Mei of the Iron Paw sect had cornered her in the Inn when she arrived for the morning shift.
Mei shoveled rice into her mouth from an oversized bowl as she spoke, “Tell me exactly what happened last night when you led the hidden master to his room. I want to know everything you know about him.”
Again Chun shuffled, “I actually met him before that, he was alone at the table near the exit. It was odd because everyone tries to move to the kang to keep warm, but this man simply sat at his table as though the cold meant nothing to him.”
Mei stopped eating, “He was here while we were eating? What was he doing?” She demanded.Chun recoiled a bit, “He just seemed to be watching everyone, including your table. When I brought him his food and drink I warned him to stop staring or he would draw someone’s wrath upon him.”
Mei nodded, if she couldn’t sense him, she obviously couldn’t expect a mere mortal to know what they were dealing with. “What did he do after that?”
Chun took a deep breath, “He seemed to just sit there and eat his meal until the warning bell sounded. When you and your sisters left he asked me how much he owed, dropped coins on the table and left the inn. I didn’t see him again until after the battle.”
Mei sat back and thought, “He paid for his meal you say?”
Chun nodded, “He didn’t even complain or haggle, he simply dropped the coins as if they were nothing and walked out. Huang has told me not to accept payment if he asks when he comes down this morning.”
Mei nodded, “A wise choice, now that he is no longer hidden he may decide to toy with you, it is best for you to play along.”
Chun looked around the inn as customers started to come in for breakfast, it was still early, the sun had barely breached the horizon.
Mei sighed, “Bring me another bowl of porridge, I will await the hidden master, his name was Cain, correct.”
Chun stood quickly before bowing, “He stated his name was Victor Cane, Mistress Mei.”
Mei sat back in her chair and shoo’ed the boar-kin mortal away. Her sisters had taken shifts to ensure from a distance the hidden master had not left. More information on this male was needed, and she expected to gather it for her sect.
She would already be renown for the twenty two instinctual cultivators slain here yesterday, particularly as she had only lost 7 sisters. Three to one was not a feat to be trifled with when it came to instinctuals. The problem was, at least ten of those were from this hidden master that she knew next to nothing about.
She would await him here, and eat her fill to replace her spent energies.
_________________________
DAILY MAINTENANCE COMPLETE
ALL SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL
SUBSPACE LINK : NO CONNECTION
RADIO LINK : NO CONNECTION
POWER CORE : 100%
CAPACITOR CORE : 100%
TIME 0700 - ACTIVATE WAKE UP ALARM
Victor slowly regained consciousness after sleeping like the dead. New gene-mod updates, transmat accident, small firefight with ware-wolves and one cute tiger lady had really kicked his ass. “Computer, turn off that damn alarm.”
He opened his helmet as he sat up from the horrible bed. He had never seen a mirror as poorly made as the one in front of him, maybe it was tarnished bronze? He recalled his scout drones and sent them to storage before reaching in and pulling out his overnight bag.
After washing his face in the not-too-clean sink and brushing his teeth he made his way to the chamber pot by the bed. After relieving himself he decided breakfast was in order. He put his overnight bag into dimensional storage and made his way downstairs to the inn proper.
As he slowly walked down the stairs, hoping the wood could hold his three hundred kilo weight a second time he noticed Mei sitting at the same table as the night before. As usual, the patrons around them gave her a wide berth. Well, judging by the way Mei’s eyes never left him he assumed she wanted to talk to him.
“Hello Mei, how are you doing this morning? He asked innocently enough.
She looked at him stone faced, “I spent most of the night burying my sect sisters, then caught a few hours sleep while we waited for you to wake up.” She stated as she crossed her arms.
Well, this was more new information, evidently there was some camaraderie within the sects. He wasn’t sure of that until now. Evidently cultivators do care for each other, if they care little or nothing for the average peasant.
Victor decided it was best to seem the aloof master rather than the bumbling fool he obviously was and change course, “Chun, could you bring me whatever you have for breakfast, oh, and some more of that wine!”
Mei’s eyes flared at Victor, if looks could kill he’d be scorched right now, “Who are you? I just reminded you that 7 of my sect sisters were buried last night and you call to a mortal for food?”
Victor turned back to her, his officer face was back on again, “Is this your first war Mei?”
Mei sat back and batted her cup back and forth in her hands as she looked down at the table, “Yes, while I’m older than some of my sisters, war hasn’t visited the Celestial Empire in decades, if not centuries.”
Victor reached out a hand and placed it over one of Mei’s. She froze at his touch, a male cultivator touched her, a lowly cultivator of the second tier. “This is not mine, I have lost count of the small fire-fights and battles I’ve been a part of of my last twenty years. Or the soldiers I have lost.”
Mei blinked, fire-fights, like what he did last night was considered small, she had never seen creatures burn like that, wait, did he say the last twenty years. She cleared her throat, “Um, please excuse this lower cultivators curiosity, but you have been in battles for the last twenty years? You look no older than I at twenty eight seasons, how is that possible?”
Victor removed his hand as Chun brought him a huge portion of porridge, rice, pork sausage, eggs and wine. He looked up to her as she bowed down, “Thank you Chun, you are dismissed. Yeah, I don’t age like other people. Actually, I don’t age at all.”
Chun turned on her heels and nearly sprinted back to the kitchen. She had gotten a small taste of Mei’s killing intent when she glared at the hidden master, while she nearly dropped to her knees, the master didn’t even seem to notice.
Victor popped one of the sausages into his mouth as he watched Mei nearly drop her jaw in astonishment. Victor pointed to his plate, “Would you like one? They are quite good.”
Mei shook her head, “You’re an immortal and you thanked that peasant? Do you care nothing for face?”
Victor looked back as he chewed, “Chun? Yeah, she works hard, least I can do is thank her for her efforts. Someone should do something about the turnips though, they are horrible.”
Mei crossed her arms, “I cannot tell if you are toying with me or not. You have an Imperial accent, one that requires training from birth, you fight as if you are a divinity, and you show appreciation to mortals?”
Victor shrugged, “I’m not a complicated man, I’m just passing through the Empire looking for a way home. Speaking of which, you mentioned the Eternal Empress, would you say she is the most powerful person in the land?”
Mei uncrossed her arms before leaning in, “You mean to tell me you don’t know about the Eternal Empress yet you are hundreds of li into her Empire?”
Victor mixed his eggs and sausage into his rice bowl and then looked despairingly down at the chop sticks. He reached into his dimensional storage and produced a spoon, which to Mei seemed to appear from nowhere and scooped out a portion before taking a bite and pointing at Mei with his spoon. “Well, it’s not grits, but it will do in a pinch. No, I don’t know about the Empress, that’s why I’m asking you, if anyone knows how to get me home it might be your Eternal Empress, so how do I get an audience with her?”
Mei sat back in her chair once more, holding the hand Victor had recently touched under the table, “That might be easier than you think, but you may not like the outcome. I sent ahead to my sect leader one town over and she will be using a calling stone to reach the Imperial Palace, I’m sure they will have questions about the foreigner who is also a hidden master.”
Victor stopped eating and sat back in his own chair, “Ah, you say I may not like the outcome, why is that?”
Mei shrugged, if he didn’t know how things worked she didn’t see the harm in telling him. “The Eternal Empress has been said to be a bit temperamental, particularly to foreigners entering her lands. Yes, she is said to be the wisest in the land, and many millennia old. Her magic defends this land and its people.”
Victor took another slow bite with his spoon, “So she may know how to get me home, or she may try to have me killed. No way to know until I meet her eh?”
Mei nodded before stopping, “Wait, you said she may try to have you killed, not that she would have you killed or kill you.”
Victor grinned at her, “Well, I’m not about to make it easy on her if she tries. Listen, I’ve got some things to get done, so in the mean time, here.” He then presented her with a silver bauble with a red gem in the center that dropped from nothingness into his hand. “Take this with you, and give it to the Empress, it will allow her to communicate with me no matter where I go.”
Mei stared at the piece of exquisite jewelry, it would be worth many fortunes over in the Celestial city, and he just handed it to her? “Wait, I can’t just let you leave, you are a foreigner in our lands, it is my duty to keep a watchful eye on you.”
Victor walked over to the bar where Huang looked nervous and dropped a large pile of copper coins before walking to the door.
Mei stood, kicking the chair behind her and stomped towards the exit only to see the hidden master take flight again on wings of fire. This time he did not stop at the bell tower, but continued to fly towards the mountains. “Damn that man to the divinities she shouted as even she lost sight of him in the clouds.”
______________________
“Activate camouflage mode.” Victor spoke into his helmet as his armor took on the the colors surrounding him. It wouldn’t fool anyone close up, but from the distance he was from the village now he doubted even the cultivators could make him out from the sky.
With any luck, Mei would get that communicator back to the Empress, who might know how to get him home. In the mean time though, he reached into his dimensional storage and brought out a satellite probe. He had used the full capacitor load on his jump jets and was still eighteen thousand meters up, more than enough for the probe to reach geosynchronous orbit.
After launching it he looked for a good patch of ground to land. He found one at the base of a mountain range, it even came with a mountain stream. Firing his retro-rockets he landed soft enough and sat on a particularly smooth boulder.
His heads up display showed him his probe had reached geosynchronous orbit and was gathering data. “Well, this is going to take some time.” He thought to himself as he ordered his AI to split his armor. To anyone else watching this would have probably been horrifying as the scout armor appeared to break apart and separate into two halves joined together by a hinge.
Victor took a sniff of himself and groaned, “Good thing the suit is sealed, being in that thing for almost two days and I am ripe!” He thought as he found a nice place in the woods to relieve himself in a way he couldn’t with his armor on.
After that he removed the boxers he wore in his scout armor and placed them on the boulder and stepped across the pebbled beach into the stream. He instantly regretted it, gene-mods or not, a mountain stream in the fall is still cold! After washing as best he could he walked back to his armor, reached into his dimensional storage, produced a towel and fresh boxers and dried off while sunning himself on his rock.
His AI sounded in his inner ear. IMMEDIATE AREA SURVEY COMPLETE.
He kicked off his boulder and climbed back into his now somewhat aired out armor and checked out the results. A mountain in this range was nearly perfect for his needs, abundant metal and mineral deposits, and a valley with a small but very useful petroleum reserve, as well as some natural gas deposits, although those were less than 6% on the scan.
Victor checked that his jump jets capacitor were sufficiently charged and set his jump vector for a somewhat flat ridge three quarters of the way up the mountain, just below the snow caps. Four minutes later, he landed, staring at a nearly sheer cliff face that raised up the mountain another 20 meters above him.
He reached into dimensional storage and retrieved a mining laser. These were a bit expensive, but necessary to start any good mining operation. Mining drones were not good at starting a mining shaft. Oh, it could be done, but it was usually done slowly and crudely. Best to set the aperture to four meters square and crank up the power.
The laser had a magazine of some miracle crystal that put out about ten seconds of power before it was exhausted and was then discarded. He squeezed the trigger and watched as the sheer rock face before him seemed to literally disintegrate as the shaft began to deepen to a depth of about four meters in.
The laser chimed and ejected the magazine as the barrel smoked from the immense heat it had just endured. Victor carefully sat down the mining laser and opened his dimensional storage once more to bring out four mining drones, two forge spiders, and four scout drones.
He set the mining drones to work digging into the mine shaft with gusto the seven dwarfs could never match. Then turned his attention to the scout drones, he sent them off in a patrol pattern to watch over the mountain for any sign of trespassers. Then he remembered the satellite and set it to watch over his piece of paradise as well.
He also thought about retracing his helmet but the temperature outside was just above freezing and decided it best to have a seat and wait a bit for the mining drones to get some work done. On a whim he checked his database, yup, there were 86 different versions of Snow White, might as well pick the Disney one from antiquity, he’d never seen it anyways.
One hour and twenty three minutes later the film was over, and his mining drones and forge spiders had deepened the shaft another five meters. A small pile of ingots had been dropped off by the spiders, the air around them giving off a small mirage effect from the heat they radiated.
"Computer, have the nano-forge produce proper steel doors, tracts, motors, and security to cover the dimensions of this shaft." The AI took measurements, produced the adjusted prints, sent them to Victor for approval, then started crafting the necessary materials. Then Victor’s stomach growled.
Sighing, he went over to the pile of fresh ingots, some iron, some copper, others tin and silver.
Retracing his helm he found that although the temperature hovered around 2 degrees celsius, near the ingots it was quite a bit warmer, if you didn’t mind the metallic smell, which it didn’t. Reaching into dimensional storage he found his ration stash, while he had hoped this would be what he would use to fashion himself a life after he left the Imperial Guard, there was a chance he would never get home.
“Resources are there to be used.” He quoted to himself as he took a bite from a bar he hoped wasn’t made from corpo-starch, but as it had no ingredient list he had no way of knowing. Finishing his ration bar, the densely caloric and extremely nutrient bar would play havoc with his bowels later. He noted getting living quarters up soon would be a really good idea.
He slid his helm back into place, “Computer, have the mining drones level off and begin to dig a cavern to fit the small hab module in dimensional storage, have them oversize it by a meter on all sides, I want some clearance when I bring this out of storage.”
The AI complied and he watched his mini-map on his hud as the drones turned ninety degrees and started opening up a new cavern. A few minutes later, the computer chimed to let him know the doors were complete and ready for installation.
A good thing he had his scout armor, these doors were five centimeters thick and three meters high and wide. They weighed almost four tons a piece, which was right at the limit of what his power armor was capable of. Pulling out the necessary tools he installed the tracts above and below, then setup the motor controls before pulling the doors out of storage and setting them into the tracks.
After testing and adjustment he was satisfied that not only were they very secure, they even seemed to blend in well with the sheer cliff wall. “Not a bad job if I do say so myself.” Victor said as he began setting up production orders for ventilation, water drainage, and lighting with his AI to start construction while he waited for the chamber to be completed.
A full six hours later and several movies of varying degrees of watchfulness, his computer chimed letting him know the new cavern was complete and the mining drones were continuing their downward path towards the more dense metal reserves deeper in the mountain.
He stood, stretched his back, and ordered the massive steel doors to open, walking the gently sloping shaft down the ten meters to the new cavern. The walls were smooth and the entrance seemed just about right for the habitats air lock door to fit flush with the mining shaft.
A few minutes later and a loud bang as the habitat module appeared from dimensional space and then found that gravity existed again, slamming it the few centimeters to the floor of the cavern. “Oops!” Victor said to himself hoping he didn’t break anything.
Nothing appeared to be damaged, after all, these habs were basically mini-bunkers designed for anything from death worlds to deep space mining. Fifteen meters on each side and four meters high, it gave him an excellent respite from the world around him. Indoor plumbing, central heating and air, entertainment center, kitchen, bath, and a bed.
He entered the habitat and sealed the airlock to the mine shaft. The internal temperature of the hab read twenty one degrees celsius, so he shed his armor, placed it in the airlock rack and connected it to the habitat’s power and computer system before opening the inner airlock.
“Home sweet home, at least until I find a way back." Then he thought about it, would the Guard blame him for the transmat accident? Sure he lied about having anything on him in dimensional storage but he knew guys who smuggled things around all the time and something like this never happened to them. "Hope I don’t look at a court martial if I ever to get back home for going AWOL or some such bullshit.” He muttered as he headed for the shower. That mountain stream was freezing!
______________________
“What to you mean he flew away?” Shihan looked at Mei from across her desk.
Mei shifted uncomfortably in the rickety chair that sat across from the elder cultivator in front of her. The room was also cold, and Shihan had set the desk low so that she could sit on the kang and keep warm while others had to endure. “He said he had important matters to attend to and flew away on wings of fire.”
Shihan shook her head, “Lazy eggs, all of you. We lost seven Iron Paw warriors in your battle three days ago, and probably would have lost you all if not for this hidden master. I have reached out to the the sect mistress who will be informing the royal court at this weeks meeting with the Empress. Do you have anything else to report?”
Mei nodded and set the jeweled bauble on the desk in front of the elder sect leader, “The hidden master, Victor Cane presented me with this. He stated to give it to the Empress and they would be able to communicate no matter the distance.”
The older lady stared at the priceless looking item before slowly looking back up to Mei, “I feel no chi coming from this item, how could it possibly do what he says. Even our best calling stones can barely reach three hundred li, how could this tiny broach communicate anywhere?”
Mei had thought long on this, “I do not know mistress, however, I do know that not once did I feel any chi from this hidden master either. I believe it is his cultivation technique, as he must use near perfect yang energy to power his creations. Can you detect pure yang, head mistress?”
Shihan shook her head, “I cannot my student, for that is only in the realm of the highest levels of male cultivation, and to my knowledge, no male alive can use pure yang energy, hence why they are inherently weaker as they cultivate some yang and some yin, their meridians are out of balance.”
Mei nodded, this was the same conclusion she had reached as well, “I watched him create multiple items from thin air, some for weapons, one was a simple soup spoon, we know most men use their cultivation for crafting, perhaps this hidden master is so adept at it he uses pure yang energy that we simply cannot sense.”
Shihan’s eyes widened with the implications, “That means he would appear as just a normal mortal until he decided to act, just as he did in your report.” She then looked down at the silver jeweled broach that sat on the desk. “The craftsmanship of this object is superb, its gem is absolutely flawless, I have never seen silversmithing so pure. Were this not to be sent to the Empress its sale would keep the Iron Paw clans coffers full for seasons on end.”
She sighed, “No, we cannot abandon our duty, I will send this item to the Empress herself, and as this Victor Cane had entrusted you with it, I feel that you should be the one to deliver it to her yourself.”
Mei gasped before bowing, “I will not fail you head mistress.”
Shihan sat back on her cushions enjoying the warmth of the kang under her, “See to it that you do not, for the Empress does not take kindly to fools who waste her time.”

Fourth and final part; back to the usual post schedule from tomorrow.
Series Page - Read 10 weeks ahead on Patreon - Read the story so far on Royal Road
*
Chapter Twelve - The Blacksmith's Boy (Part Four)
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‘Should’ve listened, stray.’
The first blow caught Cal across the cheek, whipping his head back with a crack. Light exploded around the edges of his eyes, and his vi-sion spun. The second took him under the chin, hard as a hammer, and his legs vanished from under him. His world tumbled into a crash of scattered chairs and tables, and half-empty mugs went clattering across the floor, throwing foam into the smoky air like sea-spray.
‘Shit-’
‘Watch it, runt-’
‘By the Makers, what are you-’
The other villagers were surging to their feet, roused from their bickering, but not fast enough. Cal somehow managed to regain his feet in time to find Petr advancing on him, fists bunched and face like thun-der. Behind him, Carel was clawing at his arms, trying to hold him back, but he shrugged her off, then swatted Lokk to one side as the slender innkeep’s son tried to bar his path, sending him skittering into a row of chairs. Cal’s head was spinning, and his eyes blurred.
‘I’m not done with you, you little shit.’ Petr growled, closing the ground between them with big angry strides. Cal swayed, dazed. His body was on fire. He couldn’t move. The youth’s heavy fist slammed into his gut, and he doubled over, air rushing out of his chest in a choked gasp. Someone managed to get between them then. Three someones, hauling Petr back. Cal crumpled to his knees, retching emp-tily onto the ale-splattered floor.
‘That’s enough, boy!’
‘Cunt had it coming-’
‘Enough, Petr! He’s ‘ad enough.’
Cal blinked up at them groggily, spittle trailing from his aching mouth. Forley and Godry had Petr by one arm, the miners by the other, struggling to hold him back. Albin hadn’t moved. He was sitting by the fire where he had been, a crooked smile on his lips. Cal squinted, eyes reeling, mouth full of bile.
‘The fuck is going on?’
The Innkeep was standing by the bar, a fresh cask under one arm, rosy cheeks suddenly hard. Petr stopped struggling, shrugging himself out of the patrons’ grasp.
‘Little cunt tried to hit me.’ He told the Innkeep with a snort. He jabbed a finger at Cal where he knelt on the floor, gasping mutely for air. Lokk appeared at his side, helping him unsteadily to his feet. The slender youth was looking a little shaken, and there was a small, red cut at his brow. ‘Had it coming!’
Cal’s breath was coming back, and the room around him was steady-ing. He saw Carel standing a little back from them, hair scattered mess-ily over her wet cheeks. As he looked, she caught his eye for a moment, then looked away, face hidden in the shadows of her sandy hair. The pail of water was on its side nearby, steaming as its contents spread slowly across the sopping floor.
‘I don’t give a damn if he bedded your mother!’ The Innkeep re-plied. He took one look at Carel and set down the cask on the bar, step-ping in close enough for the big youth to smell the pipe-smoke on his breath. ‘There’ll be no fighting, in my inn.’
Petr flinched in spite of himself, taking half a step back.
‘Boy’s right, Goran.’ Albin added, scowling. ‘Saw the whole thing. Little runt started-’
‘That’s enough!’ The Innkeep cut him short, turning an angry eye on the butcher. ‘Unless you want to tell the blacksmith whose son’s been beating his hand?’
Albin hesitated at that, and his ruddy cheeks lost a little of their col-our.
‘Thought not.’ The Innkeep went on. ‘Now, get out. And take your fool son with you.’
Albin was out of his seat in an instant, all thoughts of the Blacksmith forgotten.
‘Alb, wait-’
The butcher shoved Forley aside. He stopped just a few inches from the Innkeep, glaring down at the smaller man with hard eyes. Even from where he was, Cal could smell the ale on his breath, but the Inn-keep didn’t flinch. The fire stirred in the sudden quiet, and the villagers stood in a moment of perfect stillness, taut as a lute-string. Godry and Forley shared a worried look. Priss had appeared beside Carel and put an arm around her slumped shoulders. Petr was glaring at Cal, dark eyes boring holes into his forehead, but Cal didn’t even notice. His head was hanging limply over his chest, and if Lokk hadn’t been hold-ing him, he was sure his legs would’ve buckled. His head spun, and his skin burned. Neither the butcher nor the Innkeep had moved an inch.
‘Come on, boy.’ Albin said at last, eyes not leaving the Innkeep for a moment. ‘Let’s go.’
‘But da-’
‘I said let’s go.’
He held still for a moment longer, then took his son by the arm and led him roughly away towards the door.
‘You’ll pay double next time.’ The Innkeep called out to him as he reached the door. ‘Both of you.’
For a moment it looked as if Albin would turn back. Then he scowled, spat on the floor, and shoved his son out into the night beyond the door, slamming it shut behind them.
There was a collective sigh of relief from the remaining patrons. The Innkeep watched the door for a few moments, then began unhurriedly scooping up discarded mugs from the ale-splashed floor.
‘I think that’s enough for one evening.’ He said quietly as he worked, not looking up. Godry, Forley and the miners looked at each other.
‘Bar’s a mess, Goran. We’ll lend a hand.’ Forley offered.
‘We’ll manage.’ The Innkeep told him, still not looking up. The vil-lagers exchanged another look, then they made for the door without a word. Priss stepped back from Carel, giving her shoulder a squeeze, and joined her husband as the door swung closed behind them. Lokk didn’t say a word. Carel still hadn’t lifted her eyes. Cal shrugged him-self away from his friend’s arm, taking a step towards her.
‘Carel, I-’
The Innkeep straightened suddenly, hurling one of the mugs across the room. It smashed into the closed door, shattering across the thresh-old with a crash.
‘Don’t you dare, boy.’ He growled, whirling on him, soft eyes hard as steel, fidgeting hands steady. ‘You’ve had a fall tonight. Must’a knocked your head. Only reason you aren’t catching another beating.’
Cal looked back at him groggily for a moment. His wits were return-ing, and the ache was spreading outwards from his jaw and cheek in throbbing waves. His shredded arms and legs were afire with shifting lines of pain, and his back ground at his ribs like a blade. Stupid. What was he thinking? Running from shadows in the dark. Brawling in front of half the village. What would the Blacksmith say? This was not their agreement. This was not their word. Blood rushed into his cheeks, hot with shame, and he lowered his eyes.
‘Go home, boy.’
‘But, I-’
‘I said go home, boy.’ The Innkeep stared back at him with cold eyes. ‘You can’t stay here.’
Cal hesitated. He looked at Lokk, but his friend would not meet his eye. He nodded slowly, straightening as best he could, and made un-steadily for the door. He looked back from the threshold, but nothing had stirred. A mess of upturned tables and chairs, scattered mugs and soaking floor boards. The three figures that stood frozen amongst it all seemed suddenly very different to Cal, their names new and unfamiliar. No one looked up as he opened the door. He hesitated, skin bloody and numb, jaw aching like winter, haggard, dazed, and spared one final glance for Carel, standing alone beside the bar, a dozen words racing on his silent tongue. Then he turned and went out alone into the dark, and the cold took him as its own.
*
It was quiet outside the Nest, and the streets were empty. The storm had moved off to blow itself out over the lowlands in the west, and only the faintest whir of it carried on the air between the little stone build-ings of Rindon, the fevered mumbling of weary hills. Cal walked for a time, going nowhere in particular, dry eyes moving listlessly over the stones, picking out the familiar notches of the rock, the knowing wink-ing of shuttered fires. The pathways were wet beneath his boots, pud-dled and gleaming in the silver stain of the moon. No one to be seen. Not Petr, waiting for him behind some dark corner, nor the other pa-trons, staggering home arm in arm. No faceless shadows leering at him from empty doorways, chasing him into the night. All was as it should be. After all, why wouldn’t it be? The thought filled him with a kind of bemused, frivolous amusement. He knew this place. Why should it not be as it always was?
After a time, he found himself at the eastern edge of the village, looking down over the little cluster of thatching and its glinting win-dows. It was cold, he knew, but he did not feel it. The bloody skin be-neath his ragged clothes tingled numbly. Even his jaw seemed to have stopped aching. He looked down, for no reason in particular, and saw that the dirt at his feet was churned and dented as though by some fall-ing beast, and little flecks of red blinked back at him in the moonlight. He realised that this must have been where he had fallen. Where his legs had failed and the world had spun like sand in ocean spray. Where the shadows had chased him from the hillside, swarming after him as wolves after their prey. He realised he was frowning. His back was to the trees, but he felt no fear. What was there to fear? After all, it was just a dream, and there is nothing to fear from dreams.
The trees were before him. Had they not been behind? The dark pil-lars stretched away up the slope, and the great black shadow of the Teeth held the horizon beyond. The murmur of the distant storm moved through the branches, shifting softly. Nothing else stirred.
He realised he was walking. The trees were all around, watching him. The earth was soft and wet beneath his feet. He looked down as he went, picking out the footprints in the loam. Something had come this way. Bootprints, scrambling, sprinting, falling. He had come this way.
So he walked, much as he had before, aiming without aim, and the trees whispered their same whispers. Words he had known since he first came here, all those years ago. Slowly, he went, until his eyes grew accustomed to the dimness, to the silver luminescence of the moon. Footprints. Bootprints. Running, scrambling. Falling.
Alone.
He lingered a while, just to be sure. But there was no mistake. There had been no men in the trees. No shadows to flee from. No one else had come this way. His head ached. He could not have… there must have been…
But there was nothing. Nothing but untouched earth, smooth as fresh wax. Just a dream. And there is nothing to fear from dreams.
So he came down out of the trees, and made for home along well-worn paths, watching for shadows he knew were not there.

Fourth and final part; back to the usual post schedule from tomorrow.
Previous Chapter - Read 10 weeks ahead on Patreon - Read the story so far on Royal Road
*
Chapter Twelve - The Blacksmith's Boy (Part Four)
​
‘Should’ve listened, stray.’
The first blow caught Cal across the cheek, whipping his head back with a crack. Light exploded around the edges of his eyes, and his vision spun. The second took him under the chin, hard as a hammer, and his legs vanished from under him. His world tumbled into a crash of scattered chairs and tables, and half-empty mugs went clattering across the floor, throwing foam into the smoky air like sea-spray.
‘Shit-’
‘Watch it, runt-’
‘By the Makers, what are you-’
The other villagers were surging to their feet, roused from their bickering, but not fast enough. Cal somehow managed to regain his feet in time to find Petr advancing on him, fists bunched and face like thunder. Behind him, Carel was clawing at his arms, trying to hold him back, but he shrugged her off, then swatted Lokk to one side as the slender innkeep’s son tried to bar his path, sending him skittering into a row of chairs. Cal’s head was spinning, and his eyes blurred.
‘I’m not done with you, you little shit.’ Petr growled, closing the ground between them with big angry strides. Cal swayed, dazed. His body was on fire. He couldn’t move. The youth’s heavy fist slammed into his gut, and he doubled over, air rushing out of his chest in a choked gasp. Someone managed to get between them then. Three someones, hauling Petr back. Cal crumpled to his knees, retching emptily onto the ale-splattered floor.
‘That’s enough, boy!’
‘Cunt had it coming-’
‘Enough, Petr! He’s ‘ad enough.’
Cal blinked up at them groggily, spittle trailing from his aching mouth. Forley and Godry had Petr by one arm, the miners by the other, struggling to hold him back. Albin hadn’t moved. He was sitting by the fire where he had been, a crooked smile on his lips. Cal squinted, eyes reeling, mouth full of bile.
‘The fuck is going on?’
The Innkeep was standing by the bar, a fresh cask under one arm, rosy cheeks suddenly hard. Petr stopped struggling, shrugging himself out of the patrons’ grasp.
‘Little cunt tried to hit me.’ He told the Innkeep with a snort. He jabbed a finger at Cal where he knelt on the floor, gasping mutely for air. Lokk appeared at his side, helping him unsteadily to his feet. The slender youth was looking a little shaken, and there was a small, red cut at his brow. ‘Had it coming!’
Cal’s breath was coming back, and the room around him was steadying. He saw Carel standing a little back from them, hair scattered messily over her wet cheeks. As he looked, she caught his eye for a moment, then looked away, face hidden in the shadows of her sandy hair. The pail of water was on its side nearby, steaming as its contents spread slowly across the sopping floor.
‘I don’t give a damn if he bedded your mother!’ The Innkeep replied. He took one look at Carel and set down the cask on the bar, stepping in close enough for the big youth to smell the pipe-smoke on his breath. ‘There’ll be no fighting, in my inn*.*’
Petr flinched in spite of himself, taking half a step back.
‘Boy’s right, Goran.’ Albin added, scowling. ‘Saw the whole thing. Little runt started-’
‘That’s enough!’ The Innkeep cut him short, turning an angry eye on the butcher. ‘Unless you want to tell the blacksmith whose son’s been beating his hand?’
Albin hesitated at that, and his ruddy cheeks lost a little of their colour.
‘Thought not.’ The Innkeep went on. ‘Now, get out. And take your fool son with you.’
Albin was out of his seat in an instant, all thoughts of the Blacksmith forgotten.
‘Alb, wait-’
The butcher shoved Forley aside. He stopped just a few inches from the Innkeep, glaring down at the smaller man with hard eyes. Even from where he was, Cal could smell the ale on his breath, but the Innkeep didn’t flinch. The fire stirred in the sudden quiet, and the villagers stood in a moment of perfect stillness, taut as a lute-string. Godry and Forley shared a worried look. Priss had appeared beside Carel and put an arm around her slumped shoulders. Petr was glaring at Cal, dark eyes boring holes into his forehead, but Cal didn’t even notice. His head was hanging limply over his chest, and if Lokk hadn’t been holding him, he was sure his legs would’ve buckled. His head spun, and his skin burned. Neither the butcher nor the Innkeep had moved an inch.
‘Come on, boy.’ Albin said at last, eyes not leaving the Innkeep for a moment. ‘Let’s go.’
‘But da-’
‘I said let’s go.’
He held still for a moment longer, then took his son by the arm and led him roughly away towards the door.
‘You’ll pay double next time.’ The Innkeep called out to him as he reached the door. ‘Both of you.’
For a moment it looked as if Albin would turn back. Then he scowled, spat on the floor, and shoved his son out into the night beyond the door, slamming it shut behind them.
There was a collective sigh of relief from the remaining patrons. The Innkeep watched the door for a few moments, then began unhurriedly scooping up discarded mugs from the ale-splashed floor.
‘I think that’s enough for one evening.’ He said quietly as he worked, not looking up. Godry, Forley and the miners looked at each other.
‘Bar’s a mess, Goran. We’ll lend a hand.’ Forley offered.
‘We’ll manage.’ The Innkeep told him, still not looking up. The villagers exchanged another look, then they made for the door without a word. Priss stepped back from Carel, giving her shoulder a squeeze, and joined her husband as the door swung closed behind them. Lokk didn’t say a word. Carel still hadn’t lifted her eyes. Cal shrugged himself away from his friend’s arm, taking a step towards her.
‘Carel, I-’
The Innkeep straightened suddenly, hurling one of the mugs across the room. It smashed into the closed door, shattering across the threshold with a crash.
‘Don’t you dare, boy.’ He growled, whirling on him, soft eyes hard as steel, fidgeting hands steady. ‘You’ve had a fall tonight. Must’a knocked your head. Only reason you aren’t catching another beating.’
Cal looked back at him groggily for a moment. His wits were returning, and the ache was spreading outwards from his jaw and cheek in throbbing waves. His shredded arms and legs were afire with shifting lines of pain, and his back ground at his ribs like a blade. Stupid. What was he thinking? Running from shadows in the dark. Brawling in front of half the village. What would the Blacksmith say? This was not their agreement. This was not their word. Blood rushed into his cheeks, hot with shame, and he lowered his eyes.
‘Go home, boy.’
‘But, I-’
‘I said go home, boy.’ The Innkeep stared back at him with cold eyes. ‘You can’t stay here.’
Cal hesitated. He looked at Lokk, but his friend would not meet his eye. He nodded slowly, straightening as best he could, and made unsteadily for the door. He looked back from the threshold, but nothing had stirred. A mess of upturned tables and chairs, scattered mugs and soaking floor boards. The three figures that stood frozen amongst it all seemed suddenly very different to Cal, their names new and unfamiliar. No one looked up as he opened the door. He hesitated, skin bloody and numb, jaw aching like winter, haggard, dazed, and spared one final glance for Carel, standing alone beside the bar, a dozen words racing on his silent tongue. Then he turned and went out alone into the dark, and the cold took him as its own.
*
It was quiet outside the Nest, and the streets were empty. The storm had moved off to blow itself out over the lowlands in the west, and only the faintest whir of it carried on the air between the little stone buildings of Rindon, the fevered mumbling of weary hills. Cal walked for a time, going nowhere in particular, dry eyes moving listlessly over the stones, picking out the familiar notches of the rock, the knowing winking of shuttered fires. The pathways were wet beneath his boots, puddled and gleaming in the silver stain of the moon. No one to be seen. Not Petr, waiting for him behind some dark corner, nor the other patrons, staggering home arm in arm. No faceless shadows leering at him from empty doorways, chasing him into the night. All was as it should be. After all, why wouldn’t it be? The thought filled him with a kind of bemused, frivolous amusement. He knew this place. Why should it not be as it always was?
After a time, he found himself at the eastern edge of the village, looking down over the little cluster of thatching and its glinting windows. It was cold, he knew, but he did not feel it. The bloody skin beneath his ragged clothes tingled numbly. Even his jaw seemed to have stopped aching. He looked down, for no reason in particular, and saw that the dirt at his feet was churned and dented as though by some falling beast, and little flecks of red blinked back at him in the moonlight. He realised that this must have been where he had fallen. Where his legs had failed and the world had spun like sand in ocean spray. Where the shadows had chased him from the hillside, swarming after him as wolves after their prey. He realised he was frowning. His back was to the trees, but he felt no fear. What was there to fear? After all, it was just a dream, and there is nothing to fear from dreams.
The trees were before him. Had they not been behind? The dark pillars stretched away up the slope, and the great black shadow of the Teeth held the horizon beyond. The murmur of the distant storm moved through the branches, shifting softly. Nothing else stirred.
He realised he was walking. The trees were all around, watching him. The earth was soft and wet beneath his feet. He looked down as he went, picking out the footprints in the loam. Something had come this way. Bootprints, scrambling, sprinting, falling. He had come this way.
So he walked, much as he had before, aiming without aim, and the trees whispered their same whispers. Words he had known since he first came here, all those years ago. Slowly, he went, until his eyes grew accustomed to the dimness, to the silver luminescence of the moon. Footprints. Bootprints. Running, scrambling. Falling.
Alone.
He lingered a while, just to be sure. But there was no mistake. There had been no men in the trees. No shadows to flee from. No one else had come this way. His head ached. He could not have… there must have been…
But there was nothing. Nothing but untouched earth, smooth as fresh wax. Just a dream. And there is nothing to fear from dreams.
So he came down out of the trees, and made for home along well-worn paths, watching for shadows he knew were not there.

Longer than the kingdom of Rahymir existed, there was this one stone. A large boulder, standing on a beautiful field of flowers, in which a sword was stuck. It had sunk into the stone up to the hilt, not a speck of rust on the finely crafted handle. So the legend was born that whoever pulled the sword out of the stone would become the ruler of the land.
Many tried their hand at it, but especially the orphans from the home that was built not far from the stone. The children made fun of climbing on the stone for a bet and whoever touched the hilt first was king or queen of the bunch for the day. Only one boy never joined in. Standing a little apart, he always watched the rock closely, as if it would reveal its secrets if only he were watched closely enough. Then, early one morning, inspiration struck him. He stole a hammer and two chisels from the small workshop of the home and went to work.
From then on he hammered at the stone from sunrise to sunset. At the beginning he was mocked, teased and laughed at. But he continued to chisel. Without ceasing, in all weathers. Soon his work became better known and people from all over came to see the determined young man. But he did not want to know anything about them. He refused any help. The man wanted to be king all by himself, no matter how long it took. He only accepted the coins thrown to him.
Thus the years passed. The onlookers grew tired of the hustle and bustle and moved on. The man soon ran out of money for good tools and so he worked the stone again with the simplest tools. The years passed and now he was just the village fool, once again mocked, teased and laughed at by children. But the old man did not give up.
And so it came to pass that a gathered, breathless crowd watched him as he knocked the last chunk of stone from the blade. A murmur went through the crowd as the ancient runes on the hilt began to glow bluish. The old man picked up the sword with trembling hands - and dropped it, eyes wide. An outcry went through the crowd as the sword again drove itself into the ground up to the hilt, tip first, but again away from all greedy hands. No one paid any more attention to the old man.
Some time later, the old man, looking for a place to stay, entered an inn. Despite all the long time, someone recognized him. It was a former friend, now an old man himself, who had lived with him in the orphanage a long time ago. After a few mugs of beer at his expense, he dared to ask, knowing full well about the strange event in that field, what had happened.
And the old man answered, his voice rough from the years of silence: "When I picked it up, I became regent of the lands. But I was not a wise, experienced man. Only a thirteen-year-old who chased a childish dream for sixty years."

For starters, let me just say like all of you, I was Über glad to see DD2 be officially revealed. Dark Arisen still tops my 5 fav games of all time so to say I’m hype for the sequel is an understatement. The announcement has me so fired up I went back and have been playing the first game again and it still holds up yet did notice some minor areas the sequel could improve. I can’t wait to see what the team can do on current gen! I do have a wishlist of things I’d hope to see at launch or a future update though, and here they are…
•Expanded character creator -not to say it didn’t already have a good creator, even for a ps3 era game but seeing those new models in the trailer I cannot wait to make my Arisen and Pawn again! Even tho there was only a few base selections you could pick, I’m still impressed you could make your character skinny/curvy/large/muscular without having the proportions looking off like in some games. Would enjoy an in-depth sliders system as apposed to the lesser triangle distributer . I hope they push the sliders to the limit(like how some games still kinda have small breasts/thighs even when on MAX slider) -Would also like them to allow both male and female presenting characters to be topless(OKAY HEAR ME OUT)as there’s nothing wrong with female breasts. If they have issues showing nipples(which they shouldn’t) they can do what they already did for some enemies and just not show them. All the harpies in the game were topples and just had smooth breasts and that blue feathered monster in the new trailer was the same. Would be a nice step forward in normalizing women’s bodies, it’s 2023 we still shouldn’t be having this debate
•Change vocations/ Gear on the fly -It is a bit of an inconvenience in the first game having to go to an inn anytime you want to change vocations. I think it would be a nice QoL improvement having gear and class sets you can easily equip and swap to while outside of battle. If there’s still the carry weight system, you could probably only hold a few gear sets anyways so Of course you can still go to an inn and change there as well!
•No genderlocked items/gear - I feel this is a simple enough request. For example, Was a little upset only female presenting characters could wear “silk lingerie” yet male presenting characters could not. -Also how some gear would completely change it’s look depending on the gender the character was. Like how “leather chest plate” on males was about what you’d expect whereas on females it was just a leather bra.. Or if they do still have it similar to that at least let us toggle between the two variations??? -Also, hope sexy and cool gear to make a return with no restrictions on who can wear it!!
•A lovely, much appreciated Glamor system - this could be the real use of the inns ❤️‍🔥 Allowing us to wear one item and having it appear as another ✅ can go to an in and apply glamours to gear you’re using. Could even make it so you’re only able to when an item has reached upgrade level 3 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ This is another QoL they could implement in a later update if it’s not in the base game!!
•Vocations can equip all their weapons at once - Basically, if I’m playing as magic archer, I should be able to have my daggers/bow/staff equipped all at once without having to swap in the inventory. Just a simple toggle between D-pad to go from bow to staff would do WONDERS
•Pawns can use special vocations -maybe this would be too OP but since it’s single player only I really don’t see the issue. Would love to have had my pawn rock Mystic Knight. Would love to see that change but could live if they kept pawns to basic vocations
Not much else comes to mind, I’m sure the map will be a bit bigger this time around. Which as long as there’s fun things to do in the overworked I think a smaller, richer map would continue to fit the gameplay well. I’m sure will see more smaller settlements around the map They already stated even more enemy types will be in the game which is exciting. Seeing the scary Gorgon and all smiles sphinx/harpy queen? In the trailer already let’s me know we’ll be eating good on that front! Honestly I’m super hyped for this game and even if some of these aren’t added I’ll still enjoy the game very much. Plus the improvements made from the base game to dragons dogma let me know they were willing to allow healthy feedback and update the game for the better! Anything you all would like to see at the launch of the game or in a future update? Anyway, Hope to summon your pawns from across the rift whenever the game releases, fellow Arisen!!