So changing the oils on a 520d. Get to the sump plug and as I get the socket on there’s a spark. Move I. To get a better view to make sure I’m not touching anything else and bigger spark.
Im definitely on the right bolt, why would it be sparking and should I disconnect the batter and carry on?

Hey there. We're in England.
My partner and I left a residential tenancy December last year - the place was electrically dangerous. We lived in the property for 2-3 years. The property had many electrical faults and the electrics blew every couple of months to some problem or another (One time the fridge they left us started tripping fuses, another time a random socket upstairs was blowing fuses, at one point we realised the whole house was on a single circuit and had to be fully rewired. Shower started blowing fuses at one point.) We were working on finding another place to live at the time and when we had no heating during that big cold snap and some wires behind a blanking plate started sparking badly enough to melt the connector blocks, we called it quits. We sent an email advising we were leaving 12/12/22 and would give vacant possession as soon as possible.
We only ever dealt with the lettings agent - never with the landlord. Lettings agent did their best to deny the electrics were in a bad way. When we vacated the house, it was a difficult time and the house was left messy and definitely in need of an end of tenancy clean. Nothing was damaged by us. Some light sockets and plugs didn't work, but that was a long standing issue that we raised with the agent several times. Some furniture and black bags would need removing. We informed the agency of this and offered them our full deposit (£825) to cover it. We just wanted out. The house wasn't damaged, nothing unsavoury or unsafe like food was left as we cleared and cleaned as much as we could despite being homeless and crashing at work.
The agent on behalf of the tenant tried to claim about 2 grand for various works, including a brand new bathroom. We disputed this and offered the full deposit and no more. We sent quotes to full house cleans and removals that fell under the deposit value to prove what we were prepared to pay was reasonable. This was denied and they didn't budge on their demands. They took a post-tenancy walkthrough video on 16/01/23 where it shows the house needs a clean, but doesn't show any damage at all. We went back and forth until halfway through February wherein I fell unwell and told them that unless they were willing to accept our offer or to meaningfully negotiate, to please stop contacting us. They made a claim a few days after we gave vacant possession for the full deposit (Which is protected with the DPS) which we disputed pending an agreement that it would be accepted as full payment. Nothing happened and it's now been sat waiting for a court order to be released for 6 months.
Fast forward to not hearing anything from the agent or the landlord since February, my partner and I get a county claim through the post from the landlord (not the agent) claiming £3298 plus £205 court fees. They claim we didn't vacate on the agreed upon date as per a notice period, the property was left in a mess which resulted in a rat infestation and damage was caused to some fixtures resulting in work costing £1998. No further details are given about any claim. They also claim that due to the works required, they lost 3 "about 3 weeks of rent" at a value of £1300 (For reference, we paid £825 a month in rent) as the property was not ready for the next tenant to move in. They also claim interest from the period of 12/12/2022 to 01/06/23 at a daily rate of £123.00 (I'm guessing they got their daily rate wrong, because yikes.)
The claim has the name of who we assume is the landlord and their address. We didn't have any contact details, so we reached out to the old agency and asked them to pass our email address on to the landlord so they could contact us and we could discuss. Heard nothing back, chased the next day and the agency confirmed that the landlord instructed the agency to not give out any contact details.
As far as we understand it, the property was left in a state that definitely did need a good clean and removing of some furniture and black bags, but at no point were rats ever mentioned and the claims they're making are at the moment entirely unsubstantiated. We have almost no details to go on. I'm also pretty sure that a county court claim is supposed to follow pre-court guidance on the Gov website including two "warnings" about intention to claim in court as well as both parties having an obligation to work together to prevent the issue getting to court or at-least reduce the scope of the issue. Fully aware and happy to pay for reasonable fees despite the landlord being an ass, but don't want to pay a ludicrous amount for no reason.
Current plan is to talk to citizens advice, send a letter via recorded delivery asking for contact details to the physical address located on the form and talk to the few solicitors who seem to represent tenants in disputes on Monday. Happy to receive any further advice.
Thanks!

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Without that horrendous bat flapping around and causing a mess for me, I'm now able to focus all of my efforts on bringing down the blinded bear colossus. It is unfortunate that I lost too many owls in the aerial battle, and that Alexa is too exhausted to help out herself, as that means I won't have any reinforcements available from them coming to Jackie’s aid any time soon. That being said, I know just the fish who might be able to make an early return in their stead.
Since they’ve been resting since the start of the battle, Selene and Hecate have been able to recuperate a bit of their mana pools already. Considering that I’m near 100% confident that it doesn’t matter how much the big bear regenerates if it can’t breathe, plus the fact that it doesn’t take too much mana just to hold some water in place, there’s not much reason to keep them benched much longer. Somehow though, I doubt it’s going to be quite that easy to take the bear colossus down. So why don’t we improve the chances of success a bit with all of this free manna I find myself currently swimming in?
Thanks to the sheer quantity of invaders Deepholm is swarming me in, I’ve got more mana to make use of than ever before, and I’d be a fool not to put it to good use. The steep requirement of having to pay 4 times the mana as any of my other scions to upgrade them is hardly an issue at this moment, so I begin the process of pouring my power into my fish. All the while, I keep an eye trained on the battle at hand, waiting for whatever it is the bear will try next. Deepholm scions don’t just meekly turn over and accept their defeat after all.
While I’m only halfway through providing upgrades to my fish scions, my caution is proven entirely warranted as the bear scion bellows its frustration and rage at the top of its lungs. Unable to proceed along a straight path due to Jackie’s constant interference, the colossus hunkers down for a moment in my lake and covers its head with its paws. Then, as soon as its eyes have had a chance to regenerate once more, it peeks out and gets a lock on my location before Jackie inevitably puts more arrows through the freshly grown eyes. This time it hardly pays the attack any mind, reaching down to its flank with those huge claws and ripping free a sizable chunk of its own flesh. With a great heave, the bear scion sent the chunk sailing through the air where it crashed with a meaty splat against the trunk of my tree.
First of all, …gross. Secondly, that bear has surprisingly good aim to be able to nail the part of my tree trunk that is perfectly in line with where my core is. Lastly, heh-heh, I’m in danger. Unable to use its sight, and no longer able to rely on the bat scion for its sonic guidance, the bear has resorted to using smell to guide its way. And what better trail to follow with one’s strong sense of smell than the stench of one’s own blood and viscera? Without a moment of hesitation, the bear scion is back on its feet, and charging forward once more.
This time, there’s truly nothing we can do to stop its advance, the bear’s nose is too big to fully destroy the bear’s sense of smell, even with Jackie’s arrows desperately blasting pieces off of it. With a tremor that I can feel throughout the entire island, the bear scion slams headfirst into the high cliffs, which only serves to daze the beast for but a moment before it starts awkwardly clambering upwards. I curse vehemently, at this rate the colossus will reach my tree before I’m done with upgrading the twins. I can cut it short and make the current upgrade the last one, but it will still take a minute or so for the twins to become accustomed to their strengthened bodies.
It doesn’t take long for the bear’s claws to scramble against the top of the cliffs, digging in for extra purchase, shortly followed thereafter by the beast’s snarling and arrow-riddled cranium. The twins have only just finished absorbing the mana from the latest upgrade, they’re not going to make it in time. It is at that moment that my saviors made their gallant entry into the fray. Cutting a swathe through the remaining army of normal invaders charged not any of my scions, but the brave surviving members of my defensive forces. Having abandoned their defensive chokepoint in the entrance cave, a combined throng of brawler bunnies and leopards led the way as my froglings and flechette-pines provided cover fire. Beside me, I can feel the consternation roll off of Giorno as he tries to keep some semblance of organization in place amidst an attack that he had most certainly not ordered.
Though our tactics have done a great deal in leveling the playing field in the battle between denizens, there are still a lot of enemies left to deal with, and this attack will only open us up to many more unnecessary casualties. Underneath his annoyed countenance however, I do detect a hint of pride in their reckless attempts to buy me more time. An attempt that certainly pays its dividends.
With a series of tremendous leaps, the brawler bunnies and leopard forces bound up to the limbs of the bear scion and begin hacking away at it with sharp claws and stone swords. They scale up the beast, slashing at every joint and every digit along the way. The colossus roars in pain and slips from the cliffside as the tendons in each limb are systematically severed time and time again. But this moment of victory comes at far too steep a cost.
When the bear scion crashes back into the lake, its sheer mass flattens dozens of my brave denizens at a time. From there it thrashes about, crushing some more of my stalwart defenders and sending others flying through the air. Not wasting the opportunity, my denizens lead the enemy scion over to the remnants of the invader army, where both sides become equally devastated by the beast’s angry flailing. I try to call my denizens back, telling them to retreat, that they’d done enough already. When that failed, I resorted to using some of my mana to make it a direct order. Retreat already! The twins are on the way, swimming around the south side of the island as we speak. There’s no need for any more of you to die!
I can feel the mana drain away as the orders take hold, but then I got a unanimous response back through Alexa’s network. Every single one of them started the retreat and then volunteered themselves to be a rearguard to help cover the escape. Even though technically they were following through with my order, not a single denizen so much as turned around or took a single step backward. They were loopholing me! Those damnable, brave, fools were refusing to leave until my scions could arrive. Who the heck taught you bastards to test the limits of the rules and look for ways to bend them in your favor anyhow!?
It took less than a minute for my twins to arrive. But it took even less time for the bear colossus to finish with its rampage. Now the only living combatants faced each other over a lake stained to the same red as the bear scion’s eyes. As a healer, Selene has seen more than her fair share of nasty injuries, as well as plenty of corpses from my previous encounters with Deepholm’s invaders. But even still, all that experience could not have prepared her for the sight of the slaughter before her. All the violent thrashing had thoroughly frothed the water of the lake, but rather than help hide the bodies below with the white foam it only served to accentuate them by clinging to whatever pieces remained above water.
It left my poor fish heartbroken. Disgust and despair raged inside her alongside a powerful wave of guilt at not recovering fast enough to be able to come to their aid in time. I know, sweetie, I know. But those denizens out there? They bought us enough time to stop any more atrocities from happening. They bet everything on you two and Jackie, and now it’s time to make sure we don’t waste a single death. All that anguish and sorrow you’re feeling? I need you to use it. Use it to hone a blade in your heart to turn against those who spread such senseless violence. It’s time to take up the second half of the saint’s job and smite down that walking calamity of a bear. And you’re not alone, Hecate is right beside you along with Jackie, and together, I know you all can do this.
Pep talk done, Hecate gives her sister a loving nuzzle under her chin before turning her hate-filled eyes to the bear scion as well. She isn’t taking kindly to all the desolation wrought by the colossus either, and is especially pissed by how upset it is making her kind-hearted twin. The white crescent moon mark on her forehead glows faintly in response to her roiling emotions, while after a few deep breaths, Selene’s black crescent moon mark does the same, her eyes now steeled in vindictive determination.
As one, they lifted a massive ball of water into the air and slammed it into the bear scion’s face, completely covering it in a matter of seconds. Meanwhile, I begin the process of funneling mana into Jackie for her own upgrades. The beast hasn’t shown any magical capacity besides its regeneration, but who knows? Maybe it has something up its sleeve that would save it from the same fate as its companion. Better safe than sorry in this case, no?
Evidently, I was correct to prepare for the backup plan, because rather than struggle against the water bubble encasing its face, the bear colossus calmly slurped the water down. The vast amounts of suction overwhelmed the amount of mana the twins could use to keep the water in place, and so it simply disappeared down the beast’s gullet with a taunting smile that seemed to say, “Thanks for the refreshing drink, I was feeling rather parched”. Not a smidge of magic was used, or needed, to easily trounce my hopes of drowning our problems away. What stood before us surely could not be described as anything but the epitome of relentless brute force, a fact which has now been hammered home rather insultingly by the defeat of my plans through lung power of all things.
With a challenging roar, the bear plowed forward while ignoring the twin’s follow up attacks. Right, plan B it is then. If we can’t suffocate him, then we’ll just have to overwhelm his regeneration with more damage than it can keep up with! In but a moment the bear scion has slammed into my cliffside and begins scaling it once more. This time, Selene and Hecate are there to stop it from making any meaningful progress, their watery slashes biting deep into flesh and disabling limbs long enough for the next attack to land. Where Hecate’s attacks strike necrosis quickly follows, seeping into the flesh until the entire mass falls off to be replaced by newly regenerated meat. Meanwhile, Selen’s strikes shine with the radiant power of her light mana, her slices digging deep through muscles, tendons, and all the way to the bones beneath.
Together they manage to keep the colossus pinned in place to the craggy wall of my island, allowing Jackie all the time she needs to hop around and unleash a torrent of her aether arrows. Rather than strike into the beast herself however, I have her shoot the cliffs themselves where she then sprouts much more massive vines than usual to grasp at the enemy scion and bind it in place. I know that the twins will run out of mana long before I can bleed this invader dry in a battle of attrition, so instead my goal here is to line Jackie up for one big shot to put an end to this colossus once and for all.
Bounding up to the top of the cliff, right over the massive head of the bear, Jackie grows the limbs of her bow out further than even its longbow form, one side planting itself firmly into the stone. With a mighty heave, she stands upon the bow’s limbs and pushes down with all the strength in her legs while hoisting up on the drawstring with her arms. A ballista-sized arrow grows into place, aimed straight down to the skull of the beast below. Through this, Jackie channels the full force of her wind aether. With my hand on her back, I speak softly to into her mind through the bond we share.
“The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Let’s do this Jackie, together!”
Through my hand I channel even more mana into Jackie than before, really packing it into her as fast as the upgrades can handle. 2 more, then 5, then 10. The power swirls around her like a maelstrom that would have left anybody else gritting their teeth to ride out the storm. But not my Jackie. As much as I pushed the mana into her, she matched me by pulling it into her control right away, weaving it into her aether flawlessly. Around the arrow tip the air began to swirl, faster and faster, like a drill turned up to turbo speeds.
This obviously did not go unnoticed by the bear scion, but it was too late for the behemoth to avoid its fate. Bound up tightly in Jackie’s vines while Selen and Hecate kept its prodigious strength locked away through their continuous onslaught. Their mana has already depleted dangerously low once again, but their combined efforts have bought us all the opportunity we need. All the enemy can do is flounder uselessly in its restraints, glaring balefully at Jackie and its impending doom.
With a boom the arrow disappears from Jackie’s bow, boring a path straight through the entire length of the bear scion and continuing deep into the ground beneath it. Jackei’s wind arrow had accelerated freely without any resistance, twisting the air in front of it out of the way and turning the space in front into a devastating drill. Meanwhile, just behind the shaft, the collapse of the resulting vacuum pushed the arrow along even faster than any projectile has ever flown before in this world.
The twisting motion of the air and the shockwaves from the collapsing vacuum bubble didn’t just serve to speed up the arrow however. Like a delayed reaction after the arrow had already sped through, I watched as a spray of blood exploded from the bear’s body, accompanied by the splash of water beneath its feet. I watched as the beast’s jaw was ripped away to hang loosely by a strip of flesh on the right side of its head. From there the arrow had traveled down into the beast’s shoulder and blazed a path all the way through its chest cavity, the aftershocks ripping the bear’s body apart and leaving its left side barely attached anymore. It looked as if some giant had cleaved its axe down the bear’s side, all the way from the shoulders to the hips.
The scion had managed to avoid an instantly fatal blow by twisting its head as far to the side as possible, but that proved to only postpone the inevitable at this point. With that much damage to the internal organs, it couldn’t hope to recover in time. We’d done it, we’d won!
Joyfully, I turned to Giorno, ready to send some mana down to Kelvin next, but what I saw froze me in my tracks. This whole battle, Giorno had been his usual calm and composed self, issuing orders and cooly commanding our forces. But now, he was trembling with a visual amount of fear, his skin blanched of all color. Thoroughly spooked, I racked my brain for anything I might have missed, but I got my answer sooner than expected.
“Kill it, kill it now! We don’t have any time, finish it before it's too late! It’s going to do something to the bear!”
Dutifully, Jackie and the twins ready their next attacks to hasten the bear scion’s demise, but something Giorno said stuck out to me. Wait, the bear is the subject of his sentence, not the object for some reason. But…, that would have to mean…
With wide eyes, I come to a dreadful realization, I never got a mana notification for the bat scion. No, no! No WAY that bastard survived, right? Feeling the sneaking march of dread closing in on my throat, I check the spot where the bat scion had crashed into my island. There it lay, wings in tatters and its chest caved in from impacting the ground, lying in a pool of its own blood. By all accounts, it appears to be dead. But that’s when I notice something off. The pool of blood is moving.
Right before my eyes, I watch as little bubbles capture air inside, and then get mixed in the blood as it slowly circulates out of the lethal wounds and then back into the bat’s body. It must have kept conscious through the crash and is now using its blood magic to just barely keep itself alive. Would that be all the bat was up to, I would have breathed a sigh of relief. But no, all around the crash were scattered splotches of fresh blood, drawn out into a foreboding set of interlocking symbols when viewed from above. The bat was casting something, using its own life as fuel. With a weak wheeze in place of a laugh, the bat scion spoke for one final time.
“Glory be to the Mountainlord. Blood Arts: Sacrifice.”
Accompanied by the ding of a new notification, I watched in horror as all the blood was forcibly wrested from the bat scion’s fresh corpse, instantly mummifying it into a dried-out husk. Then that mass of brackish liquid moved faster than it had any right to, thin tendrils shooting out from the main body quickly dragging the blob to the edge of the island. Before any of my scions could react, it had already latched onto the dying bear’s head and begun pouring itself forcibly through every orifice it could reach.
Writhing in agony at the black-red liquid shoving itself down its throat, nostrils, and eye sockets, my scions lashed into the bear’s body with as much strength as they could, but to no avail. The wounds would begin closing before their attacks could even finish, and from the bear’s torso sprouted several bloody tentacles which wrapped themselves around the dangling left side, pulling it back into place with a wet squelch. The newfound regeneration didn’t, perhaps couldn’t, stop there however. All over the colossus’s body something churned beneath its hide.
Every single muscle in the behemoth’s body squirmed as it doubled, then tripled in size, in some places rupturing the skin as it struggles to contain the roiling mass of flesh. Muscle fibers sprung from the fur like weeds sprouting out of fertile ground, twitching and flailing about looking for something to connect to, until the beast’s entire form was nothing but a bulging mass of undulating flesh vaguely shaped like a bear. From the monstrosity's head, the repaired jaw split open far wider than anything still attached to the skull should allow, revealing row after row of sharp fangs growing into place all the way down its throat.
With an unearthly screech, the monstrosity easily tore itself free of the vines and took a swipe at Jackie with its misshapen foreleg. Nobody must have told Deepholm that inflating your musculature so much is a direct reduction in flexibility however, because the blow was slow and cumbersome, allowing Jackie to easily vault backwards out of reach. But Deepholm didn’t need to care about such silly things like flexibility, or the limits of a physical body, as halfway through the swing a series of cracks could be heard as the bear monstrosity’s muscles broke every single bone in its arm, causing it to suddenly stretch out on just the muscles and ligaments, increasing in speed as the limb turned into an impromptu flesh whip tipped with giant claws.
Caught completely by surprise, Jackie could only try to form a hasty shield of roots with her life aether, but the abomination’s claws sundered it with ease, cleaving through her bow, then her arm, and finally raking across her torso. My girl hit the ground, hard, and didn’t get back up. Meanwhile, the twins were still desperately flinging any kind of attack they could think of at the bear horror, all to no avail. This affront to nature had such strong regeneration now that nothing in their repertoire could hope to leave any lasting damage.
With thundering steps, the abomination practically oozed up onto my island, all four legs standing firmly upon my territory for the first time. A few steps brought it close enough to brush up against my trunk, and then it sunk its claws deep into the bark and tore a ginormous chunk of wood free. As easily as tearing apart cardboard, Deepholm’s monstrosity began to dig its way deeper and deeper towards my sanctum, and inevitable destruction. From beside my core, a loud snap rang out as the inspector’s white-knuckle grip finally crushed the handle of her kanabo.
“Damn it all, I can’t just sit here and let this happen! I have to–”
Whatever she was about to say was cut off as she took her first step forward, weapon raised with the intent to join the fray. Instantly she was beset by floating swords made of light on all sides, not even given enough time to swear before they all plunged into her body. With a gasp Lydia fell to the floor, covered in wounds. She’d managed to use her ki to shift the trajectory of enough blades away from her vital organs, but she was still grievously wounded and wouldn’t be doing any fighting any time soon.
In what felt like no time at all, the fleshy abomination had reached the final bit of wood separating me from the outside world. With a psychic scream of determination, Leonardo charged forth, combining his life and kinetic affinities to try and brace that final barrier, but his efforts were carelessly brushed aside as the bear’s claws crashed through anyways, collapsing a pile of splinted timber down upon my peaceful crafter. From above and behind, Alexa had joined the twins in trying to drag the enemy scion back, but with barely a sliver of mana left between the three of them, they were little more than flies buzzing uselessly through the air to it.
Fully exposed to the outside world for the first time since my birth into this world, I was now face to face with the monstrosity as it raised its claws for one final strike. But oddly, all the fear and terror that had frozen me still before was utterly absent. I couldn’t even focus on the looming mountain of death in front of me, nor on the panicked shrieks of my scions as they struggled to the last. Rather, my gaze fell upon the prone form of the very first scion I had designated. My strongest defender, and the most earnest girl you would ever meet. With my focus beside her, I could tell that my brave girl was just barely hanging onto life, but she wouldn’t last long at this rate. Every shaky breath was accompanied by a wave of anguish washing over the bond.
Even without a proper physical form, I knelt beside her and gathered her up into one final embrace. I’m so sorry Jackie. The UI might call you guys scions, but truthfully you have all been a family to me, right from the start. I never had one, back in my previous life, so I know I must have messed up so many times, in so many ways. But even still, I had a blast getting to know each and every one of you, wishing for each day to stretch into infinity so I could enjoy our time together forevermore. But I’ve failed you, I’ve failed you all. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a life full of happier days, and I hope whatever comes in the next life, you can forgive me.
“You’ve been the best daughter I could have ever asked for. I love you.”
Jackie PoV
Everything hurts. My ears won’t stop ringing, and everything around me is moving in super slow motion. Through blurry eyes, I can see my arm lying just out of reach, still clutching my bow tightly, well, half of it anyways. Further away, I can see the blurry shape of the gross thing from Deepholm tearing its way through Mama’s tree. The twins and Alexa were swooping around behind it, but there was no stopping the beast anymore. Pain throbbed through my chest, my heart heavy as it slowly pumped my blood out onto the ground.
I’d failed, again. Right when it mattered most. Some huntress I’d turned out to be. Sure I was able to handle the regular invaders, but against every enemy that ever posed a serious threat, I’d been beaten every time. When I first lost to Miss Lydia, it hadn’t been so bad. Mama told me to learn from it and grow stronger for next time. I’d been useless too against those water birds on the first day. So I trained, and then I trained and I trained and I trained some more. Till the calluses on my paws were bleeding, I practiced every day.
For some reason Mama didn’t like that though, so she forced me to take breaks pretty regularly after that. At first, it felt like she didn’t have faith that my efforts would help with anything, but that feeling faded pretty quickly. She’d always have a bowl of those red fruits she calls strawberries ready for me by her core. Then when I would get settled in beside her and begin munching on the sweet fruit, she would tell me unbelievable stories about the world she remembers from her past life.
Apparently, her old world had jackalopes too, or at least stories of them. Mama says they supposedly had lightning in their veins they could move so fast. Lightning! The big flashes in the sky that make the air go boom. That stuff! The jackalopes from Mama’s world must be really amazing if they could do that. Nervously, I asked her a bit more about it, feeling rather inadequate by comparison, but she ended up talking too much about how technically lightning is in every living creature, but just really really small amounts of it? And something even more confusing about something called eel-ektons that makes it charge based on if they’re in a good mood or not?
Mama does that a lot, going off on tangents about difficult subjects for a long period of time, but even though I couldn’t understand most of it, it is nice just to sit back and listen to her speak. Eventually, she would always notice her rambling, and swap to asking me questions instead. I felt really proud when she asked me so much about my experience training with ki, and later on aether as well. She’d always thank me for my hard work, and for helping her figure out how things work in this world. It made me happy to think that Mama needed me, and that all my efforts were slowly paying off.
And it really felt like I had been improving too! I’d wrangled all the rowdy brawlers into line, and chased off that group of novices. But then that big flying scion came and knocked me out of the fight before I could even tell it was coming. Kelvin was barely a few days old and he had to handle that nasty bat all on his own! And despite all the work I put into developing my aether, I then lost to Miss Lydia again right after that. It felt like I was stuck in place, running as hard as I could but never getting anywhere with it. I did my best to hide it from Mama since she’s so perceptive, but it really hurt.
And now, even after all the faith and strength Mama poured into me, I’d still managed to let her and everybody else down. They’re all going to die, because of me. I’m not sure which is worse at this point, the pain from my injuries or the pain from my failures washing over me. I watched through bleary eyes as the gross bear tore open the deepest part of the tree, and revealed Mama’s core for all the world to see. It’d been a few weeks since our last break together, so when I saw the soft green glow of Mama’s core, it stirred up a weird mix of relief and regret in my heart. I’d missed that comforting glow, but also the only reason I could see it now is because I’d doomed it to oblivion.
Grief filled me up to the brim, and all I could do is wordlessly apologize over and over again.
To my surprise, however, I could feel her presence nearby, and that comforting warmth brushed aside my apologies to fill our bond with light instead. I don’t get it, why is she here? Why is she focusing on me, when the enemy is literally right in front of her core, staring her down? Why is she wasting her time on me when I can barely even move anymore?! And even if I could, we both know I would just let her down some more. So why, why does it feel like I’m back by her side, listening to her tell stories at length, feeling so comfy and secure?
“I……ry….J..ki”
Go on, go! Leave already and focus on someone else, maybe they have a chance to save you, to fix things. Haven’t I failed you enough? I, I can’t do anything but disappoint you. I…I can’t be like the jackalopes from your stories Mama. I’m not good enough for that. I’m sorry.
“..b..en….f…….to me……..t…….ro……sta…”
Despite shoving my weakness, my numerous defeats and doubts to the front and finally showing Mama everything I’d tried to keep hidden from her through the bond, absolutely nothing changed. If anything, the feeling of closeness only increased and that warm feeling wrapped me up even tighter, never wavering for a moment. For a moment, the ringing in my head subsided, but my eyes must still be playing tricks because I thought I could see a bunch of golden sparkles floating in the air around me, forming the vague outline of a person with her arms wrapped around me. The next words came through confidently and clearly, and finally put a name to the feeling I always felt when Mama’s attention was on me.
“I love you.”
…Why? When I’ve already let you down so many times, when you’re about to die because of me…why spend your last moments on this worthless rabbit who couldn’t save anything? The bond held no answers for me, only that same persistent warmth, refusing to relent for so much as a moment. Over in the tree, the bear monster had raised its claw into the air, readying the final strike that would take Mama away for good. A few tears slipped free from my eyes and dropped down to join the blood at my feet. Belatedly, I realized that at some point I must have stood up, but that doesn’t really matter right now.
In fact, standing there, basking in the feeling of being wrapped up in Mama’s love, it felt like a lot of things didn’t matter. My doubts, my fear of not being good enough, and the pain of being proven right. It all felt like wisps of smoke being carried away on the wind. They scattered against the constant reinforcement pouring out from the bond, powerless before it. She’d seen all of my shortcomings, witnessed every downfall, and yet this was always her response. Yellow sparks crackled through my fur, and larger arcs of energy began to flicker back and forth between the branches of the antlers on my head.
Slowly, all the world began to fall away. The ground beneath my feet, the stench of death hanging upon the wind, even the tree itself, along with the slow-motion bear scion bringing its claws down for the kill. There was just me, and there in the distance, the light of Mama’s core, calling me home like a beacon. Under her light, I remembered the simple truth that Mama has always seen and understood so much more than me, guiding me as best she could and celebrating both my success and failures alongside me. For this moment in time, all those complicated and difficult subjects stopped being important. All those times spent hoping I could measure up to the lofty heights she spoke about seemed a silly waste of time. All I had to do was stop trying to become something else. Maybe, just maybe, I was already everything that Mama could see in me, and I just hadn’t realized it yet.
I crouch down low to the ground, those strange sparks increasing in intensity, coiling inside of me like a power I never knew I had. My ears and paws were starting to char black from all the energy flowing through me, but I didn’t feel a thing. After all, none of that mattered. With a mighty leap, I left the feeling of solid earth behind. Wait for me just a little longer, ok Mama? I’m coming to your side.
Blood flash-boiled.
Flesh charred into shattered lumps of charcoal.
Bones fragmented and caved under the tremendous forces at play.
Jackie never got to experience the joy where in this, her latest challenge to a race between herself and the sound carried along through the air, the wind finally lost.
Neither did she get to see how, for the first time in its life, the bear scion’s body was lifted fully up off of the ground and flung to the side like gravity had suddenly reversed its direction.
But perhaps..., someday, there would come a time when she’s relaxing with a bowl of those delectable strawberries once more, and she’ll get to listen to Mama’s voice as she regales her with another one of her wild stories. A story where one little rabbit made all the difference in the world, and through her actions did save the day. Now wouldn’t that be nice?
​
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​
Author Notes://
Here it is, the big one! I've had this chapter in mind since before I even started writing this story. In fact, it's what made me say fuck it, I'm gonna try writing it out and see what happens. Sorry again for the long delay on this chapter, I didn't want to split it into anything smaller, so it ended up pretty long. Also, yay! First scion PoV, just like you guys wanted right? xD
I hope you enjoyed reading this part, and I'll see you all again next time for the final conclusion to the Deepholm Arc.

So I just bought a used car. I had to replace the sparkplugs.
When I first went to do it I couldn't get any bite on one of the sparkplugs. Turned out the ceramic top had shattered and some it was jammed between the nut (hexagonal) portion of the spark plug preventing my socket from getting around it. I fished out all I could 4-5 hours of poking with scissors, wooden scewers, and an unfolded wire coat hanger. Eventually I had to smash one piece that was wedged too well. This worked and I got the grip I needed to pull the spark plug out.
There was still a lot of shards on the lip around where the spark plug screws in. Most I was able to suck out (paper towel stretched over a straw with me sucking). But on pea sized piece fell into the hole.
I haven't started the car yet as I also had to replace the valve cover gasket which requires gasket maker which takes 24 hours to cure.
I want to try and get the piece out, but don't want to make things worse. How bad is this and/or does anyone have ideas on how to retrieve the piece
2006 Dodge stratus 4 cylinder

hello! I wouldn't be posting this if it wasn't my literal last resort but this car is about to make me go insane. I've owned the car for 5 years and been nice to it the whole time, keeping up with its needs.
engine: 150k ish. transmission: 72k, 2005 DE
starting about 3 months ago, randomly one day the car began to do random misfires, at the beginning it would throw a p0300 but eventually stopped doing so while progressing to get worse. to explain deeper the misfire occurs most often at idle with AC turned off. with the AC on the rpms rev to 1000 and no longer misfire near as much. the misfire sounds like a ghost cam and is completely random. other symptoms have been car will stall if put in neutral while breaking hard only happened once so far but it was getting off the highway, it will just idle down to its own death. also when revving the engine to exactly 1100-1500 rpms and letting off the gas the car will stay revving for about 2 seconds before slowly returning to idle, and when doing so the idle will bounce. also to add, the misfire intensity seems to change randomly, somedays it'll be okay and the power feels amazing, others it feels terrible and super shaky, and feels like a Honda Fit would beat my ass in a race. now to list mods and things I've tried - also if you made it this far thank you for helping!
​

• Modifications

invidia n1 catback, Megan racing test pipes
Z1 short ram intake ported upper & lower manifold, Z1 Plenum Spacer 5/16''-1/2' (verified no leaks & did proper sealing)
75mm throttle body (throttle relearn completely with all accessories off)
Build CD009 put in recently
GTR injectors & walbrol 255
Add W1 Baffled Oil Catch Can V3.3
UpRev Tune 5 maps
​

• things I've tried to fix this pain in the ass

replaced all coil packs & spark plugs
Intake leak test (pass I replaced all intake manifold gaskets as well)
Vacuum leak (pass)
Throttle body relearn (pass & done correctly)
Messed with the fuel pump & cleaned injectors fuel system is up to pressure (0.2 injector delay all running equal with AC on and off)
Tried various gas stations (running 93)
passed compression on all cylinders (170-177)
downstream o2 sensors are deleted and the tuner has disabled them upstream are fine.
cleaned all engine grounds + main terminals (14.9V cold start 14.3-14.7 warm)
visually inspected intake valves seemed okay and very clean
confirmed coil pack wires are secure
cleaned cam + crank sensor(s) and checked EVAP & PCV valve
properly cleaned + oiled the intake & cleaned the MAF sensor + swapped MAFs with a buddy just to confirm
disassembled VVT solenoids & cleaned them properly
​
I've consulted with my tuner & a Nissan master tech, and still have no clue
The last code the car ever threw was a p0011 bank 1 about a month ago, tuner looked into it and didn't see anything wrong with the fuel or timing. haven't seen any cel 1500+ miles since then.

This one was quite long. TLDR: first look at gacha, 6th class (blitz lancer) in august, breakdown of monetization and prices, breakdown of upcoming content for july and august.

Stream 8 overview

• Official launch time
• About Prereg Campaigns and Predownload
• Start Dash Campaign
• Monetization
• Update Roadmap #2
• Announcements

Official Launch Time (14:14)

The Japanese service will be available on June 14th 12:00 JST. The Regnas Store will be open after a 3 hour maintenance, or earlier, if no problems are found.

Preregistration Campaigns (15:47)

Preregistration is still ongoing on the official site. Additional rewards (alongside the dyes) were added; 10x happy firecrackers and increased rewards for the Start Dash Login Bonus.
The 10,000 retweet milestone for the Feste battle imagine, given to all players, was reached in 23 minutes. The giveaway for the gaming PC and Webmoney, and the lottery for Amazon gift cards, are ongoing until the day before launch.
Predownload has been made available through the Bandai Namco Launcher on June 6th. You can make a character ahead of time on the Benchmark Software, but not through the predownloaded official client.

Start Dash Campaign (21:03)

Six promotional campaigns starting on launch day. Details will be on the website on launch day.

1. Rookie Adventurer Curriculum (22:22)

June 14 to August 16

Start Dash Login Bonus

Daily rewards for logging in, up to 10 days. The regular Login Bonus is per-account, but this event Start Dash Login Bonus is per-character.

1. Luno 10,000 30,000
2. Battle Imagine Feste (a) set x1 (from retweet campaign)
3. Gacha ticket x1 x3
4. Dungeon-use: Kita-ale G1 / 3d x1
5. Dungeon-use: Fue-luno G1 / 3d x1
6. Resource selection box x5
7. Dungeon-use: Kita-ale G1 / 3d x1
8. Dungeon-use: Fue-luno G1 / 3d x1
9. GC x1000 x2000
10. Land Fox Tail selection box x1

Start Dash Bonus Quests (24:45)

Clear quests to get rewards.

• Clear Reikrid Tunnels (Additional Survey) 1 time: Luno 30,000
• Gather 50 times: Enemy: Kita-ale G1 / 3d x1
• Defeat 20 enemies in Dragon Claw Valley (Free Exploration): Healing Aroma G1 x5
• Defeat Pink Boar 2 times: Beginner's Ability Plug selection box x1
• Clear Rush Battle 1: Gacha ticket x5
• Ride a mount: Land Fox Ears selection box x1
• Clear Quest "Banishing Avalitia": Great Success guarantee ticket x2
• Clear Quest "Unlocking new possibilities!": Enemy: Dropdrop G2 / 30m x 1
• Clear 4 weekly quests: Class Tiger Scroll G1 x4 (gives massive exp)
• Clear quest "A new me!": Weapon 2-socket expansion ticket x1
• Use a Weapon 2-socket expansion ticket: Gem ring (green) selection box x1

Limited-time season point increase! (27:00)

Gain increased amount of season points (for use with the season pass).

• Basic Pass max obtainable points: 6,640 7,410
• Advanced & Royal pass max obtainable points: 12,040 13,700

2. Team Formation Campaign (28:32)

June 14 to July 12 Create a Team (guild) and level it up to Rank 2. All members are rewarded a Gem Ring (crimson) and Ability Plugs.

3. Connect-Coupon Support Campaign (29:57)

June 14 to July 12 Get rewards based on how many Connect Coupons you distribute. Players whose coupons are used 10+ are entered into a raffle where 100 winners will get 500 Free Rose Orbs.
A Connect Coupon is a discount code you can give to other players. They can be generated in the Regnas Store (top right) after reaching Adv. Rank 1 and clearing at least 1 daily quest. One code can be generated per account. They last for 14 days and cannot be used on yourself. Items where the coupon can be used will be indicated with a blue hexagon icon.
Player A can distribute a Connect Coupon to Players B, C, etc., which can use it for discounts in the Rose Orb Store. Player B can only use Player A's coupon code once. Player A will get BP Points based on how many people use their coupon code--they can only see they how many times it's been used, not who used it or what they bought.
BP Points can be used at the BP Point Store for various items.

4. Screenshot Contest Round 1 (34:07)

June 14 to July 12 A bulletin board for posting screenshots will be up on the site. Rules regarding image size, editing, and allowed content will be announced later.

• Grand Prize (1 winner): displayed on in-game billboards, Free Rose Orbs x5000, Dungeon-use: Kita-ale G1 / 30d x1
• Runner Up (1 winner): displayed on in-game billboards, Free Rose Orbs x2500, Dungeon-use: Kita-ale G1 / 7d x2
• Producer Award (1 winner): displayed on in-game billboards, Free Rose Orbs x1500, Dungeon-use: Kita-ale G1 / 7d x1
• Director Award (2 winners): displayed on in-game billboards, Free Rose Orbs x1500, Dungeon-use: Kita-ale G1 / 7d x1
• Battle Award (5 winners): Free Rose Orbs x500, Rewards Plus tickets x3
• Humor Award (5 winners): Free Rose Orbs x500, Dungeon-use: Fue-luno G1 / 24h x5
• Asterleeds Award (10 winners): Free Rose Orbs x250, Crafting great success rate 1.1x booster x5
• Planet Regnas Award (10 winners): Free Rose Orbs x250, Healing Aroma G2

5. Grand Opening Payment Campaign (36:32)

June 14 to July 12

Total Spending Presents (36:39)

• 1000 yen or more: Dungeon-use: Fue-luno G1 / 12h x 1
• 3000 yen or more: Dungeon-use: Kita-ale G1 / 12h x 1
• 5000 yen or more: Crafting Great Success 1.3x rate booster ticket x4
• 10000 yen or more: Gardener outfit selection box x1

Bonus Rose Orbs w/ Webmoney (37:17)

When buying Rose Orbs with Webmoney, there's a 1 in 10 chance to get 10% extra orbs for free.

Follow on Twitter (37:34)

Follow BLUE PROTOCOL on twitter and retweet the specific tweet for a chance to win a 5000 yen Webmoney card (100 winners).

6. Network Cafe Campaign (37:51)

June 14 to July 12 Play at partnered Net Cafes for extra rewards! N Coins can be exchanged for gacha tickets, beauty salon tickets, special outfits and more.

1. For every 20 minutes played at a net cafe, get 20 N coins 26 N coins during the event period (1.3x normal)
2. Get 1.3x increased EXP from clearing dungeons and defeating overworld enemies
3. Enemy drop rates increased by 1.3x (excluding treasure chests)

Monetization (40:37)

Rose Orbs have Paid and Free versions, and can be used for Season Passes; and Gacha and the Rose Orb Store inside of the Regnas Store. The Regnas Store also includes Rose Orb Purchase, BP Points store, and Season Store.
Rose Orbs have a limited duration; they will expire on the 5th month (starting from the month of purchase) on the last day at 23:59. Expired Rose Orbs will be automatically deleted.

Rose Orb Prices (41:04)

• 100 yen: 10 Paid Orbs
• 300 yen: 30 Paid Orbs
• 500 yen: 50 Paid Orbs
• 1000 yen: 100 Paid Orbs
• 2000 yen: 220 Paid Orbs + 10 Free Orbs
• 3000 yen: 330 Paid Orbs + 30 Free Orbs
• 4000 yen: 460 Paid Orbs + 60 Free Orbs
• 5000 yen: 610 Paid Orbs + 90 Free Orbs
• 10,000 yen: 1350 Paid Orbs + 200 Free Orbs

Limited deals (once per account; purchase restriction will be reset once the sale period ends)

• 3000 yen: 495 Paid Orbs + 45 Free Orbs
• 5000 yen: 915 Paid Orbs + 100 Free Orbs
• 10,000 yen: 2025 Paid Orbs + 200 Free Orbs

Payment methods:

• Visa
• Mastercard
• JCB
• American Express
• WebMoney
• PayPay
• Rakuten Pay
• d Harai
• au/uq mobile
• SoftBank

Rose Orb Store contents (42:05)

Some items shown to have the "Can use Connect Coupon" icon. Others were not shown so there may be more items you can use the coupon on.

Packs

Grand Opening Pack M/F (500 orbs) *can use Connect Coupon

• Pure series (F)/male unnamed underwear selection box
• earrings
• ring
• Dungeon-use: Kita-ale G1 / 7d
• Dungeon-use: Fue-luno G1 / 7d
• Land Fox mount - Midnight

Beginners Pack (110 orbs) *can use Connect Coupon Once per character

• Feste stamp set 1
• Health postion G1 x5
• Dungeon-use: Kita-ale G1 / 7d
• Dungeon-use: Fue-luno G1 / 7d
• Oval glasses selection box

Outfits

Watcher series outfit box (450 orbs) Cunning Watcher series outfit box (450 orbs)

Mounts

Land Fox mount - Midnight (450 orbs)

Accessories

Twin tail extensions (100 orbs) *matches your current hair color Lily Earrings (55 orbs) Oval Glasses (100 orbs) Solitaire Ring (55 orbs)

Stamps

Einrain stamp set (55 orbs)

Emotes

Too Easy (90 orbs) Mocking (90 orbs)

Other

Dungeon-use: Kita-ale G1 / 7d (50 orbs) Dungeon-use: Kita-ale G1 / 12h (20 orbs) Dungeon-use: Fue-luno G1 / 7d (50 orbs) Dungeon-use: Fue-luno G1 / 12h (20 orbs) Rewards Plus ticket x1 (20 orbs) - 3 per day Dye-remover (20 orbs) Character name change ticket x1 (240 orbs) - 1 per month Happy Firecracker - Blue x10 (20 orbs) Normal Salon Course ticket x2 (145 orbs) *can use Connect Coupon Normal Salon Course ticket x1 (90 orbs) *can use Connect Coupon Type-change Salon Course ticket (220 orbs) *can use Connect Coupon

Gacha (45:40)

One gacha ticket is consumed per spin. Tickets can be acquired through clearing content, season pass, etc. 1 ticket: 50 Rose Orbs 11 tickets: 500 Rose Orbs

Banners

Outfit gacha is separated by M/F.

• Caster outfits gacha (6 types for M/F)
• Knight outfits gacha (6 types for M/F)
• Shagiran mounts gacha (3 types)

Rates are on the website and in-game. The types above are rewarded from S rank capsule. It's possible to get duplicates. Opening an S rank capsule will reward the entire outfit, not just a piece of the outfit.

10-spin gift (49:46)

Spinning a gacha banner 10 times will reward the following:

• Caster or Knight outfits gacha: Emote - Mysterious Power
• Shagiran mounts gacha: Accessory - Fairy Wing - Blue (M/F)

Duplicates (51:37)

If you obtain a duplicate item from gacha, you can do 3 things with it:

1. Mail it to another character on your account
2. Mail it to a friend
3. Exchange it for BP Points

Mail

Items that cannot be mailed can not be sent. Items can be mailed within 7 days of obtaining the item (timer shown in-game). Sending letters cannot be undone. Items claimed from mail cannot be sent again. You can only send to people you have been friends with for 14 days.

BP Points Exhange (53:04)

The BP Points Exchange can be accessed through the Regnas Store. Items that cannot be exchanged are marked, and items become un-exchangable if equipped.

BP Points Store contents (55:11)

Contains selection boxes for the outfits and mounts in the above Gacha banners. Contains Feste (b) Battle Imagine recipes and Idea (material). Contains Gas Mask, Fairy Wing - Aqua, Extension Type 1, Land Fox Tail accessory.
Explanation of Feste (b) Battle Imagine (55:46)

Season Pass (57:53)

Season 1: June 14 ~ Aug 13 23:59. A season is 50~60 days long. Clear the indicated quests to get Season Points, which are used to rank up your pass level and claim rank rewards (will automatically rank up to a certain point). After reaching a certain rank, you can also spend Season Points at the Season Point Store.
Ranks can also be purchased with Rose Orbs: 30 orbs per rank. Specific rank rewards can be checked in-game or on the site.

Free: Basic Plan

Maxes at rank 60. At max level, gain all materials required to craft Lv. 40 battle imagine Einrain (a). Rewards include an outfit.

Paid: Advanced & Royal Plan

Maxes at rank 100. At max level, gain all materials required to craft Lv. 50 battle imagine Einrain (b). Advanced costs 180 Rose Orbs. Royal costs 550 Rose Orbs and grants an extra 25 ranks to start. Both of these add additional quests to get points. Rewards include an emote.
After maxing one of these passes, you geet the Next Season Paid Plan Discount, which discounts the next season pass by 180 Rose Orbs. So if you buy the Advanced Pass once and max it out each time, you won't have to pay for another pass.

Other rewards

Not mentioned which pass they are in:

• Luno
• Gacha ticket
• Free Rose Orbs
• GC
• BP Points
• Next Season Points
• Next Season Paid Plan Discount
• Ability Plug Removal ticket
• Ability Plug Effect preservation ticket
• Craft great success rate 1.3x ticket
• Weapon skin exchange ticket
• Rewards Plus tickets

Season Store (1:05:19)

A store where you can spend Season Points. Contains outfits, accessories, crafting guaranteed great success tickets, healing aroma G1, luno, etc. (some have purchase limits).

Update Roadmap #2 (1:06:28)

They remade the roadmap image, slightly offseting the Season timelines since they can start/end in the middle of the month. Players were confused before as to why Season 1 started 2 weeks after launch, so this was fixed for clarification.

Raids (1:07:48)

Raid entry is on a schedule. The default raid Void's Island is always available, while a second, harder raid will be swapped out with a different one each update. Monday ~ Friday between 14:00~15:00, 18:00~19:00, and 22:00~23:00. Saturday & Sunday between 8:00~9:00, 12:00~13:00, 16:00~17:00, 20:00~21:00, next day 1:00~2:00.

Time Attack/Score Attack (1:08:54)

Solo dungeons with leaderboards, separated by class. These dungeons will rotate game mode and map every 2 weeks, starting with Time Attack (map X) at launch, then Score Attack (map Y) on week 3, and then Time Attack (map Z) on week 5, etc. There's a schedule of the maps and their dates at 1:12:44.

Time Attack (Dragon Claw Valley)

Based on your clear time, there are one-time rewards:

• Gold: title
• Silver: Skill-enhancing Ability Plug G2 (random skill, random class)
• Bronze: GC x1500

Additionally, there are ranking rewards. Rankings are displayed on the Leaderboards in towns.

• 1: "[class weapon] King" title, Grand Crown, Mellow Crown, Battle Maiden Coin - Red x900
• 2: "Chosen by [class weapon]" title, Mellow Crown, Battle Maiden Coin - Red x600
• 3: "Chosen by [class weapon]" title, Mellow Crown, Battle Maiden Coin - Red x300
• 4~50: "Chosen by [class weapon]" title, Mellow Crown

Titles and Crowns are time-limited. They will be rewarded when the TA period ends, and will last until the next TA period ends--for 4 weeks.
Something else mentioned about Champion--the person with the most crowns? at 1:12:20 but not sure what they mean.

Next 2 months of updates (1:14:53)

A specific breakdown of what's coming up. Not many images since they aren't final, and these may change before they are released.
July

• Dungeon (Survey): Robbers Falls
• Dungeon (Advanced Survey): Attack! Insect Fortress Dawn
• Field: Chained One's Spawnery Free Exploration, Everfall Forest Free Exploration (1:17:34)
• EX Rush Battle: EX Rush First Step - Ressurection
• Raid: Void's Island - Fire Dragon
• TA: Soundless City
• SA: Insect Fortress Dawn
• Named Enemies (Elite monsters): 4
• Event: July!

August (1:21:39)

• New Class: Blitz Lancer
• Dungeon (Survey): Water Fairy's Landing
• Dungeon (Advanced Survey): Again! Chained One's Spawnery
• Field: Soundless City Free Exploration, Wind Fairy's Stage Free Exploration
• EX Rush Battle: Ex Rush First Step - Iron Coffin
• Raid: Void's Island - Earth Dragon
• TA: Robbers Falls
• SA: Borome Ruins
• Named Enemies: 3
• Season Pass season 2

Announcements (1:23:44)

Partnership with 4gamer, a Japanese game news site, where there will be interviews, articles, game guides, and perhaps other community content.
You will need to set a PIN in-game starting on the second login, to secure your account. It's entered by mouse so be careful not to stream it.
Play by the rules and respect other players.
Next stream is planned to be #9 in early July.

Post-stream gameplay showcase (1:51:03)

They showed some never-before-seen stuff, like Score Attack (2:04:15) and Evergreen Desert (including Salamzart Oasis) after a short intermission. The rest of the stream is unscripted, and they show off things like new enemies, weapon skins, outfits, emotes, accessories, and Einrain battle imagines. Photo mode can now pause skills as well, which was earlier stated to not be supported, although the effects won't pause (1:54:03).

I had my sights on getting the CT since I was 19, 4years ago. Got promoted to driver at UPS and gonna start making 75k my first year driving. Will go up to 110k in 4 years. Wanted to buy a nice fuel efficient car since I will probably have to drive 35 miles to work when I buy a house on the nice side of town. I really like my current 2008 corollas size for driving alone and wanted to get something similar. I do my own maintenance on my car for the most part. Brakes, oil, spark plugs, alternator etc, anything that’s just a few bolts to take off. I would probably use this just as my work car and grab a GS F 10th anniversary edition as my weekend and grocery car. Does it make any sense to buy the Lexus opposed to just getting a new corolla?

I understand how to wire it all up etc, I handle electrical work all the time. However DIY and that side, I’m useless at.
If someone could assist me, that would be great. It’s just a single brick, and I’d like to attach an external socket to the wall but I’m unsure of what size plugs, screws and drill bit to use?
Thank you all

Honestly, really starting to lose my passion for this truck. Just replaced the water pump last week, now engine is misfiring, cab is shaking, and exhaust is choppy. Took it in for a diagnosis, mechanic said he checked all the connections on the spark plug wires and gave it back to me working perfectly. Two small trips (less than 20 min each) engine starts misfiring again but now irregularly as opposed to the regular misfires I had before I took it in. Picked up all brand new plugs and wires and went to install, but some of the wires in the box weren't the right size? I had time to change all 4 spark plugs on the left side of the engine, and the first two wires that go to those plugs before I had work. Started her up and now the regular misfires are back. I pretty much know only what I absolutely need to to fix what I've needed to fix in the past so I'm pretty lost as to what's going on. I know that mixing the wires up can cause misfires, but I was careful to plug them into the right plugs. I've still got 6 more wires and 4 more plugs to install, but I don't understand why the misfiring changed after putting new plugs and wires in, am I a dumbass or just unlucky?

What size heli coil do I need for a 1999 cbr 600 f4. Spark plug CR9EHIX-9

Hey folks,
Infrequent reddit poster here. I have an interesting case of a cross threaded spark plug that seems to have gotten crossed when it was being removed. The pressure washer in question uses a 140cc (3Hp) Ducar engine. Anyhow we were visiting the in-laws over Memorial Day weekend and I offered to help my father-in-law get his pressure washer started after it had been sitting in storage. I usually don’t have issues getting my own small engine equipment up and running, even if they have sat for several years. Figured this would be no different and a good chance to win some brownie points with the in-laws. Engine wouldn’t start with fresh gas so I decided to pull and clean the plug. First few revolutions on the way out the plug turns fine, then it starts to bind. I thought it was just being fussy, maybe an out of spec thread, but then it got stuck.
I don’t know if I caused the cross thread, or if maybe it was done at the factory when the spark plug was installed? At first glance the plug looks like it points straight ahead from the front of the engine, but its actually at a ~3-5° angle. This makes me wonder if I held my socket wrench at the wrong angle and caused it to cross? Is that even possible? Is it just a cheap Chinese engine? The plug is a Torch F6TC. I was able to get it out, but I messed up about 3-4 threads in the hole. I have a back-tap which I am going to use to try and clean up the hole and then hope I don’t owe my father-in-law a new machine.
Has anyone ever seen a cross thread on the way out? Is this something I could have done? I feel pretty guilty over this and don’t want my father in law thinking I’m and idiot -even if I really am.

Immortality defies the gods.
Last City Of Man stood in bleak sandblown towers before the Mad Swordsman in its tattered rags. The towering tarnished machine limped forward, dragging its sword-arm with its remaining limb. The brown robes covering the giant whipped in fluttering tatters and its hood shaded the cracked black orb that was its face.
"All dead. The enemy follows, as I bring the message of doom." Mad Swordsman laughed to itself as it went.
In the city it went, through the opening gates. There in the center of the calming wind storm stood Law Givers. These men and women were paid by tax revenue to read the laws written on the pillar in the center of the city. Each faced a different direction, loudly reciting Law.
The city was divided into districts, each within another, with an avenue that bisected the city in one direction, while the river it commanded bisected it in the other direction. At its heart stood the stronghold of its king. He was the only man in the city that was fertile. All the other men were castrated during childhood and partnered to a girl, betrothed. Yet when they were married, it was the king that took the bride on a honeymoon.
"It isn't madness? Would I recognize madness?" Mad Swordsman listened as the law was described. It decided that the laws of this final city were insane laws. All the taxes and mutilations. Every crime was punished the same way: by cutting off the offending body part. Sometimes just having that body part was a crime, apparently.
"What are you doing here, giant?" King Gamma asked. He had with him his army. Some had spears or clubs, others had bows and bronze axes, still a few had rusted assault rifles swathed in leather or painted rocket launchers decorated in fetishes. Their armor was similarly arranged from grass shields, sports padding or chainmail to patched flak jackets. Mad Swordsman decided they were only minimal adversaries. With a sweep of its weapon or a sudden tumbling roll it could wipe them out instantly. It hadn't come to the city to fight humans.
"I forgot." Mad Swordsman chuckled.
"Do you want repairs? You must do something for me." King Gamma pointed to the desocketed sword-arm it was dragging. The left hand of the giant robot was a massive sword forged of some metal from the Pool Of Time, near the Temple Of Humanity, far away and long ago. Such things could not be made anymore.
"I want repairs. I must do something for me." Mad Swordsman responded.
"No, for me." King Gamma pointed to himself. "For King Gamma you will serve."
"Mad Swordsman serves no king." Mad Swordsman laughed. "Have you not heard my song in the ruins of the cities? Will you see my shadow before you in the wastelands? I wander and here to there I go. I wonder, my little king with a big heart, do you know?" Mad Swordsman spoke and dropped the sword-arm, gesturing with its freed hand as it spoke poetically.
"You insolent robot! I should have you shot from the walls with imp's needles." King Gamma was turning red faced and angry.
"I see those EMP harpoons you just mentioned." Mad Swordsman looked up and saw two huge crossbows meant for disabling giant robots. It wondered if two would be enough to take it down. It might be.
"You think those will just tickle?" King Gamma laughed angrily. Mad Swordsman started laughing the same way. One of the king's advisors said something to him. He stopped and reconsidered the towering robot, staring up at it. When he had calmed down and thought he gestured for Mad Swordsman to sit.
The machine obeyed. Pleased that the advice he had gotten was solid: he rewarded his advisor with praise and put him in charge of the machine.
"I am Leer. I'd follow me and get repairs, unless I wanted to fall to pieces with sand in my gears and my robes in tatters. Such a tarnished surface. You were once called Silver Swordsman, were you not? You have no gleam." Leer told the robot.
"Those are fun words." Mad Swordsman got up and hefted its sword-arm over its shoulder.
"Then come with me." Leer led the machine into the heart of the city. There was a great library there. Scribes worked day and night by electric light and had recorded information about all things on millions of scrolls of recycled paper. Atop the library was a satellite dish. The gates of bronze were opened and the giant in the brown tattered robe came into the heart of the city, its vast library.
"I shall have to have a look inside. I wonder if the information you have included the Serum of Everlasting Life among other great secrets from ancient times." Leer brought out a cable that he could connect to the inside of Mad Swordsman, to its brain.
"Couldn't I just tell you?" Mad Swordsman chuckled.
"Could you?" Leer stopped for a moment, waiting for that.
"No." Mad Swordsman laughed. "I forgot all that stuff a long time ago. One too many of those robot-eating plants zapped me. You know?" Mad Swordsman knocked on the side of its upper body. It didn't really have a head, just the black orb of sensors and ambient energy intake for a face.
"Let me take a look. It might still be in there." Leer was opening the sealed access panel on the robot with a plasma cutting tool. If it could cut diamonds it could cut the flesh of an empathical. This kind of robot was the most advanced, a machine built by machines, it was nearly indestructible, supposedly.
"That really hurts a lot." Mad Swordsman told him. "Keep doing it because I like pain. Making myself sit here while you do that makes me feel sane. The searing agony makes me feel alive. The trust in a stranger makes me feel holy. Right now I feel as close to God as I ever have."
"You sure are weird." Leer laughed.
"I sure am." Mad Swordsman laughed also and then howled in the torment of its sensitive nerves being burned.
"This will be dangerous. Our minds will touch briefly and the spark of that, in the waves of consciousness that is the fabric of the world, we might cease to exist. Both of us." Leer put on the crown of cables and wore it.
"You want the Serum of Everlasting Life so badly?" Mad Swordsman asked.
"I believe so, yes." Leer stated.
"I will try to help you inside my mind. Be careful, we only have one instant." Mad Swordsman sounded wise to some kind of irony.
"How long will that seem?" Leer worried.
"That depends on how long you have got. Until you break inside your mind, you will not know mine." Mad Swordsman swore.
"It's too late." Leer's eyes rolled back into his head and he jerked as the connection seized up and down his spine painfully. The first thing he was aware of was the phantom pain of the burn. It felt like someone had burned him painfully behind his ear and plugged something into his spine through his neck.
"See my residual self-image." Mad Swordsman stood as a brown robed monk, or at least as the robes of the monk. Only a metal skeleton hid beneath. A grinning skull of silver and long bone fingers of silver. It stood only as tall as the man, or the man stood as tall as the machine. From the perspective of the machine: size was an illusion. Leer noticed he looked exactly the same.
"I look the same." Leer said.
"No you don't. I see you how you see yourself inside your mind. It's not what you look like." Mad Swordsman laughed hysterically after it said this. "You look ridiculous."
"I am already starting to regret this." Leer grumbled. He followed Mad Swordsman through the fogs of memory to some kind of glass city. "What is this place?"
"I don't know what to call it." Mad Swordsman looked around and shrugged. "There is the first place to try: a recent memory."
Terror gripped the man, then. He felt the swift cutting bite. The rending of flesh, no mercy, so much anger being unleashed. So much terror and pain caused. Far worse than the root of the evil. Yet shining there was the jewel he sought.
He watched in a frustrated discord of emotions as Mad Swordsman followed the angry woman's pointing finger. Where she pointed the blade cut a man in half, over and over. Their screams and their blood spray kept happening until it became comical. He was laughing and it felt like vomiting. It was painful, heaving laughter at the sight of the executions. There was almost a musical perfection to the giant's swordplay as it danced with great speed and strength, slashing its blade through each opponent.
When they were all dead the woman and the giant left the cave behind. What was the cave? Leer felt his head spinning. On the walls of the cave were the paintings of different prehistoric animals. Outside stood offroad vehicles retrofitted with armor and weapons. "The Caves of Scane."
Leer fell to the dust and laughed. There was no such place. They might as well have hidden the Serum in the ruins of Casark. There simply was no such place.
"What have you seen? Does the truth frighten you?" Mad Swordsman knelt and put a silver hand on the tickled man in the dust.
"What is that?" Leer's eyes became silent, a terror beyond what a mind can handle. Somehow the tipping of the scales put his ego into a freefall. How small and humble a man can be when he sees a hole in the sky.
"That has no name. It is not something that can be described with eyesight alone. Perhaps you see, in the blue sky, a curtain that is the night sky, except there are no stars. What you see is reality, it is the real-reality. You know instinctively what it is and what it implies to see it there, like that." Mad Swordsman rambled strangely and then laughed merrily at the revelation.
"It is nothing. It is just a dream. A hallucination inside the mind of an insane computer." Leer protested.
"Ah such are all unacceptable memories, I am certain." Mad Swordsman sounded bemused. Its grinning silver skull gleamed under the monk's hood.
"Who is she?" Leer pointed to the statue of the angel that stood towering above the mist.
"I am an empathical and she is my mother. Do you not call upon your own mother in times of great need? Even if she is not there or could not save the hero Gilgamesh, always the quest is for mom." Mad Swordsman sounded proud and its empty eyesockets reflected the great statue.
"The hero Gilgamesh? Is that how you see us? We live on the brink of extinction." Leer's lip quivered angrily.
"Don't cry; they will grow back." Mad Swordsman reached and pointed to the door of memories it wanted to check for the Serum. Unlike the memories there was a cold wind and a world beyond.
They stood there upon the frozen wastes surrounding the Temple Of Humanity. Mad Swordsman stood there with its tarnished silver, partially peeled from the scouring ice winds, revealing tortured silver flesh beneath. Its warm robes were again like a tattered brown cape, the hood still shielding its dark domed face. It had gotten its repairs and now had two left arms as sword-arms and held another, smaller sword in its right hand.
"It's freezing here! How can it feel so cold in a memory?" Leer shouted over the winds. Beside him stood the same giant he had met in the Last City Of Man: the one-armed Mad Swordsman. The other stood there in front of them, frozen.
"This place is not a memory. Remember that spark you mentioned? Well, here we are, on the other side of that divide. You shouldn't play with such things." Mad Swordsman laughed maniacally. The other empathical began to move.
"Who are you?" It demanded of Mad Swordsman.
"I am Unit Three Sixteen." Mad Swordsman identified itself between laughter.
"That is impossible. I am Unit Three Sixteen." The other giant robot said.
"You are a paradox. I just got here, so it must be me that is supposed to be here." Mad Swordsman told it.
"That makes no sense." Unit Three Sixteen told Mad Swordsman.
Without warning, Mad Swordsman suddenly slashed with its own severed sword-arm. The reflexes of the frozen empathical were not fully activated and it was off-guard. The first blow damaged one of its legs. Now both combatants were limping the exact same way. It was like watching them square off in a mirror, except one of them had three arms and the other only had one arm.
They exchanged heavy blows and deflected the attacks or dodged them without fail. One strike from the fatal blade would erupt one of them in a blue ball of fire. Unit Three Sixteen splashed backward into Pool Of Time and stood there for a moment, contemplating the entanglement and the duel rationally. Its crazed opponent splashed in after, swinging wildly and unable to reach the alternate variant of itself. Both of them began to sink, staring menacingly at their own reflection on the black dome of the other.
"Wait, wait! Don't leave me here!" Leer rushed after them and just as they were starting to vanish he stepped in after them. He opened his eyes, the crown of cables had come off and he'd fallen on the floor.
"I feel different." Mad Swordsman told him.
"The Caves of Scane, where are they?" Leer asked weakly while laying on the ground.
"Much closer to the ruins of Casark than any man would dare go." Mad Swordsman giggled menacingly.
"Does this place really exist?" Leer wondered imploringly.
"Do you or I exist? Is this reality somehow more real than the one we were just a part of?" Mad Swordsman questioned merrily. "The place really exists."
"We shall see the king." Leer realized out-loud. He took his robot to the king and explained he wanted to set out for the ruins of Casark.
King Gamma assembled his army of one hundred and sixty soldiers in bronze armor and the same warriors he had brought earlier to fight the robot also. This made the expedition quite massive. They had chariots and wagons and camels also. Mad Swordsman told Leer it would take longer, with so many following, to get there.
"Consider the anima of so many disciplined men with you." Leer tried optimism.
"I am considering that also. When they are being eaten by mutants or dying of radiation. The ruins are hilarious." Mad Swordsman moved its repaired sword-arm. It was inferior to the original socketing, but it was better than no arm.
"You aren't laughing." Leer pointed out.
"That's because I was being sarcastic." Mad Swordsman snickered. "The ruins aren't really funny."
"Nobody else thought it was a joke." King Gamma interjected from horseback as they journeyed across the scorched earth.
"That's not true, now is it?" Mad Swordsman argued with a clownish tone-of-voice.
"How dare you infer that his majesty is a liar!" Leer spoke up.
"That's enough. We all know this machine is insane. It wants to provoke a reaction so it can fall over laughing." King Gamma didn't take the bait so easily.
"Something wrong with that?" Mad Swordsman asked.
"Where are you leading us? What is this place?" Leer asked the giant robot. He stood in the shadow where it loomed in its brown robes.
"This is Pradesia. The ruins of Casark lie beyond." Mad Swordsman pointed with its left sword-arm. The whole army of King Gamma followed into Pradesia. The settlement they found was gutted by flames and everyone was murdered or executed on poles and crosses. It was a hellish sight, rotten for weeks.
"All of these bodies were already burned in a funeral fire. It is best not to touch them." Mad Swordsman told King Gamma. Sounding serious made the king a believer. He ordered his men to leave the bodies, to not even look at them.
"Behold the Caves of Scane." Mad Swordsman had led them all the way to Kelsov's home in the hills. All of them were dead and their vehicles sat with a layer of sand on them.
"We should take these vehicles." Leer advised.
"It is the plan that I like best." King Gamma agreed. They left the horses and chariots and some of the men behind and took the vehicles of the Finalists. Before they got very far, all of the vehicles stopped working.
"There is great entropy the closer we get to the place that is not a place. You shall see all that it can be." Mad Swordsman told King Gamma. "It is why the vehicles do not work. Because we are always closer to the darkness outside, the end of the last world. Nothing shall be and so things are becoming nothing. These cars don't work. Will your horses turn inside out if you feed them the grass of these steppes?" Mad Swordsman chuckled nervously.
"Send for the chariots." King Gamma told Leer.
So the expedition went onward until they reached the outskirts of Casark. The city sat in twisted and macabre damage. Everything that could happen to a city had happened and now only a few scattered bits still stuck into the sky, like the bent legs of a dead bug.
"This is Casark. Already some of your men are getting sick. There are animals here that are no longer like normal animals. They are horrible and twisted by being so close to the end of all things. It warps them into the likewise molecules of destruction, rewriting the physics that evolved their bodies and breaking and sucking them into new shapes as it sees them." Mad Swordsman said as it was moodily chuckling.
"The darkness here is unnatural." Gamma complained.
"Look sire, the clouds are parting. Perhaps now we shall find what we seek here." Leer smiled.
"Only death can be sought here. I don't get it." Mad Swordsman guffawed.
"What is that? What in God's name is that? Dear God!" King Gamma fell off his horse and writhed in terror at the sight of the darkness outside.
At the sight of it all his army screamed in terror. It was as though the clouds had parted to reveal only nightmare beyond, a night sky with no stars torn in the daytime sky. It had hidden behind clouds, now like a killer cloud it tore into their eyes. Some fell on their bronze swords. At least one took up a rocket launcher and fired from a chariot at the darkness. The path of the rocket traveled backwards to the soldier. It was a tendril of nothingness and he became as nothingness. He simply was no more as though he never was. There was nothing left of him, barely even a memory. Not one man who witnessed it could recall the soldier's name and soon most of them completely forgot they had seen him become as nothing.
There was still worse for the others. Like Mad Swordsman had warned them: the ruins were swarming with monsters. As the men were screaming in disarray and panic: the monsters found them and came for them. Bronze armed warriors battled hideous giant chimeras all around while others fled or were eaten alive. Tendrils from outside fished for men and when it touched them they became part of it, dissolved into nothingness. Sometimes it brushed one of its monsters and it took them too.
Soon the battle had become an orgy of blood and guts as the monsters fed and no soldiers remained. King Gamma walked among them, his hair turned white and his words maniacal and crazed.
"Go then, go to your graves you cowards!" He yelled at the splattered remains of his men.
"Your majesty, we still have Mad Swordsman!" Leer followed behind and pled with his king.
"Don't mind me. I am just here for the live comedy." Mad Swordsman was doubled over and laughing at all the carnage.
"I do mind!" King Gamma was outraged. "You kill these monsters right now. Show no mercy, use your fullest strength at your most reckless speed. My men are already dead!" King Gamma pointed and screamed. The fury of the king and his command charged up the emotitronics of the empathical with enraged anima.
"And then I rest." Mad Swordsman said after it cleaved all of the mutants in half. It had slid along, skating horribly on the slick gore and never losing its balance. The monsters stood no chance against the unrestrained machine.
"What rest is there?" King Gamma threw off his crown and ran. "What rest can there ever be when the sky is opening over the world of Ruin?"
"I know how to accept rest." Leer picked up the crown.
"I shall continue the mission, following you." Mad Swordsman told Leer.
"Then we go to our deaths." Leer realized. He walked into the empty ruins, under the eternal void, to search for the cure of immortality.
The ruins of Casark became as escalating height and chaos of twisted remains, scorched and broken. As blackened bones of the earth they stood, like cratered mountains on an asteroid, the fields burned by lava and liquid nightmare as black as ink. What bubbled from below in confused orbs of consciousness were the writhing fleshy things and wired oil dripping things of mechanical nature. All became warped by death, in sequence with a place of pure entropy, even life served to destroy and spread death. This was a cancer upon the universe. Leer could not believe it had no name.
Leer felt like the air was dead and his lungs hurt and it was like slowly suffocating. A device of flashing colors and lights, drawn from the edges of the dead universes beyond, stood testament to the efforts of higher beings. It was a kind of chaos that was intact. If entropy was fine order, if nightmares were the laws of physics, the place ahead of them was lawless and chaotic.
They found where two dead machines lay upon a flying vehicle under a covering of tarps. What mad sacrifice had left them there, instead of where they had fallen? The device had spread their light, their colors from their grave. There was, in all the chaos, a cabin in a place that knew time and order. Leer could breath and it was actual air in his lungs. He sighed and looked at the structure.
"Welcome home." Silver Swordsman told Mad Swordsman.
"If I stand before you then I am not dead under the tarp." Mad Swordsman noted without humor. It seemed to have lost its sense of humor, its madness taking on a different quality. Something too clever to be understood. Yet something totally insane.
"You are certainly one of the dead, although nobody has looked." Silver Swordsman observed.
"Good. As long as nobody notices I am dead under that tarp I should be fine. Without observation there is no paradox." Mad Swordsman stated. Then he added in the same voice as Silver Swordsman:
"This very moment in this place is a paradox. In order for us to be here we had to already arrive before we got here. We are now showing up to complete the cycle of us leaving this place, therefore the place exists."
"I didn't say that." Silver Swordsman replied.
"Except I am you from the future. I am here now and I have said it and you heard it, therefore I heard it when I was you. I did say that, you cannot say I didn't when I did. And you are me." Mad Swordsman debated.
"We have outran the sun. We are behind the sunrise." Leer realized.
"That is a good way to put it. Perhaps Junior now understands what is going on?" Mad Swordsman teased Silver Swordsman.
"I got it before you got here." Silver Swordsman said with dry, sophisticated humor.
"Oh, I get it. That is very funny." Mad Swordsman found the joke to be an excuse to laugh forcefully for five minutes. Leer sought sanctuary indoors.
Inside he found where King Gamma had fled. The place was some kind of bar. There was a table and some things to sit on and they had some bottles of alcohol they were sharing. He walked up alongside King Gamma and gave him back his crown.
"I'm Leer." Leer told the other bar people.
"Adinett." The girl said. "I just turned four hundred."
"Happy birthday. Looking very good." Leer said.
"Oh, thank you. Um." Adinett drunkenly started toward Leer until King Gamma said:
"He is a eunuch."
"You could still please me though, right?" Adinett was undeterred.
"No. I am married." Leer accepted a drink from the bartender.
"I am Solomon." The bartender introduced himself. "This is my place. I call it The House Of Dust."
"Because it is where the dead will reside." The drunk guy in the corner said.
"Who is he?" Leer asked.
"Aidan." Solomon said with a strange kind of awe and disappointment. Like meeting your idol, drunk. Literally.
"That's Aidan?" Leer's lips curled in rejection. He stared, taking a good look. Aidan flopped around drunkenly and moaned his sentences without coherence. Most of them started with words like:
"Where'z?" or "What'z" slurred into the rest of what he was saying.
"You got him shit-faced." Leer accused Solomon. Solomon shook his head.
"We just have to wait." Adinett was drunk too. Her temperament was much more alert though. Inside of her was a rage. She was an angry drunk. At least she was too drunk to lash out.
"Where you from?" Solomon asked.
"Last City Of Man" Leer told it by one of its names.
"Ur? You are with King Gamma. I mean like where do you come from?" Solomon asked.
"Eldimoor." Leer recalled. "I was born in Eldimoor."
"Nice place, Eldimoor." Solomon nodded.
"We had orchards there. I remember the orchards." Leer smiled.
"I was from Pradesia. We had paddies." Adinett said with grim sobriety.
Nobody spoke for a moment.
"This is a pocket, gravitationally reversed. We exist in a stasis of time here. The entropy does not enter except at our natural local time, here in The House Of Dust." Solomon told Leer and King Gamma.
"How did you accomplish such a thing?" Leer asked.
"I discovered it. I alone survived here when everyone else fled." Solomon explained.
"Others have come here?" King Gamma wondered. Solomon shook his head.
"Nobody has ever made it here before the Apostate." Said Solomon.
"You mean Silver Swordsman?" King Gamma had seen the giant robot already.
"All of them together are now the Apostate. That's the last intelligent thing they said." Solomon shrugged.
"I seek immortality. For my king." Leer looked at Adinett.
"They took it from Jerome's Tomb." She shifted in her seat and knocked over her drink. "I'm done drinking."
"Good girl." Solomon picked up the glass.
"It is here, somewhere." Leer sounded sure.
"In Casark? No. The Finalists used all the Serum. Then, once they were ready to live forever, I killed them all." Adinett told him. "In my sleep."
"I saw what you did." Leer informed her. "In the memories of Mad Swordsman."
"So why are you asking me then?" Adinett complained belligerently.
"This place is all the immortality there is. The world outside is chaos. In here we have a moment of quiet." Solomon advised.
"How did you discover this place?" Leer asked suddenly.
"I was standing in the street when Umbraeon first came. It ripped open the sky and began to destroy everything around. Except this one bubble of time. Like it is happening out there so fast, and in here, so slow. The eye of the storm, you know?" Solomon explained.
"So you opened a bar?" Leer sounded amused.
"No, I built a cabin and stocked it with alcohol. I was an alcoholic." Solomon shrugged.
"Why?" Adinett asked.
"I was scared to be myself. I was only happy when I wasn't me. I had to be locked inside my own mind, while my reptile was drunk." Solomon described.
"This is the best reptile bar I've ever seen." Adinett cheered, empty handed.
"By now it is the only bar. By now, unless there are other pockets like this one, untouched by Umbraeon. Well then the world is gone." Solomon predicted.
"That's how slowly time passes in here?" Leer wondered. Solomon just nodded.
"We have arrived at the end of the world." King Gamma said.
"So Mad Swordsman knew, somehow, and that this was actual immortality." Leer decided.
"I hadn't thought of that." King Gamma took a drink.
Everyone was quiet while they realized how close was the end.

I recently moved to a state where front license plates are required. Unfortunately, my 2012 Versa doesn't have a bracket on the front. I'm looking at different mounts online to install and since I'm sure I'm going to be the last owner of this vehicle, I'm fine with drilling holes in the bumper if needed, since my top concern is function (so I'm concerned about blocking air flow, for example.) But I want to make sure it's mounted on the best location. I know some things about cars and have done several repairs on my own (even replaced the spark plugs by myself a few years ago), but I won't pretend to know enough to be sure that I'm making the best decision on the bracket placement on the bumper without asking others who are more familiar. Thanks so much for your help!

My current bag is much smaller and has the following:

• Pen, mechanical pencil, sharpie, small paper pad and a tide pen
  
• Assorted pain reliever and allergy meds, 3 days supply of me and my wife’s daily meds, aspirin, and anti acid
  
• Sanitizer wipes, disinfecting swabs, bandaids, Vaseline, ear plugs, quick clot gauze, bleed stop bowser, Israeli bandage, trauma sheets, and a tourniquet
  
• Flashlight, deck of cards, Swiss Army knife, extra Glock 19 mag, and a lighter wrapped in 15 ft of duct tape
  
• Keybar with my keys, pouch for wallet and change, pack of gum
  
• Knife, chapsticks, and glasses wipes
  
• 2 AA batteries, a 9v battery, a cr2032 battery, zip ties, a length of paracord, Velcro straps, mini pliers, Allen key (forget the size but it’s that common size that comes with Ike’s furniture)
  
• Pepper spray clipped to the strap so it’s accessible in the front
  

What else can I add to the larger bag? Initial thoughts: Headlamp, tape measure, super glue, solar phone charger, some multi tool with sockets, more “simple” first aid like burn gel or more variety of bandaids
Thanks!
https://imgur.com/gallery/obYjRwZ