“You’re so stupid you broke the IQ scale!”

“I’m still smarter than you, you addle-headed post-lobotomy patient!”

“At least I’m not as ugly as you!”

“Your stripes make your legs look thick!”

“Oh yeah? Yours make you look like a big, fat, blimp!”

Mom snorted like she usually did when she was laughing. “Pfff-hahaha! Sweetie, you’ve never even seen a blimp. How would you know?”

“I’ve… haha… I’ve seen pictures.” I managed to say through laughter of my own.

“Still, though. That was a pretty good one.” She smiled at me, there was a bit of embarrassment in her voice. “You… you don’t actually think I’m fat, right?”

I giggled. “You’re not fat mom.”

She sighed with relief. “Either way, I guess you win this round. Wanna go again?”

“Yeah!” I pursed my lips as I racked my brain for a decent starting insult. “You-“

“Oh, uh… sorry… um… is this a bad time?” Asked a young Zeed, standing in the doorway with a nervous expression. “You guys aren’t fighting, right?”

Mom gave her a warm smile. “Oh, we’re not really fighting. It’s just a game that Obsidian and I used to play. We’re trying to see who can come up with the best insult.”

I smiled and bounced slightly with joy. “I actually won for once!”

Mom’s expression changed to one of concern. “Zeed, what’s wrong? Is everything alright?”

Zeed hung her head and stammered a bit.

“I… uh… Mom and I… kinda…”

Mom sighed, and my ears went down. “You got into another argument with her, didn’t you?”

Zeed nodded, tears in her eyes. “She hates me.”

I trotted up and gave her a hug. Mom did the same. “She doesn’t hate you. She just… well… she just doesn’t understand you. Give her time. I’m sure she’ll lighten up.”

“Sorry I always ruin everything for you guys…” Zeed sniffed.

“Ruin?” I scoffed. “We’re happy to make you happy, Zeed. We’re friends. Hey, maybe we can get Ashes over here and have a sleepover or something!”

Mom chuckled. “I think that would be nice. What about you, Zeed?”

Zeed nodded, a smile spreading across her face as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

~~~~~

Standing near the gates of Bladesville, I wondered idly why both of the towns I’d been to were guarded or gated or whatever. Instead of being a repurposed building that was just fortified, Bladesville was a pre-war town, in which the mostly intact buildings were patched up with bits of metal sheets and piles of rubble. It seemed a lot more… open than the Mall had. Maybe because it wasn’t all a single building, instead just being surrounded by a low wall made of, surprise, scrap metal, but nevertheless, even the air here felt pleasant.

“Zeed, on the west side of town is a place called ‘Niner Six’.” Raid began.

“Niner Six?” She raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know why it’s called that, but they should have anything we might need.”

“Where am Ah lookin’ then?” I asked.

“North side. Shop called ‘Stock’s Shop’. Just to warn you, she’s a ghoul, so don’t freak out when you see her.”

“Aam nae goin’ tae freak out, don’t worry.” I rolled my eyes.

“Just letting you know.” He thought for a moment. “And tell her ‘Blue’ sent you.”

I quirked an eyebrow at him. “Blue?”

“Again, don’t ask.” He shook his head. “When you’re done-“

“Hey, what about me?” Asked… Bowler, or something. I forgot her name.

“Well… you don’t have to do anything.”

“Well, Ah’d like ta help ya if’n ah can. How about Ah just go and git something that might help y’all?”

Raid shrugged. “It’s up to them.

Zeed smiled warmly. “Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated, Bonnet.”

“Ah dunnae really care.” I was still irritated by the fact that she’d tried to rob Zeed, though. I must have been glaring at her, because she grinned nervously and gulped.

“Alright then. We’ll meet at the Broken Muzzle when we’re done. You guys got your bands?”

We both showed the green bands given to us at The Mall. I wrapped mine into a bandanna, while Zeed tied it around her right foreleg as she spoke. “I thought this was just in The Mall…”

“Nope, generally accepted thing in Canterbury. Makes it easier to find jobs. Usually.” He frowned, and tied his own dark grey cloth to his battle saddle. With a shrug, he tossed each of us a small bag of bottlecaps. “This is what we got. Stay safe.”

We split up after trotting past the guards and onto the crumbled street, each to our respective locations. I was, admittedly, surprised by the number of ponies just walking around, talking happily to one another, or just enjoying the day. I figured that it must have been a relatively peaceful city for everypony to be so relaxed. There was even a couple of restaurants open, looking as though no time had passed at all, but for a few years of bad maintenance.

I took a deep breath, relishing the feeling of air that wasn’t too hot or humid, air that flowed freely around everything. I then proceeded to realize that I had no idea what I was doing.

“Well… crap.” I frowned.

I ended up just wandering around what I guessed was a marketplace. Stalls were set up in the middle of the street in addition to the shops where… well… where there used to be actual shops. However, I didn’t see anything called ‘Stock’s Shop’.

I sat on my flanks on a sidewalk corner and thought.

“Excuse me, miss?”

I turned to see a golden stallion with a white mane giving me a tired smile.

“You look lost. Anything I can do to help?”

Slightly embarrassed, I gave a nervous chuckle. “Aye. Actually, could ye tell me where Ah can find a place called ‘Stock’s Shop’?”

He frowned. “Stock? He’s all the way on the other end of this road.”

With a faint twitch of my right eye, I facehooved. “Och, well now Ah just feel stupid. Thanks.”

“Any time Diamond.” And with that, he trotted off.

Wait…

I spun around to get a look at him, catching a glimpse of his cutie mark.

A broken red cross. My eyes widened as I realized that I’d seen him in the Prison just before Zeed and I had left.

“HEY!” I shouted.

Looking back at me with a smirk, he galloped down the street, with me chasing after him.

“Get back here!”

He weaved through a few throngs of ponies, slipping past them, and they spared little more than a glance. I, on the other hoof, barreled past them, jumped over them, getting many shouts of anger and surprise in return. All the while, the golden stallion smirked at me, which only served to piss me off even more. I growled in frustration.

He just kept running down the street, not even turning anywhere. I briefly wondered where he was going.

I quickly began to run out of steam. I could already begin to feel my heart pounding in my chest. My lungs were on fire as I gasped for breath. I was growing tired.

Suddenly, he shot sideways into an alley, and there was a flash of golden light. I rounded the same corner less than a second later, only to find a dead end, with nopony there.

Still breathless, I collapsed onto the ground.

“Who…” I gasped. “Who the fuck… was that…”

“Oh, bravo, Knives.” She applauded in a slow and sarcastic manner. “Your skills of pursuit are absolutely amazing. I’m jealous.”

“Shut up.”

“Awww, are you gonna cry?” She snickered. “Gonna go back to your crush and hope he takes you into his hooves, like one of those old romance novels of yours?”

I blushed and shot up into a sitting position. “How did you know about that?”

“Did… did you really just ask me that?” She asked. “I live in your head, dipshit!”

I didn’t answer with anything more than an indignant trot out of the alley and back onto the street. I glanced around to see where I’d ended up.

At some point, it might have been a rather nice-looking park. Now it was just a large, barren patch of dirt. A small structure had been built smack in the middle, made entirely out of cinder blocks. It looked one side wasn’t entirely finished, and the opening in the wall showing the large stock of weapons within.

In front of the makeshift concrete booth was what appeared to be the rotting corpse of a pegasus. One that was relaxing on a lawn chair and badly singing along with the radio playing next to it, the raspy voice not hitting a single correct note, to the point where I couldn’t hear the actual song, or even tell what song it was supposed to be.

“Excuse me,” I said as I approached. “Are ye Stock?”

The corpse removed her sunglasses and grinned at me. For some reason it surprised me that her teeth were intact. “Fuck yeah, dude! What can I do ya for?”

I blinked at the cheery undead pegasus. “Uh… Ah’m lookin’ fer some weaponry. Ah… ‘Blue’ sent me, Ah guess.”

Her eyes widened, as did her grin. “No fuckin’ way, you know Blue? Fuck, mare, I haven’t seen that guy in forever.”

She eyed me briefly. “So… you two ruttin’?”

My face instantly turned red. “WHAT?”

“No? Shame, dude. That buck needs to get a ‘special somepony’, if ya know what I mean.” She chewed on one of her rotting wingtips in thought, then spat it out, grimacing. “For the record, you’ll probably need ta flirt with ‘im a lot. He’s fuckin’ dense, so he won’t do anything more than flirt with ya if you don’t make it blatantly obvious that ya like ‘im.”

I was speechless in my embarrassment, and couldn’t do much more than stare at the ghoul.

“Actually, from the look you’re givin’ me right now, I doubt that you’ll get very far in a relationship with the buck.” She frowned at me. “You need ta lighten up dude.”

“L-lighten up?” I stammered. “You just… What the fuck is wrong with you?”

She gave me a confused look. “What happened ta yer voice?”

“N-never mind. Can Ah just buy some gear off ay ye?” I was still blushing.

“Oh, sure. What’s Blue plannin’ this time, dude? Stealth mission? Air raid? Search-and-destroy?” She raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“We’re goin’ after a slaver base, Ah think. Bone Eaters.”

She whistled. “Shit, dude. You’re gonna need a fuck-ton more than just gear if you’re gonna get through the Boneheads. Tell ya what…”

With one wing, she reached into her booth and retrieved a large minigun on a battle saddle, which she donned within seconds. “I’ll come with ya, so you guys won’t get yourselves killed, ‘cuz I just know that Blue Dude’s gonna do something stupid.”

“Uh… alright, then. But we still need some be’er weapons…”

She wrinkled her nose. “Don’t tell me he’s still usin’ that stupid shotgun of his.”

I nodded.

She facehooved. “I told ‘im to get a fuckin’ SMG or something. He never listens.”

“So… How dae ye know each other.”

She stopped moving and stared at me for a moment.

“That’s not for me ta tell.” She smiled. “Now… let me see here…”

She began to rummage through the things in her booth, her back half hanging out as she occasionally tossed a weapon out onto the dirt. Eventually, she had built a small pile of guns and small, round things. I think they were grenades.

She pulled hear head back out and smiled, her face had somehow become covered in black oil. “Yup, that should do it. C’mon, help me out here.”

She threw a very large rifle-like thing towards me, and I reflexively tried to catch it with my magic. I managed to hold it for about two seconds as my magic swiftly drained, causing my magic to implode and my horn to spark. The butt of the gun smacked me in the face as I collapsed, breathing heavily and holding my bruised nose.

Stock gave me a surprised look. “You okay?”

I moaned. “Weak magic.”

She whistled again. “Weak seems like an understatement. No offense.”

“None taken.” My horn hurt.

Stock sighed. “I’ll get the battle saddles and saddlebags.”

~~~

We walked into the bar, Stock with a cheery smile, me tired from burnout and panting and sweating from carrying gear. We found Zeed and Raid in a booth, Zeed with a bottle of water, and Raid with a bottle of tequila.

“Hey Blue, what’s up?” with a wing, she dropped a saddlebag full of ammunition on the table. I just dropped myself onto one of the seats. I noticed that Zeed was looking at the ghoul with a hint of surprise. “It’s been forever, dude.”

“Hey, I didn’t expect you to hoof-deliver these.” He stopped and looked at me for a moment. “Knives, are you okay?”

Before I could respond, Stock let out a loud, raspy gasp. “Holy fuck, Blue, what happened ta your accent?”

Raid just blinked at her. “Say again?”

“Your accent! It’s gone!”

All three of us were staring at her now.

“I don’t have an accent.”

“That’s the problem! What happened to your old surfer talk?”

I quirked an eyebrow at Raid. “’Old surfer talk’?”

Raid covered his eyes with his hooves in a frustrated manner. “How is it surfer talk? We didn’t live anywhere near the ocean. Or any body of water at all, for that matter.”

“Duh, ‘cuz it’s how they, like… used ta talk, dude.” Stock replied as-a-matter-of-factly. “Now yer talkin’ all formal-like.”

Raid simply facehoofed and sighed. “Moving on… Are you alright, Knives?”

I grunted an affirmative and waved a hoof dismissively. “She threw some heavy crap at meh and Ah nearly burned out. Ah’ll be fine in a bit.”

“Yeah, she’ll be fine. Let’s focus on the important things here…” Stock came face-to-face with Raid. “Like your accent. Come on, Blue! Ya sounded so cool!”

“How in the fuck is that more important than my friend being hurt?”

“It just is!” Stock sighed in frustration. “You were, so proud of commin’ outa Dream Valley.”

Raid gave her an incredulous look. “Since when? I hated that miserable place! It was like hell with the thermostat a bit higher up.”

“Okay… I’ll give ya that it sucked, but still, ya got out, right? Shouldn’tcha, like… keep it as a badge or something?”

“How does that make sense in your head…” He growled in frustration. “I’m not talking about this anymore. I’m done.”

“What about-“

“So, Zeed, did you manage to get anything useful?”

The zebra shook her head as she realized she was being spoken to. She pulled her eyes off the pegasus ghoul. “Huh?”

“Supplies. Did you manage to get them?”

“Oh… Uh… Yeah. I got quite a bit, actually.” She dumped a saddlebag on the table. A copious amount of drugs, medical supplies, and canned food spilled out.

I picked up one of the cans and grimaced. “Orange slices? Wonderful… mah worst enemy now come in a can.”

“Don’t worry, Knives. I got plenty of stuff without citrus.” She smiled as she sorted out the pile. “I think we got about three days worth of stuff in here.”

“Wait… Why do you care about oranges?” Raid asked, pointing at me. “I though you couldn’t taste anything.”

“Allergies.” I grunted.

“Oh.” He put a hoof to his chin. “How bad, if you don’t mind my asking?”

I deadpanned at him. “Ah get stomach cramps sae bad ‘at Ah can hardly stand tae move ‘coz ay th’ pain, an’ mah mouth burns like Ah just stuck an arc welder in it. How bad is ‘at?”

He grimaced. “Eh… pretty bad, then… Sorry I asked.”

“Oh!” Stock pointed a hoof at me excitedly. “Speaking of accents-“

“No.” Was my reply. “We weren’t talkin’ about anything ay th’ sort.”

“Oh come on! At least-“

“No.”

“Come on, Knives. Tell them. Tell them the truth. Tell them why you can’t stand your own voice.”

“Quiet you.”

“Don’t tell me ta be quiet! I can talk if I want…” The ghoul huffed.

Wait… did I say that out loud?

I could hear her laughing in the back of my head, so… probably. Crap.

“Okay… so…” Raid looked through the saddlebags Stock and I had brought. “Zeed, you know how to use energy weapons, right?”

“I know how to use an energy weapon, yes.” She dropped her laser pistol on the table. Raid responded by plopping down a laser rifle. Zeed’s eyes lit up like it was Hearth’s Warming Day. “Holy crap, that it awesome.”

“Works on the same principles, we’ll just have to teach you to use it with a saddle.”

Zeed frowned. “Really? Don’t you have any other pistols? I hate having things strapped to my back.”

Stock frowned. “Don’tcha wear saddlebags though?”

“Doesn’t mean I like it.”

Raid continued to rummage through the bags, eventually pulling out something that looked like a toy ray gun. “How about this?”

“Oooooh… I like it already.” As she examined it, she frowned. “Where’s the battery?”

“Capacitor gem. Never needs a reload, just give it a couple of seconds and voila... ammo.”

Zeed was practically drooling.

“Knives, can you shoot a gun?”

“Nope.”

He sighed. “Well, I guess we can teach you. We’ll-“

He was interrupted by my stomach growling. I blushed. “Sorry.”

“Heh. Maybe we should get something to eat first?”

~~~~

“Sweet Celestia! You hit the wrong damn target!” Raid said as he fell to the ground laughing.

With an angry blush, I spat out the bit of my battle-saddle. “It’s mah first time!”

“Oh, so you’re a gun virgin?” Seeing my blush turn from one of anger to one of embarrassment, he burst out laughing even harder.

I telekinetically grabbed the closest small object I saw and chucked it at him with a telekinetic kick. The rock hit him right in the muzzle, and his hooves flew to his face as he yelped in shock. I would have laughed at him, were I not hit with another migraine from my still-recovering horn.

“Ow.” He said. “At least you can throw pretty good.”

Still in pain, I trotted over to the nearby table and angrily took a bite of my daisy sandwich. We had asked the town leader… mayor… type… pony… and they allowed us the use of the shooting range in the old police station. Zeed had completely obliterated one of the targets, turning the ponnequinn into a pile of glowing hot ash. The only thing I’d managed to do was blow the arms off of one… on the wrong side of the building. I preferred using blunt objects to hit ponies, anyway. At least that way I could easily stop before I killed somepony who doesn’t deserve it.

“Well then, if we get some throwing daggers or somethin’, maybe Ah can be ay some use tae ye.”

“Wait… Knives, that’s not what I-“

“Ah know, Ah know. Ah’m not exactly the strongest one in th’ group. Ah can’t lift things fer shit, and Ah’ve got tae get in close tae hit anything.” I sighed.

“Knives, I never said you were useless. It’s just funny that you can’t shoot a gun, is all.” He facehooved. “Forget it. Even I don’t know what the hell I’m saying.”

Zeed obliterated another target. I felt a pang of jealousy and sighed again.

“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad.” He trotted over and put a hoof on my shoulder. “You’ve been doing fine so far. Why would that change?”

“Only ‘cause we’ve been in fights with one or two other ponies… or gorgons, or whatever. Even in th’ Prison, Ah tried tae stay out ay fights, though it didn’t seem tae dae much good.” I sighed again. “Ah’d really rather not talk about it. Let’s just say that the Prison got a lot more… violent after the Leak.”

“Whatever the case, don’t sell yourself short.” He smirked. “You’re not half bad.”

Don’t blush, don’t blush.

“Yer not sae bad yerself.” Oh sweet Celestia… Did I really just say that?

“Oh, somepony’s feeling frisky today.” He snickered. Dammit, now I’m blushing.

“Well… Uh… Ah…”

Luckily, Zeed saw my dilemma and came to my rescue. “So, Raid. Did you find any useful information? Anything on my dad?”

“I found out that he ran off into the distance, trying to pull some of the Bone Eaters away from the bigger group. He apparently dragged them straight through a minefield. One of the spotters saw him get swarmed, though and none of the others knew what happened to him after that.” Raid chuckled. “Just so you know, your dad is now on my ‘badass list’.”

“Uh… thanks… I guess.” She scratched her head. “So, where did the rest of them go?”

“East. Don’t know where their base is, but if they’re anything like the New Tartarus slavers, they’ll make it obvious that this is their territory.”

I snorted. “Sounds like a bunch ay dogs.”

“Their leader is a diamond dog, so… yeah, that shouldn’t be surprising.”

Zeed looked shocked, I just gave Raid an odd look. “What in th’ hell is a diamond dog?”

“Big dog-like person. Walks on two legs, interestingly. Some of them are pretty good with technology, so the rest of the slavers might have a few energy weapons on them.”

“Are you serious?” Zeed asked. “I’ve only seen them in comics.”

“Yup. Where do you think the writers came up with them?” He shrugged. “They’re definitely real. Never met one myself, though.”

“So… Dae we have a plan, then?”

“I was thinking we should get a look at the place first. We might not even need all these guns for the actual attack, if we’re lucky.”

“Thanks for the jinx.” Zeed snorted.

Raid rolled his eyes. “So, we’ll-“

“There y’all are!” Bonnet came bursting through the door, sweating and panting heavily. “Ah thought y’all were gonna meet up at the bar.”

“We did.” Finishing my first sandwich, I picked up another one.

“Whatever, Ah wanted ta give this to ya.” She dumped one of her saddlebags on the floor. Out came a large, rifle-like thing, with a thick barrel, and a pile of things that looked like oddly shaped grenades. “It used ta be mah husbands ‘fore he quit the mercenary business. Ah figured y’all could use one.”

Stock picked it up and looked at it. “M79? Wow. Haven’t seen one of these in a while. Hehe, hey Knives, maybe you could use this. You don’t really need to aim.”

Growling angrily, I magically swiped the gun from her hooves, wincing in pain as my horn was still recovering.

In an irritated manner, I fired the gun at one of the targets. There was a loud boom, and pieces of the ponnequin flew across the yard, giving me some idea of what it would do to a live pony, but still, it was awesome.

“Bonnet, if ah weren’t the mare Ah was, Ah’d kiss ye.” I said with a wide grin.

Stock turned to the startled mare and screamed. “YOU CARRIED THAT THING LOADED?”

“Ah didn’t know!”

I cracked open the gun and slotted in another grenade. Seconds later, another ponnequin was blown to smithereens.

“Okay… So, you can’t aim a pistol for shit,” Raid held his head in his hooves. “But you’re damn near perfect with a ‘nade rifle. How in the fuck does that make sense? At all? In any way?”

Another ponnequin down. “Who cares? This is awesome!”

I felt like a pre-war filly in a candy store. I couldn’t help but chuckle at Zeed’s wide-eyed stare of horror.

~~~~~

The small green pegasus and the pink-and-black unicorn followed the road, only one of them having even the slightest clue as to where they were going. For the most part they traveled in silence, Wretch simply smiling as she trotted along, Green sticking close to her for protection, being terrified by nearly everything.

This is why Green was immensely startled when Wretch spoke.

“Why were you with that pony?”

“Huh?” replied Green with a blink.

“Bark. How did he come to be your master? I may not be in my right mind, but I can tell he was… stupid is the only word that works.”

“Huh?” Green repeated, not comprehending.

“He seemed to believe that the gun gave him power, despite the opponent’s clear advantage.” Wretch glanced at her gun. “How did you come to be his… slave?”

“Oh… uh… I was born… my mom was his slave, so I am… was… too.” Green coughed.

“You seem to have trouble speaking. Are you ill?” Wretch’s voice was filled with concern.

“No! I… I just don’t really talk much.” She looked at her hooves as she kicked at a rock. “Or at all.”

Wretch considered this for a moment. “How old are you?”

“I… don’t know.” Green blushed.

“Perhaps ten?”

Her blush brightened. “I… uh…”

“Seven?”

“I don’t know.” She sniffed. “I don’t know.”

Wretch was silent for a moment. “Do you have anywhere you can go?”

“No. Bark gambled everything away. He just kept me ‘cuz he thought I was…” She gulped.

Wretch’s eyes flashed with fury. “What did he do?”

“Nothing! He didn’t do anything! He was… um… he said that he could… wait a few years…” Green shuddered.

Wretch’s shoulders relaxed as she spun around and brought the scared filly into a hug. “He’s gone now. You don’t have to be scared. It’s okay.”

They stayed like that a moment.

“Wretch?”

“Hmm?”

“Why are you… you said you weren’t in your right mind.”

“I’m not.”

“How?”

“I broke.”

Green blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I broke. Then he took my mind and put the pieces back together as best he could.” Wretch began walking again. “I let my envy of her take over… and I broke.”

“What of who?”

Wretch’s eyes began to tear up. “I killed her. I killed her because she had what I wanted. Because I’m a bad pony.”

“Wretch? Are you okay?” The green pegasus put a hoof on her savior’s arm.

Wretch burst into tears. “I killed her! All because she was lucky and I wasn’t!”

Green didn’t know what to do. She was at a loss. She’d never seen another pony crying like this, not even another slave.

It didn’t matter, though. As quickly as she’d started, Wretch stopped crying, and a cheerful smile spread across her face. “But he fixed me. He made me better, so I can make up for killing an innocent pony. So I can free my brethren.”

Green was immensely confused by the sudden change, but accepted it. It was a far cry better than Bark’s alcohol-induced rages.

“Sorry, Green. I didn’t mean to start crying like that. I know you’re scared, and that isn’t helping. Don’t worry about it. I know I’ll act… strange, but I won’t hurt you. I promise.”

She continued cheerily down the road, leaving a very confused, forest green pegasus with a lime green mane standing in the dust, blinking her orange eyes as she wondered what just happened to her life.

---------
Footnote 1: Diamond Knives
No level gained.
50% xp.
New Item:
Rusty Grenade Rifle.

~~~~~
Footnote 2: Zeed Kazdri
No level gained.
75% xp.

~~~~~
Footnote 3: Raid (???)
No level gained.
50% xp.

`

Quests:
Active Quest:
O’ Father, Where Art Thou?: Infiltrate or assault the Bone Eaters’ base near Bladesville.
Other quests:
Sifting through the dust:
1)
Find information on the location of Ashes.
2)
Find information on the location of Obsidian Knives
3)
–Find information on the location of Nezan Kazdri

-----

(Author’s Notes)

#1: Procrastination does not make perfect.
#2: I am more easily distracted than I thought.
#3: The larch.
#4: I hate having classes and work at the same time.

Sorry for the lack of ACTION! Also sorry for the filigree… and the immense quality drop.

So much for picking up a bit more.

Ttfn.

Thanks to Kkat for Fallout Equestria, and Somber for Project Horizon. Thanks to whoever reads this, and again, critiques are very much welcome.