I am participating in the neighborhood garage sale this Saturday but I’m stuck on pricing things. I know it’s not a get rich quick sale so I am being careful to not over price the items. I also don’t want to way underprice everything. I need the money I just had 4 major things go in my home. Sob story over 😆.
Can anyone help with info that is recent, within the past 2 years. Price of gently used clothes, new brand name sneakers, like new brand name shoes, furniture (wood rocking chair from Cracker Barrel). Fun lamps for tweens room, ok shape name brand backpacks, pictures to hang on wall in kids room. These are just a few things but I’m clueless.
Also, I have an old wedding dress, 15 yrs old, it needs dry cleaning but would that sell?

My dad is 87 and healthy. Looking into moving him into a senior independent living apartment. Very nice place, very nice apartment. We both like it. It is just south of 380 and east of 35. I’ve been hearing about all the homelessness and drugs there (some on Reddit…referring to lady pooping in the Highway in front of Cracker Barrel) and I just want to make sure he will be safe there. I don’t want him getting mugged or anything by a homeless crackhead. I live in Frisco and am very familiar with the college town, artistic environment. I just want him to be safe.

Like I already got the job last month and they finally called me in for orientation and I did that and now I have to do tons of fucking courses before I can even step my foot into training . It was the holiday weekend and all the lady did was keep calling me even though I had already started on the courses I’m trying to hurry up and finish but it takes so long it’s like 16 and 14 courses to do in each section. You have the rundown on everything then they keep repeating it over and over again. Then they have multiple choice questions for each of these things and if you don’t answer correctly they make you take it over again to get a %100 . I’m Already so sick of it and I haven’t even started working. The lady has been on my ass nonestop calling and rushing me to finish these long ass courses like they aren’t long . It takes 4 hours or more to complete. It takes almost 2 hours to get through one course .

For starters - to explain a bit of my "drive". I don't have much in the ways of family or friends, so work is often my social time. I care about those I work with and seeing these people 40 hours a week, I learn a lot about them and take genuine interest in the comings and goings. This has led me to work insanely hard to ensure a smooth work environment and keep drama out of it. The job I'll be talking about was just a simple line cook at a Cracker Barrel. Anyone familiar can probably relate to what it's like having a motivated cook vs an unmotivated one. I genuinely loved that job and I loved the environment and the people I got to meet. I got to be myself, expressive, listen to my own music and made guests happy with great food. I took great pride in every presentation. I worked my way up into management - could work any position and all. I wanted it all.
Flash forward a little bit - covid was ROUGH on us as it was many others. I was a new manager still dealing with many of the covid related stressors. I got assigned to a smaller store to start off with and it was a challenge. The GM quit and after only 4 months of being there or so I ended up in charge of the whole store because the other 2 managers (while great people and LOADS of experience had some issues that made them....not so dependable.) I ended up working 70 hour work weeks, and conference calls on my days off plus non-stop group chat. It had totaled to almost 2 years with no vacation and I was making around 50k a year for that position. I had asked to formally apply to take the position permanently since I was being thanked and told how great I was doing especially for how new I was. I was turned down for being "too new" although the store improved in all aspects during that time. But I was left to keep running it as there were no other options. So I asked for a raise since I was working so much past my contract of 55 a week every week and the extra duties I was assigned plus maintaining things from home. I was turned down. My mental health went down and so I asked for a vacation and was turned down due to having no one to cover. So I kindly stepped down and went back to an hourly rate as a shift leadecook in my original store.
Things were great here, it's a team I had worked with. The team that trained me. I've known for years. Some managers even as long as 10 years. Being on the inside though as Shift lead I was catching conversations of how management was looking for ways to let people go without firing them. To change policies to weed people out. To set people up. They didn't respect anyone. One poor kid put in his two weeks but still needed to work cause he just got his first place, 19 years old. They took him off the schedule, not fire, but gave him zero hours. I remember seeing him cry as managers ignored his questions as to why they would do that and they just walked past him letting him cry in the middle of the isle. Any time someone put in their two weeks - they were immediately let go. They made up policies and refused to put any notifications down. Nothing in the break rooms. Nothing on the clock in stations. Nothing on the office windows and then would write people up for not following them. Firing people who would reach X amount of write ups. I can't tell you how many people would go to back room and cry.
Due to this - and me caring for my fellow employees and knowing as a previous manager that what they were doing was morally wrong (although I was unsure about legal factors) I had asked the manager I had known for ever what was going on. Our GM was out sick for 3 months almost and this woman took over. She was known for being petty and she made the schedule and would make it as she wanted and not what was best for the employees. Well I had asked her what the new policy was that people were upset over and her answer was "Well you're not in trouble with it yet and it doesn't concern you so why do you care and why should I tell you?" . And so we had a public little conversation where I stated that what they were doing was wrong and they should at least notify the team of the changes instead of getting them into trouble. That what they were doing made it seem like they were trying to get people in trouble. She got incredibly upset and my schedule the next week went from 45 hours to 18. And for the next 2 months under the promise of more hours but we were just "slow" I worked what I could, tried to pick up shifts and all. Asking every week and telling them that I couldn't survive off of 18 hours. That I didn't understand because I could shift lead, line cook, grill cook, prep cook, back up, dish, inventory, food order, truck, host, cashier, serve, to-go, SA. Anything. It made no sense that I was the most versatile worker they had and they couldn't find hours for me. Yet they hired like 3 more cooks and many others in the other positions. My stress level grew, anxiety and all and tension was breaking out sure. Finally the GM come back and I asked her if we could sit down and discuss the situation and get everything cleared up. That I needed to go back to full time or I'd have to find another job in order to survive. She talked to the other managers and came back to me saying that the reason my hours were cut was because of my attitude. That the managers were scared to work with me. That I made workers cry and refused to do any work. And that once I proved myself I'd get my hours back. And she even stated "i've worked with you for years and that's never been you so I don't understand what's going on". I tried to tell her she's been gone for 3 months and none of that stuff happened. I asked her to show me the write ups that I would HAVE TO HAVE if they were punishing me for attitude problems. Not a single write up in my file. One week later - schedule comes out, 18 hours. So I told them I had to quit or I couldn't pay my bills. They refused one last time to give me more hours so I took another job that was offered to me. Two managers afterwards told some people I was close with that the situation was wrong and that it was all planned in order to get me to quit. Those two have since left as well.
Fast forward - Due to some military disability issues, the factory life isn't going great. So I have recently applied and interviewed to go back to a DIFFERENT cracker barrel that's close to home. They want to hire me on the spot and everything. Give me shirts and talk about management again and everything. Then when I go in today - it comes back that the previous store put me as a Do not re-hire due to not giving a 2 weeks notice. I explained to the GM that I gave them 2 months notice and tried to resolve any issue I had including going to HR to try and clear things up when the manager involved refused to speak to me. I promised him that I'm nothing but a positive asset to the team and he's reaching out to the District manager to see if they can over-turn my Do not re-hire status. The problem is - the same GM I had is now one of the two DM's that help manage the area I'm in. So I feel that 4 years of my hardest work, dedication, and love for a job is threatened because of a manager who got embarrassed for doing the wrong things decided to put me under. I feel that If I just kept my head down, didn't stand up for the other workers I'd be fine. That's not me, but also financially - I can't let a situation like that happen again.
But how the heck am I suppose to love working again when it can all turn around so easily? How am I suppose to feel motivated and part of a team at any job again? I know to look for other job fields and I'm actively applying to jobs. Due to the military disability I'm trying to find something more remote and easier on me - but cooking wasn't too bad. It's just, I'm struggling hard on my end right now and this job would be the break I need in order to get life together and an issue from 2 years ago for standing up for the team may ruin it for me.

Hello new/returning player! Whether you're considering buying or you've just installed it and don't know where to start, there's a good chance you have some questions about the game. I've been playing pretty much since launch, and since the Discord imploded and the in-game tutorial kinda sucks, I figured this would be a good place to put together a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about Railroads Online. Feel free to scroll through the headings to find what you're looking for!
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Is it worth the money?
Railroads Online is exactly what it says on the tin and exactly what you see in the trailer. There are railroads, they are online, and you do have complete freedom to build your own railroad in a sandbox environment. If that's your cup of tea, try it! Steam's refund policy allows you to refund the game if you have less than 2 hours played and you've owned it for less than 2 weeks, so even if you don't like it when you start, you have a safety net. That said, this game is in early access. And, the regularly-updated branch is a beta to the early access, so it is seriously lacking polish in certain areas. This game is physics-based, and that can take a toll on performance for trains longer than a dozen cars, and the Beta branch reportedly has some people's GPUs on their knees. Updates also regularly introduce bugs, ranging from mildly amusing to make-sure-you-back-up-your-save-file. For some people that sort of thing is understandably not worth $35, while for others it gives the game character. I've gotten close to 10 hours of playtime for every dollar I spent on it, so obviously I'd be inclined to say it's worth it, but everybody's experience will be different.
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Note: The following guide is geared towards the Beta version of the game. This version has the most features, looks the best, and receives regular updates, though there are a number of known performance and stability issues. The majority of it still applies to both versions of the game regardless, though the largest changes have been to track laying.

Getting Started

Warning: Remember, this is Railroads Online. There is no "offline" mode, strictly speaking, but you can drag the "player limit" slider down to 1. If you're going to play with other people, use a password. If you ever forget to, and someone comes in and undoes all of your hard work, you will never forget again. You have been warned!
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Your first railroad
So, you've launched the game! Congratulations! Now what? Well, it's probably good to get yourself oriented first.
The game spawns you in on the spawning platform. The three tracks you've spawned next to are permanent, and they are where new equipment spawns when you purchase it. You are given Betsy, a flatcar, and $2000 for free, and the rest is left up to you.
Before you run any trains, you'll need to build some track to run them on. Take care here, because there is no edit tool; if you build something, the only way to change it is to delete sections and rebuild. Measure twice, cut once, and make it look nice the first time so you don't have to redo it later. Or something.
Press G to bring up the majority of your sandbox tools: Track Construction, Facilities, Locomotives (the shop), Demolish, Rerail, and Logging, plus the Respawn button. I will cover all of these tools in time, but for now, all you need to be familiar with are the Track Construction tab, the Demolish tool, and the Logging tool.
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Track Construction
Track laying in this game has been... fucky... for a long time. It's a LOT better now than it used to be, but I still recommend downloading RROx (Railroads Online Extended) and using the fast sprint cheat when you're building. It will save you hours (not to mention the other features it offers).
First of all, everything in this game except for rolling stock is FREE! Go nuts! Want to triple-track the main? You can! Want to fill the entire southern half of the map with water towers? Your call! Fun first, safety third. Anyway:
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In the Track Construction menu, you will be greeted by a bunch of track options. Feel free to place them wherever to get an idea of what they are.
The first row is, of course, 3 foot narrow-gauge rail. The I, II, and III varieties are identical except for the amount of ballast. I has some, II has a bit more, and III has a lot. On cliff faces, too much ballast can cause ugly clipping, so it's best to use tier I when you can and step it up if it's too short. The game will not let you place a node if the spline is not supported by ground or some other structure at every point.
The default building mode is spline mode. Click once to place the first node, and click somewhere else to place the second node. Boom! You've placed your first track segment. If you click on the ground, it will face whatever direction your UI currently says it's facing, but if you click on another piece of track it will do its best to connect to the other node as smoothly as possible. This can result in some janky turns if you're not careful, so keep that in mind. There are keybinds to rotate the endpoints to face the direction you want them to. Track will not snap to another track unless you see the glowing chain link icon above it. If you don't see it at first, walk around a little, staring at the desired connection point until you trigger the hitbox.
The other building mode is circle mode. It does what it says on the tin– your track will follow a circular arc with the radius you specify. Use smaller segments if you can, because for some reason the angles get weird if you try to do more than 90° in a single segment. In this mode, you can snap to existing track on your first click, but it will not snap to another track for your second click because it only cares about following the circle. This build mode is useful for a number of reasons, not least of which being the ability to see what your maximum turning radius is. A 30 meter radius is the minimum, but on your main line you should aim to stay above 60-100 meters to avoid derailments at high speeds.
Next in the menu: switches. If you know what trains are, you probably know what switches are. In RRO, if a switch is pointing one way, and you come in from the other, it will automatically align with you to let you through, unless A.) you are in a handcart, or B.) it is the 3-way stub switch. Also note that they are not perfect mirror images of each other (not sure how they managed to mess that up but oh well), which may cause problems when creating complex structures like yards.
The 90° crossover piece is your friend when designing parallel tracks. You can chain them together to ensure equal spacing, matching angles, or you can simply use them as placeholder nodes to snap your track to if you need to delete part of it. Two crossover pieces are far enough apart for two trains to pass each other comfortably, so it's handy for smoothing your double-tracks, if you choose to build them. The 45° crossover piece is also good, for when you want a spacer piece that's slightly longer than the 90°, or if you don't want your simple wyes to be a hundred feet across. (Still waiting on that 10° crossover, Astragon.)
Turntables are what you expect them to be. The plain Turntable I is small enough to fit in some tight spaces like yards, but a lot of locomotives will only fit on Turntable II. Turntables have historically been a bit buggy, particularly if you reload a save while something is on it, so be wary.
The bumper is a bumper. 'Nuff said.
Embankments are ballast without the rail. They're nice as decoration around the base of certain structures, or as filler in between the tracks in yards, or as ballast for bumpers and crossovers. You can also access a similar trackless version of the stone wall by using its drop-down menu.
Bridges and stone walls work exactly the same as ballast track: they will not allow you to place a node if the spline is not supported everywhere. However, there is a workaround for this: nodes can be supported by ballast. If you use small enough segments, 3 Ft Rail III can be used to cross gaps using just the previous segment's ballast as support. If you fill the gap with ballast, you can place your bridge on top of it, and then remove the ballast later. You can pretty it up with some stone walls as supports, if you want to.
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And that's everything currently in the Track Construction menu! The Engine Shed and the Coaling Tower also have small pieces of track, but they are kept in the Facilities menu.
Note: You can make it to pretty much every industry in the game with less than a 3% grade. In real life, this is considered pretty steep, but in-game you can get away with even steeper track if you can't be bothered to work out the best path.
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Demolish Tool
The demolish tool is delightfully simple. It deletes things! By default, it only deletes rail, but that can be changed with the drop-down menu. Be very careful using the "All" option-- you could accidentally delete your rolling stock.
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The Logging Tool
The logging tool will probably be your second most-used tool, right after track construction, because everywhere you want to place track, there are trees in the way. You can click almost anywhere on the tree to remove it, and it does this for free, but you might have trouble removing a tree if the bottom two-thirds of it are buried in ballast. If spam-clicking feels tedious, you can hold down the mouse button until the saw finds a part of the trunk that it likes.
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That should be everything you need to know to build your first railway!
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Industries

In Railroads Online, your objective is money. Moneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoney. But u/Embite, I hear you ask, how do I GET money? Well, I'm glad you asked! The answer is industries.
There are 9 industries in RRO, which you can see on the map: the Smelter, the Sawmill, the Logging Camp, the Freight Depot, the Iron Ore Mine, the Oil Field, the Ironworks, the Refinery, and the Coal Mine.
Each industry has inputs and outputs. For example, the Logging Camp has two output platforms: one for logs and one for cordwood. To load a car with the output, simply position your railcar where the crane drops the cargo and click the crane to start loading. For some outputs like the iron mine, there's a chute instead of a crane, but it's the same idea. When you unload a car, the cargo teleports to the side you clicked on, so make sure you're standing on the platform that you want to deliver to.
The inputs and outputs for each industry is listed in the table below.
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Location	Input	Output
Freight Depot	Anything	Nothing
Logging Camp	Nothing	Logs, Cordwood
Sawmill	Logs	Beams, Lumber
Iron Ore Mine	Beams, Lumber	Iron Ore
Smelter	Iron Ore, Cordwood	Raw Iron, Rails
Coal Mine	Beams, Rails	Coal
Ironworks	Lumber, Raw Iron, Coal	Steel Pipes, Tools
Oil Field	Beams, Steel Pipes, Tools	Crude Oil
Refinery	Lumber, Steel Pipes, Crude Oil	Oil Barrel

You should notice a few things:

1. Logging Camp has no inputs. This is where the supply chain of RRO starts. The lumberjacks do all of their work for free, and they will never run out of logs, or cordwood.
2. Freight Depot (the big warehouse near spawn) has no outputs. This is where you can return to sell whatever products you've collected and turn them in for straight cash. You get the same amount of money regardless of which buyer you send cargo to, so it's recommended that you try to deliver to another industry whenever possible, since you get money AND more cargo to sell, rather than just the money. If all you need is money though, the Freight Depot is where to go.
3. There is a clear progression from one industry to the next. I've ordered the table so that once you've connected to one industry in the list, your railroad will have access to all of the cargo needed for the next industry down.

While it's best to try and deliver to new industries whenever possible, sometimes (especially early on) you will simply run out of money for all the new railcars you need to haul the stuff. For the early game, my best suggestion is to run beams from the sawmill straight to the freight depot. Stake flats (which carry beams) are among the cheapest rolling stock, and each carload is worth $72, compared to $60 for a flatcar of logs. You only need 3 beams per car, so it's fast to load and unload. While cordwood is also easy to do, with each carload worth $80, each flat is much more expensive to buy, and each car carries 8 units of cordwood, making the loading time much longer. Plus, many more industries use stake flats than the cordwood flats, so you will be investing in the future of your railroad as you go.
Another way to make money in RRO is via Firewood Depots and Coaling Towers, which brings us to the next available construction tool,
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Facilities
Facilities are buildings you place down yourself to facilitate the management of your railway. At the top of the menu are the Sand House, the Firewood Depot, and the Coaling Tower. They're very self-explanatory: The Sand House contains sand to refill your locomotive's sander, the Firewood Depot is where you restock on firewood, and the Coaling Tower is where you restock on coal. The Sand House is, as far as I can tell, unimplemented as of 5/29/2023, but the others are very important. In RRO, you need to produce the fuel that runs your railroad.
Firewood Depots are easy to stock, not least of all because they spawn in full of firewood, in case you run out in the middle of nowhere. To refill a Firewood Depot that has been exhausted, you simply unload any form of wooden cargo (logs, lumber, beams, or cordwood) onto the side of the platform that doesn't have firewood on it. When designing your yards, it's always smart to make space for a firewood depot, because the platforms are spaced far apart and most locomotives in RRO run on firewood.
Coaling towers do not spawn in stocked with coal, and coal is not available until about half of the map is connected by your railroad, so coal-fired locomotives will be a late-game commodity. Once you have access to them, though, they are restocked in much the same way as firewood depots.
Water towers are also important. Without water, your trains have no steam, so place these wherever they're convenient. They refill slowly on their own.
Engine sheds are purely cosmetic in this game, since the locomotives don't require servicing or shelter. They are, however, available in a variety of nice paint schemes, and a roundhouse is a great way to spruce up any boring-looking switching yards.
The last facility is the Telegraph Office, which is the most convenient structure in the game. Wherever on the map you place one, your map will be updated with a brown box with a T in it. Clicking his box allows you to teleport to any telegraph office from anywhere else in the game, saving you a lot of walking between industries and yards.
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Locomotives (the shop), and Companies
The shop is where you use your hard-earned money to buy locomotives and rolling stock. You can check your funds in-game by pressing P. The "tier" of an item is the level your player needs to be in order to purchase it. Your level increases every time you deliver cargo to an industry. When other players join your game, they can join your company by pressing Tab and clicking "Join Company" next to your name. When they do this, any delivery they make will count as a delivery for you, not them, which increases your money and XP much faster than doing it all alone. Employment is forgotten when the player relogs.
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Rerailing
Rerailing is finicky. Basically, you click "rerail," spam LMB on whatever you're trying to rerail until its name appears in the UI, and then walk around looking at track until it appears where you want it to. You can flip it around with LMB, and then drop it with RMB. Rerailing on switches currently seems to be a little broken.
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Respawning
This option will send you back to the spawn yard if you ever manage to get stuck. It was more useful before telegraph offices were added, and most of the gamebreaking ways to get stuck have been patched, but if you want to use it you simply click and hold until you respawn.
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Trains!!!!!!1!1!!!

Now, with a line of track connecting your spawning yard with the logging camp, you're ready to finally fire up your Porter 0-4-0 and run some trains! In case you're new to operating a steam locomotive, here's a quick rundown of the controls:
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Controls
First, open up the firebox and throw a few logs on the fire. Pick up logs with LMB, look at the firebox until the UI displays its temperature in the top left, and throw with RMB. You can throw logs back onto the pile if you picked up too many (you can hold up to 5 at once). Now you have to wait for the fire to heat up, which then makes the boiler heat up, and then you will finally see the dial on your pressure gauge increase. Once you've got pressure, you can move the locomotive.
The big lever above the firebox is the regulator, aka the throttle. It basically controls how fast your built-up steam enters the cylinder, or in other words, how much power you're sending to the piston, and by extension, the wheels.
The lever coming out of the floor is the reverser (or the Johnson bar), which controls at what point in the cylinder's stroke steam is allowed to enter the chamber. All the way forward means that steam comes in anytime it would push the wheels forward, and all the way back means that steam comes in anytime it would push the wheels backwards. In between, it controls whether the steam flow is constant, or if it comes in short bursts. Or, at least, that's how it works in real life. IRL you can achieve more efficient steam usage by setting the reverser bar near the middle and letting the regulator stay open; however, in RRO, as far as I can tell it simply multiplies the % the regulator is open and the % that the reverser is set and uses that number as the "go amount." So, for all intents and purposes, the reverser is just another regulator (in RRO).
The lever to the right of that is the brake. Betsy (i.e. the Porter 0-4-0) has a mechanical brake, meaning it applies braking force as long as you have it on. In some locomotives, though, the brakes are powered by a steam-powered compressor, which you need to activate yourself via a valve somewhere, or else your brakes will have no effect.
The whistle and the bell do as you expect. There is another handle which opens the cylinder cocks, which as of 5/29/2023 is purely cosmetic, as are the sanders. IRL, cylinder cocks are used to blow condensed water out of the cylinders, and sanders are used for extra traction in slippery conditions.
Finally, most locomotives have lamps that you can turn on and off with LMB, or by using the steam-powered generator, if it has one.
And that's pretty much it! Different locomotives have different features, and levers are often in slightly different places, but they all operate on the same general principles. Locomotives are also often specialized for a particular job. For example, engines like the Eureka are specialized for high speeds with low power, while engines with shorter wheel bases like the D&RGW Class 48 are specialized for sharp turns and yardwork, while the geared locomotives like shays and heislers are specialized for steep tracks in mountainous terrain. You can find a number of resources online to find statistics for each of the different RRO locomotives.
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Coupling
The 3 foot narrow-gauge railway in RRO uses what is called "Link and pin" coupling, which uses, unsurprisingly, links and pins. To couple two cars together, you need enough space to fit a link between them. Press LMB to insert a link in the coupler. Only one car should have a link. Once the link is in place, push the cars together and use RMB to place a pin in both couplers. Et voila! Your train is now longer.
Tender locomotives have unique couplers. First of all, instead of a link, tenders are connected to the cab by a drawbar. Press LMB on the tender, then back up the locomotive and use RMB to hitch it to the drawbar with a pin. For locomotives with cowcatchers, the front is outfitted with a drawbar as well, which can be extended and retracted with LMB. This link is weaker than the usual link-and-pin, so only use this for short, slow trips or yardwork.
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External Tools

While straight-up modding RRO is currently very difficult, there do exist certain external tools to help provide you with a more enjoyable experience with a game that is, at times, excessively grindy.
RROx
RROx, or Railroads Online Extended, is by far the most useful RRO extension I've come across. It offers a real-time minimap (that maps your rail lines for you!), remote control of locomotives, cranes, and switches, unrestricted teleporting, cheats like free money, fast-sprint and flight, as well as optional access to all of these features for other RROx users that join your game. It even provides everything necessary to create a plugin of your own, if you're so inclined.
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Railroad Studio
railroad.studio is a free online save file editor for RRO. With it you can replace trees, rename/repaint locomotives and rolling stock, delete track, cheat in money, etc. Currently the go-to save editor.
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Technical Bits

Just some extra technical bits that are worth knowing:

• A lot of the game's files are stored in your AppData/Local folder under the name arr, a name inherited from the devs' previous game, American Railroads.
• Your save files are stored in %localappdata%\arr\Saved\SaveGames.
• A number of config settings are stored in plaintext .ini files in arSaved/Config/Windows, where you can edit settings like the maximum view distance beyond what is usually allowed. The maximum setting typically allowed is 3, but I've increased this to 10 without any notable performance drop. Nevertheless, edit settings beyond supported values at your own risk. The game needs to be restarted for settings changed in this way to take effect.

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Miscellaneous Tips

• All controls can be rebound in the controls menu.
• You can change your POV with V, and you can lean left and right with R and T.
• If you prefer to drive with the GUI instead of in first person, you may have an easier time finding the button prompt by standing in front of the locomotive rather than inside it.
• Placing a switch, then a 45° on the turnout, and finally another switch so that the straight edge is parallel with your first switch, creates two lanes that are far enough apart to fit the switch's lever on the inside.
• If you back far enough away, track and ballast hitboxes will despawn and let you place things inside of them.
• There is a large, flat plateau northeast of the smelter that is a convenient place for a yard connecting the smelter, iron mine, and coal mine.
• There is a lot of space for a yard just over the hill west of the freight depot.
• The un-deletable track southeast of the spawning track is for the shop.
• The game keeps a list of every tree you've cut down and uses this to load the map, which (allegedly) makes the game take longer to load if you cut more trees than you need to. Use a save file editor like railroad.studio to replace missing trees.
• The walkway on Bridges II is always on your left as you build it.
• You can snap track to turntables if you rotate it to where you want the connection to be.
• Firewood depots only replenish the piles if every pile is missing at least 5 logs.
• If you're strapped for cash, loading a car with logs and then immediately unloading that car to a firewood depot on the other side is fast, easy money. This is pretty cheaty though, so you might as well save yourself some time and just use a save file editor.
• A switch's turnout is about 10 degrees.
• Locomotives don't respond to changes in the controls until a 1-second timer counts down. The timer resets every time you make a change, but letting go (releasing left-click) applies the change immediately.

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That's pretty much everything I've got. I hope that this guide has been of use to you! If I forgot something, got something wrong, or you have an idea for how to improve this guide, feel free to leave it as a comment below. Happy railroading!

Obesity is becoming more widespread as people’s lives get busier, leaving them with less time to prepare meals and exercise. To better preserve your health and get back in shape, you should start by creating a meal for obese people.
Obesity can cause a variety of serious illnesses, including osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, sleeplessness, and others. However, if you know how to prepare an appropriate weight reduction food, you can avoid the aforementioned risks. So, what are the menu planning guidelines for obese persons to assist them control their weight and safeguard their health?

Menu planning principles for fat adults

According to a 2017 study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, those who plan their meals ahead of time are less likely to be overweight or obese. These people also eat a wider variety of foods and have healthier diets. Furthermore, having a ready-made menu allows them to save money on eating out.

To build a healthy weight loss menu for fat persons, keep the following concepts in mind:

1. Cut back on greasy foods:

Fried foods with a lot of fat not only make the weight loss menu unsuccessful, but they also cause a slew of hazardous health issues. These are the foods that overweight and obese people should avoid if they want to lose weight and improve their health.

2. Eat nutritious foods:

A meal should have enough protein (15%), fat (30%, with no more than 10% saturated fat), and complex carbohydrates (55% of the diet). You can acquire enough of the aforementioned nutritional categories by eating the following foods:

• Egg
• Salmon, shrimp, and other seafood
• Healthy oils such as olive oil, avocado oil, and so on.
• Beef, chicken, hog, lamb, and so forth…
• Cauliflower, spinach, cabbage, celery, cucumber, and other green veggies…

To ensure food safety, look for a trusted supplier when purchasing these goods.

3. Split meals:

When creating a weight reduction menu, avoid eating too many meals and instead divide the food you need to eat during the day into numerous little meals. This will make it easier for you to control how much food you consume. When eating, you should also take your time, chew thoroughly, and concentrate on your food. This manner of eating allows the brain to signal to you when you are full, allowing you to stop in time, and it also allows the stomach to perform more efficiently.

4. Limit sugary water:

Sugar-free and calorie-free water, such as filtered water, should be prioritized on the menu for fat persons. You should also avoid sugary beverages such as soft drinks, sports drinks, and bottled water. Even juice contains some sugar, so be cautious when incorporating this type of water in your weight reduction meal.

5. Have food ready:

Even though there are plenty of healthy options, you may be too tired to cook on hectic, tiring days. To reduce cooking time on busy days, choose a free day to prep the ingredients or cook the finished dish and refrigerate it. This food preparation approach is known as meal prep, and it is a clever way to cook food for 2-3 days in one session. You’ll stop eating out and have more control over how many calories you consume at each meal if you have meal prep meals in the fridge.
You can look online for more food preparation ideas to create excellent yet visually appealing foods. Cookbooks can also be purchased if you enjoy reading.

How to Create a Weight Loss Menu Every Day

Depending on their tastes, allergies, or readily available foods, each person approaches the secrets of creating a weight loss plan in a unique way. However, you might get more ideas from the diet menus listed below.

Menu for Losing Weight in the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, olive oil, fish, and other nutritious foods. This diet does not focus on calorie or fat reduction, but rather on eating foods high in fiber, lean protein, and unsaturated fats. This diet has been demonstrated in numerous studies to lower the risk of death, improve weight, and prevent cardiovascular disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
You can use the following menu to lose weight:

• Cereal with Greek yogurt and cheese for breakfast
• Lunch: Whole wheat bread with sesame grilled chicken
• Afternoon salad of salmon, beets, and raspberries
• Snack: roasted almonds, beets, and your favorite vegetables with yogurt sauce

Clean eating diet menu

Eat clean, also known as clean eating, is a nutritious diet that will help you lose weight while protecting your health. You will eat nutritious snacks on this plan, so you will feel fuller for longer and eat less during your main meal.

• Breakfast: Greek yogurt topped with sliced strawberries, walnuts, and chia seeds.
• Toasted grain bread with cheese and mango sauce for breakfast
• Brown rice with salmon and Japanese soybeans for lunch
• Banana with flaxseed for an afternoon snack
• Turkey and salad for dinner

Weight loss menu high in protein

Protein-rich foods help you grow muscle and burn fat, making them ideal for athletes. This nutrient-dense diet will also help you feel fuller for longer and have fewer cravings, allowing you to avoid overeating at each meal.

• Broccoli and Parmesan for breakfast
• Northern plums for breakfast
• Pumpkin soup with chickpea butter for lunch
• Snack for the Afternoon: Kiwi
• Brown rice with cooked fish and asparagus for dinner

Weight loss menu with low fat and salt

Fat and salt not only interfere with weight loss, but they can also harm heart health. The menu below will assist you in avoiding substances that are hazardous to your body and health.

• Cooked oats with walnuts, bananas, and skim milk for breakfast
• Broccoli, low-fat cream cheese, plain low-fat yogurt with flaxseed, half a peach, unsalted crackers for lunch
• Dinner consists of salmon, green beans, almonds, a salad with low-fat dressing, skim milk, and an orange.
• Skim milk and cookies for a snack

You can tailor the components in the suggested weight reduction menus above to your eating habits, tastes, health, and cooking abilities. The amount of food consumed at each meal is also entirely determined by the amount of physical activity performed each day. Adjust your food intake such that the calories you consume are less than the calories you burn.
Obesity has serious consequences, but you may protect yourself by closely monitoring your food. A sensible meal for obese individuals will assist you in controlling your calorie consumption, avoiding harmful foods, and easily achieving a more reasonable weight. The ideal shape and weight are heavily influenced by how you organize and stick to the weight reduction food on a daily basis.

I’ve been working on a redstone Cracker Barrel triangle game and it should be done soon. I created my own randomizer for it. More pictures will come when it’s done.

The only ones I've been able to find are Captain D's, Bonefish, and Cracker Barrel. Does anyone know of any others, preferably priced closer to Cracker Barrel than Bonefish?

Hey all,
So I wanted to get everyones opinion on the usefulness of firearms as a hunter vs non-hunter. I really hate how OP to 75% (400% in reality) skill buffs from professions are. I didnt actually realize how huge of an effect it is until I found 2 boxes of shotgun shells in the 1st house on my hunter run.
With two boxes of shotgun rounds and a double barrel I leveled my shooting skill to 5. I think thats ridiculous. The main issue with aiming though is the absurd soft cap they put on it at level 5. Without any XP boost it would take me ~20-25 boxes of shotgun ammo to go from level 5 to 6. Which is obviously ridiculous.
So my question boils down to this:
How effective is shooting at level 5-6 vs levels 9-10? I want to go non-hunter but my concern is that i'll get to the 'end game' with level 6 shooting and it will be very meh. On the flip side I dont want to have level 10 shooting mid-game with Hunter activated and be able to rip through towns/hordes because I have 4x the ammo I would normally have and a much higher skill.
I'm currently sitting at the main menu trying to decide what to do.

Hello everyone. I recently platinummed the PSVITA version of Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time as my 28th platinum. It only took me 10 years, 4 weeks, 22 hours to do it. Did you know this game hides its true ending behind the platinum?
Anyway, I'd like to talk about the experience.
Sly 4 was a bit confusing and inconsistent to platinum. I get the feeling the game wants you to platinum it given how on every loading screen it shows you how much you've completed the trophies and collectibles for the game. And that there no missable trophies. But there are some decisions that don't help with that.
So I'd say there are around 3 groups of Trophies in this game.
The first group are the mandatory story trophies. Not much to say about these. There's nothing missable here and the names are quite cool. I do like looking at the percent completion to see how many players completed the PS VITA version of the game. Did you know that around 73% of players booted this game up and completed the prologue? And only around 25% of players even beat the game. The biggest drop happened around the start of Episode 2 since the completion dropped from around 60%to 48% for some reason.
The second group are the trophies for the collectibles and arcades. I'll talk about these later.
The third and final group of trophies are for miscellaneous challenges. I'll start with these first and highlight some of the notable ones that I missed on my first playthrough.
"Crazed Climber - Scale the dragon lair in under 90 seconds". This was one I missed during my original playthrough of the game. This requires you to climb a giant tower filled with traps in the mission "Mechanical Menace". And this one was really fun even though it took me like 3 attempts. Sly 4's movement and platforming is quite fun so having a mini speedrun challenge using Sir Galleth's moveset was a treat. The one criticism I have here is that the game drops a checkpoint as soon as you get to the top. If you haven't gotten the trophy by then and need to retry, you need to quit to the main menu/hideout and reselect the mission, skip through all the cutscenes and get back there which gets annoying. At least the tower is near the start of the mission.
"Ancient Warfare 3 - Crackshot 10 enemies within 65 seconds. Sly's ancestor, Tennessee "Kid" Cooper" has an ability similar to "Dead Eye" from Red Dead Redemption where he can slow down time, mark enemies and objects and then instantly shoot them dead called "Crackshot". I never got this trophy when I first played the game because there wasn't much opportunity to. There aren't large groups of enemies wandering around that you can casually get 10+ of them line up for you to shoot them. Plus, I was already good at shooting them normally. I tried running around in the open world trying to lure enemies but found it wasn't working. There's a mission in the game called "Blind Date" that throws lots of rabbit enemies that chuck TNT at you that worked better for me.
"Hubba Hubba - Don't miss a beat in the Carmelita dance game." This trophy is, without a doubt, the main reason to platinum this game on VITA instead of the PS3. So nobody can see you play this dumb minigame and call you a Furry. This trophy requires you to complete the minigame where Carmilita needs to disguise herself as a belly dancer and dance to distract guards while the Cooper gang try and open a door. You just need to hit the button prompts perfectly. So you can ignore the times the minigame asks you to shake the VITA from side to side like a champagne bottle to make Carmilita shake her ass (seriously, why does this game sexualize Carmilita so much? None of the past Sly games did it).
"Get To the Chopper - Don't take any damage during Up In Smoke." This one was actually fun. In the mission "Up in Smoke", you have to control an RC Helicopter and drop bombs on turrents while drones and mines chase you down. It was fun dodging and weaving through them. There are 3 phases to this mission and you have a checkpoint in between every phase. So if you mess up, you can just restart the checkpoint to the last phase. You don't need to avoid taking damage the whole way through which is nice.
"Unexpected Package - Place 60 bombs in enemy pockets with Bentley." When I first saw this trophy, I groaned. This would be a massive grind. And I had actually made it harder on myself. You see, normally, when you sneak up behind an enemy as Bentley and hold triangle, Bentley will try to put a bomb in the enemy's pocket. Larger enemies won't notice this but smaller enemies will. But the main issue is that I had previously unlocked the Heat Seeking upgrade for Bentley. Meaning sometimes, the bombs would "miss" and stick to an enemy guard's arms or legs instead. So it was annoying going around the hub world and planting bombs on guards.....until I remembered that I had purchased the upgrade for sleep bombs. My plan now was just to find a lone guard on a rooftop, try and place one sleep bomb into his back pocket and detonate it. He'd then fall asleep. Then I'd go to his sleeping body and try placing 5 sleeping bombs in his pocket and back away (the max you can place at any one time). When he wakes him, I'd detonate all 5 which set him to sleep and then repeat. Even if I'd "miss" a few bombs that would stick to their legs instead, I generally 3 or 4 bombs work perfectly. So it didn't take long to get all 60.
"Apollo Wins - Have the perfect workout during the Training Montage." During the mission "Getting Stronger", you have to do a training montage with Bob where you alternate through 6 minigames as you complete them with the minigames getting harder as you complete them. The trophy requires you to complete 10 randomly selected minigames without making a single mistake. If you mess up, you can restart the checkpoint to the beginning of the montage and have to play through a new set of 10 randomly selected minigames. The Minigames are "Slippery Slope" where you balance an egg on a beam using motion controls while penguins jump around on the floating iceberg you are standing on. "Penguin Popper" where Penguins are diving in front of you and you have to play baseball using them. "Sumo Slap" where you have to perform QTEs to push a giant penguin out of a Sumo Ring. "Duck and Cover" where penguins get launched at you from 4 different directions and you have to move the left stick to dodge them. "Super Sling" which requires you to use a catapult to launch a penguin at a flying pterodactyl. And "Whack a chump" which is Whack a Mole but with penguins. Some of which are fake and you should avoid.
Penguin Popper was easy. Once you get the timing down it's easy to get into a rhythm and hit the penguins since they don't vary when they dive. Whenever this popped into the rotation, I considered it a freebie. Sumo Slap was extremly easy. The button mashing was extremely generous. This was another freebie. Duck and Cover requires a bit more focus because of the timing and inconsistent patterns. It's not too challenging. Interestingly, I noticed that the VITA's speakers would reflect if the penguin was coming from the right or left but not above or below you. I guess headphones would make this easier but I had no need for it. I was generally glad when this popped up in the rotation. Whack a Chump was a bit harder than Penguin Popper because there is no set pattern and the additional challenge of not hitting the fake penguins. But it wasn't too bad. I was glad when this popped up in the rotation.
Super Sling and Slippery Slope were the 2 I dreaded and the ones I messed up the most on. Super Sling doesn't give you much indication of where your sling will go. The Pterodactyls have varied speeds so you can't rely on pattern recolonization and reactions. And there's time pressure as taking too long counts as a miss. And it kept popping up in the rotations for some reason!
Slippery Slope was stressful because of the motion controls and how wild later versions of it were.
"The Cooper Open - Have a 20 hit rally with Bentley in each hideout." There are 6 hideouts in the game. In each hideout there is a table tennis table where you as Sly can play a round of table tennis with Bentley. I question the inclusion of it but I suppose it can be a nice distraction. This trophy requires you get a sequences where both you and Bentley hit the ball back and forth 10 times each (or 20 times overall) without missing. And repeat for each of the 6 tables. I found Bentley kept messing up so I had to intentionally hold back and avoid making good shots and try and hit the ball towards him. The main issue is the fact you have to repeat it 6 times. I feel it would be better off just once and as nothing is really added by doing it 6 times. If anything, it's more annoying given the long load times to switch hideouts and Bentley's random AI.
"Hassan Would Be Proud - Pickpocket a full collection of every item in the game." Each of the 6 or so locations have around 3-4 items that can be pickpocketted from guards. The main issue with this trophy is that it doesn't keep track of which items you have already pickpocketed in any way. The game already tracks how many treasures and masks you've found per general area but not pickpocketted items.
I only got this trophy by planning on systematically going through every location in the game and pickpocketting every enemy item and noting down which ones I found.....only to get it in the first level when I used Murray's shake move on some rat enemies. Enemies that you never encounter or have a reason or opportunity to naturally pickpocket. I guess 2013 me had already gotten 99% of these items previously.
"Navigate Like Drake - Take a look at every map in every episode". I found this trophy really annoying. The way it works is that every location in the game, including linear interiors that are exclusive to missions and even the hideouts, have a map you can look at by pressing SELECT. The game doesn't keep track of which locations you've seen the map of. So I had to systamatically play the game from the first mission and press SELECT whenever I entered a new interior. Then quit out and play the next mission and repeat. It popped for me in Episode 4 so somehow, 2013 me had looked at all the maps in Episode 5 without realizing it.
I don't like this trophy. It doesn't really add anything. The player would already be looking at the maps in the hub worlds where they would be at their most useful since those are open world sections. They have no real reason to use the map in linear interiors. And even less useful in hideouts as these aren't even explorable. They are basically just menus that happen to have a 3D background. I'd be more forgiving of this trophy if the map showed collectibles at least. That way, players have more of a reason to use this feature.
Shout out to the Lazy Trunk Spa & Lounge. A secret area in the game that contains a mask collectible and counts for the trophy with a unique map. No mission ever goes here. So even if you were to play diligently and open the map for every area you encounter, you'd still miss this. I only knew this existed because the trophy guide I looked at told me about it so I decided to tag this area while doing the "Get to the Chopper" trophy.
"Hero Tech - Battle with a secret weapon" Once you collect 50 Sly masks. You unlock Ratchet's wrench from Ratchet and Clank. This weapon even turns the coins you collect into bolts. Collecting 60 Masks unlocks Cole's Amp from inFAMOUS. This can electrocute the enemies you hit. I chose to use Cole's Amp to get the trophy as a tribute to inFAMOUS. Killed by Ghost of Tsumia 😭. May it rest in peace. Gone too soon.
That covers all the miscellaneous trophies. Now for the collectibles and arcades.
Sly 4 has a bunch of different collectibles scattered in each of its 6 episodes.
Bottles: Each hub world contains 30 bottles. Collecting all of them gives you access to unlock a safe hidden somewhere in the hub world. Unlocking that safe rewards you a special treasure. Bottles make a "clinking" sound when you're near them so if you're having a hard time finding them, try going into the game's settings and turning down the music and voice sounds. If you find the safe in Episode 3, the special treasure it gives you will highlight bottles and safes in every other episode on your map which is quite nice. I wish the game did this more often. If it hides collectibles from the player, at least give the player an endgame ability to highlight them. It makes it more feasible and fun to complete these tasks instead of combing every last inch (or looking up a guide).
Treasures: Each hub world has around 11 treasures scattered all around. The gimmick here is that in order to collect them, you first need to find where they are in the hub world. Then once you pick them, you need to race back to your hideout under a certain time limit and without taking any damage. If you mess up, you need to repeat the process. The treasures generally require you to have all of Sly's costumes. And a couple require you to be playing as Sir Galleth because England has increased gravity for some reason. Some of these treasures are really well hidden. Requiring you to go to these holes in the middle of nowhere which then require you to switch between some of Sly's costumes. Like, if you open the map when picking some of these up, you'll find Sly is located beyond the borders of the area.
I found it way more fun to race back to the hideout than actually finding them. It was tedious to find many of them because of how well hidden they are. There is no tool or item in the game that can help mark them on your map. Well, I say that. Supposedly, if you have both the PS3 and VITA versions of the game and play them at the same time, you can use the VITA like a scannebinoculars to locate these treasures. And then use the Cross Save feature to nab them in both versions. I only have the VITA version so no luck for me. Again, I'd argue it would be better if there was an endgame upgrade or tool you could get that would mark the treasures like how the game does it for bottles. There isn't even a "clinking sound" or any help for these.
Anyway, collecting all the treasures for an episode unlocks the arcade machine minigame for that episode.
Also sidenote, but this game has the worst map screen that still somehow can be useful. The map gives a top down view of the area but with a blue filter. This makes it harder and more annoying to navigate and use landmarks for reference. Especially on the VITA with its smaller screen. There are also no icons on the map (aside from bottles, safes and objectives) or the ability to make your own markers. The VITA version makes it worse as you can't even use the buttons to navigate the map. You have to use the touchscreen even though that's not how it is in the PS3 version. But you can still use it to know where you are and where collectibles can be from guides. It's technically readable and useful but just barely. I've never seen a map in a game so perfectly walk the line between useful and annoying.
The next collectible are Sly Masks. There are 60 total and around 11 per Episode. Collecting them unlocks skins and some goodies. But the catch with them is that they can be anywhere. There can be a couple in the hub world. But also couple during select missions and even some in the arcade minigames. There's no way to know where any of them are. They generally tend to be really well hidden even if you are trying to scour every area.
Again, I wish there was a way to highlight them. The game's long load times make it a chore to switch episodes or missions so it's tedious to try searching for them manually.
Now it's time to talk about the arcades. Sly 4 has 3 arcade minigames that are used in both the main missions and have a harder version in the arcades in hideouts. The arcade versions of these minigames are harder, go on for much longer and can have secret paths that lead to portals that reward you with points and some of them even have Sly masks. You need to beat the high scores to get the trophies
The first minigame is "Alter Ego". This has you play this 2D auto scrolling twin stick shooter minigame where you must avoid enemies and collect these "ionic bits". Collecting 5 yellow bits levels you up so your weapons get more powerful. At level 10 you have shoot crazy fast, can launch missiles and have floating drones that can damage enemies around you. But whenever you take damage, you drop an entire level. And you get left behind as the level autoscrolls, you respawn at level 0. You can also collect blue bits which can give you a grenade explosion around you.
Personally, I don't really like this minigame. It's fine when playing casually as a change of pace but grinding the high score isn't great. Since it is an autoscroller it is entirely possible you don't have enough points to match the high score and you won't know until its too late, wasting your time. I also found the hitboxes a bit too small. Making items more annoying to pickup.
The key to success is finding the right balance between collecting yellow bits as they give points and level you up (and how high your level is acts as a multiplier for your score) and killing enemies since they give more points. As well as avoiding taking damage and maintaining level 10 as much as possible and knowing where the secret paths are so you can get more points as well as level up if you have messed up.
The second minigame is "System Cracker". Here, you guide a little space ship looking thing through 2D levels in top down twin stick shooting sections. This isn't an autoscroller. You need to explore levels looking for keys and shooting enemies. There are 3 ships you can switch between by going onto specific coloured pads and each ship has its pros and cons. The green ship you start with does decent damage and has decent health and can carry keys. So it's a jack of all trades master of none kinda ship. The pink ship literally resembles a tank. It fires slower and at a shorter range but does more damage and has more health. It's also necessary for destroying pink crystals to progress. The blue ship has floatier handling and faster speeds. Its shots also bounce off walls and it can draw a line which can activate switches and damage enemies. It is weaker than the green ship though.
I actually really enjoyed this minigame and was happy whenever it comes up. It even feels the most fleshed out of the 3. Like, I feel it could even be released as a small standalone game with some tweaking and expansion. I'd probably play a mobile version of this in my free time.
I like how varied the levels can be. You can have a lot of different threats and mini-puzzles and even scenarios where you have to keep switching between ships on the fly to damage enemies. Like, there's this one enemy that's made up of orange, blue and pink hexagons that require you to switch between all 3 ships and use their abilities to damage it. It's quite fun. Damage one ship takes is "saved" on that ship. So if you take 50% damage with the green ship and switch to the pink one, the pink one will have 100% health. But whenever you switch back to the green one, you will be back at 50% health. So mistakes have consequences requiring you to make decisions accounting for them without being too overbearing.
Beating the high scores for the associated arcades is very easy. For one, there is no time limit or pressure so you’re free to take your time and play carefully. On top of that, the mode is very generous with points. Whereas Alter Ego only gives you points for killing enemies and picking up bits (and you need to get and maintain a multiplier for decent times), System Cracker gives you points even for shooting obstacles and barricades in your way. In Alter Ego, I was scraping for points until the very end. In System Cracker, I had more than enough points by the halfway mark.
I suppose the game could have balanced this by increasing the points threshold and rewarding extra points for taking less time to complete sections but I’m not complaining.
The third and worst minigame is “Spark Chaser”. Here you must guide a little electric ball across these maze like areas with gaps that end your attempt if you fall down them and these pinball like bounce pads that bounce you really far. There’s also a time pressure. You have around 20 seconds to get as far as possible with more time added as you pick up these purple clock icons.
The biggest issue is that it’s entirely controlled by motion controls. And this makes me experience worse on VITA. Seriously, I very nearly quit playing. This post was almost titled “I gave up trying to Platinum Sly 4”.
With the PS3 version, at least titling the remote doesn’t also affect your view of the screen. You can look at the game and play it the same as you normally would. But in the VITA version, the “neutral” position where no input is registered by the system is placing the VITA flat with its screen facing up. The standard “screen facing you” position registers as down.
The end result is a frustrating experience. This minigame requires really fine precision given how easy it is to fall off and the time pressure requires you both be fast and more precise to collect time pickups. On top of that, your view is constantly being messed with due to how much you need to tilt the system from odd angles. Especially how tilting “up” really makes it hard to see. Oh, and the dialogue from Bentley as you bounce gets really annoying and repetitive.
It’s barely tolerable in regular missions since those don’t require as much precision or speed. And even then, the usage there in 2013 was suspect to begin with. I only completed this because there’s a cheese where if you can get enough time early on, you can then keep bouncing on certain pads which give around 20 points per bounce. When I played “normally”, I’d get around 300 points with the high score being 1000 points. Using the cheese, I averaged around 990 points and managed to get lucky to win with 1010 points.
Tangent Time:
I’ve said it before. Motion controls work best when they complement existing controls in an optional way or in more restrained ways. I love it when games have gyro aiming since that can help compensate when aiming with sticks with small fine corrections. It works here because the sticks do most of the work and the gyro sensors work where they are best suited.
Or in many mobile racing games, steering is often done by tilting your phone. I enjoy this because there is only one axis you need to tilt your phone, the screen often rotates in conjunction so your view is preserved and it’s more intuitive to feel the “range” of rotation and how it corresponds to steering.
Hell, even ignoring these approaches, motion can still be used in worthwhile ways. Such as by mapping an extra action that is infrequent if all other buttons are occupied. The Mario games on Wii map a “spin” when you jump and shake the remotes giving Mario a bit of grace allowing him to make slightly further jumps or correct a bad jump. Call of Duty MW1 on Wii allowed you to assign certain commands to custom motions of the controller and nunchuck. So you could map stuff like jumping, moving and shooting to buttons but map reloading to smacking the nunchuck to the Wii Mote or plunge the Wii Mote forward to do a melee attack or tilting the Wii Mote to bring out a grenade or alt fire.
Even Resistance 1: Fall of Man had a neat idea. You could quickly tilt the controller left to bring up the Scoreboard screen without needing to take your thumbs off the sticks or stop moving. The Soulsbourne games allow you to quickly do emotes without needing a menu by holding the interact button and quickly tilting the controller in certain directions.
I bring all this up to highlight how Sly 4’s use of motion controls are a failure on every level. They’re mostly used in place of minigames as the sole method of control. So all the issues of motion controls (such as the lack of broad control and feedback) are front and centre. The only place where the motion controls are understandable is when firing arrows as you can then control the arrow after it’s fired using both the sticks and gyro aiming. But even then, the lack of any ability to tune the gyro sensitivity or even invert the controls hampers any use it could have had.
I don’t mind the idea of Sly 4 having decent motion controls. There are places where I can see it being beneficial. In addition to shooting and guiding arrows, I can see it being useful when you have to use the binoculars. Especially as Bentley as you need to shoot darts precisely.
Or, here’s a gimmicky one: you can bind certain costumes or tools to also be selected by quickly tilting the system. Even though using the D-pad for a quick select would be faster, it would still be a better use of motion controls for Sly 4 than most of what’s currently there.
End Tangent.
Back to getting all the trophies, the final arcade machine, unlocked only when you’ve gotten all the treasures in every other episode, is very easy. It has “3 rooms”, one featuring every minigame thus far. But the high score requirements are really low and rooms aren’t as tough as prior versions. You can easily get the high score in the first area which is the Alter Ego one. Even if you miss it there, the second area is Spark Runner but you can keep reloading the checkpoint to preserve your score. So you can get some time clocks, reload a checkpoint when you’re close to running out of time or about to fall off and repeat until you get the high score.
You do need to get past the Spark Runner section to the 3rd and final section that uses System Cracker's gameplay in order to get a hidden Sly Mask, but it's far easier than the dedicated Spark Runner arcade minigame as the section is shorter, is more generous with Time Pickups, has easier level design and lets you reload a checkpoint if you're about to fail which doesn't end the run.
So yeah, Sly 4 Thieves in Time was....inconsistent game to platinum. I enjoyed the base gameplay, System Cracker, the various challenge trophies and the mini speedruns for collecting treasures. I didn't enjoy finding the collectibles and doing some of the other minigames. I hated Spark Runner.
If the game had more ways of tracking collectibles, fewer minigames and better load times, I'd gladly recommend it as a fun game to platinum.
As for the base game itself, I am mixed on it. The gameplay is arguably the best in the series. Sly's movement and costumes are so fun to play around with. Murray, Bentely and Sly's ancestors are also fun changes of pace during missions.
The story is lacking. My main issue is that it doesn't feel like it realizes its following up Sly 3. The story so casually undoes the ending of Sly 3 to get Sly 4's story going. I get it, that's what a sequel has to do. But the way it does it really undermines Sly 3. It's also much more lighthearted and doesn't have as much of a theme or focal point as its predecessors. Sly 1-3 explored the theme of legacy and the consequences of adhering to it so tightly. A major aspect of Sly 3 was Sly realizing the Cooper Vault wasn't worth dying for. It's what prompts him to fake his amnesia and retire with Carmilita in the end. So for Sly 4 to then have Sly have an itch to steal just for the fun of it, it's sending mixed messages here.
In addition, Sly is really casual about the fact Carmilita now knows about his betrayal and has broken up with him. Seems like that should have been a bigger deal. In fact, that kind of "casual-ness" persists throughout the story. Sly doesn't really have much of an arc or any real heartfelt moments with his ancestors. Nor do they seem to really care their decedent from the future is here with them.
If I could have tweaked the story to address these points, here's what I would have done:
I'd have the story open with Sly, Bentley and Murray enjoying their "retirement" and have no plans of thieving. I'd go so far as to have Sly even scoff at the idea of him ever wanting to be a thief. Then when the pages of the Thievus Racconus are dissapearing, Sly, Bentley and Murray have to reluctantly unretire to try stopping them. There would be dialogue during the opening mission of Sly being worried if they get caught as it would undo their happy ending. And then when Carmilita catches Sly, Sly at first is flustered and tries to explain the situation to Carmilita who isn't having any of Sly's BS. Sly is forcibly extracted by the gang and then they time travel. As they are time travelling. Sly is upset that, in order to go literally defend the Cooper Legacy, he has to give up his happy relationship and can't be repaired now. That even if they fix the problem, they'll be on the run forever now. Murray had to give up his professional career as well.
Already, I feel this introduction has a few things going for it. It respects the ending of Sly 3 and keeps the characters in more character, as well as putting more heat on Le Paradox. Sly 4 had to rip away the happy ending that was Sly 3. The characters know that and aren't happy about it. There is immediate consequences. And that heat can be directed at Le Paradox when he comes later.
I'd also like if all of the ancestors Sly met had different reactions to both him and the Cooper legacy and how it affects Sly's arc.
For example, lets say when he meets Riochi Cooper, Ricohi is initially disappointed in Sly as the future Cooper decendent as Sly doesn't act honourably or respect the legacy or something like this. Something that makes Sly start to question if it's even worth defending the Cooper Legacy. Bentely is the voice of reason here and mediator that gets the gang to work as well as they can.
Then when Sly meets Tennessee Cooper, Sly is initially expecting another traditionalist ancestor that cares a lot about the Cooper Legacy. But Tennessee is kinda the opposite of Riochi in that Tennasee doesn't care about the legacy in the same way. He adds his own spin and contributions but also uses the knowledge from it to do his own thing. Perhaps Tennessee is this Robin-Hood esque figure who uses his heisting skills to steal from the corrupt ruling class and give to the lower class. The point being that through Tennessee, Sly considers another aspect of the Cooper Legacy on how he's not that beholden to it and can potentially make it his own.
Then when Sly meets Bob, part of Bob's training is also from Sly as Sly teaches him some of the Cooper moves he knows. Since Bob is the first Cooper ancestor, he has no bias towards the legacy or any knowledge. So he's far more grateful and begins to use his new skills in helpful ways. Causing Sly to wonder if he could use the Cooper Legacy in more ways.
It's a similar situation for Sir Galleth. And for Selim, perhaps by that point, Sly has a newfound outlook and appreciation for the Cooper Legacy and ways on how he can improve it or make it his own that he encourages Selim not to retire or to retire in such a way where he could help people or something like that.
So yeah, there's this theme now of "Don't let the past define you now. You can make it your own and grow past its flaws". Which I feel would give Sly 4 more of a punch. I am basically copying Metal Gear Solid 4 and Assassin's Creed though.
I also feel it would be better if Penelope wasn't the villain of episode 4. It seems to contradict her character from past games and the explanation given for her heel turn doesn't really hold water. I feel the story would be better if Penelope had the role Dmitri has where she's their help in the present and the Knight was a new character. But if you need to have Penelope as the antagonist, have her be under mind control or something. That way the team has the conflict of how will they stop the plan without hurting their friend. But if you really insist on Penelope being a full on antagonist now by her own choice, perhaps flesh out her motivations more? Maybe something like "she sees how Bentley will never reach his full potential as the Bill Gates of the world because of his criminal past that requires him to lay low and not take public credit for his inventions. So she's trying to erase the Coopers so Bentley will have never met Sly". That would at least be more than "I want money".
Everything else, I feel works more or less.
I will note that the cliffhanger ending was a weird choice given that this game wasn't projected to sell well and kinda pigenholes any story Sly 5 would be going for. Plus, it being locked behind the platinum trophy means only a small portion of the few players that played Sly 4 would even know about it.
So yeah, that's my take on platinumming Sly 4: Thieves in Time. What do y'all think?
Next up for me is platinumming every Spider-Man game on PS VITA. See you then.

"I said to call them now, yeah! Fennel's really hur- I said stop her! WAIT!" "Hey, we've got our own here to look after, screw this shit, this job is fuckin' hexed, man!" "Back to the van, anyone who can make it!" "Get downstairs, fast!" One of the few leaders among the mob soldiers and scum present had tried to maintain order, but their boss had not stopped trying to get free and reach Kari's body. She'd almost made it, but they caught up and managed to hold her back. "BOSS! Boss, Fez is almost here, we can still tie her up and get outta here, just wait a little while!" Her snarling growl rose to higher pitch as she tried to tug free, spittle flicking from her muzzle in a mad rage, clutching at the socket she used to see out of. The stinging, horrible stinging had lit her entire skull up with a fury-painted hunger to reach Kari's prone body. "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY! If she's still alive... haaa, god... if she's alive somehow, we pig stick her until she's coughin' up chunks of her FUCKIN' heart, then we saw off the head... aaah, and get the fuck out of here! FUCK the reward, she... aaagh god.. let me go, I can DO THIS! S-sstop..." The remaining men tried to calm her down and help somehow, blood running freely from the heavy scratches and gouges inflicted. Kari's still body seemed to still be breathing a little and Fennel pulled her buck knife out, still breathless with anger as she stepped close on shaky legs. "Pity... guess I gotta unzip you a bit, wake you up so you can watch this... just take ONE of your eyes real slow and make sure you stay awake, THEN we... then we put out the other one, slice off your limbs and just... haaa.. just let the steets chew on your for a while." A clatter drew their attentions away from the prone woman, a corner of the unfinished lobby looking darker than it should. "Whoever's there, fuck off or die- in fact, no, just shoot this fucker." Said the leader goon, and the others pulled their pistols and fired into the corner until they needed reloading. In this moment, they caught sight of a pair of white eyes look out at them from the inky shadows, and then, a deep rattling voice with a single word as a being of pure midnight stepped closer, holding its arms up. "Burn." All at one, flames of alabaster like blank shapes in reality leapt up all over the place, shocking the assembled criminals and raising the heat to oven intensity. "Oh no! NO!" and more shots were taken, to no avail as they trailed off widely, the entity speaking in a terrible volume. "BEHOLD, ITHOTU, RUIN OF ALEXANDRIA, SON OF THE SCOURGE OF EDEN. ALL WILL BE CONSUMED AND GODS WORK SHALL BE ASHES!" it roared and released a blood-shattering howl, floating forward as the colorless flames leapt up higher. "RUN! grab the boss and run, hurry!" "NO! I have to kill her not... she.." Fennel's remaining vision swam suddenly and she tipped forward, almost falling facedown into the white blaze wreathing the unconscious assassin. From nowhere, Fez had appeared and had caught her body to hold her back, pointing to their rear to indicate an escape route. He managed to pick her up and fireman-carry her bloody body out, all while she tried to wake up, climb off the man she loved, and leap knife-first onto the snow leopard so that shadowed demon could drag them both down to Hell. They were out into the two escape trucks and the wolf's car, all which promptly took off towards the north to find the safehouse. The black being wreathed in flames stepped closer, peeking out of the window hole for a moment before turning and absorbing all the fire into its body with a long exhale of effort and collapse of its own onto hand and knees. Shape and coloration returned to its form; hooded jacket and denim pants with weathered shoes. "Good grief, that was close...", it said as it pulled the hood it wore back to reveal the mask-like pattern and bright yellow eyes of Tom Blackberry. Before anything else, he hurried over to Kari's body and looked over it with his mage sight, his grimace looking worse as he marked trouble spots. "What the hell are you made of, Tracy?" he thought aloud, checking problem areas thoroughly before even thinking of moving her. It was when he saw below her rib cage that he saw it, the seperation and wicked angle it held. "Oh no... oh shit.. Uhh... I gotta get you out of here and fast." he muttered and crouched low to get his arms under her. She wasn't heavy, but it was still a body and Tom grunted with effort before getting her up into his arms without too much jostling, marching out to a featureless parking area with nothing but trees and the fencing surrounding that. The raccoon knew that the police or worse would be here any minute, any second. Tom carefully laid her back down and climbed inside his mind to enact a strong and complex magic. "Dammit, only one thing for it... sorry, Tracy, you can kill me later for this." he said as he suffused magic to his fingertip, a sparkling blue energy gathering there, cupping her head with the other. He exhaled and closed his eyes, concentrating on the visual in his head, the memory of spotting her earlier, where she'd possibly looked and, most importantly, came from. Dream-fasting was not a dangerous magic, but required focus, and Tom often lacked this when times were dire. He inhaled sharply and touched her temple, closing his eyes to see more than anyone could.
A tidal wave of memories seized his body all at once and tumbled him violently thru a riptide of dizzying emotions. There were houses, stairwells, people, adults, groups of other children, physical trauma, firework emotions exploding wild across Tom's mind as it struggled to reach the surface. He felt elation, thrills, bitter regrets, passionate excitement from many kinds of first times, sadness at many things, outward and inwards. The positivity brought his own mind clarity enough to further his dive to memories more recent, but he found himself off the weightless crash of water and was now standing in a warehouse, looking around and smelling. A distant lit panel seemed to hold something he was thinking about needing, and he moved to hurry, only to encounter a slick surface and fall onto his back. He got up fast, blinking on his mage sight, only to gasp and take in the whole room. Blood, dead people, knives, guns, bullets and casings, all of them heaped into a humanoid shape sitting with in an easy repose, the head veiled in shadows or stains, impossible to tell. Tom ran for it as fast as he could, looking ahead now to see an old house his mind refused to recognize no matter how he tried. They were in there, he had to save them, he knew it. The massive corpse golem began reaching for him, emitting a low hollow scream that was growing louder. Tom was much shorter now, but he reached the Door, stumbling into the hallway that led to his main garden. A giant hand tore thru the unseen ceiling and groped madly for him. He cried out and crawled out of the way, running towards his own room as the howling sound grew so loud, it began to hurt.. the door wouldn't open! He slammed into it again and again, still in the form of a little raccoon boy, tears filling his eyes as the hand barreled towards him, and then CLICK! it opened, and he dove inside to land face first onto cold earth and grass, amidst tall trees now. He turned and saw the hand of the slain and the half-built apartment complex, and two people in the distance, one looking right at him--
Tom's eyes slowly stopped shining sky-blue and slowly eased back to yellow. He had fallen asleep sitting up, and felt the dried tears at his cheeks. He turned to look at the unconscious snow leopard. "Sky and stars... just who are you, Kari?" he said, the memories fresh as yesterday in his mind. It would wear off within a day, but he had bigger things to worry about. A quick frisking of her person found the car keys and, even better, her phone. The raccoon hesitated for a moment before turning it on and sighed in relief. No lock, plenty of power, and a 5G connection of all things. He pocketed these things, and lifted Kari up now, his mind and senses still shaking off the somatic connection of the magic. He closed one eye and concentrated on two things: his own appearance, and the direction he'd seen, only backwards. The car was quickly located and the feline woman was carefully laid across the seats. After some tight securing over her body with the seatbelts, he climbed in, adjusted the seat, and started the Harper up, trying to calmly set things up with the phone. He cleared his throat and licked at dry lips before hitting the Tekster icon. "Ok, Tekster, go home." No response, so Tom waited and tried again. "Tekster, home." he said emphatically. Still no reaction, and the panic was prickling at the back of his throat now. "Tekster, navigate home! Tekster, respond." Silence, the kind that crushes the will to live, but he calmed down and looked closer. It was the right icon, the mic was showing a wavelength. "Tekster." The wavelength wiggled mutely and Tom furrowed his brow. "Hold on, I didn't... oh WAIT a second!" he barked, going to the small top menu. It was set on silent, and he changed it to full volume while setting his own impatient growl even higher. "You are certifiable, you know that?" the raccoon shouted at the knocked-out assassin in the back seat, "You're CERTIFIABLE! TEKSTER, TAKE ME HOME, FOR FUCKS SAKE." [Okay, finding directions for.. Nome.. Alaska, Twin Lakes. Would you like me to--] The angered yelling and hollering was muted by the windows, but still fairly audible to the indifferent would outside of car as it pulled off down the access road and towards the marked destination. It was almost an hour later that he'd managed the six mile trip into the forest and up the special path, somehow managing to find her house, park the car, and begin to carefully extract her. Her breath wasn't coming as fast now, and Tom laid a palm gently to her chest. The pulse was faint, far apart, and lessening. Fear chased adrenaline thru his body, and the limp woman now seemed nearly weightless in his grasp "We gotta get you upstairs, get these wounds looked at!" he said aloud, not caring if she woke now, "Stay with me, Kari, you're almost home safe!" And, with one firm push against the opened door, they were inside and he was heading upstairs one foot at a time, nearly cratering the floor with each heavy efforted step.
Time seemed to creep by in her mind, an anaesthetic tiptoe of seconds into minutes into hours, and incremental moments beyond. She had been dreaming off and on about things; flying, swimming, feeling like she was stoned, or when the time she got lost when the house was being negotiated on... fleeting visuals of her parents. It was a strange world she was occupying, pieces of everything she'd known, all while her body felt stiff and itchy as she moved. It was sometime around remembering her school that she became aware of the effervescent sound of an electric guitar playing somewhere. She went peeked into Gulliman's classroom, only to find it wasn't there anymore, replaced instead by long, comforting fields of tall grass, its color that relaxing darker shade of green. She walked out into it, feeling as though strands of her were being snagged on the vegetation and drifting out of her, pleasantly pulling away who she was to replace it with the snow leopard as she currently felt. Her clothes and pelt peeled away, leaving a skinless nightmare of a living visual of the bodily systems to come up next to the source of the shapeless music. Tom turned at looked her up and down, grinning a little as he kept playing "Hm, nice gastrocnemiusi, good tone." he said. "Well, of course they are, I don't do lunges for nothing." she replied, looking at her own hands for a bit, and the curious motion of the muscles and bones and ligaments. Each pulse of her heart was tangible all over her body. "Am I dead?" Kari asked after a moment. Tom shook his head, switching to block chords. "No, you are asleep, but when you wake up, it'll all come back to you." Kari sat down, looking over the grass peacefully for a minute or so, but she suddenly got back and started looking around. "Wait a minute, I got knocked out! I fell-- the fight! I have to wake up." "And you will, right after you promise me something." She silently looked him over for a moment. "Promise what? I have to go, they're... I THINK THEY'RE IN MY HOUSE!" she shouted, checking her body for a weapon. "Oh shit, I-- KARI JUST PROMISE YOU WO-Ohhhh!" She had already vanished, and the dream began to fade all at once. Tom rubbed his face with a tired sigh, feeling himself melting back into reality beyond. "She's gonna be mad." he said plainly, leaving the place behind for now.
Her eyes snapped open and she felt like three people were sitting on her. Sight rapidly adjusted to the semi-darkness of the room, only lit from the banker's lamp on her desk, and she looked around to only see the raccoon, waving placidly at her and sitting in her chair. "What's happening? How did I get here, why can I barely move, was it a stun gun or something? I hit the ground and blacked out, what happened to- mnnhh?!" Tom had pressed a finger to her lips with a soft shushing sound in an attempt to ease her nerves, but she locked eyes on his and let out a guttural growl. "I will bite it OFF." "Okay! Right, sorry, that was to calm you down, just a bit to recollect, is it working?" "Nooo!" she fired back incredulously, still trying to move. Kari paused suddenly and checked under her sheet to notice only the barest details her body could offer, and her temper redlined again. "OHHH, you are DEAD MEAT, asshole! C'mere, get... I swear, you'll- nggh!" the assassin tried again and again to move more than her hands and head, but it was like her limbs and torso weighed a ton each; she could barely flex her fingers to make a fist, though she dearly wished to use one and then some. "Look, you, I'm gonna work up the strength to get back up and vivisectify you, so before that happens, you'd better start explaining, it will make an exquisite epitaph, I'm sure." The bloodlust coming off her was nearly suffocating and Tom cleared his throat a bit to bide time on where to start. Finally, he exhaled and tried to sum up. "Without getting too into it, I can use magic." he said in plain tones. Kari sneered, laying her head back down. "Great, I've been immobilized by a hippie." "No no, I mean it, here-", and Tom snapped his fingers to produce a single ball of flame as big as a cherry and in the flickering shape of a teardrop. Kari's eyes widened, then began to scan his arm. "Alright, I seen this bit before, where's the fuel line and the mechanism." "Kari, it's the real deal, I could make one much bigger, but this room of yours is... well, it's a mess!" He wasn't wrong. She strained again and again, trying to sit up, but Tom talked her down. "Easy there, you're gonna have to stay in bed for another nite or so." "Anoth-- what? When was that battle, how long has it been." "About a day and a half. I've been healing your body after it was rather grievously brutalized in that fight." Her head started to swim at all the details and updates, but one fact poked out in her mind. "...how did you learn my real name." she demanded, rather than asked. Tom held up his left hand, the aura of dark blue magic covering it in backlit neon indigo. "Do you remember when you passed out from the impact?" "I'm starting to, yeah. I went down rough and must've rang my bell pretty hard to get taken out of the fight." Tom got up to move around the room. "Well, in addition to probing gently into your memories to find your keys and home, I was awash in many other memories, and that was the name people called you." The more she heard, the less it made sense. She tried to give the right questions a press, experiencing her own brain whirlwind. "We'll leave the trust issue for later, when I can make sure of it physically, but why not just shake me awake, it's not hard." Tom closed his eyes, opening them again to reveal the yellow shafts of light from his mage-sight, getting an honest gasp of surprise from her. "Sorry, I'll just-" Blink. "-turn those off. I have special sight that allows me to see many things, including thru flesh." "But not clothes?" she asked, her ear flicking angrily. "... well, I can, okay? I'd never think of abusing that side of the power." "Heaven forbid." she grunted, losing a bit of the anger, but still irritated and deeply confused, "So, why the eyes?" "You looked like someone ran you over with a bus and there was this big tear in your clothes anyways, I saw the body armor." Her mind went back to the question. "And this has to do with you not wanting to jostle me to wake me up HOW?" she asked in mild sarcasm. "I was getting to that," he replied, lacing his fingers and leaning elbows on his knees with another exhale, "See... in order to apply my healing magic, I've had to learn baseline understanding of some bodily systems- cardiovascular, muscle, skeletal, basic shit." Kari was watching him with more attention now, still unbelieving about magic really existing. "Go on." she said, since he was seeming hesitant. "Well, 4th lumbar had pretty much nearly separated in the impact, along with hairline fracturing along the 6th and 7th. Kari, you couldn't move or feel anything I'd have done to wake you up because *you couldn't move or feel anything,* at least below your neck." The air went very still for the moment, the snow leopard staring at the fan above slowly rotating. Part of her training had involved electroshock doses to make the most of a partially paralyzed situation, but that sensation was different from when she'd fallen. She'd felt encased, latent motion in her muscles instantly become zero, a wide-awake bodily slumber. It sank in slowly at first, then pushed in hard all the way. She had been paralyzed, from the neck down, almost a brain in a jar. She would've been taken by those gangers by now, buried under horrible experiences before facing execution by the Bear himself. She felt a touch of hyperventilation coming on, but managed to calm her pulse and breathing. "So, that is what you are trying to fix in me, with your healing magic?" she asked finally. Tom nodded, looking up from staring at the floor for a while. "I mean, it's practically all done, and it was careful, gradual, continous work, almost six hours of it total, with two and half being near-continuous." He didn't mean to yawn here, but he did. "Luckily, your skull was fine, just had a contusion from where you thwacked it. See, neuro damage is wh-" "I'm sorry to cut you off, but you said your name was Hugo when we first met, that can't have been your real name." Tom's ears wiggled a little in confusion, then shrugged with a smile. "Well, I could say the same for you, Tracy. No, my name's Tom, Tom Blackberry, but my middle name IS Hugo." "Tom, there's a wastepaper basket by my desk," she began, scooching up into a sitting position slowly, miraculously to the biomancers eyes, "Take the bag out of it, put in the one below it, and bring it here quickly.. I'm going to be sick." He darted over to follow these instructions fast, and was back in record time with the lined bucket. "Here, think you can hold this yourself?" he inquired encouragingly. Kari knit her brow for a moment and began to lift her arms, both feeling like they were weighed down with 50 lbs. of unmixed concrete. They slowly raised, zombie-like, and accepted the container just in time as her breathing hitched and she vomited raggedly into it, pausing a moment before heaving again and laying back limply, handing it back to him slowly. "Okay... okay, I think that's got it, I don't feel sick anymore." She went on to ask for a water bottle on her desk to gargle and rinse her mouth out before deflating completely. "That's all I've got, sorry." "Hey, no no, you've made remarkable time in recuperating. I can keep healing you a little more tonite, once I get this removed." and he carefully held up the basket. "Downstairs, kitchen, under the counter by the fridge," the snow leopard instructed, "And bring up a can of Purple Burpler with you, my stomach is doing flip-flops." "Sure thing, be right back." These instructions were followed too, and he brought two sodas instead, backing into the room. "Here, hope you don't mind-- ooh." Kari was completely passed out, snoring lightly with her head turned at an odd angle. The raccoon grinned a little and went to get her situated, then took a seat in the office chair to keep a vigil on her, just in case. It was almost 4 by the time he finally fell asleep, and when this happened, Kari's eye flashed open and she nimbly, silently got out of the bed and tiptoed carefully to a second backpack she had hidden. "I hope he isn't mad about this." she wished quietly, pulling a roll of Kong Tape and glancing at him over her shoulder, "But if he's seen my memories, then he knows I can't take chances."
​
end of chapter 2.

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