Writing

I write things when I can actually get enough letters together to make sense.

No Man’s Skydive

No Man’s Skydive

What can be said about this example of business fireworks except it is just about time to get the marshmallows out because if this will be good for anything it will be to make a good s’more. Hype was the first poison in this little cocktail, and what a dose it was.

This game if it had come through on more of what they were aiming for would most likely one of the top ten selling PC games this year. Standing right now people who bought it are mad enough to just wipe the entire experience from their mind except a warning to be more careful next time. It had gone through a process of building itself up over multiple times before it was launched that took people a couple weeks to actually figure out what they got. Next ingredient in for this little cocktail was the action of the company behind it.

Hello Games should not have been going for so much. This was a project clearly outside of their normal set of games which was the entirety of the Joe Danger series, and they promised everything in this new project. Putting it simply they wanted their game to sell. If their game sells then obviously it is a sign of success, but you do not say things are in it that are then not in it at launch. Being looked at for misleading advertising by the Advertising Standards Authority does not help matters.

Some of the die hard super fans before this game came out added their own brand of vermouth and suffering. When you have death threats, poor attitude, rampant stupidity, coming from a fan base before something released then you either are going to get a lot more people in that group, or you are about to have a lot less fans. After the things some of these super fans did it reflected poorly on the project to some degree and to all gamers to another. That let down intensified any misgivings the game would have making it even harder for them to bear.

Taking all these things we already can see a situation that will have a polarizing result. It will fly or it will dive and the price point of the game just made sure of it. Value is something that more people are looking at and to have something like this going for retail at sixty dollars only ramped up the possibility. Sony backed that price point despite not a lot of evidence saying this would be a success to the degree it was pushed. They helped make this toxic cocktail turning one of the biggest deliveries of gaming this year in to one of the biggest disappointments and personally they should take a drink of that as well to sober them up.

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Emergency Chocolate Protocol For PC Gaming

Emergency Chocolate Protocol For PC Gaming

The Christmas releases could be out or your loved one wants to get a good session on an important day that may or may not rhyme with “blanniversery”, and you don’t have enough to get through the day. We will make French hand-rolled Chocolate truffles. It is okay if you do not have a whole lot of equipment because the important part is as follows and it is to make the ganache.

8 oz of Dark Chocolate Chips

5 oz or 2/3 cup of Heavy Cream

A sauce pot, this will be for the cream.

A stove

A large plastic bowl able to handle hot cream and the freezer.

A spatula or a whisk

A small bowl

Plate for finishing

Fridge or freezer space for the bowl

First you want to put your pot on a burner at medium high heat before pouring your cream in the pot. While this is heating up place your chocolate in the bowl. If you wanted to add little flavorings you can add it to the cream now. We want the cream to get to a good simmer. You want to look at the cream see the small bubbles around the side of the pot and look in the center of the cream to notice that it is bubbling at the same speed.

Pour your cream of the chocolate. Fold the chocolate and the cream together while it is still hot. The heat of the cream will melt the chocolate. This can count as a workout when you do bigger batches. When it smooth in color and free of lumps then you are done. If you go slow enough there is still lumps in it, but the color is smooth then that is fine as well a little bit of hardened chocolate in a chocolate treat will not ruin anything.

What is in this bowl is called ganache, and it is about as well for coffee and ice cream as you think it would be. Let it cool and chill it for a two hours minimum. Freezer works as well if you find you have warm hands. While that chills we need to get to some toppings we can roll little chocolate balls in so that we do not make our keyboards a mess.

Chopped nuts, coconut, pulverized hard candies, dried and finely chopped fruit are all things you can consider. Classically it is done with cocoa powder so for the sake of explanation take a small bowl and fill it a third of the way with your item of choice. Pull the ganache after it has set before rolling to just bigger then a quarter. Drop your creations in the coating making sure they are completely coated before putting them on the plate.

Let the plate chill in the fridge until serving time. Works well as a snack when you wreck your opponent or need a snack after being stomped in game. Makes two dozen.

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It Is Okay To Be A Casual Gamer

This was the first of three test articles for Opnoobs.com. The next two will be in the next two days.

It Is Okay To Be A Casual Gamer

Casual is a word that is thrown around in some circles usually to the vision of the person who likes games, but does not completely throw themselves in to the gaming world. There is this rift seemingly setting two different groups of people who like the same thing at varying levels of passion against each other. For a moment think of two young feuding children who claim they love their mother and in that moment you can see how more it can be both in some ways funny and annoying.

Despite the two groups what defines one from another changes from group to group, and even person to person. Casuals supposedly are the evil spawn of the gaming community bound to crush everything the hardcore gamers love with vast amounts of money, other hobbies, and short attention spans. Hardcore gamers supposedly sit in their mother’s basements or small apartments rubbing together their limited edition triforce branded leather gloves wondering why no one wants to play the game they pumped 800 hours into. Both sides have become stereotypes that have no use, and I can prove it.

One person I know is a bit of a rabid learner. He tries to do well spending as much time to learn about things that interest him. This person goes to protests and debates with people about important issues whenever he can just to learn more about people and the world they inhabit. He plays games to take a moment decompressing over the issues of the day in a setting where the worries can melt away in the enjoyment of a good game. We get together have a drink, and maybe enjoy something he found in it.

Another person is someone who has gone to anime and game conventions up and down the west coast. While doing they had done well in gaming tournaments claiming top eight or sixteen in fields of hundreds for the Super Smash Bros. games. In short this person was good and whooped me on it like I had owed him rent.

Both of these people are playing games, and their money goes to the companies that sold and published those games whether how much they love it or don’t. We can as a group of people that like or love to play games make the community better for each other instead of trying to blame the other for some of the supposed ills of the industry. Those two people described above can get together for a drink and a play session when both of them feel up to it and it is great despite one of them being a casual.

Different people will like different things. If we can take a moment though respecting the opinion of others who we do not agree with then maybe we can find ways to make gaming better. Be hardcore or be a casual just play the games and enjoy.

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Op Noobs Opinion Pieces

So I tried to answer an ad on Craigslist about a gaming website where they had just wanted a game review and that they would supply the steam keys for it. It was a small amount of work that I could do very easily, and I felt happy to give it a crack. I send some feelers out and we start the process to see if I can write for them.

I love games and this would help flesh out my portfolio so to speak. It would allow me to also start building my portfolio more while getting more traction as an article writer. It would give me some free games to play and that was payment enough for what I was doing. Let’s see where things go from here.

My first assignment just to see my range of writing was an opinion piece. You can check their website to see what counts as opinion pieces about PC gaming. Give them a look when you have the time just seeing all this stuff that counts as opinion pieces. They had a fair variety of different subjects that I thought could be played around with. If you are curious you can look at it by looking up opnoobs.com

Got a reply back that my work has personality that they really like. Unfortunately, they also said that my sentence structure needs work, and that was the big problem. It was big enough that I wasn’t wanted to write at this time which is gutting for me, but it also gives me something to work on. I will have the pieces on here in the next couple days just so you can see what I attempted to get this position with.

Going to work on my sentence structure, and make sure to remember that article writing and book writing are two different forms with different things needed for the product.

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Wattpad and NaNoWriMo

Ya, I am kinda dumb not gonna lie. In my defense I did have my arms out in a lot of different things. I just found out about Wattpad and looking around it seems like a great place to get some chops with more writing contests and right now I had ten to go for by this point, but only made it through six of them.

Winners are not picked for most of them until spring of next year so in the meantime while everything else is going there needs to be more stuff to try. One does not simply get anywhere by resting on small successes so with a whole new world of writing to try it will be very interesting in the next week especially with the big literary fight coming over the hill in the form of NaNoWriMo who currently owns a pair of victories that I can remember over me.

I am training for this I want this out of the way. I want to beat the NaNoWriMo challenge that got me twice and it will happen. After that or if things go well then maybe my book will find their ways on Wattpad. We shall see what will happen, but also in the mean time part of my training is to get some story lines set just in case my freestyle does not pan out with enough words then I have a couple more to start working on.

My health may not be at its highest, but that do not means it will be easier. Some people get a little more cagey and wily when pushed back and this time it may be me in the corner, but with eyes on the target it may just come down to being a little bit smarter then just bull rushing things like my usual M.O.

There will not be a three-peat against me on this one.

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The Great Book Of Wisdom – Excerpt

Let’s face it, everyone quoting from a book can instantly add credibility to your argument no matter what your argument may actually be. No matter how inane a conversation may be their could always be a zinger backed by someone putting in a book to make your opponent shut their trap faster the a bear trap backfiring. So for all your debates, fantasy team breakdowns, science fiction what if’s and any other conversations that could use a book like this to help end it all.

This book and it’s author is not to be held responsible in the effects of any arguments won, cases finished, job interviews or political elections that you may win, lose or otherwise be a part of throughout your life.

When you need it all you have to do is quote it and open this document to the page to prove that yes someone actually put all of these in a book. By the time they figured out what happened all they can do is get one for themselves and leave you to eat your well seasoned victory.

So crack the cover and get to reading some new verbal ammunition. Mull some of the thoughts and even how they correspond in your life and enjoy the book.

Spirit of Competition

The edge of our great species can be found in the vast wealth of things where we can get in to serious game mode, board games, politics, independent contracts, sweepstakes and more. Rock, paper, scissors has a pro league and if the thought of that does not make your head ring then I do not know what will.

Overly competitive people will often not understand the reasons behind some things. From runners to pro gamers overly competitive people will not understand the reasons behind some things, and as long as they feel the thrill along the way over everything else. Before you try to walk away level some of these bombs to get your point across.

“Without competition, how can you test yourself?”

“I would be rather be the worst man fighting against legends then the best man fighting fools.”

“Never anger a gentle men in competition for it is the only place to see why they are gentle without repercussions.”

“The charm of competition is letting your base nature out and everyone should know their own.”

“The worst thing you can do no matter the battle is awaken the storm when the winds are calm.”

“The greater the reward, the greater the drive needed.”

“Never think someone cannot beat you. When you do you will be at your weakest.”

“Be your best so win or lose you will know where you stand.”

“Winning fairly and winning honorably are night and day. Fairly gets the job done while those remembered for it.”

“Even on your best day you can lose.”

“A hard loss feels like a heavy wound, but the best use those wounds to push further in their training.”

“To make progress, to compete in anything you must fight.”

“The venom of a loser mocked is a powerful weapon.”

“It is not youth nor age that matters, but how to act and react.”

“Looking past an opponent can make you blind to a loss.”

“If people understood what impossible was then many more would at least try.”

“On any day the greatest champion can be put down by a novice.”

“Before you compete, ask yourself why you will do so. To win an event is a much different play style then overall growth.”

“An opponent tempered by hard losses can turn a simple choice in to the fight of your life.”

“The road to your goals will end with you fighting against your worst qualities.”

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Looking Back At Fanfiction

It took a lot of time to tell others to get the liquid courage to explain I wrote fanfiction. I wrote a lot about it here but after finishing it up it just kind of died for me. I had so much going on that it kind of died. There was too many things going on and the things I wanted to try just stay on it. Looking back it is sad that such things happened because fanfiction has been something that has been there when I want to do something, but do not feel comfortable enough doing it in my own writing.

My last handle has been retired and my new one will be under oneguyportland. Look it up when you have the time. What I did do was look at some of the pro’s and con’s of my stories and put them here that way if you see me falling back in to these problems then I can fix it faster. On the other side is if I find that there are pro’s I need to really amplify the readers can let me know.

The cons that I have found is sometimes when I am not familiar then I need to sometimes let it show over just telling which is something I do need to work just across the board in my writing. Feeling comfortable on the subject matter in fiction makes it a lot easier. Don’t look so shocked, and for those in the obvious corps service we thank you for your service.

Pro’s are I actually had a few moments reading past work and just enjoying it. Usually if I can sit down and read it and feel immersed then it is some good work. Once again the captains of obvious may be working hard on this blog post, but for me I was always someone who was nitpicky to the nth degree. If you do not believe me just count all the themes this blog has gone through. I think we are up to like eight, and that is not higher because I haven’t been fiddling with it at every spare moment.

I had a couple reviews that said my writing didn’t make scratch on some cases. I could see why, and luckily there had been no flames on my work. The compliments made me smile at a time when I really needed it. When someone said that I got them in to fanfiction writing it makes me smile.

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NaNoWriMo Plan

I did not finish Nanowrimo last year. I got about two thirds through before petering out.

This time I am going to do something a little different. There is a lot of different writing projects that seem to be just hanging on and so I will use this time to clear the docket, and you can call it a freestyle NaNoWriMo.

My plan will be to complete writing projects that have sit somewhere in limbo and count that towards my 50k limit. There are a couple lengthy projects that really need to be finished, and I think using that time towards those would be a good idea to help clear some of the longest waiting items. Some people may call this cheating, but this would be how I can get the most of 50k of words.

If everything goes as I planned this time then two major products will be completed. We shall see how well that works at the end of the the thirty days. Doing it in this way there has to be a couple rules about it.

First, all those words will be going towards novel projects. Short stories do not count towards the word count unfortunately. November 1st I will have a rolling total of all currently running ones as a blog post that way I can keep myself honest, but you can also see the progress I am making.

Second, when I feel a rough draft is complete then it will allow me the freedom to call it from there. I do not think I have enough experience to make a good novel out of a word deadline. Maybe I will be close or a little over and that won’t make me flip out. I can feel better knowing there doesn’t need to be any padding for the sake of this project which sits on my mind sometimes. Even when I said things about word counts on projects it always seems to weigh on my mind. Putting it a little further back while focusing on the content I hope brings the best out of me.whats-next

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Prom Kiss – Short Story

 

bookOur first kiss was nothing like the fairy tales we were read made it out to be. We did not have some basic chaste contact or even some lovey-dovey movie kiss. If people did not know of us they would think we hated each other. Neither one of us knew that we were actually close friends outside of school only deciding to play rivals while in it. We had a life long game of one upmanship while in school. A lot of the other students just wrote us off as the two best students who were rivals more caring about their own lives then ours. We were rivals, friends, and confidants when needed. Living revolved around each other to either better or get beaten by in our endless rivalry. When we made it back to our homes we would talk about one person got over the other.

Something changed at a high school dance after a long game just that year of different turns for both of us. Grades, sports, drama, debate all swung either my way or hers. Sometimes another kid would try to shoulder between us as the top two spots. Doing all these things at such levels made it impossible to get a social life even started. Some of the girls would ask me to dance though, and on the more energetic songs I would leaving when a slow dance cropped up.

During one of these cycles my eyes caught a familiar figure away from most of the students enjoying themselves. She was a in a simple blue dress with her thick spectacle resting on the bridge of her nose while her hair was maintained in to one long braid resting over her shoulder. Her posture screamed her usual disgruntled attitude while I was walking up. Pulling the cup from my offered hand it was hard to see her face with the light of the room being pointed on the dance floor.

“What are you looking at, spud?” Her noncomittal containing so much effort it almost seemed hypocritical.

“Someone else who is having a bad night, string bean.”

Being a little heavier in middle school she had thought since I was shaped like One I was going to be named as one. While since she was going to be lanky and had problems anything that was too physical she was nicknamed string bean. Our names for each other was never used as a flat out insult being obvious why we had gotten them.

“You aren’t having fun?”

Chuckling in to my cup I shook my head before mirroring her position.

“I love going to these things alone. Makes me feel that trying to do all this stuff is worthless.”

Murmuring a reply she soon stood away from the wall before draining her cup. Asking me if we could talk without her usual fiery bluster we made our way out. Draining my own cup in short order before passing the doors out of the cafeteria. Going on auto pilot to the the auditorium where currently only a handful of students had the keys to. Which was also to mean that we both were in that group.

“You know when you said that back there, I was wondering the same thing why are you still in everything?”

“So I can be the best, like no one ever was, to calm them is my real test..”

Her purse hit my fore arm before bouncing back in her lap. The song I had started my answer to effective in getting her to smile. Despite showing everyone a gruff exterior while we sat in the darkness she felt comfortable because I had lived within a couple blocks of each other. This made study parties easier to get going and swap notes at. When I say “Party” I mean egghead sleep over. Our parents didn’t think much of it as we never actually did anything. We were rivals and friends.

“Pokemon, Huh?”

I smiled widely in the light hoping my smile could provoke hers. Instead, she looked serious before looking at the floor again.

“Why are you doing this then, no one cares here.”

The little bit of light coming through the door barely made things less then complete pitch.

My smile dropped in the silence before explaining as succinctly as I can.

“So what, fuck ’em. I want to be the best. No matter what I end up doing and if you haven’t noticed these are the people competing against us for everything. If they think they can stop me from making the world better. Then they got another thing coming.”

Her single eyebrow lifted slowly wondering something.

“You really are buying in that you can change the world.”

“Of course, people don’t even try anymore. So how can they say it can’t be done. I just haven;t found someone to believe it as well.”

The last comment felt right to say, but also strange. I never thought of doing this with anyone. Not a whole lot of girls would even be able to keep up. Noticing how close she was my mind seemingly went ballistic for now reason. Her light pressure of her head on my arm something that has been done so many time I really had to wonder what was wrong. Turning lightly to look at here she seemed to be contemplating something behind those glasses looking down in to the black.

“I had a date tonight, you know.”

I did know that, but everything related to fact or reason seemed so very very far away.

“Sean Kingsmond, the tennis player. He got drunk off of a couple beer he has brought and tried groping me.”

Sean hadn’t been at the dance. Before I asked how she felt she continued.

“Got a handful of him and crunched them before he lowered a strap, how come most boys are pervs?”

His punishment made me wonder if that was in my foreseeable future. For as she wondered about others of my gender there was a slight energy that made me notice her more them what she was saying. Listening as best I could thoughts began to cloud my reasoning. Trying to figure how my emotions were before realizing that there was a blossom of something else there. Warming without heat it was very enjoyable to bask in while my friend was talking.

“ So after asking the limo driver to drop me off, here I am.”

Nodding in understanding the silhouette of her face was pointed down. Reaching over our embrace seemed stiff, but felt like someone turned on the heater. After a moment she had wrapped her own arms around me before sniffling.

“Can we stay like this for a moment?”

Her tone was soft, wavering in nature and furthest from her usual cadence.

“We can stay like this as long as you like.”

It could have been seconds or hours as we sat there before she moved. Pulling my legs out before sitting on them my snarky answer soon stopped somewhere up my throat. A warm slightly wet pressure fused my spine to the wall behind me while I wondered how we never tried this. My hand grasped hers as we practiced for a moment before breaking for air.

“Are you okay.” Her voice was strung with emotion.

“I don’t really know. I feel strange.”

“I do too. Good strange though or bad.”

Wondering for a moment her hand was still intertwined with my own.

“Like I want just hide you from the world so I can feel this again with us like this.”

Her silence unnerved me enough that it made it like I screwed up. Trying to get up though she had moved forward pulling me on my back her body was suspended on hands and knees above me.

“That’s what I’m feeling too. Tibbers.”

She was smiling wickedly. We both knew of League of Legends.

“Does that make you Annie, you may be lanky, but you’re not a 12 year old. “

Her eyebrow raised at the comment before settling herself directly over me.

“I’m not the curviest, true. But You make me feel so strange. Wicked like Elphaba and I will have to keep you Fiyero far away.”

“We are such nerds.”

The kiss was deeper then before much so. It started fires under my skin it made me go dumb. Sitting up with her weight made me want to feel her closer. Wrapping her arms around me she had begun breaking the kiss to nibbling spots biting lightly over points just hard enough to know. The pressure made something squirm in the pit of my stomach if she wanted this. My teeth sunk lightly into her flesh sucking on it enough to get her to seemingly brace for something. Pulling her close she clamped her lips reigniting a kiss it was less sweetness and more fire. After a few moments we moved back to necking just before she put her hand on my chest.

“We need to stop.”

“Why is something wrong?”

“No, that’s the problem. I want what comes next and feeling how something hard is currently poking me.”

Going from slightly out of breath to brushing red is a skill that for some reason got her to laugh. Before I felt a pressure through the fabric grab me.

“I want a round of good hard action too. But I want with someone who has been my boyfriend for a while” She took her hand off before laying it on her hip.

“That and we wouldn’t want anything to happy until we were both ready.”

Grasping her hands from her lap I rested my head on her shoulder.

“I need a cold shower.”

“One definitely sounds good right now, although it is good to know I have that effect of someone. “

Dusting myself off for a moment before looking back to here she had kissed my chin smirking before hopping lightly grabbing my hand.

“Are we a couple now?”

“Someone has to keep you in line?”

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NaNoWriMo – 2015 Excerpt

“Now I get to finally cross this off my bucket list. I finally feel like Q from James Bond.”

Tossing me a small black cell phone looking thing the place where the screen was only had two lights.

“Combination surveillance sensor and scrambler. When the light goes green there is surveillance equipment nearby it measures by the minute changes in sound and light bouncing back and forth in the environment. All I can say is just trust the equipment it will do the job and you will only be seen as a light spot on the lens. Whatever you say will be heard though.”

Clipping it on to the belt a flood of fear went over me. If I was going to be shot there seemed to be very little that would stop me. Second thoughts began to make me question everything. Could I actually go and do this? Sitting down to the table our first mission was a small outpost whose job was to monitor leads in the surrounding area. We were to go in and see what information they had before taking it and deleting the original files. There was no security that had lethal fire arms, but they did have tasers. It was just a small building that looked like every other half wannabe business office built by people to make money with little application for anything else.

We had everything ready all that was needed was how to get there. Turning back around the wind was blowing in my face as I almost walked in to a tree. Spinning around to see our position we were in a thicket of trees marked on the map Paul held. Even he was surprised to see the building behind him it all amounted to a nod of the head though Jake was smiling ear to ear like a man who had everything to say.

“As you can see I got the teleporter to work a little smoother. I thought it would be nice to polish some inventions off to make everything a little easier.”

He was beaming, surprisingly so before Paul began to make his way up to chain link fence shaking his head with what sounded a laugh. The parking lot was empty from where I had seen with few lights signaling any people still in the office the winds in the area still had a bit of the summer heat. My job was to be another set of eyes while the heavier parts of the mission put on the shoulders. Beginning to climb the fence I could see both were feeling some of the jitters as we all stood watching the building well out of sight of any of the lamp posts. Leaning down Paul briefed us on some of the details. There was still a half dozen people over the 3,000 square feet and we need to get in to the server room from there Jake will do his thing. We had to do this using everything we had including small bags of powder that lowered someone’s metabolism to the point almost making them fall asleep. It would not last longer then a half hour as well as each of us had only had two packets each and we had to make sure we did not get any in to our own faces. Another small bottle was given to Paul with a rag.

“What’s that? then the liquid sleeping essence?”

“Nope, chloroform, just in case the powder doesn’t work. I trust Jake but I like having a back up strategy.”

Seeing him walk across to the back door Jake and myself hung back.

Wondering why he just didn’t use his magic Jake had answer as soon as asked while we sat in the shadows.

“Magic spells pull a lot of energy from him. Some of his strongest ones actually take so much energy he loses pounds of fat because of all the calories converted. It’s not like he can do it all the time.”

Nodding along I watched him fumble with the small hooks taking more then ten minutes before picking the door open. Watching it swing open we soon scampered across the back lot making sure to stay out of the light. Walking over the threshold the door was soon closed leaving everyone to sit in the darkness for a moment the weight of the moment soon coming over us before Paul made his way forward. From the crack the door he was soon out in to the darkened halls the sound of various people still moving around seemingly booming my ears as Jake motioned me to follow him. Taking the right I was stopped looking at my waist the red light soon blinking green. Stretching around the corner the small turning camera was spotted checking both sides of the hall on a seemingly mechanical circuit. Jetting forward Jake could barely see where I ran to. From under the camera though the wire was seen feeding back in to the wall. Turning around it was barely with in reach hopping of the wall. Feeling the wire pull from the camera left the red light without power turning it off as Jake came around seemingly aware of my new position.

Waving him over one of the security guards had seen me and in a knee jerk reaction I ran back hearing him give chance to me for a couple seconds. I could hear him talking in to his walkie talkie saying how he was investigating something. Running around the corner I heard nothing else except for my own hurried steps before hearing nothing else. Making my way back to the entry door it was all seemingly fine as soon no one was chasing me. Wondering about the guy I had left behind he was seen with a small empty baggy between his fingers shaking it to show he had used it on his seat. Currently the guard was soon out.

We had thirty minutes.

“It’s ok I got him with the sleeping powder as soon as he turned the corner.” The earpiece sounded.

“ Paul, Trina got jittery and we knocked out a camera. They know we are here. We need to move fast.”

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