Hello, Reddit,
Im a new player to destiny and id like to share my story of my 2 raid completions and how i sort of came there, those raids happened yesterday and today (7 and 8 February 2021). Im going to tell you in this long story, about how i got into this game, how i found my best friends in this, my Destiny Family, if you will, and how i finally, got my first 2 raid clears, 2 days in a row, and finally, after 3 months, got my dream weapon: Divinity.
(please dont bully me for my English mistakes, im Dutch so English is my second language, also this is gonna be a long one, but please read, this took me about an hour to type and it made me happy sharing this.)
I started playing Destiny 2 on the 26th of november 2020, i started playing this game because of a youtuber you mightve heard of, IHE/IHateEverything, he is a critic type youtuber that makes reviews (mostly negative) on video games and movies, i really enjoy watching him and i loved watching his videos on Destiny, Destiny 2 and its expansions, he bashed the main campaign, Forsaken and Shadowkeep, at the same time i was watching these videos i was very burnt out on my current video games and was really needing something new. (trust me when i say GTA online is a nightmare to play in the long run). Even though IHE was bashing the game for its flaws, to me it looked pretty interesting, and it even went free to play!, so a few days later i downloaded Destiny 2, started making my first character (a warlock) breezed through the new light quests and found it to be.... quite entertaining! i wanted to play more and more because holy hell playing the few strikes i could was super fun, slowly i came closer to light level 1200 and it was also around the time i discovered what expansions were and that one, Beyond Light, just released before i started. So i waited until christmas discounts on the PSN store and to my luck, Beyond Light was on 25% discount! (instead of 40 euros i had to pay 30), i immediately took my chance and bought it. i was instantly hooked! i loved playing through the campaign with my trusty riskrunner by my side, after 2 days i finished it and it was so fun! i wanted to play more campaigns and heard that new light players get 3 campaigns for free! so i started looking through the game and couldnt find the quests or anything regarding red war, curse of osiris or warmind (i think thats what theyre called?). So i hopped on google and went searching for answers, after really going through everything and digging deep (maybe i was looking for the wrong stuff). And came to the conclusion that i couldnt play those anymore because they got vaulted. removed from the game to maybe return one day. That was pretty depressing but y'know i still got my lament quest, so i can set my teeth into that one, i kept completing the lament quest steps until i came to the step, complete an exo challenge, i didnt know what it was but i found it on the map so i went there, "Recommended Power Level 1230+" s***. i was only 1210, so i went looking for people to help me on Discord LFG groups and someone quite quickly answered, (lets just call him V1) V1 was his name, he was like power level 1260 so i really looked up to him, he helped me easily complete my exo challenge and i was insanely thankful, we talked over on discord for some more and he invited me into his clan (im still in it and i dont plan on leaving :D) i made friends with all the people in it and they learned me about sunsetting, powerful drops, power levels and more questions i had. I finally felt, something i havent felt in a long time, happiness, being liked in a group (im getting tears in my eyes just by writing this because of how happy i was, and still am because of this). I completed my Lament quest and got my 3rd exotic.
After completing Beyond Light i bought Shadowkeep, why? because i had absolutely nothing to do and it sounded promising, especially the name "Garden Of Salvation" (this will come up later). i breezed through the campaign with ease and it was quite entertaining, but dissatisfied, why? well, beyond light gave me 3 exotics eventually, Salvations Grip, The Lament and Cloudstrike. then why did i only get 1, Deathbringer (and one armor piece for completion at the end if you count that). so i went googling and it was due to most exotics being in the golden wall thing i saw at the Tower, or because of seasons and quests being limited time. But then i found the golden youtube video, telling me about the Divinity (VERY IMPORTANT) and Xenophage, both of these were quest related and the video said, *very easy quests*
Now, i wanna talk about this important gun, the Divinity. To you, this might just be another exotic trace rifle, now to me back then (and now) the idea of a death ray lazer gun sounded AWESOME! i wanted this gun so badly like i cant explain it in words to you how badly i wanted this rifle, it looked awesome, someone on youtube promised me "it was quite easy" and it is literally a death beam, and apperantly it was a very handy gun too for boss battles because of its exotic perk that makes it create a huge crit spot on the boss's body. So i set my eyes on 1 thing and 1 thing only, acquiring the Divinity.
I spent a lot of times watching a lot of different videos on Garden Of Salvation and the Divinity quest. After i knew absolutely everything about GOS and the Div puzzles, i asked my clan if we could please run it, i explained to them how badly i wanted that gun and that it was my mission to obtain it. Well, it wasnt as easy as i thought, not enough people in the clan (the clan is quite small, its like a little cozy family c:) owned shadowkeep, and getting a group willing to run it is quite hard because of the new raid, DSC being super popular in LFG groups and such, i ended up trying one time with an LFG group, it took us almost 4 hours to get to the 2nd encounter, Spire defense, so i (very sadly) had to put the dream of owning Divinity on the shelf for now.
Then me, V1 and another clanmate who is super friendly (ill call him XK) XK, helped me get xenophage, (a bloody explosive LMG that was apperantly super good). After this i went full D2 grind mode, collecting exotics, grinding levels for my battle pass, grinding for good rolls on my SOTH weapons, grinding prophecy and harbinger, bought and completed forsaken, etc.
after all this i still didnt have my Divinity, even though i had the knowledge, just no proper team to run it with. Now im gonna talk about the most luck ive ever really had, my friend, V1, knew some people in another, bigger clan, they are absolute experts at this game and are like destiny veterans. they let me into their clan discord and made friends with the big members, Femme and Wingy, and some other people in the clan, i really love the people there and really felt home just like in my main clan, they told me they do Divinity runs every Sunday and i could be part of it soon too! Now at that point, i was SUPER HAPPY, finally! a team thats super good, and has the time and knowledge to help me get that first raid experience properly and obtain the long sought after Divinity. I finally had hope again, i WILL finally get it.
A few weeks later and it was time, that golden moment, my very first proper raid run for my favourite raid and that sweet sweet Divinity. We did the first 3 encounters with ease, it was almost funny, all the div puzzles were a joke and we breezed through. Also, can i just say, GARDEN OF SALVATION IS A GORGEOUS RAID!!!!! i cannot say this enough and for the lack of a better term, this raid is absolutely beautiful, holy s*** it is gorgeous, i love the skyboxes and background art, especially the view you get of the Black Garden near the final boss. Okay next,
Sanctified Mind, Sol Inherent. Oh you beautiful bastard with your gorgeous racing game 8-bit-ish music, yeah i see you in the sight of my Xenophage, im coming for ya, we wiped about 5 or 6 times before getting it down, finally! i was actually crying a little when i saw his health reach 0 and his body slowly falling apart, the black piramid in the back opened and i rushed as fast as i possibly could towards it, i needed to make sure i was there first. I dropped down, walked up to the beautiful ending room, presented my divine fragment and collected it, at last, the Divinity was in my inventory. I, no We did it. Without the help of my team, i couldve never done it. I was insanely happy, happy beyond words.
Now, skip forward to the next day, (today) it was about 1 pm/13:00 and i was bored as hell, but i really wanted to use my Divinity on something interesting other than strikes, so i went on the D2 app, no one running dungeons other than 2 groups, which were both shattered throne which i still want to run but they were french and german only so, pass. then i found one “DSC teaching run, anyone can join”, i looked on my watch, 13:07, f*** it, lets see what the hype is all about aye?
I joined, got a friend request and joined their PSN party, they were all really nice and the sherpa knew exactly what to do, great! He talked us a bit through and i sort of knew what to do in the first part, but after that, close to no idea honestly. We made it to the Crypt, disabled the security with ease, and then, WENT TO BLOODY SPACE!!!, i was really stressed what the heck i was supposed to do because i didnt watch many videos compared to my research on GOS beforehand. So the 2nd encounter, magic space station, it went really good, they said they usually 3 phase it but we did it with ease in only 2 (all 6 of us had lament so we melted the s*** out of the boss. got my DSC shotgun with good rolls, i was happy! next one, now this one i gotta be honest, i didnt know SHEET. i was super confused what the heck to do (something with picking up bombs and putting them away?) now i was totally useless and got carried in this part because all i did was stand near a bomb deposal thing near the ceiling watching the the windows and looking into space, seeing the blast shields activate and fall off, and seeing that we are crashing the space station back to Europa, apperantly they completed the entire encounter without my help because i was just daydreaming while watching the view from the windows. Now we had to run like hell to a safe room. the screen went white and suddenly we were in the wreckage of the station back on the entrance of the Crypt where we started, they asked around what weapons we had and the sherpa asked, who here has Divinity? i was waiting for someone to say “i do/me” but to my surprise, no one had it, so i, the boy with his brand new Divinity said, “yep i do.”. now i thought all i had to do was beam the boss when damage phase started but he said i was assigned to Operator role, now i was stressing out because i didnt pay attention to what the operator did in the other 3 parts and i didnt know much about the final encounter. Well, i asked and uhm, literally all i had to do is shoot the large white spots on the purple ball on a player to free them from their cage while theyre delivering the bombs. Phew, not much, so we wiped about 3 times at this part, either because some of us died during the damage phase because of the spinning garbage around his electric dome, accidentally bumping against eachother running from the so called “purple rain” or because of me, because my operator buff stopped working and i didnt know what to do now because i couldnt shoot the white spots on the purple ball now, after those 3 or 4 tries, we bloody did it, we got that monster of a boss down and holy crap did it feel good, got my loot (apperantly we did the challenge of depositing bombs all at the same time so we got more loot, i got two LMG’s with good drops so i was happy. and i did it, my 2nd raid ever within 24 hours away from my 1st raid ever, and that with an LFG group while i didnt know anything! i was so happy, i love DSC! the vibe, the bosses, and the MUSIC, aaa! its all so perfect!
and now im here, writing this 23965832 page book about this 3 month experience of playing a video game, fascinating how so much can happen in only such a short time period And finally, i got my first two raid clears on GOS and DSC. I got my dream weapon: Divinity, and the awesome experiences. Thank you. Thank you Bungie, V1, Femme and WIngy, and you, the reader, for reading all this, my amazing experience with this game so far, ive enjoyed it and still do a ton, it brought me friends, happiness and a group i can be a part of and feel loved in. Thank you, Thank you friends, for making me get this far.
The End.

Hello, Reddit,
Im a new player to destiny and id like to share my story of my 2 raid completions and how i sort of came there, those raids happened yesterday and today (7 and 8 February 2021). Im going to tell you in this long story, about how i got into this game, how i found my best friends in this, my Destiny Family, if you will, and how i finally, got my first 2 raid clears, 2 days in a row, and finally, after 3 months, got my dream weapon: Divinity.
(please dont bully me for my English mistakes, im Dutch so English is my second language, also this is gonna be a long one, but please read, this took me about an hour to type and it made me happy sharing this.)
I started playing Destiny 2 on the 26th of november 2020, i started playing this game because of a youtuber you mightve heard of, IHE/IHateEverything, he is a critic type youtuber that makes reviews (mostly negative) on video games and movies, i really enjoy watching him and i loved watching his videos on Destiny, Destiny 2 and its expansions, he bashed the main campaign, Forsaken and Shadowkeep, at the same time i was watching these videos i was very burnt out on my current video games and was really needing something new. (trust me when i say GTA online is a nightmare to play in the long run). Even though IHE was bashing the game for its flaws, to me it looked pretty interesting, and it even went free to play!, so a few days later i downloaded Destiny 2, started making my first character (a warlock) breezed through the new light quests and found it to be.... quite entertaining! i wanted to play more and more because holy hell playing the few strikes i could was super fun, slowly i came closer to light level 1200 and it was also around the time i discovered what expansions were and that one, Beyond Light, just released before i started. So i waited until christmas discounts on the PSN store and to my luck, Beyond Light was on 25% discount! (instead of 40 euros i had to pay 30), i immediately took my chance and bought it. i was instantly hooked! i loved playing through the campaign with my trusty riskrunner by my side, after 2 days i finished it and it was so fun! i wanted to play more campaigns and heard that new light players get 3 campaigns for free! so i started looking through the game and couldnt find the quests or anything regarding red war, curse of osiris or warmind (i think thats what theyre called?). So i hopped on google and went searching for answers, after really going through everything and digging deep (maybe i was looking for the wrong stuff). And came to the conclusion that i couldnt play those anymore because they got vaulted. removed from the game to maybe return one day. That was pretty depressing but y'know i still got my lament quest, so i can set my teeth into that one, i kept completing the lament quest steps until i came to the step, complete an exo challenge, i didnt know what it was but i found it on the map so i went there, "Recommended Power Level 1230+" s***. i was only 1210, so i went looking for people to help me on Discord LFG groups and someone quite quickly answered, (lets just call him V1) V1 was his name, he was like power level 1260 so i really looked up to him, he helped me easily complete my exo challenge and i was insanely thankful, we talked over on discord for some more and he invited me into his clan (im still in it and i dont plan on leaving :D) i made friends with all the people in it and they learned me about sunsetting, powerful drops, power levels and more questions i had. I finally felt, something i havent felt in a long time, happiness, being liked in a group (im getting tears in my eyes just by writing this because of how happy i was, and still am because of this). I completed my Lament quest and got my 3rd exotic.
After completing Beyond Light i bought Shadowkeep, why? because i had absolutely nothing to do and it sounded promising, especially the name "Garden Of Salvation" (this will come up later). i breezed through the campaign with ease and it was quite entertaining, but dissatisfied, why? well, beyond light gave me 3 exotics eventually, Salvations Grip, The Lament and Cloudstrike. then why did i only get 1, Deathbringer (and one armor piece for completion at the end if you count that). so i went googling and it was due to most exotics being in the golden wall thing i saw at the Tower, or because of seasons and quests being limited time. But then i found the golden youtube video, telling me about the Divinity (VERY IMPORTANT) and Xenophage, both of these were quest related and the video said, *very easy quests*
Now, i wanna talk about this important gun, the Divinity. To you, this might just be another exotic trace rifle, now to me back then (and now) the idea of a death ray lazer gun sounded AWESOME! i wanted this gun so badly like i cant explain it in words to you how badly i wanted this rifle, it looked awesome, someone on youtube promised me "it was quite easy" and it is literally a death beam, and apperantly it was a very handy gun too for boss battles because of its exotic perk that makes it create a huge crit spot on the boss's body. So i set my eyes on 1 thing and 1 thing only, acquiring the Divinity.
I spent a lot of times watching a lot of different videos on Garden Of Salvation and the Divinity quest. After i knew absolutely everything about GOS and the Div puzzles, i asked my clan if we could please run it, i explained to them how badly i wanted that gun and that it was my mission to obtain it. Well, it wasnt as easy as i thought, not enough people in the clan (the clan is quite small, its like a little cozy family c:) owned shadowkeep, and getting a group willing to run it is quite hard because of the new raid, DSC being super popular in LFG groups and such, i ended up trying one time with an LFG group, it took us almost 4 hours to get to the 2nd encounter, Spire defense, so i (very sadly) had to put the dream of owning Divinity on the shelf for now.
Then me, V1 and another clanmate who is super friendly (ill call him XK) XK, helped me get xenophage, (a bloody explosive LMG that was apperantly super good). After this i went full D2 grind mode, collecting exotics, grinding levels for my battle pass, grinding for good rolls on my SOTH weapons, grinding prophecy and harbinger, bought and completed forsaken, etc.
after all this i still didnt have my Divinity, even though i had the knowledge, just no proper team to run it with. Now im gonna talk about the most luck ive ever really had, my friend, V1, knew some people in another, bigger clan, they are absolute experts at this game and are like destiny veterans. they let me into their clan discord and made friends with the big members, Femme and Wingy, and some other people in the clan, i really love the people there and really felt home just like in my main clan, they told me they do Divinity runs every Sunday and i could be part of it soon too! Now at that point, i was SUPER HAPPY, finally! a team thats super good, and has the time and knowledge to help me get that first raid experience properly and obtain the long sought after Divinity. I finally had hope again, i WILL finally get it.
A few weeks later and it was time, that golden moment, my very first proper raid run for my favourite raid and that sweet sweet Divinity. We did the first 3 encounters with ease, it was almost funny, all the div puzzles were a joke and we breezed through. Also, can i just say, GARDEN OF SALVATION IS A GORGEOUS RAID!!!!! i cannot say this enough and for the lack of a better term, this raid is absolutely beautiful, holy s*** it is gorgeous, i love the skyboxes and background art, especially the view you get of the Black Garden near the final boss. Okay next,
Sanctified Mind, Sol Inherent. Oh you beautiful bastard with your gorgeous racing game 8-bit-ish music, yeah i see you in the sight of my Xenophage, im coming for ya, we wiped about 5 or 6 times before getting it down, finally! i was actually crying a little when i saw his health reach 0 and his body slowly falling apart, the black piramid in the back opened and i rushed as fast as i possibly could towards it, i needed to make sure i was there first. I dropped down, walked up to the beautiful ending room, presented my divine fragment and collected it, at last, the Divinity was in my inventory. I, no We did it. Without the help of my team, i couldve never done it. I was insanely happy, happy beyond words.
Now, skip forward to the next day, (today) it was about 1 pm/13:00 and i was bored as hell, but i really wanted to use my Divinity on something interesting other than strikes, so i went on the D2 app, no one running dungeons other than 2 groups, which were both shattered throne which i still want to run but they were french and german only so, pass. then i found one “DSC teaching run, anyone can join”, i looked on my watch, 13:07, f*** it, lets see what the hype is all about aye?
I joined, got a friend request and joined their PSN party, they were all really nice and the sherpa knew exactly what to do, great! He talked us a bit through and i sort of knew what to do in the first part, but after that, close to no idea honestly. We made it to the Crypt, disabled the security with ease, and then, WENT TO BLOODY SPACE!!!, i was really stressed what the heck i was supposed to do because i didnt watch many videos compared to my research on GOS beforehand. So the 2nd encounter, magic space station, it went really good, they said they usually 3 phase it but we did it with ease in only 2 (all 6 of us had lament so we melted the s*** out of the boss. got my DSC shotgun with good rolls, i was happy! next one, now this one i gotta be honest, i didnt know SHEET. i was super confused what the heck to do (something with picking up bombs and putting them away?) now i was totally useless and got carried in this part because all i did was stand near a bomb deposal thing near the ceiling watching the the windows and looking into space, seeing the blast shields activate and fall off, and seeing that we are crashing the space station back to Europa, apperantly they completed the entire encounter without my help because i was just daydreaming while watching the view from the windows. Now we had to run like hell to a safe room. the screen went white and suddenly we were in the wreckage of the station back on the entrance of the Crypt where we started, they asked around what weapons we had and the sherpa asked, who here has Divinity? i was waiting for someone to say “i do/me” but to my surprise, no one had it, so i, the boy with his brand new Divinity said, “yep i do.”. now i thought all i had to do was beam the boss when damage phase started but he said i was assigned to Operator role, now i was stressing out because i didnt pay attention to what the operator did in the other 3 parts and i didnt know much about the final encounter. Well, i asked and uhm, literally all i had to do is shoot the large white spots on the purple ball on a player to free them from their cage while theyre delivering the bombs. Phew, not much, so we wiped about 3 times at this part, either because some of us died during the damage phase because of the spinning garbage around his electric dome, accidentally bumping against eachother running from the so called “purple rain” or because of me, because my operator buff stopped working and i didnt know what to do now because i couldnt shoot the white spots on the purple ball now, after those 3 or 4 tries, we bloody did it, we got that monster of a boss down and holy crap did it feel good, got my loot (apperantly we did the challenge of depositing bombs all at the same time so we got more loot, i got two LMG’s with good drops so i was happy. and i did it, my 2nd raid ever within 24 hours away from my 1st raid ever, and that with an LFG group while i didnt know anything! i was so happy, i love DSC! the vibe, the bosses, and the MUSIC, aaa! its all so perfect!
and now im here, writing this 23965832 page book about this 3 month experience of playing a video game, fascinating how so much can happen in only such a short time period? And finally, i got my first two raid clears on GOS and DSC. I got my dream weapon: Divinity, and the awesome experiences. Thank you. Thank you Bungie, V1, Femme and WIngy, and you, the reader, for reading all this, my amazing experience with this game so far, ive enjoyed it and still do a ton, it brought me friends, happiness and a group i can be a part of and feel loved in. Thank you, Thank you friends, for making me get this far.
The End.

For those of you looking for the Daily Discussion - Here you go!
...
Hello everyone!
The end of the year is gaining on us, and that brings with it the Annual Fanfiction Awards!
This is where we celebrate all the stories that our subreddit’s writers have been working on during the year. In the lead-up to the Awards, there will be opportunities to people to showcase their work, and time for everyone to investigate the stories their fellow redditors have worked on.
[Phase 1]: Discussion, is from today until December 8, and is for organisational purposes, to make sure you've got eligible fics, and to answer questions.
During this phase, we will be running a few Celebration posts: the oneshots, multi-chapter fics and other Fanfiction related content that we have created this year. This will be a good time to see what your fellow redditors have been working on and to remember to submit your own fics to the Weekly Fic Showcase.
They will be posted at a similar time (approximately 3:30AM GMT) starting November 28 with a celebration of multi-chaptered works.
Prizes!
Winners for each of the ten (10) categories receive one (1) month of Reddit Premium, and to sweeten the deal, the winning fics will be placed at the top of the Weekly Fic Showcase for the entirety of January.
OUR PROPOSED CATEGORIES ARE:
Please feel free to give your feedback! Here's what we have so far:

• Action/Adventure
• HumoSatire/Crack
• Gen (Meaning non-romance, non-shipping focused fics.)
• Romance
• Smut
• Mystery/ThrilleHorroCrime/Suspense
• Fluff/Hurt|Comfort
• Drama/Angst/Tragedy
• Family/Friendship
• RPF/RPS

Since it's the most often asked question, the Gen category is for fics without a focus on romance. Since fics with pairings tend to dominate the nominations for most categories, you may have better luck in securing a win for a Gen fic by submitting it in the Gen category.
Suggestions for new or different ones? Discussion? Changes? Arguments for splitting or combining?
Eligibility is easy!
Fics are eligible if:

• The author is a current Redditor.
• The fic must have been posted by its author.
• The fic has been posted in this community's At This Point in Time Tuesday or Weekly Fic Showcase or any of the Daily Prompts threads or Subreddit Challenges. Fics posted in any of the weekly threads (Excerpt Extravaganza, Comment Cooperative and Concrit Commune and the (now retired) What You Posted Wednesday) are also eligible if there is a clear title and link to the posted fic included in the comment that is linked in the nomination.
• Yes, posting in the current week's WFS counts.
• Yes, WIPs are eligible.
• Recs for other people's works do NOT count.*
• At least one (1) chapter of the fic was published during the 2020 calendar year.
• Bots are not eligible for Nomination or Voting.
• The voting portion of this contest will be run by a single Moderator (to be determined and confirmed before the Nominations post). This Moderator will be ineligible for the Awards.
• All other Moderators, in addition to the Discord Admin, Mods, Helpers, Users, etc are eligible as they will not be counting or ruling on votes.

Previous fics that have won last years awards are not eligible. Sequels, prequels, or spin-offs are welcome! If you're curious, here are the past winners of 2017, 2018 and 2019.
*Why no recs? Recs are often for fics of non-Redditors. The awards are not meant as "this is the greatest fic ever", but as an appreciation and recognition of your fellow community members.
The next phase, [Phase 2]: Nominations, will begin on December 9 at approximately 3:30AM GMT and run through till December 20 (same time).
Please wait for the next post to nominate! This thread is only for discussion and questions.
You may only nominate fics that you, yourself, have not written.
You may only nominate 10 fics total, but clumped or spread around in the categories as you wish. This is to keep people from being overwhelmed by the total number of nominees. Yes, you can submit the same fic for multiple categories, but it'll use up some of your nomination slots.
The final phase, [Phase 3]: Voting, will begin on December 21 at approximately 3:30AM GMT and will run until the 30th (same time) when the form will be closed to further votes. A Google Voting Form will be posted, with all the nominees and links to the fics for ease of access.
Yes, there is a full day gap (the 20th) to properly format the voting page, to check that all nominees are current Redditors, and ensure that all fics nominated have accurate and readable links.
A few nuts and bolts:

• In the event of a tie, the designated Moderator (to be determined before the Nominations post) is literally going to flip a coin or equivalent. Done by RNG with a live audience on Discord, if requested.
• Premium may be given away to another Redditor if the winner doesn't want it.
• Premium may also be donated back to the sub and used for future prizes for games.
• Reddit Admin grants the prizes for this event, depositing it in a Mod's account sometime in January. The designated Moderator will be handling user-level disbursements.

Questions, comments, nitpicks, clarifications needed, etc. are extremely welcome!

It's been another bizzaro month of 2020 but I return with another possible story to follow up on! At the moment it's between Apotheosis Seized from the TWWC universe, Pawn from the Material Differences universe, and this one from a totally new universe straight from my exhaustion riddled brain! Let me know which you like most! As always I hope you enjoy my latest!
Debtless!
My Stories
My Patreon
“It is known then that the universe is made up of three categories under which all else falls. Quintessence, which conjoins light and dark. For even luminous and ink are both forms of Quintessence greatly deviant though they may be. It is across Quintessence we travel on, the currents of which are felt at all times. Then there is of course Terrestrial which brings us the mantles, earth, minerals, and biomes which bring us life, wealth, and creation. Precious as the terrestrial is, finite and limited we then come on the third force. Debt. Debt binds the other two together, achieving order out of chaos to form a system neither real or unreal, yet ideal. For it is a category of thought and ideas pure and putrid as determined by the consciousness observing and understanding it. But for existence to prevail Debt must be upheld and maintained. It is a force more powerful than any other as it is unbound by friction or limit and can even grow in compound form. This then is the nature of the universe and its three categories which must all be observed and understood.” - Quilmar the first Observer, founder of the Law, creator of the Lexicon, Architect of Order, Surveyor of the Currenseas, and the first Supreme Creditor.
“Listen, I’ll take the air and the dirt. But you can fucking keep the debt bud.” - Dron the first debtless.
Nick carefully reread his letter for perhaps the fifth time, pencil twirling between his fingers as he tried to think if he wanted to change anything, or remove anything. “Human, if you’re not ready to send the letter, decide swiftly. The courier ship leaves shortly.” Nick glanced up at the six armed Ruvea dangling from the ceiling and finally folded his letter to stuff it in an envelope.
“I’m ready.” He insisted, more to himself than to the lanky postmaster.
“Wax color?” The Ruvea asked next as he held out several steaming bowls with multiple colors.
“Cheapest.” Nick replied and waited for the postmaster to pour out a small dollop of grey wax before he carefully pressed his signet to the wax to seal it. Once that was done he let out a heavy sigh and relaxed his shoulders feeling a weight lifting off of him.
“Debt code?” The Ruvea asked next as it picked up the letter, gently wafting it over an ice tube to help the wax cool faster.
“None.” Nick’s comment made the Ruvea pause and inspect him a bit more carefully. Though he wasn’t troubled by the mag carbine connected to his rig. Being armed wasn’t unusual. But he doubted the Ruvea knew much of the intricacies of the artwork spread across his pressure suit telling of his life. No, the postmaster’s eyes were looking for much more obvious signs of something else. Marks of piracy. Nick answered early to save him time. “Just a Debtless. How many spools?” He asked next, pulling a pouch off the belt of his rig.
“One silver spool, or a quarter gold.” The Ruvea held out a delicate long fingered hand as Nick tugged a gossamer silver spool free of his pouch to hand off. “Favorable journeys to you Debtless.” The Ruvea nodded and then began to move back into the post office, his tails pulling him from rung to rung along the ceiling. With that done Nick turned to head out of the post office and into the main avenue of the city. Luminet City was one of the Minted cities, and by far the largest city Nick had ever been to. It was also the gateway to the Casian Traverse, which is probably the only reason it was Minted in the first place. Plenty of trade came through here, but it was far from stable. Financially that is. The Terrestrial chunk it was built on was stable even if a bit smaller than most Mint Cities had.
The street was full of all manner of species, from massive purple fleshed Potamgerly waddling around head and shoulders above everyone else, to cyan, magenta, or yellow furred Coretchkin scurrying around the edges of the traffic. Plus every size and shape in between it seemed. Even with the street cars rumbling along the central rails the mass of bodies would just open or close around their passing. He even saw a land roller up the street before it turned off towards the Credit Governor’s Palace.
The palace towered over everything else in the city, and rightfully so considering it housed both the mint in the lower levels, and the sector’s treasury. Gleaming metal flying buttresses extended off its tiered structure, stretching out at the top for a host of individual towers, and observatories. In the light of the local star a rainbow of color was cast by its vibrant stained glass windows. Nick bet most of those came from human master glassworkers. He couldn’t be sure if it was his people specifically but the Vulkoa were known for glass making so he wouldn’t be surprised.
What did surprise him however was how few ships were currently docked with it. Usually Governor’s palaces would be teeming with ships tending to all manner of daily routine. From depositing spools to be worked in the mints, or distributing debt markers to be updated along the semaphore lines. Yet, for now he only spotted a cluster to one side. Ship types he wasn’t familiar with either which was unusual for him. They sported gold and blue paint with pearl trim. He’d have to ask his brother if he knew about them.
His brother! Nick grinned as he shook himself from his contemplative position before the post office and quickly joined the heavy foot traffic along the street as he made for the hangar quarter. The sound of the city enveloped him swiftly enough as he walked. The rumble of the street cars, the distant clang of factory forges, the hiss of steam vents, all competing with the general cacophony of speech going on all around him. The city was too big for the market stalls and bazaars that he was used to but that didn’t mean people were much quieter calling out advertisements to try and lure customers into stores.
Thankfully the post office wasn’t too far from the hangar quarter, and soon the foot traffic began to thin out. The sky grew a bit darker on this side of the rock though, now that he was downwind of the factory stacks and the smoke they let off. Industrial skiffs were ever present in the sky, their forms casting countless shadows across the city below as they zipped through the sky. He missed the flocks of manu-o-Ku flying through the sky instead of skiffs. But he doubted many birds would do well in a city like this.
Soon enough he was at the central hub of the hangar quarter as dozens of landing strips, public, and private hangars stretched out around him. Massive elevators carrying ships up or down as they needed, while still more rumbling escalators were spread out to get people up, or down into the subterrestrial hangars. Nick had to stop at one of the clackboards as he looked for the hangar code his brother had given him. While he watched various numbers and names would change with the telltale clacking of the mechanical signs. Truthfully he was surprised the ship even fit in a hangar, and didn’t need a dock at the edge of the rock. Carriers were massive ships after all. He was curious to see how his brother had made this work.
Looking around a moment he saw a team of Mutheki organizing crates to haul onto a skiff and waved at the bug eyed laborers. “Hey! I’m looking for hangar H 22. Any help?”
The nearest Mutheki looked his way, or… at least angled his head so one of his eyes was facing Nick. The Mutheki always reminded Nick of mothmen. Just without the wings. Especially since they had those bug eyes, little tufts of fur along their torso, and long thin feet which never looked like they could support the rest of their body. But the bug people were always friendly so he never asked if they chased fires around. Even if he wondered… “H is that line.” The Mutheki gestures up pretty much straight the way Nick was going. “The clackboards are always updated so just find the escalator for 22.”
“Thanks. Is 22 a big one?” Nick asked next, still curious about the carrier.
“Subterrestrial hangars are adjustable. It’s out near the edge so… maybe.” The Mutheki gave a shrug.
“Thanks again.” Nick nodded and started to follow the line out just like he’d been told. While he was walking he saw a flight of Quarwi barges being lifted up from a hangar elevator as they all began to lift off and make for the nearest buoy marker as they appeared to be heading straight for the Casian Vortex to take them into the Currensea. It was an odd sight for him since he knew they typically avoided such reckless speed. They were known to be much more careful and precise as a people. Were they running from something?
He pushed the thought from his mind however as he saw the clackboard ahead marking H-22. His brother was close! Grinning wide he hopped on the escalator and started walking down even as it rumbled and carried him into the depths of the hangar. He could see various belts and conveyors hanging from the ceiling as they carried crates, and other cargo between the divided hangar sections. It did marvel him a bit at times just how much activity had to be going on in a city of this size at all times.
As he neared the bottom of the escalator he could see a security checkpoint. This must mark the beginning of armed hangar bays then. From what it looked like the guards were mostly Joss, a typical choice considering their stocky powerful builds and typically aggressive nature. Of course, how useful they were varied wildly since they might be as lazy as they were aggressive. Usually depended on the local tribe. Nick also didn’t like dealing with them simply because their oblong sideways pupils honestly creeped him out. Thankfully this group just kept chatting, or sharpening their horns while he passed so he didn’t have to deal with them. They were loaded for trouble though if it came to it. Minted plate, and mag carbines made it clear these city guards were well equipped if nothing else.
Nick had been so focused on the Joss that he nearly walked right past the open hangar he was looking for. It was also… smaller than he figured it would be so that didn’t help. Did he have the right place? H-22. He confirmed on the wall. There was a single ship inside at the far end, near the closed exterior hangar bay door. It wasn’t small… but it wasn’t a carrier. Not even close. Was this the right place? Nick kept looking the ship over as he walked closer.
Considering the dull orange lavaplate construction, and overall design it looked like a Vulkoa ship, but not one he’d seen in the fleet. Lavaplate was finicky even if incredibly durable. Usually reserved for special ships and was mostly phased out of standardized fleet designs. It had forward swept wings set just before the central bridge, twin stabilizer fins extending out from a boxy engine bay, and... he wasn’t sure about the flat part just under and ahead of the bridge between the forward wings. Torpedo bay? Something about it tickled the back of his brain… one of those old paintings in the history books...
“Nick!” His eyes flicked from the orange and brass ship to a figure in a large pressure suit walking down the ramp. His concerns with the ship were immediately replaced as he grinned wide and opened his arms.
“Nate!” As he approached Nate opened the silver faceplate of his suit and they embraced, hugging each other tight for a moment. “Damn good to see you!”
“You too! Look at the paint!” Nate tapped a hand at Nick’s shoulder and the new intricate designs painted on. “The war hero!”
“Psh.” Nick immediately shook his head and waved it off. “They just had some left over from the real heroes and slapped some around. Besides you’re not looking too shabby either!” Nick leaned back as he looked over the paint on Nick’s suit as he pointed to a few designs. “Engineer first class, cartographer first class, academy graduate! Gotta be proud of all that!”
“Please, the last thing I need is you claiming any of this is difficult compared to what you were doing. My life wasn’t in danger at the academy… Alcohol poisoning maybe.” He shrugged and they both laughed a moment, neither wanting to take credit for their paint even if they’d earned it. “Was it bad at the end? I read your letters and heard the wireless.”
“It… wasn’t pretty.” Nick’s happy attitude faded a bit as Nate asked. “But, it was all worth it in the end right? Hazard pay!” He tried to shift the topic back. “Debtless! And we have a ship! Though… I’m thinking this is… an escort of some kind? To take us to the carrier?”
“What? No. This is it.” Nate took a step back and looked at the ship behind them.
“You said you bought us a carrier. This isn’t a carrier.” Nick waved at it.
“Yes, it is.” Nate insisted. “Did you think I meant a fleet carrier? How much money did you think I made? Or you? Do you have any idea how many decades of hazard pay it would take for us to buy a fleet carrier and pay off our debt in the meantime? It’s an escort carrier! Don’t you recognize it?”
Now Nick really tried to think as he looked up at the ship. What was it? Alright… around… 500 feet long… central bridge but not a true flight tower… sealed midsection so it could land in water… Slowly he shook his head trying to think. “I…” It was so close to something… “I can’t place it… It’s like… I almost know it. The wings look like the old storm crow design… but the ship is much bigger… Also the engines look heavily modified. I just… I don’t know.”
“Well you’re on the right track. It is based on the storm crow hull.” Nate started, but Nick cut in.
“Hull? As in this is based on an actual storm crow?! Nate! Storm Crows are like… over a hundred years old!” Nick gasped out.
“Meaning it’s a well tested design. But more specifically this was custom built. I mean you obviously noted the lava plating. It’s… hard to miss… Because this is. The Lava Crow!” Nate held up his arms as if to show off something incredible but Nick was just staring at him. “Nick. Nick it’s the Lava Crow. The Lava Crow… As in… The Lava Expedition!”
That did make Nick blink and look back up at it. “You mean the Lost Expedition? The one grandad disappeared trying to find? Where the fuck did you even find this? How is this not huge news?”
Nate shrugged a moment. “Well, see, I can’t prove it’s like… the exact same one from the lost fleet. Obviously there’s no paperwork. I found this with that Quarwi salvage fleet on my last tour. They wanted to scrap it for the lava plate since they were concerned about resale value what with all the bloodstains-”
“Bloodstains?” Nick tried to cut in but Nate ignored him.
“So I actually got a very good deal buying it out from under them. Like I was saying it was custom built for the expedition and was heavily modified since then. Even I don’t know what some of it does. There’s a whole… workshop aft of the hangar bay. This thing is a real steal. Worth way more than what I actually paid for it. You should be thanking me for my bargain hunting skills. No one will have any idea what they’re up against when they see this thing.” Nate crossed his arms and gave a confident nod at his assessment.
“How many light craft can it hold?” Nick asked, wondering if his brother was right.
“Uh… four.” Nate confessed.
“It’s not a carrier!” Nick immediately growled once more. “Four is nothing!”
“It is a carrier! It carries other craft! Hence a carrier! What were you honestly expecting? Do you have any idea how many crew it takes to staff a fleet carrier like you imagined?” Nate growled back.
“Around two thousand.” Nick replied without missing a beat.
“Uh… Well… yeah. But that’s my point! We can’t afford a crew of that size! We can’t afford a crew at all! This!” He waved a hand at the vessel. “Is perfect for Debtless! It can run, it can hide, it can carry our own personal craft, and it only needs a tiny crew! The fact they modified it for the expedition is also perfect! Better fuel efficiency, lots of redundant systems for longevity, and minimal crew requirements!”
“I can’t believe you took all my money to pay for half of a piece of junk haunted ship that’s over a century old.” Nick slowly shook his head as he looked up at it.
“First of all, it’s not haunted. The bloodstains were totally mundane.” Nate began to count off on his fingers. “Second of all since it was outfitted for the expedition that means it’s 98 years old. Third, you heard all of grandpa’s stories about the expedition and those ships! It’s worth it! Fourth, I uh…” Nate stopped counting off on his fingers and coughed. “Your money is only a third of what I had to work with.”
Nick frowned at that. “A third? Did you make literally double what I did? I know the military doesn’t pay the best but… with all my hazard pay I figured I’d do better than that…”
“Ah, no I didn’t. I made about what you made. But there’s a third investor.” Nick arched a brow as he got a sinking feeling in his gut. “A… racing champion-”
“No.” Nick immediately cut his brother off. “Nooo. No, no no. Nooooope. Neeewp! You better be fucking joking right now!”
“Nick!” A feminine voice rang out from behind him and he froze up. Then he heard the sound of boots running fast across the deck and turned at the last moment to see a form jumping off the ground and rushing right for him. He had just a moment to react as instinct cut in and he braced himself, arms out to grab the assailant. “NICK!”
He gasped as his sister impacted into him hard, nearly knocking him over as she squeezed him tight, legs wrapped around his ribs as if trying to crush the air out of him. Yet, his reinforced rig and training enabled him to quickly turn and throw her off of him. However, she was also used to this and rolled as she hit the ground, jumping back up to her feet, arms raised. “Nora…” He growled out.
“Nova!” She corrected. “Nova Velocity Vanders!” Then she stuck her fingers up. “Pew pew pew pew! Normally I have my confetti guns-”
“Your what?” Nick blinked.
“But I need to get more confetti. So fucking great to see you! I’ve missed the hell out of you! Both of you! I was ecstatic to hear Nate’s plan! Isn’t this fucking awesome? The Lava Crow! A legendary ship for a legendary racer ace! The perfect start to the next chapter of my adventure! Oooouurrr adventure! To find grandpa! Woo!” Nick was glaring at Nate now.
“She won the circuit. Made a lot of money… More in fact than I actually got from her.” Nate pointedly mentioned.
“Listen I had to throw that fan appreciation party! It was for the fans! There’s rules! And pay back my crew’s debts. I told them I would! And Nova Vander is true to her word!” She announced and struck a pose as she set her hands on her hips. This was when Nick looked her over once more and pointed.
“Why the fuck do you have a sword?” He demanded to know.
“This is my dueling cutlass Cainani. For dueling. I am a duelist. On top of being an ace racer that is.” She announced and gave her other hip a pat to point out her revolver. “This is my dueling revolver Wahinani. Also I normally keep six magma pistols on my chest. They also have names but I like to keep them secret until I pull them out.” With that she drew both her weapons and an orange field flashed to life around her pressure suit.
“Seriously? You’ve got a shield?” Nick asked.
“It’s standard in racer rigs. More for crashes than anything else. But that’s why I also had to learn to duel. Shitbags didn’t take kindly to your little sister being this fucking awesome!” Nora spun her revolver around on a finger and took a few steps forward as she demonstrated her skill with the sword. Nick honestly wasn’t sure if her form was any good. The military didn’t actually sword fight anymore. Which was why he had his mag carbine.
“Also did you seriously name your sword and gun after the demigods of beauty and handsomeness?” If anyone had the nerve to commit such sacrilege he figured it would of course be Nora.
“Fuck yeah I did! The only names fitting for a legend like me!” She grinned wide as Nick just glared at Nate.
“I can’t believe you’ve done this to me.” He let out an angry growl.
“What? Did you not tell him?” Nora looked to Nate as she holstered her sword and pistol. “You specifically told him he was on board with your plan!”
“Yes… Because he was. He just… didn’t know the part of my plan that involved bringing you in on it as well.” Nate confessed before focusing on Nick. “Nick, look, we're family. I know it’s a dick move to get you here without telling you ahead of time. But, then you might not have come! And we needed her money! This is an entire family effort! Any one of us couldn’t afford this on our own. Are you really still that mad at her?”
“He’s mad at me still? Nick! I’m sorry! If you tell me why you’re mad I’ll apologize much more specifically!” Nora insisted.
Nick looked between the two of them and then just let out a heavy sigh as he reached up to rub his face for a little. “How much do we have left?”
“Spools?” Nate asked. “Nothing. Or… Nor-Nova how much is left after you bought food?”
“Twenty gold spools.” She pulled her spool pouch from her rig to toss to Nate.
“We have twenty gold spools.” Nate answered.
“How the fuck can we start our lives as debtless if we’ve only got twenty fucking spools?” Nick asked.
“Because I got us a job already.” Nate revealed. “Real simple. Painfully simple. No combat or anything even. We have to take a single passenger from here to Radius in the Traverse. A Lavvine at that. We’ve got the fuel, and can grab more food on the way if we have to. For a full ten thousand spools.”
“One Lavvine? Here to Radius? What’s the catch?” Nick asked.
“Apparently she’s a pain in the butt or something? I dunno. The other Debtless didn’t want her. Also she said she expects discretion. Afterall why pay a crew of Debtless ten thousand instead of just hiring a shuttle right? But we can do discrete. Right?” Nate looked around.
“Yes we can! Super discrete!” Nora gave a big thumbs up.
“Right.” Nate nodded, despite Nora’s answer being the opposite of her own words. “Easy. Plus it’ll give me time to keep working on the Lava Crow. Ah!” Nate raised a hand. “Not because it isn’t ready. Just so I can keep improving upon it.”
“Hmph…” Nick crossed his arms. “Did you even get me a proper fighter? Or are you expecting me to fly a century old dirigible skiff? Oh, or is this thing designed for parasite planes only?”
“I’ve got you a Raptor. Just like you’re used to.” Nate replied. “I have my Armadillo and Nova has-”
“The Comet! Nothing else like it in the sky as it tears through… the sky! No wait… Nothing else lights up the sky like the Comet tearing by! Yeah.” She nodded confidently now.
“A Raptor just like I’m used to? You do know those went out of service halfway through the war right? We’re flying P-19s now.” Nick just let out a sigh and reached into his helmet to run a hand through his hair a moment. “Fine… But I’m Captain.”
“What? I’m the one with the name recognition! Like anyone else could be the face of this crew! I’m the Captain!” Nora growled out as she and Nick glared at each other.
“Neither of you is Captain. Neither of you would accept it. We’re a family. We do this democratically. Three siblings. Three votes. And before either of you says we need a captain just like a pirate ship just for combat we’re not going to be pirates we’re Debtless we go with whoever knows the situation best. Deal?” Nick and Nora now both focused their gaze on Nate instead who kept a steady gaze right back.
“Well… we can do some piracy if we really need to right?” Nora asked, as it was time for Nate and Nick to now give her a surprised look.
“What? No. No piracy.” Nick insisted.
“But what about stealing from bad people? Like other pirates? That’s totally part of what Debtless can do. Right?” Nora checked.
“You mean be… pirate hunters?” Nate asked.
“Yeah…” She rubbed her chin. “Yeah that’s it… The only thing cooler than being a regular pirate. Hunting other pirates… Yeah that could work.” She nodded slowly as if having decided that suited whatever wild story was going on in her head. Which prompted Nick to give Nate another glare.
“Family.” Nate kept using the word like a shield. “And Nick I know you never saw her race in the big leagues but… she is a really good pilot. She did win the circuit.”
“First independent to win the circuit since they established the big five teams.” Nora stood up tall and grinned wide at them.
“We have a chance to find grandpa. And still be Debtless just like mom and dad always wanted.” Nate was still pressing the hard sell.
“Is my kit bag onboard?” Nick asked.
“Yes, plus it’s a nice big room like we all get. I made sure to modify them a little so none of our rooms is bigger than any other. Nova already checked and couldn’t find anything to complain about.” Nora shrugged as if to admit it. “Better than you ever got in the military I’m sure.” Nate smiled.
“Fuck it. Fine. I’m still in.” Nick nodded.
“Wooo! I am sorry again! For whatever you’re mad at me about.” Nova added, but her wide grin didn’t really help things. “But we’re ready to adventure!”
“I hope you’re ready to complete your contract you mean.” Nora jumped a little, as did Nick and he spun to face the sudden appearance of a new figure. The Lavvine, a race of furred humanoids that had long ears, and longer tails. They were also widely regarded by other species as being a bunch of smartasses.
This one made for an interesting figure as she seemed to be in a pressure suit as well, except she had a white coat on over it, with a high collar that covered the lower part of her face, and had thick goggles on over her eyes. Considering their long ears the Lavvine usually preferred air masks instead of full helmets. This one’s ears looked to be golden brown on the backs, though the inside tufts were white. Which were both different from her bright blue hair. Though Nick was never sure why some species with fur also had… hair? Her tail was long and white, with light blue… speckles? Or sort of… spots? Either way she had it wrapped around her leg, and kept close.
“You’re the passenger I assume?” Nick ventured. He looked past her and saw a team of Joss carrying a set of massive trunks behind them. The one Lavvine had a baggage train bigger than some regiments! “I’m Nick, this is Nate, and that’s Nora.”
“Nova! Nooovaaa!” Nora growled out. “Nova Velocity Vanders! At your service! Perhaps you’ve heard of me?” She struck another pose, hands on her hips.
“I haven’t. No.” Nova seemed to deflate a little as the Lavvine said that. “Now, I’m not well versed on human naming conventions. Mostly because you humans have too many culture groups. Are you all related in some fashion?”
“Siblings.” Nate waved at the others.
“So, presuming the family name is secondary that means you are all Nick, Nate, and Nora-”
“Nova! Nova!”
“Nova Vanders… Is keeping the same initials customary in the culture?” The Lavvine smoothly adjusted after Nora’s interruption and looked around at them for a moment.
“No.” Nick shook his head.
“And… who named you? Is it by paternal or maternal order in your culture?” She asked next.
“It’s really whoever. But since you’re curious our father is Norm Vanders.” Nick answered.
“Norm, Nick, Nate, and Nova Vanders… Does it make it easier to get your initials marked on everything?” The Lavvine looked between them.
“Yeah. Now about your stuff?” Nick waved at all the trunks. “Is all this necessary?”
“Yes, take it on board. Drop it off inside as close to the entry as possible. Do not tarry.” The Lavvine ordered the Joss laborers who grumbled but began to haul the chests up the ramp into the ship.
“Uh, we should probably get those stored properly.” Nate began but the Lavvine held up a hand.
“I need a moment to speak with you all privately.” Nick gave a worried glance over at his sibling who all looked around at each other a moment in concern. “Now then, I believe I spoke with Nate about this?” She asked and Nate nodded to confirm. “I must inform you that your negotiating skills need work. You failed to determine just why I was offering such an exorbitant amount of spools for a simple transport job. You see, I am being hunted by a notoriously wealthy and powerful maniac who wants me dead.”
“Yes!” Nova pumped a fist in the air. “Legendary adventure! Called it!”
Nick however was just glaring at Nate. “Shit. That’s why no one else wanted the contract?” He asked. “I hate negotiating. I’m so bad at it.”
“How?” Nick asked. “You’ve been on salvage fleets for years!”
“Yeah, as a salvager, not a barter guy!” Nate defensively huffed.
“You told me you got a great deal on the ship!” Nick waved at the Lava Crow behind them.
“Because they thought it was haunted!” Nate reminded him.
“You told me it wasn’t!” Nick growled.
“Interesting. I haven’t witnessed human specters before. That might be interesting.” The Lavvine mused.
“Okay…” Nick sighed. “Why does this maniac want you dead?”
“He thinks I’ll ruin his grand prophecy. Which I know nothing about. Just that he wants me killed. So I was forced to liquidate nearly all my assets to pay off my debt so I can’t be tracked by a debt code, and in fact become Debtless like all of you. I’m unsure how long we have, but I think he might be nearing the city so I would suggest we move quickly.” The Lavvine insisted which triggered Nick’s memory.
“This maniac… do they use gold and blue paint with pearl trim?” He thought back to the ships on the Credit Governor’s palace.
“Yes. Have you seen them?” The moment she asked that they heard a siren go off for a moment from the city’s public announcement speakers. “Ah. He has already begun his hostile takeover of the Governor’s position then. He will shortly announce an extremely large bounty on my head, and a lesser bounty on the heads of anyone who protects me. I suggest you get the hangar doors open and we leave immediately.”
“Why? Why are we taking this deal?” Nick immediately asked. “Why get involved?”
“I have done nothing wrong. Committed no crime. Yet, still he wants me dead.” The Lavvine explained. “Oh, also, his prophecy has something to do with the end of existence. If you’re comfortable with that then by all means turn me over. You’ll be quite rich for however long existence lasts. If he doesn’t betray you.”
“Attention all citizens of Luminet city!” A scratchy voice echoed out around the hangar over the speakers now. “A hostile takeover of the Governor’s position has been completed! All city employees now have a new Creditor! Failure to comply with new protocols will be met with triple debt penalties!”
“Nick this guy sounds like a total tool.” Nora said.
“All Debtless are to immediately renounce their ways and proceed to the nearest credit station to initiate a new line of credit with the Governor’s palace immediately or face severe consequences.” The voice continued.
“Yeah, fuck this. I’m going to spin up the engines.” Nate immediately turned and began to run up the ramp into the ship.
“What’s your name?” Nick asked the Lavvine.
“Tessa Wilde.” She extended a hand out to him.
“We’ll get you to Radius.” Nick gave her hand a firm shake as Nora grinned wide and clapped her hands. Nick looked around a moment examining the hangar doors at the far side while the voice on the speakers kept rattling on about adjusted city overtime rates and calling up all guards and militia forces immediately. There was no way they’d get permission from the Hangar Master to open up. “That’s got to be the motor for the door. We need to get it going. But…” He looked up along the ceiling. “Those have to be the counter weights… we need to disable the locks.”
“I can manage the motor.” Tessa offered.
“I got that lock!” Nora was already running off to one side of the hangar. Nick just turned and began to run towards a ladder heading up to the lock he was not in charge of. It was near the main door leading out into the hangar’s central hallway and he could see the Joss guards from earlier now all looking up at the speakers, obviously confused.
“Furthermore-” The voice kept on. “I seek to obtain a particular Lavvine of interest to me by the name of Tessa Wilde. I am setting a bounty on her. Alive only. For one hundred thousand gold spools.” Nick grabbed hold of the ladder leading up to the counter weight and began to dash up it as fast as he could manage. “Any individuals found protecting her will receive a bounty of twenty five thousand gold spools brought in dead or alive.”
“This guy isn’t fucking around…” Nick muttered as he reached the weight. He could see where the mechanical lock was engaged and quickly smashed open the emergency release lever as the weight began to drop down. Grabbing the sides of the ladder he then slid down it back to the hangar floor. While he was doing this he heard the grinding of the motor begin and the hangar doors on the far side started to slowly open. This caught the attention three Joss however who started to peel off from the rest of the group and head his way.
“Hey! Human! Your hangar has no debt code. Are you Debtless? Did you have a Lavvine head in here earlier?” One asked as they began to fan out a little.
“Nope! Got us mistaken! You’re thinking of the hangar behind you!” He called out and kept facing them, even as he was backing up towards the ship.
“Any individuals killed in the process of acquiring this Lavvine will have their wrongful death fees paid off in full and will not count towards the bounty offered. To ensure a smooth transition of power between Governor credit lines all guards killed during the takeover shall have their debts purged, and family shall have an additional five hundred gold spool bereavement payout.” The voice kept going. Nick heard some other commotion behind him at the ship even as the engines began to spin up and fill the hangar bay with a steadily growing rumble.
“That’s a Lavvine over there!” One of the guards insisted. They hadn’t grabbed their guns yet, but their hands were close… Nick started to slowly reach for his carbine, but didn’t want to grab it just yet.
“Hey man, I’m Debtless there’s no wrongful death fee. It’s just straight up murder if you do anything.” This did make the guards pause. Would that be enough?
“If he’s willing to pay off the rest… I think he’ll ignored a light bit of murder…” One offered. Nick looked between the three, and prepared to grab his gun.
“Hey assholes!” Nick and the three Joss guards stopped and looked over at Nora standing to their side. Her face shield was down, hiding her face but he could picture her grin. “Do any of you know who I am?”
“No?” The guards glanced at each other in confusion.
“Well… If you knew who I was you’d know what I’d do if you try anything stupid!” She growled.
“Maybe… But we don’t know who you are.” The Joss replied with a shrug.
“Well, I tried.” In a flash Nora drew her revolver and fired twice. Nick was already yanking his carbine from his rig as he saw one of the Joss’ horns go flying off his head while a crimson bubble of blood erupted from the top of his head. The other guards were turning to Nora as they drew their weapons but Nick was already firing a burst into the one on the far right. The first bullet struck him in the chest, which was absorbed by the armor yet started to knock him back. The second bullet caught him in the collar bone, and the third hit right in the throat above his armor.
Now the middle guard was stuck between the two and hesitated for just a moment, which was all Nora needed as she lunged forward, driving her sword straight through his chest as if the armor was made of paper. Nick could see the surprised look on the Joss’ face for a moment before Nora reared back and kicked him in the chest so she could yank her sword free as his body tumbled to the floor. Now the other Joss were crying out and heading their way however and Nick turned to sprint for the ship. “RUN!”
Focused on the ship now he sprinted for the ramp even as he saw the Joss laborers from before clustered around it. They likely were considering a change of career as Tessa approached. But to Nick’s surprise she reached out her hand and a fan of lightning arced out from it at the laborers. With that they scattered and ran, providing a clear path up the ramp for Tessa to run up. From behind him the Joss began to fire his way and Nick did his best to shoot over his shoulder to try and keep them from aiming too carefully.
Even as he ran towards the ramp he heard the crackling of bullets bouncing off a shield. “MOVE YOUR ASS NICK!” He felt a hand press on his back as he realized Nora was running behind him to use her shield to protect them both.
“I’M RUNNING!” He yelled back at her as they quickly rushed up the boarding ramp while bullets pinged off the hull around them. His first introduction into the actual interior of the ship was a short hallway opening into a hab area of some kind. But before he could really inspect it his foot struck hard against a trunk left behind he hadn’t spotted and he fell face forward over it hard, tumbling to the deck in a heap.
“NATE! GO!” He heard Nora scream and the deck below them started to rumble as the ship started to move. More bullets were hitting the side as he tried to roll over and pull himself up to his feet. A set of hands took hold of his arm to help pull him up as he stood face to face with Tessa for a moment.
“I know you had little choice but I do appreciate your taking the contract.” She mentioned.
“That’s just how I am baby! Cause I’m fucking legendary!” Nora howled out with a laugh. “Now Nick, help my crank up the ramp.”
“This thing has a fucking crank ramp?!” Nick gasped out, and stepped over the trunk on the ground to help her crank the ramp up into place as he watched the hangar bay move past then the underside of the city came into view, with the air rushing past as they got the ramp up and the door sealed.
“Welcome to the life of the Debtless Nick!” Nora laughed and slapped his shoulder. “It’s going to be a ton of fun!” One thing Nick was certain about in a now very uncertain world, is that it wasn’t going to be fun.

As standard – apologies for the length! I’ve found it quite a cathartic experience, and I seem to have managed to merge elements of the reddit, US and UK R29 templates so please feel free to skip over any boring sections!
Background:
I’m British, working for a British Company in the US on a three-year posting (one year in). My salary is actually £33,000 but due to the increased cost of living here, I get an additional £10,000 allowance for living costs, and my rent/utilities are paid directly by my company. This puts my equivalent salary at $93,000.
I’m aware this is an incredibly fortunate position to be in, especially with COVID, however when I return to the UK, I will be paid my UK salary only, so this is a short-term benefit.
The company can split my pay between my UK and US accounts, and currently 95%ish of it is going to my UK account. This % split was only set up after lockdown as we are currently spending much less on travel/socialising here so are taking the opportunity to focus on building our UK savings. My husband, J, was fortunate enough to get local employment when he arrived in country. He earns an additional $46,000 net which we live on.
For ease/consistency, I have converted all costs at 1.3 as this is roughly the average conversion since I’ve lived here – I will write UK next to any cost/savings that are based in the UK.
Section One: Assets and Debt
J and I (now) combine all our finances, so except for my pension pot, and a small F* Off Fund (FoF - we have one each), everything else is split 50/50. This will likely change when we go back to the UK as we’ll have better access to our own bank accounts.
My personal Net Worth is $72,400
Retirement Balance
UK $104,000
I’ve contributed to work pension schemes since I started working full time age 18. This has been set at around 5% since I joined my current employer 7 years ago, and they contribute around 27%. I’m actually guaranteed £4,000 per year once I retire for as long as I live so have multiplied this by 20 on the assumption the retirement age actually stays at 68 and I make it to my late 80’s. This amount will increase over the years with inflation and as I contribute further to it. I can choose to retire earlier, plus take up to a 25% tax free lump sum on retirement, but that will affect the annual pay-out amount.
Equity
UK $52,000 equity, $157,300 left on the mortgage
J and I bought ($197,600) with just over a 10% ($20,000) deposit 3 years ago aged 24 and contributed half each. I managed to save this as I was living at home until we bought, and J got a help to buy loan through his previous workplace. He’s since cleared this.
Savings account balance
$29,700 made up of:
US $6,700 for fun money here (currently planned for another car – we’ll sell our existing one)
UK $6,500 in premium bonds as my FoF, $13,800 in our joint savings account to upsize when we get back to the UK, $2,600 in one of my side saving accounts as a potential future maternity pot. This is joint but kept in a separate account from the house savings.
Around $22,000 of this has been saved since the beginning of lockdown
Checking account balance
US $120 (+ $1,190 in checking, -$1,070 on AMEX). All our savings accounts are easy access, so we try to keep the balance as low as possible and tend to spend the full amount each month. [We end the week with this back up to $1,559]
UK $660
Credit card debt (and how you accumulated it)
0 – we use our AMEX for our everyday spending, so I’ve included it in our checking account as we usually pay it off each week and use it in place of our checking account. J had CC/loan debt in the UK from the house deposit and wedding which he cleared down before we moved out here.
Student loan debt (for what degree)
0 - neither of us went to University
Anything else that's applicable to you
We paid outright for a second-hand car that is worth around $6,000
Section Two: Income & Further Background
Income Progression:
I started at my current company 7 years ago working as a personal assistant and started on $24,000. I stayed in this role for 2.5 years before promoting into a finance role and onto $31,000. After a year I was temporarily promoted (with pay rise) within my team to a higher finance role and after a further 6 months was permanently promoted into the role and onto $35,750. There’s usually an annual pay rise of around 2%, which I’ve received between each promotion, but as this last promotion pay rise wasn’t as high as usual, my last few annual pay rises have been higher to bring me to my now salary of $43,290. I’ve spent the last three years at the same level, but have changed teams to gain more experience which will be needed for the next promotion which I’ll hopefully be able to get when I return to the UK – this will take me over the $50,000 mark.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
UK – I get paid once a month, receiving $3,783 after tax, national insurance and pension contributions. This also includes the extra living allowance. $3,510 is paid into my UK account, $273 is paid into the US
US – J gets paid fortnightly, and earns a net salary of $3,546 per month (assuming 2 pay periods per month)
Any Other Monthly Income Here
UK - We receive around $598 per month from tenants in our house in the UK. The letting agents take all management and admin fees directly from the rent before we get paid. This amount can be less if any work needs doing on the property, but again the letting agent will pay directly and just transfer us a reduced amount. We also have to pay tax on any rent received and still need to pay last year’s bill, but we haven’t calculated it yet.
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?:
Not from family. My parents don’t have degrees, and whilst they supported my siblings going, it was our own personal choice. If we didn’t go, we were expected to work full time.
My school did expect me to go. I was in the last school year before UK University tuition went up, so the only advise they could give was to go now as you won’t be able to afford it in the future. I had a place to study events management but turned it down a week before the deadline. Bar sometimes feeling like I missed out on the University life experience (aka. freshers week), I have zero regrets not going.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
My siblings and I were always encouraged to save including contributing to pensions when we started working, and prioritise this and bills over spending our money, but conversations didn’t go much further than that.
What was your first job and why did you get it?:
Weekly paper round from age 12 to 16 which gave me $10 a week to pay for my phone credit and to build savings. I started working part-time in a supermarket from age 16 earning around $250 a month, but this was mainly spent shopping and in the pub!
Did you worry about money growing up?:
No – my parents operated on a “what we do for one, we do for all”, so with a house of five kids, we certainly weren’t living the life of luxury, but we never went without, and it encouraged me to earn some of my own money from an early age.
Do you worry about money now?:
No, J and I are in a really good position and try to make sensible decisions so that we can still cope if our circumstances change.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?:
Fully when I bought the house and moved out age 24, although I obviously gained the support from J. I’ve always had to use my own money for wants and non-essentials (phone bill, own laptop, “fun” clothes). I was given a few years grace on rent as my parents helped my siblings at Uni, but this stopped when I turned 21. I’ve always bought my own cars/insurance and would contribute to the household, including buying some food and replacing furniture in my room.
Our parents continue to support us anyway they can, which included letting J and I move back in rent free last year whilst we were replacing our kitchen.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?:
My dad saved around $1,200 from when I was a child which I received aged 18 – this went into savings and then towards my first car and laser eye surgery.
My brothers and I also received $1,950 each from a great aunt when she died, which was a complete surprise (the will was contested so this was several years later). Our much younger half-brother didn’t receive anything, so we split this equally with him. The money left went towards mine and J’s wedding and we also received around $5000 additional from various family members towards our wedding and honeymoon. This was also not expected, and we budgeted not to receive anything, but this was a bonus and it relieved some of the pressure on us to save.
Section Three: Expenses
UK – I auto-transfer $1,170 across various accounts to pay for our UK bills. J & I both kept some bills in our own names to try to maintain our individual UK credit scores as well as our joint one. J’s parents are also looking after our two cats whilst we’re in the US, so we transfer them some money. We’ve discovered our UK entertainment subscriptions work over here so we haven’t cancelled them and pay them from the UK accounts, which is a benefit as they’re usually cheaper.
$910 to our joint account to cover – Mortgage ($986 – includes $130 monthly overpayment), Landlord Insurance ($32), Pet Insurance ($45), our life insurance ($22 – it pains me that the cats cost twice as much as we do. Obviously, they don’t have the NHS covering their medical costs, but they also don’t have a mortgage to pay off….), J’s UK phone bill ($35) – he’s still tied into his contract. The rent income comes into this account so that covers any delta and builds a pot to pay the tax bill. It works out at around $388 per month saved for this. We also pay around ($150) annually to cover IT costs including Microsoft office, McAfee Security and Dropbox storage.
$143 to my bills account to cover – my UK phone bill ($23), a second UK phone bill that I need to cancel as they wouldn’t transfer my existing number to them ($6), Trade Union membership ($19), Netflix ($12), Annual magazine subscription ($19). Any money left over for is for UK online orders and so we have money available when we visit home.
$65 to J’s account to cover – Amazon Prime ($10), Spotify ($20), Audible ($15) and annual Xbox Live ($50)
$52 to J’s parents for the cats.
UK Savings – we have $2,340 to split across the savings. The split varies each month, but as I’ve hit my FoF goal the focus will be on getting J’s to the goal amount and then joint savings.
US – TV, WiFi and Hulu ($131), Phone Bills ($167), Car Insurance ($110), Naked Wines ($40), HelloFresh ($523), Annual Renters Insurance ($152). We currently get Disney+ free with our phones, but this will end soon, and I expect we’ll start paying for it as well.
US Savings – I usually transfer between $500-$1,000 into savings when J gets paid but will vary this based on how much we have left in the checking account from his last pay and what bills are due. We’ll also raid this as needed for big purchases or if we’re running low in on cash in the checking account.
​
Day 1 – Saturday
0900 – I’ve been waking up on and off for a few hours, but the alarm has gone off, so I drag myself out of bed. J and I are booked into a second-hand book sale from between 11 and 12 so we need to actually get out of the house this morning. I tidy up a bit, have a shower and miss a call from my mum whilst I’m in there. I check J is up before calling her back and have a good catch up with her and my Nan.
1115 – We’re a little later than planned, but we make it to the sale. I picked the second slot so that there would still be a good selection of books available and am pleasantly surprised by the amount and overall COVID set up. We spend almost an hour browsing and come away with 15 books between us. $60.01
1210 – We left the apartment without eating breakfast, but there’s a restaurant open next to the sale that we haven’t tried before so we pop in and have a burger each. Discover there’s a cocktail bar underneath and make note to head back and try that soon. $41.92
1600 – J has spent the afternoon building Ikea furniture we bought last week and hiding in the bedroom watching YouTube videos whilst I clean, watch The Haunting of Hill House and drink copious amounts of tea. We bought our car in a bit of a rush when we arrived and to replace his Rightmove house obsession, J spends a lot of his time looking at cars available here. Last week he found an American muscle car that looks in good shape and isn’t extortionate, so in his argument to “buy American, eat American, drive American” whilst we’re here, he’s arranged a visit check it out and test drive it. We’re meant to be there at half past, but we had the wrong address and there’s been an accident so it’s actually an hour’s drive, and we don’t get there until 1715 - Oops. I do not want to like the car, but I’m honestly sold – I knew our current car wasn’t the best, and planned to cope with it for the three years, but this is such an improvement and feels like a fun car to drive on road trips. We arrange to come back next week to buy the car and head back home. Thankfully, the traffic has cleared so it only takes 40mins. We while away the journey by listening to an episode of My Dad Wrote a Porno.
1830 – We stop by Giant to pick up some essentials (loo roll, seltzer, beer, milk) and food for the rest of the weekend. $103.25. I cook pork chops, roast potatoes, asparagus and gravy for dinner, and we spend the evening chilling in front of Netflix with wine before heading to bed at midnight.
Daily total: $205.18
Day 2 – Sunday
0830 – I wake up and sneak out of bed without disturbing J, make myself a cup of tea and settle down to finish off The Haunting of Hill House. J hates scary shows/films, so I try to watch things before he’s up, but he still needs to be in the house otherwise my imagination will go wild. The show finishes and I hear no sign of movement, so I make another cup of tea and discover The Princess Diaries 2 is on freeform so obviously I watch this.
1100 – J gets up and makes us scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for brunch. There was meant to be a bread roll with this, but according to J it had gone off. Silently complain that I didn’t pick up some bagels whilst we were shopping last night. We stick The Office on in the background and binge far too much of it whilst I multitask and convert our savings/bills spreadsheet into $ for the intro to this.
1630 – I had grand plans to spend the day cleaning and assumed J’s mum would do her weekly skype call with us at 3, neither of which has happened, and I only realise this now. I suggest we message some friends to see if they fancy an afternoon pick-me-up, but they are hanging from last night, and I remember I’m doing interviews in the morning so probably not the smartest move. I have a shower, wash and sort my hair out to save time in the morning.
1800 – I get an email reminding me that I have items in my basket on an online order and that they’ve given me 15% off. Seems rude not complete it – J has a quick browse to see if there’s anything he likes but nothing takes his fancy. So it’s just non-wired bras for me and a very cute bee print quilt set. It’s a UK based store so I pay using my UK bank account. $123
1900 – J cooks dinner tonight, a HelloFresh recipe for firecracker meatballs with rice. We stick The Office on in the background, finish the rest of last nights wine and the entire series, getting to bed at half 11.
Daily total: $123
Day 3 – Monday
0630 – Alarm goes off. Ugh. It disturbs J, so I apologise for waking him, hit snooze and repeat 5 minutes later. Rather than getting straight up, I waste half an hour browsing Facebook before washing and getting ready. As an attempt to look semi presentable, I put actual work clothes on, straighten my hair and put on some mascara and powder.
0755 – I make it onto the laptop and do some prep before the interviews. Checking my emails, I spot that I’ve been paid my US pay today. The annual pay rise has come through and there’s a small backdate from last months pay, so I have an additional $127 this month. I clear a few more emails and make a cup of tea before starting the interviews.
1215 – Interviews are done, and as a panel we have discussed and come to a decision. We all need to type up our outcomes for HR, but I take a lunch break before my brain melts. J heats up leftover meatballs and rice from last night and we watch an episode of The Good Place whilst we eat. J’s heading into the office this afternoon so I tidy up, stick the dishwasher on and faff about on reddit before getting back to work at 1. Go straight back into a call with my Line Manager to touch base before he goes on leave – he lets me know he put me forward (and I have been approved) for a bonus for my efforts since joining last year, and the added COVID response. I’m touched and proceed to spend a while mentally spending it. I’m debating between a pair of Louboutin’s and a spin bike…. Slightly different ends of the spectrum I know. Keen to hear any inspiration! It should be around $1000 after tax so reasonably substantial.
1630 – J comes home and attempts to get in, but I appear to have locked him out. I get up, open the door and see that he comes baring this week’s HelloFresh box, which is a relief as I hadn’t seen any delivery emails (we had a few go missing in our apartment block when we started). I have a small break to see how his afternoon has been and reply to some messages with friends about possible Halloween costumes for a small gathering we’re going to. We jokingly consider a group The Office effort, which results in numerous gifs being shared. In a moment of inspiration, J passes me his shirt, tie and blazer to put on… turns out I’m a pretty convincing Sexy Toby. I get changed back into my own clothes and head back to work for a bit.
1930 – J finished work earlier so cooked again. Tonight’s is a HF spicy shrimp pasta. It’s a bit disappointing even with him adding extras from the cupboard. We eat and watch the Umbrella Academy before heading to bed at 11.
Daily total: $0
Day 4 – Tuesday
0730 – alarm goes off, get up, washed, dressed. No interviews today so back to COVID home working uniform of no make-up and trackies. Make a cup of tea and am at my desk for 0830 – in and out of meetings until 10 and spend the rest of the morning trying to catch up on my inbox. J’s headed into the office, so I take the opportunity to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack as I work. Get through the first track before admitting defeat that despite my amazing multitasking skills, I can’t actually sing along and type coherent emails. Settle for the LOTR soundtrack instead.
1215 – make it to lunch and reheat last night’s leftovers (we order HelloFresh for four people for the leftovers, as before we were just ordering in lunch every day). Realise I haven’t physically left the flat for longer than I care to admit, so take my lunch onto the balcony and eat it whilst reading through a money diary on reddit. Remember I have a meeting at 1, so sign back in ten mins before and read through the emails in a vague attempt to sound prepared.
J buys himself and his boss lunch in the office, but his boss will pay him back so $12.17
1900 – long afternoon, managed to start nothing on my actual to-do-list, so feel like I haven’t achieved anything. Yay. J got home half an hour ago (I didn’t lock him out today!) and switched the oven on as he walked past, so I take the opportunity to get up and cook once it’s done preheating. Pork tenderloin with coleslaw and mash tonight. It comes with a cherry jam sauce which I’m not the biggest fan of, so I make it into a fruity gravy. It takes longer to cook than I planned, and I can feel myself getting more and more annoyed with everything from a general mix of feeling stressed and hangry. J sticks toy story 4 on as we eat which doesn’t help my mood (as let’s face it, it’s the worst one). Our friends message asking if we’re watching the debates – J had planned to but had forgotten so quickly changes over to watch it. I have no words.
We make plans to watch the next debate in a group with alcohol, debate bingo and the next day booked off work to recover.
Head to bed at 1120 – still waste time on Facebook despite being shattered.
Daily total: $12.17
Day 5 – Wednesday
0830 – Alarm goes off. I didn’t get to sleep up until 12.30 and J disturbed me at 1.30 when he came to bed so extra sleep was needed. I check my phone, message my stepsister a happy birthday and stick on my dressing gown to make sure I’m online for my 9am meeting. Thankfully, no one has an update, so the meeting is cancelled, and I have time to shower and put clothes on before I properly start work.
1230 – Lunchtime. I have the remaining shrimp pasta and J makes a BBQ chicken sandwich with other leftovers in the fridge and we stick on another episode of The Good Place whilst we eat. We finish up, work for an hour and then drive into the office. J needs to stay in for a while, but I’m only in to sign a cheque so I take the opportunity to walk back home. It’s a glorious sunny day, but with a nice breeze so it’s an enjoyable walk until I’m almost back at the flat and have to walk up a hill and then 5 flights of stairs. It’s a fast reminder of just how unfit I am, and I have to have a quick lie down to recovecool down before getting back to work.
1730 – J and I have plans to meet up with our friends K and J(.2) tonight. In an act of attempting to keep some form of sanity, J and J.2 are heading out to a bar for a “Gentleman’s Club” and I’m heading round to K & J.2’s flat for wine and chick flicks. J gets home from work, kisses me hi and bye and heads straight back out. K’s getting her hair cut, so I continue working until half 6 before walking up to her apartment. I make a pit stop on route to pick up a bottle of white wine as she’s running low. The card machines are down so it’s cash only – I have a mild panic, but thankfully I find some notes in my purse - although I’m pretty sure I withdrew them pre-lockdown! $17
0200 – After a night of homemade mac’n’cheese, wine, films and putting the world to rights, I get ready to head home just as J.2 stumbles back into the flat. It’s lovely to see him, but the state he’s in makes me a bit concerned about what J is going to be like when I get home. Thankfully, when I make it back and he’s already curled up on his own side of the bed, passed out and lightly snoring away. I take off my makeup, do my teeth, get into bed and fall straight asleep.
*I’ve checked the banking app and J spent $50.50 on food and drink. The “club” made their way to our apartment around 9pm and worked their way through our booze which explains the low spend but high drunkenness.
Daily total: $67.50
Day 6 – Thursday
0700 – J’s alarm goes off. He rarely sets alarms and has an amazing ability to sleep though them, so I kick him awake to switch it off. He hits snooze rather than switching it off, so I wake up again 5mins later. Ugh. He actually manages to switch it off the second time.
0830 – My alarm goes off. I’m tired and thirsty, but other than that feeling pretty ok. J is not and I leave him snoozing in bed as I start work. It’s a slow morning (thankfully) and I periodically check on J to see if he’s feeling any better. General consensus is no. The leftovers in the house are not hangover friendly so we put in an order with Panera Bread. $32.25. J has a choose two, but I brought home some mac’n’cheese from last night so just order some crisps and a smoothie to go with it. It takes longer than expected to arrive, but it means a 1230 lunch in front of The Good Place. We finish and go back to work, J heads into the office again.
1400 – I’ve struggled to get back into the swing of things, and as there haven’t been too many emails coming in I take the opportunity to have a break and lie down on the bed (I work flexi hours and have a very high balance so this is done guilt-free). This lie down turns into an hour-long nap and I wake up feeling better, but still while away some time on reddit before deciding to make it back to work at 4.
1920 – J messaged to say he’s on his way back and I’ve already heated the oven, so I finish for the night and start making dinner. Tonight’s HF menu is a creamy lemon butter chicken with courgette and giant couscous. It’s reasonably simple to make, but one of our favourites. I multitask and clean down the kitchen as I go.
2000 – Dinner is eaten, J has made us a cup of tea and we’re settled back into The Good Place. Yesterday was payday into my UK account so I log into the internet banking and transfer to the savings accounts (the bill transfers are set up to auto-transfer on the 1st). $1,170 to J’s savings so he’s now at his FoF goal, $650 to the maternity pot, and $780 to the joint savings. The annual renter’s insurance has also come out of our US checking account today, but that’s counted in the expenses. We both head to bed at 11.
Daily total: $32.25
Day 7 – Friday
0730 – J’s alarm goes off, he’s heading back into the office this morning so it’s valid today and we both actually wake up for it. We both chill on our phones until my alarm goes off at 0830. Up, washed, dressed and on the laptop in time for my 9am meeting. I’m closing off last months accounts and updating forecasts so get stuck into multiple spreadsheets.
1440 – I’d gotten into a good rhythm with the updates, and without J here, I hadn’t realised the time, so I only stop now for lunch. It’s last nights leftovers so couscous and chicken, plus an apple left over from J’s Panera order yesterday. J didn’t take anything in so has stopped by Safeway $14.13 and the work café $9.48. I get the figures from the banking app and realise J has been paid – win. I have an hour break and head back online.
2020 – I’ve been in the swing of things today. It’s a long winded, but simple task so I’ve had Greys Anatomy on in the background as I work. I’d normally have left some of it until Monday, but I have a few urgent requests in today that need the updated figures so it made sense to get it all cleared – it’s also quite therapeutic so feels like a nice way to end the week . J and I have plans to see friends tomorrow, so I don’t feel too bad about not having plans for a Friday night and working for most of it instead. Still, we make the most of it being payday and order in some Steak Frites for dinner and I treat myself to a chocolate cake slice as well. $80.25. We spend the rest of the evening relaxing, finish watching The Good Place (a very emotional finale) and make it into bed for half 11.
Daily total: $103.86
​
Total Expenditure: $543.96
Food & Drink: $257.70
Groceries: $103.25
Clothes/Home: $123.00
Other: $60.01
​
Lastly, reflect on your diary!
This is a pretty average week for us during COVID. We usually go out drinking over every other weekend, but that extra spending would balance out with the home/other expenditure as I try to make sure we spread our spending out. The AMEX balance is a bit higher than the usual weekly amount as J and I both ordered a trunk club a few weeks and kept a few of the clothes but the system errored which delayed us processing our returns (and them billing us). As we’ll looking to buy the car soon, it also feels like a better decision to leave the balance on the card and keep more cash available – I’m not concerned as we’re only just into the new credit statement period and J’s will get an extra pay period this month which will clear it.
Pre-COVID, this is actually lower than our weekly spend, as we also had most of my salary coming into the US account as well and were spending most of it socialising, travelling and just enjoying living in a city. If we had to, we could cut our costs and save a lot more, but we’re here to enjoy ourselves and so long as we can eat and pay the mortgage, we’re happy. We’ve also already reached our total savings goal for our time out here, so anything extra is a bonus.

More Swiss resources.
---General Points---
Switzerland is expensive to visit
Switzerland is well known for being expensive in comparison with surrounding countries (and most other countries in the world). Even a basic McDonalds meal will be painfully expensive to most visitors. If you are careful then a fun (if basic) trip can be had for less than 70CHF a day, or with eating out and spending on activities for more like 150CHf per day. If you are really hardcore and wild camp and eat what is basic enough to stay alive then 10CHF might be possible.
Living and working here you do at least have much higher pay than elsewhere and so very strong buying power. As someone living and working in Switzerland I mostly do daytrips or just for 1-2 nights at weekends, and so am lucky as most of the concerns of costs are covered by the salary and not being far from home. I do try and keep costs down so I have learnt quite a bit myself in how to avoid painful prices.
Ultimately if you really are on a tight budget and want to see the Alps then France, Austria, Germany, and Slovenia are all cheaper and offer much of the same.
As with Swiss watches the appeal is partly in the historical branding and the popular mindset, rather than Switzerland being the be-all-and-end-all of the topic.
Not everything is that expensive
The basics for travel are expensive (food/accommodation/transport) but many activities are actually cheaper than elsewhere. Compared to say London where many attractions are £20+ ($26 USD) or even the insane 200 KN ($31 USD) to walk the walls in Dubrovnik many Swiss attractions are quite reasonable.

• Entry to the Château de Chillon is 13.5 CHF ($15 USD); less than half the price of the Tower of London and cheaper than most other castles in the UK.
  
• A return ticket on my local cable car to a high ridge where you can spend as long as you like with panoramic views of the Alps, France and Germany costs less than the half hour spin on the London Eye.
  

If you google around there are plenty of sites and blogs with suggestions in general, or for specific places

• The official tourist website has a dedicated section.
  
• The English Swiss forum has plenty of threads.
  
• Lost in Switzerland has some interesting ideas like this and this.
  
• For specific locations Tripsavvy have a good page on Geneva and Greyworldnomads have a good page on Zürich.
  
• If you spend much time searching through the rest of the results you will find that most pages just offer the same few fairly obvious bits of advice (go to the supermarket etc).
  

Be sure to double check the official details of anything I list on here
Things change with time and due to the size and scope of this post I am not going in depth with all the details – be sure to read up on the terms and conditions of any pass or other offers rather than just what is on here.
Be wary of advice from randoms online.
I have seen people complain about absurd prices (that a small lunch cost them 45CHF, or a simple takeaway sandwich cost them 20CHF) that simply are insane and exceptions rather than the rule (if they were even real to start with).
Likewise context is important: I have seen visitors from various parts of the USA claim Swiss food prices in the shops are cheaper, comparable, and far more expensive than back home (which may well all have been true).
----Accommodation-----
In general:

• Official accommodation (which should include Airbnb) will give you a guest card in many cities and tourist focused areas. The exact benefits vary but normally include free local transport and free/discounted activities. Sometimes cable car rides will be included for free too. Usually you can look up what is included online beforehand (eg: for the Jungfrau region). You get the guest card at check in and it is valid until the end of the day that you check out on, sometimes you can print your accommodation reservation and use that to travel for free on the day of arrival before you check in too (again check the local website to see if that is valid). Mostly you only get the benefits in the town/village and places 10-20 minutes away, but in the beautiful and underrated canton of Ticino it covers the entire canton which is an incredible deal (if you are day tripping out of a main base then you can easily save more on transport than you spend on accommodation, especially as campsites are valid accommodation).
  
• The most important factor here is season; January/February will be high season for skiing in the mountains (with DecembeMarch as the shoulder season), July/August will be high season for summer everywhere (with June/September as the shoulder season), and in most areas April/May and OctobeNovember are off season. So if you go to the Alps in May or October it will be much easier to find cheap accommodation than in August or February. The flip side is that not everything will be open or doable in the shoulder or off seasons (but it can still be worth visiting if you just want to enjoy the landscape but don’t have a certain hike or peak you are dead set on doing). For cities like Lugano that are more focused on summer tourism and don’t have a local ski resort then it will be much cheaper in the winter months like February than during the summer.
  
• It might help to look to lesser known areas. You might be able reduce accommodation costs by staying somewhere nice but unknown. The difference probably won’t be significant, but if for example you stay in Täsch rather than the more famous and popular neighbouring Zermatt you will likely find more budget options.
  
• Sticking to one area for longer will help cut transport costs down. Jumping several hours by train everyday will get expensive fast without a general pass.
  
• If breakfast isn’t included and is more than 10CHF, then unless you are a heavy morning eater you might better off popping to a café or bakery for a coffee and bite to eat instead.
  
• Tourist tax might not be included in the listed price (typically 2-3CHF per person per night). Likewise check for a non-listed cleaning fee if it is an apartment or Airbnb, this might not be too bad if it is after a week but could be a very nasty add-on for just a night or two.
  

Where to look:

• Aside from the standard options like Booking and Airbnb for finding rooms you might also want to look into https://alp.holidaybooking.ch/?language=en, and https://www.rooms.ch/ , and https://bnb.ch/ , and https://www.bauernhof-ferien.ch/ , and https://www.myfarm.ch/en/accommodation especially their sleep in straw options which can be as low as 30CHF with breakfast included, and https://naturfreunde.ch/haeuse .
  
• There are a number of places that are not listed on the standard accommodation websites. These are often cheaper (and more basic) than average. However finding them can be a slow and tedious process of crawling around google maps looking for restaurants which might double as a guesthouse. Very often their website will be in the local language only, with booking enquiries via phone or email (responses by email often being slow or never arrive).
  
• Swiss Hotel Card requires a paid membership (99CHF per year) but gives you 50% off bookings at participating hotels in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and Italy. In many Swiss hotels this would pay for itself after 2 nights (or just 1). It does seem to be focused on helping hotels during the off-season so the website states that only “75% of the time” is open (but that is still good for domestic tourists). I have not used this myself yet.
  
• Couchsurfing is free, but that is more about being a part of something rather than just a cheap place to crash.
  

Hostels:

• Hostels can be had for as low as 20CHF for a bunk in a shared room if you are going to a popular tourist-heavy location like Interlaken or Luzern. But they are not always that cheap (especially in a ski resort in winter when a dorm bed can set you back 50CHF or more). Or even the cheapest option: a private room for 2 people in a budget hotel can be cheaper than 2 beds in a dorm. Check https://www.hostelz.com/ in addition to Hostelworld.
  
• YHA hostels whilst not the cheapest are a good budget option that can be found all over the country, they tend to be family/relaxed places rather than party hostels. They are always clean, come with a good breakfast and some like Grindelwald have unbeatable views. The buildings tend to be very nice (in some cases like Burgdorf they are renovated castles). Sadly most don’t have a guest kitchen or fridge (check the info page for each location), but do offer cheap startemain/dessert dinners for 18CHF. If you are looking at the YHAs then book on their website rather than Hostelworld etc to avoid paying the extra for not being a member (membership pays for itself after only a few nights so it is worth signing up).
  

Camping:

• Camping. Standard campsites: www.tcs.ch , www.camping.ch , and www.sccv.ch. In addition there are a few websites where you can officially find a small patch to pitch up on a farm: https://www.nomady.ch/ , and myfarm.ch.
  
• Wild camping is complex. The best way to sum it up is "Prohibited but tolerated under conditions". This SAC page has the most official guidelines. There are some rough rules of thumb for the ideal situation: above the tree line, with the community / landowner’s permission, not in a protected area, single tent, set up as the sun goes down and dismantle at dawn, no fire/noise/disturbance/litter. Wild camping has increased in popularity in recent years, iconic spots like Seealpsee are having problems with numbers, so try and pick a less known spot.
  

----Transport-----
This is always a hard question to answer. The best solution will change depending on time-frame, number of people, how much you want to see/do across the country, and how much you want to keep your options open. Ultimately you will have to make a rough plan and calculate which option provides the best value.
Public transport will get you just about anywhere you need to go and many train lines have views you won't get from the roads. For public transport there are number of train passes to cover full or partial cost, the whole country or just an area, that can be bought anytime at a set price or are limited and vary in price. It can be somewhat overwhelming. I have written quite extensively about this, especially public transport, in a previous post and there are various other guides online to help there (for example this).
A few important examples:

• Booking individual tickets in advance in itself does not make any difference to the price (unlike various other places in Europe like the UK and Germany). However from 60 days before the day of travel you can buy “Supersaver“ tickets which reduce the cost by up to 70%, but are only available at off-peak times and lock you to a certain train. This can be combined with the half-fare card for further discounts. A set number of supersaver tickets are available, so depending on how in demand a certain train is they might be sold out weeks in advance or be available still just before departure.
  
• The Swiss Travel Pass might seem horrifically expensive at first glance, but if you are wanting to travel far and wide from a single base it will very quickly pay for itself. In addition to standard transport it also covers most ships, a number of cable cars (even going up to Rigi Kulm and Schilthorn for no extra cost), discounts on most of the rest of the mountain transport, and free entry to most museums.
  
• Children get free or discounted travel. Below the age of 6 children can travel free of charge if they are accompanied by somebody 12 over older who has a ticket. The Junior Swiss Travel card costs 30CHF for a year and lets a child aged 6-16 travel for free so long as they travel with a parent. The pass is even free from the 3rd child.
  
• If you want to be very flexible then Fairtiq might be worth checking out so you can hop on and off, or change direction without worrying about buying a ticket at the start.
  

Driving might be cheaper, especially with a group of people. However keep in mind:

• If you are renting then it might be cheaper to rent just across the border in a neighbouring country and drive in.
  
• If you are driving in from another country you will need to buy a 40CHF annual vignette to use the motorways (but not the smaller streets). This is actually really good value if you live here, less so if you want to just drive for a few hours to cut across the country.
  
• Parking can be very expensive.
  
• Some popular tourist spots like Zermatt/Wengen/Mürren are car-free so you have to pay for parking and then the transport to get you the last 10 minutes to the place. If you are spending a week in Zermatt then the car will just sit there doing nothing.
  
• Traffic offenses (speeding, not having your headlights on at all times) will result in VERY large fines.
  

Also:

• If you are flying into Geneva and going to the city then you can get a ticket for free transport into the city from the luggage retrieval area.
  
• You might also look into ride sharing like BlaClaCar. I have not used this, but from what I have read you should be prepared for cancelations and to be flexible.
  
• Hitchhiking is possible and probably as safe as it is going to get, but I have no experience there.
  

----Food----
Do it yourself:

• You almost never need to buy water. Tap water is fine, and just about every fountain has drinkable water (unless there is a sign on it stating otherwise). When in the mountains you can fill up from streams assuming there isn’t a farm or animals grazing above you.
  
• Supermarket food is the obvious go to. But compared to the neighbouring countries you are still paying 50% or more for food items. Migros is the cheaper Swiss supermarket that you will find everywhere and is good quality. Denner is the slightly cheaper sister of Migros which isn’t always as easy to find. Lidl and Aldi are cheaper still, however they tend not to be in central areas or smaller towns or villages. Most supermarkets will have a small reduced section for goods near the sell by date. Be aware that supermarkets close early (typically 7pm or earlier), and outside of tourist resorts will be closed on a Sunday. There will be a shop (or a whole shopping complex) open everyday until 10pm at train or petrol stations though – but these are often more expensive.
  
• If you REALLY love bread/cheese/pasta you can feed yourself for 10CHF for the whole day (maybe get an apple too to keep the scurvy at bay).
  
• Markets on Wednesday/Saturday mornings are typically much more expensive than supermarkets. A few stands might offer free samples, but no market is big enough that you are going to fill up on them.
  
• Places showing off a certain product (dairy, chocolate factory, etc) might give away a few free samples or include them in the tour price. The Kambly Erlebnis where you can eat as much as you want of their entire range without any need to buy anything is probably the best example of this, but it is rather out of the way for most trips. Whether you will save anything by going to such places compared to supermarket prices or are still able to buy cheap bags of rejects seems to be questionable.
  
• A restaurant Fondue will set you back 25CHF per person or more. But a much cheaper and equally Swiss option is to buy some Cervelat sausages from any supermarket and go roast them over a fire somewhere in the countryside.
  
• The cheapest beer is the supermarket own brands like the COOP “Prix Garantie Lager” which cost 0.5CHF per 0.5L can. Apparently these are mostly very acceptable for the price.
  
• Meat is really expensive. Avoiding it will help cut costs.
  
• You can bring food in with you, or if you have time then leave the country to go shopping (it is what the Swiss who live near the borders do). However Switzerland is not in the EU custom zone and there are limits on how much you can bring in per person without paying customs tax. It is not certain you will be checked at the border, but it isn’t impossible (especially on a Saturday afternoon when many Swiss shoppers will be coming back over the border).
  

Eating out:

• There are plenty of takeaway options at stations and in larger towns. Figure 4-8CHF for a Sandwich/baguette or 8-10CHF for a kebab. Many cheap food stands might close by 7pm, or earlier if they are just aimed to commuters/shoppers, but there should always be something open to 10pm in any decent sized town.
  
• There are a chain of cafes/outlets that sell day-old bread and baked goods sourced from local bakeries at a reduced price – ÄSS-BAR (meaning edible). These are only in the bigger cities at the moment, but have central locations.
  
• Apps like “Too good to go” or “Homemade” are an option for finding cheap food (though outside of the bigger cities you might have very limited or no options).
  
• Some areas have special deal packages you can buy, like “Zwei Für Eins” (two for one). However that is better suited to residents rather than short term visitors.
  
• Migros restaurants are a budget friendly favourite. You can easily get a good meal for 15CHF (typically lunch as they are closed later in the evenings and all day on Sundays). The restaurants in the Manor department stores are also well regarded, some have quite nice views too.
  
• Restaurants do not have to be as expensive as some people make out. You can easily find a Rösti or pizza for about 15CHF. A good dinner with drinks for 2 people for less than 50CHF should be easy to come across. Another option is to look for fixed menus at lunch time which will offer a good meal for 15-20CHF (especially at Italian or Asian places).
  
• Finding coffee for less then 5CHF (and not a big one at that) will be very hard. My record is 3.5 CHF in Vallorbe.
  
• You don’t want to know what a cocktail at a fancy club is going to cost you.
  

----Activities----
Obviously do something weather suitable. Money for a cable car ride is better spent on a sunny day than a wet and foggy one.

• Take advantage of the free information. The quality of information you get through the Swiss topographic maps (see the Swisstopo phone app for one the go which also lets you plot routes on the footpath network for free) is very useful for planning trips. It is very detailed, quick to load and allow all kinds of layers like hiking routes to be added is incredible and way beyond anything I have seen elsewhere – and all for free. Likewise the Swiss Mobility website and app provide the map and details on routes for various sports. For weather conditions MeteoSwiss website (and app) offer lots of information and various maps to help plan your days. Being a popular destination for 200+ years means that there are endless sources for reading up on ideas.
  
• Just walking around and taking things in is an obvious choice: most sights in towns like the churches, walls, and old towns are free to explore. All the main sights in Luzern (Lucerne) are free and easy to see by foot (see the tour suggestion in this post).
  
• Free walking tours exist in most cities. In Bern you can even book a free tour around the Parliament building.
  
• You can use the list at the bottom of this article to see free museums (click to arrange by Eintritt), others are free on certain days like a certain Sunday of month, otherwise 10-12CHF is a fairly standard price. If you plan to visit lots of museums then the Museum Pass might be worth a look – the Museum Pass is included in the Swiss Travel Pass.
  
• If you travel by public transport you can get special Leisure deals with SBB that reduce the cost of some activities. For example in summer 2020 there is an offer for the FIFA World Football Museum that gives you 20% reduction on the journey to the location and back, and 20% reduction on admission to the Museum.
  
• Larger and/or more popular places will have more extensive listings for free and budget events. For example Zürich on a Budget and Zürich unbezahlbar for Zürich.
  
• In Bern you can see the bears for free and various other places have free wildlife parks (typically the free or cheaper ones will focus on local animals such as Wildnispark Zürich Langenberg or Biel Tierpark).
  
• Festivals like Swiss National Day (August 1st) and Fasnacht (February time) provide free entertainment through fireworks, parades, and various other kinds of craziness. These range from Christmas markets to the burning of explosive wooden effigies (I have a list of more unique Swiss events here).
  

Shopping:

• Mano COOP often sell the standard souvenirs and chocolates that you find in tourist shops but might well be cheaper.

Hiking, cable cars, and enjoying the views in general:

• The views are free. But getting to them can be expensive, or otherwise require quite a bit of effort. The fitter you are the more you can do without having to take a cable car.
  
• Resorts give you information about what is open/closed, what there is to do, and usually have multiple webcams showing the conditions at various locations. There is no excuse for paying a wodge of cash to find that all you can do is walk around a small viewing platform and see the same rain that you were already in below.
  
• If you have the Swiss Travel Pass you get a free ride on most boats, or up a number of cable cars and some mountain trains. Typically to those where there is a village, but it even goes to Schilthorn and the top of Rigi. If you don’t get a free ride then you should get a 50% discount off the ticket.
  
• Check ahead on the website for a cable car if you are hoping to get a discount with your Swiss Pass or half fare card. It works almost everywhere, but some resort areas (eg Davos) only give a discount if you are staying there and have a guest card.
  
• Sometimes you will get an early bird / good morning ticket discount on cable cars or other mountain transport. Jungfraujoch for example has discounted Good Morning and Good Afternoon tickets if you are only up early or late, and Niederhorn gives you a free return if you go up before 9am.
  
• If you are visiting during Ski season but just want to take a cable car up to admire the views then it is sometimes cheaper to get a Ski pass for the day than buying a return ticket for the cable car.
  
• The unsung Postbus is very cheap for what they offer. They will not get you to mountain peaks, but you can get higher up valleys or passes, which make good view points or starts for hikes. In Solothurn for example taking the Postbus to Balmberg costs 6.40CHF whereas taking the train to Oberdorf and the cable car to Weissenstein would cost twice as much.
  

Swimming:

• Swimming is very popular in summer anywhere from urban rivers to mountain lakes. Almost everywhere has a swimming pool or Lido where you can change and have an area with various activities or leisure features for a price. But mostly you can very easily find somewhere to jump in for free. Just be careful in rivers – see what the locals do in places like Bern where it can be fast and dangerous.

Cycling:

• A number of places (Zurich, Geneva, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle, Neuchâtel and the Canton of Valais) offer free/cheap bike rental during the summer - http://www.schweizrollt.ch/ . Bring 20CHF for deposit and ID has to be shown.

Winter sports:

• Following the winter prepared paths is free, and renting a sled for a day is fairly cheap (about 15CHF).
  
• Many resorts have special discount days or offers.
  
• This - https://www.snow4free.ch/de/
  

----Misc----

• If you have student ID then give it a shot.
  
• There is free Wifi at bigger train stations (accessed via a code sent to you by SMS). Likewise the yellow Post Buses have free Wifi which you can use during the ride or just hanging out by them at a station.
  
• In touristy and border areas you can often pay with euros but it is generally best not to unless you really don’t want to get some CHF. Typically they take euros at a 1:1 price to the CHF, but the euro is worth more than the CHF so you are making a loss. You might also not get change back if you pay in Euros.
  
• Depending on what you want to see you could even stay over the border and drive in each day, but that would be too much effort to be worth the saving for visiting most of the country (especially most of the popular tourist areas are not in the border regions).
  
• If you live in Switzerland then consider REKA which is a supplemented service aimed at family holidays in Switzerland. You can also buy Reka-checks which is essentially pretend money that costs less than the face value and can be used at a number of hotels/restaurants/cable cars/trains all over Switzerland.
  
• The Rega is the mountain rescue service (phone: 1414). You can also download the Rega app to your phone which you can allow to use your location should you need to call for help from an unknown spot. For 30CHF per person a year you can become a Rega patron, this supports the mountain rescue service and means that (funds allowing) they will reduce/waive the rescue fees if you need help. That 30CHF could save you a hell of a lot a money.