Oh sorry. I believe we should be acquainted first. I am Johan Surani, I am twenty-five and I live in the city that never sleeps, Kielgo, specifically in Cewerni Kielgo, the loveliest borough in my opinion. I work as a librarian at Kielgo Olodonin Library and today I met and fumbled the most attractive man I have ever seen in one of the corniest ways ever.

Everything was going great this morning. I had even managed to get to Cewerni Kielgo station a bit early by the grace of God. I was jogging up the marbled steps at the station savoring a nice honey delight for my breakfast when I tripped on the top step and fell over. I was so embarrassed. I turned around and saw a hand reach out to me. I wondered if it was Violet as my head turned upward.

Only when I got my bearings back did I finally process who I was looking up at. This man looked like he had just walked off of a runway. He was a tall fellow on the lankier side of body types. His hair was dark and had a few little gray spots in it. He also had some stubble on his face like he’d just shaved. He wore a khaki suit with a tweed overshirt all of which looked like it was tailor made for him. I was fixated on his eyes. They were a very dark brown color, almost black. They were gorgeous. Everything about him was gorgeous.

Everything around us slowed to a crawl. I saw his mouth move but no words came out. Or maybe it was moving. I was not paying much attention by this point. I had the most gorgeous man on the planet helping me to my feet. It was just me and him. I wondered if I was dreaming all of this.

Then I snapped back to reality once the pain hit. He asked me if I was okay. I sputtered out that I was fine even though I was a bit bummed because I dropped my hoikka. I was so flustered by him. I think I might have flustered him as well because I picked up on his stuttering.

He told me his name was Dmitri and then asked me what my name was. Attempting to regain composure I said my name was Johan. And then we both fell quiet while we looked at each other. I was too stunned to speak but I think I could see the cogs in his brain turn trying to think of something else.

And then I choked! The words “I have to get to work at my job at the library which I love” shot out of my mouth at terminal velocity. I think he might have asked where it was but by that point I had already bolted into the station. I am very shocked I did not mow everyone in my path down because I have never run that fast from anything in my life. I ran like I was about to die! And then I forgot I was early so the train wasn’t even there!

I am such an embarrassment. I had to tell Marija at the desk about it when I got into work today because I was still sheet white when I walked in twenty minutes later. She said it looked like I had seen a ghost. She has now taken to calling him the Mysterious Stranger even after I told her his name. I am never living this down.

God, it is evening and I am still thinking about Dmitri. A man I will almost certainly never see again. A beautiful man who now thinks I am a freaking lunatic. A beautiful man with beautiful eyes. I saw those eyes looking at me when I was running away. They looked like they were beckoning me to come back.

I refuse to keep thinking about him. I refuse, I refuse, I refuse.

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Hail Delegate-soon-Emeritus Varanius! Hail Delegate-Ascendant Witchcraft and Sorcery!
Hail the West!
Also endorse W&S if you haven't already. We're keeping eyes on you.

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My semi-voyeuristic friends, I return to you after quite the absence with some more confused ramblings of a fifteenth of the horrorscape of a British horror podcast/audio drama. I hope you've missed it.

I won't regale you with the usual disclaimer about the Magnus Archives fears are, and would instead suggest you visit any of my previous pieces on The Eye, The Buried, The Corruption, The Dark, The Desolation, The End, The Flesh, The Hunt, or The Lonely. Spoilers ahead and behind.

Ok. So The Slaughter is pretty easy, right? It's just slaughter. Violent, sprawling, chaotic. You know. But is it actually definitively those things? Sniper fire isn't random and neither are many bombings. Some of the most famous historical massacres were actually remarkably specific and ordered affairs. Too specific, though, and you begin to approach the Hunt. Too ordered, and you begin to approach the farms and factories of the Flesh. Say, for a purely random example, we have a club of serial killer enthusiasts who, over the course of weeks, butcher each other across their city. This event is intensely violent and not focused on any singular individual or location. Kinda slaughter-y, right? Wrong. Hunt. Or, imagine a man in a warzone haunted by the ghosts of countless civilians, many whose deaths were due to starvation or disease. Ghosts and non-violent deaths may suggest a leaning towards The End, but this one is actually still Slaughter.

This makes talking about The Slaughter in broad strokes to be very difficult. Much of its territory is hotly contested terrain, with The Desolation, The End, The Hunt, and The Flesh all fighting for pieces of the most gruesome and violent entity. Further complicating the matter is that there is really no singular criteria which is capable of discerning from our often vibes based assessment what distinguishes the Slaughter uniquely from its overlap in all or most cases while excluding all or most potential conflating figures. It's potentially conflating figures all the way down. The imagined vibes-based Slaughter iconography is really more stylistic than anything. Alternatively, it could be described as a confluence of factors of which none is necessarily decisive, but the end result is the same. The Slaughter is separate because it feels separate. It feels like the terror of the trench soldier is distinct from that of the cornered bunny, but when you zoom out it is difficult to quantify in the style of faux-intellectual babble that comes with attempting to assess fictional taxonomies. But given that all taxonomies are invented social tools, that was very likely the creator's intent.

I don't say any of this to rag on the Slaughter, though. The Slaughter is responsible for one of the most popular early episodes of the entire series, and Grifter's Bone and Civilian Casualties are fan favorites too. That said The Slaughter has little if any relevance to the actual plot of the show, and the rareness of direct Slaughter intervention is likely a contributing factor to the intangibility of its influences. Still not surprising, as fear in the series is specific to both time and place and there were likely few British civilians imminently fearing widespread massacre of their hometown in the mid-2010's. Progress?

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Welcome to the thirty-second edition of CityGuessr! Hereinafter, we'll reveal the answers and results from last month's challenge, a brief recap of the current CityGuessr leaderboard, and this month's sparkling destination. For those new to the game, each month we show a few photos of somewhere on a given continent and then you have to guess the location, earning points based on your accuracy!

Before we go further,: to encourage folks to submit their own photos for CityGuessr, those chosen will receive a full 4 points for that month, as they won't be able to compete that month. To submit photos for a future puzzle, send them in a telegram to The West Pacific Master Dispatch or DM them to Democratic Wer on Discord @obviousgoldfish!

A reminder: Please submit your own photos, the editor is entirely capable of using Wikipedia themself were they so inclined.

Last Month's Results

Fifteen people guessed the city Red Cantabria’s photos were taken in, with ten correct guesses!

The correct answer was Marrakesh, Morocco! Marrakesh is neither the capital of Morocco nor its largest city, but arguably the most iconic. Unless you’re into old movies, I suppose. Even then, this city is where about half the stereotypes of “””the Orient””” in older media derive from … even though Morocco is farther west than most of Europe. Nobody said these things had to make sense.

1. Azurth, Moukden and Kirin, Bhang Bhang Duc and Rovhania – Koutoubia Mosque / souk inside Medina, Marrakesh, Morocco - Doubly Correct! - 3 points + 2 bonus points for guessing the correct city and landmark!

2. Staneburg, Europe or EUR, Corbeil, Australdof, Skype Tortoise and Arkengia – Marrakesh, Morocco - Correct! - 3 points + 1 bonus point

3. Jiangbei – Casablanca, Morocco – 221 km away - 2 points

4. The Three Rivers Nations – Kano, Nigeria – 2755 km away - 1 point

5. Cat Army – Beirut, Lebanon – 4053 km away

6. ForFishing – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – 5380 km away

7. Bahalbha Island – Yazd, Iran – 5819 km away

Congratulations to Staneburg, Europe or EUR, Corbeil, Australdof, Skype Tortoise and Arkengia – that’s a lot of you! – for guessing the location correctly! You've earned the TWP CityGuessr Challenge Coin and one bonus point for answering correctly!
Extra congratulations to Rovhania and Bhang Bhang Duc, who guessed one landmark, and especially Azurth and Moukden and Kirin who guessed two! Another extra point to all of you.
Sincere apologies to Corbeil, “market” was not specific enough for a landmark extra point. Maybe next time!

Leaderboard

Season 3 started in December 2025 and will run until January 2027.
Season 2 ran October 2024 to December 2025, and you can view the final standings here.
Season 1 ran October 2023 to September 2024 (final standings).

Season 3 Leaderboard

1. 23½ points – Moukden and Kirin

2. 22 points – Europe or EUR

3. 20 points – Azurth

4. 13 points – Bhang Bhang Duc

5. 12 points – Shrikisthan, Staneburg

6. 11 points – Choppyhausen, Puneri

7. 10 points – Corbeil

8. 9 points – Ostrovskiy, Vrindi, Rovhania

9. 8 points – Bahalbha Island, Red Cantabria

10. 6 points – Cat Army, Condemned Davelands, Arkengia, Australdof

11. 5 points – American Generations, The Three Rivers Nations

12. 4 points – Materos, Fotisdia, ForFishing, The Democratic Disney States, Nahovat, Jiangbei, Skype Tortoise

13. 3 points - Faralried

14. 0 points - Pathonia, Miravana, Atylsitae, Kindlepas, Articfrost
    

If you want a leg up on your opponents, submit your own photos for CityGuessr and if they’re chosen, you’ll get an automatic four points! Red Cantabria receives 4 points for submitting these photos for the month. You can submit photos via telegram to The West Pacific Master Dispatch or DM them to Democratic Wer on Discord @obviousgoldfish!

Past Champions:

• Season 1 - Con nihawitan

• Season 2 - Arkengia
  

This Month's Challenge

Can anyone still catch up to our impressive top three as we enter the final third of this year’s Guessrs? The first step is this month’s challenge!
As always, here are the rules:

CityGuessr, as the name suggests, will ask you to guess which city of the world the photos show—all photos always refer to the same city. We keep the scope of the game to cities only, as we don't have the luxury of moving around to check for clues. We also provide a single clue: the continent where the city is located.

Use the submission link here to send in your guess! Remember that you only have one guess that can't be changed later, and that it's expressly forbidden to use outside resources to figure it out, otherwise it wouldn't be a guess.

To add some competition, we rank all guesses based on how close they are to the correct answer. The top 3 answers will be given points: 3 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd, and 1 point for 3rd, and one bonus point for guessing the city correctly (new to Season 2!). The person who submitted this month's photos will receive 4 points for having their submission chosen. The highest scorer(s) will gain the bragging right of being the CityGuessr Champion of the Month, and the top scorer across each Season's 12 editions will be crowned CityGuessr Grand Champion!

In this edition, we once again return to a very nice green spot in Asia! Photos courtesy of Aethenstaff! Remember, no outside resources, googling, or maps—and be as specific as you can!

Submit your guess here!

We take photo submissions! To submit photos for a future puzzle, send them in a telegram to The West Pacific Master Dispatch or DM them to Democratic Wer on Discord @obviousgoldfish!

Full quality photos here

I wish you all good luck in solving this edition's challenge, and have fun!

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All your chocolate belongs to Darkesia
The Western Post Staff - Delegate: Varanius - Editor: Democratic Wer - Staff: Bran Astor, Fujai, Inner Ryxtylopia, Noton Mast, Giovanniland, Teralyon, The Holy Principality of Saint Mark, Podium, Materos, Witchcraft and Sorcery and YOU
All your chocolate belongs to Darkesia

I don't like your tweed, sir.