Dayz how to empty water bottle

Yesterday I (28f) lost the man (35m) that I care about so much. I am just so devastated. I didn't want to lose him, but sadly it was for the best in the long term. But it still hurts like hell. I already miss him so much. I made some mistakes and I have a lot of healing and growth to do before I settle down with someone else, but yesterday I was absentmindedly browsing the site where we met, and I found him on there, already making a post looking for someone new. It makes me feel like he's already moved on and he never actually cared about me as much as I thought.
I don't have a single person in my life to turn to. My family is a bunch of strangers and I don't have a single friend. I live in a small, empty town with nothing to do, so nothing to distract myself. It's just me and my empty, dark apartment where I always am. I have no idea how to even begin to heal from this. I feel so lonely and broken and like I'm destined to be alone forever because everyone I've ever cared about has abandoned me or not been there for me.
Yesterday after it happened I tried to keep myself occupied by listening to music and doing some spring cleaning around the house, and it helped a little bit to distract me, but today I am just fully unmotivated and can't do anything besides lay in bed and cry. Wtf do I even do? All I want is some comfort and love but there isn't a single person in this world that can give that to me right now. Part of me just wants to give up completely. I lost the one person in my life that cared about me and now everything feels pointless.

First time posting on Reddit so please excuse me if I’m doing this wrong. I’m 31 with three children. My children’s father is not a part of our life and I’ve been dating a man on and off for the last 7 years. I support myself financially and live alone with my children. I know there is quite a bit of context missing and I’m more than happy to share more screenshot. I just really don’t know what to think of what’s being said. The screenshot of the Facebook message is a couple of months old and I just can’t stop getting emotional over it. So I tried talking to him about it. I don’t feel much better. Am I being too sensitive or am I right to feel hurt by this? Should I move on? Or am I foolish to assume there’s someone who will see my worth?

I am heading to Las Vegas in July and their temperatures tend to be crazy hot. I want to take a good sunscreen for my body, face and take some skincare products with me (cleanser, moisturizer, tretinoin). I might br weird because I hate using products I don't know so I legit wanted to even take my own shampoo, conditioner and curl cream in travel size bottles.
Does anyone have good travel size bottle recommendations or should I stick to the ones I can get in dollar store? Strongly considering to buy some products from US and just use it there and then bring it over with me when I leave.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to go about skincare, body care and hair care smartly when traveling? I am a noob and this is my first fime traveling out of country

Hello!
I've never kept a pet spider before and i'd love to get a jumping spider as I find them so cute! what do i need to get to create an enclosure for one? do they live long? how often do i feed one? can i have multiple in one enclosure? do i water them or give them little caps with water? (i've seen people do that with other spiders not sure if it applies to jumping spiders)
Sorry for all the questions but i'd love to know so I take good care of one!
Thanks in advance! :)

I've seen a few of these posts around, so I thought I'd share my own list. Since we have no idea yet of how the show will approach adapting the story, I will not give my estimates for how many episodes each arc will take. However, I did try and split the seasons into arcs that can follow a common narrative thread, but also taking into consideration filming and production requirements - grouping arcs that feature common characters/locations together as best as possible.
This list was also made with the idea that each arc will be slimmed down as much as possible, so it would take the least amount of episodes to adapt possible.
​
Season 1 - East Blue Saga, Including Loguetown
Season 2 - Alabasta Saga
Season 3 - Skypiea Saga, LRLL and Water 7 arc
Season 4 - Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark and Sabaody
Season 5 - Summit War Saga
Season 6 - Fishman Island, Punk Hazard and first part of Dressrosa (first 1/3)
Season 7 - rest of Dressrosa, Zou, maybe WCI up to Chocolat Town?
Season 8 - WCI, Reverie, Wano Act 1
Season 9 - Wano Acts 2 and 3
​
Season 1 - East Blue Saga, including Loguetown

• we already know pretty much everything thats going to be adapted here, with the exeption of Loguetown which is yet unconfirmed. But narratively it would make no sense to leave Loguetown for Season 2
• Loguetown finishes setting up Roger - the season begins with his execution, it ends with the Straw Hats visiting his execution site
• finishes Buggy's story, who would then probably not show up till Impel Down
• finishes building up hype for the Grand Line - every arc builts up how dangerous the Grand Line is (Mihawk, the Fishmen, Gaimon) and Loguetown finishes that by introducing Logia fruits
• Season 1 ending with the Straw Hats leaving for the Grand Line is the best way to cap the season
• filming - we already know from leaks that there's a Loguetown set, built for Roger's execution; it would save costs for the next season to use this set to also adapt the Loguetown arc now

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Season 2 - Alabasta Saga

• this season is focused on Vivi, as she is introduced in (probably) the first episode, and follows her story throughout the entire season
• Crocodile is also built up from the beginning, so it would make sense to adapt his entire story in one season
• the season would also begin with revealing the weird ancient structures at Reverse Mountain, and end with the reveal of the Poneglyphs and the Void Century; it would also be built up throughout the season with things like the Will of D reveal
• season would end with the Alabasta departure scene and the reveal that Robin boarded the ship, but leave the rest of that scene for next season

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Season 3 - Skypiea Saga + LRLL + Water 7 arc

• this one was a bit weird but I think spliting it like this makes the most sense - Skypiea is too short to make a single season out of it, and adapting both Sagas into one season would be too much
• both Jaya and LRLL are short enough to be adapted in one episode each (leaving the Aokiji scene for the next episode) so there would be enough time to adapt both arcs
• this season would mainly follow Robin and her importance to the crew, but also build up her past and her betrayal at the end of the season - I think ending the season with CP9's attempt to assasinate Iceberg would be a great cliffhanger and bring the story of the season full circle
• it would also build up Usopp's attachment to the Merry, which is first hinted at in Skypiea, and end with Usopp leaving the crew
• there's also smaller narrative threads that connect these 2 arcs - the Dials, using the money from Skypiea to build the new ship etc.
• basically, I beileve these 2 arcs - Skypiea and Water 7 - would work best if they are in the same season

​
Season 4 - Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark, Sabaody

• this season would follow multiple overarching threads
  • building up the crew's downfall - season starts with Enies Lobby, the crew highest achievement yet, and ends with their defeat in Sabaody - hinted at in Thriller Bark, where Moria warns the crew they're not ready for the New World, just as he wasn't
  • building up the Marineford War - Ace vs Blackbeard takes place at the end of Enies Lobby, the political confilct is hinted at by Kuma in Thriller Bark, the War is confirmed by Doflamingo in Sabaody
  • Kuma - follows Kuma's entire story before he was turned into a robot (basically killed)
  • Vegapunk - he is first mentioned at the end of Enies Lobby, and by the end of the season we see how important he is, with the reveal of the Pacifista
• just as with the previous season, all arcs included are too short to make up an entire season, but there are enough connecting plot threads to make this season alot more tied up than how it would seem initially
• season would end with the Straw Hats' defeat in Sabaody

​
Season 5 - Summit War Saga

• this one is fairly obvious, its probably the one arrangement everyone agrees on
• one plot thread I never see people bring up is Haki - Luffy starts using Haki at the beginning of the season, and ends with Luffy going to train his Haki
• it also makes sense filming wise, as two of the three settings - Impel Down and Marineford - are fairly similar in how they look, so a lot of sets could be reused
• also, apart from Luffy, all the other Straw Hats only have cameos, so it saves on costs if their scenes are filmed in advance, and they are not brought to set for this season

​
Season 6 - Fishman Island, Punk Hazard and first part of Dressrosa

• this one is a bit weird; FI is fairly unconnected to the other two arcs, there are no overarching plot threads to connect all three arcs together, apart from maybe Big Mom; Dressrosa is also too long to be adapted into a single season with these 2, so it gets split up into two seasons
• season ends with the Straw Hats splitting up, as such this concludes half of the crew, Momo and Caesar's story for Dressrosa, and leaves on a pretty good cliffhanger

​
Season 7 - rest of Dressrosa, Zou, and maybe WCI up until Chocolat Town

• this one is failry straight forward, most of what is revealed in Zou is built up in Dressrosa, including the Wano reveal and the Sanji reveal
• the difficult part is whether to include some of WCI here as well; first part of the arc, up until Chocolat Town, mainly takes place on open sea; I would include this only to end the season with the Big Mom reveal, thus introducing both Kaido and Big Mom in the same season; otherwise, the season works very well with just Dressrosa and Zou

​
Season 8 - WCI, Reverie and Wano Act 1

• the best way to end this season is with Luffy's first defeat in Wano, and a post credit sequence of Chapter 925
• this would also follow a similar format to Season 4, where Luffy's strength is built up throughout the season (defeating Katakuri, Fifth Emperor etc) only to be put down in his place by Kaido
• this season could also start building up Rocks through Big Mom's history with Kaido and all the scenes referencing them in the Reverie

​
Season 9 - Wano Acts 2 and 3

• this one is again very straight forward, there is so much content that these two need their own season
• the Oden and Joy Boy build up, Rocks and Kaido and Big Mom's history etc.
• a lot of the characters that show up in the Raid are only introduced in Act 2, so Act 1 can be left for the previous season and focus just on these 2

Throwaway account cuz I don't want anyone I know to recognize me. I (15 M) live with my Mom and my Sister (12). My story is basically about us as a family, including my dad. We aren't an unhappy family, but we are very distant from my dad. I love my old man, but I only see him maybe once or twice a year. He's a really nice guy and doesn't do any negative things you would think about like being some sort of addict. But my mom seems to think of him as some sort of villain, as anything related to him she ignores. Of course she loves me and my sister, but when it comes to controlling her anger, she's not really the best at it. I think this sort of passed onto my sister as she has a very short fuse. But anyway, this is really affecting me mentally, and it makes things worse that my mom doesn't have a care in the world about it, to the point that even my sister is ignoring his texts. It's really affecting my dad too, he's had a heart surgery, and high blood pressure related problems because of the stress this is causing. And it's not like this just started happening. My parents have been separated for as long as I can remember, and I have faint memories of things a father and son should do like playing catch or learning how to ride a bike. But I'm finding it more and more difficult to find things to relate with him now, in the present, when I call or text him. It's either all about work or about my sister and mom. And when it is about my sister and mom, he texts how he cries alone, thinking about the way they treat him, which leaves me in a very, pessimistic situation. All my aunts on my mom's side are either neutral or on my dad's side about this, and to add, I don't even know my uncles and aunts on my dad's side all that well, I have a faint memory of talking with them, but I've forgotten them so much that I don't remember their names. I met my cousins on my dad's side a few years back and I couldn't believe how many I had. I had only interacted with my cousins on my mom's side and seeing how I had a lot more on my dads side, just made me feel surprised. But anyways, I don't have anyone I can talk about this with, anyone I can talk about with THIS personally anyway. And it's not like he's not making an effort, he sends gifts, money, etc, everything you can think of. Even as a kid he got me stuff like a 3DS and a Switch (I lost the 3DS but I still have the Switch, and I love it and use it almost every week). But these things were given to me behind my mom's back at my friend's house. My friend's house is where I would ride the bike he got me, or play ball right outside. I did all this because I know what my mom's reaction would be. This was proven further when I got caught with my Switch. I let my sister play on it for the first time, and of course, she didn't put it away fast enough, and my mom saw it and got angry at my friend's mom for keeping it without telling her (she's a good person, she did this out of the goodness of her heart). I then went home, leaving the switch there, where she wouldn't talk with me for a good week before I couldn't take it and apologized. I tried to reason with her that if I told her she would have thrown it away like she's done with other things from my dad. Money? Ripped right in front of me. Water Gun? Cut open and trashed. New phone? Fell asleep with it and when I woke up it was gone. Please do not get the wrong idea, I love my mom, and she loves move, both ways 100%, but I just wish she could see the error of her ways and admit when she's wrong. My sister is no better. She ignores me sometimes as well, but unfortunately my dad gets the worst of it. So Reddit, what the hell do I do? How can I get my sister to talk with my dad? How can I get my mom to not get mad every time he's brought up. In 2021 I only saw my dad once. For 15 god damn minutes. And when I came home, she was livid and just kept saying things like "why don't you go live with him". For 15 god damn minutes. How tf do I fix my family? I'm two years away from graduating high school and I'm blank as to what I'm going to do from there regarding this situation. I need massive help.

We live in Northern California and have a small bucket to measure how much water we get. We noticed these worm like larvae and wanted to know what they were. Any ideas?

I got a great and healthy new LF. I followed the advice here and I have a 90 rock/10 soil mixture. I soaked the pot for an hour before I put my new guy in the soil. I have it in a sunny window that gets about 3-4 hours of sun in the morning. Can you kind redditors give me advice on how to help him grow big and strong? How often should I water it? When I water it, should I soak the pot or just add water? Should I pour water on it or just on the sides? I have cactus juice, how should I best apply it? Should I give it full sun once established (I live in Va)?

I’m building a new tank and I plan to cycle it. I did my research but I have no idea if I’m right or not lol.
First thing I’d do is remove the chlorine from the tap water with a dechlorinator (maybe API Stress coat or let a bucket of water stand for a few days, though I’m open to suggestions)
Then add API Stress zyme or API quick start for starter beneficial bacteria (Question here is which one should I add?) to the tank.
then add an ammonia source (probably fish food) everyday then test for the ammonia daily within the first week.
After the first week, test for nitrite, then nitrate for the following 2-3 weeks or until the nitrite and ammonia are 0.0
My questions are: stress zyme or quick start? How often should I change the water during this 3-4 week cycle? Should I add stress zyme every time i do water changes? After the tank fully cycles and both ammonia and nitrite are 0.0, how often should I do water changes after that and at what%?
It’s a heavily planted tank with a number of stem plants, some anubias and bucephalandra, sags, and a bit of moss. Idk if this matters or not.
This would be my first aquarium and I really want to take it seriously, though I did a bit of research I still have a few questions, TIA!

My Driver License picture frame is completely empty and crashes the game. I have no webcam attached and played that way for 11 Hours (using EA Play) without having issues. Now that I have bought the game however it keeps on crashing (the picture slot is literally empty, no place holder or something). I would also be fine with deleting all my save data and starting from new, but I dont know how to do that using the "great" EA launcher

TL;DR! I wasn't a great partner because depression and anxiety that I didn't realize and failed to address. She eventually asked to go on a break to evaluate the relationship and concluded that she feels better without me/us as the relationship has been exhausting for her due to me and my mental state and emotional outbursts. But she would be willing to do a couple therapy, although without being together and without any expectations. Should I do it or move on? Can you make someone love you again? And do I have unrealistic expectations if I expected a partner to stick around through shitty times like this?
For the most part of our relationship I've been dealing with anxiety and depressive moods without fully realising it and what an impact it had on me and on the relationship. I stopped having sex with her early on in the relationship but she stuck around and loved me for my other qualities. I became increasingly unavailable and wasn't able to fully appreciate her (and even myself), take care of her and her needs and enjoy her and our relationship.
At the same time she also became more unavailable and more easily irritated. When I was able to have sex again we stopped after a few times because she wasn't ready for it anymore. She used to be a very calm person who has her emotions under control and is a good communicator. But small and big fights increased; one time she used a verbal abuse on me and another time we spent a whole week together with her almost constantly dropping small comments of critisizing things and making me feel bad (to be fair, she was on her period when she always tends to be on steroids emotionally).
We always reconciled and pledged to do better but I guess we never really worked through things.
My situation got worse the beginning of the year when I realised how much I dislike my job while turning 40 and being stuck in a foreign country and a relationship that doesn't seem to move forward. I started to wake up during the night with negative thoughts and realised I have a depression. I became more dark; we had dates where I would just stare into the air feeling completely empty. We would see each other less and less despite living 5 minutes from each other; even after going for dinner with friends she would drop me at my place instead of spending the night together (without having sex -- I accepted that she isn't ready for it).
Things escalated when we went on a trip together and I didn't speak a word with her the whole journey and only reluctantly participated in activities and conversations. When she asked whether we should talk I blurted out what the point of all the talking is if things never change. I was upset because we hadn't seen each other for three weeks and I felt alone with my situation.
She broke up but we agreed to go on a break instead to give each other space to reflect and evaluate the relationship. It was during these two months that I realised many of the things that went wrong in the relationship and how I contributed to or caused it due to my mental and emotional state.
After these two months she isn't very responsive anymore and explained that she realised that at least at the moment (and maybe forever) she feels better without me and our relationship as she was just exhausted from having to entertain me and the relationship and my moods. She said that even if we were to try again, she just wouldn't be able to show that she cares about me. She said I need to work in myself.
As we were discussing details of settling the breakup I asked whether she would be willing to do couples therapy and she agreed, under the conditions that we would still be on a break and that there shouldn't be any expectations.
I'm wondering whether I should do it or just move on. She's absolutely worth it, even though I'm wondering:
​

1. Can you make someone love you again? It's obvious to me that she doesn't love me anymore -- at least for me love means that you miss someone and want to have them in your life no matter what; she rarely responds now or only with delays and in a rather matter-of-fact tone;
   
2. Do I have unrealistic expectations if I expected a partner to stick around through shitty times like this? I'm wondering how future proof another relationship with her would be given that she's willing to end things when things get tough;
   

Ignore the mildew, I know it needs cleaned.
Can someone help me with how to replace the cold/hot water handles on this shower?

In the towns/cities there are garbage pick-up vehicles in which all the households throw their garbage. But what about the rural areas, there are no such vehicles or facilities over there as it's not possible to collect garbage from every single village. But I think the local panchayats can at least do something about it, I don't know how much money they are granted by the government but I'm pretty sure that they get a lot of money. And as we all know that most of the money just goes into panchayat's members pockets. My village is about 10km far from the town and it's population is around 100. We received a big dustbin for our village maybe 5 years ago. So I think why did they even bothered to give us a dustbin when no one will take care of the garbage. People stopped throwing their trash in the dustbin after using it just for a few months. Because it only increased the work for villagers. First you need to throw your trash in the bin and then you have to empty the bin yourself and thow it at the place where we used to throw our garbage before. So people were like why add an extra step lol. And don't forget the monkeys that used to accumulate near the bin. So people still have no choice but to throw their garbage at the usual place, we do have a specific place to throw garbage so that it doesn't get dirty everywhere but still something must be done to dispose of such trash. So is this the situation in just my area or at yours too? And what do you think could be done about it?

So the only two things I've relied on that have given me some relief over the years are Klaire Labs Synbiotic Probiotic and Hydroxizine 25mg which I have now begun to react to both with major joint pain and flair ups which seem to subside without them but then I'm back to square one with extreme low energy, heart palpitations, muscle burning, and waking up every morning feeling like I barely slept.
Here is a list of everything I've tried
-Liposomal Colostrom: Made me bloated and even more fatigued and seemed to increase palpitations a bit
-B vitamin complex Pure Encapsulations This one I underestimated and ended up in the hospital 3 times feeling overwhelmed and disassociated and having a panic attack. I didn't think it could be the B complex so I just kept taking it and when I stopped it all went away
-Any multivitamins / isolated vitamin c / magnesium I react badly to
-Restore gut repair liquid: Gave me one of my worst reactions I've ever had and I had like 1/4tsp
-Ketotifin: Gave me extreme anxiety and bloating
-Cromolyn helps for like the first hour and then it sets me off terribly and my body purges it out even when I take 1 drop isn't that crazy?
-Zyrtec/Claritin/Allegra all give me major anxiety deplete my energy and make me feel really weird and anxious although my poop was pretty normal the day after but I couldn't handle how it made me feel same with Benadryl
-All types of DAO enzymes --HistDAO gave me relief for one night and then gave me terrible reactions I guess as it compounded the next couple days which went away after discontinuing I've also found when things get lower into my digestion is when I can really tell if I'm going to react so sometimes I get relief and react later. --Nature DAO pea derived dao gave me a terrible terrible reaction one of the worst I've had. --Seeking Health histamine block and DAO enzyme both gave me really bad reactions.
-L glutamine I react to sadly makes my whole body feel like it's burning like I just ate glass or something
-Bone broth set me off
-I can't digest fiber really at all so I live on chicken, white rice, eggs, and potatoes
-Basically every other probiotic I've tried: Sporbiotic, Culturelle, Align, VSL#3 (worst reaction), Visbiome (2nd worst reaction), Every probiotic from Klaire Labs, Every probiotic from Metagenics, Thorne FloraPro, All set me off really badly now except for Thorne FloraMend Prime seems to be ok and is what I'm on now
-Alakaline water tanks my energy and gives me diarrhea
But... other than that I maintain myself by going to bed early 9pm every night (I've found staying up later exacerbates everything a lot) and meditating twice a day for 45min so I can get through my days but I don't feel wonderful of course.
Just curious if you see any similarities or have found things not on this list that have helped you? Any input would be so greatly appreciated! ☺️☺️☺️

I have the Cola flavor, but it is too sugary. I only fill up the syrup to the first line. I was thinking about getting the Diet Cola one, but if I have to use more of the syrup for it taste normal I may stick with the Cola. Has anyone tried the Diet Cola? How much syrup do you put? 1 liter bottle

I apologise in advance if my post is scattered, unfocused or jumping around; my brain fog has turned me who was previously very focused and on task, into someone who feels like a dementia ridden 95 year old. This is almost more like a vent and telling of my story to get peoples opinions on what’s going on, or what could help.
Some context:
Go back 5 years ago, and I was your average depressed teenager. I had continued eating myself into obesity, I slept and laid around all day or just played video games. Holding a little job was difficult etc. At around that 5 years ago mark, something in my just snapped and I wanted to change and turn my life around. I started counting calories, exercising daily and the likes. I genuinely fell in love with running and how it made me feel. This lead to me eventually no longer being depressed. My social anxieties disappeared and I surprisingly was super competent socially. I never second guessed myself, I would start talking to random people if I wanted to and I was funny, charming and entertaining when doing so. The lifestyle change and overcoming my depression at the time became a loop; and my life continued to drastically improve. I got my dream job firefighting before I later moved across the country. I always woke up, jumped out of bed and felt on top of the world. Not even the worst happenings or daunting situations could put me down and in a bad mood. I had become a “doer”. I didn’t procrastinate, was always focused on what needed to be done and I got shit done.
Fast forward a year and a half, and I’m done with the weight loss. I lost over 140 lbs, had a six pack, veins shooting out of my arms and legs. Not only did I lose weight and become an average person, I was so happy that I found it easy to go the extra mile and get absolutely ripped. I believe I took it too far, because looking back at photos now, I was definitely under fat and likely had anorexia before making myself gain some weight. With that, I had also noticed I started suffering from hair loss, which terrified and stressed me out. I was leaning more towards it being caused by the drastic weight loss, rather than make pattern baldness, but I started taking Dutasteride just to be safe. At the tail end of the weight loss, I started dealing with fatigue and sleeping problems. Whereas I previously could fall asleep whenever I wanted to, and slept like a baby during my happy phase, I now started having worsening insomnia. Both of these issues started causing problems with work naturally, but it wasn’t anything too bad. I was still able to push through it all, and do the things I enjoyed. My life continued to objectively improve, as I got a better job, a relationship, a better place to live etc. Despite this, I continued to worsen and also began to develop brain fog. I gradually went from going out and doing stuff like climbing a mountain or doing a half marathon on a whim and feeling better for having done it, to being bound to home all day, and finding even mundane and what should be easy house chores, just absolutely exhausting and difficult to do. I became a compete shut in, and then certainly redeveloped depression. I also continued to develop a few other things such as dizziness when getting up from a low position oftentimes, shortness of breath and other breathing troubles, vision changes, daytime sleepiness, neuropathy, an unexplained anemia, and an extra bad brain fog and fatigue after eating a meal. The depression for certain came AFTER the physical symptoms fucked me over. My personality changed, and I went from someone who was super wholesome, positive and kind; to a genuinely nasty, bitter and hateful person.
I started seeing a doctor the moment I noticed I started having fatigue problems. I’ve been seeing her for well over a year, and we still have no answers. I have no nutrient deficiencies, or any other anomalies that have been found that should explain the anemia, or other problems. I’m constantly terrified I’ve developed some sort of chronic disease, and even the most basic of things are difficult nowadays. Even more confusingly, although I haven’t had a good day in quite some time, I would randomly have 1-3 days or so, where I would feel like my good old self and the difference was so astounding to me and everyone around me. I could never notice any difference in what I was doing, or anything going on on those days or surrounding them that would explain any change. It was so cruel to be my old self for a few days, be able to think clearly again for a while and feel great, just for the next day to bring back the terrible brain fog and thoughtlessness.
The brain fog is easily the worst part. I used to be extremely bright, clever, funny, charming and competent; but now I will often forget something told to me just seconds ago, and it’s hard to even just pick out a coherent thought going through my mind. I am sometimes just confused, or zoning out. My previously rich internal monologue has been replaced by either nothing, or just random repeating bits of music I listen to. I’m very rarely consciously thinking about anything, much less something I’m doing in that moment. It feels like I’m seeing the world through a shroud that’s been placed over my head. Even my vision has changed. It’s almost as if I’m somewhat tunnel vision and the rest of the world around me is just a blur, which is in contrast to me previously having been a very perceptive person. In general, my perception just seems off in all aspects, vision, hearing, touch sometimes, everything. Following what's going on on a TV or monitor is sometimes difficult due to said vision problems. My vision is still 20/20, it's just off, it's hard to explain. Sometimes, when I’m extra foggy, I’ll even slur words like I’m drunk or something and it’s terrifying. I used to be great at conversation, but now I’m very averse to talking to anyone, because I’m awful at finding things to say or talk about now. Reading is oftentimes difficult, and was almost impossible at my worst points.
This all makes me miss being a depressed teenager, just lying around and doing nothing all day; because at least I had brain function going on. I may have been depressed, but at least I actually felt anxiety, had a lot of thoughts going through my head, could feel sadness, cry, etc; but now my head is just empty most of the time. I don’t really feel much in the way of emotions, I don’t really have feelings or opinions on people in my life, nothing.
I feel as if my brain has been replaced with a ball of cotton or something, and it makes me fear that this is now permanent. Is it possible depression can just take a different form in the same person later in life, or am I doomed? I don’t want to live like this anymore, I’ve just become an emotionless, and experienceless zombie. I’ve recently lost my job due to my absences from my medical problems, I have no family here and I don’t know what to do. I feel like my problems and the lack of a safety net in the US is very much forcing me into a corner.
I’ve finally devoted myself to eating more and intentionally gaining some body fat to see if this is all just consequence of my precious drastic weight loss, but I haven’t noticed much besides maybe less dizziness, my ability to sweat and body odour has returned and a massive libido, that genuinely just causes problems. I’ve also been feeling worse and worse about my body as my six pack has disappeared due to this.
I feel like I’m at a dead end, and have nowhere to go. I’m now broke, jobless, completely detached, swimming in medical debt with no answers. I talked to my doctor about the possibility of me somehow having turned myself into a psycho somatic case, but she disagrees. I could deal with the fatigue and other problems, but having lost my active and intelligent mind has been the absolute worst by far. I’d kill to be bed ridden, but still in possession of my mental faculties.
Will I ever feel normal again? Am I just a different kind of depressed, than when I was younger? Have I somehow managed to turn temporary physical symptoms into long term ones via my mental state? I don’t know what to do.

TLDR; I wasn't a great partner because depression and anxiety that I didn't realize and failed to address. She eventually asked to go on a break to evaluate the relationship and concluded that she feels better without me/us as the relationship has been exhausting for her due to me and my mental state and emotional outbursts. But she would be willing to do a couple therapy, although without being together and without any expectations. Should I do it or move on? Can you make someone love you again? And do I have unrealistic expectations if I expected a partner to stick around through shitty times like this?
​
For the most part of our relationship I've been dealing with anxiety and depressive moods without fully realising it and what an impact it had on me and on the relationship. I stopped having sex with her early on in the relationship but she stuck around and loved me for my other qualities. I became increasingly unavailable and wasn't able to fully appreciate her (and even myself), take care of her and her needs and enjoy her and our relationship.
At the same time she also became more unavailable and more easily irritated. When I was able to have sex again we stopped after a few times because she wasn't ready for it anymore. She used to be a very calm person who has her emotions under control and is a good communicator. But small and big fights increased; one time she used a verbal abuse on me and another time we spent a whole week together with her almost constantly dropping small comments of critisizing things and making me feel bad (to be fair, she was on her period when she always tends to be on steroids emotionally).
We always reconciled and pledged to do better but I guess we never really worked through things.
My situation got worse the beginning of the year when I realised how much I dislike my job while turning 40 and being stuck in a foreign country and a relationship that doesn't seem to move forward. I started to wake up during the night with negative thoughts and realised I have a depression. I became more dark; we had dates where I would just stare into the air feeling completely empty. We would see each other less and less despite living 5 minutes from each other; even after going for dinner with friends she would drop me at my place instead of spending the night together (without having sex -- I accepted that she isn't ready for it).
Things escalated when we went on a trip together and I didn't speak a word with her the whole journey and only reluctantly participated in activities and conversations. When she asked whether we should talk I blurted out what the point of all the talking is if things never change. I was upset because we hadn't seen each other for three weeks and I felt alone with my situation.
She broke up but we agreed to go on a break instead to give each other space to reflect and evaluate the relationship. It was during these two months that I realised many of the things that went wrong in the relationship and how I contributed to or caused it due to my mental and emotional state.
After these two months she isn't very responsive anymore and explained that she realised that at least at the moment (and maybe forever) she feels better without me and our relationship as she was just exhausted from having to entertain me and the relationship and my moods. She said that even if we were to try again, she just wouldn't be able to show that she cares about me. She said I need to work in myself.
As we were discussing details of settling the breakup I asked whether she would be willing to do couples therapy and she agreed, under the conditions that we would still be on a break and that there shouldn't be any expectations.
I'm wondering whether I should do it or just move on. She's absolutely worth it, even though I'm wondering:
​

1. Can you make someone love you again? It's obvious to me that she doesn't love me anymore -- at least for me love means that you miss someone and want to have them in your life no matter what; she rarely responds now or only with delays and in a rather matter-of-fact tone;
2. Do I have unrealistic expectations if I expected a partner to stick around through shitty times like this? I'm wondering how future proof another relationship with her would be given that she's willing to end things when things get tough;

Copper pipe running to a washing machine washing connection. No shut off valve on that line, so if you want to replace the washing machine you need to shut off the water to the whole house. Irritating
I want to cut the pipe and add in a sharkbite shut off valve. Obviously I need to make 2 cuts and remove some length of the pipe. Shockingly, Google has gotten so bad now it can't even find me this answer.
How much pipe do you cut out? 1/2 inch? 1 inch? More?

The Nature of Predators was created by u/SpacePaladin15.
Special thanks to u/Saint-Andros for giving feedback on this first chapter's draft!
This is my first time writing a fanfic, or any multi-chapter story for that matter. Updates are likely to be slow and inconsistent. Your feedback is definitely appreciated, so if you have anything to say please leave a comment!
I hope you enjoy.
===
THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM IS RATED [TV-MA-HM] (FOR HUMAN-STANDARD MATURE AUDIENCES) AND CONTAINS:
- ADULT OR "PREDATOR-LIKE" THEMES
- COARSE LANGUAGE
VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
===
SLEEPWALK
CREATED BY NEKAN AND SIMON GREY
1 - Prologue to a Nightmare
===
JULY 8, 2136
Walk in, be polite, do your job, walk out, and no more.
It was the five-step mantra my feathered friend had given me to get me through the working days, and it’s served me quite well for the past couple of years. His voice was always a soothing guide, repeatedly ringing in the back of my head like a well-meaning wake-up call.
I was getting on in my years a little, at least it felt like it, so I still gladly accepted his help even after all this time. He was a polite fellow, almost as old as I was but far more able and proficient. Maybe he cared about me a little too much as he did many things for my convenience—he even got me my janitorial job in the first place—but who was I to turn away such a good friend?
I gave a satisfied tail swish as I said goodbye to Fevri, the receptionist’s lovely tone a soft farewell. The end of every shift always came with a calming walk back to my apartment building, like an extra treat for all the helpful work I’ve done. It was far enough from the office for the time to last but close enough to not be tiring, giving me a moment to appreciate the ambiance of the Capital and ‘mull things over’ as my friend would always encourage.
Well, mulling things over, almost everything was in its place. My job was still good; I was doing good. I was good!
My friend just hasn’t been visiting lately, which is fine. It’s happened a few times before, and he’s told me what to do to get through the day so many times that I know his instructions like the back of my paw.
I just hope he’s doing well too, and that he’ll be back soon to give me some medicine again to stop my recent headaches.
I didn’t know why, but recently I’ve been expecting something to happen to me. Something bad or good, I didn’t know. But this sort of feeling and the headaches always came up when I didn’t take my medicine.
My friend’s voice softly chided me, his advice echoing from the past. “Remember, Havan: you can’t get the medicine from any other doctor. You’ll get hurt and taken away from your home.”
The air was colder today. Strangely, I knew that for whatever reason it wasn’t why I felt a shiver go through me. I had no reason to be afraid, I was good! Always good!
I walked through the apartment building’s front door and swiftly made my way to my own unit. Before, it was much easier to push that feeling of—fear?—aside. Maybe something bad is coming this way.
Right to my doorstep.
I hurriedly locked the door behind me.
I shed my jumpsuit and tool belt, setting them aside on a rack. The jumpsuit wasn’t particularly dirty—for now, at least—so I could just have it washed some other time. My friend would understand. He always did. I just hope he’ll be back soon with more of my medicine. I don’t want to be bad.
After a small meal, it was time for bed. I couldn’t eat more as the headache was getting worse by the minute, ending my appetite.
My paws placed themselves over my forehead like useless cushions. The worst was yet to come; the bad dreams would arrive the moment I fell asleep. Sometimes, even the medicine wasn’t enough to stop them from invading my head like a predator on the hunt.
They were mostly the same. A woman and her child: a dream repeated forever like the infinity of space.\
For some reason, I felt like I should know them.
Whenever I tried to look at their faces, I could feel something rip my gaze away with claw and fanged force—when I could see them at the edges of my eyes, their empty faces were nothing but smudged paint on a watery canvas. Just out of reach, an orange-eyed predator snarled behind them.
It always scared me.
I’ve tried talking to my friend about it many times, but he never wanted to hear it. He’d look away and tell me to let it go, just take the medicine and forget the nightmares.
He was like me in the dream.
I hope he’ll be back soon.
Sometimes, he’d look ready to tell me something—staring straight at me mid-conversation. Then, he’d just look away all tired and heavy, deflating like someone had given him a weight to carry. He’d usually take his leave whenever those moments happened: “Farewell, Havan. See you next time.”
Now that I think about it, he also looked like that whenever I told him about the dream. Maybe he wished he could know them too.
​
​
JULY 11, 2136
I’m losing track, I think. I’m not sure. I’ve got a slow-burning headache that just won’t leave, simmering every part of my mind it could get its claws on. I can barely keep myself upright most of the time; I had to call in sick yesterday. My friend’s still not back with more medicine.
Medicine for what; I didn’t even know anymore.
Wake up.
“Shit… d-dammit,” I managed to croak out before hurling the rest of my lunch into the toilet. The act of cursing was paradoxically unknown yet familiar to my tongue—like an old routine left untouched for years.
All my dreams were relentless and mocking—I was rendered helpless to their onslaught. I couldn’t tell what was real and what was cruel imagination. In fact, the only things that felt real were the solid and smooth toilet and the force of my vomiting. I held on for dear life to save myself from the vortex churning around me.
A singular thought beckoned me again, a glaring beacon in a foggy sea of pain: ‘Wake up.’
There was nothing else to wake up to.
“DAMMIT!” I repeated before unceremoniously slumping back onto the floor. Something within me was changing—rapidly and viscerally. I was a stranger in my own body, adrift in a world far removed from the one I knew. I couldn’t breathe.
Someone was knocking on my door, calling my name.
I dragged myself out of the bathroom, feverish and frail, ignoring that weak voice in my head that asked: ‘What if it wasn’t your friend?’
I needed anything. Anything at all.
My body moved on its own, paws desperately reaching the doorknob. Somehow, I managed to unlock the door. It wasn’t my friend.
I would’ve screamed if I had the strength left for it. Instead, my legs gave way; my back eagerly greeted its old friend: the floor. Dragging myself backward with my vision blurred and hearing muted, the stranger came inside—crossing the threshold that marked my safety from the things my friend warned me about.
“Please… don’t hurt me…”
But the stranger marched on, grabbing ahold of me.
I curled into a pathetic shield, attempting to cover as much of myself as possible. Somehow, it all still felt like I was falling.
Through the blur, I heard the stranger’s voice. “Havan! It’s just me!”
Fevri?
The realization was a bullet through the skull, rattling my brain into something like focus. There it was: the receptionist’s young and frightened face. Lying in the hallway beyond the open door was a basket full of goods that were probably meant for me.
Whoops.
“Let’s get you lying down somewhere comfortable, okay? You need to rest. I’ll call a doctor—”
My head snapped back up. “No! Y-you shouldn’t! You can’t!”
“O-okay! Okay. No doctors. I’m sorry,” she reassuringly patted my shoulders after having dragged me to the side of my couch. “Look, forget that I ever mentioned it. Now, I need to pull you up onto the couch; is that fine with you?”
I limply nodded. I probably didn’t have the strength to do something as simple as that by myself.
Fevri pulled me up while that all too familiar voice in the back of my head spoke again: ‘She better keep her word, or I’ll…’
​
…
​
I didn’t finish that thought. What the hell was that all about? I wasn’t a violent man.
Was I? I can’t even recall who I am anymore. The vortex of dreams overtook me again, Fevri’s voice fading away as she momentarily left my side to grab the basket outside.
I was alone once again.
A predator’s face revealed itself in the blood-orange veil of my brain, sneering as it revealed itself to be the beckoning voice echoing through my skull.
‘WAKE UP.’
I fell.
I don’t know what it would mean if I’ll ‘wake up.’ Powerless, I lost myself to a seemingly infinite and dark slumber.
​
​
JULY 12, 2136
I arrived at the light at the end of the tunnel, the bottom of the bottomless pit.
My eyes opened, and a strange sense of peace washed over me. Coming from the television were alarm clock tones, an emergency broadcast stuck on the screen. ‘Predator arrival,’ ‘evacuate,’ and ‘await further instructions’ were the only phrases I took note of before rising from the couch.
This wasn’t my home.
The window blinds were closed throughout my apartment. Outside, the city was deathly silent. I didn’t need to look to know that there were likely a few bodies lying face-down on the street, casualties of panicked stampedes to the bunkers.
What happened to me?
Decades of half-remembered memories flooded outward, smashing through the dam of my mind. To my horror, I realized this was the first time I’d felt my heartbeat in a long, long while.
My Krakotl ‘friend’ was an exterminator; he always wore his uniform whenever he visited me. The medication was for predator disease.
I’m not ‘Havan.’ I didn’t use to be, and I couldn’t remember my real name.
The woman and child in my dreams were my wife and son—
With no other outlet for my frightened rage, I resorted to slamming my foot into the side of an empty trash can.
I gritted my teeth as pain shot up through my leg. For the first time, I felt the stiffness and aching that came with being middle-aged and taking those damn predator disease pills for years. Twenty years. I’d been out of it for twenty fucking miserable years.
A small part of me wished I stayed ‘asleep.’ I cast the thought aside almost immediately.
The exterminator had never given his name. How convenient. I had nowhere to go.
I should be weeping.
My head turned towards the bedroom door as Fevri walked out, clearly having just woken up. “W-what’s going on? What was that noise? Oh, Havan, you’re awake!”
“Nothing,” I winced, forcing the scowl off my face. “I just… accidentally knocked a trash can over. I should be the one asking you what’s going on.”
Fevri shook her head, trying to focus through her drowsiness. “Uhm, alarms started ringing out through the city, and that emergency broadcast said it was predators. N-nothing’s happened, though. It’s been about an hour and a half since it started, but it’s been so quiet.”
“You stayed.”
That seemed to wake her up. “I couldn’t leave you—you could’ve gotten hurt if something did happen! I… I couldn’t ask for help bringing you to the nearest shelter—everyone else was too busy trying to get themselves into safety.”
“Thank you.” I didn’t know what else to say to that. I sat back down on the couch, rubbing my paws across my face as I mulled over everything.
I bet my past self had never felt as lost as I did at this moment. All I could feel was the weight of my newfound clarity and my current confusion—a balancing act of anguish and pain.
“Is something wrong, Havan? Don’t worry about the predator raid; if nothing’s happened so far then we’re probably safe and sound.”
“No, it’s…”
I paused myself. Did I actually want to tell Fevri everything? She was only an acquaintance from work.
But she did stick around and help me. That said a lot about the kind of person she is.
Call it foolishness, call it loneliness—I told the truth, recounting everything I could to her. Right now, she was the only friend I had. She was horrified, of course, but surprisingly it was directed to my circumstances rather than myself.
Fevri sat down beside me, placing a sympathetic paw on my shoulder. “I know it isn’t much, but… I’m really sorry. I thought—we all thought…”
“Thought what?”
“Well, we always had a feeling that you had some form of predator disease. You were amicable, sure, but you were always… distant? Plus, you never talked about your family and always dodged questions about them. We all thought you lost them to a raid and it just made sense to us.”
She nervously flicked her tail. “Guess we weren’t entirely wrong, in a messed up way. Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
I sighed, flicking my ears dismissively to show I wasn’t offended. Everything else about me would always be worse by comparison, a pillar of distress as strong as an Arxur’s jaw and equally as biting.
What else can I do now? I have no leads. All I had were blurry faces and names I didn’t know.
…
Why’d he stop?
It made no sense for my ‘friend’ to suddenly stop medicating me for weeks. The fact that he had consistent access to medication to give me made me suspect that he was an exterminator-specialist, which would also make him a doctor specializing in treating predator-diseased individuals like me.
In fact, none of what he did made any sense at all. Why go through the effort of giving me a false name—to give me instructions on how to live by myself and dodge questions?
He had been trying to protect me. Was it a fucked up way of doing it? Absolutely, but it didn’t change the fact that he actually helped. For all I knew, he was the one thing stopping me from finding a new home in a correctional facility.
My tail twitched with irritation. Fevri looked expectantly at me. “What now?”
“I don’t know. I guess looking for the exterminator to get some answers would be my safest bet, but I’m not walking to the nearest guild office or the damn headquarters to ask for him.”
“Maybe I can? After the lockdown, anyway.”
“I don’t know. Honestly, this sounds like a stupid idea,” I shook my head, another sigh escaping from my lips. “Hell, I’m lucky you still want to help me for some damn reason I can’t think of.”
To my surprise, she let out an amused snort. “It’s the right thing to do?”
“I’m predator-diseased. Probably dangerous in some way.”
“Well, you won’t hurt me, will you? Besides, you look like you really need the help.”
She didn’t get my point, but fine. I guess that answer was enough for now.
Fevri must’ve noticed my reluctance, making her continue. “Look, you don’t seem to be a bad man. Just… someone caught up in something really horrible. Everyone back in the office—myself included—liked you and felt sorry for you, you know? That hasn’t changed with me, at least.”
“Alright, alright,” I stood up from the couch, giving in to the receptionist’s offer. There was something else that made her want to stick around; I wasn’t an idiot.
For now? I couldn’t doubt her. She’s my only real friend; anything is better than being alone.
“I’m gonna clean up.”
She gave a nod of acknowledgment as I entered the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I stared at the unfamiliar visage in the mirror, examining every little line and nick that marked my face. The graying Venlil in front of me was someone else entirely.
I was old. I was exhausted. I was likely insane—but I was awake.
My true trial is just beyond the walls of my apartment building once the lockdown ends. The past twenty years of being lost and asleep had only served as a prologue to a nightmare.
The worst was yet to come.

This is what i wrote.
I can’t make my fingers move across my phone. I used to be so excited. I stare at the screen at each chat. Afraid to write anything. I feel no matter what I wish to say, my words are loaded with a binary trajectory. Hurt or hope, pain or promise. And I don’t know on what side of the interpretive line they’ll fall. Whatever I write or do or say Gets pulled by the gravity of our hurt. And I understand. The vastness of our potential world together seemed so limitless. As if we could never reach the end of it or even the possibility of it, no matter how many lives we lived together. With you it stretched to an ever expanding horizon As we explored further our ravenous appetites ate up fertile grounds of each other’s emotional core. And as we went deeper, every step down was a step that we couldn’t retrace. We were ravenous to nourish the starving emptiness in ourselves. So we sought mightily. Relishing the sustenance in each other, giving each other the best parts or ourselves, although we sensed we couldn’t replenish as fast as we gave. We grew into each other but our internal landscape atrophied and eroded all around us. And now we’re perched on such fragility that it can’t even support the weight of both us. And our vast landscape has been reduced; away… from being with each other. away… from talking, away… from texting and now to mere rote tropes. If we try to ascend back up or try to find our footing, it collapses further. Afraid that one last strong wind will gust at any moment and pull the last remnants dry earth away from under our feet. And that last whisper of our vast landscape of ours will ultimately dissolve and scatter away. I hope you find some stable ground. One rooted in something deep and solid. Full of life, possibility and a vibrant open love. One that can help close your wounds and foster healthy new growth. Thank you for showing me so much. Good luck.

I don’t know how to write this. I don’t know what I have to offer. My wife laughed when she found me out. She said young women would only be interested in me for money. Probably true. Still… I can’t help but look and fantasize.
I’m 34, 5’10”, somewhat attractive. Educated. Professional. Introverted. I’m looking for someone younger to chat with and meet regularly.
I’m located between Richmond and DC. I like normal stuff… going out to eat, being on the water, listening to music, watching movies, etc.
Let’s not waste each others time. Be prepared to exchange pics.