A screw top corona. Not my first choice, but handed to me cold, so I wasn’t going to decline. An apartment party is not somewhere that I ventured too often, but I had just gotten back in town after a 4-month bender abroad, an annoying sentence, I know. Being apart from my friends, I was willing to oblige to their desired evening of fun. Drinking was not atop my priority list, but I was happy to be back with the crew.
It was summer in a sleepy college town. Not a lot to do and not a lot of places to find trouble, so to the apartment party we went, my half empty corona in hand.
Peter and I had met on Halloween 6 months prior to this evening. There was an instant connection. I have never cry laughed more or felt more myself than when I’m with him. Everyone loved Peter. What’s not to love? He made everyone feel like a friend, funny and witty, welcoming, and kind. Once I got to know him on a deeper level, I quickly realized that there was a sad part of him, and I think that is why we connected so well. We were the life of the party, but sad inside to no one’s wiser. We never talked about it, but I know one another’s company made us both feel at home. I quickly knew that I wanted this friendship to last forever. A week after we met, I knew I would have to let him know that I was not romantically interested in him so we could get on with being friends. At 22, a boy doesn’t want to hear that. Now, some 10 years later, he is thankful for the decision I made for us all those years ago. My older brother, my safe space.
Peter liked to party. It was not odd to go to a party with one another and end the night, separated (and by separated, I mean, Peter getting too drunk and leaving a party with out telling anyone or getting kicked out of a bar). We always found our way back to each other the next morning. Breakfast and a gossip session over the events of the night before.
You can hear the music and the beer pong from the ground floor. Peter and I enter the buzzing apartment. I immediately see an old friend that I have not seen since I’ve returned. I am elated. I run over to Thomas and smoother him in the biggest hug imaginable. His face lights up, shocked to see me. We hold up in a corner, laughing and swapping stories from the semester. Thomas and I have had every single class together since freshman year. Our classroom friendship, turned study buddies, turned into a real-life friendship outside of the hallways and the late-night papers. One of the most genuine people I had during college. I was so happy to be reunited. We had so much to catch up on.
Thomas was shy. He never had a ton to say, which is why we got along so well, I can’t shut up, and he’s a great listener. I think he liked how I just forced my friendship onto him, he didn’t really have a say in the matter. We were spending so much of our academic hours together, which made me want to be friends all of the time. He didn’t seem opposed, and we’ve been friends ever since. The extrovert adopts the introvert, a true match made.
I feel a tap on my shoulder. It’s a familiar face from freshman year. Matt. He was friends with some of my older friends. Nice guy, weird he was at this party. Hasn’t he graduated? I thought to myself.
“Sadie, how to hell are you girl”? he screamed into my ear as he embraced me. Matt was an enthusiastic guy. Happy about everything, until he got too drunk, and enthusiasm turned into extremely annoying, very quickly. We exchanged small talk, until we were approached by another figure.
“Chad, what the fuck is up man, come here. Do you know Sadie? Greatest girl on earth, you have to meet her”?! Matt yelled as he embraced Chad. I knew Chad. He had messaged me while I was away for the semester. A random message, considering I had been at my university for 3.5 years and never heard of him until his Instagram DM. I chalked it up to him hearing about my recent break up. It’s a small town, the dating pool is subpar, and we ran in different circles. I put two and two together, Thomas and Matt are in the same frat, and I’m now learning that that is how Chad fits into this circle. We spoke a couple times while I was away, nothing serious, and left it at “see ya around”. I guess “around” was happening right now.
“I am hopping to get to know her a lot more” Chad smirked. Matt turned to me and continued to tell me about awesome Chas is and how crazy it was that our paths have never crossed.
Everyone knew the answer to that. I had dated the same guy all of college, and up until a few months ago, I didn’t know who the cute, single guys were on campus. I quickly learned that Chad, was one of them. Maybe this was my chance to have a little fun as I entered my senior year. I was going to have an easy year and after a very bad break up, no strings attached fun was exactly what I needed.
“Let me get you a drink” Chad suggested. That’s right, my corona. I had finished it on the ride over here and was too busy talking with Thomas to get another. Chad appeared with a red solo cup of what he called “the house drink”. I took the half-filled cup and took a sip. It tasted like every other party juice that college kids make. Likely an entire bottle of cheap brunettes’ vodka and whatever juice they had in the fridge. I now find myself in another corner, completely enchanted with Chad.
I don’t know how much time has passed; I tell him I need to use the restroom. I push past the crowd of strangers and dodge flying ping pong balls. I find myself in a bathroom. I look at myself in the mirror. Am I having a good time? I ask myself with a smile. It’s been almost 4 years of college and the bad times have unfortunately clouded my memories of the fun times. At 21 years old, I find myself struggling with dark, overwhelming emotions that I have absolutely no idea how to navigate. It’s refreshing to be sober and having fun, especially with a cute boy. I kind of want to go home with Chad? If that’s what this leads to, I think as I wash my hands and reapply my lip gloss. He’s a 22 year old guy, of course he wants me to come home with him. I’ve never done that before. Gone home with someone I barley know? It’s college, I’m single, this is exactly what I can and want to do I think to myself as I place the lip gloss back into my bag.
Anyway, I need to get back out there. I toss the gross rag back onto the counter. Give my hair a fluff and open the door. Thomas is standing right outside the door as I open it. “Stop talking to him” he whispers to me. “What”? I screamed over the blaring music. Thomas mumbles when he’s been drinking so I have no idea what he’s getting on about. “That guy is bad news, just warning you” he says looking at me with the coldest stare he’s ever given. Thomas has never had an opinion on my dating or social life, ever. That’s the best thing about our friendship. It’s just a fun, healthy, no bad energy kind of flow. We don’t talk boys or girls and we can just be ourselves with each other. Hearing him say something about Chad is odd. “He’s nice, we’re just talking” I assure him and prance back to my corner.
I always wonder how different my life would be if Thomas was a girl. If a girlfriend told me to be worried about a guy and not talk to them, I would listen. I would have never gone back over to that guy. I trust my girlfriends with my life. In that moment, I thought Thomas was drunk and crushing on me and didn’t like seeing me with a guy that he deemed to be a “douche bag”. I always wonder if Matt didn’t see me that night, would Chad have even approached us talking. I always wonder if Peter didn’t want to go out that night, I would have never ended up in the apartment. I always wonder if I didn’t take a drink of that juice and vodka, the events of that night would have played out differently. I can’t ask myself those questions these days. I don’t handle “what ifs” very well.
I get back to my corner. I’m feeling flushed. It’s probably the juice in the drink, I’ve never liked a sweet drink. Makes my head hurt. Chad is almost as charming as I think I am. My charm comes in the form of sarcasm and dancing around the line of just being mean. Boys love that.
“I’m having a great time, I don’t even care that we’re at this party, do you want to maybe come back to my place and keep talking? I just live down the street” Chad leans into me closer as he asks with the most soft but confident tone. I don’t even think before I answer, an excited “Yes” slips from my glossed lips.
“My roommate is here actually; he doesn’t drink so he can drive us”. His roommate appears out of thin air, like he was a fly on the wall, waiting for his cue. It's like he had it planned.
I don’t tell Peter and Thomas I’m leaving. The last thing I want to hear from them is all the reasons I shouldn’t. I scan the room; Peter isn’t even in the apartment. Classic. Thomas must be in the room I left him in, I don’t say bye. I take Chad’s hand and we’re getting in his roommates’ car. He sits in the back with me, even though there isn’t a 4th person coming with us. I think it’s odd, making your roommate be your driver? I don’t think about it again. I’m dizzy. It’s probably the car, I do get car sick.
The roommate jumps out of the car before the head lights even turn off and heads inside, it’s like he was trying to run away from us. Again, odd. Maybe he’s just an awkward guy. We get up to his second-floor apartment. It’s a typical boy apartment. The TV to couch ratio is off and there are empty whiskey bottles lining the top of the kitchen counters. I roll my eyes.
Why am I here? My heart is racing out of my chest. I feel like I could run a marathon but, I can barely keep my eyes open. I’ve never felt like this before. I don’t even remember the car ride over here? Which is strange, considering I had 1 corona 2 hours ago and half a class of juicy vodka over the last hour. I keep doing “drink math” in head as it spins in circles. Trying to understand why this blanket of fog and discomfit comes over so quickly. I don’t want to get sick, how embarrassing would that be? Especially in front of this cute guy that I’ve just met.
He walks me into his room. We’re kissing. That’s fine. I sit down on the bed, his palms grabbing either side of my face. I’m good with that. I pull back, “I don’t want to have sex” I said nervously. I’m up front, I wanted him to know that that’s not why I came back here. I just wanted to see how things were, just the two of us. “Then we don’t have to” he smiled as he went back to kissing me.
Darkness. I can’t see anything. I know things are happening, I couldn’t tell you exactly what. Are my eyes even open? I’m trying to open them. I’m trying to talk. I can’t hear myself. It’s like all motor functions just slipped away without me knowing. Like I’m a baby that wants to communicate but can only make a few sounds. I can’t get my point across. It’s extremely frustrating. I can’t even tell if I can move my arms. Panic sets in. I hear an exhausted “NO” escape my lips. I think? I hope.
Darkness. I don’t know how much time has passed. Am I coming in and out of consciousness? I don’t even know what that feeling is like, I’ve never experienced what’s happening to me before. I’m in a bathroom? Why? I look up and see myself in the mirror. I’m naked. I tilt my head up a little further and I see him, behind me, naked as well.
He’s Inside of me. I realize what is happening.
Why are we in the bathroom? Did you need to watch me in the mirror? Did I run in here and you followed me to continue what you had started in the darkness.
“NO, get off me” finally. I heard that. It was loud. Good. I run back into the room. Why are my clothes off? Where is my purse? God why do I always wear so much jewelry, it’s everywhere. I can buy new stuff. No, this is new stuff, get it off the floor. I toss myself together, shoes and bag in hand. I run.
Darkness.
I’m on the phone.
Darkness.
Now, I’m in a car.
Darkness.
Now, I’m swallowing a pill, eating a taco, drinking water out of a glass, and laying in Monica’s bed. She seems very stressed out. How did I get here? I asked myself as I examine my familiar surroundings.
The next morning, we treated it like a normal morning.
Monica was my best friend. Looking back at our friendship, she was more like a mother. A mother with attachment issues. She was in and out of relationships or flings, always obsessing over the ex she dumped. She was an only child, selfishness came natural to her. She was only a couple years older than me. I thought she hung the moon. I had never had a friendship like this before. We were rarely apart. After my break up, I basically lived with Monica. I would have done anything for her, and to be honest, at that moment in time, she would have done anything for me. it’s the only time I had ever felt like she truly cared about me.
Peter and Jake met Monica and I at breakfast. Over the past 6 months, the 4 of us did everything together. We were the life of every party. They were the ying to our yang. This breakfast however, was not like our normal Sunday hungover gossip sessions.
“Are you going to tell them or should I”? Monica blurted out once we all got our drinks. I felt the redness flush over my cheeks. I couldn’t say that word. I couldn’t tell Peter what happened. I couldn’t look him in the eyes. I didn’t even want to tell Monica what happened. She told me she found me in a parking lot of an apartment building that we had never even been to before. She knew. I didn’t have to say anything. I wanted it to vanish out of my memory. I could barley remember anything so if I continued to push it out of my brain, it would be gone like a dream sooner rather than later.
I don’t remember the rest of that breakfast. I don’t remember the rest of that summer. If we’re being honest, looking back, I don’t remember most of college. It’s like that one night triggered something so dark inside of me that it erased everything from my memory. They call it trauma in therapy, but I call it protection.
Of course, I remember things here and there. Funny stories, my walks to class. But conversations, nights out with friends, the day-to-day life of what was supposed to be the greatest 4 years of your life was magically gone.
Not only did it trigger something dark inside of me, but it altered every cell in my body. The extrovert became an introvert. I couldn’t speak with a man with out a chip on my shoulder. I was moody and tired and completely unamused with everything. It’s like a was making poor decisions in my life on purpose because I was addicted to the pain and suffering. Sadness and shame were my new normal. I didn’t want to be happy, that felt like way too much work. I was good at being miserable.
I stayed like this for almost 3 years. I graduated, moved to a new city, made new friends, continued to make awful choices, got into another toxic relationship that wasn’t even a relationship and pushed away a lot of people. Monica and I had our inevitable break up. Thomas was still back in our college town, I didn’t see him often. Peter moved to the west coast the month before I moved to the east coast. An entire country apart. He still came to visit me. He checked on me. We missed each other so much, I know it hurt us both, but we would never tell each other. A simple “miss you” even though I knew it was more than that. I needed him. I needed someone there that loved me like I used to love myself.

I have a couple fandoms I have been active in recently, ranging from an anime I've enjoyed since 2012 to one I just got into November of last year. I participate in them on tumblr and in some Discord servers, and write fanfiction on AO3. But for the past 1-2 months, I've been feeling nothing toward them. I get bored scrolling through tumblr and avoid looking into my saved tags. Every time I respond to anyone on Discord it is because I want to clear my notifications and feel like I "have to" say something - I haven't sent a message I genuinely wanted to send in at least a month. I actively avoid working on fanfic ideas. If this were pertaining to only one fandom, I'd say maybe I'm just losing interest in that one and should move on to others - as I've seen several posts/blogs about this situation with advice. But there are 5 fandoms I'm active in or interested in that I feel like I no longer care about. I haven't seen much in the way of advice related to losing interest in all your fandoms.
Again, one might say, it's okay that you're not interested in those things anymore, just focus on your other interests. But I feel like I no longer know what else I'd want to do, as fandom was the biggest way I spent my free time. The other things I love to do are not things I can do every day. For example, I take a horseback riding lesson once a week, am very passionate about riding, and hope to one day show in eventing and own my own horse. But right now, one lesson a week is what my budget allows for, though my lesson instructor has talked to me about occasionally adding one extra practice ride a month to start with for a small additional cost. I can't do more than that right now and can't just go and hang out with the horses at random whenever I want. I enjoy skiing, but can only do that in the winter, and have to do it outside of my work schedule and arrange for my boyfriend or someone else to be with my son while I do it. I work from home some of the time and also have a toddler, so fandom was an ideal interest for me to have. I didn't have to go anywhere or spend any money, I could just get on my computer and participate if I didn't have much work to do or after my kid went to bed. And the idea of losing interest in things I once really, really loved is kind of depressing.
Any advice on what I should do? Should I try to rekindle my interest in these fandoms, or should I just let go? If I let go, what else could someone suggest I could try doing with my free time? I have some flexibility to run an errand for an hour or so during the work day if I don't have any work to do, but I can't be away for half the day or more. I'd love to find something else that is similar to fandom in that I can fit it in when I have time without necessarily having to go anywhere. Also, I have a little money to work with but don't have a massive budget.
Edit: One thought I had was to dabble in making my own perfumes, but it seems daunting to learn and there might be a large startup cost in terms of supplies.

Hi, Reddit! I have a situation and I want to know if I’m in the wrong for feeling the way I do.
I, 28F, have a friend, 26F, that has started being exceptionally rude the last month. Let me give you a little background.
Back in September 2022, I met this girl, let’s call her Amanda. We became friends rather quickly. Hanging out every day, mainly because we work together. During this time, we became pretty close to the point where I lost sight of myself. I started going downhill with my mental health at this point in time because of everything I had went through the summer before starting at this new job. I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder When I turned 20 years old (this is important).
We went out for my birthday in the beginning of October and she all, but asked me to join a Throuple with her and her boyfriend, telling me I should leave my own relationship to, in essence, be the third in the relationship. I didn’t want that, and I kind of hurt her feelings by telling her no. So they started buying drinks and everything for my birthday. I had one alcoholic beverage and a green tea shot but otherwise was sober. They then asked if we could stop at a new adult pleasure store before they took me home. I didn’t mind too much but was rather disappointed cause I didn’t actually do what I wanted on my birthday, which was going to hang out at a bar with a small group of my friends.
It was quite awkward going into that store. It made me feel out of place in a sense. I’m gonna skip the details of being in the store because it was rather boring and nothing really happened during that. Eventually they took me home and my brother came over and we got drunk. Fast forward to the middle of October and everything seems to be going downhill after my birthday and I got a ticket. I started drastically declining with my mental health so much so that I was starving myself barely eating 100 cal a day if that most days I wouldn’t even eat, this went on for about a month and a half to two months. It didn’t click with anyone of my close friends that I worked with. (I work with someone I’ve known half my life) and he didn’t even realize how bad I truly was until the middle of November, and told me I needed to seek help and nobody was there for me when I was essentially giving up on life. This time of year was especially hard, because my mother’s birthday, who I was pretty close with, was fast approaching along with Christmas. And I was beyond depressed. I couldn’t think rationally.
Eventually, I got help, started medication, and was starting to get better slowly, but surely. It was during this time Amanda had told me that about a year ago she went to it with the doctors and they told her that she could possibly have diabetes, but she didn’t want to believe them and continue to live a lifestyle that was completely unhealthy. (this is important.) so around the end of January we met this friend will call her Valerie. And we all started out a lot. We all work together so we hung out quite a bit.
And that brings us to March, Amanda and I had gotten a place together because of my current situation was on a time limit. And she had offered to be a roommate because I needed the extra help to get a place. Now, Valerie, Amanda and I got into a huge fight within the first week of getting the keys to Amanda and my new apartment. And essentially stop being friends after that.
I was cordial to Amanda because we live together and we’re stuck in a lease for a year. But Valerie and I completely cut all ties and quit talking because of how she treated me and my daughter in our apartment. By the way, she screamed at the top of her lungs at my daughter and I wasn’t about to let her do that so we’re gonna fast forward to about the middle of March where I thought everything was going to be fine because we weren’t even talking.
I had called off on a Wednesday because I was sicker than a dog couldn’t even get out of bed. So when I went back to work the following day, I had a bunch of people coming up to me telling me how childish I was being for bringing it all to work when I had been gone the day that it was brought up in the workplace. So I was getting talk to you in told that my name was coming out of other peoples mouth‘s when I wasn’t even there to defend myself or even squashed the situation because Amanda and Valerie were there the previous day bad mouthing me, and all that when I found out that they have been bad mouthing me for months and are still continuing to do so now even though we haven’t talked for about a month. When I made it perfectly clear that we weren’t friends at the beginning of March anyway.
Amanda and I started to try to be friends again around a week or so ago. And then she found out that she actually had diabetes and then she was crying all boo-hooing about how sorry she was for being so mean and rude. It was at this time that I felt bad for not feeling bad that she was diagnosed with diabetes. Because she was warned she could have it. I wasn’t about to baby her over a disease that is completely manageable with exercise and diet. That’s not to say I wasn’t going to be supportive and help her as much as I could.
And then she went to the hospital because her blood sugar was high. She didn’t even have a full hospital. Stay and has been staying with a family member for the last week. And they’re continuing to make Facebook posts saying how crappy have a friend I am, because I’m not messaging her every day, asking how she is, and I’m basically giving her all this attention. I’m a mom first a friend last. My main priority isn’t checking on her to make sure she’s doing what she needs to do for her health. And they’re making it seem like I didn’t just tell her that oh I’ll cut out this. Doesn’t this to support you and I’ll help you anyway, I can but there’s only so much I can do to help you. And I was still being supportive of her because we live together because we were trying to be friends again after all the shit talking.
It was around this time to that I found out that Amanda had told her mom that I stole her car (when I have my own car, so why would I do that?) and that she felt so uncomfortable that she had a hide in her room (but we don’t have furniture other than our bedrooms) and that I am dictating everything that goes on in our apartment, which I’m really not I just put dishes in a cupboard because I was tired of them sitting in the dishwasher or on the counters or in boxes. So she’s trying to ruin my reputation because she has a little crush and my friend will call him. Darrell made her extremely mad when he got done talking to her last night and she was bad mouthing me to him. And he said to her that it really seems like she hates me and so she got mad about that.
I may be missing a few important details, but my brain is so fried that I don’t remember much of anything that for this past month, other than what I put down already. Am I the asshole?

Hello everyone! I'm Shycrow on YT, and, Zantorm and I are working on a very bold theory that we're gonna need a lot of feedback on to help develop.
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So, here is the working version of my personal take on the theory
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(please note: this is the script to a video I am working on, so forgive me if there are any in-text notes in the script itself)
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Throughout the short lifespan of my channel I… haven't touched any SB theories with a ten foot pole, for… pretty obvious reasons… Since this game has proven to be pretty mind numbing for even the smartest of people, but, while I was working a very ambitious, sortof response /my own take on Matpat’s fnaf timeline theory, I randomly got a DM from the youtuber Zantorm, presenting some bold claims about a SB discovery he made, and after he presented the evidence. After a collective “holy SHIT!” I decided to make this video before my Game theory one.
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Now, keep in mind… I HATE this theory, and I’ll add it into the “I’ll celebrate with a 24 hour livestream if it’s wrong” list, but there is JUST enough evidence for me to drop everything and present it her:
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But… I just need to drop it here..
Michael might still be alive in SB.
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I know I know most of you clicked off right there, but trust me, I would’ve done the same thing if I were you. But just… hear me out for a bit…
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For me, it really starts going with an odd piece of Fnaf AR’s source code, where we see an “alert” sent to someone suspiciously named none other than “mafton” at the email address “[email protected]”
And while Entom was playing around in SB in debug mode,, he found these post it notes in many of the security offices in the pizzaplex with message of “meeting with Smith 5pm” written on them, obviously reminders for the security guards
And in the huge pipe that leads to Mazercise, we get to see a grocery list on the wall: “Butters, butters, butters” an obvious easter egg about SL.
And last but not least, we see a hidden room deep in the pizzaplex in SB. More specifically the same room michael unwinds in after work in SL. We see the exact same couch, the same 70’s era TV set, the same wall decorations, And what do we see on top of the TV? Michael's basket of Exotic Butters, the one he earned after his saga in the Sister location.
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Now now, with all that presented, I’m gonna go all Matpat here for a moment and write a lore accurate fanfiction that would even make him blush:
I think Michael is back to try and finish off William, much like in previous games. Just like how the vengeful spirit seems to be back. He probably got a job at the company for the sole reason that he was the person who he was during the original Fazbear entertainment run. But he managed to get higher, and higher into the company, even being able to move much of his old stuff into his own private room in the Pizzaplex. but when he found out the real purpose of the company, he decided to try and work behind the scenes to put a stop to it, like… possible freeing Gregory from glitchtraps influence?? Among other things that fnaf intentionally set him up to do to pad out five more games- \ahem* I mean provide rich storytelling opportunities for the future of the franchise?*
And who knows? Maybe the plan is to have a sortof redo of fnaf 6 to end this next phase of the franchise? Where the previous characters like the puppet, Michael, William and henry return in SOME form rise of skywalker style to be burned again once in for all… until phase three of course
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So, if this whole theory is true, Michael is high enough in the company to have his own room in the pizzaplex, one based off his home above the SL. He can’t just be a low level employee, because in the bobbiedots we see just how crazy difficult it is for the protagonist abe to even squat out by the garbage without getting caught in that story. And, the pizzaplex books have been kinda hitting us over the head with evidence that they are in the same universe as SB now.
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But, alright alright, you might be asking, where does the “Michael possesses Glamrock freddy” theory end up then? Well, fortunately or unfortunately, I think the pizzaplex books kinda put that one to rest Because The pizzaplex books HAMMER in the fact that Fazbear entertainment can make sentient animatronics. We see that with not only the bobbiedots, but also in the storyteller we get a straightforward confirmation that the Glamrocks… are advanced AI. All their personality’s, insecurities and mood swings? Yup, the Storyteller confirms they were programed in on purpose. How about Glamrock Freddy’s compassion to Gregory? Well, GGY confirms that, to the dismay to a million fatherless twitter kids, that was because Gregory had actually hacked into and altered Glamrock Freddy’s programing so that he would do his bidding. Now, whether or not remnant or agony has anything to do with this is unknown, but the fact that Fazbear entertainment has the ability to program sapient AI with human emotions and feeling is more then confirmed at this point.
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But, that of course leads to the elephant in the room: Fnaf 6. Where it is VERY strongly implied that Michael dies in the fnaf 6 fire with the rest of the gang.
But, zantorm pointed out a tiny little detail about the final cutscene that just made do what can only be described as a slow facepalm with my desk:
In the end of the game, we are presented with the last of Henry’s employee tapes, thanking us the security guard for working at the establishment and that out duties are complete: (show “:you now longer need to go to work next week” line)
And, as zantorm pointed out:If the intro videos were obviously played for Michael when he signed up for the company, then, just who are they playing for at the end of the game?....
yeahhhh…..
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(now OBVIOUSLY, this was a minor, non canon plot hole presented as a joke for the player in a 4th wall break… but… we all know what fnaf loves to do with THOSE.. (show “tampering with the animatronics” slip, “he always comes back” line, and (), all with explanations behind them)
Did.. this line get midrashed:(show, I had a way out planned” line) to mean that since TECHNICALLY Henry doesn’t know if Michael will take the way out or not, Michael changed his mind and did decide to leave?
And… this all leads us to both simultaneously the biggest supporting, and biggest potential refuting, piece of evidence for this theory:
Fnaf’s new narrative style.
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IF the “meeting with Smith” cards have anything to do with Michael, then, why would he be going under Fritz smith again in the franchise?
Was Michael thrown out and came back under the same false allies he used one 40 years earlier?? Dang, that would be uncreative, and extremely narratively redundant, unlike everything else in this game.. (slowly have the burntrap ending fade in onscreen)
But, to be perfectly fair, it WOULD be a pretty solid way of telling us that it is the Michael we know, by having him mirror the same behavior we’ve seen from the previous games… even if it is extremely lazy and half baked.. (like every other explanation in SB and the Tales books..)
Yup, it’s vague, it’s stupid. But there's about as much evidence for it as anything else we know from the game, and… it really fit’s with the direction the game seems to be
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Because I think the real question is why does SB throw all these hints to previous characters in the game series?
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Why is Michael afton seemingly the name of a fnaf ar employee? Why Is Vanessa's last named implied to be “afton” Why does Gregory HEAVILY resemble the crying child? Down to the hair, the build, the striped shirt and even the bandage on the knee?
Heck, even the Vanny ending, rather famously, has Gregory taking a bite out of a fredbear or freddy head popsicle, in a not so subtly inversion of the fate of the crying child
It takes an extreme amount of lore stretching to have any of this make sense. It’s not like how the name “Jeremy” appears like six times for unrelated reasons, these are all in the same period, around the same events in the same new canon.
That’s why we get things like gregbot, and the multiple Elizabeth's theories. And unfortunately.. As crazy as these theories are… SB and tales from the pizzaplex manages to outdo us at every turn. I mean, is a robot Gregory or a dozen elizabeth clones such a stretch when there are orbs that make dreams a reality sold in the ticket booths, or little speaker disks that can make robots eat, breath, bleed and be completely indiscernible as normal humans just with some 80’s tech and sounds undoubtedly exist now?
Fnaf nowadays isn’t about what makes sense, but rather, it’s become a plug and play game of what insane details we can plug and play into the basic premise we know. Narrative coherence… plays a surprisingly small part now. Now we just gotta see whatever is in the games and books and figure out what the game is trying to tell us with them.
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So basically, doing theories about SB consists of presenting the most insane nonsense ever in a theory, explaining why it doesn’t make any sense and having fnaf confirm it five or six months later. So, lets see if that prophecy is fulfilled for this theory.
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Anyways, please leave your feedback on this theory down below, because this theory needs a LOT of work before I think it is really presentable.
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Thanks!
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- Shycrow

Has anyone added bathroom on a concrete slab and used a macerator toilet and a raised shower w/drain to wall like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ichc0jZa3U Already have a sink in the room so we'd just replace that with something that looks nicer.
Any complaints or advice?
We have hydronic radiant heating in our slab and would like to avoid cutting into it. Have a huge laundry room that would ideally also be a kid bath in future.

Most people who scale DS characters either low ball them too much and underestimate the characters or wank them to the heavens so I'm gonna start doing my scaling and share my opinion on this. - I'll be very strict and low-ball a little because I hate wanking characters - we'll be starting with the upper moon 6 our second favorite pair of siblings gyutaro and daki and make our way up to muzan. - I started with them because they're the most characters that are chaotic in scaling some people put them at low as building level ahem vsbw and some lunatic put them at outer since gyutaro said he could kill Buddha. - let's start with gyutaro : he's the elder sibling and the stronger of the two he's also the true holder of the rank upper 6 so he's the more relevant of the two

• powers and abilities : Abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Acrobatics, Self-Sustenance (Type 3), Extrasensory Perception, Enhanced Senses, Telepathy, Genius Intelligence, Weapon Mastery (Of his sickles), Immortality (Type 1, 2, 3 and 8; Is one with Daki, and they must be defeated simultaneously in order for them to die, allowing him to regenerate from even decapitation as long as she's alive as well), Regeneration (High-Mid; Can quickly regenerate from decapitation, his head being crushed, and losing limbs), Absorption & Statistics Amplification (Can grow stronger by eating humans), Reactive Evolution (Kokushibo states that both humans and demons alike can grow and surpass their limits through battle), Body Control, Biological Manipulation (Can turn people into demons with his blood), Aura & Fear Manipulation (Has a vastly superior aura to the Lower Kizuki Demons, which can cause shuddering and a feeling of lacking air. Even Daki could inflict fear upon Tanjiro, which Gyutaro should scale to. His scent made Tanjiro feel as if his throat was going numb and his presence inflicted fear upon him), Blood Manipulation, Poison Manipulation (Can inject deadly poison into people with his sickles), Forcefield Creation (Can form a dome with his slashes), Homing Attack & Explosion Manipulation (Can manipulate his sickles to target his foes until it explodes), Resistance to: Regeneration Negation (High-Mid; As long as Daki's alive, he can regenerate from nichirin blades, which normally negate demons' regeneration by decapitating them), Disease Manipulation (Demons are unable to get sick), Pain Manipulation (Demons are shown to be capable of handling intense pain, as they can shrug off their limbs and heads being sliced off or crushed), Poison Manipulation (Can quickly recover from the poisonous effects of wisteria flowers, which can paralyse demons for half a day), Paralysis Inducement, Fear Manipulation (Should easily resist the Lower Kizuki Demons' aura), biokenises ( fused with and healed his sister gave her his eye and can manipulate his cells on a stronger level that the normal demons who can split themselves and control thier hair and mutate to gain extra abilities like the hand demon and the mantis demon)
  
• DESTRUCTIVE CAPACITY : obliterated most if not all of the red light district with this attack and it's implyed that he did destroy it since the red light district did infact was destroyed almost completely in a great earthquake in the taicho period (the same time of the show and the show is based on the real Japan so it's like the demon slayers made it look as a natural disasters after the fight) he literally turned this to this so what is the red light district? And how do we scale this feat? Well the red light district was a large city named yoshiwara in that period had more than 90k people living in it before 1940 and by the definition of Japan a city is a statement that has more than 50k people living in it here's the requirements for city in japan and yoshiwara fullfil all the requirements and after WW2 the city was made into smaller districts and then some merged with Tokyo and some with Fuji
  
• then is it a city level feat? Not so fat he preformed this feat in his last attack that can be argued that it's a self distraction and also the buildings are old style and are easier to destroy if would need much more force to destroy modern cities and he destroyed most of the district not all of it all of this combined make me scale him a tier lower
  
• drum roll please.... GYUTARO IS : LARGE TOWN LEVEL
  
• his attack potency could be higher with the use of poison and explosive attacks
  
• now stamina : infinite (demons don't have a consept of fatigue and can go at full power forever)
  
• speed : massively hypersonic+ (much faster than tengen) casually blitzed tengen who blitzed daki without effort and low diffed her who is much faster than tanjiro and can move faster than he can react and he moved a dozen meters climbing the gates before his head connected and before he even moved from his position in the air and early tanjiro himself is able to easily evade attacks that are as fast as sound and no mark tanjiro can casually dodge lightning while pushing genya out of the way
  
• lifting strength : unknown, presumedly greater than class k (much stronger physically than tanjiro who can push a giant Boulder and kyojuro who lifted a whole 8 cart train with just a dash)
  
• durability : a demon durability isn't consistent with thier DC and ap and can be harmed by characters weaker than them multi-city block level and
  
• thier necks are thier toughest spot and are consistent with thier AP and DC : large town level (it took tanjirou a 100x strength boost to kill him)
  
  • daki DC & AP : multi-cityblock+ to small town- level chopped up a large part of the district with one casually attack took the effort of tanjirou and zenitsu and inoske to defeat her but got one shot by tengen
• speed : hight hypersonic+ to barely massively hypersonic (scales a much lower than gyutaro) and is faster than tanjiro
  
• stamina : infinite
  
• durability : city block level in her body (could parry attacks from dance of the fire god tanjiro easily) Multi-city block level at her neck (very difficult to kill when it's soft and it took all the strength of inoske and zenitsu to kill her)
  

Battle report: R-02
Time: One day after the Galdush battle, day 21 since REC forces crossed to the other side
Report carried out by: Brigadier General Oscar Wayne
Report states: At noon of the 21st day the remains of the enemy seventh army engaged base Galdush. The attack was carried out by air forces, consisting of the enemy's seventh wyvern corp, and ground forces, consisting of the enemy's seventh siege legion. The wyverns came within roughly three miles from the base before the majority was taken out of the sky by AN/TWQ-2 missile systems, the rest either fled or stayed and were taken out via heavy machine gun fire. The siege legion was destroyed sooner by M155A2 self-propelled howitzers. The majority was eliminated, and remnants fled.
Outcome: Victory
REC casualties: None
Enemy casualties: Estimated 4.000 (Not including wyverns and hardware)
Identification sources: Captured general of the seventh army, Drannor Crax; Captured dwarven commander Dunan Oremelt.
(Twenty days after the Galdush battle)
Imperial palace, Elyana
"What is the meaning of this!?", Canus yelled in furious anger as he stood up from his throne.
"Your Majesty, I can explain.", Laeroth said standing in the center of the Grand chamber, surrounded by senators and the Chosen legions, "I was planning on informing you-"
"Inform me of what!? That the invasion force led by general Ylindar was destroyed in less than a day!? That the troops you sent to Galdush to stop the humans were also crushed!? That we lost nearly two hundred thousand forces, including two of our armies and generals, in less than one fucking moon cycle!?".
This was the first time anyone has seen Canus rage out like this. His whole life he was calm and collected, never raising his voice at anyone. Even if he did have an outburst, its magnitude was nowhere near the level of what the Grand chamber's attendants were experiencing at this moment. Laeroth had no words with which to defend himself and lying was beneath. He underestimated the enemy's capabilities. If they could do this, then he shuddered to imagine what they would do if they were given even more time. All he knew for sure was that a direct approach will undoubtedly lead to failure.
"Your Majesty.", Laeroth spoke, "I meant no disrespect. I only assumed that-"
"You assumed!? You do not assume, Laeroth. You determine! You bring solutions and results. In over three hundred cycles you never once assumed anything. What has changed? Are you losing your edge?"
"Your Majes-"
"Perhaps I should put someone else in charge.". These words shook Laeroth to the core. "Someone more youthful. Someone I can fully trust. Someone capable of cleaning this mess. Perhaps Athtar, maybe Reebus or Syndra. Or... maybe that fellow Alphs."
"No!", Laeroth shouted, his voice booming over the halls, making everyone present twitch. He drew his sword and knelt, "I shall resolve this. I shall not fail you, Your Majesty.". He brought the edge of his sword to his left hand and without hesitation sliced off his smallest finger. Then he placed his sword on the floor and offered Canus his finger. Canus slowly walked over to him and took it.
After observing the finger for several moments, Canus spoke, "Rise.", and so Laeroth did, "This is your final chance. Should you fail me, you will lose more than this finger.". With a bow and a salute, Laeroth exited the chamber. "This meeting is over! Return to your duties!"
With that, the chamber was emptied and only Canus remained with his guard. Sitting on his throne, Canus observed Laeroth's finger. All he could do was hope and pray that Laeroth's determination would prevail.
As Laeroth walked down the halls he patched up his hand with cloth. His first captain walked beside him, "Sir! You must slow down."
"I cannot Helion!", Laeroth shouted, "Every minute we spend bickering is a minute we give to the enemy. Their power, their speed, it is like nothing we faced before."
"Well... What do we do? What can we do?"
"First we need to fortify the North Alston river. Send word to general Lyklor Balphine of the XI and general Reebus Octo of the XII. Tell them to hold the bridges and not let the enemy pass. Since they have powerful cannons, they need to spread their forces out and use long-range catapults. Second, send word to the Meilume nobility and tell them to leave the region. Third, bring me the captive humans as soon as possible. Where are they?"
"About a dozen have been scattered at the Meilume and Kuruk capitals. The rest are on their way to the other cities between Kuruk and Elyana and many will be sent to the mines of the Tubal mountains."
"I want eight captives here as soon as possible."
"Understood sir.". The captain saluted and rushed to his duties, leaving Laeroth who entered his personal chamber and grabbed his flask. After he emptied it he threw it to the corner of the room. Sitting down on his bed he caught his breath and stared at the spirit statues on his shelf and prayed, "Morto, I beg of you. Bring death upon these cursed enemies."
---
(Around the same time)
South village, Yellow forest county, Meilume
Nym will never forget what happened that day. His little crew swore that they would never tell anyone about it. That... man, if it can be called a man, terrified them. When they returned to their parents they lied about how they were running from ferals they saw in the forest while playing. This put the whole village on alert. Of course, it would, a danger of ferals attacking was normal. The whole forest had dens of feral welfen and leanoids, but the county didn't have the means with which to deal with the problem and the empire doesn't see them as a threat overall, so the counties were on their own.
The Yellow forest county had roughly eight thousand people living in it with roughly six hundred militia. It was small compared to some other counties but it held on all things considered. Some people wanted to leave the country as they feared it was becoming too dangerous due to feral activity, but recent events made them choose otherwise. Two massive armies marched near their forest and looking down from the hill the people could see them. The first one marched to the rift to get to the other side and the other after them to assist them. But they were all defeated. This frightened the people of Yellow forest, but they chose to stay, thinking that maybe the enemy won't enter their forest because of the ferals. A long shot, but one they chose to take.
Nym was outside with his friends. The sun was starting to set and they had to return home from mushroom picking. "We never should have gone there.", said Cohnal.
"Stop talking about it.", Nym said, "It's done, stop."
"He has a point, Nym.", Elsha said, "I don't know why that man let us go but... I don't ever want to see him again."
"Same here.", said Meara.
"And we won't have to.", Nym said, "As long as we don't tell anyone anything and we never go to Galdush, we will be fine."
The four of them nodded to that. What happened on that day scared them to the core. But it made them confused more than anything else. The passing imperial soldiers said how they were going to a savage land filled with barbaric monsters. But if that was true, then why did the men on Galdush spare them? Was it because they took no pleasure in killing children? One thing was for sure, they will heed their advice and stay away.
"I think we have enough.", Elsha said.
"Yes.", Hallas said, "We should probably return to the village before ferals show up."
"I don't think they will.", Nym said.
"What do you mean?", Meara asked.
"Haven't you noticed that we haven't seen any ferals in several moon cycles? It's like they ran away."
"That is strange.", Cohnal said, "But either way, we should hurry back."
The five of them started walking back. The forest is quite beautiful in the evening and at night. The reason why it's called Yellow forest is that in the late yellow season and all of the green season, the yellow-backed fireflies and red-headed beetles start flying at night and illuminate the whole forest with yellow and red dots. The county doesn't put up many torches in these times because the people love watching the red and yellow dance of insects. A few beetles have come out of the trees and this told the children they should hurry.
As they ran through the forest, Elsha stopped when she heard rustling in a nearby bush. Her curiosity got the better of her and she walked closer to the bush, despite Nym telling her not to. She walked closer and closer and when she got closer she noticed a pair of green eyes inside the bush. She realized immediately what it was and jumped back just before the creature jumped after her. It was a goblin. Short and bald with a big nose and ugly teeth it wore rags and held a crudely made spear. Elsha was backing away but she slipped and fell on her back. The goblin was about to stab her with his spear, but Nym jumped in and shanked it in the side, piercing its heart. Pulling out the knife he grabbed Elsha and the five of them started running back to the village. As they ran, goblins started jumping out of the bushes and shrubs. Dozens of them. The children could see the gate of the village.
"Open the gate!", Nym yelled as he dragged Elsha, "Goblins! Let us in!"
The guards quickly rushed to open the gate. They opened it just enough so the children could pass. One by one passed and Nym was about to cross but he was grabbed by the goblins. The goblin that grabbed him was taller and bulkier than the rest. He dragged Nym back and left as more goblins showed up. The children cried and the guards quickly closed the gate and climbed on the walls. They saw not dozens, but hundreds of goblins. How could there be so many, they couldn't know and there was no time to find out. The one hundred and fifty militia that were at the village armed themselves and prepared to fight. The goblins threw stones at them but the stone is not as strong as an arrow. The militia opened fire with bows and crossbows, killing dozens of them. The larger goblins threw larger stones and even smaller goblins at the wall. A few made it over and some landed on the militia and started stabbing them. One militia fighter used his sword to slice their heads off and grabbed the crossbow of a fallen fighter and shot the larger goblin in the head, killing him and letting his disgusting, bloated hunk of flesh flop on the ground.
"Aim for the large ones first!", he shouted, "I need spears on the edges, they are climbing! Burn them, they hate fire!". He continued to kill more goblins, slicing the heads of the ones who climbed up on the wall's edges. In front, he could see how a section was overwhelmed as the large goblins threw smaller ones at the militia. He grabbed a nearby shield and charged at them, knocking several down and letting the forces on the ground deal with them. As he looked down he saw the last six large goblins grab a log and he immediately understood their role. "Prepare the torches! Grab cloth!". The fighters did just that and threw the burning cloth and torches at the goblins as they hit the gate with their log.
As the battle went on, the militia killed dozens of goblins with volleys of arrows but more just kept coming. They could see the end though, there were no more large goblins and the small ones had organized a suicide charge to overwhelm the wall, but the fighters kept throwing fire and shooting them with arrows. As this was happening, however, something was happening in the village. The people were all in their homes, but a few were still helping the militia fight as they treated their wounds and brought arrows, food, and boiling water. One of them heard something coming from the abandoned well and moved closer to see. When he got closer he peaked in and a green hand grabbed him as another one stabbed him in the throat. From the well goblins came, several of them, then a few dozen. They went into homes and people started screaming. Elsha was in one of the homes, and her grandmother was laying in the corner when a goblin walked towards her, but Elsha took a knife and stabbed it in the head. From her door, she could see more of them running towards her. She was scared but relieved as more militia came. They were from the western village of the county and had come as soon as they could. The fighters went into the homes and started killing the goblins. Chopping off heads, stabbing hearts and lungs, firing crossbows, burning, the militia used everything.
Eventually, the goblins inside the village were all killed and the fires were put out. The goblins outside the wall were mostly dead but nearly a hundred fled. This was a dark night. The south militia lost nearly a third of its force and dozens of people were killed by the goblins from the well, which was covered up with wooded planks and stone. But the damage to the hearts and minds of the people was greater. Mothers mourned their children and children their fathers. Their greatest fear was the goblins coming back.
(The next day)
Everyone looked to the wall defender, Tulgor, the commander of the south militia. They hoped he would have an answer to all this, and so did he. Some wanted revenge, many asked what to do next. Truth is, he didn't know what to do. Something like this never occurred and no one thought it was possible.
"Tulgor.", spoke an elderly elf, "What do you think we should do?"
"I... I do not know, elder.", Tulgor replied, making everyone around them lower their heads in grief, "We could send fighters down the well and see what is down there. It could be their den and if so they are asleep. But I cannot be certain what we will face. If we get cornered we would die. Besides, we do not have the means with which to destroy the den."
"So all that remains is for us to prepare for the next attack?"
"I fear so. And since we do not know where they will attack next, I suggest we inform the mayor to declare a state of alert county-wide, as to prevent further surprises and death."
"Very well. I will personally go to the central hall and-"
"Tulgor!", shouted a militia fighter, "Tulgor! You have to see this."
Tulgor quickly stood up, "What is it? Have the goblins awoken?"
"No. But... I don't know. You must come, they call for you."
"Call for me? Who? Imperial soldiers?"
"No. They are soldiers, but they are wearing green armor and have boomsticks. They're not dwarves, they are too tall and their skin is paler than theirs is."
This greatly confused Tulgor, "Did they say where they are from?"
"Yes. They are from Galdush."
This statement made his heart freeze and the people around him panicked. The enemy from Galdush came here? Why? Have they come to kill them and take their land? Why here, this is a small county. Swallowing the spit that worked up in his mouth he spoke, "How many?"
"I counted only a dozen. But I think there are more in their armored carriages."
"Assemble fifty of our finest. I will meet them."
---
(Earlier)
Operations base Galdush, morning
It's been a while since any attacks have been launched at them and REC got to work. They improved their base, finishing the machine shop, barracks, airstrip, fortifications, and central command. The base was taking shape of a polygonal fort. The reason is that, historically, these types of fortifications were the best defenses against cannon fire until more accurate and powerful forms of artillery were created. But since the highest level of military technology possessed by the enemy is that of the Napoleonic era, it's not an issue. The other benefit is that polygonal forts are built in a way so that the point which needed to be defended is in the middle. This way the rift is in the center and defended on all sides. As an extra precaution, the rift was surrounded by a steel dome with a garrison defending it.
After the full thirty thousand troops made it to the other side of the rift, a few reforms were made. Firstly, all equipment that required a satellite link was not to be used as they had no satellites here. Instead, they used drones until a proper system can be emplaced. Secondly, a squad of four distinct tribals will be accompanying all Rift groups, or RGs, in order to spread the word to the other tribals of North Altia in hopes of bringing more people to the US's side and also showing them why they are not monsters.
There were currently five RGs and each was given an assignment. They were to go to various locations in Meilume and do reconnaissance as well as gain contact with locals and find out more about the imperial government. Each RG was a platoon of thirty-eight rangers from the 75th Ranger regiment led by a first lieutenant and was equipped with standard hardware. Since the end of the Great crisis, Russia and the US have been working on the 'Warrior' project in order to create better gear for soldiers. The result was a helmet, body armor, a one-piece coverall, hearing protection; protective glasses; a protective set for knees and elbows; new grenade launchers, submachine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, ammunition, a combat knife, as well as 24/7 reconnaissance means, a day and night sighting system, a small-size binocular, optical and thermal weapon sights, etc. As well as these, the system comprises a universal shelter, a multifunctional knife, a signal lamp, a watch, winter and summer two-side camouflage sets, an autonomous heat source, a backpack, an individual water filter, a small entrenching tool, breath protection devices, means of radiological and chemical control, a medical kit, and filtering clothes. As for vehicles, each RG has two JLTV3s, two International MaxxPros, and one LAV-40, all armed and ready.
With their assignments given, the rangers got to work. RG-2, led by lieutenant Andrea Williams, was to track down the elven children Spearteam found snooping. The group tracked them down to a nearby place designated Yellow forest. They took a path through the forest and hoped to run into their village. On the way, they admired the environment. The green trees, the clear blue sky, and the animals looked like the ones back on Earth, just with a few distinct features. Like how rabbits have longer legs, foxes have brighter eyes, some even have two tails. Everything was truly fascinating.
"Man this place is beautiful.", said sergeant David Hall, "It's like driving through a national park."
"You said it, Dave.", said sergeant Greg Nivera, "What do you think we'll find here?"
"Man, I'm hoping for some griffons or something."
"Griffons are only in the north.", said Xod, the leanoid, "If we ever get to the dwarven kingdoms we might find one."
"That's a bummer.", Greg said.
"Bummer?", asked Zog, the welfen.
"It means it's a bad thing.", David said.
"Why is that a bad thing?"
"Because I really wanted to see one!", Greg said.
"Quiet.", said Andrea over the comms, "You forgot to turn off the radio."
"Sorry ma'am.", said Greg as he turned the radio off.
"Boys.", said Andrea in the lead JLTV, "Let's find these kids."
"I just hope we don't scare them.", said sergeant Sophia Adams, "I'd hate to make a bad first impression."
"These people live in the Yellow forest.", said Madia the lepian, "It's likely that they know about the Galdush battle and they consider you as an enemy. I wouldn't expect them to greet you with 'open arms' as you say it."
"I don't expect that either.", said Andrea, "But that's why we're here. We have to show them that they don't have to fear us. "
Ksee, the feelian, scoffed at that, "You should use your cannons and destroy them. It's what they deserve anyway."
"We won't be the monsters they say we are. There can be another way. Besides, it's the army and the emperor along with the other stuck-up nobility that's the problem. I'm not gonna kill farmers 'cause some bureaucrat attacked me."
Ksee thought about that. She saw what the Americans were capable of, and yet she couldn't understand why they don't just force the elves into submission. As they drove through the forest, they came across another path that led deeper into the woods. The tracker led them there and so they followed it. It was amazing how many things the human soldiers were capable of doing, unlike the elves who only knew how to kill in several different ways. The vehicles moved through the woods and reached a wooden wall about roughly twenty feet tall that looked like it saw action recently. They followed the tracker and found it on the ground in front of the gate.
'What happened here?', Andrea thought as she picked up the tracker.
"Hold it!", shouted someone from the wall. It was an elf and around him, about twenty more with bows and crossbows pointed at Andrea, "Who are you?"
Andrea calmly stepped forward, "I am lieutenant Andrea Williams of Rift group 2 from the Rift Expeditionary Corp!". This seemed to confuse them.
"Where are you from?", he asked.
"Galdush."
This made them tense up. They seemed angered. "You are the enemy! Why have you come?!". The rangers aimed their guns at them but Andrea waved for them to calm down.
"We are here to speak with your leader. We only want to make peaceful relations."
"You lie! The imperial army told us that they were heading to Galdush to face the enemy that has come to invade our lands! Thousands went and only dozens returned! That was your doing!"
"Those soldiers attacked us first. They sent their army through the rift and killed thousands of innocent people. We are here to peacefully solve any and all problems with the empire, but we need your help."
"Why should I trust you?"
In response, Andrea gave her gun to Greg, took off her helmet, and widened her arms, "I mean you no harm!". After some hesitation, one of the elves climbed down from the wall.
"Wait there!".
So the team waited. Some were skeptical about this but did nothing. David walked up to Andrea, "Are you sure about this lieutenant? You really think they're gonna even consider talking to us?"
"All I know is they could've shot us on sight. Do you want to kill hundreds of people today, sergeant?". At that moment, the gate opened and an elf followed by fifty more stepped out. The fifty made a defensive line of shields, which tensed up the rangers.
"No, but if this keeps up I might have to.", David said.
The leading elf stepped forward, "I am Tulgor Salvin, commander of the south militia."
Andrea stepped forward, "I am lieutenant Andrea Williams, commander of RG-2 of the Rift Expeditionary group."
"Why have you come, Lieutenant Andrea Williams?"
"As I stated before, we are here to make peaceful relations with the elven people. We mean you no harm."
"You misunderstood my question. Why are you here, specifically?"
"We are here because we want to prove to you that we are not monsters and savages that the empire claims us to be. We only desire peace."
"You keep saying that word. Peace. And yet you kill dozens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of soldiers."
"Those soldiers attacked us first. You can't blame us for defending ourselves."
"True. Still, how do I know you won't stab us in the back? I see the tribals behind you. You make them fight for you, so how do I know you will not enslave us as well."
"We are not slaves!", Xod shouted, making the fighters twitch, "We chose to fight alongside these humans because we are tired of the empire enslaving and killing us! We fight with them because they promised us freedom! With them, not for them!"
This made Tulgor raise an eyebrow, "Is that really true?"
"Yes.", Andrea said, "We want to end slavery and show you that there is a better way. So if you want to fight them, you'll have to fight us. And I assure you, it will be bloody.". The fighters and rangers tensed up, ready for a fight. But Tulgor laughed.
"Never before have I met a woman with such ferociousness and authority.", he said, "You have my respect. However, if you want my trust, you must offer me more than words."
"And what is it that you want?"
Tulgor thought for a while before answering, "There is a certain goblin problem we are facing."
"Goblin problem?"
"Last night, a horde of goblins attacked us and I lost many fighters. I sense that they will come back but I cannot search for them and leave the village undefended."
"Interesting. Do you have any leads? Or a hunch as to where they are?"
"They came from the forest but it stretches for many leagues. They did however come from an abandoned well."
This caught Andrea's attention, "Very well. But my soldiers will have to enter your village."
"I shall allow half of your men and two carriages."
"Alright.", she turned to the group, "Hall, Adams, bring half the group, one JLTV3, and one MRAP. Madia, Ksee, you're coming too, the rest stay here."
The group organized and entered the village. All the people stared at them and their vehicles, like something otherworldly, which they technically were. They came to the abandoned well and Andrea gave the order to prepare the RC drone and the flyer. The rangers removed the wood and stone from the well and started lowering the drone.
"What is that?", Tulgor asked.
"It's a device we can use to see what's inside the well without going in there.", Andrea answered, "And that one can fly."
"Amazing. How?"
"A long story. I might show you sometime."
The drone was lowered to the bottom and a private drove it. He had to turn on night vision to see. "It looks like a tunnel.", he said, "They probably dug their way in there. You got anything?"
"Nothing yet.", said the other private, "Hold on. I think I see a cave. Yeah, definitely. The entrance is above ground level."
"Goblins are night dwellers.", Tulgor said, "They sleep during the day and hate fire. A cave is where they prefer to live. But to think they would dig their way to our well. I knew they were on a tribal level but this."
"Don't compare us to those monsters, elf.", said Madia.
"Why? They also kidnap people and force-mate with them."
"We only do it when we need to!"
"Calm down!", shouted Andrea, "We had an agreement."
"Ma'am, come look at this.", said a private, and Andrea, Tulgor, and Sophia gathered, "I see dozens of them, sleeping, maybe more further out. And here. It's a boy."
"That is the boy they took last night.", Tulgor said, "He still lives."
"Someone has to go down there and get him.", Andrea said, "Ksee?"
"Why me?", Ksee asked.
"You are the most flexible one. Plus, that's an order."
Ksee groaned but accepted. The private pulled the drone back and tied the rope to her. She was lowered down and then crawled through the tunnel, ignoring the stench on the way. Finally, she came to the cave and looked around, her cat eyes allowing her to see clearly. She saw the boy, who was a little battered but breathing and alive. She slowly grabbed him under the arms but he woke up and started freaking out. This woke up a few goblins and Ksee grabbed the boy and ran back, quickly going back through the tunnel.
She tied the rope around him, "Pull him up!". As they pulled the boy up she could see the goblins approaching, "They're coming!"
"Take this!", Andrea shouted, throwing a frag grenade at her.
"What is it?", Ksee asked.
"Just pull the ring, throw it, and then climb!"
Ksee did just that. After she pulled the pin she threw it at the approaching goblins who grabbed it out of curiosity. A curiosity that would have them killed as the grenade exploded, killing several goblins and blocking the path to Ksee. After Ksee and the boy climbed out, the soldiers rejoiced.
"Please don't make me do that again.", Ksee said.
Andrea chuckled, "No promises."
Ksee saw the boy run to his mother and friends, who cried tears of joy. This made her smile. Tulgor walked over to her and slightly bowed, "Thank you for saving one of my own."
"Don't mention it.", Ksee said, "It was a piece of cake."
Tulgor was confused by that statement, "Cake? There is no cake here."
Ksee laughed a little, "Don't worry about it. The humans taught me, I was a little confused myself."
Greg walked over as he put away his radio, "Ok, it's done. I gave the location to command, they're sending a platoon with flamethrowers to deal with the cave."
"How-", Tulgor began to ask.
"Another device.", Greg said, "We have a lot of them."
Tulgor chuckled, "I see. Thank you, humans. I suppose we can trust you after all. Come, let me introduce you to the elder."
End of chapter 7
​
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Background

My husband and I have been traveling to Japan several times a year for more than a decade. We’re both into the 20-somethings for number of trips we’ve taken, so our trips these days tend to be relaxed and a little out of the way. We were supposed to do this Wakayama area trip in 2020, but that obviously didn’t happen. My husband speaks, reads, and writes Japanese at an intermediate level, so we don’t have problems with language on our trips. I read katakana, some kanji, and speak basic words and phrases.

Trip Introduction

This Wakayama City/Shingu/Ise adventure was part of a larger 19-day trip. We flew into Tokyo Narita and immediately took the shinkansen to Osaka. We spent 4-5 days in Osaka doing some low-key stuff like errands (for instance, renewing our TTP cards) and drinking coffee (Glitch, Mel, Millpour, Takamura, Lilo). After that, we went to Koyasan for a few days, staying at Ichijoin, where we have stayed several times in the past. We even got engaged there in 2019!

Transportation

For the portion of the trip in this report, we utilized the Ise-Kumano-Wakayama Pass, a 5-day tourist pass. See here for details, although I will say that even buying the pass online cost ¥12,220, so that page’s pricing isn’t quite up to date. We ended up getting about ¥21,130 worth of train and bus travel out of it, so it was well worth it.
Our breakdown of rides/costs looked something like this:

• Wakayama -> Shingu (Kuroshio Limited Express): ¥6450
• Shingu -> Oyunohara/Hongu (bus): ¥1560
• Oyunohara/Hongu -> Shingu (bus): ¥1560
• Shingu -> Nachi (Kuroshio Limited Express and bus): ¥2260
• Nachi -> Shingu (Kuroshio Limited Express and bus): ¥2260
• Shingu -> Iseshi (Nanki Limited Express/Rapid Mie): ¥5230
• Downtown Ise -> Futamiokitama Park (limited express train): ¥740
• Futamiokitama Park -> Downtown Ise (local train): ¥210
• Downtown Ise -> Ise Jingu: ¥390
• Ise Jingu -> Downtown Ise: ¥470

The pass itself is a little weird, though. It’s not linked from any of the main JR pages, and if you reserve it online, you cannot use a machine to pick it up (you must go to a manned window). We had to ask around Osaka Station to figure out where to go, and none of the station staff we talked to knew what this pass was. We didn’t really have trouble using it once we got it, although a couple of bus drivers seemed a tiny bit surprised to see it. Overall, a really good value. Do note that you can only reserve seats up to four times with this particular pass, which was perfect for us, since we knew ahead of time that we’d likely want to take four limited express trains.

Wakayama City

Hotel: Candeo Hotel Nankai Wakayama at Wakayamashi Station. This was actually an amazing hotel with new, clean rooms, a great view, and a rooftop public bath, located right at Wakayamashi Station. I’ve never stayed at a Candeo before, but I’ll definitely keep an eye out for them in the future, as this was pretty impressive in the realm of mid-range to upper-range business hotels. We paid ¥14,937/night (about $110 USD), which was what we’d consider a great value.
March 18: Arrived in Wakayama City from Koyasan (via the Nankai-Koya Line and Wakayama Line). Our luggage had already been forwarded from Osaka, so we only had small backpacks. We stuck our things in a locker and hopped on the Wakayama Dentetsu (the line “run by cats”) and visited a few of the stations to see the cats and get some goshuin. Had amazing late afternoon pizza for lunch at Alla Luce. Did a sake tasting at Heiwa Saketen and had soba for dinner at Shinanoji Kino after visiting our hotel’s baths and relaxing for the afternoon.
March 19: Our room attendant at Koyasan (who always remembers us!) recommended we visit Kada while in Wakayama City, so we did that early in the morning. We went to the shrine there, walked by the seaside, ate amazing grilled shellfish. We walked around Wakayama City in the afternoon, did laundry, and had a low-key dinner at the Pronto at Wakayamashi Station (which turns into a wine and scotch bar at night).

Shingu

Hotel: Hotel New Palace in Shingu. There weren’t a lot of options in Shingu for “real” hotels (not hostels or guesthouses), so this one was perfectly serviceable. It’s a decent walk from the station (probably a solid 7-10 minutes), and it definitely lacks any sort of personal touches or charm, but it was fine for a few nights. We paid ¥12,100/night (about $90 USD), which I’d say was high for the level of the room and service.
March 20: This was the first day our Ise-Kumano-Wakayama Pass was active. The day before, we used our pass to get tickets for the Kuroshio Limited Express to Shingu, where we were staying for the next few days. We arrived in Shingu in the early afternoon and visited the Shingu Castle Ruins (really cute park with amazing views), Kumano Hayatasha Taisha, and Kamikura Shrine (which had way too many stairs!). Dinner was udon and tempura at Masaya near the hotel, which definitely felt like we were eating in someone’s living room. No English menu, and the lady taking our order also spoke no English. Honestly, “no English” was a very common theme of this part of our trip.
March 21: We visited Oyunohara Torii Gate and Kumano Hongu Taisha, which were both pretty incredible sights to behold. The buses run infrequently in that area, so with so much time, we took a quick ten minute taxi ride over to Yunomine Onsen where we boiled eggs in the water in the town center and had lunch. We accidentally ended up walking part of the Kumano Kodo to get back to Hongu, where we enjoyed some wagashi and tea at Yata-an before catching a bus back to Shingu.
March 22: We visited Nachi Falls and Kumano Nachi Taisha, completing our visits to the three Kumano taishas. We took an early Kuroshio Limited Express down to Kii-Katsuura (making use of that pass!) and then a bus to Nachi. The whole area was beautiful, although it once again had so many steps. I was pretty sick of hiking and steps at this point. Regardless, we got goshuin, saw the falls, drank the waterfall water, and my husband picked up a bunch of omamori for his coworkers. We were back in Shingu by mid-afternoon, where we had great sushi at Jofuku near Shingu Station. The afternoon was relaxing in our hotel’s public bath before okonomiyaki at Go Mi Hiro nearby. The place was super popular, and I’m glad my husband speaks Japanese, because the menu was entirely in Japanese and waitress asked us to write down our orders and hand them to her. Then we had an early night at the hotel to watch the women’s short program of the World Figure Skating Championships, which were taking place in Saitama (yay, I was in the same time zone as a major competition for once!).

Ise

Hotel: Sanco Inn Iseshi at Iseshi Station. This was another pretty bare-bones business hotel, although perfectly serviceable. It was right near the train station, which is a huge must-have for us in most cases. It also had laundry machines, which I wasn’t expecting, but that was pretty welcome since we were caught in the rain one of the days. It cost ¥17,100/night (about $128 USD), which was pretty high all things considered, but I really liked the location.
March 23: We grabbed some breakfast at the konbini and hopped on a very early train to Ise (Nanki Limited Express to Rapid Mie). It was pouring rain, but we still decided to head to Futamiokitama-jinja and Meoto Iwa (Wedded Rocks). It was too rainy to do much, so we headed back to the our hotel’s general area to get some castella and coffee at Terrace Cafe while we waited for check-in. After that, we relaxed for the early evening at the hotel’s public bath, did some laundry, and then went to get amazing pasta bolognese nearby at Bigoli. They literally have one thing on the menu, and that’s it. After, we returned to the hotel to watch the men’s short program for figure skating.
March 24: We visited Ise Grand Shine—so important that it is merely known as “Jingu”. That’s it. It’s the jingu. We visited the main shrine and the outer gate, ate a bunch of street food, and walked a lot. This was the last day of our Ise-Kumano-Wakayama Pass though, so we took some buses around to make use of it. While I’d say that Ise Jingu was interesting for the religious and historical aspects, it’s also one of the plainest shrines I’ve ever been to. It also has one of the plainest goshuin I’ve ever seen. I guess when you’re the most sacred shrine, you don’t need anything fancy! The streets leading up to it are packed full of food and shops, though, and it was super crowded. In the afternoon, we headed to Camino Coffee for awesome espresso, and at night, we went to Takumi to eat Matsusaka beef—one of the big, famous, ridiculously good beef producing regions alongside Kobe and Omi. Then we went back to the hotel on the early side to watch Kaori Sakamoto take the women’s world title in figure skating.
March 25: We traveled back to Osaka via the Kintetsu Limited Express for the final days of our trip, which we spent in Osaka, Arima Onsen, and Nagoya before returning to Tokyo for our flight home.

Mask Usage

We arrived before the change in official recommendation, but even after that, mask usage was like 95%+ both inside and outside for much of our trip. The exception to this was in Shingu, Hongu, and the Nachi Falls area. For the four days we were in that region, mask usage was much, much lower. I would say it sometimes dropped as low as 30% or 40% outside, and even inside, it was sometimes as low as 50%. Shopkeepers and restaurant staff also often didn’t wear masks, and no one seemed to care much either way because nothing was overly crowded. It was also reasonably warm and sunny for much of that time, which may have contributed to people dropping their masks.
We wore masks in accordance with local norms, so masks on most of the time in cities, but we eschewed them a lot of the time in the Shingu area.

Lessons from Wakayama

• It takes a lot longer to get around in this area. Everything is more infrequent—buses, trains, etc. You definitely need to plan more. We were usually deciding the day before when we’d roughly want to arrive at and leave a place, and we booked train tickets if needed. When we were out on our day trips, we’d routinely check to see when the next buses/trains were so that we wouldn’t miss things.
• Barely anything is in English. Even a lot of menus at places you might expect (like the Pronto at Wakayamashi Station) didn’t have English. Almost no one offered an English menu to us. Bus schedules and train schedules were also often not in English. I was lucky enough to be with someone who had no trouble getting things done in Japanese, but I could see how it would be intimidating for someone unfamiliar with the language.

Overall Random Trip Stats

• Goshuin received: 24
• Hotels/ryokan stayed at: 7
• Number of times luggage was forwarded: 2
• Hours of figure skating competition watched: ~10
• Omamori purchased: 15
• Cheesecakes eaten: 2 (both from Rikuro, which you’re missing out on if you haven’t been)

Edit: My husband insisted I mention this adorable and amazing Yatagarasu daruma we got in Hongu. It was really common to see them for sale there, but they weren't anywhere else (not even Nachi).

The silver rounds Everything else
Shipping starts at 5/10. Insurance is up the the buyer and would be available through pirate ship's private insurance provider. Buyer pays. Prefer zelle, cashapp, google pay, can take venmo or PPFF for small deals only. Thanks for understanding.
OK, I have been trying not to talk too much about it but the reality is that i am battling stage 4 cancer and it's not great. I need to sell the rest of the stuff in my collection because expenses add up. Please keep in mind I can't work and that my rent and monthly bills are eating away any money that i have recieved so far. Thanks for reading.
All of the rounds listed under "silver rounds" are available now for $30 ea WITH A 5 ROUND MINIMUM purchase. So they're 5 for 155 first class or 160 priority box.
** There are 5 of the norfed (all the same) and 3 of the bart simpson (also same design)
** Ethopia "Haile Selassie I" 5 dollar proofs are .999 silver but are only .8 ozt - same price as the full ounce coins. There are 10 of them.
** Bottlenose Dolphin coin is $45 because it's 1.5 ozt
2011 ASE Proof Box and COA included : 60 PENDING
White Horse of hanover BU 2 oz - 70 2001 Recovery ASE PCGS BU - 175 2014 Year of the Horse 1 oz high relief proof Box and COA included 65 PAMP Santa - 55 PAMP Galapagos Whale Shark - 75 Queens Beast 1 oz Proof Box ad COA included - 250 ea (i do have 2 of this) 10 oz proof Queens Beast Falcon PF69 - 950 1886 MS63 - 60 1902-O ms63 - 60 PENDING 1884-O ms63 - 60 PENDING
1879-S ms64 toned around the obverse - 125 obo 1924 peace ms64 - 75 1923 peace ms64 toned - 75 1922 ms63 peace milky - 45 1918-s Half dollar vf 25 - 65 1942 ms64 half dollar nice toning - 60 1976-s Eisenhower silver ms66 - 32 2018 black core panda ms69 er - 35 2021 W tailored specimen maple leaf (in black bag) - $150 2017 "Magnificent Seven" Libertad proof set (NO COA) - 850 check comps on this
Thanks for looking!!

Looking to purchase a car or small SUV for 10-12k or under in Ontario. Have looked through a lot of carolla, civic, camry but the price on these vehicles seems to be extremely inflated. Selling for only half of retail with 200,000km on them 10 years after purchase.
Need some advice as I’d like to purchase something this week.

Hello Everyone!
My name is Vinícius, I'm from Brazil and this is my request: Diablo 4
​
Why Diablo 4?
So, my story with the Diablo franchise comes a long way.
My first experience with the game was with Diablo 1 on my PS1, I was amazed from the very beginning with the style it had. I loved the dark, gothic horror visuals and sounds, both soundtrack and ambient, I was very young so I was even a little scared by it, which I think just made me even more interested in playing. Being young also made things a little more difficult, as I did not have the knowledge and experiences with games that I have nowadays, so the game was very challenging for me, not only from the gameplay perspective, but also the language, because my English was much worse than it is now. Even though I loved the game I was never able to beat it because of this difficulties that I had at that time, but I always carried many great memories of it anyway.
Some years after that, a friend of mine showed me Diablo 2 on his PC, and it had all the things I loved about Diablo 1, but raised to a whole new level. The grim vibes, the disturbing enemies and places, the new classes, everything was exactly what I wanted it to be. I played the hell(pun intended) out of this game, almost always as a Necromancer cause I loved having my skeleton gang helping me kill those bastards. 😈 To this day, every 2 years or so I get the Diablo 2 calling on my brain and play it a little again, and the temptation got even higher now with the Diablo 2 Resurrected haha!
Now we get to Diablo 3, a game that in my opinion has nothing to do with the first two, and that I was so disappointed about that I had to skip it. The biggest reason I play Diablo games is for the art and the hopeless feeling they have, and Diablo 3 had nothing of it, it was too colorful and too World of Warcrafty, which some people may like but it's not for me.
All these years since Diablo 3 came out I have been craving for a comeback to the old style, and that's what Diablo 4 is doing. It brings me so much nostalgia to just watch the gameplay videos with that really dark tone and that sweet potion drinking sound that is still the same as the old days. I have been so bored of most games nowadays, I think I need this nostalgia trip to sink 100s of hours in with some friends that also miss the old Diablo.
​
Why can't I buy it?
Diablo 4 is an expensive game, I live in a small town in Brazil, a country in which the game costs R$ 350(our currency is called Real), and the minimum wage is R$ 1.212, so it costs 28.88% of the minimum wage, it's absurd.
I am a photographer who is still trying to make a living of it, I had many jobs before but some fired me and some I just could not keep up because they had a huge tow on my mental state. From my experience the only job that could maintain me without destroying my mental is photography, I just love it, and I took too long to realise that I could do something important with it. Art is something that followed me through my whole life, that is probably the reason I love the Diablo artistic aspects so much. I love movies, photography and music, I even have a band with some friends.
But the point is that standard AAA game prices here went from R$250 to R$ 350 really fast on the last few years, and it's impossible to keep up with it. I am struggling at the moment to acomplish my objectives professionaly, and I believe that Diablo 4 can be used as an escape from the problems when I need it, and maybe it can end up helping me achieve my goals because it would make me so happy.
​
I think I don't have anymore to say, so I just hope someone reads this poorly written but full of sincerity text. 😁
Thank you SO much for giving me the opportunity to ask for something like this, you have no idea how much this means to me and how surprised I am that we have some people here with that kind of generosity!
​
Diablo 4
My BattleNet account: Vinico #11689

basically i’ve run out of ideas of what else there is for me to do yet I still feel like other ppl (especially men) do not see me as even a little bit pretty just not the ugliest girl in the room so here’s a list of things i’ve done + a brief description of me
I am 160cm 49kg inverted triangle body half white half asian but really look more asian than mixed (maybe thats why nobody finds me very pretty since I live in a predominantly white area) double eyelids neotenous features positive canthal tilt long/oval face shape freckles kinda rounded nose not very defined tip full but not huge lips hair small boobs and ass medium length dark brown hair

• getting my brows done
• always having my nails done -skin care (need to get better on that)
• laser hair removal on legs armpits and above upper lip (mustache?)
• accessorizing
• cutting my hair (soft layers)
• doing both hair and face mask at least once a week
• trying to be more healthy
• learning how to do my ever e day makeup + wearing it every day
• antidepressants
• new pair of glasses
• always exfoliating + moisturizing body

So, for some background, we have been together for nearly 3 years now. I was living alone in my apartment at the time we got together, but he moved in fairly quickly in the beginning. There have been financial issues due to covid, so we ended up losing the apartment to move back into his family's home.
Now, for a small portion of time I was not working, and he took up some of the responsibilities. But as our relationship has gone on, I've realized he expects things from me that he would flat out refuse to do for me himself. He, during my period of unemployment (roughly 5 months, 2 months into which he also became unemployed) would not help me pay my car insurance, my electricity, my phone, car payment, or my rent. It built up and we lost the apartment. I admit I am leaving out some context, and yes part of these losses is my own fault for not being financially literate enough to save money for these types of scenarios. They are not his responsibility to bear necessarily, but that's where some of the resentment between us has come from. Once I began working again, I have been paying for every single thing. All the food. Our recreational activities. the insurance on three vehicles. The payments on one. I even give him money to go get beer and gas to hang out with his friends. for almost 2 years now. I pay for his drinks and food when he comes into my work. I have worked full time and went back to school for a bachelors online. I bought him a motorcycle. I pour my heart and soul into this. he even uses language like "we" when hes telling ME i need to pay the car payment. but "we" is nowhere to be found when I have a surprise bill or emergency. (I own my vehicle so no payments for me) I know I have listed out the things that involve money, but that is not why I am worried about our relationship.
He treats me, like he cannot stand me. I can be loud, I like video games and anime, and I get a little heated about internet drama. I am very much a homebody. I used to be extremely social, but since I've gone back to school and gained 30 pounds I really only exchange memes with friends and have one single girl friend that I see probably 4 times a year. I try to have conversations with him, but he acts like he can't stand the sound of my voice. He will roll his eyes or ignore me while he scrolls on his phone. Sometimes, he will even shut me down, not by saying anything directly but through tone of voice, like when you say "i know" to stop somebody from explaining. all the time. It's become so distressing for me that I've just decided it's best not to engage. However, when I do this, he is suddenly interested in how I am feeling, asking if something is wrong. I have several times tried to communicate that he makes me feel as if he views me as annoying or intellectually inferior, which bothers me immensely as I have been attending school for a psychology degree. So the idea that i cannot communicate properly really sticks with me. The problem is, when I converse with others outside of my home (I am a bartender) people seem readily engaged in conversations about anything and everything. I just don't understand what I can do to reconnect with my boyfriend. even when he is happily describing his day or a moto ride he went on, as soon as I speak, he shuts the conversation down. and gets back on his phone. It HURTS girl. I have tried numerous times to converse about his interests. Make the same jokes he does to me back to him. I want him to laugh and smile at me. But he really just seems to glare. I have tried to break it off with him a couple of times, but each time he profusely admits an undying love for me and begs me not to go. I stay because I love him, and I have never had anyone who understood my traumatic childhood like he does (he had one as well). But I just do not feel emotionally or intellectually stimulated. To me, at this point in my life, Intimacy is something more than just intercourse.
As for my own problems, I have changed immensely since we met. I have taken up weightlifting, went back to college, etc. I am trying to lose weight and slim down, but I am worried that even if I improve my appearance, that he still will not respect my mind (I am not obese, just a little muffin). Today, before I wrote this, we had a small disagreement because he described somebody who was displaying repetitive movement as psychosis, to which I responded that it didn't sound like psychosis. His response was "you have no idea what you're talking about." I am literally 2 years into an associate degree on track for a four-year degree in psychology. The majority of my electives have been 200 psychology, sociology, and personality courses. I have worked late into the evening to get up at 6 am for schoolwork for months on end. I guess the point of this mini rant is to flesh out my feeling but also get advice. At one point we had talked about children and buying a house. Now when I try to bring it up, he acts like there's no point in talking about it, because it won't happen now. I want to travel to Europe, he shrugs it off as an unattainable goal. I want to vacation at the beach, he doesn't want to drive. He recently got a job last week, and since he started has been acting especially superior to me. The other day he told me I should keep track of my money because he wasn't going to "pay for a bunch of random stuff", meaning food and gas for me. I was taken aback and questioned why he would make a comment like that. I could not believe after years of me selflessly spending money so he could live comfortably at home (and ride motorcycles and go out a lot, leaving me at home much of last summer) that he would say something like that to me. It made me realize that the relationship as it is, is not the relationship I want in 10 years, five years, heck even next year. I realized that he invests a bare minimum effort but is overtly upset when he does not receive top of the line treatment. I will share a bit and say that I assume this is because of his childhood, his mom is not a great lady. But I digress, I don't think that is an excuse to treat the people who spoil you poorly.
My question for reddit is, Is there anything to stop this ship from sinking? Is there a perspective I maybe just can't see from my position? Should we go to couples therapy?
At the end of the day, I am dating for marriage. I don't want children right now; I want to party and travel and work for the rest of my twenties. But this time living together has made me feel trapped in a relationship where I am simultaneously the problem and the person trying to fix the problem and I'm incredibly exhausted. How can this be love?
(P.s: I am not in a position to move out immediately. I personally have a dog and cat here, and my car in its current state cannot be registered so I can't just up and leave. I have invested a ton into this relationship, to the point where I do not have savings.)
(p.p.s: sorry this post is a garbled cluster mess of thought. It is the first time I have been able to describe the nature of our relationship as I usually keep things like this to myself.)

My(m29) girlfriend (f28) is a nurse. She has rotative shifts. That means one week she has the morning shift, the next the afternoon shift and then the night shift. As the morning shift comes straight after the night shift, she usually has trouble waking up on time to get to work during most of those days she needs to get up early.
We live together in a rather small apartment, she has a 30 minutes drive to get to work from home. I work every weekday from 9 to 5.
She has to be in the hospital by 6AM, so she usually wakes up at around 4:30 or 5 to be able to have breakfast before leaving. She likes to have a big breakfast as she doesn't often get to eat anything else until around 2PM when her shifts are over (this depends on the day, sometimes she has free time and other times she doesn't). Picture some coffee, orange juice, bacon, eggs, pancakes (or waffles) and maybe something else like another fruit, cereal or something else. She leaves a big mess every morning with different kitchen utensils dirty, she doesn't get to clean them up because she's running late.
We moved in together into her apartment when the pandemic started. Back then I didn't had to work (neither go to the office or work from home) for a while, but she had to continue working obviously. So I cleaned up after her when she left. Then I started working from home but the workload was much less then usual, so as I had lots of free time before she got home I cleaned up too.
However, now I have to go back to work at the office (have been doing so since the lockdown was lifted). I now wake up around 7 when she has already left. I don't like to eat a lot early in the morning so I usually just have coffee for breakfast, maybe a cookie or some pancakes if my gf left any, but nothing else. I don't clean my girlfriend's breakfast mess anymore, I just clean my cup and plate if I even use any. We don't have a dishwasher.
So my girlfriend complained about me not cleaning after her a while ago, like half a year ago or so. She told me it's very discouraging to come home and see every pan dirty because I didn't clean them up when I could easily do it. At the time, I told her that I had to go to work too, so now it's not fair that she just doesn't clean after herself.
Ever since, this has been an ongoing conflict between us. This week we had an argument about this again. I came home early because of some accident that happened in my office building. Around 1PM. Then my girlfriend got home and she complained about the dishes still being dirty when I was home. I told her that my cup (I only had coffee that day) was clean and that all of the dirty things were hers. She got very angry and claimed I never help around, which is false. I'm tired of always arguing about the same thing over and over again. Am I really wrong here?

Hello everybody! I jist received my WK40 a couple of days ago, and because I couldnt really find a lot of reviews, I thought I write one to help people decide. Here it is:
Packaging and box content: I wouldnt write about the packaging, but Wurkkos did something nice. Besides the usual charging cable + O-ring combination, they include a 20350 short tube and a diffuser for the light. Its neat, and the diffuser is really useful for this light. It can also be ordered with a 21700 cell, which the light uses with the "normal" tube, but you have to buy the 20350 cell separately, if you want to use the short tube. There is no lanyard, and no hole for it on the light.
The light itself is about a centimeter longer than the TS25, and is a bit wider. It has a quad TIR optic. There is a cover lens in front of the optic, but it doesnt seem to have anti reflective coating. The light has a magnetic ring to control brightness, and a tailswitch for operation and modes. I think the tail switch is mechanical, and in use resembles the reverse clicky switches Convoy uses. It sometimes can act wonky, but otherwise feels great, and the light can tailstand, which is also great.
Specifications: According to specs, there are 4 emitters in the light, (SST-20 6000-6500K, and an SST green, blue and deep red. The white emitter seems to be closer to 6000K, or lower, its pretty neutral, with some green tint. I will talk about the colored ones later. The USB-C charging port is covered by a rubber flap, similar to the TS25. There is a charging and voltage indicator led next to it, which is a nice touch and I quite like it. According it the website, it doesnt have powerbank capabilities, and doesnt have a lockout mode.
The light is buck driven, and it shows. Combined with the maximum of 2 emitter running at the same time, it heats up quite slowly on turbo. The ATR seems quite sensitive tho, and seems to reduce output before the light could get hot. All of my other light get much hotter before stepdown. There are only 4 brightness modes (low, medium, high, turbo), and no moonlight or eco mode.
Modes: the WK40 has 3 mode groups.
First is the white mode, where you can only access white and strobe. Quite redundant IMO, but useful if you want to loan the light to somebody, or just use it as a tool without accidental color explosions.
Second is the color mode (basically the main mode), where you can cycle trought the 7 colours. (White, blue, red, green, pink, orange, cyan in this order). Yes, the light has 3 extra colours which doesnt mentioned even on the website. It would be nice if there were a shortcut in all of the modes that would lead to this modes white state.
Third is blinkies. The colourful gradient mode is nice, can be paused, but lacks mode memory. The strobes are strange. The "police strobe" contains green, not just blue and red (though I can think a couple reasons for that), the quick blink incorporates white for some reason, the slow blink is only the 3 colored emitters.
Colors: So the light can produce 6 colors.
Blue: a nice, deep blue light of 450nm I think. It show better in reality than seen on camera.
Red: deep red of 660nm. Its really deep and really red. (Compared to this, my LT1S's red mode feels a bit orange.) Pretty nice, and could be useful. For some reason it seems to be floodier than the others.
Green: around 530nm. Nice, deep and vivid green light.
Pink: Its a really intense pink, giving the "color out of space" impression. The color is not uniform, it has a more blueish purplish center, and a more pinkish reddish halo.
Orange: Opposite to the other colors, the orange is not that intensive, and pretty easy on the eyes. It resembles a low cct incandescent somewhat. The color is not unifrom, having a more greenish yellowish center and a more orangeish reddish halo.
Cyan: its more of a light blue, quite intensive, and opposed to the other combined colors, is uniform.
When using the white, red, blue or green emitters alone, there is a small ring artifact in the outside of the beam due to the TIR.
Conclusions: Positives: In my opinion, its a nice light. Buck driver, mechanical tailswitch, a LOT of color options. The colors are really intense and deep. There is basically a muggle mode in it, and its really easy to use. The charging indicator looks neat. It doesnt really get too hot.
Negatives: the tailswitch can be wonky and sometimes misinterpret half switches. I personally dont like the rubber cover of the charging port, I think it could wear out quicker than it should. (On my TS25 it started to wear, and thats a pretty new light of mine). The beams can get artifacts, and the white emitter is noticeably greenish, mainly on lower levels.
All in all its a quite unique light with a nice regulation, though Im not that sure about its universal usefullness, but great as a portable party equipment, if you need colored light for some reason, or you just like the idea of a useable multicolor light, like me. Can be used as a normal flashlight aswell, but the turbo on the white is only a 1000 lumens, and lacks moonlight.

NEW COVID CASES STATEWIDE FOR MARCH 30, 2023 Case numbers are from the previous day unless indicated otherwise
Total new cases reported today: 361 (was 465 yesterday, -22.37%) 7-day average of new cases: 384.857 (was 398.142 yesterday, -3.34%) Cases per 100,000 Population: 4.48 (was 4.635 yesterday, -3.34%)
CURRENT POSITIVITY RATE REPORT Last State 7-Day Positivity Rate (PCR tests only): 5.9% Update is sporadic
VIRGINIA HOSPITAL REPORT AS OF MARCH 30, 2023
Confirmed COVID Hospitalizations: 285 patients (was 291 yesterday, -2.06%) ICU Hospitalizations: 27 patients (was 30 yesterday, -10.0%) Currently on Ventilator Support: 11 patients (was 13 yesterday, -15.38%) Note: Current Vent numbers are no longer supposed to be reported if it is below 11 patients
Seven day patient moving average in Virginia: 269.43 (was 265.14 yesterday, +1.62%)
Hospitalized COVID-19 patients discharged: 41 patients (was 17 yesterday)
INTERPRETATION: Cases One day of good reports all around. New cases dropped a huge 22% from yesterday's figure (over 100 less new cases today). The 7-day case average stopped it's climb and dropped over three percent.
Normally tomorrow I would expect a larger case figure, but it's always a coin toss.
For the moment (meaning today), the upwards case trend has been dealt a huge hit. It has backed off from crossing 400 average cases per day, back down to 385 or so, giving us some breathing room.
The question is will this hold a trend for a while, or restart an uphill climb? In any event, the drop today was so massive it lowered our case average back to where it was on March 17th, almost two weeks ago.
Hospitals Finally a (small) decrease in all numbers (except the 7-day average). The 7-day average rose a percent and a half as it absorbs the recent patient increases.
We had a larger discharge (finally) of 41 patients, with 35 new patients admitted. So we managed to stay under 300 patients. I've uploaded a zoomed in graph to show what has happened in the past week or so, and the small drop today.
ICUs dropped three and vents fell by two. Vents are finally getting low at 11 in use.
ICU bed patient utilization fell from 10.30% to 9.47%. Vent utilization dropped from 4.46% to 3.85%.
At least a pause for a day in increases all around.
Side Notes Long COVID is now a recognized disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504.
NOAA has issued a statement calling for 30 mph wind gusts tomorrow and 50 mph gusts much of Saturday in much of the state. If I don't appear tomorrow at any time, my power could be out. I know I've mentioned this a lot, but lots of trees around here and main electrical on poles built in the 1940s-1950s can leave power unreliable during wind storms.
If I'm not in any power outage, the old UVA report (now the VDH OEP Weekly Situation Update) should be issued sometime by 5 p.m. Usually it hits by 2 p.m., but VDH seems to be getting later and later with things. Even VHHA was running late this morning.
EXPLANATION OF FIGURES ABOVE
Total new cases reported today: New COVID cases reported by VDH today.
7-day average of new cases: movement of case curve over the last 7-days
Cases per 100,000 population 7-day average (if known): within 100,000 people, how many were positive for COVID on a rolling 7-day cycle.
State 7-Day Positivity Rate (if included): The last state average percentage of PCR coronavirus tests performed that are positive. The lower the better.
Confirmed Covid Hospitalizations: The total number of confirmed COVID-19 people in hospital who have positive results.
ICU Hospitalizations: Patients in a COVID-19 ICU bed.
Currently on Ventilator Support: Confirmed COVID-19 patients currently on ventilator support. These would be the most severe COVID cases in hospital.
Seven day patient moving average in Virginia: movement of patients in hospital curve over last 7-days
Hospitalized COVID-19 patients discharged: number of patients released since last report
NOTE: All hospital figures are as of 9 am on the date listed. Posting time can vary.
Data from VHHA, VDH, NYT

Demographic information: 27M , 6"3, 160lbs, Caucasian, question on replacing dressing, lacerations on left pinky, only medication if 500mg Cephalexin 4x per day, non-smoker, non-drinker, non-drug user, no previous medical issues.
I recently suffered some pretty bad lacerations on my pinky finger caused by a fan blade. One of said lacerations sliced deeply into my finger and cut my nail in half diagonally. During primary treatment, the broken part of my nail was separated from the flesh, but left in place to act as a sort of scaffold for the new nail to grow, and my lacerations were stitched up and bandaged. I have a follow-up appointment scheduled which is 9 days after the date of injury and primary treatment, and I am not sure if I should change the dressing before my appointment. There has been a small amount of blood spotting through the bandage, and while my finger feels like it is healing well (it has currently only been 3 days), I feel unsure if I should change the dressing and risk displacing my dethatched nail, or if I should go the whole 9 days with the same blood spotted bandage. I am also currently taking 500mg of Cephalexin (antibiotic) 4 times per day. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Since there's a deluge of posts about the things after 1.2, lets explain the math and game system that creates art academy spam.
Factor 1 : Capitalists acting like capitalists
In the early patches of Victoria 3, buildings used to spend 80% of their margin on wages. Essentially, building owners would raise everyone's wages for no reason, very un-capitalist. In one of the 1.1x patches, buildings now only raise wages if they can not fill jobs, and now the majority of a building's margin goes to shares, which are owned by a small number of Capitalists/Aristocrats. So now, when you look at a building, what you have is a few thousand laborers at 10ish SOL, and a few hundred Capitalists with 50+.
Factor 2 : Pop demand curve
This is the pop demand curve as defined in the game files. As a pop's wealth goes up, what it buys and how much of it changes. The brown line in that graph is art, note how demand for art spikes after wealth 50. Eventually it grows to the second largest demand category after Luxury goods (luxury clothes/furniture, Porcelain, Radio). In 1.1, the generosity of Capitalists meant most of them sat around 40ish SOL and never went into the art spike. In 1.2 properly greedy capitalists can easily get their SOL into the 60's and start demanding a ton of art.
Factor 3 : Art Academies
Art Academies are special among vic 3 buildings. They hire only 1000 people base, their margins are huge, and their throughput is very low. The most basic production method only produces 1 art with a value of 250, but they only take 2.5 paper of inputs with a value of 75, giving a fantastic margin. The best PM produces 750 value for 410 input. These are great margins for an urban building, which means that with enough other buildings creating a rich capitalist buyer base, Arts Academies are very profitable and the AI builds off of that.
However, arts acadmies are no cheaper than other urban buildings, and that's where the problems start. Other buildings are a lot more productive. The tooling workshop shown above uses 1600 inputs to create 3200 outputs per building. The Margin isn't as good as same tech Art Academies, but it creates a value added of 1600 vs 175. The AI spamming art academies is actively slowing down your industrialization by spending valuable construction and construction materials on unproductive art academies. This is made worse by
Factor 4 : PDX cut the throughput of art academies in half
Patch 1.2 nerfed the PMs for art academies, cutting all inputs and outputs by half. There was honestly no reason for this change.
TL:DR - 1.2 made capitalists rich, rich pops like art, art production building suck, Auto investment building AI suck.