Did circle k buy arizona tea

Bizarre States Podcast

2015.06.22 18:16 ghostfacekillur Bizarre States Podcast

Come and discuss recent episodes of Bizarre States podcast hosted by Jessica Chobot and Andrew Bowser. If you have a terrifying tale, email it to [email protected], and don’t forget to keep up with the latest releases and paranormal activity from Bizarre States on Facebook and Twitter. Please note i'm not afflicted with Nerdist or Bizarre States. I know it would be cooler if I was.
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2023.03.29 07:57 flyingwithhardwings nMum Pushing Boundaries with Wedding Planning

Background: 29F, SG, Chinese. Partner is originally South Asian descent but is now a citizen. We have known each other for almost three years.
LONG POST WARNING. STRAP IN AND WITNESS THE DRAMA. BUCKLE IN FOR A RANT/VENT
My mother is quite the character - she nitpicks and is fixated on her 'cantonese heritage' despite my father being hokkien. When my fiance first visited wearing a red t shirt for Chinese New Year, she focussed on the informal nature of the clothes; when he brought a pricey bottle of wine to the gathering as a gift and drank it together with my family over the meal, she noted this as 'alcoholism'. The cherry on the cake was when my fiance gave my family a Christmas gift set of treats, she nattered about the absence of a handwritten card attached to the gift box.
I got engaged one year ago, and in that moment, the saddest thing that struck me was that I was more worried about him getting approval from my parents first than fully enjoying the moment.
Since then, at my request, he did host a dinner at his apartment with my parents and younger sister in tow, to 'ask for my hand'. My parents agreed, with my father asking him to co-buy another property in my name, and my mother wanting the usual 10 tables for the chinese banquet, tea ceremony etc. Unfortunately, in that moment, she said, "I always thought my daughter would marry an ang moh (Singlish for caucasian man)". To alleviate the tension, my fiance laughed it off by making fun of his own skin colour, but that statement weighed on him and he wanted an apology. My mother not only refused to apologise, she and my father sought to gaslight ("No, I'm not racist, I simply meant because you're so westernised, I thought you will marry a white man!", "If he had a problem with it, it's his problem for focussing on his skin colour... if others call me yellow, so what?".
Because of this, wedding planning was deferred. There was a second confrontation last year in June, where my parents and fiance met up separately to discuss the comment. Needless to say, things did not go well. My dad apologised on behalf of my mother, but my mother was still unhappy : NMom: "In all my life I have never apologised, just ask your father!", "He is so rude to tell me that my comment is inappropriate!", "No, I'm not racist, in fact I welcomed him during Chinese New Year although it is inauspicious to have a black face around!"(Note that 'black face', when literally translated from mandarin, means having a disgruntled expression.).
Since then, fiance and I fought multiple times over my parents, with him threatening to leave if I continue to try and nudge my parents around. He has Ultimately, this year, during the first day of Chinese New Year, my parents initially didn't want to have him over but ultimately added one dish to the menu. My fiance also came to take the bull by the horns, coming by appropriately dressed, and even apologised to my mother twice for being "rude" for telling her she was being rude. While the storm appeared to pass, she still uses this episode of my fiance telling her off as a reason for why she doesn't like him.
Fast forward to today, where ultimately I decided to get started on wedding planning and set a date. My fiance and I have always wanted a small wedding involving close family and friends, and as foodies, we wanted to pick a nice, Michelin-starred restaurant instead of the usual hotel ballroom banquet that is the norm in Singapore. To be fair to his family, we wanted to opt for 'western' cuisine. Since then, additional requirements were thrown in that were not discussed before: involving a geomancer to pick an auspicious date, adding in a guo da li ceremony with 10 baskets of wedding cookies to be given, and even mandating an all-Chinese banquet 'to cater to seniors', with at least 100 guests coming from them. Note that (i) 70% of the folks on my mum's invite list comprises of the 'seniors' especially her mother's side of the family, (ii)I have never spoken or interacted with at least 80 of these people, and (iii) in addition to our new house, my fiance and I will be fully footing 100% of the wedding bills and planning for it, with no help coming from my parents. Reasons she has given include: If you invite one, you need to invite all, I'm not giving away my daughter in a low key ceremony, this is about family and you need to invite the seniors as well. Finally, for (iv) the tea ceremony, my mother proudly told me to engage a 'mistress of ceremony' and that she would not be helping with the prepping of the tea, moving of props, etc.
We ultimately booked a venue of our choice, but my fiance gave in and paid the deposit for 12 tables of 10 people, with chinese food, and add on live stations. I informed my mother about the venue, and asked her to just prepare the guest list. As I had not involved my mother at all due to recent history, she never stopped haranguing me about the date, menu, and even how the sit down affair would work, citing reasons like 'As this is a family milestone, it would set us at ease to know how it works'. She even did an excel sheet detailing at least 5 different options for the hotel banquet.
Prior to going for my holiday, I attempted to set boundaries, explaining that we had outstanding financial commitments for the house and we had paid deposit for the venue, and it would be excessive to have two receptions. This culminated in a confrontation via WhatsApp while I was on holiday. Frustrated, I told her that "It is Chinese food, sit down, and you get your chinese banquet of your dreams. This means NO TWO WEDDINGS, ONE AND DONE. I'm giving up what I want, a destination wedding with elevated food just so you have your moment in the sun. I hope you're happy now."
Apparently, she was so butthurt, she immediately withdrew her guestlist of over 80 people and told me to go for the small wedding I liked, leaving my fiance and I with a venue that can accomodate 120, with just our guests of approximately 30+ people. Good outcome? Nope. She nitpicked the venue, stating that it is "cheap", and she didn't want our relatives to criticise or say that she married her daughter out being stingy. For non-Singaporeans, it is not that the venue was inappropriate, in fact, the cost of the venue we picked would be on par with the median hotel ballroom banquet price. Not only did she refuse to hear me on the budget I've set for the wedding, she (i) stood firm on wanting the separate chinese dinner, with her paying and hosting this dinner, and refused to go for the venue we booked, (ii) asked for a pin jin (bride dowry) cash equivalent of the chinese banquet dinner for ten tables, or 100 people, (iii) still asked for the si dian jin (bridal jewelry), plus the guo da li items, (iv) when I tried to establish boundaries by stating the budget limits and how we have tried to cater to her wants, and that costs will escalate with gown rentals and the exertion of energy and time in planning for an additional event, she asked that my fiance "send an elder to speak" to her.
The only concession I could extract was explaining my budget, and with our venue taking more than half of the budget, this would mean we would seriously need to compromise on other things like the gowns, photography, decoration etc just to have two events. I even told her: "Do you really want me to walk in to the venue in a H&M white dress?" She offered to pay for the Chinese dinner, and all we needed to do was show up, but got extremely unhappy when I told her that if she was planning it, we would not be helping in any way, shape or form, and we would not be giving her money equivalent to a second venue. Her rebuttal? "Don't tell me your fiance doesn't want memories of that day", "the groom should pay for the wedding anyway, it's tradition", "Fine, I still want the equivalent of the 10 tables in your pin jin, besides you were going to spend the same amount anyway for your wedding", "If he gives $8, this just shows how much he values you", "a wedding is not just about the both of you... you don't want to regret getting married without blessings. It is a family event, and I want to take this opportunity to get everyone together. Isn't it sad that the only excuse for catching up and meeting up is at funerals?"
I'm really angry and frustrated. I did feel guilty as I still do want to get wed in peace and with immediate family present, and wanted to cancel my existing venue for the smaller venue I preferred while letting my mother have control of her little pet project (the chinese dinner), thus ensuring non-interference in my actual small wedding. Both my fiance and my counsellor told me that this was naive of me as my mother's antics was an exercise in pushing boundaries, and with the escalating demands and shifting goalposts, this behaviour is likely to endure even in her pet project.
What made me really sad was I actually googled to see if I was being a terrible person, and it took reading forums that I am 'normal' in wanting a wedding day for MYSELF, and I deserve to host MY wedding the way I want to feel that my emotions are valid.
Redditors, especially Singaporeans, what do you think?
submitted by flyingwithhardwings to AsianParentStories [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 07:24 ThrowRA_maybe_ My(23F) roommates/friends(24F,25F) seem to be alienating me and I don't know what to do.

Where do people draw the line with friends, I’ll never know.
Hi everyone, this is not my actual account for obvious reasons. I am very sorry that this is so long but I didn't I could let it all out anywhere else. I also apologize if my problem seems small. It may be small but I am losing relationships and my confidence over it. I need some proper advice on how to keep civil with my roommates.
I have two roommates (lived with them for 1 year) with whom I went on a trip recently (we'll call them Abby and Gina). Four others came along among whom two of them were my childhood friends (J(23M) and Sean(23M)); the other two were Gina's friends, Rei(26M) and Kim(25M). This was the first trip for me with J and Sean despite knowing them for so long so I was excited that all those who are close to me are going together. J and Sean recently moved here so they don't know much about the place so everyone else but me decided the plan because it wouldn't matter as I didn't know how to drive apparently. We had two cars and 7 people so distribution was random and not though out; basically just sit where ever you find the space. Right as we were about to set off, Gina told Abby to stick with her no matter what and started implying that I should move to the other car. I was okay with that and didn't think too much. J came with me to sit in the other car along with Rei and Kim.
After reaching our first destination, I went around with Abby and Gina to look at the scenery where they asked me to take their pictures, solo and together. Abby offered to take mine so I got them too. After this, they went around together and I spent time walking and taking pictures of J and Sean because they asked me to join them. At lunch, J straight up asked me if I was okay in my house and that he thought my roommates were isolating me and just conveniently using me. I thought that was far fetched and told him they were closer and we had this dynamic for a while. Sean said that if I was uncomfortable, I could just hang out with them. I didn't pay much attention to it again but it definitely stung to think that a third person could see it that way.
In the evening, our day plan fell through so Gina, Abby, Rei and Kim planned what to do again and made ridiculous plans for driving through the night back home. It wasn't even "Hey, how about we go back since we don't have much of a choice?". It was straight up "We're going home so come along." Sean and J were so mad that they said they wouldn't drive during the night because it was remote and dangerous. Somehow the rest of them got convinced and agreed to continue with the plan early.
The next day was even worse as they continued making impromptu additions to the day and we just continued to followed them around. At this point, it became two cars(1 - Me, J, S; 2 - A, G, R, K) and we were going by our own pace. Gina and Abby continued to tell me to click their pictures and not even bother including me. I started to feel very uncomfortable around them. When we stopped for lunch, they continued to order and eat together so J asked Gina why would she want eat with Abby all the time. Gina looked at me and said that if I had any food on my plate then she'd be more than happy to eat together. I felt so shitty at that time that I told her that J meant why wasn't she eating by herself instead of sharing from someone else. She stuttered that she didn't eat much and then asked me if she wanted to share. I said no. I was so surprised that her first idea to J's statement was about her not considering me and it just made me think I was convenient for them.
I didn't enjoy the rest of the trip as much and we came back. I was just so mad that I couldn't see how it looked to someone else. It just kept bringing back all these other times where I felt this way but I brushed it off. I used to buy groceries for the house and carry all the stuff while they had stuff to do. I never was involved in any of their plans and expected to follow whatever they wanted to do. Whenever I needed help (even if it was just holding my bag), they didn't ever step up. I am almost never in pictures with another person, it was either by myself or a group photo. Even though we rent cars all the time together, I somehow get no time at all to learn driving that car despite asking them multiple times if they can lend it to me (we pay for the car equally). I am so anxious to drive and they keep telling me that they don't want to sit in a car with me coz they're scared. I considered all of this in a light hearted manner but the more I thought about it, the smaller I felt.
I can't even talk to them normally anymore. I'm just sitting in my room or going to J and Sean's house or going to the university. Gina and Abby think I'm mad about something but they don't know what it is. They called Sean and told them I was upset and he came over to talk to me but I told him it was nothing and that I had a lot of work since the morning. I told him this was a busy week for me. He mentioned that Gina and Abby had called J and Sean over for lunch tomorrow at our place so he said he'll see me then. The thing is Gina and Abby never told me that they calling them over and I just think I would be so out of place over there. I really want to leave early to the university and come back late. I don't understand the social standard for this but I know that I'm not happy about being pushed out. I don't even want to acknowledge that all this while I may have been the only one considering them as my friends. Its just so embarrassing and I feel like a nosy fool who had been way out of line. I don't know if talking to them would help. It never did. I was always blown off or told we'd be better from now on. I don't want to even talk to them anymore because of how small I feel about myself and that every time I think of them, it's always negative. I just need to be civil with them for 2 more months and then I would move out. I needed to see what I can do here or if I am over reacting. I appreciate any advice anyone may have.
TLDR: My roommates seem to be alienating me. I feel terrible about not understanding where I stood with them and I don't want to feel this way again. I want keep civil with them without actually having to go through these feeling ever again.
submitted by ThrowRA_maybe_ to relationship_advice [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 07:22 Legal_Animator3757 Salvia Edibles or Tips?

Hi everyone! I recently bought some salvia and I was really excited to try it because it was my first time. I borrowed a bong from a friend and had that friend tripsit me. The salvia I bought was Salvia Extract x20 (I also bought dried salvia leaves to make tea). I did about 4 hits but it seemed to not be working so I tried doing it more and I made sure to hold it in for as long as I could and really get it into my lungs. Nothing. I was disappointed but I didn't want to get up. I made myself some salvia tea using the dry leaves (Used around 7 oz). I used hot water and waited for the leaves to bring their juices out and then I drank it. Nothing still. I tried a couple more times to smoke it researching how I could have it work. I know the salvia I bought isn't a scam because I've seen people buy the same one before and it made them trip like crazy. I am really disappointed that it for some reason isn't working for me. I was so excited. But I don't want to give up. I want to see if there could be another way? Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I'm wondering if salvia edibles exist? Please help me I really really want to try this awesome sounding plant.
submitted by Legal_Animator3757 to Salvia [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 07:05 Harry-Potter-bitch AITA for yelling at my friend's because they left me

After school me and my 4 friends who I'll call A, bay, K, Andi and I went to go to the shops after school. A, bay and K wanted to get bubble tea, when they were waiting me and Andi said we were going to a shop to get something for sports day and they said okay. After finding nothing we went back and they were gone. We called them but they didn't pick up after 2 more times they picked up and said they were at Kmart. We went there and I asked "You couldn't have said you were going here" they just said "we did on the phone" like they could have texted that or something before leaving us. Then they called us an a-hole for yelling at them so AITA.
submitted by Harry-Potter-bitch to AmItheAsshole [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 05:36 Aware_Routine_3875 Am I responsible for our relationship not working?

I am sorry. This is a long post, but I am just trying to give as much details as I can so that you guys can give me your opinions. Thank you to those who will take the time to read this post and give your opinion. I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors.
I (F/36) met my now ex-boyfriend (M/34 - we will call him James) on an app (not a dating app) at the start of the pandemic, March 2020. We started off as friends. Given that we were both in lock-down, we would text each other all day, all night and over the months, we grew closer (we started texting then slowly moved to phone calls). Please do not judge me, but even though we had not met in person yet, I started to really like him, the feeling was mutual for him. It felt like we had been friends for years, talking to each other was easy. We do not live in the same country (two different continents). When restrictions got looser, he met another girl (we will call her Donna - they started off as friends) and reconnected with his ex (we will call her Jennifer - they broke up two years prior to lock down, it really affected him).
He started spending a lot of time with Jennifer, spent his days with her and slept at her place, but said they were just friends. He mentioned that he was hoping that he could try again with her because he felt like he owed it to her (they broke up twice). At the same time, he also grew closer to Donna. But he would also tell me that he really liked me. We would talk everyday and he would tell me that he would love to meet me and see where things could go between us. He also said that the type of connection we had, he never had it before.
In September or October 2020 we stopped talking because things were just not working and he wanted to give it a try with Donna. I will admit it, I was crushed. I really liked him and our connection. We cut contact for several months but he called on my birthday, and we picked up right where we left off, The connection was even stronger. That night, we talked for hours on the phone. I learned that he and Jennifer, his ex, got together but it did not work. He also tried with Donna, they were not officially together, but things just did not work out because she was uncomfortable with the type of relationship he had with his ex, and if I remember correctly, she felt like his ex would not allow him to move on. Even though he was seeing Donna, he would spend time with Jennifer.
Over the next months, James and I grew closer and we started video calling - even though we had reconnected, I was still a bit active on dating apps. Our feelings for each other grew and we started talking about meeting in person. Given that it was getting serious (I know it is not a real relationship until we meet in person but we were really close and we really wanted to meet each other and see where things would take us) I basically told him that I wanted to give it a try and only focus on him, not meet new people or date until we meet, and if it does not work with him, we could just stay friends. I also told him that if he still wanted to meet or date other people until we meet, I was okay with it but I would be doing the same. I told him that it is not something that I am interested in doing and it would hurt a bit since I really like him, but if he was seeing other people I would too. We both agreed to just focus on each other and stop dating.
I decided to buy a plane ticket to meet him. At first, what I had decided to do was to spend a few days with him to see how we get along and then spend the rest of my trip in another country that I had always wanted to visit.
I have low self-esteem, I am insecure and always doubt myself, I always thought that once he sees me in person, he would not be interested. But I felt so strong about him that I decided to change my plane ticket and spend the whole trip with him and not go to the other country.
Because I did not have enough vacations left, I decided to do overtime at work. 1 month before my trip, I found out that he added as a friend this girl on his Facebook who had an account on an app and would wear sexy revealing clothes, act sexy and tease a bit- like Only Fans but not really. She was not naked. Her audience were pretty much thirsty men. I questioned him about it and told him that I was not comfortable with that, given what she does, and did not want to come see him (did I overreact?). We talked about it and at that time he told me that he does know her, he has never spoken to her or seen her in his life and does not know how she ended up on his Facebook. We worked it out and things were okay.
We finally met and it was great! I ended up spending the whole trip at his place and met his family (I had booked a hotel for 3 days and initially planned on staying there just to see how James and I got on but I ended up not staying there). We decided to make it official.
During my stay, his ex, Jennifer, called him quite a lot. She was aware of who I was and that I was visiting him. Also, a random number kept calling him and would also text him, telling him stuff like oh you have replaced me with another woman. Although I felt like his ex, Jennifer, was a bit too present, I invited them both to dinner and paid. One time she even called him crying because she was moving out of her place and it would be her last night in her apartment. While I was there, she asked him If he would help her move out, I told him I would help as well but then she said that they could do the moving after I was gone since he was spending time with me.
I decided to go back to visit him a second time 3 months later and that is when things started to change. One day, we were walking and he saw Donna but she did not see him. He immediately texted her telling her that he saw her. I got an uneasy feeling, I do not know how to describe it. When we got to his place, I saw at the top of a shelf a woman body spray, I asked him where he got it from, deep down I knew the answer, he said it belonged to Donna. He got it from her because it smelled nice and used it to spray his room to make it smell nice. We got into an argument and he called me by her name telling me that I was basically acting crazy, just like her. We made up and he explained that he called me by her name because we were just talking about her, but I had a gut feeling that there was more.
When James and Donna ended things, they remained friends, would text each other here and there, according to him, but nothing more. I was a bit uncomfortable with their friendship because of their history but also because of my insecurities, not going to lie.
That night I decided to go through his phone. I found messages between them. He told me that he was not meeting up with her but they did, they would sometimes eat lunch when he was in town, he would tell her oh I saw you when I passed by your work but you were hiding from me, or he would ask her what she was doing and she would say she was having a ladies night with her friends and he said he would come join her and she told him no it is only ladies (when asked him about him, he said he was only joking he was not gonna join her, he was just teasing her), one time, he texted her at 1AM asking her what she was doing and if she wanted to come chill with him and just have a smoke, she said no. He would often offer to do things with her and not the contrary. In one of the messages, he was telling her how he knew she missed his private part or something like that, he referred to his private part, and on one occasion he reminded her of the time they had s*x in the bushes in front of his house and she told him to not remind her of that (in a joking way) and he said never haha.... Those messages date back to when I got back from my first trip and I had already bought my second ticket.
I also found screenshots of that girl (her ass) he had added on Facebook, screenshot of a naked webcam girl, naked pictures of his ex, Jennifer, and a conversation of him and another person on an anonymous chat, where he had sent her a picture of his private part. I looked at the dates and all of them, pictures and screenshots, were taken while we were not officially together but when we said that we would only be focusing on each other. I was hurt. He said that he has deleted the pictures and screenshots and was not even aware that they were still on his phone (I found them on Google drive).
I understand that going through his phone was wrong but I did worse, not my proudest moment, I decided to text Donna from his phone. I introduced myself, I was very polite and so was she. I basically asked her what was going on between them and she assured me that there was nothing going on, they were just friends, and that it is me that he wanted since he basically picked me over her. She was nice and even offered to meet me up in person to talk about it. I thanked her for answering my questions and left it at that. The next day, I texted her again because I had one more question. When she found out that James and I were official it really affected her, she was hurt and she did not appreciate that he ignored her while I was there the first time because it is not what friends do, she also told him that even though I had met him before her she spent more time with him or something like that, but all it took is one week for him to decide to make me his girlfriend. She told him that she felt like he only used her and only wanted to be with her because he was waiting for me.
I learned that they slept together 3 weeks before my first trip and even got closer to each other but decided that it was not a good idea. I understand that at that time I had not met James in person but the fact that we both said that we were gonna wait to meet each other before trying with anyone else and the fact that I was emotionally invested in this made this whole thing bad.
We both agreed to not see other people, but he did and I did not, so I felt like he robbed me of an opportunity of meeting someone in my country and made me waste my time and money since he was not serious. He said that he did not meant to get close to her and knowing his luck, he was not sure I was really gonna come (when I changed my flight ticket I sent him a picture of the ticket and hotel reservation). I mentioned to him that I was scared of meeting and that knowing myself I would go to the airport but would end up changing my mind. Me saying that gave him the impression that I was not really gonna come to visit him. I was really scared that he was not gonna like me. He also said that he thought that I was seeing other people because I was sometimes sketchy. He said that he would never do what he did while we are together because 1) we have met and are official 2) he loves me and has never cheated on any of his girlfriends. He was always the one who got cheated on.
When he woke up, well I woke him up since I was leaving, I was ready to go back home. I confronted him and he said he did not do anything wrong. I packed my stuff and left for the train station. He met me at the train station and convinced me to stay. I would like to add that a couple of days before that day we had an argument, I cannot remember about what, but he was sick the night I arrived, we found out that he had COVID, his dad and I did a COVID test and I told him that if I do not have COVID I would go to another country to visit ( I had already planned on visiting that country during my trip and we talked about it) and come back because I did not want to risk catching COVID. I think we argued because he felt like I was being selfish and did not take into consideration his feelings. The arguments got pretty intense and I started packing my bags to leave his house and just go back home. We made up and I went to the other country for 3 days. His dad and I tested negative for COVID.
I agree that it was selfish to want to leave him like that while he was sick. I accept that it was immature to want to leave whenever we had arguments. I know that I have some issues that I need to work on.
After I found out about the texts and pictures and confronted him about them we talked. I told him that I wanted to end things with him because I did not think that I would be able to trust him once I got back home, and I would always be wondering if he was with someone else. We talked some more, I decided that I was gonna stay in a hotel because I did not want to face his family since I had told them that I was going back home since things with James were not working. I could not find a room so I went back to his place. The rest of the trip went well, i met more members of his family and decided to extend my trip of 3 more days since we got into so many arguments. Also, I told him that I felt like his ex, Donna, was not over him and because of that their friendship made me uncomfortable.
When I went back home, I was okay for the first 2 weeks but then started to not feel good, I did not trust him, I was in another country, I felt like he wanted to be with Donna. We talked about it he said he understood, that it was normal and it would take time for us to be okay again but we would be alright. Weeks passed and I was not doing okay, I told him I could not do it anymore and wanted things to stop. The breakup lasted 2 days (keep in mind that we are both in our 30s but sometimes react like teenagers. I am aware that I acted in an immature way on more than one occasion).
He informed me that when we broke up he reached out to Donna because he needed someone to talk to and she helped him since we got back together. I was hurt and I must admit I was insecure about their connection, I always felt like he was not over her and she was not over him.
Although we got back together I still did not feel good, I was not convinced that he was faithful to me, so I decided to do another dumb thing, I texted him from a fake number from his country (there is an app where you can get a foreign number and sent/receive messages). I basically pretended to be someone else, I was basically testing him. He did not do or say anything wrong. He just kept asking who I was. That same night, he told me about it and said that he did not know who it was but thought it was Donna. He asked her about it and she obviously said it was not her, but he said that he thought she was lying because the things that I was saying only she would know about it, he never thought it was me. He did ask me if it was me or maybe my sister but I acted like I did not know anything. He said that from that day he lost trust in her. She is someone he greatly appreciates.
She wanted to remain friends and so did he but he realised that it was toxic and because it could affect our relationship he said that he would once again cut contact with her. She told him that she was over him since she was seeing someone else, and kept repeating that they could still be friends since she was over him, he said that the fact that she was repeating she was over him made him think that she was not. I thought the same.
I told him that I would make an effort and try to be okay with their friendship, but for now I would not feel comfortable with them meeting. So he said that he would not text her but will answer her when she texted. They stopped talking and one night she texted him asking him to come pick her up, he went and while they were driving she touched his knee, and private part. She asked him to hold her hands since friends can hold hands, he did. When they were outside the car, she leaned towards him and kissed him on the lips, he said that as soon as she did that he backed away. It was during that night that she found out that James and I got back together.
She was really upset because she had no idea we were back together, she thought that he was still single and that is why she allowed herself to do what she did. She said that she just wanted to test him and see if they were still something going on between the two or if she was over him. According to her, the fact that nothing happened that night proved that she was over him. I do not understand that. James asked her if he had offered her to go back to his place to sleep together would she had done it, she said yes. So he told her that she was not over him or something like that. They got into an argument, he felt bad for hurting her and he cried. He told me about it and I was once again crushed, because he was depressed about the whole situation, he was crying and trying for a full day to reach out to her to resolve things so that they could leave things cordially. He wanted me to support him while he was supporting her and making sure she was alright.
They ended talking but things were not resolved. I asked him what he wanted from me and her? He kept asking me what I wanted, I wanted him to tell me exactly what he wanted and not to make a decision because he thought he would make me happy. He mentioned that he wanted to keep her as a friend and have me as a girlfriend. I told him that it was not fair of me to ask him to cut people he cares about out of his life but I would also have to make the best decision for me which was ending things with him because I was not comfortable. He said that he did not want to lose me so he was cutting her out. I asked him if he had romantic feelings for her, he said no, I asked what does he feel for her, he said he loves her like he loves his friends and family and he cares about her.
Obviously, things were not like before, so I decided to visit him a third time so that we could work things out. I was gonna stay a few days with him, then leave to visit my family in another country and come back to stay with him for 1 month and half or a month because we were planning on me moving to his country. So we wanted to first see how we would get along for that long period.
When I stayed there for a few days, a woman (we will call her Annie) who works for his family called him at 2 in the morning. I saw her name and I asked him to pick it up, at first he did not want to because we were sleeping, I insisted and asked him to answer or I would. He answered, she sounded drunk she asked him to come pick him up, he told her that we were sleeping. I was so upset, because I was already having doubts about their relationship because since he stopped talking to Donna he was spending more time with Annie and her kids. This was new since he never hung out with her or the kids. He said that he was hanging out with them so that he would have something to do and get out of the house. Anyway, after he told her that we were sleeping, he hung up and she texted him "really" or "wow", I cannot remember which. She called again, then called again an hour later. I was upset, we argued and I told him that we should just go pick her up. He said no. I asked him if anything happened between the two, he said no. I asked him if he ever went to pick her up late at night, he said no and that it was the first time that she had called him that late and she never asked him to come pick her up in the past. We argued some more and made up. The next day she apologised and said she could not remember what happened and could not remember how she got home. She told him to tell me that I had nothing to worry about. Later on, he said that he thinks that someone may have put something in her drink when she was out, she said she only had one or 2 drinks. But we are now not sure about that because she did other things.
I went to visit my family in another country and came back to stay with James. While he was sleeping, he received a Facebook notification from Donna telling him "I am gonna ask you one more time to leave me the f**k alone". I was boiling, I woke him up and asked him what was that about, he said he did not know why she was messaging him, I was fuming. He said he told me he did not know why she was messaging because he had just woken up and did not know what was happening. He said she answered that because he had messaged her because after getting stung by a bee, the doctor told him he could have died (turned out he is allergic, he got tested) and he wanted to leave things cordially with her, he regretted some of the things he told her (a couple of days after he picked her up late at night, they saw each other in town and got into a screaming match in public, she told him that she was using him for s*x, he also found out that she was talking to one of his friends, she told that friend that she was afraid to leave her house because James was stalking her, he promised me that he was not. Later on he told me that she said that his friend misunderstood what she said and that the two occasions she saw him outside her place she was already aware that he was there).
I once again decided to go through his phone while he was asleep. In his family chat there were messages between him, his brother and cousin. His cousin was asking him if we were gonna come to dinner since she needed to make reservation, then his brother asked if James was going to have all his ladies at the table, his cousin (who is friends with Annie) answered that she did not want any drama at dinner, his brother answered that he wanted to see the drama then James answered maybe he should invite Donna so that we could have a Mexican standoff. I was so hurt, I felt humiliating.
I thought they would only joke like that if something had happened between Annie and James. I decided to change my flight and go back home. 10 minutes before the cab was supposed to come, I woke him up and told him that I was leaving. He got angry, I showed him what I saw on his phone and him messaging Donna was just too much for me. He tried to stop me from leaving but I managed to get in the cab and left. My flight was booked and I was due to leave the next day, I booked a room at a hotel. James kept calling me and came to the airport, we talked and I decided to stay 3 more days to try to fix things. We ended up talking and fixing things. Instead of me staying 1 month (or one and a half) like I originally planned to, I stayed a week, i think. But we were only okay for a while. When I came back home my head was a mess. I did not feel good about my relationship with James.
I decided to once again pretend to be someone else. I texted him from a foreign number and pretended to be Donna, I asked him if he really loved, why did he pick me over her, if he still had feelings for Donna, basically trying to see if he regretted being with me and to see if he still thought of her. He told "Donna" that he would tell her everything that she wanted to know if they could meet up. Then he said that he was driving to her place. I did not want that to happen so i revealed it was me. He said he knew it was me all along and was giving me a taste of my own medicine since I like to play stupid games. He was now sure it was me the first time as well. I tried to deny it but ended up admitting. He asked me why I always try to sabotage our relationship by doing stuff like that. I told him not to come visit me. He had bought a plane ticket to spend the holidays with me. We made up again, but things were no longer like before.
He came to visit me but it was bad, we tried to make the most out of it but it was not like before. The spark was no longer there, I did not trust him, he did not trust me. We argued a lot while he came to visit me. One day, I was so upset, I left the house for the whole day and went to the bar at night (I do not really drink, a couple of times a year, but I was just so overwhelmed). I got drunk, we argued more, I threw stuff and tried to hit him. The neighbor called the police. I was so so so ashamed. I felt humiliated by my behavior and everything happening.
Two weeks after he left, we decided to end things, the break up was respectful. We both admitted our wrongs and apologize to the other. I told him that I would prefer to cut contact, he said he did not mind keeping in touch but I felt like it was best for me to cut contact for a while. I ended up texting him after 4-5 days, I asked him if we hated each other he said that he did not hate me, that he cares about me. I told him so do I. We were both trying to deal with the break up. We ended up talking every day for a month, we were not back together, we were just being there for the other.
Yesterday, he was not feeling well, he was thinking about the whole situation, and just feeling miserable. I cared about him and did not want to see him like this. I tried my best to cheer him up, kept texting him the whole day while I was at work. He was saying that he kept messing things up, that he keeps ruining his friendships and relationships. He said that I no longer worry a lot about him and that he felt like I no longer wanted to talk to him. When I feel like he does not talk a lot, I do the same, I pull out and become a bit cold but always say that I am okay (obviously I have communication issues). I told him that I felt like the way we were talking to each other felt like we were keeping each other company and that we were probably over the break up (I was not but I guess I was pretending to be over).
When he mentioned that he ruined some of his friendships, I asked him if he was referring to Donna. He started saying he would never again have the connection he had with both of us, Donna and I, and how Donna and I no longer worry about him. The way he was speaking about her made me feel like what I thought we had, a special connection, was not so special because he felt the same about her. That we were at the same level. James made me feel like I was the best thing that happened to him, he said many times, and according to him, the type of connection we had, he never had it with anyone else. But at the same time, I felt like I was competing with Donna.
The way that he was speaking of her made me feel like he wanted to try again with Donna, I wanted him to admit it, so I told him I had made my peace and that maybe she was the one that got away, maybe she was not over him and that with time things could work out between him and her. Sometimes, I truly feel like I would have been okay with them dating again, but what hurt me is that I feel like he made me waste time, energy and money (I spent a lot of money to be with him, he did not help pay for my tickets, the last time that I went to visit him, I asked him to help me pay the ticket, at least half of it, he said he would sent me money before I come, then said he would give me to me when I am there, because he did not work, I ended up telling him to just forget it since I knew he did not have a lot of money).
He then told me that the first time I texted him from a foreign number I led him to believe that it was Donna (I just pretended to be a random girl but I can understand why he thought it was Donna) and because of that he stopped trusting her and the fact that I did that worsen the situation between the two and broke their friendship. He thought that she was a liar but she was not. He also said that before I pretended to be someone else, he trusted me 100% but now he no longer knew what was real or fake because of what I did. So I caused him pain and hurt for nothing.
He finally admitted that he would want a friendship with Donna again or more, and see where things could go between them. He said he was not thinking about her while we were together and he only started thinking about her again when he found out I was the one pretending to be someone else. He said that before coming to visit, he knew I was gonna do something to mess things up. I told him that in his eyes she can't do no wrong and that his feelings for her were always there, they just resurfaced and that he always had something for her even when we were together.
I feel stupid and hurt. I know some of my actions, pretending to be someone else and going through his phone, were wrong and immature. I understand that what I did would cause him to lose trust in me. Trust me, I am ashamed of it. I feel like we both manipulated the other.
What are your opinions on our relationship? Did I overreact a lot? Were my reactions to some of the situations over the top? Am I responsible for our relationship not working? Do you guys think that even during our relationship he still had feelings for her?
I do not hate Donna, I do not think she is a bad person, I just thought that she was not over him and was not comfortable with that.
I do not trust Jennifer and Annie because I feel like they only used James when they need him.
Thanks.
View Poll
submitted by Aware_Routine_3875 to u/Aware_Routine_3875 [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 05:20 Troll3Killer DIY Low Power NAS Solution for Movie Streaming

I'm thinking about building a DIY solution for my network attached storage (NAS). I've created a parts list, and I'm posting here to get another pair of eyes to look at it and make sure I'm not missing anything obvious. When I set out to create this build, I had these in mind:
This along with the third point eliminated using a pre-built solution like Synology. I prefer to use open source software whenever possible, and I like the flexibility and ease of use that TrueNAS offers.
This along with the third and fourth point is why I eliminated using an old server that I could find on Craigslist or Ebay. Most of those servers I found would be pulling lots of power from the wall even when idle.
Repairability is very important to me. If I bought a Synology NAS, then I'd be out of luck if one of the parts died unless I was willing to buy a whole new unit. If I bought an old server like I said before, I could run into issues acquiring parts as servers usually have proprietary connectors and dislike it when you use non-standard parts. (As a tangent, the reason why this whole build started was because I tried making a Dell server quieter by installing Noctua fans and rewiring them. Unfortunately, the server decided to forever turn all the fans to maximum speed because I dared install something myself.)
Because this computer is going to be in my bedroom, the fan noise cannot be louder than a normal PC. This shouldn't be an issue as long as I don't get 40mm fans.
The main purpose of my NAS currently is to store movies and TV shows so I can stream my content without paying for stupid streaming services. As a result, the server should be capable of doing at least 4 simultaneous 4K streams. I'm no expert when it comes to video streaming, but if it matters the content is encoded in AV1.
Because I am a big nerd who likes to cosplay as a sys-admin, I would like to justify my rack by having this NAS be rack-mountable.

[PCPartPicker Part List](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6FpzQ6)

TypeItemPrice
:----:----:----
**CPU** [Intel Core i3-13100 3.4 GHz Quad-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/RdjBD3/intel-core-i3-13100-34-ghz-quad-core-processor-bx8071513100) $148.96 @ Newegg
**Motherboard** [ASRock Z690 PG Riptide ATX LGA1700 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kYwypg/asrock-z690-pg-riptide-atx-lga1700-motherboard-z690-pg-riptide) $155.99 @ Newegg
**Memory** [G.Skill Ripjaws V 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-2666 CL18 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/VqbCmG/gskill-ripjaws-v-64-gb-2-x-32-gb-ddr4-2666-memory-f4-2666c18d-64gvk) $117.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** [Thermaltake Toughpower GX1 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/B2MwrH/thermaltake-toughpower-gx1-600-w-80-gold-certified-atx-power-supply-ps-tpd-0600nnfagu-1) $66.00 @ Amazon
*Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts*
**Total** **$488.94**
Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2023-03-28 22:54 EDT-0400
The case is not in PC Partpicker but here's the link: https://www.newegg.com/rosewill-rsv-r4100u-black/p/N82E16811147332?Description=rosewill%20rackmount%20case&cm_re=rosewill_rackmount%20case-_-11-147-332-_-Product
I was stuck between the I3 processor and the Intel Pentium Gold G7400, but ultimately chose the i3 just in case I ever want to repurpose this computer for anything else. When I picked the motherboard I basically chose the cheapest motherboard I could find with lots of SATA connections. I picked a lot of memory because TrueNAS can use a lot of memory for caching. Finally, the power supply is not necessarily going to be used because I have an old power supply I'm gonna try to use instead, but this is what I would get if I was buying new.
Let me know how I did! I'm curious to hear what you think.
submitted by Troll3Killer to buildapc [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 04:52 JamesCaligo A Cabin vs a Killer from the Stars

Frost collected on the windows as we drove further into the woods. Next to me, my wife of eight years and bringer of many headaches. Now I'll be fair, I contributed to some of those headaches for her as well. But let's face it, we were having marital problems. I know, a cliche sort of story, but a common one in today's modern society.
We were heading to my grandparents' old cabin up north. My aging ancestors said that it would be the best place for us to "reinvigorate the romance" as they put it. Lovely.
But that's not why I'm recording these papers. No, it was something far graver than a failing marriage.
It was 2012 and we had our typical routines. I was an entrepreneur, investing in the stock market with the hopes of making it big. To make the money in this risky scheme of mine, I had to work a regular job just like everyone else. I worked in a factory for cars while my wife, Cassie, was trying to become a hairdresser.
The topic of money was always a strenuous issue for us. Constantly we fought about where the money should be going. Cassie believed that we should save as much as we can, while I was more willing to take the plunge into the market and try to milk this capitalist engine for all its worth.
As you can see, putting those two together created a nasty scenario where two people who wanted to have the best of youthful intimacy, slowly got destroyed by the years of conflicting interests. I still thought she was the most beautiful woman in my life, but the way that she stood in the way of my goals for a better life was starting to make me question this relationship to go on. Hence the cabin.
Now it is December and it's getting close to that date everyone seems to be obsessed over. The end of the world. What a load of baloney.
So that's a little background as to why we're going out to the woods.
But the drive itself was unbearably quiet. Not once did Cassie say anything. She didn't put up much of a fight either when I suggested that we go out to the cabin. Deep down, I think a part of me wondered if maybe she thought this was all in vain and wanted to get it over with. I believe a part of me believes that as well. Perhaps this is all a wasted effort and the ending result will be our inevitable divorce.
But who knows, there's always that slim chance. And when I looked up at the sky, I saw that there was a meteor shower already happening above.
"Hey Cassie, look," I said with childish delight.
She looked up from her window with a stoic expression. But I noticed a slight twinkle in her eye. From what I could tell, she was surprised to see such a glorious display from the beauty of the stars above. Although astronomy was always more of her thing, I still found joy in the little things.
"I'll admit, I wasn't expecting that."
"Right, and once we're at the cabin, we could—"
It just hit me when I realized it. I had no plan going forward. My goal was to get her out of the house. What are we supposed to do the moment we get to that cabin? It's not like I'm going to ask to be intimate right then and there. You got to work things up to stuff like that; especially with how strained our relationship is.
This was going to be more debilitating than I thought. No matter what scenario I thought of, nothing seemed appropriately timed. Make her dinner, watching TV sounded kind of stupid considering that we did that a whole lot back at the house, and frankly I'm not the most creative when it comes to trying to mend a relationship.
"You want to go for a walk later?" she cooed.
My eyes drifted over to her. Looking at her as she fidgeted with her long, light blonde hair.
A small smile grew on my face. At least she was trying to make an effort too. Perhaps there is hope after all. "Sure thing Cassie. I don't mind."
Once we arrived at the cabin, it was within no time that we settled in. Although fully furnished, there was dust everywhere. Surprisingly few cobwebs, so spiders weren't going to be an issue. The old, cabin-like aesthetic with furniture that looked like it dated back to the 1800s and was handcrafted made the entire home feel like it was holding some dark secrets of a mysterious past.
Thankfully my grandparents had been smart enough to remove any food from the house before we arrived. The last thing I'd want is to see year-old spoiled food everywhere, forcing the two of us to clean up any more than we had to.
The only thing I was concerned about was that I spotted something in the closet of the bedroom. My grandfather's guns.
"Couldn't you buy a gun safe old man?"
Cassie peeked over my shoulder and said, "Ugh, why is that even here?"
"Hey, my grandpa was a gun lover. What did you expect to find here?"
"Those things should be melted down."
My wife, though I still love her, was heavily against guns. She believed that they could all be taken away from the civilian population.
Frankly, I thought the exact opposite. I believe that it should be every person's right to get one. Maybe not a semi-automatic or shotgun, a good pistol or revolver would be satisfactory enough for me.
I quickly moved her away from the stash and we returned to our usual business, not thinking about anything else.
The walk would have to happen tomorrow morning. And after driving for the last ten hours, I can safely assume that we wanted to sleep in.
As we were getting ourselves ready for bed, I looked at my wife with hopefulness bubbling in my heart. She always tried to do everything So graceful, considering she came from a family that was quiet, elegant, and frankly made more money than I could ever hope to. Why she wants to become a hairdresser, I had no idea. Perhaps a change of pace or out of spite for her parents.
I thought about saying something to remind her that I still loved her. But before the words could even escape my mouth, there was a flash of a bright light coming from the window.
She looked up and our eyes widened with a fearful stare.
I turned around, wondering what was causing that. It was too bright for me to even see out the glass. Then a loud bang followed afterward, making me believe for a moment that something disastrous was going on. Was it a nuclear war? A random volcano? A freak storm? My mind was racing with every possible scenario. But as quickly as it came, both the sound and the light vanished into the woods.
"Are you okay?" Cassie said, hunkering down behind the bed.
"Yeah— I was afraid I was going to go blind there for a moment."
"I tried to look away as quickly as I saw it. But I was afraid I might go deaf from that sound."
Despite it being freezing outside, I opened the window and looked around. There was no smoke anywhere. Nor was there even a remnant of the light flickering somewhere off in the distance.
I caught the smell though. It smelled like burning rubber. Or perhaps it was more like plastic burning. Either way, it was awful and I quickly shut the door, not wanting any of that to get in.
"That was weird,"
My wife agreed and surprisingly, she wanted me to come to bed. This was a bizarre turn of events for me considering that she never once cared. But perhaps it was because she was scared. Reasonable response.
The next morning, we went about our habits and freshened up. After eating a light breakfast, we finally managed to put on some snow clothes, and go for that walk.
The brisk air and gentle breeze was more than I expected to handle. But I feel like the nervous tension was definitely keeping us warm. I never realized how hard it was to talk to her.
"Cassie... what do you think was that strange light last night?"
Another brief moment passed before she replied, "I don't know. I couldn't get a good look."
Oh well, at least we got to go on this nice walk. Thankfully both of us wore boots because the snow was unusually high.
Not too far down the road though, we spotted a house. There was already a family outside. A man, a woman, and three kids. Two boys, one girl. They were playing in the snow, building snowmen and forts. They waved to us, and it was a bit of a bitter reminder about how we had squandered our marriage with our short-term goals in mind.
Cassie had this longing in her eyes. I could tell she wished that we would have done the same. And if I'm honest with myself, maybe parenthood would've been something nice.
We waved as we passed by, but neither of us wanted to talk about the matter.
Moving further down the road, I could spot some smoke rising from deep within the forest. I looked at Cassie, but she hadn't noticed it yet. I pointed it out to her and we were both curious about what could be causing a fire in the woods?
"Want to check it out?" she asked.
"Only if you want to?"
"Do you or do you not?" she said more forcefully.
"Yes! God all right," I replied back in my own angered way.
I led the way, she followed behind as we trudged through the snow away from the road.
As we got closer, I could smell that horrible stench again. Now I was certain we were getting close to whatever it was that caused that late last night. Perhaps it was a meteorite or a satellite.
Finally, we cleared past the last batch of pine trees and saw what it was. But a huge crater with something metallic in the center.
"Is that a ball?" Cassie remarked from behind.
I moved closer to the edge of the crater, looking down at it. Every time a snowflake touched the metallic surface of the orb, it instantly turned into steam.
I decided to circle the edge of the crater, willing to see if there was a way to get a full view of what it was. Just out of curiosity. I wasn't sure what it was actually; it was a gray orb, no unique details other than that it was 6 ft tall I believe, and that was it.
Well, that's what I thought until I moved over to the other end of the orb and saw that there is an opening to the inside. It looked like a seat. Which made me come to the conclusion that it was a space pod.
"Does NASA build space pods, Cassie?"
"Not to my knowledge. I don't keep up with space stuff."
As I kept inspecting the pod, I noticed that there was some green liquid that was trailing off into the snow up to the crater until it vanished into the woods.
"What in the world?"
Suddenly the piercing sound of children screaming as well as a man and a woman broke through the forest, causing my heart to beat erratically like a pounding drum. Those are sounds I never want to hear.
Cassie's face ran white like the snow around her. She looked almost like she was about to faint just from how sickening those screams were. They had such an oppressive fear behind them, something that may my blood run like freezing water through my veins.
I went back to Cassie and wrapped my arms around her as we kept looking around frantically. Both of our minds raced about what could have caused that sound. But then I remembered that the other cabin was not too far from us. The one with the family.
I managed to convince Cassie that we needed to run back to the house. But in actuality, I just want to get over to the other cabin to make sure that family was safe.
We kept running as fast as we could until finally when we reached near that cabin, I saw with all my despair-inducing horror why they made such a tormented display of shrieks.
Bile came fast up my throat, and I had to hold myself back from throwing up by the horrific display.
My wife also gave way to shrieking, so loud it was that it was actually more irritating for me but I couldn't blame her.
The poor family. That poor, poor family...
We moved on but I couldn't stop thinking about how every single one of them had been torn apart like mincemeat. Scattered about and indistinguishable. There was a hand here, a few toes there, something had shredded them until they were nothing more than a gruesome display of carnage.
We quickly left the scene.
When we got back to the house, I quickly decided to call 911. I told them everything about what we had seen and they said they would send over a squad car to the house.
But that wasn't the whole truth that I gave them. All I told them was about the massacre that happened over at that family home. I didn't tell him about the spherical thing that we found in the woods.
My wife was still anxiously walking around in circles, checking every window as she went.
I ran out to the car, thinking that it would be better if we just left right now. I tried starting the car, but it just kept sputtering but no life. Something was wrong, the car should work, I gave it a full tank of gas.
I got out and noticed that there were some bolts and scraps of metal half-buried in the snow. When I bent down to look underneath, I saw that the entire fuselage had been torn open. Something had deliberately destroyed the car.
Running back inside, I slammed the door shut, and locked it. I went even further to place a chair and wedge the doorknob. Now I was desperate. We had no car, and there was no way I was planning on walking out there again. All we could do was wait for help. At least I was able to make that call on a cell phone because when I went to turn on one of the lights, there was no electricity flowing through. The wires had been cut as well. Whatever did this, it was smart and it was targeting us.
Cassie had at this point started breaking down into tears. She was scared. I was scared. But I knew that I needed to be there for her. Even though our marriage isn't so good right now, there's no way I could leave her in such a vulnerable state.
I felt that maybe I should do something to comfort her, what else could I do? What could either of us do? The only thing that we were able to do was to wait for assistance.
I stretched my hands out to her and pulled her in towards my chest. She didn't even try to fight back, but rather she buried herself. This was probably the most affection I've gotten from her in a long time.
Hopefully, the police can handle this. I wasn't too sure if we could make it all night. Every little cracking sound from the cabin was enough to get my hair standing up. Nothing seemed to have been damaged, so I had to come to the conclusion that whatever "it" was didn't come inside.
It would seem that we were in for a night of no sleep.
The next day, there was a knock on our door. I was disturbed from my rest on the couch with my wife next to me.
I tried my best to get up without disturbing her and made my way towards the door. But I stopped before I went to open it.
"Who's there?"
"Police," a voice said weakly.
I took a deep breath and exhaled. How reassuring.
I opened the door and I saw that a bloody police officer was standing in front of me. He had his hand covering over his abdomen which was dripping with it.
"Geez, what happened to you?"
He was practically about the stumble over until I caught him. Wasting no time, I brought them over to the armchair and I knew my wife would not like to wake up to this.
"Cassie wake up," I ordered, panicking.
When she opened her eyes and saw who was sitting near her, she just about screamed but I quickly covered her mouth, much to her shock until she saw it was me.
"Ben, what is going—"
"No time to explain yet, I need you to go and get me some water!" I cut her off.
As much as I hated bossing her around, time was of the essence. I didn't want to say anything to her but I didn't think this poor fella was going to last.
She quickly got up and ran to the kitchen, faster than I would've expected her. Perhaps it was just the adrenaline rush.
I turned to the poor guy who was wheezing and coughing blood.
"Hey, pal listen, I'm going to need you to tell me what happened?"
"Don't worry, I know this looks bad but I didn't walk all the way over here for no reason. I need you to warn the station,"
"About what?"
Cassie came in with some rags that were soaked and gently pressed them onto his abdomen.
He winced quite loudly, but we both knew this was the best.
"Tell them it's a code Protectorate situation— I... me and my partner, we went to the house as instructed. When we got there, we both nearly lost our sanity. It was so gruesome what we saw.
I could relate to what he's describing. It was a messed up sight and I wished I could unsee that.
"When we went into the house to investigate, something lunged out from the darkness. It cut clean through my partner before he could even have time to react. I fired eight shots into that thing. It was so mortifyingly alien."
"So we're dealing with an alien?"
"I don't know if you can count that thing as one. It was so savage, so brutal. Naked and abominable. I quickly got out of there but that thing managed to get me in the stomach. I fired one more shot near its head and that seemed to scare it away. Then I came here."
Both my wife and I were awestruck. So there really was an alien in our area. And it's killing people, how original. But my biggest concern at this moment was the fact that we were now caught in the middle of it.
The cop coughed a few more times— drips of blood coming down his chin.
My wife quickly rushed over with the cloth to try to clean it out so that he could breathe properly, but he just grabbed hold of her wrist, and through more agitated coughing, he choked, "Leave if you can,"
His eyes quickly went lifeless and he fell limp in the armchair.
His hand released my wife and she quickly backed up into me. Held her in my arms as we both stared at the lifeless man who gave us the only advice I think he could say to us.
But I had to honor what the fallen cop had asked me and I got back in touch with the police to tell them that the cop died after investigating the murder scene. I gave them his name and they were ready to send more help until I cut the lady off and told her that he requested Protectorate. They cut the line after that and I had to deal with questions I had no answers to.
But then a new voice answered, " Please evacuate the area. Your area has been labeled by the Protectorate Extermination Committee as a targeted zone. You have less than one hour to comply with this direct order."
Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting to hear.
No sooner after hearing those words, Cassie ran back to the kitchen and started washing the blood off of her hands. I took a blanket and covered the officer. But I was going to heed his words.
I went upstairs and quickly started grabbing what I could and throwing them back into our bags. We were leaving and that was not up for any discussion. Thankfully Cassie was on the same page as me.
After about ten or twelve minutes had passed, I finished packing, only to hear the pounding beat of a rotor. That was a helicopter flying overhead.
Quickly I went outside and tried to get a good look at it. It was a Blackhawk helicopter flying rapidly.
Out of desperation, I started waving my hands, hoping that maybe they'd land and get us out of here much sooner than what my car could manage for us, but they flew off. I know they saw me, but they simply ignored me.
Cassie came out of the house and asked, "Did they just leave? I heard them flying by and thought that maybe they'd land?"
"I don't think they're looking for survivors. They don’t look like any military group that I recognize."
"What did they look like?" her voice trembled.
"I don't know who they are, but their helicopter was painted black and there was a symbol on the side. It looked like a shield with six wings coming out from the side and an eye in the center of the shield."
We heard the sound of distinct gunfire off in the distance. Whatever it was, I doubt it was military engagement. There was only one firing and it was followed by deafening screams of a man. Only to be drowned out by something unnaturally low and clicky. But this roar boomed across the land.
That was coming from another cabin not too far from us. Whatever it was, surely we were going to be next in the line of fire for this thing. It must have been going around destroying people's vehicles if there were still people around after what happened to that first. I can't imagine all of our neighbors still being here willingly.
I ordered Cassie back in the house, knowing full well that something bad was about to go down when I saw three more of those Blackhawks flying into one single location.
I shut the door again and told Cassie to get down as low as she could. I didn't want a stray bullet hitting either of us, but I couldn't help but remain curious to see if they could get it.
I was expecting them to rain down machine-gun fire, but instead, I saw three huge plumes of fire shoot out from each of the choppers. They were trying to burn this thing. They were hitting it hard too. The amount of flames coming down at such a rapid speed made me think that it could catch the entire woods on fire. Thankfully it's winter, so I don't think a forest fire is likely to happen.
But they never stopped firing and it also seems like they were chasing after whatever it was. My eyesight's not so good, so I wasn't able to get a visual of what it was. But I saw something running on all four, darting through the woods as the Blackhawks chased after it.
"What's happening!" Cassie cried.
I had forgotten about her. I was expecting bullets but I guess it wasn't so dangerous after all.
"They're trying to burn that sick monster."
"Is it working?"
I didn't have the heart to tell her that I think the thing is getting away. Whatever it was, it was weaving fast enough to where the helicopters couldn't keep up. But at least it seems like it couldn't hurt them either.
"They're driving it away. It's moving far away from us. Maybe we could leave right now."
Cassie started panicking and stuttered, "We— we are not going out there,"
"Cassie don't be stupid, we have to get out of here. That creature might come back for all we know—"
"And I don't want to be outside all vulnerable when it gets here!"
That was always something I hated about her. Once she made up her mind on something, there was no way you were going to get her to change her mind.
"It's always about your issues, it's always going to be your way! Don't you realize that there is something that we cannot handle, running around willy-nilly, we've got helicopters outside blasting it with fire that doesn't seem to be doing too much, and you want us to stay here like a bunch of sitting ducks because you're too scared to try and Escape like the officer who died for us, said so!"
"YOU THINK I WANT TO STAY HERE AND GET TORN APART BY THAT SAVAGE!" she got up from her hiding place and pushed me as hard as she could.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't fall down to the ground, but when she gets angry, she's a little extra forceful than you would expect.
She tried doing it a second time, but I caught her arms and threw her back, but not hard enough to make her fall.
"How about you calm down, and THINK!" I shouted back at her with increased ferocity. I was at my limit and I was having thoughts of leaving her here. We were on the verge of divorce anyway and the last thing I should care about is someone who will become a stranger to me and no time.
"I did, I want to hide and not be an open target!"
"And I don't want to sit here like an all-you-can-eat buffet for that thing!"
Before the argument could continue down this heated path, one of those flamers happened to be coming by, burning everything nearby. Thankfully it didn't hit the house or even the yard for that matter, but it was enough to leave me with a shaking stomach.
We both dropped to the ground but I was still curious about what was happening outside.
I crawled up to the front window again and my eyes went wide as I saw one of the helicopters blasting its flamethrower down. Inside the inferno, that creature was walking about untouched by the heat.
I whispered to myself, "It's immune to the fire? How?"
The flames eventually stopped raining down. I think they got the idea too.
I looked up at them as one of the soldiers was changing their weapon of choice from a flamethrower, to something a little more ballistic...
"Run!" I ordered. "To the bathroom!"
Both of us got up and as we got into the first-floor bathroom, the sound of explosions rained down from above. Small-scale explosives were now being used against this alien. It let out another one of those guttural bellows, apparently, this actually hurt it more. I also could hear the constant firing of bullets raining down.
But this was all that I could interpret. Cassie and I were both huddled in the bathtub, praying to whatever God exists that we don't end up being shredded by bullets in the process.
Already I could hear parts of the house getting hit by stray bullets as it seemed like the helicopters were moving more erratically as they chased after this creature again. At least it seems like they were moving away from us, but those were the most intense 30 seconds of my life.
Finally, everything fell silent other than the distant explosions that slowly toned down.
Both Cassie and I were breathing heavily, I even found myself wrapping my arms around her instinctively.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
She wouldn't quit crying. She never responded to my question. Granted it was a stupid question. Nothing about this was okay.
I decided to concede. Perhaps we should just hunker down and hope for the best. Although I was still completely on board with up and going, Cassie was partially right. We would be caught out there in the open and there was no guarantee that these people who were fighting the monster were even going to care about civilian casualties. They certainly didn't mind incinerating entire sections of the woods away, regardless of whatever houses happened to be nearby.
"Cassie, we'll stay here tonight. But I'm using my grandpa's guns."
"I don't care, I want that thing dead. I'll take one myself."
Well, this was a sudden change of heart. Someone who is always against this stuff suddenly wants one. Though I should have known better when I saw her only pick up the pistol.
"If you fail, I would much rather be able to take the easy way out of this mess."
Honestly, I'd rather have that option as well. But I have to try. Plus, if I was to die today, at least I can go down with this beautiful shotgun in hand.
So that would be the update so far. A black ops group is currently leveling the area as best they can to try and kill this thing, my wife is ready to do what she can to avoid a painful way of dying, and I've got a shotgun, scared out of my mind as I wait for this thing to eventually try and get us as well.
And thus began another long night of no sleep.
The clock had now turned to 12:43 p.m. I was dead tired and the exhaustion of staying up for two days without getting any consistent sleep was starting to take its toll.
Thankfully the sun had come up and this creature did not attack during the night. I'm telling you, that is probably the most luck we're ever going to get out of this.
Cassie was getting more sleep than I was, but she refused to leave the bathroom. She stayed in that tub the entire night, while I made myself a little pillow fort in the living room. And before you start getting judgemental of childish behavior, if I'm going to die, I'm going to die in comfort.
All throughout the night, I heard the occasional bursts of gunfire far off in the distance. I tighten my grip around the shotgun, preparing myself for whenever I would need it.
This particular shotgun was a special type that my grandfather was obsessed over. And it packed quite a wallop. A Browning BPS. With sleek, black metal, this high-powered shotgun is all that stands between a ravenous, deadly alien that came from outer space, and me getting torn in half.
And so began the wait.
Hours were going by. Every moment that I heard them chasing that thing out there, was another moment that told me that it wasn't over yet.
I was drenched in sweat, despite the temperature getting increasingly cold with every passing hour. How we managed to survive this whole time is beyond me. I guess the tension alone was enough to make sure that we stayed warm throughout the whole thing.
Then I heard a rumbling sound outside. Then I heard multiple rumblings. And then suddenly a blast of sound exploded so loud that it shattered all of the glass in the house. I was so scared that I almost fired off a shot.
I quickly got up from the pillow fort, Cassie was looking out the bathroom door. She was as confused as I was.
"What are they doing now?"
When I took a look outside, I had a surge of hope. Outside were 8 tanks, as black as the Blackhawks. They were firing off at a distance, firing off their machine-gun fire at the same time as they tried to destroy whatever this thing was with cannon fire from their turrets.
When I peered further out at the patch of woods that were being shredded to pieces by the barrage, I saw that the alien was moving as quickly as they could to avoid. But it kept stumbling around, and explosives kept burning away layers of its skin. There were more helicopters outside that were trying to flame it as well as firing explosive rockets at it.
I was cheering them on. The creature was definitely taking a beating from the constant attacks and it was only a matter of time before that thing would get too worn down. Already I could see parts of its flesh burning off.
"Come guys, get 'em!" I shouted instinctively by the hype of us actually winning. Maybe I would get out of this alive.
From my distance, I had to wear my glasses to get a better view. But my god the battle was intense.
"I think they've nearly killed it!" I shouted in early triumph.
Cassie came out of the bathroom and crawled next to me, wanting to join me and watching as they finally killed that alien. We both watched with anticipation as they finally seemed to be destroying its tough outer exterior.
The animal looked disgusting. That barbaric creature had two long arms with five fingers that looked about as long as a human forearm, it had a triangular-shaped head, rounded around the edges. I distinctly remember seeing it have bluish-gray skin earlier, but I guess after all of the flaming, bullets, and bombings, now it was reduced to a muscular frame.
It staggered after getting hit for over a day's worth and I was surprised that they were willing to keep pounding this thing so hard for that extended time.
Suddenly the sky overhead had a long, loud engine noise burst through the sound barrier.
We both looked up and my heart sank into what felt like ice-cold water because those were F-22s coming down fast from the sky.
I looked over to Cassie who looked like she had frozen over. Without much rational thought, I grabbed hold of her and we both ducked low to the ground.
The glass exploded above us as I heard missiles coming down, explosion after explosion detonating and leveling everything nearby. They were going to keep hitting this thing till it was either ash, or the entire area had been left in ashes.
Cassie kept crying but I also felt a huge overwhelming feeling of dread laying on top of me. I hugged her tightly, wanting to give myself some warmth from the otherwise cold, apathetic attack that we had found ourselves stuck in.
She kept whispering through choked up words, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,"
"Cassie, listen, we're going to be alright. You hear that! We are going to live!"
The last explosion was so close to our house that I think part of it was coming apart at that point. The whole house shook violently and Cassie and I were even momentarily lifted off of the ground by how much power was behind that last explosion.
I slowly got back to my feet, my ears ringing exceedingly loud. I can barely hear whatever Cassie was saying to me. I still had the shotgun in hand. I was clutching that thing as my life depended on it.
Everything was a blurry mess, I was so dizzy I couldn't even focus entirely on anything.
Cassie was trying to tell me something. She kept pointing around me, her face full of fear.
Finally, things were going back to normal quickly and I was able to understand what she was trying to say.
"IT'S COMING THIS WAY!"
My eyes widened and as I turned around, the entire wall exploded inwards. I found myself being tossed over the couch and Cassie was quick to try and crawl back to the bathroom. I think she left her pistol there.
When I got a good look at it, I realized it was at death's door. It was all bloody, muscular, one of its eyes had fallen out. And it had this blood-filled shrill escaping from his mouth that made your skin curl in itself. Frankly, it sounded like no animal on Earth.
Bullets started raining in, a little too close for comfort for me.
I had to make a decision, the thing was eyeing down my wife. She turned around towards me, her eyes filled with tears.
Without much hesitation, I pumped the shotgun and unloaded an entire blast into its chest while it was distracted.
It screamed out in a horrific shrill, probably more stunned that a simple firearm is enough to finally get this thing injured at this point.
I kept blasting, pumping, blasting, pumping, repeatedly doing this while screaming as I kept shooting that sick animal. It swung its broken fingers at me, cutting a bit of my leg in the process. I fell down for a moment, but I knew I had to get back up for Cassie. It didn't do so well when I finally was able to get close enough to it, point the double-barrel right at its head, and blast straight into its mouth.
Strangely enough, that wasn't even enough to kill it. It fell back, squirming around in writhing pain, and I was shocked when I saw Cassie come out with her pistol and unload all eight bullets into the creature as well. I joined her in the attack, and we kept shooting at it until it finally stopped moving.
We both were out of breath, completely in shock, and frankly just wanting to go home. Maybe even see a therapist.
I rested on the floor next to Cassie who had lost her strength as well. We were just too tired to even run and I had no intention of getting out on my own.
Through the smoke, four soldiers in full body armored gear painted black entered through the gaping hole in the wall.
I was so tired I was sure I'd lose consciousness. Sure enough, everything faded to black. I could briefly hear the chatter of radios, but what they said I could not remember.
When I woke up, I was sitting in a hospital bed. I looked around in frantic movements, wondering where Cassie was— where my wife was?
I saw her completely passed out in the bed next to me. I was so relieved to see her safe and sound.
When I looked around, I saw that we were in a military infirmary tent. It was still snowing outside, but thankfully these tents know how to keep you warm.
But as I was about to get comfortable in my bed, two guys in suits- not black suits, thankfully they weren't going to be so cliche— walked in with two guards in uniform behind them.
The man who appeared oldest, complete with a bald head and big, bushy, gray mustache said, "Good morning soldier."
I chuckled a little bit. "Soldier? I wouldn't say I'm a soldier."
He had a charming laugh that I could tell you enough that he was more of a ladies' man in his spare time when he wasn't working to be some high-up government official.
"Ah, but weren't you the one who managed to kill that extraterrestrial?"
Clearly, he knew what I had done, so there was no point in lying. "Yes sir,"
"That makes you a soldier I guess. You may be just a civilian, but anyone who has the guts to take on something that took tanks and Blackhawks an entire day's worth of fighting to kill is deserving of such a title."
"I'm honored," I responded with unease.
"Well, I feel like it's the least we can do considering that even though we did most of the work, the fact that you managed to kill that thing with a shotgun and revolver is my definition of bravery. So we will be needing you to do a few favors for us in return for some added benefits for your heroism today."
I was well-versed in this kind of stuff. You watch enough movies, read enough books, you learn a little bit about what they're going to tell you next. Of course, I had to sign the documentation that neither of us would ever talk about what we had seen today. We were to never acknowledge any information that was related to what had happened today. And we were to tell anyone we came across that we had a lovely second honeymoon trying to rekindle our marriage.
But in return, I did get some financial help from these guys. They gave me a reward of $100,000 each. Although I'd like for more, I'm not going to pester them with that feeling. Beggars can't be choosers, right?
Although after all of that happened, I and Cassie did manage to recover somewhat of our marriage for the time being. What happened that day wasn't going to save it though. In 2018, we decided to go our separate ways. But we still get together occasionally to talk about what happened on that fateful winter day in 2012. She says that she still has nightmares of that thing chasing after her. I don't suffer from the nightmares of that thing, but I can understand where she's coming from.
The recent events have changed that. After everything that happened and now that I've been a single man for quite some time now, I recently became more interested in what's going on above us.
I started collecting information about aliens, thinking that they were nothing more than little gray men and the occasional giant monster creature. Oh, how I was wrong. I was extraordinarily wrong about what was really going on in the stars.
But I suppose that isn't relative to this story. Despite all of the horror that I experienced, the horrors I experienced now are far worse, but I think it's time I sign off on this message. And so I will go back to a night of no sleep.
submitted by JamesCaligo to ThresholdofEvil [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 04:30 IlikeTonysChoco day ...THIRTY MFERS!!

So cigarettes were like $10 a pack sometimes 11 or 12 depending on where I got them. So I was getting two packs for about 14 or 15 bucks from circle k or 7-Eleven every other day. About 45 to $60 a week depending on how quick I rent through them.
200 to $300 a month.
Everything I did smell like cigarettes I stunk. I hated it.
Now I can run! I can yell at the top of my lungs? I can laugh without coughing! I can smell things that I honestly have not smelled since I moved to arizona. There are some interesting smells right now and I'm not sure if it's eucalyptus or the orange is dying or what's going but it's freaking nice and I like it
My weiner is way harder in the morning now. And I can have sex for longer.
I'm just so damn happy. And yeah I cheated. I took the chantix. But guess what? I would do it again. I don't know what it is in that damn pill that works. But here I was smoking that much. Couldn't go an hour without it and then all of a sudden, I'm taking a pill for not even five whole days and I just quit like that. Haven't smoked in 30 days as of today an hour ago. 30 days. I feel so good.
submitted by IlikeTonysChoco to stopsmoking [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 04:04 CitizenSnips4 Digital Daily #14 Written Summary — March 24th [Week 3 HOH Spoilers]

This is a summary of Digital Daily #14 (March 24th). Detailed are events that happen before nominations. Please no spoilers beyond this digital daily in the comments.
TL;DR:
Previously, we saw that Kuzie was planning to nominate Vanessa and Santina this week. Digital Daily #14 kicks off in the bedroom, where Ty gives Santina a hint that she might be going on the block this week. Then Ty and Zach have a game talk. Ty says he has revealed more info to Claudia, which alarms Zach. Kuzie’s possible targets this week are causing a crack in the Ty/Zach alliance; Ty wants Santina to stay and join their alliance, Zach wants Dan to be that person. At the end of their talk, Zach says if Ty can get Jonathan to “buy back” into their group, targeting Renee could be a possible solution. Ty then goes to Santina and tells her about this Jonathan offer. Santina then goes to HOH Kuzie to make a preemptive attempt at staying off the block, but the conversation doesn’t seem to have swayed Kuzie; when Santina leaves Kuzie says “dammit! I’m gonna have to send her home after being so nice.” Later, Ty approaches Kuzie about making her target Vanessa, not Santina.
Going into detail…
0:00:07 - Kitchen - Good Morning, Renee
Renee tells her roommates to clean their room today. Jonathan tells Renee/Claudia/Shanaya that he doesn’t want to watch their season after they are out. Renee says she’ll watch it, and it won’t affect how she feels about the experience because it will all be said and done. Renee: “except for that… FLIP VOTER!” Jonathan laughs. Renee says she knew there were gonna be two votes (Jonathan and Santina).
0:04:43 - Parlour - Santina Yoga
Zach whispers to Santina while she tries to do yoga in the parlour. Small talk about last night’s sleeping situation. Zach walks away. Santina continues with her stretches.
0:06:57 - Dining Table - Breakfast
Houseguests eat breakfast prepared by Chef Anika. Small talk while they eat.
0:09:29 - Pink Bedroom - Ty Clues Santina In
Santina goes to her bedroom for something and sees Ty laying on his bed. Santina: “are you okay? Do you want a hug?” Ty says he’s okay. Ty says he talked to Kuzie; for nominations, Kuzie is looking at the group of people that “ran around” on the day of Vanessa’s blowup. Santina: “so I’m one of those group of people. That’s cool.” Ty: “she didn’t tell me that you are going up, she just said that’s the pool of people.” Santina: “that’s cool, that’s cool. I’ll talk to her today.” Ty names the “pool”: Zach/Ty/Santina/Vanessa (and Roberto).
0:11:22 - Dining Table - Breakfast, continued
Shanaya tells the people at the table about the guy that she was “hanging out with” before the show. They talk about their “types”.
0:14:33 - Pink Bedroom - Ty Clues Santina In, continued
Santina/Ty continue talking about Kuzie. Santina: “I hope it’s not me. That’s all I can hope for.” They go quiet, then Santina asks about his workout and how he slept. Quiet for a while. Santina: “if she put you or Zach or whoever, would that make you her target?” Ty: “if she put me up? I think it would matter who she put me beside.” Santina continues sorting her clothes. She finishes up then says “well enjoy your alone time!” She leaves.
0:20:37 - Bathroom - Worried, Much?
After learning about her possible nomination, Santina goes to the bathroom to freshen up her appearance.
0:25:26 - Parlour - Ty & Zach Game Talk Pt 1
Ty tells Zach that Ty/Claudia are rocky right now. Zach: “aww really :( ?” Ty says their new group is Ty/Zach/Hope/Claudia/Kuzie/Santina. Ty: “Santina cannot go home this week.” Zach is still reluctant: “if she stays she will take me out.” Ty: “I’m telling you right now, she won’t.” Zach tries to pitch Dan as their number, not Santina. They split up so they can meet somewhere else to talk.
0:27:45 - Purple Bedroom - Zach Walks Around
Zach asks Anika if they can have their sit-down later. Anika: “yeah.”
0:28:15 - Bathroom - Zach Walks Around More
Zach goes to the bathroom. Claudia enters the room around the same time. Zach asks if she’s good. Claudia: “I’m always good Zach” They clap hands.
0:30:00 - Circle K - Ty & Zach Game Talk Pt 2
Ty and Zach meet in the Circle K room to continue their conversation. Ty says he has started to trust Claudia more so he let her in on some of the things going on, and she started to see the pull that Ty has in the house. Zach: “why would you let her in on that?” Ty says he didn’t tell her everything. Ty: “but she’s starting to see me as..” Zach: “the biggest threat in the house. You have to realize that she’s not the only one. Everyone thinks it’s me, but they know it’s you.” Ty says “numbers-wise”: Zach/Ty/Kuzie/Hope and Zach says Dan, Ty says Santina. Ty says Dan/Santina are 2 wildcards. Zach points out Hope is a wildcard too. Ty agrees. Ty then points out the possibility of Claudia/Shanaya/Renee/Daniel/Anika/Vanessa teaming up. Ty says if they send Santina home, that would be taking a number from their own side; Ty guarantees he can control Santina to work with their side, not against it. Zach explains his view: the people who would make big moves are Ty/Zach/Kuzie/Santina/Claudia/Daniel. Zach tries to persuade Ty to go after a “big move” person that might go after themselves. Ty says he told Kuzie to keep Dan off the block; if the veto is used, Dan will go on the block. Zach: “it’s a mistake. It’s a mistake.” Zach explains if Dan is on the block, then Shanaya (and then Claudia) will have to make a decision, and this is an emotional game. Zach explains whoever “they” put on the block, they either have to bring them closer, or not lose their trust (at least). Ty says Santina figured out who was in trouble when he said it was going to be the group that ran around on the day of Vanessa’s drama. Zach says Dan is going to scramble to Shanaya/“that side” if he goes on the block this week. Ty asks what about Renee? Zach explains if Renee is on the block it will cause tension with the girls having to make an emotional decision. Zach says Kuzie can simply nominate the people that voted against the house. Zach asks who Kuzie will nominate. Ty says Vanessa/Santina. Zach: “perfect.” Zach says Santina will go home against anyone besides Vanessa. Zach continues to explain that they need to keep the pressure on Jonathan/Vanessa/Santina and play it safe this week. Ty: “hypothetically speaking, I could blow up Claudia’s game because she already said some stuff about Renee.” Zach advises him not to do that; Zach says Ty is playing an aggressive game but a smart game. Ty says he told Claudia straight up that he can’t get into a showmance with a floater, because if they hit the block as a duo, he’s going to be sitting next to a floater: “so if you wanna be in a showmance with me? Then you need to do something.” Zach says “let’s get those two numbers (Jonathan/Vanessa) out and then the numbers will be shifted enough to where we don’t care.” Zach summarizes his argument: the girls don’t have the reason to gun after them yet, and they don’t want to give the girls a reason until their numbers are down. Ty leaves the room. Zach stays behind for a minute.
0:50:34 - Pink Bedroom - Bloating
Renee/Vanessa/Claudia/Shanaya talk about bloating problems.
0:52:25 - Library - One Last Thing
Zach has thought of a possible solution to keeping Jonathan and goes to tell Ty; if Ty can get Santina to convince Jonathan to “buy back” into their group, then putting Renee on the block is a viable option. Ty agrees, and Zach leaves. Ty plays pool by himself for a while.
0:55:07 - Pantry - Random Nothing
Zach/Santina small talk about the game. Ty walks in the room. Nothing important said.
0:56:13 - Purple Bedroom - Zach Updates Dan
Zach tells Dan what he “guesses” Kuzie will do this week and gives him advice. Zach: “continue building the friendships that you’re building, and we’ll keep the pressure on those people (Jonathan/Vanessa/Santina).” Zach tells Dan to distance himself from Vanessa. Dan asks for advice on his pitch to Kuzie. Zach says he should be honest and say that they haven’t talked game yet but he is willing to build a relationship with her. Zach helps Dan with the wording of his pitch to Kuzie. Other than that, they give each other personal updates; Dan says they should both lay as low as possible this week. Dan says he getting closer to Shanaya, like homies, not a showmance. Zach: “cool.” They leave the room.
1:03:26 - Library - Ty Tells Santina about Zach’s Offer
Ty and Santina play pool. Ty tells Santina that Kuzie’s possible targets are Jonathan/Santina/Vanessa, because they voted against the house (also Zach for other reasons, but Ty doesn’t think Kuzie would nominate Zach). Ty asks how Santina feels about Jonathan. Santina: “I like Johnny.” Ty asks if the Roberto situation brought Jonathan/Santina closer. Santina says no, it was only because they were both isolated last week. Ty says Jonathan/Santina have a similar loyalty that they play with in the game. Santina says she will talk to Kuzie and see where her head’s at. Ty admits that he is willing to stick his neck out for Santina; he told Kuzie that he wouldn’t want Santina to be the target. Ty asks Santina if she is capable of working with Zach moving forward. Santina says yes, it’s just the communication with Zach that is the issue. Ty: “he just comes off too aggressive?” Santina says yes. Ty continues with the convo: “so I see you as on an island with no major alliances.” Santina agrees. Ty asks Santina how she is with the girls. Santina says the girls want to have a girls alliance, but.. Santina says Renee is the captain of the girls alliance talk. Ty asks what Santina’s ideal alliance moving forward is. Santina says what they originally had (Ty/Zach/Santina). Ty says his biggest fear has happened; their side is fractured and everyone is isolated, while the girls side can unify at any moment. Ty says he wants Zach/Santina/Ty to come back together, so is that something Santina is willing to do? Santina says yes. Ty says he will talk to Kuzie; Santina just needs to get Jonathan on board. Santina says she hopes there are no hard feelings with Zach. Ty says he feels like they can all come back together and stresses that if Santina can get Jonathan on board, Zach will be more comfortable. Santina says she’s on board. Talking in circles for a while. Santina says she wants to talk to Kuzie first before Ty goes back to her. Santina says she appreciates Ty and thanks him for his talks. They hug and Ty leaves the room. Santina says to herself/the cameras that she doesn’t want to go home; “I didn’t think Kuzie would put me up but maybe she will put me up!”
1:24:05 - Pink Bedroom - Different Ways to Win
Vanessa and Renee discuss the fact that there are so many different ways to win BB. Small talk about the different “characters” of the season.
1:26:32 - HOH - Santina’s Attempt to Stay Off the Block
Santina approaches Kuzie in the HOH room for a talk. Small talk about Kuzie’s competition performance history for a while. Dan is mentioned; Kuzie thinks Dan has a competitive edge over Ty. More general game talk [Santina must be working up the nerve to ask about game]. Finally Santina says “I just want to see where your head’s at, because for me, I was in the middle of a lot of stuff this past week. I just hope it doesn’t affect… or make you think I’m against you.” Kuzie says she doesn’t think Santina is against her; however, Kuzie knows Santina is a competitor. Santina says moving forward, Kuzie will know who Santina’s target is if she wins HOH again. Santina not-so-subtly says “with the blowup this week, I hope my involvement doesn’t put a target on my back.” Kuzie says that situation would put a target on Santina’s back. Santina laughs “for you! A target for you.” Kuzie says if she were to target Santina, it wouldn’t be just based on that, but more because Kuzie sees Santina as a threat. Kuzie explains “first of all, let me explain my position:” she explains why she voted against Roberto. Dan enters momentarily to line up for the “queue” (to talk to Kuzie). Kuzie says there’s no queue and that she will find him after her talk with Santina. He leaves. Santina continues explaining her current spot in the house (isolated). Kuzie suddenly asks why Santina was crying after the HOH comp yesterday (outside immediately after the comp). Santina: “I don’t think I was crying, I think with Rob leaving, I felt like I was now playing my own game.” Kuzie asks for the tea because she saw that hug [we all did hehe]. Kuzie says she’s glad that they kept that element out of the game. Santina says to the camera: “sorry Rob, but I think I like him as a friend.” Santina compliments Roberto, but in the BB house, that’s not how she is thinking right now. Santina returns back to noms talk: “but if I do go on the block, which I hope I’m not going to :( ” Kuzie says “no, at this point, I’m actually having a hard time… I don’t even know what I’m gonna do.” Kuzie tries to sugar coat the possibility of Santina being on the block by saying she would have 2 opportunities to get off the block. Santina asks if Kuzie wants to make a big move or an easy move for the house. Kuzie says she wants peace in the house this week. Kuzie gets stressed out and Santina tells her not to. Kuzie says she wants the 2 people that she nominates to stay, but then she’d have to go through the veto thing… [I think she’s just caught off guard by her target and is saying anything]. They get up to hug. Kuzie thanks Santina for being her first talk. Santina leaves. Kuzie says to herself: “dammit. Then I’m gonna have to send you home after being so nice. She begins dancing with her iPod, then notices the cameras are watching her so she prepares to do a bigger dance. Ty enters the room.
1:48:50 - HOH - Ty Tries to Switch Kuzie’s Target
Ty asks Kuzie who her replacement nominee would be? Kuzie: “I’m thinking Dan but.. why?” Ty says there is a better person, and it would probably be better to keep Dan off the block since he is gaining numbers with Shanaya and that side. Kuzie clarifies she would only put Dan on the block if Santina came down off the block. Ty pauses, thinking about how he is going to get Kuzie to stop targeting Santina. Kuzie: “so Vanessa is my disposable pawn.” Ty: “okay Kuzie, hear me out: I think we need to target Vanessa, and not Santina.” Ty pushes the idea of bringing in Santina/Jonathan to their side, and Santina’s involvement being necessary to flip Jonathan. Kuzie says that Jonathan is so angry in his soul that he will never ever trust Zach/Ty again. Ty stresses that Santina is the glue between Jonathan and Ty/Zach. Ty says once they are back together, they will be “back to business.” Kuzie: “but the problem with ‘back to business’ is that week 1 it didn’t include me.” And that’s a wrap for Digital Daily #14!
submitted by CitizenSnips4 to BigBrother [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 03:46 throwawayschool678 AITA for not going home with my best friend anymore?

Hi! It’s my first time posting! I am quite young and need judgement on something that’s been stuck on my mind for some time now.
My best friend (let’s call her Jo) and I have been best friends for a number of years now.
Jo moved to my school around 5 months ago. Our parents made an agreement that Jo and I could walk home from school, or could be picked up by her parents as they live relatively close (5 minute drive). Sometimes when her mother picks us up, she would buy us food. Every month, we pay her around $100-200. I always kept reasonable mannerisms. Afterwards we would complete our homework, and just chill in her room.
Sometimes my mother picks both Jo and I up as well, and she would buy us food, however, both my parents work full hours (which is why my parents can’t pick me up).
Recently, my mother called her mother to ask about something relevant to a class we both take. Jo’s mother barely answers, when she seemingly starts to explode. She goes on about how my mother is such a horrible mother, how I allegedly “don’t get enough love in my household” and that I always eat too much food at their place. She also argues that they let me stay at their house for too long (2-3 hours). I’ll admit, I might be a burden for that and my parents should have picked me up earlier. She also asks us to stop bringing bubble tea as it is unhealthy in an aggressive way. She never objected or asked us to stop. It’s alright, we can stop, that’s our fault, but here’s the problem. She was actually yelling and ranting about my mom. We felt as though she could’ve been more civil in this situation. There are a few more reasons (can’t exceed word limit though). She never confirmed, but it made it clear as if she doesn’t want to pick me up anymore. During the call, my mother was tearing up, but if she didn’t make an excuse that I had class in a few minutes, we felt as it she would’ve kept on going. My mom had a breakdown. The next day, Jo’s mom called again and started ranting some more.
So our solution? My parents finally let me take the bus home/walk to the library. I feel like at this age I should be allowed to do this anyways. So my mom, grudgingly, contacted her mom again and informed her that I would be going home myself. Once again, her mother exploded, and went on ranting that she is endangering me and that my grandfather, who does have time, but the issue is that he’s 83. Before you guys attack me, bear in mind that Jo’s mom actually agreed to pick me until the end of the school year (7 months). Yes, they can ask not to anymore, but if they asked us directly (which they did not) we wouldn’t object and we would’ve understood.
Jo apparently doesn’t know what happened, but she heard from her mother that “OP is fine, but OP’s mom sucks and I’m never talking to her again,” and she really wants to know what happened. Her mom did not tell her. Our parents don’t talk anymore.
So Reddit, AITA?
submitted by throwawayschool678 to AmItheAsshole [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 03:34 Odd-Flounder8442 Looking lucid dream pills and now I can’t stop having nightmares.

I bought these Lucid dream enhancing pills for fun and giggles and realized that their not that fun at all. Start off I’m 6’6 240 pounds a big guy and never really had a “lucid dream” I thought that was more of a spiritual thing people have. I took these pills double the amount and for the first two weeks nothing at all so I went to get a refund but realized it was non refundable lol. I stopped taking the pills but Then two days later I started having these dreams , nothing crazy at first but to me it was something different, so I took them again. Fast forward these pills eventually started to work. I don’t remember the last 3 nights but they all been terrifying to the point I’m like do I need a pastor. But today at 6am I just had the worst one.
It started like this. I’m at the gas station no reason at all showing off my old school challenger to some people by the gas pump. I went inside and met 3 people who were extremely cool 2 girls and this guy. We chatted for a minute and talked about music and festivals. The guy in the group , let’s call him chad, Chad had a bike out side and wanted me to try it with him for shits and giggles and I did. I got on ,then he got on the back bar and we took off to do a circle around the building just being boys lol. I take off and notice this guy in front of us. To dodge him I go to the left and soon as I do a car pulls up up to the side I am going on and that random guy pulls out a gun and shoots at the car. I slide to the bike to dodge the crossfire and run for my life in the other direction . I see chad runs into the gas station and I follow. We told the girls what happen and while telling the story the shooter comes in , he looks at us, buys a snack and says what are the points of guns if you not going use them and leaves. We just starred at each other and 10 minutes later we was on a different topic. Dreams be skipping around randomly but then later on the dream
This the creepy part- part 2 After that experience I felt close with chad as a new bro, we almost died together and I felt we both like the same things cars, parties whatever….Chad recently had a grandfather died and the funeral was that day and he asked me to come, I said okay. Dream skipped to the park where I pulled up to the funeral which was in front of the house outside in the middle of nowhere. I get out my car and park, which was about 1000 feet from the ceremony in front of the house. I see chad and the two girls. We all hugged and what not . I sat next to chad cousins and brothers. This is the weird part, nobody is talking to me chad didn’t introduce me to his cousins that are sitting next to me, there’s like 8 of them. The girls are acting like I don’t exist. The guy cousins have formed a little group and we’re talking chatting but it didn’t sound like English. One guy cousins is doing most of the talking when he randomly stops and but when he looks at me he just stares and grins…. I look away…The ceremony starts. Here’s an idea of the layout …We are sitting in the front lawn under this big willow tree. There are about 300 people sitting on white chairs. 1200 feet in front of us there is the main road where I can see my car . Back to the ceremony.
I’m sitting bothered still that chad hasn’t said anything to me after I sat down and hasn’t introduced me and the girls were in front of me and never once looked back to say anything. It got quiet, very quiet, the pastor is started talking. Everyone looked at him with intense stares. He reads and preaches. While he’s preaching I’m zoning in my head and started looking around and eventually got to the willow tree. I follow the branches with my eyes and came across a doll without a head, I turned to tell chad and realized he was starring right at me with this face and says pay attention to the pastor. I did. The pastor started preaching again and I went back to the tree. I continue to gazed the tree and I notice these legs hanging . I look up and there are people hanging by their neck but their heads are fully twisted so the neck has bones stick out from fractures ..I freak out and I turn back to Chad and notice everyone starring at me. The pastor continues talking and everyone heads goes in a 360 bones started popping out and bloods squirting everywhere. I bolted for my car. I look behind me and at this point they have all have gotten up and we’re chasing me. I run towards the high way and realized they are very fast and grabbing my arms to stop me , wrapping flesh off my arms and then I got woken up my by my girl sweating . And realized 7 hours has gone by. Yeeep there was more details but that was so intense in my dream it seems like I am dying. Hopefully they stop
There dreams are getting worst and worst . I don’t like it at all. Lol not taking anymore pills
submitted by Odd-Flounder8442 to Dreams [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 03:34 Odd-Flounder8442 Looking lucid dream pills and now I can’t stop having nightmares.

I bought these Lucid dream enhancing pills for fun and giggles and realized that their not that fun at all. Start off I’m 6’6 240 pounds a big guy and never really had a “lucid dream” I thought that was more of a spiritual thing people have. I took these pills double the amount and for the first two weeks nothing at all so I went to get a refund but realized it was non refundable lol. I stopped taking the pills but Then two days later I started having these dreams , nothing crazy at first but to me it was something different, so I took them again. Fast forward these pills eventually started to work. I don’t remember the last 3 nights but they all been terrifying to the point I’m like do I need a pastor. But today at 6am I just had the worst one.
It started like this. I’m at the gas station no reason at all showing off my old school challenger to some people by the gas pump. I went inside and met 3 people who were extremely cool 2 girls and this guy. We chatted for a minute and talked about music and festivals. The guy in the group , let’s call him chad, Chad had a bike out side and wanted me to try it with him for shits and giggles and I did. I got on ,then he got on the back bar and we took off to do a circle around the building just being boys lol. I take off and notice this guy in front of us. To dodge him I go to the left and soon as I do a car pulls up up to the side I am going on and that random guy pulls out a gun and shoots at the car. I slide to the bike to dodge the crossfire and run for my life in the other direction . I see chad runs into the gas station and I follow. We told the girls what happen and while telling the story the shooter comes in , he looks at us, buys a snack and says what are the points of guns if you not going use them and leaves. We just starred at each other and 10 minutes later we was on a different topic. Dreams be skipping around randomly but then later on the dream
This the creepy part- part 2 After that experience I felt close with chad as a new bro, we almost died together and I felt we both like the same things cars, parties whatever….Chad recently had a grandfather died and the funeral was that day and he asked me to come, I said okay. Dream skipped to the park where I pulled up to the funeral which was in front of the house outside in the middle of nowhere. I get out my car and park, which was about 1000 feet from the ceremony in front of the house. I see chad and the two girls. We all hugged and what not . I sat next to chad cousins and brothers. This is the weird part, nobody is talking to me chad didn’t introduce me to his cousins that are sitting next to me, there’s like 8 of them. The girls are acting like I don’t exist. The guy cousins have formed a little group and we’re talking chatting but it didn’t sound like English. One guy cousins is doing most of the talking when he randomly stops and but when he looks at me he just stares and grins…. I look away…The ceremony starts. Here’s an idea of the layout …We are sitting in the front lawn under this big willow tree. There are about 300 people sitting on white chairs. 1200 feet in front of us there is the main road where I can see my car . Back to the ceremony.
I’m sitting bothered still that chad hasn’t said anything to me after I sat down and hasn’t introduced me and the girls were in front of me and never once looked back to say anything. It got quiet, very quiet, the pastor is started talking. Everyone looked at him with intense stares. He reads and preaches. While he’s preaching I’m zoning in my head and started looking around and eventually got to the willow tree. I follow the branches with my eyes and came across a doll without a head, I turned to tell chad and realized he was starring right at me with this face and says pay attention to the pastor. I did. The pastor started preaching again and I went back to the tree. I continue to gazed the tree and I notice these legs hanging . I look up and there are people hanging by their neck but their heads are fully twisted so the neck has bones stick out from fractures ..I freak out and I turn back to Chad and notice everyone starring at me. The pastor continues talking and everyone heads goes in a 360 bones started popping out and bloods squirting everywhere. I bolted for my car. I look behind me and at this point they have all have gotten up and we’re chasing me. I run towards the high way and realized they are very fast and grabbing my arms to stop me , wrapping flesh off my arms and then I got woken up my by my girl sweating . And realized 7 hours has gone by. Yeeep there was more details but that was so intense in my dream it seems like I am dying. Hopefully they stop
There dreams are getting worst and worst . I don’t like it at all. Lol not taking anymore pills
submitted by Odd-Flounder8442 to Nightmares [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 03:05 Odd-Flounder8442 Looking lucid dream pills and now I can’t stop having nightmares.

I bought these Lucid dream enhancing pills for fun and giggles and realized that their not that fun at all. Start off I’m 6’6 240 pounds a big guy and never really had a “lucid dream” I thought that was more of a spiritual thing people have. I took these pills double the amount and for the first two weeks nothing at all so I went to get a refund but realized it was non refundable lol. I stopped taking the pills but Then two days later I started having these dreams , nothing crazy at first but to me it was something different, so I took them again. Fast forward these pills eventually started to work. I don’t remember the last 3 nights but they all been terrifying to the point I’m like do I need a pastor. But today at 6am I just had the worst one.
It started like this. I’m at the gas station no reason at all showing off my old school challenger to some people by the gas pump. I went inside and met 3 people who were extremely cool 2 girls and this guy. We chatted for a minute and talked about music and festivals. The guy in the group , let’s call him chad, Chad had a bike out side and wanted me to try it with him for shits and giggles and I did. I got on ,then he got on the back bar and we took off to do a circle around the building just being boys lol. I take off and notice this guy in front of us. To dodge him I go to the left and soon as I do a car pulls up up to the side I am going on and that random guy pulls out a gun and shoots at the car. I slide to the bike to dodge the crossfire and run for my life in the other direction . I see chad runs into the gas station and I follow. We told the girls what happen and while telling the story the shooter comes in , he looks at us, buys a snack and says what are the points of guns if you not going use them and leaves. We just starred at each other and 10 minutes later we was on a different topic. Dreams be skipping around randomly but then later on the dream
This the creepy part- part 2 After that experience I felt close with chad as a new bro, we almost died together and I felt we both like the same things cars, parties whatever….Chad recently had a grandfather died and the funeral was that day and he asked me to come, I said okay. Dream skipped to the park where I pulled up to the funeral which was in front of the house outside in the middle of nowhere. I get out my car and park, which was about 1000 feet from the ceremony in front of the house. I see chad and the two girls. We all hugged and what not . I sat next to chad cousins and brothers. This is the weird part, nobody is talking to me chad didn’t introduce me to his cousins that are sitting next to me, there’s like 8 of them. The girls are acting like I don’t exist. The guy cousins have formed a little group and we’re talking chatting but it didn’t sound like English. One guy cousins is doing most of the talking when he randomly stops and but when he looks at me he just stares and grins…. I look away…The ceremony starts. Here’s an idea of the layout …We are sitting in the front lawn under this big willow tree. There are about 300 people sitting on white chairs. 1200 feet in front of us there is the main road where I can see my car . Back to the ceremony.
I’m sitting bothered still that chad hasn’t said anything to me after I sat down and hasn’t introduced me and the girls were in front of me and never once looked back to say anything. It got quiet, very quiet, the pastor is started talking. Everyone looked at him with intense stares. He reads and preaches. While he’s preaching I’m zoning in my head and started looking around and eventually got to the willow tree. I follow the branches with my eyes and came across a doll without a head, I turned to tell chad and realized he was starring right at me with this face and says pay attention to the pastor. I did. The pastor started preaching again and I went back to the tree. I continue to gazed the tree and I notice these legs hanging . I look up and there are people hanging by their neck but their heads are fully twisted so the neck has bones stick out from fractures ..I freak out and I turn back to Chad and notice everyone starring at me. The pastor continues talking and everyone heads goes in a 360 bones started popping out and bloods squirting everywhere. I bolted for my car. I look behind me and at this point they have all have gotten up and we’re chasing me. I run towards the high way and realized they are very fast and grabbing my arms to stop me , wrapping flesh off my arms and then I got woken up my by my girl sweating . And realized 7 hours has gone by. Yeeep there was more details but that was so intense in my dream it seems like I am dying. Hopefully they stop
There dreams are getting worst and worst . I don’t like it at all. Lol not taking anymore pills
submitted by Odd-Flounder8442 to nosleep [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 02:56 kayenano The Villainess Is An SS+ Rank Adventurer: Chapter 13

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Synopsis:
Juliette Contzen is a lazy, good-for-nothing princess. Overshadowed by her siblings, she's left with little to do but nap, read … and occasionally cut the falling raindrops with her sword. Spotted one day by an astonished adventurer, he insists on grading Juliette's swordsmanship, then promptly has a mental breakdown at the result.
Soon after, Juliette is given the news that her kingdom is on the brink of bankruptcy. At threat of being married off, the lazy princess vows to do whatever it takes to maintain her current lifestyle, and taking matters into her own hands, escapes in the middle of the night in order to restore her kingdom's finances.
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Copious Ohohohohos.

Chapter 13: Clockwork Doll
Apple let out a snort as he plodded along the uneven dirt lane. Whether it was the rapidly degrading quality of the roads or the new company he found himself in that was the source of his ire, I would never know.
Beside us was Coppelia, walking at an easy pace despite the many sacks she was swinging. Swinging. Not carrying. She didn't sling those sacks of loot over her back like some overworked mule, but swung them as she walked like a young girl toying with a basket of flowers in the meadows.
It was a ridiculous sight. A girl keeping up with a trotting horse while also carrying more than the animal's burden. Granted, as a work horse, Apple was no galloping steed. He went as fast as he wanted. And that was very slow.
Still, I had to accept the slight on Apple's image. The horse could not have carried the extra weight. He lacked the bridle necessary to pull a cart. And while I'm certain I would have fashioned a solution, I wasn't one to reject the appeasement of commoners.
Thus, girl on foot.
Or rather, a clockwork doll.
“You know, you've been staring for a while,” said Coppelia, turning to show the giant golden key sticking out of her back. “Go on. Want to touch it?”
She didn't look the slightest bit shy. And I didn't act the slightest bit incurious.
It'd take a level of ignorance neither of us possessed to pretend that she wasn't an extreme rarity in this kingdom. Only a few workshops possessed the knowledge, technical and magical expertise to build clockwork dolls. And none of them were in Tirea.
The fabrication process required to create one was said to be so demanding that it was always clear when a doll was being built. Sales of coffee beans boomed.
And now I fully understood why.
A girl whose beauty almost rivalled mine. Almost. She looked my age, or perhaps a year younger. A sweet and dignified appearance, yet she had a spritely smile full of mischief … as well as cogs, sprockets and gears.
Seeing such a marvel of engineering before me, I now fully understood what I had to do.
… I had to build my own!
What was this?! Not only was she pretty. But she was strong! She couldn't just carry tea cups. She could carry me! With someone like that by my side, I wouldn't need to work an extra day in my life!
“M-May I?” I replied, urging Apple to slide over as I reached down for the golden key. “Do I just … touch it?”
“Sure. Just make sure you don't turn it.”
“I see … and what would occur should I accidentally turn it?”
Coppelia puffed up her cheeks, then popped the air.
Boom.”
My hand froze. I looked at Coppelia.
She didn't correct herself.
“Per … Perhaps it's better if I don't,” I said, swiftly uprighting myself on the saddle. “Besides, you're hardly some plaything to be prodded and poked. I apologise for my less than discreet ogling. Clockwork dolls are not known to visit Tirea.”
“I bet. I mean, who'd want to visit this tiny kingdom out in the boonies?”
I almost choked on my response, such was the speed at which my indignation sought to leave my lips.
No matter how wonderful this invention of engineering was, that didn't give her a blank cheque to disregard my kingdom like some downtrodden restaurant!
“T-Tiny?! The … The boonies?! Miss—”
“Coppelia.”
“Coppelia! This is a majestic kingdom, graced with verdant fields and enterprising scholars! I assure you, there is nothing tiny or … or boonie-like about this rich land!”
“Really? My memory core must be out of whack. It says the Kingdom of Tirea is the second smallest independent nation-state by surface area on this continent, and that it's gross economic output—”
“Shhshhshhshh!! This … This kingdom holds treasures beyond the definition of crowns and industry. We measure prosperity in different ways. In culture. In harmony. And in peace.”
“You were attacked by bandits five minutes ago.”
“A most unfortunate and poorly timed coincidence that doesn't reflect the safe and harmonious nature of this kingdom.”
Coppelia giggled, delicately bringing up the back of her hand to hide her lips … all the while still gripping those huge sacks.
Such brutish strength! It was … marvellous!
Imagine if I had such a useful attendant by my side! The next time Roland hid behind a door to frighten me, I could order her to rip the door off and launch it and him through the nearest window! The possibilities were endless!
“Unfortunate and poorly timed coincidences are the domain of Ouzelia, actually. It's pretty much our trademark, and we guard it zealously. I'm afraid you can't have that.”
Her words could have been written as jest, but her tone was anything but.
“I see. My tutors always said that Ouzelia was a land of splendour and opportunity, and that its freedoms exceeded even that of Tirea.”
“A rotten lie. What did they actually say?”
“That it was full of oddballs and I should stay away.”
“Much better.” Coppelia twirled as she took her next steps forwards, swinging the sacks perilously close to Apple's side as she spun. “Ah, Ouzelia, where dragons roam the skies and there exists no fiction in fairytales. Humans live with ogres. Ogres live with goblins. Goblins live with … well, nobody since they're kinda grouchy. How are the ones here?”
I gave it a moment's thought, then decided to answer honestly.
“Still grouchy.”
“Goblins, eh?”
“Goblins.”
I nodded, needing to say little else.
At least ours were fiercely isolationist. As were our ogre clans. Such a mixing of cultures could never be considered in Tirea, where few non-natives other than the odd troll caravan or questing minotaur could be found passing through our towns and villages.
Then again—
As I stole a glance at the girl alternating between walking and skipping beside me, at the heavy sacks in her hands, and the large golden key protruding from her back, I couldn't help but think that even a dragon probably wasn't as rare as a princess and a clockwork doll passing through our streets together, either.
“Have you been searching for this missing book for long? I'm curious how much time you've spent wandering the kingdom.”
“Waaay too long. These shoes weren't made for walking. But books are hard to find. Especially the one I'm after. Alas, if only I had a different job. My sisters, they got jobs like cleaning bookcases. How wonderful is that? Books always get lost. But bookcases? If that's all I had to do, I'd be able to relax at the—”
“I understand!”
“Eh?”
A flush of excitement ran through me as I seized on the opportunity at once.
Ohhoho! Indeed, rejoice, fair clockwork maiden! No insinuation was lost on me!
As a princess trained in the art of reading cues and desires, I was adept at understanding the words between the lines as keenly as a conductor sensed the notes weaving amongst a grand sonata.
And my instincts were telling me ... that she wished to serve under me as my personal attendant!
“A-Ahem, if cleaning is something you wish to experience, I can offer you a position as attendant. You see, I happen to have left my previous residence without any. Therefore, you may be at ease, as from now, I will declare you to be my sole—”
“I refuse.”
“Geh?!”
My jaw dropped at the abruptness of her rejection.
Could … Could it be that I was wrong? Or perhaps I'd pressed her too suddenly? True, it was only natural to react with inappropriate modesty when presented with such an envied position as the personal attendant to a princess. There were rivalries to consider. New enemies to watch. Old allies to turn. To become my sole attendant was to make one's social debut in high society. Even a maid could be elevated to the lowest rungs of lower nobility by adopting such an exclusive role.
Hmm?
But wasn't I forgetting something?
Ah, but of course! She didn't know I was a princess!
“I refuse,” she repeated cheerfully. “Thank you for the offer. But I've no need for a mistress. My loyalty is to my library.”
A bizarre croak exited my mouth as a thousand responses amalgamated into one.
I … I couldn't tell her!
I was supposed to be incognito, not hiring new employees!
“Sooo, well-dressed, haughty girl who wants an attendant ... is it just 'Juliette'? Or is there a 'High Ladyship' or 'Her Revered Countess, Holy Destroyer of Unwanted Beetles' title somewhere in there as well?”
I winced.
Partly because my masterful disguise as a titleless 'Juliette' was clearly not enough to hide the fact I was simply far too dignified to pass as anything less than nobility. But also because she'd just butchered our entire peerage system in one single sentence.
“Those are not titles.”
“My cunning word trap worked. So, nobility?”
“Undisclosed.”
Coppelia raised an eyebrow.
“Royalty?”
“............”
Hmm?
What … What was that?
Was that … sweat? Why was I sweating? How long had I been riding for? When had sitting in a saddle been such a taxing activity on me?
“U-Undisclosed ...”
For a moment, Coppelia had the look of someone who wished to make an unnecessary comment. I was relieved when she didn't.
… She didn't suspect!
Really now. That was too close. And the fault lay entirely with me.
It was vexing, but the truth is that I didn't enjoy parading myself as anything less than a princess. To do away with my title was difficult enough. But to adopt another was quite another. I needed to find a compromise … eventually.
Eventually.
Meaning ... there was no rush!
I had no need to dive straight into the details of my subterfuge, did I? Once I picked an identity, I'd need to actively utilise it or risk being outed. I couldn't have that. A poor identity was more suspicious than having none. It'd undermine everything!
Therefore, the best thing to do was to disclose nothing. The less I spoke about my background, the less anyone would suspect I was a princess. If anyone asked me if I was Juliette Contzen, 3rd Princess to the Kingdom of Tirea, I could simply refuse to answer and they'd be none the wiser.
Ohohoho! Genius.
Why make things harder? Sometimes, less truly was more.
“To answer slightly more, I can't offer myself for any role other than that which I'm already sworn to do. My purpose is to search for unreturned books. That means I'm forbidden from washing the dishes of any ladies of high standing. Or putting on their socks. That one is specifically ruled out.”
I nodded, taking the loss of a potential handmaiden with good grace.
… Ohhhohoho!! Until next time, of course!
Fortunes waver and ambitions stir. When this girl wished to seek a rewarding new career path in the exciting world of courtly backstabbing, treachery and betrayal, I'd ensure that the door remained open.
“I see. A terrible shame. Nevertheless, I applaud your loyalty to your library. Indeed, by refusing my first offer, you passed the first test to becoming my personal attendant. Should you wish to continue this application, you may do so at any time.”
She connected her thumb and index finger into a circle and smiled lazily.
“O-kay~”
I contented myself with that somewhat lackadaisical response. It lacked the dirt eating grovelling that I usually received when overseeing prospective hires … but I was nothing if not mildly flexible!
When it came to receiving a promising new attendant who could carry my extensive wardrobe wherever I pleased, I was willing to bide my time.
In fact, if she could display such wonderful strength, would that not also make her an excellent candidate to be a bodyguard? If so, that'd make her a two-for-one attendant! I'd be the envy of the soirée!
“By any chance, does your prodigious ability to carry large weights hint towards how you defend yourself in this peaceful and harmonious land?”
“Hmm?” Coppelia looked down, then blinked at the sacks in her hands. “Oh, this? This is nothing.”
“I disagree! … Hence why I note that you carry no weapons on your person, and yet you're able to traverse the perilous wilds that exist between Ouzelia and Tirea. Tell me, would you happen to be proficient in overcoming physical confrontations?”
“My, my, my … what are you implying? I have my feminine wiles and girlish charms. What else do I need to travel the wide world?”
Coppelia flicked her fluffy golden hair and gave a smile as radiant as the sunshine.
I was appalled.
Who did this girl think she was? Me?
Clearly, she had to boast martial skill or magical ability. Not everyone possessed a princess's charisma. And for all the confidence in her smile, that also included her.
“Charm and wit is not enough to negotiate the dangers that pervade this world, unless you're me. Everyone else requires the knowledge of a scholar and the intuition of a rogue. To challenge, to compromise, or to flee based on coldly evaluating every morsel of insight available to you. This is the trifecta of choices one must continually master in order to overcome foes who wish to force victory through brute force alone.”
Coppelia nodded, interest sparkling in her turquoise eyes as she had the politeness to feign the correct amount of being intrigued. A valuable skill set. My tutors would be pleased.
“I see, I see … but what if your foe isn't someone who wants to talk or fight?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, what if it's say, a blight? How would you overcome that?”
“A blight?”
“A blight affecting crops and pastures, a faceless enemy with no notion of negotiation or belligerence. That'd be pretty tricky, wouldn't it? I just want to know where on the manual that is.”
I tilted my head slightly.
It was a concept I had to wrap my head around. To be frank, something which didn't try to sully my reputation or outright assassinate me wouldn't truly count as a foe.
At least not until I saw the first inklings of withering intruding upon the corner of my eye.
Apple came to a stop as I tugged back his reins.
Turning my gaze slowly, I took in the sight of the fields that lay ahead.
Appalling parched fields crept down from across the horizon. Beyond half-wilted lines of hedgerows and trees, a scene of death and decay promised to wait for me. The contrast to the green fields to my sides were stark.
Beyond a rotting demarcation as clear as lines in the sand, I saw a vision of the fine pastures fit for napping replaced by a barren stretch of broken livelihoods.
I couldn't believe it. Was this what was meant by failing crops?
This was beyond what I had imagined! We hadn't even entered the lowlands yet! Was this some disease in the soil? How far did it stretch? How much of our farmland was lost?
It was more morbid than anything I could have envisaged. I could literally see the trail of tax income from yield percentages to stall revenues collapsing in front of me! Each fallen stalk of wheat was another feather snatched from my pillow!
It was horrible!
Beside me, Coppelia was cheerfully humming an unknown melody.
Judging from the brightness of her tune, the state of the kingdom's collapsing grain reserves and the riots that were certain to follow ranked lower on her reasons to be concerned list than it did mine. It was not, after all, my fate that she shared. Even now, I could see a grim future where my family was forced to sell our gold framed portraits and ruby inlaid candlesticks just to appease the peasant masses.
The indignity almost knocked me off my saddle.
Awakening from my stupor, I clenched my fists and spurred Apple onwards.
It was time for Juliette Contzen, the Third Princess of the Kingdom of Tirea, to do her duty. No matter what, I would prevent a future where I was forced to degrade my quality of life. To live as though I were mere nobility.
Or worse, common-born nobility.
No blight would stand in my way.
This, I solemnly vowed.

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2023.03.29 02:04 dragondudzville dragon draw truly feels like a scam!! every time i contribute shards it says i haven’t and i can never get enough shards to win one either 😐 (eg i added 1000 shards to the fae dragon and it says i didn’t add any at all but i now have 0 soul shards ?!) anyone have any tips for me? 🐉🥰

dragon draw truly feels like a scam!! every time i contribute shards it says i haven’t and i can never get enough shards to win one either 😐 (eg i added 1000 shards to the fae dragon and it says i didn’t add any at all but i now have 0 soul shards ?!) anyone have any tips for me? 🐉🥰 submitted by dragondudzville to dragonvale [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 01:57 LowGlad2363 SHSAT RETAKE

So I've been noticing a lot of people asking about what the SHSAT retake is gonna be. Well to answer your questions, the 9th SHSAT is basically a more advanced version of the 8th SHSAT, topics mainly differing in the math section rather than the ELA. This test is mainly in November or December. Any freshman currently attending high school can take this test and if you are already in a SPH and you get a bad score, you will not get kicked out of your school. Also the point system and cut off scores for the retake SHSAT are much harsher than the 8th SHSAT.
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MATH SECTION
The math on the 9th SHSAT is mainly made of 8th grade common core math, algebra 1, some geometry, and the topics on the 8th grade SHSAT; such as percent's, statistics, pre algebra, fractions, and basic word problems.
The geo on the 9th SHSAT is mainly about Pythagoreans theorem, surface area/area/volume of 2d/3d shapes(such as spheres ,cone, cylinder, circle, cubes, etc.), properties of parallelograms and quadrilaterals, supplementary/complementary angles, transformations(translation, reflection, dilation, and rotation), midpoint/distance formula, and similar triangles, and coordinate geo. I probably missed some but those are basically the main geo topics.
For algebra 1 there are slopes, graphs, system of equations, finding x and y, factoring, finding the 0s of a graph, inequalities, absolute value, and number of solutions ,piece wise function, maybe sequences, and quadratics, . These are only some of the alg 1 topics that will come up, so you basically want to master all of alg 1 in order to get a really high score.
For 8th grade common core there is exponents, radicals (cube roots and square roots), scientific notation, scatter plots, transformations, repeating decimals, and volume. A lot of the SHSAT retake will be on these topics so you better study up.
A lot of the past SHSAT will also be on the retake, such as proportions, percent's, scatter plots, angle relationships, box plots, combinations and permutations, factorials, and proportional relationships.
Books that you will probably need for studying the math section is Andrew Kim, bobby tariq 8th and 9th SHSAT books(if you have good budget), alg 1 and geo regents book(probably found in your local library), and tutorverse.
HOWEVER, if you do not have the budget for all of these books, then I GREATLY suggest that you only buy Andrew Kim. Andrew Kim is a hard carry for the math section and basically gives you real life demonstration. The 9th and 8th grade samples at the end of the DOE handbook are also extremely similar to the math section. You should also do the practice tests too. To also practice and learn about the given math concepts, you should use Kahn Acedemy for alg 1 and 8th grade common core math.
Some tests I greatly recommend using to hone your skills are the alg 1 regents test, PSAT 8/9, doe handbook(mainly the 9th and 8th grade samples), and the 8th grade state test.
SHSAT Handbooks(MUST):https://admissionsquad.org/past-shsat-student-handbooks
55 Rules from Tariq:https://www.amazon.com/9th-GRADE-SHSAT-Practice-Tests/dp/1798409763
Bobby tariq ELA:https://www.amazon.com/SHSAT-ELA-Grade-Comprehension-Questions/dp/1090554826/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2NFL11RFEEYH4&keywords=grade+9+shsat&qid=1680041547&sprefix=grade+9+shsat%2Caps%2C110&sr=8-4
Andrew Kim(MUST GET):https://www.amazon.com/SHSAT-Grade-Math-Mathematics-Explanations/dp/1986850048
Tutorverse:https://www.amazon.com/New-York-City-SHSAT-Questions/dp/1732167761/ref=m_pd_aw_sbs_sccl_2/145-5264573-0889647?pd_rd_w=PrErk&content-id=amzn1.sym.b4ca4d1e-3722-4b55-b27a-c4d131b668b6&pf_rd_p=b4ca4d1e-3722-4b55-b27a-c4d131b668b6&pf_rd_r=8GVJDKQTQPCVAZ0AY93N&pd_rd_wg=BpGaK&pd_rd_r=da7b8346-6e66-424c-b398-c51333c713da&pd_rd_i=1732167761&psc=1
Algebra 1 regents:https://www.nysedregents.org/algebraone/
8th grade state test:https://www.nysedregents.org/ei/ei-math.html
The PSAT, alg 1 barrons, geo barrons books can all be found in your local library.
Kahn Acedemy(MUST DO)-
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/8th-engage-ny(This is for 8th grade common core math)<-- Must do
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/pre-algebra(pre algebra)
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/basic-geo(Basic Geo)
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra(Alg 1)<--- Must do
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/geometry(Highschool Geomtery, skip proofs,trig, circles)
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-eighth-grade-math/cc-8th-geometry(8th grade geometery)<--- Must do
Sorry if I missed anything for the math but this is basically the math portion of the 9th SHSAT
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ELA SECTION
Now based on personal experience and many others, ELA is quite the struggle. Many people have ELA as their weak section and probably have a low score just because of that. So these are just some basic to do's when improving on the ELA section.
First things first, the retake SHSAT ELA is very similar to the 8th SHSAT ELA but the passage difficulty is only slightly higher for the retake. However, the questions for both of the tests are similar. The 9th SHSAT has only 2-3 more advanced leveled passages than the 8th. For reference, if there were to be 6 passages on the 8th SHSAT, 2-3 of those passages would be more advanced for the retake. The grammar section for the retake is the same the 8th.
For people who struggle with pacing on the literature, I suggest that you start to read more literature and consistently develop your reading speed. If that doesn't help, then you can just do consistent testing on the reading section in replace for that.
Some tips on the ELA section from a fellow friend named Trying(got a 648 on the SHSAT retake) are,
Ela TIPS: Rev/Edit make sure all information is listed and relationship is kept when revising sentencesUse questions in REV/EDIT that relate to what is being asked, such as question being asked in context of a sentence in a paragraph, use it as it relates to the entire paragraph; chose most relevant, over arching idea; whatever answers the question fully, 2 might be correct, which one is MORE CORRECT? for " in paragraphs # and #" questions, go directly to the paragraph and whatever is relevant in THOSE paragraphs Word choice also matters and is important to consider
CONSIDER the most important idea of whatever section the question is referring to, might even be the whole story.
Also skimming is a pretty good technique when on boring passages but I don't really recommend because it is a risky technique. Maybe you can practice skimming to get the hang of it. If skimming doesn't work for you then you fully/deeply read the passage and try to understand the passage as much as you can. For the questions on the SHSAT, you can list these questions and try to find a specific pattern to answering these questions. Another big tip is to read the answer choices before you read the passage so you know what you are looking for. But the most biggest tip of all is to master POE other wise known as process of elimination. Try to find the most smallest mistakes the derive the answer choice away from the text. Doing that can help you eliminate choices more quickly and effectively. I feel like bobby best explains this type of method in his video-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPgtXBsjIro
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvk6Hat0smg
Now for practice material. You should use the doe handbooks ela section, ivyprep SHSAT book, ela regents, SAT ELA, and PSAT 8/9 ELA.
Doe Handbook:https://admissionsquad.org/past-shsat-student-handbooks
Ivyprep:https://www.amazon.com/IvyPrep-SHSAT-Specialized-Admissions-unbelievable/dp/1706415966
ELA regents Barron book and PSAT 8/9 will be found in your local library
SAT ELA:https://www.amazon.com/Official-SAT-Study-Guide-2020/dp/1457312190?crid=IZIJ50BIJP37&keywords=sat+prep+book+2023+college+board&qid=1669334304&sprefix=sat+prep+book+2023+,aps,87&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=ashton0c1-20&linkId=4483fba1a681ed5eb987ba77894de1e6&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
There are many SAT books but this is basically the best one
I'm pretty bad at ELA but I hope this helped
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TUTORS
So as many of you all know, there aren't many SHSAT 9 tutors out there. But my #1 recommendation, if you have the budget of course, if Bobby Tariq. Many people I know went to Bobby Tariq for the retake and have gotten extremely high scores and have been accepted to the infamous Stuyvesant High School. Unfortunately, I barely know any other tutors for the 9th SHSAT besides Bobby BUT if you do decide to go, then here is a heads up on what will happen. Bobby Tariq is not one person, they are two separate people. Bobby does SAT and Tariq does SHSAT. Also for people who go to bobby tariq, you guys will have to be prepared for the rigorous activities and pressure he will put you through. For people can't afford such a expensive tutor, you can self study instead. A lot of people have self studied, including me, and got into their dream schools through the retake. If you take the retake seriously and study, then your effort won't go in vain. Just so you know, people at Bobby's overprep themselves and do SAT and ACT for their practice. You can imitate these tactics and implement these materials when you are self studying. If you can't afford bobby's, then you can just do SAT,ACT, and buy his books to gain some of the experience.
Bobby Tariq:https://www.bobbytariq.com/9th-grade-shsat-prep
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Time management and prepping schedule
I started studying for the retake 2 months before the test. I highly don't recommend this and I believe that you should start studying right now. Since all of you have school right now, you should at least spend 1-2 hours on studying for the retake, and as we get closer to the summer, you should start increasing the amount of time you do. It is suggested that you start spending less of your free time on things such as video games and social media, instead invest that time into studying.
Now for time management. A lot of kids have probably failed the SHSAT due to time management issues, causing them to guess on questions they haven't answered. The key to fixing this is to just do more testing.
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MOTIVATION
Now I know a lot of you might be retaking because you didn't get into a school or didn't your first pick, but I assure you that if you study and work hard, you will most definitely get into your dream school. The 9th SHSAT has a a harsher point system and the competition is huge, but if you have motivation to fix your mistakes, then you will most definitely get in. People who had gotten a 505 on the 8th got a 648 on the 9th and my friend who got a 524 on the 8th and didn't get in, got a 632 on the 9th.
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A bit about myself and my experience with the retake
So for the 8th SHSAT, I got into Brooklyn Tech with a pretty decent score. At first I wanted to take the retake for fun but then I realized that my main goal for this year was to get into Stuyvesant High School due to pressure from family and friends. So I started to seriously prep and tried to get as many contacts I could get with the people who took it before. Luckily, I met some amazing people over discord and they helped me form my study guide for the retake. During test day, I took a cold shower in the morning to be energized and too be focused. I also brang a watch and sharpened pencils. Fortunately, my friend was there and we joked around which lead to my overall experience to be less stressing. When I was taking the test, I felt ready and I finished the math section in about 28 minutes. The real deal was the ELA. The first couple of passages were pretty good but when I got to the poem, I started to struggle. I was pretty scared but when the test ended, my friend also said that the poem was pretty hard so that lead me to believe that the passage was most likely field. During result day, I was too scared to check my result so I fell asleep first thing after school, but I was suddenly awoken by my mom shouting in joy saying that I got into stuy with a 640.
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I hoped this helped all of you who are retaking and I wish you luck on your journey!
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2023.03.29 01:44 Manicord23887 An analysis of Creatures of Sonaria: What can we learn from this game both good and bad

An analysis of Creatures of Sonaria: What can we learn from this game both good and bad
Hello, today I’ll be going into a deep dive of creatures of sonaria, a mini history lesson of the game, and some of the issue that plaque the game to this day. Note: some of the content of this may be based on personal opinions and as such you are welcome to make your own opinions as well. Also this is not meant to point hate on the game or devs. This is simply an analysis on some of the good and bad apsects of creature survival games utilized in this game and what future game devs can learn from this game.
first, little bit about me amd this post. im a game design student and I love to analyze and study games both good and bad to learn from them. Creature survival games has always had a rocky history both on roblox and outside of roblox. usually being drama related issues or overall design related issues, some of the most popular games in the genre being the Isle, Path of Titans, and of course Creatures of Sonaria. I have recently become fascinated with Roblox games as it’s a unique look into early developers as many game devs from roblox are relatively younger and as such you get a good view into games from smaller teams and how they work despicably from a live game system like roblox. So let’s get started. consider this like one of those video analysis people watch on youtube except you get to read it instead of drawing in the background because we all know we don’t actually watch the person talking the whole time. hopefully, I can be just as entertaining but that’s not really a promise, sorry.
Part 1: COS’s early beginning and ideas: games based on FOMO
so I actually played Creatures of Sonaria (CoS for short) way back from the game was in its early beta testing days. Back then the game was actually not called Sonaria as the dev team had not made Sonar Studios yet. The lead dev of the Game (and at least at the time that I’m aware of is still the lead dev) is a coder and modeler known as Erythia. Erythia and the team, now known as Sonar studios, is more well known for their initial hit game “Dragon Adventures” (DA for short) which is still a very popular and highly rated game on the platfrom. It’s a dragon raising game with lots of customization options. Of course not every dev from that project had a hand in the creation of CoS as both games were still being updated and worked on at the same time.
the earliest mentions of CoA (now CoS) was back in 2019. The earliest the goal for the game was to create a creature survival game while using Gacha game elements (for some who don’t know or are one of the rare few that haven’t heard of a game genshin impact before) Gacha games are essentially a chance based game mechanic where you have a percentage of winning characters or items from a group of prizes each with their own level of rarity. From a roblox perspective this was likely added to help with the appeal and returning interesting of the game. Sonar Studios is not new to how roblox gets players to come back to their games.
one of the biggest hurdles in making a game on roblox is the fact that almost every game is based on a live service concept. This means in order to keep interest, constant updates are a must (and trust me this will be a big deal in CoS development issues but I’ll get into that later). Roblox is very big on devs making profit from the amount of people playing the games and for how long they play at a time. So in order to remain in good profits, many roblox devs are basically forced to make addictive measures like this to get a nice steady profit. Sonar Studios used another method tho that’s just a popularly used by other roblox devs and what later became the biggest downfall (in my opinion) of the games core. FOMO
trading and rarity items/characters is one of those addictive cores of many roblox games. One of the most popular roblox games of all time “Adopt Me” was practically built on the principles of rarity and trading. It’s easy to get hooked on collecting every creature or item in a game and it stems greatly from an instinctual feeling on wanting to not be left out of the crowd that has the cool items. More commonly known by the acronym: FOMO (Fear of Missing out); if you have ever played DA or CoS you have very likely heard the words “it’s my dream *blank*” or “OMG it’s a *blank*“, I’ve always wanted one” These are usually clues of FOMO working as lots of these rare creatures are being seen and used by other players all the time. Trading helps to increase this feeling by giving players a chance to obatin these rare items in way that doesn't feel impossible. You will always see people offering creatures for other creatures and in a way it can promote a healthier form of FOMO by not gatekeeping creature entirely. But it doesn’t really fix the problem as a whole as this can only be used by players as a way to flex even more. But this is less of an issue for DA as its not a gacha like CoS. it’s a bonus feature in DA while in CoS its the core. And this is where the ambition of the game and the initial concept start to run into problems.
CoS suffers the worst from being a gacha game on top of a creature survival because both ideas are extremely taxing to work on separately let alone together. In order to contunue this supply and demand of rarity and creatures, CoS has been pulled into this endless production of Creatures to model and create. They get some help with this by allowing the fans to pitch concepts and designs and pay them in robux for their efforts. But this creates a bit of issues regrading designs and concepts. Obviously not every design is going to be entirety original and while having reference is a good thing, there no denying that some of these designs are in a very dangerous spot for copyrighted issues. Take the Auraron for example when comparing it to a creature from the Monster Hunter video game series: Mizustune
https://preview.redd.it/ootfysbuwjqa1.jpg?width=755&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ed17af0ff734862cf60b9271847a2a0a79b8569

https://preview.redd.it/858pps1zwjqa1.jpg?width=924&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=797e6ba2dda76a218d3c15bf860dd37b14b3a4dd
they both bear a very strong resemblance, both having a similar shape and fins. Now, I don’t think the designer intended to copy mizustune part for part. However it is always important to be careful when designing something based on another creature to not make it too obvious (unless of course you want it to be for the sake of parody but thats very likely not the situation here), you will want to add a fair amount of your own flair in the design, less you catch the eyes of unfortunate lawsuits and copyrighted issues. Of course i don’t think Capcom is keeping their eyes on roblox games so the devs probably don’t care as much, but it is always something to think about. From what I have been told, there’s been a lot more drama related to issues like this in the past with the Sonar Team, I’m here to talk about the game design tho and not drama. Mistakes happen and that’s just a part of growing as a dev and a person, so I’m not going to really discuss it too much here. I just wanted to mention this as it is still a part of the design process that should be discussed as it’s something to be careful of.
Regarding the creatures tho besides this matter, this is by far the most intricate and amazing part of this game. The creatures have beautiful designs and animations especially for a roblox game. I need to give applause where it’s due. Having this many creatures each with their own movement is incredible and it helps to add a sense of variety more than just the designs alone. Seeing how each creature move and interacts is such a fascination. They also do a good job as keeping a consistent theme by resisting creature to fit the style of CoS which is vital in making a creature world fit together. You always want to make sure you creatures look like they belong in a consistent world (unless of course they aren’t suppose to be from the same world). They also due a great job as making the models by utilizing bigger polygons than hundred of timy pieces which helps the models not lag the game horrible. Sometimes it almost looks like a deformed mesh despite being segmented. a lot of that is thanks to have fluid the animations are. from running to swimming to idle, everything is taken into account and it’s clearly an incredible amount of work.

part 2: the core players of CoS: what is Oasis Syndrome and how do you prevent it?

let’s step away from all the creatures and collecting and let’s talk about the overall gameplay. As with most creature survival games the core idea is to survive by eating, drinking, hunting, fighting, and growing. Seems simple enough but a lot goes into making this process work because this game is reliant on the players to follow along the rules of the game in order for this concept to work as whole. The games ecosystem is basically ran by the players around you. Sometimes as a dev you have to remember that she making games where you play as wild animals, are basically making Humans think like wild animals and it’s a hard thing to achieve without rule set in place to create this behavior in the gameplay, because obviously humans aren’t wild animals and will not think as such by nature even when the rules are in the form of a fictional game. Which creates the number one biggest issue of any creature survival game and what I like to call “the oasis syndrome”
oasis syndrome is what I believe to be a by product of the natural need to be around other humans. Video games can be a great way to connect to people and hang out and when given a game where you can play as cool animals, sometimes it’s hard to get people to separate and hunt each other when everyone just wants to chat and hang out while showing off and flexing their cool creature. This means players will find a spot in the games map and universally choose it to be the “hang out spot” of the server resulting in ”Oasis Syndrome”. This also means that the players that are suppose to hunt each other will now be chilling in one area and just be “laying around chatting”. Good for a rolepay, not good for a creature survival game. because what happens if a player wants to play the game how it’s meant to be played? Well anyone who has played as a Ken and “just needed some food” know how this goes down. you are labeled as a “KOSER” (Kill on sight player) and attacked by the whole oasis.
So how do you fix this? well some other games ideas like the Isle and Path of Titans was to create different servers with admins that have the ability to enforce these rules, sometimes known as realism servers. But with roblox, unless you own a private server with dev controls you wont be able to do efficiently. Also, these servers have a bad history of admins abusing their powers. Sonar has had a few different ideas in the past to fix this issue but haven’t managed to fully fix the problem yet. At first they added an uncomfortably meter that would add debuffs the longer you were around other members not in your pack. But players simply ignored this and would leave and come right back. Another idea was to make forced situations like tornados that forced players out, but that didn’t work either as They all came right back. I think a core reason why this is such a big issue for CoS is the other half of the game, the Gacha aspect. Because what is the first thing you want to do when you get a cool new thing? You want to show it off! in order to do that you need to be around other players, so of course, everyone is going to group up. It’s why the Auction area in DA is so popular, because it’s basically a place to show off and get attention and it adds to that FOMO response and satisfaction. so, the big question is…can you fix this? Well, while I don’t think you can fully prevent this, their are someways you can maybe patch the damage, but it’s not gonna be well liked at first.
on way to encourage people to not flock together is to remove features that allow people to gather in the first place. One of the key ways players communicate in game is via global chat. Now I’ve seen roblox games where chat can be toggled to only show up in proximity to your player rather than a global chat and groups can have separate global chats. This was actually used in the Isle recently to help with their form of Oasis syndrome and it did manage to fix a bit of the problems. It helps to make you as a player focus more on yourself rather than communication with other players and adds to the lone survival experience. Another very glaring issue with CoS specifically is how they manage food. For a long time now, the devs have had meat simply spawn from specific areas in intervals. So in the eyes of a carnivorous player, why would they go to hunt if they can just sit here and get food for free? Back in the early days of the games testing, AI players were implemented and although they were a bit broken, they helped keep players moving and encouraged proper exploration for them as they were randomly spawned. Maybe something similar to the Path of Titans form of hunting, where you could find holes that initiated an AI chase could help with those coding issue while improving overall hunting mechanics. It also might be a good idea to encourage players to hunt other players in order to make the game less boring for both sides. Give them a chance to have that incredible rush of adrenaline and exciment because that’s also a way to add replay value and interest in players just as much as cool designs. But that also bring me to my next big point and another reason why gacha and creature survival is a hard thing to put together.

part 3: balancing and combat: why gacha does and doesn't work in Creature survivals

when playing a creature survival variety and combat is a big part of the game. You don’t want to see the same creature every time you play because it just gets boring. CoS is by no means shy of this. In fact I’d argue it has the largest roster I’ve ever seen in a creature survival game. And of course this is because it’s a gacha. But as some famous person I can’t remember has said “too much of a good thing can be a bad thing” and this can’t be said more for a creature survival because part of a live service creature survival game is combat. Combat is a tricky part of any creature survival game because you have to balance every creature to work together in a way that doesn’t overpower everyone while still considering the different play styles of each creatures. Why? Well, let me give this example: there is one apex predator in the game. It has insane stats and can kill almost everything in the game, so guess what starts to happen? everyone plays as said creature because no one else can beat said creature and it’s taking over the servers. Suddenly there can be twenty creatures in a game but now only one matters and it quickly becomes boring. There’s no longer variety or interest in a new encounter. You are fighting the same creature as the same creature.
Now sonar has added a ton of different mechanics to combat and also has a tier system implemented in the game to try and help resolve this issue. Bigger creatures become high theirs and other creatures in said tiers are stronger against creatures in said tier. Smaller creatures are usually weaker and as such are usually non carnivorous and are more based on ailments and speed so bigger animals can’t reach them to hurt them. Similar to how it works in an actual ecosystem. The gamba is also used to add variety by making sure not everyone has the same options as another player, which again is a good idea.…what isn’t a good idea was also making stat increasing items in a gacha a feature. Yes, that’s right…it’s time to talk about plushies.
the Plushie mechanic in my opinion is the biggest example of pay to win in CoS. the plushies we’re a recent addition that gives stat additions to players and can be won in gachas or in event shops. Sometimes the stats are minimal and aren’t harmful enough to do too much damage such as slight hunger reduction and maybe a bit of a speed boost when ambushing. Just a nice simple way to add some variety in creatures to shake up encounters by the individual rather than just the species. But then there’s the breath plushies. Breath is a very deadly mechanic in the game, typically used by fliers and one of the only forms of ranged combat in the game, there are different forms of breath like fire, blindness, slowness, poison, and more. obviously, because these breath are so powerful, you can only use it for so long without taking damage and only a select numbers of creatures get it...UNLESS you have plushy that gives you said power. Now, suddenly a creature that was built around certain stats is given more power than they are originally allowed and the balance is thrown out the windows. This is how we get situations like groups of creatures who mess with players by getting a ridiculous amount of breath. What makes this even worse is that you have to pay a hefty amount to get these items which creates a pay to win situation as you can get more money to buy these items by paying. And it’s not like these plushies go away after one use. They are a permanent item that you can buy as much a you want. the idea of plushies as a fun way to add a tiny percent bonus was a neat idea. But the breath plushies as a concept is very flawed and messes up a lot of the games balancing This is vital to encourage players to have fun.
but that’s of course expecting all of the game to be perfectly balance which is nearly impossible and that because this game is a gacha. As I stated earlier this game has the largest variety of creatures I’ve ever seen in a creature survival game and there is a reason why. when adding a new creature, you have to consider how it plays with every other creature, this means testing it and making sure that it doesn’t overpower or cause imbalances before it goe out and even after it’s publicly available. CoS doesn't have that luxury because its constantly churning out new Charcters monthly sometimes even weekly. Even if you test these creatures in a testing room, it’s gotten to the point now that you cannot test it with every single creature in the game to see how it balances. the tier system is carrying a lot of the weight but the tiers are only meant for base stats, they don’t take into account special abilities. In order to satiate the constant churn of new creature, new abilities are added to make creature more interesting and more valuable, and similar to plushies this creates a massive imbalance if not properly handles. there also the issue that these probables haven’t been found yet because of the “oasis syndrome” we haven’t been able to test these stats in proper survival game measures because the game rarely is played by actual survival game Rules in public servers. Honeslty I don’t know you would even go about fixing this because this comes from the biggest issue with CoS as a whole, the Updates.

Part 4: Quantity over Quality: when too much is not enough
when I talk to people about CoS, I don’t always hear about the cool creatures and gameplay. I hear a lot more about the bugs and crashes and optimization issues with the game. These issues were apparent from even early on in the game. some have existed for months and even years. Which is a bit of a surprise coming from how polished DA was in terms of mechanics and gameplay. Thats becaus a lot of DA’s early days was polishing the game and working out bugs and mechanics. It was only until recently that the rarity systems because I bigger deal in DA. CoS on the other hand seemed more worried about the gacha over the main game. After all, it’s what they use to bank on the interest and value on the game. There is about three to four new creatures each month in this game, but rarely are there any mentions of core gameplay additions. There was a recode mention per but it’s so long ago that I wonder if any of it is getting done because if how much time is being taken up by all the creatures being made. I hope I’m wrong tho. Game development takes a long time, but I haven’t seen anything to really show they are putting anything into that. I don’t think any of the devs will ever see this post but I’d they do I just want to say that it’s okay to take break, this constant flow of demand will never stop, but if you keep adding to that denand nothing changes. a game with issues will always be a game with issues even with a fancy new creatures, and eventually people are going realize that. a circle like this only keeps its value for so long. but Making something fun, something that people come back to just because they love to play It. It means so much more than that one rare creature that was cool for a few days.

well, we have reached the end of this discussion. I’d like to once again add that this is coming from a place of love for the game and is no way meant to bash or hurt the devs. I wouldn’t make this post talking about the problems if it wasn't from a place of genuine love for the game. I want this game to be better that it is. I want to see it grow and become something good. But right now it’s just not there yet, but it has the potential. I also hope this was a neat little adventure for people just reading this for fun. I hope this gives you ideas for your own games. anytime you make a game you should always do research. Learn from other games, see what works and doesn’t. Maybe someday you’ll make a hit game of your own. I know this was a fair bit of writing (there is probably more typos than I can’t count) but this is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. and if you did somehow read all this, first off you must be great with books XD, but also, thank you.
submitted by Manicord23887 to CreaturesofSonaria [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 01:22 schwiggity It was still a worthwhile order, though it was several gallons of Arizona tea and bottles of soda going to the second floor. I just don't know what I did wrong. Seems petty.

It was still a worthwhile order, though it was several gallons of Arizona tea and bottles of soda going to the second floor. I just don't know what I did wrong. Seems petty. submitted by schwiggity to UberEATS [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 01:10 HeadOfSpectre Faerie Tale - Twelfth Entry

First Entry
Second Entry
Third Entry
Fourth Entry
Fifth Entry
Sixth Entry
Seventh Entry
Eighth Entry
Ninth Entry
Tenth Entry
Eleventh Entry

Journal of Camille Lambert - April 14th (Part 4)

The screams of monsters who unfortunately were no longer beyond my comprehension echoed through the eternal night. I looked up to see one of the nearby warped buildings buckling, as the familiar shape of the Crab Nightwalker hefted its weight on top of it.

It looked considerably different from when I’d last seen it in Puriysk. It's now ill-fitting shell was adorned by glowing flowers, with red vines clinging to it like a sickness and hanging off of it like tendrils. In those tendrils, I could see screaming men, being pulled toward its maw. Pulsating flesh oozed out of the Crab's armor, as if it had overstuffed itself to the point where that armor could no longer contain it.

I watched as the Crab began to pry into the building it stood on, and as its tendrils probed through the windows, dragging out screaming men who shot hopelessly at it as if they stood any chance of killing it.

In the distance, I could see the beginnings of an orange glow as somewhere in Parsons a fire spread… not started by Nina this time. Progress? Looking down toward the street, past the out of place hardware store that Calhoun had escaped into, I could see various Nightwalkers fleeing for their lives, as their former brethren, newly marked by the Rosen Prince pursued them.

It was like something out of a nightmare… impossible horror after impossible horror, melded together and left to tear at each other's throats. The hellish monsters I’d known all my life versus the oppressive militia who I’d long since learned to fear, while a floral parasite ran rampant through the streets, consuming them all. The fact that the backdrop to this madness was now the twisted result of intersecting one town on top of another seemed trivial compared to the insanity that dominated the streets.

I turned, about to descend the stairs of the clock tower to throw myself back into the chaos when from the corner of my eye, I noticed Dom scrambling up the makeshift stairwell that Calhoun had formed out of the collapsed roof of the church. He had Gretchen slung over his shoulder, and Nina was coming up behind him. She hastily swapped out the magazine in her shotgun for a new one, before looking down frantically.

I ran to the far side of the tower to help Dom and Gretchen up through the broken clock face. She went first, followed by him.
“What’s going on down there?” I asked.
“Good news, the Bat thing is dead. Bad news, the Rosen Prince got it.” Dom said, reaching back to pull Nina up behind him.

Almost on cue, I heard yet another demonic screech from the hole in the church roof behind us and I saw another familiar face clawing its way up Calhoun’s makeshift stairwell.

For the most part, it looked like the same Horned Nightwalker we saw in Calhoun’s courtyard although now I could see the glowing flowers of the Rosen Prince adorning its arms and shoulders. Its hands had changed too, with jutting blades now protruding from its wrist. Gretchen looked back at the Horned Nightwalker with a grimace, before giving a sweeping motion with her hand. As the Nightwalker reached the top of the makeshift stairwell, I saw it buckle, then collapse, sending the creature crashing back down to the ground floor along with a significant portion of the roof. I hoped that might keep it down for a while longer.
“Holy fucking shit, what the hell happened here?” Nina cried, looking out over Parsons.

“The mist was already moving the town, I had to make do,” I said. “Don’t ask me how I did it, I don’t know! I don’t think any of the locals came through, though.”
Nina looked back at me, before shaking her head in exasperation.
“Well I hope to fuck they didn’t,” She said. “Cuz I do not have any kind of rescue plan.”
“What about Calhoun?” Dom asked.
“Wounded and on the run,” I said.

“Well let’s track his ass down and get the fuck out of here,” Nina said. “How badly did you hurt him?”
“I shot him twice in the stomach and he fell out the window,” I said and pointed to the broken clock face. Nina looked at it again, before looking straight down.
“Christ… and he survived that?” She asked.
“Evidently… since this pocket reality is still holding together,” Gretchen said. She rubbed at the back of her neck, wincing in pain as she did.

“How bad is it?” I asked.
“I’ll survive,” She said, “But let us deal with Calhoun first. If he is wise, he will recognize the futility of this engagement and seek to return to the Eldest. We cannot permit that to happen. Then he may be lost to us.”

I stared out of the clock tower again, looking toward Calhoun’s House a short distance away.
“Can you get there alright?” I asked.
“I’ll manage,” She assured me, although before we could decide how to proceed, another inhuman scream echoed from the Church below.

Nina screamed back at it in a condescending tone, then added: “Shut it, you vegetable fuck! We’re having a conversation!” As if in response to that, several crimson vines latched onto the sides of the hole in the roof, slithering outward to grab purchase onto the sides, before beginning to pull something up.
Gretchen sighed, rubbing at her temples and shaking her head.
“Why are you the way that you are?” Was all she asked.

A massive claw appeared on the edge of the roof, as the Horned Nightwalker… or at least what it had become, attempted to climb its way out. Its hands had already changed into sickle like claws that reminded me of the Horselike Nightwalker I’d seen in Puriysk. Several spider like legs rose out of the hole in the roof, lifting the new creature out of the ruined church and onto the roof as it dragged itself toward us.

“Such a bounty laid out before me!” The voice of the Rosen Prince snarled, “And I have you to thank, Gretchen Di Cesare! Yet, my hunger is not yet sated… for you have not yet joined with me, child!”

Nina readied her shotgun, firing into the new creature's face. Batlike wings unfurled from its back, closing around its body and taking the brunt of the fire.
“I grow ever stronger, from the wonderful creatures I have dined on. They offer me little in knowledge, but much in strength!”

As The Rosen Prince advanced on us, I noticed something else from the corner of my eye. The Crab Nightwalker was drawing closer to us as well. I know that Gretchen saw it too. Nina stopped shooting while shimmering blossoms with pale yellow eyes inside opened on the Prince’s wings as the fires quickly died down.

“Ah… ironic, is it not? To find you now in the same position you were in when you invoked me here. Cornered… Helpless... Desperate…”

Gritting her teeth, Gretchen gently pushed Nina aside, staring down the coming Prince.
“You presume far too much, my old friend…” She panted, before looking at us. “Grab something, hold it tight, and pray to whatever God may be listening.”

With a wave of her hand, Gretchen brought down more of the roof beneath the Rosen Prince. It did little to slow it down, but it did enough. Gretchen turned, grabbing the metal frame of the turret clock and letting out a cry of exertion.

I felt the ground move beneath us again, although this time it wasn’t something in the tower she was moving.

It was the tower itself.

In one swift motion, the clock tower had detached from the rest of the church and launched itself toward an adjacent building. The lower part of it lodged itself into the roof of that other building completely, causing part of it to crumble. Somehow though, the clocktower remained intact… for the most part. I imagined that had to be thanks to Gretchen.

“What the fuck are you trying to do?!” Nina cried, looking over at Gretchen with a new fear of God in her eyes.
“You told me to learn…” Gretchen hissed, “I’m learning…”

She strained again, looking back as the Rosen Prince spread his wings to take flight. Nina, Dom, and I grabbed hold of the frame of the turret clock since it seemed like the sturdiest thing to grab as Gretchen moved the tower again, launching it into another building, this one closer to Calhoun’s house.

The impact was too much for me this time. I lost my grip and was thrown to the ground, rolling toward one of the broken clock faces.
“Cam?” Nina called, before letting go of the clock to dive after me. She wasn’t fast enough.

The wind rushed past me as I fell out of the window, landing hard on the roof of the building below. I saw Nina looking down at me from above, before leaping down after me. She landed with a little more grace, and unevenly stumbled to my side, hastily putting a hand on my shoulder.
“You alright?” She asked.

I gave a half nod since despite being in considerable pain I was pretty sure I hadn’t broken anything.
“CAM!” I heard Dom cry, and saw him going to the window next. For a moment, I was sure he was about to jump down too, although Nina waved an arm to stop him.
“Don’t!” She said, “Stay with Gretchen! Get to the house, and kill that one eyed motherfucker if you see him! We’ll catch up!”

Dom hesitated, before looking to see that the Rosen Prince had launched himself onto the last building we’d been on. The Crab Nightwalker was almost on top of him now, and I watched as the two pressed together, their features sliding together as they formed into something new. Pieces of the crab's armor slid onto that twisted amalgamation of bodies, partially reinforcing its spiderlike legs. The batlike wings on its back grew larger to accommodate the new size of this creature, then split to form new wings. It morphed and changed, adapting to the prey it now hunted, becoming something draconic, arachnid, equine, humanoid, and floral all in one unholy mixture. Such a thing should not have ever been… and yet it was and when the change was complete, what was left was an armored creature three times taller than a man with several chitinous horse legs, segmented like a crab or a spiders protruding from its bulbous lower body. It had a hunched-over torso like a human’s, with thick arms ending in chitinous claws and a head that split open like a flower, with gnashing teeth in its center and antlers adorning its shoulders like pauldrons.

Of all the horrors I had seen in this world… this was by far the worst.

The flesh and armor it did not take from the Crab Nightwalker slunk away, pulsating and trying to reform into something new, while the body the Rosen Prince had made for himself spread its six draconic wings to give chase to Gretchen.

The tower moved again, launching itself toward another building and Nina grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the hole in the roof of the building we were on that the tower had left. I had just enough time to see the Rosen Prince take flight in pursuit of the tower before we made it inside the building.

After all the noise out there, the silence inside was almost jarring… and if I wasn’t absolutely terrified by the fucking flower dragon made out of every horrible thing that had tried to kill me in the past few days chasing after my friend, I might have even found it calming.

The building we were in looked as if it’d once been somebody's apartment. Nina looked around for a bit, before finding a door leading out into a hall.
“Come on, we should hurry,” She said, gesturing for me to follow her. I was certain that she had no idea where she was going, but to be fair I didn’t either so I followed her.
“Do all of your jobs go this badly?” I asked, as we headed for a door at the end of the hall.
“Not this badly, no,” She said. “This right here is a brand new record.”

We went through the door, heading down a flight of stairs, and out into the lobby of the building. Nina paused by the front door, looking out onto the street to ensure the coast was at least somewhat clear before moving ‘Somewhat clear’ being the operative term here.

The streets of Parsons were reduced to little more than complete pandemonium. I could see the burning corpses of the Rosen around us, along with one lone member of the Sheriff’s Boys who seemed too dazed to even realize we were there.

As the flames of the dead burned around him, devouring ruined cars and blackening the bricks of the buildings around him, he wandered aimlessly.

We all paused as behind us, one of the buildings that Gretchen had hit when she’d decided to turn a building into an airplane began to collapse. I could hear people screaming and felt a knot in my stomach tighten. The lucky sounded as if they’d been crushed outright… the unlucky just kept screaming.

Both the man on the street and I stared at the ruins of the collapsed building, and looking back at him I was hit with the knowledge that everyone in this miserable city probably knew that this was the end. They were all going to die here… whether it was at the hands of the Rosen, the Nightwalkers, or the destruction, they were all going to die. Maybe they all hadn’t accepted it as my friend on the street had… but it was a chilling truth.

This that had once been their paradise was now their tomb… and once Calhoun was dead, even that would no longer remain. I wondered if we were just as doomed as they were… and I wondered if we were just in denial about it.

Well… no time to think too hard about it now.
I felt Nina pulling at my arm.
“Let’s go,” She said. “I think the road up ahead is clear!”
The other man was looking at me now.

From behind us, I could hear the cries of the Rosen and looked back to see them sifting through the ruins of the collapsed building, looking for survivors. The man on the road just laughed, before calmly taking out his gun and putting it under his chin.

I heard the gunshot but didn’t see him die. By then we’d already moved on. But it still made me flinch.

The gate to Calhoun’s House was just up ahead, although it was not unguarded. I could see several more trucks, like the one Kevin had driven parked out front, with a few of the Sheriff’s Boys stationed around them.

As far as I could tell, the courtyard was pretty secure… perhaps they were waiting for Calhoun’s return. The clock tower was lodged in a building half a block away, and I saw it make its final push toward the twisted house, crashing into it head-on and shattering its malformed architecture.

In defiance of all laws of physics though, the clocktower still held together, despite jutting out of the front of that twisted building. The Sheriff’s Boys at the gate watched it with slack-jawed awe, before a familiar voice on a megaphone brought them back to attention.
“GUNS UP BOYS! COMPANY’S COMING!”

Between the cars, I could see Kevin holding his megaphone and pointing toward the building the clock tower had just jumped from. Of course Kevin was still alive. This day just hadn’t gone badly enough…

The Sheriff’s Boys manning the guns on their trucks got to work immediately, spinning to take aim at the Rosen Prince as he loomed over the nearby building, regarding the assembled prey with every eye on his sickly, pulsating body. I saw his wings spread wide as he began his final descent toward the courtyard. The bullets tore away chunks of his writhing flesh, but they did not slow him down. Instead, he simply folded his wings over his torso, shielding his body from the hail of gunfire as he made his advance.

The Rosen Prince lunged forward with one jagged claw, crushing one of the nearby trucks like it was made of paper. I saw Kevin take a step back, grimacing in rage before tossing his megaphone aside. Some of his men fled, but he stood his ground… probably because he physically could not run.
“You sonofabitch…” he growled, before pulling a gun from his holster. My eyes widened as I recognized it.

Gretchen’s revolver.

Kevin must have found it after we’d left!

I wondered if he knew what it did, and I got my answer only moments later. He pulled the trigger, striking one of the wings of the Rosen Prince.

The creature shrank back, letting out a hiss of pain, although seeming more confused than hurt. Pink mist rose up from its wing, and I saw the flesh begin to bubble and sear. The Rosen Prince recoiled, its flesh twisting as every eye on its body widened. Kevin kept the gun trained on the Prince, but didn’t fire again. The Rosen Prince retreated back up on top of the building. Its burning wing detached itself, although that didn’t quite seem to be enough. Entire chunks of what I suspect used to be the Bat Nightwalker sloughed out of its body as it tried to shed whatever flesh that Gretchen’s blessed bullet had destroyed.

“Keep shooting!” Kevin called, starting to limp back behind the remaining trucks. “Governor Calhoun is on his way! And get me somebody to help deal with that fucking flying tower!”
I looked over at Nina and saw her eyes narrowed as she watched Kevin leave. I watched her grip her gun tightly and put a hand on her arm.
“Don’t!” I warned, “Those trucks will tear us to pieces!”

I could see in her eyes that she wanted to argue, but clearly she knew better. Her eyes then darted toward the wall and I could see her doing the math in her head.
“Left side of the street, move fast, keep low,” She said. “We’ll jump the fence.”
That sounded like a slightly smarter idea, and I let Nina take the lead.

The trucks didn’t even seem to see us, and kept shooting at the Rosen Prince. I could even see a few crimson flares shooting up from some of the Sheriff’s Boys, catching the Prince’s body and setting his flesh alight as he retreated back atop the building again. Nina reached the fence first and I boosted her up to the top. She straddled it for a moment, reaching down to help pull me up before we dropped down into the courtyard together. She grabbed her shotgun again, keeping at the ready for when the inevitable shooting began.

The courtyard was in an even worse state than we’d left it in. The fountain was almost completely destroyed and had soaked the ground beneath us, turning anything that wasn’t protected by the cobblestone into mud.

Countless bodies, belonging to men, Rosen and Nightwalkers along with a few blackened things that I think were Nightwalkers, littered the ground. The truck that Kevin had used to attack us was crashed into a nearby wall and looked more or less completely totaled. We could see Kevin limping over toward where the clock tower was, looking up at it as he barked orders.

“Where’s my fucking explosives? We need to get back inside the house without letting any more of those things out through the fucking door!”
Nina stifled a laugh.
“Oh man… I forgot about the portal to hell…” She said under her breath, as if it was the funniest joke she’d ever heard.

The clock tower shifted, as the section of the house it had embedded itself in began to crumble. The tower sank down to the ground, still remaining intact. I took that as a sign that Gretchen and Dom were still inside.

“MOVE!” Kevin cried, ushering his men back as a cloud of dust flooded the courtyard. Nina and I shielded our eyes for a moment, although I realized as soon as she did the kind of opportunity that had just appeared for us. She gestured for me to follow, leading me toward the house under the cover of the dust.

“Whoever’s in that thing, I want them fucking dead!” Kevin said, coughing through the dust. He turned away from the clock tower, waving a hand in front of his face to try and escape the dust. Nina and I were almost at the front door now, and I already knew what she planned to do.

Honestly, I thought it was a terrible idea. But at this point, I was still on board with it.

Kevin looked up, noticing us just as we reached the door. Through the dust, I could see his eyes widen as Nina reached the front door and pulled it open.
“NO!” He cried, reaching out as if he could somehow stop us.
He couldn’t.

On the other side of the door, I could see reddish sands. I could feel the acrid heat and burning wind on my face. And I could see dark figures amongst the sands, looking up as soon as the door opened.

Not Nightwalkers… not Rosen.

Something else.

Nina fired a few rounds from her shotgun, forcing Kevin to try and run. He dove to the ground, crawling behind the shattered remains of the water fountain, as the Sheriff’s Boys turned to see that on top of all their existing problems, they now also had to deal with a portal to actual literal Hell. Because why not? I’m sure it really sucked to be them at that moment.

I saw the first of the blackened Demons charge through the door, snarling like a wild dog. It was torn to pieces by some gunfire from one of the Sheriff’s Boys almost immediately, but more followed.

There weren’t a lot of demons that poured out of that door… but there were enough.

I saw one of them leaping onto one of the Sheriff’s Boys. Its entire torso split open vertically, revealing a velvety mouth, full of teeth that clamped down on the poor man before he could do more than scream. As the Sheriff’s Boys tried to deal with the demons, Nina unleashed burning death upon them all, mindlessly shooting anything that moved. She paused only to pull the door closed, since I guess it made sense not to just leave that hanging open and unattended. I suppose it’s not like she needed even more Demons.

Behind the fountain, I saw Kevin struggling to stand as he tried to escape the carnage… and I started toward him.

Kevin saw me coming and hastily reached for Gretchen’s revolver, but I was faster. I raised my gun and fired twice, hitting him once in the arm and once in the chest. Kevin let out a cry of pain. The revolver slipped out of his hand and clattered uselessly to the ground. He left it where it lay, trying desperately to pull himself back as I pulled the trigger again, shooting him in the stomach two more times.

Finally, I was on top of him and pressed my foot down on his injured leg, earning a final cry of pain from him.
“What was that you said to me the other day?” I hissed, “When I kill you, I’ll have my boys do it… I’ll let them have their way with you first…”
My eyes burned into Kevin’s, and though he tried to keep a defiant face, I could see the fear in them.

“Where are your boys now, Kev?” I asked.
“It’s… Kevin…” He rasped, although I could still hear the fear in his voice.
I’ve gotta be honest… it was kinda funny.
“I know,” I replied as I squeezed the trigger one last time.

I might have only been using a .22, but it did the job perfectly. Kevin’s head jerked backward and he sank down into the mud, his eyes still open and staring quietly into infinity. I’d remember those eyes… but they would not haunt me.

I looked over at Nina, who gave a wide berth to the Sheriff’s Boys and the Demons trying to maul them as she ran to my side. She looked down at Kevin’s body, and I saw a wry smirk cross her lips, though as she reached down to pick up Gretchen’s revolver.
“Guess he shouldn’t have run for office,” She said, before looking toward the clock tower.

Through some of the crumbling bricks, I could see two figures limping out of the ruins.
“Dom…” I said, running toward him.
Gretchen was slung over his shoulder, but it was hard to say who was supporting who at that point. He collapsed down into a sitting position, and let her flop down onto the ground. The only indicator I could hear that she was still alive was her slight groan of pain.

“Oh my God, you’re okay?” I asked.
Dom just gave me a meek thumbs up.
“Next time… let’s… let’s not do… whatever that was…” He said, pointing vaguely at the clock tower. I pulled him into a hug, that he weakly returned.

“Hey… you good?” Nina asked, looking down at Gretchen and giving her a slight kick.
“Test results… sub-optimal. Do not recommend second attempt,” She groaned.
“Yeah, you’re fine. Get up, you big fucking nerdy baby.”

She reached down to help pull Gretchen to her feet again.
“Hot tea…” She murmured, as she leaned against the crumbling clock tower for support. “Hot tea… and a bath…”
She looked over at Nina.
“What are you doing when this is all over?”
“Oh, I’m gonna get fucking drunk and buy a lottery ticket,” She said. “I do not know how we’re all still alive right now, but I’m feeling pretty damn lucky.”
“Alcohol… yes… in tea…” Gretchen agreed, “You’re buying.”

With a trembling hand, she took her journal out of her jacket, turned to a fresh page, and in letters large enough for me to read wrote: ‘TOWER. NO.’

A distant roar pulled out attention back toward the gate. Above it, I could see the Rosen Prince descending from the building again for round 2. He was smaller this time, and had shed his wings… yet his form was otherwise unchanged.
Gretchen just closed her eyes in exasperation before sighing.
“Right… him…”

Through the gate, I could see the Sheriff’s Boys in the trucks trying to fight the Demons and the Prince to no avail. One of the trucks hastily sped off into the night. The other one stood its ground, shooting vainly at the Rosen Prince as he came for them. He brought one claw down like a hammer, crushing the men in the truck like it was nothing, then drawing it back to hit them again out of rage.

Hissing in satisfaction, we watched as the Rosen Prince continued toward the gate, his many legs going over it as he advanced into the courtyard.
“This night draws to its close, my old friend.” He snarled. “It seems you can run no more… while my strength, is everlasting. It is time… come into my ocean, as you were always meant to.”

“Oh fuck off already,” Gretchen huffed, before noticing Nina out of the corner of her eye, offering her the revolver. They traded a look before Gretchen took it and aimed it at the beast that advanced on us. The moment it realized what was being aimed at it, I heard it snarl with rage. Its body tensed as it lunged for us, trying to close the distance before she could shoot.

But it was already too late.

The gunshot echoed through the courtyard as the bullet hit the Rosen Prince square in the chest, and I saw his body begin to seize up. He clawed at his chest, many eyes going wide. A pained scream escaped him. Pink mist rose from the wound, causing its flesh to bubble and squirm. The Rosen Prince’s eyes fixated on Gretchen again as his body began to die.
“WRETCHED WOMAN!” It hissed, throwing its weight toward us as its body convulsed and boiled. “THIS WORLD REMAINS MINE… YOU SHALL NOT RUN FROM ME AGAIN!”
“Yes, this world is yours,” Gretchen agreed. “Enjoy it while it lasts. I imagine it won’t be for much longer. Your services are no longer required here. But thank you for your assistance.”

“TREACHEROUS WITCH!” The Rosen Prince snarled, desperately trying to crawl toward us. I saw the lower half of its body break away. Its legs curled in on themselves, twitching weakly in death. Only the Prince’s rotting torso remained now and Gretchen stared into its countless eyes, cold and unblinking.

As it tried to pull itself closer to us, one of its claws broke off. It’s movements slowed, as the amalgamation of corpses the Rosen Prince had assembled melted away. I could see the luminous flowers on its body starting to die, as the eyes turned white and fell away. In a few moments, the body of the Rosen Prince lay still as the flesh melted off of its bones… and silence filled the air.

“Is it dead…” I asked quietly, “Really dead?”
“No,” Gretchen replied. “The other drones will still be active, and I suspect he’ll be coming back for us shortly, once he can build something even worse to throw at us. We should leave now, while we still have the chance.”
“What about Calhoun?” I asked.

“If he’s not dead already, I vote we leave him to the Rosen Prince,” Gretchen said. She checked the cylinder of her revolver, “Seems whoever had this wasted the last of my ammunition… luckily I had foresight. Camille, you still have the bullet?”
“Right here,” I said, reaching into my pocket to take it out.

“Good,” She handed the revolver off to me, before turning away and heading toward the door. Her gait was slow and she gave the Rosen Prince a wide berth.
“I’ll remove the rune on Calhoun’s door. If we can find the room with the Eldest again, we should have a way out. We can use the last bullet on him, and see if it works… no promises, but right now I we’re low on options so it will have to suffice fo-”

A sudden onslaught of gunshots interrupted her. I saw Gretchen hit the ground with a pained cry, clutching at her side. Nina ran to her immediately, dragging her behind the ruins of the fountain, while Dom and I ran back toward the clock tower.

A single figure stood under the gate, shuffling past the ruined trucks with a heavy pistol in his hand.

Governor Calhoun looked significantly worse than when I’d last seen him. His skin looked a shade paler and his good eye seemed sunken. He’d stripped off both his shirt and suit jacket and I could see the bullet wounds in his stomach from where I’d shot him… although that was not what stood out the most. His skin was adorned with fresh cuts, with streaks of blood flowing from them like rivers. In his other hand, he held his ritual dagger.

“Leaving me for dead?” He asked, his voice hoarse and cold, “After all you’ve done… to ruin my world… to burn my temple and salt the earth upon which it was built, and you can’t even finish the job? Disappointing.” Nina tried to pop out of cover, but Calhoun shot first, grazing the stone by her head and sending her back down.

“It’s a shame it had to come to this,” Calhoun said. “I would have saved your world. I would have saved each and every one of you. But now after you’ve gone and wasted everything I’ve done… decades of good… I see now that there is no salvation for you people. There never was. I built paradise! And you’ve burned it! Corrupted it! Unleashed plague upon it! Why? I did no harm to you! I left you people be! And yet in stubborn defiance of my efforts to resolve this peacefully, you’ve-”
“Kill yourself,” Nina called, and Calhoun trained off.

“Excuse me…” He hissed.
“We’ve got you four to one, and you’re already looking like death warmed over… so cut the speech, Calhoun. Cut the theatrics… and let’s just get this the fuck over with you self-righteous fuck!”
I saw Calhoun actually crack a smile there.
“Ill-mannered until the end,” He said, before finally lowering his gun and tossing it aside, “Well… at least you were consistent, in life.”

He took another trembling step forward before sinking down to his knees. I saw Nina rising out from behind cover, while Dom and I did the same, our guns remaining trained on him. Calhoun looked at us, before slowly taking his knife and turning it toward his stomach.

Was… was he actually going to do it? Just like that?

Nina seemed surprised, pausing as she locked eyes with him.
“If there’s no salvation,” Calhoun said, “Then all that remains is death…”
With that, he drove the dagger into his stomach, sucking in a breath as he did. Nina actually flinched at the sight of it, but I stayed still, watching as Calhoun buried the dagger deep into his body, and as the blood dribbled down his hands.
“Holy Lugal,” he rasped, “I have no home to defend… no souls to offer. And so, I offer my own. Grant me retribution and I shall become yours.”

My eyes widened, and I could see Nina's doing the same. We understood all too late why he’d mutilated himself…

We fired on Calhoun, but it was too late.

A blinding crimson glow had already spread through his body, traveling along the carvings he’d made in his flesh and I could feel the air around us rippling. Somewhere in the distance, I could hear Calhoun screaming, followed by a faint voice over all of the noise. A voice I only barely recognized as Gretchen’s screaming:

“RUN!”
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2023.03.29 00:21 StoicDuck The gameplay footage makes me excited about the potential for TotK's economy

Zelda item / rupee economies are pretty variable in terms of how interesting they are. My definition of "economy" here is something like, the balance between the amount of resources available to you and the demands for those resources to be used to advance your goals. Ideally this results in the player having to make consequential and interesting choices about resource management - they need to use their resources wisely to succeed.
I remember Twilight Princess had way, way too many rupees in the game and nothing to spend them on. This made exploration unrewarding and also meant you weren't often in a position where you had to make interesting decisions about what to buy, since you always just had money.
The original LoZ had an interesting mechanic where shooting arrows just cost 1 rupee, which led made you conserve arrows and only use when needed.
Skyward Sword's monster parts were well implemented IMO, and were used for upgrading your gear, which made them feel like meaningful things to collect, a kind of second currency aside from rupees.
Majora's Mask's bank system & losing rupees/items when you time travel was also great, and makes the player be intentional about their resources, and prevents hoarding. I think this was one of my favorite Zelda economies.
One problem I had with BotW is that the game was constantly throwing monster parts at you and they did almost nothing. Or at least, in my play through most of them did not have obvious uses besides a crafting a couple potions I think, which in practice I almost never crafted or needed to craft. I know there was a vendor that used monster parts as a currency, but it was pretty optional and I didn't find it a compelling system to engage with.
I'm very glad that TotK appears to have created a system where all these monster parts, as well as other items you collect, will not just sit in your inventory to be used occasionally at a cooking pot, or sold, but will be actual resources you make decisions to use actively throughout the main gameplay loop. This will be much more dynamic and interesting, and force you to think and plan tactics about the resources you have and the ones you want to acquire.
I'm hoping that there won't just be junk items in this game, and from what we've seen, every item could well have a unique and fun use to it that can be used in different contexts! Given how long they've been working on these item systems, I am pretty excited to see how it all works. It may well be the best economy of any Zelda game to date.
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2023.03.29 00:19 Brock-and-broll69 My bestfriend (19F) and I (21F) are currently not speaking and I’m not really sure how to move forward with our relationship

I have known my best friend since she was born basically. Our mothers went to high school together and since I’m older I’ve always been around. My family ended up moving across the state when we were young but every summer we came back to visit. when I enrolled in uni her and I became roommates. For the most part it’s been pretty smooth sailing and we hardly have any issues. We spend a majority of our time together and she’s one of my favorite people in the whole world. Here’s where the problem began. In our first few months living together we created a friend group of mostly guys. They are all super chill and they do genuinely care for us and look out for us. My roommate started seeing one of the guys in that group who we will call Tim. Tim isn’t a bad guy, he just wanted more than my roommate was capable of giving him, and they ended up splitting up. I did not sever my relationship with that group of guys after their split. They are also my friends and they are really all I have outside the walls of my home. I explained that to my roommate and she agreed I shouldn’t let go of them and we will just keep things separate. Since their split, every few weeks, my roommate will pick fights with me about me being there with Tim. At first it was her assuming I wanted to sleep with him, which hurt my feelings bc I DID NOT want to do that, nor have I ever. For the last few months it’s been little assumptions she creates in her mind, she fires a shot and starts an argument and then vanishes for a few days until she is ready to talk to me. Over the few days of no communication I’m usually pretty erratic and upset. I never know what she wants me todo to fix the problem or if the fight she started is actually about the problem she chose or something deeper. Things were going a little too well for too long I guess because this last weekend she decided to pick another fight. It all started because one of the guys’ long distance girlfriends was coming into town for his birthday. We’ll call them Nick and Laura. Laura had given me call to help plan the party and some other festivities for our group to do for Nicks birthday weekend. I reserved my Friday for them. My roommate later asked me if I wanted to go out Friday night and I told her I couldn’t because of those plans and everything seemed to be fine until Friday night. A little after midnight she called, but I had missed it because my phone was away from me. She called a mutual friend who was at the party and when he handed me the phone she hung up on me. I went to grab my phone and texted her. Me: “r u okay? Do I need to come get you?” Her: “nah” Me: “r u okay” Her: “mad” Me: “why?” Her: “you” At this point I’m upset. The one word responses get on my nerves. They’re petty and unnecessary. She is capable of using her words to express what’s bothering her and she’s choosing not to. She ended our conversation with “have fun with Tim”
K so now I’m pissed. If I’m being honest idgaf ab Tim. I was there for Nicks birthday and to see Laura, she lives in NY and we live in WA, so we hardly ever see her, and my roommate knows that.
The next day she’s gone before I wake up. And to understand the next portion of this you will need a little back story.
Since I have an on going relationship with my roommates family I also know her siblings. She has an older brother (21M) who I have always had a crush on and both of our families know. It’s been an ongoing joke that we will get married one day. Recently him and his long term gf broke up and he waltzed into my life. I laid my boundaries down, expressing to him that I do not want to be a rebound of any kind and that this was deeper for me than it was for him. He ended up breaking my heart and going back to his ex. It was hard to go through that because he is my best friend and roommates brother. It was hard to talk to her about how I was feeling because of that circumstance and every time I tried, I would get shut down. I heavily relied on the circle of guys that I hung out with, and they essentially pulled me through and out of the hole that her brother had put me in. another resource that I used was TikTok. there were a few videos that I had made that were a little out of pocket I won’t lie, but I never name dropped him. Nobody ever knew who I was talking about and I checked with her before posting and established the boundary on how far I could take it. We never talked about where the line was. The videos stopped coming about a week ago, and there weren’t that many. I’m over it now. More angry than hurt but I’m back out there.
To finish my original story. The next morning I woke up and she was gone, but she had texted me a long paragraph about how I have to stop posting on the Internet. About how I am hurting her feelings. about how she drew a boundary and I crossed it because I didn’t understand what she told me. She started the message with “for the love of god” and finished her message with the comment that the guys I was with the night prior, where the fight began, had nothing todo with it. I did not respond.
I haven’t seen her or heard from her in four days. I know she’s alive and well. She comes home at night and I have her location, but no words have been said.
I’m at a loss for several reasons. I’m not the one with the issue and I’m not even entirely sure what the problem actually is. we never had a conversation about how what I was doing made her feel and I’m annoyed she would create a story to back her argument. I also feel like I’m always the one waiting for her to come home so we can talk and I so I can fix it. Like a wife waiting for her drunk husband who’s out doing god knows what with god knows who to come home. I’m tired of being treated like I’m constantly doing something wrong when there were no prior boundaries set. I don’t know where the line is if u don’t tell me where the line is. I can’t read her mind. Im also upset that she threw Tim in my face as if I weren’t doing other more important things for the people I care about and I’m upset that the next morning it was a different problem. What should I do next? Should I text her and tell her that when she wants to talk to me she can? Personally I think she’s waiting for me to cave and apologize but honestly I feel like I need the apology. She wasn’t there for me when I really needed her and I used other resources to cope and get over it. And now she’s throwing that in my face too. How shall I proceed?
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2023.03.29 00:18 Brock-and-broll69 My bestfriend (19F) and I (21F) are currently not speaking and I’m not really sure how to move forward with our relationship

I have known my best friend since she was born basically. Our mothers went to high school together and since I’m older I’ve always been around. My family ended up moving across the state when we were young but every summer we came back to visit. when I enrolled in uni her and I became roommates. For the most part it’s been pretty smooth sailing and we hardly have any issues. We spend a majority of our time together and she’s one of my favorite people in the whole world. Here’s where the problem began. In our first few months living together we created a friend group of mostly guys. They are all super chill and they do genuinely care for us and look out for us. My roommate started seeing one of the guys in that group who we will call Tim. Tim isn’t a bad guy, he just wanted more than my roommate was capable of giving him, and they ended up splitting up. I did not sever my relationship with that group of guys after their split. They are also my friends and they are really all I have outside the walls of my home. I explained that to my roommate and she agreed I shouldn’t let go of them and we will just keep things separate. Since their split, every few weeks, my roommate will pick fights with me about me being there with Tim. At first it was her assuming I wanted to sleep with him, which hurt my feelings bc I DID NOT want to do that, nor have I ever. For the last few months it’s been little assumptions she creates in her mind, she fires a shot and starts an argument and then vanishes for a few days until she is ready to talk to me. Over the few days of no communication I’m usually pretty erratic and upset. I never know what she wants me todo to fix the problem or if the fight she started is actually about the problem she chose or something deeper. Things were going a little too well for too long I guess because this last weekend she decided to pick another fight. It all started because one of the guys’ long distance girlfriends was coming into town for his birthday. We’ll call them Nick and Laura. Laura had given me call to help plan the party and some other festivities for our group to do for Nicks birthday weekend. I reserved my Friday for them. My roommate later asked me if I wanted to go out Friday night and I told her I couldn’t because of those plans and everything seemed to be fine until Friday night. A little after midnight she called, but I had missed it because my phone was away from me. She called a mutual friend who was at the party and when he handed me the phone she hung up on me. I went to grab my phone and texted her. Me: “r u okay? Do I need to come get you?” Her: “nah” Me: “r u okay” Her: “mad” Me: “why?” Her: “you” At this point I’m upset. The one word responses get on my nerves. They’re petty and unnecessary. She is capable of using her words to express what’s bothering her and she’s choosing not to. She ended our conversation with “have fun with Tim”
K so now I’m pissed. If I’m being honest idgaf ab Tim. I was there for Nicks birthday and to see Laura, she lives in NY and we live in WA, so we hardly ever see her, and my roommate knows that.
The next day she’s gone before I wake up. And to understand the next portion of this you will need a little back story.
Since I have an on going relationship with my roommates family I also know her siblings. She has an older brother (21M) who I have always had a crush on and both of our families know. It’s been an ongoing joke that we will get married one day. Recently him and his long term gf broke up and he waltzed into my life. I laid my boundaries down, expressing to him that I do not want to be a rebound of any kind and that this was deeper for me than it was for him. He ended up breaking my heart and going back to his ex. It was hard to go through that because he is my best friend and roommates brother. It was hard to talk to her about how I was feeling because of that circumstance and every time I tried, I would get shut down. I heavily relied on the circle of guys that I hung out with, and they essentially pulled me through and out of the hole that her brother had put me in. another resource that I used was TikTok. there were a few videos that I had made that were a little out of pocket I won’t lie, but I never name dropped him. Nobody ever knew who I was talking about and I checked with her before posting and established the boundary on how far I could take it. We never talked about where the line was. The videos stopped coming about a week ago, and there weren’t that many. I’m over it now. More angry than hurt but I’m back out there.
To finish my original story. The next morning I woke up and she was gone, but she had texted me a long paragraph about how I have to stop posting on the Internet. About how I am hurting her feelings. about how she drew a boundary and I crossed it because I didn’t understand what she told me. She started the message with “for the love of god” and finished her message with the comment that the guys I was with the night prior, where the fight began, had nothing todo with it. I did not respond.
I haven’t seen her or heard from her in four days. I know she’s alive and well. She comes home at night and I have her location, but no words have been said.
I’m at a loss for several reasons. I’m not the one with the issue and I’m not even entirely sure what the problem actually is. we never had a conversation about how what I was doing made her feel and I’m annoyed she would create a story to back her argument. I also feel like I’m always the one waiting for her to come home so we can talk and I so I can fix it. Like a wife waiting for her drunk husband who’s out doing god knows what with god knows who to come home. I’m tired of being treated like I’m constantly doing something wrong when there were no prior boundaries set. I don’t know where the line is if u don’t tell me where the line is. I can’t read her mind. Im also upset that she threw Tim in my face as if I weren’t doing other more important things for the people I care about and I’m upset that the next morning it was a different problem. What should I do next? Should I text her and tell her that when she wants to talk to me she can? Personally I think she’s waiting for me to cave and apologize but honestly I feel like I need the apology. She wasn’t there for me when I really needed her and I used other resources to cope and get over it. And now she’s throwing that in my face too. How shall I proceed?
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