Where is sleeping giant inn skyrim

Bare with me, this is going to be long. My (29F) boyfriend, Dan (33M) & I have been together for 6yrs & have two kids (2F & 3wk M). My MIL (57F) has a home that Dan & I have lived in together for about 4yrs. In the beginning, we had roommates, chosen by MIL, as she no longer wanted to live in the home or have the responsibility of a home. She eventually put Dan & I in charge of managing the renters & gifted Dan the property entirely via a living trust. When we found out I was pregnant with our first, we got rid of the renters & began MUCH NEEDED renovations of the home as it’s in dire need of repairs. We also took over all payments (mortgage, utilities, etc.). During this time, MIL began dating a man & moved in with him. Long story short, they dated for less than 3 months, got married in Vegas, it lasted almost 3 years, & they’re now in the middle of a nasty divorce. I will say that man was very rude, obnoxious, & super disrespectful towards women, myself included. MIL had moved in with us when she first left her husband a few months ago. I honestly wasn’t happy about this because she tends to overstep into our finances & tries to control where/how Dan spends his money. For example, Dan’s car was under both of their names but she refinanced it, without his permission, to put it solely under her name so that she can benefit from the credit. She also wants to open a joint bank account with him so that he can “pay the mortgage directly from there” when really I know it’s so that she can have him send her extra spending money when she asks. Another reason is because SIL takes advantage of MIL & Dan by unloading her 3 very rambunctious, misbehaved kids (3, 4, & 5) onto us while she goes out to party. SIL is a story for another day but this is a factor. Nonetheless, it’s still MIL’s house, she needed a place to stay, so she moved in. MIL stayed with us for about a month & a half until she found a room to rent. It wasn’t horrible, but she was butting into our financial decisions, babying our daughter when we disciplined her, passive aggressively made comments about the way we parent, & SIL was always randomly over (she never bothered to come before MIL lived here unless she needed something) dropping off her kids to be babysat by MIL &/or us! Of course MIL knew, but we never knew until there was a knock at the door. It was such a stress relief when MIL moved out. We are now 50% done with home renovations. The house has 4 rooms: our master bedroom, our daughter’s room, a room that I made into a office/craft room (I work from home), & the last room is in the process of becoming a nursery since we just welcomed a baby boy. Due to COVID restrictions I was allowed to have two people in the delivery room with me, Dan & my mom. No one else could come in until after I gave birth, I was transferred to the recovery room & during visiting hours. During labor, MIL was texting my mom & said, “let me know when she has the baby so I can go see him.” We had all informed her of the hospitals policy before I went into labor & again when she asked. She said she understood. Soon after I gave birth I began to hemorrhage & bleed, a lot. So much so that even the nurses froze for a moment at the sight of it all. Thankfully they knew what they were doing & immediately gave me the care I needed. As all this this was happening MIL had arrived at the hospital & was trying to get into my room to see the baby. It was well past visiting hours & I was still not in the recovery room, in fact they kept me in that room longer for monitoring. There were 2 nurses who poked their head into my room to tell us that she could not come in. They also told her the policy but she did not take no for an answer. Right after the nurses controlled my bleeding & were still cleaning me up, there comes MIL trying to get in again, pleading with the charge nurse at my door. They eventually let her in for all of one minute to see the baby. She walked passed me & straight to the baby of course.. didn’t even acknowledge me at all or the fact that I was there bleeding out on the bed with my legs still spread open. Needless to say I was very annoyed & felt super disrespected by her actions. Soon after being discharged we had to take baby boy to the ER (he’s fine now). We were on our way to the ER when Dan decided it was a good time to tell me that MIL would be moving in. The reason being that MIL had to get a lawyer for the divorce & has accrued a lot of debt. She says she can no longer afford to rent the room that she has & has also taken on a second job which is way more labor intensive. This also means that she will not be paying any of our house hold bills but will instead contribute by purchasing groceries when needed. Dan already told her yes before considering what I had to say. It’s not like it would go over well if I said no anyway. I have no say in the matter. She also felt the need to mention to my mom that, “the house is still mine after all so I’m moving in. It’s the least they can do for me after all that I do.” She’s already paid her last months rent for her room & has begun to stay with us two days a week. She will be fully moved in on the 1st of the month. I have no idea where she will be sleeping or how long she will staying with us. She said once the divorce is final but who knows when that will be. The house will never be ours. It’s not our home. I feel trapped on top of feeling all the difficulties of being a newly postpartum mom of two. AITA? How do I even approach this situation?

Part 0: Rules and expectations Part 1: A swift start
Where I left off With some amazing luck my Rival Ash decided to not decimate my team of Bulbasaur and Bugs, letting us live on to destroy Brock. Team: Sage/Bulbasaur (15), Borage/Beedrill (11), Mace/Butterfree (12).
Mt. Moon East from Pewter is the empty Rt. 3, but Mt. Moon has Paras available on every floor! I catch Cinnamon/Paras on the first basement floor, and use 2 tokens to catch Mint/Paras on the second basement floor, leaving Floor 1 open for a 2-token bonus Paras in the future (if necessary). Since Paras is the only Fire-Weak Pokemon I can get before Surge that can learn Dig, I figure having one for Dig and one for STAB moves works. Cinnamon will get his Dig assignment when we get the TM, but Mint gets the Bullet Seed TM for STAB right off the bat.
After climbing back up to explore the rest of the first floor Sage evolves into Ivysaur. The trainers went by easily, so after grabbing a useless fossil I head outside to another empty route, bringing me back up to 2 tokens. Cerulean City holds the first in-game trade I can do, Poliwhirl for Jynx, which I’ll have to save up a whopping 50k for! Luckily there’s Mt. Moon’s Star Piece and a Nugget soon to help speed that up, but I wish I could sell these useless Moon Stones...
The Ash battle is up next, so I train Sage to 18, Mace to 17, Mint to 16, and Borage to 15. Cinnamon gets put in the box so I match Ash’s amount of Pokemon, but she isn’t doing anything different from Mint anyway. ...Then I finally look at the Paras’ natures and realize Mint had a +Attack nature while Cinnamon was neutral, so it would’ve been better if their duties were reversed, ack!
Wait, let me check their IVs in PkHeX... Oh my god, Cinnamon’s Attack IV is 22 and Mint’s is 1. My choice was definitely OK. Neither of their SpAt IVs are good, though; Mint’s is 0 :(
VS Rival Ash Pidgeotto leads against Mace, which would normally be a bad matchup if not for Sleep Powder. Mace easily puts the Pidgeotto to sleep, but when Confusion doesn’t do much the next turn it wakes back up and uses Sand-Attack. Somehow Mace manages to land Sleep Powder again and crit the Bird to yellow with Confusion, but Pidgeotto woke up again and retaliated with Gust! It only rook off a third of Mace’s HP, so he easily puts the bird back to sleep and takes it out with Confusion.
Charmander comes out next, though. After putting it to sleep, Confusion crit again and took Charmander to yellow right off the bat! Two more confusions passed and Charmander fainted while peacefully resting on the battlefield. Mace is quickly vying for MVP, it seems!
Abra comes out next, so I decide to give Mint a turn to show off with Bullet Seed and it easily went down after three rounds. Rattata consistently hits Mint for 10 of her 40 HP with Quick Attack so after Mint poisons it I swap to Borage to finish it off with Fury Attack.
Mace saved my butt by hitting Sleep Powder so consistently, even after that Sand-Attack! I shouldn’t expect Ash to be as nice as he was in the Rt. 22 battle from now on...
Oddness squared Cinnamon came back on the team and lead us across the Nugget Bridge, though I did have to use the good ol’ Turbo A to get through the first trainer’s Metapod and Kakuna. After that I could get a new Pokemon on Rt. 24, Orris Root/Oddish, and a duplicate on Rt. 25, Kokum/Caterpie.
...Then I accidentally ran into a trainer with a Spearow and Mace survived with 1HP, ack! Dealing with the poison types got Mace too high to fill Misty’s second slot so I deposited him for Kokum and let Borage deal with the Poison-types instead. He even helped defeat Lass Haley’s Pidgey, nice!
After handling some machinery I earned Cinnamon’s Dig TM and went south to get one more encounter before Misty, Fenugreek/Oddish. Before choosing the Gym Team I looked between the Oddish and Butterfree. Orris Root was the clear winner with the +SpAt nature and 26 SpAt IV v Fenugreek’s 5. Meanwhile Mace’s 2 SpAt IV was trumped by Kokum’s... 31 SpAt IV!? Lax doesn’t matter, but yeah, Mace is booted from the team now.
So the team going in is Sage (21), Orris Root (18), and Kokum (17). Both Orris Root and Kokum learn Sleep Powder that way, which I’ll need if that Confusing Water Pulse gets Sage...
VS Misty Sage leads us off and quickly OHKOs the Hardening Staryu before the fearsome Starmie came out. The first Swift only took out a small chunk of HP, but the second one crit Sage to yellow, ack! Luckily Vine Whip 2KO’d, but that scared me!
Well, Starmie hit harder than Brock’s Onix, but Sage easily defeated another Gym Leader! I’ve been getting anxious fighting trainers because of this picture-perfect level cap thing, but it’s working out OK for now.

Team:

• Sage the Ivysaur♂ (22) - Serious, Overgrow [Vine Whip / Razor Leaf / PoisonPowder / Leech Seed]
  
• Orris Root the Oddish♀ (18) - Quiet, Chlorophyll [Absorb / PoisonPowder / Sleep Powder / Stun Spore]
  
• Kokum the Butterfree♂ (17) - Lax, CompoundEyes [Tackle / Confusion / Sleep Powder / PoisonPowder]
  

Box: 5

Beedrill (16), Butterfree (19), Paras (15, 16), Oddish (16)

Deaths: 0

A Fanfic of u/SpacePaladin15’s work “The nature of Predators” Thank you for the story!
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Memory transcription subject: Kilousai, Kolshian Head Genetic Biologist
Date [standardized human time]: REDACTED
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Something that has always amused me was how primitives talk and act like people. Yet are so easily manipulated into being whatever you wished them to be. Take Female Venlil Feed Subject #387V-42. She believes herself to be one of the foremost Genetic Biologists in our field. Yet all she has done is make a poor, pathetic version of what my own species and the Farsul have mastered centuries ago. Sure her nanites could cure cancers in a matter of minutes, but it's just such a waste of resources to make these for primitives.
However there are a scant few primitives that are worthy of truly being uplifted to the same status as a Kolshian or Farsul. Take Venlil Test Subject #12v-01. By all means he should have been caught by the Exterminators and burned to death with a flamethrower. Thankfully we caught this gem of a being with early screening and gently had his life altered to ensure that didn’t happen. With a few small interventions, such as the removal of his parents and ensuring that he was always in the right place at the right time, we were able to take advantage of his aggressive behaviors, and alter his beliefs to align with our own. He truly was something special. I do hope we don’t have to purge this one. The Venlil experiments have shown great promise.
“Oh I am so glad to be able to work with you directly Kilousai! I hope you don’t mind but I would like to get a photo with you to show to my friends back home! Well, show them once we’ve cured Humanity!” Go on you stupid piece of meat just keep talking. It’s one of the two things you will ever be good for.
“Of course! We are going to accomplish so many good things for the Federation today! In this very facility we have made great strides into ensuring that our future will be prosperous and safe!” I do so love how Subject #12v-01 reacts so differently than the feed. His tail muscles gently tighten at the base, his ear slowly pivots to listen to my words. Yet he doesn’t even feel for the knife hidden just in his fur under his right arm. I could tell he knows that when I say ‘we’ I am not including the feed in that statement.
Finally the elevator reached the bottom. “Oh! Finally we are here!” The doors opened to reveal Subject #592A-01. The large Arxur made for an imposing presence in the doorway. His deep blue tactical gear would almost be completely invisible in the dead of night. Yet in the clinical white hallways almost appeared as a slightly blue void.
As predicted the feed began to hysterically try and flee while screaming and alerting anything that might have wished to harm her of her presence. Typical. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! NOOOOOOOO NONONONONONO!” Subject #592A-01 did not flinch or move as instructed. Good.
What wasn’t good was the ear splitting wail from the feed as it desperately tried to flee. It was setting Subject #12v-01 on edge. He hadn’t reached for his knife yet, but had simply taken a defensive stance. I imagine my calm demeanor clued him in on how to act. Clever.
I strode forward past it. “Come along now! We haven’t got all day! 592A-01 help them along, please and thank you.” Subject #592A-01 surged forward and quickly seized the feed. She began to frantically hit the muscle laden arms of Subject #592A-01 yet her claws were unable to even tear the cloth covering his armor. Small traces of orange blood started to cover Subject #592A-01’s gear before he pinned the feed’s arm behind it to stop it from damaging itself further. The wailing sound was starting to give me a headache but it wouldn’t last much longer
Subject #592A-01 turned and grabbed Subject #12v-01’s arm and began to drag them behind me as we walked down the corridor. Subject #12v-01 was barely able to touch the ground but complied and walked with us, while the feed was drug kicking and screaming.
This right here. Any primitive other than Subject #12v-01 would be just like this feed, panicking like the dumb animals they are. Yet here he was. Someone that was paying attention, fully intent on surviving and taking advantage of any opportunity to the fullest.
I turned into the activity room I set up for this demonstration. 10 of my hand raised Arxur soldiers stood at attention waiting for me to give any order. Their gear almost making them indistinguishable from Subject #592A-01, who came in and deposited both Subject #12v-01 and the feed into the center of the room and stood back to guard the door as instructed previously. The feed desperately clung onto Subject #12v-01 who almost seemed to console the feed but simultaneously arranged himself to be able to use her as a shield if needed. Clever.
“Ahem…” The feed jerked her head to be able to see me, while Subject #12v-01 kept the Arxur Soldiers and Subject #592A-01 in his field of view, yet couldn’t see me as well. Clever. “Welcome to the labs! Here I work diligently to ensure that the Federation has all the tools necessary to keep everyone safe!” I grasped my tentacles together in a giddy excitement. It was always great to share my work with others!
“SAFE! SAFE? These are fucking monsters! We aren’t safe!” I grimaced at that statement. An expression that thankfully Subject #12v-01 was able to see when he turned to face me. He was now focusing his attention on me. He clearly knew I was in charge and thus was the biggest threat to his safety. Clever.
“Sorry, I wasn’t referring to you Female Venlil Feed Subject #387V-42.” Her ears drooped and her jaw hung loosely from her head. I could barely make out the faintest sound from her mouth. Subject #12v-01 seemed to recognize the feed as a liability now. Good. “You see. In order for there to be prosperity there must be safety. For there to be safety there must be control.” Subject #12v-01 seemed to calm down and while he was still tensed ready for action, took a more neutral stance. The feed simply stared in abject horror and disbelief. Pathetic.
“When we, the founding species, discovered the third race of intelligent beings, we were aghast at their barbaric and primitive natures. They were still killing each other with sticks! And for what? Land? Water? Food?” I started to pace back and forth as I taught my history lesson. “NO! They killed each other in the thousands because the other members of their species were simply their enemies! Couple this with the disgusting act of eating corpses, fish and other small animals, every attempt to make them into something respectable failed. They were just too aggressive. Too… predatory.”
The feed just started to shake and sob. Subject #12v-01 looked to understand where I was going with this. I gestured to the squad of Axur in the room. “Take the Arxur for example. When we discovered them they were locked in a civil war over ideals. The ideals of, is it better to be feared, or to be loved? The dominion believed that cruelty was the best way to control and keep their people safe, while the Northwest Bloc tried to be transparent with their people, tried to let them be free, even if that made things dangerous.” I felt another wave of excitement rush over me as I started to bounce on the spot.
“The best thing happened when we made contact! They declared peace! They started to work together! Both sides desperately strove to incorporate our technology and follow our uplift plan! They desperately wanted to be like us! To live in peace and harmony! The only uplifts to ever do so without us having to prune their primitive cultures first!” The feed just shook her head in disbelief.
“The only mistake we made with them was not realizing that they were incapable of digesting plant matter at all. They were the first sapient obligate carnivores that we had ever found! So when the time came and a famine struck Wriss, we gave them a cure to end their dependence on meat." I animatedly shrugged as I kept teaching "Ooops! Killed nearly a fourth of their population! Thankfully it didn’t kill all of them. Though something strange happened. All of their livestock died. When we realized what had happened we already began to draft an extermination plan and got our fleet into position when the oddest thing happened.”
I held my tentacles wide in excitement. “Their PROPHET contacted us! Let us know that the dominion had taken control! That they used our ‘cure’ to kill their livestock. He made his people doubt the way of the Northwest bloc, and reinforced that the Dominion is in the right. He gave us proof of what we always knew. FEAR. Fear rules unchallenged. So we gave the Prophet’s most loyal weapons, and they purged the Northwest Blocs staunchest defenders. Then came the time for them to return the favor they owed us.”
Subject #12v-01 was completely calm now. He knew what was coming. The feed looked lost, distant. Worthless. “We moved our fleets out of the way. After all. We had no idea we were about to be attacked! Then the dominion launched its campaign and worlds fell. People fled in fear, and our control went from being loosely held by us to being a noose around the primitive's necks.”
“My soldiers here are a gift from the dominion.” I gestured around to all of my children. “I raised them from their eggs. Made them the perfect soldiers. With them we can ensure that if we, or the dominion, need someone… erased or need just a little bit of chaos to remind the mindless masses who is in charge, well… they will ensure it always happens flawlessly.”
The feed looked up in horror. “You.. You're a monster!” I just laughed. What a stupid notion. “ME?! A monster? Monsters hurt sapient creatures without a single care. There are four sapient races in the galaxy. The Kolshians, the Farsul, the Prophet descendants, and Humanity.” I expected Subject #12v-01 to react to my statement but his demeanor almost seemed to… agree? Good.
“The dominion keeps its people scared of starving and thus in control. Sadly that leaves them as sub-sapients, but every so often they get a useful tool and we authorize an uplift to our status.” Subject #12v-01 looked down at the feed in almost a state of disgust. He was putting the pieces together flawlessly! Time to test that.
“I grow bored of this. I was hoping that maybe you were worth something. I guess I was wrong…” I slowly paced away from the center of the room. Distancing myself just far enough away if either of them rushed me they would never be able to get to me. “My children. Eat.”
In one motion every one of my children turned to look at the two Venlil. With one step heard, all of them put a foot forward and then… Subject #12v-01 decided to act.
With one fluid movement he brandished his knife from its hiding spot. My children took a moment to ensure they could strike without being struck. I swished my tail and gave a silent order to not kill Subject #12v-01… yet.
He grabbed the feed in a manner almost like he was taking a hostage. Then his knife slid into the base of its spine. It let out a blood curdling scream as it fell to the floor. Tears poured from its eyes as it looked up to Subject #12v-01 and then to its legs as it failed to move them. It began to sob hysterically and tried to crawl to the corridor we entered from.
As it slowly made its attempt to escape, Subject #12v-01 cast the knife aside, letting it slide harmlessly across the floor till it came to a stop at my feet. I gave him a quizzical look. He stood proud and stated “I am more use to you as a tool than as feed for your soldiers. I know the inner workings of Venlil Primes government better than Tarva herself. I know how to wrap Humans around my fingers and make them do my bidding without them having a clue it's happening. Use me. I guarantee you that you will regret letting them eat me.”
After his defiant statement was over he stood still and lowered his arms from their elevated position. He seemed to relax as I picked up his knife and walked to him with my tail flicking happily behind me. “YES! I knew you were truly a sapient being! I am so relieved that I was right about you! You saw it, yes? How she wasn’t like us? How she couldn’t act beyond what she was taught?” Subject #12v-01… No Wisterly. “Wisterly, a lot of races consider yours to be weak. Do you know what I think about your race?”
Wisterly took a moment to ponder my question. With a slight tilt to his head he responded “No Sir. I do not know what you think of my race.” I couldn’t help but let my tail flick with excitement. “I think your race has always had great potential. Sadly a lot of your race are gullible to say the least, but you? You are something special. You don’t just accept your fate!”
I waved a tentacle at the crawling, sniveling feed. “You aren’t like them! You ACT! You think! You change your fate! Come now! We are in great need of your skills!” I handed him back his knife. “Oh. #592A-01. Feed.”
I started to talk to Wisterly about our plans and how he would be fitting in to it as #592A-01 approached the feed. He placed a foot on its legs pining it in place. It left streaks of orange blood across the floor as it ripped its claws out trying to escape. Then #592A-01 failed its test. It bent down holding the feed still, locked its jaws around the head and bit down crushing the skull and killing the feed instantly.
“STOP. STOP STOP STOP. WHAT IN MY NAME WAS THAT!” #592A-01 froze, before it stood to attention. “I killed the feed Father.” I let out a long defeated sigh. “Did I TELL you to kill the feed?”
“No Father.”
I took a step closer to him “Why did I tell you to feed? And Why did I not tell you to kill?”
“So that when the time comes I can flawlessly imitate the Dominion’s Arxur, Father.”
I turned away and threw my tentacles into the air. “Children. Feed.”
Failure #592A-01 stood perfectly still as its siblings approached. Subject #592A-02 held Failure #592A-01’s arms still as she locked her jaws around his abdomen and ripped his intestines out. The others descended on it as I led Wisterly out of the room and gave one final order. “Don’t eat the head. Bring that to the lab before it starts to rot.”
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Memory transcription subject: REDACTED
Date [standardized human time]: REDACTED
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Something is off with all of this. I don’t know how to tell Kila that we are in grave danger without alerting Dr. Kilousai that I was aware of his deceitful nature. He answered her every question as though she wasn’t part of the herd. Something was very wrong.
The elevator reached its destination and the doors opened to reveal what was clearly an Arxur in full military gear. He didn’t move from his position and Dr. Kilousai didn’t even seem to care that it was here. Like he expected it. Kila was freaking out trying to get the doors to close, busting her finger bloody as she tried. I choose to stay as still and calm as possible. I knew my knife was still in reach. I can’t let the Arxur know it's there or I am dead.
Dr. Kilousai ordered the Arxur to grab us. I had the thought that maybe the Humans had allied with the Arxur, who made it behind Fed lines and took control, but that theory just got killed when a Koloshian ordered an Arxur. The Human's wouldn't let someone from the Cure Program in a leadership position.
It had to restrain Kila to stop her from hurting herself, but simply drug me by my arm. I chose not to resist. Not the right time. No escape route yet.
Dr. Kilousai led us into a large room with 10 more Arxur in it. The one holding us threw us into the center of the room. Before I could charge Dr. Kilousai and take him hostage, Kila grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let go. Not good. I gently took hold of her and moved her in such a way that she would feel safe but could easily be moved to defend myself. Sorry Kila. It's you or me in this situation.
Dr. Kilousai cleared his throat to speak causing Kila to jerk and look at him. Stupid. He isn’t the threat. I kept my eyes on the Arxur. They didn’t flinch.
“Welcome to the labs! Here I work diligently to ensure that the Federation has all the tools necessary to keep everyone safe!” He grasped his tentacles together in a giddy excitement. He looked genuinely pleased to share this with us. Odd.
“SAFE! SAFE? These are fucking monsters! We aren’t safe!” I couldn’t stop Kila from stupidly blurting this out. It was clear that upset Dr. Kilousai. Not good. I kept my eyes on him. The Arxur clearly wouldn’t move unless he ordered them to. He was the threat in this room.
“Sorry, I wasn’t referring to you Female Venlil Feed Subject #387V-42.” Spehg. He assigned her a name like that. Likely to distance her being from the idea of her personhood. I wasn’t stupid. My name right now is likely not too far off from hers. Need to change that. He continued “You see. In order for there to be prosperity there must be safety. For there to be safety there must be control.” He wasn’t wrong. It oddly made sense. I knew the federation could field billions of ships for every single one the Arxur could, but they never took the initiative to exterminate them.
“When we, the founding species, discovered the third race of intelligent beings, we were aghast at their barbaric and primitive natures. They were still killing each other with sticks! And for what? Land? Water? Food?” He started to pace back and forth. “NO! They killed each other in the thousands because the other members of their species were simply their enemies! Couple this with the disgusting act of eating corpses, fish and other small animals, every attempt to make them into something respectable failed. They were just too aggressive. Too… predatory.”
Kila just started to sob. He gestured to the squad of Axur in the room. “Take the Arxur for example. When we discovered them they were locked in a civil war over ideals. The Ideals of is it better to be feared or to be loved? The dominion believed that cruelty was the best way to control and keep their people safe, while the Northwest Bloc tried to be transparent with their people, tried to let them be free, even if that made things dangerous.” I thought about it. Thought about the Federation's early history. The Krakotl were a problem. Nikonus said so himself. The federation was trying love and found it failed. Then comes the Arxur fighting for an answer to the same question… I think I knew where he was going with this.
“The best thing happened when we made contact! They declared peace! They started to work together! Both sides desperately strove to incorporate our technology and follow our uplift plan! They desperately wanted to be like us! To live in peace and harmony! The only uplifts to ever do so without us having to prune their primitive cultures first!”
Kila shook her head in disbelief. “The only mistake we made with them was not realizing that they were incapable of digesting plant matter at all. They were the first sapient obligate carnivores that we had ever found! So when the time came and a famine struck Wriss, we gave them a cure to end their dependence on meat. Ooops! Killed nearly a fourth of their population! Thankfully it didn’t kill all of them. Though something strange happened. All of their livestock died. When we realized what had happened we already began to draft an extermination plan and got our fleet into position when the oddest thing happened.”
He held his tentacles wide in excitement. “Their PROPHET contacted us! Let us know that the dominion had taken control! That they used our ‘cure’ to kill their livestock. He made his people doubt the way of the Northwest bloc, and reinforced that the Dominion is in the right. He gave us proof of what we always knew. FEAR. Fear rules unchallenged. So we gave the Prophet’s most loyal weapons, and they purged the Northwest Blocs staunchest defenders. Then came the time for them to return the favor they owed us.”
“We moved our fleets out of the way. After all, We had no idea we were about to be attacked! Then the dominion launched its campaign and worlds fell. People fled in fear, and our control went from being loosely held by us to being a noose around the primitives necks.”
“My soldiers here are a gift from the dominion.” He gestured around to all of the Arxur. “I raised them from their eggs. Made them the perfect soldiers. With them we can ensure that if we or the dominion need someone… erased or need just a little bit of chaos to remind the mindless masses who is in charge well… they will ensure it always happens flawlessly.”
Kila looked up in horror and opened her stupid mouth again. “You.. You're a monster!” He just laughed this time. Not a good sign. “ME?! A monster? Monsters hurt sapient creatures without a single care. There are four sapient races in the galaxy. The Kolshians, the Farsul, the Prophet descendants, and Humanity.”
“The dominion keeps its people scared of starving and thus in control. Sadly that leaves them as sub-sapients, but every so often they get a useful tool and we authorize an uplift to our status.” I think I understand what he was talking about. Kila. She wasn’t really a person was she?
“I grow bored of this. I was hoping that maybe you were worth something. I guess I was wrong…” He slowly paced away from the center of the room. Distancing myself just far enough away if either of them rushed me they would never be able to get to me. “My children. Eat.”
In one motion every Arxur turned to look at us. With one step heard, all of them put a foot forward and then… I decided to act.
With one fluid movement I brandished my knife from its hiding spot. I grabbed Kila. Then I slid My knife into the base of her spine. She let out a blood curdling scream as she fell to the floor. Tears poured from her eyes as she looked up to me and then to her legs as she failed to move them. she began to sob hysterically and tried to crawl to the corridor we entered from.
As she slowly made her last attempt to escape, I cast the knife aside, letting it slide harmlessly across the floor till it came to a stop at the Doctor’s feet. He gave me a quizzical look. I stood proud and stated “I am more use to you as a tool than as feed for your soldiers. I know the inner workings of Venlil Primes government better than Tarva herself. I know how to wrap Humans around my fingers and make them do my bidding without them having a clue it's happening. Use me. I guarantee you that you will regret letting them eat me.”
After he picked up my knife and walked to me with his tail flicking happily behind him. “YES! I knew you were truly a sapient being! I am so relieved that I was right about you! You saw it, yes? How she wasn’t like us? How she couldn’t act beyond what she was told?” I could. That wasn’t a person. It was a scared stupid animal. Not worth my care. “Wisterly, a lot of races consider yours to be weak. Do you know what I think about your race?”
I took a moment to ponder the question. With a slight tilt to my head I responded “No Sir. I do not know what you think of my race.”
His tail flicked with excitement. “I think your race has always had great potential. Sadly a lot of your race are gullible to say the least, but you? You are something special. You don’t just accept your fate!” He waved a tentacle at the crawling, sniveling animal. “You aren’t like them! You ACT! You think! You change your fate! Come now! We are in great need of your skills!” He handed me back my knife and ordered. “Oh. #592A-01. Feed.”
He started to talk to me about their plans and how I would be fitting in to it as #592A-01 approached the food. He placed a foot on its legs pining it in place. It left streaks of orange blood across the floor as it ripped its claws out trying to escape. Then #592A-01 apparently failed its test. It bent down holding the feed still, locked its jaws around the head and bit down crushing the skull and killing the feed instantly.
“STOP. STOP STOP STOP. WHAT IN MY NAME WAS THAT!” #592A-01 froze, before it stood to attention. “I killed the feed Father.” He let out a long defeated sigh. “Did I TELL you to kill the feed?”
“No Father.”
He took a step closer to him “Why did I tell you to feed? And Why did I not tell you to kill?”
“So that when the time comes I can flawlessly imitate the Dominion’s Arxur, Father.”
He turned away and threw his tentacles into the air. “Children. Eat.”
#592A-01 stood perfectly still as its siblings approached. Another of the Arxur held #592A-01’s arms still as it locked its jaws around his abdomen and ripped its intestines out. The others descended on it as the Doctor led me out of the room and gave one final order. “Don’t eat the head. Bring that to the lab before it starts to rot.”
​
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
​
Memory transcription subject: Subject #592A-01
Date [standardized human time]: REDACTED
Current Order: Wait at elevator door to enact further instructions.
The door opened. Father was there with two Venlil. One began to panic. The other froze.
Current Order: Bring Venlil unharmed with Father wherever he wishes.
I grabbed them and had to pin the screaming one's arms to stop her from harming herself. The scared one was easy to pull along. I like that one. Its fur is soft. Maybe if I am good Father will let me keep it? Like the sleeping Sivkit.
Current Order: Leave Venlil in center of room for feeding exercise. Guard door.
I stood still waiting for Father to issue his orders. Crying Venlil was Crying. I couldn't make her feel better. I felt sad as the other one was rather cute. Wish we didn’t have to eat that one. He was rather warm. Would have been nice to sleep next too.
Current Order: Fake step towards Venlil.
The calm one was not nice. He stabbed the crying one in the spine and paralyzed her from the waist down. I wish we could fix her instead of eating her. I bet she is nice. Maybe Father might let us have her now? I would have to clean her as she likely can’t control her bowel movements but that's ok! It would be nice to have a friend!
Current Order: Eat Crying Venlil.
I am sorry little one. I will make this as painless as possible.
Current Order: Don’t move, Answer questions.
Father is so mad at me. He was testing me and I failed. I am a failure. I deserve this. Mate approaches me now. Mate will eat me. Grow strong from my body mate. May the next mate Father selects for you be better than me.
ERROR: UNABLE TO PARSE TRANSCRIPT: CAUSE: DEATH OF SUBJECT
​
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​
Happy April Fools Day! I hope you guys are having fun! Uh… APRIL FOOLS! This wasn’t a joke at all! It was the start of my Bonus series. A collection of small stories that are definitely AU and explore Ideas I have. This may or may not have a sequel. So fell free to continue it if you like the Idea as you may be the only one too!
As with all of my fanfics this is considered creative commons by myself so feel free to grab anything from my stories to use in your own works! I would appreciate a shout out for this but that isn’t required.

A very dear friend of mine took his own life and I feel like I am partially to be blamed. I know that he has been depressed for losing his job and his girlfriend almost at the same time. Matthew (closed to his real name) is very introverted and wouldn't ask for help but I know what he's going through. I have been helping him with things that I can; buying him groceries and visiting him after work to cheer him up and giving him the talk about getilting a new job.
During one of our conversation he opened up about possibly getting evicted. Asked if he can move in with me temporarily. Told him I'll see what I can do. I talked with my roommate but he's not pond of the idea. Told him this last week and he asked if I have an extra money to help him pay rent. I would've given it to him in a heartbeat if I have money to give. For the first time, after I said no I heard him sob. If i only knew that it's the last time I will hear for him I wouldve told me how the situation is temporary and cheer him up more. But im also broke that can barely afford to eat 3x a day.
Received the news from his landlord that he hang himself. Didnt left a note but his phone was unlocked that's why his landlord managed to message me. I was in disbelief hearing it and I cant help but blame myself.
Matthew was a silent but a good guy. Hes a runaway kid and what I know is he's an only kid, been out of contact to his father for years and his mom died when he was young.
I can't sleep and I have been blaming myself for allowing this to happen. I should have done more. I wouldve sold my phone if I knew that this is going to happen. His body is still in funeral homes and I am the one taking care of things but I dont know where in God's hand Ill be able to afford all the bills and burying him. If I have to sell a kidney I would. This is the las thing tha I can do for him

Hey,
Not really sure if here’s the place for this but I need somewhere to vent because I’m exhausted.
For the last 6+ months I’ve really struggled with sleeping. It’s like the slightest noise sets me off and I cannot get to sleep. I moved house and my new upstairs neighbour is a nightmare, makes SO much noise and one night kept me awake literally the entire night with 0 sleep. This is where the issues kinda began.
I also have this ‘humming’ noise in my bedroom from the kitchen next door and some nights I just can’t help but fixate on it and it too will keep me awake. Right now I’m staying in a hotel room with my boyfriend (supposed to be staying for 2 more nights) but after a full night of 0 sleep from his snoring I can’t take anymore and am going home in the morning.
This is such an exhausting problem and taking a huge toll on me mentally, I can barely function at work, and the more I can’t sleep the more I get worked up mentally and so frustrated and angry. I have tried everything I can think of (white noise, podcasts, CBD, getting up during the night when I can’t sleep and doing something like reading, writing etc because lying in bed awake drives me crazy).
I’m at such a loss for what to do next so if anyone has any advice on what I could do to stop this as lying awake at night even when you’re exhausted is one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had.

OK, everything was working great. UNTIL I discovered that all skeleton types (Bonemen, Conjure Wrathman, etc.) enemy and conjure-friends are T-posing. If you summon a bone-based friendly it appears in the T-pose and remains static at the location it appeared. I've tried unchecking mods, running FNIS, even reinstalling SKYRIM SE, nothing has worked. Below is my MO2 load order, maybe something here is conflicting with the bone-type characters. Maybe a mod is now to break the animations for the bone-types, I have no clue. I did do some dabbling with the NEMESIS engine on a separate profile, but that was a week ago.
​
DLC: HearthFires
DLC: Dragonborn
DLC: Dawnguard
Creation Club: ccQDRSSE001-SurvivalMode
Creation Club: ccBGSSSE037-Curios
Creation Club: ccBGSSSE025-AdvDSGS
Creation Club: ccBGSSSE001-Fish
SkyUI_5_2_SE
All in one (Anniversary Edition)
FNIS Behavior SE 7_6
FNIS - Output
FNIS Creature Pack SE 7.6
FNIS Spells SE 7.0
MCM Helper SE
XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended
Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch
RaceMenu Anniversary Edition
Race Scale Remover
Precision
JContainers SE
NCC2020SE
Immersive Naked Comments SE
Better Third Person Selection (AE - SE)
Caliente's Beautiful Bodies Enhancer -CBBE-
Tempered Skins for Males - Nude Version
BodySlide and Outfit Studio -
Hair Replacer.7z
Hair Replacer - Improved Roads
Hair Replacer - Unofficial Patch
KS Hairdos SSE
Orc Overhaul
JK's Skyrim all in one
JK's High Hrothgar
JK's Jorrvaskr
JK's Warmaiden's
Super Simple Lock Bash 1.00
Shield Protect From Magic SSE
Requiem - Lock Bashing Visualized
Immersive Laundry 1.0d SSE
Bells of Skyrim
Dawn of Skyrim
WiZkiD Signs
The Notice Board
Missives 2.03 SSE
Security Overhaul SKSE - Regional Locks
Security Overhaul SKSE - Lock Variations
Craft Lockpicks
Dual Wield Block
Apocalypse
Animation Queue Fix
DynamicAnimationReplacerAE v1.1.3 for Skyrim 16629
MCO Universal Support
Conditional Expressions
MfgFix
Blocking Animation Pack
Way of the Monk 1.84
Unarmed 4-Direcitonal Power Attacks
The Wizard Warrior
Frozen Electrocuted Combustion
Elemental Fist
powerofthree's Tweaks
PapyrusUtil AE SE - Scripting Utility Functions
powerofthree's Papyrus Extender
Bandit Lines Expansion
Immersive Sounds - Compendium
Destructible Display Cases - 1.4
Destructible Display Cases 1.4 - Other Weapons Patch
Rich Skyrim Merchants
sprint w shield
Tome Shield
Travel By Boat
TMC
Skyrim Scenery - Main Menu Replacers
Archery Gameplay Overhaul
LeanWolf's Better-Shaped Weapons - All in One Installer
Blocking Animation Pack SSE
Immersive Weapons Crafting v.3.0
Playable Skeleton Races
Eagle Weapons
Lazy Weapon Pack 2
New Weapons Types and Animations
Immersive Weapons
Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul
Interesting NPCs 3DNPC
69 Beauties AutoBody Config
Follower Commentary Overhaul SE - FCO SE
TABOO
The Kids Are Alright Renewal
TKAA - Wild Child
Armor and Clothing for Kids - Vanilla and All DLC Patches
Claudette, All in One Edition - Skyrim SE Version
Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions and Custom Home Support SE
kids of skyrim reborn compatibility edition
Logical Crime Report
Ask The Way 1.1
RUSTIC CHILDREN - BODY - 1K
Skyrim Children Refine (1.1.1)
Run For Your Lives
Realistic Conversations with natural social behaviors
TrueHUD
AMatterOfTime_v3_0_0_alpha_4
Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - RDO Final
Realistic Torches
Pick Up Radius
Book Of Shadows
Pandorable's NPCs
Spell Perk Item Distributor
Better Stealth AI for Followers
Dynamic Weather and Time Based Detection
Vanargand Animations - Dual Wield Sneak Strikes
Realistic AI Detection 3 - Medium Interior Medium Exterior
ConsoleUtilSSE
Vanargand Animations - Sneak Thrust Attacks 1.1b
Vanargand Animations - Sneak Strike Attacks
Vanargand Animations - Sneak Idle Walk and Run
Vanargand Animations - Sneak Crossbows
Vanargand Animations - Sneak Archery
Vanargand Animations - Dual Wield Sneak Thrusts
Better Nordic Weapons
True Dawnbreaker
Swimming animals
Skyrim Weapons Expansion - 2k BSA
samurai katanas weapons bushido shinto
Jk's Angeline's Aromatics
JK's Arcadia's Cauldron
JK's Arnleif and Sons Trading Company
JK's Belethor's General Goods
JK's Bits and Pieces
JK's Septimus Signus's Outpost
JK's Sadris Used Wares
JK's Riverwood Trader
JK's Radiant Raiment
JK's Palace of the Kings
JK's New Gnisis Cornerclub
JK's Mistveil Keep
JK's Haelga's Bunkhouse
JK's Elgrims Elixirs
JK's Dragonsreach
JK's Castle Dour
JK's Candlehearth Hall
Jk's Candlehearth Hall Downstairs Room Rental
JK's Blue Palace
JK's White Phial
JK's Understone Keep
Jk's The Winking Skeever
JK's The Temple of Mara
JK's The Ragged Flagon
JK's The Pawned Prawn
JK's The Hag's Cure
JK's The Drunken Huntsman
JK's The Bee and Barb
JK's The Bards College
JK's The Bannered Mare
JK's Temple of the Divines
JK's Temple of Talos
JK's Temple of Kynareth
JK's Temple of Dibella
JK's Sleeping Giant Inn
Jk's Sleeping Giant Inn Downstairs Room Rental
JK's Sky Haven Temple
JK's Silver-Blood Inn
Book Covers Skyrim SE - Desaturated.7z
Lanterns of Skyrim SE
Standalone09sWeapons
UltraWeaponsPack
Ghosus_SPID
Ghosu Weapon Pack
Dovah Nord Weapons SE
Heavy Armory - New Weapons
1) Skyrim Immersive Creatures v7.0.2 (includes 1K Textures)
Throwable Items
Throwable Items - DnA
Lootable Crates SE
Face Discoloration Fix SE
Falmers - with 2k textures
Falmer Overhaul Glow Patch
Feminine Khajiit Textures (Alternative) [CBBE]
Feminine Khajiit Textures (Grey Cat and Leopard) [CBBE]
Khajiit sprint
FELINE ANIMATIONS
FELINE ANIMATIONS FOR WEREWOLF
Lizard swiming
iBeasts - 3dNpcs
Realistic Argonian Racials
Realistic Argonian Racials - esl
Masculine Khajiit Textures (Grey Cat and Leopard) [Better Males]
Masculine Argonian Textures (Chameleon and Lizard) [Better Males]
Kabu's Argonian Fins - Flawn's Vanilla Argonians Redux
Hana's Basic Beards - Argonian - SE
Feminine Argonian Textures (Chameleon and Lizard) [CBBE]
Argonian RaceMenu Preset
Argonian Hair Plus
BEASTH
Indecent Exposure - Immersive Naked Reactions
Naked Comments Male Version Animated - SE Port
Naked Comments Female Version Animated - SE Port
Nude Spells Redone
FZmx - HIMBO - Better Claws and Gauntlets
Feral - Go for the Throat SSE
Better Claws and Gauntlets CBBE
Better Claws And Gauntlets SSE.7z
Better Claws and Gauntlets CBBE Bodyslide Files
Glad You're Here - Main File
No Spinning Death Animation SE
Grindstones - 10X Sparks
Falmer Overhaul - My patches SE by Xtudo - SIC 2K
Eliott Tordo's The Dragonborn Comes Main Menu Music Replacer
MLTB Perkish Bound Crossbows
ElSopa - Potions Redone 1k
ElSopa - Potions Redone Patches
A Quality World Map - Classic with All Roads
Supreme and Volumetric Fog SE - Classic
Simply Ornate Orcish Weapons
Heroes of Skyrim - Main Menu Replacers (16x9)
MainMenuRandomizerAE
1stperson Parry Animation
Sparkles
Improved Weapon Impact EFFECTS Correct Metal SE - Immersive Sounds Patch
Alina Gingertail - The Dragonborn Comes - Main menu Music
The Devils Tooth SE
The Devil's Tooth SE - Bloodskal Blade Replacer
Injected Animated Armoury - Condition Files
Injected Animated Armoury - Keywords
Shut The Followers Up 1.4
Glide
Sleep Spells
Asian Man
Regeneration Ring
WerewolfUpgrade
Hemomancy - Blood Magic
Sonic Blast
Magical Sentries
Werewolves Jump Higher (use this if the game crashes with the main one)
College of Winterhold - Quest Expansion
Stagger on hit
Hit Me With Your Best Shot 2.0
Drinking Gives You Bottles
Ash Pile Expiration - Special Edition
Sleeping Expanded
Unbound Potions
E - Extreme Skyrim Music
Water Douses Fire
Guardian Gems
BetterUnarmedPerks
Silent Unarmed
Lazarus Bodyslide Presets - Vestal Body 3BA
Recoil On Hit
Parrying RPG
Enhanced Blood Textures
Bleed Them Dry Remade
Trader's Travel Ring
Custom Skills Framework
Shout
Shields
Dragonborn - Shouts Perk Tree
Dirt and Blood - Dynamic Visual Effects
Maximum Destruction
Maximum Carnage Tweaks (v6.9.9) - Configurable Attacks
Maximum Carnage with disabled bears
CBBE Patch
Maximum Carnage - Settings Loader
Maximum Skeletons
Maximum Carnage
XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended - Fixed Scripts

alright couple of questions. SPOILERS

1. from the beginning you met all of the heads of the bad guys of their respective areas but you really don't talk to them. Suddenly when you go to the flower woman's area you begin to hallucinate about her. Is this shit ever explained because how could a ton of flowers growing out in the middle of no where make you hallucinate about some random lady? this shit is weird. Also what if i didn't speak English would he make me hallucinate in English or other language?
   
2. is it just fucking me or would anyone else back out before even landing the fucking helicopter. Just look at these fucking pyschos. In most cases a cult like this would be infultrated by the FBI or CIA i imagine like i don't think they would send in a couple of deputies and one arresting officer.
   
3. Half way through the campaign i realized that no matter what i do the game forces the story on you and you basically have to get "knocked out" and do some bullshit story mini game. did anyone else find this annoying?
   
4. To add on to that if you were the bad guys and could stop me at any time by knocking me out why not just kill me? especially with the ending of the game jesus christ. What this guy can just slip out of anything and knock out everyone and convert anyone in seconds? Like what was I fucking working for the entire game?
   
5. also does this guy have the power to summon the nuclear holocaust or does it just happen as you resist him once last time?
   
6. let's also just say he was right as the game implies. He's 100 percent right. Even if you or i could start a cult would you have recruited the guy that thought that everything was about kulling the weak? Or even condone slaming giant crosses into people? like why or how would anyone want to join if you're out there murdering people in the worst ways? Take for example Scientology those guys are assassinating people and making it look like an accident.
   
7. its just machine gun or bust right? this gun does the light work, heavy work and it even tears up airplanes and cars. like you do not not have that gun ever right?
   
8. Is anyone else angry you don't get to kill the woman on the radio who backstabs you? If that was DLC i would pay for that shit.
   

anyways that was my ted talk.

New account coz I'm afraid that I'll be judged. A very dear friend of mine took his own life and I feel like I am partially to be blamed. I know that he has been depressed for losing his job and his girlfriend almost at the same time. Matthew (closed to his real name) is very introverted and wouldn't ask for help but I know what he's going through. I have been helping him with things that I can; buying him groceries and visiting him after work to cheer him up and giving him the talk about getilting a new job.
During one of our conversation he opened up about possibly getting evicted. Asked if he can move in with me temporarily. Told him I'll see what I can do. I talked with my roommate but he's not pond of the idea. Told him this last week and he asked if I have an extra money to help him pay rent. I would've given it to him in a heartbeat if I have money to give. For the first time, after I said no I heard him sob. If i only knew that it's the last time I will hear for him I wouldve told me how the situation is temporary and cheer him up more. But im also broke that can barely afford to eat 3x a day.
Received the news from his landlord that he hang himself. Didnt left a note but his phone was unlocked that's why his landlord managed to message me. I was in disbelief hearing it and I cant help but blame myself.
Matthew was a silent but a good guy. Hes a runaway kid and what I know is he's an only kid, been out of contact to his father for years and his mom died when he was young.
I can't sleep and I have been blaming myself for allowing this to happen. I should have done more. I wouldve sold my phone if I knew that this is going to happen. His body is still in funeral homes and I am the one taking care of things but I dont know where in God's hand Ill be able to afford all the bills and burying him. If I have to sell a kidney I would. This is the las thing tha I can do for him

1. Think about priorities As a full-time student and worker, I spend about 11-12 hours a day on campus and whatever hours I spend studying (when I am not working, and I work 40+ hours leaving me to choose WISELY on what I do on my free time whether it is sleep or go out with friends for a sense of happiness outside of school and work. When I attend church it is only out of fear of being called out from the overseer and secretary. I am living away from my parents but have and know people in my local who can contact them. A few weeks ago I was deemed as an absentee(habitual?). But to be honest, as seen in my other rants, I have so much other stuff to worry about than wasting 1-2 hours at church.
   
2. Offering As i noticed where the churches money goes to, I do not give as much as I can like most of us here. I wish I could just not give, but that’ll just raise red flags to trigger other officers to look out for me and who I am. I dont have a thanksgiving offering. I’ve been giving whatever change I have in my car or a dollar I guess. And to be fair, as a student I have to worry about my food, shelter, gas, and other expenses. Even if I gave a dollar thats still $100+ im still saving from a cult who spends money on useless shit.
   
3. Thinking I just keep thinking about the hypocritical two face doctrines we hear. Some topics include LGBTQ community, offering, attending, drinking and drugs, etc… Please send other topics i should think about that INC says but is two faced about. Some things on my mind recently too is hosting events at Philippine arena with Harry Styles, Black pink and more. I dont have anything against those artist, if anything I love them, but their interest dont allign with the church so its all about money. Other thing I’ve been thinking about is how shitty the “music” they release and how culty its sounds and their movies. UGHHHHHHH
   
4. Being vocal I’ve been scared to talk about my beliefs with friends. But to be honest, when i started to talk to them, everything felt better getting it off my chest,
   

This post was random, but thank you for giving me a space to let it out.

[1U] Change the Equation Instant
Counter target spell mana value two or less
Counter target green or red spell mana value six or less
—————————————————————
This incomplete list of what Change the Equation does/does not counter.
Counters: Fatal push Thoughtseize Bonecrusher Giant Bloodtithe Harvester Fable of the mirror breaker Neoform Eldritch Evolution Collected Company Storm the festival Ossification Chained to the rocks Niv-mizzet Anger the gods Jegantha Big Score Bring to light Eldritch Evolution Tyvar All that Glitters Esika’s Chariot Ledger shredder Thing in the ice Crackling drake Fiery impulse Indomitable creativity Portable hole Thalia, guardian of Thraben Thalia’s lieutenant All of elves All of Boros Heroic Almost all of mono green All of mono red All of mono blue spirits
Does Not Counter: Mystical Dispute Greasefang Skysoverign Tasigur Temporary lockdown Wandering emperor Teferi Absorb Liliana of the veil Spell Queller Most of angels Pour over the Pages Brutal Cathar Skyclave Apparition Adeline Karn the Great Creator Sheoldred Narset Doomskar Farewell
While the card has a target against every deck in the format, some matchups virtually blank this card by only having low impact targets. In some matchups it is very relevant, but does not interact directly with combos or powerful synergies in others.
This is a valid sideboard option, but it functions very differently than Aether Gust. As a sideboard counterspell it runs the risk of being low impact against established boardstates, or countering only some relevant cards, like in the Rakdos matchup.
In evaluating this card for your deck I recommend looking at what matchups you want to strengthen. If you are favored against mono green and red decks then this option is medium. If you want to strengthen those matchups as well as Rakdos sacrifice and phoenix, this may be a better option.
Mana Leak effects and force spikes can stack later on in the game to counter a spell, where this card may be useless later on. This is a mana cheaper than the Absorbs and SInister Sabotages that make up the hard counters of the format.
As a two mana counterspell this is one of the better options in the format. I do worry that the card is inconsistent in some matchups, so dedicating sideboard slots to this card will be difficult.
I imagine 1-2 copies being played maindeck throughout a range of decks looking for a counterspell, with 1-2 showing up in s ideboards. I don't think this card is a maindeck 4 of, or a card that merits 3 sideboard slots. This is clearly a pioneer playable card, the impact it has on the format will be interesting to see.

Yeah I put this off until the last minute, I’ve had enormous difficulty communicating all my life so please bear with me. I don’t think one person knows this whole story but I realize it’s time I find a way to let my voice be heard. Hopefully it’s come together well enough after a week of working on it...
I was the kid that won all the first place trophies and held all the records on track and field day in kindergarten. Always outside doing whatever adrenaline pumping activity I could get myself into. From early on my parents recognized that I needed an environment that team competitive sports provides. Justifiably so, I would never trade the life lessons earned while playing American football for those read in a class room.
I suited up for the gridiron at 7 years old. I was padded from the toes up and it felt incredible, like I was a tank! The coaches loved me, I was short and stout, quick, sharp and fearless. It didn’t take long before I was playing on both sides of the ball, as running back on offense, safety on defense and returner on kickoffs. I was on the field the whole game. The attention as a team leader was intoxicating, it hooked me for life. I suffered my first on field concussion the following year.
It was the first game of the season, the bleachers seemed packed. Near the beginning of the game, playing as free safety, I see my opportunity to not let the team down. The ball gets handed off to their running back, a smaller guy like me, bursts around the mass of blockers to the outside and lights a fire down the sideline. Nothing between him and the touchdown, I project myself into his path and charge ahead like a game of chicken. Littler dude gets even lower than me, his helmet hitting me square in the diaphragm, lifts me clean off the ground and runs through me as though I wasn’t there. I land on my back, head hits the grass. Next thing I know I’m being lifted into an ambulance after being carried off the field on a stretcher. This was my first year of full contact play after a season of flag football and I clearly had not yet grasped the differences. I was in 2nd grade.
As I was enrolled in speech and hearing therapy at school, coaches began teaching me to get over that big hit by hitting the next kid even harder. I began to yearn the brutality of the game even as I took more punishment. The cycle was vicious. Looking back it really seems as though the coaches had some other agenda or issue that fed the aggression. We were coached to lead with our heads because shoulder pads were far too small proportionately and they’d make fun of us after a game if we couldn’t count multiple paint streaks embedded into the plastic on our helmets. Those paint marks were made by helmet to helmet contact, the more impactful the hit, the greater your “trophy”. Some kids earned more trophies than I and it pissed me off so I’d hit harder. They’d line us up one-on-one and tell us to knock the other guy off his feet if we wanted to play in the next game. I couldn’t begin to count the times I was laid out left counting the birds flying over my head in practice alone. Guys would go down every night, coaches laughing, “Aww get him some gatorade, he’s fine. Sit out 10 minutes and get back in here little guy.” I went on to play another 5 years in mostly the same positions until one day, after a difficult practice and a conversation with a close teammate, we dropped our pads and never looked back. But the damage had been done, my path had already been irrevocably set.
After that first on field concussion in 2nd grade, I went on to endure countless concussions over the next 7 years, first from football, then bike riding, fighting and skateboarding. It seemed after a few days of balance issues, blurry vision or headaches, I had no lingering problems and follow-up medical care was nonexistent at the time. It would be easier to recount the couple dozen times I was knocked unconscious, including one that kept me in the hospital for a week. I was so harebrained by high school, I attempted my fourth day of ninth grade black out drunk. The next day I was allowed back on campus I got busted with a joint. At 14, I ran away from home and made it 800 miles before being picked up by cops while breaking into cars for spare change. I was headed for Colorado to build a cabin. Wtf did I know about any of that? And I nearly made it. I quit school, 8th grade was my last year of formal education. Would wonder around the city drinking or smoking anything I could get a hold of. I’d go skateboarding atop some of the tallest buildings in Atlanta or scoot around the woods on an ATV while blindly firing my buddy’s .44 into the air. I shouldn’t have lived through it all, I have dear friends that didn’t. But at 15 I had an epiphany (thanks to LSD), packed a box and moved 400 miles away from everything and everyone. I was somehow able to hit the reset button and leave that volatile part of my life behind and spend the next several years recovering from the constant brain trauma.
Fast forward a few decades and what I’m left with is an inability to manage my life beyond today, I’ve been stuck in flight or fight mode ever since and I’m exhausted with looking over my shoulder. I’m feeling the effects of early onset dementia as I type this and I’m actually scared for the first time in my life. My days have moved beyond forgetting where I put my keys to nearly burning the house down when I run to the store forgetting that I was in the middle of cooking. I haven’t driven a vehicle in years because I’m scared I’ll hurt someone in a fit of road rage or forget why I left home in the first place. The few hours of sleep I may get is the only way to escape the screaming in between my ears and it makes rolling out of bed all the more difficult. I’ve lived in 27 different homes yet never owned my own. It’s been a rarity to hold a job or relationship more than a couple of years and have no savings for retirement. I’ve all but given up friendships and not had a meaningful conversation with my kids in years and I can’t blame them at all. I think about them all day and it hurts beyond words knowing that I’m the asshole and they’re better off without me around much. Have a talk with the person sitting next to you when your only available emotion is anger and see how many more conversations they willingly have with you. Imagine that being your dad. It’s as if there’s a switch that’s never been flipped and I’m incapable of appropriately expressing emotions in the moment. I really don’t mean to be the prick, I simply can’t help it. But I’ll never let you see the side of me cowering in the bathroom bawling my eyes out once I have time to reflect.
I’m 48 years young now and launching a new mission in life, to help educate those on how it takes a community to provide a safe environment for our children. Not one person has all the right answers and alone we fail. Whether it be coaches, school administrators, parents or the medical field, the system failed me. I would never advocate to end youth football, but why does it need to be combative? Too many have tragically lost their voices without even knowing football damaged their brains. The year I fell in love with the game was the year I played low-contact flag football, it becomes something else entirely when you start hitting each other.
It’s time to ban youth tackle football. Is it radical, yes. So were seatbelts and smoking bans.
Converting youth football to a flag system is the only remaining viable solution to making football safer for our kids. CA and NY have recently submitted proposals, it’s time lawmakers in other states step forward. The NFL’s most recent Pro Bowl gave flag rules a shot, the fans and players enjoyed it so much it’s here to stay. If the NFL gets its proposal to the 2028 Olympic Games approved, it will be no-contact flag football rules as well. If future iterations of the game are evolving to keep adult players safe, when will youth sports follow? Why aren’t kids more protected and supported when less than 1% of them will go on to play in the NFL?
Stay strong and Stop Hitting Kids in the Head; https://concussionfoundation.org/stop-hitting-kids-in-the-head
FYI; I have a difficult time living in the moment so give me a few days and I’ll do my best to circle back around to this post. Know that I appreciate all of you at cte for coming along on this journey of discovery with me. I am not the best at providing emotional support either but know that I look forward to getting us to a place where we can all be there more for each other. I’m thinking of you when I post and I will continue sharing my research along the way, please share yours and know that you are safe here.
Additional links;
Age of first exposure to tackle football and years played associated with less white matter in brain; https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03-age-exposure-tackle-football-years.html
Three or more concussions add up to long-term cognitive problems; https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/31/three-or-more-concussions-add-up-to-long-term-cognitive-problems-study-suggests
CTE Center Director Ann McKee says the NFL ignores the risks of repetitive blows to the head and that it’s “foolish” to think the league will police itself; https://www.bu.edu/articles/2023/bu-finds-cte-in-nearly-92-percent-of-former-nfl-players-studied/
How Psychedelic Therapy Can Help Treat Brain Injury; https://www.psychedelicpassage.com/how-psychedelic-therapy-can-help-treat-brain-injury/
Before You Let Your Kids Play Football, Read This; https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/play-in-mind/202301/before-you-let-your-kids-play-football-read-this

I used to pitch my tent wherever. If it looked interesting, I was setting up camp. I kept a tent at the ready in my trunk. There’s nothing exciting about a park; there’s no adventure in that. I didn’t camp out near someone’s house or anything like that, but I have found myself in some precarious situations. The worst yet, happened in East Tennessee.
I was traveling back to campus after spring break. There’s a spot of hills that I’ve always thought interesting. Between those hills runs a long valley. As I drive back and forth between Knoxville and Nashville, I always tell myself that I’m going to camp in that spot, but I never do it. I’m always pressed for time. I never leave in time though. Class is always the next day. Lost in music, I started ruminating on how boring my life had become. To hell with it, I was going to do it. I didn’t much care to do Calculus at eight in the morning anyway. I could afford to miss one day.
I pulled over to the side of the interstate, got my tent and backpack, and started hiking downhill to the valley. It was still early afternoon. The sun was still high enough in the sky to illuminate my way. The vegetation was thick. There was no human-made trail, no way to easily traverse the terrain. As I hiked through the briars and whipping branches, I reminded myself to buy a machete for instances such as these.
I found a perfect spot under a thicket of red cedars, with a nice flat area and no undergrowth. I pitched my tent and laid out my sleeping bag. I didn’t carry much on these excursions. I had a backpack with some crackers, a knife, lighter and a flashlight. It was usually a one-night affair and I’m gone the next morning. I spent most of the day exploring, but on this occasion, I was a little late. My main desire was to hike to the top of the largest hill to see the view and discover what was on the other side.
It took me about an hour and a half to make it up the hill. There on the other side was a wide expanse of nothing but trees. It looked like a green shag carpet rolled out across the landscape. I noticed directly at the bottom of the hill was an old wooden shed. What an odd place for a shed. The sun was farther down but I still had time to check it out.
I descended down to the other side of the hill, with a little haste. I wanted to make it back to my tent before it got too dark, but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. My curiosity piqued. I was excited for some adventure. I got to the shed, opened the door and walked straight in without surveying the inside first. I felt the earth beneath my feet give way, my gut lifting up as if on a roller coaster, and then fell hard to the ground, breaking my tibia. The pain was excruciating. I rolled around in agony, feeling the dirt and rocky bottom. I looked up and realized I had fallen down into a deep hole, not so deep that I couldn’t see the shed walls. The shed was only big enough to encompass and hide the hole. The hole seemed to be about twenty feet deep, no way to climb out and escape. There was still enough light to see up top, but down in the hole it was dark.
“We’re dead. You know that don’t you?”
I was startled. Someone else was down in the hole with me. I grabbed my flashlight out of my backpack. There on the other side of the hole was a young woman. Her whole being- body, face, and clothes were filthy with dirt and grime. Her lips were dried up and cracked.
“You almost hit me. Watch where you’re falling next time,” she said with a weak chuckle.
“How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know. I’m in and out of consciousness. Sometimes I wake up and think I’m home in bed, then realize I’m in this damned hole.”
“How did you get here?”
“I was abducted… and you?”
“I was camping and found this shed.”
She laughed. “So, you saw a creepy shed in the woods and went to see what was inside. Man, you’re a dumb fuck.”
“There’s no way out of here?”
“No, I’ve tried. Nothing we can do. I know you’re hurt pretty bad. I heard your leg snap as you fell. Man, what a sound. I hate to say this, but I’m glad you’re here though. I was getting lonely. I don’t mean I want you to go through what I’ve been through. I mean, I’m just glad you’re not him. Well, might as well introduce myself since we’re going to be spending a lot of time together. My name is Mary.” She widened her eyes and tilted her head forward, trying to evoke a response.
“I’m Gary.”
My leg was bent awkwardly, but no bone was exposed. Even though there was just me and Mary in the hole there were piles of clothing, a thrift store in the middle of the woods. I grabbed some blue jeans and a tee shirt. I tied it tight around my shin. I didn’t know how to make a tourniquet or even if I should. I just wanted to stabilize my leg the best I could.
There was an uneasy silence. What do you talk about when you are trapped in a hole?
“Him… you said him. It’s just the one guy?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know if I would call him a guy.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll see.”
“What do you mean? Does he come down into the hole?”
“Yes, and he takes you out of the hole and does things to you… experiments.”
“Then that’s our chance. That’s our only chance, is to knock the shit out of this fucker and get out of here. He’s not expecting me. He doesn’t know I’m down here.”
I started formulating a plan. There were enough clothes that I could hide underneath, and I had my knife.
“Mary, I want you to move forward. I’ll pack some clothes behind you. I’ll be buried underneath with my knife. You lean back on that pile… you know like you had made yourself a comfortable little bed or something. Ok?” She nodded her head. “When does he usually come?”
“I don’t know but it’s pretty regular.”
“How does he get down here?”
“He has a rope ladder.”
“Is he big? Have you ever tried to fight him… to escape?”
“No, he has some…” she hesitated, “some kind of power. It freezes me. I can’t move. I hear a ringing in my head and then I’m paralyzed. Don’t let him see you. We’ll know when he’s approaching. There’s always a humming sound and a clicking.”
I wasn’t believing anything she was saying. She had been trapped in a dark hole for who knows how long. She was losing her mind, starved of vital nutrients. Her imagination had started to create a different reality for her, one that I was unwilling to participate in.
I laid against the wall of the hole on my side. My broken leg was throbbing, as it was laying on the floor with my other leg on top. I couldn’t switch around though. I had to be facing the side the hole he would be climbing down. Mary threw a bunch of the clothing on top of me, leaving my face exposed so that I could breathe and not get too hot. I held my knife up to my chest. It was the old-fashioned survival knife, with a compass on the handle. I had long since lost the matches and string that came with the knife, tucked away in the hollow of the handle. But for my present purposes, the blade was, hopefully, all I needed. Mary leaned back against me. We waited.
After a while, I heard a humming and a clicking. The thought ran through my head that maybe Mary wasn’t crazy after all.
“He’s coming.”
“I know. Go ahead and cover my face.”
The humming subsided, but the clicking grew louder. I heard the door open, then the unrolling of the rope ladder with the wooden rungs tapping out a rhythm as it fell to the floor of the hole. Mary started to whimper in fear. I heard the man make his way down and then the thump of his feet as he jumped to the bottom. The hole lit up with a blue light. I felt Mary’s body go limp and then I felt her lifted up off of me. I slowly, quietly pushed away the shirt that was covering my face.
The man had his back towards me with Mary slumped over his shoulder. He was about to climb up out of the hole. He wasn’t that tall, but thick like a Neanderthal. He wore all black, with a long sleeve turtle-neck shirt. He was bald, but the oddest thing was where the blue light was emanating from. What skin I could see, on his head and his irregularly long hands, was glowing blue.
I was scared as hell. What was I about to tangle with? Yet, I knew now more than ever this was our only chance. I let him climb a few rungs before I sprung out and hobbled as fast as I could to the other side of the hole. He didn’t hear me. I know I had made too much noise, but he never reacted. I shoved my knife into his lower back. The clicking grew loud. I grabbed his shirt and yanked him down the ladder, pulling my knife out of his back, and thrusting it in the back of his neck. Mary fell hard to the ground.
He turned his head revealing large black eyes, devoid of pupils. He didn’t have a nose. His mouth was huge with mandibles projecting from each side. The mandibles fluttered angrily, clicking and humming, increasing in frequency. He, or it, pushed me to the ground, pulling my knife out of his neck and throwing it to the ground. It looked into my eyes, making a hypnotic contact that I could not shake. I heard a ringing in my head and my body went limp. I had no control over my limbs. I was frozen to the bottom of the hole, my plan unraveling.
Everything was a haze. I was barely cognizant of my surroundings so I don’t know when or how Mary regained consciousness, but I could see her sneaking toward the knife. My vision was blurry. I was fighting to not to pass out. I saw Mary get the knife and move quickly toward the being. She grabbed a handful of dirt and slung it at his head. He turned and she landed the knife in his face. He pivoted back toward me, and I could see she had stabbed him directly in one of his eyes. Black and crimson fluid streamed down his face. I could feel my body again, slowly able to move my limbs. I got up as fast as my recovering body would allow and started towards the ladder.
“Go Mary. Go, go, go. Get the hell out of here!”
She went up first and I followed pushing her in the rear as we went up. We were half-way when I felt him grab my broken leg. I shrieked; the pain was unbearable. I instinctively kicked with my other leg and landed a shot to his mouth, breaking off one of his mandibles. The creature fell back down into the hole. Mary and I made it out of the hole and quickly pulled up the ladder.
The creature recovered from its fall. Realizing it was trapped, it tried frantically to climb up the wall. I was relieved to see that it didn’t have any power of flight or levitation or some other weird alien power that would get him out of the hole. Mary and I watched as the blue shimmer of light banged against the walls, like a firefly stuck in a mason jar. There was nothing to do but leave it there and hope it starved to death.
It took forever, but we finally made it to my car. Mary drove me to the nearest hospital. She called the police and told them that we had escaped from an assailant with long black hair and a big bushy beard. I don’t know what else she could say. Who would believe the truth? She pushed the officials in a different direction from the shed, claiming that we had escaped from a house somewhere about ten miles from the actual location. I suspected she knew more than what she was saying, or even more than what she had told me. Maybe she knew that the creature would no longer be there, that something would have come and retrieved him. I don’t know. I do know that I never travel that way anymore and I sure as hell don’t ever go camping. Gaming is all the adventure I need.

There’s a glitch in my game where pawns (colonists and animal) are unable to hurt each other. In the log it says what’s happening as a colonist/ animal melee attacks another but nothing pops up in the health bar. This means I essentially cannot melee attack or hunt animals to death, and animals also can’t hunt each other.
I watched in vain as a panther tried to kill a sleeping tortoise, and as it kept melee attacking it no damage came to the tortoise and it just kept on sleeping. The same thing happened when I got one of my colonists to melee attack a boomrat — ot continued to sleep with not a scratch on it.
This has happened in also two of my games — I started w the same characters/ scenario and both times it’s mean impossible to melee attack animals/ people and actually do damage.
Does anyone know why this is?? Or how to fix it??

First thing’s first, I am not asking for advice on mental health issues (per the rules), but I do feel that they play a role in the situation as I will explain. If you feel it violates, feel free to remove.
I (21M) have been talking to this woman (25F) for roughly a month and a half.
I noticed very early on that she is incredibly inconsistent. She could text me over 100 times one day, and 4 or 5 the next. It follows absolutely no pattern, nothing evidently to do with her work schedule or anything. I’ve confronted her about it on a couple occasions, after she would ignore me for upwards of 12 or 24 hours. She would respond almost immediately, acknowledging that she knows she’s being rude but that she doesn’t know why. She says that she knows it’s not fun to be on the receiving end, and she’ll try harder. But give it a few days or a week, and the problem will return.
Now why haven’t I called it quits? It should be easy to acknowledge that this isn’t working out. Well here’s a few reasons.
One, when she is talking to me, she makes it abundantly clear that she is into me and cares about me. She tells me all the time how sweet I am, how much she likes me, how excited she is to do things with me. She sends me pictures of herself when she’s feeling cute, she’s exempted me from her iPhone’s “sleep mode,” meaning that my notifications aren’t silenced when her phone goes into Do Not Disturb for the night. She shows she cares in the little ways, when she’s showing it at all.
Two, we have a lot in common. We’ve made jokes before about being the same person from an alternate universe. We connect in so many ways, we’ve bonded over a lot of the same things. We like the same food, the same tv shows, video games, hobbies, you name it. We work in the same industry, we have the same humor, it’s all been nothing but good chemistry.
And three, I honestly don’t think she means to do it. She has told me that she struggles with bipolar depression, and from what I know about it, the issue sort of fits the description. She appears to get into modes where she just wants to isolate herself, she’s overwhelmed and overstimulated easily and she doesn’t want to talk to anyone. And then if you give it some time, she does what I’ve heard referred to as “love bombing.” Where she showers me in affection, gives me almost constant attention for a whole day or more.
Hence my internal conflict. I like what we have, I care about her a lot, and I am trying my best to be aware and understanding of the fact that she might just not feel like talking to anyone. I’m trying to be aware that it’s probably not just me that she’s ignoring. At the same time, it makes it extremely difficult to facilitate any sort of relationship. It’s almost impossible to make plans or have meaningful conversations when she occasionally just drops off the face of the earth mid convo, for half a day or more. On more than one occasion, I’ve just about accepted the idea that it’s over and she’s ghosting me before I hear from her again. It’s like a merry go round and I never know what today is gonna bring, if I’m gonna actually hold a conversation with her, or if she’s not gonna talk to me till 8pm.
I struggle with a decent amount of trust issues, so I frequently get the notion that she just doesn’t want to be with me, no matter how many times she reassures me, because of the inconsistency. I’m really wracking my brain here, I’m hoping that once she gets done with college here in a month and a half and a little bit of stress is taken off her plate, things will get better. But even so, that means I’m only half way through this purgatory.
Any advice? Anyone been through something like this? Could it be worth sticking it out? Or should I quit while I’m semi-ahead?

Greetings! I decided to write a bit of a cinematic as a preface for my upcoming Keys adventure. For more context, I am running a combo Waterdeep: Dragon Heist / Keys campaign with the WDH stuff being the sandbox of our game.
Please enjoy, feedback much appreciated.

Doctor Cassee Dannell was a preeminent scholar and professor of archeological anthropology at the University of Waterdeep and was on staff as an advisor to Norafilir Doomfoot in an expedition through the Murkmire. Doctor Dannell was relished the opportunity to study at this particular dig site as her research indicated heavy cultural overlaps and implications with some of the first inhabitants of the Waterdeep region and being appointed by the University was one of the foremost honors she had enjoyed since earning tenure. Thus far, the dig had been indeed fruitful as it seemed to have been a ritualistic site of some sort for the ancient society including cryptic frescos, untranslatable runes, and a broken dais of some sort in a centralized chamber. The possibilities were thrilling and her involvement was well appreciated by the dwarven archeologist team. “Oh, aye doctor,” Norafilir mused as he inspected a set of runes around the central dais over Doctor Dannell’s shoulder. “It sure does look like it pre-dates any findings the University has encountered thus far. Tell me,” he paused while stroking his beard pensively. “Do you think it is valuable?” Doctor Dannell did not even catch the fact that Norafilir meant monetarily in his question as she exuberantly explained. “Cultural association is definitely a valuable knowledge,” she responded quickly. “The more we know about where we came from as a society, even one so egalitarian as Waterdeep, informs where we are going and what we can accomplish.” Thoughts of academic accolade and recognition from Laeral Silverhand herself filled in the vacant thoughts in Doctor Dannell’s consciousness as she was drawn in fully into her work. That is, until they found the stone. Shouts went out across the dig as dwarves clamored and rushed to respond to a eureka moment common in dwarven mines when valuable ore is found. Doctor Dannell couldn’t restrain herself from joining in the excitement and spirited herself towards the call. As she arrived, she saw a mysterious, macabre, and outright mystifying sight there in the Murkmire; an opaque green ovoid gem-like object in the clutch of an armored skeleton amongst a field of other similarly garbed skeletal remains. The site positively transfixed the expedition and the location was immediately cordoned off to preserve the find and allow for undisturbed study. “Well Doctor,” Norafilir mused mirthfully. “It would seem you are up! First find goes to my team, however, you have exclusive access here to tell us just how much that gem is worth.” The band of dwarves celebrated heavily all through the night at their camp, singing tales of massive riches, the majestic beards of their women, and many other less polite things, but Doctor Dannell’s optimism did not allow her to join in the merriment that night as the gravity of the mystery pulled her in. As she began her analysis, she noticed that the markings on the armor of the stone’s seeming defenders strangely matched the furrows on the surface of the mucus-colored gem indicating to her most informed deduction that these warriors were dedicated defenders of the mineral. Amazingly, she had never seen these markings before and the implications were huge if not a miniscule amount of concerning as that meant her task was daunting by nature. Doctor Dannell had packed most of her formidable collection of ancient tomes in a bag of holding for this expedition for convenient reference and she was eager to compare her findings. The more Doctor Dannell looked for reference to the markings, however, the lingering concern began to transform into an overwhelming sense of dread. “According to everything I have ever researched,” Doctor Dannell worriedly explained to Norafilir, “evidence of this stone and its defenders should exist. And yet…” She trailed off as her fatigue addled brain weaved in and out of active conversation and meticulous analysis. “Oh doctor,” Norafilir said gravely to her. “It would seem you could use a good sleep. Also,” he said a tad bit more cheerfully, “could be that you just don’t have the right references!” Doctor Dannell shot him a wounded and maligned look. “Absolutely not,” she defended. “The books I brought with me are among the best in the Sword Coast on the indigeonous and ancient cultures. Frankly, Norafilir, it a little more than concerning that I haven’t found anything.” “Well, I am glad then,” Norafilir responded professionally. “That we have decided to exhume the gem. The Waterdeep Museum of Natural History and an unknown benefactor has made a generous offer to our company for what they are calling the Murkmire Stone.” Norafilir immediately qulled Doctor Dannell’s vehement protests. “Think of it doctor,” he said greedily. “A first-of-its-kind, truly unique find! They will name a library after us!” Doctor Dannell did not take her dismissal from the expedition well, and decided to make manifest her concerns with irrefutable evidence that the Murkmire Stone could be malfeasant in nature and she made for the majestic and legendary library of Candlekeep. While at the Great Library, Doctor Dannell plead her case with an Avowed whom joined her in her quest for cursed knowledge, and despite their combined efforts, they were unable to find more information on the stone. “I have a terrible pit in my stomach,” Doctor Dannell confided to the Avowed. “And I fear that the stone might be something truly terrible.” “For what it is worth,” the kindly elf assured her. “I believe you. We have one more option left: the Chamber of Lost Lore.” The Avowed utilized his rank and position to help Doctor Dannell due to the potential ramifications and they journeyed far beneath Candlekeep proper to the chamber where they contacted the spirit of a long-dead sage. Within the ritual magic circle and pentagram an elderly human emerged, wearing the ceremonial garb symbolic of only the most senior Avowed of Candlekeep. Doctor Dannell pled her case to the spirit, to horrifying results. “I know these markings,” the spirit confirmed. “In fact, I recognize this stone; it is the egg of an infernal eldritch beast that lays dormant for generations, however, when it is unearthed, it begins a catastrophic cascade of events that could lead to massive widespread calamity as the beast continues to grow and feed on everything around it.” 

As you tend to the renovation and improvement of Trollskull Manor, a halfling courier woman enters the Taproom with a small non-descript package in hand. She wordlessly places the package on the counter next to an empty ale keg and as you move to ask who sent the package, she has vanished mysteriously. The package itself is a piece of parchment paper bearing a golden wax seal with a sigil you do not recognize. Upon opening the package, you find a golden key with a gaping maw as a decorative headpiece. Immediately, you know that you need to insert this into the Golden Vault music box and as you do so, the box opens and projects a light blue image of a mythical looking stone. ‘Greetings, operatives. The Golden Vault has learned that the egg of an eldritch horror has been mistaken for a historical object and is about to go on display at the Waterdeep Museum of Natural History. The anthropologist Dr. Cassee Dannell tried to warn officials about this egg, known as the Murkmire Stone, but none believed her. We do, and we know that if this egg hatches, many will die-or worse. This quest, should you choose to undertake it, requires you to infiltrate the museum, steal the egg, and return it to Dr. Dannell, who will neutralize it. There’s no time to waste; the egg could hatch at any moment. Start by meeting with Dr. Dannell. Good Luck, operatives.’ The parchment that enclosed the key reads, ‘Meet me at the Sage’s Quill today as soon as you can. I beg your help in a delicate matter whose importance cannot be overstated. I shall await you in a purple hooded robe.” The note is signed, “Dr. Cassee Dannell.”

Hi fellow mamas out there. This is gonna be a long one and I don't even know where to start but I need to share my story because I feel like I'm going insane.
I married my dream guy over 5 years ago. It was love at first sight after many failed relationships and a crappy dating life. I really thought that I had hit the jackpot. He was kind, caring, the sex was amazing, and he would open up to me emotionally almost immediately. There was no wondering, if we were together, if we were serious about each other, we just clicked. Until we didn't.
Two and a half months into the relationship he changed what felt like overnight. He stopped leaving the house except for work, he would reply weirdly to my texts but when we saw each other, everything was fine. Yet, I still knew something was wrong.
Our first fight was when he didn't want to go to dinner with my parents, which he had already known then, it was a big deal to me and he just blew me off and didn't talk to me for days.
And it became a pattern - after every fight he would send me home for days at a time without talking.
As soon as I want to address an issue, he would just shut down and become very defensive. If I were to try harder, he would become real nasty, saying hurtful things, sometime calling me names, just to be left alone. So for years, we haven't talked about our problems properly. After a fight (and a few days of punishing me with attitude) he would just act all normal and pretend like we didn't fight at all.
We have a beautiful kid together and a dog. He doesn't really take care of either. I thought he would step up but it's only gotten worse. He always puts himself and his comfort first, wouldn't do house chores at all, doesn't take the dog out or feed it, he doesn't get groceries or deal with anything that needs to be done. And you've guessed it, it all falls back on me.
I'm working full-time, taking care of everything and trying to stay positive but it's really hard. As soon as I ask him for more support or a morning where I can sleep in, or anything really, he gets annoyed with me until he turns things around and tells me that I've made him feel bad and hence have ruined his day.
He doesn't go out or bond well with our kid, is constantly on his phone or watches TV. He's also drinking daily, not a lot but the addiction is there. He has a lot of past trauma that he hasn't dealt with, tends to get depressed easily and I'm suspecting ASD in some form but it was never diagnosed. He refuses to go to therapy or do anything about working towards improvement. As soon as I say anything in that line of things, I'm crazy, annoying, too emotional.
Lately I've been fantasizing about leaving him and starting over but I have to wait around until we can get out of our apartment loan sometime next year, otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford a place of my own. And then he is nice for a day or two and I start doubting my desire to divorce him. Until his next outburst.
I guess, what I'm looking for here is to learn how to cope with my own emotions. I feel guilty for wanting to leave him but I also feel like I can't stay in this marriage any longer. I come from a toxic relationship with a parent so it's in my nature to want to fix things, I guess that's why I have stayed around for so long. I also feel so emotionally damaged that I don't think I can be in a normal relationship ever again because I'm trained to expect the worst from the guy. So I'm scared to meet new people and open up in the future.
But I also want my kid to grow up in a healthy environment, to see good examples of problem solving and communicating, of how a partnership should be, otherwise I'm afraid or things repeating themselves later on.
How do I survive emotionally one more year?!?

Assalaamu alaikum. My landlady (f70 apparently I thought she was 50 LOL) invited a family to stay a few weeks in our house. She does this all the time when people need it, but I don't mind since the rent is low and they usually aren't causing issues. However it's usually a single male. We are a house of men each 20 years older, I am 20 and a revert. The 40 year old brother is going out of country during this time, so it will be me and 60 year old Somali.
The men of this family will either go to the absent brothers room (if he allows, which he won't) or the living room. The sisters will go to the Musalla to sleep on the bed we keep there for this purpose. They want a room with a door for modesty, and even on the miracle our roommate allows the family to use his room, he probably won't let sisters there just the brothers.
Here is where the issue arises. They'll be sleeping at reasonable hours, presumably not wearing hijab. The front door is locked from about 7 PM until when someone wakes up and leaves (usually about 10 or 11 AM since the 40 year old is gone). We don't have a key. We only have a key for the garage door which is a windowless/doorless room except one door which leads to the musalla then to the living room from there. I work night shift and with commute (I ride bus) I leave the house about 6 PM and get home around 8 AM. I am gone about 14 hours a day and need to sleep 7.5 or more or I can't stay awake for my shift except on friday when I go to the masjid for an hour and sleep again.
I can't afford to have a key made right now. My only options is to go through the musalla or wait until someone wakes up or leave the window cracked and crawl through (I don't feel comfortable as it is a robbery hazard and I could get the cops called). Another issue is that the whole family will be awake and doing human things while I need to sleep. This usually wouldn't be an issue (this is a new job by the way but I've done 12 hour NOC before) as my old roommate is quiet and my roommate who is leaving for vacation is loud but is working Wed-Saturday, coming home Thursday Afternoon leaving Friday before I'd get home then returning Saturday night. I work Thursday Friday Saturday. What do I do

Hi! I am finally brave enough to post here. It is currently 5 am where I live and please excuse my English, it is not my first language.
So, my family adopted a puppy from a shelter almost 2 months ago. He is 6 months old today. My dog trainer believes he's a border collie mix or something like that. I've wanted a dog for almost 18 years (22 years old now) but now I feel like I have made the biggest mistake of my life. I am (almost) the only one to train him and take care of him, sometimes my mom and my sister go on walks with us.
Before we got him I have read a lot, watched so many videos and like just informed myself because I wanted to be prepared the best I could. It is nothing like I ever imagined. It feels like I forgot EVERYTHING and I don't know what I am even doing.
The main reason I am posting now is because he just DOES NOT sleep at night. We went to bed at around 11:30 pm, he peed and pooped before and I took his water away at around 9:30pm. But he again woke me up at 2am, 3am, 4am, and now at 5am. He is constantly wandering around, or shifting his weight. He sleeps in my room because I am the only one who takes him out at night.
I ignored him for 3 hours and now took him outside and he peed and pooped again, and now he whined at my door because he wanted out of my room. (Update 6:22, he seems to sleep outside of my room now :))
My trainer told me that maybe he is not tired enough, and that I should put him on a long leash and let him run for an hour (we live in an apartment), but he eats everything so now I've bought him a muzzle which I am trying to get him used to. But he always pulls it down, so we take about 3 walks totaling 1h 45mins for now in the daytime where I can see what he takes.
We do have a crate, and he sometimes went inside to nap, but never longer than 10 minutes. I tried to put him inside to sleep two times, but he always woke up after 20 minutes and demanded to get outside with barking, pawing and whining.
So now I've put the crate into the livingroom and when we are eating he gets a kong and he is getting better at being calm inside.
But I am just so tired and exhausted. I don't sleep more than 3-4 hours a night, have headaches constantly, can't focus and concentrate which means I don't have the power to train him properly.
I want to make this work, but right now it just seems like a lot and I don't know where to start. We have so many problems like leash pulling, eating everything (including dog poo, and now he's being treated for giardia and worms, thanks), following me EVERYWHERE, biting us and our clothes when frustrated, and many more.
I had my dog trainer here and after 85 Euros it still doesn't feel like I know what to do. She told me why he does some things, and that maybe we should train impulse control and things like that. But didn't really tell me HOW. I feel like that's one of my biggest problems. I don't know how to do things. She also said that he is a really exhausting puppy.
However, she said we are the best at puppy school, because I already showed him things at home like "look at me", "touch" and introduced him to a marker word and the clicker. But when we are at puppy school he is soo distracted and wants to go to the other puppys and I always feel so frustrated because the other dogs are so well behaved. They are also a lot smaller than him (maltipoo, dachshund, pomeranian) because he was really shy when we got him so my trainer put him in the small group. He got more confident and bigger and now none of the puppys wants to play with him anymore.
He is also really afraid of strangers and barks at them A LOT. When someone unexpectedly comes around the corner he barks and growls and I am just standing there trying to pick up his poo while he goes crazy. Even my grandparents, who we visited almost 3 times a week before his treatment for giardia begun, he still barks at.
Ok, so this got a lot longer than I wanted it to be, but I think I just needed to let it out. I feel like crying everyday and nobody really understands me. I always get told "you wanted this". I wanted a dog, yes. But I would have never imagined it to be like this.
If anyone has any tips or just anything to say, I would be so grateful. Thank you and have a great day!

Hello my name is Adrien I'm 22 and I'm looking for two more players to hopefully be a permanent mainstay in my group. I love to roleplay and do voices for my npc's. The theme of my world is classic dnd fantasy with some inspiration drawn from Tolkien, Warcraft, Elder Scrolls, just a lot of stuff I love really. But thats just inspiration, nothing is actually dragged and dropped into my world, this is all still my design.
The story will occasionally go from classic dnd fantasy to more dark fantasy and even horror. I would prefer players with enough experience to where I won't have to hold their hand in creating their characters. I would like for you to make an in depth character that lives and breathes in my world. I want them to have personality and a backstory that I can use either for you or against you in the long run. My dream is to have this be an RP heavy campaign like Critical Role or something like it. You don't have to do a voice but it would make me very happy if you tried.
I have a request and it may not seem fair. Two of my players are either homebrew classes or something UA. You don't have to, but I would prefer if you made your class from any official content. All the wacky abilities and features of the unofficial nonsense my friends are using gives me a headache. To make sure nobody steps on each others toes here are the classes and races of the current party. Gnome Cleric, Lizardfolk Necromancer, and Eldarin Mystic.
This is campaign of gods fighting dark beings, fanatical religions ruling over countries and fear slowly dominating all. If that is your thing then we use Roll20 for gameplay and visuals and discord for chat. I'm pretty easy going and a little loose on a lot of the rules in dnd. Like the title says we mostly play on Saturday 6pm EST, but that can either be weekly or bi-weekly. A lot of us have pretty busy lives, I work construction and another one of is in the Army with a wife and a kid on the way. So sometimes games can be scarce. If you are interested either comment on this post or private message me here. I look for forward to making new friends and seeing how your character can influence my story.
Here is a short little story for an idea of the state of the world and what not.
Welcome to Kos (not inspired by Bloodborn). Three continents that sit within The Dead Sea. These continents are Drakus, a volcanic hellscape where war is never ending and dragons rule. Mocuthos, a beautiful safari with wide valleys and dense jungles. The Catfolk have built a strong empire here and have lived peacefully for centuries. Then there is Vasuria, a continent of lush green hills and thick forests. Where the humans have built their kingdoms and kings either war or make peace with each other. This is where our story takes place. Roughly a month a massive beam of purple energy was shot into the heavens. Following the beam was blast of the same dark energy that radiated throughout all of Kos. Soon terrifying creatures made of shadow began attacking in the night. A war has broke out between the pious Tomerians and Steel hearted warriors of the north. Giants have been slowly congregating, growing in large numbers and forming groups. They have raided villages and some have even attempted attacks on larger, walled settlements. With all these troubles brewing the heroes of the realm have not been seen to defend it. Shadows crawl and not all is as it seems as an ancient forgotten powers rises from the depths of history.

I'm from the UK, I've booked flights to visit Miami for 5th-9th September. However, I'm wondering where's the best place to stay for a first-timer in Miami.
South Beach or Brickell? I'm on a very tight budget and I've found a place in each location where I wouldn't mind staying in. I'd just like to know which is better? Ideally it's just a nice place to sleep so I'm not too fussed with amazing 5* service.
I'm going more for a relaxed holiday with some sightseeing and maybe a few excursions, such as jet skiing, for as long as they are affordable. (Some suggestions on what to do would be great also)

We have a 6.5 m/o who’s nearing 2 months of no sleep. It all started with not being able to set the baby down in the evening. No matter what we did, he woke the moment we put him down. We thought it might be teething, still none yet. We thought it was the 4 month regression, but it’s never gotten better.
We have had 2 nights where he’s slept through more than 3 hours at a time. Generally it’s a wake every 2 hours. But as of late, it’s every 45 minutes to an hour he’s screaming bloody murder and won’t settle. This is worse than he ever was as a new born and we have no idea what to do.
We have only slightly attempted training, and only for naps. Having said they, he will outlast any resolve we have. He will scream through entire solo nap sessions ruining his sleep for the day. No amount of encouragement or butt pats will soothe him.
I fear we are dealing with a monster we have created and have no idea how to undo. He can’t soothe himself, he’s too mobile for his own good and constantly rolls over and wakes himself in his sleep. It’s even gotten to the point holding him and sleeping with him won’t calm him or keep him asleep for longer than an hour.
I’m sure the only advice is to stick to training or wait it out. But we are seriously losing the fight here.