How do you make flaps on a knitted hat

TL;DR My BF and I great together but when it comes to hanging out with my family/friends it feels so tedious. We have gone out to family things and 2 events with a friend but that’s about it. My expectations of my partner with my family and friends is making me feel like if we continue he is going to resent me and my expectations, rather than wanting to be part of it. Am I just overthinking things too much?
My bf and I have been dating for 1.5 years. I am a F33 and he is a M33 with this being my first serious relationship. Things are great between us and he is on his way to figuring out things. I come from a small but close knit family. They drive me crazy but there is also a lot of love. I’m definitely spoiled and stubborn at times. I’m a very social and extroverted person, which means my bf is definitely not. He is introverted and really kind and soft spoken. My family and I are loud, sassy and spend a lot of time together. My bf’s current work and life situation has been hard as he is trying to move to a new field so he is starting from scratch. He feeds of his confidence and that has been low lately. My family doesn’t dislike him but when I started to introduce him to them slowly some of them were very welcoming and others were a little cold. Partially because of issues with me they would avoid him when I brought him around and after months we all were finally in a place so he didn’t come over for a big dinner party. That was about 5 months ago. However because of his job situation he feels like he is not good enough for me so he is avoiding meeting my family or my friends. And I’m trying to invite him to casual things with my family but he says no and tells me to enjoy myself. He jokes about it but it’s getting on my nerves that he is dismissing anything I invite him to because of his “situation”.
Right now I also have a dinner coming up with friends and he doesn’t want to come because of his financial situation and the lack of confidence. This dinner is important as it’s not just him but my friends and their spouses/partners meeting for the first time. I think he is being absolutely selfish and making it harder to meet people that he knew he was going to meet at some point. For some context his family is not in the country but we’ve met over FaceTime and video calls. I’d meet them in a heartbeat if they were here. It’s becoming a tit for tat thing and regardless of if it’s friends or family there should be no tally of “I came to this so now I don’t have to come for the next one”. I know that’s not healthy for any future
My downfall is getting emotional and he is taking it as an ultimatum that if he doesn’t meet or get along with my friends and family that’ll be it. I feel like I have a life with him that’s sweet and wonderful and there is a life with friends and family. I can’t and don’t know how to mesh it all. Do I have u realistic expectations?? This should not be this hard for either of us because I see how family oriented he is too. I don’t want my future split between these two lives…. It’s tiring and exhausting to manage. I know introducing him to my family could’ve been better but it seems like it’s on the wrong foot. He did try his best but I’m not excusing their “cold shoulder” either. But families are complicated and I don’t want him impose my family on him but also make it clear that they are equally important to me as him.
P.S this is reposted and thank you for the 2 commenters for their insight. You both made valid points.

I am going to call this an old new story about my jnmil. My daughter turned 9 yo this past weekend and my family was celebrating and reminiscing about her 1st birthday.
For those of you who don’t want to read my lengthy back story, my daughter has 2 rare chromosome disorders and she is the only documented case to have both. She had a very rocky first year of life and doctors didn’t expect her to make it past 18months. She also had another close call when she was 3 yo. She’s got a long list of complications, but is happy and chaos on 2 legs. We love her to pieces and brings a ton of joy to our lives. Delusional Debbie has always been disappointed in who she is, and focuses more on what she can’t do.
Back to the story. At my daughter’s celebration this year, my aunt made a comment about how terrible my in-laws were at daughter’s first birthday party. Her 1st birthday party was held in the cafeteria of our local Children’s Hospital because my daughter had been hospitalized (for the 10th time that year). My family brought food, balloons, party hats, the works. Even though my daughter wasn’t healthy enough to be at home, I have so many pictures of her smiling with her aunt/uncles/cousins etc. The only members of DH family there were Delusional Debbie and JNFIL (his family lives far away and I wouldn’t have expected them to come).
I knew that Delusional Debbie was put out by daughter being in the hospital, but honestly I don’t remember anything negative being said at the party….. but my aunt does! And boy did she spill the tea!
Apparently Delusional Debbie was complaining (to my family), about daughter being in the hospital again. She couldn’t understand why I wasn’t doing more to keep daughter home (I am Delusional Debbie’s favorite punching bag). To her, daughter’s unstable health HAD to be because I wasn’t doing enough to keep her healthy. I for Delusional Debbie, it was so unreasonable that everyone had to haul the food and decorations down to the hospital (she did none of the work). Also, JNFIL complained that the hospital was not convenient to get to from the hotel they had booked (the hospital is 45 minutes from my home and about an hour from where they stayed).
I’ll be honest, I was laughing when Aunt told me this story. I am already NC with all of my in-laws and have been for years. Also, my aunt is sunshine, rainbows, and everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt. BUT, she had all sorts of four letter words in her story about Delusional Debbie. Also, this was 8 years ago. Mostly I am grateful that my family shielded me from Delusional Debbie’s toxic behavior, and gave me an amazing memory of Daughter’s first birthday. Knowing what she said doesn’t taint my memory at all. It just re-enforces my argument for being NC.
So, yeah, an old/new story.

[OC Intro: The game is modded to increase basic jobs cost, seasonal events are disabled. Much of the crash details are based on NASA/SP-2008-565 Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report recommendations especially Chapter 3 "Occupant Protection".]
The ship is without power, and Tightniks can't run the radar much without draining the batteries. He has only a few minutes of APU power left, goes over the best clearing he can find, and radars it. It varies by only a few feet from the aerodynamic glideslope there. He spots it out on the cameras and circles to go after that spot. He's only at two hundred feet now. With one hand on the stick, he uses the other to open the pressure equalization valve on the side hatch, then at one hundred feet, gets it undogged. Depending on how much damage he's going to get, it's less likely to be stuck closed and trap him. The dynamic vacuum this pulls in the cockpit rips most of the survival pack data cards from that rack and scatters them across the landscape. Crap, I'm gonna need those! Refocusing on surviving the next few seconds, he turns on the radar for the final approach, takes a last look around, then straight ahead at his forward camera and PFD, he clicks his HANS and shoulder strap locks in; after that, he can barely move, but that now is better than dying in this crash with a broken neck. He's a decent pilot and brings up the flare gently. Bringing up the alpha on this delta-winged ship, he balloons a little, but keeps the nose going up and restores a zero aerodynamic sink rate just above the highest terrain indicated by the radar altimeter. The ship bumps a little in the ground effect, and he can see the radar altitude cycling irregularly up and down about five feet at a time. Rougher than it looked from higher up! The body flap protecting the dead engines hits first, and the nose comes rapidly down. It hits, the screens go blank, and Tightniks is surrounded by airbags, some lifting his feet from the rudder petals and his hand from the control stick. It's blinding, it's disorienting, it's noisy, and, to his relief, it's long! It takes several seconds before the crashing cockpit stops moving. How many times did he flip over? Did he go sideways and roll? Am I rightside up? Are we really stopped on the ground? The airbags deflate, and he can move his arms. He gets his restraints loose and inspects himself. "Uck!" he says out loud (without the 'f'). No broken bones. His pressure suit can take his blood pressure. 116/81, pulse 112, blood oxygen 99 reads off on his left arm, I'll friggin' take it!
The ship is amazingly intact from what he can tell. He can't get any readings. The systems test meter seems to be working, but can't find any voltages anywhere. The ship seems to be completely dead. Behind him, 10 passenger seats are all surrounded by airbags and the back of the cabin ends in some sort of dirt-and-gravel and there's a bit of daylight seeping in around the edges. He was the only one on board, though, so their deployment was mostly academic (they might have stiffened the structure a little during the crash, but that's probably trivial.) Tightniks gets out of his spacesuit. The air on this planet is actually breathable. He gets the hatch open, steps outside and-
"A green shimmer erupts then disappears, and you hit the ground."
The human emerges from the glowing green mist and hits the ground. Groans. Pushes against that ground, trying to get back up. Where am I? What's my name? I remember nothing. Aren't babies born naked? He's got a dark blue button-down shirt on. A uniform? A shoulder patch. Gets up, looks around. I feel really heavy. I'm not that fat, am I? He picks up a small stone from the ground, this also feels heavier than it should. He rises to his feet and holds it out somewhat (he's unable to fully extend his arm) and lets it go. The stone hits the ground near his feet quickly and with remarkable speed. It's the gravity, it's greater than it is on- ...where am I from? This is- ...not my home planet? "Oooh..."
"Ka?" it says.
What is that? It's cute, at least.
It is not tame. He has no hope of catching it on foot. The creature seems to like the berries. Maybe if I gather some of those into one place and set some kind of trap...
33s: First trap.
I got one! The human lumbers up to the trap and gets the catch open. Do you bite? It doesn't matter much to me; I'm so friggin' screwed.
It doesn't. It looks at the human with a sense of wonder, actually. A blink and tilt of the head. Seems almost to be asking, Is it you? My purpose? My savior? Once out of the trap, which is totally wrecked, he has to make a new one from scratch, it follows him around like a imprinted hatchling bird.
Wiry little fella, you are. You're going to need some bulking up to do anything useful. The- ...'trimp', I guess... The trimp seems just barely able to feed itself. The human lets him into the broken ship's intact cabin, and it curls up comfortably in a passenger seat for a nap.
1m03s: Second trap.
"Apparently the Trimps breed if they're not working. Doesn't look pleasant."
What are they doing?
The trimps appear to be androgynous, and these two have paired off in the back of the ship. They're holding something carefully within a few hours, feeding it berries, grass, and- ...corundum.
Corundum?? Whatever that is, it isn't a baby.
1m35s: Third trap.
Only it IS a baby! The third trimp he trapped immediately joined the other two in raising it. They have a strange diet of food the human has found compatible with his own body, but they also eat rocks! They're careful to crush and sort aluminate minerals from silcate ones and only eat aluminate. Actually, they don't eat aluminate, they're only feeding it to the baby.
2m06s: Fourth trap.
All four are raising the same child, who is just starting to toddle. It seems these fellas have alumina or maybe even aluminum bones. The human takes a nap and wakes to find the first child grown up and they're starting to raise a second child, all five of them.
2m46s: Huts.
The human found a working bit of electronics. He calls it a pad, but maybe it's more like a smartphone. It has plans for two residential structures. The first, the smaller one, he can build right away, but the second one needs something called "drywall", and he has to figure out how to make that before he can build it. Huts and houses, apparently.
3m13s: 10 pop, full, first farmer.
The trimp he trained to farm and make paper took an incredible 50 units of food to get bulked up to do the work, and now it's not participating in rearing the child. But less than an hour after the trimp started farming and pulping, the child was out on its own, and the trimps did not start another. The ten seats on the ship were all full. Well, eleven counting the one up front that the human sleeps in. The pilot starts exploring the area.
3m28s: Battle.
Wait, what are you do-
The hostile roars and charges at the human, but one of his trimps jumps in front of him with a stick and they fight. It started right when the human got far enough away from the ship that the hostile non-trimps away from the ship began to regard him as leaving his own territory. After the trimp defeats the first enemy, it continues after other hostiles.
3m53s: Shield I in Z1c5.
The human is easily able to recover the loot in the territory cleared by the fighting trimp. Then he sees something glinting in the- That can't be! What the heck is that? It's a data card that fits his pad. It quite clearly regards trimp combat. He gets it loaded into his pad and studies it. I can do this, it just takes some wood. He returns to the ship to discover that they had already started on a new child before the fighter had even expired in battle. The human concentrates on his research.
4m38s: Mskel in Z1c11 defeated.
The remains of this one seem rather white and shiny. It's titanium! This enemy had titanium bones! He'll store them away. They'll be useful someday, I'm sure.
5m52s: Dagger I in Z1c20.
Where are these data cards coming from? The human wonders as he loads this one into his pad, It's for a weapon it calls a dagger. He blinks. I don't know what a dagger is. I'll take your word for it, data card. Needs metal. He has gathered some, but ore is plentiful. He can just dig and smelt it whenever he wants. For now, I'll continue researching.
6m18s: Arable in Z1c21.
It's an old cave that trimps like to live in. Why weren't they able to live there before? How could these friendly critters be confined to only the exact spot where THAT thing, he looks back where he came from, not remembering that he piloted the wrecked ship to its current resting place, crashed? This is really strange. I'll let them fill up this cave before advancing further. Wait, what about defenses? The hostiles never try to reclaim territory that they've lost, so he stops worrying about that fairly quickly.
8m22s: First hut is 0.3% first ever AP.
The trimps seem fairly easy to please in terms of living quarters. Two move into his first hut and start raising a child. The human has his tent, uniform, and the heater pilfered from his space suit. Not much of a mud fan.
9m59s: Miners in Z1c30.
Oh, what's on this data card? Sl3niw? Oh, I'm holding the pad upside down. Miners. I can teach trimps how to mine ores and smelt met- 200 units of food? Each job is getting more expensive to train a trimp for. He puts his bee nickels to his eyes and spots another data card probably 10 enemies away. "Sc"? Does that means science? I can teach trimps to do science??
13m57s: Scientists in Z1c40.
Due to the expense of training trimps, the human couldn't afford to build them shields until now, he's got Sh1-3 made for the fighter to capture the science training data card. 14m02s: One head went into that turtlimp shell, that of his fighter, but two came out: his fighter still has his head on, and he managed to get the turtlimp's head off. It rushes off after the deadly penguimp in the next cell. The shields are not doing all that much good, actually, but they're better than nothing. The human picks up and loads the science data card and- Holy runny sugar-free fudge crap! 1000 food units, but it'll endow them with the ability to speak. Good. I'm getting bored with no one to talk to.
14m28s: Bloodlust purchased and AutoFight enabled (that delay after getting it is an effect of jacking up the job cost.)
As the human buries this expired little trimp warrior, he comes to the sobering realization that he has more trimp graves in his growing trimp colony than he does live trimps. And yet they seem more hopeful now than before I got to know any of them. They seem to think I'm the solution to all their problems or- Those two look east somberly, then notice that he's watching them and smile back and wave at him. ...one problem that is specific, but very, very huge for them. [The only reason I say 'east' is because that's right on a map, and the game advances right across a row, then up. I might say 'northeast' on occasion for that reason.]
20m47s: Z1c73, Miners taken.
Are you my new mining foreman? The trimp who took to the mining training has dark brown fur that lays flat on its head. It's unusual in not having any bits that stick out from its head, ahoge or whatever. This one is relatively quiet, and while it has assimilated the mining and smelting knowledge, it needs to bulk up to do any mining. Smelting is relatively easy, and getting a strong natural draft going in a furnace is almost trivial with the increased gravity. This trimp builds furnaces like nothing. And likes to nap in holes it digs right on the spot; it's weird that way. [Puchim@s Yukipo, and furnaces are not explicit in Trimps.]
21m58s: Farming in Z1c80.
The resourcing "books" are not data cards but paper scrolls, apparently lost to the trimps. It seems that they were civilized in the recent past and some calamity swept over the planet to reduce them to this. Did I have something to do with it? Amnesia sucks harder than a Dyson- ...what's a Dyson? Whatever, it sucks. This disaster happening just before I crash in the only spot with trimps still alive would be a seriously crazy coincidence! Something is really, really wrong about all this. [The author has not sought or received product placement permission or fee from Dyson Technology Ltd. or any resellers of their stuff, just they literally suck balls and made my favorite vacuum cleaner.]
23m50s: Builder in Z1c90.
They've rescued an, I dunno, gelding trimp? It just started to build a shed around the piled lumber I left to build one. It's really slow compared to me, and just banged its thumb, but it is super cute with that long reddish head fur. That particular trimp is also fascinated with pink ribbons and likes to decorate its head fur with them. Because of its inherent inability to participate in rearing children, it isn't counted in the population. [Puchim@s Io, builder on the basis of Iori seen building in 1x10.]
26m02s: Zone 2, 44 pop, 5.5s RC with Z0/1.
It's some sort of tactical manual - tactical coordination. Coordination! He's starting to sort out some trimpese on the research he has done so far. It needs a lot of metal, so they won't be able to implement it for some time. Hopefully, they're still good one at a time, but these enemies seem to be getting bigger as we go along. Uh oh!
27m33s: Gym in Z2c5.
It's some sort of training dojo or sporting arena. The human examines the ruins, I think I can back-engineer drawings for this, get one built, and see what happens.
29m02s: 1g, 47 pop, 10.8s RC with Z1/2.
The two fighting trimps now with their gym and coordination are dodging and blocking enthusiastically, and making much faster ground against the bad guys then a little while ago when it was just one trimp fighting at a time and unable to avoid the enemy hitting back.
40m46s: Fresh turkimp in Z2c74, 63 pop, 7.9s RC, Sh1-10, Da1-5, Bo1-3, Ma1-3, Hm1-3, 6g.
Oh, wow, the laborers seem really hot after this turkimp. He cooks it up and tries a slice. It's really awesome! I have to work alongside his laboring trimps to share it, but I'm getting used to the gravity now. That scroll we found back in Z2c10 really helped. Trimps' techniques and appliances for handicapped individuals, and I'm really handicapped in this higher gravity. He joins the woodcutters with the turkimp; they're the most numerous resource laborer right now, building more gyms, enough that the block/dodge ability of the fighting trimps is almost caught up to the enemy's ability to cause damage.
43m15s: Zone 3, 63 pop, 7.9s RC with Z1/2.
I'm neglecting my science and trimp scientists are really expensive. Curiously, that grey-haired one can't speak all that well, only says "Tai" and "Shijou", but it can write and draw like nobody's business. It's the only scientist so far. [Puchim@s Takanya: Online references probably still claim that she can utter the first two syllables of any word, but she can actually utter only the first two kana syllables of someone's name, most often the given name of basis human Takane Shijou, who also has that habit. (All the utterances of the puchidoru are based on the speech foibles of their basis humans except maybe Piyopiyo, where I haven't seen anything match up so far.)]
47m32s: Finally, we can make drywall and houses. 59m30s: Z3c77, 94 pop, 7.8s RC.
Oh, those poor things are really struggling up at the front. These trimps are enthusiastic and know no fear, but I still feel like telling them to stop for a while. I don't have the heart to keep them from trying while they're still doing some damage.
1h05m24s: Zone 4, 107 pop, 9.3s RC with Z3/4. 1h15m26s: Zone 5, 120 pop, 8.2s RC with Z3/4.
"What is that?" the human asks. He has three scientists. His first does all the writing, but the other two can actually speak. One of them hops up on a rock spire beside the human to reach his eye level.
At the next ridge line, over the lowest and most passable gap in the terrain, this really mean looking hovering sausage monster.
"I dunno," the scientist trimp shrugs, "But it's making me hungry. Looks like a perfectly cooked frankfurter from here." [John Morell's dubious dirigibles.]
"Oh, yeah," the human nods, "that's a blimp."
"A blimp?" the trimp tilts its head quizzically at the human, "How could you know?"
"I wish I could tell you, little buddy," the human extends his arm braces to descend the pass on the side of the zone boundary in the boss enemy's direction, then grunts, "Let's go kill it."
1h16m11s: Z1c9, 120 pop, 10.3s RC with Z4/5. 1h33m34s: Zone 6, 151 pop, 7.4s RC with Z4/5.
1h33m54s: TP in Z1c3.
"What's this?" the human asks, having picked up the little square document with the curling corners.
"Oh," the hungry scientist looks at it, "It's a garden path, follow me."
"You want to lead me down the garden path?" the human says.
"Yeah," the scientist says.
"Are you kidding?" the human asks.
"No," says the other scientist, "We don't get human humor. Listen, these fighters can't go, let them wear themselves out here, then we'll take the next group through this garden."
"Okay," the human nods, watching two more trimps join the fray as he issues the Z5 coordination orders, "they're doing pretty well after all that block training research we just wrapped up." [That's a common artifact, even in normal games, Z5 Traintacular combines with many gyms, enough population to add several trainers, affording Blockmaster, which is expensive on a run zero, plus a break on Tion Z5, a 40% all-stat increase. I don't think Zach designed it into the game on purpose, it just worked out this way.]
1h34m07s: 151 pop, 10.5s RC with Z5/7. 1h37m44s: Drop from Z6c39, TP for 3.
"Now we have these access map frags we can use to route through the old trimpopoli," the scientist explains, "Atlimpis for food, Morimpa for gems, Everimp for metal, and Impazon for wood."
"What about the garden?" the human asks.
"Well, we got lucky with Tricky Paradise," the scientist says, "but you can randomize the route and maybe get lucky. What's with that look?"
"Somehow, I'm remembering 'frag' as something that blew up with deadly pieces," the human says. [Different video games - ones with better graphics and worse gameplay Ｏ(>▽<)Ｏ]
1h39m59s: Blues back up to the top on series I...
"Tai, Tai!" the first ever trimp scientist stops the human just before he upgrades the mace and dagger to Mk.6 and Mk. 8 respectively. It has a note for him.
"Why do you keep calling me that?" the human asks, "Do you think that's my name?"
"Shijou, Shijou," it nods as though to indicate, I KNOW it is. Then it proffers its note again. The human takes it and reads, "Don't upgrade the first row equipment right now."
"Why not?" the human asks.
"Shijou," it points at the end of the mapped route, where there's a scroll sticking out of the thistles.
2h24m07s: Zone 8, 224 pop, 12.2s RC with Z7/12.
"Your settlement is getting crowded, there's Trimps in the streets, and you're taking heat. You feel a sudden strong desire to create a map, though you're not quite sure how that would help."
2h49m10s: Zone 9, 357 pop, 9.5s RC with Z8/15.
"You can't shake the feeling that you've been here before. Déjà-vu?"
The trimps really seem to like the new high capacity mansions, and the village has rapidly expanded since they started building them.
"There's something familiar about this," the human says.
"Tai," the grey one that writes clings to his arm and shows him a note that says, "Don't give up now."
"We must persist," says the yellow one has found a foothold it can grab onto and grabs the human's shoulder gently, "If you give up to early, we'll never solve this. You'll be stuck here forever."
The human puts his hand over the trimp's paw on his shoulders, then looks at him, "I can die, too."
"No, you can't," the trimp says quietly, "Please don't test that, tall one."
"Death is just another path..." he remembers.
"Gan," the grey one squeaks. [That's the first two kana syllables of "Gandalf"]
"...one that we all must take," the human continues, "The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it-"
"A green mist," the yellow trimp interrupts, "flash of fire, we're all gone and our progress forgotten. The wandering stars return to that day, and you again crash that ship- ...a little better every time."
"Wait," the human looks around, "have I been here before?"
"I-" the yellow trimp tries in futility to share what little it knows, "...or... somebody got just a little coolant into the-"
"Into the what?"
"This side up," the grey one's note says.
"Into the that," the yellow one points at the note, "It really helped. You- ...I don't think we've ever had mansions before."
Well, of course they didn't have mansions before. That was one of my ship's data cards. How did it get way out here? Will anything start to make sense?
3h02m13s: Zone 10, 387 pop, 8.7s RC with Z8/15; '28s: 11.1s RC with Z9/19. 3h16m41s: Tough snimp after food book, L10 rand dept from lo-hi-med 118/25/96, 4 Items.
"That's twice our frags led us to gem-rich Moria," the human says.
"Morimpa," the new red trimp scientist corrects, there now being 5 scientists. [There'd be more if there were more turkimp.]
"The question is how do we use all these gems?" the human looks at the village zoning plans again, "I like those mansions and all, but they use hardly any gems compared to, well-" he gestures at the pile of over two dozen thousand gems they've gathered, "-that! And still a lot of wood and lumber."
"I think there's something," the yellow one sighs, "I wish I knew more."
Quite some time later, after they're done looting that route for equipment plans, the trimps are again advancing through Zone 10, and he hears it.
"Tai?" the grey one wonders.
"Where are you going?" the yellow one asks.
"To the farm," the human answers.
"Whatever for?" the red one seems exasperated.
"Shijou?" the grey one sighs, then looks at the fighting front. It's been around long enough to remember, "Shijou!"
"You guys already get so much to eat this doesn't do you much good," the human explains.
3h32m33s: L11 112/35/78 rand sea, dropped from Z11c6 with disband, 4.
"What's wrong?" the red one asks.
The human comforts one of the wounded. Once trimps start into a zone fight, they have to finish before they bleed out. He's really bothered making them desert in front of that second turkimp. "They had a lot left in them," he sighs, rubbing his eyes, "but we can't keep that much dead turkimp at once, we have to leave it alive to use up all of this one."
"Shijou," the grey one presents a note, "We need this map right away, anyway. Don't worry about it, Tightniks."
"Tightniks?" he looks at the grey one, "Is that me? How do you know?"
"Tai," the grey one points at the top of the human's left breast pocket.
"Ah, crud," the yellow one curls its tail around in front of itself as trimps do when they're embarrassed, "Is that really a name tag?"
The human hadn't even noticed it since the green flash blew up his memory as he was stepping out of the ship.
4h04m22s: Block (sub-8h AP is only 0.3%), taking it, 504 pop, 9.8s RC with Z10/24.
It's a pretty thick book about using shields for block instead of hit points. The pad has the stats analysis. Sh3-1 is only giving us 9% of our hit points. Turning to his trimp scientists, he says, "It seems to me to be worth it."
"Let's," the yellow one nods.
"Shijou," it hands him a note, "It scales badly, but that won't matter for a long time. I think there's a way to undo it before it matters."
"Doing it." The human takes out his pad and starts scanning.
4h29m05s: L14 rand moun 137/26/80 is really good for a lo-hi-med. 4h30m52s: Hotels.
"Ah," the yellow one says, "I knew there was something. That must be it."
5h08m09s: L15 lo-hi-hi rand gard 129/28/82 (just got explorers). 5h09m32s: Picked up Wall.
"Dam," the human says.
"Damn?" the red one chuckles.
"No," the human says, "Earthen wall dam; it's a thing that makes artificial lakes by holding rivers back."
"Lakes?" the yellow one asks, "Rivers?"
"Oh yeah," the human says, "This planet doesn't have enough rain for those..."
5h48m21: Leaving Wall from about c70 to fetch Tion Z15.
"You can't resume the map from the same point if you start another," the human reads the grey one's note.
"We can go back to the same point on that route if we hold there and finish Zone 15, right?" Tightniks asks.
"Shijou!" it seems to be saying yes.
"Yes," the yellow one adds, "but we're out of Series III upgrades, and you need a fresh map route to start up Series IV."
"We should be okay," Tightniks says, "but if we have to start it over, I don't see that being a big deal." As they advance through the rest of Zone 15, Tightniks resumes his usual duties at the research desk instead building and running traps like he was before.
The trimps seem hopeful at this decision.
5h49m10s: Fresh turkimp. 5h50m16s: Zone 16, 1071 pop, 13.4s RC with Z15/75, 13m43s turkimp (skel in c1.)
"Z:16 Seriously? Another Blimp so soon?"
"So," Tightniks lowers his bee nickels and looks at the red one, "is it going to be boss fights at the end of every zone from now on?"
"Hmm," the red trimp looks up past the human at some random rock spire or cloud.
"Well?" the human persists.
"Yup," he says.
"Hmph," Tightniks grabs a Sw3-1 of the rack and advances towards the front, "Before then, we have another Mister Titanium."
"What does he like about skeletimps?" the red one asks the grey one as the human marches off.
"Shijou?" the grey one seems just as confused by that.
"He's not going back to the ship, and he's not getting himself killed," the yellow one smiles, "so I'll take it."
5h58m32s...
"Hey guys, go for the mortar!" the human suggests to his 75 fighting trimps in the Wall's boss fight.
"I can tell from your bedtime stories that you're used to the artillery in that other place," the yellow one gripes, "but fighting works differently here, there's no artillery."
And the human instantly collapses laughing, the scientists a little worried he might have injured himself in the planet's severe gravity. But he's okay, at least physically, "Mortar is the stuff between the bricks, fellas. That's is a brickimp, right?"
5h59m18s: Wall, 1076 pop, 13.3s RC, 1% AP for sub-8h finish, first L16 roll good 156/35/84 moun, 10 for the metal.
Beyond the Wall was a more edenic section of the trimpolis ruins, doubling the production of the lumberjacks. The trimps are actually really happy with the mode of all of the laborers moving between the three big jobs, along with the turkimp, except for the foremen specialized at leading the job. It isn't enough to boost their productivity, but the human goes to them with trays of sandwiches.
6h06m52s: 50 map run 0.3% AP...
6h19m13s: Zone 17, 1141 pop, 16.0s RC with Z16/94, no turkimp.
"Z:17 You climb a large cliff and look out over the new Zone. Red dirt, scorched ground, and devastation. Is that a Dragimp flying around out there?!"
"Hmm," the human surveys the new zone with his bee nickels, "Looks like crap. Any ideas?"
"You're the idea man," the yellow one groans.
"Set the map flag," he puts his bee nickels away, "We'll run a depth for practice and to load up on gems for more hotels."
"Righto," the red one gets to work.
6h44m34s: First DCP. (Draglimp Care Package; I refuse to call it a tribute.)
"Oh," the human says, "It's tame now, so it brings back gems in exchange for food?" He looks at his gaping scientists, "That's what it looks like, huh? Guys? Yo!"
"Tai..." the grey one sighs.
Draglimp, the dragimp imprinted on Tightniks, lands beside the human, drops some gems at his feet, and accepts some scratching behind its horns before diving into the food bowl.
"You tamed a dragimp???" Grey's note says.
"Well," the yellow one huffs, "I guess that happened."
8h18m53s: L20 depth of 154/27/79.
"Mapping up here?" the red one half closes one eye and tilts his head.
"Yeah," the human says while fitting together the depth map fragments, "With the coordination book not right at the end, we have an extra mark of coordination to take advantage of. Let's take our housing up to 2000 or so, shall we?"
"Okay," the yellow one says from a pile of logs, "What's all the wood for?" They had been collecting it for days now.
"The series upgrades follow a rather specific pattern," Tightniks explains, "Just on the other side of this blimp is Zone 21, where we should be able to find the Shield series V, right?"
"Shijou!" the grey one nods.
8h56m17s: 1% AP for 100 map runs, leaving it, 1751 pop, 24.8s RC with Z20/232. 8h56m54s: Zone 21...
"Ooooookay," Tightniks growls, "There is something off about this thing."
"Shijou?" the grey one looks at the yellow one with concern about their human starship pilot friend.
The human stoops, picks up the little green gem on the ridge between Zone 20 and 21, looks at it, huffs, and asks, "Any idea where this comes from?"
"Err..." the red one seems hesitant to say, "I think you made it."
"Really?" the human huffs, "How could that be?" Then he tosses it at Red, "See if anything reacts to it. It might be radioactive, so we should take turns to minimize exposure."
"Really?" Red's holding it now, "What makes you say that?"
"Because I'm pissed off for no reason I can figure out," the human says, "I think it's coming from that."
"Frags," the red one says quickly, "I think it's arranging a route. You're good with maps," it tosses the gem to the grey scientist.
"Shijou," the grey one says hopefully, and has a map drawn within a few minutes. [Whether it looks like the one in Puchim@s 1x61 is anyone's guess. That one annoyed me as well as Chihya.]
9h02m37s: L21 moun first roll was a decent 160/26/84. 9h21m00s: Starting run 5 of that map...
Tightniks had taken his anger out on some food and wood to build about 8000 traps. Now he's leaning against a rock spire in his increasingly tattered uniform. A nap begins, perhaps unintentionally.
Wild trimps are examining the pile, finding it unwelcoming, and also finding no place in the town, just mill about. It looks like they want to help.
"Ku?" it's a blue trimp, probably a farmer waiting for stuff to grow, climbs up on the rock spire the human is leaning against, starts patting him on the head, "Ku. Ku ku." [Puchim@s Chihya.]
9h23m09s: Still working that lap...
Tightniks wakes up from that nap, and the grey one is standing there. "Shijou," it says with a note of concern, although not much of one. The note it holds says, "It wasn't me."
"Oh, what wasn't you, buddy?" He stretches out a bit, feeling somewhat refreshed. It feels like somebody washed his face and hair while he was sleeping.
The grey one is also holding a small mirror, apparently broken off from a larger mirror and with the sharp edges filed down to make the edges safe.
The human takes it from the grey trimp and holds it in front of his face to discover that somebody has bound up all his hair into about twenty little pigtails. He touches them with his other hand to confirm. "Eh, whatever." He hands the mirror back and goes back to sleep. [Puchim@s Koamimami.]
9h30m08s: The following run...
"He's not throwing stuff every which way yet," the yellow one whispers to the red one, watching the human snoozing with his pad on his knee.
"You remember that, too?" the red one asks.
"'Remember'?" the yellow one turns to face the red one, "I s'pose that's better than imagining it."
"I remember it, too," the grey one says via a playing card sized note.
"If we're stuck in a time loop," the yellow one sighs, "maybe this cycle will be different."
"Tai..." the grey one admires him for a moment. Then thumbs in the direction of the mountain, "Heh, Shijou!" it laughs.
9h35m58s: Run 8, c9 of that map.
The scientists nap and take notes, and meditate and take notes, and draw stuff. The grey one often storyboards for the other nine because it's the best at drawing stuff. They have come up with a list, and most probably "order" (they're debating whether their ranking means "order" (sequence of things happening over the various loops) or "frequency" (what proportion of previous loops they have happened in). But they've come up with this, from first (or perhaps most often) to most recent (or perhaps least often):
- The ship crashes (they're pretty sure that happens every loop) - The human builds huts - The human teaches some of his trimps to speak and do science - The human builds houses - The human makes maps - The human builds mansions - The human blows up and gets himself killed somewhere around Z17 to Z21, often on a dragimp - The human only recently/occasionally builds hotels - The human only recently/rarely tamed a dragimp - The human only recently/rarely maps the Dimension of Anger
They're all agreed that that they have never finished the Dimension of Anger. What they are not all agreed on is that they've never done this conference to figure out whether they're in a time loop or what that might mean. [See also Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Cause and Effect" ...which was sort of a time loop but they weren't going back in time. It's very interesting, but its meta makes no sense - no one ever went looking for the Bozeman in 80 years? No one who went looking for the Bozeman also got stuck? No one noticed the passage of time outside the little area of space where the not-quite-a-time-loop was happening? Errr... sci-fi writers, don't be half-assed about your time loops, lmao! Be like Harold Ramis- ...what am I saying?? (That would be Groundhog Day, which grafted a time loop into a romcom; there are no other sci-fi elements. But it was a full-blown time loop and not half-assed like "Cause and Effect".)]
9h54m06s: Dropped from Z21c95...
I think it would be a bad idea to bypass that green area, as much as I'd rather not face it. Both his domesticated trimps, which are breeding up a new group of fighters, and the wild trimps he has decided just now not to open the traps for, stare at him and point in that direction. He shoulders a huge Shield V-3 and grabs an Mace IV-2 as well and announces, "We're doing it." Thus equipped, he marches off into the Dimension of Anger.
10h27m53s: Taking Pi4-2; recently had taken Pa4-2...
The group at the front had expired, and the snimp in DoAc95 glares at the advancing colony of trimps, which had halted only because of it. It refuses to counterattack the vulnerable colony and its human, instead snorting and huffing, waiting for the next bunch of 232 fighting trimps to come in range.
Tightniks runs along the line of traps, releasing the recently tamed trimps, singing a song that he doesn't remember the meaning of, that he doesn't remember was crafted by an ethnically Chinese guy out of an African language, and later mastered by two caucasians over the internet before they ever met in person. "Baba yetu yetu uliye, mbinguni yetu yetu amina..." because it just happened to be stuck in his head. [Because the Doylian author decided on a whim to. Christopher Tin got it into Civilization IV and at the time (2010 July), I made the best video for it on YouTube, which got subsequently blown to shreds when Peter Hollens and Malukah re-recorded the song from scratch in their own voices and instruments in 2014, pity with no English translation, the purpose of my video.]
Noticing the last batch of metal he needs coming out of the furnace, he waves the waiting grey scientist to fire up the forge [to use the term properly and not as the game does], for it was time to wrap up the forging dies for the Spetum IV, Mark 2 pike heads.
"Shijou!" the grey one cheers, setting aside a snack that looks like maybe ramen, and starts jumping up and down on the bellows handle.
It takes a while for the human to chip out the tip in the two halves of the forging die, and then polish it, and then heat it up in the forge, and then quench it, inspect it, and put it into service crafting thousands of new pike heads for the fighting trimps.
But only one second passed on the map frame clock (10h27m54s) four cells behind that snimp, in the case being brooded over by this huge, and if it's honest, rather concerned megablimp.
10h35m45: Portal PB, 45 He, 4.247 He/hr, 1891 pop, 22.7s RC with Z20/232, no turkimp.
The last head of the map's boss monster goes limp as one of the fighting trimps' mace heads bounces of it, and the huge thing settles on its tail, resting on the package that seems to be the prize of this map. And there's a popping sound, and then something mechanical.
Is that a scroll compressor? Tightniks looks at the package. The deflating monster's lifting envelope material drapes over everything underneath it. "Red, Shijou!" he snaps and points, "roll up that side of it. Keep this part from sucking down on the extractor nozzle!"
All ten of the scientists jump in, literally, pushing the gas in the bag towards the compressor. Tightniks as well, rolling up the front.
Until he kicks, and nearly trips over, a smaller package that might be the explanation for the reason why the center of the monster's defense seemed to be a little away from the big package he could see. It's in the right place, he realizes. He gets it uncovered and reads stenciled-and-sprayed block letters on it:
"DT TIME PORTAL / THIS SIDE DOWN"
Perhaps the Dimension of Anger is so named because of the rage suddenly rising up in Tightniks' throat. It isn't so much as the free-floating aggression suddenly has an answer, there is definitely a fresh batch of rage and anger as he grips the nearest Mace IV, Mark 3 with both hands and gets it over his shoulder, its target obviously this object, anger at the realization he screams at the top of his lungs, "We are stuck in a mutha FAH-king time loop!!" His swing begins. [Tightniks almost never cusses, unlike Snugniks.]

My MIL is a challenging person and my DH, BIL, and FIL have all warned me about her from the moment I met them. They make jokes, but the gist is if she doesn’t get her way she gets incredibly angry, throws a fit, and says very hurtful things. Even if you say something in the wrong tone in her opinion, she will scream, berate you, and try to guilt you into feeling bad for her. Afterward, once she’s over it she expects everyone else to be over it - never apologizing or taking accountability for what she does.
My DH has never said anything against her to avoid her wrath and try to keep the peace. His parents don’t have the best relationship and he has been thrown in to act as a mediator or listen to his mom rant his whole life. She has had a horrible relationship with my SIL, but hasn’t said anything bad about me (because I try to be polite but keep distance) until recently.
While on the phone and upset, my MIL blew up because my DH wasn’t as angry about a situation as she wanted him to be. He said he didn’t want to raise his voice and disrupt me and she says, “So she is more important than your mother?!”. She continued to say that she’s unhappy with me because I’m not close to her and don’t reach out to her. She then demeaned my job as a social worker because she was unhappy with me, claiming that “she can save criminals but can’t text me”.
Later he tried to gently mention that it is important to respect me and him, even when she’s upset because he doesn’t want our relationship to turn out like his mom and SIL’s. She BLEW UP. She screamed, cut him off, and claimed that she’s always done everything for him and has never been disrespectful to anyone - which is absolutely untrue. She then reduced me to “just a vagina controlling her son”. She also said “all my degrees don’t amount to her life experience”. I do not talk about my education ever because I don’t want people in my life without education (I’m a first gen student) to think I’m belittling them. So I’m saying I’ve never claimed that my degrees count more than life experience anyway. She then continued to berate my DH, saying that he’s too sensitive, she must have raised him wrong, she always wanted to be a mom and look what it got her, he’s ungrateful, etc.
I’m hurt on behalf on my DH, who finally got the courage to share how he feels with his mom, just to be screamed at and guilted. I want him to be bow to share things with her and accept he’s an adult with his own opinions. She still hasn’t apologized and doesn’t think she said anything wrong. The thing is, this first instance is nothing compared to the hateful things she has said to others in her family. I know it’s going to get worse as we don’t give her what she wants - to agree that she’s right, not expect accountability, and continue to do what she wants. I’ve always been kind to her, but I’ve steered clear of becoming close with her because her mood and opinion on you can change at the drop of a hat. How can I continue to support my DH in their relationship and setting boundaries? How can I prevent myself from blowing up at her and giving her the drama she wants? With this type of person, is it better to go NC before it gets worse and really hurts my DH?

I feel like it’s that time of year where stuff is getting sent in constantly (extra clothes, sun hats, sunscreen, etc.) I teach an integrated Pre-K classroom and we’ve worked a lot on being responsible for your own belongings but these parents get so upset when one thing doesn’t get sent home one time during the week. We try so hard to make sure things are accounted for, put away and sent home but we still can’t be responsible for every single item each child brings into school! Am I being unreasonable to expect my students are able to put their sweatshirt in their cubby and carry it to pick up? Especially now as we are preparing for Kindergarten and making sure everybody packs their own bag at the end of the day. Of course the adults in the room do their best to make sure if things were missed, they’re packed but we are overall encouraging them to be responsible!
I’ve had one parent already this week be absolutely rude to us and then give us the cold shoulder because her daughter didn’t come home with her sweatshirt. She was ranting about how “this always happens to her daughter” (her water bottle was misplaced in September during the afterschool program). One of my other students found it in the play kitchen this afternoon stuffed among the baby clothes. This was after we looked in other classrooms, the gym, the playground and even asked some parents if it went home with them. I’ve had other parents accuse us of losing their kids things and then message us on Seesaw saying “oops it was in the back of grandma’s car”. I’m not a parent so maybe I’m being too harsh and I understand that it is frustrating for your child’s stuff to be missing or not sent home, but I feel like there is also an opportunity to teach your child about being responsible for their own things, we do that all day in the classroom. Or, maybe don’t send your child to Pre-K with a yeti water bottle or brand name sweatshirt if you’re so concerned about them misplacing it or leaving it at school! It just can be really frustrating to have parents blaming us for these things constantly when there is already so much stuff happening and we have to drop everything and go on a massive search for a water bottle or sweatshirt. Does this happen to anybody else? How do you handle the attitude from parents??

I am 22, and I’m pretty annoying. I’ll probably call you a bedwetter out of endearment. Looking for some friends that could talk with me, as I’m completely friendless at the moment. Daily life is getting harder to navigate with the weight of loneliness on my back.
A few months ago I had a tragic relationship bomb up-end my life and leave me a few states away. Which kinda sucks, but we are working on it and making progress.
I’m not gonna lie, I think I’m going to be homeless pretty soon, but no worries I think I found a campsite I can live at for $30 a day on airbnb. I do DoorDash so I’m not too worried about it financially. Maybe I can get a big knife and try to 1v1 a grizzly bear in the woods, that would be pretty cool haha. I’m looking at tents and learning how to camp online in preparation. But I have phone data! So I won’t ghost anyone!
I like tattoos and piercings, and I love all types of music. I can also get down and dirty with some knitting and crochet. I play a lot of different games (PC, switch, board games) but I can’t promise I’ll be on everyday, especially with the impending doom of homelessness lmao. I recently been getting into anime, got a CrunchyRoll account and it’s been cool getting into it! If anyone wants to talk lmk, I might have a little venting but not much if that’s not your speed I’m honestly vibing.

So, I've kind of posted about this in other threads, specifically on askreddit, but by some users request, I will do my best to fully relay this entire tale up to the current point, as well as provide as much context I am able (and will provide missing context if asked in comments).
TL;DR
A friend of mine of 4 years drank himself into liver failure and his wife cheated on him, so I offered him a free room to try and put his life back together, and I was repaid for the thought with a divorce of my own, but honestly, it's probably not that bad.
Part 1: CONTEXT
Me and my wife have been together since early 2014, and married in late 2017. We have been through much together, including two extended deployments, one of which was 10 and a half months long. We have traveled the world together, lived on both coasts of the US, and despite much of our struggles and how things eventually went down, I was always convinced we would work as a team to overcome any issues.
The friend in question was, largely, an online friend. We met playing an MMO during covid and we quickly formed a very tight knit, but small, community that were very close that included me, my wife, my friend, his wife, and 4 other friends. Covid was a wild time and I was surprised how easy it was to form friends in this group and we kept in touch, as a whole, even once quarantine had ended and most of us had moved on from that particular game. This was a group that, while it started online, we have met most of these people several times IRL and had vacations to spend time together and just hang out.
Part 2: His Problems
Fast forward to about January of 2024. My buddy, from here on out I will refer to as Z (and for a quick add, I will refer to my wife as D), contacts us to tell us his condition is dire and he has been diagnosed with stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver as a consequence of his extensive drinking. Shaken, we quickly charter a flight out to visit. Within a week, we're staying with him and his wife and his roommate and a couple members of his family who are taking care of him. This man is bloated, yellow, and probably about 350lbs now. We are worried, but stay supportive and positive that help can be found, especially since he seems keen on changing his lifestyle for the better. Some of his family start a gofundme that we donate to, and many of the people in our gaming circle who have grown close also donate several thousand dollars (One member of our raid team donated 10k. You never know who is stealth rich on the internet I guess). Me and several other friends discuss the possibilities of helping him get on disability and even getting ourselves tested as compatible living donors. Sad, but hopeful, we depart about a week later, and stay in constant touch.
About a month later, I'm getting a call from one of our mutuals letting me know that "Hey, so I may have goofed up." and tells me how Z's wife had visited him and had a 3 way with him and his wife. I am obviously irate at this and turn to back Z up with comments like "So much for in sickness and in health, huh?" I do what I can to stay supportive, and my wife, D, also makes it a point to stay in touch with him as he has found himself banished to the couch of his apartment. Not even allowed to sleep in his own bed and frequently uncomfortable even being in his bedroom to use the PC.
I'm not particularly rich, but I am not poor either. I served in the military and have a high VA rating which means a constant income and have a steady job and a couple side gigs that pay well enough. My love language, in many ways, is gift giving. I pride myself on being able to pick a good gift, even if it's a little early for an occasion such as a bday or christmas, and will often pull the trigger on something if it means a lot or I think it will help. In this case, my brother was selling an old steam deck because he wanted a new OLED model, so I figured "two birds, one stone", and buy the steam deck off him and send it to Z so we can still game together.
In the intervening months, Z and D start playing games that I have no interest in (Disney Dreamlight Valley), but I am happy to play other games and hang out and chat. Really, nothing seems amiss, but since his banishment, me and my wife are both pushing for him to come and take up the spare bedroom we have in our home. Soon enough, I buy him a plane ticket and he arrives with little more than the clothes on his back and we take him in, no cost other than the expectation that he might help around the house a bit (he was a chef, so having a cook and someone to help clean was ideal for me who often did not have the time or energy to handle these tasks as thoroughly as I would like).
Part 3: The Incident
Now, I am skipping ahead a little bit here, but there's not much to be said about the time between. My wife worked part time hours, and when she did go to work, she'd have him tag along just so he wouldn't "Sit and stew with bad thoughts" at the house alone. I will admit that throughout this entire ordeal, I have had several, several times where my brain tried to warn me, but I ignored ALL of those signs because I trusted him, but more importantly, I trusted her with my life.
One new, frequent argument I found myself having with her was she would fall asleep on the couch, and when I finally tried to go to bed, I'd do my best to wake her and drag her upstairs. These became extremely frequent occurrences and I expressed to her how frustrated I was that I had to fight with her just to come to bed so we could sleep (mind you, this is not even about sex. Often I'm taking her to bed at like, 1am and I work at 7, so I really just wanted her to be sleeping in the bed). Hell, one time, I started catching the vibes that the longer I sat and waited for her to be ready to go upstairs, she just never would be, because they were waiting for me to leave so they could talk in hushed tones. On THAT particular night, I went upstairs alone with her finally awake, and she did not join me for another half hour.
Finally, the day arrives. Its Sunday. We are all downstairs hanging out. One of their newest habits I can't really stand but just dealt with is that she'd sit and crochet while he doomscrolled or strummed on a guitar I bought him and listen to music videos on youtube endlessly. Eventually, I grow weary and give my wife a kiss and tell her I'm gonna go upstairs and play some GW2 for a bit.
About an hour passes, and she enters the game room and tells me "I am uncomfortable. I really need to talk to you. Oh, you're dying!" (As she entered the room, I immediately turn face to talk to her and disregard the game, but she decided that my Charr was more important that what was about to happen, so she of course warns me.) We step into the bedroom and close the door.
"You're going to hate me," she says through tears, "me and Z kissed!" At this point, my brain short circuits and I recall one of my first thoughts being "Oh lord, here we go." and just a general desire to not be a part of this conversation. Shock sets in almost immediately. Still with a healthy dose of denial, I talk to her about what had happened and told her that it needed to end. Even at this point, I did not want to send this man home. Was it shock? Denial? Probably a mixture of the two, or some other additional emotional responses. She gets up after some discussion and goes downstairs, promising to shut him down, but comes back about 15 minutes later sobbing "I couldn't do it! I couldn't end it..." (Side note: In my confused haze of a mind, I feel personally threatened, and after she leaves the bedroom, I lock the door and grab a metal water cub I keep at my side and prepare to actually fight if it comes to it, but once she returns, I back off that idea again.)
Talking with her more, I present her with two options; Couple's therapy, or divorce. BOTH of these options are world ending to her, and she even goes so far as to suggest that just because I said the "D word" that it was what I wanted, which was objectively untrue. We talk back and forth about things I don't quite recall at this point, aside from one point where she comes back and locks herself in the master bath and tells me to call 911, she doesn't care, because she's going to take a bunch of pills, but after a couple of hours, Z shows up to the door and knocks and asks if he can come in. I tell him he may enter, and we talk for a bit. After about 5ish minutes, we decide to go downstairs to the living room and continue the discussion.
Once I sit down on the sofa, I immediately feel like I'm being positioned as the bad guy. I'm in the corner of our sectional, and she's on my left, he's on my right. She tells him "He said it's either a divorce or couple's therapy." "Oh, so he gave you an ultimatum?" I continue to argue that yes, those are the two only options. Z tells me "You're not being fair to her emotions. She is telling you there is another option." I am thoroughly baffled at this statement.
D: I didn't think it was possible and I didn't mean for it to happen, but I have fallen in love with another man. My heart has room for two. I truly have two soulmates. I have never been happier than sleeping on the couch next to my two boys.
Z: There is no reason you guys can't stay married, and we can explore what we've found. I mean, look at how happy she has been since I have been here!
Sick to my stomach, I get up to go vomit in the toilet. Now, I wore a silicone wedding ring, and often find even with a hand wash, a little water tends to get trapped under it. After I finish and wash myself up, I come back and am playing with my ring to dry it. She sees this as a sign that I am uncomfortable again wearing my ring, and takes off her ring as I sit back down and hands me her wedding ring.
Me: Uh, excuse me?
D: This is what you want, I can tell.
Me: No? I was washing my hands and water gets stuck under my ring...
D: Oh... I thought... okay. (And she takes back her ring from me)
I tell her, very clearly, the options are to either end things with him, or end things with me. At this point, I'm still in shock, but sober in mind enough to decide that this is not worth fighting over. I will not argue with my own wife my merits or why she shouldn't just pack up and leave with a jobless, now essentially homeless man, and if she cannot figure that out herself then I will eventually move on.
Crying, sobbing, she sits down in front of him and says, "I'm so sorry, I fought for you. I really did. I told you I'd fight for you and I failed. I loved being your girlfriend, but I need to be a good wife and stay."
Z says "Alright." and starts to go gather his things to leave. As he does, she grabs him and says "No, wait! Please don't go. I don't know what I want."
Z: Ok, well if we're getting all this out in the open, I want to say this. I love this girl. I love her with my whole heart, and without her, life is not worth living. I will not leave this house if you (me) tell me to. Only her. You are taking this very well right now, I can tell you want to hit me (Still in shock, no, I can genuinely say that emotion or thought had not actually registered outside of the event upstairs earlier), but this is my stand.
D: OP, we had a good run. I'm sorry.
And with that, I get up and go to get my sandals and leave the house to get some air. As I try to go, she runs to the door and he follows her. She pushes the door closed and says "No wait, please!"
Me: No, this is the deal. I'm going out to get some fresh air. I am not threatening self harm to "win you back".
D: Will you be back?
Me: I don't know.
Z: Man, I'm telling you, you don't understand, you think I am your enemy, but I am not.
And with that, I leave and shut the door.
In the about, hour, I am gone, I drive around near the house and I call my supervisor who I have a very good relationship with (and I did not want to involve direct friends or family yet because I'm afraid it's too early to start spreading this news). I go over to her house nearby and we chat shortly. After our talk, I have at least something of a clear head and go home, with words for both of them.
As I arrive home, there is no one downstairs. I go upstairs. His door is closed. I knock on the door.
Z: Uh, one second.
I wait for about 5 agonizing seconds, but I refuse to be shut out of rooms in my own home and open the door. He is shirtless, and she is hiding in the corner just out of sight of me. I look him in the eye.
Me: Really?
Z: Yep.
Me: Get out of my house.
And with that, they both silently pack their things and leave.
The second I hear the front door close, I start calling people. I am not above pettiness, and the first person I call is her mom, whom I have a good relationship with. She is SHAKEN and immediately calls her. (I find out later that it was a particularly harsh verbal beating by her, but it really doesn't change anything.)
When I come downstairs to check the state of the house, I see her wedding ring on the counter. I call out of work the next day and lay down and hope I die.
Part 4: Her Problems
So, there is some additional context that I did not add in part 1 because a lot of it is red flags I ignored over the course of our relationship that, in the days following, started to become more and more obvious. There are many that I spent much effort playing off or covering her for, but I will try to briefly list much of what I see as glaring issues in the relationship that were never remedied.
This woman is 30 years old and cannot drive. She can drive and HAS driven my vehicle at the start of the relationship (albeit illegally), but after one tiny little accident where she hit a pole and knocked my side mirror off (which she paid for and fixed before telling me, it really wasn't a big deal. I was on deployment), she never drove again. Attempts to get her behind the wheel would end very quickly after they started, and the conditions to get her in the seat were often extremely time limited, scheduled, or something would come up, and every time I told her "okay, this month we're getting your license for sure" it just wouldn't happen and I'd end up feeling like the one who was at fault.
She does not have her Bachelor's degree because she did not turn in her final project for one single class. Not only that, but she has never truly pursued a career with the things she learned from the coursework, or even used her AA.
For half of the relationship, she did not work at all. When she did, it was often part time work, and if she was saddled with full time hours or, god forbid, overtime, it was a world-ending affair. She would come home and constantly be tired from her few hours at work and would do little more than sit around and crochet.
Our agreement when we bought our house was that she was going to work full time and we were going to split household duties, but I would definitely scoop the cat box because she was allergic (but she wanted cats) and wash dishes (because she hated them), and she would do laundry (because I hated it). In practice, all her version of laundry turned out to be was to throw loads in when one of us was out of clothes and just hit wash and then rotate, and then leave all the clothes in a pile on the bed. EVERYONE KNOWS folding the laundry is the worst part! Come on! Men's clothes are easy! I don't wear that much! (When we would fold, I often finished in a third of her time and would just hang out and chat until she was done)
Ultimately, this meant that for many years now, she was working barely more than part time if she was working at all, and would sort-of do laundry. Meanwhile, I am scooping litter, folding laundry, doing dishes, doing all related yard work, doing all the household cleaning, handling all the finances, I did MOST of the cooking, and all of the grocery shopping (often going alone), driving her from work if I could (she'd uber it if not) and picking her up and driving her home, as well as just generally being a chauffeur for her for 10 years, while working a full time job and a side gig online. Many nights I'd have to stop what I was doing to pick her up at closing hours, and then would sit in the parking lot for 30 minutes while she did tasks like vacuum her little crystal shop that she definitely could have done before close so I didn't end up waiting so damn long. Then we'd come home hang out and eat while we watched TV, and then if I wanted to try and go upstairs to do another hobby, I'd be silently guilted about it because she wanted to sit on the couch and crochet.
Part 5: My Problems
I am not perfect, and admit I have flaws. One of her favorite things to claim to our friends now is that I was "emotionally neglectful", and if there is truth to it, I think I can pin down the day. Before I started working full time again, I was going to school on the 9/11 GI bill. I was not a good student in my younger years, but in time, I have become rather good at school. My first two semesters back I easily maintained a 4.0 GPA. Over the summer in 2022, I, woefully, decided to take a Calc 2 class online because I could not find one in person and wanted to be ready for Calc 3 in the Fall to fill a prereq for my bachelor's, and I really liked the instructor for that Calc 3 class. This calc 2 class was painful. The instructor had clearly recorded all his lectures during Covid and we were simply given the full course of videos and given work assignments and said "Email me if you have questions." This is not how I learn, but I figured, hey, it's one class. I'm working again, but one class isn't a huge deal. I can knock this out.
I was wrong.
After the second exam, I had a low C in the class and I knew I couldn't keep up. I withdrew from the class feeling no other option. I tend to be pretty good at math, and ultimately my dream was to work with 3d printing on an industrial scale with a Mechanical Engineering degree- and if that failed I had my military history (which is engineering relevant) and a degree to fall back on and work should come easily. After clicking that withdraw button, I saw those dreams vaporize. After that, I threw myself into my government civilian job full time and slowly fell into depression. By the end of our relationship, with the toll of doing 99% of the work around the house and for her and with my dreams dead and buried, at age 33, I would wake up and pray I died. I would never kill myself, but I wanted to just die. I felt backed into a corner. I still did everything I could to support her and hoped that one day, she would pick up some of the load and maybe, just maybe, I could go back, but that day did not come (At least not in the way I expected).
Part 6: The Aftermath
This post is already too long, and if I include every single detail that has come to light since, I might actually hit the post cap, but I will go over at least some of it here.
I have had my friends come out in droves. Both of them have been effectively exiled, at least from what I can see, from every friend circle we have. After a couple of days, they flew back to live with, I guess, his parents in Vegas while they sorted shit out, because after I spoke with Z's previous roommate, he adamantly explained he was tired of all the "fucking drama" that Z had been bringing into the house and was just done with it.
I have spoken with many, many people and gotten even more context and even receipts of some of each of their conversations to our mutual friends, and some of the shit I read is just hilarious. He is "not ashamed of pursuing happiness, he is just sad that people got hurt". She is "coming to terms with emotional neglect and felt trapped, but now, yes now, she is free."
I got my neighbors to watch the cats, and took my dog up to visit my closest friend of 20 years and spent about a week and a half drinking, smoking, and talking about all this while surrounded by some of the most beautiful nature the US has to offer. Truly, without this man, I don't think I'd have gotten this far as quickly as I have. He really has been a lifesaver and I truly, to my dying day, will always appreciate him.
Paperwork has been filed, we wish to remain on good terms, and one day I still do hope I can be a friend to her, but she is woefully immature and incapable of adequately performing in an adult society. I have quit my job and am returning to school with a much lighter budget and will be getting that degree I desperately need.
It's been hard, real hard. I have put every ounce of my being into this relationship, and I truly felt like she was part of me, and nothing like this could ever happen. But it's that trust that allowed this to happen. I do not hate her, I'm just disappointed. I will pick up my pieces and, hopefully, find myself whole again soon.
Part 7: Rambling anecdotes
These are some stories I wanted to include in the previous body of text but didn't feel like it kept the same flow (if there even is any at all, I'm not proofreading this). If I remember any others after I post, Ill just toss them in the comments.
Early after Z came to live with us, my mother came to the house to drop off a package. I am pretty sure I was at work, but when my mother came to the door, both of them answered the door and the way my mom describes it "First of all, do you answer the door at your friends house? Also, the way he hovered over her made me uncomfortable. They were in the doorway and he was right up behind her poking his head out." She said my wife had told her that I was feeling unwell and was upstairs sleeping. I can't even be sure at this point.
Shortly before all the things happened, my parents were going out of town to celebrate their own anniversary, and I had agreed to dog-sit their 5 month old puppy (who, while cute, has WAY too much energy and was EXTREMELY difficult to handle, and I have raised several dogs at this point). We met up and took the dog, and then ALL of us (including Z) went to dinner. At dinner, my mother looked at my wife and asked, directly "And so how long have you been married? 6, almost 7 years? Well at least you missed that 7 year itch, huh" and my wife shortly followed with a comment about how she was not hungry and did not eat dinner that night.
All of this happened WHILE THIS CRAZY PUPPY was running around the house, and part of me thinks he pushed this to happen when it did because he could not stand having to help take care of this dog any longer (2 days).
About a week after all this happened, my wife did not text or call me, or respond to any messages or emails I sent her (I didn't send many, but they exist). Frustrated, I text her and tell her I need to talk to her about logistics moving forward, specifically about her belongings. She told me "I will talk to you when I am ready." We did not talk for another week. Also, she told me to stop talking to her mom. (I have a good relationship with both of my in-laws and while her step-father tried to remain impartial to the best of his abilities, he gave me some of the best advice I could possibly have gotten at that time, mostly about how to move forward and cope, as he has personally dealt with this with smaller relationships 3 separate times in his life which he gave me details on, and we are still on good terms.)
Their favorite TV show to watch together was Outlander, which, if you aren't aware, is basically a story about a woman who time travels and has two men in her life.
One of our biggest constant points of contention was my friendship with an old high school buddy (who I spent much of the time in the aftermath hanging out with while healing). We believe, with good reason, that she hated this man because after I had almost been hospitalized for psych reasons due to stress, he had told me I needed to talk to her about working again and doing more to help around the house. She figured out, obviously, who was telling me to say these things, and sent a very, very angry text to his wife. They all apparently made up, but I know she never let that grudge go.
One of the fairly recent hobbies I got into was D&D. It seemed like a good fit for all of us. She loved fantasy and gaming, I enjoyed 3d printing and story telling. She needed friends, and a party of people hangin out would give her at least a few connections to start. Every night she "participated" in D&D, she mostly sat quiet and did not do anything. Hell, I tried to get her to participate in 2 different games, and after she left the first one, she asked to just sit quietly in the discord call (This first one was online only, second was in person) and listen, which was super awkward. In the in person game, after 3 months of playing, she did not know how to play her character at all, and mostly spent her time at the table crocheting. (My buddy even made a comment about how at one point, he was proud of how good I was getting at DMing and I was giving particularly good exposition, and she interrupted me to hand another player at the table a dice bag she made. I don't remember it, but I absolutely believe this happened.)
The day of "the incident", she had a meltdown about how a friend of hers had ghosted her. I told her it was okay, she was much younger anyway and people grow apart. She's probably going through stuff and we should respect that path she's on. She cried about how she has no friends.
Also the day of "the incident", we were in the shower together and she told me she had met her sister's new BF on facetime. I asked "why did she break up with her old one?" "Well... she cheated on him." "Oh, that's a shame. Cheating is probably the most cowardly act a person can do to another. If you're going to start a new relationship, you need to grow a pair and end it before starting a new one." She clearly took my words to heart.
One of my biggest pet peeves about cleaning the house is our dog sheds, a lot. If I see a hairball roll through the house it immediately drains me a bit. We had a roomba. She would send that thing home when it started and never start it again. It barely ran. She would not vacuum.
One of the most common descriptors of her I've heard used by many people now that they're "allowed to" is "She was there, doing the thing with us, but it was like she wasn't there."
Something she thought that I apparently hadn't figured out by the time we talked after everything happened was that they had been talking since February. I told her I wasn't stupid and had figured it out already that this wasn't out of the blue.
Z's wife is currently pregnant with the baby of the man she cheated on him with. (And he is also married)
Anything else I remember Ill leave for comments, I know there is much, much more.

I recently got an e-mail from a GTown Admissions Officer highly insinuating that I would be accepted off the waitlist if I was commited to attending. I want to make the decision beforehand. I've already committed to Tufts and I think I'll do great there but wondering (provided I get accepted) if I should choose GTown instead. Here are some pros and cons for me:
GTown
Pros
- closer to home
- super strong focus in humanities and IR (I want to major in IR but also want to explore a lot more of my interests in the social sciences)
- DC is amazing both in oppurtunities and in general
- Grade inflation? (might be good or bad idk)
Cons
- Heard dorms and food aren't too great at Georgetown, run down facilities
- I've lived there before for a week at this summer program and if I'm being frank the campus is pretty boring and small.
- I defintely appreciate a more tight-knit community which Tufts has
- Clubs are apparently very hard to get into
- Dunno about this but was wondering how easy it is to explore interests at the school? How good are the department in (specfically) Ancient History (East and West), Chinese, languages /all the humanities?
- Rats!??!!!
A lot of my friends are going to be in Boston, I'll be missing out on the college-town aspect. I've already planned stuff me and my Harvard friend will be doing in Boston and if I suddenly ditch him. This isn't a big of concern though.
FYI Still don't know if I got financial aid so if I don't get a lot I'll just go to Tufts (got a lot there)
Tufts
Pros
- probably only second to Georgetown in IR with Fletcher
- Tufts kinda fits my vibe more, I'm not a huge fan of preppy and pre-professional culture and Tufts seems with people more willing to learn for the sake of learning rather than for a career
- tight knit community is what I've heard
Cons
- In comparison, DC will most likely be better than Boston at oppurutinies in foreign service etc.
- Similarly, campus is a bunch of generic square buildings other than Goddard Chapel
- Social life I've heard is generally not as good
​
Please let me know/confirm any of my concerns about either of these schools. Greatly appreciated thank you!

After everything that's been going on in Egghead, and with some recent updates we've just received, it's safe to assume that the next arc will take place in the legendary island of Elbaf! Which is bound to be the best since the last few arcs so far!
Now I currently don't know how it will play out or if the Strawhats & their allies will really go there unless something gets in the way. But for this post, I will share with you a list of what my expectations are, whether you agree with me or not. So without further ado, let's begin shall we.
The Arc of God Usopp
This is pretty obvious! Ever since Little Garden, Usopp often talked about how he wanted to be like the Giants of Elbaf. And just like many people, I think going to that island should be the best & possibly the only time for him to shine like never before! This could even be a great opportunity for Usopp to:

• Improve on his CoO, and maybe even unlock more Haki abilities.
• Gain a new weapon, whether or not his current one got destroyed.
• Meet his "bad" father - Yasopp, which I'll talk more about a bit later.
• have one of his oldest & most iconic lies become reality!

The Library of Ohara (Robin & Saul's reunion)
Thanks to Vegapunk telling the SH about his visit to Ohara after the Buster Call, not only did we learn that most of the books were saved, but it turns out that Robin's old friend Saul survived & his currently hiding for his own safety! Which means that we will have a very unexpected reunion just around the corner, while also knowing more about the Void Century that even Vegapunk himself may not!
Vivi's involvement
To anyone who have been a fan of Vivi since the day Luffy's crew 1st entered the Grand Line, you should know that the Desert Princess also encountered Brogy & Dorry when they visited Little Garden. So it make sense she has an important role in Elbaf the moment she officially reunites with the SH as possibly their "final" member, while also having both Morgans & Wapol tag along with them!
Who knows, perhaps during their visit to where the books are located, we may learn more about her ancestor - Nefertari D. Lily (or Lili), and what really happened to after refusing to become a Celestial Dragon while also not returning to Alabasta. Which I will mention in another post about another society.
The Long awaited reunion between Emperors
Now I know that this has a 50/50 chance to come true. But with all the viking reference that the Red Hair Pirates has had until now, I believe that Luffy & Shanks's long awaited reunion as fellow Emperors should undoubtedly take place in Elbaf of all places! I also wouldn't be surprised if Shanks was partly responsible for having the Giants come to Egghead in the 1st place.
And although this is mostly a personal thing, I would like to see Luffy to use his CoC to knock out some of the new Red Hair Pirate members just like Shanks did with Whitebeard's when meeting him!
Plus, during that moment, besides just some chapter 1 tributes, as well as Usopp & Yasopp finally getting some fatheson time together, I would like Oda to have Luffy & Shanks talk about Ace, Bartolomeo, and even Blackbeard.
However, since the moment in Wano when Jinbe fought Who's Who, I would also like Luffy's latest crewmember to participate in the reunion by asking Shanks why he took the Nika Fruit from the Government, and what he was really going to do with it if Luffy never ate it!? Which now leads to the next part of my list!
More information about Nika
Thanks to Vegapunk's message in the recent chapter, not only did we have more confirmation that Joy Boy was the last known person to awaken the Nika Fruit, but the story of the Sun God himself originated in Elbaf of all places!
Now although the scientist may explain everything he knows about it in the next chapter or 2, I believe the Elbaf arc should be the perfect time to learn how Nika's legend began, and how it was eventually shared with other people like the Buccaneers, Lunarians, as well as the Skypieans!
Including the Fishman, since Jinbe said "the Warrior of liberation", which means that he & his fellow Fishmans know more about Nika than we were lead to think!
But most importantly, if the story Nika did originate in Elbaf, then that means the other Gods that were mentioned in Noland's flashback (the Gods of Rain, Forest, and Earth) could also share the same place of origin as the Sun God himself! Which might make us 1 step closer into finding out who the current users of the other Legendary Zoans are, and whether they are in good hands or not.
Plus, I believe that during that moment, Luffy himself should not sleep on this one, and I think Shanks will make sure of it! Who knows, this could help Luffy gain better understanding woth his powers, as well as give him the edge he needs to surpass Joyboy!
Kid's comeback & character development
Now I know that most people believe that Kid's character arc ended the moment Shanks used Divine Departure on him, and took his Poneglyph writting. And even if he does return, he'll become another Moriah!
However, I'm not one of those people, and I believe Kid's time is far from over!
From the Giants' perspective, Kid & Law are the 2 heroes that defeated Big Mom, one of their most hated enimes. So surely not everyone in Elbaf will like what Shanks, Brogy, & Dorry did to him, even though the Red Haired Emperor was trying to save his Fleet, and the 2 Giants were out of the loop while they were gone for so long.
In fact, if what happened to Kid was anything like how the Strawhats were defeated in Sabody, then surely either Shanks or anyone who was there at the time could've told Kid almost the same thing Kuma said to Luffy about how he & his crew weren't ready yet, but has faith in them.
After all, Luffy may be an Emperor, but he isn't the only Pirate representing his generation. The same can be said for Whitebeard before Roger died.
Plus, let's not also forget that Kid was the first person to mention the man marked by flame, so it make sense that he should stick around long enough to meet the person face to face.
And if that person saw what happened to Kid & his crew, and saved them from drowning, perhaps he could become his Rayleigh, but instead of just helping him become strong enough to also be an Emperor, the man would teach Kid a lesson in humility. Which is a common thing for most anime rival's character arc.
Of course, just like what we got from Law & Bonney recently, we may get to see Kid's sad backstory, which may confirm whether or not the theory of him being Vegapunk's "7th Sattelite" is true, since some of his moves has "Punk" in their names.
And also the reveal of his Devil Fruit is also as important as that of his fellow Supernovas since magnetism has had big role since the SH entered the Grand Line.
Hajrudin's role
When I read about how the Narrator stated that the Egghead Incident may shock the world, I honestly thought that this would become the best time for the Straw Hat Grand Fleet to appear during their Emperor's time of needs.
Unfortunately, that theory eventually became debunked due to everything that has happened since that speech.
However, I believe that the Strawhats' visit to Elbaf would make up for that, and the only reason I think so is because one of the Grand Fleet capitans is actually a native of Elbaf! That's right, I'm talking about the leader of the New Giant Warrior Pirates himself, Hajrudin!
Now in case you aren't aware, Hajrudin & his crew recently made some interesting Cameo appearances in both Big Mom & Vegapunk's respective flashbacks! Specifically, during Big Mom days with Mother Caramel, we see him & his crew as kids. And when Vegapunk & Dragon met in Ohara, he was one of the Giants lead by Saul to recover the books that survived the Buster Call!
With those facts, it would stand to reason that Hajrudin is bound to have an important role in Elbaf, which makes sense since this trope has been used by every citizen of a country the Strawhats has ever met until now.
The "revenge" of the Big Mom Pirates
Now Idk whether or not Big Mom herself will make another comeback, but I can suspect that the remnants of her crew would appear since they also have some unfinished business to settle, as well as the fact that they once tried to put aside their mother's differences with the giants by having Lola marry Loki. Which failed due to her decision making at the time.
And even though Kid & Law were responsible for Big Mom's seeming demise, it's possible that the Big Mom Pirates will also blame the Strawhats for that, whether or not this will make them feel bad for them!
However, I do think that during this encounter, it could also be a chance to learn that Pudding was Kid during the events in Wano, which may lead to the Strawhats will do next after Elbaf, and that will also be part of my next blog!
Well I don't know about you, but what do you think of this list? If you have any opinions on this topic, or know any else that could be added, then please tell me in the comments section below, and br on the lookout for more posts i hope to make before the next chapter. Thank you!

After everything that's been going on in Egghead, and with some recent updates we've just received, it's safe to assume that the next arc will take place in the legendary island of Elbaf! Which is bound to be the best since the last few arcs so far!
Now I currently don't know how it will play out or if the Strawhats & their allies will really go there unless something gets in the way. But for this post, I will share with you a list of what my expectations are, whether you agree with me or not. So without further ado, let's begin shall we.
The Arc of God Usopp
This is pretty obvious! Ever since Little Garden, Usopp often talked about how he wanted to be like the Giants of Elbaf. And just like many people, I think going to that island should be the best & possibly the only time for him to shine like never before! This could even be a great opportunity for Usopp to:

• Improve on his CoO, and maybe even unlock more Haki abilities.
• Gain a new weapon, whether or not his current one got destroyed.
• Meet his "bad" father - Yasopp, which I'll talk more about a bit later.
• have one of his oldest & most iconic lies become reality!

The Library of Ohara (Robin & Saul's reunion)
Thanks to Vegapunk telling the SH about his visit to Ohara after the Buster Call, not only did we learn that most of the books were saved, but it turns out that Robin's old friend Saul survived & his currently hiding for his own safety! Which means that we will have a very unexpected reunion just around the corner, while also knowing more about the Void Century that even Vegapunk himself may not!
Vivi's involvement
To anyone who have been a fan of Vivi since the day Luffy's crew 1st entered the Grand Line, you should know that the Desert Princess also encountered Brogy & Dorry when they visited Little Garden. So it make sense she has an important role in Elbaf the moment she officially reunites with the SH as possibly their "final" member, while also having both Morgans & Wapol tag along with them!
Who knows, perhaps during their visit to where the books are located, we may learn more about her ancestor - Nefertari D. Lily (or Lili), and what really happened to after refusing to become a Celestial Dragon while also not returning to Alabasta. Which I will mention in another post about another society.
The Long awaited reunion between Emperors
Now I know that this has a 50/50 chance to come true. But with all the viking reference that the Red Hair Pirates has had until now, I believe that Luffy & Shanks's long awaited reunion as fellow Emperors should undoubtedly take place in Elbaf of all places! I also wouldn't be surprised if Shanks was partly responsible for having the Giants come to Egghead in the 1st place.
And although this is mostly a personal thing, I would like to see Luffy to use his CoC to knock out some of the new Red Hair Pirate members just like Shanks did with Whitebeard's when meeting him!
Plus, during that moment, besides just some chapter 1 tributes, as well as Usopp & Yasopp finally getting some fatheson time together, I would like Oda to have Luffy & Shanks talk about Ace, Bartolomeo, and even Blackbeard.
However, since the moment in Wano when Jinbe fought Who's Who, I would also like Luffy's latest crewmember to participate in the reunion by asking Shanks why he took the Nika Fruit from the Government, and what he was really going to do with it if Luffy never ate it!? Which now leads to the next part of my list!
More information about Nika
Thanks to Vegapunk's message in the recent chapter, not only did we have more confirmation that Joy Boy was the last known person to awaken the Nika Fruit, but the story of the Sun God himself originated in Elbaf of all places!
Now although the scientist may explain everything he knows about it in the next chapter or 2, I believe the Elbaf arc should be the perfect time to learn how Nika's legend began, and how it was eventually shared with other people like the Buccaneers, Lunarians, as well as the Skypieans!
Including the Fishman, since Jinbe said "the Warrior of liberation", which means that he & his fellow Fishmans know more about Nika than we were lead to think!
But most importantly, if the story Nika did originate in Elbaf, then that means the other Gods that were mentioned in Noland's flashback (the Gods of Rain, Forest, and Earth) could also share the same place of origin as the Sun God himself! Which might make us 1 step closer into finding out who the current users of the other Legendary Zoans are, and whether they are in good hands or not.
Plus, I believe that during that moment, Luffy himself should not sleep on this one, and I think Shanks will make sure of it! Who knows, this could help Luffy gain better understanding woth his powers, as well as give him the edge he needs to surpass Joyboy!
Kid's comeback & character development
Now I know that most people believe that Kid's character arc ended the moment Shanks used Divine Departure on him, and took his Poneglyph writting. And even if he does return, he'll become another Moriah!
However, I'm not one of those people, and I believe Kid's time is far from over!
From the Giants' perspective, Kid & Law are the 2 heroes that defeated Big Mom, one of their most hated enimes. So surely not everyone in Elbaf will like what Shanks, Brogy, & Dorry did to him, even though the Red Haired Emperor was trying to save his Fleet, and the 2 Giants were out of the loop while they were gone for so long.
In fact, if what happened to Kid was anything like how the Strawhats were defeated in Sabody, then surely either Shanks or anyone who was there at the time could've told Kid almost the same thing Kuma said to Luffy about how he & his crew weren't ready yet, but has faith in them.
After all, Luffy may be an Emperor, but he isn't the only Pirate representing his generation. The same can be said for Whitebeard before Roger died.
Plus, let's not also forget that Kid was the first person to mention the man marked by flame, so it make sense that he should stick around long enough to meet the person face to face.
And if that person saw what happened to Kid & his crew, and saved them from drowning, perhaps he could become his Rayleigh, but instead of just helping him become strong enough to also be an Emperor, the man would teach Kid a lesson in humility. Which is a common thing for most anime rival's character arc.
Of course, just like what we got from Law & Bonney recently, we may get to see Kid's sad backstory, which may confirm whether or not the theory of him being Vegapunk's "7th Sattelite" is true, since some of his moves has "Punk" in their names.
And also the reveal of his Devil Fruit is also as important as that of his fellow Supernovas since magnetism has had big role since the SH entered the Grand Line.
Hajrudin's role
When I read about how the Narrator stated that the Egghead Incident may shock the world, I honestly thought that this would become the best time for the Straw Hat Grand Fleet to appear during their Emperor's time of needs.
Unfortunately, that theory eventually became debunked due to everything that has happened since that speech.
However, I believe that the Strawhats' visit to Elbaf would make up for that, and the only reason I think so is because one of the Grand Fleet capitans is actually a native of Elbaf! That's right, I'm talking about the leader of the New Giant Warrior Pirates himself, Hajrudin!
Now in case you aren't aware, Hajrudin & his crew recently made some interesting Cameo appearances in both Big Mom & Vegapunk's respective flashbacks! Specifically, during Big Mom days with Mother Caramel, we see him & his crew as kids. And when Vegapunk & Dragon met in Ohara, he was one of the Giants lead by Saul to recover the books that survived the Buster Call!
With those facts, it would stand to reason that Hajrudin is bound to have an important role in Elbaf, which makes sense since this trope has been used by every citizen of a country the Strawhats has ever met until now.
The "revenge" of the Big Mom Pirates
Now Idk whether or not Big Mom herself will make another comeback, but I can suspect that the remnants of her crew would appear since they also have some unfinished business to settle, as well as the fact that they once tried to put aside their mother's differences with the giants by having Lola marry Loki. Which failed due to her decision making at the time.
And even though Kid & Law were responsible for Big Mom's seeming demise, it's possible that the Big Mom Pirates will also blame the Strawhats for that, whether or not this will make them feel bad for them!
However, I do think that during this encounter, it could also be a chance to learn that Pudding was Kid during the events in Wano, which may lead to the Strawhats will do next after Elbaf, and that will also be part of my next blog!
Well I don't know about you, but what do you think of this list? If you have any opinions on this topic, or know any else that could be added, then please tell me in the comments section below, and br on the lookout for more posts i hope to make before the next chapter. Thank you!

Yeah, a lot of this is just me yapping about my life story and whatnot, so I’ll do a TL;DR at the end for y’all.
For me I didn’t realize I wasn’t cis until I was 14-15 (I’m 20 now). That was the time I started to learn more about LGBTQIA+ stuff in general from a close friend, the Internet, etc. When I first learned what being trans was outside of surgery and all that jazz, I started to realize that maybe I, too, was trans. I started to really question for a while despite not really thinking I was trans before or realizing there was any dysphoria there.
I grew up pretty much always presenting as female, dressing all girly and stuff, playing with Barbies, and not really having a problem with that. Well, not really having a problem with it except for when I was “Otis.” That was the name I chose when I was playing as a boy (mind you, I was around 8’ish this time). I enjoyed being Otis, to the point of being him every day hours on end. I never was able to fully enjoy it, however, since all the clothes I owned were all excessively girly, and my hair was extremely long (so then I’d hide it in a hat). At one point I even remember wanting to go to school as Otis, but I knew I couldn’t. My family never saw a problem with this, though they’re extremely transphobic. I was wondering if any cis person has ever done something like this in their childhood or if this was possibly a sign of my transness. Aside from that, I didn’t have a problem with being considered a girl with all my pink colored things and dresses and pantyhose.
I didn’t really have any signs of dysphoria until I hit puberty, when I completely ditched all the girly stuff to become a tomboy. I always felt upset when I was called a “girly girl” by my sister or anyone. Although I never liked to admit it, that girly part of me still remained and still somewhat remains today. I didn’t want to be thought of as girly or ultra feminine; I wanted to be ultra masculine and felt like I needed to put on an act to be perceived that way. That!s part of the reason I was wondering if I was faking; wondering if I really am trans or “just a tomboy.”
I know growing up I hated tampons, enjoyed having a smaller chest and not wanting to accentuate it, and HATED it when my hair grew super long. I started acting hyper feminine again in middle school because I wanted people to like me, even though I felt pretty exposed most of the time. I wanted to be like my older sister, since people seemed to really like her and want to be her friend, so I adopted her sense of style and let her do my makeup. It never really felt like me, though, and it felt too much like I wasn’t being my true self, so I eventually ditched it again for wearing no makeup and wearing stuff that was more my style. I realized I wasted so much time being someone else, as my real friends were there to support me no matter who I was, and I never had to put on an act for them. I never really absolutely hated looking like that though, but I definitely preferred my real style, even though it was still sorta feminine. For that reason, have I been faking this whole time?
I really learned what being trans when I was 14, learning that it isn’t just surgery and that there’s more to it than just that. After seeing trans people on TikTok (specifically trans men), I slowly started to watch them more and realize that I myself am trans. There was this one TikToker who I absolutely wanted to be, and so I learned the basics of trans related things like binding, tying my long hair back, learning about gender dysphoria, etc. I initially came out as nonbinary, seeing as I wasn’t too dysphoric all the time and didn’t feel like doing more research. I settled on they/them for a few months before evolving to they/he, he/they, then to he/him in a span of a few months. I didn’t know or realize there was any problem until I learned about being trans, so is it just another case of someone reading about something and thinking it’s the end all when it isn’t? Or is this normal trans people things?
Today I was reading through Reddit about other trans men and their experiences with bottom dysphoria and stuff. Mine isn’t toooooooo terrible all the time (though it is definitely there). Though I’ve also never done the deed with anyone and don’t know how dysphoric it would make me to use the organ in that way (honestly I gave up trying to give that part a name that didn’t make me dysphoric, so I just call it Tom). I’d be willing to try using it for sex if me and my current bf got there, but that’s another thing I worry about: being willing to try PIV when other trans men aren’t. That really made me worry if I’ve been faking it for 5+ years, and everything I’ve done to affirm myself up until this point was all for nothing. My family would probably be happier if I just stuck to being a cis girl, anyway.
TL;DR: I worry I might be faking my trans identity for 5+ years because of my differing experiences with my childhood/growing up from what is expected from most trans people, and from a lack of feeling super dysphoric all the time even with some definitely being there.
So Reddit, am I faking being trans ,or is all of this normal for other trans people?

If there was a way to make me invincible for fights and just move my party about to follow the story, I would enjoy this game a lot better. I gotta say among all the FF titles I've played, this game has the combat I enjoy the least, it feels like I'm doing nothing but it also feels that if I lose, there's nothing I can do. Gambits are a cool idea, but they would work as an extra layer for any better combat system, on their own they make me feel completely disconnected from the fight, sorry but I don't have a lot of fun spending time before the fight switching gambits on and off in hopes that the boss dies this time. Basically all enemies give you the same amount of LP regardless of how strong they are and I need a license to put on a hat. Traps annoy you at every turn and why is it so hard to open a chest?

Maybe some spoilers but it’s literally the first book so cmon

1. Ok this book was funny!! Her humor showed in this book way more than any of the other series.
   
2. Hunnnntttttt……..
   
3. The first 100 pages were pulling teeth not gonna lie. I understand what people mean now. This isn’t everyone’s cup of tea
   
4. I might be slapped in the face later but Jesiba seems like she cares way more than she let on
   
5. I cried about lele. I’m suprised she actually >! Stuck with this death tho considering how other deaths have gone. !< anyways i actually cried.
   
6. Best interpretation of friendships so far. I think the other series do this poorly. Examples: IC being so close knit but really without much reason other than Rhys just picks them. And then TOG was basically miss girl having a crush and then deciding nevermind I’ll friendzone them
   
7. >! Micah !< can kiss my fat ass
   
8. I’m not sure how I feel about ruhn yet
   
9. Perfect slow burn. She did it great actually.
   
10. I really don’t have any gripes about this book other than the beginning is a yawwwnnnnn but like I get the point of it. However, it’s so intricate Im not sure I grasped what’s where and who’s where, just that they/it are around if that makes sense. I can see this being one of those books where you have to map shit out and go back to notes you make.
    
11. Got so into it I forgot to annotate
    
12. Bryce’s leg >! Shut the fuck up that was the most tender moment. Literally him kissing her when the witch healed her. Pllssss get the fuck out I couldn’t. Like actually had me in my feelings !<
    
13. I’m into angels now
    
14. I fw syrinx
    
15. I suspect that fury is someone we know from other series. Could be wrong
    
16. Ok the one like actual issue writing plotwise I guess was how much her mom was important but yet not? I don’t know if this is just a showing of how Bryce prioritizes or if really it was unnecessary to involve her this much. Like idk just seemed kinda pointless to have the mom really bothering her that much when she didn’t seem to give two shits. Open to other’s opinions on this. Just seemed like something either she could’ve shared with hunt/ruhn and one of them being the ones to speak about >! Her having the powers she does, and not the mom. Especially if ruhn were to. !< Idk for some reason just feels like she wanted to write the mom out of Bryce’s life but also needed her for the ending.
    

Onto the next booookkk!!!!!!!! Ahhh

I'll preface this by stating that, while I am someone deeply curious about the unexplained, those topics don't often make appearances in my dreams, let alone to this level of detail.
It was an unremarkable evening a few years ago. I can't recall any distress or commitments the next day that would've disrupted my sleep/dreams and I hadn't been drinking at all. I simply fell asleep at a normal hour like I would any other night.
The dream began with me asleep on the floor of a basement I'd never been in before. It looked vaguely familiar but it wasn't a perfect match to any basement I'd been in (asleep or otherwise). I woke up wrapped in a throw blanket an old flat pillow under my head. My back hurt and my eyes felt itchy. Even though I didn't have glasses on I could see perfectly well after rubbing my eyes.
The room was dark, except for a single, blue LED that I assumed was coming from a TV or a game console or something. All around me were other sleeping people that I assumed were friends of mine. They were all similarly laying on the floor but non of them moved or made any noise.
I glanced over to the stairs at the back of the room and my blood ran cold.
There was a strange figure, stocky and standing at about shoulder height, walking across the room. He was draped in what looked like a purple bedsheet with yellow patterns on it. His skin was a dull brown/green and his face seemed almost frog-like. He had front facing white eyes with no pupils and a long slit like mouth. A long, black beard hung down from his chin over his chest. He was wearing some kind of hat that curled backward behind his head in a nautilus shape. His arms and fingers were long and thin and protruded from his baggy sleeves.
His movements were unlike anything I'd seen in my life. It was almost like an animatronic or someone moving underwater. I couldn't see his feet so it looked like he was floating along the ground. His arms moved smoothly at his sides as he "walked". He turned his head to face me, and that's when I heard his voice.
"Can you see me?"
I didn't hear a voice say it. It was like the words were in my brain but I didn't put them there. I could tell they came from him. I nodded, I was a bit scared but I had this gut feeling that he wasn't dangerous. It kept me from full on panicking. In my head I thought of what I was going to say and was alarmed when he answered me in the same manner as before.
"Yes, I can." I said, "What are you doing down here?"
He just repeated, "You can see me?"
"Yes! I can see you. Is everything alright?"
There was a pause.
"Yes. Don't be afraid."
I stood up, and walked over my sleeping friends towards him. As I did I replied.
"I'm not, who are you?"
His answer still puzzles me years later.
"I am you, in a way. I control you. We are each other."
Immediately, this strange warmth rose in my stomach. I was overcome with this feeling of joy and friendship.
"So you control me? Like a video game?" I even mimed the action of holding a controller for him. He made a nervous laugh.
"Not exactly. In a way. Yes. Its hard to explain. I'd rather not. But yes. It's nice to see you. Controlling you. People, are how we experience. We live in you. We don't move around on our own."
Another pause came as I tried to figure out what to say next.
"I have to leave. It was nice seeing you. You won't see me again."
And with that he was gone. No flash of light, no fading out, he was there one second and gone the next.
From there I woke up in my bed. Nothing strange had happened. No missing time, no marks or changes in my life. I just moved on and now I occasionally think about it. I've still yet to see him again.

I (17 M) and my partner (18M) have a pretty good relationship. He’s really caring and soft spoken, and we’ve been together for almost two years. I really like him, but I am struggling because of his anger issues. It seems like most days there is just an aura of angler surrounding him, and he seems pissed off more than not. He’ll deny he’s upset, even when he clearly is, and then confide that he was upset when I asked.
This wouldn’t be as much of a deal if I didn’t have CPTSD due to my father emotionally abusing me throughout my childhood (don’t worry, I cut contact with him two years ago). My partner exudes that same aura of anger as he did, and it’s really triggering to be around. It makes me on edge and has been severely affecting my mental health for some time now. Just to remind you, he’s not mad here and there, it is day in day out. I hate to see him upset, but I am also constantly in a state of guardedness because of his anger.
I have talked with him about it, but it isn’t getting better. He started seeing the school councilor a couple months ago, and there hasn’t been improvement.
I’m also stressed because I want to do a semester of abroad studies offered by the college we will be attending, but he is against the idea because I wouldn’t be close so he could “keep an eye on me” and kept fussing about if something happened to me.
Now, I would like to note that we live in rural America, and we are both queer trans men, and I’ve looked heavily into immigration due to the political turmoil in America right now, especially concerning our rights. I have a decent shot at Scottish citizenship through ancestry, and have considered giving it a go to see if I’d qualify due to a “just in case” scenario. My boyfriend pushed against this plan because he’s afraid of losing me. I don’t know what to do. He keeps saying that he’s never met anyone like me before and doesn’t want me to move on without him.
I think some of this comes from the fact that really insecure, as I’m supposedly the more “conventionally attractive” one in the relationship (thin, cis passing, etc), and whenever I’m talking to anyone who’s not one of the friends TM (we have a very close friend group, which would further complicate things if we broke up) he gets really defensive at people trying to “make passes at me”, which does happen from time to time. He’s constantly worried about people “using me” or “abusing my niceness” but I’ll be having a normal conversation and sometimes he’ll just seem like a guard dog. This was especially prevalent when we went on a trip funded by the school and people were asking for my number, and he just kind of lurked there. I’m also autistic and am not the best at recognizing when people are flirting with me, so its hard to tell if people are just being nice- but it also made me feel a bit uncomfortable because it felt a bit controlling, like, it seems like I can’t make new friends because they might be trying to hit on me. He also confessed that one of my old friends (no longer my friend due to unrelated reasons) made him jealous and angry simply because I was closer with him. Said friend never rubbed it in his face, but my bf was mad that I had other friends. He has since said that his mindset was toxic, but it someways I feel like it never left.
I’m stressed because we’re going on a trip abroad with my family soon and I don’t want to cause turmoil. I love him a lot, we really click on things like humour and interests, but I feel like he’s trying to tie me down, which is stressful, not to mention the whole anger issue thing, and I’m really lost. I also know I might lose friends if so broke up with him, since we’re really tight knit.
Some back up information is that he liked me first and I was pressured into dating him, but then actually started to develop feelings for him. Sometimes I wonder if I’m just resentful for how our relationship started.
Any suggestions?
(Sorry for poor formatting- I’m on mobile.)

I am in my 9th week of training and oh my…. the things I have seen… from management.
I have two ASLs in my store and they are both horrible managers. They have been with the company for a combined 36ish years and no one can tell them anything without an hour long argument. They have zero people skills and I spend an inordinate amount of my day playing damage control and cleaning up their messes.
The only thing they have ‘trained’ me on is how to half-ass the metrics so we have a high compliance score and they get large bonuses. Only the actual department heads and regular associates have shown me how to actually do the job and management treats them like shit. The ASLs have also shown me how to sit in an office all day and talk shit about everyone but smile and act like they care when someone is around. They constantly talk down to me and treat me like I have never managed before, even though I have significantly more experience than they do. They told me that my PMP certification was ‘just some sort of training on processes and not important at all”.
I’m a very Team oriented manager and spend all of my days on the floor stocking produce, dairy or helping in the deli or bakery. I make it a point to check in on each department 3-4 times a day to see what they need and either I get it for them or I do it myself. (The ASLs said I’m going to spoil them if I keep helping)
I honestly don’t know how anyone with any amount of time sticks with it.
To all those still employed with Kroger and dealing with this day in and day out, my hat is off to you and you deserve the utmost respect.
/end rant

My ( 33f) relationship is still less than a year. He (34m) asked me out officially on 1/02/24 but we met about 2 months before on Ok Cupid the dating app and haven't stopped talking since then. And recently he asked me to move in with him to his condo he owns. My lease is up in August so thats when ill move.
Ok so when I first met him I wasn't sure about him cause he was goofy, chubby, nerdy and his hair was kinda messy (now I know its always like that) and he lol like wore a bear 🐻 hat the first time me met up. Anyway, first date was fun and then we never stopped seeing eachother since. From the beginning he was all over me and I liked it a lot. And I knew he liked me alot but I was alittle unsure at first. Now 5 months later he has changed im my eyes and looks so handsome and seems so cool and amazing. I find myself getting jealous when my friends are talking to him and he laughs or he talks about some other girl. I can't believe how jealous I have become and I hate the feeling. He has always sent me sweet things and texts me all day for months. Over the last month I have really fallen for him and i cant help but text him now how much I like him and appreciate him. But now.. I've noticed he texts me less and isn't as over pooring with love messages.. which I kinda miss. Im worried not that I have fallen for him and I'm expressing my feelings that it is going to make him not like me anyone and that would be like.. the worst thing now that I want to see this go places. Idk if its in my head but id like some advice on what you think I should do or a way to keep his interest. I just can't believe I'm all gaga for this dork now and I want his attention all the time..

Has anyone else watched Eddie’s doc about his mom, How America Killed My Mother?
I rented it on Prime because I have grown fond of Eddie on the pod. I used to enjoy Travis on Top Hat and thought I’d give it a whirl. I was surprised by how much I didn’t like it.
The basic premise is that his mom died because she had health problems, and the people (her ex husband) and institutions (banks, casinos, insurance, the government) in her life failed her. IMO that would be a very interesting doc if they dove into the root of those issues, the history of the crappy American health system (for both mental and physical health), and made a statement on how it should be improved. However, what they did was blame everyone else for her situation, and that was that. She had a gambling problem, and they blamed the casino for letting her gamble there. She ran up credit card debt, and they went into a Kohls dept store and blasted the kid at the register for letting her open a credit card there when she had bad credit. That kid is not the one making any decisions he’s just trying to do his job. At one point Eddie calls a bank hotline to close her account, and the rep on the phone says “I’m sorry” when he said she passed on, and after the call he said he didn’t believe that they were truly sorry. Well, they probably weren’t, they don’t know either of them and why should they truly be sorry? If they didn’t say sorry he probably would have been upset that they didn’t say it.
The voicemails they played of her broke my heart- she left him a message saying how sad she was that she was broke, then apologized for calling to complain about that. It reminded me a lot of family members that I have that complain about their situations and make excuses, blame other people, and take no accountability. They make you feel bad for them, and then you don’t want to talk to them because it’s depressing.. then they guilt you for not talking to them.
I’m curious if any else who watched it had that take or a different take. Was it supposed to be tongue in cheek? Was this supposed to be making a statement about how Americans blame others for their situations and don’t take responsibility or accountability for their actions? Or was it literally a statement on the fact that if you’re poor, have gambling problems and health problems, and a bad relationship, that someone or something should be there to take care of you?
TL/DR I was disappointed because the doc came off whiney and complainey, and felt like they were directing the blame and frustration at the wrong people and didn’t make much commentary on how we could or should improve this situation in America.

It started when I was driving down a backroad and I see blue lights behind me. I immediately panic and gas it to over 100 mph, throwing shit out the window, rigs, a half Oz, scales, everything. The blue lights are gaining on me so I hit a dirt road, going insane speeds down this bumpy ass road, eventually, I realize I've rode the back tires off of the vehicle, so I jump out and hit the woods. I see the lights approaching and see flashlights coming into the woods, mind you it's pitch black and it's in a marshy, real rugged terrain, I'm running full speed doing flips and shot over hills and running into shot and the flash lights are coming up on me, and they're getting closer and closer and I am thinking fuck I am about to go to jail. They come up on me and everything goes black.
I wake up not knowing how long I've been laying there and I feel like I've been shot in the chest with a shotgun, I can't move my body and I think I'm dieing. I see a star in the sky that I was fixated pm, and I'm thinking that's where I want to be. Eventually it feels like I die, my body is making weird ticking noises and I feel like I just lose my body, I come out of my body and have these giant angel wings and I start flying up to the star, when I'm about halfway there my wings turned to bone and I fall back to the earth, then several times over, I grow angel wings again and fly away again, only to have the same thing happen again, it felt like I was being taunted that I could never make it to heaven. I eventually snap back to my body again, and wake up another unknown time later.
I managed to stand up, and in my mind I was on this earth all alone, like in some type of purgatory. My body is so weak I can barely move, but I managed to stand up. The bottom half of my vision is solid black and the top half I can see the tops of trees, I eventually see this figure, totally black and tall with a cowboy hat on. It's just standing about 5 foot away and laughing at me. I try to pick up a big stick that was near me but my body was too weak to swing it at it. Every time I took a step forward , it just took a step back and laughed.
There is a fuzzy period here, but fast forward about 2 days later of being completely out of my mind in these woods, I stumble upon and oilfield location that had a little trailer where the workers could stay and it had a jeep parked out front. The doors were unlocked and I went inside trying to get some water out of the faucet, I didn't notice the guy asleep on the couch. No water came out, so I went into this guy's jeep, thinking totally that it was mine, got a crowbar and a wrench and went to the water main and broke into it and turned the water on. I go back inside and start ravenous drinking water out of the faucet.
The guy wakes up and at first thinks I'm a worker. He asked me if I just got hired. I told him yeah and he asked what I drove there and I told him the jeep outside. He looked at me confused and then says that's his jeep. I argued with him and told him that's my friends jeep and I'm borrowing it. He realizes something is fucked up and eventually runs me off while having the phone to his ears, undoubtedly calling the cops.
Three more days go by and im completely out of my mind, everything is like the scariest thing you can imagine and i dont know whats real of fake. Im malnourished, dieing, and freaking the fuck out. eventually I think the cops are after me, and I remembered storing some dope in my boot like two years before, I had on big rubber duck hunting boots, and for some reason I feel like I need to cut the boots up into tiny pieces and bury it. I do this and then run for another day from imaginary police.
I come across this area of trees cut down and there is a guy like 500 yards away on the other side that I'm trying to sign language to that I need help. My tongue was so dry I couldn't yell. The guy wasn't even real and eventually waved at me and drove off. I find a few berries to eat to wet my tongue and eventually collapse in thick thorn bushes staring up at the sky with big sharp thorns in my back thinking, "this wouldn't be so bad of a place to die" I pass out and get up an unknown time later.
I finally found some sort of road and I decide to try to walk down it, but when I do, like 20 world War two bombers fly over and drop these little silver cubes, hundreds of them, these cubes hatch and there's all these miniature snipers in the woods aiming at me. I freak out and start running down this road, and in My mind I'm thinking "okay they're all trying to kill me and I'm unarmed, all I can do to make them think i have a gun is to take my sock off and put it on my hand like a pistol with my fingers" so I do this while running frantically down this road, crazy as a mother fucker.
I finally run across this house and I beat on the door like the police for like 30 seconds and eventually this 80 year old man answers, and sees this crazy fucking site, I'm shirtless, shoes less, with one sock on my hand with cuts and shit all over my body and face, eyes like saucers and looking like the wolf man or some shit. I look dead in this man's eyes and while waving my sock pistol around I tell him "look, if they told you I'm here to kill you, I'm not. I just want to use your phone. " he looks very confused and shut the screen door while calling the police.
I eventually figure fuck it this man isn't going to help me so I run off and break into his back yard. I find the faucet and turn it on and I'm up under it with my mouth open, drinking in water so desperately and fast that I'm throwing up while drinking it. A cop eventually walks up to me and asks me to come with him. He tells me he has water in the cooler in his ride and I can drink that. I am so out of my mind and thirsty and dieing that I didn't believe him and he had to pry me away from the faucet.
He was able to tell after talking to me that I was very much out of my mind and takes me to the hospital. They tell me I have a 78% chance of dieing that I had ketoacidosis and my kidneys were failing. I lived, and after 8 or 9 days of being in these woods with no food or water, out of my fucking mind, with delusions so bad I didn't know what was real or fake, I finally got released and then sent to a mental hospital for two weeks.
This was by far the worst and scariest experience of my life and I would not wish it on anyone. Stay woke friends, and never go into meth induced psychosis.

Firstly: thanks to Dina for kindly unbanning me from this sub. If this worries you to hear, fret not: my ban was from long before the sub changed hands and back when it was... uh... ran more like the official Discord, I guess you could say. Got a bit frisky with some of the diehard supporters after Jao first reneged on his promise of Kickstarter rewards being "exclusive" and decided that, actually, everybody deserves to play as everything. I'm sure some of you know how it goes.
Secondly: if there happen to be any who remember my name, hello fellow veterans. It's been a while, hasn't it? Who would have thought that in 2019, four and a bit years ago, we would eventually find ourselves here?
Thirdly: if you don't recognise me, then hello, hi, I'm Airy, an idiot who initially backed at $30 and then bought those spare $200 keys they had.
Fourthly, if you remember me from the Discord: I did tell you all that the game was going to head this way after Jao kicked me from the mod team and banned me on the Discord, after telling him to his face he was running his moderation team into the ground by stirring up constant drama and refusing to just... I dunno, develop his game? Please know it brings me no joy to see how right I was that he would constantly make a victim of himself and sell the story that he's just "unfairly hated" by people, but I'm not surprised by it, either.
I mean, what did we expect from the man who happily announced in his Discord that he thought YandereDev was one of his idols and that YanDev's "Hate and Shame" video was a perfect description of what he was going through? (And have you seen the YandereDev stuff recently? If you haven't... maybe don't look it's kind of nasty actually.)
How are we all doing here? For those of you somehow still playing, especially given that the 1.0 update seemed to trend towards being absolutely unplayable even on top end rigs, are you pleased with the updates? For those still playing who were KS backers, do you think you got your money's worth these four and a half long years later? I'm asking genuinely, by the way. I think the game's a garbage fire of the highest order, developed by somebody who constantly invokes the name of his dead father to try and illicit sympathy from people he's swindled both financially and in terms of stealing their time, but I'm in the unique position of having been in voice calls with the man behind the scenes and witnessing first hand how this was all going to go down about, oh, three years ago. Needless to say that any take I'd have on the game would be a little bit biased, let alone if asked my opinion of the man himself. So I'm curious how the rest of you are doing, if you feel you've been robbed or if you think you've gotten your money's worth. Where you think the issues lie, if you think there are any. Is 1.0 everything you wanted it to be? Or is it every nightmare you wished the game would avoid becoming?
I will say, credit to the moderation team on this sub for grabbing a hold of it after it got effectively taken around the back of the shed for a while. Moderating regular communities without the baggage this one has can be unforgiving, moderating communities like this one where everything is so polarised is arguably far worse and you might have to be a little insane to voluntarily do it. I respect it, though. We're mostly all here for the same reason: we thought this game could be good, and were blatantly lied to. The commitment to keeping a singular space open and uncensored given the penchant for the official's rather problematic management is a noble one. Hats off to you.
Man y'all remember when I made that big post when it was first revealed Jao was walking back his promise of Kickstarter exclusives? Good times, good times. Do you ever look at some (not all, but some) of the promised new dragons and almost miss those goofy, silly Unreal assets? All that time spent, sitting by the oasis, chatting because chatting was the only thing you could do, having a great time being excited for what this game had the potential to become? Man I miss those times. So innocent, so naive, so hopeful. Did any of you move on to Century: Age of Ashes after this fiasco? Can you believe in the span of four years we've watched two really promising dragon games get ruined by mismanagement, incompetent development teams, unfixed bugs and really bad Discord administration teams? I'd joke "How much do we have to pay for a good dragon game" but I think we'd all run out of money before we got one. Maybe we should go back to games like Spyro or something.