How can get the whole national dex in soul silver

I’ve been trying for the past several days to book an appointment through TLS in London. Every single time I click “Book Appointment” on the France-Visas website, I’ve gotten the “you’ve been temporarily blocked” message, including the first time I ever tried it. I’ve gone on data, a different wifi, a hotspot, used both phone AND laptop, and done everything else imaginable - how on earth do I book an appointment?? I tried calling the number on their website and it said it’s no longer in service, and they don’t appear to have an email address I can contact. Anyone has a clue what else I can do??
Also, I need my visa by the 6th of June - how likely is it that I can get an appointment slot that delivers my visa in time? I can’t even check the current slot openings bc of this whole issue so I really don’t know what to do…

My current work schedule has allowed me to tee up a ton of time with the kids this summer, so I want to make it extremely Transformative for my two kids, aged almost 8m and 5f. But it's honestly mainly for the boy, who spends too much time on screens and is not really excelling in school, and also to challenge my little girl who is doing so wonderfully in school.
I am pitching it at next family meeting as "June Cocoon and Butterfly July" as an invitation to shed our old habits that perhaps keep us glued to our screens and sometimes make us generally disinterested in life. The wife and I just feel that we as a family aren't getting the most out of their lives.
So my goal is to not have an ceaseless parade of activities, though I imagine there will be lots, but the goal is a 2 month long shedding of old habits and learning new ones, as they say it can take up to 60-odd days to change a routine. I want to begin by asking ourselves what it takes to really take care of our minds, bodies and souls on a daily and weekly basis? What would it be like of we got serious about learning skills we would like to learn? How can we develop our talents? What is our wu shu, so speak, or art and approach to life? What would all that look like during a couple months of intentionality?
Has anyone else done a "hard reset" or time of deep reevaluation of home life like this before? How did it go?

Sorry this is long, but I need some advice because I’ve been struggling with this feeling for about a year now and I have tried to move on but I don’t think I can and I don’t know what to do.
In December 2022, my husband privately proposed to me. The day after was new year’s eve and we went over to a friend’s apartment where most of our friend group was invited. With everyone there, we decided to announce our engagement to everyone at the party. When we did everyone was elated and congratulating us; it was all good vibes.
Over the next four months, my fiance and I were going through the process of looking for, and then ultimately buying a house; we ended up buying a fixer upper home and closed on the house in early April 2023. I had always told my husband that we had to be married before we could live together, so after closing on the house we decided that we’ll religiously and legally get married at the end of April 2023 and do a small dinner with our close family members. Also note, that my lease for my apartment was ending at the end of April 2023, so I was in the midst of packing and getting ready to move my stuff into a storage unit while we fix our home and live at his parents house. We both informed our friends of our marriage plans and mentioned that we’ll do a celebration with everyone in late 2024. We had a total of 20 people at our ceremony, everyone was a family member except for my one best friend and her husband, and mind you we needed them to be there because we needed 3 male muslim witnesses to perform the ceremony, and my 2 brothers and my friend’s husband are the only male muslims in our lives; I don’t have a dad in my life and I don’t have any family living here in the U.S. So the ceremony happens, and my friend that was there posts a picture of us on instagram, and that’s when things went south. My girl friend group got so salty that I told them it was a family only event and that they saw my friend was there and they felt so offended by that. They also said that they didn’t receive any text from me that morning letting them know that it was my wedding day and that I wasn’t a good friend because of that. I had told them all that it was going to be end of April and they never followed up to ask what day and I was so busy with packing, planning my for my ceremony, and doing the demolition on our new home that I just didn’t pay attention to these things. Well after that, I received the cold shoulder from some friends, and others made comments about how they weren’t there but they moved on from it in the moment.
When some of them confronted me about it, I was so taken aback and just let them have it and I kind of overexplained myself because I didn’t want them to not like me anymore. I was being overly defensive and I was so stressed with everything else, I let them have it.
By the time our house was finished, we moved in, and finally got settled it was November 2023. It was only after everything settled down that I really started to think about why I feel uncomfortable around my group of friends (whom I’ve known for 20+ years). I was finally able to sit with my feelings and I realized that they were all pretty shitty for making my day about them, I was anxious from that day on and so stressed about it all; I didn’t have any unpure intentions with how I moved and they made me feel like such a bad friend. I also felt like they weren’t being very understanding with what was going on in my life, and they also all knew that my mom had cut herself out of my life a year prior because she didn’t want me to be with my now husband because of his race. So for them to know all these things that I was going through and to not give me any grace felt hurtful. The other part is the fact that they all felt so entitled to be at my ceremony because they were my friends when I had been engaged for 4 months prior and they didn’t even so much as send me flowers or take me out to brunch to hear about the proposal. I just know that when the next girl gets engaged it’s going to be a whole ordeal and I’m always going to remember that my friends didn’t do shit for me.
I had also found out from my brother that they had planned to throw me a surprise engagement party in May 2023 but when I didn’t include them in my ceremony they all decided to cancel planning for that because they were too hurt.
Essentially, I’m still feeling hurt about how my moment came and went and they didn’t acknowledge and celebrate. It wasn’t until this past weekend that one of the girls threw me a surprise 1 year anniversary party. But tbh it felt more like a redemption for her, plus she’s most likely getting engaged at the end of the summer and I think she’s realizing she’s going to want that for herself from her friend group. The party also felt rushed and only 1 of my friends gifted me properly for getting married. I haven’t received any gifts from any of my other so called best friends for getting married and for buying a house, despite having them over multiple times.
So yea…idk what to do, how to feel. I feel uncomfortable in this friend group, and it definitely doesn’t feel the same like it used to.

I’m vegabond/ homeless. I usually do trades and do not look for handouts, but there is a whole Reddit page dedicated to bras, thought I would reach out? If anyone can help, please let me know.
Looking for 32c!!
I’m a 32C and a lot of my clothing had been thrown away to moving around and getting slimmer and you ladies know how lace bras, eventually fall apart in the wash; I need to replace all of my bras now but have no money to do so! Hoping that some of you may have some bras in this size you want to get rid of. Would appreciate the support, literally. (;

Trigger warning - religious differences
I always bragged about how awesome my extended family was. NO family is perfect, but I heard horror stories and always counted my blessings that I had strong ties with my Aunt and uncles since I was raised an only child. That was until a few months ago when my last living Aunt, whom I considered a second mom, shattered me.
Ok, some backstory here. My aunt is a Jehovah’s Witness. Now before you get all judgy, I have always loved her, my uncle and her son with all of my heart. I still do. I respect that they have found faith and live by this code on the daily. I have met many people from their congregation and loved them all (ok, a couple of exceptions). I also appreciate the community they have and love they all show each other. If it weren’t for the religion itself, I would have converted.
I, however, am pagan and have always been since I was about 5 (even the first book I signed out from the school’s library was about witchcraft). Not raised that way, but always found spiritual comfort in nature and the natural world. I have a very strong connection and dedication to my Powers That Be and work every day to help the world be a better place. My Aunt did not know my religion until about 7 years ago. That being said, she and I would have very philosophical conversations when we hung out together. Even at the age of 8, I would listen to her preach to me and ask questions to which she never had answers. I remember her telling me how only 144,000 people would be allowed in heaven and didn’t I think that would be wonderful knowing that our whole family could be together again after we died. We’d all be in heaven if we were all Jehova;s witnesses. I had gone with her many times to do field service (door to door) and asked her why they do that if there’s only a certain number of people allowed. Didn’t that lessen her chances of getting in because I’m sure there were many people more deserving than myself. How did she know for sure she’d be one of the ones to get in and was that fair to keep bringing people into the religion when all the spaces were probably already filled up?
At 8 years old, I had many questions and was just trying to figure these things out. Since she was an adult, I figured she had the answers. My questions were not with malice, just for a want of better understanding. When she didn’t have the answers, I'd ask my mother and grandmother. While they were extremely amused, they said they never understood either. They never said anything bad about her or her attempts to get them to convert, just allowed me to explore religion and spirituality as I wished so I could make my own decision of what was right for me.
Once I was an adult, I avoided talking to her about religion, but found that if I didn’t ask questions and just let her talk, it made her happy. I know she’s a good person at heart and that’s all that matters. After my Mom passed, my aunt and I talked almost every week. I loved talking to her and she became even more like a mom to me. She gave me encouragement and we supported each other through health and emotional crises. I’d make it a point to try and visit at least once a year for a few days so she could visit with my daughter and I. We’d always do lunch with her friends and I loved it. I fell in love with some of the people in her congregation and wished we could live closer to hang out more. I, however, never wavered on my spiritual beliefs, but I have never cared about the religion, race, or sexuality of anyone. If we got along, we were friends and that was that.
My aunt and I had come to an understanding that I would not convert and that we would love and respect each other regardless. Religious talk was off the table for the most part until both of my uncles (my aunt’s two brothers) passed and she had a very hard time dealing with it. She was the last surviving sibling and she was sinking into a depression. I’d talk to her at length and listen to her as she mourned the fact that she would never have contact with them (and my mom) in heaven because they never converted. When she asked me what I believed, I told her that I believed that the soul lived on after the body died and that I believed in reincarnation. I explained my beliefs were closer to hindu and buddhism than christianity (so she had context). We had very long talks and she expressed that she respected my views and actually found comfort in talking with me.
That was until my daughter and I opened our store about 3 years ago. It’s a metaphysical shop and we have crystals, teas, gifts, jewelry, candles and more (about 10% strict;y pagan). My aunt was happy for us until it dawned on her that we might sell pagan stuff. I told her what we sold and she asked me if I was a witch. I replied that I suppose that was one way to describe me, but, again, I considered myself spiritual and that I followed a path closer to buddhism, hinduism, native american. I sent a couple of pictures of the jewelry that we made and she said when we came down, we should bring the jewelry making.
We did, I brought down our best crystals to wrap and bracelet materials and my daughter and I made her a necklace with a very expensive stone (A $200 piece). She brought her friends over and they picked out crystals that they wanted, made bracelets and such. We had fun and I was happy to do it, though I wasn’t expecting people that I had never met before. Still, we had fun. My daughter and I also brought her a basket with local items from our hometown, (Raw honey, handmade stoneware mugs, cutting board, herbal tea and some other items made by us as well) She was thrilled. My aunt and uncle had taken a couple of bad falls a few months before and so my daughter and I made them hand carved cedar walking sticks as well because we knew they went for regular walks and thought it would help their balance. It felt amazing to lavish expensive and heartfelt gifts on them as I has struggled so long with money. I was finally in a place that I could do it. To say the gifts probably totalled in excess of 1K is on the low side, but I was still happy to do it.
Besides the fact that they tried converting my daughter when I wasn’t around, it was a lovely visit. The only problem I had was with a new person my aunt introduced us to. This woman, we’ll call her Dee, ignored me and only talked to my daughter. She was my age if not older, but conversed with my daughter, 17, like I wasn’t there. They traded contact info and Dee insisted that they keep in touch while my daughter was in college. Dee said she was going to keep an eye on her. I thought that was odd, but I did enjoy the feeling of having an extended family sort of since I actually had no family besides my Aunt.
Let’s jump forward to the following year and we were struggling financially. Not horrible, but unable to lavish the gifts that we did the year before. Instead, I created a beautiful aromatherapy candle, some delicious herbal teas and we found a couple of very rare antique tea cups that had amazing value to them (about $100 a piece). We made a basket for her and I decided we would cook for them. (gluten free, soy free, dairy free etc). Our visit went so well, it was great to see them. We just enjoyed hanging out with them and talking. They loved the meal we made for them and the dairy free organic chocolate I made. Everything was great until the day we were leaving. Dee showed up and again ignored me, talked to my daughter and chastised her for getting a pet snake as that was an animal associated with the devil. My daughter is one to push the envelope a bit and said how she wanted to get a tattoo as well, one of a snake. Both my aunt and Dee were shocked and said she should never get a tattoo.. Again related to the devil, I went to the bathroom as I was not involved in the conversation and knew my daughter could hold her own. Little do they know that my daughter is also trans. I told her not to say anything to them just yet. I came back to them talking about how college was going and I thought my aunt and Dee would faint when she said her college roommate was male. She quickly explained that it was fine because he was gay and how awesome he was (he is btw). She quickly realized what I meant when she saw their reaction to him being gay. It wasn’t that she was living with a boy, it was that he was gay and “why did he choose to be gay.” I tried redirecting the conversation a couple of times, but they ignored me.
They finally let it go, but just after Dee left, we were getting ready to depart as well. My aunt returned the basket I made for her (minus the expensive tea cups). She said she could not accept them as they were touched by the devil. Shocked, I asked what she meant. She said that because they came from my store, they carried Satan's influence and she could not have them in our home. Truthfully, I explained that I made those items for her and that the only things that came from the store were the teacups. She was confused why I had gotten upset. When I explained that I gave her a gift and if she didn’t want it, she could regift it or throw it away. That gift came from my heart with all the love I have for her and that I didn't need to know her opinions about the gifts because It insinuated I, myself, was evil and it was extremely hurtful. She basically continued on insisting that I was just not aware of how much Satan had a hold of me. All I could do was tell her how much I loved her and leave.
I didn’t take her calls and cried about this for over a month. I finally felt strong enough to talk to her and again she insisted that because those items touched my hands, they were influenced by satan and she wished I could understand how they just can’t have that influence in their home. Frustrated, I asked how she could shop at grocery stores or buy anything from department stores because she can’t guarantee that those items didn’t touch hands that were influenced by satan. Also , I asked her how they could have eaten the food I prepared for them and why did they even invite me into their home to begin with if that’s the way she felt about me. She suddenly needed to go.
We talked a few times since then but it always came back to religion. At one point I asked her again why she would even invite us to her home if she felt that way. Her response was to save my daughter. The pain and heartache she has inflicted is immense, but I cannot bring myself to argue the point because I’m afraid if I make my point to her, it will break her. She’s in her 80’s and I believe has the beginnings of dementia. Her religion brings her comfort and I don’t want to say anything that might make her doubt her religion at her advanced age.
I’ve decided it is probably best for both of our mental health to stop all contact with her( with the exception of sending cards telling them how much I love them) even though I’ve always seen her as a second mom. AITA for making this decision and not trying to work things out with her or allow her to believe that I still might convert?
*** Please understand this is not a bash on any religion. Everyone has the right to believe in whatever religion they wish. That includes me, so if you feel the need to bash them or me for our spiritual choices, you can move along ***
I have never felt like I needed to hide any part of me from my friends, family, and the public in general. Not until now. Buckle up, this is a bumpy ride.
I've always been kind hearted, almost to a flaw. I took care of my grandmother, my step-dad, my mom and helped with a family friend during long term and terminal illnesses. I had my daughter and, without her father's help, raised her on my own with very little to no support. I helped friends with their farm who left me homeless in the end because I want interested in an extramarital affair. I lost my home and all that I loved including my husband because he lied to me and never paid it mortgage while I was recovering from an illness. In short, I have had a tough life, but it has never made me turn my back on anyone who needed help or in difficult family when they were ignored by the others. That's just some background before I tell you this situation.
Three years ago, after a bout of covid, my daughter was suicidal. She had been in the top three of her HS class and yet at that point almost failed her junior year. Not knowing if she would have the emotional strength to face college and adulting in general, I set up a plan B for her. I started a store in her name and that way she'd have something at least to fall back on if she was unable to function in the m-f 9 to 5 world. We started slow by doing craft fairs, seeking crystals, candles, jewelry, and gifts. We were kicked out of one because the person running it assumed we were witches. She was not wrong exactly as we identified as pagan, but we lived our life closest to the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, not traditional wicca. These were people who knew us for years and were considered acquaintances if not friends.
Our business flourished and we ended up opening our brick and mortar that fall after remodeling our garage/ barn and turning it into a store front. Even though I run it for my daughter, it is hers and we work together to keep it going.
In the past few years I've lost my mom, and two uncles. I have no family besides my mother's sister and her husband which we were pretty close. My aunt knew that I was pagan and had tried recruiting me into her religion since I was 5. Even at that tender age her religion never made sense and I would ask her questions to which she never had answers. I accepted her and respected her and her religion even though I didn't agree. I loved the people she introduced me to that were in her church and I always got along with them. That is until we visited the year after we started our store. My aunt was thrilled about us bringing crystals down and making jewelry with her. We met a new friend of hers (middle aged woman) who ignored me completely and oozed affection on my daughter. She got my daughter's contact info and contacted her frequently. Trying to convert and ”save” her. My daughter wasn't having it as even though she was in a delicate state, she is very level headed and strong willed.
This year we visited and we brought herbal tea, candies, and rare vintage tea cups for my aunt. The day we were leaving, she handed back everything but the vintage tea cups and told me she couldn't accept them because they were touched by Satan (aka made by my hands). To say I was devastated is an understatement. This woman was always like a second mom to me and we had grown closer after my mom passed away. It was a 20 hour drive home and I cried most of the way. I cried for weeks after a well. Thinking of it now still brings me tears. As she was telling me that Satan had a hold on me and that she was trying to save me, all I did was remind her how much I loved her and my uncle. Every time since then that we have talked, she says the same thing, but now she told me I was a lost cause. I feel like trying to stay in touch is detrimental to her mental health ( and my own). I don't want to give up or abandon the last of my family, but I can't talk to her and endure the endless insinuations that I'm evil because I don't believe in her religion. She took a bad fall and broke her arm. The last time we spoke, she talked as if it was my fault for bringing the devil into her home.
While I could usually brush this off as delusional ranting, it hits hard because the same day she fell, my dad died. I know the Powers That Be only give as much as we can handle, I just wish they didn't have so much faith in me.
They are in their 80s. I know in all the pieces of my broken heart that they'll never be able to accept my daughter and I unless we change religions and it has crossed my mind just to say we have to put her at ease, but I can't lie like that to them and we cannot betray ourselves like that either. By

Recently divorced (8 months) and moved out (6 months) and obviously my 6 year old is struggling. She has always been very high anxiety, even as a newborn I swear. She was always crying, never able to be southed, but as she’s grown she’s come a long way. When I was still with her dad she would still struggle with frequent meltdowns and with school (I was always getting texts from her teacher that she had a very upset belly from worry and wanted mom to know) and would always struggle with drop off. She would and still does worry at night and has an extremely hard time sleeping. Anyways, she’s got anxiety the poor girl and she really struggles with change.
We took a very slow approach to transitioning between houses and worked with a therapist to help us with the transition. Obviously there have been good days and bad, but overall both of the kids are doing such a great job. I know how hard this must be for them and I frequently tell them how proud I am of them. Their father and I, with encouragement and approval from the child therapist, always try to maintain a no pressure environment - the kids are struggling and want to see Dad they absolutely can and vice versa.
My daughter, the six-year-old, has recently and more frequently expressed her feelings about wanting to stay at her dad‘s. She says “just for a little bit “and while it absolutely breaks me, I know she just feels more comfortable in the house that she grew up in. Her dad does not want this. He admitted to “selfishly wanting more time for himself and to hang out with friends“ and does not want her to live with him full-time. He also reminds me that she never has meltdowns with him, she never has outbursts with him, and he never has issues with parenting her. I feel so awful, I surely am the worst mom in existence, and she obviously hates me, right? Why would I force someone I love more than myself to be somewhere she doesn’t want to be.
What do I do. How can I help her. How do I salvage this relationship. I would and will do anything for this girl, even if it means missing a chunk of my heart and soul so she can be happy. Please tell me she won’t hate me forever. My ex says he “knew she would be f*cked up from this”..

Stockman and Outback, they're both listed as having the JG lasts in the description, but on their site where they describe their lasts, they mention that one has the JG last whole the other has the STC last.
I have asked them this question 2 weeks ago, couldn't wait and already placed and received my boots, hoping their STC but considering how tight the toebox is, probably not?
It looks wide from the outside but putting my foot in, all my toes get squeezed together. There's some heel slip anyway so I can't order a size up unfortunately, and I've worn them some already hoping it would get better so I don't think I can get a return.
Anyway Jim Green is yet to respond.

This might be a little long, and I apologize in advance. I'll include what information I have, and we need input as we don't really have experienced elders freely offering advice and our agent is seemingly no help. (I have yet to encounter a helpful agent, and this is our third home purchase, but I digress)
We are under contract on a home purchase in NC. This is our second time buying in NC and so I am familiar with the process and DD and all of that. The market we're buying in right now is way overvalued. The home isn't our dream home, or final home, for that matter- but we're willing to stay in it for 5-6 years, or turning it into a rental sooner. It's a 1975 ranch, it's too small for us and these boys of mine aren't getting any smaller. Granted, we are moving from 5b4ba 4,00sqft and have done a lot of necessary home repairs between this home and the previous one totalling about $20-30k in each home- just for some add'tl background.
Pros: the mortgage would be equal to local rents (providing we apply 100% of the equity from the sale of our current home) and it is in the school district I want for my children.
SO: 1975 ranch. Sold in 2020 ($250k) and again in 2022 ($340k). Currently listed at ($398k with 5% commission $20k) Both buyers overpaid ~20k over ask. Neither of these buyers did any updates/repairs to the property, it's a bit of a fixer-upper. I don't think the current owners ever actually lived in it, it's completely empty, they are ~75-80 years old, the home is in a trust & I think they're trying to liquidate. While the list agent is out of the same broker as our buying agent, our agent won't divulge any details and that is fine. whatever.
We offered $388k with CC. They accepted our ask, with only $5k CC concession. We accepted. We only put down $1k DD and $1k EMD
We just completed a home inspection this past Saturday. The home has water in the crawlspace, elevated moisture reading >19% "fungal growth," torn down insulation, duct work damage, vapor barrier is only cover ~60% of the crawl space, outdated panel, no GFCIs in the home, leaking sink drain, and a 22+ year old hot water heater showing corrosion. Because we are using a VA loan, the moisture issue would have to be addressed to approve funding.
We would also like to do a septic inspection, though our agent won't schedule one (the whole system was replaced in 2019) and a roof inspection, but she is dragging her feet that "we won't have time."
We told our agent we would absolutely need the seller to cover 100% close so we can address these issues. She said them agreeing to that is unlikely as they agreed $10k under ask with $5k in CC. But, we would need them to cover close to we can address these issues. We are somewhat aware of what these repairs will cost as we have done them before.
She wants us to request repairs from the sellers- though I'm not sure they'll willingly replace an entire vapor barrier (~$6k and electrical ~$2k) She's not offering any additional advice, as we aren't sure what they'll have to do to remedy the issue to cover VA requirements. I don't want to shell out for more inspections if theyre unwilling to make more concessions.
Which brings me here. How would you proceed? Should we walk? I've applied to a couple of rentals as a plan B, to sit and wait and watch the market- but we wouldn't be able to purchase for a year (& that's fine if we save ourselves an outpouring of issues in the interim, despite having to move again in a year).

I am on my x-th rewatch of Psych now that it is available on Netflix and I am loving almost every second of it. almost.
When watching shows like this everything has to be taken with a giant ladle of salt. Given the absurdity of the show, it is perfectly reasonable to believe that Gus is a walking encyclopedia. It is completely fine, that a nanny-agency can install cameras in peoples homes with flawless 1000x magnification that record people pin combinations from accross the street. And it is absolutely normal that they would unearth T-Rex fosils while solving two crimes.
All of these things are part of a whimsical make believe reality, designed for us viewers to turn our brains of and have a good time.
However I do believe that there are implicit rules for these shows, which govern, when reason can be thrown out the window and when normal real life standards should be applied.
Unreasonable shenanigans and absurd circumstances are meant to be applied for the setup of a story or as a humorous interjection, but never as a conclusion.
Juliet's "harrassment" allegation is clearly the latter. The thought, that someone may get into genuine trouble, after a single instance of aproaching another person in an awkward (slightly inappropriate) manner, without being asked for context, is quite absurd.
If this situation had been used as a setup for a larger story, I could forgive the lazy writing, but this is meant to be a learning moment for Juliet. We are meant to accept that her behaviour was bad enough to possibly derail her whole career and that she was lucky to get away with a stern talking to.
And it wasn't even necessary to raise the stakes so high. The officer could have just gone to HR, which could have prompted a meeting with O'Hara, in which someone gives her the whole 'appropriate workplace behaviour' speech. This would have had the same effect on her, without having the same weight for the viewers.
Many shows have these moments, in which they create astronomical stakes for assinine reasons. But the conclusion is never "oh how stupid was this whole situation", instead it is always "whew, we just barely got out of this in one piece", when it should have never come to that situation in the first place.
Anyway. Rant over.

My Goodness, I really can't imagine that we've made it to the penultimate episode of season 2. We're just two days away from the premiere, we've seen the first five minutes of the episode which feature Benedict heavily, and the red carpet was last night. I really did not think we'd ever get here.
"Harmony" finds the Bridgertons and the Sharmas embroiled in scandal and ousted by society after the fallout from Anthony and Edwina's aborted wedding. Eloise is falsely accused of being Lady Whistledown by the Queen herself, leaving Penelope between a rock and a hard place. With that in mind, let's get into it.
Benedict makes his first appearance in this episode seated in the Bridgerton drawing room with his sketchbook. He groans loudly when his mother suggests the family all promenade together. He asks Anthony if there is something more he should know regarding his brother's situation when Anthony grumbles that a respectable family is headed by a gentleman, but Anthony rebuffs his brother's offer to help. I feel like we see this all the time in the show: Benedict offering to lend a hand to Anthony, or attempting to connect with him, but Anthony doesn't often accept his brother's help.
Benedict later promenades with the family, looking tight-lipped, like he knows before the rest of his family what's coming. Still though, he smiles, because Benedict I've learned in this rewatch is a master at not letting things get to him. This comes to a boiling point in the finale, and I believe we will see it continue in season three as well (but... more on that tomorrow). After Eloise's stand off with the Queen, we see Benedict again, always at Anthony's side as they walk together through Hyde Park, looking just lovely as he often does.
Just shy of the twenty minute mark, we find Benedict enjoying the revelry of his art school life, sitting next to Tessa, when Anthony stops by to see him. Anthony appears disappointed to find Benedict partying rather than studying, and when he inquires if Benedict does this every night, he groans and asks, "Did you come to admonish me?" before pouting. Anthony reminds Benedict that being the second son doesn't completely exempt him from duty, and Benedict catches on that his brother's attitude has something to do with Kate. Benedict finally admits out loud that he notices how Anthony looks at her. He tells Anthony that he should do with his life what Benedict does with his art: remember that it's simply a matter of perspective. Anthony coldly accuses Benedict of "taking the tea" again before leaving his brother behind. This scene is very telling of their relationship. It seems they can never really get on the same page: when Benedict offers help, Anthony doesn't want to hear it, and when Anthony seeks him out, he's in an inebriated state that leads Anthony to wave off anything his brother says. It's a tale as old as time, the ballad of the heir and the spare. One honor bound by responsibility, the other merely waiting on the sidelines for the day he might be needed. It's obvious that Benedict is confident Anthony isn't going anywhere in how he leans into the parties, drugs, drinks, and women (or, really, woman, singular, as we discussed yesterday). But underneath it all is in fact the soul of an artist who sees more than he lets on, and may even be better at managing society than Anthony himself.
Later, as Violet discusses her Harmony Ball in the drawing room, Eloise and Benedict play chess off to the side until Eloise sticks her head out the window, sweating from stress. Benedict then suggests Violet change the theme of the ball.
Finally the day of the Harmony Ball arrives. Benedict descends the steps of Bridgerton House, not exactly looking surprised that the plan has failed. He approaches Anthony, insisting he doesn't want to be around the misery and decides to head to his studio. Though, Anthony finally takes his advice, saying he's looking at things with a new perspective, and tells Benedict to stay for a dance. We get the lovely moment where the Bridgertons and Sharmas engage in the country dance. Benedict first dances with Eloise, looking quite happy, and this may be the first time Eloise is happy to be dancing as well. Benedict's next partner is Hyacinth, followed by Violet. I love that he dances with his two younger siblings and his mother, because it just shows how much he does care for his family, ultimately seeking them out more than the others in the room. This is only the second time in the show that we see Benedict dancing in full clarity, and it's such a wonderful moment, one of my favorites from the series. When the Bridgertons learn why no one is at the ball following the Whistledown paper arriving, Benedict looks worried for his sister and his family in the background. When Eloise runs from the room, he and Colin exchange worried looks, and when Anthony goes as well, Benedict turns to him, lifting his arms in question of exactly what is happening.
This is the last we see of Benedict before the season two finale, and while he didn't necessarily have a lot of screen time here, the time he does have is telling. Benedict's word for this episode is "perspective." We learn that Benedict is always taking perspective into consideration when working on his art, but also that perhaps Benedict's perspective on his family and brother is a bit wider than we originally thought. We learn in this episode that Benedict suspected Anthony's feelings for Kate all along, and we also see him being a bit more privy to the fact that Violet's plans to right the family's reputation may not work they way they wish it to. It's Benedict who finally gets Anthony to see things differently, if only for a moment, and in turn, it's because of Benedict that the Bridgertons and Sharmas have a mere moment of pleasure when they all dance together. It's a lovely notion that Benedict is kind of a harbinger of joy in that sense. But as we enter the finale, we do so with the awareness that Benedict's happiness as we've seen it the last three episodes is fleeting.
Tomorrow is the very last day of our Benedict focused rewatch, and I really don't have words to explain how crazy it is that we're so close to having more Benedict scenes to break down soon! And who knows... we may be merely eight episodes away from meeting Sophie! Even if Benedict himself doesn't meet her yet. See everyone tomorrow for "The Viscount Who Loved Me."
Best Benedict quote from this episode: "Things may seem bleak now, Brother. But if I'm learning anything from my art studies, it's that it is almost always a matter of... perspective. I look at my art, and if I do not like what I see, I may always alter the color palette, but I certainly do not toss the entire design aside. Perhaps you, too, could do the same in your own life."

Background
The Dunmer population of Windhelm is composed primarily of refugees (or born of refugees) who escaped Vvardenfel’s disastrous living conditions after the eruption of the Red Mountain in 4E 5, known as the Red Year. The migration of most of these refugees likely took place in the years following the disaster. In the roughly 200 years since, they’ve built a sizable community within Windhelm’s ghetto, formerly known as the Snow Quarter. The squalor they live in during the present time (4E 201) is indicative of their long struggle to integrate with the Nord majority. Now, why has there been such a struggle?
According to a variety of non-Dunmer NPC dialogue, the common sentiment is that the Dunmer keep to themselves, they do not try to integrate, they do not work hard, and they do not get involved with the war effort. The in-game book Scourge of the Gray Quarter by Frilgeth Horse-Breaker makes many complaints on the Dunmer’s existence in Windhelm, reiterating such sentiments and claiming they do not contribute to the city. That the book makes reference to Ulfric as jarl, it can be assumed that these are at the very least the sentiments of the present time.
The Struggle
The book notably compares the Dunmer of Windhelm to the Dunmer of Riften, claiming the Dunmer of Riften are able to integrate because they are more hard working and engage in honest labor. In this explanation the writer (quite obviously) shows their bias in they neglect the crucial detail of describing the cities themselves. The people of Riften do not have the same level of xenophobia that those in Windhelm do. They do not have a jarl whose actions encourage the separation of multiple “outsider” groups and Nords. The people of Riften engage with the Dunmer like they would anyone else, contrasted with Windhelm where a Dunmer is more often than not labeled as an “outsider”.
The treatment of Dunmer refugees in Riften also differ in that they were not relegated to a ghetto. This is not to say that Windhelm explicitly forbids Dunmer from buying homes outside of the Gray Quarter (although dialogue of Aval Atheron might suggest so), but rather they are not afforded social mobility as a whole. According to Malthyr Elenil ‘s dialogue, the Quarter “wasn't always so bad”. Judging by the architecture relative to the rest of the city, I’d argue that this Quarter was a slum prior to the Dunmer arrival. In essence, it was a slum before they got there and it remains a slum today (if not worse), but is it the fault of the Dunmer? According to the dialogue of Scouts-Many-Marshes, an Argonian living on the Windhelm docks, it is implied that an Argonian working in Windhelm makes 8 septims per day plus lodging, presumably a tenth the wage of a “proper Nord worker”. Whether or not this “tenth” is an exaggeration or not, Scouts refers to this level of pay as akin to slave labor. Comparing the squalor of the Argonians and the Dunmer, and taking into account the kind of jobs available to them in this city, it can be fairly assumed that the Dunmer do not make much more money than the Argonians when working for the Windhelm Nords. Contrasted again with Riften, where no such race based pay gap seems to exist. How can the Dunmer be expected then, to adequately maintain their neighborhoods on a pay that is a mere fraction of a Nords?
Trying to make a comparison of “work ethic” between the Dunmer of Riften and Windhelm is inherently unfair when you ignore the near diametric social conditions of the two cities. This is also indicative of the Windhelm Nord’s refusal to acknowledge the roots of Dunmer issues. The old jarls of Windhelm may have accepted the refugees, but the Nord citizens have clearly endeavored to keep them at an arm’s length, leading to the segregation of the Windhelm Dunmer we see today.
The “Good Ones” and the Model Minority
Many might look upon Beylyn Hlaalu as proof that any Dunmer can work their way out of poverty. He is the only Dunmer land owner in Windhelm, a proud man who credits his success to his hard work and resents the poorer Dunmer for complaining. But what many fail to consider is that he is a descendent of House Hlaalu, a former Great House of Morrowind. Although House Hlaalu at this point has lost all major political power, they’re still a family of considerable wealth and influence in Raven Rock, albeit under a fake name. I find it rather likely then, in a culture who so values clanship, that Beylyn Hlaalu has had monetary support from his wealthy relatives in order to at the very least kickstart his farm. And although there are no explicit pieces of lore that support this, one must wonder if it is truly coincidence that the shining example of Dunmer success is one born from a not too distantly historically powerful family.
The successes of the Altmer residents in Windhelm are also cited as proof of Dunmer failings. They are Nurelion, Niranye, Ulundil, and his wife Arivanya. Niranye is presumably the newest Altmer migrant to the city, saying she's only just arrived from the Summerset Isles. She is the only one of the Altmer to make references to mistreatment by Nords, claiming that it was difficult at first but she'd eventually proved her usefulness. Clearly she has been able to integrate with Nord society, and once again it is credited as her own hard work. But is that completely true? There are three factors for her ease of integration that are being ignored here: Unlike the Dunmer, the Altmer arrived as business minded merchants and not as refugees, There were already well established and respected Altmer living in the city prior to her arrival, and her business is unfairly propped up by her dealings with crime guilds. Her business directly competes with that of Ravyn Sadri, a Dunmer general goods merchant. By acquiring her goods through her criminal connections and selling at absurdly low prices, she is able to quite easily undercut Ravyn’s business, who operates honestly.
Referencing Scourge of the Gray Quarter again, the writing finishes by claiming that Windhelm Argonians should be the model for Dunmer behavior and acceptance. They write that the Argonian “has learned how to best contribute to their new home…toiling with utmost efficiency and bright smiles”. Once again this text omits crucial details. The Argonians are forbidden, by decree of Ulfric Stormcloak, from entering the city. And make no mistake, this segregation is not because of the racial tensions between Dunmer and Argonian. According to dialogue from Brunwulf Free-Winter it was primarily due to Ulfric’s distrust of foreigners and Nord stubbornness. They are only permitted to reside on the docks and, as stated before, make a mere fraction of the pay of a Nord worker because of the explicit reason of not being a Nord. This is the proposed model for acceptance? Exploitation, racial hierarchy, and wage slavery? Who reads Scourge of the Gray Quarter, looks at the Argonians, and genuinely thinks they’ve successfully integrated?
When holding these so-called examples of Dunmer failures to light, it’s clear to see that they hold little water. The successes of the “good ones” are not wholly the result of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, but likely by benefitting from pre existing privileges that gave them an advantage over the Dunmer as a whole. And the proposed solution for those without such privileges? Becoming servile and catering to the Nords at the Dunmer’s own expense. In the face of mistreatment and mistrust by the majority group, an administration that refuses to listen to them, racially biased pay gaps, a competition that cheats them, and wage slavery: how rational is it to say all they need to do is “work harder”?
Another Man’s War
A common criticism of the Windhelm Dunmer is that they refuse to join Ulfric Stormcloak’s war effort. Many claim that it is their duty as residents of Windhelm, that they owe a debt to the city for taking them in as refugees 200 years ago. But I ask you this, why should they fight on behalf of a system that harms them? It should first be said that the Stormcloak Rebellion’s primary function is to release Skyrim from the rule of the Empire, so that Skyrim’s people may solely be governed by those who live in Skyrim (Ignoring for a moment that Ulfric’s rebellion was set in motion by the Thalmor to weaken the Empire, according to the Thalmor Dossier). An admirable sentiment, but it has manifested itself as highly xenophobic and oftentimes hostile (most commonly verbally) to those who are not Nords. In the case of the Windhelm Dunmer, it has led to the local Nords being more distrustful than ever before. More dialogue from Brunwulf indicates the escalation of racial tension in the city is primarily the result of Ulfric’s “Skyrim for the Nords” rhetoric. This paired with Ulfric’s complete apathy towards the issues faced by non-Nords in his hold communicates a hatred towards them and systematically harms them.
Many players are under the impression that the Dunmer received free housing and live tax free due to what is written in the Decree of Monument."untithed to any thane or hold, and self-governed, with free worship, with no compensation to Skyrim or the Empire”. I’d argue the text is referring to taxes rather than housing, and no other in-game source makes reference to the housing situation either. But does that mean it is true that the Dunmer don’t pay taxes? One of the outcomes of Revyn Sadri’s quest results in him having to pay “increased taxes” to the city of Windhelm, implying that yes, the Dunmer are currently paying taxes. I do not think it is likely that only Revyn or only some Dunmer are paying taxes. It can be fairly assumed then that at some point between 4E 20 (when the monument was placed) and the present time of 4E 201, the Dunmer were made to pay taxes like any other citizen. As for housing, I find it unlikely the Dunmer received the Gray Quarter for free. As stated earlier, it was likely a slum to begin with, meaning it would’ve been considerably cheap to move in. Perhaps offered to them at a reduced price. It is important to note that the Dunmer being refugees at the beginning does not automatically mean they were penniless upon arrival, likely poor, but it would be unrealistic to assume all of them had nothing at all. Realizing now that the Dunmer of Windhelm are tax paying citizens who are continually ignored and othered by their ruler, it surely must be understandable then why they would refuse to fight on behalf of a system that at this point only takes from them. They owe the Nordic administration no loyalty
Conclusion
With a ruling majority that will more often than not shun, insult, or exploit them, It is no wonder then how the Dunmer of Windhelm as a whole have not been able to integrate, that they “keep to themselves”, that they “don’t contribute to the city”. For how can one integrate with those who refuse to ever fully accept them? If you wonder why they do not leave, with what funds could they start anew? If you wonder why they dont help the Nords in their war, why would they fight for a cause that harms them? The system is as the system does, and that system is racism.
Author’s Note
Idk what I wrote all this for lmao. Ive been playing skyrim for over a decade so I guess I thought it would be interesting to engage with the game in another way that's new to me. It was only recently that I got more interested in actually talking to NPCs, learning more about the game world, not just in it for the cool fights and jiggle physics mods (tho i do love em). There's a good degree of guess work here, which I suppose is to be expected with what few pieces that are available we can put together. But I tried to cite as much from official lore as I can. Was def fun trying to take a more nuanced lens to this fantastical game world.
But what do you think? Do you think my analysis is accurate? I'd love to see your opinions on the topic!
SOURCES
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Year
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Scourge_of_the_Gray_Quarter
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Malthyr_Elenil
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Aval_Atheron
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Scouts-Many-Marshes
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Belyn_Hlaalu#Conversations
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/House_Hlaalu#Fourth_Era
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Vendil_Severin
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Niranye
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Revyn_Sadri
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Brunwulf_Free-Winter
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Thalmor_Dossier:_Ulfric_Stormcloak
https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Decree_of_Monument

Here we go, we've started rolling out 1.18 😄 While I format the full notes, enjoy the TLDR:
New Battle Pass Season: Featuring Tjark, starts on May 19
New ‘For the Blood God’ event to unlock Azkor the Eightfold starts on May 26
New Guild War Season: Starts on May 29
First ‘For the Skull Throne’ event to unlock Khârn the Betrayer starts on Jun 16
Tournament Arena: The Live synchronous PvP event returns on May 22 and Jun 5
New Campaign Battles: ‘Elite Saim-Hann’ Part 2 and ‘Elite Saim-Hann’ Part 3
NEW STUFF
New Feature: Machines of War
The Machines of War are coming to Tacticus, adding a new tactical layer and a whole lot of extra firepower to battles!
Get your hands on your first Machine of War in the inaugural Incursion event, starting on June 10. Incursion will be a recurring event, so this is only the first of many.
Please note that this is our first iteration of this new feature, and as always we're looking forward to getting your feedback to improve the experience further. Join our Discord to share your thoughts and ideas directly with the development team!
New Battle Pass Season: Featuring Tjark, starts on May 19
New Guild War Season starting May 29
New Campaign Battles: ‘Elite Saim-Hann’ Part 2 and ‘Elite Saim-Hann’ Part 3
New collectable character: [World Eaters] Azkor the Eightfold, Exalted Eightbound, unlockable in the ‘For the Blood God’ event, starting on May 26
NEW EVENTS
Upcoming Legendary event:
[World Eaters] Khârn the Betrayer, Champion of Khorne, unlockable in the first ‘For the Skull Throne’ event, starting on June 16
Upcoming Quest events:
[World Eaters] Macer Bloodgrin, Jakhal Dishonoured, on May 29 with all Chaos as allies.
[Necron] Aleph-Null, Canoptek Spyder, on June 19 with Necrons and Adeptus Mechanicus as allies
Tournament Arena:
May 22: Draft Power-Ups ruleset (72h)
June 5: Conquest ruleset (72h)
IMPROVEMENTS
Daily deals now occasionally offer an Energy pack purchasable with Raid Tickets New Damage type: Eviscerating (50% pierce ratio)
(NOTE: 1.19 and 1.20 are still our targets for Guild War tweaks – what follows is what we were able to get done sooner than expected:)
Guild War - Preparation phase:
-- Power score of defensive lineups now visually updates when changes are made to the included characters
-- Improved Welcome popup to be more clear on the Guild War setup
-- Guild leaders can now see player requirements to participate in a War
-- Improved text informing players and guild leaders if no battlefield has been selected
-- Improved tooltip explaining requirements for battlefield selection
-- Improved tooltip explaining that multiple changes to defensive lineups are possible up until the War Phase starts
Guild War - War Phase:
-- Added counter to show the total remaining attacks of the opposing guild
-- Added timer in battle to show how long is left before the battle ends. The timer was also changed to 20 minutes in total.
-- Improved the tooltip breaking down how many points are scored for defeating an enemy lineup
Guild War - Other:
-- Improved tooltip and added inspection for War Crates
-- Added text after a war is finished to indicate that rewards are still pending
-- Popup for promoting a member to co-leader now explains Guild War powers for the co-leader role
Improved AI behaviour for Abraxas
Archimatos’ active ability was renamed to Daemonic Incursion, to be distinguishable from the new event name (no change to gameplay)
Updated icons for several upgrade materials
Improved ability description for Guild Boss Eldryon’s Phantasm to more accurately describe the behaviour
World Eaters upgrade crates added to the Departmento Munitorum
Moved the button for the Danger Zone to the right side of the screen (this change will make more sense once Machines of War get going)

This is an old story some of my friends told me (29F) I should share here.. so here I am. Sorry for the long text, but there's a lot to unfold.
This started a few years ago, after I got ghosted by my ex, I decided to switch careers and took the proposal of my brother to work for one of his friend in an organic grocery store in my area. I was 22ish at the time, maybe 21 turning 22, but anyways.
I started working in the fruits and vegetables aisle. Despite having a crazy director, I liked my job and my department manager. After a few months, I got the title of "third key" which is basically I'm the assistant manager when the assistant is gone. Then, they decided to hire a new customer service manager that I will call Linda. That woman was CRAZY. While I was 23 at the time, she was only 20 acting like she owned the world.
To give you an idea, in the span of 8 months being here, she got 11 employees fired for stupid reasons and since our director at the time was just as crazy... it was easier for her to get her way. Also, when I say stupid reasons, I'll give you a few examples: Benji got fired because he was "talking too loud" in the break room and it was disturbing her peace and supposedly making her harder to rest to come back fully ready to finish her shift. Marie got fired because she HAD to take off work to go to a relative's funeral and couldn't give her 2 weeks notice. Rose got fired because she was getting "too old to do her job properly and it was ruining the pace of the team's work" (which is bs, I've never seen someone cut veggies and fruits as fast as her). And I could go on. Yes, some of them could've been able to be protested against and even file a complaint against her. Mind you, outside of Rose, everybody was too young to just wanting to fight for a grocery store job. Even Rose just decided to take her retirement earlier and fucked off the work world lol.
Anyways, she took it too far when she tried to mess with me. To give you the context, we had a huge special on lemons and sometimes, those fruits can get rotten and you don't notice it because there's no smell. The only way you'd know is by going through the several small boxes of like 10ish lemons and look at them all one by one. Which I did regularly, but hey, I'm not a robot, sometimes some of them slipped out of my eyes. I was leaving the backstore with more boxes when I saw Linda with a customer that seemed more than pissed. So I go see both of them because mind you.. she has a LEMON box and I work in the fruits department. So it's kind of my job to help IF I CAN. That's when I asked her "Hey Linda, do you need help with the lemons?" And right away she told me "Fuck off, I don't need your help, I already spoke to your manager. Go do your job for once." My face was literally like this 😳 as I went to my department. Even the pissed customer did a bombastic side eyes.
A few minutes later, I go back to the backstore to fulfill the missing products and my manager pulls me aside. "Hey OP, stay out of Linda's business. I can't protect you all the time for talking back." I stopped him right away asking what does he means cause as soon as she told me to fuck off, I did fuck off. He looked at me surprised and said he'd come back to me with it, but only tomorrow because he's finishing his shift and for some personal reason, he can't stay longer to solve the issue. Since Linda was the manager on guard that night, he told me to stay in the back as much as possible to stay in her good graces. That's what I did.
One hour after my manager left, I heard my name being called in the front office (shared by the customer service manager and director). Big wtf. I go in the front and all of my colleagues are looking at me like I'm a prisoner going to their death sentence. Mind you, I know my laws and my rights. I might be young, but as soon as I got called, I started reciting in my head the main laws and rights she has to respect. I open the door's office and Linda is FUMING. And she is alone. She asks me to close the door and I tell her "No, it is my right to have someone in the room with us for this talk. I am not comfortable being alone with you." She starts freaking out and starts to speak louder, on the verge of screaming. "Linda. This room is recorded 24/7 and the customers can hear you talking to me like that. Lower your tone and find a witness to be in the room or I'll go back to work." She stands up to look outside the office and sees that indeed, there's a line in front of the cash looking to the office's direction. She takes a few deep breaths and calls Gabrielle who takes care of the finances of the store so she can be a witness. From the moment Gab got into the room, she seemed like she wanted to get away, so do I.
Gab took a seat in the back and Linda starts her whole speech. I'll be paraphrasing cause the meeting took almost an hour.
L: You know why I brought you here, right? OP: Not really, I've been in the backstore minding my business. Why? L: Well you disrespected my authority in front of a customer and that's a big no no for the company. OP: For the company or for you? L: OP, this is not the topic. You shouldn't be disrespecting authority in front of customers. It makes the managers look bad. OP: I was honestly just trying to help because you had a box of products from my department. I just wanted to help because the customer looked pissed and I didn't want him to ruin your fragile mood. L: My fragile mood?! Are you fucking serious?! OP: Linda, we are being recorded and we have a witness. I'm asking you to stay polite and not scream or I will file a complaint against you. L: Are threatening me??? OP: No, I am stating my rights and making you aware of where your attitude will lead you. I won't accept being talked like that by someone that ain't even my manager. L: Okay OP, let me remind you where your position stands in this business.
That bitch started to draw a triangle, put her name at the tippidy top and mine at the bottom. I didn't even let her finish what she had to say, I stormed off the office, went into the employees lockers, took my stuff and headed out. Linda ran after me, yelling like a psycho "YOU CAN'T LEAVE LIKE THAT! YOU'RE STILL SCHEDULED FOR THE CLOSE!" I stopped on my steps, making Linda almost run into me and said with the most blank expression I could have "Linda, you crossed a line and since you're so good at your job, close my department for me. I will be filing a complaint against you." And left the work place.
Next morning, I came to work as usual and had to see my manager and the director. I explained them the whole situation and showed the papers I was about to send to file a complaint against Linda. Also, this dumb bitch didn't even throw her pyramid in the trash. It was still on display when the director came in to work and asked me what it was. I asked her to look at the cameras, put the sound on and listen to the whole meeting. We watched it to my director's horror and who came in to work in the middle of our screening time? Linda! She came into the office and Linda being a poc turned white as a ghost. I've never seen her being so so pale. "W-what are you doing?" The director asked Linda to sit down and we watched again the video. Mind you, it took us one full hour to watch because she was in a never ending power trip. She used to be smart when she was bullying and making stories about past employees, doing it far from the cameras and usually using the other office that doesn't have cameras or a microphone, but she wasn't with me. I guess she got comfortable or whatever, but check mate on her ass.
My director said I could go back to work with my manager, that she would take care of the rest. Two weeks later, Linda still had her job, but our director resigned from her job right away. Which was hella weird, but whatever. We got a new director, she was a total sweet heart and she noticed Linda's crazy power trips right away. She decided to launch an intern investigation, but sadly, all the employees Linda bullied were fired. There was only me and my little complaint waiting to be served. When Nancy, our new director, came to me asking if I knew anything about Linda. I gave her the file, the time stamps of the video tape, all the employees she fired for stupid reasons with the old director and also phone numbers of those employees.
Flash forward 2 weeks later, Linda left work earlier, balling her eyes out yelling how Nancy was a bitch and didn't deserve her job. How she always came in earlier, put in the work and yadi yada. Nancy waited a few more days before asking me to come into the office and again, I'll be paraphrasing because a lot have been said.
N: HI OP, don't worry, you're not in any trouble. I just saw your CV and noticed you've had a lot of experience in customer service. OP: Yes, I used to be a cashier for almost 5 years, it was my first job. Why? N: I've seen your file, your CV and how you managed the conversation with Linda. We are actually looking for a new customer service manager since Linda have been let go. OP: What about my actual position? N: It's easier to find a fruits and vegetables commis than it is to find a competent service manager.. as you experienced.
I ended up accepting the position and all my co-workers cheered for my raise. I don't want to brag, but I've always been the one to defend everybody in the place, making sure I'll keep my job in the process and following the laws and rights. A few months later, Linda came back to the store as a customer and the look she had on her face when she saw me at the cash with the manager uniform was priceless. It was even more priceless when she asked me when I got the promotion and I told her the exact date, which matched her departure. "So you got my position when I left?" I just nodded and asked if I could do anything more to help have a better experience in the store. She didn't answer to that and just left after paying her things.
To this day, it's still one of my favorite moments to have been through. I'm not a petty person, but if I can ruin you in the process of me trying to defend my people, I'll be more than happy to do so. Last I've heard of Linda, she was working for the competitor, but never had any promotions.

Think about it. You are born. You are a baby maybe a happy baby maybe a fussy baby maybe a quiet baby. You pee and poop and dont think twice. Then maybe you get a little older and your sensory issues come out where someone hands you soup with parsley on it. You taste the crunch of the parsley. You aren't freaking out in your head that it's rude to retch you just retch from the crunch mixed with liquid texture (crunch from parsley liquid from soup) and you say "ewwww" or you push the bowl away. You aren't forcing yourself to eat it you aren't even thinking about anything but ew no I'm not eating this weird texture shit. But then your parents get mad at you and say "you eat this soup WITH the parsley or you starve". And that sticks with you. First step in LEARNED BEHAVIOR.
Fast forward to middle school. You're in the hallway. It's your first day and you think you look good and you're super comfortable in your black baggy jeans and loose black shirt (not saying this is your style this is just a scenario) and your favorite bright pink beanie. If you're a boy you get made fun of for the pink beanie or if you're a girl you get made fun of and ostracized for wearing baggy plain black clothes. You LEARED yet again to feel self conscious about these clothes you're comfortable in without thinking about it. The next day you change and wear what is more expected of you and you throw out your favorite pink beanie or ask your mom to buy you makeup or more colors or other "accepted clothing.
Now in high school. You are in class just sitting there when the teacher is speaking about let's say the structure of poetry and you notice a little flaw or they confuse two types of poetry styles with each other. You politely raise your hand eager to help. You correct them accidentally interrupting them because you were excited . They grimace at you and say "I'm sorry but who is teaching this class? You can teach if you want to come up here otherwise please let me continue thank you ". You were shut down and embarrassed in front of the whole class and you go home and tell your parents and they take the teachers side and send you to your room. It is confirmed that you need to " learn how to be more respectful".
Now fast forward to adulthood.
Jobs: the interviews you struggle to get hired because you aren't good at eye contact and you ramble or get stuck and all your friends and family tell you. Or you get the job but apparently you did something wrong by telling multiple customers you are tired cause you barely slept and it's enough to get called in the back or you're suspended or admonished because an emergency happened but you " overreacted or were too loud when trying to alarm people to help". Even if you never been fired you learn you need to walk on eggshells with what you say at work you can't have comfortable conversations with coworkers or customers at work or you will be at risk of getting in trouble. And you have to prepare better for interviews and force eye contact. Also if you work at a crappy job you may get threatened to get beat up by coworkers if you say things they don't like even if you didn't mean it in a bad way and it wasn't inappropriate.
Roommates: you happen to move in with people you thought were friends. They are a couple. You try their horrible cooking but you're afraid to retch or reject their food because you learned from a young age you can't act like you dislike the food that is gross or the texture is off to you. You slip up and express you don't like it. They start screaming to each other the next morning about how your behavior when the mask slipped was disrespectful the night before and they didn't appreciate how you didn't make yourself eat their food because in their mind they cook good. One of them now threatens to punch you in the face or kick you out on the streets and it's a whole big thing. You go to the library in tears hyperventilating but trying to hide it.
The result: you try to force eye contact, force yourself to ignore sensory issues like eating cooking you do not enjoy, every new roommate you have you're terrified of making them upset or being kicked out even if they are the nicest people and you actually end up "stuck" standing there trying to figure out if you should wash your own dish or if they'll secretly be mad at you that you didn't offer to wash the dishes everyday despite telling you washing your own dish is fine and when you go to lunch or out to the bakery for fresh donuts you are subconsciously nervous that what you wear will be acceptable and spend extra unnecessary time obsessing about what to wear to a casual bakery and still feel out of place until your friends compliment your clothes or pay them no mind. Even though you still wonder if they secretly disapprove.
NT beliefs about autism is that autistic people are just naturally anxious around others but I don't believe that to be true. I think these examples here and many others are the reason why autistic people LEARN whether from a young age or once they become adults to live in fear of messing up. The more traumatized they become the more obsessed with avoiding that trauma many become. You're gonna be too scared to reject eating someone's food that goes directly against your sensory issues if your previous roommate threatened to beat the fk out of you if you reject their food ever again. And that happens too... It's the people that surround us that make us learn to be like this.

Bitcoin

• Ok-Affect2924

PSA: I lost nearly all my bitcoin by mining bitcoin
Comments Link

• GuncelKriptoCom

El Salvador is now in a $58m profit on their #Bitcoin investment strategy! 🚀
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• GuncelKriptoCom

#Bitcoin whales are accumulating at a pace never seen before.
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ethereum

• edmundedgar

Netherlands Tornado Cash judgement (Google Translate)
Comments Link

• GloopBloopan

MetaMask Optimism Ethereum transaction fails instantly
Comments Link

• Otherwise_Donkey_375

Georgia Tech's CyFI Lab connected $2 billion of illicit profits to 91 digital wallets on the Ethereum blockchain
Comments Link

CryptoCurrency

• kirtash93

Is Bitcoin A 90% Surge Incoming? Analyst Sees Bottom As Inflation Data In Focus
Comments Link

• kirtash93

Bitcoin Regains $63K as Japan Public Firm Migrates to BTC-only Reserve
Comments Link

• jawanda

Coinbase is heckin' down
Comments Link

btc

• GeneralProtocols

*Now you can long or hedge BCH against the Euro on BCH Bull! *
Comments Link

• MikedEACONYURMOUTH

Are these fees for real.
Comments Link

• JonathanSilverblood

bitcoin cash podcast episode, direclty from bliss
Comments Link

SatoshiStreetBets

• Historical_Drink_486

Why $Kendu will take over. Dev and early investors are shib ogs. Shytoshi the head dev of shib is watching and supporting the project. We have a 100% organic community with 0$ money spent on influencers or marketing. We don't gamble, we work. A new floor is created at 40m mc after we just did a 20x!
Comments Link

• HumblestofBears

What does it mean to be the next SHIB?
Comments Link

• Token_Broker

VoteDoge's $1 Challenge Update and Expansion Plans!
Comments Link

CryptoMarkets

• 0xJonnyDee

Biden blocks Chinese crypto miner's land purchase near US base in Wyoming
Comments Link

• coinmonks

$71 Million WBTC Hacker Returns the Entirety of Funds Back to Victim
Comments Link

• Salonicryptotimes

Hong Kong's Bitcoin & Ethereum ETFs facing rough waters.
Comments Link

CryptoCurrencies

• AutoModerator

Weekly General Discussion - May 13, 2024
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CoinBase

• LatinumGirlOnRisa

Planned Coinbase Maintenance Suddenly? Everything Worked UNTIL I Tried To Sell To CASH OUT
Comments Link

• AggravatingLaw5523

After 2 months of trying to unblock my account i get this. WTF
Comments Link

• Monstercock_roach

Withdrawals not available at this time?!?
Comments Link

binance

• AutoModerator

Binance Support Thread
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FantomFoundation

• Defiant-Horse-7368

Fantom - Multichain bridge
Comments Link

• Afrandnia

BTC (Fantom) to USDT
Comments Link

solana

• red5600

What's your tactic to make money with meme coins on Solana?
Comments Link

• don911

Do you earn staking interest on the interest too, or only on the principal?
Comments Link

• 0euy

how’s ur strat for pump.fun?
Comments Link

cosmosnetwork

• Bupefiend

Saga entries?
Comments Link

• zapppelphilippp

I just clicked a scam link and connected my metamask and keplr. please help.
Comments Link

• ZoltanAtom

"XRPL goes interchain" Powered by evmOS
Comments Link

algorand

• GhostOfMcAfee

Babe. Wake up. New Algorand BetaNet just dropped.
Comments Link

• GhostOfMcAfee

TDR and NFTR proposals are up on the Forum for review/comment ahead of voting
Comments Link

• AdministrativeChef47

Algo Hour today at 1pm EST!!
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cardano

• BCHTOMOON

Cardano Foundation CEO Hints at CNT Listing on Gemini
Comments Link

• cardano_content_bot

Cardano's Biggest News and Updates Live with Paul, Farid and Josh
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• cardano_content_bot

Combining Cardano & Ethereum! APEX Fusion Tokenomics & Airdrop Reveal!
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Monero

• Dopenxans

Haveno situation
Comments Link

• Dopenxans

*HardenedSteel Haveno published, binaries available *
Comments Link

• sunchakr

Privacy is Pro-National Security w/ J.W. Verret (MT 310)
Comments Link

NFT

• jay_pu

I finally completed a collection of JennifeKoyangi mint condition Reddit Collectible NFTs!
Comments Link

• Noonesees_

Minting soon. Check this out!
Comments Link

• Melodic-Raspberry-80

*Pollinated *
Comments Link

Hi everyone, I'm getting rid of some items from my collection that I haven't used in a while/don't see myself ever playing. Everything is CIB unless noted. Shipping is free for anything over $25, otherwise it'll be $5. I am only taking FF. For consoles & larger items, I'll split shipping halfway.
I will be shipping via the cheapest method, if you would like a specific carrier or method of shipping, I can send a quote for the difference in cost.

Game	Info	Price
Consoles & Accessories
Genesis controllers	Various 3rd party, multitap, arcade stick	$5
Genesis power cable	MK-2103	$15
Genesis RF Cable		$2
Dreamcast RF cable		$2
Sega CD Model 2	loose with power cable	$150
Sega CD Model 2	CIB	$300
Generic N64 USB Controller		$5
SNES
Actraiser	loose https://imgur.com/a/1qOugTW	$35
Arkanoid	SEALED	$73
Demon's Crest	loose	$155
Demon's Crest	still has seal from blockbuster on https://imgur.com/a/SkWWcZ3	$500
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest	Mint	$105
Incantaion		$510
Mega Man X	first print	$125
Robocop vs Terminator		$115
Super Metroid	First print, Includes poster https://imgur.com/a/HFmsDM1	$330
Xardion	loose	$35
Zombies Ate My Neighbors		$108
N64
Crusin USA	loose	$15
Diddy Kong Racing	loose	$30
Diddy Kong Racing		$95
Ogre Battle 64	loose	$98
Resident Evil 2		$130
Star Fox 64	tear on front of box, no rumble or insert	$62
Tony Hawk Pro Skater	loose	$12
Gameboy & GBC
Adventure Island II	loose	$25
The Flash		$70
Interstellar Assault	loose	$35
James Bond 007		$70
Woody Woodpecker	Graded 9.0 A+	$295
Gameboy Advance
Castlevania Double Pack	Graded 8.5 A+	$400
Final Fantasy I & II Dawn of Souls	Missing cart holder https://imgur.com/a/beVqX9X	$48
Mario Tennis Power Tour	SEALED	$120
Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon	no cart holder https://imgur.com/a/wT3aBYu	$95
Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun		$98
Mega Man Zero 2		$95
Ninja Five-O	loose, label damage https://imgur.com/a/81gCA0b	$325
Rebelstar Tactical Command	SEALED	$89
Sonic Advance 3		$77
DS
Ace Attorney Apollo Justice	SEALED	$105
Bleach the 3rd Phantom	SEALED https://imgur.com/a/ZZi8Wb6	$150
Chibi Robo: Park Patrol	SEALED	$95
Children of Mana	SEALED	$75
Chrono Trigger	loose https://imgur.com/a/hxKCrOR	$73
Chrono Trigger	CIB	$120
Dragon Quest IX	loose	$36
Magicians Quest	Loose	$140
Mario & Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story	SEALED https://imgur.com/a/1GoouU3	$60
Mario & Luigi Partners in Time	SEALED	$140
Mega Man Battle Network 5 Double Team	Graded 85+	$200
Monster Tale	SEALED https://imgur.com/a/yMlHxGf	$100
Pokemon Conquest	loose	$62
Pokemon Conquest		$105
Pokemon Soulsilver	loose	$122so
Sonic Colors	SEALED https://imgur.com/a/Hcukcvz	$40
Zelda: Spirit Tracks	Loose	$55
3DS
3DS & DS lot Battle of Giants Dragons, Brain Age, Brain Age 2, Club Penguin Herberts Revenge, Flash Focus, LEGO Batman 2, Ninja Turtles, Puzzle Quest, Sonic Colors, Touchmaster 2	All loose	$43
Gamecube
Phantasy Star Online Episode I&II Plus		$190
Pokemon Colosseum	loose	$127
Ribbit King	no manual	$160
Spawn: Armageddon	SEALED	$87
Super Mario Sunshine	loose https://imgur.com/a/LnzMttT	$30
Viewtiful Joe	SEALED	$100
Viewtiful Joe 2	SEALED	$80
Zelda Collector's Edition	https://imgur.com/a/n2cr9Fx	$66
Wii
Kirby’s Epic Yarn	SEALED https://imgur.com/a/v0L7KL5	$35
No More Heroes 2	SEALED	$32
Resident Evil 4	SEALED	$35
Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles	https://imgur.com/a/L9fp8v2	$35
Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles	no manual, https://imgur.com/a/L9fp8v2	$9
Rune Factory Frontier		$35
Master System
Miracle Warriors		$48
Genesis
LOT 1, Earthworm Jim, Garfield caught in the act, Krustys fun house, monopoly	all loose, some have label wear https://imgur.com/a/xDt7jtC	$30
LOT 2, College Football USA 97, NBA Live 96, World Series Baseball 95	All CIB	$25
Arcus Odyssey	No Manual	$155
Batman	no manual	$90
Battletoads Double Dragon	Loose	$22
Bimini Run	No manual	$35
Captain America	no manual	$45
Contra Hard Corps	No manual	$98
Crusader of Centy	loose, former rental, super glue on back screws	$445
Double Dragon 3	loose	$12
Eternal Champions	loose	$6
Fire Shark	No manual	$58
Ghouls N Ghosts	No manual	$60
Gunstar Heroes	no manual https://imgur.com/a/Tg7fYyP	$120
Jeopardy	SEALED	$30
Landstalker	Loose, sharpie on label	$24
The Lost Vikings	SEALED, cart is loose	$180
Mega Turrican	no manual	$140
Pac-Mania		$26
Predator 2		$60
The Punisher		$350
Red Zone	No manual	$63
Robocop vs Terminator	no manual	$55
Shadow Dancer Secret of Shinobi	no manual	$48
Shining force II		$150
Spider-Man X-Men Arcade's Revenge		$24
Sonic the Hedgehog		$30
Sunset Riders	no manual	$90
Time Killers	no manual	$125
Toki Going Ape Spit	no manual	$56
Ultimate Qix	No Manual	$55
Zombies Ate My Neighbors	no manual	$42
Zombies Ate My Neighbors	loose	$21
Sega CD
Adventures of Willy Beamish	loose	$10
Bram Stoker's Dracula	Manual only has cover https://imgur.com/a/Fo4IyXY	$10
Dungeon Master II Skullkeep		$40
Ecco The Dolphin		$35
Ground Zero Texas		$16
Joe Montana's NFL Football		$6
Lunar the Silver Star	https://imgur.com/a/lh9n8Lt	$200
Midnight Raiders	loose	$9
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers		$24
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers	Graded 8.5 A+	$220
NHL 94	loose	$5
Novastorm		$140
Robo Aleste	No manual	$106
Sewer Shark	loose	$5
Stellar Fire	loose	$7
Supreme Warrior	SEALED	$100
Vay	Some wear on manual & case https://imgur.com/a/f3Bgb3v	$120
32x
Kolibri	No Manual	$220
Night Trap		$100
Saturn
Enemy Zero	Generic disc sleeves https://imgur.com/a/yyV6NNg	$155
Panzer Dragoon		$73
Panzer Dragoon II Zwei	loose https://imgur.com/a/MJ2jhw5	$47
Dreamcast
Gameshark CDX	loose	$4
D+vine[Luv]	disc & manual	$2
Illbleed	SEALED	$420
Industrial Spy: Operation Espionage	SEALED	$125
Maken X	SEALED	$70
Marvel vs Capcom	loose	$54
Marvel vs Capcom 2	loose	$110
Q*Bert	SEALED	$40
Sports Jam	SEALED	$70
Star Wars Demolition	SEALED	$50
PS1
The Adventures of Lomax		$210
Alundra	loose	$64
Alundra 2		$40
Beyond the Beyond		$50
Bloody Roar 2	loose	$30
Breath of Fire IV	loose	$56
Castlevania Symphony of the Night	loose	$70
Contra Legacy of War		$20
Dino Crisis 2	loose	$59
Doom	longbox	$72
Einhander	Loose	$85
Elemenetal Gearbolt	https://imgur.com/a/EuSfZYc	$225
Evil Zone	loose	$20
Fear Effect	No manual https://imgur.com/a/rUqjVfW	$25
Fighter Maker	SEALED	$55
Final Fantasy Tactics	loose	$15
Final Fantasy VII	GH https://imgur.com/a/Wj98fSs	$38
Final Fantasy VIII	SEALED (GH)	$60
Hellboy Asylum Seeker	SEALED	$125
Kartia	loose	$35
Koudelka	SEALED, https://imgur.com/a/1NNkrll	$430
Lunar Silver Star Story	loose, game discs	$60
Lunar 2 Eternal Blue	Case, 4 discs, & map	$120
Master of Monsters	SEALED	$70
MDK		$19
Mega Man X6	SEALED, black label	$115
Mortal Kombat Trilogy	loose	$25
Parasite Eve 2	https://imgur.com/a/B189quy	$112
Persona 2 Eternal Punishment	No bonus disc	$350
Point Blank 3	SEALED	$80
Raiden Project	loose	$23
Rascal	SEALED, some wear	$38
Resident Evil 2	loose	$30
Resident Evil 2		$49
Star Ocean The Second Story	No manual	$40
Strider 2	both discs, loose	$62
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo	loose	$17
Tactics Ogre	Loose, has rental stickers on top	$60
Thousand Arms	loose	$85
TigerShark	SEALED https://imgur.com/a/9ANOk4Y	$20
Tomba		$135
Tomba	SEALED, promo copy w/ drill hole	$435
Treasures of the Deep	loose	$6
Vagrant Story		$95
Vandal Hearts 2		$90
Xenogears	https://imgur.com/a/OXTu3gy	$140
PS2
Big Mutha Truckers		$8
Blood Will Tell		$380
Bloody Roar 4	loose	$62
The Fast & the Furious	SEALED	$35
Fatal Frame II		$92
Family Guy Video Game		$25
Grand Theft Auto III	SEALED, https://imgur.com/a/neMZAcO	$15
Gungrave	loose	$35
Incredible Hulk Ultimate Destruction		$25
Jak 3		$8
Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al Revis Premium Box Set	Graded, 9.4 A+	$240
Medal of Honor Vanguard	no manual	$5
Need for Speed most wanted	no manual	$11
Parappa The Rapper 2	no manual	$68
Rule of Rose	No manual	$550
Silent Hill 3	no manual	$150
Silent Hill 4 The Room		$140
The Warriors	loose	$47
PS3
Eye of Judgement, Def Jam Rapstar, DJ Hero 1 & 2, PES 2011 lot		$13
Digimon All Star Rumble	no manual	$20
Xbox
Conker: Live & Reloaded	loose	$30
Def Jam Fight for NY	no manual	$97
Godzilla Destroy all Monsters Melee	no manual	$75
Marvel vs Capcom 2	no manual	$106
Mortal Kombat Armageddon	no manual	$30
(360) Digimon All Star Rumble	no manual	$13
(360) Halo Reach	SEALED, white label https://imgur.com/a/nQ4aaBY	$37
(360) Metal Gear Solid V Phantom Pain	SEALED, Day one edition	$15
Other
(PC) Half Life Game of the year edition		$12
(PSP) Final Fantasy IV	SEALED	$55
(PSP) Gungnir	SEALED	$85
(PSP) Star Wars Force Unleashed	loose	$3
Boxes & Manuals Only
(NES) Widget	Box	$73
(NES) Mighty Final Fight	Cut box & case	$88
(SNES) Ignition Factor	Box	$25
(SNES) Lufia II	Box	$150
(SNES) Shadowrun	Box (has wear)	$60
(SNES) Star Trek the Next Generation	Box & manual (has wear)	$20
(N64) Mario Party	box, one flap is torn	$40
(GC) Pokemon XD	Case https://imgur.com/a/xaoZwWN	$40
(SCD) Dark Wizard	case	$35
(Dreamcast) - Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike	Case	$40
(PS1) Tomba	Case	$40
Guides
(SNES) Earthbound	no scratch n sniff	$210
(PC) World of Warcraft Dungeon Companion		$2
(DC) Power Stone		$22
(PS1) Driver 2		$10
(PS1) Wild Arms 2	w/ poster	$45
(PS2) 007 Everything or Nothing		$7
(PS2) Nano Breaker	BradyGames, new in plastic	$15
(PS2) Project Snowblind	BradyGames	$11
(PS2) Samurai Warriors	Prima	$3
(PS2) Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow	Prima	$3
(Xbox) Thief Deadly Shadows	Prima	$10

Day guide
Welcome to Day 42 of WiyHat?. Today's topic is "Sumireko Usami", the "Mystic and Troublesome Female Student".
She is introduced as the main antagonist of Touhou 14.5: Urban Legend in Limbo. Despite being an ostensible "normal" human from the Outside World (^{the Kanto region}), she effectively has an assorted amount of psychic powers, or just ESP in general. She creates the Secret Sealing Club (first seen in ZUN's stories with Renko & Maribel) at her high school Higashifukami and becomes its first president because of her interest in the occult (and then Gensokyo).
Sumireko is one of those characters ZUN really made a big deal out of after her introduction: to put it plainly, she was basically everywhere back during her heyday. I'll go over all of her appearances first:
Games:
-14.5 (ULiL): Sumireko is the antagonist of the game, who instigated a plot using "Occult Balls" to bring residents of Gensokyo to the Outside World for a short time so that she can learn things about them. However, every single person who came to her fought back, much to her curiosity. Eventually, Mamizou tricks Sumireko to be the one who is brought over and trapped in Gensokyo instead.
Cue Sumireko's own story mode, which has her fight everyone else to find a way back to the Outside World. Miko eventually just tells her to use the balls whenever she wants to return, albeit technically temporarily now that she's a "resident". Sumireko eventually panics, believing she'll die at this rate, and so decides to sacrifice herself by unleashing the full power of the Occult Balls, possibly destroying the Great Hakurei Barrier.
Reimu stops her, but not before Sumireko accidentally activates a Lunar Capital Ball, which links Gensokyo to the Lunar Capital, therefore setting up TH15 and Gensokyo's potential "purification" by Sagume Kishin, if she can't deal with those attacking the Lunar Capital. ^{So, yeah, even though Sumireko was stopped in 14.5, she still inadvertently put Gensokyo in grave danger later on. She's not unlike a certain trio who created a cascade of incidents back in TH10...}
Regardless, Sumireko later apologized and befriended most of the characters after this particular incident, and her tales of the Outside World intrigue most of the residents in Gensokyo.
-15.5 (Antinomy of Common Flowers): Sumireko basically stumbles into Gensokyo at a bad time, and has to find her way out of the Dream World using Doremy's help. Although this sounds like a minor issue, her "Dream soul" was released into the Outside World as this happened, which could have had dire consequences, according to Yukari. Bizarrely, Sumireko encountered 2 versions of her Dream soul, here. Eventually, she solves the problem, with Doremy confirming she was the "real" one who prevailed in the end.
16.5 (Violet Detector): Sumireko keeps having weird dreams were she has to fight off dream world dwellers jealous of her having a "real" body. After a while, she finds and fights the real Okina. Impressed by her resilience, Okina lends her power to fight off even stronger nightmares, with the upside that if she wins, the dreams will stop eventually.
That is, until it turns out the "Sumireko" we've been playing as was the Dream version of the real one all along! Okina rescinds the power she lent to the Dream version so that the real one (which you now play as) has a fair shot at getting her body back (since the Dream one was in control of her body). Sumireko wins, and then she wakes up not remembering anything, and the player is left complaining at ZUN for not actually creating any new patterns for this game.
Oh, yeah, she also makes outrageously "hip" descriptions of the patterns when she manages to win it definitely doesn't endear her to some people.
That's all for the game appearances, which while only 3, left her with quite a bit of presence during that era of Touhou. 16.5 is Sumireko's own solo game, by the way, in case you didn't know.
As for her Printworks appearances:
-Grimoire of Usami: Basically, this is Sumireko taking a page out of Marisa, and making a Grimoire where she explains various Danmaku attacks done during a "Fireworks festival". While there's a bit of a plot in here, it's mostly just descriptions of patterns.
-Wild and Horned Hermit: Sumireko's dream souls cause trouble again in chapter 29. She also (accidentally) summons a UFO at the Hakurei Shrine in chapter 31, much to Reimu's irritation.
-Curiosities of Lotus Asia: This was basically known as "Rinnosuke's series", except after a long hiatus, it was brought back with Sumireko taking center stage in almost every new chapter, much to the irritation of some people. Put plainly, Sumireko works part-time with Rinnosuke there, which is why she's so involved.
She also had various cameos in most of the other printworks (including further cameos in WaHH).

• Wild and Horned Hermit (34, 35)
• Forbidden Scrollery (Chapter 34)
• Visionary Fairies in Shrine (Chapters 2, 7)
• Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia (Interviews)
• Who's Who of Humans & Youkai - Dusk Edition

So, am I done summing up Sumireko? Well, no. Because I glossed over so much, I should mention that Sumireko's good friends with Mokou because she matched her blow to blow in a duel they once had, and friends with Kasen too, even giving her (and various other people) nicknames. ^{She's friends with Reimu, Marisa, Mamizou and Rinnosuke, too, but that was already implied before.}
PHEW! Now, that's a lot of canon stuff for a single character, particularly one introduced so much later into the franchise's continuity!
You might be thinking: "What about her relation with Renko Usami? They have the same family name!" Well, the truth is, we still don't know to this day what the exact relation between the two is. We assume Sumireko is Renko's grandma or something, making her one of the few Touhou characters to (eventually) canonically have a family, but even that's not confirmed for sure, so we can only theorize about it.
More to the point...what do the fans think of Sumireko?
Well, according to the yearly popularity polls, she started off decently popular, but she's dropped hard lately, going as low as 80th last year (2023). This is partly due to her diminishing presence in the canon, presumably, but...
...it's also because, not unlike other Outside World foreigners to Gensokyo like Sanae and Mamizou, Sumireko's got a bit of a hatedom who detested how much ZUN pushed her as a "regular" of Gensokyo, despite the fact she wasn't even truly living there, and that she got off too easily for almost ending Gensokyo's very existence...twice, no less!
And then there are those who are fans of Rinnosuke who hate that he has to share the spotlight with her all the time when "his" series was brought back. Or maybe the fans of Mokou who hate that instead of ZUN further expanding on her relation with Kaguya/Keine/someone else from the Windows era, she gets stuck with a generic isekai wannabe.
Yeah, I think that's the core of the issue with Sumireko for some people: She's essentially got no real relation or story to the actual core of Gensokyo's world^\1), and thus comes across as inherently boring to them. And yet, many canon stories used to revolve around her, much to their frustration.
^\1 Sumireko technically visited Gensokyo as a kid through her dreams, so technically she does have a backstory with Gensokyo, but she never remembered her experiences there back then and it feels more like lore stuff than actual backstory to most fans.)
Of course, Sumireko still has some diehard fans, and she does provide a niche hardly many other characters have, so don't be surprised to see her in fanworks involving Outside World stuff.
But, for now, let's see what you think of Sumireko. Vote or comment below about it.
Sumireko Usami is...
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I hope this is okay to post here, I never posted on reddit before. I just got out of the hospital off of a failed attempt, I have no memory after taking the pills so this is all from my gf and parents pov (along with notes and texts i left) For reference i just turned 15, my gf lives across the street from me and we’ve been together about 5 months. She cheated on me the week of my birthday (feb 25 to march 1st) Which has let me to be very stressed out. She has also lied, manipulated and gaslight me multiple times Which led to me being constantly stressed out and having a lot of panic attacks, which everyone told me was the reason i didn’t have any memory. Turns out i actually took a minimum of three bottles of pills. All i have are bits and pieces of my memory so i’ll recall it the best i can. I remember taking about 10 pills then crying in my gfs arms, Then my memory goes blank but apparently my gf left and i started angrily texting everyone to bring her to me. I then sent my gf about 40 texts ranging from blaming her to begging her to come back to my house to telling her i deserve to die. I then wrote in a journal i keep “ i swallowed the whole bottle i’m scared this seem like it was the only way out nothing but pain [illegible] i can’t ever wish(?) [illegible] someone i’m scared i feel weak help she’s braying (?) me someone help me i’m scared i’m scared i’m scared” My gf then called the cops and i was taken to the hospital where i apparently started screaming and cussing at everyone telling everyone to “shut the fuck up” I then started saying things very out of character for me to the female nurses (which i will not repeat out of shame) I have no idea how long this went on but When i finally wore off that i woke up in a room with a sliding glass door. I remember trying to stand and falling over, I stayed there for about 5 ish days For the first two i could barely stand and my nose felt like it was bleeding constantly. The first night I was there i remember having the weirdest dreams and sleep paralysis. I’m sorry for my messy storytelling, I’m very scared still about that whole week and it’s definitely changed my life . I constantly think about how i felt afterwards. Does anyone know how i can get over this? And how i can help my gf as well because i haven’t been the best bf to her and this whole experience has messed her up.

Just shy of 3 weeks ago, I lost my 16 year old golden retriever, who has been the most wonderful dog I could’ve ever asked for. This leaves my 10 yo shih tzu- who has never known a day without him- on his own. Since the passing of my golden boy, the little guy has understandably become much more clingy towards myself, to the point he has to follow me everywhere I go in the house.
After it happened, I was given a couple of days off work before returning, and for two shifts he was in the house on his own for 3 hours in between me leaving for work and a roommate returning from work, and he did not handle it well. He was crying, whining, barking, shaking and very visibly distressed when they came home, and was very frantic when I came home later that night, far more so than before. I had a couple of shifts after that where someone was home with him the whole time, and while still very mopey during the day and hyper and frantic for me when I came in, he was less distressed.
After this I had a pre-planned week of annual leave, during which I’ve looked in to my options. I live in a fairly small, fairly rural town and there aren’t any kinds of doggy daycare type services. There are dog walking services, but that doesn’t solve my issue. I don’t have any family or friends I could reliably leave him with whenever I work. So, I’ve asked my work if I can try bringing him in with me, which they’ve agreed to. My workplace has an office and staff area on the top floor, and retail/business area downstairs. The idea was I would keep him upstairs and regularly (every hour maybe 2 max) check on him and sometimes be in the office with him for prolonged periods doing work in there. I figured stretches of an hour or two alone would be better than 7-9 hours alone.
I’ve returned to work and we’ve given it a few tries, and it is not going well. He lasts about 10-15 minutes before the crying and whining starts, which will eventually turn to barking. Each day I’ve taken him on a massive walk right beforehand in hopes it tires him out, arrived early to get him calm and settled with me before going downstairs, brought him toys and chews, which will keep him occupied for a few minutes before he gets bored of them and the crying starts.
So, does anybody have any advice on how to help his separation anxiety and/or specifically train him out of the barking/noisiness? I really want this to work out for him, I can’t stand him being so distressed and I don’t know how best to help him.

First of, i havent read the book.
But i have watched the whole series now, and i was quite angry at times, du to the misogynie i felt sometimes.
Mind you, i get the theme, how could i not.
But what about the women going crazy everytime theres some kind of baby/child involved? Its nearly everyone. They just seem to stop functioning normal, because...hormones?
Men dont share this problem, they use cjildren for their own means as they see fit.
Then we learn that all the women involved in the system all do it because; babies!
BTW, while i do see men as guards all the time, most of the really bad stuff is orginated in the women in the hirarchy. Women that all want nothing more than babies and friends, except that no woman can trust any women, and they constantly bachstab each other.
Did i just at one point take it wrong, thinking myself into a corner?
Or is there quite some misogynie in the seres?