PLAYBOY Interview With Conan O'Brien Interview by Kevin Cook For Playboy Magazine February 1998
A candid conversation with the preppie prince of "Late Night" about his rocky start, his show's secret one-day cancellation and how David Letterman saved the day.
He was polite. He was funny. He gave us a communicable disease.
At 34 Conan O'Brien is hotter than the fever he was running when we met in his private domain above the "Late Night" sound stage. A gangly freckle-faced ex-high school geek he is "one of TV's hottest properties" according to "People" magazine. The host of "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" has become his generation's king of comedy.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Congested too, but O'Brien has far more to worry about than his head cold. A perfectionist who broods over one bad minute in an otherwise perfect hour of TV, he worries he might be anhedonic, "I have trouble with success," he says, "I was raised to believe that if something good happens something bad is coming." Sure things look good now "Rolling Stone" calls "Late Night" "the hottest comedy show on TV." Ratings are better than ever, particularly among 18- to 34-year-olds, the viewers advertisers crave.
But O'Brien only works harder. Despite his illness he taped two shows in 26 hours on three hours' sleep. He smoothly interviewed Elton John then burst into coughing fits during commercials. Later in his crammed corner office overlooking Manhattan traffic Conan the Cool gulped Dayquil gel caps. He coughed spewing microbes.
"Sorry, sorry," he said. Of course O'Brien can't complain. He came seriously close to falling to being banished behind the scenes as just another failed talk show host.
At his first "Late Night" press conference he corrected a reporter who called him a relative unknown, "Sir I am a complete unknown," he said. That line got a laugh, but soon O'Brien looked doomed. His September 13, 1993 debut began with O'Brien in his dressing room preparing to hang himself only to be interrupted by the start of his show. Before long his career was hanging by a thread. Ratings were terrible. Critics hated the show. Tom Shales of "The Washington Post" called it as "lifeless and messy as roadkill." Shales said O'Brien should quit.
Network officials held urgent meetings discussing the Conan O'Brien debacle. Should they fire him? How should they explain their mistake?
In the end of course he turned it around. The network hung with him long enough for the ratings to improve and the host of the cooler-than-ever "Late Night" now defines comedy's cutting edge just as Letterman did ten years ago.
Even Shales loves "Late Night" these days. He calls O'Brien's turnaround "one of the most amazing transformations in television history."
O'Brien was born on April 18, 1963 in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, a doctor, is a professor at Harvard Medical School. His mother, a lawyer, is a partner at an elite Boston Law firm. Conan, the third of six children became a lector at church and a misfit at school. Tall and goofy, bedeviled with acne, he tried to impress girls with jokes. That plan usually bombed, but O'Brien eventually found his niche at Harvard where he won the presidency of the "Harvard Lampoon" in 1983 and again in 1984 - the first two-time "Lampoon" president since humorist Robert Benchley held the honor 85 years ago.
After graduating magna cum laude with a double major in literature and American history he turned pro. Writing for HBO's "Not Necessarily The News." O'Brien was earning $100,000 a year before his 24th birthday. But writing was never enough.
He honed his performance skills with the Groundlings, a Los Angeles improv group. There he worked with his onetime girlfriend Lisa Kudrow, now starring on "Friends." But Conan was not such a standout. In 1988 he landed a job at "Saturday Night Live" - but as a writer, not as on-air talent. In almost four years on the show O'Brien made only fleeting appearances, usually as a crowd member or security guard. His writing was more memorable. He wrote (or co-wrote) Tom hanks' "Mr Short-Term Memory" skits as well as the "pump you up" infosatire of Hanz and Franz and the nude beach sketch in which Matthew Broderick and "SNL" members played nudists admiring one another's penises. With dozens of mentions of the word that hit was the most penis-heavy moment in TV history. It helped O'Brien win an Emmy for comedy writing.
In 1991 he quit "SNL" and moved on to "The Simpsons" where he worked for two years. His urge to perform came out in wall-bouncing antics in writers' meetings. "Conan makes you fall out of your chair" said "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening. O'Brien's yen to act out was so strong that he spurned Fox's reported seven-figure offer to continue as a writer. He was driving for the spotlight.
By then David Letterman had announced he was turning shin - leaving NBC taking his ton-rated act to CBS. Suddenly NBC was up a creek without a host. The network turned to Lorne Michaels, O'Brien's "Saturday Night Live" boss. Michaels enlisted Conan's help in the host search planning to use him in a behind-the-scenes job. But when Garry Shandling, Dana Carvey and almost every other star turned down the chore of following Letterman, Michaels finally listened to Conan's crazy suggestion, "Let me do it!" Michaels persuaded the network to entrust it's 12:30 slot which Letterman had turned into a gold mine to an untested wiseass from Harvard.
O'Brien was working on one of his last "Simpsons" episodes when he got the news. He turned "paler than usual," Groening recalled. The Conan moseyed back to where the other writers were working, "I'll come back with the Homer Simspon joke later. I have to go replace Letterman," he said.
NBC executives now get credit for their foresight during those dark days of 1993 and 1994. They snared the axe and now reap the multimillion-dollar spoils of that decision. In fact, the story is not so simple. We sent Contributing Editor Kevin Cook to unravel the tale of O'Brien's survival, which he tells here for the first time. Cook reports:
"His office is chock-full of significa. There's a three-foot plastic pickle the Letterman staff left behind in 1993 - perhaps to suggest what a predicament he was in. There's a copy of Jack Paar's 'I Kid You Not' and a coffee-table book called 'Saturday Night Live: The First 20 Years.' His bulletin board features letters from fans such as John Watters and Bob Dole and an 8" x 10" glossy of Andy Richter with the inscription: "To Conan - Your bitter jealousy warms my black heart. Love and Kisses Andy."
"Of course it's all for show. From the photos of kitch icons Adam West and Robert Stack to the framed Stan Laurel autograph, from the deathbed painting of Abraham Lincoln, to the ironic star taped to Conan's door - they're all clever signals that tell a visitor how to view the star. Lincoln was his collegiate preoccupation: stardom is his occupation. Somewhere between the two I hoped to find the real O'Brien.
"As a Playboy reader he wanted to give me a better-than-average interview. I wanted something more - a definitive look at the guy who may end up being the Johnny Carson of his generation."
"Here's hoping we succeeded. If not I carried his germs 3000 miles and infected dozens of Californians for no good reason.
O'Brien: Yes, this is how to do a Playboy Interview -- completely tanked on cold medicine. I'll pick it up and read, "Yes, I'm gay."
Playboy: We could talk another time. O'Brien: (coughing) No, it's OK. I memorized Dennis Rodman's answers. Can I use them?
Playboy: You sound really sick. Do you ever take a day off? O'Brien: No. The age of talk show hosts taking days off is over. Johnny Carson could go to Africa when he was the only game in town -- "See you in two weeks!" But nobody does that now. I will give you a million dollars on the first day Jay takes off for illness.
Playboy: Do you ever slow down and enjoy your success? O'Brien: If anything, the pace is picking up. Restaurateurs insist on giving me a table even if I'm only passing by, so I'm eating nine meals a night. Women stop me on the street and hand me their phone numbers.
Playboy: So you have groupies? O'Brien: Oh yes. And other fans. Drifters. Prisoners. Insomniacs. Cab Drivers, who must watch a lot of late night TV, seem to love me lately. They keep saying, "You will not pay, you will not pay, you make me happy!"
Playboy: How happy did your new contract make you? O'Brien: Terrified. The network said, "We're all set for five years." I said, "Shut up, shut up! I can't think that far ahead." Tonight, for instance, I do my jokes, then interview Elton John and Tim Meadows. We finished taping about 6:30. By 6:45 my memory was erased and my only thought was, Tomorrow: John Tesh. And I started to obsess about John Tesh. Sad, don't you think?
Playboy: Not too sad. You got off to a rocky start but now you're so hot that People magazine recently said, "that was then, this is wow." O'Brien: I try not to pay much attention. Since I ignored the critics who said I should shoot myself in the head with a German Luger, it would be cheating to tear out nice reviews now and rub them all over my body, giggling. Though I have thought about it.
Playboy: Tell us about your trademark gag. You interview a photo of Bill Clinton or some other celeb, and a pair of superimposed lips provide outrageous answers. O'Brien: We call it the Clutch Cargo bit, after that terrible old cartoon series. They saved money on animation by superimposing real lips on the cartoons. I wanted to do topical jokes in a cartoony way -- not just Conan doing quips at a desk. TV is visual; I want things to look funny. But we're not Saturday Night Live; we couldn't spend $100,000 on it. Hence, the cheap, cheesy lips, You'd be surprised how many people we fool.
Playboy: Viewers believe that's really the president yelling, "Yee-haw! Who's got a joint?" O'Brien: It's strange. You may know intellectually that Clinton doesn't talk like Foghorn Leghorn. Ninety-eight percent of your brain knows the president wouldn't say, "Whoa Conan get a load of that girl!" But there are a few brain cells that aren't sure. When Bob Dole was running for president we had him doing a past-life regression: "My cave, get away." And then back further, "Must form flippers to crawl on to rocky soil," he says. There may be people out there who believe that Bob Dole was the first amphibian.
Playboy: Do you ever go too far? O'Brien: The fun is in going too far. It's a nice device because you get Bill Clinton to do the nastiest Bill Clinton jokes. We'll have Clinton making fart noises while I say "Sir! Please!"
Playboy: Are you enjoying your job now, with your new success? O'Brien: Well, there are surprises. I hate surprises. Like most comics, I'm a control freak. But I am learning that the show works best when things are out of control. Tonight I ask Elton John if he likes being neighbors with Joan Collins. He says he isn't neighbors with Joan Collins. He lives next door to Tina Turner. So I panic -- huge mistake! But Elton saves the day. "Joan Collins, Tina Turner, it doesn't matter. Either way I could borrow a wig," he says. Huge laugh, all because I fucked up. Later he surprised me by blurting out that he's hung like a horse. The camera cuts to me shaking my head: That crazy Elton. What can I do? Of course, I'm delighted that he went too far.
Playboy: That "What can I do?" look resembles a classic take of Jack Benny's. O'Brien: There's an old saying in literature: "Good poets borrow; great poets steal." I think T.S. Eliot stole it from Ezra Pound. Comics steal, too. Constantly. When I watched Johnny Carson, I noticed that he got a few takes from Benny and Bob Hope. When a comedy writer told me how much Woody Allen had borrowed from Hope, I thought, What? They're nothing alike. Then I went back and watched Son of Paleface, and there's Hope, the nervous city guy backing up on his heels, wringing his hands and saying, "Sorry, I'll just be moving along." Now look at early Woody Allen. You see big authority figures and Woody nervously saying, "Look, I'll just be on my way." Of course Woody made it his own, but he must have watched and loved Bob Hope.
Playboy: Who are your role models? O'Brien: Carson. Woody Allen. SCTV. Peter Sellers. When Peter Sellers died I felt such a loss, thinking, There won't be anymore of that. There's some Steve Martin in my false bravado with female guests: "Why, hel-lo there!" And I won't deny having some Letterman in my bones.
Playboy: You were surprise as Letterman's successor. At first you seemed like the wrong choice. O'Brien: I didn't get ratings. That doesn't mean I didn't get laughs. Yes, I had a giant pompadour and I looked like a rockabilly freak. I was too excited, pushed too hard, and people said, "That guy isn't a polished performer." Fine! But it isn't my goal to be Joe Handsomehead cool, smooth talk show host. Late Night with Conan O'Brien is supposed to be a work in progress, and now that we've had some success there's a danger of our getting too polished and morphing into something smoothly professional. Which would suck.
Do you know why I wanted this show? Because Late Night with David Letterman played with the rules and it looked like fun. Here was a place where people did risky comedy every night for millions of people. We had to keep this thing alive. There should be a place on a big network where people are still messing around.
Playboy: How bad were your early days on the show? O'Brien: Bad. Dave left here under a cloud: his fans and the media were angry with NBC. Then NBC picks a guy with crazy hair and a weird name. And the world says, "Harvard? Those guys are assholes." I sincerely hope that the winter of December 1993, our first winter, was the worst time I will ever have. I'd go out to do the warm up and the back two rows of seats would be empty. That's hard to look at. I would tell a joke and then hear someone whisper, "Who's he? Where's Dave?"
Playboy: You had trouble getting guests. O'Brien: Bob Denver canceled on us. We shot a test show with Al Lewis of The Munsters. We did the clutch cargo thing with a photo of Herman Munster. Unfortunately, Fred Gwynne, who played Herman, had recently died, and Al Lewis kept pointing at the screen, saying, "You're dead! I was at your funeral!"
Playboy: For months you got worried notes from network executives. What did they say? O'Brien: They were worried. The fact that Lorne Michaels was involved bought me some time. But Lorne had turned to me at the start and said, "OK, Conan. What do you want to do?" Now television critics were after me and the network was starting to realize what a risk I was. Suggestions came fast and furious. I kept the note that said, "Why don't you just die?"
Playboy: Did they suggest ways to be funnier? O'Brien: They were more specific and tactical. The network gets very specific data. Say there was a drop in ratings between 12:44 and 12:48 when I was talking to Jon Bon Jovi. I'll be told, "Don't ever talk to him again" Or they'll want me to tease viewers into staying with us: "You should tease that -- say, 'We'll have nudity coming up next!'"
Playboy: You did come close to being cancelled. O'Brien: We were cancelled.
Playboy: Really? You have never admitted that. O'Brien: This is the first time I've talked about it. When I had been on for about a year, there was a meeting at the network. They decided to cancel my show. They said, "It's cancelled." Next day they realized they had nothing to put in the 12:30 slot, so we got a reprieve.
Playboy: Were you worried sick? O'Brien: I went into denial. I tried hard not to think, Yes, I'm bad on the air and my show has none of the things a TV show needs to survive. We had no ratings. No critics in our corner. Advertisers didn't like us. Affiliates wanted to drop us. Sometimes I'd meet a programming director from a local station where we had no rating at all. The guy would show me a printout with no number for Late Night's rating, just a hash mark or pound sign. I didn't dare think about that when I went out to do the show.
Playboy: Are you defending denial? O'Brien: How else does anyone get through a terrible experience? The odds were against me. Rationally, I didn't have much chance. Denial was my only friend. When I look back on the first year, it's like a scene from an old war movie: Ordinary guy gets thrown into combat, somehow beats impossible odds, staggers to safety. His buddy say, "You could have been killed!" The guy stops and thinks. "Could have been killed?" he says. His eyes cross and he faints.
Playboy: How did you dodge the bullet? O'Brien: There were people at NBC who stood up for me. I will always be indebted to Don Ohlmeyer, who stuck to his guns. Don said, "We chose this guy. We should stick with him unless we get a better plan." He was brutally honest. He came to me and said, "Give me about a 15 percent bump in the ratings and you'll stay on the air. If not, we're going to move on."
Playboy: Ohlmeyer started his career in the sports division. O'Brien: Exactly, his take was, "You're on our team." Of course, it wasn't exactly rational of Don to hope I'd be 15 percent funnier. It was like telling a farmer, "It better rain this week or we'll take your farm away."
Playboy: What did you say to Ohlmeyer? O'Brien: There wasn't time. I had to go out and do a monologue. But I will always be indebted to Don because he told me the truth. Wait a minute -- you have tricked me into talking lovingly about an NBC executive. Let me say that there were others who were beneath contempt -- executives who wouldn't know a good show if it swam up their asses and lit a campfire.
Playboy: Finally the ratings went your way. Hard work rewarded? O'Brien: Well, I also paid off the Nielsen people. That was $140,000 well spent.
Playboy: Ohlmeyer plus bribery saved you? O'Brien: There was something else. Just when everyone was kicking the crap out of the show, Letterman defended me.
Playboy: Letterman had signed off on NBC saying, "I don't really know Conan O'Brien, but I heard he killed someone." O'Brien: Then I pick up the paper and he's saying he thinks I am going to make it. "They do some interesting, innovative stuff over there," he says. "I think Conan will prevail." And then he came on as a guest. Remember, this was when we were at our nadir. There was no Machiavellian reason for David Letterman, who at the time was the biggest thing in show business, to be on my show.
Playboy: Why did he do it? O'Brien: I'm still not sure. Maybe out of a sense of honor. Fair play. And it woke me up. It made me think. Hey, we have a real fucking television show here.
Of six or seven pivotal points in my short history here, that was the first and maybe the biggest. I wouldn't be sitting here -- I probably wouldn't even exist today -- if he hadn't done our show.
Playboy: The Late Night wars were hardly noted for friendly gestures. O'Brien: How little you understand. Jay, Dave and I pal around all the time. We often ride a bicycle built for three up to the country. "Nice job with Fran Drescher!" "Thanks, pal. You weren't so bad with John Tesh." We sleep in triple-decker bunk beds and snore in unison like the Three Stooges.
Playboy: You talk more about Letterman than your NBC teammate Leno. O'Brien: I hate the "Leno or Letterman, who's better?" question. I can tell you that Jay has been great to me. He calls me occasionally.
Playboy: To say what? O'Brien: (Doing Leno's voice) "Hey, liked that bit you did last night." Or he'll say he saw we got a good rating. I call him at work, too. It can be a strange conversation because we're so different. Jay, for instance, really loves cars. He's got antique cars with kerosene lanterns, cars that run on peat moss. He'll be telling me about some classic car he has, made entirely of brass and leather, and I'll say, "Yeah, man, I got the Taurus with the vinyl." One thing we have in common is bad guests. There are certain actors, celebrities with nothing to say, who move through the talk show world wreaking havoc. They lay waste to Dave's town and Jay's town, then head my way.
Playboy: You must be getting some good guests. Your ratings have shown a marked improvement. O'Brien: Remember, when you're on at 12:30 the Nielsens are based on 80 people. My ratings drop if one person has a head cold and goes to bed early.
Playboy: Actually, you're seen by about 3 million people a night. Your ratings would be even higher if college dorms weren't excluded from the Nielsens. How many points does that cost you? O'Brien: I told you I'm an idiot. Now I have to do math too?
Playboy: Do you still get suggestions from NBC executives? O'Brien: Not as many. The number of notes you get is inversely proportional to your ratings.
Playboy: What keeps you motivated? O'Brien: Superstition. We have a stagehand, Bobby Bowman, who holds up the curtain when I run out for the monologue. He is the last person I see before the show starts, and I have to make him laugh before I go out. It started with mild jabs: "Bobby, you're drunk again." Bobby laughs, "Heehee."" Then it was, "Still having trouble with the wife, Bobby?" But after hundreds of shows, you find yourself running out of lines. It's gotten to where I do crass things at the last second. I'll put his hand on my ass and yell, "You fucking pervert!" Or drop to my knees and say, "Come on, Bobby, I'll give you a blow job!"
"Ha-ha. Conan, you're crazy," he says. But even that stuff wears off. Soon, I'll be making the writers work late to give me new jokes for Bobby.
Playboy: Did you plan to be a talk show host or did you fall into the job? O'Brien: I was an Irish Catholic kid from St. Ignatius parish in Brookline, outside of Boston. And that meant: Don't call attention to yourself. Don't ask for too much when the pie comes around. Don't get a girl pregnant and fuck up your life.
Playboy: Were you an alter boy? O'Brien: I wanted to be an alter boy, but the priest at St. Ignatius said, "No, no. You're good on your feet, kid," and made me a lector. A scripture reader at Mass. He was the one who spotted my talent.
Playboy: What did you think of sex in those days? O'Brien: I was sexually repressed. At 16 I still thought human reproduction was by mitosis.
Playboy: How did you get over your sexual repression? O'Brien: Who says I got over it? My leg has been jiggling this whole time.
Playboy: What were you like in high school? O'Brien: Like a crane galumphing down the hall. A crane with weird hair, bad skin and Clearasil. Big enough for basketball but lousy at it. My older brothers were better. I would compensate by running around the court doing comedy, saying, "Look out, this player has a drug addiction. He's incredibly egotistical."
I was an asshole at home, too. My little brother Justin loved playing cops and robbers, but I kept tying him up with bureaucratic bullshit. When he'd catch me, I'd say, "I get to call my lawyer." Then it was, "OK, Justin, we're at trial and you've been charged with illegal arrest. Fill out these forms in triplicate." Justin was eight; he hated all the lawsuits and countersuits. He just cried.
Playboy: Were you a class clown? O'Brien: Never. I was never someone who walked into a room full of strangers and started telling jokes. You had to get to know me before I could make you laugh. The same thing happened with Late Night. I needed to get the right rhythm with Andy and Max and the audience.
Playboy: So how did you finally learn about sex? O'Brien: My parents gave me a book, but it was useless. At the crucial moment, all it showed was a man and a woman with the bed covers pulled up to their chins. I tried to find out more from friends, but it didn't help. One childhood friend told me it was like parking a car in a garage. I kept worrying about poisonous fumes. What if the fumes build up? Should you shut off the engine?
Playboy: For all your talk about being repressed, you can be rowdy on the air. O'Brien: The show is my escape valve. When I tear off my shirt and gyrate my pelvis like Robert Plant, feigning orgasm into the microphone, that shows how repressed I am -- a guy who wants to push his sex at the lens but can only do it as a joke.
Playboy: Aren't you tempted to live it up? O'Brien: I always imagined that if I were a TV star I would live the way I pictured Johnny Carson living. Carousing, stepping out of a limo wearing a velvet ascot with a model on my arm. Now that I have the TV show, I drive up to Connecticut on the weekends and tool around in my car. I could probably join a free-sex cult, smoke crack between orgies and drive sports cars into swimming pools, and my Catholic guilt would still be there, throbbing like a toothache. Be careful. If something good happens, something bad is on the way.
Playboy: Yet you don't mind licking the supermodels. O'Brien: At one point a few of them lived in my building, women who are so beautiful they almost look weird, like aliens. To me, a woman who has a certain approachable amount of beauty becomes almost funny. It's the same with male supermodels. They look like big puppets. So while I admire their beauty I probably won't be "romantically linked" with a model. I'd catch my reflection in a ballroom mirror and break up laughing.
Playboy: The horny Roy Orbison growl you use on gorgeous guests sounds real enough -- O'Brien: Oh, I've been doing that shit since high school. It just never worked before.
Playboy: Your father is a doctor, your mother an attorney. What do they think of their son the comedian? O'Brien: My dad was the one who told me denial was a virtue. "Denial is how people get through horrible things," he said. He also cut out a newspaper article in which I said I was making money off something for which I should probably be treated. So true, he thought. But when I got an Emmy for helping write Saturday Night Live, my parents put it on the mantel next to the crucifix. Here's Jesus looking over, saying, "Wow, I saved mankind from sin, but I wish I had an Emmy."
Playboy: Ever been in therapy? O'Brien: Yes. I don't trust it. I have told therapists that I don't particularly want to feel good. "Repression and fear, that's my fuel." But the therapists said that I had nothing to worry about. "Don't worry Conan you will always be plenty fucked up."
Playboy: When a female guest comes out, how do you know whether to shake her hand or kiss her? Is that rehearsed O'Brien: No, and it's awkward. If you go to shake her hand and her head starts coming right at you, you have to change strategy fast. I have thought about using the show to make women kiss me, but that would probably creep out the people at home. I decided not to kiss Elton John.
Playboy: Do you get all fired up if Cindy Crawford or Rebecca Romijn does the show? O'Brien: I like making women laugh. Always have, ever since I discovered you can get girls' attention by acting like an ass. That's one of the joys of the show -- I'm working my eyebrows and going grrr and she's laughing, the audience is laughing. It's all a big put-on and I'm thinking. This is great. Here is a beautiful woman who has no choice but to put up with this shit.
But it's not always put on. Sometimes they flirt back. Sometimes there's a bit of chemistry. That happened with Jennifer Connelly of The Rocketeer.
Playboy: One guest, Jill Hennessy, took off her pants for you. Then you removed yours. Even Penn and Teller took off their pants. O'Brien: Something comes over me. It happened with Rebecca Romijn -- I was practically climbing her. Those are the times when Andy and the audience seem to disappear and it's just me and this lovely woman sitting there flirting. I keep expecting a waiter to say, "More wine, Monsieur?"
Playboy: Would you lick the wine bottle? O'Brien: It's true, there's a lot of licking on the show. I have licked guests. I have licked Andy. Comedy professionals will read this and say, "Great work, Conan. Impressive." But I have learned that if you lick a guest, people laugh. If I pick this shoe off the floor, examine it, Hmmm, and then lick it, people laugh. I learned this lesson on The Simpsons, where I was the writer who was forever trying to entertain the other writers. I still try desperately to make our writers laugh, which is probably a sign of sickness since they work for me now. Licking is one of those things that look funny.
Playboy: Johnny Carson never licked Ed McMahon. O'Brien: We are much more physical and more stupid than the old Tonight Show. Even in our offices before the show there's always some writer acting out a scene crashing his head through my door. A behind-the-scenes look at our show might frighten people.
Playboy: One night you showed a doctored photo of Craig T. Nelson having sex with Jerry Van Dyke. Did they complain about it? O'Brien: I haven't heard from them. Of course I'm blessed not to be a part of the celebrity pond. I have a television show in New York, an NBC outpost. I don't run with or even run into many Hollywood people.
Playboy: You also announced that Tori Spelling has a penis. O'Brien: I did not. Polly the Peacock said that.
Playboy: Another character you use to say the outrageous stuff. O'Brien: Polly is not popular with the network.
Playboy: You mock Fabio, too. O'Brien: If he sues me, it'll be the best thing that ever happened. A publicity bonanza: Courtroom sketches of Fabio with his man-boobs quivering, shaking his fist, and me shouting at him across the courtroom. I'm not afraid of Fabio. He knows where to find me. I'm saying it right here for the record: Fabio, let's get it on.
Playboy: Ever have a run-in with an angry celeb? O'Brien: I did a Kelsey Grammar joke a few years ago, something about his interesting lifestyle, then heard through the network that he was upset. He had appeared on my show and expected some support. At this point my intellect says, "Kelsey Grammar is a public figure. I was in the right." Then I saw him in an airport. Kelsey didn't see me at first: I could have kept walking. But there he was, eating a cruller in the airport lounge. I thought I should go over. I said hello and then said, "Kelsey, I'm sorry if I upset you." And he was glad. He looked relieved. He said, "Oh, that's OK." We both felt better.
....See my other post with the last third of the interview

Hi, I'm pretty new to the modding scene and I'm feeling ambitious wanting to create personal custom modpacks. I get to use mods individually and just chucking them into my mod folder but I want to create a proper modpack I can share with my buddies who also have lowend PC's for it to be playable.
This is where I went to the conclusion of wanting to make a modpack revolving around optimization mods like sodium, specifically. I heard a lot of mods are not as compatible with sodium compared to optifine though which is what I need to keep in mind when making the pack.
I want to start off with making vanilla+ modpacks for personal use and testing then eventually up the bar to creating a modpack inspired or based on RLCraft and DawnCraft for combat, bosses, and progression. I also saw RLCraft isn't compatible with sodium so I'm probably just going to select mods compatible with sodium.
I definitely want to avoid using curseforge for modpacks as much as possible. If you have other platforms to recommend making a modpack revolving around Sodium, I'd like to know please.
As a beginner how should I start off with working with Sodium as my main optimization mod?
Thank you to anyone who gives their advice or suggestions ^{^}

Hello, I'm a current HS Junior. My dream is to be a military pilot. I've been set on being a Marine Pilot but as of doing more research I've been told/found out that most of them end up as desk flyers. I have a buddy in WOFT currently and he's telling me it'd be better to drop a packet senior year and fly Army. I was looking into it and all I hear is how boss Army Aviation is and to look at all the branches but the Army. Any Advice helps, thanks!

I'm not a 'support warlock' and never have been. Only people that enjoy that passive type of playstyle will ever use that helmet. I play the class because the power fantasy has always been to use my paracausal powers to fuck shit up and these gameplay leaks and full exotic armor descriptions have confirmed that warlock won't be devastating powerhouse house it was all those years ago. Mindspun invocation already exists so who at bungie thought that chest piece was a good idea, especially when you're constantly fighting your teammates for kills for your own build synergy.
Nova bomb has been and will remain trash. The lack of a 2nd void melee is still bullshit. Arc will remain weak and underwhelming. Solar will be another underwhelming mess with the watered down Radiance from D1 with a slow and weak 'solar buddy'. Dawnblade will still be trash. Stasis will still be meh...why freeze when you can kill outright? Winter's wrath is useless outside of emergency chain res since your teammates will likely kill anything you freeze long before that slow ass pulse reaches targets. Glacial harvest and icarus dash needs a 3rd fragment slot at least. Warlocks do not have a single aspect with 3 slots. Strand is our only means of a semblance of decent damage and that's if the super wants to cooperate and hit the intended target. Weavewalk needs a 2nd fragment slot.
The weapons also look like a hot ass mess especially the first ever kinetic, heavy trace rifle. It barely does more than Ager's Scepter and a triple trace rifle build is nothing but a meme especially since trace rifles use their entire ammo to deal with a single orange bar as it is. But that's another rant for another day. If you're a support type of player, more power to you. If you like causing massive description across the battlefield and against powerful bosses in content outside of patrols, strikes, basic season content, warlock won't be the class for you.

First Previous
Matthew Sky is a cowboy at heart, seeking a life of fulfillment and adventure beneath the limitless horizon. Now he's been recruited by an ancient order of pan-universal defenders to help protect humanity from the countless horrors waiting in the dark. With his sentient A/I partner by his side and the limitless potential of his incredible forge ring at his command, Matt is THE LAW on a new world that has fallen to chaos...he is THE FORGE KNIGHT.
Previously on the Forge Knight.
I saved a few elves from a fate worse than death, killed an enforcer for a bunch of crazy mages because he was being an asshole, and then I got ATTACKED by the same dang elves I rescued! This sure is turning into a chore, isn't it?
Dying Light Part 6.
-An interlude.
Dressed in silken finery, the elven mage stepped fearlessly into the darkened tavern and approached its sole occupied table, where a man sat drinking alone. His features were difficult to make out in the gloom of the place, but he was tall. Tall enough to come up chest-high to her even while seated.
“Are you the one they call the mad wolf?” she asked him.
“Aya,” he said without interest.
Janthra Nightveil didn’t care for the tepidity of his response. She was the personal apprentice of a great magus and a powerful practitioner of the dark arts herself. She expected more than a drunkard's nod.
She deserved more than that.
“I am Janthra,” she said proudly. “You will refer to me as mistress.”
“I could, perhaps,” the big man spoke with a lifeless rasp as he continued drinking from his mug. “Probably won’t, though.”
“I speak for a lord of the Advocacy,” she said. “In this matter, my words are his words. For reasons that are beyond me, he has decided that he requires your services, dog. You should be honored.”
“I should, should I?” he asked. “Now why’s that?”
“BECAUSE I TOLD YOU SO!” she shouted angrily as her hand swept the pitcher of mead off the table and sent the glass crashing on the floor.
Through the tavern windows, feeble moonlight struggled to provide basic illumination to the room. It cut off just around the man’s neck, leaving his face encased in darkness as he leaned back lazily in his chair. Only his eyes remained visible; gleaming like sharp orbs of reddish hued gold that stared at her with evident amusement.
That was when he struck a match to light a pipe that Janthra hadn’t realized he’d reached for. In the moment of light provided by it, she learned that the tavern wasn’t empty at all.
Bodies had been tossed aside haphazardly, lying dead all around them. Each of them torn apart in a fashion that she found…
…memorable.
Why hadn’t she noticed that?
Why hadn’t she smelled any blood?
“Well, Miss. If you say so, then you say so. Mind putting him on the line for me?” he asked.
“W-What?” Janthra asked nervously.
“Call him up, girl,” he said, emphasizing the last word.
“It isn’t for the likes of me to—”
“He won’t mind. We’re old drinking buddies,” the man assured her. Then he reached to the center of the table and tapped it firmly with a single, bloodstained finger. “Now,” he said.
Janthra made a swift motion with her hands and then held them before the table. From her palms, traces of darkness extended outward and formed an ebony globe that slowly molded itself into the shape of a faceless figure sitting on a throne.
When Janthra was finished the man snapped his fingers and then pointed towards the exit.
“What?” she asked in surprise.
“L’il above your pay, darling. Don’t take it to heart, though. You’re doing a fine job,” he said as he waited for her to leave. Once she was gone, he turned to the image of the shadow and said, “Howdy.”
“Pandemia Lunatica,” the shadow said, speaking the hunter’s name.
“Been a while,” Pandemia said in acknowledgement.
“My servants have failed me,” the shadow said without preamble. “The princess has escaped their reach and successfully contacted a Forge Knight.”
“And Volm?” Pandemia asked curiously. “What happened to him?”
“Disgraced. Defeated. Dead. His soul burns with contrition. Do not speak of him again,” the shadow said tersely.
“Well, Mister, what can really be said?” asked the amused hunter. “You don’t send a virgin to a cathouse unless you want him to be fucked.”
“Quaint,” replied the shadow.
“Don’t be like that,” said Pandemia. “When you don’t invest in quality, what you get is what you get.”
“I did not contact you seeking your smug advice, hunter,” the shadow said with baleful displeasure. “I’ve come to you seeking a solution. Kill the princess. Kill her companions. Kill the hope of their kingdom. Do these things for me and you will enjoy a considerable reward.”
“And what about the Forge Knight?” Lunatica said mildly as he finished with his pipe. “You want him dead, too?”
“He's interfered in matters that do not concern him once too often,” the shadow said. “If the opportunity presents itself, then kill him as well.”
“Well, now, that does sound like extra work to me,” the big man said as he walked to the bar for more mead and a glass to fill it with. “I’ve never met a forge knight yet who ever died easy.”
“Only because you enjoy taking your time killing them,” the shadow said with an audible sneer. “Stop prevaricating, bounty hunter, and name your price.”
“You know what?” Pandemia said after some consideration. “Just get me a few crates of lager and I’ll call us even on the work. I’ll even take my payment in some goddamn Budweiser. Whatever you can find, hoss, I’m just so very fucking tired of drinkin’ mead.”
The harsh laughter of the shadow filled the dead tavern.
“That’s something I’ve always admired about you, Mad Wolf,” it chortled. “Your genuine appreciation of life’s simpler pleasures.”
“Well, ain’t no need to be fancy about things, Sir,” Pandemia said as he donned his duster and hat. “It’s life’s ephemerality that makes it as enjoyable as it is. Wanting too much from it just dilutes the sweetness of its many flavors.”
“Truly the wisdom of the gutter,” the shadow smirked.
“Truly,” Pandemia said with a smirk of his own. “Got a little bit of bad news for you, though,” he added.
“And that is?” asked the shadow.
“That cute little apprentice o’yers mouthed off to me somethin’ fierce,” Pandemia said regretfully. “I’m gonna have to say something to her about it.”
“I don’t bemoan the price of doing business,” the shadow snorted dismissively as it began to fade away. “Do as you wish.”
Pandemia’s lips curled up into a pleased smile. “Always a nice thing to hear them words.”
He then exited the tavern while whistling a cheerful tune. “Hey, girlie,” he said as he approached her, where she waited impatiently. “Got some news from the boss.”
“What are they? What is the will of my master?” Janthra asked him imperiously. “Go on, dog! Speak up!”
In response, Pandemia stepped into her personal space and grinned at her, doing it in such a way that truly showed her in that moment, the depths of his smile and the sharpness of his teeth. Then he leaned towards her ear and whispered. “He said this is going to be a solo job.”
The apprentice’s eyes widened as she took a step backward. She quickly began speaking, trying desperately to say something that would stop what she now knew was coming, but Pandemia silenced her when he raised his hand and cut off her words.
Among other things.
When he was finished, Pandemia Lunatica began his walk east. He was in no hurry.
Wherever he wished to be, he would eventually find himself.

4 Redditors login to 3D…
I think I made 2 mistakes in this friendly Redditor game but feel free to roast me. Okay technically 3 with a bad discard early on after getting distracted by a pop up but it didn’t make a difference.
1) At 4-7 the bad guys should I have gone alone?
2) Last hand should I have trumped in with a heart since the Kd became boss after r1? I’m not sure if it was good call/bad luck or good call/played wrong and cost us the game (sorry buddy u/BuckeyeNate77)

The New Jersey state troopers…. And the NJ turnpike is treacherous right now. Idk what TF is going on but the njtp is nuts right now. Troopers are gunning for commercial vehicles last couple weeks. I texted a fellow jersey / tri state area driver buddy of mine and warned him last week that I saw like 15 vehicles pulled over last Tuesday or weds on my ride from Philly to north jersey and 13 of them where tractor trailers , box trucks, and dump trucks. Today I got pulled over because of…. the town my truck runs out of. It’s by the dot number. And gvw . Mind u I have driven the turnpike daily for years and my boss put me on a backup truck because my usual has been down awhile. The trooper did a whole roadside inspection, and also violated the truck because there wasn’t a light next to the license plate…after I got back on the road and within 10 mins saw 30 other trucks with their license plates mounted just like mine. I stopped counting. I’m not saying they arnt considered violations…. But it’s a bit of a reach… and I’m not just saying because I got stopped today… I saw it coming and have been warning fellow friends that drive the turnpike and New Jersey trooper monitored highways etc. its been very extra lately with the troopers. Just tryn to help anyone that might be heading thru NJ. Stay safe yall

I've lost a little over 20 pounds now. I have a bit of a muscular frame, although I'm still like 30-40 pounds away from where I really want to be. Before the 20 pounds, I had lost about 15 pounds. Before that, probably another 15. So maybe about 50 pounds total since 3 years ago.
Lately, I've noticed that random guys no longer call me "buddy". I personally strongly dislike when a guy calls me buddy.. it feels condescending. It only makes sense if they're actually my friend and say it during a genuine and kind interaction.
Now, I'm getting called "sir" and "boss". It's wild. I'm still not at the point where women are eyeing me like they have in the past when I was thinner -- but I'm working towards it. Just wanted to share this recent discovery because, lol.

Hey there buddies.
The new season is really good and I love the direction in which we are going. However, this one problem still drives me crazy.
So, generally, when you go to late tiers of pit (just as an example of an end-game activity with high level mobs) mostfully it's all about dodging stuff for everyone besides barb who can go real tank. The armor cap doesn't really make sense because you can still get one shot not even by a boss. I think there have to be some solid solution around this and I'd personally like to hear community opinions on how this problem can be solved.
I currently got two necros and a barb at 100. Hands down, necro this season is nuts (barb is still nuts as well, just holding his position). But the amount of damage reduction which barb can get (along with a much beafer hp) is just on another level.
Even running tyrael's on a necro I still got a decent damage output but it didn't make a big difference tbh. It feels a bit, but not as much as one could want.
Either rework the armores system or give more damage reduction stuff to all the classes? I would even like to sacrifice some of the damage output (and I already did with Tyrael's) but there's nothing I can replace it for damage reduction at this point. Already almost min-maxed.
Sorry if I'm not extra clear with my thoughts but at this point I would like to just hear people's thoughts. I'd love more opportunities to become more tanky, maybe something that you can't get really easy, etc, I dunno. I just think there has to be more room because basically 100+ is just dodging stuff and without a perfect connection with the server it's no real fun.

Sorry this is a madly long post.
Tldr: I work as a psych nurse. Been criticised by supervisor for poor leadership during critical incidents on the ward, staff members are toxic and cliquey and have been bullying me
So I work as a psych nurse. And I've run into some problems at work. There has been this other nurse (ill call her S) who's recently been promoted to deputy ward manager of the ward, and she's now my supervisor. This woman has been vile to me. Not to a serious extent, but still. She's been passive aggressive. She's been bossing me about like her dogsbody, especially ever since being promoted. One shift in August last year we were working together and I was applying make up at the start of the shift. I was still doing work though. I was doing a particular task and she asked "oh are you doing the task? And I said yes and she was like "oh, thought you were doing your make-up". Then during my supervision with my manager a few weeks later, he brought up about the make up thing, so obviously she'd reported it to him. She's been passive aggressive to me fairly often. One time at work she was doing admin work and I was working with another nurse. I started the daily handover notes and the other nurse said to me "don't worry, I'll do it, you're doing the ward round" and I was like "oh I don't mind, just thought I'd start it as I've run out of tasks to do" and then S made a snide passive aggressive comment under her breath, and then left the office. I didn't hear what she said. I looked to the other nurse and the nurse said "don't take no sh*". S is generally quite bossy, a know it all, and belittles others. She's also best buds at work with a nurse (K). K has also been passive aggressive and rude to me. One time during the handover, I was the night shift nurse and K and S were on the day shift. They kept questioning my handover, like as if I'd done it wrong and they were doubting my abilities. Also a few weeks ago, K sent me a rude email saying how I'd been ordering medication we already had stock of and that it was a waste of medication. Usually when you send such an email to a colleague, it's meant to be done with a bit of decency and respect, despite pointing out their mistake. But she did it so unprofessionally and rudely. I told her I'd only ordered them cause one of the agency nurses had told me they'd run out and needed ordering. Then a day ago, K had ordered a medication our ward doctor already ordered, yet is anyone gonna criticise her mistake? Absolutely not! At my place it's a matter of "if the name fits". It's extremely cliquey and toxic. I was on the phone to a patients family member telling them something and in the background K was tutting and raising her hands in frustration. After the call she told me what I'd done wrong. Like seriously. People who report my mistakes off the bat or "attack" me about them face to face are vile and shouldn't be in a job because their behaviour is disgusting. Why can't they be decent and just pull me aside and politely and respectfully tell me where I went wrong? I'm 1.5 years into being a nurse but still. I'm also only 27 and don't have much life experience overall. K and S are a few years older than me and do have a couple years more experience than me. But they act as if I'm crp at my job. But yeah, K and S are best buds as I said. There's a big clique on my ward at work.
There was a senior nurse role on the ward recently, after S got promoted, and K said that my manager and our clinical director gave it to her off the bat rather than advertising it first. The hospital director (above the clinical director) said this wasn't allowed and that it had to be advertised, applied for, and go through a proper process with an interview. So this happened, and the post got withdrawn from K. I had my interview for the post with S on Saturday (despite knowing K would get it regardless). Also after the interview, S did supervision with me. She told me she'd had feedback from colleagues and even patients that I was not confident enough and did not have good leadership skills when critical incidents occurred on the ward. She said I tend to take a backseat and that I need to be more at the forefront of incidents directing everyone and everything. I understand this. My manager told me this in supervision in March but in a wayyyyy less brutal way. He just said that it seemed I was presenting as anxious and nervous when dealing with patients who were "kicking off" and aggressive on the ward and something along the lines of what S told me like about being a bit more passive about dealing with incidents. I do appreciate these comments as I am naturally a passive introverted and anxious person. Also sometimes I feel a bit stuck and don't know how to handle the situations straight away and it takes me time to formulate a solution. I was able to manage an incident on the ward during a night shift with an agency nurse, where the agency staff was as passive as me, and the situation was diffused and handled properly, so it proves I am capable. But the day staff don't see that I guess because K and S are very confident and overpowering as people so in comparison I look like I'm doing F all in terms of incidents.
Then on Monday, the clinical director told me about how I had not succeeded in the interview. This was despite the fact its been a bank holiday weekend, so HR weren't working so couldnt have appraised the interview notes taken. My managers on holiday at the moment. So it was probably a straight whatsapp text from S to our clinical director saying "tell my name she hasn't got the job lol". He said my answers to the questions were not detailed enough and that over the next few months I should try to consolidate my knowledge so if I apply for future posts I can perform better in the interview. He also asked me to talk about what I'd spoken to S about after the interview, and I mentioned what S said about my leadership and confidence on the ward. The clinical director told me I should listen to S and follow her instructions and said "she knows what she's talking about". I found this comment a bit weird and don't know quite the purpose of it. It sounded like a bit of a dig at me. It doesn't surprise me though given im sure he fancies the pants off of her. A colleague said he'd been flirting with her before, another colleague said they were sleeping together and I asked really but they didn't mention anything further, another colleague said they were friends. S is a gorgeous girl, I mean not a supermodel but she is definitely quite pretty. I imagine both the clinical director and my manager fancy her. When they come into the office they sit close to her and talk to her. Bet she loves the attention.
I just feel really hurt by all of this. There's just this big clique at work. S and the clinical director are friends. S and my manager seem quite close. S and K are very close and they're also friends with a part time support worker G. One time when I was giving an injection, G told me to hold it in for 10 seconds!! She's a support worker not even studying nursing yet she had the right to tell me what to do. Patronising AF. Then they're also best buddies with another 2 support workers. Also K and S were known to be bullying a support worker R, who was so upset by it all that she got another job. On shift, K and S had been telling R to leave the office and sit out on the ward, but G their best bud was allowed to stay in the office with them gossiping and G was applying her make up doing nothing.
I really am contemplating asking to move to a different ward. I cried after my supervision with S on Saturday. I cried even harder after my meeting with the clinical director yesterday. A support worker noticed I was crying and asked if I was okay and was like you sure? I had go hide in the pharmacy alone for 10 minutes to cry it out and i had to walk past the patients with tears coming out my eyes. I want to apply for a new job anyway in October, as I'm tied to my current company till then as they funded my degree. I hate shift work, I'd rather do 9 to 5 in community nursing or another 9 to 5 nursing job. But for now, I was thinking of asking to move wards. I currently work on a female acute ward. There are 2 other wards in the hospital that are less challenging. One is the private addiction ward and one is the eating disorder ward. They have their own challenges but they rarely have the type of incidents that occur on my current ward, the ones I'm always criticised in as being a poor leader in. I'm not 100% sure yet but I do feel very awful being on my current ward. The cliquiness and toxicity is so high here. Honestly. I'm thinking about it. I'll talk to my parents about it tomorrow as they're visiting (convenient timing). My dad was an occupational therapist in the NHS for many years so he might know more about workplace politics in healthcare. I just don't know what to do.

work #workplace #bullying #workplacebullying #workplacetoxicity #nursing #psychnurse #psychnursing #workproblems #workissues #workplacepolitics #bullyingatwork

Me and my buddy have been landing on the war bus at the beginning of the game to kill the NPCs on the turrets and take over the turrets to Kill the Boss. It's the latest strategy. However, on mobile, after I've killed the NPC I can't find a way to control the turret. There's no button or option that I can see. Does anybody know how to do this?

So there was a recent thread that got me to look back on the original plans for the 2.0 expansion material and I ended up digging through it a bit more than I ever had before. I figured it might be fun to write up a full breakdown of what I was able to gleam from my digging.
Before I begin, I should mention that the information available is spotty and inconsistent in places. For example, according to the TORCommunity database, a lot of these files were added in version 1.3 and 2.0. However, going back to the files that are in those patches (I love you Jedipedia), a lot of those files are not present in those versions. I assume this is internal marking, and is based on the dev's versions and not the live versions. In fact the Sith Warrior dialogues only show up in live in 5.0.0. I have no idea why those dialogues just suddenly popped into existence there.
Generally speaking I have four types of files available to look through.

• The first are the cnv (conversation) files, which are the most useful as they give the actual dialogue thereby telling us what the plot was. We have these for Bothawui for all republic classes, Ziost for Sith Warrior, "open world" (term used for quests between planets or for small instanced planets) for all five of the above, and one random Imp World arc file for Yavin IV. There are some that are blank, but the majority have something.
• The second are quest files for the quests. We have quests for all of the classes on Bothawui, Ziost, and Open Worlds. We have quests for Jedi Knight on Sleheyron. We have world arc quests for Yavin IV for both factions, and side quests for every planet. Unfortunately, these are a bit more hit and miss in their usefulness because some of them are missing strings. So sometimes we can get what all the steps of a quest were going to be, other times the only things we can learn are a name the quest used to go by and how many steps the quest was supposed to have. Even the ones that have all their strings aren't necessarily useful. For example, we have all the steps for the Sith Inquisitor quest, "A Warm Welcome." Step 1, " Take a Shuttle to Your Estate." Great, now we know the SI has an estate! Step 2, " Talk to the Sith Lord." And the usefulness is gone.
• The third type are creature files. These tell us who was planned to show up where, but they are of limited usefulness without context as to what the NPC was doing. For example, I can't immediatly tell the difference between a friendly, an enemy that starts friendly and turns hostile after a conversation, or someone that appears via holo-recording.
• The fourth "type" are "phantom files" that are listed in TORCommunity's databases, but are missing from what I am able independently datamine. I trust that TORCommunity's listings are correct, but there also isn't much to gain from these files since they are all empty (included in these are some of the missing cnv files).

Overall Plan

So to begin, it should be noted that all of these cnv files are located in the directory cnv.exp.01. This is the same naming convention used for the released Rise of the Hutt Cartel files. This makes it difficult to tell what Makeb's original role in the expansion was. It appears that it was intended to be part of the expansion as there is the following line from the Supreme Chancellor that appears to vary based on whether a Smuggler did Makeb before starting Bothawui.

(Did not do Makeb) "Of course I am. The Voidwolf's defeat is the only reason I can ignore being referred to as "Madame Chance. "
(Did do Makeb) "Of course I am. Your success on Makeb bought you considerable leeway with me--but "Madame Chance" is pushing it. "

Additionally according to TORCommunity's "added in patch" data, the majority of Makeb's cnvs were initially added in 1.3, which was the same patch that most of the other files were added for the cut content.
So in addition to Makeb, the planned planets appear to have been Bothawui (Pub), Ziost (Imp), and Sleheyron (Both). These three planets were intended to have class stories and side quests (no evidence of a world arc, but I don't know if none was planned or if they just didn't get to it). There is no evidence that Makeb was ever meant to have any class stories on it. Additionally, there is one conversation file for Imp Yavin IV. It was early on in development when they stopped working on it since the dialogue is just a summary of what happens in the scenes (e.g., a shuttle crashes), but there are quests and NPCs for both Pub and Imp world arcs, so there was more planned.
So in summary the plan appears to have been something like:

• Makeb (Shared Planet with World Arcs)
• Bothawui/Ziost (Faction Exclusive Planets with Class Stories)
• Sleheyron (Shared Planet Class Stories)
• Yavin IV (Shared Planet with World Arcs, placement uncertain but has to be before or after the class stories as an NPC that is kidnapped in a class story is a quest NPC)

Now before I start on discussing the content from each planet, it is worth mentioning that I have little context for most quests and NPCs, so I'm just going to be putting them in alphabetical order.

Bothawui

The overall setting for this Planet seems to have been that the Republic is going on the offensive and the Imperials are going scorched earth while they get pushed off planet.
Something that is well known (I think) at this point is that Dantooine on live is a modified version of the map that originally made for Bothawui. From the dialogue files that I've looked through, I'm betting the dam in the portion of the map we are on was originally called the Bosnar Dam, which was a set piece for one of the JK missions. Also probably worth noting that the there are multiple mentions of Bothawui being an important source of food, which probably factored into their choice to reuse the area since Dantooine is also a farming planet.
Quests

• Storm of Destruction
• The Butchers of Bothawui
• The Stone Ray's Lair
• Wet Work
• (Bonus)
  • Search and Rescue

Ziost

I'm really not sure what the state of Ziost was supposed to be. SW seems to be dealing with Pubs having taken over the planet defense grid. SI and IA seem to be dealing with internal politics. And I have no idea of what BH is up to.
Quests

• [HEROIC 2] Battle of Xeno District
• Caged
• Gateway to the Empire
• [HEROIC 4] The Horror at Black Forge
• (Bonus)
  • Cathar Fury
  • Counter-offensive
  • The Ritual of Naga-Sadow

Sleheyron

Honestly I have less of an idea for Sleheyron than Ziost since Sleheyron is either the least finished planet or the planet with the least files that has slipped into live.
Quests

• (Pub General Quests)
  • Castles in the Skies
  • Devotion to Duty
  • The Battlefield of Tomorrow
  • Tibanna Exchange
• (Imp General Quests)
  • Doomsday Virus
  • Master Logrus
  • Quantum Javelin

Yavin IV

I have very little idea on the Pub side of things. There are some clues for the Imp side though. While he lacks a creature file, the Imp quests make mention of reporting to Servant One. So that means Imps were probably here on a mission for the Emperor. My first instinct is reviving the Emperor, but I don't have enough info. General Heskar also made a return. Oh Imps also spoke to Naga Sadow's force ghost as part of their world arc.
Quests

• (Pub World Arc)
  • Crossing the Guard
  • Kagan's Endgame
  • The Interceder's Vengeance
  • Triumph by Fire
  • Under the Stone
  • (Bonus)
    • Endgame For All
    • Preparing the Temple
    • Prison Camp Sabotage
• (Pub General Quests)
  • Unforgotten Deeds
• (Imp World Arc)
  • Doom
  • Extraction
  • Into the Jungle
  • Meeting the Massassi
  • Rise
  • The Cursed Legacy of Naga Sadow
  • The Empire's Last Stand
  • The Fate of the Empire
  • To Face a Dark Lord
  • (Bonus)
    • A Shrine to Defeat
    • Friendly Competition
    • Marching Orders
    • Old Idols
• (Imp General Quests)
  • For the Emperor
  • Slash and Burn
  • War Games
  • (Bonus)
    • Burning Legacy

Jedi Knight

So the JK's overreaching plot for seems to have been working together with the Protectors (the rescue team we met on Makeb) in order to help evacuate people.
There are multiple mentions of a place called Talravin, which I'm guessing is where the story would start as the JK helps evacuations there. From reading between the lines, it appears that the JK would be sending the refugees to a new world called New Euphrades...and of course the story finishes with us fighting a Sith in orbit as he is trying to destroy it.
Based on quest names, it seems we were meant to go to Alphelion Six, which does not have a wookiepedia article so I guess it was a new planet, at some point. Since the finale seemed to be New Euphrades, I'm guessing this happened between Bothawui and Sleheyron. Whenever it happened, the Protectors were apparently going to join you there.
Seems that there was an ending choice for the JK between joining the Protectors full time or becoming the Battlemaster. There is a lot of dialogue regarding the role of Jedis, so this seems like a conclusion to that arc as the JK chooses whether to be a protector or a warrior? Scourge also mentions that he had additional visions, but doesn't provide anything useful just kind of says "yeah I totally knew you were going to make that choice" after you made it.
Rough Map

• Talravin to start the plot?
• Bothawui to rescue civilians from the fighting
• ??? (Alphelion Six?)
• Sleheyron to ??? (probably rescue more civilians)
• Area where Talaravin gets the shield codes for New Euphrades
• Battle over New Euphrades
• Report to the Chancellor where you get the choice between joining the Protectors and Battlemaster

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Crisis at Alphelion Six
  • Improving Performance
  • Soft Targets
  • The Parting Blow
  • The Price of Eternity
  • Welcome Captain Maddox
  • Welcome Doctor Kantos
  • Welcome Tefani
• Bothawui
  • A Rude Welcome
  • Blight of Bothawui
  • Double Time
  • Not a Drop to Drink
  • (Bonus)
    • Double Time
    • The Road to Vellik
• Sleheyron
  • A Hot Lead
  • Emergency Detour
  • Project Sever
  • The Ortis Problem

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Captain Maddox - Leader of the Protectors that are joining the JK. He joins you on your ship (like members of the Rift Alliance did for the JC?). Also dies, so I assume you might be taking his role if you joined the protectors.
  • Doctor Kantos - Head medical officer for the Protectors. She also joins the JK's ship. You could flirt with her, and she seemed to be receptive to both genders. There are confrontations at the end of the story for both Kira and Doc where you have to choose between your LI or her. So I guess she was planned as a continuous love interest...not sure how that would have worked since she wasn't a companion.
  • Tefani - Tech head for the Protectors who also joined the JK's ship.
  • Darth Legius - Praetor of the Dark Council's army (no idea how that is different than the normal army). He appears to be the main villain for the JK. He had sworn vengeance over us for "lying" about killing the Emperor. Also he had two apprentices that get the one-off villain treatment on Bothawui. Our final battle would have taken place aboard his flagship, the Vindicator after he pissed off the Dark Council. One dialog implies that at some point he becomes the first Sith to publicly acknowledge the death of the Emperor.
  • Darth Marr - No idea what his role was (probably holo-call with Legius?), but he is in the JK files
  • General Var Suthra - He could reappear during the Aphelion Six quest
  • Master Orgus Din - He appears in the Soft Targets files, so I guess we were meant to get more force ghost lessons from him?
• Bothawui
  • Garith - Local resistance fighter who is your initial contact when you arrive
  • Colonel Blight - Villain and probably part time Captain Planet villain. He is an efficiency expert who has been brought in to kill as many civilians as possible as the Imps retreat.
• Sleheyron
  • Agent Galen - Our old cybernetic buddy could show up

Jedi Consular

The JC's arc seems to be the most clear cut. The JC gets a vision of the galaxy burning because of Torwin Vehls and then sets out to find them and stop them. On Bothawui, the JC discovers that Torwin has the power to give power to others, and this includes giving force sensitivity to non-sensitives (and also to animals).
The JC fails to catch Torwin on Bothawui and must continue chasing after him before he find "the Shrouded Ones," which were something related to the Rakata. "The Shrouded Ones were built to be the end of everything. A solution, to our empire's final problem." Not sure if they were something new or something that already exists given a mysterious name. There are talks about them that makes them sound like they are machines powered by the force, but I'm not sure how that solves the Rakata's final problem or meshes with Torwin's power. Then again the Rakata were evil jerks, so maybe their solution was to just murder everyone so they didn't go down alone?
I feel like there is a good chance that this unused arc is the inspiration for at least part of the current arc since one of the powers Darth Nul is mentioned as having is awakening force sensitivity in those unaware they had it (slightly different, but if anyone starts mentioning Shrouded Ones, we know that is not a good sign).
Rough Map

• Get a vision somewhere (Voss diplomatic mission?)
• Bothawui to hunt down Torwin
• ??? (Remnants of Natukar? You work with Darth Kallomena to find a Rakata map to the Shrouded Ones)
• Sleheyron to hunt down the Shrouded Ones
• ???

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Remnants of Natukar
  • The Shrouded One
  • The Stack
  • Unforeseen Circumstances
  • (Bonus)
    • Clearing the Stack
    • Meeting the Delegates
    • Remnants Resistance
    • The Droids Within
• Bothawui
  • A Man of Vision
  • Broken Shield
  • Interpretations
  • Long Left Behind
  • (Bonus)
    • Healing the Land
    • Lured Beasts
    • Plowing the Fields
    • Skirmish at Narless
• Sleheyron
  • Conspicuous Consumption
  • Falling Sky
  • Groundbreaking
  • Into the Eye

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Darth Kallomena - A masked Sith that the JC encounters on Bothawui. She is also seeking Torwin because he is her charge or something along those lines.
  • Gnost-Dural - Shows up in the Unforeseen Circumstances quest
  • Voss - Several Voss also appear in the Unforeseen Circumstances quest, seems to be a diplomatic conference about the Voss wanting to send their commandos home to deal with the Gormak. No Gaden Ko though
  • Hallow Voice - Has some dialogue talking about the Shrouded Ones
• Bothawui
  • The Custodian - A Rakata that was made force sensitive against his will by Torwin in an attempt to bribe The Custodian into giving info on the Shrouded Ones
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Smuggler

Trying to describe this plot feels like a fever dream, but maybe that is appropriate for a continuation of the OG Smuggler story. So the Smuggler gets dragged into the story after an attack on Port Nowhere by a criminal gang.
The Smuggler tracks them down to Bothawui where you learn they are the Womp Family and that they have gotten ahold of a Superdreadnaught, which they refer to as a "space mansion." And they aren't just called the Womp Family, they actually are a family. The plot is essentially that a bunch of hillbillies got their hands on a...fully automated aircraft carrier(?) and are now going around launching air strikes on people that tipped their cows. They literally launch an orbital bombardment on the Smuggler at one point. Not his ship or base that he is at. Just the Smuggler after the Smuggler corners one of their members. They are also trying to extort the Republic. I don't know how things ended, but I imagine the dark side ending has the Smuggler getting a larger ship.
Rough Map

• Port Nowhere is attacked
• Bothawui to look into who was behind the attack
• ??? (Bothawui ends with Risha going to research Barabbula, so I assume we followed up on that lead next)
• Sleheyron to ???
• ??? (Probably the opportunity to steal the Superdreadnaught, but I don't have that dialogue)

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Confidence and Influence
  • Days of Infamy
  • Decontamination
  • Party Down
  • Spoiling the Surprise
  • (Bonus)
    • Securing Valuables
    • Threat Recognition
• Bothawui
  • Bothan Beatdown
  • Camp Shatter
  • Clean Sweep
  • Harsh Introductions
  • (Bonus)
    • Hidden Reset Phase (probably not actually a quest)
    • I Was Never Here
• Sleheyron
  • Celebrity Spotlight
  • Lab Samples
  • Public Spectacles
  • The X Particles

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Master Sumalee - She would have returned! And she had a fade to black! Also revealed that Satele dropped the prohibition against romance off screen. She seems to serve as the Smuggler's contact with the Republic (which was her job for one of the Smuggler endings).
  • Beryl Thorne - Don't know what she was up to, but she apparently reappeared in Party Down
  • Barrabula the Hutt - Owner of the superdreadnaught that was somehow stolen. Also the Supreme Mogul of the Cartel three hundred years ago.
• Bothawui
  • (Nobody I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Trooper

Trooper is leading the front lines of the battle on Bothawui with a reporter in tow. Had a scene that would have been interesting to see where the Trooper was to get airdropped in a bomb modified to serve as an entry craft. The reporter mentions having enough footage on Bothawui, so I'm not really sure where the expansion long arc was supposed to go from there. Immediately after Bothawui, you are the guest of honor at a party held by the Chancellor, so I guess the Sleheyron mission pops up there.
Rough Map

• ???
• Bothawui to liberate the world and get footage
• Be the guest of honor for a party the Chancellor is holding
• Sleheyron to ???
• ???

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Elements of Surprise
  • Freedom from Fear
  • Mercy Mission
  • (Bonus)
    • Surprise Party
• Bothawui
  • Battle of Liahstarn
  • Firing Solutions
  • (Hidden) Speak with Jonas and Chall (Chill?)
  • Reversal of Fortunes
  • Tactical Payload
• Sleheyron
  • Grasp of Shadows
  • Picking Up
  • Sleep Wake Cycle
  • Two for One

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Rylo Kann - Journalist that joins the Trooper for at least part of the expansion.
  • Jaxo - So I guess she was meant to reappear if alive.
• Bothawui
  • Jonas Balker - He would have returned. And he would have had a fade to black...something he still doesn't have on Live yet.
  • Dagger Wing - They would have returned from Belsavis to provide support on your campaign. They have an interesting choice where they ask you how to handle the reporter as he wants to interview them (unaware of the whole accidently war crimes backstory?).
  • Raven Squad - You were supposed to meet them on the battlefield, which would have included them calling bombers on your position. No idea if their current iteration is meant to be the same as this group, but they almost certainly reused the name since it wasn't otherwise being used. Their commander in this iteration is named Varis.
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Sith Warrior

Sith Warrior is the only one of the Imp classes that I have dialog for. On Ziost, the SW is in charge of getting the planetary defenses back after Pubs take them over. However the planetary defenses might only be a distraction because there is dialogue referring to the Sith Warrior saving the Voice who is a necessary component for reviving the Emepror.
The overarching plot seems to be a conflict with Gnost-Dural who seems to be looking into ending the Emperor for good. While the SW is dealing with Ziost, Gnost-Dural prepares to attack the hidden fortress where the Hand resides. The attack starts while the SW is reporting on their success in protecting the Hand. Once here Gnost-Dural captures all of the Servants except for Servant Twelve who goes to the SW for help. Servant Twelve drops the tidbit that if the hand was severed than (in this timeline) the Emperor can no longer revived. Gnost Dural seems unaware of this as he puts the Servants in stasis and carefully probes their minds to get information about the Emperor without hurting them.
Interesting to note that one of the quests is called Showdown on Ossus, so that might have been the inspiration for Gnost-Dural being on Ossus in Jedi Under Siege.
Also there is a dialogue that mentions the Sith Warrior putting down two Dark Council members. Not entirely sure which Dark Council members they were though. Checking the NPC list for all the Sith Warrior locations, the only Darths that are mentioned are Darth Baras and Darth Vowrawn. So I guess they were including Baras. I'm thinking that Vowrawn might have actually sided with Gnost-Dural? There is a line in a conversation during the Hand's Fortress that states, "His source remains a mystery--not even Darth Vowrawn or Zujen Vale knew our location." Zujen Vale is mentioned to be a traitor in a different conversation. So I guess Vowrawn being opposed to the Hand on Rishi might have been inspired by the original plan to make him opposed to the Emperor? And now I have Emperor Vowrawn on live instead. Funny how these things work.
There is also mention of the Sith Warrior making a speech during/after Ziost, which appears to have been about reform and appears to have been directed at the Dark Council. So I guess a LS option to try and put the fear of Wrath into the Dark Council after the Wrath did some house cleaning.
Rough Map

• ??? (The Final Revenge of Darth Baras?)
• Ziost to take back the planetary defenses and save the Voice
• Hand's Fortress to save the Hand
• Sleheyron to track down Gnost-Dural by following a data drop off
• ??? (Track down Gnost-Dural for final confrontation? Showdown on Ossus?)

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • End Times
  • Fracture
  • Showdown on Ossus
  • The Blood Splattered Talz
  • The Emperor and His Wrath
  • The Final Revenge of Darth Baras
  • (Bonus)
    • Breached and Boarded
    • Shattering the Jedi Seal
    • The Emperor's Secrets
• Ziost
  • Armageddon Approaches
  • The Fires of Ziost
  • The Hunt Begins
  • Voice in the Darkness
• Sleheyron
  • Echoes of Gnost-Dural
  • Hook Line and Sinker
  • Shutter
  • Solar Spear

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Servants 1-11 - Whole family reunion in this one
  • Servant 12 - Only one of the Servants to not get captured. Spends some time on your ship after the Hand's Fortress is raided. She is completely uninterested in the SW's attempts to flirt. Unlike the Protectors for the JK or Rylo for the Trooper, Servant Twelve does not have a creature file for the ship, so she might have been cutscene only.
  • Master Gnost-Dural - Seems to have been the main "villain"
  • Darth Vowrawn showed up in Fracture
  • Darth Baras could show up in The Final Revenge of Darth Baras
  • Lord Qet - Vowrawn's apprentice shows up too
  • Zujen Vale - A Sith you meet on Ziost. Secretly works for Gnost-Dural
• Ziost
  • Armageddon Battalion - They return to assist the Sith Warrior
  • Voice of the Emperor - Here to be rescued
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Sith Inquisitor

I have very little idea of what the SI was supposed to get up to. The SI seems to be hobnobbing with the Dark Council on Ziost, but beyond that I'm not quite sure what is going on. You did apparently get your own estate on Ziost though. So neat?
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • A Party to Remember
  • An Empire Divided
  • The Sanctum
  • (Bonus)
    • Crast's Betrayal
• Ziost
  • A Warm Welcome
  • Convergence
  • Lost Army
  • The Emperor's Tower

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Dark Council - Between An Empire Divided and a Party to Remember, I think we have a good chunk of the Dark Council showing up. I don't remember who was on the Council at this time, so I'm just listing all the Darths in the two quests and hope I'm not giving anyone a promotion. Arkov, Marr, Soverus, Acina, Mortis, and Ravage.
  • Lord Qet - I guess Vowrawn is represented by his apprentice while he's off doing things (and being killed?) in the SW story?
• Ziost
  • Moff Pyron - Everyone's favorite lackey showed up
• Sleheyron
  • (no NPCs in files I have)

Imperial Agent

At least part of the IA storyline seemed to be focused on cleaning up after Malgus's rebellion as there are NPCs with Malgus in their name. I'm not sure whether that was the focus of the entire expansion or if you stumble onto something else while dealing with "the betrayer's spymaster."
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • The Beast Awakens
  • The Broken Colonel
  • The Nightmare
  • The Player of Games
  • The Vigil
• Ziost
  • The Betrayer's Spymaster
  • The Grandfather of Terror
  • The Hidden War
  • The Secret Compact
• Sleheyron
  • Doppleganger
  • The Catcher and the Cage
  • The Highest Authority

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Ardun Kothe - Every IA's best friend can return! Although I guess it makes sense as I assume he becomes your handler if you give him the Black Codex
  • Shara Jenn - She would have returned...and gone by the name Nexus? I'm really not sure where that comes from. Weird thing is that her creature file is named shara_jenn, but for whatever reason IA has some NPCs with names. Had her creature file just been named Nexus, I would not have known it was her
  • Colonel Niar - This seems to have been a recurring character who even joins you on your ship (no creature file for him though). I've seen someone say that the IA storyline got converted to be the Imp Makeb storyline, and I suspect this NPC is where that idea originated from. I don't have any dialogue associated with the NPC, but I feel confident is not Katha Niar from Makeb since this NPC is a male (and the gender attribute is properly assigned on other unfinished NPCs). Sort of off topic, but it seems Katha Niar was originally named Kiar Onila.
  • Darth Marr - No idea what his role was, but he shows up
  • Ocean - I guess this is a code name for someone? You bring them to an escape shuttle at one point
• Ziost
  • (Nobody that I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • Saresh - Not sure what her role here was

Bounty Hunter

I have no context to make sense of the info I have for BH. An NPC named Zedania seems to be important. I can't tell what his role in the story was though. I think in one mission we are saving him though? So a client I guess? Also someone named Brand that we get a lot of holocalls from, so either an ally or a very mouthy antagonist?
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Meeting the Board
  • Nebula Station
  • Socio Pathfinding
  • (Bonus)
    • Resorting to Violence
    • Security Shakedown
• Ziost
  • All or Nothing
  • Biding Time
  • Poised to Strike
  • Set the Sky on Fire

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Darth Tormen - You don't get to lose your boss off screen in this timeline
  • Darth Marr - Dude was busy in this expansion. I'm guessing he was meant as an alternative for Darth Tormen
• Ziost
  • (Nobody that I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Random Observations and Quotes

• HK-51 and the ship droid both got reactions to the content in this 2.0. I think HK actually has some in vanilla that is no longer available since 4.0, but Ship Droid has none except for maybe some environmental reactions on Makeb?
• Smuggler (romancing Risha) after getting buried alive
  • If we only have a little air left, I say we use it up vigorously. How's that for a plan?
  • Like all your schemes, it's poorly thought-out and likely to end in violence. I'm in.
• Treek was not originally in the plans for this version of 2.0 as she is missing from the majority of companion reactions, but a small number of lines that mention her appear so I think they had decided to add her in the future before the scope was cut
• Servant One to the Sith Warrior
  • We also bore witness to your speech. The Empire's transformation does not concern the Emperor, but others may prove less tolerant.
• Kira to JK who has been flirting around
  • I'm starting to think that's true. I've been having all these violent urges lately... usually whenever I see you, or Doctor Kantos. And when I see you together? I mean, wow... kind of makes me want to hit you upside the head, you know?
• Elara after a flirt option (not sure if it is a kiss or fade to black since I only have dialogue) while waiting for a shuttle
  • I'm going to file an official commendation for the Bothan shuttle scheduling authority.
• Smuggler talking to someone he saved on Coruscant
  • Randomly shooting Imperials is one of my trademark moves. Glad you enjoyed the show.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed looking at this what if. If anyone has any questions about what is in the files, I can try to answer, but I can't make promises that the answers to your questions exist in the files.

I am not OP. That is u/metalslug53 who posted to BoomersBeingFools
TW: racism, slurs, sexism, verbal abuse and possible ageism
Original Post May 20th, 2024
I went into my local Walmart tonight for a quick grocery trip to pick up some stuff I was low on. Quick in and out trip, 15 minutes at most. Sad to say it didn't end up being a fast trip because when I arrived at checkout, I was stuck behind a Boomer who wanted to cause a scene.
The guy in front of me was with his wife, who were arguing loudly about God knows what. They had a substantial amount of stuff on the belt, including a few large bottles of various alcohols. When the Boomer scanned his way back to the bottles of alcohol, he froze and began searching around for an associate, who I presume he wanted to come and scan his ID.
The problem was that he didn't scan any of the bottles. He just locked up and stared directly at a girl who was busy at the monitor for the Self-Checkout registers the next aisle over. After about 30 - 45 seconds of not scanning anything, he loudly shouted "Excuse me" in his most condescending tone, followed by "Can you come and scan my fucking ID please?!"
His tactic worked, as the employee in question immediately whipped around and walked over. He was doing that typical arms-crossed bullshit, looking like everything was a giant inconvenience, and I will note, homie still hadn't scanned a single bottle of alcohol yet.
When this young woman was in speaking range, the Boomer began to lay into her. "It makes me real sick to see workers just standing around when they're on the clock doing nothing when people like me have schedules to keep. Can you do your fucking job please and scan my ID?"
"Excuse me?" she responded.
"You fucking heard me. Get off your goddamn phone and scan my card so I can get the hell out of here."
Now, I would like to note a few things about this interaction up to this point. First, this individual was still in a work outfit...a mechanic's onesie for a local mom-and-pop tire company that I won't name here, but one in which I know the owner pretty well. He's a family friend. Second, he was still wearing his name tag (Eric, somehow I hope you're competent enough to find your way here so you can see this story). Because of this, I knew how to address him.
Eventually he asks the cashier very rudely if she's going to scan his ID and she flat out tells him "No, I don't think so. Not after how you've treated me. You can talk with my manager." Good for her. She gets on a walkie and calls for a manager to come to the register the Boomer was towering over and briskly walked off towards the Customer Service counter at the front of the store. The Boomer starts loudly hollering about how this is all bullshit and he's just expressing his First Amendment rights.
It was at this point where I actually found some balls and decided to give my opinion, unsolicited, just so this guy could get an outside perspective on how much of a jackass he was being. "Excuse me, but the First Amendment doesn't protect you from looking like a douche bag to random strangers in Walmart when you treat other people like shit." The guy wheeled around and locked eyes with me. "What did you just say to me?" I just smirked and said "Oh, hard of hearing are we? I'm pretty sure you heard what I said."
The guy visibly shook on the spot. "This isn't any of your fuckin' business, so butt out!"
"I disagree. When I see someone acting like an asshole for no good reason, I make it a point to speak up. You seem to think that by stating that you have a First Amendment right means you can say whatever the hell you want without consequence, but that isn't how it works, sir. First Amendment protects you from government overreach for speaking your mind, but it doesn't protect you from the consequences you face from others for your words or your opinions."
"That's besides the point. I'm sick and fucking tired of these minorities doing nothing and getting a paycheck for it." He responded, rather loudly and unaware that there were quite a few people staring at this point. Hooray. Racism has entered the chat.
The manager showed up, and he starts in on how he scanned his alcohol and that the associate in question was VERY rude to him and refused to serve him. He started stating that she told him he wouldn't get help because he was white when I interjected again.
"Ma'am, that is NOT what happened. This gentleman didn't even scan any of his alcohol and immediately started shouting down at your employee, just for the sake of being upset. He was rude, unpleasant, and even made unnecessary racial comments."
He wheeled around at me again and yelled "Shut the fuck up and mind your business!" before going on the tirade again. Something something lazy workers, something something First Amendment and speaking his mind.
"You know, this is very unfair of you." I started again. "You've put that poor girl in an unwinnable situation. Now that you've raised this untrue complaint, her manager is going to have to have words with her even though she hasn't done anything wrong. Does that sound fair to you, Eric?" I don't think he realized he was still in uniform, because he looked at me puzzled at how I knew his name. "How would YOU feel if someone came into your place of business and told John a bunch of bullshit about how YOU were treating them unfairly when you knew perfectly well that it was a lie? Or even better, how would your boss react if he knew you were acting like this WHILE STILL IN UNIFORM with his place of business plastered all over your chest?" When he heard me say the name of his boss, he stopped cold. "Yes Eric. I know John VERY well, and I think I might be paying him a visit tomorrow. That is unless you decide to apologize to that girl for being a lying prick instead."
The guy then became very rushed and suddenly in a colossal hurry. He muttered something about people not minding their own business, to which I replied with "I'm just eXpReSsInG mY FiRSt AmEnDmENt RiGHts!" Spongebob sarcastic voice and all. He scanned one of the bottles and had the manager scan his ID. His wife started in about how I better not show up to his office tomorrow...something directed at me, but I wasn't paying her any attention and brushed her off. I was just staring at Eric and watching him bag.
Eventually, he got all of his stuff put in his basket and he marched out, but he didn't apologize to the manager or the employee and gave me a hearty "Go fuck yourself, asshole!" as he flipped me off. I scanned my groceries and paid for my merchandise, but man was I smiling from ear to ear.
Afterwards, I made it a point to go and speak with the manager and the employee in the Customer Service center. As expected, the manager was having a conversation with the employee about that customer, and she thanked me for speaking up. I've worked retail before, so I know what it's like having to deal with assholes like Eric. It'd be a cold day in hell before I let a Boomer bully an employee then weasel his way into a victim role with management. Not on my fucking watch.
So now my next play is to show up to this tire shop tomorrow. I really hope Eric is there. I hope he's the opener. I'm going to walk in and just smile at him. Ask to see his manager. Then I think I'm going to go in and just weave the NICEST story about how he treated the employees at Walmart, so much so that I was compelled to stop in and tell his boss that he has a real winner on his hands, and that I'm a customer for life now.
Maybe that way, he might get a message. MAYBE, he will realize that I could have started a whole shitstorm for him, but I chose not to, because unlike him, I'm not a fucking dickhead.
tl;dr *(For the upset Boomers in this thread who don't like reading, it seems): Boomer got big mad for no reason and berated a Walmart employee while he himself was wearing his work uniform. I'll be paying his boss, a family friend, a visit tomorrow to discuss his employee's behavior while still representing his place of work.
Update May 21st, 2024
Proof I was here. (As I stated in the first thread, I will not be disclosing this location to any of you. Took as neutral of a photo as I could. If you live here, MAYBE you'll recognize it. Take it for what it is, I guess.)
Link to part one.
Before we begin, let me start by saying WOW, simply because when I passed out last night, I was hovering around ~350 upvotes and had a steady trickle of interaction with people. I was doing my best to respond to the comments as they came in. Then, when I woke up this morning, ya'll...I had over 1500 messages in my inbox and the thread has fucktupled in upvotes, just overnight. I'm so sorry if I didn't respond to you...it was a fool's errand to try and get to everyone.
I also want to address specifically a small handful of you...the ones I was certain would show up in the comments to basically call me a liar or say my story was fabricated. Some of the reasons you gave were pretty telling. My favorite was when someone said something along the lines of "This is too well-written to be true." What a world we live in where clear dictation automatically disqualifies a recounting of events from being accurate. I'll admit that it read closer to a novel than anything else, but that's just how I dictate I guess.
Anyways, onto the update.
I arrived at the tire shop just a hair after 8:00am. There was one gentleman in line at the counter when I arrived, but he was already being assisted by one of the associates manning the register. I took a look around and peeked my head in the back office area where I knew John typically worked when he wasn't being pulled into a bay.
John wasn't there.
As I walked towards the sitting area, I happened to ask an employee who was walking by if he knew when John would be in today. He told me John usually arrives a bit before 9:00am when he worked mornings, so I should just chill for a bit. I didn't have anything pressing to attend to today, so I did just that.
As I moved towards a seat, I happened to glance outside at the working bays and noticed my ol' buddy Eric, who was currently walking towards the main building. When he saw me, I watched as his head drooped down and I could visibly see him mutter the word "Fuck" under his breath. He stopped for just a second, shook his head, and continued walking towards the building.
When he came inside, he set a packet with what I presume was a customer order on the counter and said something to the clerk at the register. He hesitated for a moment and walked over to where I was sitting. As he approached, I greeted him with "Morning, Eric." and smiled. He just stood over me for a moment before he took a chair across the coffee table that was sitting in front of me.
Wonder what his next move was?
Honestly, I didn't expect it, but the dude opened with "I owe you an apology."
Color me shocked, I guess.
Now, you see...at this point about a billion things began to run around in my head. MOSTLY, for some reason, the things that ran most prominently through my mind were all the calls for bloodshed that popped up in the last thread. All the claims that Boomers can never learn and the only language they knew was bullying, which were thrown at me like mortars practically every step I took. Ya'll were bloodthristy last night and still were this morning, convinced that this gentleman was a drunkard asshat, but do drunk asshats apologize after doing something wrong?
Back to the story.
He continued on, saying that he didn't just owe ME an apology, but also the cashier he yelled at last night, and how he had actually planned on returning to Walmart on his lunch break to see if she was working so he could apologize to her as well. In his words "I've been dealing with a lot of personal shit in my life recently including the loss of a loved one, and I took that out on ya'll last night and it wasn't right."
Right about this time is when I noticed that John had arrived. He walked in through the door behind where Eric and I were sitting and walked straight into the back area I checked before. We will get to that later.
Guys, I honestly had no idea what to do. On one hand yes, this dude was a raging douchebag to that girl last night, but this felt genuine. I mentioned several times in the first thread that I didn't want to react hastily and this is exactly why. Had I gone in there and thrown a colossal fit and started a shitstorm, I don't know if this would have ended the same.
Anyways, I don't wish to grandstand things further. The guy apologized, I stood up and shook his hand, and I simply told him "Be good to people for no reason, man. Kindness is free and isn't a sign of weakness." We chatted a bit and had a bit of a revelation that Eric and I have a distant connection neither of us really knew about. I won't disclose what or how we knew each other for personal reasons.
Then John came out of the back office.
He recognized me and gave me a hug. Asked what I was in for. I basically told him that I ran into Eric at the store last night and wanted to check in on him and get an update on an issue he was having there.
That's when John said "Yeah, Eric I need to talk to you about that. I had a lady call me about something that happened at Walmart you were involved in."
Oh shit. I'm guessing either the manager or the cashier called John after what happened last night. I guess the ball isn't in my court any longer.
Eric gave a deep sigh and basically told John "I was a shithead to a cashier last night because I was in a hurry. I wasn't thinking and it wasn't right. I'm gonna make it right at lunch time. I hope she's working today." John then said something I didn't catch and him and Eric walked into the back room.
That's it. End of story. I took a scrap from a notebook, jotted down my "proof" and snapped a photo, then jumped in my car and left.
I certainly hope that this brings you guys whatever closure you were looking for. I'm certain some of you aren't going to be happy with how this turned out, given how many pitchforks I saw last night. But after all this, all I can say is to not be so hasty when jumping to conclusions. People are people, ya'll. You can't really be sure what someone is going through before you jump to judgment. Some folks don't know how to ask for forgiveness or don't know how to take responsibility for their actions, but some folks can. I'm glad this resolved itself the way it did. John knows what happened and knows that it happened with his business on full display, so he can now CHOOSE how HE reacts with that information. I got the closure I needed, and I hope the cashier does too. Time will tell in that regard, I suppose.
Be good to each other.
EDIT: I'm present in the comments, trying to interact with as many of you as I can. But comments are coming in so fast I can't keep up. Sorry!
EDIT 2: Still getting a tidal wave of comments. The inbox is filling up rapidly. I am now turning off notifications and calling it a day. Thanks for all the input! Lots of love!
EDIT 3: Inbox replies disabled, but I'm still surfing comments. It's wild to me that SO MANY PEOPLE are upset that this didn't play out the way they hoped. Guys, I'm not saying Eric is a saint here. I'm not saying what he did was excusable. But I absolutely refuse to try and add any more suffering to the situation than has already been dealt. Some of you want me to return and get this guy fired. Some of you want me to post his info online. None of this will be happening. I consider this story done and there will be no further interjection on my part. I know some of you won't like that response (hell, some of you have already taken to insinuating that I'm excusing racism in the comments. Big yikes, guys.), but this is where things end with me.
Reflect on your own feelings after reading this. A whole lot of you are still angry. But a whole lot of you are happy with how things played out. I'm personally glad where things end. Whether or not that makes me a fool, naive, or an idiot is your opinion to have I guess, but I can walk away from this knowing that my presence extracted an apology. That's good enough for me.
Keep being kind. It's genuinely a real-life superpower. The universe rewards kindness in kind.
I am not the original poster. Please don't contact or comment on linked posts

After around 40 runs of duriel over this weekend myself and a buddy noticed something strange happening. When the boss dies and the loot starts dropping and unique helm will hit the ground then Immediately and unique amulet will hit and the helm would disappear. Now this doesn't happen ever run but it did it enough for us to notice. Has anyone else had this happen.

Hi guys ! Hi our potato Queen ! This will be kinda short, knda, the revenge is short but let's have some context !
I, (28F) had a friendship of 10+ with my best friend (27M). We were close like siblings, I've seen him as my brother and he told me he felt like I was his sister as well. We were there for each others for the last ten years :
He was here for me when : I cutted ties with my toxic mother, went through trial with an ab*sive boss, struggled with employement for months and almost got kicked out of my appartment when I struggled to pay the bills.
I was there for him when : he discovered he was going blind, his sweet heart cheated on him with his best friend (I know, THE TEA), struggled with his familie's relationship, when his little brother harmed himself I drove the two of them at the hospital and I took care of his sister when she got injured once (I was a paramedic at the time)
All of that and the usual ups and downs of everyday life, what I mean by that is we were very close and I thought our bound was unbreakable. Well, recently he got with a new girl that stuggle with her mental health, which is okay but makes her a very instable partner. She :
Cheats on him, he's aware and want to continue.
Drinks a lot and that doesn't go well with her medication.
She called me once at 2am to take her and her drunk friends home, DESPITE my bestie not being there with her. (And I had to bring her and her two buddies each in their own home mind you)
She bringed a cat in HIS house after he firmly told her no because she can barely take care of herself yet alone a cat and he knew the responsability would fall on him. Which it did.
It lasted for about six months on and off this way and I was there for him, trying to talk him out of his mess cause he deserved better, yadda yadda, being there almost every evening so he would have someone to talk to until he fell asleep (big challenge cause he's an insomniac mind you) point it, I was there and at some point I needed him to be there for me. Which he failed to, which led to an argument and he lost his ever loving sh*t calling me names like trailer trash, etc.
He was always a heated guy, he was worse when we met, he never loses his temper for nothing but he loses it quickly and then calm down, he got this flaw under control most of the time. But that would lead him to often say he was going to go No contact with someone, and then a few days later he calm down and contact them again. He was a bit of a drama queen in that regard but he was such a good and loyal friend otherwise it was easily overlooked. I took my friend the way they are, with their flaws just like they do for me ! (I'm a grudgefull noisy ass who used to be extra touchy about anything, i'd fight you over a fly ! but i get better ! XD or at least I try lol)
So anyway, back to the argument, he lost his temper and clearly said things that he was not thinking, I knew that, but the things he said were beyond the scope of forgiveness. There is things you are NEVER allowed to say under any excuses. And he crossed the line, I cried a lot then realized there was no coming back from the way he treated me, insulted me, spat on my past and insecurities, etc.
So, I gave him a lenghty lecture of why I was the best friend that was there for him, that I will miss my friend but I won't be there anymore to talk to the absolute POS he became. I told him that unlike him, when I go NC with someone, I follow through. I blocked him on everything and bid my goodbyes, I have no problem with cutting ties. I've cutted my own mother out of my life with the kick in the pant, ain't no one that is too precious to not be kicked out if they become toxic to me. I've worked too hard to build my spine to let anyone crush it ! I'd rather be alone with my plants !
Here's the petty part. We are both big gamers and he allowed me to borrow one of his favorite game before the dispute. Fable. I returned it to him, in his mailbox a few days ago. He was probably thinking he'd never get it back after our friendship's downfall. But I did returned it. And knowing that he was home, I did it singing "So what" by Pink as loud as I could in my car. (That's something I always do and he's used to me singing in the car, he knows that's me when there's a singing loony coming his way) I made sure to scream the "I don't need you ! Guess what I'm having more fun !"
It's not just a pretend either, I do indeed go well better than ever cause I've finished my therapy a month ago ! Yey !
So that's its my potato friends, sometimes being petty is just showing off how well you do without someone toxic in your life and doing something nice knowing damn well that every time he will play that game he will KNOW that he only can play it because I. AM. A. GOOD. PERSON. Or at least that's what I shoved down his throat by doing this move ehehe. Maybe I'm a petty b*tch, but I'll take it with pride. I ruined his favorite game for him, forever, by being everything but a stealing trailer trash.
Proved him wrong in one go !
Kill it with kindness ♥
(I also think that every time he will hear this or any of the songs I used to sing, he will think of me. My haunting as officially begun and I'm still alive, ain't that a thing !)
Toodles my dearest potatoes ! May your kindness always thrive even and especially when it involve pettyness and have one hell of a good day ! And also drink water, stay hydrated dear beauties ! ♥

i just joined a new company in April 2024 as a Sr. Key Account Ex (Sales) after serving my previous job for 11 years also doing Sales. I really loved my old job and was passionate about it. However, i decided to change my job as I was seeking something new thinking that I had just grown comfortable in the job. My old company is a small business with less than 10 ppl and the new company has more than 100 ppl with sister companies and tons of divisions.
Within the first week of the job I had this bad anxiety attack from the new job. I was not loving it. There are so many products to sell and I am not getting any product training. After voicing it out, it is now going to be arranged in June. Additionally, there are a couple of red flags that i see.

1. I work in a small division and the manager and HOD has been in this company for more than 10 years. They are very close and buddy buddy like.
   
2. They work all the time. There are emails on weekends and early mornings. They dont expect me to reply. However, after probing, they have no other life apart from work. They both have kids but would start working during any free time they have.
   
3. Tons of micro-managing. I get a lot of emails and whatsapp messages saying do this, arrange that. "Have you followed up on X?". I basically have a set of eyes watching me the whole day.
   
4. Lack of autonomy. While I am entasked to handle my key accouts. However, they expect me to handle it the way they would instead of giving me the autonomy of doing it my way. Since they know the customer, they would masuk campur and disuss something and just tell me what to do after that.
   

With all that, I really do not have the mood or passion to work here. Its been less than 2 months and I plan to quit. I have not applied for other jobs. Would it really look bad If i quit and then find a new job. How do I justify quiting this job that would be acceptable to a new employer. Also, I wonder what other career prospects can I do if its not sales? I have an engineering background but dont enjoy doing "engineering" work.
I did leave my old job in good terms. However, my ex-boss mentioned that they have hired a replacement that will come in July. My best bet if I wanna go back there is if the new person doesnt show up.
FYI, I do have enough financial backing to sustain if I am out of job for a few months.
TLDR;
Joined a new company in Apr after leaving my previous sales job of 11 years. This new job is toxic and giving me anxiety. I have not applied for a new job as I fear that it will not look good to my new employer. At the same time, I dont wanna be here much longer. How do I navigate this well?

Really loving 1.0 - major kudos to the devs for a beautiful and fun game. The QoL updates and additions from pre-launch are excellent. I have 424.2 hours of play time as of this post.
I'm just getting to the soul shards part of the game, and while I think the change to neck pieces is interesting, I'm not crazy about it. I would rather it be like the old system of having the passives as long as you have the obelisk, and still allowing me the benefit of the chosen neck piece.
That said, I get that the change was made largely to keep it out of the hands of just one person or clan, especially on a PVP server. That its meant to create a risk scenario for taking unique object out into the world to recharge it.
I play PVE, and on a private server to boot; with only 1-2 buddies that join in. These changes are all negative for me/us; even right down to only one person benefiting, without having multiple obelisks. (one friend is refusing to even engage with this new system entirely)
The drain rate is astonishingly fast, and I'm told (haven't verified) that if it reaches 0 durability it disappears and has to be reclaimed from the boss. I don't care for this at all.
If you (Stunlock) are dead-set on leaving the current system, here is my ask:
-a PVE version that is persistent with normal durability; or the game recognizing which way the server is flagged and adjusts the item appropriately.
-greater recharge rate upon killing an event boss (full fill would be preferred)
-lower durability drain (3-5 real time days)
-bat form while wearing it (not having this is a friction point for me personally)
-no durability loss while its in the pedestal
-option to not have it return to the boss
-private server adjustments for all of the above. (we really need some server settings like that many other parts of the game)
I would really like to see some consideration for a version of this system that is less frustrating for PVE private server players.
Thank you for reading - again, love the game.
Cheers, -=FATTSB

I copy pasted this from a longer version of this story so that’s why these are labeled part 2 and 3. I edited out/ added context to make this part make sense on its own. And I’m trying to give as much context as I can to show why I’m having these feelings. Me and my husband have known each other a little over a year, we have been dating for 7months and married for 2months, crazy timeline I know but it’ll make sense with the rest of the context lol. (why I refer to him as leany was explained in the first part, just go with it) tldr@bottom of post
This next part is basically part 2: Flash forward and I start being friends with this guy at work that I had a crush on ( you guessed it, it’s Leany) he was a dishwasher at first but by this time they have him doing everything but that. He is a tall, light skin nerdy guy with curly hair and glasses that were broken so he literally had the stereotypical nerd piece of tape in the middle holding them together lol. He NEVER SPOKE when he was doing dishes, he had his headphones in and did his job. But once he started doing other things in the kitchen we would have a small interaction when he would come put more plantain on the line( I served food at a Jamaican spot) one day he restocked them and I said thank you, and he said “ur welcome” yall in that moment it went from a little crush to damn near a full on obsession, his voice was so deep and sexy like idk what I thought he would sound like but it wasn’t that. Flash forward to new years 2023, he gets drunk asf at the work New Year’s party, and my boss asks me to to take him home, (at this point me and him are kind of cool every once in a while we’ll hotbox my car while on break) so now I’m really excited to have time to talk to him alone and stuff and my boss wasn’t helping cause she was drunk too and kept winking and being suggestive about me giving him a ride she was like “be nice to him, be gentle with I’m if you get some, yall would be so cute together, he is a sweet boy he needs a good girl like you “ and all my coworkers are egging this on, so I leave to take his drunk ass home, and when we get there he asked if I wanted to smoke before I headed home, I said yes duh. So he rolls up and we get to talking and you know wtf he says to me “do you know if (girl we work with) likes me?” My heart sank so fast and my crush died right there because I knew it was a waste of time, me and this girl were nothing alike, We’ll call her B. B(f20 at the time) is a short darkskinned girl with a really nice body and a pretty face. I knew if she was his type he’d never look at me that way. Now he’s where things get messy kids, put on ur overalls. Me, B and another girl at work were kinda cool, tho I wouldn’t really call us friends (B and the other girl were really good friends, they hung out outside of work) anyways one day the third girl had asked me and B if we thought “Leany” was cute, I said yes, third girls said yes, B said no. “He’s not my type” (mind you B likes older, toxic, emotionally manipulative type men. She would say shit like “Leany just doesn’t get my 🐱wet” she was mainly dealing with this 40something year old man that she swore she was in love with, she would literally say she knew he was only with her for her body, but she still loved him and was convinced they’d be together forever, she even tried to talk me into having a threesome her and him) so when he asked me that question that night I told him about that day when we talked about it. Y’all I STG I meant no harm, at this point me and Leany are friends so I’m thinking he’s tryna get advice before shooting his shot so I wanted to be real with him so he didn’t embarrass himself. But then he gets mad and is like “ oh that lying bitch she told me I was handsome” and I’m like huh??? Then he pulls up their messages and shows how she would like low key flirt with him because he was a simp and he was buying her shit, giving her weed for free, and I’m like oh shit I fucked up, cause had I known they were already talking I wouldn’t have told him that, I just would have minded my business but I was thinking he wanted to shoot his shot so I was telling him it might not work out. He asked her she wanted for Christmas and she sent him an Amazon link for some 50$ hubcaps she wanted for her car. (Keep in mind this man is drunk asf during this whole conversation) he had already bought the hubcaps, but now he is seeing that she’s running game on him he doesn’t want to give them to her, so he is trying to give them to me. And I’m like nahhh buddy, at this point I was trying to become better friends with B cause like I said I didn’t have any friends in this new state. I’m like “wtf am I gonna do with them”
he says “put them on ur car”
and i said “and then show up to work with the same hubcaps she knows you just said you would buy for her”
and he’s like “yep exactly, and if she asked about them tell her you got them from Leany”
“no dude, ur drunk asf and you have valid reason to be upset but I’m not getting in the middle of this.” He goes and gets the damn hubcaps anyways and like I’ll put them on for you right now. I keep telling him no to go inside and get sobered up, but he is not taking no for an answer😭 he’s just like “okay pop the trunk I’ll put them in there, you can put them on later.” I said “I’m not using them, if you put them in my trunk, I’m gonna sell them” he said he didn’t care as long as B didn’t have them so finally I let him put them in my trunk and we said goodnight. Time goes on, he is still being led on by B, he’s got it bad for her, and me and B are getting a little bit closer sometimes the three of us hang out together outside work. It gets messier kids, grab ur rain boots. B and her mom got into it, she moves out and moves in with Leany….. mind you I’m pretty good friends with both of them at this point, they both drink a lot and they are literally constantly fighting like a fucking old married couple. Leany is upset that B, is out hooking up with Other dudes every night and keeps telling him about it despite knowing that he has a crush on her, B is mad that Leany can’t let go of his crush even tho she is definitely still towing the line with him. I’m hearing both sides of the same story about the arguments form each of them separately with both of them conveniently leaving out things they said or did that make them look bad, I’m not picking sides tho, and I don’t tell one about what the other is telling me, despite them constantly asking what the other is saying about them. I tell both of them that they are wrong, Leany is wrong because he is only letting B stay with him in hopes that they might hook up, and B is still leading Leany on and giving him false hope so that she can have a place to stay. (Mind you they are living in his mother’s house, with his disabled uncle, and his brother lives in the garage!) so the whole house is having to deal with their drunk asses arguing all the time, his mom goes on vacation to visit her other son and grandkids she is gone for like 4-5months and during this time she gave B permission to sleep in her room. And they are still arguing all the time till things finally come to a head one night. B is not even of legal drinking age yet, but she has a fake ID so she will still go out and get drunk and drive home, one night they were both drunk and arguing and she tries to leave and Leany takes her keys and is like “no, I’m not letting you drive drunk” she calls the fucking cops on him… and tells them that he won’t give her her keys and of Course he is saying because she is drunk. She manages to convince the cops that she isn’t drunk somehow and they make Leany give her the keys otherwise he is basically holding her hostage and she leaves. Why he didn’t put her out after that I do not know, but both of them are getting worse with drinking and worse with arguing and now his mom is about to come home so he tells her for the 100th(and finally final) time that she needs to leave cause this shit is toxic and their whole dynamic is weird cause they aren’t even a couple and they are going at it like this, B has decided to join the military and is trying to convince him to let her stay till she leaves for boot camp but he’s not having it they end up arguing again and Leany say’s probably one of the most fucked up hurful things you could say to someone to her, I’m not gonna be specifics but it was pertaining to a certain type of abuse that B experienced as a child. At that point she finally decides to stop talking to him and block him, during this final argument he was literally throwing her stuff out of his house and she grabbed it and left with it but left a lot of shit behind, he says that she left his moms room a mess with dirty dishes piled up in there and even left her vibr@tor on his moms bed he threw the rest of her stuff away and cleaned the room and that was the last time they spoke. He felt like shit afterwards and even stopped drinking for a long time, he kept texting her to apologize but she had him blocked, and he even tried going thru me to contact her. but atp me and her are hardly friends because I don’t like the way she was treating Leany and B also fell out with the other girl at work that she was close with because of how she used to treat her especially when she got drunk, B would get really belligerent. I had already bowed out of their drama because they would constantly come to me to complain about each other but when I would say “yall are both shitty people in this situation“ they would tell me to shut up and mind my business so I started shutting them down when they tried to talk about each other to me. He was mad that I wouldn’t help him get in contact with her but I didn’t care, B told our boss about what he had said to her so our boss made sure to schedule them on different shifts.
Part3:(gets a little NSFW, but I’ve censored it best as I can) Flash forward some more and things have kinda blown over. Me and Leany are pretty close atp, but not too close cause I didn’t like the side of him I saw come out with B, and also I didn’t like how he always prioritized their friendship over ours, and now it felt like me and him were only this close because B cut him off. Leany decided he was also gonna join the military, but in different branch than B. She has already left by now also. And Im also thinking about taking that route and the same branch as him. He started talking to a recruiter and I said before you leave we should get together and get a drink to say goodbye cause yk, he had to quit smoking to join so we couldn’t hotbox. This is months later and he’s started drinking again in moderation. his go to is cans of Twisted Tea. So he was like yea let’s do it I’ll go the liquor store what do you want to drink I told him I wanted to try the Monster Beast, cause I fucking love monster energy drinks. So he grabbed me 2 and grabbed himself 2cans of twisted tea. By the time I got to his place he had already been drinking (come to find out he had already had 2cans, and was on his third one by the time I got there but I thought it was his first) anyways he drinks his tea and I drink my monster and I’m like we should get really lit, like do some shots, so we go back the liquor store together and buy a bottle of Bacardi rum, on the way back we passed the adult novelty store and I was like “I always wondered what was in here” so our tipsy asses go in. I end up getting a d!ldo and he gets some c*ck rings. It was buy 2get one so we also grabbed a bottle of cleaner for my toy. He payed for everything (mind you at this time I am still regularly hooking up with my ex, I actually picked that d!ldo because it looked exactly like what my ex was packing) we come back to his place and proceed to get fucked up off this bottle. of course he is miles ahead of me cause of those 2cans I didn’t know about, and we both open our new toys from the shop. He asked me how far In my mouth I could fit mine and I’m like “mf how far can you fit it” and he’s like you show me first and I’ll go next and I just wanted to see him put a dildo in his mouth so I went first💀 I could fit about half of it I think but he could fit damn near the whole thing lmao, (he just has a really big mouth he said it didn’t touch his throat lol) it had a suction cup on the bottom so he stuck it to the wall and was like “lemme push ur head, I think you can fit more in there” and I’m like okay go ahead but I’m drunk so if I throw up on ur bed that’s on you” even with him pushing me I couldn’t go much further. Then he turned around with it and was like comparing it to his own d!ck with his back facing me and he was saying it was little bit bigger than he was and I’m like what? so he turned around and showed me the comparison. Y’all his thing was so pretty, lengthwise it was about the same as the toy (not fully hard btw so def longer than the toy fr) but it was much thicker. And he had shaved so I could see the whole thing and drunk me and horny me are one in the same so instantly I wanted to suck it. He left to go to the bathroom and I’m just sitting in his room wondering if I’m really about to do this, but knowing my drunk ass definitely was. Now like I said we were very drunk so when I think back on that day it’s like watching a slide show in a room with strobe lights, like I just have different scenes in my head but no clue which order or how they transition from one moment to the next so bare with me, cause all I really remember was me trying to suck him and him encouraging me to go deeper, then he was on top riding my face, but his dingaling angles upwards so that just made it harder, then we were on the floor trying to take more shots but we spilled half the bottle of rum.🤦🏾‍♀️ then were wrestling but naked on the floor laughing at some point I took a belt and tried to wrap it around his throat but it ended up wrapped around his face(don’t ask why idk why😭😭) at one point we were actually having s3x (he wasn’t the best Ngl, no hip action at all he was using his knees in missionary) so I asked for back shots but he kept going soft later on he told me it was because he was super nervous cause i had “all that @ss” and he didn’t know what he was doing 😂 then at some point he opened the door a crack cause he thought he heard something and I’m like dude close the door were naked and his drunk ass goes “this is my house I can be naked” throws the door open and walks through the house outside (backyard) to take a piss, this sobered me up so fast and I threw on some clothes rq to go get him cause we weren’t the only ones home at the time. I walk outside and grabbed his hand and as I’m walking him back inside his mom was standing in the living room, and she like “boy wtf are you naked??” My drunk ass ain’t no what to say so I dropped his hand and bee lined back to the room, then they sat out there for like 5 minutes talking and he came back in annoyed and started putting clothes on and he was asking me to go talk to her and I’m “like wtf am I supposed to say to her” and he said “could you tell her I’m not a fucking r@pist” and I’m like bruh what???? Apparently the walls are thin, so she could hear most of what was going on in the room, so from her perspective: she could hear us fumbling around in there knocking stuff over, remember I said he was encouraging me to take more of him in my mouth he was kind of aggressive about it (nothing I didn’t like, I promise) so she’s hearing shit like “you can take it, move your hand, does it hurt” and then he comes out the room butt naked and I still have clothes on😭😭😭 so yea things from her POV were a little sketchy to say the least. So I went out and talked to her and apologized for disturbing her, and said it was my idea to come over and drink with Leany as a way to say goodbye before he left for boot camp(didn’t help I had gotten the hiccups from being drunk and nervous lol). And she said there’s nothing wrong with having a drink from time to time buts it’s the middle of the afternoon and we took it to far and she told me to sleep on the couch to sober up and she got me some blankets and stuff and I thanked her. I stepped outside to tell Leany I talked to her, he was out front smoking a cigarette and he asked “did you tell her I wasn’t forcing myself on you” and I told him I didn’t get to say that cause she cut me off telling me to lay down, and he was upset that she might still be thinking he tried to hurt me. So when she came out I made sure to tell her that wasn’t the case but being drunk as I was I basically said “i know that might have sounded crazy from ur perspective, but nothing happened in that room that I didn’t want to happen” and she was trying not to laugh and he was whispering under his breath for me to please stfu💀 Anyways I came in the room to get a pillow for the couch and he told me to lay in the bed so we could take a nap, and I’m like I think ur mom wants me on the couch, and he just said “she’ll be fine she just wants us to sleep and sober up I’m not gonna make you sleep on the couch.” So we slept and woke up later that night I think it was around 11, but I’m not sure I just know it was super dark. Anyways after that day I started spending a lot more time at his house but we weren’t having s3x we really were just chilling watching anime and drinking twisted teas, my aunt and me were beefing so I was spending most of my time at his place, she was talking about putting me out and I had asked him if I could stay with him till I could afford a bus ticket back to my home town. But he said his mom wasn’t comfortable with him having more house guests after all the shit with B. And I couldn’t be mad at that. we were cuddled up and stuff and after damn near a month i was like I know better than to be laid up with man like this with no label so I popped the question “what are we” I have to be honest tho, he kinda asked first, like he was trying to sus out what type of timing I was on, but I didn’t have an answer for him so when I asked him he turned it back on me like “I keep asking you the same thing” and I’m like I feel like we’re definitely more than friends now, but not really friends with benefits cause we only hooked up once. And he was just saying “all I know is I like spending time with you” which I definitely believed because by this point I had lost my car (totaled) and he was paying for my Ubers to and to his house, and we weren’t even sleeping together tho we messed around a little bit. But we were barely even kissing. So I believed him when he said he liked having me over. And then we had a Long awkward talk about our feelings with both of us tiptoeing around the elephant in the room not wanting to be the first to admit our feelings and eventually he grinned and said something like “i know you like me” while he was sitting on the table the swinging his legs, and that made me giggle and I couldn’t deny it, and he finally admitted to liking me too and that’s when we became official. Not too long after that my aunt put me out and I his mom has such a big heart that she changed her mind about me moving in, atp I was practically living there anyways I slept there almost every night for the last month , so she could see that I wasn’t one for drama like B was. She welcomed me in, and made space for me to keep my things, she offered me some space I’m her closet and one of the two sinks in her bathroom I moved into Leanys room, by then I had left my job at the restaurant but I went back after moving in with him to make commuting easier and yea, that’s where I am currently living. We both started our process to join the Air Force, his process went smoother than mine so he left for boot camp in late March. He proposed to me on Valentine’s Day, and we tied the knot about 3weeks before he left. We’ve known each othe been friends well over a year but we had only been dating for a few months before we got married. The 4th of this month marked 2months of marriage for us, and the 24th marked 7months of being together… I know we rushed things but I love him so much. We are working on our communication skills and we argue a lot but we also are able to come together and talks things out level headed in the end. I love him so much and I want to start a family with him one day.
So now to the actual issue, I can’t shake the feeling that the only reason me and him are together is because the girl he really wanted didn’t want him back, not that there is anything wrong with moving on from unreciprocated affection, but I’m sacred that one day he’s gonna wake up and realize that he doesn’t wanna be with me and that he never did. ( I know, I know I read too many Reddit stories🤦🏾‍♀️) But lately that’s on my mind heavy, especially cause I’m still friends with B on social media so every time I see a picture of her I keep thinking to myself that’s the type of girl he really wants. I worked with him long before B started working with us, he never talked to anyone at work till she came along. And for months I was the main person he vented to about how frustrated he was that B wouldn’t even give a real chance. One day we spent the day together walking round town while my car was getting detailed and we had a really good time. I had 2 gold 1$coins, he asked to buy them both off me but I didn’t wanna sell them, and he said “okay just trade me one for a dollar and keep one and we’ll have best friend coins” like SpongeBob and Patrick’s rings. We even sung the little jingle but replaced “rings” with “coins”. But I later found out the only reason we were hanging out that day is because him and B got into an argument and she left the house and wasn’t responding to his call/texts. And after him and her stopped talking to each other I was comforting him and he looked at me and said “I just lost my best friend” and I was genuinely hurt like “I thought I was your best friend” and he just told me to stop joking cause he was really upset, after that I was honestly holding back tears cause I didn’t wanna make the situation about myself. I tried bringing this up before but he acted like he didn’t understand why I would be insecure, and it took forever of us going back forth until I finally said that had him and B gotten together in the first place me and him wouldn’t have even been friends let alone ending up married, and that every time we ever hung out alone was when B was ignoring him. He says that he is over her and doesn’t want her in his life anymore, but I’m like dude you don’t have a choice she blocked you, for a time he was even trying convince me to call her on my phone so he could talk to her but I refuse (of course this is before we got together) but now all these thoughts keep pulling up in my head and I’ve been trying to bring it up to him again but idk how, or if I even should we are supposed to be talking tomorrow but he doesn’t know what I want to talk to him about yet.
If you read all this your a real one and I would appreciate any advice you have, positive or negative feedback is welcome. I just wanted to clear my mind sorry for any bad grammar or typos.
TL:DR- my husband used to have crush on mutual friend of ours but she never liked him back, after being rejected by her he turned his attention to me and we are married now. but I’m afraid that he settled for me and one day he’ll decide he doesn’t want to be with me anymore cause he never really wanted me in the first place.

Why do you play this game?
Just to be clear, I'm not talking about cases where there's a Cain with a Mosin Sniper 300m away camping you or there is nobody on DS and there is no reason to actively go looking for unnecessary fights. I'm talking specifically about the people who make it their primary objective to pick up the bounty and figure out the fastest and shortest way to run without even trying to fight back.
I have had so many matches like this lately. Me and my buddies were right on top of a bounty trying to push in from three different sides and the enemy trio doesn't even bother shooting back. Out the backdoor they go and leg it. Luckily we catch up to them not too far away but it was so pathetic I'm baffled as to why they chose to do that. They obviously weren't missing HP because none of them were one-tap to Sparks.
Another match I go in solo, kind of a late night empty lobby so I'm not expecting a massive shootout. Still, I kill the boss and don't pick up the bounty. Instead I wait for the others to get it so that maybe they have an incentive to try and fight back since they can see me on DS. Thirty seconds later they extract after one another. No shots were fired. I wasn't even mad, just disappointed.
Don't want to make this too long since it's going to get downvoted into oblivion anyway, but about 40% of the matches me and my buddies have had recently have just been picking up Conduit/Magpie/Stam Shot and running after people. So my question is why? Why are you like this? There are guns in this game, they shoot bullets and are supposed to be used to fight other people who are trying to fight you. Why not play Left 4 Dead if you just want to kill zombies? You wouldn't even have to worry about the bounty or anything. Just pew pew, listen to some music and get out once you've had your fill. Why play Hunt:Showdown if the Showdown part scares you so much?