Front ground ambigram generator

I was checking some stuff I never saw in WoD, and one of them, that really surprised me, was Demon the Fallen. If playing Hunter is alike playing the winchesters of Supernatural, playing Fallen is like playing Castiel ou Crowley. So Im sharing what I understood and what I liked.
The lore
There was a God, he created angels, to help him create and maintain reality, each angel was part of a house (a group) and each one had a purpose like: - Enforce God`s laws - Built and Shape land so things could live on earth - Create and shape life and animals - Inpire Humans - Control Fate - Renew the old and useless, decomposing stuff to its basic ingredients and returning it to earth so new stuff could be made.
and more. At the beggining humans were immortal, everything was beautiful and working. God is very much like The God Emperor Of Manking of 40k, since he has absolute power, but makes some very questionable decisions. Some of them, like removing immortality of humans as punishment, that caused things like angels of renew becoming angels of death and hating their jobs, caused a rebellion lidered by lucifer (treat him like cayne from VtM, ignore what the book says, dont make him a living character on your campaign, make him a mystery).
So God punished them, by doing something, or better nothing (the house that was the most proud and enforced gods laws were punished with nothing, he just changed the house name to Devils and ignored them, what was ironic as fuck since the most proud house wasnt even worth a punishmentl) and sent them to the Abyss, its like hell, there is no humans, there is constant suffering and I think its also like a sensory depravation chamber.
But shit happens, and some can get out, but they need a host to exist on earth. If they take a human, their sould meld to various degrees, to a person simply gaining powers and having nightmares of hell, to them having the fallen voice on his head, to it basically being the fallen with human memories.
The human soul is necessary to contain the madness of being so much time in hell, otherwise their sorrow pain and rage would bring them to madness, trying to inflict so much pain as they felt or something like that. The human memories helps them to see how reality is beautful and to anchor them to something that isnt CONSTANT SUFFERING.
Demons that go into objects are called earthbound and go crazy, trying to destroy the world and control the angels by trying to find their true name. But thats not the only treat, God isnt here anymore, or at least doesnt want to be found, neither is lucifer (lucifer was never in hell, for being the leader, he was sent to somewhere far worse, some say los angeles).
And there are fallen trying to take the place of god, some trying to find lucifer, some trying to destroy the world, since without someone to take care of it, its fated to demise, some want forgiveness from God at any means, and some just want to know WHAT DA FUK IS GOING ON.
You can do whatever you want, even embracing your human life and at least trying to live as a human. You will at the very least always be trying to fight back the torment, the memories of hell that drive you to do bad stuff, and may cause your powers to get corrupted, causing damage instead of healing or destroying and corrupting things around.
So I said you get powers, what powers are those ? besides the common ones, humanity (universal translation, getting truth out of everyone near, change their perception of you) and fundament (manipulation of the laws of physics, like manipulate gravity, innertia (throw things fast or stop bullets in mid air)) they have their own group of powers (lore) based on their houses, for example the slayers (death angels) have lores to cause death and decay (Lore of Death), summon control and unkill people (lore of spirits), go to the spirit world become intangible (Lore of Realms).
Some that I like personally is the lore of portals, that allows the fun mechanic of going through a doowindow and exiting something unconnected, like entenring from the front door of a house, and exiting in the bathroom, enter a police car and ending on the back of your friends car, entering any door in a corner and ending in vegas.
But what do you need to use them ? Is it free ? Eeeeh, no. It requires Faith, a part of divine sparkle, that comes from the human soul. You dont have it nor can generate it in your own, you used to receive infinite amounts of it from God, but now you need to receive it from humans.
You may get from them when you convince them you are supernatural (its hard then you think, just showing off powers may cause violent reactions on observers), rituals forming a cult, or getting thralls (people that pray to you and give you constant faith every morning, - for example, you start small, like being a miracle healer, that every time it meets a certain burnt victim, you use the Lore of Flesh to undo a little of the scars, it progresses more and more, until you reach the point where the person is ready for a contract, you say the last and biggest step will need a price, it will forever bind them together, by body and mind, you will never be able to meet in person again (you can do it to protect her if you want) and you can ask something like praying to you every morning while drinking a glass of water, if she ever fails the contract is broken and she becomes like she was in the beggining). You can do it in a wholesome way, or be a demon and help a model who wants to keep her looks and require her to make sacrifices to you.
You dont just use faith to activate your lores, but use it for stuff like NOT GETTING OLDER, the aging process is halted while you have at least one point of faith. The ammount of good or bad stuff adds ticks to a Torment counter, that will add or remove Permanent Torment from your character. Having higher torment, makes so the chance of your powers being corrupted is higher, and sometimes you will want to use the tormented version of skills on purpose (you can just do it, but it will add 1 temporary torment to your character), in case you need it. Like you are on a battle, and is an angel of healing, and you just need to convert healing into damaging otherwise you cant really damage stuff.
Fallen can communicate between themselves and between their tralls from anywhere in the same plane, if they know their names and can speak out loud. Actually everything needs speaking, if you cant you cannot use your lores.
True names are kinda of a big part of this as well, that is the name that everything has, and encompasses everything that thing is. By knowing somethings true name you can basically control it at will, making it a slave or even transforming it into another thing. There may be indirect investigatory battles, where two sides try to investigate one another, trying to get hints of personality to try to discover who the fallen is and their true name, before the other does.
In summary, I think its a very fun book, a very fun rpg, it has its own flavor and challenges and I would love for more people to know it. Im kinda anxious on V5, if we ever get a demon book I would love to have at least of some of this flavor back. I feel its like playing a mage, but with more purpose, where you need to interact more with the world to gain something from it, by either helping people and having a cult, or doing devilish faustian deals with people to get their faith.
*Dont know where to put it, but there is also apocaliptic form, you for a short time burns through faith like crazy and become a reflex of your divine form, its almost immune to anything, is either angelic or devilish looking depending of your torment, and will make people around go crazy in awe or terror depending of it.

Have been applying to a ton of places but seem to get really low response rate. Would appreciate any feedback/roast
https://preview.redd.it/8al1e7v29l5d1.png?width=839&format=png&auto=webp&s=5f04661a6b58025afef7601d1f207a4b69a6ba7b

Hi, this is a long post. I just finished writing it and realized it doesn't make much sense. The structure is poor, and it's mostly a rant. I wouldn't recommend spending 10 minutes reading it, but I don't want to delete it either.
I know this might sound a bit conspiratorial, but does anyone else feel like the middle class, especially the lower middle class, is being deliberately destroyed? Or at least there's a lack of effort to stop it.
I earn about 5k CHF a month. I never felt rich, but I used to enjoy life and save a little. Now, I'm struggling more and more, especially with rising health insurance prices. In recent years, my quality of life has seriously declined. I can still save and travel a little, but soon I'll have to choose between the two. There are worse situations, but living here is very boring, and if I can barely save and I'm stuck here, what's the point of living in Switzerland? I'm considering moving back with a roommate or even returning to my mom's house, which is also struggling with costs.
I feel like more people are finding themselves in this situation, and the common answer is, "Well, at worst, we have social support." But relying on social support is demeaning. You're not treated like an adult, you have to show all your accounts, you can't travel without permission, and people can't gift you trips, etc. I understand why these rules exist, but it feels wrong that a full-time worker is less able to support themselves. It's terrible that the middle class was better off 20-25 years ago than today.
Sometimes I wonder if this isn't intentional. More of us are becoming dependent on the state and our employers, making it harder to revolt. You can't lose your job because you have no savings, and more freedoms are controlled by the state.
Our purchasing power is being attacked on all fronts, and nothing is being done. Operators raise prices unilaterally due to small clauses in contracts, rents are increasing, and health insurance costs are rising. The solutions always target the middle class—higher taxes, fewer covered treatments, increased VAT—but nothing is done to address questionable billing practices by doctors, help access cheaper EU drugs, or make very high salaries pay more. There's talk of increasing work hours and pushing back the retirement age. Despite a supposed worker shortage, employers are pickier than ever. Soon, to clean a toilet at the station, you'll need to speak five languages and have a bachelor’s degree.
Rent is more expensive, ownership is impossible for most, and everything seems designed to force the middle class to sell their property when they're old, funneling it to big landlords and groups that concentrate wealth further. Across Europe, the middle class is becoming renters while small groups buy everything.
Meanwhile, big organizations in Switzerland and abroad are earning more, and shareholders are making lots of money while we get crumbs. These organizations always raise prices and fire people, making consumers and workers the adjustment variable.
AI is evolving rapidly, and many of us may lose our jobs or have to accept lower wages. They say we'll adapt and create new jobs, but tasks are becoming more complex, requiring more degrees and training. How can we keep up when training takes years and AI progresses so fast? I wonder if learning German is even worth it. By the time I reach B2, AI will be so good that it will be pointless. AI is already better at translating and dictating than a C1 speaker in another language.
Everywhere I look, I feel hopeless. Things seem to be getting worse. Our parents' generation worked and improved their lives. Now, many of us work just to see things get worse. Some middle-class people, like expats,those in tech or working remotely from cheap places, are doing well, but the rest of us are struggling.
I don't believe politicians when they say nothing can be done. If there was real political will, much more could be done worldwide. As we become less needed for work or even as consumers, politicians will feel less pressure to act. They'll increasingly fear us less as AI and other technologies shield them from popular revolt in the coming decades. Indeed what can people do once politicans will some automated army to protect them, why would they continue to fear the masses?
I know I'm ranting about things I don't fully understand. It's just a Sunday night rant from someone who feels like a loser in modern society. It seems like even in Switzerland, reality is catching up for those with fewer means, maybe not as brutally as in some other European countries, but it's getting worse.

(English isn’t my first language so please 🐻 with me.. also that one is quite a long story 🫣 sorryyyy)
My husband is the youngest of quite aloooot siblings. One of them living above the street and the other one right under my feet. His older sisters are motherly and the younger 3 (still older than my husband) are always in sisterly fight mode. Still as adults they act like brats: who knew which news first, who got to know someone new in the family first, who saw a newborn first, who didn’t show up at this event and how they won’t go now as a result etc. In front of me they often talked crap about each other and I was always like “common she probably didn’t even mean it like that” and so on. One of them even made fun of me saying I’m to naive because I think to nice of everyone, while I just don’t want to get dragged into their fights. Why do I tell you this? Because you sense now the urge for drama they have. It was easy to navigate around them UNTIL I got pregnant. I love their children and my husband and me we have spend quite some time with them (getting them from kindergarten, going to the zoo, even having holiday trips with them - just the kids and us). My sister in law who’s living under me - let’s call her Zandra - got her first baby who even as an infant was with us (alone) and I remember helping him when he got his first teeth. He was in pain and cried and still was at my place where I tried to cool it and to give him something to bite on and to let him suck on chamomile tea. When we were at family gatherings I usually entertained her baby because I didn’t liked the conversations of the adults 😅 (mostly because they talked in their language which I don’t speak - my mother in law fled with them to the country we live now). So when I got pregnant suddenly Zandra came up to me saying that I shouldn’t forget her baby when I got my own child. Because he would miss me so much… he was 2 at this time. And it was weird to me that she even brought that up. So I had my first child and let me tell you: it was hard. Waking up every two hours, crying when I was out of sight, baby waking up as soon as I wanted to eat something etc. But still managing the household, cooking etc It wasn’t easy. My husband was working in the daytime and we didn’t had a tv at this time so it was quiet at home. My nephew was now 3 years old. Zandra and her husband are one of those parents who buy their kids everything and have a hard time saying “no” or “stop” to them or laughing when the little one uses swear words 🫥 I mean…. You have to keep your shit together and tell them that it’s not good to use such words, than turn around and hide your laughter, right? 😅 Well, I never cared because in front of me he was really sweet and I explained things to him when he did something he shouldn’t do. But now my baby was woken up on a daily basis because he was driving his cars at the wall, playing ball inside the house or was playing in the hallway, which sounds like he’s inside our living room. I dared to ask my sister in law sometimes, if she maybe could get him to stop doing something because my baby woke up from it (repeatedly). We had a good relationship and I think I never crossed the line… I didn’t ask her daily although her little one was loud daily. She never said anything until she got furious.
That’s when I realised that she is mad at me because of it - I felt like a shitty Karen auntie. I tried to get in good terms with her again - when I found out that she told everyone that I hate her son! She told her whole family and all of her friends and our neighbours! I was shocked! She already talked crap about me when I didn’t even realised that she has a problem with me. She could just came up these 18 steps and told me to stop being a Karen 😅 She also could have ask me maybe if I need some help… remember? I took care of her little one so may times but she vanished after I gave birth. Now I know I wasn’t helpful anymore to her. Anyways. My husband (her brother) had an opportunity and went on a 40days travel when my first born (her nephew!) was 7 month old. 40 days and she never showed up. I’ll never forget that. But I still tried to keep the peace (freaking people pleaser!) and also didn’t told my husband because I didn’t want more sibling fights. Somehow she still thought I hate her son- probably because I didn’t made trips with him anymore - but that’s because I have a baby now! She ain’t doing shit with my baby as well but is mad that I don’t take her 3 year old to Disney? While breastfeeding? She got hyped up by her shitty friends and one time my other sister in law who lives across the street came to me on the playground and we had a talk. Nothing serious. She started talking about her nephew - Zandras son - that he is spoiled and cheeky - I just listened and tried to settle things like I always do and she asked whether I could hear him since I’m living over them. I JUST SAID: Yes, since I’m living over them, I can hear him every day. Than I changed the subject! After she left, I also went home and saw her standing with Zandra and her shitty friends. I went past them and suddenly Zandra followed me and even dared to yell at me using swear words. Can you imagine?! My other sister in law came to her saying I was complaining about her son again! I was pregnant and tried hard not to smack her in the face, thankfully her husband came home and heard her yelling and me telling her to leave . He’s the only person she has respect for and listened when he told her to leave me alone. After some time she even came those 2 stairs up - but just because her husband said so. She didn’t apologised and didn’t even want to talk about it. She never talked about the problems with me, but always behind my back. When I tried she changed the subject. So ridiculous. One time she blocked me because I got mad at her friend who dared to yell at my son and called him a swear word. Her friend insulted her nephew. She didn’t say a word but blocked me because I told her friend that she has no right to yell at my son?! But every time I visited her after some time to reconnect, she acted as if nothing ever happened. This went on for years! She has 3 children now and I 4. Our kids are cousins and neighbours, so they play a lot together. Every time they get into a stupid fight, she took it personal and yells at my kids without even asking what happened. Telling hers to not play anymore with mine. Yah right. That lasts for 2 days maybe but she holding grudges for ever I guess. Obviously our relationship got cold , just saying hi and that’s it.
Now I’m healing. My youngest one is 3 now and my brain starts using it braincells again 😅 .. I am growing and I’m a healing people pleaser now 🥳 (you also helped me realising how manipulating some toxic people are), but that also means that I’m hurting now realising how Zandra used and wronged me. Sometimes I get soooo angry.. like all the hidden anger comes up now. A few weeks ago our daughters (both 9) got into a fight, because Zandras youngest one (3yo) was insulting my daughter and tried to punch her. (Totally normal behaviour 🤔) She hold his hands and told him to stop, than Zandras daughter pushed her to the ground “don’t touch my brother like that” and the fight begun. Yeah she could also just told her brother to stop. But that’s not what she got taught. Really. They think they can do everything they want and always the other children get in trouble. Acting like they are the victim. I just went out to look for them when my other sister in law came up to me telling me that my daughter just got into a fight with Zandras daughter. Great. She said she doesn’t want to interfere (like ‘oh no how annoying. Leave me out of it’) and went home. We had so many situations like that already and I learned that I have to sit the girls down, everyone hearing the other person out, seeing their mistakes, saying sorry and get cool with each other again. Basically teaching them both how to behave, because her mother would just yell at my girl and let her own daughter off the hook to act like that over and over again. Nah. Not having it. My daughter came running to me crying telling me what happened, we went to her cousin and I looked if she was ok and asked if they wanted to talk about it. They both agreed to calm down and let’s go sit somewhere to talk. But my other sister in law suddenly came up to us again and took my niece with her to cool her “injuries”. What?! I told her to leave the two to talk and she’s not injured, but she insisted to take her with her. Wtf?! I told her three or four times to leave but she grabbed her and took her with her. Now I’m sure she immediately called Zandra to tell her the exciting news and she said get my girl, like I’m the fucking weirdo here🤦🏼‍♀️ So I talked to my daughter and asked her cousin who saw everything (Zandras oldest one) and than went to Zandra to “let the girls talk this out”. But no. She was standing in the doorway yelling at my daughter. Accusing her of this and that. I had to interrupt her many times and stand between her and my daughter. and I am so proud that I didn’t let her have it her way like she used to do. She saying my daughter started it with pinching her youngest one. Me asking her daughter if my daughter punched him or hold his hands because he insulted her and tried to punch her. Here we go. She tried hard to accuse my daughter, me telling her to stop screaming like crazy at my daughter asking if she ever talks too her daughter like that. I knew her husband was there and so I told everything what happened even with her own daughter witnessing it. I knew she didn’t listen, but ignored her knowing very well that her husband hears everything. I’m pretty sure he’ll tell her later what’s wrong with her. And we left. Since then she wrote three or four times to me as if nothing ever happened - needing my help of cause. One or two times I answered shortly, the other two times or what I didn’t answered at all. Outside I avoid her. When I had to I said hi. A few days ago she was with two of her friends outside and I went to them because my youngest one dropped something nearby. I had to pick it up and said hi, her friends where in commotion because of their children and didn’t hear it, but Zandra was looking into my eyes not answering at all. I repeated hi but she kept staring into my eyes. I was always very respectful to the older sister in laws. But it’s enough. I raised my eyebrow at her, looked down on her arrogantly, took my son’s shoes, turned around and left. This was the moment t when I decided to not even great her anymore. She is playing games. Talking shit behind my back. Using every possibility in front of her friends to play me dirty, because that was not the first time.
I normally say hi even if I don’t like someone, but she always used it against me, acting like nothing happened when she needed my help (getting her child from kindergarten when I take mine - but not the opposite way of cause; or researching some medical stuff or translating shit) - and than suddenly acted like I’m her worst enemy the next day.
It’s a struggle for me to keep the distance and I hate ignoring family members… but I feel like I really have to, to protect my children and to protect my inner pace. So AITAH to ignore her although I will keep seeing her because she’s my neighbour unfortunately..? And her family definitely thinking bad about me because all her lies the last years. Has anyone experienced something like this and any tips how to deal with such toxic manipulators?
Ps: yes one day I told my husband about everything and he basically told me he wasn’t surprised she always acted like a princess, using people to her advantage. Even the friend she blocked me for - when she got divorced Zandra ended the friendship because her friend didn’t care FOR HER anymore. This friend used to plan all her celebrations and drove her to appointments and brought her kids from school with her car and even cleaned the ass of Zandras kids on the playground, because Zandra was pregnant and couldn’t do it. Now this devoted “friend” is in a divorce, caring for her children alone and has to start working to manage everything herself - and Zandra cuts ties because she ain’t visiting and helping her anymore???? What?

My hands are trembling to the point where I've had to restart this several times. I'm a guy who doesn't scare easily, but this encounter has me shaking like a hit dog. I'm still sitting in my work truck, trying to work up the courage to step outside again. Worse, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to tell my boss what happened. I was already on thin ice with him, and this shit might cause me to break through to the freezing water below.
But fuck it, because this was weird.
I install cable for a living. I didn't have dreams of stringing cable when I was a little kid, but my previous life choices left me with few options. In high school, I fell in with the wrong crowd. It started with skipping school, sneaking alcohol at weekend parties, and some petty theft, but it didn't stay that way for long. Soon, I dropped out and dedicated my life to committing robberies to pay for my pill addiction. I wasn't living as much as I was running on a treadmill. I did whatever I could to stay on my feet but constantly felt myself slipping.
My bottom came when I was jumped by two guys who sold me pills. I had bought from them before and trusted them, but the feeling was not mutual. Someone had dimed a buddy of theirs out to the police, and he was looking at real jail time. They assumed it was me and beat me senseless.
I was greeted at the door with a punch to the jaw that sent me reeling. My brain, already addled and slowed by Oxi, was in the middle of putting together what was happening when the next punch caught me in the temple. I collapsed to the ground and covered my neck and face as best as I could. The next few minutes were a flurry of punches, kicks, and stomps. When it was all over, I had a broken jaw, a shattered wrist, several wounds that required fifty total stitches, and a concussion.
That's how I kicked my painkiller addiction.
I can joke now, but the next six months were the hardest in my life. The withdrawals I had were the worst thing I've ever experienced. Having them while I was recuperating from my injuries was a circle of hell I didn't think existed. I wanted to die most days and felt lost in the darkness. But sobriety was the beacon on the horizon. Even during my darkest moments, I could still see the fuzzy spark of white light off in the distance. It kept me going. Six months from my beat-down day, I came out the other side healthier but weaker.
I needed a job but had limited skills. Thankfully, I had a former pill buddy who managed to keep steady employment with the cable company. We always got along, and he called in a few favors and hooked me up. I got hired, but it was a struggle. Not the work, which was easy to learn, but dealing with the public without telling them to fuck off. Worse, was trying to avoid the flood of illegal substances that are around you at all times. Customers will offer you weed or pills for all the channels, or bored co-workers will have something to "make the day pass by." It's a lot to dodge, especially if you're in recovery. Whenever I felt the itch again, I'd feel the scar tissue from my wrist surgery, and the itch would pass.
The last week has been one of those "Shit, is it Friday yet?" weeks that seem to be growing in frequency these days. I don't want to bore you with the details, but needless to say, most nights, I needed to reach out to my sponsor and have them talk me off the ledge. We recently had a turnover at the executive level, and my new boss Rory was a tremendous cock. A rager at levels science hasn't ever seen before. Just the worst dude imaginable.
Part of Rory's new crusade was coming in and firing a bunch of guys. The company called it "checking for redundancies in the labor force," but we all knew what it was. He was picking off two classes of people: high earners and guys with spotty pasts. I was in the latter group and imagined it was just a matter of time before my number got pulled. I was on pins and needles all week. I made sure I was the greatest cable installer you'd ever meet. So far, I was getting high marks but the forced joviality was wearing thin.
It's safe to say my joy had left on a one-way ticket. I have no clue when—or if—she'd return.
Back to this shit. I had just finished up my last job of the day when my work phone started buzzing. I cursed and thought about not answering, but the threat of unemployment loomed too large for me to do that. I picked up and knew from the jump my day was far from over. Denise from dispatch asked if I could cover a job left hanging because of "scheduling conflicts" (see: the original installer had been let go). It was near where I was and was a simple install.
I gritted my teeth and agreed. I liked Denise and knew she was worried about the hammer falling on her, too. She thanked me profusely, and promised to bring me cookies tomorrow. Since she's a hellcat in the kitchen and getting close to a dispatcher never hurts, I said no worries. I hung up, balled up my jacket, and screamed into it. I felt better after that.
981 Maple Street was about five minutes away, but it felt like a world away. Maple Street was at the end of the neighborhood where large swaths of grass fields faded into a thicket of woods. The woods rose up into the foothills until they graduated to mountains. To borrow a phrase from Shel Silverstein, the house resided where the sidewalk ends.
The house, an off-white birdhouse ranch type, was a little run-down but no worse than any of the others that populated this neighborhood. This place had been hit hard by economic times, and property values had plummeted. It was slowly recovering. In five years, this would be a place most current residents wouldn’t be able to afford. The front yard had a large oak tree that looked amazing but had killed the grass under its canopy. The rest of the yard looked well cared for.
I knocked and heard a few voices talking on the other side of the door. It opened, and a man in his late 40s stood there with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand. He was tall and thin, save for a middle-aged paunch. His face was starting to crinkle at the edges, but he was southern California middle-aged, which meant he was holding up pretty well. He did look tired, though—the bags under his eyes were full-on steamer trunks.
"You with the cable company?" he asked, knowing I was.
I nodded. "You requested an install, right?"
"Yes, I did. Please, come in."
He opened the door wide, and I walked in. The house was pretty bare with a bachelor pad aesthetic. That didn't make much sense since I heard a female voice talking to him. I assumed it was his wife. I believe in a lot of wild shit, but to think that a wife would be fine with their house decorated like a 23-year-old bachelor lived there was a bridge too far.
"I'm Tom," the guy said, extending his hand. I shook it. "What did you need from my end?"
"Do you know if there was a previous hookup here?"
"Ugh, yeah. There is one in this room and another in the back bedroom."
"Okay. I should put the modem in a spot that'll hit the whole house. The signal can get wonky if it's in a room behind a wall or bricks or anything."
"This room is probably the best spot then," he said.
"Perfect. I have to get under the house, check the old connections, and replace some parts. Where's your hatch to get under the house?"
"Oh, it's around back. You can exit out this side door and walk through the backyard. It's on the eastern side. You might need a screwdriver to remove the grate. Do you need one?"
I pulled a screwdriver from my pocket and showed him. "I should be good. Thank you, though."
"I should've guessed you'd have one."
"I appreciate your concern. Is there anything in the backyard I should be worried about? Dogs? Kids? Wild dogs? Wild kids?"
It was standard banter, and it always got a chuckle out of people. Same thing happened here. "Nothing to worry about," he said. "You should be good."
"Alright. I'll get started so you can get online as soon as possible."
"Great! If you need anything, I'll be doing some work in the back bedroom."
I nodded and headed for the side door. The dining room door led to the pie wedge-shaped backyard, which was larger in the back than the front made it look. The grass was as cooked as its kin in the front, but islands of green weeds seemed to be thriving. In the corner of the lot, an old metal shed stood, rusted to the point where I assumed divine intervention kept it standing. It seemed to have been there since the house had been built – or maybe several decades before.
When I turned the corner of the house, I spotted a woman and child staring into the corner of the yard, their backs facing me. The Woman wore a faded blue dress that fit her well. Tom had, it seemed, out-kicked his coverage with her. I didn't want to startle them, so I offered a friendly "hello" to the pair. The kid started to turn, but the mother placed a hand on their shoulder and kept their heads facing away from me. I squinted along the treeline, trying to see what they were concentrating on, but I didn't see anything unusual.
Just wanting to be done with the job, I let them be and moved on. I turned another corner to the house's short side and spotted the grate leading to the crawlspace. The grate looked as old as the shed, and I wasn't sure I would even need the screwdriver to open it. Hell, I was sure the thing would disintegrate in my hands as soon as I touched it.
I crouched and was about to pull it off when I heard something rustling near me. I glanced back to where I had seen the mom and kid, but they were gone. I assumed I had heard them leaving. I pulled the grate off – I was right, no screwdriver necessary – and as I set it aside, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye.
It was the kid. A boy around eight or so. But they weren't staring at me exactly. They were looking away from me, staring up at the roof line. I found it odd. Clearly, the kid wanted to talk to me but had turned their back on me. I coughed to let them know that I knew they were there, but they didn't respond.
"Hey man, what's up there?" I said.
"Nothing nice," he said, still keeping their gaze away from me.
"Oh," I said, "Not going to hurt me, is it?"
"Maybe," he said.
Not the answer I was expecting. "What is it?"
"They told me you'd know soon enough."
As he said that, I felt something crawling across my hand. I pulled my hand away from the house and shook it. I saw a spider land in a pile of leaves and scurry away. I let out a nervous laugh. I'm not scared of spiders or anything, but the shock of being told some unseen thing was watching me and didn't look pleased, coupled with the sensation of something on my skin, was enough to justify a quickened heartbeat.
I looked back at where the kid had been standing, but he was gone. I chalked it up to kids being little weirdos and went back to work. The faster I could get this installation done, the quicker I could go home and smoke a bowl. I let Kush be my guide. I put up my hood, turned on my small flashlight, and shimmied through the opening under the house.
I know guys who've worked for the company for years and still dread going into a crawl space. Granted, it's not my favorite thing to do, but I don't mind either. The bugs can be a nuisance but if you don't bother them, they tend to not bother you. Same with rats and mice. Raccoons, though? I crawl out and call animal control. Those little dudes are cute but nasty as all get out. My path today was nothing but cobwebs, so I was okay.
I flashed my light around and saw where the cable line went up into the living room floor. My job here was to ensure the coaxial line's integrity was still good. If it had been chewed on or anything, I'd replace it. Sometimes, I just replaced it anyway—saving myself a potential job later down the line.
I crawled over to where the line came in from the pedestal and started my once-over. I not only looked for any damage but also ran the line through my hands to make sure my eyes didn't miss anything. I was under the dining room area when I heard that side door close.
I stopped. Tom said something, but it was muffled. I wanted to be nosy, so I waited a beat to hear if anyone spoke back to him. Someone did. It was soft and quiet – I assumed it was the Boy – and I didn't make out what they asked, but I did hear Tom's response. In a firm voice, he said, "No, not right now. Run along."
There were footsteps over me that faded into another section of the home. Tom said, "He always wants to jump the gun. How many times do I have to tell him?"
I suppressed a laugh at the last line. It's the official father's lament. I kept moving my hand down the line and didn't feel nicks along the cable. In fact, on closer inspection, the line looked almost new. I was planning to change it, but this looked like it had been installed last week.
I could hear someone walk into the living room as I reached the spot where the line went through the house. Another pair of footsteps followed the first, and I heard a breathy but detached woman's voice ask, "Can we show our faces now?"
"I just told the boy 'no.' What makes you any different?" Tom said, an edge to his voice.
A chill raced through my body. I knew those words, but this conversation made me feel like I spoke another language. Can we show our faces? Why would you not?
"Do you think he'll see us?"
"If I have my way," he said, not finishing that thought. "Leave me be. I must try to get some things done before he leaves, and you two keep bothering me."
What did Tom mean to get some things done before I left? What did he have in mind? While trying to process all this, I heard something shuffle in the darkness just beyond my flashlight beam. I moved it around, trying to see the telltale glowing eyes of varmints, but nothing flashed back at me.
I heard something shuffling again, this time down by my feet. I cocked my head as best as I could and shone the flashlight into that corner of the house but, again, there wasn't anything else down here but me and a thousand spiders. I sighed and finished my inspection of the wire.
As I turned to crawl back out from under the house, I heard somebody sneaking around on the floor above me. The wood groaned as the person moved slowly. I wasn't sure what they were doing, but they wanted to keep it a secret. A shadow fell over the pinprick of light from where the cable went into the house. Someone was standing over it.
"Can you hear them down there? Moving in the dark?" It was the Boy. “They like the dark.”
"What are you saying?"
"The little shadows," he said, "They live down there. Do you hear them?"
This kid was creepy as hell. "I, ugh, I can't hear you, dude," I said, inching my body away from the wire, "We can talk inside."
"They're going to get you, but that's okay," he said, "It only hurts for a little bit, and then you're fine."
Fuck. That. I had no desire to respond to that nightmare of a statement. I hastened my inch-worming, heading back towards the open hatch. As I did, I heard more movement in the darkness around me. I tried to ignore it, but it was a fool's gambit. It was impossible to ignore.
I was getting closer to the opening when I saw a pair of tiny legs walk in front of the hatch. It was the Boy. How did he get there so quickly and without me hearing him run on the floor? I didn't have time to run through the scientific method because the Boy leaned down and placed the metal grate back over the hatch.
"Hey! Hey!" I yelled. "I'm still under here!"
The Boy didn't stop. Instead, he placed a trashcan in front of the grate, enshrouding the entire crawlspace in darkness and trapping me inside.
"Hey! I need you to move that!" I screamed. No response. I raised my fist as high as possible and punched the floor above me to hopefully get Tom’s attention. That was a mistake, as I managed to punch straight into an old nail. I felt it puncture in between my knuckles. The pain was instant, and I let out a howl.
I shook my hand and swore a blue streak. I reached up with my other hand, felt the tip of the nail I had managed to punch, and found a flat spot next to it. I banged hard on the floor and yelled again for some help. Nobody responded. Not at first.
Then I heard someone chuckle under the house.
I couldn't locate where it had come from because it sounded like it was all around me. I swung my light around as best as I could but didn't see anything. No glowing eyes, nothing. I inched forward a bit, and someone laughed again – this time, it was to my right. I turned my light in that direction and saw a sudden flood of light fill the space under the house.
"What the hell?" I said, my desire to leave overtaken by a desire to know what was unfolding next to me.
A pair of kid legs dropped down from the hole in the floor. I realized then that the hole must be an interior crawlspace. The kid had blocked off the metal grate and opened this hatch for some reason. While he dropped his legs down, he didn't move any further.
"Hey, you have to open that metal grate," I yelled. "I don't want to be trapped down here."
"They told me they needed you," he said, followed by a slight chuckle.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" I said, not caring that I was talking to a child. "Open the goddamn grate!"
"The shadows are approaching," he said, pulling himself back into the house. He placed the lid back on the hole, and I was trapped in the dark again. I cursed to myself and started pounding on the floor again.
"Hey! Someone come help me!"
That's when I felt something run across my legs. I nearly jumped out of my skin. It didn't feel like the tiny claws of a passing rat. It was cold to the touch, but as it hit my skin, I felt a burn in my bones. It's hard to explain, but I felt both extremes simultaneously. Whatever it was skittered off into the darkness of the other side of the crawl space.
The kid started laughing again, which brought me back to reality. I army crawled as fast as I could to the grate. I balled up my fist and punched in the middle of the metal. The blow knocked the old nails out of the wall, and the grate broke up. I was about to push away the garbage can when it suddenly wheeled out of the way.
I saw Tom's legs standing there.
"You okay?" he asked, concern in his voice.
I got out from under the house so fast that I left a me-sized dirt cloud in my place. Once out, I shook my body loose as if I had things crawling all over me. Tom watched but didn't say anything at first. We finally locked eyes, and he could see the rage, fear, and confusion on my face. He wisely waited until I spoke first.
"What the hell is wrong with your kid? He blocked me under there and taunted me from the indoor crawlspace."
"What are you talking about?"
"He told me the shadow people or something were watching, and then he blocked me under the house!"
Tom's face twisted up into confusion. "I...I don't understand."
"I can't make it any simpler, Tom!" I screamed, letting unprofessionalism take root.
"I don't have a kid."
It hit me like an Ali right cross. My vision got dizzy, and I struggled to catch my breath. I stared at his face, looking for the sign of a lie or a joke, but he was as stone-faced as an Easter Island statue. After a beat, I found my sense again. "I heard you talking to him in the living room when I was under the house."
"One, I was on a phone call. Two, are you spying on me? What the hell, man?"
"I wasn't spying, and you weren't on the phone," I said. I also heard you talking to your wife. She asked you if she could show her face or something."
"I don't have a wife either."
I shook my head. "I fucking saw them in the backyard! They were staring at the fence!"
Tom paused and cocked his head to the side. When he spoke, it was softly, trying to calm me down. "Are you...did you have a few drinks before the appointment? Or a pill or something? No judging – I know pill heads. I won't report you or anything, but I understand if you need to come back tomorrow with a clearer head."
"I'm sober," I said, gritting my teeth. "But I know what I saw. What I heard."
"As the tree said to the lumberjack, I'm stumped," Tom said. "You look a little flush. You want a bottle of water or something? I can show you I'm here all alone."
My adrenaline had seeped out of my body, and I was starting to feel like myself again. I nodded at Tom, and he smiled. "I'll go grab you one. Do you want to come into the AC?"
"No, I'm okay. I need to double-check the connection to the pedestal."
"Sure. Be bright back," Tom said as he walked off.
But I had no intention of checking the connections. I was going to check on Tom. I didn't believe him at all. Something weird was going on, and I needed to know what. As soon as he turned the corner around the house, I broke out my flashlight and headed back to the crawlspace.
I dropped to the ground and shone my beam into the darkness. Something had crawled on me, and I wanted to see what it was. I moved my light into every section of the crawlspace but saw no eyes glowing back at me.
"If you're under there, call back."
There was nothing. I was starting to feel like a paranoid idiot. I called out once again just to be sure, but again, nothing called back. I shut off my light and sighed. I started pushing myself back to my feet when I heard a faint woman's voice call out, "Can we show our faces now?"
"Not yet," someone hissed from the trees above me. I snapped my head up, expecting to see someone hanging on a branch over my head, but I just saw green leaves.
"Can we show our faces now?" It was the Boy. It sounded like he was on the roof. I shielded my eyes and glanced at the roof but didn't see him.
"No. He's not ready yet," someone whispered in my ear. I snapped around, throwing a punch as I did, only to slam my fist into the fence. I felt one of my knuckles crack as it hit the wood, and the pain shot up my arm like lightning. Within seconds, my hand started to puff up, and blood dripped out the wounds.
The Boy chuckled again. It came from under the house. I looked down at the grate and saw his legs disappear into the darkness.
"Hey!" I called and dropped to the ground. I pulled out my flashlight and shone into the darkness again. I was confident I'd see him, but he wasn't there. Nobody was.
I sat up and felt goosebumps turn my arms into braille. I glanced over to the corner of the house and was surprised to see the disappearing hemline of the faded blue dress. I rushed over to the corner and didn't see the Woman. I saw Tom with a bottle of water.
"You okay?"
"Where did that woman go?" I asked, my voice panicking. "She was just here."
"Sir, do you need me to call your boss for you? You're starting to scare me."
"What's up with this house? Is it haunted?"
Tom started laughing. "I hope not. I just moved in. I'd hate to have roommates again, especially ones who leave ectoplasm all over the place."
As I stared at him, I saw the Woman and the Boy emerge from the other corner of the house. They looked up on the roof, their faces obscured by their hands and the sun. I pointed a finger at them and screamed, "They're right there!"
Tom spun around and looked, but there wasn't anything there. He turned back to me, not sure what to say. Instead, he handed me the bottle of water. "I gotta be honest. I didn't see anything. Drink the water...you might have heat stroke."
I threw the bottle on the ground. "I don't have fucking heat stroke. I have a man that's lying about these things." I got close to him. "What did you have planned for me? Why do they keep asking to show their faces?"
"I don't," he said, but I didn't stay to hear him finish his thought. I walked right past him and turned the corner of the house. As I did, I saw the blue hem disappear through the door that led to the kitchen. I followed right behind her.
I walked into the house, which was as silent as a corpse. The Woman and Boy were nowhere to be seen. "Hello?" I called out. "I just saw you guys walk in here. Where are you?"
The door behind me opened up. Tom walked in, his face reddening with anger. "You can't just walk into my house."
"I saw them walk in. Where are they?"
"I keep telling you, it's just me and you here. Now, if you want to finish your work…."
I walked away from him and headed toward the bedroom where I had seen the Boy standing. I wanted to check that crawl space. The room was empty, not even a moving box in there, so finding the hatch that led under the house was easy. I went into the closet and pried the hatch open.
Tom entered the room behind me, more confused now than angry. "I don't want a line run through here."
"The Boy was standing in this spot. I saw his legs. I spoke to him. He told me the shadows needed me for something." I glared down into the darkness under the house. Despite Tom's feigned declarations that there wasn't another person in the house, I knew he wasn't being honest.
"Okay, I'm pretty sure you're back on pills and in the middle of a delusion," he said.
"How did you know I had a pill addiction?"
"The way you're acting, it wasn't a hard guess."
"I'm sober, but I did have a problem with pills. I never told you. I don't tell anyone."
Tom stood there, confused about how to answer. I stood up and stared him down. He looked away, but I didn't move my gaze. "Who are you? Who put you up to this? Was it Rory? He trying to get me fired?"
Tom's shoulders sagged. "You got me," he said. "Rory hired me to get you in trouble. I'm... I'm sorry. He offered me free cable for a year and assured me you were a bad guy and, well…. I'm weak."
"That's really fuc…," I stopped. "You're lying. Right now. You're lying. Why?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something dash past the open crawlspace hatch. I turned to the hatch opening and then back to Tom.
"Are you trying to stop me from looking in there?"
He didn't respond.
"What's under there?"
"He is," he said. "The Boy. He hides under there all the time. He has...friends down there."
"The shadow people?"
Tom shrugged, "What he calls them. I call them a menace. Impossible to get my work done with them causing a racket."
"What work?"
"Things you'd never understand in a million years," he said, "Things beyond your brain's capacity to imagine. Things that will help usher in a new world. Your kind's time is coming to a close. My work represents the new order."
I stared at him. I wasn't sure if I should run away or punch his lights out. Instead, I just spat out, "Bro, what the fuck?"
"Can we show our faces now?" the Boy called out from under the house.
I looked down at the hatch and then back at Tom. He nodded toward the opening. "Do you want to see your future?"
"Fuck it," I said. I got down, grabbed the sides of the opening, and lowered my head under the house.
I kept my eyes closed for a second, assuming I'd either see something horrifying or something would hit me in the face. When nothing struck me, I opened my eyes. It was dark, and I couldn't make out anything.
"There's nothing under here," I said.
"Can we show our faces now?" said the Boy from somewhere under the house.
"Show him," Tom said.
I sat back up, grabbed my flashlight from my pocket, and flipped it on. I looked at Tom, "If you try anything, so help me, God."
Tom just smiled. I looked back down at the hatch and sighed. I was suddenly hit with a bolt of common sense. What was I doing? My internal alarms were going off and I was ignoring them. Curiosity had gotten me this far, but my fight instincts were starting to lose to my flight. No job was worth this.
"Man, fuck this," I said, reversing course and standing. I turned to confront Tom, but he was gone. I hadn't heard him leave, but there wasn't a trace of him there. "Tom? Where the hell are you?"
He didn't respond, and I decided that I had hit my "weird shit" quota for the day. I closed the closet door and headed back into the living room to grab my gear. I'd call dispatch and tell them someone else had to come out and finish the….
The wood floor cracked, splintered, and gave way when I put my weight on it. I fell through the floor and landed with a thud on the dirt in the crawl space. On the way down, I hit my ribs on a crossbeam and heard them crack and knock the wind out of me. As I lay on the dirt, writhing in pain, my lungs did their damnedest to find a breath. It couldn't, and my vision started to blur at the edges. For a fleeting few seconds, I envisioned my death on a dirty crawlspace floor. It wasn’t comforting.
I rolled onto my back and finally took in a massive gulp of life-saving air. The blurring vision subsided, and all that remained was the aching pain of a busted rib. My muscles around my rib cage spasmed and pulled tight against my lungs. After the initial big breath, I could only take shallow gulps because the pain was searing.
I lay there for a few seconds, collecting my thoughts, when I felt something skitter across my legs again. I kicked out of instinct but didn't hit anything. Instead, I heard the chuckling again. My flashlight had fallen out of my hand. I found it and turned it on.
This time, I did see something. Pairs of eyes—dozens of them—watched me from the darkness that surrounded me. These weren't possums or rats. I never hoped to find a raccoon under the house more than I did at that moment. I knew whatever these things were, they weren't natural and they wanted to harm me.
"Still want to know what they plan to do to you?" the Boy asked from behind me.
I turned around and shone the light where I heard the voice. The Boy was lying on his stomach, his face looking down at the ground. All I could see at the moment was the top of his head.
"Wha-what's going on?" I said, the light bouncing from my trembling hand.
"I can show you my face now," he said. He raised his head and….
The Boy didn't have a face.
He had the space for a face, but there were no features whatsoever—nothing but pale pink skin pulled tight across the front of his head. At that moment, the image of a wooden art figure came to me.
“What the ever-loving fuck?"
"Want to see something really scary?" the Boy said, his lack of a mouth not stopping him from speaking. He raised himself onto the tips of his fingers and toes and started skittering toward me, laughing as he did.
I clambered out of the crawlspace as fast as my battered body could carry me. I got out of the hole and onto my feet and let out an ear-splitting scream.
The Woman in the blue dress was standing next to the hole in the floor. Like the Boy, she didn't have a face either. But I could feel her eyes on me. Looking into my mind. Into my soul. She stepped toward me, and I bolted for the front door.
I whipped it open and was greeted by Tom standing there, blocking me. He grinned. "Leaving so soon?"
"What the hell is going on?" I asked, checking behind me to see if the Woman was still coming toward me. She was, and she was gaining quickly.
"Can we show our faces now?" he asked with a laugh.
I turned back to Tom and nearly had a heart attack. His face was gone. I could feel my heart beating in my ears. My legs were jelly, but I kept myself propped up. The human desire to survive can perform miracles.
Tom reached out and pointed at a spot on the far side of the living room wall. I turned and saw three skinned human faces hanging from old nails: a man, a woman, and a boy.
"You're turn to join us," Tom whispered. But the voice wasn't said out loud. It came from inside my own head. "We can always use another body around here."
My brain clicked into action and sent an all-points bulletin to my limbs. The message was simple and actionable – "Get the fuck going, you dope."
I felt my hand ball into a fist and spun. It landed where Tom's nose would've been. It should've knocked him back, causing him to stumble and giving me time to run. But that didn't happen. Instead, his face pulled apart, letting my fist slide right through. It closed on my arm, trapping me.
I yanked and yanked, but my arm would not dislodge from his face. I glanced back and saw the Woman nearly next to me. The Boy was climbing out of the hole, moving like a cockroach. I looked back at the wall and saw Tom's hanging face silently laughing.
Something about those silent laughs cut me to my core. They were laughing because Tom thought he had outsmarted me. He had beat me. That my face would soon be hanging on the wall next to theirs. I wasn't going to let that happen.
I saw a loose brick on the walkway, and a plan flashed in my mind. I yanked hard, sending Tom stuttering forward enough for me to wrap my finger around the brick. I brought it up and sent it towards his face. As expected, the face parted again, and the brick flew through easily.
But as soon as the face curtains pulled aside, I yanked my arm free. With my limb free, I took off in a mad sprint for my truck. I got inside and fumbled my keys as I tried to start the engine. Tom, the Woman, and the Boy stood together at the front door and watched as I got the van going and rocketed down the street.
I drove like a madman for ten minutes, trying to put as much space between me and the house as possible. I finally stopped at a gas station to collect my thoughts. I was jittery, and my mind was swimming, but I was also relieved. I had gotten out.
I collected myself and called Denise to tell her I couldn't finish the installation at 981 Maple Street. I was going to suggest we cancel the order and not send another installer there. That's when the conversation took a turn I wasn't expecting.
"Where have you been? You were supposed to be off an hour ago," Denise said when I called her.
"I was trying to finish the install at 981 Maple, the one you sent me to."
"I didn't send you anywhere," she said. "With how insane Rory is being about overtime hours, I'm trying to keep everyone below the threshold."
"What are you talking about? You called and asked me. You don't remember," I said, a bad feeling growing in the pit of my stomach.
She gave me a nervous chuckle, "I swear I didn't. Are you feeling okay? You gotta come back. People are waiting for the van."
"I can prove it. I have a record of you calling me on my phone," I said. I opened my call log, and my jaw dropped. There was no call from Denise. She was telling me the truth. But if she didn't call me, who did?
"Rory wants to talk to you when you get in. I wouldn't mess around, he seems pissed" she said before hanging up.
I haven't moved since. I wanted to write this down because I felt like it needed to be recorded. Something supremely fucked up is happening at 981 Maple Street. It nearly got me. It still might. To think, on any other typical day, a surprise conversation with my boss would be the scariest thing that could happen to me. Funny how seeing a faceless ghoul can prioritize your problems. If you're hired to do work there, turn it down. Trust me, it's not worth it.
"Can we show our faces now?" they asked. "Fuck no," should be the only response.

OR: Pride & Prejudice & Punks
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a GM with a solid group, must be in want of a scenario. Or not; maybe you're good with random generators and recycling the modules from 2020. But occasionally, I like to really stretch my brain and see what I can create. So to challenge myself, I decided to try converting Pride & Prejudice into Cyberpunk RED. I will be assuming a certain degree of familiarity with the work, mostly because it has its own Wikipedia page and you can literally go and read the synopsis. I'd encourage you to read the book if you want the greatest benefit, but there's absolutely no judgment if that ain't your jam.
Obviously a 1:1, completely honest translation is impossible. The central plot of the original work revolves around women unable to inherit their father's wealth trying to make good marriages. That's pretty obviously not a problem in Night City. However, there's more to work with there than you might think.
For one, the main relationship of the book is a rags-to-riches love story. We can leverage the massive wealth and power disparity between Darcy and Elizabeth to feed back into more punk narratives.
For another, the characters are surprisingly human and relatable for a gap of 300 years and 4,000 miles (your mileage may vary - literally). Caroline Bingley still comes across as a desperate try-hard. Collins resounds as an utter douche-canoe who told a father to cut his daughter out of his life.
So there's quite a bit there to steal, whether you want to rip it off and use it for background, or if you think one of your PCs actually fits one of the roles. So let's talk about the two ways you can use this material in your game.
Option 1: Strip For Parts / Put On Display
Austen's one hell of a writer, but her conflicts are typically resolved internally. There's very little intervention needed by any heavily armed outsiders (unless you count the Wickham-Lydia elopement). So actually putting the plot of Pride & Prejudice into your Cyberpunk game is a tall order (though not impossible; see below). What works better is stripping the plot for parts and using them as background material that occasionally invites the PCs to mess with it.
Rather than have the players be interested in the "will-they-won't-they" between Jane and Mr. Bingley because that's all they have to distract them from their aristocratic ennui, start running it as a background element. Players go to a high-end club, and this rich corpo's there, with his bodyguards and his skinny-b*tch sister, Caroline. Rich corpo (Mr. Bingley, by name), is interested in one of the PCs buddies (Jane, in this scenario), and spends a lot of time dancing with them, but doesn't take them home. This takes place as background material solely while the PCs are accomplishing their mission, getting a gig from the fixer, or doing whatever else it is they are doing.
Next week, the PCs have two more jobs from local fixers. Turns out a client wants Jane scoped out - what skeletons do they have? Do they have a paramour already? (This job is from Mr. Bingley, who absolutely wants to know if Jane is into them). The other job is to frame Jane as a gold-digging harlot with evidence provided by the client (this job is from Caroline, who thinks her brother is way too good to be slumming it with some club hooker). The PCs are offered both jobs, along with another, unrelated one. Which one do they accept? Either way, you run the consequences down in as cyberpunk a way as possible.
In another scenario, the PCs are befriended by a new kid in town - Wickham. He's a grifter who targets rich, young, vulnerable people and marries them, but he's not targeting the PCs. He is incredibly charming and almost supernaturally good-looking (COOL = 8, maxed out Persuasion, Acting, and Wardrobe & Style, minimum). He also hates people the PCs hate, and makes himself useful to them in a variety of small ways. Need a place to crash? He can get you one, choomba. Need a new piece? He'll get you the exact right caliber, friend. Anyone who bothers to dig into him finds some disturbing rumors from his past: apparently, Wickham's been married six times, and each of his past wives has died mysteriously after leaving everything to him. But Wickham's a notorious gambler as well, and he just pisses money away. More likely, though, the PCs don't do any research, and the following escalation plays out:
One night, Wickham shows up with a corpo heiress he's eloping with, and a duffel bag full of cash from her family's account. The heiress is incredibly drunk and probably high. Wickham needs the crew to buy him some time to get her to a chapel and legally marry her. He stresses that he just needs the PCs to buy him some time, as there are some corpo "detectives" looking for him. He'll pay them $1k each, up front, with another $1k to follow if they can pull the heat off him.
If the PCs accept, they discover that the girl's aunt and uncle are driving the search, and they've brought some serious professional muscle: Team Monster. The aunt and uncle are terrified that the heiress is going to wind up dead as soon as those marriage papers are signed, and they are willing to double Wickham's price if the PCs just tell them where Wickham is...but if the PCs dither, they'll just sic Team Monster on the PCs. If the PCs fight, that heiress dies to some tragic poisoning, and Wickham escapes - this puts the PCs squarely on the shit list of every corpo with a fortune to protect and a gonk kid (at least 30% of the corpos out there). If the PCs sell out Wickham, they save the girl, make some cash, and watch Wickham's skull get ventilated.
One final point on stripping this novel for parts. Pride & Prejudice is so influential it still gets taught and sold today. This book is fairly well known by anyone with at least a high-school education. So if you translate the characters too honestly, you are liable to tip your hand. Adjusting names helps (Yelbing instead of Bingley). You can also gender-swap characters, change ethnicities, languages, etc.
Option 2: Central Casting
Prologue: talk to your players about romance before dropping it in your game. It can go great or it can go cringe as fuck. It rarely hits a middle ground.
Main event: So, what happens when you realize you've actually got an Elizabeth Bennet-type at your table? Well, you drop in Mr. Darcy, and see what happens. This is actually something I'm going to try, because when I read Pride & Prejudice this weekend, I noted several similarities between my wife's Solo and Elizabeth Bennet. And because in-game Thanksgiving is coming up, one of her Corporate contacts is going to invite her to a Thanksgiving dinner, black tie (she doesn't have black-tie duds, but that's a great way to introduce Not A Stitch To Wear).
If she attends, cue the anti-meet-cute between her and the standoffish and proud Lady Pembrooke (my gender-swapped Mr. Darcy), who is in town for several months handling some business for their incredibly rich aunt. From there, you put them in rooms together, and see where that goes. The core of these two's relationships in the book (and why it's so satisfying) is a very, very, very well done "enemies to friends to lovers" trope that doesn't just change each other, but changes themselves, too.
"Ah, but Sparky," I hear you say, "their relationship can only take off because they alternate between being forced together and being kept apart. Like that time Elizabeth stayed at Netherfield to tend to her sick sister and had to talk to Darcy. How do you do force them together?"
Well, I'm figuring getting caught together in a bank heist-turned-hostage situation might work fairly well. Give them a couple of other hostages to play off of, and maybe throw in Caroline Bingley to try talking smack about the PC, and you've got the ingredients for an interestingly tense scene while they come up with a way out of there. All you really need is a location and a situation where the two characters have to talk to each other. Austen accomplishes this with a deft use of social expectations. You can do the same thing in Night City by letting it just be Night City - alternate action with conversation.
You could also have Darcy show up in places where he's an inconvenience to the PCs job. If they get hired to hit a big gala, and Darcy's there with an inconveniently sharp eye on them, then somebody's got to distract him. In the meantime, you can also hear rumors about how Darcy was an absolute schmuck to someone the PCs like. And of course, the biggest impediment to Darcy's happiness is Darcy himself, because he cannot stop acting like he's better than everyone else.
That's the push - the pull is that Darcy actually does care about people, and takes noblesse oblige seriously. He'll work hard to provide charity, and uses his position and privilege to help folks out when they're in a jam. In short, show good deeds, don't have Darcy tell anyone about them. In fact, the more steps Darcy can take to avoid his good deeds leaking out to the PC, the better.
The final question for this pairing, though, is simple: Do they get a happy ending? (Get your head out of the gutter, Dan). That, I think, depends on how your PC plays it. Do they actively antagonize high society? Infuriate their social betters? Flaunt their competence? Well, have high society respond. Darcy's aunt sends hit squads. Caroline Bingley anonymously leaks damaging information (false or true) to the press. Fixers get warned not to work with the PCs, and some of them listen.
Do they convince Darcy to come away with them? To start a new life? Do they insert themselves in his? The options are endless, and ultimately, Night City itself can be a reason why they're doomed. But as Romeo & Juliet shows, sometimes doomed romances are the most impactful kind.
Anyway, hope this was helpful! See y'all later!

os - pop!_os
I have been using this OS as a dual boot. The mic sensitivity is very high compared to windows. The mic picks up road car sounds like crystal clear compared to Windows. I tried NoiseTorch but its not at all working at all and I saw "PipeWire support is in alpha quality" so its not fully supported in pipewire. I did `pactl info` it returned:

Server String: /run/use1000/pulse/native Library Protocol Version: 35 Server Protocol Version: 35 Is Local: yes Client Index: 776 Tile Size: 65472 User Name: rohit Host Name: pop-os Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 1.0.3) Server Version: 15.0.0 Default Sample Specification: float32le 2ch 48000Hz Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_06_00.6.analog-stereo Default Source: alsa_input.pci-0000_06_00.6.analog-stereo Cookie: 7af9:f9aa 

I tried to install pulseaudio as NoiseTorch is supported in it but pipewire is not letting me.

Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation: The following packages have unmet dependencies: pop-pipewire : Depends: pipewire-alsa but it is not going to be installed Conflicts: pulseaudio Conflicts: pulseaudio:i386 E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages 

I manually kept the mic sensitivity low but it automatically increases and picks up every noise of my surrounding.
sorry for bad english. Comment for any clarify.

Hey everyone. Just wanted to see if anyone has had similar symptoms to me. I am hoping to be eligible for endoscopic posterior cervical surgery and am awaiting appointments with surgeons.
My MRI results are:Cervical cord is normal in size and intensity. Intervertebral disc heights are maintained.
C2-3: No spinal canal or foraminal narrowing
C3-4: No spinal canal or foraminal narrowing
C4-5: No spinal canal or foraminal narrowing
C5-6: Small to moderate right paracentral and subarticular disc osteophyte complex results in mild spinal canal narrowing. Unconvertebral osteophytes result in moderate right and mild left foraminal narrowing
.C6-7: No spinal canal narrowing. Unconvertebral osteophytes result in mild right foraminal narrowing. No left foraminal narrowing.
C7-T1: No spinal canal or foraminal narrowing
I have bilateral pain that is mainly aches and spasms down shoulder blades, trapezius, chest, posterioside/front shoulder, bicep, serratus anterior, armpits, elbows, forearms, and into all fingers (mainly in middle 3 fingers though). Pain is similar on both sides of body. My research shows that C6 nerve root shares a lot of anatomy with c5 and c7 and can differ from person to person.
I have had some zingers in my neck (scalene area) but don't have a lot of neck pain in general. It's definitely progressed over the last 5 months as we originally treated it as a shoulder injury in physio and chiro. I don't really have muscle weakness but lots of pain/twitches. I have gone numb in the forearms in ring/pinky fingers at night a couples times when sleeping on the ground or with arms on body but no numbness other than that. My flare ups generally happen when I used my arms too much or carry things that are too heavy. A couple occasions at night I have felt like someone was cutting into both shoulders right on the nerve (10/10 pain for sure).
I am on Pregabalin which takes the edge off but doesn't get rid of pain completely. I am looking in the USA and Germany for opinions as it takes forever to get in with someone in British Columbia, Canada.
Has anyone had similar experiences??? Just wondering if all of my symptoms sound like they make sense. I have attached some pictures of my MRI for your viewing. Much appreciated.

So I'm 34, and I have a 2003 ford expedition 5.4L 2 valve, I'm looking at buying my first trailer within a few weeks.
I'm currently looking at a aspen trail 17bh by Dutchman, I found a few nearby me for 14k brand new.
My credit union is offering me 8.49% apr over 84 months which works out to about 180 a month.
My biggest questions are what should I be prepared for? I'm looking at a 10000lb weight distribution hitch, and a Curt brake controller.
My truck (the expedition) is rated for 10klbs, the trailer is 3500 dry, and about 5000 full.
I have a predator 3500w inverter gen, with remote start, and I plan on getting an enclosure for it that mounts to the front A-Frame.
I plan on living out of it for 6 weeks at a time when I'm working in Oregon. So I was planning on grabbing a 100lb propane tank I can stick in the truck so I'm not running into town every 3 days for more propane, and I was thinking of doing a dual fuel conversation on the generator.
I also plan on adding a couple deep cycle batts and the truck already has 5 110ah batteries and 400w of solar I plan on connecting to the coach

My father always wanted me to become a police officer. Who could blame him? His dad, who also happened to be my grandfather, was shot by a random man one day when my father was just 12 years old. He saw everything with his own eyes. It must’ve been traumatizing to him.
“My dad was just watering the plants.” He would often say, “Then a masked man in a white van rolled down his window and shot him out of nowhere.”
“His body fell to the ground and I quickly ran outside.” He’d continue, “Blood started coming out of the gunshot wound. I shouted as loud as I can until my mom arrived. My mom broke down in tears. My dad, with his last, dying breaths told me ‘Avenge my death, become a police officer, so no one else would have to endure the pain you’re feeling’.”
My father eventually did not become a police officer due to financial constraints. He ended up dropping out of high school a few years after my grandfather’s death. He started working in McDonald’s just to be able to have enough money to feed my grandmother. My grandmother at the time had dementia and had to resign from her job as an accountant because of it.
My father then met his future wife, who also happened to be my mother, in McDonald’s. No, my mother was not a McDonald’s employee, but they started talking when my mom lined up in front of the cashier my dad was stationed in to order a Big Mac and some fries. My father never told me what happened next. He always just told me that it was love at first sight and they started going out the following day. After a week, my dad left McDonald’s to apply for a job in the same place where my mom was working at the time, the KFC across the street.
My father’s dream to become a police officer was then transferred onto me. Even when I was still barely able to walk or talk, he would often tell me that I should become a police officer. At the time, I didn’t know what he meant. I don’t think newborns are familiar with the concept of a police officer. Despite that, I didn’t ask any questions. I eventually took up a Criminology program in college and graduated a year ago.
Sadly, before I graduated, my father developed dementia, just like my grandmother. He eventually forgot that I was taking up Criminology and for some reason thought I was a Formula One driver. He also forgot that he wanted me to become a police officer but my mom still encouraged me to become one. She kept telling me: “Your dad may not show it, but deep inside his original aspirations for you are still there.”
He passed away from Leukemia a few months ago. It’s such a shame that he’s not here today to hear this speech but I’m pretty sure he’s listening from wherever he is right now. Sorry dad, I am not a Formula One driver, but I just finished police academy and now I’m a legitimate police officer. Thank you.
“Nice speech, Ethan, congrats!” Carlisle, one of my closest friends, told me while I was going down the stage.
“Thanks, man.” I replied to him, “Not gonna lie, I was kinda nervous even if I practiced this speech for a month, but at least it’s done now”
“I would still be nervous if I were you. I heard you’ll be assigned to the Memphis Police Department.”
“Why would I be nervous?”
“Memphis has the highest crime rate in the country. It’s dangerous out there.”
“I’m literally the best young police officer the country has to offer. If I can’t do it then who can?”
“Well, that’s true. Just be safe out there, okay?” He said as he patted me on the back.
“I will don’t worry.”
After two days, I finally arrived in Memphis. I was greeted by the chief of the Memphis Police Department, Ryan McGruder.
“Mr. Ethan Blight?” He asked me.
“Yes, I am.” I replied as I shook his hand, “You must be Chief McGruder?”
“That’s correct. Come with me, let’s head to the station.”
The main headquarters of the Memphis Police Department was around 20 minutes away from the airport. I took this time to look around as it was my first time in Memphis.
“Are you scared?” Chief McGruder asked me.
“Scared of what?” I asked in return.
“I’m sure you know how dangerous Memphis is.”
“That doesn’t scare me too much. I know what I signed up for.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Once I arrived at the headquarters, I was greeted by a man and a woman who both seem to be in their mid-30s.
“This is Corporal Tommy Allen and Lieutenant Nesty Garland.” Chief McGruder said.
“I’m Ethan Blight.” I said as I shook their hands.
“You’ll be under Lieutenant Garland’s supervision for a few months” Chief McGruder followed, “She’s also supervising another fresh grad so I hope you all get along well.”
I followed Lieutenant Garland into her workstation. As soon as we got there, she introduced me to the other fresh grad she was supervising.
“This is Ryan Chambers. You’ll both be under my supervision for some time.” Lieutenant Garland said, “And I prefer to keep it casual here in my unit so there’s no need to say each other’s titles. That means you can just call me Nesty.”
Ryan stood up from his chair and shook my hand.
“I look forward to working with you, Ethan.” He said.
“Me too!”
After a few days of settling in, Ryan and I finally got to work on our first ever case. We were asked to investigate a robbery that occurred at a local appliance store. While on the way to the appliance store, he told me about a contest the police department has every year. It’s a contest which determines who the best police officer for the year is. The winner is chosen based off performance, effectiveness, and number of cases solved.
“Who are the frontrunners?” I asked.
“I heard Nesty has been good this year but I don’t think she’ll win.” Ryan replied, “I think Corporal Allen might win, he really wants that promotion.”
“You’re not supporting our own supervisor?”
“It’s not that I don’t like her, it’s just that Corporal Allen seems better.”
“In my opinion, I think Nesty would win. I’ve seen Corporal Allen a lot but Nesty just has different aura, you know? She’s very passionate and assertive especially in the office place.”
“Corporal Allen has solved more cases this year than her. I think the number is twice as more.”
“It’s not always about the quantity.” I replied, “I think whoever solves the current case with the wanted drug dealer gets the award.”
“I heard that Corporal Allen is already preparing to take on that case. Haven’t heard anything from Nesty’s side yet.”
“We’ll see, I still feel like Nesty should win.”
After a few minutes of driving, we got to the appliance store. Outside the store was the manager who was waiting for us.
“Can you tell us what happened here?” I asked the manager.
“A man just suddenly entered the store and pointed a gun towards one of our employees.” The manager said, “He asked for all the money in the cash register and we had no choice but to comply.”
“How much did he get?”
“Around $8000.”
“Do you have a recording of the incident?” Ryan asked.
“Yes, come with me.”
The manager led us to the back and showed us the recording of the robbery. The suspect wasn’t wearing a mask which is kinda stupid if you ask me but it makes our jobs easier.
“Can you zoom in on his face?” I asked.
The manager then proceeded to pause the recording to zoom in.
“Doesn’t that look like that drug dealer we were talking about earlier?” Ryan asked me.
“You know what, I think you’re right.” I replied, “So do you think these cases are connected?”
“Maybe he needed the money to buy more drugs.” Ryan said, “Wait, I have an idea. What if we solve this case ourselves and maybe, just maybe, they give us the award.”
“I just started this week, no way they give me the award.”
“I guess it’s gonna be me then.” Ryan chuckled.
“I doubt it, and besides, I’m pretty sure Nesty is already on her way to solve the case.”
“What do you mean Nesty? I’m sure it’s Corporal Allen who’s on the way.”
“Fine, how about let’s just find out ourselves. Sir, do you know which way the suspect went?” I asked the manager.
“Aside from the money, he also happened to steal one of our high-end laptops. That laptop was just used in a live demo earlier today and it conveniently has GPS that we’re tracking right now.” The manager said, as he pulled out his phone, “He’s about 5 kilometers east of us right now and it seems that he isn’t moving.”
Ryan and I both rushed into the car and drove to his location as fast as we can. We asked the manager if we could borrow the phone that he was using to track the laptop so we can find the suspect easier. After a few minutes of driving, we arrived at a warehouse where we think the suspect is hiding. Outside the warehouse was a car which we think belongs to the suspect. We busted open the car’s trunk and saw a bag full of cash and a brand-new laptop.
“Yup, I think this is his.” I said, “He must be inside the warehouse then.”
“So, what are we waiting for?” Ryan replied.
We rushed towards the warehouse and tried to find a way in. The front door was locked so we went around to look for any open windows. We found one window which we think we can fit through but as soon as we were climbing up to reach it, we heard gunshots. We climbed up faster to see what was going on and once we got inside, we saw a man whose legs were bleeding from a gunshot wound.
“That looks like the suspect, right?” I asked.
“I think so.” Ryan answered, “But who shot him?”
We looked around then suddenly I saw a figure holding a gun at the suspect.
“There!” I shouted, “It’s a police officer.”
The figure slowly walked towards the wounded suspect. As it walked closer, sunlight coming down from the ceiling revealed who their true identity.
“I don’t believe it.” Ryan said, “Is that Nesty?”
I took a closer look and he was right. It was Nesty. I looked towards Ryan and shouted: “Ha! Nesty is the best police, see?”

Hey everyone!
I'm trying to build a tool that compiles what we have across several google docs into 1 database. I know we have some tools already like the interactive map and item tables, but it would be nice to just punch in a hex or glyph and pull everything I need up front, or search out a specific item and have every related glyph to that item pulled up.
With that in mind I ran into a problem that makes things a bit more complicated, and have a question regarding the map hexes.
There are some files that label rows by map hexes, and others that label them by map ids. We can only really access these through either glyphs (which are likely expired), or generation. Is there some kind of key value table somewhere that lets me visit a dungeon by its map?

My wife and I just got back from a 3 day event where we did some breathwork sessions. I'm a practicing novice in meditation and conscious breathing. My wife is a Reiki practitioner and sound bowl healer. So we have some experience with modalities. She's also done KAP (Kundalini Activation Process) - which is the closest thing to what I experienced in my body.
The breathwork was with about 700 other people in a large hall. There were dozens of guides walking around during the sessions. We were primed to breathe as deep as possible and to exhale as fully as possible. We layed on our yoga mats, put our blindfolds on and started the breathwork sessions. Immediately I was surprised by how fast the breathe cycles were. 2 rapid inhales, 1 rapid exhale... each cycle taking about 2 seconds. So in a minute were doing 30 cycles. We did 3 sessions that last 7 minutes each with cool down periods between.
My experience was amazing and unlike anything I've experienced. I surrendered to it quickly and less that a minute in my hands were electric each day. Each day also the sessions had me drenched in sweat, even though I was in a cool room.
The first day I semiconsciously started slapping the ground around me, screaming and sobbing, I saw my father and forgave him, then started laughing. The second day my mind totally shut off and I felt like I was going through an exorcism. My body convulsed and spasmed. My hands and mouth cramped and I weeped and screamed. The third day similarly my hands and mouth but also my legs cramped. The third day incorporated inner child and generational trauma meditations at the beginning and end. I was able to accept my role at the center of my extended family as the one to heal everyone else.
Is this holotropic breathing Or something different? I'm integrating now with my wife, but I would like to better understand just what I went through.

We're on well water, like everyone else in our small Hamlet. We use it for everything, and have no complaints about the quality. There's just one problem—we have NO IDEA WHERE IT IS.
Our realtor and the previous owner of the property have not been able to help thus far. We've contacted the previous previous owner's family and are hoping that that pans out. In the meantime—
Any helpful info about wells dug in NY state around 1900-1910? Our house was originally built as a saloon. We've located the well pump and the sump pump in the basement crawlspace, and there's an old grey electric wire that runs from approximately that space, around the house, and under the front driveway. There's no pipes or concrete caps that we can see out front, but there are multiple depression in the ground that are filled with dirt and leaves.
No info on the old deeds I looked up online—in fact, all the landmarks used on the deeds to demarcate property lines are gone/unrecognizable. (Railroad fence, who's she?!)
How worried do we need to be about contamination? Anyone know how people used to mark wells in the old days? What sort of professional should we call if we can't locate it on our own?

Hi, around a month ago (after a trail run) I started feeling a pretty bad pain in my left hip. The pain is located mostly on my anterior and medial sides (I think where my tfl, gluteus minimus & adductors are located) - it’s at its worst (anterior) when standing and crossing my right leg over my left then pushing my left hip forward, but it is also painful when I sit in butterfly pose (medial) and lean back, pushing my left shoulder toward my right side. If I lay on my back with my right leg out straight and pull my left knee (bent) toward my chest or if I am in a lunge pose it also feels quite uncomfortable (anterior). Also, if when laying on my back with my right leg flat & my left leg above me - knee bent at 90* - and I externally rotate my left leg it hurts in the area of my gluteus minimus. When I’m in lunge pose with my left leg in front & I push my torso toward to the ground there is a slight popping (for lack of better words) around the top of my IT band and gluteus minimus. Going down stairs can be difficult (up stairs is fine).
To try and help this I’ve taken four weeks off (so far) from running, done a fair amount of heat & ice, stretch (iso & dynamic), strength train (hip specific with resistance bands), roll (also just put a lax ball on a tender spot and lay), massage, and have seen a chiropractor and acupuncturist. I’ve also worked doing hip impingement exercises. The pain is still pretty much the same as it was 4 weeks ago. It is not painful when sitting/laying/standing or walking and cycling (only running, going down stairs, and the stretches listed above).
I am kinda thinking this may be an IT issue effecting my gluteus minimus & tfl, which is in turn creating an imbalance in the rest of my hip, but I really don’t know. I am unscientifically blaming this pain on going downhill too hard on the trail run.
Just for background - I’ve run for 5+ years and average 50-60mpw mostly in the city but a fair bit on trails, as well. Ive had minor injuries but nothing like this. This has fully sidelined me and it’s quite upsetting. Thank you :)

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): There’s been drama and the main developer of the HA Unifi Protect integration has been booted out. There’s currently no one stepping up to take over. You need to either stop updating Unifi Protect (so that an update doesn’t break your HA integration), or take measures to switch over to that developers (now unofficial) integration.
Long Version:
(I’m gonna try and save my opinions till the end and avoid editorializing)
If you remember, the (formerly) main developer for the Unifi Protect Integration has strong feelings for Ubiquiti’s decision to require Unifi cloud access to enable local Smart detections. As an attempted protest/raise awareness, he submitted a pull request to the main HA branch that intentionally broke smart detection integration. If accepted, that would have meant all users of HA that use this integration and that feature would have had it stop working. The HA staff did not approve that pull request.
A few months following, he submitted a pull request that simply changed the license to ‘Business Source License” instead of an MIT open-source license. Please read his reasoning at that link.
In response, HA removed his access to the HA official github for the integration and removed his account as the maintainer of it. They forked his library at the point before the license was changed, and no one has really stepped up to take place as the official maintainer, so it’s left in a state of limbo.
I asked for some clarification on what that meant on an issue report, and he replied. The reply was quickly deleted by HA staff, but I have a copy saved. I think it’s worth reading so i will post it at the end.
He has continued to work on new features and bug fixes on his personal git repository. If you want to switch to it, you will have to manually install his version of Unifi Protect integration. This has been no such development on the official version.
My Opinion:
First, let me say I’d tried to capture these events as an outsider to the best of my ability. And I’ve tried to interpret them with my somewhat rookie understanding of the nuances of open-source collaborative development at this scale. So please forgive and feel free to correct anything. I just think this series of events and how it will impact the users of this code need to laid out in one place.
AngellusMortis was dead right about Ubiquiti requiring cloud access for local smart detections to be enabled. That’s a misstep by Ubiquiti’s commitment to staying 100% local (if the user wanted) and they have not addressed that when it’s called out. However, I will admit he can also get short/spicy when answering issues on github with his integration, and his actions with the pull requests and license change were extreme. I wish there were more attempts at working this out with more middle ground before this forking became inevitable, as the only people that suffer when an OSS repo is forked for drama are the end users.
However he seems to be a very good programmer (put the best way possible from an end user), and any programmer that shares code like this must also be credited for being generous. I owe him a beer and a steak dinner if I ever meet him in real life, as a large part of my home automation relies on it. For example:

• Protect Doorbell person detects and doorbell rings trigger custom sounds on all my Alexa speakers just like Ring doorbells do. (One of the earliest things i did with HA years ago)
• All my existing external lights will turn on/off with smart person detections on my external G5 bullet cameras as if they were motion lights (but better, precision control on when lights are triggered thanks to zone masks).
• The mechanical chime on my doorbell automatically gets disabled or re-enabled depending on if the Sonos speaker in my 1yr-old's room is playing lullabies during nap time. AKA, the doorbell goes into “do not disturb” mode so it only buzzes our phones for stupid UPS deliveries instead of waking the baby. This automation alone has made the wife so happy she pretty much has given me a hall pass to buy any more/new ubiquiti/automation products I want.

And that was all possible to AngellusMortis work.
His reply to me that was deleted:

I would find it surprising if the core integration is ever updated again. And if it is, it will only ever be for the most basic of support. I really doubt there will ever be impactful new features added as I have been doing. Things like the Media Source, sensodoor lock support (RIP), exposing the event thumbnails for notifications, and many others. There is a sub-50 line PR that adds a feature I kept overlooking by accident that has been sitting for literally over a month. HA does not give a shit about this integration enough to approve the CI run so it can be merged. It is because the members of the org do not give a shit about security cameras inside of HA since it does not fit into their view of what Home Assistant should be used for. It is also why the video player for HA is fundamentally broken for security cameras and has been for literally years.
They are choosing to segment the integration and force someone to pick it up, which is unlikely to every happen. The license specifically allows usage in HA. It just has to be my code, as it was written. With no fork. This is a growing problem with the open-source world. More and more companies and groups, in this case Naba Casa, want to reap all of the benefits from open-source projects without any rules or restrictions. Open-source absolutism is what I call it. OSI and anyone that always calls for open-source absolutism just conveniently ignore the time and effort people put into open source. Usually for their own benefit and profit. Look at the story of Elasticsearch and AWS.
It is still open source. You can still do whatever you want with it, you just cannot intentionally cut me out of a project that I have contributed 95% of the code to and I want to retain the right to be able to restrict its usage for projects that cause me stress or too much additional work. HA is perfectly okay with rejecting contributions anytime they do not want to take on the additional burden of work a feature would cause them. But since it is the "the largest open-source project in the world" they can just go "lol, then fork us" and say fuck you to anything else who wants the same rights.
In this case, Nabu Casa employees want to come into my code and dictate terms to how I write and manage it all because they refuse to come up with alternative solutions. The only solutions proposed are almost always "contribute something better". Of course, they will just deny anything that does not fit into their limited view of what "home users" want, even if actual users show them that they are wrong (5th highest feature request of all time).
Okay, you do not like something my library is doing, that I have intentionally added to handle support issues for Home Assistant because Home Assistant Github and support fucking sucks. Guess what? It is on you to make a better working solution. Not me. Of course, when I make these complaints, I am ignored or gaslit about it. When the burden of dealing with literally hundreds of people making the same fucking support issue over and over again makes me a bit hostile, no wants even think to offer to help. Or make support suck ass for suck a large project. Or let me link to my own documentation and support. When I change the license because of it, HA decides to keep ignoring the situation and pretend like nothing is wrong. Of course, there is the double-standard when Nabu Casa employees want to do the same thing, and for the same reason. They do not want to deal with the support that will be generated by the project being used in the manner that it is.
I have always been very open about how shitty HA treats their contributors. Not everyone works full time on open-source or are employed by Nabu Casa so they can continue to do so. There is a reason why once an integration "loses" a codeowner it stops getting features and just breaks. And new people will choose to make a HACS integration instead of trying to update or maintain the core one. Because of the rules, micromanaging and bullshit. Code reviews for style issues, or performance issues are great. But if you want to decide to use a part of Home Assistant in a way that they do not like, you will just be alienated, ignored or kicked out. If you do not fucking like people accessing hass.data directly, then make a real API and stop putting burden of your mine trap of rules on contributors. Contributors that write software because they find it fun and want to make something cool. Not be your fucking code monkeys or support bitches. Of course, once again, HA will also choose to block custom integrations that do things they do not like or cause additional support burden on them, but you are never allowed to try to make things easier for you as a contributor.

​

I’m (28F) losing my drive, sexually frustrated and disappointed. I know this is long but please what does a woman do from here?? I’ve never been in a relationship where my drive is higher
We’ve been together 2.5 years. We have sex maybe once a month, twice If I’m lucky. Ive always been very attracted to my boyfriend and he meets my emotional needs. I’ve always had a higher sex drive than him. The frequency and quality has been a constant throughout our relationships which is not often and not for long. He has gotten better but still cannot last more than a few minutes and sometimes goes soft between positions or never gets hard at all when I touch him unless I specifically say something about being in the mood. I didn’t have any issues at first because I really just thought it would take time to explore that together and “practice” for lack of a better. I also honestly thought that when I moved in with him and we saw each other more it would improve then also.
I have brought up the conversation of sex multiple times, first asking if he wasn’t attracted to me or if it didn’t feel good (his response was that it has nothing to do with attraction, he finds me sexy, but that he has performance anxiety, and intimidation from maybe lack of experience. ) I try to be very mindful of my responses to not make the situation worse bu also ask questions to understand better or figure out how we can solve it.
I know what I like and have shared that with him ( more foreplay, different positions to try, I like when the man leads, blindfold/handcuffs ect) and guide him if needed. When I ask him what he likes or what turns him on ( because every relationship is different) I was always met with an almost shy “I don’t know, it all feels good”
Another time I brought it up he said something along the lines of having Low T, he isn’t active because he has a desk job and hasn’t been working out and is more focused on finances so sex isn’t a priority. Understandable, he honestly is in survival mode more and more each year with pay cuts from switching jobs in this economy and job market.
I have bought different lubes, toys, Viagra ( which he was open to and we’ve tried it only once and we both thought it was great. I thought wow this might actually really help pick things up off the ground. I’ve since suggested a few times we try it again, but he hasn’t
He has made comments at the end of the day when we are laying in bed out of the blue “ I know you want sexy time together but I’m so tired, I’ll get you tomorrow” and never does. I’ve worn lingerie a few times spontaneously and set the mood and while that very obviously sets the night up I would love it if he also took charge and made me feel desired/wanted.
This sounds like I’m an overly sexual person but I’m not nor do I really have sexual trauma either. I don’t think I’m vanilla either, I have C/D cup breast and a pretty good ass too. I’m 5’2, 150ish lbs currently. Probably gained like 20 pounds during our relationships so Im a little over weight in my mid section but definitely not very fat or obese. I make bomb ass food for us, I work full time standing on my feet all day long, I pay all my own bills, I pay a little “ rent” every month, I contribute with groceries and house things and going out to eat, I go to therapy, I work on myself and try to communicate my needs, I’ve been vulnerable with him and opened my heart up. I support him in whatever he wants to do even his expensive hobbies, we tend the dog, chickens, housework/yard work together, I tell him thank you and that I appreciate him often, we have traveled a bit to different states and a few countries together. We try to make each others life easier and better with little things throughout the day/week. We compliment each other, and outside the bedrooms he is the masculine man that I love, he is assertive and confident and does provide a lot and is pretty attentive and kind and wants to make me happy but this area of our life I feel helpless and stuck. I love him and want to connect, it’s a natural and important aspect of any romantic relationship.
I would be thrilled if we could be intimate once a week but it’s been once a month maybe twice a month for a while now.
He has gone down on me once with oral ( 3ish months ago) and I’ve given him oral twice since. I waited to do so because I was already feeling one sided and I know it sounds silly but BJ’s is the one area that kind of intimidate me. But I actually loved it and after the first time I bought flavored lube to try out and shared my pleasure about it with him and he was of course happy also.
In between all this, last fall he made a wierd comment while I was rubbing him down that it would feel good to get a ball massage for like an hour, not sexually just like a back massage but for your balls. . Well alarm bells went off immediately and a few weeks later I was looking at his text messages and he had recently messaged an escort asking about services and what her schedule was like. He never responded to the last message and they never set a date and time. I brought it up to him and said I’m not proud I looked at your phone but I had a hunch and it was right. I shared how hurt I was especially because I’ve been actively trying to improve ours and communicate about it and he messages a fucking escort. I told him that I’m not okay with that at all, that to me it’s a form of cheating and I feel betrayed. I asked if they ever met up and he said No I would be too nervous to actually do anything, it was just a thrill of excitement. About a month later I walked into his office one night and he was actively watching porn. I stood there for a second while he scrambled and was embarrassed. I turned around and went back to bed. I was shocked because I didn’t think he was watching porn ( My ex husband had a porn problem and I’ve shared this with him, but with my ex he was more aggressive and was always hard/high sex drive so I was naive to think he didn’t watch porn when our sex life sucks and he doesn’t seem interested)
like what the hell? I’m literally right here in front of you a real person who WANTS to???
I believe he probably uses Reddit for porn. Whether it’s when he is in the bathroom on the toilet for 30 min at 4am or 8am or 8pm I don’t know it doesn’t really matter but it’s not helping and out sex life that’s already tanking and I don’t think he cares. He says he wants to make me happy and he is aware of my needs but nothing changes and I want to feel desired or like the man I’m dating is not just a glorified roommate. I don’t think I would care if he uses pork on his own if our sex life was better, but I hate it because he obviously uses that to get his needs instead of connecting.
Last weekend I was so frustrated, I was reading Gottmans book about Intamcy and took what I was reading later when we were talking about plans for dinner and I flirtatiously said what if we spent some time together tonight to nourish our bodies;) He got the message and said don’t worry about fter dinner tonight we’ll spend time together. I made dinner, we watched a show together, he went upstairs to finish some work so I was getting ready for bed and he never came to bed. It was like 11pm or 1am I don’t remember and he said In so sorry I had some work to catch up on but we will in the morning ( He was leaving the following day for a work trip) we never did in the morning either. He left, came home a few days later for one day, left again for a few days during which I was also out of town for 2 days. I got home and since then he has been extra sweet and kind, we had some intimate time together which I loved and at the ends his same response is always “ I thought I had it this time, I really thought I was going to last longer but it feels too good”
This isn’t a case of lack of communication either, I don’t make him read my mind about anything but dammit I’m tired of asking for it, being the one to bring it up, the one to imitated the interest, but if I don’t it’s like he is clueless and satisfied anyways from porn. Do we go to therapy? Do I cut my loses and nove on? Is porn not the problem??