Painful lump on right lower molar

Part I of my Story on the Empress GF, which may or may not yet come as a Meme in this AU from u/Sweet_older-Sister. But whether or not, I wrote this up and wanted to share it with you, with Part II soon to follow.
WARNING: Is you expect this to be a harsh takedown or bashing of AU!Big E, I have to disappoint you. She WILL be criticized, but I personally prefer him/her to be a sympathetic, ultimately well-meaning, if highly flawed, Character. Also, the SO for Big E is both perpetual and a Psyker, just not one anywhere near her Level. That said, I kept them Gender-neutral, so if you wanna imagine them and Big E as Golden Space Lesbian Mommies, feel free to do so!
Regardless of all that, however, I mostly just hope you can enjoy this! Have fun!
I open the door to her chamber, paying no heed tot he noises of raging battle, clearly audible despite all the walls, doors and distance between us and them.
As always, despite the gold-plated…everything, the most radiant thing in this room is still her.
Tall and proud she stands as she puts on the last pieces of her golden armor, light glowing off o fit, pure and bright. Her mighty sword hangs by her side and her long, raven black hair is flowing down her back. When she turns around, her glowing eyes, which seemed so often to somehow hold both the untold wisdom oft he wises changes and yet also the boundless arrogance oft he most reckless fools widen upon seeing me, before they swiftly narrow again.
„…I told my Companions to keep you away“, she says, her voice sounding cold and rejecting.
„Well, too bad“, I say, meeting her eyes without fear. „They know better than to try and keep me away when the two of us have to talk.“
Anger briefly flares up in her eyes. „There is nothing to talk about. You are distracting me from preparing for battle!“, she says, her voice cold, harsh and regal, demanding obedience. „As your Empress, I order you to leave. At once!!“
Most other men and women would have crumbled at this moment. Hastily apologized and retreated.
But not me.
I stand my ground and return her cold glare without flinching. „…I am not your Subordinate“, I say, firmly and steadfast. „Not at this moment. Right now, I am your Consort and equal, and as such, I refuse that order!!“
Her eyes widen before she grits her teeth. „You DARE defy your Empress?!“ She stomps a foot on the ground. „I command you, LEAVE!!“
I narrow my eyes. „No.“
„I SAID LEAVE!!!“ Her scream shakes the room far more harshly than the distant Artillery Fire ever had. Her voice rings not just in my ears, but in my mind and soul, as psychic pressure seems to drown the room.
And still, I stand my ground and glare up at the Golden Giantess above me. „NO!!“
Her mask is slowly cracking, her eyes wide and her breathing starting to become uneven. „I…I ORDER you to LEAVE-“
„And I REFUSE!!“ My own shout is not nearly as impressive in terms of sheer power…but it seems to hit the Empress of Mankind like a whiplash.
Her breathing going ever more ragged, she turns away from me. „There is NOTHING to talk about, now!! Leave!!“
I clench my fist, a wave of anger rushing through me. „You think you can just shut me out like that?! Confine me to a secure Chamber while you rush off to your Doom?! You selfish BITCH!! That’s NOT how it works!! Didn’t you promise me, all these Millennia ago?! That we would see this through together, come what may?! That you would never ignore me or shut me out?!“ I snort bitterly. „But, well, I suppose you broke that last promise a while ago. What’s one more, eh?!“
I swear I can hear her breath hitch in her throat. My heart clenches at the sound, but I soldier on. She NEEDS to hear this.
„And where did that lead us?! Oh, right: Besieged in our Palace by our own daughters and their sons that have fallen prey to our worst enemies, with all that’s left to do being a reckless assault on their Leader that could well get you killed!! An assault that I just NOW learned about from one of our older sons!! How could I forget that?!“
„Stop it!!“, she growls. „I…I have to-“
„You ALWAYS ‚have to‘!! And yet, you have never stopped considering if maybe you SHOULDN’T!! That would have saved us a lot of trouble, wouldn’t it?!“ I shake my head, glaring at her. „Maybe it’s time for you to finally get that obstinate head out of your golden laurels-“
„STOP IT!!“
„-and stop being the Empress of Mankind for a few fucking minutes-“
„S-stop it!“
„-so I can finally have a real fucking talk with the woman I fell in love with again-“
„S…stop…“ Her voice sounds almost pleading now, but I steel my heart and prepare the final blow.
„BEFORE I MIGHT LOSE HER FOREVER, JUST LIKE WE LOST OUR DAUGHTERS, YOU STUBBORN OLD WOMAN!!!“
I am panting heavily, finally feeling the hot tears running down my face. I didn‘t even realize that I have begun to cry…but, laying my wounded heart bare like this has brought up all the pain and suffering from the last few years all too strongly.
Slowly, hesitantly, she turns back around to face me. The Golden Halo framing her head has vanished, as had much of her glow…and her eyes, usually so regal and proud, are now brimming with tears, looking so ancient, tired and sad as they turn towards me.
The Mask that is the Empress of Mankind had crumbled away…and what remains is the woman I had learned to know and love, all those Millennia ago, when we first met at on shores of old Albion.
A woman so old, tired, weary and sad, so beaten down and wounded that I had begun to fear she was forever lost.
„I…I am sorry…“ Her voice is almost a whimper, carrying untold grief and regret as she collapses onto her bed, which nearly broke from the weight. „I am s-so sorry…I…I ruined everything…!“
She buries her face in her hands and begins to sob.
My heart clenches and I breathe out the last of my anger, relief flashing through my mind. I have gotten through to her, finally, for the first time in years.
Too late, I remind myself as sharp regret flashes through me. Far too late for far too many people…
But at least not entirely too late.
I sigh as I slowly walk up to and then sit down next to her. I reach up and gently place my hand on her armored arm.
„H-how…“ She finally whispers between sobs. „How did I screw this up so badly…? How did I let it come to this…?“
I sigh again. „…It was not entirely your fault“, I finally say. „The Game was rigged against us the moment the Four kidnapped them. The seeds were already sown. And…“ I look down, overwhelming regret in my heart. „And while you fucked up, it’s not like I have done too much better of a job...“
Images flash before my mind. Images of my…OUR daughters. Our darling little Girls and their significant others, our sons and daughters in law. Our greatest hope for Mankind and the Galaxy, our pride and joy. So many oft them now lost forever, through our enemies fault and our own hubris.
I remember giving my blessing Hathor‘s attack on the Interex to avenge her Moonbeam, thinking nothing more of it, only for her to emerge as the Chosen Warmaster of Chaos…
I remember trying and failing to convince my Empress to give Petra more meaningful assignments, Campaigns where she can truly show her worth and skills, only to let myself be convinced that she and the Iron Warriors were needed too badly in these grueling Sieges…
I remember trying to talk Aurelia out of her worship of her Mother, to stop spreading Cults to her service over the Worlds, only to fail miserably..and to fail even more miserably in comforting her after she lost her Little Light on Monarchia…her mother and I had not talked a while after that…
I remember chastising Alpharia and Omega for their reckless approach to collateral damage in their style of Warfare, chosing my words too harshly…
I remember coldly telling Alakhai that I do not approve of her significant other, getting into a loud shouting match over it…
I remember harshly rebuking Magnolia after Nicea, her reckless pursuit of Warp Knowledge pressing all the wrong buttons in me and, in my anger, making me compare her unfavorably to Lyanna and Mortia…
Next to me, she keeps crying, her shoulder trembling as years off suppressed guilt, regret and grief finally break through to the surface. „Our daughters…our sweet children…m-my fault…all my fault…!!“
Bitter guilt roils in my soul. „No“, I whisper quietly. „It was my fault, too. I…I wasn’t that good a parent, either…not to then, and not to our children in-law…“
...Where had we gone so wrong? We had raised children before! And not too badly, at that! So why had we now failed so miserably at keeping our Family together?!
…The answer is simple and bitter. Because we had severely overestimated our ability to be the parents they deserved while running an ever-expanding Empire of Conquest and balance between the two issues, especially since our daughters were vitally important Generals. Because we had trouble trusting people we didn’t know for a long time already, like Malcador, after Millennia of heartbreaks and betrayals. Not at all helped by the fact that we had been unable to bond with our daughters before they were taken from us as embryos.
But that is no excuse. The Lion’s share oft he blame falls on both our shoulders, and we know it. We had placed what we believed to be the needs of Mankind and the Imperium before our Family too many times…and now, we all had paid the price for this.
Oh, how the Four must be laughing at our foolishness…and, much as I HATE them for all they have done to us and our Family, I have to bitterly admit that they would be right to do so…
Still crying, she pulls me to her into a hug, which I gently return. Despite her towering over me, I had always felt the most comfortable with her when she was at this size.
…It provides a small measure of relief from the agonizing knowledge that a Number of our Children, now in service to those four fucking Cancer Tumors upon reality, are currently trying to breach into the Imperial Palace and destroy us, Mankind and all we have ever worked for. And the knowledge that some of our other children have already died at each others hands.
And now, my Empress would have to kill one more of our daughters to end this. Hathor, our best and brightest Girl, beloved and cherished, now our worst, most bitter enemy.
Our ultimate failure as Parents, laid bare.
„…I can never make up for what I have done“, my love finally says, her voice sad and resigned even as her tears still flow. „Not to them…and not to you. I am sorry…but I know that it changes nothing…“
I gently place a hand on her cheek. „…It does change one thing“, I say quietly. „That I know the woman I love is still there…“
„…I was not a good wife to you in these last years“, she whispers. „Almost as bad as I was a mother…“
I gently press my head against her. „…I forgive you“, I finally say.
She shakes her head. „I don’t deserve that…“
„Maybe not. But I forgive you, anyway.“ I look at her. „Just, please…promise me to never let your mask control you like this, again.“
She nods, burying her face in my shoulder. „I swear…I swear, I won’t…“
She is sincere. I can tell. I have known her too long not to.
„I didn’t want you to come here“, she says quietly. „I knew that if I saw you, I would crumble again…“
„Perhaps it was time for you to crumble“, I answer sadly. „To remind yourself that you are still human, at the core…not just the cold, calculating, uncaring Empress you had become…“
She tightens her hug, silence reigning for a few seconds. „…Thank you“, she finally whispers. „Thank you for…for snapping me out of this, one last time…“
Fear now rises within me. Despite knowing that this may be the last time I see her…I do not want to think about this. The idea of losing her forever after all we have been through…it is terrifying.
„…Please, don’t…don’t say that.“ Now it is I whose voice is shaking. „Our other daughters and children in-law…they still need you. The Imperium still needs you. I still need you! You…you will make it. You have been in tough spots before! You-“
She interrupts me, gently pressing her forehead against mine. „…If…if I don’t come back…promise me you’ll be there for them. For as long as you can. Please, my life…promise me you won’t give up. Promise me that you will be a better parent than I was…“
I swallow. „I…I promise.“ I finally whisper. And I mean it, as much as I desperately hope I will never have to face this future without her.
I try to calm myself. She will be fine. She will win…and after this War is over, we will finally make all the amends we can, save as many of our children as possible and finally, FINALLY do right by them…as they deserve, as we should have from the start!
We will!! We HAVE to!!
…I desperately cling onto this hope. The Alternatives…are too much to bare imagining.
She tightens her hug around me again as we sit there, quietly wishing that this last moment of quiet and calm, filled with regret and sorrow as it may be, would never end.
But it would. Soon. The Teleporters would be ready in mere Minutes.
Oh, how I wish I could accompany her onto the Vengeful Spirit, to confront our wayward daughter, perhaps, as I hoped foolishly, even save her…but I know that this is the one thing she will never allow. As a Psyker, I am powerful, but never as strong as Malcador, let alone her or any of our daughters. Chaos would not hesitate to kill me or worse aboard this tainted vessel and I can not afford to slow her down and make her waste time and energy protecting me.
And besides, if any Deamons make it through the defenses while she is gone, I will be needed to keep them from reaching the Throne.
I know that this, she would be adamant about, now more than ever. So I do not even try.
…It still causes an awful feeling in my gut, nonetheless, as we stay hugging each other for as long as we can, two foolish, flawed and weary parents, sharing in our grief, regret and sorrow over our destroyed family in these last moments before the Final Clash…

I have multiple chronic health conditions, all of which are invisible, and the one relevant to this story is fibromyalgia. Sitting on hard surfaces for longer than 10-15min is painful, and that duration is on a good day. Pain is worse if the backrest of the hard seat is also hard and hits certain areas of my back. I attended a university which was built in the 60s and 70s, with much of the original furniture still in use. This is great, except that the chairs in most classrooms were not only hard, but also smallish and not ergonomically designed at all, with a back that hit me right in the scoliosis. So, every semester I would file a request for disability accommodation with the appropriate department and within a week, padded and curved chairs would be provided for me in those rooms and stay there all semester. Other students rarely tried to sit in them, and usually when I approached and explained, both of us were friendly about it, or at least polite.
Except this one guy. He was startlingly rude, and I took umbrage. This happened after about a month, during which I had arrived early; I think this was the first time he arrived before me.
Me: Hello, fellow student! You’re sitting in my spot; I have -
Him: It’s not your spot, we don’t have assigned seats. You don’t get to take the one good chair every single day.
Me: Actually, I do. When you develop and are formally diagnosed with an invisible, incurable neurological disorder which causes severe chronic pain, you can fill out your own disability accommodation request for your own special chair. This one is mine.
I’ve never seen somebody jump to their feet so damn fast lol

Killer Grips: Anne Maria, Brick, Jasmine, Justin, Millie
Screaming Gaffers: Chase, MK, Ripper, Scott, Sky
Episode 7: The Chefshank Redemption
"Last week, the dry desert heat baked our favorite pardners like roadkill on the black top! But, crispy bottoms or not, they still had to mount their ancient steed… from a hundred-foot platform!"
“But that wasn't all. A calf-roping contest had the teams lasso each other. When Trent threw challenges for Sky, she gave him a much deserved talking to, which led to some Total Drama from Justin. Well, poor old deputy Trent found himself hitching a ride on the 3:10 to Loserville.”
"With ten remaining, it's anyone's guess who will win this week!" The camera now showed the cast trailers, with nobody in sight. "Will the Gaffers manage to win again?" the host asked as the shot moved to the team of five, loitering together beneath a tree.
"Or will the Grips even things out?" Chris asked next as the shot cut to the team of five, all sitting outside at a picnic table.
"It can happen!" Anne Maria said.
"Right," Chris said in a close-up before smiling at the camera. "See for yourself, next, on Total! Drama! Action!"
(Theme Song)
The episode properly opened on a scene of the morning sun, a lilting tune playing as the camera panned down and over to the cast trailers. The sound of snoring could be heard as the shot zoomed further in on the boys' trailer, and cut inside to show the boys all in the beds they'd picked at the start of the season, though Justin was in the middle of a facial while a fan was blowing on his nails.
An air horn was sounded loudly as the shot zoomed in on Chase, who woke up with a snap. The focus switched to Scott, who opened his eyes and rubbed them before Ripper sat up and yawned.
"I call dibs on the bathroom!" Chase said after he got out of bed, rushing to the door of the trailer. The scene cut to a close-up of the handle as he grabbed it and pulled to no effect, leading him to frown and try pulling with both hands, still with no results.
Chase then saw Justin still in bed. "Can you help with this?"
“This is day 12 of my manicure!” Justin replied. “To risk any more cuticle damage would be madness!”
"I'll open the door if you can't," Ripper told Chase as he stood next to him. “I have more muscle than all of you wimps.”
“By all means, go ahead and give it a try,” Scott encouraged insincerely.
Ripper grabbed the handle and pulled to the best of his ability, but the door remained closed. "I can't open it. We're trapped."
Confessional: Ripper
“I'm pretty much the strongest of my brothers," Ripper told the confessional camera. "In my school, I'd usually have to rip open lockers so I could either stuff somebody into it or take money. I'd usually get weeks of detention for that though."
Confessional Ends
“Why did they even trap us in here?” Chase complained as the scene cut back to the guys' trailer.
“They probably want us to fight each other to see who'll come out on top,” Scott theorized.
“We should find a way out instead of doing that,” Justin argued. “My hands have just been manicured.”
The camera cut back outside as the scene panned over to the girls' trailer, and the camera cut inside to show Millie jiggling the girls' door handle.
"I don't know how I ended up inside this trailer when I slept in a tree, but we have to open the door," Jasmine panicked as the scene panned over to her. Anne Maria and Sky were sitting on the lower bunk next to her.
“I'm pretty sure they snuck you in here while you were sleeping,” Anne Maria said. “And why are you so worked up about this?”
“I have claustrophobia, and I hate being in tight spaces,” Jasmine said.
Millie gave up pulling the handle. “This thing is jammed. I'm not able to get it open.”
"So we should try a different exit," MK walked past the bunks and pointed up at the ceiling. The other girls looked up as well and the camera followed their gazes, stopping on an emergency hatch.
"One of us should be able to squeeze through it," Sky noted and tilted her head down at MK.
“Uh, why are you staring at me?” MK asked gruffly.
Confessional: Sky
"I'm not happy to see Trent leave this early," Sky confessed. "He did do some questionable things in the past few challenges, but I thought he could get better after our talk. Regardless," she looked at the camera with determination, "I have to not let this affect my game now that I'm competing without him for the first time, and we are still together, unlike me and Keith."
Confessional Ends
"You should be the one to do it," Sky told her petite teammate. "You are the smallest one here."
MK furrowed her eyebrows. "I don't like being singled out because of my height, but for the sake of escaping this trailer, I'll excuse it." The techno looked back up at the hatch. "I will need a boost though."
"I'll help you get up there," Jasmine offered as she walked over to the girl. "My height will definitely come in handy."
The scene flashed back over to the guys, showing them looking up at the hatch.
"So obviously, we need someone to fit through the hatch and open our trailer," Scott deduced.
"Count me out," Ripper huffed. "I'm too heavy to fit through."
“I'd do it, but I would need more people to climb up through,” Justin said. “This would be a lot easier if Brick was here.”
“Speaking of which, where is Brick anyway?” Chase asked aloud.
The scene cut over to the craft services tent before flashing inside to Brick standing in the kitchen wearing a pot as a hat while Chef stood next to him in his drill sergeant uniform. "Okay maggot," Chef said. "I'm gonna ride you 'til your confidence coats the back of a spoon and your self-respect forms stiff peaks!" He showed the cadet his reflection in a cleaver and said, "No more War Child Brick. Watch and learn." He used a knife to cut a banana, a can, a bitten apple, and a boot into pieces.
"What is that?" Brick wondered.
"Taste perfection, boy," Chef poured the sliced items into a pot and served a spoonful to Brick, who cringed in disgust. "What you're tasting is pride, son. The most important virtue in a man's life. Now stir that pot!" the cook ordered before storming out.
"If Chef wants pride, then I'm going to give it my best effort," Brick talked to himself as he stirred. "What he gave me was an order, and I always follow orders."
The scene flashed back to the guys' trailer, cutting inside as Ripper placed himself in a fighting position with his arm folded and sticking out in front of him.
“Are you sure you want to do this, Ripper?” Justin asked in concern.
"Of course," Ripper said. "All I have to do is show that door who's boss by bursting through it!" Moments later, he charged across the room, yelling at the top of his lungs.
The door opened outside just before Ripper reached it, and unable to stop himself, he flew outside, past a smirking Chris wearing a police uniform, and landed next to the girls who had already gathered outside their own trailer.
"Hope you all enjoyed your first taste of the gulag," Chris said as he walked over to them, the other boys coming out of their trailer and joining the group.
"Gulag?" Anne Maria asked as Ripper stood up and dusted himself off. "What even is that? Food?"
“Gulag means prison, not food,” Sky pointed out.
"Correctamondo," Chris told her. "Because today," the camera quick-panned to a prison set with high walls rimmed with barbed wire and several wooden dummies in prison uniforms set up in a courtyard, "is Prison Flick day!"
The castmates groaned.
"Ah, prison," Chris continued. "The confinement, the claustrophobia!" he said, getting excited as he began to pace back and forth in front of the unimpressed contestants, a tense tune building up in the background. "The vile, nasty food! And you're always lookin' over your shoulder, 'cause Mr. Killer Dude wants to cut ya for takin' the last tater tot! And no matter how hard you try, digging out spoonfuls of dirt, year after year, there's no escape!"
"Unless you get voted off, of course!" he added plainly.
Confessional: Chase
“As if this place wasn't prison-like enough,” Chase muttered. “Now we have to actually live like criminals. It won't surprise me if in a year or two, Chris gets locked up for teenage abuse.”
Confessional Ends
"Lockdown, people," Chris said with a grin as the footage cut back to him in the interior of a prison lit by a handful of stage lights. "Let's get this challenge started!" The shot pulled back, revealing the teams standing across from each other next to tables filled with a variety of cooking dishes. A covered cart sat near the hot, and in the background were a pair of cages.
"Teams, take a prisoner from the competition," he told them in a close-up as footsteps were heard in the background, "and Chef,” Chef arrived on screen in his earlier outfit, "I mean Warden," the host corrected with a wink. "Lock 'em up."
The shot cut over to the Grips. "Okay," Justin whispered as the five huddled, "we have to pick the weakest member of the other team."
“We do have to weigh our options,” Millie said. “Chase once told me that he swallowed ten bugs into his mouth in under a minute as a dare, and Scott and Sky have strong stomachs as evident in the eating challenge from last season.”
“Ripper doesn't seem the type to chuck out what he eats, so we're picking MK,” Jasmine decided.
The shot cut over to the Gaffers' huddle. "Obviously, we need to pick Millie for this," Scott suggested. "She's less likely to handle gross food."
"I would say Jasmine since she's less likely to go through being locked up because of her claustrophobia," MK said, "but using someone's fear against them would make me look bad."
"Looks like we have a choice," Chase finished.
"Choices?" Chris announced suddenly. "Gaffers?"
"We choose Millie," Sky announced, causing the writer to groan.
"Grips?" Chris followed up, taking a few steps to the other team. "Now remember, this is an important choice. Whoever gets the upper hand here could win the whole challenge!"
"Because of that," Brick announced, "we're picking MK." The techno girl gulped.
"Today's first game is," Chris announced as he walked back over to the covered cart, "the Prison Chow-llenge!" A few deep notes played as he grabbed the cover and whipped it away, revealing the stinking, rotting, half eaten food lying beneath. "Each team of prison chefs whips up the foulest, nastiest, most barf-inducing slop this side of Alcatraz," he explained as the camera moved in for a close-up of the 'food', then cut to a cringing Brick and a again to a somewhat surprised-looking Anne Maria.
"Millie and MK have to stomach as much as they can," the host explained. "Last one to power-hurl wins!"
"Technically, this isn't an actual prison," Millie said as Chef herded her into the cage closest to the Grips. "If I was, I'd be protesting how unfair my “arrest” is."
"That's what some of them say," Chris told her with a smile as the door slammed shut and the camera pulled back, showing that MK had been locked up as well.
Confessional: Millie
"I'm not exactly hyped for this," Millie confessed uncertainly. "With the exception of the Brunch of Disgustingness, I'm not the kind to eat gross food, and I don't plan on doing so in the future, but since I've already been nominated, I might as well just suck it up."
Confessional Ends
The camera panned across the Grips' table, showing only a handful of dishes filled with unidentifiable mush. "This just keeps getting worse and worse!" Millie said as she looked at it in horror.
"The reward better be worth it," MK said from her cage.
"Have I ever let you down?" Chris asked before quickly adding "Wait! Scratch that!" He smiled before continuing. "Anyway, the winning team gets this!" He held up a golden shovel, which gleamed in the light.
"A shovel?" Millie asked skeptically. “Seriously?”
Confessional: Jasmine
"Given what I know about confinement cells, I think I know what the next part of the challenge will be," Jasmine told the confessional camera. "If it's digging, then we have to believe that Millie will pull through for us."
Confessional Ends
"Prisoners ready?" Chris called from between the two cages. "Aaaand, culinate!"
The host continued his rapid commentary as the Gaffers were shown making their first moves around a large bowl of something brown. "Ripper goes right for the roaches. Chase tops it off with some moldy pineapple slices and oh! Here come the horse lips!" The burly boy dropped his ingredient into the bowl and walked away while the daredevil stuffed the pineapples into the bowl and grabbed some horse lips in order to add them in.
Sky approached the table from the other side. “Where did you even get these things?” the athlete asked.
"I found some leftover pineapples from the beach party," Chase told her before they left the table.
“Gross, but effective,” Sky said.
Scott arrived with his wife beater taken off and in his hands. “This oughta be good,” he snickered as he twisted his cloth and squeezed out all the sweat into the bowl. After doing so, he put his wife beater back on his bare chest.
The camera cut over to the Grips as Justin took some dead hair out of his pockets and put them into his team's bowl. "Looks like Justin is sacrificing some of his dead hair," Chris commented as Jasmine stepped forward with a cheese grater and a moldy onion, "and Jasmine adds a topping of ripe onion." The Australian woman quickly grated the onion and walked away as Anne Maria walked up to the bowl.
"Remember," Brick whispered to the Jersey girl, "we're trying to make the food gross, not tasty."
"I know that, which is why I'm throwing out these expired lip gloss," Anne Maria said as she took out two sticks of lip gloss and put them in the bowl, followed by her using her spray can on it.
"Time's up!" Chris announced suddenly and with a grin. "And jailbirds, hope your appetites are primed!"
"Hope you're not feeling queasy today," Jasmine said with a smirk as she delivered her team's bowl of white-and-moldy 'food' over to MK.
"Here is what me and my team put together," Chase said as he walked past to take a bowl of something mostly brown to Millie. “Sorry if it grosses you out, babe.”
"This looks," Millie said before gulping, "uh, incredibly...not so bad..."
"Are you maggots ready?" Chris asked excitedly. The shot cut to a close-up of maggots squirming beneath the white mush, the camera zooming out to show a horrified MK. "One minute to down that chow! Aaaaanndd...Dig in!"
The hacker took a spoonful of prison food and forced it into her mouth, cringing and shuddering immediately.
Confessional: MK
"I don't even know how the contestants could go through the Brunch of Disgustingness without dying last season," MK admitted in the make-up trailer. "I clearly don't have the iron stomach for this challenge, even after eating Chef's grossening excuse for food for two seasons."
Confessional Ends
The footage cut back to Millie as she hesitantly plunged the first spoonful into her mouth. She swallowed it whole and moaned. "What did you even put in this? Anchovy paste?"
"Not gonna answer," Ripper snorted cruelly.
Millie took another spoonful, and after a pause, she opened her mouth and pulled out a moldy pineapple slice. She shuddered again and flung it away from her.
A quick-pan over to MK showed the short girl forcing her way through her own meal. "Don't think about it," she said with a disgusted grimace after a swallow. "Do not think about it!" She took another bite, shuddered, and swallowed.
Seeing her struggle, Scott quickly conducted a plan. "Wow, who knew Millie had such a strong stomach?" he said to his team. "Especially after I squeezed all of my sweat into the bowl!"
“What?!” Millie's eyes went wide as she dropped her bowl of food to the ground with an off-screen splat. She vomited moments later, in a stream that hit a stunned MK in the head.
"MK keeps it down for the Screaming Gaffers," Chris announced over a piece of triumphant music, "and wins the reward!"
The Gaffers cheered, Sky holding the golden shovel in her hand.
"Hey Chris, can I throw up now?" MK asked as Chris let her out.
"As long as you don't get any puke on my hair and below, go right ahead," Chris told her.
"Cool," MK said, holding her stomach as she walked out of her cage. The moment the host left, she turned around and grabbed the side of her former cell, and puked right into it.
"Are you gonna be alright?" Sky asked as she and Scott walked over to her.
"Yeah," MK said after she turned around. "I was just waiting for Millie to puke her guts out."
"And because of me, she did it much faster," Scott gloated. “My sweat came through for us.
“You didn't need to say it out loud,” Sky told her teammate. “That was sort of cheating.”
"You say cheating, we say getting an advantage," MK said before getting queasy again. "Now can you excuse me for a sec?" Without waiting for a response, she turned back around and puked again.
The camera cut to Chef on another part of the set. "Sir, we may not have won," Brick said as he ran over to the cook, "but I can take pride in the fact that we created a meal that even you wouldn't eat."
"You've still got more to learn!" Chef shouted.
“Pardon?” Brick grew confused.
“Pride and two bucks will get you a cup of coffee!” Chef said. “What a man really needs is loyalty, and you clearly came through for your team. If it wasn't for the sweat thing, you would've won!”
“Thank you?” Brick said confusingly.
Chef placed a hand on his shoulder. “I was once like you. Young, weird, kinda ugly. But you've got a gift. Now own it. Don't let it go to waste. Like I did,” he sniffled and returned to his gruff state. “Meet me in the kitchen after the challenge. You're on permanent KP duty, soldier,” he said as he left.
Confessional: Brick
“I had no idea Chef could show empathy towards me, and though I don't like going against my morals by doing this secret alliance, that was the highlight,” Brick said with a smile.
Confessional Ends
(Commercial Break)

So my wisdom teeth are coming in, and my right bottom one is so bad. I think it’s impacted. The entire right side of my mouth on the bottom in the back is swollen and my bite is completely messed up because it moved all of my teeth on the right side. I have a consultation with a dentist on the 31st I think. That’s the earliest I could get in and the pain is so bad. I’ve been taking 3 extra strength Tylenol twice a day, or 2 extra strength and one Tylenol 3 just to be able to eat soup / other soft things, it hurts to swallow super bad and I’m tempted to go to the doctors tmrw to see if they can do anything at all.
And what if they won’t take out my teeth soon after the consult? My back molar is crooked now and my bite is crooked.. I’m so scared and I just want them gone already!!

Natsume Sakasaki has ruined my fricking life.
Everything was going good in life. I had a good grade in my school, I had recently just gotten myself a new car, it was all amazing. One day as I was cruising down the road towards my home, some butthole cut in front of me, causing me to miss my turn. Oh well, it’s fine, I’ll just take a little detour. Next thing I know, I was on an unfamiliar road near the coast. I was low on gas and getting hungry, so I was looking for places to stop. I passed by a place called “Yumenosaki Private Academy” a little while back, but the security there told me to screw off, so I kept driving. I eventually found a place to stop and got out of my car and read a sign called “Ensemble Square”. “God dammit” I say to myself as I realize I’m at some weird idol kid place and about to run out of gas and starving. Frustrated, I start walking around until it happened.
I laid my sorrowful eyes upon the most absolutely beautiful young man EVER! His beautiful flowing red hair with completely white streaks, his gleaming golden eyes shot right into my heart, the beautiful pentagram necklace hanging from his neck, the light blue uniform with the grey plaid pants…god he was so beautiful. My ugly ass immediately fell in love with him on first sight. Panicked, I tripped over the curb and fell to the ground, scraping my knee up. The pain however was drowned out by the burning love for that beautiful young man. I looked right into his eyes for a second and the pain evaporated. HE THEN APPROACHED ME AS IF IT WAS DIVINE INTERVENTION! His voice was like the sound of an angel, descending from heaven to save my sorry ass and my heap of junk car. “Ohhhhh! That loOKS like a nasty mess of a woUND, let me heal that for yOU~” he said. I was in awe. He twisted his fingers in a magical way and before I knew it, my wound was healed and my car had been refueled. I wanted to smooch him on the cheek right then and there but by the time I looked back up at his truly angelic face he was gone. I quickly yelled thanks and got back into my car.
The drive home was very euphoric as I had just seen a gift from heaven. The most beautiful man on the whole wide world. I had final exams the next day but I couldn’t sleep at all. I could not stop thinking about him. I went onto the school’s website and found his name. Natsume Sakasaki. I had to find him again. I had to date him. I had to be his.
The next day I failed my final exams because of sleep deprivation. However that did not matter to me anymore. My parents had called me a disappointment since day one so what did it matter? After school that day I got back in my car and parked outside Yumenosaki Private Academy. I waited for him to come out and when he did, my heart shattered into ten-thousand pieces. There was my love from heaven KISSING ANOTHER GUY! He was passionately kissing some dark blue haired glasses wearing motherfudger. My eyes turned red with rage. How could he claim MY gift from heaven?
I went home that night with a plan.
The next day, I set out again, however I didn’t go to school. I immediately drove all the way to the Suou residence. I threw some C4 at the doors and blew them clean off. Once they were gone, I moved in and went to hunt down the leader. After using a tranquilizer dart to make sure he couldn’t defeat me, I immediately stole all the money I could find and left, immediately dashing for the airport. After buying a ticket to Russia, I immediately got on a plane and set off. I came back 3 days later with 80 grams of enriched Uranium-235. Once I secured my funny glowing green ore, I built as many missiles as I could and started looking on the dark web for anyone with the name Tsumugi. Once I had located everyone with the name, I pressed the big red button and launched all my missiles. Explosions were heard all across Japan and the military came after me. I sped back to Yumenosaki Private Academy and saw him. However, instead of kissing me and giving me head pats, he fricking stabbed me. I woke up a few days later in prison where I am writing this from.
Overall conclusion: screw you Natsume thanks for ruining my life. Ilysm<3
[TLDR]: got lost while driving, met a beautiful man, saw him kissing another man instead of me, went crazy, took over a super rich and powerful clan, ended up nuking the whole country and got rejected.

32F dating 36M single father of 1. We've been on 5 dates, the first three of which were nice and nothing more than that, the last two of which were great, lots of laughs and lots of physical chemistry. We exchange 4-5 messages a day roughly, communication is consistent. We have everything in common, both love the gym, both love video games, both successful in our careers and both clearly have high sex drives from our discussions interactions, both wanting the same things in life, family marriage etc.
He has been cheated on in his past 2 relationships and states he hasn't felt a spark with anyone for the past year, and struggles to feel things in general sometimes. I am by far the furthest he has progressed with anyone in a dating scenario in the past 12 months. He told me last night mid lots of laughter and clothed dry humping he doesn't want to have sex until he knows there is potential for a relationship, he doesn't like casual sex and wouldn't want me to feel used if things didn't proceed. He said there is nothing wrong with me, I'm ticking all the boxes, as he is for me but he's still uncertain at the moment. At this point we have had two in depth conversations in person about how his uncertainties and needs to make sure the next person is the right person as he can't go through childcare proceedings and the pain of another messy separation again.
I'm all for taking things slowly and getting to know someone first as we're both looking for end game at this stage so the vetting standards are high and I also understand not wanting to casually sleep around. What I'm struggling to get my head round is where the boundaries lay here and how to establish them without prematurely sabotaging something that could have great potential and the fact he's almost already paved his escape without having a reason to. I am 100% certain I would see him again, and have asked him if he wants to see me again (awaiting response). Do I just keep seeing him until he decides? I have pointed out that even without sex you can still form an emotional attachment to someone.
My thought process at this moment in time is that there needs to be clear and consistent communication about whether we want to see each other again so I can identify where to draw a line on potentially being strung a long. I'm not the kind to date more than one person if I have an interest in someone so I'm apprehensive on this one. Any thoughts or advice appreciated.

Omnivoracious Listeners New Music Newsletter (Week of May 19th):
New LPs:
🇺🇸 Ahem - 'Avoider' (Genre: Indie Rock, Pop Punk)
🇺🇸 Almanac Man - 'Terrain' (Genre: Noise Rock)
🇺🇸 Altar of Gore - 'Litanies of the Unceasing Agonies' (Genre: Black Death)
🇻🇪 Ancient Settlers - 'Oblivion's Legacy' (Genre: Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore)
🇺🇸 Animal, Surrender! - 'Animal, Surrender!' (Genre: Post-Rock)
🇺🇸 Ape Vermin - 'Andromedas Colossus' (Genre: Prog Sludge Metal)
🇺🇸 August Winter - 'Redemption' (Genre: Post Rock)
🇳🇱 Baardvader - 'When the Stars Arrive' (Genre: Stoner Doom)
🇺🇸 Babylon A.D. - 'Rome Wasn't Built in a Day' (Genre: Hard Rock)
🇬🇧 Bad Breeding - 'Contempt' (Genre: Hardcore Punk, Anarcho Punk)
🇺🇸 Baphorator - 'I.B.L.I.S.' (Genre: Black Death)
🇺🇸 Bat - 'Under the Crooked Claw' (Genre: Speed Metal)
🇺🇸 Bermuda Squares - 'Outsider' (Genre: Garage Punk)
🇺🇸 Billie Eilish - 'Hit Me Hard and Soft' (Genre: Pop)
🇺🇸 Blitzen Trapper - '100's of 1000's, Millions of Billions' (Genre: Alt Country, Folk Rock)
🇮🇹 Boleskine House - 'Miserabilist Blues' (Genre: Atmo Black Metal)
🇨🇦 Bootlicker - '1000 Yd. Bars' (Genre: D-Beat, Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 Botanist - 'Paleobotany' (Genre: Experimental Post-Black Metal)
🇺🇸 Burnt Sherpa - 'Last of Later' (Genre: Stoner Rock)
🇺🇸 Cage the Elephant - 'Neon Pill' (Genre: Alt Rock, Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 Candy Apple - 'Comatose' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 Cardiac Arrest - 'The Stench of Eternity' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇳🇱 Celestial Season - 'Mysterium III' (Genre: Death Doom)
🇺🇸 Childish Gambino - 'Atavista' (Genre: R&B, Rap)
🇧🇷 Chococorn and the Sugarcanes - 'Siamês' (Genre: Midwest Emo, Power Pop)
🇺🇸 Cognitive - 'Abhorrence' (Genre: Tech Death Metal, Deathcore)
🇷🇺 Cold Blooded Murder - 'From Russia With Hate' (Genre: Brutal Death Metal)
🇺🇸 Collective Soul - 'Here to Eternity' (Genre: Alt Rock, Post-Grunge)
🇳🇴 Combichrist - 'CMBCRST' (Genre: Industrial Metal)
🇺🇸 Crumb - 'Amama' (Genre: Psych Rock)
🇦🇺 Danielle Whalebone - 'Whispers of Shadows' (Genre: Noise Rock)
🇺🇸 Dawnbreaker - 'Banisher of Unlight' (Genre: Blackened Death Metal)
🇫🇷 Dead Horse One - 'Seas of Static' (Genre: Shoegaze, Psych Rock)
🇬🇧 Demon - 'Invincible' (Genre: Heavy Metal, Hard Rock)
🇮🇸 Demored - 'Well of Liquid Souls' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 Devitalized - 'State of Aggression' (Genre: Deathcore)
🇺🇸 Dog Party - 'Dangerous' (Genre: Punk Rock)
🇺🇸 Don McLean - 'American Boys' (Genre: Folk Rock)
🇮🇹 Duft - 'Altar of Instant Gratification' (Genre: Metalcore)
🇺🇸 Dystopica - 'Infinite Reflection' (Genre: Prog Metal)
🇺🇸 Early Internet - 'Ruminator' (Genre: Indie Pop)
🇨🇦 Earth Ball - 'It's Yours' (Genre: Experimental Rock)
🇺🇸 Egg Drop Soup - 'One Hit Woman' (Genre: Garage Punk, Surf Punk)
🇸🇪 Eigenstate Zero - 'The Malthusian' (Genre: Prog Death Metal)
🇮🇪 El Morta - 'The Man Who Laughs' (Genre: Doom Metal)
🇩🇪 Elvellon - 'Ascending Synergy' (Genre: Symphonic Metal)
🇧🇷 Eminent Shadow - 'Dawn of the Dark Age - Inferno Diaboli' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇪🇸 Esclavitud - 'Stronger Than a God' (Genre: Heavy Metal)
🇫🇷 Etwas - 'Rites of the Damned - Chvpter. II' (Genre: Symphonic Metal)
🇺🇸 Excuse Me, Who Are You? - 'Double Blind' (Genre: Midwest Emo, Post-Hardcore)
🇺🇸 Extinguish - 'One Less Enemy' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 Extortionist - 'Devoid of Love & Light' (Genre: Deathcore)
🇮🇹 Forever Falling - 'The Determinism of Essence in Matter' (Genre: Death Doom)
🇸🇪 Freedom - 'Stay Free!' (Genre: Hard Rock)
🇺🇸 From Indian Lakes - 'Head Void' (Genre: Indie Pop)
🇺🇸 Gatecreeper - 'Dark Superstition' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇬🇧 Ghost Keeper - 'The Dread Legion' (Genre: Thrash Metal)
🇩🇪 Goblyns - 'Hunki Bobo' (Genre: Psych Rock)
🇺🇸 Göden - 'Vale of the Fallen' (Genre: Death Doom)
🇬🇧 Gumshoes - 'Cacophony' (Genre: Indie Pop, Indie Folk)
🇺🇸 Guppy - 'Something Is Happening' (Genre: Garage Rock)
🇺🇸 Guster - 'Ooh La La' (Genre: Art Rock, Pop Rock)
🇬🇧 Halloweens - 'Opera Singing at the Salsa Bar' (Genre: Pop Rock)
🇺🇸 Hardy - 'Psycho' (Genre: Country Rock, Post-Grunge)
🇺🇸 Heavy Feather & the Magic Word - 'Two-Way Mirror' (Genre: Psych Rock)
🇺🇦 Hell:On - 'Shaman' (Genre: Death Thrash)
🇺🇸 Hemotoxin - 'When Time Becomes Loss' (Genre: Prog Death Metal)
🇸🇪 Henry Kane - 'Circle of Pain' (Genre: Crust Punk, Grindcore)
🇺🇸 High Noon Kahuna - 'This Place Is Haunted' (Genre: Noise Rock)
🇺🇸 Home Invasion - 'Enemy' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇧🇪 Hudič - 'Into the Abyss' (Genre: Heavy Metal)
🇺🇸 If Not for Me - 'Everything You Wanted' (Genre: Metalcore)
🇮🇹 I Hate My Village - 'Nevermind the Tempo' (Genre: Psych Rock)
🇫🇷 Inner Landscape - '3H33' (Genre: Post Metal)
🇨🇦 Intervals - 'Memory Palace' (Genre: Prog Metal)
🇺🇸 Jack Name - 'Fabulous Soundtracks' (Genre: Hypnagogic Pop, Neo Psychedelia)
🇺🇸 Jasta - '...And Jasta for All' (Genre: Thrash Metal)
🇺🇸 Jeff Kollman - '2023 AD' (Genre: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal)
🇬🇧 Jeff Slate - 'The Last Day of Summer' (Genre: Hard Rock)
🇺🇸 John Larson and the SIlver Fields - 'Constellation Prize' (Genre: Power Pop)
🇺🇸 John Oates - 'Reunion' (Genre: Blue Eyed Soul, Pop Rock)
🇺🇸 Joywave - 'Permanent Pleasure' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 Kate Hudson - 'Glorious' (Genre: Pop, Soft Rock)
🇺🇸 Kerry King - 'From Hell I Rise' (Genre: Thrash Metal)
🇺🇸 Kev and Cam - 'Kevin's Gate' (Genre: Prog Metal)
🇳🇱 Krezip - 'Music for Maximum' (Genre: Alt Pop Rock)
🇬🇧 Kulk - 'It Gets Worse' (Genre: Sludge Metal, Noise Rock)
🇺🇸 Lightheaded - 'Combustible Gems' (Genre: Jangle Pop)
🇺🇸 Littered With Arrows - 'No Doves Fly Above' (Genre: Sludge Metal, Noise Rock)
🇺🇸 Little Feat - 'Sam's Phone' (Genre: Southern Rock)
🇧🇪 Lovelorn Dolls - 'Deadtime Stories' (Genre: Alt Rock, Synthpop)
🇳🇱 Lucassen & Soeterboek's Plan Nine - 'The Long-Lost Songs' (Genre: Hard Rock)
🇫🇮 Lucidity - 'Escherian' (Genre: Melodic Death Metal)
🇧🇷 Madame Frankenstein - 'The Eyes of the Mountain Are Mine' (Genre: Stoner Doom)
🇺🇸 Magic Fig - 'Magic Fig' (Genre: Psych Rock, Psych Pop)
🇩🇰 Mansfield - 'For All the Right Reasons' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇮🇹 Marea - 'The Silene of Rust' (Genre: Black Doom, Post Metal)
🇺🇸 Marty Friedman - 'Drama' (Genre: Prog Rock, Prog Metal)
🇩🇪 Meanwhile Project LTD - 'Sir Mandrill' (Genre: Prog Rock, Post-Rock)
🇺🇸 Mia Day - 'Hellier, Forever' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 Mineshaft - 'We've Taken This Too Far' (Genre: Screamo)
🇲🇽 Moonlight - 'Skogstronen' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇩🇰 Morbid Grave - 'The Slime Crawlers' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇺🇸 Mortal Reminder - 'Mortal Reminder' (Genre: Metalcore, Djent)
🇬🇧 Mutes - '...Buried Where You Stand' (Genre: Post-Punk, Noise Rock)
🇷🇸 Nadsvest - 'Slovo Meseca I Krvi' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇨🇦 Naomi King - 'Black Water' (Genre: Alt Rock)
🇨🇦 Necht - 'The Prophect of Karnifor' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇷🇸 Neven - 'U Svakom Srcu Gore Svetla' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 New Kids on the Block - 'Still Kids' (Genre: Boy Band)
🇺🇸 Nobody - 'Despair Is Where My Thoughts Swim' (Genre: Post-Black Metal)
🇺🇸 Nocturnus AD - 'Unicursal' (Genre: Tech Death Metal)
🇭🇺 Norms - '100% Hazaárulás' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇦🇺 Northeast Party House - 'Enhancer' (Genre: Dance Punk)
🇺🇸 Of Montreal - 'Lady on the Cusp' (Genre: Indie Pop)
🇨🇦 Olim - 'Because' (Genre: Post-Black Metal)
🇺🇸 One Step Closer - 'All You Embrace' (Genre: Straight Edge Hardcore)
🇪🇸 Orion Child - 'Aesthesis' (Genre: Power Metal)
🇸🇪 Pain - 'I Am' (Genre: Industrial Rock, Electronic Rock)
🇺🇸 Pallbearer - 'Mind Burns Alive' (Genre: Doom Metal)
🇨🇦 Passage - 'Crystal' (Genre: Doom Metal)
🇺🇸 Pathology - 'Unholy Descent' (Genre: Brutal Death Metal)
🇦🇺 Peter Freebairn - 'Silhouettes & Cigarettes' (Genre: Pop Rock, Singer-Songwriter)
🇬🇧 Pig - 'Red Room' (Genre: Industrial Rock,, Industrial Metal)
🇪🇸 Pòstum-0 - 'Nueva Humanidad' (Genre: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal)
🇸🇪 PreHistoric Animals - 'Finding Love in Strange Places' (Genre: Prog Rock)
🇺🇸 Radar - 'Radar' (Genre: Pop Punk, Supergroup)
🇫🇮 Rats Will Feast - 'Hellhole' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇳🇿 Rendered Helpless - 'From Nothing Comes All' (Genre: Slam Death Metal)
🇮🇩 Reveals - 'Attachment, Destruction and Extinction' (Genre: Atmo Black Metal)
🇩🇪 Rope Sect - 'Estrangement' (Genre: Gothic Rock)
🇨🇱 Rotten Tomb - 'The Relief of Death' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇺🇸 Salt on Sunday - 'A Docket of Votive Offerings' (Genre: Experimental Metal)
🇺🇸 Secrecies - 'Perfect Bite' (Genre: Dreampop)
🇺🇸 Sekengard - 'Creation's Veil' (Genre: Folk Metal)
🇬🇷 Serement - 'Abhorrent Invocations' (Genre: Blackened Death Metal)
🇲🇽 Servus - 'Cyclical Existence' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇺🇸 Shellac - 'To All Trains' (Genre: Noise Rock)
🇷🇺 Shokran - 'Duat' (Genre: Prog Metalcore)
🇬🇧 Shoshy - '誰​に​も (Darenimo)' (Genre: Dreampop)
🇳🇴 Sibiir - 'Undergang' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 Sludgeworth - 'Together Not Together' (Genre: Punk Rock)
🇺🇸 So Much Hope, Buried - 'I'd Be Lying to Say I'm Not Weak' (Genre: Post-Hardcore)
🇨🇭 SoulLine - 'Reflections' (Genre: Melodic Death Metal)
🇺🇸 SQÜRL - 'Music for Man Ray' (Genre: Psych Rock, Post-Rock)
🇧🇪 Stacks - 'Want' (Genre: Synthpop)
🇩🇰 Strychnos - 'Armageddon Patronage' (Genre: Black Death)
🇬🇷 Subfire - 'Blood Omen' (Genre: Symphonic Power Metal)
🇺🇸 Suck Brick Kid - 'The End Is What I Want' (Genre: Pop Punk)
🇺🇸 Sweat FM - 'You and I, We Were Born to Cry' (Genre: Punk Rock)
🇺🇸 System Exclusive - 'Click' (Genre: Synthpop)
🇺🇸 Telltale - 'Telltale' (Genre: Pop Punk)
🇮🇹 Tezza F. - 'Key to Your Kingdom' (Genre: Prog Power Metal)
🇨🇦 The Anti-Queens - 'Disenchanted' (Genre: Punk Rock)
🇺🇸 The Co Founder - 'Never Miss a Good Opportunity to Shut the Fuck Up' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇬🇧 The Dave Foster Band - 'Maybe They'll Come Back for Us' (Genre: Prog Rock)
🇬🇧 The Howlers - 'What You've Got to Lose to Win It All' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 The Last of Lucy - 'Godform' (Genre: Tech Death)
🇬🇧 The Lovely Eggs - 'Eggistentialism' (Genre: Egg Punk, Psych Punk)
🇺🇸 The Macks - 'The Macks Are a Knife' (Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Punk)
🇺🇸 The Mountain Movers - 'Walking After Dark' (Genre: Psych Rock, Neo Psychedelia)
🇺🇸 Tim Easton - 'Find Your Way' (Genre: Country Blues, Roots Rock)
🇺🇸 Tolls - 'Plummet Through Agony' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 Torturer's Lobby - 'Deadened Nerves' (Genre: Death Thrash)
🇯🇵 角松敏生 (Toshiki Kadomatsu) - 'MAGIC HOUR ~Lovers at Dusk~' (Genre: City Pop, Jazz Fusion)
🇦🇺 Tropical Strength - 'Tropical Strength & the Silverbeats' (Genre: Indie Pop)
🇬🇧 Troy Redfern - 'Invocation' (Genre: Blues Rock)
🇺🇸 Twenty One Pilots - 'Clancy' (Genre: Indie Pop, Alt Rock)
🇺🇸 Tzompantli - 'Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force' (Genre: Death Doom)
🇮🇹 Ufomammut - 'Hidden' (Genre: Psych Doom)
🇸🇪 Universe III - 'Universe III' (Genre: Hard Rock)
🇩🇪 Unwesen - 'Irrsinnfonie' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇺🇸 (Un)worthy - 'This Present Darkness' (Genre: Death Metal, Deathcore)
🇯🇵 Valhalla - 'Memories of Yggdrasil' (Genre: Power Metal)
🇺🇸 Vitskär Süden - 'Vessel' (Genre: Heavy Psych)
🇺🇸 Ward White - 'Here Come the Dowsers!' (Genre: Art Rock)
🇺🇸 Warren Dunes - 'Aquamarine' (Genre: Indie Pop)
🇨🇦 William Shatner - 'Where Will the Animals Sleep? Songs for Kids and Other Living Things' (Genre: Indie Rock, Spoken Word)
🇺🇸 Winter Aid - 'Pull the Sky Inside' (Genre: Indie Folk)
🇺🇸 Your Ghost in Glass - 'Drowning to Escape the Fire' (Genre: Post-Hardcore)
🇬🇧 Zayn - 'Room Under the Stairs' (Genre: Pop, Singer-Songwriter)
🇺🇸 Zero Point Energy - 'Tilted Planet' (Genre: Shoegaze, Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 Zig Zags - 'Strange Masters' (Genre: Crossover Thrash, Garage Punk)
🇺🇸 Zombeast - 'Heart of Darkness' (Genre: Punk Rock)
New EPs:
🇺🇸 Ameonna - 'Goddes Reign' (Genre: Deathcore, Prog Metalcore)
🇸🇪 Aspernamentum - 'Primal Judgement Manifesto' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇺🇦 Azimut - 'Nun' (Genre: Atmo Sludge Metal)
🇮🇹 Barbarian - 'A Kiss of a Whisper' (Genre: Speed Thrash)
🇫🇷 Black Velvet - 'Identity?' (Genre: Heavy Metal)
🇺🇸 Black Water Sunset - 'When Man and Machine Collide - A Tribute to Control Denied' (Genre: Prog Death Metal)
🇵🇪 Culmen - 'De Un Soplo La Creacion' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇬🇧 Darko - 'Greyscale' (Genre: Melodic Hardcore)
🇬🇧 De'Lour - 'The Ghost You Left Behind' (Genre: Post-Hardcore)
🇦🇺 Divine Grave - 'Traumapieces' (Genre: Prog Metalcore)
🇺🇸 Draag - 'Actually, the Quiet Is Nice' (Genre: Dreampop, Shoegaze)
🇨🇦 Erythrite Throne - 'Thy Bastard Offspring Birthed of the Gallows Tree' (Genre: Black Doom)
🇩🇪 Evoked - 'Immoral Arts' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇧🇪 Fatal Move - 'Fugazi' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 Female Gaze - 'Tender Futures' (Genre: Hard Rock)
🇩🇰 Gradience - 'Ironsight' (Genre: Deathcore)
🇬🇧 I Häxa - 'Part 2' (Genre: Folk Metal)
🇲🇽 Imperator - 'Diable' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇦🇹 Insanity Alert - 'Moshemian Thrashody' (Genre: Crossover Thrash)
🇬🇧 Irked - 'Irked' (Genre: Punk Rock)
🇧🇷 Katástrofe - 'Terra Sombria' (Genre: Thrash Metal)
🇯🇵 Loyal to the Grave - 'Rectitude' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 Mechanistic Butchery - 'Post-Human Putridity' (Genre: Grindcore, Cybergrind)
🇨🇦 MLRiffage - 'Bleak II' (Genre: Death Thrash)
🇺🇸 Night Sins - 'A Silver Blade in the Shadow' (Genre: Gothic Rock, Darkwave)
🇯🇵 Nothing's Carved in Stone - 'Brightness' (Genre: J-Rock, Alt Rock)
🇩🇰 Omsorg - 'Echoes' (Genre: Post-Hardcore)
🇩🇰 Pretext - 'Force the Hand of Fate' (Genre: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal)
🇺🇸 Psithurism - 'A Dead Sun' (Genre: Metalcore, Deathcore)
🇯🇵 Purple Hell - 'Asthenia Soul 灵​魂​病​症' (Genre: Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore)
🇬🇧 Queen Laya - 'Queen Laya' (Genre: Alt Rock)
🇨🇭 ReDraw - 'The Party' (Genre: Thrash Metal)
🇺🇸 Soften the Glare - 'EP III' (Genre: Prog Rock)
🇪🇸 Sons of Cult - 'Desolation' (Genre: Heavy Metal, Hard Rock)
🇺🇸 Stylogaster - 'Keepsake' (Genre: Slowcore)
🇺🇸 Vanquishment - 'Dogfights' (Genre: Melodic Black Metal)
🇺🇸 Virologist - 'Ameliorating Vicissitudes' (Genre: Brutal Death Metal)
🇺🇦 Wallflower - 'The Place Where I Feel Free' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 We're All Wrong - 'Leerer' (Genre: Prog Metalcore)
New Cover Albums:
🇨🇦 Arkells - 'Disco Loadout' (Genre: Alt Rock)
🇺🇸 Slash - 'Orgy of the Damned' (Genre: Hard Rock, Blues Rock)
Off to Detroit tomorrow for some live music! Cage The Elephant dropping this week, and thanks to concert week I got tickets for that also! Anyone you're seeing on the list this week?
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Happy Listening!

Ok, so im really big on not letting the pain do the talking. Firm belief that the people around me deserve as much respect as I do. I try to choose kindness in every aspect of my life. Today I failed.
Also would like to include that year 2018 I was confined to a wheelchair.
I had to get an MRI today on my right ankle. I have already have had 4 surgeries and my ankle is full of cement and screws. So therefore standing is really painful.
So I get there and as Im checking in I start to scope out where Im gonna sit. I notice two ladies in wheelchairs blocking the available empty seats. So now Im done checking in and start walking towards the chairs. I notice one seat that is only half blocked by one of the ladies in a wheelchair. There is a lady on the other side of this only half blocked seat looking at me with the look. You know that look when someone doesn't want you to sit next to them. I continue on and say "Im sorry I need to sit." The lady not in the wheelchair is staring me down like Im an idiot. Who knows maybe I am...meantime wheelchair made me maneuver myself behind her wheelchair.
Now I have been in a wheelchair and know it's not hard to move out of the way. Seriously 6 inches so I could sit with my feet in front of me. I will also say I never blocked seating in a medical office. There was plenty of space in the room as for them to not block the seats. This woman's stared at me like I just slapped her puppy. So I looked her dead in the eyes and said "Sorry I didn't have the option to bring my own seat."
As soon as I said it I felt awful. I just wanted to sit down. Ya know? Maybe I should have brought my cane with me?Maybe that would have spoke for me.Im tired of people not having consideration. I get it..I didn't look like someone with disabilities and chronic pain. But y'all, isn't it just common courtesy not to block seats? Am I am awful person for saying that to someone in a wheelchair?
I have so much pain in this body..this body that looks normal on the outside. It took me years before a doctor said the majic words. My doctor said he believes me, my doctor said he will help and he is. Life still suck though but I no longer spend my days thinking of ending it.
Well If you read this I just needed to vent.

Okay so to start off, I have not been diagnosed or anything. I will be getting an upper endoscopy on Friday due to these issues happening recently. So in the beginning of March, I woke up to feeling a lump in my throat.. I saw an ENT doctor and she said I had acid reflux just from looking in my throat. Fast forward to April, every-time I ate something my throat would get tight.. My face would flush along with my chest, it lead to chest pain and I would end up in the ER thinking i’m having a heart attack and this would last all the way into May. I have bad anxiety but i’ve learned to get it under control but every-time I eat, my face and chest goes flushed and feels warm. I feel tired all the time, sluggish kinda, when i’m outside in the heat, body starts flushing and it would go to my knees and legs. I’m itchy all over, I got lab work done and everything was normal. I really don’t think I have acid reflux cause I didn’t have any symptoms except for the globus sensation. I’m really not sure how to go about on this, how to get tested for it and who to see.. Someone help
Thanks :/

I read a post recently about how you can keep pump parts in the fridge if you can’t wash it right away (the milk won’t spoil that way). Anyway this post isn’t about that and if you want to do that go do proper research on it first. I put my pump in the fridge today (not the electronic bit obviously, I have the stand alone units that go in my bra and have no tubing) because my toddler and 1mo both decided to need me as I was finishing pumping so I just had time to put the milk away not properly clean in. Well I just pulled it out to use and oh my gosh it feels so good. Breast feeding and pumping hasn’t been very painful for me thankfully but my breasts do ache from the constant use and changes, this feels SO NICE on my sore breasts. Plus I tend to overheat mainly around my core so the cooling effect is nice.
ETA: my husband just asked me if it’ll impact milk output and I have no idea. I just know it provided some desired relief so I thought I’d share

It's a very difficult relationship and has many sides to it, but I'll try to keep it short. By very specific events and random happenings we ended up meeting, she had very big issues with her family and I happened to be a very good friend of a member of her family. We go to the same uni, she's finishing this year. We ended up being very good friends for couple of weeks upon meeting each other, we talked about anything and we laughed about anything. We really connected spiritually and mentally and she was at a VERY low point of her life becauase of her family issues. I've helped her tremendously and I showed her that I am capable of being a good man in her life. We both didn't really search for a relationship at that time, she lost hope in men and almost because a lesbian, and I was very stressed because of university. But we did, and it was wonderful, I was romantic and careful, was perfect in bed and we were both really good for each other. Those days feels like dreams, we had sex for hours then we talked for hours, I really thought she would be the love of my life. We both felt really good for the first 6 months and she was at first playing hard to catch but day by day she let her guard down more.
Very randomly, shit started to happen. She got jealous of my mom, because I talked to her too much, a matter that I did not understand at all at that time, she started to think that I am immature, even though all my friends recognise me as a very mature person. We started to get annoying to each other, sex started to go down, and everything else fell appart. We lived like this for a year, I started to settle, to take this relationship more in "6th gear" because I thought everything was stable. I was honestly pretty happy, we went to vacations, had fun, even though we argued quite a lot, and sex still happened every day or two, but not that passional anymore. I felt too tired to satisfy her and to have special moments with her, because all my energy went into arguing. Couple of months ago she started to cry for absolutely no reasons, have mental break downs, bash the furniture, act crazy. I was extremely annoyed by her childish behaviour, and I didn't knew what to do. I had a rough year, I had to study and study all day long and didn't have lots of time for her. She wanted for me to meet her friends, I delayed meeting her friends over and over because I was so anxious about my exams (hardest year of this university is my current year). We loved each other to death, but we had different views and different stages of life, she was thinking about marriage, I told her I can't get married until I can start to make a living for myself (atleast earn a salary).
One day, she flipped, she started to act weird, like she was high. We had a very deep talk about our relationship and it made so much sense to split, and we did. She was living with me, and she moved away of course. I was pretty much broken and depressed, I didn't think a breakup could do that much damage to me, it never did with my exes, but with her it was a huge pain. I started to have so many regrets that I could've been a better man for her, and I could've been more attentive, truth being told, I still loved her to death. I managed to study, but as a man I was broken. I called her two weeks later after the breakup, we've seen each other, I told her that I want to try again, and that I'll be better, she finally told me how much she suffered throuought the relationship. I told her that I want to be romantic and more attentive, and to be happy together. She told me that it's not enough, and told me some very difficult terms. She basically asked me to start doing things that I don't think I would like, but she likes. Couple of exemples : She likes to go with her friends on mountain trips, where they stay for about a week and walk the whole mountain, and they sleep in tents, and she wanted me to join her. Or, if any of her friends need a "room" for the night, that they could sleep in our house ( we live in a fuc*king dormitory, they would be basically sleeping right next to us). Those NEW terms were like gunshots to me, because I am a very private person, I don't want to sleep with my girlfriend next to a friend in need, it's just weird to me, and there are thousand of other options, but it's just her own being. I feel like by going back to her I signed a contract where I am to do whatever she asks now, basically all I ever gave her turned out that it was 5% of what she wants. Before the breakup I didn't want to be with her friends. After the breakup I told her I understand her and that I will spend time with her friends. Now she wants me to walk tens of kilometers of mountains with her friends and live in a tent. Before the breakup I was not that romantic. After the breakup I told her I will be romantic. Now she said that she has no intention in even coming out with an idea of something to do, and I have to propose everything. Before the breakup we didn't have that much passionate sex. After the breakup I told her I'll pay very close attention to her needs. Now she doesn't even want to come in my house and told me she won't have sex until marriage. She says she wants me to read her fucking mind. It feels like she wants to take revenge so bad. And it makes me weak that I love her that much. The problem is, that I know that she also does love me, but it feels like she loves to manipulate me also. I know this feels like a vent, it really is though, any advice is welcome and THANK you for reading this far.

Chapter CC
​
Trout's Landing.
​
Ruby stretched with a contented sigh. She turned her head over to where Jeb slept beside her. Or where he was when she fell asleep. She sat up and looked around the dark underground room but he wasn't here either.
"Wonder where he went."
​
Oh well, she thought as she stretched a few stiff muscles before hopping up and collecting their eggs. As nice as it was to sleep with them, they needed more consistent warmth. So she sat them to the side, bundled up in the still warm blanket, and departed to secure a source of fire for their eggs.
​
Which wasn't all that hard, she realized as her dark vision faded as the blue glow from the torches up ahead illuminated the main gathering area for the burrows. She smiled as she saw the tribe return to something familiar that she missed seeing for a while.
​
Several tunnels branched off towards the other cabins and already kobolds came and went from them as they began to migrate away from the chill air above for the, still cool but more comfortable, air below. As they did she could see the collections they brought back and forth. Animals, alive and dressed, were being moved down here and out of the elements for better care. As well as an easier time keeping the ever gluttonous salamanders from sneaking another meal. Scraps and salvage collected from around the lodge or while out exploring being brought down and being traded or even used to furnish the space.
​
Bits of wood with simple carvings were lodged into the dirt along side scraps of metal or rock with soot, mud, or crushed flower pigment to paint symbols or words on them for decoration or directions. While it wasn't the bustling forum that they once had, it gladdened her to see her tribe returning to normalcy once again.
​
She shook away the distracting thoughts and set her sights on some scrap of wood nearby. She darted over to the vendor, deftly avoiding a section of the ground being dug up as the kobolds dug ever deeper as they sought to expand their burrows ever more. It was in their nature to dig and burrow. While they no longer had a draconic master to excavate massive caverns and tunnels for, she wouldn't be surprised if kobold tunnels ended up expanding far past the border of the lodge itself and going far into the wild where they knew nothing about save for what little Jeb has told them.
​
Eventually, even this gathering area will be abandoned as the tribe moved deeper down, putting as much dirt and rock between them and whatever threats laid above. The only thing that would remain would be an assortment of traps to keep any invaders wary of going deeper than the kobolds wanted. Even then, many of the tunnels that would lead deeper would be dead-ends meant to slow or hinder any invader. Some would even be traps in and of themselves, collapsing the "tunnel" on top of even the most cautious of invader or even just blocking their escape and leaving them to die before the kobolds eventually dug out their remains and collected their gear with no trouble.
​
She stood before the assortment of wood and looked over the scrap. Some of it was processed lumber that looked to be from the buildings above, most was collected bits of wood from the forest though. Which was fine, she didn't need anything too big. No bartering took place. She was a leader of the tribe and it was assumed whatever she wanted was for the good of the tribe.
​
Even starting a warming fire for her eggs was good enough for the tribe to skip bartering and simply give her what she needed. So she collected enough wood for a nice fire and returned to her home. She sorted it into the indent in the ground that Jeb had placed their eggs in before. It would be a good place to start a heating fire for them, she thought as she finished arranging them.
​
She left and collected some tinder made of dried moss and grass before looking around for some stone or flint to start the fire with. But no such luck. All the stone was deeply imbedded in the dirt or was too large. She once more returned to the gathering area in search of fire. Which she quickly found in the form of the glowing blue fire that Jeb had created for the kobolds.
​
She shuffled a little as she stared at the dancing flame. She knew Jeb didn't like the idea of the kobolds using the blue fire. He probably wouldn't like the idea of heating their eggs with it either. She should be worried as well, she thought. But she wasn't. Staring at the flame reminded her of the vision that The Crone showed her. Of her and Jeb within a ring of flaming blue orbs. They were happy. The tribe was happy.
​
"He'll understand." She said as she darted and collected a piece of wood to transfer a spark from a nearby torch.
​
Ember in hand, she rushed back to her home. She gently eased the flame towards the bundle of wood. She yipped in shock when the flame leapt from her temporary torch and engulfed the pile! Their room burst into dancing shadows as the flames danced from their new home. So pretty, she thought as she stared at the fire. She had seen it when she would come out of their room in the old building for a break. But it seemed so mesmerizing now that it was right in front of her.
​
She widened the indent in the ground a little so that the eggs could receive the warmth from the fire without being too close. They might be mildly resistant to fire, but not enough to throw their eggs in a fire! Then again, she thought with worry as she held her claw out at the fire. The warmth from it isn't as strong as a normal fire it seemed. Like it was contained.
​
She clicked her claws in worry. She didn't want to push them too close, but they wouldn't get enough heat if they remained where they were. It would only get worse as it got colder and the cold seeped into the ground. Maybe just a little closer, she thought as she nudged the eggs closer to the fire.
​
The flames sputtered at the movement of air, but nothing more. She held out her claw to gauge the temperature once again. But it still wasn't enough, she thought as she clicked her claws against a nearby stone in thought. She cast a glance towards the tunnel. She could maybe see if one of the others have something to make a proper fire, she thought.
​
She put a claw on the eggs.
"No. That'll take too long."
​
She looked worryingly at the tunnel as if Jeb would appear and lambast her for even thinking what she was. She held her breath and pushed the eggs forwards. Then more. Then even more. The flames sputtered and danced as the eggs were pushed closer and closer. She could only just feel the heat as she did so. Why did the fire seem so weak, she thought as she pushed the eggs right up beside the bundle of burning wood.
​
Yet the fire seemed to move around the eggs, like they were doing their best to avoid touching them. Even the heat from the fire seemed to be avoiding them! Ruby growled in frustration and pushed the eggs right into the fire!
"Can you just keep them warm?!"
​
The fire stilled and froze as the eggs were pushed into it. As if it didn't know what to do. Then the flame roared to life once again. The balefire caressed the onyx shells as it seemed to dance across the smooth black surface of the shells. As if a barrier broke, the heat from the flame radiated outwards now. Ruby could now feel the warmth from the fire where seconds ago she felt nothing.
​
Ruby blinked at the eldritch flame and moved her claw to touch her eggs. She instinctively pulled back as a tongue of balefire arced in her direction. She whined in worry at possibly making a terrible mistake. She held her breath and once more reached out to caress her eggs. She bit her tongue and shut her eyes when the fire arced towards her once more.
​
But she didn't feel pain. No burning sensation one would get when normally sticking an appendage into a roaring fire. Instead she felt a comforting warmth. Like she felt when close to Jeb as they slept together. She cracked open an eye and found the baleful flame caressing her claw. She experimented a little by pulling her claw back, feeling as the flame seemed to latch on like it didn't want her to leave, before snapping back to its "body". She pushed her claw into the fire, further this time, all the way up to her elbow. The fire latched onto her once again and flooded her with a comforting warmth that shot straight to her core!
​
She turned her claw upwards and pulled back once more. She watched as the flame held on as she did so, once more refusing to leave her scales. She watched as the flame snapped once again, but this time, it broke! Instead of snapping back towards its body, she now held a burning ball of balefire in her claw!
​
She couldn't do magic. There were few of the tribe that could before they fled to this world. The Chief was the last among them that had any ability to harness it. Yet here she was, holding a magical fire within her claw! She watched as the flame danced and twisted in her grasp. She sucked in a breath when she watched it start to diffuse INTO her scales! The flame lessened and lessened as if it were dying, but instead the fire seeped between the cracks of her scales. She could feel it racing through her body, flooding it once more with a wave of comforting warmth.
​
"Den Mother?" A voice asked from the tunnel nearby.
​
Ruby yelped in surprise and turned towards the voice. She saw the Chief standing there watching her with a curious and amazed expression on his snout.
"Having fun?"
​
"Chief!? I was-"
​
"Playing with fire?" The Chief asked playfully as he stared at the blue fire.
​
She shuffled nervously as he did so. Eventually he chuckled and she began to relax.
"It's alright Den Mother. You're not the only one that Master Jeb's flame as entranced among the tribe."
​
"Why do you think it acts so different from normal fire?" She asked.
​
The Chief shrugged.
"Who knows. Perhaps it is how magic works in this world. Perhaps it is something on Master Jeb's part. Perhaps it is because our former- Kortaza, was the Keeper of Flame."
​
"But we never had much protection from fire before. And not any way to manipulate it." Ruby said.
​
The Chief sighed.
"True. I truly do not know why it is so different than normal fire. Fire is alive, yes. But this one seems almost..."
​
"Living?" Ruby suggested.
​
"Yes. Like it has a mind of its own. Though I doubt that much, perhaps it merely follows the will of Master Jeb, knowingly or not on his part." The Chief continued as he walked closer and sat down beside Ruby and watched the eggs glimmer and shine within the fire where they remained quiet for some peaceful moments.
​
The Chief then perked up.
"Oh! Master Jeb returned!"
​
"He did?! Where is he?" Ruby asked and looked around expecting to see him coming down the tunnel.
​
"Well, he did return. Rushed around and collected an assortment of food, and then he vanished away again. Something about a trade?" The Chief explained a little unsure.
​
She frowned, wonder what he was trading, she thought. Though, with the eggs now taken care of, and Jeb away for a moment. Perhaps now was the time she could see about doing something special for him. She turned to the Chief, he was more knowledgeable when it came to humans and their customs.
​
"Chief?" She asked.
​
"Yes? What is it?" He asked at the tone of her voice.
​
"What do you know of this world's humans?"
​
"Oh? What would you like to know?" He asked a little excited in being able to use his collected knowledge.
​
"What do humans do with those they care about?" She asked a little uncertainly.
​
The Chief hummed in thought and tapped his claws.
"It depends. Humans are as diverse in this world as ours. Many customs I've read about belong to different groups."
​
"What about the tribe that Jeb belongs to?"
​
The Chief hummed once more in thought and got up before darting away while calling back.
"I will check! I'm sure I have something!"
​
While she waited, she continued to play with fire and tend to her eggs. Since they were in the flame, they didn't need quite so studious attention as they did before. She could probably just leave them and go tend to her normal duties and not have to worry about them anymore.
​
Who was she fooling, she thought. Even if there was a way to hatch and tend to the eggs completely without her, she'd still want to look after them. She thought she heard Jeb mentioning something about an "electrical egg incubator" once upon a time. Whatever that was.
​
The Chief returned, huffing from being out of breath and holding a thickly bound tome with pages of different sizes and colors poking out of the patched bindings. He placed the heavy tome on the ground with a huff.
"This is my collection of this world's customs and knowledge. If there is something that will assist you it will be in here somewhere!"
​
Ruby oohed and awed as the Chief flipped open the tome and leafed through page after page of information. Some were pages from magazines, others were snippets and clippings from books, there was a few pages that contained pressed cuttings of local flora as well as a collection of small animal bones among the bindings.
​
They stopped on a page that read MODERN COURTING FOR THE MODERN WOMAN in bold letters on a page that felt smooth to the touch. On the cover was a gorgeous human woman wearing a sleek beautiful dress and jewelry. Ruby pointed towards the page.
"Oh this one!"
​
They thumbed through the pages looking for information. Most neither one of them got as it talked about stuff like make-up, libido, popular fashion, and other things that they didn't either understand or see the appeal of. Then they found a page that described how a modern woman should act. Though this seemed to confuse the both of them even more.
​
"Be 'dem-or' and assertive? What does 'dem-or' mean?" Ruby asked the Chief.
​
"I'm not sure. There are many words within that don't seem to fit." He explained.
​
A pattern they soon found to be common among the pages of information, much of the words would make sense but spread out among them were these spots of words that seemed just out of place. What they COULD understand still didn't make any sense either.
​
"Be soft yet firm? How does that work?" The Chief asked.
​
"If you like a potential mate why make him keep trying to win your heart?" Ruby asked equally confused.
​
"Modern" humans were just as confusing to them it seemed. However, among the pages of contradictory information, they were able to get SOMETHING of value! Humans like gifts. Though they both knew that and didn't really feel like these pages of "modern courting" did anything more than confuse them.
​
"What kind of gifts?" The Chief asked as he and Ruby tried to decipher the mess of flowery wording and nonsense.
​
"Jewelry, clothes, food." Ruby read off as they got the general gist of the overly convoluted wording. The pictures helped more though.
​
"Well! At least we found something... I think?" The Chief declared at least with a little uncertainty.
​
"Why did you collect all this?" Ruby asked.
​
"It was in a book, so I thought it was important. But it would seem that not everything in this world's books are worth keeping." The Chief stated before retrieving the tome and departing.
​
"Where are you going?"
​
"To go through my collection. It would seem that some of it is not as important as I first thought." He called out as he left.
​
She could hear him mumbling to himself and heard the occasional tearing as he did. Well, at least they found something, she thought as she turned towards the eggs once more. She placed a claw on the onyx shells and felt the comforting warmth of the fire as well as the warmth of the eggs. They'll be fine for now, she thought as she got up and left.
​
"Jewelry, clothes, and food." Ruby murmured as she went down the tunnel once again.
​
He was getting low on clothes, she thought. But there wasn't much around here to make some with. Though perhaps some animal hides would work? But much of what they've collected was too small for clothes of Jeb's size. Getting him food seemed redundant too. He could make his own food whenever he wished. Which left jewelry.
​
It was the better of the options, but they didn't have much in the way of jewelry either. No raids means no loot and the piles of treasure back in their former home wasn't exactly a priority at the time of their exodus. But then she spied the copper wire the kobolds had collected while scavenging. A copper band would be nice, she thought as she was given the piece of wiring from the scavenger.
​
But what else, she thought as she looked around some more. The pictures in the magazine showed jewelry that glittered with gold and diamonds and so much more that they no longer had. Nothing around here could compare, she thought dejectedly. But then she saw a group of kobolds coming down a tunnel with a collection of shells and waterlogged timber.
​
"What is this?" She asked them.
​
"Salvage from the camps up river." The kobold replied as he and the others began to sift and sort the mess.
​
She watched as they distributed everything they collected to the tribe that came over. Some took the waterlogged wood, others took polished stones, and others took the collection of shells. She eyed the shells. Back home, alot of the fishfolk in the rivers and around the sea collected pearls from the water. Perhaps the ones upriver also had some?
​
She followed after the group of kobolds that had collected the shells and assisted them in opening a few. Mussels were what was mainly here, no surprise though since it seemed they were far from this world's ocean. What was a surprise was how many pearls they actually managed to find among the mussels!
​
It was rare for the kobolds to find one during their fishing trips by the sea. Even among the rivers pearls were not much more common. So it surprised them that several mussels had multiple pearls within them! She was going to actually barter for potentially the single one they found, but with there being so many the shuckers didn't mind at all and gave Ruby a small handful for her project.
​
They weren't all that big, but that was fine by her. They'd do for what she had in mind. She borrowed a small thin metal needle from a scavenger and retreated back to her room. Copper wire and freshwater pearls in claw.
​
-----
​
Well, that's taken care of, Jeb thought as he appeared in the open air of the lodge. He flicked the gold and garnet band into the air and got it with a spring in his step and a tune on his lips as he made his way over to the Trap Master who stood near the river where he received reports from the salvagers.
​
"How's things?" He asked when he got close.
​
"Good. Strange. But good." The Trap Master stated as he dismissed the salvagers.
​
"How so?"
​
"The 'murlocs' you called them? Haven't returned to their former homes." He explained.
​
"And? Wasn't that kinda the point?"
​
"It was. But there isn't any sign of anything else other than birds flocking to the area."
​
"Again, wasn't that the point?"
​
"Only if something worse didn't move in." The Trap Master explained further.
​
Jeb groaned.
"What moved in?"
​
"Nothing."
​
"Nothin'?"
​
"That we can see. No new tracks, no scents, nothing."
​
"So what's the problem?"
​
"The problem is that much carrion should've drawn every scavenger and hungry animal for miles."
​
"But it hasn't." Jeb finished.
​
"No. The birds infest the area but largely leave us alone. Though some get a little territorial over their spots of carrion. But nothing else has moved into the area."
​
Jeb groaned again.
"So what do you wanna do?"
​
"Nothing."
​
"Really?" Jeb asked in surprise.
​
"Yes. If the other animals and creatures nearby are giving the place a wide berth then we'll exploit it as long as we can. We'll send some scouts to keep an eye on the place though."
​
"Perhaps the smell of death is what's doin' it?" Jeb suggested.
​
"Maybe. Would explain the large number of birds. But nothing else?"
​
"Yeah, you're right. Well let me know if you need help with it." Jeb said.
​
"Will do."
​
"Oh! Before I forget, I made a trade agreement with the dwarves."
​
The Trap Master cocked a scaled brow.
"Oh?"
​
"Yeah. Food for tools. We'll need to set aside five crates twice a week, but we'll get some decent tools to help speed up excavation." Jeb explained.
​
The Trap Master tapped his claws against his scales in thought.
"That's doable."
​
"You sure? Cuz I'm more than happy to do it all myself." Jeb said and conjured an apple to make his point.
​
"No. The tools are for us, we should assist. Besides, we gathered more for our former master. Five crates twice a week will be easy enough to do." The Trap Master stated in a relaxed tone.
​
"Alright, if you're certain." Jeb said.
​
"I am. We'll let you know if anything changes." The Trap Master replied.
​
"Alright, have it your way." Jeb returned and departed while tossing the conjured apple towards the lazing salamanders nearby.
​
Jeb ported down to the main gathering area. The place was just as busy as when he left as the kobolds went about their duties and tasks with vigor and joy that he's only really seen when they were staying in his basement. Guess he was the one living in their basement now, he thought with a chuckle.
​
He played with the gold and garnet band as he shuffled nervously. Wasn't sure why he was so nervous, he thought. She already had his kids, kinda, sorta. They were already living together. This would just be the natural progression of things. Kinda, sorta. He heaved in a big gulp of air to steady his nerves.
​
"Alright. Quite procrastinatin' Jeb." He muttered to himself and started down the tunnel towards his home.
​
He stopped when his boot stepped on something different. He looked down and picked up a magazine page.
"Modern courtin' for the modern woman? Where the hell did this come from?"
​
Probably Sammy's, Jeb thought as he tossed aside the girly garbage. Not sure what it was doing out here though. Maybe she brought it for Thanksgiving and forgot it? Or maybe the kobolds swiped it when they raided her hairspray? Or maybe she just left it among his other articles one of the times she and his pa would go over to his place.
​
"Oh well." He said as he continued on.
​
He could hear humming as he got closer, and saw a familiar pale blue light. He walked into his room and saw Ruby humming as she tinkered with something. Nearby was their eggs, sitting in the balefire. He should've panicked. He should've dropped everything and ran over trying to save his kids. That's what a father would do right?
​
But he didn't have that gut wrenching feeling of seeing your kids in danger he thought he would. Still, he walked over beside Ruby. She yelped in surprise and fumbled with what she was working on as Jeb reached out a hand and touched their onyx colored eggs.
​
"Jeb?! I was- They were-" Ruby tried to explain while also trying to gather her things.
​
"It's alright." Jeb said.
​
"It is?" She asked with concern.
​
"Yeah. They're not hot." He said as he stroked the shells through the fire that did nothing to him.
​
"Are you sure?" She asked with worry and concern.
​
"Yeah. Doubt it'll do anythin' more to 'em." Jeb said with a bit more bitterness in his voice than he wanted there to be.
​
He saw Ruby's face fall at his words. Nice job dickhead, Jeb thought to himself. He sighed and turned towards Ruby.
"I'm sorry. I'm just nervous 'bout everythin' happenin'."
​
"I'm nervous too." She stated and leaned into him for a hug, which he eagerly returned.
​
They held each other for a long moment before Ruby perked up and scrambled away.
"Hold on! Don't look!"
​
"Look at what?" Jeb asked with a cocked brow as he did his best to hide his own gift.
​
"I said don't look!" She chided.
​
"Alright!" He said with a laugh.
​
He turned away as he heard her grumbling and fumbling with whatever she was working on when he walked in on her. While he waited, he stretched out his hand and caressed their eggs. Please don't get any weirder, he pleaded mentally while he waited.
​
"Ok! You can look now!" Ruby called at last.
​
Jeb turned back around and saw Ruby holding a ring towards him. It was some braided copper wire with a couple of small pearls threaded on. She held it up to him.
"What do you think?"
​
Wait, was this a gift or was she asking him to marry her, Jeb thought. He had to say something though, the look of confusion on his face was making Ruby sad.
"I love it! What's it for exactly?"
​
"Well, I'm courting you!" She said as Jeb accepted the copper and pearl braided band.
​
"Courtin' me? What does that-" Jeb started when he noticed a rustle from his left boot.
​
He looked down and pulled off a piece of paper that had stuck to it. MODERN COURTING FOR THE MODERN WOMAN, it said in bold on the paper. He turned it around towards Ruby.
"Did you read this?"
​
She shuffled.
"Yes? I wasn't sure how you court a human in this world! But the words were confusing and didn't make any sense and- why are you laughing?"
​
"I'm laughin' because this is trash! None of the stuff in here is how you should court someone!" Jeb said with a laugh.
​
"But it says-" Ruby started when Jeb tossed the magazine paper into the nearby fire, which ate it instantly.
​
"It's just somethin' that girls read to pass the time. Nothin' in there is worth the paper it's printed on." Jeb declared.
​
"Oh. So?" Ruby asked dejectedly as she gestured to the ring she made for Jeb.
​
"This is just fine. Though do you know what it means to get a ring for someone?" Jeb asked.
​
"That they love one another?" Ruby said a little unsure now.
​
"Yeah. I guess it does. But the act of givin' someone you love a ring is a symbol that you want to be together." Jeb explained and produced his own gift for Ruby.
​
Her eyes went wide as she grasped the gold and garnet band.
"But we're already together."
​
"Yeah. We are."
​
"So what does the rings mean?" Ruby asked as she examined the band.
​
"Well, it's more religious really."
​
"Oh?"
​
"Yeah. It's supposed to mean... somethin'." Jeb started as he realized he didn't entirely recall what the meaning of the ring was supposed to mean.
​
"Mean what?" Ruby pressed as she tried to fit the band on her arm and then her tail.
​
"Well. It generally means being together forever."
​
"But why the ring?"
​
"It means a sort of exclusivity for folk." Jeb explained.
​
"Why? What about the rest of the tribe? Does that mean you won't help them?" She asked.
​
"No! I can, or will, or... this is harder than I thought it'd be." Jeb said with a sigh.
​
Ruby cocked a brow as well.
"So what happens?"
​
"Well, we exchange rings and promise to love one another forever. In sickness and health and yada yada. Then we're husband and wife." Jeb explained.
​
"Why? We're already mates and we love one another. What does our health have to do with it? And what is a 'husband and wife'?"
​
"Well... You know what? Forget it. Do you promise to love me?"
​
"Yes! Do you?"
​
"Yup!"
​
"Yay!" Ruby cried and hugged Jeb.
​
"And I now pronounce you man and wife." Jeb muttered as he kissed Ruby.
​
Ruby giggled and pulled away.
"So what happens now?"
​
"Now... I don't know. Usually there would also be paper work, but given... us, it prob'bly wouldn't matter."
​
"So what changes?" Ruby asked as she affixed the gold and garnet band to one of her horns with a smile.
​
"Uhm... nothin'? We're already together, we already live together, we already have kids... kinda." Jeb listed off.
​
"So what's the rings supposed to mean?"
​
"It means... I love you." Jeb replied at last, giving up on trying to explain something he himself wasn't entirely informed of.
​
"I love you too!" Ruby cried and kissed him.
​
He returned the kiss. Not like this would've been an official wedding anyway, Jeb thought. They don't exactly have a licensed priest to officiate it. Or witnesses. He doubt their still shelled eggs would count. He could ask the Chief to oversee it. But he already got a headache trying to explain marriage to Ruby, he didn't really want to explain it to the Chief, or any other kobolds that might be interested.
​
Not like it made anything different, Jeb thought. Ruby was right. They loved one another. They lived together. They had kids together. For all intense and purpose, they were mates. Sure if he was particularly religious he could insist on going to a church and doing things official. But given how things have turned out for them lately, he wouldn't be surprised if he burst into flames stepping inside a church.
​
Well, there was ONE tradition that they could still do, Jeb thought with a smirk as he picked up Ruby bridal style.
"Wanna consummate our marriage?"
​
"What does that mean?" She asked.
​
"Don't worry. You'll like it." Jeb said as he led her over to their moss bed.
​
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Here's something else from Quinn's memoirs that should come in handy next time some braindead ProgMo claims the mormon "church" has never been anti-LGBTQ+. The really relevant stuff starts 8 or 9 paragraphs down, but the whole section is a chilling read.

Late 1976—Reparative Therapy of Homosexuality
Eighteen months after I confided to him my decades of struggle, longtime friend Jim McConkie said that he would pay my airfare to New York City, my housing there, and all fees for me to spend next summer in a special clinic’s program for treating homosexuality. I didn’t tell Jan or him that I had already read Lawrence Hatterer’s Changing Homosexuality in the Male, and was very uncertain about the prospects of such therapy. Still, I was overwhelmed by the generosity of my friend’s offer to pay for such a clinic, and I couldn’t simply reject it out of hand.
James gave me its phone number in the 212 area code, and for days I anguished over my good-hearted friend’s offer. It had been incredibly difficult for me to confess my homosexual orientation to my BYU bishop in 1963, to Jan in 1972, to my former mission president this year, and to two of my closest friends—Mike McAdams in 1971 and Jim McConkie in 1975. I didn’t think I had the courage to talk about it with anyone else, certainly not to strangers. And yet how could I tell my long-suffering wife that I wouldn’t even inquire about treatment? About the possibility of being healed of homosexuality?
And so, with Jan at my side, I nervously phoned the psychiatric clinic in Manhattan from our home on Lincoln Street. A woman answered and said that she was an RN supervisor there. After I stumbled through the words about wanting to enroll in the clinic’s program “to overcome my homosexuality,” there was a long pause. “I’m afraid there’s been some misunderstanding,” she began. “Our program helps people to accept their homosexuality and develop healthy adaptations to it.”
Now it was my turn to be speechless. I finally said: “You do what?!” And the clinic’s supervisor repeated her statement. I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh, but felt like a weight was lifting off my chest.
After hanging up, I repeated her words to Jan, who grimaced: “How can that be?” I didn’t know, nor understand how my friend could have been so wrong about the therapy this clinic offered.
I told my wife: “I made the call, but I’m not going to put myself through that again. Especially not in Utah, where even the inquiry could get me fired from BYU!” Jan wasn’t happy, but never mentioned this again.
James was dumfounded by the result of my phone call and said that he would definitely find the right kind of clinic for me. I told him not to do anything further, and he didn’t. This was the last time I considered going through therapy against homosexuality.
I would eventually read this year’s PhD dissertation by BYU student Max Ford McBride about the university’s ghastly aversion therapy to change homosexuality. Already in full operation and endorsed by LDS headquarters, this program used gay porn and mild torture to induce pain, revulsion, and fear in young men with homosexual tendencies. They were advised by certain general authorities to experience it for redemption, or required by the BYU Standards Office to endure this to avoid expulsion.
Aside from echoing the medieval Catholic cult of self-flagellation, this BYU program encouraged the homosexually inclined young men to masturbate in the dark while watching increasingly pornographic images of women and of female-male sex. The program’s administrators regarded this as positive reinforcement of normal sexuality.
Training young men to view women as mere sex objects!
At this same time, LDS headquarters refused to advertise R-rated movies in the Deseret News! And BYU refused to show R-rated movies to regular students! And LDS leaders were doing everything possible to make boys feel guilty for masturbating!
Could no one but gay boys see the vicious irony? I would read with admiration what one of them, Cloy Jenkins, self-published anonymously in two years, Prologue: An Examination of Mormon Attitudes Towards Homosexuality. It included BYU’s aversion therapy.
— Chosen Path: A Memoir by D. Michael Quinn

Looking for information on cost of living in AB compared to BC from anyone who made the move.
My current job pays me about $63k/yr and I’m hoping to keep it and work remotely. My hubby would have to take a drastic pay cut and take on a new career. This is what makes us nervous - not knowing what he would be making.
We would be looking at about a $125-$200k mortgage and right now I’m liking the look of Spruce Grove or Sherwood Park (Spruce being our #1).
Has anyone made the move from the lower mainland/fraser valley to an Edmonton suburb? Aside from housing, what else are you saving money on? What’s more expensive?
Thank you!

31(f) sorry if this is long winded, I’m just like wtf. I was feeling off last week and had a weird pain in my urethra but I just brushed it off cause I have a history of kidney stones and it felt like maybe I had just passed one. A day later I notice a very sensitive sore on my labia minors so I went to the urgent care (couldn’t get into my normal dr for TWO MONTHS 💀) and the dr took a look at it and told me he had no idea what it was but took a swab of it to test for a multitude of things. I was feeling absolutely awful yesterday. fever of 102.4, chills, body aches, etc so I just knew that I had herpes, I had a hunch from the beginning but all the symptoms were there. Got a call yesterday afternoon to confirm that I do indeed had HSV2 and on top of it BV 🫠 They gave me an antibiotic for the BV but said nothing about the herpes. This is by far one of the most painful and uncomfortable things I have ever gone through. I’m only on day 6 (I believe) and it just keeps getting worse. The internet says it can be brought on by stress, among other things. I just had my second child almost 5 months ago and having a baby is obviously stressful and I also have an almost 11 year old boy (wow, did I mention having kids is stressful?) I have been with my husband for 2 years now and my partner before that for over 5 years. Could I have had it for literal years and not known about it? I am probably one of the most stressed out humans (thank you anxiety) and have had shingles twice… the last time just back in September while I was pregnant. So is this outbreak because I’m stressed? Hormonal drop after having a baby? My husband has never experienced any symptoms of hsv and before we got together he got sti screened for everything besides herpes cause I guess it’s not one they test for unless there is symptoms? He has not cheated nor have I. So why now all of the sudden am I having my first outbreak. And wow wtf is it THIS TERRIBLE. I literally want to cry every single time I pee. And I can only take so many baths a day to ease the pain.
Okay now the reason for this post 1. Have any other women experienced this? 2. Should I be worried about breastfeeding? 3. How long will it hurt and when will the blisters stop forming? 4. Should I call my OB and make a follow up appointment? The urgent care literally didn’t do anything for me except tell me I have it 5. Should I expect to feel this shitty anytime I have an outbreak 6. Please give me any and all tips and tricks to managing this PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
I’m obviously pretty upset that that is happening, but with my husband being so sweet and supporting I know I’ll come out of this okay. I just wish it didn’t feel like my entire world is messed up right now.

Old Corki was was unhealthy but had an identity as an artillery mage. New Corki has no identity. Instead of fixing the problems inherit to his base kit, Riot just removed the parts of his kit they did not like. Now Corki feels like playing Ezreal or Lucian without the QoL features those two have.
The 3 things Riot stated they wanted to do were remove package, remove the Malignace build, and return Corki to the original idea of being a dive bomber. (I suspect that these changes had the fourth goal to remove Corki from pro play but that is just hearsay.) In isolation these changes sound beneficial to the characters health. When combined, there are some flaws. Package is an integral part of Corki's dive bomber fantasy. (To me it is the only one of his abilities that does so.) As for why they changed his magic AA damage to bonus true damage, I dont know. That change removed the one think that could have made Corki unique in the ADC roster.
What should a reworked Corki look like? Each of us will have a different answer to this question. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. What I will try to do here is outline what made corki unique and then provide a potential solution that keeps corki's identity while adhering to the changes that Riot wanted.
Corki is a caster marksman that deals magic damage. He punishes grouped enemies through AoE damage and an ability that modifies the terrain that a fight is taking place on. He deals damage from afar until the enemies are weak enough or in the right position for him to dive and and cause chaos.
To meet that fantasy, I think that Corki need more changes than have been made. Below is a potential kit that I have been working on since before the midscope was announced. I am not a game designer and do not expect that this will have impact on what happens to Corki in the future. However, I wanted to share it in the hopes that a Riot Dev sees my opinions and ideas and takes inspiration for how to make Corki a better champion. This champion that I love.

Ability	Effect	Empowered	Notes
P	Every third AA is empowered to deal 130%AD magic damage on hit.	—	Spreading out Corki's magic AA allows players to build AS and on hit in aditional to the full AD that was common.
Q	Corki tosses a phosphorus bomb dealing damage and reveals the area. This ability has 3 charges. Empower the third charge if no others are empowered.	This ability gains bonus range.	By combining Q and R, I hope to reduce the incentives to stay at range and poke like an artillery mage. It also removes the problematic synergy of rockets and malignance.
W	Corki dashes in a direction setting the ground on fire. Enemies standing on the fire are slowed and take damage. Corki gains a small shield on cast and for each enemy this ability damages.	Corki dashes farther and slows for more.	Base W was weak and only really useful for running away. I made it stronger and gave an incentive to use it aggressively. This is where the package went. Get in. Blow the enemy up. Get out.
E	Corki continuously fires his minigun in a cone in front of him. He automatically faces the last enemy he AAed. Enemies hit take damage and are stripped of resistances (flat amount) each hit until not hit by this ability for two seconds.	Remove an additional % of resistances. Corki gains attack speed.	I have added the QoL change that is present in wild rift. The attack speed is there to make it a more enticing option for extended fights and to help with Corki's lower AS.
R	Refresh your basic abilities. Your next ability is empowered. Whenever Corki uses an empowered attack or ability, he gains decaying movespeed.	—	Yes. This is Karma R. However, I think that such a system has merits here. Corki is entirely focused on his basic abilities so having an R that also supports his basic abilities is likely a good idea. As with Karma, such an ability would have synergy with malignance but I don't see it being as big a problem.

So my right wisdom teeth are coming in faster then the left and it’s completely messed up my entire bite. My molar is crooked now (also please ignore the cavity) and they also made my front bottom teeth more crooked. I have a consultation for a dentist to look at my teeth on the 30th? I think.. to decide if/when I need to get them taken out. it’s the earliest they could get me in for a consult and I’m so scared my teeth won’t go back to how they were.
And like is it normal for it to really hurt when swallowing?? Is the swelling normal? I included a photo of just the right side and I’m even holding back allot of the swelling. Second photo shows the comparison to my left & right side. When I don’t hold back my cheek on the right side for photos it’s just a huge thing of swelling, the tissue around the wisdom tooth hurts so bad. It’s extremely bad when I swallow, I’ve been having to clench my jaw to swallow without pain. I’ve been taking 3 Extra strength Tylenol twice every day because the pain is so bad. I can’t even eat anything I have to chew. It’s killing me

(Disclosure: I'm up 16% YTD. I only hold my strongest convictions with a 7 positions at one time max. Paypal is my strongest conviction at the moment, relative to valuations in the wider market and my own portfolio. I've had a sizeable position in Paypal since before the Q3'23 report (at $51) and bought along the way. Today I doubled down and it's now my largest position with a weighting of 33%.)
Q1'2024 in a nutshell:

Q1'24 saw accelerated revenue growth (revenue +10% on currency neutral basis, total payment volume +14%) and faster EPS growth (+27% YoY on new non-GAAP accounting measure where, they take into account the impact of SBC, a unique transparency on the Nasdaq!). Free cash flow was $1.8B in Q1.
Q1'24 was the 7th straight quarterly earnings beat and the 3rd straight quarter of margin improvement. GAAP operating margin at 15.2% which is healthy as the company claims it's in a transition year.
Shares outstanding have reduced 5% on a trailing 12-month basis.
Cash & cash equivalents are $17.7B with a net cash position of $6.7B. That's 10% of their current market cap ($67B)
Share buybacks $1.5B in Q1'24, heading for $6B for the whole year (company guiding "at least $5B"), so another 5-6% reduction of shares outstanding this year.
FCF guidance for "about $5B". That means at a $67B market cap it's trading at 13.5x FCF including net cash, as the S&P500 is trading at a 26x multiple.
Active accounts are actually up on a sequential basis. Very small drop YoY. Keep in mind Paypal (like other online payment services) had a boom during Covid and this had to correct eventually. It did, and now they're starting to show the first signs of new growth

Some thoughts and numbers I wanted to share but don't want to neatly organise:
Everyone been saying its a dead company for over a year. The numbers keep telling a different story, with Q1'24 being the 7th time in a row they've beaten expectiations significantly. They are still a blue chip with 38% market share in a futureproof market thats growing its TAM at 9.5% CAGR into 2030. Their agressive buyback program is putting a turbo on your future returns whenever this idiotic market starts looking at financials instead of charts again. A nice buy and hold and eventually you'll be rewarded by simple math and patience. They still have $17.7 billion in cash to do buybacks, while they generate another $5 billion per year on top of that. This company is fucking flooding with cash and MGMT has told explicitly their buyback is one of the mail pillars to drive shareholder returns. (+27% YoY increase in EPS is a testament to this).
The Covid-boom in online shopping and payments, combined with the general stock market boom in 2021 led to an insane valuation and as with all these stocks: when the bubble burst there were LOTS of retail bagholders. Remember Terry Smiths quality-fund 'Fundsmith' used to have a sizeable Paypal position, but sold out because of capital allocation issues by the former management and declining margins. He was right about that. However, the company has since gotten new management, and their Q1 results have already seen significant improvement in the key metrics. Revenue growth is accellerating, margins are improving, active accounts have at least stabilized and it looks like we have reached a turning point. That's one of the main things I'll be looking for in Q2'24. Imo, the decline in active accounts is a sole result of the Covid-boom&bust. Lots of users who didn't need it after the lockdowns stopped using their accounts. We've seen the bottom and I'm pretty sure we're gonna see it return to growth into 2025. Their new offerings and marketing inititives should support this.
The new CEO (Alex Chriss, ex-Intuit) and CFO (ex-Ernst&Young) have strong track records and (at least to me) have given a pretty decent impression in their first few months.
American retail (and fund managers) vastly underestimate the moat of Paypal in Europe.
Our bank services and credit card culture differ widely from Americans. For A LOT of Europeans, Paypal is one of the only trusted options to pay for products and especially services (Netflix, Spotify, Office, etc) online. I know more without credit cards than people who have. They all use Paypal for their subsciptions (Netflix, Spofity, Office, etc.). Paypal is convenient AF and never had any issue. The only payment service that provides their level of costumer protection. I cannot stress this enough: their brand name in most EU countries is véry strong.
Paypal is more than Paypal branded checkout.
Paypal owns Venmo. They haven't fully explained how they are supposed to make it generate cash, but I'm confident they'll eventually find a way. Just reminding people they're not that out-of-fashion as commonly believed.
Paypal owns Braintree. It's a payment processor that also runs the backend when you use Apple Pay for example. They compete with Adyen and Stripe on this. Paypal branded checkout kinda competes with Braintree internally. Paypal branded checkout used to be the strongest, now branded checkout is stalling, while Braintree is growing double digit every quarter. Braintree is a lower-margin business, so when transaction volume shifts internally from branded to Braintree, overall margins decline. This has been the main driver for the margin decline post-2021. Margins have been improving for 3 quarters in a row now. The narrative of online payments being a fast race to the bottom is untrue. Even Adyen (strong growth company who stole Ebay from Paypal) has seen a significant decline in margins so they're not interested in a price war. TAM is huge, there's more than enough room for multiple strong companies to co-exist. Paypal is still the largest with 38% market share, while simultaneously having the best balance sheet and the lowest valuation.

Anyone want to give me advice on identifying basically a capsule wardrobe for this 39 year old suburban mom in middle America? Just stuff I could wear to casual family dinners, my young kids’ preschool events, to the park on the weekend, etc. I’m not going to worry about work clothes yet, as I typically wear jeans and my company’s logo shirts.
I have not paid attention to fashion at all in the last 5-7 years while I was busy having kids. Now I’d like to make a small wardrobe update by I’m having trouble sorting through the infinite content online to come up with a shopping list. Especially because I don’t know myself of what is currently stylish but not too short-term-trendy, and I frankly don’t have the time or interest to spend a lot of time learning about it. I already tried to search the sub and the posts listed in the sidebar.
Here’s the super rough list I’ve made so far, but I don’t know what I’m doing and could use input on whether this list needs to be adjusted and links to actual examples:

• 1 pair black leggings because mine are all worn out, surely there’s still a place for basic leggings in mom fashion?
• 1 pair black flared leggings - should these be more like bootcut or bell bottoms?
• Do I need to try joggers?
• 1 pair jeans with some level of flare - should these be more like bootcut or bell bottoms? I can wear these full length, right? Not pooled, but near to the floor?
• 1 pair of jeans that are either a loose boyfriend or wide leg cut, I’m not sure… I’m thinking slightly cropped if boyfriend style or full length but certainly not pooled if wide leg?
• About 4 casual shirts - I’m really not sure what would make a shirt look current. I’m not going to show my midriff, it’s the area I’m most self conscious about. I have a large, low slung bust so I’ve always worn v-neck tshirts with longer hems but they seem dated now.
• Some sort of sweater or jacket to layer on cool evenings, but what style? As I gather, all my current cardigans are probably quite outdated.
• Some non-athletic chunky white sneakers - I have sweaty feet so needs to be super breathable
• Maybe a sturdy, functional sandal that I can chase my toddler in if needed but looks better than my old Chacos?
• Some sort of shorts, but I don’t know what style? Or 1-2 new tennis skirts? It will be very hot here in the summer so I need stuff like this, but I’m not sure what looks current, or how to style with the current tops and the fact that I’m holding weight in my stomach.
• (I’m still working on weaning my 2 year old so I’m not interested in dresses for this summer.)

About me: 5’7”, something like 36F bust, carrying some extra post-baby weight in my stomach and lower back, probably about 165 lbs. I do not have a particular conscious style, so I guess probably “basic suburban mom.” In the past I’ve mixed in some clothes that were traditional preppy or outdoors oriented. I need clothes that are comfortable and that I can wear while moving with my kids. I’ve never liked tucking shirts in and think it’s usually not flattering for me, but if that’s required in the current style I could try it… I don’t want super low-quality fast fashion and want to be able to use stuff for awhile, but also am somewhat price conscious. Everything needs to be machine washable, but I hang dry most of my clothes.

Hi! Sorry if this is a silly question. I'm 15 and right now I'm on forinef 0.1 mg which has really helped my dizziness and headaches which only happen a few times a day now. It hasn't helped my leg pain though, which with the warmer weather rolling in feels unbearable sometimes, as if I hiked all day for the first time in years but all I did was go to school. My legs look fine though, no discolouring or visible veins. Is this blood pooling or something else?