Student: Steals and consumes gum with red dye; is allergic to red dye
'Parent: "Why do you even allow red dye in the school if my son has an allergy??"
Student: Calls me horrible names and throws a tantrum whenever he's asked to do work
Parent: "What are you doing to make him so upset?"
Student: Has missed 43 days of school so far this year, is reading at a 1st grade level
Parent: "He wakes up and doesn't want to go. What am I supposed to do??"
Student: Recurrently seeks out gay classmate to say horrible homophobic things
Parent: "Telling him he can't admonish gay people is restricting his freedom of religion. You're traumatizing and bullying him."
Student: Cries and throws things at me when asked to do work instead of playing computer games
Parent: "Yea... we don't ever tell him no. He's not really used to it."
Parent: "How are we expected to help with this project at home when you've literally sent zero information about it and my student doesn't know what to do??"
Me: "The project outline, rubric, FAQs, and examples are in his folder. He was able to tell me- very clearly- what he needs to do."

A hypothetical question for the game’s end. What if to destroy the Elder Brain, one character in your party had to sacrifice themselves and go out in a moment of glory to save the others? Who of the companions would it be? Who makes the most sense from a narrative standpoint?
Now, I feel the easy choice is Tav — at least for me it is. My Tav spent all this time keeping all of them together and bettering their lives, I always imagined him going out in a blaze of glory so that they could all live their happily ever after a. But to make it more interesting, let’s say Tav is out of the equation and make it the resisted Durge instead.
Of Lae’zel, Wyll, Astarion, Karlach, Shadowheart, Gale, and resisted Durge, who makes the most sense thematically to sacrifice themselves for the others.
Note: I did not include Minthara, Halsin, Jaheira, or Minsc because it didn’t make sense for any of them in my mind.
My thoughts: Feel free to correct me.

• Shadowheart: I think it makes the least amount of sense for Shadowheart to sacrifice herself. Her escaping the cult of Shar and gaining a new life only to sacrifice herself just doesn’t make sense to me.
  
• Wyll: He is probably the most willing to make that sacrifice, but from a narrative standpoint he just doesn’t have much of a reason. Especially if he breaks free from his pact only to just die in a self sacrifice. Mizora would find it funny though.
  
• Lae’zel: I don’t have much of an argument as to why she would be the best to make the sacrifice, just that since she was the meanest in the beginning it would show how far she’s come. But that’s better shown in her regular actions… not her death.
  
• Karlach: I feel like the argument for it to be her is that she was already going to die anyways — she said she did not want to return to Avernus, she’d rather die. So she would be the one most eager to do this I feel like, but I don’t like it as an ending. A sacrifice from her doesn’t do anything for her character, and further more takes away from the fact that she deserves to live a life free from Avernus (thanks again for that ending Larian)
  
• Gale: The only character who has actually been put in this situation, he makes for an obvious candidate. I personally don’t love it, but I’ve seen the clips of the people who romanced him and then had him sacrifice himself and those kinda convinced me. His projection saying “I can see why I loved you.” Is the kind of tragic my messed up heart loves.
  
• Astarion: I’m torn on this one. On one hand I think the redeemed Astarion deserves to live a life free of Cazador with the family he made along the way. On the other hand, him sacrificing himself to save the family he’s gained, being one of the more selfish companions, it makes for a rather beautiful ending.
  
• Durge: Since I’m the one playing the Durge, I find it easy to sacrifice them because that means all the others live. But does this work from a narrative standpoint with the resisted dark urge storyline? I mean, kind of.
  

I don’t know what do you think?

I'll quote a post I made recently.

To start off White Dwarf, the official magazine of Games Workshop who created the Warhammer franchise, had Battle Reports have done a few issues featuring battle reports where a lone player would make the different factions of the various Warhammer games fight each other to showcase how the different factions operated. Usually in an open battlefield where both armies would just clash straight on in formations in a pitched battles without terrain. There were a few cases where they'd do Battle Reports on specific scenarios like besieged in a fortress of fighting on a diorama full of hills or aerial armies vs the range units of specific factions or pure long range artillery with the various factions siege machines or heavy gunpowder weapons battles to test out each factions capabilities in specific areas like how sturdy one factions building models are from damage or the effectiveness of war chariots an train engines or whatever equivalent of tanks are in the setting.
I'm wondering how effective would this be in other wargames esp traditional historical ones? As some of my friends didn't have money or lived in isolated towns when they were young used to play this way and told me its absolutely effective for learning the nuts and bolts for each faction, would this approach work for more grounded and realistic historical tabletop and modern realistic military sims?

Seeing that Bolt Action is not just far more realistic than any of Games Workshop's stuff esp 40K and most other companies wargames that are non-historical in setting, but is considered the most at the center popular historical themed wargame as far as balancing fun and hardcore military and historical accuracy goes, would this approach still work for Bot Action of learning different armies by solitaire? Or is Bolt Action too far in the grognard territory to for this school of thought?

What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.
Gaming - nothing AAA or cutting edge. She plays the Sims and cozy games. RDR2 would be the heaviest lift.
What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?
$500 -$600
When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.
In the next 3-4 months.
What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)
Tower and OS
Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?
Pennsylvania, USA. Microcenter trip is definitely doable.
If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.
Mouse and keyboard.
Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?
No preference.
Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)
SSD 500gb storage minimum with option to add additional storage
Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?
Smallest form factor case possible. White if possible.
Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?
Yes please!
Extra info or particulars:
Aesthetics are pretty important. Small, clean, and no neon/bright colors if possible. Quiet would be great. 1440p would be great, but 1080 ok.
Need Wi-fi

Hi and gday first of all!
I am new to the game (playing for about 60 hrs) and I mostly play killer because I have no one in my friend group who plays this game.
I wanted to ask you all what's up with the survivor attitude in so many matches. Doesn't matter if I play killer or survivor I get flamed hard always by the survivors. When I play killer I always try to go for 4 kills and most of the time when I succeed I get verbally harassed to the maximum and I get told not to camp tunnel etc. But I mean what am I supposed to do let them win because of their made up rules? I never complain when playing survivor I always think of it as a skill issue if I can't outplay the killer. So is the community always so toxic? Bcs if so I might as well stop playing when winning in a game is frowned upon nowadays.
When I say verbally harassed then I mean things like people wishing me to get cancer or that my family gets killed etc.

Please be aware, that when speculating about the story, gameplay, mechanics, world and lore of a game, that hasn't come out yet, we have the tendency to project in our own desires and wishes. This is a really simple thinkers fallacy. This is also compounded, quite heavily, if there are things at stake, and possible connections to things you already love.
Valve made TF2 and Half-Life, worlds and games you loved, please keep an open mind, that this being a new IP, from the same company, may also become a world you love.
People always want to have the best, makes sense, the only issue, is that their are things you don't KNOW you can have. This is why as gamedevs, it's always an uphill battle, to get new players to play something in a new world or IP, when for them it's incredibly easy and comfortable to buy the next FIFA, the next COD, the next Madden, the next cranked out Ubisoft reboot.
Valve, was, falling into this a little themselves, basing under lords and Artifact on Dota. Why ? Because it was convenient, easier, people knew those worlds, those characters, it was popular, people loved em. But come on, that's not valve, thats not interesting, that's not pushing the horizon. That's not pushing the concepts they want.
If they don't thin Deadlock should be a half life game, a TF game, a Dota game. I say, GOOD.
LET. THEM. COOK.

the controls in this game are really bad, I play on console and I can't quite figure out how to get it to feel right. It's always too sensitive or not sensitive enough. I just started playing again, I am level 47 and I forgot how much trouble I had playing. I have kontrollfreeks.

Hey all, I’m not fan of this game, but today one of my friends offered me to sell his account to me. To be honest I have no time to play any game because I’m Playing DS 1, 2, 3 + Elden Ring. If anyone interested on paying it please tell me.
I’m sorry if I have ever violate the policy of this group by this post.
Thank You.

please help!!
recently ive ran into issues with my monitor connection and im not sure what the verdict is. when i turn it on in the morning it often has to be restarted immediately because the resolution is extremely wide and my nvidia settings dont pop up in the task bar. when i restart it it works perfectly fine. today however i ran into issues while playing LoL where my monitor completely shut off/restart and i dced from the game and soon after got an error message saying "Windows has restarted your GPU driver due to a problem, driver upgrade or physical removal. League of Legends will terminate". then while trying to restart my pc i got a message on my monitor saying it couldn't detect my HDMI signal when i unplugged/replugged my monitor (i used to have it on DP but it did the same thing-- it just refused to detect either even if they were plugged in). and then another message saying "The current input timing is not supported by the monitor display. Please change your input timing to 1920x1080, 240Hz or any other monitor listed timing as per monitor specification". as i type this i have restarted it completely and its running fine, but while using discord alone the monitor has disconnected/gone black and then came back once or twice. what should i do? i don't know if its a gpu/monitor problem and i cannot afford either (but especially not BOTH!).
it is to be noted that i also think my gpu is a little, er, sideways as you can see in the photo attached. its always been like that and i haven't run into issues until now. i had my friend tighten the screws when he put it back into my pc (speaking of, taking a gpu out of a prebuilt is hell) so it looks a bit better but i think it should still be acknowledged, lol.
for anyone who cares, my current specs that might be relevant are
cpu: intel core i5 10400F
gpu: NVIDIA geforce RTX 3060
motherboard: gigabyte B560 DS3H AC-Y1
monitor: alienware gaming monitor AW2521HFL

Enlighten me on why ? In my case right ,I’ve got the Astro a50xs and I’m using them on a ps5 . I have amazing sound quality my screen does not skip since I’ve used better hdmis , it’s fucking wireless I mean I can get up out of my chair play music and work out , and I sound really good to other people . I changed some hrtz settings and use it to sound whore in games … I don’t see the negative . Also mine do the little thing where the top pops out and I mean rarely … sooo I don’t see the hype on hating Astros ( also mine were an open box return and I got them for 139$ )

My (20f) friend wanted me to ask on Reddit for her as she isn’t a redditor like me. She , 20F, who a roommate, M19, that doesn’t clean up after himself. The mess is usually contained in his room, the mess is bad, really really bad. Things like from reusable bags, expired food, soda cans, and he refuses help from anyone. He doesn’t help out with chores and leaves trash bags to collect dust. He doesn’t wash dishes or upkeep the house at all. He lives a hikikomori lifestyle and this had led to there being a bad roach problem in the apartment. All places where there are roaches have been by his door.We are aware of mental health issues possibly being at play or something deeper but how is my roommate supposed to address the problem. He keeps keeps to himself and is other wise a nonconfrontational roommate. There is even a bed frame that was not built that partially blocks his door from being used properly. They moved together and haven’t really spoken as he is very anti-social and spends all of his time in his room. He said he prefers text over actually speaking. My question is how can we keep it civil and respectful without coming across as nosey or nitpicky?
TLDR: (20F)how to confront (M19) hikikomori about mess that has caused a roach problem?

I'm not sure if this is the right sub for this. I was visiting Boulder Co, and saw some guys playing what they called handball in a racquetball court. Evidently they have a league for that. Unfortunately, there's no interest in my city in Florida.
But it does seem like fun to go to my local gym and do the same to get some exercise. So I'd like to buy a ball and gloves. Any suggestions on what would be good to start with? I don't know if I'll like it or stick with it, due to some health problems, so lower cost is best.
Is this the type of ball used? Amazon Link
And these gloves?

I am sorry if this post is not appropiate here but I have no idea where to turn for help. Or just a listening ear.
I have been suicidal since I was 12. I have no idea why it started but I think I've been struggling with depression ever since. I had a few near attempts, the one I remember clearly is when I was standing with 10 of my father's blood pressure pills in my hands. I was 15 when I had the guts for the first time to tell my parents. I was told to exercise more and it was left at that.
Since then suicidal thoughts come and go in waves but never really leave. I know how and where I can do it when I need to. I'm disgusted with myself. The only reason I'm not dead yet are my pets. We have many, but I have two "soul pets", if you know what I mean. I love all of them but that one cat and dog are my best and only friends.
I lost my cat in January to poisoning and I've never been worse in my whole life. I still see her from the corner of my eyes and the images of her having seizures still haunts me. When I see the vet clinic I break down. When our other dog has seizures (he has epilepsy and is checked on by a vet regularly), I break down. I see a cat that resembles her, I break down.
After she was put to sleep I could barely get out of bed for two weeks. I didn't take care of myself and had to play stupid games on my phone all the time, otherwise I started sobbing. Now I'm either empty or just want to end it all.
My dog is still alive, but he's old. Maybe this is his last year. Maybe he has two or three left. When he's gone, my last reason to stay alive will be gone with him. I am going to go with him if I even last that long. I'm fucked up and don't think that can be helped. I don't know how to help myself anymore.

WHO ARE YOU?

Born out of the ashes of the Total Eclipse alliance, Order of the Eclipse is an EU/US TZ, PvP-focused, tight-knit group based in Triumvirate alliance.
We're not the F1 monkey corp. You'll find us pinging fleets, organizing caps, flying cynos, running links, anchoring logi, doing recons, running intelligence and otherwise ensuring that operations go to plan. There are a million n+1 corps in every alliance, but we aim to be the force multiplier on whatever grid we're involved in.
Because of this, we attract active pilots who want a deeper understanding of the game. We range from newer to more experienced pilots, but the hunger is there for all of us.

WHY JOIN?

Because you're tired of running a TFI in a fleet of 400 TFIs, taking a titan bridge and then 7 Ansiblexes to get into a 10% TiDi slugfest if you're lucky and get blueballed if you're not. You're bored of dread fights that don't happen, of having a CEO who doesn't log in and probably doesn't even know your name, and of having to climb the greasy pole to be able to actually do anything in your alliance.
You want to be a part of the operation. Whether your goal is to FC, to fly important roles, to build things, to be in the room where the discussions happen, to improve your mechanics, to be a spy, to import things onto the market, to dominate small gang grids or to multibox 4 caps in a dread brawl, you'll be surrounded by other people who think like you do.
And if you're not there yet, you'll be surrounded by people who have been there and done it, and can help you to reach your goals.

CORP REQUIREMENTS

Good question, and the answer is that you don't need to have been playing since 2003, a titan alt, or a 99% zKillboard efficiency (though you are very welcome if you have any or all of the above). We look for:

• A good attitude
• A working mic
• Killboard activity (ideally at least 1,000 kills, but don't be put off applying if it's a little less)
• Two Omega accounts
• The ability to fly useful PvP ships (ceptors, dictors & bombers at a minimum)
• Time & desire to play with the corp

LET'S DO THIS

Does Order of the Eclipse sound like the corp for you? If so, join us on Discord and read the #join-us channel. Feel free to hang around, get to know us, and ask questions.
You can also check out our zKillboard, EveWho, and DotLAN.

You guys know what an alpine coaster is? They are like a small roller coaster you find in the mountains. They are also called summer toboggans or mountain coasters and I think there’s some long German compound word they are called in parts of Europe. They are like a roller coaster, but with much smaller one or two person sleds you just sit on instead of multi-person cars you ride in, and instead of being built with like a scaffolding or a framework the tracks are just on the ground, using the elevation of the mountain. Basically it’s a coaster track on the side of a mountain where you ride a sled down.
They are pretty fun. Or at least I used to think so. They are more “personal” than roller coasters and although you get nowhere near the speed on them that you do on a good traditional roller coaster and they can’t do corkscrews or loops or anything like that the openness and simplicity of the ride gives an impression of a much greater speed. You’re just sitting there with nothing but a little plastic sled and the track between you and the ground as it goes zooming by. It’s like the difference between how fast a go-cart feels compared to how fast a sports car feels. You know the sports car goes faster but the open, simpleness of a go-cart feels a different kind of fast. There’s plenty of POV Youtube videos if you want to get the basic idea of what they are.
I used to love alpine coasters. Used to.
My family used to go to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and up and down the Smokey Mountains for vacations when I was a kid and they are common in that area and I’d always rode them every chance I got.
But as with so many things after I grew up and went to college they just became part of my childhood that slipped away. They aren’t exactly common once you get away from the mountains.
Until one cool spring afternoon in 2004. I was in my final year at college and I was driving back to campus in Tennessee after a short visit to my folks in North Carolina. It was only like a 4 or 5 hour drive via the most efficient route and I had no need to be back at campus early so instead of taking the freeway all the way I got off and took part of my trip through the mountains. The scenery was nicer and I admit I liked pushing my Camaro just a little faster than I should through the twisty mountain roads.
Just after lunchtime happened upon one of those little by-the-highway tourist towns deep somewhere in the Smoky Mountains near the Carolina/Tennessee border. Nothing fancy, a gas station/truck stop, a diner, a couple of places selling tourist merch nestled deep in the mountains. I pulled into the gas station. My tank was getting low and I needed to stretch my legs, maybe grab something to eat. It was still early and I only had another couple of hours. I could kill an hour or so and still make it back to campus at a decent hour.
I pulled into the gas station and was filling my tank when I happened to glance across the road and… well I’ll be damned. There it was. “The Blue Ridge Alpine Coaster.” Nestled on the side of the mountain was a building, a mockup of a red barn, where a single railed track that led up into the mountains, where it soon got lost in the greenery. Wooden hand painted standees of cartoon character bears dressed in stereotypical “Hillbilly” getup stood around, some of them holding signs showing the ride hours and ticket costs and other info. I had to admit, as silly as it was, it made me smile.I finished pumping my gas and, well, nostalgia is a helluva thing. I decided then and there I could waste a little time riding an Alpine Coaster again after all these years before getting back on the road.
I parked my car in a corner of the truck stop's parking lot, put my phone in the center console, this being the days before smart phones when people didn’t keep their phones with them 24/7 and I didn’t want my old Nokia brick phone to fall out during the ride, locked my car and walked across the mountain highway to the Alpine Coaster building.
Getting closer, the place was less inviting. The half hearted attempt at a whimsical faux-Americana kitsch was far less effective when it brushed up against the actual decaying, run down wooden building. Hell calling it a building was generous. It was a wood frame holding up a long roof that covered the area where you got on the sleds. The wood boards creaked under my footsteps.
The only real enclosed structure was a shack that held, what I assumed, was a ticket booth. A door on the side had both a single occupancy bathroom with an out of order sign on it. An old Pepsi machine buzzed and glowed next to it.
Still the place looked alive. Ahead of me a bored looking attendant was helping a mother and her young son into one of the sleds while in a bored monotone repeating the safety brief. A few people were waiting in line at the ticket booth. Up in the mountains the playful shouts of people on the ride echoed down. Fond memories of my own childhood rides flooded my mind.10 minutes and 15 dollars later I was settling into the hard plastic seat of a bright red sled sat atop a simple aluminum rail.
I couldn’t help but grin as the sled slowly climbed the track up the mountains, making click-clack ratcheting sounds that hit my nostalgia centers hard. I felt good. The air was cool and crisp and smelled of pine.Higher and higher in the mountains we went. I don’t know if this is my mind trying to make sense of it after the fact but when I remember these moments, the last good moments, I sometimes think I remember a very slight, very subtle pit of fear in my stomach. I honestly don’t know if I felt it at the time or not or it’s just how my mind tries to make sense of it looking back at.
But either way mostly I was enjoying myself. I smiled. I was a kid again. I could hear riders in front of me let out that initial yell of terrified glee you get at the first drop of any good ride.
It peaked. I glanced around. I could see for miles, rolling hills and mountains. I the sled tipped over and zoomed down the mountain and I let out the same happy yell I heard from the other passengers.The ride zoomed down the mountain, catching speed. The mountain forest floor zoomed past, only a few feet under me. Trees zoomed past. I gave out a happy whoop as the ride banked hard around a curve and then looped back under itself.Another dip, another curve. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of the G-forces pulling me every which way.
There was no one exact single moment where things started to go “wrong.” The ride kept going. And going. At this point the first creeping thought entered my head.
The ride… was still going.
It just started to hit me… this ride was going on for a really long time. I had taken a dozen rides on various coasters of this type before that day and they topped out at about 5 minutes or so, and that was the long ones. Longer than a traditional roller coaster but not that long. This one had been going on for what felt like 10, maybe even 15 minutes.
I looked back over my shoulder and could only see trees, moving too fast to really get a bearing on where I was at in relation to anything.
I wasn't exactly really worried yet. Okay so I had found a particularly long alpine coaster. At the time I wasn’t 100% wasn't sure they didn’t exist or anything like that. I was a little… unnerved but nothing was happening that was impossible. Yet.
I was trying to talk myself back into just enjoying the ride and stop overthinking it, and halfway succeeded, when out of nowhere I suddenly banked hard, the track jutting out almost over a sheer cliffside. I gripped the sled more tightly as I was whipped around. The ride then dipped hard and picked up speed, barreling down the side of the mountain.
I was pushed back against the seat by the force of the drop. Jesus I didn’t remember them being this rough. I was feeling slightly nauseous. And where had this elevation drop come from I wondered? I was still in the foothills and I didn’t remember seeing anything but gentle rolling hills and light drops from looking at the ride’s route earlier. How the ride had managed such a long, steep drop in this area I didn’t know. . For the first time I hoped that the ride would be over soon. I had no idea then how much I would want that same hope to be true so much more as time went on.
With a whiplash motion I was whipped forward and then back as the ride leveled out on flat ground again, but by this point I was going fast, too fast. My neck hurt from the mild whiplash and I felt sour in my throat and for a moment the contents of my stomach threatened to come back up. For the first, but hardly the last time the ride felt unsafe. Alpine Coasters are tame affairs, much slower and gentler than full on roller coasters but this thing was throwing me around like no thrill ride I had ever been on.
I looked around. I mean I wasn’t that deep into the woods. I should have been able to see a glimpse of something; the highway, the gas station, the tourist shops, the Alpine Coaster office, something, anything. But nothing. Just trees.
I forced back some panic for the first time. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. The ride zoomed along. I counted to 60. I counted to 60 again. And again. Okay this was getting uncomfortably harder and harder to explain.
Suddenly I noticed that up ahead the track seemed to just end, for one brief, terrible moment I thought the track just ended but I was wrong. Almost without warning the track dipped in an almost vertical drop. I almost screamed as I plummeted for 20, maybe 30 seconds before flattening out again.
By this point the voice in my head that was telling me something was wrong was louder and I could no longer tell myself it was wrong. This ride could not have been this long. I tried to make sense of it, wondering if somehow I had gotten diverted onto some kind of maintenance track or, hell for one brief irrational moment even entertaining the idea that I had wound up on an actual train track somehow. But that was absurd. The rail below me was not a train track, it was still just the simple, aluminum rail of an alpine coaster and there had been no diversions or junctions in the track. I was still on the ride, as insane as that was starting to feel. Had the ride somehow looped? Again after having the thought I immediately dismissed it as crazy. There’s no way I could have missed the ride building where I got on. And what kind of ride loops over and over?
The sled zoomed through the forest, oddly never seeming to lose speed despite the relatively flat grade of the track. I cursed myself for leaving my phone in the car and not wearing a watch. I don’t know exactly how long I had been on the ride at that point but it felt like I had been on the ride for a half hour, maybe more. But time is a funny thing when you’re in a situation you’ve never been in. Could have been more, could have been less, at that point.
My pride finally failed me. I started to scream for help. I screamed out that the ride was broken, to stop it, that I needed help. I did that for about ten minutes or so I think. The ride kept going. Mostly flat, level track with occasional mild dips and turns. But the simple length of the ride grew more and more unnerving and unexplainable.
I thought about just bailing out. But the ride, impossibly, was still not slowing down and chunks of mountain rock and thick tree trunks were all around me. Bailing out without risking smashing into a rock or a tree seemed impossible.
The ride kept going.
Up ahead the forest was clearing out some, I could see the forest brightening, more sunlight making it through the canopy.
I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.
The trees stopped and I had just enough time to take in a flat, open area of rock maybe 40, 50 yards at most before another sheer cliff. The tracks twisted and turned and then shot straight down. But that wasn’t the worst of it. For a moment, a very short moment, I had a clear view for miles and the landscape was, to be blunt, totally impossible. Any possibility that I had just stumbled on some incredibly long ride was blasted out of my head. Barren, volcanic looking rock stretched for miles. Jagged, black rocky outcroppings as far as the eye could see. I was in the goddamn Smoky Mountains. They don’t look like that.
I had a few moments for the terror of that view to settle in before the cart plunged into another horrifying drop. I gripped the handles of the cheap plastic sled until my knuckles turned white. The drop felt completely vertical, like I was falling at terminal velocity. I screamed. My stomach dropped and turned. I imagined the sled coming away from the track and me just plummeting screaming to my death on the rocks below. But somehow the ride still functioned. I closed my eyes tightly and just waited for whatever was going to happen. Eventually after several what felt like a full minute of steep plunging the track again leveled out, and I opened my eyes to see myself moving at breakneck speed over that black, rocky landscape.
Now that I was moving on a more or less flat horizontal track again I took a few deep breaths. I looked over the edge of the track. Nothing but that black, jagged rock, almost looking like obsidian, zooming past. I had no idea how fast the sled was moving now. Fast. Faster than a gravity powered sled should be moving. And the track was higher off the ground now. Alpine slides usually stick pretty close to the ground, but I was 20 feet or so in the air, the track suspended in the air, a simple metal tube tower like a power pylon every few yards.
Without any immediate threat and the sled moving fast but steadily and level I was able to think about my situation again, for all the good that did me. Ahead of me the track just continued to the horizon, nothing but the same rocky landscape as far as I could see. I craned my neck to look back over my shoulder and looked back behind me and it looked the same. Even the mountains were but distant specs on the horizon behind me.
This was insane. There’s not a giant seemingly endless field of black jagged rock in the goddamn Smoky Mountains. There’s no cliff faces tall and steep enough for a multi-minute vertical drop. And alpine coasters were small affairs, not major engineering projects that span miles with pylons and vertical tracks. It made no sense.
Sadly it wasn’t going to start making any more sense anytime soon.
The ride kept going.
I was on this rocky landscape for several hours. I feel comfortable saying this because I could actually notice the sun getting lower in the sky. And the sled wasn’t slowing down despite the grade of the track being flat. I was getting cramped from sitting and stretched my legs and twisted my back as best I could. Didn’t do much help. My eyes were starting to get irritated from the constant wind in them. Worst of all it was starting to get chilly. I only had on a light jacket, a windbreaker, just something to keep the breeze off me, no real insulation. I was cold, my joints were stiff, I was hungry and thirsty. My eyes watered and my throat was so dry it was sore.
But none of that was as bad as just how little sense this all made. There’s nothing like this place anywhere near the Smoky Mountains. This was like some volcanic rock landscape. The more I thought about it the less sense it made.
The ride kept going.
My mind didn’t even try to process this. Whatever I was experiencing simply couldn’t be possible. I was crazy. I was dreaming. The CIA had kidnapped me and dosed me with some new version of LSD and I was in a straightjacket in a padded room at Area 51.
The sled kept zooming along as the sky turned to dusk. Soon the bridge disappeared from my view and I continued on along the endless, rocky, featureless landscape.
I sat back against the sled, mentally and physically numb. I was exhausted. I was thirsty. I was cramping up. I was hungry. I had to pee. I held it for as long as I could, then had no choice but just wet myself. I cried until I had no more tears left. Then I just sat there.
The ride kept going.
By the time the sun dipped below the horizon my throat felt like sandpaper. I dug around in my jacket pockets hoping to find a stick of gum or piece of candy. Nothing. I checked again, having nothing else to do. Under a crumpled store receipt in the inner pocket of my jacket was a single old, forgotten cough drop. I unwrapped it from the paper and popped it in my mouth. Saliva flooded back into my mouth and I was overwhelmed by the methanol and medicine taste. It was something at least, although I knew it would be a brief and temporary fix at best.
I felt my eyes get heavy. It was getting colder. That mountain cold. That deep cold the mountains have even into the early spring when the sun goes down. That kind that just pulls the heat right out of you. I shivered. A terrible, horrible certainty came to me. I would ride until I passed out from exhaustion or the hypothermia set in. My body would tumble off the sled to fall and skip across the rocky ground like a stone skipping across a lake, my bones breaking as I tumbled until my body finally came to a stop. If I was lucky I would be killed and not have to lie for days, broken and bruised, on the ground until death took me.
The ride kept going. The ride kept going. The fucking ride kept going.
“Fuck you” I said to the ride, my voice a horse whisper. I pulled my jacket closer around me, for all the good it did. The cold wind was slowly but surely pulling my body heat away. My shivering got worse, crossing the line from a simple normal shiver into those deep, almost violent full body ones.. I wasn’t anything you could call an experienced outdoorsman, but I knew enough to know that wasn’t a good sign.
It was getting dark. There was a full moon at least so I wasn’t totally in the dark.
About then I noticed something. The landscape, what little I could see in the fading light, was changing. It was smoothing out, becoming less rocky and craggy. Up ahead an odd, shimmering light was starting to appear on the ground.
I was over it before I even realized what it was. The tracks were going over a smooth surface.
Water. It was a lake. The odd lights I had seen were the moon, reflected in ripples on the lake.
Within minutes I was out of the view of the land. After the nearly endless rocky landscape and everything else I had seen, it scared me how little I was shocked. I didn’t like how mentally numb I was getting. I leaned over. There was enough moonlight to see the water, 15 or 20 feet below the track. The pylons holding up the track went into the water, the light wasn’t good enough to even make a guess at how far they went down or how deep the water was.I leaned back in the sled. My eyes were red and bloodshot from the constant wind. I closed them. This was a mistake.I jerked awake. I don’t know if I dozed off for a split second or an hour. My weight had shifted and I caught myself as my center of gravity was in danger of sending me off the sled and into the water.
I screamed in anger. A deep primal scream. I hurt so bad. My joints felt like they were full of glass. My limbs were full of pins and needles. I glanced over at the water. For the first time on the very edges of my brain a tiny voice started to speak up, telling me that I could be all over if I just jumped. I shut the voice up, but it scared me still.
I sat there as the ride went on. It felt like hours. Eventually the lake ended in a rocky shore line. The damned ride. There was no safe place to bail out. If the ride slowed down, it was high in the air, if it moved toward the ground it sped up. Sharp rocks, big trees, nothing you could safely bail out into.
I kept having to force myself awake. I kept dozing off. Once I felt myself falling asleep and drove a vicious uppercut into my own nose to stave it off.
I seriously started to think about how much longer I could hang on. The voice came back again. This time I didn’t shut it up. I wasn’t admitting it to myself yet, but I was starting to think about the best way to land that would end it quickly if I needed to.
Something was ahead. The track seemed to dip into the ground. I was too tired, too beaten to even get scared. I was just resigned to whatever happened at this point.
With little warning the track took my sled into a tunnel in the ground. Everything went completely pitch black. After several moments even the dim moonlight was gone.
This was the worst part. The creepy forest, the immense rocky landscape, the eerie lake… those were bad. But this was just nothing. Nothing to look at, nothing to hear, nothing for reference or sense of where I was going. The walls of the tunnel felt like they were inches from me in every direction. The air felt thick, like there wasn’t enough oxygen.
With every moment I was in that tunnel I lost a little more hope. After a long, long time I made a decision. When I got out of this tunnel, I would jump. I didn’t care anymore. Hopefully there would be a spot where I could be certain the fall would instantly kill me. I was done. The ride had beaten me. I sat there, waiting for a chance to end this on my terms. That was all I had left.
Eventually up ahead, a tiny speck of light appeared. I gathered my strength, ready to end it. I sat up, getting my legs under me so I could jump as soon as we were clear. The sled burst out of the tunnel. The dim light of the full moon was enough to be momentarily blinding after the pitch black of the tunnel.. I gave my eyes a moment to adjust.
I was back in a normal looking Appalachian forest. Rolling hills, green trees. The air smelled of pine again. I heard an owl hoot off somewhere.
Slowly I lowered myself back into a setting position, in shock. At first I refused to believe it but the ride was slowing down. I held still, making sure my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me, but no, the cheap plastic sled that had been my world for what felt like an eternity was slowing down.
Up ahead, a structure was visible, peeking out from among the trees in the dim lighting as the sled moved down the track.
It was the Alpine Slide building. The crappy fake red barn where I had boarded this cursed ride so long ago. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, sure it was either my mind or the cursed ride playing tricks with me. But the building stayed there.
It grew closer and closer. The track leveled completely out. The sled slowed down more. Before I had the time to really come to terms with it I arrived back at the building.
The sled slowed to a stop, gently pumping against another sled parked on the track. I sat there for a few moments, gasping in great big gulping fear breaths, trying to assure myself the ride didn’t have one last trick of its sleeve.
I looked around. The place was empty, deserted. The overhead lights were still on and the old Pepsi machine still glowed and buzzed, but the ticket booth was dark and empty, a metal gate pulled down over the ticket window.
Suddenly it hit me that I was free and I practically leapt out of the sled and onto the platform. I immediately collapsed. My legs were jelly and my head was spinning. I tried to stand up again and doubled over, dry heaving. Have you ever been out on a boat for a day and have that weird reverse motion sickness when you’re back on solid land? It was like that times a hundred. My inner ear was literally pounding, all the motion had really done a number on it.
I laid there for a few moments and eventually forced myself to stand up on my two wobbling legs. I looked around, a horrible certainty creeping into my mind that there would be no exit, no way off the platform but to my relief an exit turnstyle, one of those full height ones, was set into the fence that surrounded the ride property.
I went through it and found myself back on the main road. The truckstop was still there, still open but far less busy. My car sat in the same corner of the parking lot I had left it.
I allowed myself one look back, just one quick one. The metal skeleton of the Alpine Slide track sat there, dark and quiet but otherwise normal.
I stumbled-ran back to my car, dug the keys out of my pocket, and collapsed inside. When the door shut I let out a primal scream, the tons of fear and confusion and anger all fusing into a single, raw emotion. I screamed again and again.
After a few moments I felt like I was emotionally at least back to a place where I could act, although I wasn’t sure yet what to do next. Not really knowing what to do I cranked the car. The A/C had been on low when I shut off the car and it came roaring back to life and cold air blowing on me almost sent me back into a full on panic attack. I fumbled with the climate controls until the air stopped blowing directly on me, then calmed down enough to turn the heat on, helping to get the chill out of my bones. There was a half full bottle of water in the center console cup holder and I grabbed it and chugged it. Nothing ever tasted as good before or sense as that few ounces of water.
That was when I noticed the clock on the radio head unit. It was 4:17 in the morning. It had been about one, one thirty or so in the afternoon when I got on the accursed ride.
Over 15 hours. I had been on the goddamn ride for over 15 hours. Over half a day.
I just sat there. Warming up. Calming down. I was exhausted. I was dehydrated. I can’t even describe how my head felt. I probably had at least a minor case of hypothermia. I thought about going into the gas station and asking for help but what would I even say, and more than anything I just wanted to get away from this place. And I just wanted to get away. I wanted to be nowhere near that damn ride.
I put the Camaro in gear and pulled into the street and in panic I immediately slammed on the brakes. I was lucky there was no traffic on the road at that moment. The feeling of accelerating to just normal surface street speeds made me sick to my stomach. I gathered myself and very slowly accelerated the car I usually treated with a very heavy foot up to 30 miles an hour. Every time I tried to accelerate at a pace faster than “Old Lady Going to Church, Uphill” I would have a panic attack. I was okay once I was up to speed, but accelerating freaked me out after being on that ride.
I drove about 30 minutes, putting some arbitrary amount of distance between myself and the coaster. Eventually I made it back to where the twisty mountain road met back up with a major road that would eventually meet back up with the highway. After a few more minutes of driving I saw the onramp for the highway. There was one of those big truckstop travel plazas and pulled in, parking right up at the door. I smelled like pee and I can only imagine how I looked, but I didn’t care.
I kept a couple of emergency 20s in the back of my wallet and spent it on the biggest bottle of water the store had, an overpriced bottle of eye drops, and a huge travel mug of coffee. The clerk looked at me as if he was expecting me to either drop dead or rob him the entire time.
Back in my car I downed the coffee. I put a few eye drops in each of my eyes and sat there as the caffeine took effect until I felt like I could make it back to my apartment. The sun was just coming up when I finally pulled out of the truck stop and got on the freeway. I slowly, very slowly, accelerated up to highway speed, put the Camaro in cruise control, and let the miles start to drift away. I turned on the radio, I needed to hear human voices. Every time my mind went back to what had just happened I turned the radio up louder, eventually drowning it out with painful levels of rock music. I wasn’t ready to think about it yet. Yes looking back I know I was just in denial. I finally made it back to the crappy little apartment I had off campus, a little two story walk up studio. I let myself in and collapsed on the cheap couch. I was asleep before I even had the time to decide whether or not to do anything else. I woke up later that afternoon. I took a shower and ate a meal and didn’t think about the ride. I washed the pee stained filthy clothes I had been wearing and didn’t think about the ride. I went back to class and didn’t think about the ride. Every time I thought about the ride I forced it out of my head. I’m sure this wasn’t the most mentally healthy thing to do but what can you say?
I didn’t forget about it, don’t be silly. This isn’t the kind of thing you forget. One day while looking up something else in the university’s library my curiosity got the better of me and I looked up the Alpine Slide. No website but a few Google Map and Yelp mentions. None of them mentioned anything weird, certainly nothing even remotely like what I experienced. Near as I can tell it closed sometimes in the winter of 2012.
Life went on. I mean, that’s what it does. The next day was a little better. And the day after that a little better. And the day after that a little better still. I met a nice girl. Graduated. Got married. Got a nice house in the suburbs. Got a dog. Had a daughter. Spent a lot of time happy and not thinking about being trapped on an endless alpine coaster.And that was my life for many, many years after that.
Until a few weeks back when as a very different person I found myself driving a boring and safe mid sized family SUV through those same mountains. My wife Carol, 5 months pregnant, sat in the passenger seat, our 6 year old daughter Emily in a booster seat in the back, and Max our mixed breed mutt next to her. It had been a nice pleasant trip, driving back from visiting her folks.
I hadn’t thought about that fucking ride in so long I barely registered that I was in the same general area until it was too late. Suddenly I realized that little mountain tourist trap town was only a few minutes down the road. I swallowed hard and gripped the steering wheel hard. Carol was looking out the window at the scenery and Emily was deep into some kid’s Youtube video on an iPad. I forced myself to keep my breath steady as we rounded the corner.The town was still there, sorta. Time had not been kind to it. The gas station was still there, at some point it had been bought out by Shell. The tourist trap shops were still there. One of them was now a vape shop. The diner was closed, the building looking like it sat unused for a long time.
But of course that’s not what I cared about. A looked over at the site where the Alpine Coaster once stood. It was gone. The kitschy fake barn was gone. The site was just a bare concrete slab with a chainlink fence around it. Faded “no trespassing” and “for sale” signs hung off the fence. A pile of old, decaying lumber that might have once long ago been part of the structure covered part of the old lot. No sign of the track remained outside of some old concrete support posts dotting the side of the mountain.
I exhaled out a breath I hadn’t even realized I had been holding in. Soon the little town disappeared in my rear view mirror.
About a half hour later we stopped for gas. I pulled up to a gas pump across from a massive motorhome. Max stuck his head out the window and started barking at a little white dog, a toy breed of some kind, in the window of the motorhome. Carol and Emily immediately headed into the store to restock on snacks while I fueled up.
I stood there, a half smile on my lips as Max barked and wagged his tail in an attempt to attract the attention of the other dog while I filled up the tank, said dog doing an admirable job of ignoring him.
Right about the time I finished fueling up and cleaning the bugs off the windshield Carol returned from inside the store, Emily in tow, arms filled with two full sized bags of Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips and what looked to be a half dozen individually wrapped pickles.
I raised an eyebrow at the collection of food but knew better than to question a pregnant woman's snack choices.
“Should we take Max for a quick walk?” Carol asked. The travel plaza had a nice little gated dog walking area off to the side.
“Yeah probably not a bad idea, he’s been cooped up in the car for a few hours.” I said. Max, upon hearing his name and the word “walk” , forgot about the other dog and upgraded from wagging his tail to wagging his entire body while making whining sounds and staring right at me.
About this time I became half aware that the big motor home next to us was pulling away. I didn’t think much of it, outside of doing a quick automatic mental check to make sure Emily was well clear of the moving vehicle, but she was safely between me and our SUV, well out of the way.
But that was when Emily looked behind me and cheerfully yelled “Daddy look a roller coaster! Can I ride the coaster?”
It’s cliche as fuck I know but my blood went cold.
I turned around slowly, certain in my knowledge that terrible old decrepit Alpine Coaster would be there, having just popped into existence to trap me again.
That.. is not what I saw. Sure enough there was a coaster there, one I hadn’t noticed earlier because it had mostly been blocked by the motor home, but there it was. It was even an Alpine Coaster.
But it was not the same coaster I had encountered those years ago. That was immediately obvious. It was a small but modern and newish looking setup with neon lights and a bunch of people. There was an actual building where you bought tickets and a little snack stand.
“Daddy! Can we go on the coaster!” Emily asked again.
My mouth made motions but no words came out. I glanced over at Carol, hoping she’d say we didn’t have time but to my horror she smiled and said “You know what? That does sound like fun. Daddy will take you while I take Max for a walk.”
My mind raced, trying to think of a way to get out of it. But Emily was already dragging me across the parking lot to the entrance.
I patted my pocket, making sure my phone was in it. Every fiber of my being was screaming to run away. I slept walked through the line and the ticket booth while Emily bounced happily.
We got into a two seat plastic sled. This one was actually a lot nicer than the one my mind wouldn’t stop thinking about. It had two nice cushioned seats, big grab handles, even a nice rollbar.
The sled started up the track. I fought back the panic. I swerved my head around, keeping the building in my view. I was terrified of losing sight of it. We made it to the top and Emily did a happy squeal as we started down the side of the mountain.
My heart raced. Any second, any second my mind told me we’d lose sight of the building and then the ride would never end. The ride sped down the mountain. My mind tortured me with thoughts of not only going through it again, but seeing Emily go through it. The ride went around a big, banking turn. Emily kept shouting happily. How long before Carol reported us missing I wondered? Could I keep Emily calm? What if it lasted even longer this time? What if this time it never ended?
And then we were back at the start of the ride. The same attendant who had helped us into the sled was helping Emily out. I stepped out. The attendant gave me a brief look but said nothing. I guess I looked a little wild eyed.
I was fine. Emily was fine. It had been a perfectly normal, fun ride.
“That was fun Daddy! Thank you!” Emily said. I forced a smile back. “It was fun.” I responded, hoping like I sounded like I meant it.
I took Emily’s hand and we walked back to the car. Max saw us coming and barked happily. Carol looked up from the pint of Ben and Jerry’s she had somehow acquired and added to her snack collection while we were gone and smiled at us.
“Did you have fun?” she asked.
“It was so fun Mommy!” Emily said.
Carol smiled down at her, but then looked at me and frowned. “Are you okay?” Carol could read my face a lot better than the attendant could. “You’re pale.”
I smiled and this time the smile felt real. “Ya know what. Yeah, I think I am okay.”
Carol looked a little puzzled, but didn’t press it. We loaded Emily back in her booster seat, stopped Max from trying desperately to eat half a discarded gas station hot dog off the ground and got him back in the car. Carol and her small collection of snack food took her place in the passenger seat and I got in the driver's seat.I smiled. I cranked the car. I put it in gear. I pulled out of the gas station and back on the road, this time accelerating just a little faster than I had in years.

hi there i'm Cris, 27,a nurse from Mexico i'm searching for a white american in the usa,not too young,not too old,who's ready for something serious
i'm not into video games,but I enjoy playing games on facebook my real passion is watching movies,i love comedies and romantic films netflix is my goto for unwinding after a long day
as a nurse i'm all about helping others. making people smile is what I do best,i'd love to relocate to the usa for the right person
i'm not here for casual flings,only serious connections if you're ready for something meaningful,let's chat,drop me a message,and let's see where things go

I downloaded Foundry to be able to play a VTT with friends and becuase I liked the idea of what you can do on foundry, and I made the whole campaign with all types of addition features on the Foundry software (I guess offline?) But now I've gotten a Molten Hosting subscription thinking that I could just log in and it would pull all my data and that is not what happened lol. Can anyone explain to me how to move the game I made to molten, if that is even possible? Hopefully my only choice isn't to make it from scratch. Please explain very simply, I am so confused about everything and don't want to drown you with what probably seem like stupid questions