My boyfriend and I are in another of what I consider to be a petty fight but seems to be extremely serious to him. We were at a decently classy restaurant (the tab for the two of us was over 300) and having a lovely date night.
At the end of the night we were posting silly/ cute videos of each other making faces and toasting to the camera on our social media. It’s not something we do often but it was sweet and spontaneous. I was looking down at my phone and all of a sudden the light was flickering like crazy. I was spooked and looked up and saw the pendant lamp over our table swinging wildly.
It took me a minute to realize, but I finally put together that the only way the light would move like that is if my boyfriend had whacked it. Hard. So I asked if he hit it. He smirked at me for what felt like ages but was probably 20 seconds and when he realized I was actually concerned he angrily replied ‘so what if I did?’.
I can’t believe I had to explain to a grown man why it’s inappropriate to smack light fixtures in a restaurant. I told him he could have damaged it and it was inappropriate and he said because it hangs over food it’s supposed to be sturdy and it was fine. I’m appalled and embarrassed. Is this normal, am I overreacting? I know no harm would likely come of it but… why do it??? What am I missing?
He’s once again giving me the silent treatment because I’m ’too judgemental’ and I think it’s reasonable to be embarrassed a grown man is acting like a cat in a fine dining establishment. I could just use a little perspective- I’m flustered after buying us an expensive dinner and may be taking this too seriously.

I haven’t played the last few days, and when I signed on tonight I noticed the chargers seem straight up ridiculously maneuverable. Like, I’m pretty sure a charger pivoted 90 degrees to hit me mid-dive.
Also, is anybody else’s stims sometimes completely unresponsive for 1-3 button presses? Sometimes I’ll be prone and surrounded by enemies and I’ll die even after frantically pressing the stim button several times, despite not being stunned or stun-locked whatsoever. Sometimes not even while prone OR attacked/surrounded.
I noticed a few other fucky things like getting ragdolled to oblivion by glancing hits and even near-misses. Sometimes I’ll try swapping from my EAT to my primary and it won’t register at first, only then for it to swap to my secondary then to my primary then back to the secondary again.
Maybe I was just a bit rusty. Anybody else notice weird little things like these?

Hi apes,

Can you feel it? Its finally here. but its not really anything like what we thought, ITS BETTER! That said I know how unforgiving you are so ill start with my superstonk credentials . Its just a link to my first post here so you will know that I am a dumbass ape that thinks the orange crayons taste the best.
Even so i expect to get torn up but I cant stop thinking about this, however before we start.
___________________
To Mr Roaring Kitty,
I want to take a moment to thank Roaring Kitty for everything. You made us a family, made us money and most important of all you gave us hope, there really was none. Even if we fail it was worth every penny.
Personally I had just lost my mom from COVID. We were so poor she died alone in a rehab bed since the beds were full in the hospital. We could not see her since it was a secure facility, she was just, gone. So many of us lost.
That is when I met the apes, your apes, your movement, and then it became our movement.
Kitty, you will never have to buy another beer again in your life. That goes double for your wife who also must have had to endured some shit, from both friend and foe. Hi Mrs. Kitty.
You didn't have to do any of this and you have inspired me and others to change the world, with or without tendies. You are not alone, we are on your motherfucking left!
Your Hamms is on us! Cheers!
________________________
APES I don't care if you do it here or anywhere but you let him know how grateful you are. You may copy past the following "Thank you Roaring Kitty!".
alright so on with it, most of this is tin foil hat, but we are used to that.
Since we have so many new apes, many whom have felt the pain of being the victims of market manipulation this week, I will be defining things that are common knowledge for us Silverbacks.
all of this is, like my opinion man ok?
Disclaimer: Most everything I have learned of stocks I have learned with my fellow silverbacks. I am not a financial ANYTHING nor am I the algorithm Aladdin or the AI that reads these threads in order to change positions in the stock market. If you follow my advice you will end up naked in a small town in Mexico holding a banana in a moldy tortilla reciting Vogon poetry in Spanish pig latin (EFE)

WHATS WITH ALL THE MEMES FROM KITTY?

They are a genius move that do 2 things.
1- The Memes give us hints into what the plan is that cannot be stopped at the same time circumventing AI and the ALADDIN algorithm that reads these posts and adjusts the shorts position accordingly. While simultaneously making everyone ask "is it him?" this is called plausible deniability. Aladdin controls 70% of the market and is controlled at least laterally by a shithead named kenny, we don't like kenny, but he is irrelevant now.
2- The Memes are also a trap for the shorts who are thinking in an archaic way, spending literally billions to keep the price down using Synthetic shares. Maximizing the payoff by making them borrow more shares from us!
SEE GENIUS!
WAS E.T. HIS LAST POST?
You think a gangster like kitty goes out with a whimper like ET?

• V FOR VENDETTA (meme) the music is in overture.
• Run forest run, (meme) on a bridge 3/4 of the way over. Also a bridge is capital that you use to acquire businesses.
• 741 is everywhere which means the document filed for the 45 million shares and the possible use to exchange in stock for stock trade. also i saw the number 14.7 somewhere in there, percentage?

The last meme will be wonderous I expect nothing less from the man himself.
Selling him short like that, Shame on you!
But honestly I don't know.

WHAT IS A SYNTHETIC SHARE? WTF IS A DARKPOOL?

Synthetic shares, in the context of "seller boxing" and dark pool trading, refer to financial instruments that replicate the economic effects of owning actual shares without representing real equity ownership in a company. These shares are created through derivatives like options, swaps, or other financial instruments. When combined with seller boxing and dark pool trading, synthetic shares can play a significant role in market manipulation strategies. Here’s how this process generally works:
Seller Boxing Explained: Seller boxing is a strategy used to suppress the price of a stock by overwhelming the market with sell orders, often without actual stock changing hands. This keeps the stock price artificially low and can create a negative perception of the stock's value, making it unattractive to potential buyers.
Dark Pools Explained: Dark pools are private exchanges or forums for trading securities, not accessible by the public. They are often used by institutional investors to make large trades without exposure.
To KISS : Synthetic shares are just that, fake. But they important how we are going to the fucking moon, its how we are going to get paid. Last week a massive amount of dark pool synthetic shares were used.
At this moment you should understand that if the price is fake, and even buying at the tippy top last week is still a good bet, when MOASS happens.

OK SO WHEN IN THE FUCK IS MOASS?

According to the memes within a few weeks, be zen there is a plan.
This is the part where I get crucified by my fellow apes, and I am happy to take my licks.
I Believe that if MOASS could happen on the open "fair" market it would have in 2021 and again last week.
I believe that the only way to have MOASS is away from Aladdin, halts and dark pools. we must completely be out of the bog of eternal stench.
THE WORLD saw first hand last week, and it was maybe even for our benefit, that MOASS cannot happen in the fair market exchange with halts and the opposition illegal tactics.
So either GME cleans up the entire system that was created to work against us and take our homes, businesses and lives. Or we see what's in the box. (couldn't find the kitty "seven" meme)
I think that Kitty and the gang know this and we are all getting our tendies in a different way and Its bigger than we ever thought possible, BEAR with me please.

How would you communicate if anything you said was used against you? Ever had to prove you are human?

You see Aladdin and its bitch Ais ( I'm talking to you Aladdin, fuck you) can't understand memes, A computer does not know why Dickbutt is funny. SO the hedgies have weaponized social media against us with bots and AI. Anything you say or do is a product they can use against you, your words have value and sometimes determine what happens to your favorite stock.
Hence the Kitty Aladdin Meme
"They are fast but I am faster" Aladdin is the bad guy here. Go watch it again. "all you got to to is jump".
IF MOASS CANT HAPPEN ON THE fair MARKET THEN WHY ARE YOU SO HANDSOME AND CHIPPER?
Because of genetics and the filing of a document (prospectus supplement) and the EARLY preliminary earnings report.
It is not very common that earnings reports are released early. Very much less common that they are released early WITH A LOSS.
There was a big chunk of money "missing" "lost", where did it go?
Well put on your tin hat as this is what keeps me up at night.
KITTY/GME/TEDDY HOLDINGS/? wanted us to put together that they are creating a huge holding company conglomerate and we will be in it trading our shares for something that is shielded from the market manipulation of Aladdin.
The "missing" money is a hint along with the filing. The "LOSS" on the earnings report had the wonderful effect of triggering the algo to kick into gear and short the shit out of our beloved GME.
THIS MADE THE HEDGIES HIT THE LOWEST PRICE THEY COULD MAXIMIZING PROFIT GAINS FOR THOSE OF US NOT CHEATING THE SYSTEM
They used their own algorithm against them to put another nail in the coffin. I still am in shock from the move, bravo!!!
So what's it all mean?
I believe that Gmerica/TEDDY HOLDINGS (and others) has already been created, that the "missing" money was used in the deals. These were probably set in motion years ago, and cannot be stopped now.
For every 1 GameStop share, they'll get 4 of Another company they made the deal with. And for every 4 GameStop shares, they'll get 7 of say Shit, shower and shave shares, for example. (a real possibility, if you know you know)
This happens between companies attempting to purchase each other using stock as the currency.
As for the holders they will likely get to swap out their shares for the shares in the new massive holding company.
I think that we will be trading our stocks in for shares with blockchain attached and we will be shielded from market manipulation. (tin foil straight up guess)
Lets say this happens and they give a dividend. That would trigger THE MOTHERFUCKER OF ALL SHORT SQUEEZES. the MFOASS™
Oh and to get really APE kicked in the face here, since we would no longer need to lock the float to prove to some bought worthless politician, that they are doing something illegal DRS becomes less important. I say this having another 200 shares headed to the purple circle so be gentle.
Since they create shares from nothing then it does not matter how many are Street named.
I still say buy, hodl, DRS. but read the prospectus supplement. If I'm right it details not matter what you got you are in.
Add in the new CAT (consolidated audit trail) system still controlled by shitheads and we have ourselves more than a few tendies. Which jives with GME and kitty not leaving any ape behind, not a one.
WHAT IS THE BEST PART?
The best part is that the companies that would comprise this conglomerate will include SSSY, Lego, Chewy, sax 5th ave and many others (in the memes) and it would rival amazon. Only less heartless and possibly even a decent wage.
Many of the stores that we would have in the holding companies were shorted into oblivion by the very assholes that we are revolting against.
Sweeet Sweet JUSTICE!
.... what I am saying is that...
oooo look a penny...
QH
On your left.

I’ve got a lot on my mind and a lot going on but also nothing going on.
Im gonna be a dad next month and I’m turning 20 in a week.
I love my girlfriend and I’m happy I’m with her and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
But if I’m honest I don’t have any friends, my best friend of 10 years I got rid off a few months ago because of shit that’s too long to even get into and at first I didn’t care and then now I wish I had a friend who I could just talk too or play games with or feel real with.
Not that I’m not real with my girlfriend, I just don’t have friends, and that’s my fault because I don’t go out and I don’t try to make friends, and the friends I had or people I know I don’t even talk too.
I mean I’m becoming a dad next month and I still don’t think it’s fully hit me like I live my life at my girlfriends dad on my PlayStation, not sure what to do with myself because of anxiety and my autism that I struggle with.
I know what I’m saying just seems a bit random I didn’t know what I was going to write before making this post.
But I feel lost at times but at the same time I’m happy but scared of being a dad what if I’m not a good dad? What if I get overwhelmed and not be a good dad.
I know having a dad with issues can fuck a kid up it did with me.
I miss my fucking dad, I wish he could of not had all the problems he had, I don’t ever talk about my dad, I just know when I do or when people I can’t even process my emotions.
But writing this post about my sheds tears in my eyes.
I just want to be the dad I always wanted, I don’t want to feel like a bad person because of shameful things I’ve done, or the issues I have.

I tend to feel delayed grief consistently. I just left somewhat of an abusive relationship yes I was hit, threatened and tormented and spoken down on consistently but no he never left significant marks. Just hurt me just enough to scare me and make me cry then yell at me for crying… idk whatever. Point is it’s 1 am now, 2 weeks of no contact finally passed he’s finally given up calling and messaging me and threatening me from every single social app he knows and he can’t reach me anymore and have changed my number.
If it was so bad why do I miss him so much and literally feel this way now… I know the entire last few months with him I was miserable and kept telling him things like about how sad I was and how he just kept being a monster. The final straw was when he referred to his own mother as “this lady” and started calling her nasty names as he does to me bc she made him food but he didn’t like the smell of it and got mad bc she told him to eat some. Referred to her as “this stupid lady”. I called him out as I always do bc seeing that is disgusting especially as he’s a freaking felon I remind him his mother doesn’t owe him food at his grown age of 28 and to make his own food next time to avoid that issue. and that when he got out of jail she could have changed the locks and not let him live there rent free while he treated her terribly… so ofc instead of acknowledging it like he never does he brings up the one and only time I ever messed up 5 years ago (before we even started dating and we’re only talking but that’s an even longer story).
I feel like throwing up and I know going back in just disrespecting myself and feeling down again. I know I’d feel sad with him and just as sad now without him. I know I need to love myself but he really took me down thru the mud and I just go thru the days now like a zombie just trying to get to the next day. He never did anything for me he was never thoughtful or kind and never reciprocated then tormented me and made me suffer and he enjoyed it. Then apologize and make up. I’ve heard that’s the tactic these kind of people use, torment u then remedy it even tho the torment was never necessary in the first place. I was disrespected consistently thru phone text in person in my car in my own home… all while he got everything he wanted from me. Why was I so desperate to please him.
Now I find myself trying to latch onto any other person I meet. I met someone last week and kissed him and feel disgusting. I feel lost and I haven’t cried these past 2 weeks but today it’s really hitting me hard. I don’t have anyone to talk to and I just want this to pass so badly. Just venting. I haven’t eaten and am becoming addicted to how I look now just skinny and tired like a corpse. I sleep probably 3 hours at most and stay up the majority of the night until the morning and even when I can eat I. Just can’t ever finish anything - 3 bites and I’m nauseous. I regret kissing that person last week and initiating a sort of friendship bc now when their attention is not on me I feel extremely worse even tho I know they owe me nothing and know nothing about what I’m going thru. My home makes me feel sad I put everything he ever gave me ina closet today and the only way I can sort of see him is through his online store. And I feel horrible bc he use to updated his products everyday. Except maybe something happened to him or he’s sad too bc he hasn’t updated it in 5 days. I need to get rid of that app too it’s what’s hurting me most today that I can’t fully let go.
I thought we’d have children together and get married he is genuinely my other half but why does it feel so wrong leaving him when he hurt me so much. Loyalty wasn’t an issue it was EVERUTHING else. To the point that everyday something brought up an argument that escalated way past normal arguments into bullying and name calling territory and his ego so big he couldn’t just be a man he had to make sure he came out on top always while I had to make myself small and bow down.
I’m hurting so bad now. I think it hurts more bc it was that easy for him also to let it go. All the threats about showing up to my building and knocking my door down and nothing ever happened. This whole time I was just stupid foolish and dumb over a man who felt large just by threatening and scaring me constantly when he maybe never even truly cared. I feel so stupid I wish I could scrub my brain rn I can’t stop smoking these disgusting black and milds now either. I’ve been seeing my sisters more often now and it helps that my sis is also going thru a similar breakup not involving dv but just certain aspects that are similar to toxicity. I don’t want anyone to feel sad I hope no one feels as Sad as I do now.

So, I've been reading the Bible. And recently I've been reading about what Paul wrote. So he mentioned about being dead to the law. And. Today that question seemed to stand out.
Did some digging, and read a article. And it was talking about how, some things in the old testament. Being mainly the covenants are not to be followed, and we should focus on the new covenants.
That the old covenants or old testament shouldn't be disregarded, but to be used to teach. I think in Timothy it mentions that verse.
So. That made me think. Didn't Paul say in Romans that the law is uplifted by the faith. But it hit me. The law. Is lifted. By the Faith. To me, at least. The way I understand it. Is that by being justified by the faith, things that would be good would come naturally. But I feel there's something missing to that thought. Or I could be wrong. What do you all think?
Should we follow the law. Paul mentions he is dead to it.
And to me. We are to be justified by Jesus.
So. If the law is dead. How should we do good? There are some things mentioned that we should do in the new testament. And some things that stood out to me. Are parts of Romans. And about being good and loving to one another.
So I'm left a bit confused. But happy I'm going to learn something new.
Thank you :D

TW: Abuse
I'm here to vent, but I wouldn't mind some support, if possible. Things are not going well for me right now.
My dad is very much present in my life, but it's apparent to everyone that he f'd all of his kids up.
To summarize, the man was born in the middle of the Vietnam War. He spent three years of homelessness in communist Vietnam with his entire family during his childhood, and consistently reminds us of this to this very day. It's been his way of dismissing any protests my siblings have had towards the things he'd done to us - hitting us with rolled up newspapers like dogs, verbal and psychological abuse, frequent displays of intimidation - at one point, my mom had suspected sexual abuse as well.
I developed a rare soft tissue tumor in 7th grade. It broke through the skin, and I had to be rushed to the ER. He immediately blamed me because of a superstition of not eating red meat after an operation. At the time, I was severely anemic, underweight, and spent the night in the hospital getting two bags of blood infused. 3 years later, I was put in a psych ward for an eval after some remarks to a counselor. He was banned from seeing me, and blamed my mom(who we only saw on weekends) for f'ing me up. "She's doing this shit for attention," he says.
Fast forward to today. I've developed another tumor, which turned out to be cancer this time. Two weeks ago, I had a follow up with my oncologist. They have concerns about my most recent CT scan, and think it may be lung cancer. I've barely been able to get out of bed since then. My mental health is garbage, and I'm not able to do as much physical labor as I could do - especially when I'm working with an arm that is visibly missing a huge chunk of bicep muscle, swollen, and nerve damage in my hand. "Cancer is no excuse to be lazy."
I've also expressed interest in getting my MSW to become a therapist, as it's something I've unofficially been doing for everyone in my family since I was 12, and I'd make more money than I'm making now with a State job (12.50/hr). I was pushed into the state job by my dad because my film degree is garbage, like the rest of my aspirations. Now, my dad can't fathom that I get paid less for being single and childless. He's also pointed out that I've gained weight - something that's been a sore spot for me all my life - and he's only complimented me when I rapidly dropped weight from both tumors.
Thanks to all of that, I have severe anxiety attacks when SOMETHING goes wrong - it could be anything. I have such low self esteem, and possibly early stages of BD. If I had moved back closer to my dad, I'm certain I would develop an ED. I've considered offing myself many times since 5th grade, and I'm surprised I haven't done it yet. If I make it past 30, I'd be surprising my 16 year old self. Using the excuse "what will happen to my pets?" isn't inspiring my will to live like it used to.

Hello old friends.
Long time no chat. I've recently come back to Skyrim modding and I'm building my mod list from scratch. I'm looking for more newer and improved mods. I recently found Enhanced Wetness which is a wonderful mod on the nexus for Skyrim AE. Now I'm wondering if there is a mod similar to SnowFall ENB? If you guys recommend any newer weather mods, Reshades or ENB's that have weather effects. Please hit my thread. I'm super excited to be back modding again. I missed this community so much.
I have no idea what's gone on these last 4 years with the Skyrim AE updates, but I can tell you AE is cool from what it seems. Now I'm actually going to try and play the game so I'm creating a new mod list. I'll be installing some of my own mods to make sure they work with the newest updates. Any Suggestions. Please fire away. =)

Does anyone else noticed that when you get your crystalmancer’s high arcanist gets hit by a witch it cleanses itself? Maybe i missed an update but i’m amazed! Lol love it

I'm working on a project for product placement. So i need a model which generates good interiors and good outdoor backgrounds. I've used epicrealism and realvis (sdxl version) and results are hit and miss. I'm wondering if there are any models which do a better job at it or may be some loras with some models that can help?
Any guidance is appreciated.

Imagine being 32 years old and learning every thing your dad ever taught you was a lie.stole money and manipulated me when I was at the lowest at the low. Then when I said I would tell his new wife he’s cheating, he told me he hacked my iCloud and found my bad and nude pictures of my wife and said he would expose her. Damn this has been a shitty week. All because I cracked my phone and hit my dad up for my upgrade bc I have always paid him since I was younger. But he used my upgrade for someone else and his new wife even thinks he got me the phone. He was trying to get me to pay off someone else’s phone and tried to tell me I didn’t remember because I was on drugs. I wasn’t on drugs I’m married and was with my wife the entire time. But I just learned they have been doing that to me my entire life. They would make me believe lies or they would kick me to the curb. They controlled my expenses in order to control me. They wouldn’t let me leave and take my money. One time my mom and my dad took everything I had and got me a bus ticket to Dallas with absolutely nowhere to go. My mom made me miss my grandpa’s funeral because I didn’t take the leaves fast enough. When your alone and your family tells you things that don’t make sense they put you in a box. Really think if the people in your life are helping you but they are always treating you like shit and taking everything you earn, you never do anything good enough and you are so lucky just to even be there. I didn’t have you dad and mom yall had me. Y’all made me skip 1 and 2nd grade and made me think I had learning disability. I couldn’t even talk right till I was a little older with speeh therapy because they left me so isolated. I took me 32 years and the most amazing woman in the world to help me realize I’m not crazy. Be careful who you call family because sometimes blood is the furthest thing from family.

I first started noticing that something was wrong around 3 months ago. At the time, I was working from home and would usually light a scented candle while I worked, which usually helped me relax and stay focused on my work. I would usually burn through a candle a week, but over time, the candles started to take less time to fully burn up. At first, I thought that this was because of a change in ingredients the company that made the candles used, but the problem persisted after I switched candle brands, which I once again blamed on the candle manufacturers.
I kept this belief for another week until the first incident. While getting up from my computer desk, which faces away from the candle, to take a quick bathroom break, I caught a glimpse of the lit candle. A two-inch layer of molten wax rested on another three-inch layer of solid wax, the wicks rising out at first and being somewhat visible through the molten layer, finally breaking the surface and being slowly burned away. The flames flickered as I swung the door open and walked out of the room. When I returned 10 minutes later, the molten layer was gone, and the wicks had been shortened so that the flames rested right above the solid layer of the wax. At first, I thought that the glass jar that contained the candle was leaking, but after a short inspection, I was only able to find two small drops of candle wax that had solidified right next to the candle on the bedside table. I still had 2 hours of work left to do, but I was too lost in thought and was unable to do any work for the rest of the day.
Every night before I go to sleep, I like to read for at least 30 minutes, and while reading, I usually light a candle. Around 4 days later, I had mostly forgotten about the incident and went back to using candles. Due to my naivety, it returned.
I fell asleep while reading with a candle lit on my bedside table. I woke up to loud slurping noises. As I opened my eyes, the brightness of the light I had not turned off almost blinded me. As my eyes tried to readjust to the light and focus on what was in front of me, I saw a somewhat humanoid dark gray to light blue blur that contrasted with the white paint on the walls behind it. Another gray line stretched from the shape's head to the candle on my bedside table. I could feel my heart skip five consecutive beats. I opened my mouth and tried to force out a scream for help, but the pressure I applied to my throat was way beyond what it was able to handle, leading me to only produce a light wheezing sound. I tried to sit up or to at least prop myself up, but my muscles failed me. Trying to push myself up with my arms felt impossible. As I stared at the figure that had suddenly appeared in my room, my eyes finally managed to focus, making it possible for me to see the intruder who was now staring at me. The figure was a man at least 7 feet tall, fully naked; he looked bloated; his eyes were bloodshot and looked like they would pop out of their sockets; at any point, his skin was a grayish light blue.
HIS LIPS
His lips extended from his mouth like an elephant's trunk, which had been split in half. The lips extended from the man's face to the candle; the flames had been put out. He was using his lips as a makeshift straw, slowly sucking up all the molten wax from the candle, which had fully liquified while I was asleep. I laid in bed, unable to move, unable to scream for help, staring until he emptied the jar. His lips retracted back to his face, the molten wax solidifying on their tips and cracking, flakes of wax falling off the man's lips and falling to the floor. The man grinned, staring at me. The ridges and gaps between the teeth were filled in with wax, making it impossible to make out where one tooth ended and the next one began. The man opened the door he was standing next to, but instead of walking out of the room, he stepped behind it. His face peered at me from above the door, and then once again, like he had done to drink the wax, the man puckered his lips, which stretched from his mouth and floated to me. I shook and tried to roll over away from him. I wanted to get up and run, but my fear had taken over my body. Tears flowed from my eyes. He kissed me on the cheek, leaving flakes of wax and light moisture. He retracted his lips and lowered his head behind the door.
I don't remember falling asleep, but when I woke up, I saw the empty glass jar, which at one point contained the candle. Even though I had hoped that what had happened was a dream, it wasn't. I still had flakes of wax on my cheek, and on my bedroom floor, the wax in the jar had disappeared. I called the police, but they were unable to find anyone in my apartment; they also could not find any evidence of a break-in.
After the break-in, I started looking for a new apartment to move to, thinking that the man was tied to the building I was in, but even though I had thrown out all of my candles, I could not stomach spending another hour in my apartment, constantly looking over my shoulder or walking around with my back pressed up against the wall to not allow it to creep up on me. Thankfully, my friend Emma was able to let me stay over at her apartment while I looked for a new one for myself.
Me and Emma have been friends since we were 8, and we've been there to support each other when times get rough. This isn’t the first time I've had to stay over at her house for an extended amount of time; in fact, I have had to stay over at Emma’s as many times as she has had to stay over at my apartment, whether it was because of evictions after losing a job, breakups, or a candle wax drinking squatter. I didn't even know if it was human. I mean, sure, it looked like one, but human lips are not supposed to do what his did, and somehow it didn't have a reaction to molten wax being poured down its esophagus. I didn't tell Emma about what happened—the details at least—I just told her that a man had broken into my house and was watching me sleep. The only people I told the truth to were my therapist and the cops, and all of them disregarded what I told them as my mind making things up after a traumatic event.
For a while, I believed what they said—I mean, why wouldn’t I?—but then I started seeing him again. For a few days, I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me again like it had done during the night of the incident. For split seconds out of the corner of my eye, I would see the outline of a tall, bloated figure. At first, they were hours apart, but after a while, it became constant. He was standing in each room I passed, in every single dark corner I glanced past, and then he spoke.
“FeeD MeEeee”
It stood in the kitchen, peering over from a small gap between the fridge and the sink, where the trash can that had been knocked over onto its side usually stood. His voice was raspy, and every word that came out of his mouth was distorted as if he were gargling water, but still, I could somehow clearly make out each word he said from over 15 feet away.
“Please just leave me alone I… why are you following me?”
I shouted at the figure, the same fear that had taken over my body during the night I saw him for the first time paralyzing me, making it impossible for me to move anything other than my eyes, eyelids, and mouth.
“i’M sTarviNg, I nEEd You To FeEd ME”
It replied again. Now, stepping out from behind the fridge, he stepped directly onto a rotten banana. Its mushy brown content’s seeping out of the peel under the pressure of his decomposing foot, which was covered in scabs, and took up the same grayish light blue color as the rest of his body. He mostly looked the same; his bloodshot eyes bulged from their sockets, but now his tongue was swollen. It peeked out from between his bloated, cracked gray lips; it stared at me, waiting for an answer.
“Ok, I’ll.. I’ll feed you, but please just... leave me alone.”
I replied, the tone of my voice shifting into high-pitched squeals with every quick breath I took. He looked satisfied by my response. He somehow squeezed his bloated body back into the gap that was at least four times smaller than him. After peering over at me from above the fridge, he bent over backwards, his spine releasing a series of sickening cracks until he was fully obscured by the fridge, and then he vanished.
Still barely in control of my body, I limped over to the couch tucked away in the back corner of the living room, it took me at least 10 minutes to steady my breathing and 20 more to fully regain control of my body again but as soon as I did I ran out the house and to the nearest store, during the 15-minute walk he stared at me through dark windows and the backs of cars, peered out at me from gaps between leaves in the trees and bushes, he even followed me into the store staring at me from the middle of deserted isles before disappearing right before my eyes were able to fully catch him, once I finally got the candles I randomly picked four off of the shelves and rushed to the self checkout.
When I arrived home, I had 2 hours before Emma got off work. I didn't want to feed it while she was home, and I didn't want her to see it. I pulled out two of the candles from the black plastic bag and placed them on the kitchen table, the first a light blue candle named “Garden Rain” and the second a red candle named “Juicy Watermelon." I pulled out a lighter from one of the drawers Emma used after her stove stopped lighting on its own and lit each of the 6 wicks on the candles. As soon as I started seeing the wax melt under the heat of the burning wicks, I dropped the lighter onto the table next to the candles and ran out of the room. I could not stomach seeing that thing again; even just thinking about it made me shudder and hyperventilate. The paralyzing fear that seeing him caused me made me want to vomit.
At least 30 minutes later I started to hear it drink even though the living room and kitchen were separated by a wall, even though I had closed the door I could still hear what at first started as slurping sounds which were followed up by loud gulps, then it stopped, and once again 30 minutes later it started drinking, as the slurping started once again I heard the door to the apartment crack open, it was Emma, as she stepped through the door I saw her carrying two large brown paper bags of groceries in her hands, she was headed to the kitchen.
“Hey let me grab those for you”
I said running over to her, my voice shaking.
“Oh, thanks. Are you… okay, you look scared?”
My eyes shot wide open in a mixture of fear and surprise. I said the first thing that came to mind.
“Yeah just umm… I didn't expect you to come home so early and I got a bit spooked”
“shit sorry, I know I should have called you, work let me off early today,”
I started to turn away from her walking to the kitchen.
Trying to keep her away from the kitchen I told her to wait for me in the living room because I wanted to talk to her about something. I didn't know what I would talk to her about but that was a problem for future me to resolve, somehow it worked.
“What's that sound?”
She called out to me while walking towards the living room couch. It took me a few seconds to come up with an excuse.
“I think it’s the sink, or the pipes at least”
I opened the door to the kitchen with my eyes closed at first hesitant to look knowing what would be greeting me. slowly prying my eyes open I started to see its outline, my muscles started to lose strength as the details of the man came into my view, I felt the grocery bags start to slip from my arms, my knees buckled, face first I fell onto the kitchen floor scattering the groceries all over the floor, I mixture of a light scream and a yelp escaped from my mouth as my body made contact with the floor, Emma concerned for my safety ran into the kitchen, she didn't scream, using all of the strength and mobility I had left in my muscles I rolled over expecting to see her face drenched in terror, her body frozen still unable to move just like my body had done the first time that I saw him, but Emma looked concerned, the man was gone, she crouched down beside me.
“Oh my god are you ok? What happened?”
I looked around observing my surroundings.
“I um… I… I tripped on the little thing at the bottom of the doorframe”
I finally managed to blurt out another excuse, not being able to remember what the name of a door sill was. I started to sit up using a part of the energy that had returned to my body, pain pulsed through my chest and arms, Emma looked at me with a concerned face.
“You've been acting really weird since I got home, are you sure you're ok?”
“Yeah… I think I’m just having one of those days you know”
The confusion on Emma’s face said that she didn’t know and to be honest I didn't either, I guess my luck of pulling random excuses out of my ass ran out, Emma thought that she triggered some sort of PTSD response after barging into the house unannounced at first apologizing then trying to change the subject to stop my trembling which I was still unsuccessfully trying to hide from her.
“Did you buy candles?”
Emma asked picking the groceries apart from the garbage that spilled out the can that the man had knocked over, placing them on the table next to the now half-empty glass jars, the flames flickered above the inch or so of molten wax the man was unable to finish drinking.
“Yeah I’ve been struggling with work lately, they usually help me focus”
“Huh Interesting combination you’ve got going on here”
She looked at me and smiled slightly, I smiled back and chuckled to seem normal.
“Yeah even I don't know what I was trying to accomplish here, to be honest”
I tried to help Emma clean up the spilled groceries but she did not let me, she told me that I needed to recover like I had been in a car crash instead of having taken a little tumble. After a few seconds of silence, Emma spoke again.
“Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about earlier?”
A quick jolt of stress shot through my body, in a jumbled mess of lies and fear I had forgotten what I had told Emma, I sat there in silence for a few seconds unable to come up with an excuse
“I…umm… I don’t remember, it wasn't anything serious though”
“Damn did you hit your head too?”
She said once again proudly smiling at her joke.
At this point Emma picked up the last bag of potato chips from the floor and placed it on the table, then she opened the fridge and started loading the groceries into it.
“Anyway I gotta go get back to work’’
I blurted out after a few more seconds of awkward silence.
“Alright well good luck”
I walked over into the living room and sat down in front of my workstation, which now consisted of a laptop sitting on a small foldable TV tray that had just barely enough room left on it to fit a small USB mouse.
The last thing I remember, before I fell asleep, was me mindlessly scrolling through apartment listings while Emma watched a random 90’s horror movie I’m positive only had a budget of $500.
I woke up with a light stinging pain shooting through my dry throat, and a dim hissing sound caused by thousands of water drops striking the ground outside filled the room. I pressed the spacebar on my laptop, the brightness of the screen blinding me temporarily, after taking a few seconds to let my eyes readjust I managed to make out the time, 3:45 AM. A strong smell I was unable to make out the origin of assaulted my nostrils. Lavender.
The smell hitting my nose had the same effect on me that I would expect smelling salts would have on a weightlifter right before they set a world record. Before I knew it my legs were moving on their own at an almost uncontrollable pace, fighting back against my mind which was telling them to slow down after years of being used to navigating both mine and Emma’s apartment as steadily as possible to not bother the neighbors.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity I stood before Emma’s bedroom door, a faint, yellow, pulsating light radiated from a lamp and snuck out of a small gap between the door and the doorframe, reluctantly I pushed my left hand up against the door, my right hand grasping onto the door frame for a sense of stability, once the door was fully agape I scanned the inside of the room my heart skipping a beat for every humanoid shadow cast up onto the wall by the lights from the wicks which were set ablaze and were being slowly burnt away.
I walked into Emma’s room and made my way over to her bedside table to put out the candle, as I stepped closer towards her, her face became more defined, I could finally make out her features, she was awake, but no she could not have been, even though her eyes were wide open they never blinked, she didn't even move slightly, as I moved closer I finally managed to fully make out the expression of pure terror on her face, her mouth wide agape as if she was about to release a deafening screach, but she could not have, a single drop of solidified wax dribbled out of the corner of her mouth and clung to her cheek, my eyes traced the cream colored path back towards her mouth, first up her cheek then between the corner of her mouth and finally behind her teeth, there instead of her tongue or the roof of her mouth I saw a wall of wax which had filled in the entirety of her mouth.
I fell to my knees and hunched forward supporting my body weight with my arms, I was too late, I resisted the urge to vomit and got back up onto my feet, a mixture of tears and snot slid down my face and onto my lips, shaking now I slowly started limping over towards my phone which I had left on the couch next to where I had awoken just minutes before, just minutes before my life was destroyed because of my lies if I had just told Emma what I had gone through, if I had just told her what had happened on the night of the incident which now seemed trivial, even if she thought that I was crazy, I know that she would have complied just to make me feel comfortable.
It took me at least 30 seconds of repeated attempts to stabilize my hands enough to properly dial 911. “Someone broke into my apartment and hurt my friend” was the only reasonable explanation I could come up with that would not get the operator to hang up on me thinking that this was a prank call.
I sat there in the living room for an agonizing 10 minutes, crying, my sadness slowly transformed into anger towards myself, and my mind raced thinking of all the lies I’d told, I kept thinking that if I had just told her the truth she would not have been laying there in her bed, her body bloated, “every single orifice has signs of forced penetration and has been filled with what seems to be candle wax” is what was written on her autopsy report.
For a few days I was the main suspect in Emma’s murder, but due to the almost unstoppable crying and the unresponsive state that I was in when the police arrived, mixed with the lack of evidence of me having a way to produce 30 pounds of candle wax led to me being released out of police custody, but because I was the main suspect I was not told any details about what had fully happened to Emma, for days all I had to work off of was the image of her face frozen in terror, and a short glance I caught of her bloated body as she was being carted out on a stretcher.
I recounted every single word of our last conversations over and over again until they became permanently etched into my brain.
Emma’s parents originally wanted to cremate her, as that is what she had somewhat jokingly asked for whenever the topic of funerals came up, well she had joked about wanting to have had unpopped popcorn shoved down her throat before she was sent off to “scare the shit out of the guy cremating me” but due to all the wax which would have been impossible to get out of her body they were forced to bury her.
A few days before Emma’s funeral her body disappeared.
After Emma’s death, her parents took me into their home, after reading the autopsy reports and seeing her corpse they had thrown out every single candle they owned which made their home the safest choice I had, still, this did not stop me from buying a machete and keeping it under my bed, just in case.
I was laying on the bed in their guest bedroom The day that the police informed Emma’s parents about her disappearance, the bedroom is right above the front porch of the house, at first I heard them ring the doorbell which was followed up by 3 powerful knocks on the door, for about a minute I laid there on the bed listening to muffled voices exchanging distorted words I was barely able to make out which slowly transformed into distorted weeps, curious I lifted myself up from the bed, made my way over to the window and carefully lifted the bottom panel making Shure to not make too much noise, the distorted muffled sounds started forming into coherent words “We checked the security footage but the only strange thing we could see was a 5 second time jump” one of the officers spoke in a serious and almost monotone voice “which meant that the security guard who was the only person in the building had to climb down 2 flights of stairs walk through a 40 foot long hallway and then drag her body back up stairs and out of the building in 5 seconds” Emma’s mom let out yelp “ but don’t worry ma'am that’s actually good news because we know that her corpse is still somewhere within the building and was probably brought to the wrong floor by an intern, we’ve already warned all of the staff at the hospital to keep an eye out, and we also sent 5 officers to search the hospital”
I could not believe what I was hearing, my breathing quickened, but this time instead of fear I felt anger, that fucker stole her corpse and was probably in the weird separate plane of existence he always went back to after terrorizing me, cutting off chunks of her body, melting her, and drinking her.
I closed the window Emma’s mom's cries once again turned into a muffled rumble which was only possible to make out if you knew what to look for, I took a few steps back away from the window planning to lay back down, not wanting to bother Emma’s parents. I bumped into something, not something, someone, its fleshy towering form as solid as a wall sent me tumbling forward, I knew it was him, he had returned to take me too, to stretch his swollen cracked lips, push them down my esophagus, fill my lungs and stomach with wax. But despite all of that this time I was not scared, I was angry, and I was not going to stand there in terror like I had the last time I saw him.
I fell forward onto my knees my face missing the window sill just by mere inches, I put my hands onto the floor, lifted one of my knees, and rotated 180 degrees now facing the monster, to the right of him pushed up against the wall was the bed, light from the sun reflected off of the metallic button which kept my machete in it’s sheathe, the man started to stretch his lips, they were moving towards me, waving a wiggling through the air like a snake slithering towards me.
I dove towards the bed one of my feet pushing off of the floor and the other pushing against the wall which creaked under the pressure applied to it, I flew for a few moments before slamming down onto the carpet and sliding forward, the heat generated by my skin brushing against the carpet released a sharp stinging pain throughout my body, my outstretched arm landed just a few inches short of the machete, I quickly bent my arms, pushing my body up and crawled towards the machete. my fingers wrapped around the handle I spun around, my back pushed up against the bedside table, once again facing the man, he was still facing the window but his lips faced me and were just a few feet away from me, for what felt like minutes but was most likely no longer than a second, I struggled to hook my finger under the strap securing the machete into its sheath, as the lips inched towards me the man started producing gurgling noises, he was regurgitation wax.
I finally pulled the machete out of its sheath, I swung the blade at the man's lips, the blade was not met with any resistance as it sliced through the man’s lips which landed on the carpeted floor with an audible thud, the man did not have a physical reaction to my counter-attack, his lips kept creeping towards me, once again I slashed at the lips, still no reaction, I repeated this at least 3 more times.
I wanted to kill him, I wanted to take revenge for what he had done to Emma, but fighting back was pointless. I realized that no matter how much I tried to hurt it, I could not kill him, I could not get rid of him.
My rage dissipated and a mixture of fear and sadness crept in, and soon took over my body, I screamed for help, I screamed in fear, in agony, tears streamed down my face as the man's lips finally reached my face, he wasn’t met with any resistance as his lips snuck between mine, pried my jaw open and finally started to slide down my esophagus.
I heard the cops run up the stairs, they started banging on the door asking if I was okay only to have been met with muffled screams, hot wax started to pour down inside of me, the stinging pain of the heat made me want to plunge the machete which I had dropped onto the ground next to me into my stomach to create a gaping wound that the wax would hopefully funnel out of, the texture of the man's slippery, oily lips matched with the poison like flavor of the wax caused me to start gagging, I felt my insides bulging like at any moment my intestines would have been filled to the point where they would pop, I wanted to vomit, the drain myself of the filth I was filled with, but his lips had plugged my throat not allowing anything to get out.
Hearing my muffled screams the cops started kicking the door down, the man retracted his lips, the suction aided my attempts at cleansing my insides, I got onto my hands and knees streams of molten wax pouring out of me, solidifying on the the carpet, with another loud thud the door swung open slamming into the wall, the man was gone.
That’s the last thing I remember before I passed out, but according to one of the doctors who was in the ambulance that brought me to the hospital, I was still semi-responsive during the first 10 minutes of the ride to the hospital.
Approximately 13.4 pounds of wax were removed from my body, the doctors said that I was in a critical condition and some of them did not expect me to make it.
One of the officers who was there the day the man attacked me took a report of what had happened to me, due to the unmistakable evidence of what had happened to both me and Emma, and the fact that this was the 3rd instance of me reporting something like this the police finally started investigating who this man might have been.
Around a month later I was discharged from the hospital and once again have been staying in the living room of Emma’s parent's house.
I’ve been seeing the man again, candles were not allowed in the hospital I stayed at, which means that he’s probably very hungry, he’s close to attacking me again, I know it, he wants to finish what he started and I don't know if I have the power to fight back, I’m not sure if defeating him is even possible, I’m tired.
I’ve been seeing Emma too, her bloated, reanimated corpse often appears to be standing next to the man. If I let him take me will I get to join them? I’ve tried asking but they don’t answer, they just stare, I can’t keep living in constant fear, always looking over my shoulder, I miss Emma.

The Last Faith is what you get when you combine the tone and allure of Bloodborne mixed with the flowing combat and sheer coolness of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Theres also a sprinkle of Blasphemous in there, for some reason. It's also a game that isn't quite sure if it wants to be a souls-like and near-copy of Bloodborne or just a simple metroidvania. In two sentences i've probably confused you. Good, now we're both on the same page. This is The Last Faith.
The Last Faith puts you in the shoes of Eryk. Eryk is a swell guy. He cares for everyone, questions little, never says a mean word and goes out of his way to help out hapless NPC's as well literal monsters. While everyone around him is content to compliment him on his combat prowess, Eryk thinks he's just a dude. Does that sound like the main character of a game that's basically 2D Bloodborne? It's a mismatch for the tone of the game and while it wasn't enough to take me out of the experience, I couldn't help but feel he belongs in another game. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, maybe? He'd make a killing on the stalk market.

----------------------------------------------------------------

"2Blood, 2 Blasphemous"

He's also afflicted with... something. And oh boy, when that something finally reveals itself it.. oh wait it doesn't ever fully reveal itself. This game's version of "souls" is called "Nycrux." Sigh. Can we just call them souls, please? For the love of the moon presence we don't need cute names for the currency with every souls-like. In typical souls-like fashion though the Nycrux is also what our character is afflicted by. I think. What does it do? No clue! Did I even pay attention to the story?! Dude I tried. I really did. The notes and item descriptions did little to help me piece together the story, unlike FromSoftware games. It's utterly non-sensical.
Speaking of potions and ammo, this game is VERY similar to Bloodborne. Unlike Elden Ring or the Souls series, you have health potions that do not refill upon death. You have to find them in the world or buy them. Just like Bloodborne. The same goes for ammo. This wasn't an issue. The game throws so many health potions at you and they're so cheap to buy I had nearly 200 at the end. Which begs the question, why even do this? Because Bloodborne did it? There's little tension in death when I have 15 heals and know I can easily go get 50 more in a matter of minutes.
Combat is standard fare but feels quite good. Let's take a look at some super cool bullet points!

• You have a light attack and you are also able up charge up that attack which I did precisely 6 times and never again because it's utterly useless.
• Each weapon also has a unique (or somewhat unique) weapon art. In addition you have whats called a Stigma and this allows you to use various abilities such as a shield, parry or something else I found to be rarely helpful which is thebeast mode.
• Combat revolves around rolling, attacking and learning enemy patterns. Parries and block's don't factor in as much here but they absolutely can if you are dedicated to pulling them off. And they feel great!
• My play-style started as your standard strength build and then morphed into a mage who used a big ass scythe. So like a DEX/INT build. Very grim, very reaper.
• The spells themselves are varied and quite cool and are good for helping you to get in close. The game also features guns. I used them to varying degrees but they all worked well and while I never felt like I NEEDED to use them, I had fun with them nonetheless.
• Like any souls-like, you can level up your character (STR, DEX, INT, etc) as well as your weapon. Each weapon will scale depending on what stats you invest in and the game is VERY generous with its scaling.
• Weapon requirements exist and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. You can wield any weapon or spell in the game regardless if you have the stats or not and the only penalty is a slight decrease in damage.
• Your roll has I-frames. And sometimes it doesn't. It was frustrating be able to doge into a projectile and come out unscathed and then I try it again with a different move and get hit.
• Bosses varied wildly in difficulty. Some where extremely easy while the last few bosses has me questioning my sanity. Very few were inspired, but they all felt right at home in the world.

Now lets talk about how this is as a metroidvania. Every area in the game features a myriad of locked doors, hidden alcoves and plenty of spikes to insta-kill you. There's a plethora of platforming segments and none of them are particularly difficult. You won't find the punishing difficulty of Aeterna Noctis or the intricate and rage inducing, but satisfying platforming of Blasphemous. Instead it's primarily ability based. You'll find quite a bit of fun to be had in gaining abilities and marrying the light platform sections with learning enemy patterns.
The mood and atmosphere in the game are absolutely superb, but the environments don't reflect this as well as they could have. You have your standard ice area and swamp area, but for the most part it's just houses and caves. For me, the pacing of when you get abilities varied wildly. Being a metroidvania, there are a number of zones to choose from and some you can miss entirely. Depending on your path you may find the game doles out abilities far too slowly and it just feels like you're not progressing.
I didn't even get one of the coolest abilities until right before the end because I just happened to miss a tiny path barely viable on the map that led to an entire zone. Because of course it did. When you play a metroidvania, these are the things you accept going in and it's what makes these games special. I do wish the game would have had a more set progression path for your abilities, however.
All in all, I enjoyed my time with The Last Faith. Part of me feels this would have been better off as just a metroidvania or Castlevania-like, but it does combat and movement well and has a top notch atmosphere. I recommend The Last Faith.
Some random things that didn't fit in the main body of the review.

• When you die to a boss, your "Nycrux" spawns right there with you at the checkpoint. I greatly appreciate that. Boss corpse runs are the WORST. But also kind of fun if i'm being honest.
• Status effects in this game are utterly useless against bosses, as I only got one status effect to proc on a boss ONE time in the entire game.
• A massive issue I have with this game is this insane input delay after you roll or dash. I cut the section on it as this is already too long but it nearly ruined some boss fights for me. You have to HOPE you are already perfectly positioned when a boss does a big AOE and if not, oh well. That input delay isnt letting you get out of the way in time.
• Hope you like Monster Closets, because very frequently this game will lock you in a room with a gauntlet of spawning enemies and wont let you leave until they're dead.
• The Game has 3 endings and some pretty cool hidden bosses. One of which was the best fight in the game and isn't too hidden. The game leads you to it quite well, actually!

Writing here again, cause I don’t know where else to go.
But every time things seem to be improving the lows just hit harder and harder, every time I think I’m restoring to normal, I’m reminded of what I ruined. The friendships I destroyed, the relationships I could’ve had. I just imagine a world where had I not completely fucked it all up, it would be soo much easyier. Do I just go before I fuck anything else up even more? Leave while I’m still not completely a waste of space. Or is it easier for everyone else if I do just burn the bridges and disappear? Least then I won’t be missed and the pain is gone for everyone.

[although this is a start but let me know how is it so far] part 1 There is a boy with stormy eyes..he always carry the pain of something no one can put an eye on.Nothing much of a talker but a very obvious esteem about him that made anyone around him intimidated of who he is."The Laur" is the name of the orphanage he lives in as a home.Our Home.There's everyone and him.The kind of differentiate queer you can point out by eyes,sounds and body language. Although he is only just twelve who would have thought whatever the kind of destiny brought him here.I only saw him the other day.I'm new here.My parents died in a car accident with hit and run and eversince then I am to live here.He is sitting in the corner,his usual spot.I stare at him while I play with my food.I'm not allowed to play with my food but my body is hidden by the wooden stand of the roof upward and no one can see me anyway.I am curious and mother says it will be the death of me someday-I don't wish her to be here but bless her soul-, maybe this is one of those days.I didn't even realize I was moving until Miss Abby sternly said "Finish your food young lady" Busted.."Yes Miss.Abby"I sit back down.maybe not today."It's just another staring day then.."I mutter to myself and look up and there he is-eyes already on me and gone quickly-not even for me to decide to trust my own eyes.What does he want anyway.I guess we will find out soon enough. it's the next day and it's Teacher Joe English class."Rachel,you did very well" she is giving out test papers."Thanks you, teacher joe".I have nothing to do here but look at people whining and about."Aaron"teacher called.Everyone instantly rolling their eyes around the class."He's not here"someone from class said."This boy is trouble" teacher said and finish out giving the papers.I saw him in the upper library class this morning.He lives there or want to.Maybe he never got out.This might be the perfect opportunity for me to talk to him or help him of he is trapped there..most unlikely but I should check.Yes.I will.

Prologue :
So let's talk about breaks today. I'm a member of an Indian FS team and we failed the break test in our last competition. There are a few factors we considered why that happened:

• we had little to no knowledge about how Hoosier slick will react to the track and the summer weather.
• Our vehicle was already front heavy and the speed of let's say 40-50kmph during brake test just adds to it.
• like most teams we didn't have tire data so the calculations for the break system didn't hold up in practicality.

but the thing was during our testing before event, in our college campus, the breaks were locking consistently but those test were on wet tyres and it slipped our mind the dry tyres will obviously behave differently.
Further Investigation :
so after all this i came to a conclusion that we cannot trust our tyres. Doing the calculations after taking highest recommended values for tractive force/contact friction b/w tyres and track (rolling frictional coeffi. of 1.5-6) just to make sure that in any track condition our theory won't fail because of unpredictable tyre behavior.
The domino effect :
with this new assumption we found out that our front wheels will never lock with the current setup of our break system. Now the new problem was to find new calipers that can fulfill our needs. We have been using Vespa KBX break calipers for both front and rear, the specs of these calipers are very similar to the willwoods GP200 calipers at a fraction of the cost. But now we had to look for 4 piston calipers for front (Vespa didn't cause any problem at the rear) and the only options i could find for 10" rims were 4 piston calipers by AP racing and ISR brakes. Both of them had excellent results in calculation but the price tag of both of them were way out of our budget.
and a month back our vehicle had an accident when our driver decided to perform break test, the speed was a little higher than expected, the rear locked successfully but the front didn't and the driver lost control causing the car to spin out and hit a tree.
Yup now it's a critical failure.
A radical idea :
I want to put 2 calipers on each of the front disc and i need as many fresh opinions i can get. If i use 2 Vespa calipers on each front wheel the i get almost same performance i would have gotten from 4 piston ISR or AP calipers, again at a fraction of the cost.
Nothing major will change during the design process i think, and i can't confirm it but i think placing 2 calipers diagonally will lead to even distribution of stresses as compared to using 4 piston but it might have a completely opposite effect cuz in case of 4 piston the disc will have "some" time to cool off before coming in contact with pads and in 2 caliper configuration that'll not be the case. would love to hear your thoughts on this.
some vehicles do use dual caliper configuration but the purpose differs, some manufacturers use 2nd caliper as parking breaks but a few use them for active breaking.
I accept that the brake line might became a mess but that shouldn't cause any issues in the functioning of the brakes.
This seem like the best possible solution given the constraints we have but my team seniors don't support the idea and they can't argue with my logic and that has made me even more confused.
Help me please! I might be missing something and i want your opinion on this. please share your thoughts and lets discuss it.
TLDR:
Front wheels not locking, current 2 piston caliper won't work for the front, 4 piston calipers needed but way over budget, using two of 2 piston calipers give same results as the 4 piston calipers, please share your opinions on why the heck will this not work.

As title says. PrusaSlicer has a setting to do this for rafts, but I'd like to slow down when printing lines directly over a support interface.
Reason being: I'm trying to print PCTG over PLA supports and it's hit or miss. I had a couple of good prints, then a couple of failures, and it seems kinda random. The two materials just really don't stick. It works great with PLA/PETG, I guess those two like each other a bit more.
Right now I added M220 S50 lines for the layers that have relevant parts, but it's tedious to do by hand and slows everything down way too much.
Trying to do this on an XL if that matters.

idk i’m really drunk rn. my fp is my ex boyfriend. we broke up 2 months ago bc he said he ‘couldnt be in a relationship rn’ due to his trauma (after 7 months together) but we carried on acting like a couple e.g i’d stay at his house multiple days a week, spend time with his family, sleep skin to skin etc but we went no contact nearly 5 days ago now. the catalyst was i found viagra in his drawer and he said he can’t go without sex forever and i just couldn’t handle being so intimate with him knowing he was planning to sleep with another woman. i’d lay next to him and think about someone else seeing his vulnerable side like i do and it made me feel sick all of the time.
i’m really struggling. i miss him so much. i think about him almost all day every single day. i decided to go no contact for my own mental health and he was very upset. he still has some of my stuff that i left at his house and he promised he’d bring it back but wouldn’t specify when which i feel like he’s just dangling it over me so he has an excuse to see me down the line. we had a very healthy and loving relationship, the healthiest and happiest relationship either of us have ever been in and i feel like that’s why i’m handling it so badly. i’m trying to fill my time with therapy, spending time with friends and family and doing healthy stuff like working out and going for walks and stuff but it’s just hitting me pretty hard tonight.
i just want to see him. i want a hug. i want to sleep next to him again. i miss him so much. i miss talking to him every day. i miss his family. i miss his dog. idk what to do with myself. i’m fighting for my life to make sure i don’t break no contact since i asked for it but i’m just struggling so much. he has a lot of mental health issues and i just want him to be okay. i’ve talked to friends and they’re saying it’s for the better and deep down i know it is too but i just feel like i’m drowning without him. codependency sucks. having an fp sucks

This is more directed to women I suppose but feel free to share your thoughts otherwise.
I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be in our 40s or approaching 40 as single and childless in Singapore. It's a topic that doesn't seem to come up often enough, so I wanted to hear from you all.
For those of us in this age group, how do you feel about not being married and childless? In Singapore, there's this strong expectation to settle down and start a family by a certain age. But life isn't always so straightforward I guess, too many curveballs.
I always thought I'd have a future with someone special by now. But things didn't turn out as planned. Had my share of relationships, and honestly, most of them didn't end well. I think I have a very people-pleasing trait that attracts a lot of energy vampires and narcissists and I tend to ignore red flags. However, I've learned a lot from those experiences and can see things more clearly now. Now, I'm feeling pretty jaded about the whole dating thing imho
On top of that, I'm of Indian and Eurasian ancestry, and our communities here are quite small. This makes the peer pressure even more intense. It feels like everyone knows everyone else's business, and there's this unspoken expectation to hit certain life milestones. While I'm not really feeling FOMO, it's tough being surrounded by people who think that getting married and having kids is the epitome of success.
I've noticed that some of my friends who are single and childless seem to be leading very mundane, Groundhog Day sort of lives. It feels like they're just going through the motions, perhaps to avoid thinking about what they might be missing.
Another thing that scares me is the number of divorces happening around people in this age group. And this is very hard to say, but while I was dating in the last few years, I came across so many married men on these sites in their 30s and 40s. Even friends who are married with kids behave like they're single. It makes me feel like they aren't fulfilled in their marriages and are looking for something else or just variety. I don't know, but it scares me a lot.
So, how do you deal with these societal expectations? Have you found fulfillment in other parts of your life? How do you balance personal happiness with all the external pressures?
Would love to hear your wisdom and experiences. Let's support each other and share some advice!

1. Keep track of our record. It’s crazy how I have to manually keep track of my record on a whiteboard in the year 2024
   
2. Have games affect color plate. I shouldn’t have 100+ wins and still be a black plate just cause I haven’t stepped into rec, park, or theater on a new build
   
3. Don’t make the AI shoot just because I press X. So many times I’m pressing X to dive for a loose ball, but my AI teammate gets it first then launches a full court shot that makes zero sense.
   
4. Give players control over the active freelance set
   
5. Stop letting AI ignore me if I’m calling for the ball. There’s been plenty of times I’ve got 37 of our 40 points, and AI will ignore me for a possession as they take a horrible contested shot.
   
6. Let us turn off the option to auto foul in crunch time
   
7. Let us turn off auto timeouts
   
8. There should be better positional matchmaking. I think 1-3 matchmaking should be separated from 4-5 matchmaking
   
9. There should be separate matchmaking doors for All time teams, regular teams, and historic teams. Choosing a regular team then rolling my eyes and having to pivot to an All time team to compete with the all time lakers is annoying.
   
10. Make the game mode green or miss. I’ve lost a 4 point game where the other guy hit 4 contested whites. (He could’ve been cheating) I’ve hit a fair share of lucky whites too, but it’s usually on a layup once every 10 games.
    
11. Let us modify the starting lineup (within reason). All time Rockets would be more fun if I could have Harden at the 1 instead of Calvin Murphy
    

This has easily been my favorite game mode, outside of rec with my squad, and the best online solo experience I’ve had on 2k in years. Do y’all have any other ideas that could help improve this mode?

Granted I still have a ways to go in terms of unlocking all incantations and aspects and I haven’t even gotten past Polyphemus on the surface, but mentally, I keep hitting a wall with Chronos and I’m not sure what I’m missing.
I’m feeling this way because every other boss prior I can handle pretty well and if I’m lucky with my build I can even melt health bars so I feel good enough when it comes to damage output, but then I get to Chronos and he just destroys me. I’ve only gotten to his second phase ONCE and he one shot me before I even knew what was happening.
I would normally just go for it again, but I don’t have as much time to dedicate to gaming as I used to, but I also don’t want to get spoiled about anything else the game still has to offer.
Any tips or advice? Recommendations for weapons or gods or trinkets? Any help is welcome :)