Template to use to plan for different reading groups

People with industry experience have generally told me something like, “The big print-on-demand companies print books using huge, industrial printers that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Obviously, the quality is going to be much better than your janky home printer.”
It turns out that’s not true!
I'll show you four scanned images of the first paragraph of a book. The first two are from the print-on-demand companies IngramSpark (who I believe printed it with something like a Canon/Océ ColorStream 6000) and Amazon KDP (who I believe used something like a Canon varioPRINT 6000 Series TITAN). The second two are from my ancient home printers: a Dell Laser Printer 1710n from 2005, and a Brother MFC-9840CDW from 2008.
First let’s take a look at the whole page width.
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/626468793ed4b669a65c7631/8b486604-92c6-4afb-815e-7ab1ff401ca5/comparison+-+paragraph.jpg?format=2500w
At this zoom level, all four look pretty similar in print quality. The initial capital “A” on the left looks different, and I’ll explain that in a minute. But the normal-sized letters, set in 12-point Garamond Pro, appear quite comparable. The background of the first two scans is slightly darker than the second two, but this is only because fiction books are printed on cream-colored paper, not white printer paper.
But when you hold these pages in your hand at book-reading distance, they don’t look much alike. To see why not, let’s zoom in closer.
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/626468793ed4b669a65c7631/00f3fb82-feb2-4469-9078-11f0ada28472/comparison+-+square.jpg?format=2500w
Looking at all four first words, including a little slice of the initial capital “A”, you can tell that IngramSpark is using an inkjet printer, where Amazon is using a laser printer. The dithered texture of the capital “A” is characteristic of inkjet printers. The last three show halftoning on the capital “A”, which is how laser printers typically print grayscale. Amazon KDP and my old Dell 1710 seem to have the same number of lines per inch in the halftone, though Amazon’s halftone dots look more uniform. The Brother 9840 has more lines per inch in the halftone, and the halftone dots are rounder. This makes sense when you look at the dots per inch (DPI) of resolution that those three printers can achieve. The TITAN is 600x1200 DPI, the Dell is 1200x1200 DPI, and the Brother is 2400x600 DPI.
Finally, let’s zoom in to the level of a single word:
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/626468793ed4b669a65c7631/100002c9-c13d-4bf4-a92d-873eb1f33d0b/comparison+-+word+all.jpg?format=2500w
Looking at them from top to bottom:

• The worst one is IngramSpark. The outlines of the letters are clearly quite rough and irregular. And interestingly, the irregularity is mostly in the vertical direction. This is probably because of the extremely high paper speeds in those continuous-feed inkjet printers. You can’t see all these details when reading a book that's printed this way, but the naked eye can certainly tell that the letters have fuzzy outlines. It’s not egregious, but it’s noticeable.
• Amazon KDP is third-best. It’s crisp, and their printer drum is clean, so there are no little voids in the letters like there are for my Dell printer below. But look at those stair-step edges on the letter “w”. That probably means that Amazon is running at 600x600 DPI instead of 1200x1200, presumably to speed up printing. So KDP could potentially look better, but that might take a bite out of Amazon’s profit margins :) At arm’s length under a reading light, it looks plenty good.
• I’d say the Dell printer is second-best: There are a few one-pixel voids in the letters, which probably just means that my printer drum needs cleaning :) But the edges and halos look about as good as the Brother printer below.
• The sixteen-year-old Brother printer gives the best print quality, in my opinion. The letter edges are pretty smooth, though not perfectly so, with little lumps or knobs every so often. There’s a bit of a halo around the edges, but not much, and it’s the same thickness in the horizontal and vertical directions.

In summary:

• Amazon KDP print quality is slightly worse than an old home laser printer
• IngramSpark print quality is noticeably worse than an old home laser printer

Hi all, I finished the novel (chapter 400-401) after having read the Manhwa.
All in all I would give a 6/10 to this fiction, and a big disappointment (good early novel, bad late novel).
Here's why IMHO:
FULL SPOILERS AHEAD 👇

• I like the novel until the 40th floor. After that, it feels like the author got lazy and just wanted to rush the floors. Why make a 100-floor tower if you keep finding shortcuts so that MC can skip or speedrun the floors? Floors 40-50, Floors 50-60, Floors 90-99, etc etc (honestly I can't remember them all).
• It's overly emotional. It's just my opinion, but it was too much for me. I liked the "Romance" arc where he met Raviel. I think the arc with the trauma of Lefanta Aegim / Kim Yul was good too. But beyond that I was fed up with all the drama and misery and people feeling depressed or lonely or whatever for no reason. I found it whiny. It's like the single focus of the novel (the author explains it was indeed his goal in chapter 401 which is an Author Note). I think it's a culture thing, I often read Asian fictions (Japanese/Korean/Chinese) and they have a different culture around emotions. As a Westerner this just feels weird and exaggerated to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I just want fights, I'm saying I felt the balance was off here.
• The actual end was anticlimactic. The author built up the MC's ambition of overthrowing the Tower Master because her way was "wrong" and he wanted to relieve her of her duties... But no, it all ends with a drink with MC, Sword Emperor, and Tower Master. MC becomes "an executive" of the tower and seems happy with it – talk about Korean life goals of becoming VP something at Samsung 🤦. There is no "big reveal" at the end. No victory either. In a sense no... Climax. The choice of revealing the Tower Master early was very bold, but then no surprise was left for the end? All the pillars got omitted at the end, no face-off, no nothing. The Tower did not change for a bit, still the same system, still the same everything.
• I have read very similar manhwas/novels, and in many ways SSS-Class was better (before chapter 40). For example the chapters 30-40 felt very original to me and I loved the whole idea. But I think SSS-class completely missed the Post-40th floor part of the story. For instance, Second Life Ranker (also a Tower-based story) does a way better job at building up climaxes and keeping a good pace. Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (not in a Tower but still a similar notion of "scenarios" that are like stages/levels) or Tower of God also do a better job with the pace IMHO.
• It's a shame this story was great in so many ways but too rushed and overly emotional IMHO.
• Still I want to extend my most sincere thanks to the Author Shin Noah (신노아) and to the translation team of [WeTriedTLS](https://wetriedtls.com/series/sss-class-hunter-who-dies-to-live), Shout out to the translator Ryuu and to the editor Abstract). The Author is now actually writing a new novel: "[I'm an Infinite Regressor, But I've Got Stories to Tell](https://wetriedtls.com/series/im-an-infinite-regressor-but-ive-got-stories-to-tell)". I don't plan on reading it now as I was disappointed by the previous one, but if there are good reviews (people telling the previous flaws of the author are now fixed) then I might give it a shot!

Thanks for reading all.
Would love to hear your opinion as well!

Salam brothers and sisters,
I'm a Syrian male, early 20s with German citizenship. I'll be using my German passport to enter at Cairo International airport.
As I understand, I only need a Visa on arrival and $25 Cash to pay for it.
I'm coming to visit one of my aunts (and cousins etc.) that lives there, and to meet some more relatives arriving from a different country to visit them too.
But with the current Genocide in Gaza, me traveling alone as an early 20s male, I feel like it's a recipe to be arrested by Mukhabarat and interrogated for like 3 days only to be bailed out by the German embassy and immediately put back on a plane to Germany.
What's the likelihood of that actually happening?
To clarify, I don't have a Syrian passport despite being a citizen and being born there (left at like 9 yrs old, parents renewed once at age 14-15 I think). Last time it was renewed, I was a child, so I don't have any Syrian papers whatsoever.
Also, a few more unrelated questions:
Can I convert Euros to Egyptian Pound at the airport or nearby for a reasonable exchange rate (what exchange rate can I expect roughly? Google says 1 EUR = 51 EGP, but before February it was 1 = 33)?
Can I withdraw Cash at ATMs with a MasterCard? Are ATMs common?
How much money should I bring for a week? I'm staying with relatives, food etc. is arranged, it's mainly getting a Taxi from and to the airport, and small everyday expenses like eating at a Café/Restaurant (none tourist area), buying snacks, perhaps buying 1-2 pairs of normal shoes, Jeans and 2-3 T-Shirts. Is 200-300€ (10-15k EGP) enough?
Where to find a Boycott list (I know that they sell in other names unknown to non locals)?
Regarding prayer times, I assume Adhaan is called loudly for each prayer. But how long after that does the prayer in the Masjid actually start? There's a standardized delay of X minutes, right? Or is it different from Mosque to Mosque, like here in the West?
What's the chance that police/Mukhabarat at the airport demands that I unlock my phone to read through my private stuff? What's the consequence of refusing?
If I'm approached/interrogated/detained by someone who claims to be civilian dressed police in the street, on a bus or in a restaurant/mosque or wherever, how do I know they're truly police and not just a robber or criminal? In Germany nobody gets to tell me what to do if they're not uniformed police, or show ID to prove they're undercover police. Not even military in uniform have any authority over civilians. But I read in a different post here that armed civilian police, with guns openly drawn/worn, searched a bus the OP was on without providing any ID, any announcement or clarification to anyone. Do I just STFU and assume it's legit police every time?
Who do I call if someone is overstepping their boundaries? Police?
If someone attacks me/provokes a fight, and I defend myself and let's say I punch them or whatever, am I screwed?
I'm sorry to overwhelm you with so many questions, but the ADHD/over worrying kicks in hard for me in unknown circumstances.
Thanks so much for anyone who takes the time to answer some of my questions.

https://www.reddit.com/policeuk/s/fTqdbzBkzn
I posted this a year ago. Since then, I’ve moved to another force and blow me sideways if it wasn’t the best move I’ve made. Even so, there are still plenty of issues here, difficulties in Policing and stress, anxiety and pressures on all the staff.
I don’t know how I feel about policing anymore. Whilst it’s only been a couple of months, and I feel happier than I have in a long time, learning a bunch of new skills and procedures as I approach my 40th birthday still fills me with apprehension and worry.
Unfortunately a number of things in the media and online push me further from wanting to do this job. XN121, the officer found guilty of assault for arresting a person believed to have committed a crime, officers being sentenced to prison for WhatsApp messages, even people on my team being suspended and thrown under the bus for using reasonable levels of force which have then been scrutinised by the IOPC who seem intent to stick on every single cop they can.
I’m all for getting rid of the bad ones. But it seems that people are going out of their way to do away with the police. We won’t see another decent pay rise for years, not after the ‘generous’ 7% they gave us, leaving just 19% behind the gap. Forces decimated, people leaving in droves, and all the police meme pages nailing it on the head with revised Code G, saying you can’t lock up without all the evidence and you can’t put handcuffs on somebody, or another one depicting the Met’s HR department as a box factory drowning in resignation ‘packages’.
I really love this job sometimes. I honestly want to make a difference. But at the same time I am absolutely sick of it all. Sick of the lambasting, the negativity, the red tape and procedure, the action plans and political bile, the violence and the trauma, the stabbings, RTCs, dead children and families torn apart, endless paperwork for no real gain, low pay, piss poor morale, and departments who’s sole job is to remove any shred of coping mechanism in the form of dark humour and banter by leaving us to have settings to purge phone message apps and offices full of posters to ‘dob in’ somebody who might even think of making a joke, an inefficient ‘independent’ office to look at officers, and a criminal justice system on its knees, whilst they let out violent and dangerous prisoners early or hold them in custody areas due to no space in prisons.
The jobs always been ‘fucked’, ever since my great great grandad pounded a beat in Birmingham, with a wooden truncheon and a whistle, but I wonder if there’s any hope left for the rest of us trying to stay above water, with failing technology, decrepit buildings, worn out cars and equipment, and destroyed marriages, relationships with partners and children, trying ever so hard to not fall to pieces ourselves.
Stay safe out there.

I'm badly overweight around my midsection/abdomen. When I was in my 20s/early 30s I was maybe 180-185. It's all in the belly. I don't drink alcohol at all. For over a year I've used the on-knees ab-roller Ab Carver Pro 3 times a week, 100 going straight out reps, and 25 off to the side on the obliques, 25 to each side. I don't overeat or have massive portions. I've continually tried to improve my diet but if anything over the past year I've put on even more weight in the midsection/abdomen. So what I'm doing isn't working. I don't really have time to join a gym and prefer to exercise in private. I plan to continue making changes to my diet but need advice in terms of a different piece or type of equipment or exercise I should be doing to see actual results. Do I need to up from 3 times a week? What about nutrition? My diet still isn't the greatest and I know I still need to make changes. I'm at genetic risk for a bunch of bad stuff including Type 2 diabetes and nearing the age when my late father started to put on massive midsection weight so it's pretty serious I slim down ASAP.

I've been working on creating a synthetic dataset, but am having trouble with the prompt creation. I can ensure Llama-3-8B will follow my format numbering scheme in OpenWebUI by editing the beginning of the response message and then generating, but I'm having trouble recreating this using the api. If you look at my code you can see I tried to use the template given in the modelfile to include the beginning of the response in my prompt, but this has not worked. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong/if there is a better way to achieve controlling what the response starts with using the ollama api?
This is the template from the modelfile:
TEMPLATE "{{ if .System }}system
{{ .System }}{{ end }}{{ if .Prompt }}user
{{ .Prompt }}{{ end }}assistant
{{ .Response }}"

import ollama import os import time prompts_generate = 128000 # Calculate number of loops required to generate the prompts num_loops = int(prompts_generate / 100) # Parameters for the model model_name = "llama3:8b-instruct-q8_0" instruction = "Write out a list of 100 prompts that can be used for fine tuning a language model. Vary the content and structure of each prompt to ensure thorough testing. {{ .Prompt }}{{ end }}Sure:\n1." options = { "num_ctx": 2048, "repeat_last_n": 64, "repeat_penalty": 1.1, "temperature": 0.8, "tfs_z": 1, "top_k": 40, "top_p": 0.9, "num_predict": -1 # Generate until the model stops } # Output directory output_dir = "Data" os.makedirs(output_dir, exist_ok=True) # Check existing files in the directory to determine where to resume existing_files = sorted([f for f in os.listdir(output_dir) if f.startswith("prompt-") and f.endswith(".txt")]) if existing_files: last_file = existing_files[-1] start_num = int(last_file.split('-')[1].split('.')[0]) else: start_num = 0 # Start time start_time = time.time() i = start_num // 100 + 1 while i <= num_loops: response = ollama.generate( model=model_name, prompt=instruction, options=options, stream=False, ) reply = response['response'] print ("Instruction: ", instruction) print("Reply: ", reply) # Save the response to a file with loop number in the name file_name = os.path.join(output_dir, f"prompt-{i * 100}.txt") with open(file_name, "w") as file: file.write(reply) # Read the content of the file and remove empty lines with open(file_name, "r") as file: lines = file.readlines() lines = [line.strip() for line in lines if line.strip()] # Rewrite the cleaned content back to the file with open(file_name, "w") as file: file.write('\n'.join(lines)) # Check if the file has 100 prompts if lines and lines[-1].startswith("100."): i += 1 # Move to the next file if the current file is valid else: os.remove(file_name) # Delete the invalid file and retry # End time end_time = time.time() # Calculate and print the total time taken total_time = end_time - start_time print(f"Generated {prompts_generate} prompts and saved them in the '{output_dir}' directory.") print(f"Total time taken: {total_time:.2f} seconds.") 

Humans were always interested in evil, hell, devil, everything that's backwards from good, by the time of history of humanity people have adapted into their religions, and they believe how many miscellaneous religions exist, however in reality, there's just 2, first one is a belief in god or good and the second one is belief in devil or evil.
By those 2 beliefs, it's extremely easy not just to manipulate with singular person, but also with whole world. It's something like a domino effect, you begin with one, and then there shall be a chain reaction that will also cause influence to others. That is something that is strongest in us humans, but that is something that is incomprehensible for us.
I was always interested in that, why do lot's of people want to form contact with devil. Why does that attract, intrigue and interest them, why are there many cults and groups that are desperately in all possible ways attempting to form a contact with an evil side, the king of most evil, the devil.
That is where my story begins, it begun from my curiosity on why do people want to form a contact with devil so much. I was a student, moreso the best one in my entire class, others considered me to be a very smart person, a person with an intelligence that is above average, but I've possessed my bad sides as well, no one is perfect. My adventure begins with my one friend that trustfully informed me how he knows someone who is a participant in a local cult or sect, curious me was slyly and carefully asking about that person and cult and successfully I've received those informations, I contacted that person and told him how I would also like to become a participant in his cult. The first thing that was told to me obviously was how becoming something like that isn't such an easy and straightforward thing, because they solely pick those who are tremendously competent to be an adequate fit for their cult, I was determined to become part of it so I accepted.
It was 13th November a hour before midnight, when I've received a message to arrive on one place in which there was nothing, I knew that road that I was traveling with in my car at that night, around me were only fields and trees. I was told that after 3 turns I should turn left and go for another about 100 meters, and then next to the biggest tree I must park and get out, and after that I must make exactly 66 steps from the left of that tree, on that place I shall receive my first test. And that is what I've done, I got out of my car and observed around but there was nothing, just a sound of a basic night, when I made 66 steps, I stumbled upon one old book that was simply just laying on the ground, the grass on that place was obviously cut just so that book was noticeable. On the peace of paper that was glued on it said how should I go back to my apartment and read the entire book exactly 3 times and how I should do everything that says in it. The name of the book was "The Devils Bible" It appeared very archaic with its thick covers and yellowish heavily congregated pages, it looked like a real replica of a 500 year old bible but with all kinds of satanic symbols drawn on its covers.
I arrived at my apartment and read the book exactly 3 times, for such thing I required 3 days, but my determination was still strong, all kinds of stuff were written on it, about the creation of devil and the techniques he uses to spew evilness on this world, how to truly summon the devil, how to truly submit a victim to evil, how to sell soul, and many other miscellaneous infos about such diabolical stuff. I've remembered almost every word and read every page. However I was very skeptical about this book because the historical misinformations were ubiquitous in this book but, what I wanted I received it.
After exactly 6 days I received another textual message with an address, the address led me to an abandoned factory that was located in the edge of the city. 10 years ago that factory burned down and no one goes there anymore, apparently it's haunted and many suicides occurred there, that is why it carries a frightening history and goes by the name "Factory of Death". When I arrived in front of the factory I saw that light in one part is on, I came into a conclusion that someone was genuinely in there, before I went into it, the doors opened, and one man came out. To my surprise, that man had a very nice and elegant suit, he asked for a card that I had on the center of my book that I received, I gave it to him, and then he told me to follow him, and then I came into that room. The thing I saw there seriously left me frightened, about 20 people with black robes and hoods that covered their heads sat in a circle that on the center had a big bowl with fire, and on top was a giant cross that was turned backwards, on the walls a lot of satanic symbols were drawn.

Combining elements from My Hero Academia, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Pokémon into a new power system could yield something fascinating. Let's call it "Evolink."
Evolink Power System:
Quirks x Speed x Types:
Evolink powers stem from a fusion of three main elements: Quirks (from My Hero Academia), Speed (from Sonic the Hedgehog), and Types (from Pokémon). Quirks represent unique abilities possessed by individuals, ranging from elemental manipulation to physical transformations. Speed denotes the inherent swiftness and agility characteristic of Sonic the Hedgehog's universe. Types refer to elemental affinities or specialties, similar to the various types of Pokémon. Evolink Energy:
The source of power in this system is Evolink Energy, a dynamic force generated by the synchronization of the three main elements. Evolink Energy is harnessed differently by each individual, manifesting in various forms such as elemental auras, speed enhancements, or enhanced physical attributes. Evolink Forms:
Evolink users can access different forms or transformations based on their Quirks, Speed, and Type affinities. These forms enhance their abilities, granting them unique powers and traits inspired by the three series. For example, a character with a fire-type Quirk, lightning-fast speed, and a preference for electric-type attacks might access a form that grants them blazing speed, electrified attacks, and enhanced agility. Evolink Fusion:
Advanced Evolink users can achieve Fusion, combining their powers with others to create even more potent abilities. Fusion can occur between individuals with complementary powers or between different aspects of the same person's abilities. This mechanic encourages teamwork and strategic planning, akin to Pokémon battles or team-up moves in Sonic games. Evolink Zones:
Certain areas of the world resonate with Evolink Energy, creating special zones where powers are amplified or altered. These zones can change the rules of engagement, introducing environmental hazards, power-ups, or challenges reminiscent of both Sonic levels and Pokémon habitats. Evolink Masters:
Highly skilled Evolink users are known as Masters, revered for their mastery of all three elements. Masters serve as mentors, guardians, or challengers within the Evolink world, guiding others in their journey to understand and harness their powers fully. Evolink Organizations:
Various organizations exist within the Evolink world, each with its own agenda regarding the use and regulation of Evolink powers. Some seek to maintain balance and harmony, while others aim to exploit Evolink Energy for personal gain or domination. Conflict between these organizations forms the backdrop for many Evolink stories, providing ample opportunities for character development and world-building. The Evolink power system blends the best aspects of My Hero Academia, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Pokémon, offering a rich tapestry of abilities, characters, and adventures for fans to explore.

Just another fun little story idea I had. I am still working on Humans are the violent ones but I like to bounce around and experiment with ideas to see what I really like. I also suck at writing more casual stories, as they give me severe writer's block as I try to map out how to make a scene feel genuine in my head, but I promise I'll update that soon. If you like this story and want to see more, then like and comment. I'll gladly continue this series as well.
Start of Personal Log
Humans don't like being told what to do. They don't like being commanded, put in their place, or snubbed. It was an inexorable, inalienable trait of humans, at least any noteable humans, to go against any authority that they believed was against their interests.
Humanity would not fit amongst the stars. Few ever did. It was a trait of most successful species to be willful, ambitious, and to desire more. But once they reached the stars the new (and simultaneously very old) pecking order either quashed any spirit such species had or simply eradicated them. Countless tomb worlds and diaspora served as painful reminders of what became of the nails that chose to stick out. The hammer of order would always strike. There could be no compromise, the very soul of the authority that held the Jurisdiction together relied on a show of unmatched power, or at least the illusion of item.
In reality, the Jurisdiction was an old, fat, and lazy beast. It filled its belly on the corpses of empires far and wide, and sated its bloodlust on the shattered dreams of hopeful cubs. It had every right to, for none could challenge it: there were no new frontiers to explore, nor were there any other enemies to conquer. The Milky Way, as humans had so strangely dubbed our cradle galaxy, as well as Andromeda, had long since been warred over and settled for millennia before humanity had arrived, bright-eyed and with familiar yet otherwise foolish dreams of cooperation and prosperity. The Jurisdiction did not cooperate, nor did it ensure prosperity. Oh, it claimed it did, but in reality it simply took. The rest was just the peace that came with not being the direct target of the biggest fish in the pond. The humans didn't like that, but they had no choice.
Slavery was a common tribute. The Jurisdiction had no use for other resources: it simply took. No, it wanted those who could facilitate that unequal exchange, those raised in a world where the only morality was the one set by your lord. The Jurisdiction was held together by expectations, obligations, and dury more than any kind of shared dream, so when you were ordered to take you did so without question. Humanity was new: they had no niche or value that set them apart, but they had a penchant for killing and taking, so the Jurisdiction gave them a taste of how the galaxy worked. They killed and they took. The humans didn't like that, but what choice did they have?
Humans were strange. They learned, but not in the way most species learned. Most species learned to adapt in a passive way, to adhere to the world around them. They flowed like water, moving past and around obstacles and confirming to the boxes they were assigned too. Humans didn't confirm, nor did they adapt: they made their circumstances fit their desires. They would not move around obstacles, but rather smash through them, and they refused to stay in one box for too long. The Jurisdiction merely saw them as a particularly loud nuisance, but those who faced their wrath knew better.
It is said that when a beast seeks to make an example, it shall humble its rival by killing it's cubs. Children were one of those universal constants that brought entire communities together: the Sok’klar saw their hatchlings as gifts, shaped by the fruitful currents of the universe in perfect harmony. The Yarrack saw each and every newborn whelp as an uncut gemstone, ready to be shaped into something magical. Humanity oftentimes referred to their offspring as angels, or spirits of unbridled good sent by the gods themselves. Children were seen by most of the galaxy as gifts.
The Jurisdiction saw them as a lever to inflict suffering. It had become quite effective at enacting psychological punishments on those that stood up and spoke out. You dare to disobey? You believe you can speak out? Your gifts shall be taken from you, and you shall be without joy.
Humans didn't like this, but the Jurisdiction would have their pound of flesh, and humankind would kneel. And they did. But humans were patient creatures: most species who retained that trait of willful spit also lacked patience.
I had long since become desensitized to the Jurisdiction’s actions: it was simply how the universe worked now, as if it were a constant akin to gravity. Cruelty was the unspoken rule of this seemingly unending age, where our lives never appeared to move forward or backwards, only lay dormant. The Jurisdiction had been the unyielding authority that ruled the galaxy for thousands of years, venerable yet feared all the same.
And for the longest time I was just another cog in its wheel. My name is Kalnuracht Sedjuur-Noumar VII, and was the scion of the noble house Sedjuur-Noumar. I was born into what most would describe as veiled apathy, living a life that could be attributed to the privileged class of feared scribes that enacted the will of those above. I was an administrator and nothing more. And now I am doomed to be far less than that in the eyes of my former constituents within the endless administration. I am the only scion, as is tradition, and without an heir I am the last of my house, our name to be scrubbed from the records, worthless, meaningless, and forgotten.
I am merely Kalnuracht, nothing else and nothing more. I have seen from their eyes, the eyes of the downtrodden, and it makes my crimes of association with the Jurisdiction feel all the more damning on my worthless soul. I am worthless to the world, and this is my story.
End Personal Log #1
Start of Neural Lace Narrative Log #1
They came from the black like carrion birds in the night, encircling our convoy as if it were a dying animal ready to be picked clean without remorse. There was no warning, no list of demands sent out as civilized peoples did, nor was there either any requirement for unconditional surrender nor chance to parlay, as was done so under letter of marque: this was an unmistakable call for violence and nothing else. They sought to reduce us to slag and scavenge the rest.
So, as one would expect, the entire bridge of the ship was nearing a panicked state. This was not the actions of those practicing civility, but rather the common behaviors of despoiling barbarians, the kind that tore their way through the dark reaches of the galaxy as if they owned it.
“Wayfinder, what do your probes see?” Shouted the ship’s sovereign. He was an older Kar’Rowmach, an amphibious cephalopod species with a venerable history within the Jurisdiction going back thousands of years. Normally one such as him would be above me if it weren't for the fact that I was under the authority of the Jurisdiction’s seal of office. He didn't like me very much, but most of his kind shared the same sentiment.
“All dark, honorable Sovereign: the sensor arrays are wailing but the feedback we're reviewing is beyond incomprehensible,” the wayfinder replied with a certain restrained temper in his voice. The Sok'klar wayfinder swayed gently, his tentacled limbs grasping different metallo-liquid braille output arrays, the liquid gallium flexing and reshaping unnaturally to allow him to to take in multiple different sources of sensory output at once, with the primary navigation computer plugged into the cybernetics surrounding his opaque, gelatinous head and plugging directly into his tube-shaped brain.
The Sovereign cursed in Loskat and pointed to his bridge crew while I simply sat in the back, near the Sovereign’s symbolic throne. “Prepare countermeasures and spool up the warp drive, we cannot allow the amanuensis to be taken! He carries sensitive information that only he can translate and transcribe!”
As the bridge crew nodded and began fiddling with their own systems, I preened my feathered hide anxiously. I wasn't a fighter: us nobles of the cloth were the educated minority above all else, not those who waged war or partook in hard labor. Special cybernetics in my brain allowed me to translate triple-encoded messages that usually took a ducal signet codekey or above to parse, but even without that I was a skilled mathematician and logician. I had terabytes worth of knowledge stored within the hardware installed in my head, all well protected of course, but if I were to die it would still be a waste. I could only imagine the damage any malcontenders could do with it if they were able to get their filthy hands on me.
Suddenly, the ship rocked, and the gallium overhead display began to form crescendos like I'd never seen before. “Sovereign, decks A-3 through C-12 are venting atmosphere and our coolant systems have been obliterated,” the Wayfinder spoke in an almost serene voice, as if he was completely unconcerned by current events. I knew they were simply incapable of tonal displays, but it was unnerving nonetheless. “Once we jump, we will not be able to risk another until the vacuum of the void can reduce temperatures to acceptable levels within the plasma capacitors.”
“Damn them,” the armored nautiloid hissed, his barbed feelers coiling in frustration, “May the currents take them. What are our options? what can we see? This fleet cannot fall to the void today, not with such vital cargo.” My hackles rose lightly at the Kar’Rowmach referred to me as some object rather than an esteemed amanuensis of the Jurisdiction, but I bit my forked tongue. Now was not the time to squabble with the sovereign over who was what and what titles I deserved, not while he was so desperately attempting to keep what semblance of order within his fleet that he had left.
I could not blame the crew for being panicked either: wars were practically mythologized now, having been long since rendered obsolete with the rise of the Jurisdiction, and that felt like an eternity ago. Now, either being levied into or joining a ducal naval force was simply another career, more akin to serving as an officer of the law rather than a fully fledged soldier. Minimal training was required, most of it being the technicals of one's duty rather than any kind of combat conditioning, so expecting a fleet to actually be prepared for a combat scenario in a universe where peace was the norm was laughable.
“We are practically blind, Sovereign,” stated the Sok'klar Wayfinder, “our probes are offline, and shipboard graviton displacement sensory arrays have been rendered unreliable at best.”
“What about the particle emission array? Has there been a spike in radioactivity where we were hit?”
The Wayfinder seemed to think for a second, his gelatinous form flexing and morphing a bit before answering. “Affirmative, a jump from negligible to forty billion becquerels along decks A through E-5 on our starboard side.”
“Torpedoes…” the Sovereign hissed, stroking his barbed feelers, “Human Torpedoes. Only those primitives would rely on crude nuclear warheads.” He then turned to his militant leaders on the ship. “Noddos, Rel’ads: organize your phalanxes and prepare to repel boarders. We are bound to be assailed by those rancorous primates, and I want their skulls piled at my feet if they dare set foot on our ship.”
“Your wish is our command, Sovereign,” the two militant commanders spoke as one. Noddos, a large bipedal with multiple sets of curved spines running down his back, a pair of graceful horns sprouting from his head, and multiple rows of sharp teeth in his snout, bowed first, followed by Rel’ads, a marsupial with long saberteeth and thick fur. They both must have been fierce warriors in their own right to each lead a phalanx. They wore thick, semi-powered armor and held dueling polearms alongside their usual plasma casters, and seemed completely unfazed by the situation we were in. As they stomped out of the brightly lit bridge, I let out a quiet squawk of discontentment. “Sovereign, why haven't we jumped again? We are wasting precious time.”
“I am working on it, you spineless beaurocrat!” He warbled back, his feelers tensing in anger, “besides, it's not as if you're the one who will be spilling blood today, amanuensis, so flatten your wretched beak or I shall weld it shut with a plasma torch.
I was about to reply with something indignant, but the ship rocked again, this time causing the lights to flicker and the air to become… thick. The skin under my feathers began to blister, and I became lightheaded and confused. “Seal the damnable vents, initiate radiation scrubbers, and activate secondary life support!” Shouted the Sovereign, “Their nuclear weapons are rendering the ship inhospitable!”
I coughed up magenta blood accidentally, and I could feel more seeping from under my eyes. Some of the crew was in a similar position, but others were more resistant to radiation than I. The Sok'klar seemed completely at ease as he ran his tentacles across his morphic braille arrays before calmly announcing the ship’s status. “I've regained some control over our probes: ten, twelve, and seventeen are active and fully functional, the rest are either still malfunctioning or permanently inoperable. A rapid rise in localized radiation is also interfering with the detection of graviton displacement; we can't sense photon redirection, thus readings will remain inconclusive.
“Wayfinder, damn you, get me some kind of out here! We're easy prey until we can respond in kind!”
“Negative, something has gone awry with our processing hub, I am attempting to troubleshoot-”
And with that, the Wayfinder’s bulbous head exploded in a cascade of opaque lavender blood, covering the front half of the deck crew like a morbid art piece. Some of the crew screamed and shouted in terror before removing their cranial adaptors and choosing to interact with their displays manually. Others died just as quickly, unable to unplug in time as their brain stems fried or their blood boiled. It was a horrible way to go, having your insides neutralized by your own cybernetics, so I was glad I wasn't connected to the system.
“Cybernetic warfare! All systems are to be considered compromised, switch to manual settings or you'll be killed!”
The lights in the bridge flickered again, and the displays went haywire. The bridge crew, which obviously weren't acquainted with working without being hard-linked into the mainframe, moved at a much slower pace.
“Launch missile pods A through F and set to self-target after five hundred kilometers, then rely on their ballistic coordinates to begin firing broadsides! If we can't see the humans due to their meddling, we'll just have to feel them.” Shouted the Sovereign, “and got me a detailed report on the ship’s diagnostics readings. I need to know if this flagship is still capable of escaping or if we'll have to scuttle it and retreat on another.”
“Acknowledged, Sovereign, launching now,” affirmed another deck officer as he swiped across his own gallium output array. I could hear the dull thunk, thunk, thunk of missiles pushing out of their pods before racing off to their intended targets, then the mechanical whirring as the pods rotated to be reloaded by slaves in the lower decks. I was regaining my bearings as the many horrible sensations of being overwhelmed by radiation poisoning were beginning to subside, but I still felt as if I had been microwaved. The air was stale, the crew was horribly sick as well, and even the sovereign himself seemed to be on his last leg. I was beginning to believe that I might die here.
“Sovereign, a message from the lower decks,” shouted a communications officer, his chitin scraping against itself as he turned quickly, “they're requesting reinforcements, something about being overrun.”
“Impossible,” the Sovereign hissed out in a vain attempt to exude confidence, “We must outnumber the humans, they always go for bigger targets out of arrogance.”
“I've received reports that it's not just humans: the primates seem to make up only a third or so of the assailing force, along with some Phaeldaer and Vrex.”
The commander slammed his clawed hands down on his own output array in a fit of rage, obviously overwhelmed by the circumstances, “Then this wasn't just a typical assault, but something more sinister!” The nautiloid warbled, blood seeping from his shell as the full effects of the radiation took hold, “Get Rel’ads on the line, have him divert all spare lances to the lower decks or else we'll lose the only offensive capabilities we can use.”
“Rel'ads has gone dark, Sovereign, his vitals are critical.”
“Then either get me Rel'ads tail-leader or get me Noddos!” He screamed in rage, “don't give me this nonsense! If we don't pick it up we're all going to die, is that what you want?”
“No, Sovereign, I'm simply overwhelmed-”
“We're all overwhelmed! By the tides, I'm dying of radiation poisoning you nincompoop! Get me something I can work with!”
The officer didn't even acknowledge the Sovereign after that, simply turning back to his display. Eventually, the Sovereign was able to get Noddos on the line.
“Sovereign, two thirds of my phalanxes have been decimated by combat with the primitives and the radiation, the rest are in shambles. We must retreat and fortify elsewhere!”
“Then the ship is compromised! Rel'ads is unresponsive and the lower decks are swarming with intruders. We must evacuate the amanuensis to another ship.”
Just as the Sovereign spoke, I heard several gentle thumps rattle against the bridge’s door, and it made me uneasy. Some of the bridge crew seemed to feel the same, as they looked incredibly nervous and some even drew their sidearms. Just as the sovereign turned to give further orders, the door blew inward with a deafening explosion, followed by shouting and gunfire. Several of the bridge officers were dispatched quickly, brain matter and blood splattering against the delicate electronics. Others were shot in the legs, the torso, or in any other exotic yet non-vital body parts. The humans poured in, brandishing primitive ballistic firearms and jury-rigged energy weapons while wearing scavenged, legion-grade powered armor.
The Sovereign was the next to go, but he wasn't afforded an honorable death. He was shot along the arm with a particularly potent plasma caster, burning off his clawed hand and cauterizing the wound, the acrid smell of roasting chitin filling the already hot and cramped bridge. He fell back against his output array, the gallium reaching new highs and lows as more diagnostics and casualty reports were delivered, and he clutched his stump angrily. “I'll burn every last one of you in the foundries! I'll tie you to stakes, cover you in wax and set you alight! Your screams will be broadcasted all over the galaxy!”
One human warrior stomped up and slammed the butt of his rifle into the sovereign’s face, shattering his facial plates and causing blue blood to splatter across his section of the bridge. “Shut the fuck up, you mutant lobster,” the human said before dragging him by both antennae towards the center of the bridge and receiving a stained breeching axe from one of his comrades. “Emmanuel, start recording. We need proof.”
The other human nodded and pressed a button on his armor before lifting up his gun again. The rest of the humans fanned out, holding everyone else at gunpoint. I tried to get up and sneak out, but a human grabbed me by my neck and nearly wrung it out as he forced me to my knees and pointed a sidearm to my skull. “Get down, you piece of shit, before I blow your brains out too.”
“Damnable primate,” I hissed, but he bashed me in my skull with the base of his sidearm’s grip and sent me sprawling, making my already pounding headache worse. Another human shouted at him in a language I didn't recognize, but he sounded furious. The first brought me back up to my knees again, and I complies with a hiss and a groan, blood still leaking from my eyes and mouth and my world was spinning.
The Sovereign struggled, but he was weak from the radiation poisoning and he couldn't exactly resist on account of his lost arm. The human with the breaching ax kicked the Sovereign down and forced him to kneel before lifting up the breeching ax and splitting his chitinous head down the middle with one powerful swing, sending more blood and brains across the floor. “Execution confirmed, take his antennae just in case and we've got ourselves a bounty. Now all we need is that ugly cat’s teeth and the fat hedgehog-thing’s grimy spines and we'll be in business. Although, they do have skulls… we might as well just take their heads.”
The real horror of the situation dawned on me at that moment: they were going to kill us all, or maybe worse. They mentioned a bounty for the commanders, and multiple of the higher ranking ship officers were already dead, their brains splattered against the walls or their bodies torn apart by gunfire. I wasn't dead yet, but that didn't mean much since I wasn't an immediate threat.
“Alright, round them up and bring all the grunts to the hanger bay, then kill the rest,” the leader of the humans said in such a lackadaisical manner that his complete disregard for life almost made me sick… almost. I had seen worse from the Jurisdiction before, but usually that was from me delivering some kind of ordered judgment on a world that had sinned against order. I might have simply been the messenger, but I had seen many of the outcomes. “And make sure to collect whatever proof of bounties you can, we'll need to deliver them to the office to get cashed out. Don't let this be a repeat of last time where Juarez fucking forgot to take a few heads and it ended up cutting our profits in half, the fucking retard.”
Some of the humans chuckled at that as they dragged more of the senior officers away, out of the room and into the hall,where I heard gunshots. The rest of the bridge crew froze in place, different fear instincts kicking in. The remaining Sok'klar corralled together into what seemed to be a singular, semi-congealed mass as if to try and trick the humans into believing that they were much bigger and much more threatening than they actually were. The one Thei’chi on the bridge, an ensign who had clearly thought this would be a simple mission, bore her curved fangs at the humans and growled as they approached, her hackles completely vertical and her eyes dilated. They quickly muzzled and bound her before beating her over the head with a gun stock, sending her sprawling onto the ground. Many others simply cooperated, eyes wide and yet simultaneously empty, as if they couldn't quite process that the ship had been taken and the commanding officers were being executed as the rest were escorted to the hangar.
“Get the damn messenger down to the hanger as well, we need whatever data's in his ugly lizard head, then we can decide on what to do with him.”
I spat at him in spite, as if to try and seem brave, but it was clearly an empty gesture. “You won't get anything, primate! You couldn't possibly crack the encryption!”
The human holding me seemed to wind up for another swing, but the commanding officer simply held up his hand to stop my tormentor before strolling over to me. He knelt down and removed his helmet, revealing a beige-colored face covered in scars, wiry black hair cut down to the scalp, and multiple tattoos. “You're really fucking mouthy for a hostage,” he said before punching me across my beak faster than I could register. I heard a sharp crack as his fist connected, and my head spun again as the metallic taste of blood pooled into my mouth. “I'd advise you to shut up, but I'm sure you won't listen: you aristocratic types are so full of yourselves. Maybe I should have you flogged in the public square until your vocal chords give out once we rip those cybernetics from your head, huh? How's that sound?”
“It won't matter… it won't change anything… the Jurisdiction will hunt you down.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it will happen for some time: they really suck at doing anything that requires effort, even when they're mad enough. They just keep sending their rabid lapdogs to try and smoke us out, and they always end up full of holes,” the human officer said with a smirk, his yellowish-white teeth and green eyes sending shivers down my spine as he drew his knife. “They're just horrible at their job, you know? You've all gotten so lazy and incompetent after being able to just take what you want without resistance, and now that you've met people who are angry and crazy enough to fight back you act as if we're committing some grave injustice,” he placed the knife against my throat, the flat just underneath my now bent beak, “No, we just took a few pages out of your book, ‘cept we've got standards. No kids, for one…” he seemed to look off into the distance as his sneer deepened, “but it's more than that, we don't attack the defenseless in general and we still win against you all in fair fights.”
I went to say something else snarky, but he quickly grabbed my thin tongue with his fingers and yanked it out, blood from my mouth pulling to the floor as he held the blade of his knife against it. “No no, none of that. Say one more thing and I'll cut that rancid little tongue of yours out of your mouth and feed it to you,” he hissed at me, pressing the blade down just hard enough to draw blood. “Do you know what it's like to see a planet turn into a tomb?" he asked me, gritting his teeth, “Do you know what it's like to see everything you've ever known crumble to ash and glass, all the life and the green stripped away leaving nothing but bones? I do. I've seen it happen to countless worlds, and my grandfather always told me stories of how you bastards did it to Earth. He still prays in its direction five times a day, to Mecca, but he knows the Kaaba is gone now, or maybe it's still there, buried in the bones of those who sought refuge there.”
I didn't care for the human’s nonsensical beliefs, but I did care to correct him. “I've seen it before, and I'll see it again. And so will you, it's inevitable. The Jurisdiction will always have its judgment fulfilled, there is no alternative.”
“One day, I hope we can rectify that,” he said, then he sheathed his knife and slammed my head against the metal floor with enough force to nearly knock me out. As I lost consciousness, I could hear him speak. “Take him to the Chop Doc, and make sure the cybernetics don't get damaged: they're supposedly more valuable than any bounty on this ship.”
Warning: Severe radiation poisoning detected. Flush system immediately.
Warning: Neural Lace removal detected, chance of neurological damage high. Proceeded with caution.

Hello, I'm not sure if I'm in the right sub as I am a totally nascent entrant in world of IEMs, so please excuse me if I sound ignorant or like a noob. I'm seeking assistance to select the right set for my first ever IEM purchase. I tried doing a bunch of research with various brand websites, scoured youtube, through product review videos by audiophile content creators and tried to learn how to read the graph with the sound curve, but the more I discover, the more confused, and frankly overwhelmed I'm getting, so please bear patience with me. Unfortunately, where I'm based (in Mumbai, India), even though lots of ChiFi IEMs seem to be available, I see no option to be able to try them out to check the sound out myself at a brick & mortar store.
I'm no audiophile, but I do enjoy listening to music. I listen to a lot of electronic music; breaks/drum&bass/house/triphop, hiphop and easy going & dancy live music. I wouldn't say I'm a basshead, but i do enjoy the oomph. I currently have a pair of Sony WH-1000XM5 & a pair of Galaxy Buds2 Pro, both of which I use wirelessly, with my android device, a Galaxy S24 Ultra, my tablet & my laptop, a MacBook Air M2. While I do enjoy both these devices in varied situations (headphones during transit & earbuds during workouts), I do love the idea of going back to wired earphones, and I hear IEMs are all the rage now. I would love to purchase a pair for regular use with my phone & tablet.
Problem is, there's always some reviewer beaming about pretty much every IEM I have come across. I also struggle to imagine the sound they're implying by certain similar key adjectives they use to describe the audio profiles in all the videos. I also don't entirely grasp the DAC dongle aspect, the difference from a standard 3.5 mm adapter, and if I should be getting one to connect the IEMs to my phone/tablet/laptop. I also don't understand the difference between dynamic drivers and planar drivers. Please help a chap out with your opinions & experiential suggestions? My budget is about 150-200 USD. These are the IEMs I've short listed and they're available out here for the following prices-

• Moondrop May DSP with USB C 78$
  
• Simgot EA500 LM 91$
  
• Kiwi Ears Forteza 61$
  
• Truthear Hexa 90$
  
• Moondrop Aria2 96$
  
• KZ Acoustics AS24 144$
  
• Pula PA01 66$
  
• Truthear x Crinacle Zero RED 66$
  
• Kiwi Ears X Crinacle - Singolo 90 USD
  
• Kinera - Celest Phoenixcall 132$
  
• LETSHUOER - x GIZAUDIO Galileo 144$
  
• TANGZU - Zetian Wu Planar 144$
  
• Letshuoer - DZ4 96$
  
• Tangzu - Wan'er S.G 21$
  
• QKZ x HBB - Hades 54$
  
• Kiwi Ears - Cadenza 39$
  
• 7HZ x Crinacle - Zero: 2 25$
  
• Pula PA02 191$
  
• MOONDROP CHU II DSP Type-C 27$
  

Do I also need a type C to DAC dongle or shall I go with one of the USB C wired IEM options? I was looking at one of the Audiocular dongles, which are under 15$, but then there's D10 & a D07, D05, CXPro and a CSPro and I have no idea what the difference is. Your help and opinion is appreciated, thanks!

Me F(22) and my ex husband (23) were married when we were married at (19) and (20). We got married so young. He was in the military and he was during basic training. I believe that we had the best relationship before the army. We were both heavily in love with each other. But then the army happened and got married. My parents never really liked the ideas of getting married and we did it anyways without them knowing. It created a hard time for us. He was stationed in the Texas. Hundreds of miles away from where we lived. We did long distance until I got out of our lease and moved with him. I was constantly told by my parents that he is using me for the bah money, or not to feel lonely. I never did I feel that way until we got divorced but I don’t know what to feel about that anymore. I’ll explain more after I add more information to our story. He got into a car accident and the car totaled so he need a new car. Which added to debts and with the debts came the problems. We had so many debts and the army pressure never helped us. I worked for a few months but i quit my job cause it wasn’t good for my mental health. I can attribute some of the blame. I could have continued to work and paid off our debts but i couldn’t. I went into a heavy depression state that I didn’t realize I was in. I did do things around the house like cook dinner (not all the time cause I didn’t have any motivation to do it so we order DoorDash), I used to do laundry in the bathtub because he was so busy and tired to go to laundry may, I constantly picked up and cleaned the house. I could have done more. I know I’m partially to blame for a lot of things. I had trust issues but those added to our problems. One day I was gone for a month, I went to spend time at a youth group trip with his mom and then I went to see my parents after that. When I got to Texas his best friend told me that he was trying to sleep with another woman while I was gone. Which killed me. I asked him when he got home and he told me that he was trying to but he didn’t do anything with her and was trying to seem like it cause his friend was pushing it on him. I forgave him and push past it. I fucked up too. I did something that i regretted and still regret till this day. I loved him and I still do. I don’t think I will ever stop loving him. We were had our fights like always. It was always about money and how I wasn’t valuing him and he wasn’t valuing me. I think the only time that we didn’t fight was the last month we had before he deployed. We were so happy. We spent our time together watching movies, playing card games, playing video games, just being the same kids we were before we got married. I miss those days sometimes. I wish I could turn back time and do things differently. Now the hard part. The divorce. I never wanted to be divorced. He was/still is my person. The person who understands you to the core. The person that you can be yourself without shame or guilt. The person that your heart beats from no matter how much it hurts when they break it or damage it. The person that you picked in a room filled with people who you have loved in the past/future. He is that person. My ex deployed and was gone for six months. Three months into the deployment he stopped calling me, he stopped snapping me, he stopped talking to me. It felt like he shut down on me. I begged him to call me or anything. We went through a dark phase. Then he got back to the states and we were good for a while. He came to visit his mom for Christmas through new years. Our anniversary was the 30th of December. His mother lives 4 hours away from my parents house where I was staying while he was away. He didn’t bother to spend our anniversary together or even bother to say happy anniversary. Which killed me inside. On New Year’s Day I sent him a message that it seemed that he didn’t want me in his life anymore so I was setting him free. But on his way back to Texas he and I talked and we were going to make it work but 8 days later. He met a girl. He hide our marriage status, archived post that he made of me, and hid our pictures. Which made me think he did the same thing he did when I was away. I decided that I wasn’t going to stand for it so I asked him to file for divorce. He agreed. It was a little messy. I found pictures of him and this girl on a romantic date, he got dressed up in a suit, had a picture of her on his lap. So much which set me off and I became petty and tried to fuck him over with the army for it. This is where things get complicated. This week I had to go to separate our things because he had everything in a storage unit. When I got there we were polite to each other and we talked to each other. He explained to me that nothing happened with that girl. They went with a group but only made a reservation for two, she was awake for the picture of her hand on his lap, she was wearing the same clothes from that night in the morning cause she slept in them but she didn’t sleep at his apartment, and that she knew what was going on. Which I don’t know what to believe. I want to believe him and I kinda do believe him but I don’t know. I love him but everyone around me telling me to not believe him. I was a mess for months when things were going wrong between us. I didn’t want to lose him but I feel like I lost him. He said we can be friends. I want him in my life but I always want to be us again. I know in my heart that I can never really move on from him. I always want him in my life but I don’t know what to do or what to believe. My parents hate him because they believe he is a liar and will constantly hurt me but they say a tons of things that weren’t true. I just want an unbiased opinion from people who don’t know the shit I said while I was mad or sad. There’s a lot that happened this week with him but it’s been long story already I can explain more in the comments

I've listened to thousands of hours of recovery podcasts and webinars over the last three years and every single professional basically says that the overwhelming majority of addicts get into recovery to avoid consequences (discovery by a partner, job/financial consequences, legal problems, etc). That most professionals can count on one hand the addicts who choose to enter recovery of their own volition. But they all say, they can work with that. Addicts can start recovery to avoid the consequences of discovery but very quickly they've got to be in recovery because they want it themselves.
And this recovery is generally just the very basic beginnings of recovery...sobriety but nothing else. Addicts who actually get into solid recovery (and stay sober) are the ones who have hit rock bottom and are actually willing to do ANYTHING to get into recovery.
I read posts and comments from partners here everyday that say something like 'my addict has said he'll do anything to keep our relationship/stop his addiction...but...'

• he doesn't want to give up his favorite video game with sex/nudity
• he doesn't want to give up his favorite tv show/movie with sex/nudity
• he doesn't want to give up social media
• he doesn't want accountability software on his devices
• he doesn't want to do 12 step because he's not religious
• he doesn't want to do 12 step because he's not as bad as 'those' guys
• he doesn't want to do 12 step because the time of the meeting isn't his preference
• he doesn't want to do therapy because 'it won't work'
• he doesn't want to do therapy because he doesn't want to tell anyone about his problem
• he doesn't want to do therapy because it's too expensive (but he was spending $50/week on OnlyFans before discovery)
• he can't listen to podcasts or read recovery materials or do any recovery work because he has ADHD (I'm not saying that something like ADHD isn't a valid reason for struggling with things like reading but an addict who wants recovery will find alternate ways to access recovery materials)
• he can't listen to podcasts or read recovery materials or do any recovery work because he's too busy
• he still wants to go to his best friends bachelor party with strippers
• he has to go to the strip club with his boss on their work trip because everyone else is going
• he doesn't want to give up his favorite group chat where they just happen to share nude photos of women they find online
• he 'needs' access to reddit for SFW content
• he 'needs' access to FB, IG, TT, etc for work (even someone with a career in social media can find a way to limit access for safety if they choose to)
• he doesn't want you looking at his phone because then he won't have any privacy
• he needs his device in the bathroom because it's boring without it
• he needs to be able to watch porn if you're not available for sex whenever he wants it
• he needs to be able to watch porn because sometimes he just wants to mindlessly masturbate
• he's 'very stressed' and porn 'helps'
• all his friends use porn and they say it's 'normal'
• he still wants to go to that music festival/concert where there are scantily clad women that he actively admits he ogles whenever he attends
• he's not a man if he doesn't get to watch porn
• he needs to watch porn if you're not willing to do every sexual act he likes from porn
• he still wants to go to nude beaches because 'everyone' goes
• he can't help but stare at every woman he sees out in public because he's a man
• he can't help but stare at every woman he sees out in public because it would be weird if he stared at the ground or looked up at the sky
• and the excuses go on...and on...and on...

This is NOT an addict who has hit rock bottom and is actually willing to do ANYTHING to save his relationship and get into recovery. This is an addict who is telling you that any of those reasons listed above are more important than you and your relationship. When they say that...LISTEN TO THEM. Don't keep trying to save a relationship and defend an addict when the other person in the relationship admits that a video game is more important than you. A phone in the bathroom is more important than you.
An addict who truly wants to be in recovery is willing to do anything. They are wiling to give up anything. Nothing, not a single damn thing, is more important to them than their recovery. And you deserve an addict in actual recovery. You deserve more than an addict who gives excuse after excuse why they can't do recovery. Please stop accepting these stupid excuses and addicts who prioritize anything and everything over you. You deserve better.

It’s a power system combining the aspects of My Hero Academia, Pokemon, an Sonic the Hedgehog
Combining elements from My Hero Academia, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Pokémon into a new power system could yield something fascinating. Let's call it "Evolink."
Evolink Power System:
Quirks x Speed x Types:
Evolink powers stem from a fusion of three main elements: Quirks (from My Hero Academia), Speed (from Sonic the Hedgehog), and Types (from Pokémon). Quirks represent unique abilities possessed by individuals, ranging from elemental manipulation to physical transformations. Speed denotes the inherent swiftness and agility characteristic of Sonic the Hedgehog's universe. Types refer to elemental affinities or specialties, similar to the various types of Pokémon. Evolink Energy:
The source of power in this system is Evolink Energy, a dynamic force generated by the synchronization of the three main elements. Evolink Energy is harnessed differently by each individual, manifesting in various forms such as elemental auras, speed enhancements, or enhanced physical attributes. Evolink Forms:
Evolink users can access different forms or transformations based on their Quirks, Speed, and Type affinities. These forms enhance their abilities, granting them unique powers and traits inspired by the three series. For example, a character with a fire-type Quirk, lightning-fast speed, and a preference for electric-type attacks might access a form that grants them blazing speed, electrified attacks, and enhanced agility. Evolink Fusion:
Advanced Evolink users can achieve Fusion, combining their powers with others to create even more potent abilities. Fusion can occur between individuals with complementary powers or between different aspects of the same person's abilities. This mechanic encourages teamwork and strategic planning, akin to Pokémon battles or team-up moves in Sonic games. Evolink Zones:
Certain areas of the world resonate with Evolink Energy, creating special zones where powers are amplified or altered. These zones can change the rules of engagement, introducing environmental hazards, power-ups, or challenges reminiscent of both Sonic levels and Pokémon habitats. Evolink Masters:
Highly skilled Evolink users are known as Masters, revered for their mastery of all three elements. Masters serve as mentors, guardians, or challengers within the Evolink world, guiding others in their journey to understand and harness their powers fully. Evolink Organizations:
Various organizations exist within the Evolink world, each with its own agenda regarding the use and regulation of Evolink powers. Some seek to maintain balance and harmony, while others aim to exploit Evolink Energy for personal gain or domination. Conflict between these organizations forms the backdrop for many Evolink stories, providing ample opportunities for character development and world-building. The Evolink power system blends the best aspects of My Hero Academia, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Pokémon, offering a rich tapestry of abilities, characters, and adventures for fans to explore.

I'm a 42 year old male, I met my wife when I was 18, she was 23 and we began 'dating' when I was 21, working a job I hated in the same place she worked (casino workers, if you know, you know). We hooked up at a Xmas party and started a very awkward relationship. I say awkward because we had some weird trouble having sex for the first like 6 months... it's odd when I think back on it, should have been a huge red flag but she was draped in reg flags the entire time and it didn't seem matter to me. Aside from that, when we finally did have sex she got pregnant... she was not at all ready, neither was I really, but are you ever? At any rate, I didn't have too much of say in it, she decided on an abortion and I supported her. We stayed together after that horribly shitty experience, our relationship was never really all that good, lots of petty fighting/arguing and really the only reason it continued was because we worked opposite shifts and barely saw each other which made it easier to sorta get along.
Fast forward a couple years, we decide to buy a house because financially it made sense (this is almost 20 years ago so it was still affordable at that time), she made quite a bit of money, mostly in tips (so not on paper), but she probably made 2-3 times as much as I did so she never really struggled financially (in her life I don't think) while I came out of poverty and lived paycheck to paycheck up until a few years ago (the pandemic was surprisingly good for my career). This was never really an issue for me, I've lived in debt my whole life and I've always had the optimism that I would eventually work my way out of it, it's really the only bit of confidence I have in myself, my ability to learn and become relatively good at almost anything. This was always a point of contention, my wife hated that I had debt so when we bought the house together we were asked if we wanted a joint bank account as most couples combine their finances with cohabitation, my wife scoffed and adamantly told the banker there was no way she's mixing her finances with mine, it was relatively embarrassing at the time but I was also just 25 (she was 30) so I went along with whatever, it was going to be slightly cheaper for me to pay a mortgage than rent at the time so I was in and she'd cover bills. Things were never that great when living together, things must have been good enough for me to stay but I only look back with anger now so it's hard to see anything good but I'm sure there must have been some.
Fast forward another couple years and I feel extremely pressured (by her and her family mostly, they're old fashioned country type folks) to ask her to marry me... so I do. We stay engaged for another few years, I have no desire to waste a bunch on money on a wedding but she's the one with money so we have the big wedding she wanted. I'll admit it was a pretty great party, I don't remember anything good involving her on our wedding day but I have lots of good memories with family and friends. Afterwards we went on a 'romantic' honeymoon at an all-inclusive tropical resort and this is where I'll get into a bit of what I've dealt with for years... our resort was gorgeous, room was nice, just a room but nice... first thing my wife did was complain, about everything, the bed, the fridge, the lights, the balcony... nothing was good enough for her, this would become a common theme for the next decade plus. We also did not have sex on our honeymoon, she was far too busy complaining and being angry for us to ever get in the 'mood', this would be more foreshadowing of what's to come.
Now, this might seem like I'm building up to her becoming really bad after getting married but that's not really the case... she was just as bad before, it didn't really get worse, it just became more noticeable... or maybe I just tolerated things more in the beginning. The truth is when I look back, there were so many signs, she casually put me down and basically treated me like a child from day one, something I just accepted because looking back, I was a fucking child when we got together... she was not really, five years my senior, and she very much took advantage of that dynamic. Over the years she slowly went about convincing me that the things I wanted were silly/ridiculous and that I should want what she wanted (the nice lawn, the house, kids, etc., etc.) because everyone should. I never wanted these things.
I won't get into details here because I could write a novel on the insane shit I've dealt with over the last 20 years that could prove this, but I did do a lot of research in the last few years and have come to the conclusion that she could have BPD with narcissistic traits... I'm obviously not a doctor so it's definitely not a diagnosis or anything but she ticks almost every box from the many many things I've read on the subject, so if you have a moment and you don't know what BPD is I suggest googling it. It's pretty terrible but it might give you a better idea of my life.
At any rate, I dug myself deeper and deeper, thinking that every next move would finally make her happy and bring me some kind of peace, so we had a child about a year after we were married. This is where it gets really tricky... I sincerely regret having a child with this woman, especially because she is not at all "cut out to be a mother" (her words, not mine) but her mother had been sick on and off with cancer for a few years and her older sister couldn't have children so she felt obligated to give her mom a grandchild, bad reasons all around to have a child. That being said, I love my son more than anything in the world. As much as I wish we did not bring him into this horrible world, he's still the very best thing to happen to me and I will take care of him and love him for the rest of my life no matter what.
I should mention, since I've eluded to it, I've always had self-esteem issues, goes all the way back to having acne problems in high school but my wife has methodically picked away at my confidence and self-esteem over the years, cutting me down to this very day... to the point that I feel very much worthless. I know that I'm not, I know I deserve better but another fun thing about my wife is her desperate need for sympathy... So, not only does she make me feel horrible about myself, she also manages to make me feel horrible FOR her... she's overweight, and I'm sure has low self-esteem herself but she has decided to take it out on others rather than internalize and try to make things better for herself. She would rather blame others for any of her short comings, I guess it's easier to convince yourself you can't do anything about it when it's someone else fault.
I apologize, because I feel like I'm a bit all over the place but I guess I'm just trying to set the scene for where I'm at now and give just a small glimpse of the hell I've been living in and how I got here...
The first few years of my sons life were pretty great (comparatively at least), honestly it was probably the best we've ever gotten along, probably because most of my focus (and hers) was on our son. Unfortunately, her mother passed away just after my son's first birthday, this was obviously devastating for her, not unexpected but still devastating. We're lucky in Canada because she had a full year maternity leave and was able to spend time with her mom. She took it very hard, and decided to stay off work for an additional 4-6 months (can't remember exactly). This was all fine and understandable, I supported her through all of it, financially and emotionally. Once she went back to work, this is when things took a real nose dive... she has always been a very entitled person but upon going back to work (part time I should mention) she decided everything was horrible for her so she was going to make it horrible for everyone around her. This went on for around 4-5 years (again, the time frames get fuzzy because it's been so long), it was hell. I really just plowed through for our son, I made him my main focus and I took care of everything. Without going into it too much, I sort of shifted gears with my job and focused on finding something that worked better for raising a kid, I got onto a full time day shift (unheard in the casino world) and we worked opposite shifts. It was pretty good for child care (that we couldn't afford) as one of us was always home. This made her more contentious... again, going back to the entitled thing, she felt it wasn't 'fair' for me to work a good shift, she should be the one doing that. I eventually worked my way out of casinos and into a work from home job (before COVID) and it was great, she could work whatever shift she had to and I would always be around for our son.
Fast forward again, my son's in school, she's still super angry at life and making things hellish but I do my best to make it good for our son. It's difficult to keep a smile on with him while putting up with temper tantrums and fits from my wife... yes, we had a toddler and she was the one who threw fits. For an example, I can recall one specific Xmas where my son and I were playing video games which is his biggest interest, something she absolutely hates, and she made a few comments about how we should be doing family things together for Xmas (it was Xmas eve), so my son and I got off the computer and played a board game in the living room... nice and wholesome fun I thought. My wife throws a fit, full on screaming and slamming things around, I don't even remember what for exactly, it happens so often I can't keep track anymore. Her temper tantrum ends with her storming off and slamming the door to her room. I'll never forget looking at my son right after, him tearing up a bit and asking me "what is wrong mom?" and I just said "I'm really sorry buddy, I don't know" and we hugged... I cried a lot about that that night, one of many times I would have to apologize for her and the way she acts around him. This is just one small example and a terrible Xmas memory that I'll always have, hopefully my son won't. I think the worst part of these 'tantrums' is that she can almost always justify them, only to herself really but usually by blaming me or my son for "making her so upset" or worse, blaming some inanimate object for "not working how it should".
Fast forward to now(ish)... I've basically lived in my basement for the last 5 years, my office and bedroom are there, I stay down there to avoid my wife as much as possible but it feels like a prison cell now. I've retreated from life in general over the years too, I've always been a pretty anti-social introvert, I prefer quiet one on one conversations rather than group settings. Most of my 'friends' over the last 10-15 years revolved around my job (casinos take over your life people, for real) and my wife, I slowly lost any friends that had no connection to her. This was partially due to me retreating and the fact that my wife would insert herself into any friendship that was just mine to the point that I sort shut those people out to avoid them having to deal with her. Sadly, I don't have friends anymore (didn't have many to begin with but still), my son is essentially my only friend and because I work from home by myself I rarely talk to any other adults. My wife and I talk only when necessary... I cannot make eye contact with her anymore. This is probably needless to say but we haven't had sex in over 6 and a half years and I don't cheat, I don't have the confidence, so I've just accepted that I'm celibate now.
One other area of contention that I feel I should explain since I've mentioned it already, through the pandemic there was a serious power shift, financially speaking. She essentially lost her job and is now in a lower paying part time job (more realistic pay compared to her previous job), whereas I made a couple job changes that bumped me up well ahead of her. For comparison, the salaries essentially flipped, almost exactly... to where I make 2-3 times what she makes. This has become an area of contention because this was something she was able to lord over me for the majority of our relationship, she spent money freely while I paid the mortgage and barely ate for the first 5 years we lived in the house but now, for the first time in her life she has to pay attention to her finances and watch her spending... she does not like this so it's just another thing to constantly complain about and make passive aggressive comments about the things that 'dad' can afford to do/buy but doesn't (mainly because I'm paying the mortgage and all the bills now while finally paying down some debt).
Oh, I should probably also mention that it's a regular thing for her to insult me and put me down in front of our son and on flip side of that she also uses him to garner sympathy from me ("shouldn't daddy feel bad mommy has to go to work?") it's very frustrating because I just want to protect my kid but I guess she knows that.
Again, I'll apologize for how disjointed this all is... the more I type, the more I think about shit to type... like I mentioned, I could write a novel on this, mostly because I have no real outlet, just sit in my basement talking to myself about it all... or I guess stewing in it.
So, I guess I should try to finish off with what exactly the advice is that I'm seeking... I essentially hate my wife, the word I use often is 'despise' and over the years we've had brief conversations where I've told her that "I'm done and I'm just here for the kid" and unfortunately she took this as push to work on our marriage harder and 'fix' things, far too little, too late. She makes me feel like the worse person in the world and yet I just can't bring myself to say to her face that I want a divorce... I feel sorry for her, fuck so much so that I bought a house with her, married her, and had a fucking kid with her... I'm sure that's not the case, I must have loved her at one point but I just can't see it anymore. I don't know why I can't say it to her, why I can't just end this... I'm so worried about how she'll react, what she'll do to me, to my kid... how she'll try and turn him against me. I'm just paralyzed with the fear of what could/will happen if I tell her we're getting a divorce.
I've made plans over the last few years to move out, rent an apartment for me and my kid and just continue to pay her bills until we can sell the house and split the profit. I can't afford to do this, it would cause me to go back into debt but I do not care, it would be worth it to get away from her. I have set deadline after deadline... "I'll do it after Xmas" or "after her birthday" or "before my birthday" and these days come and go and I just can't do it... I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, it's like I just don't want to hurt her, even though I'm hurting her by not ending things and she definitely doesn't give a shit about hurting me... I just don't want to face her and deal with it and how she will make the aftermath hell.. and I worry so much about my son, it would have been so much better for him if I would have divorced her years ago, he's fucking 10 now... another fear is having to explain it to him but we're setting a horrible example. One of my wife's favourite ways to use our son against me, is planting it in his head that "family is all that matters", focusing specifically on our little family, and how we have to "stick together no matter what, that's what family does". It's such an underhanded way to prep him for hating me because I'm "breaking up our family".
I would appreciate any advice on how the hell I can get over my paralyzing fear and just end this marriage or maybe you wanna come over and end it for me? I'm at a point where I'd take that... as I mentioned I've not shared most of this with anyone... so feedback would be a really new thing for me.
Oh, and please feel free to call me chicken shit, and tell me I just need to grow a pair and get this done... it's the same thing I've been saying to myself for years, not helpful but I understand the sentiment.
Shit... I'm sorry, this turned into a novel. Thank you.

I’m enjoying this game for what it’s worth and I know that it’s not even officially out yet, but I hope that before the official release they can add these things to the game. I don’t know if the devs are reading this sub, but I’m sure at least one of them does lol!
Different looking gear: This is definitely one of the main complaints in the game and they should really address this. Legendary weapons and gear should look like their in-game counterparts if they have any like in Fallout Shelter. I mean Cicero is wearing a mail, he should be wearing his jester costume. Tiber Septim should be wearing his gold armor, and so on. It just helps differentiate it from other items and also make them look more “Legendary”. They don’t even need to make their 3D model look similar to the source material, just their gear is fine, but at least give them the right skin tone and hairstyle.
As for the other gear with just special effects but are not from the other ES games, literally just add particle effects on them like a sword with a fire bonus should be on fire, an axe with a frost bonus should be icy, a dagger with a lifesteal effect should be dripping in blood, and so on. It makes it more obvious that the item has an enchantment. I swear people would love this game more if you add that.
Return the “Wasteland Expedition” feature(forgot what it’s called) that Fallout Shelter had: You know, just drop a unit or a party in a carriage placed maybe at the entrance of the castle or something and let them explore the world where they will get items, gold, and so on, without your intervention, and the longer they explore, the more items they get, then give it a cap that when they die, they automatically go back home instead so they don’t go exploring forever.
Maybe add a small animation where they are doing stuff like running, fighting enemies, eating, and so on to make it more interesting while they are just exploring and have dialog options here and there so you have to check them for then to move forward. Then have some checkpoints so you can continue travelling the said route and discovering new areas and dialog options to get better items.
They can connect this with exploring new locations for the game to have a more coherent story and questlines. Tbh exploring locations is what makes Fallout Shelter fun and interesting, I really hope that they return that feature someday. Imagine exploring towns and castles where you can go inside rooms, look for items and talk to other NPC’s, then at some point you get to fight enemies or while running around town you fight bandits and stuff, then the game switches to the normal combat screen. Man that would really elevate Castles to a more fully fleshed out game.
Imagine having a Thieves’ Guild Questline or a Dragonborn quest where in the end one of your units becomes a dragonborn with special gear and stuff like that. And they can make it seasonal since units die of old age anyways, so like this month you can get a dragonborn unit with a unique trait if you complete the quest, then next month you can get a thieves guild unit and so on. And these traits cannot be inherited so the only way to get them is by doing the quests. One can only dream 🙏
More decorations that the subjects can interact with: I only have a low level castle right now so I don’t have all the decorations, but I notice units can interact with the fountain and have a ruling that say the fountain is being filled with gold coins and such. I don’t know if there are other decorations like this in higher levels, but I hope they add more of them. Like maybe someone reads the red book and suddenly they get an enduring trait since the description says it contains the “Secret to Enduring Health”, someone hangs around the purple tree too much and they become temporarily haunted, that would be really nice to see.
Oh and animation-wise too they definitely should add more interactions. I’ve only noticed two decorations that the NPC’s interact with, the fountain and the purple tree. Adults steal coins from the fountain, and kids play ring-around-a-rosie around the tree. It’s cute when they do that, just small details that add more life to the game. Oh and they sometimes taste the soup in the kitchen and check out their clothes in the sewing table, which is funny. I hope they add more of these to the other workstations, like they can test a weapon in the blacksmith, scribble over the battle plans in the war room, steal a sweet roll at the buffet, and so on.
Hard mode quests: Quests where if your units die, you lose your units permanently, but the rewards are better. They can implement this at the gauntlet for more seasoned players to try.
Bookshelf should have books that players can read: I bought the Lusty Argonian 1 and 2 for some gold, I should at least be able to read them, right? Isn’t that why we even choose what book to buy in the first place?
Music Stage should let us choose what background music to play: The music plays on a loop but it changes, at least give us an option to choose what we want to hear and maybe get new music to play from the shop. And definitely should add a musician/bard trait or something where if they play music at the music stage, they increase happiness for other NPC’s. To make it balanced, they can only increase the happiness to the lowest green level and will only affect their family and friends, I guess that would be reasonable without being too gamebreaking.
Allow us to destroy items to get back their raw materials: Not really necessary but it would be a nice feature to have. I’d be okay with destroying items to get half or 1/3 of the resources used to make them, at least my useless items will have some other use except for selling them.
Have an alchemy/wizard table that produces potions/scrolls: 1 potion per day is good enough. In the same vein, having a wizard table that produces scrolls is nice too, maybe not just resurrection scrolls, but temporary buffs that work only for the current battle is good too.
Have a leveling system for the units: Like someone using their workstation for 5 years should at least get a +1 bonus productivity in their job, up to a maximum of +5, with rarer units getting more, like gold units can get up to +9, purple +8, blue +7, green but with 2 traits +6, while fighters should get more proficient with their weapons the more they fight. A 10% increase for having weapon proficiency isn’t so overpowered anyway but is nice to have. Maybe each weapon should have a specific unit that they need to kill, and when they accomplish it they unlock the proficiency? Like “kill 100 goblins to get 10% more damage with this weapon”? I dunno, but it’s a nice thing to have and adds something more to do in the game with a tangible reward.
That’s all I have for now, hope you guys like my ideas and definitely your comments will be much appreciated! If you have ideas of your own you can share them below 😊

Hey there, I'm Z and I'm the clan lead for Light of the Traveler. This may be a long post, but please read through if you're looking for a group of genuine people to play Destiny with. We're a clan that was founded at the launch of D1. Some of us have been around that long, and some of us have only joined in the past year or so. What's kept us together is not only a common interest in the game, but a common desire for likeminded friends that enjoy each other's company regardless of whether we're playing D2, playing other games, or just talking about random things in life. We're not a huge clan, and we like keeping it that way so that everyone can get to know each other (15-20 active members). Now, we're looking to add to our community with new folks leading up to the release of Final Shape. If we sound like what you're looking for, keep reading.
As a clan, we're not super intense but also not super casual. Most of us like to do endgame PVE (raids, dungeons, GMNFs, etc.) and sometimes we group up for PVP (iron banner, trials, etc.). The majority of us are located in US East and Central time zones. We typically play on the weekends and some weeknights. When the game is buzzing and there's new content, we usually do at least 1 raid per week. Right now, we have 2 teams preparing for the Final Shape contest raid that have been running master raids, and now Pantheon, as practice.
Over the years, I've realized that not everyone is a good fit for our clan. The people who tend to stick around are those that actively participate in our Discord and make an effort to play with and talk to other members. If you're looking for a clan to teach you things, we're perfectly willing to do that if you're willing to learn. But if you're looking for a clan to carry you, or one where you just log on for the weekly clan rewards, you won't last long with us and it'll waste both our time and yours. As a new member, we'll give you a couple of months to gauge your activity. We understand life happens and certain things should take precedence, but we appreciate consistency.
If you've gotten this far and you're still interested, great! Here are some baseline requirements:

• Joining our discord is mandatory. It's where we chat and find people to play with, so participation is expected.
• Be on PC or current-gen consoles (PS5, Series X) for a smoother experience and to use discord.
• Minimum age to join is 18. We're all adults, and this is a strict rule.
• Be chill, respectful, and mature in your interactions with everyone else.
• East/Central time zone is preferred. Schedules tend to align much better but if your schedule in another time zone allows you to play during our usual times, feel free to reach out.

If that all sounds fine, DM me on Reddit with the following. If you don't hear from me within a couple hours, you can also reach out to rickyrebel or shawniegiggles on Discord.

• What you're looking to get out of the clan and your current experience level
• Discord username
• Bungie username
• Time zone and typical play times
• Platform
• Main D2 class that you play

From there, we'll share an invite link to our discord and there will be some additional onboarding steps, like updating your server nickname, picking the channels you want to see, introducing yourself, etc.

I play at a few different public locations in my area (SE PA) every week. Two strictly use Playtime Scheduler. Two mostly use Team Reach App. One park opened a couple of years ago and had slowly been attracting more folks. One of the guys who was on Team Reach at one of the older parks opened a new page for the newer park because it was closer to a number of people.
Anyway, when we played at the newer park anyone was welcome to rotate in play. No questions. Eventually a couple started playing who can be a bit quirky especially on line calls but so be it. Last fall a subgroup formed. Now these were all people who were asked to join in on the app because the more the merrier. All of a sudden this subgroup stopped replying to the app and started setting up times I’m guessing via texting just because of the couple. Now I’m in favor of including everyone. One of my pet peeves is exclusionary behavior.
I was at that park yesterday and I saw one of the sub group members and asked if she wanted to join us. I knew her name but she forgot mine. She was hitting with a new person at the time and said she was waiting for a group. 7 others show up and I’ve played many times with them over past two years and they couldn’t be bothered to say hello to me or others in the group.
I’m rambling and probably just venting but other places I play are very welcoming to newbies and quirky folks I’m just looking for some other voices here. I get wanting to only play with specific folks but it just irks me they shunned these folks.