Today's young people swear a lot. People online swear a lot. People also swear a lot when they're close to you. The combination of all three factors makes talking to a lot of people in private (as in non-professional) contexts very frustrating for me. I have zero difficulty talking to people of all age ranges or backgrounds in professional contexts, even for projects or tasks that many would find awkward. However, I can't "enjoy" talking to people who could be my friends if only they were not as sweary or unserious all the time.
I don't entirely know why I'm like this. I used to be a bit more normal in this respect, until I went to a different country for education, and, having put all my efforts into academics and learning a new language, I guess I became a lot more serious in terms of my personality. My preferred way of watching movies and shows and enjoying video games turned from the most average one to one that is far too analytical than most people would enjoy. I could no longer engage in many recreational activities I used to enjoy with my previous friends, then I lost most of my previous friends, and in the process somewhat learned to keep my thoughts to myself a bit more. My own "seriousness" I can handle now, but what I still can't fully handle is that I seem to also have lost my ability to cope with others' lack of seriousness (most commonly, people's excessive use of swear words.)
One example might be how the word "sh*t" can technically be used as a pronoun to mean just about anything in today's English... or maybe just American English? But practically, most online English (I'm mentioning online English because even with personal friends, so much of our conversations today occur online or on phones... and with that comes the much more informal standard of language). I just... can't handle that. One use of it and I can still keep a straight face, but internally my enjoyment of the conversation is gone. Three uses and I feel a strong urge to leave.
I get the use of swears in swear-necessary situations, I really do. I do shout "fu*k" when I hit my toes, but what I don't get is when people use repulsive words when there's no need for one, and when they're not even trying to insult anyone or anything.
Of course, this increased prevalence of non-insulting swear words also makes insulting uses of swear words more prevalent. People can quickly call things they don't understand "sh*t movies," "retard policies," or just "fu*k this game," only to change their opinions halfway through the movie. Their hasty judgments almost seem like a subconscious rebellion against the logical, analytical thinking they did frequently in schools and now continue to do in their professional lives... I mean, they are entitled to their ways of thinking ableto saying things without thinking. They are all good people and I know that when making important decisions they apply their full logical faculties. However, I'm not able to make friends with most of these unserious persons around me... which is to say, basically everyone around me.
Back in high school, most people (advisor type, mostly) told me "it's fine, just go to college and people would be more serious." In college, they say "just do grad school, people would be more serious there."
Now I've worked for a few years, and I still can't seem to find people I'd enjoy talking to... and I'm now much more used to being alone than having friends.
I think if I don't do something, I will probably stay rather alone for the foreseeable future. I'm used to it right now, but I do have anxiety about accepting this as a permanent state of my life. Will I have regrets?
Is this something I should work on? Is this something I could work on? Or, do I accept my personal preferences in conversations, but try to find more serious persons to make friends with? And where can I find such persons in today's world? Thanks for any advice and sorry if this question is a bit stupid, but the name of this subreddit is what gave me the courage to ask it.

A magus cannot rest, even in the rain.
The barrage hammering his umbrella only distracted him for a moment from the bitter cold that misted his breath. Around him, the decent people of the world took shelter, seeking the warmth of cafes and restaurants until the worst of the deluge passed. Those unlucky enough to be stuck outside huddled beneath umbrellas, newspapers, or a hood. But even in the heated stores and restaurants, fear reigned. People stole nervous glances up from their phones, scanning the streets for a quick moment before looking back down. They hugged their coats tight; parents gripped their children’s hands to keep them from running into some alley they would never return from. There was no question: something besides rain weighed on the city. This wave of “incidents'' had claimed multiple lives and left the police at a loss. But who could blame them? The duty of resolving these incidents lay on the master's clan. The Ritual required the blood of heroes, not of innocents, and he would not allow such to be spilled on his watch.
“This way, Master,” his Servant murmured. She walked a little ahead of him, hidden beneath a heavy yellow raincoat. It had taken some convincing to get her to conceal herself; she refused to shed her armor even in public… which meant that people would be taking pictures wherever they went. The coat, at least, would hide this stranger from the eyes of ordinary people. What it could not hide – even from the back – was the aura of raw determination that radiated from her. He could imagine her face on the other side: a strict, cold stare that withered injustice at a glance.
He gave a soft murmur of approval before following her away from the main thoroughfares, toward the docks and warehouses that dominated the coast. The dock district was the epicenter of the “incidents” – and no surprise. Dark, oppressive, and cramped, this urban snarl promised a well-hidden warren for vermin to hide in, as well as an excellent hunting ground. Drunk sailors and longshoremen made easy prey, to say nothing of the odd out of towner who got lost around here. They all had been devoured for mana. To involve sleepwalkers in the matters of magi violated all principles of honor and decency, and to him fell the duty of executing the culprit.
Thus, they walked onto the predator’s turf. Their logic was simple: the fastest way to deal with an ambush is to spring it. A stalking predator only emerges from the underbrush when it thinks it has the upper hand. The question then, is whether they had prepared enough to compensate for this home-field advantage. Crossing into the maze, though, the young Master wondered whether any plan would be enough. It was almost pitch black beneath the thick rainclouds; shining signs and windows cast thin lines of light along the alleyways and roads, glinting on the water choking storm drains. There could be anything hiding in these blind alleys and derelict buildings; each one could hide a coiled serpent. The damp air felt thick enough to chew.
A moment later he walked right into his servant’s back. She’d drawn up short, dropping into a martial posture.
“Close?” he murmured.
“Very.”
The scent of the enemy led them to a dark back alley. A pile of garbage in a rusted dumpster decomposed beneath a rat king's tangle of wires above, a snarled mess that – in theory – powered this building as well as several others by stealing power and internet. The Master stole a glimpse over his shoulder at the road beyond the alley's mouth. Still save the rain. When he glanced back, a pulse of mana turned his servant's blade red hot; it melted through the padlock with one clean slice. As the chain splashed to the ground, hissing in a puddle, she edged the warehouse's door open with raised sword. As they entered the offices in the back of the warehouse, the smell hit him: sickly sweet, nauseating. Mana. The predator lurked nearby. They had reached its den.
As they walked through the rear offices, the miasma only grew thicker. Lights were off, and while his Servant could see with her reinforced senses, he could only make out shapes in the murk, broken up by the occasional beam of neon light cutting through a window. The long linoleum floor stretched out forever between rows of mold-gnawed cubicles. Sweat beaded on his brow. Every footstep sounded like a thunderclap in the cavernous silence. As the offices ended, they faced another door – this one leading out onto the floor. Here, the fog of disease grew thickest. His servant shared a momentary glance with him before she eased it open.
The creak of the unoiled hinge was like a scream. His blood ran cold.
He had heard that a certain magus had arrived in the city to participate in the Rite of the Holy Grail. They called him the Mycoidist: his research had given him mastery of a parasitic fungus that would seize control of its victim, leaving them an empty husk he alone controlled. Now he saw that grizzly work firsthand: cordyceps-infested victims glistening with sporelike structures. Nothing human remained of them: they ambled around the room, obeying their master like machines. It was, perversely, the ideal magic for the Ritual: they had no need of their souls, so the Servant could feed on them with impunity, leaving empty husks for the master to use. The young magus murmured a few words to increase the weight of the invisible spores around him, dragging them to the ground; they would not reach his lungs. His servant had her own defenses –
Not that she would tolerate such injustice for long.
She sprung forward, blade flashing through the air. The cordyceps rushed forward to meet her, giving a gutteral, abhuman howls that echoed in the rafters. The master raised his hand, crest on the back of his hand shining a brilliant blue-green in the low light. In answer to his incantation, several metal pipes ripped themselves out of the wall. It felt like a crude use for ten centuries of his family's research into magecraft, but undeniably gravity had many applications. For example: turning rebar into javelins flying at eighty miles an hour. True enough that the fungal horrors did not die easily, but each spear would stake one to the nearest surface, leaving them trapped. They had almost cleared the room when –
“MASTER!” she snapped . He barely had time to react before she shoved him aside, throwing him to the ground with a soft grunt. A split second later, the enemy Servant's blade split the air where he’d stood. A clash of steel, a burst of sparks: his partner deflected the strike sending her opponent flying away. “Stay close, master. I cannot guarantee your–”
He couldn’t sense an Assassin’s aura – no mortal could. But he didn’t need to, not one he had spotted a softer target. For a split second, his crest pulsed as he reduced the hold of gravity on his body. For all those around them, it looked like an impossible burst of speed as he headed for the front exit. “Keep him off my back! I’ll hunt his master.”
His servant had no time to answer before Assassin erupted from the shadow, poisoned dagger whistling through the air. As the servants fought a hypersonic duel behind him, he followed the faint presence of the heretic through the open cargo bay doors, bursting back out into the rain. Dozens of infected longshoremen wandered there, the spores even growing on a stacked labyrinth of crates. The Mycoidist leapt up onto a nearby crane, one foot planted high on the metal beams.
“Well, well. You seek the hunter in his den!” His raspy voice betrayed decades of self-serving evil. “I can’t begrudge you your courage, but… how does the old saying go… discretion is the better part of valor?”
The cordyceps froze, only to turn on the young master in unison. Must be two dozen, at least. This horror explained the disappearances at least – each one was a human being, a living person that the master had failed to protect.
His teeth ground. “You’re a madman who’s betrayed every principle of a Mage's honor, to say nothing of your humanity. Spare me your advice."
“Such righteousness…! Your family’s legacy is famous but… I’m afraid… it ends here, with you. You and your crest will be put to work in my service, oh magus of gravity, but… my, my, what is this?”
All around the young master, that spectral blue-green light shined like a vicious halo. He seized any projectile he could: the metal of a torn-out downspout from a nearby building, pipes ripped from the ground and walls, the metal prods from a forklift. At its full potential, his sorcery could control dozens of objects.
“This land is the grave of countless mages,” the young master hissed. “Time for you to join them.”
The steel hail fell.
I hope you enjoyed this (rather long) introduction – and to be clear, it’s more a tone piece than a starter. (Though, if you wish to build on those characters/that situation, I don’t mind!)
The classic Fate/stay night games and shows have always been favorites of mine. It’s simply one of the greatest weeb high concepts ever: seven modern mages summon seven heroes of history and myth to fight to the death for the wish-granting power of the Holy Grail. Only one pair can survive and claim the prize – but often at a terrible cost to themselves, their values, and those they love. To secure the loyalty of their servants, each master possesses three command seals: spells they can use to issue absolute commands – even impossible ones – to their partners. What ensues is a brutal war to the death, as they stalk each other through a vicious urban jungle. Alliances shift, ideals clash, characters are tested – It’s the kind of high concept that makes you jealous you didn’t come up with it! It also practically begs to be expanded: the system invites making up new Servants, Masters, and settings.
So, now with some more Fate coming out (still early in Samurai Remnant!, I thought I’d return to RPing for it. In particular, I want to go back to basics: I want to come up with a pair of characters, Master and Servant, and put them through hell as they try to win the war and fulfill their wishes. This would harken back to the tone of the original, so I’ll say up front to expect this RP to have some fairly dark content, like horror, NSFW, violence, gore, civilian death, all that good stuff. I’m a proud authorial sadist: I like to put my characters through hell to find out who they really are. However, I want to juxtapose that heaviness with moments of fun and joy. A romance would be great – Shirou and Saber's starcrossed love has lived rent-free in my head for over a decade.
Beyond that, I am open to both canon characters and OCs, but I do not double. If you're playing a canon, it should be because you want to, not as a transaction. I'm also open to both canon settings and experimental ones, making our own little alternative universe, tweaking the rules, and so on. Really, my main requirement is that I'm looking for something that hews close to the tone of early Fate, especially Fate/Zero. I want grimy streets, ruthless mages, heroes out of time whose blades flash brilliantly against the concrete backdrop. I want melodramatic debates about the nature of heroism, the price of kingship, and the possibility of justice. I want One Last Night whiled away together before the dawn separates the lovers. I want horrors both eldritch and manmade, and I want to really see what makes these characters tick.
A few words about writing style. Lately, I have drifted toward a "lazy lit" style where I do write long posts when necessary like opening the RP or a scene, but keep it snappy and short for most posts. I find this keeps the plot moving along at a good clip; responses come faster when they don't have to be five paragraphs long.
One last note: I have nothing against it, but I’m not familiar with Grand Order or its offshoots. If a character or concept from Grand Order inspires you, by all means pitch me on 'em, but be ready to adapt them to the tone and setting I’ve described.
To summarize:

• I want a classic Grail War scenario: Seven masters each summon a Servant from the past to battle for the Holy Grail.
• I don’t need our RP to take place in any official setting. We can use some alternate world, an original world, some ridiculous fandom crossover, or any mix thereof.
• I'm fine with OCs, canon characters, and any combination thereof, but I don't care for doubling.
• I expect a fairly dark, serious tone broken up by lighter moments.
• Be prepared for NSFW and horror content.
• A strong masteservant relationship. If it’s a romance, I prefer to write the M in M/F relationships.

A little about me:

• 33(ohgod)m, enthusiastic if aging weeb on the West Coast.
• Veteran of both freeform and system-based RP, starting in the heady days of livejournal nearly, oh, fifteen years ago?
• You can gauge my literacy level from the sample above.
• Posting Style: Lazy lit, pretty frequent.
• Friendly OOC. For me, half the fun of RP is meeting people from all different walks of life.

What I need from you:

• To be 21 or older
• To be enthusiastic and communicative
• To add your own ideas to the plot

If you’re interested, shoot me a PM, not a chat. Include:

• Your age, pronouns, time zone, and anything else you’d like me to know about you.
• What you want out of this RP
• An idea for a setting concept or character
• An example of your writing

i manifested my sp (literally scripted exactly who she was) & honestly i manifested the outcome of my relationship. it ended exactly the way i said for months it would because of my insecurities/ poor state of mind at the time. me and my sp broke up a little over a month ago. zero contact & blocked. they got back in touch with friend / third party. i’ve been manifesting them back, and for about a week and half i was feeling so good. stopped looking at socials secretly and stopped putting them on a pedestal. i focused on me and my self concept, was getting out more and feeling myself. affirmed and listened to nightly affirmations. along with scripting cause that has always worked for me. then all of the sudden two days ago the third party followed me on tiktok & viewed my videos several times. i ignored it and didn’t give her power and then she unfollowed me a day later. every since then i’ve gone downward. i can’t comprehend why the 3rd party followed me, was it to get attention? idk. it’s got me thinking about my sp and her choosing them even if they are friends or whatever they are. now i feel like im totally thrown off. was this movement in my manifestations? did i mess up by giving them back my power. can someone even explain why the third party would do that. idk i know i have to get myself back on track but every since then i been lowkey discouraged and back to occasionally checking socials.

I’ve developed hard trust issue just because they keep lying for no damn reason. Every time I ask them to do something for me they either one don’t do it or two do the complete opposite of what I told them. Example A: There was a school trip happening at my school and I asked if I can go they said yes and I even suggested they should let me get a job the beginning of the year so by the time the trip started I’ll have enough to fully cover it. They said don’t worry about they’ll have the money come 2 weeks before the deadline of the trip they told me to forget about it because they didn’t have the money. I was so livid I missed out on an good opportunity because they can’t just let me get a damn job to afford the trip and the only reason they said they can afford is because they have some weird pride that their rich or something but can’t even afford common school expenses. Example B: When they finally let me get a job, I worked my ass off for a year to save money for a car that I really wanted just a simple 2012 Chevy Malibu that they said I can get with my money. When I finally saved enough money they got mad at me for even suggesting that I’ll be even be able to buy my car by myself because I don’t know anything and that I should give them my money to hold on so later they can combine with whatever money to buy me a brand new car. MIND YOU I never fucking asked for a new car I specifically said that I wanted that car over and over again a simple ass sedan. When ever I bring up the issue with my car or say that just put the money back into my account they get mad at me and say I should never bring it up again. Then one day they decided to bring home an ugly ass SUV and say that I should just drive till they have enough money for a brand new 2023 car for me.
That whole car situation pissed me off because I had the money to buy what I want and I had everything laid out to the expense so that’ll be able to save enough money for it and they just took it to buy some stupid car that I never asked for or wanted. Now thousands of dollars and year of my life is gone and I’m stuck with an ugly ass car. Why do African people do this every single time I have something planned out they always make it ten times worse or do everything in their power to prevent me from do it. But whenever they need money and I say I have nothing for them (which is true) they get mad at me and call me stingy, ungrateful, wicked, etc. and start rambling how they don’t even need my ‘small money’ I’m making. I swear they have to be jealous of me or something there is no reason for a parent to do they’re absolute best to make their child’s life harder. I’m so done and tired with this stupid manipulative bullshit I’m moving out the minute I turn 18 and getting the damn car I want.

Hello all I just passed the 955 exam and some of the mechanics helped me with some interview questions to prepare for but I got a few tricky ones And wanted to see if you guys can give me some examples 1) name a time when you used a short term solution to a long term problem ( I am completely blank on this one) 2) name a time when you were working on a project didn’t have a tool you needed and had to improvise? I kind of have an example but it’s still tricky
Any more tips or question would help thanks

A magus cannot rest, even in the rain.
The barrage hammering his umbrella only distracted him for a moment from the bitter cold that misted his breath. Around him, the decent people of the world took shelter, seeking the warmth of cafes and restaurants until the worst of the deluge passed. Those unlucky enough to be stuck outside huddled beneath umbrellas, newspapers, or a hood. But even in the heated stores and restaurants, fear reigned. People stole nervous glances up from their phones, scanning the streets for a quick moment before looking back down. They hugged their coats tight; parents gripped their children’s hands to keep them from running into some alley they would never return from. There was no question: something besides rain weighed on the city. This wave of “incidents'' had claimed multiple lives and left the police at a loss. But who could blame them? The duty of resolving these incidents lay on the master's clan. The Ritual required the blood of heroes, not of innocents, and he would not allow such to be spilled on his watch.
“This way, Master,” his Servant murmured. She walked a little ahead of him, hidden beneath a heavy yellow raincoat. It had taken some convincing to get her to conceal herself; she refused to shed her armor even in public… which meant that people would be taking pictures wherever they went. The coat, at least, would hide this stranger from the eyes of ordinary people. What it could not hide – even from the back – was the aura of raw determination that radiated from her. He could imagine her face on the other side: a strict, cold stare that withered injustice at a glance.
He gave a soft murmur of approval before following her away from the main thoroughfares, toward the docks and warehouses that dominated the coast. The dock district was the epicenter of the “incidents” – and no surprise. Dark, oppressive, and cramped, this urban snarl promised a well-hidden warren for vermin to hide in, as well as an excellent hunting ground. Drunk sailors and longshoremen made easy prey, to say nothing of the odd out of towner who got lost around here. They all had been devoured for mana. To involve sleepwalkers in the matters of magi violated all principles of honor and decency, and to him fell the duty of executing the culprit.
Thus, they walked onto the predator’s turf. Their logic was simple: the fastest way to deal with an ambush is to spring it. A stalking predator only emerges from the underbrush when it thinks it has the upper hand. The question then, is whether they had prepared enough to compensate for this home-field advantage. Crossing into the maze, though, the young Master wondered whether any plan would be enough. It was almost pitch black beneath the thick rainclouds; shining signs and windows cast thin lines of light along the alleyways and roads, glinting on the water choking storm drains. There could be anything hiding in these blind alleys and derelict buildings; each one could hide a coiled serpent. The damp air felt thick enough to chew.
A moment later he walked right into his servant’s back. She’d drawn up short, dropping into a martial posture.
“Close?” he murmured.
“Very.”
The scent of the enemy led them to a dark back alley. A pile of garbage in a rusted dumpster decomposed beneath a rat king's tangle of wires above, a snarled mess that – in theory – powered this building as well as several others by stealing power and internet. The Master stole a glimpse over his shoulder at the road beyond the alley's mouth. Still save the rain. When he glanced back, a pulse of mana turned his servant's blade red hot; it melted through the padlock with one clean slice. As the chain splashed to the ground, hissing in a puddle, she edged the warehouse's door open with raised sword. As they entered the offices in the back of the warehouse, the smell hit him: sickly sweet, nauseating. Mana. The predator lurked nearby. They had reached its den.
As they walked through the rear offices, the miasma only grew thicker. Lights were off, and while his Servant could see with her reinforced senses, he could only make out shapes in the murk, broken up by the occasional beam of neon light cutting through a window. The long linoleum floor stretched out forever between rows of mold-gnawed cubicles. Sweat beaded on his brow. Every footstep sounded like a thunderclap in the cavernous silence. As the offices ended, they faced another door – this one leading out onto the floor. Here, the fog of disease grew thickest. His servant shared a momentary glance with him before she eased it open.
The creak of the unoiled hinge was like a scream. His blood ran cold.
He had heard that a certain magus had arrived in the city to participate in the Rite of the Holy Grail. They called him the Mycoidist: his research had given him mastery of a parasitic fungus that would seize control of its victim, leaving them an empty husk he alone controlled. Now he saw that grizzly work firsthand: cordyceps-infested victims glistening with sporelike structures. Nothing human remained of them: they ambled around the room, obeying their master like machines. It was, perversely, the ideal magic for the Ritual: they had no need of their souls, so the Servant could feed on them with impunity, leaving empty husks for the master to use. The young magus murmured a few words to increase the weight of the invisible spores around him, dragging them to the ground; they would not reach his lungs. His servant had her own defenses –
Not that she would tolerate such injustice for long.
She sprung forward, blade flashing through the air. The cordyceps rushed forward to meet her, giving a gutteral, abhuman howls that echoed in the rafters. The master raised his hand, crest on the back of his hand shining a brilliant blue-green in the low light. In answer to his incantation, several metal pipes ripped themselves out of the wall. It felt like a crude use for ten centuries of his family's research into magecraft, but undeniably gravity had many applications. For example: turning rebar into javelins flying at eighty miles an hour. True enough that the fungal horrors did not die easily, but each spear would stake one to the nearest surface, leaving them trapped. They had almost cleared the room when –
“MASTER!” she snapped . He barely had time to react before she shoved him aside, throwing him to the ground with a soft grunt. A split second later, the enemy Servant's blade split the air where he’d stood. A clash of steel, a burst of sparks: his partner deflected the strike sending her opponent flying away. “Stay close, master. I cannot guarantee your–”
He couldn’t sense an Assassin’s aura – no mortal could. But he didn’t need to, not one he had spotted a softer target. For a split second, his crest pulsed as he reduced the hold of gravity on his body. For all those around them, it looked like an impossible burst of speed as he headed for the front exit. “Keep him off my back! I’ll hunt his master.”
His servant had no time to answer before Assassin erupted from the shadow, poisoned dagger whistling through the air. As the servants fought a hypersonic duel behind him, he followed the faint presence of the heretic through the open cargo bay doors, bursting back out into the rain. Dozens of infected longshoremen wandered there, the spores even growing on a stacked labyrinth of crates. The Mycoidist leapt up onto a nearby crane, one foot planted high on the metal beams.
“Well, well. You seek the hunter in his den!” His raspy voice betrayed decades of self-serving evil. “I can’t begrudge you your courage, but… how does the old saying go… discretion is the better part of valor?”
The cordyceps froze, only to turn on the young master in unison. Must be two dozen, at least. This horror explained the disappearances at least – each one was a human being, a living person that the master had failed to protect.
His teeth ground. “You’re a madman who’s betrayed every principle of a Mage's honor, to say nothing of your humanity. Spare me your advice."
“Such righteousness…! Your family’s legacy is famous but… I’m afraid… it ends here, with you. You and your crest will be put to work in my service, oh magus of gravity, but… my, my, what is this?”
All around the young master, that spectral blue-green light shined like a vicious halo. He seized any projectile he could: the metal of a torn-out downspout from a nearby building, pipes ripped from the ground and walls, the metal prods from a forklift. At its full potential, his sorcery could control dozens of objects.
“This land is the grave of countless mages,” the young master hissed. “Time for you to join them.”
The steel hail fell.
I hope you enjoyed this (rather long) introduction – and to be clear, it’s more a tone piece than a starter. (Though, if you wish to build on those characters/that situation, I don’t mind!)
The classic Fate/stay night games and shows have always been favorites of mine. It’s simply one of the greatest weeb high concepts ever: seven modern mages summon seven heroes of history and myth to fight to the death for the wish-granting power of the Holy Grail. Only one pair can survive and claim the prize – but often at a terrible cost to themselves, their values, and those they love. To secure the loyalty of their servants, each master possesses three command seals: spells they can use to issue absolute commands – even impossible ones – to their partners. What ensues is a brutal war to the death, as they stalk each other through a vicious urban jungle. Alliances shift, ideals clash, characters are tested – It’s the kind of high concept that makes you jealous you didn’t come up with it! It also practically begs to be expanded: the system invites making up new Servants, Masters, and settings.
So, now with some more Fate coming out (still early in Samurai Remnant!, I thought I’d return to RPing for it. In particular, I want to go back to basics: I want to come up with a pair of characters, Master and Servant, and put them through hell as they try to win the war and fulfill their wishes. This would harken back to the tone of the original, so I’ll say up front to expect this RP to have some fairly dark content, like horror, sex, violence, gore, civilian death, all that good stuff. I’m a proud authorial sadist: I like to put my characters through hell to find out who they really are. However, I want to juxtapose that heaviness with moments of fun and joy. A romance would be great – Shirou and Saber's starcrossed love has lived rent-free in my head for over a decade.
Beyond that, I am open to both canon characters and OCs, but I do not double. If you're playing a canon, it should be because you want to, not as a transaction. I'm also open to both canon settings and experimental ones, making our own little alternative universe, tweaking the rules, and so on. Really, my main requirement is that I'm looking for something that hews close to the tone of early Fate, especially Fate/Zero. I want grimy streets, ruthless mages, heroes out of time whose blades flash brilliantly against the concrete backdrop. I want melodramatic debates about the nature of heroism, the price of kingship, and the possibility of justice. I want One Last Night whiled away together before the dawn separates the lovers. I want horrors both eldritch and manmade, and I want to really see what makes these characters tick.
A few words about writing style. Lately, I have drifted toward a "lazy lit" style where I do write long posts when necessary like opening the RP or a scene, but keep it snappy and short for most posts. I find this keeps the plot moving along at a good clip; responses come faster when they don't have to be five paragraphs long.
One last note: I have nothing against it, but I’m not familiar with Grand Order or its offshoots. If a character or concept from Grand Order inspires you, by all means pitch me on 'em, but be ready to adapt them to the tone and setting I’ve described.
To summarize:

• I want a classic Grail War scenario: Seven masters each summon a Servant from the past to battle for the Holy Grail.
• I don’t need our RP to take place in any official setting. We can use some alternate world, an original world, some ridiculous fandom crossover, or any mix thereof.
• I'm fine with OCs, canon characters, and any combination thereof, but I don't care for doubling.
• I expect a fairly dark, serious tone broken up by lighter moments.
• Be prepared for NSFW and horror content.
• A strong masteservant relationship. If it’s a romance, I prefer to write the M in M/F relationships.

A little about me:

• 33(ohgod)m, enthusiastic if aging weeb on the West Coast.
• Veteran of both freeform and system-based RP, starting in the heady days of livejournal nearly, oh, fifteen years ago?
• You can gauge my literacy level from the sample above.
• Posting Style: Lazy lit, pretty frequent.
• Friendly OOC. For me, half the fun of RP is meeting people from all different walks of life.

What I need from you:

• To be 21 or older
• To be enthusiastic and communicative
• To add your own ideas to the plot

If you’re interested, shoot me a PM, not a chat. Include:

• Your age, pronouns, time zone, and anything else you’d like me to know about you.
• What you want out of this RP
• An idea for a setting concept or character
• An example of your writing

So regarding skullbriar and double strike. His ability says whenever he deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on him. So with double strike that's 2 instances of combat damage if direct to the player, which I'm assuming means you put 2 +1/+1 counters on him (correct me if wrong, also the rest of my question is irrelevant if I am wrong in assuming this).
Assuming that's how it works, what's the timing on this? Does combat damage 1 hit, then his ability triggers and resolves before the next combat damage, or does it trigger and resolve after all combat damage is done?
Example. Skullbriar has double strike and no +1/+1 counters yet. Swing for direct damage, deals 1 from first strike, ability triggers. Does the next damage hit for 1 or 2? I'm pretty sure he'll have 2 counters (3/3) after all damage goes through, just not sure about the second damage calc.

I(27F) have been dating Mike (29M) for 3 years now, and Mike is an incredibly thoughtful and creative person. He has been extremely active me with, with both of us having a lot of fun mini vacations the past few years. Mike, however, is extremely guarded about his past. He doesn't talk to his parents, and I found out recently he has an older brother Brian(32M).
After keeping it secret for too long, I finally got out of him why he cut his family off. He said that his brother Brian was a bully all his life. Mike claimed lots of physical bullying and what he called 'mental torture'. The stories sounded almost too much to believe, and I internally questioned the validity of these stories. What I do know is that it is unhealthy for Mike to shut out a whole part of his past like this, and keep family out of his life.
Last month, I was able to get in touch with Brian via Facebook. The Brian I was talking to and the Brain that Mike described were polar opposites. Brain was friendly, kind, and always willing to help. He was genuinely shocked when I contacted him and asked him about the stories.
He was mortified that his beloved little brother exaggerated stories when they were kids. He was all for helping Mike get over this issue of his. Brian flew over last weekend and we chatted about the best way to help Mike, and came up with a plan.
Mike and I currently live in our own places(I rent, he has a mortgage) but I do have a key for his place. We decided that this Friday we would go to Mike's place before he got home from work and help him work this through. Well, when Mike got home and saw Brian, I must say I was shocked. Gone was the kind and thoughtful man I loved and in his place was an angry monster.
He yelled for Brian to get the hell out, and Brian tried to calm him down, even using old nicknames they had to try and give him a sense of familiarity. Mike grabbed Brian and shoved Brian out and yelled I was to be gone too. Brian defended himself and Mike planted a punch on Brian's face. I panicked and called the cops. They arrived, Brian moved outside, and myself outside as well.
The cops arrived and I told them that Mike assaulted his brother for no reason, and that i was scared of what he would do next. They arrested Mike, which set him off even more. Brian and I decided to stay at Mike's place until we figure out the next steps for helping Mike. Mike called this morning and asked me to bail him out, which I refused; I do not need for him to be assaulting his brother again.
As for Brian, he's helping me clean up Mike's house a bit, doing a bit of tidying in places that Mike seemed very compulsive about. The home is feeling a lot nicer now and I hope when Mike gets out he can appreciate it. I got a called from one of Mike's friends, who just bailed him out calling me all sorts of vile names, telling me that Brian and I better be out of his home by tomorrow morning.
Other mutual friends are also blasting me on social media and I don't understand why. The Brian I see here is not this monster that Mike described. So, am I the asshole for trying to help my boyfriend with this over exaggerated trauma?

In the quiet town of Willow Creek, nestled among rolling hills and winding rivers, lived a man named Samuel Turner. Samuel was an unassuming farmer, content with his simple life. But when he stumbled upon an advertisement for a new social network called “MindLink,” curiosity got the better of him.
MindLink promised to connect people on a deeper level by analyzing their thoughts, emotions, and desires. Samuel, intrigued by the idea of understanding himself better, signed up. Little did he know that MindLink was unlike any other platform he had encountered.
The creator of MindLink, Dr. Evelyn Sinclair, was a brilliant neuroscientist with a dark secret. She had developed an algorithm that could predict a person’s health issues based on their online behavior. Samuel’s profile flagged an anomaly: a potential neurological disorder that had gone undetected by traditional medicine.
Dr. Sinclair, driven by her own past trauma, decided to intervene. She used her proprietary algorithm to manipulate Samuel’s brain waves through a discreet light probe. The results were astonishing—Samuel’s migraines vanished, and his memory improved. But Samuel felt different, as if his thoughts were no longer entirely his own.
As weeks passed, Samuel noticed subtle changes. His dreams became vivid, filled with cryptic symbols and hidden messages. He confided in his best friend, Emma, who dismissed it as stress. “It’s just the algorithm working,” she assured him.
But Samuel wasn’t convinced. He dug deeper, discovering that MindLink had altered not only his brain but also his behavior. He became more compliant, less rebellious. The townspeople praised his newfound productivity, unaware that their thoughts were being subtly nudged by the same algorithm.
Desperate for answers, Samuel sought legal help. Enter Rebecca Lawson, a fierce attorney who smelled a rat. She delved into MindLink’s practices, uncovering a web of deception. Dr. Sinclair had manipulated countless lives, all in the name of progress. Rebecca vowed to expose the truth.
The trial was set—a battle between privacy and progress. Samuel, now aware of the algorithm’s influence, testified against MindLink. He described the dreams, the altered memories, and the loss of his true self. The courtroom buzzed with tension as Rebecca presented damning evidence.
Dr. Sinclair defended her creation. “We’re saving lives,” she argued. “Privacy is a luxury we can’t afford.”
But Samuel had a trump card. He revealed the dreams’ hidden messages: warnings about a future where algorithms controlled every aspect of human existence. The jury listened, torn between safety and autonomy.
In a dramatic closing statement, Rebecca asked, “What price are we willing to pay for progress? Are we willing to sacrifice our minds, our souls, for the illusion of security?”
The verdict came swiftly—MindLink was shut down, and Dr. Sinclair faced charges of ethical violations. Samuel became an unlikely hero, advocating for digital privacy. He toured schools, warning children about the dangers of algorithmic control.
And so, the question lingered: How much of our humanity are we willing to surrender for convenience? As Samuel stood on a stage, addressing a crowd, he wondered if the battle was truly won. Perhaps the real trial was just beginning—the fight to reclaim our minds in a world where algorithms whispered in our ears, shaping our every thought.

B1Ch1 pg. ٤ (4) , ٥ (5), ٦ (6): Where are you from? Your nationality?
Pdf version: pages 26, 27, and 28.
Please Practice:

1. Asking someone where they are from in second person
2. Replying where you are from in first person
3. Asking about their nationality in second person, understanding the implication of putting هل in front of a statement.
4. Please use both male and female examples, using characters Fulan and Fulanah to indicate you are especially seeking gendered practice if it doesn’t naturally emerge in the comments .
5. Practice introducing a third person, describe your relationship as a brother, sister, or friend (you may introduce a noun to increase vocabulary; claiming a romantic relationship will get you banned!)
6. Tell us the third person’s profession (you may introduce a noun to increase vocabulary here; insults and claiming someone as a spicy worker will get you banned!)
7. Don’t ask nor explain what a word means! Look it up!

Feel free to look up names of countries and claim to be from a country you are not to increase vocabulary amongst your peers.
(You should never take what’s being said in these conversations as fact by the way, unless someone is swearing)
Bonus points for using Arabic script: please use diacritic marks for gendered words.
Try at least 10 times for each.
Don't forget to incorporate phrases from the previous exercise.

I feel like my rewasd and remote play app worked perfectly before. But I honestly can’t remember.
I use remote play, Chiaki and ps play.

Anyways.
How do I map the touchpad button click of a duelsense controller to a keyboard key or to the back paddle of the rog ally?
For example: to open map on fortnite.
On Chiaki the T key is default for touchpad. This does not work on the PlayStation remote play app when I tried to assign it, in armoury crate.
I’ve tried changing all the touchpad buttons to a swipe on the rewasd app and still nothing.
I think I had it working before. But I can’t remember.

I have come across many suggestions that you have to add impact of your work under work experience, for example, "Developed an interface that increased user by 97%" or "improved user's efficiency by 80%", etc.
The company I work in as an iOS developer gives us UX guide and features to include in current release, etc. And my job is to develop the feature accordingly. The work I do should have little significance on users since I'm just the developer and I have no way to actually measure anything on the user. How should I put my impact on my CV in this case? Is this really needed? If not, how should the work experience look like?

Hey all. Testing next April, although I still feel a bit pressured with work and school. Was hoping some of ya’ll could share your flashcard rituals! I’m using blueprints Qbank. Have already started to create some of my own cards, but still getting used to how program the reminders for certain topics. Started off with the anti-memory degradation model where you run 35-50 cards 24 hours after a content review sesh for a specific topic (eukaryotic cells for example), then 1 week, then 1 month. I have so much time, so I figure optimizing would be great! Any tips/strats would be greatly appreciated.

What exactly are Dharāṇī?
Dharāṇī, also known as Parittas, are Buddhist chants, mnemonic codes, incantations, or recitations, usually the mantras consisting of Sanskrit or Pāli phrases. Believed to be protective and with powers to generate merit for the Buddhist devotee, they constitute a major part of historic Buddhist literature. Many of these chants are in Sanskrit and Pāli, written in scripts such as Siddhaṃ, as well as transliterated into Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Sinhala, Thai and other regional scripts. Dharāṇī are found in the ancient texts of all major traditions of Buddhism. They are a major part of the Pāli canon preserved by the Theravāda tradition. Mahāyāna Sūtras such as the Lotus Sūtra and the Heart Sūtra include or conclude with Dharāṇī. Dharāṇī are a part of the regular ritual prayers as well as considered to be an amulet and charm in themselves, whose recitation believed to allay bad luck, diseases or other calamity. In some Buddhist regions, they served as texts upon which the Buddhist witness would swear to tell the truth. Dharāṇī recitation for the purposes of healing and protection is referred to as Paritta in some Buddhist regions, such as Laos, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. Paritta is generally translated as ‘Safeguard’ or ‘Protection’ in the Pāli language.
Historical Context:
The word Dharāṇī derives from a Sanskrit root √dhṛ meaning "to hold or maintain". Some Buddhist communities outside India sometimes refer to Dharāṇī with alternate terms such as "Mantra, Hṛdaya (Hridiya), Paritrana (Paritta), Raksha (Pali: Rakkha), Gutti, or Vidyā" though these terms also have other contextual meanings in Buddhism. The Buddhist Dharāṇī invocations are the earliest mass printed texts that have survived. The earliest extant example of printing on paper is a fragment of a Dhāraṇī miniature scroll in Sanskrit unearthed in a tomb in Xi'an, called the Great spell of unsullied pure light (Wúgòu jìng guāngdà tuóluóní jīng; 無垢淨光大陀羅尼經). It was printed using woodblock during the Tang dynasty, c. 650–670 AD. The Hyakumantō Darani found as charms in wooden pagodas of Japan were broadly accepted as having been printed between 764 and 770 CE. In 1966, similarly printed Dharāṇī were discovered in stone pagoda of Pulguksa temple in Gyeongju, Korea. These are dated to the first half of the 8th century.
How to start the practice:
As stated, Dharāṇī, are used as a sort of mnemonic code, specifically curated to help a practitioner remember the text in which the teaching and incantation comes from, such a practice is a good starting point in exploring the genre of Buddhist text that have the ability to generate positive karma, and dedication of merit to other sentient beings. Remembering and reciting a Dharāṇī is useful, and is a good recommendation for beginners, linked here is also a guide on how to pronounce Sanskrit if you happen to have some linguistic difficulties:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnFLN_eBOBMVEWX7pGJMGJNr_HK75VL_9&si=wSLN1Pz95q9bTcNA
Please note as some Dharāṇī/Paritta are esoteric and passed down by lineage of teacher to student, it is highly recommended for beginners to receive oral transmissions of such text. However, in this short list, all listed text are Sūtric and are free to recite without need of oral transmission.
Here is a good beginners list:
(Sanskrit works) Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtraṁ (White Lotus Sūtra, used for praising the White Lotus Sūtra, and its benefits.)
Nīlakaṇṭha Dharāṇī (Blue-Necked One Dharāṇī, used for honoring, venerating, and requesting Avalokiteśvara protection, and clearance of obstacles.)
Śūraṅgama Mantraḥ/Sitātapatroṣṇīṣa Dhāraṇī* (Śūraṅgama Sūtra Mantraḥ, and the Dharāṇī associated in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra; White Parosal Dharāṇī of Sitātapatra Dharmapāla. Used for honoring, and venerating, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, as well as requesting the help of Sitātapatra Dharmapāla to combat negative spiritual forces, magic, and beings.)
Bhaiṣajya-Guru-Vaiḍūrya-Prabhā-Rāja Dharāṇī (Used for honoring, and venerating, the Medicine Buddha Sūtra, as well as requesting his spiritual powers to heal and help sentient beings.)
Prajñāpāramitā-Hṛdaya (Sūtra) (Used for honoring, and venerating, the essence of Mahāyāna teachings on Śūnyatā, beneficial at warding off ill calamities, and dispelling negative forces.)
Munīndra-Hṛdaya-Mantraḥ (Shakyamuni Heart Mantraḥ, used for honoring, venerating, and establishing a connection to the Buddha Dharma.)
Śyāmatārā-Mantraḥ (Green Tārā Mantraḥ, used for requesting assistance from Green Tārā Bodhisattva.)
Amitāyus Dharāṇī (Amitāyus Buddha Dharāṇī used for honoring, venerating, and establishing a connection to the Amitabha Buddha Dharma, and for requesting longevity.)
Sarva-Tathāgatāyur-Vajra-Hṛdaya-Dharāṇī (All Thus Come One Life Diamond Heart Dharāṇī, used as an aspiration prayer towards Sukhāvatī, as well as praising, and venerating Amitābha Buddha.)
*Disclaimer, although this is an open mantraḥ, it is highly recommended to follow a teachers instructions on the usage of such a powerful mantraḥ. The Śuraṅgama Mantraḥ request the help of Vajrapaṇi Dharmapāla and is an extremely wrathful mantraḥ, often used at the most extreme of cases. Repeated usage is to advised by a qualified teacher.
For a more general overlook on Paritta works, which are often more peaceful in nature, and have a heavy emphasis on Mettā and merit dedication, here are a few open protective Parittas:
(Pāli linguistic works) Mettā Sutta/Karaṇīyamettā Sutta (The Discourse on Goodwill, used for spreading Mettā Pāramī to other sentient beings.)
Uddissanādhiṭṭhāna Gāthā (Verses for dedication of merit, used for dedicating merit to sentient beings, as well as multitudes of spiritual beings.)
Tiro-kuḍḍa-kaṇḍa-sutta Gāthā (Hungry Shades outside the walls verses, used for dedicating merit and food for ancestors and Pretā spiritual beings.)
Āmantana-Devatā Gāthā (Invitation to the Devās, used to invite the Buddhist and local deities protect those listening and preaching the Dhamma.)
Namakāra-siddhi Gāthā (Verses on success through homage, used as the beginning Paritta of ceremonies to venerate Buddhas and to bring success to rituals.)
Cha Ratana Paritta Gāthā (The Six Protective Verses from the Discourse on Treasures, derived from the larger Ratana Sutta, used for dispelling evil and negative forces, and proclaiming the truth [Saccakiriyā] of the triple gems.)
Khandha Paritta (The Group Protection, used for calming down and venerating the Nāga families, as well as dispelling harmful two footed, four footed, poisonous, and crawling creatures.)
Dhajagga Paritta (Top of the banner staff Protection, used for dispelling fear, and negative forces.)
Buddha-jaya-maṅgala Gāthā (The Verses of the Buddha’s Victory Blessings, used for proclaiming the eight auspicious victories of Shakyamuni Buddha in his life.)
It is recommended before the start of any Dharāṇī or Paritta chanting that one is to take refuge in the triple gems, and make aspiration prayers towards one’s goal, an example, as seen in the Theravāda Nikāya:
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa. (Recite three times.)
Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Rightly Self-awakened One.
Tisaraṇa (Triple Gem Refuge.)
Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi.
I go to the Buddha for refuge. I go to the Dhamma for refuge. I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
Dutiyampi Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Dutiyampi Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Dutiyampi Saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi.
Twice, I go to the Buddha for refuge. Twice, I go to the Dhamma for refuge. Twice, I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
Tatiyampi Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Tatiyampi Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Tatiyampi Saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi.
Thrice, I go to the Buddha for refuge. Thrice, I go to the Dhamma for refuge. Thrice, I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
[Āmantana-Devatā Gāthā is said here.]
[Namakāra-siddhi Gāthā Paritta Chant, and so on…..]
Please feel free to ask questions, I don’t even know if you’re still reading, but…. Feel free to add suggestions too I guess. Have a nice day, and thank you for coming to my Ted-talk.

When quitting Teams, the "How do you want to open this file?" dialog always opens.
This is only happening on one computer. When I'm done using (New) Teams & quit the program, I get the "How do you want to open this file?" dialog opening every time.
If I actually try to pick a program from the dialog, for example Notepad, it says that it cannot find "C:\users\name\Desktop\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MSTeams.txt". I do it again & this time pick Paint, it says that it cannot find "C:\users\name\Desktop\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MSTeams.png".
It seems that "MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MSTeams" is the folder name under AppData\Local\Packages that the new Teams is installed into. So I suspect maybe it's trying to write into a log file, but for some reason it's looking for it under my Desktop instead of AppData. Reinstalling it doesn't change this behaviour.
Any ideas on how to fix this? It's a minor annoyance, but still an annoyance.
Win10 22H2, btw. This is also the only PC I use Teams on that I login with a personal MS account vs a work AD account. Also this is the current Teams (work or school) application. The re-installs were fresh downloads from Microsoft.

Hey guys, trying to figure out what would be the best solution to carry a mini pc (stick form-factor to attach to the back of an iPad case for example) that I would use as a Linux server (basically running VS Code Server) so that I could have it accessible from my iPad at all times (i.e. without Internet connection).
Would something similar to a MeLe PCG02 Pro work ? It would need to be powered by a power bank I imagine, would an Anker 737 (140W PD) work for that purpose?
Or is there a better solution, like a Raspberry Pi or similar?
The box itself won't do much else than running VS Code server, and needs to be accessible via Wifi and be powered either by the iPad or by a power bank.
Thanks heaps!

I want to start by stating a few caveats:

1. I've seen 2 shows before. Both were in the 3D era (New Orleans in 2016 and Cleveland in 2022).
2. My favorite era of based purely on sound was Minimum Maximum. Something about the mixes from that era just hit my ear the right way. As such, I judge other eras by that standard.
3. My seats for this show sucked. I was near the end of the horseshoe and half the screen was blocked by a line array. This also affected how sound hit me.
4. I firmly believe that every Kraftwerk show is a great show, and this one was too.

But...
This show had its issues.
First, the good:

• Great crowd. People showed up for KW. Lots of people on the floor were feeling the groove and moving to the music. Lots of enthusiasm from the crowd.
• They no longer use 3D visuals. This is great for me because I wear prescription glasses, and it was always awkward trying to wear both. Seeing the visuals crisp and clear with just my normal glasses was a great upgrade for me.
• I mean, it was Kraftwerk. It's always a great show.

The bad:

• Sound quality was not a peak. Again, I may have been in a bad spot in the venue, but it felt like some half measure between the 3D shows and the Minimum Maximum era and it just didn't work for me. What I like best about the MM era was how crisp, clear, and forward the vocals are. At this show, I could barely hear any of them over the other sounds.
  • Note: I was wearing loop ear plugs. This may have impacted this, but otherwise it would have just been too damned loud.
• There were multiple mistakes on the visuals. Examples I recall include a lagging video on Radioactivity, miscued lyrics text in the Robots and Tour de France, and a few times where the screen was just black for short periods mid track. I don't know that we can blame Georg Bongartz for this or simply that the sped up and reworked setlist doesn't jive with the visuals as they were programed for 3D shows of yesteryear.
• While I do like the switch from 3D, I don't think the bridge visuals for Metal on Metal work as well without the 3D effect. I wish they had found an alternative to them for this show.
• The improvisations are just not as good. While these were always a minor part of any show (the thing about KW has always been their sameness and precision), these ones were simply not as good. I LOVE the improv segment of Musique Non Stop on Minimum Maximum era and in the 3D shows I saw. This one was just "meh," and there was a truly jarring segment on Airwaves that left me thinking "What the hell is Ralf doing?"
• Speaking of Airwaves, they seemed to place a pretty strong focus on Radio-Activity as an album. While all we got from Autobahn, TEE, Electric Cafe, and Tour De France were short versions of their main singles, we got a ton from this album, including Radioland, Nachrichten, the Voice of Energy, and Ohm Sweet Ohm. Why did we get these tracks instead of Computer Love, Neon Lights, Comet Melodies, Europe Endless, or Neon Lights, which we did not get? Maybe they were trying to get in a dress rehearsal for LA or something? EDIT: Based on the fact that the KY show seems to have done the full Autobahn Album and Columbus did the full Radioactivity album, this would seem to be the case. I would have preferred getting some of the other tracks.
• No robots. Maybe it's just me being a grump, but I really wanted to see the reaction on my 5YO's face when the robots danced on stage to Robotronik.
• And for my final nit to pick, both Henning's and Falk's LED shoes had one shoe malfunctioning and not showing the right colors half the time. Considering I had to pay >$500 for my seated tickets (on the morning they were made available because promotors/ticket sellers are scam artists), I would hope that little things like that would have been fixed.

OK... That pretty much sums it up. I don't mean to be a negative Nelly. Both I and my 5YO had a blast, and I will never regret empowering her to see them before the changes to do so all go away. If you ever get the chance to see them live, you totally should. It's amazing. Something about the way the base of Man Machine hits you in a live environment just, well, it hits different. But for those of you who may have seen them before and are worried about your last opportunity having passed you by, take some comfort. If you've seen them before, you probably got a great show that can't be beat. Cherish that memory like both my daughters now ill (took my now 8YO to the Cleveland show two years ago too).

I'm sorry if this comes out scrambled as the feelings I have in this situation are so complex and my words are so much better spoken then written. Me and my boyfriend have been together since we were both 16 so about 2 and a half years. I myself am pretty mature for my age, but he's about average. He is great and his intention is so good, the problem just comes to his execution.
A lot of my issues come from the fact that I simply don't feel loved. I will tell him exactly what I want him to do, and I will feel like he's just brushing it off or he will do it for a week and then come up with excuses for why he can't. A big example of this is at the beginning of our relationship, for about 7 months he never bought me flowers despite me asking and then finally when I felt so drained after asking so much and always bringing it up, and I was considering leaving, he bought me some. I promised myself I wouldn't make a fool out of myself like that again and ask for attention, but it's honestly been downhill from there. After the flower incident, I could see that he was trying to 'love' me more the way I want to be loved- I told him my love languages were acts of service, quality time, and gift giving, but his progress was just really slow. Like when I asked him to do more, I thought he would do more right away, not a little more only a little bit of the time.
After the flower incident, there were much more. Literally for the following 6 months after that I felt like I was just constantly nagging telling him that he wasn't doing enough, not because I wanted to make him feel bad, but because that's how I felt. Countless times I've felt like I was settling, but he keeps promising that he'll try and get better. My biggest foe is the fact that I feel like his mom. I feel like I'm teaching him to love me- which I know is normal but with every piece of information I give him I feel like he never gets it. I give him ideas on what he can do for me, and it's like he doesn't spend any time even thinking about it. He's one of the types of people that doesn't think in their free time- his mind is just empty most of the time, and at this point I don't know if I can deal with it because he really just does not think things through all the way. I know it's a lack of maturity and it makes sense considering our ages, but am I expecting too much out of him? I know other guys our age who are willing to do more and put in more effort and thought into their relationships, so why is this such a big thing for him?
Another big thing is that to soothe my mind he lies a lot. Not about anything scandalous, but he'll lie about things like his grades being good when he knows that I want him to be focusing on school. Then a couple weeks later, when I've felt disconnected enough from that lie, he'll bring it up in a joking manner and try to make me laugh about it, knowing that it's been long enough so I'll be like 'whatever'.
The latest big thing I've been nagging about is him planning dates for me. He barely works so he doesn't have any money and complains about it, but I told him it's ok he can show his love through other ways, like planning dates, but even that is going wrong. I told him everything he was supposed to do basically step-by-step and he still doesn't get it. He won't let me know the times he wants to pick me up or anything, and just half asses ( I feel like it's half assed ) the plans and deals with most of it by the time we're already there. It's so tiring especially since I have to teach him all of it, I just feel like his mother.
I feel like it's gone on for too long and don't want to stay if the truth is that he will never really try for me. The issue is he's such a good person with such a good heart, it just feels like he doesn't use his brain when it comes to me. I really don't want to break up with him, but I don't know what else I can do to make him understand what I want. I try to communicate all the time, and have told him all of this several times, but it feels like he doesn't get it/if he does he doesn't execute it and it's just so draining. What do I do?

TLDR because I realized after finishing that this is absolutely massive; Pucci with MiH has means to defeat his top tier contenders like Josuke, Johnny, Valentine and Giorno and it isn't that farfetched to believe he's a top 3 in the verse.
The top JoJo's characters have been pretty much common sense for a while now. Wonder of U, GER, Tusk, SnW:GB, D4C:LT, MiH, Heavy Weather,... (these are not in order, I just named them off the top of my head). I agree with the lists most times, except for many times where Pucci is placed. What if I told you Pucci can realistically be top 3 at least, if not top 2 (very situational)? Stay with me now. It is currently 00:32 AM, bored out of my mind with the Bleach OST blasting in my ears, so I decided fuck it, let me write this up as it's been on my mind debating myself for a couple days now. So to break this down, I'm just going to go over some general basics like who and why the top is well... the top.

Who are the top JoJo's characters? And why?

There are still ongoing debates on where some characters place specifically. Wonder of U is unanimously agreed on being the strongest stand in JoJo's and I agree. The debates come later though, like who is top 2? Can Tusk Act 4 bypass RTZ? Can Go Beyond kill Giorno before Giorno gets Gappy? Can Love Train contest with Wonder of U? All of these are valid topics people use to debate who deserves the top 2 or top 3 spot.
Wonder of U is unanimously accepted to be THE strongest stand due to the many statements behind it in part 8 that justify its abstract existence, dura neg, logic manipulation and just its overall insanely powerful hax ability and it was only barely defeated in a 3v1 (in which 1 of them had A LOT of knowledge and prep time) with the need of an ability that completely defied all laws of physics and universal logic. It worked because it logically should never work.
Go Beyond has arguments towards being the strongest since well... it beat Wonder of U. But then come the arguments that Josuke simply had a lot of help to barely pull it off to begin with, let alone doing it solo. So Go Beyond is already not above Wonder of U, but what about everyone else? I mean, it's an ability that doesn't exist but exists at the same time. It doesn't make logical sense, and that's what makes it so powerful. It has no logical counterplay to it and general defenses like RTZ (will come to it later), Love Train (will also come to it), infinity, GGGH,... just cannot negate and these are abilities the characters that use them rely heavily on to be threats. GER wouldn't be what it is without RTZ, same for D4C, Gojo and the Green Baby, so that makes Go Beyond pretty strong and a very big threat by default. the one issue with it is it's just way too unreliable to pull off consistently. It took Josuke the help of Yasuho and Paisley Park to guide his bubble to WoU, and then a direct point blank shot to WoU's face to finally put it down, even then he had to tank and push through many calamities sent towards him. So Go Beyond just simply isn't reliable enough to justify it being that strong, especially when the other stands just have more consistently strong abilities.
Tusk Act 4. This stand basically does everything you could ask. Basically unrivaled offensive capabilities with the infinite rotation, very flexible range with the wormholes,... The one thing holding it back is the setup it needs to be pulled off. Johnny NEEDS to ride on a horse and reached the perfect sync state between jockey and horse to form the golden ratio and channel the infinite rotation. This is a prerequisite that cannot be argued. Johnny had to use Slow Dancer against Valentine and then had to do the same thing to save Jorge from the misfortune put upon him when Johnny wished to save his wife. What makes Tusk so powerful is the IF it lands aspect. The only counterplay to the infinite rotation is simply cutting your affected limb off before it spreads, and Diego only managed to do that thanks to prior intel and the insane resolve it took to chop his leg off with no regret. The other counter to it is if Johnny himself decides to spare you, so I can't really count it as counterplay. The infinite rotation has been shown and stated to have the strongest gravitational influence in the JoJo's verse since it has unanimous control over the entire multiverse purely through gravitational influence. MiH only has universal influence, C-Moon's influence is way more personal.
D4C:LT. Only the greatest defensive ability in the JoJo's verse. A power able to redirect any misfortune towards the user to any timeline in the multiverse and attract fortune to the "center" (in this case, Valentine). This ability has caused massive scale environmental destruction, basically colliding the forest with the sea purely through attraction, while also killing Gyro simply by rejecting any potential dangers. The only way this ability was defeated was by having an attack that can affect the entire multiverse at once hit it, basically preventing it from redirecting the attack to another timeline since the attack already exists in these timelines to begin with. Love Train is one of these "just because A beats B and C is stronger than A, doesn't mean C beats B". There are legitimate arguments to believe Love Train can redirect all of WoU's calamities. The corpse has shown direct fortune manipulation in part 8 when Johnny prayed to the corpse to cure his wife from her illness, only to redirect the misfortune to his son, then redirected the infinite rotation back to Johnny when it was struck when Johnny used it on Jorge to cure him, only for calamity to strike Johnny later on very Wonder of U like when the boulder crushed him. The corpse has shown direct manipulation over the concept of fortune and misfortune, which is the foundation that built the calamities Wonder of U uses (calamities are basically misfortunes specifically targeted towards someone). Yet Love Train lost to Tusk, so does that make Tusk stronger than WoU? No.
GER. The previously believed to be strongest stand in the verse. Maybe it could've been sheer popularity since the part 5 anime garnered a lot of hype, which attracted a massive amount of people, spawning many misconceptions, highballs,... that simply do not make sense and well, many fans just weren't familiar with the manga, where most of the truly OP stands were invented. RTZ is what made GER what it is in the powerscaling scene today. A very strong ability that will revert and nullify the will and actions of any person who poses a threat to Giorno, no matter Giorno's physical state. The issue is, unless you're posing a direct threat to kill Giorno, RTZ will not activate (no, doing things like exploding the planet will not work since that technically still counts as a threat that can harm or kill Giorno, in this case kill). Now, the only form of counterplay we've seen for GER isn't even canon since it came from the Eyes of Heaven game where Over Heaven DIO rewrote GER's reality and made it that it can't nullify DIO's attacks (this happened the moment TWOH and GER clashed fists), but due to the canonity of the feat being all over the place, we just can't take it as fact, but by following general rules like the fact RTZ works through the manipulation of cause and effect, then by logical construction, forms of acausality bypass RTZ, so there's the counterplay, which is by no means an easy or accessible way to beat someone. so GER is indeed pretty strong and a very strong contender.
MiH, the main contender of this post and the whole reason I'm making it. Now, many people like to downplay MiH by saying it needs to speed up to be a threat, which I disagree. Pucci was speedblitzing Jotaro very early into time's acceleration and by comparing the watch's seconds arm to the moment on the rooftop compared to the moment in the ocean, the speed difference was MASSIVE. By that we can already say base MiH is at least FTL+ so no, in a lot of cases, Pucci does not have to play the waiting game (yes many characters are way faster than that, but many aren't. FTL+ is pretty fast for most verses if we're sticking to the action-adventure shounens). Now, of course, it still means you should try to deal with Pucci as soon as possible because the longer you wait, the bigger his advantage becomes. MiH has shown virtually no weaknesses other than large scale environmental manipulation to disrupt Pucci's bodily functions. MiH's base speed is already faster than most, if not all, of the stands I mentioned above (the only arguable ones would be Tusk and GER). Now, for me what makes MiH so strong and I don't know if it's overlooked or not, but it's the fact Pucci has complete control over the timeline once the universe resets.

Why I believe Made in Heaven is consistently stronger than most of the stands I mentioned above.

Pucci simply has ways to defeat many of the stands that are in the top 5 purely through the fact he can go to the moment where they're weak and beat them. The catch is, Pucci needs to play his cards right for him to be able to pull it off, but I personally don't think it's a stretch that he can pull it off if we go by his BIQ feats in part 6. Pucci is a fighter that plans ahead. He's been building up to the Heaven Plan ever since he heard news of DIO's defeat and learned he'll have to take over DIO's teachings and pull it off himself, he is the successor, the one that inherited DIO's heaven, the resolution of one's destiny. Many of the stands I have noted above have a prerequisite of getting attacked or having a direct threat posed onto them to trigger, like GER and Love Train; or they're simply too situational and unreliable to consistently pull off, like Go Beyond.
Other than WoU, the only legitimate threats I see for Pucci are Tusk and GER. Now, because Tusk exists in every timeline all at once, you could argue the infinite rotation will just ignore the universe's reset but that's taking into account if you believe the parts 1-6 canon has a multiverse like the parts 7-9 canon, yet stating so is headcanon since both canons are completely unrelated to each other so there is no legitimate proof the original JoJo's canon has a multiverse for Tusk to exist in. In fact, a singular universe cosmology is more favored thanks to the universe reset visual explanation we got stating the creation of a new world that can be seen as a parallel dimension, the "start of a new world",... So tusk's threat now mostly relies on the conditions behind the fight. Where does it take place? A vacuum? The original canon? The new canon?
Now GER on the other hand is where it gets tough for Pucci because whether he wins completely relies on if he attacks Giorno or not. If Pucci decides Giorno is too big of a threat to let move on to the new universe, then he'll attack Giorno and trigger RTZ, effectively losing to Giorno. But if he doesn't attack him, then this will allow him to reset the universe then go back to where Giorno doesn't have Requiem and fight him then. This enters way too much into speculation and I would like to believe that by default, Pucci will most likely look into disposing of Giorno before moving on to the new universe (which won't work). Just that there is a CHANCE Pucci wins, just very unlikely.
Now, I get the arguments in saying that while Pucci has control over the timeline, he still isn't above fate or others' destinies. The reason he lost is because Emporio is destined to escape Green Dolphin St. and go to Cape Canaveral (which was heavily implied to have happened when Ermes's counterpart suggests stopping by the space station when the crew hitch-hikes with Anakiss and irene). So saying he can just go back to before they got their abilities just won't work because of their destiny, they are "fated to move on". The issue with this argument is we're already breaking "destiny" by having them fight to begin with, so anything fate related to prevent Pucci is just thrown out the window, but I can see the argument being valid in some cases.
In conclusion, I'm not saying Pucci is stronger than them in crossverse battles. I do believe he is a better contender in fights from verses like Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball,... since he bypasses the AP limitations GER has and the speed limitations and setup Tusk might have while Tusk and GER will stomp weaker verses like JJK and Demon Slayer where these limitations aren't that big of an issue. I'm mostly looking at this in battles purely between JoJo's characters. Anyways, the Bleach OST absolutely slaps and don't drink caffeine at 12 AM.