Vocab workshop level d answers

Finding a quality guild you click with can be hard and so even though we never want to be a massive 300+ member guild, we’re almost always openly recruiting because you never know when you’ll meet that next awesome friend!
Nocturnal Dragons of Exodus server is a small, fun, active group of players who enjoy running content together, hanging out, and chatting. Even when ff14 is slow (end of an expansion or patch), we still get together regularly and do other things like party games or co-op games. Our little family came together over time and from all around the world so don’t worry about not fitting in because we’d love to welcome you into our home!
What you’re looking for:

• Small guild, friendly people
• Active members, both socially and game-wise
• Regular events to participate in

What you should expect:

• Help to grow as a player - our members are happy to help you, you just have to ask
• Use of Discord - We use Discord for events, chat, sharing stuff, and to do callouts for content
• Slow growth - Lead up to a new expansion is always slow in game, so recruiting is also slow

Perks

• Game guides put together and easily accessible to help you with just about anything
• A simple Rank system that uses your story progress instead of arbitrary points for promotions
• Chill atmosphere; talk is easy in the guild and we don’t have any hard play requirements
• Helpful members; our vets are happy to help you learn content or even an unfamiliar class
• All inclusive; we don’t tolerate bigotry, racism, sexism, or anything else negative like that

Important Info
Usual Playtimes: 5pm-2am EST Current Members: 18 active peeps Looking for: players from all backgrounds, we're very accepting Recruiting: roughly 20 more members, we don't want to be big
My discord: DragonFeyAni feel free to ask me any questions, I’m always happy to answer.
Disclaimer: I might miss your msg if you reach out to me on reddit. I'm easier reached on discord or in game.

Ok uh here I go. This is both a story and an ask for help😂
Sooooo I’m 16, I’m a guy, I grew up playing sports, stopped at 13, now a guitarist and pianist, I discovered I was bisexual when I was 13 back when my friends used to make jokes about gay ppl and the idea of finding men attractive but I’d find myself feeling the things that which they joked about.
For about a year after knowing for sure I simply kept saying I was straight cos I was like look, it’ll be fine even if I’m bi I can fake being straight for my very homophobic family and just date girls forever.
Fast forward to today, and I don’t feel comfortable in my own household, all my friends know about this, and there is a guy who I’m talking to who I really like, and I so badly wanna try something but if I can’t even say it to my parents I don’t feel like I’m worthy of that relationship.
My family really just want me to fit a masculine ideal role, that’s why I was put into sports young and why I had to find my own ways to things I’m actually passionate about like music and style, I would love nothing more than to tell my mother but then there’s all the silly gay jokes that are made every day in my house and it’s just really putting me down,
Any answers or DMs from anyone who may have had the a similar experience or any thoughts or words that might help me out with this would be so so very appreciated😅 thank you if you made it this far.

We need an “Entitled People” flair! Because this is definitely that.
I (41f) have quite a doozy of a story for you. I would normally tag this as an AITA, but let’s be honest, I’ve spent the last 4 years asking that of everyone I know, including therapists, and the answer is no.
Ok, this whole ride starts back in 2018, when I was 35. I had moved to the Midwest in 2017 for a travel job where I traveled 45-50 weeks a year. I had managed to get myself to a point in the company where they were willing to let me live anywhere and fly me out from there, so I wanted to move back to my home city where I had a bunch of friends. I was making amazing money, so I was able to afford my own place without roommates. However, my best friend (Dee, 33f at the time) was not making that kind of money at her job and she wanted to live in a specific place so her daughter could go to a specific school for K-8. She needed financial help, and I liked the idea of having someone around so there was food in the fridge when I got home at 11pm on Friday nights from a long flight. She asked me to move in with them, and I agreed. Her mother, her husband, and her daughter lived with her. Again, I was fine with this. I was only sleeping there for 1.5 nights a week. I had one room and I paid half of the rent. I shared a bathroom with her mom.
For a year I put up with a lot, and I acknowledge that a lot of this was on me. I’m a recovering people pleaser, after all. I paid for most meals when we went out. (I accept full responsibility for this, I didn’t want to eat alone and she couldn’t afford it.) I gave her money for groceries I didn’t use because I traveled for work. I helped her get her car back when it was repo’d, and a rental car with points that I had accumulated from travel for work. (She did pay me back for the funds I sent when it was repo’d.) I was often bullied and verbally abused by her mother, who was only nice to me when I gave them money.
By December of 2018, I was done. I started looking for 2/2 houses to buy. I wanted to live on my own, have my own space. I found a few and mentioned it to Dee. She immediately assumed I meant we were moving together and started sending me 4/3 houses. Again, I will take responsibility for this. I didn’t tell her no. At the time, it seemed easier not to start a fight. I was sure she would be mad if I told her I wanted to live alone, and I knew (and she made it quite clear that it was true) she couldn’t afford to live without me. I found a house that was a bit out of budget, but I could pay for myself without help, which was my only requirement. I refused to let myself get into a situation where I would default if I didn’t get her rent payments. It was a 5/3, so we had plenty of room for all of us. Even her mother, who was an unwelcome but permanent fixture in my life at this point.
Despite owning the home, all my things were STILL in my room. Their belongings took up all the common space, including the garage. And I don’t mean it was well decorated and nicely designed. I mean it was piled up around the house. I have pictures. I was still constantly bullied and berated by her mother. I was expected to watch her daughter for free at her whim. She would run to the store and not tell me she was leaving the kid. I was expected to pick her daughter up from school, take her to dance. I helped pay for dance frequently. I was still buying groceries I didn’t eat. I was paying for a house keeper just so that I could feel clean in my own house. A house I had no space in.
Let’s get to July 2020. I was five months pregnant, my fiancé had moved into my room in March 2020, along with all his stuff, we had gotten registry gifts and baby stuff. We had taken over the only room that had any space, and moved all their stuff out. There was still stuff in the closet in the nursery. I knew that I couldn’t go on like this. I couldn’t baby proof the house, I couldn’t fit her new things because theirs were everywhere. I didn’t want my baby to even MEET Dee’s mother. Ever. So, the week after the 4th of July (I was visiting with my family and talked through this with them), I asked her to move out. I gave her till mid-October. I waived all rent for August, September, and October to give her the funds to pay for a security deposit and movers.
She did not take it well. She stormed off, then texted me and called me terrible names. She said terrible things. Things that I didn’t feel I deserved and I told her that, I had helped her, taken care of her daughter, paid her way for over two years. I was allowed to be selfish for the sake of my daughter, and I was standing by that. She left with a friend and came back even more angry. I knew this would break us, but after that I didn’t really care.
I continued to watch her daughter at home for free. I helped her look at places, offering to keep her daughter if she needed to go alone. I still paid for groceries. I stopped buying her dinners. I was done. Her mother said horrible things about me on social media. I blocked her.m and anyone in her circle that tried to come for me. I continued to gift Dee things throughout her moving process. Shelves, furniture, games. She proceeded to weaponize her daughter, saying that I was kicking out the child and having her ask me why she had to move repeatedly.
She got keys for her new place September 18th. It took her over 4 weeks to move out. While I was in the hospital having my daughter in mid October, her last load of stuff left the house. She wasn’t the one to move it, a mutual friend did (and cleaned the house from top to bottom for me while I was having my baby).
On November 27th, it all exploded. I noticed that she had unfriended me on Facebook, so I messaged her. She accused me of betraying her, kicking them out, and dropping her and her daughter. She accused me of forcing them into an apartment during a pandemic, of turning my back on them. She accused me of being selfish. (Which, fine, I agree with. I wanted my family to live in my house without having to squeeze in around someone else’s things.)
Her mother messaged me hateful things. Truly toxic. She told me to stay away from her family. I blocked her immediately. Dee wasn’t far behind. I blocked them and I didn’t look back. That’s what they wanted.
I wish her no ill will, but I will never consider letting her or any of those loyal to her back into my life.
As of today, as I write this, she is just someone I used to know.

Hey smallenginemechanics community!
We’re thrilled to announce the addition of several new user flairs to our subreddit. Our goal is to create a more inclusive environment that recognizes the diverse range of skills and experiences among our members.
Here are the new flairs we’ve introduced:

1. Verified Expert - For professionals with verified credentials in specific areas. Mod approval required.
2. DIY Enthusiast - For those who enjoy do-it-yourself projects.
3. Tinkerer - For users who like to experiment and modify engines.
4. Newbie - For new members who are just getting started and may need extra guidance.
5. Retired Mechanic - For those who have extensive experience but are no longer working professionally.
6. Industry Professional - For those working in related fields (e.g., parts suppliers, manufacturers).

These new flairs complement our existing ones:

• Verified Mechanic
• Hobbyist 1-3yrs
• Hobbyist >3yrs
• Hobbyist >5yrs
• Hobbyist >7yrs
• Hobbyist >10yrs
• UseConsumer
• Lurker
• Apprentice
• Student

We believe these new flairs will help foster a stronger sense of community and enable easier connections among members with similar skill levels or interests. If you’d like to update your flair or have suggestions for additional flairs, please don’t hesitate to let us know!
Thank you for being a valuable part of our community, and happy wrenching!

ive been playing on the better mc v26 modpack with friends on a server and things have been going smoothly until just today. a week or two ago i added a few mods, namely things like create, appleskin, botania, aquaculture, and ice and fire, and that all went smoothly as well for until just now. i logged on, fed my baby dragon and went out to get some more meat for dragon meal. after a few seconds of walking i got disconnected and any attempt to rejoin gets me kicked after a second or two of loading in. ive looked into it and hear a lot that its an issue of rubidium, but ive looked through the modlist and it is not there. i have xenon which i think is similar but updating xenon hasnt helped either. any help would be appreciated, please and thank you !!
[CRASH REPORT]

---- Minecraft Crash Report ---- // My bad. Time: 2024-05-18 16:57:26 Description: Encountered exception while building chunk meshes java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "net.minecraft.resources.ResourceLocation.m_135827_()" because "location" is null at org.embeddedt.modernfix.dynamicresources.DynamicBakedModelProvider.isVanillaTopLevelModel(DynamicBakedModelProvider.java:138) ~[modernfix-forge-5.13.0+mc1.20.1.jar%23619!/:5.13.0+mc1.20.1] {re:mixin,re:classloading} at org.embeddedt.modernfix.dynamicresources.DynamicBakedModelProvider.get(DynamicBakedModelProvider.java:160) ~[modernfix-forge-5.13.0+mc1.20.1.jar%23619!/:5.13.0+mc1.20.1] {re:mixin,re:classloading} at org.embeddedt.modernfix.dynamicresources.DynamicBakedModelProvider.get(DynamicBakedModelProvider.java:29) ~[modernfix-forge-5.13.0+mc1.20.1.jar%23619!/:5.13.0+mc1.20.1] {re:mixin,re:classloading} at java.util.Map.getOrDefault(Map.java:671) ~[?:?] {re:mixin} at net.minecraft.client.resources.model.ModelManager.getModel(ModelManager.java:62) ~[client-1.20.1-20230612.114412-srg.jar%23726!/:?] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:connector_pre_launch:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:mixin:APP:modernfix-common.mixins.json:perf.dynamic_resources.ModelManagerMixin from mod modernfix,pl:mixin:APP:botania_xplat.mixins.json:client.ModelManagerAccessor from mod botania,pl:mixin:APP:fabric-model-loading-api-v1.mixins.json:BakedModelManagerMixin from mod fabric_model_loading_api_v1,pl:mixin:APP:puzzleslib.forge.mixins.json:client.ModelManagerForgeMixin from mod puzzleslib,pl:mixin:APP:bclib.mixins.client.json:ModelManagerMixin from mod bclib,pl:mixin:APP:fabric-resource-loader-v0.client.mixins.json:KeyedResourceReloadListenerClientMixin from mod fabric_resource_loader_v0,pl:mixin:APP:quark.mixins.json:client.accessor.AccessorModelManager from mod quark,pl:mixin:A,pl:connector_pre_launch:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.mehvahdjukaar.moonlight.api.platform.forge.ClientHelperImpl.getModel(ClientHelperImpl.java:220) ~[moonlight-1.20-2.9.10-forge.jar%23621!/:?] {re:classloading} at net.mehvahdjukaar.moonlight.api.platform.ClientHelper.getModel(ClientHelper.java) ~[moonlight-1.20-2.9.10-forge.jar%23621!/:?] {re:classloading} at net.mehvahdjukaar.supplementaries.client.renderers.tiles.BookPileBlockTileRenderer.renderBook(BookPileBlockTileRenderer.java:133) ~[supplementaries-1.20-2.7.35.jar%23682!/:?] {re:classloading} at net.mehvahdjukaar.supplementaries.client.renderers.tiles.BookPileBlockTileRenderer.renderVertical(BookPileBlockTileRenderer.java:109) ~[supplementaries-1.20-2.7.35.jar%23682!/:?] {re:classloading} at net.mehvahdjukaar.supplementaries.client.renderers.tiles.BookPileBlockTileRenderer.renderBookPile(BookPileBlockTileRenderer.java:55) ~[supplementaries-1.20-2.7.35.jar%23682!/:?] {re:classloading} at net.mehvahdjukaar.supplementaries.client.block_models.BookPileModel.getBlockQuads(BookPileModel.java:43) ~[supplementaries-1.20-2.7.35.jar%23682!/:?] {re:classloading} at net.mehvahdjukaar.moonlight.api.client.model.CustomBakedModel.getQuads(CustomBakedModel.java:529) ~[moonlight-1.20-2.9.10-forge.jar%23621!/:?] {re:mixin,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:moonlight.mixins.json:SelfCustomBakedModel from mod moonlight,pl:mixin:A} at me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.pipeline.BlockRenderer.getGeometry(BlockRenderer.java:167) ~[xenon-0.3.11+mc1.20.1.jar%23710!/:?] {re:mixin,re:computing_frames,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:snowrealmagic.mixins.json:sodium.BlockRendererAccess from mod snowrealmagic,pl:mixin:APP:snowrealmagic.mixins.json:sodium.BlockRendererMixin from mod snowrealmagic,pl:mixin:APP:indium.mixins.json:sodium.AccessBlockRenderer from mod lazurite,pl:mixin:A} at me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.pipeline.BlockRenderer.renderModel(BlockRenderer.java:156) ~[xenon-0.3.11+mc1.20.1.jar%23710!/:?] {re:mixin,re:computing_frames,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:snowrealmagic.mixins.json:sodium.BlockRendererAccess from mod snowrealmagic,pl:mixin:APP:snowrealmagic.mixins.json:sodium.BlockRendererMixin from mod snowrealmagic,pl:mixin:APP:indium.mixins.json:sodium.AccessBlockRenderer from mod lazurite,pl:mixin:A} at me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.tasks.ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.redirect$fde000$lazurite$onRenderBlock(ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.java:2046) ~[xenon-0.3.11+mc1.20.1.jar%23710!/:?] {re:mixin,re:computing_frames,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:mixins.oculus.compat.sodium.json:block_id.MixinChunkRenderRebuildTask from mod oculus,pl:mixin:APP:mixins.oculus.compat.sodium.json:shader_overrides.MixinChunkBuilderMeshingTask from mod oculus,pl:mixin:APP:flywheel.sodium.mixins.json:ChunkBuilderMeshingTaskMixin from mod flywheel,pl:mixin:APP:indium.mixins.json:sodium.MixinChunkBuilderMeshingTask from mod lazurite,pl:mixin:A} at me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.tasks.ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.execute(ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.java:137) ~[xenon-0.3.11+mc1.20.1.jar%23710!/:?] {re:mixin,re:computing_frames,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:mixins.oculus.compat.sodium.json:block_id.MixinChunkRenderRebuildTask from mod oculus,pl:mixin:APP:mixins.oculus.compat.sodium.json:shader_overrides.MixinChunkBuilderMeshingTask from mod oculus,pl:mixin:APP:flywheel.sodium.mixins.json:ChunkBuilderMeshingTaskMixin from mod flywheel,pl:mixin:APP:indium.mixins.json:sodium.MixinChunkBuilderMeshingTask from mod lazurite,pl:mixin:A} at me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.tasks.ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.execute(ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.java:50) ~[xenon-0.3.11+mc1.20.1.jar%23710!/:?] {re:mixin,re:computing_frames,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:mixins.oculus.compat.sodium.json:block_id.MixinChunkRenderRebuildTask from mod oculus,pl:mixin:APP:mixins.oculus.compat.sodium.json:shader_overrides.MixinChunkBuilderMeshingTask from mod oculus,pl:mixin:APP:flywheel.sodium.mixins.json:ChunkBuilderMeshingTaskMixin from mod flywheel,pl:mixin:APP:indium.mixins.json:sodium.MixinChunkBuilderMeshingTask from mod lazurite,pl:mixin:A} at me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.executor.ChunkJobTyped.execute(ChunkJobTyped.java:44) ~[xenon-0.3.11+mc1.20.1.jar%23710!/:?] {re:computing_frames,re:classloading} at me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.executor.ChunkBuilder$WorkerRunnable.run(ChunkBuilder.java:207) ~[xenon-0.3.11+mc1.20.1.jar%23710!/:?] {re:classloading} at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:833) ~[?:?] {re:mixin} 

A detailed walkthrough of the error, its code path and all known details is as follows:
-- Head --
Thread: Render thread
Suspected Mods:

ModernFix (modernfix), Version: 5.13.0+mc1.20.1 Issue tracker URL: [https://github.com/embeddedt/ModernFix/issues](https://github.com/embeddedt/ModernFix/issues) at TRANSFORMEmodernfix@5.13.0+mc1.20.1/org.embeddedt.modernfix.dynamicresources.DynamicBakedModelProvider.isVanillaTopLevelModel(DynamicBakedModelProvider.java:138) Supplementaries (supplementaries), Version: 1.20-2.7.35 Issue tracker URL: [https://github.com/MehVahdJukaaSupplementaries/issues](https://github.com/MehVahdJukaaSupplementaries/issues) at TRANSFORMEsupplementaries@1.20-2.7.35/net.mehvahdjukaar.supplementaries.client.renderers.tiles.BookPileBlockTileRenderer.renderBook(BookPileBlockTileRenderer.java:133) Moonlight Library (moonlight), Version: 1.20-2.9.10 Issue tracker URL: [https://github.com/MehVahdJukaaMoonlight/issues](https://github.com/MehVahdJukaaMoonlight/issues) at TRANSFORMEmoonlight@1.20-2.9.10/net.mehvahdjukaar.moonlight.api.platform.forge.ClientHelperImpl.getModel(ClientHelperImpl.java:220) Lazurite (lazurite), Version: 1.0.2+mc1.20.1 Issue tracker URL: [https://github.com/Su5eD/Lazurite/issues](https://github.com/Su5eD/Lazurite/issues) Mixin class: link.infra.indium.mixin.sodium.MixinChunkBuilderMeshingTask Target: me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.tasks.ChunkBuilderMeshingTask at TRANSFORMExenon@0.3.11+mc1.20.1/me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.tasks.ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.redirect$fde000$lazurite$onRenderBlock(ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.java:2046) Xenon (xenon), Version: 0.3.11+mc1.20.1 at TRANSFORMExenon@0.3.11+mc1.20.1/me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.pipeline.BlockRenderer.getGeometry(BlockRenderer.java:167) 

Stacktrace:

at org.embeddedt.modernfix.dynamicresources.DynamicBakedModelProvider.isVanillaTopLevelModel(DynamicBakedModelProvider.java:138) \~\[modernfix-forge-5.13.0+mc1.20.1.jar%23619!/:5.13.0+mc1.20.1\] {re:mixin,re:classloading} 

-- Block being rendered --
Details:

Block: Block{supplementaries:book\_pile}\[books=1,waterlogged=false\] Block location: World: (-1162,131,-955), Section: (at 6,3,5 in -73,8,-60; chunk contains blocks -1168,-64,-960 to -1153,319,-945), Region: (-3,-2; contains chunks -96,-64 to -65,-33, blocks -1536,-64,-1024 to -1025,319,-513) Chunk section: RenderSection at chunk (-73, 8, -60) from (-1168, 128, -960) to (-1153, 143, -945) Render context volume: BoundingBox{minX=-1170, minY=126, minZ=-962, maxX=-1151, maxY=145, maxZ=-943} 

Stacktrace:

at me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.tasks.ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.execute(ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.java:137) \~\[xenon-0.3.11+mc1.20.1.jar%23710!/:?\] {re:mixin,re:computing\_frames,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:mixins.oculus.compat.sodium.json:block\_id.MixinChunkRenderRebuildTask from mod oculus,pl:mixin:APP:mixins.oculus.compat.sodium.json:shader\_overrides.MixinChunkBuilderMeshingTask from mod oculus,pl:mixin:APP:flywheel.sodium.mixins.json:ChunkBuilderMeshingTaskMixin from mod flywheel,pl:mixin:APP:indium.mixins.json:sodium.MixinChunkBuilderMeshingTask from mod lazurite,pl:mixin:A} at me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.tasks.ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.execute(ChunkBuilderMeshingTask.java:50) \~\[xenon-0.3.11+mc1.20.1.jar%23710!/:?\] {re:mixin,re:computing\_frames,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:mixins.oculus.compat.sodium.json:block\_id.MixinChunkRenderRebuildTask from mod oculus,pl:mixin:APP:mixins.oculus.compat.sodium.json:shader\_overrides.MixinChunkBuilderMeshingTask from mod oculus,pl:mixin:APP:flywheel.sodium.mixins.json:ChunkBuilderMeshingTaskMixin from mod flywheel,pl:mixin:APP:indium.mixins.json:sodium.MixinChunkBuilderMeshingTask from mod lazurite,pl:mixin:A} at me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.executor.ChunkJobTyped.execute(ChunkJobTyped.java:44) \~\[xenon-0.3.11+mc1.20.1.jar%23710!/:?\] {re:computing\_frames,re:classloading} at me.jellysquid.mods.sodium.client.render.chunk.compile.executor.ChunkBuilder$WorkerRunnable.run(ChunkBuilder.java:207) \~\[xenon-0.3.11+mc1.20.1.jar%23710!/:?\] {re:classloading} at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:833) \~\[?:?\] {re:mixin} 

-- Affected level --
Details:

All players: 1 total; \[LocalPlayer\['LittleStinky04'/1128, l='ClientLevel', x=-1173.35, y=133.00, z=-946.85\]\] Chunk stats: 453, 453 Level dimension: minecraft:overworld Level spawn location: World: (-7,64,-1787), Section: (at 9,0,5 in -1,4,-112; chunk contains blocks -16,-64,-1792 to -1,319,-1777), Region: (-1,-4; contains chunks -32,-128 to -1,-97, blocks -512,-64,-2048 to -1,319,-1537) Level time: 38272887 game time, 366000 day time Server brand: forge Server type: Non-integrated multiplayer server 

Stacktrace:

at net.minecraft.client.multiplayer.ClientLevel.m\_6026\_(ClientLevel.java:455) \~\[client-1.20.1-20230612.114412-srg.jar%23726!/:?\] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero\_clientworldclass,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_clientworldclass,pl:connector\_pre\_launch:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero\_clientworldclass,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_clientworldclass,pl:mixin:APP:xenon.mixins.json:features.render.world.ClientLevelMixin from mod xenon,pl:mixin:APP:citadel.mixins.json:client.ClientLevelMixin from mod citadel,pl:mixin:APP:supplementaries-common.mixins.json:ClientLevelMixin from mod supplementaries,pl:mixin:APP:mixins.oculus.vertexformat.json:block\_rendering.MixinClientLevel from mod oculus,pl:mixin:APP:krypton.mixins.json:client.fastchunkentityaccess.ClientWorldMixin from mod krypton,pl:mixin:APP:lithium.mixins.json:chunk.entity\_class\_groups.ClientWorldMixin from mod radium,pl:mixin:APP:flywheel.mixins.json:ClientLevelMixin from mod flywheel,pl:mixin:APP:entityculling.mixins.json:ClientWorldMixin from mod entityculling,pl:mixin:APP:lambdynlights.mixins.json:ClientWorldMixin from mod ryoamiclights,pl:mixin:APP:blue\_skies.mixins.json:ClientLevelMixin from mod blue\_skies,pl:mixin:APP:bclib.mixins.client.json:ClientLevelMixin from mod bclib,pl:mixin:APP:architectury.mixins.json:MixinClientLevel from mod architectury,pl:mixin:APP:fabric-lifecycle-events-v1.client.mixins.json:ClientWorldMixin from mod fabric\_lifecycle\_events\_v1,pl:mixin:APP:farsight.mixins.json:ClientWorldMixin from mod farsight\_view,pl:mixin:APP:alexscaves.mixins.json:client.ClientLevelMixin from mod alexscaves,pl:mixin:APP:xenon.mixins.json:core.world.biome.ClientWorldMixin from mod xenon,pl:mixin:APP:xenon.mixins.json:core.world.map.ClientWorldMixin from mod xenon,pl:mixin:APP:forge-badoptimizations.mixins.json:tick.MixinClientWorldCloudColor from mod (unknown),pl:mixin:APP:forge-badoptimizations.mixins.json:tick.MixinClientWorldSkyColor from mod (unknown),pl:mixin:A,pl:connector\_pre\_launch:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.m\_91354\_(Minecraft.java:2319) \~\[client-1.20.1-20230612.114412-srg.jar%23726!/:?\] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraft\_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraft\_runtick\_render\_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero\_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraftclient,pl:connector\_pre\_launch:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraft\_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraft\_runtick\_render\_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero\_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraftclient,pl:mixin:A,pl:connector\_pre\_launch:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.m\_91374\_(Minecraft.java:735) \~\[client-1.20.1-20230612.114412-srg.jar%23726!/:?\] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraft\_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraft\_runtick\_render\_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero\_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraftclient,pl:connector\_pre\_launch:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraft\_runtick,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraft\_runtick\_render\_call,xf:fml:xaerominimap:xaero\_minecraftclient,xf:fml:xaeroworldmap:xaero\_wm\_minecraftclient,pl:mixin:A,pl:connector\_pre\_launch:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.main(Main.java:218) \~\[forge-47.2.17.jar:?\] {re:mixin,pl:connector\_pre\_launch:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:flywheel.mixins.json:ClientMainMixin from mod flywheel,pl:mixin:A,pl:connector\_pre\_launch:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) \~\[?:?\] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:77) \~\[?:?\] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:568) \~\[?:?\] {re:mixin} at net.minecraftforge.fml.loading.targets.CommonLaunchHandler.runTarget(CommonLaunchHandler.java:111) \~\[fmlloader-1.20.1-47.2.17.jar:?\] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.loading.targets.CommonLaunchHandler.clientService(CommonLaunchHandler.java:99) \~\[fmlloader-1.20.1-47.2.17.jar:?\] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.loading.targets.CommonClientLaunchHandler.lambda$makeService$0(CommonClientLaunchHandler.java:25) \~\[fmlloader-1.20.1-47.2.17.jar:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.LaunchServiceHandlerDecorator.launch(LaunchServiceHandlerDecorator.java:30) \~\[modlauncher-10.0.9.jar:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.LaunchServiceHandler.launch(LaunchServiceHandler.java:53) \~\[modlauncher-10.0.9.jar:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.LaunchServiceHandler.launch(LaunchServiceHandler.java:71) \~\[modlauncher-10.0.9.jar:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:108) \~\[modlauncher-10.0.9.jar:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:78) \~\[modlauncher-10.0.9.jar:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.BootstrapLaunchConsumer.accept(BootstrapLaunchConsumer.java:26) \~\[modlauncher-10.0.9.jar:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.BootstrapLaunchConsumer.accept(BootstrapLaunchConsumer.java:23) \~\[modlauncher-10.0.9.jar:?\] {} at cpw.mods.bootstraplauncher.BootstrapLauncher.main(BootstrapLauncher.java:141) \~\[bootstraplauncher-1.1.2.jar:?\] {} 

-- Last reload --
Details:

Reload number: 1 Reload reason: initial Finished: Yes Packs: vanilla, mod\_resources, file/Stay\_True\_1.20.zip, file/MandalasGUI+Modded\_Dakmode\_v4.6.zip, file/Mandalas\_Legacy\_Gui\_Background.zip, overrides\_pack, file/Created Simple Storage 1.3.zip, file/Aether Regenerated v1.1.2.zip, file/waystones\_1.20.zip, file/Icon Xaero's 1.13.zip, file/Better\_Modded\_GUI.zip, file/NoBushyLeaves.zip, fabric, Moonlight Mods Dynamic Assets, builtin/DAGoldenSwetBallFixClient, diagonalblocks:default\_block\_models 

-- System Details --
Details:

Minecraft Version: 1.20.1 Minecraft Version ID: 1.20.1 Operating System: Windows 10 (amd64) version 10.0 Java Version: 17.0.8, Microsoft Java VM Version: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (mixed mode), Microsoft Memory: 1171134000 bytes (1116 MiB) / 5049942016 bytes (4816 MiB) up to 7046430720 bytes (6720 MiB) CPUs: 4 Processor Vendor: GenuineIntel Processor Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz Identifier: Intel64 Family 6 Model 60 Stepping 3 Microarchitecture: Haswell (Client) Frequency (GHz): 3.19 Number of physical packages: 1 Number of physical CPUs: 4 Number of logical CPUs: 4 Graphics card #0 name: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600 Graphics card #0 vendor: Intel Corporation (0x8086) Graphics card #0 VRAM (MB): 1024.00 Graphics card #0 deviceId: 0x0412 Graphics card #0 versionInfo: DriverVersion=20.19.15.4531 Graphics card #1 name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB Graphics card #1 vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de) Graphics card #1 VRAM (MB): 3072.00 Graphics card #1 deviceId: 0x1c02 Graphics card #1 versionInfo: DriverVersion=31.0.15.4665 Memory slot #0 capacity (MB): 8192.00 Memory slot #0 clockSpeed (GHz): 1.60 Memory slot #0 type: DDR3 Memory slot #1 capacity (MB): 8192.00 Memory slot #1 clockSpeed (GHz): 1.60 Memory slot #1 type: DDR3 Virtual memory max (MB): 27052.93 Virtual memory used (MB): 21447.64 Swap memory total (MB): 10752.00 Swap memory used (MB): 732.73 JVM Flags: 4 total; -XX:HeapDumpPath=MojangTricksIntelDriversForPerformance\_javaw.exe\_minecraft.exe.heapdump -Xss1M -Xmx6720m -Xms256m Loaded Shaderpack: (off) Launched Version: forge-47.2.17 Backend library: LWJGL version 3.3.1 build 7 Backend API: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB/PCIe/SSE2 GL version 4.6.0 NVIDIA 546.65, NVIDIA Corporation Window size: 1360x768 GL Caps: Using framebuffer using OpenGL 3.2 GL debug messages: Using VBOs: Yes Is Modded: Definitely; Client brand changed to 'forge' Type: Client (map\_client.txt) Graphics mode: fancy Resource Packs: vanilla, mod\_resources, file/Stay\_True\_1.20.zip, file/MandalasGUI+Modded\_Dakmode\_v4.6.zip, file/Mandalas\_Legacy\_Gui\_Background.zip, builtin/overrides\_pack, file/Created Simple Storage 1.3.zip, file/Aether Regenerated v1.1.2.zip, file/waystones\_1.20.zip, file/Icon Xaero's 1.13.zip, file/Better\_Modded\_GUI.zip, file/NoBushyLeaves.zip, fabric, Moonlight Mods Dynamic Assets, builtin/DAGoldenSwetBallFixClient (incompatible) Current Language: en\_us CPU: 4x Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz Sinytra Connector: 1.0.0-beta.36+1.20.1 SINYTRA CONNECTOR IS PRESENT! Please verify issues are not caused by Connector before reporting them to mod authors. If you're unsure, file a report on Connector's issue tracker. Connector's issue tracker can be found at https://github.com/Sinytra/Connectoissues. Installed Fabric mods: ================================================== ============================== ============================== ==================== Eldritch\_End-FORGE-MC1.20.1-0.2.31\_mapped\_srg\_1.20 Eldritch End eldritch\_end 0.2.31 better-end-4.0.11\_mapped\_srg\_1.20.1.jar Better End betterend 4.0.11 bclib-3.0.14$wunderlib-1.1.5\_mapped\_srg\_1.20.1.jar WunderLib wunderlib 1.1.5 bclib-3.0.14\_mapped\_srg\_1.20.1.jar BCLib bclib 3.0.14 inventorymanagement-1.3.1+1.20\_mapped\_srg\_1.20.1.j Inventory Management inventorymanagement 1.3.1 spawnersplus-2.0.1-1.20.1\_mapped\_srg\_1.20.1.jar Spawners+ spawners\_plus 2.0.1-1.20.1 ModLauncher: 10.0.9+10.0.9+main.dcd20f30 ModLauncher launch target: forgeclient ModLauncher naming: srg ModLauncher services: mixin-0.8.5.jar mixin PLUGINSERVICE eventbus-6.0.5.jar eventbus PLUGINSERVICE fmlloader-1.20.1-47.2.17.jar slf4jfixer PLUGINSERVICE fmlloader-1.20.1-47.2.17.jar object\_holder\_definalize PLUGINSERVICE fmlloader-1.20.1-47.2.17.jar runtime\_enum\_extender PLUGINSERVICE fmlloader-1.20.1-47.2.17.jar capability\_token\_subclass PLUGINSERVICE accesstransformers-8.0.4.jar accesstransformer PLUGINSERVICE fmlloader-1.20.1-47.2.17.jar runtimedistcleaner PLUGINSERVICE modlauncher-10.0.9.jar mixin TRANSFORMATIONSERVICE modlauncher-10.0.9.jar redirector TRANSFORMATIONSERVICE modlauncher-10.0.9.jar fml TRANSFORMATIONSERVICE modlauncher-10.0.9.jar mixin-transmogrifier TRANSFORMATIONSERVICE modlauncher-10.0.9.jar connector\_loader TRANSFORMATIONSERVICE FML Language Providers: minecraft@1.0 Configured Defaults@8.0.1 javafml@null kotlinforforge@4.10.0 lowcodefml@null 

Building a computer. What's the minimum level of processor that will make sure CSP runs smooth?
I know there's no perfect answer, but tell me whatever you know.
I'm not doing animation; I want to use canvases big enough for print quality; I usually use under 20 layers; I haven't needed to use very fancy brushes but I'd like to have the option.
These two articles recommend tiers of processor but they don't say what generation. I guess they mean the most recent generation as of their publishing? But if I can go with something cheaper than that, I want to know.
https://artworkpath.com/clip-studio-paint-system-requirement-guide/
https://aaronrutten.com/optimizing-your-computer-for-digital-art/

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Hey everyone! I received the diagnosis yesterday. Based on lab results, my endocrinologist said it points to a pituitary source. A previous MRI showed a small abnormality in the pituitary. So now I am going to have a dedicated pituitary MRI.
This is all so new, but my endocrinologist is absolutely amazing helping me through the diagnostic process and answering my questions. I’d love to hear from some of y’all about your advice and experiences after being diagnosed, any resources that may be helpful, things you wish you would’ve known. Thank you and wishing y’all the best!

After nearly thirty years of research, field work, digging, and sometimes living off the land, Ana had finally found what her family had sought since her great-grandfather. The door was so well hidden that she hadn’t realized it was there until she attempted to break a bit of the surface rock off with her geologist’s hammer. The hollow behind the door resonated with the sound of the hammer on stone.
She tapped along the door to find the edges. With the chisel end of her hammer, she chipped away the encrustations that had built up along the edges. After hours of hammering, chiseling, and digging at the base, the outline of the door was visible. Made of the same rock as the surrounding gneiss, it had gone unnoticed for untold millennia.
Ana pushed the door from the sides, the middle, the top, the bottom, looking for the smallest movement. The door didn’t budge. She sat, leaning against the door on the flat bit of ground she’d dug out. She ate some of the year-old jerky she had in her pack while the sun set.
It was a clear, moonless night, and Ana focused her attention on the whirl of the Milky Way overhead. The sight wasn’t enough to keep her mind off the stubborn door behind her and the aching of her joints from sitting on the rocky ground.
She stood and turned to take a last look at the door for the day. Even in the faint light of the stars, she thought she could make out the edges. At one corner, a flash caught her eye. She moved her head back and forth, trying to find the position that had, she thought, reflected light.
Not finding it, she pulled out her flashlight and shone it on the corner of the door where the flash was. She expected to see a reflection but saw none. She turned out the light, and there it was, except it was two flashes this time.
There was no doubt it was coming from inside, shining out a pinhole in the door seam at the upper left corner. “Monkey see, monkey do?” she asked herself. She pointed the flashlight at the corner and flashed it twice. When nothing happened, she flashed it again.
The response was five flashes. “Oh, fibbi-whatever,” she muttered. “Three and five is eight.” She flashed the light eight times. There was no immediate response. She began to worry that she’d been wrong in her counting or in what pattern they were looking for.
A loud hiss sounded as the whole door slid out away from the wall. Bright light shone around the edges of the door that continued to slide out, far thicker than she’d expected. Where she’d stopped digging in front of it, the door bulldozed its own path.
It stopped with a little less than a meter clearance between the back of the door and front of the rock wall. Beyond lay a downward-sloping walkway. It was shaped like an oval with a flattened floor. A voice echoed from within, “Enter, Anastasia.”
She didn’t know how they knew who she was, but she wasn’t going to turn back after having come so far. She stepped around the door, held by a single, flat piece of metal that disappeared into a groove in the ceiling. The metal that held the massive slab of stone looked far too flimsy for purpose, but pushing against the edges of the open door did nothing to sway the door or distort the metal support.
With a deep breath, Ana threw her pack over her shoulder and stepped into the hallway. As she continued down the hall, more would illuminate ahead of her while behind her, the lights shut off. Where the light came from was a mystery to her, but she was more interested in what lay ahead at that point.
She felt a slight, sudden increase in air pressure in the tunnel, followed by the echoing sound of the door as it closed. She pushed down the edges of panic that wanted to take hold. “I’m on my way,” she said to the tunnel.
The deeper she went, the more the temperature seemed to settle at close to fifteen or sixteen degrees Celsius. Her lips felt dry in the still air, and she applied lip balm while she continued apace ever deeper. Somewhere far underground, the tunnel curved back on itself and kept descending. After two more switchbacks, and what felt like hours of walking, she found herself in a chamber.
It was monumental in scale. The walls curved to meet at least twenty meters overhead. As the lights in the chamber came up, the far side looked a hundred or more meters away, while the doorway she was in was situated about twenty meters from the walls on either side. Covering the bottom two-thirds of the walls were row upon row of plastic-like boxes with lights blinking inside them.
In the center of the chamber was a dais with a holographic glyph floating in the air above it. Standing next to the dais was the owner of the voice she’d heard on entering. The shape was semi-translucent, the lights from the boxes behind it seeming to light it from within. “Welcome,” it said, although it had no mouth with which to speak. Its form shifted and changed, from an amorphous blob to an array of wings and eyes, then through creatures both real and mythical, until it finally settled into the shape of a large woman with wings.
“Who are you?” Ana asked.
“I am the keeper,” it said. “You are Anastasia, the seeker, yes?”
“I’m Anastasia Kell, but I go by Ana.” Ana moved closer to the center of the chamber and the shape-shifting entity at its center. “What is your name?”
“I am the keeper. I have no name.”
“Fine, I’ll call you Odette, then. You look like an Odette.”
The keeper flapped its wings twice, then shrunk its body by adding a long tail. “That is acceptable, seeker Anastasia.”
“Please, just call me Ana.”
“Of course, Ana. Please, come to the dais for your reward. Your dedication has won through.” The keeper moved away from the dais and extended an arm toward Ana. The arm kept extending, reaching Ana’s hand twenty meters away from the keeper.
Ana was surprised that the hand felt warm and dry. She’d expected some sort of slimy, cold thing, but it wasn’t. She let herself be led to the dais. “What are you?”
“I am the keeper.”
“Are you a biological creature or a construct of some sort? Some sort of soft-body robot, maybe.”
“I am a biological construct, designed to keep a record of all intelligent life on this world. I have been keeping these records for 72,363,412 years.”
“Since what…the dinosaurs?”
“Yes. The first were theropods. Traveling in hunter groups, they had a limited language. If they had been more adaptable, they might have not been already dying out by the time of the asteroid.” The keeper changed its shape to a theropod that Ana didn’t recognize. It was about the same height as her, with three-toed feet, three-fingered hand on medium-length arms, and a slightly domed head.
“That’s what they looked like?” she asked.
“Yes.” The keeper shifted into the shape of a porpoise. “There were and are the cetaceans, of course. They have language and culture but are not in a position to leave their cradle.”
“Is that what you’ve been waiting for? An intelligence capable of space travel?”
“Yes. My creators have placed other keepers like me on millions of worlds.” The keeper changed into a sphere. “This is where I am keeper.”
“So now, humans, I guess, are what you’ve been looking for.”
The keeper changed into a primate that resembled a chimpanzee and then morphed through several hominin species shapes, pausing on Neanderthal before finishing up with modern human. “I’ve watched entire civilizations come and go without so much as a scratch to mark them in the geologic record, and yet your kind has made an indelible mark on the planet. Whether that is for better or worse remains to be seen.”
“My guess would be worse, but I’m a pessimist.”
“So you say, but you never stopped searching for the library at the heart of the world.”
“True.” Ana took a deep breath and put a hand on the dais. The holographic glyph hovering above it disappeared, and an eight-limbed creature appeared in its place.
The creature spoke in English, even though its squishy mouthparts made movements that were often in total contradiction to the sounds it made. “Welcome, seeker Anastasia. Updating. Welcome, Ana. What would you like to learn today?”
“What are my limits here? This place was hard enough to find, what kind of things won’t you tell me?”
“The records will answer any questions you have that can be answered. Nonsensical and paradoxical queries will be ignored. The library is hidden to ensure that only those ready to take the next steps beyond their cradle can find it. As such, all our knowledge is yours for the asking.”
“So, I blinked a light in a simple sequence. How does that mean we’re ready to take the next steps – whatever those are?”
“You are the fourth generation of your family that has searched for the library, correct?” the holograph asked.
“I am.”
“And you have spent the majority of your adult life in the same search, have you not?”
“I have,” she said, “but how does that–”
“Multi-generational planning and execution, combined with drive and determination, and the knowledge of basic mathematical concepts. This is enough to start with.”
“Are you just another aspect of Odette?”
“No, I am the avatar of Krshnlgik-mlOgnk, the current head of remote planetary studies on our home world of MFkst.” The pronunciation of the non-translated names sounded more like someone choking in a bowl of oatmeal than a language.
“Is faster-than-light communication possible?”
“It is. I am currently speaking with you from a distance of thirty-one thousand light years.”
“How?”
A series of formulae appeared in the space above the dais. “You may use your phone to photograph these, since memorization might be difficult.”
Ana did. “And faster-than-light travel?”
The formulae were replaced with more, some of which looked similar to the first. She photographed those as well.
“Do you have any other questions?”
“How can you claim to keep track of everything happening all over the world?”
“The keeper, or Odette as you call it, has a connection through quintillions of microscopic wormholes to points all over the planet.”
“So, would you have the contents of the Library of Alexandria as they were just before it burned?”
“We do.” Thousands upon thousands of titles scrolled by, many in languages Ana couldn’t even guess at, but with an English translation next to them.
“That might be something for another day,” she said. “Are there others out there in the galaxy or just your people?”
“There are many others,” the avatar said, as images of dozens of strange body plans showed. “We are a small part of a wider galactic community.
“You seem to be pondering something,” the keeper said. “Do not be afraid to ask your question.”
“How do we get off this rock and join the galactic community?”
The keeper morphed into the shape of a cozy chair and said, “Get comfortable.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because,” the avatar answered, “this is going to take a long time to explain.”
prompt: Dream up a secret library. Write a story about an adventurer who discovers it. What’s in the library? Why was it kept secret?
originally posted at Reedsy

Hi there, I'm currently in the midst of running my first ever D&D campaign and I was hoping for some advice from some more experienced DMs out there.
​
The game is in a homebrew setting that's just your typical European medieval fantasy coded environment and it has vampires as the main antagonists of the campaign, which the party have already met(they're level 5).
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I'm very interested in trying to incorporate PC backstories into the campaign, but I'm not sure how to do that while still keeping the vampires present. Does anyone have any tips on how I can do this?
I also want these vampires to seem like a legitimate threat to the party and I would really love some advice on how to do that without accidentally curb-stomping the party or making it too much of a cakewalk.
​
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

**TL:DR**
If MoP remix was my entry to WoW, I'd have quit at level 17. The quest design is antiquated. Having only 4-5 buttons to press is boring. WoW doesn't work outside of level cap. And I literally don't know how to fix it.
​
**Disclaimer:** I've been playing since the tail end of Legion, after having spent a decade playing other MMOs, with a short while I spent playing Burning Cruasade in the mid 2000s. I have a few CEs to my name, but honest to heart, it's mostly because my guildmates are better than me but I'm reliable and not to a bad person to be around. I have all classes at max level, but I literally only ever leveled one character to level cap naturally. Even my very first character, a pandaren priest, I only leveled after I had boosted others to cap. I hate leveling; I've spent years in classic grindfests, i.e. Ragnarok, AION. But: I love WoW. It's literally the most fun I've ever had playing games. I've pushed title during SL, but since have been vibing as my premade desolved.
**Content:**
If MoP remix is a "superior" version of the leveling experience - there's no wonder WoW lacks *new* players and mostly relies on veterans and returnees. The leveling experience is absolute dogwater. I got to level 15 before I got *bored out of my mind* by doing quests that wanted me to "kill 15 mobs in the area", "click on 6 items in the area" and "press random shit item in your inventory 8 times while doing the other fetch quests". How is this acceptable?! Okay, I figured. If I had to do quests to experience Pandaria, I'd just rather not. Maybe the dungeon leveling experience is superior and I get some Pandaria feeling. So I queued. For time reasons, I hate long queues, on Blood DK. I have some familiarity (i.e. some dungeon portals) on it.
​
Queue me, having literally Death Strike (which for some reason heals me for *essentially nothing*), DnD, a kick, and two (later: threee) additional buttons to press. I'm absolutely getting slapping, I heal for nothing, and I have essentially no buttons to press. I did 5 dungeons and 3 of those were duplicates I already knew.
​
So I'm pressing ESO amount of buttons, that do very little; or I do 2003-esque fetch quests. My goal? I don't know, really. I have a max level DK. I have no nostalgia towards Pandaria, though I admit it *looks* nice. But at least I know what awaits me to a degree. A new player is just gonna... quit right there, because a new player doesn't know how fun M+ is. A new player doesn't know euphoria you get from mythic raiding in a 20-man roster, or timing essentially a progress key with the boys.
​
I love telling people it's the most dopamine I've ever got from a game... at level cap. But if I hadn't gone through the slog of leveing years past when I was unemployed and without a partner, I wouldn't even know. Boosts are 60 bucks or buying an expansion for an alt account at a discount. Even then, you either throw a few bucks to a booster or waste a day doing normal leveling dungeons that give no vault, no worthwhile loot.
​
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I've had a fairly quick interview loop experience with a prominent tech company: recruiter call, then following week hiring manager, then the following the panel interview with 4 senior level team members (head of/directors). Initially, the panel was scheduled for mid-week + then all were moved earlier. The recruiter mentioned that there is an upcoming deadline for the role. I think the interviews went pretty well. There may have been a couple moments where I could have been more succinct, but communicated everything I needed to in a structured way (STAR) (e.g. established rapport, competencies for the role, culture, etc). All the interviews went to the very end or slightly over. I asked good questions and conversation turned casual.
After I sent my thank you email, the recruiter responded early the next morning and said he should have an answer by EOW with a decision. It's now the weekend and I didn't hear anything. Obviously, it hasn't been long at all + there are so many variables (e.g. the sync could have been moved, senior level directors have a ton on their plate, etc) - but a part of me thinks that if I were a frontrunner, someone might've been in touch to let me know there would be a delay? My anxiety is strong.
What are your thoughts, recruiters?

Previous Part
Morning eventually came, banishing the eyes that seemed to peer at me through the night. It was strange how suddenly the feeling left me, making me think that someone really was watching me. The whole thing was really doing wonders for my paranoia. Despite the rough morning and sleepless night, I still found myself waiting outside Bianca’s house bright and early that morning. The air was cool but not chilly, one of those perfect days that’s cold enough you’ll never start sweating unless you really try, but warm enough that a T-shirt will get you through without too much trouble.
I only had to knock once before Bianca threw open the door.
“Where you just waiting there for me?”
I asked, cracking a smile and raising an eyebrow.
“You’ll never know” she added playfully, “Are we ready to go then?”
Bianca had made some preparations for the trip, she didn’t have a backpack ready to go but she definitely made an effort to dress the part… sort of. She was wearing an old grey combat jacket that I imagine she pulled out of Stein’s closet. The jacket was way to big for her but she made it work. Her combat boots matched the jacket, looking old and well worn. What didn’t match was the bright red yoga pants she was wearing, but I wasn’t about to complain. Besides, I had packed each of us a spare set of clothes just in case.
“Oh! So I had an idea, its a long walk, not crazy but I’d rather not just walk the whole way if we can help it. Frank and Stein used to have some bicycles when we first came here so I asked them about it and well.”
Bianca chirped, as she led me around the back of the house and pulled a tarp off two abysmal looking bicycles. The bikes were both red at one point but that was a long time ago. Now they were covered in a layer of rust and I could barely make out the branding that may have once read, “Shwinn”.
“Um… Bianca I think I might get tetanus if I sit on that thing.”
“Oh come on! Aren’t you tired of walking everywhere? Lets just give the bikes a shot, if they crumble to dust we can leave them.”
“And get me a tetanus shot.”
I added quickly
“Fine, and get you a tetanus shot.”
Bianca shot back, she feigned annoyance but she couldn’t hide the smile that crossed her face.
Laughing to ourselves, we got on the bikes and took off North, out of town and onto a dirt path leading to the woods. Bianca didn’t say much on the way out but I could tell she was having a good time. This may have been her first time out of the house for something other than supervising Frank and Stein. She tried to hide it by riding fast and staying out in front of me, but I could still catch her eyes literally glowing with happiness every now and then. I thought back to what Frank had said about her eyes glowing when she experiences strong emotion. I hoped that was the case and she wasn’t just trying really hard to influence me, which he had also said would make her eyes glow.
As we neared the end of the path, the forest’s edge came into view. we let the bikes roll to a stop then got off and let them fall over onto the dirt. I half expected them to explode into a puff of rusty brown dust the second they touched the ground but to my surprise, neither bike did. I could’ve swore I heard Bianca sniffle almost like she’d been crying. I opened my mouth to say something and then thought better of it, if she wanted to tell me what was going on she would. Well, that or she’d just manipulate me away from the question. Wait, was she doing that now? It’s hard to tell, maybe that’s how everyone around her feels. The more I thought about it the more I realized how difficult it must be for her just to have friends or form relationships with people at all. If she told them the truth they’d never know if what they were feeling around her at any given moment was real. All they’d have to go on would be her word, could they really trust that, could I? If she kept her secret she’d know that at any moment she could just change how they felt about her, manipulate them into anything she wanted. Could she resist that kind of power over them and still look someone in the eyes and say she was their friend. Not to mention how hard it would be to keep that secret over years of knowing someone.
“So Keith, were exactly are we headed? You do have some Idea where this mine you’re looking for is right?”
Bianca asked skeptically, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Well about that…. I just know its out here in the forest somewhere. That’s pretty much all I have to go on from Frank, Stein, and that massive bartender in town.”
I told her sheepishly.
“Well that explains why you over-packed so much then. Seriously? How long do you think we we’re going to be out here, you’re packed like some kind of survivalist.”
She mocked, picking through the pack I’d made for her. After she finished rooting through the pack I made for her like some kind of giant squirrel and, chastised me yet again for not doing more research on the mine, we set off.
The forest felt imposing as we walked into the woods through a manicured patch of trees. Someone had gone to great lengths to braid a few trees over this little path before the forest turned back into its natural wild state. It gave off the feeling that civilization ended with this path and something else entirely began. As we got off the path our light faded quickly, chocked out by the limbs of massive pine trees. All this cover meant there was very little foliage on the ground which was covered in a blanket of needles. The though occurred to me that we were looking for a mine in a valley. That’s weird because what exactly would be in a valley that warranted the creation of a mine? Usually you’ll find them in mountains so what exactly was one doing out here.
“Bianca I just had a thought, Why would they build a mine out here? I mean what’s the point, is there even anything valuable out here to mine?”
“Yeah, come to think of it your right. What other reason would there be to have a mine out here?”
“Unless they were just mining from a cave but that still doesn’t answer the question of what they were…”
Bianca cut me off
“What was that first thing you said?”
“Um… mining from a cave?”
A lightbulb went off over her head as she exclaimed,
“That’s it! There’s caves under the town, I’ve heard Frank talk about them before! Maybe they didn’t have a real mine so they were just mining something out of the caves.”
“Not to burst your bubble Bianca, but that still doesn’t get us any closer to these caves or mines or whatever it is.”
I responded cautiously, trying not to sound to critical of her revelation.
“Well not exactly, Frank said they were in the East of the forest somewhere so all we have to do is head East till we run into them.”
Bianca said, full of confidence. Then something occurred to me, we had no real way of getting back to the bikes other than retracing our steps. Now that was easy enough now, if we went deeper into the woods we would get lost pretty quickly.
“One more thing Bianca, Maybe we should come up with a way to find our way out? I really don’t want to end up lost out here.”
I asked nervously, fidgeting with my hands.
“Way ahead of you on that one, I left my phone back by the bikes. Here give me yours and I’ll put my number in so you can track it and find our way back.”
She said, taking my phone, putting her number into it, and turning it to me to show she’d tracked her own phones location with it, giving us a path back to the bikes.
As we turned East and headed even deeper into the forest the terrain started to change. Instead of the pine needle coating we started to see rocks and the ground was more rugged. Here and there we’d even pass a boulder or two. I decided to break the silence of our search.
“So are you ever going to tell me how you met Frank and Stein?”
Bianca sighed before responding.
“I suppose you deserve to know if your sticking around. You probably guessed I wasn’t always living with them. Lets just say before that I was with someone who I though meant the world to me but I never meant the same to him. It was all a game to him and eventually I noticed that. Then, a little while afterwards I realized I wasn’t exactly powerless anymore and I did some things that I’m not exactly proud of to survive on my own.”
I could tell talking about this hurt her but I needed more.
“That’s not exactly telling me a whole lot Bianca.”
I pressed, maybe a little to hard.
“I found out I had powers and I used them ok! I got myself out of a situation where I was pulled so many way I didn’t know which direction was up! The second I found out I could do the same thing to people myself, I did! You’re the first person to actually seem to give a shit that wasn’t some crazy doctor that tolerates my existence or someone I just manipulated into caring! Maybe I even did that with you! I JUST DON’T KNOW ANYMORE!”
Bianca screamed at me, getting in my face with tears beginning to run down her own. Her eyes were glowing electric blue again and I knew I’d crossed a line.
“Hey I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you. I… I didn’t know.”
“No.. you didn’t but I guess you should”
Bianca sniffled out, trying desperately to pull herself back together and keep up the act the everything was ok. Bianca went silent for a while as we kept walking along, crying to herself before she finally took a deep breath and said,
“You know, this is the first time someone’s asked me to come along and do something outside the house in years. I spend so much time cooped up in there just helping with experiments and looking after Rocco. It’s actually nice to get out and talk for once.”
Her voice still a lifts hoarse from screaming at me before.
“Look if you want to talk about it we’ve got nothing but time out here. I’d like to know a bit more about you anyways.”
I said taking her hand and trying to sound comforting.
“Yeah maybe I should get some of it off my chest. Here it goes I guess.”
Bianca said, taking a deep breath and tightening her grip on my hand. Her eyes still glowed faintly as she told me her story as we ventured deeper into the forest.
I’ll give you the shorter version of it here, mostly cause I’m not sure how she’d feel about me spoiling all her secrets.. She ran away from her family and her college education for a guy, his name was Brooke. Brooke was from money and had a job lined up by his family at a law firm so Bianca thought she was set for life with him. Bianca was madly in love with him at the time but as days grew into months and years, Brooke became a monster. He cheated on her and told her she wasn’t enough, that her shortcomings drove him to do it over and over again and somehow it was all her fault every time. He became abusive not long after the cheating started, flying into fits of hysteric apology afterwards only further convincing Bianca she was somehow at fault. After three years of this she eventually got up the courage to leave and never looked back. On the road she discovered her powers of manipulation, letting her play with people’s emotions and she only got better at it with time. Unfortunately her abilities got her into a very specific form of getting money out of people, prostitution. One day she tried to solicit Stein and he saw straight through her. Stein took her with him to the hotel he and Frank were staying at and they took her in on the spot. The trio traveled together ever since, Bianca becoming a kind of daughter to them.
I was in shock once she finished her story, it sounded like she’d really been through the ringer.“I don’t know what to say, that’s awful, all of it.”
“It was, I lived it. But I made it through, doesn’t matter how at the end of the day. I’ve got Frank and Stein and that’s enough, they let me into their home and I recovered in my own way, I’m still here so I’ll take what I can get right?”
Bianca stated with a cold loom of determination on her face. It was painfully obvious to me that despite the masquerade of being fine she was barley holding it together underneath. Like just talking about it with me was driving a finger into old wounds.
“At least you’ll never have to go through something like that again. With your abilities you never have to get pushed around like that.”
I said with completely no tact whatsoever. Bianca stopped suddenly as I said this and whirled around to face me. The fire I’d seen in her eyes earlier reigniting in seconds.
“Do you really think that’s all this is?! I’m no better than him, even you don’t know what you really think when you look at me! Admit ti!”
Bianca growled at me, hysterical once again.
“No, Bianca I…”
“Look I know your trying to help but just leave it, ok? I’m done talking about this”
She cut me off, pulling herself back together and signaling very clearly we were done with that particular conversation.
“Besides look over there, That hole in the rock see it? That might be what we’re looking for.”
Bianca said, gesturing to the stone wall that now jutted out of the ground beside us.
The rock wall she pointed out was chipped near the middle in a way that couldn’t have been natural. Straight lines don’t really exist in nature and this hole was cut squarely into this rock wall. As we got closer I could see that it wasn’t just an entrance either. The hole opened into the rock wall but then suddenly dropped, like whoever carved it had hit a point where the ground just fell out from under them. From where Bianca and I were looking into the hole we couldn’t quite see the bottom.
“Well we found what we were looking for, is this bringing back any memories from those dreams you had?”
Bianca asked, sounding a little short tempered still as I searched through my bag.
“What are you looking for in there?”
“Rope, I’ve got to see what’s in there and I’m hoping I brought enough to climb down there.”
I replied hurriedly, still tearing apart my bag to get to the rope I had packed underneath everything else.
“Rope? you’re not seriously going to climb down that pit are you? I can barely see down there.”
Bianca complained, sounding exasperated.
“Here, this should help you see down there.”
I said, tossing her one of the two head mounted flashlights I brought along.
“ME? I never said we were going down there!”
Bianca panicked momentarily.
“Look, you can stay up here and wait for me if you really don’t want to go down there. But I would appreciate having you to watch my back.”
I added trying to soften her up. Bianca opened her mouth like she was going to say something but stopped, instead dropping her own pack to the ground and searching through it.
“Look if I’m going down there I’m going to need something better than yoga pants on and…. You actually packed a change of clothes in here. Geez you really did think of everything.”
As Bianca took the jeans I packed and went off to find somewhere to change I finally found the rope. It was about 50 feet of strong climbing rope that I kept for an occasion just like this. Now that’s not to say I was a professional climber by any means but a 20 or 30 foot rappel I should be able to do. I was hoping that the descent wasn’t much further than that. I anchored the rope to a tree a little ways away from the hole in the rock face and tossed the rope down the hole. It hit the bottom with a satisfying thud just as Bianca got back from changing. The jeans I had packed were a little big on her but she’d manage. She looked like a mess in her ancient combat boot and jacket, all of which were too big for her. I tried to open my mouth to tell her she looked nice, I swear I really did but what came out was hyena-like laughter at her appearance.
“I…. Oh god I’m…. It’s just”
I struggled to get out, laughing all the while.
“Well I’m glad you like it at least, ok seriously come on, stop laughing.”
Bianca scolded as she began giggling herself. Soon enough we were both laughing, Bianca’s earlier storminess cleared up by the absurdity of the situation.
Here we were, a succubus and a guy with a strange mark out in the woods getting ready to rappel into a hole in the ground that apparently didn’t exist. All this was almost starting to feel… I’m not really sure how to put it, not normal but not so strange. Honestly I finally felt like I’d found some kind of purpose again out here. As weird as it all was I was starting to enjoy… this, this whole odd situation I’d found myself in. Bianca and I finally got ahold of the laughter and stood back up from our place on the ground.
“Do I really look that bad?”
She asked
“I’ve never heard you complain about your looks before. But no, with those jeans on you look like maybe, just maybe you prepared a little bit for coming out here.”
I teased, getting a little wry grin out of her.
“Come on, lets get going. Hopefully we can be in and out of there pretty quickly.”
I said, handing Bianca her pack and shouldering my own.
Rappelling in wasn’t actually all that hard, really dangerous without safety equipment sure, but neither of us had any trouble descending the maybe 20 foot drop. At the bottom I saw something that shocked me, this place wasn’t abandoned. I saw lighting set up, not on but very clearly set up recently. Bits of old mining equipment were scattered around the… cave? Mine? Im not really sure what to call it anymore. What concerned me more than anything was the light I saw at the far end of the cave (I’m settling on calling it a cave). The light came from a massive bonfire and I could just make out the shadows of several people sitting around it. I have no idea how we didn’t see the smoke on our way in. It wasn’t filling the cave but it also wasn’t coming out from anywhere I saw on the way here.
“Bianca get down!”
I whisper shouted at her, turning off my headlamp and falling flat to the ground myself. Bianca dropped to the ground as she heard me with unexpected grace. I didn’t know if those figures by the fire had seen us but I certainly wasn’t taking chances.
“Ok, I’m going to creep up and see if I can hear them talking or something. Can you just stay here and watch my back? I don’t want you getting any closer than you have to.”
I instructed Bianca who answered with a quick nod and reached into the inner pocket of her jacket. She withdrew a jeweled golden dagger from it.
“I sorry, what’s this now?”
I asked, confused and thrown off guard by the weapon. It was a really beautiful blade, the hilt was silver with several purple gems inlaid in it. The blade was golden save for the razor sharp edge which was some kind of strange blue material that was roughly the same color Blanca’s eyes glowed.
“I had a life before this you know.”
Bianca responded.
“Yeah we talked about it but you didn’t really tell me much about this part apparently. Doesn’t matter I guess just surprised you have Jeff Bezos’s butter knife in your jacket pocket.”
I whispered, pointing at the dagger in her hand.
“Well we can talk more about how I ended up with this later, not really the time now. Just be careful ok.”
I got up as she said this, realizing she was right. Now really wasn’t the time to be asking about strange daggers, I had more pressing issues.
I crouched down and started creeping towards the figures by the bonfire, careful to avoid the rusty machinery bits scattered across the ground. As I got closer I saw a passage I had missed in the dark. I dared to turn my headlamp on for just a second, trying to block out most of the light with my hand. What I saw through the dim light and shadows of my finger left me awestruck. Inside the passage a coliseum had been constructed, with seats carved into the stone. The structure itself was made up of the rusted metal pieces that littered the room, collected and smelted together to form the walls of the structure. What frightened me the most was the symbol clearly and meticulously drawn on the dirt floor, the same symbol that adorned my back, the symbol of the thunderbird. Moving on, more shaken than ever I crept closer still to the roaring bonfire. I could just about make out the words the figures were saying. When I got close enough to make out the word “tests” the fire suddenly went out with a gust of wind.The room temperature must have dropped 10 degrees immediately and I could swear I heard the sounds of heavy rain above us. But the sudden lack of light isn’t what rooted me in place, cowering on the cave floor. What did that was the two illuminated grey eyes that pierced through the darkness like lightning in a storm, eyes I would never forget, the eyes of the woman from Imalone.
This time I clearly heard the voices of the figures from around the bonfire as they all dropped to their knees.
“Shaoni! We weren’t expecting you till later, Stormcaller.”
The figures all said some variation of in unison. Their tone sounding almost as though they were begging for forgiveness. In a voice that hissed like rain on pavement the woman apparently named Shaoni spoke.
“I’ve come to oversee the start of the trials, is everything prepared?”
In one bone chilling moment her eyes locked on mine and she said the one thing I’d hoped she wouldn’t.
“You didn’t tell me we had guests.”
The moment the words left her lips I turned back to where Bianca was waiting, her now glowing eyes cutting through the darkness of the cave. Giving up any form of subtly, I bolted for the rope behind Bianca. I just wanted to be out of this cave, whatever I might learn from searching around was far outweighed by the fact that Shaoni was here. I’d seen the kind of destruction she’d left in her wake in Imalone and I had no desire to see it happen again here. I banged my ankle on several of the little bits of rusty metal on the floor as I ran, sending sparks of pain up my leg. I didn’t hear anything behind me at all which was almost more unnerving than the footsteps I expected to hear. I closed in on Bianca and saw she hadn’t moved at all, her eyes fixed on something behind me. I dared to take a quick glance back over my shoulder and saw Shaoni taking her first step away from the extinguished bonfire. Lightning crackled around her like one of those novelty plasma globes. In the flashes of light I could see her face. There was no smile or frown, no emotion at all. She simply stared straight ahead towards me and took slow calm steps, inching ever closer.
“Bianca we’ve got to go… NOW!”
I shouted, snapping her to attention. She nodded and turned on her heels, back toward the rope we’d thrown in earlier. Only, when we got to the rope and gave it a tug, it came falling back toward us.
“There’s no way. I…I anchored it to that tree, it should’ve held!”
I cried in disbelief. Bianca and I starred up at the now stormy sky through the hole we would’ve escaped from. Two men walked into view on either side of the hole, glowering down at us. I notice a marking on one of the men’s hands in a flash of lightning from the storm. I could only assume if I was able to make it out I would’ve seen a marking just like the one on my back. Just as soon as the men had appeared a shape flew in from the left with a low growl, taking both men along with it.
“Ok, new plan! There’s something else up there and I really don’t want to get involved with… whatever that was either. I didn’t see any footprints near the entrance so I’m assuming those guys we saw by the bonfire got in another way. We’re just going to have to find where that was and get out that way.”
I instructed Bianca, gesturing to the men in toe with Shaoni and trying not to sound as afraid as I was.
“Ok, I’m with you but lets get moving, I don’t want to any closer to her than I have to be.”
Bianca answered, putting her hand on my shoulder. I suddenly felt a wave of calm rush over me and for the second time I was grateful for Bianca’s ability to simply turn off my fear response.
Shaoni now stood about 50 feet from us with four men following behind her. In the light she gave off I could see the men were all dressed like normal people. I kind of figured they would be more of those canvas wrapped weirdos from Imalone but no. There stood four men in jeans and flannels standing there. Shaoni looked like she could’ve stepped right out of a painting of Pocahontas. She wore an animal hide dress with frills along the bottom and arms. Her head was adorned with a leather band containing several hawk feathers. In short she looked like she’d stepped out of a different time. But I had no time to look over the finer details of her clothing as Bianca and I rushed towards her. Once we got within striking distance I pulled Bianca to the left, towards the passage I had seen earlier. Shaoni never made a move towards us, she just simply looked at me, the ghost of a smile briefly crossing her lips. One of the men with her grabbed at Bianca though, pulling her out of my grasp momentarily. That was a mistake because she was on him immediately with the ornate dagger I’d seen before. As the man grabbed her Bianca lashed out with the dagger, sticking him in the gut with the blade. He screamed in anguish and let go of her but Bianca wasn’t done yet. She followed up by stabbing the man in the back of the neck as he bent over, grabbing at the hole in his abdomen. The other three men were so taken aback by the sudden ferocity she displayed that they didn’t come any closer. As time stood still for a second the men all looked toward Shaoni, awaiting instructions but hesitant to get any closer to Bianca. Using the brief moment of disbelief Bianca had caused, we ran down the side passage towards the coliseum.
“What was that?”
I asked, still shocked by how suddenly Bianca had acted.
“He tried to grab me, I don’t like when they try to grab me”
Bianca responded, distant and… scared? I got the sense she was still in shock at what she had done too. But I couldn’t worry about that right now, we still had to get out of here. Luckily the men didn’t seem to be following us. Wether Shaoni called them off or they stopped to care for their friend I didn’t know, and frankly I didn’t care.
Rushing through the rusty coliseum was haunting. I expected something to jump out of every shadow in the imposing structure. As we slowed to a jog in the middle of the coliseum, right where that eagle symbol was, we stopped to look around. We had come into this arena through an open arch but the only other exit I could see was a similar but barred archway. The coliseum was huge for something constructed in a cave, probably 400 feet across. I had no idea how this thing could’ve been made without anybody finding out.
“Bianca are you seeing anyway out of here? Bianca!”
I asked, then shouted as I turned to see her standing still as a statue in the middle of the Eagle symbol. She was staring at the dagger she had stabbed that man with. Blood still stained the blade and dripped from it intermittently.
“Bianca are you alright?”
I questioned as I walked over to her. She still had this look in her eyes, like she was miles away.
“Bianca? Come on talk to me. Look, you did what you had to do back there, sure it wasn’t exactly pretty but it had to be done.”
I tried to comfort her with my words but the truth is, my heart just wasn’t in it. I was a little scared of what I saw from her in those few moments. She just lashed out and attacked him, not that he didn’t deserve it but going back for more was too much. But what would’ve happened if she didn’t act? It’s not something I could really dwell on now and I’m not sure it really mattered. I just wasn’t feeling all that great about the fact we may have killed someone.
“I don’t like it when they grab me.”
Bianca finally repeated, still appearing catatonic. I leaned down to her level, putting my face right in-front of her’s and putting her head in between my hands.
“Bianca I know enough to know that whole situation may have dug up some memories for you but nows really not the time. We have to keep moving, we have to find a way out of here, and I can’t do that without you right now.”
Bianca tensed up as I spoke to her, but I could feel her relax as I finished. A single tear fell from her eye as she gave me a nod and followed behind me as I walked toward the barred off archway.
Before I made it to the archway there was a massive crash as something tore the rusty bars from their mountings and fell into the room.
“Tuck?!”
I exclaimed, recognizing his colossal figure on the floor immediately. His shirt and pants were torn to shreds though, Like he’d flexed too hard and burst out of his clothes. Bianca and I rushed over to check on him but apparently he was fine. Before we even started walking towards him he was already back up on his feet and lumbering towards us.
“Tuck what are you doing here? Actually never mind, are you ok?”
I asked, concern in my voice.
“It’s going to take more than this to stop me son. I figured you might go looking for that old mine I mentioned the other night so I came to find you. I feel real bad about ya run’in off the way ya did and I got to thinking. Maybe I could make it up to ya if I told ya about the mine. So I came out here and found some shady look’in fellas poking around and figured maybe ya needed help, looks like I was right.”
Tuck explained, dusting himself off and brushing away some of the tattered remains of his shirt. I didn’t buy his story for a second but I wasn’t going to argue with this bear of a man.
“So how did you get in anyway?”
“Used the old entrance from back when this place was still run’in, come on I’ll lead ya out.”
Tuck answered, already turning and walking back the way he came.
The walk out was long and none of us talked much so I just looked around. The further we walked down this little tunnel the more I noticed crushed equipment. The walls looked like they were made up of bits and pieces of crumbled rock that may have once been the ceiling of a much bigger tunnel here.
“There was a collapse, just like the report said only, whatever caused it wasn’t any fault of ours. It was that damn thunderbird waking up.”
Tuck piped up, answering one question and making me ask another.
“Wait you knew about her?!”
“All the miners did, some decided to follow her after she woke up and brought the walls down on us. Others wanted revenge for the brothers we lost, I’m one of the former. You see son, the reason I stayed around this town so long was because of that bird. I want a chance to return the favor.”
“But what about Robert? If you hate the thunderbird so much why’d you let him in? You had to see that tattoo on his hand.”
“I know he thinks that damned bird will “save” him or something but I don’t blame him. Everyone deals with things in their own way and it’s not my place to judge folk for it.”
Tuck lectured, as we made our way further down the passage. His words made sense to me but I didn’t understand how he could be so understanding. From what I understood the thunderbird had a part to play in the original mine’s collapse and the death of the workers there. Only for some of the survivors to revere this creature. If I were in Tuck’s shoes I don’t think I could forgive and forget.
Finally we saw light at the end of the tunnel. We emerged into the whispers of what I’m sure was a monster of a storm. But that’s not what drew my attention, what did were the boulders scattered around the hole we just came out of. It looked like they had been moved, and recently. The suspicious red stain just barley peaking out from the bottom of one of them only served to convince me further. Tuck’s story didn’t quite make sense and this entrance seemed like it should’ve been blocked up until very recently. I wasn’t about to question the guy who saved us though, so I let the issue rest.
Bianca’s idea of tracking her phone to find our way to the bikes worked like a charm. We followed the directions my phone spit at us and eventually found our way back to the bikes. Tuck’s old Ford Bronco sat behind our bikes leaving me to question if he followed us on our way here.
“Well do you kids want a ride back to town?”
Tuck asked, his voice bellowing across the forest. Seriously it was like the guy swallowed a loudspeaker at some point and just spoke through it now.
“No we’ll find our own way back.”
“Alrighty then, stay safe son.”
Tuck called back to me as he got into his truck and drove off. Bianca and I stood up our bikes and got ready to head back to town.
“Hey Keith?”
“Yeah what is it Bianca?”
“Next time you offer to bring me along somewhere can you warn me about the damn thunderbird that seems to just show up around you.”
I laughed at this, it was nice to see Bianca joking around again. After what happened in the caves she seemed like someone else, none of her usual cheeriness was there. Not that I knew if that was what she wanted me to see from her or how she actually presented herself but still. I trusted her enough at this point to assume she wasn’t using her abilities to mess with my head.
When we got back to Bianca’s house the sun was just beginning to set, washing the town in shades of purple, orange, and red. We walked the bikes around to their place behind the house and I walked Bianca back to the front door.
“Thanks for today Keith,I don’t… get out very much anymore and it was… nice… to do something other than sit around the house for once. You know, despite everything that happened it was actually fun.”
I was taken aback by her words at first. If it was me I’d immediately want nothing to do with this person who just put me in danger.
“You had fun? The thunderbird showed up again and we may have killed a guy and you had fun?”
I asked, raising and eyebrow suspiciously.
“Can we not talk about that right now? Anyways I don’t exactly have a high bar for what is and isn’t fun at this point. I’ll see you later Keith.”
Bianca said, cracking a smile and walking into her house.
I was about halfway back to my own house when I realized she never gave me my backpack back. Well, looks like I’d be seeing her again then because I need that stuff back. I wasn’t sure what to think about what I’d seen today. If the thunderbird was in those mines years ago why did she end up in Wisconsin? There was also a very real possibility some people in this town worshipped her so I’d have to keep an eye out for that. The really interesting thing to me was the Shaoni never seemed to want to hurt me in the cave today. She was terrifying as all hell sure, but I didn’t get the sense that she wanted to cause me any sort of harm. If she wanted to do that my gut told me she would’ve done it quickly and efficiently.
Thunder suddenly cracked outside, interrupting my train of thought. As I stood up to see what time it was a knock came from the front door. I froze, who exactly could it be? I doubt Bianca would come over, I don’t think she even knows where I live but maybe she came by to drop off the backpack she absconded with? The knock came again, more forcefully this time.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!”
I shouted, as I jogged to the door. My heart dropped as soon as I opened it, On the other side of the door stood Shaoni. She was dressed normally for once, wearing a long flowing white nightgown. Shaoni stepped into my house as she cooed in her usual misty voice.
“Good evening. Keith was it? We have much to discuss.”

Previous Part
I woke up to the smell of sausage and eggs. Over by the side of my bed was a tray with a masterfully prepared omelet and sausage to match. That’s not what caught my eye though. What did that was the little note stuck to the side of they tray.
“Sorry for terrorizing you- R”
Was scrawled in barley legible hand writing, Rocco’s I imagined.
“So it can cook but not write?”
I muttered to myself as I got out of bed.
A fresh change of clothes was laid out for me and I decided just not to question it. The clothes fit perfectly and I tried not to let my mind wander as to why that was while I ate breakfast. Rocco’s omelet was outstanding, for a trash panda he made a great cook but I have no idea where he would’ve picked that up. After I finished I brought my dishes downstairs and ran into Stein in the kitchen.
“The clothes fit don’t they? My eyes aren’t what they used to be, I should’ve just sent Rocco up to ask your size.”
“No no, they fit fine, and please don’t send Rocco to do anything without telling me. I think that might just give me a heart attack on the spot. I’m still really not used to all… this going on”
I said gesturing to the raccoon who had wandered into the kitchen and was now flipping me the bird with both his paws.

Stein nodded to me with what I hoped was understanding. As much as Rocco seemed harmless (Maybe… hopefully?) I really didn’t want the furry little demon arriving anywhere near me unexpectedly. We already saw how that went in the basement yesterday. I finished washing my dishes in the sink as Stein ate his breakfast. He seemed so calm and normal, compared to the things I’d seen in this house so far. If you took one look at Bianca you say she looked too good to be true. Rocco is… well, he’s a talking raccoon, that’s immediately strange. But when it came to Frank and Stein you couldn’t tell there was anything off about them. Honestly I still had trouble seeing where they fit into this whole thing.
I was lost in this train of thought as I went through the motions of taking my groceries out of the refrigerator where someone had put them. I didn’t even realize Bianca was standing behind me till she tapped my shoulder. Jumping out of my skin I screeched out,
“Jesus Rocco what the hell!”
Bianca went from serious to laughing hysterically in no time flat.
“He really has you spooked after last night doesn’t he?”
She barely got out between bouts of laughter.
“I’m sorry really, oh and I’ve got this for you.”
Chuckled Bianca, handing me a wad of cash with a face that didn’t look remotely sorry for laughing at me.
“Just for that I’ll take it! But I’ve got to ask, how do you have this much cash just lying around, isn’t that a little risky?”
“You’d have to ask my unc… Frank or Stein.”
Bianca answered, stumbling on the apparently familiar lie. As she said this Stein stood up from the table and answered my question.
“Researching the supernatural isn’t always safe but Germany pays its scientists well, even if we don’t work for them anymore.”
“Germany? When did you work with the German government?”
I asked, a sinking suspicion settling into the pit of my stomach.
“1941, The Führer requested me specifically and I met Frank there. Oh don’t look at me like that! I didn’t support his cause, he simply wanted to look into forces outside his control and that was my specialty. It was business nothing more.”
Stein responded, pointing his finger at me and sounding a little annoyed.
“But that would make you… there’s no way you’re that old. Uh I don’t mean!”
“Think nothing of it, if anything, it means our serum worked. Distilled it from the DNA of a few pureblooded vampires and designed it to slow human aging to a crawl.”
Bianca cut him off,
“Stein, I think I can see steam coming out his ears. Can we maybe give the supernatural stuff a rest? I know you’ve been around it all your life but I think its a bit much for him.”
“Yes, I suppose your right Bianca. I’ll leave you two be then.”
Stein surrendered, as he turned and walked out of the room. Like he hadn’t just dropped yet another bomb on me.
I held myself together much better this time. After talking raccoons and succubi, learning vampires apparently existed in such an offhanded manner just didn’t surprise me as much. At this point I was just about ready to accept any supernatural entity I’d ever heard of existed in some capacity. In fact that might be the best policy moving forward.
“Hey you’re not going to pass out on us again right?”
Bianca asked turning back to me, genuine concern in her voice.
“No, I’ll be fine. The more I hear about this kind of thing the better I am at just accepting it. It’s a lot easier hearing it from one of you guys than having it drop out of the sky at me.”
I joked, walking with Bianca to the door. I noticed my poor attempt at a joke was the first time I said anything about Imalone without feeling like someone would call me crazy. I couldn’t dwell on that for too long right now though, I had to drop off the groceries that had taken me a full day to get. In hindsight though, I’ve had worst trips to the grocery store.
The next few days passed without any real issues, I got things set up in the house and ordered some furniture with the money I got from Bianca. On the second day I figured I should go out and explore the town a bit. I was getting bored being cooped up doing normal things and apparently I wanted to throw a wrench in all that.
“Maybe a bar” I thought to myself as I walked out the door just as the sun had started to think about setting, “Those are always a good place to meet people”.
This is where I tell you I may be just a little awkward. Even back home I didn’t really get out and meet new people much but I figured now is as good a time as any to start. I threw together a quick outfit with the clothes I brought with me from home. Hopefully I looked at least a little bit presentable in khakis and a red dress shirt. I walked out my door and immediately saw Bianca’s house peering out over the town. I considered dropping by to see if Bianca wanted to join me. I had told her about the reasons I ended up in Eagles Peak but I still knew precious little about her. I assumed her past wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I wanted to know what exactly drew someone like her to a sleepy little town like this. Maybe seeing if she wanted to join me would be a good opportunity to learn something about her? It’s entirely possible I just wanted to spend more time around her because she was drop dead gorgeous. Maybe it was because she was the first person I bumped into in town? I couldn’t put my finger on it and if we’re being honest I didn’t want to admit the real reason to myself.
That would have to wait for another day though. I had spent so much time thinking about it that by the time I snapped back to reality I was by the greyhound bus stop, well past her house. There was another bus stopped there and people were getting off of it. None of them looked like what I would call a local but its not like I’d really know what a “local” looked like here anyways. Still, this town couldn’t get this many visitors right? It was weird but probably had a completely reasonable explanation.
“The Eagle’s Roost” read the sign above the bar’s entrance, it was actually a pretty high class looking establishment. The fresh red paint gleamed against the faded whites and grays of the other buildings on the street. Inside, a well polished dark wood floor greeted me. The room was completed by a roaring stone fireplace and a well used set of stools by the counter.
“Hey there! Anyone home?!”
I called out into the empty bar.
“Give me a minute!”
Replied a deep gruff voice form the back room. Eventually a man emerged from the room, well I say man but what I mean was a mountain in human form. This guy had to be about 7 feet tall and built from solid granite. Seriously, the muscles on this guy would’ve put The Rock to shame.
“Little early to start drinkin’ isn’t it?”
The mountain grunted judgmentally.
“Well I’m new here I just wanted to see the town. I could come back later if you want.”
“New, why didn’t you say so! New here, I haven’t seen anyone new here in years! come sit down if you’ve got questions about this place I can probably answer them!”
The now elated giant boomed at me. He turned hospitable in an instant, offering me a drink on the house for his poor manners before. His name was Tucker and he’d come to the town years ago as a foreman for it’s mine. The mine dried up and the workers moved on but something about this town spoke to him and he decided to stay. He opened up this bar and the rest is history. Something about the way he talked about the mine did’t sit right with me though. He kept mentioning how it dried up like he was trying to convince me that was what happened. Plus a mine out here didn’t exactly make much sense to me.
“So you run this place alone then?”
I asked, more to be polite than out of genuine curiosity. We had started to run out of things to talk about after conversation about the mine dried up much like it apparently had.
“Never needed any help besides my wife’s, but most days I just run the place alone, yes. No sense in hiring help here, not many people looking for work outside of the ones working at that grocery store down the street. Anyways I should get back to work, its getting to be about time we actually open to the public.”
I turned my head to look at the sign I now realized was stuck to the door. “Eagle’s Roost Hours: 6PM-1AM every night”. I realized with embarrassment I had walked through the door an hour before opening. Tuck had been nothing but friendly though, and I almost felt bad for assuming the locals like him would want to shoo me away. After all, everyone I’d met so far had been nothing but nice, not including Rocco that is.
As I turned my attention back to my drink I thought about the mine again. I hadn’t seen any records of the mine Tuck mentioned in my internet searches of the town before I came here. Honestly it had been incredibly difficult to dig up anything on the town. I wasn’t necessarily the most thorough in my search, but mines tend to be a staple of the towns they’re located in. This mine in particular seems to be what the town was built on. I’m not sure what had me so worked up on this mine issue but I was sure it was important. I sat there at the bar, mulling it over and sipping on my drink when a hand slapped down on my shoulder.
The man it was attached to said something but I couldn’t catch it even if I wanted to. I was far to laser focused on the mark seared black into the mans hand, the exact same eagle that was burned into my back. I pushed him off and bolted for the door, all I heard behind me was the mans confused “What?” And Tuck shouting at him.
“Now what in the Blazes did you do to the poor kid Robert!”
I shot off into the street from the bar, no one was chasing me but the fact that the symbol was here had set me off like a deer running from a gunshot.
“What the hell happened to you?”
Called a now familiar, heavily accented voice from the alleyway.
“Rocco, what are you doing out here?”
I questioned, bewildered at finding him out in the open. I’d never admit it but seeing a familiar face, even Rocco’s, calmed me down a little
“I’m a raccoon in an alleyway, what do you think I’m doing, fishing? No, I’m rootin' around in the trash, Frank needs some lithium foil and he can’t be bothered to run out and buy some batteries himself, stingy bastard.”
He retorted, looking for all intents and purposes like a normal raccoon at the moment.
“Even if I were to guess I wouldn’t have even come close to that.”
“I live to surprise”
Rocco sneered, taking a bow dripping with sarcasm.
“Anyways Frank is back at the house right? There’s something I’ve got to tell him.”
I asked, turning and running as soon as I got a response in the affirmative.
“Yeah he is, what exactly is so importa…. And he’s gone”
I made it to their strange high house in record time and burst through the door like I owned the place. For some reason Bianca seemed completely unfazed as I crashed into the entryway without so much as a knock.
“You know, you don’t live here right?”
“Oh yeah, good to see you too Bianca. Anyways, were is Frank, or Stein for that matter I’ve got something to ask.”
“They’re in the basement.”
Bianca said pointing to the door without looking up from the book she was reading.
Her dismissive attitude didn’t even register to me as I made my way down the basement steps. I got to the bottom and an acrid scent assaulted my nostrils.
“Do I even want to know what that is?”
I called into the basement, announcing my presence. Frank emerged from a room to my side decked out in a full lab coat and goggles along with a hairnet to protect what little of his still remained.
“What do you need?”
“You guys seem to know a lot about the supernatural right? Well, does this symbol mean anything to you?”
I said pulling off my shirt and turning my back to show him the mark that woman had left me with. His reaction could best be described by the sound of shattering glass as he dropped the beaker he was holding as he saw the symbol.
“Where did you get that?!”
He yelled more than asked.
“Back in Imalone.”
“Imalone? What’s that supposed to mean?”
It dawned on me that I hadn’t explained it to him like I had Bianca, so I filled him in. I told him the whole truth this time, where the mark came from, what really drove me to Eagles Peak, all of it. Frank listened diligently looking more concerned by the minute, at some point Stein joined him. A similarly shocked look was plastered across his face. I swear he was turning white when he answered my question.
“It’s the mark of the Thunderbird, and from what you told us, you met… her in person.”
“So why do you look so worried about it?”
I asked, feeling a little worried.
“Well she’s marked you personally, most people that have that mark would’ve gotten it to show devotion or allegiance and it certainly wouldn’t have come directly from the Thunderbird.”
The way Stein talked about this “Thunderbird” made me think I may be in even deeper shit than I realized.
“So do you two actually know anything about the Thunderbird?”
I asked, hoping these two would know something considering their long study of the supernatural.
“Until recently I only knew of the native legends surrounding the creature. I heard of people marking themselves with that symbol so I assumed there must be some truth to the legends. But neither me nor Frank has ever seen the Thunderbird, much less seen it..er, her take a human form.”
Stein answered, sounding almost disappointed in himself. I got the sense that not knowing something like this really ate at him. Which was just further proven by what he said next, a grin suddenly appearing on his face.
“Frank, I think we have our next big research project on our hands then.”
“I’ll start pulling any records I can find of accounts like Keith’s here.”
Frank said, hurrying over to a computer in the basement corner that looked ancient.
“Yes and compare those to the various legends surrounding the Thunderbird.”
Stein responded, rifling through a row of cabinets against the far wall.
Those two seemed to be whipped into a frenzy by something they knew next to nothing about being dropped in their laps.
“Guys… Guys! Can we hold off on going full mad scientist mode for just a second I’ve got one more thing to ask!”
I yelled trying to get their attention. when they turned to me I could see the spark in both their eyes as they hastily responded in unison.
“Yes, what!”
“Have either of you heard about a mine in this town? Tuck at “Eagle’s Roost” mentioned it but I don’t remember seeing anything about it when I looked into this town.”
“Ah the mine, it’s out in the forest north of town somewhere. There was a collapse or something a few years after it opened and the town covered it up. It would’ve been very embarrassing for them to admit the screw up so they just… didn’t, that’s all there is too it.”
Frank answered, seemingly bothered by the mundaneness of that question.
“So the mine is still out there then?”
“Of course! What did you think it just walked away? No, leave us be we’ve got work to do.”
Stein snapped.
As I left the two to their business and made my way out of the house I ran into Rocco, several grimy batteries grasped in his paws.
“They uh… I don’t think they’ll need those batteries anymore bud.”
“God damnit! That’s what I get for trying to be helpful.”
Rocco yelled, as he threw the batteries against the wall. I had to chuckle at the absurdity of it all. Here I was walking past a talking raccoon on his way down to two scientists looking into a Thunderbird. That’s a real thing that’s currently happening to me. Just a few days ago simply seeing Rocco knocked me out almost immediately and now he was just a minor inconvenience. Could it be that I was actually adjusting to all the crazy things that had been happening around me? I sure thought so.
Upstairs, Bianca was still nose deep in her book at the kitchen table.
“Hey can I ask you something?”
“Yeah sure, what is it?”
“Ever been into the woods around town? There’s something I want to check out there.”
“I don’t usually leave the house all that much if I’m honest.”
Bianca answered, a touch of sadness in her voice.
“Do you want too? Leave the house I mean.”
“What are you getting at?”
“Well, I’m going to be headed out there tomorrow looking for the old mine.”
“And why are you looking for that?”
She questioned suspiciously.
“I have a feeling it has something to do with the mark that woman… and I forgot I didn’t tell you about that.”
Bianca looked up at me as she said with a smirk.
“I knew there was more to that story from the other night. Why didn’t you tell me?”
I’ll spare you the details but needless to say I told the story again. I really need to start bringing everyone together when I do these things, it would save me time.
“So that’s why you came here, and you think this mine has something to do with it?”
Bianca exclaimed excitedly. I could almost see the lightbulb going off over her head.
“Yeah that’s pretty much it, do you want to come with? I mean you don’t have to go but I”
She cut me off,
“You know what maybe I should go. Two sets of eyes gives us better odds right? And you have a bad history with forgotten places I seem to recall.”
Bianca said with a coy smile.
“That’s what we’ll do then, I’ll get some things ready and stop by tomorrow, we’ll leave from there.”
And before she had a chance to rethink her answer I left feeling pleased with myself.
My next stop was the hardware store on the other side of town. Of course I still had my travel bag from the good old Imalone trip but I figured I’d pick up some more tools that could come in handy.. I ended up with two heavy duty flashlights, some work gloves of various sizes cause I had no idea what size would fit Bianca, and a set of bolt cutters. It was only when I got up to the counter and the clerk gave me the stink eye that I noticed my mistake.
“You planning to break into something kid?”
Questioned the older guy cashing me out. I responded before my brain caught up with my mouth.
“I was planning on it but you guys didn’t sell balaclavas. So I guess I’ll have to wait.”
The man eyed me for a second then burst out laughing as he handed me my things. Which was good because I knew a few places back in Wisconsin where pulling that would’ve got me pulled into a backroom for questioning. Not a lot of people knew how to take a joke back home. Weirdly enough it was the first time I thought of home since coming here. Obviously I had family back there but we weren’t exactly close like I said before. I just found myself missing the familiarity of the area I had lived in for the past 24 years of my life. I think that’s why I came to the decision to call my mother when I got home later that night.
The whole walk home I had this strange feeling of being watched. No-one was there, I’m sure because I checked… several times. But even as I locked the door to my house and starting sorting out a bag of supplies for Bianca, the feeling didn’t go away. As I pulled out my phone to call my mother the feeling finally faded into the background as I got her familiar answering machine.
“Hi, you’ve reached Carla, leave your name and number after the tone.”
Straight and to the point as quickly as possible, that was the best way to describe mom and it showed even in her answering machine.
“Hi mom I bet you’re wondering where I ended up. Well I’m in New York now, in a sleepy little town. Its nice really, I already met some new people they’re… well they’re a bit strange but I think I might fit in with them. I’m still looking for a job but I had a really well paying temp thing the other day so I’ll be fine for a little while. Anyways, hope you’re doing well, love you.”
I teared up a bit as I ended the call, I hadn’t called my mother in at least a year. She never checked up on me and I never checked in with her. We’d see each other at family gatherings and talk but outside of that I didn’t really contact her much anymore. It was sort of a mutual agreement that we both had, we assumed the other was alright. But being this far from Wisconsin, this far from home, had finally caught up with me. I wanted to at least hear her voice, even if it was just a recording.
As I finished up packing for tomorrow I was quite proud of myself. I’d thought of just about everything, I dug some old hiking boots out for myself and some rope from my old travel bag. Several different sets of flint and steel and about three days worth of dehydrated food adorned the top pocket of both bags. I’d even found an old water purification kit that ended up in one of the duffle bags I brought from my apartment. In short, I was the most over prepared for an excursion like this I’d ever been. It did help push back the eyes I felt peering at me from somewhere over my shoulder, the feeling of being watched still not leaving me. Once I laid down and tried to fall asleep the feeling only intensified. Sounds of rolling thunder in the distance reminding me of my time in Imalone and the fury of the storm the Thunderbird brought. I felt strangely confident as well though, tomorrow Bianca and I may finally start to uncover some answers as to why I felt called to this town, and maybe even what this mark could mean for me.