How to know if a guy is flirting with you quiz

This is an abridged version of a 7,000+ word monstrosity spanning 4 campaigns, have fun! And TW for misogyny and human trafficking/slavery. Most of us were new to 5e, and signed up for a paid online DnD group during the start of Covid. There were 2 campaigns running simultaneously DMed by Enabler and his wife (who is really sweet and not the problem.) Deren started a free Phandelver game, then eventually Manipulator who was the director of the group started a campaign as well. Most of the cast played in all 4 games, but I couldn’t join Deren’s because of scheduling. Most of the drama happened in the campaign ran by Enabler which I’ll call the A-Men.
Cast:
Luno - a human Twilight Cleric. Cool dude.
Corgi - Didn’t play with the A-Men, but played a dwarf Battle Smith in the campaign parallel to ours. Wife to Luno irl. Cool lady.
Deren - half-elf Grave Cleric. Also cool dude.
Me - played a goliath Tempest Cleric
Dick - A perpetually drunk, arrogant asswipe. Played a warforged artificer.
Enabler - DM for the A-Men.
Manipulator - The main directoowner of the paid group.
Things started out nice in Enabler’s campaign, Luno, Deren, and I became fast friends and loved roleplaying with each other. But pretty soon the difficulty of combat started getting very difficult, and Enabler was forcing us to fight in encounters that would’ve been balanced for a party more than triple our level. As in, we as a level 2 party managed to take on an orc war chief, 2 ogres, an Eye of Gruumsh, and 5 or so orcs all in a cramped basement. The only way we were able to not die was by the 3 clerics spamming Healing Word on each other like whack-a-mole. This campaign and the group as a whole was marketed as “D&D for Beginners,” and we were all new to the game. At the time I didn’t realize how absurd the encounters were, I just thought it was my fault for being bad at the game. I don’t know why, but Enabler really wanted to kill all our characters… except for Dick’s.
Let me just get this out of the way first: Dick, was a dick. He would come to sessions sloshed, and continue drinking all game. He tried to get two different parties TPK’ed for no reason. He’d spout a bunch of racist and homophobic “jokes” that were very clearly not jokes. Oh, and he cheated, like, a lot. None of us liked him, but Enabler treated him like a golden child. None of us know why. He was showered with magical items and thousands of more gold than any of the rest of us. He was allowed to use busted homebrew none of the rest of us were. And most infuriatingly, he was allowed to cheat, more or less in the open. He’d fudge dice, even in DnD Beyond where his rolls were recorded. Hi warforged had higher health and stats than anyone, was allowed to use both a shield and a 2-handed rifle simultaneously, had more infusions than was allowed, and “mixed up” the loading and reloading properties between Eberron’s guns and Critical Role’s Bad News so he was allowed to do about 30 damage per turn, while the rest of us were doing about 5. Again, since all of us were new, we didn’t realize the blatant cheating till months later, and thought we just had to git gud.
Weirdly enough, Enabler never seemed to target Dick with his monsters. Couldn’t afford to risk scratching his favorite player’s gold-plated ass, certainly not! But for whatever reason my characters especially drew the Enabler’s ire. My cleric had chainmail and a shield so she was pretty tanky, and I guess he didn’t like that? During the basement orc fight he complained that he couldn’t put her down. I thought he was joking at the time, but looking back… yeah he wasn’t. Eventually I got tired of spending 3-4 hours unconscious so I took a level in Fighter to gain the Defense style for +1 AC. I was not hit by a single attack for the rest of the campaign. Everywhere the party went, regardless of the setting or context, every time we rolled initiative a mass of enemy clerics would spawn in and pelt me with 4-6 Sacred Flames and down my character within the first round or so. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. In a wizard’s tower? Clerics. Robbing a vault? Cleric are sitting in the vault. Keep in mind that Dick’s AC has been about 25 through all this because shenanigans.
Turns out Enabler was an asshole and a misogynist in his own right. He completely disregarded all female players in either his or his wife’s campaign (they were basically the same campaign, with the same plot and setting). Rarely responded to questions about the rules from me, and never bothered to send Corgi (who was playing a dwarf) his homebrew dwarf lore, even though the whole setting revolved around dwarves. Corgi found out about the dwarf lore through Luno. He asked me to write the worldbuilding for the goliaths, which I was happy to do. I researched the Poetic and Prose Eddas to make a culture based off the Jotunn, sent it to him, and he approved it. Wan’t till months later that I learned he scrapped the whole thing. Also, he rewrote my character’s backstory and never even bothered to tell me until (again) months later, in the middle of a session. I was the only girl in the A-Men. Shocker.
There were also only 2 friendly female NPCs the entire campaign, one of which was unconscious basically the whole time we knew her. But all those clerics we were mowing down? All Lolth cultists. Same goes for literally any other enemy spellcasters throughout the campaign (except for any Intelligence casters, those were men, of course.) Oh yeah, and he also made a human trafficking ring, just for my character! Basically he wanted the party to sell my character into slavery in order to progress the plot. Fun. Thankfully they didn’t do that (absolute Chads). This wasn’t in the other version of the campaign, of course.
Things finally ended when Dick tried to TPK the party again, and Enabler took the opportunity to try and kill the party once and for all. He triggered all encounters in the entire dungeon at once while our party was stuck in a pair of long hallways. My character was downed within the first round as usual from 6 Sacred Flames, got most of the party low with about 4 groups of 3-6 enemies each, then had the pair of bosses cast cloudkill and insect plague in the same area at the same time, then summoned a Barlgura. Despite Dick’s protests, the rest of the party drug my unconscious character out of the spell blender, turned around, and left the dungeon.
A few days after the session we got together and I posted a message on the group’s Discord detailing Dick’s cheating, and that I didn’t want to play with him anymore. I didn’t even mention my personal gripes with Enabler. Immediately I get a message from Manipulator, asking me to jump into a voice call with him and Enabler. Alarm bells start ringing in the back of my head, and ask if the other players can join as well. Enabler disappeared, and wouldn’t talk unless I was alone. Of course, a few days later when we did all get together to talk over voice chat, I was the problem player. Manipulator scolded me for not being communicative with Enabler. Luno immediately yelled “Bullshit!” Reminder, Enabler ignored all my messages and wouldn’t talk with women in the group. Luno, Corgi, and Deren all stood up for me (again, absolute Chads.) And Luno is a pretty quiet guy, and that was the only time I’ve ever heard him yell. There was a lot more going on with Manipulator, he sold us fake stickers, tried to get Corgi and Luno to work for him for free, and was a nightmare DM all on his own, but that’s a story for another time.
We all jumped ship after that, and I hear things got pretty nasty on the VC after I left. Apparently we were the first of several mass exoduses out of that group. Now we have our own free group and play often. Since then Corgi and Luno more or less adopted me as part of their family. We spend holidays together, they attended my college graduation, the whole nine yards. The lot are the sweetest people you could meet. Happy ending!

Hello ! I'm Maria (u/Zinnia_L) and I am so excited to tell you guys that we have u/seeyalateradios with us here as a Mod. We will be working together and Co-Mod-ing to make this place fun for all of you, a safe space to discuss about actor Joseph Matthew Alwyn Joe Alwyn, about his films, or series, or fashion, or himself, or..thirst about him... Or even give constructive criticism.
As for those of you who are a bit uncertain about the tone of the Sub .. Don't fret ! we've got you !
So far, we are thinking ..

1. Reviews: We are planing to go through his discography and post review on his performance starting from his first film Billy Lynn's long half time walk. We were planing to post review for each of his work as we build the wiki (as soon as I find out how tf Reddit Wiki works). We would also add in links to the promos he had done for the films or series, in the review / wiki.

Also a huge shout out to u/LilyClementines for making a List of Films and Series Joe'd been in. The plan is to use this list and go through his discography. Maybe make a couple of gifs (once I figure out how to do that) from his films. Yes I do have a lot of time on my hands considering my insomnia, anxiety (yay) and my almost nearing uni sem break !! Also, if you're interested in contributing to the wiki please let either u/seeyalateradios or me know we will open the editable option (I'm not sure how to say that lol) for you.
You guys are also most welcome to post any honest review under the flairs film or television !! It can be praising or even constructive criticism.

1. Dorkwyn flair is used for posts where he's being a dork. These are mostly from his Uni days or any recent events. And Dorkwyn is definitely not limited to just throwbacks. You can take the man out of the dork, but you can't take the dork out of the man.
   
2. Jail you know which kind is generally used for posting any comments you guys saw around the internet (reddit or Twitter or Tumblr or Instagram or tiktok ...) that particular got your attention .. Be it thirsty ones, cute ones, or funny ones, or even roasts it can all be posted under this flair.
   

You can also make a thrist post under this flair.
We could also do a ... Thirsty Thursdays... ( it was inevitable that this is happening). So under the flair Jail you know which kind we might post some of our favourite thirsty / funny comments of Alwyn.
And we will definitely hide the names for privacy. And we will be respectful ofcourse.

1. Also the fashion flair can be used to ask people to ID something he's wearing .. Or it could be used to post his fits that you guys liked or disliked .. Like literally all his shoes from Cannes !

If you want us to make a post about an informal guide to post flairs , let us know !!
If you have notes for these either let u/seeyalateradios or u/Zinnia_L know, or reach out to us via ModMail, Or drop a comment under this post.
We're also currently editing the banner to add in more images from his movies as per u/LilyClementines ' suggestion !
We have also received a few couple of suggestions to make a separate thread, where we are allowed to talk about anything Joe Alwyn. We appreciate it and ... we are still thinking about it. But currently we have put that on hold.
Also, if you guys have anything regarding Joe Alwyn feel free to share it with the rest of us !! YOU'RE ALWAYS WELCOME HERE !! Even critisims, like his performance on any movies or films or his fashion choices, we are open to any critisims as long as they are constructive and not hateful.
If you have any suggestions or advice for the Sub reach out to u/seeyalateradios or u/Zinnia_L or through ModMail or drop a comment under this post !
Also, In the spirit of "I want to be known for my work, and I want to be seen as human." we try to avoid discussing about his personal life or past relationship or people from his past.
P.S. Thank you so much for all the love and support ! I also promise to try to limit my posting to one per day, I've been posting like a loon the past three days !

Hey guys, US IMG here, and I have been studying for Step 1 for 1.5 years. I'm not getting the scores I should be seeing to sit in the exam and tbh I'm sick and tired of studying and not improving. I'm thinking about moving on to some other type of work, maybe medical management or medical malpractice type jobs and just give up on this doctor dream. I've sacrificed so much, moved countries to attend med school, studied for countless hours, had poor confidence, was out of shape, lack of friendships. It's really hard and sometimes I wonder... is it even worth it? What's next? Residency, another 3 years of slaving away for the big hospitals, and then what? Working as a doctor but under strict guidelines of insurance? I don't know, but becoming a doctor in the US is becoming annoyingly hard and I rather save my energy, have kids, and move on in life with a field of work that will encourage me and make me feel better about myself. I've been battling with this mindset for a long time, and I think I've reached the point where I'm done with USMLE and achieving this nonsense of a dream of becoming a doctor. Nothing should be this hard to get.
If anyone has felt this way please comment, and if anyone has switched to a different line of profession please comment on how you did it and how you felt going about it. Thanks!

Posted this in another sub as well. People were kind. But I'd like some more viewpoints, especially from girls. So, re-posting it here as well.
Hey everyone. I am a 29, M and just entering into this dating stuff. I know it's kinda late but would like to know your suggestions about something.
For the first time from dating perspective, I just talked to this girl on reddit and she was very sweet. She asked some details about me and had some filters which I honestly answered. But there was this one thing which she asked- what my filters were or if she is good for me or did I ask her out just because I am lonely?
I told her honestly this "To keep it short, I couldn't afford to go to college. I had to get a job right after my 12th and have been in a job ever since, barring some period in between. So, I never went on any date. And to be honest, I never paid any attention to this aspect of life as well. And, now as you can imagine, I have trespassed into the 'marriage age'. So, before I do that as my parents want so desperately for me to do, I decided, literally this weekend, that I want to experience this. Will it turn into something meaningful? I don't know but I hope so. So, there's the reason I asked you."
Everything was well, she thanked me for being open and honest but then she said that she can't date someone without a graduation. It was a bit off putting since she didn't ask me what I did, what my job was, what other things I did, interests, nature, hobbies, nothing. I explained to her that I do have graduation from distance mode and that's why I have a good stable job. I wanted to tell her more that I am more of a self taught person if she had showed interest. But that was it from her side and I just didn't get the chance.
We are of the same age and both financially stable and both live and will live in Delhi. That's why I texted her as I thought we could be compatible and could hit it off but when I was declined for the graduation part, I felt a bit down as there was no open heart to heart conversations and that too before I could initiate some. Although I must emphasize, I really have no hard feelings towards her, not even a little bit for she was very polite and kind in declining me. I truly respect her for that.
What I want to know is how does this dating world work? I mean do girls just like these flirty type guys with cheesy lines or was I right being honest? I am not into these flings and stuff and more of a one life-one girl type person. So, are my expectations wrong in this dating world or this graduation college part too important for girls or is it something else? I just always had this habit of learning from my mistakes and correcting them so I don't repeat them. I'd love to get your feedback on this. Thanks.
P.S. Won't share the whole chat without her consent. It just wouldn't be right.

Hi everyone, Im a 1,73 cm around 80kg, 31 year old male with around 30% bodyfat. I started around 3 years ago with around 90 kg. All weights are roughly since I mostly go by waist size, not so much weight. You probably can already tell that it wasnt straight forward for me since 10 kg in 3 years is not alot. This was mostly due to me overdoing it with running, injuring myself in the process and then jojo-ing back a bit.
Since around 4 months I switched to zone 2 cardio mostly. Still running but with more training over time and lower intensity I now feel on the right track here. I ran in the last 4 months on at least 20 days per month, always around 5 km and always around 300 kcal according to my treadmill, most of it in zone 2. I also work in additional weight training every now and then, just so my muscles don vanish completly. I dont count calorie burns on that, but just know that this shouldnt be a major area of concern either.
My diet (pretty much unchanged since day one) is strict and open at the same time. I dont have breakfast and eat a protein porridge for lunch (100gram oats, 50 gram casein protein powder, 10 gram nuts + 50-100ml almond milk + water) which is in sum pretty much excactly 500 kcal. Im pretty strict about that. Then an apple or banana in the afternoon around 100 kcal and then my most open and last meal of the day, dinner. Always homecooked, with often a salad or at least plenty of vegetables. There wouldn't be any fast food or anything else of the usual suspects. While I dont track calories here, I would be suprised if it surpassed 1000 kcal (my estimated allowance for this meal) regularly.
There are days where I dont follow my diet, but thats mostly birthdays and such so, maybe 1-2 days a month where I once again would be suprised if I surpassed (as an absolut maximum 3000 kcal a day, 2500 probably being a more realistic upper sealing. We are talking going out for dinner or having a cake, not an all you can eat buffet.)
I dont drink much alcohol anymore, we are talking somewhere in the 1-2 times a month 3-4 glasses of wine. While still to much, it also shouldnt be a major calorie contributor.
Other then that I`m unfortunately not very active, programing as a job and gaming as a hobby doesnt mix well.
Using Online calculators I should be around 2000 kcal burn (NEAT) per day + 300 from Sport on most days. While eating around 1600 kcal per day. So a good day would give me a deficit of 700 kcal (round about).
On my worst days I should gain around 500 kcal. Even going by the 10 bad days in a month, 20 good days estimate. This would give me an overall burn of (...calculating...) 5000-14000 = -9000 kcal per month. So around 300 kcal on an average day. With this calculation being pretty pessimistic I would say.
Even if we round down again and say its only a 7000 kcal deficit per month... I should loose a kg per month, which would still be a rather slow diet (while feeling quite strict if Im honest). And this being an absolute low estimate.
My simple problem is: I havent lost that much, not by a long shot, we are talking 1-2 kg in the last 4 months.
HOW? what am I missing? It feels like I got everything under control. Im fairly "experienced" with diets and even loosing weight. I know what it feels like and generally how to do it. Im honest with myself and never complained online before, since always saw my own shortcomings eventually (poor diet, to little NEAT, overtraining etc. all being problems before, that I solved for me). But this time Im drawing a complet blank, I feel like I should be loosing weight, faster or honestly most of the time at all with what Im doing. Do you guys have any ideas or pointers, Im really out of my wits this time?

So I’ve been looking through a lot of things online and most of the time it mentions sexual attraction and often groups sexual and romantic attraction together so here’s where I’m getting confused so basically I think I’m demisexual when it comes to relationships cause like I can’t get feelings for someone (like I want to date them) without already being good friends with them and knowing their personality. Like I literally can’t understand how someone could see someone cute at like idk a coffee shop and instantly decide I wanna date them. This is kinda why I think I’m demi but the issue is that when it comes with sexual attraction. I very easily can become like oh their hot I wouldn’t mind a hook up or something like that but despite that I have zero interest in a romantic relationship and can’t even try pursuing one even if I wanted to cause that friendship and already likening their personality isn’t there, and even if I try cause they want to it ends up just being this completely emotionless thing for me and I kinda just end it fast or try to and it’s just this big mess where they’ll probably get ghosted.
So idk it’s just kinda wonky where I’m not sure if I’m demisexual or pansexual with relationships (cause gender and whatever don’t really matter to me for catching feelings like while I’ve had some crushes on girls I’ve also had like a few crushes on guys and same for some of my trans friends), and something like bi or idk with sexual attraction.
Idk lol maybe I’m overthinking it maybe not idk worst case scenario I just stick with my mindset of who really cares, if you have feelings you have feelings, if not oh well there’s not much you can do about it, and screw labels imma just go with question mark for my sexuality if someone asks lol
Also I’m not sure if this is even the correct subreddit to post this to I just felt this would be the best one for me cause I do feel like I closely identify with demisexual at least for relationships

First off, I know I’m within my legal rights to say no. But I want to discuss the practicality of it and get some insight from anyone that has gone through a similar situation and how it went.
My son plays a contact sport, and it essentially is a year round commitment. The seasons run from late August to Late May and there’s always camps and little trainings to do in the summer. He loves it, and the joy he gets from it is worth a lot of time sacrificed.
Son was asking about playing a second sport for the spring. Another contact sport, nonetheless. I objected to this as having been an athlete in the past, I understand the value of physical rest, mental rest, and sleep. I said he should play one or the other, but not both.
Co-parent is very adversarial with me and plays a lot of parental alienation type games. We had a (rare) conversation about second sport and i truly thought we were on the same page. Son kept asking and I finally told him that his mother and I don’t think it’s best. Which of course he says “mom says you’re the one saying no”. She always tries to portray me in a negative light. Needless to say, he went back to her house that night, likely relayed our conversation, and I got a text that night saying she signed him up. When we argued about it she said “well then don’t take him on your time”. Which is a bluff that she knows I won’t call.
Until now. Main sport season ended over the weekend, and second sport ends within the next 10 days. These last two months he has had an insane schedule as each practices 2-3x per week plus 1-2 games per week. He’s tired, he often doesn’t want to go to second sport practices, etc. He told me a few weeks ago that he’s glad he tried second sport, but he’s too busy and he doesn’t want do both at the same time anymore. Cool, let’s just get through this season and we’ll all chalk it up as a lesson learned.
Well suddenly my son is talking about second sport next season, potential position changes, etc. When i started to shut that down, he got upset with me. Whatever though, I’m the parent and I have to make the decisions in his best interest.
There’s no point in saying anything just yet as this situation could resolve itself in the next 6-8 months anyway. But next February/March when second sport conversation comes up I am going to put my foot down. He can choose whichever sport he wants to do, but on my time he will only go to the one sport he chooses.
I’m 95% sure his mother will not sign him up if I put my foot down. It’s a golden opportunity for her to paint me as the bad guy. But I don’t care, parenting is about making the right decisions even when they are tough decisions.
I know lots of parents run their kids through multiple sports at once and it’s fine. But it doesn’t work for my child. He also has a lot of interests outside of sports and warm weather (we are northern climate) gets him thinking about those other things he loves.
Anyone else been through this?

Hello guys this is really a long story that I am going to make short. I know most people will say just break up or something but I am genuinely looking for advice. About 8 months ago I looked through my boyfriend’s phone and saw that he was looking up models, pornstars, and just random girls on pretty much all social media pages on a daily basis. I also found that he had texted a girl and called her pretty, as-well as attempting to flirt with another and not following through with it. At this point in our relationship I was not putting much effort into our relationship at all. I was very emotionally distant and just generally not in a good place. And all around just not a good partner and did not give him attention. I am not excusing his behavior because it’s unacceptable what he did. But I do admit that my behavior has a part in this. If you say that we should just break up then you might as-well just let it be because we already have tried, we have a lot of love for each other. We’ve discussed this over and over again, crying and screaming. I know it sounds crazy and that I am being a fool but genuinely this has changed our relationship much better. Our communication has been so open, we are more honest, our relationship is not just surface level anymore, going through this has transformed us both to see our faults as people and as partners. We are still together and our relationship has never been better. But how can I move on from the hurt and almost trauma of seeing those women. My boyfriend is autistic, he has a hard time explaining and expressing himself in general so trying to get an answer for what his thoughts were while he was doing this is nearly impossible. I believe it’s because I was not being a good partner so he was seeking comfort somewhere else. But he says it’s not that and that he can’t explain it. But not getting the explanation makes me so upset and uncomfortable sometimes. I feel so insecure about myself constantly and compare myself to other women constantly. I never have felt this way before. We have moved on for the better but I still feel resentment, I feel insecure, and I can’t fully trust him. Most of the time it’s happy and healthy but then suddenly I get this anger over it. Please give me some advice on how I can move on. He constantly tries to reassure me and apologizes, he deleted all his social media and started to go to therapy. He is genuinely trying to do better and he is putting the effort in. I have tried to be more intentional to make him feel more loved and appreciated. We have worked it out. Everything is perfect. But how can I win this internal battle?

Throw-away account.
Tl;dr a co-worker with a history of intimidating behaviors screamed at me and elbowed me in the side without provocation while we were in the locker room together. Company isn't doing anything about it.
Fuller story:
N.B. Definitely not a lawyer and probably getting some terminology wrong:
I work in healthcare in Manhattan (New York). 30s, male. There's a trouble employee on my floor who has a history of intimidating behavior. Once before he literally screamed at me for calling him by a shortened form of his name (OK, my bad, but seriously) and another time he randomly screamed at me again for the same reason, even though I didn't say anything to him - still holding a grudge, I guess.
But this employee more recently was written up for cornering a female employee in an empty patient room and verbally assaulting her. So there's a history here.
Last week, I was in the locker room for my floor at the end of my shift and the beginning of his. His locker is next to mine, and we often have to change next to each other. For whatever reason, when I went to open my locker, he immediately dug his right below into my side and shoved me out of the way, and he screamed at me telling me that I needed to wait until he's done. I asked him not to touch me, but then he continued to scream at me until I closed my locker, ran out, and informed my manager.
I told my manager that I don't feel comfortable coming back to work on the floor as long as he's there. After I reported this to my manager, he was sent home and did not work his shift. I'm afraid of this guy, and he clearly has issues, so I took a sick day today, and my boss put me in for sick time for the rest of the week.
But my boss honestly doesn't know if HR will do anything. She said that if I don't feel comfortable coming back to work I need to take personal vacation, FMLA, or unpaid leave.
I guess I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if I have any rights here. Again, definitely not a lawyer, but it seems to me that I should have some reasonable expectation of safety at work, and 1) they aren't providing that, demonstrated by the fact that this guy has multiple reported incidents; and 2) if I can't work under these conditions, I am expected to use my own accrued vacation/sick time.
I haven't filed a police report, but I wonder if I should. I haven't contacted a lawyer, and honestly, I have no idea how to go about this.
I'm afraid to go to work, this guy is a bully, but I want to work and I need my income.
Grateful for any advice. Thank you.

I'm not sure if my bf wants to change me for the better or doesn't accept me
My Boyfriend (23) and I (19) have been together a year and we don't live together. He's an amazing guy, we get along, we try to do nice things for each other and share responsibilities, and we both really really love eachother. When it comes to hanging out, he always makes plans with friends in advance (weeknights & weekends) he's polite enough to ask if I'm ok with the plans which I appreciate and I never discourage him because friends are important but what has gotten to me is that I feel like he doesn't really want to spend time with me. He's also nice enough to invite me to most of these outings which is kind but his idea of fun is sitting, drinking, smoking, eating all day (nothing wrong with that but just not my thing all the time) whereas mine is to be mindful and active (going around seeing new things, venturing out or simply doing stuff together), so in short I'm much more introverted compared to him and i do more stuff by myself (the few friends I have, either moved away or have boyfriends they constantly do things with)
I guess my issue is that when we hang out a couple evenings at night after work for a few hours before we go to sleep is literally eat dinner, watch tv and go to sleep and sadly that seems to be our weekends together as well if we're hanging out alone.
I started feeling a bit bad that he didn't understand that I prefer quality time together and I started rejecting some of the friends meetings, hoping we would be happy to spend more time with me. But last time , when we had plans, a friend called him and asked us to go out for a couple of drinks. At first, I asked him politely, if we can decline, because we already had plans. Since he seemed a bit frustrated, we had a discussion where I explained to him that to me going out with friends is more of a fun experience to meet our friends than quality time together. He then proceeded to tell me that maybe I should start communicating more with his friends so I feel more comfortable and that going out to him is still seeing each other. He also said that it will be better for me if I become more extroverted, because he thinks I'm not really talkative in social situations.
At first I agreed and thought that that's really the case (I very often feel guilty for my introversion) and I should start agreeing to always go out and stop nagging, because I'm probably extremely annoying. But as the week went by I can't help but think, why can't he accept that I'm more introverted? It's not like I never leave the house, I just don't like going out every second day and drink by midnight, you know. Am I just being petty and should I make peace with the fact my boyfriend is a social butterfly who constantly needs friends around and does not know how to have fun with me or ask me what I would like to do?
Td;lr: I'm feeling conflicted about my boyfriend's intentions. He often suggests changes for me, and I'm not sure if he's trying to help me become a better version of myself or if he doesn't accept me as I am. This leaves me wondering whether his motives are supportive or critical, and it's causing tension in our relationship.

I'm an INFP guy in my 30s, and am currently living with my parents temporarily while i get a new place... my dad is an ISTJ.
My dad has never been emotionally available, encouraging, supportive.. we never have had meaningful conversations literally ever... he has mellowed out *a little* since retiring, but still overall seems insensitive a lot.
A little backstory, the past few years have easily been the toughest of my life, some very traumatic and painful things I've been going through... my dad involuntarily and unjustly sent me to a psych ward because he was concerned that i was depressed... he spent tons of money to convince a judge that he had good intentions and as a grown adult, police forced me away for 5 days, which ruined trust issues with my parents and caused lots of mental problems for me in the seven years since...
my parents apologized after the incident and admitted they misjudged me and made a mistake in thinking i was depressed. stupid fucking move if you ask me.
Anyways, this past year has been incredibly painful, dififcult for many reasons... I'm just trying to move forward in life and turn things around... and it was just easier for me to move back in with my family during this time, which they allowed...
Most recently, my dad has been wanting me to move out very soon and he is very aware that this is the toughest, most pivotal, delicate, painful time of my life by far... i've told him to just be patient and not force me to move out...
Two days ago he calmly asked me if we could meet at the park to talk about my living situation, how he came up with a time frame on me moving out and that he wants to discuss it... which couldn't have been worse timing, as i just recently began working a new job and aside from this stressful job, i have a ton of very difficult things going on,
and instantly when i began talking about how i have a lot going on, he cuts me off and doesn't even allow me to talk... i ask him to stop cutting me off, and soon after as i'm calmly talking, he gets angry..
i then calmly asked him to stop being insensitive, and to be understanding that i don't know when we'll meet... and he said it has to be less than two weeks, and during the toughest time of my life, and with work and the countless other very painful and difficult things i'm working through, i just couldn't agree to a time,
and i said to please be patient, and starts threatening me saying "if we don't meet, i'm just going to make a decision and you won't like it", meaning he'll kick me out,
and i begin asking him to be gentle and sensitive, how i've been asking him this for years, how he's always been insensitive since forever, and he begins turning up his TV volume loud to drown me out, and i get more hurt and begin crying a bit, and he is just cold and insensitive,
and gets angry and/or shuts me out by turning up the tv volume...
the confusing part is, he has a four year old grandson, a sweet boy that is my sisters son... i'm the uncle.. and my as the grandfather, my dad is always gentle and kind towards him,
and here's me, a child at heart who always stayed true to himself and the little boy within him.. .i remained a gentle childlike soul who still loves the same things i did as a boy... climbing trees and playing outside, art and music... i'm true to the boy i was...
and then i began saying how i'm a child at heart and how he's kind to his grandson and so why not me? and he began turning up the tv volume again and not responding..
i then asked him to just be gentle, and i was very hurt and talking a bit loud and as a petty defense mechanism my dad goes "oh, you're being gentle?", because i was emotional and expressing my feelings a bit loudly.
i walked away into a different room in heavy tears, about 30 minutes later wrote a note about how i'm going through the most painful time of my life, to please stop adding pressure into my life, and how i'm a gentle child at heart...
and soon after i heard a very loud bang noise from the kitchen, and i walked in and saw my piece of paper i poured my heart into, and it was taken off the counter i placed it on with tape, and placed to the side on this desk in the kitchen...
so he got mad and banged the fridge or something, and took the paper and cast it aside, like me and my feelings...
i don't understand why he would be so harsh and cold towards me his son, who he says he loves, but gentle and kind towards his grandson.

Hi friends! Just want to start off with letting you know that I have been in close contact with my cat's vet throughout this entire process, and we do have another appointment scheduled. Just looking for some info and insights in the meantime:
My 16-year-old cat Rocky (also the love of my life) was diagnosed with moderate chronic kidney disease (CKD) in November 2019, which retreated to mild 6 months later. He has fluctuated between mild and moderate over the years but has retreated in the disease 3-4 times because he is a tenacious little nugget. Last year, he suddenly lost 4 pounds in six months, but tests revealed that his kidneys were stable and there was no sign of cancer. It turns out he has IBD. We changed his food accordingly and he put some weight back on. No matter what health issues come his way, he continues to defy the odds, showcasing his incredible strength and resilience. One wouldn’t know he has any health issues at all; he has always maintained a high level of energy, appetite, and affection, and has stayed as healthy as one could be with these ailments.
Rocky has always been a dry food guy and SO food-motivated, maintaining a weight of 17-18 pounds most of his life. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed he stopped eating his dry food, but devoured wet food when given to him. My hypothesis was that he maybe had a tooth that was bugging him. A vet visit indeed revealed a possibly diseased tooth, but we also discovered a 2-pound weight loss in 3 months. Blood tests showed his kidney numbers were through the roof, despite being stable at his last check up in February. However, his blood pressure was PERFECT, which doesn’t quite gibe with those kidney values.
His vet has been taking care of him for almost half his life, and she is almost as emotionally invested in Rocky as much as I am! She felt that, even though CKD can move fast, it didn’t feel quite right to her. She theorized it could be kidney stones or an infection. They obtained a urine culture to determine if bacteria was present, which would indicate an infection. They ruled out kidney stones with an x-ray, started him on antibiotics, and gave him an IV drip (this is last Wednesday, 5/15). Throughout the day, his appetite improved, and his creatinine levels dipped. His blood pressure remained perfect. I continued his treatment at home with antibiotics, anti-nausea meds, and subcutaneous fluids while we waited for the urine culture results. His appetite and energy increased quickly, and he even gained 0.3 pounds. He’s not only back to his old self, but it almost seems like he’s better, with even more energy and more appetite than I’ve seen in some time. So of course this has to be an infection, the antibiotics are doing their job, right?
Here is the kicker: we got the urine culture results back today, and they showed no bacteria, ruling out an infection. So we’re a bit baffled. The vet says his kidneys might be failing, but the sub-Q treatment is perking him up. But wouldn't his blood pressure be high if his kidneys were failing? And how would his creatinine levels and weight improve so quickly? We have a follow-up appointment next Tuesday to do another blood panel, and of course I’ll bring him in sooner if he appears to decline before then. His vet says that his behavior is our main gauge in the meantime. I'm wondering if it could be his thyroid, which was checked and found normal a few years ago. I rang his vet back earlier today with that question, and I’m just waiting to hear back from her.
Has anyone experienced something similar or have any insights into what might be going on? The test results don't seem to align with his symptoms. Thank you!
https://preview.redd.it/qg8acx5fus1d1.png?width=2622&format=png&auto=webp&s=a4ba8e8597f9508227c3d460cd7c42490a65092a

Admittedly I'm a little angry right now since it feels like Stellaris let me put 20 hours into a game before yanking the rug out from under me, but I'll try to avoid ranting and instead just provide an AAR, my feelings, and maybe some suggestions on how this can be improved.
Anyway, in short, see the title. I have no idea how I was supposed to beat this with the information the game gave me. Spoilers for the new crisis, obviously, if anyone is still new to it like I was.
A (not so) brief recap of my experience: I always play to beat the crisis while balancing that with RP. That is, I try to beat the strongest version I can while sticking to my favorite empire build, which is far from optimal. Since I play on all crises mode to get the most bang for my buck on a full length game, I set the crisis difficulty to 2.5x since I knew I'd be facing 4 of them at 2.5x, 5x, 10x, and finally 20x that I've never experienced. I always play out a normal length game, and always on ironman to keep myself honest and for achievements. I figured I might lose to the last crisis, but that was fine.
Around 2460, I got Cetana as my first crisis, which I considered lucky since I didn't know how she worked at all and I was afraid I'd get her at the end at 20x power and she'd be impossible for me to beat. I went in blind on purpose. Anyway, when she spawned, I saw that she had several fleets of about 900K power. That struck me as way higher than I expected since it would put her normal fleets at 1x in the ~350K range. I remember struggling the first time I encountered the crisis on 1x mode many years ago when a fleet had 80K power. No way a new player encountering it for the first time would be ready to fight that. It doesn't matter if she only gets a few: if you can't beat one, you can't fight it.
I assumed, perhaps rightly, that I wasn't intended to fight those fleets since each one of them had about as much power as my entire navy. I was trying to overbuild for the first crisis and had 7 fleets of battleships and titans. The battleships were mostly equipped with ancient saturator artillery, kinetic artillery, and plasma cannons, while a portion were carriers with ancient driller drones and gauss cannons. I know this is a suboptimal build, but I wanted to test it out with the saturator artillery stripping shields and the driller drones killing ships. Each fleet had about 120K power, in the early repeatables. Total ship count was 168 battleships, 7 titans, and a juggernaut if I'm remembering right.
For what felt like a year or two, Cetana didn't seem to do anything. Her territory was unreachable to me since hostile empires separated us.
Eventually she contacted me and a situation started. The situation didn't really explain what it was building to and was paused. Eventually she gave me the option to host an outpost for her, which I denied, but the game spawned it anyway saying I didn't really have a choice. The only result was a decrease in her opinion. Cetana was still neutral to me.
From this, I assumed that the mechanic here was that once she hit negative opinion she'd attack me, and that by giving in to her demands I would be delaying that while wasting resources or letting her destroy other parts of the galaxy as a trade off. Since I still had no chance of fighting her, I went along with it for a while. The events telegraphed that she was a Bad Guy, as I knew, and I knew I'd have to fight her eventually. I still wasn't sure how or when I would be forced to fight her.
After a while, the situation went away and I was informed I was at war with her. Okay, guess it's go time. She has 2 of her 900K fleets in my territory now, and she's attacking one of my bastions. To my shock, my 250K bastion equipped with neutron launchers and kinetic artillery was actually trashing her fleet, so I assumed that meant the numbers were way off and she was maybe designed to bluff players? So I sent in my navy, and...
Not a scratch! Not a scratch! Not a scratch!
Three of my seven fleets are teleported back to their home base. I got a bunch of event spam, but... one of the events said I could fight her now, and the remaining ships were allowed to fight and finish off the fleet my bastion was almost done destroying anyway. I get an event notification saying I should destroy her outpost fleets while I can before they regroup.
So, I regrouped my fleet and sent them to fight the other guard fleet with the plan to fight the outpost fleets next. 168 battleships and 7 titans (1.2 million power at this point) lost to a titan and 16 escorts (~800K power). After the initial engagement, which destroyed the titan almost instantly, the escorts just kept flying circles around my ships while I'm doing almost no damage. I'm seeing kinetic artillery and plasma cannon blasts flying but I'm doing scratch damage to the escort shields.
Before I lose more than half of my navy to a fleet with 1/2 its power left, I retreat them all. I clearly need to change my ship designs, but I'm not sure what I can do at this point. I could replace my weapon loadouts with lasers on everything so they can keep shooting ships at short range, but her ships are heavily shielded so it feels very suboptimal. Her escorts have a ton of PD so I assume I shouldn't try missiles.
I rebuild my navy and send them off to destroy the outpost guard fleets that are stuck in my territory, since the game told me to do that. Fights with a mere 6 escorts are dicey and lead to heavy losses, but I eventually manage to eliminate them.
After rebuilding my navy again, I start sending my navy off toward her territory since I see a large federation is actually managing to destroy some of her fleets. I get my ships into position to help theirs, and the game hangs. I'm worried it'll crash when...
"You lose!"
Oh. Oh, that's it? There was a death timer going and I didn't know it? She had about 3 million fleet power camping in her home system, so there was zero chance I could beat her anyway, but I didn't even know I was being timed.
It feels like Stellaris took the last 20 hours of this game and flushed them down the toilet while telling me, "Get good, nerd!"
I decided to read up on what the heck I was supposed to do, and apparently you're supposed to use torpedo frigates to fight her, and the curators will hint at this. Okay, fine. I can accept that my fleets were the opposite of what they were supposed to be to fight her.
However, the game gave me almost no chance to learn and deal with this in game. I think I had about 2 game years after she declared war before she pushed her easy button and the game ended. I had no chance to really fight and learn from the engagements on what I should do, unless the game designers expected me to learn that I should be using frigates from that one fight, and to accept that I had to do that despite having focused on other techs and thus had no repeatables in missile tech. Was it even possible to build a big enough frigate force in the time I had, maneuver it to her home system, and fight her? I honestly don't know if I could have won on 1x crisis strength.
I read that the game is supposed to start an event or something that tells you that her convoys are the weak link. Destroying them and outposts supposedly set her back on her death timer some? I don't know, since I never got this event. I didn't get to fight her until after she dismantled her outposts, so they couldn't be destroyed. I did see some convoy fleets, but was never able to even reach them before I lost the game, much less destroy any. I guess if you're genre savvy or just decide to not cooperate with her you can declare war earlier and have a chance to fight her when it still matters?
I also read that apparently the death timer starts when she first shows up and you have about 6000 days until it triggers. She gave me a special project to dig up a data cache that ate up some absurd amount of that time, during which time she was neutral. Should I have understood I was making a mistake? Sure, the game told me she was evil. I didn't know I was going to burn away 80% of the time I had to deal with her by talking and deferring a war that looked impossible to beat still. I assumed I needed to spend that time building up to fight her, and honestly didn't know I had a choice. I thought that completing the situation might do something that made her OP fleets more manageable. I read that you're supposed to get a damage bonus against her? Don't know, since that didn't happen for me either.
Does the game even tell you how long you have to defeat her? I didn't see it anywhere. There was no situation left, and nothing in the situation log about it like for the other crises. Maybe I missed it, but checked a couple of times. I assumed the narration was just that: narration implying urgency but with no mechanical basis, like most games and events in Stellaris. Maybe I'm lucky I've never seen the AI get very far with the aetherophasic engine?
I can accept that some of this is my fault. I chose to play on 2.5x crisis difficulty, in iron man, and to use battleships. I chose to play to the battleship meta (kind of, since I don't use meta loadouts). I also chose to acquiesce to her initially because she looked unbeatable, under the expectation that during the narrative something would change and I'd be given a fighting chance.
I'm a bit less forgiving of losing when I didn't even know I was being timed, especially when it feels like the game tricked me into wasting so much of that precious time in a couple of ways.
Was any of this bugged? I didn't get two of the events I read I was supposed to, including one that gives like +100% damage against her. Based on what I read, I think this was working as intended. I waited too long to start the fight so I missed out on the explanation of destroying outposts and convoys.
Or am I really just blind / dumb? I admit I had a kitten vying for my attention when Cetana was talking to me. Did the game literally tell me I was about to lose and I missed it?
Not really sure what I suggest to improve this. I don't want to say get rid of the death timer altogether since that is at least a unique mechanic among the crises. Maybe make it more obvious how much time you have, and give more ways to deal with it? Special projects you can research to interrupt or roll it back partially maybe? Or if destroying the convoys is the only solution, maybe make that more obvious?
TL;DR - I spent 20 hours playing a long game with the plan to fight all four crises, only for the new crisis to declare that I lost after timing me in a way that felt hidden. The mechanics felt poorly explained, and I felt blindsided by the loss while simultaneously not knowing what I could have even done differently. Worse, I don't really even want to try again right now since it would mean another 20 hours in a typical game for me.
Whenever I play again, I guess I'll just metagame. I hate to do that but it felt impossible to win while playing the crisis out as it was designed. Cetana tricking you into wasting too much time until it's too late feels fine for a narrative, but kind of sucks for a game with this much time invested into it.

Hello all,
I guess you could say im stuck in a massive first world problem, what VR headset to get...
I am currently a user of the reverb g2 which has been great but looking to get something better since I have the computer for it. (4090/7800x3d) Also, I know we are losing support...
I am pretty much a hardcore sim-racer since thats the only thing I use VR for. In addition, I also have a motion rig.
After some background to my setup im trying to see what you guys have thought about, used, and recommend from your experiance and how it applies to my needs.
Of course, I am looking for something future proof since it would be a larger purchase. So for months now I have been researching and reading pretty much every reddit out there on user feedback.
I have narrowed down my choices to the Big screen Beyond, pimax crystal, or the new somnium vr1.
My thoughts: I like the Pimax's technology but it seems really heavy, especially since I am using motion. The screens seem amazing though and I like the flexability.
However, it seems Pimax has always had a lurking reliability issue. Is this reliability issue really a problem, and do you think the weight is an issue?
The Somnium looks pretty awesome, but definitely very expensive. In addtion, the form factor is something im also concerned about. However, this would be the most future proof and packed with technology. Is the price worth it over pimax though!?!
Lastly, my current 1st choice but with some doubts.
I absolutely love the Big Screen Beyond for what it is and what it stands for. I think the form factor is something that is the future of VR especially for motion. However, It is a first gen product and I wonder how future proof it will be. To me, the visuals on paper are some of the best but with the downside of small FOV and sweet spot. I guess my concerns with it are, is it enough?
I really dont like the fact it has a fixed IPD, in the case someone else wants to use it. The other large concern is the glare ive seen many people talk about. Is it an issue? Lastly, other headsets like the quest 3 have a better lense with a much larger sweet spot which is a detriment to the BSB.. some ive seen say the quests e larger sweet spot is a game changer thus me doubting the BSB. I know the somnium vr1 has a similar sweet spot to the Q3 however the price is too high IMO...
All in all, all of these headsets seem to be awesome, however I want to make the right choice. What do you guys think of these headsets and would you recommend something else instead? Is weight really an issue especially for motion? Are the lacking stats of the BSB really an issue in comparison to these headsets? Motion racing is the key here and just wondering if the weight of a larger headset like the pimax is too much.
What do you think?
Cheers!

I'm an INFP guy in my 30s, and am currently living with my parents temporarily while i get a new place...
My dad has never been emotionally available, encouraging, supportive.. we never have had meaningful conversations literally ever... he has mellowed out *a little* since retiring, but still overall seems insensitive a lot.
A little backstory, the past few years have easily been the toughest of my life, some very traumatic and painful things I've been going through... my dad involuntarily and unjustly sent me to a psych ward because he was concerned that i was depressed... he spent tons of money to convince a judge that he had good intentions and as a grown adult, police forced me away for 5 days, which ruined trust issues with my parents and caused lots of mental problems for me in the seven years since...
my parents apologized after the incident and admitted they misjudged me and made a mistake in thinking i was depressed. stupid fucking move if you ask me.
Anyways, this past year has been incredibly painful, dififcult for many reasons... I'm just trying to move forward in life and turn things around... and it was just easier for me to move back in with my family during this time, which they allowed...
Most recently, my dad has been wanting me to move out very soon and he is very aware that this is the toughest, most pivotal, delicate, painful time of my life by far... i've told him to just be patient and not force me to move out...
Two days ago he calmly asked me if we could meet at the park to talk about my living situation, how he came up with a time frame on me moving out and that he wants to discuss it... which couldn't have been worse timing, as i just recently began working a new job and aside from this stressful job, i have a ton of very difficult things going on,
and instantly when i began talking about how i have a lot going on, he cuts me off and doesn't even allow me to talk... i ask him to stop cutting me off, and soon after as i'm calmly talking, he gets angry..
i then calmly asked him to stop being insensitive, and to be understanding that i don't know when we'll meet... and he said it has to be less than two weeks, and during the toughest time of my life, and with work and the countless other very painful and difficult things i'm working through, i just couldn't agree to a time,
and i said to please be patient, and starts threatening me saying "if we don't meet, i'm just going to make a decision and you won't like it", meaning he'll kick me out,
and i begin asking him to be gentle and sensitive, how i've been asking him this for years, how he's always been insensitive since forever, and he begins turning up his TV volume loud to drown me out, and i get more hurt and begin crying a bit, and he is just cold and insensitive,
and gets angry and/or shuts me out by turning up the tv volume...
the confusing part is, he has a four year old grandson, a sweet boy that is my sisters son... i'm the uncle.. and my as the grandfather, my dad is always gentle and kind towards him,
and here's me, a child at heart who always stayed true to himself and the little boy within him.. .i remained a gentle childlike soul who still loves the same things i did as a boy... climbing trees and playing outside, art and music... i'm true to the boy i was...
and then i began saying how i'm a child at heart and how he's kind to his grandson and so why not me? and he began turning up the tv volume again and not responding..
i then asked him to just be gentle, and i was very hurt and talking a bit loud and as a petty defense mechanism my dad goes "oh, you're being gentle?", because i was emotional and expressing my feelings a bit loudly.
i walked away into a different room in heavy tears, about 30 minutes later wrote a note about how i'm going through the most painful time of my life, to please stop adding pressure into my life, and how i'm a gentle child at heart...
and soon after i heard a very loud bang noise from the kitchen, and i walked in and saw my piece of paper i poured my heart into, and it was taken off the counter i placed it on with tape, and placed to the side on this desk in the kitchen...
so he got mad and banged the fridge or something, and took the paper and cast it aside, like me and my feelings...
i don't understand why he would be so harsh and cold towards me his son, who he says he loves, but gentle and kind towards his grandson.

Hello all,
I guess you could say im stuck in a massive first world problem, what VR headset to get...
I am currently a user of the reverb g2 which has been great but looking to get something better since I have the computer for it. (4090/7800x3d) Also, I know we are losing support...
I am pretty much a hardcore sim-racer since thats the only thing I use VR for. In addition, I also have a motion rig.
After some background to my setup im trying to see what you guys have thought about, used, and recommend from your experiance and how it applies to my needs.
Of course, I am looking for something future proof since it would be a larger purchase. So for months now I have been researching and reading pretty much every reddit out there on user feedback.
I have narrowed down my choices to the Big screen Beyond, pimax crystal, or the new somnium vr1.
My thoughts: I like the Pimax's technology but it seems really heavy, especially since I am using motion. The screens seem amazing though and I like the flexability.
However, it seems Pimax has always had a lurking reliability issue. Is this reliability issue really a problem, and do you think the weight is an issue?
The Somnium looks pretty awesome, but definitely very expensive. In addtion, the form factor is something im also concerned about. However, this would be the most future proof and packed with technology. Is the price worth it over pimax though!?!
Lastly, my current 1st choice but with some doubts.
I absolutely love the Big Screen Beyond for what it is and what it stands for. I think the form factor is something that is the future of VR especially for motion. However, It is a first gen product and I wonder how future proof it will be. To me, the visuals on paper are some of the best but with the downside of small FOV and sweet spot. I guess my concerns with it are, is it enough?
I really dont like the fact it has a fixed IPD, in the case someone else wants to use it. The other large concern is the glare ive seen many people talk about. Is it an issue? Lastly, other headsets like the quest 3 have a better lense with a much larger sweet spot which is a detriment to the BSB.. some ive seen say the quests e larger sweet spot is a game changer thus me doubting the BSB. I know the somnium vr1 has a similar sweet spot to the Q3 however the price is too high IMO...
All in all, all of these headsets seem to be awesome, however I want to make the right choice. What do you guys think of these headsets and would you recommend something else instead? Is weight really an issue especially for motion? Are the lacking stats of the BSB really an issue in comparison to these headsets? Motion racing is the key here and just wondering if the weight of a larger headset like the pimax is too much.
What do you think?
Cheers!

Hey guys, I wanna come on here cause I’m feeling really shitty rn. So there is this one guy at my school and he’s super cute. I followed him sometime ago and found out he has a gf so I backed off. He broke up with her after 7 months around a month ago now, and recently he’s been writing to me. After some time of writing, I thought maybe it would be nice to hang out in person during school lunch or something AS FRIENDS. He was super open to the idea and said he was really excited. I’ve never had a boyfriend or any male attention ever, and I was so excited. Then today, the day we were supposed to hang out, he says in a short paragraph “I’m going to be entirely honest with you, I don’t think I’m ready. You deserve my entire attention and I think it’s best if we push this back.” I don’t know if I somehow pushed him away, he gave me all green flags to keep going and we were flirting back and forth. He liked all my stories, followed me everywhere, and even said he wanted to hand out outside of school. He still said that he would love to keep texting me, I said I understand and that I don’t want him to feel uncomfortable after just getting out of a relationship.
At least I know I’m not a rebound and he values my time, but this hurts. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Unless you are ready to handle the reaper cushions.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
― Mark Twain

general information	additional information
name: Micah Di Santis	preferred name: Myka, Mike
d.o.b.: 10 June 20XX	age: 16
nationality: Sicilian	hometown: Sicily, Italy
gender identity: cis-male	gender expression: male
sexual orientation: Undecided	preferred pronouns: he / him / his

• Half-blood- and non-half-blood-related conundrums: ADHD (attention deficiency and hyperactivity disorder), Dyslexia

relation	name/s	age	relationship
divine parent	Charon, The Ferryman	old	Micah still has no idea what to think about his dad. Speaking with him during the visit to Olympus did nothing to clear things up. The man, or was it immortal, was blunt and yet, his son's opinion of him was still up in the air, though leaning more to the positive side. At least Micah has the connections to get himself an admittedly fantastic tailored suit.
mortal parent	???	???	Micah has no idea who his biological mother is. The only reason he knew who his father was before he came to camp was because the spirits told him.
mortal adoptive parent	Maria Di Santis	32 years old	If Marco was a saint then Maria was a saintess through and through. Everything she did, she did with someone else in mind. From the day she adopted Micah to the moment Marco died, Micah did not see her cry for herself at all. She'd cry when a little boy got hurt and would offer help or cry when she saw a cat get kicked by some drunk douchebag.
mortal adoptive parent	Vincino (Vinny) Bertelli	37 years old	Vincino is an absurdly rich man who was born and raised in Sicily. He found Maira through her singing on the side of the road to raise money for Micah's trip to the US. He offered to take her in because he liked her and sponsored Micah's trip by giving him some money and a ticket onto a transatlantic cruise ship headed to New York City. All things considered, he's a kind and considerate man who loves Maria.
adoptive brother	Marco Di Santis	14 years old, Deceased	Marco Di Santis was a saint. Ever since he learned the word 'kindness', he was absorbed and defined by it. He loved seeing the smiles bloom on people's faces when he shared some bread or helped them with something but what he truly loved more than anything else was sailing and playing the piano. He was handsome beyond reason, having pale blonde hair and clear blue eyes, though he never had a chance to grow into it fully.
dead guy	Chris	16 years old, Deceased	Like Marco, Chris is one big ball of sunshine. The only difference is he's a ghost. Micah met Chris on the cruise he stowed away on to get to the US and the ghost promptly joined him, though reluctantly because he was watching over his parents and little brother, due to finding him interesting. Like Marco, Chris is handsome though he had more time to grow into his looks. Framed by golden hair and chocolate brown eyes, Micah wouldn't have doubted it if the boy was very popular during his living days.
friend	Willow 'Will' Crest	16 years old	One of the more laid-back campers Micah had met, Willow became something of a friend to the son of Charon, though they started off more as discussion partners than anything else. And besides, being chill-buddies is pretty fun on its own. Who knows where things can go from there?
friend	Rachel 'Rocky' Williams	17 years old	Rocky was one of the first people Micah met upon arriving at camp and her enthusiasm, uncharacteristic for a child of a chthonic god, immediately made her stand out. Though he genuinely has no idea what goes through Rocky's head, Micah considers them close, and okay, maybe he has a minuscule crush on her.
friend/former cabin-mate	Ramona Herrera	16 years old	Being another camper who met Micah's criteria for friendship (i.e. Be chill and relax), Ramona is someone who Micah doesn't know too much about. Much like Kit, who Micah has seen around camp and the Hermes Cabin, she is a mystery to him. Though he does enjoy trying to spot which corner she's hiding in at any given camp gathering.
acquaintance (?)	Mathew Knight	15 years old	Matt is, as far as friendship is concerned, a work-in-progress. Micah's father had recommended getting to know the son of Hades and though he'd lost himself in school shortly after, Micah had made introductions.

appearance

faceclaim	height	weight	hair	eyes	skin
FC, Art by Charlie Bowater	5’11”	Doesn't care	Black	Amber, fiery like gold	Lightly tanned, peppered with a few more recent thin scars from his time at camp

description: Micah is a fairly restrained person when it comes to clothes. Usually, he'd only grab a long-sleeved shirt and some jeans, feeling content. Most of his clothing is fairly average, what with them being of all sorts of muted colors and sorts of clothing. He isn't used to expressing himself whether it is though clothing or other methods.
equipment:

• Folding Knife; The cleaver-shaped folding knife was a present from his brother and Micah has taken to using it for almost everything in his day to day. When his mother fell ill after Marco's death, Micah had to scrub the docks, cut rope to secure the boats, and even got to work on some boats during outings for extra cash. The knife became like a lifeline, being used for everything he had to do.
• Bead Necklace; Micah has been at camp for a year now.
• Monster Directory; Over the years, Micah has seen one or two monsters in their undisguised forms and has taken to keeping note of them by drawing them in as great a detail as he can remember in a separate notebook from the rest of his drawings while also making notes of tactics that worked against them.
• Sketchbook; Ever since he started drawing, Micah has had a good amount of sketchbooks, most of which he donated to orphanages in Sicily for the little kids to enjoy the drawings if they weren't destroyed by seawater or other kids. After he donated his last one with a few pages blank at the end, he got himself a new book, this one being leather-bound and practically a blank slate. He's glad to have an abundance of space to draw as his story unfolds.
• Art Supplies; A good amount of colored and uncolored pencils, all in different states of use, either dull or sharp, long or short, and an eraser in a dark brown leather box.
• Satchel; The over-the-shoulder bag Micah carries around with all of his items. It's nothing special, just an olive green bag with a good amount of compartments and space.
• Throwing Knife Bandolier; Micah's choice of weapon, the bandolier he carries is easy to hide under civilian clothes, fast to access, and easy to use. The knives are of standard make and easily replaceable with others from the armory, though Micah tends to clean and sharpen them himself after each use.

abilities:
* – modmailed / custom

godrent domain powers: 

a) Dead Communication; Ever since his close brush with death, Micah's powers surged. His father's connection to spirits and those who have died became his and as such he can now see and communicate with the spirits of the dead. They have been his only source of information on his father. He likes to build a network of spirits whenever he goes somewhere new so he can gather information as fast as possible.
b) Shadow Camouflage; From a fairly young age, Micah wasn't much of a social butterfly. Most of the time, he felt most comfortable in a shadowy nook where the lines of his body would be broken by shadows, using the ability unconsciously. After his near-death experience, Micah became more aware of his ability to hide in shadows and learned to use it more effectively than before.
c) Shadow Travel\;* After an unknowably long amount of time spent in Hades, Micah's father, Charon, was aligned with the underworld to which he led the souls of the dead. Similarly, Micah has inherited the ability to travel through shadows in short or long-range teleports.

godrent minor powers: 

a) River Step\;* The connection with the River Styx flows through Micah's veins as much as it does through his father's. The ability this connection granted him was the ability to walk on water, as long as there is no significant shift to the water, such as large waves.
b) Death Buff\;* Being a servant of the God of the Dead, it only makes sense that Charon would draw his own power from his master. As such, Micah has inherited a trait where he becomes stronger when around children of other deities of death, such as Hades, Melinoe, Zagreus, the Oneiroi, etc.
c) Aura of the Harbinger\;* Being a multifaceted deity, Charon passed down his multifacetedness in the form of an aura ability. Micah has the ability to project an aura with two opposite effects that work on separate targets. A calming effect affects any spirits within the aura while an imposing effect like that of Children of Hades affects living beings within the aura's range.

godrent major powers: 

a) Major Watercraft Manipulation\;* Being known as the Ferryman of the Dead, it only makes sense for Charon, and Micah by extension, to have dominion over watercraft. Micah's control over watercraft was one of the first powers he discovered and the power that is most intertwined with him in his entirety. He has inherited the ability to gain absolute control over any and all watercraft down to the rigging and ropes.

skillset 

Over the years, Micah has picked up a good variety of skills, including fishing and rope work. Still, there have been a great many learning experiences for the boy on the streets of Sicily. Free running came as a given to any child of below-average means in Sicily but Micah was significantly worse than most thanks to a leg injury he got at the age of thirteen. Drawing was the only real luxury he had during his time when he wasn't working. A young lady from a carnival that was passing through taught him how to use throwing knives after he helped her find her way around the city. He learned ballet by watching, sitting for hours outside a studio every day for weeks until he'd gotten good enough to practice independently, which led to his interest in gymnastics. One of the older neighborhood boys took to teaching Micah, his brother, and the other kids how to read and write in English. Micah's adoptive mother insisted on teaching him how to speak English from a young age. Now, he can speak English with a barely noticeable Sicilian accent.
personality
Micah is about as quiet as you'd expect from a Chthonic kid. That isn't to say that he is particularly serious or brooding, in fact, even when he's upset, he rarely does either. He mainly remains silent because he isn't particularly talented at talking. His reactions to most things tend to be a bit muted unless something is especially funny or angering. Any of the kids that liked him or trusted him in Sicily did so because they understood that when it was needed, Micah would talk as much as was needed and would do what needed to be done to keep everyone safe.
Fatal Flaw; Vengefulness
backstory
Micah's past year at camp had been simultaneously the most relaxing and confusing year of his life. There had been a unfamiliarity that Micah had with anything to do with relaxation or really anything but working that had slowly melted away. He'd made friends and discovered passions that might have otherwise gone ignored for the rest of his life (Art was definitely one of those).
So, when school started to take over his time, Micah barely gave it any thought, settling back into his old work mentality, though now focused on mental instead of physical labor. Before he knew it, it was summer, school was out, and he was back at the start, not knowing how to get himself to relax.
now
Micah stared at the ground around the Range target blankly, the celestial bronze knives scattered around it refracting light. He was jolted out of his mental haze when a camper a few rows down yelled at him for standing in front of the target for so long. Quickly finishing up gathering his throwing knives, Micah slotted them into his bandolier and left the Range.
For a while, he just walked, until he reached the pier. Boats had been a constant of Micah's life before coming to camp and when he was really out of it or off his rocker, the son of Charon liked to settle at the camp pier and imagine what sort of sea vessel he'd design for himself. Aesthetics might not have mattered to everyone but to Micah, they did. The ship would have to look as good as it sailed.
Now, he fell onto his back in the sand a few meters from the pier and stared up at the sky. Barely any clouds. Gods that was boring.
(Credit to u/FireyRage for the amazing intro format.)

Hello all,
I guess you could say im stuck in a massive first world problem, what VR headset to get...
I am currently a user of the reverb g2 which has been great but looking to get something better since I have the computer for it. (4090/7800x3d) Also, I know we are losing support...
I am pretty much a hardcore sim-racer since thats the only thing I use VR for. In addition, I also have a motion rig.
After some background to my setup im trying to see what you guys have thought about, used, and recommend from your experiance and how it applies to my needs.
Of course, I am looking for something future proof since it would be a larger purchase. So for months now I have been researching and reading pretty much every reddit out there on user feedback.
I have narrowed down my choices to the Big screen Beyond, pimax crystal, or the new somnium vr1.
My thoughts: I like the Pimax's technology but it seems really heavy, especially since I am using motion. The screens seem amazing though and I like the flexability.
However, it seems Pimax has always had a lurking reliability issue. Is this reliability issue really a problem, and do you think the weight is an issue?
The Somnium looks pretty awesome, but definitely very expensive. In addtion, the form factor is something im also concerned about. However, this would be the most future proof and packed with technology. Is the price worth it over pimax though!?!
Lastly, my current 1st choice but with some doubts.
I absolutely love the Big Screen Beyond for what it is and what it stands for. I think the form factor is something that is the future of VR especially for motion. However, It is a first gen product and I wonder how future proof it will be. To me, the visuals on paper are some of the best but with the downside of small FOV and sweet spot. I guess my concerns with it are, is it enough?
I really dont like the fact it has a fixed IPD, in the case someone else wants to use it. The other large concern is the glare ive seen many people talk about. Is it an issue? Lastly, other headsets like the quest 3 have a better lense with a much larger sweet spot which is a detriment to the BSB.. some ive seen say the quests e larger sweet spot is a game changer thus me doubting the BSB. I know the somnium vr1 has a similar sweet spot to the Q3 however the price is too high IMO...
All in all, all of these headsets seem to be awesome, however I want to make the right choice. What do you guys think of these headsets and would you recommend something else instead? Is weight really an issue especially for motion? Are the lacking stats of the BSB really an issue in comparison to these headsets? Motion racing is the key here and just wondering if the weight of a larger headset like the pimax is too much.
What do you think?
Cheers!

my (30m) fiance (30f) has been texting her coworker very sexually for months now. i have been feeling a strong emotional and physical disconnect from her for months as well. ive brought it up many times but its always her "hormones" or "stress" which i 100% agree. we both have very stressful high pace jobs and also two young boys (5,6). i decided i'll check her phone just to see, ive never felt a disconnect like this between us and she always use to be all over me and over the top lovey and touched so this is far out of character for her. low and behold i see messages going back to february to her 47yo male MARRIED coworker. it wont let me attach images so ill just try to highlight the main concerning texts which is nearly all of them. it started off because she's into smut books if you will, and he apparently writes smut short stories she read him and excerpt from one of her book: he felt the need to text her one of his short super dirty stories. she replies to this saying it's "hot and he's a good ass writer" couple messages go by and he's making obviously but subtle sexual comments to her saying "how did they get a camera in my room to write those books" there's too much to repeat all the messages but to highlight he keeps making comments sexual in nature, she replies to one about a sex dungeon saying "if you had a room like this one in the hook i'll he over" to which he says "not anymore i'm married" she says something then he says "i didn't say i was happily married" more conversation then he says he has "bad knees but that doesn't mean he still doesn't get his heartrate up" she says "i have a bad back we would do great together" he says "i would get a swing to swoop you off your feet", insinuating a sex swing, she says "talking about swings in have one at home collecting dust as we speak " (sex swing) a lot of innaproraite conversations happen for months. a few more key things is they have a quiet room at work, it's like a single person small room with one couch for employees to go relax and unwind at, totally isolated and hidden from plain view, ther lot of messages about meeting together in the quiet room. he says "i would never knock on that door unless i knew who was in there" she says "if it's "our" break time you know it's me " he says " it's super cute she called it "our" break time. and that he "needs written permission to enter the room while she's in there" she replies a :) and says that he can come in the room anytime he wants if she's in there. fast forward to next shift all she sends is a time "1730? :)" and he savs "as always" then she says "good boy, that was your written invitation" I've also met this dude once at her coworkers party. he sat right next to my fiance, i sat across the table and i noticed with 5 min of meeting this guy that something was suspicious. he was openly being flirt right in front of me so much so that i texted my friend and said i don't like this guy that sitting next to my fiance he's scheming.i sent that message as this was going on in front of me. this happened after the messages were sent about going to his private sex dungeon and gun sweeping her off her feet with a sex swing. but the event took place months ago before i knew these messages existed. my fiance claims nothing has ever happened physically between them, the messages are leading me to highly suspect otherwise. she has no excuse other than she doesn't know what happened and what she was thinking. she's extremely apologetic and has him blocked now. i reached out to this guys wife and his wife has no idea about this whole situation and says that this guy has cheated be prior to this our relationship has been extremely healthy and she's my, or was, my dream come true. i never expected this.
what would you do? would you call off the wedding? i feel like this is cheating and i know i will never be able to get over this and trust her again 100%. she's apologetic beyond belief, has blocked him and said anything i need she will do. she still works with this guy and always will. i'll always have doubt about her now and am worried she will do it again. if i wouldn't have caught it this time around it would have continued for god knows how long and probably went even further the way things were escalating. is this cheating?
TLDR; my (30m) fiance (30f) has been sexually texting and meeting privately with her (47m) married (previously cheated) coworker. she denies anything happened physically which is very hard to believe with the nature of the messages and private meeting.

Question all of the above, no hate comments towards my disabilities guys. Would appreciate it. I'm 32 "M" turning 33 on June 1st. Never dated, trying to find a girlfriend at the moment. Someone I can "Settle down with" etc. I'm even pretty cool if she leaves. Sorry if this sounds arrogant of me. I have been trying to meet new people. I've been talking to girls lately too. Trying to build up confidence and get "Out of my shell, etc" How do I get girls to stay as friends? I don't want to turn into a "player" because that's not me. I actually have a crush on our mailwoman and shes really nice, we got the same stuff in common, and another girl that works at our vet too. Shes really out going, pretty, etc. Not judgemental, etc. Though I gotta be careful on the mailwoman thing i don't know how legal that is. Sorry. I don't see any "rings" on these women so I am hoping this is a good sign??? But I don't know if they have a boyfriend/girlfriend so I don't know how to properly ask them? Because I'm afraid of rejection. But don't wanna make the mailwomen seem awkward, first mailwomen in all honestly I've ever met that was super down to earth and open minded, etc. I was kinda shocked to be honest. Most mail people who deliver our mail tend to be rude, etc. But never seen one down to earth and pretty, etc. Shes around my age as well.
Question is, how do you tell if they got a boyfriend/girflriend, single, etc? I've been "sheltered" my entire life. Due to my learning disabilities and such. I am trying to fight it and fight my social anxiety and try to meet more women more. I used to have a fear of asking women out because I got bullied by one in school years ago in High School to the point where the school tried to accuse me of "Stalking" etc. You know how it goes. How ever I'm really trying to get over my trauma by asking a girl out. Literally. PLEASE be NICE. I am hoping someone can give me some advice or information on how to ask a girl out in my state with out sounding like a creep. I'm really nice, shy but once you get to know me I'm really talkative. Sorry guys. No hate speech please or comments. I'm really struggling here. :'( In the past 3 weeks I've been talking to women, and getting "Out of my shell" so I guess that's some improvement right??? Please be nice. I'm nervous while writing this post. How do you know if they are interested too? :/ Sorry. My parents really never told me how to date. :'( Don't bad mouth them please. It was for my protection/safety, etc. Thing is I can't drive either. So how would this work out? I live in a small town, so idk. Sorry. :'( Working on getting my license. I don't wanna date these women, but say I got a crush on them if that makes sense. Just showing improvement. Sorry. Need some encouragement here and tips. Apologies. And I know some women do date guys with disabilities. I've seen it before. Sorry.

Case 1: I have a china friend, let's call him Y for now. And today he might had the biggest moodswing I ever seen. FYI, he wanted to start a business but I wasn't supportive because it's a startup and he isn't really smart and his idea is unclear and I didnt believe in him. 2 weeks later, he messaged me asking how am I doing, and I say I am unemployed, and he ask whether do I want a job or not, which I replied yeah, and he show a event road show part-time job which I didn't care about but applied anyway. Later on, I asked, "did you get any job offers about our course of study" he replied back angrily like, "Wtf what kind of question is that I am still waiting for NS", then I say, "I just want to know whether if our classmates got any job offers related to our course". And this is where he got really heated me and say, "you're just a loser", "I have never seen you anything more than a loser" "no goals no ambition no woman no jobs".
Hearing this I was shocked 😯 I didn't know that's what he thinks about me all this time and I instantly blocked him instead of asking what happened 😬
Case 2: With another china friend, let's call him Z for now. Z wants to order Bibimbap from new restaurant, he ask me whether I want to order or not. I replied no. Since I already had Korean/japanese food yesterday, then went other hawker store. Being the indecisive guy I am, I went back to the direction where he's ordering Bibimbap, he ask the same question again, which I replied no.
After we meet back at the table, he ask me again whether I want a Bibimbap, then I told him, "I don't want a Bibimbap, I can always order from this store if I wanted to. Why do you keep asking the same question? Are you stupid" in Chinese. This makes him enraged and he's like, "I am just asking right, don't want then say don't want, why must get mad". Then his stupidity shock me 😯 note that he's not the type to treat food, so when he ask whether I want Bibimbap, he's not trying to treat me, he's asking whether I want to buy. I already answer him thrice and he still won't give up 😂 bruh. I wasn't really mad but really annoyed.
Foolish people make foolish friends it seems. Sigh