Bloated tummy after a laparoscopy how to get rid

I have been suffering with gut inflammation for more than a decade now. Symptoms: - pain (plus gas/bloating) left most left most side of my left rib just after eating. Pain with bloating keep moving down in same direction with time - no dairy not even lactose free - can’t digest veggies and fruits even low FODMAP - fatigue - brain fog - nausea - diarrhoea - gastritis - extreme hunger craving but can’t eat
Now i have been on strict carnivore diet. Meat only for 1 month now. My bowl movements are fine and i am worried of constipation instead of diarrhoea lol i am fine with it. I was unable to digest fat in start but now after one month i can digest tallow easily in lower amount.
The only issue is i was already weak and don’t know how much deficiencies i had with all these years of diarrhoea and eating nothing. Now after one month of meat only, i am feeling too much: - fatigue - brain fog - feeling heartbeat - immense weakness - more weight reduced than ibs - if i eat beef then my body gets very dry as a whole - when i drink water it gets me full and unable to have next meal even i am hungry
Can anyone help me out in getting energy without disturbing my IBS more? Thanks in advance

I think it’s a good time for people to revisit some of Min Heejin’s previous personal and creative choices. When you see everything together it no longer looks like a couple of coincidences but a long leading pattern of behavior
I’ve tried to link as much as I can. Please let me know if need to edit or add anything. None of the MV links are the actual music videos and are instead stills posted on Imgur
-Hyein’s top in the Attention MV was a bralette while the older members all were more covered up. Hyein is 14 in this MV
-In the Attention MV their laptop falls to the ground as they’re on a video call and the people on the other end watch them dance
-Minji wears a shirt that says pimp is yours
-Min Heejin does a interview with BE(ATTITUDE) Magazine. She talks a bit about Hyein

Our youngest member is cool and sophisticated. She came to my home one day and we ate together, went to the bookstore, and walked around the neighborhood, talking about this and that. There was a passing awkwardness, but after a while it felt like I was taking a walk with a friend. She’s got so many talents and amazing skills. She’s young, but thoughtful, with that innocence they have at that age. I still remember bathing in her refreshing energy, and the sublime weather only added to the effect.

-NewJeans officially releases Cookie which is filled with sexual innuendo lyrics. Their ages at this point are 18, 17, 17, 16, and 14. Cookie was written by two native English speakers.
-Min Heejin posts a picture on Instagram that includes the Histoire de Melody Nelson album by Serge Gainsbourg on display in her apartment. The album’s plot is about a middle age man who takes a 14 year old’s virginity
-Min Heejin posts a picture on Instagram of Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting’s nude scene from the 1968 movie Romeo and Juliet. Olivia was 15 at the time of filming and Leonard was 16. (The actors have actually sued Paramount over the nudity in this scene you can read about it here)
-Min Heejin posts several pictures that include a “Baby Brooke” picture as decoration in her apartment. Brooke Shields was extremely sexually exploited as a child
-Min Heejin posts a picture that includes a still from the 1974 film Le Farò de Padre. The IMDb page for the film. The plot is an older man plans to marry a mentally-challenged, sex-crazed, adolescent girl.
-Danielle gets styled like Mathilda from Léon the Professional. Mathilda is played by 12 year old Natalie Portman and there are many inappropriate themes/hintings between her and the titular character who was portrayed by 46 year old Jean Reno.
There are also these two posts that she made but I do not know who they are if they are also celebrities/actors. I’m also sorry for the bad screenshot quality of her Instagram posts, she has since deleted these so these screenshots are from Twitter
-Min Heejin responds to the Instagram post controversy in a interview with JoongAng Ilbo.She says that all of the pictures of minors she had on her wall were gifted to her from a couple years ago. She also says that pimp is yours and Cookie are slang.
-The music video of OMG is taking place in a mental hospital with all of the members having different mental issues.
-Haters are directly talked to at the end of the OMG MV as one of the members stops another one from writing a hate comment on Twitter and tells the other member it’s time to go. The hate comment says “Does anyone else feel uncomfortable watching the MV?”
-NewJeans gets into a controversy ahead of their ETA release as there are many similarities with a Spanish terrorist cult(Euskadi Ta Askatasuna). The teaser video said starting Mikel, Maria, and Eva which are names people connected to the cult. The release date of ETA(July 21st) was also the date of two separate cult attacks in different years.
-The MV for Cool With You stars Jung Hoyeon as a woman who follows around and falls in love with a man who is unable to see her as she is some sort of invisible entity like Eros. She is able to become human after standing naked in the rain. The 5 members of NewJeans are basically her guardian angels and have been watching over her the entire time including a scene where Hoyeon gets on top of the man as he’s sleeping
Min Heejin worked at SM Entertainment from 2002 until 2018. These are some controversial moments that she was involved in during that time at SM
please note that I did not actively follow her career at that point so if I got any information wrong please let me know
-The Happiness MV from Red Velvet references the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and 9/11. The MV was edited to get rid of the collage.
-Red Velvet releases Ice Cream Cake which is filled with sexual innuendos. The ages of the members at this point are 23, 21, 21, 18, and Yeri being 16.
-This photoshoot for Red Velvet’s Rookie which I personally think fetishizes the members in a Lolita style. Yeri is 17
-Shinee’s topless photoshoot for Sherlock. Jonghyun’s body had too much muscle definition so theyphotoshopped it to make his body more boyish.
-The MV for NCT Dream’s My First And Last includes the members being students who are in love with their female teacher. The members ages at this point are also 18, 17, 16, 16, 16, 15, and 15.
-The MV for NCT 127’s Fire Truck includes shooting a young looking girl with water.
-The MV for Super Junior’s Devil had a 14 year old actress
Related to the recent Kakaotalk texts that were leaked where Min Heejin calls some of the members fat - here is a predebut video of the members of NewJeans talking with Min Heejin. The girls are only eating vegetables

Min Hee Jin: How is it?
Hyein: It’s so good. I think after coming here, I got used to this healthy taste. So now I like such foods.
Min Hee Jin: Wow, finally something good to hear. Hyein originally liked meat, though.
Hyein: Yeah. I still like meat but, well.

Hello! I wanted to ask those who are more well read on the lore and maybe better at story writing how well my background to my custom successor chapter fits in to the current setting.
Also I apologise I'm on phone when I wrote the majority of this
-The name is the angels of repose and they are an ultima founding chapter consisting primarily of primaris and some ex fallen which is explained a little later on.
They are a successor chapter to the dark angels and so follow their parent chapters doctrine of green wing, death wing and raven wing though most of this knowledge came from their unlikely allies.
Shortly after their founding the acting supreme grand Master tasked this chapter with the hunt for the fallen in a sector of space know to be deadly especially to the not yet proven primaris, with the company master even suspecting this of being a way to get rid of these new marines.
After 25 years of searching and slogging through xeno and heretic however the chapters resources and numbers dwindled to near extinction with all their brother on silent agreement that they had been forsaken, that is until an unlikely encounter with an adrift battleship not seen since the time of the horus heresy, these few remaining battle brother boarded the ship in hope of finding anything salvageable until they came across the dark black armour of the ones they were sent to Hunt.
Yet these fallen didn't seem too interested in stoking a fight aboard their vessel and the angels of repose few numbers meant they had little chance of winning such an engagement. As weapons were lowered and talks began, these fallen and forsaken angels would join as one.
This granted the once beleaguered sons of the lion ancient weapons from the time of the Great crusade and few more numbers to their ranks. Though they will surely be branded as heretics they serve the imperium where needed only scoffing at the likes of the supreme grand Master but rallying at the cry of their now returned father.
Feel free to speak your thoughts on it and offer any changes and ideas you might have.

Hi,
I need opinions.
My 6/7 year old dog has had a few health concerns. A few months ago, she had a lump on her chest. I made the decision to wait a week to see if it resolved on it's own. It didn't, we made an appointment. We got to the vet and unfortunately it resolved when the appointment occurred.
I told them she was otherwise fine. I mentioned she had vomiting a few months prior, but that had resolved too. They told me to watch things and bring her in if anything pops up. We joked that I paid $80 for her to get belly rubs.
About a month ago she started having a weird breathing situation going on. It resembled what she did when she would be having an anxiety situation. We didn't notice any triggers, and I decided to monitor for a week. She was eating a little less, but she is normally picky and regularly gives me trouble eating, so this didn't really throw a red flag for me.
After monitoring, we made a vet appointment. The vet did an exam and determined it to be anxiety induced. We upped her trazodone.
A week later, still no improvement. I called and made another appointment. Unfortunately, though, the day I made an appointment, she just had a 180. She started having some serious issues and we made the decision to take her to the emergency vet. The vet there was able to do an exam and suspected cancer without any invasive testing. She did mention she did an ultrasound review of her and found fluid (and I think this isn't a normal exam for vets). She also said that her back leg seemed to have a mass on it that she was concerned about. Her stomach was also considerably bloated despite not eating much.
We are moving forward with some treatment (likely chemo) to keep her as comfortable as possible, but all of those decisions are still pending. I want her to pass comfortably, not necessarily have her with us longer (though I won't complain about a few extra months).
But I have another dog. And I will have more dogs in the future. And I feel I may need to consider this situation and how things were handled. Obviously there's not much to do with cancer from a curing perspective, but the fact that I had to go to the emergency vet to find out really bothers me. My dog was to the vet twice, and there was no indication of concern from the vet for her. Everything was chill and "let's start with this and see if it helps". Maybe it's because she is so young? The next steps would not have even unveiled the cancer, because we did those in the hospital and they were inconclusive (X-rays). There was a blood test involved that might have? The cancer was diagnosed via ultrasound and drainage of the fluid in her lungs. So I don't even know when we would have gotten to that point.
What are your thoughts? Is this maybe just that easy to pass up? Or maybe it literally could have shown up within a week? For the record we also did not notice her leg having the issue.
Im just having a lot of guilt for not noticing the signs sooner and I want to make the right decisions for her, and my other dog in the future.

Hello, in 2020 I took 11 drops of methylcobalamin 5000mcg. A few minutes after I felt horrible. Nasal congestion, headache, anxiety, confusion and worse of all insomnia. I did not sleep for straight 48 hours and then slowly I started to sleep for 1-2 hours a day. For 2 years, I slept for 5-6 hours a day. Even the digestion worsened day by day, my intestines became hard and I could not digest anything like before. I felt intoxicated and my intestine was hard, initially, even my liver was in serious pain. In few months after taking methylcobalamin, every time I had even a little bit of dairy, I could not sleep again. This has remained for long.
Last year, I had pneumonia and took plenty of antibiotics and I noticed that my sleep had improved but every time I had dairy (yogurt) the insomnia would come back and if I take antibiotics again, the insomnia would disappear. My point is that most likely it is the gut bacteria that got altered after taking methylcobalamin. When I did a blood test, my homocysteine levels were high.
This year I tried a very small amount of multivitamin and symptoms came rushing. With some antibiotics again, they disappeared. Last month, I took some Vitamin D (cholecalciferol) 50000IU, all at once in a capsule and since this one time of taking this capsule I have insomnia after eating even a small amount of meat or dairy. Even if I eat it in the morning. I tried taking magnesium and potassium supplements but not much success.
I have been taken Vitamin D on multiple occasions but never had such symptoms. I have gut issues for years, most likely SIBO but also some gut inflammation I guess. I've lost 30 kgs in the past because of my gut issues caused antibiotics to kill H Pylori.
Can some explain why do I have these symptoms and how to get rid of them. My gut is feeling hard again. Am I oveunder methylated?

Part Two: The Solitude of This Fire
Chapter 6
Location: Hust Forge. Hust Henarald's conference room
POV: Kellaras
After making Kellaras wait some days, Hust Henarald finally grants him an audience and says "One day, I will be a child again". These words seem to be nonsense to Kellaras. While waiting for his audience he noticed the Hust Forge never stops working. Henarald goes on to say we all war with two parts of ourselves and both make weapons from anything at hand. Henarald asks Kellaras if Anomander simply wants a sword or to join the Hust Legion. He doesn't think Urusander's Legion would like that very much. Kellaras says he knows the request of a sword is unusual at this time. Henarald responds by saying others will see it as political. Perhaps even a secret allegiance. Kellaras is put off balance by Henarald's pragmatic responses and then shifting into ending each with "One day I will be a child again." Henarald asks for specs and Kellaras says Anomander wants the sword to be silent. Henarald responds by asking if he would prefer a gagged weapon and if Anomander will hide it's origin. Kellaras tells Henarald that Anomander wants his swords spine to be quenched in the purity of Darkness itself. Henarald muses on power and says those with the most power have the greatest fear and that means power is meaningless and delusional. Kellaras counters that the Forulkan would have enslaved the Tiste with their power had they won, but they lost to the power of the Tiste. Henarald responds, "A triumph in solitude makes a hollow sound, and to every glory proclaimed the heavens make no answer".
Kellaras reiterates that his master requests a sword. Henarald responds "To take the blood of Darkness". Kellaras is surprised by this as Mother Dark is not Azathanai. Henarald asks how she feeds her power and if now that Anomander knows the secret of House Hust if he will use it for political gain. Kellaras says his Lord is the ultimate secret keeper. Henarald agrees to forge Anomander's sword, but requires that he be present at the quenching of it by darkness to witness if it is blood Mother Dark uses. Kellaras tells him he won't be able to see anything and leaves the chamber trembling mostly upset by Henarald's repeated assertions that he will return to childhood.
Kellaras goes to the main hall where there is feast taking place. He pushes aside his doubts and is proud that he got Henarald's agreement to make the sword. He searches out Galar Baras and finds him leaning against a pillar staring at a woman that had just entered. Kellaras sees her see Galar Baras and watches her stiffen. The woman is Toras Redone. Kellaras notes that even grimed from hard travel she is beautiful and makes his way to Galar. Galar asks if Henarald spoke to Kellaras of childhood. Kellaras says yes, but does not understand. Kellaras invites Galar to join a table and Galar accepts though he tells him he can't drink. Galar tells the captain that the childhood thing troubles them all. Kellaras asks him to call him by his name and not rank. Galar says that Henarald claims that he is losing his recent memories, but no one can see any evidence of this. Galar tells Kellaras of a sickness called Loss of Iron that afflicts smiths. Kellaras tells Galar that in his meeting Henarald was sharp and focused. No evidence of a crumbling mind. Galar asks if he will tell Anomander of this. Galar says it has no bearing on the creation of the sword and says his master would likely just say returning to childhood isn't a bad idea.
POV: Galar Baras
Kellaras gets drunk and stumbles off and now Galar has to be alone with his thoughts and heartache at the presence of Toras Redone. She was still holding court at one of the tables and after a while she shuffles over to him. She comments on her husband transferring as far away as he could. She tells Galar that he is a pariah in the citadel. That people think him arrogant and dismissive. She knows that's not him, so is puzzled. She says he should have sex with the priestesses. That celibacy is not for soldiers. He should feed his appetites. Galar responds by asking if she is well fed. The barb slides off of her and she says well enough. She says she is certain that her husband stays true to her and that leads her to infidelity. Galar does not understand this. She changes the subject and says she has missed him. She tells him to go to bed, but he knows he won't be alone for long. He compares himself to Toras Redone's husband, Calat Hustain, knowing that both spend their nights alone, "because it was in their nature to choose it: to remain alone in the absence of love"
Location: Neret Sorr
POV: Kadaspala
With Osserc and Hunn Raal gone, Kadaspala is having a more enjoyable time having dinners with Urusander. The painting however was still irritating to him. He doubts anyone will see below the surface of his painting. He is finished and will leave in the morning. "There is but one god, and its name is beauty. There is but one kind of worship, and that is love. There is for us but one world, and we have scarred it beyond recognition". Kadaspala now truly sees Urusander and is terrified. Urusander asks him why he chose to accept this request. Kadaspala says he's denied hundreds, but if anyone can prevent a civil war, it's the man in the portrait. Although his thoughts imply that that may not be the same man standing before him.
Location: House Enes lands
POV: Cryl Durav
On his short self-imposed exile from the wedding preparations, Kryl finds the antlers of a long dead Eckalla. A symbol of triumph. Cryl thinks the triumph is hollow. Hunting for food was once a necessity, but that necessity bred traditions that resulted in the extinction of this animal. Thinking back on his youth he dreamt of discovering a new world free of Tiste where he could become prey and know the thrill of fear. Enesdia was also present in these fantasies. He thinks, "He had been trained for war just as he had been taught how to hunt and how to slay, and these were deemed necessary skills in preparation for adulthood. How sad was that?".
His horse notices some movement and he sees a troop of Tiste riders approaching. This makes no sense as there is no reason for them to come here on there way to somewhere else. Cryl rides to meet them and sees that they lead a score of Jheleck children. There were no chains. The captain of the company asks why Cryl is out this far and Cryl tells him who he is. The captain breaks in and says Cryl is probably fleeing the frenzy of the coming marriage. The captain introduces himself as Scara Bandaris and says there are two reasons for him being here, one trying to figure out what to do with the Jheleck hostages and two to attend the wedding. Cryl agrees to escort them all to house Enes. Scara perceptively guesses that Cryl is out here because he is in love with Enesdia. He says he will say no more on the subject.
There are 25 Jheleck children. Scara says they will raise wolves in these children. Cryl says he's heard they are more like hounds. Scara says hostage taking may come back to bite them. Scara laughs at his own joke and forces a smile onto Cryl's face. Cryl feels a little better.
Location: House Enes
POV: Enesdia
Enesdia is upset that Cryl has been gone for a few days. She searches out her father and overdramatically asks him why they are shirking their responsibility to their hostage. She says, "For all you know he could be lying at the bottom of a well, legs shattered and dying of thirst" Jaen responds "Dying of thirst in a well?" he tells her he sent him on a search for Eckalla. She says that's a hopeless quest. Jaen says Cryl's familiar with those. Enesdia asks what he means. Jaen responds that his time with House Enes is ending. It has only now struck Enesdia that her companion will not be at her side much longer. Enesdia laments the fact that Cryl's family has only one occupation. He will be a soldier like his only living brother, Spinnock. She muses that she could ask Andarist to offer Cryl a commission in the citadel, far away from fighting. Cryl would never know, but he would be safe.
Location: House Drukorlas
POV: Orfantal
Orfantal is standing near the estate road with Wreneck, a stable boy that used to be his friend. They are also standing near an old nag horse. They have been standing for some time. They are being circled by 3 feral dogs that have smelled the food that Orfantal carries. Orfantal wished he knew why Wreneck stopped being his friend, but it seemed impossible to ask now. Orfantal has all of his possessions in a trunk. They are not much. Orfantal thinks he could fit in there too, ready to be discarded. Wreneck is 10, Orfantal is 5. His grandmother is sending him off somewhere to learn how to grow up. He knows there will be a time when unhappiness comes into his life as it does with every boy. A wagon pulls up. It will be his ride to wherever he is going. Wreneck makes sure they know that he is going to the citadel and that he is nobleborn. Wreneck tells Orfantal that the old horse is blind in her left eye, so don't let anything ride on that side of her. Orfantal says goodbye to Wreneck and Wreneck waves dismissively and leaves.
POV: Wreneck
Wreneck turns from some distance to watch them leave with tears running down his face. He resolves himself to return to the "evil hag" and now he doesn't even have Orfantal to make his life easier. Nerys Drukorlat had forbidden him from playing or even speaking to Orfantal. She would fire him if he did. His mother and father and sisters relied on his income. He wished he could have played with Orfantal this entire morning and hugged him goodbye, but he was afraid of the evil hag.
Location: Toras Keep. On the road to the Citadel
POV: Orfantal
The party makes camp and the scarred old man who loaded Orfantal's trunk says that this is likely his horse's last journey. Orfantal is sad to not even know the horses name and wonders what things she has seen in her life. He decided that she had been a warhorse and saved her rider many times, but not from the betrayal that finally killed him. The leader of the troop introduces himself to Orfantal as Haral and tells him not to call him sir. He tells him he guards merchants and that's all. Orfantal asks about bandits. Haral says there are some Deniers. Haral tells Orfantal that he will be sharing Gripp's tent. The man who took care of his horse. He says that Gripp can be trusted and not some of the other men in the party.
Haral says after this he will be joining House Dracon's houseblades. Orfantal asks if he was a soldier once. Haral says few weren't in his generation. Orfantal introduces himself. Haral asks why she named him that. His name is a Yedan dialect. The holy language of the monks, Shake. Narad, one of the guards, says it means unwanted and laughs. Haral tells him to keep his mouth shut on this journey and tells Orfantal his name doesn't mean unwanted, it means unexpected. Narad laughs again and Haral savagely kicks him in the face then punches him. He then walks away from the unconscious guard. Orfantal is trembling and his heart is beating fast. Gripp comes over and calms him down. He says it's discipline and Narad was pushing for weeks. Orfantal now has a face to put to all the faceless betrayers in his war games. Narad. Gripp shows Orfantal how to raise a tent.
Location: Within sight of Dracon's Hold
POV: Ivis
Ivis and Sandalath are riding towards the hold. Ivis tells her that Draconus will be gone for several weeks still. Her body tells him that she probably had a child, but that's none of his business. She is now a hostage at House Dracon's and she will be treated well. Sandalath asks where Draconus comes from. Ivis says even his servants do not know, but he proved his worth in the war. Ivis is upset at the discipline now presented by his houseblades and resolves to fix it. Sandalath is being led to a warm bath and thanks Ivis. He responds, "My pleasure, milady". Hilith the head of the house maids does not like him calling her a lady as she is only hostage now. She lets him know it. Ivis says, "Old woman, you are no queen to so command me. I will choose the honorific our guest deserves. She rode well and without complaint. If you have complaint, await the pleasure of our lord upon his return. In the meantime, spit out that sour grape you so love to suck on, and be dutiful." Hilith says this isn't over. Ivis responds with a command to leave his courtyard and if he hears of her being miserable to the hostage that it will in fact not be over.
Location: Dracon's Hold
POV: Sandalath
Hilith tells Sandalath to come with her to the bath. Sandalath asks if the water is hot. and asks her if there is wood ready just in case. Sandalath challenges Hilith and says she is to treat her as if she was the lady of the house. Hilith bristles but agrees. Sandalath remembers her first stint as a hostage and the horrible hag that made her life miserable until Andarist found out and got rid of her. If Hilith turns out to be the same, she will tell Draconus. A younger maid escorts her to the correct bath, not the one Hilith had prepared for her. Sandalath says if Hilith is her enemy, then Sandalath should have many allies. The maid smiles and says thousands. Sandalath asks the maid about Ivis and if she finds him handsome. She says he is old, but Sandalath doesn't think so. Sandalath tells the maid she feels welcomed by this house and feels born anew.

As the title suggests, I got intimate with my partner without protection on 2nd May and later ended up checking that it was my supposed day of ovulation, I know it was so stupid of us l've always been extremely careful with all of this but it just happened and he pulled out. I took a Plan B 30 minutes later and I've been feeling quite bloated since then but nothing else. I bled a little bit for 3 days on 15th May (so basically 13 days after I took the pill) I'm confused whether it's implantation bleeding or spotting because of the pill.
I'm super confused because I know l've heard the pill delays your period but I struggle with anxiety and l've scoured the entire internet and there's so much conflicting advice. I don't know what to do now, how long should I wait for my period before taking a test? Please help me as this is getting quite overwhelming for me to deal with.

I’ve made a couple posts here that involved screenshots made with the snipping tool, and I noticed something that, until I realized what it was, annoyed me immensely. Whenever you try to take a screenshot with snipping tool, the game pulls up a previous gamestate for the screenshot. You can get rid of this by exiting the snipping tool and starting it again, at which point you’ll see the current screen. No clue how old the gamestate it shows you is or how it decides what to show you, but I’m 99% sure this was intentional to allow us to screenshot our runs after the game ends. I just saw a comment where someone was wishing they can do just that. PSA: you can.

AITA or WIBTA - Sorry for my English it's not my language and also for the long post. I (28F) have a friend (23F) we have been friends for at least 4 years now. She has helped me at my lowerest and I have helped her though hers. We have spend nights crying and thinking no one would love us and we will be all we have. Which we agreed is the greatest. She than ended up getting back with her ex , who of course I never thought actually deserves her. But I supported her all the way with smiles, it's her choice I just need to be there for her. She ended up becoming pregnant and I was moving to another state. She wasn't happy about it as she said she would miss me alot but she was okay about it. It went on as normal and we were still best friends, her tummy grow and the baby boy was growing nicely. In that time I ended up meeting a great guy with a son and we got serious very quickly for the better. Again she wasn't really happy because it meant less time for her but she was happy I was happy. I took on the mommy role very quickly and the little boy didn't have a mom because she left my bf when the baby was 1 month old. I moved in with my bf and he proposed after a year of dating. After being engaged for about 3 months we found out we were pregnant too. Which we are so happy about. In this whole time we were still talking and being good friends and she also got engaged. Than all of a sudden she moved to the state I'm and lives a few miles away. That's when stuff started getting weird. I kept asking her when she has moving so I could help and come around to see her. She kept leaving me on read and not responding. I would then leave it because I don't want to overwhelm her. Than after 2 weeks she sends me a message and tells me off for not messaging her and she feels like I'm forgetting her. I then told her that's not the case, I have been busy and waiting for her to answer. To which she says but I just seem distancing to her. I promised I would try harder to contact her and try to see her. Then we spoke for a day properly again and I made she to answer her right away so she doesn't feel like I'm distancing her. again she left me on read and I kept sending messages to her , around 7 including voice notes. Which she never answered or listened to. And than randomly she message me saying she I never let her know how the baby is growing and she feels like my fiancé is taking me away from her. But my fiancé is excited to meet her and her fiance and baby. I then told her that and asked her how they are.I sent her a long message about the pregnant going. Then again she never answered again. So now my brother and fiancé are saying she is taking advantage of my nice and making me feel bad all the time when it's her that's not putting in effort.
So my question is WIBTA or AITA for not answering her or contacting her again after she has ghosted me yet again?
Sorry Just emotional from pregnancy and really need to vent because I really feel used and also wrong.

So these past few days, a lot of unknown numbers have been calling me two times a day and I got so anxious so i immediately blocked these numbers. Kanina lang na bother yung kaibigan ko, she said sasagutin ko yung call maybe importante yun and I said baka spammer lang and she response na “beh ako na sasagot kung tatawag ulit” and boom after 1 hour may tumawag ulit na bagong unknown number and i heard the lady’s voice, alam na alam niya ang full name ko so i got scared kaya pinatay ko ang linya.
huhu why don’t we just normalize to text first before calling? nakakatakot kaya na may biglang tumawag na unknown number. 😭 please tell me how to get rid of those spam calls. If it’s about the bank, do banks usually texts you if there’s any problem with your bank account? or statement of accounts? I only have debit card, studyante pa po ako.

​

Disclaimer: I have switched back to the main subreddit, so aside from three, maybe four of you, you’re probably missing out on some context. If you’d like to be all caught up, you can comb through the previous episodes on my profile.
Votes:
Emma - 2
Katie - 1
Props to u/Proofracer for coming up with plot points
At the campfire ceremony, Chris attempts to build suspense by reminding the campers about the safety of a marshmallow, but Heather insists he get on with it, so the moment is cut short. Chris calls on Shawn, Zoey and Max before tossing them all a marshmallow. He then gives Owen and Heather one each, leaving Emma and Katie. Both Emma and Heather shoot angry looks at Katie, making her feel a tad worried, but Chris gives her the last marshmallow and deems Emma eliminated, causing her to have an outburst at Heather.
Emma: I knew I couldn’t trust you! You’re a backstabbing snake!
Heather: Please, as if I’d betray you this early. If I had any say, you’d still be here for a few more weeks.
Emma: Then, how?
Katie: It’s not just me who’d been fed up with how mean you’ve become. We don’t want a second Heather on this team. No offense.
Heather: Offense taken.
As Emma walks the dock of shame and the rest of the Screaming Gophers disperse, Chris turns to the camera to say his outro.
Chris: Will Max finally do something actually evil? How much longer can Heather keep her alliance afloat? And what will Damien do once he finds out about Bunny’s replacement? Find out next time, on Total Drama Island!
In-world votes:
Emma - Katie, Owen, Max, Shawn
Katie - Heather, Zoey, Emma
Basic Straining
The episode opens with Duncan using his knife to carve a skull into the wall of the Bass cabin when Axel exits the cabin. She scoffs at him, but before she can leave, Duncan attempts to apologize for how he’s treated her in the past. Axel stops to think for a second, but she sees through Duncan’s lie and leaves anyway.
Confessional:
Duncan: Of course I didn’t mean what I said to Axel, but Trent and Sammy are too loyal to one another, and Damien’s essentially attached himself to Dawn. Sadly this means that Axel is the only person I have a chance to ally with, so I need to get back on her good side.
Meanwhile at the Gophers cabin, Katie is sitting dejectedly on the front steps when Owen comes over to cheer her up.
Owen: Are you still bummed out about poisoning me? It’s okay, I know it was an accident.
Katie: That’s only half the problem. Emma got so mad at me for it, and now apparently I brought a cursed item to the team.
Owen: You mean your tiki souvenir? Are you sure it’s cursed?
Katie: Apparently it’s from Boney Island, so I’d say it’s pretty cursed.
Owen: Well, you don’t have to get rid of it, if that’s what you’re worried about. It may be cursed, but it’s still yours. I say you should keep it to remember this show by.
Katie: Thanks Big-O.
Owen: You know what? Let's prove Emma wrong. If you try your best this time, I’m sure you’d do way better at the challenge than you think!
Just then, the loudspeakers turn on, but instead of Chris, it’s Chef Hatchet who orders the campers to meet him at the docks for their next challenge. At the docks, Chef is dressed in a military uniform and starts barking orders at the campers about fixing their forms, with the one exception being Axel, whose form he deems “surprisingly average”. Chef then goes over today’s challenge. The teams will go through Chef’s grueling boot camp and drop out one by one until the last person remaining wins immunity for their team. Heather asks Chef what happened to Chris, but he ignores it and starts going over further rules, like how everyone will have to address him as Master Chief, and that no one eats or sleeps unless he says so.
Confessional:
Axel: I was never trained in the military, but I’m adept in most fields of work Master Chief could go over, so this will be a breeze.
For the first part of the boot camp, each team must carry a canoe, and will continue to do so until someone drops out and rings a bell on the dock. Owen and Trent each make a remark about how easy the challenge sounds, but by noon, everyone is starting to feel the heat.
Chris and Chef are sitting on top of the canoes while taunting the campers about missing lunch. This causes Owen to think about quitting, but Max catches on and tells him not to.
The Bass are still holding up strong, so Duncan tries to talk to Axel again. He says that he knows she hates him, but they’re both stuck between the two couples and need each other. This causes Axel to angrily reply that she’d take her chances with the others over him, leaving Duncan beginning to get annoyed. However, Trent overhears the conversation and begins to look worried.
As night rolls through, the campers are all tired, especially Owen, who has fallen asleep with his arms still holding onto the canoe. Chef is recalling a story from his military days, and Heather asks him what war he was in, causing him to shout at her. Heather then turns to Shawn and tries to strike up a conversation with him.
Heather: Hey Zombie Boy, how do you feel about joining my alliance?
Shawn: Wait what? You’re kidding, right?
Heather: You and Emma were friends, yes?
Shawn: Sure, but that doesn’t mean I trust you. What happened to getting payback on me for locking you in the freezer?
Heather: You could trust me if you were in my alliance. With Emma gone, I’m missing a member of the alliance, and if you join, you won’t be in as bad a spot as you are now.
Shawn: Oh, and what is that supposed to mean?
Heather: Think about it. I didn’t vote Emma off, she got herself eliminated. If the team knew you worked with her, maybe they’d vote you out too. Especially since you’re such a big threat without any allies. With me, I could protect you, plus I won’t plot against you anymore.
Shawn: You were plotting against me?
Heather: That’s besides the point. Just think about it.
Later, Chef has finished bragging about his line of duty just in time for Max to decide he isn’t going to stand in one spot anymore. Much to his teammate’s dismay, he walks down the dock and rings the bell, thus allowing the contestants to drop their canoes. Chef insults Max through his megaphone before ordering everyone else to go to the mess hall to eat dinner, getting Owen excited.
In the cafeteria, Chef announces that everyone will get only ten minutes to eat before he starts night training, which gains him a lot of complaints. Damien asks him where the food is, and Chef gestures to a row of trash cans filled with leftover garbage from breakfast, which only causes more complaining. Owen, however, doesn’t discriminate against the disgusting food and eats some anyway. Chris then invites Chef to eat at the craft services tent, leaving the teams to themselves.
Trent meets with Sammy and tells her about what he heard between Duncan and Axel. He says that Duncan has a point and that since nobody really likes Duncan, Axel would be the deciding vote between them and Dawn and Damien. Hearing this, Sammy comes up with an idea, and suggests winning Axel over ahead of time so that she’s with them. Trent likes the idea, so Sammy goes over to talk with Axel. They have a friendly conversation, and Sammy offers Axel the least disgusting food she can find in the trash, to which Axel declines. Sammy then returns to Trent to talk about other ways to win Axel over.
Damien was watching Sammy’s conversation with Axel, and realises what she and Trent were trying to do, so he walks over to Dawn to talk with her.
Damien: I hate to say this, but we’re going to have to start getting extra votes against Trent and Sammy
Dawn: But why? Wouldn’t we just vote Duncan?
Damien: No, that’s not- I mean, after Duncan’s gone, all that’s left of the Killer Bass is us, them, and Axel. And I think they know that too, because they’re trying to bond with her.
Dawn: Yes, Axel is stuck in between the four of us. I’m not very worried though. I’m good friends with her.
Damien: I know, but we should start getting closer so that if need be, Axel will vote with us instead of them.
Damien then digs through the trash and finds a carrot that is half eaten, but otherwise clean. He decides to save it for Bunny, before noticing that Dawn looks unsure of something. He asks her what’s wrong and she brushes it off as having missed Bunny while it was gone. Damien is happy with this answer and tells Dawn that he knew she and Bunny would get along well, but this only makes her feel worse.
Confessional:
Dawn: Bunny left Damien, but I still don’t know why Duncan found a replacement. Duncan is not to be trusted, but I don’t know how to break the news to Damien that Bunny’s really gone.
We then cut to the next part of the boot camp, which is to repeat Chef’s suspiciously Triller-esque dance routine. The dancing goes on for a while until it’s interrupted when Duncan shuts off the music. Chef angrily asks him what he’s doing so Duncan reminds him about how once someone drops out the training ends. Chef says that they’ll be done when he says they’re done, before forcing Duncan to do push-ups.
Next up, write a three hundred word essay about how much you love Chef, being eliminated if you fall asleep or fail to reach the minimum word count. Owen and Katie are discussing ways to pad out their essays while cracking jokes to make each other laugh. Seeing the two of them bonding, Shawn turns back to his own essay looking a little less confident.
Duncan takes a break from doing the challenge to try and persuade Axel to join him again. She snaps at him and tells him to get lost, but Duncan mentions Shawn, which gets her attention.
Duncan: Let’s face it, everybody knows you like Shawn.
Axel: So? If you want to mock me about it, expect a fight!
Duncan: No, I’m saying that you two are pathetic. Neither one of you ever makes a move! Watching you two is like watching a car crash in slow motion.
Axel: (Sarcastically) Thanks for the advice, Dr. Love.
Duncan: You need a wingman, badly. So it’s going to be me.
Axel: Why would I ever listen to you?
Duncan: Because if you and Shawn are ever going to be a thing, you need me.
Axel: Fine. But if you pull anything you’ll leave this island in a cast.
Duncan gets Axel to close the deal with a handshake before returning back to working on the challenge. Later, Chef returns to pick up the essays, and eliminates both Trent and Zoey for falling asleep. As for everyone else, their essays meet the requirement, although Duncan’s is just one sentence with 289 verys in between. On his way out of the cafeteria, Chef slips in a puddle of Owen’s drool from him being half asleep, and Duncan offers to clean him off. This causes Chef to yell at him again, and the rest of the Bass stop Duncan from saying anything more, lest he get them all in trouble.
The next evening, the training continues, as Chef forces the campers to run an obstacle course until everyone can do it in less than a minute. As they climb a wooden wall, Axel asks Duncan for advice and he tells her she should get Shawn’s attention by showing off her survival skills in the course. Axel takes the advice and waits for Shawn to reach the top of the wall before jumping off and doing acrobatic tricks in midair. This catches Shawn’s eye, who shows off some tricks of his own in return.
The obstacle course causes trouble for some of the other campers, as Owen gets stuck while jumping through a tire, getting him eliminated. On top of that, Damien falls flat on his face when climbing the wall. He pukes up some mud, and is coughing and sputtering, so Chef eliminates him too and sends him to the infirmary.
After going through a montage of campers falling into the mud or otherwise failing, we see Katie struggle to clear a rope swing. She remembers what Owen told her and tries it again, only to clear it easily. She cheers for herself before continuing to run the course.
While crawling through the mud, Sammy reaches a deep spot and starts sinking. Duncan passes while mocking her, only to come across an angry Chef. He gives Duncan more pushups, but Duncan just thanks Chef before kissing him on the nose. This sends Chef off the edge and he announces that Duncan will spend the rest of the night in solitary confinement in the boathouse. This causes everyone to gasp, but Duncan asks how bad it could be, before we cut to him sitting in the boathouse regretting that comment.
In the cafeteria, the contestants remaining in the boot camp are being fed rock hard gruel. Dawn sits down next to Axel, intending to win her over, but Axel is the one to talk first. She explains to Dawn how Duncan is working as a wingman for her and Shawn, and while Dawn is happy for Axel, she reminds her about how Duncan is untrustworthy. She talks about how he replaced Bunny when it left Damien, and that she thinks he has a secret agenda behind everything. Axel agrees with Dawn but leaves to get more advice from Duncan anyway.
Heather finds the gruel Chef has served her to be well past unappetizing, and chooses to instead try to persuade Shawn again. She points out how close Owen, Katie and Max have become, and that since she still has Zoey, they’ll go after him first. After careful consideration, Shawn caves and agrees to work with her. But he specifies that while he will do what’s required for her to protect him, he will not associate himself as a member of her alliance. Despite this, Heather is still pleased by the news, and leaves to get some sleep.
In the boathouse, Axel finds Duncan sweeping the floors to pass the time.
Duncan: Did you get General Crazy angry at you too?
Axel: No, I’m here so you can make good on our deal. What’s some more advice you have?
Duncan: Really? You can’t be so desperate that you need my help for every single thing.
Axel: Then what do you want me to do then? This was entirely your idea!
Duncan: Just ask Shawn out. Maybe set up a date or something. But if you just sit there and don’t talk to him I promise you that nothing good will happen. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to mess with Chef.
Duncan then leaves despite Chef’s orders and heads towards the craft services tent, leaving Axel behind wondering what she could do.
In the Gophers cabin, Katie visits Owen, who congratulates her on doing so well in the boot camp. Katie is ecstatic at her performance and thanks him for giving her the pep talk. Max, while also happy for Katie, insists that “Evil has better things to do than make friends” as he works on something secret in his bunk bed. Owen tells Katie that he thinks she can win the entire challenge, but to this Katie is still a bit skeptical.
The remaining Bass return to their cabin to find Trent and Damien playing cards on the front steps, and inside Dawn finds various snacks left in a big pile on her bed. She’s confused how it got there, but is happy to finally find something edible, so she invites everybody on both teams to hang out and eat the food. As the eleven of them dig in, they discuss how insane Chef is for making them do full on combat training, with only Shawn, Axel, and surprisingly Katie enjoying the challenge. Eventually the relaxation is ruined when Chef barges in and orders everyone in the Killer Bass to line up outside. He announces that the food they were dining on was stolen from the craft services tent, and that he was tipped off that it was one of them because the perpetrator left a raw bass in the fridge. Dawn confesses that she found it on her bed, but before she can explain herself Chef automatically eliminates her from the boot camp and confiscates the rest of the food.
Chef starts the last part of the boot camp the next morning, which is to hang upside-down from a tree until only one person is left. The last campers left are Sammy, Duncan and Axel for the Bass, and Shawn, Heather and Katie for the Gophers. Axel confronts Duncan about what he did, and he admits he stole Chris and Chef’s food, left a bass behind as a calling card and dumped the food on the first bed he found. Axel is pissed at him for getting Dawn in trouble with Chef and cuts the deal between them, causing Duncan to tell her that he never really cared.
Confessional:
Duncan: Okay, maybe I went a little too far, but I’ve always found a way to stay in the game. Surely this will be no different, right?
Chef rants about the side effects of being upside down, and as he goes over each one, someone gets it, causing them to fall off the tree. Eventually it’s down to Axel and Katie, with Dawn cheering on Axel while Owen motivates Katie. Axel looks between Dawn and Duncan, and is visibly conflicted, while Katie’s starting to get dizzy. But just as she’s about to fall, Axel jumps off first, meaning the Screaming Gophers win. Katie then falls off the tree before being enveloped in a bear hug by Owen. Chef congratulates Katie, saying he’d go to war with her anytime, but she gets mixed messages from the complement.
Duncan scolds Axel, saying she lost the challenge for them. But she snaps at him in front of everyone.
Axel: You are not fit to be on this island! You essentially threw two challenges, ridiculed me the entire game, and now got Dawn disqualified just because you wanted to prank Chef! So excuse me if I want you out!
Duncan snaps back at her before storming off, and for the first time in a while, Axel looks relieved. Dawn then comes up to her with Damien telling her that she did the right thing. Afterwards, Damien asks Dawn if she only said that to get Axel on their side, gaining an annoyed look from her. Seeing this, he backtracks and says that they should help Axel like real friends, and is relieved when Dawn nods her head in agreement.
Vote off a Killer Bass and come up with any plot points you want to see later.

I (F24) just caught my significant other (M26) lying about deleting his photos with his ex-girlfriend. When we were strictly friends, we used to get along about missing memories with our exes. Remembering that, as soon as we got together, I asked for him to delete the photos he would always look back on because I didn’t want to be in a relationship with somebody who would constantly look back at his previous relationship. My boyfriend agreed and told me that it was a two-way street, and that I should be deleting the photos of my ex as well— to which I agreed and erased.
Many months later, I ask him again about if he deleted the photos and he reassures me that he did, and that he has no reason to hold onto them. Fast forward to now, I found out that he was lying to me this whole time and never did anything on his end to actually get rid of the photos. I questioned why he lied to me numerous times for as long as he did, and he would not stop saying "I don't know why I did." I explicitly told him that he must not be over her if he felt happier to lie to me just to protect his photos of his ex, and he claimed that the photos meant nothing to him and that he wants to be with me lol. Then why did he lie? "I don't know." He tries to apologize profusely and I tell him that he's quite literally only apologizing because I caught him, and that he would have never been sorry for this if I didn't call him out on it. No response.
He's claiming that he wants to make the relationship work, and that he would work on communicating and being honest and upfront. The thing is, I thought the relationship prior to this situation was fucking amazing and communicative and honest. To find out he was happily lying to me this whole time has completely rewritten my view of this relationship and I don't know what to consider as honest anymore. It was not just holding the photos of his ex— it's how he lied to me about getting rid of all of it. Something so small, he stretched out for so long. I want to work through this as he's been the most amazing partner I've been with outside of this aspect.
To those in relationships that are lasting after being lied to by your SO, how did you rebuild your trust? What did your partner do to be able to regain your trust?
TLDR; Boyfriend lied to me about deleting photos of his ex-girlfriend after we mutually agreed upon deleting photos of our exes while entering the relationship. Need help on figuring out how to regain trust.

Just like my previous samples of email copy, I need feedback on this.
The product is called Java Burn and really popular on ClickBank. The problem is that it is not scientifically backed. It also has a lot of negative reviews on Amazon and YouTube.
I wanted to know how you feel about selling a product that does not seem like a good product. Since this is the first time I've felt this way, you can tell that my attempt to write this email might also look half-assed.
Another thing, about the subject line, is RAS. It stands for Reticular Activation System which I learned about in the book, Web Copy That Sells. Look it up, the subject line follows the principle of RAS.
All constructive criticism is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Here's the copy:-
Subject:- This will get rid of your stubborn fat.
Hi, [NAME].
Have you ever dreaded stepping on a weighing scale because you feared the number staring back at you?
Ever looked at yourself in the mirror, sighed deeply and thought, “I have to do better”?
But what if those feelings of dread and disappointment went away after making a simple change in your coffee?
My name is John Barban and I’ve spent 20 years developing products that improve metabolic health and aid weight loss. Recently, I stumbled across a natural & powerful formula that will optimise your metabolism and have your fat-burning furnace burning round the clock.
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After 1 year and 3 months I decided to stop using this IUD. The reasons are:
10kg gained that I could not lose regardless of how much exercise I was doing (my doctor swore it wasn’t the IUD but it was literally the only thing that changed regarding my body/habits, I guess now we’ll find out)
Oily skin with constant smaller breakouts like I had when I was a teenager (I’m almost 30 now and haven’t had acne in years before the IUD)
Unpredictable bleeding - my period didn’t stop coming, I just didn’t know when it was gonna come and for how long, it could last for 10 days and come every 2 months or whatever it wanted
Horrible cramping specially during the first 6 months
Depressed mood: I already have hypothyroidism and depression taken care of with medication, but I swear the IUD made everything SO MUCH worse
Blood cysts in my ovaries
Two new nodes in my breast due to weight gain
I swear it was the worst thing and being unable to pull it off immediately was so frustrating. When I first decided to get rid of it, my doctor recommended not to and I listened to her. Later on I switched doctors to one that was less biased and she totally supported my decision to take the IUD out. She actually tried to do so in the appointment but the freaking wire was not visible (I swear I wanted to cry the whole week after that scared of the possibility I was going to need to go to surgery). The doctor advised I tried to feel the wire for the next 10 days and book a returning appointment. I felt the wire and after a week went back for removal and she was able to do it! Literally the best feeling ❤️
One special thing that was so frustrating is that before the IUD I was able to lose like 5kg/month as long as exercising and eating healthy (even having hypo) but with the IUD it was literally impossible, weight would only go up.
Now let’s see how it goes, I’ll keep you posted.
P.S.: going back to the pill, I’m gonna start Qlaira today. I took this pill in the past and had no problem with it, it was actually great.
P.S. 2: every body is different, not trying to say people shouldn’t use hormonal IUDs, just sharing my experience in order to help ppl going through something similar.

[Part 1]
Day 3
I woke the next morning from the sunshine in my eyes. My head was resting ever so slightly on Eli's arm as we had both fallen asleep on my bed after I begged him to stay. I blanched in horror at the drool stain I had left on the arm of his white t-shirt.
I began to slowly move myself and retreat downstairs as the memories of the night before came flooding back. How I had broken, screaming in terror, and how Eli had saved me, not knowing the true reason he found me curled up on the floor crying.
As I stepped off the bed, my leg got snagged in the frilly bed cover, and I went crashing to the ground, making quite the noise as I landed. With a yawn, Eli's eyes opened, and I felt myself blushing as he turned to look at me.
We both kind of stared at each other for a moment, not speaking. Eli opened his mouth, then closed it again as if unsure of what to say.
"Coffee?" I asked quickly, filling the awkwardness of our situation.
"Please," Eli said, smiling.
In minutes, I had a pot brewing as I leaned against the kitchen counter. Eli was picking up the scattered photographs from the floor and looking at them quizzically.
"Why do you have pictures of the Harmons?" Eli asked, showing me the photos of the yellow-haired man and his family.
"Is that their names? I found them out in the barn under a blanket," I answered as I rooted around the cupboards for two mugs.
"In the barn? I cleaned it out just last week. No way I would have missed this trunk," Eli said while examining the wooden trunk with its simple rustic hinges. It was plain and unadorned with any embellishments. Basic as basic could be.
"Well, you must have missed it because it was there," I said, putting emphasis on the "was" in a way that reminded me of my mother chastising my father.
"That's so weird," he said, shifting through the photos while sitting at the table. I brought him a cup of coffee and sugar, and he began absentmindedly adding a lot of sugar to his coffee. About six scoops later, he began stirring and sipping it.
"Well, anyways, thanks for coming last night. I wasn't myself, I hope you know that I'm not some damsel in distress," I said quickly, like word vomit, and I even chuckled at the end, feeling like a total weirdo.
"What happened anyway? You didn't say last night," he said, putting the photos down in a jumble on the table.
I paused for a moment, considering how to answer. As I sipped my coffee, I stared out into the yard beside the barn where the scarecrow stood, glancing around the edge of the barn, hanging limply in his hole. His appearance once again sad and dejected instead of murderous and terrifying.
"I was just scared, I had a nightmare, and it just scared me," I said dumbly, trying not to turn crimson again under his intense gaze.
His eyes seemed to cut right through my lie, as if he were staring directly into my being before he simply glanced away out the window. We fell silent again, and I filled some moments by sipping my drink. It seemed to revitalize me; the sun and the company made me feel secure.
"Why were you here anyways?" I asked after a moment.
"I heard screaming, so I came running. I live just on the other side of the grass there, behind the barn," Eli said, pointing to the barn out the window.
"Must be really close, I didn't see any houses on the way in," I said, prying deeper into the situation.
"It's actually a trailer, maybe like two hundred yards from here. I was outside getting some air when I heard you scream. So, I came running," Eli said, finishing his cup of coffee and placing it in between us like a barrier, as if he was hiding something.
"Could you, uh, not do that?" Eli asked, with an uncertain grin on his face.
"What am I doing exactly?" I asked, startled for a moment, my stomach doing a sort of flip.
"It's just that you like stare at people. You've been staring at me for like my whole cup of coffee, I don't think you blinked the whole time," Eli said, averting his eyes shyly.
"No, I don't," I said until I realized he was right. I never noticed that about myself.
"Right, well, I've got to go. I am probably going to start painting today, so you might see me in a bit," Eli said, rising and heading to the door.
"Wait," I said, grabbing his arm for only a moment before releasing it like it was scalding hot.
Eli glanced at my hand for a moment, then at his arm, before he, too, blushed crimson.
"I just wanted to say thank you again. For last night, I mean. Well, what I mean is I appreciate it," I said, my eyes downcast in, for some reason, shame. Like he had seen me at my weakest and it weighed on my gaze appropriately.
"It was nothing, besides I didn't get much sleep with your constant snoring," Eli said, laughing at me.
"I so don't snore," I said, swatting at him but unable to control a smile creeping up onto my face.
After Eli left, I felt instantly colder, my eyes kept returning to the scarecrow. I grabbed my camera from upstairs and went out to the yard. I scanned the dirt for anything out of the ordinary. There was no blood, or anything on the dirt where the scarecrow stood just last night. I slowly made my way to the scarecrow, but nothing happened. I snapped a photo of the inanimate object, and it didn't even flinch. I poked it, but all I felt was straw underneath its clothes. I removed its mask, expecting a severed head, but it was just straw. Nothing was here but straw. I dropped the mask on the ground and took another photo proving it was just straw and nothing else.
An idea struck me as I regarded the source of my torment. If I planned to stay even one more night here, I needed to do something about this scarecrow. I rooted around in the barn, a series of tools hung from nails in the wall. On one hung what I was searching for. An old rusted shovel with a dirty wooden handle that was worn smooth from use.
I returned to the side of the barn beside the scarecrow, knowing for whatever reason this thing only came when night fell and didn't react at all when I moved or touched it during the day.
Before my morning coffee had even settled, I began to dig at the dusty earth, loose and easy to dig, it came away in shovelfuls. Within an hour, I had a fair-sized hole in front of me. Sweat dripped from my brow, and when I wiped under my eyes, they came away black from last night's makeup. Glancing at the field of grass and knowing Eli could appear at any time, I decided to head inside and shower. The hot water was a godsend, and I lingered for longer, letting the water drain down my head and back, my eyes closed, trying to forget the images from the last two nights. I should just pack up my car and leave right this minute. But how could I explain this to my family? I decided to go through with my plan and bury the scarecrow. I could last one more night if I prepared for it.
I left the shower and dressed modestly, in another one of my old rock t-shirts and a pair of shorts. I returned to the yard and with a satisfying push, I dropped the scarecrow into the pit. It fell with a nice thud, and I smiled at my power over it in the day; it's just at night when I should fear it.
As I threw the first shovel of dirt back on top, I heard a noise in the grass, and it parted, revealing Eli wearing the same pair of jeans and work boots, but he had changed his shirt to a plain black one. In each hand, he held cans of paint and a brush.
"Should I even ask why you are burying that old scarecrow?" He asked as he came to stand beside me.
"Probably best if you didn't," I admitted, leaning on the shovel.
"Well, I'm going to anyway. Polly, why are you burying that old scarecrow?" He asked, a rare smile coming to his face.
"Because it's been haunting me at night," I said bluntly.
"Mhm, yeah, okay. Fine, don't tell me. I've been meaning to get rid of it anyway, but normal people take things to the landfill," Eli said with a smirk as he turned to the house and began setting up for his painting.
I finished burying the scarecrow and stomped the dirt down flat. I finished my job by moving my car and parking it directly over top of the spot where I buried it.
Eli watched me curiously but didn't remark. I returned the shovel to the barn and went out into the yard. I decided to go for a hike around the property. I needed some time alone to think and unwind.
As I made my way through the grass, it began to confuse me. This had obviously been a large farmland, but how had the wild plants grown in such a thick, endless maze of greenery?
It gave me an eerie feeling, like I was being watched as the grass covered three-quarters of my body, like there would be something lurking out in the grass, crouched low, waiting for me.
After a half-hour or so, I came upon a clear lake, only big enough to be considered an old swimming hole, I thought as I dipped my hand into the cool water.
I took off my outer clothes and decided to go for a swim. I lowered myself in slowly and reveled at the cool water. The pond wasn't deep, but the water was clean. A small rope swing had been hung from a large oak tree that bordered the pond. It also provided a nice layer of shade that made it the ideal spot to spend the day. I floated on my back in the water for what seemed like hours. The day seemed to slip away from me. A small beach of sand sat at one side of the pond, so I lay out in the sun and closed my eyes. The warm day warmed my soul, and soon I felt myself drifting off into sleep.
I awoke to the sound of crickets and darkness. I couldn't believe it. I had slept through the day; the long nights had finally caught up to me, and now I was stuck far away from the farmhouse. I didn't know if my plan with the scarecrow had worked, and this wasn't the place to test my theory.
A full moon lay overhead, casting a silvery glow on the world before me. A sea of grass swayed gently in the wind, sending shivers down it in shuddering waves. I looked around, but I was thankfully alone, just the crickets chirping along melodically as my only companions.
I had to make it back to the house, so I started on my way, my hands trailing along the tall grass. The pale light played easily on the deep green grass. Step by step, I made my way back towards the farmhouse and the barn, throwing caution to the wind, and I started to jog along, anything to get back faster. I would have to find Eli; maybe if we were together, he could stop it like before.
If I thought the field was creepy during the day, by night, it was a whole new world. Every sound made my heart stop for a beat before restarting in protest. When all of a sudden, the crickets stopped chirping. I dropped to my knees, letting the long grass cover me from sight. Through the strands, I could make out a shape moving slowly through the tall grass, the swish of the plants as it made its passage through them. My heart dropped. Was this Eli looking for me, or was it the scarecrow come for me?
That's when I heard a voice, a voice cutting through the silence. It started off quiet and raspy as it sang an eerie children's song.
"Did you, did you, did you come for me?
Run and hide, don't you know that I seek
The world it claims that I be not clean
When I come, you'll see how filthy I can be.
Tonight, it is happening, tonight you'll see
Beneath the moon, my shadows they do creep.
In this world, at night I shall be free.
Tonight it's happening, tonight you'll see.
When I come, you had better flee, or else I'll come and give my filth to thee."
I was frozen to the spot. It hadn't found me, but it knew I was in the grass somewhere. Now, with each word, chewed up and spat out like it was unhappy with it, now it was accompanied by the whistle of something in the air and a slicing sound as it cut through the grass around me.
It finished another round of its song, but now it stood within feet of me, its blade whistling as it cut. I took a moment to ready myself, and as it raised its blade to cut through the grass I hid in, I dashed out of my hiding spot and slammed into it. But nothing resisted me; I fell through it like it was a ghost.
In a tangle of limbs, I landed hard on the ground and tried quickly rolling to my feet. The blade of its weapon pierced the earth beside me. Now I could see it was a two-handed scythe the scarecrow carried, but something was off, its hands were human. Pale milky skin like a newborn baby. I had little time to examine the creature except for the canvas bag over its head. Two large black eyes came out of the slits that leaked a dark red blood like tears.
It screeched loudly and swung its scythe, but it was slow, and I took off through the grass in the direction of what I hoped was the farmhouse.
I completely gave up all pretense of hiding and sprinted as fast as I could without looking back. The grass seemed to part for me as I ran in terror. I was just glad that in high school, I had taken track as it was paying off now.
I could hear the noise of footsteps behind me, but I never turned. I ran and ran until my lungs felt like they were going to burst Something silver flashed to my left, and I tripped over something hard and unexpected. The wind was driven from my lungs as my chin slammed hard into the earth. I scrambled back, trying to escape, but the scarecrow was on me, its blade flashing angrily in the pale moonlight.
I wanted to move, I wanted to fight, but my body was weak and unable to catch its breath, and I lay there helpless as it swung its scythe towards me. I closed my eyes in fear, but I only heard the thud of dirt before I opened my eyes. The scythe was discarded, and the scarecrow stood staring at me.
It seemed to be struggling with something, one hand reached out towards me only to be snapped back to its side. A roar of rage pierced the canvas sack over its head as it struggled against its invisible bonds. For a moment, I thought I saw something behind it, three sets of hands holding it back. One feminine in nature, and the other two must have belonged to children. In a flash, I saw a beautiful woman who looked vaguely familiar with her long brown hair and plain dress.
"Run," she moaned as the scarecrow swung around wildly.
I didn't hesitate and fled, my breath had returned, and while my body still ached from my fall, I powered on, knowing this was the only respite I would receive tonight.
In the distance, I could see a small sheet metal shape; Eli's trailer was slowly coming closer as I ran, and I beelined it for the trailer. I could hear the footsteps behind me again as the scarecrow resumed its chase after me.
I reached the old trailer and banged on the door as loud as I could; I rattled the handle, but it was locked.
"Eli, it's me. It's Polly, please let me in. Please," I begged as I banged over and over again on the door of his trailer.
Nothing responded to me, and the trailer was dark. The single window in the back held no life inside the trailer. From the trailer, I couldn't tell which direction the farmhouse was in the dark, so I fled into the tall grass and crouched low, watching the clearing around the trailer.
While I caught my breath, I watched the scarecrow enter the clearing, its scythe back in its hand as it circled the trailer. When its raspy voice began singing again low and quiet, only loud enough for me to hear.
"Did you, did you, did you come for me?
Run and hide, don't you know that I seek
The world it claims that I be not clean
When I come, you'll see how filthy I can be.
Tonight, it is happening, tonight you'll see
Beneath the moon, my shadows they do creep.
In this world, at night, I shall be free.
Tonight it's happening, tonight you'll see.
When I come, you had better flee, or else I'll come and give my filth to thee."
The song made me shiver uncontrollably at the lyrics and the voice; it sounded demented like a crazy person letting their demons out into a nursery rhyme.
I lay perfectly still; for some reason, it couldn't find me. This creature I assumed was all-knowing seemed to have some very human weaknesses. It moved and talked like a human, even had certain body parts that were from a human; it even felt human the way it chased and reacted.
The scarecrow moved on through the tall grass, and I let out a sigh of relief as it lost my trail. How terrifying that beast was. In my pocket was the keys to my car. Eli had told me that the farmhouse was fairly close to his trailer. I had to navigate to the car, then drive as fast as I can away from this place. The fact that I hadn't left already because I was worried about money was insane. Who cares, I could drive to Barb's and demand my money back. Go home and just tell my parents the truth. The whole reason for actually leaving home this summer, why I was actually here in this field shivering uncontrollably in fear. But I couldn't think about that now, not now, there will be time to deal with that later. Now I needed to focus on staying alive, getting to the car, and getting out of here.
I went in the direction the scarecrow had; he knew the land better than I did, and every noise I made in the silence of the night made my heart drop. It took all my courage there and then to take one step forward, then another. I felt like I was going to be sick; my stomach was in knots to where it felt like even if I was sick, the only thing to come out would be only bile and stomach acid.
With each careful step, I made my way closer to the farmhouse and the scarecrow. Through the darkness, I could see my goal, the farmhouse, and the barn. Within minutes, I had made it securely to the farmhouse yard.
My car still sat in the same spot overtop of the hole where I buried the scarecrow. In the moonlight, I could see that the dirt had not been disturbed.
The scarecrow was nowhere to be seen, and I cautiously made my way to my car, my keys in my hand as I approached the driver's door. I hadn't locked the car, and it opened on the first try. I turned on my car as quietly as I could, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.
Something landed heavily on top of the roof of my car, making it dent inwards slightly. With horror, I saw the scarecrow swing its scythe into the back window of my car. With a crash, the glass shattered inwards; I put my car into gear and roared away down the lane. In my rearview mirror, I couldn't see anything, so I swerved back and forth, trying to shake the creature from the roof of my car when the scythe crashed in through the front window, making a hole just large enough for it.
The glass spidered, and I couldn't see out the window very well. I swerved down the road, but the scythe remained in the car, allowing the creature purchase. In a panic, I spun my wheel wildly, trying to dislodge it, but I lost control, and soon felt something crash into the front of my car. The airbag went off in my face, and I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt. I slammed hard into something else, and my vision went dark. I was in a daze; I must have passed out because I don't remember a lot of what happened next. I felt the car door open with a crunching tear, and it landed loudly as it was torn off. My body being grabbed and tossed on the ground. I felt no pain, just a gentle numbness. I felt blood on my head as I raised my arm to touch my face.
Then just blackness, complete, and empty just feelings, fear, unease, sadness. My eyes opened, and the scarecrow was overtop of me. Pain on my chest and my vision went dark again. Coughing as something poured down my throat. I couldn't breathe, why couldn't I breathe?
My eyes opened one last time, and I saw the scarecrow pouring a dark liquid from its mouth directly into my mouth and eyes. My vision was red and bloody before I closed them one last time.
The words of its song echoed into the emptiness of my thoughts.
"Did you, did you, did you come for me?
Run and hide, don't you know that I seek?
The world it claims that I be not clean.
When I come, you'll see how filthy I can be.
Tonight, it is happening, tonight you'll see,
Beneath the moon, my shadows they do creep.
In this world, at night, I shall be free.
Tonight it's happening, tonight you'll see.
When I come, you had better flee, or else I'll come and give my filth to thee."
The darkness enveloped me, and I felt myself slipping away, the sounds of the night fading into oblivion.
Day 4
When I awoke, it was morning, and I found myself lying in a hospital bed. My head throbbed with pain, and my body ached all over. The memories of the terrifying night flooded back to me, and I shuddered involuntarily.
A nurse entered the room, her kind eyes filled with concern. "You're awake," she said softly, her voice gentle like a soothing balm. "You're lucky to be alive. You were found unconscious by the side of the road next to your car. Do you remember what happened?"
I tried to speak, but my throat felt raw and dry. I croaked out a few words, barely audible. "The scarecrow... it attacked me..."
The nurse frowned, her brows furrowing in confusion. "Scarecrow? What scarecrow?"
My heart raced with panic as I realized the truth. Had it all been a nightmare? But the pain in my body felt too real, the memories too vivid to be mere hallucinations.
I tried to explain, to tell her about the terrifying creature that had pursued me through the night, but she only looked at me with concern, as if I were delusional.
"I'll get the doctor, and there is a young man who brought you in. He has been here all morning," the nurse said with a sly wink.
After a few minutes, she came back with Eli and a doctor, both of whom smiled gently at me through the window. The doctor came in first and went over my health with me. I had a concussion and bruises all over my body. A generous-sized cut from some glass on my scalp had been stitched and bandaged. My mind flashed back to the night before. How the scarecrow had filled me with its gooey red blood.
"Did you find anything else?" I asked cautiously, trying to avoid another scandal like with the nurse.
"No, as long as you have someone to pick you up and take you home, you are free to go. That nice young man out there said he would take you back home," the doctor said, pointing to Eli as he rose with a slight grunt.
I glanced at Eli, and he waved uncertainly at me. The doctor went out and began talking to Eli for a few minutes.
While I waited, my mind began to have strange thoughts. Something was wrong; I felt weird. My vision turned red, and I began to see images before my eyes.
The Harmons. They flashed before my eyes in real-time—the husband hugging his wife, then swinging his kids around, chopping wood outback next to the barn while his wife cooked in the kitchen.
As Eli entered the room, the visions stopped suddenly. Like my saving angel for the third time now, I was extremely grateful to Eli.
"Heyyyyy," Eli said, elongating the word in a sort of familiar yet awkward way.
"Hi," I said, closing my eyes and letting my embarrassment pass in only a few seconds.
"Why is it that fifty percent of the times we meet, you're in serious trouble?" Eli asked, coming to sit on the edge of my bed.
"Oh, you know me, bad luck, I guess," I said simply, becoming aware that under my blankets, I was in a backless hospital gown, and he was inches away from me.
I pulled the blanket up to my chin as a sort of cover for my appearance, but Eli didn't seem to notice. He continued talking to me. It was actually really sweet the way he seemed to care for me.
"Anyways, the doctor said I could take you back to the farmhouse to rest," Eli said.
"No," I said suddenly, becoming serious.
"What? Why not?" Eli asked.
"I just, I just can't right now. I'll tell you later. Just, we can't spend the night anywhere near the farm," I said, grabbing him by the arm, hoping to sway him.
"Well, I mean, if you want, we can grab your stuff, and my house can literally go anywhere," Eli said in an offhand manner, as if he had expected this.
"Promise?" I asked, trying not to seem too afraid.
Within the hour, we had returned to the farmhouse. The hole I dug was still covered over, and I stared at it as we parked in Eli's black pickup truck.
I ran inside and quickly got changed into my only clean clothes, grabbing everything I had from the farmhouse. I paused at the dinner table, looking down at the photographs of the Harmons and thinking back to that weird moment in the hospital with that odd vision.
The day was getting longer, and I hurried back to Eli, waiting in the pickup truck. I threw my bag in the back and climbed in beside him. He smiled and backtracked down the lane. We turned to the left and went down a side road where we came upon my poor old car. It had crashed directly into a tree, and the whole front part of the car had been destroyed. Fluid leaked all over the road, and I almost shed a tear for my departed friend. We had traveled far together. I grabbed a few things from the car, but something was off about the car. The front door had been knocked off and was discarded on the far side of the road. It looked impossible; the door hadn't even hit the tree.
Eli hooked his truck up to his trailer, and we sped off, leaving the property behind us. We headed into town and found a pullout on the side of the road with a set of bathrooms to camp at for the night. Eli's trailer was messy but cozy. He had laundry strewn over most surfaces, but it didn't smell bad.
The room consisted of a small kitchen with a bed in one corner. There were also a lot of posters and artwork on the walls. I examined one of a pretty girl with long raven-black hair. It was a realist painting, obviously taken from real life.
"Who is this?" I asked as Eli made us some food.
"That is just a friend," Eli said, glancing at the painting he had done.
"Well, she is a pretty friend," I said, enjoying watching the back of his ears turn bright red.
"Dinner's ready," he said, pouring the mixture of food he had made onto a pair of plates.
Eli served me and handed me a can of Coke to drink. I thanked him and sat on his bed. It was the only serviceable piece of furniture in the whole trailer. We both sat in silence for a moment while we ate. I could tell something was bothering Eli as he kept making glances toward me.
"What? What is it, Eli? Just say it," I said between bites.
"Tell me what happened, Polly. Tell me why you were burying the scarecrow, why you were passed out in the road with straw in your hair. Tell me why you were muttering about the Harmons and a scarecrow when I found you," Eli said suddenly, as if he were unloading a machine gun.
I looked Eli square in the face and relented. I told him about the last couple of nights at the farmhouse, about how the scarecrow had been tormenting me every night. About how he had saved me and how last night I had fled through the fields to his trailer and then to my car. I told him about the vision I had about the Harmons in the hospital. By the end of it, I was in tears. I felt so foolish and childish.
Eli took it in stride. He asked a few questions during my retelling, but by the end of it, he was silent. Tears fell down my face and landed in my lap. We had both put our plates on the counter, and Eli hugged me. He put his arms around me, and I nuzzled into his shoulder, feeling comforted again in him at the lowest points of my life.
With a gentle hand, he wiped away my tears, and I smiled, letting a nervous laugh escape my lips. I looked up into his face and felt his stare before I saw it. His pale blue eyes shone with comfort, and then his lips were on mine as he kissed me quickly before pulling away slightly.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. That was insensitive of me. You're sad, and I took advantage of that," Eli said, moving back slightly.
"Shut up," I said, and grabbed his shirt, bringing him back in.

This could be a long one. Or maybe it will be short, I don't know.
I am 24, turning 25 at the end of the year. Grew up in a dysfunctional, abusive household. Adoptee, orphaned at 11. I have now noticed that apart from depression and anxiety, I have been toxic and dysfunctional in my relationships (platonic and romantic). I have love bombed and put people on a pedestal without even knowing enough about them to categorize them as such important people in my life. I have had anger issues and had to apologize to my ex partners for outbursts that embarrassed them and was disrespectful. I have switched friend groups a lot because people have become distant towards me and after noticing it a few times, I just know when they are slowly removing themselves from my life and I do them a favor and isolate myself. No one has ever had a talk where they point things out and then proceeded to cut me off, but I think it is because they saw me as 1) cocky, arrogant, not teachable or 2) an adult that knows what they are doing - jokes on them, I did not. (Or third option, the mood swings that come with depression are not easy to handle for those around me. Everyone is pro mental health but also those struggling are often a menace. Anyways.) After leaving my abusive childhood home I felt “freedom” for the first time and went crazy! Too crazy, with no regards for others as I was feeding my inner child with all that she “missed” out on (attention, love, my own money etc.). I have created unnecessary drama by having two affairs with taken people. I did it out of insecurity and retrospectively, because I probably felt a high from them “choosing” me and did not understand that them choosing me was not a compliment. It’s not a case of having been outed on social media or so, more so, within my community I just notice people keeping me at an arm's length. When you post revealing pictures, dress a certain way, look for attention, post your partner (now ex) excessively (essentially trying to prove to the world how good the relationship is), at some point, people call your bs on how insecure you are and how much you base your self-worth on external validation and factors, how you have no sense of shame (not because you don’t care, but because you don’t know - low social awareness kind of thing). No one has come to me to call me out, but again, I am silently watching people be very careful with how they engage with me. And I myself have gone into isolation too. It’s frustrating as owning up to insecure, immature, toxic behavior does not mean it never happened. I have a severe fear of being seen/perceived now. "What if who they saw me as is who they'll ever believe me to be?" kind of thing. I am growing in self awareness at an age where I see many other people my age be further in their emotional maturity. I wish I was raised better. Good upbringing is such a privilege! I have been very childish in how I handled my reputation. Children don’t care for repercussions, I never did either. And yes I have found a therapist and psychiatrist on whose waiting lists I am on (but I am terrified to say the least as where I live I have to pay everything by myself and you guessed it - I don’t have good financial habits established yet and am scared to start therapy and possibly medication and not be able to continue treatment till I heal what is likely C-PTSD as these things are just highly expensive). Now that some enlightenment is happening, I am almost hopeless as if a potential partner did some searching, what they would find out could be problematic. These things did not happen at an age where I was a child, people actually expect me to be an adult. I am disgusted by myself and my former lack of integrity. I understand I find myself in a mess I single handedly created. This is a very short version of everything that has happened, that I did and so on.
How much hope is there really for me? I see a need to reparent myself, I would say I (obviously) was not raised very well under care and consistent love and have sought it in all the wrong places.
How do I undo life as I know it?
How do I come to terms with having to heal before I put myself back out there into the dating pool and even search for new friendships while I work on myself. I have been lonely for the majority of my life already and now that I know of my need to heal, I feel angry and sad that I may not be able to enjoy social connections for a while. Does that make sense? To protect others.
How do I accept that I can only heal from a place of self-love and self-compassion, not shame? I am currently in a severe depressive episode and already know that any doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist would probably focus on getting me to a stable mental state first. But I would prefer to go straight into learning new behavioral skills, healthy coping mechanisms and so on.. I feel like shaming myself into changing atm, which is funny as I want to stop pleasing people but am also changing amongst other reasons to be more likable by society?
How do I reparent myself joyfully? What can I do to enjoy this healing journey? Like seriously “re-raise” myself.
How do I forgive myself for the affairs (I’ve owned up to them to the women), the cringe oversharing, the skimpy outfits, the serial dating and so on? (without minimizing my home-wrecking)
How do I learn to trust myself, to trust that I don't f up any new relationship or friendship?
How do I measure when I am ready and healthy/healthier? What differentiates former red flags that turn into green flags from those that remain toxic, dysfunctional and so on?
Is it even possible to establish a sense of self and self-worth at my age? Should that not have happened by now?
What therapeutic modality would be best for me? Any therapists here by any chance? Can I even truly get rid of my baggage?
LOL: Men, would you date me based on what you heard lol? Given I have done “the work”. Please elaborate then what the “work” is. How do I redeem myself? I’d potentially also like to hear from the people that believe “people don’t change”. I’d like your view of things too if possible. Any comment and tip helps. Thank you so much.
Also: I newly found to Christ and would appreciate hearing from Christians too. From anyone really.
Please keep in mind that money is an issue unfortunately. I would love mentorship, therapy, to be surrounded by "elders" that can help me mature, are there any - idk- programs that are free?

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.

So, maybe some of people seen me here and around in couple of days, I've been mostly giving advice about how to lose weight. Well why that's important to say cause I myself was around 94.6 kg (208 lbs) when I started at the start of the April, Now I weight 83.8 kg (185 lbs) my goal is to aim for like range of the 60 - 70 kg (132 lbs - 154 lbs) to just purely satisfy myself with the body. I know I shouldn't take in my eyes how the other people look like especially on internet but there's no better alternative atm for me. I already started to see some quirky places where my skin just seems to shrink from the fat that I lost mostly on my tights some people could argue that's bad less tights but at my situation it's better to have lose them a bit of fat.
Also for context I'm just 18 turning 19 this year. 177 cm height (~5'10 ft)
So for more interesting stuff what I'd daily from my start with is now around 1.5 months.
Rule 1; Hitting 5 days from week at least 9.0 km of walking with is around 12,000 steps from just this I don't count moving around house for this, but only the one session of going usually for 2 hour walk at least this is how much average I'd have to walk to be around 9,0 km, On the other 2 days I take a bit break from every exercise and I do just 2/3 of regular day with means I'd go for walk but only for like 6 km.
Rule 2 (please don't do that like i'd) I'm just at way to high caloric deficit I mean I'd get like 1,200 + / - 300 kcal per day. Mostly proteins to just keep my muscle mass on my body and kill the fat, but I don't recommend it unless your doctor says you to have that. Is this going trough hell for me? I can't really tell It's kinda like fasting but not really, I already earlier in my life was prepared to have that situation cuase in my house very very rarely there's lack of food or just food that I won't eat cause is too gross for me to put it in my mouth anyways.
What's my costs of this all, I have to refuse some good stuff like cakes, some other sugar staff, etc. After that time I pretty much don't have any feeling of having to eat or use sugar stuff, so I just drink water and cup of drink tea daily.
The pain in the ass; I'm just still a student and my money outcome is pretty not existing so I have to rely what I get in my kitchen from parents and that's usually not the best staff but at least it's not heavy processed meals like average US dinner. Well at least when I get some money the chicken breast aren't that expensive to get + full-wheat penne pasta + tomato sauce makes me dinner for a week to eat, so I still somewhat stay alive, I did started to appreciate more the meal that I get, and stopped pretty much every time my heads tells me "You are Hungry" I just go and drink water and then this annoying stuff stops for another 6 hours.
Yes I'd have skincare routine mostly just cleanser -> oat lotion -> moisturizer and if I'm going outside in summer time I use uv cream, and yes most of this stuff I just took from my other cause women cosmetics are somewhat always better than mens.
So what other exercises I'd daily; Well I usually got for 3 x 20, So I'd sit ups, squats, glute bridges, russian twists and 1 min of plank, and yes the push ups why do I'd them to help my upper part of body gain some muscles so I get rid of this gross some type of men boobs that I got cause of the fat in my body. Also I'd then set of 2 exercises 3x for 30 s that just helps me with core muscles.
If I get bored from one exercise I'd go and do other with similar meaning like; side leg rises, hydrant etc.
So to summary; Is this what I'd healthy at all, I wouldn't say it's that much healthy and wouldn't recommend going on same caloric deficit as me unless told by doctor, but the other habits like exercises they should be optimal for most of people out here. And general advice for everyone do push ups they don't hurt and not doing like 100 per day but going for like 20 - 40 should be great. I plan myself to reduce amount of them after next month.
If anybody would have any question about other stuff or their personal story to share I'll be open to hear it out when I find a piece of time!
See ya, for the time that I get my silly ass back here.
ps; Stay hydrated cause it's summer duh.

How to move on?
I (f24) broke up with my bf last March after he cheated on me multiple times. Our relationship was tumultuous to say the least.
Before we even started dating there was one night where we were hanging out together. We ended up kissing and then he tried to take my trousers down, I said no multiple times and pulled them back up multiple times. Then eventually gave up pulling them back up but every time he would try to move my pants and try to insert his penis to have sex I would physically push him away and say no. I don’t know why but I liked him and didn’t want to embarrass him so was trying to do it in a way that wouldn’t upset him. Eventually after saying no enough times he just sat me up and just put it in my mouth, I pulled back and then left not long after feeling so rubbish and upset. The next day he apologised a lot and said he was confused and didn’t know what I wanted in the moment and I told him it was fine because I just didn’t want to think about it.
Two weeks before this I had explained to him how I really was afraid of intimacy due to my past and I really wanted to take things slow-he seemed to understand.
Anyways then I ended up in a relationship with him. bear in mind this was a dumb fucking decision but I was also severely anxious and struggling with bulimia at the time. I think he knew I was so fragile and he knew how much I liked him and he used it to his advantage. Still even though I was in a relationship with him I was always nervous to spend time alone with him cause I knew he would beg me to do stuff with him even when I really didn’t want to. He would keep begging and physically trying to have sex with me until I would relent a little bit. I understand in a relationship you normally just do that stuff but idk I was just finding it really hard with him and Idk why.
Anyways he ended up cheating on me and it became a whole situation and the police had to get involved. I think about it all the time. He was also accused of rape by another girl. Ever since March I’ve felt guilty like I’ve ruined him life. I feel so anxious every day, if I do something wrong the guilt consumes me. I just feel like an awful person. I know logically this is not the case but I can’t seem to get rid of the guilt and anxiety that plague me all the time.
I don’t know if this counts as anything, I don’t know what to do. I feel like I made all the wrong decisions and no one can look at this as anything more than a stupid girl. What can I do? I’m so lost

I always wanted to see Hanako as the 10th rival rather than Megami because, well, Hanako is Taro's sister. A family member would be the hardest individual to get rid of and a huge pain for someone to lose.
So, I've decided to rewrite Hanako and make her the 10th rival instead of Mary Sue (she needs to go straight to the trash, smh).
⚠️ Some things will be changed in future, so beware! 😀
Instead of Hanako being the childish, incest, and clingy sister that Pedodev made her to be, I decided to make her act more like Nemesis minus the whole revenge plan she has and she does have her hair loose instead of pigtails . So, let me go into more detail →

Why is Hanako the 10th rival? What makes her so different from Mary Sue?

Hanako is Taro's sister. That's a huge difference between Megami and her. Taro does love his family, especially his sister he grew close to and helped raise. Megami is nothing to Taro. Taro would choose Hanako over Megami any day. No one can replace his own sibling.
Hanako isn't a Mary Sue. She does have flaws. Hanako can be killed, framed, matchmade, and any other elimination that the game has. Sure, it will be harder to actually kill her, but she can be killed.
Hanako does know how to protect herself in this rewrite. There's a reason why she does something traumatic that happened to her. It does involve the gloves she's wearing.

What happened that made her this way?

Hanako used to be a very cheerful young little girl. She used to be very outgoing, having no worries in her life, and seeing no danger in the world as many children do.
Until an event took place that changed her perspective on the world. Considering that Hanako was an outgoing little girl who didn't see the dangers the same way her own parents did, Hanako was almost kidnapped by two men (who were part of a human trafficking business). They needed a new and fresh victim to get money, and seeing Hanako and her innocent little self was the perfect opportunity to kidnap her and get money quickly. Hanako tried fighting back against them. Even if they were armed with a knife, it didn't stop her. As a result of this, the knife slashed her palm, causing her to let out a bloody scream.
Hanako needed stitches for the wound on her palm. It left a scar. She uses gloves to cover it and not remember that traumatizing memory.
Fortunately, her parents and Taro heard and were able to stop it, but her father and mother were injured in the process of saving her, mostly her father, who almost cost his life to save her. Taro couldn't do much since he was still a kid when this happened. His mother made sure he was away and safe from those two men.
Hanako's perspective of the world around her changed completely after that event. Seeing her parents' injuries, and if it wasn't for their mother, Taro would have been injured or killed or even taken. Something snapped in her.
Ever since that event, Hanako became very clingy to her parents and Taro, not leaving their side, especially when they were in public and around a large group of people.
As she grew older, Hanako decided to take classes of self-defense to protect herself and her family from anyone. This continued for a few more years and remained close to her family, taking care of them and making sure they were safe from harm or danger.
⚠️ Her backstory might change in the future, so be beware!

Why was she absent for nine weeks? Where was she?

She was in America training in a program that chose her to continue her training of self-defense, sensing danger, etc. Her mother went with her since she was still underage during the time. Hanako has been there for a year. By the time Ayano is “active”, she will have been in America for two years.
Hanako did continue her education in America. During her time there, she would keep in touch with her brother, telling him about her training, her education, her day, how it was in America, etc. Even if the two siblings were very far away, their sibling love remained very close and strong.

What made her return to Japan and enroll in Akademi?

Hanako decided to return to Japan and enroll in Akadmi when she found out what was happening with her brother, his mental health and what would happen to other students if Ayano decided to murder her rivals or any other student. Each week, his mental health would decrease depending on how Ayano gets rid of the rival. His mental health will decrease much more if he saw the corpse of a rival or saw them be killed in front of him, especially if it's Osana.
Hanako decides to go back to Japan, not finishing her program and enrolling in Akademi as soon as possible before the week even starts, to be there for her brother, comfort, and protect him.
She's quite happy to be with her brother and father again after two years.

What are the obstacles that Ayano will face?

→ Hanako will always be next to Taro to keep him company. She will do anything in her power to comfort her brother and be by his side after being gone for two years. Even if he was the oldest, Hanako would take care of him the same way he did for her.
→ Hazu Kashibuchi. He will be Hanako's suitor. Hanako will meet Hazu on the first day of Akademi since they sit right next to each other in class. Hazu will be Hanako's first friend. So, Hanako will be close to Hazu as well during the week and be in the sewing room as well. Hazu will teach her how to sew. Taro will be there as well to learn and find a good way to release stress and focus on something positive.
→ Genka, the guidance counselor, will be an obstacle for Ayano as well. Hanako will be with Genka along with her brother. Taro will use this time with Genka to speak with her about his mental health and his thoughts while Hanako will be next to him, listening and holding his hand. There will be meetings between Genka and Hanako to speak about Taro's mental health and how he is doing and tell Hanako ideas on how to help her big bro. Those ideas are going to be the events that Ayano has to sabotage
→ Hanako can sense danger. She can immediately apprehend Ayano and break her arm. Even if she's short, she will stop Ayano from harming her or any student. If Ayano is doing anything suspicious, Hanako will keep her eyes on her until she's out of her sight. Hanako can be framed, but her gloves need to be taken from her. Ayano has to find a way to do it.
→ ⚠️ Osana and Raibaru. Hanako is very close to Osana as well, so Hanako would spend a lot of her time with Osana and Raibaru who she sees as a new friend, and someone who she can relate to and have self-defense lessons with. So, Raibaru will be a big challenge for Ayano. Osana will be a threat if she's still alive. If not, Raibaru will be the threat. Unless she's dead, too. So this obstacle is a “If” thing.
→ I would add Budo if Taro and Budo were close friends. I feel like Hanako would spend time with him since they do share a strong sense of justice and know self-defense. Budo is quite popular, so he would know how to survive Akademi lol
→ The clubs. Considering that Hanako has been in America for the past two years and training, she decided to join a club after she found out how many clubs there were. The reason why is because she wants to have a hobby and explore something new. So, Hanako, during the week, would be walking in and out of club rooms to speak with the club leaders and meeting the members as well. Considering that some of the club members do leave their club rooms or areas like the Gardening Club, Hanako will be surrounded by students, so it'll be hard to find a spot without having a student as a witness.
→ Considering that Nemesis carries around a knife during mission mode, I want to make Hanako carry a knife to protect herself with. A knife that she can hide. So technically, she can kill Ayano. I might change this.
→ Considering it's the 10th week, the student council president election will be taking place, so students will be walking around, gossiping around in the halls, some will be near the student council room to determine who deserves the spot, some students will be running around the school, or standing at certain places where Ayano can't get Hanako alone. Hanako would most likely be with her brother, walking around and having her brother explain what's going on before she goes off on her own and explores what's going on. Hanako would most likely try to speak with the student council, or at least be in the same area as them.

What's her befriending stealth mission?

It will involve either those two men (who are much older, but they will be trying to find new victims to take). Ayano will know what happened to Hanako by eavesdropping on her conversations with Taro and Genka. (They can also be used for the “Drive to Murder” elimination for Hanako)
Maybe in this mission, Hanako will be asking Ayano to get evidence against the human traffickers to put them behind bars and save the victims who couldn't be saved like she was. This would bring Ayano into great danger of either being killed or being used for human trafficking herself. Ayano is a good-looking girl, so the business would think she would bring good customers.
It will take research to know where the human traffickers are located, or at least the help of Info-chan.
There's still some things I need to think about for this stealth mission!
Or
Someone that she met during her time in America who came to Japan way before Hanako did. A rival for Hanako. They would have some history together that Taro wouldn't know about. I haven't thought much about this mission, so I'll see what I can make up :]