1. If we are in a store, looking at and/or comparing products we are buying 2. Picking out a videogame 3. Looking at books in a bookstore 4. In a line at a festival 5. Sitting on a bench at a festival, snacking or reading or on our phone (be subtle if we are on the phone, be polite, not loud) 6. Entering an event, standing in line. 7. Walking around in an event 8. At an event kiosk or concession stand 9. Leaving work 10. Leaving a store we just did an errand at. Sometimes it could be as simple as one of us walking out of a restaurant or food shop with a milkshake or something. 11. Events related to our interests 12. Another one is right after we get a haircut somewhere. Thats another opportunity. You could then approach us and ask “Excuse me sir”(then fill in what words you are going to use to convince/seduce us to date you and give you our number) Swap phone numbers as quickly as possible and express and spark that interest. Get us to text you, add you to contacts, text us, add us to contacts. Make plans for another date immediately. (You probably were already planning one) Make haste, Life is short, so enjoy it and take care of yourselves. 13. Walking into a store 14. Walking out of a store 15. Browsing products in an aisle 16. Looking at books in a bookstore 17. There are multiple opportunities to approach us, I just hope this all gave you a better idea. 

Hey y'all! My SIL and I got o to the topic of crimesn murders, and ID. She said some years ago some lf her friends were murdered by someone they were helping(I think he mah have been a hitchhiker?) The guy shot them in the back of the head and only one guy survived. She said their story was on ID but she couldn't remember the show. It happened in Illinois. The hitchhiker was a black man and he killed them just because they were white.

Ever since I was a baby, weird things have been attracted to me. I recently disclosed to my sister that I have been seeing shadow spiders or things low to the ground. Like most people would, I just waved it off as I was tired or weird floaters in my eye. It usually happened at home (I'm always there. Introvert++) until about a month ago I was leaving work and saw a walking pair of men's legs from the knee down in the parking garage. (I was shook) I got very sick with Covid in 2020 before the shot was available and I started seeing small things after that. Over the past few years it has been ramping up.
When I finally told my sister (we are 6 years apart) she told me about her talking to a guy she knew was dead and laying in our tub that mentioned waiting for the baby. (She was 6 or 7 at the time. We think that guy is following me and have named him 'Tubbs') Our cups would go missing and our chairs would move on their own, the tv in my parents room would turn on randomly and the sounds of a distant party would come from the top corner of their closet. My mom and sister always talked about it but I never had a true experience until one of my last times in my childhood house at age 14 when I was completely alone and a cup disappeared on me. Since then nearly every place I have lived, even in apartments alone, Strange things have happened.
My sister told me that when we went out of town for a concert together, I was about 17, She was awoken by a full shadow man sitting on the edge of the table with one leg up leaning on it watching me sleep. She was sharing the same bed and out of fear buried her head in my back and watched it over my shoulder. She said she kept blinking to see if she was dreaming or imagining it but the shadow man didn't go away. She stared for what she said was about 15 minutes until she covered her head and went back to sleep.
I have had prophetic dreams, phantom smells and hear what sounds like a TV or radio on that I can't quite make out and disappears when I focus on it to make out what the voices are talking about, seen shadow people outside my house and when I went on a Haunted Portland tour with my sister, I felt targeted and my EMF meter kept spiking out of the 8 other people in our group. I even "saw" a picture of a man in my mind that was trapped in the Shang high tunnels. With things ramping up, I want to protect myself or figure out what this is. If it is some sort of gift, I want to develop it to help people or solve cold cases. Make a difference. Any shared knowledge or guidance is greatly appreciated. Does what is wrong with me have a name?
TLDR: Seeing/Hearing weird shit, shadow people and shadow bugs. It's getting worse. What is wrong with me? Afraid I am crazy.

Background/Context: I was simming some scenarios discussed in the related thread about how aggressively people should be calling Next. The general consensus there was that you could make a Next call with some combination of three trumps and aces.
Very coincidentally, the sim broke on me and would not sim the scenario where dealer passed the jack, so I had to manually sim some hands one at a time (which didn't break) to see what was happening. As I could use full kibitz mode, I noticed 1st seat was making extremely light Next calls: just two trump, or even one trump and an ace.
This went way beyond my conventions, and was worth a deeper dive.
When 4th seat turns down a jack, there is almost no shot he has the other jack (outside of a trap pass, but we will come back to this later).
Meanwhile, 2nd seat will only pass with the other jack if it is his only trump, and he has no other values (aces). This makes it far more likely that the other jack lies with your partner or is face down. And, there is only that one jack to account for, as the other one is buried.
Meanwhile, when a non-jack is turned down, both jacks may still be in play, and the inferences are considerably weaker.
I ran four scenarios In each case the jack of hearts was the turned down card.
1.) Jh turned down, we hold two diamonds, zero hearts
9910910
Next: -0.76
Pass: -1.11 (-0.35 worse)
2.) Jh turned down, we hold two diamonds, one heart
991099
Next: -0.69
Pass: -1.18 (-0.49 worse)
3.) Jh turned down, we hold one diamond, the ace of spades, zero hearts
91099A
Next: -0.89
Pass: -0.46 (+0.43 better)
Clubs: -1.14 (just to show why crossing the river is not a good idea even with an extra trump)
4.) Jh turned down, we hold one diamond, the ace of spades, one heart
999A9
Next: -0.93
Pass: -0.63 (+0.30 better)
POSTMORTEM
It's extremely unlikely for a jack to get turned down. Our zero-heart sims discarded over 30 hands for every hand that made it to round 2. The one-heart sims discarded 10-20 hands for every one valid hand. This makes for a very volatile baseline, and any significant change in behavior relative to the human partners/opponents at your table can cause significant shifts in optimal strategy.
When the jack of hearts is turned down, the inference on the jack of diamonds is so strong that you shouldn't cross the river, even with a extra (second) trump and an ace.
Scenario #3 may illustrate another element of passive defense: just by holding two clubs, it cuts down on potential clubs calls by the opponents when we pass (and more help if partner calls clubs himself), and this should contribute at least part of that EV difference for passing in Scenario #3 vs #4.
While it's clear that you can make a profitable next call with just two trump (when the jack is turned down), you should still pass with one trump and one ace. This is because the ace still has strong defensive value when you pass (and supporting value when your partner calls something).
Finally, let's talk really quick about trap passes. This is generally something that the dealer will do with two-guaranteed-tricks-and-an-ace or three-guaranteed-tricks in every suit, meaning he's probably going to hold all of the remaining jacks. In this case, they're likely getting 1-2 anyways, and potentially 4 if it passes all the way back to them.

I have been at my job for ~7 months. I am 25 yrs old making 82k. This is a start up and my role has been broadly defined, I take on a lot of responsibilities and I support a lot of products. Right now I’m running my ass all over the country to help support sales, technical problems and go to conferences. My boss asked me to relocate ACROSS THE COUNTRY, and step into a new role of doing ~sales~ so I wouldn’t have to keep flying back and forth. For context they said I could do a “trial run” and they would pay for my apartment and car in the new location while I figure out if I like it or not. I will 100% give it my best shot and run my butt off for them during this trial run, and they know that.
I’d also help set up a new office and train new colleagues. So I’m not exactly being promoted, but I am taking on a new role, supporting my old role, and uprooting my life to move somewhere new. For me this is deserving of a 25% raise… is that reasonable? I haven’t been at this job for a year yet.
I also know I am valuable to them right now, my boss said “the worst thing would be if you leave us”. I’d really leave a void if I left the company.

This happened a while ago, but I had someone who was asc coach me. I can't tell if he was trolling but I think his advice made me worse, first he told me to just w key cuz he saw I was too passive. I did that and I kept dying over and over, then he says I play too braindead even though that's what he told me to do. He tried to make valorant sound like this super intellectual strategy game but i was only gold, and the things I had to work on was mostly mechanics since mines weren't that good, strats don't really matter at that rank. He live vod reviewed me once and flamed me everytime I died saying my brain was too bad. Even if I was just holding an angle he would flame me saying I was too passive and saying other things about my gameplay. He just said I had to vod review and I did that, but it didn't help me improve, he said I wasn't doing it right and acted like that was the sole reason why I wasn't improving.
Everytime I did something wrong according to him it was mostly because I was too passive, he mentioned other things like cross hair placement but he made it sound like being passive was the only thing holding me back. He kept saying I baited too much, I fixed that and baited less but everytime I asked him why I wasn't improving he would just keep saying the same things like I was baiting and playing too passive, even though he didn't watch those games.
He kept saying if u don't solo queue u don't learn, but in his tracker all of his games were from being in five stacks. He also said if u warm up, in dms or range, it'll make u dumber and take time away from learning other things about the game, which stagnated my aim and mechanics. He literally just said the same things everytime I asked why I wasn't improving, but in different ways acting like it was helping me. He said he could beat me in any game I play and that the main game I play was braindead and only was about mechanics not strategy. He acted like being passive was this super dumb thing, even in games where being passive is an optimal strategy.
I ignored his advice and just focused on mechanics and ranked up to plat then to diamond. I dunno if it meant well but he sounded super toxic and after learning about the game on my own, I found his advice to not make sense.

I only put spoiler tags on info that I felt was significant, that I found after going through the credits. Pretty mild uncovered spoilers otherwise for the final episode.
If RoombaBud (RoomBud) hadn't literally just scanned Norm and told him he has "50% of Henry McLean's DNA" in the scene immediately prior, I would have thoroughly expected a twist wherein Mr. House , the RobCo board executive seen in one of the very next shots, turned out to be Norm's real dad.
Still photos of them at different angles, and taken from my phone obviously don't quite do them justice, but the actual visual effect of going from present day Norm with RoomBud in Vault 31, to Human Bud (HumeBud) in a meeting with Norm but older the RobCo board exec has fully solidified the connection and now I cannot unsee it.
I know it's entirely likely it's just the result of casting someone to look like a young Mr. House , but considering how well cast I think Goosey is as Henry and Rose McLean's kid compared to Norm (in my eyes, at least, I know genetics can be wild), and that perpetual lying is just praxis in the Fallout world, I'm just gonna sit here and construct my silly little headcanon until the next season comes out.
Does anyone else have any weird-ass theories from their viewings that are almost entirely baseless but still fun to consider the potential ramifications of?

Hello! I’m your friendly neighborhood DM, here to tell you a tale of how my absolute clusterfuck of a party killed the planned antagonist of this entire campaign arc 7 levels early, with a minor caveat.
If the campaign name Aeon’s Reckoning sounds familiar to you, your DM is named after a Greek goddess, or this sequence of events sounds oddly familiar, please for the love of God do not scroll any further: potential spoilers abound
To provide context, I’ll pick up where I left off in Chapter 2. My band of miscreants went on a journey upon Charon’s Toll to confront the first divine champion Fulgora: the chosen of Raijin (lightning dragon from Japanese mythology) who had such a fierce reputation that she alone was effectively the strongest ‘army’ her country had to offer…and was also a blood crazed Viking bitch who tries to stick her sword into anything that looks fun to stab. After a bunch of story shenanigans and a giant robot fight in which she fought alongside the party, they agreed to a cinematic duel atop a mountain summit. The party then fucking steamrolled her in one round…but they didn’t hear the flapping of wings from above.
The intended antagonist for this arc revealed herself at last: Anhur the Almighty, Tyrant of Elysium, and she did it in style. Riding atop an ancient dragon, she appeared to do something to activate one of the MacGuffins the party has been collecting for the main quest; this caused its holder, Fulgora, to transform into an angel of destruction named an Asurah. She then flew away like a little bitch, intending for the Asurah to act as a sentient nuclear bomb and level the island before being recalled to the Upper Planes (plane alignment is highly flexible in this setting), but the party defeated it by discovering a critical weakness: it was not native to this plane and they could burn its resistances and banish it. Not only that, since technically it was only the spirit that was possessed, Fulgora’s body came back and the concentration intentionally was dropped so that she could be revivified (Not sure if this works RAW but they made a great argument so I allowed it). This gesture of goodwill and, more importantly, a mutual desire to see the Emperor destroyed led the once untamed Frenzied Storm to join forces with the party.
Some more lore got revealed and basically the Emperor is trying to revive an ancient goddess of destruction with the goal of destroying the Feywild and the Nine Hells. Fast forward through a stealth mission, an encounter with a neutered deck of many things, and clearing the castle summoned by the Throne card of a minor infestation of eldritch horrors beyond mortal comprehension (beholder and friends), and the party is once again accosted by the Emperor. This time, she seeks the Cleric, as due to his status as an Aasimar he has a rich enough Celestial presence to wield the power of the MacGuffins, and tried to take him by force. However, the Dominate Person attempt failed because the Cleric passed a DC 24 WIS saving throw (her idea was to make him walk to her so she can grab both of them and teleport out) and from there the fight was on.
A note about this character: She is a 22nd level spellcaster. She has 30 charisma. This is not an enemy the party is supposed to be fighting anywhere near level 9, this is what I have planned for the end of the first arc of the campaign in which the PCs are level 15-17. Another note: This sequence was discussed with the cleric in advance, as they had discussed wanting to try out a new character, and this was a great way for them to be removed from the story for a bit and really make the big bad villain live up to her infamy. The party has diamonds and multiple sources of Revivify even without the Cleric, so a few dead PCs are a sacrifice I was prepared to make. Additionally, the power level of this campaign is disgustingly high, so level 9 is a bit deceiving as the magic items and abilities the party has give them at least 2-3 more levels of oomph.
Regardless of my intent, the players knew what they wanted to do. The gauntlet is thrown, the dice have been rolled, and it’s time for her wrath to be unleashed.
The first turn went as expected. The monk and Fulgora (now an NPC fighter under my control as the DM) were the first to rush in. The Emperor, intending to make an example of them and induce the party to surrender, used one of her ninth level slots immediately: “Annihilation”. This spell is essentially a sidegraded meteor swarm, reducing the AoE count from 4 to 1 but modifying the damage to a gargantuan 50d6 radiant damage (up from 40d6 total). The monk made her save and took 0 damage (evasion for the WIN), but Fulgora failed it and took 181 damage, going from full health to unconscious. With her legendary action (2 points to cast a spell, and she had 5 total per round), she used her other 9th level slot on power word kill, ending the monk where she stood. A show of force unlike anything the party had seen before.
For context, Fulgora had the highest health of the party, as the Barbarian was absent this session and the Paladin wouldn’t know a good HP roll if it hit them in the head. She barely survived. If it had hit anyone else in the party at the time for full damage, they would have skipped death saves and gone straight to the afterlife. No one in the party had the health to avoid PWK. Naturally, the party would surrender, knowing that she only came here for the Cleric (who could be rescued later) and knowing their odds would be far better there, right?
If that happened, I wouldn’t be here telling you this, now would I?
Instead, the Rogue used a consumable that lets them auto crit for 3 turns (a one time use gift from a one shot done over Christmas), then used their weapon ability to create a temporary copy of himself. Two attacks per turn. Two sneak attack procs. All crits. And the rogue has the most powerful weapon out of the party so far.
In 2 turns, the Rogue did over 400 damage, including the single turn damage record so far of 247. These 2 turns from this one player deleted over half of Anhur’s health. She tried to retaliate, but flubbed the check to see which one was the real one then missed the attack anyways. After spamming her 8th level spells on Sunburst and a power word stun (which somehow killed zero people combined due to godlike saves and single digit HP remainders), she tried once again to dominate the Cleric so she could Teleport them out.
Saved again. 2 DC 24 saves passed by a level 9 character. Clutch.
Running low on HP, she did everything she could to get to the Cleric and managed to do so. Her escape was foiled, however, when she tried to plane shift and got counterspelled. The Paladin closed in, hit some smites, and the Emperor fell to 0 HP. She crumbled to dust in front of their eyes, leaving behind some pretty sexy items as a reward for what was in reality a designed optional challenge that the party passed with flying colors. I knew it was winnable, just barely, and they did it. I’m so god damn proud
But because of that…I had an ace up my sleeve. The thing they fought wasn’t the real Emperor. It was her simulacrum. And it was time for her backup plan to spring into action.
The REAL Emperor, riding atop her dragon, immediately busts through the ceiling due to a Contingency spell triggering upon the simulacrum’s death, and this time the party is out of options. Their resources were spent in the last fight and they still needed to revive the monk, so they booked it the second they heard the wings of the dragon. Their rolls, unfortunately, finally failed them, and through an unlucky series of DEX checks to outmaneuver the destructive duo the cleric was successfully kidnapped, whisked away despite the party’s best efforts. Moments later, the cleric’s player introduced their NEW character; a chef playing a homebrew class which basically lets them heal and inspire people by feeding them delicious food (pseudo bard!). Now the party prepares to infiltrate a fascist country to rescue their comerade from the horrible suffering that awaits him.
One final note before I leave: There were more cards drawn from the DoMT than just Throne, and each of which is very interesting indeed. But that is a tale for another time…..

Ever since I was a baby, weird things have been attracted to me. I recently disclosed to my sister that I have been seeing shadow spiders or things low to the ground. Like most people would, I just waved it off as I was tired or weird floaters in my eye. It usually happened at home (I'm always there. Introvert++) until about a month ago I was leaving work and saw a walking pair of men's legs from the knee down in the parking garage. (I was shook) I got very sick with Covid in 2020 before the shot was available and I started seeing small things after that. Over the past few years it has been ramping up.
When I finally told my sister (we are 6 years apart) she told me about her talking to a guy she knew was dead and laying in our tub that mentioned waiting for the baby. (She was 6 or 7 at the time. We think that guy is following me and have named him 'Tubbs') Our cups would go missing and our chairs would move on their own, the tv in my parents room would turn on randomly and the sounds of a distant party would come from the top corner of their closet. My mom and sister always talked about it but I never had a true experience until one of my last times in my childhood house at age 14 when I was completely alone and a cup disappeared on me. Since then nearly every place I have lived, even in apartments alone, Strange things have happened.
My sister told me that when we went out of town for a concert together, I was about 17, She was awoken by a full shadow man sitting on the edge of the table with one leg up leaning on it watching me sleep. She was sharing the same bed and out of fear buried her head in my back and watched it over my shoulder. She said she kept blinking to see if she was dreaming or imagining it but the shadow man didn't go away. She stared for what she said was about 15 minutes until she covered her head and went back to sleep.
I have had prophetic dreams, phantom smells and hear what sounds like a TV or radio on that I can't quite make out and disappears when I focus on it to make out what the voices are talking about, seen shadow people outside my house and when I went on a Haunted Portland tour with my sister, I felt targeted and my EMF meter kept spiking out of the 8 other people in our group. I even "saw" a picture of a man in my mind that was trapped in the Shang high tunnels. With things ramping up, I want to protect myself or figure out what this is. If it is some sort of gift, I want to develop it to help people or solve cold cases. Make a difference. Any shared knowledge or guidance is greatly appreciated. Does what is wrong with me have a name?
TLDR: Seeing/Hearing weird shit, shadow people and shadow bugs. It's getting worse. What is wrong with me? Afraid I am crazy.

Damaged Goods -8

Memory Transcription Subject: Annek Ugani, Skalga Armed Forces
Date [human standard time] October 20, 2159
“*Yo Hades, how you doing up there?*” Natal’s voice crackled on my radio piece Me and Lee had lost our squad raffle for who got overwatch duty, forcing us to lay flat in the dirt and enjoy the Skalgan forests for the next few hours.
“Hades? That’s Human.. Greek. Why are you calling me that?” I replied, using my free hand to thumb the radio switch on my vest while my other rested on my deployed weapon.
“*Cuz’. All you do is try to look cool and brood.*” Came the casual reply over the radio
“Fuck you Netal. “ I gave a simple reply, although the hint of a chuckle could not help but run off my tongue
Lee was beside me, eyes fixed down the path of a spotter's scope. His tail slightly twitched every couple seconds, an evolutionary side effect of our prehistoric days. There was a time where those twitches were a way to measure our stability, so we could ram without toppling over.
His ear twitched, an indication that his watchful gaze had caught something. Prompting the human to shift on his side and tap my shoulder, putting a finger over his mouth to indicate to me to stay silent. I shifted away from my weapon to peer through his scope.
In the brush where we overlooked we saw two squads of hostile soldiers pushing past the foliage. They were attempting to flank around our main defensive lines to hold our operating base hostage by the looks of it, but the harsh terrain was a purposeful choice on our part. One would not expect a forest to be so hostile to human movement, but with the full loads that these soldiers were carrying, each misstep was a chance to fall or even worse.
I leaned back over to my emplacement. “Thoughts?” I whispered to Lee, barely audible to someone who did not have the ear implants.“W-we call Freya and Netal to try and p-pincer them.” Lee dug into his vest and produced a small regional map. His gloved finger jabbing a spot in the middle of the forest.
“T-they are a twenty minute h-hike from us..” Lees free hand balled as he tried to stave off his verbal slips
“Terrain s-shouldn’t be an issue with the tails.”
“It would be too late by then, we need to engage now. We have the advantage” I argued as I took a glance at the group through my emplacement’s scope.“We hit one and they scramble.. Then we lose our advantage.” Lee calmly advised me as he returned to his scope
“That is not how getting shot at works, I can put enough rounds down range to cut through them two times over. Without even needing a reload.” I continued to argue, and my claw pulled up to the plastic trigger on my weapon
“Not e-everyone is wearing hard shell, y-you know.” Lee said as he pulled his rifle off of his back, anticipating that I was not going to back down from my stance at all
I squeezed the trigger on my weapon, causing it to kick back into my shoulder as its burst fire shredded down range.
The volley connected with two soldiers, causing them to raise their arms up in the air and declare themselves hit. However the rest of the soldiers dropped to the floor, under the brush where my optic couldn’t get a live feed.
A small metal device was raised over the vegetation, and my ears popped. They had just pinged our location for everyone connected to the local tac-net to see.
We quickly became victims of our own success as rifles were lifted up over the brush and blindly fired where the sensors said we were.
The fire was brutal, as two squads of soldiers shot automatic bursts in our direction. If this were a real battle, the vegetation around us would be shredded already by all the fire coming our way. The hard shell I had on me gave me two chances to survive a hit, but I felt as though if I had moved even an inch, fire would quickly wear through my two spare lives
“S-shit Annek what did I say” Lee hissed as he thumbed for his radio. “We are taking heavy fire from a position to our northeast, r-requesting you divert manpower to our aid.”
“Already on our way, we heard the shots from here.” Freya’s voice responded over the radio
“Oh shit.. Shit what- what do we do?” I sputtered as the fire began to slow, but we knew that they were just conserving ammunition now. “N-nothing.” Came the reply from Lee. “We wait until the other two get here so they can flush them out of their p-position. If you had waited just a little more, we could have taken them from two sides. Preventing e-exactly this exchange.” Lee admonished me, and despite the voice, the punishment to ego rang true
“Y-you know what it seems like to me?” Lee questioned me a few minutes into our covered waiting game
“H-h-hade-es.. Is going to stick. F-for a long time.” He commented as he dug into his vest for a bright orange bottle of pills. Popping open the cap with his gloved fingers and placing two of the round tablets in his mouth before returning the bottle to his vest.He let out a sigh as the pills slipped down his throat.
“What.. do those do?” I questioned, although I knew I was in no position to question anything that my superiors did anymore
“T-test-tosterone pills. Gas fucked up my hormones so bad that I go docile without them.” Lee replied as he rested his head against a particularly nicely shaped stick.
I felt bad for the guy, it seems like out of everyone here he lost the most outwardly. However I had already let my persona slip too far already.
“Hm.” I grunted in reply
“S-so.. do you have a guy- or lady Skalgan waiting for you at home?” Lee asked me from his comfortable stick spot
“No. I joined the Armed forces as soon as I reached adulthood.” I replied sharply
“Fifteen.. You know where w-where we come from, t-that is still a child soldier.” Lee said
“In my opinion I think fifteen years of life e-exp-perience is to l-low to have control over who l-lives and dies. But maybe you guys are i-intelligent, quicker or s-something.” Lee shrugged and tapped the body of his rifle rhythmically
“Maybe we are just better than you.” I shot back, although my ears quickly fell to the back of my head as fake bullets whizzed past my face. Spurred on by my subconscious act of leaning up to argue
I let out a sigh as I fell back down
“A-after Natal ch-hews you out. Wanna play more videogames with u-us?” Lee offered me with a small flash of his teeth
I had to resist the urge to eagerly accept the offer. The nights before had been so much fun, I had almost forgotten that I was supposed to represent the strength of my species. That was a mistake of course, more than once did Netal get his sticky fingers on my fur, and due to the video game taking my attention I had not been able to respond quickly enough to stop him before he got a few good squeezes in with his short dull claws.
“I.. yeah. Sure. This time I’ll pay for the Skalgan character.”“You know *other* r-races exist right?” Lee teased my preference for only the Skalgan avatars
The sound of rifle fire sounded out in the air, although this time it was not directed at us. That was our cue to turn back to our stations and open back up again with renewed energy. This time the humans had been cornered, and were forced to flee through open positions. Allowing me to cut down the most obvious clumps of soldiers.
As we cleaned up the group, there were grumblings among the enemy soldiers along the lines of, “Not fair… tails.”
Sucks to suck. That applies to biology as well.
The win had almost made me forget that we had almost been outed thanks to my actions, but Netal paced up to me rapidly, and I knew that I was going to be reminded very soon.
“Lee tells me you disobeyed his order to stay put.” Netal admonished
“T-they were so exposed and.. I had no idea.. You could be so-.. Fast.” I shakily tried to defend my role in the attack
“It doesn’t matter Annek, you’ve got to listen to what people are telling you.” Netal said with a disapproving shake of the head
“No one got hurt so we are still in the lead, but know that you now have an outstanding favor for us to call on at any moment alright?”
“A-..alright.” I repeated with my ears folded down in shame
“Are, we still.. Up to play more of that human game tonight?” I meekly asked as Netal turned to walk away
“Of course- maybe that name will boost your confidence enough to maybe win some matches.. If you don't think too hard about it of course.” Netal joked as he started towards the brush, soon joined by Freya before they slinked back into the forest
FirstNext

These are my two cents about the game for anyone that is interested in discussion:
The vibes felt off tonight. Knicks came into the game with no sense of urgency at all. We lacked heart, hustle, desire to win. This was not a classic Knicks game. Why i believe that?
We got outrebounded. Even though embitch looked like a corpse out there. Very unusual for this Knicks team.
Complete lack of concentration from both the players and the coaching staff. For as good as this team is at defense, we sure as hell let them get wide open layups a lot. It feels like this team has only two modes:
Metal bats out: the dream team can't score on the knicks.
Defense off: give up wide open layups or wide open shots.
I'm not sure why is that. I blame it on the inexperience and the level of concentration of the team and at the same time the fact that we overhead a lot and allows the opponent team to pass the ball and get a wide open shot.
The sixers had ny far their worst game as well. I think its inexcusable to be up by 6 points at half time when the sixers were this bad. You need to run the score. Embitch had the worst game I've seen. I don't doubt that knicks can and will win this series but if they wanna do that, they need to earn it. Nothing is given here. It's the playoffs.
Last, Burks needs to get some minutes. Give him 2 mins and see how he does. We can't play 7 players. If sixers are starting the corpse of Kyle lowry and giving batum significant playing time, thibs can try to five burks 2 mins so brunson can rest.
This was a well deserved loss, even if the sixers were just as bad.
Edit: I'm sorry for the poor wording and basic analysis. I'm on the bus, making ny way to work at 8am. Woke up at 2am to watch my knicks. Rough day ahead. See you Thursday. Team will bounce back

Greetings, fellow Democracy Enjoyers.
I've been a big fan of the Spear ever since I unlocked it. Lock on rocket launchers are always fun, in any game. But, before the patch, I was having THE HARDEST TIME getting the Spear to lock onto stuff (despite pinging targets).
HOWEVER
After the recent patch, I feel like it's been a total beast. It's been locking onto enemies, fabricators, turrets, dropships, everything... very quickly and easily! Hit a hulk in the back with it, 1 shot. Big turrets, 1 shot. Tanks, 1 but most of the time 2 shots. Have someone team reload you and it's game over. I blew up an entire heavy outpost from over 200m away, while my team took care of the infantry.
If you don't use it, you're doing yourself (and FREEDOM) an injustice.

F20 not pregnant no medications besides linzess 275 for ibs-c. I've been dealing with abdominal pain and extreme nausea for months now and my GI saw me around two weeks ago and started feeling around my tender abdomen. He found a more painful spot that stuck out and then pushed it back in hard (I can only assume it was like the start to a hernia or something) and I shot out of the chair in pain. He then asked me questions about kidney stones and moved around to my back side. Without warning, he fucking hits me in the back. I wouldn't say it was particularly soft either, but It could also be that i'm already in so much pain that it felt worse. Has anyone ever experienced that? It was wild to me. I was bent over in agony when I left his office. He definitely made my pain worse. A week later he saw me again and said I should just get steroids injected in my side because the muscle wall could be damaged from what he described as "blunt force trauma" (I am still in pain)
Tldr- doctor hit me in the back without warning me and might have made my symptoms worse. Is that normal? I've never heard of that.

It felt like any other day. Fall was settling in and I was excited because that night everyone was going to get together and hang out. What happened however was much different than I could ever have imagined...
I saw Demetrius standing under an alcove around the back of the school. He was there with an older guy who looked like he was almost thirty. I thought it was kind of weird and made my way over to them.
Demetrius noticed and turned to the guy he was standing with. The older guy handed him something and they both nodded. Then the man put up his hood and briskly walked away.
"Hey D, what's up? Who was that?" I said trying to sound cool about it.
"Oh... yeah... that was my man Keaton. He's the connect. Look at this." he said, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.
In his hand I saw a some small square pieces of paper with pictures of random characters: a game character, a guy from some anime, etc.
'Oh...' I said uncomfortable knowing what it was. 'That's acid right?'
"Nah. It's not acid.' Demetrius put the baggie back into his coat.
"Keaton said it's something new they cooked up. Supposed to be wild."
"Cool..."
I was starting to resent the recent drug trend in our group.
Due to peer pressure I had tried them a few times but, it really wasn't for me. They made me feel really weird. Lately though, it seemed like it was all the group wanted to do.
"We're gonna try it tonight!" he said excitedly grabbing my shoulders as we walked.
"Tonight...?!"
That night the school was hosting an overnight event as the culmination of a fundraiser. It was supposed to be clean wholesome fun (obviously) and drugs were definitely not allowed, and also probably not what any of the other attendees had in mind.
"But we're staying at the school tonight? I mean... why tonight?" I said trying not to sound annoyed. "Let's do them some other night" I said; not sure I even wanted to 'do them' at all.
"Bruh, stop." Demetrius said. "You don't have to if you want, but I know the other guys will."
I was really getting tired of every time we hung out turning to an occasion for drugs.
"Well... what even is it?" I said trying to feign interest.
"Honestly, I don't know" he said. "Keaton told me it was unlike any other drug. He knows some people who know some people. Really good stuff apparently. He said it was like all other drugs combined. None of the side effects either."
I played along like I was excited, but I was starting to dread even going to the event now.
***
The other guys showed up and we all went to the fast food place down the street. They all seemed much more excited than me about Demetrius's new 'score'. The group was buzzing with excitement.
We got to the school a bit later then the rest of our classmates. We really hadn't participated in the fundraiser and we're just there to hang out at the school for the novelty of it.
To be honest I was surprised they even allowed it... Tony and I had been the year before and sort of just walked in, the plan was the same. The sun was setting. I tried the front door and it opened. We entered the common area and saw a bunch of people hanging out.
"So what do you guys want to do?" Thomas said.
There were five of us. Demetrius, Tony, Thomas, Stevie and Myself. Thom said his girlfriend would be there, and her and her two friends would meet up with us.
We hung out for a bit in the gym playing basketball and then there was an arm wrestling competition. There were a few teachers 'supervising' but everyone was so well behaved I guess they usually just disappeared into the staff room or something.
It was getting late, around ten when Thomas and his Girlfriend's group walked up.
"Hey Tony" one of the girls said and waved turning her wrist, her arm tight to her chest.
"Hey Kaisah" he said. It was Kaisah, Sara, and Delayla, Thomas's GF.
"Are you guys ready to get messed up?" Kaisah said playfully and started laughing.
"Definitely" Stevie said his voice low.
"Yeah... but we can't do this here? Right? I mean not right here in the middle of the cafeteria around all these 'goodie two shoes' fundraiser kids" Tony said.
Tony and I used to hang out all the time and were 'straight edge', but lately it seemed like he had really taken to doing drugs with Demetrius. It's not like anyone in the group was an 'addict' or anything, none of us really f-ed with the 'hard stuff' because last year a few kids overdosed on some laced pills. Plus all those rappers that passed away... but still, it was like every social gathering was focused on us getting high or drunk.
"Nah, nah, not here...we're going upstairs" he said.
"Upstairs..." I said suprised. The second floor of the school was locked during the event. Metal slats rolled over the doors. There was no way we could get up there.
"Yes, up-stairs dumbass" he said annoyed.
Thomas spoke up "Delayla and I were hanging out while skipping last week and found a fire escape that leads upstairs. It's near the science department."
We made our way to halls of the science department. No one was really hanging out there because there wasn't much over there. We saw some others playing some board game or something, and a couple making out against the lockers but other than that there was no one.
"It's right here" he said pointing to a door that I had never noticed before next to the janitors closet.
"Oh really?" Tony was surprised
"Yeah, trust me. Look..." Stevie said as he opened the door.
I half expected the fire alarm, but it was silent.
Stevie and Delayla started making their way up and the rest of us followed. The red light of the fire sign illuminated the stairwell. I wondered how much trouble we would be in if we were caught, but... no one had specifically said not to go up there.
"Watch out!" Demetrius said jokingly and Sara gasped quietly, clearly on edge from 'rule breaking'.
'Idiot' she said embarrassed as the rest of us snickered.
"See" Stevie said with a grin as he put his hand on the push handle at the top of the stairs. The door opened.
"Woah..." Kaisah said as we reached the second floor. "The school looks so different in the dark"
It really did, it was kind of eerie. Even though we spent every day in these hallways it looked almost alien.
"It really does."
***
We walked along the hallway, Stevie leading us to where would 'camp out' for the rest of the night. I walked behind the group with Tony.
"So..." I said awkwardly "Another night getting high..."
"Yeah..." he said his voice trailing
"Hey... Tony. I don't want to be a buzzkill but..." Tony was my closest friend in the group and I just had to say something.
"Do you even want to do this stuff? For real, I'm kind of done with 'getting high' all the time"
"I mean..." he said thinking "Nah dude, not really. I mean, I sort of was just going along with everyone all this time to be honest." the rest of the group was too far ahead to hear us.
"Oh really... yeah same." I said. "You know what... I'm not even gonna do this shit tonight." I said
"Oh you're not...?" he said thinking "Yeah, then you know what I might not either"
"Yeah we can just hang out and babysit the others" I said laughing
"I know Demetrius will bitch about it though if we don't do it, we should just fake it"
"Hmm... yeah you're probably right, and honestly we don't even know what this is. I was there when Demetrius got it, some guy named Keaton gave it to him. Looked like he was like 30." I said
"Hmm... Keaton? My brother knew a guy named Keaton. He was like some chemistry prodigy or something. I heard he went on to work in pharmaceuticals or the government or something."
"Probably not the same guy. Why would he need the extra money and risk jail time selling drugs to some high school kids?"
"Yeah. Doesn't make sense I guess." he said.
***
We sat at some benches near the glass windows in the intersection of the hallways. The school was divided into two wings, the common areas were in the center. We could see down below to where our classmates were hanging out below though glass windows, but the areas were separate; they couldn't hear us or see us unless they were really trying to.
We sat for a few minutes and joked around. Then Demetrius spoke.
"Well... who's ready to get lit?" pulling the container our from earlier. He opened it and passed the sheets out to the group. They were small 1 by 1 squares.
"Is this acid?" Kaisah said curiously
"No it's not acid. It's something new. Designer... apparently it's incredible according to my guy"
"Oh... I didn't really like acid, kinda mid tbh. As long as it's not acid..." she said sounding kind of timid. Clearly she did not have a good time on acid.
"It won't be mid." Demetrius said confidently
"Well... ready guys?" he looked around the group and put the paper on his tongue
I looked to Tony who was also looking up at me, confirmation we would both not partake... I faked putting the paper in my mouth "Let's do this..." trying to sound enthused.
"Yeah, let's get it..." Tony said awkwardly slapping his hand to his face, if anyone was paying attention they would have noticed. No one was.
I watched as the rest of the group took the papers of the mystery drug. It looked like they all did it.
"I'm so ready for this" Delayla said excitedly.
***
For the next ten minutes the group seemed to be having a good time, joking around with eachother. They said it was relaxing and they didn't really feel much. Most of them other than Stevie and Demetrius. Right away the two them seemed to go quiet and sort of stare off into the distance.
"Demetrius..." I said wondering what he feeling.
"Eh...' he said weirdly.
"De-me-trius" one of the girls said waving her hand in front of his face.
There was no response, he just kept staring.
"Is this a hallucinogen? What is he staring at? I feel nothing" Kaisah said seemingly weirded out.
"Yoooo!" Tony said laughing. 'D!' he shouted. "HEY D!" he said getting louder.
"Quiet!" Sara said harshly 'were not supposed to be up here remember!"
Kaisah and Dalayla were laughing to eachother hysterically. "What is wrong with him! Pfffttt...."
I looked at Stevie who didn't seem to be doing much better. It was like he was trying to speak but could only move his lips. It was really weirding me out. Suddenly he stood straight up and started speed walking, eyes laser focused.
"What the-" Sara saying what the rest of us were thinking.
"Steve! What are you doing?" Delayla got up and ran over to him and pulled on his arm while saying his name. He wouldn't respond. Suddenly he raised the arm she was holding onto and whipped it down in turn causing her to fall to the ground.
I looked at Thomas who I expected to hear explode in anger, Stevie had basically just pushed his girlfriend to the ground.
"Hey... yo... ch-chill... Steven" his voice sounding half asleep as he slowly raised his hand like a sloth moving between trees.
"Thomas... are you good?" I said concerned.
"Fu-!" we heard Demetrius yell as he stood up. His eyes fierce with anger. At first I assumed he was going to confront Stevie but.. he didn't. He just started grinding his teeth and walking in circles. It almost seemed like he was growling... like a dog.
"Demtrius wtf... calm down" Kaisah said laughing.
In fact... it was like she couldn't stop laughing.
She had been laughing non stop for the last ten minutes, and now that I realized it, it made me uncomfortable. It must have been painful... I looked at her wondering. She was grimacing now, her face muscles straining.
"Uh Kaisah... are you okay? It's kind of serious?" Tony spoke up quietly, apparently he had noticed as well.
"Ha, yeah I'm fine, ha-ha-ha... I just can't stop laughing... I'm sure... ha... it will stop" suddenly like she had been hit in the gut she bent over. "HAH-HA-HAH" she laughed unnaturally. "HA-HA-HA-HA" it continued. Her face contorted looking almost inhuman, tears now streaking down her face. She pointed to the light fixture still laughing hysterically... "IT LOOKS SO FUNNY' she said tears streaming.
"This is getting weird AF" Sara said arms tight across her chest, looking around suspiciously.
I looked back at Delaylah who was now on the ground sobbing.
"Lay? What's wrong" Tony and I rushed over. I looked down the dark of the hall and saw Stevie walking slowly like a zombie deeper into it.
"I... can't... be-lieve... my... friend... STEVIE..." every word punctuated, a break in her tears.
"Would push me down..." she said it as if it was the most disappointing thing she had ever heard. Suddenly she started wailing and moaning, hand hitting the floor in agony. "W-w-why Stevie... why!".
"I didn't even think Delaylah liked Stevie that much..." Tony said looking worried.
Suddenly I heard a banging from the wing opposite the one Stevie had voyaged into.
"F- F- F- F-" a violent tirade could be heard in the distance. Banging and clashing as if the metal lockers were being beaten to oblivion.
"What the frick is wrong with him?!" Sara said sounding half panicked. Sara and Tony and I looked at eachother in disbelief. The rest of the group was in shambles.
"Sara... you seem... normal" I said cautiously.
"Yeah well... I didn't do that crap. It looks like you guys didn't either?" she said shrewdly her arms contstricting her knees tightly to her chest.
"Uh... nah... we didn't" I said kind of embarrassed, even though clearly we had made the right choice.
"Well great." she said rocking back in forth. Just us three idiots trapped in the madhouse with a crybaby, hothead, and chuckles over there. Never mind sargent dead stare, she said nodding to Thomas.
Demetrius was still banging away at the lockers. It sounded like he was on a rampage...
"Someone is going to hear him... he's going to get expelled, or worse!" I said.
"He already has a record" Tony said.
"Though I think they have a DJ playing right now downstairs... 12-2, no one is going to hear him"
"I'll go... HA... talk... HA HA... with him" Kaisah said. All of us surprised that she was still with us.
Kaisah was still laughing... It had to have been close to half an hour by now.
"Kaisah... I don't know if you should. He sounds... unstable." I said
"It's Demetrius. He-HA-HA isn't HA like that!" like she had just told an absolute gut buster.
We watched as she walked down the hall into the blackness.
"You know what I'm going to get an adult who can help. This is too much. I think Ms. A is here... she's cool. She won't get us in trouble." Sara said standing "Be right back."
She flattened her skirt out and brushed off her shoulders.
"Alright" Tony said, just me and him left. We stared at eachother uncomfortably both caught in this bizarre situation. That's when we heard it... Kaisah.
"Dem! This isn't you! HA-HA! Let me go! HA HA HA." she sounded somehow petrified and humoured simultaneously.
"ST-STOP-HA-HA-HA. DEM, No..." next thing we heard a strange sound coming from down the hall. Slow patter of footsteps and a wheezy bubbling sound. Then we saw Kaisah emerge from the shadows. She was covered in blood, she was still laughing... well trying to.
"K-KAISAH!" Tony said running over. "What did Demetrius do! NO!" he cried.
Delaylah looked up the tears stopping. Her face was white as a ghost. She slowly rose and walked over to her friend like a specter. The tears began to pour again, gradually falling harder and harder until she got to her friend and hell to her knees. Her mouth agape unable to speak.
When she realized that Kaisah was gone she couldn't take it. There were no tears now but the grief on her face was like anything I had ever seen. Then she just... sort of fell flat to the ground clutching her heart.
"Layla..." Tony said in shock. "Layla?!" tears falling down his face as he checked the pulse of his one lifeless friend atop another. "LAYLA!" he cried out. He looked at me pained 'they're gone' he said hardly able to speak.
My mind was numb, everything was numb. What the hell was going on? Demetrius... killed someone? One of our friends? Kaisah... This didn't make sense. He was a punk... a drug dealer... not a killer...
I looked over to Thomas and felt sick to my stomach. He was just staring. His face completely cold and emotionless.
"Thomas..." I said barely able to get a word out.
"THOMAS!" I was yelling now. He loved Delaylah... I knew he loved her! They were going to get married. Why was he just sitting there? "THOMAS WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" I yelled emotion pouring out.
"What's wrong?" he said looking to me eyes dead as a fish.
"Wh... what's wrong..." I said in disbelief... "DELAYLA IS DEAD" rage overwhelming. "DON'T YOU CARE! DON'T YOU FEEL ANYTHING!"
"Uhh..." he said looking away and raising his hand up as if to brush me off annoyed.
"I have to get out of here. We have to get out of here. Tony we have to go" I said strugling to lift him off the ground. He was inconsolable.
The capophony of metal still clanged in the background.
***
When we got to the stairs I was in disbelief. It was Sara... she was just standing there breathing hard.
"Sara what's wrong..."
She looked at me like a wounded animal. "STAY AWAY' she said.
She now looked like the rest of them... "Sara you don't look so good what's wrong... I thought you didn't take any of the drug..."
"I DIDN'T!" she barked "GET BACK!"
"I only put it on my tongue and spit it out! YOU'RE ALL IN ON THIS!" she said looking around paranoid.
"I thought you were going to get help... Delaylah... Kaisah... they're dead"
"No.. no.. The door... is locked! ITS THEM.. THEY ARE DOING THIS. THEY'RE EVERYWHERE" she said pointing around us.
She had spit the drug out and this was how it affected her?
"I'm gone... I have to go..." she said panicked.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" she said yelling into the nothing around her. Then she turned around an started sprinting. "I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!"
She started kicking the glass window at the end of the hall, suddenly it shattered.
"Sara! Stop, it's too high! You won't make it" I cried and started running towards her.
"GET AWAY! IT'LL BE FINE. I CAN'T STAY HERE. I'LL LAND ON THE AWNING!" she looked around wildly and shrieked...
"GET AWAY FROM ME ALL OF YOU!"
"SARA NO!" I watched as she climbed out hands hanging on the sill and disppearing. She wouldn't have made the awning... it was much much too high.
"Sara...” I said breathless.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him. It was Stevie. He was doing three finger push ups, his shirt ripped off and turned into a head band. He had always been fit but not like this... I saw him stand up, like he was called to attention. He picked up a broom stick and angled it over his shoulder like a riffle.
“St.. Stevie?” I couldn’t believe it. He didn’t hear me, he just marched of in the direction of the main foyer where he would find the bodies of his friends. I jogged back, after he vanished from sight. Fearful of him and for Tony. When I got there I was greeted by a blood curdling sound.
Demetrius and Stevie were fighting... to the death. The sounds from their wing were horrendous. I could hear the sounds of the bones breaking all the way in the lobby. It was guttural and brutal, like two cats in an alley fight but human.
Tony was in the corner curled up in the fetal position and Thomas was just staring into space. It was so loud... they had to be able to hear the sound of the fight down stairs. I looked down through the glass in the roof at my class mates laughing and dancing. Lights flashing. They were completely unaware.
It wouldn’t matter because I heard two deafening yells and then the screaming stopped. The fighting had stopped. I slowly made my way down the hall to where Demetrius and Stevie were. I can’t say that what I saw shocked me... I was already traumatized. My two friends... had killed eachother.
I sat down against the lockers and put my hand to my head and closed my eyes.
***
They found the carnage the next morning.
The authorities corroborated what Tony I told them with the evidence. They were shocked as we were but had no reason to suspect us.
Even with Sara, they had camera footage from outside and could tell it was accidental.
They gathered the drugs as evidence from Demetrius body. I was in shock when the black car pulled up and two men in suits in glasses approached the police. I saw them talk for a moment and one man flashed a badge.
The cops gave him the drug in the evidence bag. It was the Keaton... the ‘dealer’.
There was nothing I could do or say. No one would believe me, probably not even most you reading this now...
Tony and I never really talked again after this. He was always distant. I tried to make friends and achieve some sense of normality after what happened that night but I don’t think Tony every will.
He will never be the same.
As for Thomas... well... for all intents and purposes Thomas died that night as well. He was basically a vegetable, he never snapped out of it. He was never the friendly cool, passionate friend I once knew. People said it was because of what happened to Delaylah... but I knew. He didn’t care... about anything. He would just stare at the wall saying and doing nothing.
And that... that’s the story of what happened in my last year of High School.
I never found out why what happened that day happened. I tried to let it go. I tried...
I admit for a while I looked up ‘Keaton’ and various news articles and records but found nothing. Only a few stories of bizarre incidences here and there but nothing conclusive. We were the test subjects... base level, so to speak.
***
Please... I beg you, don’t mess with drugs. They aren’t ‘cool’. Every time you do, there is the chance of ending up like me and my friends. In one night everything was destroyed.
Out of eight of us, only two of us truly survived what happened.
Drugs, not even once...

The last month was the worst hell Kenny had ever gone through. He lost his wife and daughter in a freak housefire, along with everything he owned. He was forced to find an apartment within short notice, buy all new clothes, bury his wife and daughter, and somehow maintain his sanity throughout the entire ordeal. Unfortunately, he failed miserably at that last part. The moment he had stepped foot into his new apartment, he started filling every counter, coffee table, and nightstand with alcohol. Didn’t matter what the poison was, just as long as it was cheap.
Work was somewhere he hadn’t been to at all in the last month. He was allotted a couple weeks off to get everything figured out, but after that, he still hadn’t shown up and became too wasted, hungover, or grief-stricken to even call in sick. Multiple coworkers, and his boss, had attempted to get ahold of him, but he never bothered looking at his phone. At this point, he didn’t even know where it was at.
Now we find ourselves in the early morning with the King of Anguish amongst his sloven empire of filth, adorned with his glass and aluminum mementos of sedation.
Kenny stared at the blank TV screen with an equally blank expression. He was laying on the couch in his apartment just waiting to go back to sleep again. The more he slept, the faster he would get to death. It was his way of time-travelling to the inevitable. He had put his state-issued gun to his head multiple times but could never get to pulling the trigger. It just never felt right to him. Why should he get the easy way out when his family had to suffer excruciatingly in their final moments? If you asked him, he’d say that he deserved every second of misery until his final, miserable breath.
“Hey, Kenny! It’s Arthur! You in there!?… Hopefully alive…”
Kenny didn’t move a muscle. Maybe if he just laid there, Arthur would eventually go away.
“Kenny! If you don’t get this door open in the next sixty seconds, I’m breaking it down!”
No such luck.
He slogged his mindless body off the couch and onto the floor, then got onto his feet and stumbled to the door.
When the door finally opened, Arthur reeled back in surprise and dismay. “Fuck… Kenny, what the hell? You look like shit, man,” he said with sincere concern.
He shrugged.
Arthur examined his friend, up and down. The man looked like a zombie. He was soaked in sweat, his shirt was covered in vomit, and his eyes looked like they were going through a decades-long drought.
“Can I come in?” Arthur asked.
He swayed back and forth for a moment, then hobbled to the side.
The moment Arthur walked into the apartment, he could see the numerous bottles and cans that decorated the entire place. “Geez, man. Do you even still have a liver?”
“Unfortunately,” he responded.
Arthur shook his head. “Fuck’s sake, man. Listen, I just came over to check on you and make sure that you’re still alive. The boss has been pretty pissed that you haven’t been showing up to work.”
Kenny nodded… very slowly.
Arthur stared at his friend, desperately trying to come up with a miracle fix for his depression. “The boss said that you have to show up this week or you’re fired. He doesn’t care if you only show up for a few hours each day, but he wants you in the office,” he said.
Kenny was leaned against the wall, trying his best not to fall over, and Arthur looked ready to spring forward and catch him in case he did.
“The boss also said that he wants you going to a therapist every week. Said that the county will pay for it,” Arthur said.
Kenny wiped his face. “I’m fine.”
“You call ‘drowning in liquor’ fine? You are far from being fine, Kenny. You seriously need help, my man.”
He shook his head… very slowly.
Arthur began to get frustrated. “Look. I don’t want you to lose your job, and I don’t want to lose you. Nobody does, Kenny. If you need me to, I can even come pick you up for work each morning until you’re a bit more on your feet.”
“I’m fine,” he responded as though he were a broken record.
Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. It was like he was watching his friend die right in front of him, and he hated it. But he understood why it was happening. He had never been married or had kids, so he didn’t know what it was like to lose all of that in an instant, but he could easily imagine that it probably fucking sucked.
He walked over to Kenny and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Why don’t I get you outside and take you to breakfast? I’m sure you could use the sunlight and a good meal.”
Kenny wiped the groggy hangover off his face, then stood up a little straighter; still leaning against the wall. He nodded. “Yeah. Outside would probably be good.”
“Breakfast then?”
Kenny winced as a surge of pain slammed against his skull, then slightly dissipated. “Nah. I’ll eat later. I just need to go for a walk.”
He gave him a suspicious glare. “Alright… maybe I should go with you, though.”
“Nah. I’ll be fine. If it’ll make you feel better, I can meet you for lunch later today.”
“I don’t know, Kenny.”
“I said I’ll be fine, Arthur,” Kenny reassured. “I’m just going to get a shower, go for a walk, then I’ll meet you for lunch later today.”
Hesitantly he nodded in agreement. “Ok… But I’m going to be calling you in an hour to make sure you’re actually out of the apartment. We can figure out lunch then.”
“Sounds good.”
Arthur closed in and gave Kenny a big, warm hug. “I love you, man. Like a brother. I just want you to know that,” he said.
Kenny felt a tear stream down his cheek. “Yeah. Me too, brother.”
They said their farewells, then Kenny did as he said he would. He took a shower, doing his best to clean off the two-week-long buildup of alcohol, sweat, and grime that caked his body like a film of slime. Afterwards, he got dressed, then left the apartment and leisurely strolled around outside.
The sun was a bit painful on the eyes at first, but they adjusted after a couple minutes. Breathing the Chicago air felt a lot better than breathing the musky fumes of his apartment. And as far as where he was going, he didn’t know, and he didn’t care. Wherever his feet landed was fine by him.
Along his walk, he eventually wandered through a park and continually passed reminders of a life that felt like it was a century ago. There was a mother playing with her child, a small family enjoying a picnic, a little girl wearing a pink shirt with a fox on it. That last one hit him the hardest to the point that he started to feel all the pain surge back up, but he locked it in the back of his throat and swallowed it down.
He stopped and stared up at the clouds in the sky and felt himself getting smaller and smaller in a universe so vast and grand. For a moment, all his misery, all his problems, seemed so insignificant and small. It was just a brief moment of that feeling, but a very tiny part of his heart felt a little better afterwards.
“I’ll move on someday,” he said to himself as he watched a particularly fluffy cloud move across the sky. “Probably not today or tomorrow. But someday.”
He watched the cloud for a little longer, then felt himself sinking back into the void in his heart. “Time to stop running from it,” he said to himself, then continued on his walk.
As promised, Arthur called him to make sure he was alive and out of the apartment. They agreed to meet in a couple hours at their favorite diner, and for the first time in a month, Kenny happily looked forward to something.
His wandering eventually led him to a large church. He stared at its wide-open doors for a while, then decided to step inside and take a seat. Churches weren’t his thing, but he knew they could be a nice place to sit back and unwind all your tangled thoughts.
The inside of the church was stunning. The dark wooden pews were polished with a mirror finish. The stained-glass windows sparkled and glowed as the morning light passed through them. A towering crucifix stood at the end of the sanctuary, masterfully painted and sculpted.
He was the only person in the sanctuary, and he decided to sit in the third row of pews. The serene quiet felt nice, like a soft blanket draped across his shoulders. Everything was perfect for him to be able to sit and sort through things. The last month had not been spent grieving in a healthy way, and he started to realize that it was only by some miracle that he was still alive. Or maybe there was a tiny mote of hope that had always kept him from going too far. There were many times when he would think about all the people he would leave behind if he had decided to go, and that always brought him back down to earth, albeit, only a little. Maybe they all mattered that much to him. Or at least, maybe Arthur mattered that much to him.
Him and Arthur had been friends since highschool. Arthur was the reason he even joined law enforcement in the first place. All the fun times they’d had together started to come back and flood his memory: The parties they went to, that time they stole Arthur’s dad’s car and accidently ran it into a stop sign, the first time he set eyes on Donna and Arthur convinced him to go talk to her… As much as Arthur mattered, Donna and Nameah still mattered so much more.
A lone man entered the church. A shadowy haze followed him as he walked, like the very night was his servant that obeyed his every command. The fine black suit that adorned his body had a darkness that would make the very spaces in between the stars seem as bright as spotlights. His black hair was slicked back and matched the darkness of his suit. His pale skin echoed the light of a full moon and beheld the inevitability of death.
The man moseyed down the center aisle, his hand caressing the pews and each footstep holding an unnatural level of authority and dominion. He took a seat in the pew on the opposite side of the one Kenny was seated.
Kenny hadn’t paid any attention to the man because he was too wrapped up in the tangle of thoughts that he was trying to unravel.
The man stared at the crucifix for some time, then broke the silence. “This is probably the best time of day to go to church. It’s quiet,” he said.
Kenny looked over to him, scanned him up and down, then nodded and returned to his thoughts.
The man turned his attention to him. “My condolences for the loss of your wife and daughter.”
“Thanks,” he eventually responded. He wasn’t alarmed by the statement. The news of his family’s death had hit every headline like it was the news of the century.
Silence returned for some time, then the man said, “Such a shame, what happened to them. Certainly one of the worst ways to go.”
Kenny started to get annoyed. “Yep. I know, buddy,” he said as he got up and began to make his way out of the church.
The man stood up and yelled out, “Wouldn’t it be nice to find the man who killed them!?”
He shook his head and laughed. “Nobody killed them, buddy! It was just some freak accident!”
“Which is exactly why that man in the gray suit spoke to you, right!?”
He was at the doors when he paused and slowly turned around. “What?”
The man gestured, with his head, towards the pews. “Come have a seat.”
The doors suddenly slammed closed, startling Kenny. He looked at them, then cautiously went back to where he had been sitting. The memory of that man in the gray suit was faint, but it was there, and he wandered how this man knew about him. Did they work for each other? Was this man the one that killed his family? For his sake, he better not be.
Silence blanketed the church for some time. The man was staring at the crucifix with a strange look in his eyes.
Kenny was watching him, unsure what to do or say. “Who are you?” he finally asked.
The man looked at him, his silver eyes glinting with the cold haze of death. He smiled, then slightly bowed in his seat. “Rex Mortem. King of the Underworld.”
Kenny’s mind stuttered, turned off, then rebooted. “Ok. I’m leaving the crazy train,” he said as he stood up and went to leave.
The man got up and stood in the middle of the aisle. “You don’t want to find the man that killed your family?”
Kenny turned around, angry. “Look, man. I told you already, it was a freak accident. I don’t know who the hell you are, and I don’t care. I’m not getting involved with whatever crazy bullshit you got going on.”
He turned around and immediately ran into Rex. He jumped and stumbled backwards, his heart-rate surging. He looked behind him, then back again. “How the hell did you do that!?” he asked with a panicked tone.
Rex shrugged. “I told you: King of the Underworld.” He held out a hand, which Kenny reluctantly grabbed.
On his two feet again, Kenny nervously stepped a couple feet away from him. “What do you want?” he asked, his heart still beating fast.
“To offer you the chance to kill the man that killed your family, Kenny Luther.”
His mind stuttered, turned off, then rebooted. Again. “How do you know my name?” he stuttered.
Rex rolled his eyes. “The doors randomly slam shut. I teleport behind you. I mention I’m the King of the Underworld. And yet you still have the gall to ask how I know your name?”
He thought for a moment, then nervously nodded. “Fair point…”
Rex adjusted his tie and sleeves. “As I said, Kenny, I’m offering you a once-in-an-eternity chance to find the man that killed your family and enact some vengeance upon him.”
He felt his heartrate settle as he began to calm down. “I don’t understand. The firefighters said that the fire started because of faulty wiring.”
Rex nodded. “They’ll tell you whatever lie they’re told to tell you if it means their families don’t end up like yours did.”
He gave him a suspicious look.
“And honestly, Kenny, how do you explain them getting trapped in the closet like they did? How were they completely unable to get out of the house before it got consumed by the flames? You know, yourself, that a fire like that doesn’t just happen in an instant. They would have had plenty of time to find a way out, especially considering there were two entrances into the house and numerous windows.”
That was one of the details he had found odd, them getting trapped in the closet, but he figured they just weren’t able to get out in time and decided to hide there hoping for the best. Although, it was a little odd that they hadn’t been able to get out in the first place, but he had just assumed they hadn’t realized what was going on until it was too late. But how could that even happen? Wouldn’t they have smelled the fire and known something was up? Even if they were both sleeping, the fire alarms would have awoken them. And why did the firefighters take thirty minutes to show up when they lived only ten minutes away from the fire station? With a clearer head, he started to realize just how many things didn’t add up.
And then there was the man in the gray suit.
“I imagine whoever he worked for will be very upset that he’s gone.”
What that man had said really started to stand out to him. Was he the one that had killed them? Either way, there was a strange man in front of him that seemed to have the answers.
“So you know who killed them?” Kenny asked.
Rex thought for a moment. “Yes and no. I know who hired the man that killed them, but I don’t know whose hand directly started the fire.”
“And why are you telling me all this?
“Because the ones that did it have been a pain in my ass for centuries, and it’s time that they get removed.”
He gave him a confused look. “Centuries? What is it, like a cult or something?”
“Kind of,” Rex said with an amused smile. “They’re vampires.”
Once again, Kenny’s brain stuttered, turned off, then rebooted. “I’m sorry. Did I hear you correctly? You said, vampires?”
“Yes. Believe it or not, Kenny, there is an entire world right under your nose that you didn’t even realize existed. It’s a world so vast and powerful that it affects everyone’s lives.”
He slowly nodded, still utterly confused and surprised. “And you want me to kill these vampires?”
“That is correct.”
He thought for a moment. “Ok, but what makes you think I want vengeance?”
Rex smirked. “Come now, Kenny. Don’t play coy. Someone burns your wife and daughter to death, and you don’t want to find this person and bash their skull in?”
Kenny could admit that he had a point, but there was still something off about the entire interaction. Whoever this man was, he didn’t appear to be just some guy that was offering him a simple deal. The entire atmosphere around him felt like death and darkness; unnatural in every sense of the word. Kenny started to wonder if he was somehow talking to the Devil in disguise.
“So what’s the catch, then?” Kenny asked.
Rex raised an eyebrow. “Catch?”
“It all seems too simple. What are you? The Devil? Is this some trick to get me to sell my soul or something?”
Rex burst into laughter and took a while to recover. “No, no, my friend. You’ll need your soul.” He wiped a tear from his eye. “The only catch is that you’ll be working for me forever. And as far as the Devil is concerned, simply put, I’m not him, and he doesn’t exist in the way that you mortals view him.”
He thought for a brief moment, then nodded. “Alright then. Deal.”
Rex rapidly blinked, somewhat alarmed. “Ok? You don’t need time to think about it at all?”
“Nope.”
Rex gave him a cautioning look. “You do realize what forever means, right?”
He nodded. “I know, and I don’t care. I just want to kill the asshole that killed my family.”
“And what about the whole ‘Devil-thing’? You seemed to have gotten over that rather quickly.”
“You said you aren’t the Devil and that you don’t need my soul, right?”
Rex eyed him for a moment, then shrugged. “You are correct.” He held out his hand.
Kenny grabbed it and they shook.
“Are there any papers I need to sign?” Kenny asked, still shaking Rex’s hand.
Rex, smiling wide, said, “None at all. I deal in handshakes,” then pulled out a revolver from under his suit jacket and shot a hole through Kenny’s head.

I started fortnite like days after its original release on kbm, been playing since then and became extremely mechanicel...however wasnt proud of my aim as sometimes i would miss the easiest shots and that cost me in tourneys and actual games (arena, ranked)
I heard how op aim assist could be. So last month i got a controller ( a basic wired xbox controller) from my friend. And after like 1 week of testing my weird keybinds i was finally able to replicate 85% of what i could do on kbm. However, my fortnite controller settings are extremely different from the average person, i play exponential( for the aim), no claw no paddles (i uses left stick to edit and b to switch mode). I was seeing extreme progress as i had way better aim and smoother mechs
but recently stick drift costing me games and controller disconnecting at the most random times made me so mad i switched back to kbm and been doing better than before the break
​
whats ur weird fortnite story?

It's was the beast in Grimwald's Grove. I'm assuming what he dropped was the bottle I'm supposed to retrieve? My health was almost out when I killed him and I was out of stones. I immediately hit tge button for one of the other health consumables, but they take time, and before they could give me any real health I was killed by the mini flying things that the beast releases. After I died and came back out of the shrine I ran back down, but I knew it would be gone. Because this is actually the second time this has happened to me but I think it was just a weapon or rune before. This is an actual quest object though. Is there a way to get it? I play on Switch if that matters. I doubt anybody will even see this lol but I figured it was worth a shot.

Ok this is going to sound crazy (because it is) so what if road hog instead of being the big self heal meat wall tank he was a literal road hog by taking up space. The way that I would do this is by reworking his breather into a combo tool with his pig pen by that I mean combining the two of them into a trap that heals hog when an enemy triggers it while hog in in close proximity (hooking them onto the trap great example) What I would do to make it so that hog could make space is by him hogging the front line would be with a new ability that I would give him I the ability to put up a shield like wall that is a bit bigger than him and curves up at the top so you can’t be as easily peeked from height it would function as a solid barrier to all players so you can’t just walk through it and it would have like 1500 hp (and give it like a 35 sec uptime before it collapses because it would make sense if it was made from junk) so it can be broken but not insta bricked by like bastion and I would allow hog to place a few of these so he could make something like a makeshift fort during a fight that his team can regroup at and heal up at while not getting full enemy focus and so hog could play into his fort by trapping then hooking some one inside With these changes there would have to be some fundamental changes to numbers like decreasing his health so he isn’t a wall and has to use his wall ability to not be melted There would also have to be decreases in his damage trap & scrap launcher and making his trap only heal like 300 hp over it’s activated time So in the end hog would be a defensive tank that would require you to combo your abilities so that you can make space for your team by forcing an engagement by hooking someone into a trap wall combo so they are out of position and weakened by the hog (not dead, no one shot) so he can then run up and place a wall or two so there is more space for him to slowly advance with his team Or another way to play this rework is to play hog, tracer, sombra so that the enemy has to focus on the back like or just not pay attention to the hog so he can set up a place to fall back to while making space for the team to push objective or cap. I feel like this rework would feel rewarding to play as it would me it feel as though you have more of an impact if you fully set up and got an easy kill because they couldn’t escape the fort So what do you guys think of this idea? I’ll put a pull to see if people think my idea is good or bad or should just be a new hero.
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I'm writing this with over 350 hours played, and I play relaxed on 7, and mostly enjoy Helldiving on 9 with my group.
I'm going to pass some information on to you to help you understand how to Helldive effectively against bugs of different varieties, and what to do when you encounter overwhelming odds like multiple elite spawns or hunter swarms, shriekers, stalkers and spewers all ganging up on you.
First up, loadouts.
Very little is not viable in this game. You can run pretty much any primary you want (save yourselves the arguments that some guns aren't viable, you can literally run any of them and do just fine on Helldive - I do this all the time just for variety,) so I'm going to categorize them into 4 broad groups for ease of understanding, and I'll explain what they're for so you don't waste time pumping 2 mags from an AR into a bile spewer and then complaining that it isn't fair.
Armour
Mobility is key. Light armour is preferred, medium armour at most. Heavy armour is a death sentence against bugs unless you have a very capable team already. Your main defence against the bugs is simply running. A lot. Heavy Armour is slow and stamina draining. This means death.
Weapons

• Bullets - Anything that fires bullets is for dealing with small enemies. This means hunters and shriekers on Helldive. AR's, Snipers, Submachine Guns, Shotguns.
• Lasers - For cutting down enemy mobility. You don't need to kill a spewer, just cut its leg off and carry on with your life. Same with brood commanders and hive guards.
• Explosive - This is for punching mid enemies like Hive Guards, Brood Commanders and Spewers. If you're running the Jar-5, Crossbow, Eruptor, or Shocker, Explosive rounds are great for popping the armoured targets. The Plasma Punisher is also good for medium enemies, and not good for Chargers.
• Arc - Blitzer shotgun is an extremely good all purpose weapon. It will kill anything less than a Charger. I recommend using this as your primary while you learn how to position properly on Helldive, then start toying with the other options.

Your secondary is for backup, take what you like. I prefer the Senator because it can plug medium armour foes, however it usually takes the entire clip so it's on par with the Redeemer that way.
Grenades
I recommend only 2 grenades for helldiving. Impact and Stun at your preference. I typically run impact, and I'll explain why below, but Stun has a similar effect for a lesser cost, plus it helps you learn to position.
Strategems
You need the ability to bust heavies on Helldive on demand. To this end I recommend taking the 500kg bomb strikes, Orbital Precision, and Orbital Railgun. For your last strategem slot, something like Quasar, Recoilless Rifle, Spear or EATS. I prefer the RR personally, because in a pinch you can drop the backpack for multi-heavies and have a teammate quick load you to drop them in rapid succession. We'll get to this.
Positioning
This is your most important skill to master. Chargers and Bile Titans are an asset to a Helldiver. Chargers don't give a shit what's in their way, and Bile Titans will automatically try to spit on you when they get within 20 meters. That bile will melt ANYTHING, including other bile titans. Learning to use these to your advantage will help with clearing the swarms.
When you run into a pack or breach that has multiple elites like 4 to 6 Chargers and 2 Biles, you will undoubtedly be tempted to start popping them. Wait a moment and assess. What is the position of the Titans in relation to the Chargers? More importantly, where can you move so that you can get them to cross each others paths? Bile Titans are reckless, so running between their legs while Chargers chase you invariably results in Chargers getting crushed to death. Even better, if there's a 2nd bile and you hear or see it rearing for it's spit, diving to the side will spare you while letting it paint the chargers and other titan, doing a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
When there's multiple elites, they tend to get tangled up in each other. Chargers smash into each other relentlessly, and are VERY poor at turning circles. If you've got 4 or 5 chargers all chasing you, start running circles until they're smashing into each other. Then drop the 500 kg in the mess and watch one bomb delete 4 of them simultaneously.
But Reaper, while I try to do this, Hunters are all over my shit. I can't move!
That's what your primary is actually for. Dispensing with the garbage mobs. The elites are where you control your movement, and you save your ammo for the little guys because you do not focus the tanks. Tanks are meant to take damage so the dps can wreck you. Nuke the DPS, kite the tanks.
But Reaper, they brought supports, and the spewers are screwing with me too! Like the bile titans, the spewers can also be coaxed into spitting all over their friendlies. Unlike the bile titan, the Chargers don't give a shit that spewers exist and will happily pop them for you. So long as you're moving at least 45 degrees at a run, the spewers won't hit you, so keep using those Chargers to delete the big pimples. And if you're getting too crowded, grenades are your friend here too. One impact for nurses, two for bile (usually, sometimes you luck out with one.)
And hey, if you're just truly overwhelmed and the numbers are insane, I can't stress this enough: Run away. Pick a direction that isn't filled with the enemies and just GO THAT WAY. Don't stop. Keep running until you run out of stamina, then take a look behind you. If there's a small amount chasing, clean them up. If there's still a horde, keep running. They won't keep coming. You will get clear.
How to use grenades effectively
There are 3 situations in which you should be using your grenades on bugs. Big clumps, spewers, and stalkers. If you've got stalkers, don't hesitate. Nade them immediately. This is why I prefer impact. Higher risk with those, but they explode on contact. Totally worth it. Big clumps of enemies are easy to clear for obvious reasons. And spewers are simple to pop with nades. On top of all this, the Impact grenade can kill Chargers effectively with some good tosses right under it. I tend to do this after dodging a charge. I'll plant one or two right under it's ass and watch it struggle to limp towards me. I don't recommend wasting grenades on Chargers, but if you've just got the one, it's better than burning a strategem.
Stun grenades: These are absolutely fantastic for setting up your strategems. Drop an Eagle, then toss a stun at your targets. Watch them just stand there as the 500kg impales their skull and detonates their dreams. Works equally well on bots.
But I really like the Auto-cannon, grenade launcher, AMR, Laser Cannon, etc
Great! Just understand that your role will not be busting heavies with those weapons. You'll have to rely entirely on your strategems and positioning to do that work for you instead. Those weapons clear crowds quickly. Use the proper tool for the job and you'll find things get easier. If you're manning a grenade launcher, focus the mediums and below. If you're running the Auto-cannon don't waste ammo on Chargers and Bile Titans. If you've got an AMR, delete those brood commanders so they don't keep popping warriors.
Stay mobile
Treat it like you would Doom. Stay mobile. Bugs biggest weakness is your mobility. Repositioning, making sure not to get caught in the open with no rocks to impede Chargers and Titans, and strategically positioning are the keys to success. With practice, you'll be solo clearing heavy nests while 6 bug breaches are spawning all around you.
And don't worry if you die. Practice makes perfect. Break the habit of trying to always get back to your stuff. You just died there. It's hot. Deal with something closer to where you got called down, then circle back to get your gear and finish up that hole. Repositioning and being flexible in your tactics will stop you from going on full tilt as you rush in head first into the same swarm that's already killed you 4 times. Stop doing that.
Specific enemy types and their weaknesses

• Swarmers/Hunters/Shriekers - Weak to everything, just shoot them. Shriekers are especially susceptible to Incendiary Breaker
• Both Spewers - vulnerable to having legs cut, and they explode when hit by explosive weapons (I mean, right?)
• Hive Guards and Brood Commanders - Cut off the legs, really easy to do with bullets or lasers. Both are very weak to Arc as well, either Blitzer or Thrower.
• Chargers - Weak to bile and other chargers. Positioning will get them killed more than anything. They traverse terrain pretty well now, but it takes them extra time to move around it. Orbital Rail Cannon will usually one shot them. Headshots with any rockets will kill them.
• Bile Titan - Weak to weirdly enough, bile. Get a bile titan to spew towards another bile titan and it will melt it immediately. And if they're close enough, the front ones legs might ninja kick the other one to death in its death throes. Otherwise, this is where your heavy busting stuff comes into play.
• Stalkers - The deadliest of enemies. Tough and fast, two impacts grenades takes them out immediately. A mag dump from a shotgun will also usually do it. One shot from an Eruptor deletes them. Explosive weapons are extremely effective against Stalkers, and Arc staggers them so you can keep them stunlocked while you kill them. The problem with explosives is that Stalkers will usually close before you have the chance to use it, so it's a double edged sword. These are your highest priority target at all times.

Good hunting Helldivers.
If you're interested in some hands on training, send me a DM and I'll invite you to our discord. I play almost every day, so I'm happy to help people out.