Controversial post; I apologize.
I have found a lot of conflicting info online about what to plant to deter wasps and hornets. I have read that nothing deters bees, so I have accepted that. But, if at all possible, I would like to repel the aggressive flying pests (and by that I mean wasps and hornets). My spouse and I are both deathly allergic to their stings. We both have epi pens but would love to not use them. What, if anything, do you recommend we do other than spraying chemicals to reduce the likelihood of wasps and hornets in our yard? We do need some type of plants to sop up extra water so any plant recommendations get bonus points. Thanks in advance!

Items celebrate Welsh football team's recent promotion to League One and continued surge in global popularity with the Emmy award-winning show "FX's Welcome to Wrexham" now streaming on Hulu
Amenity kits include travel essentials like an eye mask, toothbrush and toothpaste plus exclusive Therabody products and pajamas designed to resemble the team's uniforms
Starting June 1, new items available complimentary in premium cabins on select flights – part of United Airlines' broader Wrexham AFC sponsorship
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United Airlines today debuted new, limited-edition Wrexham AFC amenity kits and pajamas to celebrate the football team's recent promotion to League One and continued surge in global popularity with the Emmy® award-winning show "FX's Welcome to Wrexham" now streaming on Hulu.
https://preview.redd.it/s3ga1b7lur1d1.jpg?width=1366&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b43e2bb0d41c0f9adcb48cf374e3ecf57fab0bd
These items are part of the airline's broader Wrexham AFC sponsorship.
Starting June 1, travelers flying in United's premium cabins on long-haul international routes will receive the complimentary Wrexham AFC-inspired amenity kits filled with travel essentials like an eye mask, toothbrush and toothpaste as well as exclusive Therabody skincare products. United Polaris® customers on flights 14 hours or longer will also receive pajamas designed to resemble the team's uniforms, of which United is a front-of-jersey sponsor, including a long-sleeve Wrexham red shirt and gray pants.
United and Wrexham AFC collaborated to design the amenity kits and pajamas, which can be viewed above and at the bottom of this post, drawing inspiration from the team crest, jerseys and overall look and feel. The offerings include:

• United x Wrexham AFC Amenity Case: For United Polaris business class travelers, the reusable toiletry case features the Wrexham crest and is available in red, black or white. The case includes a top handle, wrap-around zipper and loop to hang the bag on a hook for convenience.
• United x Wrexham AFC Amenity Pouch: For United Premium Plus® travelers, the reusable zippered pouch also features the Wrexham crest and is available in red, black or white. The slim pouch fits easily into a carry-on bag.
• United x Wrexham AFC Pajamas: Available to United Polaris business class travelers on flights 14 hours or more, the lightweight pajama set includes a red, long-sleeve shirt with the Wrexham AFC and United logos on the front, designed to resemble the team jersey, plus gray pants with the United logo on the hip.

Inside every amenity kit, passengers will find a United-exclusive Therabody hand cream, lip balm and cleansing towelette plus travel essentials including a bamboo toothbrush, toothpaste, eye mask, ear plugs and socks. In addition, inside every United Polaris kit, passengers will also find a Therabody eye serum, face spray, tissues and a United pen.
"With our amenity kits, we always aim to provide customers with products that make their travel journey more comfortable as well as create one-of-a-kind keepsakes for them to enjoy well beyond their flight," said Peter Wolkowski, Director of Onboard Product Design at United. "Wrexham's story is one that has been documented and celebrated these last few years, so we're thrilled to now give United customers team-branded gear they won't be able to find anywhere else."
United is giving fans more access to Wrexham AFC during the club's 2024-2025 season – its second year partnering with the team. As the front-of-jersey sponsor for the men's and women's teams, the United name and logo emblazons the front of the Wrexham AFC shirts during games. The airline will also sponsor the club's North American summer tour including flying the teams to games and providing MileagePlus members exclusive offerings.
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United x Wrexham Premium Plus Amenity Kit
United x Wrexham Polaris Amenity Kit
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Introduction

Hello fellow Helldivers. My name is Elliot, alias TeGoRE, a player with 155 hours on the game and plenty of experience gathered from 3rd party sources, especially Reddit and YouTube. I primarily play on difficulty 7, so this post will be biased specifically towards that difficulty.
As you all may know by this point, a lot of people are upset with the Automaton faction, its issues, balancing, bugs, etc. In this post I will be attempting to bring awareness to specific issues rather than asking for vague and general "fixes" the faction would need. I will also be referencing the other faction currently present in the game, the Terminids, as a point of comparison throughout the post.

"Fun factor" analysis; Loadout restrictions

I'll begin with what I believe will be the major point of discussion here. The automatons are just not fun. I understand this is a critical take, but please read before jumping straight to comments.
Let's compare the "fun" factor of Terminids to Automatons here. The Terminids allow you to run pretty much any loadout, while still letting you have impact on the game. You can run pure fodder clear loadouts with light penetration primaries and support tools and contribute to the mission that way, allowing your teammates to clear the heavies with ease. You can also run pure heavy clear with big bulky primaries and anti-tank tools, still contributing to the mission by destroying any charger and bile titan that comes into sight hence allowing your teammates to shoot the other fodder present without being spat on by a 400 ton oversized shrimp or being charged at by a walking rock. With both loadout cases you can also bring stratagems or change out your primaries and other tools (secondary and grenade specifically) that will allow you to have at least some impact on the heavies or lights, respectfully.
The Automatons don't allow for such loadout variety, and considering all the nerf barrages we've been receiving it's obvious that loadout choices are quite restrictive when it comes to fighting automatons. When was the last time you ran flamethrower against the Automatons? Any of the guard dogs? Any other sentry besides autocannon, EMS mortar or maybe the rocket sentry? Gas or airburst strikes? Light penetration or non-precision primaries? You get my point.
The faction requires a playstyle too specific for the casual player. You need to equip high precision weaponry (AMR, Counter sniper, Dominator, etc.) or medium penetration weaponry (Liberator penetrator, Counter sniper, Autocannon, etc) alongside way too many anti-tank tools. Sure, you can bring fodder clear, but the only realistic fodder is the regular troopers or the strider unit. Maybe berserkers. Only reliable (not saying it's the only viable one might I add) fodder clearer would be the grenade launcher, maybe the arc thrower. Furthermore, once on the actual battlefield, you can't necessarily play aggressive. Jump into a pile of bots and you'll be jumping back out limb-by-limb. You have to stay in cover, picking enemies one by one, slowly advancing forward. Then get all your progress denied by a bot drop :^)
We can then conclude that one of the contributing factors to why the Automatons aren't fun is the fact that it's too restricting and too sluggish. Let's look deeper, and analyse why your loadout and playstyle get so restricted;

Enemy analysis, its' contribution to the fun factor

The enemy types of the faction just do not let you vary your loadout enough.
Devastators specifically are the biggest issue. The regular devastator is well-thought out, a heavier bulkier unit with obvious weakspots and not too much firepower which could be compared to the hive guard in terms of mechanics. However, for the heavy devastator and rocket devastator, these are built to just bullshit you into dying. And good luck killing them if you have a light-pen weapon or generally don't have a longer-ranged or high-precision tool, as their primary body (excluding the abdomen) has enough HP to take three full counter sniper magazines (I do not know how a rocket devastator managed to do that, but it did) and just shrug it off. I don't think I need to talk about heavy devastators, they've been brought up enough... I will just briefly skim over it. They're too accurate. "Suppressive fire" does nothing to them. Their 70%-body-covering shield can eat anti-tank projectiles no problem. Sometimes a pack of devastators can be more devastating (badumtss) than a pack of hulks, depending on what devastators they are. If the "heavy" unit of a faction gets outperformed by common enemies, it's an obvious issue.
Another obnoxious enemy type is the berserker. As the name implies, they're a rage-crazed bot with only one directive: charge at you and kill you, no regard for its personal being. Which would be fine if they didn't have the health pool of a damn tank. One unit alone can eat an anti-tank projectile. And they typically spawns in packs of 4. Their weakspots don't even count as weakspots from what I can personally tell, shooting them in the head or the abdomen does about the same damage as just plain out shooting them. They're hard to kill at their core, and if they're backed up by support fire from the other enemy types behind them, you're pretty much helpless.
The rest of the enemy units are fine, in my opinion. They're well thought-out, with obvious counter-measure mechanics.
Hulks can be compared to Chargers. Heavy, tanky units at first, but mechanic rich enough to be an easy take-down once you figure out what you're doing. They have a giant heatsink which is where you have to shoot at regularly to take them out reliably. Not a weakspot might I add, just a point which you can shoot. Think Charger's butt. If you're a space cowboy shooting their tiny faceplate with anti-tank, or even medium penetration tools, can kill them as well. Lastly, just pumping them full of anti-tank projectiles (typically 2 rockets from any of the support weapons) will take them out just fine. There's other cool tricks you could pull off, such as throwing impact grenades between their feet, making them land behind the hulk, which would then take it out in 2 impact grenades if done right. Thermite grenades also deal a lot of damage to their legs, which can take them out too. Lastly, their arms can just be plain out shot off with the right tools. In conclusion, they are threatening at first, but once you use your brain to figure out its weakness, you're going to shrug them off.
Factory Striders are the Bile Titans of the Automatons. They are a bit less obvious but can still be handled decently well by a complete newbie. 2 miniguns on the front, shoot them off with medium penetration for easier kiting. Rocket the top cannon off for further success. Their big exposed abdomen is the obvious weakspot anyone can figure out. Shoot it enough and it'll die. For the more experienced, the front panel eye alongside the opening vents can also be points of advantage. Oh also can we talk about how they're a giant walking factory? Just bomb that bitch! 500kg, orbital precision strike, a regular airstrike, etc. It's a giant target just BEGGING you to throw stratagems at it.
Striders are simple as well. Big impenetrable front plate, completely exposed sides and back. A baby could do it!
Troopers are just fodder. Shoot 'em, they fall over.

Issue with dropships

If you played at least a few hours on the automaton front, you may know that the dropships can be shot down. However, when was the last time you saw that actually do anything?
The explosion deals too little damage, only sometimes killing the trooper units it's carrying. The body of the dropship itself seems to do no impact damage on the automatons, but loves to damage the shit out of you. The automatons also don't seem to care when they fall down 50 feet. Especially dropships with tanks. Shoot them down at the highest point of their drop, tank flies down at crazy velocity, lands with literally 0 damage to itself, then the dropships smacks on top of the tank doing fuck-all to it.
Oh and you can't forget the fact that the debris is solid cover FOR THE BOTS. You can't shoot through it. They can. They can also walk through it, you can't. ??????????

Issues with Automaton-specific side objectives

I will only bring up the ones that have actual issues behind them. If it isn't brought up here, then I personally believe it is fine.

• SEAF SAM Site

Barely does it's job. Shoots down one dropship per reinforcement, and as we learned earlier shooting the dropships down doesn't even do anything to begin with. Often times the rockets hit terrain as well. Completely pointless side-objective.

• Stratagem Jammer

Add some sort of indication to the spectating players when the person they're spectating is inside a jammer field, and therefore cannot reinforce them. Too many posts about too many people getting kicked for not reinforcing when they literally cannot.

• Mortar emplacement

WARNING YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY WARNING YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY WARNING YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY WARNING YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY oh my god SHUT UP!!!!

Bugs (not the Terminid kind)

The faction is riddled with way too many bugs, which just suck the fun out of it. Bots shooting through obviously solid cover, bots seeing you from across the map / through cover and then calling reinforcements, their seemingly 50/50 resistance to explosive damage, then other misc bugs not worth addressing.
This obviously drives people away. A terminid can't shoot me through a rock, I'd prefer fighting that terminid.

Conclusion of analysis; Solutions, final thoughts

The Automaton faction enemies & its mechanics at its core are fine, most enemies making complete sense. Most mechanics, while rich in function, are not very obvious. To play the faction well you need to invest some time into learning how it works. This deters the casual player back to the terminid front, which is a bit more brainless, requiring you just "hurr durr shoot bugs". Here's some solutions to consider:
Rework the devastator enemy type, specifically its specialists types:

• The rocket devastators shouldn't be able to spam their rockets as much as they do. I'd much prefer a larger barrage with a longer cooldown.
• Heavy devastators shouldn't be pin-point accurate if you're not moving / moving slowly. They do spread their shots out if you're moving, but it doesn't contribute all that much, you will still most likely take at least some hits. They're carrying a machine gun and shooting it from their hip with seemingly 0 precision. How is it that accurate?

The spawn rates of the specialist types could be reworked instead, allowing space for the default devastator instead rather than constantly spewing the specialist types. When was the last time you saw a dropship bring just normal devastators?
Please please please do something about berserkers. Lower their health pool. Maybe make the weakspots actually do something. Perhaps make them spawn less frequently if they're in the major enemy pool. Or, instead of that, make the packs smaller. They're a major ammo sink currently and by the time you're done killing them all the other enemies are already in your face.
Dropship crashes should actually do something. If I use up my support weapon's ammo to shoot down a dropship, I would want it to actually contribute to me destroying the bots, not just create a flashy explosion and extra 1-way cover for the bots.
SEAF SAM Site needs a rework of sorts. Make it always spawn on higher terrain, maybe buff its firerate (see actual SAM sites for reference), or keep the firerate as is if dropship crashes actually start doing something, instead improving its turn speed and lock-on speed. Primary issue is terrain though.
"oh yeah this spot is PERFECT for a SAM site!" said the seaf engineer after ordering it be built in a trench enclosed by cliffs from all 4 sides "what the hell is this" said the helldiver when stumbling upon it
Realistically speaking, the only people who perform well when fighting against Automatons are those who have tens of hours of experience on their belt alongside a team with similar skill level, using proper "meta" (god forbid) loadouts to properly counter the bot menace. The casual solo-queue player just crumbles.

Conclusion & Goodbyes

I may have missed some things, but I tried to grab everything problematic about the faction to the best of my ability. I will most likely not edit the post due to it already being gigantic. However any comments adding onto the post are obviously appreciated. :)
If you're here to find a tl;dr, don't bother. No way in hell I'm summarizing 11.5k+ worth of characters. Just read the analysis conclusion.
If you're here after reading everything above, thank you. I hope this was a fun read and brought attention to why you might not be having as much fun on automatons, maybe made you realize what needs to be done in order to counter the currently sluggish faction. I just hope I helped in some way.
If you're a developer, thank you for creating an amazing game. I've been in love with Helldivers 2 since the very start (upon finding it reaching sky-high popularity), enjoying every hour of gameplay. But just like with any game, it has its flaws, and I hope these are properly addressed. The community has been asking for changes, and I hope my post brought awareness to it.
Buh-bye!!!

Here are some I just thought up that might be neat.

 * Primary/Secondary - - - 

1. Automatic Plasma Rifle
2. Automatic Laser Pistol (similar to the sickle.)
3. Lever action rifle.
4. Bolt action rifle.
5. Short barreled shotgun (Can be used one handed)
6. Automatic arc rifle (Lower damage automatic version of the Blitzer)
7. Compound Bow that fires grenade-like projectiles (A beefier version of the crossbow pretty much.)
8. Dual wield secondary weapons like the Senator, Redeemer, or Verdict.
9. Laser sniper rifle. (Like a smaller version of the Quasar with a long range scope)
10. Compact liberator. (Shorter liberator that is one-handed with a much higher recoil)
11. Metalstorm rifle. (A rifle based on Metalstorm technology. Basically a weapon with an insane fire rate that depletes a whole magazine per shot but does a butt load of damage.)
12. Ballistic shield weapons. (Think of Blackbeard's rifle from Rainbow 6 Siege)
13. Incendiary punisher.
14. Small melee weapons. (A new weapon slot that would just replace your melee animations)
15. Large melee weapons. (Primary replacing heavy melee weapons like great swords or hammers.)
16. Fully automatic crossbow. (No explosive damage, but high armor pen + silent.)
17. Non-explosive compound bow. (No explosive damage, high pen + silent.)

 * Stratagems - - - 

1. Heavy Anti-Material Rifle. (Bolt action AMR with less ammo and more damage/pen.)
2. Double stalwart. (Two stalwarts meshed side by side with a long and stationary reload.)
3. Plasma Thrower. (A higher damage, shorter range flame thrower possibly with armor pen?)
4. Mortar tube. (A mortar tube that you have to be stationary to fire and can be team reloaded.)
5. Armor piercing rocket launcher. (The airburst with a different warhead pretty much.)
6. Plasma LMG. (Something similar to an automatic purifier with less damage and a smaller AOE.)
7. Laser LMG. (The Sickle's bigger, angrier cousin.)
8. Flag of Super Earth. (A melee weapon call in that has an AOE damage buff or healing buff for allies.)
9. Stealth pack. (A backpack that gives you stalker-like invisibility for a limited time.)
10. Laser strafing runs. (Eagle call in that does not need to be rearmed.)
11. Medic Pack. (A medical pack that other players can heal from with the Medic armor perk stim effects.)
12. Active Protection Turret. (A turret that intercepts incoming missiles/bile lobs.)
13. Plasma strafing runs. (Single use high damage strafing runs for the eagle.)
14. Toxin tower. (Toxin cloud emitting version of the tesla tower.)
15. Incendiary mortar. (A mortar with incendiary projectiles.)
16. Toxin mortar. (A mortar with toxic cloud projectiles.)
17. Quad Quasar turret emplacement. (Quasar version of the HMG Emplacement.)
18. EMP mines. (Mines that stun enemies that pass through them.)
19. Healing tower. (Tower call ins that do AOE healing for allies and enemies.)
20. Grenade turret. (Tower call in that fires grenade launcher rounds.)
21. Arc Cannon. (The arc version of the Quasar.)
22. Flame thrower rover. (A team killing device to surpass metal gear.)
23. Breaker rover. (A rover with a breaker spray and pray.)
24. Heavy flame thrower. (A higher capacity longer range flame thrower that has less ammo.)
25. Plasma Cannon. (The plasma version of the Quasar.)
26. Metalstorm Launcher. (A launcher based on the metalstorm weapon system. Basically a lower damage fully automatic recoiless rifle with only 1 or 2 reloads.)
27. Incendiary Launcher. (A launcher tube or grenade launcher that fires high-damage, long-lasting incendiary projectiles.)
28. Surveillance rover. (High flying rover that paints enemy targets near you so that they can be seen through walls.)
29. Sniper rover. (A rover with a diligence sniper and longer range.)
30. Target designator. (Marks a target allowing allies to do more damage to it.)
31. Scout craft. (A small Halo Wasp-like aircraft limited ammo and low health.)
32. Quad bike. (The ground version of the scout craft with the ability to carry a passenger.)
33. Plasma Strike. (The orbital version of the 500kg bomb.)

 * Bonus ideas - - - 

Stim Pistol. (Secondary that fires stims that heal allies.)
Overdrive. (A self targeting grenade that gives you a damage boost but also a health drain for a limited time.)
Healing grenade. (Something similar to the thermite grenade, but does healing over time to allies/enemies.)
Throwing axes. (Grenades that are thrown hatchets which can be recovered afterwards.)
Radio pack. (Backpack that decreases stratagem call in time/provides extra call ins.)
Distraction beacon. (A tower call in that draws enemy patrols towards it after a set time.)
Rover assistant. (An unarmed rover that interacts with ammo boxes, objectives, and vault doors automatically.)
Spotter rover. (A rover that spots mission objectives + high priority enemies and marks them on your map automatically.)
Healing rover. (An unarmed rover that heals allies.)

I don't remember much of it, but I do know it starts with monsters suddenly appearing on earth, the military shows up, but then earth weapons, even bombs, don't work against monsters hides and when all hope seems to be lost—the typical humans who gain power appears.
I think there's a way for normal humans to awaken in this series that involves crystals??? Or something like that and when you break??? them or at least do something with them and tada! You're awakened?
Anyway, the MC is a convenience store clerk who's struggling financially and when a costumer (I think it's a female with pinkish hair in a white dress??) comes in to buy something, she drops an accessory that has the crystal.
He uses it to awaken and the ability he got is to create weapons? Convert everyday objects into weapons? Idk, I just remember his first weapon being a laser made out of a pen and he couldn't believe it at first so he used it inside his apartment which destroyed some of his things. Then he creates a gun and bullets to use as his weapon when he enters a hunting ground that's managed by the government and his first opponent there are rabbit monsters, I think?
Some time after, I know he meets another hunter and, for some reason, they fly off on a helicopter to arrive at this lab where they meet a red-haired lady?
Oh! And I remember there being a short excerpt showing the future where he made this circular metal thing that shoots out a net to trap monsters.
The art style is kind of a fuse between ReincarnatoPast Life Regressors by 나민채, 차용운 (the first season, not the remake) and Return to Player by Index, 세혼. At least, I think it is?? When I first read these two and every time I reread them, the manhwa that I don't know the name of always comes to mind and it's been pissing me off that I can't find it whenever I'm searching for it.
The translation stopped posting after chapter 7?? 9?? even though there's two available raw chapters on another site.
Anyway, that's all I remember. T.T pls help me

Hello! I was out playing with my dogs in my backyard when one of them (my husky) got really interested in a bush. A while later, a dove flies out. Okay, all good. Except the bird only flew to our fence and stayed there, even with me and the dogs around.
I'm now feeling like it very likely has a nest in the shrub. Shut my dogs in to see if it'll go back. My boyfriend went to take out the trash, which was near the dove, and it flew to the fence in the other side of my yard. Still here.
I can obviously just ignore it, but knowing my husky, if there is a nest in that bush, it's going to be short lived. Last year, she brought in 4 quail eggs from the backyard.
I don't want to dig through the shrub and scare her away, but I don't want to leave a possible nest in a spot that's doomed to a tragic ending. Any advice?

“Holy Hell, Edgar! I thought you said you could do this! Where is the manual I provided for you?”, Bob asked.
Well, Sir! The manual was quite heavy, so I wrote down all the instructions on something humans call index cards. I separated them into each category, pre-checklists, take-off, landing, things like that, then paper clipped them together, and kept them all in my shirt pocket behind my pocket protector under my pilots jacket.
I was nervous and sweating when we took off, so I took off the jacket, and put it in the co-pilots seat.
When we were spiraling down, out of control, my sunglasses fell off, and my pocket protector, my pen, and the cards fell out. The cards fell apart, and were flying around the cockpit.
Now they’re scattered everywhere on the cockpit floor. I don’t know what order they go in, or what card goes to what instruction. It’s a big mess, Sir!”, Edgar replied.
“Do you want to take this one, Mr. Hard-Sell?”, Bob asked me.
I was reluctant to be anywhere near Edgar after what happened last time, so I simply answered, “Your Demon! Your problem!”
All the girls screamed again, this time screaming, “He’s a Demon!”
“Yes, Girls! But he’s a kinda cool guy, unless you sneak up behind him!”, I replied.
“Thanks”, Edgar said.
“Ok then! Very well!, Mr. Hard-Sell! I will take care of it!”, Bob responded. “Let’s Go, Edgar!”
They both then headed out the door, down the hallway, through the other door, and disappeared out of sight.
“I like your accordion!”, Tony’s redhead said.
“You can check it out, if you want to!”, he told her, then placed it gently around her neck.
I offered my guitar to Donna, who nervously accepted.
All the guys then offered their gear to their girls.
They all just stayed still, looking like a bad independent T & A movie, in their sexy lingerie.
My first girl was just standing there, as she was the “Odd Girl Out”. So, I let her use one of my other guitars.
“Play something!”, Derek said.
“Yeah! Girls can rock too!”, Stephen said.
My mind then flashed to the all female Rock band Vixen, they might have been poppy, and radio friendly, but they still rocked… kind of.
Stephen’s girl then counted it off, except she didn’t do the normal count off, she just said, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Now, I have no idea what those girls played, or what Corey’s girl was saying. I seriously doubt that they did either. It was mostly high pitched screaming.
It was a 3 minute cacophony of sheer and udder noise. But they had fun, and that’s all that matters.
Anyway, when they finished, Derek screamed out, “Rock and Roll!”, and threw up the horns.
We all did the same, including Tony.
The girls high fived each other, and were jumping up and down, cheering. Some of them did high kicks like cheerleaders do.
What a sight that was. Sexy lingerie, remember?
Anyway, Bob then returned from the cockpit.
“Well, you boys really changed since I’ve been gone!”, he said smiling.
The girls then gave us back our gear.
“Well, Boys!… and girls! Edgar has it all figured out now, so we’ll be landing soon. Let’s head back to the other room, shall we?”
Derek, Ricky, and I put our guitars back in place. Stephen put the drumsticks back, and Corey put the microphone back on its stand.
Tony let his girl keep his accordion.
We all then made our way to the Hangout Room, Bob again closing each door behind us.
We got back to the room, and talked, hung out, indulged in a few incentives, things like that.
As we were indulging ourselves, the intercom popped again.
“Hey, guys! The tower guy said we have clearance, or something, I don’t know, to land this thing. So, here goes! Wish me luck. Hey, there are the lights! Cool!
The intercom them popped off.
Out of complete nervousness, Donna and I hugged each other, as the plane started to descend.
Tony and his two girls did the same.
The remaining girls huddled on the couch, holding each other.
Bob stood by the TV.
Derek, Corey, Stephen, and Ricky just carried on with what they were doing.
The plane suddenly stopped descending, bounced a little, jolted forward, and began to shake, slowly coming to a stop.
The ones who weren’t dead already, sighed a sigh of relief.
Soon after, Rebecca came bouncing back through the curtain.
“Daddy! Can I come back yet? I think Edgar pooped himself. He smells really bad!”, she said.
We all kinda laughed at that one too.
“Are you going to be nice?”, Bob asked her.
“Yes, Daddy!”, she answered smiling.
“It doesn’t matter anyway. I have an announcement to make.”, he said.
Bob then clapped his hands and said, “Girls, Girls! Pay attention please! I hope you have enjoyed your little endeavors with the band, but… it’s time for you to go! We have business to attend to. With a snap of my fingers, I will return you to your homes. You will awaken in your beds and continue on with your lives. You can keep the lingerie! Are you ready?”
“I don’t want to go! I live alone. I don’t have any friends. My life sucks!”, Donna said.
“Um! Does she have to go?”, I asked Bob.
“No! Not if you would like her to stay!”, he said.
“I do!”, I replied.
“Does anyone else want their girls to stay?”, Bob asked.
Derek and Corey both said no immediately.
“I’m not boyfriend material!”, Stephen said.
“I like you and all, but I don’t want to be tied down at a young age like my Pops was! Sorry!”, Ricky said, looking at his girl.
“My wife filed for divorce when I told her about this job, so, I just wanna be free and have fun. It was very nice to meet you both.”, Tony replied, smiling at his girls.
“Do any of you girls want to stay?”, Bob asked the girls.
“I’ve gotta feed my cat!”, “I gotta work in the morning!”, “My Grandmothers sick!”, “The cable guy is coming tomorrow!”, “I got laundry to fold!”, “My boyfriends probably wondering where I am, so, No!”, they all said.
Tony’s girl laid his accordion on the floor.
“Very well, ladies. Goodbye!”, Bob said, and snapped his fingers.
The girls then disappeared into a cloud of gray smoke, all except Donna.
Rebecca then smiled, and waved, “Bye, Bitches!”, she said.
“REBECCA!”, Bob yelled.
“What, Daddy? That WAS being nice!”, she replied.
Rebecca then smiled, and waved at Donna.
“Now, listen closely, Mr. Hard-Sell”, Bob said sternly, looking me straight in the eye. “I WILL NOT tolerate any John Lennon/Yoko Ono bullshit, I have heard all the stories. Business is business, and MY business is with you, and you only! No outside interference! Is… that… clear?”, he said.
“Ye- Yes- Yes, Bob!”, I answered nervously.
That was the first time, since we signed our contract, that Bob made me nervous.
Bob’s happy, and overly dramatic demeanor then returned.
“Lovely! Now Donna! We can not have you walking around in public in your present attire. It would be bad for business.”He said.
I then cut him a hard look.
“I did not mean it to be insulting, Mr. Hard-Sell! I meant that we have an image to uphold! One of professionalism. Lacy lingerie is not very professional, now is it!”, Bob clarified.
“Oh Ok! Sorry Bob!”, I said.
“No worries, dear boy! Now, tell me, Dear, what would you like to be wearing?”, Bob asked Donna.
“Um! I don’t know! Jeans and a t-shirt maybe!”, she answered.
Bob then snapped his fingers once again, and instantly Donna was wearing just what she had asked for… Skin tight jeans, a black Hellfire Records t-shirt, and a pair of brand new female Nike sneakers on her feet.
“You look amazing!”, I said to her.
“Oh! I love what you’re wearing”, Rebecca said to Donna, “What are those?, she asked pointing at Donna’s pants.
“Um! Jeans!”, Donna replied.
“Daddy! Can I have some jeans?”, Rebecca asked Bob.
“We’ll get you some soon, Dear!”, Bob replied
“Oh! Yay!”, Rebecca said excitedly, and side hugged Donna, who nervously looked at her side eyed.
“We’re gonna be the bestest of friends!”, Rebecca said, as she bounced back through the curtain, singing, “I’m getting jeans! I’m getting jeans!”, her tail waving excitedly behind her, like a dog excited to see you.
Now, I’m not sure if this was a clinical diagnosis back then, but Rebecca… was definitely bipolar.
“The doors open, Daddy!”, she said, sticking just her head through the curtain.
“Let’s go, Boys!”, Bob instructed.
“Where are we?”, Stephen asked, as we all got up, including Donna, to exit the plane.
“Japan, Boys! Your first show is at…”, Bob started to say.
“Budokan?”, I asked
“Very good, Mr. Hard-Sell! It’s actually Nippon Budokan, but yes!”, Bob said.
“No fucking way!”, I replied excitedly.
Now, some say the greatest LIVE album ever recorded is KISS ALIVE, some say KISS ALIVE II, some say TED NUGENT - DOUBLE LIVE GONZO, some say PETER FRAMPTON - FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE! But for me, the greatest LIVE album ever recorded will always be CHEAP TRICK - LIVE AT BUDOKAN!
It’s the rawness of the whole thing. The way Bun E. Carlos’s drums just boom. The way Robin Zander’s voice is perfectly pitched, well, his voice cracked a few times, but that’s what made it so real. Not like other “LIVE” albums that were polished up in the studio.
The way Rick Neilson’s guitars blazed through each song, and the way Tom Peterson’s bass pounded out the rhythm. I don’t care what anyone says. It is a masterpiece in its own right.
Anyway, we walked through the curtain to see Rebecca standing in the doorway, facing outward, and waving.
She was bouncing up and down as well.
Edgar then came walking through the kitchen, with his right hand on his butt.
He walked up to the group of us standing there.
“Holy Fire and Brimstone!”, Bob said loudly, covering his nose, as we all did the same.
“Jesus!”, “Holy Fuck!”, “Damn!”, “What the Hell did you eat!”, “What ate you?!”, “Gross!”, “That smells bad!”, we all said.
Rebecca then stepped back from the doorway, turned around, and covered her mouth quickly, obviously trying not to throw up.
Well, at least she tried.
Her body heaved, as globs of a green, glue-like substance, came exploding out of her mouth, through her fingers, and onto the floor.
We all jumped back to avoid being hit.
Bob just stood there, still holding his nose.
Now, I’ve been in many public bathrooms, and smelt some of the most horrific smells that the human body can produce, especially in the bathroom of that creepy grocery store in town.
But none of them even came close to the, eye watering, nose burning, hair splitting, vomit inducing smell of Demon shit.
“Go to the lavatory and get cleaned up, Son! Use soap! Holy burning flesh, you smell rancid!”, Bob said to Edgar, “I will provide you with new clothes. They will be waiting for you inside.”
Bob then snapped his fingers.
“I’m sorry, Sir! I- I was just scared.”, Edgar replied.
“I understand, Son! Just Go! Go!”, Bob said.
Edgar then made his way back to the bathroom, still holding his butt.
“Rebecca, go to the kitchen and clean yourself up! New clothes will be waiting for you there as well!”, Bob said.
“But, Daddy! Boys like me in this outfit!“, she responded, wiping her mouth.
“And clean up this mess!” Bob said, “Now, Go!”
Rebecca then turned and walked into the kitchen.
“Yes, Daddy!”, she said.
“Who are all those people?”, Ricky asked, looking out the door of the plane.
We all then stuck our heads out, seeing what he was seeing for the first time.
There was a huge black limousine, parked parallel with the plane, with a red carpet leading from the bottom of the steps to the back door of the limo.
It was very similar to the one Bob had outside the police station. Hell, it could have been the same one for all I know.
There was a huge gathering of Japanese people, teenagers mostly, a few adolescent looking ones, and even less adults to the left of where we stood.
They were all cheering, and jumping up and down with excitement.
Some of them held signs with the band name on them, some said “I Love Corey!”, with a red heart where the word love should be, some had Japanese writings on them that we couldn’t read.
The police had to play crowd control spreading their arms out, almost finger to finger, to keep them all back, as camera bulbs flashed repeatedly from the right of us.
“Are they here for us!”, Stephen asked.
“Yes, Boys! Welcome to your first taste of Fame and Fortune!”, Bob said smiling.

At first watch, I was irked by certain things (felt very different from the first two seasons, clothing and style felt out of place and too modern, certain parts felt too rushed or awkward). But I’m on my second run through, and I’m enjoying it more. Pen and Colin have some really cute moments. I thought their conversation behind the tree branches and the one in the dessert tent were cute and you can feel Colin figuring out his feelings with his expressions. The one I still can’t get into is Lady Tilly and Benedict, though. Anyway, looking forward to Part 2!
Edit: Okay but that balloon scene is kind of hilarious. It’s super dramatic and then the guy just jumps in and flies away.

Here's a comprehensive roadmap to help you learn how to lucid dream, broken down into progressive stages with achievable goals to maximize your chances of success:

Stage 1: Foundation and Preparation

Objective: Build a strong foundation for lucid dreaming.

1. Understand Lucid Dreaming:
   
   • Read books and articles about lucid dreaming (e.g., "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge).
   • Join online forums and communities to learn from experienced lucid dreamers.
2. Keep a Dream Journal:
   
   • Place a notebook and pen by your bedside.
   • Record every dream you remember immediately upon waking.
   • Review your dream journal regularly to identify recurring themes, symbols, and dream signs.
3. Improve Dream Recall:
   
   • Set an intention before bed to remember your dreams.
   • Use affirmations like “I will remember my dreams tonight.”
4. Create a Sleep-Friendly Environment:
   
   • Maintain a consistent sleep schedule.
   • Ensure your bedroom is dark, quiet, and cool.
   • Avoid screens and stimulating activities before bed.

Stage 2: Awareness and Techniques

Objective: Increase self-awareness and apply lucid dreaming techniques.

1. Practice Reality Checks:
   
   • Perform reality checks multiple times a day (e.g., look at your hands, push your finger through your palm, check digital clocks).
   • Question whether you are dreaming during these checks.
2. Use MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams):
   
   • Before sleeping, recall a recent dream.
   • Visualize becoming lucid in that dream.
   • Repeat the affirmation, “Next time I’m dreaming, I will remember I’m dreaming.”
3. Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB) Technique:
   
   • Set an alarm to wake up after 4-6 hours of sleep.
   • Stay awake for 20-30 minutes, reading about lucid dreaming or doing light activities.
   • Go back to sleep with the intention of having a lucid dream.
4. Visualization:
   
   • Before sleep, visualize the dream environment you want to experience.
   • Imagine yourself becoming lucid and taking control of the dream.

Stage 3: Achieving Lucidity

Objective: Experience and stabilize your first lucid dreams.

1. Recognize Dream Signs:
   
   • Use your dream journal to identify common dream signs.
   • Stay alert for these signs in your dreams.
2. Maintain Lucidity:
   
   • Once lucid, stay calm and avoid getting too excited.
   • Stabilize the dream by rubbing your hands together, touching objects, or spinning around.
3. Set Simple Goals:
   
   • Start with basic tasks like flying, talking to a dream character, or changing the environment.
   • Gradually increase the complexity of your goals as you gain confidence.

Stage 4: Advanced Techniques and Exploration

Objective: Deepen your lucid dreaming experiences and explore advanced practices.

1. Experiment with WILD (Wake-Initiated Lucid Dreaming):
   
   • Lie down and relax your body while staying mentally alert.
   • Focus on hypnagogic imagery (visualizations before sleep) to transition directly into a lucid dream.
2. Dream Incubation:
   
   • Before sleep, decide on a specific scenario or problem to explore in your dream.
   • Visualize and think about this scenario as you fall asleep.
3. Explore Advanced Dream Control:
   
   • Practice summoning objects, changing scenery, and interacting with dream characters in complex ways.
   • Use dreams for creative problem-solving or emotional healing.

Stage 5: Integration and Mastery

Objective: Integrate lucid dreaming into your regular sleep routine and achieve mastery.

1. Lucid Living:
   
   • Cultivate mindfulness and awareness throughout the day.
   • Question reality regularly to blur the line between waking and dreaming awareness.
2. Consistent Practice:
   
   • Maintain your dream journal and reality checks.
   • Continue using techniques like MILD, WBTB, and WILD as needed.
3. Reflect and Adjust:
   
   • Reflect on your lucid dreaming experiences and adjust techniques based on what works best for you.
   • Stay patient and persistent; progress may vary.
4. Share and Learn:
   
   • Share your experiences with others in lucid dreaming communities.
   • Stay updated with new techniques and research in the field of lucid dreaming.

By following this roadmap and progressing through each stage, you’ll build the skills and habits necessary for successful and fulfilling lucid dreaming experiences. Remember, consistency and patience are key to mastering lucid dreaming.

Did anyone else notice the bird allusions/symbolism this season? When Colin first arrives home on the docks, he passes a beautiful red parrot that is in a cage. Then it cuts to the next scene where Pen has a red feathered hair pin that resembles the parrot. I took that parrot to be Penelope. Parrots are beautiful intelligent exotic birds that of course parrot back what they hear (like Pen ala Whistledown). Plus Colin looks like a pirate and parrots and pirates go hand and hand. But note: the parrot is in a cage similar to Pen who feels trapped in many ways for her unrequited love and her family/society's ridicule. Also, in episode one at the outdoor event, Pen is standing next to a beautiful white bird figurine as she watches Eloise and Cressida--once again symbolizing that she is a beautiful exotic bird and rare. Then there is all the talk about birds with Lord Debling and his books--exotic birds, almost extinct birds, common birds. Pen says at one point that the common sparrow is often overlooked. I know this is comedic relief because she so damn awkward and adorable and trying to flirt, but I think it ties into all of the bird allusions.
Deep down, Pen wants to be uncaged, wants to fly, wants to be free, wants to get off of that damn wall for good. She is gorgeous, intelligent, tender, sensitive, and rare in an environment that favors the status quo. No one truly sees her, as she once stated, and as a result, she doesn't recognize her own special light. Pen is the swan in the classic ugly duckling story. People like her often get overlooked because they are simply...different in a world that values status quo. And Colin is there to help her fly, but in the end, she will have to take flight on her own and risk being her authentic self no matter the opinions of others. Colin is trying to help her find her sunlight, but Pen will have to stretch her wings and truly embrace the reflection she sees in the mirror. Because it's quite exceptional! Only then can she ascend to the Heavens!
Anyways, maybe a stretch...maybe I just love birds and this show too much. But...cheers!

I started texting a girl on Tinder . We began talking every day, and our conversations were always very deep. She took a deep interest in my life, which initially made me uncomfortable after a while because she was texting me as if I were her boyfriend. If I told her I had a important meeting so I will be busy tomorrow , be sure she remembered and texted me straight after to ask how it went . She would constantly remind me of how confortable/loved talking to me. She even would bring up marriage and kids which weirded me out and as I had mentioned it made me uncomfortable. I never really engaged in it as I never met her, it was weird and off-putting but I went with the flow and eventually warmed up to it. We would end up texting daily from morning until we went to sleep. This went on since february. I asked her out, and she said she couldn't wait to meet me but couldn't due to breaking her leg and being bed-bound at her parents'. A week before she could walk again and would move back to her place, I had to fly abroad to take care of a property I had. I did not have a time frame but knew I would be 2-3 weeks gone. I managed to sort my business quickly and texted her, saying I have nothing left to do so I might fly back early as I could not wait to get back to take her out on a date. I'm not naive and knew after the date it may never lead anywhere, but after dedicating hours and hours every day to talk to each other, and her expressing how she couldn't stop thinking of me and that she liked me, I had optimistic feelings about it. Her response was not what I expected, and it was along the lines of "don't fly back just to go on a date with me." I'm not sure if I took that the wrong way, but I was tired of being pen pals and wanted to take a risk and have a bit of adventure. Just to make it clear, I have family and a home not far from her anyway. Things got a bit weird after, but we eventually continued to talk like nothing happened. She eventually would get more distant but still initiate conversation to ask how my day was going, etc. I arrived back in the country and told her, "Let's go out; being pen pals has to end." She agreed but sent me a screenshot of her schedule (she had weddings and commitments, and I know she works a very stressful corporate job), which made it impossible to meet up. I said, "Once you finish up with everything, let me take you somewhere special for a date" (I noted her favorite restaurants as she would tell me). Her reply was, "A drink will be fine." I asked her later on if she was still eager, as she expressed her eagerness previously to go on a date. She said yes but followed it with, "Do we have to have this conversation every time I'm busy?" I thought that was cold, but I understand people can have stress, etc. We talked for a few more days, but her replies took longer and longer, so I just left her. Then I decided to text to ask how the wedding was after not speaking for a few days, and she ignored me for 24 hours and wrote: "Hey, the wedding was good. I'm so sorry; I'm just not in a good place right now. I feel overwhelmed. I need space. I hope you understand." I responded with: "I hope you feel better. I fully understand you need space right now. Take the time you need, and I'll be here when you're ready to talk. No pressure. Take it easy." Now, in my mind, she was not interested. "Needs space" means "bye!" But then I get an immediate kind of flirty response: "Thank you so much, big spoon."
What do I make of this? Do I text back? Is there a chance she might still be interested in going on a date? It's been two weeks and a few days. I know we never had a relationship, never met, etc., but I can't help but feel we really connected when we talked. I just don't like the idea that talking since February was a massive waste of time. She does not owe me anything, I understand that but it won't leave my mind and I weirdly feel depressed about the whole situation.
Sorry in advance for this being so long .

New Missions
Bugs: Search and Destroy: Regicide
A Bug queen has surfaced for {Insert Reason Here} and our Helldivers need to eliminate her.
During the mission she will move from point A to point B, escorted by a larger force. She will make no attempt to engage the players, completely focused on getting to her objective. Players must eliminate her while she calls in more reinforcements before the timer runs out.
Bots: Search and Destroy: Siege
There is an Automaton base in the shape of a large “X” that is packed with foundries and enemies that needs to be eliminated.
Players cannot land inside the base so they must land outside and plan their attack. At each point on the base there is a randomly generated secondary objective structure(Detection Tower, AA defense, Mortar Battery, Stratgem Jammer, Gunship Factory, etc.).
In the center of the base is the primary objective, a tower that must be shutdown using two separate consoles that will require an SSDD inserted to blow it up like the air tower.
Universal: Escort: Precious Cargo
Players must escort a large mule carrying precious cargo to its extraction point. Players will be attacked by periodic enemy waves while it moves to its location.
Enemy Suggestions:
New - Impaler - The classic from Helldivers 1 i think would be a good addition to change up the bug games in place of chargers all the time.
New - Spawn Host + Thermites - Large charger sized enemy that spawns exploding scavengers colored red. Think like a living siege engine for bugs.
New - Hulk Ravager - Has a shield and a hammer. The shield is an energy shield that can block for enemies behind it while still allowing them to attack while the hammer can be used to slam the ground and cause tremors.
New - Handler + Maulers - One large Hulk sized bot with two claw arms and a basket with human bodies in it on its back. It travels with 3-5 “Dogs” called Maulers that hunt enemies for it. When the Maulers are destroyed it opens its mouth and spawns 3-5 more, also allowing players to hurl grenades inside them to deal damage and kill them.
Change - Stalkers should instead skirt the edges of a fight and pull a player towards them with their tongue attack, instead of pushing them away during an attack combo. This way they can isolate players from their teams.
Change - Standard Devastators occasionally throw grenades. Adds something subtle but unique addition to Standard Devastators.
Change - Heavy Devastators are less accurate. Heavy Devastators are far too accurate at longer ranges with their weapons making maps with long line of sight very difficult to contend with, even at long range.
Change - Nursing Bile Spewers need to be different in some way to Bile Spewers outside just “I’m you but weaker” how about they deal less damage but apply an area of slowness when they vomit and explode for a time?
All Bugs Slowing effects need to be reworked on a Bug to Bug basis. Spitters should not cause a strong of a slow as they do as in their numbers they can perma-slow a player when running away from a larger enemy(Also they don’t even need a direct hit to cause the slow apparently). Hunters also apply far too strong of a slow, meanwhile I would argue Bile Titans should have a much more intense slow.
All Bots need to account for vision blocking terrain. Too many times has a player been mapped by a rocket fired from a location unseen and too often do players round a corner to get hit by shots fired before they even turned the corner.
Bugs and Bots occasionally call for reinforcements, even after they have died but before they could finish the calling animation.
All enemies should have a pool of active enemies and they should be assigned to a slot to better balance games out. For example:Factory Walkers&Bile Titans are Super Heavy Enemies, Chargers/Brood Commanders&Hulks are heavy enemies, Devastators/Scout Walkers&Warriors/Hive Guards/Bile Spewers are Medium enemies, etc. This way the AI can be programmed to limit and add enemies as the game unfolds but not overwhelm players. I have had games where on a defense mission 6 Bile Titans were summoned at once which was literally impossible for us to stop from destroying the generators but the next mission was so easy it felt like a level 4 on a helldive.
JTFM:
Two teams of helldivers will perform a joint task force mission(JTFM) where they raid a heavily populated enemy objective. Perhaps they are attacking a Bug Hive Mind or crippling a Bot mothership.
These JTFM will be difficult and will require a wide array of stratagems and even some that are not allowed as part of the mission parameters to really challenge players. Perhaps one where players can only use weapons, minefields, turrets and backpacks as they are underground and these stratagems will be deployed via drill pods that dig through the planet to arrive at points like in Deep Rock Galactic.
This could be a great challenge for players who want extremely difficult linear missions requiring teamwork beyond normal missions.
Existing Missions:
Eradication, Extract Valuable Assets and Evacuation missions should have the map layout shown to players when deciding what stratagems to play. This is especially important in the High Value Asset missions as one mission layout is hard to use eagles due to the high peaks between the lane while the other supports such perfectly.
It would also be nice to see the Extract Valuable Assets mission better balanced towards bugs as Chargers and Titans just demolish doors easily and virtually any bug can call for a bug breach anywhere in the lane often forcing players into situations where winning is all but impossible very early into these missions.
New Factions:
Mutant Faction - Horrific mutants created by Super Earth in experiments that have escaped and gone rogue. Focuses on Cosmic horror, inhuman shaped enemies, unearthly enemies and so on. I recommend using games like GTFO, R6: Siege’s Outbreak event and its “Successor” R6: Extraction, Hunt: Showdown, and Back 4 Blood and movies like The Thing for visual examples of enemies.
Dissident Faction - Humans who have denounced Super Earth.
Stratagems:
NEW - Gunship Support - Calls a Pelican outfitted with two additional guns to hover above the location firing at enemies.
Buff - Machine gun Turret - Becomes a Heavy Machine gun as in all aspects it is outclassed by the chaingun turret. With a medium armour pen it can be better used against bots.
Buff - Missile Turret - Add Heat seeking to missiles to help them better track larger but faster enemies(Scother Hulks, Brood Commanders, Stalkers, etc.) and makes them decent at shooting down gunships.
Buff - Orbital Gatling Barrage - Upgraded to Medium Armour Pen to make it more appealing vs Bots and increase its duration slightly.
Change - Guard Dog - Add “Bulldog” to name and give unlimited ammo. Nobody uses it due to the fact it needs ammo from supplies. Instead just make it need to reload every so often.
NEW - Guard Dog “Hellhound” - Incendiary round Guard Dog. lower RPM but deals fire damage.
Change - Land Mines - Reduced cooldown. When a player calls in the stratagem, all previously placed landmines of that type placed by that player are destroyed.
Change - 380mm Barrage - Altered to NOT hit the center of the beacon so it acts like an artillery shield for allies inside it, increase the barrage count and it should see more play.
NEW - Deliverance Walker - The HD1 Lumberer walker but instead of the flamethrower it has the machine gun from the machine gun turret.
NEW - Redeemer Walker - Uses a Flamethrower and a melee weapon that sweeps the area in front of it like a hammer for example. (Flavor text is that it is used by Helldivers who wish to make amends for their fallen comrades' failures in battle.)
NEW - Razorwire Barrier - Slows small enemies and damages them, only slows medium enemies and heavy enemies can destroy it entirely.
Change - Orbital Smoke+SEAF Smoke Rounds - Smoke cloud needs to be at least double the size to really be worth using.
NEW - UAV Drone - Bring back the Humble Bee. When called the area around the controlling player will highlight enemies, even through walls as well as automatically identify secondary objectives and points of interest.
NEW - Flamethrower Turret - Very Self Explanatory
Change - Machinegun & Heavy Machinegun - Reload time needs to be reduced. The weapons are not useful enough to warrant requiring a whole cutscene to finish a reload. All machine guns, including the Stalwart, should be able to move and reload, with their balancing factor being reload speed and recoil. I loved using the Heavy Machine gun for a while until it required so much ammunition to keep loaded and being forced to stand still to reload for a weapon not nearly impactful enough to warrant using it over a primary weapon and running any anti-tank weapon.
Planetary Biomes and Hazards:
Dense Forest + Carnivorous Plants - Planet is one giant forest, very few open spaces to work with. The map is also littered with hostile plants for both sides including an instant kill venus fly trap style plant.
Gravity Fluctuations - Map fluctuates between high and low gravity. High Gravity reduces the range of weapons and movement speed for ally and enemy and Low Gravity does the vise-versa.
High Tide/Low Tide - Very water based map where the water level changes making shallow beaches into deep waters where players can drown. All objectives and interactable points of interest are on high ground but other more “Interesting” points of interest may be in these areas only exposed during low tide.
A Note on Weather Effects: Weather Effects should be applied simultaneously to both players and enemies. This would both make things feel less like weather is purely a downside and opens up potential for stratagems and weapons not normally chosen right now. For example what if on Intense Heat planets enemies are more vulnerable to fire. What if on cold planets enemies also have reduced rate of fire and movement speed. What if Ion Storms also prevent enemies from reinforcing(Bug Breach/Bot Drop).
Warbond Ideas:
Flames of Liberty - Fire weapon focused warbond. Fire bomb launcher, Flame Slugger shotgun, Incendiary Liberator, etc. Dragons breath shotgun pistols.
Desolation Complex - Chemical weapons warbond focusing on Chemical, Radiological and Biological weaponry. Chemical Launcher, Contagion Grenade, Irradiated Diligence, etc.
Armour Passives:
Skirmisher - Regenerates health over time. Stims no longer heal instantly, instead double the health regen and grant a speed boost for the duration of the stim..
Sentinel - Buffs nearby turrets(Buffs will need to be on a case-by-case basis) and by marking enemies the player can direct the turrets fire.

• Machine gun & Chain gun- Damage buff
• Autocannon & Missile Launcher - RoF buff
• Mortar & EMS Mortar - Blast radius buff

Gunner - 30% reduced recoil and 25% faster reload of heavy weapon
Trench Fighter - 50% increased damage from fire sources and increased melee knockback.
Weapons:
Liberator Penetrator - Match the damage of the standard Liberator. The penetrator already has a smaller mag size and more recoil. Reducing the damage is just the nail in the coffin for using it over other weapons with Medium armour pen.
Peacekeeper, Verdict and any future pistols - Add a gun sight. It's awkward to use when the weapon has only iron sights.
Slugger - I agreed the Slugger needed a nerf but I think you nerfed it too much. The weapon was heavily used more because at the time we only had it, The Liberator Penetrator listed above and the Dominator which isn't very good at shorter ranges. Return its stagger power and it should do fine.
Breaker Spray n’ Prey - 50rd mag size, 1.5x the pellet load over the Breaker and increase its RoF to 400. Lower its stagger to need a near constant stream of shots to stumble the enemy.
Show stats for all support weapon's please
Miscellaneous:
Helldiver teams expanded to 5 - There has been discussion on increasing the number of players on a Helldiver team. Most team games have 5 man squads and I think this may be the best balance to the game.
Turret Damage Resistance - Recently a stratagem upgrade gave turrets explosive resistance and yet they still die VERY quickly to enemy fire and even in the case of Bugs i still find it annoying that Chargers just run into them to kill them. It makes turrets too difficult to bother with when they die quickly and have such a long cooldown.Turrets need to be able to at least get off 25% of their shots before they outright die in most situations, otherwise what is the point?
Armour Balancing - Heavy armor needs staggeknockdown resistance. What good is being slower and tougher if you still get staggered and knocked down with every hit from a bigger enemy.
Grenades destroying bug holes, factories, etc. - Any grenade thrown into the opening should close the hole, otherwise players are incentivized to avoid non-explosive grenades or grenades that cannot destroy them.
Bot Gunships and Bug Shriekers nerf - Both of these enemies do not allow players to be stealthy, they force them to go in with heavy weapons blazing because they autodetect the player and never stop chasing them until either they or the player has been killed. It forces players into picking items they may not otherwise want to bring and removes some of the players ability to experiment with other equipment.
Community decisions on planet liberation - Recently as of the making of this document, players were given a choice of unlocking an Air burst launcher or anti-tank mines. However neither planet was unlocked when the order went live. Players had to dig up information to find out how that was not part of the game. Furthermore the planet linked to the Air burst was a cold planet and the AT-mines was a hot planet. Hot planets are significantly harder than cold planets and most missions on that hot planet had only three stratagems allowed. The choice was basically set up to fail before it was ever made. Players should have had both options unlocked and available immediately as right now most of the players i played with since wanted the Mines but either didn’t understand why the planet wasn’t unlocked or realized both planets linked to it were extremely hard to fight on and didn’t enjoy the grind.

The Zoo - A NoSleep story
***
Full job description:
Immediate Opening!
Night shift zoo managesecurity. All-weather foot patrol opportunity for a “night-owl”, who enjoys working outdoors and with minimal supervision.
Under general direction of the manager of the zoo, the Security Guard patrols the zoo grounds on a regular basis throughout the shift. Responds in a timely and professional manner to a wide variety of routine and emergency situations.
Requirements: BA in wildlife, biology, etc, which provides the required knowledge, skills, and background for this position. Valid Florida Driver’s License with good driving record is desirable. First Aid and CPR certification preferred.
The qualified candidate has the ability to use independent judgment in handling routine as well as the capacity to perform under stress when confronted with an emergency, unusual, or dangerous situation. Ability to oversee animals’ well-being, monitor conditions, create enrichment activities, and exercise safety precautions.
The Security Guard must be able to walk and remain on feet a full shift (up to 8 hours), and potentially up to 12 hours at a time. Must be able to exert a minimum of 50 pounds of force and able to lift, push or pull, or otherwise move objects that may exceed 50 lbs. Ability to negotiate all areas of the zoo in all weather conditions.
Note: Zoo is haunted.
***
I’ll start with the job posting, I guess. I spotted it on Indeed while making my daily check for anything and everything that would hire someone with my biology degree, and it seemed on the up and up. Their website looked decent, the guy on the phone sounded nice, and I was looking for anything even slightly related to working with wildlife. Being a night shift guard at a zoo was fine, especially when I took the incredibly generous rate of $25/hr. into account. That’s eleven bucks more than my dad makes at the local grocer, and he’s been working there for thirteen years. Then again, from the P.S. on the posting, I thought there might be good reason for the rate.
It said at the end, almost as an afterthought, ‘Zoo is haunted.’
When it comes to ghosts, they’ve never made much sense to me. Considering how badly our brains function from just getting jostled around on a football field, I’m not sure how ghosts could exist without a brain at all. I’d be excited as the next person to find proof, but YouTube videos are always fishy and the people on TV are essentially actors who only focus on the entertainment factor for their ratings. So, since I’d never seen anything that vaguely resembled a ghost, I’d say binge-watching Supernatural on Netflix last year was the extent of my experience in that department.
It seemed that the zoo hadn’t been here for long since it wasn’t even on Google Maps yet. There was a bit of a commute, it was half an hour away, but since I’d worked local jobs while I attended college online for the past four years, I’d saved up the money to buy a car. It wasn’t anything fancy, just an old Nissan sedan that I’d bought from someone in the next town over, with faded red paint and a mismatched back right door painted blue. It accomplished the job of transportation, though, which let me search the job market further away, a good thing considering how small a town I lived in. I really didn’t want to leave home yet, so moving for a job in a city or another state wasn’t an appealing option.
The website said very little. It had yet to fill in drop down menus that would excitedly describe their attractions. So far it only had some small sections about conservation and education, though that was intriguing because it mentioned that all the animals they had were endangered. I read that notation and wondered what the animals were. Mammals were always favorites of mine, which I know is a bit of a cliché, loving the furry ones. But when it comes down to it, I’ll take any animal over a person.
The employee entrance to the zoo was a door in the large steel gate that surrounded the property, a few yards down from the sliding gate that presumably opened to let visitors in. I pressed the button on a panel beside it, glancing up at the camera, and I was buzzed in. There was a short path that led to the building near the front and I knocked politely before going inside.
The interviewer, a plain metal nameplate on his desk describing him as Director of Security for the zoo, welcomed me in and sat on the other side of his desk, lounging back in his desk chair. His name was Andrew Higgs, and he had a British accent, which I thought was cool. I sat in one of the two loveseats in front of the desk.
Andrew was dressed business casual, with a blue Polo shirt, a thin black jacket, and I saw he was wearing slacks when he stood up to shake my hand. He was black, with dreadlocks that stopped just short of his shoulders, and a closely trimmed mustache. There was a tattoo, an artistic rendition of a hippo, on the right side of his neck, which bode well in my opinion. So many places hiring these days were overly uptight about their employees’ appearance, but it seemed that wouldn’t be the case here.
We went over the basics before he picked up the piece of paper off his desk, my resume, which he’d printed out. “Well, I spoke to all three of your references,” Andrew noted. “They had some good things to say. You were a great employee on the farm you worked last summer, your boss said. Punctual, hard-working, took instructions well…”
That was nice to hear. I’d spent this past summer working at a dairy farm, mostly assigned to the goats and cows they kept for milk. Aside from the staggering muscle pain that tapered from agony to merely miserable by the end of the summer, it wasn’t a bad job. I did have an old shoulder injury that I always had to work around, but it was my left shoulder and I was a righty, so it wasn’t that difficult to manage.
If anything, the muscle pain in my back and legs from being on my feet all day distracted from the typical issue I dealt with. My standard exercising day-to-day was typically either riding my bike or yoga, although yoga is mind-numbingly boring, so I need to listen to a podcast to pass the time. So, in fact, through the job, I was sort of grateful that my brain was focusing on a different area of my body that was in pain. Yeah, chronic pain is weird.
“He also said you don’t work well with others,” Andrew added, glancing up to me. “You kept submitting complaints about incompetent coworkers?”
I pursed my lips and let out a long breath through my nose, considering the most delicate way I was capable of replying to that before saying, “I dislike stupid people.”
Andrew gave me a half-smile and sighed, replying, “Well, I must confess I’m not fond of them either.” He looked back down to the paper. “This job will be a great fit for you.”
The job interview seemed like a formality, and I don’t know why. I was twenty-three and the ink had barely dried on my degree from the online college I’d attended. I’d been applying to jobs for months and had been thrilled when I’d gotten a call for an interview for this one, but also surprised. Call me a cynic, but I expected more invasive questions about any past work I’d done for a job in security, since I was a woman.
It's not like I was petite. Actually, the most common word I’d heard to describe me is ‘built’, and I fall short of being labeled overweight only because of muscle mass. One comment I recall from high school was being teased for being shaped like a rectangle. Even so, there was no good reason to look a gift horse in the mouth, but of course, me being me, that meant I examined its teeth closely.
“So, you’re hiring me? Just like that? Why?”
Andrew, chuckled. “Look, you’ve got BA in wildlife biology, and specializing in animal behavior is just the cherry on the sundae. That tells me you know animals are not people, and even if you feel like you know them, they can still be unpredictable. They can hurt you. But also, it makes me know you care.”
I suppose that did make sense, and it was true, so I’m glad he knew that. Most of my job on the night shift would be watching cameras and then walking around the place to make sure all the animals were as they should be, but it was more than that. Working at a zoo meant knowing where the line was, and sometimes it wasn’t exactly at the fence, but sometimes just putting a single finger through that fence meant losing that finger. As a whole, humans are generally idiots. Looking at you, anyone who really, honestly thinks that a bobcat would sense your boundless love enough to let you pat it.
“The website didn’t have much about the animals,” I said. “I know this place is new, so you might not have info on them up on the site yet. Do you have a map for me?”
“Oh, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Andrew said with a wave of his hand. At that point, it had seemed to be a reasonable thing for him to say, but I will tell you, the reason was not what I thought. “Just to confirm, you’re not an early bird, Miss Mason? This schedule isn’t a concern?”
I shook my head. “Nah, I’m pretty talented at sleeping in, actually. I never really got past that teenage talent of staying up until five and sleeping in until three. And you can just call me Ripley.”
That made him smile. “Good. Then I won’t worry about you falling asleep on the job, Ripley.”
“Oh, no way.”
“All right. So. You saw the note at the end of the job posting?”
He just stared at me and I was forced to answer, “That the zoo is haunted.”
“Right. What are your thoughts on that?”
There was no easy answer to that question, especially depending on how seriously he took it. “Do you know the best word the Brits gave to us?”
“What’s that?”
“Bollocks.”
Andrew slowly smiled and pointed at me with the end of the pen in his hand. “I think I’m going to like you,” he remarked. “Look…this is the part of the interview where we switch gears. If this was a regular zoo, you’d be a shoo-in for the job. But we’ve got other boxes to check. This outfit is…basically a preservation society. As you saw on the site, all the species are endangered, but what it didn’t say online is that the only people who came to visit are private parties.”
“So, that means…what?” I asked. “You bring in super-rich people who feel special when they get to see the animals you’re rehabilitating and taking care of? Then they donate oodles of money so they can brag to their rich friends about their charity contributions and having seen the animals here?”
Andrew raised his eyebrows. “Pretty much got it in one. It’s just more preservation and less rehabilitation. And a lot of our patrons really do care about the animals, or else they would just donate and not visit. You’ll see tourists a couple times a week, but we decided not to have anyone until we’re settled in here, and that means a person who’s on during the night shift that I can count on. And I don’t know if I can count on you yet.”
“Wait, I’ll see the tourists?” I asked. “They visit at night?”
“Everything we have is nocturnal,” he told me. That struck me as odd, but he continued before I could question it. “Listen up, and I’ll start with the basics. Have you ever seen anything weird? Possibly supernatural?”
“Nope,” I said with a shrug.
The fact is, I got along with my classmates, but I never did have any close friends. So, I thought maybe that’s why I missed out on all those reckless teen moments that started every horror movie. Maybe it left me without a bunch of exciting stories to tell. But hey, at least I didn’t break my leg falling through the floor of an abandoned building in eleventh grade.
Yes, that happened. It was a classmate of mine by the name of Brent. And yes, he’s just as much of a moron as you would imagine.
“If you see the ghost here,” he said, his tone emphatic, “will you freak out?”
I paused. “You’ve seen the ghost?”
“All the time,” Andrew told me. “It’s a young woman in a blue shirt and tan slacks, looks like she just walked out of a lake.”
“Do you have a picture?”
“No, and absolutely no photos or video are to be taken of her,” he said, his tone abruptly turning stern. “It’s cause for immediate dismissal. We have video cameras for security, but they all record off-site in a secure location, and Suzanne Cooper, the owner, manages it herself. Firstly, the ghost deserves privacy rather than exploitation, she’s not to be displayed like one of our animals, but secondly, people believe in ghosts. One leaked photo of her connecting it to us means we get overrun by ghost hunters, and if we trace it back to you, you’re done.”
Andrew seemed next-level serious about that, so I nodded. “Understood. That makes sense.”
The animals were the priority after all, I knew. I preferred them over people anyway, and that included dead people. Even if I could get a video of this ghost doing cartwheels back and forth through a wall, I would never post it and spread word of where I’d taken it. Andrew was right; the zoo would never get the paranormally-obsessed to stay away and would definitely have to relocate.
He continued, “If you’re curious, she’s never so much as tried to hurt anyone. But the zoo has moved before, and she moved with us.”
“She moved with you?” I asked, my eyebrows rising. “Is it like one of those stories where she’s attached to something in the zoo rather than a place?”
“More complicated than that,” he said. Then he grimaced. “She died because she was too ambitious with one of our animals. It never should have happened, but she… She was foolish, you’d say. Attempted to interact with one of the animals, got too close, and honestly, she should have known better. I thought she did.”
“Holy shit,” I whispered. “What killed her?”
He stared at his hands and shook his head. “It was before my time.”
It was clear Andrew was a true believer, but I still really wasn’t sure at that point. How was I supposed to react, though? Zoos have fences and tall barriers for a good reason. Not just to keep the animals away from us, but also the other way around, and ‘death by stupidity’ is not uncommon amongst humans. So, the story wasn’t outrageous, but still, I’d never so much as experienced something unexplainable. But if I saw a ghost, I suppose that’d be that.
“I just need to know, plain and simple, if you’re the kind of person who can handle things that are terrifying,” Andrew told me, splaying his hands. “Our last night shift bloke there was with us for years and years, but we spent months going through other employees. There were six we tried before we found him.”
“Six?” I exclaimed.
He snorted. “Yes, six. Let’s see…” Andrew counted off each one on his fingers. “The first two, the first night they saw the ghost, they lost it. One called me in a panic, babbling, and I had to get out of bed and drive to the zoo to send him home, and the second quit, although at least she made it to the next morning and didn’t drag me out here,” he said, his voice thoughtful. “They just thought I was blowing smoke up their bums with the whole thing.”
He shrugged. “Then, the third one was a bloke who was asleep when I got there in the morning, so I had to fire him. Then another ghost freak-out. The fifth bloke was someone who couldn’t deal with the animals, and then the sixth was so scared of the ghost that when I got here, he was already outside the zoo, pacing, waiting for my car. Apparently he’d said some stuff, rude or mean or whatnot, to try to get her to leave him alone and she had followed him back into the security room, so he fled. I need the opposite of those folks. Alright?”
At this point, I was starting to take it more seriously. Sure, this could just be Andrew’s thing, that he believed in ghosts and then made up these sightings to ensure I believed him. But if I saw her? What would I do?
Well, this would be my job, so I would have to take it seriously. Maybe that was why the pay was so good, to make employees think twice before ditching it. From Andrew’s perspective, if it really was haunted, he was the one who had to deal with applicant after applicant quitting as soon as they laid eyes on the guest who would never leave.
“So…honestly, I can’t say I won’t freak out, considering how next level this is,” I told him, feeling compelled to go with honesty, “but yeah. I think I can handle it, mostly because it’s important for someone to look after this place, look after the animals, so I’d do my best to work around anything that freaks me out. I mean, I have to say that I’ll believe it when I see it. But if ghosts really exist, as long as it isn’t some serial killer who stuck around to keep gutting people, I’ve always thought it’d be cool to find out we can exist after we die.”
The thing is, I think I did believe him. I thought there might really be a ghost there, because otherwise, why take it so seriously? It could’ve been that Andrew had only glimpsed her out of the corner of his eye a few times and could ascribe it to lack of sleep, but he was literally worried about word getting out. I thought that being halfway to believing him would give me the mental preparation I needed if I saw her. At least, I’d hoped so.
It turned out that most of my time would be spent at the security desk in the main building, near the entrance. Real-time footage played through thirty-five cameras around the zoo, all on a large screen that was five cameras across and seven cameras top to bottom. The cameras were impressive. I would mention the resolution, say something about them being 4K, but Andrew explained some stuff about how it’s actually the lens that is the biggest selling point. Looking at these cameras on the giant screen, I could see practically every corner of the place, and if I brought up one camera in particular to encompass 2/3 of the screen, I could zoom in so far that it felt like I could use it to check if one of the animals had fleas.
The zoo was well lit, not surprising considering nighttime was apparently the zoo’s business hours, and all of the tall lamps had red bulbs. For those of you who know why, A+ to you. For those who don’t, fun fact, it’s because red is closest to the dark and your eyes don’t need to strain to adjust to it. That meant I didn’t need my flashlight all that often, and even that was red, a solid name-brand one that had been on my desk when I arrived. I kept the white lights on back in the security room, though, because I didn’t want to make my brain think it was time to get tired.
When I headed out for my first sweep on that first night, I had the folded map in my pocket, but I already knew my way around. The layout of the zoo wasn’t that difficult to memorize, since there were only eleven expansive enclosures, and after the interview I walked around for half an hour to start training my memory. I’ll admit, working in a dark environment was creepier than I thought it would be.
I do want to mention the high quality of the zoo. The size of each enclosure was considerable, and the greenery was natural, hinting that they’d hired a pricey professional just to do landscaping toward the front of the enclosures after buying the land. The backs of the enclosures backed up into forestry, and from the estimate I got from Andrew, it seemed each of the animals had plenty of roaming space, including the small lake at the northwest corner and a manmade lake for one of the animals in particular. When I considered all of that, the thought passed through my head about how horrible it would be if word got out about the zoo having a ghost and needing to relocate, because it’d be devastatingly expensive.
My orders were to walk the zoo once every hour. This was my first security gig, so I’m not sure if that’s more or less than typical, but I had my comfy hiking boots on, the ones I’d saved up for and invested in a couple years earlier and were perfect for a job where I had to do laps around an area. This job was one that I didn’t have to worry about my shoulder pain worsening, since it was mostly about being on my feet. I take one or two Vicodin a day, depending on how bad my pain is. It came in handy in high school, actually. With a flexible ‘take as needed’ prescription, I occasionally sold pills for extra cash.
There wasn’t much to step in and there weren’t even any dips in the concrete sidewalks that I followed around in a route that easily led me back and forth until I made my way back to the office. The first three nights were actually boring. I would have thought Andrew had been pranking me about the ghost, but like I said, it hadn’t felt like that. And he hadn’t been specific about when she showed up for new people, or even for him.
To keep myself busy, I’d brought my e-reader with me, and I got into a cycle of looking over each of the cameras every time I hit the end of a chapter. I’m a pretty fast reader, so it was a good system. Also, every once in a while, I looked up if something moving caught my eye, like an owl flying close enough for the camera to catch it, but that’s about it.
Then, every hour on the hour, I did a walk through. The fourth night, I was passing by the small lake at the back left corner of the property when I saw her.
People say that you can tell if someone’s staring at you, that there’s some sixth sense humans have. It’s not true; they’ve done experiments. But the thing is, all those experiments were of someone human looking at them. After this last shift, I would guess that the sixth sense that sends goosebumps down your arms, the one that makes you feel an intangible pressure, that slides your body toward fight or flight mode, might be true of…other things.
Slowly coming to a stop at the disturbing feeling, I hesitantly looked around, through the trees. Then my heart skipped a beat and my breath hitched. It was startling because she wasn’t moving. Just standing among the trees, staring at me. I broke out in a cold sweat as I stared back at her, unsure what to do. I didn’t run. I didn’t try to talk to her. I just stood there. So, there’s my answer to Andrew: I didn’t freak out. I just froze.
The woman was Latina, her skin tone pallid from death, and was dressed as he’d described her, in slacks and a silky blue blouse. And she was soaked, as if she’d just walked out of the lake. Beyond that, her shirt was drenched in blood from what looked like claw marks across her abdomen. Her eyes were dark and penetrating, boring holes into me, as if she were able to get any and all knowledge that she wanted about me simply by glaring. The fabric of her shirtsleeves clung to her skin and was dripping, as was her long black hair. Speaking of her hair, it appeared to have seaweed woven into it, or maybe she also grew seaweed along with hair. Not my area of expertise.
The look on her face was indescribable. There was something deep in her eyes, behind her closed-off expression, that made my heart beat rapidly. Maybe I would’ve projected some emotion into her face if I’d had any idea of what she was capable of, whether she could move objects, or possess me, or if all she did was hang around. As things stood, I was left just projecting my fears, which gave me the impression that she was cross with me simply for being present. It felt like I was trespassing, even though I was a dozen feet back from the fence that encircled the enclosure. And also, this was my job so I was explicitly allowed to be here.
She was disturbingly close, and remained unnaturally still. If she had attacked me, I wasn’t sure what I would’ve done. Ran, probably, but considering ghosts probably don’t follow the laws of physics, maybe she could’ve chased me at Usain Bolt speed. For all I knew, she could teleport.
After an amount of time that felt awkwardly long, I finally spoke up.
“Hi,” I croaked.
The woman slowly tilted her head but didn’t otherwise move. I’d forgotten to ask Andrew for her name, I realized, but he had mentioned her death had been before his time, so maybe he didn’t know.
Swallowing hard, I tried to take a slow, deep breath, even though it felt like there was a cinder block on my chest. “So, I, uh…I work here now,” I said slowly. “I’m night shift security.” Pausing, I kept trying to gather information from her demeanor but failed. “Is that okay?”
At that, I saw a hint of curiosity flash across her face. “Why would it not be?” Her voice sounded completely normal, which was an off-putting contrast to her appearance.
Good question. Hell if I know the answer. “I don’t know. I mean…you were here first. I don’t know if you feel like I’m…intruding…or something.”
“You’re just doing your job,” she said, her tone softening a smidge.
I waited to see if she wanted to say anything else before saying, “Right.” Can I get you anything? A towel? Some bandages? “I’ll be going now.”
The woman made no movement to come after me as I gradually took one step, then another, keeping her in my sights as I walked off. I finally had to turn to face forward, unable or unwilling to be seen by her foolishly walking away backwards. Instead of continuing my sweep, I took the path that would lead me back to the security room. I kept looking behind me and felt her eyes on me all the way back, though I didn’t see her following me. At that point, even if she hadn’t moved an inch, my brain was on red alert when it came to self-preservation and figured I would continue to feel like a wet hand might grab me from behind at any moment.
Finally, I returned to the security room, swiping my card across the panel at the back door with a beep. Opening the door, darting inside, and slamming it behind me, I walked to the far side of the room and turned around, putting my back to the wall. Until I’d gotten back, I hadn’t noticed how fast I’d been walking, how quickly I’d been gasping for air. Leaning back against the wall, my legs turned to jelly and I slowly slid to the floor.
And that was it. My first sighting of the ghost. I’d thought that if I had seen her, there would be some part of me that was skeptical, that would reason my way out of it, convinced it was a prank. But I knew. She wasn’t a person. At least, not anymore.

Sorry copied and pasted my reply to someone else's post: That describes my sister. And that's why I can't help but hate her guts. She's so bloody fake. One of the most two- faced people I've ever met. My mum's little flying monkey.
And she really reminds me of a high school bully! Like two peas in a pod. Both incredibly snobbish, stuck up and judgemental. Insecure, vindictive. Envious. Hypocritical. Always trying to stir up drama in the family. Kind to my face, talking crap about me with my mum, calling me insults and saying stuff about me that isn't true. Massive gossip. Gets bullied by her husband too apparently because she enjoys being a doormat and then takes out her insecurity on other people. Ie, namely me. Or her husband just can't stand her because she's a conniving, selfish, manipulative, two-faced bitch.
I think I discovered she was probably one of the people cyber bullying me at some point! So then, being petty, I created a troll account and trolled her in revenge.
She kind of gets her just desserts in a way, however, because my mum and other sister pretty much rip her to shreds when she's not around. Karma is fair, huh? Or maybe that's partly why she is that way. A bitter, contemptuous brat who takes all her anger from that out on me.
No joke. Once I prayed for her to quit always being a bitch to me, to change and be remorseful and then something bad happened to her.
I just want to keep out my family's way, have nothing to do with them, but they make it so hard. Always bringing me back in their stupid, pointless drama.
I even confronted her about this recently and she just denied everything, like she always does, like she used to do when she was always stealing from me. She would probably still try if I didn't lock my stuff away. And I suspect she may have started stealing from me again recently.
And then she has the nerve to call me paranoid and say stuff like that the family is concerned about me. Just proving my point that they talk about me behind my back. And she has regularly talked badly about me. As though cults don't exist and it's all in my head and she isn't a two- faced bitch and a bully who has always been controlling towards me, competitive with me and vindictive towards me.
She will do the most toxic and vile things towards me and then gaslight me as she denies it and plays the victim, pretending that she didn't do anything wrong and that everyone else is to blame.
She will also treat people like crap, walk over us, and then not speak to them/ us for weeks later and hold a massive grudge if we dare pull her up on it.
My family are honestly lucky I haven't killed them in their sleep at this point. It would really probably be the least they deserve. After all, it's not like I can just leave when I have nowhere else to go.
Family by blood and name but not by actions. Not in the ways that really matter.
If I'm contemptuous towards any of my family it's only because they made this way. They literally provoke it in me. There I am trying to live my life in peace and stay away from them, and there they are trying to make me their puppet, to do as they say, smile and look happy whilst being abused by them.
I don't want to be contemptuous but she's frankly horrible and disgusting towards me so it's like how do you like people like that? People who seem determined to hate you and make you their scapegoat while you see through all their bs?
She's now thinking she's got ADHD or something but it's clear to me she's probably just got a serious personality disorder due to unhealed childhood trauma and being triangulated by our mother her whole life.
I don't know how many narcissist traits I may have but I can see that I'm more self-aware than my siblings and that I'm constantly victimised by them.
It's incredible that they will still defend my mum and claim I'm horrible for speaking the truth and talking about her behaviour as it really is.
They actually gaslight me, call me paranoid and insist that I have a mental illness, as though completely denying all the abuse she's put me through. And when, if I did have a mental illness, it would probably mostly be from having been bullied by my siblings and my mum all my life. And even when I've walked in on them talking negatively about me countless times. And yet they deny all of that.
In their eyes our mother is apparently an angel and I'm the bad, ungrateful one who is exaggerating and being unfair and horrible to point out all the ways in which she's an abuser.
I actually expected her to say something snarky when I called our mum a toxic abuser just recently but instead she tried that whole "I'm lovely and sweet and so is mum and you're just crazy and paranoid (because situations are always so black and white, huh)" approach, as though she really believes that herself or is simply trying to convince herself. Being in denial so she doesn't have to admit any wrongdoing and the fact she's horrifically two-faced. Or because it would mean admitting that she's just like our evil mother.
She also said that what I had said was so hurtful (aw the little pathetic narcissist can't stand being called out for her constant crap) that she would never tell our mum about it but, knowing her, she probably has because she doesn't seem to give a shit about people's feelings, otherwise she wouldn't treat me the way she has.
I hate her guts and I want nothing to do with her. But she still comes round here regularly to bitch about me with our mum and I can't afford to get away, not least because I can't work long hours due to disability.
No wonder the cashier stared daggers at my mum. She could probably tell she was an abuser and saw my body language said I wanted nothing to do with her and I was trying to get away.
Also I don't know how or why she does it (probably to piss me off) but I keep noticing random stuff going missing, often my brand new favourite things and then seeing my sister turning up wearing them.
I think my mum is deliberately sneakily giving my stuff to her sometimes, claiming I don't need it because I have a lot and then gaslighting me by denying it afterwards and saying I'm delusional and crazy.
(My sister has always been envious of my clothes and used to steal openly from me with no shame and then laugh at me when I called her out on it).
Because for a while now I haven't been able to find my new favourite black shorts and I saw her wearing what looked like them yesterday. A pair of shorts I've never seen her wear before. And they looked very very like, exactly like mine that have gone missing. I even checked the brand and it sounded like the same brand.
These are some of my favourite and few pairs of sports shorts I own and I really need them and I was wearing them regularly before she stole them.
I keep some of my clothing in the attic and I'm worried that she's going to go for that stuff next.
Anything that I don't lock away seems to eventually disappear and I'm pretty sure she's behind it.
It really used to mess with my mind when I was sure I'd notice clothing disappear from my drawers and then odd items reappear later, and sometimes only when I had called her out for it. As though she only gave it back so I didn't break her neck or something (And tbh at this point I'm getting pretty close to doing exactly that).
And now any nice clothing that I don't have time or space to put in a padlocked wardrobe or my padlock bags, seems to disappear.
I knew I wasn't being OTT or paranoid to lock it away.
I don't even know how/ when she takes stuff because I'm around a lot. So I'm wondering if sometimes she sneaks in when I'm sleeping and takes it or my mum, who pretends to be on my side but secretly seems to greatly enjoy triangulating us against eachother as she has done all our lives (minus doing it to the beloved golden child who is always top queen and who my mum won't intentionally hurt) is actually the way sometimes taking stuff and giving it to her. And then only going back to retrieve it once I've already complained.
Now I can't even find my new jeans. Some even that she bought me for my birthday! Now why would she take that stuff? Is this some kind of vindictive resentment stuff because that's what it's sure looking like at this point.
I think she stalks me and sees me ranting about how much I hate them, calling them snakes and all, and so then they do this toxic, twisted stuff in an attempt to get back at me. Because they're disgusting and evil.
My golden child sibling who ironically bullies this same sibling whose side she seems to love taking against mine, is also an abusive control freak like my mum.
Just recently she came over to me and started asking what I'm doing to control me. Saying "you are doing work, right?" And she had apparently noticed my initial frostiness towards her when I ignored her when she said hi to me.
So she literally came in the room where I was minding my own business and stared saying hi over and over until I said it back. I was tempted to say "What do you want, you manipulative, annoying, two faced bitch?" But I said hi and you can see how it was basically forced from me! I didn't want to say hi. Frankly I wanted to hit her in the face.
She's one of those people who strangers like because they don't know what a fake snob she is and how she treats her own family, following in the path of generational trauma to control her own kids like our mum did to us. Evil, cowardly bitch.
She's always talking crap about other people. I hate how fake she is, thinking she's some do- gooder when she's certainly not. She's just too dim or ignorant to realise how much she's been brainwashed by our mother. It used to be the black sheep of her husband's family, who was probably treated like I am by them and had issues because of that. But of course narcissists always blame the victm, their scapegoat for all their issues.
I had considered I was being paranoid but this time but it's looking more and more like the old snake of stealing has reared its ugly head again. . A favourite dress of mine that I wear regularly has gone missing. I've checked both of my wardrobes and my drawers and it's not there. I think I remember where I put it and she or my mum must have taken it directly out of my wardrobe because she probably told my mum that she liked it and my evil mother wanted to upset me deliberately and create drama and so probably gave it to her.
The main reason I don't lend her stuff is because she steals it. And also of course because she's horrible to me and I hate her (i never had any issue with lending to the sister i liked who wasn't a covert narcissist). She doesn't take it to give it back and doing so is also a huge inconvenience when the other person already lives in another house. Trying to get it back. In fact I'm actually thinking of matching over there today to search all her wardrobes.
The number of times my mum (who I now realise probably gave her my things in the first place, making my sister feeling more justified in taking it) has gone over there to find my missing stuff in her wardrobe. And sometimes she couldn't find it but I think my sister still has the items because I've seen the audacious bitch come around here wearing it. Like she probably has gotten more crafty and purposely hides it for whenever my mum searches over there.
Idk if I also have npd but then I have Asperger's so the two can often look the same, but I do know my feelings are valid and I'm pretty sure that no one deserves to be treated this way.
Plus, even if I'm a narcissist, I'm the kind who keeps to myself. Perhaps a little attention-seeking but I never purposely bother others.
And tbh maybe I'm this way because my family have scapegoated me all life so how could I have turned out any other way?
I know the cult stuff seems to be real so it doesn't seem like I'm wrong about all of this stuff either and my own problems, my dad's paedophilia, my mum and my siblings ' narcissism was probably all socially engineered by these evil people. Those evil, evil twits. It may be partly genetic but made worse by them and their influence, no doubt.
Sure, maybe like Sheldon Cooper, who I relate to in some ways, I'm a difficult person. I can't deal with change. I may be deeply damaged. I might be internally a bit misogynistic. But then it's no wonder being raised in a matriarchal family like mine, is it? When the women are perhaps the worst or among the worst people in the family. Just in different ways to my dad, who is a violent control freak obsessed with controlling everyone else but also probably a paedophile.
Maybe this is how I am or maybe it's mostly caused by the way I've been raised.
Or perhaps to you this sounds like a long schizophrenic rant, even though I'm pretty positive it's not. Because I never imagined my sister stealing from me in the past. And I'm pretty positive I'm not imagining all the cyberstalkking and cyber bullying, in person bullying and harassment, either. The weird, creepy, horrible, disturbing messages left for me in graffiti. Oh so many shades of Eyes Wide Shut.
Maybe it's not normal to get this upset about siblings stealing from you or maybe it is. I'd say it's justified anger whether I'm a narcissist or not. For I still have feelings, concerns, a beating heart like everyone else. Sadly I'm just a lot more damaged then most people are. And my family doing this to me is simply reinforcing or adding to the extensive damage they've already done to me.
And it's not just the stealing itself, it's what it represents. The lack of respect, the audacity to then lie about it and gaslight me. It's basically bullying and it's exactly the sort of thing bullies used to do to me in primary school. They would steal my pens, hide them from me until eventually I basically snapped, screamed at them and told the teacher.
I know that most people would probably feel this annoyed about it (see even now I'm feeling guilty like I have to justify normal reactions to being disrespected or something). I'm thinking it's almost like my sister may be under mind control with how obnoxious she acts sometimes. Especially if it keeps happening even when you tell them not to.
Perhaps most people wouldn't feel homicidal and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. As I'm feeling now. I do regularly feel things more strongly than others, I don't deny it. But is that such a bad things? Counterintuitively it proves I'm human. It's a normal, justified human emotion.
It's the bullying that makes me want to leave and never come back.
It's the way my golden child sibling smiled evilly (she had her back to me and probably couldn't tell I saw it) when I asked my mum to ask my sister where she had bought her shorts from because I have a very similar pair or identical pair that's gone missing. And my mum tried to gaslight me by, first of all insisting they were navy when I'm pretty positive they were black, and she insisted my sister had worn these shorts last year (not that I ever saw) and they didn't look anything like mine (she probably doesn't remember what mine even looked like) and then basically contradicting herself when she said that perhaps she'd bought them from the same place as me. Unbelievable!
I've heard my mum do this before, knowing her she probably did tell my sister they're mine but I could take them. Or my sister snuck up to my room and stole mine when she was changing out of her jeans. She has a habit of not coming prepared and then doing annoying stuff like grabbing other people's clothes even out of the washing basket of freshly cleaned clothes.
I really don't find it funny and I don't understand how my other sister could be such a bitch to smile at my hurt over this. That's literally what evil is. Schadenfreude. Delighting in another person's suffering. And even worse if you're one of the people actually causing it.
I could have sworn I even heard my mum asking her where she got the shorts from in the garden and then my sister replying that they didn't have her size. Implying she felt entitled to steal a pair of mine because she couldn't find her size in the shop. My brand new favourite pair.
Whether in any shape or form I'm ever delusional, I don't think I imagined this conversation. I have good hearing after all. And I also heard something about a green dress, and that's the dress of mine that's gone missing!
So my mum basically knows and is also lying to me, pretending I'm delusional?
Is she a sadist or something? Do you think she actually gets off on my pain? Enjoys triangulating us against us in this way instead of doing the mature adult thing, apologising to my sister for the emotional damage she did to her that makes her feel the need to treat me like this, and then telling her to fuck off and buy her own clothes and stay about 100 yards away from my room and my wardrobes at all times?!
Last night I was so angry about all this- my dad was being horrible and violent too as he often is, banging things around and threatening to harm us both because I was sitting with my dog, apparently stopping her from getting to sleep- fyi my dog went and curled up on her basket anyway and was happy to say goodnight to me- that i actually briefly considered killing them both in their sleep. And then, ideally, moving onto my siblings houses next.
I know this is evil and wrong, no matter how horrible my family have been to me, but it's just a fantasy and I was feeling so trapped and upset, especially by living with my horrible dad, that I felt desperate. Especially if that git really is working for the Illuminati and that may be the real reason he's such an obnoxious, uptight ass all the time.
It wasn't an idea of wilful evil, it was much more like "how do I escape all this? What are the options left to me at this point?" Because it often feels like it's either me or them. I'm even considering self harming, something I'd have never dreamed of doing in the past.
You think it's just my family's bullying? Well that's bad enough. My sister especially, apparently not thinking I deserve anything nice in my life that she shouldn't be able to take from me like we're some weird lesbian bosom sisters or something ( I actually find her behaviour pretty creepy and borderline incestuous lesbian if I'm being completely honest here. What normal person likes sharing another person's sweat from their worn clothes, soaking in their body aromas?) . But it's the whole cult. It's everything.
And even if I were schizophrenic, clearly I'm not imagining everything and it does seem like my siblings are massively gaslighting me.
And schizophrenics are often partly the result of being raised in families like mine. Not always. Every situation is different, of course.
And because of their abuse I start imagining things that really aren't real.
So after my mum and sister left the house yesterday, I had trouble focusing on work applications because I kept hearing their voices having a loud conversation. Like they were in the next room. And they were talking about me.
I mean who knows if I'm psychic and I was hearing things they've said about me when I wasn't around. Except I couldn't really make out specific words, it was more like an endless chatter.
It got so bad for me that I had to go and check every room in the house, including the bathrooms, even outside in the shed, to check that they weren't there. I rang my mum's phone and it turned out she had left it behind, which only seemed to reinforce my delusion. Her car was here too. Well it turned out she had only popped over to the neighbour's house as she often does.
Perhaps my golden child sibling was smiling because she thought I sounded paranoid but I'm not sure, the smile seemed oddly smug and perhaps she found out that I called her a snake online ( I guess she is too stupid to realise that her smiling about this would be only be proving my point because golden child narcs apparently never feel they're in the wrong and I've seen this before in her very unusual responses to certain situations).
I'm literally thinking about cutting myself, something I have never done before. I had a fantasy about stabbing myself earlier and just seeing if I would die from it, or if the Illuminati have really already killed me and now I'm just a clone.
I wish knowing this my siblings would stop with all their bs but I know from past experience it's not enough. I've told my sister plenty of times how much her behaviour pisses me off and she doesn't care. And she even tries to turn it back around on me and imply that I'm the one who doesn't care about her feelings. I guess because of her covert narcissism she has diminished empathy. Maybe I do too and that's why I fantasise about killing my whole family.
If I killed myself, they would probably still blame it all on me and talk to strangers about how troubled I was, how it had nothing to do with them and how they are all perfect angels.
Fuck them. Fuck the Illuminati. Fuck the devil If I kill myself or cut myself it's because I feel trapped and see no other way out.
When I stop and think calmly, I think "Ok, it's just very obnoxious and annoying what they're doing. And is it really worth dying over this?"
But then another voice says "No, it's not dramatic and irrational how you're feeling at all. You've been deeply hurt and it appears you're being bullied at home and everywhere you go and not imagining most or some of it at the very least. Your feelings are valid. Your pain is valid. And they were some really comfy and cute shorts and a lovely dress you had sworn you would destroy your sister over if she ever stole them.
This isn't just about the clothes, remember, it's everything! It's the accumulative effects of narc abuse and your own fractured personality resulting from it that can't handle change and struggles in day to day life.
It's knowing that no matter what you do, you can't completely stop it and change how people act and that killing them also wouldn't solve anything.
It's knowing that this goes beyond your family. These people are too powerful. Or else you've become mentally ill from your family abusing you.
It's the stress of what you're already dealing with, on top of the stealing."
And yeah, so I'm feeling at my wit's end.
I'm pretty sure I've searched everywhere the missing items would be.
I'm thinking I might go over there, barge in, and ransack her whole house until I find everything.
And, if that doesn't work and I don't find my things, I might cut myself and hope I catch an infection and die from it.
I'm thinking even if my sister is having marriage troubles that may or may not be affecting her kid's behaviour at school, and she is hiding this from the rest of the family, this gives her no right to take this out on me and ruin my life because of it."
That's not fair. And I'm already doing through so much already and on the verge of a severe mental breakdown because of it.
Update: I should probably add that if I seem like a hoarder with severe emotional issues, I think it's pretty apparent why. Or else it's because of my Asperger's.
But this still gives no justification for my sibling to disrespect me like this. If anything it makes her behaviour even worse.
My family tries to defend her by saying that she has her own emotional issues. Except it seems more like covert narcissism to me that's her emotional issues. And that they are directly enabling it. My issues don't make me steal from my own family.
I have such an issue with change. Ordinary life situations can be torturous enough for me as it is without my family deliberately upsetting me for their own selfishness or their own amusement.
I feel like my mum is one of those "Christians" who Jesus would have an issue with for causing so much drama and brokenness in my family.
And this may sound horrible but if my sister is still stealing from me as it appears she might be, I kind of hope her husband is really horrible to her because I've lost nearly all sympathy and empathy for her at this point.
I've heard some people say that they steal their siblings' clothes back if they do this to them. But to me this doesn't make it sound like they're actually ok with it, it's just petty revenge instead of dealing with the root problem. The problem being that one person is an obnoxious jerk who apparently feels justified in what they do because otherwise they would stop. I don't think it's just poor impulse control. I think they could stop if they wanted. Otherwise you may as well say every rapist's problem is poor impulse control. And as a rape survivor myself, while the rapes were horrible and traumatic, being stolen from is insidiously so annoying and, unlike the rapes, it's never-ending. So as someone who has been subjected to both, I don't want either of those evils in my life. Even if one might objectively be worse than the other. It's apples and oranges. Different problems.
Not to mention that I don't want any of my sister's clothes, I like my own. And clearly she does too and that's her problem. I'm also not a huge fan of second-hand clothing or the idea of someone else wearing my clothing and covering it in their own sweat. Especially if they then give it back unwashed.
No one I've ever met has been ok with this, unless they are really close and respectful enough to give the stuff back afterwards and they're living in the same house so it's not an inconvenience.
But, as is pretty clear, me and my siblings do not live together and we don't have that kind of relationship, as my mum has basically ensured that we hate each other since birth.

...this conniving hyper-intelligent evil mofo would most certainly have built nearly impenetrable steel/iron gates and works ALL AROUND Mt Doom, certainly and especially at the entrance leading into the lava chamber. Remember what Gandalf said of Sauron:
"Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice. But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of reckoning."
Now, you may think with that quote I'm undoing my own argument here... but read that once more. In a sense, it is a contradictory statement of sorts. On one hand, he is so wise he "weighs ALL things to a nicety", but then on the other hand he lusts after power so greatly he can't imagine others NOT doing the same... but at the cost of a glaring blind spot. So which is it? Well, clearly in the books he doesn't fortify Mt Doom all that heavily, there is a weak point, the fellowship finds it and exploits it, then Gollum pulls the last trigger to seal the deal on Sauron's downfall, and there you have it. There's your literary answer and I'm a fool to contest it, you say...
However, that still doesn't fully satisfy the quandary there, and leaves that blind spot still open to scrutiny as to what he reasonably and by all rights should and would have done, when fully considering his character more fully than just the typical rejoinder of "Well, he didn't THINK anyone could ever do that, so he just didn't bother." Really though? After all, he fortified and thought to strengthen literally everything else around him, why not add a touch more love to fortify Mt Doom? What would it hurt, to be safe than sorry? As though that single thought and weakness had NEVER crossed his mind in 1000s of years constantly sitting around thinking about everything under the sun related to his own power and plans of conquest (and his weak points), down to every last detail? Even after having literally been defeated in the 2nd age in the battle of the Last Alliance and nearly had the One tossed into Mt Doom once already, and thus barely missed complete destruction by a hair the last time around?
I know how Tolkien wrote it, but same as with the "why didn't the eagles just fly the ring straight there?" logical challenge, in a similar vein I don't quite buy it (the answer to it, that is). Yes, questioning this even while simultaneously having infinite respect for the man and the story, naturally.
Let's return to Sauron, then...
This is a Maiar who is as old as Arda, by this point EONS old. Arda is debatably anywhere between 30,000-50,000 solar years old by the end of the 3rd age. So, the guy is older than time itself, the word ancient hardly scratches the surface, and he has been evil and plotting the majority of all that time, since Morgoth corrupted him shortly after arriving on Arda. And in that time, Mairon-Annatar-Sauron has seen or heard or studied literally ALL of the battles between the Valar, elves, men and Morgoth, going back to the very beginning. He was there for all of it. He helped designed and build numerous fortresses and keeps and works for his old boss and in his own reign, going back many millennia. He has personally witnessed and fought in countless battles, and seen the mighty laid low by the weak and seemingly helpless. He understands what a "critical flaw" is, what we would call in Earth mythology an "Achilles Heel". This concept is not foreign to him. And again, he is one of the most cunning strategists and most capable smiths in Arda, second only to Aulë. He crafted the One over decades of labor in his secret forge at Mt Doom, intimately and always aware that Mt Doom's lava is the only thing that could destroy it. Remember also, like Morgoth, Sauron knew FEAR, and was secretly afraid of many things... afraid of the Valar, afraid of elves and men allying themselves against him once more, even a little bit afraid of Aragorn, certainly afraid of "death" or at least the version of death that Morgoth before him had suffered to be cast out through the Door of Night back into the Void beyond. Fear becomes paranoia especially in an evil selfish mind, and paranoia can make you think of CRAZY SHIT. Even crazy shit that might seem unimaginable. And someone trying to destroy the ring is hardly unimaginable to him.
But you're telling me this same Sauron simply... "forgot" (or) "didn't think"... to build as simple of a preventative measure as gates and works surrounding all entrances to Mt Doom?
Also keep in mind, just because Gandalf and his allies didnt THINK that Sauron would ever suspect anyone of trying to destroy something so powerful and amazing and quickly corrupting as the One, doesn't necessarily MEAN that Sauron didn't ever think of that. Just means that was the fellowship's best educated guess at the time according to their own mind-theory of the grand chess board of the world and their great adversary's likely moves, that's all.
You can cite all the typical "He didn't think anyone would dooooo that!" type arguments. Still, I just don't buy it. I think realistically, being the character he was, he totally and absolutely would have. A mind like his might not even have thought of it for... 1,875 years! That's a LONG ass time not thinking of some vital shit as important and glaring as that. I will even posit that much. Guy was busy, after all. Lot's of minions to bully about. But then guess what... he's still Sauron. He thinks of the little things, eventually. So, after 1875 years having NOT thought of it (I'll give you that much), he then inevitably wakes up one day out of bed on the very next year of 1876, and as he's looking into his Palantir he has a random thought, and on that morning he thinks to himself:
"You know what... I STILL don't have the One ring yet. And that giant volcano is wide open, if someone were to infiltrate my realm somehow. Sure, nobody would want to destroy it, and sure they'd never even be able to get within 100 miles of it. But then again, the One is still out there and... there are those DAMNED eagles, Manwe's personal pets. Fuckin' Valar, hate those cocky bastards. You know what, it won't ever happen, BUT, I'm Sauron, I'm wise and crafty and weigh all things to a nicety in my secret lair of endless plotting, sooooo let me knock out this one worry right NOW, while I'm still chillin in Mordor and the whole world is still asleep, and put up some beefy-ass gates 'n works to plug up Mt Doom. That way IF anybody were to roll up in here with the One and try to destroy it again, they'd at least have to get through some black-gate quality walls of steel to do so first! Alright, let me assign the 45th construction regiment on that, stat. I will sleep easier for the next 2000 years knowing that hole is plugged...."
The point is there, that he WOULD have thought of it at some point. He exists in his tower of Barad-Dur constantly staring down at that volcano every single day. Of course he would have thought of it. Even as a random ridiculous passing thought, in all those millennia chillin there (and around). Inevitably so.
________________________________________________________
Now, having said all that, unlike the "why didn't the eagles just fly the ring straight there?" challenge, I don't think Mt Doom being gated up and practically impenetrable would have ended or even changed the story. Frodo and Sam could still have arrived there and by some small crevice or gap that maybe inadvertently Gollum showed them the way through (small rewrite to pen that in as such) or whatever other way, they still found their way in and the story ended the same way.
In fact, even if there were massive gates barring the last little few feet of the way, blocking the hobbits after that whole arduous journey... so what? An eagle lands dropping Gandalf there at the tightly shut door to Mt Doom (he possessed the other remaining Palantir, mind you, he could have seen the hobbits arrived there and then called an eagle to meet htem), the flying Ringwraiths and eagles battle it out in a badass aerial dogfight and Gandalf the White (his more powerful 2nd incarnation) nearly dies using all of his Maia energy to create a tiny crack in the iron doors (Narya even shatters at the effort, let's say), and... big deal, hobbits still get in, Gollum still bites Frodo's finger and falls in.
So, I'm not arguing against the story playing out the same way it did or saying it was implausible. Many ways to easily work around the "there would have been a gate there" logical challenge.
All I'm saying is, perhaps for no other greater point than to try to make the point... he WOULD have built gates and works around Mt Doom to defend it better (and yes, obviously kept them shut pretty much always, with him alone having the key). 100%. Leaving such a critical vulnerability as glaring as that wide open because "he didn't think anyone would do that" just doesn't add up. It's just not Sauron. Yes the books say he didn't think of it, but I just don't buy Sauron would leave it wide open for anyone to waltz in. Makes no sense. People tried to destroy the One before and he knew they did. Sauron was also aware that the elves and wizards knew how to destroy it, even going back to Celebrimbor's days. So that is just not a convincing argument. Personally, I think it's a convenient oversight Tolkien thought about but maybe left in there anyway because it made it easy for the whole Frodo-Gollum confusion coup de grâce final climax to happen without anyone else needing to be there or other obstacles in the way, and because it also jived well with the whole "this is how we're going to plausibly destroy the Ring" story arc. But NOT because it actually made sense with who Sauron really was.
I also say all this with tremendous respect to JRRT, because... there ain't many of these kinds of gaps/plot holes in the entire legendarium, you REALLY have to dig for them! That says tons.

1. Simile:
Definition: A figure of speech that compares two different things using the words "like" or "as."
Example: The night sky was like a vast canvas, scattered with stars as bright as diamonds.
2. Metaphor:
Definition: A figure of speech that implies a comparison between two unrelated things, stating that one thing is another.
Example: Time is a thief, silently stealing moments from our lives.
3. Hyperbole:
Definition: A figure of speech involving exaggerated statements not meant to be taken literally.
Example: The suitcase weighed a ton, making it nearly impossible to carry.
4. Understatement:
Definition: A figure of speech where a writer deliberately represents something as much less than it actually is.
Example: The storm brought a bit of rain; nothing too major, just a small flood in the living room.
5. Personification:
Definition: A figure of speech where human qualities are attributed to non-human entities.
Example: The wind whispered secrets through the ancient trees.
6. Assonance:
Definition: The repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words in a sentence.
Example: The melody of the evening breeze gently swept through the fields of wheat.
7. Onomatopoeia:
Definition: The use of words that imitate the sound they describe.
Example: The door creaked open, and footsteps echoed in the empty hallway.
8. Alliteration:
Definition: The repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words.
Example: The playful puppy pranced through the park, chasing butterflies.
*9. Oxymoron:
Definition: A figure of speech that combines contradictory terms.
Example: The comedian's humor was both dark and lighthearted, creating an unsettling joy.
10. Irony:
Definition: A figure of speech in which words express a meaning opposite to their literal interpretation.
Example: The fire station burned down while the firefighters were on vacation—what a twist of irony.
11. Pun:
Definition: A play on words that have multiple meanings or sound similar but have different meanings.
Example: Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
12. Juxtaposition:
Definition: Placing two elements side by side to present a contrast.
Example: In the bustling city, the serene park offered a juxtaposition of tranquility amid the urban chaos.
13. Synecdoche:
Definition: A figure of speech where a part represents the whole or the whole represents a part.
Example: "All hands on deck" implies the need for the assistance of the entire crew.
14. Metonymy:
Definition: A figure of speech where one term is substituted with another closely related term.
Example: The White House issued a statement on the recent policy changes.
15. Zeugma:
Definition: A figure of speech where a word applies to multiple parts of the sentence.
Example: She stole both his wallet and his heart that fateful night.
16. Epiphora:
Definition: The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.
Example: The forest was mysterious, the mountains were majestic, and the rivers were enchanting.
17. Euphemism:
Definition: Substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for a harsh or blunt one.
Example: She passed away peacefully in her sleep, euphemizing the concept of death.
18. Anthimeria:
Definition: The use of a word in a grammatical form it doesn't usually take.
Example: She bookmarked the page to return to the thrilling story later.
19. Chiasmus:
Definition: A figure of speech in which the order of terms in one of the clauses is inverted in the other.
Example: "Do I love you because you're beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you?" - Cinderella
20. Allusion:
Definition: A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.
Example: His ambition was Caesar-like; he aimed to conquer not only Rome but the hearts of its people.
21. Allegory:
Definition: A narrative in which characters and events represent abstract ideas or moral qualities . Example: Orwell's "Animal Farm" serves as an allegory for political corruption and the abuse of power.
22. Metonymy:
Definition: A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted with another closely associated with it.
Example: The pen is mightier than the sword, emphasizing the power of the written word over physical force.
23. Sarcasm:
Definition: The use of irony to mock or convey contempt.
Example: "Nice job on the presentation," she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm as the audience chuckled.
24. Understatement:
Definition: A figure of speech where a writer deliberately represents something as much less than it actually is.
Example: The mountain climber faced a slight challenge as he ascended Everest, navigating only a few treacherous crevices.
25. Cliché:
Definition: An expression or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning.
Example: The detective followed the suspect's trail like a bloodhound, relying on the cliché methods of his trade. *

Wow, look at the time fly! It's already time for another weekly installment of STOP IT RIGHT THERE!
You know what to do...post up all the stuff you've saved up knowing it would get deleted from the front page of /hawks by the crypto-anarcho-fascist mods.
Memes, geajersey pics, poems you've penned professing your love for Lord Hossa (The One True King), or links to article about some oddball couple in Manitoba who named their kid Duncan Seabrook. Whatever. We don't give a shit.
The only rule here is to be excellent to each other. Civility matters.
Now get to it!!

LET'S GO HAWKS!!!