To start this story off, I suppose it's best to talk a little bit about myself and my experience in the TTRPG space. I've been an avid TTRPG enthusiast for almost two decades now. Yes, I'm a bit of an old hat/old fogey. I started my enjoyment of the hobby with Pathfinder 1st edition, eventually transferring over to DnD 5e when it first arrived on the scene, mostly because it was the new hotness, but I ultimately found that it was better suited for the type of games that I enjoy running at my table. While I very adamantly enjoy the structure that a game's mechanical rules bring to the table, 5e provided a rules system that wasn't invasive, and so me and my friends were able to focus on the things about the game that we enjoyed the most - the roleplaying, the storytelling, and (most importantly) the fun.
Many years would go by, as well as a couple of what I would consider to be successful campaigns - basically anything that managed to survive longer than 3 months. Scheduling, right? I digress. Eventually, I arrived at a point where my current circle of friends and I were itching to play a new campaign, and for the shits and giggles of it we decided we would livestream it on Twitch. At the time, we had managed to get affiliated on Twitch, and one or two of us would occasionally have a couple of viewers pop in when we were streaming whatever video game we were playing, and we figured it would be fun to do the same thing with our next campaign. So we did. As you might expect, nothing really ever came out of it. We were just doing it for fun. The campaign only lasted about 3 months or so, and we never set out with the expectation that what we were releasing into the world was anything amazing - we were just four normal dudes having fun playing a game we enjoyed, and if you happened to find yourself on our Twitch channel to see it, awesome! If not, cool. We weren't doing it for you.
So, yeah, that campaign eventually fell off, and we would eventually return to just streaming whatever video game excited us. One of friends got married, and had a kid, and was too busy for DnD. Another friend got a new job, and his schedule just didn't give him the time. Hell, even I managed to land a pretty decent job at the time, and I struggled to make time for our weekly video game nights, but I managed. But ever since that streamed campaign had ended, I had an itch in the back of my mind that I really wanted to scratch. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about livestreaming our campaign. Sure, it was nothing to write home about, but I fell in love with the showmanship of it all. Maybe it was because of the thought of the potential for someone to eventually watch it, but whenever we would stream, I would get in the zone and pretend I was putting on a show for thousands (even though we may have only ever had three or four viewers at max). Basically, I had fallen in love with the idea of putting on a show for others, and I knew I would jump at the chance to do it again in the future. Enter Wayne.
A little over a year ago (at the time of this posting), I was perusing through the /LFG subreddit and not looking for anything in particular, when I stumbled across a post that checked off all the boxes.
I don't like to admit that I'm picky, but that fact that this sub exists should give credence to that fact that one should, at the very least, have a criteria when looking for games to invest yourself in when looking at advertisements. And if my little backstory above should inform you, there were a number of things on my checklist that this post had. For starters, it was longer than a few sentences. Clearly, the person who posted this was meticulous about what they wanted and what they didn't want (I would learn, much later on, that Wayne was not the one who wrote the post, but one of his players). Secondly, the post was very adamant about what was of paramount importance at the table - rich and compelling narratives, deep exploration of characters, and a passion for roleplay. And thirdly, the plan was to turn this into a "production". The post even included a promo video of respectable quality. Clearly, the people involved with this had a plan, much more of a plan than my friends and I had when we streamed. And, I considered myself a pretty decent roleplayer, so I applied. They were only looking for 1 applicant, but I figured I had a decent shot, with my previous livestreaming experience, and the fact that I already owned a (what some would call excessive) microphone and camera. So I shot my shot. If I didn't get picked, no biggie, life goes on. But when I received a discord invite and told that I had made it to the second round of the application process, I was ecstatic.
It is around here that I should introduce you to our cast of characters (names have been changed, of course:

• There is, of course, me, Dave - a guy who fundamentally believes that fun and safety at a table supersedes everything else, who happens to really enjoy hamming it up in character, and telling exciting stories.
  
• Ava - an already confirmed player at the table, with a past experience of playing with Wayne. I would come to find out that Ava was the one who had written the LFG post. Ava was also in charge of Discord moderation, and the second round interview process. She has her own story, which I will allude to here, but is ultimately hers to share.
  
• Jelly - Wayne's significant other. Jelly was supposedly not involved with the upcoming campaign at all, but had a presence on the Discord, and have previously played in Wayne's campaigns.
  Seth - another already confirmed player at the table. Admittedly, Seth plays a minor role in the story, but his inclusion is necessary.
  
  • and Wayne - the lead character of our story. The DM of the upcoming campaign. The visionary. The guy who plans to have the next big thing in the TTRPG actual play space.

There are at least a half dozen other individuals involved in this story, but ultimately play very minor roles. If at some point while I am writing this one of them pop up, I will update the list above to include them.
Back to the story. I was ecstatic to find out I had been selected for an Discord interview and scheduled it at my earliest convenience. This is where I first meet Ava. To be honest, I don't recall much about the interview, but I remember it being pretty standard and what I was expecting an interview to be. Mostly it was just going into detail about some of the stuff I had included in my primary application and talking about expectations and goals. I was told that after the Discord interview, the next step would be a participation in a practice one shot, to get a feel for how I would play at the table. After the interview was over, Wayne hopped into the voice channel, and this would be when I would meet the man, the legend.
I pride myself on being very good at reading people. I can usually pick up on when someone is trying to sell me something, pretty quickly. I tend to over analyze words and expression looking for intent. I have been gaslit and manipulated several times in my past by people very close to me, and so I have developed this defense when meeting people for the first time. Very rarely do I take someone at their word, or completely buy what they are selling when I hardly know them, and even less so to a complete stranger. In this case, when meeting Wayne for the first time, my defenses failed me.
Perhaps it was because it had been over a year since I last ran a campaign. Perhaps it was because it had been even longer than that that I actually got to be a player in a campaign. Perhaps it was because of that itch of wanting to perform again for an audience. Or, perhaps, it was because Wayne was very good at pitching his plans. Whatever the reason, my first impression of Wayne was that this was a guy who had a plan, and had the means to enact that plan, and I wanted to be a part of it in any way that I could.
Wayne, you see, had two big passions in life. The first was DnD. The second, as he would admit, was being an entrepreneur. He owned his own business in New York City. One of several ventures he had pursued, and it afforded him a premium NYC apartment and the time and luxury to spend on his second passion - playing DnD. And so, he thought, why not marry these two passions together? He had a great head for business. And according to him, the last campaign he had run was fantastic. So fantastic, he thought, that surely other people would enjoy listening to it. And so he hatched a plan - he would use his business knowledge and savvy to launch a Youtube channel that would be home to his next great campaign. But he had the foresight, at least, to know of just how saturated the DnD actual play space has become in recent years. If he wanted to be successful at this venture, he would have to stand out from the rest. And he had a solution to that. He wasn't going to put out just any old DnD actual play. He was going to create "DnD Cinema".
To do that, he said, he needed the right people that share in the same core philosophies that he had. Namely, a "pretentious level of hyperfixation on roleplaying and narrative storytelling". Most other actual plays, to him, were playing "beer and pretzels" DnD. You know, the type of game were you sit around with your friends having a good time and a laugh, where you might spend five minutes on an out of character joke, etc. Shit like that wasn't going to fly in this campaign. When you came to the table, you were going to be in character from start to finish. And recording sessions were going to be seven hours long. Could I handle that?
And I admit that I told him I could. Like I said, he had a way with words. He was clearly passionate about it. And he talked a good talk. And he was friendly enough. So he said he would be in touch. And the wait began.
Over the course of the next month or so, I would come to become friends with Ava and Wayne. We would hop into Discord and play games, talk about the upcoming campaign, etc. It was going to be several months before the campaign actually began recording, and so Wayne was still conducting the interview process while also working on worldbuilding for the campaign. He was also spending over $3000 dollars commissioning an animated table for the youtube video. This was clearly something he was very proud of, as he took every and all opportunity to talk about how amazing and innovative it was going to be.
You see, in Wayne's vision of "DnD cinema", the videos that would be put up on youtube would not include the faces of the players. Or battlemaps. Instead, it would be animated table that he could manipulate in editing at various cue points. It would feature portraits of the characters that would light up when they speak. It was the next big thing in the TTRPG space - a (frankly) audio only experience that was accentuated with the occasional fancy animation that cost thousands of dollars. No one else was doing it, he would say, and that would help him stand out even more.
It was also during these more innocent days that I would come to understand Wayne's obsession with Brennan Lee Mulligan. He idolized the guy. In fact, he would brag on multiple occasions that his significant other's job had her 3 or 4 degrees removed from Brennan - basically, she worked for someone who worked for someone who was involved with the Dungeons and Drag Queens season of Dimension 20, and he would often mention how he was hoping to use that connection to someday have a sit down and meet and greet with BLeeM himself. As time would go on, I would eventually find out that Wayne actually considered Brennan Lee Mulligan as his competition.
About a month would past before I would hear anything about my application. I never brought it up during our gaming sessions, as another core tenet of mine is that I don't want my friendship or acquaintance with someone to give me an edge over other candidates. I want my experience and what I bring to the table to stand on its own merit. This will come up later in our story. Eventually, I would get a message from Wayne asking me if I would be interested in participating in a try out one shot for the campaign. Apparently, he had completely forgotten that I had applied, and wanted to schedule in a last minute try out for me. My fellow players during the one shot would be Ava, some other member of the discord community, and Jelly.
I'll be honest, the one shot was nothing to write home about. And even Wayne would admit it was something he threw together last minute so that he could say I had my chance. I immediately found Ava to be a fantastic scene partner, and even for a one shot, put the time and effort into her character and actions. Jelly, on the other hand, was not that good. To be fair to Jelly, my criteria for grading her performance was strictly on the curve that Wayne himself said he was grading people on. I found her to be a very selfish player, who failed to pick up on narrative cues, and was solely focused on her time in the spotlight. But it was a trial one shot that didn't mean anything. My biggest take away from Jelly was that she was a player that I would not enjoy playing with in the future, and that I wouldn't seek out as a player at a table that I was DMing for. Not horror story bad (yet), but not good. Average.
When the application process was done, it would eventually come down to two choices. I was one. Wayne loved my southern twang, and thought it would sound good in a production. And we had become friends. The other was someone with a theater and acting background, who had been to Julliard. I was not selected. And I was okay with that. The decision did not impact my friendship with either Ava or Wayne, and we continued to hang out and play games together. I then learned of Wayne's new plan.
In the original posting ad for the campaign, it had been mentioned that a possibility for guest character appearing in the campaign could happen. The original idea was that, as members of the Discord community would play in one shots, Wayne would then be able to invite stand out performance to appear in an episode or two of the new campaign, as a gift to the community and to give those players a chance to play in a campaign with other players of similar caliber. This all changed as the months got closer to release date. The idea for guests at the table changed completely. Instead, Wayne's plan was to use the guest spots at the table as a networking opportunity. Don't forget - Wayne is an entrepreneur. This was a business venture for him, and successful businesses need to show growth. And he wanted to achieve growth at an accelerated pace. The plan was simple - as the channel grew, Wayne would scour the internet for similar channels with slightly higher subscriber count than his. Well, I say Wayne would do this. Wayne would actually pawn this off on to someone else. A tangent that I will perhaps need to touch on later in this story - Wayne was very good at finding ways of pawning off work on to others, and then taking the credit. He very much believe himself to be a manager, and other members of the Discord that showed any interest in the success of this venture as his employees. He would then engage in communications with these other channels in the hopes of achieving some Quid Pro Quo. You send someone to be a guest on our channel for a few episodes, and we'll shout you out. In return, he would send someone from his channel to theirs, and get a shout out in return. Something to note here - all of this was done without ever including his players in the discussion. He was offering them up to strangers without even asking if they even wanted to do that.
Time passes, and eventually recording for the campaign begins. It would be about two months into recording when Wayne approached me about being the first guest character. (At this point, I had been an active member of the Discord community for over six months now). He wanted me to be the first guest character for two reasons. The first was because I was familiar, and he wanted to test out the format before bringing in strangers. The second was because of my prior livestreaming experience. I was a part of an affiliated Twitch channel that met the criteria of having a slightly higher subscriber count than his. But for the most part, our old Twitch channel was dead. Sure, we still streamed games into the void, but there was practically no engagement. And I told him so when he asked me if I wanted to be introduced as someone from that Twitch channel. I was more involved in his community as that point, anyway. And so, I finally got what I was wanting - to sit down and play quality DnD with like minded individuals for the purposes of entertaining others.
At this point, only a handful of episodes had aired. The recording schedule had them a grace period of a month or so before release, and I admittedly hadn't watched them. Honestly, I wasn't that interested. I don't know if that's bad or not. There are a lot of actual plays out there of varying quality. And each one requires a lot of time commitment to watch. Already I was regularly watching Critical Roll, and I was having a hard time to find time to watch some of the other really good shows I was enjoying, like Dimension 20 and The Glass Cannon. On top of that, it was an game that I wasn't a part of, so yeah, I admit I hadn't watch any of it. But even if I had, it wouldn't have prepared me for what playing at the table was actually like. The released episodes were highly edited, with sound effects and music. It wasn't until I became actually involved at the table that I would find out just how manufactured the game actually was. And I use the word "game" very generously.
For starters, once recording began, all out of character talk and banter was immediately and explicitly forbidden. We were to remain in character at all times. Secondly, I would find out that Wayne had developed a "formula for success" in regards to time spent recording. No scene would ever last longer than ten minutes. If players spent too much time having their characters engaging with each other and the time elapsed, we were moving on the next scene, regardless of if it was a natural conclusion or not. Speaking of the characters, I would come to learn that the characters that the player brought to this campaign were secondary to the story that Wayne wanted to tell. "This campaign isn't character focused, it's story focused" he would say. The campaign simply did not have time for that. I don't like to toss out the word "railroaded" very often, but it quickly became apparent that there was a good bit of railroading being done here. The only character decisions or choices or conversations that would ever make it to the final cut were ones that provided what he thought would be the most interesting while pushing his narrative forward. And for a DnD game, there wasn't a whole lot of game being done here. Sure, the players had character sheets, and classes, but it was all superficial. Combat was a rarity on the level of a shiny Pokemon. I think mostly because Wayne didn't find combat narratively compelling. But in that case, I have to ask, why use DnD as your game system? If all you want to do is roll clicky dice and improv, there are much better systems out there. And speaking of the dice - I'm sad to say that in most cases they were superfluous, as well. The only real purpose the dice served to Wayne was when they could be used to clip epic moments of success or failure. A natural 20 or a natural 1 was gold for him, because then he could clip it into a Youtube or Tiktok Short and grow those subscriber numbers. For a game in which "every decision hung on the roll of a dice", there weren't a lot of dice rolls, there weren't a lot of decisions, and when there were decisions, most of the time, the outcome was predetermined by Wayne. Everything Wayne did in regards to this game was in service to growing his Youtube channel. And the sad part? It worked.
In a shockingly short amount of time, Wayne was able to grow his Youtube channel from just over a 100 subscribers to over a 1000. This was mostly done by his excessive push of Youtube and Tiktok shorts. For a short period of time, I was deemed trustworthy enough to have access to the Youtube channel's admin, and I could view the statistics. The turnover rate for shorts into actual video views was miniscule. Only a tiny fraction were tuning in for the actual show. At this point, he had just become a Youtube Shorts creator.
And I want to mention at this point - I understand and respect the hustle. The world of Youtube is a dog eat dog world, and you have to have to play the game to stay in the game - I get it. I don't have any issue with being proud of what you've created, and pushing it out to people. I really don't. My issue was with how deceptive Wayne was being with it. And how deceptive he was, in general, as I would come to find out.
You see, before the inaugural campaign had even launched, Wayne approached me one day to see if I would be interested in running a campaign on his channel, as I had experience before in it, and had expressed an interest in doing it again. And I will admit, I was excited about the prospect. But before my words of "Yeah, I'd love to talk about" even had a chance to dissipate into the ether, Jelly would hop into the channel, in the middle of the discussion to say, "You know who should run a campaign? Seth." And then immediately log off.
I don't have a lot to say about Seth. I think he is an amazing, caring, friendly guy. He also happens to be an incredible roleplayer and storyteller, and his character is Wayne's campaign is truly phenomenal. I envy how easy it is for Seth to get into and portray the wide arrange of emotions of a character. He also happens to be a great GM. I understand why Jelly would suggest him to run a campaign. What I didn't understand, at the time, were her motives. Wayne, Ava, Jelly, and Seth had all played in a previous campaign together, and Wayne and Jelly had become enamored by just how good Seth was. And even prior to that, Ava and Seth had a past campaign together. Jelly wanted to be a player in a Seth run campaign. And if Wayne was going to have a second campaign on the channel, she wanted it to be Seth's, and she wanted to be a player in it.
And so, immediately, any and all discussion about me running a campaign was ceased, and the legwork was put forth for Seth to run a campaign. Wayne would approach him about it, and he was interested. Seth would already have in mind the players that he wanted for it - two friends of his from outside the server, Ava, and another player from the Wayne campaign. Noticeably missing from that list - Jelly.
Strangely, Wayne would then tell Seth that if he was going to run a campaign on the channel, he would have to have an application process for the players, and open it up so that anyone could apply. After Seth had already stated he already had players in mind - players who already said yes. I don't know about you, but as a DM, I would never let someone dictate to me who I could have at my table. If I have players in mind already, it's because I have a reason. But Wayne demanded an application process be followed, and a second LFG post would appear in LFG for the Seth run campaign - that was noticeably advertising for 4 players. After Seth had chosen his players. The advertisement came with another well edited and narrated youtube promo that was, and still is, the highest viewed video on the channel. And all of it was a sham. Which I knew it was. And I confronted Wayne about it. It was then that I learned some unsavory backstory involving Ava and Jelly and the prior campaign. That is not my story to tell. I have shared my accounts of events with Ava, and she is considering posting an account from her perspective following this. The most I am willing to say on this is that involves situations that should never be okay at a DnD table, and that Wayne would gloss over and sugarcoat these situations as no big deal. It would lead to Ava not being comfortable with being at a table with Jelly which both I, and Seth, would understand.
Wayne, however, found this to be unfair and manipulative on Ava's part. Those past incidents should have had no bearing on Jelly's consideration for the Seth run campaign. Which is why he would demand an application process. He would then confide to me when I questioned the duplicity of the LFG advertisement that it wasn't completely misleading. There would still be someone chosen from the list of applicants - because he was going to make sure that Ava wasn't part of the campaign. After Seth had already told both Wayne and her that she was. After the players for that game had already come together for a session zero. He claimed that Ava had prior incidents of being difficult to work with, and that because he wasn't involved in the campaign, he couldn't be there to handle any situations that might arise of conflicts between players at the table. At the time I thought that was an odd statement to make - if you are trusting enough of another person, like Seth, to run a campaign on your channel shouldn't you be trusting enough in their ability to handle problems between players? Looking back now, I can only assume he made that statement because he was certain that Jelly would be a player at the table, and that problems might arise between Jelly and Ava. He asked that I keep the conversation between us. But that was something I could not do. None of that situation felt right to me. Wayne, Ava, and I had been friends playing games together for nearly a year now. I never saw any inclination of Ava being a "problem player" - she was great at the table, and a great person to hang out with. And I found it weird that Wayne would say those things about her, and not approach her about it. So of course I talked to her. For weeks she had been sharing her excitement of the new campaign with me, often with Wayne in the voice channel with us. Ava would then share with me her past experiences with Wayne and Jelly. Again, it is not my story to tell, but I am a good judge of character. I believed Ava's account of events. It made sense to me, with how Wayne and Jelly acted.
I wish I could say this story had a happy and/or satisfying conclusion. I'm not even really sure if there is a point to it, or even if it will be a good read. It has been clear for some time now that Wayne has been entirely obsessed with the growing of his Youtube channel, damn any and all bridges burned, and walking back some of his initial promises of what he claimed the campaign and the Youtube channel would be. It's also very clear to me that Wayne is someone who absolutely has to have control over everything, especially the narrative (fictional and real life).
There are so many minor grievances to air about Wayne that I haven't already touched on, and I feel like I've already taken up too much of your time already. Here's just a brief overview, I'd be more than happy to go into more details if you want them:

• Multiple players from the Wayne campaign confided in me about some of the problems they had with Wayne and how the game was being run. When Wayne found out, he blew his lid, and said that he was both Manager and HR, and no one should be complaining to anyone outside of the table. If they were going to complain to anyone, it should be him.
  
  • It turns out, Wayne has a prior history of being an asshole. Long before the Youtube channel, and the campaign, even before the previous campaign, he told his then group that they were playing the game wrong. He then found a new group, sang their praises to the old group, and then even brought both groups together to show the old group "the right way to play"
  • In addition to Wayne, he has two editors working for him. One of which he pays. The other one has had no compensation. The one not getting paid is doing the same work as both Wayne and the paid editor combined.
  • I mentioned way early on in the story that Ava was the Discord Administrator for the Discord server. After the Seth campaign incident, Wayne unceremoniously removed Ava as Administrator, told her it was "by mistake", and never put it back. As far as I can tell, there was nothing to warrant this other than control. I suspect it was because there were certain Seth campaign related channels or other channels he didn't want Ava to see.
  • The unceremonious removal of myself and Ava from the Youtube channel admin. Admittedly, we contributed very little to it, but it was removed without a word mentioned.
  • Recently making a post requiring his "talent" to purchase a minimum $5 dollar Patreon subscription. He has admitted to me the reasoning for this was to inflate Patreon subscriber numbers to entice new subscribers. He has since walked that back after much outcry from the "talent"
  • Asking Seth if it wouldn't be too much to convert his envisioned DnD campaign into a Daggerheart campaign, because Daggerheart is the new hotness, and will attract more viewers.

Ultimately, I suppose I feel disheartened and deceived. Deceived because I originally signed up for what I thought was going to be a bunch of friends sitting around and recording themselves playing quality DnD, and it has shifted so far from that original purpose. Wayne is obsessed over subscriber numbers and views, it's all he ever talks about. He claims that his goal is to reach a level of success to which all 10+ people involved will be able to achieve financial freedom (which he claims is roughly $2000 a month). I'm sure you've done the math, just like I have. Even if you believe $2k a month is financial freedom (I certainly don't), that comes out to $240,000 a year. That's an insane level of success to promise your players. Oh, I'm sorry, your "talent".
I feel disheartened because....there's actually good work being done here. Some of the players are some of the best I've ever played with. Wayne can actually be a good storyteller, when he's not pushing for likes or clicks. The editors do a really fantastic job. I have seen and listened to the work being done on the Seth campaign (luckily Wayne is only tangentially involved), and Seth's campaign is turning out to be something really special. There is something good being done here, but it seems so tainted by Wayne and his obsession for Youtube and Tiktok success. So, maybe this is an RPG Horror Story, maybe it's a cautionary tale. I dunno. I have committed to finishing out my run in the campaign, (I was brought back to the table multiple times because the players enjoy playing with me, and also I suspect I was involved in one of his highest viewed shorts), but my hearts not in it. I've told Wayne I've no interest in any of his future projects, and I wish him well on his Youtube journey. But in the pursuit of clicks, and likes, and subscribers, I feel like he has fundamentally lost what attracts people to actually watch and invest in TTRPG actual plays - authenticity.

In the spirit of the previous post here, I am moving to 4th grade from 3rd. I’m assuming the switch won’t be too drastic but I’d love your favorite 4th specific follows!

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My current project is first person present, and boy, has it been a doozy to write. I struggled to choose the perspective because I think I’m too literal with my narrator. Like who is telling this story and why. 3rd person is an omniscient narrator but like who?? When reading books I don’t think of these things but for some reason I can’t write without having a clear reason for the narrator to be telling the story.

I’m 37. 22st male statins. Basildon hospital. I was working out in a garage for 6 months boxing lost 4 stone from24. I went to the garage to hit the punch bag felt drained 2 o’clock in the morning felt like I was having a heart attack. So went to the hospital for them to say it’s not which is great news but gave me naproxen but I was already taking statins for high cholesterol. 2nd day of taking them I had a really bad reaction. Hives all over face swollen lips. Felt very strange for months afterwards very weak. Throat would go tight and swell after eaten foods and drinks. I thought I was allergic to these. So would get test always come negative then I asked for a full allergies test 10 months ago I’ve been waiting for ten months I had it booked for next month on the 3rd only for the clinic to cancel my appointment that I’ve been desperately waiting for. I’m gutted they have just randomly cancelled. this is Basildon, and honestly I felt like it was keeping me going. 14 months of hell the doctors have been pretty poor to me I never ever go to the doctors until 14 months ago. I’ve had the ambulance out on a number of occasions I’ve been up the hospital during the nights because I’ve woken up with tight throat. It’s not strep negative it’s not cobble stone negative the believe it could be allergies they also believe it to be silent reflux had taken medication lanzopro can’t spell very well either lol but was making me unwell, I get blurry vision and was asked to get my eyes tested my eyes haven’t changed and are ok. Burning throat white mucus. Probably unrelated but also started 14months ago right shoulder pain right back of neck pain. Because I’ve been going through this for a long time you can imagine mental stress off my throat closing up and not being able to breathe properly. I’ve taken Antihistamine every day for 14 months I feel like they don’t help. I have had test for pots copd and asthma was all under long Covid testing but the only thing they found was a restriction on my left lung but don’t know what it is. I got referred to respiratory clinic FINALY after 14 months of begging then I got a letter to say it will be October. I’m very depressed on how things are going I’m not getting the correct help the doctors I’ve had to change because the lady wasn’t helping me so I made a complaint and refused to see her and the see the head nurse if that’s a thing she wasn’t much better I said I need test to see what these lumps are it could be a tumour or cancer she laughed at me. I put the phone down check my nhs app online for her to write. patient thinks he has cancer and he would benefit from counselling therapy and now I’m doing therapy second session honestly hand on my heart these gps have really made me feel like I’m going insane at times. Can’t find nothing wrong with me but I’m really unwell with all this. Blury eyes sore tight throat flare up. Itchy skin sometimes swollen tongue itchy skin after shower, hard to swallow at times back of tongue lumps swell red spots on tongue keep having white film over tongue white mucus over throat fatigued every day. Wake up during the night with tingling arms and shoulders. Was out in the sun the other day few hours my hands burned but felt tingling for days. Very dry hands almost like I was having a reaction from the sun. Im not a praying man but I’ve done a lot of praying this year. Any help suggestions would great be appreciated. I’m at the end with it all.

So I dont know if this is the best place to ask this here but idk where else to ask, So since the 4th grade I've been homeschooled, its a long story but basically the school i was at wasn't the best.
Well I'm about to be a junior in high school and i really want to go back to public bcuz I'm tired of feeling left out and behind and while i do sport with the schools here I'm only around kids my age for like 2 hours at max.
It's also so exhausting being around my siblings all day and basically having to teach them as well. The main issue is my mom is making me write an essay about how it'll benefit me, but a lot of the honest reasons is just because i want to go, which isn't a valid enough reason for her. she wants the physical benefits and she's convinced I'll get accepted by colleges easier if I'm homeschooled but I don't really care about that it's not like i wont get accepted at all if I'm not. i feel like I'm missing out so badly and i dont want to look back in a couple of years and feel regret but i cant think of any other reasons that'll persuade her

My 9 year old son was diagnosed with high functioning autism and ADHD a few years ago. He’s now in 3rd grade. As the year has progressed he has been struggling more and more managing impulses, outbursts, focus and anxiety. We tried therapy for almost a year before entertaining the thought of medications. One day he finally asked if he could take medication like me to help him (I take Adderall for my ADHD.) Being that he’s extremely articulate, I knew he would be able to communicate any side effects he was experiencing that were bad. I wasn’t prepared for the emotional back lash that came as his first two medications wore off (Adderall and Vyvanse). He wasn’t able to communicate how he felt because he was deep in the throws of an emotional thunderstorm. I don’t want to try any medications, just yet, that need to build up in his system because the buy in and out is a slower process. His doctor told me that being HF ASD makes him more sensitive to stimulants.
With all this being said, how many medications have other parents had to try before landing one that works? I feel like he’s become a test subject. It’s hard to watch the bad side effects and his disappointment when the medication is and a fit for him.

I am a first year teacher and I have a child up for a possible retention. (2nd grade) She is tier 3 in reading, and has been since December. She had a very hard time reading, comprehension, writing (sometimes does not even write her full name), cries when I don’t read questions and answers more than once because she can’t sound it out, etc. - we had our meeting today. Mom says she can catch up over summer because she has a 70 in reading so she is “passing” and states that all of this comes down to her child’s lack of focus, how she has a very early birthday and my teaching style because “I keep the kids on computers all the time”. (They stay on them max 25 minutes a day during intervention time on iReady, other 20 mins is in groups). She also states that it may be better for her kid to be retained in 3rd grade instead and she will mesh better with the 3rd grade teachers. This child is emotionally immature, on a BP for most of the year for arguing with staff and peers. She is in the 4TH% in reading. She is also possibly traumatized, I had to report to CPS a couple months back and mom knows I did it most likely. I am TRULY worried about this child. Mom has seen the data all year and she is still on the fence. Please tell me I am not overreacting here. This is insane to me.

I just got the urge out of no where to revisit this show, I watched a bit when the show was live. I'm a couple episodes into the first season, but....... It's rough going. My main feeling right now is that it reminds me a lot of Babylon 5. Babylon 5 is one of my favorite sci fi shows of all time but the first season is really bad lol. So much so that I skip it on my rewatches. I have so many friends that say they started Babylon 5 and didn't like it, and I tell them "Honestly, a part from 1 or 2 episodes. Just skip season 1 all together." It's mostly just a "Space Station problem of the week" structure in season 1 and it really feels like B grade sci fit. The show gets EXPLONENTIALLY better with a near perfect seasons 2-4.
Do people ever feel that way about Fringe Season 1? Like it's just the "Problem of the week" season meant to cement itself in cable and the series really gets going with a strong macro level narrative after season 1?
I think when it was live I got to the end of Season 2? I remember the alternate universe being established and I believe I stopped watching when FO-livia was introduced and switched places. I'm trying to remember why I stopped watching. I made a point of taping the show while it was on, so I did like it a lot. It might have hurt it that Lost absolutely shattered my faith in mysterious, carrot dangling 'oh maybe you'll get answers to this mystery next episode' style of show. Though I know now it was executive meddling and the creators made one of the best shows of all time in The Leftovers.
Things I liked a lot:
The acting is amazing. The 4 Main Characters (Walter, Peter, Olivia, Phillip). Honestly, in this first season it feels like the actors are propping up some sub-par writing. Reminds me a bit of when I rewatched Lie to Me and didn't realize the writing was so terrible because the actors were so amazing that they completely carried the script.
Those late 2000's early 2010's vibes. Man I miss when we thought the advancements in the 90s/2000s would continue on forever and the future would be stranger than we could possible imagine. The show really captures the zeitgeist of how we all thought the trend of technology would keep going to unimaginable places.
I know the macro level narrative is there. I remember it from 15 years ago. I'm fully expecting to enjoy it once I pick up where I left off.
Things I dislike:
The obvious monster of the week format with just small nuggets of moving the plot forward.
Like I said before, the writing feels really "meh". The actors totally carry some bad dialogue with their skill though. I'm hoping this is just early show issues. I know a lot of good shows have bad writing at the start.
Man JJ Abrams feels like a guy that knows absolutely nothing about science, but really really wishes he did. We've got some serious "Spout some scientific nonsense that an average person will tune out but accept as an explanation, but really makes absolutely zero sense". I'm hoping his influence in the show drops off as it gets better as he offloads responsibility to others while he focuses on other things.
So right now I'm fully expecting the show to turn a corner about half way through Season 2? Am I right on that assumption? Does the "Bad guy of the week, X-Files" type structure drop off and stay off around then? I know from peoples comments it does eventually. I'm also hoping the show kicks it up a notch in writing quality, because right now it's not great.
I know I probably stopped watching in 2010 right before it hit it's best season in Season 3. I also know people seem very satisfied with how the show ended and tied things together. So I've got faith that good times are coming, both from what people say and the things I remember from '09. I guess I'm just hoping for a bit of a road map I can place a pin in to get me through the next 20 hours or so; and that I'm right in my expectation of a significant uptick in quality around mid-season 2.
Anyways, thanks for letting me freeform my thoughts down on paper for you all.

An evolved Vulpix partner has to deal with losing their best friend a second time, except this time it's permanent
Submitted by Mystic_Fennekin_653
Last week's prompt
If you would like feedback on your writing, feel free to ask in the #writing channel in our Discord server!

I was waitlisted from my dream program and I want to improve my application for this upcoming cycle. I had a total of 175 completed hours in 4 different settings. I also had a total of 103 in-progress hours (what I projected to achieve by last December). Was a TA for A&P for 3 semesters. Was a tutor for chemistry for 1 semester. Was involved in a few clubs for a few semesters, but had no major role in them. I don’t have many hours of volunteering outside of the realm of PT. I had a 4.0 GPA, 155V, 151Q, 4.5 writing. I feel my essays were personal, unique, and answered the prompts well. Letters of rec should have been great.
Soon after I submitted my application last year, I worked as a PT tech and accumulated 234 paid hours. I completed all of my in-progress hours for all settings except for one. So now, I have a total of 472 completed hours. I didn’t know that you could update this on PTCAS, so my program does not know about this new number and how it improved from the 175 completed hours I listed at the time of my application.
I got accepted to a different DPT program back in September. Soon after I was waitlisted at my dream program in November, I decided to finish out my tech job mid December. I have not shadowed a PT since then. I instead continued to work as a server to save up for PT school. I truly thought I was going to attend the program I got accepted to, but recently my fiancé got a job opportunity near my dream program, and it made me re-think everything. I want to re-apply and see if I get into the program I want. What do you think I should do to make my application better? I think I need to shadow PTs some more and volunteer in my community, but I’m not sure what else to do. Please give me your advice. Also, do programs even consider in-progress/planned hours?

Demographics: Chinese Male (yikes), Socal, Small magnet high school,
Current juniorising senior
Intended Major(s): ChemE or Biomedical Engineering (it's gonna be rough :l )
ACT/SAT/SAT II: 35 ACT (35/35/34/34)
UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0 UW (no ranks)
Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc
10th: AP Psych, Stats, APES - 5s
11th: AP Chem, APUSH, Lang, Bio (hopefully 5s, might've tossed on Bio)
12: AP Calc BC, Chinese, Physics C (Mech)
Awards:
Scioly Coach's Award (1 of 2 chosen)
Scioly Medals (state/local, team is not too competitive for trophies and stuff)
President Service Award: Gold (120+ hours; got this in 9th grade when hour requirements were light)
Piano Certificate of Merit state honors (completion/memorization in piano; not rlly that good)
Extracurriculars:
Scioly Team Captain: 4+ years; Run finances, write grants, compete and win :), run tryouts, (hopefully) plan team bonding, planning to run STEM camp (raise couple thousand) to fund season, met some of my fav ppl doing scioly
STEM Club Prez: 4 years; Organized sci-nights at elem schools in district, lead cabinet, run competitions (USABO/USNCO), basically sci-bowl team manager atp, even though we get first rounded like the lakers :(
Cancer bio Internship: 1 year; basically like a lab assistant type gig, ran some dissections, processed images/scans and tumor samples, made a table on a protocol
Mandarin Camp volunteer: 3 years (ish), taught some classes, want to start a STEM or engineering class this summer, roughly 150+ hours in total
Summer Math program director: 2 years so far; teach math/CS/chess to 60+ kids in district over Zoom; leadership kinda getting wierd tho (school ends way earlier too so idek what's gonna happen this summer)
Essays/LORs/Other:
Essays: (7/10) I don't know how they'll turn out because I'm not the greatest writer, but I'll probably start early this summer
I've started a little on PIQs, but they're not the best based on some feedback.
LOR: Counselor (7/10): I don't really talk to her too much, but I'm taking hard classes and have decent ECs, so hopefully she writes well.
APUSH teacher (8/10?): Participated a ton in her class, but she doesn't really know me outside of class, joined a club she hosts and started NHD (kinda)
Chem Teacher or Scioly/STEM Club advisor (9 OR 10/10): love both of these reccomenders so so much. Known the Scioly advisor since 7th grade and she's seen me grow a ton. Chem teacher I know a bit and he's selected me for a couple cool labs in AP chem. I've worked with him a bit because of organizing USNCO and taught a little organic chem
Schools:
CA: UCLA, UCB, UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCD, USC (nice campus too)
Midwest: Northwestern (campus is so so pretty), UChicago, Georgia Tech, UmIch
Privates: Williams College, Swarthmore, Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, Yale, Harvard (Chinese parents love Ivys)

Please help me.
I'm involved in a high combat campaign at a highly optimized table that is currently at level 11 and will go to level 20 (if we survive).
I have a Halfling Path of the Beast Barbarian/Soulknife Rogue that I am concerned won't be viable and effective until the end.
First: level split. I currently want 9 levels in Soulknife for the bonus action teleport and homing strikes, as well as 10 levels in Beast Barb for the ability to try and force foes to use their reactions up and attack one another. I'm torn where that last level should go, but presumably Rogue 10 for a final ASI/Feat. Do you have any strong alternative recommendations?
Second: magic items At later levels, we essentially get our choice of any 1 Legendary magic item, with some exclusions. We can also buy most other rarities of magic items excluding Artefacts, but we are still limited by attunement rules as normal. Note that I am keeping my Str at 16 so that I can top off my Dex and Con for AC and HP, so I plan to use one attunement slot for a Belt of Giant's Strength.
I'm looking for other ways to boost damage on every attack due to this multiclass being able to make 4 attacks per round, but so many items that add damage are geared toward magical weapons, or enhancing attacks with wielded or held weapons. I'm considering the Cape of Enlargement and the Eldritch Claw Tattoo, but I would risk needing several turns' Bonus Actions to set up (especially if I also take the Gift of the Chromatic Dragon feat which is a 'maybe'). Another suggestion in the mix is the Butcher's Bib.
If any material that could be found on DnDBeyond is potentially available (which now includes some 3rd party material as well as all offical material) do you have any interesting magic item suggestions?
And, would you suggest any interesting Legendary options other than the finest Belt of Giant's Strength? I have considered the Diamon Shard Solitaire to have a 'twin' on the field with me, but as we cannot equip any 'summons', I worry that the 16 Strength would hamper it. But what else might I have missed?
Please let me know, and thank you for any advice!

So, I want to preface this by saying I write solely in third person, and write a minimum of two paragraphs per response. I recently turned 18, and I’d prefer whoever I write with to be between the ages of 16 and 22. This story won’t include anything sexual, but there will be a lot of romantic tension and ideally some emotionally heavy moments! Bonus points if you have an original character in mind for this, and want to build a friendship outside of just being writing partners! There’s two chapters to this story, we can obviously write both but I’m more than okay with skipping over to the second chapter.
Our characters have been best friends since kindergarten. I’ve been to every one of your birthday parties, we’ve walked home together ever since we were in the second grade, we’ve even invited each other to family vacations, etc. We’ve always been close, in spite of how different we are. You were always more of an introvert, but I couldn’t be any more different. My outgoingness even landed me a small acting gig in a local commercial, which ended up snowballing into something bigger.
The first chapter of this story opens with what your character thinks is just another sleepover. My little brother keeps pestering us, all while you’re in awe of him and cheering him on. You’ve always thought of him as your own brother, and he even has a mild crush on you. Slowly, over the course of the night, our characters start to uncover some romantic feelings for each other. It’s always been looming over us, especially when other people pointed it out, but we’ve never paid much attention to it. After all, why can’t a boy and a girl just be friends. Later on, things come to a boiling point, only for my character to tell you that he’s moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. You’re understandably heartbroken. The morning after is awkward and uncomfortable for more reasons than one.
The second chapter of this story opens three years later. Once I left town, we didn’t stay in touch. That wasn’t really your call. Every time you tried reaching out, you would never get the responses that you expected. You suspect it’s because I were too busy to keep up with you. To fill up the empty space, you started getting into songwriting and playing the piano because you needed some way to put into words just how angry you are at me. Instead of letting it eat you up inside, you wanted to channel it into something creative. You put some of your songs up on social media and gained a small following. You started getting messages from people in the industry who wanted to sign you to a record deal and eventually, you decided to bite. While in the midst of sending out college applications, you signed with a record label.
You got an apartment in Santa Monica and started going to recording studios to work on new music. You put out your first song, that one song you’d written years ago that kept resonating with you. Obviously it was about me. All of our old friends could tell it was about me. Suddenly, you’re everywhere. Your face is on billboards, your name is in tabloids, it was... terrifying. You get an invite to an industry event, from some CEO. You figure it’s a good way to make connections. After all, you’re the new girl in town. Everybody wants to talk to you... except me.
From the minute we spotted each other across the crowded room, I never once looked your way again. It made your blood boil. You want to scream at me, make a scene, and let everyone know what an asshole I am... but you couldn’t. Instead, I’d beaten you to the punch. I gracefully made my way to you and pulled me aside.

I have my Bio EOC on Friday and I really need to get a 5 because my grade this quarter in Bio is a 49% (I got a B the first 2 quarters and a C the 3rd quarter but I didnt turn in assignments) and she said she would only change our grades if we got a 5. She said that if we got a 5 she would make sure that is reflected in our grade, but I’m nervous I won’t get a 5 because if I don’t, I’m cooked.

CAPUT I
...
Know, therefore, that the purpose of this book is to describe the four kinds of spirit-men, namely, the water people, the mountain people, the fire people and the wind people. Included among these four kinds are the giants, the melusines, the Venusberg and what is similar to them.
...
How things are in relation to us will have to be described in the following order:
First, their creation and what they are;
second, their country and habitation, where they stay and what their mode of living is;
third, how they come to us and let themselves be seen, how they mix and have intercourse with us;
fourth, how they perform some miraculous works, such as Melusine, the Venusberg and similar stories;
fifth, the birth of the giants and their origin, and also their vanishing and return.
...
CAPUT SECUNDUM
...
The flesh must be understood thus that there are two: the flesh from Adam and that which is not from Adam. The flesh from Adam is a coarse flesh, for it is earthen and is nothing else but a flesh that can be bound and grasped like wood or a stone. The other flesh which is not from Adam, is a subtile flesh and can not be bound nor grasped, for it is not made from earth. Now, the flesh from Adam is the man from Adam. He is coarse like the earth which is compact. And, therefore, man cannot go through a wall. He must make a hole to slip through, because nothing recedes before him.
But before the flesh that is not from Adam, walls recede, which means that such flesh does not require doors nor holes; it goes through intact walls and does not break anything. They are both flesh, blood, bone and so on, whatever belongs to a man, and in their whole nature they are like man’s. But they are different in that they have a double origin like two cousins; they are in equal way like a spirit and like man. The spirit goes through all walls and nothing locks him out; man, however, not, for he is locked out by the bolt or the lock.
...
With all this, they bear children, talk and eat, drink and walk—things that spirits do not. Hence, they are like the spirits in speed, like man in gestures, figure and eating, and so they are people who have the character of spirits and also that of man, and both are one in them. Although they are both spirit and man, yet they are neither one nor the other. They cannot be men, since they are spiritlike in their behaviour. They cannot be spirits, since they eat and drink, have blood and flesh. Therefore, they are a creation of their own, outside the two,... It must be understood further that although they are spirit and man, yet they are neither. Man has a soul, the spirit not. The spirit has no soul, but man has one. This creature, however, is both, but has no soul, and yet is not identical with a spirit. For, the spirit does not die, but this creature dies. And so it is not like man, it has not the soul; it is a beast, yet higher than a beast.
...
Now, they are separated from us because they are not from Adam and do not participate in the same earth from which Adam was made, but God has decreed that we may see them miraculously, which has a particular meaning, as will be discussed in the last treatise. They have children and their children are their kind, not ours. They are witty, rich, clever, poor, dumb like we who are from Adam. They resemble us in every way. Just as one says: man is the image of God, that is, he has been made after his image—in the same way one can also say: these people are the image of man and made after his image.
...
And so they are men and people, die with the beasts, walk with the spirits, eat and drink with men. That is: like the beasts they die, so that nothing is left; and neither water nor fire harms them, like the spirits, and nobody can lock them up, like the spirits, but they reproduce like men and therewith share his nature. They have man’s diseases and his health but their medicine is not from the earth from which man is made, but from the element in which they live. They die like men, but are dead like the beasts. Their flesh rots like other flesh and their bones like other men’s bones and nothing remains of it. Their customs and behaviour are human, as is their way of talking, with all virtues, better and coarser, more subtile and rougher. The same applies to their figures : they are very different, like men. In food they are like men, eat and enjoy the product of their labor, spin and weave their own clothing. They know how to make use of things, have wisdom to govern, justice to preserve and protect. For although they are beasts, they have all the reason of man, except the soul.
...
TRACTATUS II - ABOUT THEIR ABODE
...
Their abode is of four kinds, namely, according to the four elements : one in the water, one in the air, one in the earth, one in the fire. Those in the water are nymphs, those in the air are sylphs, those in the earth are pygmies, those in the fire salamanders. These are not good names, but I use them nevertheless.
...
The name of the water people is also undina, and of the air people sylvestres, and of the mountain people gnomi, and of the fire people vulcani rather than salamandri.
...
Now you must know that if their regions have to be described, they must be divided into their parts. For the water people have no intercourse with the mountain people, nor the mountain people with them, nor the salamanders.
...
The undinae have their abode in water, and the water is given to them as to us the air, and just as we are astonished that they should live in water, they are astonished about our being in the air. The same applies to the gnomi in the mountains: the earth is their air and is their chaos. For everything lives in chaos, that is: everything has its abode in chaos, walks and stands therein. Now, the earth is not more than mere chaos to the mountain manikins. For they walk through solid walls, through rocks and stones, like a spirit; this is why these things are all mere chaos to them, that is, nothing. That amounts to: as little as we are hampered by the air, as little are they hampered by the mountain, by earth and rocks.
...
Since water is the fish’s air, the fish does not drown, and so the unda does not drown either. As in the water, so in the earth: the earth is air to the gnomi; hence they do not suffocate. They do not require our air, we do not theirs. Thus also with the salamanders: fire is their air, as our air our air is. And the sylvestres are closest to us, for they too maintain themselves in our air, and they are exposed to the same kind of death as we, namely: they burn in fire, and we too; they drown in water, and we too; they suffocate in the earth, and we too. For, each remains healthy in his chaos; in the others he dies.
...
Let us philosophize further, about their food ... The sylphs are like men, nourish themselves like men in the wilderness, on herbs in the woods. To the salamanders the soil is earth, their heaven is the air, and fire their chaos. Thus food grows to them from the earth and from fire, and the constellation from air is their heaven.
...
About their clothing: they are clothed and cover their genitalia, but not in the way of our world, in their own way. For they have modesty and similar qualities, as men must have, have law and similar institutions, have their authorities, [etc.] ... To the beasts clothing is inborn by nature, but not to these people. To them nothing is inborn by nature; they must work for it like man whom they resemble. Their work, like man’s work, is in the nature and kind of their own world and earth on which they live.
...
**About their figures, know that they are different. The water people look like men, both women and men. The sylvestres do not conform, but are cruder, coarser, longer and stronger than both. The mountain people are small, of about two spans. The salamanders are long, narrow and lean. Their place and abode are in their chaos, as was mentioned before. The nymphs live in water, in running brooks, etc., so close that they grasp the people who ride through or bathe therein. The mountain people are in the mountain chaos, and there they build their houses. This is why it often happens that one finds in the earth an attic, vaults, and similar structures, of the height of about a yard. They have been build by these people for their abode and dwellings.
The water people do the same in their various places. Know also that the mountain people live in the caves of the mountains and this is why strange structures occur and are found in such places. These are their work. Know also about the fire people whose yelling, hammering and working can be heard in volcanic mountains. It can also be heard when the elements are incinerated. For all these things are the same as with us, but according to their secret quality. Those who travel through wild regions learn the reason for such beings and obtain information. There these beings are found. In the mines also, close to good ore, etc. they are found, and in waters the same also, and the vulcans near the Aetna. And there are many more marvellous things, about their coins, payments and customs, which would be too long in this connection, but will be described in their place.**
TRACTATUS III - HOW THEY COME TO US AND BECOME VISIBLE TO US
All that God has created, he reveals to man and lets come before him, so that man has and attains knowledge of all happenings of the creatures.
...
And in order that we may have a good knowledge of things, the water people have not only been truly seen by man, but have married him and have born him children. Thus also, the mountain people have not only been seen, but people saw them, and talked to them, and received money from them and blows and similar things. The same happened with the forest people, as was mentioned before, the people saw them and dealt and walked with them. Thus also, with the vulcans, who also, as mentioned before, appeared to man, and revealed themselves essentially, who they were and what had to be understood of them all.
...
The nymphs, namely, become apparent to us, but not we to them, except in what they tell about us in their world, as a pilgrim would, who had been in foreign lands. They do not need such rapture, the way the mountain people enrapture us, or the water people. For they have no power over man, and their world is not such that they could adopt us. Man is not subtile in body, but coarse in body and subtile in chaos, while it is the contrary with them. Therefore, they can well stand our chaos, but not we theirs. Their element also is in itself their chaos, which to us may not be chaos. Thus they appear to us, stay with us, marry with us, die with us, and also bear children.
...
This happens with the water people. They come out of their waters to us, make themselves known, act and deal with us, go back to their water, come again—all this to allow man the contemplation of the divine works. Now, they are men, but on the animal side alone, without the soul. From this it follows that they marry men. A water woman takes a man from Adam, and keeps house for him, and gives birth to children. Of the children, we know that they follow after the father. Because the father is a man from Adam, a soul is given to the child, and it becomes like a regular man, who has an eternal soul. ... Just as the condition of these people is, when they are in union with man, so is the condition of man, when he is in union with God.
From this it follows that they woo man, and that they seek him assiduously and in secret. ... they seek love with man, so as to be in union with men. With them all intelligence and wisdom are outside the qualities of the soul, and not the soul.
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One must also know that not all of them may be married to us. The water people come first; they are the closest to us. Next after them come the forest people, then the mountain and earth manikins who, however, rarely marry humans and are only obliged to serve them. The vulcans never attempt to enter into union with humans, and yet are apt to serve them. Know also that two of them, namely the earth manikins and vulcans, are considered spirits and not creatures, being looked upon as a mirage only, or as ghosts. You must know, however, that just as they appear, thus they are, flesh and blood like another man, and with that, quick and fast like a spirit, as was told in the beginning. They also know all future affairs, present affairs and the past, which are not apparent but are hidden. In that they can serve man, protect, warn, guide him, and such like. For they have reason in common with man (except in regard to the soul). They have knowledge and intelligence of the spirit (except in regard to God). Thus they are highly gifted, and they know and warn, so that man may learn about such things, and see them, and believe in such creatures.
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It is said of the nymphs, that they come to us from the water, and sit on the banks of the brooks where they have their abode, where they are seen, taken also, caught, and married, as we said before. The forest people, however, are coarser than they. They do not talk, that is, they cannot talk although they have tongues and enough of all that is needed for speech. In this point they differ from the nymphs, for the nymphs can speak in the languages of the countries; the forest people, however, cannot but they learn easily.
The mountain manikins are endowed with speech like the nymphs, and the vulcans speak nothing, yet they can speak but roughly and rarely. The nymphs appear, as was said before, in human clothing, with human features and desires. The forest people are like men, but shy and fugitive. The mountain people are like men, not tall, short; sometimes they reach about half the size of man or so, sometimes more. Thus and in the same way, the vulcans appear, fiery, and fire is all over their features and clothing.
They are the ones of whom one says: a fire man or spirit is going through the house; there goes a burning soul, etc. It often happens that such figures are seen. They also are the flames that are frequently observed as glowing lights in meadows and fields, running through each other and towards each other. These are the vulcans, but they are not found living with man, on account of their fire. They are often found with old women, however, that is, with witches, wooing them.
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You must know, however, that there is danger with the fire people, because they are commonly possessed, and the devil thus rages in them, which causes great harm to man. Know also that he equally takes possession of the mountain people and thus makes them subservient to him, and of the forest people also. He then can be found in the forest possessing sylphs and venturing to make love to women who live in forest regions. But they all become like lepers, scabby and mangy, and there is no help for them either.
When these beings are not possessed by the devil they are human and seek union as has been mentioned. But they keep the way of spirits, in that they disappear. One who has a nymph for a wife, should not let her get close to any water, or at least should not offend her while they are on water. And one who has a mountain manikin with him, should not offend him, particularly not at places where they get lost. But they are so much obliged to man and so closely bound to him, that they cannot get away from him, unless there is a reason for it, and this happens at the place from which they come. If one has a wife, she does not get away from him, unless she is provoked while they are on water. Otherwise she will not disappear and can be held. The mountain manikins also must keep their pledges, when they are in service and have been pledged.
But obligations to them must be kept also, in all that is due to them. If duties are kept as should be, they are honest, constant, and intent on their work. And one must know that they are particularly loyal to man and much inclined to spending money. For, the mountain people have money, because they themselves coin it. This is how it must be understood. What a spirit wishes to have, he has, and their wishing and desiring is thus: when a mountain manikin wishes or desires a sum of money, if there is need for it, he has it, and it is good money. Thus they give money to many people in the galleries of mountains, to make them get away; they buy them off. All this is divine order— that they thus appear to us and that we see what is incredible to tell. Man is the most earthbound of all creatures. What he must have and wants, he must make for himself, and he obtains nothing by wishing and desiring it. But those people have what they need and desire, and man does nothing for it. They have it without work.
TRACTATUS IV
As we came to the end of the treatise, we had sufficiently discussed the necessities of these beings, and how they come to man. You must now, furthermore, know about their disappearance from man, and about their doings with us, with many such tales and stories that have happened with them, in many queer ways.
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It also happens that sirens are born. They are water women too, but live more on the water than in it. They are not split like fish, but are more like a virgin, yet their form is not quite that of a woman. They bear no children but are monsters, just as a strange human being can be born from two normal parents. I would like to put it thus: the water people reproduce themselves like humans, but when it happens that they produce a monster, these monsters are sirens that swim on the water, for they repudiate them and do not keep them. This is why they occur in many forms and figures, as it happens and is the case with all monsters.
Thus we marvel not only at the water people but also at the sirens, who have many strange features and are very different from people. Some can sing, some can whistle with reeds, some can do this and that. Monks are also born from nymphs, that is, a monster which is shaped just like a monk. This you must know, namely, that such growths that are comparable to men and are found in some places, come from men, that is, they come from water people, earth manikins and similar beings.
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To continue the discussion of these beings, know that such people also convene and assemble in one place, where they may live together and seek intercourse with man, for they love him. ... There are more women than men in such groups, few men, many women; hence they are after men whenever they have a chance. From such people a group originated that is called the Venusberg. It consists of nothing else but a kind of nymphs, thrown together in a cave and hole of their world, yet not in their own chaos, in man’s chaos, but in their regionibus. Know about them that they reach a very old age, but you cannot notice it, because their appearance remains the same from beginning to end, and they die unchanged. Venus was a nymph and undine who excelled others and reigned for a long time, but she died and the succeeding Venus was not as endowed as she had been. She died in the course of time and her kingdom vanished. There are many tales about her.
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There is a story about a different beginning. It tells of a queen who resided there and sank into the earth. It was a water woman who resided there. She went into the mountain, under the pond that was above her, in her region. There she took her abode, and for making love, she built a gallery, for her to get to the lads and they to her. Such strange things happened there that nobody was able to report about these beings, what they were or where they were from, until it came to an end. It is quite possible that this could happen again should another nymph come, equal to her.
...
There is also a true story of the nymph in Staufenberg who sat on the road in all her beauty and served the lord she had chosen. ... Our nymph was a water woman. She promised herself to von Staufenberg and stayed also with him, until he married another wife, and took her for a devil. Taking her for a devil and considering her such, he married another woman and thus broke his promise to her. Therefore, at the wedding, she gave him the sign, through the ceiling, during the banquet, and three days later, he was dead.
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We must pay equally great attention to Melusine, for she was not what the theologians considered her, but a nympha. It is true, however, that she was possessed by the evil spirit, of which she would have freed herself if she had stayed with her husband to the end. For such is the devil that he transforms these beings into different shapes, as he also does with the witches, transforming them into cats and werewolves, dogs, etc. This happened to her also, for she never was free of witchcraft but had a part in it. A superstitious belief resulted, that on Saturdays she had to be a serpent. This was her pledge to the devil for his helping her in getting a man. Otherwise, she was a nympha, with flesh and blood, fertile and well built to have children. She came from the nymphs to the humans on earth and lived there. But then, as superstitio seduces and vexes all beings, she went away from her people in her superstitious belief, to the places where the seduced people come who are bewitched in superstitionibus and spell-bound. Mind you, she remained the same serpent to the end of her life, and God knows how long it lasted.
...
TRACTATUS V - DE GIGANTIBUS - On Giants
You must know further that there are two more kinds that belong to the kind of nymphs and pygmies, namely, the giants and dwarfs, who are not born from Adam. Although it is a fact that Saint Christopher was a giant, yet he took birth from human seed, and hence we shall not write about him. But we shall write about the other giants, referred to in the stories of Bern, Sigenott, Hiltbrant, Dittrich, etc., also about the dwarf Laurin and others. Such stories are frequently rejected, but you must know that the same people who reject them, reject also much more important truth.
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To come to an end, know that such people, giants and dwarfs, may well make women from Adam pregnant, because same likes to meet same, and nature may permit it. Yet you must know that the monsters are not fertile, although they are monsters only so far as their strength and size is concerned; they are not misbuilt. But they have only one seed available, that is, they do not attain the third, fourth, etc. generation. Know also that when they get into man’s kind, the result is uncertain. If the child’s body takes after the mother it falls into her kind; if not, it becomes a beast like the father. It is not possible for it to become a mixed being because the seed of one of the two always prevails. It happens otherwise that both become one seed, but here not. And if it were one seed it would have to be qualified by the one partner who gives the soul. More is said about this subject in other philosophical treatises, and there is no need to tell it here. Their kind, however, has died out and they have left no descendants to replace them.
TRACTATUS VI - ON THE CAUSES OF SUCH CREATURES
Now that we must reflect in terms of natural philosophy about the causes of these creatures we must remember the facts, all the points, many of which have been discussed in the previous treatises. We need not repeat them here. Further causes that may be explored are these: namely, that God has set guardians over nature, for all things, and he left nothing unguarded.
Thus gnomes, pygmies and mami guard the treasures of the earth, the metals and similar treasures. Where they are, there are tremendous treasures, in tremendous quantities. They are guarded by such people, are kept hidden and secret so that they may not be found until the time for it has come. When they are found, people say: in times-of old there used to be mountain manikins, earth people here, but now they are gone. This means that now the time has come for the treasures to be revealed. The treasures of the earth are distributed in such a way that the metals, silver, gold, iron, etc., have been found from the beginning of the world on, and are being discovered by and by.
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[Now of] the fire people. They too are guardians, of the fireplaces, in which they live. In these places the treasures, that others guard, are forged, prepared, made ready. When the fire is extinguished, it is the earth manikins’ turn to be on guard. And after the earth manikins’ guard, the treasures are revealed. It is the same with the air people. They guard the rocks that lie on the surface, that have been made by the fire people, and put at the place where they belong, from where they get into man’s hands. They guard them so long, until the time has come. Wherever there are treasures, such people are on hand. These are hidden treasures that must not be revealed yet.
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The nymphs in the water are guardians of the great water treasures, that lie in the sea and other waters, that have also been melted and forged by the fire people. It is, therefore, commonly understood that where nymphs are, there are considerable treasures and minerals and similar matters which they guard. This is apparent in many ways.
...
The cause of the sirens, giants, dwarfs, also of the will-o’the-wisps, who are monsters of the fire people, is that they predict and indicate something new. They are not on guard, but signify that misfortune is threatening people. ... when this is going to happen, signs occur. These beings are such signs, as has been said, but not they alone; there are many more. You must know that the signs change each time. They do not appear in one way, but are hidden to our eyes.
And, finally, the last cause is unknown to us. But when the end of the world will come close, then all things will be revealed, from the smallest to the largest, from the first to the last, what everything has been and is, why it stood there and left, from what causes, and what its meaning was. And everything that is in the world will be disclosed and come to light. Then the fake scholars will be exposed, those who are highly learned in name only but know nothing by experience. Then, the thorough scholars and those who are mere talkers will be recognized for what they are, those who wrote truthfully and those who traded in lies, the thorough and the shallow ones. And to each will be measured according to his diligence, earnest endeavor and truth. At that place, not everyone will be or remain a master, or even a doctor, because there the tares will be separated from the wheat and the straw from the grain. He who now cries, will be quieted, and he who now counts the pages, will have his quills taken away. And all things will be revealed before the Day of Judgment breaks, order that it be found of all scholars, from the past to that very day, who had knowledge and who not, whose writings were right and whose wrong. Now, in my time, this is still unknown. Blessed will be the people, in those days, whose intelligence will be revealed, for what they produced will be revealed to all the people as if it were written on their foreheads. For that time I also recommend my writings for judgment, asking that nothing be withheld. Thus it will be, for God makes the light manifest, that is, everyone will see how it has shone.

Hi! I am in year 8 and I was a bit bored so I wrote a paragraph about Boxer from animal farm. I didn’t really plan a lot so it’s not really that good or anything but I would really love your feedback. If you were to give it a grade (U-9) what would you give it? I know I’m only in year 8 but I’ve been feeling like my writing is sub par recently and I need a confidence booster lol
Through the novella, Orwell depicts Boxer as a diligent and selfless hero while simultaneously exposing the manipulation he suffered due to his naïvety and lack of autonomy. After Squealer diminished Snowball’s accomplishments in the Battle of the Cowshed, Boxer had the chance to think things over, and comes to the conclusion that ‘Napoleon is always right’. The use of the simple sentence reveals Boxer’s innocence, as well as his lack of intelligence, as he is not able to deliberate complex pieces of information. Furthermore, this quote demonstrates that he believes everything told to him by Napoleon, uncovering the degree to which Napoleon reveres and follows the Pigs, elucidating how he has been indoctrinated. This is further emphasised by the use of logical fallacy, as it is impossible for Napoleon to be right all of the time, suggesting this statement is false. From this we come to understand that Boxer is tricked and manipulated into assuming an argument that, with logic, can be easily dismantled, uncovering how it is lack of literacy that is allowing Napoleon to abuse and terrorise him and the other animals. Boxer is an extremely strong, large horse as well as the most powerful on the farm, meaning he could easily take down the Pigs with brute strength, but as he isn’t able to realise the corruptness of Napoleon’s regime or speak out against him, he ends up suffering. The adverb ‘always’ implies the fact that there is no room for dissent against Napoleon and emphasised how absolute his power is. It also suggests continued faith and devotion to a leader, and it is this devotion that keeps the animals passive towards Napoleon and his abuse. Orwell has arguably presented Boxer this way to reveal how without the benefit of learning and knowing your strength in numbers, people are susceptible to be exploited by their ruthless leaders. In the context of the Russian Revolution, Boxer alludes to the proletariat, the working class of Soviet Russia used and tortured by Stalin to promote its economy. They were minimally fed and could barely sustain their lives so by characterising Boxer in the way, Orwell uncovers the ease Stalin had in enforcing his power over Russia due to their lack of knowledge and simultaneously criticises his tyrannical rule of the people powering his nation.

So I have an old 120 gb ssd as my C: drive I used when I first made my pc and now it’s just bloated full of shit. My operating system is on it, and Idk what I can and can’t delete anymore, anything I do delete and remove from recycling doesn’t really address the massive lack of storage I have there. I got a 2tb nvme ssd I’d like to use as a new C: drive. My problem being I have no idea how to do it. I look at how to guides and don’t really get any clear results that don’t involve me using a sketchy 3rd party software. Reviews I find around Reddit for them all vary between worked-being scammed. A couple of times I did reach out on different subreddits I’m basically shit on for not knowing how to do this “incredibly simple” task and told not to bother and just suck it up.
Does anyone know or is willing to write a guide on how to do this for windows 10 because I’m so lost and am on the brink of just factory resetting my pc or going to like a geek squad or similar service but I’d really prefer not to do that as I have alot of stuff that I also don’t know how to backup. It’s windows 10, c drive is like almost completely full, maybe 300 mb of space available max.
TL;DR: I’d like to move windows 10 and all data on ssd 1 to a new/larger empty ssd. I’d then like this new ssd to become my C: drive permanently and remove the previous drive. No idea how, can’t find any clear help to a novice like me.

Hi Reddit. I’m a 19 M and have been having a consistent argument with my parents for a while.
I never wanted to go to college because I thought it was a waste of money. I was homeschooled since 3rd grade and in that time had an opportunity to do dual enrollment but my mom said for some reason I couldn’t when in reality she misunderstood a counselor and I could since I was like 15/16. So basically while one of my friends went ahead and became a nurse I never got to do anything like that to get ahead.
From 17-19 I’ve basically worked 32+ hours a week doing full time jobs from irrigation to chipotle to cleaning offices to now working front desk at a hotel.
I’ve been wanting to learn a “trade” so I recently went with graphic design a couple months ago and began taking an online course. I’ve been very consistent with it but it’s very tiring working a 9-5 four days a week on top of taking care of my physical health as I love weightlifting and also helping my parents out with cooking/running errands etc. and after all that make sure I have time to learn my course.
I have really bad ADHD and have even tried meds but they gave me headaches. So recently I’ve tried asking them if I can just do 3 days of work and spend the other 4 learning as I already have no social life and don’t even play video games or do anything for fun tbh.
They’re saying I spent too long on what I wanted to do as a trade and if I wanna be a man I now have to work full time and figure it out because it’s what they had to do as teens. I’ve tried explaining I’m exhausted mentally and physically and can’t maintain this I feel like I’m going nowhere. They keep saying “welcome to being an adult”.
I’m so confused and just want to learn for my future but they won’t let me. I’m getting pissed and I don’t know what to do. AITAH

Hello it’s me again, I’d like to thank everyone who read or skimmed my idea. The few upvotes I recieved gave me the courage to keep going with this idea and expand on Emerald’s story a bit more. I do admit that Rayleigh may be out of character since I haven’t gotten to that part of the One Piece series and only seen glimpses of him. So like before, I do implore you to give me feedback and criticisms that I can make to make this story better. Anyways, this is part 2. Please enjoy.
Flashes and flickers pop in and out of Emerald’s head. The abuse, visions of everything and anyone fleeing from his feral state, the laughter of his captors and new master ring in his head. The scorching pain of the branding and his screams fill his mind, and overwhelm his senses. In his mind he begs for it to end, crying, whimpering for it to stop, then he hyperventilates as the noises get louder and louder into a crescendo of pure noise. Then in a desperate cry he shouts to the heavens for it to stop. Enough!! He then springs awake on the floor screaming it, cold sweats as he began to process where he was. He began to look around frantically believing he is still in danger. His breath still hoarse, and his hairs standing on end, not noticing the changes that happened to him.
Rayleigh would come forward and greet Emerald with a light tease, however in his trauma induced fright, he got up and immediately went to fight Rayleigh without thinking. Emerald would use electro, his speed and strength, everything, but none of it would have come close to hitting Rayleigh. He continued this frantic and single minded onslaught while Rayleigh would dodge, block, or deflect Emerald’s attacks until he tired himself out. The mink would continue this, and while the Dark King knowing this was a response to his trauma, just waited until he wasted his stamina. Emerald in this rampage would only be reopening his wounds, causing him to hesitate and grasp at his wounds. He sat down realizing he would lose blood if he continued, and just started to back away. Rayleigh would approach in a calm and gentle manner, remarking on his performance. Emerald still did not trust him one bit however, still displaying a defensive stance while one arm held his wound. The Dark King would explain his intrigue and interest in him, explaining how he found him lying on the ground half dead in the rubble of the slavery base. He would remark that it was a rare thing that a mink would have left Zou much less a devil fruit. Minks were already pretty strong on their own thus the devil fruit created an intriguing question to his mind. Rayleigh would also note that Emerald was in his hybrid state, prompting the bunny to look at himself. his hands felt normal, only bruised and scarred due to his experiences, but then he looked at his tail. It was longer, segmented with a stinger-like end point. looking at this, he begins to become confused and his vision splits 8 ways. Confusing and even disorienting him causing him to fall back onto the ground.
Rayleigh would allow him to process these emotions, understanding that slavery was not something to take lightly. Not to mention he was still sorting out his emotions. He would then place a hand on Emerald’s shoulder, to which he would instinctively point the stinger at Rayleigh, but he wouldn’t move an inch. He attempted to lighten the mood, saying that he could very well be the first Mink to ever have eaten a zoan type devil fruit, however it didn’t do much to comfort him. He would ask the mink how he made his way down from Zuneesha, and Emerald would explain that he snuck into a guests ship. Rayleigh nods, and asks if he would like to return home. Emerald would refuse, and say that he wanted to explore the world outside of his home, to which the man would question him. He would ask Emerald as to what plan he had, to which the mink would remain silent. Rayleigh would explain that the world was full of dangers, perils and beings who would kill him without a second though. He humored the bravery, the foolhardy and naive nature of his, but he needed to be able to defend himself now that he was outside because minks were prized as collectables. Now that he ate a devil fruit, people would kill to capture him and put him back into the life he found himself. Or potentially kill him, deeming him too dangerous.
Rayleigh said that it didn’t have to be that way however. He would offer the young Mink a choice, he would train him, allowing him to cope and have closure with his trauma and master something called Haki. Allowing him to close the gap between him and those who wish him harm if he had conviction. The only caveat was that he wouldn’t go easy on him, and he would put him through the wringer. The other was helping him back a home, let him mature and have Emerald’s peers help him cope and train in his own way. However, he stated that his devil fruit was something he needed to figure out himself in either scenario. As well as he didn’t want Emerald to come back so soon, asking he took his time healing. The mink would would ponder this decision, his mind filled with anxiety and nervousness as the experiences he had rang in his head once again. But something began to fester from that dark place, a desire, a wish to never go to that life ever again. He would do whatever it takes to never go through that pain ever again. Thus he would stand, looking at Rayleigh and say that he wants to stay; saying that he never wants to go through that again, and that no one would stop him from seeing the world. Rayleigh would smile, it was a naive goal, but it was a goal nonetheless. The dark King says that he would help him and that training will begin when his wounds heal enough…..
There you have it, if you have read through this story till the end, then you are the best and I genuinely appreciate you reading this story. This has been fun to ponder about and act out in my head, my friend urges me to read the manga and while I am I can’t stop thinking about this. This is a lot of fun! For now I intend to write out Emerald’s training in terms of Haki and his goals in this world in the future. Keep those upvotes coming and please do leave feedback and criticisms, I really do want to read what you all have to say about it. If it sucks, then thats okay, if its good then great, i really just want to write good stories. I may also write full stories about these events as of now they are simply ideas in my head. Well enough rambling from me, thank you for reading and I’ll keep writing. Bye bye!