Hello Snap community. My name's Qinalo. If you've known me before, whether through reddit, KM's Discord, or the Snap Discord, you should know me most for one of 2 things -

1. I've played Hela since season 13 last June with a 63+% winrate each season
2. I am a Domino-truther

And these 2 things are related. You see, my favorite card in Snap is Jubilee. I play Hela because Hela is a deck that plays Jubilee. And I am a Domino-truther because my favorite card is Jubilee.
If I'm being honest, I often don't like being a Domino-truther. You can't be a Domino-truther if you are thin-skinned and bad at maths like KMBest (KMBest said himelf that he can't do the Domino math on his podcast with Lamby). I have gotten into so many online debates over Domino in the past 10 months, at some point you get sick of it. Saying that Domino is a good card in some decks is one of those unpopular opinions that seem to trigger many in our community. But I guess that's the funny thing about being a truther - once you've had your moment on the way to Damascus, it's a cross you have to bear. Because truth can't be denied. There are FOUR LIGHTS!
When I started playing Domino, America Chavez was still 6/9 with her old ability. At the time, I played Domino in an Iron Lad deck with Jubilee, my favorite card. Then, when Loki came out, I played Domino in a deck with Loki, Iron Lad and Jubilee. This seemed to mystify and sometimes anger people. Still, if they asked, I would explain the reason to them. This was one example from 9 months ago-

Domino serves a lot of roles in the deck that give you an edge in the mirror. She's here to~
Improve your Jubilee and Lad pulls
Improve your draws after you Loki - drawing Domino early means Prof X and Dino are more likely still in your deck late
Improve your odds of Snowguard in opening hand to 40% with Chavez
Protect Loki from getting sniped by Dani (Mirage) in the mirror
Guarantee a T2 play so you don't lose a draw by playing Coulson
Act as a brick pull for your opponent's Loki
Help win priority on turn 3 for Cosmo
Confuses and tilts opponents

So yes, last week KMBest correctly pointed out that one reason to play Domino is to increase your chance of drawing your 1s on turn 1, but he's couldn't do the Domino math to figure out the rest.
The question is - why is Domino good in Jubi-Blink decks?
I read on reddit that Jeff Hoogland did the math on his stream that the chance of drawing the Jubilee-Blink combo is 73% without Domino, and 69% with Domino, so playing Domino is 4% worst. Jeff Hoogland has said himself that he used to be a high school math teacher, so I can't be all that surprised that he did the obvious math to the wrong problem. Smart enough to use a calculator, but not talented enough to actually teach math to university students. Also, clearly Jubilee is not his favorite card.
You see, the Domino math that explains why Domino is good in Jubilee-Blink decks is actually very simple, and you don't need a calculator or a college education to do it.
Yes, playing Domino hurts your probabilIty of drawing the T4 Jubilee, T5 Blink combo.
Yes, playing Domino hurts your probability of drawing Blink BY turn 5.
But -
What if what matters isn't drawing Blink BY turn 5, but instead what you wanted is to draw Blink ON turn 5, and not before? The solution to the problem is very obvious if you approach it as someone who loves to play Jubilee in Snap.
In Snap, you have 12 cards in a deck. Before each match, the 12 cards are shuffled into a random order. We can number them 1 to 12, 1-3 being the cards in your opening hand and 12 being the bottom.
When you play Jubilee a lot, you realize that when you play Jubilee on turn 4, what you care about is the #8 card - the top card, the card you would usually draw on turn 5. As I alluded to above, Jubilee is not the only card that cares about the #8 card - Iron Lad cares about the same card, as does Loki (indirectly). When you are playing any of these 3 cards, which card is the #8 card makes a very big difference to whether or not you will win or lose the match. And the reason to play Domino, the reason why Domino's ability is good, is that Domino's ability sees to it that she is NOT card #8. Nor #9, nor #10, nor #11.
So the math that solves the problem of why Domino is good in this deck is, as I said, very simple.
Without Domino, the chance that any specific card is card #8 is 1/12, or 8.3%.
With Domino, the chance that any specific card is card #8 is 1/11, or 9.1%. Same with card #9 and card #10.
Ok, so how does Domino help Blink? Well, Domino doesn't directly help Blink, but she does help Blink indirectly, and she helps Blink decks. Domino doesn't help BlInk directly because obviously you don't usually want to Jubilee INTO Blink (although that is not a disaster either). But Domino does help Blink indirectly, because there is a very good reason you don't want to draw Blink BEFORE turn 5 -- Leech (at least for now). Domino helps Blink decks because Blink decks play cards that are good Jubilee hits, cards that you want to be #8, #9 or #10.
So Domino is a good card for a deck that is playing both Jubilee and Blink. On the other hand, Jubilee-Blink isn't the best deck for Domino, because Jubilee-Blink has a specific combo it wants to hit. Domino is better in decks like Iron Lad or Loki that doesn't care about hitting a specific card #8, any 5 or 6 cost card is a good Lad hit or topdeck draw on turn 5 or turn 6. Which is usually good enough.
So in other words, Domino's ability helps your deck draw its earlY plays ON turns 1 and 2, and helps your deck draw your late game plays ON turns 5 and 6. To me that's a very good ability and one that I've found that helps me win more than most other 2 cost cards. I prefer draw my smalL cards early and my big cards late, and not the other way around, and Domino helps with that, seems to me like a valuable ability. Where Domino does hurt most is on turn 3, so a deck playing Domino needs to have more turn 3 plays than usual. Zabu used to solve this issue easily by turning your 4 cost cards into turn 3 plays. Domino hurting your probability of drawing a specific card BY a specific turn diminishes as a match progresses, and is minimal to trivial by the final turn compared to playing any other normal card in your deck.
Anyway, I decided to write this so that in the future if someone asks why I'm playing Domino I can just refer them to this and make my life as a Domino-truther suck less.
The name is Qinalo, mon ami. Remember it...

The HRRFY.
It’s the horror movie festival where something genuinely fucked happens every year. And I mean every year.
Like, there are some screenings that unleash hordes of bats while the movie is playing. You're free to leave whenever you want, but the movie will still play for 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Other screenings hire actors to turn at you and scream at some point in the movie. You have no idea when, or how many times.
It's a festival where the word "illegal" can't even begin to describe what occurs. You'd only attend if you were a young, stupid edgelord like me who was trying to prove he was hardcore to his friends.
Trust me. DO NOT GO.
You have nothing to prove to anyone. Don't be stupid.
Wait for the lamer film versions to come out streaming. That's what everyone else does. They're neutered edits but they're fine.
All they lack is the real gleaming thing everyone wants to see at HRRFY, but who cares. At least you don’t get traumatized. At least you’re not risking your life.
Anyway, if you really want to know what attending HRRFY is like. I’ll be quick and summarize the one screening I went to. It was the 20th anniversary, and I was lucky enough to get in.
***
I had signed up for the HRRFY mailing list, and joined the subreddit. Through a series of cryptic online emails I solved a sequence of riddles and was entered in the lottery for a HRRFY entry.
Lady Luck took a shine to me, because one day in my mailbox, I received a physical ticket. I had done it.
I was going.
The actual ‘ticket’ was a black USB key that announced the location of the festival the night before (which I won’t disclose here) and it did force me to pay for a very expensive flight in order for me to make it on time.
You see, to prevent getting shut down, the location of HRRFY changes every year. Some years the local police have managed to stop it, but for the most part, authorities have given up. What’s the point of arresting or charging anyone, if all the organizers and attendees actually want to be there?
Upon arrival, I had to pick between three participating theaters.
Based on title alone, I decided to go see “Many Drownings” (directed by Oleksander Gołański.) It was in the theater that was furthest away from the downtown core, which meant it was likely the one where the craziest shit was bound to happen.
That’s what I came here for right?
I lined up a solid two hours before the screening like everyone else. The entire line was jittering, just vibrating with excited twenty-somethings. Rumors flew left and right.
“I heard they’re going to force everyone to take acid.”
“I heard an actor’s gonna run in and shotgun the ceiling.”
“I heard they’re going to disappear like four more people this year. At this screening!”
Each year people disappeared. And each year the same people were ‘found.’ And yes this is the worst part, and why should never, ever, ever go to this event.
Again I will repeat myself. DO NOT GO.
No one has ever truly gone 'missing' at HRRFY in any legal or physical sense, because every missing person always shows up a day later, convinced that they are fine—refusing to elaborate further.
There are some small support groups for people who have family members who had gone to HRRFY, and came back irrevocably changed after being ‘found.’
These few unlucky people lose all semblance of personality. They don’t want interviews, or help, or therapy, or contact of any kind. And they never, ever want to talk about what they saw.
Some HRRFY fans think that these ‘found’ people were body-snatched. Cloned in a lab or replaced by a cyborg, or something stupid like that.
But I think there’s a far simpler explanation. The ‘found’ are still the same people. They're just terrified. They got shaken by something that shattered the foundation of their mind, body and soul. They got too scared.
They got HRRFY’d.
***
I should mention I had a cough the day I went. And I was worried my sickly appearance might give me trouble at the airport.
So I invested in an intense double N95 mask which I wore for the whole flight, and continued to wear even at the screening of “Many Drownings.”
It made my face hot and uncomfortable, but it still didn’t stop me from yelling “excuse me, excuse me!” as I ran to snag a seat in the back of the theater.
I always preferred sitting in the far back. You get a good view of the whole screen, and a good view of the whole audience.
Beside me sat a big dude named Sylvester, who apparently flew all the way from Australia to attend HRRFY.
“Worth the full Seventeen hours mate! It’s gonna be epic!” he dropped a massive camping backpack beside me, which I assume contained all of his luggage.
The lights dimmed, and the production company logos started to play.
The whispering, giggling and suspense all stacked upon each other to create an electric feeling in the air. I was giddy. It's like the entire audience was embarking on a massive roller coaster.
The anticipation was the best part for sure. It might have been the only good part.
Then the movie started.
It was a wide shot of a gray, stormy sea. The waves were massive, and the thunderclouds were looming. There was no land visible in any direction.
All we could hear was the sound of waves foaming, swirling, and crashing over and over. Lightning crackled. Rain poured. The camera held perfectly still over this storm as if it was mounted on a perfectly hovering drone. A drone so resilient that it didn’t waver at all.
I thought it had to be CGI.
The shot held like this for the next few moments. Everyone sat glued to their seats. Everyone was thinking the same thing.
What’s going to happen? How are they going to scare us?
People chuckled. People cheered. People wanted to tease whatever was going to happen—to happen already.
But nothing did.
Five, ten, maybe fifteen minutes went by without any change. People started snoring.
I looked beside me and saw that Sylvester—the most excited audience member of them all—had fallen totally asleep. The jet lag must’ve gotten to him.
Then I peered beyond the rest of the audience members and saw other people snoozing too. Heads were keeled over, some people were curled in their seats, some had even spilled out into the aisle and were dozing on the floor.
I looked above the bright screen, at the huge vents in the corner of the theater. I saw a faint white gas emerging from the vents.
Holy shit. What have we been breathing? I tightened the straps on my N95 mask, and made my breathing shallower.
The gas must have been pumping since the opening credits—because how else would an audience of two hundred people all fall asleep?
As I moved my hand through the air in front of me, I could sense the thickness. It was definitely hazier than usual. I took the scarf off my neck and wrapped it around my mouth as well.
Then I spotted movement in front of the screen.
It was a tall blonde man, wearing a black trenchcoat and military-grade gas mask. Beside him arrived six hazmat suits who started pointing at various audience members.
I slunk in my chair, pretending to sleep like everyone else.
Two hazmats walked over to the front row and picked out a sleeping guy in flannel. They lifted flannel up, under the armpits and by his ankles, carrying him between them both like a hammock.
The hazmats walked back up to the stage, where the blonde leader inspected the flannel man and tapped his head. Something was approved?
The hazmats began to swing flannel back and forth, as if they were getting ready to toss him. Despite their masks, I could hear a very muffled, very distant countdown.
“Three…”
“Two…”
“One…”
The flannel audience member was tossed into the screen.
I literally watched him fly into the image of stormy waves … andfallinto them. The flannel man sank into the gray water like a rock, leaving a few bubbles and foam. A wave came crashing down. All trace of him was gone.
What the fuck.
All six hazmats began grabbing more audience members with much more urgency. It became a minute-long process where they would pick the sleeping person up, bring them beside the screen, and then swing-toss them into it.
How was this possible?
I turned slightly to see if there was a projector above me, and realized there was none. Which meant maybe there was no screen on stage.
Which meant … maybe it was a portal?
I tried to wake Sylvester by shaking him. I pinched his leg and arm a bunch.
He was out cold.
The hazmats started grabbing audience members from the middle rows now. They were emptying the whole theater. What the hell was I supposed to do?
I waited until they grabbed another batch, only a few rows down from me. When all hazmats had their backs turned—I broke into a run.
With my left arm, I tightly gripped my mask and scarf against my face, while my right arm vaulted me over seat after seat.
I had never breathed so hard—through so much fabric—in my life.
The hazmats all turned to me. “Hey! Hey!” But their hands were full with their next victims.
I ran all the way down the aisle, to the big exit sign on the left. My heartbeat filled my head. My plan was to dropkick through the exit door.
I imagined myself breaking through like some flying gazelle.
I jumped.
I angled my kick.
It might as well have been a brick wall. I fell ass-first to the ground, followed by my head. Of course the door was locked.
Through a muffled mask I heard a sneering scoff.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Above me stood the one wearing a trenchcoat. I could see his piercing gray eyes through his gas mask.
I rolled aside and tried to run by him. He lifted a foot and tripped me without effort.
My forehead bashed into an empty seat. It dazed me.
The blonde leader bent down and grabbed me by the neck, tearing away my scarf and mask.
“No! No!”
A sweet, ether-like smell filled my nostrils. I did my best to hold my breath, but I could already feel myself getting light-headed.
The other hazmats joined in, grabbing me from all sides. Even if I had the strength to struggle, there was no escape now.
Above me, all I could see was the dark theater ceiling, and some of the light behind me from the cinema screen.
“Three…”
“Two…”
“No. Please. Don’t do thi—”
SPLASH.
I was plunged deep into cold, wet chaos. My head was completely underwater.
Gagging. Bubbles. Spinning.
I fought for dear life, dog-paddling like a maniac.
Churning. Freezing. Panic.
For a second, my head popped above the water. I inhaled all the air my lungs could muster. I stared across a vast, violent ocean.
An enormous thirty foot wave came in my direction.
My whole body lifted higher and higher as the wave approached. I did my best to tread water. It seemed to be working.
Then a series of smaller waves arrived and smacked my chest.
SPLASH.
Spinning. Kicking. Flipping.
My view alternated between the pitch dark ocean beneath me, and the moonlit night sky above.
Again I swam to the surface, popped my head out. Ravenously sucked in air.
There was a small lull in the water.
Around me I now registered the other theater goers. Most of them were lying face-down or sinking … but a few were flapping about like me, fighting for their life.
And above all of us, a floating white shape.
It was painfully bright, I had to lift one hand to look at it.
My jaw dropped.
It was the movie screen, hanging completely still in the air. It showed a dark, empty theater. The exact same theater we all occupied moments ago.
It was tremendously high, above all of our heads. There was no way of reaching it.
Then I saw another thirty foot wave come our way. It grazed the bottom of the screen.
I knew what had to be done.
***
One of the theater goers happened to be on a college swim team. She was the first one able to traverse one of the giant waves and climb into the screen.
Once she was up there, she found a firehose in the theater and reeled it out to us like a rope.
One by one, we swam as hard as we could, praying to God we could reach the rope. Everyone’s energy was sapped. Your body can only sustain itself on adrenaline and fear for so long.
By some miracle, five of us got out.
I was the last.
I climbed the rope coughing and vomiting. I had swallowed so much water that my stomach felt swollen.
When I reached the top and they pulled me into the screen, I sobbed. I couldn’t stop crying.
My life had flashed countless times before my eyes. In bubbling, suffocating visions, I saw both my parents and my brother. I saw my highschool graduation. I saw my favorite Christmas from when I was six years old.
I had almost lost all of that. I had lost almost everything.
On the dirty, carpeted theater floor, I lay with my face down, savoring the fact that I now lay on a hard surface. God bless ground. God bless this filthy, popcorn-strewn ground.
Beside me I heard bantering, hugging, the wringing of wet clothes. Sylvester was the second last to be saved, and he was particularly vocal.
“Wooooooaaaaahh!” He came and drummed me on the back, lifted me up. “Oh my god dude! Holy shit!”
I sat on my knees, wiping the tears and snot off my mouth.
Sylvester clapped his hands, held his face and screamed some more.
“Holy shit dude! That was so fucking scary! Like literally people were dying beside us. Like I SAW people die!”
I nodded, shivering in my drenched clothes. “ I know it was—”
“—That was craaaaazy!”
He laughed and stood up, patting everyone on the back. He kept clapping his hands like this was some sports event.
“That was sick! That was siiiiiiiiick!”
He ruffled someone’s hair then ran up to me with an open palm.
“High five dude! WE MADE IT! High five!
“Don’t leave me hangin’ dude!”

I want to note that I have enjoyed the game quite a bit so far, but there are a few things I feel that make the game's replay value seem a bit lower than hades 1. I just want to start discussions here for the devs to look at and also see how other players feel about the game. This is a discussion and I hope that the devs don't take this as me dogging on them or anything like that. I think so far the gameplay is mostly great and very enjoyable. Except for the few things that I have noticed so far. Also MAJOR spoilers for the underground portion of hades 2
1) It feels like builds with specifically dagger and staff either go toward your attack + cast or special + cast. I have yet to find a build that doesn't just pump one of the skills or omega skills and is able to use all the other attacks well. Examples being staff with poseidon special just start forgoing the use of omega skills and attacks completely except for maybe omega cast on certain trash waves. Except unless you get an attack that deals a crucial debuff, then you use it exclusively to proc that debuff. Its very different from hades 1 where you chain skills together for maximum effect. My easiest example is the sword with how fluid it feels to use dash attack + atk + special combo. Allowing you to really get a lot of use out of all three of them. Although I admittedly haven't played as much as hades 1 to say much else about it. But at the very least it feels like to get the most out of your weapons you really do need to use everything I have used the bow and shield, but without any aspects so gameplay might change a lot with those. Whereas in hades 2, you often are missing damage output by using a special over an attack or vice versa. In addition to the fact that its often very difficult to chain attacks together. A good example of this is with daggers, if you go aspect of artimis, it feels REALLY bad to use specials since you usually want a parry into a big attack + 9 other high damage skills so you can get the most of your aspect. This usually means that you spec into your attack and then kinda forget about your special except for niche use cases like to stop an unarmored enemy from casting an ability or to apply a debuff or for random poke damage (which probably amounts to very little anyways). On the flip side if you go aspect of pan, you are usually specing into special. In which you probably get poseidon special for consistent reliable and high damage. Which means each special hit is doing its base damage 30 (? might be a little lower) plus poseidon special damage, which amounts to more dps than using any attack would give you plus you can dash special with it, so dash attack is kinda pointless as well. The big thing here is that due to aspect of pan wanting enemies to be in your cast you at LEAST still use your omega attack to close distance for extra damage and to safely get behind an enemy at the cost of 10 magick. But outside of that attack feels very bad to use. The staff is probably the biggest offender of this tbh. Staff with poseidon special immediately just become spam special till everything is dead. it doesn't really matter what you have on everything else, the only thing you might do is weave a cast to maintain your distance from enemies and sprint around for positioning. There really isn't any fluid combos most of the weapons have unlike say hades 1 sword (i have the most experience with sword from hades 1 and staff and daggers from hades 2, ive tried shield and bow from hades 1 and the rest of the weapons from hades 2, but don't have a win on them or just simply don't like their playstyles so I won't comment on them much as I may be biased)
Also I just want to put here, the cast ability is a bit too strong. The ability to essentially cut an arena in half or say "I'll deal with you guys later" Or just say no to melee enemies with a click of a button is a bit much when there is no limit to how many enemies you can restrain. The best example of this is in oceanus where there are rooms full of just spinny enemies and the player can simply throw an omega cast down and watch as they run to their deaths. The move trivializes just about every other melee enemy in the game and rather than fully rooting them should just slow them like they do with some enemies in Tartarus.
2) Weapon + 1 boon combo does WAY too much damage and is WAY too consistent even up to 10 fear
I don't know if it's just a me thing, but the player is able to hard sweep pretty much everything up to chronos with just one boon. Some boons in the game are simply too strong in their current form. Examples being poseidon special, aphrodite attack and special boons, demeter freeze, and any ability to fire or place your cast away from mel. These boons really make games pretty much unlosable up until Chronos who realistically is only a knowledge check (I'll come back to him later). Getting some of the attacking boons i mentioned earlier especially trivialize bosses up to Chronos, and certain weapon + boon combo, so you really are just looking for 1 boon ends up being an easy win. Specifically poseidon special + ANY staff aspect/aspect of pan and Aphrodite attack with any of the daggers. Or Aphrodite special with aspect of pan daggers. Not to mention if you get other outside defensive boons like the ability to just turn off projectiles while sprinting in any encounter or boss fight. And if you get something a bit more synergistic with said boon like a boon + hammer + weapon combo then you end up just blowing up bosses. More specifically aspect of momos + double moonshot + poseidon special, seriously why does this melt bosses so easily and realistically doesn't even need the aspect portion. Or aspect of pan + dagger circle attack (i just remember this by the +40% and 16 daggers description) + poseidon/aphrodite special. I have gotten 14m runs with JUST those two and the two resource gain boons from poseidon and weakness dash from aphrodite along with omega cast from apollo (i never used it because the cast animation for the omega cast took too long and i did more damage to just about everything if I just used my special, except for in oceanus, that area is just how well do you deal with many small mobs imo)
3) Boss fights It might just be me, but after about 60 nights. The boss fights have become very easy and is mostly a how fast do i blow up Chronos. I think its part of the player does too much damage with just one boon type of thing. But the boss fights mostly end up with going from spawning to first "test" or enrage or add spawn wave, to next one by the time you hit sirens. Even Hecate gets like this if you start with anything above epic for your main damage dealing attack or special (i havent really tried a omega cast specific build yet) The other issue I have is specific to Chronos. His fight is quite literally the biggest knowledge check in the game. Someone put it nicely in another post that Chronos is an accumulation of everything that you have seen getting up to Chronos. This is great game design. However, I have two issues when it comes to the difficulty of the boss's patterns. The first issue is p2's closing circle. The attack lacks visual clarity to what you are about to get hit with since the game initially associates dark blackness with death and bright circles with life. So naturally when you see the closing circle attack for the first time, the player's instincts are okay lets stay in this closing circle and avoid the dark damage dealing outside. But ends up taking damage anyways. The issue with this attack is that the game doesn't make it clear that its ONLY the edge that deals damage to the player and not the closing darkness. In fact its completely safe to dash through said ring and stay in the darkness even after the ring closes. Which was previously something that would instakill the player. Another thing is Chronos's attack pattern in p2. Not the full map attacks or the p2 specific attacks but the dash and slash attacks that chronos makes. In phase 1, after you get Chronos to <50% hp Chronos starts chaining multiple dashes and slashes together in a more "enraged" state. This continues before he enters p2. Truthfully this is the hardest part of Chronos p1 OR p2. This is because the window you get to deal damage to Chronos shrinks so you actually have to pick and choose when and where you deal damage lest you mistime something and dash into one of his trails, or get punished by a follow up dash or slash. When Chronos hits phase 2 he reverts to his p1 >50% basic attack pattern and only does 1 dash or slash. And also truthfully has MUCH more downtime between attacks or animations. So here's what I think should change for Chronos:

• Give Chronos p2 the <50% p1 attack pattern, he should be desperate to kill you and doing everything he can at this point. Truthfully he's almost easier to kill in p2 than he is in p1 with how many attacks of his that force him to stay still until the attack is over with like barely any attacks being sent toward you. It's like
  
• Give Chronos invulnerability when he does the instakill, Chronos shouldn't lose an entire test worth's of hp just because he put the safe spot on the side closest to you and/or reduce the time you have to reach safe spot by a bit, its VERY lenient. (If there is an atk speed increase to enemy fear that I forgot about and it affects this attack then it should be fine speed wise)
  
• And lastly, this one applies to most bosses, just give the bosses more health in general. They feel REALLY squishy even on max HP fear they feel really squishy.
  

I'm 18 F been wanting to go to the dermatologist for a long time now. Ive been struggling with acne ever since middle school and now I'm a sophomore in college. And I'm sick of feeling so insecure about my skin I just want to look in the mirror and not see a new zit every day. And I've tried everything in the book.
So I've asked my mom in the past for a derm appt and she always said no ur skin isn't that bad.
So I just kinda dealt with it. Now that I'm much older i asked her for my health insurance card for a derm appt (btw im paying for the appt) and she said I was self-absorbed and only looked in the mirror all day and it's a waste of money. She also said that I have no hobbies and should invest my time in something else other than myself.
Honestly, this really ticked me off. Not her saying no to the health insurance and derm appt. But saying I have no interest in anything but myself and have absolutely no hobbies. It really hurt me, bc I have many interests but she does not care for any of them bc shes not interested in them. (I do ceramics and build cardboard buildings/animals in my free time) And I know those hobbies arent for everyone but she never shows any interest in them at all and then claims I do nothing with my life.
Yes, I do spend a bit of my time reaching into skincare, but to try to educate myself so I can maybe get lucky and clear my skin up. I dont think she understands how big of an insecurity having acne is, she never dealt with it growing up. I am tired of touching my face and it being bumpy I just want smooth skin. And to feel confident and comfortable in my own skin.
I just don't get why she gets so ticked off each I bring up the topic like it's not even ur money. Yes, I understand that it's not important to her but it is to me and I just want her to respect that without shaming me for wanting better skin.
Sorry for any grammar errors or if it doesn't make sense I just needed to chest and get this off my chest.

I’ll apologize in advance because this is so long but I don’t know what else to do.
My mother (60F) and I (25F) have been bickering about small things surrounding my wedding since I got engaged in March. It started with chairs and escalated to the guest list.
My parents have these two friends, we’ll call them Alex and Demi, who I am not particularly fond of. These friends also have two adult children who I am also not that fond of.
Demi is an extremely nosey woman and has been texting my mom non stop since I got engaged wanting to know ALL details. She also keeps saying she’s “so excited for OUR kids” (her son also just got engaged) and went as far as to ask my mom if her son’s wedding date was okay with my family.
It should be noted my parents don’t speak very kindly of these people to begin with. So much so that my fiancé is confused of why this is such a big fuss. They also travel with this couple and see them weekly.
When I finally told my mom I didn’t want this couple or their kids at my wedding she lost it. My parents told me they would lose friends and that I couldn’t just not invite them. I dug my heels in on my decision because I feel like this is another thing I’m not being heard on.
Fast forward this weekend and I dug in yet again and drew a line in the sand that I didn’t want them coming. I told my mom I didn’t understand how they would lose friends when I don’t have relationships with these people aside from when my parents invited them over growing up. Not to mention I just don’t see adults ending “friendship” over a non invite.
My mom yelled at me first and then would barely speak to me until today when she told me she was “ready to talk” because I had asked her what was wrong over the weekend and she “couldn’t put it into words before”.
We were on the phone for an hour, she started by reading her “notes” that she had made that ripped me and my character to pieces. She called me ungrateful, disrespectful, and not compassionate for “picking and choosing” who gets to come to my wedding.
She also said I was being self centered by referring to my wedding as my wedding. To top it all off she told me I was extremely close to losing my relationship with her and my dad and that I should stop and think about how my decisions affect other people.
I was so hurt by this because we’ve only been disputing two things and I’ve been trying to be kind about everything else- design, seating, flowers, etc.
I asked for examples about the labels she gave me and tried to understand what she meant by them. She couldn’t give any and kept going back to the original issue of me not wanting this family at my wedding.
She also said while I was “good at setting boundaries” she felt I would never have any meaningful personal relationships because I lack compassion, the ability to be kind, and the ability to forgive.
She then threw in my face that one of my bridesmaids and I haven’t always gotten along and “if she can come then other people who want to support you should be allowed to as-well”.
I told her I was over it and that she can invite whomever she pleases but I pointed out that while I gave her a quote of 25 people as well as my fiancés mother, my mom did not adhere to it. She argued that my fiancés parents went over their quota as well and I had to correct her that they didn’t until we told them to because my parents had a list of almost 40 people.
She cried on and off the whole call. She did apologize but it always felt back handed (“I’m sorry you feel that way but you always say I’m a bad mom so I can’t help feeling this way”) I was very calm most of the call until the last 15 minutes where I couldn’t stop crying because I still can’t understand the ungrateful, no compassion, and disrespectful comments.
At this point she went back on her words and said it was “an isolated incident” because now it’s been resolved. She called it a thing of the past. She also demanded I apologize to her because she had already done so.
I had to correct her and say that I have been constantly asking for examples and a solution and apologizing. She agreed with that but ultimately would not allow me to recognize my own frustration without adding in that she “feels the same”.
At this point I couldn’t take it anymore. I told her I was done and asked if we could cancel the wedding. Unfortunately we’ve already signed a contract so we can’t. I love my fiancé but I cannot take this any more, I’m also not sure if I can move on past the things my mother said. Her and my father as well as my fiancés parents are paying for the wedding so I don’t think no contact is the option.
I need advice, anything is helpful. I’m in therapy and I do know my mother is a narcissist from my work with my therapist (my childhood is also another sore subject my mom hates talking about unless it’s all sunshine and rainbows). Honestly, I want to crawl in bed and never get out but I know that’s not an option. What do I do?

Fascism has a number of essential characteristics but the most distinct is palingenetic ultranationalism: The myth that the nation is an organic body composed of a downtrodden but authentic "common people" who have been betrayed, victimized, and derived of land and money by out-groups (especially Jews, LGBT folks, immigrants, and liberals), and the nation must be reborn and grown larger, phoenix-like, from the ashes of its downtrodden state through the cleansing fire of violence against those out-groups and their allies (especially their allies among the "common people") and the seizure of their land and property, regardless of how many "common people" must be sacrificed in this process of violent "purification"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palingenetic_ultranationalism
Palestinian nationalism has all these definitional features. Its central myth is that "the Palestinians" (whose language, Arabic, lacks the letter P) have been betrayed, oppressed, and deprived of their land and money by Jews, and "Palestine" must be reborn and grown larger, phoenix-like, from the ashes of its current corrupt theocracy through the cleansing fire of violence against Jews, LGBT people, and liberals (especially liberal Arabs who believe in co-existence with Jews and LGBT people), and all those who support them, regardless of how many human shields, child soldiers, and hospitals with bunkers underneath them must be sacrificed in this process of purification
This Palestinian ideological mythos entirely reverses victim and perpetrator
In the real world, there is an extensive and well corroborated archeological record (starting with the Merneptah Stele) showing the continuous residence of the indigenous Jewish inhabitants in the land between the river and the sea, but that Stele alone independently establishes their presence for at least the last 3200 years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah_Stele
In contrast, the Arab-Israeli conflict started relatively recently, with the battle of Tel Hal on March 1st 1920, when an Arab militia attacked the Jewish-owned farms at Tel Hal in an attempt to find French soldiers, eventually burning it to the ground. Prior to that there was no organized violence between Arabs and Israelis in the region:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tel_Hai
The next incident in the Arab-Israel conflict was the Nebi Musa riots a month later, on April 8th 1920, when Amin al-Husayni (who later allied with the Nazis and was a big fan of Hitler) gave an incendiary speech from the balcony of the Arab Club, kicking off what resulted in an Muslim mob of around 60,000 ransacking of the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem:
https://www.palquest.org/en/historictext/6709/palin-commission-report
That's what started the war. It started with Arab people committing mob violence against Jewish people and that has never stopped to this day. Genocide is what Nazi and Communist-inspired Arab mobs and armies have repeatedly tried to do to the indigenous Jewish people of the land between the river and the sea, starting from the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, and continuing on through 1948, 1967, 1973, 1982, 1987, 2000, and most recently on October 7th
They keep trying to eradicate Jewish people off the land their ancestors lived in continuously for thousands of years, they keep getting their asses kicked every time they try it, and they deserve it every time they do
This makes sense when you understand the history of the region, and how Arab-ness was imposed by force (along with Islam) by multiple relatively historically recent waves of conquering Muslim settler-colonists
The Ottoman Empire was the culmination of those waves of Muslim settler-colonists, and after World War I it collapsed and in much of the Middle East was followed by Pan-Arab nationalism, which was a remarkably Nazi project. The founder of modern Palestinian religious nationalism (Amin al Husseini) was a close ally and personal friend of Hitler
https://time.com/4084301/hitler-grand-mufi-1941/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-official-record-what-the-mufti-said-to-hitle
After waging and escalating series of genocidal pogroms against the indigenous Jewish people (culminating in their alliance with the Nazis in World War II) and getting their asses kicked, Palestinian nationalism (as distinct from pan-Arab nationalism) emerged a fundamentally Soviet project
That is not an exaggeration. 100 years ago most people in the region defined themselves as Ottoman, by their village, or by their religion. Arab nationalism is a relatively new socially constructed weapon, made up by unambiguous fascists (like Sati Al-Husri, Abdulrahman Badawi, and Amin al-Husseini) and communists (like Fawaz Taraboulsi or Suhayl Idris) to mobilize hate against and justify the murder of their imperfect but much more reasonable democratic enemies (who also happened by the enemies of the Nazis and Soviets)
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/liberation-arabs-global-left
Palestinian nationalism, as opposed to Arab nationalism, was created by the KGB after the repeated defeats of the USSR's Arab-nationalist proxies in 1948 and 1967. The blueprint for the PLO Charter was drafted in Moscow in 1964 and was approved by 422 Palestinian representatives hand-selected by the KGB. At that time, the USSR was in the business of creating "people’s liberation" fronts. The KGB founded the PLO as well as the National Liberation Army of Bolivia in 1964 led by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and the National Liberation Army of Colombia in 1965
The “Palestinian Liberation Army” was contrived by the KGB, much like the KGB devised the Bolivian National Liberation Army, Greek People's Liberation Army, Malayan National Liberation Army, etc etc. It created this Arab army in the early 1960s following the failure of the troops of various Soviet-puppet-ruled Arab states to destroy Israel. The KGB drafted the Palestinian National Charter and handpicked the 422 members of the PLO council that approved it. As the KGB's director said at the time, "We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel". Likewise, both the Palestine National Covenant and Palestinian Constitution were drafted in Moscow
https://stanfordreview.org/deception-palestinian-nationalism/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_involvement_in_regime_change
The most popular Palestinian faction currently, Hamas, pointedly opposes multi-ethnic pluralistic democracy. That's what Israel already is and they hate it. Hamas also explicitly opposes a two-state solution, wants to expel and murder Jews, and impose an Islamic theocracy by force
The founding covenant of Hamas, which they created their terrorist organization around in 1988, opens with a message that precisely encapsulates Hamas’s master plan. Quoting Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a constituent member (Article 2), the document proclaims, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
After some general explanatory language about Hamas’s religious foundation and noble intentions, the covenant comes to the Islamic Resistance Movement’s raison d’être: the slaughter of Jews. “The Day of Judgement will not come about,” it proclaims, “until Moslems fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and k-ll him.”
Article 11 spells out why this annihilation of Jews is required. Palestine is described as an “Islamic Waqf”—an endowment predicated on Muslim religious, education, or charitable principles and therefore inviolate to any other peoples or religions. Accordingly, the territory that now encompasses Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank is:

consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up … This Waqf remains as long as earth and heaven remain. Any procedure in contradiction to Islamic Sharia, where Palestine is concerned, is null and void.

In sum, any compromise over this land, including the moribund two-state solution, much less coexistence among faiths and peoples, is forbidden.
https://web.archive.org/web/20231010215457/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/
And Hamas has the support of somewhere between 65-80% of the Palestinian people
https://www.awrad.org/en/article/10719/Wartime-Poll-Results-of-an-Opinion-Poll-Among-Palestinians-in-the-West-Bank-and-Gaza-Strip
To understand the Palestinian strategy in this latest phase of their forever war, see here:
How Hamas Uses Civilians as a Weapon - The Dark Side of Clausewitzian War
https://deadcarl.substack.com/p/how-hamas-uses-civilians-as-a-weapon
Both Palestinian leadership and street have repeatedly acting as willing pawns, first of the Nazis, then of the Soviets, and now of the contemporary fascist Axis that includes Russia, China, and Iran. The historical Palestinian embrace of Nazi, Soviet, Islamist, and modern Axis fascism (and their rejection of democracy and equal rights) only makes their rationale for doing do so, and the nature of their project, more clear
Palestinian-ism is fascist, and everyone who understands and opposes fascism should oppose it
A contextual note: I am not Jewish or Israeli. My closest relatives in the region are from a bit north of there. None of this should need to be said. The content in this article should be obvious, and generally is obvious to those with relevant experience on the ground. Unfortunately we live in a world where disinformation drowns out accurate historical context so apparently this needs to be said once again

I (27M) often let my mother borrow money. She typically pays it back but it's gotten to the point where I think it's too much to handle. I'll give an example. This is going to be long. I put in for time off for 10 days to help her move since her old place was too expensive and she couldn't afford movers. In the old place, she and my older sister were supposed to be splitting the bills but my older sister quit her job and failed to find another. My older sister eventually moved to another state. Anyway, when I get down there she doesn't have any money for the truck so I have to rent out a truck. She knows I get paid on the weeks she doesn't, this is something else that's become a constant thing when it comes to borrowing money. Whatever I pay for the truck. Well, a few days goes by and we move most of the stuff into the new place.
My older sister, the same sister that moved away, needs $300 by Wednesday or she's getting put out of her place. I offer the money since I worry about my niece and nephew, she has 2 kids btw, but my mom is unsure about the validity of her claims. She does some calling around and it seems my sister was asking other family members for the same amount and had received the amount already.
When my mom is telling me this she goes "Yeah your sister got the money from another family member, but can you pay off the amount on my furniture, refrigerator, and stove? The new place she's moving into doesn't have a refrigerator or stove. I'm thinking sure whatever not that big of a deal. I forgot to mention my younger sister, niece and grandmother live with my mother as well. We get to the place keep in mind I'm thinking it's just $300 is the payoff amount. In actuality, it's around $1200. I told her I didn't have that much money on me. When we get in the car she goes "Well how much did you think it was?" in a very snarky tone. We never discussed how much it was beforehand. I just assumed it was no more than the $300 my sister previously needed.
Since this was said I've been in a bad mood ever since. I'm here with mom for a few more days but I'm just exhausted. I paid for my plane tickets out of my pocket, on top of paying for the truck and other things. She let me know a few weeks ago that things would be tough financially for her since she decided to move and that she would need my help but things have been tough for me as well financially. Since graduating college, I've been struggling to gain a footing financially. It may have to do with the fact I don't have a spouse or any children on top of her raising us kids as a single parent which makes her feel entitled to any money I earn but I'm not sure. I don't have anyone to talk to so any advice is welcomed.

As an average player (I barely reached ultra gold in sf5 with Lucia) I can't find what makes Cammy so strong. In my opinion Kimberly is better at everything. No need to practice instant divekicks, as ex teleport does the same thing. No need to risk with SLOW anti-projectile spin move, as ex teleport does it better and faster with even more plus frames, from any position of the screen. Spiral arrow is useless in neutral and gets you killed (I miss V-trigger enhanced spiral arrows). Kim's run is extremely versatile and among other applocations can be used as spiral arrow as well. I don't know the purpose of hooligan as it's slow as hell. Kim has no dp, and that's it? With how frequent you can super in this game compared to 5, it's not that big of an issue. Kim doesn't have far reaching mk like Cammy has, that isn't cancellable and is beaten by DIs anyway? Better oki off spiral arrow that is now mitigated by the existence of drive rush oki? I really want to know. I got to D5 with Kim, but I'm having a hard time with Cammy in plat, and I have no idea what's she supposed to do. And everyone claims Cammy is much stronger in this game. I personally found her to be stronger in sf5 with all those frame trap buttons and V-trigger, which now don't exist.

MATCH RESULTS

Winner	Loser	Match Finish	Stipulation
Fallon Henley	Thea Hail w/ Chase U	Big Boot	Women's North American Championship Qualifier
Axiom and Nathan Frazer (c)	Luca Crusifino and Stacks w/ The Family	Inside Cradle after the NCQC attack the Family at Ringside	For the NXT Tag Team Championships
Wes Lee and Joe Coffey w/ Gallus	Briggs	Double Pinfall	#1 Contender for the North American Championship
Jaida Parker w/ OTM	Brinley Reece	Hip Check	Women's North American Championship Qualifier
Dante Chen w/ Robert Stone	Lexis King	Roll-Up counter to the Coronation
Natalya and Karmen Petrovich	Lola Vice and Shayna Balzer	Hart Attack

IMPORTANT NOTES

• The Family arrive to the arena when they are confronted by Nathan Frazer and Axiom, Nathan Frazer congratulates Tony on winning the cup and says he remembers winning it himself while Axiom regrets having never won it. The Family goes down the winners of the cup and wonders what the hell happened to A-Kid? Tony accuses Axiom and Frazer of ducking Gallows and Anderson but Nathan says they are willing to defend the titles against any NXT superstars and Tony says they should defend them against Luca and Stacks and the two agree.
  
• Joe Coffey says the only things people were talking about the end of last week was Gallus and they took out Ivar but Wes Lee and Josh Briggs were tougher than expected but he's going to finish the job tonight then show Oba Femi what Gallus is about at Battleground.
  
• Robert Stone is telling Waylon Dix that she impressed him in the combine, Lexis King walks in and tells Stone that no one wants anything to do with him lately, even Chelsea Green didn't want him to help her anymore and he's shooting to the top. Ava walks by and tells Lexis to get ready because he has a surprise opponent tonight, Stone says he'd love to teach Lexis something but Ava reminds him last time he stepped in the ring it didn't end well.
  
• Riley Osborne calls Ridge a liability but Ridge tells him to back off and says he couldn't just stand there and see Thea get hit with a chair so he had to step in. Riley says it cost Thea the match and the two argue. Andre says if they have something to settle settle it in the ring.
  
• Karmen Petrovich says she's nervous since this is her first main event but Nattie is the BOAT, Nattie says she's been impressed by how much Karmen has grown and tonight they'll be a well oiled winning machine.
  
• Edris Enofe says he's cooked after all his bad luck but Brin still wants him and Blade in her corner tonight. Edris isn't sure as Brin cartwheels out of the room.
  
• Oba Femi asks Ava what the decision of the triple threat match, she says it's clear that both Joe and Wes made their pins at the same time so Oba will have to face both at Battleground.
  
• Fallon Henley is approached by Jazmine Nyx and says she knew that friends were just holding her back and that's why she waited until after Fallon's win to get her revenge on Thea for breaking Jacey's nose.
  
• Wendy Choo wakes up!
  
• Roxanne Perez says the NXT Women's Championship has always been her "why" and it is the two of them against the world. It doesn't matter if it's NXT, the main roster, or the fans, all she cares about is her title and you better get used to this sight because when she looks in the mirror she doesn't see a hero or a villain she just sees a prodigy.
  
• Ava is on the phone and says she worked out things with Nick and Adam and that next week Roxanne's next challenger for Battleground.
  
• Lexis King comes down to the ring and says the king has been a bit of a hot streak lately and whoever comes through that curtain is about to join a long list of gentlemen who have fallen to him. Robert Stone makes his way out and points to the entrance where Dante Chen makes his entrance.
  
• Lola tells Shayna that together they are unstoppable but Shayna tells her to keep the dancing back here and tonight is all about business.
  
• NXT Champion Trick Williams makes his way to the ring, he says he's got to get straight to business. Two weeks ago Noam Dar dropped him from behind, now last week Dar got dropped backstage and he wouldn't wish that on nobody so he wants to be crystal clear that he did not attack Noam Dar. If he did want to attack Noam he'd be unconscious and he'd have a size 15 Jordan printed on your forehead. Meta Four Come out and Jackson says Trick isn't tricking them and it was likely Trick and Je'von working together. Ora tells Trick to grow up and admit to what he did while Lash Legend argues that Trick couldn't have done it since Trick actually has been through this. Trick threatens to slap Oro's tap dance loafers right off his ass. Joe Coffey makes his way out and says everyone is probably wondering why the guy who just earned a shot at the North American Championship is talking to the NXT Champ, but he's about to find out why. The rest of Gallus ambush Trick from behind and Joe joins in until Je'von Evans to try and make the save but the numbers game is too much and Gallus lays out Je'von. Trick is able to recover and mounts a come back but Gallus gang up and puts down Trick with For the Bells.
  
• Backstage Robert Stone tells Dante Chen he did great and Ava comes by to congratulate him. Dante thanks her for the opportunity but she tells Dante that it was Stone who convinced her that this was his time. Dante thanks Stone and Ava tells him he made a star tonight.
  
• After the main event Shayna looks at Lola with disappointment but Lola strikes with a spinning kick before shaking her ass over Shayna's body. She goes to leave, still shaking, as Shayna gets to her feet and grabs Lola, locking her in the Kirafuda Clutch until officials run down to free Lola. The two brawl at ringside until Ava comes out and says it's clear the two of them are looking for a fight then they can do this at Battleground. Shayna grabs a mic and says she wants it in NXT Underground!
  

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I'm not totally sure if this is medical malpractice or not so I am here to seek advice
Background: I started getting sick when I was about 18 and I was diagnosed a few months after I turned 19. It took a long time to get testing done. My first specialist did not do a great job at taking care of me. Because it took so long to dignose me I ended up in the hospital. My first specialist didn't respond back for days while I was in the hospital and I was very frustrated with their care. It didn't feel like they were taking it seriously. While I was at the hospital I met my current specialist (who this post is about) they suggest their clinic which was a bit closer to me so I decided to switch specialist. It went by smoothly the first 3 months. They got me on treatment right away and I was satisfied with how quick things went.
After a few months on the treatment I can tell it wasn't working and my appointment was coming up so I thought I'd let them know during the appointment, it was canceled. No biggie. I made another one, which was 2 months out. Every single one of their appointments is about 2 months out. The day comes, it was canceled. At this point my body was shutting down and I was already not going to work. Made another one, canceled. They explained to me because I was 19, that I was still being seen through child services or something? I was so confused but that was because I use to me on my mother's health insurance plan (we have medical) and then I got my own and had to made a big switch to an adult doctor and get removed from this so call child services, still no idea what that was about. Now, 2 months later after I finally fix the child services issue and insurance. My body gives up and I end up being hospitalized. Where I saw my specialist there. They do a small procedure to check how worse I've gotten and my mayo score increased. They give me steroids and I feel a bit better, I get sent home and told to call to make an appointment with their office again I call and they are able to finally see me. I go to the office. They cancel because my insurance doesn't approve it on time. I literally break down in their office, in tears that one of the other patients their tell something to the front desk and they are able to see me. I think one more apartment was canceled after this instance and I call my insurance and they fix things for me because after that I had not one missed appointment. I had to always call them and make sure they request an authorization to see me because they neve did it on time. I basically went a whole year without seeing my specialist and wasn't on any working treatment and that's why I ended up in the hospital. Now this year, I haven't had any canceled appointments but none of the medication worked whatsoever. It seems the only thing keeping me from getting as bad as I did last year are the steroids, but I can't be on these for long. It's not a viable solution. I've been on several medication, none have worked, at least not the way they would like it to work. So now i have to do surgery. I can't help but feel that this is their fault for not seeing me for almost a year without proper treatment.
Recent issue: I was referred a surgeon this month, I called and they said they can see me for a consultation until the end of June??? But my specialist said this was urgent and I needed surgery soon or I can be at risk getting MUCH worse. So I called my specialist office again, they said we don't understand why it will take so long and they will fix it. They even noted that they give me the wrong surgeon they requested. They said they will fix it as soon as possible. I get a text from my specialist office, they said the surgeon herself would reach out to me. This was Thursday. I wait for a call Friday, nothing. This Monday I call and no one gets back to me. I finally send a text today and they finally tell me. "Oh it looks like we made a mistake". They appointment filled out the form wrong and give me wrong physician to do my surgery. Is that even possible? I imagine those forms are very detailed, how do you make a mistake so bad they give you a different doctor. The two surgeons have different names and are different sex. I'm so confused. They also asked me to stop taking all the medication, even the steroids. They told me to stop taking them 2 weeks ago because I will need surgery soon and I can't be on any medication like that before surgery. I am slowly getting worse. I am lost and completely in the dark. They send they sent in a corrected form today and it should be resolved within 72 hours. But even then, how long will it take to get seen for consultation? When will I get surgery? They told me to stop taking medication so I don't even know if I will make it until then.
Here is where i don't know if I can sue. The doctor himself never made a mistake, I feel like my specialist gave me proper care. But his staff, canceling so many appointments, not giving me any clue as to why they are being canceling, messing up important documentation, causing me to delay needed surgery. His staff are the problem, so do I have grounds to sue and should I?
Important notes: I have ulcerative colitis. When I mean I was in a horrible state last year. I mean I was using the bathroom 30 times a day. Eating once a day. Throwing up bile because I was throwing up on a empty stomach. Blood in my stool every single time I used the bathroom so i lost so much blood. I went through literal shit.
Current: I don't throw up, I am using the bathroom 8 times a day. Slowly increasing back to 10 and still blood. I know it may seem bad and according to my specialist this is still not liveable. But this is so much better then the hell I went through last year. I don't want surgery, I don't know why it had to come to surgery. I am getting a total colectomy, my whole colon is being removed. I hope this bit of information helps. Any advice is appreciated.

Hey guys! How's it going? I've recently downloaded playnite, and I have some questions, I was wondering if you guys could help me.
My first question is: Can I install games from the Epic Games store and GoG through playnite? I've managed to install Steam games, enabling Steam's big picture mode. With that, Steam UI becomes usable with a controller, and I don't need to get up to click install using my mouse. Is it possible to do something like that with GoG or epic? My other question is: Can I open steam directly from playnite? I've tried to manually at Steam Executable on playnite and opening it like it's a game, which almost worked. The problem is that seconds after steam is open, playnite pops up again, just like when games close. Also, my goal with playnite is to use my PC as a gaming console. If there's any more advice you guys could give me to improve my experience and help me achieve this goal, feel free to tell me. Thanks in advance, everyone!

For context, 5'11 and did a bulk on a program and go probably up to 245ish. Hit some bigger numbers (405lb Squat, 475lb Deadlift). Been lifting for three or so years (Covid kind of messed that up) and just wanted to chase big numbers.
Hit those lifts last summer and decided that last winter I was going to start a cut. Was losing about .5 lb - 1.5lb depending on the week and hit 213 about six weeks ago. Was really happy with the progress and how consistent it was. Been notcing that a lot of my joints were starting to heal so instead of doing a random bro split and cardio at the gym five/six days a week I'd start another program so I can start deadlifting and squating again because I noticed that those lifts fell a cliff since I stopped doing them during the cut. I figured I could start to recoup those muscles/gains I lost while continuing with the cut.
I started that program six weeks ago and my weight has been 213 ever since then. My calories are the exact same as they were a couple months ago (2400) and all progress has stopped. I haven't changed any intensity and if anything I do more cardio. I think I look better than I did six weeks ago. I think clothes are starting to fit better than they did six weeks ago but the fact the scale isn't moving has me second guessing that maybe I'm just getting complacent or I have body dysmorphia. I never took photos or measurements because I didn't want to track those and I felt like the scale was good enough feedback so I don't have those to lean back on.
I've been using an apple watch to get an idea of what my calorie expenditure is and it looks like on gym days it's around 3,200 and while I'm weighing all my food and eating 2400-2450 the scale isn't moving. The only time I break my cut is on the day I weigh in once a week I'm usually a little loosey goosey with my calories allowing myself a favourite meal and ending up around 2700-2800 calories for that single day. Six days a week I'm at 2400. I work an office job but work out six days a week and do cardio after. Apple watch has me at around 500-600 calories per workout minimum.
Is it possible that my muscles that were depleted from the cut are being refueled and filling with more water or something to offset all the fat loss or is something wrong with my diet plan now? Should I not trust the apple watch to get an idea of what my calories are. It doesn't make sense to me that a roughly 800 calorie deficit a day isn't doing anything for the scale for six weeks.
TL;DR
Started a program and went on a bulk and hit PRs. Decided to cut by doing a bro split for 3 months with minumum compounds in a deficit with consistent weight loss. Started a program and started squatting and deadlifting again and scale hasn't moved in six weeks since then.

Expedition Yeltomar
Frank, a human male in his middle ages, sits in the pilot seat of the small single occupant shuttle. It had been a rather challenging descent so he was taking this time to catch his breath and settle his nerves. The Zeno-biologist has been exploring planets for the past year, jumping from system too system, cataloging planets for the galactic federation. He has already cataloged 3 other life bearing planets in the last 17 systems but this one was by far the most challenging.
Star system 2B38A-22 is a fairly mundane system with a larger K-class orange dwarf star at its heart. It contains a single gas giant and a common ice giant in its outer system with the molten metallic core of another gas giant circling in a 15 day orbit of its parent star. Just farther out is the planet he is currently landed on, being a sizable heavy gravity terrestrial world of 2.8 galactic standard gravity and having an unusually dense atmosphere of 8.1 galactic standard.
Frank takes a deep breath and pulls himself out of the seat. The high gravity of this world was proving difficult to fight against after his time in deep space. 'I really need to get more exercise. I'm getting weak here.'; he says too himself. Being an Earth born human, this world is only 1.6 times the gravity of Earth, so should not be this hard to manage. Walking slowly over too the science station he starts taking readings on the atmosphere of the planet too see if he will need the bulky atmosphere isolation suit, or just the re-breather. 'Hmmm. 40% Oxygen, 30% Carbon dioxide, 22% Methane, trace amount of Nitrogen, Neon, Helium, other gasses too low to make out. That's a novelty. Gravity and atmospheric pressure high enough to hold onto Helium.'; he thinks, starting to get into his elements again.
'Dangerously low biodiversity, mostly grasses and a few types of larger shrub and tree analogs. The limited animal life seems to be almost entirely evolved to use some type of flight. Almost no ground based life. But seems to be a stable marine biodiversity. Signs of a recent mass extinction event, no more then 1000 stellar cycles ago. No signs of civilization detected. No ruins or any forms of technology detected. Anomaly? Hmmm. What type of anomaly? Electromagnetic/Radio-logical. Odd... Close by as well. I'll have to check that one out.'; he reads off in his head. The results read out by the sensors were a bit erratic, changing a bit randomly as he watched them. The thick atmosphere and the shifting magnetic field of the planet are having negative effects on the shuttles sensors, making them unreliable.
"The atmosphere should be breathable, even without the re-breather. That's a nice change. But that high methane level will probably stink. Not so sure about the density though. It's thick as soup out there. Might want the re-breather just in case. Temperature seems fine and there isn't anything dangerous in the atmosphere so won't need the suit at least. Thank goodness for that. Wasn't looking forward to trying to move around in that bulky thing in this gravity."; Frank was starting too think out loud again. Being out here in unexplored space was starting to get too him. "Did you get the info dump Bimni? Is the info matching up with your reading up there?"; Frank calls out, having pushed the comms button in the science lab.
BrightEyesAtSea is a female Adelie Astor-geologist who is unfortunately stuck in their "mother-ship" due too the Adelie being unable to handle high gravity planets. She was quite displeased to say the least. So many different interesting mineral combinations to study and she was stuck ship side. Bimni was a name the human, Frank, had said when trying to shorten her name and it just kind of stuck. Not that she minded, but why couldn't he just use her full name? "Reading different up here. Not seeing that anomaly reading either. Blasted electromagnetic interference."; she Warbles out. The translation software working well to convert her Adelie churrs into human guttural speech, and vise verse. "This one is your call. You've got the more accurate atmospheric readings. Not sure about the rest. Something is off on this world, the chemistry just does not add up."
That did not bode well. If Bimni was having bad feelings, then he needed to be careful. Her gut feelings had proven more accurate then any sensor. "Noted. I'll be careful when out and about. Just keep Rover warmed up and send him down if anything goes wrong."; Frank responds in turn. Rover was a military robotic mech that, despite many attempts at reprogramming, they were not able to tone down its brutishly aggressive responses to stimuli. So they never use it for anything but hazardous environments or when things go wrong. "Just be sure to grab as many mineral samples as you can fit onto the shuttle. It would be so much easier if I could just be down there.": Bimni responds with a huff. Frank can feel her telepathic annoyance even from this range, so she must be truly furious about being stuck ship side.
Finding no other reasons to postpone this, Frank grabs the re-breather and walks, still slowly, over too the airlock. "Alright Bimni. I'm heading out. I'll keep in touch with you using the shuttle as a relay. Hopefully the interference doesn't get too bad."; Frank says after after linking up the mobile comms earpiece to the shuttles antenna. It's not like he was going to go far from the shuttle anyways. Not in this gravity. Just far enough to reach that anomaly. Cycling the airlock, he steps inside. Deciding to wait on the re-breather for now, he clips it too his belt. He would see how bad the atmosphere was and decide from there. Pushing the cycle button, he waits for the airlock to balance atmospheres with the outside, getting a taste of the atmosphere in the process.
As the airlock finishes cycling and opens, Frank is hit with the thick humid atmosphere and the raw smell of methane. Huh. The smell was not as bad as he thought it would be. But the thick humid air was another matter. "It's like pea soup out here."; Frank comments. "I could almost swim in this stuff. But at least its not hard too breathe." Bimni quickly responds with; "Gee thanks. Now I want a bowl of pea soup, and you know we ran out 5 cycles ago." She didn't sound any happier after that comment. "Well sorry for making you hungry, with all the good food being on the mother ship and me only having excursion rations."; he jokes back at her hoping to at least lessen her bad mood. "The only solace I have for being stuck up here."; Bimni coos back, seeming to have lost at least some of her bad mood.
Frank takes his first steps out of the airlock onto this new world and... \*SPLAT\* feels something wet and soft hit his head and slide down his side. Lifting a hand up to wipe the side of his head, he is met with a slimy substance with bits of plant matter and something else. Tentatively, he takes a sniff; "Fraaack...."; Frank lets out with a sigh. Looking up he sees a 2 meter long gasbag creature with undulating manta ray like wings slowly swimming away high above him. "First steps out of the shuttle and I get crapped on by an alien."; he says with a bit of disgust. This is quickly answered with a trilling chuckle from Bimni though the comms. "Not a word."; he says too Bimni, who continues to chuckle even louder. Retracing his steps back up to the shuttles airlock, he reaches inside and grabs one of the rag towels and wipes off the droppings from his head and side. What a great start this is...
20 minutes later, Frank has already loaded several unique looking rocks into the shuttle for Bimni to examine later and has determined that there are in fact TWO types of grass in the surrounding area. Wow. And what is that? Another one of those elongated gasbag creatures high above. Both of the grasses are very similar too each other it seems, both being nearly black in color too absorb as much of the very dim light given off by the orange sun in the sky as possible. It is quite dim out despite it being close too mid day with the sky being completely clear. The thick atmosphere dispersing a lot of the light and giving everything a red orange tint with blues being quite faint. In the distance he can see a cluster of shrubs that look like thick orange coral with yellowish black balloon like gas bags growing out of the ends of each branch. And beyond that, in the general direction of the anomaly readings, there is an unusual rock formation overgrown with some type of plants.
"Still not much too see here Bimni, other then a few odd rocks here and there. I grabbed several samples for you already before you ask. The lack of diversity here is quite disconcerting."; Frank comments to Bimni through the comms. In response he only hears the faint crunching of whatever she had found to munch on while he did all the hard work down here. "Still making my way towards the anomaly. Hopefully there will be something interesting there. At least the bushes ahead are something different. Seem to be a thick stemmed Ficus analog with inflated leaf structures that look like balloons. Some type of adaptation to the high gravity I'm sure."; he continues the running dialog he's been trying to keep up since the gasbag poo incident. Though it has been hard too due with how little there has been to discuss.
Closing in on the bushes, they are in fact, just as he though. Similar to a ficus with thick stems, and the leaves are gas filled balloon like structures that hold up the stems. Really not much to look at other then being completely alien with a fascinating symbiosis with a few benign bacteria that seem to produce the gas that fills its leaves. A sudden sound diverts his attention. Frank looks up just in time to track an unusual 1 foot long bird like creature taking off from the ground in a hurry. The creature has 2 pairs of feathered wings attached too a bird like body, a long swan like neck with a bird like beaked head that hangs down below it's body, no legs, and 2 highly aerodynamic gasbags on it's back. This bird is already moving fast and accelerating even faster as it moves at a right angle too him. "That's a new one. A bird like life form. Has both 2 sets of feathered wings and a pair of gasbags for lift. It's fast too!"; he excitedly says too Bimni.
His excitement is short lived though, as a loud POP is heard and a 3 clawed tentacle is suddenly attached through the birds gasbag, holding onto the bird. This tentacle is in turn part of a large wing shaped creature with an open mouth, filled with sharp teeth, attached too the bottom of its wing shaped body. The bird is quickly dragged backwards towards the open mouth and swallowed hole. The whole time this flying wing creature is rippling with different colors like an earth cuddle fish. Before Frank can even exclaim about it, there is a soft booming sound as trails of faint smoke start to come out of a cylindrical shaped bulge on each side of the wing shaped creature before it shoots forwards at high speed, climbing up upwards again before it's body ripples with color one last time then seems to fade into the sky as its body color quickly matches the color of the sky.
"By all that's holy! Your not going to believe this one..."; Frank says in a hushed tone. His excitement replaced with caution and a bit of fear. "There's a flying predator here that can camouflage to match the sky. Damn thing appeared in the sky out of no where and then was gone from sight just as quickly. Wolfed down that bird like you do with those sardines you like so much."
"Are you safe?"; Bimni responds with honest concern in her squawking voice.
"I think so. Don't see that thing anywhere. But you better make sure Rover is ready too launch on a moments notice in case that thing comes back. The damn thing seemed to be jet powered as well."; Frank responds, still a bit shaken up. He was not expecting anything like that, he wasn't going to lie. Looking around him, there was no shelter nearby other then the rock formation ahead.
"Can you take shelter for a bit somewhere? Just in case it's still around?"; Bimni asks, sounding quite concerned as she preps Rover for immediate launch.
"There's no where too take shelter. Closest is that rock formation. Hopefully there is some place to shelter near there."; Frank responds, not feeling very confident. But it's that or make a break for the shuttle, a good 15 minutes away though the open grasses.
"Do it. And by the gods, keep your human senses open!"; Bimni blurts out.
Frank didn't even bother with a response. He went into a full jog, the fastest he could move in the high gravity of this world. Even with his crazy human endurance, he was all too quickly winded and forced too slow down as he neared the rock formation. Finding an overhang with a shallow but human sized indent under it he ducks into it. It might not be much, but at least he only need to worry about what's in front of him now. "I'm there... Found a... overhang. In shelter."; he panted out. "No sign... of danger." He hasn't felt this winded since he used to run marathons back on Earth.
Having taken a moment to catch his breath again, Frank places his hands on the sides of the indent he's tucked into and only now realizes something is off. Pulling his eyes away from looking for danger, he glances at the surfaces around him. Too smooth. He runs his hands along it again and can feel the seams of... construction? "Uh Bimni? This rock formation is not natural. It was constructed."; he says in a slow quiet voice.
"What? Someone carved it?"; she asked. Frank ran his hands along the underside of the overhang while watching for danger, feeling the framework and paneling that was used too construct it. Metal. "No. It's a structure of some type. It's made of metal."; he responds. No ruins or technology my arse! "Wish you were down here even more now, your better with this stuff."
"I'm sending down Rover. I'll put it on manual and pilot it remotely myself."; Bimni states with a sharp chirp, leaving no room for argument. "Yeah, that's a good idea."; Frank responds softly. "I'll wait until Rover touches down before I start exploring. Don't need that big flying wing to catch me off guard."; he replies back.
Frank remains under the ledge while he waits for Rover to drop in, but luckily it's only a matter of a few minutes and the mech descends too the ground, curled into a ball, and under parachute. The mech is ready to go, being able to survive entry without the shuttle thanks to it's built in heat shield. Rover unrolls and stands up, being half the height of Frank, walking on 4 legs, with a manipulate arm on its back. With Rover there to help guard, Frank is able to leave his impromptu shelter. "Nice aim there Bimni. Landed Rover within meters."; he says to Bimni, a bit impressed. "Are you detecting anything new with Rovers sensors?"; Frank asks.
"Only getting the same reading, anomaly."; Bimni's voice comes from the speaker built into Rovers frame. "Now where did you find the metal?"; she asks as Frank gestures Rover over too the underside of the overhang and the indent he was tucked into before. "Back here, and above us. These surfaces are unnatural and the underside of this overhang is metal."; Frank points out.
Bimni pilots Rover under the overhang and uses the manipulator arm, with its light, to examine the surfaces more closely. "hmmm. Fascinating. These surfaces are of an alloy I've never seen before."; she says with a chirp of interest. As she is maneuvering to look at different parts of the surface, she accidentally bumps Rover into a panel on the side of the indent. There is a groaning noise from the back wall before the wall just as suddenly slides sideways revealing an opening. A soft glow is comming from inside along with the sounds of running machinery.
Giving each other a quick glance, both Frank, and Bimni piloting Rover, step in through the open doorway too figure out what is inside. There is a short corridor that leads too a room filled with softly glowing lights and what can only be a computer control room of some sort. Everything is marked with an alien language that is completely undecipherable. "Now this is interesting. And it's still running. Can you make anything of this?"; Frank says too Bimni before going to oe of the control panels and trying to figure out what it says. He doesn't notice Bimni's lack of response as he touches one of the displays.
There is a quick flash of the dim lighting in the room before all the sounds in the room go quite and the light turn off. "Did I touch the wrong thing?"; Frank asks. "Bimni, any idea? Bimni?"; he asks before turning around too see Rover standing un-moving in the corridor. "Hello. Bimni, you there?" There is no response but suddenly there is a burst of of some form of energy that even Frank can feel and an alarm starts blaring. Think now is the time to leave, Frank turns to Rover and grabs the handle on its back, pushing on it to try and get Rover's tactile override to move it. He's a bit grateful when it starts to back up through the corridor as its supposed to.
Once back outside, in the open air, there is a beep, as Bimni is able to reconnect too Rover. "What happened? I suddenly lost signal with Rover and lost your signal as well frank."; Bimni keels out, sounding quite worried.
"Not sure. Rover just stopped moving in the corridor while I was inside the room on the other side. Maybe some kind of shielding or interference?"; Frank responds while the alarm can still be clearly heard in the background.
"What did you do?"; Bimni demands now that the alarm sound can be heard clearly by her as well. "Nothing. I was just trying to see what the panels were and touched one, then the whole thing shut down and the alarm started going off. A growl is heard through Rovers speakers; "You humans have no common sense! You touch everything without even thinking..."; Bimni grumbles out. Frank can only shrug his shoulders sheepishly, can't really fight ones nature.
Any further comments from either of them is cut short as a pair of dragon like creatures land heavily beside them and let out a roar. These creatures are close too 4 feet tall at the shoulders, standing on four thin legs with 4 toed clawed feet. They both are black in color with thin, spindly looking bodies that are covered in very short, dense fur. They have a pair of wings on their back that are larger then their bodies and shaped like the wings of an albatross, and a single row of wide scales running along their backs from the top of their head too half way down their tail. The larger of the two stands up on it's hind legs and starts making shooing motions with its front legs and wings as it takes steps towards them. It is making strange animal vocalizations while it is doing this, sounding like many different animals, most unknown, but some sounding strangely familiar.
Bimni readies to defend Frank using Rover, but a quick gesture by Frank delays her. "Lets back away slowly and see how they respond first."; Frank says as he starts to back away from the structure. Begrudgingly, Bimni follows suit, backing Rover away from the building as well. Their actions are rewarded by the larger creature moving to stand in front of the open passage and crossing its front legs, like it is standing guard. The smaller of the two slips behind the larger one and hurries into the structure, still moving on all four legs. As it slips past, and into the structure, a series of marking can be seen over its back legs and tail. They are green in color and resemble lightning or electricity.
A loud series of animal noises is heard coming out from inside the structure. The larger creature blocking the passageway leans down, without taking its eyes off Rover and Frank and barks a series of noises back into the structure in turn. As it does this, marking can be seen on the sides and back of this creature as well, this time a red flame like pattern can be seen. A quick series of flashes is seen from the corridor and the sound of the alarm is silenced followed by the sounds of machinery starting up again. The smaller creature exits the structure shortly after, using its tail to hit the panel too close the doorway as it exits. Both creatures are now standing there staring at Frank and Rover, not looking too happy.
The smaller of the two creatures standing in front of Frank and Bimni turns too the larger one and lets out a series of barks, pops, clicks, and whistles which the larger one turns its head slightly towards it and gives off a purr sound. The smaller one stands up on it's hind legs and stretches up to rub it's nose on the chin of the larger one before dropping down too all 4 legs again and slipping behind the other. It quickly moves away from everyone and launches its self into the air with some visible effort, flying away on it's long thin wings.
"So what do you think Bimni? They don't seem like animals too me. Their actions seem a bit too civilized."; Frank says too Bimni, with a strange echo. "You think they are the ones who built this structure?"; Bimni responds with no echo from Rovers speaker. "I'm not sure. They might also be another species that found the structures already here."; Frank says with that odd echo again, while turning towards Rover. "I'm not sure."; is repeated in Franks voice. Frank freezes, looking around. Bimni also hears that, and has Rover turn completely around too scan the area. The creature in front of the structure has uncrossed it's front legs and is now standing less defensively with its head cocked too the side.
"I'm not sure."; is said again in Franks voice. This time it is definitely coming from the creature in front of the structure, as it tips its head too the other side. "Did it just copy your voice?"; Bimni asks, having turned Rover to face the creature again. "I think it did."; Frank responds, with no echo. Raising one of his hands up he points at himself and says; "Frank", then points at Rover and says; "Rover". Finally giving an open handed gesture towards the creature, he waits for a response. The creature seems to think about it for a bit and is about to give a response but suddenly turns it's head too the side as three more of the creatures fly in and land nearby.
One of the three that lands is the smaller one with green markings from earlier. Another is only slightly larger with blue markings that look like lightning, while the third is much larger. The largest of the three is even larger then the one standing in front of the structure. It has bright yellow flame markings on it's sides and tail and is carrying some sort of device. All three of them stand up on their hind legs shortly after landing and start talking to each other and the one that was there already quite heatedly. An unusual combination of different animal noises, mixed with pops, whistles, and barks and exchanged before the one at the structure stops and points at Frank and says; "Frank", then at Rover and says; "Rover" in a perfect imitation of Franks voice.
"Well, that settles it. If there was any doubt about intelligence..."; Bimni says after the obvious display. As soon as Bimni speaks, the largest of the beings taps a few times on the device it has and a projection appears above the device like a video screen. On this projected screen is the world they are standing on, seen from high orbit. The projection begins playing a video of sorts that shows a world lush with life. None of which has been seen anywhere. The video changes view, showing different versions of the 4 beings on different parts of the world, with cities and lots of advanced technology around them. Then the view changes again too high orbit where a powerful solar flare is shown flashing over the planet with several chunks of metalic asteroids being swept along with it.
The view changes again so the beings running in terror and crowding into bunkers and sturdy structures as asteroids rain down in fireballs, exploding high in the thick atmosphere. The sky turns flames as the atmosphere is ignited by the asteroids. The view changes again to a few survivors making their way out of bunkers to find a world flattened and burned empty. The view changes to high orbit again, but the view is getting closer too the planet as if what is giving the view is falling towards the planet. The lush planet appears burned barren and brown as the view goes static as the view source starts to burn up as well. Finally the view shifts too the few survivors giving up everything they have to build structures like the one in front of them as plants start to grow around the structures in slowly increasing circles. The 4 beings all turn too look at Rover and Frank while the one in front of the structure points at it then sweeps it's hands around at the general area.
Several days go by with the beings on the planet, soon known to call themselves Yeltarians, surprisingly quickly learning how to use the human language. Their own language involving implied meaning, and the sounds produced expressing that meaning instead of words. With the language barrier broken, the Yeltarians were able to fully explain what happened too their world. A massive solar flare had shattered the dieing inner planet of their system, flinging chunks of the planet outwards with the flare its self. Between the flare and the following planetary chunks, they had set the atmosphere ablaze, catastrophically altering the atmospheric composition. Most non aquatic life was decimated in the initial inferno while much more of the remaining life on the planet slowly dieing off from the atmospheric changes.
When the Yeltarian survivors finally left their bunkers, they found a world leveled by fire and chocked off by a nearly un-breathable atmosphere. Using all their advanced knowledge, the survivors hatched a plan to save both themselves and their world. A massive terraforming project over their entire planet. They built hundreds of terraforming machines around the world using every available scrap and surviving piece of technology they could find. Then to give their planet a chance to heal, they turned to their own culture and shifted it from a materialistic high tech one, to a minimalist druidic society. All this, just to save as much as they could of what life remained.
But the remaining biodiversity of their world is too low, and they continue to loose species to disease and failed genetic alterations. Their world will not last much longer with how few living things remain. Even their terraforming equipment is starting to fail. So this leaves them with only one hope, to find suitable life outside of their own world to balance the failing ecosystems. But, they had torn apart their only remaining spacecraft to build the equipment that sustains their world. And they have no way to rebuild them with all their technology regressed to the state it is in now.
They were also willing to explain their race as well. What had once been several different Yeltarian races, had all become one race after the cataclysm. They are of two different sexs, male and female, with the females being larger and stronger in general. While the males tend to be smaller and much lighter, but also faster and more maneuverable in flight. They also explained the meaning of the markings on their bodies. The color doesn't mean as much, but the pattern shows which of the two divergent genetic traits are active in their bodies. All Yeltarians have the genetics to use an organic fire through the production of alcohol in their bodies, and bio-electrics generated by specialized cells in their bodies. But only one of the two genetic traits ever manifests due to a special gene that randomly activates one trait genetic while blocking the other trait genetics when they reach maturity.
"So, would you be willing to help us out? Take one of us with you to help search for compatible life in the depths of space? Too save our dieing world?"; The leader of the local Yeltarians asks Frank and Bimni. "This is our only chance since we are unwilling to give up our dieing world. Our, Yeltomar."

Im so embarrassed of this situation. I (23f) am a case manager at a homeless shelter in a CA city. My client told me suddenly she was going to state XX to get her birth certificate. My client has presented flags that raises concerns that she may be a victim of human trafficking and this is not the first time she has randomly gone out of the state with no to little notice.
I instructed her I needed verification of her ticket details to confirm she was going where she said she is going for work purposes. Client was aware I would be coming to the airport (10 mins away) to meet her and take a photo of her tickets to verify such. She said okay and then did not pick up her phone again upon arrival.
I don’t fly a lot, so I’m very unsure of the airport. I spoke with a random tsa agent and after learning she couldn’t assist me further, I looked to the left and saw the “xxxx police, 2nd floor,” and I figured I would ask the police for assistance. So I went underneath the fabric barrier and then the TSA agent shouted at me and told me to exit. I said okay and tried to point to the sign for the police and then saw a big sign that said “Do not enter” and accepted I messed up and went to the info desk.
While speaking to the info desk, I told them my dilemma and that I have concerns for this person being a victim of human trafficking and I was hoping an airport personnel would be able to walk with me if needed. They mentioned the police and I shared that my concern with involving the police would be detrimental to the client because she was also undocumented. The volunteers understood the weight of that statement.
I was then approached by the TSA manager who was very assertive and rough in language with me but I understand why he was. He said that I posed as a security threat because I stated that I was willing to check all the gates for the flights leaving to XX. I explained that I did try to enter an exit lane at the checkpoint but I had seen a sign pointing to the police and only noticed the do not enter sign after being halted. He said I could have gone to jail today and that I am going to wait for the police to talk to them.
absolutely scared and worried and knowing this was all a genuine mistake was the worst part. The officer came and we spoke and I verified I did technically “attempt” to pass the checkpoint but explained the sign I saw which clicked in my head. I verified that in retrospect, the statement i said to the tsa agent about checking all the potential gates for my client being understood in the context of it being a security threat— I understand why he said that. He saw my badge and asked if that’s how we knew each other, I told him I couldn’t confirm or deny but that I hoped he can understand why I say that. He didn’t give me trouble for that or pry. I told him I’m sorry for the inconvenience and that I don’t fly a lot and today I realized that I got to sucked into my job too much and clearly things got messy fast and that I just want to go home now. then he let me go.
My worry: what’s the likelihood the cops will come to my workplace to ask for me? Im scared of my bosses learning I fucked up while working and if the info desk volunteers mention me telling them I was worried about human trafficking which would give them incentive to come talk to me at my workplace and if their body am was on they would have caught my badge which has my photo, first name, and employee number.
Please refrain from the negative comments because trust me I am as embarrassed and annoyed at myself as I can be

Four years ago I was doing well at a new job and making enough money to consider taking ownership of my grandparents house that was currently being rented to a family. My good friend was living in a one bedroom apartment with her two children. She was having issues paying her rent which was $1800. I decided to use around $25k to renovate my grandparents house so that I could have a tenant living upstairs and me living downstairs. I planned to let my friend be that tenant living upstairs. I really cared about her and her children and wanted to help her get out of a bad situation. For context we live in NY.
Since I know she couldn’t afford her current apartment at $1800 I made the rent $1500 with all utilities included, water, heat, Wi-Fi, and electric. The apartment is a two bedroom apartment on the second floor of the house. It has a big room for a kitchen/dining area/living room space along with a big bathroom, two big walk-in closets and a lot of extra hallway room in the foyer. She has a parking spot in the driveway and the house also has a big backyard where the kids can play. At that time the apartment could have gone for at least $2100, it was severely under the market price for apartments in the area. When I gave her that price I did not expect to keep it at that price for long. I had hoped it would help her afford another place. Because with the price I gave her I was not going to make a penny back on what I spent in renovations and I would still need to put in money every month to pay the bills to live there as well.
When I was creating the lease I referenced a lot of different lease agreements I saw that it was common to charge $50/day till rent was paid if rent was late. These seemed like harsh terms but I have never been a landlord before and I hoped it would never affect her since I thought she would pay on time. I gave her the contract, she looked it over, she never questioned it and signed. She moved in and so began our journey of living together in the same house.
Over the course of 4 years she continued to struggle to pay rent. All spread out by several months in between, she had a series of unfortunate events.
When Covid hit, she wasn’t working, so they weren’t paying her. When she started working again she got Covid and was out of work for weeks. She almost lost her eyesight and needed to get a surgery which successfully saved her eyesight. Her car broke down and needed to get a new/used car. She lost her job and struggled to find a new one. Most recently her kid was in the hospital for 6 months and is now home but she can’t work a full-time job because she has to be home to take care of her kid.
To get through these times she used a lot of government assistance programs and borrowed money from friends and family. Unfortunately she was late often. I was always very understanding and patient with her about rent. I have never mentioned late fees or asked for late fees. She was always the one to bring it up and say that she will get the late fees to me. I even decided to waive the late fees several times. Every time I had a chance to raise the rent I decided not to because I knew she could barely afford what I was charging her and was still continuing to struggle.
Recently she wanted a meeting with her boyfriend and I, to talk about her boyfriend moving in with her. At least that’s what I assumed. I was startled when we met and her boyfriend aggressively dug into me about how my late fees are unlawful and that they must be rectified as soon as possible. Going on and on about how he has lawyer friends and if he took this to court it wouldn’t go well. I kept my cool and just said I need to look into this on my own and we can reconvene for another meeting.
This is not a legal apartment. So if they were to go to court about this then she would lose the apartment. If I were to have made it legal, I wouldn’t have been able to charge her so little for rent because taxes would be a lot higher.
After a lot of research, I’ve come to terms that my late fees are no longer legal. I did not realize but after Covid the laws had changed for apartment rentals in our area. Which changes it to a $50 flat fee if late on rent. After recognizing that I had made a mistake, I decided to look over how much I owe her in whatever late fees she paid over the years MINUS a $50 flat fee for every time she paid late. After doing a quick analysis I owe her $800 minus the 10 times she’s been late on rent which is $500 so I owe her $300.
I’ve then look at all the renovations I’ve done on her apartment over the years that I never charged her for. I fixed four blinds that she broke and bought her new ones for the bathroom since she didn’t like the curtain I put there. I repainted her children’s bedroom plain white since they had grown up and no longer liked the bright pink and blue that we originally painted in their room. I painted the floor in the bathroom because she said it was dirty looking and embarrassing to the kids when they had company. I fixed a door that she broke and installed a new door knob she also broke. I changed the light fixture in the kitchen twice because she had issues seeing. These are all renovations that my dad and I had done. I am very handy so a lot of it was done by me.
With this in mind the $300 that I owe her doesn’t seem necessary. I am currently gathering up the prices for all the materials and items I have bought to do these renovations. Not to mention I never charged her for my labor. I could have gotten someone professional do the labor but then neither of us would be able to afford that.
Currently we are both gathering our bank statements to get a full understanding of the situation. She does not know that I kept the terms by mistake. I tried to set up a meeting with her again to talk more and she treated me like a villain. She does not wanna talk without her boyfriend present. Saying that I should say sorry to her and that she is going to look into what she is due.
I’ve been feeling pretty mad about this, she has not given me the benefit of doubt and even after all these years of doing so much for her. I am in the process of writing a new lease with a rent increase. I am sad to think that this might be an end to our relationship. I have been trying to think of tactful ways to have her move out, so I can finally rent the apartment for what it’s worth which is now around $2500-$3000. I am also no longer making the money I used to. I had also lost my job twice during and after Covid so times have been hard on me as well.
Any legal or other advice is appreciated. Thanks for listening to my story.

This is a question I never thought I'd have to ask but I work at a chain hardware store in the United States- around 5 months ago an associate discovered a memorial box accidentally left on a shelf that contained a pawprint, a bottle of fur and a small bottle of what we assume are ashes. The box had the name of the dog (Honey) and the name of the assumed owner (Moll) but no other contact info. Our general rule for things left behind is items get tossed after 30 days... obviously no one felt comfortable doing that so we held onto the box. We've called all local vets within a 30 mile radius, posted on area Facebook groups, contacted the company that produced the paw print kit and asked around but 5 months later no one has come to claim Honey and we have no leads. It has been moved around a lot and nearly damaged so I've offered to take it home instead of it getting tossed but... I have no idea what to do with it. We live in a retirement area so a big fear is that the person missing Honey is either no longer with us or doesn't have the means to get to the store or to contact- there's also the unfortunate possibility that the person hasn't noticed the absence of the box and just recieved it as a freebie after euthanasia (several of the vets we called offer a similar service at no additional cost)
Any ideas on what to do? Some have suggested spreading the ashes, I've considered donating to a local shelter in the name of Honey and then storing the box but... how long should I store it? And if the owner never shows up what should I do with it?

Why do they 'go for a talk' with food sitting on plates? What a waste of good tucker. Maybe it's fake food for cameras? Joe isnt totally in love. Can relate to that. Is that her apt or a hotel room? Pretty swanky. But what good is having a beautiful place if no one special to share with? Almost as bad as being with wrong person to share it with. Can relate to that. Sarah’s probably a deeper thinker than Joe. Can relate to that too. I could see Keely was too lively for him. She wants to get a Masters? Not his dream. You don't need a Masters for farm life.
Keely’s parents have a yacht? They served some fancy vittles. Did you see the size of those shrimp? She does seem like the more fun of the two girls. How can they go on 'Adventures' when he is tied to Farm? Sarah may be more content to watch the hay grow. She may have an older soul.
Andrew/Jess wedding! He filled out a bit since he was on the show. She must be a good cook. People were talking about it & I finally got to see it. Watching from US, this episode was late in arriving on SoHemi where I view from. Lovely wedding & Joe cleaned up nice, being in the ceremony & all. Couldn't help but think why was Sarah not coming? It must have been important to Joe. Are they on the rocks already? Makes you wonder if some are not together by reunion show. We shall see next week.
PS - I may have given a wrong impression on review of Anna's home visit. Big fan of Anna. She was never unkind to anyone. To me (I see things differently than others) she had an 'exotic look'. She had an upturned eye or something that catches your attention. I have a 1/2-Vietnamese grandchild & you see a lot of the more exotic looks these days than when I was coming up as a Baby Boomer. But at Anna's home visit, I felt she was the Family Standout. I guess she took after her mom. Saw some of her look in her sis. But it's just amazing how genetics come to play. How some families can all look so similar & some so dissimilar. My son has blue eyes & neither of us do. Think he got them from my birth father. And his MH problems.
Thanks for putting up with my musings. I spend a lot of my day sitting or laying down due to lack of mobility & this writing keeps my mind sharp. Plus a daily crossword puzzle.

The necropolis was gorgeous, for what it was. Its white outer walls hiding the darker Victorian Gothic interior. The tech that was hidden in the walls though was able to move bodies in their caskets from a designated place in the necropolis to the "viewing area" as the necropolians called it. This was where I waited for my, for lack of a better term, escort to take me to the mortuary. Since science has grown surprisingly fast our abilities for forensic sciences have also grown, and that's to whom I was headed. (S)He was an, unusual (wo)man to say the least. An expert in their field and about as learned as a doctor, if not multi-doctorate. If you ever asked them why they never pursued an actual doctorate, they would get angry and act all prissy while saying that going to school would've slowed them down and all they needed were the basic certificates for their work. The reality though, revealed to me during a drunken bout, they just never liked school and believed that it ultimately stunted a person's growth and ability to question the reality around them, that everything that you need to learn is already in books and in some form or another in digital content online. They were brilliant, if a little wacky. About five minutes after I had arrived and was sitting down in the viewing area, a little box rolled up to me making a couple of beeps to let me know to follow it and immediately started rolling towards the wall opposite of where it came from. When it looked like it was about to hit the wall, a hidden door opened up by the casket viewer, inside was a set of stairs leading down into the darkness. Stepping through the doorway I became acutely aware of sounds seemingly coming from all around me suddenly. It really is impressive, as though I just stepped from a tomb to a busy workshop, the sounds of gas escaping pistons, whirring, and clanking chains flooded my ears. I continued down the stairs following my helpful little box, which despite its size and shape would suggest was actually quite nimble on the stairs. It seemed to have wheels that would extend down to the next step as the edge rolled over it and once the back of the box was clear of the step it would drop back into its squat position, hiding its wheels as quickly as possible. It continued to do so the entire way. The box seemed to notice me watching it and made a kinda shrill whistle and its undercarriage light went from a comfortable yellow to a, is that... Peach? Is it blushing? My god I think it is! I let out a small chuckle and my little blushing box stopped dead in its tracks mid-step, its light suddenly going white, almost blinding me from behind and lighting up the hallway for a split second. Luckily both of my feet were solidly on a step so I didn't take a tumble or anything, but I couldn't help doing anything but laughing harder. After a second the little box crept up behind me and continued down, its status light continuing to show pinkish. I followed it slowly, the chuckle slowly dying in my throat as we reached Ceriths office. Well "office" was being nice. Morgue, mortuary, both of these fit just as well. Cerith was, for the most part, a recluse. We reached the door and the little robot continued through a little hole in the wall. I waited a second and knocked. "Enter!" Came the voice on the other side. I opened the door and stepped through. Along one wall set doors that normally housed the dead waiting to be processed. One out of dozens were open, its occupant missing from its silver slab. The middle of the room was brightly lit from a single overhead light. In the middle of the circle of light stood a figure, long Raven colored hair bound in a single braided ponytail, the rest of them bound in medical examination garb. They seemed to be engrossed in the corpse in front of them. The little robot rolled up next to Ceriths feet and made a little chiming noise. "Thank you Tabitha. That'll be all," said a voice that was neither male nor female from beneath the mask. Just sort of in the middle. "Tabitha? Never knew you to be sentimental," I said gently, the chuckle in my voice making itself clear. "I see you still find even the darkest things funny," Cerith quipped back. "My line of work Cer, you take the laughs where you get them. Look who's talking anyway, you're usually elbows deep inside someone 25/8. Even you have a seriously fucked up sense of humor." That got Cerith laughing, sounding like thunder and the whip crack of lightning at the same time. "You've got me there Julius," Cerith said after his laughter subsided. I think he suits him today. Which is both a good and bad sign. When Cerith is acting like a man, it usually means some grim news, but they are going to try to make it seem like not a big deal and laugh a lot. Plus they almost never call me Julius. Something was wrong. Very seriously wrong. As this realization hit me I got this odd tingle in the small of my back. Like someone had put several freezing needles under the skin and into my spine, something I'm familiar with from the anima-games from the cyber sphere. Halos: Divine Retribution If I remember right. Those Angels were sadistic bastards. I shuddered at both the memories from the game and the shockingly similar feeling I was experiencing. Dread, that feeling is dread my friend, the quiet part of my mind whispered to me. "Cer, what's wrong bud," I asked. He didn't say anything. For a long time. After a few minutes I was about to ask again, but then he spoke. And what came out will haunt me, quite possibly till the day I die . "This ones temporal lobes are gray matter. Nothing even close to being coherent. Just. Dead neurons. And he's not the first." Gone was the jovialness of the past ten minutes. This was Cerith the whisperer. In an almost dead tone they continued, "the others didn't fare nearly as well as this one. Most of the brain is intact here, which means that if they didn't deliver a massive shock or something similar to fully kill him he would have possibly lived as a vegetable with memory issues, but that's not what I'm looking for in this one here now. Now I'm trying to figure out what else the others had in common with him, and so far that's brought up all but naught. Well this one has a bit of liver damage. But that's about it. So Mr John was a drinker. Not much there." When Cerith is "whispering" the best thing to do is just let him be. But I couldn't help but prick my ears up at mentions of others with similar wounds, and the fact that this one had liver issues.... "Cer. You said... CERITH," I finally snapped out and caught his attention mid ramble. "Thank you. You said liver problems. But nothing similar to the others? No drugs? Alcohol? Not even a synth brain-pattern? You checked Everything?" "Well let's see, John here was a drinker that's for sure," Cerith said his hands never ceasing their work as he started to put 'John' back together seemingly satisfied that he found nothing else, " Mr Lombardo in chest 3 had cocaine mostly, and Mr Lei in chest 9 had opium. Although to tell you where it came from for both I'd have to do a molecular analysis and see what it compares to. Other than that, no. Absolutely nothing connecting any of them. As far as I can tell they are all unique cases completely separate from each other except for the damages to the brain. And I only found this by accident. During a routine scan I happened to look at the screen as it passed through the brain and noticed an odd density in his temporal lobes. Just slightly higher than normal. Hell to be honest with you it had the density of a fresh cutie, you know those little oranges?" I nodded, and he continued, "Right of course you do, who hasn't? Anyways it's just super dense compared to the surrounding tissues, and I take a sliver probe and drop it in like you do. And when I turn the damn thing on to look at the neurons the area all I see are dead cells packed on top of one another. Not natural decay death, but forced to die. Most of the cell walls were torn open like they had blown up from the INSIDE. That's when I called you." He finished up with 'John' putting the final few perfect stitches in place and sealing him up for good. Once he seemed happy with his work he called out to his seemingly empty morgue, "Grom I'm done! Can you put Mr John Doe here back in his room? Number 11 if you please." He turned away from the body on the table and removed the giant rubber gloves that went to his elbows. He walked into the dark calling out over his shoulder, "I'll be back in a sec I gotta scrub out, want a drink? I have beer, whiskey, vodka, I might have some Cognac somewhere, and bourbon. Your choice, just call out what you want and Tabitha will be there with it. Also have a seat! We have much to discuss." With that he disappeared from both sight and sound in the dark. It was a neat trick I have to admit, and it had something to do with how he had his morgue set up. Even the giant war machine that was Grom was absolutely quiet unless you managed to catch him through the gloom. I thought for the longest time the reason why I could never catch him sneaking around was from some sort of stealth program put into place, but when he goes up and down those stairs he's as loud as can be. So it was definitely not his program but the way the morgue was built. I'm confident in saying that because when I turned back to look at the table, or rather where it was, there was now a chair that looked like it had just grown out of the floor and the body was gone. Also the thought of something as big as a fridge just sneaking up on some poor combatants and snapping their necks as quietly as he walks in the morgue just gives me the heebies. As I sat in the chair a thought occurred to me. Considering how advanced the morgue seemed to be it would make sense that it had some sort of AI or integrated computer. "Computer?" I had been here a million times but I'd never had a chance to think about it nor try anything. But not even a second after I had said anything a response came. "Yes Detective Julius. My name is DANNA. Or Dynamically Actualized Neural Net AI. How can I be of service?" The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, slightly feminine and breathy, all service but no sex. Honestly I was just surprised that it worked. "DANNA, I was just wondering if I could take a look at the files that Cerith had mentioned? If it is as bad as they claim I think I might need to know anyway. Also if you can get those blood works done for me I'd appreciate it. Also something with whiskey or rum would be amazing." "Of course Detective. I will have Tabitha bring it shortly. And how would you like the information to be displayed? Desktop or dynamic?" That piqued my interest. "Dynamic please." No sooner than I had said a series of screens blinked into existence in front of me. It was some sort of Holographic display. I reached out and touched the display and was surprised that I got stopped by something. It was hard but surprisingly I found that I could push into the screen with my finger if I pushed hard enough. It kinda felt like... Oobleck. I also found that by pinching the corner I could pull the screens closer or further from me. I even found that I could grab individual pages of the reports off the screen and hold it. It felt like a thin sheet of plastic and responded like both a tablet and a singular document. If I switched pages the old one would appear back onto the screen and the next would pop onto it. This was about as slick a set up as I had ever seen and whistled my appreciation under my breath, I'm definitely going to have to ask Cerith about where they got DANNA from. "See something you like, big boy?" A very DEFINITELY female voice said in my ear from behind, soft and throaty, screaming come hither. I felt small dainty hands gently caress the tops of my shoulders before slipping down the front of my chest, pulling me back into the chair that I didn't realize I had been slouching in. "You know better than that, Jules. Your back is important and slouching will destroy the muscles and cause some to atrophy." The voice left no room for argument, and left me more than a little bit flushed. I closed my eyes and dropped my head back as far as it would go, the back of my head hitting something soft and warm, stretching my neck and back out. "Damnit Cer I thought you were scrubbing out, not completely changing." I hadn't realized it, but at least an hour had passed from when I started playing with the computer and working with the files if the clock on the computer was to be believed. "You looked like you were pretty into it so I decided not to disturb you. Plus you know how much fun it is for me to tease you like this. Especially after, well these..." One hand waved at the screens in front of me. The small hands' nails were painted the darkest black and almost made them blend into the void that existed outside of the screens. "I do Cer, and that's part of the problem, we both know that it's never going to happen. Least of all for you." She laughed a little, a clear beautiful sound and the body beneath my head bounced slightly telling me I was against her stomach. "Still I know you enjoy these little moments," she said, the pressure on the back of my head disappearing and was replaced by the voice right by my ear again as she whispered, "especially when we both know that's not at all true." At the last words she nibbled my ear gently. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her, in spite of my baser instinct rising to meet her VERY juicy insinuations. But for as long as I've known Cerith and as many times as we have both been VERY drunk, they have NEVER cashed in. I just assumed that it was a quirk of theirs. "Anyways," she said standing back up, "what are you thinking so far about the files? Spooky, right? Like I said, nothing that I can see connects them." Her hands gestured in front of me in an approximation of a shrug. She then clasped them together, wringing the knuckles and effectively trapping me in the chair and back against her abdomen. I scrubbed my eyes with my fingertips acutely aware of the growing headache that suddenly made itself known. "Your right from the medical side. I can't see everything you can, of course. I don't have near the knowledge that you have," which is true being that Cerith is at least 200 years old. I never asked directly, the old adage still holding about women and their age. Still though her answers to certain questions would lead one to believe her being her first adult car was a Bing Cherry 2201 Firebird GT with white walled hover trim and chrome accents. From pictures that I could find it looked like a slick piece. Looking back to the screens I couldn't help but feel that itch again. I couldn't explain it. That prickly feeling of ice needles again, this time in the back of my skull. As much as I'd hate to admit it. I think Cerith is right. I sighed heavily before saying "send me everything. I'll open a new case file and have the team start working on it first thing." She made a happy noise and bounced slightly, clearly satisfied with my decision to take it on. I reached out and to my left and a glass was placed gently into my hand by Tabitha. I hadn't even realized she had come over while I was working and was now ready for that drink. Room temperature rum and cola. The drink went down smoothly enough considering I drained the glass in one gulp, during which time I finally got a good eyeful of Ceriths current form. Or rather the underside of part of it. From what I could tell she was wearing a black T-shirt. That was it. I put the glass back down, it's job done without moving my head and said, "What a lovely view Cerith. I'm guessing you chose this to try to get a rise out of me?" I couldn't lie though it was affecting me, but I couldn't let her know that. Not when she's like this. Otherwise she'll continue to tease me till she leaves me with the absolute worst case of blue balls this side of the City. Her hands came up and cupped my chin almost lovingly, and her voice said "Of course Detective. Do you not approve? Or would you rather I change back to my medical examination form? Or something else?" Her words dripped with implied sex. I groaned, loudly, and said, "This is fine. Jesus Cer." Before we could continue our most scintillating of conversations there was a sudden PING! And DANNA said, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but there's a message for you Cerith. It says 'If you can get to the department Cerith, do so. We need you to explain your paperwork. And if Detective Julius is still with you have him come in too.' signed the Chief. Would you like to reply?" 'shit, I forgot the morgue kills all signals,' I thought to myself as I stood up gently (regretfully) prying myself from Ceriths grasp with a, "duty calls. Need a lift?" I stretched gently, the scales in between my shoulders clicking appreciatively for the stretch, and turned around to notice she was indeed, just wearing a black T-shirt that hugged her voluptuous figure closely. The scales in my back clicked shut in surprise. Cerith let out a small cute chuckle, "I see after all this time I can still surprise you," she said blowing a kiss my way, reminding me of a little Gothic pixy. I rolled my eyes away from her and willed my scales to relax. I grabbed my jacket off the back of the chair, slinging it on and clicking the neck clasp shut under the cord that connected my scales to the unit in my head. I was awarded the cybernetics upon completing my training and getting all my licenses to have them. The force had allowed me to customize it, I had chosen top of the line. A dual unit with custom built AI. The individual scales were ceracoated titanium microprocessors all running in both series and parallel, and could move to expel heat or react. The main unit was the same except it was one solid unit that replaced a chunk of skull. Once that was done I zipped up the front of the leathers and ran the scales through the racer setting. They clicked and flattened against the outside of the jacket, securing it to my back. I shrugged making sure it was comfortable. "I'll take the fact that you're only in a t-shirt you'll be along shortly?" "Certainly detective." Her voice was filled with dismissive submission... And sadness? I looked back at her and noticed her makeup was gone. Or had she had any on in the first place? I gave myself a mental shake. There's no way. This was Cerith, veritable goddess of the necropolis. I put the last few minutes away for review later. Chief called. I have to go. On an instinct I thought long dead, I reached out and squeezed her hand. I felt a slight squeeze back. And then she let go with a, "Go on, be a good detective. I'll be along shortly." I left with Tabitha as my guide. Before Cerith disappeared into the darkness I thought I heard her whisper, "please don't leave." My scales raised in a saddened response. I couldn't be sure I heard her right though. If I heard her at all. I reached back and stroked them, knowing my ai probably heard her, and knowing it could feel me touch the scales. After a few seconds the scales settled down. 'I know buddy,' I thought to the AI. It couldn't respond like usual AI. The force thought that was too dangerous. What if it went rogue? What if it tried to kill the host and take over? The list went on and eventually they decided the basics were ok. When I got my unit one of the first things I did was jack it into a diagnostic to see what kind of hardware I was dealing with exactly because manufacturer specs from real use are sometimes different with AI if the bits and bobs are in place. When I did, all I got on the screen was 'Hello?'

Sitting here after my doctors appointment for Chronic Heart Failure and freaking out a lot. Been on Entresto for about 8 months. This drug wiped me out, always tired, dizzy and lightheaded. So today the new CHF team has taken me off Entresto and doubled my Pee pills to 80 msg and there was talking about vtac ablations, Cardicmems, Losartan and Ozempic. There was even talk of if need be a heart transplant. After dealing with this for 23 years, 3 major heart attacks, 6 stents, ventricular tachycardia attack and a icd installed I think I have reached a point of being scared and pissed. Can’t stop the slow weight gain and seems like I’m peeing all the time. I am tattooed but needles scare me and Ozempic is needles every week like forever? Really? I have questions: do you get a months supply and store them in the fridge? What happens if you have to travel out of state? Is this forever? Where do you stick the needle? How big is the needle? On top of it all I’m told that I can’t drink anymore, ever. Not that I drink a lot but a cold beer on a hot day is a small slice of heaven. Or a glass of wine for dinner. At this point I’m just reaching out to try and calm the voices in my head screaming “Oh Hell No!”