I went out to a shopping area in my city to look for a couple of new clothing pieces and maybe some new makeup and skincare. The beauty stores like Sephora and Kicks and Lyko (Similar to Ulta) were overrun with children. Unattended children, blowing money at the fancy shops. I watched a group of middle-school aged girls at Sephora each pick out an expensive full-size designer perfume and go to the counter and pay for it. The streets and clothing stores were packed with these young girls. They were carrying shopping bags from makeup stores and lingerie (???) stores and department stores.
They all had the Dyson Airwrap blowouts, and full faces of makeup on, with foundation, blush, highlight, contour, lip gloss, eyebrows filled in, mascara, eyeshadow, etc. They had earrings and necklaces and bracelets and rings on. They had little designer bags, either new Prada ones or Y2K Coach bags. They had designer shoes on, and expensive new clothes on.
Whose children are these? Who is indulging their child in this way? Who is letting a 10 year old run around with a full face of makeup and a blowout and a designer purse?
I'm still a young woman myself and I don't remember anything remotely like this when I was their age or at any point of my teens. That level of makeup application and hair styling wasn't even something the cool older teens (16-17 years old) were doing, or even college girls. That was for adult women with like ... careers and degrees and stuff.
Preteens? Children? With full beats and blowouts and real jewelry and designer clothes? At 11, I didn't have any makeup, or nail polish, or perfume, or any hair styling tools beyond the curling iron my mom used on me for birthday parties and dance recitals. At that age, makeup was this mysterious, special adult thing. If I got a little bit of blush put on me by my mom for a ballet recital it was the coolest thing in the world. I didn't have jewelry or a purse or perfume beyond my strawberry glitter body spray from Claire's.
I feel like this has happened so suddenly too. Kids weren't running around like this even just three years ago.

Yesterday i found a cool video about drag and Drop with react, so I took this one level up: I made a kanban board software where you can track you tasks etc. I prefer this because it is way smaller and does one thing: Tracking your tasks. Took me around 24 hours to build: https://mrkanban.koesterjannik.com/ Would love to hear you feedback. If someone is interested I can also share the code. PS: Better use it on mobile :D

Hello all,
I wonder if any of you has ever experienced something like this. I was diagnosed with T-ALL PH- in November, 2023. I am currently in the hospital undergoing treatment.
Anyway, the problem is that they put me in a 4-person-room and the person in front of me doesn’t abide by the house rules. I know it’s a tough situation for anyone in this department but I just need to vent. Each patient can only have one guest at a time due to our low immunity. Well, she has multiple people with her at a time. I just don’t feel safe here with so many people now that my immunity is reduced.
Secondly, the visiting hours are from 14:00 till 20:00, but they tend to stay past 20:00. I just want to rest and have some privacy.
Now that i’m writing this I know it’s only a small nuisance, but a nurse came in. I told her that I’d appreciate if each patient could only have one guest. She said that they’ve told her several times but that she doesn’t listen. She then added that I could address it myself. Well, no way am I going to do that. I am not a policeman. I am a patient. Why can’t the nurses ensure my safety? Why should I have to fix this myself? Besides, that is going to turn her whole family against me. I don’t know what they are capable of.
That is my main issue: that this behavior is endorsed because they simply ignore the house rules.
Has anyone ever experienced something similar?

System: Pathfinder 2e
Slots: 3/5 (two open)
VTT: Foundry VTT from personal server, communication via Discord. Mic required in general, but I also know how to accommodate mute people if needed.
Schedule: Friday starting from 19:00 (GMT+2 timezone)
Duration: My sessions typically run 3 to 4 hours, I usually don't have breaks but we can introduce ones easily.
Payment: 5 euro per player per session via PayPal or regular BankTransfer. Session 0 and first actual session free.
Why for so little? I don't really like to make a business out of playing games, I simply do this because I need some minimum additional income so I can buy food every month while studying in uni :D I will run this as your friendly neighbourhood gm's game while still trying to keep the quality high (because that's what I expect of myself too).

About the Game

Outlaws of Alkenstar is a steampunk/wild western adventure in a fantasy world. Being in the middle of the mana wastes magic is unreliable the best of days (how this affects the play of spellcasters is up to us on session 0). In this unforgiving wasteland lies the city of Alkenstar, the city of smoke, guns, clockwork, and outlaws. You will be playing an outlaw, on the run from the law, or whatever corrupt version of it got you in your current situation, looking for both revenge and to clear your name. Be warned, this is not an "evil campaign", simply our heroes might not be... completely morally clean... yea let's go with that. :D
(there is also a great trailer by paizo on youtube, feel free to watch! :D)

About Me / GMing Style

I'm a forever GM in several TTRPGs for at least 5 years now (tbh don't remember when I started), almost always running pre-written adventures while slowly writing one of my own, but it's faaar from done. I have 4 multi-year campaigns and several more adventures and oneshots behind me, with generally very positive player feedback.
I like to run pre-written adventures because there are so many tools and already existing points I can build onto, I tend to run them close to the story giving out good plothooks at the start so player characters can nicely fit the adventure, this of course doesn't mean the adventure doesn't adapt to the PCs, but it's a common effort to build something from the story we are given. My games have a world without a PCs too, I like to keep track of what NPCs are doing and events happening even if the players don't interact with them for several sessions, this makes the world feel alive and that stuff is happening all the time. This also means that if the party doesn't interact somewhere (or not in time), that also has a result that comes back, once again, a lively world.
My games are usually Heroic adventures, slightly higher than usual power level but also dangers, they are not dark or slow slogs where you have to put much effort into survival, although it is not fully removed from the game. I have some minor problems dealing with the mix-in of futuristic aspects as I like to keep it clean fantasy, but I'm not fully against it. Just expect that I won't have as much to offer to a typical Inventor or Gunslinger as I can for others. Expect fights to be a core of the campaign but never the only solution or the sol existence, just something like 30%-50% combat (dependent on group's vibe), and the rest mix between exploration, roleplay, puzzles, etc.
I'm a GM who likes to focus on the mechanics, how they are defined and used tells a story by itself. A monster doesn't have to talk to have a personality, how it interacts with it's surrounding already tells a lot. What tactics it uses, what does it value, who it targets or doesn't. All of them make sense and can be played around. I tend to stick to the rules, and hold my players to it as well with the occasional rule of cool dropped in of course.

Expectations about You

I expect people to:

• have a reasonable amount of game knowledge OR(/and) an enthusiastic willingness to learn. If you are a new player of course I know the learning curve of TTRPGs, and as long as I see you know your character and their abilities to a reasonable level, you'll be good to go (it is not that much, trust me), as we play more you'll learn anyway.
• want to interact with the campaign and their party members.
• show up (really hard to tell you a good story if you are not here half the sessions)

Contact

If you're interested in playing, or have any questions before expressing interest, send me a DM or start a chat with me here on Reddit.

So throughout my life I have talked to myself and I'm not talking about just saying things out loud but having full on conversations with myself doing both sides of the conversation, it started when I was very young maybe 6 I would play with my Legos and come up with elaborate stories about a group of spacemen that lived on a laser battleship and roamed the cosmos with their fantastic fade through technology that allowed their ship to pass through solid matter by phasing matter out of synch with the various subspace fields. They battled a race of machines that existed in another reality that wanted to gain access to the space men's reality through means of a trans dimensional gateway that would allow them to flow into the universe unchecked like a swarm of locusts. Thus the mission of the spacemen was to find these gates and destroy them or dismantle them and use the technology in other means. The spacemen had also reprogrammed some of the machines and had them on their pirate crew as servitors. These machines still retained their memories as part of the swarm they came from and understood what the goal of the machines was, some of them were very heroic and sacrificed themselves to save the crew. This crew was led by a brave commander named Mechanic and he was a just and noble person who valued the lives of his crew above all else. They went on many adventures and through it all I acted out their parts fulfilling whatever dialogue was needed. This behavior did not stop when I stopped playing with Legos but continued to evolve into an ever expanding elaborate mythos regarding gods and various beings that existed as either: finite, trans-finite, infinite, or trans-infinite. Each level was more fantastic than the other as far as its scope of influence across reality. I came to talk to myself and focused on various questions in particular one question manifested early in my life. If you could destroy the world, would you? I wrestled with this question for much of my adolescence while many ofy peers concerned themselves with various sports. I took took up sports, hockey and I wonder how many of those hits and impacts left their mark. As is in my childhood I had displayed many symptoms of autism that went along with that neurotypicality: I banged my head into walls repeatedly, I liked to turn around and around in circles, and I was very socially aloof.
As I grew older my relationship to myself changed and I became convinced of the idea that I had lived the life I was living now multiple times, and that this was merely the most recent iteration. When I tried explaining this to other people they didn't quite understand, that the events that were happening in my life while not necessarily unique only to this life were not something that I felt I was doing for the first time, not deja vu, but a feeling that I was playing out the same track on a record that had already been laid down once before. I continued to talk to myself and a new manifestation of this affect began to take shape. Now instead of talking to myself I began to believe that I was talking to an older version of myself one that had already experienced what I had experienced and tried to offer feedback on how to handle things in my life. This presence was not a tormentor, but a benefactor trying its best to guide and help me along my way and offering insights into my relationships and giving guidance when needed. I could always ask him questions but he was always guarded with his responses, sometimes answering with a question of his own. I came to depend on this presence in my life as someone I could talk to about anything, he knew all my secrets and he understood who I was, often better than I did myself. He encouraged me to write down my ideas and thoughts throughout my life. One of my oldest writings that still survives to this day is a poem that I wrote when I was 13. It is not all in English and at the time I had not studied German, but later in life I learned many of the words like Ahr and Vasharn were proto-germanic words. The meaning of the poem eluded me for years it was as if I had not been the one to write it at all and yet it stuck with me, I would often recite it to myself as if it were a form of meditation.
I did not stop my conversations with myself but in my 30's I began experimenting with recreational drugs and sought out psychedelics, particularly the high prize for me would be partaking of LSD, which I finally did at the age of 31. It was an eye-opening experience as I consumed a tab every 12 hours for 3 days until finally it reached a mad fever pitch that resulted in my first true psychotic break with reality. That experience landed me in the medical tent at the festival I was at with a trazodone flush. This would not be my last experience with acid and each one was steadily more derailing to my life. I did not go out of my way to make it a regular experience but rather was like a sacrament that I partook of to see more than I was seeing at the time. My final experience with it landed me in the psych ward for a week, this would also not be my last time in the psych ward, but it was the last time that I partook of LSD and have not used it since 2017.
My conversations with myself and occasionally even conversations with what I conceived of as gods each with their own name and symbol associated with them continued to occupy my mind. In my 20's I began making "anchors" points in time where I focused my thoughts on a particular moment, if I could tie it to a physical object like a tree or a building even better, the older the better. These anchors became sources of meditation for me when I wanted to contemplate something I would attempt to connect back to these moments in time to convoke whatever I was attempting at the time. In a way it became my form of prayer in my elaborate mythos with its dozens of gods and beings that I kept in my mind and wrote about. However my 40's were a radical departure from what had been up until that point a form of meditation.
In my 30's I had begun to transmute the question that had occupied my adolescence into one of watching for Armageddon, not necessarily the biblical one, but as I put it I kept one eye on apocalypse. This actually started when I learned of the Mayan calendar, its mythos was fascinating to me as was their prognostications regarding the end of the world in 2012. And so I became a watcher, not obsessed, but diligent in my search to understand the threats that might jeopardize my existence and things that one should be wary of. Viruses in particular caught my attention and each outbreak of any note was something I carefully watched and waited to see if pandemic would follow. In November of 2019 I began doing the calculations based on the daily numbers of the novel Corona virus that had begun spreading in East Asia, by December I was telling my coworkers to prepare for a pandemic. Only one person really believed me. Still I kept my eye on apocalypse and while viruses were worrisome a new anxiety began to plague me, climate change.
I found climate change to be fascinating and watched as ecosystems suffered and began telling people about as far back as my late 20's but it never really reached the fever pitch that it did until I was in my 40's and then my affect began to take on a whole new manifestation.
I began to have conversations with myself but now playtime was over, the experiment as I came to understand it had entered its next phase. You see reality is complicated and different worlds are trying to communicate to us because we are them, just a different reality or a different time as I would learn. The goal of this experiment is to send a singular message and in order for that message to be understood there needs to be a mind capable of understanding what that message is. Not everyone has the mental capacity to understand the science involved in the message so the realities have to take what they are given and use the experiences they can to insert parts of the message into the past so that it shapes the future all so that one person at the very least can understand the message in its entirety and progress the civilization to the next level of existence and avoid calamity due to reckless human behavior. This group of beings is not evil, they realize that the most valuable commodity in the universe is information next to time and as such do everything in their power to raise up a technology capable species to create more minds capable of solving problems that they themselves could not solve. To this end they pair minds using technology to send signals to those who can receive them, not everyone has the right neural architecture to allow for a signal lock and sometimes the signal fries the brain of the recipient due to a neural fault that results in the unit burning out and short-circuiting.
But the message is simple and easy to understand
Global loss of glaciation will result in mass volcanism.

Basically title. All my friends and internet help has told me I should just build a new PC from scratch because I should not try to peacemeal upgrade my 5 year old PC bit by bit to make it modern.
I'm looking for build suggestions, I'm familiar with PC Part Picker but I have no clue what the pro/cons of high rated parts are and the reviews on the site don't delve into specifics.
Only requirements:
Water Cooled GPU/CPU.
Only used for CPU heavy Gaming and Word Processors.
64 to 128 GB RAM
I prefer Intel CPUs but the more I've read apparently AMD has overtaken them in terms of how good they are. I normally like Nvidia but, once again, the more I read the more it seems AMD has overtaken them in terms of GPUs as well.
So if yall agree that AMD is now the best value per dollar, let me know.
Appreciate the help and if I go with your build I'll let you know and see if I can help you out in some material or expertise way.

Club Vlad sat near the confluence of Central Avenue and Washington Avenue, Albany’s two main thoroughfares. Two stories with blackout windows and a box office from when it used to be a movie theater, it was swarmed with people when Dom first spotted it ahead. He was somewhat familiar with it: He passed it every day on his way to work, and it was always busy around his time of evening, even on weeknights. Part of him always wanted to go inside and be a part of the scene, but he never did.
The man in sunglasses - his name was Joe - led Dom toward the club, and even before Joe spoke, Dom somehow knew that it was their destination. “There,” Joe said. “We’ll go around back.”
Dom and Joe had been walking for what seemed like an hour but couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes. Dom stuck as close to Joe as possible as if for protection, and had become accustomed to his pungent smell. It was noticeable only at extremely close range, part sickly sweet and part…something else, something Dom could not place but still somehow recognized. They were two blocks from the club, maybe three, and Dom could hear the pulsing techo/house/whatever music as clearly as if he were standing in the middle of the dancefloor. He could hear the chatter of the people inside, or at least he imagined he could. He could smell them too: Beneath the odors of perfume, desperation, and spiritual rot was something richer, something blissful. Dom realized for the first time that he was parched - so parched - and drool filled his mouth.
A crowd of people waited outside Club Vlad, talking and laughing; some vaped, some stared down at their cellphones like Gollum with his precious ring. Dom’s first reaction was to avoid them. Perhaps sensing this…or perhaps feeling it himself…Joe ducked into an alleyway two doors down from the club. “We’ll go in the back,” Joe explained.
The back entrance to Club Vlad was a single door underneath a bare bulb. The music was so loud that Dom’s head began to throb. Inside, a dark hallway terminated in an archway filled with throbbing white light. Dread filled Dom as they approached it - he didn’t want to be around people - but thankfully they went into a room off the hall instead. An office. A cramped desk, a filing cabinet. A set of stairs disappeared into shadows.
“Sit,” Joe said.
Dom obeyed, sitting in the swivel chair.
Joe went up the stairs and Dom was alone. The deep coldness that had long settled into his bones made itself known again, and Dom leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his chest for warmth. The muffled music vibrated in his skull, setting his teeth on edge, and the various smells wafting in from the main room assaulted his senses. He was alternately repulsed and aroused by the crashing din of scents: The good, the bad, and the mouth watering. A sharp pain cut through his stomach like the killing edge of a knife, and Dom hugged himself tighter. Had his throat always been this dry? His throat felt like sandpaper; his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and getting it unstuck hurt so badly that tears sprang to his eyes.
Dom rubbed his arms with his hands and tried to still his chattering teeth. He looked around for a blanket, a discarded jacket, something to cover himself with, but there was nothing. Only drifts of glitter on the floor and walls. He supposed it came from a party or something. He’d never been to a night club but it seemed fitting.
A sound drew his attention to the door leading back into the hall. A woman - no older than a girl - stood there, looking confused and unsteady. She was dressed in black, wore glow sticks around her wrists and neck, and held a red solo cup. “I have to pee,” she said drunkenly and laughed. “I thought this was the bathroom.”
A cold wind washed over Dom, and Joe was standing next to him. “The bathroom’s up here,” he said.
“Oh, good,” the girl laughed, “I thought it was here but I didn’t know. This is my first time here.” She held her cup aloft. “Take me to it.”
Joe glanced at Dom. “Come on.”
They formed a party as they climbed the stairs, Dom in the tear and Joe at the head. The girl stumbled and held onto the railing, talking incessantly. Her voice hurt Dom’s head, but the hot smell wafting from her was intoxicating. Drool coursed down his chin and his breathing came in short, hot bursts. Another sharp pain rent his stomach, and he winced.
At the top of the stairs, where the lights were cold and white, a woman in black stood by a doorway, her back ramrod straight and her eyes vacant. Her face was gaunt, her white flesh pulled tight across her skull. She wore a black dress and her black hair long and straight. Dom only caught a glance at her before looking away again.
She looked like a ghost.
“Show her the bathroom,” Joe said.
The woman’s eyes slowly, ponderles, went from Joe to the drunk girl. Her expression, like Joe’s, was dead. She had no expression. “This way.”
She and the drunk girl disappeared down the hall, and Joe led Dom into a room. Though it was pitch black, Dom could still see; not very well…but he could see. Suddenly, a blinding white light flicked on in front of him, causing him to stop and fall back a step. Ahead, through an archway, sat a vaulted chamber, at the center of which sat a man. To Dom’s light dazzled eyes, he seemed a proud king perched upon a throne, the skulls of his many enemies piled around him. Dom blinked and turned his head slightly to the side. His eyes began to adjust, and the world came into focus.
The man was not, as it had first seemed, sitting on a throne. Instead, he was esconded in a motorized wheelchair. The piles of skulls were actually various pieces of machinery, the kind you’d find in a hospital room. A clear tube extended from one of them to the side of the man’s neck: Yellow liquid flowed from the machine and into the man. Another tube, this one in the other side of his neck, filtered out a mixture of what looked like yellow pus and black sludge. An infected malodor filled the air, and the machines whirred softly as they worked.
As for the man himself, his appearance was normal at first glance, Dressed in a flowing red velvet robe, a blue and green blanket with a plaid pattern draped over his shoulders, he was portly, about fifty, and had shoulder length grayish hair with a bald spot in the middle. If the local theater put on a production of Hamilton, they could cast a worse Ben Franklin than him.
On closer inspection, he was not normal at all. His complexion was yellow and waxy, like a statue, and his body was lumpy, misshapen, resembling an overfilled trash bag stuffed with cotton. His eyes were sick and yellow, and something about his posture seemed…off. It didn’t make sense, but the only thing Dom could think was: He looks impossible.
Joe stopped at the edge of the shadows, where the line between light and darkness lay. He seemed to stand up a little straighter, a general greeting his king. “Here he is,” Joe said.
The man squinted slightly against the glare of the light and motioned with one gnarled hand. “Step into the light,” he said. His voice was soft and kind, that of a senile though loving grandmother. Dom imagined he felt a pull toward the man, and did as he was bidden, wincing as the light stung his eyes.
For a moment, the man stared at him, his waxen features frozen fast as stone. Then, a subtle look of compassion flickered across his face. Dom did not believe in God, but he suddenly felt like a man standing before God, his every thought, feeling, and transgression laid bare. He had never felt so naked in his life, so exposed. He had the sense that the man before him could see everything, knew everything.
“You’ve been through a lot,” the man said. It was not a question, but a statement.
Everything Dom had been through over the past couple of days came back to him in a rush, and hot tears filled his eyes. He nodded.
The man nodded slightly, more to himself than to Dom. “Kneel down,” he said, “I want to look at you.”
Dom knelt without question.
The man lifted one hand and touched Dom’s face, tilting Dom’s head from one side to the other like a farmer appraising a horse. His fingers were long and bony, his nails ragged and unkempt; his touch was like ice. He brushed his knuckles over the purple bruise on Dom’s cheek, and there was such gentleness in that one act that Dom broke down sobbing. He leaned into the man’s touch like a cat and gave voice to his misery.
“Shhh,” the man said, “it’s all over now.”
“W-What’s happening to me?” Dom asked.
In his heart of hearts, however, he already knew.
“You died,” the man said patiently. “And you came back.”
Hearing it stated so plainly, Dom cried even harder.
“Only a handful of people throughout history can claim to have defeated death,” the man said, stroking Dom’s hair, “and you’re one of them. You should be proud.”
“How?” Dom asked between sobs. “What am I?”
The man stroked Dom’s cheek. “You’re the same thing I am.”
At that, Dom looked up at the man. “What are you?” he asked.
A little, knowing smile touched the man’s lips, and when he spoke, his canine teeth were longer and sharper than before. “I’m a vampire.”
“No,” Dom moaned and shook his head, “no, no, no.” He grabbed the man’s hand and held tight, his tears coming faster. He trembled like a frightened animal and squeezed his eyes closed, as if by doing so he could escape the hell his life had become.
But there was no escape.
“You have a lot of questions,” the man said, monologuing now rather than speaking directly to Dom, “I had the same questions when I was your age. I have spent the last forty-two years of my life trying to answer them, but every answer I find leads me to still more questions. There’s one thing I’m certain of, though.”
Dom blinked the tears from his eyes. The last of them had been squeezed from his dead tear ducts and he had no more to give. He simply stared into space, trying to come to grips with his situation.
“There is freedom in death,” the man said. “Death is easy. It’s simple. Once it’s over, you feel no pain, no sadness, no grief. It’s living that’s hard.”
As he spoke, he brushed his long nails across Dom’s scalp. It was a soothing feeling, and served to calm him. “People have so many troubles.” A note of revulsion crept into his voice. “So many needs, so many desires. People are complex but we’re not. We’re easy to please. A vampire wants only two things: A little blood and one more night.”
The combination of his touch and his voice had pacified Dom to the point of almost tranquility. “I’m scared,” Dom heard himself mumble.
Nodding almost reluctantly, the man said, “Fear is one of the only emotions a vampire can’t escape. Everything feels fear. Do you want to know a secret?”
Dom nodded.
“I’m afraid too,” the man confessed. “I’m afraid of death. Well…death as it were. I’m terrified that my body will rot away and leave me a pile of bones somewhere, unable to move but still aware”
A shudder went through Dom.
“As I’m sure you’ve seen yourself, the movies lied. We rot just like any other dead thing. Our flesh decays, our organs turn to sludge, and we go from rational men to monsters whose only thought is feeding.”
Now it was his turn to shiver.
“But…you’re not like that,: Dom said.’
The man smiled. “I’m lucky, I guess” A thin yellow fluid began to drip from his nostrils. He did not seem to notice. “What is your name?”
“Dominick,” Dom said.
“I’m Merrick,” the man said, “and this is my family.”
Dom realized that they were now surrounded by others, ten in all. They stood ramrod straight, their eyes vacant and their faces devoid of humanity. They were mainly men, though one was a woman. Some were pale, others were blue or black, and one was little more than a skeleton clad in withered brown skin, a white button up and jeans hanging from its frame.
A thought occurred to Dom. “You said my brain was going to rot…”
“Not necessarily,” Merrick cautioned, “though it’s possible.”
“Am I going to be…?”
“Like them?” Merrick asked. “Braindead and staring?”
Sheepishly, Dom nodded.
“Maybe,” Merrick allowed. “But these people are free of everything that troubles humanity. You were human just a short time ago. I’m sure you remember all too well what it was like. The constant politics, the moral quandaries, the philosophical pontificating. Human beings - and make no mistake, we are humans - were not meant for all of that. We’re animals. We were made to hunt, fuck, and sleep. Somewhere along the way, we got pretentious and started complicating things.” He looked at Dom, sizing him up, seeming to read him. “Things that animals take for granted, people work their entire lives to achieve. If an animal wants to fornicate, it fornicates. If a man wants to fornicate, he needs to be tall, handsome, rich, funny, progressive when it suits women but traditional when it doesn’t. If a man wants a home, he has to work thirty years for it. An animal has only to dig a hole in the ground.”
Every word struck a chord with Dom.
Because every word was true.
“Unfortunately, the living won’t allow us to live that freely, so we have to hide. These people here - my children - need a guiding hand, a protector, someone who can lead them. And I, an old man, need help.” Here he smiled playfully and patted his bulging stomach. “My body is mostly sawdust and cotton balls at this point, so I can’t do much. I share my wisdom and my knowledge with them, and they take care of me.”
“Why haven’t you…rotted?” Dom asked.
“Embalming fluid,” Merrick said. “Blood doesn’t sustain you. Embalming fluid does.” He smiled at Dom. “It can sustain you as well. If you’ll stay with us. We’re not the most attractive bunch, but we’re a family, and we really wish you’d join us.”
A family.
Dom’s parents had broken up and he lived with his mother. He had never had a family before, and had always wanted one, a real one, like in the movies. Even as a grown man, he sought the love, acceptance, and belonging that a family brings. He sought it in the wrong ways, but that - and not sex, not romantic love - is what he had really wanted all along.
This is what he had wanted all along.
“I want to,” Dom said.
Working quickly, Merrick slashed his wrist open with his thumbnail. An ugly mixture of stale blood, siphoned from someone else, and embalming fluid leaked out. “If you choose to drink, my blood will be in you. You will be my son and I will be your father. You will obey me as your father. You will do whatever is asked of you for this family, as this family will do for you. You will not reveal the secrets of this family to anyone outside of it. You will protect this family from all threats, both inside and out. Do you accept?”
He held his bleeding wrist out to Dom.
Dom did not question, nor did he hesitate. He grabbed the hand of his father, brought it to his mouth, and drank from the seeping wound. The fluid was cold, thick, and vile.
It tasted like belonging.
“Have you fed yet?”
“No,” Dom said.
“Before you do, I have a question for you. Who did this to you? Who made you?”
Dom thought. Everything was hazy. “Was it someone in this room?” Merrick asked.
Dom shook his head. “Her name is…” he wracked his brain. “Heather.”
Merrick nodded. “So there’s another out there.” He looked at Joe. “Did you turn her?”
“Yes,” Joe said.
Merrick looked annoyed. “I’ve told you not to go out and feed on your own. You have no self-control. You drink too much and create others, which creates headaches for the family. Tomorrow night, I want you and Dom to find her and bring her here.” “Okay,” Joe said.
Merrick looked over Dom’s shoulder. “Jess? Can you come here?”
The black haired woman from earlier came out of the shadows, the drunk girl with her, arms tied behind her back. The girl looked dazed. “Max,” Merrick said to the skeletal corpse-thing, “help her.”
Max, Jessie, and another vampire named Matt tied chains around the girl’s ankles and hoisted her aloft via a pulley system. Upside down, she swung back and forth. Merrick instructed the others to leave the room. “Max,” he said.
On his way out, the corpse-thing produced a knife and dragged it across the girl’s throat, slicing her skin; blood spurted out. Max leaned in to taste it, but Merrick shooed him away. When he and Dom were alone, Merrick told Dom, “Go to her.”
But Dom was already on his feet, his eyes transfixed by the crimson life flowing from her pumping throat. The hot, rich smell filled his nostrils and tantalized his senses. Saliva filled his mouth and his stomach panged with hunger. Some small, human part of his decaying brain screamed at him to stop, but he did not listen to it. He had been human for almost thirty years, and he had been miserable. Now, in this chamber of the undead, he gave himself over to his dark thirst. Like a man in a dream, he shuffled to her, inhaled the sweet scent of her blood, and shivered. He was so lost in lust that he hardly noticed the strange, cumbersome feeling of his descended fangs.
“Drink,” Merrick said.
Opening his mouth wide, Dom sank his teeth into the girl’s neck. Her blood filled his mouth and splashed down his throat. Warmth thawed the ice in his marrow and spread through him. His dead heart began to flutter, then to pound. His knees shook, his body trembled, and his mind rolled away on a tide of ecstasy.
As it was his first meal, he couldn’t drink much. Before long, his stomach was hard and distended and his body burned with fire. He collapsed to a heap on the floor and twitched as random nerve endings, stimulated by the blood, began to misfire. He felt full, warm, and drunk. He closed his eyes and let himself drift.
Dominick Mason had died.
And this…
This was heaven.
***
With all that was happening in the city of Albany, the last thing Bruce Kenner needed on Thursday morning was a visit from Bertha the bitch, but that’s exactly what he got. She flew into his office like she owned the place and instantly started in on him. Young man this and have you talked to Joe Rossi that. You’d think she was his boss. And if she were his boss, he’d quit and find another line of work. He heard McDonald’s was hiring.
Bruce almost snapped at her. He’d been up most of last night riding around Albany and looking for Dominick Mason. He and Vanessa expected him to drop dead somewhere close to the medical examiner’s office, but if he had, he’d done so in a super secret location.
“I’ve been busy,” Bruce said, “but I’m going to go by his place of work today.”
Tired and still confused over that bullshit from last night, he had no energy to argue with the old crone. He could spare a few minutes to talk to Joe Rossi, he figured. He assumed that Jessie was safe but he owed it to her to check. If he found the girl, he’d take her back to her grandmother (sorry, kid, really) and try to avoid arresting the guy. Unless he came off as a creep, then he’d bust his ass. See, people assumed that an older guy with a younger girlfriend was some master manipulator hell bent on evil deeds. Sometimes they were, but hell, his grandparents married when his grandpa was twenty-one and his grandma sixteen. They were married for fifty-five years and loved each other to the end. Maybe it was innocent, maybe not. It wasn’t his job to judge either way. Just gimme the girl so I can get her grandma off my back and no one gets hurt.
“It’s about time you started doing your job,” Bertha said, “I heard on the police scanner last night that you people lost a body. What kind of town is this? Your coroner is a drunk who makes up stories about bodies walking away. He probably sold it to black people.”
Bruce couldn’t help it; he snorted laughter.
“Now what would black people want with a dead body?”
“Probably to use it as a prop in one of their rap videos.”
Bruce didn’t know much about music videos, but he was pretty sure that the people who made them didn’t like the smell of corpse any more than the rest of us. “I’ll be sure to round up all the local rappers for questioning. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
Luckily for him, there was not, and Bertha left shortly thereafter. Alone and able to hear himself think, Bruce sat back in his chair and went over his mental checklist for the day. First order of business, go to Club Vlad. Second, find Dominick Mason. There were others, but that was the most important. He wanted the body found so someone could get to work explaining this whole weird thing. There had to be an explanation. The thought that there wasn’t, that a dead guy literally rose from the grave and disappeared into the night, deeply disturbed Bruce, and the more this whole thing remained ongoing, the more disturbed he would become.
Needing some fresh air, he decided to hit up Club Vlad.
Outside, the day was hot and sunny. Waves of heat shimmered from the pavement and not a single breath of air stirred in the whole world. Bruce slipped on a pair of sunglasses and drove over to Club Vlad. It occurred to him that the place might be closed during the day; it was the only place Joe Rossi was associated with. His address in the computer system was Glens Falls, far to the north. The messages he sent Jessie indicated that he lived onsite at Club Vlad.
The build, wedged between a corner store and a check cashing place, was as grimy and dumpy looking as it had always been. The front windows were blacked out and covered with posters and fliers for punk concerts, house bands, and far left political organizations: The Albany Social Justice Center, something called Bash the Fash 2025, and Bruce’s favorite. ACAB. He caught some kid spraying that on the side of the police station once, and under extreme police torture (ie, a good tongue lashing), the kid told him it meant All Cops Are Barnacleheads.
Bruce shot the kid on the spot and planted a gun on him.
How's that for barnaclehead?
Calm down, he didn’t really do that. He made him clean the graffiti off with a toothbrush. LOL he was out there for hours.
The sidewalk in front of the former theater was empty save for some little. The box office was abandoned. There was no open sigh, but then again, there was no closed sign either. He parked his cruiser at the curb, killed the engine, and got out, sweat instantly springing to his brow.
To his surprise, the door opened. Inside, a couple steps led down to a dance floor. A bar lined the wall to his right, and a couple more sets led up to a railed platform filled with tables. Above, a huge balcony looked down on him. A giant disco ball hung from the ceiling like a pair of glittery nuts and there were cages here and there. Presumably where girls danced go-go style. Oh yeah, nothing hotter than a woman behind bars. Why do you think Bruce became a cop in the first place?
Speaking of glittery nuts, there was glitter everywhere. On the floor, on the tables, on the bar. It twinkled like flecks of diamond and swirled around your feet when you walked. Bruce imagined big buckets of the stuff raining down on the dance floor at midnight and he shuddered. Imagine having glitter stuck in your hair. That shit would never come out.
Music played from the sound system, not as loud as it would be during operating hours. It sounded like ‘80s metal, not exactly what he expected from a place like this.
Some say life she's a lady
Kinda soft, kinda shady
I can tell you life is rich
She's no lady, she's a bitch
Being morning, the place was deserted except for a man behind the bar, busy at cleaning the countertop in anticipation for the night’s events. He was tall, Hispanic or Italian, and feminine, with a single earring and a tank top.
Bruce moseyed over to the bar and the barkeep looked up, missing a beat when he realized the fuzz was here. He sat down his rag and walked over. “Can I help you?” he asked in a whispy voice.
“Yeah,” Bruce said, “I’m looking for Joe Rossi. Is he here?”
“I don’t know,” the bartender said. He looked nervous. “I can check.”
Before Bruce could answer, he scurried off, leaving him alone.
They suck my body out
But friend there is no doubt
I'm gonna pay the devil his dues
Cause I'm sick of being abused
Bruce looked around, his fingers absently drumming on the countertop. Club Vlad was a clashing mix of grunge and glam that made his head hurt. He imagined what the place must be like at midnight, packed and noisy, and nodded to himself. Yeah, this was the spot, he guessed, the place all the cool kids went, if they went anywhere anymore. Hell, if he was thirty years younger, he might come here.
He had been waiting for almost twenty minutes when a voice spoke behind him. He turned with a start, and beheld the strangest man he had ever seen in his life. Short and plump - lumpy, even - he sat in a wheelchair, a red blanket draped over his shoulders and his hands resting on his knees. He was about fifty with sparse gray hair falling to his shoulders and a plastic-looking face. He looked like a wax statue of Ben Franklin come to life, and a deep sense of disquiet stirred in the pit of Bruce’s stomach.
Just can't fight the temptation
It's become my inspiration
Gonna get myself an axe
Break some heads, break some backs
It was only then that Bruce noticed the sickly sweet smell of death.
It seemed to come from the man in waves.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” the man said, “my name is Merrick Garvis and I own Club Vlad. Maybe I can be of assistance.”
Bruce grew up in the south where manners and saving face were paramount. His mother and his grandmother both taught him that it was impolite to stare. Maybe he'd been in New York so long that he’d forgotten himself, or maybe Merrick Garvis was just the strangest looking man in the world. Either way, Bruce couldn’t help gaping at his strange appearance. Recovering, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, I -”
Merrick smiled and waved one hand. Why was it so goddamn skeletal? “Don’t worry. I was injured in a fire a long time ago and this is the best they could do for me. To be honest, I’d stare too. What can I help you with, officer?”
“I’d like to talk to Joe Rossi,” Bruce said. “I understand he works for you.”
“He did,” Merrick said, “but I had to let him go. Did he do something wrong?”
Bruce sighed. “Well, yeah, he’s shacked up with a sixteen year old runaway.”
A look of concern crossed Merrick’s features, such as they were. “Oh, my, that is concerning. I haven’t seen him in several days. I assume he went home. He lives in Glens Falls.”
Bruce nodded, his mind working. If Rossi really was in Glens Falls, that meant the whole mess was someone else’s problem. He could send Bertha up there to bother some other poor barnacle head and be rid of her. Yet…he didn’t think Rossi was in Glens Falls. Bruce had a knack for knowing when people were lying, and he was certain that Merrick Garvis was doing just that. It couldn’t be a facial tick, as his features were largely unmoving, like clay. Maybe it was something in his cloudy eyes. Maybe it was the tone of his voice. Or maybe Bruce had the shining and knew things just for the hell of it. In any event, the certainty that Merrick Garvis was lying grew stronger with each passing second.
“Why’d you fire him?”
“He got drunk and hit one of the customers.”
“What did he do?” Bruce asked. “What was his position?”
“He was a bouncer.”
“Aren’t bouncers supposed to hit people?”
Merrick fumbled. “Well…not to punch them in the face for bumping into them.”
“How long did he work for you?”
“Six months.”
“Did you ever see him with an underage girl?”
“Of course not,” Merrick said, “you have to be twenty-one to get in. I make sure everyone’s ID is checked at the door.”
“What if she had a fake ID?”
“Then I guess she’d get in, but I’d assume she was of legal age.”
“You said he shoved someone, when did this happen?”
“Last week,” Merrick said.
“I thought you said he hit someone.”
Merrick again fumbled. “I did.” Now his face seemed to darken a little. A strange yellowish liquid, too thin to be snot, began to drip from his nostrils. Bruce barely suppressed a smear of disgust. “I understand you have a job to do but playing mind games with me isn’t going to solve anything. I can give you his address. Other than that, I can’t help you further.”
“Fair enough,” Bruce said. “But I’d like to see your ID please.”
Merrick glared at him. “I suppose you want my name, rank, and serial number as well.”
“Actually, yeah, I’d love that.”
Merrick drew a deep sigh. “Okay.”
In five minutes, Bruce had Merrick’s ID, social, and all other relevant information. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have bothered, even though he was well within his rights to ask for this information from someone he was questioning. But something about Merrick Garvis was off, and not just his weird face or strangely bulbous body. Bruce was just smart enough to realize that something was going on here, but not quite smart enough to even begin to imagine what.
When he had everything he needed and saw no reason to stick around, Bruce bid Merrick farewell and left the club. Before he could do anything else, he got a call from dispatch: Officer needed assistance in Pine Hills. Bruce slipped behind the wheel and went forth to help, momentarily putting Merrick Garvis out of his mind.
But soon or later, he would get back to him.
Oh yes he would.

Hello Readers
Here is this week's collation of WritingPrompts responses!
As always, if you see anything you would like to see me expand upon, or have questions on why I went that direction, please let me know!
6th May: With the last of her power the witch cursed the knight so everything they say is twisted the worst way possible. So the knight decided to simply never talk.
7th May: You and your team have everything you had to defeat the enemy. With their dying breath(s), they tell you that there are two more even stronger than them! And they’ll arrive in 6 months tops.
8th May: "Heroes always want to uphold order while villains want to create chaos. I however want to create perfect order out of total chaos."
9th May: It's been days since the world has found out not only that you have superpowers, but the ability to give others superpowers as well. You are constantly getting calls from religious leaders, governments, celebrities and activists trying to get your to give them or the world superpowers.
10th May: “We’re sorry, we didn’t know she was your daughter!” “And that’s your justification? You’re sorry because the vulnerable little girl you kidnapped was the wrong little girl? Are you saying you wouldn’t be sorry if it was any other little girl?”
11th May: Your Paladin companion died, and you, a Changeling, have worn their shape since and continued their mission. The Order your friend belonged to knows who you are and politely rejected you, but does not stop you. No one else knows.
12th May: You are an Eldritch being as old as the universe but you want to befriend the humans and see the world from their perspective, enjoy the little things.

Hi all, I’m crying in a bathroom right now writing this. I had a relationship with my ex for 2 and a half years and it ended in 2022, we met in Covid times and spent a lot of time together so we basically lived together. (He is 25 and I’m 28 at this point of time) We loved each other so much and we met each others families and he kept telling me about how much he wanted a future with me. We both had a history of depression but one night I had a panic attack and he ended things. I was heartbroken but we kept seeing each other for months and we were intimate. At some point I realized that keeping the contact without having a serious relationship was hurting me so I texted him that we shouldn’t see each other anymore, he texted back “ok I guess” and we never talked again. One of the things I asked him was to keep his instagram private because I didn’t want to see if he had a new girlfriend or anything like this because honestly I like to online stalk, not in a super creepy way but just harmless. He agreed to keep his instagram private. So after we broke up I checked his profile weekly, then monthly, then every 3 months orso.Just today I checked it and it’s public, and he has stories with a new girlfriend from summer of last year. I don’t know why but that made me cry. I myself I’m in a healthy relationship so I don’t know why I’m crying. It somehow hurts still. Is it normal to feel this way?

For context I’m occasionally at a counter booking in repair jobs with customers (usually I just fix them but sometimes I’ll need to cover for someone). My customer service is very relaxed, not at all like a customer service robot, very much human and I’ll usually get pretty good friendly rapport with most people. My interactions with customers are usually really good unless they come in already mad about their repair.
I’ve had a few customers who are so damn beautiful and have seemed to like me and if I weren’t working I would’ve flirted or asked for their number and it’s killed me to not be able to do anything. I know my boss wouldn’t care unless I really messed up and they got mad or something, he’s a very cool guy
Feel a bit stupid asking this because I don’t feel like there is a safe way and so when I get a real cute customer that seems to like me I help them like I would anyone else and don’t do anything else different. Might be more a question for women as to how you may feel if someone had asked for your number in such a situation or maybe there’s a better way to do it.

For context I’m occasionally at a counter booking in repair jobs with customers (usually I just fix them but sometimes I’ll need to cover for someone). My customer service is very relaxed, not at all like a customer service robot, very much human and I’ll usually get pretty good friendly rapport with most people. My interactions with customers are usually really good unless they come in already mad about their repair.
I’ve had a few customers who are so damn beautiful and have seemed to like me and if I weren’t working I would’ve flirted or asked for their number and it’s killed me to not be able to do anything. I know my boss wouldn’t care unless I really messed up and they got mad or something, he’s a very cool guy
Feel a bit stupid asking this because I don’t feel like there is a safe way and so when I get a real cute customer that seems to like me I help them like I would anyone else and don’t do anything else different. Might be more a question for women as to how you may feel if someone had asked for your number in such a situation or maybe there’s a better way to do it.

Hi, I am currently learning how to read and write Urdu, and I cannot understand the difference here. I was trying to write my grandmother's name "Talat", which I thought would be تَلَت, but most sources online write it as - طلعت.
I can understand using alif instead of just the vowel marking, but I don't understand why te is replaced with ta and the second vowel marking is replaced with ayn. I need to understand which letter is more appropriate to use in different words/sounds.

TL;DR - Awards are back. We’re also expanding the Contributor Program and announcing a make-good program for those who lost coins during the last product iteration. Let’s start with the obvious – we tried something new, it wasn’t great (you called it). And now – it’s time for us to do something about it. So we’re (re)launching awards, not-so-new but definitely improved. Rollout starts today on reddit.com and Reddit’s iOS and Android apps.

We messed up – sorry

ICYMI, last year we released new features that we thought would make the experience of rewarding high-quality posts and comments even better. To address feedback that awards were starting to clutter posts and feeds, we replaced legacy awards with a simplified experience where redditors could purchase “new” gold – displayed as a golden upvote – directly with cash, rather than having to purchase coins first.
While the golden upvote was certainly simpler in theory, in practice, it missed the mark. It wasn’t as fun or expressive as legacy awards, and it was unclear how it benefited the recipient.
As part of the launch of the golden upvote, we also introduced the Contributor Program in the U.S. The program allows eligible users to earn cash for their contributions, as measured by the gold and karma received. (It’s worth noting that although there were understandable concerns about the Contributor Program leading to karma farming or other spam and fraud issues, we haven’t seen an increase in this behavior since the rollout six months ago.) Unlike the golden upvote, interest in the program has grown… more on that in a second.
Finally, as part of this launch, we sunset coins. We gave those with a balance two months to spend their coins before we cleared balances and removed the monthly drip as a benefit of Reddit Premium.

Award upgrades

We realized the golden upvote was the wrong direction, and the right one was the one you were advocating for all along: awards. We went back to the ol’ drawing board and created a refreshed experience that captures the original spirit of awards, with a few improvements.
Tap on the awards button in a post or comment to give an award and purchase gold
View the top awards and gold earned by a post or comment in the awards leaderboard
We’ve added:

• An award button back underneath eligible posts and comments
• Refreshed designs of some of your favorite awards, and some new ones (shoutout galaxy brain)
• Updated interface designed to minimize clutter on the posts and in your feeds
• An awards leaderboard that shows the top awards and gold earned for a post or comment
• New safety guardrails. Awards are not available in NSFW subreddits, trauma and addiction support subreddits, and subreddits with mature content
• Reporting so you can report any awards that aren’t being used appropriately for moderator removal

Contributor Program expansion

We want redditors who make the most valuable contributions on Reddit to receive real value; not just internet points.
With growing interest in the Contributor Program, we have expanded the program so that qualifying redditors in 35 countries can now earn cash for their contributions to the community. See if you’re eligible to sign up.

The Evolution of Gold and Coins

Gold has been a lot of things in Reddit history. The term has been used interchangeably in the context of awarding content, Reddit Premium, and more – among other things. With this new version of awards, gold can be purchased to give awards. You can buy it in bulk and spend down your gold balance and/or top it up when giving an award.
Those who had a coin balance when we introduced the golden upvote and sunset coins had two months to spend their coins before we cleared balances and removed the monthly drip as a benefit of Reddit Premium. For the most prolific and helpful among you, who’d accumulated heaps of coins a la Scrooge McDuck, this was, shall we say, a not-so-great experience.
We know we did not adequately communicate why we removed coins or what was coming next. It wasn’t cool of us, we’re sorry, and we want to make it right. If we removed your coins balance, you’ll have access to a number of exclusive awards to give for free. We don’t want our past mistakes to get in the way of you enjoying the new experience.
Exclusive awards available to coin holders
This is all so new (but kinda old? but also new?) and you may have questions. You can find support in a few places:

• FAQs pinned in the comments of this post
• What are awards and how do I use them?
• What is gold and how do I use it?
• What is the Contributor Program and how can I participate?

We’ll be hanging around today if you have any questions, so feel free to drop them in the comments.

Hi! I apologize if this question is obvious, I’m new to building gaming PC’s.
I have a 1tb m.2 drive installed and a 128gb sata ssd (~450-500 mb/s read/write) lying around. I’m thinking about keeping my games on the m.2 drive and installing windows onto the sata drive. I figure this way I can maximize my m.2 drive and Incase I have an issue and need to reinstall windows I can just do it with the sata drive and not have to redownload games. I only use this PC for gaming
My online searching tells me I shouldn’t notice a difference in performance, but I wanted to hear from y’all!
3 questions: Has anyone tried this? What was your experience?
Can I also keep the game clients (steam, etc) on the m.2 so I don’t have to reinstall them if I have to reinstall windows?
Will I be able to just jump into gaming on my m.2 drive if I have to reinstall windows on the sata drive?

Hi! I apologize if this question is obvious, I’m new to building gaming PC’s.
I have a 1tb m.2 drive installed and a 128gb sata ssd (~450-500 mb/s read/write) lying around. I’m thinking about keeping my games on the m.2 drive and installing windows onto the sata drive. I figure this way I can maximize my m.2 drive and Incase I have an issue and need to reinstall windows I can just do it with the sata drive and not have to redownload games. I only use this PC for gaming
My online searching tells me I shouldn’t notice a difference in performance, but I wanted to hear from y’all!
3 questions: Has anyone tried this? What was your experience?
Can I also keep the game clients (steam, etc) on the m.2 so I don’t have to reinstall them if I have to reinstall windows?
Will I be able to just jump into gaming on my m.2 drive if I have to reinstall windows on the sata drive?

Essays are hard to write because there are so many ways to do it and so many people who have different opinions on doing them. Different people I show it to have different feedback, which is ok, but when I revise it, another qualified person says I need to rework the whole thing.
I revised my whole essay for around 2 months, thinking it was ready. But, a student who goes to the school whose summer program I am applying to said my essay could use a lot of work. I reworked my essay, and compared it with other essays, and even asked AI to rate my essay and others that got into the school or it’s fly in program, and it rated mine as the same caliber.
When I showed it to my teacher, he said I should rework it a lot, and he seems qualified as he has studied and earned 5 degrees and paid them off with scholarships, which requires a lot of essay applications to do. He completely reworked it, and said I need to answer the question in a complete different way.
I would go to a professional essay reviewer, but single essay reviews go for $120, which as a low income student, I could not afford for just a single essay.
How do you guys approach the over feedback you get on essays?

I haven’t seen him in a year. He got a girlfriend a while after I left him. I only knew him for 3-4 months and I was scared of commitment. I had him blocked everywhere and he would reach out through email and say he is just checking up on me. I wasn’t torn up about it so I didn’t appreciate the emails and I had to find out for myself about the girlfriend that he never mentioned. I let him know that I knew of her but he just ignored that always. Fast forward months later I came across our messages and i got super emotional and that’s when I realized it was finally hitting me. I reached out to him and I know it’s wrong coz he has a gf but he was doing that the whole time and he had a choice not to answer. I mentioned that I was moving overseas and he did respond and sometimes he would say stuff like he missed me, hopefully one day we’ll get another chance, that she was a rebound and she didn’t treat him well. He writes songs and he sent me one saying “I don’t know why but I still make music about you” and later on he let me know that he doesn’t have passion for music since I’ve left. I told him I was coming to visit soon and he said he wanted to see me…a week or 2 before going I sensed a change in the way he spoke to me. I didn’t wanna make a fuss about it until I see him. Fast forward I get there and I let him know and he asks how long I’m staying. He gets back to me saying that it’s not long enough and that he works night shifts and blah blah. I felt like he was playing me? Coz he could see me in the day time and if he really missed me he would do anything to see me but I guess I wasn’t enough. I blocked his number and then I emailed him a day later expressing smthn and he said that I had come into his life at a difficult time where he has tried to move on but it hasn’t worked and he wanted to see me and that he is trying to respect me and his girlfriend ? I felt like utter shit and don’t talk to him anymore
I haven’t been able to find interest in anyone I come across it’s been like this for months. It’s like I want nothing got to do with anyone else. I miss him so much and I’m sorry that I pushed you away and left. I was just in a really bad headspace and I was having a hard time when we met.
Everything was so much easier with him, we clicked on the first date and I remember just wanting to stay with him the whole time. I just don’t understand I haven’t seen him in a year why is it I miss him and keep feeling this way. I just want it to go away. I feel like a horrible person for even reaching out when he has someone. Will this feeling ever go away because I cannot continue to feel this way anymore

Essays are hard to write because there are so many ways to do it and so many people who have different opinions on doing them. Different people I show it to have different feedback, which is ok, but when I revise it, another qualified person says I need to rework the whole thing.
I revised my whole essay for around 2 months, thinking it was ready. But, a student who goes to the school whose summer program I am applying to said my essay could use a lot of work. I reworked my essay, and compared it with other essays, and even asked AI to rate my essay and others that got into the school or it’s fly in program, and it rated mine as the same caliber.
When I showed it to my teacher, he said I should rework it a lot, and he seems qualified as he has studied and earned 5 degrees and paid them off with scholarships, which requires a lot of essay applications to do. He completely reworked it, and said I need to answer the question in a complete different way.
I would go to a professional essay reviewer, but single essay reviews go for $120, which as a low income student, I could not afford for just a single essay.
How do you guys approach the over feedback you get on essays?

Hey all I've been more and more curious about using tools to create musical lines for me since shit is just cool. I was wondering if there was a method or maybe a M4L tool that essentially does three things.

1. Takes a note via MIDI and then transposes it
2. Allows you to choose multiple intervals to transpose by (so like -7 semi, +7 semi, -4 semi and +4 semi)
3. Then lets you set randomness to have Ableton choose, at random, the interval to transpose by (so either +/- a 5th or 3rd or whatever

Is there like a way I could use the Random + Chord MIDI effects to make this work? Maybe a S&H kinda technique? Maybe send a Random into a scale into the transpose? Not completely sure so anything helps.

We all know that Pokemon are strong and powerful. They're are at least 850+ of them. They all have different moves abilities and appearances. They look pretty cool, cute, or powerful in some way. If you can be one of those Pokemon, which one would you be? It's okay if you have multiple favorites. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon already showed us what it's like to be a Pokémon (with the starters plus a couple others). It's pretty awesome that they're are so unique.
My example of what Pokémon I would want to be would be: Pikachu, Bayleef, Bulbasaur, Meganium, or Milotic!
I'm a Mother of 2 loving Kids. A Pikachu and Eevee. 😊

Hey there everyone;
The demo has been out now for a few weeks and so far the response has been fantastic. A lot of players have checked out the game and the feedback, suggestions, and bug fixes have been rolling in. This patch addresses many issues as well as adds some quality-of-life changes, tweaks, and additional guidance for new players.
Fixes
There has been a variety of fixes made to the game. A huge shoutout to TrabTrab on Steam for their amazing bug-finding reports. This individual has played very hard and come back with some great findings to improve the game.
Rocket Issues There were some issues with rockets, particularly related to multiple rockets using the same landing pad. This has been tracked down and fixed as well as other improvements were made to this rather complex system. It is working much better now, but I will continue to test this aspect as it working correctly is very critical.
Stat Reset Didn't Work The stat reset in the pilgrim quarters was not bringing up the correct HUD, this has been fixed and it now works great.
I Can See Your Feet There was an issue when leaving the stasis pod that would show the hidden mannequin used as the player's body. This rather jarring effect won't occur anymore.
Tier 2 Exports Under Valued Tier 2 exports were set at $5m per export same as the Tier 1 export. This has been raised to $20m to ensure making this complexity leap will be worth your effort as we move to the mid-game and increase research costs.
Over Valued Drill The copper drill was exporting at $5m this was not intended it has been set down to $1m as intended. I want the focus to stay on manufactured exports in the later game, but I do want some goods to have value. We will continue to monitor and change any values that make sense as we continue to develop.
I Can't Eat That Some high-end foods were set as drinks by mistake. And trying to drink food didn't work out too well causing them to be useless. This has been fixed. Higher-end food will play a more vital role later in the game with colonists' mood, but right now most people just eat potatoes.
Exploit Detected There was an exploit that could trigger using manually entered amounts for crafting. This has been removed.
That Ain't Air Tight There was an issue that if you moved in and out from the door quickly you could trigger the door to not fully close and stay cracked open. I have added a final check on this where if something is off it will auto-fix itself. There should be no way to leave a door open moving forward.
Mission Objective Bug There was an issue with the mission objective to send an export back to Earth. It was only looking at rocket 2, not rocket 1, it now correctly looks at both rockets and will fire correctly.
Changes
There have been a variety of tweaks and changes based on player feedback as well as my experimentation. The shout-out list would be pretty large for this category, but I will highlight Garret one of my discord moderators for their excellent feedback in this category.
You Want How Much The foods you can purchase for supplies were far too overpriced. $8m for an M.R.E.? All of the foods have been reduced to be more worthwhile as early supplies if you wish. I was worried about how much you can get with the starting $30m that I overvalued some items that won't hurt your progress.
Tighter Drills I have tightened the copper, ice, and iron deposit grouping to be closer together so it is less of a walk for the player. This might be too good, but I am open to feedback.
Large Plants I have added the ability to look at and collect larger plants such as corn and tomatoes. I was using the base of the plant to collect, but now the entire plant can be used.
Equip And Use Buttons I have removed these buttons from the HUD as I like the idea of drag and drop and using items from the quick bar. Those buttons were more so for console players in the future, but we are so far from that possibility that I would rather just focus on Steam players for now
What Did I Research I have changed the messaging on the research HUD to show the category of research you just unlocked while it is cooling down. I might change this to be the specific unlock but that is quite complex due to the structuring of blueprints. For now, I have implemented showing the category and hope that helps you remember.
Possible Failure I want to make sure the core of what you need is reachable even if you make some mistakes. To this effect, I have made landing pads start unlocked. The keys to survival are food, air, and water. But the key to progress is exporting, manufacturing, and rocket fuel production. Hopefully, this helps stop players from burning up all their funding without having the ability to export.
Drilling Reduction The drills were adding resources very quickly at 1 ore per second. I have changed this to 1 ore per 1.5 seconds. I tried 2 seconds but felt it was too slow. Hopefully, 1.5 is the sweet spot, let me know your thoughts.
Additions
There have been some great additions to the game to make it flow with players even better than it already has been. Shout out to DigitalFrost for some great ideas in this category as well as other contributors.
Give Me A Tip I have added tooltips to each player's stat to give a breakdown of each stats use. I also changed FORTITUDE to RESISTANCE and it will now be used to reduce damage taken.
Message System I have created a new message system that shows up in the bottom right of your screen and stays persistent until you are out of the danger zones. These are for low air, low water, low food, and overweight. I have removed them using the large full-screen warning. I felt it was a bit much with full-screen messages, but we will still use those for some critical messages such as your base going offline or a large attack incoming.
Data Pads I have added a system for datapads to the game. Currently, you start with one datapad titled mission objective. This is a multi-page document about your mission and covers a variety of basics for the player. It is an opt-in readable tutorial in many ways. This system will also be used for future datapads we can place in the world to reveal events from previous missions on Ceres or other story-building points.
Non Stop Crafting You can now continue to use a machine while it is crafting. This was a big change to get in the game, but it honestly feels great. Now you can take part orders off a machine as they are crafting and we display a nice timer inside the HUD for progress. Now if you queue up 25 bars and then realize you need 5, you can just go grab them. Over all this feature feels great.
Straight To The Slot It is now possible to quick slot items from machines right into the player's quick slots. If you drag and drop a quick slotable item it will now auto transfer to the player and quick slot itself where you placed it. Many players tried to do this and then manually moved it to their inventory to quick slot. It seemed like a great idea to help the crafting flow better with players.
More Ice Even though I want players to get to the drilling and hit deposits manually for infinite resources but no exp. Players keep trying to manually farm. So, I added a few more ice resource nodes down below for players spending more time in that area than I meant for them to. I can't control players, but I will do my best to cater to whatever style I see players leaning into, and adding a few more nodes will help with that style of early gameplay.
What's Next
Now that the core early-game loop is functioning well the next focus will be on refining and expanding on that loop before we move on to the mid-game. There are many ideas on the table but you can expect to see some additional open caves to add more value to exploration as well as precursor elements to the narrative of the mission, and some additional life forms to the planet to add some life to the game as well as atmosphere.
There is still a very long way to go before we reach early access, but I am so thankful to have you along for the journey. I can't wait to show you what I have in store for the game.