We’ve been dating for about 2 years now, and things have been going great. I was his first, he’s super sweet, etc. I should mention he is trans and currently in a group home system. We were on facetime tonight, i’m writing this just a few hours after it happened. He walked off after saying “just a second”, and i proceed to hear him talk to one of the female workers. he is talking about one of the fellow transgender workers, Cameron. I hear from the call(he could have said more that cut out) that testosterone doesn’t do all the work and that Cameron has to try harder to be trans and put in the effort. I was shocked at this, but he kept going. Saying how Cameron dressed like a lesbian, and that he didn’t pass.
I was on the call with my mouth wide, and when he came back he laughed it off saying “yeah sorry i’m back” with an obvious smirk in the voice. I’m autistic so I could be wrong, but he sounded proud in a way. And i was honestly ashamed. I don’t know what to think at all. I’ve never heard him say anything like this previously, and he claims cameron had thinks he is above him, and is more trans. Which i think is stupid. he sent me this exact message “ive told you about what cameron has said to me right? and how he holds himself at a higher standard because hes a trans adult with a higher dose of t”
keep in mind my boyfriend has a very troubled past with abuse and has very bad adhd, i just thought I should mention it. he then proceeded to also type “you’re right” “either way” “can we call again? it’s okay if not”

Third Chapter! I'm having a blast writing this. If you enjoy it, then make sure to like it and give me any feedback you have. I'm grateful for all of it!
Prev First
I was cold, my feet hurt, and I felt even sicker than before. The boreal path stretched on for what seemed like an eternity, the pale sunlight having no effect on me due to the sense, misty fog. Every breath felt like ice, and I could see my breath in front of me, condensed and almost viscous.
I had been waking for at least an hour by now, following the path to wherever it led. This place couldn't be empty, right? There was a tomb built here, so that meant there had to be some kind of civilization nearby, or at least the remnants of it. Even if it was abandoned, I'd kill to have a roof over my head to sleep under.
I wanted to lay down and sleep, but I knew that if I didn't get warm soon I'd die of hypothermia, so I had to keep trudging on. Besides, I was in the deep wilderness, in this place that I knew nothing about, and I wasn't going to risk getting eaten by some wild animal, or worse.
So I trudged on. The sun rose further in the sky after what seemed like an eternity, and the fog cleared up a bit. Birds sang, trees rattled and shook from the wind, and the air became bearable. I still felt awful, but at least it wasn't frigid out anymore and I would feel better eventually. I wanted to sit down so badly, to find a way to start a fire and get some heat into my bones, but I kept going. I needed to keep going. I needed to know what the hell was going on, and I'd rather find some place to sleep that had a roof and even a bed if I was lucky.
I kept thinking while I walked, in an attempt to entertain myself over what seemed like an endless journey. Who was I? I didn't know who I was, or where I was from, or if I even had a name! All I knew is that I was in the body of this weird lizard… dragon… horned thing, and it felt all wrong. The forked tongue in my mouth felt too weird, I was taller than I thought I should have been, and I was definitely stronger than what a human should have been, if I was even a human before. I think that since I defaulted to assuming that my new strength was more than what a human would have instead of any other race, I must have been human before, right? What other races were there, anyway? What if there were only humans here and I was just a freak of nature?
What if I was the only person in this world? What if everything was gone? That couldn't be the case, right? That tomb implied there were people who had been alive at one point to build it. But they could all be dead now…
Okay, that was enough of me being alone with my thoughts. I decided that, if I was going to keep myself sane, I'd have to do something productive to distract myself from the implications of everything going on around me. It was time to consult the useless journal.
I pulled it out and opened it to the page where we had our last conversation, still irritated by how vague it could be. But I pushed that to the side as I pulled out the quill and began to concentrate as I wrote down a question. Where do I go?
Nothing happened for a moment, but eventually my hand moved on its own, scribbling down an answer in the same elegant cursive as before. Follow the path.
That isn't helpful. I wrote back, frustrated. There was another pause, then more furious scribbling.
You asked a question. I answered it. Be more specific next time.
You’re an asshole. I wrote down, snarling. This time, there was no response, nor was there any movement in my hand. The journal remained uncommunicative.
Why didn't you respond? I asked next, surprised that the journal had been silent. More scribbling followed.
I answer questions. Insults are not questions.
I became even angrier at that, knowing my words didn't really affect the journal. Why can't you be more helpful? I wrote down, just to see what the journal would say.
I am only truly helpful to those who are capable of helping themselves.
It took a moment for my emotions to register, but when they did they appeared as a burst of unbridled rage. With a draconic roar, I threw the journal at the closest tree, causing it to elicit a loud thwap as leather hit bark before it fell to the ground. I turned and stomped away, grumbling, just hoping to leave the journal there. Then I looked down and noticed it was in my hand again.
“Wha-” I began, before realizing that the journal was in perfect condition, not even a single scuff. I grit my teeth and slipped it back into my bag with a sigh before returning to my walk,hoping that I'd find something eventually.
After some time, I finally heard it: running water. That must have been a good thing, because villages were usually nestled along some kind of water source. Even if it was a small village, it must have been a safe place because people were living there, and there were enough people to keep the wilderness at bay.
I rushed up the hill and down the path towards the sound, avoiding tripping over roots and rocks before reaching my destination. The creek was a few yards wide and at least a yard deep, so nothing huge, but it was fresh water. I had nothing to store water in, but I had a skin of beer so I wasn't worried about that. What I was interested in was the dirt path beyond this point seemed less faded and more worn, as if it was used more often. Most exciting, however, was a signpost with a few pointed signs hanging from it. There were two, in fact, one pointing to the left of me and the other one forward still, crossing a beaten and rickety wooden bridge that spanned the creek. The sign that pointed left read Forsvolkvr, which was just utterly incomprehensible to me. The other sign has a simple carved framing around the edge, so it might've been a more important place, and it read Ljosavatnsskaro… who in the hell named a place Ljosavatnsskaro? I couldn't even pronounce that right.
Needless to say, I went with Forsvolkvr.
The path led further downhill, into a sparser woodland that seemed more welcoming, and in the distance I saw it: a tiny village of maybe a dozen long huts, with either clapboard or mudbrick walls and thatched roofs. They didn't have chimneys, but they did have little openings at the top that allowed smoke from hearths to escape. Some houses were a bit bigger than others, but all of them were no bigger than a single story tall. As I approached, I noticed that there were people, honest to God people. Humans walked about, wearing pretty ragged clothes but still people nonetheless! I didn't think I had ever been so excited to see another person before, but then I remembered that I didn't actually remember a time before, so that didn't really mean much.
Most of the people I saw from a distance seemed to wear old, stained, and patched clothes: leather trousers stitched together along with long wool shirts and not much else. Some wore hats or pelt cloaks, and all of the men had thick beards, but most seemed to be exceptionally poor. Along with a few barren fields, there were little more than a few sheep and some chickens roaming the stumpy hills and knolls, so beyond the bounty creek I didn't know how this village even sustained itself.
As I approached the entrance of the village, which was a rickety little gate with a sign that simply read Forsvolkvr, people began to notice me, and I could immediately tell that it wouldn't be a positive reception. The adults pushed children into their homes, some picked up hatchets, and a few more had weapons of their own, mostly simple spears and rounded shields painted all sorts of colors with runic designs. One man came riding up on a horse, sword drawn and chainmail gleaming in the sunlight. “Halt, dragon-spawn, how dare you approach this village.” He was a younger man, maybe in his mid to late twenties, with a short beard, baby blue eyes, and golden blonde hair. He wore similar clothes to those around him, albeit a little less dirty and worn, and had a bear fur mantle on his neck, along with a silver circlet with a single ruby in the center that seemed to serve as a lowly crown. “Your kind are not welcome here!”
Great, so I was a freak of nature. I was hoping I was simply just another race in this world, but I suppose I couldn't be that lucky, now could I?
“I'm just looking for a place to rest,” I shouted back, lowering my sword to appear less intimidating. “I simply want to know if you have a place for me to stay: I'm willing to pay.”
“Are you deaf, dragon spawn?” He shouted as he forced his horse to halt, “Get out or I'll slit open your belly and expose your guts to the crows!”
Well, that wasn't good. I was exhausted and ill, but not so much that I was eager to take a dirt nap. And even if I was in peak condition, I was sure I couldn't take on this entire village nor did I want to since massacring otherwise innocent people probably wouldn't be a great start to whatever mess I had gotten myself into. And I wasn’t exactly a master swordsman to begin with. Even though I defeated those undead, it still felt awkward to swing a sword. I was definitely a bit desensitized to violence, but not some kind of warrior. Having a sword doesn't make me a warrior.
I decided to cut my losses and head for Ljosavatnsskaro instead, since maybe the people there wouldn't want to kill me for having scales. But then the crowd began to spread out, making way for a lone figure, hunched over and wrapped in a dusty brown cloak, using a gnarled branch as a walking cane as he pushed himself forward. The crowd’s ire transformed into anxious murmurs as the man passed, not even sparing them a glance. The only one he looked at was the man on a horse, who's face became pale as milk when their eyes met, and when the ringleader was thoroughly cowed, so was the rest of the mob.
“Gone, back to your workings ye shall be,” he rasped, his voice like sandpaper on glass, “begone and allow me to see where others cannot.” As he hobbled past the horseman he waved his hand, sending the mob hurrying away and back to their daily lives, as if I had never appeared.
“Gothi Øbyiorn, you cannot intervene, this thing is an intruder!” the horseman shouted.
“This thing is a person with a name,” the old man said, who's name was apparently Gothi, “And he has humbly requested your patronage. You dare violate the laws of hospitality? Shame on you for insulting the gods so.”
“By the Stormcaster, he's a dragon-spawn! He'll bring damnation down on us all from above! The Stormcaster shall smite us for harboring him!”
Gothi merely shook his gnarled walking branch irritably and gave the horseman an ugly look. “Thorfast Iogæirsson! If you had paid any attention to my lessons when you were a child you'd know that the Stormcaster’s own brother was the father of dragons! They felled the Lord of giants together! Have you no shame in taking his name in vain?”
The horseman, Thorfast, seemed to blush from embarrassment and indignation at that. “Rhörldir betrayed his brother for the skythrone!”
“And then Inir forgave him after humbling him in battle with his spear, and Rhörldir stood by his side ever since,” Gothi spoke, “Yes, some dragons may be wicked and cling to godly grudges, but this young dragon-kin,” he put emphasis on the word kin as if spawn was some kind of slur, “has humbly requested shelter, and even offered to compensate, and you, as Høbding, should be the first to honor the rules of hospitality. Do not shame your late father with your foolishness by being so brash and bigoted towards those who seek you no harm, especially when your father's very own thane himself was of the dragon-kin.”
The horseman, Thorfast, seemed enraged at first, but something about the elderly hunchback seemed to inject some sense in him, because he sighed with disgust and inserted his blade back into his scabbard. “Come, Dragon-kin,” he spoke, as if the words were being forced from him at gunpoint, “I shall find you the accommodations you seek, but he warned: disrupt my village in any way and I'll impale you on a spike in front of my home.”

So boyfriend and I have been dating for 2 years. It’s been very good and we are very much on the same page with our future and what we want, house, kids etc. We make over $250K per year and equally split, we work very hard career wise and being financially set was important for both of us. Boyfriend and I have lived separately throughout our relationship but I’ve put in my notice to leave my apartment July 1st. Plan is to move in together, either at his or move into a rental home temporarily until we buy a home together. Id be happy to buy right away but I’m also fine to wait another year and experience living together first.
Here’s where it gets interesting- boyfriend has younger sister that moved in with him in September. She hasn’t been successful holding a job in the past, has some serious mental health issues (depression, anxiety, PTSD) has no education and has a 65 lb dog. Originally this situation was temporary to allow her to get back on her feet - look for a job or apply to a diploma program or something to get ahead in life. We were thinking by March she should be able to move out.
Here it is almost June, sister just started a minimum wage job working 15-20 hours a week. She has no savings and spends whatever money she makes on vapes, cigarettes, junk food and dog supplies. She pays no rent nor does she split groceries that my boyfriend and I have supplied since September. I help buy dog food and fill her car with gas, etc. I’ve done what I can to improve her life and make sure she was welcome and comfortable, as I spend a lot of time at my boyfriends and truly wanted to help her feel less stressed financially so she could focus on what she wanted to do for work or school. I would chat with her all the time about opportunities or programs. She spent all of winter not working and not leaving the apartment, severely depressed. We paid for her gym membership and took her with us whenever we could etc. I really feel that we did all we could to help her out. She has a therapist and medication and social supports, etc. I don’t see her being able to be successful on her own any time soon, the rental market in our area is expensive and a minimum wage part time job is not going to cut it. Also many rentals do not allow a larger dog.
I’m wondering what to do here. This sister situation has been a huge roadblock in my relationship with my boyfriend and our future and our chance to move forward. They live in a 2 bedroom suite, so there isn’t really room for me to move in, nor do I really want to in the current situation. It’s tight and honestly I’m so used to having more privacy and space at mine. I really crave one on one alone time with my boyfriend and we have sacrificed it so much to make her feel welcome and help her life improve.
My boyfriend and I are both financially ready to buy a house and move forward but we are now tied to being financially and personally responsible for this sister. The parents are struggling financially and health wise so they cannot take on this daughter of theirs. We have decided she and the dog are moving with us in this next chapter of either renting or buying a house.
I do recognize this situation may improve when we all have more space and maybe a basement for her to have her own area. However, I do not want to become resentful for a dependant I did not ask to be responsible for? I do not want to be resentful for not having the opportunity to live alone with my boyfriend and work on our relationship. I want a family and I also want to fully enjoy this next chapter of life we have both worked and saved for so long for!
How do I best set boundaries or a time frame to help this sister move on and live independently?
I fear we have made it to comfortable that she has no desire to pay her own rent or groceries, let alone live a full filling life of her own.

My college friend really needs help and has for about 10 years. Despite trying a lot of tactics to help her, she just isn’t interested in sobriety or therapy. The past few years she seems to be devolving into what I can only describe as alcoholic rambling, general madness, and randomly lashing out.
When she calls me, it typically goes something like this: she tells a story or talks at me, reminisces about the good old days, remembers something that upset her, yells at me, says she loves me, reminisces again, and then I try to exit.
I think it would help me to have a few terms to describe her behavior and maybe mine too… My husbands friend was a total jerk to me behind his back for years and no one believed me. Understanding what “gaslighting” is helped me frame that behavior and be able to talk about it!
So that’s why I’m posting and would so appreciate any comments.
—-—- here’s the long version:
My friend is a 37-year-old living in a rural area with her parents and grandmother with dementia since COVID. My friend is an alcoholic, workaholic, and has ADD. She also really smart, funny and social. Shes amazing at her job in sales/recruiting and really defines herself by it. Her parents are both alcoholics, kinda conspiracy theorists, and often mean to each other (yelling in the background, belittling, hiding things from eachother, etc). She feels obligated to help with her grandma and is kinda resigned to change nothing. Clearly the environment is bad and rubbing off on her.
For example, last week she called me frantic and crying because her dog killed a bird. She talked for about 30-45 minutes, jumping between the current bird and other bird stories, of which there are many. I barely uttered a mmhmm the whole time. Eventually, she asked what’s up with me. I mentioned that I’ve been depressed and struggling to find a job, which is putting stress on my marriage so overall I’m feeling really low. Since she’s in recruiting and knows my work history, I asked if she knew of any job openings. She then launched into a story about how competitive she is with her coworkers and how it’s all a game to get the biggest commissions on placements but those are for engineers. So I take that as a no and by the end of her monologue she was back on the topic of birds. I tried to exit the conversation, and she said to call her the next afternoon if I wanted to talk about job hunting and she may have ideas.
The next day, I called her, optimistic to see the side of her that shines and hoping for some jobs she can refer me to. Instead she pulled up my LinkedIn profile and started telling me what I should change. Which wasn’t want I wanted but sure if that’s her approach she’s the expert. Then she became critical, loudly laughing at my picture, saying my hair was covering part of my face and I looked like a villan, untrustworthy. She’d never hire me based on that photo. She was kinda manic laughing as I was kinda tearing up (I’m aging and avoid photos so I thought the one take by my hairdresser was a high quality headshot and my hair looked cute). Okay sure I’ll change it. The critique wore on roast style with the justification of this is just tough love, the way we talk to each other is unfiltered and she just always around guys.
She brought up networking and remembered introducing me to a coworker, Sally. I said I didn’t remember what ever happened with Sally because it was two years ago. To which she got very heated, accusing me of dropping the ball and never following up. She started screaming, how she put her neck out for me and I couldn’t be bothered. I tried to talk her down and eventually hung up. I later checked the old email thread and saw that I had followed up with Sally, but she was going on vacation, so it didn’t go anywhere. My friend kept calling and texting, so I eventually picked up. I told her I didn’t mess up, and I didn’t want to be spoken to like that. So she apologized for yelling. Then she went back to criticizing my LinkedIn, pointing out a spelling error and calling me stupid. I told her I wasn’t in a great place and that her feedback style was hurtful.
She then veered off into a story about how she loves me and has saved the letters I wrote her. I cut her off, saying that while I appreciate it, those notes aren’t relevant to this conversation and let’s focus on job talk. She got upset, saying I don’t value our friendship and was using her just for a job so fuck you blablabla…
After a few more hours of texts and calls, I let her know I’m going to prioritize my own feelings and block her number but I’ll check in with her in 3months. I’ve tried to support her but also keep my distance but I need to be firmer in enforcing that. I’d say forever but that feels like canceling her when I know she needs help. ——- Rewriting this, feels as long and draining as that conversation was so I’ll stop there.
All of this to say, what kind of pattern is that? Is it something she’s doing because her parents do it to her? Am I crazy to keep picking up her calls? I feel like if I had a name or terminology to unpack all these conversations it would be easier to process them.

So I have 2C/3A curls, but it’s been kinda bad recently ever since I dyed it a dark color and straightened it for grad pics. It kinda just looks frizzy while it’s half straight/half curly now (mind you I never straighten my hair and only dye it every 2 months not bleach tho) It just doesn’t look good right now so I decided I wanna do a big chop of my hair so it can grow back healthier hopefully.
It’s currently past my shoulders right to my chest but i wanna cut it ear length. I just wanna know will cutting it help grow healthier and curlier or am I risking it😭

Hello!
31F, I had my surgery 5/7. For the most part, scabs are mostly gone, ear pain is becoming less and less. However, my throat hurts just like it does when I have strep or a really bad sinus infection. I'm assuming this is because my throat skin is raw and new? I'm really trying to cut down on the amount of tylenol/ibuprofin I'm using, but its still pretty rough especially when speaking.
I'm assuming this is normal? I obviously don't believe I actually have strep, but it seems like alot of people are past this at this point. Not the same pain as the scabs coming off or the pain before that, just a new different kind. Eating is fine, yawning and waking up are still pretty rough, but otherwise just this soreness/pain all the time. Let me know if this is normal?

DDAY 4 about a month ago. WW had affair with another married man. I found out and she cut him off clean (he lives in another state)
We've been working on R, and things seem really good. She discloses everything as far as I can tell. I read through some of her past emails and she knew I read her Google history etc. She deleted everything the next day, but I hadn't asked her not to.
She's been very kind after, apologized, etc., and disclosed a lot including that part of her grieving was for the loss of the AP. Honest at least.
Now, a month later, she left her phone out and I couldn't help but read her texts to her sister which went back to dday. I saw my wife say that she worries she could never love me as much as the AP and that they are soulmates. She said she loves me too, but she never loved anyone like she loved the AP.
This broke my heart again of course, but it was 2 days past dday I think.
My question is, I'll see my wife in about 50min and I need to know if I should tell her about this. I'm hoping it was affair fog and maybe she's grown out of it a bit... but if I admit I spied on her texts she won't text anything to her sister that I could see in the future. I don't want to give up that source...
This all feels screwed up, but I need some advice quick. My brain doesn't work right these days.

When me and my younger boyfriend got together we made an agreement that we would disconnect from our fwbs on social media. My younger boyfriend claimed he unfollowed all his fwbs. But I recently discovered he still had one on his Instagram. When I confronted him about it he claimed he didn't see the issue with her still being on there because he told her he's in a relationship and can't see her. Yet he has no proof of any texts showing he told her but there's tons of proof of him telling other fwbs he can't hook up anymore except her. Today he came from school and after he sat down and we started talking I ended up bringing it up again because his answer didn't sit right with me. He accused me of trying to start an argument I said no I just want you to clarify why there's zero proof you told her. He said he deleted the text of him telling her because at the time he felt it would seem sketchy. I exclaimed how it would seem sketchy if you're literally telling her no you can't see her this story sounds like bullshit to b honest. He than yelled at me and told me "what you want me to say I'm still fucking her every Sunday after work? Is that what you want to here!." Than he accused me of random guys on my Instagram who I've never even met before being my fwb"s. I'm so upset he would make such a statement I try to respond but he cuts me off every 5 minutes. Im so hurt he would make such a statement as he knows how much abuse and torment I've endured in my past marriage. He apologised to me for the statement and said he just wanted to make a provocative statement to make a point but I think it was a malicious statement to hurt me. I left my abusive ex only to end up in a new one

I'm 25 and my mom just turned 45. She has a chronic pain illness that often comes with other medical complications. She's been in the hospital for nearly 4 months because of a complication that came on from pushing herself too hard for too long without help. Last year the same thing happened, she had complications and was in the hospital for several months. Before that, I was caring for her 24/7 through the pandemic, nearly 2 years. I had to leave because she was not treating me well to say the least. Without going into too much detail, I now know that living with her and taking care of her nonstop is not something I'm able to do without destroying myself.
Right now I'm struggling to know where the line is. She'll go weeks or months without asking for anything and in that time I feel like I might actually be able to have a life. Then, right as I get comfortable I have to drop everything, disrupt my whole life because some emergency or other has come up and I am the only person in the whole world who can help. Once this happens, I feel like I have to take care of everything. Just in the past three weeks, I had to go to court to fight her eviction, take care of her extremely reactive dog who hates everyone, my roommate moved out, I had to take 2 months off of work without pay (that was partially for my mental health because care giving and going to work was too much), pay thousands of dollars for various expenses, including her back rent, and now I have to commute from work over an hour to take care of various chores to get her apartment ready for her to come home. I know caregiving is difficult, and she's my mom so I want to be able to help her. But I'm so miserable. I can't be the only person in the world who can help her anymore. I hate that I have to take care of every single little thing, and that there's no one around who can help me. Home health aides aren't an option, she's too young for Medicaid and her insurance sucks. She has no friends and is estranged from the rest of her family. If I stop helping her, there's no one who will step in to fill my place. I know I have to prioritize myself or I can't help her but every time I consider cutting back on the amount that I help her, I'm so overwhelmed by guilt and the idea of her being all alone. I'm scared I'll lose her if I stop.
I could really use some outside perspective or some advice. Is this normal for a caregiving relationship? Should I tell my mom that I can't be everything for her anymore? How do I even say that?

33F and 34M My bf moved in after being raped and at first it was nice but then things started to turn for the worst . COVID hit shortly after and we were in the house working day in and day out . Many days I couldn’t talk or express myself fully.. towards the end of COVID when things started to lift. I went out with friends because I just didn’t want to be in the house it became daunting and I was running from my emotions. Barely wanted to be touched, talk about emotions or anything rather . I felt it was a good thing for him being there but now I feel like I am paying for mistakes I made then. Should’ve been single and worked on self. I am still not 100% but willing to try to undo some of the damage that was done . I went out with my two girl best friends a week apart for their birthdays. I was just trying to have a good time. I came home at 3 am both times . I left the bar at 2 am grabbed food on the way home. Never cheated but did tell him I would be home earlier the second time but my friends brother was watching her newborn and she checked in on him before dropping me home. I stayed in contact , answered his calls and he knew about the house visit. He has been pressed ever since saying I broke a promise and that I didn’t keep my word even with the call to check in about a change of plans . Now he is ALWAYS talking about my betrayal and not keeping my word and I didn’t fix it when he brought it up. This was about 3 years ago. Now we have a kid and I have anxiety , depressed don’t feel loved. He’s continuously harking on past mistakes. I often don’t want to talk or express myself to him, he cuts me off and just continuously reiterating that I am a shitty person whether in conversation, through ig messages. States he wants to fix it and wants change to stay together. I don’t hang with friends, always with him and his family, not happy and SAHM now with him at home as well . AITA not being considerate or is he for not letting go and expecting change with mental and emotional warfare.

When me and my younger boyfriend got together we made an agreement that we would disconnect from our fwbs on social media. My younger boyfriend claimed he unfollowed all his fwbs. But I recently discovered he still had one on his Instagram. When I confronted him about it he claimed he didn't see the issue with her still being on there because he told her he's in a relationship and can't see her. Yet he has no proof of any texts showing he told her but there's tons of proof of him telling other fwbs he can't hook up anymore except her. Today he came from school and after he sat down and we started talking I ended up bringing it up again because his answer didn't sit right with me. He accused me of trying to start an argument I said no I just want you to clarify why there's zero proof you told her. He said he deleted the text of him telling her because at the time he felt it would seem sketchy. I exclaimed how it would seem sketchy if you're literally telling her no you can't see her this story sounds like bullshit to b honest. He than yelled at me and told me "what you want me to say I'm still fucking her every Sunday after work? Is that what you want to here!." Than he accused me of random guys on my Instagram who I've never even met before being my fwb"s. I'm so upset he would make such a statement I try to respond but he cuts me off every 5 minutes. Im so hurt he would make such a statement as he knows how much abuse and torment I've endured in my past marriage. He apologised to me for the statement and said he just wanted to make a provocative statement to make a point but I think it was a malicious statement to hurt me.

“Pick one of the weapons inside, and you'll be a warrior." Guardmaster Harian stood with his thick arms folded over the embroidered livery on his tabard. “Pick your feet up and put’em down, boy.” He was frowning at Broin Ven’Maerl, the candlemaker’s son. “I’ve no time for dawdling.”
“Yessir.”
Paidrag leaned out from his position last in line and watched Broin duck a halfhearted cuff from the Guardmaster and hurry through the armory door. A moment later, he called out to the Guardmaster, his voice muffled by the stone wall.
“Something’s holding this sword, sir. Won’t budge.”
Guardmaster Harian tilted his face to the ceiling and heaved a great sigh. “If you can not lift the blade, it is not for you. Choose another.”
Sullen silence followed, and a few minutes later, Broin emerged from the armory holding a polished steel Warhammer. Guardmaster Harian stopped him with an outstretched hand, examined the weapon, looked the boy over, grunted, and motioned for Broin to keep moving. “Report to the Proving Ground.”
Paidrag watched the other three boys in front of him all enter the armory one after another and emerge with their chosen weapons held awkwardly in hands lacking the callouses to wield them. They were grinning proudly. And why shouldn’t they? The Guardmaster went through the same ritual with these three as he had with Broin, inspecting their weapons and looking them over, his face impassive. He then waved them away. “Get you to the Proving Ground.”
There was one boy left in front of Paidrag—the shoemaker’s son. Harian called the lad forward, and Paidrag’s mind turned inward.
Which weapon would he choose when it was his turn? Not a bow; that was not the warrior way. Last year, his brother picked a fine-looking blade of folded steel honed on both sides to a razor edge with a leather-wrapped hilt and cross guard fashioned to resemble two claws. Paidrag had tried Jarrod’s blade, but it felt awkward and unwieldy in his hand; a sword was not the weapon for him. What then? He was a fair hand with a quarterstaff, more than fair; he’d won the games earlier this year in the weapons category. Youngest to ever take the top spot in Keep history.
“Come on, boy,” Guardmaster Harian’s deep growl broke into Paidrag’s thoughts. His great red beard bobbed as he spoke. “Haven’t got all night for you to stand there like a simpleton. Wife has supper waiting, and I need to get to it. Move.”
Paidrag felt his cheeks flush and heard snickers from the nobles and wealthy merchants gathered within the Keep’s armory to witness the once-a-year Quendling when each boy from the lower villages would choose his weapon and become a man, a warrior in training.
He swallowed and stepped forward, looking at the arrogant faces of men dressed in silks and satins worth more than he’d earn in a lifetime. But they didn’t matter. His heart pounded. Sweat beaded his brow. This was his moment.
He stepped through the door.
Inside, shelf after empty shelf covered the stone walls. Footprints made crazed patterns in the dust on the floor, and the only weapons in sight rested on an ornate emberwood rack traced in ivory and gold.
Seeing nothing else, he shuffled over to the rack and felt his eyes drawn past an exquisitely crafted sword with a jeweled handle, past a handsome spear carved to look like a red dragon, to a weapon the likes of which he’d never seen before. He reached out with a trembling hand and laid a finger on the long handle, polished until it gleamed warmly in the torchlight. It looked like a quarterstaff, carved with mighty griffons in silver and boasting leather to strengthen his grip. But this was no ordinary quarterstaff. A foot of fine steel glinted from one end, a blade slightly curved and engraved with fancy scrollwork. A blade that, when he touched it, left a hair-fine line of red weeping from his thumb.
Paidrag yelped and yanked his thumb away, lifting the cut to his lips, his brows rising at such a sharp edge. Then he grinned.
He lifted it from the rack with trembling hands and gave it a gentle spin, slow and careful at first but putting on speed as he went until it whirred in a blur through the air. He worked the bladed staff around the back and over his head, made a figure eight in front of him, grinning in surprise at how perfectly balanced it was, like no steel graced the end.
The staff whirled to a rest at his side, the blade pointed at the ceiling. An odd feeling came over him just then, warm and brotherly, a sense of acceptance. Almost as if the weapon itself approved of him. He shook it off and made his way out of the armory.
Guardmaster Harian’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when he caught sight of the bladed staff resting on Paidrag’s shoulder. He recovered quickly.
“Hold there, lad,” the Guardmaster said, moving forward and extending a muscled arm to bar Paidrag’s way. “Auscheral chose you?”
Paidrag stopped. He glanced at his new staff. “You mean this?” he said, gesturing at the weapon.
“Aye.” Harian eyed the bladed staff with a mixture of reverence and surprise. “Weapons forged of magic have a mind of their own. They choose the hand to wield them. None have bonded in all the years I’ve been a guard here, nor in the days of my father and his father before him. That's why Broin couldn't lift the sword.”
Paidrag felt a stir of fear in his gut. Why was everyone so quiet? Why were they staring at him? He recognized the look staining their faces. Fear.
In Paidrag’s experience it wasn’t good to make men with title afraid.
“Fetch him to the Sage,” he heard someone say. And the next hour was a whirlwind of faces, questions and hands shoving him down winding corridors deep into the Keep and to a room lit by a single candlestick on a polished desk. Books filled the shelves built into the walls from the floor to the ceiling save where a stone hearth glowed red with sputtering embers. An old man sat there swaddled in deep purple robes with a ring of fine wispy white hair on the back of his head. His face was beyond ancient, spotted, deeply lined and paper thin, but his eyes reflected the candle’s fire and showed the vitality of the spirit within.
The Sage peered at him with those fathomless eyes. “Sit,” he said, and Paidrag found himself sitting in a rather uncomfortable wooden chair on his side of the desk but didn’t recall actually moving. He suppressed a yawn with the back of his hand. His eyes felt itchy.
“Yes,” the Sage said, taking Paidrag’s chin in skeletal fingers and looking into his eyes. “There is power here, a well vast and deep, but your future is uncertain.” His bushy white brows drew together. “Clouded. I cannot see the infinite lattice of your destiny. Yet, power churns around you like a sea in a storm.”
The Sage released his chin and sat back, regarding him with an unreadable expression. Paidrag didn’t like this conversation almost as much as he disliked the two hulking guards posted to either side of the chamber’s door.
The old man stirred from his thoughts. He drew out his pipe, stuffed the bowl with tabac, muttered a word Paidrag did not understand and it burst alight. “Such potential,” the Sage muttered in a voice soft as silk. “Could it be? After all these years…”
The Sage fell silent, puffing on his pipe and staring at Paidrag until the boy fidgeted in his seat. Then, the old man’s eyes refocused, sharp as dagger points. He leaned forward and spoke through the coiling smoke.
“Who are you?”
Paidrag opened his mouth to answer but the Sage cut him short.
“They fear you, fear what it means that a weapon chose you.” His eyes glittered with mischief. “They are right to fear.”

Backstory: Prior to service, I had extensive dental work done sue to congenital abnormality. I was born missing 12 permanent teeth. I had tooth transplant surgery back between 4th and 5th grade, Braces through Middle and Junior High, then extensive Bridgework done during High school years so I actually had a functional dental system.
While I was in the mlitary, it was discovered that one of the teeth that were transplanted into another area of my jaw, to provide support for the bridgework, had resorbed(failed). This required a lot of reconstruction work while I was in the Navy. They cut out a section of my bridge, did bone grafting from my hip, into my jaw, then plates, screws, metal implants and a prostetic cover over that implant.
Question: I really don't have any issues, now many years later. But I want to know how responsible the VA is for my Dental care and Prostetic treatment? I'm 90%(94%) rated. Nothing mouth related, other issues combined for 94%. Is there something I should do at the VA level to have this included? I doubt theres anything disability related, since I don't have a problem with it. I have broken it, in the past, but used my private dental coverage to have it repaired. Just wondered if I could get them to cover it, if it happens again, since the militaary was theone who gave it to me.
Thanks, John

I've had this friend of mine for several years now. He's my one of my closest friends I can think of, ill call him Daniel. We have this friend group with 2 other of my really close friends, the 2 others both being girls
Daniel and one of the girls(let's call her jaiden) got together and started dating, but broke up a few months ago.
A few days ago jaiden told me that she was usually made very uncomfortable by Daniel while they were together, they used to kiss infront of us and others and she says that Daniel coerced her to. She then told me about how he forced her to do alot of things she didn't feel comfortable with. And how he touched her in places she repeatedly told him not too. She also said he was very manipulative in how he'd ask for things, for example, saying he'd never date again if she refused his proposal. She also said that he forced her into one other thing but didn't feel comfortable enough talking about it
This is all just so confusing to me cause Daniel has been like a brother to me for the 4 years I've known him, yeah he's not perfect but stuff like this?! I had to at least talk to him and hear him out
He was, uncooperative, he kept trying to end the conversation, gave me one word answers, admitted to a few things like the whole never-date-a-woman-again fiasco, bur ofcourse he denied everything else
Now I'm left between a rock and a hard place. Daniel really really seems guilty by how he responded, he didn't seem too suprised when I brought everything up, and didn't seem like he could care less. And it's not like i dont trust jaiden either, she's been my friend almost as long as Daniel has, but even then it's still hard to just completely side against him. But I've continued to support and comfort jaiden, as for Daniel, I've just kinda slowed down interaction
My girlfriend though, got really pissed at me for not immediately cutting ties with Daniel, and says I'm not taking this seriously enough, she's really pissed at me right now and it hurts cause I thought I was doing fairly well. She accused me of not doing enough, which confused me as what else am I meant to be doing? I'm listening to and supporting jaiden, I've called out Daniel and he denies everything. She's upset that I'm not immediately boiling over and seething in rage but its really hard to immediately and completely turn the tables on someone who's been your friend for so long. It's not like I'm excusing him or downplaying the situation, and I'm sure i can't rly remain friends with him, it would feel so wrong and gross, but this is still Daniel were talking about, the Daniel that's made my high-school life awesome, is it so crazy that I'm a bit hesitant to kill off everything we've had these past few years, it's not like hesitant means I won't do it, and if he admitted to everything I'd find it much easier to, but at the moment he says he didn't do anything, and while he seems seriously suspicious, is it so wrong to hold out hope that my friend of 4 years isn't an abuser, that this is all just one gross misunderstanding
So there, AITAH for not immediately cutting my friend of 4 years out of my life
Immediately being within the span of 2 days since I first heard of the accusations

Hey guys, thanks for all the help and support from my last post I really appreciate it. This past week I was able to talk more to my girlfriend and parents and that went well. My parents essentially said that they will support Me no matter what(as long as I'm not being a bum) which ever way I choose. They said I should br doing it for me and not for the validation and feelings of others and that my validation needs to come from within. That wad awesome to hear. My girlfriend was a bit harder, she is nervous about me coming home due to the inevitable judgement coming from others and its not how she imagine and hoped that it would go. I think she's holding out a little hope not that I'll figure out it's true, we both don't believe its true, but rhst something good will happen to make my time worth it.
Today I talked with my president in interviews. I tried to go in very calm and not attacking him or how he believes in any way. I explained that there are certain things about this church that I do not agree eith or believe in, he asked me to go further into detail. He's a business man and earlier in my mission we had talked about Ensign Peaks and how that is troubling for Me to learn about and how I believe that it wad fradulent. Before I could finish my sentence about ensign peaks he cut Me off and retorted that it wasn't illegal or fradulent because if it was people would be in jail. He told me that it went against regulations so in his eyes its ok for thr church to lie and deceive members and the government because it's not "breaking laws." I chose not to argue or agree eith him and we continued on with my questioning joseph smith and the book of mormon and again he cut me off to "testify" that it's true. He asked me about president Nelson and the apostles and I basically said there are some good things that has been taught but I do think there are times that he speaks as a man and teaches things as doctrine that shouldn't be. He said he's spent a lot of time with apostles and he knows that they are the mouth piece of God. I then brought up questions about policy/doctrine issues like blacks in the priesthood being taught ad doctrine, he again cut Me off and said that it wasn't taught as doctrine. About after that I clocked out and replied with ok to most of his answers. I feel very disrespected and unheard after pretty much all of my encounters with him. That'd about all of the update, still thinking about going home and I'm not sure what to do entirely. If anyone has anymore advice I'd love to hear it. Hope you all have a great day.

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

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

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

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

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

So me and my boyfriend have been dating for over a year, we’re both 18 and I have major trust issues because of our past, which causes me to check his phone almost every time i see him. This is my first “proper” long term relationship and i never had trust issues when we first started dating. Long story short he would text his ”girl friends” online and say im not allowed to ask him to stop because theyre only his “friends”. This really effected my self esteem and went on for 6 months, up until he tried to break up with me over the phone with that being one of the reasons. He cut them off when he realised that it was a mistake and 3 months later i found texts AGAIN which were kept on the downlow between him and one girl (which were back and forth) since “the day he cut them off” (She knows he’s dating me) Long story short he has cut her off since, and we are obviously still together. BUT, i feel a massive sense of shame and guilt when i ask to check his phone, I don’t do it behind his back because i feel that is even more invasive and a breach of his privacy but i honestly feel like i’m going crazy sometimes. It has been around 3 months since the last text and I feel as though I should be over it by now. AITAH for checking his phone? this includes liked posts/messages on social media
EDIT: I should have gone into more depth about these texts between girls. It was pretty clear that some of the texts, especially sent to a couple certain girls, had the intentions of being more than “just friendly” he would send pictures of himself to them, including ones he has told me he thinks he looks “hot” in, saves pictures of the girls in chat, would text them behind my back about how much “he appreciates them in his life and how theyre so impactful” whilst also stating “it doesnt matter what my gf says i dont care”. In my mind this is him being blatantly disrespectful about me behind my back to other girls. He also dropped a girl home in his car from college and kept it hidden from me.

呪われたテクニック:ギャンブラーのガーディアン (Cursed Technique: Gambler's Guardians)

The Gambler's Guardians CT is a shikigami technique that employs the use of chance and a deck of cards to summon guardians to combat opponents. The user cannot choose which shikigami is summoned as the medium between summoning these shikigami is a deck of cards that the user always has. The user may withhold these cards to be used as a later date or to lead to the use of the user's DE.

Drawbacks Of Gambler's Guardians

1. Due to its unpredictability, you may not draw the right card for the situation or even be unable to summon a shikigami at all.
   
2. It's a very risky, yet powerful technique as the cards must physically be drawn for the shikigami to be summoned.
   
3. All the shikigami's main weakness is fire as they will become a pile of ash in a matter of seconds [as this is the main and almost only weakness for all the shikigami, it will not be repeated and only shikigami specific weaknesses will be mentioned going forward].
   

呪われた道具:プレイヤーの野望 (Cursed Tool: Player's Ambition)

The Player's Ambition Cursed Tool is a tool that is created directly from the user's CE. It is tied to the user's CE and can always be created again by the user whenever it is destroyed. The cards in this deck are extremely durable as if made of a titanium alloy while still retaining its flexibility. These cards can be very useful for other Sorcerers as the deck always has a full suit of cards [that never repeat until all have been used once] that can cause a lot of damage. As for the user, these cards serve as both the medium and a powerful offensive tool for combat. However, just like modern decks, two jokers have been placed. These two jokers are required for the user to activate their DE, if the user does not have a DE then these two jokers are used as diversions to trick or further damage opponents. When the shikigami is summoned, the card drops to the card and expands to the required size for the shikigami to exit the card as if it's a portal. Both the size and the body of the shikigami depends on how quickly it exits the card.

ギャンブラーのガーディアン:エース (Gambler's Guardians: Ace)

The Ace shikigami is a shikigami that helps smooth the flow of the user's CE and increase the user's CE output. The shikigami is in the form of a large skinny robed figure that bears the symbol of the card that is drawn [A spade for the Ace Of Spades, a heart for the Ace Of Hearts and so on]. Aceis quite physically powerful and smart as it will get very creative with its attack and almost never do something in the literal sense. The Ace is extremely lanky and has arms that almost drag on the ground on the floor. The boost from this shikigami lasts for a varying amount of time depending on which Ace is drawn. The Ace takes advantage of its long arms and powerful enhancement boosting abilities to quickly attack in swiping strikes from a distance. Ace is the manifestation of the user's grief and regret of indulging in their addiction as they have lost the love and warmth of those who were close, yet pushed away.

ギャンブラーのガーディアン:スペードのエース (Gambler's Guardians: Ace Of Spades)

The Spades variation of the Ace shikigami can be seen as the more base version of the Ace as it still retains all regular details aforementioned, but with the added detail of skin as white as snow and hands the size of a shovel’s blade. The enhancement ability aforementioned is not changed much as it still can enhance the flow of CE in the user and boost the overall strength of itself. Although it can now enhance the durability of different objects to the level of a titanium alloy.

Gambler's Guardians: Ace Of Hearts

The Hearts variation of Ace sees some very drastic changes when compared to the Spade variation. The Ace Of Hearts can be seen with the same snow white skin, but this time it seems to have brought red outlines where its nonexistent veins should be. These “veins” are visible all along its body. The Ace Of Hearts no longer smooths the flow of the user's CE, but instead is able to reverse some damages to both it and the user. The Ace Of Hearts takes advantage of this healing factor with its higher amount of agility, but this healing factor and agility come with the loss of strength. The Ace Of Hearts is much weaker and not suited for close hand to hand combat, but instead will use debris from the fight to throw at the opponents while at points jumping towards the user to heal them. The Ace Of Hearts is able to climb up buildings extremely quickly and is another very useful part of the user's chance filled arsenal.

Gambler's Guardians: Ace Of Diamonds

The Ace Of Diamonds is the more defensive variation and it will always put its life at bay to keep its master safe. It is much more bulky than its previous variations and uses this bulky-ness to shield the user with its body. The Ace Of Diamonds has the same snow white skin and the same blood red “veins”, but with the added factor of its major difference in size when compared to the other variations. The Ace Of Diamonds is also the most physically powerful variation as it can throw things like cars with ease, possibly even buses if it tried. This variation of Ace can reinforce its own skin to that of diamonds, at the cost of being unable to apply any boosts to others.

Gambler's Guardians: Ace Of Clubs

The Ace Of Clubs is the much more offensive variation of Ace as it trades away some of its high durability to gain more agility and muscle strength. Combining this increase in agility and muscle strength with its newfound aggressiveness and large hood, it can quickly apply large amounts of pressure onto anything as it mercilessly attacks the target. The Ace Of Clubs will also use it's surroundings heavily to apply further pressure, whether that be from grabbing and throwing the target into something, or picking up something and using it as a weapon.

Gambler’s Guardians: Two

These shikigami mainly focus on supporting the user as all of their variations focus on buffing their capabilities in some form, whether that be applying a protective CE shield over the user or simply healing the user. However, these shikigami are very weak and require something to protect them or else little value will be gained from summoning them. The shikigami almost look like [biblically accurate] angels about the size of a bike, the only difference is that they are made purely of the card they were summoned with, hence why their durability is so low and can very easily be shut down.

Gambler's Guardians: Two Of Spades

The Two Of Spades variation is [just like Ace Of Spades] the base variation of Two. The Two Of Spades summons two smaller shikigami that both can apply barriers of CE onto objects or even people. These barriers are not the strongest and can barely survive a single hit from something such as a grade 2 and above, but they can allow for some defense especially as it can tank at least a single hit which can potentially save the user's life.

Gambler's Guardians: Two Of Hearts

The Two Of Hearts variation allows the shikigami to be able to reverse damage to anything, but not the position [ex. If a wall was knocked down and shattered, these shikigami can reverse the damage it sustained to an extent, but not being it back to its upright position unless they somehow lift it back up] to a certain extent. No, these shikigami can NOT reverse death, the worst injury they can reverse on a human being or animal is a broken bone [unless the bone is completely shattered]. Anything more can potentially cause more pain for the user while killing the shikigami in the process.

Gambler's Guardians: Two Of Diamonds

The Two Of Diamonds variation can apply a much more durable shield than Two Of Spades, at the cost of its own speed and tapping into the user's CE reserves. This allows for a much stronger shield that can repair itself as long as the user’s CE reserves are full. These shields can survive multiple hits from a semi-grade 1 and potentially a few hits from a grade 1 sorcerer or curse. However, if the shikigami attempts to keep up the shield for too long, it will overload itself and burn up in a flash of CE. The CE used to summon these shikigami will be returned if this happens.

Gambler's Guardians: Two Of Clubs

The Two Of Clubs is the fastest variation of Two, but at the cost of its own durability. These shikigami often will apply a shield onto itself [rather than the user] and fly into a target to cause physical damage, taking advantage of its shield and speed. However, because it is so weak durability wise, so are its shields. Its shields cannot survive more than 2 hits from most sources without shattering. Even though these shields are weak, the shattering effect that happens when they break can potentially harm others [this includes the user].

Gambler's Guardians: Three

Three is a trio of shikigami that look similarly to the finger bearer cursed spirit, but Three are pure white with either black or red accents depending on which card was used to summon them and the symbol of the card on its back. They are also smaller than the finger bearer, reaching a height of about 4’4. Three is more so focused on being a supporting attacker to overwhelm an opponent, rather than taking the attention off of the user [with the exception of Three Of Clubs]. Three is very much average in all ways, but makes up for it with its speed, being able to quickly overwhelm a target.

Gambler's Guardians: Three Of Spades

The Three Of Spades is very fast and can even sneak up on opponents as it is able to dig its claws into objects and hold itself on ceilings or walls. Three Of Spades is very overwhelming as it takes advantage of its speed and strength to even break through walls to catch an opponent off guard, but will ultimately choose to protect the user even if it means death. Most of the time, Three Of Spades will stick closely to the user, but in a hidden position where they cannot be easily noticed while even hiding their own CE to an extent.

Gambler's Guardians: Three Of Hearts

The Three Of Hearts shikigami is the same looking shikigami, the only difference is that one of them specializes in physical attacks, one specializes in psychological confusion, and the last specializes in attacking the soul. The one that specializes in physical attacks is slightly above average in strength, speed and durability, but can grow claws on both its hands and feet to attempt to cause bleeding. The one that specializes in psychological confusion can release a gas that, if inhaled, will cause the victim to have hallucinations that could go from minor to severe depending on how much of the gas is inhaled. Finally, the one that specializes in attacking the soul is below average in physical strength and durability, but makes up for it with its speed and ability to cause irreversible damage.

Gambler's Guardians: Three Of Diamonds

The Three Of Diamonds are much more durable and physically powerful and the form they take represents that. They have a lot more visible muscle on them and the accents are less tattoos and actually are an unknown metallic material that is highly durable. This armour does not cover its whole body, but it does allow protection on the shikigami's arms, legs, and partially their chest. The armour is on these parts as it is a physical attacker rather than using some other ranged attack. The Three Of Diamonds are also a bit bigger than that of the rest of the variations of Three, reaching a height of 4’11.

Gambler's Guardians: Three Of Clubs

The Three Of Clubs variation can all merge together, forming a much larger and stronger shikigami, reaching the height of 5’8. Each summoned shikigami has a different part of the Clubs symbol on their back, when the three parts decide to form or the user tells them to merge, they become the powerful shikigami as mentioned before with the finished symbol of Clubs. More info on this combination will be stated below, for now information on Three Of Clubs will be talked about. The Three Of Clubs focuses more on hard hitting attacks, rather than stealthy ambushes. It loses its stealth, but instead it has a new merging gimmick and slightly increased strength and durability when compared to Three Of Spades.

Gambler's Guardians: Three Of A Kind

The Three Of A Kind shikigami is the result of when all three shikigami of Three Of Clubs merge together. The Three Of A Kind is very powerful and uses the same fighting style that the user does with the added benefits of a massive strength, durability and speed boost. The Three Of A Kind can apply a lot of pressure and can even revert back into the three separate shikigami it was before on command to dodge a potential hit from an enemy. However, the longer the shikigami are in this merged form, the weaker they will get as they have a time limit that is represented by the tattoo of the clubs on its back slowly fading from the top of the clubs down. It does slowly regenerate while not in the merged state and when it isn't even summoned. Trying to push past this state can allow a few extra seconds of strength, but ultimately will end with this shikigami to burn up in a flash of CE and the card used to summon it will be burned from the deck.

Gambler's Guardians: Four

Gambler's Guardians: Four Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Four Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Four Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Four Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Five

Gambler's Guardians: Five Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Five Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Five Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Five Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Six

Gambler's Guardians: Six Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Six Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Six Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Six Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Seven

Gambler's Guardians: Seven Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Seven Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Seven Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Seven Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Eight

Gambler's Guardians: Eight Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Eight Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Eight Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Eight Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Nine

Gambler's Guardians: Nine Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Nine Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Nine Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Nine Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Ten

Gambler's Guardians: Ten Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Ten Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Ten Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Ten Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Jack

Gambler's Guardians: Jack Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Jack Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Jack Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Jack Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Queen

Gambler's Guardians: Queen Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Queen Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Queen Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Queen Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: King

Gambler's Guardians: King Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: King Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: King Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: King Of Clubs

Extension Technique: Full House

This Extension Technique allows the user to overload their cards with CE, allowing the capabilities of the shikigami to be heightened [ex. More durability, faster, stronger, special gimmicks have a stronger influence, ect], but burning the card after being used. When this happens, the card is less likely to be pulled again or even just not even to be pulled from that deck ever again, forcing the user to attempt to artificially create another deck they can use from their CE.

Domain Expansion: Joker's Last Cabaret

When this DE is activated, both the user and the opponents will be placed in the midst of a casino filled with different cards flying everywhere extremely fast [fast enough to cut the skin on a human being]. As soon as one of these cards draws blood and they land flat on a surface [face down], the corresponding shikigami of that card will be summoned with the person the card had hit as their target. These shikigami will not target any other person until the original target is felled. Once that target is defeated the shikigami will explode into a flurry of cards, allowing for more shikigami to be summoned. The user can concentrate CE to slightly direct the cards into a target, but then these cards that were directed turn into blank cards that have no other use than as a physical weapon rather than an intermediary. The Joker cards will burn up after this DE is summoned, meaning this DE can never be used again unless the user can focus enough CE onto another set of Joker cards.