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Book One: Edge of Madness - Chapter One First Chapter Previous
They called him the champion of the Talisi. A lost prince, a man touched by the Gods. They spoke his name in the same context as the Vigons. They regarded him as one would a holy object, placed there to remind all that hope is not lost. Mairek lay in a bed weaved of vine reeds. He felt hopeless, encroached on all sides by a looming dread he could not quite determine its source. There were expectations that had to be met. With hope came the assurance of victory and the Talisi wanted war. They wanted to parade him at the forefront of the Talisi Green army. Dress him in green metal and have him wield half a spear.
Yes, half a spear. His signature trade mark. It was half a spear he'd used upon the Ganidan plain, all those months ago. It was half a spear that he'd used to turn the tide against the Binorians. And here, in his room within the Palace. It is half a spear that lay beside him.
He'd tried to return to Jamou, the village he and Ishar hailed from. But the Talisi would not have it. An entire cohort came for him, his father had stood outside their home, tears of disbelief streaming down his face as he watched his son being dragged away to Central Talisi. To stand before the new King of the Talisi, the late King Gans's son, King Mogich. There, before the King, he was forced to retell the events of the Ganidan Plain. Where forty thousand Talisi men had stood against half a million Binorian Legions. Where Talisi had lost its king. The Red Priests of Meena had gathered around the silver throne of the King, intent on discrediting his every word for his theatrics upon the plain did not come as a result of his connection to their Goddess Meena. No. It was another God's blessing that had been bestowed upon him.
A blessing that ensured he was free of the bubble of time. A blessing that enabled him to foretell the future, experience the present and derive meaning from the past in a way nobody ever has or will. He was against the flow of time, not as Ishar was with his blessing of chaos, no, for him perception graced his every thought and action. And time, ever present, sought a way to purge him free of the realm. But for now it ignored him as did he it.
He rejected the giant chamber that had been offered him. The windows were dangerous, a stray arrow from the Army practicing grounds could find him in his bed as he lay asleep. He rejected servants for one might accidentally trip and wash him with scalding hot water meant for his bath. Every option afforded him came with the tinge of time and its need to be rid of him. He evaded all options before they availed themselves and here, he found himself now. In a single room, narrow with four walls all around. No windows, no servants. The only opening a door and ventilation shaft above the door. Time had no means of ending him where he lay.
A wasp entered the room from the ventilation shaft, it buzzed as it explored its new found abode. Mairek grabbed the half spear laying beside his bed. He lifted and flicked it across the dimly lit room, the only light a lantern that was dwindling in fuel. The half spear spun across the room and collided with the wall before settling on the ground. At its tip sat the impaled wasp. The sharp point had impaled it through its thorax and its threat was no more. Mairek sighed and lifted his eyes to the ceiling. What I would give, Ishar, to be back in Jamou with you. You tending sheep and me tending my broken heart, where are you Ishar? I crave chaos, an end to this tide that I swim against.
It started as a cough from a servant in the Palace's coal chamber. A chamber maid tripped and fell with a curse. A Red priest yawned and within seconds Mairek knew what was happening. The movements people indulged in, the things thought to be accidents. The gestures and words and platitudes. They were all weaves upon the tapestry of time. A knock sounded at his door. He got up and answered it. Parting the door enough to confirm the heart beats he'd expected were indeed of the five men before him.
Tall men, taller than he, bulky with swords strapped to their sides. Adorned in leather armor. The best killers in Talisi. Killers hired to kill him. They had objected of course, objected the task of ridding Talisi of the only one of them who could channel a God. But Tari, Princess of Talisi and sister to King Mogich, had offered them a price they could not refuse. She hated him, of course, hated him because he was part of her father's death. Part of the reason she no longer had a father. Sure, it was Ishar who'd led King Gans to a war facing impossible odds. But Ishar wasn't around. Nobody knew where the Kolotian and his lover, Niada, had gone to. So it was up to him to suffer the consequences.
"The King requires your presence." The one at the forefront said with a slight bow. The rest of the men rested their hands on the hilt of their blades. A clear sign that they were agitated, wary even. Mariek smiled.
"You carry swords, isn't it customary for the Green Army to prefer spears save in close combat? An ideal condition such as now?" Mariek asked.
The one who'd spoken to him chuckled. "We're used to the weight of the blade, Champion of the Talisi."
Champion of the Talisi. The title was a bane to him. He wanted to thrash against its constraints, to run away, flee from the duty it demanded of him. It was mid afternoon. The Palace wasn't as packed as it was during the early hours of the day. The King would never demand his presence at night so this was the best time for their ruse. Where would they lead him to? Where would he meet his end?
"Where is the King?" Mairek asked.
"He's at the Conicual Garden, west of the Palace bridge." Their leader answered. Mairek nodded. That would be an ideal place to die. It'll give him a chance to see the river curving through Talisi, to observe the sinking sun and to be kindred once more with all that went on around him. He felt time's gentle nudge, beckoning him into its embrace where his death will spell an end to his torment. An end to the struggle against time, a struggle he was sure he could not win. Why then shouldn't he relent? Throw in the towel and call it quits? What value marked him, that a God would pick him above the rest? No, Nielda had made a mistake. What was even the point of going all the way to the garden? Wouldn't it be fitting for his end to be quick?
"I hear the King," Mairek said. "He is speaking to the Chief Palace servant about a cartload of wine due from Remu. He is in the throne room, not the garden." The men shuffled uneasily. "You're here to kill me." He took a step back, leaving his door ajar. He went to the center of the room, knelt down and bore his neck to them. "Make it quick, a quick thrust in the neck ought to do it. But then again, you guys are the experts."
They hesitated. Each uncertain of their purpose. Mairek hated uncertainty, decisions spell the destiny time offers. To titter on the brink of a decision is to waylay time's purpose. "Be quick about it! Bastards!" That did it. They lunged towards him, swords rasping as they flew free of their scabbards. The point of the swords came to him and Mairek welcomed them, a smile played across his face. It was going to be over. He closed his eyes, waited for the sword tips to bite skin, draw blood. End his life. He waited a span of seconds and nothing seemed to happen. He opened his eyes, observed the blades inches from him, frozen in time.
"You fucking cunt." Nielda, the God of Space and Time spoke from behind him. He turned, found the God lounging on his reed bed. His skin was as dark as the midnight sky, and stars riddled it. His hair, like puffs of a cloud hovered about his head. His green eyes observed him with a haughty air Mairek had become used to.
"Nielda." He said, turning to regard the God who'd chosen him as his Champion.
"You can kill them all, all five of them as you did the wasp. Yet, here you kneel, like a weakling, welcoming their blades. You paint a sorry sight. Diva." Nielda said. Diva, the word was misused by the God, having dwelt so long in the place between sky and moon, the God had lost touch with humanity, his vigil against a darkness he was hesitant to comment on had stripped Nielda of knowledge regarding the advancement of the human race.
"I just want it to end, I know no peace, Nielda. No peace at all." Mairek said. He got up off the ground, went to the rear end of the reed bed and placed himself there. Close to the naked feet of the God. The dusk colored robe adorning Nielda shifted as he sat up to regard his champion.
"Peace? When a buck grazes in the Talisi wilderness, no predator in sight. Does he regard the moment afforded it as peaceful? Does it relish in it, hence lowering its guard to fully appreciate the ambiance that comes with a lack of danger? Peace is a fickle thing, the buck knows this. Its ears are ever alert lest the sound of a Yendw wolf's approach marks the end of its peace. Is that then, what peace is? A moment between danger, afforded by pure circumstance? If such a thing is peace then what benefit is craving something you know will have an end?" Nielda raised his hand and scratched at his scalp, the hair floating about it parted for a brief moment. The God rarely had mannerisms similar to that of mankind but as time went, Mairek noticed changes in the God's disposition. "Think of your time since leaving the Ganidan Plain, Diva, has there been any instance when your life was threatened save now? Can this then be regarded as a peaceful period, a time when time has ignored you and thus given you a period of rest? Of course time wouldn't ignore you forever, it must seek to right an anomaly and you should liken this as a Yendw wolf's paw upon a branch, young buck, and this should drive you to flee knowing that the peace afforded you has reached its end."
Mairek sat with his knees brought up and his arms circling the crest of his legs. He nodded his acquiesce. His eyes moved to the five men, frozen in time, their blades pointed at where he once knelt awaiting a quick death. The buck would not await the maw of the Yendw wolf, it will flee if possible and if not it would fight, hoping for a brief respite from death that might grant it another period of peace. Is this then what peace is? "I hear everything Nielda." Mairek started. "I see everything, even with my eyes closed. I feel everything as if my hand is forever grasping things and my tongue tastes things that I am yet to consume. Is this gift of yours a mark of peace? How will my sanity be anchored to me with all that I perceive?"
Nielda sighed. "You're a dumbass Mairek. A dumbass, if you can hear everything why don't you focus on the sound that pleases you the most? If you can see everything why not focus on an image that delights your soul? Perception is not confounded on the whole, you can focus on specific aspects of it that appease you."
"Is that what you did when you hovered above space for thousands of years? Did you focus on a specific sound while you were up there among the stars?" Mairek pushed. He knew if he kept up a barrage of questions regarding Nielda's time guarding the darkness above from an ancient evil, he might gleam something... Anything that would paint a vivid picture for him, a picture whose purpose he was yet sure of.
Nielda stared at Mairek and his eyes flashed a bright blue. The assassins started moving slowly and Mairek knew that time was regaining its flow. "No." Nielda said. "The one whose voice I wanted to hear was silent."
Time resumed its course and the assassins thrust into open air. Missing their mark. They turned, puzzled expressions about their faces to regard Mairek at the foot of the reed bed. Mairek sighed. "Your deaths won't be on my head." He said as he stood up.
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The sun pierced the earth with its morning glow. Palace servants shambled about, eager to get on with their work. Guards stationed in various Palace compartments stood at alert, stifling yawns and conversing in low tones. The Palace kitchen was alight with activity, cooks chattered as dough rose and logs were fed into furnaces. Chamber maids emptied chamber pots. The King sat upon his throne and offered a silent prayer to Meena with the aid of the Red Priests, as it was custom for the King of Talisi with every new dawn. The gardeners tended the Conicual garden, pruning branches and inspecting bright colored petals. The daily routine of the Palace was under way, without a single anomaly felt or seen by all within the Palace.
It started as a scream when the maid sent to bring him his morning meal came across him leaving his tiny compartment. The maid ran away, screaming like a banshee and flinging his tray of food to the ground. Mairek flexed his shoulders and started walking towards Princess Tari's bed chamber. Where he knew she was inspecting an assortment of dresses, picking the best she would dawn for the first half of the day. With the maid's screams came the shuffling of feet, guards, cooks, gardeners, maids, Red Priests. They all flocked towards him, and when their eyes beheld him, they halted, words escaped them. Trembling gripped their limbs and all they could do was stare. They flanked him on all sides, and followed behind him at a distance. He did not turn his head to either side, he ignored them as he ignored the blood that trailed his path, marking his wake.
At another time, in another place. The five decapitated heads he held by their hair, three on his right hand and two on his left, would have sickened him. Their weight would have pulled at his soul and he would have been distressed by the action he was undertaking. But now, he felt nothing. He experienced everything and felt nothing. I am a buck, antlers riddled with the blood of a Yendw wolf, affording me an extended period of peace. And that was all he could define the moment as.
The Guards he came across took one look at him and let him pass, none too eager to test his patience. He climbed the steps leading to Princess Tari's chambers. A throng of Palace personnel behind him. The two Guards flanking either side of the Chamber's door halted him, placing heavy gauntleted hands on his chest.
"You cannot pass." One of them said, he towered over him and Mairek raised his head to observe him. He was aware of what a sight he was. Blood was sprinkled upon his face and stained his arms. The heads dripped blood on the floor and the smell of iron was rich wherever he went.
Mairek closed his eyes, felt the touch of the gauntlets upon his chest, he allowed himself to drift into the metal, to learn of its origin and how they came to be where they were now, upon him. The past is a vast sea, to swim its depths one requires a mind that can fragment, be two places at once, and in that current at the bed of time he was able to learn what he needed. He opened his eyes and turned his head to either guard. "These gauntlets, you place them on the bath house door, parting it gently to observe the Princess as she baths. A wretched thing both of you do, ogling the one you're tasked to protect. A simple reprimand wouldn't be enough, I will see both your heads on a spike at the Palace baths if you do not give me leave to do as I plan. I mean to cause no harm." He could not see their faces behind their helms, but he knew the look of shock and shame spread upon their visage. Shame, the anointed cousin of retreat, see as his gauntlets lower from my chest. See as they withdraw within, each of them eager to be rid of me within a miasma of indifference.
The Guards parted. Mairek raised a leg and knocked down the chamber door with one swift kick. The door sprung free of its hinges, tumbled and collapsed onto the ground, close to the foot of the Chamber bed. A good five feet within the Chamber. Tari stood, half naked with maids around her, her bosom rich and full, stilled as she regarded him. Then heaved as she saw what he dragged into her chamber.
Mairek walked onto the door and flung the heads onto the bed, watched as the blood seeped into the white linen cover of the duvet. Staining it a bright crimson. The heads stared in various poses, unblinking, sightless. Princess Tari gawked at them then raised her eyes to meet his.
"Their blood is on your head." Mairek said and turned around to depart. Those crowded behind him parted and in his wake eyes followed his retreating back.
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TL DR: boyfriend decided to get stupid close to a strainer on a relatively calm but fast river. He capsized and nearly drowned but I was able to save him. WEAR YOUR FUCKING PFD.
This incident involved my boyfriend and I on a commercial kayak float a little over a month ago. We kayak frequently on flat lakes so this was the first time kayaking on a river. I have gone rafting on whitewater rivers a handful of times and was aware of strainers, but I misunderstood that they are just as dangerous on calmer rivers too.
This was through a rental company near Eureka Springs. It was my boyfriend, I, and my parents. We are mid 20s and parents are mid 50s. Our guide takes us to the put in, and says okay see yall in a couple hours at the take out. No safety briefing but I did not think much of that since this was a calm flat portion of the river.
We launch and go on our way. It was sunny but kind of chilly, and the water was very cold and moving at a good pace. Because of the fast current, we did not have to paddle much, which we all liked. Very relaxing! The water was deep, maybe 8-10 feet on some spots and you could see right down to the bottom. Fish and everything!
Maybe 25 minutes in, the water got darker and you couldn’t see the bottom. Dumb mistake number one was us taking our PFDs off and shoving them to the bow of the kayaks. I remember thinking if anything happened it could be grabbed quickly. Nope. Just wear the damn thing.
My parents were a ways ahead of boyfriend and I. He is floating to my left and is about 20-30 feet from me. Up ahead on river left I see a decent sized downed tree parallel to the shore about 8 feet from the shore. There was fast moving churning water all around it. My boyfriend calls out that we wants to ride through that. I call out not to, just give it a wide berth.
For a second it looked like he heeded my warning, but then suddenly he was right at the thing. Not wearing his PFD. I see him try to paddle away but the current pushed him right in. His kayak immediately flips and he comes out. The kayak is between him and the strainer and in retrospect I thank whatever God was watching that day for this. I think it would have been worse if he was between the kayak and tree.
I yell at him to swim away from it as I paddle towards him with every muscle in my body. He tried to climb into the sinking kayak. It flips over on him again. He goes under for what felt like far too long but comes up. He tried to grab a branch on the tree over the water and the current suddenly pushes him away from it. At this point I am on him, I toss him my life jacket to him since his was gone. I can see the cold and exhaustion setting in, and all he can mutter is “cold, hard to move”. He also mentions something being “stuck”.
With what must have been adrenaline, I grab him by the arm and pull him away from the tree and churning water. All 5’2 130lbs of me suddenly had this hulk strength. I tell him I have you, I won’t let go, I’m going to get us to the river bank. My heart is pounding out of my chest. It was so hard to hold him while paddling but thank god I was able to. I’m trying hard not to tip us both over.
The current is pushing us away from the strainer somehow. He is now clinging to the side of my boat in deep water. He’s shaking and looks exhausted. I can see fear. I was very afraid too but trying to be the strong one.
His kayak is far ahead of us and as it goes past my dad, he grabs it. Dad said it was sinking by the bow. He used his belt loop to “tow” it and he and my mom reach shore at a boat ramp. I could not see them as they were around the next bend in the river.
We come up on a tree that had fallen over but was mostly out of water. Next to it is the shore. I drag boyfriend over here and yell at him to get on land now. Now he is on land and can catch his breath. Thankfully he held his breath when we went under and didn’t swallow water. Just shaken up and exhausted. I rest my kayak on the bank so I can figure out a plan.
During the capsize, his shoes had come off and disappeared, his paddle, kayak, and PFD were gone too. He did not bring his phone and I have no signal on mine. Here we are stranded on a river bank in the middle of no where, no signal and one kayak. I couldn’t communicate with my parents that we were relatively okay.
He tells me when he went under, he felt the kayak be pulled right from him. Said he felt his foot catch on a submerged branch and it took a lot of strength to yank it free. He is all scratched up. He said he reached under to grab the PFD but it was all tangled in the tree. At this point he looked up and I was reaching down for him.
From where we are now to to boat ramp was calm flat water and I couldn’t see any big hazards. I was in a big kayak with a lot of room and he is a skinny guy, so I suggest he sit in my boat between my legs to get to the ramp. He says that’s a good way to tip. He was right, but I told him we have to try. If we tip here we are in only a foot or two of water. My other option was leave him and come back with help.
We decide to try riding tandem and thank fuck it worked. I was able to move him maybe three quarters of a mile to the bank where everyone and his undamaged (thankfully) kayak was waiting. We stay there for a bit to gather our wits. We ended up all getting back in our boats and had an uneventful rest of the float.
The rest of the trip I felt very disturbed and out of body. I never shed a tear to try and look strong. To be honest, I thought I was going to watch my love get sucked under and drown. I don’t know what gave me the mental clarity and pure strength to save him.
Here is where I am struggling. A few weeks after our near miss, a woman was killed the same way by a strainer in Arkansas. Calm section of the river but got too close without her PFD and drowned. I guess the friends tried to get her but just couldn’t. https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Accident/detail/accidentid/118175
I didn’t start having nightmares and panic until I read about her accident. I guess it showed me how fucking close he got to dying. Why did he get free and she didn’t? Why was I able to save him alone but her friends were unable? The shock and trauma and loss. I keep replaying these images in my head.
My boyfriend and I have talked deeply about everything and I know he learned his lesson. I thank the universe I didn’t have to make that call to search and rescue.
Moral of my story is wear that god damn life jacket, and stay FAR away from strainers. I don’t care how mild that water looks near it or how strong you think you are. Nature does not care.
I don’t know if I’ll want to kayak a river again, at least not for awhile. Please be kind in the comments but I would love some advice from more experienced people. I understand I put my life in danger to save him. I’m thankful we are both here to tell the story. Thank you for reading, I really needed to get this off my chest.

Hi guys. Big problem happened. Worked for hours on just a simple project, some imported objects and light.
Now, i've finished the project, saved it ( Save All ) and when i tried to lad it, everything was like the file was saved a day ago, objects are wrong, lighting, volumetrics. When i try my backup, in Epic Launcher, the file/project in thumbnail looks ok, but when i load i get the one from days ago. Please help, this is ridiculous bug that basically will make me never use it because save doesn't work properly, nor the load. Any ideas?
Thumbnail in Epic Launcher of the project looks fine, but when i open it, it loads something completely different. Can't add images here, but if needed i will send a link with them... Help.

Hi everyone! I'm just some old (51M, but I like to think I feel and act younger) married guy here, looking to make more long term connections with new people. Male/Female, Married/Single, Old/Young, doesn't really matter to me, as long as we get along.
Here's a bit about me:
* I own my own online retail business, so I work from home, leaving me with little to no outside human contact.
* In my spare time, I love to cook, bake, and exercise.
* I love to read, but recently my advanced age (lol) has made it difficult to visually focus on a book. I just got an Audible subscription and I love it! I'm "reading" Otherland by Tad Williams right now.
* I love Clash Royale. It's a mobile tower defense game. I personally play it, and I watch people on YouTube and Twitch playing it.
* I love Final Fantasy 7, especially the new Remake and Rebirth. I watch people on YouTube and Twitch playing it as well.
* I have an AI art program and I love to make AI art/images. I can try to make something for you!
* I can't get enough coffee and I drink way too much of it.
* I'm college educated, fairly intelligent, and can carry on a conversation pretty well I'd like to think.
My DM's are always open to anyone. I'll reply when I can.

This is absurd but let me explain. Now as for my music, I am private about it in public, I don't self promote. Now let me tell the story.
I was a big fan of frank in 2020-2022 but I remember my favorite character was pink guy, because he could sing, rap, produce and cook. For me, he was the show stealer, I fucked with him heavy. But one day, at the end of 2021, when I had no purpose in my life yet, I said, "maybe I can do music, at least I'm not gonna be a lazy bitch" and I remember some random but specifically, The Pink Season songs, that were fire to me by the way and I said, "if he could do music, I can too" and so my journey began being a producer and rapper and nowadays I still do that shit, I got better and I keep on going.
It's crazy to think that a Pink retard from YouTube indirectly gave me a purpose in life and made me chase my dreams and goals.
Coming to think about it, it makes sense, Pink Guy Is The Reason for a lot of things in my life, like:

• Discovering the whole soundcloud and discovering a lot of great and Experimental rappers. (First song I head on SoundCloud was a Pink Guy song, don't remember which but I know it was from The Pink Season album)
  
• Forming and developing my own humor.
  
• learn a lot of cultures but especially, the internet culture
  
• Discovering Joji, because I knew frank, before George and honestly, no regrets. Best thing that happened in my life.
  

So in the end, I want to say:
Thank you, Pink Guy/Frank/Joji You gave me a purpose in life and I will achieve it. ♡

I'll be real. I haven't played a CoD since the original Warfare on Xbox 360. So I'm a little rusty when it comes to knowledge of the game and everything. But I'm pulled back, since the theme of the game is basically the Gulf War and Corrupt Governments
So I'll just ask again, but does anyone know who the MC in BO 6 is? I'm seeing the Xbox Showcase right now, they introduced the characters, Russel, Frank, etc. But I still have no idea who the main guy is... if it even is a guy at all, you never know.

Alright, some background: My wife and I have been on 3 cruises so far, all Caribbean through Disney (Wish, Dream, Fantasy, and soon to go on the Magic.)
This cruise was a Christmas gift to my parents. It was me, my wife, sister, her husband, their two kids, and my parents. My mom suffered an accident a few years ago that left her with some mobility issues, so we thought we'd treat her to a big trip now that she is somewhat mobile.
Overall, I'd say it was a good trip and don't really regret it. It was way cheaper than the Norwegian trip we had originally booked (and waaaaay cheaper than Disney) and we all had a pretty good time. But I will say it wasn't without its faults.
The Good:

• ADA assistance. Seriously, I cannot thank the staff enough. Some of those ports had quite the steep climb and those men and women were right there ready to assist.
• Port locations. This is originally why we switched from NCL in the first place (then found we would be saving a lot more with Princess.) We really wanted to be docked close to everything just to minimize dealing with the wheelchaiscooter.
• Medallions. This is something I think every cruise ship needs to get on board with. The combination of that and a drink package was honestly amazing. We'd just walk up to a bar, order, they'd confirm our name, and we were done. And knowing exactly where our party members were was so helpful especially when my dad is still using a flip phone and my mom is terrible about checking her phone.
• Stateroom hosts. These guys are seriously one of the best parts about cruising.
• Kids club. My nephew seemed to really love the kids club and would spend a lot of time in there. My sister's one complaint was they were pretty bad about sticking to a schedule.
• Indoor pool on an Alaskan cruise is seriously fantastic. My wife and I didn't use it, but the kids absolutely loved it!

The Meh:

• Food. Overall, not terrible. I had some really good food (chicken tikka from the buffet was a shocking hit) and then some misses (my "prime rib" was pretty sad and the tuna was overcooked.) The paid upgrades were pretty good, but my wife and I agreed that Palo really set a high bar for paid upgrades.
• Drink package. We included it to make it all a more inclusive vacation, especially for my parents. I do have some thoughts though. I vastly prefer DCL's included soda and being able to go to a fountain and fill up whenever rather than wait for someone at the buffet to deliver you a can of soda. It is very nice to have alcohol included though. But that said, with so many people with a drink package, the bars stayed going seemingly 100% full throttle almost any time we walked by. Meanwhile on DCL, we chat to the bartenders while they wipe the bar down and wait for the next customer. It was almost like they needed twice the number of bartenders and servers for what they were dealing with.

The Bad:

• Service. The quality of the service we received was generally good...when we finally received it. It was so slow at times. We spent so long waiting for food at the main dining hall. And like I mentioned earlier, it was often a wait at the buffet for a can of coke.
• Guest Services. Seriously, these guys were a mess. You'd think someone in a handicapped accessible room would raise some alarms when they were given express walk-off. But no, we had to get that sorted out (even though we filled out all of the paperwork and said we would need bags picked up the night before we arrived back in Seattle.) We also ran into an issue where our excursion had to be cancelled shortly after it began (it was the White Pass train excursion with the dog sledding village and sight seeing bus tour. The train in front of us broke an axle and cut the excursion short.) My biggest gripe is we approached guest services and no one seemed to want to say "we'll give you a full refund." I get that this is more of an issue with corporate and this is the guidelines they give to guest services, but it was a very frustrating thing to experience after being stuck on that train all day 30 minutes into what was supposed to be a 6 hour excursion.
• Alfredo's on a sea day. This one is kind of on us, but I also don't want to give them a pass on what might be one of the most frustrating dining experiences of my life. We had someone come around maybe twice to get drinks and refill our glasses...but we were there waiting for 2 hours for our pizzas. They really need to limit their capacity on sea days because that was frankly unacceptable. Also, when our pizzas were finally done, they gave me the wrong pizza.
• The layout of the ship was just a bit bad imo. I really only have experience with the Wish and the Dream/Fantasy, but I loved the open atrium as soon as you walked on board on those Disney ships. You would walk onto the ship and be in a large, open space and could easily disperse. The Majestic kind of just had you get off at the top level of the atrium. It was really weird and made the first day a chaotic mess. Also, the Catch blocked off a good portion of the top of the atrium and was a constant obstacle navigating the ship. Not a fan.
• Onboard activities. I get the clientele for Princess averages older, especially on an Alaskan cruise, but holy hell the activities were terrible. I think our 7 night cruise had 2 trivias. And most of the other activities were "our spa will cure your diabetes!" They had some good movies playing outside, I'll give them that. Maybe not a big deal on an Alaskan cruise where we were busy soaking in the scenery and going on excursions at every port.

Overall, it was a great trip. It felt pretty close to an all-inclusive experience and the price was very respectable. I don't regret going on the Majestic, but I also would probably avoid going on that particular ship again. And the lack of onboard activities make it practically a non-starter for us in the Caribbean. We're excited to try some more cruises outside of DCL eventually, but I'm excited for our cruise on the Magic in a few months.

Hello everyone. I am making this post because I wanted to get as many opinions as possible on this topic before taking this idea to a larger sample of Hellenists. I am a master's student of Religion Studies and have been a practitioner of Hellenic Polytheism. I am currently on track to hopefully becoming a university professor in the area of religion studies. Multiple professors are assisting me in creating my courses and curriculum regarding Hellenic Polytheism, and in the interest of better representing all of the practitioners in these courses and giving an accurate image of what being a Hellenic Polytheist is about, I wanted to see if you guys agreed with a conclusion that I have arrived to.
After a long time of reviewing articles, books, and other scholarly sources, and also looking at forums like this one in which many practitioners from varied forms take part, I concluded that there seems to be a correlation between how reconstructionist someone is and how much importance they attribute to the myths, also meaning that the more revivalist they are, the less importance they seem to attribute to the myths. I have noticed that there are certainly some exceptions to this conclusion. With this, I don’t mean that reconstructionists believe that all myths are true, but rather that they tend to attribute more value to the teachings that this delivers than people who are more on the revivalist side of our practice.
If you guys disagree, please feel free to elaborate in the comments since I am trying to be as representative as possible in my classes about our faith. This task can honestly be quite complicated with how diverse our practice can be in ideas.
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Hey guys I use the fx3. I’ve maybe shot a total of three hours of footage with it. And I feel like I’m always disheartened when I take it into davinci to edit. I shoot on iso 800 or 12800 because I hear these are best isos to shoot at for their high dynamic range. When shooting in slog3 I always have blown out highlights (from overexposing slog to avoid noise. Then I’ll still have noise in my shots. I have to be doing something wrong. Why can’t I get a clean image when shooting in broad daylight?

Found this beautiful guy today while I was walking. I live in western new york about an hour southeast of Buffalo and was very surprised to see this guy as I have never seen a garter snake with that coloration before. I was wondering if anyone had any info on this coloration, i.e. a subspecies of garter snake, rare color varient, etc. I know there's the red-sided garter snake but I couldn't really find a concrete range on it and the majority of images I saw had the red band more broken up rather than a continuous smooth line. Any information on this snake would be awesome! Thanks!
https://reddit.com/link/1dc01hv/video/cj9azztj6l5d1/player

Another great performance and maybe the best we saw in May. Great venue at the beach on a second floor open-air patio. Perfect weather. Band in top form. Crowd was into it even though I don't think most people knew who they were and were just there for some music and a few rooftop beers. The new songs are just getting better and better. A magical rock and roll night for sure. Georgie just knocked it out of the park all night long. Cherry already feels like an instant classic. Feel had a great groove. Desert Raven was insane—basically one massive crazy guitar jam. On and on it went. Overall a killer show. Big bad stage security dude strutting his authoritarian stuff yelled at me for snagging the setlist. "We don't touch anything on the stage," huffed he. Hilariously, Frank was still on stage, took the setlist from me, and immediately handed it back with a grin to make it official. Lovely chat with the band afterwards. They are delightful in every way. Crowning moment was a spontaneous hug from Will as we were leaving, which I will never forget. To get back the love we'd given in that unexpected way meant the absolute world to me. The guys get it. And it's why I love them like I've loved few other bands in this world.

Hello guys. I recently decided to create a Kickstarter campaign to physically make my manga.
I’ve already prepared videos, images, text and such for the campaign… I just have to send it to review.
But I’m not sure what I should do first. I feel like I might do pre-launch marketing (I also read some threads here about it) but the problem is… how?
I don’t have many followers on social medias, so I’m not sure how could I do it.
So any advice for a small artist like me? How can my campaign be successful without much help from our dear socials?
Thanks in advance to everyone who will spend their time even just reading this.

My hands are trembling to the point where I've had to restart this several times. I'm a guy who doesn't scare easily, but this encounter has me shaking like a hit dog. I'm still sitting in my work truck, trying to work up the courage to step outside again. Worse, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to tell my boss what happened. I was already on thin ice with him, and this shit might cause me to break through to the freezing water below.
But fuck it, because this was weird.
I install cable for a living. I didn't have dreams of stringing cable when I was a little kid, but my previous life choices left me with few options. In high school, I fell in with the wrong crowd. It started with skipping school, sneaking alcohol at weekend parties, and some petty theft, but it didn't stay that way for long. Soon, I dropped out and dedicated my life to committing robberies to pay for my pill addiction. I wasn't living as much as I was running on a treadmill. I did whatever I could to stay on my feet but constantly felt myself slipping.
My bottom came when I was jumped by two guys who sold me pills. I had bought from them before and trusted them, but the feeling was not mutual. Someone had dimed a buddy of theirs out to the police, and he was looking at real jail time. They assumed it was me and beat me senseless.
I was greeted at the door with a punch to the jaw that sent me reeling. My brain, already addled and slowed by Oxi, was in the middle of putting together what was happening when the next punch caught me in the temple. I collapsed to the ground and covered my neck and face as best as I could. The next few minutes were a flurry of punches, kicks, and stomps. When it was all over, I had a broken jaw, a shattered wrist, several wounds that required fifty total stitches, and a concussion.
That's how I kicked my painkiller addiction.
I can joke now, but the next six months were the hardest in my life. The withdrawals I had were the worst thing I've ever experienced. Having them while I was recuperating from my injuries was a circle of hell I didn't think existed. I wanted to die most days and felt lost in the darkness. But sobriety was the beacon on the horizon. Even during my darkest moments, I could still see the fuzzy spark of white light off in the distance. It kept me going. Six months from my beat-down day, I came out the other side healthier but weaker.
I needed a job but had limited skills. Thankfully, I had a former pill buddy who managed to keep steady employment with the cable company. We always got along, and he called in a few favors and hooked me up. I got hired, but it was a struggle. Not the work, which was easy to learn, but dealing with the public without telling them to fuck off. Worse, was trying to avoid the flood of illegal substances that are around you at all times. Customers will offer you weed or pills for all the channels, or bored co-workers will have something to "make the day pass by." It's a lot to dodge, especially if you're in recovery. Whenever I felt the itch again, I'd feel the scar tissue from my wrist surgery, and the itch would pass.
The last week has been one of those "Shit, is it Friday yet?" weeks that seem to be growing in frequency these days. I don't want to bore you with the details, but needless to say, most nights, I needed to reach out to my sponsor and have them talk me off the ledge. We recently had a turnover at the executive level, and my new boss Rory was a tremendous cock. A rager at levels science hasn't ever seen before. Just the worst dude imaginable.
Part of Rory's new crusade was coming in and firing a bunch of guys. The company called it "checking for redundancies in the labor force," but we all knew what it was. He was picking off two classes of people: high earners and guys with spotty pasts. I was in the latter group and imagined it was just a matter of time before my number got pulled. I was on pins and needles all week. I made sure I was the greatest cable installer you'd ever meet. So far, I was getting high marks but the forced joviality was wearing thin.
It's safe to say my joy had left on a one-way ticket. I have no clue when—or if—she'd return.
Back to this shit. I had just finished up my last job of the day when my work phone started buzzing. I cursed and thought about not answering, but the threat of unemployment loomed too large for me to do that. I picked up and knew from the jump my day was far from over. Denise from dispatch asked if I could cover a job left hanging because of "scheduling conflicts" (see: the original installer had been let go). It was near where I was and was a simple install.
I gritted my teeth and agreed. I liked Denise and knew she was worried about the hammer falling on her, too. She thanked me profusely, and promised to bring me cookies tomorrow. Since she's a hellcat in the kitchen and getting close to a dispatcher never hurts, I said no worries. I hung up, balled up my jacket, and screamed into it. I felt better after that.
981 Maple Street was about five minutes away, but it felt like a world away. Maple Street was at the end of the neighborhood where large swaths of grass fields faded into a thicket of woods. The woods rose up into the foothills until they graduated to mountains. To borrow a phrase from Shel Silverstein, the house resided where the sidewalk ends.
The house, an off-white birdhouse ranch type, was a little run-down but no worse than any of the others that populated this neighborhood. This place had been hit hard by economic times, and property values had plummeted. It was slowly recovering. In five years, this would be a place most current residents wouldn’t be able to afford. The front yard had a large oak tree that looked amazing but had killed the grass under its canopy. The rest of the yard looked well cared for.
I knocked and heard a few voices talking on the other side of the door. It opened, and a man in his late 40s stood there with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand. He was tall and thin, save for a middle-aged paunch. His face was starting to crinkle at the edges, but he was southern California middle-aged, which meant he was holding up pretty well. He did look tired, though—the bags under his eyes were full-on steamer trunks.
"You with the cable company?" he asked, knowing I was.
I nodded. "You requested an install, right?"
"Yes, I did. Please, come in."
He opened the door wide, and I walked in. The house was pretty bare with a bachelor pad aesthetic. That didn't make much sense since I heard a female voice talking to him. I assumed it was his wife. I believe in a lot of wild shit, but to think that a wife would be fine with their house decorated like a 23-year-old bachelor lived there was a bridge too far.
"I'm Tom," the guy said, extending his hand. I shook it. "What did you need from my end?"
"Do you know if there was a previous hookup here?"
"Ugh, yeah. There is one in this room and another in the back bedroom."
"Okay. I should put the modem in a spot that'll hit the whole house. The signal can get wonky if it's in a room behind a wall or bricks or anything."
"This room is probably the best spot then," he said.
"Perfect. I have to get under the house, check the old connections, and replace some parts. Where's your hatch to get under the house?"
"Oh, it's around back. You can exit out this side door and walk through the backyard. It's on the eastern side. You might need a screwdriver to remove the grate. Do you need one?"
I pulled a screwdriver from my pocket and showed him. "I should be good. Thank you, though."
"I should've guessed you'd have one."
"I appreciate your concern. Is there anything in the backyard I should be worried about? Dogs? Kids? Wild dogs? Wild kids?"
It was standard banter, and it always got a chuckle out of people. Same thing happened here. "Nothing to worry about," he said. "You should be good."
"Alright. I'll get started so you can get online as soon as possible."
"Great! If you need anything, I'll be doing some work in the back bedroom."
I nodded and headed for the side door. The dining room door led to the pie wedge-shaped backyard, which was larger in the back than the front made it look. The grass was as cooked as its kin in the front, but islands of green weeds seemed to be thriving. In the corner of the lot, an old metal shed stood, rusted to the point where I assumed divine intervention kept it standing. It seemed to have been there since the house had been built – or maybe several decades before.
When I turned the corner of the house, I spotted a woman and child staring into the corner of the yard, their backs facing me. The Woman wore a faded blue dress that fit her well. Tom had, it seemed, out-kicked his coverage with her. I didn't want to startle them, so I offered a friendly "hello" to the pair. The kid started to turn, but the mother placed a hand on their shoulder and kept their heads facing away from me. I squinted along the treeline, trying to see what they were concentrating on, but I didn't see anything unusual.
Just wanting to be done with the job, I let them be and moved on. I turned another corner to the house's short side and spotted the grate leading to the crawlspace. The grate looked as old as the shed, and I wasn't sure I would even need the screwdriver to open it. Hell, I was sure the thing would disintegrate in my hands as soon as I touched it.
I crouched and was about to pull it off when I heard something rustling near me. I glanced back to where I had seen the mom and kid, but they were gone. I assumed I had heard them leaving. I pulled the grate off – I was right, no screwdriver necessary – and as I set it aside, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye.
It was the kid. A boy around eight or so. But they weren't staring at me exactly. They were looking away from me, staring up at the roof line. I found it odd. Clearly, the kid wanted to talk to me but had turned their back on me. I coughed to let them know that I knew they were there, but they didn't respond.
"Hey man, what's up there?" I said.
"Nothing nice," he said, still keeping their gaze away from me.
"Oh," I said, "Not going to hurt me, is it?"
"Maybe," he said.
Not the answer I was expecting. "What is it?"
"They told me you'd know soon enough."
As he said that, I felt something crawling across my hand. I pulled my hand away from the house and shook it. I saw a spider land in a pile of leaves and scurry away. I let out a nervous laugh. I'm not scared of spiders or anything, but the shock of being told some unseen thing was watching me and didn't look pleased, coupled with the sensation of something on my skin, was enough to justify a quickened heartbeat.
I looked back at where the kid had been standing, but he was gone. I chalked it up to kids being little weirdos and went back to work. The faster I could get this installation done, the quicker I could go home and smoke a bowl. I let Kush be my guide. I put up my hood, turned on my small flashlight, and shimmied through the opening under the house.
I know guys who've worked for the company for years and still dread going into a crawl space. Granted, it's not my favorite thing to do, but I don't mind either. The bugs can be a nuisance but if you don't bother them, they tend to not bother you. Same with rats and mice. Raccoons, though? I crawl out and call animal control. Those little dudes are cute but nasty as all get out. My path today was nothing but cobwebs, so I was okay.
I flashed my light around and saw where the cable line went up into the living room floor. My job here was to ensure the coaxial line's integrity was still good. If it had been chewed on or anything, I'd replace it. Sometimes, I just replaced it anyway—saving myself a potential job later down the line.
I crawled over to where the line came in from the pedestal and started my once-over. I not only looked for any damage but also ran the line through my hands to make sure my eyes didn't miss anything. I was under the dining room area when I heard that side door close.
I stopped. Tom said something, but it was muffled. I wanted to be nosy, so I waited a beat to hear if anyone spoke back to him. Someone did. It was soft and quiet – I assumed it was the Boy – and I didn't make out what they asked, but I did hear Tom's response. In a firm voice, he said, "No, not right now. Run along."
There were footsteps over me that faded into another section of the home. Tom said, "He always wants to jump the gun. How many times do I have to tell him?"
I suppressed a laugh at the last line. It's the official father's lament. I kept moving my hand down the line and didn't feel nicks along the cable. In fact, on closer inspection, the line looked almost new. I was planning to change it, but this looked like it had been installed last week.
I could hear someone walk into the living room as I reached the spot where the line went through the house. Another pair of footsteps followed the first, and I heard a breathy but detached woman's voice ask, "Can we show our faces now?"
"I just told the boy 'no.' What makes you any different?" Tom said, an edge to his voice.
A chill raced through my body. I knew those words, but this conversation made me feel like I spoke another language. Can we show our faces? Why would you not?
"Do you think he'll see us?"
"If I have my way," he said, not finishing that thought. "Leave me be. I must try to get some things done before he leaves, and you two keep bothering me."
What did Tom mean to get some things done before I left? What did he have in mind? While trying to process all this, I heard something shuffle in the darkness just beyond my flashlight beam. I moved it around, trying to see the telltale glowing eyes of varmints, but nothing flashed back at me.
I heard something shuffling again, this time down by my feet. I cocked my head as best as I could and shone the flashlight into that corner of the house but, again, there wasn't anything else down here but me and a thousand spiders. I sighed and finished my inspection of the wire.
As I turned to crawl back out from under the house, I heard somebody sneaking around on the floor above me. The wood groaned as the person moved slowly. I wasn't sure what they were doing, but they wanted to keep it a secret. A shadow fell over the pinprick of light from where the cable went into the house. Someone was standing over it.
"Can you hear them down there? Moving in the dark?" It was the Boy. “They like the dark.”
"What are you saying?"
"The little shadows," he said, "They live down there. Do you hear them?"
This kid was creepy as hell. "I, ugh, I can't hear you, dude," I said, inching my body away from the wire, "We can talk inside."
"They're going to get you, but that's okay," he said, "It only hurts for a little bit, and then you're fine."
Fuck. That. I had no desire to respond to that nightmare of a statement. I hastened my inch-worming, heading back towards the open hatch. As I did, I heard more movement in the darkness around me. I tried to ignore it, but it was a fool's gambit. It was impossible to ignore.
I was getting closer to the opening when I saw a pair of tiny legs walk in front of the hatch. It was the Boy. How did he get there so quickly and without me hearing him run on the floor? I didn't have time to run through the scientific method because the Boy leaned down and placed the metal grate back over the hatch.
"Hey! Hey!" I yelled. "I'm still under here!"
The Boy didn't stop. Instead, he placed a trashcan in front of the grate, enshrouding the entire crawlspace in darkness and trapping me inside.
"Hey! I need you to move that!" I screamed. No response. I raised my fist as high as possible and punched the floor above me to hopefully get Tom’s attention. That was a mistake, as I managed to punch straight into an old nail. I felt it puncture in between my knuckles. The pain was instant, and I let out a howl.
I shook my hand and swore a blue streak. I reached up with my other hand, felt the tip of the nail I had managed to punch, and found a flat spot next to it. I banged hard on the floor and yelled again for some help. Nobody responded. Not at first.
Then I heard someone chuckle under the house.
I couldn't locate where it had come from because it sounded like it was all around me. I swung my light around as best as I could but didn't see anything. No glowing eyes, nothing. I inched forward a bit, and someone laughed again – this time, it was to my right. I turned my light in that direction and saw a sudden flood of light fill the space under the house.
"What the hell?" I said, my desire to leave overtaken by a desire to know what was unfolding next to me.
A pair of kid legs dropped down from the hole in the floor. I realized then that the hole must be an interior crawlspace. The kid had blocked off the metal grate and opened this hatch for some reason. While he dropped his legs down, he didn't move any further.
"Hey, you have to open that metal grate," I yelled. "I don't want to be trapped down here."
"They told me they needed you," he said, followed by a slight chuckle.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" I said, not caring that I was talking to a child. "Open the goddamn grate!"
"The shadows are approaching," he said, pulling himself back into the house. He placed the lid back on the hole, and I was trapped in the dark again. I cursed to myself and started pounding on the floor again.
"Hey! Someone come help me!"
That's when I felt something run across my legs. I nearly jumped out of my skin. It didn't feel like the tiny claws of a passing rat. It was cold to the touch, but as it hit my skin, I felt a burn in my bones. It's hard to explain, but I felt both extremes simultaneously. Whatever it was skittered off into the darkness of the other side of the crawl space.
The kid started laughing again, which brought me back to reality. I army crawled as fast as I could to the grate. I balled up my fist and punched in the middle of the metal. The blow knocked the old nails out of the wall, and the grate broke up. I was about to push away the garbage can when it suddenly wheeled out of the way.
I saw Tom's legs standing there.
"You okay?" he asked, concern in his voice.
I got out from under the house so fast that I left a me-sized dirt cloud in my place. Once out, I shook my body loose as if I had things crawling all over me. Tom watched but didn't say anything at first. We finally locked eyes, and he could see the rage, fear, and confusion on my face. He wisely waited until I spoke first.
"What the hell is wrong with your kid? He blocked me under there and taunted me from the indoor crawlspace."
"What are you talking about?"
"He told me the shadow people or something were watching, and then he blocked me under the house!"
Tom's face twisted up into confusion. "I...I don't understand."
"I can't make it any simpler, Tom!" I screamed, letting unprofessionalism take root.
"I don't have a kid."
It hit me like an Ali right cross. My vision got dizzy, and I struggled to catch my breath. I stared at his face, looking for the sign of a lie or a joke, but he was as stone-faced as an Easter Island statue. After a beat, I found my sense again. "I heard you talking to him in the living room when I was under the house."
"One, I was on a phone call. Two, are you spying on me? What the hell, man?"
"I wasn't spying, and you weren't on the phone," I said. I also heard you talking to your wife. She asked you if she could show her face or something."
"I don't have a wife either."
I shook my head. "I fucking saw them in the backyard! They were staring at the fence!"
Tom paused and cocked his head to the side. When he spoke, it was softly, trying to calm me down. "Are you...did you have a few drinks before the appointment? Or a pill or something? No judging – I know pill heads. I won't report you or anything, but I understand if you need to come back tomorrow with a clearer head."
"I'm sober," I said, gritting my teeth. "But I know what I saw. What I heard."
"As the tree said to the lumberjack, I'm stumped," Tom said. "You look a little flush. You want a bottle of water or something? I can show you I'm here all alone."
My adrenaline had seeped out of my body, and I was starting to feel like myself again. I nodded at Tom, and he smiled. "I'll go grab you one. Do you want to come into the AC?"
"No, I'm okay. I need to double-check the connection to the pedestal."
"Sure. Be bright back," Tom said as he walked off.
But I had no intention of checking the connections. I was going to check on Tom. I didn't believe him at all. Something weird was going on, and I needed to know what. As soon as he turned the corner around the house, I broke out my flashlight and headed back to the crawlspace.
I dropped to the ground and shone my beam into the darkness. Something had crawled on me, and I wanted to see what it was. I moved my light into every section of the crawlspace but saw no eyes glowing back at me.
"If you're under there, call back."
There was nothing. I was starting to feel like a paranoid idiot. I called out once again just to be sure, but again, nothing called back. I shut off my light and sighed. I started pushing myself back to my feet when I heard a faint woman's voice call out, "Can we show our faces now?"
"Not yet," someone hissed from the trees above me. I snapped my head up, expecting to see someone hanging on a branch over my head, but I just saw green leaves.
"Can we show our faces now?" It was the Boy. It sounded like he was on the roof. I shielded my eyes and glanced at the roof but didn't see him.
"No. He's not ready yet," someone whispered in my ear. I snapped around, throwing a punch as I did, only to slam my fist into the fence. I felt one of my knuckles crack as it hit the wood, and the pain shot up my arm like lightning. Within seconds, my hand started to puff up, and blood dripped out the wounds.
The Boy chuckled again. It came from under the house. I looked down at the grate and saw his legs disappear into the darkness.
"Hey!" I called and dropped to the ground. I pulled out my flashlight and shone into the darkness again. I was confident I'd see him, but he wasn't there. Nobody was.
I sat up and felt goosebumps turn my arms into braille. I glanced over to the corner of the house and was surprised to see the disappearing hemline of the faded blue dress. I rushed over to the corner and didn't see the Woman. I saw Tom with a bottle of water.
"You okay?"
"Where did that woman go?" I asked, my voice panicking. "She was just here."
"Sir, do you need me to call your boss for you? You're starting to scare me."
"What's up with this house? Is it haunted?"
Tom started laughing. "I hope not. I just moved in. I'd hate to have roommates again, especially ones who leave ectoplasm all over the place."
As I stared at him, I saw the Woman and the Boy emerge from the other corner of the house. They looked up on the roof, their faces obscured by their hands and the sun. I pointed a finger at them and screamed, "They're right there!"
Tom spun around and looked, but there wasn't anything there. He turned back to me, not sure what to say. Instead, he handed me the bottle of water. "I gotta be honest. I didn't see anything. Drink the water...you might have heat stroke."
I threw the bottle on the ground. "I don't have fucking heat stroke. I have a man that's lying about these things." I got close to him. "What did you have planned for me? Why do they keep asking to show their faces?"
"I don't," he said, but I didn't stay to hear him finish his thought. I walked right past him and turned the corner of the house. As I did, I saw the blue hem disappear through the door that led to the kitchen. I followed right behind her.
I walked into the house, which was as silent as a corpse. The Woman and Boy were nowhere to be seen. "Hello?" I called out. "I just saw you guys walk in here. Where are you?"
The door behind me opened up. Tom walked in, his face reddening with anger. "You can't just walk into my house."
"I saw them walk in. Where are they?"
"I keep telling you, it's just me and you here. Now, if you want to finish your work…."
I walked away from him and headed toward the bedroom where I had seen the Boy standing. I wanted to check that crawl space. The room was empty, not even a moving box in there, so finding the hatch that led under the house was easy. I went into the closet and pried the hatch open.
Tom entered the room behind me, more confused now than angry. "I don't want a line run through here."
"The Boy was standing in this spot. I saw his legs. I spoke to him. He told me the shadows needed me for something." I glared down into the darkness under the house. Despite Tom's feigned declarations that there wasn't another person in the house, I knew he wasn't being honest.
"Okay, I'm pretty sure you're back on pills and in the middle of a delusion," he said.
"How did you know I had a pill addiction?"
"The way you're acting, it wasn't a hard guess."
"I'm sober, but I did have a problem with pills. I never told you. I don't tell anyone."
Tom stood there, confused about how to answer. I stood up and stared him down. He looked away, but I didn't move my gaze. "Who are you? Who put you up to this? Was it Rory? He trying to get me fired?"
Tom's shoulders sagged. "You got me," he said. "Rory hired me to get you in trouble. I'm... I'm sorry. He offered me free cable for a year and assured me you were a bad guy and, well…. I'm weak."
"That's really fuc…," I stopped. "You're lying. Right now. You're lying. Why?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something dash past the open crawlspace hatch. I turned to the hatch opening and then back to Tom.
"Are you trying to stop me from looking in there?"
He didn't respond.
"What's under there?"
"He is," he said. "The Boy. He hides under there all the time. He has...friends down there."
"The shadow people?"
Tom shrugged, "What he calls them. I call them a menace. Impossible to get my work done with them causing a racket."
"What work?"
"Things you'd never understand in a million years," he said, "Things beyond your brain's capacity to imagine. Things that will help usher in a new world. Your kind's time is coming to a close. My work represents the new order."
I stared at him. I wasn't sure if I should run away or punch his lights out. Instead, I just spat out, "Bro, what the fuck?"
"Can we show our faces now?" the Boy called out from under the house.
I looked down at the hatch and then back at Tom. He nodded toward the opening. "Do you want to see your future?"
"Fuck it," I said. I got down, grabbed the sides of the opening, and lowered my head under the house.
I kept my eyes closed for a second, assuming I'd either see something horrifying or something would hit me in the face. When nothing struck me, I opened my eyes. It was dark, and I couldn't make out anything.
"There's nothing under here," I said.
"Can we show our faces now?" said the Boy from somewhere under the house.
"Show him," Tom said.
I sat back up, grabbed my flashlight from my pocket, and flipped it on. I looked at Tom, "If you try anything, so help me, God."
Tom just smiled. I looked back down at the hatch and sighed. I was suddenly hit with a bolt of common sense. What was I doing? My internal alarms were going off and I was ignoring them. Curiosity had gotten me this far, but my fight instincts were starting to lose to my flight. No job was worth this.
"Man, fuck this," I said, reversing course and standing. I turned to confront Tom, but he was gone. I hadn't heard him leave, but there wasn't a trace of him there. "Tom? Where the hell are you?"
He didn't respond, and I decided that I had hit my "weird shit" quota for the day. I closed the closet door and headed back into the living room to grab my gear. I'd call dispatch and tell them someone else had to come out and finish the….
The wood floor cracked, splintered, and gave way when I put my weight on it. I fell through the floor and landed with a thud on the dirt in the crawl space. On the way down, I hit my ribs on a crossbeam and heard them crack and knock the wind out of me. As I lay on the dirt, writhing in pain, my lungs did their damnedest to find a breath. It couldn't, and my vision started to blur at the edges. For a fleeting few seconds, I envisioned my death on a dirty crawlspace floor. It wasn’t comforting.
I rolled onto my back and finally took in a massive gulp of life-saving air. The blurring vision subsided, and all that remained was the aching pain of a busted rib. My muscles around my rib cage spasmed and pulled tight against my lungs. After the initial big breath, I could only take shallow gulps because the pain was searing.
I lay there for a few seconds, collecting my thoughts, when I felt something skitter across my legs again. I kicked out of instinct but didn't hit anything. Instead, I heard the chuckling again. My flashlight had fallen out of my hand. I found it and turned it on.
This time, I did see something. Pairs of eyes—dozens of them—watched me from the darkness that surrounded me. These weren't possums or rats. I never hoped to find a raccoon under the house more than I did at that moment. I knew whatever these things were, they weren't natural and they wanted to harm me.
"Still want to know what they plan to do to you?" the Boy asked from behind me.
I turned around and shone the light where I heard the voice. The Boy was lying on his stomach, his face looking down at the ground. All I could see at the moment was the top of his head.
"Wha-what's going on?" I said, the light bouncing from my trembling hand.
"I can show you my face now," he said. He raised his head and….
The Boy didn't have a face.
He had the space for a face, but there were no features whatsoever—nothing but pale pink skin pulled tight across the front of his head. At that moment, the image of a wooden art figure came to me.
“What the ever-loving fuck?"
"Want to see something really scary?" the Boy said, his lack of a mouth not stopping him from speaking. He raised himself onto the tips of his fingers and toes and started skittering toward me, laughing as he did.
I clambered out of the crawlspace as fast as my battered body could carry me. I got out of the hole and onto my feet and let out an ear-splitting scream.
The Woman in the blue dress was standing next to the hole in the floor. Like the Boy, she didn't have a face either. But I could feel her eyes on me. Looking into my mind. Into my soul. She stepped toward me, and I bolted for the front door.
I whipped it open and was greeted by Tom standing there, blocking me. He grinned. "Leaving so soon?"
"What the hell is going on?" I asked, checking behind me to see if the Woman was still coming toward me. She was, and she was gaining quickly.
"Can we show our faces now?" he asked with a laugh.
I turned back to Tom and nearly had a heart attack. His face was gone. I could feel my heart beating in my ears. My legs were jelly, but I kept myself propped up. The human desire to survive can perform miracles.
Tom reached out and pointed at a spot on the far side of the living room wall. I turned and saw three skinned human faces hanging from old nails: a man, a woman, and a boy.
"You're turn to join us," Tom whispered. But the voice wasn't said out loud. It came from inside my own head. "We can always use another body around here."
My brain clicked into action and sent an all-points bulletin to my limbs. The message was simple and actionable – "Get the fuck going, you dope."
I felt my hand ball into a fist and spun. It landed where Tom's nose would've been. It should've knocked him back, causing him to stumble and giving me time to run. But that didn't happen. Instead, his face pulled apart, letting my fist slide right through. It closed on my arm, trapping me.
I yanked and yanked, but my arm would not dislodge from his face. I glanced back and saw the Woman nearly next to me. The Boy was climbing out of the hole, moving like a cockroach. I looked back at the wall and saw Tom's hanging face silently laughing.
Something about those silent laughs cut me to my core. They were laughing because Tom thought he had outsmarted me. He had beat me. That my face would soon be hanging on the wall next to theirs. I wasn't going to let that happen.
I saw a loose brick on the walkway, and a plan flashed in my mind. I yanked hard, sending Tom stuttering forward enough for me to wrap my finger around the brick. I brought it up and sent it towards his face. As expected, the face parted again, and the brick flew through easily.
But as soon as the face curtains pulled aside, I yanked my arm free. With my limb free, I took off in a mad sprint for my truck. I got inside and fumbled my keys as I tried to start the engine. Tom, the Woman, and the Boy stood together at the front door and watched as I got the van going and rocketed down the street.
I drove like a madman for ten minutes, trying to put as much space between me and the house as possible. I finally stopped at a gas station to collect my thoughts. I was jittery, and my mind was swimming, but I was also relieved. I had gotten out.
I collected myself and called Denise to tell her I couldn't finish the installation at 981 Maple Street. I was going to suggest we cancel the order and not send another installer there. That's when the conversation took a turn I wasn't expecting.
"Where have you been? You were supposed to be off an hour ago," Denise said when I called her.
"I was trying to finish the install at 981 Maple, the one you sent me to."
"I didn't send you anywhere," she said. "With how insane Rory is being about overtime hours, I'm trying to keep everyone below the threshold."
"What are you talking about? You called and asked me. You don't remember," I said, a bad feeling growing in the pit of my stomach.
She gave me a nervous chuckle, "I swear I didn't. Are you feeling okay? You gotta come back. People are waiting for the van."
"I can prove it. I have a record of you calling me on my phone," I said. I opened my call log, and my jaw dropped. There was no call from Denise. She was telling me the truth. But if she didn't call me, who did?
"Rory wants to talk to you when you get in. I wouldn't mess around, he seems pissed" she said before hanging up.
I haven't moved since. I wanted to write this down because I felt like it needed to be recorded. Something supremely fucked up is happening at 981 Maple Street. It nearly got me. It still might. To think, on any other typical day, a surprise conversation with my boss would be the scariest thing that could happen to me. Funny how seeing a faceless ghoul can prioritize your problems. If you're hired to do work there, turn it down. Trust me, it's not worth it.
"Can we show our faces now?" they asked. "Fuck no," should be the only response.

Hey guys, I don't know where to start and frankly, I am lost, so I am here hoping to get some advice.
Quick background: I grew up in an East Asian country and moved to a Western country when I turned 21.
I am getting married and I have two maids of honor, one from the country I grew up in and one from where I live now. I am having my wedding in the country I grew up in, so the situation made sense.
Fast forward, I had my bachelorette party in the country I reside in, and my maid of honor who still lives in the country I grew up in [I will call her Asian Maid of Honor from here to make it less confusing] came all the way to celebrate my bachelorette. She is staying with me, which I was excited about because the last time we spent this much time together was when we were 20.
I was really grateful that she came all the way, but there were some issues I noticed that made me question if I even want her as my friend any longer.
Firstly, she kept making negative comments about the theme of the party mainly because it is something she wouldn't do. I mentioned multiple times that this is my bachelorette, but she constantly made nasty comments. At the same time, she followed what was asked and dressed up as required but kept making unpleasant comments about everything, which really bugged me.
Secondly, I warned her that this is a different country, so the rules and regulations work differently. Where I live, they are stricter when it comes to drinking and being drunk, unlike the country I grew up in, where they keep serving alcohol until you pass out on the floor. I already warned her that because there will be 14+ other guests at my bachelorette, I won't be able to mother her all the time, so she really needs to be more mindful as I can't take care of her 24/7. She got a little overexcited, got wasted, and managed to disappear in a country where she can barely communicate, which resulted in ruining my bachelorette night because I had to call everywhere trying to find out where she disappeared to. But there are more stories related to this which will make sense with the other point.
What really annoyed me the most, and made me question everything, was this final issue. We grew up and spent our late teens and early twenties together, where our society was quite different and we were taught to act a certain way, believing that getting attention from men is everything. However, I noticed that she hasn't grown up a bit since I left the country, whereas I feel like I have matured much more and my perspective has changed. Essentially, she was allowing creepy people who approached the bachelorette with wrong intentions to do anything and kept inviting random groups of strangers who clearly had weird intentions to our table. I told her multiple times that my other friends expressed that they were uncomfortable because most of them have spouses and are not interested in talking to these men, and most importantly, they are here to celebrate my bachelorette, not to talk to random groups of men with weird intentions, treating this as some sort of matchmaking show. Not to mention, every group she dragged to our table was pretty much harassing my friends. There were two guys from different groups who kept touching my Asian maid of honor inappropriately in a public space to the point that a patron at the bar raised it to the bartender, and apparently my Asian maid of honor said it was okay and sent the security away. Essentially, the reason why she "disappeared" was because she decided to leave the group and follow one of those strangers. It's her body and her choice, but firstly, she has a spouse herself, and each time I raised a concern and communicated that I was uncomfortable with her bringing these random people to our table, she said, "What is the problem? These men are trying to be nice and offer us free drinks," where I told her multiple times, this is not the right occasion and not the right time. I told her if she wants to go out and "make friends," she can do it on her personal trip and personal time, but this is my bachelorette and I would much prefer her to just enjoy the company and stop adding random strangers.
Also, I was told pretty rude things by her boyfriend when he discovered that I was not with her at the end of the night because she flew all the way and I was supposed to take care of her.
Fast forward to this morning, I confronted my friend and had a chat about how upset I was with her behavior. At first, she said it was unfair how I was upset with her because she was drunk and I also did stupid things because I was drunk, such as leaving her behind resulting in missing her (which started another whole argument because SHE SNEAKED OUT TO FOLLOW THIS MEN that no one knew she was gone until we were heading home). Then she said it was unfair because she was just excited for my bachelorette, so all the choices she made were because she was feeling happy for me and wanted to "enjoy the vibe" and because we don't have something like bachelorette parties where we grew up, she didn't take it seriously and thought it was just one of those girls' nights out where we can just have fun. And with the bringing creepy dudes and following one and disappearing, she simply said, "She does not remember, hence it didn't happen." Then when I told her there were so many complaints about her because of it, she said, "It is simply a different cultural background, so my friends from here just do not understand her," which I told her was not the case as there were some friends who grew up in the same cultural background and moved to this country only after their twenties. Then when I told her her boyfriend is no longer invited to my wedding because he was unreasonably rude, especially since we only met twice and he decided it was okay to speak to me the way he did last night, she said she understands where I am coming from but I am being unreasonable and am not respecting her man who was simply trying to make sure she is safe.
Then when I went over all the details of why I am not okay with her "excuses," she then decided to cry and said, "I really didn't know what I was doing was wrong and didn't know bachelorette parties were this important, I just thought it was just a simple girls' night and just wanted to have fun, but now I am upset that I have ruined your night," and just kept sobbing all day.
I told her that I really am sorry to make her upset, but I just wanted to communicate because I do not want her to behave this way at my wedding, especially at my wedding reception where the majority of guests that came to the bachelorette will be there, and she really needs to get her act together. Also, today was her last day in this country, so I don't want this (her sobbing and me confronting) to be her last memory, so if we can go out and refresh and reassess our feelings because she still is an important friend and I do value our friendship. Then she said she needs time to think, came back in 3 hours, which I later found out she went to "hang out" with one of the strangers she met online while she was here, which apparently is not a dating app, which didn't add up, but I decided not to question as I am pretty much done at this point and simply it is not my business.
I am just a bit confused as I never noticed this before, but then again it normally was me, her, and another friend hanging out without alcohol involved where she never acted this way, or we would hang out as a couple (as her then boyfriend, me and my fiance). Also, I have only seen her three times since I moved to the new country, so I don't know if my perspective has changed, or if she was always this type of person, I don't know.
I am just really upset as person that I invited to be part of my special day became the cause of ruining my special day, and no I am just questioning everything about the friendship and if I even want to remain friends because I really don't understand her and her behaviours. I am confused because I feel like she is complete stranger, not the friend I thought I knew or I thought I was friends with, and am just lost because she was my best friend for so long and I just dont feel the connection anymore.
Am I overthinking? What do I do in this situation? I am just incredibly lost. Help!

I saw that OP deleted the original and I couldn't find a full image anywhere so I found a live stream from one shot questers and transcribed it. I felt like this needed to be archived for continued discussion and education:

1. I'm timing turns. I don't give a fuck if it's unfair in your opinion cause your spells are hard or you don't know what square to move to, you get 1 minute to know all the actions you want to take or I skip your turn.
2. If you want harder fights, bring a second character sheet and expect to twiddle your thumbs when you die. I'm not going to baby anyone.
3. If you call me or my rolls unfair, I'll get up and go home, and if you got a ride with me you can find your own way back and suck it up.
4. I'm going to take your characters loot away as regularly as you want it given out. Rule 3 will apply here.
5. If you don't act out any of your persuasion or intimidation or any other social checks you fail, before you even roll. You fail immediately because you aren't even trying and you're making the game lame for everyone else.
6. If you don't pick up cues for "side quests" that's not my problem. Get over yourself, it's not a video game, it's a role playing pen and paper based game with miniatures. I'm not holding your hand if you choose not to pursue shit.
7. If you move to a square in combat there's no take backs.
8. You tell every single person what you're doing before you do it. You don't fucking roll dice and then say you're casting fireball. You tell us all.
9. I will give out exhaustion more frequently. If you argue, go home or you can actually fight me over it or you can dm yourself.
10. Every snide comment you make to an npc will be remembered and paid back in triplicate. You all seem to believe there is little consequence.
11. You will not be given a mega dungeon every session. A temple is not the size of a small city, neither is a cave. This shit will happen when it's natural and organic. Go play some roguelike if you want that.
12. The travel portion is done. You wanna travel continents doing literally whatever you want whenever you want? Go play world of Warcraft or play dnd with AI.
13. If you're late with no good reason I'm going to halve your characters hit points for the entire session.
14. If you don't show up for no good reason, and that will be determined by me alone if no one else has the guts to say shit for fear of upsetting one another, the first time you'll find yourself losing either a whole level or up to three major items of your own. The second time you do it in a row, you'll be removed from the chat and the group full stop. I have no fucking time for people to not show up.
15. If you get too stoned or drunk to play, I will go home without a warning. Your warning is here.
16. If you get up for bong or smoke or whatever breaks every 10 minutes I will simply pack up and go home. I'm sick of waiting for every bloke to be at the table.
17. Guidance, divination spells, owls and whatever spells I decide are too fucking stupid are banned. Outright. No more fucking guidance.
18. You get one chance at a skill check. If you fuck up, your party doesn't get their chance to do the same check. Think careful who's good at what.
19. Discussion of meta game details in game will result in instant damage to your character
20. Rules lawyering fellow players is encouraged. "Uhm Ackchtually"ing me will just result in me telling you to fuck off.
21. You roll your dice within view of two players who aren't you standard. You roll them neatly and you roll them on the table. Failing to do these three things will auto fail whatever roll you did. Arguing that you actually rolled validly when you clearly didn't is an automatic critical fail.
22. Instant death traps and mechanics are coming into place. If you call these things unfair moving forward, I will laugh at you and tell you to fuck off and cry some more.
23. I will not give you random magical items and vendors will not stock them. They are meant to be rare and hard to acquire.
24. Random encounters in the form of random dragons or strange mysterious road trader or a band of goblin prostitutes isn't going to happen. Go play baldurs gate 3.
25. I don't give two fucks what reddit said about x or y ruling.
26. I actually give less of a fuck about what your mate's and group did
27. Saying anything to me about other players not liking me doing x or y without them saying it directly to me will result in me kicking you out of the group. Don't use someone else to push your own agenda.
28. You're not to sit down and have a two hour discussion about what Samson from Bundoora secondary did three weeks ago when you come to play. Take the 15-20 minutes I use to set up and review my notes to talk to eachother, then sit down to play.
29. Saying Shit like "guys come on we're not here to have fun we're here to play dnd, this is serious business" is rude and dismissive of how much work I put into this. I will simply go home if I hear this shit.
30. Don't fucking order food randomly. We will eat together at a specific time or not at all. I don't want food shit all over my things.
31. No food or drinks near any of my dnd gear. If you wreck something you can pay for it. I let one person trash my dm screen once and I never had it replaced by them. In fact I had that person attempt to gaslight me into believing they didn't wreck my shit at all. I'm not stupid, you're an adult. Accept responsibility.
32. Arguments between party members outside of roleplay will be resolved by me giving the definite ruling. If you don't like it, fuck off back home.
33. I don't give a fuck what they did in critical role or what that one guy on reddit said or if you think that it's all make believe so you can do what you want. The world I run works on internal rulings and lore I created specifically for it.
34. Every single person in this chat is having debuffs applied to their characters that should have occurred a long time ago. This will be specific to characters.
35. If you don't bring your sheet, you don't play.
36. If you don't bring dice, borrow some.
37. When we play dnd I'm not your friend. That doesn't mean you treat me like an enemy during the game. It means I'm no longer "being nice".
38. If you treat me poorly in any way shape or form after or during or before the game due to something that happened in the game, you're out. If you cannot seperate a game from reality, I think you are a fucking moron, and I have little time to deal with that energy.
39. You will submit your spellists daily (in game). If you do not give me a spell list each in game day, you will not be allowed to cast a single spell or cantrip in combat. I do not trust you guys to not use this against me.
40. If you do not mark off spell slots or you say something like "I remember what I'm at" as a way to justify it, I will simply fail your spell, deal half your health in damage to you and say you have no spells to cast for the rest of the day.
41. If you break literally anything you can buy the replacement that day or not attend till you do.
42. If you complain about the choice of music I fully expect you to bring the whole playlist the next session or to shut the fuck up.
43. Cannot stress enough how little I care about how you feel about my rulings from now on.

Oh and rule 44. I'm never just threatening you. I'm promising you.
Here's a link to the original post:
https://www.reddit.com/dndhorrorstories/comments/1d0a0ho/my_dm_laid_out_the_44_rules_for_dnd/

So I'm not a professional game critic, but I am a person with thoughts after spending the weekend taking advantage of the opportunity to play TopSpin for free on the XBOX Series S, and Reddit seems like a pretty appropriate place to verbalise them.
Note: I haven't interacted with the online game modes, so all of my thoughts and opinions are based around my experience with the offline career mode. Full 3-set matches.
Gameplay
Truthfully, I'm hooked. The controls were never going to be too complex given the nature of the game, but the pick-up-and-play factor is off the charts for me right now. As I stated before, I'm currently playing through a career mode based around full-length matches and I've found myself enjoyably playing through matches that are at least 30-40 minutes long. The timing system is one that's easily learnt and mastered, but equally as easy to get wrong should you lose focus. Truthfully, that feels like the core mechanics of actual tennis to me. It's made for equally enjoyable and frustrating rallies and experiences, and they generally fall on the favourable side.
The serving mechanic is a little more complex, it's hard for my tiny little brain to negotiate using both thumbsticks simultaneously in an effective way, but serving at full power into my opponents forehand seems to work pretty effectively without ever really having a chance of an ace, which I'm fine with at this early stage.
I have occasionally noticed a few things that seem to be more glitches within the gameplay as opposed to user error such as second serves being much more effective against me than I'd like, and my player occasionally leaving a ball that I definitely deem to be reachable, but those moments happen so few and far between that they're more something that I would hope to be cleaned up in future patches than I would think of as gamebreaking glitches.
Overall, I'm a big fan of the gameplay TopSpin has to offer, and I do think it's far better than anything we've gotten in a tennis game for a long, long time.
Graphics
This is a bit of a weird one. Some of the players in the game are perfect lifelike representations of themselves, and then you have Alcaraz who looks like he had his character model designed by the latest intern 2K decided to take on. It really makes no sense to me that there's such a disparity.
Also, some of the characters (both licenced and unlicenced) look a little too cartoony for my liking. Some of them have really exaggerated features, and some others look like they belong in the best-looking video game you've ever seen.
Outside of the players, everything else looks gorgeous. The courts, the tournament-specific graphics - all of it. Overall it makes for a mixed bag, but if I told you TopSpin looked like a bad game, I'd probably be lying.
Career Mode
So this is my space to talk about the content within Career Mode itself, because coming from a guy who's been playing sports games since before online competitive gaming was really a common thing, single player modes are my favourite way to spend most of my time.
Truthfully, I've again been impressed with the content in TopSpin's CM. The schedule feels fleshed out with a mix of licenced and unlicenced tournaments every month, there's seasonal rankings that show the best players on each individual surface throughout a season, and the minigames/challenges method of gaining XP & VC is a nice touch that just has you spending even more time playing the game.
Speaking of XP, player progression is something that I've found to be extremely positive. Having started on Hard difficulty, I'm already almost a LVL 6 player having just completed my fourth tournament, which was also my first tournament won. There's a boost available for purchase if you want to get to LVL 10 instantly, but I thought I'd see how the grind was and I've been pleasantly surprised. You can earn points to purchase XP boosts without spending real money, and even on Hard difficulty I've found that I can at least be competitive if not always 100% successful against the AI at the lower end of the rankings. I know my opinion might change once I find out how difficult it is against the very top players or how much is required to gain levels the more I progress, but as for right now I'm happy with the speed of the grind.
I like that they included Coaches to the mode as a nice little realism touch, and they do give some nice boosts - but I do wish the experience was a little more fleshed out. I wish there was a cutscene or two of my player with their coach during training, and even during matches, maybe some sort of communication between us that felt semi-realistic. It all just feels very meh, and that's a bit of a shame. Still though, it's not entirely awful either.
From a purely aesthetic POV, it's nice that you can customise almost everything about the way your players look is put together, from racquet to kitbag, and there's a plethora of options available in every area. That was always going to be the case, but with 2K being such a global brand that have the finances to secure the necessary major licences, the options are there and they're appreciated.
Overall, if you like tennis then I think you'll enjoy TopSpin's Career Mode offering. I can eventually see the limited selection of real-world players and cycle of tournaments becoming repetitive once you become an established player at the top for a number of seasons, but that seems so far away at the moment that I only really have minor negative comments to make about my experience to date.
Microtransactions
It's a 2K game, of course there's a section about mictrotransactions. But the truth is, I don't think they're too bad in this particular game. Of course the option is there to spend money on XP boosts if you're not willing to level up with hard work, and you can have every cosmetic item in the game if your heart really desired it - but they all feel like nice optional extras.
I did pay the £8.99 for this Premium version of the Pro Pass, but beyond that I haven't felt compelled to spend anything else. There's a plethora of items available in the pass, you get in-game currency to spend on cosmetics just by playing the game and there's even a few unlockables within career mode itself completely for free.
Now, whether or not a fair and balanced system between money spent and being free-to-play means that 2K continue to invest time and effort into something that doesn't make them as much money as something else remains to be seen, but as the player base I feel like we don't really have much to complain about.
Roster
This was probably my biggest concern going into the game, and honestly it is disappointing. I completely understand the cost of licencing and image rights is a huge factor in why there isn't a roster of hundreds, but it's still underwhelming to enter the player selection screen and see so few options. I feel like even if they'd licenced ten or so lower-ranked players from each of the tours, it would have made such a huge difference in both single-player and career mode.
I believe I have seen rumours of players being added into the future and it is exciting to think that could be the case, but as it stands right now I wish they'd done slightly better off the jump. Moreso, I don't think I've seen any of the legends in the game included in the career mode a bit like Fight Night used to do with their game way back when, and even that would've been a nice touch to keep things feeling fresher than I fear they're going to.
Game Modes
Another slight negative in my opinion. Discounting the training centre, you pretty much have 3 options: Career Mode, Online & Single Player. I personally can't see me playing single player outside of career mode unless it's with a friend, and even then it's a bit of a long game to jump in and play for a bit of fun.
My biggest wish for a game like this would be some kind of Ultimate Team mode, which I think could easily be implemented given the amount of team-based tournaments that exist within the world of tennis. I think that would be the absolute best way of making the game enjoyable long-term, and also probably the best way for 2K to make money from their product. Imagine adding a card with Swiatek's signature or a dynamic of McEnroe's famous outburst to your collection, the possibilities are plentiful. Seems like a missed opportunity.
Failing that, I would enjoy some kind of offline minigames that you could play instead of full-length matches against a friend. Just a quick, fun, pick-up-and-play option.
The options are there for those who enjoy online play or trying to become the best in the world in a single-player career, but they can and probably should have gone much harder with the variety of options they made available.
UI
A mix of aesthetics and importance in terms of being easy to navigate, I had to give a mention to 2K for how the in-game menu is designed. There are a lot of different game areas, and the tiles are all laid out in a way that looks fantastic while also making the menus very easy to move around.
Also, the soundtrack is great. It's made up entirely of up-tempo, high energy music that fits the tennis theme incredibly well. Whoever was in charge of this stuff did an absolutely incredible job.
Summary
Overall, I've been pleasantly surprised by my TopSpin experience this weekend. I know you shouldn't ever take anything you read on here as Gospel, but having seen such negativity surrounding the game I really didn't go into the game with any expectations.
Having played for a few days, I highly recommend it to anybody who likes tennis and wants a video game to pick up and play for a little bit whenever they feel the urge. I'm looking forward to playing online a little at some point, and I'll probably be on the virtual tennis courts for at least the next couple of weeks having purchased the full copy.
Now after spending the last hour of my life writing up this review, I have an itch that only dominating the Occitania Open can scratch.
Yours, the 2024 Turtle City Cup champion.

I’ll begin: Amitha: yes we understand Jobin is yours, nobody is trying to steal him from you. So kindly pls do not reveal intimate and personal moments in social media to show how much you own your hubby
Ahaana: will you pls stop with the protruding of your eyes and lips? We get it you are trying to be the wannabe “most desirable woman”, but it’s not working out darling!
Diya: Oh how I wish I were half as beautiful and successful as you 😉. Ok jokes aside….you are living in a delulu world. A hypocrite too. I recently watched a video of yours “rumours about me - true or not” (corona edition) : you responded to the bullying allegations against you by saying “vittu kala, athokke past” ….well you need to practice that too… why do you still post cryptic reels about your ex, and not to mention their girlfriends as well? Vittu kala…you both lead different lives now
Sindhu: have you ever looked at your daughter Diya’s stories and thought “Mama Mia! Here we go again”. It’s one controversy after another. Not to mention….Diya’s Bharathiya samskaram is the cherry on top!
Alda: I have frankly only started to follow you recently….but I think you are doing a good job
Anoosha: one of the very first influencers I have come across! I do wish you improved your saree blouse models.
Yours truly A jobless influencer psychology critic
Ok guys! What about you all? What would you want to convey?

"and the detective had solved the case once again" I wrote, the ink sinked into the paper forming the conclusion of my book.
I placed the book consisting of smooth leather and ruff medieval like paper onto a shelf.
The shelf screamed as it appeared to be in pain combined with several throbs and shakes the shelf made in an attempt to regain balance.
I sat on the wet carpet, moisture sunk into my jeans causing them to feel cold and make my legs itchy.
"I thought as I snatched a half empty water bottle, drinking the disgusting sink favored water".
I traversed through the endless void filled with darkness, until a rattle was heard from beneath my feet, looking down on the ground I found a paper, I noticed several cuts on the edges of the paper, I assumed the page belonged to a book.
"Jackson reeled the great equalizer from the seemingly endless seas, he welded the weapon with excitement, he'd finally acquired his goal, no longer would the corrupt kings empire reign supreme, a society in the public's image." I said as I read the paper.
Unfortunately the page ended leaving me with a cliffhanger while simultaneously granting little to no context for the overall story.
I suddenly noticed light in the distance, I curiously approached the light as I hadn't found any light in a while.
My shoes gathered mud as I dragged them through the new terrain eventually reaching a village, it's houses appeared to consist of mud, sticks, gravel, and a few bricks.
I found another page of the book from earlier.
" Farmer Jackson got out of his bed causing a loud squeak from the wooden floors, he began peacefully watering his crops with his family, until a knight burned down all his crops and slaughtered his family, he then sore to claim his revenge, first he'd kill that knight, then he'd kill the king and then society would no longer be ran by a king or queen but by the public." I read aloud.
"This must be the beginning of the book," I thought.
Suddenly a man ran towards me with a sword, he appeared to have a black coat with a yellow stripe, he had a number on his left arm, 64 was the number, it has a green glow to it illuminating his arm, not to noticeable but you could still see a small green circle.
I immediately dashed away, "who are you," he said as he continued chasing me, I continued running until I found an exit from the village, although It'd be nice having a place where I could store my books, lay down anywhere but the wet carpet, and almost never have to deal with threats of any kind, I wasn't going to risk getting brutally mutilated by a guy with a sword.
My running posture became one of a chicken.
"But I'm no chicken, I'm detective Jones Joseph," I thought already thinking about what words I could throw into my continuation of my previous book next.
I was now standing in cold wet carpet once more, I hoped that the next "room," or at least that's what I call them, wasn't full of wet carpet but unfortunately I'm stuck dipping my feet into dirty carpet water.
The swarming of flies could be heard as I wandered around aimlessly attempting to escape the wet carpet I dreaded.
I sprinted as fast as possible imagining that guy could still be chasing me.
Although this was delusional, after all I ran into complete darkness and continued through this vision-less void in hopes of finding another land with the warm sun beaming and some decent resources.
Maybe I could get a bed to lay on instead of laying on the carpet, the carpet was extremely itchy, so I spent a lot of time scratching myself instead of sleeping.
Feeling very exhausted I decided to close my eyes and rest for a bit eventually falling asleep.