Purple and gray dorm room ideas

I was trained to be the on demand infant teacher (so basically 6 weeks to around 9 months). These last few weeks I’ve tried to train myself to be the toddler transition teacher (so basically 10 months-14 or 15 months). I haven’t had any help with curriculum ideas or schedules or anything. I have no clue what I’m doing. By the end of July my class will all be one year old. I have a 14 month old that will sit on the littles ones and bounce, they don’t listen or react when I say no (I hate having yo raise my voice). I’m having the hardest time getting them all on the same schedule (which is what the directors want). I never really did the whole from crib to cot transition before. My room is not meant for toddlers. I’m just so overwhelmed

Hey guys. I have a 2010 Fit Sport. It has a rusty hood and chipped up bumper (previous owner did a lot of US travel in it). My plan is to get a new bumper and hood, but I also kind of want to paint the car. I really like Sonic Gray Pearl, but since that's a specialty color I don't know where to begin. I'm assuming it would cost a lot more than a more common color? Would there only be certain paint shops able to do this? I tried looking up some of my local companies in central IN, but I don't want to give up all of my contact information just to receive a rough quote.
Any ideas and help is much appreciated!

And that has changed nothing in my life. If anything I am less stressed out, and I feel a little bit better everyday.
The last time I spoke to her was in early May. She hounded me about why I am 30 and still don’t have a partner, why I don’t just pick one of the arrange marriage profile she sent me (we are Asian), and why not just compromise and pick one.
I made the same argument that I’ve made a thousand times before - that I am open to the idea as long as the guy meets my (very reasonable and a short list of) criteria. I asked her why does she keep ignoring my preferences, asked her what her goal was - was it to just get me married or have me be happily married.
As per her schedule she went on a rant about how I am too picky, too old, I don’t have the option to have standards (I am turning 31 in October btw), no one will marry me, I’ll have to pick the bottom of the barrel guys (whatever that means), and so on. Basically everything she could, and does, say to make me feel small and bend me to her berating.
Well not this time. I kept thinking about how I made a very sound and calm argument about very legitimate concerns, and her reaction was to berate me and demean me. How her major concern was social concerns that I wasn’t married instead of my long term happiness.
I hung up that day and didn’t call back since. She’s called a few times, left a few messages. What always baffles me is that she never acknowledges the fights that we have, and later on just acts like everything is fine and that nothing is wrong. Which makes me feel crazy - am I wrong for feeling bad for all that she said? How much longer is she gonna rugsweep every issue that we have? I know this rug sweeping is the primary reason for my anxiety disorder and for the fact that I suck at communicating, but does she not feel anything about this? Like how can we keep fighting like this and the next day she acts like nothing has happened?
I am just not gonna budge this time. I need her to address the elephant in the room and acknowledge her shitty behaviour, especially since I can clearly go on without talking to her ever and nothing changed. Meaning she adds nothing to my life except misery

I’ve built a room full of trees a infinite water source a mine a chest room and a room with anvil enchantment table etc just want ideas of what to build please
Thanks

Hey fellow Product Management professionals,
We are currently facing a challenge in our data engineering request process and would appreciate your valuable insights and suggestions to improve it.
Currently, we use ClickUp forms to gather requests for our data engineering team. The form includes fields such as name, description, department, and priority. However, we have noticed that the majority of requests we receive are categorized as "high" priority. This lack of granularity in prioritization makes it difficult for our data engineering team to effectively prioritize and fulfill requests in a timely manner.
We believe there is room for improvement in our requirement-gathering process, and we would love to hear your suggestions on how to enhance it.

• Do you have any suggestions for creating a more comprehensive and objective prioritization framework that captures the urgency and impact of each request or any other way apart from Clickup forms?
• What additional fields do you recommend we include in the request form to gather more specific and actionable information from the requesters?
• How can we better involve stakeholders from different departments or teams in the requirement-gathering process to ensure their needs are accurately captured?

We value your expertise and experience in product management and believe that your insights can help us streamline our data engineering request process.
Please share your thoughts, ideas, or any successful approaches you have implemented in your own organizations. We look forward to an engaging discussion and appreciate your contribution.
Thank you in advance for your support!

Hi everyone ! I’m very excited to be part of this community. I am an aspiring fantasy and sci-fi author and I’ve been working tirelessly on finishing revisions on my first book. I am just about to finish my third draft and I think I will do one more round of revisions before seeking Beta readers. However, I feel like my writing has existed in a vacuum for so long and I would really appreciate an outside perspective on it. Due to this I was wondering if anyone would be willing to provide me some feedback on a exert from my novel. Thank you !
She snaps to awareness in the middle of the stone chamber. Her candle has fallen from her hands and she watches it sink into the maw of the pool.
An unfamiliar voice crawls into the edge of her awareness, and Gydeon turns to see one of the silver-robed priests belonging to the Temple. The Priest is asking her something, but all she can hear is the frenetic beating of her heart. The Priest tries again, louder this time," is everything alright your Highness?"
“Yes, I just dropped my candle.” Gydeon replies, giving a half-hearted laugh before adding, "I hope that's not a bad omen." Before she can get away the Priest places a hand on Gydeon's shoulder and replies, "The candle is merely meant to guide your sight, it is the vision you were given that matters." “How many years has it been since someone has truly received a vision from the Gods?”She asks. He breathes deeply and removes his hand from Gydeon's shoulder before bowing and murmuring. “It is forbidden for me to discuss with patrons what they saw. So I cannot answer your question.” Gydeon swallows down the bile in her throat and nods, “thank you for your services."
The Priest smiles at her before retreating to another part of the temple. Without sparing him a second glance Gydeon crosses the threshold of the temple doors and takes a deep breath of the cool night air.

She retreats down the steep stone stairs without bothering to look where she is going. Halfway down she knocks squarely into the broad chest of her brother, Alarik. He reacts quickly, stepping backwards, but catching her by the shoulders so she does not fall. He's wearing a crooked holy robe and an even crookeder grin. Gydeon is certain that beneath the robe he is in full uniform. Such things can always be expected of Ari Thaneus. As Gydeon's elder, he should have been the Crown prince, but the legitimacy of his birth had long ago been called into question. Now whispers of bastard follow in his footsteps and Ari does everything to pretend he does not hear them. “What are you doing here?" She asks, struggling to keep her voice even. 

Ari takes a step towards and his eyes land on the tips of her fingers, "what's wrong with your hands?” Gydeon steals a glance and notices her fingers are stained with blue so dark it looks black beneath the sparse lantern light. "It's ash. There’s a lot of ash from spent candles in there." Ari nods accepting her lie, "So was this a satisfactory way to spend the first evening of your twenty first year? What did you see?"
She ignores his first question and responds to the second, “you know I'm not allowed to tell you." "Of course not, I just knew asking would bother you. Now you're going to retreat into your room and write down every minuscule detail of what happened and spend the whole evening puzzling out what it could mean. No coming of age ball or elaborate celebrations for you." Gydeon wrinkles her nose and replies, "parties aren't to my taste." "Of course, yet I regret to inform you that you'll be in attending one. It's the Turning Banquet tonight. Or had you forgotten?" Gydeon fiddles with a loose thread hanging from the sleeve of her robe, unable to look at Ari as she replies, “no, I hadn’t forgotten."

"Cheer up. We are also celebrating the arrival of a visitor from across the sea. A princess Mariyama from the Kingdom of Damoth I believe.” 

"What brings her here?" Gydeon asks and Ari shrugs, "I have no idea." There's something in his tone that tells her he knows more, but doesn't want to answer. Instead of elaborating he offers, “how about you ride back in the carriage with me? I’m sure several suitors will want to dance with you and you don’t want to smell like a horse.”
As they reach the bottom of the steps Gydeon sees the gilded silver mass of the royal carriage awaiting her. She shakes her head and says, “Sachen suits me just fine,” before turning towards the stables. “You’ll smell,” Ari calls out to her. Gydeon waves a hand dismissively, “they’ll all want to dance with me anyways.”

Girls: Izzy
Boys: Ezekiel, Mal
Episode 25: Planes, Trains, and Hot Air Mobiles
"Last time, on Total Drama World Tour!" Chris opened as the plane icon was shown flying northward from Rapa Nui to Alberta, Canada on the season's world map, and the jumbo jet itself was shown blowing past a precariously-balanced boulder and knocking it off its perch. "Alberta! It'll blow you away!" The barren pit in Drumheller they'd visited was shown, as was Topher sitting in the electric chair. "How could this happen?!" the host asked angrily over a clip of the plane exploding in the distance.
"Well first, Mal and Izzy bickered the whole challenge about their moralities," the two were shown teasing each other, "and Ezekiel started to doubt if Topher even liked him or not," Both were talking to each other as they dug. "But Ezekiel was able to let go of his suspicions when Topher rescued him from being squished by a boulder," Topher was shown tackling Ezekiel and himself away from a boulder.
"And Izzy confirmed herself as being crazy with a heart of good before voting Mal off," Izzy was shown telling off Mal, followed by the final vote against him being read. "Dude sooo would've been a goner. Except Topher," the Chris wannabe was shown slipping on the pool of oil and the candles on the cake hit the oil, "demolished my plane!" The host was shown standing in the moonlit wreckage of the Total Drama Jumbo Jet, bringing an end to the recap montage.
"Did I mention we've got no ride now?" Chris asked, he and Chef now sitting in the remains of the cockpit in their usual piloting outfits, the sun now shining overhead. As the host spoke, Chef grabbed the control stick, looked shocked as it immediately detached, and threw it away with wide eyes. "BECAUSE TOPHER BLEW IT UP?!" Chris continued angrily, slamming his hands down on the broken console and standing up towards the camera.
He sat back down, pulled out a paper bag, and started to breath into it. After a few seconds he calmed down enough to stop hyperventilating, letting go of the bag and looking back at the camera. "Our Final Three are jetting to Hawaii...," he said as the series's capstone music began to play, "without a jet, so...get set for some other kind of race to the million, right here on Total! Drama! World Tour!"
The camera zoomed out as always, showing the morning sun over the wreckage of the plane that was now stranded in Drumheller, Alberta. The front part of the fuselage, which had been intact enough for Chris and Chef to use the cockpit, promptly fell off whatever had been supporting it.
XXXXX
"The hot tub with my name spelled out in Italian tiles...gone...," Chris muttered despairingly, the episode opening on a pan across the wreckage of the plane to where the host stood with Mal and Izzy near the remains of last night's campfire pit. "My monogrammed sneakers!...gone...," he added, looking at the two uncaring contestants. "My custom-calibrated stubble-trimmer," Izzy and Mal looked at each other in boredom, "gone..."
"Can we continue the game now?" Mal suggested.
"I agree," Izzy chimed in.
"As usual," Chris turned to them, "you two are thinking of nothing but yourselves."
He looked to the side as Ezekiel grunted with effort, then pushed a large sheet of broken metal away from the wreckage. "Could I get some help with this?" he asked the others.
"What about the bigger humanitarian crisis?" Chris asked. "How am I supposed to keep this face fresh," he pointed at his stubbled visage, "without my hyperbolic chamber?"
With another grunt of effort, Ezekiel leaned down and lifted a bald and scuffed Topher out of the wreckage on his back. "Good morning," Topher said woozily. "I've always wanted to be the one carrying someone down, but the roles are reversed."
"Why were you even in there?" Ezekiel asked as he dragged the boy away from the jet's remains.
"I think some more stuff fell on me while I was asleep," Topher guessed.
"The plane is busted," Ezekiel said. "Are you okay?"
"I am emotionally!" Topher answered, "but physically, my bones are broken."
Ezekiel groaned, then collapsed under Topher's weight.
Confessional: Ezekiel
"I know Topher did some underhanded things to stay in the game, but losing your hair on international television is worse than harming an animal in his world," Ezekiel confessed in the remains of the restroom confessional.
Confessional: Izzy
"Topher needs some medical assistance, but given that Chris is a windbag who's as cheap as Mr. Krabs, I'll be his nurse until he gets home!" Izzy declared in a superhero pose. "You can call me…" she put an orange mask over her eyes, "Doctor Izzy!"
Confessionals End
The static cut away to show the camera focused on a wheelchair, pushed by a just-out-of-frame Izzy. "Here," she said as he reached Ezekiel and Topher and the shot zoomed out, "use this to help you." Ezekiel lifted the fanboy into the wheelchair, and Izzy put the hat from Rapa Nui onto Topher's head to cover his baldness.
"Does it make me look attractive?" Topher asked..
The shot cut to the wreckage and Chef pushed a giant metal box out into the open, earning an excited look from Chris. "Hey! My emergency kit! We're saved!" he declared, running towards the giant box with a hearty laugh. "That's right, kids," he turned back with a grin. "Get ready for surf, sun, and beauties in grass skirts, we're going to Hawaii!" He did a few short hula moves as the Final Three cheered.
"I know," Chris said as he walked over to Chef, "best host ever! Never doubt me." It was then that Chef pulled on the rope he'd been holding, causing the walls of the metal box to fall away and reveal the small red helicopter inside.
The four teens moved closer, and Mal was the first to speak. "That's a two-seater."
"That it is!" Chris replied happily. "Chef flies, I supervise."
"And we?" Mal followed up.
"Will be competing to get to the big island first, using only your wits, and whatever you find out here," Chris explained.
"But we're in the middle of nowhere!" Ezekiel complained.
"True," Chris told him, "so check these fancy dancy GPSes I'm generously giving you!" he said as he took a trio of walkie-talkies and GPS devices from the helicopter and tossed one each to each finalist.
Izzy raised an eyebrow as she looked down at the GPS; the screen showed a single yellow dot and nothing else around. "Middle of Nowhere, Alberta," she read before looking up. "It does work."
"Set 'em for Tijuana Beach," Chris told them. "It's right on the Mexican border. Now move it!" he commanded as the helicopter started up behind him. "Go! Go! Go!"
Ezekiel, Izzy, and Mal frantically entered the destination into their devices, and the shot moved over to a confused Topher. "Wait, what about me?" he asked the host.
"Make like you took the Drop of Shame," Chris answered angrily, standing in the doorway of the hovering helicopter, "and figure it out yourself!"
Topher gaped, then scowled.
Confessional: Topher
"First he makes me do these dangerous challenges," Topher said in the ruined confessional, still in his wheelchair, "then he disqualifies me because I unintentionally blew up his plane, and now he's willing to leave me to fend for myself?"
He glared at the camera. "Chris really is a jerk. When I get home, I'm throwing out all of my Chris merchandise and everything related to him."
Confessional Ends
"Don't worry!" Chris called out to the Final Three, "you're all totally gonna make it!" The helicopter finally took off, leaving the four teens to watch in stunned silence for a few seconds.
Izzy was the first to make a move, turning and heading back into the wreckage with Topher right behind her. "If I was able to find a wheelchair in the wreckage," she reasoned, "maybe we can find something to get to Tijuana."
"Good idea!" Topher told her. "And did you say 'we'?"
"Duh," Izzy replied, looking back over a large piece of sheet metal. "I'm not going to leave you out here. I have to take care of you until you get to an actual doctor, and I can create something for both of us to ride on."
"Makes sense to me!" Topher smiled, and the two went back into the wreckage.
The camera cut to Mal and Ezekiel, watching nearby. "So, is this the part where you team up with me to make the finale?" Ezekiel asked sarcastically.
"No," Mal answered. "You'd obviously say no."
"That's right," Ezekiel huffed.
"I don't need you or Izzy. I've gotten here on my own," Mal gloated.
"You could've been eliminated in Africa or Drumheller, but something else happens to conveniently keep you in," Ezekiel retorted. "Don't count your eagles before they spot on red, white, and blue stripes!"
"That's the wrong expression, but I'm not even going to bother with a fool like you," Mal scoffed.
Confessional: Mal
"The million dollars is in my grasp," Mal chuckled. "I'm gonna use the prize money to live like a real villain. In a tower. Preferably overlooking a volcano."
The camera zoomed in on his smiling face before diving deeper into his subconscious, where Mike and his personalities were standing in front of Mal's tower. On the top was Mal's sculptured head, the purple light coming out of his right eye. The camera panned down to feature the white horns spiking out of the tower and ground.
"Here we are. Welcome to the Tower of Mal," Manitoba presented the tower to the group.
"Uh, why ain't it guarded by bouncers or dogs or an ugly cat or something?" Vito asked.
"Mal just figured we'd never get this far," Svetlana deduced.
Mal looked at the poster on the wall featuring the silhouette head of Mal over five stick figures. "Check it out. This door's got five people on it."
"Five of us! This must be the right way!" Svetlana said.
Mike grabbed the handle and pulled. "C'mon, let's get-" he didn't get to finish since the door trampled him and his personalities.
"I knew it was too easy," Chester moaned.
The group of four hastily pushed the door with their strength. "Come on. Just a little... mo-!" Mike motivated, but they got crushed again. "Was everyone pushing their hardest?" Mike asked his alters.
"What? I got noodles for arms!" Chester defended.
"On three, everyone," Mike informed as they were going to free themselves again. "One... two..."
"Three!" everybody said at once, forcefully pushing the door on the opposite side of them. Once that was settled, they entered the tower, Vito carrying Chester along the way.
"Yes! Nothing can stop us!" Mike confidently spoke, only to see the number of stairs they'd have to walk up with a groan.
\
"I'm going off now," Mal said into his walkie talkie while walking away. "I do not wish you good luck! I wish for your downfall!"
"And I wish you could just leave the game already," Ezekiel retorted.
"You know, I can turn you off right now," Mal shot back.
"And I'm going to beat you to it!" Ezekiel cut the radio feed off by pressing the button. "Much better," he said. "He was only distracting me. Now to get to that million dollars. As soon as I find a way to get there..." He looked around a bit, then started walking in the same direction Mal had gone.
The scene moved to the wreckage of the first class cabin, where Izzy and Topher were searching through the rubble.
Izzy pulled out a large inflatable raft...with a hole in it. "Zodiac?" she said, putting it down. "Bicycle?" she said, pulling out a rusty bicycle...that promptly lost its front wheel. "Unicycle?" she said. She tossed the broken bike away, then sighed sadly. "None of this trash will get us to Hawaii," she told Topher.
"Obviously," Topher said. "I found this seat belt, meal tray, and parachute!" he held up the first item he listed.
Izzy's eyes widened in realization. "Topher, you are very helpful!"
"Really?" Topher said, the seat belt now wrapped around his head.
Another scene change took the focus to a large rock formation as Mal hauled himself up from behind it to get a better look. He smirked to himself as he looked down at the other side of the formation. "What do we have here?" The perspective moved over his shoulder to show the plane's wreckage, and more importantly two interns with a caged baby panda outside a truck. The camera zoomed in as the interns picked up the cage and loaded it onto the truck.
"Following that panda will be my ticket to victory!" Mal dropped back down behind the rock.
\
The camera cut to the blazing midday sun, then panned down onto Ezekiel. The homeschooler was walking through the cactus-filled desert with his eyes locked on to his GPS, until he suddenly tripped and fell over something.
"Ugh!" he said, the camera moving down to show him lying on train tracks. "What kind of nimrod leaves train tracks in the middle of nowhere?"
He looked to his right, and spotted a building and windmill next to the tracks off in the distance. "Trains!" he repeated with excitement.
\
The scene flashed to a head-on view of the truck, a walkie-talkie switching on inside it. "Attention 'competitors'," Mal announced, the shot cutting inside to show a monkey, baby panda, baby seal, and book-reading bear sitting in cages listening to the nearby malevolent one talk, "I am traveling south at 90 kilometers per hour. In other words, you all should give up."
Just as he ended his message, a caged sasquatch behind him reached out and pulled him into a kiss. He immediately pushed away and recoiled in disgust, but lost his balance as he backed up and tripped into an open crate...the lid of which promptly closed on top of him.
"When I get out of here, it is not going to be pretty!" Mal said over the walkie-talkie.
The camera cut back outside as he made his declaration, showing the trucking driving away and honking its horn.
\
Another flash took the focus to Chris and Chef in the helicopter, the camera quickly cutting in for a close-up of the host's master GPS device. It showed three dots moving along a simple roadmap: a yellow dot unmoving in the upper right; a blue dot on the road approaching it, and a red dot further behind unmoving on the same road.
"Ezekiel's ahead but stalled," Chris commented with a gleeful smile over his own walkie-talkie, "and the yeti's new boyfriend is quickly catching up! But Izzy can't seem to get her butt in gear."
\
The camera flashed to a shot of a deployed parachute, then panned to the right as Izzy was heard explaining "I just moderate the flow of fuel," as the pan ended on her pulling a lever on an orange fuel barrel, making a small flame appear, "and that balloon will go up or down."
"But you need a basket!" Topher replied. "If there was any grass," he said while looking around, "you could weave one."
"All I need is a chair," Izzy said thoughtfully. "And one with arms."
"I'm sitting in a chair with arms," Topher said. "Just sit in my lap and you're gold. My bones are broken, but it'll be worth it to stop Mal."
"Wow. You really aren't as self-centered as I thought you were," Izzy commented. "You're really willing to let me be in your wheelchair?"
"Are you really willing to lose the race?" Topher asked. "Now come on! We've got a beach to get to!"
Izzy smiled. "Let's go!"
\
Whoops and hollers of excitement were heard as the footage skipped forward, showing the makeshift hot air balloon in flight tied to the wheelchair. Topher was sitting in the chair, with Izzy in his lap and holding her walkie-talkie.
"Attention boys!" she said into it. "Izzy is flying sky high! I repeat! This girl is airborne!" she said as the balloon ascended off-camera.
\
"Airborne?" Ezekiel repeated, the scene cutting to him walking down the aisle of a train's passenger car and stopping in front of a young white woman dressed in black typing on a laptop. He sat down in the seat opposite the woman in black. "Is this seat taken?" Matthew asked the woman upon noticing her stare, prompting the woman in black to return to her work.
"Okay," Ezekiel muttered, sitting at the booth and grabbing a newspaper that was on the table.
The camera moved to the window behind them, showing a certain truck driving past. Cutting outside, the truck was shown dumping its cages and crates into a cargo car of the train, and Mal could be heard yelling in alarm from his wooden prison.
"Too bad he turned off his walkie talkie right before this update!" Chris said over his walkie-talkie as the scene cut back to the helicopter. "Advantage, Mal."
Back down below, the train let out a burst of steam and started moving. It blew its whistle, and the scene cut back to the car Ezekiel was in, now looking up and down the aisle with confused eyes.
"Hello, passengers!" an unfamiliar male voice came over the train's intercom system, immediately gaining Ezekiel's attention. "And welcome to this non-stop trip to Mexico!"
"Yes!" the home-schooled guy cheered. "In your face!"
The woman in black gave him a questioning look, to which Ezekiel replied "That wasn't directed at you!" The woman in black wasn't impressed.
Back outside again, the camera zoomed in on a boxcar, then cut inside to show the caged Total Drama animals... and the smaller wooden crate that Mal promptly and finally burst out of. "Finally," he groaned as he took in a breath of fresh air; kissy faces from the nearby sasquatch earned another groan and a quick spit and mouth-wiping.
"Now to end Ezekiel's trip here," he declared, standing up and stepping out of the crate. "Wherever here is," he added, looking around the room.
He made his way to a nearby doorway, but stopped upon hearing a dog-like whine from inside another crate. He opened it, and recoiled in shock when Ezekiel Clone lifted his head out of the crate.
"How did you get here?" Mal asked in wide-eyed disbelief, and the Clone muttered something unintelligible. "If you promise to act right, I will release you."
\
A flash took the scene back to Topher and Izzy, still sailing through the sky. "Stop giving it so much fuel!" Topher said to his companion.
"I'll do that after you stop pinching my body!" Izzy shot back.
"I'm sorry, but I want to survive!" Topher argued.
"So do I, but I'm not being a whiny pants about it!" Izzy sniped.
"LOOK OUT!" Topher cried in alarm as he pointed ahead of them, and the viewpoint changed to show that they were quickly approaching a certain red helicopter.
Izzy and Topher screamed in alarm, then Chris and Chef screamed in the helicopter, then Izzy and Topher screamed again, then Chris and Chef, and finally the helicopter swooped under while the balloon ascended, the two airborne groups safely passing each other.
"Um, Izzy? Bra?" Chris asked into his walkie talkie.
"Watch where you're going!" Izzy shouted.
"Are you sitting on Topher's lap?" Chris followed up, the helicopter moving to keep pace next to the newly-annoyed teens.
"So what?" Izzy replied.
"We've already got one cling-on named Ezekiel Clone," Chris continued. "We do not need two."
"Cling-on?!" Topher exclaimed in outrage. "Give me that walkie talkie!" he yelled as he tried to snatch the radio from Izzy.
"You said we could use whatever the heck we found back at the crash site," Izzy smugly told him.
Chef nodded, and Chris smirked. "Hey, it's your funeral," he told her.
He ended his broadcast there, just as a message came over the helicopter's radio. "Attention, an extreme weather warning has been issued for all aircraft," the voice announced.
Chris shut off the radio, then turned to Chef. "I should probably warn them," the host said, holding a smile for a second or two before he and his assistant burst out in laughter.
\
"Who knew winning could be so easy?" Ezekiel said to himself.
"Tickets, please! Tickets!" an unseen man called out, quickly earning Ezekiel's attention.
The announcement was answered by a more familiar voice, explaining "You see, my brother is not a wild animal. He's just a really crazy fool." The shot cut to Mal, standing before a conductor and holding Ezekiel Clone's hoodie as the clone sniffed at the conductor and bared his teeth.
It was then that Ezekiel saw them; immediately locking eyes with Mal in a horizontal split-screen.
"You!" the two exclaimed at the same time.
Mal let Ezekiel Clone go. Ezekiel turned and ran away, and his clone chased after him with Mal following behind.
\
"So I bought all of Chris's wigs at an auction!" Topher was saying as the scene cut back to them in the balloon. "I could have used that money to buy myself new clothes!" he finished.
The camera zoomed in on the two. "I do not know why you even idolized him!" Izzy exclaimed.
"I admired his hosting skills and charisma, but I'm done with him after that plane explosion," Topher claimed.
Izzy nodded happily before turning around and looking alarmed. "If we don't move now, we're going to get killed!" she screamed as they flew into a very dark and ominous mass of clouds. A bolt of lightning flashed as they disappeared from view, and the shot cut down to the top of the train as Ezekiel slowly backed up along the roof of a car.
"You won't push me off a speeding train, would you?" he asked as Mal advanced menacingly into the shot.
"I threw Owen off the plane in Jamaica and threw Cody off the cliff in Australia," Mal said as Ezekiel reached the edge of his current car and nervously looked over his shoulder at the gap to the next one. "I have no limits."
"Duncan, Sky, and the others have every right to hate you," Ezekiel said.
"Of course they do!" Mal claimed, advancing enough for Ezekiel to turn and hop to the next car of the train. He nearly lost his balance on the landing, but recovered quickly enough to turn around and proudly face down Mal over the gap. "You were too distracted with impressing Sadie and being cool to even see me coming!"
"But I still made it as far as I did!" Ezekiel replied.
A clap of thunder echoed ominously, and the sky opened up in a downpour of hail. Ezekiel, who'd started backing away again, slipped on one of the icy pellets and fell on his butt with a pained grunt.
\
Up in the clouds, Izzy and Topher were also being battered by the elements, screaming as they struggled to keep their balloon aloft in the wind and ice.
\
The hail rained down upon the windshield of the helicopter as well, but it only elicited a hearty laugh from the host and pilot. "Uh-oh. Will the game be called on account of deadly weather?" he asked the camera following him. "Will anyone be left to take home the million? Find out right after this break, on Total! Drama! World Tour!"
Lightning flashed right outside the helicopter, earning a panicked yelp from Chris.
\
(Commercial Break)
\

I'm on mobile so I'm sorry if there's any formatting issues.
I'm a 23 year old man who just needs to vent about some stuff. I've actually typed a few things up before to post here, but I never fully finished them. Maybe this one will be the same, I'm not sure yet.
I live with my mother (41) and brother (18). My mother is amazing, she's understanding, accepting, helps us out, and just generally is a good person. I want to stress that I'm not talking bad on her, I'm just frustrated with her circumstance right now.
My mother has been sick for about 4 years now. We weren't sure what it was for a while, but the closest thing we have to knowing is it's some form of chronic colitis. It comes at random for several days in a month, usually around her menstrual cycle, and it inflicts horrible abdominal pain on her. She also gets extreme nausea from it, and throws up anything she swallows; including water.
She has self learned to take hot showers when it hits. The experience is basically this:
She wakes up and begins throwing up. Usual bang on my wall or door to come help. Usually this happens anywhere around 2-8am. Thankfully I'm a light sleeper, but it still sucks if I only have an hour of sleep and have to deal with this. I get her ice water, she asks me to stand there outside the shower while she sits in the hot water, throwing up. The ice water helps her, but she can't really swallow it, she just holds it in her mouth for a bit before spitting it out. She needs me to refill the ice and water consistently, as well as emotionally comfort her, as she is going through what she basically describes as labor pains.
Have you ever thrown up multiple times in a row? It's not a fun experience. Now imagine throwing up literally 10-15 times in a row with nothing in your stomach. She does that. And since she wants me right there just in case, I get to listen to that, and smell that. It's gotten to the point that she got sick one time and I was literally eating my dinner while she was throwing up in the trash next to me. Our roommate who just moved in a few months ago looked at me like I was insane. But I had to get used to it at least somewhat.
Anyway, she'll shower from anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour, and then I have to get her to bed. She is sometimes so weak at this point that I have to hold the cup to her to drink, or put ice in her mouth for her. If we're lucky, she'll fall asleep and wake up feeling a bit better in a few hours. If we aren't lucky, she'll get up 5 minutes later to repeat the entire process all over again.
Keep in mind, 4 years of this, at least once a month for multiple days. Me and her haven't been able to hold jobs because of this. Any day meaning I have to dedicate the entire day to helping her means planning stuff is nearly impossible, and we are far too broke to pay someone to stay with her.
Now you may be asking about medical stuff. The answer is, I've had to call 911 for her several times due to her being dehydrated. She's had to have fluids given to her intravenously, and the pain has lead to many bad experiences at the hospital. Where I live, addicts are as common as road signs. Her getting pain treatment is like pulling teeth. Sometimes they recognize her issues and give her something, sometimes they refuse. Mom can be a baby with pain, so she's gotten into fights while sick with hospital staff over it on more than one occasion. I remember one time she was scared because they gave her fentanyl and I had to explain to her about how a hospital using fentanyl is safe and she'll be fine. Sometimes we can't even get her to the hospital because we have no car, and we have to rely on family to be available to give rides back from the hospital, or else she'd have to walk 20 min back home.
Our doctor still needs to follow up with her because her colitis diagnosis was given only a month or two ago. That's right, it took 4 years to get an answer to what this problem was. At first doctors thought it was her gallbladder, so she had it removed. Obviously, that wasn't it. I'm going to push her to meet with our doctor soon, things have just been so crazy here that we haven't had time.
Mom is also bipolar, and she needs to get on medication for that, which is another thing she needs to meet with the doctor about. We didn't have health insurance for many years but we have the resources now, so there's no excuse for it anymore. I have some form of anxiety I've been dealing with since middle school that went entirely untreated until this year, so I'm finally on meds for it. That becomes relevant in a moment.
Mom got sick again today, she hasn't been sick in a while so I was hoping it was calming down. She stopped most of her drinking recently so I was wondering if that was the issue. We are actually supposed to go to an open interview tomorrow to start working. This time however, she's scaring me far more. Mom has an issue where if she doesn't get enough sleep, she gets loopy and says things that she doesn't remember after she sleeps. Like one time when she insisted on eating some crackers while she was falling asleep standing up. She literally slumped her head and hit the cabinet and insisting she isn't falling asleep while I'm literally watching her do it.
It flares my anxiety up like nothing else, both of these things do. She's now sick, with that loopiness. Calling me bubby, referring to me as her friend Tori, asking me what her room tastes like, and then when I said I didn't know, she said "can you ask my name what it tastes like?" And I didn't even have a response to that. A cherry on top is when I noticed a cross sitting around the air freshener on the outlet on the wall.
I'm not a Christian, Mom is, but I'm more of someone that respects the idea of God, but I'm too logical to believe the Bible. I respect God and his followers, but I wouldn't call myself one. I went to grab the cross to say a prayer for Mom, but when I touched the cross, it shocked my hand good. I noticed the chain was resting on the actual plug of the air freshener, so I took a rag and grabbed the chain, but when I lifted it, I heard an electrical burst and saw the outlet spark. Boom, the bathroom lights disappear. Just my luck. Mom screams, asked me what happened, and I had to explain it a few times to her. I still need to figure out if the fuse just blew or what.
I'll help Mom whenever she needs, but the way she acts just kills me when she is sick. She'll scream out "My son!" while I'm right there. She'll say "help." and then give absolutely no instructions on what she needs. She'll speak very lowly where I can't hear her at all. She's now screaming the name of her friend while in the shower.
That's the background of why I'm writing this. This is just too much, it weighs on me. My anxiety is under control with my meds but I can feel it come back when this starts. I feel like I'd rather die than deal with this, and I feel horrible that I feel that way. I care about my Mom, and my family, but this is just so much to bear. My meds have a side effect of suicidal thoughts, and they only appear when dealing with this. I want to be a good son, but I can't keep doing this. When this cycle ends, I'm going to lay it out for her. She needs to call the doctor, and figure this sickness out, because I'm afraid. I'm afraid of what I might do if this stress continues. I'm afraid this sickness will take more of our life if we don't sort it out.
I know why she's procrastinated it, there's just so much crazy stuff that happens in our life, but we can't do it anymore. My brother can't handle it, that's why I've had to, but I'm reaching my own breaking point.
She's resting now, I'm sitting in the backyard praying she sleeps for a few hours. Now that I'm out here, I'm regaining my usual appreciation for life.
Thank you for reading, sorry it was so long.

I just tested 5/26, and I figured I’d lay out exactly how the start of my test day went so people have an idea of what to expect. Obviously can be different at each testing center, but this felt like everything was standard practice for mine.
7:00am - arrived at testing center lobby. They don’t let you into actually room where you check in until 7:30. I read my quick sheets and reviewed my equation sheet.
7:30am - they bring you into the actual testing center. ONCE YOU STEP INTO THE TESTING CENTER, YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO REVIEW NOTES. This was a slight shock to me as I planned on using the last 30 min to review my quicksheets more. If you are going to simulate a test day on your FL practices, hard cut off for reviewing 30 min before your test.
~7:45am - they called my number and got me signed in, then walked me into my test room. Scanned my palm a bunch of times. Once I sat down and logged me in, there were two sections that I was allowed to brain dump in. One was 4 minutes long (NDA that you won’t discuss test questions after the test). IF YOU TIMEOUT ON THIS SECTION, YOUR TEST IS VOIDED. DO NOT TIME OUT. There is then the 10 minute tutorial as well. I highly recommend brain dumping, it was a nice way to settle in before the test, and it was nice to refer back to especially when I wasn’t 100% confident on a certain equation/reaction/concept later in the test.
~8:00am: started CP. going to be honest, my nerves kicked in so hard as I read the first passage. Never happened on a practice test, was hardly nervous through the check in process, just hit me very hard. I would recommend doing some slow breathing for the first 15 seconds to calm yourself down before diving in, you’ll make up the time if you’re settled down versus super anxious.
I know this isn’t much but I hope it helps you guys on what to expect on Test Day and helps you tailor your FL practice days a little better!

WIBTA for breaking up my friend group?
Sorry if this is already complicated. I (19F) am living with Lola (18F) next year for our sophomore year of college. We get along great and I’m generally super excited for it. We are both in the same friend group that consists of four people which includes us, sally(19F), and Bridget (19F). Sally was my roommate freshman year of college. The issue is that Sally is a horrible friend to me, but only passive aggressively. She has done things like purposefully talking about me to her mom while I was in the room, refusing to put me on her Snapchat story or add me to a “queers only” story (I identify as bi), refusing to talk to me unless Lola and Bridget are present, telling people I was straight so they wouldn’t flirt with me, asking me to stand up for her but talking shit about me to the same people, making me take photos of my friends and never asking me to be in them, telling my friends I wasn’t available when they asked if I could hang out(when I was very much available). The list goes on and on but I think you get the idea. Recently she brought a digital camera out with us one weekend and she was showing us the photos while we ate dinner. I was in two of them and the ones I were in weren’t even taken by her. I saw the photos and immediately started crying. I told them I was going to go back to my dorm but went to a park and cried for an hour. I went back to my dorm and she and Lola were playing house music. Sally refused to turn the music off and I took my emergency anxiety meds and left the room. Instead of asking if I was ok they called Bridget to come deal with me and went out to a party. This really set me off because Sally was upset and having anxiety on Friday and me and Lola went out of our way to help her.
I would like to distance myself from Sally. However Bridget is my girlfriend (we were dating before we became a friend group) and Lola is living with me next year and I feel like this would automatically make distance Sally from either of them. I really want them to have a relationship with Sally if they want to and I keep telling them not to choose sides. However, I just keep getting hurt. Lola keeps telling me that she has a hard time making friends so I should just deal with her behavior for a few weeks. But recently she was talking to me about having her over a lot next year. I want to ask her not to have her over often. WIBTA if I broke of the friend group? How do I talk to them about this?

“I’m sorry; we’re going to astral travel to a flea market?” Charlotte asked incredulously as she watched Genevieve and I set up a meditation circle under the shade of a towering old willow tree in my cemetery. “What if we want to buy something? How will we bring it back?”
“We’re not going there to shop, Lottie. Samantha’s finally had a vision about Emrys,” Genevieve explained.
The Veil between the Physical and Astral Planes is exceptionally weak in my cemetery, especially at night and on hallowed days. When I sleep there, my subconscious mind is highly receptive to all manner of revelations from the Spirit World. When I saw a Blood Moon rise on the night of May fifth, the same night as a penumbral eclipse, I knew that my dreams would be prophetic.
“I had a dream about him last Friday,” I expounded. “He’s at some sort of otherworldly marketplace, one that’s not connected to the Crypto Chthonic Cuniculi, so it’s mostly inaccessible to the Ophion Occult Order. In my dream, Emrys invited us to come and speak with him while we were lucid. He drew a sigil for me, the same one I’ve drawn in the middle of the mediation circle. He said that all I’d have to do is toss an Undying Rose – the earthly effigy of the rose Persephone used to steal a drop of his blood – into the sigil and it will become an astral portal to where he is.”
I held up the deep purple rose that I had cut from its bush earlier that day. I don’t know for certain where the roses came from, but my best guess is that they were made by the same Occultist who hallowed my cemetery to Persephone; Artaxerxes Crow. They have some connection to Emrys as well, since the only other time I saw someone else use one was when his avatar was summoned into the Physical Plane on Halloween 2020.
Knowing that Emrys wouldn’t dare to set foot in a place that was sacred to the Goddess who was ultimately responsible for his cosmic defeat, I gently tossed the rose into the middle of the sigil.
“He invited all of us?” Charlotte asked with an incredulous raising of her eyebrow.
“He said me and my coven. If he had just meant me or me and Genevieve he would have said that,” I replied. “You and Elam are coming too. I want as many eyes on this place as possible so that we don’t miss anything. We may not get an opportunity like this again.”
“And this is safe? Visiting some random flea market between worlds?” Charlotte asked.
“Samantha and I have visited the Underworld and come back no problem,” Genevieve reminded her. “So long as we’re bound to our bodies and Elam is bound to Samantha, we can come back anytime. Don’t worry; this is going to be a blast! Adventures like these are the best part of being a Witch.”
“The only reason you were able to go to the Underworld is because Samantha’s cemetery came with an astral portal in the back,” Charlotte countered, gesticulating in the general direction of the archway that was still partially visible behind the light spring foliage. “Other than that, when have any of us ever done anything useful with our astral projection? This is still a physical place, right? We don’t have any of our physical senses available to us when we astral project, and I get extremely disoriented trying to navigate the mortal plane with clairvoyance alone.”
“It is a physical place, but one saturated with astral energy and full of occultists and occult artifacts. It will be extremely illuminated to our clairvoyance,” I assured her. “Elam will also be there to guide us. As a ghost, he’s much more practiced at traversing the mortal plane in an astral form.”
Charlotte folded her arms over her chest and turned to look at Elam, who was leaning up against the willow tree as he waited for us.
“I don’t suppose you could go and scout the place out for us ahead of time?” she asked.
“I can’t go too far from Samantha, and definitely not across planes,” he said with a shake of his head. “But Eve’s right. Your astral bodies will be in no danger, and you can return here in an instant whenever you want.”
“But what about Emrys? Didn’t that book Leon gave you say that he’s some sort of soul-flayer?” Charlotte asked me.
“It did,” I admitted. “Keep in mind though, that book was written by his enemies. I want to hear his side of things before this conflict of theirs spirals out of control.”
“Any update from Chamberlin about that?” Elam asked.
“Yeah, he said that after he failed to purify the Sigil Sand, Ivy’s onboard with negotiating some kind of truce with Emrys,” I replied. “The Grand Adderman’s still reticent, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s running out of options. I need to find out if Emrys will agree to peace talks.”
“Um, I get that, but I’m still kind of hung up on him potentially flaying our souls,” Charlotte reiterated.
“If Emrys and the Ophion Occult Order go to all-out war, there’ll be a lot of collateral damage and innocent souls caught in the crossfire,” Genevieve told her, gently grabbing hold of her and looking her straight in the eye. “Samantha, Elam, and I are doing this because if there’s any chance we can put an end to this before it starts, then it’s our responsibility to try. You don’t have to come with us, Lottie, but you’re still a member of our coven. Samantha and I would both feel a lot better with you there to help us.”
“Arghhh! All right, fine! I’ll come with you,” Charlotte gave in, plopping her butt down on the edge of the meditation circle. “If we’re holding hands, that will help keep our astral bodies together too, right?”
“I believe it should, yes,” I smiled at her, sitting down and reaching out for her hand.
Genevieve lit the incense and her bong filled with the entheogenic Delphi Dream, before sitting down to join us. She took a hit from the bong before passing it to me, and then to Charlotte before setting it aside out of the circle.
“Start with taking a deep breath, completely filling the lungs, and holding it for five heartbeats,” she guided us as she took hold of each of our hands. “Exhale completely, and wait five more heartbeats before breathing in again. Eyes closed, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Focus on the astral energies flowing through you with each breath, gently aligning each chakra until those energies are enough to lift you up and out of your body.”
In unison with one another, the three of us slowly breathed in and out, ignoring the material world around us and focusing upon the task at hand. Eve was first, as usual, and because we were all holding hands, Charlotte and I felt her eagerly tugging us up to speed us along.
I opened my eyes, and beheld the dull and muted Physical Plane through my clairvoyance, everything outshined by the radiant forms of my coven mates. I noted that Genevieve had eschewed her normal skyclad form when astral projecting and instead wore a cloak like Charlotte and I.
“Are you worried this place might have a no shirt, no shoes, no souls, no service policy?” I teased her.
“I just don’t want to risk a confrontation over it. I realize how important this is,” she answered. “Though I’m not actually wearing shoes, now that you mention it.”
“Christ, look at the sigil Samantha drew!” Charlotte said, pointing down at the meditation circle beneath us. The sigil wasn’t just glowing but flowing as well, churning the Aether around it in a misty, spectral vortex. “It’s an astral portal, isn’t it?”
“Oh yeah. It’s not stable, though. Good for one trip only,” Genevieve said with a delighted smile. “And Lottie, since we’re Neopagan Witches, try not to swear by Christ, okay?”
“Jesus!” she swore, both in defiance and in genuine annoyance.
“Elam! Elam, come join the circle! I don’t want to take any chances of severing our bond,” I instructed, letting go of Charlotte’s hand and waving him in between us.
Faithful Familiar that he was, he obeyed without hesitation. Despite my concerns, I think that he probably could have stayed behind if he had wanted. The fact that he was willing to follow me to an unknown otherworld without complaint really made me appreciate how devoted he was to me.
“We step in together on the count of three, got it?” I instructed, each of them nodding clearly in response. “One. Two. Three!”
We all extended our right feet into the vortex together, and the instant we did we were swept away, falling out of our own world and tumbling between the cracks of countless others. They weren’t real, I don’t think. At least, not as real as our world. They were potential realities, or realities that could have been once but now can never be, or fantasies that are so persistent in the minds of real people that in some sense or another, they become real themselves. I only saw glimmers of them, glimmers in nebulas made of primeval chaos and uttermost void.
It was outside of time, that place we travelled through, or at least we had no sense of it there. Our souls were haphazardly spat out upon a surreal landscape of earth, sea, and fire. Hilly plains of volcanic ash, incandescent calderas of lava and bubbling hot springs all intermeshed in a chaotic mosaic that didn’t seem to abide by any laws of geology or geography that I was familiar with. A strong but slow wind pushed fractal formations of dark silver clouds through a pale silver sky, illuminated by a single white orb which could have been either a bright moon or a faint sun.
While our spectral feet left no trace upon the ash we now stood upon, our presence nonetheless elicited a response from some of the local fauna. We were just able to catch a glimpse of some kind of shimmering scarabs burrowing themselves into the ash to escape the four otherworldly ghosts that had invaded their territory.
“Holy shit,” Charlotte murmured as we all gazed out upon the strange world we had found ourselves on. “This really isn’t on the Astral Plane. This is a real planet. This a real, alien planet! This is unbelievable!”
Genevieve glided over to one of the bubbling pools and peered into it, looking for any more signs of life.
“There’s some kind of bluish-grey algae growing on the rocks down there, and I think I can make out some small arthropods too. This planet’s alive!” she announced with glee, smiling and looking up at the alien sky.
Conjuring an astral approximation of my staff, I plunged it into a small mound of ash beside me. I watched curiously as the scarabs shot out in all directions, moving too quickly for me to get a good look at them, before scurrying back into the surrounding ash.
“These bugs can sense our presence,” I remarked. “How and why would clairvoyance evolve in insects on this world, and why would their first instinct be to flee?”
“Samantha!” Elam called out. “I think I found the Flea Market.”
We all gathered around him and looked where he was pointing. On a distant dune, we beheld the moulted carapace of a colossal insect, gleaming a brilliant, lustrous gold in the broken white light.
“That’s impossible!” Charlotte claimed. “That thing must be hundreds of meters long! No insect, no animal period could ever get that big on the Physical Plane!”
“It could be the Incarnation of some kind of Titan,” Genevieve suggested. “But… it’s dead. I can tell that even from here. It’s dead. It’s the corpse of a dead god, and now it’s being used as a swap meet with a punny name. Either whatever killed it just abandoned it, or…”
“Or is running the place,” I finished for her. “Well, we should see if we can find Emrys.”
In an instant, the world moved around us until we were at the entrance to the Flea Market. The colossal carapace was hollow inside, of course, and had been filled with a bustling city that looked like it had been created in the most ad hoc manner possible. There wasn’t a single straight street to be seen, and they converged with one another at random intervals. Stalls and buildings varied wildly in both design and materials, all imported from a plethora of different cultures across the planes.
Enormous shards of luminous glass levitated above the throng like a thousand Swords of Damocles, any or all of them seeming capable of succumbing to gravity at any moment. In the very center of the moulted husk dangled a great spiralling chrysalis or hive woven of iridescent silk, its function not being immediately apparent to me.
There must have been thousands of people there, and hundreds of merchants hawking their wares. Most of those who looked human still seemed a little off, like they were members of ethnicities that didn’t exist in our world. Some of the beings were near-human in appearance, many seemingly some kind of Fey or Seelie folk. There was even a small handful of people that weren’t remotely human at all.
The only thing they all had in common was that none were native to this world.
“Most of these people are here in person, aren’t they?” Charlotte asked.
“It would’ve been quite a feat for them to have built all of this while astral projecting,” Genevieve agreed.
“But if this place isn’t connected to the Cuniculi, then how did they get here?” Charlotte asked. “We’re on another planet, maybe even in another dimension. If getting here is beyond the Ooo’s abilities, then what sort of ungodly reality benders decided to turn it into a Flea Market?”
“Ladies, gentlemen, and any beings either too ancient and alien or too modern and alienated to settle on one or the other, come bear witness to one of the most astounding and atrocious abominations on this or any other world!” a fast-paced male voice rang out over the din of the crowd.
We turned to see a short, skinny, old-timey sort of carnival barker standing on a literal soap box, placed next to a large object draped in a black tarp.
“For the paltry price of a single three-headed coin, you can peer beneath the veil and behold with your own unbelieving eyes the mangled and mutilated monstrosity that lurks beneath!” the carnival barker continued. “But I must warn you, it is not possible to truly understand what dwells underneath without seeing it first! I cannot guarantee that you will still retain your sanity or will to live after witnessing the proverbial Mountains of Madness, for this low creature is truly like no other and serves only as a grim testament to the cruel sadism of the Lord Above! Anyone plagued by even the faintest lingering doubt as to their spiritual fortitude should not dare to even contemplate what might lie before me! But, for those brave, noble few who are truly dauntless of heart and incorrigible of spirit, I am proud to share with you this rare, unfathomable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness sublime –”
The carnival barker was interrupted by a man yanking the sheet off the object beside him, revealing it to be a mirror.
“Whelp, that was a hell of an Im14andthisisdeep post, eh?” Charlotte mused.
Genevieve and I, however, were far too stunned to be amused; not by the mirror, but by the man who had unveiled it.
“It’s him, Lottie. That’s Emrys,” Genevieve whispered.
We had only seen him briefly once before, more than two-and-a-half years ago, but he was far from what anyone would call forgettable. He was tall and gaunt, with literal blue blood flowing beneath translucent skin. His long, receding hair and regal beard were pitch black, and dark miasma wafted from his eyes, nose, and mouth. He was dressed in dark sable robes with three overlapping Ouroboros’s tattooed on his forehead, with a pair of ophidian pupils lying in the spaces between them.
What stood out the most to us were the six silver Ouroboros chains bound around his wrists, ankles, waist, and neck. These were the chains the Ophion Occult Order had made to limit the power of his physical avatar, and it seemed he had not yet found a way to free himself from them.
“Are you still here?” Emrys asked in exasperation, tossing the veil back at the carnival barker in disdain.
“…Possibly,” the strange man replied evasively. “But not definitively, for purely legalistic reasons.”
“I believe Mathom-meister was quite clear when he said that your rather pitiful chicanery wasn’t welcomed here,” Emrys reminded him.
“And who is he to judge chicanery from cutthroat, capitalistic competition? Should not the Flea Market be a free market?” the charlatan demanded. “And while we’re on the topic of commerce, I don’t suppose you have enough three-headed coins to pay for all the poor souls you have so discourteously exposed to my exhibit against their will? I’d hate to have to start shaking people down to get my due.”
“Hard to believe your own circus threw you out,” Emrys said with a sardonic eye roll as he tossed him a small medallion. “You get one coin. Take it and get out of my sight.”
The charlatan flipped the coin in the air thrice, presumably to confirm it actually had three heads. Satisfied with its impossible dimensions, he shoved it into his pocket.
“It will cover the trolley ride home, at least,” he acquiesced, stepping off his soap box and turning to face his looking glass. “A shame though you can’t see the genius in my little avant-garde performance piece here, Emmy. Even I know that the monster in the mirror is often the hardest to recognize.”
As the man reached to pick up his mirror, his reflection’s arms shot through the glass and grabbed him by the wrists, pulling him in. Emrys immediately tried to chase after him, but bounced off the glass as if there was nothing supernatural about it at all.
“Bastard!” he cursed under his breath, before turning towards us and giving us a small apologetic smile. “I’m sorry you had to see that rather pathetic display. Unfortunately, the few meeting places I know of that are relatively safe from any Ophionic incursion also attract their fair share of other annoying miscreants.”
“If it didn’t attract a little bit of everything, it wouldn’t be a Flea Market, would it?” I asked rhetorically. “Thank you, Emrys, for inviting us. I’ve never been anywhere like this before.”
“And thank you for accepting. Samantha, Genevieve, it’s a pleasure to see you again, and a relief that you have not fallen under the auspices of the Ophion Occult Order,” he said with a gentle bow. “Elam, I remember you as well. Valiant but not reckless, you remained atop Pendragon Hill during my battle with the Darlings until your mistress was well out of harm’s way, and then you got the hell out of dodge yourself. Samantha couldn’t hope for a better Familiar. And Charlotte, any Witch that Samantha deemed worthy to induct into her coven is obviously someone whose acquaintance I am pleased to make. Welcome, all of you, to Mathom-meister’s Flea Market!”
“So this is where you’ve been hiding out the past two years?” Genevieve asked.
“Oh no. Far too Cosmopolitan for my tastes,” Emrys replied. “No, this is just a friendly place to meet those I consider friends – or potential friends, at least. I’d offer to show you around, but I know it’s difficult for you to astral travel for prolonged periods. Come with me to Mathom-meister’s house where we can talk freely, and we’ll discuss the situation with the Order.”
I gave him a small, single nod in response, and gestured with my staff that he should lead the way. He responded by pointing upwards, then vanished into his shadow form. When we looked up, we saw him waving at us from a balcony atop the great silken chrysalis.
We exchanged hesitant glances with one another, but ultimately followed him into the strange structure, moving from the ground to the balcony in an instant by will alone.
“How would an incarnate being get up here if they couldn’t fly or teleport?” Charlotte asked as she peered over the balcony’s teetering edge.
As though answering a summons, a humanoid creature apparated beside her in a flash of dark vapours. The hunched-back entity stood over six-and-a-half feet tall, and was clad in golden-brown erudite robes. Its squid-like skin was of a similar colour, and its entire face was a single gaping orifice that held a wispy, glowing orb in the center of its skull which I immediately recognized as its soul. A pair of long, fanged tentacles lined with pores and tendrils hung down from its head like a long, forked beard, and the seven digits shared by its two hands all bore wicked-looking talons, as did its two-toed, digitigrade feet.
“Not fly or teleport? What sort of pedestrian house guests do you think I entertain here?” the being asked wryly, its voice seeming to come from nowhere in particular.
Charlotte instinctively backed away from the creature and into the protective fold of our coven, but Emrys was quick to hold up his hand to plead for calm.
“Please, there’s no need for alarm. This is our host, Mathom-meister. He’s the only reason any of this is here in the first place,” Emrys informed us. “A year or two ago a companion of his unfortunately became one of the Darling Twin’s victims, and when he heard of my vendetta with them, he tracked me down; which is no small feat, I assure you.”
“It is for us. My people are a race of Planeswalkers. Traversing the many worlds of Creation is second nature to us,” Mathom-meister explained.
“I’ve… I’ve heard of your people, I think,” I said, softly and unsurely. “A friend of mine had an encounter with an artifact that gave her a vision of a race of strange and powerful sorcerers slaying their own god. I take it you’re the ones who slayed this Scarab Titan as well? That’s, that’s…”
“Horrifying, yes. That’s the idea,” he nodded. “You have nothing to worry about, young Witch. My people have no special interest in your world. This is purely personal. My friend is dead, and I want his murderers brought to justice; a goal which Emrys and I happen to have in common.”
“Feel free to share this information with the Ophion Occult Order, Samantha,” Emrys said. “I’d very much like for the Darling Twins to know what’s hunting them. Mathom-meister, please excuse me while I take my guests inside. We do have pressing business to discuss and their time is limited.”
The squid-cyclopes bowed gracefully, and my coven and I quickly scurried after Emrys as he led us inside through a towering hallway and into a large chamber that had been appointed as a living space.
I had thought that Emrys would want to speak with us alone, which was why I was surprised to see a young woman sitting cross-legged on a spongey yet chitinous object that I will for the sake of my sanity call a bean bag chair. Like Emrys, she was pale and blue-blooded, her choppy hair as black as coal. She wore a black robe and heavy black eyeliner, but these could not conceal the fact that she too had thin wisps of miasma emanating from her eyes.
“Is that your… daughter?” Charlotte asked, as baffled by her presence as any of us. The woman smiled warmly at the question.
“In a way. I was dead, and Emrys gave me new life. Now a part of the Outer Primordial Darkness he represents lives in me too,” she said serenely.
Hovering above her left palm were three small bluish-green orbs, lazily going around in a circle. They were translucent and held something inside them that I couldn’t make out, but the orbs themselves appeared to be melting and solidifying by the woman’s will.
“You’re Petra, aren’t you?” I asked as I cautiously approached her. “Chamberlin had mentioned that Emrys had taken an acolyte. I’m Samantha, and this is Genevieve, Elam, and Charlotte.”
“I know. The whole reason we’re here is to speak with you,” she nodded.
“The Ophion Occult Order calls me a soul-flayer, and I’m sure you were all wondering exactly what that meant before you came here,” Emrys said, standing proudly behind his acolyte. “Well, this is it. The Darkness Beyond is now a part of her, and a part of her now lives within the Darkness Beyond. She is not unchanged from what she was before, but neither has what she was been lost.”
“My interpretation of the term ‘soul-flaying’ was the complete removal of a person’s consciousness from their astral and physical bodies to be subsumed by your Darkness,” I countered. “They told me that what you’ve done with Petra here is just the limit of your power while you’re bound in their chains. Are you telling me that if your chains were broken, you wouldn’t be able to do any worse than this?”
“On my physical avatar? No. So long as my astral form remains chained and bound with the World Serpent, I cannot cleave a conscious mind from its astral substrate,” Emrys assured me.
“But that is your ultimate goal, isn’t it? Breaking the chains the Ophion Occult Order put on you is just a stepping stone to breaking the ones the gods bound you with?” Genevieve asked. “You’ve allied yourself with a literal god slayer. Do you expect us to believe that his people’s abilities aren’t something you intend to put to your own ends?”
“I don’t have an ultimate goal so much as I have a fundamental principle of opposing tyranny,” he claimed. “When I was a mere man, thousands of years ago, I was a tyrant. I believed that might made right so unquestionably that when my might began to fail me, the only thing I could think to do was to try everything in my power to restore it. This quest eventually led to me becoming one with the Darkness Beyond, which gave me not only the might I coveted but the wisdom I didn’t know I needed. It gave me perspective. It made me stronger than any human alive at that point but still let me realize how insignificant I was. It was humbling, and enlightening, and filled me both with remorse over my past actions and an impetus to use my newfound gifts to rectify them. I tried to overthrow the gods themselves which, in hindsight, was overly ambitious. I not only failed but had my soul devoured by the World Serpent, where it still resides to this day.
“I am not eager to bring the wrath of the gods down upon me once again. No, for now, I will be content to end the tyranny of the Ophion Occult Order. This is the message I’d like you to relay to them. If the Grand Adderman agrees to unbind my chains and step down from his post, I will spare his life. If he declines, I want the rest of the Order to know that I will show mercy to any who sides with me over him. I am willing to allow the Order to exist so long as it agrees to become more decentralized, democratic, and accountable. They will have to forfeit certain artifacts and individuals in their possession over to me, chief among them the Darling Twins, but I am willing to negotiate. If they aren’t, then I will overthrow the Grand Adderman by whatever means necessary and see the Order scattered to the four winds. It is entirely up to them whether or not the conflict between us escalates to full-on war. Have I made myself clear, Samantha?”
“I think so,” I said as I pensively considered everything he had said. “Why should they trust you to keep your word once your chains are broken? For that matter, why should we?”
He took a moment to consider his response, eyeing me over as though he was trying to divine something that would win over my trust.
“Samantha, you made a pact with Persephone to get your Spirit Familiar there; one where she swore by the River Styx. Is that correct?” he asked.
“It is,” I nodded.
“And in the years since, has Persephone ever broken that pact she swore to?” he asked.
“No, she hasn’t,” I replied.
“I may not be an Old God, but so long as my astral form remains bound by their chains, they have power over me,” he said. “Samantha Sumner, Hedge Witch of Harrowick Woods, I swear on the River Styx that I have spoken no lies to you today. I swear by the River Styx that I will abide by any Covenant that I and the Ophion Occult Order agree to in good faith and fair dealing that they do not break first. I swear by the River Styx that when my chains are broken, I will give you no cause to fear me or regret your trust in me.”
I gave a questioning glance to Genevieve, and then Elam, both of whom nodded in the affirmative.
“All right. An oath sworn on the River Styx is good enough for me. I’ll deliver your terms to Seneca Chamberlin,” I agreed. “I’m very grateful for the trust and respect you’ve shown for me and my coven, Emrys, though I can’t say I quite understand it. Out of all the guests that were there on the Hallow’s Eve you were summoned, why did Evie and I stand out to you?”
“The Ophion Occult Order deemed you worthy of inclusion in their cult, an offer you rejected on principle. You cheated Persephone, but you did it not to gain immortality for yourself but to save your friend from hell. You came here, thinking I could very well tear your souls asunder, but did so because you believed it was your duty to prevent needless suffering,” Emrys answered. “You are extraordinary in your craft, courage, and conscience, the latter of which especially stood out among the degenerates at that party. I do apologize if I frightened you at that event. I was a bit… irritable, given the circumstances. I’m glad we were able to meet again under more pleasant conditions.”
“So am I, Emrys,” I nodded. “I’m not sure exactly what this means or how relevant it is, but Seneca wanted me to tell you that he’s able to offer you the Dream Demon Red Ruck as a sacrifice.”
“Pffft. Tell him it’s hardly a sacrifice if I’m getting rid of a boogie man for him,” he scoffed. “In fact, now that you mention it, Ruck’s one egregore that might be of more use to me alive.”
I wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but we were suddenly interrupted by the rapid pounding of a gong somewhere down below. It seemed to be an alarm of some kind, as we could hear the panicked shouting and frantic racing of people either battening down or forsaking the Flea Market altogether.
Mathom-meister apparated into the middle of the room, his facial tentacles reflexively raised in a defensive position.
“Were you outside the market?” he demanded of us.
“The portal we came through deposited us a few miles outside of the market, yes,” I admitted.
“Damn,” Emrys cursed softly, though he sounded more frustrated than angry. “Meister, it’s not their fault. I knew they weren’t experienced Planeswalkers, I could have – ”
“It doesn’t matter!” Mathom-meister interjected. “They need to leave, now!”
“Why, what’s going on?” Genevieve demanded.
“The scarabs are swarming,” Petra explained. “Don’t feel bad; it happens often enough that they’re prepared for it.”
I wanted to press for more details, but I could hear the humming of a vast winged swarm steadily encroaching upon us.
“Don’t worry. Once you leave the swarm will disperse… eventually,” Emrys told us. “We’ve said all that need be said for now. Return home, and I’ll reach out to you again shortly, Samantha.”
Again, I wanted to object, but the swarm outside was growing louder and louder, and it occurred to me that we might not be completely safe from a biblical swarm of insects that could not only sense but evidently sought out souls.
This occurred to Charlotte as well, as she was the first of us to vanish and awaken back in her body. We could all feel the weight of her reembodied soul tugging on us to return with her. Genevieve immediately grabbed hold of my right hand and Elam my left, both of them refusing to leave before I did.
I spared one final glance at Emrys, lamenting that we couldn’t have had more time.
“I’ll relay everything you said to the Order. I’ll make sure they know you’re willing to negotiate a truce,” I vowed.
He gave me a gracious nod, and just as we heard the swarm start to pelt the exterior of the market, I forced my physical eyes open and was back in my body, still safely under a willow tree in my cemetery.
I immediately looked beside me to Genevieve, and saw that she was awake as well, and then around me for Elam, who seemed to be suffering a bit of spectral whiplash from being pulled back with me so suddenly, but was otherwise all right. Sighing with relief, I turned lastly to Charlotte, and saw that she was looking down at the mediation circle in dreaded horror.
Following her gaze, I saw that the Undying Rose was gone – spent, perhaps, in exchange for our passage – and in its place was the inert, and hopefully dead, body of one of the shimmering scarabs.

>be a purple fluffy with a yellow mane named Max
>you remember having a daddy. he was a nice man.
>then the herd came... the meanie herd.
>the unicorn that was in charge... he told you all sorts of things
>he said there was a magical place called Spaghetti Land where you could eat and play all day
>Daddy told you yes... there is a Spaghetti Land but he couldn't afford to take you there
>you didn't know what that meant, but the herd promised to take you
>they said he was a meanie daddy and a dummy
>you listened.
>you left home with them... but soon it was clear the unicorn, Spanky, didn't know where Spaghetti Land was
>you missed daddy
>the herd had wandered for many yellow sky balls.
>people would chase the herd from their places, no matter how much Spanky threatened them
>one day you ended up in a place with many good nummies. some you remembered from daddy's house. tomatoes, carrots, beans...
>but there was so much more! nummies everywhere! it wasn't spaghetti but it was food! and it was GOOD!
>the herd started to stuff themselves as Spanky bragged how smart he was
>then THE MAN came
>he was mad that the herd was there. he told you to leave.
>Spanky said it was your land now and said he'd give big hurties if THE MAN didn't go away
>THE MAN didn't like that at all.
>he took a stick and beat Spanky over and over. Spanky howled and cried and finally stopped moving
>you don't know if he took the Long Sleep or if he just had really bad hurties
>then THE MAN started to come after the other fluffies
>everyone ran in a different direction
>that was how you came to be with Diamond
>Diamond is a pretty filly. she seems too young to have babies but Spanky said she was ready
>she cried when Spanky gave her the good feels but when her belly started to get big she was happy she would have babies soon
>that was... a bunch of yellow sky balls ago
>Diamond can barely walk now. you have to roll her most of the time. sometimes she gets dizzy and makes mouth yuckies
>still, Diamond seems to like you and thanks you for taking care of her
>you've wandered through the Big Green. there were many trees... more than you had ever seen
>but now you see fields stretching far into the distance. some have big tall plants with green things growing in them
>it sort of reminds you of corn, but thats not what corn looks like... is it? corn is yellow!
>other fields have short plants... you dig some up and find sweet red round roots
>you've never had them before but they're yummy!
>"muh... max... max... dimun haff big poopies!"
>why is that your problem? make big poopies, whatever. you're more interested in these red things...
>"eeeeeeeeee! hunnnggghhh!"
>you hear a plop and then diamond starts squealing in joy!
>"babeh come! babeh come! max hewp wiff babehs!"
>oh! babies! you hurry over and pick up the foal with your mouth and place it next to diamond's head
>it doesn't taste pretty but you know it's what you have to do
>she starts licking it clean. the tiny foal starts to chirp. you know what that means... it's hungry
>diamond places him at her teat and it drinks hungrily
>"eeeeeee! notha babeh!"
>this one seems to get a little stuck coming out, tangled in diamond's dirty fluff
>you carefully pull little bits of fluff from the baby's sticky body and manage to pull it out all the way with your mouth
>like its sibling, diamond cleans it and places this one, a filly, on her teat
>"haff bootiful babehs, dimun!
>"dimun wuv babehs..."
>she starts to sing some sort of song as they nurse silently. you look down at them and smile. it's like your own little family!
>"hunnnngghhhh! eeeeeeeee! notha babeh come! max hewp!"
>this one slides right out... and it doesn't seem right
>this babeh doesn't have legs. just tiny nubs that move back and forth
>it's smaller than the others, too. a little gray thing
>still, a baby is a baby, right? you place it next to diamond's head...
>"NU! dat dummy babeh! nu wan!"
>"buh... is babeh! wub babeh!"
>"nuu! dat dummy babeh!"
>diamond kicks at the little foal, striking it and making it roll through the grass
>it starts chirping, hungry for milk, for love.
>okay. if diamond won't clean it, you will
>it does not taste pretty at all, but you eat one of the red things and it makes your mouth taste good again
>diamond stares angrily at the tiny foal the entire time as it flops around helplessly in the grass
>"max cwean babeh... now feed, pwease."
>"nuu. dummy babeh nu haff miwlkies. dat onwy fo gud babehs!"
>"juss giff miwlkies! dun be bad mumma!"
>"AM NOT BAD MUMMA! DAT BAD BABBEH!"
>now you're getting mad. it's a baby. it needs love. it needs milk.
>you do the only thing you can think of
>you smack diamond in the mouth
>"OWIE! why huwt fwuffy?"
>""yu bad mumma! yu giff babeh miwlkies NAOW!"
>"NUUU!"
>you sit down on diamond's chest, pinning her down
>"get off fwuffy! get off or giff big owies..."
>"DUMMY MUMMA! YU SHUDDUP AN STAY DERE OR GET BIG BAD POOPIES!"
>diamond looks anxiously at your poopie place, positioned right in front of her face
>she stops struggling and remains silent
>you pluck one of the foals off her teat and put the legless one on instead
>you turn to see diamond grimacing, frowing... she doesn't want this baby to have any milk
>tough. this one gets milk. whether she likes it or not.
>the tiny baby finally finishes drinking and burps. it spits a little milk up.
>you lick its face clean and the baby chirps happily, trying to snuggle into its mother's fluff
>"naow get off dimun! nu wan babeh!"
>you pluck the baby off her belly and place it on your own back. it chirps momentarily but then snuggles deep in your fluff
>"yu meanie fwuffy!"
>"yu dummy mumma!"
>"yu go way!"
>"i wiwll go way! dun wan be wiff dummy mumma! you BAD MUMMA!"
>you turn and lift your tail. a single poopie pellet pops out of your poopie place and bounces off diamond's face
>"NAOW YU POOPIE FACE! HA HA HA HA!"
>you blow a raspberry at diamond and start waddling through the big fields
>it's been quite a while now. your leggies are really starting to hurt.
>the baby snores slightly as it sleeps buried in your fluff
>you have to... have to rest. can't walk... any more.
>wait... is that a building? it is! the yellow sky ball is disappearing in the distance... the dark is coming. the cold.
>it has been getting very cold at night
>you don't dare go near the human place... not yet. not until you can check it out
>aha! a big pile of... what's it called? hay? straw?
>you barely remember long ago when you lived with other fluffies that's what mister tom put down on the floor
>sometimes it would smell bad from poopies and bad wawas but it was comfy, too
>it will do for tonight.
>you slowly dig your way into the big pile of straw, careful not to knock the baby from your back
>you finally get to the center of the pile and pull the baby from your back, placing it the fluff on your side
>it nuzzles against you and starts to chirp
>"nuu babeh... nu haff miwlkies... dun cwy..."
>the baby chirps a bit more but thankfully it goes back to sleep
>you sleep as well. for a long time.
>"MOOOOOOOOOOO!"
>you startle awake. what was that? a monster?
>you poke your head out of the straw pile. you see a big black and white thing nearby
>strange... it looks sort of like it has... four teats. like a mumma fluffy.
>did it see you? is it a monster?
>no, it just makes another low, deep sound and eats the grass, flapping its tail
>then you see a human coming! you slowly pull your head back into the straw so he can't see you
>the human puts a little chair down and sits on it next to the black and white thing
>he squeezes its teats into some sort of metal thing - MILK! YOU SEE MILK! LOTS OF IT!
>there's enough for an entire HERD!
>the human picks up the metal thing and his little chair and walks away
>you wonder...
>if that's milk...
>you look at the foal laying on the straw underneath you. it starts to chirp again. it's very hungry.
>you have to try.
>you pick up the foal with your mouth and carefully walk over to the black and white thing. it doesn't seem to notice you
>you lick your lips... maybe... maybe just a taste. to make sure its okay for the baby, of course
>you suckle on the big creature's teat. it makes another low, loud sound and flaps its tail but doesn't try to give you hurties
>you taste fresh milk flowing into your mouth... it's SOOOOO good, it reminds you of when you were a baby
>you... just barely remember mama. she was a good mama but mister tom took you from her. mama cried...
>enough. you know instinctively milk isn't good for adult fluffies.
>you hold up the baby with your front hooves and let it drink
>it suckles hungrily from the big creature's teat. coughing up some milk after a short time
>"dun dwink too much babeh... dwink swow..."
>as if understanding you, the foal peeps once and goes back to drinking, taking its time now
>finally it burps and licks it tiny lips
>now... to see if this is someplace you can stay
>its a big red building. you hear the sounds of more of the black and white creatures inside
>you walk around the outside of the building... aha! a loose board!
>being careful not to shake the baby loose you pull the board out and make a fluffy-sized hole
>it's warm in here. you can see some sort of metal thing in the middle of the place that is making heat
>there are big containers of water and lots of straw for a bed
>and best of all... there are other black and white creatures. plenty of milk!
>it's perfect!
>you spend the next couple of yellow sky balls feeding the baby and letting it nestle in your fluff
>when its light out you go to the big field and eat the sweet red things
>at night you sleep in the warmth in the human building
>it's almost too good to be true
>it's been four yellow sky balls since you arrived. but the baby has barely grown.
>that doesn't seem right to you... don't babies get big when they have milk?
>you lick the baby a little. it wiggles its tiny nubs and chirps at you, its eyes barely open
>shouldn't... shouldn't a baby be able to speak by now?
>"Well, well, what have we here..."
>the human! you were so focused on the baby you didn't hear him come in!
>no... this is more important... you have to take care of the baby... you have to!
>"All right, let's go..."
>the human approaches, reaching out to grab you
>you shrink away, crying at him
>"pwease nu! babeh haff huwties! somefing wong wiff babeh! pwease nu take way!"
>"Baby?"
>the human kneels down and gently picks up the tiny foal
>you place your hooves on his leg, reaching for the foal desperately
>"pwease nu huwt babeh!"
>"Easy... I won't hurt it..."
>the human looks the baby over and places it back down into the straw
>he strokes the fluff on your head
>"It's not healthy, fella... it's sickly. How long have you had it?"
>"dimun haff babeh fo o fifve yewwow sky bawl ago! she nu wan babeh! max take cawe of babeh!"
>the human listens intently
>"Another fluffy had this foal a few days ago and didn't want it? So you took care of it? Your name is Max?"
>"ya! dimun meanie mumma an nu wan babeh!"
>"Well, it's a runt... that's why. You did a good job taking care of her but... it's sick. It's not going to make it."
>"max dun unnastan! babeh get huwties?"
>"It's... dying. Do you understand dying?"
>you nod sadly. "da wong sweep."
>"The long sleep. Right."
>"buh... buh is nu faiwr! widdle babeh du nuffin wong! babeh juss need miwlkies and huggies and WUV!"
>you feel tears starting to drip down your face
>the baby chirps and starts coughing. it spits milk up and gags.
>"nuuu! babeh! nuuu!"
>you jump down from the human and pick the baby up, holding it against your chest
>"pwease babeh... dun take wong sweep! max giff mo miwlkies! giff huggies! giff..."
>the baby gags one last time and stops moving.
>"giff wuv..."
>the baby doesn't move. you silently place it back in the straw and sit there, tears pouring from your eyes
>"babeh juss wan wuv..."
>"You gave it love, Max. You gave it more love than its mother. You did a good thing. You were a good daddy."
>"gud dada? if max gud dada den why haff huwties inside?"
>"We all hurt inside when someone we love goes away... takes the long sleep."
>"huwties go way?"
>"Sometimes... it helps if you just try to remember the good and forget the bad."
>you nod. "foget bad..."
>"You hungry, boy? Want some food?"
>"haff some wed fings fwom field but yah... still hungwy..."
>"Like the beets, huh? Then you'll love my corn cakes."
>"wut bout babeh?"
>"Let's get you something to eat and then we'll bury the baby. Okay?"
>"buwy babeh..."
>the human picks you up and strokes your soft fluff, carrying you to his home
>you sadly look over his shoulder at the baby laying in the straw
>you whisper to it "sowwy babeh" and bury your face in the human's chest
>you were a good daddy... even if just for a little while
​
​
Source

i have had a lot of bad stuff happening to me since i was 8 years old. because of something that happend a year ago i have a lot of problems going to school. i try my best to wake up and go but sometimes it's not posseble, my mom can get pretty angry in a very short time and that would have been ok if she didnt start saying mean things like ( you're so selfish, you're mean and one time she even said she wanted to give me up for adoption )
of course i know its hard that i can't go to school most of the time and in most arguments i try to see her side too, but its hard when she says mean things. i know she has problems too but its no excuse to say things like that and screaming at me to wake me up makes it harder to go to school, do homework ect. she keeps saying im a burden to the rest of the family and that i should start takeing responsibility. i try my best to not make any problems but i think it's hard if everything i do is a problem.
things i struggle with because of my mom is cleaning my room, go to school, do homework, do chorse around the house and sometimes take care of my self. if you say well it's not your moms fault i can kind of prove it's some-what her fault, she resently went on a trip and when she was gone i was able to clean my room, do the dishes, walk the dog, go to school, help my brother with some personal stuff and go work out. every time i ( for exampel ) did homework and showed i too her she always said '' good now go do the math homework'' when i said i already did it she'd say '' ok well go do the dishes'' nothing is ever good enough for her. we had a fight some time ago and i said this exact example to her and she said '' no all the things you do is good enough '' but if that's the case, why do i always need to do more and more anfter i've done the things i need too. it would be diffrent if i didnt do anything at all on purpose, but i dont think i do that.
she always says she never sayd anything mean and that she would never say shed put me up for adoption. i literally have a video of the fight where she says '' GOOD THEN WE CAN FIND ANOTHER FAMILY FOR YOU AND THAT WILL BE THROUGH THE ADOPTION SYSTOM'' mind you this was after i sayd that she was most of my problems, i know i might have egged her on but i had thought of it a long time and thats the conclusion i always came too ( and still do )
We have a family friend that works in the adoption industy and my mother sayd she talked too her and that she asked her opinion, i dont know if she wants to actually wants to give me up, but im starting to think its a good idea since im such a burden to everyone in the family and to mom.
i appolegise for any spelling mistakes, i'm not english. and thank you for reading
am i the a-hole?

Hello! My love for the past 10 years has recently expressed their interest in ENM, and I wish to be a supportive whilst happy partner. They say and I’ve known they have so much love in their heart, and for years wished they could give more before learning about non-traditional relationships these past few months. They’re an easy person to fall in love with, and on the flip-side, easily fall for others! For now, they wish to practice what they called “flings” and “Sunday friends.” ^{(But they identify as demisexual, so it comes with a history and feelings\}))

• I’ve read that successful poly relationships mostly stem from partners being poly in the beginning of the relationship. Is there a chance we could become successful together? I previously considered leaving, but decided that they’re worth walking through Tarturus for—and anything less severe, such as an open relationship—and to not be so closed-minded nor -hearted before trying.
• How can I overcome jealousy? This is something I’ve struggled with for a long time, and I genuinely wish to change, both for myself and my sweetheart. I don’t wish to allow for my own insecurity to hurt my better half nor myself. They continue to tell me it has nothing to do with me, or that I’m “not enough,” but it’s difficult to not feel it. This is my biggest concern of all questions; I want to become a better person and partner, and finally get rid of all this worry and hurt.
• Similarly, envy: I feel envious that my partner already has what feels like “people lined up,” whom they’ve met freelancing while I’ve been supporting us for 8-10 hours a day in jobs I’ve hated for years. How do I overcome feelings of betrayal, and similarly, loneliness? I don’t exactly have a friend group these days—I’m always tired, and days off are spent resting. I’m scared of searching for or jumping into partners too soon, but I’m growing more and more curious about the idea; if you have advice, what would it be? ^{(And I DID quit my job,} *^finally*^{, this week! I have a libido again LOL But in all seriousness, these conversations have made me wish to take incentive to start making even small choices to be happy. I’ve never quit a job before, unless it’s to move! It’s all very exciting but scary AAAAA})

I’m not sure what else to ask, from the top of my head. I’m very grateful my love opened up with me about this, and continues to do so. They waited to move forward their virtual relationships ^{(being immunocompromised, they don’t feel yet comfortable with the idea of meeting physically due to COVID concerns}), and began to tell friends they romantically love them, after I said it was okay.
They were also kind enough to ask about phoning one of their belles, and more than invited and encouraged me to stay in the room while they had a friendly chat yesterday. I still haven’t met any of their romantic interests, but that was an alien experience! I fled at the beginning, but returned and found myself smiling and laughing at their talk about video games of all things. But I don’t want to have that initial instinct of “run away,” and want to encourage while simultaneously becoming fully comfortable with them following wherever their heart leads. I also don’t wish to “hover” over them nor involve myself in their private relationships. Is there any way I can fully trust and believe that my love would still continue to love and be interested in me, even though they’ve repeated it to me since opening up? Does it just take time?
I don’t wish to give the impression that ENM isn’t the glove that fits me. It’s all just brand-new, and I see this as an opportunity for my sweetheart to be even happier, while I can continue to grow and become both a better person and partner. And maybe find that this is an arrangement I can be happy with multiple partners, too, after an instance or two in these past years together facing strong feelings for others I suppressed in the past for the sake of monogamy. If you have any further advice, insight or resources, I’d be more than excited to hear them! 💖

Put a finger down if your narc parent: (TW- mentions of SA, abuse, suicide, eating disorders, self harm)
- Refused to teach you how to drive in your teens, citing completely bull shit reasons, because they simply didn't want to do another bare minimum parent thing and help you and didn't want you to have the independence and freedom driving brings and now you are a struggling adult trying to learn how to drive by yourself
- Never let you live with them as a university student (despite their claims that if you are in school you can live with them for free) because they just don't want to support you for some weird fucking reason and see you set up financially post-education due to their jealousy, and they tell people bull shit reasons why you don't actually live with them (my dad once said to my landlord, unprovoked, "yea she doesn't live with me because I just don't want all these guys over" and when my landlord looked at him and said "I've never once seen a guy over" he said it's because I'm good at hiding it....? I moved out at 17 and wasn't allowed to date in high school)
- Doesn't pay any of your bills and hasn't ever, even as a teenager, DESPITE being upper middle class yet feels entitled to question you or comment on your finances and belittle you without providing any advice let alone any help
- Refuses to teach you anything, like how to do taxes or change a tire, because they want to be able to make fun of you for not knowing how AND it keeps you dependent on them and their help at the price of your fucking sanity and wellbeing
- Sabotaged your high school experience through strictness and forcing you to work a lot (in the summer I worked one job from 5am-1pm and then another from 2pm-10pm 5 days a week and then every weekend during the school year), or disrupted your academics in any way they could (they also made me move provinces into a new curriculum in grade 12 which definitely fucked me over)
- Called your self-harm scars "disgusting" and "embarrassing" and mocks you for cutting yourself going so far as to mimic you doing it whenever they've knowingly upset you
- Blames you entirely for being in an abusive relationship, and then when your narc dad forced you stay in their home for a couple days while your ex was being processed in jail (after the police called them against your wishes) his narc girlfriend tells you "well you can't stay here forever" when you literally didn't want to be there to begin with but when you tried to use that as a reason to leave your narc dad saying "She never said that, stop lying, if you go back to your house I'll call the cops on you"
- Refused to cook for you- okay I guess that's not that bad right? BUT didn't let you cook for yourself without feeding them- okay weird- AND demanded you buy groceries as a teenager so, to sum up- expected you to buy groceries and cook for them and do neither for you BUT cooked for each other and ate in front of you and you weren't allowed their leftovers either and they'd let them go to waste in the fridge and throw them out before giving them to you, and if they saw you eating they would abuse and berate you and question where their food was to the point where you developed extremely unhealthy eating habits (hiding food in your room and eating it quickly and quietly)
- Had really specific bull shit rules for you that they didn't follow (one of many for me was my dads girlfriend said I wasn't allowed to touch the window shades in the living room and if she heard me pulling the blinds up or down would freak out on me)
- Make up random fights with you and would take your school textbooks away from you when you would refuse to give in and apologize for the nothing that you did, so literally taking away your ability to study until you apologized to them for whatever they wanted and begged for your books back (never happened I just learned to never be at home and be in the library all the time, not like I had to be home for dinner lol)
- Rarely if ever took you to the dentist or doctor and now you're suffering the consequences of that as an adult (my dad no joke said to me, at the age of 13, that it's my responsibility to be in control of my health and contact my dentist and doctor and if I didn't then I didn't deserve the responsibility of a dog, and threatened to give my dog away)
- If they ever apologize (rare, we're talking once every decade type shit) it's about something really small and insignificant and they make a huuuuuuuuge dramatic display of it and always root it within self-victimhood and make it entirely about themselves and if you don't forgive them or give them the reaction they want then instantly get mad and the tears rapidly disappearing
- Lie to you consistently to make excuses for them being shitty parents to you but are so narcissistic and abusive they don't even try to lie well enough to be believable and just expect you to drop it
- Coerce affection out of you without respecting your bodily or emotional autonomy (when I met my dads girlfriend at 15 she would NOT stop touching me and started calling herself my mom and me her daughter immediately, no joke IMMEDIATELY within days to me and other people (and I didn't have a mom at that point so it was extra fucked up of her) and when I asked her to stop because it made me uncomfortable, she would make a huge display and cry to my dad and my dad would abuse me- it's important to note she only wanted a "daughter" and to be called a "mom" for ego reasons, she didn't want to actually be a mom and provide, protect, care for me, etc.
- Make sexual jokes about their relationship and when you would call them out or make a grossed out face yell at you so severely cops would be called (if it was at home) or security would be called (if it was in public) but your dad used his privilege to get away with it and would laugh with officers and say "Sorry you guys were called, I was just putting my daughter in her place, she's a fucking idiot"
- Prioritized their romantic relationships over you and brought another narc abuser around you and they teamed up on you and were pretty much your at-home bullies
- Had loud, obnoxious sex around you and called you immature and yelled at you when you asked them politely to stop
- Fat shamed you as a kid/teenager and continues to fat shame you as an adult despite the fact that they are morbidly obese (fatphobia is fucking disgusting, I'm merely pointing out how insecure they are, how much cognitive dissonance they possess, and how abusive they were and are to me)- mine even went so far as to make fat jokes about me when they were driving me home from the hospital at 16 after a suicide attempt and said "I bet you only did this for attention and Wendy's huh piggy?" and then bought THEMSELVES Wendy's and not me because I ruined their Saturday lol they also made suicide jokes to me at Christmas last year a couple months after I was discharged from the hospital for another suicide attempt
- Barged into your therapy appointment with your psychologist at 16 and tried to convince the psychologist they are the true victims and when the psychologist didn't give them what they wanted, took you OUT of therapy (even though they weren't paying for it) citing bull shit reasons
- If they ever invite you out to dinner or lunch or coffee (rare) either expecting you to pay for them or making a big deal of paying for you despite the literal.... nothing they do for you and being the ones to invite you out
- Constantly told you that you had cluster b personality disorders and any issue between you and them was a result of your "mental illnesses" and then when you finally got various psychodiagnostic assessments from different psychologists all confirming you don't have any personality disorders (wow, imagine if you did and how validated in their abuse of you, and their ableism, they would feel) and in fact being told you have PTSD and depression, them being genuinely upset about it because it doesn't fit their narrative
- Talks about deeply personal things in your life behind your back to their friends despite you asking them not to because of how uncomfortable it makes you
- Took many vacations and always went without you, never once taking you with them and didn't even tell you they were going on one, and providing bull shit excuses why you didn't go whenever they're asked about it by other people (my dad went across the country to meet his bio family - he was adopted- and took his gf but not me because "I had to make sure they were safe and wouldn't abuse you"...… right, but you can abuse me, your girlfriend can abuse me, my mom could abuse me, but right can't risk these new family members I meet for a weekend abusing me, my hero)
- Going out of their way to make you the butt of every joke EVERY time you see them (and making lots of jokes) and if you don't play along treating you even worse and claiming you're being unreasonable, but will go INSANE if you make a joke about them that isn't nearly as bad as their "jokes" (also doing this in groups of people, my dad once brought up my good friend getting shot in a convenience store when I said I was going to the store while their friends were there, he said "Don't get shot like what's his name!" and his girlfriend loudly shit talked me to her friends like a LOT when I was hiding in my room)
- Makes every conversation you have with them completely about themselves and if it's about you it being completely negative, belittling, condescending, probing and invasive trying to find information to weaponize against you either by disparaging you or making fun of you and if it's anything good belittling it and/or changing the subject right back to themselves
- Has extremely intense road rage, like Jesus Christ calm down psycho
- Publicly lies about the things they do for you (in reality it's nothing but they claim it's everything because their friends actually do things for their kids so they have to save face)
- If they give you a gift it's always something shitty they know you won't like (because you've specifically stated you disliked said thing or it's a truly thoughtless or insanely low effort "present" used for their own ego gratification- for example my dads girlfriend got me a 6 pack of solid tuna for Christmas one year (not even flakey ffs lol) and I should've been grateful because she knew how much I liked tuna, and then a crystal light water enhancer another year (in a flavor I've said I hate) because she knew how much I loved water...) and then being called ungrateful when you aren't jumping for joy at new reminders of their shitty thoughtlessness and how they just genuinely don't give a fuck about you lol
- Not just downplays your trauma and grief, especially their part in it no matter how big or small, but full blown claims it never happened (when my dad was yelling about me moving out of my moms to live with him at 13 he said it was because she was hitting me but it wasn't- I grew up with that and was used to that- it was because I was SA'd he no joke looked at me and said "Oh, so you're a rape victim now?" and then went on to demand I report it if I was so traumatized, and found my rapist on Facebook after demanding me give him the details (not leaving my room and yelling at me until I did) and showed me him! wasn't a triggering horrible time at all lol) AND always talks about their grief and their trauma and everything they went through and how what they went through is always somehow worse than what you went through, even if it on a factual surface-level doesn't even come fucking close
- Makes shit up to try and gaslight you about yourself (my dads girlfriend tried to claim the reason why in once specific incident where she wouldn't let me eat food was because I physically pushed her???? this was literally the only time my dad stood up for me against her and said that never happened and he was there, but WOW)
- Weaponizes their moodiness and takes their anger from their miserable relationship and miserable lives out on you
- If they ever do literally anything for you, like anything, weaponizing it and using it as an opportunity to abuse you or gratify their ego and will endlessly talk about how amazing of a parent they are because of the one thing they did (no matter how small tbh, could be dropping off unimportant mail like flyers on their way to work)
- Lies about you to their friends and family so when they meet you you often hear things like, "Huh, I had no idea you were so nice!" "Wow, you're working?" "Oh, you're in school?" so basically not mentioning anything good about you, or severely downplaying it, and overplaying tf out of anything "bad" that's either extremely exaggerated, I mean like you enjoy a glass of wine at Christmas and they claim you're an alcoholic exaggerated, or completely fabricated
These are some of mine! If you relate in anyway I am so sorry. If you want to use the comments to cathartically contribute, please do!
My anger about my experiences has been at a rolling boil today for some reason so I felt the need to vent haha

I saw a movie playing in a random pizza place in the finger lakes when I was young, maybe 2005 or 2006. I vividly remember a red haired white skinned puppet shoving his hand repeatedly into a weird looking protruding hole in the middle of a human man's back. The hole kind of looks like it's filled with fat, like the chunky yellow consistency inside the hole. I remember the human guy having curly gray hair. He screamed in pain every time the puppet put his hand in the hole, it was pretty forceful. The puppet was talking to other puppets about some plans and was trying to shut the guy up I guess... Or torture him, or something. That's all I saw, my mom took us out of there because the people kept swearing lol. I think there was another male puppet and possibly a female puppet in the room, but I don't remember if they were talking about taking over the humans, or if it was a more location specific plan. Any tips appreciated.

Hi,
I am looking for a new storage solution. For a small video production company that deals with video post-production, editing, VFX, etc...
​
- one project is about 20-30TB
- editing in Davinci Resolve from proxies, full data are used only for color grading and finish
- I would like to avoid the Synology / QNAP solution, we need sometink more versetile
- we need a disk array with sufficient capacity (for start 200TB), and good speeds with upgradability in mind
- all workstations are connected with 10Gb fiber. And the switch has 2x QSFP 40GBs
- 12 workplaces. But everyone does different things…
- Price-wise, it should all be around $10,000-$12,000.
​
1) For the idea of future proving, I don't know whether to go the route:
A) 2U main server with 24 SFF slots for ssds (for cache, possibly for additional purchase of sata SSD and creation of a small fast pool for demanding projects) and connecting JBOD shelf for 24 disks (we have plenty of space in server room, about one rack is empty)
B) 4U box for 36 disks and a server in one
​
2) in the case of ZFS, how to plan the pool layout? I'm playing with the idea of vdev 8x18TB RAIDZ2 and to start with 2x vdev so 16 disks + 1 hot spare... How will it be with speed? In theory it should handle 1200-1400mbps read? and write 700?
​
3) I am also dealing with the question of whether it would be better to pay extra and have the company build it and have an extended warranty on the HW (spare parts within 24 hours) so that no problem arises. We are starting to do daily shows, where we only have about 7 days for editing and all the production before it goes on air.
​
4) If the board dies, is it possible to connect the HBA to any other / other PC, boot TrueNas and continue?
​
5) Somehow after researching and reading etc... I like:
- Supermicro CSE-847BE1C4-R1K23LPB
- Supermicro MBD-H12SSL-NT-B
- AMD EPYC Milan 7313P UP 16C/32T
- 256 GB ram
- 40gb QSFP nic
- 2x2tb NVME for L2ARC
- 2tb NVME for sLog
- lsi 9400-16i 16 port 12gbps as HBA?
- some boot drive
​
Thanks in advance for your help.