Hair salons open sunday near me

Never For Ever is an incredibly interesting album. It’s interesting because most people view it as a transitional album - bridging the gap between her earlier, more piano led work, and her later, more weird-in-the-best-fucking-way-possible work.
After relistening to it, I honestly disagree. I think Never For Ever is much more in line with The Dreaming or Hounds Of Love than it is The Kick Inside or Lionheart. The Fairlight is copiously used here, Kate’s writing is stranger (and better overall), the themes here are, in general, much darker as well.
It also happens to be her best album yet. And also nearly perfect, too.
You can immediately tell something’s changed when listening to the opener, Babooshka. As far as pure rock songs go, this is her best. It’s like Kate Bush artsiness meets the Piña Colada song, which is a compliment. Kate’s lyricism is also noticeably more mature here.
After the Fairlight derived glass smashing, we arrive at Delius. This song is so bizarre. However, it is emblematic of the change in her sound - with its electronic drumbeat, those absolutely hilarious male backing vocals (ta-ta-ta!), and the sort of spaced out, airy feel of the track. Good song.
Blow Away is pretty conventional as far as this album goes (not very), but it’s fantastic. It’s a genuinely lovely tribute to a lighting technician, Bill Duffield, who sadly died at the start of The Tour Of Life. It’s a really nice gesture from Kate, and a wonderful song, too.
Ah, I was wondering where that weirdness went. I read somewhere (on RYM I think) that All We Ever Look For sounds like it’s from a Final Fantasy game, which is terrifyingly accurate. The melody on the verses is wonderful. Lyrics are very interesting, too - they seem to be about parenting and the cycle of abuse… I think? Very underrated song in her catalogue.
Egypt is also very underrated. I love the atmosphere Kate creates in this song - those synth sounds create a real feel of mystique. This song also features the line “my pussy queen knows all my secrets” which makes it an instant 10.
I’ve been pretty positive about this album so far. The second side, however, is where the album truly hits its stride.
You know how I said earlier that Babooshka is Kate’s best rock song? I’m not really that confident in that claim, as The Wedding List exists. A wonderfully eccentric and catchy song about your husband being murdered in your wedding day, then going out and exacting revenge on the murderers by also murdering them. So relatable.
Next is the best song Kate Bush wrote about an instrument - it’s Violin. Now, picture in your head what a Kate Bush tribute to the violin would sound like. Maybe it prominently features the violin, a very graceful vocal performance from Kate, and some very elegant melodies?
No. It’s a hard rock song with wailing and screaming guitars, and Kate doing… whatever she’s doing.
WTF is this song? And why is it so good? What crazy form of illegal substance was Kate on when writing this?
The Infant Kiss is next. I’m pretty… meh on this one. It actually sounds like it could belong on The Kick Inside or Lionheart. It’s still a pretty good song, but the lyrics aren’t to my taste. I know it’s meant to be inspired by a movie, but the lyrics come across as really creepy to me (I’ve never fallen for / A little boy before).
Night Scented Stock. It’s a nice interlude. I always misread it as “Night Scented Sock”, which makes it sound like Kate wrote a song about someone’s wanksock.
This album really gets good at the end. Army Dreamers is one of the best anti-war songs ever written. The light and airy vocals and instrumentation really contrast to the heartbreakingly dark subject matter - about a young adult dying in war and not being able to live up to his potential. It’s a really interesting take on war.
Speaking of anti-war songs, to finish we have Breathing. It uses a baby in the womb of their smoking mother as a metaphor for nuclear war. In the current world we live in, this song becomes ever more horrendously relevant. I’m not the person to write about this song, but it’s terrifyingly post-apocalyptic and dark and it’s perfect.
Overall, Never For Ever is Kate’s most daring, interesting and bestestest record yet. I wonder if what she makes next will be this weird? I doubt it.

A bit about him; According to the shelter, he has interacted and lived with rabbits prior with absolutely no issue. He has, however, been rehomed quite a bit.
His original furrever home, his owner was an old woman who loved him dearly, but she died. The apartment building collapsed on them, and he was stuck under the rubble for a long time. He was wearing a harness at the time and was desperately trying to get out so he has a big scar on his shoulders and neck where the harness was.
The shelter found him his first home with a nice couple that had bunnies. He was extremely happy there, and he was great friends with the bunnies. The bunnies were free roam and spent all their time with him, and he treated them like they were his babies. But according to the humans, the cat was "too needy" and cried when they left the house, and they were planning on having a child so they didn't think he would be a good fit for them. Mind you they had him over a year before they decided this!
The second home was with another couple, but it turns out they were hoarding animals. They brought him back injured saying he wasn't a good fit because he peed on their floor and also the other cats didn't like him. (He has never peed on the floor with me.)
The third home was with a family, the two daughters were nice but mom and dad were abusive, the mom was verbally abusive, and the dad was physically abusive. The daughters actually brought him back to the shelter to save him from their parents, and the parents, as far as I am aware, are still "looking" for him.
I found him on an adoption page after my cat passed away and we were looking for a new friend for our rabbits. The cat we had was extremely close to them, and acted like a mom to them. One of my buns was getting very sick since she passed and not eating. My home also felt extremely empty without a cat..
We read his story and fell in love. We saw he was young enough to be trained easily and already had prior experience with rabbits, so he was perfect all around. Plus I know we won't get rid of him ever, and I wanted him to have a furrever home because he deserves that. My last cat left behind a lot of toys and cat trees and cat climbs, so I knew we were going to be able to spoil him.
Fast forward to now, it's been about a month and he is fitting in perfectly. We decided to introduce him to the buns gradually, we have their pens set up in my bedroom so they can see each other but he can't really touch them. We have also opened up the house slowly to allow him time to adapt instead of overwhelming him with all this space all at once.
Right now, he is mostly in the bedroom with me. I'm home a lot due to my disability and this works out well because he is a bombay and is on the needier side. He cries when I leave and follows me everywhere. He loves to play and be pampered.
Everyday we have a routine where I give the buns their treat and he follows me as I give it to them, and then I give him his morning wet meal. We play in the morning after breakfast and in the afternoon before dinner. We sleep together, and he also gets massages and moisturizer on his toe beans and scar, which he seems to enjoy.
The buns need free roam time daily, so every day, when we let the bunnies out, he goes down the hall out of my room to his play room, and the buns free roam in the bedroom. My mom stays with him to keep him company during this time and he seems to look forward to that. When he comes back in the room and smells that they've been out, he doesn't try to get rid of their scent or mark stuff, he just goes about his business.
There's already been a situation where he snuck in while the buns were out, and he was very good. He was rubbing on them and loving on them, and just laid down and showed his belly. So he isn't being aggressive at all towards them.
When they are penned, he goes up to the pen to kiss them and lay by them. He is very calm, and even when they zig zag around, he doesn't chase or stalk. He never seems to look at them as prey. Even when we let him play on the TV, he will attack the birds and mice and squirrels, but when a bunny comes on, he doesn't swipe.
Here is the issue though. I have noticed when I go to interect with the bunnies, he will paw at them. Like, when the bunnies come up to the font of the pen, he sticks his paw through and they hop away. They don't seem scared when he does this, just annoyed, because they still come up to greet him a lot and even kiss him and pass him toys through the slats of the pen.
He doesn't seem to be using his claws, and is being gentle when he does it, but the quick motion surprises the bunnies and I don't really like that they are starting to not want to come near the front of the pen to greet me as much because they don't wanna be swiped.
He doesn't seem to do this when I'm not in the room, and he doesn't even do this when I am in the room. He only does it when I go near the buns.
I don't know if he's mimicking me because I reach through the pen to pet them and give them treats, or if he is being territorial and doesn't want them to invade his space, or if he is being jealous toward them because he wants all my attention to himself. It could also be that he's trying to play with them, or just being curious. But every time he sees them come up to the gate when I'm near it, no matter where he is or what he's doing, he will walk up to the pen, and paw them away.
He doesn't listen when I say no, don't do that. And it's not just this that he doesn't listen to me about, either. He just doesn't listen when I say no. Like he tries jumping up on top of the pens and onto my nightstand. I say no but he keeps doing it over and over again. And I don't wanna yell or be stern because he's been yelled at before and hit before, so I don't know how to correct his behavior.
Does anyone have any idea what could be the cause of this behavior shift when I'm near the pen, and how to correct it? Also, just how to reprimand him in general, because I don't want to scare him.
I would prefer help from someone that is a cat behaviorist, has bunnies and cats, or just is familiar with situations like this. Thanks in advance.

Hi, so I’m kinda stuck in the middle of a situation with no idea what to do so I thought I’d try get some advice off strangers. I (F17) work at a global known retail company which is mainly known for its beauty products and my Assistant Manager, AM, (F19) seems to be “picking” on me at nearly every time i work with AM.
I am currently in my last year of College in the UK doing my A-Level Exams so I can get into University in September 2023.
Originally when I started at this company in December 2021 she was a Customer Consultant (CC), same as me, and she was a non judgemental and approachable person. However, due to staff leaving she went a step up the career ladder to a Team Leader (basically the same as a CC but with the ability to open & close shop but with better pay). When she first originally got this new role she started criticising everything I did to not cleaning foundation’s properly to calling me a bin lady as CCs only empty the bins to asking me why I didn’t wear enough mascara. I know it’s not literal bullying but with it happening nearly every shift I got tired of it to literally crying after my shifts and w ain’t to quit and not come to work. Eventually my partner persuaded me to tell my SM (Store Manager) which he sorted it out and had a word with her. After this the sly comments stopped.
Recently, she has climbed another step of the ladder to become an AM. Feeling happy for her I congratulated her all was happy. Until a couple weeks ago. I found out that my contracted hours was to be going up another 4 hours a week (from 8 hours to 12 hours) and that I would be assigned as a Designated Person (DP) which basically means I’ll be a TL but not getting paid for it due to the company getting rid of TL’s to save money. So I’d get a pair of keys to open and close up. I took the opportunity just to put it on my CV.
However, my AM has a really close friend which works in the same store as us who is on a 8 hour CC contract (we’ll call her P aged: 18/19) who has been with the company since May 2022 as temporary maternity cover and has been in quite abit of trouble since starting such as coming in inappropriate clothing such as booty shorts (even though we don’t have a clothing policy), always on their phone on the shop floor, ignoring customers, not meeting targets and having her bf coming in and out of shop at all times one time she was working.
Ever since she found out she has been nitpicking me about everything I do, again. But it’s nothing physical this time. At first she was interrogating me as to why P didn’t get the extra hours due to P not being in education, having no responsibilities and begging for extra hours. Asking me how I was a better fit than P due to me wanting to go to University. I basically gave her a blunt response and that was that. The next time I worked with her she was nitpicking again. All those examples happened in one day:
Example 1: My coworker (let’s call her B, aged between 40-50) before I started asked me to help them print off a document as I’m the “tech savvy” one there. Due to password complications it took longer than I expected and my shift started as we were printing it out AM asked where I was and how I should have told her where I was but didn’t challenge B to not telling AM where B was.
Example 2: At work we have the choice to wear a full length apron with pockets at the front or a lanyard with the companies logo on it. I wore my keys to work and didn’t put an apron on since I didn’t want to that day. AM singled me out out of 2 other employees working at the same time, not wearing apron, and questioned me why I didn’t have an apron on as SM wouldn’t be happy.
Example 3: 1 out of 3 AM’s keys are broken due to her breaking it by smashing it in a door so she got a replacement of 1 out of 3 keys, these include a lanyard. SM told her to swap with B as the keys are expensive to replace but AM didn’t want to ask. Due to me having my own keys she practically made swap keys asking me in a rude and blunt way saying SM told her to. Given no option I did.
Example 4: I changed the bins and left the bags in the back and forgot to put them by the fire door like we normally do due to getting busy with a customer. AM told me off for it being a fire hazard (rightly so said sorry and offered to move them but AM got moody with me) but while AN was telling me off there was two crates which are relatively big (where we stash the under-stock to save us going up into the stock room) AM left in the middle of the shop floor with a customer nearly falling over them which just got me more upset due to her contradicting her self.
Since this I have been looking at jobs again since I don’t want to be at work while AM is which is very often due to AM being full time. As well as this I have made a record of what AM is doing.
My partner is telling me to report all this to SM like I did last time but I hate the idea of causing drama and my brain is telling me I’m blowing this out of proportion.
I guess I just want advice on what to do and want to get outsider opinion. I am open to any criticism and questions. Thanks :)

Hello, I am a 37-year-old man, looking for a woman who is somewhat similar to me and interested in building a long-term friendship or maybe even a relationship. Here is some basic information about me:

• I have a silly, sarcastic, and sometimes dark sense of humor. I enjoy roasting and being roasted, but I would never want to hurt someone intentionally. I appreciate open communication to avoid misunderstandings.
• I drink socially, usually with a select few friends, and smoke occasionally, but only when I'm drunk.
• I'm neutral towards tattoos and don't have any myself.
• I'm an atheist and passionate about music.
• I'm very logical and politically a left social moderate, supporting a mixed economy and the separation of religion and state.

As for my interests and hobbies:

• My favorite movies include School of Rock, LOTR, Red, and the Bourne series, and I enjoy superhero movies.
• I'm not into novels but used to read a lot of history, philosophy, and science-related stuff. Now I mostly read about tech and watch YouTube videos.
• I'm a fan of sci-fi and sitcoms, especially Doctor Who and FRIENDS.
• I have an eclectic taste in music but mainly enjoy classic and progressive rock, as well as electropop/synthpop.
• I prefer dogs over cats and used to be a casual gamer.
• I enjoy photography and would love to get started again someday. Things I want to do in the future:
• Move to another country, such as the UK, Nordic countries, or Canada.
• Visit different countries to learn about their culture and food.
• Have a game/media room with a wall-sized projector, a badass PC, and a racing game controller fixed in the center.
• Own a small cottage on a secluded hilltop with a backyard observatory for stargazing.

Some more information about me:

• I have brown eyes, black hair, wear glasses, and am Indian. I have been called handsome by women who weren't my mom.
• I'm about 170 cm tall and weigh around 72 KG right now, but I have a thinner frame and room for improvement.
• I try to be a nice person and avoid hurting others intentionally.
• I'm geeky and curious, always trying to learn new things.
• I'm easily distracted and tend to go overboard talking about things that interest me.
• I eat meat but would be open to trying vegetarian/vegan food.
• I'm looking for someone who is open to criticism, willing to learn and improve together.

If you're interested in getting to know me, here are some things about you that I'd appreciate:

• You love music and would be willing to attend concerts with me.
• You're either an atheist or agnostic.
• You enjoy trying new foods and appreciate different cultures' cuisines.
• You love cooking and trying new recipes.
• You're a good human.
• You've moved to another country or are from a more liberal place socially and politically.

Let’s start at the very beginning! I’m a 17-year-old that is graduating today and I should be excited but I’m not. My family has made it hard for me to feel happy and here are the reasons why! When I told them I was graduating they said wow really we didn’t think you were. That broke me because I was slacking off from sophomore year to senior year but because I felt so trapped in my mind that I couldn’t escape it and they know this because I tried killing myself a year ago. I got a therapist and she told me to open up to my family about what happened because they were worried. So I did I told them that when I was little I got SA in my room by a guy my parents let stay at my house till he got a place to stay. This guy was a family friend. This scarred me to this day! We still live in the same apartment. I sleep in the same room and I could see my little self sometimes getting assaulted(like if it was a movie). I tried explaining to my family but they don’t get it they just think I'm a mess up and nowhere near my sister. When I say sister I mean the child that has never in their eyes done them wrong. She got good grades never missed school and never let them down. And I have to them because I let my grades slip I miss school because of health reasons and have gotten caught sneaking out. They have trapped me in my house for so long that I would sneak out to escape from my thoughts and to see my boyfriends who has helps me heal and forget. I understand that I’ve been a hard child but I’m trying my best to be okay and help. I got a job and I thought that they would help me like how they did to my siblings. Like, help me save money. But no I pay for everything that belongs to me. I pay for my phone, food, and dog everything just no rent but I know they are going to start asking me for some because they feel as tho I’m grown enough to be paying for me and my dog to live here. I would be happy to help but we don’t have our room and my sister isn’t paying anything. Mom told me since I have a tv I can start paying for the tv bill but I don’t use any of the Chanel’s or have cable in my room because I have a Roku and I pay for those Chanel’s and services. They got upset at me today because I didn’t want to go to tj with them for my birthday. I understand that they wanted to do something special for me but I didn’t want to go because of many reasons. Some are that my sex offender is close to there and me just not feeling safe, especially with the stuff going on over there today. They got upset and asked why and I said I just feel uncomfortable and would want to stay home. They said why do you go out with your friends then and I said I just wanna be home. My mom brought up the reason that I could drink over there and I said that’s not going to change my opinion I don’t want to go. They were calling me stubborn and all these names. I know they are going to bring this up today again when we go out to eat after graduation when my whole family is there to force me to say yes. They ALWAYS do this. I just want to be happy at my graduation and feel Like I did something for myself. Maybe I’m overthinking and overreacting as I tend to do. I just don’t know what to do!

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I've been MIA for a while, after an injury and then getting Covid through March and early April I've been working to get caught back up. I'll be back in force in the next week or two with a bunch of new molds as soon as I finish up the last of my orders I need to catch up on.
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Previous / First
Writer's note: My bad about the past few days. A stomach bug and work got in the way. But all's good.
Now learn some tragic backstory, a bit of Earth info, and the status of everyone's favorite omen of misfortune.
Enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The King was already conversing with Colonel Muhammed when James finally caught up with him in the command room. He jogged in at a brisk pace, but stopped when he saw the two of them talking on the small tablet in front of the King.
King Farrick cocked an eyebrow as he saw James. James just shrugged while mouthing "I know." and gesturing at his beard. The King shook his head as he looked back down at the tablet.
"We're just glad our people could be of assistance sir." The Colonel said. "Even if it only ended up being during the cool down after everything had already resolved."
"It is greatly appreciated Colonel." The King replied. "Seeing as the dungeon is currently erm... ruined... we'll have to let the last few of your people there out. Though they'll still be restricted in their movements." He added. The Colonel nodded, as if she'd expected as much. "As for the weapons." He continued. "Well," He sighed deeply. "I look forward to the.... paperwork.... regarding its use in necessary situations."
Colonel Muhammed let out a quick snort. "I'll see if I can get em to keep it short and sweet." She said.
The King motioned for James, who walked over. "Captain Choi is back earlier than expected, as I'm sure you know." He said as James got next to him and he turned the tablet so its camera caught James too. "I'll let you have him for a bit."
And just like that James was looking at his commanding officer while sporting a neon pink beard.
"Evening ma'am." He said with his cheesiest smile.
Muhammmed's eyes glazed over as she saw the ridiculous facial hair.
"Do I even want to know?" She asked.
"Nope." James replied honestly. "But I made friends during my trip." Then he shook his hand in a so-so gesture. "Well... one of em might just be an...." Then he rethought his standing with the Vatrian Emperor, Vateris. He also hadn't talked with command about his personal vendetta against the so-called gods. "Look. I didn't end up in prison or dead. And things went mostly well."
And suddenly a very grainy, sand-coated, hand was holding James's. He did what he could not to jump with surprise.
"By the way. Meet Glag!" He said excitedly as he panned the camera down to the rock monster's face. Glag looked at the screen with wide, amazed, eyes. James was surprised to see that Glag looked surprisingly dark, and just a little red. "He's a new companion!"
"What in the hell is that?" The Colonel asked as she peered at the screen on her end.
"Glaaaaag." Glag replied.
"Introductions done." James said. "So, what's the deal with the Zootopia duo?"
------------------------------
"Okay. It was weird at the store." Samantha said as she looked around. "But this is just plain strange."
Around them the restaurant was empty. The bistro Fletcher had brought her to, The Blue Tree, was a ghost town. A few of the staff stood at the greeting booth on the other side of the room. But other than that it was completely deserted. It was so quiet that they could hear the kitchen staff working prep in the back, for what had to be ONLY their food.
"Admittedly I think they took this a bit too far." Fletcher said abashedly as he peeked at the small menu. "This can't be cheap for the hospital, or government or whoever is funding the rehabilitation program."
There was an awkward silence for a few moments as they both tried to think of what to say. Neither of them would admit it, but it had been a while since either of them had dated.
And neither of them had ever dated in THIS particular scenario.
"So... how long have you been a lawyer?" She asked hesitantly.
"Um... about... eight years now?" He said uncertainly as he tried to do math in his head. "Close to nine. How bout you? How long were you in the Army before um.... well. You know."
She nodded. She was getting a lot better about acknowledging what had happened. But it was still a sore spot.
"I was about half way through my second term. So about six years." She answered, even though she was certain he'd probably read that in her file at some point. "Wasn't gonna reenlist again though."
"No plans to make it a career?" He asked.
"No." She said with a shake of her head. "No I intended to get out and get certified as a ration enforcement officer once I was done."
"Ration enforcement?" He said with raised eyebrows. "That's a dangerous job. Even compared to being an MP. Planning on staying near your family?"
She chuckled. "Yeah." She admitted. "My fathers shop is small and usually gets shunted by the bigger ones in the area. Wanted to stick around and keep the queues in order so it didn't happen."
"Ah. Makes sense." He responded as one of the wait staff came over.
A few minutes later, and after Fletcher had ensured that they'd been warned about Samantha's new dietary difficulties, the young woman departed with a smile and promise that their drinks and appetizers would be out in just a few minutes.
"And what got you into law?" She asked once they were alone again.
"My wife." He said, causing her to spit out the small sip of water she'd taken after asking the question. He smiled and there was a pain there. "Don't worry." He said. "I'm not married anymore."
"Divorced?" She asked, trying to figure out what was happening now.
Fletcher's mouth opened for a moment as he tried to think for a second. Did he really wanna have THIS talk on, what was hopefully a first, date. "Widower." He said softly.
And just like that she was thrown off balance again.
"I'-I'm so sorry." She said hastily. "I didn't know."
He held his hands up in warding. "It's fine." He said reassuringly. "It's been.... almost a decade now. I'm... I'm okay."
There was another awkward silence, though this time NOT because neither of them had anything to say.
Fletcher spoke first.
"She was a Paramedic." He said. "She was helping with some humanitarian work overseas and um... She got sick from some of the fallout." He nodded as he took a deep breath. "The organization she worked for was uh.... less than honorable about helping her get cared for afterwords. I started reading up on as many laws and regulations as I could to help her fight for it. But uh.... too little too late." Then he fake-smiled. "But I found out I was good at understanding legal jargon so I uh.... found my calling. I guess. Retooled my college classes and the rest is history."
"That's awful." She said quietly, not knowing what else to say given what she'd just heard.
"It was, yeah." He agreed. "But uh... thanks to that I've been able to help a lot of people who've been screwed by similar situations. So... I don't know. Guess that's something."
She smiled too. "Well you helped me." She said. "Didn't expect the ARMY of all organizations to back down from some legalese."
He pointed out at one of the windows, at the people outside walking about. Across the street a few teenagers were watching as one of them tried to levitate. The kid rose about a foot or so before beginning to wobble and then flipping over and falling on his face. The other two fell out laughing and jeering as he picked himself up.
"Between the two packs that split off and headed north and south, and all the people that have started to have ACTUAL magic powers." He said with a shrug. "I think they just have bigger fish to fry."
"Your appetizers and drinks." The server said, startling both of them.
"Ah." Fletcher said with a genuine smile this time. "I think you're gonna like the crab sliders here. They actually use REAL crab."
Her eyes widened. Real crab was rare nowadays. Then she looked at the server, who was nodding. "They closed this place and you guys serve REAL crab?" She asked.
"Sure do." The server replied with a smile. "We're one of the few restaurants in the city that gets any.
"God you weren't kidding." Samantha said as she turned back to Fletcher. "It must have cost a fortune to close a place like this for a night."
"I told you." He said jokingly with a grin.
She slumped, a little embarrassed at everything that had to have gone into this. She didn't deserve all this.
"So we'd better make the most of it before the hospital's finance department catches on." He said as he raised his glass of wine in a toast. "Again, assuming this isn't government funded. Which... it probably is."
Samantha lifted the large stein of light ale and, as gently as she could, clinked it against his glass.
"Enjoy." The server said as she nodded and stepped back.
And just like that the tone of the conversation lightened, and the rest of dinner was much more enjoyable.
--------------------------
Vickers awoke with a gasp.
Everything hurt.
He'd been beaten up pretty badly before. Had even been way too close to explosions a few times and spent weeks in the hospital recovering afterword to make sure he didn't have any unseen injuries. Then there was the time some turbulence had caused him to botch a wet insertion from a helicopter that had already been almost at the max height for a dive.
Those had all had him SORE for weeks.
This was different.
He felt both hot and cold at the same time. And not just his skin, but his entire body, inside and out, felt like they were infused with IcyHot.
And try as he might, he couldn't see, and everything was muted.
"He's awake." Someone said from outside of him. "Fetch the Archmage and master Farstorm."
"Whe-" He tried to say. But his voice was horse, and cracked as he tried to wheeze out the question. "Where?" He said weakly after struggling to swallow with a mouth that was drier than it had ever been before.
Someone touched him on the chest, and even though the touch was light and delicate he groaned in pain as every nerve in the area screamed.
And even in that excruciating moment, the part of his brain that nobody could ever fully get rid of, no matter how much training they underwent, joked.
So this is what Choi's life is like. It said sarcastically. Running through life like a marshmallow that got dropped in a camp fire every few months. Tough little fucker.
"Calm down Mister Vickers." One of those muted voices, that he thought sounded familiar, said. "We only woke you up so the Archmage could ask a few questions. We'll have you back under in a minute. Let me give you something for the pain."
"Not until the lead healer has okayed it." Another voice said somewhat harshly. "We don't even know how your Earth medicine will affect his body now."
"I do." The first voice replied. "I've used this stuff on were-people before. It works just fine. I just have to up the dosage. And Shrend knows it." The first voice, which he now faintly recognized as Choi's mom, said.
There was a pinch in the middle of a bloom of fire on Vickers' throat as a needle was pressed into one of the veins there.
And suddenly the pain, and everything else for that matter, seemed to drop away.
"Thassss..." He began. "Thasssalot... bedder."
"Shhhh." Mrs. Choi said as he felt, faintly, her touching his head. "I'm gonna take off some of your bandages so you can hear and see." She finished as his hearing cleared. "Plus we need to check your eyes and ears anyways."
A moment later Vickers' eyes opened and he was surrounded by a swirling mix of green and amber light. It was blurry, though he was mostly just happy he had any sight at all.
"Still cloudy." Mrs. Choi said as she pried his eyes open ever so slightly and looked inside. She as about to check his ears when the door opened.
Vickers turned his head with a slowness that was not intentional.
"Chief Vickers." Said the old mage who usually spoke so slowly, and looked so frail. But he didn't look or sound anything of the such at the moment as he pulled up a chair and sat where he could look at Vickers.
"Thaassss....me." He said as his head swam with whatever Mrs. Choi had given him. Probably Ketamine or something.
"I know you're in a lot of pain right now." The old mage said. "But we need to know what you saw. What was on the other side of that door before the Elemental manifested?"

What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.

Schoolwork and games such as Diablo 4, Valorant, LoL, Soulsborne, and Monster Hunter World/Rise

What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?

$2000 but can go a little over

When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

Within a week

What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)

Tower & OS

Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?

US no microcenter near me

If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.

LG 240hz 1080p, Logitech G Pro Superlight, Razer Huntsman Mini

Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?

No

Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

No

Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?

No preferences

Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?

Yes, no preference

A forest, so dark and omnious, with trees so tall and thick like the walls of a fortress that stands strong, immovable by any force, and grass covering the cold earth beneath, attempting to warm it even a bit, even for a moment. And there it was, the crying lost child, pale as a ghost with little to no color on its body, hoping to find even the slightest of warmth and comfort in this pitch black realm.
The kid, barely able to move and speak, gathered what's left of its strength to look up at the sky. And there, between the thick leaves of the giant trees, was the moon, trying to snuck its light between the leaves.
'Oh, dear child, let me help you find your way out of this void. I promise to be your light, to guide you to happiness, to help you feel warm.' said the moon, reaching its hand of moonlight out to the weeping child.
The kid, though still exhausted and weak, crawled along the path that was lit up by the moon. But the moonlight did not uncover all the thorns and traps and as the white skin on the child's hands and legs quickly tore, blood streamed down its limbs, bringing a shade of red to the blank canvas that was the child's body. Though the pain was too much to bear, the kid's wish to make it out of the dark pit was stronger, so it licked its wounds and pushed forward. As the phases of the moon changed, so did its luminosity. When the moon was full, the child moved forward with no fear of getting hurt. When the moon was half, the kid often tripped and hurt itself on the thorns beneath it. And when the moon went dark - the child stayed in place, weeping and licking the blood off its wounds, reminding itself that as long as the moon shone upon it, everything would be alright. And so it went on and on, a never-ending cycle - a neverending night.
But there it was at once - the sun. After what it felt like an eternity for the child, being lost in the cold, dark and lonely forest with only the moonlight to guide it, it finally got a glimpse of the sun's warmth and the scene of a wide beautiful field uncovered in front of its dull eyes.
'Oh, dear child, worry not for I'm here to guide you, to keep you company and to keep you warm.' said the sun as its rays gently stroke the child's head, and as if an artist painted on a canvas, the child, white as snow, turned colorful like a flowerfield in the spring. With copper hair so soft and silky and eyes like a gemstone, the tears on the child's face dissappeared as it finally felt the joy of life.
Unlike the moon, the sun shone upon all paths - the thorny ones, the ones with flower petals as its carpet, the ones covered in mud, and the ones paved with gold. The scene made the child to realize that the moon was only showing the path that it wanted the kid to walk on, giving it no other choice as it was unable to see in the dark without the moonlight. The moon that promised to save the kid was a liar and the moonlight - a delusion. The child, now strong and full of life, chose the road to walk, the turns to make, and even though it sometimes took the wrong turns and hurt itself, the child was happy that it had the freedom to make its own choices, without having to count on the limiting light of the lying moon.
But a day always comes to its end, and the sun is set over the field, making way for the night. The moon rose upon the field, but this time, it did not light up a path for the kid. Instead, the moon asked, 'Oh, child, is my light not enough for you that you would fall the sun's illusions?'
'Tell me silver moon, why did you only light up the road you want me to walk, even though there were many more?' asked the child, staring at the moon with its gemstone eyes, standing strong on its own two legs, 'Why is that i never felt the warmth you promised me? Why is that I always felt cold, even though you always shone upon me? Why is that everything you promised the sun did in your place?'
The moon irritated and angry disappeared off the night sky, and slowly, all the stars followed it. The kid sat in the darkness, waiting for the sun to rise again, thinking about the moon and where it all went wrong. As the night was nearing its end, the sun made its way back on the sky, and the child continued its journey, enjoying the warmth of the sun. But when it was time for the sun to set again and the night took place, the moon and the stars didn't come back. In fact, they never did. They were gone forever. The child that was so in love with the sunshine later realized that it needed the moon because no matter how good the sun was to the child, it always set in the evening.
Now, the kid was all alone with absolutely no light in the night. So, every night, the child paused its journey and cried for the moon. But the moon was gone, and so were the stars. The moon was a liar and the moonlight - a delusion, but the moon gave its all, and the moonlight, though cold, was still light. And the sun, even though it made the kid's life warm, kind and free of misery, was never there when it got dark. The sun was never there to wipe the tears of the child's face.
The moon is a liar, the moonlight - a delusion. The sun is a friend, but its friendship - the sunlight - an illusion.
-venus

Work in a hotel restaurant at full capacity and am opening tomorrow. When it gets like this we do strictly buffet for breakfast and will put juice/coffee out for guests. The goal is to be getting the drinks for them but sometimes it just gets insanely busy and at least this way people aren’t bitching about refills.
A while ago we switched to a juice machine, which I thought would be great because we wouldn’t have to be constantly restocking the server fridge. Wrong. So wrong.
It takes more than 2 minutes to fill a single pitcher (yes, I have timed it). There is no way to calibrate it to dispense juice faster. I am getting there earlier than everyone else tomorrow solely to fill a bunch of large dispensers to put out. I am not kidding when I say it takes nearly 10 minutes to fill one. It’s just a stupid button. I am desperate to figure out a way to push the button with some sort of object so I am not standing there for 30 minutes just pushing a damn button.
Any ideas are welcome. I am trying to think of what would be heavy enough to keep the button pressed, but also it would need to be the right height from either the floor or a cart. Was thinking maybe a box of creamers on a cart or tray/stand leaned against the button, thoughts?
Also pray for me.
TIA

The episode resumed on the giant octopus with its spiked tentacle held menacingly over the Maggots. It growled and reared the appendage back, prompting Geoff to quickly jump to the back with his teammates just before the front was slammed down upon, launching all four into the air.
They flew screaming across the lake, their shadows passing over the swimming Rats, and finally they crashed down onto the rocky beach of Wawanakwa. They groaned in pain, and Anne Maria was the first to lift her head and look around.
"Hey," she said, "we're in first place!"
"Rad," Geoff weakly groaned.
"The Maggots win," Chris called down from above, leaning out the open door of the helicopter, "and get these as a reward!"
He dropped down two objects, which Molly quickly caught – one was a compass, and the other fell open to reveal a map of the island. "A map and compass," the indie chick said flatly as her teammates looked at their reward.
"I'll keep those so I can navigate us better," Scarlett said, swiping the objects away from Molly.
"Weellll, look who just washed up!" Chris said, turning his attention to the edge of the water as the Rats finally swam ashore.
"I blame the octopus for leaving us like this," Sierra said.
"You can say that again," Scott responded.
"Put a sock in it!" Chris called down to them. "Now, the second part of today's challenge started off as a practical joke involving classic Total Drama competitor Amy. Buuuut, it's turned into more of a rescue mission," he said, pointing a remote down at the beach and pressing the button.
The shot cut to both teams on shore as they turned and looked at a television cart that had just been wheeled over by a long-haired white male intern. The screen cut from static to none other than Amy trapped inside what appeared to be a somewhat spacious wooden coffin. She woke up and bumped her head on the lid. "What? Where am I?" she asked, looking around in confusion. "I'm buried alive?!" she exclaimed and pounded on the low ceiling with her fist in a rather panicked fashion. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
"Burying someone alive is super dangerous," Trent scolded, "even by your standards."
"That's why we're using the buddy system," Chris told them. "And instead of letting last year's losers have all the fun, we brought in one of this year's duds!"
The cast's direction moved back to live feed of Amy as the sound of snoring was heard coming from within her prison. The camera zoomed out to show Katie curled up and asleep in the coffin with her.
"Katie! She's back!" DJ exclaimed excitedly. "What happened to her?"
"She ate a lot of Chef's buttolini," Chris explained as the focus cut back to the beach, "so she's gonna be out for a couple more minutes," he laughed.
"That is just messed up for you to do!" DJ scowled.
Confessional: Sammy
"Is it just me, or does Chris become more and more deranged with each passing season?" Sammy talked to the camera.
Confessional Ends
Chris carried on. "Maggots! You've got your compass and your map to the general vicinity of the chests at the other side of the island. First team to rescue the girls wins the challenge. Now go!"
Geoff, Molly, Anne Maria, and Scarlett ran off into the woods without another word, but as the Rats moved to follow, Chris landed his helicopter on the sand in front of them. "Uh-tu-tut-tut," he said, "not so fast. To the losers go the penalty belts. Chef," he turned to his grinning assistant, "lock 'em in!"
The cook stepped out of the pilot's seat and walked over to the five Rats, and the footage skipped ahead to him locking a metal belt around Trent's waist, with handcuffs attached to each side to keep his arms in place. The camera zoomed out and revealed that identical belts had already been locked onto his teammates.
"These things must weigh a hundred pounds!" Trent complained.
"120 pounds to be exact," Chris replied before slotting a metal detector onto his back.
"How is a metal detector supposed to help us find a chest?" Sierra asked in confusion.
"It's not," Chris smiled, taking out a red megaphone and shouting "Now GO! GO-GO-GO-GO-GO-GO!"
The Rats promptly ran off into the woods.
Confessional: Scott
"We're behind the Maggots and disadvantaged, and I'm going to keep it that way," Scott grinned.
Confessional Ends
The camera moved to a nondescript patch of ground somewhere, a muffled pounding sound coming from below it. Amy was then heard grunting in annoyance, and the scene cut inside her chest as she frantically pulled out a cellphone. "Chris and his crummy show can just burn to the ground," she complained as she started dialing.
A ringing came over the phone, and the screen split down the middle to show Chris answering on the left. "Hello~?" he opened with an almost mocking singsong voice.
"You've gone too far," Amy said. "You can't just-"
She was interrupted by a loud snore coming from within the coffin.
"Was that you?" Chris asked.
"No it wasn't," Amy responded. "This girl's a heavy snorer, and it's driving me nuts."
Chris shrugged as he stowed his phone back in his pocket. "I'm sure she's fine," he said to himself.
\
The scene moved to the Maggots, the four of them arriving at the edge of what the camera soon panned over to show was a massive swamp with smelly, bubbling green water dotted with toxic waste barrels.
Immediately the four began to cough. "This smells like gym socks and skunks in one big burrito," Molly griped.
"According to the map, there's a path around the swamp," Scarlett said, looking at the map in her hands, "but it'll take too long, though."
"We'll just have to go through the stink," Geoff shrugged.
"As long as the Rats don't follow us, I'll go along with it," Anne Maria said before they ran into the swamp.
\
A large purple dragonfly landed atop a stump in another part of the swamp. A pale purple frog sitting on a lilypad nearby promptly shot its tongue out at the dragonfly, only to yelp as the insect caught the tongue in its mouth and bit down hard.
The camera panned to the left, showing the edge of the swamp again as the Toxic Rats arrived.
"Ugh," Sierra immediately complained, her face scrunched up in disgust. "That smell is disgusting!"
"Smells like home," Scott sighed happily.
"We have no other choice. We have to go through here," Trent said.
"Now you're speaking my language," Scott smiled before the two ran through the swamp.
DJ and Sierra were about to jump in, but were stopped by Sammy holding them. "Why did you stop us, Sammy?" Sierra asked.
"You may or may not believe me before, but I need to tell you to vote Scott off if we lose," Sammy begged.
"Why do you want Scott gone?" DJ wondered.
"I've been thinking about it, and I eventually realized that Scott's the one who framed Leshawna," Sammy said. "And I also realized he's the one who paralyzed me with the seagull."
"Why would Scott do that?" DJ asked curiously.
"I don't know, but he's probably trying to sabotage us and pick us off one by one," Sammy replied.
"Scott did try to leave during the trivia challenge," Sierra remembered.
"Are you sure you're telling the truth?" DJ asked the cheerleader. "I wasn't on this team to start with."
"If you don't believe me when I say he's throwing the challenges, then just help me vote him off," Sammy pleaded.
"To be fair, he's super obnoxious and rude," Sierra considered. "I'll definitely vote for him next."
"So will I," DJ agreed. "Mama always taught me to stay away from negative influences." The three jumped into the swamp when their conversation ended.
The camera lingered after they left, just long enough to catch the the dragonfly from earlier buzzing out of the swamp still carrying the frog by its tongue.
\
The scene moved back to the Maggots, Molly and Geoff trailing behind their teammates.
"I say we dispose of Molly should we lose this round," Scarlett said to Anne Maria. "She's not the most supportive player here, and I know you don't want to separate from Geoff."
"Well, Molly hasn't left us behind again, and I'm not going to hold that over her," Anne Maria said, looking back at her map...and unwittingly walking up onto something rough and green and scaly.
She was cut off by an ominous growling below her, and looked down and ahead just as the small, beady eyes of an alligator rose above the surface of the swamp.
The mutant beast promptly reared up, revealing its long tusks, spines, and tentacle-like forelimbs and tossing both Anne Maria and the map into the water. She and Scarlett quickly went back and regrouped with Geoff and Molly, and all four screamed and ran forward just before the mutant alligator pounced onto the spot they'd just been standing in.
"We can hide in that tree!" Molly exclaimed, the camera following to a large tree in the swamp ahead of them. The four quickly ran over to it, Molly giving Scarlett a boost into it before scrambling into the branches herself.
"It's coming back!" Scarlett told them as Geoff pulled Anne Maria up into the tree next. The tanned girl looked back over her shoulder and gasped in fear as the shot quickly cut to the massive mutant swimming towards them, then roaring and pouncing. Anne Maria was pulled up just in time and the alligator slammed head-first into the tree's protruding roots. The whole tree shook, but the camera panned up to show that the Maggots had managed to hang on.
"You're a lifesaver, Party Hat," Anne Maria told the boy who'd pulled her up.
Confessional: Anne Maria
Whenever we're together, Geoff tends to act cool or dumb around me," Anne Maria stated to the camera. "And who can blame him? Check me out. The tan, the hair. Look at me, I'm hot!"
Confessional Ends
"We better leave before that thing wakes up," Anne Maria said, the camera panning up from a shot of the stunned mutant alligator lying at the base of the tree.
"Good idea," Geoff told her before dropping back down into the water. His teammates joined him, and the shot quickly focused on Anne Maria as she pulled out the tattered remains of the map.
"The map's ripped," she spoke.
"That's not a big deal," Molly told her. "We still have our compass, so we'll know where we're going."
"And lucky for us, I kept a hold of the compass," Scarlett said as she held up the object.
Confessional: Scarlett
"I let Anne Maria hold the map for us so if it got ripped, it'll give Molly a reason to try and convince Geoff to vote for me," Scarlett confessed. "Irresponsibility is a big factor as to why previous players got eliminated."
Confessional Ends
The static cut to the five Rats watching the alligator looking around from behind a tree.
"Okay," DJ said, "if we circle around a bit, we can avoid the alligator."
"I don't think we can avoid all of them," Sammy spoke nervously, drawing the team's attention behind the group to a pair of smaller, paler alligators that were swimming towards.
Sierra turned around and smiled confidently. "Don't worry, I'll take care of them," she said. "You guys go get that chest!"
"But-" Sammy said.
"Just go!" Sierra demanded, prompting her teammates to leave.
The two smaller alligators hissed menacingly while Sierra stood her ground and said "I'm not going out without a fight!" The two alligators pounced on her as she let out a scream.
\
"So which way do we go next?" Geoff asked his team.
Scarlett walked ahead a bit. "Moss grows on the northern side of trees and Chris said our goal is to the north, so we need to go that way," the brainiac pointed to the right.
The camera cut to the outskirts of a massive forest of thorn bushes. "We have to go through a thorn bush forest?" Geoff asked in shock and horror.
"Of course not. We go through there," Scarlett pointed to a route closer to the camera and around the thorns.
The Maggots shared a look of wide-eyed shock. "Okay, that's better," Anne Maria nodded.
She, Scarlett, Molly, and Geoff quickly ran off to the right.
\
A flash took the scene to the edge of a clearing with the thick thorn bush forest visible a little ways in the background. The Maggots arrived from the left, and immediately looked around.
"This clearing is just like the one on the map," Anne Maria said as the group moved further into the clearing and started digging.
The Rats were shown arriving later. "The Rats are already digging!" Scott complained.
"And where's Sierra?" Trent asked.
As if of cue, the obsessive uberfan -now sporting a black eye and tattered attire - arrived. "I told you I could fend them off," she woozily bragged. "They gave up after I lost most of my blood." She then passed out and fell near a rock that caused her metal detector to go off. DJ smiled and kicked the rock away to reveal a ring with two keys.
"Two keys?" DJ mused. "The small one must be for the cuffs!"
\
The footage skipped ahead to an unlocked penalty belt falling around DJ's feet. The camera panned up to show him and Sammy examining the other key.
"This one must be for the treasure chest," DJ said.
"Hey guys, I can feel Amy pounding below me!" Scott lied to his team. "We must dig here!"
"Got it," Sammy nodded.
As Sammy and DJ used their metal detectors to dig through the dirt, and Sierra still looking passed out, Scott dragged Trent to a distance away from the team.
"If I tell you something, do you promise to keep it a secret?" Scott whispered.
"Of course. What is it?" Trent pondered, to which Scott took out the invincibility statue. "The invincibility statue?"
"I still can't believe I found it," Scott said. "I looked up a tree and the statue was hidden in the leaves."
"And why are you showing me the statue now?" Trent wondered.
"I just wanted you to trust me," Scott followed up. "Our teammates are obviously going to vote for me, and if I use this, it'll cancel out the votes against me."
"I'm not ready for you to leave yet," Trent smiled. "Thanks for letting me know you'll be safe."
The shot cut to the Maggots digging their hole with Scarlett poking her head out. "The Rats are here, so we need to hurry!" she called out. "How deep did Chris bury them?"
"You don't need to worry about that anymore, because we just found the chest!" Molly said as the lid swung open and Amy quickly hopped out.
"That was insufferable to go through!" Amy panted before walking away from the scene.
"And the Maggots win," Chris called down to them all as he arrived in the helicopter.
With the exception of Scott, the Rats gasped in disappointment while in their hole. "You said you heard them here!" Sammy told the devious boy.
DJ pulled himself out of the hole and ran over to where the Maggots were standing. "Don't worry, Katie! I'll get you out of there!"
He jumped into the Maggots' hole and held Katie in his arms. "Katie! Are you fine? Please wake up!" he told her.
Katie's eyes began to open up, and when she saw DJ holding her, she smiled joyfully. "DJ? Is that you?"
Confessional: Katie
"If eating a lot of turkey makes me fall asleep and wake up into the arms of a really cute guy, I'm ordering 100 packs of turkey when I get home!" Katie confessed.
Confessional: Trent
"Scott told me to vote off DJ with him so we wouldn't be dealing with a threat," Trent admitted. "I don't want to do this to a past and current teammate, but Scott does bring up a good point."
Confessionals End
It was now night time, and after a brief focus on the moon accompanied by a hooting owl, the camera panned down to DJ and Katie sitting together on the steps of the Rats' cabin.
"Sorry you had to go through being buried underground like that," DJ talked to the perky influencer.
"Chris is very underhanded. I'll tell you that," Katie responded.
"I remember you telling me you liked me the day you got hurled out of the island," DJ smiled awkwardly.
"You do?!" Katie's eyebrows raised up.
"Yep, and I never got to respond to you about that," DJ said.
"Well, if you feel differently about what I-" Katie tried to say, but got cut off by DJ touching her lips with his own.
They kissed for a few seconds before they stopped, the two of them looking awkwardly happy.
"That was my way of saying I love you too," DJ said. "I'll have to talk to Mama about this, but once she approves, we can begin our relationship."
"Oh, definitely. I have to go now, but I want you to know I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines," Katie eagerly replied back before they hugged each other affectionately.
\
The scene flashed to a long-distance shot of the island. Another flash, and the camera cut to the campfire pit where the Rats - except for Sierra - were waiting nervously. Chris was in his oil drum podium bearing not a tray of marshmallows, but four slips of small, yellowed paper.
"Okay, players," Chris opened. "The votes are tallied. And by a tied vote, tonight's losers are none other than..."
"Wait," Trent interrupted. "Where are the marshmallows? And more importantly, where's Sierra."
"The marshmallows were eaten by a hungry me," Chris bragged, "and Sierra was deemed too injured and woozy from the alligator attack, so we had her evacuated from the game for good."
"Really?!" Sammy's eyes widened. "Aw. I hope she gets better soon."
"Regardless, I'm still carrying on with the ceremony," Chris continued and read from his slip. "The people with the same amount of votes are…"
Sammy looked at DJ nervously, and DJ took a look at Scott narrowing his eyes at them, to which Trent started feeling worried.
"DJ and Scott."
Trent gasped at the news while Scott looked taken back at first. The dirt farmer soon composed himself and said "Sorry. But I ain't going nowhere." Scott pulled out the statue and flipped it on his hand.
"What!?" Sammy yelped in surprise with DJ gaping as well.
"The invincibility statue! Nice! That means Scott is safe," Chris announced jovially. "This also means that the tiebreaker will be avoided, because tonight, thanks to Trent and Scott, DJ is going home!"
DJ was stunned to hear the news and looked down in disappointment.
"But... no hard feelings, dude. You will be missed," Chris reminded the eliminated contestant.
Trent stood up from his seat. "Sorry for eliminating you, but maybe a group hug can sort things out."
Scott and Sammy followed suit, and eventually, DJ, Sammy, Scott, and Trent were all embracing each other and hugging happily.
\
The scene cut to the docks, where DJ was on the Hurl of Shame as Chris and Chef watched on.
"Ready to fly, DJ?" Chris asked the gentle giant.
"The sooner I'm out of here, the sooner I can talk to Mama about Katie," DJ confirmed, and then, without warning, he was sent flying into the night with a scream.
The camera panned to Chris as he faced the camera with his usual smiling demeanor as the usual cymbal beats opened the series' capstone theme. "And that's another loser out of the game. Come back for even more painful awesomeness, next time, on Total! Drama! Revenge, of the Island!"
(Roll the Credits)

Toxic Rats: DJ, Scott, Trent, Sammy, Sierra
Mutant Maggots: Anne Maria, Molly, Scarlett, Geoff
Episode 08: The Treasure Island of Dr. McLean
"Last time, on Total Drama Revenge of the Island!" The recap montage opened with several RCMP helicopters flying around before cutting to the Mutant Maggots entering the mining elevator. "The players went on an impromptu to environmental coveru-uh, clean-up challenge," Sammy, DJ, and Sierra were shown running down a mineshaft, then Scott and Trent tripped on a rail, "and tried not to get a toxic make-over like everything down there." Geoff was shown struggling with Molly, both looking sickly, and a few shots followed of various mutant gophers running and squealing.
"Max came back to the island," the host continued over clips of the super villain revealing herself to Scarlett, "and E-Clone wasn't far behind," the alien was shown tackling DJ, "and after overcoming his germ phobia," Chris said as Dave was shown hitting the gopher and saving his teammates, "he voluntarily took the old heave-ho," the normal guy was shown getting hurled.
"Makes you wanna reflect, don't it?" Chris asked as the last clips finished up. "Maybe...with a cup of Chris McLean Instant Coffee," he said as the scene cut to him standing on the docks holding a mug with his face on the side. He took a sip, his eyes went wide, and he spat it out. "Bitter...better!" he quickly corrected with a forced smile. "Better than the rest." He dumped the mug out into the lake, and a fish promptly surfaced where the drink had landed and vomited in disgust.
Chris held his awkward smile for a second before regaining his composure and walking to the side. "Who will survive? Who will wish they didn't? Find out right now, on Total! Drama! Revenge, of the Island!"
XXXXX
The episode opened to a shot of the sun rising over the lake, a few seagulls calling in the distance. The camera slowly cut from close-up to close-up of the sleeping campers – Sammy and DJ, Trent, Sierra, and Scott, Scarlett and Geoff, and Molly and Anne Maria. All nine of them were sleeping on wooden rafts in their usual clothes, until the shot cut to an alarm clock tied to a buoy with large acoustic horns next to the bell. The hands struck approximately 7 o'clock, and a loud ringing sang through the morning air.
DJ bolted awake with a gasping start, and so did the others a few seconds later.
"What? Where are we?" Anne Maria asked in confusion, the camera cutting outward to show the two rafts floating next to each other and the buoy-alarm amid a mass of debris mostly consisting of wood, furniture, and waste barrels. Each raft had a signpost with their respective team logo on it – the Rats on the left; the Maggots on the right.
"No!" Sammy griped, the camera coming out even further. "Chris must've set us adrift after we went to sleep!"
"Yeah," Scott said as the camera moved behind him and Sammy, showing the island of Wawanakwa off in the distance. "Wait, I don't remember anything after dinner."
Scarlett's eyes widened in realization. "Dinner! Of course!"
\
The footage flashed to a close-up of a meal tray, held by Scarlett as she collected her dinner. The meal was a slimy pile of spaghetti, tomato sauce, butt-shaped meatballs, and feathers, plopped down onto the tray without ceremony.
The shot zoomed out to show her eyeing Chef with mild disgust.
"Turkey buttolini," Chef explained with a grin. "Enjoy your na~ap!" he said before realizing his slip-up. "Err, meal..."
Scarlett just pursed her lips at the man as he laughed darkly to himself.
\
The scene flashed back to the Maggots. "Turkey makes you woozy, so mutant turkey can easily knock us all out," Scarlett deduced.
The focus moved to Trent, still sleeping peacefully on the raft.
"He can't be sleeping forever," Scott said as the camera moved to show him looking down on his teammate. "Come on! Get up!" he said as he bent down and picked Trent up.
Trent opened his eyes. "How did we even get here?" he asked before smiling at Scott. "Hey Scott."
Confessional: Trent
"Scott's really cool. I think we made a great connection these past few days. Either way, it'll be hard for me to vote anyone off the team," Trent said.
Confessional: Scott
"Trent makes me feel weird, and it feels good. I like the feeling, but it's distracting. I have to get rid of it somehow," Scott said.
Confessionals End
The scene cut back to the Mutant Maggots on their raft.
"I'm never gonna eat turkey again!" Geoff said to Anne Maria. "That food can knock you out!"
"Not as much as I'm gonna knock Chef out for serving us this," Anne Maria replied back.
"Take it easy. We're still alive and all," Geoff calmed her down.
Anne Maria took in a deep breath. "Alright, but I'm avoiding breakfast until further notice."
The shot cut over to Scarlett, who was pulling Molly aside. The indie chick raised an eyebrow and the quiet brainiac leaned in close and whispered "Have you noticed how close Anne Maria is getting with Geoff ever since he switched to our team?"
"I'd have to be blind to not notice," Molly remarked.
"With that as the matter of hand, I'd suggest us joining forces if they'll be cooped up with one another," Scarlett said.
Molly raised her eyebrow. "Even so, we have four members on the team after Dave's elimination last episode."
"I know that, and we'd have to convince them to vote individually for both of us," Scarlett strategized. "That way, we can easily target one of them."
"I do work alone, but I also want to save my butt from being eliminated," Molly said back. "You've got a deal."
Confessional: Molly
"Scarlett's not exactly my go-to as an ally, but given we're both closed off, and I don't have Dave to talk to anymore, we might as well stick together," Molly accepted.
Confessional: Scarlett
"We're nearing the merge, and that means I must analyze the remaining contestants and see their strengths and weaknesses," Scarlett smiled in satisfaction.
"Trent and DJ are major physical and social threats. The sooner they are eliminated, the better. Sierra and Scott are wild cards, though I sense Scott has more intelligence."
"Sammy and Geoff are fit and in good shape, but I'll save them for later as they can't outscore me in intelligence. And as for Anne Maria and Molly, they're average in every single way. Going up against them in the finale will be beneficial to winning," the brainiac finished proudly.
Confessional Ends
The static cut away to a shot of the rafts from a perspective a little higher, a little further away, and at a right angle to where the camera had been before. The roar of engines and the honk of a horn heralded the arrival of Chris and Chef from the right, the two men riding jet skis and wearing life jackets.
"Morning, suckers!" Chris greeted with an exuberant grin. "How'd you enjoy your turkey buttolini?"
"I've eaten better," Sierra said, irritated. "It tasted good and didn't knock people out cold enough for you to kidnap them."
"I'm sure you have," Chris replied teasingly.
"And what's with all the kidnappings?" Sierra continued. "You can simply ask us to meet you someplace like a normal person, not lock us in extremely cold trucks or do this."
"Because," Chris answered, "that wouldn't be good for ratings. As Total Drama's biggest fan, I thought you'd already know that?"
Sierra narrowed her eyes at the host.
Confessional: Sierra
Sierra was shown to be feeling furious. "Okay, mom? I know how hard it is to end a crush, but he's a total jerkface! When I come home, the Chris McLean museum/guest room better be destroyed!" the uberfan hissed lowly.
Confessional Ends
Chris regained his usual demeanor, "First thing's first: If any of you are still trying to find that McLean Brand Invincibility Sculpture I hid at the beginning of the season," he announced, taking out a photograph of the head in question, "you can stop now. Somebody's already found it," he said, dropping the picture into the lake.
The contestants were all upset and angry about the news. "And speaking of digging things up, today's challenge is all about winning the ultimate reward: Life, itself!" His tone became deeper and more dramatic as he made his declaration. "Your first challenge is to race to the shore, by any means possible." The camera panned over to the island in the distance. "First team there wins a handy reward. Last team gets a heinous penalty, before you embark on a quest for buried treasure."
"You're using us to dig up buried treasure?" Trent asked. "That's just weak."
"There was treasure here once, but I found it years ago," Chris emphasized. "How do you think I bought the island?"
"It must've been a small treasure," Trent mumbled to himself.
"I thought it was through all your movies and songs you put out before becoming a host, and I own a hundred of them," Sierra smirked.
Chris' brow shot up in shock, and Chef snickered behind him. "Just get moving already!" the host demanded, backing up his jetski then speeding away with Chef.
"I thought Sierra liked Chris, but now she's insulting him?" Sammy asked DJ.
"She must've seen how rotten he is both on the inside and outside," DJ quipped.
Confessional: Sammy
"Mocking someone who's the host of the show is definitely a risky move," Sammy admitted. "Sierra will be lucky if she doesn't get disqualified."
Confessional Ends
"Are you all just gonna stand there or are you gonna come help me pry this off?" Anne Maria asked, the shot cutting to her trying to break the rigid signpost.
"What? Oh, yeah. Sorry, Anne Maria," Geoff said, quickly turning around and moving to help her with Scarlett and Molly following right behind. All of them grabbed on to the sign and pulled, and after a moment of effort, the post snapped at the bottom.
"I use poles for canoeing back home," Molly said as she held the broken sign, "but we can use this to paddle to shore."
"I'll do the paddling, girls," Geoff volunteered, taking the broken sign from her. "I can kick this raft into high gear!"
"Be sure to take caution while you do so," Scarlett said. "There are sharks in the water."
The focus shifted over to the Rats, who were watching their rivals. "We have to do what they're doing," Sammy suggested.
Sierra put one hand on the top of their sign, bending it slightly, then snapped it with a swift kick.
"That was excessive, but we can row now," DJ said as he took the sign.
Confessional: Trent
"Using that sign will be much better than using my guitar as a paddle," Trent said. "It wouldn't flow well in water."
Confessional Ends
The focus cut back to the Maggots and it heralded the start of challenge music, and Geoff began to row with his sign-paddle. "We need to put some distance between us and the Rats!" Scarlett ordered. "Stroke like you mean it!"
The camera cut outward, revealing that DJ's own paddling was keeping the Rats about neck-and-neck with the Maggots, and the shot focused in on them. "Not to be a downer, but we need more than just DJ on this," Trent said.
"If we want to catch up, we'll have to get in the water and kick," Sierra realized.
"No way!" Scott protested. "Remember the shark?" He got shoved into the water courtesy of Sierra.
"The faster we get to shore, the faster we won't be eaten," Trent said, walking to the back of the raft and jumping into the lake. Sammy and Sierra then dived in as well.
"Fine," Scott gave in and pushed the raft with the other three.
\
The scene cut to the Maggots, Anne Maria and Molly and Scarlett standing near the back of their raft as Geoff continued to paddle them forward. A whoop of excitement caught their attention, and the shot zoomed out to show the Rats' raft moving ahead quickly in the foreground.
"That's it," Molly said in an upset tone. "We need to paddle and push the raft at the same time."
"Into the water!" Scarlett immediately commanded and dived into the lake alongside Molly while Anne Maria lingered with Geoff. "You too, Anne Maria."
"You know," Anne Maria said, "Geoff should be in the back with you guys. His legs are better suited for kicking."
The shot cut to Geoff as he paused his paddling. "My calves are toned now that you mention it."
"I'll agree to this, but you have to be the one that paddles now," Scarlett told Anne Maria.
Geoff handed Anne Maria the sign post and dived in shortly after and the camera lingered on Anne Maria paddling the raft.
Confessional: Geoff
"I do a lot of leg exercises, and my legs never let down if I need them for a race or for swimming," Geoff summarized.
Confessional Ends
"Keep kicking your feet and we'll be on shore!" DJ told his team, but stopped abruptly along with his team's raft as it smacked into something that sounded pink and fleshy. He looked warily ahead, the camera panning on to his reflection in the massive yellow eye of a truly gigantic octopus that was resting just below the surface with only the top of its head in view.
It shuddered, then bellowed deeply and angrily and lifted its tentacles out of the water. DJ and his teammates screamed in terror.
The shot cut to the sky above, where Chris and Chef were watching the challenge unfold in their helicopter. "Awww, it's playing with them," the host laughed.
\
The focus moved back to the Rats, all five now on the raft with Sierra holding their sign post and DJ being held captive in one of the octopus's many tentacles. The shot cut to Sierra as she screamed "Let go of my teammate!" and swung at the tentacle several times, only to repeatedly hit DJ in the face.
The camera focused on the captive brickhouse, and his face looked more bruised with each whack. "You're hitting me!" DJ wailed with every whack.
"Giant squid dead ahead!" Anne Maria yelled as the focus cut over to the Maggots' raft floating a little ways away.
"Keep it down," Scarlett hissed, her eyes still locked forward. "We should be able to sneak by it if it's focused on the Rats."
"You might want to look behind you," Molly fearfully pointed at a circling shark fin.
The shark circled around to the front and jumped onto the raft, revealing itself as Fang. As the mutant grinned menacingly at Anne Maria, she held up her sign-paddle in front of her.
The camera briefly cut to Geoff frozen in fear, and when Fang jumped into the water, he screamed and swam around the raft in a circle screaming "Shark! Shark!"
"This is just going to get us killed!" Molly hissed.
As this went on, Anne Maria became frustrated. She held the sign above her head and slammed it down on Fang, causing the shark to be sent flying off-screen.
"Thanks for the save," Geoff said as he got back on the raft.
"Now you owe me twice for saving you twice," Anne Maria replied.
Confessional: Anne Maria
"Technically, I didn't make the gopher go away, but I prevented it from attacking Geoff, so I'd consider that a save," Anne Maria prided.
Confessional Ends
The shot cut to the Rats, all of them being held captive by the octopus. Then, to the shock of the team, Fang flew into the octopus's eye. It shuddered and bellowed in pain, then dropped its captives into the water as Fang sank down.
The camera panned right to show the Rats resurfacing away from the octopus.
"Let's get out of here while we still can!" Sammy shouted, diving into the water with Trent following shortly after.
"Hurry!" Trent shouted as he and Sammy hastily swam off towards the right, with Scott, Sierra, and DJ quickly joining them.
\
The scene flashed back to the Maggots, all of them now on the raft.
"Okay," Molly whispered back to her teammates, "I think we're clear now."
Their raft promptly rammed into something. She turned around, and yelped as the shot zoomed out to reveal the angered giant octopus surfacing in front of them.
"That doesn't look clear," Anne Maria told her fearfully as they scrambled to the back of the raft.
"Now how are we going to escape this?" Scarlett griped.
Geoff was lost in thought until an idea came to his head. "Wait a minute! I have an idea! Get as far back as you can!"
Geoff made his way to the squid and faced him. "I bet you can't even smash us with your jelly fins, Octo-Guy!" the party boy mocked and grinned at the octopus.
The octopus raised a tentacle high and curled it almost into a fist while Geoff's teammates gasped and spoke in fear at the same time.
The curled-up tentacle suddenly sprouted several large spikes, and the three Maggots at the back of the raft screamed...
And then the footage and music ground to a halt, a 'pause' symbol appearing over the slightly-faded scene. "Will Geoff's shouting outsmart the octopus's punching?" Chris asked, standing up in front of the paused screen wearing a hat shaped like an octopus head and tentacles. "And what's up with Sierra? Find out, after the break," he finished, crossing his arms coolly.
\
(Commercial Break)
\

Here's a very informative post because I'm very serious about finding the right person for me. I've clearly marked and categorized everything, so feel free to skim the parts that interest you the most.
What brings me to reddit for dating: For the short of it, I've been doing online dating for about 7 years, and could only describe my experience as a sisyphean struggle. With more traditional dating platforms having been absolutely torturous and a complete waste of time, with me rarely ever finding matches and those I do get ending up being ghosts or people who just don't respond less than productive, I'm hoping this might give me a breakthrough.
Age: 26, open to 18-32~. I’m less about age, more about attraction.
Appearance: 5'8", medium length blond hair (pictures are from when it was short), blue eyes, white skin, slim fit body type. I dress almost exclusively in black if I can help it, hence "closeted goth". I've been told I'm fairly handsome, but I'm including a few (poorly taken) pictures, so you can decide for yourself whether or not I've been lied to!
(Imgur seems to be having problems lately so if you're getting an error that's why. My posts tend to get automatically removed if I include any other image hosters but if you message me I can send alternatives no problem.)
Face: https://imgur.com/a/ykiCkwQ
Body (Warning: Shirtless): https://imgur.com/a/zO96e63
Interests: Many of my interests fall into the "nerd" category. Games (video and tabletop), anime, music, art, sci-fi and fantasy stuff of all varieties. I enjoy a lot of RPG's, and some of my favorite game series include kingdom hearts, fire emblem, dark souls, and a fair few others. I play a lot of league at a fairly high level, but I'm not exactly proud of that because the game damages my sanity at times.
In general, I like to keep in shape, play games with friends, share music I think is great, watch tv/movies/anime (horror and psychological stuff especially), share memes, read, and do some amateur writing. I'm also rather intelligent/insightful and enjoy some nuanced discussion.
Location: Currently in central NJ, somewhere in the no man's land between nyc and philly. I'd prefer someone local who I can meet in person, but won't pass up someone great online who's willing to eventually relocate or that I can eventually relocate to.
Looking For: Monogamous relationship, ideally something serious. I feel that what I'd like the most is to find someone very special to me, who I can love with all my heart and spend my life with. It'd probably be my greatest joy in life to be able to do that, and have someone do so in return. That said, this is just a description of my ideal scenario, not what I'd expect out of every relationship.
Traits I'm Looking For: Kind, loving, trustworthy, understanding. Good sense of humor, emotionally intelligent, communicates well. In this regard, I wouldn't ask for anything I don't freely give. I also very fond of women who are dominant/aggressive in a playful way, as well as role reversal dynamics.
Personality: Generally cool headed, laid back, and kind. Introverted, but can be extroverted when I'm in my element and otherwise comfortable. Deceptively intelligent despite how incredibly basic my pictures look, but I also tend to clown around a lot so that's not easy to discern at first. I’m also very reasonable, with a strong preference for peacefully resolving issues, so you can expect very little to no drama and good communication. Oh, and according to a myers briggs test, I'm an INFJ?
Fun facts: I have a deep and sexy voice which many people don't expect, and a great many people tell me I should get into radio or voice acting. I'm also a bit dead on the inside but that's probably because there's a skeleton living inside me.
Partner preferences: I'm a big fan of goth/alt girls, as well as tomboys. I also really like short hair, usually between pixie and neck length, and have a sizable interest in women that are taller than me. But these aren't dealbreakers! As long as I find you attractive, everything is fine.
Dealbreakers/Requirements : Similar interests are pretty important for me. I tend to play a lot of games in my free time for entertainment, so having a partner that I can do that together with is my ideal. I do have a strong preference for body type that I unfortunately can't get past, with that preference being the thinner end of the spectrum when it comes to proportions/body fat. So basically petite/slim/fit/muscular. PLEASE DON'T BE A SOCIOPATH, OR ACT LIKE ONE!
If you have any questions about anything I mentioned (or didn't), just ask and I'll absolutely answer them for you. I'm very friendly so absolutely feel free to come talk to me.

So, I really don't know much about headphones, but also don't have a store near me that enables me to try some models out. I stumbled upon this sub and was hoping you guys could help me out.
I've been enjoying my Sony MDR-XB950 headphones for some years, but they are really worn and I want to replace (preferably upgrade) them. They sound very clear and warm to me, so I guess those are the things that i'm looking for.
I will be using them for (mostly rock and metal)music mainly, but also for watching movies, sports, podcasts and some gaming.
I've tested a wireless gaming headset and some sennheiser RS-175 wireless hifi system. They sounded really thin and compressed to me (the gaming headset far worse then the RS-175 in my unexperienced ears).
I could enjoy a wireless device, but sound quality is all that matters to me, so I guess wired is the way to go? I also don't really know if I want an open or closed back. But I have a closed one now, and from i read, an open one could serve me just as well or even better.
Budget is under 250 euros.
I'm at a loss and overwhelmed by this market, so really hoping to get some kind of direction here.
Thanks in advance for reading/replying.

Cover Art <<Previous Start Next >>
Mordecai had always enjoyed designing bosses, once he was experienced to think beyond their potential as defenses. That first group of explorers had taught him how to consider combat as a dangerous game instead of as just conquest or killing. A young dungeon’s instincts were not always kind in this regard before they have some exposure to others. Especially when they first realize that killing intruders gave them a lot of energy, and that the dungeon could ‘eat’ people to become stronger.
Fortunately, there were many other options. While a group that turns around early because they are intimidated provides little mana, defeating them soundly without actually killing them provides lots of energy, if still less than killing them. But two drawn-out explorations provide more energy than a single quick defeat of a group, and that process could repeat more often as well. The dungeons that couldn’t learn to moderate themselves could become dangerously greedy when not enough people came to them.
Not a problem they would be facing, so Mordecai shook off his reminiscing and focused on the task at hand. He knew he wanted a fungal boss, but it was hard to make a fast mushroom creature, especially when it was large. A creature rooted in place was generally very easy to target from afar, but while part of his mind had been wandering, another part had been chewing on the issue, and he had found a solution.
After all, a fungus’s true body was usually hidden. So the first stage of building this boss was to make another large cavern, about a third the size of the main one. Then he sunk the floor well below the entrance, and filled in most of the gap with a room-wide mycelium, mixed with loose earth and then topped with another foot of soil to appear like mostly normal if slightly soft ground. It would be difficult for most groups to completely kill something like this, so while this was the base life form for the boss, he was going to create a few stages, with normal victory being after Stage 1.
His next step was a bit of preparation work, he needed to make the entire organism immune to acid. There was a price to pay, a limit to how much power could be wrapped into a fifth-floor boss, and so he paid it in the form of a balancing weakness. Fungi tend to already dislike fire and cold, so this would be weaker than usual to both. Oh, Mordecai could have made it immune without balancing it out, but then he wouldn’t have been able to make it as strong in other ways.
Filling in the room with look-alike sprouting bodies was going to both hide and be a clue as to the true nature of the boss. They weren’t the same sorts of mushrooms as filled the main cavern, they were extensions of the boss’s true body below the surface, but it would take a keen eye to tell the difference.
Time for the showstopper, the visible main body of the boss. It was going to be clearly a mushroom, though not like any mushroom that could ever normally develop. Its total height was 20 feet tall, but the first ‘cap’ was at 10 feet, spreading out a wide canopy from which tendrils could snap out at prey. Just above that cap was a ring of branching stalks that ended in tightly packed balls that could be launched at nearby enemies, though not at those below the cap of course.
Above that was a double ring of thinner branching stalks, tilted slightly upward, and they ended in the explosive, venom-laced darts he’d developed previously. They couldn’t be aimed below the cap or even nearby, but had a much larger range.
And finally, the topper of this strange mushroom monstrosity was a delicate-looking bell-like cap, from which rained a gentle, steady dusting of debilitating spores. The spores trickled from the small cap and rolled over the stalks and cap below, meaning that some would also get caught in the darts and nets as well.
But he wasn’t quite done yet. The tendrils for his boss were not going to whip around like the other mushrooms, they were going to be directed and grab at foes, to bring the victim towards the maw. Well, one of them. Mordecai gave the main stalk of his boss three distorted, toothy maws, with more rows of hard fungal teeth inside. There was no throat or stomach, it was simply designed to keep chewing on anything it shoved into its mouth until nothing was left.
But for all of its fearsomeness, this mushroom tree was relatively fragile, and none of its borrowed attacks were as potent as the original, despite the increased range of some of them. Most bosses would be much tougher. That would not be quite the end of a fight however, for immediately after defeating the first stalk, another would spawn from the ground below, and after that a third and final stalk would form. Hmm. Might be good to give a small clue here. Ah, that would be easy. In the center of the ceiling Mordecai grew four red crystals, three of them in a triangle with a dark red glow. The fourth sat in the center unlit. Each time a stalk went down, one of the red crystals would turn a brightly-hued blue. When all three turned blue, the boss would be ‘dead’, the forest would go quiescent, and the doorway out would open, ending stage 1 and technically entering stage 2. Usually. Unless the second boss was active of course, in which case the fourth crystal would light up red as well, and stage 1 didn’t end until it was defeated too.
As frenetic and emotionally charged as this fight would feel, a team that could make it to this room shouldn’t have much trouble. It was high tension, but if one handled it correctly it wasn’t actually hard. Treat it like a boss fight, throw around fire spells or alchemical bombs or what have you, and it would be a short, fast-paced fight. The boss trees would want to spawn near the group, after all, you only had to hunt down the first one.
Which meant that it came with a penalty for people who were badly behaved. There was enough information in the way everything acted for someone to figure out that the ‘real’ boss was below. The forest would only be quiet and still until the group had moved on, then would slowly restore its boss trees. But if someone realized that the real body of the boss was below and decided to try and ‘finish the job’ or any such foolishness, inflicting enough damage to the mycelium would stir it back into activity and switch the boss fight into stage 3. The full tree wouldn’t respawn, but the seemingly ‘normal’ mushroom trees would become more active and directed, and the mycelium mat could animate and shuffle itself about, drawing its deadlier trees towards its attackers even as its rippling surface did its best to knock people off of their feat.
As one would have to go out of their way to activate this mode and the first stage was easier than it seemed, the total difficulty and toughness of the boss was significantly higher than it would be otherwise if someone did activate stage 3. Mordecai paused a moment and ran a couple of scenarios in his head, then shrugged at the results. He’d tried out the idea of deliberately activating stage 3 early if hostiles managed to get here, and the simulation didn’t run properly. He thought he might be able to make the transition more sensitive, but the invading party would still have to do some significant damage to the base mycelium.
Well, nothing for it, he’d already committed to it, the energy for this creature already tied to one of the boss nodes for the floor. Mordecai finalized his creation with a name. “I name you Sarcomaag.” And with that it was done, everything sealed. He could feel a mind stirring in the depths of the fungal mass, and it was quite different from most. Slower in some ways given how far it was spread out, but also deeper. He checked its aura and found it to still only have a spirit instead of a soul, but the mind inside was awakening at its own pace, and he could see the first signs of that denser, more complicated knot of energy forming. He expected Sarcomaag to have a fully functioning soul before long, especially as he could feel the first hints of curiosity. Hmm.
Oh. That was going to make things interesting. Whoops.
“Whoops?” Came Kazue’s query on the heels of that thought.
“Erm, I think I got ahead of myself with Sarcomaag here. I mean, what I designed is perfectly fine for a fifth-floor boss. But I didn’t place any proper growth restrictions on them either.” That was embarrassing, and the sort of thing that he should know better than to do. Maybe he was getting too comfortable and ambitious with designing complicated bosses, even with two brains it was hard to keep track of all the little things that had to be tuned correctly.
“Which means what my darling?”
When had Kazue learned to do the sweetly dangerous tone? It was cute, but Mordecai kept that thought to himself. “It’ll be slow, but Sarcomaag is going to spread, and they’ve already started to instinctively try to grow along and inside of the living crystal layer. The fact that some of its fruiting bodies already use living crystal makes it easier. So, well, I’m not entirely certain. They won’t do anything to harm the dungeon of course, and it shouldn’t make much difference to anything. But I also wouldn’t be surprised to find small mushrooms cropping up in places it wants to ‘see’ what is going on.” Its senses were different, but would be as good as vision for most purposes, and better for a few.
“Um, is that okay? I mean, we have rules about what can be where, doesn’t that kind of break them?” Kazue sounded worried, and he couldn’t blame her.
“I don’t think it’ll be a problem? Sarcomaag shouldn’t be able to act on the upper floors, though maybe they can on the lower floors as we grow.” Mordecai didn’t think that the fungal boss was going to default into one of the future raid boss nodes, but he was considering assigning it one anyway. “Well, we can discuss it with them when they wake up. Just don’t expect it to be a fast conversation, their mind works rather differently.”
“Alright. I guess we’ll wait and see. So, what did you have in mind for the second boss?”
Mordecai smiled. “Something much more straightforward love. Though I think most people will prefer to face Sarcomaag.”
<<Previous Start Next >>
My Discord if you would like to talk about the book or see what else I am up to.
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Also to be found on Royal Road.
$3 Patreon: Early chapters, lore excerpts $5 Patreon: Short Stories $10 Patreon: New stories not published anywhere else (Until after I finish this story at least)

35M non-smoker, 340lbs, 6'3", asthma so I take albuterol and long acting inhalers,
I recently had probably an ingrown hair or something dead center of my pelvis. Between the penis and stomach. First time for something like that. Anyway, it got really infect, and 3 days in I want to the hospital where they drained it.That was Sunday, now it's Friday.The wound is almost healed. The wound itself is barely painful unless it's touched (because they left it open for extra drainage).But above and to the right there is this... lingering mass. It's not raising the skin that I can tell, there's no readness. But my god it is so painful. When I went for the 3-day follow up they thought it might have been more abscess so they did an ultrasound but it appears to just be more dense tissue of some kind, not the black pocket they'd expect of liquid. They assume cellulitis. But the tech wasn't that confident and all the images online of cellulitis show a dramatic sort of infection and that's not what this is. Without the pain you wouldn't know anything's there. Or touching it, since it's like touching super tensed up muscle.Ideas?
​
[Edit]: Oh my god... I too-hastily copied the title from my first submission which was missing info, and I apparently missed that I also copied part of the removal message. In addition to being in a good deal of pain, I am also apparently an idiot. :D

Does anyone else has the issue of PP maxing out gpu usage with the last couple of versions? As soon as I open it the gpu usage jumps to 97% and stays there (within 1 or 2%) no matter what I'm doing. This is on a Windows 11 machine with a Ryzen 7 cpu and an Nvidia 3060 gpu.
I use motion backgrounds and am outputting to 4 screens through a decklink duo, and most things are working OK, but it is worrying me as I have to play in an important 5 minute video on Sunday- and though it has played a couple of time fine in rehearsal, it has also frozen and glitched a couple of times too :(

This all started a few years ago (2020) when I noticed myself having to pee more often. Saw a urologist who suspected BPH, ordered a contrast CT. During this CT scan I barely made it through the procedure before sprinting from the table to the bathroom where I peed an entire toilet full of red blood. Nearly fainted. Told the techs who said "thats why you're here, to figure this stuff out". Followup with uro revealed that I had a horseshoe kidney and nothing else remarkable. I was told it was nothing to worry about but to return for a cystoscopy. At the time I was uninsured (self employed) and was tapped out financially from the CT scan, so I put it off. Eventually I just came to live with the fact that I had to pee more often than others. I had always had a "small bladder" so this didn't bother me that much.
Fast forward to March of 2023, I started peeing blood clots, massive nighttime headaches and mild itching on my forehead. Sleep was nearly impossible with having to pee every 1-2 hours. I was beginning to feel broken. Took a home UTI test which said positive for lymphocytes and nitrites. Went back to uro, suspected prostatitis and prescribed heavy Augmentin 10 days, followup and symptoms had subsided but not entirely so was prescribed 14 days of bactrim. Blood disappeared during antibiotics treatment but returned after I finished the course. Bought insurance and went to GP.
Blood tests ordered (first ones ever in 42 years.. wow), BP was through the roof at 175/105. I still remember the call with the doctor when he told me my kidneys were failing. GFR 16 - nearly end stage at this point. I was completely gutted and I knew everything was about to change. I was angry and sad. Referred to nephrologist for SEPTEMBER (yes the wait time was that long). Knowing my condition was pretty severe I pushed for a quicker appointment by calling around until I talked to a very nice receptionist who put me on a "work in" list for a neph around an hour away. I eventually got a call saying if I could come in June 8 I could be seen. Lesson here is don't give up and be an advocate for your own health! During this two week period I started a renal diet and was pretty restrictive, thinking I could maybe move my numbers before the next blood test. Next blood test came and GFR 15. Panic and frustration. At this point I was really struggling with everything because I had no idea what was happening. All I knew was I'm pissing blood clots and my kidneys are failing.
TLDR: Saw the nephrologist yesterday. He said I needed to go on dialysis, which is what I expected him to say. I went to a dialysis education class and decided if I do it, it will have to be PD. I work from home so I can fit into my life. I don't want to do it but I am scared that my condition will worsen and I could end up in the ER with a CVC. Abdominal catheter sounds better to me. I'm still scared, angry and confused because up to this point in my life I'd never really had any major health problems that I knew of. Neph suspects my horseshoe kidney was never very good to begin with. Ultrasound scheduled for 3 months but he seemed pretty uninterested in finding the cause. Is this normal? Should I push for an investigation into the cause or does it even matter at this point? This is my first post here and really my first time talking openly about this. Hoping it gets easier. Much love.
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Okay, first of all, this has NOTHING to do with design. I like the design. the hair, the motorcycle shtick it all just works for her. No, it's not even the crimefighting while pregnant thing (Though I still find it odd I mean I wouldn't but you do you). So any bigots or whatever fuck off. Secondly, I love this movies so much, it's just that this one character bugged me...
My problem is this version of Jessica Drew is... just... kinda an asshole.
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We're introduced to her in the opening fight seen where she seems like your typical, cool spider-variant. She quips, she teases, and preforms some badass moves all around. She also then pushes Miguel to add Gwen to the gang, defending her from the mistakes of the previous movie.
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This culminates in the gut wrenching scene between Gwen and her father, where Jessica supports Gwen by offering her admittance into the group. While this seems kind initially, upon completing the movie there are two actions which kinda seem gross in hind sight.

1. Jessica lets them linger on the scene, of a daughter and her father in turmoil and both upset, trying to get Miguel to agree to her suggestion... which is kinda weird considering there is no way Jessica doesn't know about Miguel's tragic backstory, and pushing that in this instance isn't that cool.
2. Jessica also knows about and firmly believes in "Canon" events, and the Canon event that is highlighted strongest in the movie is that usually, Spider's tend to loose their Police Captain friend at some point in their journey. So in that moment Gwen's father, a police man AND clearly Mr. Stacey, the usual one to die across the multiverse, her leading Gwen away from her father at an emotionally charged moment while his life is likely on the clock is harsh as hell.

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When we next see Jessica, she's scolding Gwen on her mishandling of catching the Spot. This scene was what tipped me off to her nature, and was really taken aback by her change. She initially gave off that wholesome "mom of the friend group" vibes, so much so that Gwen half-jokingly asks for her to adopt her. Yet, when we see her again, she's just cruel.
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Firstly, she scolds Gwen on getting close with Miles. She clearly knows about Gwen and Miles friendship/crush, yet gets irritated when Gwen went to visit him after months. Firstly, Ma'am, you and Miguel are the ADULTS here. Gwen is at most 17, and would in no way be in charge of whose assignments go where. Jessica jokingly calls her her star pupil, regretting letting her go there.... and yet while still knowing Gwen's conflict of interest, age, and the severity of the problem, she let her go anyway, yet put it ALL on her... not cool. YOU COULD SAY NO MA'AM. From the way they phrased it, Jessica could've let her not go, and have gone herself and avoided all of this... like, let her sneak off to 1610 when there isn't a multiversal threat!?
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What's even WORSE, however, is what happens next. So while we don't know how much she heard when it happened, given Jessica was the closest Spider she knew at first, Gwen's admiration from her from her coolness/saving her and Gwen's obvious behavior with not returning home, Jessica MUST know about what happens, yet threatens it subtly. Gwen asks "What if he sends me home." And Jessica just gives her a side stare. She MAY feel a little guilty, but clearly doesn’t feel it enough to act on that guilt, because right after she talks about how Gwen can't make anymore mistakes, gives her just an HOUR, and then basically gives a "you better or else" type of tone in her voice before leaving.
"Like, sure I'm giving you all the means to screw up and enabling you but if it gets to the punishments that's all you girl teehee. Good luck with your father threatening your arrest and trial for the murder of your former bestie!"
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She then shows up again once 50101 is starting to unravel from the Spot's crazy experiment there turning him into an eldritch abomination. (YES, it is Spot not a Canon event disruption problem... its clearly a giant black spot opening up in the city NOT the glitchy disappearing we see in Miguel's flashback.) Not much to say here she's just pissed, mostly at Miles.... can't really say anything against her here as everyone else kinda share the same blame here, that being being pissed at Miles yet not telling him why or giving any sort of information for him to, ya know, avoid the issue!
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She's then just kinda acting pissed off in the lobby. Like she dismisses that version of Spider-UK's joke, she doesn't seem to care that Miles is in pain and glitching. She just throws him a day pass and acts like his glitching is more annoying than anything. Her apathy is clearly shown in the chase too...
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Gwen's like: He's my friend and something feels wrong. Jessica's like: then use your head, before going to curb stomp Miles, literally aggressively kicking him with both feet straight in the gut... Madam you're a Spider-Woman use your webs. The point is to catch him and lock him up not kill him!
Later in the chase Miles also beats her. First she tries to land on him with her motorcycle. I keep bringing up the violence because in the whole chase scene, she is second to Miguel only in use of force. Like, a few other Spider-men try to do stuff but nothing to crazy. One Spider tries to punch him, Miles gives him a look and he gives off a little Anime sweat effect like he feels bad... nothing like that from Jessica of course. He kicks her motorcycle away, and effortlessly webs her up before pinning her to a truck... way to go.
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I bring that up because, holy shit, the post Mile's escape scene is DRIPPING with hypocrisy. Gwen lashes out at Miguel, because she's a 17 year old girl who's upset about what just happened. The 30+ year old man then screams back at her, blaming her for his escape.... but let's be clear here, Miguel and Jessica both failed WAY harder than she did, by miles... pun intended.
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Miguel fought heard, but Miles ultimately outsmarted him, leading his army away and short-circuiting his suit. Jessica only got one good kick in and then in the next encounter got completely outplayed. Yet, when Gwen is like "Jessica, back me up." She's just like nah Miguel has a point.... excuse me?
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SO, just to put her actions in order. Jessica took in an upset and damaged teen who just went trough some heavily traumatic shit. She then took her under her wing, but also began enabling her bad decisions, which she knew were bad, but allowed anyway. She then kept doing so despite it producing bad results, blaming Gwen over her own poor choices as a leader and the adult in the relationship. THEN, when Miles is captured, he escapes on his own, and despite both adults fighting and loosing to him, blame Gwen...
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And Jessica lets her fry.
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She cowardly doesn't admit to her own faults in the events that played out, and lets Miguel put all his anger at Miles towards Gwen. She also lets Gwen get sent home. You know, that mega fear Gwen has that Jessica knows about? Her own reality, where her own father potentially will try to put her on trial for vigilantism and murder? You know, that HOME?
Her only defense is "I told you, you let him get away, I can't help you." What does that imply? If she succeeded, would Jessica have taken credit? Commended Gwen and let her get away with more reckless behavior? She shouldn't have gone, but Jessica allowed it. She shouldn't have gone again, but Jessica allows it. Jessica equally fails, if not fails more so, in catching Miles, and yet GWEN pays the price, being sent to an awful situation which Jessica knows about but clearly doesn’t give a damn enough about if she's letting this happen with no resistance.
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The only redeeming quality they honestly give her past her introduction is when she feels bad after eavesdropping on Gwen talking about how great Miles is, and all I can say is. really Jess? You knew Gwen for months, called her your star pupil, clearly spent a lot of time with him, yet didn't realize how much she cared for him?
Jessica's love advice is also about getting close to someone once, and then realizing they need to get over it. Now obviously she suffered a tragedy, so clearly that can explain her actions but doesn't justify them. To quote our beloved Rocket Raccoon "Everyone's got dead people, but that's no excuse for getting everyone else dead along the way."
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Her coldness, hypocrisy, and irresponsibility is not excused by her past tragedies, and goes against everything that stands with the Spider in her name. Gwen deserved a better mentor, and frankly I'm gonna be so pissed if her redemption, if she gets one, is literally just leaving Miguel for the gang.

While typing this the break up is still quite fresh, but after nearly four years my Fiancée and I have gone our separate ways, its a very bitter feeling as it didn't even come down to us falling out of love for one another, it sadly came down to distance and timing. We got together in September 2019, she was visiting her family for a week as even though she is from my country originally (UK), she moved to the Netherlands several years ago, our bond was almost immediately like that of iron, as comfortable as we both were on our own, when we got together it was like magic.
Sadly she had to return home with her son, but we decided to make our relationship official even if we were unable to see each other every day. It was difficult but we both believed we could make it work. We managed to see each other several times before COVID hit and then it would be well over a year before we would see each other face to face once again. This period of time was hard, the pandemic did put a strain on our relationship but we still managed to get through it, I will always remember seeing her for the first time after 13 months, I did let a tear or two drop but I did my best to "man up" and keep my composure.
As in every relationship we did have our downs but the ups far outweighed them, and we thought we would be able to break our way through any barrier that got in the way of what we had together. Due to her having a son with her former partner over in the Netherlands she had to fight to try and move back home to be with me, this unfortunately was denied by the courts who ruled that the child should remain in that country as the mother has a home there and so does the father. (More too it but feel I should share the nitty gritty as its not my place.)
Because of this we decided that I would move over to be her in the Netherlands, and in March of 2022 I did just that, I sold everything I had to my name, boxed up only the important parts and got what I needed shipped over. Finally being able to top it off with the happiest day of my life, the day I got down on my knee and asked for her to marry me, to which she said yes.
Unfortunately we were a little naive as the big bad Brexit had happened making what we thought was going to be a simple move into something far beyond that. We were unable to obtain a visa for myself to stay and after three months of trying I needed to return back home. However we refused to be beat by that, we used the time to try and apply for a residential visa under her income, she even took on a second job specifically so she could reach the income requirement goal. (She is the primary care of her child and has him through the weekdays, so is unable to have a full time job, only a weekend one as that is when the child goes to his fathers.) So we applied for the visa when I moved back in November of last year believing that this time we would be able to remain as a family. Sadly the visa was denied, the world and picture perfect idea of our little family we had came crumbling down as we felt that we were never going to be allowed to remain together.
I moved back to my own country once again in February of this year and for the last four months we have been trying to hold it together, but if I am honest the pain of failure mixed with no answer to our plight in site started to get too much for the both of us. I am ashamed to admit it, but my communication to her started to dwindle, not from lack of love, she has always been my everything, but I felt that this was a hurdle we were never going to be able to get over, where I used to call her every day when I got home to tell her about what went on in work, the past two to three months, I kept promising to call as I got in through the door and just never did, I have been trying to find the reason as to why I didn't call as much as I used too but I am unable to find the answer yet.
Finally she had realized we had drifted a little too far from one another and last Saturday she called me in the morning and we decided to end it. Me being the stupid moron I am then fell into a dark pit and refused to end things with her, the past five days I have been nothing more than a monster. Where she just wanted space from me to come to terms with what has happened, I was desperately trying to win her back in any way I could think, I over stepped her boundaries and even frightened her with the way I was acting. Looking at it now, I was being manipulative, not letting her deal with the break up her own way because I was refusing to believe it was over. This is something I never thought I could possibly do, but the pain and suffering of loosing her felt too hard to handle. I have tried to apologize but she now wont speak to me, which if I am being honest, I understand.
I would like to say I have finally come to my senses and snapped out of it today, I was appalled by my own actions as I watched a small video I had sent her on Sunday of myself crying, begging for her to talk to me. I am desperately upset but it is time to let her go and move on, I have not messaged her since Wednesday and fear that may be the final time we speak, as heart retching as it is to admit, she will always hold a place in my heart, and I will always love her and the beautiful woman that she is.