Hello, I am the Leader of a clan, and we have had a troll stalking us since 2020 who somehow joins once a week to spew hateful, bigoted, racist rants. Our clan is even closed, but he still gets in, which means that someone in our clan has been inviting him back; possibly one of his alt accounts. I just had to demote 40+ Cos & elders down to member until we can figure this out. Luckily, my clan is supportive and know that they’ll get their status back as soon as we find a solution. Super Cell says they can’t help. There are a few things that SuperCell needs to do to fix, or at least minimize, this problem:

1. Give Leaders the option to permanently ban a player from rejoining the clan. Also, the option to hide the clan & it’s members from the player’s search, clan bookmarks and friends list.
2. Only Leaders & Co-Leaders should be allowed to send invites, not elders.
3. The ability for Leaders to see who is sending the invites.

If anyone has any ideas or information, please let me know! How do I reach the devs? TIA!

Please forgive the forthright manner of the title.
My friend is a relatively new attorney who is working as part of a team of defense attorneys. She was upset recently because apparently after she mentioned her new career on social media, many friends and family members reached out to let her know they were breaking ties with her as they found it to be horrible that she was willing to defend the likes of child abusers, murderers, rapists, pedophiles, etc.
I wasn't concerned with it as what she does with her life is none of my business. However, since she had this experience, I've been finding myself paying more attention to this topic.
An example of the type of person I'm asking about: Ted Bundy's former attorney released a book a few years ago and while doing the media tour to market his book, he shared how Ted told him that he murdered over 100 women. Yet when Ted Bundy was actually on trial, this attorney had no problem arguing Ted's innocence and doing everything in his power to get Ted back on the streets.
What triggered this post is that I just saw an interview on TV with an attorney who was saying that her client was not guilty of the child molestation that he was just convicted of (despite the fact that he had been convicted of child abuse in the past). When asked if she felt her client was innocent, she responded, "I believe he's not guilty." Which, to me, suggests that she knows damn well that he committed the crime.
I know that it's vital to a free society for everyone to have the opportunity to defend their innocence, but the fact of the matter is that as a defense attorney, you will have a client who you likely know full well committed the horrific acts they're accused of but you must fight to get them back into the public because that is your job. I get that. But for me, my moral compass has the final say in everything I do in life, as is the case with most "normal" people. I would rather be homeless than defend a person who has admitted to me behind closed doors that they did horrific things. I can't help but feel that for you to be able to do a job where you fight to get child rapists, serial killers, etc. back into the public, you must be devoid of a moral compass. Because in order to do that, your concern for your own career, your own reputation, and your own financial gains must be greater than your concern for protecting the innocent public.
I'm wondering, from a lawyer's perspective, do you feel that a person must be at least partially sociopathic in order to be a defense attorney? And if not, then what is the argument for how a non-sociopathic person could do everything that a normal person's moral compass would not allow?
I'm just curious about the psychology here.

My sibling has always been difficult to get along with. They fought with the rest of us most of my life over everything, have been aggressive, are verbally and emotionally abusive, and they are an expert at gaslighting. As we got older,, we have been unable to spend any time with them without them instigating a fight, criticizing everything, or finding an issue to start blaming someone for. It got so bad that literally you could get them angry for just saying hello, because you didn't say it at the right time, the right way....
Because of a more complicated family dynamic that I won't get into, this siblings gaslighting and condescending behavior towards me actually took a significant toll on my mental health. I essentially believed what they would tell me which was very emotionally abusive. I started realizing what they were doing and started to stand up for myself more. When I did that there were more fights because I guess they couldn't control how I thought anymore or I wasnt agreeing with their narrative. It took me a long time to realize that this person wasn't treating me properly and I feel like I lost out on years of my life because of that. FYI this sibling is much older than me.
Well a couple years ago their behaviour got so out of hand and bizarre that most of us realized that they actually have psychosis or are experiencing a mental breakdown.
We have a history of schizophrenia in our family. Although this sibling isn't diagnosed, their behaviour at this point is all too familiar and is pointing towards something similar. We feel bad that we missed the signs all along and chalked up this siblings behavior to being a brat. We didnt realize the early signs, but even if we did tell them earlier they should consider seeing a therapist or counselor to deal with their stress, they would deny the need or deflect and say that they were fine and everyone else isnt. They have literally said that everyone else is the problem and they are the only person who understands how things work in the world.
Ive tried to encourage this sibling to get help. It makes them incredibly angry and they also start saying offensive things, that I've stopped raising the topic. I once in a while will talk to them about normal everyday things to keep conversation open because I do think whatever is going on is eventually going to result in a crisis situation where they are forced to get help.
I have family members who does not believe in the existence of mental illness despite our family history. I have family members that are corroborating this siblings delusions. They are not on board with understanding that this sibling is not well and needs help, and actively go against getting help.
I am tired. I don't want to care anymore. I want this sibling to get help, but their abusive behavior is taking a toll on me.
I can no longer distinguish between what is them and the illness. They have always been relatively mean my entire life.
I don't want to put my energy into worrying or even talking to other family members who are not on board. I just want to leave it and let my sibling and the others deal with the consequence of not treating this seriously and getting help.
FYI my family situation is a lot more complicated than I can explain in this Reddit post. I think it would take en entire essay.
TDLR: we realized that verbally and emotionally abusive sibling is seriously mentally ill. I have family that denies the existence of mental illness and actively goes against sibling seeking help. Sibling is resistant to help. I'm tired. Don't want to care. Just let others deal with consequences of not being responsible.

This is the 5th post in a series going over the bowl seasons from 1974-1997. Each year I'm examining the bowls with national title implications and the teams competing for the #1 ranking. If you want to catch up on prior seasons, check out the link to the master post as well! Setting the Stage
​

Bowls with National Title Implications	Sugar, Rose, Orange?
Teams with National Title Hopes	Penn St, Alabama, USC
Dark horse contenders	Oklahoma, Michigan

​
Pre-Bowl Rankings
​

Teams	Record	AP	Coaches
Penn St	11-0	1	1 (31)
Alabama	10-1	2	2
USC	11-1	3	3 (3)
Oklahoma	10-1	4	4
Michigan	10-1	5	5 (1)

• Sept 23: USC beat Alabama on a neutral field (Birmingham, AL), 24-14
• Oct 14: USC lost to eventual 9-3 Arizona St, 14-21
• Oct 14: Michigan lost at home to co-Big 10 champ Michigan St, 15-24. despite the head to head result, Michigan received the Rose Bowl bid as MSU was on a bowl ban due to recruiting violations.
• Nov 11: Oklahoma lost to Nebraska, 14-17

After being mostly ignored by the voters last season, burgeoning blue blood, Penn State, was a unanimous #1 in both polls and a bowl win away from their first natty. Joe Paterno initially wanted to accept an invite to the Orange Bowl until Bear Bryant literally called him and sweet talked him into accepting the Sugar Bowl invite to create a #1 vs #2 de facto national title. In his mind, this would ensure that the Tide controlled their own championship fate. However, if you've read prior posts, you know voters can be fickle.
​
The Bowls
Sugar #1 Penn St vs #2 Alabama (January 1st, 2pm EST)
The stage was set for a titanic #1 vs #2 battle as established blue blood Alabama took on the new kid on the block, Penn St for all the marbles. Alabama drew first blood with a 2nd quarter TD and led 7-0 at the half. In the 3rd, Penn St scored the equalizer after getting a short field due to a turnover. Alabama returned the ensuing kickoff inside the Nittany Lions 10 and later punched it in to go up 14-7. In the 4th, Penn St had the ball 4th and goal inside the Tide's 1 yard line but the Tide's D held on an epic goal line stand to preserve the win. A national title was in their grasp.
​
Rose Bowl: #3 USC vs #5 Michigan (January 1st, 5pm EST)
Michigan's chances of a title were extremely slim, if not non existent, but USC had a shot if Penn St lost to Alabama. USC beat the Tide head to head after all, but would the voters recognize that when they made their final ballots? Either way, USC controlled what they could and took care of the Wolverines. They led 17-3 at half. A 3rd quarter TD got Michigan within a score, but that was all they could manage. USC prevailed 17-10.
​
Orange Bowl: #4 Oklahoma vs #6 Nebraska (January 1st, 8pm EST)
In a weird turn of events, Big 8 rivals Nebraska and Oklahoma were paired up in a rematch. The Huskers received the Big 8's bid as conference champ, but after Penn St turned down the Orange Bowl invite for the Sugar, the Sooners surprisingly got the at large bid instead. I doubt the 1 loss Sooners had a real chance at #1, but a win here, would mean they avenged their only loss and weirder things have happened in the final polls. They dominated the rematch for 3 quarters, leading 31-10. The Huskers 4th quarter rally cut the lead to 31-24, but couldn't finish the comeback.
​
Final Results

Team	Record	AP	Coaches
Alabama	11-1	1 (38)	2 (15)
USC	12-1	2 (19)	1 (15)
Oklahoma	11-1	3 (1)	3 (5)

By the narrowest of margins, we have a split National Championship. The AP held true and elevated Alabama to #1, but the coaches went to USC, but the Coaches poll honored USC's head to head win over the Tide. The Sooners siphoned off 5 votes in the Coaches poll as well, which very much could've denied Alabama a consensus National title. I'm sure Bear Bryant was less than thrilled to settle for a split title, but then again, I'm sure USC was also less than thrilled to split the title with a team the beat that season.
Other notes: Legendary Ohio St coach Woody Hayes also retired this season after a Clemson players neck ran into his fist.
​
Sources and recommended reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_NCAA_Division_I-A_football_season
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_NCAA_Division_I-A_football_rankings
https://tiptop25.com/champ1978.html

*should clarify first that this is NOT is not a data mining thing for sales or marketing! That's all I've been able to find when google searching.
I admin a few groups. Some of which are for women only for various (and sometimes sensitive) reasons. Some of these get pretty large (one has over 100k members). The group in question has about 4k members but looking at group demographics it looks like about 12 males have slipped through the cracks. When sorting member requests you can filter by gender (although on desktop it is glitchy). But once theyre approved as members I cannot for the life of me find a way to filter the member list down. This is a group that should have zero men involved so I would like to at least see the profiles (I know my own personal profile was listed as a man for like 4 years at one point and still no idea how that happened. I only noticed when I saw a "Jamie changed 'his'..." )
So yea if theres any advice on how to get this info. 4k (and growing) is too many members to search through the profile of each and every member. On the insights, even when exported, it just shows the number and no actual data whatsoever linking to where the data came from. So yea I'm lost and need help

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​On the Flagship of the Glorious Axxaakk forward fleet elements:

Priest-Lord Tiglach-Pilexer lounged on his command throne and enjoyed the pleasant scent of singed living flesh wafting through the air. Failure must carry a price, and exacting one's price ought to be pleasant, after all. Indeed, he knew not what part of such demonstrations of consequence was more pleasant to him, the scent of burning flesh, the bitten back cries of anguish, or the sight of the pathetic beetle of a Axxaakk quivering with shame at being made to support his weight on his joint horns. Crouched on the ground like a filthy dung beetle, like these disgusting… what were the sacrifices called again? Dynstrons? No matter to Priest-Lord Tiglach-Pilexer, a race of unworthy ones was unworthy of reembrace. These… these Terrans though, and the Lords Admiral Council, they might be worthy of service to Axzuur. They might be worthy of continued breath. "You may stand."
Acolyte-Lord Narrex-Quinn scrambled to his feet, and High Priestess Ishur-Ixtar made a noise of displeasure when he kept his eyes properly downcast as he said, "I obey, Priest-Lord."
"You have lost a ship. Explain."
"These Terrans sent to us a request for a diplomatic meeting, and by my horns I could not allow the insult to the Dominion of Axxaakk's glorious might pass unanswered. I knew from the my previous engagements with ships of the Star Sailors that they may be worthy of service to Axzuur, and I thought to exploit the weakness of their dignitaries by holding their lives hostage to bring forth warriors to our command."
"You swagger over a favored daughter who has come to treat with you, even while the sons do stand with swords gert at their sides, she said. Is that correct?" High Priestess Ishur-Ixtar mused as she toyed with some local mammal. A rodent perhaps.
"That is close to what the one of The Republic of Terra and Her Aligned Planets said, oh Priestess."
Priest-Lord Tiglach-Pilexer casually brought up a portion of the securty logs from one of the reactor rooms of the destroyed vessel. These "Terrans," with their matt-black armor were half-again the size of any of the pink, brown, and sometimes even black skinned axxaakkoids from the glorious seizure of the Star Sailor ships. He idly wondered whether the ones from earlier engagements were juveniles or perhaps these mammals had biological castes. Unusual, but some sacrifices had been such. They came in a strange variety though, some with tails, some without, some with thumbed feet, some without, which might suggest castes, except they were all warriors. All effective warriors. Those without tails, but with thumbed feet used this to occupy firing positions and take cover in the support structure, those with tails and long protruding faceplates would drop to all forurs to charge, and use devastating blades attached to their helmets like the jaws of a hunting kuff. Those ones with shorter faceplates were more lithe, and if pressed into a corner would savage warriors with small blades attached to their gloves. Yet those who seemed most like the Axxaakk were simply relentless. They would begin firing their kinetic weapons as soon as one of the Axxaakk warriors caught its attention, and would fire even through bulkheads with the terrible weapons to kill. When their weapons ran out of ammunition, they used them as clubs, when they battered them apart, they drew forth long knives. "They were indeed girt with swords," he said, "How did you come to survive, your knuckle horns yet unbruised?"
"Priest-Lord, I was encased in my command throne from the instant the Terrans began fighting upon the bridge. I saw their kinetic weapons and thought them ceremonial, and did not take precautions against a hull breach. There were no servants available to transport the command throne to a pressurized area to free me, and even the highborn did not dare endanger my life, though it is forfeit."
"Your fate is not yet written," High Priestess Ishur-Ixtar chanted in the voice-of-far-sight, "the commands you issued have stirred a sleeping giant, her infants wail at the destruction of a favored bauble, her children swallow their tears and become men, her sons carry the fire of wrath! She stirs, she rumbles, and Axzuur sees his bride! Oceans shall be red with blood, stars shall quake, the spear called Navy is coiled, and you stand covered scarlet with glory!"
Priest-Lord Tiglach-Pilexer leapt to his feet to catch his wife before she could tumble from the dais and said, "Fate has spared your life, yet you still lost a ship. Which hand do you favor?"
Acolyte-Lord Narrex-Quinn knew better than to hesitate, he thrust his right hand in front of him as he listened to his superiors move on the dais. He could not see Priest-Lord Riglach-Pilexer lay High Priestess Ishur-Ixtar back in her throne, and he dared not look up as he heard the man's sandals slap the floor as he approached lest his unworthy eyes fall upon the High Priestess. He trembled with anticipation as he heard Priest-Lord Tiglach-Pilexer draw his mūšu, and closed his eyes against the sight of the blade severing his hand at the wrist. Through mighty will, he did not shame himself, and kept his feet.
"Go get that replaced, and let its cold and lifeless form remind you that death awaits you should you fail once more."
Once the chastised man had left, he ordered a servant to clean the blood off of the polished floor and took time to reflect. "A giant, and she is stirring from slumber. To strike her down and humble her before Axzuur now, or to wipe away more of the unworthy to sate his thirst," he mused to himself, "By my blade, this fight will require more in terms of ships. The Sacrifices can wait, instead begin extracting raw materials for shipbuilding. Let the main fleet elements wet their mūšu, the Emperor will require more ships. Send out the scout squadrons coreward, these Terrans are a foe beyond us at the moment. Our full glory must be brought to bear."
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I am designing a rules-lite narrative TTRPG for my gaming community that is borrowing ideas from a number of other systems including Freeform Universal, Forged in the Dark, Fate, Core Micro and even some lighter weight trad systems like What’s Old is New and Savage Worlds.
I have been struggling a bit with coming up with a simple abstract system that combines the concepts of Wealth, Status/Reputation and Experience (XP). The only currency in the game are Wealth Points, and wealth is used for everything including:

• healing and recovery of wounds during downtime
• the time and resources required to improve skills and abilities (character progression)
• the time to research, locate and acquire gear and equipment (or craft)
• bribes and information broker fees to acquire intelligence information
• travel and other logistical costs
• investing/donating to allied factions to create beneficial future effects for the party
• improving relationships/ties (theoretically by doing things like spending time with them, buying them gifts, wining and dining, etc)

So, as the players adventure in the world, they acquire Wealth Points, which they then have to decide how they want to spend. Got beat up in that last Boss fight? I guess you have to decide to spend some of your Wealth getting patched up instead of improving that gear item or leveling up some skills. Need to buy the schematics for the building you need to infiltrate for that time-sensitive mission, I guess we put off buying that cybernetic arm to replace the one you just lost and you have to suffer a disability until you can earn more WP.
I am pretty happy with the overall concept I have described above so far. I like that players will have to make difficult choices about how they spend their wealth, and it will compete with their desire to keep making their characters more powerful, and even the level of risk they are willing to take during encounters. (There are other resources like Stress and Grit that can be used to deal with consequences as well, so I think tying wealth to recovery will only add a small additional consideration with regard to risky behavior during play).
So, the part I have been struggling with is wealth inequality and scale, particularly with regard to the cost to acquire things (gear, information, etc). The significant difference in wealth status and potential cost of various items from the mundane to super expensive, etc. With regard to gear, there is also the consideration of gear specializations and quality, etc., that I could have as both a mechanical and narrative impact.
So here is an idea I would appreciate some feedback on. Mundane common just have a fixed WP cost, and characters can acquire them easily without making a roll.
Anything that is specialized is given a Wealth Rank based on a step dice strategy:
D0 - Destitute (you can’t buy anything) D2 - Poor D4 - Lower Class D6 - Middle Class D8 - Upper Class D10- Wealthy D12 - Rich
Items you can acquire (physical or conceptual) have a quality rank of 1 to 4:
1 - Poor 2 - Mediocre 3 - Good 4 - Very Good
To acquire specialized equipment, first the player needs to roll a check to see if they succeed in finding the item to acquire, then they roll for cost/quality. They roll the Wealth Rank dice associated with the item X a d4 for the quality of the item they will receive.
The result randomizes both the quality of the item they will receive, and its relative cost. Since the cost is a multiplication factor, they might get a deal, or they might get squeezed on the overall cost which scales up.
The item is tagged with the quality ranking in their gear list and will be used when including the gear in action rolls for advantage/disadvantage. The GM can use the quality of the gear when determining position/risk and effects, and consequences for failures etc (weapon misfires, barrel explodes, expired security card alerts security).
Thoughts?

Howdy all! I’ve been pondering for a while about how to use the color pie for better understanding and creating characters (even other humans, infinitely complex and disserviced by such simple heuristics as we are), and I wanted to propose a different way of viewing color pairings than we usually seem to take.
Most of the time when we analyze color philosophies, we try to squish together different phrases that give apparently equal footing to both colors (Selesnya is peace through acceptance, Mardu is freedom through self expression, Bant is gradual progression through order), but I wonder whether these do a disservice to the different valences that color philosophy can take. Every color combo has heroes, villains, and civilians involved—so what might be a better way of approaching things?
One approach (perhaps with more to come!), I think, is to consider color combinations through principles and purpose of a character’s alignment—the for what that adds complexity to their way of doing things. Instead of thinking about colors matching through their methods or aims, we think from the reverse—what gives further grounding to their feelings?
We can take, for example, Green-White. GE is one of my favorite color combos, and I think often limit think of through phrases like “peace through acceptance” or “harmony through law.” It sounds right in principle, but if we think of the range of GW characters—Ajani, Sigarda, Cadira, Caller of the Small, Danitha, New Benalia’s Light, Bess, Soul Nourisher, Kaherra, the Orphanguard, and many more—these phrases start to feel less sufficient. Does Ajani have Green’s ambivalence about change? Does Bess seem to have white’s emphasis on order?
Mechanically, we can think of this through centering—Ajani, for example, is centered in White. Indeed, centering has appeared in the MTG storyline in really productive ways—I’m thinking of Rootha’s and Killian’s stories in Strixhaven, which revolves around characters who had enemy colors but ultimately centered in one (Rootha in Red and Killian in White). But centering falls by the wayside in our usual formulation of color philosophy: if I say that Ajani is GW centered in white, does that mean he believes in peace through acceptance but cares more about peace? Something seems askew there.
But if we think about Green-White as a complex expression of principle and purpose, we might arrive at something different. Green and White provide lenses for one another, principles that answer the question for what? A mono white character might labor for the law because they believe it to be good in itself or because their highest aspiration is peace, but by adding green, they gain a special emphasis on the principle beneath the principle, the idea behind it: life, or existence itself, or the natural goodness of people. A green-white hero might believe in justice (White), not for its own sake but because of what they believe the world to be (Green). This sheds some light, I think, on why Green-White has as many humane caretakers as self-abasing members of Selesyna. Ajani, for example, believes in uplifting the meek, fighting tyranny, and embracing others in community (white) because he believes in the power of each person’s truest self (green). It might go in the reverse direction: Maja, Bretagard Protector is interested in harmony, but ultimately for the sake of preserving peace and order.
The idea, ultimately, is to consider how a second color might represent deeper motivation, an actual hierarchy of values, rather than a perfect blend of idea and method.
These are just some ideas I’ve been percolating. Would be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts!

Hi everyone! My girlfriend is diagnosed with Narcolepsy & Cataplexy & I have some questions on “episodes” they have.
At times, usually if they have had a particularly stressful day, they are definitely more tired than usual & can sometimes have these episodes which I can’t seem to figure out. It’s hard because they also are diagnosed with Autism and often have meltdowns.
It starts with them getting overheated (I can see the veins on their hands popping out) then they usually seem very confused and start looking all around them, seeming like they don’t know where they are. It usually escalates to them becoming paranoid & thinking they have suddenly lost something (cellphone, etc.) that can be next to or right in front of them. They completely start panicking and thrashing about until they find whatever they “lost”. Sometimes they think they have done something wrong & forgotten about it & start asking/assuming everyone/thing around them is mad at them.
Even after comforting them continuously, this pattern still doesn’t seem to go away until they sleep for a while or the stressor has been dealt with.
Has anyone experienced “attacks” like this or knows of anything similar to them? We are working on getting in with a new neurologist as their previous one passed away. Also just to add, they have experienced complete loss of mobility due to extreme happy & sad emotions triggering their cataplexy.

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Odelli had been looking forward to the return to this village for some time, for it was the village of Ra-Kotod. And moreover, it was the village that Ledi lived in.
Odelli had known Ledi for years, and he was head-over-heels smitten with her. They were but children when they first met and they first played together in the festival, Odelli had feelings for her. Their friendship had actually been that which brought their parents – his were skilled fishermen, hers were a sugarcane farmer and a palmwood carver, all of some repute in the Skillful Morekah tribe – into an amicable trading relationship, a fact that Odelli planned to take advantage of. As Odelli and Ledi grew, so too did the partnership of Sassayo and Mila and Makbed and Deyadema, and their fortunes doubled and doubled again! But now, Odelli had turned sixteen and Ledi had done so three moons prior.
It was surely young to enter in a marriage pact, but not terribly so. These things could take time, but if they didn’t then more’s the better. And another point in his advantage: both him and Ledi were firstborns, so they would be holding the hand of the deal at every step until final dinner.
Odelli rowed his bamboo boat from the flotilla to shore, past the great cypress trees and moss-covered mangroves, reeds sprouting hither and thither and all around. He finally came to a shoreline and tied his boat to the familiar old swamp maple, and walked the rest of the way to the village. The swamps of Sarootnoh weren’t the nicest, but there at last was bamboo-stilt village of Ra-Kotod. And there was Ledi. And… Another?
Odelli stopped walking. It was poor form to interrupt a potential deal, and it appeared that Ledi was in the throes of putting one together. Her father Makbed was still in their house on the fringes – evidenced by the glow of the hearth within. Her mother Deyadema was still out in those choice fields of sugarcane. But Ledi was in some discussion with the individual. Odelli’s ears burned.
At last, the other man departed and Ledi looked over. Odelli could see her smile from here, and beckoned him to come closer. He came, promptly.
“Oddi!” Ledi almost exclaimed. It’s what she’d called him since they were kids.
“Ledi, it’s good to see you. Who was that other one who was here?”
“Oh, him?” She seemed to slump a bit. “That was Yato. He’s of Skillful Dolphin, and the son of Chief Kassyo. He came to begin marriage pact negotiations.”
“With you?” Odelli was shocked.
“…yeah,” said Ledi.
“That… will you go through with it?”
“My father… we’ve heard rumors about this at the last Monsoon festival." Ledi's family heard rumors about everything, Odelli was always astonished at how much they knew before his family even came to visit. "Yato is twenty-three seasons old, and Kassyo was interested in getting him a bride. And my father… a relationship with a chief would be good for him, even from a lower clan like Dolphin,” said Ledi.
Odelli was silent for a second, mouth opened. “Oddi?” asked Ledi.
“Well…” said Odelli, regaining himself, “what about reinforcing a relationship with a prominent fisherman of Sunfish clan?”
“A fisherman of Sunfish clan? Like Sassayo and Mila?”
“Yes, like Sassayo and Mila.”
A smile crept to Ledi’s face. Odelli was almost amazed that she hadn’t thought of the idea first! “It’d be good for my parents…” she said.
“…and even better if two skillful negotiators helped the deal along,” he continued.
“I think I’ll have to tell my father about this offer and discuss it with him,” she was positively beaming now, “why don’t you bring your houseboat in, and we have the evening meal like friends.”
Odelli had originally came to ask that they could, “Agreed! We’ll be here before sundown. See you soon, Ledi.”
“See you soon, Oddi,” she said with a giggle. They walked off – Ledi to tell her parents of these deals, and Oddi to tell his parents of this arrangement.
-=-=-=-
That had been a season and three moons prior. The negotiations had come to a standstill.
That first dinner had gone so well, and Makbed had been charmed by the entreaties that had been made there. They had a chopped seafood and pepper mix, upon maize flatbreads. A last minute arrangement by Odelli and Ledi, but one that the four parents enjoyed. But then it got bogged down, as it so often did, in the details.
Makbed had thought that binding themselves to Odelli’s parents was a good idea, but Deyadema had urged caution. Ledi told him of the after-dinner private talks that she overheard (and really should not have, by all customs). Deyadema urged caution, especially since Kassyo had expressed interest. They had the sugar-wealth, carving skill, rumor network, and clout that Kassyo needed for the raids he loved so much. And Kassyo was a chief - an energetic, albeit small-time one - that they could rely on with a marriage pact. Deyadema said they valued their working relationship with Odelli's parents, but Ledi had younger brothers and Odelli had younger sisters and brothers. If a chief wanted a prize, then why give it to a fisherman?
The talks had effectively become a dowry bidding war since then, playing out every time they visited Ra-Kotod over moons and moons. At the very least, Ledi’s parents had remained noncommittal. The worst part was that Odelli couldn’t necessarily contest Mila’s logic.
“Oddo,” cried Yato from the other boat, “hey, Oddo!”
Well, maybe not the worst part.
“Yato. What is it?” Odelli said.
Skillful Sunfish had made their last pass at Ra-Kotod about a month previous, where Skillful Dolphin had been waiting for them. Chief Kassyo had proposed to Chief Arrdanayo of Sunfish that they go north. They’d have just enough time to make it all the way to the Aluda to the far north, do the exchanges of gifts and perhaps raid a village or two of everything they had. It was slow going, and unfortunately they had to make many stops at the villages on the way up the coast. And at every stop, Odelli had to interact with Yato. And at the times between. Like now, where some two dozen youths of both clans had decided to do some fishing.
“Oddo! Oddo oddo oddo! Did you get anything?! Any fish biting?! Tell us, Oddo!” Yato said with an awful grin. For someone years Odelli’s senior, he was a constant pest who treated everything like a joke. And he was constantly around Odelli.
“No, Yato. Nothing biting,” said Odelli. They’d been fishing with most of the youth of both clans for hours. Yato’s yammering was scaring away the fish, and many of the Sunfish boys and girls were chumming along with him! That made Odelli boil.
“What was that?! You must speak up, Oddo!”
“Nothing’s biting!”
“Gah, bad day for it,” said Yato, “everyone knows you need to fish at dawn or dusk, or on days when the clouds darken the sky!” Murmurs of agreement from both groups of youths.
“Right you are,” said Tital, the firstborn of Arrdanayo, “Aicul beats down on us. Had we no capes, our shoulders would blister.” She was drenched in sweat as well.
“I propose we have some sport!” cried another behatted youth.
“An excellent suggestion! A round of Taklah-Mat, then? To the flotilla!” cried Yato, already picking up an oar. Odelli sighed. He would be dragged into this… though perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing. Visions of beating Yato over the head with an oar were circulating through his head. He picked up a paddle, and they made for the flotilla.
As Yato and Tital explained to their parents that nothing was biting anyways, a few others found the healer and the hanyil. Both absolutely essential parts of the game, of course: One to tend to wounds, another to make you forget them. They found a good bit of coast and gathered up the six boats and two baskets they’d need, finally found the buoy and net in the lower deck of Ranyo’s houseboat, and set out to get going with the game.
Taklah-Mat was played with two teams with three boats each (in this case). Odelli had played this version before – three people per bamboo boat, one punter and two divers. The objective was to knock a wooden buoy into an enemy basket with an oar. The buoy could not be picked up in this version (though Odelli had also played a version where you could only while you were in the water). They picked teams – not quite split per clan, there were more in Sunfish than Dolphin, but it was near enough – and picked boats. Odelli ended up a diver, while Yato ended up a punter. Perfect. After each party had had a cupful of hanyil, and their senses had been sufficiently clouded, they were off! And Odelli leapt into the water with his counterpart. While the objective was to knock the buoy into a basket, it surely helped to knock all of another team’s men off a boat, and claim it for yourself! And Odelli had his eye on Yato.
The game was a chaotic mix of frenzied swimming and comparatively slow boats. Boaters were practically shovelling water, trying to move their ships fast to better support the swifter swimmers. The swifter swimmers trying to knock the ball up on a ship for an easier shot at the goal. All the while, swimmers trying to overthrow boaters and steal their ships, to gain the advantage outright. There was the pressure to avoid playing too rough, so as to spoil the game with an ill-timed drowning, but not too soft or else the game was spoilt already.
Eventually, Odelli saw the ball in Yato's possession, but with no defenders on his boat. His opening. Odelli’s fellow diver followed his lead, both swimming under the field of play with their bats. They could see sea-life underneath them, just fishes and sand, maybe three man-heights down. Odelli’s diver got caught up in an undersea wrestling match with the other team, but Odelli had his eye on the prize: Yato’s boat. He gave the boat an initial rock from underneath, to knock Yato off his balance. Then, he tried to board!
Crack! Pain shot through Odelli’s shoulder. He was back underwater, barely able to comprehend what just happened. He moved his arm, and pain continued to throb in it. Yato had hit him. Yato had hit him!
Fury and energy coursed through Odelli’s veins, and he surged out of the water. He could barely see as Yato’s eyes grew wide, and Odelli slammed his club into Yato’s gut. He doubled over, but Odelli beat down on him again. And again, and again. Yato grabbed him, and they both went into the water, now both wrestling as well. Odelli’s club beat Yato many more times, and Yato’s club slammed against his shoulder again. Finally, both were fished out, and laid out across Yato’s boat. Tital looked down at them, as did the healer.
“Nobody’s even scored a goal yet, and already you’ve both lost control of yourselves,” said Tital, “what are you thinking? You both want to drown?”
Yato spat seawater at Odelli, “What’s your problem, Oddo?”
“I-aghhh…” Odelli said, trying to sit up but wincing. His shoulder throbbed harder than before.
The healer sat Odelli up, and looked at his arm, “Too much roughhousing,” said the healer, “He needs to go back to the clans.”
“Well, that’s the day spoiled,” said Tital, “Did you have to beat him so hard, Yato?”
“I’m sorry, I thought we were playing Taklah-Mat. Not just splashing around in the water,” said Yato, spitting again. Tital’s eyes narrowed. “Besides,” said Yato as he stood up, “did you not see how Odelli was pounding on me?!”
“He’s maybe half your size, Yato. He needs to pound on you to do anything! Look, between the two of you, you’re the one who can stand!” said Tital.
“And you’re defending him? Unbelievable,” said Yato. Yato then reached down, and grabbed Odelli by the shoulder, searing with pain.
“I’ve tried to be nice! I’ve tried! Everyone has seen how Yato has tried!” He gesticulated around, to some nods, “But that was the last straw. I was trying to be reasonable, I know how you’ve known Ledi your whole life, but that ends now. I know this is about her.” How did he know that? “I do not want you to have anything to do with me, or Ledi, or anyone I care about.”
“That’s too far, Yato,” said Tital, “I won’t have any part of this. You can't tell him to let go of a lifelong friend, no matter who you are.” Odelli’s vision was swimming, and Yato dropped him. Odelli fell in the water, and the healer dove in after him. By the time Odelli was hauled back up on the ship, most of the Dolphin youths had left. Tital was still there.
“You really have made an ass of yourself, Odelli,” said Tital.
“I’m… sorry,” said Odelli.
“It’s fine. Day’s over anyways. I’ll have to explain this all to the chief… once I understand it all myself.”
-=-=-=-
The relations between the clans had only managed to deteriorate after the incident; Chief Arrdanayo was in awe of how quickly things fell apart. One of his more esteemed fisher families had now gotten in a very public spat with Chief Kassyo and his firstborn. He consulted with his daughter over it: the child Odelli had acted insensibly, true, and there was some damn foolish tangle of marriage pacts and romance going on. He’d always liked the boy, and it was true that between Odelli and Yato, one of them had certainly been worse off. It didn’t matter now, though. The damage had been done. Lines had been drawn in the sand, and what was once a joint trading (and raiding) expedition was now turning back fragmented, in disgrace.
No Aluda riches for Arrdanayo! And to think that Kassyo had been so keen on meeting Sassayo and Mila just weeks previous. He'd been courting prominent families of the skillful Morekah for years.
Why couldn’t these things be easy? Arrdanayo mused while at the tiller. In his day, you arranged a marriage if you liked another family and wanted to tie yourself to them. None of this political worry, nor any of the following mess!
Kassyo had been enraged, and was demanding recompense and apologies. He'd always been a hothead, but it was remarkable how quickly his feelings had soured on Sassayo and Mila and their children. Odelli was apologetic, at the very least. He displayed none of the arrogance that Arrdanayo had in his youth (or Kassyo had even now), but then again he had already been chastised. As chief, it was normally his duty to mediate disputes. But who mediates a dispute between someone and another chief? The only way out was a duel.
Or a clan war.
Arrdanayo sighed. A duel between Odelli and Yato would end just about the way that their previous fight had ended. He had liked the boy, though.
“Tital! Come over here, girl,” said Arrdanayo, down the length of their ship. Tital looked over, finished what she was doing, and came over to the tiller.
“Yes, father?” She asked.
“We’ll need to set up a duel between Odelli and Yato. That’s the least bloody way to resolve this,” said Arrdanayo.
“So that's the end of Odelli,” she sighed.
“Not if you train him to duel, so that he doesn’t immediately die.”
“I see. Very wise, chief. I will get started next time we get to shore.
-=-=-=-
At last, the day of the duel arrive. Odelli had trained with Tital every chance that he could, and only just begun to grasp the essentials – the proper way to fight with a spear, the importance of maneuverability (as Odelli had no hope to match Yato’s strength), the need to wait for an opportune strike, but the need to act quickly because Yato could end his life in a moment! This fight would be to the death, as all Sasnak duels were, and there was no honor or mercy or witnesses to be had. Two people, two spears, and one who leaves. No other way out. That was what Tital trained Odelli. In the two moons that it took for Sunfish to align with Dolphin again, she had become like an older sister to him.
At last both clans were in Ra-Kotod. There had been about a week where both families tried to make entreaties to settle the matter, but it had only ever seemed to get worse off. One day, Odelli's own mother begged him not to duel, then met with Kassyo's wife. When Odelli's mother returned, she simply told him to "make sure he drowned the bastard in his own blood." Kassyo had actually given Sassayo a black eye, and the village was teeming with rumors that the next duel would be between the two of them. Arrdanayo put a quick stop to that.
Chief Arrdanayo had a difficult week.
But it was almost over.
There he stood, with a spear in each hand, looking at both Yato and Odelli. Neither of their families were permitted to be there. Odelli hadn't even seen Ledi that day, to tell her goodbye. He knew that he was probably going to die.
"Unless either of you two intend to back off at the last minute, then we better get this over with. Before it can get any worse," said Chief Arrdanayo. No response.
"Very well," said the chief, "We stand here before Sodatrat and Atook and all of the gods, a spear in each hand. The blood between Yato, firstborn of Inyal and Kassyo, and Odelli, firstborn of Sassayo and Mila, has grown too sour to bear any longer. Now only one may walk this land. The other must, for some reason," he muttered, "be taken to Itiah for all time. Let these spears be yours. Do not return until the matter will trouble the world no further."
Both the youths took up a spear. They walked out into the mangrove forest. It was a surreal experience for Odelli, walking wordlessly side by side with Yato. They both held in their hand a weapon meant only to end the other. They were both walking and walking until the other made the first move. Odelli suddenly realized that Yato had never done this before either.
Odelli finally stopped. This ground would be a good enough place to die. Yato took a few more steps, and then turned. They locked eyes with each other. Now for the ritual that Tital drilled into Odelli's head.
Yato took a step back. Then Odelli did. Yato took another, and so did Odelli. They did this twelve times, and then they stood still. The only thing Odelli could hear were the sounds of the forest and his own breathing.
Suddenly, with a roar, Yato charged. They were but seconds apart. Odelli broke into a mad dash too.
And suddenly Yato was not in front of him anymore.
Odelli's world flipped upside down, as he tripped on something. When he finally hit the ground, he spun around, finding out that that thing was Yato. He was sprawled out, writhing on the ground. He had tripped on a root he hadn't seen. His spear had been flung far from his grasp. His spear!
Odelli whipped around. His spear had been flung far from his grasp. He scrabbled to gain a purchase as Yato did as well. Odelli grabbed his spear. Yato did too.
But Yato had a spear through his chest before he could put one through Odelli's.
Odelli was panting from the mad scramble of activity. He watched the shock in Yato's eyes, the anger and the panic and the horror as his soul drained from him. His chest was spewing blood. He was going limp. He was limp.
He was dead.
Odelli waited a bit. As if Yato were to suddenly reanimate and lunge at him and kill him. It's what should have happened. It's what was going to happen. But fate got in the way.
When Odelli finally began the walk back, what felt like hours later, all he could think about were Yato's dying eyes. He'd be thinking about those eyes for years to come.
-=-=-
Ledi looked at the hull of the ship under construction, two weeks following the monsoon festival. She was still amazed by the events that brought her to now.
It started years and years and years ago, on the day that Yato had come with a marriage proposal. And that same day, Odelli, little Oddi!, had come for the exact thing. Of course, she knew both proposals were coming, in addition to the ones from Rama, Makdu, and Djuli. All would have made excellent matches, and would have increased her quality of life dramatically. She was fortunate that Atook had blessed her family with such bountiful sugar fields. That, and that she'd managed to cultivate such wits and such beauty. It had been pretty trivial to set the suitors to collide like that. Like boats, when two hit each other, the one with the strongest spine wins… unless the gods have anything to say about it. Ledi just needed to put Yato and Odelli on the same course and see what happened: either suitor would have had their benefits and an advance in Ledi's position.
Ledi would have preferred if he never got involved. Rama, Makdu, Yato, and Djuli all had their fixable flaws, and Ledi was more than happy to let one come out on top and gain the benefits of the rest. They would enter a bidding war for the best pact for her parents, and eventually she would be treated like a Morekah. But then Odelli put himself on the very same course (something Ledi had known he would try for years, and gingerly tried to dissuade him to no effect), and Ledi had tried to put Yato and Odelli together to let them work it out. That was her plan, but when they came back, one was destined to die. She never expected that, nor that Odelli would come out on top.
You cannot command the wind, she thought, but you can adjust your sails.
Oddi was the favored child of Itiah after that, winning at every turn, and the other suitors could barely compare. A boy entered a duel and emerged a man, though his first encounter with death had changed him. Kassyo was enraged after Yato died, and began a clan war in response for the perceived bias of Arrdanayo training Oddi. Arrdanayo and Tital's eldest brothers perished in the war, but she made sure to repay the favor by braining Kassyo with a spearthrower. In a twist of luck, Oddi emerged a hero of that clan war, the Skillful Dolphin was dismantled and absorbed by Sunfish, and after the end Oddi married Ledi as a renowned warrior. He had none of the boyish humor or romance he had once had. He was serious now, but still gentle. And Ledi lived like an astronomer.
Now, their first child was on the way, and that meant they would have a houseboat of their own. They would need to take servants to man the ship, but that was what servants were for. Oddi was out speaking with the Mareh and with Tital for that very reason, probably arranging to go to Meak-Chi to either trade for Keshurot servants (or take them by force) after the monsoon season was over. Meanwhile, Ledi was supervising the design of their houseboat - Itikalleneh, Favorite-of-the-Gods.
Ledi looked at it's frame - upright, in the new fashion, second only in size to Chief Tital's houseboat itself. Her father was an expert and renowned palmwood carver, and they were working with a shipwright in the Skillful Morekah who had a grand vision he had learned from traders from Sarootnoh. This would surely be their triumph. It was reinforced with a strong keel and girders, built upright to make it large. It sported two and a half layers: an above-deck, a below-deck, and a lower short deck below. A pavilion in the fore, and in the rear, with the rear one one could climb upon. A tall and sturdy mast. A painted and carved prow, taller than a man, telling of Oddi's exploits. A designated coral hearth, long and able to host feasts even while at sea. Space enough for ten, almost two arm-spans across at it's belly, and eight from prow to rudder! Room for four bamboo Ti-Rassi, large enough that a normal man's houseboat could dock comfortably at either side on special occasions - when lashed with Chief Tital's ship, it would make a veritable island. Tital's ship may have been slightly bigger but this one would undoubtedly put hers to shame.
Actually, it wouldn't do to embarrass her… Ledi thought. She would have to invite Tital to see it, and then arrange for her father to help make Tital an even grander ship to curry even more favor. It stung to immediately have their shining glory be eclipsed, but the Chief's ship likely had boreworms due to its age and would call for a grander ship anyways. More importantly, Ledi could not afford to upset the bond that Tital and Oddi had. They were like siblings. That was why Favorite-of-the-Gods was fit for a Sasnak Chief, because Tital would eventually make Oddi one. Skillful Sunfish had grown too large for a single chief to manage, and there was too much territory for them with too little time in the year - blossoming to more fishing grounds and trading routes. The bond that Tital and Oddi forged prior to and during the war made Oddi the natural pick for a new chief. Especially if I help Tital along. Ledi thought, smiling to herself.
Things worked out better than she hoped and dreamed, and it looked like when the gods smiled on Oddi, they gave Ledi a smile too. Who knows? thought Ledi, Perhaps my children shall be Marehs and their children will be gods.*

Hello, and welcome to PlantForwardDiet!
We are a community united by our interest in exploring the fascinating intersection of health, nutrition, and environmental stewardship through the lens of a plant-forward diet. As we embark on this journey together, we thought it important to lay down the foundation upon which our community stands: our vision, goals, and guiding tenets, along with the expectations we have for each other's conduct.
Our Basic Premise
Our primary focus is to engage in scientifically rigorous discussions about a plant-forward approach to nutrition. This isn't about promoting a singular dietary approach but about recognizing the multiple pathways towards a healthy, sustainable diet. While we acknowledge that a diet inclusive of animal products like eggs and low-mercury fish can be extremely healthy, we also understand that the production of these products carries with it potential moral, societal, and environmental impacts.
Our Goals
The goals of this community are three-fold:

1. To serve as a resource for scientifically supported information on plant-forward diets and nutrition.
2. To foster respectful, thoughtful, and evidence-based discussion on all facets of nutrition and health.
3. To build a community that encourages learning, growth, and mutual support on our collective journey towards better health and sustainable living.

Our Tenets
These are the principles we hold dear:

1. Scientific Rigor: We encourage critical thinking and require evidence when making claims about nutrition. Every member has a responsibility to ensure our discussions are grounded in the latest scientific research.
2. Respect for Personal Choices: Each of us arrives here with different dietary choices and lifestyle decisions. As long as these choices are presented with respect and scientific validity, they will be respected.
3. Holistic Health: Health is more than diet—it includes exercise, mental health, sleep, stress management, and more. We take a comprehensive view of health and wellness.
4. Sustainability and Ethics: We believe in making food choices with awareness of their environmental and ethical implications. This means considering aspects such as local sourcing, fair trade, and food waste.
5. Learning and Growth: We promote an environment of continuous learning and understanding. We value the ongoing evolution of scientific consensus as research progresses.
6. Diversity: Everyone's dietary needs are unique, shaped by a range of factors including age, activity level, health conditions, cultural background, and personal preferences. We celebrate this diversity.
7. Nutrition Literacy: We are committed to fostering a clear understanding of nutrition, nutrition labels, and the ability to make informed food decisions.

Behavioral Expectations
With these tenets in mind, we expect every member of PlantForwardDiet to abide by a few basic behavioral guidelines:

1. Kindness and Respect: Be kind to each other. Disagree respectfully, avoid personal attacks, and strive for understanding.
2. No Pseudoscience: Pseudoscientific beliefs and unsupported claims are unwelcome. All assertions should be supported by credible, scientific evidence.
3. Open-Mindedness: Let's abandon our tribes and preconceived notions. This is a space to learn and grow, even when that growth challenges our beliefs.
4. Active Participation: Engage, discuss, share, and learn! Let's make this a vibrant and dynamic community.

Our hope is that PlantForwardDiet can be a space where people from all walks of life come together to learn, share, and grow. We want our members to feel both challenged and supported in their journey towards better understanding and applying the principles of plant-forward nutrition.
Welcome aboard! We look forward to fostering a kind, respectful, and engaging community with you. Let's create a space where we can all come away better for participating.
Thank you for being a part of our community.

I female(33), married my husband (43) 7 years ago and been together for 13 yrs. We have no children but he has 2 from a previous marriage. In the past few years he has changed his mind about having children. He has decided not to have children with me. I have sat down with him and expressed that he never talked to me about changing his mind on this topic. He said it was due to several of my family members having Autistic children, the type of family I have, and he feels unable to care for another special needs child. His first child he had in his previous marriage is a special needs child. When he divorced from his first wife, his oldest was 10 and youngest 5. Neither children took it very well and his oldest struggled and fell behind 3 yrs in her learning capacity. As I've seen them grow without their father I've seen the trauma caused to them by both parents. I was not ever involved in any issues that arrised. Since the beginning I explained to my now husband, that I would not be in the middle of any situation involving his ex w/ the children. It has worked perfectly and never had an exchange of words or tough situations come about. I always planned to have a family and he now refuses to have children with me. Besides being deeply hurt, I've come to realize I'm not impressed nor happy with his parenting skills. I feel like its a sign. His now adult kids are needing him more. Moreso, his youngest. He calls him for everything, stays over our house when she wants and even brings her boyfriend(s). Just yesterday was my wedding anniversary and again my husband "forgot". He's done this multiple times, not only during our anniversary but other special occasions. His youngest daughter knew and knows when our anniversary is. She has been having car troubles and decided to continue to drive her car long distances and overheat it. She calls her dad up on our anniversary and ask for him to help her. I had gone to work and came back with her car in our drive way, which had been towed there. Her boyfriend was there and he brought his car. My husband and his friend were looking at his daughters car and trying to fix it Not once did I see his daughter or the boyfriend get up and help my husband FYI- the new boyfriend apparently works on cars. They decided to stay the night and even tonight, her father has allowed this. I have not talked to my husband in the last couple of weeks because of nasty comments he made towards my family. I've discovered my husband is a narcissist and puts on a facade when we are around family and friends. When we are at home or alone even in a public setting he's toxic, controlling and loves to gaslight me at every turn. I plan on leaving him and trying to creat a plan. I would prefer to not have him know prior and leave to a safe place without him knowing where I'm moving too. If anyone has any advice or opinions, it would be appreciated.

Hey y’all -
First post here, but this community has meant so much to me. I read it everyday and it gives me hope that one day I’ll kick this and continue to make myself happier and healthier. This is a long one, but I sure hope at least someone can read it and please just share some love or something.
I have drank to combat and anxiety for about 5 years now. I have stretches where I’ve made 6 months and then I’ve had times where I couldn’t keep a week straight. I hate who I am on alcohol and I turned 30, had an engagement broke off on the day of my bday (I was basically a white lying, selfish alcoholic) and she cheated a few times. Things were great until they weren’t and she kept the house and all the work and love that we put into it together. I didn’t want any of it, I just wanted to move on.
So now I’m 30, I’m a teachemusician, living in the spare bedroom with my sister and her family. I enjoy teaching and I love playing music, active in several bands and it’s a GREAT extra income. My parents lost their house a month ago and now live in the finished basement. It’s been an eventful year. After an accident in which I was texting and driving with a hangover and wrecked my brand new truck, I told my family I wanted to go to rehab. Checked myself in and have been doing outpatient therapy, meditating, working on health, lost 30 lbs. things were going SO much better.
I had a relapse after 60 days on the dot. I didn’t mean to, but last Wednesday night I took some Xanax for anxiety. I haven’t used them in like MONTHS but I had a moment of weakness and I’ve never used them recreationally. Fast forward to the next morning. Well, what I think is the next morning.
It is now Friday and I have no memory of Wednesday night through about noon of the morning I wake up. Freaking. Terrifying. Apparently I thought it was a good idea to smash a ton of alcohol at my sisters house while everyone was asleep. Again, no memory of anything AT ALL. My sister and mother had to take turns watching me because I was basically a walking zombie that was hallucinating and laughing and crying and basically acting like a lunatic.
I’m a teacher and I awake to several incoherent texts I had sent to friends and coworkers and my ex and….oh my god. The dread has been unreal. I showed back up today for the last few days and luckily, everyone is supportive and was just worried about me. But I feel so awful.
I want so bad to kick this. I truly think that I’m a decent human being deep down, but time after time I keep letting down those I love. I feel like a fool and like I’m such a loser. “That guy? Oh he’s a drunk alcoholic who will never amount to anything. Will never grow up and is a shitty human”. Anyways, could really use some encouragement. Love you guys

What kind of site is MetaPayClicks

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No, free registration. 

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Yes, there is a free membership activation, but it is only valid for one month.In order to work, we have to do a membership activation based on the amount of work we can do.
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KYC verification should be completed and approved after free registration on the website.
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After registering for free on the MetaPayClicks website, open the verification sent to your email account and click on the "Click Here" button.The Metapayclicks website login page will appear. From there, log in with the username and password used to register and go to your member dashboard. Click on the KYC verification button in the middle of the member dashboard and fill out the form correctly and give your correct details after submitting it you will receive an email 📧 whether the KYC verification is approved or not. If disapproved, the reason will be clearly stated in the email itself. If so correct the mistakes and resubmit.
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Companies that advertise on the MetaPayClicks website hope that their ad will be shown to real people. It's not about creating multiple accounts or using a bot system to get views for ads.You cannot do KYC verification after membership activation. If that happens, no matter how much you earn from this website, you cannot withdraw. That's why you need to do KYC verification after free registration.
🔴 Can I withdraw the money I earn here and what is the payment method of this website?
Yes, you can be 100% sure about it. The default payment method is Paypal and you can use Payoneer for transactions. If there is a representative for your country, you can also get the banking facility for your country provided by that institution. So now you can activate your membership and withdraw money very easily.
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The standard numbers that can be given to online ads in the world are given. It is between $0.003 and $0.01.
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You will be paid as a crypto token called MetaProCoins (MPC) for your daily jobs.
You can keep it in your Metamask wallet or you can exchange it in dollars through MetaPayClicks website.
The site pays $1 for 100,000MPC.
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View Ads/Videos (PPW), Surf Websites (PPA), Download Files (PPD), Signup on 3rd party websites (PPL).
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We are given courses to learn about other platforms. I will mention a few below.
📍 Trading📍 Dropshipping📍 Coding language📍 Blogging📍 Content writing📍 Facebook Ads Management📍 Digital marketingThere is more...
Also, in addition to daily jobs, 3rd party websites where we can work have been given under various catalogues.There are many other things like crypto, trading, ads click, mining, and wallets.
🔴 Besides this, are there any ways we can earn money on this website 💵?
Yes, the loyalty program and affiliate program
🔴 What is a loyalty program?
We have an opportunity in the loyalty program. Advertise Metapayclicks website and get paid.
🔴 How does the program work?
You can create Facebook pages/groups, WhatsApp groups, Telegram channels/groups or other social media platforms (Vk, Instagram, Messenger, WeChat, TikTok, Weibo, QQ, Pinterest, Twitter, Reddit, quora, etc...) Media You can earn $0.10 to $25 by advertising MetaPayClicks ' website, pages, and groups if you can create channels, and your own blogs/websites.Also, if you have a Youtube channel, you can make good review videos on the Metapayclicks website and get paid based on the number of Views, Likes and Comments you get for that particular video.
🔴 What is an affiliate program?
What you are doing here is bringing new users to the MetaPayClicks website. This MetaPayClicks website pays very well for that.
Here you can earn as high as 49% to 77% of the total commission as an affiliate.
Your affiliate income is not determined by the membership you purchase from the MetaPayClicks website.
Here, your affiliate commission is determined based on the membership value sold through your affiliate marketing campaign. If you understand how this program works, it should be clear to you that it is a great one.
🔴 How to join the affiliate program?
Here, when you register for free on the site, you get $1.50, that is 150,000 MetaProCoins and when you buy any membership package you want, you get user access to run the affiliate program on this site and you get another $1.39. That's for you to upgrade to Prime Rank. Now all opportunities are open for you to earn easily with MetaPayClicks.
🔴Is this affiliate income just one time? Do I always have to sell memberships to people?
no way...As this membership upgrade works as a monthly recurring plan, you will receive your affiliate income as passive income every month.
That is, every real user you bring to the MetaPayClicks website when they upgrade their membership activation every month, will receive affiliate commission income as a monthly income as long as that person acts as a user on the MetaPayClicks website..🤩
🔴Great! Can you explain that to me a little more?
Ok, let's say you did the Primary membership activation which is $6.95. Also, users who sign up to this site using your affiliate link will only do a Primary membership activation of $6.95,
If You are still In your Prime Rank Direct commission is 25%.
That means your affiliate sales referral income$6.95 × 25% = $1.74.
If you work for about 5 months and build about 150 direct affiliates,Your DIRECT commission is monthly$1.74 × 150 = $261
NextLet's suppose that your 150 direct affiliates have become affiliates more or less and found 100 direct affiliates as an average.Now the number of your indirect affiliates150 × 100 = 15000
Now your indirect affiliate commission income for 1st level will be 20% of the $1.74 commission that your direct affiliate gets. That means your indirect affiliate commission income is $0.35.
After multiplying indirect commission by 15000 affiliate referrals,
$1.74 × 20% = $0.35$0.35×15000 = $5250
👆 Your first level of income.
This program earns you up to 4 levels of indirect affiliate commission.
Level 2 indirect commission is 15%. Then if the 15000 people built their 100 direct affiliates, now you have a total of 1,500,000 affiliate referrals.If you calculate the total income of 1,500,000 affiliate referrals,
$1.74 × 15% = $0.26$0.26 × 1500000 = $390,000.
So far your total number of affiliate referrals is 1515150
Then your monthly income is $395,511
😲😲😲🤑
By now you have achieved all the ranks of ⭐Prime >>⭐ Optimus >> ⭐Mentor >> ⭐Master and have reached the rank of ⭐Emperor for a long time.If you look closely at the affiliate program I sent you, you will see,In Emperoe Rank, the direct commission you get is 40%. Here is the commission rate of 4 indirect commission levelsrespectively28% << 23% << 16% << 10%.Think about the income you will get then, calculate itYour income will be more than what I have shown you here.
And I showed this assuming that everyone activates their membership by paying $6.95, which is the lowest membership on the metapayclicks site, the primary membership package. But think about how much more your income will increase if you activate other memberships like Professional ($12.95), Business ($21.95), Ultimate ($34.95), and Infinity ($49.95) provided by metapayclicks.

I am saying that if you work properly for 5 to 6 months, you will get income in this system within a year or two, not in two or three days. 

🔴 ⭐The important thing is that you don't need to do an affiliate program to earn money from the metapayclicks website. If you like it you can do it, or if you don't like it you don't have to do it. There is no pressure on anyone. You can earn two to three times your activated membership by doing daily jobs and mini-jobs offered by the website.
So affiliate only those who like it. 😉🤗🤩🤩
➡️ If I think now, there are so many people doing the affiliate program ❓❓❓, I can't do this... Stop there✋ Come out of the island mentality.The world population is 8 billionThere are 2.93 billion people on Facebook alone* 😲🤑
So if you want more details, I am ready to explain the details about the metapayclicks website at any time. thank you so much. have a great day!

Lv. 90:
HP: 12595
ATK: 345
DEF: 614
CRIT Rate: 5%
CRIT DMG: 50%
Bonus CRIT DMG: 38.4%
Normal Attack: Confession for Sinners
Normal Attack
Performs up to 3 attacks using icicles, dealing Cryo DMG.
Charged Attack
Consumes a certain amount of stamina to fire off a special ice crystal that deals Cryo DMG.
Punishment
Columbina’s Charged Attack will be converted into Punishment Attack after hitting opponents 5 times using Normal Attack. Once max hits are reached, her next normal attack is turned into Punishment which deals multiple instances of Cryo DMG.
Damage dealing this way is considered as Charged Attack DMG that consumes no stamina.
Skill Attributes: Level 10
1-Hit DMG: 90.4%
2-Hit DMG: 92.8%
3-Hit DMG: 105.3%
Charged Attack DMG: 265.2%
Punishment Attack: 180.8x3
Charged Attack Stamina Cost: 50.0
Salvation for All Mankind
Briefly disappears turning herself into a snowflake then firing off ice crystals to nearby opponents, dealing AoE Cryo DMG.
Skill Attributes: Level 10
Skill DMG: 480%
CD: 10.0s
Final Deliverance
Raises herself up to the sky, then rains down sharp icicles to punish nearby opponents, dealing multiple instances of Cryo DMG. The final attack deals massive AoE Cryo DMG.
Skill Attributes: Level 10
Consecutive Hit DMG: 120.0%x9
Final Attack DMG: 1320.0%
CD: 15.0s
Energy Cost: 60
You Shall Witness Thy Sin
After casting either Salvation for All Mankind or Final Deliverance, her next normal attack will turn into Punishment Attack. She can store up to 3 Punishment Attacks at once for 10s.
Good and Evil, Light and Dark
For every 1% of CRIT DMG she possesses, she gains an additional 0.1% CRIT Rate and 0.2% Cryo DMG.
Propitiation for Prayers
Increases your own party members’ Elemental Burst Level by 1.
Constellation Lv. 1
Salvation for All Mankind gains 1 additional charge.
Constellation Lv. 2
When Columbina fires off her Punishment Attack, it will deal two additional instances of damage, each hit dealing 210% of her ATK as Cryo DMG.
Constellation Lv. 3
Increases the Level of Final Deliverance by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15.
Constellation Lv. 4
Opponents damaged by Punishment will have their Cryo RES decreased by 30% for 5s.
Constellation Lv. 5
Increases the Level of Salvation for all Mankind by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15.
Constellation Lv. 6
When Columbina fires off Punishment Attack, she has a 50% chance of gaining Punishment Attack again. Additionally, her Punishment Attack’s CRIT DMG will be increased by 60%.

Purchased mattresses for new place last month. Delivery was scheduled and everything was set. (Had to be a specific day when I would be back in town.)
Got the call from the dispatcher they would be there in 10 mins, which was the start of the delivery window. 15 mins later they called saying they couldn't find us on the maps. Got that straighten out and they said they were now closer to another customer for delivery so they would call us back. 20 mins later they called back and said we were too far north for their route today and they wouldn't be delivering. They refused to turn around.
Then they said they couldn't guarantee delivery for the next day and they couldn't update in the system directions on how to find us because they were the contracted delivery folks for that day. (Sounded like the contracted company could change day by day.)
Was calm until then. It logically didn't make sense to me that we were still in the 2hr delivery window and because Bing maps directed them to the middle of a parking lot across town that I was being penalized. Didn't cuss, but was pissed. Called him a moron, which he didn't like, obviously. Very childlike conversation. You're a moron. No, I'm not. Yes, you are! I was told to contact Bing to have the map updated! WTH?!?! I said I will have the mattresses here tonight!
Thought about it and called the dispatcher back. I offered to pay for the gas or any fees their company would fine them for turning around but to no avail.
Talked to the store, who said they have no control over updating directions or having the items being delivered.
I asked where the warehouse was and if I could go get the mattresses. It was 100 miles away, and yes, I could pick them up. So drove down with a family member and rented a uhaul one way, plus purchased a set of heavy lifting straps. Went to the warehouse where they loaded the uhaul with the mattresses. Got them home (about 4 hrs total round trip due to traffic) and lugged them up using straps.
So the mattresses are here tonight. A family member said I'm stubborn beyond belief.

My husband (30F) and I (27F) just had our offer accepted on a home. Big, beautiful house on 20 acres. Plenty of projects to do, but great as is. Perfect place to start a family. It's about an hour away from my family and half an hour away from his.
And I feel absolutely terrible about it.
We currently live adjacent to my parents. I moved back here in 2020. We live in a house I was supposed to buy (I was under that assumption when I moved here), but my parents ended up purchasing themselves. I had to dump all my savings into the home to make it liveable (it was rat-infested and tore up by drug users), so they did add me to the deed so that I would own it myself once my parents passed (I have five siblings). I pay a monthly rent to my parents for it.
Before I moved home, I had a great career. But at my parents urging, I waited a couple months to get a job so I could redo the home and get settled. It also conveniently allowed for me to help out with the family business. Then COVID hit and by the time I found someone that would hire me, it was a 40% pay cut. Going back to work caused a huge rift between me and my parents, because I wasn't able to help out as much with the family business. I spent a lot of this time crying because I was exhausted, working all the time, and still wasn't enough.
It was during this time I met my now husband. We hit it off quickly and both realized we wanted the same things : to get married and have children. During our engagement, my fiance moved in and offered me the opportunity to start my own business. Unfortunately, as with a lot of businesses, it wasn't as successful as I had hoped, and I started doing a bunch of smaller side businesses to get by. This really irked my parents because I was now more busy and had even less time for their business. Finally they gave me an ultimatum: they would pay me $1000 a month (enough to pay my bills), if I stopped all my side businesses. Seeing a way out of the constant fighting, as well as consistent income, I agreed.
The last two years I have completely lost myself. I can get a call at 9 am or I could get a call at 9 pm. It's always urgent. I'm always on call. Saying no to something fills me with guilt and dread. I tried to set a boundary: no Sundays, and was made fun of to my family and any associates. I have started my own projects that have failed because the business always has to come first. It's not even a large number of hours, it's just consistently interrupting my day. Last year it got to the point I was anxious to go to the store (a half hour to hour away depending on which), or go visit my husband's family, because it would end in a fight as I wasn't available. So we just didn't do those things. Meanwhile we were having dinner with my parents daily because they would eat McDonalds and a peanut butter sandwich if I didn't make sure they ate. My husband, who is a great man, also got roped into the business side of things. He is expected to work, though his work is free (or paid through me). My husband earns a much much higher wage than I could ever earn (or the Business could ever pay), and he works three jobs, so him working for the business for free doesn't just not pay us, but takes away a significant amount from his earning potential. Not only that, but my parents have made it clear the business comes before his hobbies, down time, or even mental health. We were fighting constantly, and I still get sick to my stomach every time I remembered the fact I asked him to not participate in his hobby for a whole year to accommodate the business.
I made the choice to be here, I made the choice to be employed here. I know that even if they wouldve been upset with me if I did anything but work for the business, it was still my choice to make and I made it. I made them rely on me. I continued to work for the business as it expanded, as they fired their partner, as they added half a million dollars in debt. They did it to my objection (even going so far as to keep things a secret), but I could've done more. I could've quit sooner, or at least threatened to. But we were doing this all to eventually inherit the multimillion dollar business.
The first house we looked at was 20 min away, and I excitedly told my parents about it because it was everything I had ever dreamt of, since a little girl. My parents came in screaming about me leaving and moving there. Telling me all that I would have to "undo" in the house I am in before I move out. Threatening to take away anything they can. So I haven't spoken to them about a house since. They lost that privilege. My next conversation with them about moving will be to say it is for sure happening, no arguments to be had. I'm sure they will be in a tough spot with the business. I'm sure they will be upset I am not around to help them daily. I feel so much guilt that I will not be there to fix things as I always am. But I have to do this for myself, my husband, and my future children. I have to do it for the little girl that I used to be that had so many dreams so much bigger than 12,000 a year. I have to do it for my future self, because even though we are promised the business does not mean it won't get split between my five siblings anyways, even though they were all smarter than me and figured out how miserable this is years ago. I have to do it for my husband, who deserves hobbies and free time and to not doubt his worth over free work. I have to do it for my future children, who cannot learn that it is okay if people walk all over you. My future children, who need to know that no business could ever come before them, as it did so many times myself
So guilty as I am, I am doing it.
Sorry for word vomit, my heart is going a million miles an hour with anxiety and I just need to get it all out. TLDR; I am moving away from my parents and their business, which will struggle, and I feel so much guilt surrounding it.

They wear contacts because they are a angsty teen who likes the occult and wants to be cool so they went out and got red contacts from a cosplay kit Alphys keeps in one of her garbage cans. Their eyes are actually piss idiot baby yellow. But we only see the one eyes because he lost the other contact before the game.
Evidence: Kris's soul turns yellow in Spamton's boss fight, which is their true soul and not that fake ass red shit we play as the entire game.
They are known to like the occult and their cat friend in the diner says so.
Get's called a baby by sans in chapter one after giving you a fake number, and sans is god so-
Er go, Kris is a certified piss idiot baby (tm)