Starting yesterday, I've suddenly had a massive drop in fps and don't know why or what to do. Not sure if there was a small update that ruined my performance, but I usually hover around 120, and now I'm getting between 30 and 50 frames while in a match, which effectively makes the game unplayable.
I'm also thinking that I might be experiencing a memory leak because when I initially launch the game, I get about 120 fps in the menus, but as I navigate it, fps steadily drops to about 60-70. My specs are listed below, but I don't think that's the issue considering I've been playing this game since release with no fps issues.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super, AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, 16GB RAM
I've troubleshooted the following:
- Restarted the game, including verifying the files in Steam
- Restarted my pc
- Updated drivers (I was out of date on my GPU, but it didn't make a difference).
- Set Nvidia power management to maximum performance
- Added MW to Windows Defender exclusion list
- Recently installed MSI Afterburner, so I tried playing the game with and without it running in the background but no difference in performance
- Ran Malwarebytes to check for any issues and no threats found
- Nothing abnormal running in the background

Hot take among Barbie movie enthusiasts and nostalgia watchers, but when comparing the two, 12 Dancing Princess blows Princess and the Pauper out of the water every time. The only thing Patp has going for it is the songs, but other than that the background colors are bleak and uncomfortable looking, the plot is iffy and the only thing at steak, in the beginning before the girls decided to switch, is an unhappy marriage but will still be rich and working to pay off debt as a seamstress. Anneliese and Erika don't even interact for more than a couple of minutes either throughout the entire movie which seems odd because they sang a whole song about how alike they are and then saw each other at the end of the movie when they had a joint wedding.
12dp on the other hand has much better color choices and contouring. All of the characters interact with each other, which says something because there are 12 sisters to begin with and they are each given distinct personalities and interests as well as color schemes. There are no songs in this, but the dancing is chefs kiss. There are also higher stakes in this film compared to the other. The king's cousin, the dutchess, plotting to poison him from the very beginning (which she did and he was dead for many minutes) and lock up the princesses so she could rule and be in charge. There was death, abuse, trauma, but done in a way that made a stunning story and a much more compelling tale than the overused trope of "switching places with the princess for a few days"

Part 3: https://www.reddit.com/Metroid/comments/11xqbhq/an_analysis_of_samus_history_pt3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1

1. The Legendary Power Suit
   
2. Samus’ Golden Years
   
3. Back to Zebes
   

9. The Legendary Power Suit
As I said in the previous part, Samus has lost much of her humanity, arguably what makes her a hero, between Gray Voice’s death and the start of Zero Mission.
Upon escaping Tourian, the pirates shoot Samus down, and she finds that she can no longer summon her suit. She is no longer a cybernetic super soldier.
Stripped of all her power, Samus is only granted the Legendary Power Suit once she proves her worth in a rite of passage against a reflection of herself.
And that’s something to note here.
The strongest suit of the Chozo Warriors is only granted when she proves her strength WITHOUT her powers. It’s her humanity that makes her who she is.
Contrary to what Raven Beak says, power is not everything, and the ancient Chozo of old likely knew this, back before the Chozo grew old and jaded.
It’s basically Spider-Man. With great power must also come great responsibility. It’s not being a steely eyed mercenary that makes her a hero. It’s having compassion.
And thus begins Samus’ journey to regain her humanity.
10. Samus’ Golden Years
The period of Prime~Metroid II are essentially Samus’ golden years.
She defeats the pirates countless times. She stops the Phazon crisis. She saves countless species from ruin and it feels like she’s invincible as she kicks bad guys’ asses.
And during this time, the Federation feels like the good guys. But you also see the Aurora Units and Sylux. The Federation is reverse engineering Chozo tech.
Underneath the surface, a storm is brewing, and Samus is unaware.
The Federation is still divided between hawks and doves, much like the Chozo. On one hand they try to retrieve Metroid eggs from the pirates for research.
But on the other hand they send Samus to destroy the Metroids on SR388 upon learning where the pirates have been getting them from.
And upon arriving, Samus learns that the Metroids can evolve into terrifying monsters, even without the influence of Phazon exposure.
This is why the Thoha on Zebes deemed them a failure.
And unbeknownst to Samus, Raven Beak has slaughtered the Thoha that were stationed on SR388, essentially hiding much of the evidence.
But when the baby Metroid hatches? Despite having been created to be a weapon, the baby doesn’t behave like one. It’s just an innocent child.
And not just any child. A child of the Chozo, forged as a weapon, but refusing to let go of its humanity. Just like she was, all those many years ago.
And this is arguably when she regains her humanity.
Despite the potential threat it poses, she refuses to kill it. Just like she refused to kill potential threats when she was younger and less jaded.
Much like she saved the souls of the Thoha, the baby saves hers.
11. Back to Zebes
If you pay close attention to the opening monologue of Samus in Super Metroid, you’ll notice some subtle details.
For one, Samus’ eyes aren’t as cold or distant as they are in Zero Mission. And upon learning that the baby’s powers could be used for good?
Her tone of voice shifts to something that’s much more visibly excited. The last time Samus was this bubbly in her timeline was when she was growing up on Zebes.
This is a Samus that has regained her humanity and is at her peak.
Which only makes the back end of Super that more tragic, because she finds the baby Metroid has been perverted into the Super Metroid. A weapon.
But the baby Metroid ultimately comes to its senses and spares her. It chooses to be more than just a weapon, just like she chose to be more than just a soldier.
But in the battle with Mother Brain, it sacrifices its life to save her. Her mother. Gray Voice. And now the baby Metroid. Worse still?
Mother Brain doesn’t die without spiting her one last time.
Mother Brain’s death doesn’t just trigger the self-destruction of Tourian this time. It blows up the entirety of Zebes, stripping Samus of her childhood home.
Once again, Samus is alone. She was robbed of her earthling communion by the pirates. And now even in death, the pirates rob her of her identity.
Her childhood home. The home of Old Bird and Gray Voice. The home of the Chozo culture. Her parents’ culture. HER culture. Reduced to ash.
And it’s not just that. The only other Chozo heir is dead.
In Pt.1, I said that Samus grew up without children or other earthlings around her. She grew up without a clear sense of communion or identity.
I’d argue the baby Metroid isn’t really her child as people often assume. Keep in mind that the Metroids are the Chozo’s “children”.
The baby Metroid was essentially a baby brother. The only being in the universe who could possibly understand what it was like to be a child of the Chozo.
To be a seen as weapon, but to refuse to be one. She has no one.
Part 4: https://www.reddit.com/Metroid/comments/11xskek/an_analysis_of_samus_history_pt4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1

Hi all, I’m back with the full series following on from my last mini-series, Angland U. If you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend it, as it serves as a prologue and an easy entry into the THJ Universe, which started with The Hunter’s Journey. I have tried to make it so reading THJ isn’t necessary if you read the prologue, but it will provide more insight into the world than my prologue will (it’s a lot easier to go into the full depths of something with around 2,000 pages than it is with around 40-50 after all.)
Fair warning, there will be some adult themes in the series, so reader discretion is advised.
So, without further ado, enjoy!
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Prologue / Previous / Next
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Daniel rolled his left arm in its socket as he read his new assignment once more, excited to finally be getting out of constant lessons, training, and parades. He shut off the holoviewer and retracted it back into his bionic arm, allowing his hand to snap back into place, banging the back of it a couple times to make sure it was seated properly, and letting out a small sigh of relief that it was still holding up after so much punishment in basic training. He quickly checked his bags once more, making sure he had everything on him, completed one final check of the room, and then exited it. He walked down the hallway and hopped into the lift, heading down to the ground floor. Once there, he walked over to the reception, where he checked out of the hotel, and then made his way over to the hotel's subway entrance.
Upon entering the subway, he identified the military door and scanned his pass, letting him through the secure door to the private platform, where a half filled carriage was waiting. He quickly boarded and found a seat, watching the door for another 30 seconds before they closed and the carriage began to move. Less than a minute later, the carriage slowed to a halt at the other platform, and everyone began to disembark. Once he was off, Daniel quickly pulled his uniform straight, making sure the creases were still crisp and that his brassard was sitting correctly, before touching his headdress to make sure it was on straight, and he then began to walk up the stairs and left the subway.
Looking out onto the runway, he spotted his transport almost completely loaded, a massive 350 metre wide behemoth of a flying wing, an ASWT-16. As he walked towards the military security terminal of the spaceport, two privates stood to attention and saluted him, which he acknowledged quickly so they could get back to their business. He scanned his pass on the security terminal, and then walked through the attached gate, scanning him and finding nothing of concern. He quickly removed his headdress now that he was on an active airfield, and stored it in his bag before jumping on the nearby shuttle bus, which collected a few more people before the doors closed and silently drove towards the transport, coming to a stop just before the ramp. Everyone quickly disembarked, and the bus headed back to the gate the instant the last person was off, and then the group all quickly boarded the transport, rushing to get one of the better seats. Daniel didn’t rush though, and instead headed to the subtly comfier seats with an actual real window that peeked over the surface of the wing, reserved for officers like himself, and he stuffed his bags under it.
As he waited for boarding and loading to wrap up, he flicked his metal hand back and checked his messages on his holo once again, looking to see if any of his family or friends had responded. As expected, he had a quick good luck message from his Dad, and absolutely nothing from his Mother, but all his childhood and University friends had responded, barring the one person he really wanted to hear from. He knew she had read it, the app indicated as such, but she hadn’t responded. He hoped she was just writing a really long message congratulating him and wishing him luck, but he couldn’t just help but worry that she hadn’t taken the news well.
He forced it out of his mind as the loading ramp began to close and the transport crew called out their final checks. He raised both his arms off of his lap as a crew member checked to make sure his belt was on, and once the crew member had checked everyone on the row, they found their own seat and sat down. Less than two minutes later, a low rumble could be heard as all twelves thrusters roared to full power, and the transport began to quickly accelerate down the runway, taking off with its full 4,000 tonne load.
Daniel watched the fields blitz past out the window, each one getting smaller and smaller as they ascended faster and faster, until he could just about make out the curvature of the Earth, feeling a small jolt as the thrusters switched from their air breathing modes to their vacuum modes. It didn’t take long until all he could see out of his tiny window was the black void of space above the wing. The wing in question suddenly became a hub of activity as numerous panels began to wing open or retract, allowing a pylon with a long pod on the end to raise up, which began to glow a dull blue as the star formations visible to him began to distort.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please,” one of the crew members began. “We are now at warp, and it is safe to walk around the craft. ETA for Mars orbit is 30 minutes, so please make sure you are buckled back in before that happens. The gravity generator isn’t the strongest on a transport like this, so the docking manoeuvres could pose a danger. Also, please don’t enter the cargo grid, gravity is weaker there, and any magnetic objects could be ripped from your body. I don’t fancy having to retrieve your body for the medic because a piercing got ripped out.”
Daniel looked over to the other passengers, noticing that one of the plain clothes personnel was grimacing and holding their legs tight together, while their friend next to them bumped their shoulder with a poorly masked grin. He shook his head and got to his feet, giving them a stretch while he had the chance, and checked his holo to see that it was now disconnected from the network as expected. He snapped his hand back into place, finding that the connection for his little finger wasn’t engaging properly, so he gave the back of his hand a firm smack and thankfully managed to regain control of his extremity.
“Should probably get that looked into, Sir,” the Lieutenant sitting next to him said.
“Yeah, I’ve got a replacement ordered. It’s been messed up since basic, and I’ve finally gotten approval for the latest model,” Daniel explained.
“Is requisition that bad at the moment?”
“Only for the full suite I need.”
“What do you need that’s in short supply?”
“Sorry, but that’s need to know,” Daniel told him, knowing that the parts weren’t restricted information to someone of his rank, but he was still happy to use it to avoid unwanted conversation at the moment.
“Of course, sir. My apologies for asking.”
“No harm done,” Daniel assured him as he straightened his shirt and made his way towards the front of the transport.
He opened the doorway into a corridor, and then immediately made his way into the office space, taking a seat in one of the four cubicles and logging into one of the computers, pleased to see that his travel profile had been uploaded before takeoff. The data was sparse, but it was all he needed at the moment, which was mainly the bios of his soon to be subordinates, and more importantly interview and trainer notes. None of them had any real world experience in the world of electronic subterfuge, though they did all pass the training and tests with perfect grades like him, even if the tests missed off a few handy tricks he’d utilised on occasion. It meant that he would likely be irreplaceable if the ship was in a dangerous situation, though he knew that would be the case just from him being in a position of authority. He was a little disappointed by the prospect of almost always having to be at his post, but such was Navy life.
He continued to look more closely at their bios, making a mental note of the comments made against them. They all seemed to be by the book types, which means that he would have to teach them some dirty tricks at some point, but it at least meant that he wasn’t likely to have a rough time with them. They all originated from various colonies though, so he was wary of the tribalism that could cause. It should have been trained out of them so they all acted as a single unit, but pride was often something hard rooted.
“Five minutes till Mars!” a crew member shouted into the room, before moving onto the next.
Daniel took his que to wipe his profile in case it got missed due to tight schedules, and logged off. It might not be his responsibility to do so, but he’d be damned if someone else messed up and he and his new team got hurt for it. He left the cubical and made his way back to his seat, buckling in and allowing himself to be inspected once again.
He looked out the window once again as the warp pylon powered down and the distortion effect stopped, causing the green and blue surface of Mars to take up the majority of his view. It remained in his few for only a few moments though, as the transport began to turn and roll as it aligned with the station. The warp pylons quickly stowed themselves in the wings again, and the transport edged forward, sliding into the hangar after a minute or two of travel. There was a small bump as the craft touched down, followed by a droop as the hangar’s gravity was turned up to normal levels.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Mars Stardock 02. Please disembark to allow for unloading of supplies,” the crew member from before announced.
Not wanting to get caught in the crowd, Daniel jumped up from his seat, picked up his bags quickly, and was the fourth person to exit the transport. He looked at the unloading tractors that were entering the room, noticing that they had a particularly large one usually reserved for ship modules. He was surprised that something like that would be coming from Earth given Mars’ manufacturing capabilities, but he probably couldn’t find out what it was without putting his rank at risk, so he elected to ignore it. Instead, he headed over to the hangar exit and scanned his pass, confirming his presence aboard the station.
As he began to walk down the corridor of the station, following the signs for the habs, he checked his messages once more, finding that he still hadn’t received the message he was hoping for. He did his best to hide his frustration, and continued on until he reached the nearest short stay habs, walking past the honeycomb array of pods designed to pack in the lower ranking spacemen of visiting ships if the ships weren’t serviceable. Thankfully for him however, he was able to keep walking until he reached the officer’s cabins, picking an empty one and assigning it to himself.
His temporary accommodation was little more than a small bed, a desk, and a stool, but it served his needs. He dropped his bags on his bed, and quickly activated his arm’s scanners, checking the room for any bugs, which he found none of. He knew there was practically no way of someone knowing which room he’d end up in, but he couldn’t be too careful. Happy that he was safe, he opened the makeshift compartment on his arm, removing the memory chip that had sat there for almost five years at this point. He carefully hid it in the ceiling light cover, and exited the room, locking the door behind him. He knew that after five years of no-one looking for it that was probably safe, but he wasn’t going to take the risk.
He began to look at the station signs again, managing to find a layout map. He quickly committed it to memory the best he could, and made his way to the station’s clinic. Once he finished the short walk there, he checked himself in, and was assigned to a room, which he entered and sat down on the bed within it. He let out a small sigh as he looked around the room, waiting for the doctor to arrive, and began to study all the posters and displays, containing information on a bunch of medical advice that was inapplicable to him.
“Sorry about the wait,” an old and balding man in a medical uniform apologised to him as he entered the room, carrying a large long black case.
“It’s not a problem,” Daniel assured him.
“I’m Dr Middleton,” the Doctor informed him. “Now, may I just confirm your identity please?”
“Lieutenant Commander Daniel Hardbrooks,” Daniel replied, handing over his military ID.
“... Indeed you are. Just a couple of quick questions before we get onto why you’re here. Can you please confirm the purpose of your visit?” the Doctor asked, handing his ID back.
“To receive a replacement mechanical prosthetic arm, containing equipment I am not allowed to disclose.”
“And can I confirm that you don’t need a socket upgrade?”
“No, I have the latest socket after my last one broke during basic training.”
“Perfect,” the Doctor replied, checking a few boxes on his holo display. “Will you be recycling your old arm, or will you keep it?”
“Recycle. This thing will probably break if you look at it wrong,” he explained, taking off his shirt and holding up his scratched and dented arm.
“A mk IV-C. I’m surprised it’s still working. Well, you’ve got a nice new mk XXII-NM. I’m pleased to inform you that a starsteel heatsink was successfully sourced, as well as some other components that are simply blank on my display,” the Doctor told him as he handed Daniel the case. “The profile from your old arm has been transferred onto this one, but you will have to map any new functions.”
“Of course,” Daniel replied, pressing the lock and allowing the case to scan him.
After almost ten seconds of waiting, the locks popped off, and the lid opened to reveal his new arm. It looked almost like a real arm in shape, except he had given it a custom carbon black with white trim paint scheme, and replaced the plates that visually simulated muscle with armour and electronics. Happy with his new appendage, he grabbed hold of his current arm and popped it out of its socket, laying it on the nearby table before picking up his new arm and locking it in place, checking to make sure the seal engaged properly.
He rolled his shoulder, surprised at how smooth the motion was, making him realise just how bad his old arm was performing. He then began to twist his arm and wrist while flexing his fingers, finding that each motion felt like it had less purpose, but they instead felt much more natural like his real arm. He then performed a systems check, making sure none of the secret stuff was displayed, before giving the doctor a thumbs up.
“It’s working perfectly. Thank you for your help,” he told the Doctor as he put his shirt back on.
“You’re very welcome. Please tap here to confirm your appointment has been completed,” the Doctor instructed, pointing at his holo display.
“There. All done,” Daniel replied, performing the action.
“Thank you very much. Any issues and concerns, please check back here or to any other military approved clinic as soon as possible.”
“Will do. Thanks once again for your help,” Daniel told him as he left the clinic.
Daniel made his way straight back to his hab, entering it and testing out his new scanner, finding it to return the same readings of his room, but he could now read practically every electromagnetic and aetheric signature within half a kilometre, with the larger signals of the station’s fusion generators easily detectable from almost two kilometres away. Satisfied, he quickly retrieved the memory chip from the light cover, and stored it within the new secret high security compartment he now possessed.
Satisfied, he left his room once more and entered one of the nearest lifts. He punched in the button for the observation deck, and braced himself slightly as the lift accelerated rapidly, bringing him to his destination in a matter of seconds. He stepped out of the lift and into what was essentially a ball of transparent metal, overlooking the whole station. He walked over to the edge, and took in the sight of the disk shaped station floating over the distant Martian landscape. He could just about make out some of the smaller hangars from his vantage point, but what he was more interested in was the docking arms on the outside of the disk.
He could make out three corvettes dock on a single arm, and another one on an arm of its own. The next three arms were empty, with the next two servicing a frigate each, followed by three arms servicing destroyers. He was able to identify the classes of the destroyers, identifying two as direct combat ships, and the third as a light drone carrier. Finally, he rested his eyes on a single ship taking up two arms that were far longer than the others, the expedition cruiser, CNS Trailmaker.
His soon to be new home.
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Prologue / Previous / Next

Oh hey there, just a confused gal procrastinating studying for a midterm by questioning her life history. Anyone willing to read this obnoxiously long post is super appreciated!! 💗
Over the past few months I started questioning my sexuality for the first time ever. I didn’t grow up conservatively or anything but all of my friends are straight, I’m super feminine, and I had never met a woman that I was attracted to until recently, so being straight was never something I questioned.
I remember friends of mine developing crushes on boys pretty young but I never had any. I definitely want boys to pay attention to me and want me, but I don’t ever flirt with anyone unless they start it.
During high school and college (still in it now) I end up hooking up with or dating guys I’m originally friends with mostly. Personality is a big thing for me and definitely impacts how attracted I am to someone and I think I’ve always placed personality above looks when dating. That being said I obviously still think that some guys are very unattractive and others super attractive and I can identify features I’m attracted to, but I almost never see men who are as attractive as I guess my ‘type’.
I’m starting to wonder if I have ever actually been sexually attracted to a man or if I am just assessing whether or not men are conventionally attractive. If I see a man I think is really attractive while out, I would definitely want him to notice me and for him to approach me, but I would never just see a guy and then instantly think about having sex with them.
Because I was already friends with both exes before dating I don’t know if I was actually attracted to them or if I was just taking what I could get because I enjoy being in a relationship so much. I don’t think I ever thought my ex boyfriends were super attractive guys but they were attractive enough and I enjoyed their company so that was enough for me.
I’m wondering if I am actually enjoying sex with men properly or not. At the beginning of both my relationships I would enjoy the sex and we’d do it often, but i’d rarely ever be the one to initiate things and as time went on in both relationships I became less and less interested in sex. Both of my exes brought this issue up saying that I never initiated things and that we were not having sex enough because I kept shutting down their advances.
I do enjoy the pleasure I get during sex, but I’m wondering if the physical effects are all I enjoy. I guess i’m struggling to understand what sexual attraction actually is. I don’t think I’m asexual because although I could last a while without wanting to have sex, I wouldn’t want to never have it. But whenever I am horny I’m not really fantasizing anyone or anything, it’s almost just like i’m craving a physical feeling and that’s it.
I’m also curious what goes through your head while having sex with people you’re sexually attracted to? When sleeping with my ex boyfriends or the one other guy i’ve slept with I don’t really pay attention to their body, I’m focused on feeling good and making them feel good but looking at them doesn’t really add anything for me. I’ve never had the desire to watch porn before and I wouldn’t know where to start and have the feeling I’d be uncomfortable watching it. But would pushing through this help me figure out if I’m attracted to men or not?
To add even more confusion to the mix, I had never found myself attracted to women before and had never crushed on one either until this year. Almost immediately when I hung out with one of my friend’s roommates I realized that I found her really hot. She’s a masculine lesbian and also just really pretty. I was really surprised that I found myself attracted to her, but I honestly had never really met many masculine lesbians before.
I now find myself thinking about what it would be like to kiss her or have my first gay sexual experience with her. This was even more shocking to me because I’ve never fantasized about having sex with a guy before. I’ve seen maybe one to two other girls since meeting her that I realized I also found hot, but I feel like I’m attracted to them because of their masculine vibe and style and pretty face, like I’m not seeing random girls bikini pictures and getting turned on or anything. I can definitely tell that I’m not attracted to feminine women which is probably why I never had any crushes on girls growing up or tried kissing any. But because I have literally zero experience with girls, it’s hard to come to any conclusions about my sexuality because I don’t even know if I would truly enjoy kissing or having sex with them, and I’m having a hard time imagining myself in a relationship with a woman.
I guess I’m just wondering if the sexual thoughts I’m having about this one girl are just a fluke and I’m straight or if they may be hinting to the fact that my attraction to men hasn’t been sexual this whole time and I’m into women. Orrrrr am I just a bisexual who has low standards for looks in guys and somehow only met the first woman she finds sexually attractive this year?
If anyone has gone through a similar experience or has any thoughts on what I’m going through i’d be super grateful to hear what you think!

Is anyone actually offended by the term “natural birth”?
Currently pregnant with #2 and planning a “natural” unmedicated home birth with a certified nurse midwife who works home births. For my first, I also did unmedicated but was in a birth center with CNMs and everything went super smooth so that’s why I feel confident in doing home birth this time around (as long as everything remains low risk obviously).
But whenever the term “natural birth” is brought up it seems like people push back and advocate for the term “unmedicated”. But at least in my experience, the people advocating against using the term natural birth are not self reporting as the ones offended by it. It always seems to be people pushing back in order to not offend anyone else, but I can’t recall anyone actually saying the term natural birth bothers them.
I’m a scientist, so I use the term “natural” in its literal definition to mean.. physiological, unassisted, without medical intervention, etc. and it doesn’t really have any connotation to me. Use of intervention is by its very definition not natural. That doesn’t mean it’s bad though, it’s just in the literal definition. It didn’t occur naturally. I’m super happy we have interventions for people who need or want them. For example I’m happy I have had all my **shots so I have immunity to some diseases. That’s not “natural” immunity, (I didn’t acquire it without medical intervention), but it’s a good thing nonetheless.
I know plenty of moms who have had cesareans, either as an emergency or elective, and I don’t think anyone would say that was a natural birth. Again, it’s a good thing. Not being natural isn’t bad or immoral or anything.
My idea is that the potential offense would come from a response like this: if someone says they’re planning or have had a natural birth, someone could respond or think “so does that mean my birth was unnatural?” Because I can see that unnatural definitely has a negative connotation culturally. I just don’t think it should. If you had or are planning on having augmentation or intervention (for whatever reason), and you feel like that is the best choice for you.. why should it matter how other people refer to their plan or their birth?
Maybe it’s just me coming from a family with members who are natural childbirth and lactation educators and advocates, so I grew up hearing and seeing natural births, that it surprised me when I first heard (online, I might add, not in real life) people saying “natural birth” isn’t a good term.
I’ve also heard that it’s inaccurate, but I think “unmedicated” is also inaccurate. What types of medications count? If you’re induced with Pitocin but don’t get an epidural, is that “unmedicated”? If you just use gas is that “unmedicated”? These terms to me seem equally imprecise, so I think you should just refer to your own plan/experience in the way that you resonate with and that feels most accurate to you and your experience.
TLDR; if you yourself are offended or bothered by or advocate for not saying “natural birth”, why? Why do you think we feel like something unnatural has to have a negative connotation when PLENTY of good and amazing things aren’t “natural”?
EDIT: ** I said “shots” because when I said vccines, the bot thought I was talking about CVID and removed it. I mean I’m not NOT talking about C*VID, but I also mean other illnesses as well.

Long story short - I know and work with this guy (23M) through a start-up I’m in. He and I (25F) got close a few months ago but I’ve since distanced myself for a few reasons. He’s super interested in me and wants me to be his girlfriend. I on the other hand explained to him numerous times I am not looking for a relationship and I do not want to hurt or lead him on. He said he’d wait for me.
I’ve decided to distance myself for a few other reasons.

1: I expressed how I do not like or want PDA of any kind. When we go out with friends, he’s very touchy with me (grabs my hips, shoulders, just always needs to touch me in some capacity) and doesn’t understand that it makes me extremely uncomfortable. I’ve told him to stop several times in the moment and had other conversations with him about how I feel about it, but it always ends up happening again. As a note - I do NOT feel threatened by this guy at all. It’s not scary, it’s just annoying especially around friends and colleagues. There have also been times where my friends have told him to stop or knock it off too and he will listen in the moment.

2: I’ve expressed that we work together and I don’t want to destroy the dynamic of our team, which is why we need to remain friends. While I’ve said that, he continues to linger after meetings and wait for me to get done with my work with my team just to be close to me. He’ll hover over me while I’m working with my team (he and I are on separate teams) and he’ll be within my personal space pretty constantly. I’ve had to explain to our CEO that this is not something I’m asking from him to do. Some of our team has also expressed their concern with this since it’s happening after every meeting.

3: I don’t feel like he listens or respects my boundaries (even as a friend). This comes in from the information above and a few other instances out at social events. And because of that, my friends, my therapist all tell me to keep distance. So I have been. And maybe it’s because he’s never had this with a girl or not. Whatever the reason, I don’t want to be uncomfortable so I’ve tried to back off from even being a friend at this time since he hasn’t listened to my boundaries.

Don’t get me wrong, he’s a nice human, but he’s really in love with me and I do not feel the same. And I’m at the point that I feel like he doesn’t respect me or my boundaries and I really do not enjoy being around him right now. I’ve been leaving him on read when he reaches out, and I’ll tell him I’m busy with work and other things to get him to back off (since nothing else has worked in the past). I don’t obviously want to destroy the dynamic of the team any more than it’s been or even lose a friend (because I would like to be friends if he listened to me), so I’m at a loss for what to do.
Has anyone experienced this? What can I do to have him listen to me and respect my boundaries? Or do I just keep distancing myself from him since I’ve attempted to explain this to him a few times now with little to no change?
As a side note, pushing charges on him is not an option I’m willing to do. He’s not doing it with malicious intent and it’s not putting me in a scary situation. It’s just annoying. Plus I don’t want to ruin this guys life either (since I would like to be friends if he listened to me and understood my boundaries). I understand that this very well may just be him as a human and how he expresses his love language.
I just wanted to see if anyone else has been through something similar and what advice you’d give to someone like me.

Long story short - I know and work with this guy (23M) through a start-up I’m in. He and I (25F) got close a few months ago but I’ve since distanced myself for a few reasons. He’s super interested in me and wants me to be his girlfriend. I on the other hand explained to him numerous times I am not looking for a relationship and I do not want to hurt or lead him on. He said he’d wait for me.
I’ve decided to distance myself for a few other reasons.

1: I expressed how I do not like or want PDA of any kind. When we go out with friends, he’s very touchy with me (grabs my hips, shoulders, just always needs to touch me in some capacity) and doesn’t understand that it makes me extremely uncomfortable. I’ve told him to stop several times in the moment and had other conversations with him about how I feel about it, but it always ends up happening again. As a note - I do NOT feel threatened by this guy at all. It’s not scary, it’s just annoying especially around friends and colleagues. There have also been times where my friends have told him to stop or knock it off too and he will listen in the moment.

2: I’ve expressed that we work together and I don’t want to destroy the dynamic of our team, which is why we need to remain friends. While I’ve said that, he continues to linger after meetings and wait for me to get done with my work with my team just to be close to me. He’ll hover over me while I’m working with my team (he and I are on separate teams) and he’ll be within my personal space pretty constantly. I’ve had to explain to our CEO that this is not something I’m asking from him to do. Some of our team has also expressed their concern with this since it’s happening after every meeting.

3: I don’t feel like he listens or respects my boundaries (even as a friend). This comes in from the information above and a few other instances out at social events. And because of that, my friends, my therapist all tell me to keep distance. So I have been. And maybe it’s because he’s never had this with a girl or not. Whatever the reason, I don’t want to be uncomfortable so I’ve tried to back off from even being a friend at this time since he hasn’t listened to my boundaries.

Don’t get me wrong, he’s a nice human, but he’s really in love with me and I do not feel the same. And I’m at the point that I feel like he doesn’t respect me or my boundaries and I really do not enjoy being around him right now. I’ve been leaving him on read when he reaches out, and I’ll tell him I’m busy with work and other things to get him to back off (since nothing else has worked in the past). I don’t obviously want to destroy the dynamic of the team any more than it’s been or even lose a friend (because I would like to be friends if he listened to me), so I’m at a loss for what to do.
Has anyone experienced this? What can I do to have him listen to me and respect my boundaries? Or do I just keep distancing myself from him since I’ve attempted to explain this to him a few times now with little to no change?
As a side note, pushing charges on him is not an option I’m willing to do. He’s not doing it with malicious intent and it’s not putting me in a scary situation. It’s just annoying. Plus I don’t want to ruin this guys life either (since I would like to be friends if he listened to me and understood my boundaries). I understand that this very well may just be him as a human and how he expresses his love language.
I just wanted to see if anyone else has been through something similar and what advice you’d give to someone like me.

Just Some Guy Trying To Find The "One" Utilizing The Internet

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amazon Dating Screenshot(4 total): https://imgur.com/a/RzGsTC6-> Images may not be mobile friendly so obligatory posting content below.
Pictures of ByTheHolyWaffle: https://imgur.com/a/ERcnqRD
Eye Color: Hazel Height: 6'0" Myers Briggs: INFJ Harry Potter House: Hufflepuff Resides Near: Rockville Maryland
About this item

• He is best described as an introvert who enjoys the outdoors. He is not hardcore outdoorsy but enjoys going out in nature once in a while.
• He spends the majority of his free time gaming (primarily WoW). If he isn’t gaming, he is likely to be found cooking/baking, watching hockey games or the occasional tv/anime, searching for new restaurants or potential sights he wants to see, out in nature (rarely ever on cold days), or just relaxing.
• He is currently working in IT but plans to pursue education in 2024. He is trying to seek his purpose in life and believes it to be teaching. It might be the INFJ in him.
• He is always down for anything with good company. Be it a lazy day in, planned, or spontaneous adventure. His motto in life is “We live once on this giant space rock, so we might as well.”
• He has been described by friends as sarcastic, witty, down to earth, dark humor, kind, occasionally roaster (his love language with them), and a go with the flow human.

Product Information
Main Information

Education	Bachelors in Networks and CyberSecurity
Future Education	Potential Masters in IT or begin something in teaching.
Job	IT EngineeSystem Administrator. Glorified Googler.
Dream Job	He is trying to find that. He wants to have a sense of purpose and gratification from his job. He plans to start volunteering to find that.

Additional Information

Favorite Food	Bulgogi. Loves Korean food. Mexican & Indian are both excellent. Loves all food.‎
Religion	Agnostic
Children	None. He is snipped.
Pets	No pets at this time. He will get pets once he buys a house and settles somewhere.
Settle Locations	Canada, California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado! Though he is open to relocating to most areas for the right person. As long as it's close to nature and the city.
Favorite Games	Final Fantasy 7, Kingdom Hearts, The Witcher Series, Mass Effect
Currently Playing?	World of Warcraft (WotLK), Minecraft, Rocket League, Phasmophobia. Whatever the friend group is playing really.
Drink/Drugs?	He is a social drinker. Super social. Drugs, none. 420 Friendly.

Customer Questions & Answers
Question: Is he religious? Answer: He is not. He's agnostic and cool with whatever you practice/follow. He is willing to attend church on some Sundays if that's your thing.
Question: Does he want kids and to have a family? Answer: He currently has no desire to have kids. But that may change. He can't predict the future and how he may feel. In the past, he thought he'd have a family or adopt.
Question: What is he looking for in a potential prospect? Answer: He is looking for an individual who he vibes with honestly. He has dated nerds in the past and those who weren't nerds. Someone honest, down-to-earth, and semi-healthy. It's all about chemistry. He tends to have the best chemistry with gamers/nerds who enjoy the outdoors. For long-distance dating, he prefers to date someone who is into games. Makes spending quality time easier when it's something we both enjoy doing.
(New) Question: How does he spend his days? Answer: He lives the normal 9-5 on weekdays. Remote most of the time thankfully. With his free time on weekdays its usually just gaming or watching hockey. He goes to the gym 2 times a week and wants to start doing 4 times a week. Slow and steady. On weekends (warm days) he tries to go out backpacking or out in nature. Also enjoys the lazy days in. Enjoys cooking and trying all the good foods.
Customer Reviews
☆☆☆☆☆ The best son I've ever had. -Mother A blessing from god. You're down to earth and never ask for anything in return. You could stop by and visit more often, but I understand you're living your life.
☆☆☆☆☆ Truly an amazing person. - Old Army Friend Thank you very much for taking this trip with me. I truly appreciate you and all you have done with me and for me since I first met you at WLC 2 years ago. Stay wonderful and beautiful you! Try your best to find joy in everything you do.
☆☆☆ Why don't you visit more often? -Crazy Family Who Loves Drama You live 2 hours away?! Why don't you drive up here every day and visit us?!
--------------------------------------------------------
To add to the cart, please send a message with some information about you! Pics, location, all that helps

Just Some Guy Trying To Find The "One" Utilizing The Internet

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amazon Dating Screenshot(4 total): https://imgur.com/a/RzGsTC6-> Images may not be mobile friendly so obligatory posting content below.
Pictures of ByTheHolyWaffle: https://imgur.com/a/ERcnqRD
Eye Color: Hazel Height: 6'0" Myers Briggs: INFJ Harry Potter House: Hufflepuff Resides Near: Rockville Maryland
About this item

• He is best described as an introvert who enjoys the outdoors. He is not hardcore outdoorsy but enjoys going out in nature once in a while.
• He spends the majority of his free time gaming (primarily WoW). If he isn’t gaming, he is likely to be found cooking/baking, watching hockey games or the occasional tv/anime, searching for new restaurants or potential sights he wants to see, out in nature (rarely ever on cold days), or just relaxing.
• He is currently working in IT but plans to pursue education in 2024. He is trying to seek his purpose in life and believes it to be teaching. It might be the INFJ in him.
• He is always down for anything with good company. Be it a lazy day in, planned, or spontaneous adventure. His motto in life is “We live once on this giant space rock, so we might as well.”
• He has been described by friends as sarcastic, witty, down to earth, dark humor, kind, occasionally roaster (his love language with them), and a go with the flow human.

Product Information
Main Information

Education	Bachelors in Networks and CyberSecurity
Future Education	Potential Masters in IT or begin something in teaching.
Job	IT EngineeSystem Administrator. Glorified Googler.
Dream Job	He is trying to find that. He wants to have a sense of purpose and gratification from his job. He plans to start volunteering to find that.

Additional Information

Favorite Food	Bulgogi. Loves Korean food. Mexican & Indian are both excellent. Loves all food.‎
Religion	Agnostic
Children	None. He is snipped.
Pets	No pets at this time. He will get pets once he buys a house and settles somewhere.
Settle Locations	Canada, California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado! Though he is open to relocating to most areas for the right person. As long as it's close to nature and the city.
Favorite Games	Final Fantasy 7, Kingdom Hearts, The Witcher Series, Mass Effect
Currently Playing?	World of Warcraft (WotLK), Minecraft, Rocket League, Phasmophobia. Whatever the friend group is playing really.
Drink/Drugs?	He is a social drinker. Super social. Drugs, none. 420 Friendly.

Customer Questions & Answers
Question: Is he religious? Answer: He is not. He's agnostic and cool with whatever you practice/follow. He is willing to attend church on some Sundays if that's your thing.
Question: Does he want kids and to have a family? Answer: He currently has no desire to have kids. But that may change. He can't predict the future and how he may feel. In the past, he thought he'd have a family or adopt.
Question: What is he looking for in a potential prospect? Answer: He is looking for an individual who he vibes with honestly. He has dated nerds in the past and those who weren't nerds. Someone honest, down-to-earth, and semi-healthy. It's all about chemistry. He tends to have the best chemistry with gamers/nerds who enjoy the outdoors. For long-distance dating, he prefers to date someone who is into games. Makes spending quality time easier when it's something we both enjoy doing.
(New) Question: How does he spend his days? Answer: He lives the normal 9-5 on weekdays. Remote most of the time thankfully. With his free time on weekdays its usually just gaming or watching hockey. He goes to the gym 2 times a week and wants to start doing 4 times a week. Slow and steady. On weekends (warm days) he tries to go out backpacking or out in nature. Also enjoys the lazy days in. Enjoys cooking and trying all the good foods.
Customer Reviews
☆☆☆☆☆ The best son I've ever had. -Mother A blessing from god. You're down to earth and never ask for anything in return. You could stop by and visit more often, but I understand you're living your life.
☆☆☆☆☆ Truly an amazing person. - Old Army Friend Thank you very much for taking this trip with me. I truly appreciate you and all you have done with me and for me since I first met you at WLC 2 years ago. Stay wonderful and beautiful you! Try your best to find joy in everything you do.
☆☆☆ Why don't you visit more often? -Crazy Family Who Loves Drama You live 2 hours away?! Why don't you drive up here every day and visit us?!
--------------------------------------------------------
To add to the cart, please send a message with some information about you! Pics, location, all that helps

Just Some Guy Trying To Find The "One" Utilizing The Internet

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amazon Dating Screenshot(4 total): https://imgur.com/a/RzGsTC6-> Images may not be mobile friendly so obligatory posting content below.
Pictures of ByTheHolyWaffle: https://imgur.com/a/ERcnqRD
Eye Color: Hazel Height: 6'0" Myers Briggs: INFJ Harry Potter House: Hufflepuff Resides Near: Rockville Maryland
About this item

• He is best described as an introvert who enjoys the outdoors. He is not hardcore outdoorsy but enjoys going out in nature once in a while.
• He spends the majority of his free time gaming (primarily WoW). If he isn’t gaming, he is likely to be found cooking/baking, watching hockey games or the occasional tv/anime, searching for new restaurants or potential sights he wants to see, out in nature (rarely ever on cold days), or just relaxing.
• He is currently working in IT but plans to pursue education in 2024. He is trying to seek his purpose in life and believes it to be teaching. It might be the INFJ in him.
• He is always down for anything with good company. Be it a lazy day in, planned, or spontaneous adventure. His motto in life is “We live once on this giant space rock, so we might as well.”
• He has been described by friends as sarcastic, witty, down to earth, dark humor, kind, occasionally roaster (his love language with them), and a go with the flow human.

Product Information
Main Information

Education	Bachelors in Networks and CyberSecurity
Future Education	Potential Masters in IT or begin something in teaching.
Job	IT EngineeSystem Administrator. Glorified Googler.
Dream Job	He is trying to find that. He wants to have a sense of purpose and gratification from his job. He plans to start volunteering to find that.

Additional Information

Favorite Food	Bulgogi. Loves Korean food. Mexican & Indian are both excellent. Loves all food.‎
Religion	Agnostic
Children	None. He is snipped.
Pets	No pets at this time. He will get pets once he buys a house and settles somewhere.
Settle Locations	Canada, California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado! Though he is open to relocating to most areas for the right person. As long as it's close to nature and the city.
Favorite Games	Final Fantasy 7, Kingdom Hearts, The Witcher Series, Mass Effect
Currently Playing?	World of Warcraft (WotLK), Minecraft, Rocket League, Phasmophobia. Whatever the friend group is playing really.
Drink/Drugs?	He is a social drinker. Super social. Drugs, none. 420 Friendly.

Customer Questions & Answers
Question: Is he religious? Answer: He is not. He's agnostic and cool with whatever you practice/follow. He is willing to attend church on some Sundays if that's your thing.
Question: Does he want kids and to have a family? Answer: He currently has no desire to have kids. But that may change. He can't predict the future and how he may feel. In the past, he thought he'd have a family or adopt.
Question: What is he looking for in a potential prospect? Answer: He is looking for an individual who he vibes with honestly. He has dated nerds in the past and those who weren't nerds. Someone honest, down-to-earth, and semi-healthy. It's all about chemistry. He tends to have the best chemistry with gamers/nerds who enjoy the outdoors. For long-distance dating, he prefers to date someone who is into games. Makes spending quality time easier when it's something we both enjoy doing.
(New) Question: How does he spend his days? Answer: He lives the normal 9-5 on weekdays. Remote most of the time thankfully. With his free time on weekdays its usually just gaming or watching hockey. He goes to the gym 2 times a week and wants to start doing 4 times a week. Slow and steady. On weekends (warm days) he tries to go out backpacking or out in nature. Also enjoys the lazy days in. Enjoys cooking and trying all the good foods.
Customer Reviews
☆☆☆☆☆ The best son I've ever had. -Mother A blessing from god. You're down to earth and never ask for anything in return. You could stop by and visit more often, but I understand you're living your life.
☆☆☆☆☆ Truly an amazing person. - Old Army Friend Thank you very much for taking this trip with me. I truly appreciate you and all you have done with me and for me since I first met you at WLC 2 years ago. Stay wonderful and beautiful you! Try your best to find joy in everything you do.
☆☆☆ Why don't you visit more often? -Crazy Family Who Loves Drama You live 2 hours away?! Why don't you drive up here every day and visit us?!
--------------------------------------------------------
To add to the cart, please send a message with some information about you! Pics, location, all that helps

This is just a hypothetical and something that ofc I know will vary from disability to disability and context to context. I'm just curious to read some different perspectives on this.
In other subs I sometimes see mounted builds offered as a way to play a character who has limited mobility or ability to walk. But as someone who often uses a cane for foot/knee/leg pain and also spent some time around horses as a kid, this seems not all that practical to me. But I'm curious if anyone here knows of any historical or present day mobility aids specifically for horseback riding that might be of interest for people wanting to play disabled mounted adventurers, or any other thoughts on the subject. Especially if anyone here has experiences riding horseback with a foot/leg mobility disability I'm very curious to hear your thoughts!
My experience of horseback riding was that it was very athletic: you can't just sort of sit limply on a horse and do nothing, especially if that horse is going any speed other than a super slow and careful walk, because you will bounce all the hell around. Riding is a bit of a work out and afaik frequent riders usually to get pretty strong legs. You have to use a lot of leg strength to grip/guide/move with/stay on the horse, and if you ride with a saddle/stirrups you will have to put weight on your feet/ankles too. (Maybe not if you are riding sidesaddle? I forget how that works, I never tried it. It's possible sidesaddle might be a good alternative for adventurers with leg related mobility issues, I'll look this up later and report back.) I certainly don't think I personally could horseback ride comfortably these days for any longer than I can walk or stand comfortably, and I have doubts about whether horseback riding is going to save a lot of energy for someone with say, chronic illness or fatigue.
The advantage of horseback I guess is speed. If a full days foot travel isn't possible for you but you can get there on horseback in half the time, I can see how that could be useful for fatigue or pain management. But for most classic fantasy adventurers who travel all day all the time I don't see it making a huge difference, especially if you are traveling at the speed of party members who are on foot. (Then again maybe you are not riding as athletically when you are traveling slowly, but idk.) When I think about historical options for someone who was disabled or ill, I think about riding in a carriage or cart, not on horseback. Unless it's maybe an emergency. Like in movies you sometimes see like a limp unconscious person thrown with their body taco-style over a horse's back but I'm not sure how well that works irl having never tried it. But unfortunately neither hanging lengthwise over the side of your horse nor being confined to a cart seem like a great choice for melee battle or varied terrain.
So unless we are very very specific with why the character can't walk easily but can ride easily, I wonder if the mounted combatant builds that I see suggested are actually an accurate way of handling mobility disabilities in the adventuring context. But I'm curious if anyone here has any other thoughts or ideas? I also just wanted to put some of my thoughts and questions in writing in case anyone is in this sub looking for advice on doing a mounted combatant character.

So, Rank Match is coming to EN (in less than 12 hours as I’m writing this!). Maybe you’ve seen a few posts crop up on your twitter TL or randomly on this subreddit bringing up fear of cheaters. Maybe you haven’t and have only seen the ones saying “I’m no good, I’ll probably only languish in bronze” or something like that. But all the same, I think we need to treat with the topic.
Let’s talk about cheating. It’s rampant, and it needs to be recognized. It’s worth addressing. It’s worth keeping EN’s integrity as a server.
A little context, before I do: I'm a user from the community Sekai server (henceforth referred to as Sekaicord) linked on the sidebar. By habit, I am not a reddit user, and I apologize if this comes off too strong as a consequence. I understand this is a contentious topic, and I recognize that I might have perception bias if the only posts I see from here showcase the "worst" posts and not the actual "average" opinion on this — but, my impression is that, in general, this subreddit has a terrible track record when it comes to identifying cheaters, and an equally awful slate of defenses for their behavior. I'm writing this post not just to address some of these defenses, but also to open the conversation. The less we know about it, the less we can push the devs to take action on it. And likewise, the more we’re aware…
Some context for my viewpoints / experiences on the matter:
- I'm a Day 1 JP player, with 240+ Master FCs. I played EN from day 1 up until around Scramble, when the amount of external tiering drama got too much for me (and, if my handle on what happened during White Day is right, it hasn't gotten better). Level-wise, I’d be about Lv31-32 for FC skill and 26-28 AP-wise. Ask me for a handcam if you want. On Sekaicord I frequently talk to much better players — yes, even ones who can FC/AP 33+ songs (which are probably the most likely to get doubted). I asked a player with Lv34+ FCs (AMARA, 16bit, Intense Voice, Disappearance/END) to review this huge treatise before I wrote it out. I'm pretty confident as to their legitimacy and generally see some patterns that emerge as to why they are. I'll explain some of these here.
- I tend to give the benefit of the doubt to APs up to around Lv32 in the wild, but a lot of Lv33+ FCs tend to be more suspect for any number of reasons you can see from the co-op results screen.
- The atmosphere in Sekaicord around cheating is, as you can probably infer from my tone, highly distrusting. Cheaters are banned on sight once proof is established beyond doubt – so in fact, it surprises me that technically speaking, the rules on the subreddit’s sidebar don’t concretely penalize cheating!
But like many communities, it didn't start out like that. The dedicated gameplay channel was VERY happy to celebrate players' accomplishments (we used to have every 33+ FC pinned) and generally didn't ask for much proof — until Rank Match came on JP, and a player who we all thought was just insanely good got exposed (because JP caught and banned him). Here's the thing — he was a good player in his own right (i.e., Lv. 32+, but not good enough for the results he cheated), and the way he hid his results was much less blatant than some of the people later banned from the server for cheating, who… well, put in about as much effort as some of the cheaters that have been linked to me from here. This is how it goes for pretty much any community: break the established trust, and obviously nothing's the same afterward.
I will try to write this in such a way that it gives cheaters as few hints as possible on how to make their plays look more "legit"; I simply want to point out some of the common patterns that emerge when a cheater really is afoot (and which are never an issue for a legitimate player), and refute some of the more common defenses.
Another thing: yes, not everyone condescends to the level of some of these defenses I’ve written out. However, I’ve seen them appear enough in more or less these exact forms, unchallenged, that it’s worth quoting them in exactly the same way to give you an idea of what’s wrong with these viewpoints. This is not meant as a personal attack (moreso if you may have said something to these effects in the past); it’s simply an attack on the logic behind them.

DEFENSES:

(1) "Has it ever occurred to you that someone might just be that good? / Or maybe they're just that good?"
Statements like these are, to put it bluntly, passive-aggressive and condescending towards people who might have genuine grounds for suspicion. People weren't born yesterday; we're fully aware that people on the level of HPS, MaengZombie, nanoflower, REN, STK, SkisK… exist. (I've specifically excluded jack just because he's the low-hanging fruit and also to point out that if one’s only knowledge of a "good player" is jack, well… there’s a whole world out there).
But the reason people don't cast doubt on those players is because they have put in the effort to be deserving of that trust. Every one of the players I've mentioned has videographic evidence — YouTube, Twitter clips, the list goes on. They frequently compete to get world-first on APs, and they're well aware that if you do not have a video that shows your hands, your play means nothing. For example, tweets purporting to show world-firsts on Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story were, pretty much without exception, disregarded by JP players when the user was silent on the question of handcams.
(The first recognized AP of Six Trillion Years is from SkisK , at 1d 1h 19m after release.)
(A little aside: JP players can be pretty ruthless about cheaters. From the official JP Discord, I passed by this message of someone posting a Yaminabe AP tweet with no proof on release day and was (not) surprised to see a slew of X-to-doubt reactions -- and, as with the tweet above which I had to resort to Wayback Machine to show you, it was later deleted presumably after getting called out.)
I also want to be clear on this: this also means that a player you don't expect CAN come out of nowhere and stake their claim on an achievement, as long as they have the proof to back their claim up. Here's a good example: the maxed score on Arcaea's hardest chart, Testify BYD, was achieved by a player (005saikou) who otherwise wasn't known for any other world-firsts! And — you guessed it — he had an annotated video to back up his claim, commenting on which parts he thought was hardest, and other peculiarities of the chart.
There's a common counterargument to (1) that goes something like
(2) "Well, maybe some people just don't want to show their hands / dox themselves / don't know how to record / etc."
Let's do this point-by-point.
2a) "...don't know how to record / not everyone has a second phone or camera to record handcams with..."
The trial-and-error process required to reach the level of play we're talking about 99% demands the ability to record, review, and rewatch your play. Even if you're not going to post it, you almost certainly will have tried it at some point on the road to 33+ just for your own "where did I go wrong?" purposes.
This argument is also an insult to the intelligence of a player; recording ISN'T EVEN HARD. Recording is built-in on iOS. Recording on Android is as simple as typing "screen recorder app" into Google Play Store (or its equivalent, for Xiaomi and other no-Google builds) and downloading the first free option that doesn't have ads every 0.1 seconds. While screen recordings are less trustworthy than handcams because, well, you can’t see what the player is doing in order to get that result, they’re trustworthy enough in conjunction with players who, besides a recording, can talk about what, why, and how they do what they’re doing (more on this below).
As for handcams, please don't be intimidated by the fact that most well-known YouTubers have professional-looking, crisp 1080p setups: even a grainy 480p view is enough as long as it's clear you're not pretending to mash away while a bot automatically PERFECTs the 200BPM portions of Intense Voice. Google "handcam setups", or DIY one by cutting a slit at the top of a cardboard box and pointing a camera lens down while you play from the bottom (my preferred solution). I have seen players who record themselves using cheap $20 webcams not even clipped to anywhere stable, players who ask to borrow a family member’s phone or camera for a paltry five minutes… anything to be honest! For as many cheaters I’ve seen accused, I’ve also seen nearly as many people who put in the effort to be honest, which deserves a good mention.
Just about every case I know of someone who wasn't a cheater was willing to provide a handcam of some sort. It doesn't matter if they took 30 minutes, five hours, or three days — they came back and defended themselves. I've even seen it on the EN discord! The first instinct of a cheater, by contrast, is to either stay completely silent and let other people do the defending for them, or to get extremely defensive and use some of the many arguments here.
Incidentally, there are legitimate examples I know of of completely unknown players who pop up one day in Sekaicord with some godlike play, and the reason they were believed on the spot? Handcam.
2b) "...don't want to show their hands / dox themselves..."
I suppose nothing can be done about that, but on this point I'd like to point out that Sekai is hardly the first (and will not be the last) rhythm game community to have doubters. This is frankly small-time compared to osu! players doing this like it's a JOB. And that comes down to a fundamental truth about rhythm games: difficult skill-based achievements have always had value because people SHOW they can be done. Consequently, if there is no proof, there is no value; if you're willing to make an outrageous claim; you best be prepared to show some outrageous play, or risk it not being worth anything at all.
There are other ways to show you clearly did what you're claiming to that don't involve a handcam, mind you — but they involve knowing what you're talking about, describing the chart / your strategies in detail, and, well, generally a certain level of passion about the intricacies of the game that most cheaters don't really seem to have, because they're only really here for the one fleeting shot at attention (mentioned this above already; skip to “spotting cheaters” below if you’re curious enough to know how).
Moving on…
(3) "But they posted a recording of…"
Let me be clear on this point: I personally (and many others) are not wondering if they photoshopped a rainbow clear diamond on a song; anyone can do that in three minutes. I am also not wondering (and do not care) if someone has a recording of themselves scrolling through a list of songs with a shiny line of rainbow diamonds, because that doesn't really mean anything if they cannot demonstrate the ability to repeat it (and that a bot didn't do it for them). On this point, most players aren't so letter-of-the-law obsessed as to demand a recording of a re-AP (understandable: players like Mita Kousuke take months even to get a singular AP on What's up? Pop! and there's no guarantee the perfect moment will be caught on camera for most players) — I (and many others) just want to see a level of play that reasonably LOOKS like they can do what they’re claiming to have done. Put simply, I really just want to see someone’s fingers dancing where the notes are landing, not their hands flailing miserably against the glass screen while a bot does the actual playing.
What would "reasonable" look like? Take a look at the Mita video as an example. While he lists some of his current personal bests at the top, you'll find that the majority of these streams are him failing, sometimes incredibly early, sometimes amazingly -- but the overall level of play is high. Players who've just finished with a feat from the night before / day before / two hours / 30 minutes before don't "rust over". A few hours' rest (if necessary) for exhausted hands is almost always enough to show something approaching legitimate if the player in question is legitimate -- again, no one's asking for a second AP.
(4) "You're just jealous!"
And? So what if I am? Since when was emotion a valid reason to stop reading and avoid the possibility that even people driven by emotion can make valid points? But part of why this argument is unusually effective is because most aren't aware of the common patterns that drive cheaters, and so valid arguments are often dismissed as being down to jealousy if you're not aware of why some of these defenses for cheaters just don't stick.
Part of why I shared the context of where I come from with this was partly to dispel this argument. I've long since accepted that there are people much better than me, and I want to explain why people (who don't necessarily have that chance) react the way they do towards cheaters without resorting to ad hominems like this.
But never mind me. If me potentially being jealous is enough to discount it at my sub-33 skill level, then would you believe the distaste for EN cheating if it came from the world-first AP on Kusaregedou to Chocolate? Incidentally, I assure you he's got nothing to be jealous of: after all, he's going to Tokyo for Spring CS and rubbing shoulders with HPS and the rest of the Sekai gods.
(5) "It's just a game, why would anyone cheat on Sekai?"
If you've ever heard a variation of the common schoolyard boast (or jokes about it) "my dad works at Nintendo / Game Freak / Activision / [insert AAA video game company here]", the answer is: it’s for exactly the same reason immature people have lied since the dawn of society — attention and self-esteem. Of course they gain nothing from this, it is just a game, after all — but kids literally lie just to win arguments as petty and easily-forgotten as those in a schoolyard. Why would Sekai be the first skill-based game (of many, many rhythm games out there) immune to this?
(6) "It's just a game, calm down lol"
I genuinely struggled to write an answer to this without getting a bit irritated; I’ve seen this so many times in so many places for so many wrong reasons. But what’s wrong with being passionate about a game? What’s wrong with wanting the pastime you settle into after a stressful day of work or school to be a fair playing ground? Why shouldn’t a game be taken seriously when competitive PvP games fuel multi-billion industries, have university scholarships, and round-the-clock teams and sport scientists analyzing them, and ignite the passions of people just as intensely as any “traditional” sport?
“Because that’s esports, and this is just Sekai”? Here, tell me you can’t feel the room shake when Mita APs Brand New Day live on stream.
What’s wrong with being passionate about something in the same way others, you included, are passionate about things besides Sekai – enough to be offended if someone said this exact same thing to you? What’s wrong with wanting fairness for one thing and not another?
(7) "Trust the cheat detection!"
I hate to have to say this, I really do, but automated cheat detection for EN is TERRIBLE. It might not even exist. As evidence I'd like to point towards some of the more infamous cheaters: the T2 for Mesmerized by Mermaids in EN. There are some pretty damning threads from long-time tierers that have explained the point in much more detail than I could eloquently say. Now, this exact cheater was defended by someone using the exact same argument I'm about to reply to, and it's just as fallacious now as it was then.
Allow me to explain exactly why "trust the cheat detection" doesn't fly.
- T2, as the threads I've linked demonstrate, was clearly botting, and did so for the entire week the event ran. So why didn't the supposed "cheat detection" pick this up? Why was T2 allowed to play all the way until the EVENT ENDED? Why was the event title AWARDED to T2, denying the T4 (nara) the T3 as a result?
- The appeal to authority argument particularly disgusts me because of one thing: JP has had its own issues with cheaters of a different nature: those who share accounts so that they can tier 24/7 with no downtime. The example I know of is from Unnamed Harmony: not only did they outright admit to account sharing (and insinuated that the t2 who lost was probably also cheating), they weren't banned. I use JP as an example for this reason: JP, which actually, proactively bans botters in Rank Match, still has cheaters that are left completely alone. How then, can you expect EN to have better scrutiny when even botters need a public outcry and a LOT of angry support desk mails just to get one T2 banned? (oh, and come back, and get that account banned too, and admit to committing about 7k euros worth of chargeback fraud…) No offense, but EN can't even herd its official discord channels together; how am I supposed to believe they have time for botters?
T2 Mermaids is hardly the only example there is — only the most notorious one. But if even the cases of people high enough to be in the ranking spotlight take so much effort to call out (no thanks to people spouting uneducated defenses and convincing enough people), how much more botters who just roam the wilds with all perfects that show with 0 notes hit?
Put another way: why use a tiering cheater as an example for skill-based cheating when tiering skill boils down to whoever has the stamina to slap Envy for the longest time? Answer: they use the same tools. The person running around with an EmpErroR AP in public rooms may be doing it to show off, while a tiering cheater may be doing it so they doesn’t lose sleep or struggle the same way their competitors do, but the means are (almost) always the same: a machine does the work for them. And if the game isn’t banning one of them… how can you be confident they’re banning the other?
“Well, that was months ago! They’re better now, I hope!”
The proof is in the pudding. If you’re right, then I’d be happier than anyone else.

SPOTTING CHEATERS:

Besides the whole "they get really defensive" / [insert argument above] things listed above, there are a few more tells that really go a long way towards sniffing out a cheater, and I'd like to go over some of them here (since they didn't really fit naturally into the counterarguments presented above). I'll skip over directly critiquing their results in the case that a prospective cheater reads this and takes notes on how to avoid getting caught.
Now, a little disclaimer, for fairness: most of the posts I’m aware of don’t actually involve the cheaters themselves risking getting caught on here, and so the uses for such red flags may not be easily applicable. But all the same, they go hand-in-hand with the (fallacious) defenses for cheaters, and it’s important to know what you’re looking for when someone inevitably comes here asking why they got banned (for “no reason”) assuming EN is any trustworthy when Rank Match hits.
Keep in mind: each of these ALONE does not mean someone is a cheater — it's when red flags like these, ALONG with refusing to provide videographic proof, come together, that someone becomes more and more suspicious.
(1) Unrealistic timeframes for improvement
Let's not mince words here: the highest levels of Sekai are HARD. As in, it competes with "pure" rhythm games like Arcaea, Lanota, Phigros, Cytus, Dynamix, CHUNITHM, maimai, ONGEKI… levels of hard. Sekai itself is unusually hard for a popular rhythm game (sorry Tokyo 7th Sisters, no one knows you) with funny PNGs you roll and pay for, in a market where the closest competition (and therefore most people's previous frames of reference for existing difficulty) is Bandori or Enstars. And, well, no offense… but Bandori doesn't have six Hell or Hell SPs (and it took THIS long to release the 33+ specials…) and a release schedule that promises more every three months, like we're getting with Yaminabe and Jinsei. As for Enstars? Two years to release Awakening Myth and Seishun Emergency SP (and they’re only roughly as hard as ~32lv. Sekai charts).
What this results in are cheaters who grossly underestimate the time needed to get to Sekai's highest level. You might hear things like "i was up all night / week / month getting this omg my fingers are so tired". To use an example from sekaicord / experience: most players who commit to the improvement grind tend to find that they'll improve really quickly from 26 to 30 — and then hit a major wall at Lv31, where the difficulty then spikes exponentially. The average time it takes legitimate players to go from Lv31 to 32? Six months or more. 32 to 33? You'll be lucky or just insanely good if it takes you six months.
Anyone claiming to be the exception to this pattern, put simply, needs the proof. People are willing to believe someone’s good if they can see someone play good.
(2) Not recognizing patterns when questioned
An actual story about a banned cheater from sekaicord: they claimed to have AP'd Don't Fight the Music on Master, and immediately fell through when people started asking them about patterns from other charts, including Hibana and KING. The issue? They were told that those patterns were from Don't Fight the Music. This is pretty much self-explanatory: you'd at least be expected to know the charts you're claiming to have beaten!
But besides that, people who have pulled off such feats (hell, pretty much anyone) always has a devil of their own. Everyone has That One Pattern they find, and which they hate. And if you're a devilish enough little Pattern (hello Greenlights / Bitter Choco Decoration), you'll be so absolutely evil that everyone will know you, not the other way around. Someone who picks out a pattern that is pretty obviously free to someone actually at that skill level OR doesn't have a least favorite pattern at all tends to stink from a mile away.
(3) Low-quality / vague explanations and/or misuse/lack of terminology/jargon
A common trope in TV shows, video games, and so on is a smart character (usually a scientist) who launches into a convoluted explanation with a LOT of jargon you're not supposed to understand, before a character stops them and says you're making my brain hurt. While silly, this trope has some basis in the fact that people who are good at something tend to be really passionate about it, and often won't hesitate to explain in a lot of detail exactly how they pull off what they do. The same almost always goes for rhythm game players — it's common for people who have just conquered a chart in sekaicord to follow up their FC / AP screenshot with a long-ass postmortem of the parts they hated the most, the strategy that finally got them through it, and pretty much everything in between.
As a cheater, it would be pretty difficult to emulate this. There's no adrenaline rush as you get through the part that you've been struggling on for weeks, possibly months, no sitting down staring at a chart viewer cursing the disgustingly hard part, no detailed "L-R-L-R(index)-R(middle)" big brain strategy just to pass something extremely cursed. There is nothing to explain. Most often, you will get "i was just shaking throughout it's all so hard", "uhhh i just mashed as hard as i possibly could" “go watch a video instead of bothering me” without reference to a specific pattern, and almost no way to describe their solution in terms any reasonably practiced regular would be familiar with. Did you jack this part here? Two fingers or multiple? Is there a BPM divisor that helps you get the rhythm down on this?
Let's go back to the 005saikou Arcaea example I mentioned earlier. Pretty much anyone at that level will have thoughts about their own achievements, and which parts they found hardest to conquer; look at the pinned comment (translation of the CCs) on his Testify video and see just how detailed they can get. I'm not saying everyone has to get to that level of detail, but someone with practically nothing to say about their achievements AND no video either is a serious red flag.

A brief conclusion

Why I took the time to write all of this is pretty simple: I would very much like if people were more aware of the players they're defending who don't deserve to be defended. Not only are there legitimate players out there much more deserving of your attention, but there's also a glut of illegitimate ones out there cruising along with the potential to make Ranked Match completely unplayable if we're just going to sit here and pretend it's not a problem. Perhaps you’re thinking it’s not going to be a problem for you if you only stay in Bronze / Silver / Gold / Plat. Good for you, but then that leaves Diamond and Mastery completely unplayable wastelands fit only for people who jump onto sites-that-shall-not-be-named for modded apps. Pretty much every time I talk to a JP player about EN and the prospect of ranked match, I universally hear back the words “cheating” and smell the implication that there’s no point to even touching it. There’s already so few legitimately skilled players on EN (let alone those who aren’t simply imported / previously JP players) and the last thing EN needs is to drive those players away.
Genuine question: If the playerbase is capable of raising enough of a stink to get an entire event memory-holed out of existence (I have not forgotten RMD), please tell me why it's not possible to push the devs to take action on people who will undermine the legitimacy of an entire game mode? It's easy enough to ignore if you're just running around co-op getting event points and can forget about someone who's not playing the game, but in a game mode whose basis is a fair and even competition between two players, surely there's some reason to get them to do something.
Call me jealous, salty, misguided, whatever you want, but if at the end of the day this post has you thinking a bit more critically about why people can be so suspicious of others (and why it's more legitimate than just jealousy), then writing it will have been worth something. Please, don’t throw these words by the wayside, and keep a more critical eye out for the people you meet, be it in ordinary rooms, on social media, or, well… on Ranked Match. If you could do something about RMD, you can do something about cheaters.
If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for your attention and time.

This happened over the weekend after a little to much St. Paddy’s day celebrating.
A little back story, my niece is 33 and single after a 9 year long term relationship that we all thought was heading towards wedding bells. But covid lockdowns really took its toll and showed her that he was never getting down on one knee. Since then she has been on numerous dates with what seem like great guys, my wife and I even tried to set her up with a couple of people but it never comes to much. A month max then she ditches them.
Her and my wife (36) have always been super close, sharing everything with one another. She has broke down to her on a couple of occasions, that she will die alone, never have kids etc.
So let’s get to the fuck up, last weekend we invited her and her new love interest over to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day. But she arrives alone and told us that it wasn’t working out with her new man. Same old story as before and an overly emotional niece starts throwing back drinks like there’s no tomorrow.
Fast forward a few hours, we had dinner, went to a local bar and spent the evening drinking. When the night is coming to an end, my wife and niece decided to keep the party going back at our place. They open a bottle of wine and get to the drunken girl chat, I leave them to it and head to bed. An hour or two pass and I get woken by sobbing coming from down the hall, my niece is in a full on break down and I get up to try settle things down and get them to bed.
As I walk down the hall way I hear her crying out, “it feels like nothing, I need more” between her wails. Not thinking much of what she’s saying I swing the door open to she my wife holding my sobbing niece in her arms as she continues to cry “I need to feel stretched, why can’t any of these guys satisfy me”.
I lock eyes with my wife who is giving me the get the fuck out look as my niece hasn’t noticed me yet. I reverse out the door and down the hall again, but no before hearing her final cry of “Is it to much to ask that a guy has a big cock to fill me deep and hard”.
Next morning my niece didn’t wake until the AM with the worst hangover, I can’t look her in the eye anymore and I struggled to make conversation without thinking about her very big demands in her relationship.
TL;DR
I walked in on my wife having a drunken heart to heart with my niece confirming she is a size queen and why she never sticks with a man.

I'm 32 weeks ATM and start my maternity leave in a matter of weeks. I live in Ireland so it's just getting super expensive and myself and my partner have been considering moving abroad where I have family, even for a few years in order to save and potentially buy a place for ourselves there. ATM we live in the family home. Anyways, similar to everywhere ATM I guess, there's a bad cost of living crisis here and even before baby things weren't exactly great but we were getting by okay. But that was of course because we were both working full time.
I'm scared when I go on maternity, my maternity benefit will not stretch far enough to cover basic things like electricity or gas etc. It's roughly half of my current weekly wage. Obviously I know my partner will help out and we both have savings (mostly intended for the impending move) but I don't want him to shoulder the burden alone. I know I'll be busy with the baby of course and he does intend to take time off as well to help out, but I'm just wondering if anyone had any advice or tips on what to do while being on maternity leave?
I have a BA honors in English & I'm certified to teach English as a foreign language so I've been toying with the idea of perhaps doing English lessons from home as there are many websites I can apply to do this through.
Just wondering if anyone has an advice either related to that or just even tips on making money during maternity leave or budgeting that I haven't thought of yet.
I just want to have some sort of plan or ideas even just to keep the anxiety at bay a little. Thinking of also scouting out the best deals for electricity rates etc and going with a different provider if needs be. But yeah appreciate any tips or advice just super stressed and not sure who to ask so why not the Internet ha ha.

Goku, the super sayian who saved earth more than a hundred times, and Saitama, also known as the One Punch Man, a bored super hero who hopes someone achieves his power, an immense super strength. Will fight in a empty desert, Goku unleashes the power of the super sayian and prepares to attack, the fight begins. Saitama gets over confident and goes to the left, Goku takes the opportunity to perform his super technique which causes Saitama to lose balance.
Goku lands to the right of Saitama, both lay down on the ground, waiting for the other to attack.
After a long time, Goku pulls Saitama’s arm down and hits Saitama's fist on Saitama's face, Saitama is yeeted by his own strength.
Goku realizing that he has a chance, is determinated to win the fight.
Saitama gets up, barely walking and says "So then, I am not the strongest?" Saitama seems excited
"Are you?" Goku says with a tone that seems to be trying to make Saitama angry.
"Don't worry, I'm not the weakest either."
Saitama laughs, "Didn't expect that from a weakling like you."
"WOW, you've got a fast response." Goku says excited.
Saitama taunts back "Why, was it that you're looking for something? A rival? "
"Well, maybe."
Saitama laughs, "Ha, after all, you're one of the most powerful guys in the world. "
"Right, I've got something even better than that." Goku says while making Saitama feel down.
He grabs Saitama's head and says to him "Okay then, today I'm going to let you feel my power."
Saitama smirks, "Hahaha, well, I don't know if I should admire you for that."
Goku is determined to win this epic fight so he still with Saitama's neck being hold by Goku says "Come on, fight me!"
"Okay, let's see who wins this battle!"
Goku begins to charge a punch to hit Saitama's head, but suddently, Saitama holds Goku's arm and Goku is yeeted, he lands in front of a rock and thinking that he is going to die, he uses the last of his super powers to transform.
Goku activates the Ultra Stinct and with a powerful blast of power, shatters that rock into pieces, Saitama is confused, but also intrigued, he pulls Goku up by his arms and spins him around, after a while, throws him into the ground. "That's the power of a Super Saiyan? I expected more"
"If you want to know the truth, I thought I was going to die today." Goku says.
"Ha, yeah, but you WILL die" Saitama laughs, over confident.
"Wait, what are you talking about?" Goku asks Saitama.
"Look here, if you're going to battle with me, I will be your last adversary, after today, all you'll have left to do is roam around in the afterlife".
"Is it really so? " Goku asks while preparing a powerful kamehameha, his signature attack.
Saitama has a look of pleasure, and says, "That, is not a joke, you see, YOU are my last adversary, the universe has chosen us, we are gods, Goku, literal gods" Saitama, a hero, is corrupted by the power, he is a human, with much power, he wants to be the strongest one, the only barrier blocking him, is Goku. "This is your last fight, Goku".
Goku then says, "This is YOUR last fight, Saitama". Goku stops smiling.
Saitama laughs, "It won't be, I'm going to kill you, you won't give up, and even if you did, you wouldn't leave this place alive." Saitama smirks, he has a hint of sadistic pride.
Goku, then says "Oh, no, that's okay, you'll have plenty of time to kill me later, this is my turn."
Saitama pulls Goku closer to him and says "What are you talking about, it's my turn to kill you, to end you, to obliterate you. I'm the one who's calling the shots here."
"This will be a fun fight." Goku says as he starts to readjust himself.
"Very funny" Saitama says, and continues to pull Goku even closer to him, Goku's anger rising in him.
"Are you afraid?" Saitama asks him, then he makes his move.
Goku sees Saitama's massive left fist coming, but just before Saitama can hit him, Goku teleports and wraps his arms around Saitama's eyes.
Goku dodges Saitama's kick, and smashes Saitama's head into his knee, Saitama taunts Goku, saying "You think this will be easy, well, I already won, you have no idea."
Then he grabs Goku, and kicks him against the ground. Goku struggles to get out from Saitama's powerful foot, he's not going to loose to him, not after everything he has done. Goku breaks free of his boot, he takes out a strong looking kamehameha and hurls it at Saitama's head. The blast is powerful enough to blow a rock apart in a fraction of a second. The ground vibrates around Saitama's head as the energy from the attack hits it.
Saitama covers his head, and then powers up his fists, and blasts a massive punch at Goku.
The kamehameha is blocked by Saitama's fists, but Goku teleports behind Saitama, and punches him in the back. This leaves him writhing in pain, he has done something to his back.
"That's what I do to my enemies" Goku says as he flies away, leaving Saitama to his agony.
while Saitama's getting up, Goku will summon a Genki dama, a extremely powerful attack that need the force of all the living beings in the universe, it takes long to prepare and it has devastating results.
Goku teleports in front of Saitama, and prepares to summon Genki dama.
Saitama, then prepares a punch that would surely kill him, and Goku begins to gather forces, but then Saitama looks at Goku and says "Tell me something, do you really think you can take me down?"
"I don't think that, because you'll never beat me, you're quite strong, for a HUMAN" Goku finalised the genki dama and kills Saitama, in his last breath he says "... Never thought anyone could beat me... You... Are really... Powerful..."
The fight ends.

Up 5k for the year after about 300 hrs. The results are so small though, live poker is supposed to be super easy, but my winrate in each game so far is sooooo small.
3bb/hr at 5/10 1bb/hr at 2/5 8bb/hr at 1/2 500bb/hr at 1/2 plo (ignore this though, it's plo and it never runs, just played a 2 hr session)
It feels like I'm treading water. Anyone see their live results increase significantly after study, and if so what course of study helped the most?
Currently I have access to some upswing stuff and the free version of gtowizard. I don't really trust coaching because I always think why would you coach for peanuts when you could just be crushing

Long story ahead.
It started when I was just a kid. I'm in my mid 30s now, but that's when it started. I'd like to preface most of this with an obligatory, to the best of my knowledge, I'm not making any of it up. Whatever definitive knowledge I think I've got is based on speculation and heresay. Nothing has identified itself at all, let alone directly. For my own sake, and the sake of related parties I'm going to edit all names from the story(ies). Especially since I'm not using a throwaway or anything. This is going right up on my personal account. I fabricate or hold back nothing this time. Ill be doing my best to cultivate as much accurate information as I can remember, but I'm getting old and don't remember as well as I used to. I can't even tell you how genuinely I consider religion, supernatural whatever, all of it to just be some stuff made up by white men to continue on with the patriarchy. I don't buy into ghosts or any of it.
It started as shadows. The feeling of being watched. My childhood wasn't that great, it was full of physical and emotional abuse from my mother. We lived in my step father's own childhood home, so it wasn't haunted by any ancient ghosts. It was a dark place though, with their history already blotting the air with it's thickness.
I guess before I really go on, I should explain that, too.
My step father was twenty something years older than my mom. So he was in his fifties during my teen years. He wasn't bad, he wasn't great. I guess technically speaking he was a bad step father. We didn't have much of a relationship, let alone a even bad "fatheson" one.
The home itself was an old New England starter home. It was small, as far as modern houses go. Three bedrooms total. One bath, a large basement spanned the entire length and width. By the time we had met him and moved in, he had already mostly paid the house off, buying it from his own parents. Outside of four years in the coast guard, He, his brother, and older sister had all lived there(while they moved away, he stayed)
Their family dynamic was dated, and weird. His mom and dad were the type to call each other "mom and dad" respectively. His sister, even after joining the navy and marrying an officer was required to maintain a joint bank account with her dad so he could have uptime decision making. She had her own creepy qualities when we'd visit. She collected Barbies, never opening them. That in itself isn't weird. Hell, I collect action figures myself. But she had a voice for some of her favorites, and they'd talk amongst themselves if she was in the room. My Step father's brother, was actually an inventor and invented something I can't remember anymore. He wasn't Bezos rich, but had a nice house in Florida when we'd visit. Mom and Step dad both always warned me though to be careful. He was on a lot of drugs.
My Step father himself was a weird man. He was never taught hygiene. And he was never really nurtured or loved, and unfortunately it showed. He didn't know how to do those things, either. He was a nice guy, but had no idea what to do from there. He grew up in the fifties, and as a kid, I just imagined that's why he was the way he was. From a different time.
The legacy of their combined tragic legacy lived on in a ghost that I do believe was in the realitively new house. We lived there total for twelve years with him, however the time is broken up into two different six year stints. Half way through, my mom for whatever reason, moved us out. We lived in a one room efficiency apartment together for exactly one year, before they reconciled and moved back in together. While we were moved out - we adopted a stray cat. Well, he adopted us. We actually found him the very first day we left him on our own. He was a white cat, nearly completely blind. He was just outside our motel door. We took him in with us. He was actually great. We named him Doofus, because he was kinda fun and goofy. He stayed with us the entire year departure, and was reluctantly allowed back with us.
My Step father was a dog person. Awkwardly so. He loved his dog(s). To the point where I'd still say he more made out with them, as a form of affection. It wasn't okay. I'm sure of that. Let me clear something up, while I say all of these negative things about him. It's not like that. While we don't have any sort of relationship now, I believe that's more us both healing from my mother more so than each other. But anyway, let's keep going!
Within a year after introducing the new cat into the house, he had himself quite the affinity for the basement. It was cool in the summer, and kept itself warm enough to be down there without freezing in the winter. It was my home base as a teenage boy in the late 90s, early 00s with AOL internet access. Doofus would often lounge around, and we'd leave him to his own devices while down there. He never disappeared and always came running when we'd shake his bowl of food. That first summer back though, we were, even my step father was, convinced he had worked his magic on a neighborhood feline friend, and had a litter of kittens down there. It wasn't the mousy cries of fresh babies. Certainly a meow that wasn't his though. We thought maybe he had found his way into the walls, or was simply stuck. Inevitably one day it happened with him fast asleep on his window perch in the kitchen. Finally my step dad fessed up what comes to be an important story.
When he was a kid, himself and his younger sister, found a cat. They, with some kind of sitcom understanding of how the world works, brought it home and tried to hide it in the basement to keep. Their father found it and brutalized the animal to punish them and simply disposed of it like it was nothing.
I can't stress it enough how… from that point on, things changed. The meowing from the basement stopped. Forever. It never happened again. However I never felt alone down there again, honestly.
I want to take another brief intermission to point out that at the current point in my life, I've been in therapy and anger management both. I haven't spoken to my mother in over seven years, and I'm barely any contact with my family at all. I had a very good therapist that helped me through my trauma with my mom as a child that continued into adulthood. Most of the information I'm going to share here, and continue to share here are things that modern medicine and science have since explained away. Sort of. I didn't just feel not alone while in the basement of my childhood home anymore, I felt actively pursued. Someone wasn't just always watching, they wanted to be known. I also started to experience night terrors that felt lucid.
I eventually moved out as soon as I could, and moved to Florida. Unfortunately my abusive mother followed. However, years passed from there. Through circumstance, I maintained a relationship with her. I was young and dumb, and didn't know how to set or enforce boundaries. Anyway.
Fast forward to my mid 20s. I had just ended a long term relationship with what was essentially my first "real-life" girlfriend. Things went sour the way things do when you're young, and I ended up moving back in with my mom and her now new husband. It was a very short stay, but while there I fell on hard times with my health. That's where the story here really takes an interesting turn.
Their house wasn't just bad, it was absolutely the worst. It was literally just a shack. The way some of those poor places in Florida are really like. I was home alone. I did have my own private bedroom. It was small, couldn't even hold my bed and the dresser. There was no door. It was an old curtain pinned to the outside wall. The illusion of privacy. It all went from easy enough to explain, to outright bonkers that day.
I was in bed. Doorway clearly visible. The sheet had been pinned to the space above it so it stood open for me to come and go easily. In the doorway was a teenage girl. Shoulder length brown hair. Conservatively dressed, yet modern. She didn't speak. It was over. She was gone.
The same girl came to me two or three days later, same setting. Just standing in the doorway. She seemed far less relaxed. Even agitated. She was holding something but I couldn't make out what. Whatever it was just wouldn't manifest, but it was important to her. Whatever that item was I can't help but feel like it'd all make sense now, but who knows. She stayed for nearly a full five minutes, fidgeting eithcthecitem before leaving. It was only a couple of more days before she came back again, but wasn't alone. An older man. Older then I was at the time, at least. He seemed like her father. They were bickering and fighting about something and she, in her tantrum disappeared. But he stayed and said nothing to me. He made no motion or charades. He did however glare at me this empty, menacing eyes and then vanished.
I didn't see the girl again until the night before I moved out. By this point, I had been drained of the small savings I did have. I was literally starving. Stealing food from Walmart just to keep myself going. I had aloowedcmy mother to drain me of everything. The apparition came to me that night, and the sensation was different. She glowed a warm orange tint. it felt like we were together forever. She still never spoke to me, but shared knowledge. She told me things about myself I didn't know yet. Actual, real life things that wouldn't come to fruition for over a decade, but they have indeed come true. Not even as a warning. It was a parlor trick to prove her abilities to me. I didn't see her again, for nearly 12 years.
It was last year she came back. I wasn't startled, she communicated like we were old friends. By just, giving me the information. I had probably six or eight months prior to that, reconnected with an old friend. The girl told me matter of fact my, "reach out. They aren't okay." Which was weird because we were talking mostly daily at that point again. I knew things weren't perfect but not being okay raised alarm bells. I reached out to find out their dog had passed just that morning. Again not a huge flex of their ability, just enough to keep me hooked.
I was bewildered at this point. I knew nothing of psychics or spirits or demons. Outside of what I seen on TV of course. I didn't even believe in that shit, but I love reading and learning.
Because of the history with my newly rekindled friendship, it was actually my childhood crush - the love of my life. That was actually the context of us becoming friends again. I wanted to work on fixing the things between us so we could be there again. The situation felt ripe by description for either Dr. Phil, or Lilith. Though I didn't know what that was even supposed to mean.
My own research and learning has brought me here, to you. This sub. This long story of ghost cats, and dark places, the meddling of what I thought was Lilith, but I believe to be something else entirely.
You see I've reached out to the girl who manifests. She hasn't been back, but I can still feel her around. So I've worked up the courage to confront her. I ask for identification, and my ears fill with this droning white noise and it'll eventually tell me that shes Lilith, but I'm not convinced. But from the difficulty in expression, neither are they. I believe it's something that latched onto my belief at first of it being Lilith and won't let up on that. I do believe it's "male" in nature. Has a knack for tricks, and knows that pretending to be something it isn't is bad for him, so he's trying to keep it under cover. I also don't think it's here to help me in any capacity. It clearly wants something either from me, personally, or is trying to use me as a vessel.
I think something masquerading now as Lilith has been involved in my life from the house I grew up. It didn't leave me alone, it learned to be less obvious and scary outright. But it's here. It's always here.

Hi, I'm filing my taxes on TurboTax today and can't figure out why my federal income tax is so high. I run a small business where I'm the only employee. All my income was filed through a 1099-K (I use a credit card device for sales). Would super appreciate any troubleshooting if this is wrong or any explanation if you think this is correct. Thank you!!!
Total income after expenses: $38.836
Deductions: -$20,321
Taxable Income: $18,515
Blended tax rate: 40.5%
Tax Liability: $7,501

Hi, I'm filing my taxes on TurboTax today and can't figure out why my federal income tax is so high. I run a small business where I'm the only employee. All my income was filed through a 1099-K (I use a credit card device for sales). Would super appreciate any troubleshooting if this is wrong or any explanation if you think this is correct. Thank you!!!
Total income after expenses: $38.836
Deductions: -$20,321
Taxable Income: $18,515
Blended tax rate: 40.5%
Tax Liability: $7,501

Disclaimer: I'm fully aware my numbers aren't that bad. My doctor told me as much this year. However, last year he made it a point to tell me to eat healthier and exercise more.
Last year I had some blood work done and to my surprised my LDL was elevated. I was alarmed because I'm a pretty healthy person. I don't drink very often. I don't do any drugs. I eat pretty well. I take long walks a couple times a week. I am not like, a star athlete or anything, but I'm definitely healthy.
My numbers from last year: 155-160lbs 5'8"

CHOLESTEROL, TOTAL	195
HDL CHOLESTEROL	56
TRIGLYCERIDES	84
LDL-CHOLESTEROL	121
CHOL/HDLC RATIO	3.5
NON HDL CHOLESTEROL	139

My numbers from this year: 145lbs 5'8"

CHOLESTEROL, TOTAL	154
HDL CHOLESTEROL	48
TRIGLYCERIDES	62
LDL-CHOLESTEROL	92
CHOL/HDLC RATIO	3.2
NON HDL CHOLESTEROL	106

​
After I got my numbers last year my doctor gave a gentle recommendation to eat healthier and exercise more... I was already eating healthy and exercising though so I went even harder than I have been. I went hard on a healthy diet. I reduced my saturated fat intake. I upped my vegetables and fruits. Natural sources of soluble fiber are my friend. I eat oats with blueberries and chia seeds 5/7 days a week. I eat a big serving of leafy greens every single day. I opt for 2-3 veggies sides for dinner (roasted or sautéed in olive oil). I eat fish once a week. I eat red meat maybe a couple of times a month. I stick to beans and chicken for the most part as my protein. Occasionally pork cause I live in NC and how am I gonna pass up barbecue. Outside of my diet I walked every single day. One hour of walking almost every single day. Not during the winter though because F the cold, but if it is warm and not raining, I'm out walking.
Overall I'd say things look really good. My numbers have definitely improved. What I don't understand is WHY DID MY HDL GO DOWN? I basically don't use any more butter or vegetable oil. I cut out all the "bad fats" people warned me about. I thought for sure my HDL would be on the up. What else can I do to get that number to increase.
I should note, everyone in my family has high cholesterol. So even though I know my numbers weren't SUPER bad last year or anything, my movement in an undesirable direction was a concern for me. My mother is on a statin, my aunt is on a statin, my brothers (who have way worse numbers than I) will likely be put on a statin. My cousin who is far more healthy and active than me is also in the same boat as me. Similar numbers. Feels like maybe just some bad genes.

Memory transcription: captain Solvin, Gojid Union

Date: [standardized human tome] August 1st, 2132

We had more warning for this attack than any of the others that were occurring, we’d heard of a movement of enemy forces and they’d showed up an impossibly short amount of time later. The Axur decided to launch a raid earlier, and through a miracle the likes of which I’ve never seen before, it arrived at the same time as their ships.
I never expected I would be glad to see an Axur raiding party, and I expected that I never would be again. The two parties began fighting, that proved the Axur weren’t on the same page as the new Predators, handily explained why they had been strangely quiet recently, and bought us time. Fortuitous events, I reasoned. The two known spacefaring predator species waging war on each other saved us the trouble of fighting them. With any luck, the Axur may do our job for us, and their military would suffer enough damage from the act to buy the Federation a chance for counterattack. What most were calling the worst development since the discovery of the Axur, could be made to work to our advantage.
Hours later, new arrivals entered the scene, a mix of Venlil designs and a new class of ship I’d never seen before, this must either be the force that forced the Venlil to go dark, or maybe the Venlil themselves here to offer an explanation of why they’d gone dark, and the new ship was something they’d found during the blackout.
That question was answered quickly enough when they contacted us, their video feed showed Governor Tarva, and a species I’d not seen before. They wore masks over their heads, Jet Black coverings which only had a red visor in a ring around the top of the head, where their eyes should be. As suspicious as that was, I wasn’t about to start questioning them while I had such a Leviathan at my doorstep. It was still busy with the Axur, but I wasn’t about to take a chance that they’d be satisfied after killing it, regardless of how much meat they’d no doubt be able to pull from its body. Predators are never satisfied.
My apprehensions with the new arrivals were eased somewhat when Tarva explained them, told me they were called “Terrans” a name which roughly meant “coming from the ground” which had something to do with their creation myth. To say more would need to wait, as the gargantuan alien’s tentacles finished physically grabbing onto Axur vessels and ripping them apart, this Super-Predator and the fleets of fighter craft which were consistently emerging from its belly needed to die. They needed to die soon. The Venlil fleet was small, only 40 vessels, largely smaller craft, adding to the 500 allocated to the defense of this world. Even if these Terrans had a stronger grasp of ship design than I’d expect for such a new arrival to the galactic stage, their half-dozen ships wouldn’t make much of a difference.
As in my mind I began to question why they had even brought as much as they did, and why the Venlil had not come forward with them sooner, I told Tarva as much as I knew about what we were facing, and this news was met by the Terran with a simple phrase, he said in a voice far deeper than I’d been expecting, “If we are to die today, then it is a good day for it.” And urged his ships forward to join the defensive line, which had already begun defending strikes from predators. Damage from these initial attacks was minimal, but once it reared its full attention onto us I didn’t expect to fare any better than the Axur.
The colony would hold, or we would all die in its defense. I couldn’t retreat to let beasts have this planet, millions of innocent souls down there relied on us. It is good luck that it’s apparently such a nice time to die for Terrans, because a lot of us are going to.