Ok, so I'd like to start off by saying that I really appreciate how George has played the game so far. Sure, he can be a lot at times with his over the top shenanigans, but even that is not his fault, cause it's mostly caused by the production giving him this larger than life edit. However, he's a big fan of the show who can think many steps ahead and I respect his gameplay and dedication so much. Even though he has no physical chops to back himself up, he's not afraid to go out there and play like a madman, which provides some great TV and proves that he's indeed a great player.
Now, with that being said, I can't describe how pissed I am at his decision to go against Liz and keep Matt in the game. He knows damn well that Matt and Gerry have no intention whatsoever of taking him to FTC, so after 40+ days of constantly dodging bullets and fighting like crazy for that crown he's decided to hand it over to a shadow of a player like Matt and settle for the 3rd place? What?
On top of that, I really feel that had he given her some agency and acknowledgement for her strategic thinking, he possibly could've been able to somehow persuade Liz to take him to the end. I'm not saying that would definitely happen, but it was a possibility worth exploring, cause it's either that or running into a brick wall with Matt and Gerry, so what's there to loose?
Also, by just siding with them at the tribal, he hasn't done much to preserve his relationship with Gerry and Matt, cause Nina told Matt where her and Liz's votes were going and that George is in the loop as well, so Matt will most likely be suspicious of George anyway and I'm not sure if he'll buy that it was all Liz and Nina and that George had no idea what was going on. So, now after all we've seen and after this whole season revolving around him, George has set himself up for the 3rd place at best, if Liz doesn't win the next immunity, in that case he's gone at 4.
But what pisses me off even more is how he's mistreated Liz, who's been there for him from day one and stayed loyal even after he completely screwed her over by taking out Shonee. Now not only does he have no chance at winning, but he's also made her path to the end extremely difficult. She basically needs to win both immunities till the end to have a chance at winning. So, he lost his only remote chance of appearing at that FTC and along the way he completely screwed Liz over once again, all while talking about humanity.
All in all, seems like we're in for a really underwhelming ending of what could've been an epic season, so I'm gonna leave it at that. You may or may not agree, I don't even care, I just came here to vent and express my feelings. It's been interesting discussing the season here, see you next week to finalize what we've started.

Part 51
At sunset on the third day, we set up camp on a tall ridge overlooking the city. As the sun was still low in the sky, I looked out over the glittering ruins. We had appeared right around the center of it, and it was about a day's walk from there to the edges in any direction.
We were west of the city. To the east, the skyline got lower and lower and the buildings further apart until it turned into a rotting, sprawling suburb. To the north, it ended at a large lake whose wooded far shore was visible about thirty miles distant. The water around the docks was speckled with the rusted remains of sunken ships, parts protruding above the surface. At the southern edge, the mess of tall skyscrapers gave way to a band of low, sprawling industrial buildings that wedged up to a cliff face.
Forty miles in diameter, or thereabouts. A forty mile diameter mass of towering skyscrapers, crumbling and rotting away. Glass still occupied many of the windows, glittering like stars as they reflected the setting sun behind us.
The narrowest point was half again as wide as the longest distance through New York City. And that wasn't counting the suburbs or industrial sector. And it was much taller. The tallest building still standing was, according to the marks on my rangefingers, about twenty-five hundred feet tall. And I suspected that it wasn't the tallest building originally. The piles of rubble around the bases of some of the runners-up were significant. And there were a lot of runners-up.
I did some math in my head. Assuming twenty-five percent more population density, owing to the taller buildings, taking into consideration the size of it, there had to be upwards of forty million people living there. A little larger than Tokyo, I thought. Plus another two or three million in the suburbs. Which was impressive, to be sure. What was more impressive was the similarly-sized cities, peeking above the mountains to the south, behind the low, wooded hills on the other side of the lake, and behind us. I hadn't gotten a good look at the city behind us, but it seemed to be about twice the size of this one.
Just within eyesight of the hill I stood on, peering around, I could see the former homes of somewhere around two hundred million people. Half the population of the US. That was the impressive part.
Footsteps behind me announced Avarisa's approach.
"Camp's set," she said. "What are you looking for?"
I shook my head slowly. "Nothing in particular. Just surveying the area. How many people lived here?"
"Um," she said, rubbing her chin. "In this world, I think seventeen billion, just before the war. Kvenland had a total population of six billion. Norumland had eight billion, but it was much larger."
"So most of the population lived in only two nations?" Avarisa nodded. "There were seventy three nations in total, but Kvenland and Norumland dominated this world."
"And they're all dead," I said.
"Not all of them," Avarisa said. "I read about several trips other gods had taken here. There's a few thousands transplants, mostly from Earth, but also survivors of some of the other worlds. They're on the other side of this planet, though. There's another populated region, about seven hundred miles to the south. There's maybe three hundred thousand, scattered over an area of about two hundred and fifty thousand square miles. Then some scattered pockets, a few hundred to a few thousand all over the place. About two or three million."
"That's a lot of dead people," I said. "Dead in a war that wasn't even theirs to fight." Avarisa looked like she might want to object to that, but she didn't say anything.
I heard more footsteps. I glanced back, expecting Kathy, but instead, I saw Spectre approaching. She was in a physical body, not the usual apparition. With a real body, she actually had some color in her cheeks and some life in her eyes. It made her look younger, around Aaina's age.
"Kathy wants to know if you want beef ravioli or chicken and pasta in vodka sauce."
"Ravioli," both Avarisa and I said at the same time. She met my eyes and smiled briefly. The raviolis were the best of the camp foods we'd brought.
Instead of heading back with her answer, she walked up to stand next to us. Her torn, rotted dress fluttered in the breeze, the stained white fabric a stark contrast to the jet black hair that flowed around above it.
"It's about a day's walk from where we came through to any edge of the city," she said. "So Ixy should be around the edge, right?"
"That's assuming he's in this world," Avarisa said. "There's hundreds of portals in the city proper that lead to other worlds, if you have the magic to open them."
"He's got to be in the Sixteenth World," I said.
"Why do you say that?" Avarisa asked.
"Because that's how this works," I said. "We're here on information from Fulla. She gives her secrets out as clues that we have to follow to get the answers we really want. And when you look at her, magically, while she's doing this, you can see that the way she puts her messages together is very similar to the way an oracle's visions congeal. Which means that it's a probabilistic clue with a narrative structure."
"I don't get it," Spectre said.
Avarisa did. She answered for me. "Most of the portals are to the Sixteenth World. And the Sixteenth World is a giant mystery, which is right up Fulla's alley."
I made a so-so gesture. She was right, but for one of the wrong reasons. Magical thinking was so very different from the rational, critical thought I'd spent so much time and effort developing in school, but it was quite useful at times. And though it still felt a little weird to engage in it, I'd learned to turn in on at times. Avarisa was, like Sarisa, a very rational thinker.
"You're right about the number of portals, but wrong about it being up Fulla's alley," I said.
She gave me a skeptical look. "It's not that Fulla likes mysteries, but that it's a mystery that I only learned about as a result of following her clues."
"Ahhh," she said. "Narrative. As opposed to thematic, which was what I said." I nodded. "And you're sure it's the one, and not both," she continued, making me look at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Themes matter, Jerry," she said with a self-satisfied smirk. I shrugged. "Fair enough," I said. She was probably right, which was something I should bear in mind.
I looked back at the city in front of us, then pulled out the map we'd found. It was on a plastic-like material, thin and foldable like paper. Avarisa had been the one to find it, and after playing with it a while, she'd figured it out. It was tech, not a simple printout. Pinching the creases flattened them out, then squeezing the outermost of four small circles at the bottom left made the light-grey sheet fill with a diagram of the city below. I squeezed the third circle, then handed the sheet to Avarisa.
"Mark all the portals you know about that lead to the Sixteenth World," I said. She took it, and began to press the tip of her finger to different spots, marking them with a red dot.
"I don't know all of them, but like you said, it's almost certainly going to be one of the ones I do know."
I waited for her to mark about a dozen spots, then draw a circle around one near the far end of the city.
"I think this is the most likely one," she said.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"It leads to a place where..." She trailed off, her face flashing through a pained expression and back to a neutral mask.
"What's wrong?" I asked. I tried to fill my voice with the usual levels of concern it would have when asking that question in response to that look, but like everything else I've said in the past few weeks, it came out cold and harsh. I couldn't even work myself into being upset about that, so I just waited for her to answer.
"Sarisa... I told you that she gave me memories of our time together, until you met Inanna," she said, speaking slowly as if this was a grave admission.
"I made it sound like those were the only memories I had, but she... She gave me others, including one in which I accompanied Tientus to the Sixteenth World, mere days after what calamity befell it. This portal leads to the place where we first appeared on that trip."
I nodded and looked at the map. "That will be more than a day's walk. We should probably fly. I don't want to camp in those ruins again."
The previous night, we'd camped in the city, as we had the night before. Only this time, we were attacked. A pack of unusual, canine animals had come sniffing around, likely drawn by the scent of our dinner. Magical alarms woke Kathy and I as they entered our small camp, and when we emerged from the tent to investigate, they animals attacked. We were forced to kill three of them before the others fled.
Of course, that wasn't what made the choice for us. Instead, as the seven or eight remaining animals fled into the night, we'd heard a roar, followed by more of the same yelping and growling we'd heard as we fought them off. It didn't last long. The ensuing crunching sound was very reminiscent of Ixy, but when I'd put in the buttplug and flown off to check, I'd found a rancor, instead.
Yes, like the rancor from Star Wars. The resemblance was shocking. a bipedal animal with short, stubby legs, a powerful upper body, long arms with clawed hands and an enormous, forward-thrusting head with massive, fanged jaws. The only way in which it differed was the brown-and-gray coat of fur the thing wore. The coat was thick and full, reminding me of a bear's fur. It also blended in with the surroundings quite well.
I returned and we shifted our camp to the base of a large satellite dish on top of a thirty-story building that looked less likely to collapse than others nearby. This morning, I'd examined the dog-like creatures.
They reminded me of a thylacine. They had stripes on the back ends of their backs. Their rear legs had the same short thighs and long, thick calves as thylacines, and like the rancor, they had thickly muscled forelimbs and chests. During the brief fight, we had seen them open their jaws almost ninety degrees, a sight which is uniquely unsettling, even though they didn't pose much of a challenge to us. They had the same smooth, almost cat-like faces, narrow muzzles and distinctly dog-like noses as a thylacine, with subtle cranial ridges.
I'd seen videos of thylacines moving about, and read descriptions. One thing I recalled was that they were not particularly fast nor agile, a feature that clearly did not apply to the animals we'd fought off. They had moved lightning fast and struck like snakes, snapping bites and slinking away.
In any event, we had decided that since the ruins were the homes of several dangerous predator species, it would be best to to move outside of the city. With the map Avarisa had found, we could plan our forays better, in any event.
"I can't fly," Avarisa said. I turned to her, a look of disbelief on my face. "Kathy can fly, and she's about the least talented flyer of all of us."
"I'm going to tell her you said that," Spectre said with a little smile. I tried to smile back, really, I did. But my lips didn't twitch. "She knows. She's possessed of enough talent in other areas that she shouldn't be insecure about it."
Spectre's smile faded. She'd been trying for a little levity, which I appreciated, so I put an arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.
"I've tried," Avarisa said. "I can't. I can levitate, but once I'm in the air, I can't seem to make myself move around. It feels like I should be able to, but I just can't. I think Sarisa did it. On purpose."
"I could check, with the right circle and tools, but I don't have the tools in hammerspace," I said. "But that can wait. I'll carry you when it's time to fly."
"Won't that slow you down?" she asked. I shrugged. "Not enough to matter. I'll most likely have to stay close to Kathy in any event. We should still be able to make it there before nightfall, tomorrow. We'll leave the camp here, unless we encounter more predators. If we do, we'll bring the camp and set it up on top of one of the buildings again.
Avarisa had assured us that there were no winged predators in this region that would pose any threat if they caught us unaware. I trusted her, because I'd seen the library she had been reading back at the gods' camp. It wasn't the Library of Souls, but it was nonetheless extensive. And I knew she read lightning fast. Like a speed reader, except she absorbed everything she read.
"Come on, I'm getting hungry," Spectre said. All three of us turned and walked down to the small copse, just off the peak of the hill, where we'd made camp. To my surprise, there was a second tent,a small pup tent, on the other side of the fire from the one we'd been sharing until this point. Kathy was busy heating up beef ravioli in a camp pot. She looked up as we approached.
"I found a pup tent buried in hammerspace. Might be a little less crowded in there with just two of you."
I nodded, taking one of the folding seats set around the fire. I produced a pair of plates, with utensils fitted into slots on their underside and handed one to Avarisa as she sat. Spectre made a circuit of the fire, then leaned down to speak quietly to Kathy.
"I'm going to go now," she said. Kathy smiled at her. "Will you tell Lya what we're up to?"
Spectre nodded. "Of course. I'll keep her company. She's working all week and coming home to an empty house."
"She'd appreciate that. I would, too," Kathy said. She kissed Spectre, to my surprise, not on the cheek, but on the lips, and the spirit vanished.
I didn't say anything about the kiss. Just because it surprised me didn't mean it interested me.
After a few minutes, Kathy doled out the food, producing her own plate at last. We ate quickly, washing it down with little plastic barrel-shaped containers of what tasted like watered-down koolaid. I kept several cases of them, pre-chilled, in hammerspace, mostly for my younger children, but.... I wanted them gone. Used up. So we drank them, three or four at a meal. It was tastier than water.
After we ate, the sun had fully set, so I cleaned up, scrubbing the plates with sand and then rinsing them in a stream at the base of the hill, and then we retired to our tents. Avarisa and I in mine, Kathy in her pup tent. I set my magical traps and alarms and then sat there for a bit, Avarisa laying on her side, next to me.
None of us had bathed since we got here. And though it was cold out, we'd been on our feet all day, every day. I could smell myself when I paid attention, and I could feel the grime and sweat built up under my clothes. I had a camp shower in hammerspace, and I sat there and considered whether it was worth retrieving, setting up, and heating up some water for.
"Would you like a shower?" I asked Avarisa after a few minutes. She lifted her head and eyed me.
"Fuck yeah," she said. "I feel like I've got a second skin, right now."
"You'll have to either share one with me, or we'll have to heat up two full pots of water over the fire. That'll take a while."
"We can share one, if you're okay with that," she said, her voice sounding a little strange.
"Okay," I said. I stood and unzipped the tent, stepping out.
"Kathy, I'm going to set up a camp shower, if you want to use it when I'm done," I said in a normal voice, knowing she could hear me through the thin material of her tent.
"Just leave it up, I'll use it in the morning," she said.
"Okay."
I retrieved it from hammerspace. It was a folding metal and fiberglass frame. It had a large bladder with a hook at the top to tie a rope through, to hoist it. There was a plastic plate that the bladder rested on, angled so as to make it easy to slide in and out of place. It had a hose at the bottom that connected to a shower head that could be used to spray yourself down, or hung just below the plastic plate. There was a tarp that wrapped around the whole thing for some privacy. The whole thing was packaged in a large pot.
I pulled the assembly out of the pot and began to set it up. It didn't take long at all. Once I had the frame assembled and wrapped in the tarp, the hard part begun. I carried the bladder down the hill to the small creek and filled it about 3/4 full of water. Using a bit of paracord through the hood, I hoisted it on my back and brought it back. I flung the free end of the paracord over a tree branch that looked capable of taking the weight, then grabbed the pot and headed back to the stream to fill it.
Lugging it back, I placed it on the cooking rack over the fire while Avarisa added some more fuel to build it back up. We then had to wait for the water to boil, which took about fifteen minutes. When that was done, we opened the bladder again, the mouth forming a large funnel, and poured in the boiling water. I tested it after we emptied the pot, and it was nice and warm.
"Okay, get undressed," I said as I hoisted the bladder up. It slipped up the plastic platform and I reached up to close the gate to hold it in place. I tied off the paracord (the gate alone wouldn't take the weight) and the quickly stripped as Avarisa stood next to the door, waiting for me. We had to move quickly, because the chilly air would cool the water quickly. The bag was not insulated, but rather a thick, black plastic so that one could use the sun to warm it over the course of a day.
I stepped in, producing two bars of soap from hammerspace and I opened the valve to spray both of us down with warm water. Once we were thoroughly wet, I closed it and handed Avarisa a bar. We soaped up quickly, the night chill getting to us.
Once we were thoroughly soapy, we ran the water to rinse again, then I sent the soap back and produced a combination shampoo and conditioner. We sudsed up our hair and rinsed off again. About two thirds of the water still remained in the bladder.
"Want to just enjoy the soak?" I asked. She nodded, so I left the valve open. She pressed against me, both of us sharing in the cascade of water. I watched the top of her head, and when she put her hands on my hips and looked up, I met her eyes.
"This is nice," she said.
"Yeah," I responded.
Flashes of memories swept through me. Aaina, when we first brought her home, afraid to be alone, needing me or Inanna in the shower with her. Sara and Junior, joining me for my showers once they were steady on their feet because it was just easier to bathe them that way, when time mattered. Normally, we let them play in the bath, but I'd scrubbed them down a few times in the shower.
And of course, those memories all gave way to the countless showers I'd shared with Inanna. It may come as a surprise, but most of the time, we simply helped each other get clean, and then got out. We had fooled around in the shower many times, of course, but that wasn't the norm. The falling water could be a distraction, whereas the possibility of getting clean and then fooling around as soon as we got out was almost always there.
Without even thinking about it, I put my hands on Avarisa's hips and pulled her into me. She didn't hesitate or resist, stepped forward and running her hands up my sides. I bent down and kissed her, and she quickly moved a hand to the back of my head, pulling me in, clinging to me.
We kissed for a long moment. It wasn't until I grew chilly and realized that the water had given out that I drew back. She rested one hand on my shoulder while the other slipped around to my front, to grab me.
"Are you sure?" she asked quietly. I shook my head. "Don't make me question myself," I said. "I just want to stop thinking."
She nodded, then met my eyes.
"I just finished my period," she said. "Yesterday was the last day. Tamp down on your fertility, Jerry, and I can all but guarantee you that I won't get pregnant."
I nodded. I lifted her up in my arms and carried her to the tent.
The next morning, I was woken by Kathy holding my pants, which I'd left draped over one of the folding chairs last night, peeking through the flaps of the tent. "Seriously?" she asked.
I blinked away the blurriness and focused on her. It took me a second to recognize what I was seeing, and another to put the pieces together in my mind.
"Shit," I muttered. "Sorry."
"It's your own clothes that have ants in them," Kathy said. "And hers."
I pulled Avarisa's arm off of me gently and slipped out of the sleeping bag. "I'll get it," I said.
"Good, I'm going to refill the shower. I already got a pot boiling. You two can start breakfast while I'm showering."
She handed me the pants and pulled her head out of the opening. Checking them, I could see that there were, indeed, tiny ants crawling all over them. I sighed and summoned clothes from hammerspace, then retrieved my stuff from the pockets and transferred it over. I walked out and picked up all the clothes we'd left out.
The ants had gotten into all of them.
I brought them down to the creek, passing Kathy as she walked back with the bladder three quarters full of water. She shook her head slowly, not saying anything as we met and then parted. I rinsed all the clothes out, letting the little ants get swept away in the current. When I returned to string up a paracord clothesline and hang them to dry, I could see Avarisa's silhouette in the morning glow, moving around inside the tent. I climbed in.
"I left my clothes out there," she said.
"Here," I said. I pulled a t-shirt, a hoodie sweater and a pair of pants from hammerspace. "These should fit. I don't have any underwear, though."
"I normally don't wear a bra," she said as she pulled the clothes on. "Going commando will be a new one, though..."
She finished dressing and we both went out to make breakfast. Kathy was in the shower, singing quietly as she scrubbed off. I got a good scramble going, eggs, cheese, bacon and potatoes, along with fried naan bread. When Kathy was finished, she toweled off and immediately sat down, not bothering to get dressed. We ate quickly, and I let Kathy get a large portion than the rest of us, because she seemed to need it.
When we were done, Kathy summoned clothes and I made a harness out of paracord.
"We're going to fly to the first portal, it's more than a day's walk," I told Kathy. She stared at me for a second.
"Shit, Jerry, you'd better stay close to me and help me with the landings," she said. I nodded. I intended to do just that. When I had the harness ready, I had Avarisa put on her armor, and then I secured her back to my chest, adding a few lines of paracord from her plate carrier that passed between her legs to be sure. I had her pad them out with one of the still-damp towels, which she giggled and protested over the chill about. I asked her to imagine her body weight all on the paracord lines between her legs, though, and her protests ended. The giggles continued for a few minutes, though.
Thus secured, we layered more magic over to the camp to ward off any curious animals and took off. Kathy wobbled a lot during the flight, but she managed to keep up with me, just fine. It took about two hours to reach the spot. I took Kathy's arms, reaching around Avarisa to do so, and we settled down on the ground in front of what looked like a high-end clothing store.
The clothes on the mannequins had all rotted away, and green mold coated the glass windows, making the insides dim. The doors were locked, so I smashed the glass out of one of the windows and we stepped in.
Avarisa led us to a wall, where I pulled down some shelves. Once clear, I touched the keys in my pockets mentally and a section of the wall shimmered. It seemed to fade from view, showing a desolate cityscape not too different from the one we were in. We all stepped through.
"Welcome to the Sixteenth World," Avarisa said, her voice a little choked. I wondered what memories Sarisa had given her that caused this.
We were in a much smaller city than before. Only four skyscrapers stood, each one immaculate except for the layer of dust dulling the windows. Lower buildings surrounded them, all looking to be made of concrete. The last city had brick and even a few wooden structures, but this place all seemed to be made of the same, light gray concrete. Streets, sidewalks and buildings alike.
Piles of rust stood here and there, the remains of vehicles left exposed to the elements for hundreds or thousands of years. And bodies.
In the last place, the bodies had been skeletons, mostly partial bodies, many with signs of being worried by the local fauna. Here, there were mummies.
I could see dozens of them, including at least one in every pile of rust. Desiccated corpses, clad in sun-bleached fibers that still kept their shape. I recognized T-shirts and button-down shirts, sundresses and skirts, pants and shorts. Avarisa wandered off, towards a smaller, one story building with a line of bushes in front. I followed her gaze to see a curious site.
Most of the vegetation was brown, but intact. Leaves still clung to tree and bush limbs, grass still lay across the ground. But where she was moving, there was a circle of... I'm not sure how to describe it.
The bushes in front of the building simply melted away as they approached the circle. Bushy brown limbs gave way to bare limbs, which gave way to shattered, sparse limbs, which gave way entirely. The grass grew sparse, and then faded out into dark, rich soil.
Right at the center of the circle lay two small skeletons.
Scraps of rough fabric still clung to their limbs. They were both small, young children, I thought. And they had no flesh left on them. Unlike every other corpse, these had been subjected to the process of decay.
"What happened?" I asked.
Avarisa knelt at the edge of the circle, staring at the remains in the middle. When she spoke, her voice cracked with grief.
"When Tientus first learned of what happened here, she grabbed two children. She brought them here, as guinea pigs, to see if whatever happened affected them. They hadn't done anything to displease her, they were just... The first humans she saw when she went looking, I think. She brought them here. Nothing happened, so I took them and was going to bring them home, but..."
She sobbed once, her shoulders hitching.
"She stopped me. Made me leave them, because she didn't want to wait the thirty seconds it would take me to bring them home. They died so that she wouldn't be inconvenienced in even the mildest way.
"These two children, whose names are long lost, they're the inspiration for the war. Because of them, I began creating the spell to strip a god's divinity. Because of them, I reached out to Astoram, who had always been at odds with the other elder gods, and secured his aid."
Kathy and I stood behind her, looking at the two small skeletons and listening to her words. When Avarisa stopped talking, we remained in place, thinking about the death and destruction that had resulted from the casual murder of two children.
"This is pretty heavy," Kathy said after a while. I nodded.
"Yes, it is," I said.
We must have stood there, reflecting on the bodies for ten minutes, when a sound came to us from the distance. All three of our heads came up and turned in the direction it had come from.
"Was that..." Kathy said. I nodded.
"Ixy's roar," I said.

Hello everyone!
So for the past few weeks I have had a lot of issues with chest tightness, wheezing and coughing while I was at home, worsenening as the night goes on. I have an air filter in my room next to my bed. I just moved to a new apartment but the symptoms are the same in both places. The only time it's been tolerable in the recent past was when I was on a steroid burst.
When I leave the house, my breathing improves significantly. I regularly take allergy pills, heartburn meds, advair so it shouldn't be that. It makes me want to see a pulmonologist. I am seeing an allergist and getting shots as well.
Any suggestions to help me out?

So i managed to get an appointment with a new ob/gyn in the hopes that she will clear things up. Maybe some people remember, i posted earlier how after the diagnosis and lap I was prescribed dienogest and decided to do the hormone saliva test privately after initially starting dienogest (10 days in) bc my doctor didn't want to run any tests on me. And the results didn't look good at all, estrogen was so high they couldn't even tell how high exactly just that it's way out of the max measurement, Testosteron was 3 times as much as it should be and dhea was also about 40% higher than the max of the norm. So i went with those results to my new ob/gyn today, she was nice and talked to me but she didn't say anything particular. She told me she can't see anything from those results bc I was already taking the visanne and that estrogen can be regulated higher at the start of taking it and that i should just continue. She doesn't want me to stop it to run tests. To my question about why Testosterone and dhea are so high she only said "all the hormones are linked to each other"... Which to me just sounds like "we don't know what's wrong but also we won't do anything to get to know what's wrong". I've been taking visanne for 1,5 months by now, i definitely see my skin getting worse and my last period was 14 days long, heavy, though not nearly as painful as before the lap. I'm also constantly spotting. Not the worst side effects but not the best in the long run either.
So I'm not sure how to proceed from here, what do i do. I'm kind of scared but also don't want to be that person who pushes everyone into doing tests and goes to doctors endlessly just to find something wrong with me.. I'm honestly so tired I just want to give up, I feel like noone is there for me and I don't have a family to talk about that to either, I'm all alone with that

This thread is for all discussions, suggestions, questions, and self-text posts.
In focus:

• Twitter Spaces live this THU: Binance.US & OriginTrail
• OriginTrail Teleport batch 15 closes this week!
• Recap of OriginTrail's Twitter Spaces with Dr Bob Metcalfe & OriginTrail community members
• OriginTrail Crypto Trivia

Try not to open new threads if it's not necessary. Keep the discussion here alive and let's keep OriginTrail subreddit clean. It will be much easier for other users to find what they are looking for.
Are you new here? Welcome! You might want to check out OriginTrail Wiki first.
OriginTrail team is giving its best to provide you with all the information and answers you need. We are also active in our Telegram group, and Discord is the go-to place for node-related discussions.
Reminder:

• Use this thread for all questions about the project and try not to open new ones if not necessary
• Team members cannot discuss the price of the token and will not reply to any exchange-related questions before we make an official announcement
• DO NOT SPAM
• ...but report if you see any
• Discrimination against other community members will not be tolerated
• NO trolling
• NO manipulation
• Use suitable titles
• NO promotion of adult content allowed
• Please, be nice to each other
• Minimum requirements for posting: 10 days of account age & 10 comment karma

TraceON!

Hey all, trying to get on the fitness train and I currently don’t eat much (IBS and I don’t ever really have an appetite? Trying to give up gluten for the most part as I’ve noticed it makes me full way quicker than other foods, and then I don’t get enough nutrients overall).
I just realized I think peanut butter is causing intense bloating issues/I might be intolerant. 🤦🏻‍♀️
Wondering if anyone has a favorite cheaper nut butter? I live near Harris TeeteAldi/Target/Publix if that helps. Need it to be cheaper cause I eat like 5 tbsp. a day roughly for kicks and giggles as a snack.
Thank you!
P.S. Do any of you work with a health coach virtually? I have a call with one in a few hours to see if they’re a good fit, but she’s not vegan. Would prefer a “vegan-minded” coach.

Hey everyone, long story story I’m trying to sell outfits that I purchased for my wedding week however I didn’t get to wear them because I ended up wearing other options. I had ordered way more than I needed since I couldn’t actually shop in person and I need to see the article of clothing in person before I can make a decision. Some were for me, some were supposed to be for family members but they didn’t get their visa from India Hence the excess amounts of clothes. I have 3 HEAVY bridal lenghas, 3-4 non bridal lenghas (good for sangeet jaago ceremonies, and a few gharara/sharara types. They’re in absolute great condition because they are not worn. I’m in the Long Island/ Queens NY area if some one would like to purchase and I can arrange a drop off/pickup situation. Please message me for pictures and prices. If there’s a better place for me to sell the outfits, I’d be grateful to know. Thanks!

It's night time, you are in the middle of a forest, lost. You see a mansion in the distance as rain starts to fall. You decide to take shelter in the mansion, because you did not find any other path that could lead to a possible exit of the forest. You open the two wooden doors of the mansion, not knowing that this mansion once belong to a serial killer, fate now awaits you.
Rule no. 1: Don't go to the basement, the basement is the most dangerous room of the mansion. It's because most of the victims of the killer were brutally murdered down there. The spirits of those who got murdered have become vengeful spirits and seek revenge, by killing anyone who goes down there.
Rule no. 2: Do be careful and keep watching your back, as the basement isn't the only place where there are vengeful spirits. If you hear a fait whisper saying any of these phrases: "Turn back!" "Watch me!" "I'm coming for you" Stay still and close your eyes, it might go away after some seconds. However, if you hear any of these phrases: "Let me in" "Look away" "Bloody mess" Then it's best to make a run for it, this happens because the spirit who says these phrases is the serial killer who lived and died in this very mansion. The spirit of the serial killer can also interact with things physicly like a human being, somehow. You should only stop running when you don't hear amy footsteps anymore.
Rule no. 3: Stay off the serial killer's room as staying there is very dangerous and increases the chances of you finding him.
Rule no. 4: If you ever feel anxious or fear just remind yourself to stay calm and that everything will be fine.
Rule no. 5: Don't try to leave the mansion, the doors will be locked until morning, just don't risk it, and no there isn't a backdoor.
Rule no. 6: Vengeful spirits aren't the only thing roaming around, there are also some spirits that are kind and can tell where you can find food and water. Just talk like a nice person to them or you might anger them.
Rule no. 7: The bathroom is off limits as it was there where the killer was murdered. Entering the room increases highly the chances off finding him.
Rule no. 8: The Dining Room is possibly the safest room in the entire mansion. Do stay there as there might be food and water, there are also good hiding spots in there.
Rule no. 9: Don't anger vengeful spirits, they might try to strangle you.
Rule no. 10: Noise can attract vengeful or kind spirits. It's better to not risk it.
Rule no. 11: Don't try to turn on any eletronics in the mansion, it will not work and can attract any kind of spirits. Again, do not risk it.
The sun shines through every window. The doors of the mansion are now unlocked, you exit the mansion, happy to have survived the night and to live another day.

Hello all. Origiynalky from KY but moved when I was young and joined the service. After retirement, we moved back to the state and resided in a lake town (pop. 11K) which is normally quiet until the summer boaters arrive. I've been brainstorming business ideas trying to imagine what this small town needs with respect to dining, amenities, recreational. The town is off the interstate and recieves traffic from travelers looking for food/gas. This is why fast food restaurants outnumbered other places to eat. What are some amenities that a small town needs that many entrepreneurs tend to overlook? We have liquor stores, smoke shops, handful of restaurants, hardware stores, mom and pop craft businesses. One local business man told me that a upscale salon would be nice. Any other ideas out there that I could explore further?

First Previous Next
Cover

41 – Too Easy

There were many ways to access the CARF. Some of them were proper, controlled and regulated, while others were less conventional and reserved only for situations that needed them. Others still were totally secret, known only to a handful of people. The one that the Cromwell-Grassman family decided to use, which was deemed the safest, required them to go through the Quadrangle. Which, considering that the Quadrangle was entirely under PsyOps control, went a long way towards explaining just how unsafe and risky the other methods were.
They had opted to move together for the most part, resorting to splitting up only when strictly necessary. It didn’t matter if they needed to break their covers this time around either, because they were going to redo the whole thing another time anyway after Albert rewound time with the Hazegem. This was a trial run, to figure out the extent of the measures set in place by the rogue operatives and the response of whatever form of hierarchy was still functioning as it was before most of the command structure got compromised.
The trip by car took a couple of hours. It could not be skipped, however, since the teleportation device Albert got from the System was still in the process of being studied, and also because he had never been to the Quadrangle himself. He sat in the rear seat of grandpa’s yellow sports car, feeling like he was on one of those family trips he remembered from his childhood but never managed to recall quite well enough. The ‘adults’, if one wants to define them that way even though Albert was an adult himself, were discussing ways to access the security measures of the Quadrangle without triggering the alarms, and making a list that would be then sent to him via text message. This way it could be preserved through time travel.
As they did so, he fiddled with the piece of junk that once was the PTD, or the teleportation device. He had no dreams of repairing it in the two hours he had, but any headway he made here was less work he would have to do later, and one never knows when yet another piece of magic could come in handy. Eventually though the Quadrangle was finally visible at the horizon, and Albert lost all interest in fixing the small circular device.
“That’s the Quadrangle?” He asked, excited. “Holy shit.”
“Oh yeah, kid.” His grandpa replied from the driver seat. “Pretty cool, eh?”
Indeed, it was like he was seeing something straight out of a science fiction movie. The Quadrangle had tall, black walls that sported a multitude of tiny windows, probes and antennae, balconies and small structures that seemed to grow out of the concrete without rhyme or reason. As they got closer, Albert realized that the structure itself was not made of concrete, but of a strange composite material that was sleek and shiny under the rays of the morning sun. Then, the structure faded from view as the family ditched the road and ventured towards a deep gorge in the desertic landscape.
Admittedly, it wasn’t much of a desert. The rains of the last few days had meant that all the greenery – plants and flowers whose seeds had been dormant in the ground for years – had bloomed and the later frost had sealed the verdant carpets of plants into a tomb of ice. The road was not well maintained at all, but Lloyd’s skilled driving meant that they reached their destination without much delay.
There were two guards standing before a steel door built in the side of the rock at the bottom of the gorge. They wore standard military uniform, their mimetic patterns adapted to the desertic landscape painting big targets of the men standing amidst the greenery and the ice. Before the car was even close, in fact, and before they could even take out their weapons, they were shot with deadly precision by Samantha poking out of the passenger window, and dropped to the ground.
“Huh,” Albert’s mother hummed, examining the weapon in her hands with interest. “Your enhancing magic really did a number on this thing. I’m impressed.”
Albert smiled, proud of his work. He had turned a simple tranq gun into a veritable assault weapon-slash-sniper capable of putting down targets from impressive distances. It cost him a lot of mana, but his regeneration was high enough that he could refill his pool in less than an hour.
“Okay. Onto the door. Usually there would be a passcode, but if we use it, they will know we are here. I’ll take care of disabling the security, Lloyd you stand watch. Albert, you do… stretching or whatever, but be ready.”
As soon as Mother gave the signal, Albert approached the door with heavy steps. His feet sunk into the ground slightly, and his body struggled to carry the heavy steel bar he took from the trunk of the car even with [Strengthening] at full power. Once he was close enough, he inhaled and charged. The thick metal bar was like a sieging ram, hitting the door with incredible force. It only took a handful of hits, and a lot of sweat on Albert’s part even in the arctic temperatures for the hinges to finally give way, and another good hit sent the door sprawling open.
Albert rushed in, right as a smoke grenade exploded at his feet, hiding him from sight. He barreled through in the accelerated speed of [Bullet Time], the shield granted to him by his ring shimmering around him to keep the smoke out, until he felt that he had seen enough and disappeared. When he reappeared from teleporting out of the tunnel, all the targets he had painted for his mother and grandfather to shoot were already down.
“Good work.” Samantha said. “Let’s go.”
***
“Don’t kill them!” The man shouted, looking at the screen. It was surrounded by other screens, all black from when the video feed was cut. “Wound them. Tire them out. But don’t kill them. I want her for myself.”
“But sir, your orders—”
“Ha! You obey me, not them.” The man said. “Your orders are the orders I give you. Nothing else. You understand?”
Beside the man, another man covered from head to toe in small trinkets made of brass and glass stood a full head shorter than him.
“Let’s go,” PsyOps said. “We have stuff to do before she arrives at the CARF.”
***
Getting to the Quadrangle was the easy part, really. It was once they got there that things became suddenly a lot more difficult. The improvised team had to traverse at least two full sides of the structure undetected, reach the secret access point to the CARF, and then hack it as to make it work without a code. Fortunately, a strange event happened as soon as they emerged from the service tunnel they used to reach the structure.
“A notification. From… the Quadrangle itself?” Samantha said, a bit shaken.
She pulled out her phone and looked at the live video feed of the room they were. There were squares painted around their heads, displaying their name and designation, all marked as friendlies. There was a square for Albert too, but instead of being green it was black with white borders, and there was no designation at all. It was disconcerting, considering that they were sure they had cut the feeds when they hacked the cameras, but even more unsettling was the message that came with the video.
>I can help you reach ACCESS:CARF#03
“Is that the Quadrangle itself speaking to you?” Lloyd asked, peeking at the footage on the phone. “Never happened to me. Lucky you.”
Samantha frowned. “Never happened to me neither, before now. I was the one talking to it, not the other way around.”
“Should we trust it?” Albert said.
Lloyd shrugged. “I say yes. We get a redo in case it was a trap.”
Thus, the hard leg of the journey became unexpectedly easy. They navigated through the complicated and dizzying maze of corridors following the instructions of the all-knowing sovereign of the place, who instructed them on which routes to take, when to stop and hide, and when to shoot their way through. No alarms were triggered during the whole journey, and although Samantha never felt quite at ease at the thought of the unexpected helper, nothing happened to make her think that she was being played.
However, things were looking a bit too easy for her tastes. And she knew full well that there was no such mission as a perfect mission. PsyOps and SpaceOps were completely missing from the picture too, which was very suspicious. Something was bound to go incredibly wrong.
***
“Albert, if you ever need to rewind, rewind back to this moment. If you do that we’ll see you disappear before our eyes and then teleport in, right?”
“Yes, that’s how it looks from the—”
Silence.
“Shit.”
One full minute passed. Then two. Then three. Neither Samantha nor Lloyd dared move a muscle.
“He rewound.”
“Yes.”
“Why is he not reappearing?”
“He’s not supposed to reappear here. It’s not how rewinds work.”
“But he should have teleported here as soon as he finished rewinding.”
“Yes.”
“But he hasn’t.”
“He hasn’t.”
“Which means…”
“Something’s wrong.”
First Previous Next
Rate this story on Royal Road! Earth's Chosen Royal Road
My Stories
Everywhere at the end of Time
My Series
Earth's chosen
Isekai of the Ultimate Ritualist
Immense Space

Those of you who hike with a toddler - how? I used to be an avid hiker and would like to slowly get back in to it with my favorite little person. The hikes I would be looking at doing at this point are more like nature walks with little to no elevation change and under an hour in length.
She will NOT sit in a pack, but I’m thinking a toddler leash? I want to be able to keep her near me and pull her back away from any potential dangers (wildlife, steep edges, dogs because she loves dogs but hasn’t quite learned how to greet strange dogs appropriately). Any recommendations?
Also, any tips or tricks to help it go smoothly?

He was incredibly annoying. I was just going to stay quiet till the police arrived but he kept asking ridiculous questions. Where did he even hit me? Did he actually hit me? Is there even any damage?
I was pulling into a parking place and he not paying attention decided to reverse into my driver side door and smash my side view mirror up against it. All these answers were obvious. He kept on though and I was a bit loud and cussing at him. I called him a “fucking weirdo” multiple times because of how he was acting and responding to me.
He would copy me every once in a while in a high pitch tone while doing a little hand dance. He said “the government will be on our side” several times when talking about the accident and insurance, I still don’t get it. He took pictures of my whole car while saying “ah yes yes, mhmm, oooo” and said they won’t pay to fix it because it’s a piece of shit. Craziest part to me is he said that because my side view mirror was dangling and not literally on the fucking ground, it’s not broken.
I didn’t handle it well but that guy really bothered me.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m an east coaster at heart, or because I miss the love and memories with my friends and family. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I won’t feel peace until I am surrounded back with what I know.
I’m from Massachusetts and moved to LA back in 2020. I hate the winter, but that’s the only thing I hate about it. Massachusetts is actually a great place to live in terms of quality of life, cleanliness, and safety.
Am I making a bad decision? I know only I can answer that…but what are your thoughts?
It’s crazy to me that was once my dream from the age of 14-25 is now the same dream I’m trying to escape from.

Hello, I’m a recently self-discovered mtf, and, from what I’ve observed, a cloth face mask is a common technique employed within the trans community to obscure the jaw and lower face, which makes many feel more like themselves.
However, most face masks I have come across are neither comfortable nor easily breathable, the latter of which is especially a problem since I wear glasses that fog up easily. So, are there any particular recommendations, or at least pointers, that you could give to help me on my search?
(Please tell me if this isn’t the right place to post this)

Looking to get back into working out, and my husband is interested in starting too. I used to attend iGym pre-COVID which I liked, but he is hoping to have daily pool access. Not opposed to going two different places and using Guest passes if we want to workout together, but not sure that is cost efficient.
We've ruled out the M.A.C. as too expensive, and are deciding mainly between the YMCA, iGym, or possibly Top Shape Gym.
The Y doesn't seem worth it unless we both go together because of the 2 Adult deal, but they don't appear to offer Yoga classes, which is a selling point for me. Does anyone know if they do have Yoga?
iGym has Yoga and M.A.C. pool access Sundays, but only one pool day a week does not appeal to my husband.
Top Shape Gym appears to have both Yoga classes and a Pool, but is across town from us.

Giannis became the Bucks all-time leader in games played last night, and that got me curious at who the leader was in games played for each franchise.
Here's the list in order of most games played to least:

Franchise	Player	Games
Dallas Mavericks	Dirk Nowitzki	1522
Utah Jazz	John Stockton	1504
San Antonio Spurs	Tim Duncan	1392
Indiana Pacers	Reggie Miller	1389
Los Angeles Lakers	Kobe Bryant	1346
Boston Celtics	John Havlicek	1270
Houston Rockets	Hakeem Olajuwon	1177
Philadelphia 76ers	Hal Greer	1122
New York Knicks	Patrick Ewing	1039
Detroit Pistons	Joe Dumars	1018
Oklahoma City Thunder	Gary Payton	999
Phoenix Suns	Alvan Adams	988
Washington Wizards	Wes Unseld	984
Minnesota Timberwolves	Kevin Garnett	970
Miami Heat	Dwyane Wade	948
Chicago Bulls	Michael Jordan	930
Sacramento Kings	Sam Lacey	888
Atlanta Hawks	Dominique Wilkins	882
Golden State Warriors	Stephen Curry	872
Portland Trail Blazers	Clyde Drexler	867
Cleveland Cavaliers	LeBron James	849
Denver Nuggets	Alex English	837
Memphis Grizzlies	Mike Conley	788
Los Angeles Clippers	DeAndre Jordan	750
Milwaukee Bucks	Giannis Antetokounmpo	712
Charlotte Hornets	Dell Curry	701
Orlando Magic	Nick Anderson	692
Toronto Raptors	DeMar DeRozan	675
Brooklyn Nets	Buck Williams	635
New Orleans Pelicans	David West	530

Some notes:
First off for my Sonics fans, if the thought of GP being the all-time leader in games played for the Thunder doesn't sit right, you can replace him on this list with Russell Westbrook who played 821 games for the Thunder.
The Pelicans/Hornets thing might seem complicated at first, but it's pretty simple. The Pelicans get credit for all the games in New Orleans and the Hornets get credit for all the games in Charlotte (despite the fact that's not exactly how things played out).
I mentioned Giannis as the reason for this post in the first place, and it's largely because I had no clue who the Bucks leader was in games played prior to him. It was Bucks legend Junior Bridgeman.
Lastly, here's a list of every player in NBA history to play at least 20 seasons with a single franchise:
1. Dirk
T-2. Kobe
T-2. Udonis Haslem
That's right despite playing 20 seasons for the Heat, Haslem is still not the franchise leader in games played. I know he's essentially been an assistant coach for the past 5+ seasons, but it shows just how unique he is that he can bring value to 1 franchise for 2 decades despite his limited ability to actually play.

Excuse me if this has already been talked about to exhaustion.
Noticed a panel in 1078 talking about how the government fully expected resistance from some of the nastiest tech in the world. Their solution, 1 gorosei and an admiral escort.
I can’t help but think this fully confirms that Gorosei are not fodder. At the lowest they should pose vice-admiral level haki but I see Saturn potentially being stronger than the admiral escorting him. Can’t say for sure yet, what I can say for sure though is that they fully expected an armed conflict and figured Saturn + Kizaru is the solution. At the very least that tells me Saturn cannot possibly be a weakling.
On a side note about the York reveal, it’s fascinating how s/he wants to be a celestial dragon. My boy is almost certain that the celestial dragon position is a layer of puppet heads and scapegoats for the Gorosei, and because of that they pick and choose who gets to be one, often going for whoever serves their agendas with the least resistance. It makes sense for a lazy part of Vegapunk to want the freedom and resources to explore science and history unrestricted (esp since it SEEMS like gorosei fully know the truth, though that’s unconfirmed). This makes becoming a Celestial Dragon the path of least resistance for Vegapunk.
Though if you ask me the York reveal wasn’t earned as the character before this point was pretty much a near blank slate with a decent design and a couple quirks. Felt rushed and didn’t give us time to clue in like we had with Kanjuro, which is fine ig since the mystery doesn’t even matter as of this chapter.

Just done playing HZD (kinda speed dun the main) and HFW back to back....(100+ hours platinum....my first) and I've hit a problem.
I Can't find anything to play until Burning Shores drops.....everything I've tried just feels a bit rubbish in comparison. HFW is an absolute masterpiece of modern gaming imo, the visuals, the acting/voices, movement, combat, everything just hit the spot, so much the little annoyances here and there dont even register. That leaves me with whats next.......
Went back to finish Cyberpunk...... immediately met with a couple of game breaking bugs...nope Plague Tale : Requiem......Looks lovely in places, but the dialogue is wooden , voice acting generally felt phoned in, the rats animation is horrible, and the kid really annoyed me.
Ghost of Tsushima.....ok, but felt like the 3 year old game it is now, again poor dialogue, repetitive missions, didnt connect with any of the characters.
Has HFW ruined me ? All I can think of is GoW Ragnorok that may come up to scratch , but guess ill leave starting that until after Burning Shores....going to be a long month....

I don't know if this is the best place to ask this, or if there even is a simple answer to this question.
I have used Windows for years, but my last computer broke recently, and I have been getting kind of sick of the sh*t Microsoft can get up to, but the only real alternative I know of is linux. I have NO CLUE about anything related to linux.
In a few months time, I will be building a new PC, and would be interested in getting into linux, to see how it would work for me, instead of windows. I have no clue how to start, or if/ how it would work, to the point of "I don't even know what questions to ask".
I plan to use my computer for mostly gaming, and for that I plan on using an AMD CPU and GPU (don't know if that matters) for Steam, Epic Games, and (due to the fact that most of my friends use Microsoft, or even an XBox) Xbox App. I also want to make use of VR Gaming though steam, using an oculus 2 (maybe 3 when it comes out) and a Valve Index.)
I wull use it for browsing and watching videos on youtube, or downloading and watching videos on the computer itself.
I also want to get into streaming in the summer (unproffesionally) on twitch.
Lastly, i am also interested in getting into game development using UE.
If there is anything anyone can tell me, please, and also if you need any other information, i can do my best to answer.

I am 2 months into introducing my resident cat, Pixie (F 1.5), to my new cat, Valentine (F 3), and they still have to be separated at all times. Pixie is Deaf and a wobbly cat (she has mild CH). Both girls are more attention motivated and are very attached to me. This is my second attempt at reintroducing them following Jackson Galaxy’s method. Valentine is being kept in my bedroom as her safe room and Pixie gets the run of the rest of the apartment, which includes my roommate’s room and our common spaces. Thus far, they can only handle eating breakfast together at the screen door in front of my bedroom door. If they are at the door without food, Valentine hisses and growls at Pixie, who appears to be totally oblivious to Val’s distress and thinks they’re playing. When they have supervised playtime, Pixie cannot be distracted from staring at and walking towards Valentine. Valentine also lurks around Pixie as if she is curious, but will hiss if Pixie gets near her. As mentioned before, Pixie is completely oblivious and just keeps trying to go up to her and even chases Valentine (Pixie is trying to play, but Valentine doesn’t like it). The other day I tried having Pixie in a carrier while Valentine sniffed her out, but Valentine kept hissing, lunging, and swatting at Pixie (not sure if this is a positive or negative, but Valentine didn’t try to hide from Pixie while she was in the carrier. She was always lurking around her). What further complicates things is my roommate’s dog, who is extremely hyper and will bark at Valentine whenever she catches a glimpse of her. I’m trying to leave her out of the introduction process at the moment, but obviously, that’s another inevitable step. I read online that I could try putting both cats in their carriers and slowly move them closer? Are there any other things I could try? I love all three girls (dog included!!) and want them all to live together peacefully, but I also acknowledge that Valentine might have to be rehomed. Any and all help is much appreciated!