Ian garry ufc last fight

I'm not particularly a religious person. I never really connected with the idea of believing in a God or a Devil; something like religion never really resonated with me until the night a few of my friends and I explored the Lockwood house.
My mother gave me a laptop this morning; she thought that it might help me cope or whatever so here I am, typing what I remember. I haven't been able to sleep; there's a shadow that stands in the corner of my hospital room at night, and sometimes I hear voices inside my head telling me to do things, and I'm terrified.
No one believes me. They keep stating that my traumatizing experience must have triggered my anxiety. They called it a dissociation or detachment from reality, I think. Whatever. I know that what I saw in that house was real, and what had happened to my friends actually did happen. We just wanted an experience. We never really stopped to evaluate the risks that might come with it.
I guess I'll start from the beginning.
It was Friday morning, and I decided to kill some time in the library across from my high school. The greatest thing about being in a library was the calming atmosphere. I leaned forward on the worn sofa and rolled my eyes as I turned the page.
What? I scoffed. Why is this even a thing someone would think is even remotely attractive?
[ I am a lot to handle, but I can assure you that you'll have fun handling me, love ]
Seriously? I've met drunk perverts hanging outside of bars with better pick up lines than that I thought to myself. I didn't think it could get any cringier until I read the next line.
[ My heart did an unexpected flip, startled by his bizarrely attractive smile ]
I frowned inwardly. You know what you really need instead of a creepy-ass stalker boyfriend? A cardiology consult
"So annoying," I sighed. How is this tripe a best seller?
"What's annoying?"
"Oh, shit." I squeaked. I sat upright and turned around, instinctively about to clog the person when I realized who it was. Harlen leaned up against the wall with a tilted smirk on his face. He stood between me and the fluorescents.
Harlen was a fellow classmate and a friend of Mark's, who was an older guy Albie, and I guess Harlen hung out with. Harlen was a tall, attractive guy with an athletic build, short obsidian hair, and grey eyes. To quote the main character in the novel, Harlen was the kind of trouble smarter girls than I had fallen into with disastrous results and a few regrets.
My cheeks flushed and I closed the book as he cocked his head at me. "Did I seriously scare you?" He joked, but his smile faltered slightly as I glared up at him.
"Dude," I groaned. "Don't sneak up on me like that,"
"What? I didn't sneak," He crossed his arms over his chest in protest. "No sneaking was involved. I just walked over here. And to be fair, this is a library-silence is sacred in a library so technically we're supposed to sneak. We're also the only ones in here right now anyway, so who cares."
My eyes did a pointed sweep of the decidedly empty area before settling back on Harlen's with an unamused glower. "Yeah," I said. "I'm pretty sure the zero other people in here appreciate the deceptive aura of calm. What are you doing here?"
"Well, actually I was doing some research for a paper I'm writing for English." He tightened his grip on his bookbag. "I was told I'd find you here," He explained.
"Why?" I asked. "I didn't tell anyone that I was here."
"I've got my ways of tracking people down."
When he saw my expression, Harlen rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on Kaya. I'm just kidding! Is it really that weird that I happen to be in here the same time as you?"
"I guess not."
"I'll let you get back to reading, then. Oh," He started. "I almost forgot. Meet us down at the Love Triangle for lunch. I found a cool place for us to urbex."
My friends and I loved urban exploring. Most of the time it was exciting and exhilarating. Sometimes it was a challenge; some places were remote enough that you could simply walk in through the front door like a welcomed visitor. Other times we would be forced to climb up over fences or crawl through windows.
There was this one time we decided to check out a drainage tunnel because a few people have sworn they heard ominous laughter coming from it. Water seeped into our clothes and we shivered at the coldness. I remember that I cracked a joke about the movie "IT" when we suddenly heard a loud BOOM right next to our heads. I have no idea what caused the sound, but I doubt that it was anything paranormal.
I was in the middle of stabbing at a large crouton with my fork when Harlen, Albie, and Jessica took their seats at the table.
"Hey, Kaya," Albie said as he sat down beside me. Albie and I have been friends since we were little. He was a skinny black guy with a box fade haircut and light brown eyes. We were neither popular nor unpopular. We were what some people called, "drifters" and, according to Albie, those whose social standings meant that if he made random eye contact with someone in the halls he would probably get a nod back, and maybe even a quick "Hey" or "What's up" If you didn't know us personally you'd likely assume that we were siblings, especially with the way we acted around each other most of the time.
"What took you guys so long?" I asked, pointing my fork in his direction.
"It was my fault. I'm sorry." He grumbled, as he unzipped his lunch bag. "Mr. Wizzner chastised me for like, ten minutes."
"To be fair, You were looking at your phone in class." Jessica said. Jessica was Albie's girlfriend, a petite girl with long blond hair, and hazel eyes. "And that wasn't the only thing,"
Albie sighed. "You're not wrong, but he's kind of an asshat."
"You should use that filter once in a while," Jessica said.
"Oh baby, since when have you known me to have such a filter?"
"Oh please," I scoffed. "You just choose not to use it."
Albie gave me a frown and tossed a baby carrot my way, which I was able to dodge easily.
Harlen cleared his throat as he pulled out his phone. "So, shall we get to it, then?"
The Lockwood house had been abandoned for years now, but a few people who have walked the trail close to the place have claimed they could see the spirits of the family walking around inside, and others had even heard music coming from the house. When they went to investigate, there was no one inside.
In 2010 Ethan Lockwood brutally murdered his wife, Anna Lockwood, and her parents Steven and Isabelle Thompson in the middle of the night. Authorities found Anna's parents dead in their bedroom; both of their bodies were in pieces, and their daughter's body was found in the basement. Anna had multiple blunt force head injuries and what's worse, her eyes and tongue were missing. Ethan's body was found in the living room with a shotgun beside him, and a deep laceration on his neck. People have compared this to the Amityville horror - which was a huge reason we were doing this.
"Get this," Harlen said, as he scrolled down. "There was a survivor - a ten year old boy. He also had a twin brother, but he was never found."
Some have assumed the father killed him and buried his body somewhere on the property, and others have assumed the boy escaped and is probably alive under a new identity. I guess we'll never know.
"Holy crap. What happened to the boy who survived?" I asked.
"I don't know. I guess that part was kept confidential," Albie said. "For the boy's protection I guess."
"Poor baby," Jessica frowned.
"So," Harlen said. "Are you guys up for it?"
◇
We all crawled into Harlen's truck around 6pm and headed to the Lockwood house. Albie took his video recorder and held it in front of his face. "Hey, what's up guys, gals, and nonbinary folks!" Albie spoke with conviction as he stared wide-eyed in the video recorder. "We're going to prove that ghosts are real!"
I rolled down the window and glanced out at the scenery. I laughed to myself when we passed a large cornfield. "Guys, this seriously looks like we're going straight into a modern day horror film."
"It really does," Jessica agreed.
"I can already feel this place, I'm beginning to sweat all over." Albie exclaimed as he turned his camera to the window then back on himself.
"Like something about this place isn't right at all? That's pretty understandable, considering." Harlen said, turning down a gravel road.
"We're gonna recieve a ton of views for this!" Albie smiled. He turned the camera toward Harlen who waved back from the review mirror.
"Dude," Harlen chuckled. "I bet some of these viewers are going to think you're crazy because you're willing to allow something to throw you across the room and-possibly-murder you for content."
We pulled up to the gate in front of the two - story colonial home. There was already a green van parked outside the gate to the property. Mark greeted us at the gate with a colorful bottle of vodka. Mark was an average looking guy in his early 20s with shaggy brown hair and brown eyes. He raised the bottle in his right hand with shot glasses in the other.
"Hey, guys," Mark handed each of us a shot glass. "Did you get here alright?"
"Oh yeah. I've driven passed this place a couple of times, I didn't even need the GPS" Harlen said.
"This definitely screams illegal." I commented, pointedly toward the large house.
"Only if we get caught, but this place is abandoned so I doubt we'll get into any trouble with the law." Harlen said.
"I'm giving you alcohol, and you're more worried about "breaking and entering"? Mark laughed.
Albie took his shot of the Three Olives Loopy vodka and made a face. "This tastes like Tucan Sam fucked me."
"Ew," Jessica grimaced.
Harlen and I laughed. Mark only snorted.
After we each had several shots of vodka, we got ready. We each grabbed a headlight in order to keep our hands free, gloves, and disposable face masks and placed them into our backpacks, along with first aid (just in case). Mark had been urbexing for a while, and he was always prepared with supplies just in case anyone forgot to bring something.
"So, what happens if we're not alone in the house?" Jessica asked.
Even though urbex sites are technically "abandoned" that didn't mean you wouldn't run into other people inside like squatters or addicts, and they may not react well to seeing a stranger in their space.
"It's a good thing I brought this along," Mark said. He pushed his jacket aside and revealed a hand gun tucked inside its holster.
"Holy crap, man." Harlen said.
"I can't believe you brought a gun." Albie said.
Jessica and I were speechless. It's a good idea to bring some sort of self defense tool just in case your physical safety is threatened, but bringing something like a gun raises the risk of you accidentally injuring yourself.
"Of course I did. It's always good to carry protection." Mark explained.
A few minutes after, the five of us walked up to the large rusted gate. With a little bit of work, we each slipped through the bars and headed up to the house.
"You know those haunted attractions where people dress up in order to scare the shit out of you, except it's actual demons and they're going to steal your soul!" Jessica smiled beside Albie who threaded his fingers through hers. "It's actually kinda thrilling."
"Awesome," Harlen smirked. "I'm glad you sound so optimistic about it."
"I try to be!"
We stepped up onto the porch, which wrapped around the front of the house. The paint on the door was chipped with age in places. "Are you guys ready?" Harlen asked. "Once we enter this house, we will possibly become vulnerable to any demonic presence that might reside here."
I rolled my eyes. "If I'm in serious danger, I'm getting out. I'll throw myself out the window if I have to."
"I'm on Kaya's team," Jessica agreed. "Team rational."
"What, and risk getting a broken leg?" Albie asked.
"Better a broken leg than having your soul taken by some kind of entity." I replied.
"Alright, guys let's do this." Harlen said. He opened the door and the five of us headed inside.
The front door opened up into a foyer. Straight ahead of us was a staircase that led up to the second floor. There was a spacious living room to our right and a dining room to our left, and from there, an alcove enterance that led into the kitchen. I could tell that this place had been abandoned for years; there was cobwebs and peeled paint on the walls. There were remnants of furniture left ripped, dismantled, and stained which laid disorderly on the floor of the living room, reminding me of death.
This had once been the home of a happy upper-class family, full of life. Now it was replaced by ghosts of the past, vermin, spiders, dirt, and trash. The smell of rot and the taste of regurgitated food made me grimace in disgust.
"Why hasn't anyone fix this place up and put it back on the market?" Jessica asked.
"Who really knows," Albie replied.
"Hello!" Harlen announced as he twirled on his heels. "Are there any spirits here?" I glanced over at Harlen with a look and he shrugged.
"Is this what you guys imagined?" Mark queried.
"Sure, minus the dead bodies," I walked into the living room and spotted a mid century record player console propped up against the wall next to a grand piano. There was a record still on the turntable, "Tonight You Belong To Me" by "Patience and Prudence"
"Hey, come check this out." Out of curiosity I placed the stylus and tried turning it on, not really expecting anything to happen. I jerked my hand away when it began to play.
I quickly took the needle off, a little creeped out. "Holy crap, that scared me."
"That thing still works?" Albie asked, as he inspected the record player. "That song is kinda sweet,"
"No it isn't," Jessica frowned. "It's the kind of song you would hear while being tortured to death."
After we goofed around a little bit, we all decided to begin exploring around the house. Mark started up the stairs and asked if anyone would like to join him.
"I'll join you, man." Harlen said. He gave me a wink before heading towards the stairs with Mark, and I glanced over at Albie and Jessica as they disappeared down the hall.
I was alone.
I walked over to the piano, and carefully lifted the lid up and over to reveal its keys. My fingers traced the lines in between them and pushed down lightly on a few. The deep sounds reverberated around the room.
My eyes drifted up to the small picture frame sitting on top of the piano. I absent-mindedly bit my bottom lip and reached up to grab the frame. My fingers trailed across the picture, leaving an oily impression against the glass that held the picture in place. A family of four stared back at me and I realized that it was Ethan, Anna, and their twin boys. I was so focused on the twins that I almost didn't hear my phone alerting me that I had a new text message.
It was a text from Albie.
From "Albie" at 6:45pm: Meet us down in the basement. I want to show u something.
To "Albie" at 6:46pm: What is it?
From "Albie" at 6:46pm: There's some cool shit down here. Hurry up.
I rolled my eyes and placed my phone in my pocket as I made my way down the hall. I paused at the top of the basement stairs. I could hear Jessica and Albie, the beems from their headlights bouncing around.
"Albie?" I called out.
"Yeah, Kaya, we're down here." He replied. "Come on down. We have something to show you."
"Alright, I'm coming down hold on." I carefully descended the stairs and turned the corner. "So, what did you want to show me-"
My voice died in my throat. It was dark down here, and my friends were nowhere to be seen. I was gripped by a sudden sense of unnease. I stood near the stairs and turned on my headlamp. "Hello? Albie, this isn't funny, dude."
What answered me was silence. Absolute silence. I was alone, or I thought I was until my light fell onto something moving a few feet in front of me. It was an androgynous looking kid around my age with pale skin, shoulder-length black hair, and violet eyes. They wore a long sleeve gothic cloak poncho, over thin black leggings. Their lips pulled back into a malicious grin as they came closer to me. I watched in horror as their eyes rolled to the back of their head and their mouth split open wide, revealing sharp teeth.
They reached out for me and I screamed in terror, my instincs finally kicked in. I bolted up the steps, and stumbled into the hallway. I ran for the front door and tried to leave, but it wouldn't open. What the hell?! that made no damn sense! My heart sank into the pit of my stomach. Suddenly I felt something touch my shoulder. I screamed, ready to defend myself.
"Hey. Hey! Kaya, stop it's me, Albie."
I stopped struggling as my eyes refocused on the familiar faces in front of me. Albie, Jessica, and Harlen stared back at me with confused alarm.
"Are you alright?" Harlen asked. "What happened?"
I shook my head and quickly glanced behind them at the basement door, but there was nothing there. I know I hadn't imagined it! I turned my attention back to my friends. "I saw something down in the basement! I want to leave. Now."
"What are you talking about, Kaya? Hold up, did you see something down there? Holy shit. The ghosts didn't think one of us would see them, but we did. Can you-"
Before Albie can finish his sentence, I roughly pushed him away from me and turned back to the door. "Damnit, Albie! I don't want to be in this fucking house anymore! It won't open! Why won't it open!"
"Seriously, Kaya what the hell?" Albie asked, almost annoyed.
"Just relax, Kaya. Let me give it a try, alright?" Harlen offered, calmly. He grabbed the knob, but it stayed shut. "What the hell?"
"See? I told you it won't open!" I hissed.
"What do you mean, "it won't open" let me give it a try." Albie shoved his way passed us. He motioned for all of us to stand back and we watched as he tried to use his whole body against it.
"M-maybe the door's jammed." Jessica exclaimed. "Let's chill out. The front door isn't the only exit out of this place."
"Jessica's right. Let's try the door in the kitchen." Harlen said. We entered the kitchen and Harlen quickly made his way over to the screen door that faced the forest. He cursed under his breath. "Damnit. Nothing."
"Hold up, guys. Where's Mark?" Albie asked.
Harlen quickly pulled his phone out to call Mark when we all collectively got a text from him. Reminding us that we had set up a group chat for easy contact. Harlen glanced back at me with an odd expression I couldn't name. I opened my texts and a sharp stab of dread settled in my stomach.
From "Mark" at 7:05pm: I'm down in the basement, Harlen. Where r u?
From "Mark" at 7:06pm: Harlen is that u? It's not funny, man.
Harlen texted Mark that we were all in the kitchen. I watched as the three small dots in a text bubble pending before it disappeared and Harlen's cell phone rang. He answered and placed Mark on speaker phone.
"What the hell do you mean you're in the kitchen? I definitely heard your voice down here."
Harlen cursed, and told Mark to make his way to the kitchen. Harlen started toward the basement and we all followed right behind him. Before we could reach the stairs to the basement, however, the door swung shut, the force of it knocked us backwards. We heard Mark's gun go off several times followed by his peircing screams of terror before they were abruptly cut short. In our inebriated panic, I failed at the last second to realize we were all running in different directions.
I remember running up the stairs and locking the bathroom door behind me. My heart pounded painfully against my ribcage as I fumbled for my phone, thankful that it hadn't fallen out of my pocket. I willed myself to control my sobs and called 911, but for some reason my call wouldn't go through.
"Nononono! Fuck, please no." I collapsed against the bathtub and cried into my sleeves. Paranoia nearly consumed me once I thought of my friends and every horrible scenario when I received a text from Albie. I looked at it confused.
I wiped the snot from my face and quickly texted him back. How in the hell was I able to receive his texts when I couldn't get ahold of the cops?
From "Albie" at 7:20pm: Apparently we can contact each other in this house, but our phone's service seems to be cut off from the outside world. Where r u?
What the hell is going on in this place??
To "Albie" at 7:21pm: I'm in the upstairs bathroom. Do u know where Harlen and Jess are?
From "Albie" at 7:25pm: Jess is with me. I don't know where Harlen is.
My stomach dropped, but before I could reply Albie sent another text, and what I read made my blood run cold.
From "Albie" at 7:25pm: There is smthing moving in the hallway outside the room we r in. Stay quiet and keep ur phone on silent. If we need to contact each other use text.
It was around thirty minutes after when Albie replied with another text updating me with their situation. The thing stalking outside their room a while ago was gone now, and it hadn't come back.
From "Albie" at 8:00pm: We're going to make our way to you. Stay where u r
To "Albie" at 8:02pm: Ok. Be careful.
I slowly got to my feet and set my phone down beside the sink and took a deep breath to level my breathing. Suddenly, I heard something pound against the door. I screamed and stumbled backward. "Holy shit!"
"Kaya?" It was Harlen. "Kaya, is that you?"
"H-Harlen?" I collected myself and made my way over to the bathroom door. I walked into the hallway, relieved that I wasn't alone anymore. Harlen was safe, thank God. "Oh my god, Harlen I'm so glad you're-"
I gasped, and I stumbled forward as the door behind me slammed shut. I felt a sudden wave of dread wash over me as my eyes swept up and down the vacant hallway. Whatever was keeping us here tricked me. I quickly tried going back into the bathroom, but it wouldn't open, not only that but I left my phone by the sink. "No! Damnit!" I needed my phone, it was my only way to stay in contact with my friends, and how was Albie going to know where I was? I had two options, I could try and make my way to Albie or find another place to hide.
My heart thudded loudly in my ears as my headlamp bounced off the walls, chasing nothing more than shadows. I stuck close to the wall as I made my way down the hall. From somewhere down the hall, I heard a voice call out. It was Albie's voice telling me to come over to him. I hesitated for a moment. What if it was another trick? It definitely could be since whatever is toying with us was capable of mimicking voices. What if it really was Albie? Regardless, I had to go passed the room if I wanted to find Albie or another place to hide.
"Kaya, we're in here," Albie whispered to me as I got closer to one of the bedrooms. I hesitated before I stepped inside. The bedroom smelled awful, like rotten meat hung out in the sun for too long. My headlamp's light swept the room until it landed on a lone figure lying face-up on the bed.
"...Albie?" I whispered, tentatively. My voice sounded thin, like old paper. The figure on the bed didn't answer, but when I crept closer, I slipped on something wet. I glanced down at the floor. It was blood; a trail of blood led in from the doorway all the way to the bed. "Oh my god!" I screamed. My stomach rebelled and I heaved out my lunch until I couldn't expel anything else.
My throat burned as I wiped my mouth, and my chest hurt from sobbing out his name. Mark laid sprawled on the bed, his abdomen was ripped open and what remained of his entrails spilled over his body like a gory blanket. I stumbled backward, I fell against the door closing it shut. I was about to leave when I spotted the gun tucked under Mark's jacket.
Oh god, this was probably the worst decision ever and the likelihood that this was yet another trick was high, but I needed something to protect myself with. I've watched Mark use it before when we all went camping a year ago, so I kind of knew how to use it. I steeled myself and started toward the bed.
The closer I got the more I can see the damage done to his body; his abdomen and chest cavity were open and hollowed out. The skin looked like it was rolled back, torn and ragged. His sternum was completely gone, a few of his ribs were cracked so they protruded from either side of his body like fangs. Half of his bottom lip looked like it was chewed off and his left ear was missing. I shook my head and tentatively reached out for the gun. Just as I grabbed it, I felt something gooey covered on the grip of the gun.
I yelped and dropped it on the floor. I cursed and bent down to pick it up. Once I did I wiped the substance off with my sleeve with a grimace and made sure the safety was on. I was tucking it into my jacket pocket when something dripped onto my hand. I looked up and saw Mark or what used to be Mark looming over me from the ceiling like Spiderman. His eyes were oily black, his face twisted in an agonized and vengeful expression. Before I could move, he threw himself at me.
Somehow, I managed to dodge him and wrench the door open, hitting Mark as he lunged at me. The blow was hard enough that it sent Mark sprawling across the floor. I rushed out of the room and back into the empty hallway. I took a chance and looked back, but Mark wasn't there.
When I reached the end of the hallway, I felt hands grab me and pull me around the corner. I opened my mouth to scream, but a hand clamped over my mouth, silencing me. Panic cut through my body like a hot blade, and new found adrenaline flooded my system as I twisted and shoved at the person holding me immobile.
"Kaya, stop," Albie hissed. "It's me."
I turned around and my eyes widened with tears as Albie released his hand from my mouth, and Jessica pulled me into a hug as I told them what happened. Albie pointed towards the stairs and motioned for us to follow. Albie led us into the foyer. We heard movement in the basement so as quickly and quietly as we could, we crawled inside a closet across from the living room.
"What are we going to do?" Jessica asked. "We have no weapons!"
"I found this on Mark's body." I exclaimed as I showed them the hand gun.
Albie got to his feet. "ah, crap...I'm going to be right back. I left my camera in the kitchen."
"What? Hell no." I hissed. Splitting up is a terrible Idea! Risking his life for that damn camera? Was he an idiot?
"Just stay here, alright? Kaya, keep that gun out." He said, with no room for an argument. "Whatever this thing is, it can mimic our voices so we'll need a password to distinguish them from us." He took out his phone and typed Last Alliance
After he left, I crawled over to the door and locked it. I sat down next to Jessica who was sobbing. I turned to her and placed my palms to her tear stained face. "Hey, Jess. We'll make it out of here alright? I promise-"
Jessica shook her head and pushed my hands away from her face. "Don't say that shit to me. We're going to die here, Kaya!" She hissed. "Why is this happening? I wanna go home!"
I sat back against the wall and sighed.
Ten minutes later I heard movement coming from outside the room. I quickly got to my feet and placed my hands on the door.
"Last Alliance," Albie whispered, rather quickly. "Hurry up and let me in."
I hadn't even released the door knob when Albie pushed passed me and helped Jessica to her feet without much protest on her end. "Shit, it was him all along."
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"I caught it on camera!" He whispered frantically. "The reason he brought us out here wasn't to-shit-" he was breathing hard. He moved toward me and shoved the camera in my direction. "Here, hold onto it for-" His sentence was cut off abruptly as the thing that used to be Mark drilled his fist into Albie's chest from behind. Albie's eyes widened as his mind had come to the realization at what happened.
Mark dropped Albie's body on the ground and his lips twisted into a manic grin as he examined his blood-covered arm. "He was spying on us," Mark said, but it didn't sound like Mark anymore. His voice sounded like several voices overlapping, fighting for center stage. "He didn't think that we would notice, but we did."
We screamed, and holding onto the camera with one hand I pulled her toward me with the other, quickly. We couldn't save him, and I knew that if we didn't move now we would end up just like him.
Jessica and I bolted down the hallway and back up the stairs. We found an empty room that must have been a personal office at one point, and barricaded ourselves inside. I cursed when I noticed the room we were in didn't have a window wide enough for us to escape through. I sat against the wall beside Jessica who sobbed into her sleeves.
I glanced down at the camcorder which felt heavy in my hand. What did Albie capture on camera that had him so upset? I turned it on and what I saw on the screen made my blood run cold. It was Harlen, the kid from the basement who stood beside Harlen, and the thing that used to be Mark; Harlen was speaking to him, but it was in a strange language that I couldn't understand. After he was finished, the thing that used to be Mark knelt down as if Harlen was some kind of royalty, and that was where the video stopped.
I heard that thing right outside the room we were in. He was telling us that no matter what we did, we were not leaving this place. A few seconds later, he broke through the door, pushing the desk and chairs out of the way with ease. With the force, one of the chairs knocked me to the floor.
He released a sick and twisted laughter, and stalked toward me, eyes filled with malice. Jessica grabbed something heavy from the floor and chucked it at Mark. Mark was startled for a second, and then slowly turned his attention to her. She yelped and frantically swept her eyes around the room for anything she could use as a weapon. He lunged for her and they collided to the floor.
I fumbled for my jacket's zipper for the gun, but I was too late. I watched in utter horror as he ripped into my friend; her screams of terror and agony will haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life. I pulled myself to my feet, my back bumped into something hard. A metal filing cabinet. Mark turned his attention back on me, but before he could reach me, he tripped over something and he fell to the floor. I shifted, and using my whole body weight, I managed to tip it over. It landed on top of Mark with a sickening crunch of bone and viscera.
I slowly made my way to Jessica's body and collapsed to my knees. I clutched at my own head and screamed until it hurt. At that moment, all I wanted to do was crumble in defeat. My voice had broken into heavy sobs so loud and ugly that I almost didn't hear Harlen's footsteps behind me.
"Kaya, is that you?" He called out to me, his voice full of worry. I was hardly listening to him. This was his fault! Rage spiked through me like a knife to my gut, it twisted and turned until I was all ground beef inside; I had the sudden urge to pull the gun from my jacket and-no, I had to calm down. Maybe if I feigned ignorance, I might still have a chance to escape, however slim that was. He bent down, and I let him pull me along with him without protest. With his eyes forward, I slowly put my hand on the gun.
We were almost to the kitchen when Harlen turned around, and leaned against the wall. "So, you know, don't you."
It wasn't a question. I slowly pulled out the gun, unlocked it, and trained it on him. He stared at me with an unsettling expression, and I could have sworn his eyes were black. I suddenly felt an intense pressure pour down on me. I could feel a miasma of something intense as his eyes bore into mine; my arms trembled with the effort of keeping them aloft. The gun clenched tightly in my hands like a life line. I couldn't faulter. I knew that if I did, even for an instant, Harlen would undoubtedly kill me.
"Oh, don't be like that, Kaya. You're not getting out of this house unless I say so, so let's just chat, hm?"
I shook my head and raised the gun to his chest, and for a brief moment I caught a glimpse of a surprised expression on his face when I pulled the trigger. The sound of the gunshot reverberated around me. I pulled the trigger again and again, but the gun was empty. I dropped it to the floor, my hands shaking. He glanced down at himself. "Huh. Well, would ya look at that, you managed to get me through the ribs, good job."
I was running before Harlen finished his sentence. However, he wasn't coming after me-at least not yet. Figures. I couldn't leave this place so he had no reason to put much effort into the chase. I stumbled through the house, catching myself on overturned furniture in order to keep my balance as I made my way towards the stairs.
I tripped over something and I caught myself against the wall across from the stairs. I paused for a moment to catch my breath. The house seemed to resonate with his manic laughter. I glanced behind me, and I felt a wave of cold dread as he sauntered toward me down the hall. Hands in his pockets, with an almost amused expression.
"Where do you think you're going, Kaya?" He asked. "Didn't I tell you before?"
The words, "There is no escape" suddenly appeared all over the walls in blood. I cursed, and pushed myself off the wall and bolted up the steps, down the hall, and into one of the bedrooms and quickly closed the door. I looked around at what was once a child's room. There was a twin sized bed in the center of the room, a nightstand across from the closet, and a bathroom.
I spotted a decent sized window and I ran over to it, but it wouldn't open and I cursed when there was nothing around me to break it with. Without any time to come up with a plan, I quickly slid underneath the bed and turned off my headlamp. I immediately cursed at myself again, of all the places to hide I chose the first place any one would look!
I contemplated whether or not to find another hiding place, but before I could move I heard him make his way down the hall singing that creepy ass song. "My honey I know with the dawn that you will be gone, but tonight you belong to me, just little 'ol me~"
The bedroom door opened. I covered my mouth and tried to silence my breathing, hoping to God that he wouldn't find me under the bed. I watched in fear as he closed the door behind him and made his way over to the bed. The bed dipped slightly as Harlen's weight sank onto it. He told me things I didn't want to hear and more. This monster-this demon-slithered into our lives just for all of this to happen.
My eyes widened and I tucked my arms to my sides, the wooden bed frame gave a protest above me as Harlen laid down on top of it. Then he sighed, almost forlorn. "This was my brother's room, you know. Coming back here brings back so many memories,"
Right after he said that I felt something prickle behind my eyelids. I shut my eyes tightly as gruesome scenes appeared inside my head. There was so much blood, and images shown of a young boy in pajamas stalking through the house with an ax in his hands picking off his family members one by one-doing things a normal child his size wouldn't be able to do, but Harlen was anything but normal. I felt bile rise in my throat but I managed to keep it down.
"The final stage of grief is acceptance, Kaya." He said. His cruel voice brought me back to the present. "You have a lot of spirit, I like that. I'm also in a good mood so I'll give you two options: you can either die here or you can come with me. You should be grateful that I'm even giving you an option. So, what's it going to be?"
I opened my mouth and closed it again; what was I supposed to say to something like that? What was going to happen to me if I said yes? If I said no...
A low growl -yes, a growl- rumbled above me and I felt something snag my ankle. I panicked, my fingers tore into the wooden floor as I was dragged out from underneath the bed. I was thrown across the room, pain shot up my back as something bit into my spine. Harlen straightened up and started toward me. I quickly averted my gaze, the panic swarmed all over me like a hive of angry bees.
"Wh-why are you d-doing this?" I asked, my breath hitched between sobs.
Harlen knelt down in front of me. "Hey...hey look at me, Kaya."
Absolute terror gripped me as he forced me to look at him. His features weren't human; the light of the moon highlighted the inhuman planes of his face. Black, spidery thread-like lines creeped around his forehead and right beneath his oily black eyes. His mouth had split open, wider than any human mouth was capable of.
His nails grew long and sharp against my chin. It was mesmerizing, fascinating almost, like watching a lion's face before it tears yours off. Suddenly, I couldn't breathe; my lungs felt swollen and inflamed, my hands came up to my throat as I coughed and wheezed. Was this an asthma attack? No, it was Harlen.
"When I ask you a question, do not answer it with another question do you understand?" He snarled. "You will understand why when you arrive. Now, will it be a yes or a no?"
His features calmed and he looked human again, and whatever power on me broke, it allowed me to inhale sharply. I gasped. I wanted to scream at him, I wanted to rage. Instead, I dropped my hands on my thighs. I wanted to live.
◇
"Kaya, honey" My mom said, as she came into my hospital room, "You've got someone to see you this morning! One of your friends from school, I think."
I placed my book down on the table beside me. She bent down and gave me a kiss on the forehead. "And he's very attractive," She whispered, "It's not every day a tall handsome boy comes to sit by your bedside."
I nodded and gave her a small smile as my chest filled with dread. The doctor informed my mom that I was found in the middle of the woods, unconcious by a young man. She had no idea what really happened to me or what happened to my friends'. Harlen told me that he had ways of covering his tracks so there was no use in telling anyone what really happened. It didn't matter if I did or not because no one would believe me anyway.
Harlen came around the corner with a bouquet of flowers. My mom smiled at him and walked toward the door, "I'll just leave you two alone. What did you say your name was again?"
"My name is Harlen," He said, as he stepped forward. "Harlen Lockwood."
"Nice to meet you, Harlen," She said, smiling back at him before exiting the room.
Harlen placed the flowers on the table and sat down next to the hospital bed, he placed a hand on my thigh. "I'm so glad you're feeling better, Kaya." He said. He gently pushed a loose strand of my hair out of my face and gently tucked it behind my ear. "Remember what we talked about. You will come to me after you are discharged from the hospital,"
I shivered at his touch, and out of curiosity I asked, "What happens if I don't?"
Harlen let loose a dark chuckle. His head dips until his lips skate by the curve of my ear. "Then I'll hunt you down." He whispered to me like it's obvious. "I'll kill you and everyone you care about. I'm capable of all sorts of horrors; things you can't even imagine." I watched as Harlen stood up from the seat.
"Now, I've got a few things to do before you arrive," Harlen said, smiling down at me. He paused by the room's door. "I'll see you soon."
His visit was a few days ago. I've made up my mind; all of those lives are dependent on me. Everything that happened that night was real. I know that most people won't believe me, but to be quite honest I don't care anymore.
[Update] I just got the news I'll be discharged tomorrow.

Done with my former bpd (borderline personality disorder) friend.
I'd been "friends" (kinda hate using that word, given how she treated me for decades) with a 38 year old woman since our teens. I am 41 and also a woman.
This friendship was one of the worst friendships I have ever had. It sounds lengthy (approximately 20 years) but it was 20 years of on again, off again bouts of being.... "friends".
The sheer amount of mental abuse she has put me through. I can only summarize it in this post to the best of my ability and ask you folks if what she has is BPD.
Things she did to me during our friendship:

• treated me like I was the most amazing friend in the world one day, then the next day I would be shit on a stick.
  
• constantly insulted me to make herself feel superior. This was a combination of subtle passive aggressive comments and outright, belligerent namecalling that was completely unprompted.
  
• figured out my password to online social media and logged in to read all of my private messages
  
• once, behind my back while I was taking a shower, she logged in as me on a social media chat platform (on MY computer!) and messaged her boyfriend (pretending to be me) and started a fight with him. He was pissed off at me for months and I couldn't figure out why until all the pieces fell together one day.
  
• extremely jealous whenever I made a new friend, and yet when I tried to make time for her she would suddenly ignore me for months without any provocation on my end
  
• passive aggressively posts vague "rants" on her social media, with just enough details that only I would know in order to realize that the post was aimed at me. Also makes sure her profiles are public enough for everyone to see it, especially me.
  
• gaslights me when I tell her she's treating me like crap. She will somehow twist everything around to make it look like I was this awful monster. And then I would feel guilty and apologize. Then later I would feel angry for being duped.
  
• purposefully goes out of her way to destroy my self esteem by (metaphorically) tearing me down just so she can stand on top of me to make herself feel a little taller. She gets angry if I so much as "move" because then she will fall down off her sadistic platform.
  
• accuses me of things I did not do
  
• figures out my anxiety triggers and purposefully bombards me with them, pretending to be aloof about it.
  
• uses personal, confidential information (e.g. those anxiety triggers, but also other similar things) against me, whether in a one on one disagreement or public displays of shaming (usually her social media)
  
• extremely vain/uppity on the outside but also secretly hates and judges herself to a sick, maladjusted level. She also is paranoid and thinks everyone else is judging her just as harshly, not realizing most people aren't that sick in the head, which is why she employs mean, nasty digs at people like me in casual conversation.
  
• has a history of violence, particularly against her boyfriends and her parents. I know that when she was teen and even well into her early 20's, her parents would have to restrain her when she flipped out on them. And her other go-to was picking up household things and throwing/smashing them.
  
• frequently accuses people, including me, of "invalidating" and "triggering" her when the bulk of us are actually feeling like she is doing that to us. (Lots of projecting.)
  
• All or none attitude. She wants me to have the exact same opinions as her or just be silent. This can be on ANY topic.
  
• Contrarian just to be contrary. It doesn't matter what I say, even if I'm echoing a sentiment she has expressed recently, she will say the opposite in that moment.
  
• Once when she was 22, I went with her and her dad to a cell phone store. He was buying his family a cell phone plan and he picked out some reasonably lower priced phones for everyone. She started crying and throwing a fit in the middle of the cell phone store until he caved and bought her the expensive one she wanted. Again... 22 years old.
  
• She has a 2 year old with a guy that she baby trapped. She is very obsessed with this guy. She has also accused him of abuse but she goes out of her way to stalk him. She baby trapped him by pretending to be on birth control. They are not together -- he visits the child on occasion because he moved many states away from her.
  
• Delusional. She has strange delusions. Like she has told me she doesn't "believe" in evolution theory. (Her actual words were, "I don't believe I descended from apes." I tried to correct her misconception about what evolution actually is but...) She told me she believes she is a walking god. She also told me she can actively communicate with the dead. She has many less extreme examples of delusions... like thinking people are judging her, but you get the idea.
  
• extremely high IQ, very skilled at manipulation, coercion, and gaslighting. Not a rookie. She has a phd with fucking with your mind. I used to secretly call her Hannibal Lecter.
  
• In our youth, when we were not on friendly terms, she went off to Chicago with her then boyfriend to comic con and kept a running update of her "fun times" there in an online blog. She described these new friends she had made in intricate detail. She gave them names and personalities and even quoted them at length, in detail. She knew I could see her online blog. Anyway, when she returned home and begged me to be her friend again (via the friendship equivalent of love bombing), I asked her if I could meet her new friends. Her boyfriend overheard and confided that she made every single one of them up.
  
• she gets into fights with every friend she makes. She cannot keep a friendship. Her online social media is littered with screenshots of her arguments with friends, coupled with her proudly boasting that she told them off in order to get likes and "💯" in her comments from folks who don't know her very well. Most of her friends on her social media are strangers.
  
• She is 38 and alone. Though she lives with a 2 year old. She has said she hates being a mom. She will go out of her way to not be around her kid. She always asked me if she can do a sleep over at my house as if we're still 16 and I don't have a packed schedule. She knows that her parents will watch the kid if she's busy staying over at someone's house or apartment. It's bizarre and they enable her.
  
• she will make fun of things that are completely inappropriate to make fun of. I had a 21 year old brother who died of cancer when I was only 15. She used to make fun of how "awkward" it must be to tell people that I have a dead brother. And once, when she was really mad at me for hanging out with a mutual friend that she secretly hated, she told me off and concluded her rant with, "Why don't you go cry to your dead brother?"
  
• Whenever I thought I was done being her friend, there would be some silence for a time and then she would appear outta nowhere (back in the day she'd even come find me at my work like when I worked in a mall store) and she always did this metaphorical "I'm on my knees begging" for me to be her friend again. I was so stupid and would fall for it!
  

I'm done with her for good as of last week.

So, despite having a reasonably competitive application, I only got two interviews that resulted in nothing. I'm coming to the conclusion that I should leverage that I'm nonbinary and pansexual more in my essay, since my essay was almost entirely on how I can contribute to better work-life balance last cycle. Problem being... I never really struggled with being queer, because I've never really cared what anyone thought of those parts of me and those labels ultimately have very little impact on my life now that I'm an adult in a reasonably stable career. Like, maybe when I was 15 and living in a small town... but a) I had bigger fish to fry back then (hard to feel oppressed for being queer when you're fighting with PTSD-inducing events to stay alive) and b) I'm 27 now and live in a pretty liberal area where no one gives the slightest of toots about it. Does anyone have recommendations on how to approach my minority status in a way that the reviewers will care about, when I'm so far removed from giving a darn?
nb4: Yes, I know how incredibly fortunate I am to have not struggled in this way, and it sucks so bad that other people have had to go through so much just to be who they are. I'm hoping to be a bigger part of making the world a welcoming place for those who deserve a much better welcome than they received. If any of y'all ever need someone to talk to, feel free to reach out.

​
Hello lovely people! Sorry for the throwaway - I don't like posting anonymously but my main account has my location clear and this isn't all my information to share.Hello lovely people! Sorry for the throwaway - I don't like posting anonymously but my main account has my location clear and this isn't all my information to share.Hello lovely people! Sorry for the throwaway - I don't like posting anonymously but my main account has my location clear and this isn't all my information to share.Hello lovely people! Sorry for the throwaway - I don't like posting anonymously but my main account has my location clear and this isn't all my information to share.
I was originally going to post to ask for help reframing how uncomfortable I (36F) feel around one of my partner's (34M who we'll call Bob) friends (30sF who we'll call Fawn). However in telling Bob, who I've been with for 9 months, about wanting to make this post I learned more information. I am now just done doing labor to try to figure out how to be comfortable around Fawn. Now I guess I just need some advice on what to do next because I feel sad and lost.
Bob has been friends with Fawn for many years, though their closeness has waxed and waned as one of his previous partners had issues with her. I have only met her a couple times but she seems lovely - the center hub of a little collection of polyamorous, kinky, and primarily non neurotyical people. He told me early on that he was in love with her and had sex with her at a swingers club in the past, but didn't think it would ever go anywhere.
Unfortunately I didn't realize just how obsessed he was with her until he kept making choices that prioritized being close to her over consideration for me. As the biggest example - at her birthday party he took drugs she gave him without telling me until they had kicked in, which I found very upsetting. Once his high wore off he realized I was miserable and wanted to leave, but we stayed several more hours and didn't leave until it was 2AM and I was crying from exhaustion. The next day he apologized and explained that he's obsessed with her and didn't want to give up any time with her. That soured me on being social with him so I haven't gone to a group event since.
I wanted to fix that, and be able to get to know that friend group better because they seem like awesome people. I'm also trying to be understanding that his untreated ADHD means he's not able to control his focus and impulsiveness. My staying with him means I need to be able to deal with that.
He's also aware that his lack of treatment is a problem and is hoping to get back into therapy and on medication soon. He said he's not healthy enough to be dating and he needs to get his shit together and stop being a mess before he tries to resume dating more people. I completely agree, but that's not what he actually *wants* and so his behavior keeps contradicting his actions. His life is very unstable right now and has been since shortly after we met. Our relationship definitely escalated more quickly because of it, as he looked to me for help and stability. I think his plan to wait was a good one, and he specifically said he wasn't going to try to pursue Fawn.
Yesterday I learned that the last time Bob saw Fawn he told her he had deep, persistent, romantic feelings for her. He said she didn't really respond to it, because she was drunk, and talked about her other partners and a different guy she's into and trying to pursue. He interpreted that as inconclusive and invalid data because she didn't say no. I pointed out that the part of the conversation where she told him he didn't have to repay her the money she lent him was something he was taking as valid, and told me about immediately. He didn't think his confession to her was important to share with me. I disagreed because it's yet another action taken directly contrary to what he said he's going to do. He also said he'd ask her about the loan again too. Personally I think that *not* responding to someone telling you they romantically love you is an answer in itself but maybe that's just me.
Now he's wondering if he should still go to her upcoming party where they are all going to roll on drugs together, or if he should skip it. He's also torn on trying to tell her again.
I feel like I'm too biased to give him advice on it, because I am unwilling to do the emotional labor I'd need to do in order to keep dating him if he's pursuing or building things with her. Having to fight for the same consideration and energy that he volunteers to give her has been a repeated friction point, and I would rather leave than deal with it.
I'm trying to hang in there until he gets health insurance and ADHD treatment but it's growing more difficult. I feel like a terrible and controlling person going "seriously, stop trying to find external validation and work on yourself. You keep making poor choices that are hurting me and breaking my trust in you and I can't keep this up." - I should just take it for what it is or leave if I can't. He talks about wanting to do the work and wanting to improve though, and I want to help him because I love him, so I find it hard to just walk away. Plus he is clearly trying and seems to be making some progress. The only thing I can control is myself and if I could change my expectations it would be easier, but I can't see a healthy way to reframe this.
Oh yeah, and he went from "I shouldn't date anyone, I should just focus on my friendships" to "I should date people who are already my friends because they know my flaws and accept me so people are less likely to get hurt". Which seems potentially unhealthy to me, especially since he says he doesn't see a clear line between friends, lovers, and romantic partners anyway. That's based on my own experiences though, so again I have my own bias to deal with. He also says he's only looking for short term relationships, but has told me about potential partners he's recently rejected because they are polysaturated and there is no long term potential. I feel like I am getting whiplash from all the mixed messages, and I am guessing it's hard for him too.
I am too close to this to see it clearly and don't know what I should advise him to do. He wants my help deciding, but I don't know what the best thing for either of us to do is. Any suggestions?
TLDR: boyfriend is obsessed with a friend and wants my help deciding what to do after his confession of love was met with a subject change. I don't want to isolate him from his friend but think he's being thoughtless and impulsive.

Hello,
I have finally reached beyond Act 2 after many restarts and pauses, i've picked up the game long enough for a full run.
I am now in Arx with a duo Lone Wolf build (Battlemage, Fane and elementalist, Lohse) in Tactician mode. Issue I have is survivability in fights. I have done pretty much 100% in Act2 but Act 3 was a bit fast, I've missed a few quest here and there (Sallow man and Swornbreaker I think).
Arriving in Act 4 is incredibly difficult, I am close to level 18 with decent gear (imo) but every fight trigger is a reload. If the perfect start isn't done I need to reload or escape with pyramids. Even with high Wits, Lohse goes first and Fane goes third (which is probably normal), but if Lohse doesn't stun the 2nd monster, it's probably a one shot for Fane. None of my caracters survive one combo.
My start would be Lohse: Rain > Encourage > Clear Mind > Big damage + stun/frozen. Then Fane: Buffs > Timewarp > Sparkswing > enrage and big damage. But if the enemy isn't in range or too strong, then Fane is targeted and dies. I am using evading aura on Fane before end of turn but it's no use against Aoe damage. Also tried sneaking Fane into fights, which doesn't help as he goes last if he enters the fight late.
I have managed to cheese the kraken (apparently he doesn't attack if i'm on high ground for some reason), killed sentries in keem's vault (one by one) and avoid any other type of conflict. So my strategy is either cheesing, hit and run or isolating each enemy. These works for Lohse, but Fane being a melee will never withstand a future harder fight? Any tips on what I could be doing wrong? They are both extremely vulnerable to physical damage, and not a lot of ways to increase it. I am not using that much scrolls/potions as I think of them more situational.
Thank for the help

(This is long but it’s something I’ve really been wanting to talk about so bear with me)
I’m admittedly a little surprise to see such negativity towards this idea, at least on Reddit. But I’ve realized by reading more posts about it that the people who don’t like the idea are picturing an entirely different game than the one I’m picturing.
So let’s talk about it
The main issue I’m seeing is people against the idea are imagining games lead by the exact same Atreus as the one that appears in Ragnarok. I’m not a game dev, but I am a storyteller, and I can tell you unequivocally that this would not be the case
Firstly, an Atreus-led game would almost certainly star an older Atreus. Probably an Atreus in his early twenties. If nothing else it’s just the most practical option if they plan on keeping Sunny Suljic as his actor. He’s already older than Atreus was in Ragnarok and it’ll probably be another year or two before Santa Monica is ready to record another hypothetical GOW game. Not that they can’t recast Atreus, I’d just be really surprised if they did.
This would give us an Atreus that’s a bit more experienced and fun to play for an entire game. While still being inexperienced enough to have a good arc and make lots of improvements over the course of the game.
Next, I see people saying they didn’t enjoy his gameplay during Ragnarok. I think assuming that his gameplay would be exactly the same in a solo game is a little short sighted. People are forgetting his gameplay is not MEANT to carry an entire game in Ragnarok. His segments are relatively short and more story focused than combat focused, at least when you compare it to the rest of the game. If he were to star in his own game, his gameplay would most likely be MASSIVELY expanded. In fact I think he has a ton of potential for fun mechanics in his own game:
Seeing as this franchise has Kratos fight with three different weapons each with unique gameplay, it’s super likely Atreus would get the same treatment. I could see him getting a more close-ranged weapon, think sword or something akin to it, as well as a medium ranged weapon like Kratos’ blades. If we leave the Norse lands with him (which I think we will) it’s likely these weapons will be from other cultures, and we’ll get to see very different designs and mechanics around them.
Secondly is magic. We know he has an affinity for it, but outside of runes the games don’t really have a in-depth spell casting system. This could change with an Atreus lead game, especially if it takes place when he’s a few years older. I could see him having learned more Giant magic in that time, and this could lead the way into some very cool gameplay. Combine that with leaving Midgard, and Atreus could be learning magic from all over. Imagine an Atreus game that takes him to Egypt, and he gets to learn the magic of that land. I think it would be SUPER fun!
Lastly, the mechanic I think has the most potential is shapeshifting. It’s his “Spartan Rage” ability now, but it’s still very new for him in Ragnarok. Loki in the mythos is a natural shapeshifter, he does it constantly, a more experienced Atreus might have that kind of control over his shapeshifting. I could see him learning new forms over the course of a game. Maybe some are story given and others you have to hunt for yourself. I’d imagine it’d work a bit like finding the keys to the other realms, some are given, but others you have to go out of your way to find. I imagine being able to pick between forms, if it stays his “special move” maybe you could select one like you select between the different types of Spartan Rage for Kratos. Each form with its own strengths and weaknesses in combat. Maybe it’s a mix of both, some forms you can access during normal gameplay and others are reserved for more intense moments. He could learn the forms of the new lands he goes to, turning into lions, elephants, even other mythical creatures of the lands. There is SO MUCH you could do with a shapeshifting system.
My point is, I see Atreus as a character ripe with potential for his own game, and am surprised to find people who don’t look past Ragnarok to see it. Obviously I didn’t mind his segments in the game, but I also play on story mode so that should give you an idea of how important combat is to me. Even so, I never thought what we saw in Ragnarok was all we’d ever get from him. This is a character who has just BARELY scratched the surface of his abilities and that shouldn’t be dismissed so quickly.
If you still don’t like the idea that’s fine. Kratos is great! But I think Atreus could be a very fun main character in his own game. If you read all this thank you and I’d love to hear what you think!

I've been married to my wife for 16 years and we've been together for 20 years. We're in our late 30's, early 40's. We have one kid who is fairly young and I'm continually bothered by the idea that my wife isn't really that good of a wife and she isn't a good team member.
I genuinely enjoy her personality and love her presence; it's weird but I only dwell on the bad stuff when she's not around and I'm pretty happy when she is around. Overall, I'm nagged by some generalities that I believe to be true. Of course, I'm focusing only on the negatives here, so it seems one-sided, but there's a lot of positives. In general, the negatives are:
She generally doesn't do anything to help me and rarely if ever does anything nice for me. We almost got a divorce at one point because I spent two weeks of my free time putting in a new floor (that she wanted) in some of our bedrooms and I was out of clean underwear in my drawers so I was having to come downstairs every morning to get the clean underwear (that I had washed). I asked her if she could put away my laundry so I didn't have to walk around our house naked every morning and she rudely said, "I'm not doing your laundry." Granted, she was pulling full time duty taking care of our toddler but my request wasn't exactly unreasonable. That wasn't the only reason, but more like the straw that broke the camel's back for me to bring up the idea of divorce to the point of filling out paperwork and discussing how we were going to split finances and custody. It was also shortly after the death of my only parent and she was very insensitive to my loss and after I flew home from the funeral she asked, "Did you even cry?" Sure, I don't show a lot of emotion as I'm fairly stoic, but I thought that was rude, insensitive, and totally uncalled for. Of course, we ended up not getting a divorce, mainly because every time I agreed on a number to pay her out, she would raise the amount again, partly due to the encouragement of her mother (I saw her texts). Her mom was buying her divorce books (that I found in the closet) and that lead to me hating her mom (on principle) and she hasn't been over to our house since then and I haven't seen her since then (about 4 years ago). And another big reason I didn't push for divorce is because our kid was under 5 and my attorney basically said I'd be lucky to get 25% custody, which I was not okay with.
I found out several years ago that she is kind of a compulsive liar and she was telling her mom a bunch of untrue things about me to presumably gain sympathy. Things such as, I never help out around the house or with our kid, I'm bipolar, that I'm going to therapy with a men's help group, and odd things like I bought Christmas cookie cutters and used them to make Christmas cookies with our kid. I also found out she lied about a big wreck on a highway and a parking lot confrontation. I found this all out because she had a dash cam with audio and I wanted to see this huge crash she witnessed so I pulled the SD card to look through the video and found out how much she lies while she talked on the phone while driving. I did confront her about all of this but she has an inability to admit to the fact that she lies, and of course she tore out her dash cam. Maybe she has since stopped lying, who knows. I suspect it sometimes but can't prove it. For example, she got sick with what seemed like food poisoning and I asked if she went out to lunch with her girlfriend (they spent the afternoon together driving around and shopping), she said no, and I asked what she ate for lunch, and she said, "Just whatever was around the house." That obviously seemed like a lie, especially considering I know from her dash cam videos that she likes to treat herself to double bacon cheeseburgers occasionally, but not something I'm going to stress about enough to call her out or play detective. In general, I don't think she lies to me often, but sometimes I wonder. I know it's damn near impossible for her to admit that she doesn't know something, like the definition of a word, so she will make something up and act like she was pretty close to right, and if not, she'll imply she knew there was another definition or useable context. It's just a part of her personality I've come to accept, and I assume it was something she learned in childhood from having mean scary-ass father and to avoid punishment, and her older sister is also known to be a compulsive liar to a much greater extent.
When it comes to housework and paying bills, I pay almost all the bills and do most of the housework. I realize people have a bias to believe they do more than other people, but I do the dishes damn near 100% of the time and, one time when I mentioned that in passing, she disagreed with me. I pressed her, because I was shocked she wouldn't agree, and she thought about it for a second and finally said, "The only reason you think you do more dishes than me is because you make more dishes than me." Mind blown. I feel like we're living in different realities. I think I also do most of the cleaning because I highly value cleanliness and her, not as much. I once stopped wiping kitchen counters to see how long it would take for her to clean them ... 2 weeks. Another example, my car is clean pretty much all the time; hers is a trash heap pretty much all the time.
When it comes to bills, I pay most of the bills except for our gym membership and phone bill. We make close to the same amount of money (she's a school teacher and we're not rich or well off), so I brought up the fact that I'm paying all the bills and she needs to contribute more. She honestly thought we split the bills fairly because she pays our phone bill, gym bill, and goes to Target once in a while to get stuff for the house and because she buys all the clothes for our kid. I do all the grocery shopping for our house and I buy almost everything we need for our home, so the Target thing is almost irrelevant, but that was her argument. I also do the grocery shopping because I'm into fitness and eating healthy, and when she does the grocery shopping she will go without a list and buy things we already have and come home with more junk food than I think is reasonable. Today, she offered to split the grocery list (we go to Costco and Fred Meyer) so she took the Fred Meyer list and said she would swing by after hanging out with her girlfriend; I thought that was nice, but she didn't end up going shopping, but still somehow managed to come home with a big bag of Doritos. She did start contributing more financially, recently, but again, I feel like we're living in different realities. I should mention, I've set up ALL of my bank accounts as joint accounts and she has all of her bank accounts as her own (I occasionally make her pull her credit report to look for fraud, so I know she's not running up debt or hiding something). She's generally pretty frugal, but hasn't saved up near as much as me for retirement, mainly because my employer has a good match, and she is saving with a public pension so I'm not even sure how that works. I just know that when we worked with a financial planner a few years ago she had about half as much saved as she thought she did, and only about a third of what would be considered on target, and I had to nag her for 2 years to open a Roth IRA.
I think she's kind of lazy, but that's not exactly correct. I've thought about it and realized it's more accurate to say she generally doesn't do anything proactively. Simple example being she won't fill up the dog water bowl (for her dog ... Yes, technically our dog, but she wanted it and I made it clear in the beginning that if push-comes-to-shove it was 100% her responsibility) unless she sees it's empty whereas I fill it up regularly because I realize the water gets gross, the bowl needs to be cleaned, and the dog doesn't like to drink the last inch or two of water. Making a to-do list is a practically a foreign concept to her but something I pretty much live by.
She had a dream one time that I died and I said, "That would suck for me!" She said, "You! What about us? You'd be dead. We're the ones that would have to live without you." That blew my mind, especially because I pay for some generous life insurance in case I die and she doesn't pay for any in case she dies.
I asked her if she wanted to buy grave sites (when her mother was going through the process of buying them) and she goes, "No, what if I hate you when I'm old and don't want to be buried next to you." Mind blown.
A lot of this stuff weighs on me and I've thought about getting a divorce every day for the last few years. I generally think I'm probably happier and better off with her than without her because I'm not extremely social and I'm somewhat pessimistic, so I doubt I'd be able to find a better woman. I also want to be part of my kids life, and I think a lot of that would be taken away from me if we got a divorce.
Our sex life is fine, not perfect by any means, but good enough; if anything, sex is the major reason we're still together. She is not really that into sex or motivated to have sex, so I really don't worry about her cheating. I'm not a fool, I'm not naive, and if I had any suspicion she was cheating, I would find out ... just want to stress that that's not an issue.
We never ever discuss our future. I think this is more of a quirk of her personality. She doesn't like to think about budgeting, or retirement, or to do lists or car maintenance. I've thought before that she's still kind of like a teenager with a job and car keys; she's not irresponsible, but I'd laugh (to myself) if anyone called her responsible.
We generally don't fight a lot or have a lot of arguments, but we did have one recently. I was trying to get her to help me make a meal plan (only for dinner) for the week so I could get the right groceries. She's generally a picky eater and and we've kind of come to the unofficial agreement that she cooks dinner and I cook breakfast and lunches. She doesn't do any dishes, doesn't do any grocery shopping, and generally doesn't do any cleaning in the kitchen so this is more than fair in my opinion. She takes our kid to after school activities so her amount of time varies each night, and sometimes she needs something quick. I will eat anything she cooks, I'm not picky. I just wanted her to pick what she was willing to eat and willing to cook, which we've done many many times in the past and have many prior examples of weekly meal plans. She kind of whined and says, "I don't know, what do you want," and I lost my cool, got super pissed off, yelled at her and called her a shitty wife before walking away and locking myself in my office because I was so angry. She unlocked my door with a screwdriver to let herself in and I pushed her out. She thought that was violent and she said I hurt her and she was calling the police, so I told her if she calls the police that, " ... we're done forever." Of course, keep in mind for perspective, I brought up all of our almost-divorce details in this short post that happened over the span of a 20 year relationship. Having a kid definitely put a strain on our relationship... absolutely great and wonderful kid, but we moved to a different state for jobs and therefore no family around to help us, no long term friends, and we're not religious enough to go to church (we tried a few times in the past, but always felt like they pushed tithes too hard), and we don't really go on dates anymore ... Back to the thing about me paying all the bills ... not much money leftover for fun stuff. We barely ever eat out, and occasionally go out to coffee and only get fast food if we need the convenience. I asked her a few days ago if she misses going out to bars and eating out a lot and she said something like, "No, I'd much rather go out to coffee or lunch with you and our little one," so as far as I know, she's happy with our lifestyle.
I realize it probably sounds a little bit like I'm the woman in the relationship and she's the man. The irony is not lost on me. When we hang out with other couples, I frequently hear comments to the effect of, "I wish my husband did that." It actually really bothers me because it highlights the fact that she doesn't do as much as other wives and it makes the other husbands uncomfortable and feel like they need to defend themselves.
And in case you're thinking she's a "Daddy's little girl" that got everything she wanted. That's not the case. Her parents divorced when she was about 5 and she almost never saw or talked with her father because he lived several states away. We were both raised by single mothers who never got child support for most of our lives, both had two other siblings, we were very poor (and sometimes argue about who was poorer), and we both got jobs at a young age and worked our way through college and paid for it ourselves. If anything, our similarities in upbringing is a big part of why we were good for each other.
What do you think? How can I change my mindset about my relationship? I'm having trouble looking forward to MY future.

So my brain was not functioning well over on the last bit of act 1 and I may have not made the correct connections in the story.
Reverend Mother Prava says that Vigo would do his penance and then towards the end when you fight the Lilith's Lament boss there's the suit of armor that helps you defeat it. Then it's revealed that it's Vigo in a torture suit saying that the suit was his punishment and then he dies.
So what does this mean that Prava is a bad guy now? I got really confused at this part.

Disclosure: The following review was written back in 2011 when the game had just come out.
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Resistance 3 starts off with a comic book style opening briefly explaining the events that took place in the first two games after this you are plunged into the world where you as a father of a little boy have been injected with a cure to the game's enemies virus that mutates whatever it comes into contact with. As an outcast warrior with Nathan Hale's blood on your hands you are sent on an epic adventure to rid the world of the remaining Chimera by blowing up there space station and and... well that's pretty much it. The game is your standard by the levels shooter with a meek story that almost never feels like it has anything to do with the first two games (Three counting Resistance Retribution on psp) I wouldn't mind so much if the game didn't try so hard to be an engaging cinematic experience with the feeling that your on an epic quest to accomplish something great.
However Resistance 3 tries to hard to make you connect to these characters without offering you any incentive as to why you should. Am I trying to redeem my families name after killing last games protagonist Nathan Hale by ridding the world of the invading Chimera for good? The game starts off with an interesting premise of the rebel fighting for his family but it keeps this premise stretched throughout the entire 10-12 hour experience. What I mean is every other cutscene your silent protagonist will magically be able to speak, only to constantly remind you about his wife and son. It get's really annoying real soon.
That's this games flaw it tries to hard to be something that it's not. The game tries to grab your sensitive side by showing off little kids in shelters spread throughout the game but without any substance to back it up it feels like it's only been added in for shock value or to make you care about what your fighting for when all you really want to do in the back of your mind is kill stuff. You will often run into characters who begin to tell you interesting stories about there lives and just as you start to get interested the game throws you at wave after wave of Chimera and you will be given absolutely no intent to continue filling you in on the characters back stories.
The game suffers from the same mistake that Homefront made. Just because you put little kids in a war game doesn't make it any more compelling, it's obviously there just for shock value and it doesn't even do that right. If the game wanted to really shock the hell out of you it should have shown little kids getting mutated in front of your eyes as you are forced to kill them in front of there parents to avoid causing them any more pain. Now that's clearly not what the developers were going for but at least that would make you really angry at the alien monsters who dare to attack children and force you to murder them. If the game had that kind of balls I would totally respect the developers for doing so. But even without all the foax character development and pointless cutscenes the game falls short of greatness on a few other levels.
Resistance 3 looses some of the restraints that the previous game had, such as only being able to carry 2 guns at once. But I found it to be a little to forgiving at times. Now I'm all up for shooters that try to stray away from the 2 weapon limit regenerative health formula, but Resistance 3 is not the way to do it right. First off the upgrading system, what a joke, if Insomniac was aiming to add RPG elements to their game then in that regard they failed. Instead of acquiring experience points to use to upgrade your weapons by oh say going to a weapons vendor like in most good rpg shooter games, Insominiac seems to think that guns magically get stronger after use.
If you fire a gun repeatedly to the point where you've exhausted its threshold then logic says that the gun will get weaker over time. However in the magical world of resistance your guns upgrade in strength and speed, and even acquire new attachments out of the blue just from killing enough enemies. The game also makes no effort to hide the fact that it wants to be half life 2. from the abandoned train station to the mineshaft level to the bearded scientist who's eyes seem to glow in the dark everything in this game feels as though it is a derivative of valve's greatest successes, I was even expecting halfway through the game to acquire a portal gun.
Now in terms of actual gun play the series shines brightest. Freezing enemies to death, blowing there heads of, and electrocuting someone has never felt better in a video game. But I couldn't help but feel that the game was unbalanced even with such a dreaded arsenal at your disposal. In one level I was sent out into a barnyard to fend off invading Chimera, the moment I went into this scenario, I was ambushed from every direction by what felt like an endless wave of enemies. They constantly appear from out of thin air and never give you a chance to think, you just have to mindlessly shoot them until either they give up or you die.
All that I wanted to do in this scenario was get past them and continue onward with my quest, but having a constant stream of enemies bombarding you from every angle makes the game feel like padding, instead of focusing on the level design the developers just thought that it would be easier to throw endless waves of enemies at you. This is especially loathsome during the last level of the game. Instead of setting the stage for and epic boss battle you just navigate your way through seemingly endless corridors that all look the same with no sense of direction or what your supposed to be doing. and the game just ends without so much as an epic battle against some gigantic mother Chimera. That's right Resistance 3 does not have a final boss.
The game tries throwing everything that it has at you towards the very end but none of the enemies are a match for your over powered arsenal. Also one of my biggest gripes with the campaign would be the inability to restart from a previous checkpoint. Since this is a by the levels shooter I don't see why they couldn't make a restart from checkpoint option. This was most annoying for me when I just barely missed a diary entry on the ground a few meters above where I just fell and I wanted to collect it so I could complete my diary and audio log collection, but since I couldn't restart from the pause menu I had to kill myself just to get back to the time before I missed the journal.
Oh by the way did I mention that this game has audio logs. So on top of shamelessly ripping off half life the developers also wanted to take a crack at Bioshock. One finally gripe about the gameplay is why the hell can't I carry around health packs to use at my disposal whenever I wish? You'd think that a guy who can carry around 11 guns a sledgehammer and 20 grenades would have room for a health packet or 2. The game doesn't have regenerating health, which is fine but there were often times when I felt that the game was teasing me. There was one instance where I came across an abundance of health packs but I already had full health, and there were no enemies in sight. So the whole point of having a cluster of Health packs in that spot felt completely useless since I couldn't carry them around. As far as multiplayer goes it's standard affair.
It doesn't have the epic sense that Resistance 2's 60 player online battles had and with a paper thin unlock system there's not much to keep you here for long. nonetheless a fun little distraction that will keep you entertained for at least a couple of hours. The single-player portion however needs to amp up its game. It is long and some of the levels are memorable like the prison escape level, Which I found to be the best and most well developed section of the game. it's ironic how a game that focuses on fighting aliens is at its peak when it pits you up against other humans.
The game also supports co op both locally via split screen and online, however other than unlocking 2 trophies the co op feels pointless it makes the game feel like a cakewalk since you never truly fear dying knowing that your partner could always revive you at any time. Still if you really want to shoot some aliens with an arsenal that would make Rambo blush Resistance 3 can be a lot of fun. But if you want a sci-fi game with rpg elements that are fun and offer an interesting story as well as a way of implementing these elements into the gameplay, I would recommend Singularity or Deus EX human revolution.
SCORE 7/10

You are the emperor of a large but new empire, your spies have informed you that some of your rivals have been talking apparently about a new trade deal and while your thinking about it another matter is brought to your attention, your four children have been misbehaving.
You wife is and chief adviser are standing by to give you their opinions on the matter.
Your advisor isn’t actually being serious in his advice, he is simply trying to scare the miscreants and make you sound more reasonable.
The guards lay out your children’s crimes in order:
1: Vincent, your oldest son and heir to your empire, he is 12 years old and has been using the pyrokinesis that you taught him to throw fire at people.
His reason for it is that he hasn’t been handling the stress of being your successor, he’s terrified of making mistakes, of destroying the empire and of letting you down.
You know that the job is stressful and had the same fears when you where set to inherit the throne.
Your adviser says that no matter his reasoning the realm needs to see that all of its subjects will face justice, he states that the boy needs to have his hands cut off and forced to walk naked through the streets while being wiped and pelted with rocks then he needs to be hung from the walls outside the capital for his crimes.
Your wife tells you that she doesn’t understand how he can stress out so much you have been emperor for 23 years and you have been doing just fine.
2: Catherine, your oldest daughter, she is 10 nearly 11 years old and has been using the telepathy that you taught her to take control of people’s actions and force them to hurt themselves or otherwise do things that they didn’t want to do.
Her reasoning is that for the last year despite her best efforts she has been soiling her bed every night and when she tried to confide in her friend said friend shouted it out and told everyone who would listen causing them to all laugh at her, so she took to doing this as a way to feel like she was in control of something.
You know that your sister for whom your daughter greatly admires also had this problem off and on over the years and that It stopped on the offset of puberty.
Your advisor says that she should be left in prison under the care of the local sex offenders and be forced to raise any child that they give her, that should teach her what true humiliation is.
Your wife wants everyone who laughed at your daughter arrested and this friend to be given the same punishment that your advisor suggested for Vincent.
3: Harold your youngest son he is 7 and had disappeared for a year apparently having gone to the inverse land (where you went to learn telepathy and pyrokinisis) and created a heard of dragons which he brought back with him.
His reasoning he likes dragons, he thinks about them often, he wanted them to be real and the fact they weren’t was making him sad.
The dragons range in size from slightly larger then a standard horse to the size of large buildings and length of city streets with one example being the size of a mountain and the length of a mountain range.
You find it peculiar that just like when you went to the inverse land Harold can’t remember how he got there, what precisely he did when he was there and how he got back though you are relieved that he’s safe and knows how to control his monsters.
Your advisor says that he should be locked underground and deprived of light and human contact for the rest of his days if he feels so comfortable in this twisted inverse land.
Your wife has been driving herself crazy trying to find him for the past year and wants a full squad of elite guards to be assigned to him at all times.
4: Mary your youngest daughter and Harold’s twin, she has been carrying an amulet with ten million demons bound inside it on her person for six mouths and was planning on using it.
Her reasoning her twin (the sibling she was closest to) up and left one day, her big brother has been shooting fire at her despite the fact that he knows she’s afraid of fire and her sister made her slap herself and say silly things and make a fool of herself for the past year so she’ll show them.
You have dealt with demons before, specifically you recall fight where a man bound a demon inside a sword, when he used it against a platoon of your soldiers the effect was devastating but when he used it against you, it could do little more then put on a fancy light show as you put your hand on the sword and snapped it like a tooth pick destroying the demon, because you know demons are only as powerful as the person they are facing think they are.
Your advisor and your wife are both left speechless in true and utter terror, to them just one demon is a force of nature, a dark god and one of the ultimate evils of this world not something mortals should be dealing with, eventually your advisor suggests that Mary be given over to the church for the good of her soul.
The amulet tells you that your enemies are massing to destroy your empire but that you could with your expertise wield the amulets power to destroy them all.
How do you decide to handle matters and punish your kids.

I saw the reflection of the eyes on the metallic “Ozette Lake Camp” sign. It was a pitch black night, but somehow I could see them clear as day. I turned around with a start, terrified that it was a bear or a cougar, but when I shined my flashlight all I saw was a deer staring back at me.
I heaved a sigh of relief, and cursed under my breath. I returned to my task of hastily filling out the campsite registration card so we would not awake to a knock on our car camper when a ranger came through. I slipped it into the metal box, and turned to walk back to my campsite, to find the deer still staring at me.
I had thought my flashlight had scared it stiff, but I realized it had not moved in the five minutes my flashlight had shown elsewhere, and had simply been staring at me the entire time. As I slowly walked back, for some reason I felt compelled not to take my eyes off of it, and I watched as its eyes followed me, until the white orbs retreated into the dark.
I got back to our campsite as my boyfriend James was just finishing dinner. The camp was empty except for us, so we had picked the first site we saw that let us park our SUV to face Ozette Lake, so we could wake up to a nice view. I picked up my bowl of hastily prepared stew, and ate with him in the dark.
He cleared his throat, "You're quiet, what's up?"
"There was a deer at the campsite registration kiosk."
He chuckled a bit "I imagine there's plenty of deer, I saw a whole herd grazing as we were driving up the road to get here."
"This one was different. It was staring at me"
I could hear him slurping his food down quickly, doubtless as anxious for sleep as me. "So what? It was probably frightened."
I gulped. "Yeah, I guess."
He sat his bowl down, and started cleaning the pot he had used. "Anyways, I have the bed in the back of the car setup, let's get to sleep so we can wake up early tomorrow, Sand Point isn't going to hike itself."
With that, we both climbed into bed, locked the car, and went to sleep. It only took five minutes before I heard him snoring. I smiled to myself at how easy he slept, and tried to put the deer out of my mind as I fell asleep.
I woke up with a start. My boyfriend was snoring softly, still fast asleep. Something deep inside told me something was wrong. I looked out the window next to me. It was still dark outside, but the clouds had cleared a bit to reveal a sliver of the moon. In the moonlight I could just barely make out a figure, maybe 20 ft from the car.
It was the deer. The same deer. I couldn't see it very well, and it isn't like I can usually tell two deer apart, but somehow I knew it was the same one. It was still staring at me. I felt my heart beat faster and my stomach churn. Something about this just felt off.
But I thought about what my boyfriend had said. It was just a deer. Maybe I was wrong and it wasn’t even the same deer. It had probably just seen me move inside the car, and was scared. Besides, the doors were locked, I was entirely safe. I did my best to fall asleep quickly.
We woke up to a beautiful orange sunrise on the lake. We got out of the car, and started stretching and preparing breakfast. The camp toilets were out of service for the season, and so we each took a turn at walking the quarter mile to the toilet by the day-use parking to use the restroom.
The hike we had planned started out amazing, a walk on a boardwalk in a beautiful forest, out to a desolate beach with waves crashing over the rocks. My boyfriend and I laughed at my worries about the deer, and somehow in the daylight, all of them seemed to melt away. It all seemed so silly to me.
As we walked the beach, we eventually came upon the giant rocky hill at Sand Point. I was the first of us to manage to scramble up it, excited to see the view of the coast and forest from the top. I took photos in every direction, and breathed in the ocean air. I stared back at the way we came for a few minutes, admiring how beautiful the forest was from above.
Then I saw it.
At the very edge of the trees I could just barely make out a deer. It was staring at me, its head pointed up to see me atop the rock. I started hyperventilating, and looked down at my boyfriend still scrambling up the rock. I told him I wanted to leave. He asked why, and I dodged the question and told him I just wasn't feeling good. He was disappointed at cutting our hike short, but said okay. When I looked back up towards the forest, the deer was gone.
We hiked back to the car quickly, the forest seemed quieter than before, it made me uneasy. I knew I'd have to tell my boyfriend sooner or later why we were leaving, but I didn't want to fight, I just wanted to get home.
I packed up the campsite while my boyfriend made one last stop at the toilet. By the time he came back, our campsite was packed up back into the car, and we set off down the 20 miles of gravel road to get started on the three hour drive back to Seattle.
We arrived home, and as soon as we got in the door I felt better. Life went back to normal, and I started to think I had just been crazy and imagined the whole thing.
Then I got the call.
It was 9:00 PM yesterday when my phone rang, I picked it up to hear a voice on the other end that sounded very tired.
It was the park service. They had gotten my number from my campsite registration, and wanted to interview me. A body had been found in the toilet near the day-use parking lot. I felt my stomach drop as they went on to describe the body, describing my boyfriend down to his birthmark.
I looked towards the kitchen where I could hear him making our dinner. I got up as quietly as I could, and crept out the front door and into my car. After locking the car doors I just sat there in shock, not sure what I should do next. I looked up at my rear view mirror to back out of my driveway.
It was only then that I saw my boyfriend. He standing behind my car, silently staring at me.

I apologize if this is on the wrong sub but as the title says, my family is currently falling apart and I don’t know what to do.
For context my mom and my step dad are currently going through a divorce, they have been together for a majority of my life and it’s finally coming to an end. The issue is that they constantly argue and while their arguments don’t get physical my siblings do get scared. The biggest issue is that I’m currently in college and live hours away so I can’t be there to stop them from fighting. The last time they had an argument I had to call the cops because I felt powerless and my brother called me crying that they had been arguing. Im here to ask what to do, I’m not sure where to start looking for a temporary house for my mom and siblings, I want to find a therapist for them but I’m not sure where to find some that are trust worthy and speak Spanish. In general I’m not sure how to help out my mom or what advice to give her. If y’all could please give me some sort of advice I appreciate it.

I saw the reflection of the eyes on the metallic “Ozette Lake Camp” sign. It was a pitch black night, but somehow I could see them clear as day. I turned around with a start, terrified that it was a bear or a cougar, but when I shined my flashlight all I saw was a deer staring back at me.
I heaved a sigh of relief, and cursed under my breath. I returned to my task of hastily filling out the campsite registration card so we would not awake to a knock on our car camper when a ranger came through. I slipped it into the metal box, and turned to walk back to my campsite, to find the deer still staring at me.
I had thought my flashlight had scared it stiff, but I realized it had not moved in the five minutes my flashlight had shown elsewhere, and had simply been staring at me the entire time. As I slowly walked back, for some reason I felt compelled not to take my eyes off of it, and I watched as its eyes followed me, until the white orbs retreated into the dark.
I got back to our campsite as my boyfriend James was just finishing dinner. The camp was empty except for us, so we had picked the first site we saw that let us park our SUV to face Ozette Lake, so we could wake up to a nice view. I picked up my bowl of hastily prepared stew, and ate with him in the dark.
He cleared his throat, "You're quiet, what's up?"
"There was a deer at the campsite registration kiosk."
He chuckled a bit "I imagine there's plenty of deer, I saw a whole herd grazing as we were driving up the road to get here."
"This one was different. It was staring at me"
I could hear him slurping his food down quickly, doubtless as anxious for sleep as me. "So what? It was probably frightened."
I gulped. "Yeah, I guess."
He sat his bowl down, and started cleaning the pot he had used. "Anyways, I have the bed in the back of the car setup, let's get to sleep so we can wake up early tomorrow, Sand Point isn't going to hike itself."
With that, we both climbed into bed, locked the car, and went to sleep. It only took five minutes before I heard him snoring. I smiled to myself at how easy he slept, and tried to put the deer out of my mind as I fell asleep.
I woke up with a start. My boyfriend was snoring softly, still fast asleep. Something deep inside told me something was wrong. I looked out the window next to me. It was still dark outside, but the clouds had cleared a bit to reveal a sliver of the moon. In the moonlight I could just barely make out a figure, maybe 20 ft from the car.
It was the deer. The same deer. I couldn't see it very well, and it isn't like I can usually tell two deer apart, but somehow I knew it was the same one. It was still staring at me. I felt my heart beat faster and my stomach churn. Something about this just felt off.
But I thought about what my boyfriend had said. It was just a deer. Maybe I was wrong and it wasn’t even the same deer. It had probably just seen me move inside the car, and was scared. Besides, the doors were locked, I was entirely safe. I did my best to fall asleep quickly.
We woke up to a beautiful orange sunrise on the lake. We got out of the car, and started stretching and preparing breakfast. The camp toilets were out of service for the season, and so we each took a turn at walking the quarter mile to the toilet by the day-use parking to use the restroom.
The hike we had planned started out amazing, a walk on a boardwalk in a beautiful forest, out to a desolate beach with waves crashing over the rocks. My boyfriend and I laughed at my worries about the deer, and somehow in the daylight, all of them seemed to melt away. It all seemed so silly to me.
As we walked the beach, we eventually came upon the giant rocky hill at Sand Point. I was the first of us to manage to scramble up it, excited to see the view of the coast and forest from the top. I took photos in every direction, and breathed in the ocean air. I stared back at the way we came for a few minutes, admiring how beautiful the forest was from above.
Then I saw it.
At the very edge of the trees I could just barely make out a deer. It was staring at me, its head pointed up to see me atop the rock. I started hyperventilating, and looked down at my boyfriend still scrambling up the rock. I told him I wanted to leave. He asked why, and I dodged the question and told him I just wasn't feeling good. He was disappointed at cutting our hike short, but said okay. When I looked back up towards the forest, the deer was gone.
We hiked back to the car quickly, the forest seemed quieter than before, it made me uneasy. I knew I'd have to tell my boyfriend sooner or later why we were leaving, but I didn't want to fight, I just wanted to get home.
I packed up the campsite while my boyfriend made one last stop at the toilet. By the time he came back, our campsite was packed up back into the car, and we set off down the 20 miles of gravel road to get started on the three hour drive back to Seattle.
We arrived home, and as soon as we got in the door I felt better. Life went back to normal, and I started to think I had just been crazy and imagined the whole thing.
Then I got the call.
It was 9:00 PM yesterday when my phone rang, I picked it up to hear a voice on the other end that sounded very tired.
It was the park service. They had gotten my number from my campsite registration, and wanted to interview me. A body had been found in the toilet near the day-use parking lot. I felt my stomach drop as they went on to describe the body, describing my boyfriend down to his birthmark.
I looked towards the kitchen where I could hear him making our dinner. I got up as quietly as I could, and crept out the front door and into my car. After locking the car doors I just sat there in shock, not sure what I should do next. I looked up at my rear view mirror to back out of my driveway.
It was only then that I saw my boyfriend. He standing behind my car, silently staring at me.

This is part 2 of captured by a unhinged drider.
Usage: You may record, tweak and edit the script as you please including the name etc.
Monetisation: all forms of monetisation are ok. I would appreciate being able to listen to it if possible. Please credit me if you use this script for any project.
START
SFX: [Listener dangling in webs, Cave/Ruins atmosphere]
SFX: [Drider is holding the listener, snuggled into them asleep making noises and breathing for several moments]
(Yawn, then whispered) "Hmmm, morning pet.... Pet?.... Oh, they're still sleeping."
SFX: [Sound of drider carefully letting go / getting of off the listener]
(Whispered) "You really are a precious little fly aren't you pet. Hmm, So peaceful in your sleep, Are you dreaming about me, hmm?"
(Slight chuckle under breath) "Are they pleasant thoughts I wonder?"
SFX; [Caressing listeners cheek]
"Hmm. So warm and soft"
"You're mine"
SFX: [Listener awakes moving in web]
"Oh... I'm sorry pet, did I wake you?..."
"No, no. Shhhh. It's alright, I didn't mean to wake you."
"What? No. You don't need to worry pet, I'm not going to hurt you. You haven't done anything wrong... No no, shhhhh, shhhhh... That's it, that's it. You're ok."
"Shhh, there you go... There you go"
"I told you pet. I won't hurt you...Not anymore, Not if you behave"
(Whispers in ear) "Not now that you're mine"
"My precious little fly"
Short pause
"Oh, but pet, why do you still look so afraid of me... Have I done something wrong?"
Short pause
"Let you... No!"
"I'm not letting you go, you're mine. My pet."
"You belong to me now."
"Besides, is it really so bad here, with me? You're safe and protected. I'll feed you and keep you warm at night. You don't have to worry about the stress of your old life. A nice simple existence as my pet... All you have to do in return is keep me company."
Short pause
"Monster?... Oh I'm sure I seem that way to you pet... After all, our first interaction was, not a friendly one."
"But I assure you, life as my pet will be very different. You'll understand eventually, you'll learn to accept it and grow to love being here with me "
Short pause
"And if you're really good. Eventually, I'll even let you out of the web so you can exercise"
"But you have to earn that privilege little fly."
Short pause
"Why do you shy away from pet... I haven't done anything to threaten you, We even slept in eachothers embrace"
Short pause
"Well of course you didn't have a choice, because you're mine, you're my pet."
"But that's a good thing little fly, because I know what's best for you after all... I keep you safe."
Short pause
(Annoyed) "Stop asking me that"
(Frustrated) "We're not having this discussion again pet, you're mine. I'm not letting you go... I.... I can't."
"Why? You know why... If... if I let you go, you'll tell the nearest town or village, and then they'll come back and try to kill me"
"I know you're kind all to well, it's in your nature after all. Humans hunt and kill anything that they fear, anything that's different to them."
"Vile, hateful little creatures."
"Oh but not you pet... No, you're different. You're my previous little fly."
Short pause
(Laugh) "You're promises are empty pet... I can't trust you. I can't trust anyone"
Short pause
SFX: [Listener struggling]
(Warning) "Don't... Please Don't ruin this pet"
(Warning) "Stop shouting"
Short pause
"Why do you insist on infuriating me with these pathetic pleas pet..."
"I won't let you ruin this. Not again... I'm going to gag you"
SFX: [Drider putting silk / web over listeners mouth, listener struggling]
"Stop squirming human. You brought this onto yourself"
(Aggressive) "I said stop struggling!"
SFX: [Violent grabs listener]
(Mockingly and frustrated) "Aww, what's wrong pet? does it hurt?..."
(Playfully/sinister) "Careful now pet. Those muffled screams are dangerously exciting."
"You wouldn't want me to get the wrong idea now would you?... After all, if you act like prey, then... Well then I might not be able to control myself."
SFX: [Inhales listeners scent]
"And you smell so enticing"
"Or perhaps... Perhaps this is what you want hmm? Do you want me to hurt you..." (Whispered Sinisterly) "To devour you."
"No?... How Interesting"
"Because that's the way your story ends y'know, if you carry on down this path. If you keep resisting me like this"
"I don't want to hurt you little fly... I really don't"
(Aggressive) "But if you carry on squirming I'm going to rip you apart"
SFX; [listener stops]
SFX: [Drider breathing / Calming themselves]
(Softly) "Why do you make me like this hmm."
"why do you make me so angry"
"I really don't ask for much y'know."
"Perhaps you need a refresher hmm. Perhaps you need to be reminded of your purpose"
Short pause
"Do you remember how you got here pet? Do you remember our little agreement. It really wasn't that long ago."
"You entered my home, uninvited. You brought a sword into my nest. By all rights I should of strung you up and devoured you on the spot."
"And then what happened hmm.... You asked me, No. You begged me to spare you're life, and I did, I showed you mercy.... All I wanted in return is for you to be my pet..." (Slightly emotional) "To keep me company"
Short pause
"I kept to my end of the deal... I spared your life, I keep you safe, warm, fed and you still keep resisting me?..."
"Perhaps I should just devour you hmm... Why should I deny myself such a delicious meal, when all you do is fight me"
"Can't you see I'm trying pet."
Short pause
"Look at me little fly"
(Assertive) "I said look at me"
"It doesn't have to be like this you know."
"You're life could be bliss if you'd only listen to me. The sooner you accept your place as my pet the better."
"I don't want to have to be like this with you. But you make me, you leave me no choice."
Long pause
(Sigh) "I'm... I'm going to take the gag off again... Just... Just please behave, don't Struggle."
(To self, under breath) "I've had enough silence for one lifetime"
SFX; [Drider removing gag]
Long pause
"Look pet, I understand why your afraid of me... I do. You can't help it. You're little human brain acts on impulse. It's only natural for you to fear me."
"But I'm asking you. Please just give me a chance. That's all I'm asking from you. I... I've been alone for so long. All I want is for you to keep me company, to atleast talk to me. Please?"
Short pause
"Say, something pet. Anything."
Short pause
"You're only useful to me alive if you speak, pet. Silence just accelerates the feeding"
Short pause
(Suprised/relieved) "You... You want to ask me something.... Y-Yes of course pet. G-Go ahead."
Long pause
"Well because.... Because, I'm tired of it all."
"Do You have any idea what it's like. To be forced to live alone for so long. To be feared and hated by everything just on the very merit of your existence."
Short pause
"Yes, Driders are solitary creatures, that's correct. But I've lived in these ruins since I left the nest. Never, not even once. Have I seen or spoken to anyone, not humans, not the elves... Not even my own kin."
"It drives me insane"
Short pause
"Oh I've had plenty of your kind come here pet. But not one of them came here by accident, not with good intentions... They all came to kill me. To claim a reward as if they are some sort of bounty. Thinking themselves Brave hero's."
"But they all begged for their lives in the end. Each of those self proclaimed Heroes died a cowards death"
Short pause
"So why did I spare you?.... Now that's a very good question pet"
"You see, in all my years of life. I've had plenty of people threaten to slay me, to burn me. I've had plenty of people make demands of me or beg me to spare them.... But only once has anyone ever asked me about myself."
"You see little fly. You are the first and only one who has ever asked me a question. Who said anything to me other than simply threatening to slay me or begging me to spare you life... Although, there still was plenty of the latter."
"That's why I spared you pet... Because you reminded me of what it's like to have someone. To not be alone anymore."
"And that's why I can never let you leave, because I can't go back to being alone. No. If you ever try to leave me..."
(Sinister) "I'll devour every last drop of you, I'll keep you here with me, forever. You're mine. My pet, my little fly."
Short pause
"I want you to be happy pet. I want you to enjoy it here. With me."
"I don't want to be angry all the time... I just want to have someone to talk to... Is that really so much to ask for?"
"Can you please just try?"
Short pause
(Sigh) "It'll take time, but I'm patient... You'll accept me one day. You won't have any other choice."
"Now then.... As much as I've enjoyed our short conversation. I think that's Enough talk for now pet. It's late and I need to hunt... But Don't worry, I'll bring you back some food, I won't let you starve"
Short pause
"Don't go anywhere now pet... You know what will happen if you do"
SFX: [Drider scurrying away]
Time skip
SFX: [listener begins struggling in web for several moments, gradually getting more violent the longer it goes on]
SFX: [Web gradually tearing in places before eventually braking and listener dropping to floor]
SFX: [Listener begins running... They Get to stuck door and begin desperately trying to open it but with no success]
SFX: [Faint/distant sound of Drider scurrying back in the background]
(Quite/muffled & echoed) "Are you still awake pet..... Pet? PET!"
(Gut wrenching, echoing scream of rage after realising listener has escaped)
(Echoing) "No!.. No no no, where are they, they can't of, no. Not without....."
(Sniffing/inhaling listeners scent) (Sinister) "I'm coming for you pet, and when I find you.... Oh what I'll do to you when I find you"
SFX: [Listener desperately trying to open door as sound of Drider scurrying rapidly approaches]
(Eerily calm) "Found you pet"
"Oh what's wrong hmm, did your little escape not go to plan... Pity"
"I'll give you one chance and one chance only pet..."
"Come back with me willingly, and I promise I'll forget this ever happened. If not, then... Well, then... Well you'll just have to use your imagination won't you"
Short pause
"I don't understand pet? What have I done wrong hmm? I've given you so many chances. I've cared for you. Kept you safe and yet you still try to run from me?"
"But it's ok... It's not your fault little fly, your just a human. You act on impulse and emotion. If you come back now I'll Forgive you for trying to leave me..."
Short pause
(Laugh) "Oh. I see"
"I can see you looking at it y'know. Just out of reach. Your old sword, Those panicked thoughts darting through that tiny mind of yours."
"Hmm. Could you reach it in time I wonder. Y'know... I'm almost tempted to let you take it. If only to see the fear in your eyes when you realise how truly powerless you are against me."
"You're own thoughts betray you pet. Even now you're a slave to your emotions, frozen in fear."
SFX: [Drider slowly moving slightly closer]
"But it's ok... I know what's best for you"
"Now come here pet. I promise, I won't hurt you if you come willingly."
SFX: [Listener quickly moves and grabs sword, unsheathing it]
(Outraged) "YOU DARE! You dare draw that sword on me, after everything I've done for you."
"I spared your life, I kept you safe, I fed you and kept you warm. And this is how you repay me?"
"Humans, such impulsive little creatures, can't you see that this is where you belong? You're mine pet... You belong to me"
(Laughing) "Enlighten me pet. Even if you escape, Whats your plan hmm? To Run blindly through the forest in the middle of the night, find the nearest town or village and tell the soldiers about the big scary drider"
"If you even make it that far... Which I assure you... you won't."
Short pause
"We've been over this a thousand times human, you're mine... My pet, you're not going anywhere. You belong to me"
"So put the sword down, and come to me willingly. Or I promise you. You won't enjoy what comes next"
Long pause
(Calming) "Thats it pet, nice and slow. Just keep..." (interrupted)
SFX: [Listener pulls out a oil lantern]
(Scared/nervous) "Where... where did you get that... Put... Put it down pet. Now!"
"If you break that, you'll kill both of us"
"Pet?"
"Think very carefully about what you're doing pet"
Short pause
"NO!"
SFX: [Listener smashes oil lantern on ground between themselves and drider, ruins and webs going up in flames]
SFX: [Drider Screeching]
(Rage) "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?... I'll tear you to pieces for this"
"No... My home, my webs. What have you done... You're destroying everything"
SFX: [Listener begins trying to break door down]
(Emotional throughout)
"Pet, please... It's not to late, We can fix this.. I promise"
"Please little fly, just listen to me... We can fix this, please. Don't do this to me."
"My home, you. It's all I have left."
SFX: [Sounds of burnt wooden beams collapsing]
(Shouting) "Why are you doing this to me?"
(Angry) "I knew it. You humans are all the same, vile little creatures. You've taken everything from me"
"Pet please...(Gasp)
SFX: [Part of the ruins collapsing onto the drider]
SFX: [Drider Screeching]
"Help me pet... Please, I can't.. I can't move"
"Pet?"
SFX: [Listener breaks down the door. A rush of hot air sweeping over them]
"Pet, Don't leave me... Please.... I'm begging you"
"We can make this right pet... Just... just come back to me. Don't leave me. I can't be alone again... Please."
(Listener pauses for a moment, turning back Feeling pity on the Drider)
(Shouting) "No! Pet please... You can't"
"Please Don't leave me, we can, we can make this right... You're mine... I need you."
SFX: [ Listener Turns back to the door and begins running entering the forest, illuminated only by the fire coming from the ruins as the sound of the fire gradually dies down as they get further away]
(Screaming) "I'M GOING TO FIND YOU PET"
"YOU BELONG TO ME!
Fades out as listener runs
End

When Piper McLean comes up in topics here, she’s usually the subject of heated debate. Ever since her introduction back in 2010 (yes, it has been that long, and yes we are getting old), she remains one of the most controversial figures so far put to print in the Riordanverse, perhaps even the most controversial. Just in HoO we have:
The feathers in her hair, with the one side claiming this is an offensive stereotype, and the other claiming this is how Piper shows her pride as a Native American, she has a right to accessorize how she pleases, and complaining about her feathers is like making a mountain out of a molehill.
Her charmspeak, with one side claiming it’s the most broken power ever and makes Piper tantamount to a Mary Sue, with the other side ready to start citing one example after another when charmspeak failed and Piper got her ass handed to her. Case in point, my own post the other day when Midas turned Piper into a gold statue while she was using charmspeak.
Her relationship with Jason. Now, there’s a dozen different criticisms surrounding this one, but I’ll stick with everyone’s favorites: Piper’s obsession with Jason, her possessiveness of him, her “pick me girl” attitude, the strangeness of their start together, Piper’s insecurity about whether he may break up with her and get back with Reyna, and how “rushed” their timeline is. An interesting counterpoint is how Annabeth is no different, with proponents citing how jealous and clingy she became of Percy when Rachel entered the scene, and how possessive she is of him in her own right when she was ready to strangle Piper, Leo, and Jason at the Grand Canyon when they had no idea who Percy was. Then the counter to this counter is how comparing Annabeth’s and Piper’s behavior is like comparing apples and bananas. For the timeline, many say that the unseen six months between TLH and MoA wasn’t enough time for them to get to where they were at the beginning of the book, while many others argue that six months is way more than enough time for them to have talked things out, confessed their feelings, and made the decision to officially start dating.
So on and so forth.
And then we get to ToA…
Cue air raid sirens, code red alarms, bad weather alerts, a crying baby, and a seasick alpaca
When it comes to ToA, Rick either makes or breaks Piper. He either finally took her in the right direction, or he totally destroyed her character. There is no inbetween.
Right off the bat, we’ve got Piper revealing that she and Jason broke up, hitting us with the gut-wrenching reality that not all relationships last forever after all. This is either the greatest thing Rick could’ve done for Piper, breaking her free of the shackles that were Jason, or this is the worst thing Rick could’ve done, wasting five years of our lives writing this pairing just to throw it all away, undoing five years of character development just for drama and plot.
Then we’ve got Piper’s dialogue and her attitude towards Jason, and her words about Hera and Aphrodite. Piper’s rudeness towards Jason, and what she says about Hera forcing her into a relationship, and Aphrodite pressuring her into staying in that relationship, is either a stroke of literary genius on Rick’s part, showing how high amounts of stress are weighing on Piper and finally getting her to reveal what she really thinks, or is saying stuff she doesn’t really mean, or this is Piper being way OOC, saying stuff that doesn’t make any sense and is a direct contradiction to stuff she was saying and thinking back in HoO.
Even more, we’re introduced to Piper’s tandem identity crises, those being her spiritual crisis regarding her Cherokee identity and her sexual confusion. This is seen either as Rick finally giving Piper some meaningful character development, having her question if she really is Cherokee given how long she’s been away from the tribe, and questioning whether she really is straight, or if she was really gay the whole time, or if she’s bisexual, or this is a weak and shoehorned plot introduced at the last minute that has no canon basis what with how confident and proud Piper was to be a Cherokee, and her sexual confusion makes no sense seeing as how she had no such qualms anywhere in HoO, and this is therefore Rick trying to score more diversity points by retconning Piper’s sexuality.
And then to wrap it all up, Piper’s apparent new partner. The actual text from ToN says “friend,” never “girlfriend.” However, this is from Apollo’s POV, and he also describes Piper and Shel as “lovebirds,” with their hands laced together, and one of them leaned over to kiss the other. “Early days” says Piper, talking to the newly reinstated sun god. What I’m getting at to this is that maybe, just maybe, Piper and Shel aren’t actually girlfriends, but really good friends, meaning this fandom has been wrong about “Shelper” for the past two and a half years. But disregarding this theory, Piper’s new girlfriend takes the cake for being the most heated topic of debate regarding her current status in the Riordanverse.
We’ve got people saying this is excellent writing on Rick’s part. He showed us Piper struggling with her identity, and then he showed us how she’s coped with that struggle after a timeskip. We’ve got people saying this is great for Piper, that she’s in a relationship of her own choosing. Then we’ve got people saying this is abysmal writing, that Rick can’t write LGBT relationships to save his life, that the whole Shelper pairing is weak, rushed, and forced, and plays into negative stereotypes about lesbians. We’ve got people criticizing the double standard, pointing out how some say that six months for Jasper wasn’t enough time, but less than three months is perfect for Shelper. More on the timing, we’ve got people saying that this is great, that this demonstrates that Piper has moved on from Jason, and the other side argues that this is horrible and unrealistic, that it hasn’t even been a full three months since Jason died, and she’s already got a new partner.
Too fast, they say, with no build-up, background, effort, energy, or anything at all. Rick just slaps Piper into a new pairing and calls it an arc.
Poor Piper just cannot catch a break. Those who hated her in HoO now love her in ToA, and those that loved her in HoO now hate her in ToA. One guy was even so dedicated to sharing his views that he wrote not one, but two essays on everything wrong with Piper.
But I’m not here with you today to talk about Piper’s controversies. The point to that huge intro was to highlight the biggest talk points about Piper, so I could build into a trait about her that rarely ever gets attention:
Her dark side.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Piper has a dark side to her that rivals Nico. Maybe even surpasses him, because when we saw Nico commit murder it was because Reyna was in near-mortal peril and he was saving her life, but Piper’s moment comes in the form of good ‘ol fashioned revenge.
Bringing TBM back into the spotlight, we see Piper’s most brutal moment when she comes up behind Medea and throws Katoptris into the witch’s back, impaling her in the spine, and probably a lung, because Medea is written as not being able to speak, and she dies shortly after Piper’s attack. Nico turning Bryce into a chattering ghost and sending him straight to the Underworld is certainly brutal, but there’s a certain amount of oompf that comes with actually plunging your blade into someone, drawing their blood, and taking their life.
Now, as for what this has to do with her dark side, we have to examine all that’s going on right now.
The Imperial War is raging on with what basically amounts to the Empire Strikes Back of the Riordanverse, with Caligula actually managing to kill a main character…controversy over how he managed that also aside…and the McLean family is practically ruined. Tristan now has no money, with all of his mansions, cars, furniture, and more expensive outfits all having been repo’d by the bank to cover his debts, and he may be in even more financial trouble than we know of, with whatever money he does make when he gets back to Tahlequah going straight to the bank as well. The only thing keeping Tristan in one piece right now is Piper.
But what is the number one thing on Piper’s mind right now? Is it her father’s emotional and mental state? Is it her future in Tahlequah as a public high school student? Neither. Piper’s out for blood.
In Apollo’s own words: I realized she had come here first and foremost to get revenge on Medea, secondly to help us. Making it out alive...that had been a very distant third on her list of priorities.
First to get revenge, second to help Apollo rescue Herophile, and from Apollo’s POV, Piper hadn’t cared if she lived or died. She went to the main LA entrance to the Burning Maze, the one that was supposed to be a heavily guarded death trap, fully intent on fighting her way through just to take Medea’s life. Piper disregarded what her father was going through, what would happen to him if she died, and what would happen to Hedge if she died, and dedicated every fiber of her being to killing the witch. She’d been ready to fight an army by herself if she had to.
So, amongst all the controversy and raging debate that surrounds Piper, I think we can all agree that if you ruin her father’s financial success and almost get him thrown in jail on top of killing her ex-boyfriend that she had tons of unresolved issues with, she is going to track you down across the planet to kill you.
The dark side of Piper McLean. She’ll cast everything aside, even her own life, for revenge.

Jake is one of my favorite characters, but I hate when a character is loved like Itachi or Shanks to the point that saying any fact that was mentioned in the story that does not fit that character becomes forbidden and makes some people call you a hater.
I haven't speak about that he's not the second MC, which is something I don't actually care about at all, because there's only one MC, and that's Daniel, and everyone knows that.
But my post was about Prime Jake's power level and I simply said there was nothing to justify his fans saying he would be No. 2 in power after Daniel.
I did not say that there would be no possibility that Jake would be the strongest after Daniel, Jake have really a good possibility to be No. 2 after Daniel
but he is not the only one who has that possibility, but rather many others besides him, so treating Jake as number 2 from now on is meaningless in my view
​
What were the opposing arguments in the comments and in the sarcastic post someone posted?
​
- Buuu.....ut Gun chose Jake because he has Gapryong genes:
Yes, Gapryong's genes are great, but they don't give you the edge over anyone else
Especially since Gan himself said that Johan has better Potentials and will become the strongest crew leader in the future (Befor he saw Daniel of course)
Not only that, but Gun even saw Eli as a more suitable person than Jake and Johan for unite the crews
you want more? Tom said he didn't see someone with more potential than Gun and Goo until he saw Johan. Guess what Tom said in 2A? He said that he has been watching Jake and his brother since Gapryong's death, so he knows their potential, and with that, he sees people like Gun, Goo, and Johan who are more capable than them.
​
- There are several photos confirming that he will surpass his father:
seriously ? All the pictures talked about him looking like his father only, and none talked about his superiority over his father, and even if he did, what would prevent the rest from doing so?
​
- It was mentioned that his last enemy is James:
Why because he killed his father and holds a grudge against him ?
So Kenta's is the last enemy of Gun because he also killed his father and holds a grudge against him
And let's go along with you and say jake going to fight James
So who will Daniel fight? Yenna or Lineman?

I (f,21) have been together with my boyfriend (22) who I will refer to as Joshua. We have been together for nearly 4 months, and I still have issues with this. Right off the bat Joshua told me that he was huge on communication as our relationship is semi long distance. I grew up with my parents making me feel like an idiot for expressing my feelings and I have a hard time to do so. I have been honest with my feelings as I try really hard for him u til last night. I don’t know why but I closed off last night - I’m not sure it was because he was leaving and I was not sure when I was to see him next or what. Anyways, I was upset my entire shift at work and then when I got home, we talked but I physically couldn’t do it. I couldn’t tell him why I felt upset or why I was in that mood. I ended our talk earlier than we usually would’ve but he was okay with it as I had to get up at 5 for work.
This morning, the fight broke out. While I did tell him my side and how I feel when he leaves, he told me I can’t enjoy his presence and all I think about is him leaving which is not true I only started to think about that as we got closer to his leaving time. I also told him that after years of being ridiculed is not easy and a few months won’t undo all that. Joshua did understand that but he did state that it’s hard on him and he doesn’t know how long he will be able to deal with this.
If I won’t be able to fix my ways a break up will be inevitable. Yesterday just undid all the progress I made and I did apologize to him and I’m yet awaiting his response.

Hi there, I have started Muay thai around 2 months ago and last week I went for my first sparring session. It was ok however I struggled with hitting people, however they manage to hit me and I get too scared to come close.
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Has anyone got any advice to punch people / enter strking distance without getting hit whilst approaching them. People say head movement etc... and I will try to use it, but whenever I see muay thai fights online, I barely see any headmovement, compared to like UFC and boxing. MT people seem to just stand and hit each other.

There's no doubt killing bosses is one of our favorite pastimes, but there are certain elements in a boss fight I would want to see done better.
From an immersion standpoint, often the bosses don't fit in the context and narrative of the dungeon. I understand that bosses are randomized encounters to make dungeons feel unpredictable, but there are 125 dungeons in the full game. I would rather see the same boss in the same dungeon, then simply have them randomized - because in this case, you can often come across the same boss numerous times - and that deflates the overall feeling the dungeon gives you.
From an animation perspective, bosses tend to just stand there or quickly spawn as you enter, and it would be a lot more immersive if there were some animations leading to the bosses entry into the room, creating tension as you approach. Ex: Summoning a boss, boss bashes through a door after knocking 3 times, etc.
Take the Act 1 boss into account. Its the final boss of the act! You approach it, and it just is standing there. It doesn't even look like it SHOULD be there. It doesn't look like it belongs there to the context of the room you even fight it in. It would be awesome to see that big bitch like crawl all over the dungeon in the distance as you approach the final fight. SOMETHING more immersive than it simply just standing there. Where are the rituals!?
Some interesting side quests or dungeon content could be finding pieces or body parts to summon the boss. Very much how we summoned the Skeleton King in D3. That was awesome.
Lastly, Side Quests often have the objective of killing someone in the dungeon, but these objectives which are supposed to be narrative driven, aren't. The people we have to search and kill are often just placed randomly in the dungeon as if they were elite mobs. And we kill ENOUGH of those! Often, times I completed objectives without even knowing I did so. The side quest narrative should enhance the dungeon experience, not remove it.
Overall, I do think dungeon bosses - albeit not varied - do have great mechanics, and even some awesome death animations, but again, I would like to feel the menace of a boss in the distance as I approach them.
Imagine as you traverse a dungeon and you hear the bosses roars and it shakes the walls as you get closer. Imagine seeing idols, or faces of the boss on doors and statues within the dungeon as you get closer. That's the shit I need! Something that makes me wonder what I'm heading toward, something that scares the shit out of me and gives me dread!

So I'm a recently qualified Teachers Assistant, who was offered a job in a Primary School 2 weeks ago! They asked if I could start earlier than my notice period, but I couldn't so offered to volunteer a few days to help out.
Originally the job was split over the upper school (Reception - Year 6) and some flexibility for the nursery (which I have no experience or qualifications for). But last week, after I accepted, the head said I'll be full time in the nursery! (Which made me anxious already). And today they took me out of volunteering in the reception class to help in the nursery:
I was pretty nervous as I wanted to make a good impression, but quickly realised I was out of my depth. They said I would be in charge of the (C) group - all the naughtiest kids, and I spent ages running around the room trying to catch them and pull them from under tables etc. The other TA's sat quietly with their groups while I got more and more stressed - constantly dreading having to do this every day when I start the job full time!
As time went on, they went back to general play and the screaming, shouting, banging, fighting was insane! One child stabbed me with a sharp toy, others shouted at me, and I realised I was alone in the room! The other TA's were either outside or in the kitchen. I'd had enough, my anxiety was through the roof and I said I had to leave.
After only 3 hours I was so overwhelmed I couldn't stop shaking or speak! They asked what went wrong, I said the noise was too much. They said I'd accepted a job there and that I should come back tomorrow to try again in another room, I agreed.
What the hell am I going to do? I have a diagnosed anxiety disorder which is usually well managed by me, but within literally an hour I was drowning! I want to know my rights, can I decline the job? Should I ask if there's a position in the upper school? Will this piss off the head before I've even started? I volunteered in the reception class and never had any issues of overwhelm, even though other TA's have?!
Any advice would be great! Thanks

My mom was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal last year at the age of 59. She's had a tough 8 months or so battling it - but she's still fighting! Lately she's been down as her treatment regularly gets delayed due to low white blood counts aka neutropenia.
I would love to hand her a bunch of cards from well wishers to help keep her fighting spirit up. Thank you to anyone who would be able to send a quick note of encouragement!