Urine smell bad and could it be from medicines taken

For me it's smells. All smells to a degree, but primarily that "gutsy" smell (I'm sure you know), and the smell of decay and the smell of vomit.
That actually played quite a significant in why I went into sports medicine. I can't deal with child birth/don't do well with surgeries in the stomach/chest area (courtesy to that gutsy smell I was talking about), I can deal with corpses, just not with their sweet/sour smell and vomit is everywhere anyway.
I just felt safest in sports medicine. 😂 The only thing I come in contact with semi regularly is vomiting. But that's mostly lactic acid and/or on a nearly empty stomach, which in my mind is like baby spit up - it doesn't count.
Here's my funny story: We were once travelling with the team for an away match and when we stayed in the hotel beforehand it soon became apparent that we had a case of food poisoning/noro virus/(something like that, we really didn't know) making the rounds. So we worked on isolating the players etc., but over night some became so bad that they actually needed help with fluids, medication etc.. I was just making making my way to a players room to see if he could keep some food down. He could not. He ate that piece of toast and went straight to the toilet to vomit it back up. And as he was doing that I (gloved and masked up, ready to go) was trying to be a decent person and help him. I don't know what made this instance of vomiting different to the many, many instances of vomiting I had seen the hours before, but I just could not deal with it. I, healthy as I was, was crouching next to him, holding his hair, all while noticeably dry heaving and nearly throwing up into the sink as well. Not my proudest moment. 😂
What's yours?

Long post, sorry.
This month is graduation for many people (Congratulations to anyone here who is graduating! You earned it). Today was my partner’s youngest sibling’s graduation and I celebrated with them. It was fun and everyone was so proud of her. I was really happy to be there and it was great. My partner and I got her a card and some money and I wrote a nice little note in it. I could tell it made her happy and that made me happy. Lots and lots of photos were taken. I love that kind of family stuff.
But there is a voice in my head at these things that is always “Who cares? What is the big deal, you’re supposed to. What a waste of money on a kid for something they have to get done. Participation ribbon.” There are pictures, ceremonies, senior trips. And it just feels strange. Like, I never registered how much people celebrated graduation until after college.
When I was a kid, my mom was the insane academics homeschooling mom. Parties, friends, extracurriculars, hobbies, family togetherness was absolutely nothing compared to school. It was my only priority and the only thing that needed to matter to me. I was yelled at for crying and saying that math was awful. School was supposed to be my enjoyment, fulfillment, and my only future. School is fun.
Graduation ceremonies were stupid in her opinion. She’d mock the excitement “It’s only a high school diploma, it doesn’t really matter.” God forbid someone’s kid was got a GED. There was clearly something wrong with them. Their parents failed them. Going to the military or job corp? Well, at least it isn’t MacDonald’s but there was clearly something wrong. I was taught community college was lesser and didn’t know for many years that you could can earn an AA and make it easier (and more economical) to get a Bachelor’s. Defective young people and old losers rebooting their life went to com college (ironically, she had to go back after ruining her career by not working for over two decades).
When I graduated high school, my mom got excited and hugged me. I almost failed the unnecessary fourth year of math she berated me into taking and she was happy I passed. That was it and at the time I was fine with it. No dinner, no graduation cash, no trip. I was leaving my prison of a home soon, that was my real joy: not living with her ever again. My correspondence school did have graduation ceremonies but they were across country and my mom felt it was foolish and a waste of money. I did walk for my Bachelor’s. But…it was just a Bachelor’s degree. My mom and brother came, but a lot of it was overshadowed by a real academic achievement: My brother’s full ride scholarship to Grad School overseas. I had scholarships too but nothing prestigious, I was lucky to not have debt. I have three photos of that day: one phone photo from my mom and then like two photos the school took. I wanted photos of that day so bad on my nice camera. I wanted them in my cute outfit (I know, narcissistic) and with my family. When I asked a third time that day after dinner, my mom turned to my brother “Do you want to take pictures?” He paused “No.” “No we aren’t taking photos.” That was it. It felt so unimportant, like a waste of their time. “Thank god, she graduated. But, she only did what she was supposed to do. She doesn’t need to be so excited.”
The next few years after that, I just felt like a loser. Graduate with the usual crappy out of school jobs, no motivation to do the next real step in life and go to grad school. I didn’t realize until like…4 or 5 years later getting my undergraduate degree was anything important. People would say how I had accomplished something. F***, I got bullied on a lunch break once for getting my degree and it took me years after to realize that those people were jealous.
I am more proud and grateful now. It wasn’t that I wasn’t grateful. I just had to do it, like going to the bathroom. You have to do it and you don’t get a prize. I am so lucky to have what I have and earned it myself. I am in the early stages of figuring out grad school. I will not be telling my mom until (if) I get my master’s degree. I want her to know I got it myself, with my money and hard work in spite of her and I will celebrate.
I feel selfish this popped into my head, I am just venting here. I didn’t let it ruin the day, that would be completely stupid. My emotions about it are weird. I am not really jealous or sad (though a small amount). Just, mostly a dull confusion. I’d rather share someone else’s joy than sucking it away like a vampire the way my mom did.
So, anyone graduating today or soon: be proud of it if it is high school, a GED, AA, college, doctorate, whatever. If your family is lousy and doesn’t care, I hope you can find a way to celebrate in the future. You deserve it. You earned this yourself and probably in spite of them.

Now it's been three months into this whole situation, Alvin and Seraphine kept up their hangouts. Alvin even started fetching her to campus every now and then. They go for morning jogs, pet parks, movies and occasionally Alvin would cook for Seraphine as he noticed she's quite a foodie.
I hear stories from Alvin saying how they went out on a picnic and Seraphine would lean her body against his, how they held hands and how they almost had their first kiss. I advised Alvin that he should ask Seraphine to be his gf before they try anything romantically physical to make his life easier. He assured me that Seraphine will be his since no girl would do that to a man they don't love. I attempted to give him examples but it fell on deaf ears. He was too deep in love.
As for Faye, she still didn't like Alvin and believes he's just a desperate guy trying to find a gf and has proded Seraphine some questions. It soon turn into not just Faye pushing Seraphine for answers, but Jake and Muhammad jumped in on pushing her about the whole her and Alvin thing. From what I've learned from Faye, Seraphine would just shrug or give vague answers to their questions. Here's some of the questions they asked her:
"We noticed you have been going out with Alvin a lot these days, are you guys a thing?"
"Do you have feelings for him?"
"Is he harassing you into this"
At first it rubbed me weird as I wouldn't ask such questions if I noticed a friend is slowly moving into a relationship but again I didn't comment on it and told Faye it's Seraphine's and Alvin's stuff to sort out, we shouldn't pry into it too much. In which, I didn't as well. I only gave input whenever Alvin or Seraphine asked me for it. Received updates if they chose to share it to me.
However, having attending the same subjects with everyone else except for Alvin that semester, I couldn't help but noticed Jake's behavior around Seraphine. I usually sat at the back due to my height, and I would notice how Jake would always be sitting on the left side of Seraphine. He would toy with her hair every now and then or put his hand on her shoulder. Doesn't act like he has a gf outside of campus at all. Sometimes I could see Jake leaning his body onto Seraphine whenever the lecturer turn the lights off to use the projector.
After a week of observing, I pulled Faye aside after class and asked if she knew about Jake's actions and/or had found Jake's behavior towards Seraphine to be weird. She shrugged then told me Seraphine and Jake are "sisters" and those actions are practically normal for sisters. "Jake has a rich girlfriend in a different state, there's no way he would cheat" Faye even pulled out a photo of Jake and his girlfriend and shoved it into my face. I told her it looks weird that Jake is so touchy with Seraphine, since he already has a girlfriend.
Faye also told me, to prevent having Alvin to disturb their study sessions, they have changed locations to Jake's house. It was Jake's idea and he would usually fetch the rest of the gang home after they are done with their work. Everyone was fine with it but Henry, so Henry decided that he won't be joining as frequently as long as they plan to do work at Jake's house.
Days following this, Faye would sometimes send me videos to further prove Jake and Seraphine's 'sisterly' relationship. I'm not sure why she's obligated to prove this to me but I ignore it most of the time. But one video caught my attention. Its a video of Seraphine and Jake leaning against each other on Jake's bed, sharing the same blanket. I was honestly disgusted but I have no idea how to let Alvin know about it. Once again, I chose to kept this part to myself.
During this incident, Faye had changed quite a bit to the point where we hardly hang out like before. Even if Faye join me for lunch after class, she would always bring along the gang sans Henry. Henry seems to have gradually stop hanging out with the gang during this time. I always felt awkward because they have a lot of inside jokes. Ngl I was kinda jealous to see my friend being taken away by such people. Its annoying since they would always bad mouth others, and when Henry stopped joining them they also bad-mouthed hanry, saying he's too engrossed in his assignments, being a good boi etc. With Faye constantly bringing the gang to my favourite hangout spots, Jake soon learned where I usually spend my time alone on campus.
I took me three months to see Jake's true character, he's a player. However, he's not someone I'd call handsome, he's short, kinda plump, has no fashion sense and he sometimes stink as if he didn't shower for days, the only trait I could think about him that might attract other girls is that he's loaded. Remember I mentioned they go to his house for assignment? His parents bought him a two-storey and he lives there alone. He attempted to take Seraphine away from Alvin and he found joy in that. Soon, he also attempted to seduce me into his arms.
Ugh, the thought of it makes me wanna puke.
Jake did many things in attempt to gain my attention which I will continue explaining in another post.
P/s: The third month has a lot of drama I don't think I can fit all in one go :))

You can have all the evidence in the world but still get a bad C&P experience.
So for contexts I have had migraines for several years within my military service. I have been on multiple cycles of different medications to see if it gets better, to include gabapentin, indomethacin, and other really strong NSAIDS because I don't want to go on opioids. Which I take three times a day, I have to wear red prescription sunglasses in order to live through my day to day life.
My migraine auras tend to have olfactory (smell) hallucinations or otherwise I smell things that aren't there such as saline or medical like smells. I also get geometric and kaleidoscope vision with pain behind my right eye.
I had to do a new MRI in order to get admitted into the VAs Neuro dept.
*Note I am still very new to VA medicine and to how they operate so excuse me if I am speaking out of ignorance I understand that I am probably speaking out of ignorance.*
They discovered during this MRI something that had not been discovered previously and my olfactory groove on my right side is asymmetrical. But called it stable.
I have received multiple CT scans, MRIs, and additional scans every single 6 months of my military career and My clinical notes never said anything about this asymmetry which could indicate a growth or something of that nature. Now I'm not one to fear monger or look up my symptoms on WebMD.
I had been told that my adenoids were inflamed which is uncommon for adults and indicates either an allergy or an autoimmune issue so we have been looking into that as of the past 6 months which is why I have my neurology referral. It is believed that my adenoids are putting pressure on my brain which then is putting pressure on my olfactory part which then can lead to massive issues. Honestly I don't know what this means or how it works I'm not a human doctor I'm a computer doctor. I go to human doctors for this reason.
Anytime that I went to the ER for a migraine episode where I was slurring my speech, unable to walk, smelling saline, Kaleidoscope vision, and generally confused to a point that I could not do basic math like 7 + 3, they required me to do scans and lots of them. I have TWENTY videos of me having these episodes and had submitted them as evidence as well to my C&P. I also included every single time that I went to the ER as evidence.
Took a seizure exam while in service, had a 'reaction' but nothing on the scales that indicated something. So I didn't try to do a claim for seizures because there's nothing that indicates that these are seizures.
Rated: 0% but Service Connected. (appeal in process!) Hopefully the appeal process is not long, I heard that it is but I'm only 24. I have time I'm not stressed I just want the proper care. But the disability percentage would be very validating to my experience.
VERA helped me do my process for my appeal. I mentioned all the forms of evidence that I submitted previously and he was a little appalled. I even showed him videos of me having episodes because I just felt like I was doing this thing where people claim migraines because it's easy and hard to prove. And I think what happened was I had an examiner that believed that I was making it up.
Sometimes it's just the examiner.

I (F18) dated this girl (F16) for only about six months. ​We ​met each other during a school event and our friendship eventually turned into dating. She was a pretty sweet girl, she would spoil me with gifts and so did I. Most of the time, we wouldn't see each other because we had different schedules when it came to our classes​ but I tried my best to make time for her because I loved her a lot at the time. Everytime my classes would end before lunch time, I would run which classroom she was in so we could each lunch together in the cafeteria. During the times I would wait, some of her friends would see me.
Whenever her ​friends would see me, they would call my exgf and tease her, which I would just laugh off. I ended up getting to know them more along side my exgf. One day, one of her friends texted me about her behavior when I was somewhere close to them. She told me that my exgf would take pictures of me from afar like some stalker behavior (for context, I hated getting photographed in general) ​and that obviously freaked m​e out ​but i didn't know if her friend was telling the truth or was just saying it as a prank to get a reaction out of me (because they s sometimes say shit to me or about my exgf to get a reaction out of me or to test my loyalty as a gf.) I asked her "Oh yeah? Do you have proof? Send them to me then." And I wasn't surprised when they only a text, making an excuse saying it's "it's on her phone I don't have any but believe me it's true."
A few weeks passed (me and my exgf were only 2 months into the relationship) a​nd we had a school trip to go to a competition (the competition was in another school so we had to take a bus to go there) My exgf and I was in the same bus and she ​sat across me. I was growing tired so I took a nap in the bus and I saw her pointing her phone at me like she's taking pictures of me but I wasn't really sure, I didn't want to confront her with other people riding with us, especially teachers. A month passed and I haven't gotten a chance to confront her about it. I about confronting her about her behavior when we ate lunch but I never got the courage to do so.
On valentine's day, we had a school event and me and my club (the music club) had to perform a few songs so we could celebrate. During one of my breaks, I was sitting near the stage and saw my exgf taking photos of me. When I spotted her, she stopped and just smiled while waving her hand. Obviously, I wanted to confront her but I also ​didn't want to ruin our valentine's day date after school. Instead, I walked up to her and asked her politely to send me the photos (like it didn't bother me) and she said "Oh sure! I'll send you the old one's too."
I stood there wide eyed when i found out there we more. I said thanks and walked away because I had another set coming up. After my set, I hurriedly went to the bathroom to check the photos (I didn't want her to see my reaction because I was a little bit uncomfortable) I saw she had taken photos BEFORE we became friends and it was absolutely mortifying. There were so many photos, she sent me 30 photos and now knowing what she did there were probably more. I kept my cool and left the bathroom but AS SOON as I opened the door, she was there waiting outside. She asked if something happened and I just told her I was fine (I was not.)
I told my friends about what happened and they told me to leave her, but I never had a proper chance to do so. I didn't want to break up since it was Valentine's day and I also didn't want to break up during our lunch together. One of my friends suggested to break up with her through text but I didn't want to because I'm not a type of person to do that. I was more comfortable with talking about things with someone in person, so I had to talk to her ASAP.
To keep things short, a few months passed and we had been together for 5 months. During those 5 months, I waited for the right opportunity to talk to her. We had a field trip coming up so I decided to talk to her about it when we were alone. The trip went to different places but as a "reward" we went to an amusement park as our last destination before we head home (it's pr​etty common in school in my country to go on amusement parks as a last destination.) My exgf and I left our different friend groups to meet each other to ride the ferris wheel together. I took it as an opportunity to talk to her.
Because of me being a​ total idiot, i couldn't tell her or talk to her properly. She was being clingy and stuff towards me and she kept telling me she had bad day with her friends. When she told me that, I just comforted her because I didn't want to add to her having a hard time. When we got off the ferris wheel, we parted ways but friends saw me get down the ride together. they scolded me for still not breaking up with her (w​hich was and understandable​ outburst)
When we were approaching to be in a relationship for 6 months, she just stopped texting me for some reason. I kept bugging her and her friends but they wouldn't respond for some reason. I told myself they were probably busy with things school related. One day, I just got tired and didn't ask her to each lunch with me. I also didn't talk to her friends as well because they started to somewhat piss me off. While I was in the cafeteria to buy a snack, I saw my exgf and her friends giggling while she took photos. I wanted to yell at her so bad but I didn't want to have a sudden emotional outburst Infront of alot of people so I ignored them. I ​ignored them, their texts, their calls, everything. I would just leave their texts on read and never reply. One day, I saw a long text from my exgf asking me if what she did wrong (at this point i did​n't feel anything for her or her concern​) and I also left her on read. 2 weeks passed it was oddly quiet. I then get a message from her but it was her "mom". I honestly didn't believe that her mom used her phone to text me to break up with her so I took it as an opportunity to actually break up. I plainly said "alright, I'll break up with your daughter" and blocked her account on all platforms where we talked. I then went to school and my exgf and her friends confronted me but I just ignored them. One day, I finally had enough and snapped. I told them to their face that the things they did were uncalled for, she didn't have to pretend to be her mom to get a reaction out of me. She or any of them should've asked for boundaries and not keep bombarding me with texts asking what they did wrong knowing full well they were doing it and tolerating it.
After I said everything to them, I simply walked off and ignored them. I then kept ignoring them until the end of the school year. I Would hear them whispering time to time but with the little care I had, I didn't bother to listen. It was probably too much to block all of them but let me know. Was I the asshole?

Please help. I have sought many psychotherapists, been on depression meds, mixtures, combos. DOne counselling, therapy, psychiatrist visits, medical trials. affirmations, rebirthing ( helped the most).
Please read carefully. I do need help, I want some great insight or a word or a line to shake me out of this.
I am constantly depressed and seem to have a "go-to" of misery and fear and sadness. It's almost like a comfort zone. Yet it is soo uncomfortable. It is not comforting at all. It is so exhausting, so brought and bitter and angry. I just feel angry.
I say affirmations and I MEAN them. I do not victimize myself. No-one but me is the creator of my thoughts and I know this. It's nobody else doing "bad" things, or "his/her fault". It's me and I'm not a victim.
It's as if I am afraid to be happy. I wrote "Dare to be Happy" on my mantras list, and it's usually the one that sets me off crying. I've been crying for 18 months now. I've had periods of huge black depression. Which is situation depression.
I am not a depressive type. THis mood I think, is due to being unemployed.
But the thing is, I am PERFECTLY qualified for the job I know I'm good at. I know I'm good at it. I'm truly not delusional. I'm talented enough, good enough and likeable and humble and helpful to the team enough.
The times I've had that job, I'm super happy, and people love me. I like people and they like me.
Yet each time, when the job is a contract ( my work always is), I have this inside feeling that, once the contract is over, I'll have to hide and get under the blankets and escape the black cloud on the horizon. It's a weird feeling that I've talked to, and addressed and see the silliness of. = "THat's silly now, you end the contract, have a few days off, the sun is shining, take a break, have some friends around, then you'll get another job!".
And I truly KNOW this and mean it, and here I am. Unemplooyed, again, and I had a contract job for 2 months,, then another one before that 5 years ago for 8 months. Etc. Each time, I LOVE the job, I wish it to continue, maybe they'll ask me to stay! Maybe it'll get extended. Etc.
Other people IN THIS TOWN, have a house, a car, a job - the job I wish for, and friends to fill the in between. They understand that sometimes in between contracts you have a week or two off. THey go visit friends, they have a hobby, etc. They're OK.
It's as if I'm secretly afraid to just be happy, and this has led me to being constantly unemployed in a place where there is SO MUCH WORK, and I'm genuinely applying for 2-3 jobs a week. These applications get a "no" response. I don't expect all of the Yes's, of course.
But my point is - I believe my inner voice is saying "Don't be happy, it's not safe to be happy, what if you get that most amazing thing and then it'll get taken away and you'll die".
I now this is STUPID. I know childhood trauma can set a pattern. I do step work, talk myself out of things, give myself rationalizing on each of these "monster in the cupboard" type thoughts. I do believe it comes from a terrible and utterly shocking childhood trauma, which I won't go into. But I have addressed this each and every time. I understand the initial childhood shock that could lead me to be permanently stuck in this repurcussion. And I've done so much work on that part , in case THIS is the reason why.
I am ALIVE, I am HAPY, I deserve to be HAPPY, just for today. ANd tonight. I can be happy tomorrow, that's great too!
But nothing shifts it. Even when I sing these affirmations and dance to them. Nothing so far. To make me into a normal grown up person-with-a-normal-job. A person with a house and a car. I am just so fucking sad.
I believe this filter in me, is making the entire life I am experiencing and i just want so so much, to have a happy filter that sticks. Because right now, I shout, sing, scream, and push myself, laugh myself into a a happy zone, and as soon as I fall aslepp that day, it shifts into misery and sadness again.
Please please help. I am so sad and I want to hear a line, or a word, or have something SHOCK me into having a change of perspective. I deserve the whole life of good things that I see in my vision and feel in my heart. I deserve and am worth ALL the good.
SO why am I sitting her screaming into a pillow?
The job isn't that hard to get. Without this work that I enjoy, I have no life.
I enjoy life. I like being happy.
Please please help.

Feeling pretty bummed. I smell. I haven't showered since Tuesday night. I'm recovering from a major knee surgery and can't clean myself on my own. My wife was supposed to help me into the bathroom so she could give me a sponge bath but she had a bad mental health day and doesn't feel up to it now. I'm just going to use some baby wipes to make myself feel a little fresher for now.
Her doctor changed her antipsychotics and antidepressants on Thursday so I can't even be mad at her for not being up to it.
I just felt like ranting for a minute.

Age of Legends
Prologue(Death and birth of a dragon)

Rand was happy, there wasn’t much else he could say about how he felt right there at that specific moment. Lying there in bed wearing nothing but his small cloths and a silk shirt half buttoned. Beside him sleeping so peacefully was one of his beautiful wives, Elmindreada, though she hated that name and preferred Min. Thinking back on many long years of peace and growth, yes he was fated to break the world, and he had. Though the prophecies never mentioned the creation and growth he would also leave behind. The creation of the black tower and the worldwide acceptance of male Aes Sedai, his crown and epitome of success the cleansing of saiadin. That and the discovery of ancient knowledge to confirm anyone should be able to learn to touch at least a small part of the true source, at least most people could. Those two things alone would have vast and far-reaching consequences for the good. The covers beside him shifted as his wife turned over in her sleep showing him her short curly hair. Thoughts drifting again to convincing the Aeil and Tu’athan(the tinkers he thought fondly still) to make peace, them taking it a step further and settling in the two rivers. The tinkers, the wondering people and followers of the way of the leaf, coming to terms with the Aiel spear wielders and settling in one place, that one place being his boyhood homeland. Perrin was there, as well as all the Emond fielders, what’s more they set him up like some king and started calling the place Manetheren.
Mat even came back and settled down to retire with the remainder of his family after his wife the empress died. Rand frowned because that wasn’t a happy memory, her battle with some kind of internal growth that even the best healers couldn’t fix, it was slow and painful. She was tough and knew enough to put things in order so there wouldn’t be any war for succession, but after her death and with no children not adopted, Mat just had no pull to stay. He came back and Perrin gave him an estate where he spent the rest of his days carousing in taverns even if no one would play dice with him again. The rest of his days were not much however, less than two years after his wife Mattrim died of a heart attack. The same strange fox head medallion he wore around his neck that had saved him so many times from enemy power wielders, due to its powers of absorbing any of the one power used against the wearer, was strangely the main cause of his death as there had been an Aes Sedai capable of healing close by. Rand wondered what ever became of that medallion. Trying to shift his thoughts back to happier things he thought of Elayne another of his wives and queen of the region this new “kingdom” was growing. Or at least she was. Having not one but two kingdoms to run was taxing her, especially when one played that awful game of houses so much, as if it were breathing. She actually willingly gave that area to Perrin, that and more besides. “Having friends at your back, especially friends who know they owe you can only help.”, he remembered her saying when he asked her.
He laughed remembering how her cute golden-haired little face grew so stern while she rounded on him for not caring about his friends and shouldn’t they also get something for all the help they provided at the last battle. Of course, it also had nothing to do with being such close friends with Perrin’s wife Fail. Manetheren though, when asked Perrin just shrugged his huge shoulders saying one name is as good as any, and it was the one that everyone agreed on.
Min groaned softly beside him still wrapped in the silken bedding spread. His laugh seemed to have disturbed her, he quickly stifled it and glared at the lavish bedroom they slept in as if that were the fault for his mirth. Lying on top of the silken covers because he never quite got used to sleeping on feather mattresses. It really was a lavish bedroom, filled with rugs and wall coverings, paintings, not one but two large dressers with mirrors, a matching and equally large wardrobe, currently opened showing two other mirrors on the inside of the doors, smaller than the dresser mirrors, and a neat array of blouses and trousers with floral embroidery(Min’s things). Otherwise, there was also a washstand with another small mirror, a desk and one chair slightly askew and away from the desk. On the desk are several stacks of books, and an open notebook with a nearby quill and ink pot. There was a lone unlit lamp also on the desk gilded in gold, as well as several gold gilded wall lamps also unlit around the room.
Sighing softly as Min settled back to comfortable sleep, he stared back up at the bland whitewashed ceiling above him and thought about the schools he had patroned. So many new ideas and inventions were springing up and with traveling prevalent they all spread to the world almost as fast as the ideas can be thought up. This would hopefully lead to a golden age for the world, and his schools were even branching off on their own into new learning institutes. These alone seemed to keep the peace between all the nations. Rand couldn’t tell if he was trying to be modest or humble. Yes he patroned and started the first few schools, but it was not all him coming up with any of the ideas and inventions, many of which had become marvels in and of themselves. Transportation, communication, education These would be left behind and he would be known for that as well as the other.
Breaking the world to make it whole, and his victory with that world’s armies at the last battle. He fought the dark one while the armies of all the nations fought the shadowspawn and darkfriends and dreadlords. Despite everything against him, including it seemed sometimes even the creator, he not only won the battle, but he survived it, he survived it and had a nice long life. The world was at peace, headed to a golden age which he would get credit for, and so Rand was happy. His eyes closed and his thoughts grew that sort of muffled feeling they get just as they start turning into dreams.
PAIN! Rand knew pain, he was no stranger to hurts, especially from a half healed old wound in his side, but that was not the same thing right now. For some reason panic started rising up in him, this was something new, this was something worse. A sharp pain again, in his chest, his body wildly spasmed up kicking his sleeping wife awake.
“Ow you bloody tall buffoon, if you think you can kick me out of bed you have another thing …” Min trailed off as another spasm of pain racked through Rand. Her face contorting with fear as she watched him clutching his chest nearly double over with the pain spasm. He tried to tell her he would be alright, but all that came out was a groaning grunt. He tried lifting his hand to show her it would be alright, but he couldn’t get it to move. Suddenly a hand hit him in his face, it was his hand. He couldn’t feel his hand or his arm. Fear started creeping in as another spasm of pain caused him to let out another groan and clutch at his chest with this hand he couldn’t feel.
“Creator shine his light on me, of course you would choose to die when you’re with me.” Min started shouting hysterically. “For the love of light you bloody wool head, you hang on until I can get Aviendha to come heal you, she’s not far, just hold on damn you.”
Rand vaguely had an impression of Min running towards and out the door. Another spasm of pain, except somehow this was less. He knew it should hurt just as much, but it didn’t. He must have found the void so it wouldn’t hurt as much, that was it. Rand thought about his third and final wife Aviendha, how she would likely come in to find him as healthy as a bull and upset his stomachache disturbed her wise one’s practice. Stomachache? Wasn’t it his chest that was hurting him? Another very small spasm, yes its his chest, but he was also feeling decidedly nauseous too, and that was the greatest issue right? Sleep was all he needed, he would sleep, and everything would be fine in the morning, tomorrow he had to get up early to sheer the sheep.
The void completely surrounds and envelops Rand. As he fades away he hears a sinister voice in his head, “YOU WON THIS ROUND DRAGON REBORN BUT WE WILL COME FACE TO FACE AGAIN” The dark one, what, again? No, the dark one is dead, am I dead, wake up you light blinded fool. There was nothing but the void, not even the light of saiadin could be seen. Rand listened as hard as he could, he thought he heard something, something almost familiar. There it was again, soft but rhythmic, sounding not exactly far, but muffled as if listening through water. Thump Thump and it hit him, that’s the sound of a heartbeat, but who’s heartbeat his? Sleep, that’s what he needed, a really good nights sleep and he would feel better in the morning. Rand drifted off into a dreamless sleep listening to the heartbeat, Thump Thump.
Thus did the dragon reborn die after seeing the end of one age turned into the beginning of another. The people of the land wept at his passing, they swore they would remember him forever and always. Time however is not a kind mistress, when an age is gone it starts to fade from existence, times deeds even people change in the telling’s of the years and centuries. Eventually when the wheel goes round and gives birth to the age again all details have been forgotten, muffled, or contorted.

Mariann Jo’sheen Sedai was old. She had a proper last name once if she could just remember. It had been so long ago since she had last thought of it, a life in the white tower could do that, and Sedai was as good a last name as could be for formality. Just saying Mariann was old was an understatement though, being a woman with a stronger channeling ability, and having sworn on all 8 Life Oath Rods, a prerequisite to becoming Amyrlin of the tower, that she even has any grey hair showing means she must be well past 800 years old, and to show the amount of age she did it must be closer to past 900 years. She was still sharp in mind mostly, at least anything from the last 100 years or so she could recall as sharp as if it happened yesterday. Had it really been longer than a hundred years since she last though of her family name, having long lasted past the last of her lineage, her family long gone or married into others.
She thought even harder surly she had been at her last relative’s funeral, when was it, it was a great aunt she remembered, and the surname was …, she thought really hard. She was in the Amyrlin’s bedchamber reserved for the current leader of the white tower. That said like most of the past Amyrlins before her she kept the bedroom nice and simple. The single window held a cooling fan with right below it a heater coil. The other wall held a closed door which led into her bathroom, the next wall holding another door leading out of the bedchamber into the office of her role. The last wall held the only other furniture besides the plain brown four poster bed she was laying on. A white nightstand with built in mirror and matching white clothed chair. The bathroom was large and would hold her wardrobe of clothes along with the indoor plumbing necessities.
Mariann thought back to each of the eight oaths she took on the life rods, trying to remember which one she had last taken when she attended her aunt’s funeral. Small cylindrical devices no longer than her arm, when you take an oath on one your life actually increases by a standard lifetime or roughly 100 years depending on the person, those stronger in the one power given slightly more. Really giving any oath at all would do for the increasing your life, the only requirement being you channel Saiadar while making your oath and someone else that can also channel does so to activate it. However each specific Ajah required you to take a specific oath, and the eighth oath rod was solely for those like her who have taken the Amyrlin seat after having have pledged on the other seven, again a specific oath.
“I will say no word that is untrue”. Eight oath rods, and eight times this is spoken to ensure you do not offer a false oath, as if anyone would think of lying so many truth seekers everywhere.
“I will faithfully serve as Amyrlin to all of my children for the rest of my days”. The Amyrlin seat was a lifelong position and would not open again until her death. Serve all her children, it was said that the ancient honorific Amyrlin meant something like mother to all, it means that she was a servant to everyone in the world, matter it not she was the leader of the white tower. That first part about serving faithfully as Amyrlin could leave some wiggle room depending on how one viewed the title of Amyrlin, the last however left no wiggle room for anything.
“I will treat everyone with fairness and justice as is prescribed by the dai’shan aiel of the grey tower and the Aes Sedai code of ethics”. Those were binding stronger than time itself. The grey tower first because only the dai’shan aiel more than anyone can decide what is fair and right, they were and are the original truth seekers among so much more. You would also have as much power to reach the moon as you would to get the Aes Sedai code of ethics changed. First it would take a proposal from either of the leaders from the white or black tower. Either the Amyrlin of the white tower or the Pope of the black tower has to make a suggested change, which then needs to go through each Ajah/Faction and receive 90% approval, then it gets sent to the other tower to make its way up through the chains until it finally ends with the other towers leader. If it passes all of that it gets sent to the grey tower for approval again 90% before finally appearing before the first servant leader of the grey tower for final approval, and at any stage it can be stopped if it doesn’t pass.
That wasn’t it though, no she was not Amyrlin at her aunt’s funeral. Before then was the Blue ajah, which was closer. But still too recent, what level was she? The sleeping shift she wore was one of the new fads called a one piece. It was literally one garment that covered both legs and torso. It had several convenient buttons for keeping it on or taking it off. It was grey cotton all one solid color, and it was bunching up at the knees. Mariann distractedly Jerked it back into position. Her thoughts drifted too far back to when she had her very first foretelling which was that she would one day become Amyrlin seat. She was a young girl of only 16 years, and she knew without a doubt. It came in bursts though and it was not something she could control.
This vision came on stronger than any she had ever encountered before. So strong it jerked her body stiff as a board and slammed her down thankfully into the bed she was already laying on. An Evil shadow of a man, a giant taller than mountains, and blacker than the darkest shadows on a moonless night, peering down at the world smiling, that smile turning your blood to jelly and freezing you in place with its ill intent. A great serpentine beast came flying from the other side of the world, Long and scales glimmering like diamonds with talons made of pure gold but sharper than the sharpest knife, fire trailing from its partially open moth off its gleaming sharp teeth. It was equally large as the malevolent shadow man and flew on giant tornado causing wings straight at the other. They fought a great battle against each other, but in doing so caused so many deaths as swaths of their destruction ravaged the world. A flash of light and Mariann was staring at the grey tower as if just a few hundred yards away. She started walking towards it only to watch in horror and bewilderment as the tower before her cracked and collapsed as if a mirror or glass shattered. Another flash of light and she saw a baby boy, but he aged so fast right before her eyes until he died as an old man. She couldn’t remember much, but she knew deep down that he was in some way related to the other visions and this man, for it was definitely a man, was likely the cause of them.
Opening her eyes to stare at the brown four poster cloth above her and remembering every detail about her vision she distractedly spoke to herself . “Goshin is my sur name and I last heard it at Aunt Maragel Goshin’s funeral while I was at the green level”. She shook her head, that wasn’t important anymore if it ever really was. She quickly sat up in her woolen one piece swinging her feet over the side of the bed and hurried to her nightstand. Sitting in the chair she reached in one drawer to get paper and another to get an ink pointer. Channeling a single small strand of fire into a swinging glass bulb above her bed brought light into the room. She hastily started scribbling down every detail from her vision, she was grateful she always kept ink and paper nearby to do so.

Mr. Telamon was a nervous wreck while sitting in the hospital waiting room. He somehow knew, sensed something was wrong with his wife’s delivery. Dai’shan aiel were everywhere; as were nurses, patients or close kin waiting, Every once in a while a doctor’s assistant would come out and call a name ushering someone to see a doctor. Really bad cases would be taken in through a separate entrance known only to the healers. It didn’t matter, and he got confirmation as those doors opened up and not the assistant, but the doctor who had taken his wife looked around the room first at the dai’shan, then at him. A group of three of the white clad figures started moving towards him even before the doctor did. They felt his grief or rather the grief he was going to feel, even before he himself felt it. That and they knew it would take three of them to calm him down. Tears were streaming from his eyes before the doctor even started speaking.
“There was a complication during the pregnancy, your son is ok, your wife however did not make it, I’m so sorry. She did manage to tell us a name before she passed. Lews, Lews Therin after her father. Is that what you would like on the birth certificate?”
Baby Lews’s father numbly nodded, and the doctor walked away as uncontrollable sobs started emanating from the man. The three dai’shan aiel circled around him arm in arm and started singing a song of comfort and peace and mourning.
***
Rand Al’thor was asleep soundly when something woke him up, but he couldn’t tell what or where, or even anything for that matter. It was like the void, nothingness, but a sound, not a feeling, a heartbeat. The heartbeat was much faster than it was and suddenly something pushed him hard in the head. Go away he thought I’m trying to sleep. However the push came back stronger than before, this time managing to flip him upside down, upside down?, he could tell direction in this floating nothingness. Really awake now Rand tried to remember, remember?, remember what? Again the push and he was being squeezed to death and suddenly he remembered something about the dark one. A voice, a word, a sentence, the dark one wanted him dead. Was this the dark one trying to kill him, again push, again very tight squeeze, this time a light as if from a tunnel. It wasn’t the only light though, Rand went to the real void, and he saw it, Saiadin. He reached out with all his might to grab it and it came like a flood. He couldn’t control it, he had no strength, and his memory was foggy, he just expelled it to get out the other light and away from the pushing and death squeeze.
As Saiadin left him so did more and more memories, he tried to shout that he killed the dark one, sealed the bore so it could never be open. All that came out of his mouth was a scream. No blood and fire no I did this already, I won, I’m done. And with that last thought Rand Al’thor fell deep deep asleep into the furthest recesses of the brain. Lews took a deep breath and let out another scream wanting his mother or anyone to come pick him up and sooth his little soul.

The dragon is born!

Chapter 1
16 years later
The wheel of time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the fifth age by some and the first by others. An age yet to come, an age long past, a dark icy wind arose from about as far north as you can get. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the wheel of time. But it was a beginning.
A steam vent in an icy mountain let out a puff of sulfur like particles riding the wind. High and fast the dark tainted wind rode across the Nym fields, high enough to escape the notice of the Nym, ever vigilant in their desire to protect the world. Over the borderlands of mankind, given graciously by the Nym when mankind needs more space to grow. Still high in the sky the dark wind blew through wild wilderness where only the Nym, the Ogier, the dai’shan aiel, and the Aes Sedai were allowed to travel if at some risk. The wind started descending as it traveled into the warmer southern air. Up ahead in the distance was a magnificently large tower made of stone black like obsidian, but much stronger. Along the northern wall of this Black tower were several windows, most open hoping to catch some of the cool breeze which it did nicely.
It was into one of these windows the dark wind blew, a classroom, though filled only with boys. The tainted breeze flew around several students, all dressed in black school uniforms and sitting at wooden desks on little rickety stool like chairs with just the barest of backrest. The flow of air flew so close to the face of one student he gave a start, finally going up the next nearby student’s nose just as he took in a deep breath.
Lews gave such a start at the intrusion, and he stood up sneezing loudly, the rancid smell still strong in his nose. Taller than most of his peers he certainly stood over everyone’s head while they were all sitting down.
“What are you doing, you look like a dork, hurry and sit down before anyone notices.” His best friend [Ishamael]() tried to warn him. However, it was already too late for that, most of the class was now looking at him which made him self conscious even if the women all said he looked like a dream. Worse, the teacher at the front of the class in a very similar black colored uniform was looking at him expectedly.
“Yes Lews, do you think you know the answer?” To Lews’s horror he realized he had been spending most of the class in a daydream about being the most powerful weaver ever. It was important that distinction, woman channel men weave. Saiadar and Saiadin, two halves of the same whole, both apart of the one power the true source. Everyone could learn to use it, or at least almost everyone. The dai’shan don’t channel or weave for all the power of their songs, not one of them it’s a law to join among other things. Other people might be so weak in the power it should be they don’t have it at all, there are objects which can amplify or temporarily give someone use of the one power, those with so little power that resort to using these transcognative devices were often socially outcast. Transmogs they were called when someone was being nice.
That didn’t help him now, he was in history class, and definitely not studying Transmogs. Lews desperately wracked his brain trying to remember what they were discussing. The teacher’s slight smile was starting to droop to a slight frown. Nym’s that was what they were discussing, what about Nym’s? Desperately looking around for some hope, he finally remembered. It was a question about the first Nym, what was his name?
“Goak him jim knee?” Lews answered with a rightfully apologetic look on his face. Sighing the teacher said “close, Oakhimgimee. At least he was close!” The teacher got progressively louder while giving the rest of the class an evil eye. The laughter that had started quickly quieted. Just at that particular moment a loud bell decided to ring calling an end to that class period.
As the other students started standing up, talking, and starting to head for the door, the teacher weaved a small weave that produced a louder voice reminding the class they had the test coming up at the end of the week.
Lews slowly grabbed his bag and followed the steady stream of students leaving the class.

Boys: Justin, Ripper, Topher
Girls: Anne Maria, Jasmine, MK
Episode 19: The Princess Pride
"Last time, on Total Drama Action! Just when the cast thought they were safe, I swung in to surprise – I mean, antagonize them."
"The cast were forced to use their creative sides while showing off their back sides. As they made superhero costumes out of spandex. And...some other junk. Nice tights!"
"Of course, they were foiled by the diabolical Pythonicus, evil alter-ego of the villainous Chef!"
"In a fight against evil, the cast proved they could be heroes. And also, loooseerrss!"
"In the end, the most diabolical of them all was MK, who twisted things in order to get Chase eliminated."
The recap footage ended, and the scene flashed to the control tent where Chris was waiting with a smile. "Will the Gaffer alliance recover from Chase being gone? Will Anne Maria and Topher keep going out?" he pressed a button on the keyboard to his side, causing a picture of the couple to appear on one of the screens behind him.
"Maybe you'll find out right now?" he shrugged impishly as the scene changed again and he walked towards the cast trailers. "Maybe you won't? On another, totally dramatic episode of," he stopped in his tracks and the camera zoomed out with each further word, "Total! Drama! Action!"
(Theme Song)
The episode began with, of all things, a close-up of some brown and beany mush plopping onto a plate. The camera panned up to reveal its source as burrito beans in the hands of Jasmine being put together. Shots of Ripper, MK, and Justin also showed them making burritos as well.
The camera zoomed out to show the four constructing burritos on the table next to the tent's entrance while Topher and Anne Maria were at the other table, the former overseeing the quartet as he stood on the table and the latter simply applying lipstick to her lips.
“Ten more seconds, guys! The biggest burrito wins!” Topher declared and looked at Anne Maria. “Do you think I'd make a good reality show host?”
Anne Maria put her lipstick away. “Can you excuse me? I'm working on my facial features,” she said.
“But you already worked on yourself in the morning,” Topher said.
“You'd do the same if your hair was lookin’ messy,” Anne Maria retorted.
“Touché,” Topher pulled back.
“And time is up, folks!” MK informed everybody with her watch.
"Ripper, what do you got?” Topher asked the burly boy.
“Allow me to demonstrate my beefcake burrito!” Ripper held up his plate - his burrito has no wrapping and simply consisted of beef shaped into a cake. “I actually managed to make a cake out of beef.”
“How interesting,” Topher observed after getting off the table. “Jasmine, how about you?”
“These are my twin burritos!” Jasmine said with a plate that had two burritos tied together with an elastic rubber band.
“You actually wrapped your burritos?” Topher inspected heavily.
“Of course I did,” Jasmine nodded. “Twins are sometimes inseparable, and it's a good thing that these burritos aren't Siamese, otherwise they would have tried to eat one another.”
Topher laughed at her quip. “Points for that quip,” he said and made his way over to MK. “MK, how did you manage to make your burrito?”
“I am proud to present the MK Whopper!” MK took her burrito out from under the table and presented it - the burrito was shaped to look like MK with the beans as the body, wrap pieces as the hat and clothes, a sliced piece of tomato as the mouth, and pieces of beef as the eyes.
“The burrito is self-serving, but quality effort regardless,” Jasmine commented.
“Quality? Check out the guns on these beans,” Justin objected as his leitmotif played and he whipped out his burrito shaped to look like a flexing bicep. He even flexed his own bicep and moved his eyebrow in order to impress the contestants, but they were unfazed. “Nothing. You feel nothing?”
“Nope,” Jasmine shook her head.
“I was never once into you, Justin,” MK added as well.
“Man, this scratched schnoz has destroyed my looks and my life!” Justin moped. “Why?”
“MK, your self-art and ego is unsurprising, but you did make the biggest and best burrito, so you win,” Topher told her.
“This isn't right,” Justin protested and was now out of his seat. “I demand a second neutral opinion.”
“I'm no doctor or anything, but we all have reality-show-itis, and it's making us turn things into a challenge,” Anne Maria spoke up.
“I'm not sure if that's a thing, but I can't help myself when this day is bland and boring,” Topher said.
Confessional: Justin
“When my good looks went, so did my winning edge,” Justin told the viewers. “But some people are still managing to kick butt, and they're not nearly as good looking as I am!” He paused to think about what he said. “Okay, as I was.”
Confessional Ends
Justin was now sitting next to Anne Maria. “You know, you're the only one taking the game seriously. I just wish I knew how you did it all. It's so inspirational.”
“I'm just playing the game the best I know how,” Anne Maria said. “And it's not by sabotage like Scott did to me.”
“Scott also sabotaged my chances in the game as well,” Justin continued. “Hey, we have something in common.”
“Yeah we do, now go away,” Anne Maria ordered. “I don't know if they'll be a challenge, and I'd like to relax in peace.”
A few off-camera footsteps gave everyone pause, and they looked towards the room's entrance as the shot moved to a side-view of the room. Chef Hatchet had entered wearing a faded purple Medieval-styled costume, complete with a simple horn bearing a flag marked with a simple black-and-purple shield.
He blew a few awkward notes, then the camera moved in for a close-up as he made an announcement. "Hear ye, and rise! For Sir Chris!"
"Sir?!" Jasmine repeated with disbelief. "This Bruce's ego is fussing me to heaps!"
The shot moved back out to show Chris McLean riding atop the same decrepit-looking horse that had been used for a much earlier episode. He was wearing a knight's helmet and holding what looked to be a boot made of glass, and dismounted once Chef laid out a small rug for him to stand on.
"Hold on," Topher said slowly. "Glass slipper. Medieval stuff. This must be a Fairy Tale theme!"
"Topher," Chris said with stern annoyance, "if you ever steal my intro again, I'll have to personally boot you off the show."
"Hey, you can't do that!" Topher protested. "You brought me onto this show!"
"This boot," Chris said happily, "will determine the Princess for today's Fairy Tale movie challenge! The rest of you," he added as the camera panned across the tent from right to left, "compete for the honor of rescuing the fair Princess."
Anne Maria immediately raised her hand eagerly. "I wanna be the Princess!"
"I said the fair Princess," Chris repeated. "And what we think is fair is that the candidates be the ladies who haven't had a win since the merge: MK," he looked at the unamused techno, "and Jasmine." The focus moved to the Outback girl, who merely raised an eyebrow.
Confessional: Jasmine
"Okay, I am not Princess material," Jasmine said in the make-up confessional. "Not only am I too tall to fit the role, but I'm not really interested in fairy tales."
Confessional Ends
A short drumroll preceded an even shorter chanted note as MK and Jasmine approached the end of the table closest to the tent entrance.
"Yeah, there's no way that I'm gonna be some Princess, McLean!" MK barked at the host who was standing nearby with the glass boot still in his hand. "And don't even try to jam that boot on my foot."
"Okay," Chris said slowly, "that's a no for MK. Jasmine, you're up."
"Well, I'm not fond of fairy tales," Jasmine said, "but I might as well."
"Hold on there, Thunder from Down Under," Chris told her. "You have to put the boot on first. Make sure you're actually Princess material."
Jasmine frowned. "Okay then." She sat on the end of the table, slipped off one of her shoes, and tried to force it on.
The host and other castmates watched as she grunted and began to sweat, trying to get the boot onto her foot. Eventually, she let out a disappointed breath and held the boot back up. "It's no use," Jasmine told the host. "I can't get it on, and even then, it would shatter to pieces."
"Well," Chris said blankly, "guess that's both candidates out, unless MK changes her mind."
MK just glared at him. "Not a chance."
Anne Maria immediately grinned. "Yo Chris!"
"Looks like we have to do another selection method," Chris grabbed the glass boot and began to turn, only for Anne Maria to dart forward and snatch the footwear away from him.
Anne Maria swiftly tossed aside one of her heels and replaced it with the glass boot. "There," she said with a smile, raising her leg to show the boot glimmering on the end of it, "I always knew that I was meant to be royalty!"
"Fine, Anne Maria can be the Princess," Chris said heavily. "Let's just get this over with. Chef?" he looked back over his shoulder, and the shot pulled back to show the hulking man arriving back on the scene. He had changed into a pale blue ballerina's outfit, and had strapped a pair of fake wings to his back that, along with the glittering 'wand' in his hand, gave him the appearance of a fairy godmother.
"I dub thee, Princess Anne Maria," Chef said shortly as a touching song played, waving the wand above the grinning girl's head and releasing a cloud of sparkling dust that nearly choked Topher, Ripper, and Justin.
Confessional: MK
"Anne Maria as the Princess?" MK told the confessional camera with a snort and a laugh. "I wouldn't want to be in that Fairy Tale. Along with any others out there."
Confessional Ends
A harp played in the background as an image of Chris' head and a large hardcover book appeared on screen in front of a yellowish stock background. "It's story time, with uncle Chris," the host's disembodied head said before the scene flashed to him seated in a large purple armchair with the same book in hand. His left hand was on a joystick built into the arm of the chair, and he seemed to be slowly rolling through the set.
"Once upon a time," he began slowly, the camera pulling back to show the host rolling up to the contestants minus Anne Maria on a wheeled platform, his chair joined by a matching footstool, pedestal side table, and even a fireplace. "Five brave knights went on a quest to rescue a Princess from her ivory tower." He pulled back on the joystick, and the platform came to a stop. "But, it wasn't gonna be easy! First," he looked at the staircase behind him, "the knights had to get past my very good friend," the shot quick-panned up and left to Chef, now dressed in a tattered vest and trousers with a long moss-green wig and beard, "the Terrible Toothless Troll!" The shot zoomed in on Chef as he quickly blackened a few of his front teeth with a sharpie. "And, his Bad Breaks Bridge!"
The camera zoomed out even further as a few ominous chants played in the background, showing a large mountainous set featuring a rickety rope bridge over a treacherous and craggy fake waterfall. The contestants gulped.
"To get past the Terrible Toothless Troll," Chris read on, "the knights had to wear disguises! There was the Frog Prince," he grabbed a vaguely frog-like great helm from behind his chair and tossed it to Justin, "and the Ugly Stepsister," he tossed a large wig of wavy red hair in a tall bun to MK. "Snow White," he tossed a pink sleep mask to Jasmine, "and one of her Seven Dwarves," he followed that up by throwing a tall wizard's hat patterned with stars, moons, and lightning bolts to Topher. "Aaand," the host finished by pulling out a bright red hooded cape, "Little Red Riding Hood."
He tossed it to Ripper, who raised an eyebrow as he caught it. "Seriously? Can't I just be Riding Red?"
"No dice dude. That's what it says in the script," Chris told him as an unseen intern delivered a plate of milk and cookies to the host's side table. He turned and grabbed one, saying "Good work, kid," before continuing his monologue. "And so, the Ugly approached the Terrible Troll."
"I can't see in this thing!" MK said.
"Oh yeah," Chris said to a dramatic rise in the background music, "for this challenge, each knight is blind." The five teens immediately began to protest, causing the host to snap at them. "Nowhere in this story does it say 'the cowardly knights complained'!" he told the cast with a brief glance at his book. "So get it together, steppy, and get crossing!"
The footage skipped ahead to show MK slowly inching her way across the bridge while holding on to one of the rope rails. "This ain't too bad," she said to herself. She was hit by several red apples in rapid succession, causing her to yelp in pain.
"Oh, also," Chris said as the shot cut back to him, "those are Wicked Witch's apples, so, they're poisonous and rotten. You might wanna watch..."
He stopped talking as the shot cut back to MK slipping on one of the apples and fell off the bridge to the rocky set below. The camera followed as she fell and bounced off of several outcroppings before landing onto the hard ground. The shot cut briefly to the other contestants as they winced in pain before cutting back to the techno girl lying awkwardly on the ground with an apple in her mouth.
"Well, looks like MK isn't fairy tale hero material," Chris commented, dunking one of his cookies into his glass of milk. The short girl writhed in pain.
Confessional: MK
MK had on a neck brace and bandages around her head and torso, "I'm having trouble remembering what happened after the fall. Does that mean I have a concussion?"
Confessional Ends
A harp was played as the footage cut back to the other contestants standing at the start of the bridge. "Next, the eighth dwarf," Chris said as he moved his platform around towards the far staircase. "He grabbed a fistful of courage and headed across the bridge."
Topher glanced over at Chef. The man had hunched over, and was slapping a cat o' nine tails against his hand with a wild grin. He took a deep breath, put on the wizard’s hat over his eyes, and charged forward with a battle cry. Chef raised his eyebrows and rushed out to stop him, but he jumped onto a rope rail and ran through it until he was past Chef.
"Did I make it?" Topher asked, having reached the other side.
Confessional: Topher
"Poise classes have taught me to always be aware of my surroundings, whether I’m blindfolded or not," Topher grinned. "And with Anne Maria as the Princess, I’m not botching this one."
Confessional Ends
The footage skipped ahead to Jasmine's attempt, the sleeping mask already over her eyes and her hands firmly on the ropes of the bridge as she walked forward at a steady pace. Chef squeezed a mother goose, launching a golden egg out of its rear like a bullet. It shot past the girl's shoulder. "What was that?" Jasmine asked as she moved her head to track it. A second egg hit her square in the chest, knocking her back a step and putting a grin on Chef's face.
Jasmine frowned for a moment, then took a cautious step that was apparently at the bridge's weak point. The camera zoomed in on the bridge as it rippled, knocking loose every plank all the way to Chef. With a gasp and a scream, the troll and his goose fell, and the scene cut to him as he grabbed something behind his back. "They don't pay me enough for this!" Chef yelled, pulling the cord of a hidden parachute and floating down safely.
Jasmine was unaware of the danger and took one more step, expectedly screaming and falling. The camera cut to Chris as he followed the Amazon girl's fall and winced at the sound of an impact. "Awesome!" he cheered. "You’re up, froggy." The scene cut to the start of the bridge where Justin stood. "Then Captain Hood after that."
Justin put on his helmet. "At least my face will be protected from further indignity," he said as he slowly moved towards the bridge. He walked right shoulder into one of the posts holding up the bridge.
Ripper laughed. "Tough break, pretty boy," he jeered. "Go a little to the right." The eye candy followed the advice and walked into the other pole, causing Ripper to laugh. "Sorry man!" the bully called before laughing again.
Chef was shown running past the center of the bridge with an ax raised and ready to strike, while Justin stayed at the bridge completely oblivious. Ripper laughed once more and pushed the model into the cook. "Let me give you a hand," he said as he did so. Chef brought his ax down and hit the hot boy's helmet, causing the eyes to spin comically and Ripper to laugh once more.
Confessional: Justin
“There I was, down dirty, and deafened,” Justin recapped his failure. “And I thought "W.W.A.M.D.": What would Anne Maria do? And then it came to me! She'd use her head.”
Confessional Ends
With a battle cry, Justin rushed the cook with his helmet and ran him over, safely making it to the other side. "Justin's still got it!" Chris said as the camera cut to him. "All right, the final knight attempting to enter Fairy Tale Land is," the shot cut to Ripper as he tied a blindfold over his eyes and faced away from the camera, "Riding Red! We're over this way!"
"My seeing is good," Ripper said as he turned around. The camera cut to his perspective to show that he could actually see Chef putting on a blonde pigtailed wig. "I'm able to see Chef as a female troll! Hilarious!"
"Rapunzel dude, let down your hair!" Chris called, and Chef lengthened one of the pigtails and began swinging it around. He cracked it like a whip at the bully, who dodged it.
The camera cut to Justin watching Ripper avoid every attack. "Hey! He can see!" he cried.
"How?" Chris asked sarcastically. "With his X-ray vision? That'd be cool."
Chef attacked one last time, but Ripper grabbed onto the pigtail and swung across to safety with a whoop.
The footage skipped ahead to a close-up of Chris's book as he began to narrate once again. "And so, the Terrible Toothless Troll knocked off two losers," the shot pulled back to show Jasmine, wearing a leg cast and her right arm in a sling, and MK sitting on the ground nearby. "But," the camera panned over to Justin, Ripper, and Topher on the right, "three semi-brave knights made it to the other side and continued on their noble quest. Whereupon I, in my wisdom, inspired them with a vision of Princess Anne Maria."
The shot pulled back even further, revealing that the group had assembled in front of a small stage with a pink-tinted backdrop depicting a large white castle off in distant hillsides. A slow piano melody began to play as Anne Maria, now dressed in a regal-looking pink gown and tiara, was lowered onto the stage by a few wires.
"When I was a little girl, I'd dream of my first kiss," Anne Maria began to sing in a rather mediocre voice the moment she hit the stage and the wired harness was reeled back up. "It would come from my perfect prince!" A number of tiny birds and chipmunks gathered around her, the birds even landing on her hands. "And in my dream, it went like this!"
The scene immediately cut to the three remaining knights as they watched the performance. Justin and Topher were both stunned by her display, while Ripper couldn't care less.
“She's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” Justin said.
Definitely,” Topher chimed in.
“I must've been so busy seeing her as a potential alliance member and extra vote that I didn't see her outer beauty. Wow,” Justin continued in amazement. “We'll be the best looking couple in the kingdom!”
The music came to a halt as Topher and Ripper were surprised by what just came out of Justin's mouth.
“Excuse me, but I am still dating her!” Topher objected heavily.
“And there's no way she'll ever be into you,” Ripper told Justin.
“I saw you cheat, Ripper,” Justin let him know. “You don't deserve to be anybody's prince.”
“And who died and made you the rule master?” Ripper faced the handsome boy threateningly.
"Guys, guys!" Chris said, stepping forward and getting between the boys. "No need to fight! At least not until after this break," he declared happily. "Will Ripper inflict any deformities on Justin? Or will Justin's ripped physique bring two tons of hurt down on Topher's head? Find out when we come back!"
(Commercial Break)
The footage came back to a distance shot of the stage Anne Maria was still singing on, her music resuming as the shot cut closer.
"My prince will be tall and handsome," she sang, the camera panning down to catch Justin standing straight and proud. "My prince will be tough as nails," Ripper flexed his biceps and then lifted a startled Topher over his head.
"My prince will have lots of money," Anne Maria continued, the camera moving back on her as she showered the stage with a wad of cash. "My prince will tame wild whales!" She flexed her own arms, Chris nodded to the beat, and the shot cut to Topher looking at a small and rather disoriented baleen whale on the floor in confusion.
The shot panned down to Jasmine and MK who were watching the performance with boredom on their faces.
"How are you feeling about the whole Fairy Tale thing?" Jasmine asked MK.
"Couldn't care less," MK answered bluntly. "I just don't know why we have to keep watching though."
A close-up was shown of Anne Maria reaching for a wary-eyed frog in a small crown, the Jersey girl pulling it closer to her as she finished her song. "When we kiss~, my prince will be you~!" As the music ended, she held up the frog and kissed it on the lips, but broke almost immediately in a fit of revulsion.
Anne Maria threw the frog away from her, and it landed on Justin's face. "Warts! Get it off!" he cried out as he ran around trying to get the frog out.
"Wasn't that song brilliant?" Chris asked as the focus moved back to him, Jasmine, and MK. "It was so brilliant, I know everyone wishes they could hear it over, and over, and over again! And now they can." He snapped his fingers, and a CD case bearing Princess Anne Maria's picture on the cover was placed in his waiting hand.
"Relive the magic of Anne Maria for only $12.99," he told the camera as a deep and theatrical tune began to play. "Call 555-SELLOUT to get your authentic Princess Anne Maria CD," he added as the camera zoomed in on the case, "before everyone else downloads it illegally!"
"I'll take one!" Topher quickly begged, earning him a CD. "This will be worth spending thirteen dollars of my money."
Confessional: Topher
"My prince will buy me lots of hot dogs! My prince will love ponies too!" Topher was listening to the CD through headphones as his confessional began. "Her singing isn't the best, but I do want to support her," he told the camera.
Confessional Ends
"After risking my life for you, I have come to realize this!" Justin said as he approached the stage. "You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. And the smartest. What are the odds?"
He offered his hand to Anne Maria, but she didn't take it. "Thanks for telling me what I already know!"
"Uhh, aren't you going to compliment me on my bravery?" Justin asked.
"Nah! Princesses are supposed to be complimented in my world,” Anne Maria said, to Justin's disappointment. “It's not their job to give them out to anyone, but for me, I'll make an exception for Topher, the handsomest knight around!”
The camera moved to Ripper rolling her eyes and Topher smiling. “And you are the most beautiful princess around!” Topher complimented back before a sound caught the attention of both. They turned their heads at once and the scene followed their gaze over to Chef, still in his troll costume but now riding the same fly-ridden horse from earlier in the episode.
"How has that horse not died yet?" MK commented. "It can't be in good condition after all their time being used on this show."
"Just because it's a little old, doesn't mean it's not fighting for their life," Jasmine told her.
Anne Maria hopped onto the horse's back while Ripper and Topher came over. “Are we supposed to catch him?" Topher asked.
"No, it's a classic princess abduction," Chris explained calmly. "As the villain makes a whirlwind getaway on a swift steed."
Chef kicked the horse with his feet, but it didn't react. "Guess ol' Betsy here didn't read the script," he said gruffly.
"Kick harder," Chris commanded, and Chef promptly complied. A stronger kick caused the horse to kick backwards, hitting Justin – who had been standing closest - right in the face.
"That did it," Chef said as Justin was shown to have a few teeth knocked out and a bruised right eye.
"So, that's how the three knight dudes lost the Princess," Chris narrated, "But fate, aka me, wasn't finished with them." Chef and Anne Maria rode off behind him. "They followed the troll all the way to a fight to the death, because that's how I like my princesses saved."
"Sir Topher!" Anne Maria called out playfully as she was slowly abducted. "You better be the one who rescues me!"
"These two haven't even got a chance!" Topher replied arrogantly.
"As good luck, I'll give you my favor to carry into the battle!" Anne Maria tossed the glass boot, but it unintentionally hit Justin in the face.
Confessional: Justin
Justin was having his bruises covered up by make-up brushes from two unknown people while the glass boot was on the table.
“Falling for Anne Maria has been hard on the face. I think we'll have a no glass shoes policy if we start dating soon,” Justin informed and put the boot away. “I have no idea what Chase and Millie's policies are, but they're probably less dignified.”
Confessional Ends
The footage cut forward to a close-up of the old horse chewing on some hay before the camera panned over to a small castle archway propped up against a tower of some sort. "Sir Justin, Sir Topher, and Sir Ripper reached the ivory tower in which the troll had stuck the super tanned princess," Chris read as the three remaining competitors walked into the scene and he followed on his rolling platform. The shot panned up the towers, where several other pieces of crenelated wall had been attached here and there, and at the very top there was a pinkish spire and balcony where Princess Anne Maria waited.
"But there was only one way to rescue her," the host continued with a grin on his face and tense music building in the background. "One of the brave knights had to slay the dragon!"
"Dragon?!" Jasmine asked in alarm. "Tell me you didn't get a real dragon for this!"
"Seeing as dragons don't exist," MK told her, "I find that highly unlikely."
"She's right," Chris said as the music switched to something more ominously lurking. "We're reusing the alien monster guy."
Seconds later, a few tremendous mechanical footsteps were heard. MK and Jasmine looked to stage right and the camera pulled back, showing off the animatronic monster in all its glory. Chef was wearing the motion capture suit that controlled it, and it had been given a hood with horns, a scraggly 'beard', and two tiny wings in order to make it look more draconic. Chef raised his arms menacingly, and the monster echoed the pose and growled.
"Let the dragon slaying begin!" Chris announced, pulling out a trio of wooden swords and throwing them to the knights. Ripper caught the shortest, Topher the most slender, and Justin the broadest, and the three turned to face the tower and dragon.
"I'm counting on you, Sir Topher!" Anne Maria called from above, smiling at the fanboy and blowing him a kiss. He accepted it with a grin, and Anne Maria turned her attention to the other two knights and frowned. "As for you two, you'll need all the luck you can get."
"Yeah, cause I'll be the one who's going to slay today!" Topher boasted before turning and charging at the dragon.
"Not so fast," Justin charged at Topher and the two clashed their swords into each other's, only breaking when they noticed a foot-shaped shadow fall upon them. They rolled out of the way before the monster stomped them, and the camera panned over to Justin landing next to Ripper.
“You want Topher to win?” Justin faced Ripper.
“Like I care which one of you wins,” Ripper scoffed.
“Then help me take him down and I'll let you win,” Justin offered.
Ripper thought about it, and the viewpoint moved over to Chef guiding the monster in stomping and snapping at Topher. He was able to strike the dragon's head with his sword. “You are not going to stop me from rescuing Anne Maria!” the fanboy told the dragon.
“Just get them both chasing you,” Ripper suggested.
“And why?” Justin asked.
“Do you want to stop that monster or not?” Ripper glared. “Just do it!”
Justin sighed but complied, and both Topher and the Chef-controlled monster made moves to chase after him while Ripper watched from the sidelines.
“Are you going to fight me or run away from me?!” Topher asked with a taunt.
“Justin, you're going to stop running in 3…2…1!” Ripper ordered, and Justin paused his dash.
Topher also stopped chasing him as well, and the dragon, who was still trying to chase the others, caught its foot on Topher and somehow tripped. It flailed its arms humorously before crashing to the ground.
"A job well done," Ripper said as he ran over to the large red button on the side of the beast's neck. “Now to claim my second immunity win in a row!” he said as he readied his sword to finish it off, but Justin came up to push him off the dragon and onto the floor.
"Sorry Ripper," Justin told him. "If Izzy was the prize, I'm sure you'd do the same thing." He plunged his sword into the dragon's neck, causing it to fizzle and short out. "Anne Maria," he dramatically called out, "your prince is coming."
"Some prince," Ripper mocked.
The camera panned to the right to show Chris' moving platform as he arrived with Jasmine and MK in tow.
"Wanna rescue Princess Anne Maria too?" he asked the camera. "Now you can, for only $79.95!" he pulled out a pink-and-yellow striped box and held it up for the camera, a vaguely Anne Maria-shaped doll barely visible inside. "Order your very own Princess Anne Maria Limited Edition Glass Boot Doll! Playing with the Anne Maria doll is more fun and less dangerous than playing with the real Anne Maria. Guaranteed!" He finished with a cheesy grin.
The scene cut to the top of the ivory tower as Justin climbed up to the balcony where Anne Maria waited. "I have arrived!" Justin announced.
"Not the guy I was expecting, but a reward is a reward," Anne Maria grumbled and the two moved in for a kiss.
"Wait, wait, there's no kissing!" Chris interrupted the two from his chair.
“What?” Justin felt confused.
“Oh yeah!” Topher cheered from under the dragon.
"It says here that Prince Justin and Princess Anne Maria must sword fight to determine the true winner!" Chris explained while reading off his book.
"Which means I still have a chance at winning immunity?" Anne Maria asked quickly.
"You're much smarter than most princesses," Chris replied.
"Usually, most fairy tales end with a kiss," Jasmine said.
"Well, this is a modern tale," Chris explained. "Gals have to fight for themselves."
“You can say that again,” MK agreed.
“If that's how it has to be-” Anne Maria said.
“No,” Justin cut her off, now kneeling on one leg. “I am a noble gentleman. A brave knight. A handsome prince. I would never hurt a lady.”
“But you would hurt a guy working with you,” Ripper interjected after getting up on his feet.
“I said I was sorry, Ripper,” Justin told him with annoyance and focused back on Anne Maria. “I refuse to raise a sword to Anne Maria.” Anne Maria took the sword from him. “I give up any chance at immunity to spare her. And now…”
Justin puckered his lips and moved close, only for his eyes to widen. The camera pulled back to show the hilt of the sword buried in his crotch.
“Not sorry! I'm already taken!" Anne Maria declared before pushing Justin off.
Justin fell with a scream until he hit one of the 'towers' on his cheek. He kept on hitting one tower after another until he hit the ground on his back in severe pain. “I'm okay!”
The camera panned over to Chris and the other losers. "Anne Maria wins immunity! Again!" the host announced.
"Yes!" Anne Maria cheered.
The opening sequence of the Gilded Chris Ceremony came and went, leaving the scene focused on the tux-wearing host at his podium. "So," Chris began with an award already in his hand, "with immunity, Anne Maria is the first to win a Gilded Chris." He tossed the statuette to the girl, sitting on the left side of the bleachers, and she caught it with a smug grin.
"Immunity and my own dolls? How much better can this day get?" Anne Maria said.
"Well, it's not like you're getting the profits from the Princess Anne Maria line," Chris said plainly.
Anne Maria's eyes popped open in shock. "Uh, what?!" she said in outrage. “It's my line!”
“I’m saying that you're not going to get the profits because they’ll be sent over to your family for safekeeping, along with a Princess Anne Maria doll,” Chris explained. “I don't want any of my interns or producers to take what's rightfully yours. Lawsuits and all.”
“Oh!” Anne Maria said in relief. “I'm relieved, but I'm also upset that you made me act like an idiot!”
"Then you should have let me finish! Also still in the competish," Chris announced with another two awards in his hand, "MK and Jasmine." The former caught her prize in her lap with a confident grin, and the latter with a happy smile.
"And also Ripper," the host continued, the camera panning to the bully who smiled as he caught his award.
Spotlights were put on Justin and Topher, the former in a body cast. "Who will live happily ever after, and who will die penniless," Chris said as the music built dramatically. "And the last Gilded Chris goes to… Justin!"
"What?!" Anne Maria stood up. "You have to be joking! Justin should be going home!"
"Yeah, you're right. I was just kidding," Chris said. "Justin's actually the one who's been eliminated."
Topher caught his award. “I knew I would be safe.”
Confessional: Topher
“I told everybody to vote off Justin,” Topher confirmed. “He tried to move in on my girlfriend, and him getting booted would serve him right. The best part is, everybody was on board with it and I didn’t even have to try and convince them.”
Confessional Ends
Justin got up and started to head to the red carpet, but stopped to look at the contestants. “So is no one even going to miss me?”
“I never liked you,” MK shrugged.
“See ya,” Ripper said apathetically. “Get better soon, or sometime.”
“Okay, stop already! I'm going! But you'll regret it,” Justin told them and walked to the red carpet. Before getting into the limousine, he gave one last look to the remaining players. “With me gone, this competition just got eighty percent less handsome.” The eye candy turned around, only to hit his head on the roof. “All right, seventy-nine!” he groaned.
The footage paused there, and the camera pulled back to show it on one of the monitors in the control tent. Chris was sitting in his chair playing with a couple of Princess Anne Maria dolls, a few more scattered on the nearby desk.
"I know what I told Anne Maria, but marketing says that our target audience is too old for dolls," Chris told the camera as the footage on the monitor cut to static. "They're just not selling!" He looked to the side, and the camera panned to follow and show Chef playing with a group of Princess Anne Maria dolls dressed up as soldiers.
"Princesses, attack!" he said with a dark grin, lighting a miniature cannon with a match as the deeper and more dramatic ending theme began to play. The cannon fired with a puff, blowing the heads off two of the dolls.
Chris gave him an odd look, then turned back to the camera. "Hey target audience! Make sure you don't miss the next kiss-filled episode of Total! Drama! Action!" As soon as he finished saying the title, he mashed the mouths of the two dolls he was holding together and made kissing sounds. "Now you see, Chef," he told his companion, "that's how you play with dolls."
(Roll the Credits)
(Bonus Clip)
The scene opened to Justin sitting on the back seat of the limousine with the glass boot in hand. “What I've learned? Well, maybe that good looks won't take you everywhere you want to go,” he said wisely. “I mean, what have I ended up with? A wounded face, a bruised ego, and a shoe that I can't even wear. Maybe if I stopped modeling and threw all my energy into getting smarter, more girls could fall in love with me,” he thought. “But modeling pays. And Jesús, my booker, says that even with my severe facial wounds, he can get me a bunch of leg modeling and some celebrity kid's birthday party. So, love schmove.” He threw the glass boot out the window, and a shattering sound indicated that the boot was destroyed.
Eva - 15th
Geoff - 15th
Izzy - RETURNED
Trent - 13th
Sky - 12th
Brick - 11th
Scott - 10th
Izzy - 9th
Millie - 8th
MERGE
Chase - 7th
Justin - 6th
Boys: Ripper, Topher
Girls: Anne Maria, Jasmine, MK

My husband and I are 45 and 44 respectively. We married almost 18 years ago, his 2nd marriage, my 1st. He had 2 kids from his previous marriage. I never had any kids prior to our marriage. He pursued me strongly, and despite the fact that I typically wouldn't date someone with kids, or someone who smoked, he won me over. (He lied about smoking for a while but I ended up smelling it on him; huge turnoff and I have my reasons for not dating smokers.) After we got married we started discussing when we wanted to start a family. He said that he really wanted to start a family with me. I ended up agreeing so went off BC. We got pregnant only a few months after "trying". As soon as I got pregnant, he said we made a mistake. (On top of that, the news wasn't well received by hardly anyone I know except some coworkers. It was so strange, because we both had jobs, we had our own place, fully independent, no substance abuse issues besides him smoking, etc.) During the pregnancy and after our amazing daughter was born, he became really disinterested and disconnected from me. I used to think IF I ever had kids, that I may want 2 so they could each have a sibling. It ended up being so stressful between me and my husband, and his kids from his previous marriage, and his EX, that I didn't have another.
Since then, it's been like pulling teeth to get him to do anything with me, anything with our daughter and me, etc. It doesn't matter if it's going to the neighbors' house for a couple hours or going an hour away somewhere. Doing anything outside of "his" room or outside our house is a monumental task that usually starts with a HUGE argument. I feel like a single mom so often. We're in our own world, and he's in his. I'm the one who has homeschooled her while also working full-time, managed her extra activities, now starting college prep, etc. He has NOTHING to do with it. It's really hard to even get him to attend any of her activities as an observer. If he does, he whines the whole time. I'm the one who has taught her things like how to drive, how to fish, how to do yard work, how to cook, etc.
His reasons over time for not going anywhere with me and/or our daughter have included: he was really overweight and felt insecure in public (he lost all the weight he gained and then some); he couldn't go that long without smoking (he actually wasn't even a chain smoker and quit smoking 3 years ago); money (we BOTH work demanding jobs full-time and make almost the same salary, which is about 6X the average for our area); work (we BOTH work remotely at HOME, which is part of the reason I would like to take a break from the house occasionally), and more.
He is ONLY interested in me if we are about to have sex.
I didn't get married 18 years ago just for a sex partner. I got married to have a life partner.
Why have we not gotten a divorce? Our finances are entangled. We just bought a house a couple years ago that I love after selling the one we lived in for a long time. We have a daughter together.
And I know this isn't one sided. His disinterest in having any kind of relationship with me outside of sex pisses me off. So every time he says NO to yet another thing, I often get mad. There are many times now that I just don't even ask because I know he's going to say no. Why should I have to BEG him to do anything with me, like watch a movie in the living room or go out to eat? I'm not asking for a trip out of the country.
He NEVER suggests we go anywhere of course. And as I just mentioned, he won't even sit in the same room as me to watch anything on TV...movie or anything.
Like I said, we BOTH work full-time, and we both bring in about the same salary. My job also provides our insurance. I cook great (but he usually refuses to eat anything I cook), I clean the disgusting stuff he doesn't want to (like HIS piss and shit off the toilets, all the sinks, etc.) He also does some things around the house thankfully, BUT also uses those specific things as a reason to not go anywhere. He can't go because he has to empty the trash cans. We use a lawn service so he doesn't have much yard work to do. And he doesn't hardly repair or fix anything himself (that's me OR he insists on paying a repair man), so it's not like he has home projects to work on.
I'm just so lonely and I don't understand what to do besides get a divorce. Divorce seems impossible due to the house, finances, and impact on our child (yet we fight SO OFTEN, which I know is also bad). I can't recall being able to go through a full day without fighting unless we weren't around each other much. Since the first year of our marriage, he has threatened divorce in so many arguments, and they're usually dumb petty/small arguments about something illogical. (His parents divorced when he was a teen; my parents have been married over 50 years.) When I try to have regular discussions with him, he jumps to one extreme or another. For example about our marriage in general, he says because it's not completely horrible 100% of the time we don't have issues. Or because he doesn't do drugs or doesn't drink, etc. I should be happy. Seems like an incredibly low bar. And I don't even have super high expectations.
I would like to be able to do "normal" things with my husband so I don't think getting a friend would solve this issue. I know spouses can have separate activities and I'm totally fine with that. BUT there must be a way to do things besides just sex together. Otherwise what is the point. (He won't even sit down to eat with me at our table at home...in case it's not obvious what I really mean with refusing to do stuff with me.)
TL;DR: Husband refuses to be my partner and acts like a roommate the majority of the time.

I (27F) and my bf (31M) have been together for 5 years now and I am at my wits end with the financial stresses this relationship has put on me. It's a long story but I have to give the details for it to make sense.
When we got together I had a job and was making my own money, while he was surviving off investing money he had before we met like stocks and stuff. He is a great person overall he is kind, does romantic gestures and helps around the house like cleaning cooking etc. He and I share 50/50 of the chores and pet care since we do have multiple animals we care for, most of them acquired throughout the years as rescues. The only problem is that throughout the years we have ALWAYS struggled with money. He is not someone that knows how to manage his money and when I tried to be the one in charge it always backfired. Here is some details:
I moved in with him pretty early on within a couple of months in the house he was renting. Orginally he had roommates living with him to help with the rent but he wanted them out so he could live alone, he did this before I even moved in and I did not push or prompt him to do that since I had my own apartment at the time. I had a couple of thousands saved up from when I worked and I ended up quitting my job because I hated it. I had just graduated college and could easily get another job soon. Within the year of being together, he ran fthrough his money bc he wanted to invest in different entrepreneur ideas and none of them stuck. I ended up using all of the money I had saved up in order to get us ahead. He started a social media managing business and I helped him do all the heavy lifting to get it off the ground. I worked HOURS and it took off for a couple of months and then crashed down leaving us broke again. In the midst of all that, he was always stressed out and angry about being broke and not getting ahead. I took a food delivery job to bring in money while he stayed home to get the business ahead.
However everytime I came home he seemed to be doing very minimal work yet I was the one driving for hours to bring in the cash. We made good money those first few months so i wanted to get us back to that. As months passed and the delivery job became saturated with drivers I had to apply to an actual job and work 9-5 hours to bring in more stable money. However, he still wasnt working and that business had already tanked. I asked him multiple times to get a job and while he did apply he never got hired. He also always applied to high qualifying jobs like website designer which has so much competition and he has too little experience. I started to get very resentful because while he kept the house chores afloat it felt like he has leeching off the money I was making.
It got so bad that I had to work my 9-5 and afterwards do food delivery again at a second job. He did drive me around for the second job but I was EXHAUSTED. it was non stop working just to get ahead since we lived in an expensive city, renting a home with lots of pet mouths to feed. We did get his friend to be a roommate for a little while and that helped with rent a bit, but not much. The roommate ended up having to leave so it left us in the same predicament. He tried learning trading online but that went nowhere and left us with more debt since we had to take out a large loan IN MY NAME to pay for it. We got so many loans to get ahead and yet i was still the only one working. He started working in the delivery job at night when i got home to get more money in since that was the only job that hired him. He had to sell his car so we only had 1 car, my car, to get around. I had to ask my dad to borrow one of his cars so we could drive more hours. So now Im working 9-5 with night shifts and he is supplementing with the food delivery job at night but we are still broke.
I was beyond stressed and tired from living in survival mode at this point. I didnt even want to try another job because all other jobs sounded stressful when I was already living in stress and not getting much help. Our bills kept racking up and he had so much debt he had to pay monthly that had to be covered by my paychecks.
We only felt relief when he was granted life changing money in a lawsuit that was going on for years. We were able to pay back debt that was racked up in my name and able to buy a house in a different city as it was cheaper and bigger for our animals. With all of this money he was still complaining and saying he was scared of loosing the money. I understood and I told him i would help him keep track of it since I always was the one in charge of bills. He basically told me that he would handle it himself and I never had access to his account so all of the decisions made with that money were his. I already full of resentment for him that I let him do that so if anything went wrong he wouldnt have anyone to blame but himself. And just as suspected within a year all of those hundreds of thousands of dollars were gone. he did invest it in collectables and was doing good in getting money back weekly like a 2-5k weekly but that only lasted a couple of months. And keep in mind I ALWAYS have helped him. from driving accross town or out of state to set up these events to sell the collectables, to social media management of the business, to helping him stream and being the main person selling on the stream I have put in my share of work as well.
I am now at the point where I have to choose whether to leave or not. we asked my dad for so much financial help throughout the years and we recently asked him AGAIN for help even though i never wanted to go back to that. When i asked financial questions responses were always like "i know what im doing". Despite my work I always got blamed for whatever reason that the business failed. He even told me once that the work i did for our first social media business was easy and didnt understand why it took such a toll on me. I quit that business on the spot and let him handle it which is why it tanked. Throughout the years of resentment we have been increasingly mean to each other and i genuinely cant stand living like this anymore. EVERY SINGLE DAY there is some stress, argument or negative event revolving money.
The only reason im typing this is becuase i want to make sure that I am not crazy. Once he got the money i was able to quit both jobs to rest since i was getting sick from being overworked. During the time of us being broke he stll did things he loved and further his career. so when i could finally quit after 4 years of working nonstop I took this last year to invest in myself and my career while his money took care of us. wouldnt you say thats fair? he doesnt think so. now that all the strain is in his side he harps about needing dual income to surivive which is what i always told him throughout the years but somehow he couldnt get a stable 9-5 like me? Not to mention when i asked him why he didnt want to get a job he said "id rther off myself than work for someone" which i said "no one wants to work for someone else but we all have to do it, IM doing it?"
Im at my wits end and dont think this will ever work or am I missing something here? When i put 110% of my work it was taken for granted and now that Im "taking a break" to work on my career which is very niche and takes time to grow Im in the wrong? Not to forget ive never really stopped working since i keep helping him with the collectables business but i just dont think he knows how to manage money or handle being an entrepreneur and it has wrecked our relationship. I do care for him but with all the stress and horrible day to day life we have created I just dont think i can do this anymore.

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Synopsis:
Juliette Contzen is a lazy, good-for-nothing princess. Overshadowed by her siblings, she's left with little to do but nap, read … and occasionally cut the falling raindrops with her sword. Spotted one day by an astonished adventurer, he insists on grading Juliette's swordsmanship, then promptly has a mental breakdown at the result.
Soon after, Juliette is given the news that her kingdom is on the brink of bankruptcy. At threat of being married off, the lazy princess vows to do whatever it takes to maintain her current lifestyle, and taking matters into her own hands, escapes in the middle of the night in order to restore her kingdom's finances.
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Copious Ohohohohos.
Chapter 250: Tall Tales, Long Shadows
As the crimson eyes melted into the darkness, they were replaced by the rustling of leaves and the din of an ominous silence. There was no chorus of growls. But that wasn’t required to send shivers up the spines of every farmer with a flock to defend. Only the knowledge of being watched was required.
Fortunately, I was a princess!
Being watched by slobbering eyes in the shadows was hardly new to me. Rather, these wargs were absolute gentlemen in comparison to the drunkards touring the Royal Villa while scattering broken porcelain as they went. They overstayed their welcome. These creatures did not.
Thus, I tugged on Apple’s reins to continue onwards … before realising he’d never paused.
It happened with less frequency these days, but every now and again, I needed to remind myself that Apple was not any of the white mares watching me sneakily dispose of carrots in the middle of the night via their feed buckets.
Apple was Apple. And far from whinnying in fright while pawing at the dirt, he simply plodded along at his usual pace. As we passed by the first outhouse on the way to the large lumbermill, he snorted as a stray petal landed on his nostrils. His only source of discomfort.
I wasn’t the only one to see this.
“You know,” said Coppelia, equally unbothered as she skipped alongside us. “At some point, we should probably wonder why the horse seems okay with everything.”
“Hmm? Why’s that?”
“Monstrous wargs. Smelly bandits. Even bigger than average fruit slimes. Don’t horses usually do the whole neighing and then scarpering thing when these things show up?”
“Indeed, they do. Horses have a survival instinct ingrained in them through generations of upbringing. With their keen sense of smell, hearing and natural intuition for danger, horses are particularly adept at understanding when to flee.”
“Then … ?”
I smiled as I leaned forwards to flick some of the petals on Apple’s mane away.
“Ohoho … because more than their instinct for flight is their aptitude for taking up after their rider. Why, it’s only natural that Apple should be the picture of calm even in the presence of predators skulking the woods.”
I placed my hand proudly atop my chest.
Indeed, such was the bond I shared with any horse I sat upon, they could take solace in my calming presence … as well as understand my need not to be seen flailing wildly as I struggled to stay on a fleeing horse. That’d just be embarrassing.
“Hmmmmmm~” Coppelia leaned forwards slightly as she studied Apple. He ignored her for a random daisy growing in the dirt, its hard life ended with a single passing bite. “You think the horse is just used to this? You know, from before he started carrying around princesses?”
I gave it a moment’s consideration.
“Indeed, I suppose that shying away from horror wasn’t permitted in his previous employment. As helpful as the barkeeper who loaned him to me was, his clientele were anything but cordial.”
“I bet you made fun of them.”
“I … I did not!” I said, having no recollection of what I said, only that it was the truth. “I came as a princess in need–and they offered laughter, scorn, and filth upon the floor. If Apple is already accustomed to the most dire specimens of my kingdom, then I see no reason why wargs, bandits or even dragons should faze him.”
Coppelia giggled, conjuring a sight far more pleasant in her mind than in mine.
“Sure, but what if the horse is already used to danger?”
“... Worse than louts in a bar, do you mean?”
“Mmh~ I get the feeling he’s already trotted around the place before. Meaning I think he’s cheating. There’s no way a normal horse scoops up all the nice daisies before I do. I call foul play.”
“I overrule. He’s a draft horse, not a knight’s charger. I doubt he’s seen much of anything other than the fields outside the Royal Villa. A pleasant enough sight, even if a village is there to mar it. It’s quite unlikely he’s been anywhere else.”
“... But if he did–then that might mean he has special skills!”
“I already know his special skills. He can snort, eat and trot. All things he does admirably.”
As a result–I smiled in satisfaction. Something I had no doubt Apple could see … even as he gobbled a premium apple I handed him faster than a kraken devouring a ship of ogres.
Indeed, the louts of my kingdom had much to learn from Apple’s work ethics.
… Actually working, being one of them.
Passing the scattered outbuildings, we entered the midst of the lumberyard. The main mill presented itself. And so did all of its labourers. They sat around a campfire, trading jibes and idle gossip. Their hearty laughter filled the air, each as uncaring for the black hole in the sky as they were for decorum.
I was appalled.
Why, I expected my workers to leap to their feet and pretend they’d been working all along!
Had they been quailing in terror at the end of the world, I would have simply rolled my eyes before dismissing their sound concerns! But they were competing to see who could appear the most unproductive instead!
“... Ahem, may I help you?”
And currently, the winner was the most lackadaisical one present.
A man whose tunic was missing several buttons came approaching from the lumbermill. He boasted neither a morsel of sweat upon his unshaven face, nor a wood axe in his hands. But worst of all, he carried no timepiece well beyond his ability to afford. Inexcusable.
“You certainly may,” I replied, pointing to everything simultaneously. “What is the meaning of this?”
“Excuse me?”
“My handmaiden assured me as she cruelly woke me not long ago that it was still morning. That means it’s far before the usual time for respite. Or have the workers here met their quotas so sensationally that they’re now being rewarded for their hardships?”
The man winced, holding a hand against Starlight Grace. I sighed and lowered my blade.
“... Wish that were the case, ma’am,” he said, blinking as he finally found my silhouette. “Truth be told, none of my workers have made a dent in their quotas.”
“Terrible. As much for them as the trees cruelly offered a morsel of hope. Do you hold authority here?”
“I’m the foreman, aye,” answered the man, narrowing his eyes on me. “… I’m sorry, but who are you?”
“A representative of the kingdom.”
“We weren’t due any representatives. Unless you’re passing by for the thing in the sky?”
“I am. But one dire issue doesn’t preclude me from seeing to another. And rest assured, my impromptu inspections are both swift and poorly defined. Now, why do I not hear trees groaning as they wish to at least become a cabinet and not a chair?”
The foreman blinked, already becoming accustomed to Starlight Grace still partially blinding him.
“Uh … if you’re asking why the operation’s stopped, it’s because that’s procedure.”
I turned my grief towards the lightless sky.
“Are you telling me there’s a rule for stopping work if a black hole sucks up the sun? … Because if so, I’m amending it immediately! If an omen signalling the end of the world isn’t enough to stop your workers from jesting, then I hardly see why it should be enough to stop them from working.”
“Oh, aye, that much I agree with.”
“... Hm?”
The foreman offered a casual shrug. A ridiculously informal gesture. And yet for his words, I was willing to allow an explanation.
“Hole in the sky. Hole in the ground. Hole in half our trees. Those of us here working at the doorstep of those crazy mages accept all the tomfoolery they get up to. This isn’t enough to stop us from working.”
I paused.
“Oh … I see. That … That is quite laudable. I wasn’t aware your working conditions were so awful.”
“Awful is too lightly a way to put it. Fact that none of us have run screaming for our mothers already says as much. Can’t be a good thing, truth be told. But, well, we’re used to it. Sure, this one’s a bit more than the usual fireballs they make us put out without a word of thanks. But even if the sky’s darkened, that won’t stop the tax collectors from coming, right? So long as some part of the world still turns, we still need to work to earn our keep on it.”
I gasped.
Why … I expected naught but excuses to be ignored and tears to be laughed at … I certainly wasn’t expecting to be struck by a commoner’s unexpected words of … of poetry.
I regarded this commoner for a moment.
And then–
“Oh, goodness me! Did my sword’s light blind you? I do apologise, Sir Foreman. I often forget how bright my fabled weapon can be.”
“It’s fine,” he said with barely a gruff. “It’s not a bad sight. Campfire does good, but that sword of yours is like the stars themselves. That’s the only thing that gets me, really. This blackened sky wouldn’t be so bad if the stars were at least allowed to shine.”
“I’m afraid it would prove a poor sight even if they were, now that you’ve been blessed by my sword’s light erroneously shining directly into your retinas. Once again, I hope it wasn’t too irksome.”
“Like I said, it’s–”
“Excellent. Now, Sir Foreman, I understand from your refreshingly loyal words that ceasing the lumbermill’s work is not strictly due to quailing in fear over the ominous black hole. If so, what is the reason, then?”
The foreman appraised me for a moment. Me being my sword.
“Well, I can’t say the thing isn’t connected. It’s the wargs, ma’am. You must’ve heard them.”
“I did. And I also ignored them. As can you. I hardly see why wargs twice the weight of your workers should be an issue if fireballs occasionally striking your men isn’t.”
“All things are relative. Fireballs are deadlier, but I’d take one over being eaten by a warg.”
I gave it a moment’s thought. And then I nodded, seeing no fault in his reasoning.
I, too, would prefer disintegration over having my ruined hair be judged by passing commoners.
“Very well. So wargs. Are they not normally an issue? I’d think that workers at a lumbermill in close proximity to magic and all the beasts they attract would be used to the extra novelty.”
The foreman broke into a chuckle.
“A novelty. Well, that’s one way of putting it. But it’s true. We’re used to most things here. And to be fair, even the worst of the woods know to leave us alone. No point hunting those with axes when there are plenty of those without them. But the wargs–they’re different now. Agitated. A pack has gathered, crying out for the missing moon. They’re angry and frightened. And that means they’re unpredictable.”
I pursed my lips, frowning at the forest and all the hidden eyes doubtless watching.
“Your men are, like you say, armed with axes. And nor are they few in number. Would wargs truly attack while you work, with torches and flames also at your back?”
“Not if the sky was normal, no. And not if they weren’t starving. But there’s more to it than that. There’s something else this forsaken sky has woken. Something damn worse than any warg.”
The foreman leaned closer to offer a whisper.
I nodded for him to speak while I leaned away.
“A werewolf,” he said, forced to speak at normal volume.
I groaned, wishing I’d leaned away far enough I could claim to have misheard him.
A werewolf?
Really? Now?
There was a hole in my sky! I officially did not have time to be dealing with lycanthropy! I … I had things to do! Mages to scowl at! Artifacts to requisition! How was I supposed to order other people to do all the work if I was busy evicting werewolves from my kingdom?!
“You cannot be serious,” I said in disbelief. “A werewolf? In this forest? Are you certain?”
The man’s shoulders sagged, as though weighed down by a truth he wished he did not know.
“Before? … No. It used to be just rumours. A story the boys like repeating to themselves when the fire is at its warmest, of a savage beast walking on its hind legs with eyes as red as blood. But these wargs–they’ve changed. I can feel it as much as their howling. We all can.”
The foreman thumbed at the campfire gathering.
“Derik and Roel swear to seeing the warg pack only a stone’s throw away. I’d have believed them even without the fear in their eyes. They’re near. And I know for a fact they aren’t even hungry. There’s more than enough deer in the forest for them. It means they’re here because of something else. Like they’re being goaded. And I don’t want my men facing the shadows if they decide to stop preying on game.”
I let out a quiet groan.
Uuuuggggghhhhhhh.
Everything I didn’t want to hear … and yet I only expected more.
“Sir Foreman, if a werewolf was rumoured to be in this forest, did you not report this?”
“‘Course I did. Didn’t matter if I believed it or not. I did my duty. We had guards come down from the nearest garrison, adventurers looking for a way to earn a tale, even a few mages wanting to borrow some of its blood. Nothing. No hint of a werewolf and no attacks that I know of.”
“A strange rumour to suddenly believe in, then. Can the encroachment of the wargs not be explained by the black hole sweeping aside both the sun and the moon?”
“That’s what I hope, aye. But it wasn’t me who first started these rumours. These warnings.”
I rolled my hands, waiting for him to continue.
He hesitated before he did so.
“That’d be Jenny,” he said, looking almost embarrassed. “Good girl. And knows more about the forest than anyone else. Lost her grandmother a while back. Nasty business. Said a werewolf did it. Now she’s stopped selling apples and started selling wolf pelts. I didn’t take her word to heart at first, but now I’m inclined to listen. Something’s out there. And I mean to keep our axes from blunting on bark until I know what it is. Or Jenny finally kills it, I suppose.”
I reached up and tugged on my ears slightly.
“Excuse me, but are you saying you’re content to merely sit here until some … girl in the forest slays a werewolf?”
The foreman looked sheepish. It was several shades below the correct colour.
“Jenny is her own mind. I’ve talked to her about getting out of that forest. But it’s her home and that I accept. For myself, I’ve a responsibility to keep my men as safe as I can manage. Until the sky falls on our heads, that’s my only concern.”
I could scarcely believe what I was hearing.
Why, his only concern should be maximising profit at the expense of safety regulations and good working practises! This duty of care was highly uncalled for!
“Should the sky fall, it means even the heavens see fit to assist in felling the trees. That cannot be permitted. I’ve no wish to offer my gratitude to them. Please ensure the first varnished wine cabinet is ready for export by the time I return.”
The foreman blinked.
“Uh … return, ma’am?”
I nodded, convinced of what I must do.
… Get Coppelia to throw sticks into the forest until all retreated in fear!
“This … werewolf. Where might I find it?”
The foreman looked stunned for a moment, as much from the dazzling light of my sword as it was from meeting the only person with working legs in the kingdom. And sitting on Apple didn’t count.
“You’d need to ask Jenny,” he said after a pause. “She’ll know more than anyone.”
“Fine. Where is this Penny?”
“Jenny. She’s got a cabin in the woods, not far off the road. There’s a trail which splits off towards it. If she’s not in, I reckon you’ll see her just by looking around. She’s hard to miss, even in the dark.”
“Why? What is special about this woodland girl other than her choice of residency?”
The foreman looked up in thought.
After a moment, he merely offered a shrug.
“She sticks out. Sort of like you.”
I raised a brow.
Then, I tugged on Apple’s reins. He began trotting at once.
“Nobody is like me. If there was, it wouldn’t be a black hole drawing my attention. But another star.”
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I just discovered this poor teenager's story after seeing an article online. I seriously went down a rabbit hole the last few days. I have watched videos and read a lot of news stories. But, I still have some questions I thought people here could answer and also some thoughts.
First question, why is this video the ONLY footage that has ever been released online? Is it because it was taken live? I understand everyone must have signed an NDA.. how did this video make it online?
Next, at the end of the video Cameron clearly seems to be pulled under water. He is there one second and gone the next. How do people who claim he was pulled out to sea by the current explain this? If it wasn't sharks (which it certainly seems like it was), wouldn't those watching him from the boat be able to see him, recover the buoy, and throw it to him? Not to mention, if it wasn't sharks wouldn't a members of the crew just jump in and help him back to the boat? I guess I am just so intrigued by what happens AFTER they are all yelling "grab the buoy." It doesn't make any sense why there was no real rescue attempt if it was a drowning/being taken by the current.
Some thoughts: - I absolutely can hear a very drunk guy saying "something is chomping on his sh**." In the video.

• I also was wondering if the audio and video in the clip don't match up. For example, the guy filming is saying "he jumped in the water!" Clearly well after he jumped in. Also, when everyone is shouting "grab the buoy!" At that point, he isn't anywhere near it.

-Along with that, you can hear 2 high pitched screams at the beginning, I wondered if these are actually, sadly Cameron. They are heard off in the distant much like the other screams heard later on. -I am not certain the sharks are visible at any point coming out of the water. I still think it looks like he's kicking. But, the one seen in an S Shape is 100% a shark. So, even if he wasn't bitten exactly when the "splashes" occur, it's obvious that is what happened.
-Finally, it really looks to me like his left arm is missing shortly after those 2 shrieks can be heard. And the "chomping on his sh**" comment. It happens so quickly (when the fuy filming pans around the boat for some reason) and again makes me wonder if this video has been edited.
Anyway, I feel so badly for his family and friends. As a parent, I couldn't stop thinking about this tragic and senseless death. I just had to know what happened to him. I appreciate any answers to my questions.

My husband is a machine operator and "crushed"/ripped off a portion of his thumb at work two days ago. He went to the ER, no fractures, but his wound couldn't be closed because there was no skin left because it was sucked into the machine. 😳 The ER doc gave two shots of lidocaine, which made the pain subside temporarily while they wrapped his thumb. He was given two prescriptions - an antibiotic and pain medication - and sent home.
Today, we attempted to remove the dressing, but it was stuck to the open wound and my husband was in agony so we decided to go to urgent care for help. Upon arriving, we see that the urgent care clinic is closed and went back to the ER that treated him initially. A nurse came to the front where we were and we went to a side room where she began to remove the dressing. It was awful!! My husband was visibly in pain - shaking, grimacing, breathing rapidly - it was not a good situation. While the nurse removed the dressing, she was shaking her head repeatedly and told us that it shouldn't have been wrapped in this manner. The prior nurse wrapped it in a bandage with antibiotic medicine on it and the open wound basically adhered to it over the past 48 hours making it extremely difficult to remove and incredibly painful.
Long story short, the nurse re-wraps it and says to change it twice a day from here on out. My husband is still in a great deal of pain and knowing he only has 3 of his 10 pain pills left I ask the nurse if he could be prescribed more. She says, in order to do that, he would have to be admitted and the doctor may or may not give the prescription. She then rattles on about the "bad apples" that purposely injur themselves for meds...blah blah blah. And I'm thinking, my husband literally had a quarter of his thumb sucked into a machine and you're sitting here telling us about "bad apples". Wtf?! I'm at a loss on what we should do at this point because this will likely hurt significantly for the next few days and he's gonna need something stronger than tylenol or ibuprofen. Our PCP doesn't take workers comp, so how do we handle temporary after care to get the medication be needs for pain management? We're both lost on what to do. Any advice?

Age of Legends
Prologue(Death and birth of a dragon)

Rand was happy, there wasn’t much else he could say about how he felt right there at that specific moment. Lying there in bed wearing nothing but his small cloths and a silk shirt half buttoned. Beside him sleeping so peacefully was one of his beautiful wives, Elmindreada, though she hated that name and preferred Min. Thinking back on many long years of peace and growth, yes he was fated to break the world, and he had. Though the prophecies never mentioned the creation and growth he would also leave behind. The creation of the black tower and the worldwide acceptance of male Aes Sedai, his crown and epitome of success the cleansing of saiadin. That and the discovery of ancient knowledge to confirm anyone should be able to learn to touch at least a small part of the true source, at least most people could. Those two things alone would have vast and far-reaching consequences for the good. The covers beside him shifted as his wife turned over in her sleep showing him her short curly hair. Thoughts drifting again to convincing the Aeil and Tu’athan(the tinkers he thought fondly still) to make peace, them taking it a step further and settling in the two rivers. The tinkers, the wondering people and followers of the way of the leaf, coming to terms with the Aiel spear wielders and settling in one place, that one place being his boyhood homeland. Perrin was there, as well as all the Emond fielders, what’s more they set him up like some king and started calling the place Manetheren.
Mat even came back and settled down to retire with the remainder of his family after his wife the empress died. Rand frowned because that wasn’t a happy memory, her battle with some kind of internal growth that even the best healers couldn’t fix, it was slow and painful. She was tough and knew enough to put things in order so there wouldn’t be any war for succession, but after her death and with no children not adopted, Mat just had no pull to stay. He came back and Perrin gave him an estate where he spent the rest of his days carousing in taverns even if no one would play dice with him again. The rest of his days were not much however, less than two years after his wife Mattrim died of a heart attack. The same strange fox head medallion he wore around his neck that had saved him so many times from enemy power wielders, due to its powers of absorbing any of the one power used against the wearer, was strangely the main cause of his death as there had been an Aes Sedai capable of healing close by. Rand wondered what ever became of that medallion. Trying to shift his thoughts back to happier things he thought of Elayne another of his wives and queen of the region this new “kingdom” was growing. Or at least she was. Having not one but two kingdoms to run was taxing her, especially when one played that awful game of houses so much, as if it were breathing. She actually willingly gave that area to Perrin, that and more besides. “Having friends at your back, especially friends who know they owe you can only help.”, he remembered her saying when he asked her.
He laughed remembering how her cute golden-haired little face grew so stern while she rounded on him for not caring about his friends and shouldn’t they also get something for all the help they provided at the last battle. Of course, it also had nothing to do with being such close friends with Perrin’s wife Fail. Manetheren though, when asked Perrin just shrugged his huge shoulders saying one name is as good as any, and it was the one that everyone agreed on.
Min groaned softly beside him still wrapped in the silken bedding spread. His laugh seemed to have disturbed her, he quickly stifled it and glared at the lavish bedroom they slept in as if that were the fault for his mirth. Lying on top of the silken covers because he never quite got used to sleeping on feather mattresses. It really was a lavish bedroom, filled with rugs and wall coverings, paintings, not one but two large dressers with mirrors, a matching and equally large wardrobe, currently opened showing two other mirrors on the inside of the doors, smaller than the dresser mirrors, and a neat array of blouses and trousers with floral embroidery(Min’s things). Otherwise, there was also a washstand with another small mirror, a desk and one chair slightly askew and away from the desk. On the desk are several stacks of books, and an open notebook with a nearby quill and ink pot. There was a lone unlit lamp also on the desk gilded in gold, as well as several gold gilded wall lamps also unlit around the room.
Sighing softly as Min settled back to comfortable sleep, he stared back up at the bland whitewashed ceiling above him and thought about the schools he had patroned. So many new ideas and inventions were springing up and with traveling prevalent they all spread to the world almost as fast as the ideas can be thought up. This would hopefully lead to a golden age for the world, and his schools were even branching off on their own into new learning institutes. These alone seemed to keep the peace between all the nations. Rand couldn’t tell if he was trying to be modest or humble. Yes he patroned and started the first few schools, but it was not all him coming up with any of the ideas and inventions, many of which had become marvels in and of themselves. Transportation, communication, education These would be left behind and he would be known for that as well as the other.
Breaking the world to make it whole, and his victory with that world’s armies at the last battle. He fought the dark one while the armies of all the nations fought the shadowspawn and darkfriends and dreadlords. Despite everything against him, including it seemed sometimes even the creator, he not only won the battle, but he survived it, he survived it and had a nice long life. The world was at peace, headed to a golden age which he would get credit for, and so Rand was happy. His eyes closed and his thoughts grew that sort of muffled feeling they get just as they start turning into dreams.
PAIN! Rand knew pain, he was no stranger to hurts, especially from a half healed old wound in his side, but that was not the same thing right now. For some reason panic started rising up in him, this was something new, this was something worse. A sharp pain again, in his chest, his body wildly spasmed up kicking his sleeping wife awake.
“Ow you bloody tall buffoon, if you think you can kick me out of bed you have another thing …” Min trailed off as another spasm of pain racked through Rand. Her face contorting with fear as she watched him clutching his chest nearly double over with the pain spasm. He tried to tell her he would be alright, but all that came out was a groaning grunt. He tried lifting his hand to show her it would be alright, but he couldn’t get it to move. Suddenly a hand hit him in his face, it was his hand. He couldn’t feel his hand or his arm. Fear started creeping in as another spasm of pain caused him to let out another groan and clutch at his chest with this hand he couldn’t feel.
“Creator shine his light on me, of course you would choose to die when you’re with me.” Min started shouting hysterically. “For the love of light you bloody wool head, you hang on until I can get Aviendha to come heal you, she’s not far, just hold on damn you.”
Rand vaguely had an impression of Min running towards and out the door. Another spasm of pain, except somehow this was less. He knew it should hurt just as much, but it didn’t. He must have found the void so it wouldn’t hurt as much, that was it. Rand thought about his third and final wife Aviendha, how she would likely come in to find him as healthy as a bull and upset his stomachache disturbed her wise one’s practice. Stomachache? Wasn’t it his chest that was hurting him? Another very small spasm, yes its his chest, but he was also feeling decidedly nauseous too, and that was the greatest issue right? Sleep was all he needed, he would sleep, and everything would be fine in the morning, tomorrow he had to get up early to sheer the sheep.
The void completely surrounds and envelops Rand. As he fades away he hears a sinister voice in his head, “YOU WON THIS ROUND DRAGON REBORN BUT WE WILL COME FACE TO FACE AGAIN” The dark one, what, again? No, the dark one is dead, am I dead, wake up you light blinded fool. There was nothing but the void, not even the light of saiadin could be seen. Rand listened as hard as he could, he thought he heard something, something almost familiar. There it was again, soft but rhythmic, sounding not exactly far, but muffled as if listening through water. Thump Thump and it hit him, that’s the sound of a heartbeat, but who’s heartbeat his? Sleep, that’s what he needed, a really good nights sleep and he would feel better in the morning. Rand drifted off into a dreamless sleep listening to the heartbeat, Thump Thump.
Thus did the dragon reborn die after seeing the end of one age turned into the beginning of another. The people of the land wept at his passing, they swore they would remember him forever and always. Time however is not a kind mistress, when an age is gone it starts to fade from existence, times deeds even people change in the telling’s of the years and centuries. Eventually when the wheel goes round and gives birth to the age again all details have been forgotten, muffled, or contorted.

Mariann Jo’sheen Sedai was old. She had a proper last name once if she could just remember. It had been so long ago since she had last thought of it, a life in the white tower could do that, and Sedai was as good a last name as could be for formality. Just saying Mariann was old was an understatement though, being a woman with a stronger channeling ability, and having sworn on all 8 Life Oath Rods, a prerequisite to becoming Amyrlin of the tower, that she even has any grey hair showing means she must be well past 800 years old, and to show the amount of age she did it must be closer to past 900 years. She was still sharp in mind mostly, at least anything from the last 100 years or so she could recall as sharp as if it happened yesterday. Had it really been longer than a hundred years since she last though of her family name, having long lasted past the last of her lineage, her family long gone or married into others.
She thought even harder surly she had been at her last relative’s funeral, when was it, it was a great aunt she remembered, and the surname was …, she thought really hard. She was in the Amyrlin’s bedchamber reserved for the current leader of the white tower. That said like most of the past Amyrlins before her she kept the bedroom nice and simple. The single window held a cooling fan with right below it a heater coil. The other wall held a closed door which led into her bathroom, the next wall holding another door leading out of the bedchamber into the office of her role. The last wall held the only other furniture besides the plain brown four poster bed she was laying on. A white nightstand with built in mirror and matching white clothed chair. The bathroom was large and would hold her wardrobe of clothes along with the indoor plumbing necessities.
Mariann thought back to each of the eight oaths she took on the life rods, trying to remember which one she had last taken when she attended her aunt’s funeral. Small cylindrical devices no longer than her arm, when you take an oath on one your life actually increases by a standard lifetime or roughly 100 years depending on the person, those stronger in the one power given slightly more. Really giving any oath at all would do for the increasing your life, the only requirement being you channel Saiadar while making your oath and someone else that can also channel does so to activate it. However each specific Ajah required you to take a specific oath, and the eighth oath rod was solely for those like her who have taken the Amyrlin seat after having have pledged on the other seven, again a specific oath.
“I will say no word that is untrue”. Eight oath rods, and eight times this is spoken to ensure you do not offer a false oath, as if anyone would think of lying so many truth seekers everywhere.
“I will faithfully serve as Amyrlin to all of my children for the rest of my days”. The Amyrlin seat was a lifelong position and would not open again until her death. Serve all her children, it was said that the ancient honorific Amyrlin meant something like mother to all, it means that she was a servant to everyone in the world, matter it not she was the leader of the white tower. That first part about serving faithfully as Amyrlin could leave some wiggle room depending on how one viewed the title of Amyrlin, the last however left no wiggle room for anything.
“I will treat everyone with fairness and justice as is prescribed by the dai’shan aiel of the grey tower and the Aes Sedai code of ethics”. Those were binding stronger than time itself. The grey tower first because only the dai’shan aiel more than anyone can decide what is fair and right, they were and are the original truth seekers among so much more. You would also have as much power to reach the moon as you would to get the Aes Sedai code of ethics changed. First it would take a proposal from either of the leaders from the white or black tower. Either the Amyrlin of the white tower or the Pope of the black tower has to make a suggested change, which then needs to go through each Ajah/Faction and receive 90% approval, then it gets sent to the other tower to make its way up through the chains until it finally ends with the other towers leader. If it passes all of that it gets sent to the grey tower for approval again 90% before finally appearing before the first servant leader of the grey tower for final approval, and at any stage it can be stopped if it doesn’t pass.
That wasn’t it though, no she was not Amyrlin at her aunt’s funeral. Before then was the Blue ajah, which was closer. But still too recent, what level was she? The sleeping shift she wore was one of the new fads called a one piece. It was literally one garment that covered both legs and torso. It had several convenient buttons for keeping it on or taking it off. It was grey cotton all one solid color, and it was bunching up at the knees. Mariann distractedly Jerked it back into position. Her thoughts drifted too far back to when she had her very first foretelling which was that she would one day become Amyrlin seat. She was a young girl of only 16 years, and she knew without a doubt. It came in bursts though and it was not something she could control.
This vision came on stronger than any she had ever encountered before. So strong it jerked her body stiff as a board and slammed her down thankfully into the bed she was already laying on. An Evil shadow of a man, a giant taller than mountains, and blacker than the darkest shadows on a moonless night, peering down at the world smiling, that smile turning your blood to jelly and freezing you in place with its ill intent. A great serpentine beast came flying from the other side of the world, Long and scales glimmering like diamonds with talons made of pure gold but sharper than the sharpest knife, fire trailing from its partially open moth off its gleaming sharp teeth. It was equally large as the malevolent shadow man and flew on giant tornado causing wings straight at the other. They fought a great battle against each other, but in doing so caused so many deaths as swaths of their destruction ravaged the world. A flash of light and Mariann was staring at the grey tower as if just a few hundred yards away. She started walking towards it only to watch in horror and bewilderment as the tower before her cracked and collapsed as if a mirror or glass shattered. Another flash of light and she saw a baby boy, but he aged so fast right before her eyes until he died as an old man. She couldn’t remember much, but she knew deep down that he was in some way related to the other visions and this man, for it was definitely a man, was likely the cause of them.
Opening her eyes to stare at the brown four poster cloth above her and remembering every detail about her vision she distractedly spoke to herself . “Goshin is my sur name and I last heard it at Aunt Maragel Goshin’s funeral while I was at the green level”. She shook her head, that wasn’t important anymore if it ever really was. She quickly sat up in her woolen one piece swinging her feet over the side of the bed and hurried to her nightstand. Sitting in the chair she reached in one drawer to get paper and another to get an ink pointer. Channeling a single small strand of fire into a swinging glass bulb above her bed brought light into the room. She hastily started scribbling down every detail from her vision, she was grateful she always kept ink and paper nearby to do so.

Mr. Telamon was a nervous wreck while sitting in the hospital waiting room. He somehow knew, sensed something was wrong with his wife’s delivery. Dai’shan aiel were everywhere; as were nurses, patients or close kin waiting, Every once in a while a doctor’s assistant would come out and call a name ushering someone to see a doctor. Really bad cases would be taken in through a separate entrance known only to the healers. It didn’t matter, and he got confirmation as those doors opened up and not the assistant, but the doctor who had taken his wife looked around the room first at the dai’shan, then at him. A group of three of the white clad figures started moving towards him even before the doctor did. They felt his grief or rather the grief he was going to feel, even before he himself felt it. That and they knew it would take three of them to calm him down. Tears were streaming from his eyes before the doctor even started speaking.
“There was a complication during the pregnancy, your son is ok, your wife however did not make it, I’m so sorry. She did manage to tell us a name before she passed. Lews, Lews Therin after her father. Is that what you would like on the birth certificate?”
Baby Lews’s father numbly nodded, and the doctor walked away as uncontrollable sobs started emanating from the man. The three dai’shan aiel circled around him arm in arm and started singing a song of comfort and peace and mourning.
***
Rand Al’thor was asleep soundly when something woke him up, but he couldn’t tell what or where, or even anything for that matter. It was like the void, nothingness, but a sound, not a feeling, a heartbeat. The heartbeat was much faster than it was and suddenly something pushed him hard in the head. Go away he thought I’m trying to sleep. However the push came back stronger than before, this time managing to flip him upside down, upside down?, he could tell direction in this floating nothingness. Really awake now Rand tried to remember, remember?, remember what? Again the push and he was being squeezed to death and suddenly he remembered something about the dark one. A voice, a word, a sentence, the dark one wanted him dead. Was this the dark one trying to kill him, again push, again very tight squeeze, this time a light as if from a tunnel. It wasn’t the only light though, Rand went to the real void, and he saw it, Saiadin. He reached out with all his might to grab it and it came like a flood. He couldn’t control it, he had no strength, and his memory was foggy, he just expelled it to get out the other light and away from the pushing and death squeeze.
As Saiadin left him so did more and more memories, he tried to shout that he killed the dark one, sealed the bore so it could never be open. All that came out of his mouth was a scream. No blood and fire no I did this already, I won, I’m done. And with that last thought Rand Al’thor fell deep deep asleep into the furthest recesses of the brain. Lews took a deep breath and let out another scream wanting his mother or anyone to come pick him up and sooth his little soul.

The dragon is born!

Chapter 1
16 years later
The wheel of time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the fifth age by some and the first by others. An age yet to come, an age long past, a dark icy wind arose from about as far north as you can get. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the wheel of time. But it was a beginning.
A steam vent in an icy mountain let out a puff of sulfur like particles riding the wind. High and fast the dark tainted wind rode across the Nym fields, high enough to escape the notice of the Nym, ever vigilant in their desire to protect the world. Over the borderlands of mankind, given graciously by the Nym when mankind needs more space to grow. Still high in the sky the dark wind blew through wild wilderness where only the Nym, the Ogier, the dai’shan aiel, and the Aes Sedai were allowed to travel if at some risk. The wind started descending as it traveled into the warmer southern air. Up ahead in the distance was a magnificently large tower made of stone black like obsidian, but much stronger. Along the northern wall of this Black tower were several windows, most open hoping to catch some of the cool breeze which it did nicely.
It was into one of these windows the dark wind blew, a classroom, though filled only with boys. The tainted breeze flew around several students, all dressed in black school uniforms and sitting at wooden desks on little rickety stool like chairs with just the barest of backrest. The flow of air flew so close to the face of one student he gave a start, finally going up the next nearby student’s nose just as he took in a deep breath.
Lews gave such a start at the intrusion, and he stood up sneezing loudly, the rancid smell still strong in his nose. Taller than most of his peers he certainly stood over everyone’s head while they were all sitting down.
“What are you doing, you look like a dork, hurry and sit down before anyone notices.” His best friend [Ishamael]() tried to warn him. However, it was already too late for that, most of the class was now looking at him which made him self conscious even if the women all said he looked like a dream. Worse, the teacher at the front of the class in a very similar black colored uniform was looking at him expectedly.
“Yes Lews, do you think you know the answer?” To Lews’s horror he realized he had been spending most of the class in a daydream about being the most powerful weaver ever. It was important that distinction, woman channel men weave. Saiadar and Saiadin, two halves of the same whole, both apart of the one power the true source. Everyone could learn to use it, or at least almost everyone. The dai’shan don’t channel or weave for all the power of their songs, not one of them it’s a law to join among other things. Other people might be so weak in the power it should be they don’t have it at all, there are objects which can amplify or temporarily give someone use of the one power, those with so little power that resort to using these transcognative devices were often socially outcast. Transmogs they were called when someone was being nice.
That didn’t help him now, he was in history class, and definitely not studying Transmogs. Lews desperately wracked his brain trying to remember what they were discussing. The teacher’s slight smile was starting to droop to a slight frown. Nym’s that was what they were discussing, what about Nym’s? Desperately looking around for some hope, he finally remembered. It was a question about the first Nym, what was his name?
“Goak him jim knee?” Lews answered with a rightfully apologetic look on his face. Sighing the teacher said “close, Oakhimgimee. At least he was close!” The teacher got progressively louder while giving the rest of the class an evil eye. The laughter that had started quickly quieted. Just at that particular moment a loud bell decided to ring calling an end to that class period.
As the other students started standing up, talking, and starting to head for the door, the teacher weaved a small weave that produced a louder voice reminding the class they had the test coming up at the end of the week.
Lews slowly grabbed his bag and followed the steady stream of students leaving the class.

I've spent so much time wondering if I'm crazy for distrusting me (former) dentist that I'm not even going to be able to formulate a coherent question. Instead, I'm going to make a sequential list of the relevant events:

1. Early fall: dentist replaces a large amalgam filling in molar 31 (back right side). This filling was *exactly* two years old. I later learned that my insurance will pay for a new filling *exactly* once every two years--although a good filling that's well taken care of typically lasts a lot longer than that. I take good care of my teeth and only have a couple of cavities--but I'm getting ahead of myself.
2. A month later, I returned to the dentist because I had pain in 31 whenever I tried to chew on that side of my mouth. My dentist had warned me that I might have some pain for up to two weeks after the procedure, but this was going on five weeks now. I'd also noticed that it was hard to fit my floss in between 31 and 30. My gums were always sensitive there, and they always bled and often broke the floss. And lastly, it seemed like part of that tooth had actually broken off. A week or two earlier, I'd bit down on what felt like a small rock in my sandwich. Ever since then, it had seemed like part of the cusp that abuts 30 on the buccal side was missing. There was also a new triangular gap that had formed at the base of 31, near the gum. When I tried to show the gap to my dentist, however, she told me she *couldn't see it.* I found this kind of jaw-dropping because I could see the gap so easily. And I'd pointed to it. I'd explained exactly where it was. But she told me I should change my flossing technique and sent me on my merry way. Later, when I was trying to make sense of what had happened in that appointment, I realized that my dentist hadn't even looked at the break with a dental mirror--let alone using any other specialized lenses or equipment.
3. Two weeks later, I called back in a state of exasperation, because I had no idea what more I could do to help my dentist see the break--and yet, the pain when I chewed only got worse. What's more, food not only got caught in the gap. It would also just sit there on the top of my tooth, on the low part where part of the cusp had come off. The dental office got me in a few days later, but once I was there, the dentist denied seeing the break AGAIN! I had to be really persistent and basically just keep pointing and pointing and repeating that she needed to look at the gumline, between the teeth. The FINALLY she acted super excited and pointed to a screen that was showing an image from inside my mouth and told me--as if I didn't know?!--OH, IT'S DOWN HERE! BETWEEN YOUR TEETH!!! And if that was genuine human emotion she was displaying, I must be a robot, because it looked to me like ludicrously unconvincing act I had ever seen. I tried not to roll my eyes, but I also didn't smile--and I could tell she noticed. She then told me that large amalgam filling sometimes cause the tooth to break underneath and recommended I get a crown. Although the crown cost me another $450 (since my insurance only paid half), I quickly agreed. I just wanted the tooth to be fixed and the pain to stop.
4. My dentist then tried to get me to delay the crown until January. This was mid-October. I told her, "My tooth is broken at the gumline. If I wait until January to get it fixed, I'm going to need a root canal." She said, "No. I'm not worried about that because you take excellent care of your teeth!" I insisted on getting the crown as early as possible, so she scheduled the two appointments for late November and early December. This meant I'd have the broken tooth--which I later learned was causing signs of temporary pulpitis--unfixed for another six-plus weeks.
5. In early December, my dentist put on the crown--but she didn't do an x-ray to check them margin.
6. In January, I went in for my 6-month cleaning and told the hygenist I still had pain in 31 and still couldn't chew on it. They got me back in a few days later, and the dentist lowered the crown--which totally fixed the pain. Yay! The dentist also did an x-ray of 31 and saw that it had an open margin. Props to her, I guess, for disclosing this finding to me? She then scheduled me for a replacement crown, which she agreed to do at no additional charge--although she did end up charging my insurance for some of the x-rays necessary for the replacement, which caused me to reach my annual maximum even sooner.
7. A month later, she prepared my tooth for the second crown and as soon as the analgesic wore off, I notice throbbing, overwhelming pain. This pain only got worse over the subsequent two weeks. It turned out that I would need a root canal. Although my dentist admitted that the trauma to the tooth from two crown preps had caused the nerve to die, she did not offer to pay for the root canal. I, therefore, had to use all my insurance money for the entire year--plus another $500 I didn't have--to pay for it.
8. In February, I had another situation with a gap between two different molars that my dentist couldn't see. I got a second opinion and the second dentist could immediately see the problem: the filling in one molar (3?) was pushing too hard into the next tooth (4), wedging the teeth apart. The filling in 3 also had a hole it in, which had caused decay that started on the surface and went all the way through to the side of the tooth, where there were brown spots inside the gap. The second dentist replaced the filling, fixed the contact, and I've had no further problems with 3 and 4! :-)
9. Sometime in March, the first dentist finally places the second permanent crown--after leaving me in a temporary crown for 5 weeks. At this point, there is new decay under the temporary crown, which the endodonist saw when he did the root canal. There is smelly, slimy black stuff all over my tooth, and there is a bright white patch of over-calcification as well as a deep black groove. None of this was there at the first crown prep, when my tooth was entirely smooth and uniform in color. I've been told this is okay, though, because the dentist presumably filled the new cavity before placing the second crown.
10. The second crown isn't great. The cusps are all ground down from the dentist's adjustments, so its not even shaped like a tooth. Without cusps to keep the food in the tooth, it just slides down the outer edge of the tooth straight into my gums. My gums are always irritated around the new crown, and my new dentist says there's en "overhang," which has left a gap just below the gums, where food can get trapped. My new dentist has confirmed that there's no open margin this time, but I'm concerned about the gum irritation and am going to have to have this crown fixed or replaced as soon as I can. (I am a graduate student, so my resources are limited.)
11. This is the real kicker: Like, two days ago (ie in June) I get a letter from this dentists office telling me, "respectfully," to seek dental care elsewhere. The dentist says she believes that "trust" between a dentist and a patient is "essential" and "clearly," trust is lacking here. I had already changed dentists at this point. I'd scheduled a cleaning for this coming July just so the dentist wouldn't know I was leaving until she'd finished replacing my crown. About a month ago, however, the office had called to tell me they'd be closed on the date of my July cleaning and saying I'd need to reschedule. I had done a little happy dance, because I now wouldn't have to call them to cancel my cleaning. I could simply ghost them by never rescheduling that cleaning. I celebrated too soon, though, because apparently they were not done with me. Did my dentist really just pull the old "you didn't dump me, I dumped you" on me?!? In all seriousness, though, that seems pretty sleazy to me to dump a client as soon as you've screwed up her dental work. I mean, yes, I'd also asked my insurance company to verify a couple of her recent claims, which she mentioned in the letter. In fact, I'd asked them to verify her claim, in January, that she'd done a "comprehensive oral exam" precisely because I wanted to be able to get a comprehensive exam from my new dentist--and I KNEW she'd only done a "limited, problem-based exam" in January. (It's weird, though, because my insurance actually pays more for a "limited" exam than for a "comprehensive one." May, though, it looks bad if they do too many "problem-based" exams within a short period of time? Anyway, insurance was no help--probably because why would they care if she billed for the LESS expensive exam?) This is all to say, I was never planning to let this dentist TOUCH my mouth again. Instead, I'm going to pay out of pocket (or, really, on a "Care Credit" card) to get this whole crown redone. At the same time, though, I'd been her patient for 8 years--and the moment I had to follow up with her after a filling with some problems, she sends me a letter of termination? What if I couldn't even get the credit to get this twice-botched crown fixed elsewhere? I guess I'd just have to wait ten years until my insurance would pay 50% of another crown?

Anyway, this dentists letter of termination really got me doubting my own reality and sense of justice here--but maybe that's just because I'm a people-pleaser who can't stand even the slightest insinuation that I've somehow been a bad patient? What I experience really wasn't typical, right? I'm in my early forties, and my dentist kept saying that "as we get older" we start to have more dental problem. But I have like 3-4 cavities total, no other crowns, no previous root canals, and even a family history of "strong enamel." (My 74-year old mother has never even had a single root canal--although she does have a couple of crowns.)
What I want to know is, how common is it for this kind of thing to happen? Also, am I vindictive and terrible if I file a complaint with the local dental board? I kinda just want my money back from that whole crown ordeal at this point--which is still less than the cost of the root canal and all the other visits.

Last year, my fiancée and I re-homed two beautiful snowdrop rag doll cats from an owner elsewhere in the country who said she could no longer adequately take care of them due to childcare commitments and separation from her long term partner. Prior to this, my fiancée’s childhood cat of 16 years had moved in with us in our first shared home and sadly died in our arms from a heart attack. We were devastated and saddened, but moved on and decided to look for a new cat - hence this decision. We initially only wanted one cat, but these two came as a pair, were pedigree with all the paperwork, and we were getting them for a very good price from a seller who didn’t appear to be ‘dodgy’ in any sense.
Fast forward a little over a year and these two cats just keep urinating on our furniture. Sometimes there’s an excuse - perhaps their litter trays were getting a little smelly or hadn’t been changed in a few days - but sometimes there is not any conceivable reason for them to do it. My fiancée and I recently had our first beautiful baby daughter and agreed mutually that if this peeing problem ever spread to the point where they peed on the baby’s cot, or moses basket, or really anything of hers, then it would be over and they would have to be re-homed again. Well, of course they did that. My partner was livid - babies are highly susceptible to illness from cat urine and so we washed everything to within an inch of its life, pretending to have forgetting our agreement as we love the cats and really wanted to make this work. However, tonight there was no excuse. The litter trays were clean, they had been fed and watered and cuddled. And yet, one of them went upstairs and urinated on our bed. This is the second time this has happened in as many weeks.
We’ve both now said enough is finally enough. They have to go, it’s just too risky with our baby. We feel that we have given these cats every opportunity to behave but they just won’t. This has put strain on our relationship as we argue about whether the cats should stay or go after each incident, usually with me defending them and blaming myself for not doing enough by them. Tonight though even I said I’m done with dealing with cleaning my bed sheets at 11pm when I’m already tired.
The two cats don’t actually seem to like each other very much, despite being sisters. They constantly hiss at each other when they are close, and are not particularly cuddly with either of us. Additionally, one of them clearly wants to go outside all the time. However given the rarity and popularity of their breed, our area being a popular spot for foxes in the evenings, and the risk of them getting lost, we have opted not to let them out. The only time they go outside they are closely watched by me at all times, usually this is for grooming although they do try to run away often so I have to be careful.
Reddit, am I a bad cat owner? Why do my cats keep doing this? Am I cruel for wanting to be done with this and just re-home them? Have I missed something obvious which could explain this behaviour?

I would love to add that this is entirely my own opinion. I understand that plenty of people currently love how oppressive the bots feel and I’m not here to take that away from them. For those people, I would love your input on how you feel the bots challenge you in general so I can have a better idea on why people love them.
For me, I feel like the final “meta” way of dealing with bots are unfun. They are challenging for sure but not in a way I feel the borgs were in HD1.
I really feel like they missed what made bots fun in HD1. Nothing in HD1 felt contrived. Every death you got was entirely your fault/bad choice in tools. You had the capability to avoid all damage if you’re good (except for illuminate gates fuck those).
Whether it currently feels fair right now isn’t important. What is important is that it feels unfair but not in a fun way. When I die to bots, half the time I’m not entirely sure what killed me. That’s why I really would implore for laser pointers. The original game did something similar for illuminate sniper troops and it felt fantastic. You could see where you’re being shot at and make a decision on whether you wanted to counter snipe or take cover. There are no decisions to be made against bots, you take cover or you’ll die. You run or you die.
It has been good in that you need to have good map awareness and strategically plan your attacks. But it also makes it feel like you made a mistake where you didn’t even know you were being tested.
Some fantastic things about the current system that I don’t think should be taken away is

1. Cover, you should never be allowed to just run out into an open field, this should definitely be a death sentence
   
2. Strategic ambush, currently it feels amazing to happen upon a side objective, and efficiently clear them before they can fire back. Planning an angle of attack and enacting it is very satisfying. Even baiting troops out into better spots is viable although you’d have to kill then quick to prevent patrols. Lots of decisions that mechanically challenge the player here. I love it especially when a team of you storm a base. Feels so damn good to run between the levels dodging fire.
   
3. Map awareness is so much more important and you really feel like you’re moving through hostile territory. Bugs may have this but it’s definitely more sparse and comes in bursts. For bots, you always need to be aware where enemies are and make sure you aren’t accidentally attracting the wrong attention.
   

These things aside, these are some of the things that I feel could be added to smooth out the learning curve and provide natural difficulty scaling. While there are level systems already existing, there are still massive jumps in difficulty and when missions take so long, it’s a major investment in time to do weaker missions where you may not even face higher tier enemies to allow you to practice taking them on in a safer environment.

1. Introduce more CC tools like taking less damage when running (smoke isn’t consistent enough) or better navigational tools. Both which take up a slot but will help newer players smooth the curve. Once they are good, they can then utilise that slot for something meaningful.

It obviously shouldn’t be OP or a necessity to run but a decent quality of life (heat vision as an example).

1. Have more clearly telegraphed attacks, it’s already difficult when there are dozens of them but I feel like sounds, visuals can all help to make it better. Potentially having the first rocket miss might be an amazing tool in that you always are aware that something is coming while keeping that fear constant. This is something done in the last of us to amazing effect
   
2. high fire rate enemies should have worse accuracy, their goal should be as suppressive troops, if you stay in the open or don’t duck, you’re gonna be cooked. But you can dive to cover, wait for the battery to empty, and know you have a few seconds while their ammo recharges. Having consistent ways to outfox the bot would be cool. Like if you know how long their weapons take to fire again, or if you know certain signifiers that means you can retaliate.
   
3. Have beefier armoured vehicles for players but significantly reduced ammo and armour. Maybe you have to carry additional shells for tanks but they should act like actual tanks do in modern battles, infantry to cover while the tank has to decisively aim to knock out big targets. The tankiness allows for you to be pseudo-invincible but you’ll have to abandon them more often when they run out. So it’s good for short strategic defenses or assaults but you can’t be expected to rely on them.
   

I’d really hope for a himars like weapon. Mobile artillery strike but extremely squishy and good for one/two volleys, you have combined arms to take an objective which feels cool as heck.
With this, the attacks that are meant to kill you (rockets/tanks/near range attacks) all feel like decisions, do you have enough skill/the right tools to just run away? Or do you hope that you can dive to cover and still have time to back off? Or do you dive and counter attack?
These should not be done to make the game easier but be done to mechanically test the player to make right decisions. These are bots after all and they should have pretty standard ways of fighting.
My hope for illuminates is that they have a certain “code of honour” that dictates how they fight but they are still more intelligent in flanking and ambush.
Maybe they won’t attack you if you’re down, they prefer to have you set up as bait. Or melee attackers will they’ll target the strongest player a little bit more as they are a worthy foe. The snipers will try to snipe the soldier furthest away as a means to counter snipe/take out stragglers. That way if you have a playstyle, you have to know what you should be dealing with and how your playstyle will be challenged. The difficulty isn’t just increasing waves and armour but additional mechanical challenges that you have to learn.
That way difficulty is scaled based on your own abilities and if you find it difficult it automatically scales backwards.

I am at a loss. I don't know what to do or who to turn to for support. I (28f) have been with my fiancé (33m) for 5 years. He lives with me in the house I bought with our 4 pets. I knew he had addiction problems prior to our relationship, but I was under the impression he had been in recovery for some time. He used opiates for years before transitioning to kratom. I don't like it, but I had accepted it as a way for him to stay sober. I personally don't like to drink very often (3-5 times a year) and have only ever smoked marijuana. I would sometimes keep a bottle of wine in the fridge for when I felt like having some or for when I had company, but I eventually stopped because he would end up drinking it within a few days, whereas for me it would sit for months. He didn't admit he had a problem and I just stopped keeping alcohol in my house. He's bad with money and while we have kept all of our expenses separate, I have seen his banking app where he spends $5-15 at the sketchy gas station in our town every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. I asked him multiple times and he'd say gas or kratom but who needs gas every day or kratom when he buys kratom in bulk at a specific vape store? He would get upset when I asked about it, so I just (dumbly) left it alone. I really didn't think much was going on until about 10 months ago. He would be passed out cold by 8pm. He takes prescription sleeping medicine but it doesn't knock him out to the point of not responding. He wouldn't acknowledge it or talk to me about it and I didn't know what to do. I was working fulltime and in school and I spent the majority of my time focusing on those two things, which allowed me to just put the worry to the back of my mind. In January of this year, he came to me and told me he'd been an alcoholic for several months and had been hiding it from me. He hid the alcohol in his car so I wouldn't find it but he wanted help and he needed to be honest with me. He ended up in the ER a few days later because of withdrawal symptoms and they gave him medication to take, but he did not seek any programs or therapy after as suggested. He got upset every time I brought it up. He ended up abusing some of the medication prescribed to him for the withdrawal and ran out early (benzos.) I tried to be supportive but he didn't want to talk about it. He didn't tell his family and I didn't tell mine. About a month later, he called me sobbing and sounding drunk telling me he got fired. I could barely understand him. I was at work and didn't get off for another hour. When I asked him what he took or if he was drunk and he said he wasn't and genuinely sounded sober but very upset. I asked him to go home and I'd see him soon. I ended up leaving work about 30 minutes after our call and he wouldn't pick up. I got home and he wasn't there. I was panicking. I drove to his employer and saw his car and found him passed out behind the wheel, alive but unresponsive. I had called my mom on the way in hysterics and we were able to wake him up enough to walk to my car versus getting an ambulance ride. He was there for several hours and I called his mom and his sister and both came to see him. His sister (a mental health provider) stayed with us for a couple days. She was concerned because he didn't want to do a program and his mom seemed convinced this was a one-off because he hated his job- which he quit drunkenly, he was not fired. He seemed to genuinely want to change, but did not want to see a counselor, go to AA or join a program. He was off work for a month before starting his new job. During these last few months, I've started to get more concerned. He smokes weed almost constantly. I will most days before bed, but not to the point I'm useless for the rest of the day after work. He also stopped giving me his sleeping pills to dole out so he can't abuse them. More on that in a sec. And he's been out in his car late at night (we have cameras.) Any time I bring any of this up, he gets upset and denies everything. He had told me he hadn't refilled his sleeping pills but I found 3 on the floor today. He still insisted he hadn't gotten a new prescription, as if a controlled substance would just magically appear out of nowhere. He's been sleeping almost all day and when I tried to find where he stashed his pills, I found an empty bottle of vodka in his underwear drawer. He's asleep now and I haven't confronted him but I just don't know what to do. I love him very dearly and genuinely want to spend the rest of my life with him...but the sober him. The one who is present, isn't lying, isn't risking everything we've built. It isn't all bad. He's very kind, he does more chores than I do, he's wonderful to my aging parents and takes care of things at their house, too. He's funny and passionate about his new job, where he just got a promotion. It's like he's two people...one who is wonderful and brilliant and funny, and one who is self-destructive and desperate. I know when I confront him about what I found today that he'll get upset and accuse me of being overly critical of him or unfairly judging him. But I'm almost 30, I'm trying to get my degree and stay financially afloat. I had to drop out last semester because the 2nd hospital visit made me miss 3 tests due that night and honestly after seeing him looking lifeless in his car, I was so depressed and stressed out I couldn't keep up. I've had to pay for so many of his and our joint expenses that it feels like I'm drowning in debt. And i don't feel like I have anyone to talk to. I don't want to talk about it with my family and I don't have many friends. What do I do? Give him an ultimatum? Kick him out? I'm just sick of pretending everything is OK because I don't want to fight with him. I'm sick of feeling like I'm losing my future because he refuses to seek help.
If you've read this far, thank you. I'm open to any and all advice.

It seems like almost every time I’ve done anything sexual or romantic with a guy something bad has happened.
The first time I made out with a guy I was diagnosed with epididymitis an infection which caused testicular pain for months, even after it was treated, due to other issues. The weird thing is we didn’t do anything sexual that could cause the infection, just kissing.
The second time I had oral sex with a guy I had a weird burning sensation after urinating which happens sometimes but it was not cause by an STD (I was tested and the results were negative).
The first time I went on a formal date with a guy I got a phone call that my grandmother was in the hospital due to a chronic nose bleed. She was fine luckily but this still shook me.
A few weeks ago I went out to a gay baclub and got a lung infection after kissing three random guys when I was drunk. This caused weeks of intense coughing and discomfort.
Recently I went to a gay bar and made out with a guy then we went to a nearby park and did some other stuff. We just jerked each other off with minimal contact between our genitals. A drug addict interrupted at one point when his hand was down my pants and asked me for change which was obviously embarrassing and awkward. Once again I’m afraid something bad will happen and I have an irrational guilt and fear about this. I know most stds are very unlikely or impossible in this case so I don’t where these feelings come from. The guy was also much older than me and had a boyfriend but they are somewhat open. I also had a really bizarre dream yesterday involving a mad scientist forcing me to stay in his cult by using alcohol, drugs and attractive men. He wanted to perform bizarre experiments on me.
Perhaps I haven’t fully accepted my sexual orientation or I feel guilty about doing something in a semi public space ? Or maybe guilty for drinking too much and acting somewhat impulsively? I am aware rationally that the things I mentioned are probably just coincidences but I can’t get over these feelings easily. Any constructive feedback would be appreciated.

It seems like almost every time I’ve done anything sexual or romantic with a guy something bad has happened.
The first time I made out with a guy I was diagnosed with epididymitis an infection which caused testicular pain for months, even after it was treated, due to other issues. The weird thing is we didn’t do anything sexual that could cause the infection, just kissing.
The second time I had oral sex with a guy I had a weird burning sensation after urinating which happens sometimes but it was not cause by an STD (I was tested and the results were negative).
The first time I went on a formal date with a guy I got a phone call that my grandmother was in the hospital due to a chronic nose bleed. She was fine luckily but this still shook me.
A few weeks ago I went out to a gay baclub and got a lung infection after kissing three random guys when I was drunk. This caused weeks of intense coughing and discomfort.
Recently I went to a gay bar and made out with a guy then we went to a nearby park and did some other stuff. We just jerked each other off with minimal contact between our genitals. A drug addict interrupted at one point when his hand was down my pants and asked me for change which was obviously embarrassing and awkward. Once again I’m afraid something bad will happen and I have an irrational guilt and fear about this. I know most stds are very unlikely or impossible in this case so I don’t where these feelings come from. The guy was also much older than me and had a boyfriend but they are somewhat open. I also had a really bizarre dream yesterday involving a mad scientist forcing me to stay in his cult by using alcohol, drugs and attractive men. He wanted to perform bizarre experiments on me.
Perhaps I haven’t fully accepted my sexual orientation or I feel guilty about doing something in a semi public space ? Or maybe guilty for drinking too much and acting somewhat impulsively? I am aware rationally that the things I mentioned are probably just coincidences but I can’t get over these feelings easily. Any constructive feedback would be appreciated.