Hello Guys,
I have made a list of top Hair Iron Curlers according to what Redditors like the most. I've made this this after reading a lot of discussions on different subreddits and According to my insights these are the most liked Iron Curlers by redditors:
_________________________________________________________

Top Hair Iron Curlers 2024

1. GHD Curve Creative Curl Wand
2. Beachwaver PRO Curling Iron
3. Shark HD430 FlexStyle Air Styling & Drying System
4. T3 CurlWrap 1.25″ Automatic Rotating Curling Iron
5. Bio Ionic NanoIonic MX Long Barrel Curling Iron
6. Infinty Pro by Conair Secret Automatic Curling Iron
7. Ion Golden Titanium Curling
8. Iron Dyson Airwrap

GHD Curve Creative Curl Wand:
The GHD has a unique design, with a tapered barrel that starts off round and graduates to a flat oval at the top, tapering from 1-inch to 0.9-inch. Both of these traits keep the curls from molding into a strategically tapered curl, which can sometimes look too perfect and unnatural. The slight taper and the gritty finish of the barrel keeps the hair from sliding down as it can do with a barrel that has a super-glossy finish.
_________________________________________________________
Beachwaver PRO Curling Iron:
Beachwaver Pro is an innovative professional rotating curling iron invented by celebrity hairstylist Sarah Potempa. This curling iron rotates in both directions to give you glamorous, bombshell waves with the touch of a button.
_________________________________________________________
Shark HD430 FlexStyle Air Styling & Drying System:
With the Shark Air Styling & Drying System, you can easily transform between a powerful, fast, hair dryer, and an ultra-versatile multi styler with no-heat-damage. One twist is all it takes to flex from one to the other. Attach different stylers and unlock the ability to curl, volumize, smooth, and dry. Lightweight & powerful, FlexStyle is the answer to fast, easy styling.
_________________________________________________________
T3 CurlWrap 1.25″ Automatic Rotating Curling Iron:
The T3 CurlWrap features a long, 1.25″ auto-rotating barrel and 2 SmartCurl timer settings for fast, easy, flawless curls and waves. A two-way AutoTwist switch steers effortless barrel rotation, and Digital T3 SinglePass Technology powers 9 precise heat settings for lasting curls on all hair types.
_________________________________________________________
Bio Ionic NanoIonic MX Long Barrel Curling Iron:
The Bio Ionic curling iron offers six labeled heating settings ranging from 250°F to 430°F, increasing in increments of 30°F. I chose 360°F, which the brand recommends for “normal hair.” The longer, 1.25-inch thick barrel makes it easier to curl larger sections of hair at once without forfeiting your desired style. While clamps can sometimes leave kinks in the hair that force you to redo a lock of hair, this one didn’t.
I enjoyed using this iron, but some with short or medium-length hair may find it bulky or unnecessary for achieving their desired style. On the other hand, if you have long hair that makes it difficult to get an even, tight curl from root to tip, this extra-long curling iron could be your solution.
_________________________________________________________
Infinty Pro by Conair Secret Automatic Curling Iron:
InfinitiPRO By Conair Curl Secret Auto Curler is the way to create curls that won’t quit. Select a temperature, a curl type, and a curl direction, then place a section of hair into the slot. Push START & watch hair gently wrap around the barrel.
_________________________________________________________
Ion Golden Titanium Curling:
If you’re after curls that last, you might want to give the Ion curling iron with the highest temperature a shot. It really stood out in our tests, especially for those with thick or coarse hair. People loved how it excelled in so many areas, like how easy it was to grip and maneuver, the simple controls, its compact size, and most importantly, how well it kept those curls intact.
One thing users particularly liked was that the clamp is the same length as the barrel, which is great for folks with shorter hair. And the shorter handle? Well, that keeps your hand in just the right spot to reach the thumb grip easily. Just a heads up though, the handle can get a tad warm when you crank up the heat to the max.
_________________________________________________________
Iron Dyson Airwrap:
The Airwrap is a styling tool with multiple heads and a controlled heat system. Essentially, it’s meant to be your hairdryer, straightener, and styler all in one as well as a healthier way to style your hair.
But all of this innovation comes with a sky high sticker price. If it means you’re able to swap out your hair dryer, flat iron and curling tools for one item, though, we think it’s justifiable. You can also opt for sets that target different hair types and textures, including long or short barrel sets, and attachments for kinky hair.
________________________________________________________________________________

Beth:
William was exhausted from the long drive, so he went right to sleep, leaving me alone and horny. I went down to our little office and browsed the web. Quickly I found the now free video clip, titled, “Goofy gets Gelded.”
It was the video that William and Monica made of Charlie being castrated. I popped my legs up on the desk and began pleasing myself as I watched. I guess it was a bit surreal, here was Charlie just a few hundred feet away as I viewed his life changing moment caught on camera.
From a very overweight Monica riding Charlie’s face with her hairy vagina, to the moment she climbed off of the table, took hold of his balls so William could begin performing the unthinkable.
Poor Charlie, he was strapped down as William gently and with the precision of an experienced surgeon took a small scalpel, and cut away, ignoring Charlie’s screams and of course blood. I orgasmed, it was gross, it was cruel, it was unnecessary but as Paris Hilton liked to say, “it was hot!”
I can’t say I was still turned on watching William and Monica fuck shortly after Charlie was stitched up. However, I will say, when William made Charlie, worship his bare feet, that I found satisfying.
Still wide awake, I decided to pay Charlie a visit in the barn. Inside the filthy stall, there he was sound asleep, covered in an old horse blanket. I was hoping he’d be awake so we could talk, but he wasn’t, so instead I pulled up a chair and watched him.
What a piece of useless shit. To allow everything that’s happened in his life to happen. Hell, coming here with us, the woman who dragged him down to nothing and her lover, the man who mutilated him for life. What a complete loser. I knew then, life here for him would have to be unpleasant. He needed it and I wanted it.
I left Charlie alone and returned to my computer. I looked up Monica on Facebook. She was easy enough to find despite changing her name. She was also half her old size and very pretty. Her husband was attractive too. They seemed to travel quite a bit and she loved sexy clothes.
“Still a whore!” I said out loud to myself.
I replayed the video and had another orgasm but this time I focused just on William. He was masked so I studied his blue eyes as he focused on the job. I imagined a beautiful but wicked smile as he cut, as he destroyed another man. Soon after, I tucked myself in next to my beautiful man, and fell happily asleep.
Charlie:
I awoke, cold and tired, nothing new but I was safe for the moment, alone in a barn. It was still dark as I slowly stood and started to stretch, my morning ritual. I noticed a chair outside the stall, I knew it hadn’t been there when I fell asleep. Had someone been there? Was it Beth?
I watched the sun rise, it was a new day and hopefully a new beginning. I wasn’t sure what it would bring and of course I was frightened, I always was, but I was with Beth again. That’s all that mattered. That’s all that ever mattered. I stroked myself until hard, of course I could not cum but still I thought of my darling woman. She had come to rescue me. I was grateful.
This was her farm, her property and I too hoped I was also. To be owned again by Beth, to me that was heaven. Even if it meant having to put up with that evil, demented William. I could handle him. I knew I had no choice.

Porsche 911 GT3 (997) 2009 (manual tranny if able is way better) During race, No wall ride or can do the first big turn only to skip couple cars if desperate. Gas spec left as is (default power 1). Pit stop at end of lap 7. ONLY FOR GAS. Sport Hard tires front & back Ballast :97 Ballast pos : -15 Weight reduce 1,2 & 3 Racing crank shaft Polish ports Engine balance tuning Stroke up
Brings the PP to 599.94 Everything else is stock. BUT, i learned that wheels can impact how the car handles and reacts. So here are my wheels specs if you wanna use the same.
BBS RE-V7 , 19in , wide width and wide offset Good luck everyone !

Foreword: If this seems like a longer form version of a certain mossy-footed Commander's yarns, you wouldn't be wrong. I was inspired and entertained, and I really do enjoy writing, so I figured I'd go ahead and put virtual pen to digital paper and spin a tale of an ADHD-brained Commander's adventures (if you want to call them that). I'm finding this character's voice so if I post more of these, forgive me if the tone shifts around a bit.

That said, I hope you enjoy it.

16 MAY 3310 - LOG ENTRY #1

This will be the first log entry since I bought this damned thing. It's an antique, but the price was hard to beat, though it took rummaging through a lot of wreckage to find the firmware upgrade so I could actually connect it to my ship's comms; Probably should have just bought a newer one, but hell, I never did like to waste.
Well, except for wasting time anyway, which is what brings us to today's log entry.
It didn't start out as a waste of time, but hell if I don't love chasing squirrels, as my old squad leader used to say. I popped into Bernoulli Vision in Caeritis yesterday, looking to trade in some of my surplus materials for stuff I needed, but realized that they only traded in encoded materials, whereas most of my surplus was manufactured. (Y'ever wonder why the weirdly artificial divisions? Why won't they take raw materials for manufactured, or vice versa? It's probably a back-room deal they have to keep us 'Commanders' running around the galaxy) Luckily, they were feeling generous enough to point me toward the nearest manufactured materials trader, in LTT 2963.
What a boring-ass name for a star system. Definitely a step down from Caeritis. I mean, I know those astronomers on Earth were cataloguing millions, billions of stars, but it feels like they could have tried harder. The dozens called "HIP" followed by some numbers tells me that they got bored of naming stars pretty early on in their careers. You'd think with billions of people on the planet they could have farmed out the work; maybe even letting people pay a small fee to name stars after their loved ones, or something. I'd much rather be scooping 'Karen Smoots' for hydrogen than HIP 23-something, that's for sure. Wait, didn't I know a Karen Smoots back in school? Eh, who knows, I've digressed enough.
So anyway, LTT 2963. I pop into the system, scoop the star very briefly, and then swing around toward Leestma City and kick on the SCO for a bit of a boost. Man that thing is wild; even as an early adopter, I'm still not used to handling that bucking bronco of alien tech, but it sure does speed up the trip. Anyway, I coast in and decide to take a quick detour to map out the pretty gas giant on the way, then swoop the rest of the way in to Leestma. I request docking clearance, hit the deck just light enough to avoid scuffing the paint, and make a call to the material trader. I cut down on my surplus and then decide I'm gonna go chase Signal Sources to get some more, now that I've got a little more room.
First one I see is Weapons Fire in low, LOW orbit over a terrestrial ice ball, and I figure I can use a little practice on the guns. I usually avoid fights, but every now and again it's good to get the blood pumping. I drop in and see one transport getting dogged by a Wanted poster in an Eagle, and I open fire. The sniveling coward throws a threat at me over the radio, then immediately cuts and runs, leaving me alone in low orbit (the transport took advantage of my arrival to leave quickly) with nothing to shoot.
But hey, fresh planet! I map it, and discover it's got two types of geo and two types of bio. Bio's always worth some creds, and I kinda dig chasing geo in my SRV, so I drop down to the surface, and quickly spot some strange looking fumaroles that turn out to have a type of bio on them called, oddly enough fumarola. I check the book, and they've got a really small clonal colony range, so it feels like moments before I have all three... Leaving me to find bacteria.
Bacteria is the red-headed step-child of the Exobio world, and for good reason. Even when you're standing right next to it, it's hard to see because it never rises more than a few decimeters off the surface, and often blends right in. It's usually best to fly Nap of Earth (which is weird if you think about it, since I've never even been to Earth) at low speeds, or get a drone and have it fly above your ship or SRV for a better view, but even then this particular bit of bacteria was a pain in the ass. I found the first bit pretty quick, but the patches were pretty small, and barely stood out from the ice. After finding the second, I eventually decided to get in the SRV and go driving around.
Now I recently got one of them Scorpions, because all the scuttle-butt said they were hot shit; I guess they probably are if you're into surface combat, but honestly my old scarab was good enough for what little bit of scuffling I got up to, and the lack of a wavescanner and the smaller cargo makes them less ideal for surface exploration.
But man, I won't lie; they sure are fun to drive. They're tougher than the scarab, and a bit wider base, meaning they're a bit more stable on the ground. Even though I couldn't scan down geo, the geysers and fumaroles tended to be clustered up, and you could see a geyser from a decent distance off. So I found more than a little bit of geo while bouncing around that bumpy little iceball, including a few hunks of germanium; I'd used up most of my meager supply paying off that Farseer to upgrade my surface scanner. Finally decided it was about time to get back in the air and find the last colony of bacterium, and wouldn't you know it, I parked my SRV right next to a patch. I guess it's true what they say: you always find the things you're looking for once you stop looking.
So of course I drove around a bit longer; just one more crystal cluster, I kept saying to myself, until finally I hit a boulder because I started to drift off, and I knew it was time to get back up in the black and find a place to rest these weary bones. Ended up back here at Leestma City in this surprisingly comfortable lounge chair. There are two other pilots, decent looking sorts, trying to nap to either side of me. I considered making conversation, but if there's one thing I learned in the service, it's that you cadge sleep when you can, and you respect the right to nap.
Ah well; Not enough room in my cabin for two anyway.
All of that is a long-winded way of saying that I never did get around to chasing USS's, or get into a scrap, all because I love to chase squirrels. Honestly, this is the best life has to offer, and I'm probably gonna kick any sense of progress down the starlanes a little further.

I know I know this isn't an airport I don't have to announce my departure but wow man. It is so shitty to find this game and decide to give it a good try despite all the memes and shit and just have such a terrible time playing it. Really love it and maybe I'll just strictly play arcade but since I'm venting it sucks man. I think it all honestly comes down to the matchmaking. I tried watched videos and practicing my combos in the arena, went back to more videos, took even more time to practice over and over but there's just no point honestly.
There's nothing for me to learn or improve on when the matchmaking puts me with people that can consistently light parry, know all my combos, switch ups, timings, maximize every punish, and spam combos that I can't block or even know how to break out of. Every 1 of 20 games I finally get with people my level and it's a blast, we miss guardbreaks due to distance, we fuck up the punish and only hit with 1 light, we hit the walls every other hit and roll around to run away. But every 19 out of 20 games it's a warden that shoulder bash chains me (he magically knows when to switch the timing so my dodge doesn't work) into a corner and light spams me to death, a peacekeeper that feints every other attack and my new player reflexes can't keep up to save my life, a warmonger that stands infront of me and instantly parries every single light or heavy I throw (guardbreaks didn't work either she auto countered those too), a highlander that snuck up and kicked me into a corner and then proceeded to chain kick and heavy me then emote, a shinobi and orochi that after seeing me suck in a few battles worked together to spam kick me into a corner and keep me there for 2 minutes until they finally killed me.
Idk man, I really wanted to learn this game and have fun and I'm no stranger to struggling. I've beaten several dark souls games all the way to new game +9 and I've always been a fan of playing on the absolute highest difficulties possible but I'm at a loss on this game. It's hard to make sense of either it's got 4k+ players daily according to the statistics so unless you're telling me 98% of the player base is greater than rep 70 and all experts so it's impossible to get a lobby consistently with new players in it. If I was hitting and winning fights I could handle it, even just one so often but I've had multiple games back to back where I get 0 kills. Even in ganks the enemy players just shrug me off like I'm not even there, which sucks cause that's the only time I've been able to fight higher levels and hit them, even then as soon as they pop revenge they go 100% on me to get me out of the way and obliterate me.
Great game, but I think the matchmaking is taking a baseball bat to its fucking knees and crippling it. Then again maybe this is just one of those areas like R6 siege ranked where you only play if you want to sweat bullets and snort Adderall. Either way, it was fun for a week but I guess that's it for me folks. GL and hf on all your games for me.

Preface by saying I’m not sure exactly what finally ended my nightmare but I recently made some changes.

1. Purified water. I researched and discovered that purified water can pull minerals from your body and destroy inner linings. Mineral water or spring water is best. I started only drinking glacier water. It’s my number one suspect because a couple days after I felt better I forgot my glacier water and ended up drinking a bottle. It hurt for a few hours shortly after.
   
2. I was taking a supplement that had echinacea in it. That’s also suspicious because after I researched about it, I found out that it can actually make your immune system turn on you, attacking itself. I also discovered that it can actually turn your immune system off and other way and make your immune system think everything’s OK when it’s not. It’s no good for long-term.
   
3. Pelvic stretching. My urologist wanted me to do physical therapy but I decided I would just watch YouTube videos instead and I would do the exercises during lunch. It came up with my own word point of toe on top of a curb and pull my entire pelvic bone away from that direction.
   
4. I recently lost 10 pounds and I’m still going.
   
5. I started taking an iron supplement a couple days before the pain stopped.
   
6. I’ve been taking probiotics for about a month at first they seem to aggravate everything but overtime they aggravated things less and less.
   
7. For the last month before this finally started resolving I was drinking baking soda every single day. The only reason why I stopped is because food tasted so salty, my stomach started hurting. I literally could not handle it anymore.
   
8. On my last period before this all ended I stopped using tampons completely. They really irritated my bladder and my urethra. I could feel it through everything.
   

A really weird thing about it is having an ongoing Garderella infection I would end up taking antibiotics and it would actually make everything feel better even though I was testing negative for bacteria in the urine. I was really having a hard time because it would come right back as soon as the antibiotics were over. A doctor tried to give me as many as they possibly could but as soon as I would stop taking them, it would just hurt again really bad. I think the best thing I could’ve done that entire time was just a completely stop taking any kind of antibiotic.
I can’t say exactly what finally ended my hell but I was about to get a cystoscopy and I’m so glad that I don’t have to do that anymore.
If it comes back, I’ll probably will be a little bit pissed. It started with pain in my kidneys intermittently but really bad since December and it almost kind of seemed like whatever it was worked it’s way down my entire system until it got to the bottom where it would hurt at the bottom of my bladder, and in my urethra until I don’t know maybe something came out. I work in manufacturing and I’m around a lot of shitty chemicals metals weird things from additive manufacturing that I’m no longer around by the way but I have no fucking idea. I really think the RO water aggravated it.
I know that when you’re going through it and especially after it’s been weeks upon weeks months upon months that it really starts to get to you and you start to really wonder if you’ll ever be OK again and I just want to give you a little bit of hope to know that I can drink soda. I can drink, freaking anything I want to now. I won’t take it for granted like I’m not gonna go drink a fifth right now and I’m not gonna drink 6 soda pops. It’s not completely gone. I can still feel somewhat of a tiny bit left in my urethra a little bit but it’s very bearable. I hope you guys find peace too.

spoilers for Ace Attorney Investigations 1 ahead
In the public eye, Turnabout Airlines has a lot going against it. It's not from a well-liked game, and there's the community's collective and arbitrary dislike of "filler." Neither of these are problems for me - I like I1 and I think "filler case" is an inherently bad term - but I can see the writing on the wall, and it says "nobody else cares about the Zinc Lablanc case."
My point is I don't expect I-2 to place very high, but I'm still arguing on its behalf because it SLAPS!!!! Since I want to keep this down to one comment, I'll focus on this case's two central figures and why they make it stand out.
post-writeup note: yeah the single comment part didnt happen oops, but this will still primarily be me talking about these two guys alone

Rhoda Teneiro

Inside you, there are two flight attendants. One is a girlboss. One is cringefail. They're both Rhoda Teneiro.
There are lots of AA characters (mostly defendants) whose existence can be summed up as being vaguely nice and having Bad Things happen to them. They don't do much for me, I just kinda see them as deliberate sympathy bait on the writers' part, so it's hard to really connect with them as individual characters.
Rhoda, for as nice and hapless as she is, doesn't fall into that, I feel. She has a lot going for her. For one, I just think it's really cool to have a character whose arc revolves around false accusations. It's weird to acknowledge, but the series rarely seems to delve into the immediate aftermath of a witness's false conceptions of murder. The closest we ever get is Lotta in 2-2, which I do like, though I like Rhoda's arc just a bit more.
Rhoda's introduced with the genuine belief that Edgeworth is guilty of murder, and she's the main source of conflict in the early parts of the case. This steadily transitions into Rhoda taking Edgeworth's side, and finally culminates in Rhoda herself as the accused. It's neating seeing both parties in an accusation - the accuser and the accused - depicted in the same character. I especially like Rhoda's slow coming around to Edgeworth, they do a good job depicting her guilt, and it's satisfying seeing her assert herself more in her pursuit of the truth, as if Edgeworth's straight-edge attitude is rubbing off on her. They're cool kindred spirits, even if Rhoda's more personal feelings aren't going anywhere.
I don't mean to downplay Rhoda's role as the case's defendant stand-in, either. After seeing her taking risks with her job and powering through her own suspicions for Edgeworth's sake early on, it's cool seeing him return the favor by defending her after he'd already been let off the hook and very well could've walked off unharmed. Yeah of course he's Edgeworth, we as readers know that he wouldn't, but this is still a good character moment for the both of them. I personally feel this is where Edgeworth is generally at his best in the duology: not undergoing any crazy development like in the trilogy, but in being a pre-developed, static protagonist who instead serves to bring out the best in others (see I2-5 for another example).
I don't have a ton to say on Rhoda on her own, a lot of my deeper feelings on her hinge on another character, but I like her a lot. As a player in I-2's mystery, she fills her role well.
anyway that's enough of the CRINGE plane girl, onto the COOLER plane girl

Cammy Meele

"The narrow road" is a phrase of biblical origin, describing the ease at which a person can fall to sin. The virtuous narrow road is long and tiresome to traverse, whereas the wide road is easy and carefree, a constant temptation to those suffering in their attempts to stay moral.
Anyways, Cammy Meele.
When Cammy's introduced, she's silly. Goofy, even. She's a simpleminded slacker who can't stay awake through a whole sentence. It's established that Rhoda does like 99% of the work between them, and it's easy to see why. The takeaway from Cammy's first impressions? She is dumb.
Then she pulls her hair back and pulls out a bubble pipe and what the fuck she's actually cool as hell????
I really like Cammy's reveal. It kinda comes in at the turning point of the series, where they really start to pop off with these villain transformations. From here to SoJ, it feels as though every other killer has one, even killers already established as bad guys. They're cool and hell, but like... do we need them? Maybe it's just me, but I'm not a huge fan. I feel like it stifles any coherence in a killer's character, making their pre- and post-transformation selves feel like two different entities.
All that to say, this doesn't apply to Cammy. It's easy to reduce her to "smart person pretending to be dumb" and leave it at that, but that's missing the entire context of why she would pretend in the first place. This isn't like Alba or 6-5's killer, where her decision to go Evil Mode is arbitrary just to put on a show for the audience. Cammy isn't putting on a performance for the sake of it. Her transformation doesn't exist for pure shock value.
A benefit of Cammy and Rhoda being coworkers (which I'll get into more later) is that the story doesn't need to put aside establishing the facts for two separate characters, when what applies to one equally applies to the other. With Rhoda, we see firsthand that a smart, driven woman who puts her all into her work struggles for even an ounce of respect. Through that, as well as Cammy's general placidity, it's easy to infer the latter's thought process. That being: the world sucks, so suck harder.
I-2 only gives us a snapshot of the flight attendants' work life, and it's not an appealing one. The clientele includes Zinc Lablanc, and I feel that's all that needs to be said. Cammy's underperformance compared to Rhoda is plain to see, yet it doesn't register at all with the plane's captain in his brief appearance. He blatantly views Cammy more in terms of Wanting To Fuck than as a worker, let alone the accomplished, intelligent individual she is. She studied [vague subject] abroad, and this is the thanks she gets.
Flying against the wind is a fruitless endeavor. You're just wasting energy, and if you end up getting anywhere at all, it'll be further back than where you started. That's the attitude that makes people like Cammy the way they are. She's a smart woman - smart enough to come up with a split-second cover-up for murder - but what good is her intelligence when her place in the world doesn't call for it? When she can game the system just by being exactly what it expects her to be? When all she needs to do to get away with high crime is to put on a dumb grin and look pretty?
It's a relatable feeling for anyone who's worked a shitty job, or been under the thumb of authority, or been a woman - that feeling being the almost survivalistic draw to conformity. Cammy dealt with it firsthand, and through her experience, saw a golden opportunity to reap the benefits of others' ignorance, all for as little effort as possible. I do want to stress that she's still, at her core, lazy. It's really just the cluelessness she plays up. Her willingness to take her place on the totem pole so long as she can benefit speaks to a darker side of her "go with the flow" mentality.
The tragic irony of Cammy's defeat is one who deliberately plays the fool coming undone because she was too smart for her own good. She took her own intelligence for granted, both in her day-to-day as she lazes away in her menial position, and in her murder scheme as she inadvertently indicts herself via bilingualism. For as tempting as the "easy road" is, taking it and shirking her potential forced her into a corner. The cunning that concocted her false persona in the first place, only to be shelved the further she slipped complacency, ended up her undoing.
Cammy's two sides - the silly, sleepy dope and the calculated killer - are intrinsically linked, and looking into why the former even exists is deeply telling of her character. I hate seeing this entire facet of her summed up as just a "gimmick."
I like Cammy a lot. I think it's interesting how she's not remotely sympathetic - she's pitiable, at best - but, I dunno, I still feel like the nature of her deception makes it easy to root for her in some areas, while totally detesting her in others. She's fun, she's funny, and her weaponized pick me behavior is a unique tactic for a killer. She's one of my favorites for sure. Investigations killers specifically, there's maybe like, three that I prefer over her?
Perhaps that doesn't sound too impressive but whatever, she's still a very unique character and it's a shame she's so frequently downplayed by people who see "actual, serious character with any merit worth discussing" and "hot girl" as mutually exclusive.

WHY?

The question you (yes, YOU) have probably been asking throughout this is: why?
Why does Rhoda's development matter? What's important about Cammy acting dumb? Why do you care so much about the plane case you fcking idit, are you st*pid?
More to the point: what's the point of Turnabout Airlines? I mean, if you ask me the main point is to set up the single best use of a game mechanic in the series, perhaps its single best moment period. But is there a point besides that? So what if Rhoda and Cammy are actually incredibly deep. Anyone could write at length about a character and argue that like, Lisa Basil is actually deeply nuanced and has a reason for everything she does. But is there a reason for everything these two do, beyond making a cool airplane murder mystery?
The deeper conflict I-2 presents, beyond the murder mystery, appears to be a simple matter of hard, honest work vs the easy way out. The heroic deuteragonist readily accepts the burden of her work, while the villain is a shameless slacker. That's a basic message that I feel works fine. But I also feel it runs deeper than that, and it goes back to Cammy and Rhoda's relationship.
Every decision a writer makes is for a reason, and here, there was a deliberate choice to make Cammy and Rhoda peers. Equals, at least on paper. Both have the same struggle of others' perceptions holding them back, and the way they each cope with that is more similar than you'd think.
When the degree of separation between two characters is so small, how does the narrative justify casting one as a villain and a murderer?
Beyond the obvious, what makes Cammy the bad guy in their relationship is how she treats someone in the exact same boat as herself. It's not just that she's being mean and being mean is BAD! It's what Cammy's bullying represents.
It's one thing to exploit a system in your favor, to play up a preconceived image to make a fool of the underestimators. In that case, the victims of Cammy's deceit are wholly deserving, with their manipulation brought upon by their own failure in taking her seriously. But taking advantage of people, even those who have it coming, is dangerous. The more you start to see human beings as an asset, the harder it is to experience real empathy. Rhoda is someone Cammy should have no trouble at all finding common ground with, yet she's the one who suffers the most from Cammy's actions.
It all culminates in Cammy losing her humanity on a complete base level. Her act of murder isn't planned or calculated, but the instinctive act of someone whose perception of others has become so detatched from her own self-centered bubble, that she doesn't think twice before taking a life until it's too late.
Cammy's a pawn. She's a pawn to the smuggling ring, and she's a pawn to the system tying her down. She knows she's a pawn, and she milks her role for all its worth, satisfied in the luxuries afforded by her performance, yet painfully aware she's more than the role she plays. And, by her own will, it's a role she's stuck in.
The ouroborous of fatalism between Cammy and Rhoda is vicious. Cammy's incessant put-downs keep Rhoda from rising beyond the role of a polite, humble doormat, and that only further enables Cammy to underachieve to her heart's content. Both women operate on unhealthy, self-destructive mindsets. The difference between them being Cammy, though far from the root of the problem on her own, is a contributor all the same.
She strays from the narrow road in favor of the easy, comfortable path, eschewing solidarity in the name of her own meagre comforts. And I do mean meagre. Like I said, Cammy's only a grunt within the smuggling ring, and her shucking responsibility only marginally spares her from the disrespect of people like Lablanc. In the end, Cammy's pursuits accomplish nothing, while the one who stands her ground in the face of hardship walks away from it all with the validation she'd craved.
Maybe I'm looking too deep into the dumb plane case, but idk. While the killer is by no means sympathetic, the flashback detailing her immediate reaction to having committed the crime is more than like, Portsaman gets, so I feel like there's a degree of acknowledgement towards something deeper behind their actions. Compared to the rest of the series, I don't think it's too far of a stretch to glean this sort of reading from I-2. The concept of the systemically downtrodden perpetuating their suffering through others resurfaces in both the DGS series and this game's direct sequel. While I prefer how they handle it, I can also appreciate the grounded nature of Airlines' approach.

I Like Planes

I didn't realize it until now but the only Investigations case I like more than this one is the other plane-centric case and I think that's very funny, I doubt anyone else will but I do and that's what matters
Anyway Turnabout Airlines is a pretty cool case and I would be very happy to see it recognized as such, that's all thank you <3

I love her, she was one of the first people that I ever really truly enjoyed speaking and spending time with. The intelligence that she possessed and bubbly personality brought out the same bubbly feelings within me, even in seventh grade. I soon filled my time writing messages to her in Facebook messenger, asking about everything I was curious about whilst sitting at my brother’s baseball games, my cellphone burning my hands from overheating, but I just couldn’t put it down. We would talk about everything.
Now twenty-three, we don’t. I feel as though I have lost the light and bubbly feelings. I think I resent her.
I grew up a scared kid, afraid to state my honest feelings, doing whatever was needed to shape the results of my words and beliefs rather than feel them and let them serve to be an honest representation of myself. I just did whatever led to the least amount of conflict, leading me to be uncertain of my true wants and desires. With her however, I felt love, and I wanted her to be my love forever. From visiting her every weekend in school to changing colleges, I just did not want to let go of the love I had for her.
As years followed differences began to appear. Myself, wanting love to be communicated in a thought-out verbal nature with much care and emphasis in each word choice being my desired method of display of affection, she began to withdraw from this style of communication. Despite the beginning of our relationship being long talks on the phone or paragraphs of written texts back and forth, she said she was not capable of displaying affection in this way and there was no way to change it. Fork in the road, faced with an ultimatum, no ability to compromise, do I stay, or do I go? I stay. By simply learning to appreciate other methods of displaying affection, what does it matter if there is still love in the air. Remember, conflict isn’t an option; I mean I fought for what I wanted and for compromise, but whenever it got bad, I would refer to the tried-and-true mechanism of simply doing what rids of conflict.
Then the physical and intimate differences arose. I always liked back scratches, no matter how bad things got in my early years, a good back scratch would make me feel safe and escape the world in pure bliss for a little bit. I wanted this in my life still as an adult, but it wasn’t something she wanted to do. How do I continue to ask for something that she admitted to not enjoying doing? Even whenever I was selfish enough to ask for it and she would do it, you can tell when someone doesn’t want to be scratching your back when they start for a minute and just stop you know. So, I just stopped asking. Then copy and paste massages and head rubs for back scratches.
Intimately, she had asked me relatively early into our now six-year relationship if I had ever been interested in oral. I was, but I never had the guts to ask, so I said yeah. It came out that she had done it a few times on her earlier ex, and I admitted to her that I had never been the recipient of it. We had gotten close one time, but she had said she wasn’t interested in it that day. After asking a few more times, she opened up to me that she didn’t ever want to try again. It bothered me, I pushed for her to reconsider. I handled it poorly as my mind was so caught up in the jealousy and frustration revolving around her ex experiencing something that I never would if she was to be the one I wanted to be with forever, “Had I only been there earlier” I would think.
Eventually she confronted me and told me, “You can go get it from other people if you want, it doesn’t seem like you are ever going to get over it.”. This hurt me, I only ever wanted to be with her, and she was willing to be understanding to let me go get it from someone else. What had I done? I had pushed too hard.
“I will never ask for it again.” I concluded.
In the bedroom whenever it came to, well, positions, the first time we had ever done it, we did two she enjoyed. She was my first, and I eventually began to ask if we could try other positions, she tried, and it didn’t work for her. Nothing else seemed to work. I was okay with our tried and true two, but I wanted to mix it up every once in a while, and despite asking if we could try anything else again, it would simply kill the mood. I was frustrated again. I did not know what to do, and after discussing, I simply began to stop asking, again.
I began therapy when I was in college. From past traumas to my terrible coping strategies, it was all thrown out on the table. I focused on these core elements more so than my relationship struggles, however there were discussions about it. It had begun to help me. That is when it seemed more problems had arisen.
I had begun to heal.
My relentless internal monologue reinforcing my belief that “you shouldn’t want these things, you don’t deserve these things” and “if you push for your wants, there will be conflict and you will lose her, you will never find anyone else”, had begun to unravel. These self-destructive statements that served as stones weighing down the wants and desires, I had put into the bottom of my mind had begun to erode. The thoughts popping into mind whenever I spent time with her, I blew up.
On a long car ride, after being asked why I had withdrawn, I confronted her about the most recent buried request. Head rubs. Why was I always so clearly falling short of what she had wanted me to be, but never getting any of the things that I wanted? “It is just a head rub! Why do I not deserve a head rub?!”, I couldn’t take it anymore and I had blown. What ensued was a long conversation full of tears that simply laid out the fact that I was not happy, but she wanted me to be, but didn’t know how to do the things I had wanted.
We didn’t go much into specifics until we had gotten back home from our trip, but as I prodded into what was going to change, she informed me that all intimate things were off the table. She would, however, try harder to provide physical and verbal displays of affection more frequently. I was hopeful, while selfishly bummed at this time about intimate matters. But things were going to change, and I was excited.
Fast forward half a year, with unfavorable work schedules, a home renovation, and general exhaustion set in, things began to stress. Between the consistent reminders of not doing enough around the house, feeling like we are further away than ever yet always feeling guilty of not proposing yet, I confronted her again. Why was I always feeling like I was not doing enough or feeling like she was proud of me whenever there had been zero changes from our last argument several months ago. I was tired this time, yet more accepting. Once an argument ensued and escalated, I gave up.
“I feel like we shouldn’t be together. You are not in the wrong for not wanting to do things. No matter if we are referring to the physical or verbal acts of affection, or the intimate desires I have expressed, you should always hold true to your heart and your wants. But I give myself the same freedom of heart. Maybe there is someone out there that is a perfect match for your wants and communication, and maybe, there is someone out there that wants me the same way I want to be wanted and meets my needs.”
She cracked, she said she would do whatever it took to change, she would try things again, she would try harder this time and be different. I had heard this before, and I continued to express uncertainty. She mentioned couple’s therapy. I owed her this much; I was in part responsible for things going on for so long the way they had and never dying on the hills of those unwavering wants. “Yes, let’s try it.” I spoke. I know couples therapy takes time, so I will be patient and give it a shot.
What followed was one of the best days of my life, we spent time together intimately, had a wonderful evening out. It was a phenomenal day and breathed hope directly into my lungs. But then a drought ensued. I felt as though that one day had simply bought time, I made a conscious effort to express my love and desire as I knew these arguments could have created distance between us that would need to be held together despite that one good day, but why did everything revert? What happened?
It was just the work week and the hard schedule; I kept telling myself. It has only been a couple days. A week. A week and a half. I was starting to not really feel wanted again, I was feeling concerned. Several thoughts had begun to swarm inside of my head as well, frustration began to build.
Why did things suddenly seem to get better whenever I was ready to leave? Was that what it was going to take to resolve those issues from the years previous, would it have taken me to threaten to leave for each of these wants to be fulfilled? Why didn’t she love me in the way I loved her? All it would ever take for me to do something she wanted was to ask.
Why is it so hard for us to be together? There were so many fights that I had to just give up asking for what I wanted to avoid further conflict. I just want someone to want me in the way I want to be wanted. But I worry she will never genuinely want the things I want. I do not want her to feel forced to satisfy my wants. When do you know to call it off?
I have always enjoyed things that were impromptu, never asked for, but offered. It seemed like the most genuine display of love. It served to represent an honest desire to bring pleasure to the one you love. How can I feel loved and wanted whenever I have had to fight countless times and threaten to leave for my wants to be addressed or worth addressing, when in its truest form it comes without question?
We are just now starting couples therapy and I know it is quite the long haul from my personal experience, but I just want some outside advice in the meantime.
What should I do? What do I need to learn? Where do I start?

My (53F) husband (54M) almost lost his life tonight. I'm the one who nearly took it.
A few years ago, we moved in with his parents (95M, 93F) to take care of the house and yard and groceries and errands. Mind, I love my in-laws. They have been better parents to me than my actual genetic material donors ever were! But sometimes I wanna go Ralph Kramden and send 'em to the moon. And tell them to take their son.
We recently bought a (fairly expensive) new kitchen faucet, the kind with the pull-down sprayer and a touchless sensor. You only need to adjust temperature and flow with a lever. I love it.
Mom and Dad hate it, because it's Different. They refuse to learn to use the sensor and insist on turning it on and off manually because 'That's what Dad likes." Except, Dad has tremors and is sometimes rough with things as a result. Thus was the issue tonight when Dad Grandpa-handled the faucet and the set-screw holding the lever to the stem popped. The lever fell off, and Dad threw his hands in the air and squawked and stomped off to bed, with Mom fussing over him and trying to smooth ruffled feathers.
Dad kinda gets a little leeway. He's 95, deaf as a post, can't see for shit, and the tremors from the post-polio syndrome cause trouble. He still has his mental facilities, but the meat-mecha is not cooperating any more. Still, the squawking is obnoxious.
Cue the husband Flipping. His. Shit.
I had it figured out in 4 seconds and was already headed to get my toolkit, a collection of very long, very slender screwdrivers of myriad types that I use when building/repairing computers.
Nope, he wasn't going to even try. "This faucet is done. It can't be repaired, we have to buy another one! This one is a piece of shit! Why did you buy this?" (He picked it out, I just placed the order.)
I spent 20 minutes using the same tone of voice I use with my 3 year-old granddaughter when she's melting down, explaining that I was not just shelling out another $300 and deal with NO WATER IN THE KITCHEN FOR 3 DAYS because he didn't want to take the time to turn a fucking screw.
When he finally stopped mantruming and lined the screwdriver up correctly, it was fixed in less than 10 seconds. Did we need the 20 minutes of swearing and squawking and drama for a teeny, tiny, bog standard turn of a goddamned screw??
But no. It's WOMEN who are overly emotional and incapable of handling any inconvenience at all.

I stopped shaving my arm pits and legs several years ago. I initially stopped shaving because I realized that not shaving never really felt like an option to me. Instead, shaving was compulsory.
When I stopped shaving, I was working from home 100% of the time. Now, I've gotten a hybrid job in a corporate (but fairly casual) setting. I'm trying to get myself comfortable with showing my body hair (e.g., skirts, Capri length pants).
I've been thinking a lot about it and what my fears are. I've realized I'm much more concerned with being outcast by my female coworkers than my male coworkers. I don't care as much about what the men think. But I want to have good relationships with the women I work with. I find myself "over compensating" for my body hair by making sure my makeup looks perfect, doing my hair nicely, and wearing a cute fashionable outfit.
I guess I'm just looking for words of wisdom or to hear from other non-men about their experiences with body hair in the workplace. How do you handle the insecurities that pop-up?
Thanks!

Chapter One
.
.
Prev
-Rooftop of the White Flame Factory-
Grigory smiled nervously at his men as they lounged on the rooftop patio. As the sun sank lower, he was happy to see them relax after the day's tensions. He’d wanted to give them their imps when they first arrived, or after the demonstration, but they seemed a little too skittish. Their reactions were causing him to doubt his strategy. If his most loyal supporters were repelled by them, wider acceptance was going to be a non-trivial hurdle. He’d been working on an improved version of the imps for months, but making them less threatening, or light forbid, ‘cute’, seemed deeply at odds with his plans. He hoped time might be the missing ingredient. Once they get a bit more familiar with them, they’ll come around. The imps were really nothing for them to fear.
The demonologist sat alone, observing how his men were dealing with the news. He was deep in thought, adjusting his plans and ruminating on his concerns. Was he forcing them to do things they weren’t comfortable with? The basis of his entire plan was that the whole world was to benefit from the imps, so it had to start somewhere, or he might as well give up. They seemed to be taking it as well as he could have hoped.
Catching a wisp of savoury smells, he thought it was scarcely fair to relax while Stanisk was busy in the kitchen. He rose to see if he could lend a hand with dinner. During their overland trek to the capital months ago, it was clear that Stanisk was a superlative cook, but Grigory was a dexterous helper. Much of what he knew about surgical techniques had been picked up preparing meals.
Grigory arrived at the great hall that served as the eating area. In the centre of the chamber, two long tables stretched across the room, capable of seating fifty, though only four simple chairs he had crafted a few weeks ago were present. His men had yet to grasp the potential of the imps' labour; instead of proper seating, they had improvised with crates and timbers haphazardly arranged around the tables. Near one table, a jute sack of potatoes lay abandoned on the floor, possibly mistaken for a makeshift seat. Grigory hoped they'd be eating the potatoes, not sitting on them.
Separated from the hall by a low half-wall, the kitchen bustled with activity. Stanisk sat on the thick timber counter, a casual sentinel over dinner’s preparations, while Jourgun and Klive stood nearby, deep in conversation with their commander.
Stanisk’s five imps, in their fancy clothes, dashed around the kitchen. Under his expert guidance they were preparing a grand feast. One was peeling potatoes, another stirred a great bubbling pot, while two were doing dishes.
“Sir, did you know that Stanisk’s imps have names? And fancy clothes! Can I have one like his?” Klive blurted when he saw his employer. “Uh, as it pleases milord, of course.”
“Plus mine bow when they bring us beers! They don't do that fresh out of hell!” Stanisk's toothy smile implied he might have been bowed at by imps a half dozen times already.
Grigory tilted his head and blinked for a second.
Surely a bit of clothes can’t have that much of an impact on their acceptance?
“Oh, Of course! Certainly!” he paused again. “Feel free to ask Stanisk for tips on how he made his.” Observing the bustling activity, “It looks like dinner is well in hand?” The kitchen was huge, far larger than the one at Planed Pine Peak Inn. A half dozen dishes simmered or baked, their aromas — exotic spices, rich gravies, and roasted meats filled the expansive space.
Stanisk replied without glancing away from the imps handling the tasks. “Well in hand, boss. Take ‘er easy tonight!” The imps' movements were quick and fluid, their antics distractingly comical at times. Grigory watched, smiling, as one imp hugged a yam to its chest that likely weighed more than it did, and made its way along the countertop from the vegetable sack to the cutting board. Each step was an exaggerated sway, the creature was badly top-heavy and teetering.
With effort he pulled his focus back, “Capital! I’ve a matter to attend to! Smells great already!”
Grigory went into the factory proper to whip up enough chairs for everyone. Simple wooden ones for now, but with cushions. Cushions were quick enough to make and he had a few cart loads of wool and woollen fabrics. He watched his imps work, glad he could share them with his whole team now. Obviously it made everything a bit riskier, but it was worth it. One of his concerns was that he’d been overlooking opportunities and uses. He was bound by only being able to think his own thoughts, so he was excited to see what non-demonologists would think of.
They carved and joined the pine chairs with their normal speed and accuracy, but watching them sew was its own reward. The imps wielded needles like longswords in their tiny hands, the points moving too fast to see clearly. They stacked up the plain cushions in a neat pile at the end of their low workbench.
He also didn’t have any utensils, placemats, serving spoons nor trivets either, since this was their first proper meal here. He commanded the imps to make those as well, and carry them like a row of ants from the workshop to the dining hall. The demonologist walked around the table, surveying his work. With a minor gesture of flame he lit the lamps, and frowned at the beige-grey of undyed wool of the chair cushions.
He pulled the chairs out, and one at a time enchanted the cushions to bright, cheerful colours. He was going to make them all company purple, but thought better of it. Enchanting colours was a fun spell to cast, because the act of changing its colour also unravelled enchantment as it went. Much like building and knocking over houses of cards, the end effect was a mundane unenchanted object, but in whatever colour he’d chosen. Having done the spell countless times for entire days to prepare for the midsummer tourney, he didn’t even have to check his notes for any of the hues.
Satisfied with his work, though slightly frustrated that his first and last red cushions weren’t quite the same shade, he sat down. He pulled a notebook out of his satchel and started making notes on his ideas for some improvements, mostly for his own use, but some to the things he’d be soon selling. Lost in his own world, he had no idea how much time had passed when Ros and Taritha joined him at the table.
“Good evening, milord,” Ros said deferentially.
The young herbalist elbowed him, “Come on, he had one rule! He was writing!”
“Oh! Terribly sorry, sir!” Ros stammered.
“Not at all, I was basically doodling. How’s your evening going, is everything to your liking?” Grigory closed his notebook and put it away.
“Amazing milord, These rooms are huge! They're bigger than some of the houses I was looking at!” Taritha said.
“Of course! No one wants to live in dingy cells! Glad to hear! It’s easy to make a place bigger when you are building fresh. Let me know if you find anything that needs fixing, our builders are still in town working on the harbour fortress now, but I can have them send someone if there is anything amiss!”
“I don’t reckon neither of us knew palaces this nice existed anywhere, milord!” Ros said with a shrug. “We might not be the best eyes for finding faults!”
“Heh! This is just the rustic first stage! Don’t worry about its crudeness for now, we’ll get there over time!” the demonologist promised, patting his satchel where the notebook of ideas was. His confidence was both unshakeable and unnecessary.
“Not to question your plans, but there are a lot more rooms than people. Are we expecting company? Are we hiring?” Taritha asked. Her eyebrows twitched slightly, having just questioned his plan for the first time.
“Big plans indeed! So that empty stretch east of the main building? That’s also part of our land grant. In a while we’ll be building a barracks there for our troops, while senior officers will stay in the main factory. That’s also why Stanisk will be taking a much more active role with civil defence. It’s central to our plan to secure the town, and by extension our own safety.”
“Our troops? Like us?” Jourgun asked, having joined them at the long table.
“Maybe? Probably not? We’ll see. The plan is to extensively recruit as we can afford it, since the pirate raid was just the beginning. We have something of incredible value, in the form of me, the imps and the factory itself. Many violent people feel they should possess every valuable thing, so we must be vigilant. Not to worry though! That’s just us planning for the worst. In reality, nothing like that will likely happen. Just by being well defended we’ll scare off the greedy.”
“Ah, like why it's dangerous for a beggar to wear a silk robe!” Rikad added as he joined them, along with a few others. The smells from the kitchen were intoxicatingly rich now, as Stanisk and Klive used the imps to finish and plate the meal.
“Just so, a lord can only have what he can defend, and because the first phases of my plan require a certain level of material wealth, I’ll need extensive defences,” Grigory explained as diplomatically as he could.
“The Empire itself will fear our might, milord!” Ros said excitedly.
“Nah, it won’t. That’s a dangerous thought. The Imperial army’s smallest deployable force is a legion, near enough to five thousand men. Even if we hit every hiring and training target, we’se not going to be in the business of fightin’ wars. Just enough to make us a spiky nut. The sort not worth chompin’,’” Stanisk called over from the kitchen.
“Oh,” Ros said, shrinking back into his seat.
“That’s more than all the men in the whole town!” Taritha lamented.
“Yeah, that’s why lil fishing villages don’t win wars. A legion is five thousand infantry with warships, supplies, siege cohorts, and command companies. If’n it’s a real fight, then they might deploy all ten Imperial legions. Then start raising more if’n they’re losing. We ain’t never gonna try to fight that. No nation in the world has ever picked that fight and won.”
To counter the grim tone settling over his celebratory dinner, Grigory chimed in with a reassuring smile, “We’re loyal Hyruxian subjects, and the legions protect us. We pay taxes in full, we’re on the right side of all this. We just want a bit of security against more, uh, regional actors. Besides, a large well equipped force lends our diplomacy weight we wouldn’t otherwise have.”
Now that the table was filling up and his men looked satisfied with his answers, he raised his voice to the kitchen, “How’s it going in there?”
“Good! I bought a deer from one of the hunters this morning, and it turned out just right!” Stanisk replied, personally putting the finishing touches on his creation. Aethlina moved across the kitchen to watch Stanisk work, making Grigory do a double take. He hadn’t realised she was even in the building.
“Oh! Capital! Everyone in the entire company is here now! Even better!” Grigory said, motioning Aethlina to sit by him. He was glad he’d made the full number of chairs!
Stanisk and Klive brought out plates heaped with slices of braised venison, steamed tubers and sautéed onions. Tubs of butter, bowls of gravy, and finally a heaping basket of fresh buns followed. Stanisk took his seat and, smiling with pride, “What’re you helpless kittens lookin’ at? Never seen dinner ‘afore? Dig in!”
The feast was a perfect end to a troubling day, and even though the conversation died down as they ate, Grigory observed every single one of his hirelings intently, relieved to see not a single one seemed put off by a meal made by demons. Catching Stanisk’s eye, he made an empty cup gesture.
“Imps! Bring us all some drinks! Wine, beer and water!” Stanisk shouted to his imps. With speed and efficiency, the little demons filled clay cups and brought everyone three drinks, exactly as ordered.
“Ah, dammit, I meant—It’s fine. Drink what you want and I’ll just dump the rest!” The chief of security’s good humour faded for an instant before returning twice as bright.
“No, I love having three drinks! And the water and beer are cold! In the summer! The gods themselves envy me!” Rikad declared.
“Uh oh! It looks like Mage Thippily made imps, but the imps made the real monster!” Kedril retorted, gesturing at Rikad holding three cups between his hands, rotating them to drink out of each, while spilling beer all over his own arm.
Their high spirits encouraged Grigory. He’d worried they would be morose and frightened tonight, after making them to live in what could be described as a hive of demons. Joking about the imps was beyond his expectations, so he smiled without speaking, sipping his red wine. Not his cherished Malaentian Red, but a nice varietal from the mainland he’d recently imported a few cases of. Once the plates were empty, Stanisk had the imps clear the table and start washing up while everyone remained seated at the long pine table, bellies full to bursting.
“That was spectacular Stanisk! Thank you!” Grigory offered, and everyone else chimed in a breath later.
“Nothing like a lifetime of bland ration bars for months to really spark an interest in what good food ought to be! I’m glad ya’se liked it,” the big veteran said dismissively.
“How is everyone finding their new accommodations? I know I don’t have all the furniture done just yet, but is everyone good for tonight?” Grigory asked, ever the eager host.
The men nodded and looked at each other. Complaining was frowned upon and nothing here was remotely a hardship.
“Capital! Glad to hear it, and by all means bring it to my attention if your needs are unmet!” Grigory sat still and everyone kept looking at him.
Now’s as good a time as any. It’s not even a surprise, I think I mentioned it a few times already.
“Ahem! So! I’d like to present each of you with your own imps! Some ground rules though; there may be people that aren’t ready for this style of magic, so I ask that you don’t mention anything about them anywhere outside of the factory. Or even imply there are any magical creatures, just that things get made here?”
He waited until they all at least nodded.
“Alright! Here you go, I have one for everyone! The imps are identical, so don’t worry about which ones you get. Um. Good luck?” With a shrug he reached down beside his chair and from a leather case he pulled a series of carved wooden boxes, and passed them out to everyone sitting at the table.
***
With a muted clatter, Taritha watched as the small dark boxes were distributed. She wasn’t sure if there was one for her, being fairly new to the company. She wasn’t sure how she felt; owning demons seemed like a big step, but the ancient urge to possess something nice or powerful was one she wasn’t immune to. Her heart leapt as a heavy box slid in front of her.
With trepidation, she touched it with one finger; it appeared to be regular wood, perhaps stained oak. The box was small and rectangular, quite thin, and she held it easily in one hand. It was narrow enough to fit comfortably between her thumb and fingers, its weight noticeable but not oppressive. She had expected dread, palpable evil, or something, but it just felt a bit heavy. Turning it over, she saw no visible clasps or hinges. The outside was covered in the flawless ornate carvings she was starting to grow familiar with. This time, the carvings depicted joyful industrial scenes—strong men swinging square hammers, smoke stacks, and laden ships and carts. The central image on each side was gilded with gold leaf, making it strikingly dignified.
Ignoring the excitement and increasing movement around her, she felt as if she were in her own universe. She slowly pulled on the lid, finding it opened on tiny hidden hinges, revealing three ebony totems inside. They were the size and shape of a fairytale wand, resting on a bed of lush green velvet, held in place by a broad ribbon tied in a perfect bow.
Even without considering the priceless nature of the artefacts, she was impressed, almost distracted, by the quality of the presentation. He didn’t have to go to such lengths; she’d expected them to be simply handed to her.
She slid one of the totems out without undoing the bow. It was cool and heavy but otherwise seemed normal. She could see layers of impossibly fine carving, this time gilded with silver. She could sense the potent magic in the object, but it felt strange. She’d examined other enchanted items before, and their enchantments were all transcendently beautiful in a complex and technical way. This was so dense it felt like nothing. Or perhaps everything? She wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t at all like the other objects. Stilling herself and trying to puzzle out its secrets brought her no closer to any revelation. She shook her head and resolved to investigate further in private. She returned the totem to its place in the box and gently closed it.
Only now did she notice the table was thick with imps, more than twenty darting and leaping energetically. Her colleagues had summoned theirs and were already giving orders.
“You two, throw the third imp as high as you can!”
“Merp!”
“All of you, cross the table as fast as you can, but walk on your hands!”
“Merp!”
“Duel with these forks!”
“Merp! Merp!”
The men were laughing and pointing between shouting out fresh orders. All the commands were pointless and frivolous, making Taritha powerfully uncomfortable. These were forces of nature, extraplanar beings of unimaginable power, and they were being made to sprint into empty mugs to see how far the mug would fly!?
She shot a questioning look to the master demonologist to gauge his reaction. He was smiling and complimenting their creativity, so maybe she was overreacting? Still, she had no interest in wasting them on silly games. Emergencies only. Or at least serious concerns only. Not for dodging knotted linen napkins, that’s for sure!
With the burden of responsibility successfully dodged, she was free to watch everyone else’s fun. The cacophony of excitement was so infectious that she found herself giggling and pointing at them racing as makeshift horses, with an imp bent over holding the tiny waist of the imp in front of him, while a third one sat atop as a rider. They were so silly looking and energetic.
“You’re sure this doesn’t hurt or anger them?” Taritha asked.
“Oh my no, it’s not like that at all. They have minds, but lack awareness, or awareness of their own mind I guess? It’s fine! They are just made out of the same stuff as demons, but not actually demonic.” The mage stood up and stretched. “They are remarkably durable, it’s unlikely anything short of silvered steel will harm them. I, on the other hand, am at risk of being badly over-tired already! I trust you will be okay, left on your own! I’ll see you in the morning!”
“I’se properly tired too, but if you want, let's pop into the factory and I’ll show you how to get them to make their own clothes. It’s just tellin’ ‘em to do that, so you’se might not need too much hand holding!” Stanisk pushed himself away from the long table, and motioned for them to follow him.
They went into the cavernous factory, just across the hallway. What was an impressive and huge room in the daylight was now an infinite blackness, like a starless night. A few men had grabbed leviathan-oil lamps off the table, and they huddled in a small circle of warm, safe light. They gathered around a long low table, and Stanisk laid out a few bolts of fabric. The fine weaves were familiar to Taritha; they were the same as those used in the clothes she’d been getting from the company.
“It’s simple enough,” Stanisk said as he put a heavy leather bag of tools on the table. “Just say what you want, with as much or as little detail, and they’ll just make that.”
“Imps, make a suit of legion plate armour, imp-sized, out of shoe leather!” Rikad said with glee.
“Merp!” replied several at once, as they began cutting and forming the leather without hesitation. The imps even used grey wool for the under-mail parts, and tiny flares of hellfire to warp the leather into the right shapes. Soon, a tiny suit of black armour lay on the table, looking like what an imperial heavy infantryman would wear, but distorted to the proportions of the gawky imps.
“I dub thee, Imperial commander, Real Imp. Don thy armour!” Rikad ordered. “Do they remember their names?” he asked over his shoulder to Stanisk.
“Oh yeah, they’re proper sharp!” he confirmed.
“Create an imp-sized lord's robe with a sash of office! When it is done, you shall be known as D’Imp Lomat! I might need a minute to think of the last one though…” Rikad said to everyone watching his imps.
Reluctantly, Taritha opened the box and invoked her three imps. She looked at them closely; as far as she could tell, they were perfectly interchangeable with every other imp.
Looking over the fabrics, she chose a striking blue, a deep red, and a golden yellow. “Imps! Make imp-sized sundresses, mainly white with these colours as a main theme. and matching coloured sun hats,” she added hastily. Their heads were distractingly inhuman, so covering them might help. She watched them work, even interrupting a few times to ask for embroidered details and minor adjustments. Once they finished, she had them don their new outfits.
Oh! The hems seem scandalously short on their long lanky legs! Better than before, but not by a lot.
“Imps, please put on the hats that match the colour of your dress.”
“Merp.”
Much better! They look like ladies now!
“You are now Lady Bluebird, Lady Crossbill, and…” She paused at the last one, thinking of songbirds that were as bright yellow as the fabric. “Miss Goldfinch!”
She leaned back and admired her little ladies. They were far less threatening now, and their dull crimson skin really made the dresses look extra vibrant.
“Dang Taritha, how did you make yours so pretty? I want some pretty ones!” Jourgun commented as he looked over.
“Drool over your own demons! These are mine!” she said playfully. There was an undercurrent of possessiveness that she didn’t expect, but these ones were hers now. “Anyways, I’m going to bed too, you guys are too slow! Have fun, boys!” she said as she devoked her imps. The new clothes fell to the work surface.
“Oh yeah, they don’t take that with ‘em, wherever they go, so just keep it in a lil bag or whatever,” Stanisk said when he saw her distress. “They gotta get dressed every time you invoke it,” he shrugged.
So much to learn today!
With a brave smile, she replaced the totems in the box and gathered the dresses and hats. “Mind if I take…” she said as she slowly lifted a lamp from near Rikad.
“Oh yeah, all yours,” he said dismissively, fully engrossed in examining the tiny lordly robes of D’Imp Lomat.
She went back to the hall, up the wide even stairs to the third floor. She’d only spent a bit of time investigating it earlier, as she and Ros had been anxious about being late for dinner. She saw the heap of her worldly possessions against the wall where she’d left them. The only furniture here was the bed, but by the sounds of it, getting some tables, chairs, and wardrobes would be easy enough tomorrow. She placed the totem box and the tiny outfits on the floor beside the bed.
The bed itself was unlike any she’d ever heard of. Crafted with thick pine beams and topped with a mattress of imported cotton, it was probably wider than her entire hovel. A family of five could sleep on it and barely touch. She couldn’t imagine a more lordly bed. Its refined look and the luxurious softness were worlds apart from the coarse fabric and straw she was used to. Sometimes in the fall, she’d add freshly fallen leaves to her straw mattress for extra comfort, but that was a fleeting pleasure. This bed, however, promised constant comfort. She eyed the pile of heavy blankets at the foot of the bed. Recently, she had bought a single blanket from the market, thin and scratchy, but these were the mage’s blankets—thick, plush, and impossibly soft.
She shut the heavy door and took off her tall boots. The floor felt smooth under her bare feet. Even having a floor was a new luxury; she was accustomed to hard-packed dirt floors like most everyone else. This wasn’t just a floor; it was a delicate herringbone pattern of different kinds of wood, obviously done by the agile imps. It was cleaner, smoother, and more level than any table she’d eaten off before the mage came to town.
She stopped admiring the floor and stripped to her shift. She felt exposed being so undressed around so many men. She reasoned it out—the iron and oak door was stronger than a hide flap, and this would doubtlessly be the safest sleep of her life. Just a reaction, not a reality. She left the lamp on the floor and got in bed.
With a panic, she yelped as the whole bed flowed underneath her, as if she’d stepped on the tail of a sleeping cat. She tried to get up but her feet were already off the floor, and she couldn’t find a stable purchase with her hands. She froze up to think her way out of it, and the bed stopped moving almost as soon as she did.
Her heart pounded in her chest.
Was this an enchantment gone awry? Some bed demon?
Slowly, she log-rolled towards the edge of the bed, and the mattress under her also slowly moved, but not enough to stop her. Slow and steady, she might get free yet. Finally, she was close enough to put a foot down and stand. The bed flowed back to being perfectly flat.
She stood up, with a hand to her sternum, trying to catch her breath.
Think! What did the mage say about this today? It would magically adjust? Maybe that was all it was doing?
She leaned over and gently pushed down with a single fist. It was super pliable, then increasingly firm. But it felt unlike anything else—stacks of clothes or hides all felt different when they got pressed.
It must be magic. No time to be timid, and it would be humiliating to go to either the mage or the chief about this.
The only spell she could reliably cast was a gesture of Mana-Visualization. It caused the invisible lines of arcane energy to glow visibly, in bright colours that hinted at their use and purpose. She cast it to better examine her bed. It wasn’t enchanted as she expected; rather, hundreds and hundreds of things inside it were, and they linked and overlapped in ways she wouldn’t understand if she studied enchantments for a decade. She involuntarily took a step back from it, like finding a hundred warhorses inside a small cabinet.
She dismissed the gesture. With renewed determination, she slowly sat down on the bed. It shifted but only a bit. It was very soft and comfortable. Slowly, she turned and laid back, fighting her panic as the mattress kept shifting everywhere her body touched it, unnervingly lifelike. Fully laying down, she stopped and the mattress stopped. Even as her eyes were still wide with terror, she started to calm down. To test her theories, she rolled onto her side, and the mattress under her hip grew softer, and the part under her ribs grew firmer, until the pressure equalised. Rolling back, she felt it shift again, and once more the mattress's firmness changed all up and down her body, stopping once it was the same shape as her body’s pressure, resulting in sublime comfort.
Oh. This is incredible. I get it now!
She reached to the foot of the bed, pulled one of the soft blankets up to her chin, reached down to extinguish the lamp and drifted off into a better sleep than anyone in the history of her family ever had.
Prev

I recently clicked on a suspicious link that took me to a website, and since then, my computer has been acting up. It's slower, and I keep getting pop-ups. I never thought this would happen to me. I'm planning to run a full virus scan with my security software, but I'm looking for additional advice on how to handle this. Are there any specific steps I should take to ensure my computer is completely clean and protected from further damage? Any advice or personal experiences with this kind of issue would be very helpful.

I used to be a fencesitter. I became a parent. I have fencesitting sisters now. I'm wondering about having another child. But more than all of this, I'm just struck by the public discourse about having kids, and not much of it matches my experience, so I try to analyze why the discourse is what it is, and I like the perspectives on here.
I notice a lot of people talk about The Baby Decision on this sub, so I decided to borrow it from my library and read it. I got through like 4-5 chapters, and I have some opinions on it that I thought might be interesting to people on here.
The authors have thought about things and tried to consult experts etc. When it comes to practical advice, they have a few good chapters, like the checklist for if you're ready to be a parent. But there were glaring issues with the whole approach to this decision which makes me wonder if this is even a good book for this purpose.
One of the first things that struck me was presenting parenting as a "job where your boss is a hard taskmaster, you receive no pay, have to work 24x7, and this job lasts 18 years". The author doesn't seem to present being childfree as a choice where "you have a job where you try to fill the family-shaped hole in your life with incessant travel" or something equally disingenuous and unrepresentative. I guess it leans into the pop culture notions of what parenting is, but it feels like anyone who isn't terminally online doesn't actually feel like that's what parenting is.
The author further sells the book with this whole "you need to consider this decision very carefully and plan every aspect of it, otherwise you will REGRET". She says you will be trapped without an out if you don't make the decision carefully enough. She literally says that if others seem to have decided more quickly, that's not true, they probably took a long time to decide, or they made a bad decision. In my experience, this is a false dichotomy. The world isn't divided into well-considered extremely planned decisions and wrong decisions. A lot of the best things in my life have been decided on the fly. Most of the happiest people I know don't ruminate over decisions, while the unhappy ones agonize over every decision. There's a lot more to decisionmaking than how much time and thought you spend on it. Most life-saving decisions for instance are made in a snap.
I also don't know how much ruminating over a decision like having children is supposed to help with it. Maybe it's because I used to do this and then got out of ruminative patterns using cognitive behavioral therapy recently, but rumination really isn't great for mental health. And what exactly are you getting out of thinking over this decision a lot? Thinking back to my past when I agonized about kids, it feels like this doesn't get you any closer to making a better decision. From this alone, it feels like this book is a recommendation for a holding pattern which you can get into to feel productive while the real work of getting ready for the rest of your life happens as it does anyway.
There's a lot of specific notes I've made about when she actually gets into the meat and bones of having children, and I can go into that if required. But the underlying assumption I have a huge problem with is it assumes you're the exact same person with the exact same life, but there's a baby or there's not a baby. But that's not true.
Most people change when kids come along. You don't know how to prioritize something that's not there in your life, so you're not going to understand how to make room for a child unless there's a child in your house already. We're like that with a lot of things. Until I have a boyfriend, I'm not going to know what it's going to be like to live with a boyfriend. I don't think it'll particularly help to pay someone to leave their dirty underwear on the floor now and then to understand what it's like, just because my friend told me that's what her boyfriend does that drives her insane. If I decide "hm, it's not so bad" based on the underwear-leaver, that's still not a very considered decision anyway.
But also, does it really matter that you know what exactly having a boyfriend is going to be like day to day, before you have one? You probably just think "It's going to be a new experience, and I mostly trust this guy to respect me and not throw too many things I can't handle at me, and if he leaves his underwear on the floor, I'll just talk to him about it."
It feels like having a child is similar too. I didn't find any thought of "am i made to change diapers?" to be useful. Most parenting skills are not hard to master. You just need to have empathy, confidence and some external support and you're mostly set. Plus, everything I imagined about parenting was wrong. Diapers weren't as big a deal as a lot of memes made it out to be. I couldn't write my book while my child happily played by my feet (as one author wrote in the acknowledgements section of his book). The exercise she makes you do where you imagine having a child in all sorts of situations (including asking you if you imagine nursing your baby to be erotic, wtf is up with that), I'm not sure how it's going to help you make an informed decision.
I couldn't have told you ahead of time that I I have a phobia of playground equipment. It didn't come up until my kid was 18mo and wanted to go on the mom-and-kid swing for like 2 hrs daily. I also couldn't have told you ahead of time that I'd get over it with my husband's help. So doing an exercise where im imagining playing with my child wouldn't have given me any new information that was actually practically useful. Or like, I'd have imagined I'd have a large family happy to help with my child, and I had no reason to think otherwise. My child came along and at 12mo I realized I don't want her in my mom's care until she's like 3.
Most of all, none of this ever gives you an idea of the emotions you feel for your child. It makes all the other things that seem hard into something easy and reasonable. And this book doesn't account for that. It assumes and even asserts for you that your emotions for a child will be what you imagine them to be, and that's not true. It's not just the love, it's the awareness, the connection, the seeing your inner child in your child, and the wanting the best for them. This for most parents I know has been the predominant emotion of parenting, even if they aren't articulate about it. When this big aspect of parenting is missing from a book called the 'baby decision', how good is it really?
It could be argued that this aspect of parenting is personal and wishy washy. But then the author doesn't hesitate to go into other wishy washy aspects. She says babies can feel like monsters and that "a lot of" moms feel like babies are monsters. She finds some source that asserts that Mary Shelly was describing her babies when she described Frankenstein's Monster. Not Mary Shelley herself, but some random critic who tries to divine what Mary Shelley was thinking. I don't know why this whole section is in the book, it's really weird.
There's also this other section of the book where she talks about "games childfree/parents play". I find that whole section quite unhealthy coming from a CBT perspective. She tries to divine motives for when people tell you "you'd make a great parent" or "but you have a happy life, why would you want to throw that away for kids?" In one part she says "they intend to punish you for having a happy family life that they dont have" or something. It feels like a recipe for mental illness to think like that and/or have a book reiterate that. Attributing ill-intent to random things people say for a million different reasons is not healthy in the least.
Another big aspect of the book I found unhelpful was this equivocating of having kids vs not having kids. They are actually very very different lives, not a coin toss. You'll end up finding some sort of happiness and sadness in either life, given your inherent tendencies of being happy or sad. For instance, I had decided I wouldn't have kids if it was risky or not easily happening. Whether I get pregnant quickly isn't something in my hands, but it did happen and hence I have a child. If it didn't happen naturally for me, I would have been childfree. That the decision can go either way, and that I'd find ways to be happy in both ways doesn't mean that both choices are the same. Me with child is not just me without child minus time and money plus elder care.
I guess this is the core of it that I don't find anyone talking about. Being a parent is a developmental stage. Sure, there are many emotionally stunted parents, but that's not what I'm talking about. Being a parent presents you with an opportunity to change your concept of your self and how you view the world. You get to see your own inner child and figure out what you want to do with that, and if you want that to inform any healing you needed. You are forced to make all the decisions for a little version of you, who has their own needs and preferences, so you're trying to navigate the world, but with a level of detachment. I find this experience to be an opportunity to learn the kind of detachment that is touted around a lot in Buddhism and Hinduism, for instance, as a way to a higher state of being. There are many many many accounts including in celebrity memoirs that talk of the internally transformative nature of parenting. You cannot predict exactly how this is going to go for you, the same as you cannot in advance predict your attitude towards playground equipment. But if you're discussing everything else about parenting, why not this as well? Especially since this is the part that determines how you'll feel about the rest of the stuff. Not everyone has to go through this experience, but knowing that this exists is a big part of making the decision of whether or not.
Another side of this is it talks about regret the same way on both sides. I don't think it works quite that way. When you're experiencing regret, it's usually a singular moment or a collection of singular moments. When you make the choice to not have children, it's easy during a singular moment to trace things back to this choice to not have kids. But when you're experiencing a regretful moment as a parent, the choice you'd trace your unhappiness back to would be stuff like "we should have picked a different school where she wouldn't have had such assholes for friends" or "I should have been stricter about studies" or "I should have spent less time at the office". There's too many choices to go back to, so your mind doesn't go back as often to "I shouldn't have had kids at all". Usually too much water has flown under the bridge to go all that way back, a lot of it with happy moments, so it takes a lot of pain to get a parent to be regretful of having had each individual kid at all. Whether or not the choice to have kids has been bad for you, just from the way your mind works and how life works, it might not attribute it to that original decision.
A third but minor theme that I find to be unhelpful is the whole "You can't say 'we can figure this out when the baby comes' because if you disagree on this, you probably won't be good parents together and should probably not have a child' type of attitude. Things change a lot with a kid in the mix, including your own attitudes to things as I've mentioned earlier. If you'd asked me and my husband pre-kid if we'd consider being a fulltime parent, we'd have said NO. But about a year into parent life, we were basically drawing straws for who gets to be the SAHP, and we have taken turns. All our family and friends have been quite surprised by what we've done. The reason we were able to do this is because despite our differences, we worked on communicating our needs and being authentic about what made us happy and sad and could trust each other with vulnerability, and all this was centered around what was best for our child. Other parents we know have also made dramatically different decisions as the situation demanded.
There are many aspects of the book that are decent, like dispelling common myths etc, but since this is a book about making a big decision, it felt weird to me that it wasn't talking about important parts of these decisions.
The thing I realize is a family is a complex system. You can't plan for all of it, and if you do, it won't go according to plan and leave you super disappointed. The best thing to do is to optimize for greatness while hedging against negative outcomes. Like marrying an equal partner. Or looking for rent-controlled homes in a great school district on craigslist as a matter of habit. Or developing expertise in your career so you can opt out briefly if you want to be there for kids, or opt out briefly so you can hike the pacific crest trail, without having to worry about the career hit. As for the actual decision, I feel like there needs to be more content on the internal experience of parenting rather than just the scheduling and butt-wiping, but apart from that, I feel like more people will be helped by thinking of it not as a decision to make, but an opportunity they can refuse if they don't feel it'll be right for them.

Hey, I’m a 21 year old player with experience in running police departments, as well as divisions:
Been chief (01 and 02) in two different cities as well as sgt, lt, major as I climbed thru the ranks regularly, built up a K9 division (I served for two years in a classified non-US military K-9 unit), co-commanded SWAT in 60+ pop cities and created various law documents such as warrants, affidavits, departmental SOP and have dabbled in making custom logos and textures for police uniforms.
For those wondering why I left the populated cities - I’d like to be in a server that does not tolerate bigotry, hate, or any sort of hateful attitude for the sake of numbers or donations.
I’m looking for a serious Roleplay server, with at least 20-30 people in a night.
I’d like to be in a server with realistic economy, vehicle handling, and so on, with a slower more dedicated approach to RP without the win/lose mentality some servers promote.
♦️ I am only familiar with Qbcore!
I’m looking to be law enforcement, but I do not require to be in high command position, simply looking to RP and have a good time :)

Introduction to accepting credit card payments

Accepting credit card payments is an essential aspect of running a successful business in Melbourne, Australia. In today's digital age, customers expect the convenience and security of being able to pay with their credit cards. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to accept credit card payments for your Melbourne Australia business using Square, a leading payment processing platform. Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store or an online business, Square offers a range of solutions that make it easy to securely process credit card payments. By accepting credit card payments, you can expand your customer base, increase sales, and provide a seamless payment experience for your customers.

Benefits of accepting credit card payments

Accepting credit card payments for your Melbourne Australia business with Square offers several benefits. One of the key advantages is improved cash flow. By accepting credit card payments, you can receive funds faster, allowing you to reinvest in your business and meet your financial obligations more efficiently. Another benefit is increased customer convenience. With credit card payments, customers can easily make purchases without the need for cash or checks, making the transaction process quicker and more convenient. Additionally, accepting credit card payments can help boost sales and attract more customers. By offering multiple payment options, including credit cards, you can cater to a wider customer base and provide a seamless shopping experience. Lastly, accepting credit card payments can enhance your business's credibility and professionalism. Customers often perceive businesses that accept credit cards as more trustworthy and legitimate. Overall, integrating credit card payments into your Melbourne Australia business with Square can provide numerous benefits and contribute to the growth and success of your enterprise.

Overview of Square as a payment solution

Square is a comprehensive payment solution that enables Melbourne Australia businesses to accept credit card payments with ease. As an innovative and reliable platform, Square offers a range of features and benefits that make it an ideal choice for businesses in the region. With Square, businesses can streamline their payment processes, improve cash flow, and enhance customer experience. This overview will provide a detailed understanding of Square as a payment solution and its advantages for Melbourne Australia businesses.

Setting up Square for your Melbourne Australia business

Creating a Square account

Creating a Square account is a crucial step in accepting credit card payments for your Melbourne Australia business. Square offers a secure and user-friendly platform that allows you to seamlessly process transactions and manage your finances. By signing up for a Square account, you gain access to a wide range of features and tools that can help streamline your payment processes and enhance the overall efficiency of your business operations. Whether you are a small startup or an established enterprise, Square's robust payment solutions can cater to your needs. In addition, Square provides excellent customer support and resources to assist you in setting up and managing your account effectively. With Square, you can confidently offer your customers convenient and reliable payment options, ensuring a seamless experience for both you and your customers.

Linking your bank account

Linking your bank account is an essential step in accepting credit card payments for your Melbourne Australia Business with Square. By linking your bank account, you can ensure that funds from your credit card transactions are deposited directly into your account, providing you with a seamless and efficient payment process. This integration between Square and your bank account also allows for easy reconciliation of transactions and provides you with a clear overview of your business's financial health. As an entrepreneur, it is crucial to prioritize self-care practices for maintaining your well-being amidst the demands of running a business. Taking care of yourself not only improves your overall productivity and focus but also prevents burnout. Incorporating self-care practices such as regular exercise, mindfulness meditation, and setting boundaries can help you maintain a healthy work-life balance. By practicing self-care, you can ensure that you are in the best state to lead your Melbourne Australia Business with Square to success.

Setting up your business profile

Setting up your business profile is an essential step in accepting credit card payments for your Melbourne Australia Business with Square. It allows you to customize your business information, such as your business name, logo, and contact details, to create a professional and trustworthy image for your customers. One important aspect of setting up your business profile is choosing the right icons to represent your business. Icons serve as visual representations of different aspects of your business, such as the type of products or services you offer. By selecting the appropriate icons, you can enhance the user experience and make it easier for your customers to navigate through your payment process. Additionally, icons can also be used as hyperlinks to provide additional information or direct customers to specific sections of your website. With Square, you have the flexibility to choose from a wide range of icons that best represent your business and align with your brand identity.

Choosing the right Square payment solution

Understanding Square's payment options

Square offers a variety of payment options that are designed to meet the needs of businesses in Melbourne, Australia. Understanding Square's payment options is essential for businesses looking to accept credit card payments efficiently. With Square, businesses can choose from a range of solutions, including Square Point of Sale, Square Online, and Square Invoices. Square Point of Sale is a versatile and user-friendly option that allows businesses to accept payments in-person, whether it's at a brick-and-mortar store or a pop-up shop. Square Online is a convenient option for businesses looking to sell products or services online, with features such as customizable websites, secure payment processing, and integration with popular e-commerce platforms. Square Invoices is a useful tool for businesses that need to send professional invoices to clients and accept payments remotely. By understanding Square's payment options, businesses in Melbourne, Australia can streamline their credit card payment processes and provide a seamless experience for their customers.

Selecting the best payment solution for your business

When it comes to selecting the best payment solution for your business, there are several factors to consider. One important aspect to keep in mind is the environmental impact of the payment solution. In today's world, where sustainability is a growing concern, it is crucial to choose an environmentally friendly vending option. By opting for a payment solution that is eco-conscious, you can contribute to reducing carbon emissions and promoting a greener future. Square is one such payment solution that aligns with these values. With its commitment to sustainability, Square offers businesses in Melbourne, Australia an environmentally friendly way to accept credit card payments. By choosing Square, you can not only streamline your payment process but also make a positive impact on the environment.

Exploring additional features and integrations

In addition to accepting credit card payments, Square offers a range of additional features and integrations that can enhance your Melbourne Australia business. These features include inventory management, employee management, and customer relationship management tools. With Square, you can easily track and organize your inventory, ensuring that you always have the right products in stock. The employee management feature allows you to efficiently schedule shifts, track hours worked, and manage payroll. Additionally, Square's customer relationship management tools enable you to build and maintain strong relationships with your customers, offering loyalty programs and personalized marketing campaigns. By exploring these additional features and integrations, you can streamline your business operations and provide a seamless experience for your customers.

Accepting credit card payments with Square

Setting up a point-of-sale system

Setting up a point-of-sale system is a crucial step for any business looking to accept credit card payments. By implementing a reliable and efficient system, businesses can streamline their payment processes and provide a seamless experience for their customers. When it comes to setting up a point-of-sale system in Melbourne, Australia, Square offers a comprehensive solution that is both user-friendly and secure. From hardware options to software integration, Square provides everything businesses need to get started. Additionally, Square also offers business registration services, ensuring that businesses comply with all necessary legal requirements. With Square's point-of-sale system and business registration services, Melbourne-based businesses can confidently accept credit card payments and focus on growing their operations.

Processing credit card payments

Processing credit card payments is an essential aspect of running a business in Melbourne, Australia. With Square, businesses can easily accept credit card payments from their customers, providing a convenient and secure payment method. Square's advanced payment processing technology ensures that transactions are processed quickly and accurately, allowing businesses to streamline their operations and provide a seamless payment experience for their customers. By accepting credit card payments, businesses can expand their customer base, increase sales, and improve cash flow. With Square's comprehensive tools and features, businesses can manage and track their transactions, generate detailed reports, and gain valuable insights to make informed business decisions. Whether it's in-store, online, or on the go, Square offers flexible payment solutions that cater to the unique needs of Melbourne businesses, helping them thrive in today's competitive market.

Handling refunds and disputes

Handling refunds and disputes is an essential aspect of accepting credit card payments for your Melbourne Australia business with Square. In order to maintain a good relationship with your customers and ensure their satisfaction, it is important to have a clear and transparent refund policy in place. This policy should outline the process for handling refund requests, including the timeframe for processing refunds and any applicable fees or conditions. Additionally, it is crucial to have a system in place for resolving disputes that may arise between you and your customers. This can involve providing clear communication channels for customers to voice their concerns and working towards a fair resolution. By effectively managing refunds and disputes, you can foster trust and loyalty among your customers, ultimately contributing to the success of your business.

Ensuring security and compliance

Implementing secure payment processing

Implementing secure payment processing is crucial for any business, especially for a Melbourne Australia business that accepts credit card payments. Square is a reliable and trusted platform that provides seamless payment solutions. By integrating Square into your business operations, you can ensure safe and secure transactions for your customers. With Square's advanced encryption technology, sensitive customer information, such as credit card details, is protected from potential threats. This level of security not only instills confidence in your customers but also helps to build a strong bakery branding for your Melbourne Australia business.

Complying with data protection regulations

Complying with data protection regulations is of utmost importance for businesses operating in today's digital landscape. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, the need to safeguard sensitive customer information has become a top priority. In order to ensure the security and privacy of personal data, businesses must adhere to a set of stringent guidelines and regulations. One such regulation is the Stronger Future Act, which aims to strengthen data protection measures and enhance consumer trust. This act requires businesses to implement robust security protocols and encryption methods to protect customer data from unauthorized access or breaches. By complying with the Stronger Future Act, businesses can demonstrate their commitment to data protection and build a strong foundation of trust with their customers.

Protecting customer information

Protecting customer information is of utmost importance for any business that accepts credit card payments. As a Melbourne Australia business utilizing Square, we understand the significance of safeguarding sensitive customer data. We have implemented robust security measures to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of all transactions. Our commitment to protecting customer information extends beyond industry standards, as we continuously update our systems and employ advanced encryption technologies. To learn more about our secure payment solutions and how they can benefit your business, we invite you to book a consultation with our expert team.

Optimizing credit card payment acceptance

Streamlining the checkout process

Streamlining the checkout process is crucial for any business, especially when it comes to accepting credit card payments. With Square, a leading payment processing platform, businesses in Melbourne, Australia can easily streamline their checkout process and provide a seamless experience for their customers. By integrating Square's payment solutions, businesses can accept credit card payments quickly and securely, reducing the time customers spend at the checkout counter. This not only improves customer satisfaction but also increases efficiency and productivity for the business. With Square, businesses can focus on providing excellent products and services while ensuring a smooth and hassle-free checkout process for their customers.

Offering multiple payment options

Offering multiple payment options is crucial for any business, especially in today's digital age. By providing customers with a variety of ways to pay, businesses can ensure a seamless and convenient checkout experience. One popular payment option that many businesses in Melbourne, Australia are using is Square. Square is a leading provider of payment processing solutions, offering secure and reliable credit card payment processing. With Square, businesses can accept payments from all major credit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. Square also offers a range of other features and services, such as invoicing, inventory management, and analytics, making it a comprehensive solution for businesses of all sizes. By integrating Square into their payment options, Melbourne businesses can offer their customers a convenient and secure way to pay, helping to drive sales and improve customer satisfaction.

Utilizing Square's reporting and analytics

Utilizing Square's reporting and analytics, businesses in Melbourne, Australia can gain valuable insights into their credit card payment transactions. Square provides comprehensive reports that allow businesses to track sales, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions. With Square's analytics tools, businesses can monitor sales performance, analyze customer behavior, and optimize their payment processes. By leveraging Square's reporting and analytics, Melbourne businesses can effectively manage their credit card payments and drive growth in their operations. This powerful tool empowers businesses to make informed decisions and stay ahead in the competitive market.

Conclusion

Summary of key points

The article titled 'How to accept credit card payments for your Melbourne Australia Business with Square' provides valuable insights and guidance on implementing credit card payment solutions for businesses in Melbourne, Australia. The article highlights the key points and strategies for accepting credit card payments and emphasizes the importance of using Square, a renowned payment processing platform. The article offers a comprehensive overview of the benefits of accepting credit card payments, including increased customer convenience, improved cash flow, and enhanced credibility. Additionally, it outlines the step-by-step process of setting up Square for your business, ensuring a seamless and secure payment experience for your customers. By following the guidelines and recommendations provided in this article, Melbourne-based businesses can effectively streamline their payment processes and maximize their revenue potential.

Benefits of using Square for credit card payments

Square offers several benefits for accepting credit card payments for your Melbourne Australia business. Firstly, Square provides a secure and reliable payment processing system, ensuring that your customers' sensitive information is protected. Additionally, Square offers competitive transaction rates, allowing you to maximize your profits. Furthermore, Square provides a user-friendly interface and easy-to-use tools, making it simple for you to manage your credit card payments. Lastly, Square offers quick and hassle-free deposits, ensuring that you have access to your funds in a timely manner. Overall, using Square for credit card payments can greatly enhance the efficiency and convenience of your Melbourne Australia business.

Final thoughts on accepting credit card payments with Square

In conclusion, Square provides a reliable and convenient solution for accepting credit card payments for your Melbourne Australia business. With its user-friendly interface and secure payment processing, Square offers peace of mind to both businesses and customers. Whether you are a small startup or an established enterprise, Square's comprehensive features and competitive pricing make it an ideal choice for accepting credit card payments. By integrating Square into your business operations, you can streamline your payment processes and provide a seamless experience for your customers. With Square's robust reporting and analytics tools, you can gain valuable insights into your sales and customer behavior, enabling you to make informed business decisions. Overall, accepting credit card payments with Square can enhance your business's professionalism, credibility, and customer satisfaction, contributing to your overall success in the Melbourne Australia market.
In conclusion, Square Instant Access is the perfect solution for small businesses in need of quick and easy access to funds. With Square's innovative platform, you no longer have to struggle to get the financial support you need to grow your business. Whether you're looking to expand your inventory, invest in marketing, or hire new employees, Square Instant Access has got you covered. Say goodbye to lengthy loan applications and waiting periods, and say hello to instant funds with Square. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to the next level. Visit our website today and discover how Square Instant Access can help you achieve your business goals.

So bit of a story first to explain why (Tl;Dr: Want snakes to eat invasive frogs): I'm in south florida, and where I live has a major infestation of cuban tree frogs that's popped up within the last 2 years. They're non-native (invasive), and extremely obnoxious. When it rains, they easily keep me up at night, as they can get extremely loud. They also hop in my pool and lay eggs, to where my pool will have tens of thousands of eggs the next morning. One time last season I went out and was able to catch about 40 frogs within 10 feet of the pool in about 15 minutes (thankfully they're pretty stupid and easy to catch). I've tried about every single deterrent there is. The best I've found so far is an automated system which sprays my pool deck with salt water and vinegar every few minutes through the night. However they can still dash across and hop in the pool, or hang out outside my pool area (e.g. the neighbor's pool). With rain season approaching, they're already starting to become a pest again, and I'd like to see about using natural predators to combat the problem.
From what I've been able to find, we have several native species that will eat the frogs, such as rat snakes, black racers, and gartersnakes. I would like to encourage these, or potentially any other snakes that would do the job (though prefer ones that I don't have to worry about harming me or other humans/pets), to nest on my property so they can combat the problem. There's certainly no shortage of the frogs, so food supply is not a problem. I suspect I just need to provide some place they can nest/hide, but not sure what that might be. If I need to buy a heat lamp (though it's already pretty hot here) or anything else, I will. I want these bloody frogs gone.
I've seen snakes around my house before (was several together, and I would guess they were rat snakes, but not sure), but that was many years ago before the frog problem. And they weren't nesting as it was only the one sighting.
Also is there any chance of asking local wildlife control or whatnot that might handle snake removal from someone's property, and ask if I can have them? Or any other reasonable way of getting some wild ones that can be released?
Edit: Oh, as the name "cuban tree frog" implies, they hide in trees during the day, and come out at night. Not sure if snakes travel during day or night, but if during the day, I assume I'd need some way to entice them to stay until night time.

When you knew me, I was about to fall down into the pit of pain I had been running from while also looking at, my whole life. You knew this. I thought having a degree, being a provider type girlfriend (like my dad was) and someone who heals others would shield me from it. I was wrong. I know this pain now, I know the dark corners of my mind and the beautiful sunlight of my soul. The happy is not gone. It's a part of me. You don't have access to it. I guard that part of me dearly because it's been taken from me before. It's been rained down on in ways you have done to me. I think you didn't recognize me in the tunnel of my feelings, you focused on the manifestations and punished me for them and what they represented to you. You didn't have the recovery of yourself to meet me there but still expected that from me.
I had to guard it from you. I had to try to Frankenstein it together for the world and you tried to take off the pins and needles that held me together when you pleased. That felt violating. I was not done with my BIG TASK. I told you immediately when we met. When we discovered we had feelings, I said to you, "Let's be friends because I'm in the middle of nursing school. Right now isn't the best time." Because I knew I was growing love for YOU and actually wanted it to work. When you shared that might not actually work, I held on despite my better judgement, I should have let you walk. You are wrong to think I preyed on your love. You saw me fighting the fight of my life and at many times, you joined in on the other side of the ring. Whatever unconscious things I did to you, I'm sorry. They were unconscious. I don't doubt that I unintentionally gaslight you often, that's what was done to me. That would make sense. And for that, I'm very sorry.

1. Yes, I'm a Flirt

I will say, I did not kiss another man, sleep with another, touch another man, nothing. Am I flirt? Yes. I always have been. I am a harmless flirt, remember, in your own words-I push away people who actually are into me...That freaks me out. I walk into a room and at least one person is attracted me, since forever. That's not my fault.

1. Only Fans

I saw that a character with a really unattractive voice on Love is Blind (which is a show I watched) got an only fans and I was curiously fucking around and finding out what that was about. No intention of acting on the impulse to look.

1. Sean I and Sean II

That guy Sean DID have a crush on me. No we never got together. There was a Sean from 2020 I had a little thing with and I ended things with him back then. The screen shot was for Sandi.

1. Pushing away people who care about me

Yes, I have an impulse to push away people that care about me. The open channel where care and help is was foreign and scary to me. Now it's just like walking past a hornet at an aqua park. I know it’s there but I can go enjoy the day. You tried to give it faster than I can process. I DID want to melt into your arms and feel safe and in those spaces and we did many times. You would get very defensive about religion or other hot topics that I needed to hold onto. I also felt how you were ashamed of my emotional bruises before you started to make fun of them. That made me close off to you. I felt you pop my mental floats and told me to hold onto you. So I was mad but, I held on. I thought I was supposed to. That's how I felt. I am an independent person but a physical touch/quality time/acts of service type of romantic. I know you felt it. I offered to literally be the workhorse so we could live somewhere beautiful together and give you a chance to start something, even if it was just painting. That is a sacrifice that never got acknowledged even while I was in the school stage of that process. But I learned you were into “ the salary lol”

1. Your Pain, Your Shame

There were times you were not well and I gave you some of my *touch* and warmed you with my soul. I did it far more often than you noticed. I loved you just as much as you loved me. I had to compartmentalize this when you wanted more from me than I could give. Before I did the inner work I have done now, I didn't know I went deeper, that there was deeper. I was abandoned. You were reaching into the lost girl in me and scaring her then getting mad at her. She was just trying to not drown. That made more of my defenses come out. I did feel you may have wanted to be with me for the nursing salary which would turn out to be true. It would turn out to be true you thought very little of me. It would turn out to be true you lied about friends like Boon & Megan who were never together because Megan dated my friend Alex, I met them through the local music scene I'm now a part of. You lied about a lot, I think because you were embarrassed to admit you didn't have friends. People will not stick around people who are needy, even though you need basic things, people are just trying to survival at the most basic level and will never put you before themselves. You tried to do that for me, which I don't think is love because the result was a dysfunctional relationship. It was idealizing me into someone that when I fell short of being her, I paid for it. You held contempt and resentment for me because of this which think birthed your contempt and suspiciousness. We were on different levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. I needed basics, you were ready for more. That's why I forced myself to finish school. The way I've seen you talk about women sounds like a "nice guy". You think very highly of yourself, in a way that makes others shrink. You rise up by stepping on people. You were going to step on me and use my money and my innocence. I got wise and angry. I know when you are in a better place you will see the field you assess yourself and others on, isn't always accurate. You have empathy but you don't have experience to know how to make space for others to bloom. You did not allow for this in me. You kept showering me with your insecurities, apathy for my feelings and machine gun style attacks at me doing the best I could with what I had at the time. That is cruel. I saw a lot of that. Women are not perfect. The ones that you claim are crazy for saying they are neurodivergent or men have hurt them, are sometimes that stereotype and scorching the earth with their pain. I've had times in my life where I've gone through that phase. It's part of grief. You have sounded very elitist and looked that way when I saw you both times. You think you are the prime example of manhood, you need to look at how you are not the hot shit you think you are. You are very disrespectful to people without warning, you also need to look at that. You are impulsive, which sets in motion all of this. I had no problem showing you were not the hottest shit around and I think that, to you, that meant I was cheating or that I didn't appreciate you. It meant, you needed a dose of humble and to learn how to actually listen. Not just for what you want to hear.
You lied in court several times. You did tell me to go die, you did call the cops on me for making my knuckles. You filed a police report on me for the bike. You spoke about me like trash and you have for a long time. You are not loving savior type. You are cunning and malicious. I believe you are very selfish and misled by your impulses. I don't know everything you did but I saw just how incredibly manipulative you can be. The judge fell for it.

1. When you decided to cross my boundaries here's what happened

Whatever it is you saw in me and wanted me to face, the rate you were pushing me to face it was faster than I could handle and that made you a threat to me, subconsciously and emotionally. That made my defenses come up. It was not on your time for me to heal from my life's pain, no matter how ready you were for your dream girl, I needed shelter you COULD NOT give. So I was very unhappy and SCARED of you. You hurt my inside. I was scared of how far you would go based on your selfish impulses and for that I needed legal help to keep you away from me. You were going to push me into a mental hell. You would not validate my inner world. You just picked through it. That felt like awake surgery to me, so to me that was dangerous and painful.

1. The Truth of your Posts

You thought very little of me and liked the emotional rollercoaster where you could put put your arms up and scream and feel like you’re on a ride more than the love. Because when the love was there, you didn't know how to engage. You would leave me hanging morning after morning. Days of it. Weeks. I had every right to be as cold with you because your inner belief system thought I was scum and rejected me. How wrong you are.

1. Closure

I don't think there's any good conversation to have with you until life throws some stuff at you that makes you open your heart more and talk less and listen more. That will take years. I wish you a happy life, a loving marriage and family and hope you finally learn that it's insides of people that count. That's who they are, not their muscles, hair, job, money, talent-it's the inner person who put those things together to survive. I love myself, I have made a life out of being left in a dumpster for people. You see me as the person who belongs back in that box while also seeing me as someone worth more. So you are confused about who I am. I am not.
I don't fit in a box. i know this box. You and the judge both got me in there, she paid way more attention to you. That’s how it went. hey, I refuse to be put in a box. Boxes mean pain. But I will love the person I'm supposed to love with every beat of my heart and I know this about myself. I feel it. I felt it with you. You missed it. My fear, my PTSD was never yours to announce or bring up. Conversations could be had at any moment if they are open and two way streets. You are not a sorry, weak person. You know this. You played that very well. I chose not to. You see I am strong now. whatever you want to throw at me will wash off with the rain of my tears and I will bloom and bloom into a garden so big it will give my family I build a beautiful thing. I'm not ready yet. Letting go of you is the next thing on my list. So you are free. I don't hate you. I believe you won't hurt me. I hope you unbury your imperfect self and accept him so you can accept others for their wrinkles/bald spots/weakness/emotional holes and all. That's loving someone, to me. Like the velveteen rabbit. It's inside out. Non-verbals to verbals. I wish you learn what lessons you need to learn and your heart gets so full it starts singing and what will happen is that you will finally grieve and process your actions that have left you alone because you have brunt people out. Yes, I loved you first. I said it first too. You forgot that part. You expected me to believe you didn't flash a group of women when the police said that about you too. I believe you did and put on the same poor sweet man boy act you did with me. You’re just a martyr dude who really does no wrong. Whatever was proven or you fell like you "won", I hope it's what you wanted. You showed me you would have tore into me the whole way through. I don't trust you. I just wish you peace. You are the most manipulative person I have ever met. More than my mother. That’s what this whole thing was. You manipulated the shit out of me & my boundaries are not leaving. Ever. I am blessed with them. What light uou think left my eyes was the door to you that is sealed and buried.
Moral of the story: Ex would not listen to my boundaries. Would push my buttons to peer into the person I was at my worst and then neglect her further. The boundaries I have in place now are staying. This needed to come off my chest to acknowledge my feelings which have been long ignored. Keep the boundaries. Stay no contact. Love yourself more the darkness they seduce you with. It’s click bait. It’s click bait love. He was a virus to my hard drive.