Hi, I made the biggest mistake of my life.
My ex and I were friends for 2 years, and after we had a disagreement and stopped talking to one another, realized we had feelings for one another and dated for 8 months. We planned to get married next year, and during those 8 months spent as much time as possible together.
Before I deployed, we had what she called the best date shes ever had and the favorite night of her life.
Now she wonders how I became an asshole so quickly and I dont blame her. I deployed for 35 days unexpectedly and the first 7 days were shit, but i had her support.
She forgot my Birthday for the second year in a row and it was the beginning of my spiral. One of the big promises she made during that argument before we started dating was she would never forget.
I was destroyed because no one has ever cared about my birthday besides family. The deployment was already going terribly and there was a very big risk i would lose my career. So i broke down and told her how much this hurt me, how much i was looking forward to it. She revealed that she was planning something really beautiful in August, she just misplaced the month instead of it being in may. I still laid awake every night thinking about it, being torn up.
A friend of mine that she did not like, was the only person who remembered. That friend is someone my girlfriend felt compared to, and I understand why. I made an asshole comment that "I would" my friend before i left.
One night when my girlfriend had a bad day at work, she came to me with a story about a bunch of dudes hitting on her, and i did honestly just become hurt and started being a dick over text. I started saying "did it really happen? Sounds like something that happened on reddit." I was venting to my friend at this point and my girlfriend had sent her the same story, so she started asking the same questions i was, but then without my knowledge started insulting my girlfriend while we were talking. It went from me just having an asshole moment to pretty much being a part of bullying her.
This caused alot of damage between us, but she was still trying to make things work. She just felt uneasy speaking to me, felt afraid of me, and couldn't stand to look at my face. There were nights she was sweet and nights she was angry, nights she was cold and apathetic. I know i hurt her alot and tore her up. My deployment wasn't making anything better with the stress and timezone difference, but its not an excuse for my actions.
She presents 3 options 1. We break up 2. She supports me until im home, then we take a month break 3. We work through this but her love and trust resets to 0
At first I chose the 2nd one, because i felt time to cool down was important, but a few days later i asked for the 3rd one which was a mistake. We talked and talked, i offered therapy for both of us, a couples counselor but she didnt want anyone else involved in the relationship. She was hurt.
She broke up with me because she said she was exhausted and didnt want to be hurt anymore, she didn't want to break up but she couldn't bear it anymore. She said she wanted me to try again with her but not now.
We were silent then began talking for a few days. We spoke about happy memories, the time we had together, my issues and what needs to be done to fix them, set up boundaries and a plan for me to work on myself. I asked about getting back together and she said she needed time to think.
When i found out she had a dating profile setup after we had that conversation it broke me. I told her that i appreciated her, but i couldn't keep speaking with her while she was doing that, i told her it was completely fine for her to do that, were not dating anymore, but it hurts to see so soon, its not her fault, i just didnt want to communicate for my own mental health.
She said she was willing to let me in again, she just needed a distraction, some casual sex and hook ups to fill her loneliness. She said that but as i found out she was really looking for a new relationship.
I dont blame her, everything fell apart in a month and i didnt handle things well. I was very stressful.
Even now though she still tells me she wants us to keep talking, she wants to support me and she respects me and cares for me, shes trying to be accommodating and wants to be around me.
I shook her off the first few times and tried to go no contact because i knew i wouldn't react well but shes been hanging on and i dont know why. I keep spiraling and just getting better then worse again. Im starting to finally get my emotions under control but its came at the cost of blowing up on her a few times and just being a total dickhead. I was very pushy and mean during the breakup and a very ugly side of me came out.
Im currently scheduling to get therapy and will be trialing medications for my issues this monday. Ive lost roughly 20 pounds during this ordeal and plan to just continue my weight loss and become a slave to the gym. My ex said she wanted me to really start my career and get a solid foothold in life, so i plan to start college and a better job soon.
Im moving on but i do truthfully want to give things a try again later, after we've growed and matured and ive handled my issues. She says the same but i dont know if its possible to undo all the negative feelings she has for me. I worry that the 8 months we had together of pure bliss, those memories will be replaced and soured with the month i was terrible.
She says she wants to stick around and see me change, but we just cant be together right now. I know were both going to see other people, and thats not an issue now that ive had time to sober up and mentally evaluate my situation.
Im not clinging onto the hope that we may love again, if it happens it happens. But i just need some strangers to give me the reality, can someone really forgive or move past these actions?
During our last spat about a week ago after we had a great night playing a game together, this is what she said.
"Stop thinking so hard, It's actually starting to piss me off Like it just feels no matter how accommodating I become you just you can't handle it I just don't know why, I have zero reason to accommodate I left because I didn't like how I was being treated. You just don't like it But like I just I don't know what the fuck I'm doing wrong here I have done likewise for you because I still care a lot about you I respect you and I understand you've done the same for me I'm reciprocating and not giving up on you But you're making this really really hard I'm exhausted You were fine before You're not going insane"
The best thing I feel i can do i just back off, and be present when she feels comfortable with it. It was only a month ago we planned on marriage and a family. Now her and i both agree i changed into someone else. She has a longstanding illness that will shorten her life and I dont want to not be a part of her life. I've stopped her from killing herself multiple times, we've been through alot of shitty things through friends and as lovers, dealing with her getting discriminated against, her friends hurting her, ive been there and supported her for all that. She used to avoid expressing who she really was, i got to see her transform from a shy introvert to a social butterfly who actually wears makeup and dresses now.
I just became the bad guy and i really dont know where to go. Everything we had is destroyed. When i got home from deployment i learned my mother had stage 4 cancer in the lung and brain and it just changed my entire outlook. I dont want to give up on this person, i want to be the best friend I can and hopefully be a better love and husband if that something im allowed to even attempt in their eyes.

A homeless teenager reaches out to the Shil’vati on first day of the invasion of Earth.
Credit to: who has beta read just about every chapter, and the only reason it's readable half the time
u/bluefishcake for writing the original SSB story.
Pizzaulostin who has been beta reading since the beginning.
Credit to u/HollowShel for getting me started with this!
This story is based in the SSB universe.
Previous
First
Chapter 33:

Reqellia:

It was the darkest part of the night, and yet I could hear the energetic commotion of Ruhal blearily heating up food for a famished human along with the clinks of dishes and silverware.
“One more day.” I felt glued to the bench as I stared back into the silver mask I hadn’t worn for almost [twenty-five years] prior, and had hoped never to put on again. I cursed my old girlish wishes when I first joined up, wanting to be a war hero, and then a mother afterwards. To grow old and see my own child in uniform. I had even wanted a son since I was already demanding the impossible.
I never believed in the gods, but now I’m sure that I’ve tempted Niosa to grant my wishes, but only after I made my peace with them that they would never come true.
Klein bounced around the suite’s kitchen, eating enough for two Shil women and already wearing his armor’s underlayment. The chair creaked a bit as he sat, his own horror-show mask on the dining table next to him staring back at him unblinking.
And It was a horror show.
He’d wake up cheerful and happy, and I’d watch over the day as every bit of his energy was drained out of him. The daily exercise routine of a morning run and gym day in a month being performed in a few short hours. Every time Klein finished a trail faster, or performed a more grueling task, the trainers would make him do even more as his contract offers rose another level.
I didn’t blame the instructors, it was their job to challenge each applicant, but Klein blew through all their expectations, so they just kept piling more onto him. Many of those same instructors had asked me if they were pushing him too far, but all I could do was shrug. Even I didn't even know where his potential ended.
I blinked and looked up. He was in his full armor now, with only the mask off.
“Ready to go?”
I nodded and stood up, quickly heading over to Ruhal, who in turn looked at me with sleep deprived eyes. Worn out as I was, he was worse, playing subject matter expert on all things human around a bunch of high ranking officers desperate for information not tainted by censorship.
“Stay safe out there,” he politely ordered as he kissed me.
I kissed him back and held his hand. “You too.”
Sighing,I left to let him rest, popped my back, and donned my own mask.
As Klein paced the door, I begged for safety. “One more day, please let everything be okay after today.”
I shouldn’t have tempted Niosa again.

Itaro:

I quietly padded out of the children’s den to a chorus of snoring from my siblings. The well carpeted securely fastened to wooden floors muffled my footsteps. I opened the large storm shutters and then pulled open the sliding glass door to the patio. I couldn’t sleep anymore, excitedly bouncing from one foot to another.
Klein and Reqellia were coming home tonight! Reqellia had sent me her contract offers that came from a dozen different Imperial departments and bureaus. Dad already agreed years ago she could move in with us, a pack sister was always welcome. Now she wouldn’t feel like a burden if she had to.
And Klein… Well, I wouldn’t be bothered by a few love-marks.
“I see that smile. Excited?” I heard my father’s deep voice like distant thunder. I turned around to his massive form only a few steps away. We both had learned to walk silently when my siblings were just pups and the discovery that they were light sleepers had been made.
I felt my ears droop just a little to see his melancholic face. He had gone out of his way the last few weeks to spend more time with just me now that I had a pack of my own. There was always a soft smile on his face, but the way his tail hung low to the floor was a dead giveaway on his mood.
I tried to cheer him up. “I am. It’s been weeks since I got to speak to Au’tes, and Klein…” I trailed off, the insinuation clear. He smirked. He had met Klein in passing, but I wasn’t bringing him home yet. Hario on the other hand had made one or two bawdy jokes at the dinner table after a second glass of her favorite liquor.
First time Klein spends the night, you might want to check up on Itaro, make sure she didn’t keel over from exhaustion.
“At this rate I’m going to have to teach you sword fighting to beat back other male suitors from poaching you for their own packs!” My father joked. Stepping off the patio landing, he hit the ground noiselessly, bending his legs to absorb the shock.

After letting out a quiet grunt indicative of an age he tried to keep hidden, he turned around and looked back up at me. “Want to come with me for a walk?”
I jumped down and followed him into our little patch of forest my mother’s terraforming job paid for. The early morning was already warm without a cooling vest, but not intolerable. The chirping of birds and the soft whistle of wind tinged with just a hint of salt made everything feel fresh.
It was like when I came home from school and my father would stop construction for the day. We’d explore the forest, play on the beach, go into town for groceries.
Except now my father didn’t run and have me chase him. He carefully inspected the trees for pests, and our conversation was far more practical than whimsical. “Your mother’s coming home next month. Can you write her a message before she meets Klein, just so she has a better idea of your pack?”
I nodded. “Of course. How long is she going to be home this time?”.
Her terraforming jobs always lasted months, if not years. I never faulted her for the huntress life, but it made connecting with her difficult. She was more a guest of honor than a mother to the household, always bringing a fatted Sou’ta carcass home as a present, but rarely cleaned dishes, or the house.
Or really any chore…
He shrugged before crouching next to a felled tree, trimming away small branches for kindling with a tiny hatchet he hand pulled from his tool pouch. “Might be a good long while this time. The last message I got said her department only had small projects and a few hazard jobs on the periphery. Besides, we might need an extra set of hands more than the money now.”
I scoffed. “Her, a house mother!? No offense, but mom is a terrible cook, and a worse caretaker. Remember the time she nearly burned down our kitchen boiling water?”
He laughed with me as he pocketed the hatchet. Standing up with two sticks, and then threw me one. I caught it as he swung his own stick in my general area. “Defend yourself! I did say I needed to teach you sword fighting. How else are you going to fight off possessive men when they realize what a catch you are?”
He didn’t teach anything but how to rough house on a lazy Shel morning.
We played and swung the flimsy branches until I accidentally hit him square in the chest. The branch, already crumbly and dry, disintegrated on impact. It didn’t stop him from dramatically acting out a death scene. Falling to his knees in an overly theatrical fashion. “Oh, woe is me! Cut down by my own daughter in cold blood!”
I let him pretend to be on stage for a few moments longer before standing over him to offer a hand. He took it, and then yanked me down to the grassy patch, holding me for a long, quiet minute. “I’m going to miss you.”
For the first time I noticed the stray white hairs around his muzzle, I knew what he meant, but I tried to play it off. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He just held me for a silent heartbeat longer, then let go and stood up.
He proclaimed cheerfully to mask his wet eyes. “Now, let’s get you cleaned up. You can’t look like a pup out of a mud bath for your victorious pack! I even scheduled a visit at Tulo’s for a haircut. Ruhal’s treat.”
My mind played with potential futures as we headed home. Between the three of us, we could write our own life together. Maybe I could even stay close to home.
I looked up to the rising light.
“One more day!”

Klein :

The mountains of gear and equipment around us were illuminated by harsh flood lights. We stood in formation with each person, regardless of species, showing physical signs of exhaustion. Drooping shoulders and bent knees, unfocused and slow eye movement.
Instructor Li’kele was wearing full battle rattle today, complete with a compact lasrifle holstered to her leg.
“Good morning applicants! It’s the last day of selection! Your assignment will be to support your sisters in the combat section in the wargames! You see all this critical equipment? Our first assignment will be to load all of it on auto-turoxes and hover-wagons. Unfortunately we don’t have enough capacity , some of you will need to carry gear on your person as we make the [ten mile] trek into the forest. Applicants 849, 734, 236 and 953 step up after we finish loading! You are our extra carriers.”
I knew I was going to be picked. It was easy to not let it bother me though. Reqellia had explained that the instructors were just trying to push us to our limits, and every extra duty and handicap meant a better contract with a brighter future.
Still, after hefting thousands of [pounds/kilos] of stuff onto the squat legged drone’s cargo cages and the little platforms that would float once powered, dread formed in the pit of my stomach as an entire counter-battery system was cinched onto my person. I trudged as we formed up for our road march.
The combat selection team rolled in as we took positions, already covered in mud from what I could guess was their own morning fun, their las-rifles at the low ready. Their own instructor, a severe looking Hyena-like Kortika woman with fur that trimmed short and smooth. She yelled out orders to the gaggle of applicants under her command. “Form on either side of the supply train and defend them at all costs! If they get shot because you weren’t doing your job, then it’s your ass that will be carrying the extra gear!”
We marched out of the base, clinking and clunking as we traveled uphill. The weight wasn’t too bad now that it was evenly distributed on my body, but it would be hell taking it off and putting it back on anytime we stopped.
“Isn’t that the new shock trooper ? What’s he doing with the non-combat selection?” I heard one of the combat applicants say idly. It was easy to pick up conversation in the nearly silent dawn as we marched on a dirt path extending across an expanse of grassland in the reddening sky. It was really pretty, watching the light play on the green forested hills in the distance.
Their Instructor sidled up to the commenting girl silently, ears swiveled back in anger. She grabbed her shoulder, growling low. “Cut the chatter, girl. ”
Silence followed for the next hour in the pre-dawn light.
We got the first taste of the wargames when red beams bolted over our heads and dropped one of our auto-turoxes. “Everyone get down!” yelled one of our instructors, and I threw myself on the path.
With all the weight on me, the impact on the ground hurt . I looked up and saw red beams blink in and out over me. Their flashes brought back memories.
The red glow through convenience store windows . An alien invasion.
I blinked furiously and turned my head to see what was going on with the combat teams on the sides of the road. They had already taken out two of the ‘raiders’ who stood up, hands in the air as they walked away. Another minute clicked by before a squad decided to double check the tall grass and found a third raider hiding. All had the insignia of the instruction cadre commandos.
“Everyone, up !” Instructor Lik’ele belted out in a two-word shout, and I had to push up off the ground, creaking under the weight. My arms burned as I got to my knees, then raised a hand and called out, “assistance!” One of the unnumbered girls gave me a hand to steady myself, and I rocked a bit trying to stand.
“Thank you,” I said, but between the voice distorter and my mask, the girl backed away as soon as I was up, fear registered in her eyes.
[At the bus stop, a classmate backed away from me. scared of me for some reason mumbling ‘you're bleeding’. Warmth on my upper lip, a coppery taste.]

I shook my head, trying to banish the weird memory surfacing, I hadn’t had a nosebleed since I left Earth. I looked back up, but the girl had already gotten back in formation and we started moving again.
It wasn’t quite noon when we stopped for lunch. I got help removing my kit, and stretched to work out the kinks. Reqellia stood next to me as I sat down on the hard packed surface. I took off my gloves, and jammed them under my chest holster.
I was technically ‘armed’ right now. We had gotten the thirty-minute las-pistol training yesterday on how to safely handle them, and then ran through a quick range. They were nothing more than glorified laser pointers though. They could lock up a suit set to respond to the laser signal, but they wouldn’t so much as redden skin otherwise.
Reqellia had let me in on their real purpose, to see if we could be trusted with a dangerous object and not play with it.
Eating was a pain, I had to lift my mask halfway up and eat blind. The meal pack was cold, but eh, it was food. Goddess, I was hungry.
“How are you holding up?” Reqellia asked, the silver mask obscuring any expression, and the voice distorter deadening any intonation, but by the angle of the head tilt, I could guess the question was more concern than curiosity.
“It’s not too heavy, but it’s awkward trying to move around,” I admitted as I put my mask back in place and pulled out my omni-pad. I tried not to boggle at the contract offers I was getting. It was a straight up bidding war, including furnished houses, years of leave after an initial stint, even minor titles.
Ruhal had helped me, even filled out the forms himself with less than a day for submission. He had also messaged me about the fine print of many of these absurd offers. The watch word was ‘Relocation’.
“They will send you back to Earth. Right now, you are the only human any department can recruit who might know an obscure piece of human signage or culture that got skipped during their culture crash courses, has the physical ability to keep up during an operation, and they can implicitly trust it is loyal to the Imperium.”
I scrolled past the too-good-to-be true proposals and to the ones without relocation, not ridiculously overpaying, but still plenty. Maybe I would follow Ka’tel into ICAD, or…
“We need to get moving!” Li’kele barked and I signaled for help again. This time Au’tes was ordered to help me with my gear. Now seeing her up close, she was definitely worse for wear. She smiled, but it was the kind of tired smile that had almost no energy in it. Her usual well controlled movements were slurred by exhaustion, and she leaned on me after buckling the packs on my shoulders, her own extra gear was a large backpack of energy cells.
“Damn, girl runs away in fear from combat selection after spending years in the militia and now plays valet. Bet whatever is underneath that suit is more would eat her alive if unmuzzled,” I overheard one of the combat applicants snicker. Au’tes winced, just a bit, at the barb from her former youth militia group.
“Lift your visor.” I said. It was dumb, it was really dumb, but I wanted to give her at least a reminder of what she had that they didn’t. Au’tes had a flicker of confusion, but flipped up the visor on her suit’s helmet.
I lifted my mask just enough to kiss her. It was honestly a gross kiss and wished I could have brushed my teeth beforehand. But when I dropped my mask down there was the manic Au’tes again, full of energy and gusto. I looked past her to the shocked combat applicants. I put my finger to roughly where my mouth was and whispered in my distorted voice, “No one will believe you.”
Au’tes brought her visor down and squeezed my hand for a second longer before leaning in close “Thank you for letting me know you still exist under there.

Reqellia:

The dirt trail up the hill was easy enough for my legs. I stayed in the same general area as Klein, but with my augments I already had his pinpoint location and medical data, I could even access his helmet camera. I didn’t want to get in his way while the instructors gave him snap secondary tasks to complete on our journey up to the outpost location.
I kept myself entertained by listening in on the comms chatter that I could pick up on the wargames going on about us at large. I had enjoyed playing the no-holds-barred opposing force when I was a commando on rotation here.
Right now there was a particularly fun little drama going on up north of our location. A mechanized assault unit tasked with taking out an anti-orbital battery got one of their exos stuck in mud because of a poor assessment of the ground composition. The armored crane they had first ordered to pull it out was now also stuck.
The Lieutenant was trying to get an exception to the wargame rules to bring a drop ship in to pull them both out, but the higher-ups told her to figure it out. The whole point of these wargames was to discover how things could go wrong. The Lieutenant tried to pull title to overrule them, only to get a nasty conversation from her commander.
A small beep from my monitoring systems told me Klein’s heart rate had slowed and I looked up to see the front of the supply train had been ordered to halt. Up ahead was the “fort,” a clearing on top of the hill with nothing but some half buried holes.
The Kortika woman got to the front of the formation and gave her orders. “Listen up! Combat selection is going to set up a perimeter while the Auxiliary builds us a structure safe enough to hold during an assault. All weapons are going ‘live’, but for those in the non-combat teams I will again warn you to only use them in self-defense. If you wanted to shoot people for a living you should have signed up for it.”
I tried not to flinch as I watched Klein and his compatriots start to offload all the gear they had packed this morning and attempt their best effort at setting it up with basic instructions from Li’kele and the manuals that came with the equipment. Just another test to see how the applicants would handle the technical situation.
At this point they were at their limit, physically and mentally exhausted as they tried to bolt frames together, wrestle antennas, install expandable barriers, and put together the foundations of a forward operating base.
Klein had all but given up on the counter battery system he schlepped here and handed that responsibility off to a Senthe Boy while speaking a rough northern dialect of Satenthia. The boy was more than happy to talk to someone who knew even a few words of his native tongue.
I opened a small window on my HUD and watched with amusement as the early contract offers rose and fell. Klein’s offer from naval engineering, already paltry compared to other, more suitable jobs, dropped to barely above standard. Intelligence and Law branches, however, rocketed upwards again.
I could almost hear the recruiter’s comments as the numbers and terms changed. Does not have familiarity with Shil military equipment. Comfortable with speaking multiple languages. Works well with multiple species.
I watched them work. Klein, in usual Klein fashion, pushed himself. After getting the counter battery laser hooked up, he volunteered for other physically demanding tasks. Pile driving in the foundations that hold the columns of the structure. The rhythmic thump gave me ghost aches when I had done the same thing out in the periphery while getting pot shotted by roaches.
I shook my head. It was going to be another rough night for him by the way he was bunching up his shoulders as he braced the handheld pile driver. Thankfully, tomorrow he’d be home and with an appointment with Cee who might force him on bed rest for the next month.
I started to chuckle at the thought of how protective Itaro was going to get after taking one look at Klein. I came back from deployment once missing three fingers from a plasma grenade and Bahtet waited on me and foot, wouldn’t so much as let me handle a kitchen knife until they were replaced later that month.
A few stray red beams were thrown our way, even a flash bang or two from the commandos tasked with harassing us came and went. As the ramparts of the temporary base were finished, I took up station on the second level to oversee the whole complex. Klien was working with a combat team, helping them put a second defense line in. They had driven stakes into the ground to support parallel knee-high thermocast plates with an arms-length gap between them, which Klein was filling in with dirt to act as a wall and platform for the heavy, crew served lasgun.
I was thankful there would be a shuttle to pick us up soon. I played the opposing force for Selection a few times, and I still remembered the script. Right now we were in a lull that would last until dusk, then at least three full commando teams would assault the base. The battle would be made as realistic and demanding as possible with creeping dark to add to the complexity.
The Selection team would always be wiped out, but it was how they performed against overwhelming odds that would shift the contract offers that last bit before everything was locked in place.
I heard the whirr of a counter battery system swiveling around, and then the crackle of it firing. I turned to see what it was aiming for but all I saw was a cloud of smoke . Then a fast moving object came through the cloud before I heard the crackle again and another exploded .
Blanketing everything in a tar-black fog .
My stomach dropped. This wasn’t the cadre commando team, and they were attacking too soon. I got on the comms with Li’kele “HALT, HALT, HALT! We need to stop the exercise!”
I got a crackle on the comms. Then Li’kele’s voice came in that terrifyingly calm voice used to keep control of a combat operation. “I can’t get a signal out, I need a report on the situation.”
Instead of trying to explain I sent her my video feed as I jumped down from the ramparts and started to sprint for Klein. I needed to get him out of here , but I hadn’t had time to prime my augments. I started the cold power cycle as I cursed myself for letting my guard down.
I was already too late . I watched as our own counter-battery laser weapons were used against us, acting as the triggers for each smoke grenade engulfing Klein’s team right in front of me, their signal dropping right out. I got a response from Li’kele that alleviated at least some of my terror. “Dammit! It’s the 171 st Raiders from the wargames, they mus-”
And then I was enveloped in darkness and static. The smoke was so thick I could only see a few paces away in all spectrums. I tried my internal radio and….
Nothing. I was alone and with nothing to guide me, and then I saw to the right of me a few weak beams of red, and then a ball of light of a simulated explosion. I let my gnawing panic subside and walked their way with a observers flag in my hand. I was practically on top of them before I saw the combat selection team that had been ‘killed’, their frowning faces and hands up as they sat there grumbling.
The Raiders appeared soon after. A four woman squad. Two Helkam, a Rakiri, and a Shil’vati hefting a large antiquated grenade launcher. I called out “Do you have a way to call a emergency stop to the battle?”
The squad leader responded. “Did someone get seriously injured? I can fire off a flare and our medic teams will be here to extract them.”
“No! This is Selection, we aren’t supposed to be part of the Wargames.” I argued, but she waved me off.
“We got orders to assault the base up here. Trust me, our commander is mighty pissed at getting tasked with a frontal assault on the youngest and toughest the Imperium has to offer, with adding insult to injury if we lose to kids. That’s why we broke out the smoke screen.”
“One of the Selection members is the first of their species. Higher ups want them monitored at all times,” I partly lied.
The gears whirred and the team lead brought her weapon up again, eyes a little wider. “ Blue Eyes is here? Shit, girls ready up and head on a swivel!”
The team reformed in a circle facing outwards, a tactic specifically meant for ambushes and roach suicide drones. I stood there, confused. “Blue eyes?”
The team lead started to move into the smoke again, but explained, her eyes darting around. “Yeah, the freaky creature in the mask, toyed with an unmanned Exo before annihilating it with a shipcutter! A close quarters combat specialist with heavy armor and a real mean streak . You’re telling me they’re loose in a forest with enough concealment to sneak up on us and tear us to shreds? Ma’am the only ones in immediate danger are us. ”

So, i have this best friend, i've known hethem for over 10 years now. She's undiagnosed but i'd bet my parietal lobe that she's level 1 at least. Her sister is level 2 and thus, she's been under her family's radar and got the shorter end of the stick care wise growing up. Anyway, I love her to death, we've been through a bunch together, but i've noticed i've been getting irritated with her whenever she calls/we're on the phone lately. It feels like its been getting progressively worse over the last 3 years. It took me a while to try and narrow down why this might be, and i think it might me one or two of these few things:

1. She constantly complains about her work/ yet never tries looking for another job, even when i give suggestions.
   
2. She and I have different political views, and while i try avoiding politics arround her, she still frequently discusses/complains about politics with me.
   
3. I'm her closest friend, so she comes to me for EVERYTHING. She won't vent to anyone else and i think i might just be burnt out at this point.
   
4. She's a bit of a pushover and it pisses me off seing/hearing about how others take advantage of that, yet i can do nothing about it. I've tried.
   
5. She's not very aware of background noise when calling me, so i'll frequently hear a bunch of garbled noises in the background that make me want to rip my ears off.
   
6. My depression has taken a nose dive, so i find most things irritating.
   

Any advice on what to do? I don't like being irritated with her, it feels awful, yet i can't control it. Irritation is an emotion and suppressing it has only been getting harder as time goes on. I worry that i might snap at her one day and say something that could hurt her, which is the last thing i'd ever want to do. I'm just so lost here. Any suggestions/advice on how to calm down, talk, or something to fix the situation.

Currently on my 3rd playthrough and decided to make my Tav a bard this time (I did a spore druid on my first run and then did a durge run as an open hand monk). I just feel like I'm not utilizing the full potential of the bard class.
Originally I intended on staying a full bard (college of lore subclass) and being more of a castesupport character but sort of got bored of it and fights turned into me just using dissonant whisper all of the time and casting bardic inspiration as my bonus action.
I had read about how OP a swords bard could be on this sub so towards the end of act 2 I respec-ed my Tav into a college of swords Bard. I'm currently in act 3 and I'm a level 8 bard with 3 levels in the fighter class. Now I find in battles I'm pretty much just using the fighter traits of my character and ignoring the bard aspects (ok I mean I utilize the flourishes, etc but I'm more talking about spellcasting/support). Really I only utilize the bard aspect of my character in dialogue and outside of combat.
So now I'm considering going back to a full on college of lore bard and seeing if I have more fun with it at a higher level. Just looking for some advice/tips on how to get the most out of this class (both if I stick with swords bard or if I go back to a lore bard). I've also read that a bard-warlock multi-class can be fun, so I'm curious on if anyone has thoughts on that as well.

F20 SW:187 lb CW: 175 GW: 140lb
Hi everyone! This weeks update is i went to visit some friends in another city - and managed to gain 3lbs over the week sadly. I definitely was eating less than the last time i visited - skipped breakfast everyday (had no appetite) and even went to a restaurant i've been to before - ordered the same meal but could only stomach half! I did have 3 drinks whilst i was there (had a night out) but honestly considering the amount of walking i did i am a little upset i gained :(
Trying not to let it bog me down too much - it happens and it's about the whole journey not just a week-by-week basis. Still not too nice a feeling and as i'll be taking the 5th dose this week i'll see how i get on before deciding to stick with 2.5mg or maybe move up to 5mg!
That being said - I have a friend who has a blood pressure machine at home (for medical reasons) and we measured mine just for fun - came out pretty damn low (98/58). I personally have been noticing a drop in my BP, I can feel the blood rushing to my head when i stand up quickly - normally have to bend down quickly bcs i feel so dizzy. Confusing because it makes it seem like i'm not eating enough food, but then i gained weight 😭 So a bit unsure on that.... i'll try monitor myself and see how things go.
Thats all for this week - hope next week I come back with a loss!

(At Hazbin Hotel, the cat is sleeping at the sofa, until it hears a hammer sound and sees Charles at a stair in the front of a banner above the entrance door saying "Happy First Week, Miss Pentious")
Charles: That looks perfect! (Screams excitedly) I am so excited that Miss Pentious is staying at the hotel!
Vagner: Um, Pentious was just trying to take over the city with her weird steampunk bullshit a few days ago.
Charles: Well, I haven't seen her try to pull any of that here.
(The cat runs from Miss Pentious pushing a giant ray gun)
Vagner: What the hell is that?!
Miss Pentious: Oh, hello, purple male. It's my new invention: the Skin Flayer 11,000! I'm really looking forward to shooting the other residents.
Charles: What? Why?
Miss Pentious: Everyone is being too nice. Obviously it must be a lie. I can sense they're planning to kill me. But when? How? I must be prepared! Ooh, the new parts of my machines are here!
(Two boys enter the hotel with a bunch of box in a cart)
Oddie: Sign here, please. (Gives a clipboard and pen to Miss Pentious, she signs it and give it back) Thank you for your business. Enjoy your Carmine purchase.
Vagner: Carmine? As in Carmillo Carmine? You are buying parts from an overlord?
Miss Pentious: Uh, of course. He's the top weapons dealer in Hell.
Vagner: Okay, well, that stops right now. (Gets the kart with the boxes from Miss Pentious)
Miss Pentious: Hey!
Vagner: You absolutely cannot build weapons in this hotel! No one is trying to kill you. People are being nice beacause they they want you to feel welcome.
(Miss Pentious looks at the bar Hisky and Angela give her the middle finger and Niffter smiles and laughs creepily to her)
Miss Pentious: I have my doubts.
Vagner: Well it's true. You have to trust us.
Miss Pentious: But I don't.
Charles: Well, why don't we focus on that for today's activities?
Vagner: Not before we lay some ground rules: no more building weapons, no more plotting against the other guests and you need to get rid of these things.
(One of the Egg Girls shoots a laser at the roof and breaks it)
Vagner: Ah! What did I just say? What did I just say?
Miss Pentious: What? Not my little Egg Girls! They do my evil bidding for my.
Vagner: Do you want to stay here and redeem yourself?
Miss Pentious: Yes?
Vagner: Then, no more eggs!
Miss Pentious: Alright, eggies. You've got to go. I (Sniffs) can't keep you anymore.
Egg Girl #1: Okay, boss!
Miss Pentious: No, don't resist, this is how it has to be.
(The egg girls follow Vagner and Miss Pentious cries sterically with Charles patting her)
(Alice is seen eating a dead deer with fork and knife in a table in the middle of a swamp)
Vagner: Alice!
(The screen moves showing the swamp in a room and Vagner at the door)
Alice: Do you mind? I'm in the middle of breakfast.
Vagner: Pentious' eggs are all over the place and I need you to get rid of them.
Alice: Oh! Well, in that case, I'd be delighted to!
Vagner: Humanely!
Alice: Um. Well, that's a lot less fun. But I suppose I can take care of that on my outing today. (Leaves her room)
Vagner: Great! (See the dead deer) Oh, this is disgusting.
(At the looby)
Charles: Hi, guys! Thanks for coming! It's been brought to our attention that there maybe a littleeeeeeeee tension at the hotel!
(Miss Pentious grabs Niffter and prepares to shoot him, but Vagner gets her gun)
Vagner: Tension that can be counterproductive to what we're trying to do here.
Charles: We think that this group could really benefit from...(Jumps in front of a lighthing background) Trust exercises!
Vagner: Trust exercises! Oh, shit! (Falls butt down on the ground and Charles gets him up)
Charles: Vagner, we rehearse this. (Sighs) We're doing trust exercises!
Hisky: So, um, what's with the whole, uh...This?
(A stage is seen behind Vagner and Charles)
Hisky: I'm not about to put on some show for these fuckings chumps!
Angela: Oh, I will! (Puts her legs in Hisky's) But it's cash up first. And I know that one afford me.
Miss Pentious: Gross! I'd think of it, spider!
Vagner: Right, let's get started. Charles?
Charles: Actually, I thought maybe you could take the lead on this one. I trust everyone, so maybe you'd know better about how to build it properly.
Vagner: What? Uh, I don't know I'm qualified to...
Charles: Oh, come on! It'll be easy, I'm sure you can handle this.
Vagner: Yeah, um, sure. I can handle this, no problem. (Inhales) Alright, so we are starting with trust falls! Each of you are going to share something vulnerable about yourself and then fall backwards while the rest lf the group catches you, got it? Who wants to go first?
Charles: Ooh! Ooh! Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me!
Vagner: Alright, get on up there!
(Charles gets in the stage)
Charles: I...I love you guys. Like, really love you! (Turns around, falls backwards and Vagner catches him)
Vagner: Got you!
Charles: That...Felt...Good! Angela, why don't go next?
Angela: Fine! (Goes to the stage)
Vagner: This time everyone needs to catch her, okay? Unless you want me to hurt you!
Angela: Well, something about myself, huh? Well, how about this? I love to lick...
Hisky: I swear to fuck if you say pussies!
Angela: Lollipops, ya sicko! Get your head head of the gutter! (Falls backwards and Hisky catches her) But ya know? Pussies, too. (Hisky drops her) Ahh! Alright, new girl, you're up.
(A spotlight shines on Miss Pentious)
Miss Pentious: I don't want to leave without my minions! Nobody catch me. (Falls backwards and Vagner, Charlie and Hisky catch her) Damn it!
Vagner: That's great. Wow, you're slimy. Good job. Uh, Niffter? (Niffter runs runs past him and gets in the stage)
Niffter: Sometimes, I kill father bugs in front of their children as a warning to others! (Falls from the stage, everyone backs away and he falls face down in the ground) Yay! Pain! (Gets up, goes to the stage, falls and repeats it) Hehe, pain!
(Charles and Vagner walk away)
Charles: I don't think this really working the way we hoped. Maybe, we should...
Vagner: Honey, you have to trust me here. I got this, okay? I'll figure something out.
Angela: If you're in the market for some ideas, I got just the thing for some trust building.
Vagner: (Sighs) What do you have in mind?
(In the town, Alice is seen walking with the Egg Girls)
Egg Girl #1: Oh, boy! What's the plan, boss?
Egg Girl #2: I like your suit.
Egg Girl #3: What are the antlers for?
Egg Girl #4: Can I touch your staff thing?
Egg Girl #5: Are those your ears or is it your hair? I can't tell.
(A tall woman appears in front of Alice)
Zestia: Hark, Alice. How fare thee this day?
Egg Girl #1: Who's that boss? Want me to ruff her up for ya?
Alice: Follow in silence if you value your shells! Greetins, Zestia!
Sinner #1: Ahh! Holy shit! (Falls backwards)
Zestia: Ah, the weather did become fine this day!
Sinner #2: Oh! Uh-oh! (Hides in the garbage)
Alice: Indeed! Looks like we might have some acid rain this afternoon!
(A demon screams, covers her in gas and combustes her in flames)n
Zestia: If our luck doth hold. I do reveal in the screams. How art thou? (Walks with Alice) It's been an ages since thou hath graced us with thy presence. Some hath spun wild tales of you falling to...Holy arms.
Alice: (Laughs) Oh, I just took a well earned sabatical, nothing serious. Though is fun to keep everyone on their toes. Ha ha!
Zestia: (Chuckles) There too hath been rumor of thy involvement with the prince and his flight of fancy. Tell me, how does thou fall in such folly?
Alice: That is for me to know. But please, do guess, I'd love to hear the theories!
Zestia: (Chuckles) T'would be grander folly by far to assume the workings of your mind, Alice. Thou hath been naught but an enigma since thy manifested in this realm.
Alice: Coming from someone as ancient as you I take that as quite the complement!
(They walk into an alley, pass through a security cam and Alice statics it, the girls get in an elevator and Alice prevents the egg girls from entering with her staff)
Alice: No, no. I have a very important task for you: stay here and guard the front until I return.
(The Egg Girls salute Alice, the elevator closes and goes up)
Egg Girl #1: Oh, look, Frankie is up there!
Egg Girl #2: We have names?
(In the top the building, the elevator doors open and Zestial, Alice and Frankie get out of it, Frankie sees a blck eyes man and a blue skull woman saluting and a dinosaur guy come ou of an elevator and all of them enter a room with a table and chairs and Frankie hides behind Alice, the black eyes man see her, she waves at him and he smiles showing his teeth and she hides scared, and a man appears at the end of the table with the delivery boys from later)
Carmillo: Welcome, Hell's sovereign overlords. I invited you all here because you represent the controlling powers of our city. Together you own millions of souls. Souls at risk with a new extermination schedul. We need to discuss what can be done to minimize the impact. (See Zestia sitting at his side) Zestia, so good to see you my friend.
Zestia: Encanted as always, Carmillo.
Carmillo: Alice?
Alice: Yes, I know, I've been absent some time. I'm sure you've all been wondering.
Carmillo: Not really. But welcome back in ay case. (Snaps fingers and Oddie gives him a clipboard) This year's extermination was brutal. Far more even than years past. We have assessed that about 16% of the population was lost. With the Angelic Legions returning twice as quickly, I think is prudent that we...
(Veener quicks the door and everyone looks at him)
Veener: (At the phone) Yes, I've got it handled, Vix. Are you doubting me? Really? Me? That's what I thought. Ha ha ha! Yes, I know, they're all a joke. (Laughs) Thank you, Vee. (Kisses) Kisses, darling!
Carmillo: Nice of you to join us, Veener. Will your colleagues be joining?
Veener: No. They have better shit to do than to listen to an old windbag that thinks he's tough shit. I'm here to represent.
Carmillo: Charming. (Veener puts a poop filter on him) So, as I was saying, we need to discuss...
(Veener raises and shakes his hand)
Carmillo: Yes?
Veener: On the subject of discussion. (Throws an angel head in the table)
(Everyone gasps)
Alice: Ooh! Tasty!
Carmillo: Where did you get this?
Veener: We found it during the extermination day. If these holy rollers can be killed, the game has changed. We can take the fight to them. The girls and I have come up with a full assault plan...
(Everyone hears sipping noises, and look at Zestia drinking tea loudly and she puts the cup in the table)
Zestia: If it be true thee and thy colleagues desire to war, with such meagre proof. Thou art far more foolish than I be thought.
Veener: (Scoffs) "Meagre proof"? It's a dead fucking exorcist! I'd say that's pretty fucking definitive! You're going blind, old woman?
Zestia: We know not how this perished. Mayhaps it was not by a demon's hand at all. If we rush to war without knowing might, they purge all of Hell for ding an uprising.
(Everyone mutters in agreement and Veener looks to Carmillo worried)
Veener: Oh! I get it. So grandma is too pussy to fight, so I guess there's no point, right?
(Zestia gets angry)
Veener: Oh, what's the matter, fossil? To senile to make a real power grab for...
Carmillo: (Singing) You better show some respect! Check your behavior! No one speaks too Zestia that way! Did you expect us to sir baxk and rake your insolent brazen display?
Veener: Haha! (Singing) You've got it twisted! I'm not the one who needs a attitude! Maybe you missed it, but I'm that #Bitch and I will do nothing else then what I please! Woo! I'm the backbone of the Vees! Mad that I acted respectless? Well, it's 'cause no one could respect this. Sorry group attendin', since when are overlords too scared to fight? You're long past trendin'. Sorry, bae, but I ain't swipin' right. You lost your relevance.
Zestia: We can't act without more intelligence!
Veener: Ugh, no wonder I'm so respectless. I could eat you lot for breakfast. You and the Vees are inane and uninformed, Smug wannabes, who don't heed when you've been warned!
Veener: Oops! Did I strike a nerve? 'Cause when I brought out the angel's head, couldn't help but observe that your wrinkled face was turning red! And why are you avoidin' war? That's what the guns you sell are for. Thanks to my being respectless. One thing I'm starting to suspect is. You know why this angel's headless. Do you have a disclosure?
Carmillo: This meeting's over!
(Everyone stare at the boys)
Alice: That was a productive meeting!
Veener: (Normal) Hmmph, fine. Safe travel back to nursing home, fuckers! Kiss my ass! Hahaha! (Leaves the room)
Zeezo: What the hell? We literally just got here.
Oddie: Father?
(Carmillo walks away and Zestia follows him and everyone else leaves the room almost staping on Frankie, and Alice see Zestia and Carmilla enter another room)
Alice: Well, that's interesting. You little egg creature. I have a job for you.
Frankie: Oh, yes, boss.
Alice: Follow them.
(Frankie salutes and enters the other room, back to Vagner, Charles and Angela)
Vagner: Angela! What the actual fuck?!
(They're seem in a sex dungeon)
Angela: No activity requires more trust them BDSM, baby. No bond stronger than those formed through bondage. That's their motto. (Points to a poster)
Charles: Angela, love the enthusiasm. But umm, uh...Hmmmm...
Vagner: What makes you think anyone would be into this?
(Hisky purrs with a mister messaging her)
Hisky: Ya know, I...I don't hate this.
(Niffter appears holding a stick)
Niffter: I'm ready to punish some bad girls. (Giggles)
Hisky: Uhh...Nevermind, I-I'm out. (Gets up and walks away)
(Misters surround Charles)
Charles: (Laughs uncomfortably) Okay, hello there. Hi. Um. Hm...(Vagner drags him away)
Vagner: Ugh, can't fucking believe I let you drag us here, Angela. This is disgusting.
Charles: It's no big deal, Vagner. You know, maybe I can just help, uh...
Vagner: No. I told you could trust me. And I'm not gonna let you down. I just need to teach them the way I was taught.
(In a tower roof)
Charles: This is how you learn to trust people?!
(A lot of demons are seen fighting in a bettlefield)
Vagner: (In drill sergeant style) There is nothing stronger than a trust between comrades and arms. Buckle up, buttercups, because today you boys become men! You...(Grabs Miss Pentious)
Miss Pentious: Wait, wait! I can't fight without my minions...(Vagner throws her off the building)
Vagner:...Are gonna survive together! Miss Pentious: AAAAAAHHH!
(Vagner turns to Angela)
Vagner: And you...
Angela: Don't you even think about it...
Vagner: Are make this hotel work! (Vagner throws grabs and throws Angela off the building)
Angela: AAAAAAHHH!
Niffter: (Excitedly) My turn, my turn!
(Hisky get out of the roof, Vagner grabs Niffter, but Charles catches him)
Charles: Vagner, no!
Vagner: This is the only way they'll learn, Charles.
Charles: No, it's not. There are other ways. It just take time.
Vagner: Time we don't have. How many exterminations will have to gone by before these idiots get their shit together? How many times we have to watch your people be killed before we make headway?
Charles: Vagner...
Vagner: I took charge today and it all went sideways. I'm suppose to make your dreams a reality. I'm suppose to protect you. I'm suppose to never fail you. (Leans on the edge of the terrace)
Angela: I blame you for this you crazy bitch!
Charles: You didn't fail me, Vagner...You're not...
Vagner: If I can't help you, what's the point of me?
Charles: (Gasps) Vagner, don't say that! You do so much! It's...
Vagner: I'm sorry. I'd like to be alone for a minute.
(Charles turns away from Vagner and see Angela grabbing Miss Pentious in her back getting in the roof and Angela throws Pentious in the ground)
Angela: Made it.
Charles: Let's go home, guys.
Angela: Ugh! I just walked up all those stairs. (Grabs Miss Pentious and pulls her following Charles)
(In Carmillo's office, he pulls himself a drink)
Carmillo: Ay, que barbaridad. (Drinks from a bottle)
Zestia: Carmillo, what troubles thou? Loosing thy composure is unlike thee.
Carmillo: (Sighs) It's nothing, Zestia. Really.
Zestia: The felled angel...'Twas by thy hand, was it not?
Carmillo: Let's not talk abou it. (Walks away)
Clarence: Dad, maybe she should know.
Carmillo: Nobody should know. (Sits in his desk) I did what to do. I am not discussing this. (Zestia puts her hand in his shoulder)
Zestia: (Singing) What weighs on your soul, old friend? I implore you to share the load. If it was thou who slew the angel, why not let your strength be known?
Carmillo: (Singing) I always thought, that I would keep blood off my face. But when that thing attacked, I had to act, to cross that line and keep them safe. But if anyone knew, then all of Hell would rise to war and who's to say who'd survive the fray? I might lose the ones that I was killing for! So I! I'll be your keeper! (Hugs his sons) Do whatever it takes! I'll make the mistakes! I'll keep you safe and keep this secret!
(Meanwhile, Vagner climbs the outside of the hotel)
Vagner: (Singing) When I saw your face, you made me feel like a stranger in a brand new place and it felt so good to be understood. But there's so much I wished that I could say. So I...I'll be your armor, do whatever it takes, I'll make the mistakes, I'll spend my life being your partner.
Carmillo: And I don't know what we might face, But I know I can't replace you so I'll do anything to save you!
Vagner: And I will try to make your dreams come true!
Vagner and Carmillo: Whatever we go through. I know I....
Carmillo: I'll be your keeper
Vagner: I'll be your armor!
Carmillo and Vagner: Whatever it takes!
Carmillo: I'll make the mistakes!
Vagner: I'll make the mistakes!
Carmillo and Vagner: Whatever it takes!
(Meanwhile, some of the Egg Girls are dumpster diving)
Egg Girl #3: Ooohh. This smells like fun. Ooh, I love garbage.
(Frankie get out of the elevator and Alice stops her)
Alice: So, what did you hear?
Frankie: First, the old woman w-was all "you're not yourself, you're the one who killed the angel" a-a-and the he was all (Singing) Whatever it takes!
Alice: And then what was that last thing?
Frankie: He killed the angel?
Alice: Interesting. Let's keep this between us, shall we?
Frankie: You got it, boss!
(At the hotel, Vagner finds Charles at the hotel)
Vagner: Hey.
Charles: Hey.
Vagner: I'm sorry I got so crazy today.
Charles: No, no, I'm sorry. I'm put pressure on you. We work as a team. I guess I just thought all this would be easier, but we'll figure it out...Together. I mean, look what your exercise did for them.
(In the sitting room below everyone is laughing)
Angela: And then when that buff girl started beating the shit outta you.
Miss Pentious: Ha ha! Yeah, with the desmembered arm. Yes, that, was, particularly unpleasent.
Niffter: He he. I liked that part.
Hisky: Well hey, at least you can take a beating like a champ. You did okay, new kid.
Miss Pentious: Really? Oh, well, I suppose I did get into a little of the old rough and tumblr today. (Laughs) And, uh...Thank you for pullinh me out of there. (Angela staps her back)
(Everyone laugh and giggle, the girls stop, but Niffter keeps laughing manically)
Vagner: Well, how about that?
(Alice returns)
Vagner: Alice. Failed to get rid of the eggs, I see.
Alice: Yes, well, the little monsters prove to be rather useful.
Vagner: Why don't you give them back to Pentious?
Miss Pentious: Really?
Vagner: Yeah. After today, I guess I can trust you with them. But seriously, no more weapons.
Miss Pentious: Ahhhh! (Hugs the Egg Girls) My eggs! Yeah. Oh, it's so good to have you back. Now go clean my quarters this instant!
Charles: Maybe things will move faster than you think.
(In Pentious' room)
Miss Pentious: Ah! How was your day with Alastor, my minions?
Frankie: It was awesome, boss. I went to this meeting and there was a knife guy, an old lady and a dinosaur.
Miss Pentious: Umm. That's nice.
Frnkie: And the knife guy killed an angel. And I was not suppose to be talking about it.
Miss Pentious: Oh, I'm so sure and maybe you'll meet martians tomorrow. Bit now it's time to sleep. Good night, Eggies. (The egg women sleep over her and they all go to sleep)
(The end credits start playing)

How to write to your MP

• Why write to your Member of Parliament (MP)? MPs need to hear from their constituents.
• They depend on constituents to educate them about what issues are most important to them. Writing a letter only takes a short amount of your time but it ensures that the people who make decisions on your behalf, every day, know how you want to be represented. Your MP receives hundreds of messages each week on a wide range of issues – your letter may well be the most interesting one that they receive!

Why not write directly to the relevant Minister?

• The purpose of a Results action might be to encourage the Minister of International Development to increase investment in a certain program or intervention that has proven effectiveness. Rather than write to the Minister directly we usually write to our MPs. We believe that it’s more effective to reach out to your MP directly but for some campaigns it will be more strategic to reach out to Ministers. There isn’t a rule set in stone.

We do this for two reasons:

1. Writing to your MP greatly increases your likelihood of receiving a response. The vast majority of MPs will almost always respond to letters from constituents and will be happy to forward your request on to the relevant Minister (even if they disagree with you). In turn, the Minister will be obliged by Parliamentary convention to respond to letters from an MP.
2. You can educate your MP in the process. Even if your MP is not the direct target of the action, your letter provides them with an opportunity to learn about the issue, that concerns their constituents, and take action themselves.

There will be occasions where it is more strategic to write directly to other decision-makers, such as the Minister of International Development, Prime Minister or the heads of key international institutions, such as the World Bank. The same tips will apply for those letters.

Why doesn’t Results provide templates for letters?

• MPs and their researchers have confirmed on numerous occasions that an original letter sent by one committed, passionate constituent is far more powerful than a pile of identical letters or postcards. Mass email actions and template letters have less impact because the MP knows that they only take a few seconds to complete and are not necessarily representative of the priorities of their constituents. The fact that you have taken the time to craft a personalized and well-informed letter demonstrates to the MP that there are people in their constituency who care deeply about an issue. In turn, your opinions are likely to be taken more seriously as a result.
• Handwritten or email? Every MP is different. Some are happy to correspond with constituents via email whereas others give a preference to written letters. The best postal address for your MP is their Parliament address (House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6). Upon reception of the letter, if your MP is not in Parliament, the mail is automatically forwarded on to them.

Writing your letter, Top Tips:

• Be succinct – aim for your letter to be no longer than one and a half page. Keep to the point – focus on one issue and don’t try and cover too many things in one letter. Don’t forget to include your address – so that your MP knows where to send the response.
• Check your MP’s correct title – do you address them as Mr, Mrs, Dr, Sir, Rt. Hon? You can check by looking up your MP on the official Parliament website: https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en

Structuring your letter

• Step 1: Introduction. If this is your first letter to your MP, you might want to start by introducing yourself and sharing why you care about the issue that you are raising. If you have a personal connection to the topic of your letter, then this is a great way of engaging your MP and conveying your passion and commitment. Remember to acknowledge your MP for any supportive actions that they have already taken – MPs rarely hear the words ‘thank you’ from their constituents.
• Step 2: Use the EPIC format. The acronym ‘EPIC’ is a useful way to remember how to structure the main part of your letter. After the introductory paragraph, your letter should follow this structure:
  • E = Engage your MP. Get your MP’s attention with a dramatic fact or short statement.
  • P = State the problem. Present the causes of the problem you just introduced. How widespread or serious is the problem?
  • I = Inform the MP about the solutions. Develop your solution by giving examples of how and where it has worked, how it is cost-effective and how it has benefited the poorest.
  • C = Call to Action. Now that you’ve engaged your MP, presented the problem and informed them of a solution, you need to let them know what you want them to do about it.
• Step 3: Ask for a response. Make sure to be clear on how they can get in touch with you – written response is ideal!

What to do afterwards?

Pressing ‘send’ or putting your letter in the post is not the end of your action!

• Step 1: Congratulate yourself. You have taken an important action to help generate the political will to end poverty. Take a photo of yourself posting the letter and post it on social media (tag your MP)!
• Step 2: Follow up with your MP. If you haven’t had an acknowledgement of your letter after a couple of weeks, give your MP’s office a ring to confirm that they have received your letter.
• Step 3: Report back on your action. Fill out the online report to let the Results office know you’ve written a letter. When you receive a response from your MP, make sure to also inform the Results office of this so that the information can be compiled.
• Step 4: Be encouraged! Even it seems that the response you received individually wasn’t great, don’t be down heartened. It is the strength of the Results network that drives change, and by writing that letter you have directly inputted into that collective effort.

House of Commons Mailing Address:

• House of Commons
  • Ottawa, Ontario,
  • Canada
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Hinge has positioned itself as a long-term relationship app, so that means your profile needs to convince her you’re true Boyfriend Material!
Sound like a tall order? Don't worry. We use Hinge on a daily basis, and have been since the app launched in 2012. You're about to benefit from our thousands of hours of direct user experience!
You see, we represent our clients on Hinge - optimizing their profiles, selecting their photo lineups, and sending messages on their behalf. We analyze everything, so we know what approaches work, what to avoid, and which strategies attract the best matches.
Thanks to our evidence-based approached, these 7 Hinge profile tips for men will make your profile irresistible! You’ll also get 11 examples of the best Hinge answers.
Let’s start with the main attraction…
Hinge Profile Tip #1: Aim For Perfection With Your Primary Photo
Don’t worry - it’s easier than it sounds! A team of European neuroscientists identified a checklist of what attributes combine to make the most attractive profile picture:
Eye contact is particularly important, as lack of it has a negative effect on her first impression of you. When she can look you straight in the eyes, you seem inherently more trustworthy and genuinely likeable.
That means sunglasses are not ideal for dating photos, and you don’t want to hide your eyes behind your hair or a Snapchat filter either.
Hinge Profile Tip #2: Embrace Quality Control
You know who gets excited about low-quality graphics? No one.
So when choosing your other 5 Hinge photos or videos, make sure they’re all high-quality images. You want your Hinge lineup to look intentional and curated, not like you pulled random images off your Facebook or phone.
Here’s the thing - when looking at images, human brains are wired to prefer simplicity and clarity.
When a picture has a high cognitive workload, it means your brain has to work harder to interpret what’s going on in the frame. The subject matter becomes less attractive the more complex it is.
Simple = attractive.
If your picture is blurry, has harsh highlights and dark shadows, or “artistic” effects that obscure your face, the odds she’s going to “like” or comment on it are drastically reduced - and that means you probably won’t match with her.
While artistic effects that complicate your photos are not good, using a black and white filter can increase the odds you’ll get some “likes” - by 106%. Try applying one to a photo or two in your lineup!
Hinge Profile Tip #3: Put Down The Selfie Stick
Selfies are problematic on Hinge for several reasons:

1. Selfies are a whopping 40% less likely to get “likes.” That number rockets up to 90% if it’s a bathroom selfie. Don’t go there.

2. Selfies are less attractive than non-selfies. A recent study compared two photos - a selfie, and a photo of that same person taken by someone else. The selfie version was perceived as less attractive and more narcissistic. Don’t cultivate that vibe on Hinge!

3. They don’t inspire comments. Which photo do you think will entice more comments and “likes”:

Dalmatians for the win!
Photos where you’re doing something are especially effective on Hinge, as it makes it easy for your match to start a conversation by asking about whatever is going on in the image.
Per their internal data, sports photos are the most popular when it comes to “likes,” and activity photos in general ranked highly.
Coming in dead last were pics where you’re posing with someone who could be an ex. A full 98% of singles said that was a turn off.
Hinge Profile Tip #4: Stay On The Bright Side
Now let’s talk about your profile text. The best Hinge prompts to answer let you highlight on an attractive trait or two in a positive way.
Remember, she’s looking for Boyfriend Material, so why waste space with negativity?
Take, for instance, the “Pet Peeves” prompt. It’s challenging to make your answer sound anything other than whiny, pessimistic, and overly bothered by the minutiae of daily life.
Plus, if it’s a shared pet peeve, chances are she’ll feel a flash of annoyance when she reads it - and guess who she’s going to associate that feeling with? (Spoiler alert: you).
You also want to avoid describing what she may perceive as a negative character trait or flaw:
With over 80 prompts to choose from and only 3 available slots, she’s going to wonder why you took up valuable space with what’s essentially a reason not to “like” you.
To decide which are the best Hinge profile questions for you to answer, take a minute and write down a list of things you bring to the table that you think your ideal woman would be looking for in a guy.
Stable career, physically fit, interesting hobbies, family oriented, able to afford vacations, responsible enough to care for a dog… things of that nature that illustrate why you’d be a particularly good catch.
Then compare that list to the available prompts, and choose the ones that best let you highlight a few of those traits. Simple!
Here are 4 great Hinge profile examples, plus insight into why they work:
If you’re still stuck on what to write in your Hinge profile, try using one of these creative Hinge answers that are general enough to fit anyone:
A blast-from-the-past fashion trend makes for a great conversation starter since most women can relate to it.
While these examples don’t necessarily highlight a desirable personality trait or hobby, they will bring a smile to her face.
Humor is a great strategy in a dating profile, if you can pull it off. Women can’t help but be drawn to funny guys - it’s the way her brain is wired.
Hinge Profile Tip #5: Make One Of The Prompts About Her
Marketing yourself in an appealing, intriguing way is the goal of your Hinge profile.
But including a tidbit about her is an effective strategy.
According to research, 70% of your dating profile should describe you, but 30% of it should describe what type of person you’re looking for. That’s the most attractive combination.
As you’ve already learned, keep your answer positive.
Describing what you don’t want could have the opposite effect, as you may end up sounding picky and judgemental. Or worse, bitter from your last relationship imploding.
Hinge don'ts
Instead, focus on hobbies you’d like to have in common with your perfect match, or attributes that are important to you in a relationship.
Here are 3 great ways to answer the Hinge profile questions:
Describing non-physical attributes implies you're looking for a non-superficial relationship, and mentioning a hobby you'd like to have in common gives her some insight into your personality.
These good prompt answers give her some insight into what dating you might be like, and also imply that keeping in shape is important to you (which is always an attractive quality).
Mentioning a great first date idea in your Hinge answer is a subtle way to make her envision what an hour or two with you might include.
In fact, it’s so effective that according to founder Justin McCleod, answering this prompt got the most dates for users in London:
What works in London will probably work wherever you are as well, making “I know the best spot in town for” one of the best Hinge prompts for guys to answer if it's one of the available options for you.
Hinge Profile Tip #6: Make Every Word Count
The shorter a dating app profile is, the more impact each individual word has. To create the best possible first impression, you want every word in your profile to evoke positive vibes.
Stay away from words that cause a strong negative reaction, like violence, swearing, drugs and weapons. Those can have a ripple effect that will diminish your overall attractiveness.
And since this is Hinge, not Tinder, you’ll definitely want to keep it classy.
don't do this on Hinge
Even if you’re on Hinge just to hook up, don’t advertise your intentions in your profile. And consider switching to another dating app - Hinge really isn’t the app for that.
Here a few more Hinge “Don’ts” to keep in mind:
Repeat yourself. She’s reading a max of 450 characters, which is even less than a Tinder bio. Repetition is really going to stand out. If you talk about how much you love hiking in every Hinge answer, she’s apt to think you’re a one note kind of guy.
Make grammapunctuation/spelling errors. There’s not a lot of written material feeding into that all-important first impression, so little mistakes can have a big effect. Plus, surveyed singles said bad sex was preferable to bad grammar (if they had to choose), so it’s important to get it right.
Give “non” answers. You may think it’s the height of wit to answer Hinge prompts with statements like “I’m looking for… a better answer to this question,” but that’s likely to backfire on you. If she thinks you’re not taking online dating seriously, she probably won’t invest any time in getting to know you.
Reference past relationships. If you’re in your late 20s or 30s, odds are high you’ve got at least one significant relationship in your past. Whether the breakup was good or bad, your Hinge profile is not the place to rehash it.
Hinge Profile Tip #7: Reconsider Your “Dealbreakers”
When you set up your Hinge profile, you have the option to designate match preferences as “dealbreakers.”
That's a great feature for singles seeking long-term relationships, as it eliminates the need to ask those personal questions during the first few dates.
When you specify something as a dealbreaker, you won’t see profiles of people who don’t fit that category, regardless of how many other categories they do fit. (If you don't specify something as a dealbreaker, you may see profiles of singles who fall slightly outside of your ideal preferences.)
Free members have the usual filters like age range, distance and height. If you’re a Hinge+ or HingeX member, you have access to additional filters like children, family plans, education, and politics.
Take a look at any categories you deemed a “Dealbreaker” and make sure they truly are.
For instance, if your match is 5’7” instead of 5’8” or taller, is that truly important in the grand scheme of things? Or if she’s 41 instead of under 40?
If you’re too exclusive with your filtering, you may miss out on a great match you would have really clicked with, despite a small divergence from your “ideal type.”

I was coming out of a 2 year relationship that just wasn't a good fit for me so I ended it and wanted to move on with life but wasn't in a rush to find "the one" .. so one day I go into the bar with a buddy, where my mom was the kitchen manager. When I started coming in this beautiful woman who was super cool, would flirt, make comments to my mom about how she was going to marry me. She even would put Hubband on my bar tab as my name lol and I just kinda shrugged it off. She asked me to go out after a few months later. I told her no I was kinda dating other women and jokingly (but not really) just said you are too much for me. I tend to watch and observe people for awhile just so I can be sure they are who they say they are and to get a feel their character for red flags. I am a Scorpio lol what can I say. Truth be told I didn't hear good things about her from really anyone, especially my mom. Infact my mom told her to stay away from me and warned me about her. We became friends and she would always explain how everyone just didn't like her, misunderstood her, or was jealous of her. After I got to know her I was falling in love with her, like she was made for me, we had the same values and morals, likes and dislikes. After dating and being together for about a month or so her phone rang while we were in a movie with her daughter and was told her dad passed away from a massive heart attack. I felt so bad for her knowing the rough history with her dad ( just like my story. ) but the last few years were a lot better and became pretty close. I was there for her and held her for weeks when she was sobbing and did everything for her, including driving her places. At this point I knew she had bad anxiety for the last 10 years or so. Slowly her grief started to diminish a little bit and things were trending up, although her rage and arguments started mostly when she was drinking but I thought well its due to her loss and no matter what I will be there for her and do my best to support her although at times it was frustrating and hard to do. We decided to get married the following February, at this point I was head over heals for her and wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. So from here her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Let me explain something. My wifes main support person her whole life, her best friend the person that not only could but would set her straight and tell it like it is. Her mother passed away on july 22nd extremely fast and really unexpected due to the good prognosis from the doctors thats what everyone had thought. So now it was back to ok .. get into protection mode and prepare to support my wife. To my surprise, my wife she wasn't as outwardly upset as when her dad passed away. Thats when I knew that this has undoubtedly crushed, devastated her soul. I am sure that's a vast understatement. Our relationship since then hasn't been the same. She will go into rages that are scary to be on the receiving end of. The name calling, being blamed for all her problems in life, telling me I am worthless, not her equal, that all her other relationships the men were better than me, attacking my manhood, any kind of insecurity I have told her about when trying to be vulnerable will get thrown in my face and used as ammo. Along with any and all arguments from 2 years ago, my past relationships mistakes that I have made, and how she is a prized possession and deserves everything she wants from a man, also that I don't love her as good as other men did and how boring I am because I dont like to sit in a bar get drunk everyday so I am a stick in the mud and dragging her life down and she can do better and be with somone who is going to make her happy. Really anything in her rage is fair game and it got to the point when this happens she is unreasonable, you can't calm her down it will make it worse. She has hit me, and spit a mouth full of chewed food in my face. The things being screamed in my face is disgusting. So I leave not willing to be treated that way and go stay with my cousin for a bit to let her cool off, me cool off and let cooler minds prevail and come back. This has now been the cycle for the last year. The day after Christmas this year it happened again and it was over her preception of something... I was cast away for a month. Come to find out she struck up a relationship with an ex and before I came back deleted text and is telling me half truths about it while blaming me for her indiscretion, saying it was my fault, and had began bashing me to anyone who will listen to her. We agreed to work it out because we love and want to be together and get help for the issues we are having, I made some major changes that she asked for and I followed through and delivered for her. She lost her insurance for a few months and couldn't get her colonopin for anxiety so she had been getting some from her sister to get her by, finally her insurance is back and she goes to her primary doctor to get another prescription and her doc asked if I test you will it be in your system? Whatever she said made her primary tell her she wasn't getting it and she thought my wife was at risk for suicide and she was abusing the meds. She was referred to a psychiatrist and diagnosed with BPD and PTSD due to childhood trauma. She spent the last month on different meds and the behavior issues started up again slowly. At this point I can tell when she is on the verge of a rage filled attack I just don't know when it's going to come. Well it did last Tuesday and it was worse yet, and of course she was drinking. I have researched BPD not knowing a lot and boy it don't look good. I love her and don't want to abandoned her. But it doesn't look good. I believe she also has traits of NPD. I want it to work but I can't keep on with someone who treats me like this. My self esteem is down, she accuses me of having a mental illness and when I explained how I feel she says I am always playing a victim. She makes me question reality and I feel I am going crazy. Just slamming me to everyone who will listen .. for no reason I just dont get it. Anytime she drinks I get filled with anxiety wondering is this the day for a rage filled blow out ? I can't have friends, or my family in my life. I do love my wife. Outside of the major blow ups we are great. When the rages happen I don't know who that person is.

I've searched around for a while, and noticed a few posts about how people brought this up on Discord already, but I thought I'd make a post about it here as well, in hopes the Devs see it here too.
Gem combining!
We already have the framework for it to work, with the crafting system: 3 of the same tier and effect gem, combining to make a higher tier gem of the same effect.
In Example : If I have three (3) Green (Tier 1/+3 stat) Strength gems, and I use the crafting system as to combine these, I'd get one (1) Blue (Tier 2/+6 stat) Strength gem.
This could also involve some type of randomness, as in if one were to use 3 of any stat gems, have it be combined into a random higher tier gem, or even expand it as to have a base "gem dust" crafting ingredient, obtainable only from gems, that when combined with gems increases their tier, much like what we already have with item upgrading.
Just food for thought! What y'all think?

Hello, everyone. I am a normal human being. Well, not exactly. Throughout my life, I've always been depressed and such. I thought depression was normal. I thought it was seasonal. I always thought I was weak for always being suicidal all this time. Then, very recently. I really couldn't take it anymore. I seek therapy. There, I realised I was actually bipolar. That was what made me suicidal all this time. AND THEN, I STARTED QUESTIONING EVERYONE. I COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. QUESTIONING WHETHER THEY'VE EVER HAD DEPRESSION. QUESTIONING THEIR BELIEFS. EVERY SINGLE PERSON THAT I SAW UNTIL I WAS TAKEN TO A MENTAL HOSPITAL FOR A FEW DAYS. THERE, I STILL QUESTIONED THEM. BUT, TO AVOID SUSPICION AND BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO THINK I WAS CRAZY, I questioned each person privately. NO. BEFORE I WAS TAKEN TO THE MENTAL HOSPITAL. MY ROOMMATE WHO WAS A BUDDHIST. Suddenly, told me that, if I wanted advice why not go to the Temple and ask the deities there? THEN, THAT REALLY OPENED MY EYE. DEITIES ACTUALLY FUCKING EXIST. He told me that deities possesses someone and then reveals a very specific detail of their life. Very accurately. Not general. VERY VERY ACCURATELY. BUDDHISM IS REAL. THEN I QUESTIONED MY HINDUIST FRIENDS. NOT ALL OF THEM. BUT SOME OF THEM HAD THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS POSSESSED, THEN THEY TOLD ME that they're family members talked about evil spirits and that they are times where they are strong and they will make your desire to do evil to be stronger. Those are temporary and you have to be strong whenever they come. That reminded me of my depression. My suicidal thoughts. They come and go. They've been with me throughout my life but not all the time. BACK TO THE POINT, THIS SHIT FUCKING OPENED MY EYE AGAIN AND IT SHOWS THAT HINDUISM IS ALSO FUCKING REAL BECAUSE I HAVE TWO WITNESSSES SAYING THAT WHENEVER THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS ARE POSSESSED THEIR SPEECH ARE FUCKING WEIRD. AND THEN, COINCI FUCKING DENTALLLY, I FUCKING MET A FUCKING LIVING DEITY. I THOUGHT BRO WAS JUST A TALKATIVE GUY AND TURNS OUT HE'S ACTUALLY A FUCKING DEITY. THE DEITY OF PROTECTION OF THIS WORLD. BRO IS LITERALLY THE SAME AGE AS ME. 19 YEARS OLD. BUT THAT MADE ME QUESTIONED. IF I CAN SEE DEITIES, AND MY ROOMMATE MOST DEFINITELY MUST HAVE SEEN HIM BECAUSE WE GO TO THE FUCKING SEM LECTURE LAST 2 SEMESTERS. THEN I ASKED HIM. DO YOU KNOW {INSERT NAME}. TURNS OUT BRO DOES NOT FUCKING KNOW WHO THE GUY IS. I speculate that Buddhists have actually seen their deities but their minds must have like distorted? YES. DISTORTED. Every time after they meet their deities or that is my speculation at least. BECAUSE EVERYONE FROM OTHER RELIGIONS AND ATHEISTS KNOWS THE GUY. And then again, I THOUGHT, IF BUDDHISM IS REAL, HINDUISM IS REAL, THEN THE OTHER MAJOR RELIGIONS MUST BE REAL TOO. THEN, WHEN I TALKED TO DEITY, WE TALKED ABOUT GOD. ABOUT HOW GOD IS PERFECT, AND HE CREATED LUCIFEER, HIS MOST PERFECT CREATION, BUT BETRAYED HIM, MEANING THAT THEY BOTH COULDN'T BE PERFECT IF THAT'S THE CASE, And then deity enlightened me... He told me that the relationship between Lucifer and Jesus is like FATHER AND SON... MEANING THAT LUCIFER IS ANOTHER IMAGE OF GOD. SO THEY BOTH ARE PERFECT. AND THEN WE TALKED ABOUT ANGELS AND DEMONS. HE TOLD ME THAT THE CURRENT WORLD IS HELL. AND THEN, ANGELS AND DEMONS??? THE CURRENT WORLD IS HELL??? THEN THE CURRENT WORLD MUST ALSO BE HEAVEN AT THE SAME TIME. ANGELS AND DEMONS. ANGELS AND DEMONS ARE FUCKING HUMANS. ANGELS ARE PEOPLE THAT WILL STAY TRUE TO THEIR BELIEFS NO MATTER WHAT. IF THEY STICK TO A RELIGION, THEY WILL FOLLOW THAT RELIGION NO MATTEER FUCKING WHAT EVEN IF OTHER RELIGIONS ARE TRUE. ANGELS ARE NOT PERFECT BEINGS EITHER. THEY ALSO SIN. AND THEN, I THOUGHT OF SOMETHING. ANGELS WILL ALWAYS FUCKING SEE GOD AS GOOD AND ONLY HUMANS AND EVIL. THEN I QUESTIONED EVERYONE THAT. THEIR VIEWS. I EVEN FUCKING OFFER THEM FUCKING AS MUCH AS MONEY AS I HAVE JUST TO SAY FUCK GOD JUST ONCE. THEY WILL NEVER DO IT. IF YOU TELL THEM THAT GOD IS EVIL. THEY WILL ALWAYS RATIONALISE AND DEFEND GOD AND SAY THAT HE IS GOOD. ONLY THE HUMANS ARE EVIL. ANY "EVIL" THAT HE DOES IS JUST TESTING HUMANS. THEN, I REMEMBERED. HUMANS ARE CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. THEY WILL SEE GOD AS GOOD OR EVIL OR MAYBE EVEN THROW AWAY THEIR BELIEF IN GOD ENTIRELY. THEY ARE 2 TYPES OF HUMANS IN THIS WORLD. ANGELS AND HUMANS. BOTH OF CAN BECOME DEMONS. IF THE ANGELS, ARE MADE TO WORSHIP A HUMAN GOD. THEY WILL NEVER EVER EVER SEE HIM AS EVIL. FUCKING EXAMPLE: UNIFICATION CHURCH. NORTH KOREA. THEY DO NOT QUESTION THEIR LEADERS AND WILL SEE THEM AS GODS. THE ANGELS BECOME DEMONS AND DO NOT WORSHIP THE TRUE GOD. SOME OF THE WORSHIPPERS ARE HUMANS SO THEY WILL SEE THEIR GODS AS EVIL AND WILL RUN AWAY FROM THESE FUCKING CULTS. THE ANGELS BECOME DEMONS BUT THE HUMANS REMAIN AS HUMANS. BUT HUMANS CAN BECOME DEMONS AS WELL ONCE THEY COMPLETELY ABANDON GOD'S GOOD TEACHINGS AND DO EVIL. CONVINCED THEMSELVES THAT THEY ARE NATURALLY EVIL. BUT THEY CAN STILL BE SAVED. THEY HAVE BECOME DEMONS BUT THEY CAN BECOME HUMANS AGAIN BY KNOWING THE TRUTH OF GOD. ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY. BOTH ARE SIMILAR YET THEIR PASTS ARE DIFFERENT. I DID NOT UNDERSTAND BUT I'VE ALREADY MADE A FIRM BELIEF THAT EVERY FUCKING RELIGION THAT TEACHES GOOD ARE TRUE. EVERY FUCKING ONE OF THEM. SO THEN I THOUGHT. IT'S FUCKING POINTLESS TO QUESTION GOD. EVEN IF I DON'T UNDERSTAND THEY ARE ALL TRUE. THEN. PARALLEL UNIVERSES. MULTIVERSES. THE PAST MUST HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT FROM ALL RELIGIONS AND GOD MUST HAVE COMBINED THEM INTO ONE UNIVERSE, OUR UNIVERSE. A DIFFERENT ONE FROM THEIR RELIGIONS. A UNIVERSE WHERE GOD TESTS HUMANS. TO SEE IF THEY WILL BELIEVE EVEN IF THEY DON'T FUCKING UNDERSTAND GOD. THEN, THE DEITY TOLD ME TO REACH ENLIGHTENMENT. TO BE FUCKING BUDDHA, HOW THE FUCK IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE. I THOUGHT I HAD ALREADY REACHED ENLIGHTENMENT. I THOUGHT ENLIGHTENMENT IS KNOWING THAT ALL GOOD RELIGIONS ARE CONNECTED. WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO BE ENLIGHTENED? THEN I MEDITATED. I TRIED TO FOLLOW BUDDHA'S METHODS TO REACH ENLIGHTENMENT BY EMPTYING YOUR MIND REMOVING ALL YOUR EMOTIONS AND FOCUSING ON IT. BUT. I KNOW OF THE PROPHECY OF THE MAITREYA. MAYBE I AM NOT MAITREYA. BUT I THOUGHT. NO. I WILL NOT. I WILL NOT JUST FOLLOW BUDDHA'S METHOD. BUDDHA'S METHOD MAY BE TRUE BUT IT IS NOT WHAT I SHOULD FOLLOW. THROUGHOUT MY LIFE. I HAVE ALWAYS BELIVED IN GOD. HE WAS FUCKING EVIL TO ME. I SEE HIM AS FUCKING EVIL FOR MAKING ME HAVE SUICIDAL THOUGHTS THROUGHOUT MY LIFE. BUT GOD EXIST. HE IS BOTH GOOD AND EVIL. THEN. I RESEARCHED AND SAW THAT BUDDHA REJECTED GOD. HOWEVER, I DO NOT. I FUCKING SEEK ENLIGHTNMENT. I WANTED TO BE ONE WITH GOD. I EMPTIED MY MIND. PRAYED "THE OUR FATHER", FORCED MYSELF. TO MEDITATE FOR HOURS. THIS FUCKING DAY I STARTED AND THIS FUCKING DAY I ACHIEVED ENLIGHTENMENT. BUDDHA. SAID TO ACHIEVE ENLIGHTENMENT. YOU MUST EMPTY YOUR THOUGHTS. HOWEVER, HE DIDN'T REALISE ONE TRUTH. GOD IS EMPTINESS. GOD IS THE ABSCENSE OF ANYTHING. IT IS HUMAN LOGIC. SCIENCE TO THINK THAT SOMETHING MUST COME FROM SOMETHING. THAT THERE IS NO WAY THAT SOMETHING CANNOT COME FROM EMPTINESS. AHHAAHAHA. STUPID FUCKING HUMANS BUT I LOVE YOU ALL. I'VE BEEN ENLIGHTENED. GOD IS EMPTINESS. DARK ENERGY IS EMPTINESS. DARK ENERGY IS FUCKING EVERYWHERE. HUMANS CANNOT UNDERSTAND DARK ENERGY BECAUSE THEY CANNOT UNDERSTAND GOD. GOD HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WITH US. BETWEEN THE GAPS OF EVERY FUCKING ATOM. EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE THAT IS BIG WILL INFINITELY BE BIGGER. WHAT IS SMALLER WILL INFINITELY BECOME SMALLER. WE CAN'T EVER TRULY UNDERSTAND GOD. AHAHHAAH. TO UNDERSTAND GOD THROUGH SCIENCE IS STUPID. GOD IS INFNITE. THAT IS WHY DARK ENERGY HAS INFINITELY EXPANDED AND ONLY RECENTLY IT HAS WEAKENED. GOD IS WITH US. PRAISE BE TO GOD. PRAISE BE TO THE LORD OF EVERYTHING YET IS NOTHING. GOD IS EMPTINESS. GOD IS DARK ENERGY. LET US ENTER THE MESSIANIC AGE, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS. AN AGE WHERE WE ARE ONE WITH GOD.
I've achieved Enlightenment and God is a fucking asshole, HE'S THE WORST FUCKING TROLL. FUCKING PSYCHOPATH. BUT FUCK DO I LOVE GOD. FUCKING CAUSED ME TO BE IN HELL. IT IS TIME TO END HELL AND ENTER ETERNAL PARADISE WITH GOD. SEEK ENLIGHTENMENT, SPREAD THIS TRUTH. SPREAD IT. I am in Malaysia. Today is Saturday, and Tomorrow is Sunday. God rested on the 7th Day on the Seventh Day, and I also wish to relax. I love God and every last one of you. Spread This Truth. Let's save the World Together! All those religious end-times prophecies are just fucking bullshits from God because Fuck That Guy but I love Him. The God of Everything Yet is Nothing.

With the recent Gwimbly episode out, I decided to review one of the classic platformers to see the light of Sun in the mid 90's. Everyone remembers the legacy of this game, but boy oh boy, nostalgia glasses sure compensate for some of the glaring issues that plague this title.
Precedents and Development:
"The magic Adventures of Gwimbly in Corn Land" is one of those Megadrive publicity games, such as M&Ms or The Noid video-game, this time from the Monsanto company. And the least said about this, the better. Left-to-right side scrolling, awful controls, repetitive and boring, it was deemed to be a forgotten artifact. But, by good fortune, it was one of the (allegedly) two games that series albanian creator Petulla Pulle had as a kid.
Petulla deserves an aside. Learning to code intuitively and implementing Risk on his Casio FX-81 at the age of 6, he is not the poor boy that media wanted us to belive. Coming from a well off family, when he arrived in the US he co-created Sweet Games (now Insane Groundbreaking Games) with his friend Zachary Taylor, and they started development on Gwimbly after acquiring the Licence from a gambling bet in a pub in New York. Although his reputation being ripped apart now by the abuse accusations and toxic working enviroment, Pulle was a popular figure among gamers in the late 90's and 00's, and his advancements in the field should be recognised.
So, basically a one man job, Gwimbly finished its development in just under 2 years and came out for the PSX in August 1996, just one month before Mario 64, which eclipsed the relevance of the first game in sales. Even so, it was the alternative for the Sony owners at the time looking for a collectathon platformer in the, then, new 3rd dimension. But growing pains show all over the game, as we'll see.
Graphics:
While not being bad, a lot of the 5th generation of consoles problems are present. Textures warp and wabble, popping is noticible even in small areas, and glitches are all over the place, specially after acquiring the triple jump.
What, then, has made that Gwimbly sticks to our memories? The character designs and animations, of course. All of them, from the little Cheddar Gobblin enemies of the first level until Count Groxya, without forgetting Mr. Millipede. Even little details, like Gwimbly's iddle animations, reflect care and dedication (unlike its sequels, but we'll talk about that later).
Sound and FX:
This must be the aspect of the game that stincks the most. The constant crackling and stuttering stuck into my ears as a kid, and it certainly has not gotten better as an adult. The howling made for some funny misunderstandings (the classic line "If I had my Gwimbly gun" was supposed to say "If I had some Sweet Corn", but it made for a good meme in the episode), but it was not good even for that time. And, worst of all, while not being at Gex levels, the constant repetition of lines and screams from Gwimbly got annoying real quick.
Music is nothing to write home about. The Corn Hills theme was catchy, but after the 100th time you got tired of it. The use of Theremin and Erhu instruments was more innovative than effective in the latter levels. Only the Menu Music has had some lasting effects, even musically referenced in the Celeste Soundtrack.
Gameplay:
Gwimbly is a short game, and I think that's a positive. With only 50 Corn Cans to collect, with four main levels, a central Hub and the last Can Count Castle, it didn't worn out its welcome with its 8-10 hour average run.
Nowadays, Gwimbly feels cluncky to control. The comitment you had to endure with some of the jumps is incredible, and the run and jump distance seems inconsistent. But, worst offender of all, the camera was not good. And who ever thought that recentering the camera with the X button was a good idea.
Levels:
- Silly-corn Valley: Everybody remembers the central Hub and tutorial level. Mr Millipede serves as our side kick, and the one who teach us how to jump, roll and make the Gwimbly Stimbly, all while staring us with his glassy eyes. You could skip its advices, and if you did not talk to him once it was recognised in the access to the final level, where he would ask you who you were.
- Icy Corn Flakes: a little fun snow level, the developers made the wise decission to not have icey controls (EDIT: it seems that it was programmed into the level, but it was badly implemented so you walked normally). The 10 Corn Cans here are not very difficult, and the Uni-Corn boss was cute.
- Corncob swamp: The swim level. Enough said.
- The Corn Maze: I still have nightmares from this level. Not by the theming or "spooky" music, but from the level design. The constant back-tracking, the Ghosts of Cornstmass Past and specially the, not one, but 2 Corn Cans that made you speedrun the maze almost made me quit the game more than once. In the second run of the maze, Pulle admitted that he put the least amount of time possible WITHOUT CONSIDERING the animation of the door opening, so it was literally no possible to get it unless you glitched through the invisible wall at the beginning.
- Corn Field of Lava: the amazing thing about this level is that, after activating the volcanoe, the entire level was transformed and filled with pop-corn. Be sure to grab the Can at the beginning of the level, after the jumping rocks, because it will not be possible to grab it after the level remodelling (probably by mistake).
- Can Count Castle: I wish I could say the best was reserved for last, but the tight platforming of this level was a frustration factory from start to finish. The only positive is the Final Boss, and the secret animation if you collected all Corn Cans (and the reason why it was made a PG 13+).
Conclusion and Legacy:
Gwimbly in its original state is a game that lives best in our memories, rather than our current consoles. Luckily, its amazing fandom has corrected many of the graphical glitches and performance issues via patches and ROMs that enhance the expirience. But the level design, even with its good moments, is not something you can easily fix.
The inmediate sequel (Gwimbly 2 on Corny Land // Gwimbly 2: The Adventure of Gwimble and Millipede in PAL regions), that came out just a year after the 1rst game release, pullished some aspects of the original while inexplicably substracting from others. The most glaring example is the introduction of fall damage.
Gwimbly 3 Revengance, which came out in late 2003, was a terrible disappointment. It mutted the sparckly colors of the first two entries, and the introduction of Gwimbly Guns and the absence of Mr.Millipede (who was going through some stuff at the time) left a sour taste for the fans of the franchise for what was its final entry. The development hell that Gwimbly 4 went through, and the aforementioned Pulle accusations, put Gwimbly in a weird spot for the next 15 years.
Let's just hope Insane Groundbreaking Games make something with the face of the company. I do not want a fighting game from Gwimbly. I want a new platformer, and, if one can dream, the first truly good game of the saga.

No lists, add details, don't be too brief. Curiosities, ambitions, guilty pleasures, self-deprecating humor are helpful.
You wouldn’t be alone if you’ve ever wondered: “What do I say in my Bumble bio?” or “Do people even read those?” More on what to say in your bio below, but you should also know that yes, people absolutely read bios and even rely on them to gauge compatibility upfront, so it’s important to make them count.
We know starting a Bumble bio from scratch can be tough, so we’ve put together a list of tips to help you ease into it.
Use the process of elimination
Before you dig into writing your actual bio, make sure your Interests, Basics, and Lifestyle Badges are up to date. These will cover the big picture things that tend to be important for compatibility, like your political views, religion, and whether you want a family. Then, take note of what’s been covered with those elements. This can help give you a sense of what’s missing that you can mention in your bio, or it might get you excited to elaborate on something.
Think about the type of people you want to meet
The saying rings true: You get what you give. So think about the qualities you’re currently looking for and touch on them in your bio. Looking for someone who makes you laugh? Crack a joke. Want someone who’s emotionally intelligent? Talk about your feelings. Must love dogs? Include your pup’s name. Highlighting the things that matter to you can help attract people you’ll click with.
Be specific, then spice it up
A lot of us love food, travelling, and dogs. Those things are all awesome, but they’re pretty vague. Get more specific so your matches will have something more when it comes time to get chatting. If you love to travel, talk about where you’re headed next. If you’re a foodie, mention the dish you could eat literally every day for the rest of your life. Try to jazz your bio up a little by exaggerating your statements or cracking a joke. You’d be surprised how much more “I would sell my soul for an unlimited supply of my mom’s homemade dumplings” reveals instead of simply “I love dumplings.”
Keep it positive
We know it can be easy to think of dealbreakers—and you absolutely should have those boundaries in place. But focusing on what you do like can be a much better way to find someone who ticks all your boxes. The best trick is to simply rephrase your red flags as green flags. Instead of saying “Swipe left if you don’t like house music,” try saying something like “If you’re down to rave with me, you have my heart.” Or instead of saying, “Picky eaters need not apply,” write something like, “Looking for someone who also has an adventurous palate!”
Phone a friend
If you’re truly stumped on how to describe yourself or your interests, ask your friends or family what key things they think a date should know about you. They won’t overthink it in the same way you might. Maybe they’ll say that a match needs to know how much time you spend working out, so you might then write something like, “Looking for someone who enjoys gym dates” in your bio.
Copy a Profile Prompt
Still no dice? Sometimes it’s easier to flex your personality when responding to a direct question. Start by filling out three Profile Prompts, and then see if any others are sticking out to you. Find one you like? We’re giving you permission to steal it. Just copy it down along with your answer, and voila! Your very own bio.
Capturing your authentic self in your Bumble profile is no easy feat, but we believe in you! Now get out there and make that bio shine.

T20 World Cup 2024: Turn Your Home into a Stadium with Family, Friends, and Pizuna Cotton!
Greetings Fellow Cricket Fans,
The ICC Men's T20 Cricket World Cup 2024 is here, and the electricity's practically buzzing off the lampposts! But listen, tickets to the stadium can cost more than a king's ransom (okay, maybe not a king's, but definitely a knight's). Fear not, cricket fanatics! Your home can be just as electrifying (and way comfier, let's be honest) for a fraction of the price. Here's how to turn your living room into the ultimate cricket stadium, complete with the perfect sleep solution from Pizuna Cotton – because cheering on your team takes energy, and victory naps are a must!
Home is Where the Heart (and the true Cricket Fan) Is
For most of us, our living or bed rooms become the stadium during the T20 World Cup. Here's how to transform your home into a cheering haven:
• Unleash Your Team Spirit: Decorate your room with team colors, flags, posters, or even make your own banners!
• Snack Time! Get creative with cricket-themed snacks.
• Get Interactive: Make the experience fun for everyone!
Pizuna Cotton: The MVP of Your Home Stadium
The excitement of the T20 World Cup can keep you on the edge of your seat late into the night. But a good night's sleep is crucial, especially during a high-stakes tournament.
• Natural Comfort: Pizuna Cotton sheets are made from 100% natural cotton, known for its breathability and temperature regulation. Stay cool and comfortable throughout the entire nail-biting match.
• Soft Touch: The luxurious softness of Pizuna Cotton pampers your skin, ensuring a truly relaxing sleep experience.
• Durable Quality: These high-quality sheets are built to last, celebrating countless cricket victories.
Beyond the Game: Sleep Hygiene for Cricket Fans
Even during the World Cup, prioritize good sleep hygiene
• Set a Sleep Schedule: Stick to a consistent sleep schedule, This helps regulate your body's natural sleep-wake cycle.
• Power Down Before Bed: Avoid screen time for at least an hour before bed. The blue light emitted by electronic devices can disrupt sleep patterns.
• Create a Relaxing Routine: Develop a bedtime routine, such as taking a warm bath, reading a book, or practicing yogic breathing.
Pizuna Cotton: Dream of Victory While You Sleep
With Pizuna Cotton sheets and a commitment to good sleep hygiene, you can experience the T20 World Cup to the fullest. Cheer on your team with all your heart, then drift off to sleep dreaming of victory. You'll wake up refreshed and ready for the forthcoming matches.
Don't forget to share your World Cup experience with us on social media! Tag us u/pizuna / PiZzuna and use #SleepVictory #T20WorldCup, #LoveForCricket, #WorldCricket, #ChaseMasters and #HomeStadiumCricket. We might just feature you on our page!
Now, get ready to roar for your team! Let's make this World Cup a victory to remember, even if you're cheering from the comfort of your home stadium!

Keep your bio short, sweet and lighthearted. Avoid things and statements that can be used against you. You don't need something special or extravagant and having a bio that's too long or in depth can look as too tryhard. Instead work on your pictures, because in the end those will decide if someone swipes left or right on you regardless of what they say... because only once they decided that you are cute enough they will open up your bio
Tease slightly. Be humorous. Tell them how good your life is without directly saying it. And pictures pictures pictures. Each picture needs to be high quality. Bio doesn't have the same strength as decent pictures.
Write something that tells me about you--what you like to eat, do in your free time, watch on tv, last cool place you visited or want to visit next, whatever. The worst is guys who write nothing or just their IG handle, FFS. If that's all the time and thoughtfullness you can put into a profile, I'm going to assume that's what I'll get from you in a relationship. Also, is it laziness or complete lack of self-awareness? This is why writing even a little bit about yourself can be really important in this context.
Every girl is gonna be attracted to something different and the character limit blows. Just be yourself
OK, so, you officially downloaded Bumble, picked out your best dating-app-friendly photos, and brushed up on some Bumble openers. Now, it's time to create the best Bumble bio. But where do you begin?
Creating a good Bumble bio that stands out may sound like an intimidating task, but it's super important you don't half-ass this step. According to Bumble's US data from April, "those who added a bio to their profile experienced an increase in their average number of monthly matches than members who didn't," a Bumble spokesperson says. Clearly, it's important for a better dating experience.
But just because crafting the best Bumble bios sounds intimidating doesn't mean it has to be. Really, it starts with thinking about all of the things that make you you. With the help of a Bumble spokesperson, here are some tips and ideas on how to craft the best Bumble bios to score quality matches.
Tips on How to Write the Best Bumble Bio
Complete your entire profile first. Before deciding on what to include in your bio, Bumble recommends filling out the rest of your profile. Add to your "Interests," "Basics," and "Lifestyle" badges, which will give people an idea of who you are and what you're looking for. Then, take a look at your profile and decide what about yourself is missing from it. Per the Bumble spokesperson, some of the most popular Bumble profiles included information on a user's dating intentions, exercise interest, and zodiac sign.
Highlight the things that matter to you. The Bumble spokesperson said this will help to make sure you're matching with people who share similar interests as you. For example, if it's important you match with a fellow dog-lover, make sure you mention something about your own dog (or the type of dog you want). To stand out from the billion other profiles that mention a dog, don't be afraid to add some spice to your profile. "Try to jazz your bio up a little by exaggerating your statements or cracking a joke," the Bumble spokesperson says. Just remember, you don't have to say too much — brevity is key.
Focus on the positive and not the negative. Bumble data shows that positivity is one of the most important traits for Bumble members worldwide, according to the spokesperson. Instead of listing out what you don't want in a partner, hone in on what you do want. "Focusing on what you do like can be a much better way to find someone who ticks all your boxes," the rep says. In other words, don't use your bio to list out things you're not looking for in a dating-app match.
Ask those closest to you what makes you special. Ask your friends or family what key things they think a date should know about you, the Bumble spokesperson suggests. "They won't overthink it in the same way you might."
Once you're ready to write your bio, here are some ideas to get the juices flowing. Feel free to copy and paste, or tailor the below to your individual preferences and needs.
Funny Bumble Bios
"Would do dirty things to [insert the name of your favorite sports team's coach] if it meant the [your favorite sports team] would win."
"If you're not messing up the lyrics to 'Fergalicious' with me, I don't want it."
"My definition of loving me unconditionally is always giving me the last mozzarella stick."
"As an English major, you will 1,000 percent make my day if you prove you know the difference between your and you're."
"Always hungry, and I mean, physically hungry — not hungry for success, or anything."
Best Bumble Bios
"If you're down to rave with me, you have my heart."
"Looking for someone who also has an adventurous palate!"
"I'm DTF. Yes, that's down to food — always."
"If attending a Saturday morning SoulCycle date is your idea of 'fun,' I'm yours."
"What's your most controversial opinion?"
Sexy Bumble Bios
"Ice cream is my second favorite thing to eat in bed."
"In the mood for a glizzy, and not the hot dog kind."
"Looking to cook my famous lasagna in exchange for you showing me your favorite bagel spot the next morning."
"Nothing will turn me on more than a match who knows their Harry Potter."
"My favorite summer activity is playing sand volleyball, so you could say I'm pretty good on my knees."
Good Bumble Bios
"Team sweets over salty. Don't agree? Give me your best argument."
"Tell me about your next tattoo or piercing."
"I would sell my soul for an unlimited supply of my mom's homemade dumplings."
"Must know your thoughts on Beyoncé's new country album."
"If you like Pizza Hut breadsticks, Taylor Swift, and drinking way too many espresso martinis, we'll get along just great."

I have uploaded gameplay from my fresh experience with the game here if you want to see how it looks / plays. My first impressions are shared below:
[]()
Based on my limited time with it, I do not recommend playing Crazy Kung Fu on the PSVR2.
It is a Kung Fu martial arts inspired fitness game where you punch, block and dodge using full body movement (including squats) in room-scale (minimally 2m x 2m) and your two hands. It provides multiple environments to choose from that are quick to unlock when you play the Train mode and it also has a variety of Braces and Masks available to unlock to customize your Avatar for use in competitive Multiplayer mode which does feature cross-play with other VR platforms.
Nearly all of your gameplay is against wooden polls with randomized rotating components. Your goal is to punch or block with good accuracy (timing & force) and dodge (squat or step back) all blades. You are shown your accuracy during play and more stats about your performance at the end of each level. You can play all levels on Apprentice or Expert. The game features ~70 levels across multiple game modes.

• Train (4:20) is the core gameplay from Tutorial (0:51) where difficulty will go up as you progress to higher tier levels or enable the Expert toggle.
• Fight (12:00) is a variation where the wooden pillar will move as if sparring with you. This mode requires room-scale of 2x2 meters, 3x3 meters or up to 4x4 meters.
• Workout (14:35) lets you select Skill, Style and Flow options to customize parameters and then play for purpose of Workout.
• Wing Chun (18:42) lets you just practice against a virtual Wing Chun Dummy where you need to score enough to unlock next level.
• Event (21:20) provides generated routines after you have completed at least 3 Train and Fight levels.
• Multiplayer (21:37) allows you to have first to 3 wins matches against other players where you can filter / create rooms for 1-3 Arms that are either Standard or Double.

The multiplayer mode when I would try playing with my wife on PSVR2 from same home network would work fine (whether I host or she hosts), but would crash consistently at the end of any Round. When I played with other randoms (not PSVR2 players) available in public matchmaking lobbies, the game did not crash. I could join and play on their hosted room or create my own room until one of the randoms joins and it would work fine. There is no in-game voice chat for cross-play multiplayer but it provides you a menu board of canned messages you can send to other player like GG, Nice! etc. While playing multiplayer, it is the same game as Train, except you have random attacks you can send to other player. Playing multiplayer clears your calorie tracker for the day.
Graphics of the game are clear but not crisp which I take to mean lower-resolution. It is also using reprojection because if you move you can see heavy ghosting of any of the text that is displayed. This is disappointing for a game with such a simple art style. It should be running native 120 and higher resolution on the PSVR2.
Soundtrack and sound effects are one area that I think game is nailing. An improvement would be to have the configurable Shifu (18:30) be voiced so you don't have to look to see what feedback your Shifu (Master / Trainer) is giving for your gameplay.
Haptics is an area of missed opportunities. The game is using haptics but the most I felt was playing Wing Chun when your arms are touching the Dummy sticks (?) and it is just an on/off rumble rather than giving the kind of finer haptic feedback that I know the PS VR2 Sense controllers are capable of giving. There is also no haptic feedback in headset when you take damage (failed to dodge blade or got hit by arrow in multiplayer). Punches & Blocks have haptics but aren't conveying good vs weak hits like the audio/visual feedback is conveying. Although the virtual menu of the game is intuitive and easy to use, none of the interactions are providing that tactile haptic feedback.
The game does feature a Platinum trophy, but I expect that will stay at 0% or be one of the rarest for anyone that does manage it because it has ridiculous trophy expectations like 100 day streak. It also has calorie burn related trophies (up to 500 calories in 1 day) which is fine for a fitness game, but not if it loses track between play sessions for same day or resets to zero for the day if you play any multiplayer. Many of the other trophies are expecting high-skill / dedication. The game came out very recently and has very few players so some of it makes sense, but as of now it has over 30 trophies not including Platinum sitting at 0%.
There are no VR comfort options, but this game doesn't need it since all movement is room-scale.
We both like the idea of the game as we both look for and appreciate games that provide a fun aerobic workout, but this is not a good port to the PSVR2. It isn't making use of stronger hardware to provide higher resolution (not a big deal to us), higher 90-120 framerates so there isn't any unnecessary reprojection (made my wife feel dizzy) or better haptics. It also crashes consistently when we try to play multiplayer together.
I may feel differently about the game overall if they can patch the multiplayer from crashing for us and get rid of the unnecessary reprojection, but as it is now, I don't recommend it.

Disclaimer: I do not speak Korean. This is purely translated by machine with a lot of cleanup afterward. With that in mind, I am open to criticism to improve these translations. Enjoy!
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Chapter 422
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Ding. Ding. Ding.
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- Opportunity arises within crisis. You have gained new enlightenment amidst a life-and-death battle!
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- [Middle Dantian] has been opened!
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- With the opening of the [Middle Dantian], all stats have increased by 20!
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- The effects of [Qi Cultivation] have greatly improved!
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- Your ability to understand and manipulate the flow of Qi has been greatly enhanced!
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- Your internal and external states have been strengthened!
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.
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The relentless System notifications echoed in my ears, their cadence like a persistent hammer.
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A sudden gust of wind swept through, playing with my sweat-drenched hair as a newfound vigor suffused my body.
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A clear, resonant bell chimed, marking the culmination of my transformation.
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Ding.
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- As a reward for your enlightenment, you have gained a large amount of experience points!
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- As a reward for your enlightenment, you have gained 50 bonus points!
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- Level up!
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- As a result of leveling up, all status effects, fatigue, and some injuries are recovered!
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- The status abnormality, [Curse], has been lifted!
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- Temporarily reduced stats have been restored to their original state!
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I wasn't the only one who felt such changes.
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No hand moves unseen by its master. The Arch Lich, sensing the dissolution of his curse, voiced his disbelief in a tone thick with suspicion.
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- How did you...?!
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His words, laden with myriad unspoken queries, met only my nonchalant shrug.
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"Well."
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- Well?
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"Yes, well."
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- Do you think that explains it?
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"Obviously not. But do I really need to explain myself to you?"
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From the flickering light in his eyes, incredulity was unmistakable.
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- You're not a mage, are you?
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"I did want to be a mage. They get paid more, you know. But I just don't have the talent for it. Nor the brains."
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- Even those you call Grand Mages couldn't easily dispel my magic like this.
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"There's nothing to it, really."
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- This makes no sense!
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I conceded silently.
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The Arch Lich's mastery was undeniably beyond mine.
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Even I, having long surpassed the ordinary bounds of a Hunter, struggled against his curses and the perilous illusions crafted from bone spears.
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Without my recent enlightenment, I might not have stood here at all.
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But...
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"So what are you going to do about it?"
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- ...!
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The System was on my side; I had simply utilized the strength and resources it provided to navigate through the crisis.
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If he thinks that's unfair, he can use the System himself.
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"That's just how the world works. It's annoying and frustrating, but you just have to bear with it and move on. It's already happened. Right?"
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The Skeleton Warlord, previously howling in rage until a moment ago, now murmured under his breath.
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- Wow, you really do speak well.
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That's just how I am.
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- You wicked human. It doesn't look like he's going to just let it go and move on.
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The Skeleton Warlord was right.
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Suddenly, a chilling voice cut through the air, followed by a tempest of formidable magical energy.
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- Unleash Sonic Buster.
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Simultaneously.
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Whoosh, boom!
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A blast of densely compressed air erupted.
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Its sheer velocity turned concrete to dust and twisted steel rebars like twigs.
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The shockwave shattered the windows of a nearby skyscraper, sweeping up a storm of glass shards.
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In an instant, before I could even blink, the devastating wind was mere inches from my face.
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- Human!
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The scream of the Skeleton Warlord resounded from my inventory.
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Was it concern for his own fate, or anxiety over mine?
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Regardless, the reason held little weight.
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I was no longer the same person I had been mere moments ago.
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'Ah.'
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A warmth blossomed in my chest. The spot known to martial artists as the Middle Dantian had fully opened.
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Suddenly, I understood everything around me. I felt it on my skin and saw it with acute clarity.
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'So that's how it is.'
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Time seemed to stretch, the world slowing to a crawl around me, rendering everything sharply defined and vivid.
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A colossal orb of wind, launched like a slicing blade, and the intricate flow of magic that propelled it.
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Shhhh!
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Everything has a core, magic included. With the opening of my middle dantian, I could discern that core.
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'Now.'
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In this decelerated reality, I thrust my spear forward. The formidable orb of wind, previously unstoppable, cleaved neatly in two by the blade of White Flames.
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The split fragments of the wind, once a unified force, now dispersed into hundreds, then thousands of smaller currents. Stripped of their magical command, they cascaded to the earth in a chaotic ballet.
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Swoosh, crash!
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The winds whipped around, tousling my clothes and hair. I raised my head to face the Arch Lich, my expression tinged with a slight smile.
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"Come down here. My neck hurts."
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- You...!
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"Fine, I'll come up."
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Crack, boom!
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A single step.
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The ground beneath me shattered, and I propelled myself toward the grey expanse above.
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* * *
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Boom!
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As Jin Tae-Kyung launched into the air, the Arch Lich grasped the gravity of the situation.
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'I can't let this human approach.'
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Avoiding melee combat was a basic rule for any mage, yet it held a new significance for the Arch Lich now.
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'To think this body feels threatened by a mere human.'
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He prided himself on having reached the pinnacle of black magic.
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Despite the considerable drain on his power during his resurrection, the Arch Lich still wielded more magical might than any Grand Mage.
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Yet, the human confronting him now... posed a genuine threat.
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'Yes, just like that one back then.'
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It was a memory he desperately wanted to forget. Gritting his teeth, the Arch Lich summoned his magic.
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- Gravity!
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This time, his command wasn't just a shout but a formidable wave of power, unleashing an invisible, formless force that crushed everything within its vast reach.
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Even an S-rank Hunter like Jin Tae-Kyung could hardly withstand the overwhelming pressure closing in on him.
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Bang!
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A burst of compressed air shot from beneath Jin Tae-Kyung's feet as he executed the Void-Trampling Step, his body darting out of the gravity's lethal embrace.
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His movements, sharp and swift as a hawk's, far surpassed those of any ordinary flyer.
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'What the hell.'
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The Arch Lich's eyes darkened as he watched Jin Tae-Kyung slice through the air, rapidly closing the distance.
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It was clear now; Jin Tae-Kyung had not only accurately determined the range of the gravity spell but evaded it with uncanny skill.
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'It wasn't mere luck that he dispelled the illusion magic. Then...'
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Whoooosh!
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Magic surged from the Arch Lich, vibrating the very air around him.
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- Gravity. Gravity. Gravity.
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He cast the high-level spell repeatedly, a feat beyond even the most adept mages. With this, the Arch Lich believed he would overpower Jin Tae-Kyung this time.
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'Fall, human.'
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Instead of increasing the force, he had expanded the spell's reach, creating a gravitational field vast enough to ensnare any within its grip...
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Screech!
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Doubt flickered in the Arch Lich's gaze.
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Simultaneously, the crushing spell around Jin Tae-Kyung unraveled, its magical link severed as if sliced by an unseen blade.
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Caught off-guard, the Arch Lich watched as Jin Tae-Kyung propelled himself forward, stepping into the void and rocketing upwards like a cannonball.
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Boom! Sssshhhh!
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With a deafening sonic boom, Jin Tae-Kyung soared, not merely in front but rising above the Arch Lich, and he brought down the White Flames with devastating force.
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Whoosh, a streak of blue flames surged towards the Arch Lich.
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Crash!
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In the slowed-down reality, an invisible shield around the Arch Lich shattered like glass.
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In that moment, the flames of Protective Qi, fueled by three gapjas of Scorching Yang Qi, penetrated the multitude of defensive spells cloaking the Arch Lich.
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- Great Bone Wall!
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With a grim command, a barrier of black bones erupted from the void.
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This top-tier defensive magic, materializing merely a meter away, met the spear blade wreathed in flames.
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In the ashen sky, a massive shockwave boomed and thunder roared around the two foes divided by the Bone Wall.
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Whooooah!
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The air burst with intensity, dispersing clouds that had roamed the high skies. Buildings teetering on collapse crumbled, and half-decayed bodies were whisked away by the winds.
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Yet, the two beings responsible for this chaos faced each other across the barrier, their gazes steady.
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"It was a waste, wasn't it?"
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- Yes, indeed. No, wait...
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The Arch Lich paused, his eyes fixated on the mystical spear blade that had penetrated the center of the wall.
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- It was dangerous.
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The length of the spear blade that passed through the Bone Wall was only about the length of a finger, and the burst of Protective Qi had not even grazed his nose.
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It was fortunate for the Arch Lich and regrettable for Jin Tae-Kyung.
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"You're lucky, you."
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- Arrogant human, I must admit.
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"What?"
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Jin Tae-Kyung, taken aback, listened as the Arch Lich spoke more deliberately.
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- You would be worthy of this win, if you truly are the Adversary.
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"...The Adversary?"
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- Yes. The King's Adversary. The eternal rival entangled by the whims of the gods. I cannot be certain yet... but perhaps that's why I was able to rise again from the River of Death.
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Jin Tae-Kyung’s brow furrowed. What does the King's Adversary mean, and what was this talk of the whims of the gods?
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"Are you a second-year middle school student? Clear away these bones and show me your right hand. Let's see if you have a Black Flame Dragon." [Note: this reference is a bit intricate. The "Black Flame Dragon" part originates from the YuYu Hakusho anime/manga, in which one of the characters has a Black Flame Dragon living in his right arm. The "second year middle school" part references a concept called "chuunibyou", which comes from the light novel "Even with Chuunibyou, I Want to Fall in Love!", which heavily references "YuYu Hakusho". The concept of "chuunibyou" describes a particular stage in adolescence where individuals might hold delusional beliefs of grandeur, pretending to have secret knowledge or hidden powers. It's typically characterized by dramatic, over-the-top behavior, which is often a source of embarrassment later in life. This concept was vastly popularized by the anime, "Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions!"]
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The Arch Lich shook his head.
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- This is something neither you nor I can understand. But one thing is certain.
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His eyes, previously dimly glowing red, now blazed with intensity.
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Initially, he had merely thought of him as a powerful, albeit strange, human. Now, his perception had shifted.
​
Memories from decades ago flooded back, when he had roamed the planet in service to the King.
​
And the face of that human he had encountered on the day he fell into the River of Death.
​
'The Adversary.'
​
The human who had not only slain him but had also assassinated the King.
​
The Arch Lich tried to halt him but failed; he attempted to close the distance but could not bridge it. This human was the only one the Arch Lich had ever truly feared.
​
Amidst the tumult of battle with Jin Tae-Kyung, memories of that fearful day surfaced.
​
- You... will surely die here.
​
His voice, grim yet resolute, reverberated through the air.
​
Jin Tae-Kyung’s reply was dismissive and direct.
​
"What are you talking about, idiot?"
​
Then, in the blink of an eye,
​
"Eat this."
​
Whoosh. Boom!
​
With calm defiance, Jin Tae-Kyung unleashed a fist wreathed in blue flames, obliterating everything before it.
​
It met the barrier of black bones head-on.
​
Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist.
​
Crack!
​
The seemingly impenetrable Bone Wall shattered.
​
Through the cloud of bone shards, Jin Tae-Kyung, his face impassive, declared,
​
"It's much better this way. No more neck pain."
​
- ...!
​
"Down, boy."
​
Pop!
​
Like a streak of lightning, his fist shot forward, connecting squarely with the Arch Lich’s jaw.
​
Previous Table of Contents Next

Are you struggling to add experience to your resume? Paid jobs aren’t the only way to showcase your skills and achievements. Here are seven effective strategies to enhance your resume, even if you lack traditional work experience:

1. Freelance Projects: The gig economy is booming, especially post-pandemic. If you've taken on freelance work, include it on your resume to highlight your ability to handle diverse tasks and projects.
2. Volunteer Work: Employers value community involvement. Volunteering not only demonstrates your skills but also showcases personal qualities like altruism and teamwork, making you a well-rounded candidate.
3. Internships: Recent grads can leverage internships to demonstrate relevant skills and experiences. Detail your achievements and how you applied your knowledge to solve real-world problems during your internship.
4. Part-time Jobs: Don't underestimate part-time roles. If they're relevant to your desired position, describe them just as thoroughly as full-time jobs to show your capabilities.
5. Academic Projects: For those new to the workforce or in academia, academic projects can illustrate job-related skills and knowledge. Use industry-specific keywords to align these projects with the job description.
6. Certifications: Many certifications require practical experience and training. Highlight these on your resume to show your proficiency and dedication to your field.
7. Online Courses: Continued learning is impressive to employers. Detail the online courses you've taken, focusing on relevant modules and assignments that add value to your skill set.

With these tips, you can craft a compelling resume that stands out to potential employers. What other creative ways have you used to enhance your resume? Share your thoughts and experiences!
Read more at: https://www.resumemansion.com/article/seven-ways-to-add-experience-to-your-resume/

JobAdvice #CareerGrowth #ResumeHelp #JobSearch

Ok so this is a weird cross post from PSX. Another user requested some of the definitive RPGs for the system with a description of why they should play them. I took a bit of time writing this is up... to crickets. Annoying, but thought maybe someome here would be interested in what the system has to offer outside of Squaresoft.
Breath of Fire 3 - Probably the best of Breath of Fire series. A gorgeous 2D adventure with memorable characters and systems. Dragon summons, fishing, dungeon puzzles. If you love it follow it up with Breath of Fire 4 which is also amazing and somewhat darker and mature.
Valkyrie Profile - Also extremely pretty 2D. You play as a Norse Valkyrie tasked with gathering the souls of fallen warriors to fight in the battle of Ragnarok. The story structure has you play through these warriors final moments. A lot of sad, some funny; an amazing game.
Alundra - Another really impressive 2D game. Action RPG and spiritual successor to Landstalker on the Sega Genesis. You have the ability to jump into people's dreams and literally defeat their inner demons. The story revolves around a single town with very fleshed out NPCs. You get to know them individually and so when you do the dream hopping thing you really care whether or not you can help these people (spoiler alert: sometimes you can't). Tear jerker.
Suikoden 2 - incredible story about friends caught in opposing sides of war. Just play it.
Star Ocean 2 - ok super fun super gorgeous sci-fi RPG that plays out a bit different depending on which characters you choose for your party. And choosing some characters locks you out of choosing other characters. So you're probably meant to play it twice for the full story, but it's also like 100 hours long so good luck with that. I love the battle system hectic action characters constantly running all over the field spamming arte attacks and shouting. Immersive crafting systems, and a lot of skits between characters fleshing out stories and relationships.
Tales of Destiny 2 - oh God. Just another amazing game. One of the best of the Tales series. You find an alien girl who has dropped from the world hovering upside above the one you live in. Ensue globe trotting adventure with a lot of heart.
Lunar Eternal Blue - both Eternal Blue and Silver Star Story are solid adventures. I prefer the second one a bit more for the party members. But really either are a lot of fun. Translation has aged a bit poorly but I think they still have a lot of humor between character interactions.
Thousand Arms - weird RPG meets dating sim. When this was current gen there really wasn't anything else like this one. Humor can be crass at times, and the game is pretty misogynistic but I think it's worth an experience. Story is you're a sort of blackmith that has to imbue weapons with the power of love, which you do by dating all the women in your party. The game recognizes that Meis (main character) is sort of sexiest jerk and makes fun of him for it. Lots of humor.
Koudelka - RPG meets survival horror. 18th century period piece that has a psychic Gypsy, pompous Bishop, and cynical atheist exploring a haunted mansion. They do not get along and the dialogue and interpersonal conflicts are pretty entertaining. Voice acting is incredible especially considering how bad other PSOne dubs were. Tactical battles sadly don't provide much challenge.
Dragon Warrior 7 - this is a long one. I'd say it's one of the best of the series, but they're all consistently good. Story is broken up into vignettes, you travel to an island see there's a problem and then travel back in time to solve it. A lot of these mini-stories are well written. Some funny, some sad. Like Lunar these also a lot of good banter and chemistry between the party members.
Rhapsody - this is another weird one. Gameplay sadly sucks. It's just really easy, and the dungeons used a ton of recycled assets. Think budget game. But, and this is a huge but the game is adorable. You play as Cornette, a girl who lost mother but has the ability to speak to puppets. She then recruits these puppets to help her on her quest to rescue the prince she loves from a bumbling band of sexy witches. She also sings. It's like a Disney musical meets JRPG.
Azure Dreams - this is the other Dating Sim RPG on the PSone. But it's a mystery dungeon roguelike. And a monster collector. And town sim. So you scale a tower, collecting and hatching eggs, and dating town girls while investing money in rebuilding the town. Hard, but addictive.
Persona 2 - "modern day" (circa 25 years ago) a crazed maniac named Joker is murdering high school children. There's also a sort of pandemic going around that turns rumors into reality. You are a group of investigators trying to figure out what's going on, also you control demon versions of yourself in battle (personas). Dark. Very dark.
Honorable mentions to Wild Arms (western fantasy RPG), Vandal Hearts (tactical RPG based on the French Revolution with blood fountains squirting out of dead enemies), and Guardians Crusade (cute cozy 3D RPG with a baby dragon).

Phil Aston: Hello and welcome to the Now Spinning Magazine podcast with me, Phil Aston. And in this episode, I’m absolutely delighted to have with me Tony Martin, one of the UK’s most underrated rock vocalists. You’ve had a really varied career, but what we’re going to talk about today specifically is Black Sabbath and the new “Anno Domini” box set. So, welcome, Tony. Thank you so much for joining me.
Tony Martin: Thank you. And thank you for having me on the show. Very cool.
Phil Aston: A bit of context, because I think this is kind of helpful for you. My son is 30 now, but when he was 15, he set up a Facebook group, kind of saying, “One day, please can we have the Tony Martin Black Sabbath albums released?” That was 15 years ago. He was still at school, half his lifetime ago. And I think in the early time when he set this up, he may have reached out to you and you might have said something like, “I don’t think it’s gonna happen, Dan.” And here we are, all these years later, and it’s not only happened, but it comes out this Friday. How does that feel to know that these albums are now going to be available again?
Tony Martin: Well, first of all, well done to your son. It took 15 years, but he got it done. To be honest, there’s been a few periods when I didn’t think it was happening. In fact, about a year ago, Tony Iommi’s manager called me and said, “You know what, this is just so complicated. I don’t think we can do this.” So I was resigned to it not happening myself. It’s all to do with band politics, really. There are so many people involved or have their fingers in the pie that they all have to be on board. And there were allegiances changing all over the place, left, right, and center. So in the end, it was getting a bit tiring, but well done to Tony Iommi and BMG. My God, the patience they showed to get this thing together and actually get it out there. Wow. But how does it feel? It feels brilliant, to be honest. I’m very excited. I haven’t actually had these albums in my own hands physically for the past 25 years. I gave all mine away thinking I’d be able to get some more, and I didn’t. They just stopped making them. So to actually physically hold them again is really cool. What a great job they’ve done of it. So I’m thrilled and excited. And I’m helping out now because I’m not in the band, obviously, anymore. So I just offered my help to promote it and they said, “Great, let’s do it.”
Phil Aston: Isn’t it amazing? Because I’ve done quite a few reviews about Black Sabbath box sets and stuff, but this one, within about 12 hours, there’s literally 12,000 views of the review. The love for this period of Black Sabbath is actually huge. It’s grown. It almost feels as if the profile is higher now than it was at the time.
Tony Martin: Yeah, there is a kind of reason for that. Partly people have got over the “it’s the new guy” thing, and also it’s been 25 years since. So now we’re reaching out to a whole other group of people, in addition to those that were already there. But to the outside world, it looks like there was a huge gap, and to me it felt like a huge gap. But actually, the fans were always there. I’ve been waiting myself as well to get this back out there. And it’s just band politics, really. That’s all it is.
Phil Aston: Because you had that period when it was almost as if this part of Sabbath’s history was hidden because of band politics. None of this really happened, which I think probably stirred up more interest and kind of people wanting to find out more.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it could be. It’s an old famous thing, you know, if something ain’t around for a while, people start talking about it. But yeah, it’s a strange thing, the music business. You’re either in fashion or you’re not. But I am just thrilled that they’ve got around it. Just the patience they’ve shown to actually put this together. At one point they were just saying, “We can’t do it.” But I’m really chuffed anyway.
Phil Aston: I imagine there’s been compromises along the way. Lots of fans probably don’t understand how complicated the politics and all the different licenses and everything that goes on over the years, they become more and more entangled. People say, “Where’s Eternal Idol?” But of course, that was a different record label. Different people own it.
Tony Martin: Yeah, absolutely. It’s owned by somebody else. And also Eternal Idol, or “Eternal Idiot,” as we call it, was kind of reissued not that long ago. Really.
Phil Aston: That’s right. With the two CD version, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. So they were kind of thinking, “Well, there’s no real panic because that’s already been done and let’s just move on.” Because that would have wrapped them up in contracts for centuries, I think. I can’t even think that they’ll ever get them to let that go. But they were struggling to get the people involved with these four albums to make up their minds and do stuff. I’ve been all for it all the way along, I have to say. Obviously, because it’s my career, my history. It’s not just the band’s history. It’s ten years of my life that went AWOL. So, yeah, I’ve been up for it all the way along, but some people don’t and it’s taken them a while to get on board.
Phil Aston: I think it’s fantastic. The first one was Headless Cross. You joined one of the biggest rock bands with all that history behind it. You were an established singer with the Alliance. But this was a chance, as you say, with Eternal Idol, you went in and it was already prepared. You sang it, but this one was where you could really put your mark on it, your personality lyrically as well as musically. Can you remember what it was like actually being at the beginning of that? Did you feel comfortable around Iommi and Powell and thinking, “Right, what kind of lyrics am I going to do by Headless Cross?”
Tony Martin: Yeah, I was comfortable by then. Well, kind of. The thing is, with Eternal Idol, if I can just backstep a little bit. The Eternal Idol wasn’t the first call up. The first call up was in 1986 when they were doing the Seventh Star with Glenn Hughes. And that scared me to death because I can’t sing like Glenn Hughes. Nobody can sing like Glenn Hughes. They put me on standby back then, so I’d sort of tentatively had an introduction to Tony Iommi. Then in ’87, they got me in for the audition, and that was the next introduction to Tony Iommi. But because Eternal Idol was already written, that gave me a whole year plus a bit more to find out what this thing was. What the hell was I supposed to do? So just doing Eternal Idol like that was fine by me because I didn’t have to discover anything myself back then. It gave me a chance to get my feet in. So by the time it got to Headless Cross, now I know all the guys, and I kind of know what’s expected of me. I still had to find the “me” that I needed to find. I went around it the only way I could, by focusing on things I was interested in. I couldn’t do the lyrics and melodies that Geezer was writing for Ozzy because that was a generation before me. The stuff that Ronnie was doing was fantastic, but I couldn’t get inside his head. So I had to think about what I was going to do. I had an interest in the old gothic death stuff, like Dracula and Frankenstein, Mary Shelley type writing, and of course, in England, we have Shakespeare. Nobody speaks English like that anymore, that old English text. I thought, “Old English text, gothic death, and Black Sabbath. That might work.” So I put them all together and came up with Headless Cross, which is where I lived. I lived in a village called Headless Cross.
Phil Aston: Yeah, you put that on the map. They weren’t pleased about it. The most recognition I’ve got is my name on a bus stop. And Cozy Powell thought the album needed more death, didn’t he?
Tony Martin: Oh, that’s true. That’s actually true. We were recording “When Death Calls,” and he was in the studio playing, and he suddenly stopped. We went, “You alright?” He went, “Yeah, just remind me, what’s this song called again?” I said, “It’s called When Death Calls.” He said, “I don’t think there’s enough death in it.” And he carried on playing. So, okay, maybe he’s taking the piss, but isn’t it such a great sounding album? As Tony Iommi says, he never left Black Sabbath. So when people criticize him, saying, “You should change the name or whatever,” he never left. So it was still Black Sabbath. The riffs, the guitar sound was reaching new peaks of excellence around this time.
Because when it was just him and Ozzy, for example, it was guitar, that was it. When Geoff Nichols joined during the Dio period, it introduced a few more keyboard things. That allowed Iommi to play solos against those keyboard pads and chords. And then you come along and start sticking 50 tracks of vocal harmonies on it, like in Anno Mundi and stuff like that. It just kept developing. Sabbath isn’t really known for vocal harmonies and keyboards, but underneath that was still Tony Iommi. And it still sounded like Sabbath. We were happy to do that. We just wanted to make Tony happy and do the best for him. It was his band. So we were happy to seek out that Sabbath sound and make sure it did what it said on the tin. A couple of times, like with the Seventh Star thing, he ventured a little bit away from it. Songs like Heart Like a Wheel don’t really make the Black Sabbath sound, but it’s still good stuff. I have great respect for all of the eras that went before. I had to sing all of the songs. So I do have great respect for it. And it’s been an honor, you know, like being part of the whole story. But he was the only one that stuck it out. And we respected him for that. You’re right, they did ask him to change a couple of times. He said, “No, I can’t change now.”
Phil Aston: The next one, if I pronounce this right, it’s Tyr.
Tony Martin: Yeah.
Phil Aston: Because when it came out, me and my friends, actually, because there was no Internet back then and nowhere to go and check it, we did call it Tyr. To be.
Tony Martin: Yeah, Tyr.
Phil Aston: Watch you find in Birmingham. You know what I mean? So it actually rhymes with beer, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It is, yeah. Actually, it’s Tiw, which is Scandinavian for the son of Odin or something.
Phil Aston: Well, this is almost as close, probably, to Sabbath getting into almost a concept album. Isn’t it? This is a collection of songs that in another time and space you probably as a band would have gone out and performed the whole thing.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it wasn’t meant that way, but they were struggling to find a name for the album. We were recording and getting towards the end and the management called us up and said, “We really need a name for this album.” And Cozy said, “I’ve got one. Let’s call it Satanic Verses.” We went, “What, like Salman Rushdie thing?” He said, “Yeah, it would be great publicity.” We said, “Yeah, but we’ll all be dead.” So we did struggle, but they happened across the artwork. We’d done Anno Mundi, we’d done Gates of Valhalla and all that sort of stuff. They went, “What if… Tyr?” It was fine by me. So it took on the Viking sort of theme. By that time, I was thinking, once I’d done Headless Cross and started to have an interest in the Vikings and stuff. As you know, the Vikings haven’t been particularly good for us. They came over and stole all our women and sheep and whatever. But I had an interest in them as well. So I was thinking, every culture, every religion has its dark side. There’s always a devil type in a god type. I thought we could go around the world and I could do this. You could pick up on all sorts of cultures and pick out the dark side of various things. But it was the last kind of… I still did that with various other songs and various other artists. But Tyr was leaning towards that theme.
Phil Aston: It’s an excellent album. Then of course, the strangeness of the politics in Sabbath. Dehumanizer comes along and Dio re-enters the scene. You obviously had an opportunity because every cloud has a silver lining. You can go off and do your solo album at this time. But you did kind of like… It sounds like it was almost a forced relationship, the way that he was and he wasn’t. I mean, how was that period for you? Because you did demo some of the tracks, didn’t you?
Tony Martin: Firstly, it was a shock. I didn’t see that coming at all. Literally just walking out the door to the next writing rehearsals. My managers called up and said, “They don’t want you to go.” From what I recently found out, although I had my suspicions, Tony Iommi said the record label just wasn’t supporting it. They weren’t getting behind us at all. Then they started banding about all different names and stuff, and Ronnie’s name came up. They thought they’d give it a go. He said it was all on and off all the time. After they let me go, it wasn’t too long before Tony called me back and said, “Can you come back?” I said, “No, I can’t. I’m doing my solo album.” More time went by, and he called me back again and said, “Are you sure you can’t come back?” I said, “I’m doing my solo album. I really can’t.” He said, “Do you want to come down and try?” So I did. I went down and tried putting my voice on some of the songs, but it would have meant rewriting everything, and they weren’t going to do that. So I said, “The best thing is if you finish this with Ronnie, get this done and out of the way, then maybe we can talk again later.” So that’s kind of what happened. By that time, I’d done my solo album, which I wanted to get as far away from the Sabbath thing as I could at the time. I went back to doing what the Alliance and some of the bands I’d been with, that middle-of-the-road AOR type stuff. But when they called me back to Sabbath, Polydor dropped my solo album like a brick. They said, “We can’t do this if you’re going to go back with them.” So that got stopped. It’s so confusing. By the time I got back with the guys to Cross Purposes, it didn’t feel that much of a gap for me, because I’ve been talking to them and working with them through the Dehumanizer thing.
Phil Aston: Stylistically, that album, because it was on the IRS label, I know some people have said, “Well, it should be in there.” Stylistically, musically, it’s very different. I mean, you take it out. These four albums in this set, excluding Eternal Idol, they sound like a progression. Dehumanizer sounds like a kind of sidestep. Even the way the riffs are done in the songs, it’s changed. You take the vocalist out, but the music continued. You took you out and it was very different.
Tony Martin: I suppose it does a bit. If I go back and think over it, I guess that’s what it was. It was kind of an interruption into the flow of things. When we were doing Tyr, I thought we were doing really well. I thought we were onto something. Dehumanizer, in that sort of respect, does feel a little bit like an interruption. But there was some good stuff on there. Ronnie’s always been a good singer. I don’t quite know how they feel about it, but it was kind of nothing to do with me. I just let them get on with it.
Phil Aston: After that, Cross Purposes is probably, out of the four albums in this set, my personal favorite. Geezer’s back in the band now, so you’ve got his bubbling bass in there. And again, lyrically, it’s all you. Did you feel any kind of, “Oh, Geezer’s back. Will he want to help out?”
Tony Martin: I did ask. He just said, “No, you can do it.” So I just carried on.
Phil Aston
The reason why I love this album is that it’s varied. A lot of people think of Black Sabbath as the Godfathers of heavy metal, and heavy metal is always heavy metal. But if you think back to albums like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in the seventies, they weren’t all heavy metal. There were all sorts of things on there. There were keyboards and light and shade. This, I felt, connected to that album, because you had light and shade on it. So there were more dynamics in the lyrical delivery and the song delivery, in the way that Iommi is weaving his riffs around the melodies. What are your thoughts looking back on this album now?
Tony Martin: I think you’ve just summed it up. It did sort of shift up a notch. Not only that, but the sound they were getting with Leif Mases producing it, it sort of grew up. It lifted somehow out of what they’d done before. It felt like, “Oh, this sounds good.” The songwriting and the exploring we were doing with the songs and stuff. At the time, Geezer Butler said that’s the best album he’s ever been on. He never said that again, but he said it at the time.
Phil Aston: I can imagine him saying just that.
Tony Martin: But it was good. Having Bobby Rondinelli in the band as well. Technically amazing. Brilliant player. His drums close in, and he plays with his wrists. Very technical. Whereas Cozy’s drums are stretched out far and wide. He’d lean over and hit them. But great to have them both in. What an honor. I mean, it’s Geezer Butler as well.
Phil Aston: When you got to South America, Bill Ward was in for a few gigs, wasn’t he? That must have been quite surreal. Bill Ward and Geezer playing songs like Headless Cross, which they had nothing to do with.
Tony Martin: They had nothing to do with. We were kind of weird because once we’d started to get Geezer and Bill back in, they wanted to start doing more of the older songs. That just makes you look, read between the lines going, “What’s going on? Where’s this going?” Once it’s happened to you, you know it. Then you’re reading between the lines. You start to feel it. Then you go, “Ah, right.” You can feel it. They’re clearing up. I did ask if they were going to do a reunion with Ozzy. Iommi was always denying it. Said, “No, no, we’re not doing that.” But I didn’t mind. The reason for that is because I knew what I could do in the future then. I thought, “Well, if they just tell me, that’s fine. Cause then I can plan.” The first time it was a shock and I didn’t know what to do. But I was kind of keyed up for it the next time. But he kept going. They got Bill in. I love Bill. I think he’s brilliant. We did some shows with him. But for some reason, and I don’t know what it is, I mean, I can tell you Iommi loves Bill. He regaled so many stories about when they were out there and how funny it was. I never understood why they never gave him time to get back in it. When you think of Def Leppard, they made a drum kit for a one-armed drummer.
Phil Aston: Yes, very true.
Tony Martin: Surely they can find time to get Bill settled back in. Whatever problems they’ve got. I mean, come on.
Phil Aston: You would think, yeah, very true.
Tony Martin: Get on with it. I thought, “Right, this is going to go south again.” But it didn’t. We carried on with Forbidden, and then Cozy came back after his accident. It was really up and down. Confusing. People in and out. During the time I was in the band, there were eight different lineups.
Phil Aston: It was very much a revolving door, wasn’t it? Before we move on, I just want to ask, because I know a lot of fans ask this. In the booklets in these box sets, there’s an image of Cross Purposes Live. That was a VHS tape and a CD. Is there a reason why that wasn’t included in some way? Is that game politics?
Tony Martin: I did ask about that, and they were just keen to get on with it. They said, “Come on, let’s go, let’s do it.” What they told me was that they’re going to take their time now to see what else they can gather and do an additional thing to this along the way with more of that in it. With the Cross Purposes Live and some other stuff. There’s a track that I recorded with them when Eddie Van Halen came and did Evil Eye.
Phil Aston: Yes, yeah, Evil Eye, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. I used to take the track out. I had it everywhere. Writing sessions, recording sessions, rehearsals. I just happened to be there. I didn’t even know who was coming. Iommi just turned up with Eddie Van Halen. I went, “Holy hell, it’s Eddie Van Halen. What’s he doing here?” He did some rehearsals with us and then disappeared. Never saw him again. But I got the recordings of the rehearsals that we did.
Phil Aston: Oh, wow.
Tony Martin: So I sent them to Tony Iommi. I said, “Use these. Get these on.” He said, “No, no, we can’t.” The reason they said was anything that has the slightest newness about it looks like a new Black Sabbath track or album track. They’re not allowed to release anything new under the Black Sabbath name. So even if it’s historical, they couldn’t allow it. It’s really weird.
Phil Aston: That means there must be lots of live stuff recorded. More bands were recording live stuff from the nineties onwards that you just couldn’t work on because it would go out under the Black Sabbath name.
Tony Martin: Not just live stuff. I’ve got about eight tracks that we never released. Just from the writing sessions and rehearsals and stuff that we used to do. They just can’t get out. They just won’t allow it.
I don’t understand. Well, I kind of understand. When you’re trying to protect your name, your mark, your image, your everything, which is where the band politics comes in, they won’t allow you to do anything that they think. And there’s all kinds of… Everybody from Ozzy to Dio to everybody. They don’t want their thing to be diluted or taken away. I do understand that. There are people involved all along the way that have an objection of some kind or another.
Phil Aston: But I guess, hopefully, this box set’s going to sell out really quickly and will show there’s a demand for this material and for this part of Black Sabbath history. There’s a lot of love for it. A lot of people worked really hard within it, like yourself. They’re great albums, wonderful songs. If there’s other music waiting in the wings, whereas we all get older, thinking through the eyes of the fan, it would go down so well, wouldn’t it? But I am, as you are, very grateful that these four albums have arrived in a box.
Tony Martin: Yes, it’s an important thing for me. It’s an important thing for the band, and it’s a great thing for the fans. I’m thrilled. It’s been an honor to be part of the story. I love the fact that it’s out there now. They did say there is no limit to the box sets. They have sold out on day one.
Phil Aston: I’m not surprised.
Tony Martin: They said the way they do it is they tend to poll the outlets and stuff and say, “How many do you think you can sell?” And they put their numbers in, and they’ve gone way past that. So now they’ve got to go back and produce more. There’s no limit to it. I love what they’ve done. There’s more in the box set than just the albums. Posters, programs, and everything.
Phil Aston: And then Forbidden. I’ll be honest, Tony, when I heard this for the first time back in the day, I didn’t like it. I tried, but I didn’t like it. My son liked it because I think probably because his dad didn’t. But now the remix, it’s as if someone’s released the drums and the guitars. It sounds like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It does. It’s brilliant. I love the fact that they’ve dismantled it and put it back in a way that they couldn’t or didn’t with the other three. Forbidden needed it for all kinds of reasons. It was done under a sort of cloud where a lot of us weren’t really into it very much. But it was also an attempt at trying to give Sabbath a kind of acceptable twist to the youth. It didn’t work.
Phil Aston: The nineties were weird, weren’t they? The nineties were strange for heavy rock.
Tony Martin: The problem was we were fast heading towards great new bands like Nirvana and eventually Green Day and Metallica doing stuff. We were going and they were trying to change the sound to fit in. It didn’t work. We didn’t think it would. But there are people out there that love Forbidden as it is. I said that to Iommi. Last time I saw him, there are people out there that love it. He said, “They’ll probably love this version now.” But shaking the chains, guilty as hell, rusty angels, forbidden. And of course, “Loser Gets It All” is a great track. That wasn’t even on the album originally.
Phil Aston: It’s brilliant.
Tony Martin: Yeah. Strange. I absolutely love it now. It does sound like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds like it should be there in amongst the others. They’ve done a great job. Tony and his engineers have really pulled it together. It’s slightly more guitar and slightly less keyboard. They’ve done Cozy’s drums. Fantastic job on those.
Phil Aston: They’re just unleashed, aren’t they?
Tony Martin: Yes. They haven’t changed anything. They’ve mixed it and given it a new attitude, which is brilliant. They’ve given it more space. It sounds bigger. I just love what they’ve done to it. I’m really proud of it now. I didn’t like it then. There’s still a couple of tracks where I would love to have gone back in and…
Phil Aston: Yeah, you know.
Tony Martin: I thought at the time, because I was that off it at the time, my head just wasn’t quite there. A couple of tracks I thought I could have done better. I did sort of say when they were doing it, “Can I go back in?” They said, “No.”
Phil Aston: I suppose because that might edge towards it being a new recording then.
Tony Martin: Yeah, tricky. I’m not going to tell you which tracks it is, but there were a couple in there that I wasn’t quite happy with. But on the whole, it’s a great job they’ve done.
Phil Aston: Because when you were playing live, there were more songs from your period in Sabbath coming into the set, weren’t there? You were a unique vocalist in many ways for the band. You could cover Ozzy, Dio. You probably could have done Ian Gillan. Anything. You could have the ultimate set list, really, going through every era.
Tony Martin: That was a bit of a mistake. I told them I could sing anything, really. They thought, “What can we give him to sing?” They threw all sorts of stuff at me. I had a shot. Fortunately, I’ve got the kind of voice that can get around most things, and that’s a result of being in so many different kinds of music. I’ve been involved in everything from reggae to rock.
Phil Aston: Who were your key vocal influences growing up? As you say, outside of this Black Sabbath badge, your voice can go in any direction. So who were your influences? Was it blues, soul, rock?
Tony Martin: It kept changing. Everything I listened to, I thought, “That’s good. That’s good.” Each couple of years, something else took my attention. I’d really pour my soul into it. When I started off with reggae, believe it or not, I worked with Musical Youth and Dexys Midnight Runners in the studio. I was a guitarist back then. Then I loved blues. I got into prog rock bands like Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull. Then it shifted to Emerson, Lake & Palmer. That led to Rush and bands like that. Then I had to come down out of that prog rock technical stuff because Sabbath is much more honest and basic and straightforward. To a point. When you’re in the band and you find out how he does it, it’s stunning. I never even gave it a thought. I thought, “It’s got to be easy.” It wasn’t easy at all. Iommi can put seven, eight different riffs into one song, and each one of the riffs could be a song on their own.
Phil Aston: Very true.
Tony Martin: So, wow. You get your head around it. It’s weird. Plus, the time signatures he was throwing at us. There was a 14/4 and a 15/8 or something he was throwing at us. How he gets his head around it, I just don’t know. When I saw him a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a really good job on this.” I said, “Thanks, man.” He said, “I actually don’t know how you sang over some of this stuff.” I said, “Neither do I.”
Phil Aston: Just mad, isn’t it? You could try anything. I might have thought, “That means you might be able to put some of the songs in that Ozzy couldn’t do into the set. Or I can try something that I’ve never been able to do before because Tony says he can do anything.”
Tony Martin: It’s because I showed willing. I told them I’d have a go. And I did have a go. I did put into it. The songs, the writing, the live shows, whatever. I kind of made a rod for my own back in some ways because it was hard flicking between all of the different vocal techniques. But I did my best. It sort of came across okay. The problem is when you try to do stuff like that, it can sound a bit like a tribute act. But we got it nailed, I think. Especially having people like Cozy Powell, Geezer Butler, and all those guys in the band. We were willing to seek out that Sabbath sound, and we were conscious of it. So we were all aiming for the same thing. From outside, it might have looked like a chaotic mess. But on the inside, it all had a focus. We were all willing to give it a go. That’s what I think they saw in me. I knew they liked my voice, but I think that’s what they saw, a willingness to have a go and see if you can make it work. All those different time signatures and riffs that I had to go, looking back, to me, it’s Black Sabbath. Like,
Phil Aston I’m a Deep Purple fan, and every lineup of Deep Purple is still Deep Purple. I know Black Sabbath, there’s lots of politics in the way some of the fans look at it. But I think, which is why they had Heaven and Hell later on instead of Black Sabbath, because of the politics. But listening to these four albums, one after the other, you brought to life Viking mythology and song. More death. Just your passion and the way you projected the lyrics and your phrasing makes these albums unique. An important part of the Sabbath story. Finally, do you feel like this outpouring of love for this lineup is validating everything? Any doubt that might have been back then?
Tony Martin: Yeah, doesn’t it just? The biggest validation is from Tony Iommi himself. It wasn’t regarded that highly until he sat and listened to it without the bickering going around. When I went down a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a great job on this. There’s fantastic songs on here.” I said, “I know.” It’s just that validation that he gives it. The fact that the fans are returning to it. The fact that we’ve got new fans coming to it. Whole new record labels. I think it’s Rhino in America. It’s BMG in the UK, Europe. The record labels are coming back to it and getting behind it. They see something in it. The management sees something in it. So it’s all coming together. Which is a shame because I’m not in the band anymore.
Phil Aston Who knows? Maybe you and Tony will think, “It’d be great if some of this other stuff can come out at some point and we don’t have to wait another 25 years.”
Tony Martin: If he was going to do that, he’d say, “Let’s just write some new stuff.” But from what I’ve been told, Tony’s touring dates are done now. He won’t be going out on the road again. That’s probably out of the question for writing. I did tell him I was interested if he wants to do something. But he’s got so much going on. He’s still busy. Doing stuff. He had that ballet, the Black Sabbath ballet.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that’s true.
Tony Martin: Never saw that coming. No, he’s working on all kinds of stuff. He’s writing new material for something else now.
Phil Aston: So what about you, Tony? Have you got any plans for another solo album?
Tony Martin: I never actually stopped. For the past 25 years, my career took me into the studio and writing for people. My voice appears on 89 albums and projects now. It’s been good for me. I owe everything to Black Sabbath because that’s how the world got to hear my voice. People know what they’re talking about when they talk to me. “Can you write, can you sing on this?” They already know what they’re hearing or expecting. I always try to make it better than what they give me in the first place. A lot of that is me in the studio, and I’m happy, and I still am, happy doing that. But I do tend to choose what I do these days.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that makes sense.
Tony Martin: So I’m still doing the odd thing for people now. I did have a solo album a couple of years ago called Thorns.
Phil Aston: Great album.
Tony Martin: Yeah, totally unknown guitarist from America, Scott McClellan. I only met him because he kept badgering me on Facebook. He kept sending me stuff. I was like, “Go away.” He said, “Listen to this. What about this one?” In the end, I listened to it and it was brilliant. So I gave it a go and it turned out really well. But then Covid interrupted that and we couldn’t get out there with it. Some countries were saying, “Yeah, you can come,” and other countries were saying, “No, you can’t.” It all got distracted. I haven’t finished with Thorns because they wanted to do a vinyl for it. They said we had to take some tracks off to get it to fit on the vinyl. I don’t want to take any tracks off.
Phil Aston: Make it a double.
Tony Martin: Yeah, make it a double. Write some more. I wasn’t prepared for that. I’m pacing up, trying to write some new songs. Scott has sent me loads. We’ve got enough tracks for Thorns 2, but I haven’t finished Thorns 1 yet. I’ve got to come back to that. I do want to finish that off and get that done. Then if we can do the next Thorns thing, who knows? We’d like to try and get it out on the road. Getting out on the road for me is so different to the Sabbath thing. The Sabbath machine is huge. They only have to mention it and all the cogs start turning all at the same time all the way around the world. It all starts fitting into place within days, within weeks. On your own, it’s different. I can’t do that. I have to hire other musicians to go out on the road and rehearse the whole thing and start again with a brand new show. It’s a lot harder for me, but I would love to get back out there. My career took me into the studio, so I’ve got more to do. But I just tend to choose now.
Phil Aston: If people want to get Thorns, is it DarkstarRecords.net? Is that the best place?
Tony Martin: No, Battle God. They are the main label. Darkstar were involved and they’re still there, but they’ve had some troubles in the past couple of years. They were on board and I did two versions of it from between the two territories. I liked that. But mostly now, Battle God is the label to grab hold of it. It’s still available and I’m still signing them. People send me the stuff to sign.
Phil Aston: But I haven’t finished yet, so there’s more to come.
Phil Aston: Brilliant. Well, thanks very much, Tony, for all of your time today. Everybody, make sure you go and get a copy on CD or vinyl of this Black Sabbath Tony Martin years box set, “Anno Domini.” It’s absolutely superb.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it is good. I’m just smiling. I think it’s brilliant.
Phil Aston: No, that’s it, isn’t it? Whatever anyone thinks, these albums are available again. People can hear just how awesome this time for Sabbath really was.
Tony Martin: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Phil Aston: All right, take care, and hopefully I’ll talk to you again in the future.
Tony Martin: Thank you. All right, Phil, thanks, mate. Cheers.
Phil Aston: Well, a huge thank you to my guest, Tony Martin. That was fantastic. I’m almost lost for words in knowing what to say to sum up that interview because I know a lot of you are really interested in this box set, “Anno Domini” by Black Sabbath, which is out on CD and vinyl. Just as I thought, it’s sold out already, but there’s going to be another pressing. I was able to ask some of the questions I know some of you have been wanting to know, like why weren’t there extra tracks? Why wasn’t the live Cross Purposes included, etc. So now you know. Some of it is really exciting because it means there might be a companion set with some outtakes or live stuff as well. That’s really exciting.
Tony Martin is a fantastic vocalist, really passionate, really imaginative with his lyrics and his vision of how he writes his music. These four albums are essential. They’re Black Sabbath albums, okay? That’s what they are. They sound like Black Sabbath albums. Wasn’t it interesting that Geezer Butler said Cross Purposes is the best album he’d ever played on? It is a truly remarkable album. But they all are: from Headless Cross, to Tyr (which I can now pronounce correctly), Cross Purposes, and Forbidden, which has been given a new lease of life. Seriously, it is incredible. Just stunning.
Thank you again to Tony Martin for joining me here on the Now Spinning Magazine podcast. Please keep spinning those discs, whether they are vinyl or CD. Check us out on the podcast. We’re on every platform you can think of, from Apple to Spotify to Amazon. Of course, we’re on YouTube. Please subscribe and check out the website at nowspinning.co.uk. Remember, music is the healer and the doctor. So take care and I’ll see you all very, very soon.
Watch the full interview here
Phil Aston Now Spinning Magazine