Hi all! It's a lovely bright day outside where I am, so am very slowly readying myself to head out. Anyone want to hang out while I wind down? Would love to have some interesting company.
A bit about me:

• I am a graduate student, I read and write a bunch
• I'm interested in history, philosophy, literature, films, and interesting connections between things. I also love poetry!
• I am also interested in the shape of your favorite animal's nose, the color of your favorite pair of socks, the biggest number you can say out loud literally-right-now-go, and the first new sentence on page 84 of the book that is currently closest to you
• If you are taller than me, you automatically qualify as my new bodyguard. If you are shorter than me, you automatically qualify for a lifetime's worth of jokes involving stepladders
• As you can tell, I am willing to be interested in very many things, so please send me all sorts of facts, jokes, anti-jokes, anti-facts, and so on
• Oh, I used to play a bit of soccefootball, am not much of a gamer but there are one or two games I play, and am waiting patiently to watch Killers of the Flower Moon
• This is about as much bio as I can muster right now but I'm happy to answer questions! Looking forward to hearing from some cool people!

I'm caramelizing white chocolate at 120°C and I've only stirred it once or twice (once every 10 min and it's already a dark color ....I was expecting it to take around one hour, instead, it's very brown already after 30 min...
How is this possible? I'm using half size baking sheet for 300 g
Also, is it supposed to stay grainy like this?

I only kept my PS3 for NCAA Football 14 revamped, Fight Night, and Marvel vs Capcom 2, but with College Football officially back and Undisputed dropping in October, only use I have for it is MvC2 and that’s a rare game in 2024.
Any other uses for the PS3? Is it officially trash now? MvC2 is the only thing saving its life right now lol!!!!!

The 2023–24 season is Chelsea Football Club's 118th year, and 35th consecutive season in the top flight of English football.
In addition to the domestic league, Chelsea participated in this season's editions of the FA Cup and EFL Cup; they are not participating in any UEFA competition for the first time since the 2016–17 season, having finished in 12th position in the league in the previous campaign.
Prior to this season, former Chelsea captain César Azpilicueta left the club at the end of his contract after 11 consecutive seasons, signing for Atlético Madrid in his native Spain. Chelsea academy graduate Reece James replaced him as club captain before the new season opened in July.

• Highest Home Attendance - 40,096 vs Liverpool, 13 August 2023, Premier League
• Lowest Home Attendance - 37,516 vs Brighton & Hove Albion, 27 September 2023, EFL Cup
• Average Home League Attendance - 39,626
• Biggest Win 6–0 vs Everton (H), 15 April 2024, Premier League
• Biggest Defeat 0–5 vs Arsenal (A), 23 April 2024, Premier League

Premier League

Final Position: 6th

Points: 63

League Goals: 77

Opposition	Home Score	Away Score	Aggregate Score	Double
Arsenal	2-2	0-5	2-7	No
Aston Vila	0-1	2-2	2-3	No
Bournemouth	2-1	0-0	2-1	No
Brentford	0-2	2-2	2-4	No
Brighton	3-2	2-1	5-3	Yes
Burnley	2-2	4-1	6-3	No
Crystal Palace	2-1	3-1	5-2	Yes
Everton	6-0	0-2	6-2	No
Fulham	1-0	2-0	3-0	Yes
Liverpool	1-1	1-4	2-5	No
Luton Town	3-0	3-2	6-2	Yes
Manchester City	4-4	1-1	5-5	No
Manchester Utd	4-3	1-2	5-5	No
Newcastle Utd	3-2	1-4	4-6	No
Nottm Forest	0-1	3-2	3-3	No
Sheffield Utd	2-0	2-2	4-2	No
Tottenham	2-0	4-1	6-1	Yes
West Ham	5-0	1-3	6-3	No
Wolves	2-4	1-2	3-6	Reverse

• Chelsea won doubles over five teams, and were undefeated to nine
• Chelsea managed to score against every opposition team, but only kept a season long clean sheet against one teams (Fulham) (tbh I jinxed us with this one, I was updating the post before posting, and added Bournemouth, and as soon as I did they scored on the TV so, oops).
• The only team to beat Chelsea in both matches this season were Wolves, and only six team (were undefeated against us.
• Chelsea suffered only one defeat (an away loss to Arsenal) in their final 15 league games.
• Despite a stronger league performance, our defensive presence has lacked from the previous season, which had seen us concede only 47.
• Despite finishing 6th on the table, only the top four managed to avoid less losses, with Chelsea losing the 5th least amount of games this season.

League Goal Scorers:

Player	Goals
Cole Palmer	22
Nicolas Jackson	14
Raheem Sterling	8
Conor Gallagher	5
Noni Madueke	5
Mykhailo Mudryk	5
Thiago Silva	3
Enzo Fernandez	3
Christopher Nkunku	3
Axel Disasi	2
Armando Broja	1
Trevoh Chalobah	1
Carney Chukwuemeka	1
Levi Colwill	1
Alfie Gilchrist	1
Moises Caicedo	1

• Chelsea has 15 Premier League goal scorers this season, with none netting more than Cole Palmer, with a tally of 22 league goals.

FA Cup

Final Position: Semi-Finals

Goals Scored: 14

Goals Against: 6

Fixtures:

Round	Chelsea	Score	Opposition
Third Round	Chelsea	4-0	Preston North End
Fourth Round	Chelsea	0-0	Aston Villa
Fourth Round Replay	Chelsea	3-1	Aston Villa
Fifth Round	Chelsea	3-2	Leeds United
Quarter Finals	Chelsea	4-2	Leicester City
Semi Finals	Chelsea	0-1	Manchester City

Goal Scorers:

Player	Goals
Enzo Fernandez	2
Conor Gallagher	2
Nicolas Jackson	2
Armando Broja	1
Thiago Silva	1
Raheem Sterling	1
Carney Chukwuemeka	1
Mykhailo Mudryk	1
Noni Maduke	1
Cole Palmer	1

English Football League Cup (Carabao Cup)

Final Position: Runner Up

Goals Scored: 12

Goals Against: 5

Player	Goals
Enzo Fernandez	2
Noni Madueke	2
Cole Palmer	2
Nicolas Jackson	1
Benoît Badiashile	1
Raheem Sterling	1
Axel Disasi	1
Mykhailo Mudryk	1

So, here is part 2 of my entitled employee story. We left off with discovering Sally’s retaliation of giving me trash as a Christmas gift after her latest write-up.
So, the next several weeks, I am noticing more problems, but here’s some of the highlights.

1. Ever since we had issues of the office’s checks going randomly missing, Sally had apparently decided to just stop throwing any envelope away when opening the mail. She would supposedly search the envelopes/paperwork & then keep the envelopes with the paperwork. So, instead of doing her job better, she would decide to just stop doing the job at all. After all, you can’t get in trouble for screwing it up if you aren’t doing it, right? However, this resulted in items getting left with the paperwork (which sometimes wouldn’t get touched for several weeks due to being busy) that had needed to be collected or addressed right away.
   
2. Sally’s careless mistakes continued at about the same rate (average of 2 to 3 a week). She would put deposit slips/emails with the wrong office’s report, put one office’s mail in another office’s bin, put one office’s funding papers in another office’s bin, put one office’s bills in the folder for their correspondence & vice versa, put one office’s bills in the folder for another office’s bills, put the new month’s bills in the folder without taking out the old month’s bills so they would get mixed up. I could go on & on.
   
3. Sally would still ask for help on things she shouldn’t need help on anymore, ‘cause I had helped her many times on items exactly like it in the 2 years she’s worked here. I mean, the whole point of asking for help when learning new things on a job is so you can take the input you’re given & use it to get better at the job so you don’t have to ask for help anymore. I mean, what kind of office works by their employees constantly needing to be walked through everything every day? Sally would even ask for help on things no one would need to ask for help on. For example, she asked me, “An office took a deposit to the bank without showing it on their report. How do I write that up in the letter to fax to them?” Um, exactly what you just said to me. Or another time, she asks how long she should wait before calling an office back. Well, how long do you think you should give them? Just use your good judgment. You don’t need help with that! Again, you’ve been here 2 years!
   

On Jan 26, I take the Dec bills, correspondence faxes, & timesheets out of their folders to scan them into the computer. Now, one thing the bills should always have on them are the check number used to pay for this purchase & the date it was paid. The offices themselves are supposed to write this on there, but they don’t always, which is why it is our job to write it on there if it’s missing. I had noticed when I scanned Nov’s bills around Nov 30 that a lot of Sally’s offices don’t have that info written on them. So, I explained to her what needed to be written on every bill/receipt. I now flip through the Dec & Jan bills of her offices really quick to check them. There are quite a few of them with no info written down on them. There’s strike one for noncompliance.
Another task we would do several days a week (that’s Sally’s responsibility) is to check the bank accounts online. She is to look at the bank balances & report any low balances to Greg (or me if Greg isn’t there). She is then to look at the transactions in order to see if anything looks fraudulent. Since we are a loan company, check fraud is very common for us. So, we look at the checks for anything funny-looking, & we look to see if there are any auto debits (like when you use your bank account online to pay for a bill) that would tell us if someone got hold of our bank account info.
On Jan 30, at 1:15 p.m., I asked if any of the bank balances were low (Greg was out of town for a few days). Sally said she had forgotten to check the bank accounts that morning. Weird, ‘cause you had to check the Dallas office to make sure the money we sent them had shown up. How did you get the login sheet out to look in their bank account but then forget about checking all the bank accounts? This just further cemented in my mind that she was NOT checking these bank accounts the way she should. I was 100% positive that all she does when logging into these bank accounts is checking the balances to give to Greg but then never checks the transactions. I know this ‘cause, 1) I’ve observed Sally only logging in to write down the balances & then logging back out (she had some flimsy excuse ready when I asked her about it), 2) there have been auto debits that appeared in bank accounts that we didn’t find for weeks until I happened to see it for some reason & guess what? She never pointed those out to us, & 3) Sally hadn’t bothered to check the bank account balances since Greg was out of town, so clearly she only felt the need to check the balances. There’s strike two for noncompliance.
& even more bad mistakes or decisions:

1. At the end of Jan, we discovered that Sally had mailed the employees’ W2s to the managers’ home addresses instead of to the offices to distribute to their employees!
   
2. We had an office that moved locations to right across the street, so the only thing that changed in their address was their street number (12 Main Street instead of 11 Main Street). I explained this to Sally & gave her an updated list of the office’s addresses. 3 weeks later, we get a call from that office saying that mail we send to them keeps going to their landlord’s house. I check the address labels Sally had created for herself. Sure enough, it had the wrong address on them. I go to grab the lease, & at the top is where the tenant’s new address is listed. & all the way at the bottom of the page in the paragraph titled “RENT” where it lists where to send the rent is the landlord’s home address. & that’s the address Sally had chosen to be the new office’s address on her address labels.
   
3. Sally hadn’t been faxing the offices to ask for bills/receipts that never made it to us.
   
4. I used the last towel on a roll of paper towels, so I went to the cabinets to grab another. We were out. Sally is in charge of keeping track of supplies that need ordering, so I go to Sally & say we’re completely out of paper towels, we need to order some. Sally response: “No one ever tells me when they grab the last roll so I know when to order them.” Um, excuse me, since when is it our job to tell you to do your job? It’s your responsibility to keep track of supplies. You should be checking the level of paper towels, toilet paper, Kleenex, etc., to see when you need to order them.
   

So, I knew she needed a second warning write up for carelessness cause of the numerous mistakes since the first warning write up in the middle of Dec, & I would be giving Sally a first warning write up for negligence cause of her not asking the offices for missing bills & not writing the info on the bills I had told her to do at the end of Nov. However, it was only a few days from Feb, which was the time for performance reviews. So, rather than doing a write up now & then in a week or so doing a performance review that was one of the worst performance reviews I’ve ever heard of, I decided to just do it in one fell swoop. You know, just get it all out of the way with one bad conversation, one bad day, & then both of us can hopefully put it behind us & move on.
I decided to do the performance review & write ups on Feb 5 (Monday). It went much smoother ‘cause Greg was there, so Sally couldn’t really give me lip or lash out by showing attitude & anger like she had previously.
On Feb 7 (Wednesday), I log in to get the transactions for an office who is switching banks. I wanted to get an updated list of outstanding checks so they know how many checks are left before they can close the old bank account. & what do I see? Someone had used the bank account to pay $100 on their AT&T bill. I call the office & find out it was actually them, so no fraud there. But I then ask Sally if she had seen that when checking the bank accounts. She said she didn’t remember. Obviously, I have found my proof that she is either not checking them or isn’t paying attention when she does. I have a discussion with Greg about it, & we decide I need to have a sit down with her about her not doing her job. She is sick on Thursday, so I plan to talk with her the next day she comes in.
On Feb 9 (Friday), I begin the conversation about checking the bank accounts & how important it is. I am planning to say things like, we expect you to do this job, you’ve been told multiple times to do this task, if you’re not going to do the job, then you’re welcome to go find another one, etc. But she cuts me off at the beginning with an excuse of, “Well, I didn’t know what I should be looking for, now I know.” & it broke me. She does this exact thing every time I have to have a conversation with her. She has an excuse ready to go on the tip of her tongue, always spins it around so it’s not actually her fault. It’s always, “Well, I didn’t know that, but now, I do.” & I was just done. I didn’t continue the conversation, even though I needed to, ‘cause I just broke down in tears from the stress of having to discipline her & knowing that nothing will ever come of it, but having our hands legally tied to be able to fire her right now. I cried nonstop for over 4 hours.
On Feb 12 (Monday), I sat down to continue the conversation, this time with a written statement for her to sign.
Me: You respond a lot of the time that you don’t know how to do things, which is very frustrating, ‘cause you’ve been shown multiple times how to do these tasks. It’s very inefficient & wasteful that I have to constantly check all of your work & retrain you on the same thing over & over again. This needs to change. This job is about accuracy & accountability.
Sally: You’re not giving me a chance to improve. I never hear “Good job,” from you. All I ever hear is, “You’re doing a bad job, sign this paper.” I get in trouble every time I ask for help, so I guess I’ll just follow the instructions & hope I’m doing it right.
The problems with that response:

1. You’ve worked here for 2 years, Sally. You’ve had plenty of time to improve.
   
2. The reason you never hear “Good job” is ‘cause you’re not doing a good job. How am I supposed to tell you “Good job,” but also need to give you a write up for doing a bad job? If you’re getting multiple write ups for doing a bad job, don’t you think that’s a sign that something is wrong? I mean, she thinks that managers should be telling their employees good job on everything they do right. No, you’re expected to do these tasks. We’re not going to congratulate you every time you do your basic job requirements like some toddler that needs constant positive reinforcement so they know that doing something right is a good thing! You will hear “Good job” when you are doing a really good job on something, when you go above & beyond!! I mean, do you think Greg tells me “Good job” when I’m just doing my job as expected?!! NO!!! I’ve never had a manager constantly tell me “Good job” all the time!!!! (Whew. Sorry about that. Kinda went on a crazy rant there. I’m good now.)
   
3. Here’s another example of her mentality of “if I don’t do the job, I can’t get in trouble for doing it wrong.” She’s going to stop asking for help instead of using the help I’ve given her to do better. I mean, if you’re making these mistakes when you ARE asking for help, how many more are you going to make when you stop asking for help? How does this make any logical sense?!
   

Well, here’s another chance for some malicious compliance. She claimed she didn’t know how to check the bank accounts, right? Well, my job as the manager is to make sure my employees know how to do their job. So, I need to sit down with her & train her how to check the bank accounts. Again. Even though I know she already knows how to do it. So, every time you tell me that the reason why you didn’t do a job is ‘cause you didn’t know how to do it right, well, we’re going to sit down & waste both our times & annoy you having to be retrained on something you do, in fact, know how to do.
Sally continues making careless mistakes & not doing stuff she doesn’t think she should have to do. Like answering the phones. It’s her job to answer the phones; that’s something I as the manager should be delegating to her. However, she never answers the phone unless I literally can’t. So, I had asked her to start answering the phone more. She will wait until the last possible second before answering the phone. By that time, it’s already rung twice, so I have to answer it before it goes on any longer or they hang up. One time, we were both away from our desks when the phone rang. We both went to answer it, but she was closer & got to her desk before me, put her hand on the phone, & watched me until I got to my desk before she picked it up. With a comment of, “Oh, (laughs) I didn’t want to make you walk all the way to your desk.” Well, you did, anyway, you little jerk.
On Feb 27, Sally asks for help on a report. She says that my note stating the office is over-deposited $28 on report 1 but fixed on report 2 by being $28 under-deposited didn’t work out. She says that they were never over by $28 in the first place. I take the report to look it over. Her calculator tape adding up the deposits shows the bank is in balance, but I don’t see deposit slips.
Me: Where are the deposit slips?
Sally: I haven’t gotten them yet.
Me: (trying to comprehend her logic) Then how do you have the deposit amounts added on this tape?
Sally: I got the amounts from the report.
Me: You…(my brain trying not to implode at this point) you can’t add up amounts to see if the bank has too much or too little money in it without knowing what was actually taken to the bank. The amounts on the report don’t always equal what was taken to the bank.
I log into the bank account & discover just that: the report says they took $500 to the bank, but their deposit says $528. They were indeed $28 over-deposited. I then lecture her (for the second time in a few months) on the correct way to account for the deposits at the bank, that we are only to use the dollar amounts on the bank’s deposit receipt. (The first time was her getting the deposit amount from what was written on the deposit slip instead of what the bank gave us credit for on their printed receipt. The bank had shorted us $500, & we never knew until her deposits didn’t work out when reconciling the bank statement at the end of the month. We were missing $500 for 4 weeks! It’s a miracle we didn’t overdraw the account.)
Another task that we do several days a week is checking the CFPB website. This is a government website that uses federal regulations to monitor financial institutions. It’s like the Better Business Bureau, but more official. Customers can make complaints through them, prompting an investigation to make sure we’re following the federal guidelines. We have 2 weeks to respond to a complaint before it is past due.
On Feb 29, Greg just happens to be looking at an email inbox that he never checks, ‘cause after all, we’re checking the CFPB website, so he doesn’t have to look there, right? There is a complaint in 2 of the portals that have been in there since Jan 22. He immediately marches out & tells Sally about them.
Greg: Aren’t you checking the CFPB sites?
Sally: Yeah, I am.
Really? Then how come you didn’t print this complaint off to give to Greg in the last 6 weeks? She came back from lunch to a second warning write up given by me for negligence.
On Mar 5 (Tuesday), we are working on reconciling the bank statements so we can close the month of Feb. Sally brings me a Jan bank statement for an office.
Sally: This never cleared in Feb.
I look at the bank statement. It’s an electronic deposit of $254 on Jan 31. I remember this. She had asked me at the beginning of Feb why this deposit wasn’t recorded on the office’s report. I explained that since it didn’t show up in the bank account until the last day of Jan, they might not have known about it before the end of the month & so recorded it on the first of Feb. We will wait until the first report of Feb. If it’s still not recorded, then we’ll bring that to the office’s attention. & here she is, clearly telling me she hadn’t brought it to anyone’s attention all month long.
Me: (staring at the bank statement as I try to prevent my autistic brain from exploding at her while also trying to prevent a spontaneous stroke) You didn’t keep track of this all month?
Sally: Well, I didn’t know if it was treated differently ‘cause it was OTBP (One Time Bill Pay, which is the electronic deposit). (Oh, what a shocker, she once again didn’t know how to do something.)
Me: But we talked about this. If it wasn’t on the first of the month, we needed to address it.
Sally: Okay, well, now I know that we treat this the same as other deposits. (goes nonchalantly back to her desk like it was no big deal, like she hadn’t just revealed she had once again disobeyed my detailed instructions)
Me: (seeing her flagrant disregard for the seriousness of the situation & wondering just how on earth she could once again think that not doing her job would have no consequences) This is exactly what Greg talks about over & over, about how we can’t leave errors like this to sit for weeks & weeks, that these need to be dealt with as they happen.
Sally: (still as easy-going as if she had simply used the wrong color highlighter) Okay, I’ll make note of that.
Now, I am getting really pissed off. She keeps saying, “Oh, now I know that OTBP is treated the same as everything else.” That doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter that you didn’t know it’s treated the same! I specifically told you to take care of it if it didn’t appear on the first of Feb! It didn’t matter what kind of deposit it was! I said to tell me if it wasn’t on the first of Feb!
Now, this was right before she leaves at 3:30, so by the time I’m finished with my text conversation with Greg (‘cause he isn’t there that afternoon), she has already left. But I’m telling Greg that I have once again caught her being negligent, & she’s already had 2 written warnings about this, which means our next step is letting her go. Not to mention, her carelessness is still continuing. He said that he supports my decision to let her go. By the way, the final decision happened an hour after she left. If I had known before she left that we were indeed going to fire her, I would have done it before she left so she didn’t have to come all the way to work in the morning just to leave again.
So, on Mar 6 (Wednesday), I arrive early to work so I can be prepared. I am standing at my desk, watching her come in. This is unusual, so she frowns as she approaches me.
Me: Sally, we need to talk.
Sally: (still frowns at me)
Me: (handing her the typed up notice) We are going to read this together. “When reconciling the month of Jan, around Feb 5, it was brought to my attention that we had a deposit that hadn’t been reconciled. I gave you instructions to wait a report to see if it works out. If not, you would need to bring it to mine & the office’s attention for further instructions. This wasn’t done. It wasn’t until Mar 5 that you brought this to my attention again. You have been told many times the importance of reconciling the financials of the office. You have been warned several times of negligence. This is another example of negligence with respect to your job. All you had to do was follow my instructions. It is for this reason that it is now time to terminate your employment.”
Sally: When did you tell me to do this?
Me: (thinking, “Um, I kinda just told you when I told you do that, but, okay.”) When you showed me the Jan bank statement—
Sally: Yesterday?!
Me: You showed me the Jan bank statement a month ago when you were reconciling Jan. I told you to wait for the first of Feb & then—
Sally: You did no such thing!
Me: Yes, I did, Sally.
Sally: When does Greg get here?
Me: Around 9, like usual.
Sally: I’m calling him, ‘cause this is ridiculous. You’ve had it out for me from the very beginning.
Me: No, I haven’t.
Sally: Yeah, you have. Just like the other 2. (sets her bags at the front door, goes outside, & calls Greg)

1. How could I have had it out for you from the very beginning when we didn’t have problems for the first year & a half you worked here? If I’d had it out for you from the beginning, you wouldn’t have had a job the past 6 months. Need I remind you what Greg told you about the timesheet thing being something we fire someone for on the spot, but that Molly had gone to bat for you & gave you a second chance? Why would I have done that if I had wanted you gone from the start?
   
2. “Just like the other 2.” She’s talking about Irene (who had left in Feb 2023) & another employee (who we’ll call Phil). Phil had been fired (by Greg, by the way) for continuing to watch movies on his phone at his desk despite being told multiple times by Greg to not do that. & Irene? She wasn’t fired. She gave her 2 weeks’ notice. & we then discovered when going through the work she’s been doing as we started taking over her tasks that she didn’t just not do jobs. She would actually forge the work so she wouldn’t have to work. “A bank imbalance of $2.65? Well, I’ll just add it to the imbalance that’s been building up for who knows how many months & just label it as an over-deposit from the end of the month. That way, I don’t have to look into why the bank isn’t balancing.” But no, I had it out for them, apparently.
   
3. Does she really think that calling Greg was gonna reverse my firing her? Does she really think I would do something as drastic as writing her up or firing her without discussing it with my supervisor first? Did she really think I would do this behind his back?
   

Apparently, she did, ‘cause Greg confirmed that Sally tried telling him about all the stuff I’ve been doing to her as if he didn’t know. She hung up on him when he explained that he’s been told everything as it happens & he supports this decision.
Sally: (storming back into the office & towards her desk) I’m not signing anything.
Me: Ok.
Sally begins packing up her desk. I had known she kept a lot of personal items at the office, so I had gotten a big box or 2 out & placed them nearby for her to use to pack up her desk.
Me: We can give you a box if you need it.
Sally: I don’t need sh** from you guys.
Me: The only thing we’ll need is your office key.
Sally: You’ll get it when you get it. I’m packing my desk.
Me: Ok.
I go back to work, keeping an eye on her as she packs to make sure she doesn’t take anything she’s not supposed to or damage any company property. Sally at some point decides to use the boxes she didn’t want from us to pack up her many items. She takes both boxes to the front door where her bags are & sets them down to put the last of her things in. She picks up one box to take outside.
Sally: You are the worst manager ever. (goes out the door)
Me: (shrug)
Sally: (comes back in for the final box) Seriously, you’re the most evil person I’ve ever met. (leaves)
Really? I rank worse than the guy that beat you up? I’m worse than him?
I continued watching her to see if she’s going to come back to give up her office key. As she packed up her car, another employee had arrived (we’ll call him Randy). He had run into her on the way in & asks me if Sally quit. I explained, no, she was let go. I then see that Sally has gotten behind the wheel of her car without coming back to give us the office key.
Me: Well, I guess we’ll just change the locks.
Randy then takes it upon himself to go out to her car. He phrased it very gently by saying he wanted to spare her having to come back in to turn the key in.
Sally: I guess Molly didn’t have the balls to do it herself. (hands the key over)
& then…she was gone. Despite having to do the entire corporate office’s work all by myself & falling steadily behind little by little, I have never been more happy. I had forgotten how much I loved my job & how much I couldn’t wait to get to work. I haven’t been this stress-free in 6 months, & it feels fantastic! & the great part is, I’m not really falling as far behind as I expected to without her. Having to do 2 people’s jobs by myself is only affecting me a little. Really goes to show you how bad she was for the company & for my job when she disrupted everything that much. For example, me & her would get through maybe 5 to 6 offices’ reports between us in a single day when playing catch up after closing the previous month. One day? I caught up on 10 offices’ reports in a single day. By myself.
Oh, did I mention she smoked marijuana most days on her way to work or while on her lunch break? We could never actually prove it. But, come on, you don’t smell that strongly of marijuana on only select days if you aren’t smoking it recently. If it was leftover from the smell of your house or car, you would smell like that every day. But it was only some days she would come into work or back from lunch smelling like that. Obviously, smoking on the job. So very glad to be rid of her & her awful skunk smell. Although, I do wish her well on a new job search. I don’t wish ill on anyone, ever. But I am just glad she’s no longer my problem to deal with.
(Added 2 months after she was fired): By the way, I am actually gaining on my work. I’m not only not behind on my work, I’m actually getting it done soon enough to work on extra stuff. Also, out of the blue, we’ve started getting about 3 to 4 sales & scam calls every day since Sally left (for things like better Medicare benefits, better retirement benefits, & even one time recently where “Walgreens” was calling to ask if I still had diabetes). I’m convinced Sally signed us up for calls as retaliation. I hope they die down soon, especially as they are starting to get rude. (Our response to every one of these is “Sorry, this is a business.” This one guy responded to me with, “This is my job.” I said, “I understand this is your job, but this is a business. I am not allowed to take personal calls.” He said, “Why?” I said very slowly & firmly, “Because I’m working!” He started to say, “Can you explain to me why—” I hung up. Jerk.)

So, here is part 2 of my entitled employee story. We left off with discovering Sally’s retaliation of giving me trash as a Christmas gift after her latest write-up.
So, the next several weeks, I am noticing more problems, but here’s some of the highlights.

1. Ever since we had issues of the office’s checks going randomly missing, Sally had apparently decided to just stop throwing any envelope away when opening the mail. She would supposedly search the envelopes/paperwork & then keep the envelopes with the paperwork. So, instead of doing her job better, she would decide to just stop doing the job at all. After all, you can’t get in trouble for screwing it up if you aren’t doing it, right? However, this resulted in items getting left with the paperwork (which sometimes wouldn’t get touched for several weeks due to being busy) that had needed to be collected or addressed right away.
   
2. Sally’s careless mistakes continued at about the same rate (average of 2 to 3 a week). She would put deposit slips/emails with the wrong office’s report, put one office’s mail in another office’s bin, put one office’s funding papers in another office’s bin, put one office’s bills in the folder for their correspondence & vice versa, put one office’s bills in the folder for another office’s bills, put the new month’s bills in the folder without taking out the old month’s bills so they would get mixed up. I could go on & on.
   
3. Sally would still ask for help on things she shouldn’t need help on anymore, ‘cause I had helped her many times on items exactly like it in the 2 years she’s worked here. I mean, the whole point of asking for help when learning new things on a job is so you can take the input you’re given & use it to get better at the job so you don’t have to ask for help anymore. I mean, what kind of office works by their employees constantly needing to be walked through everything every day? Sally would even ask for help on things no one would need to ask for help on. For example, she asked me, “An office took a deposit to the bank without showing it on their report. How do I write that up in the letter to fax to them?” Um, exactly what you just said to me. Or another time, she asks how long she should wait before calling an office back. Well, how long do you think you should give them? Just use your good judgment. You don’t need help with that! Again, you’ve been here 2 years!
   

On Jan 26, I take the Dec bills, correspondence faxes, & timesheets out of their folders to scan them into the computer. Now, one thing the bills should always have on them are the check number used to pay for this purchase & the date it was paid. The offices themselves are supposed to write this on there, but they don’t always, which is why it is our job to write it on there if it’s missing. I had noticed when I scanned Nov’s bills around Nov 30 that a lot of Sally’s offices don’t have that info written on them. So, I explained to her what needed to be written on every bill/receipt. I now flip through the Dec & Jan bills of her offices really quick to check them. There are quite a few of them with no info written down on them. There’s strike one for noncompliance.
Another task we would do several days a week (that’s Sally’s responsibility) is to check the bank accounts online. She is to look at the bank balances & report any low balances to Greg (or me if Greg isn’t there). She is then to look at the transactions in order to see if anything looks fraudulent. Since we are a loan company, check fraud is very common for us. So, we look at the checks for anything funny-looking, & we look to see if there are any auto debits (like when you use your bank account online to pay for a bill) that would tell us if someone got hold of our bank account info.
On Jan 30, at 1:15 p.m., I asked if any of the bank balances were low (Greg was out of town for a few days). Sally said she had forgotten to check the bank accounts that morning. Weird, ‘cause you had to check the Dallas office to make sure the money we sent them had shown up. How did you get the login sheet out to look in their bank account but then forget about checking all the bank accounts? This just further cemented in my mind that she was NOT checking these bank accounts the way she should. I was 100% positive that all she does when logging into these bank accounts is checking the balances to give to Greg but then never checks the transactions. I know this ‘cause, 1) I’ve observed Sally only logging in to write down the balances & then logging back out (she had some flimsy excuse ready when I asked her about it), 2) there have been auto debits that appeared in bank accounts that we didn’t find for weeks until I happened to see it for some reason & guess what? She never pointed those out to us, & 3) Sally hadn’t bothered to check the bank account balances since Greg was out of town, so clearly she only felt the need to check the balances. There’s strike two for noncompliance.
& even more bad mistakes or decisions:

1. At the end of Jan, we discovered that Sally had mailed the employees’ W2s to the managers’ home addresses instead of to the offices to distribute to their employees!
   
2. We had an office that moved locations to right across the street, so the only thing that changed in their address was their street number (12 Main Street instead of 11 Main Street). I explained this to Sally & gave her an updated list of the office’s addresses. 3 weeks later, we get a call from that office saying that mail we send to them keeps going to their landlord’s house. I check the address labels Sally had created for herself. Sure enough, it had the wrong address on them. I go to grab the lease, & at the top is where the tenant’s new address is listed. & all the way at the bottom of the page in the paragraph titled “RENT” where it lists where to send the rent is the landlord’s home address. & that’s the address Sally had chosen to be the new office’s address on her address labels.
   
3. Sally hadn’t been faxing the offices to ask for bills/receipts that never made it to us.
   
4. I used the last towel on a roll of paper towels, so I went to the cabinets to grab another. We were out. Sally is in charge of keeping track of supplies that need ordering, so I go to Sally & say we’re completely out of paper towels, we need to order some. Sally response: “No one ever tells me when they grab the last roll so I know when to order them.” Um, excuse me, since when is it our job to tell you to do your job? It’s your responsibility to keep track of supplies. You should be checking the level of paper towels, toilet paper, Kleenex, etc., to see when you need to order them.
   

So, I knew she needed a second warning write up for carelessness cause of the numerous mistakes since the first warning write up in the middle of Dec, & I would be giving Sally a first warning write up for negligence cause of her not asking the offices for missing bills & not writing the info on the bills I had told her to do at the end of Nov. However, it was only a few days from Feb, which was the time for performance reviews. So, rather than doing a write up now & then in a week or so doing a performance review that was one of the worst performance reviews I’ve ever heard of, I decided to just do it in one fell swoop. You know, just get it all out of the way with one bad conversation, one bad day, & then both of us can hopefully put it behind us & move on.
I decided to do the performance review & write ups on Feb 5 (Monday). It went much smoother ‘cause Greg was there, so Sally couldn’t really give me lip or lash out by showing attitude & anger like she had previously.
On Feb 7 (Wednesday), I log in to get the transactions for an office who is switching banks. I wanted to get an updated list of outstanding checks so they know how many checks are left before they can close the old bank account. & what do I see? Someone had used the bank account to pay $100 on their AT&T bill. I call the office & find out it was actually them, so no fraud there. But I then ask Sally if she had seen that when checking the bank accounts. She said she didn’t remember. Obviously, I have found my proof that she is either not checking them or isn’t paying attention when she does. I have a discussion with Greg about it, & we decide I need to have a sit down with her about her not doing her job. She is sick on Thursday, so I plan to talk with her the next day she comes in.
On Feb 9 (Friday), I begin the conversation about checking the bank accounts & how important it is. I am planning to say things like, we expect you to do this job, you’ve been told multiple times to do this task, if you’re not going to do the job, then you’re welcome to go find another one, etc. But she cuts me off at the beginning with an excuse of, “Well, I didn’t know what I should be looking for, now I know.” & it broke me. She does this exact thing every time I have to have a conversation with her. She has an excuse ready to go on the tip of her tongue, always spins it around so it’s not actually her fault. It’s always, “Well, I didn’t know that, but now, I do.” & I was just done. I didn’t continue the conversation, even though I needed to, ‘cause I just broke down in tears from the stress of having to discipline her & knowing that nothing will ever come of it, but having our hands legally tied to be able to fire her right now. I cried nonstop for over 4 hours.
On Feb 12 (Monday), I sat down to continue the conversation, this time with a written statement for her to sign.
Me: You respond a lot of the time that you don’t know how to do things, which is very frustrating, ‘cause you’ve been shown multiple times how to do these tasks. It’s very inefficient & wasteful that I have to constantly check all of your work & retrain you on the same thing over & over again. This needs to change. This job is about accuracy & accountability.
Sally: You’re not giving me a chance to improve. I never hear “Good job,” from you. All I ever hear is, “You’re doing a bad job, sign this paper.” I get in trouble every time I ask for help, so I guess I’ll just follow the instructions & hope I’m doing it right.
The problems with that response:

1. You’ve worked here for 2 years, Sally. You’ve had plenty of time to improve.
   
2. The reason you never hear “Good job” is ‘cause you’re not doing a good job. How am I supposed to tell you “Good job,” but also need to give you a write up for doing a bad job? If you’re getting multiple write ups for doing a bad job, don’t you think that’s a sign that something is wrong? I mean, she thinks that managers should be telling their employees good job on everything they do right. No, you’re expected to do these tasks. We’re not going to congratulate you every time you do your basic job requirements like some toddler that needs constant positive reinforcement so they know that doing something right is a good thing! You will hear “Good job” when you are doing a really good job on something, when you go above & beyond!! I mean, do you think Greg tells me “Good job” when I’m just doing my job as expected?!! NO!!! I’ve never had a manager constantly tell me “Good job” all the time!!!! (Whew. Sorry about that. Kinda went on a crazy rant there. I’m good now.)
   
3. Here’s another example of her mentality of “if I don’t do the job, I can’t get in trouble for doing it wrong.” She’s going to stop asking for help instead of using the help I’ve given her to do better. I mean, if you’re making these mistakes when you ARE asking for help, how many more are you going to make when you stop asking for help? How does this make any logical sense?!
   

Well, here’s another chance for some malicious compliance. She claimed she didn’t know how to check the bank accounts, right? Well, my job as the manager is to make sure my employees know how to do their job. So, I need to sit down with her & train her how to check the bank accounts. Again. Even though I know she already knows how to do it. So, every time you tell me that the reason why you didn’t do a job is ‘cause you didn’t know how to do it right, well, we’re going to sit down & waste both our times & annoy you having to be retrained on something you do, in fact, know how to do.
Sally continues making careless mistakes & not doing stuff she doesn’t think she should have to do. Like answering the phones. It’s her job to answer the phones; that’s something I as the manager should be delegating to her. However, she never answers the phone unless I literally can’t. So, I had asked her to start answering the phone more. She will wait until the last possible second before answering the phone. By that time, it’s already rung twice, so I have to answer it before it goes on any longer or they hang up. One time, we were both away from our desks when the phone rang. We both went to answer it, but she was closer & got to her desk before me, put her hand on the phone, & watched me until I got to my desk before she picked it up. With a comment of, “Oh, (laughs) I didn’t want to make you walk all the way to your desk.” Well, you did, anyway, you little jerk.
On Feb 27, Sally asks for help on a report. She says that my note stating the office is over-deposited $28 on report 1 but fixed on report 2 by being $28 under-deposited didn’t work out. She says that they were never over by $28 in the first place. I take the report to look it over. Her calculator tape adding up the deposits shows the bank is in balance, but I don’t see deposit slips.
Me: Where are the deposit slips?
Sally: I haven’t gotten them yet.
Me: (trying to comprehend her logic) Then how do you have the deposit amounts added on this tape?
Sally: I got the amounts from the report.
Me: You…(my brain trying not to implode at this point) you can’t add up amounts to see if the bank has too much or too little money in it without knowing what was actually taken to the bank. The amounts on the report don’t always equal what was taken to the bank.
I log into the bank account & discover just that: the report says they took $500 to the bank, but their deposit says $528. They were indeed $28 over-deposited. I then lecture her (for the second time in a few months) on the correct way to account for the deposits at the bank, that we are only to use the dollar amounts on the bank’s deposit receipt. (The first time was her getting the deposit amount from what was written on the deposit slip instead of what the bank gave us credit for on their printed receipt. The bank had shorted us $500, & we never knew until her deposits didn’t work out when reconciling the bank statement at the end of the month. We were missing $500 for 4 weeks! It’s a miracle we didn’t overdraw the account.)
Another task that we do several days a week is checking the CFPB website. This is a government website that uses federal regulations to monitor financial institutions. It’s like the Better Business Bureau, but more official. Customers can make complaints through them, prompting an investigation to make sure we’re following the federal guidelines. We have 2 weeks to respond to a complaint before it is past due.
On Feb 29, Greg just happens to be looking at an email inbox that he never checks, ‘cause after all, we’re checking the CFPB website, so he doesn’t have to look there, right? There is a complaint in 2 of the portals that have been in there since Jan 22. He immediately marches out & tells Sally about them.
Greg: Aren’t you checking the CFPB sites?
Sally: Yeah, I am.
Really? Then how come you didn’t print this complaint off to give to Greg in the last 6 weeks? She came back from lunch to a second warning write up given by me for negligence.
On Mar 5 (Tuesday), we are working on reconciling the bank statements so we can close the month of Feb. Sally brings me a Jan bank statement for an office.
Sally: This never cleared in Feb.
I look at the bank statement. It’s an electronic deposit of $254 on Jan 31. I remember this. She had asked me at the beginning of Feb why this deposit wasn’t recorded on the office’s report. I explained that since it didn’t show up in the bank account until the last day of Jan, they might not have known about it before the end of the month & so recorded it on the first of Feb. We will wait until the first report of Feb. If it’s still not recorded, then we’ll bring that to the office’s attention. & here she is, clearly telling me she hadn’t brought it to anyone’s attention all month long.
Me: (staring at the bank statement as I try to prevent my autistic brain from exploding at her while also trying to prevent a spontaneous stroke) You didn’t keep track of this all month?
Sally: Well, I didn’t know if it was treated differently ‘cause it was OTBP (One Time Bill Pay, which is the electronic deposit). (Oh, what a shocker, she once again didn’t know how to do something.)
Me: But we talked about this. If it wasn’t on the first of the month, we needed to address it.
Sally: Okay, well, now I know that we treat this the same as other deposits. (goes nonchalantly back to her desk like it was no big deal, like she hadn’t just revealed she had once again disobeyed my detailed instructions)
Me: (seeing her flagrant disregard for the seriousness of the situation & wondering just how on earth she could once again think that not doing her job would have no consequences) This is exactly what Greg talks about over & over, about how we can’t leave errors like this to sit for weeks & weeks, that these need to be dealt with as they happen.
Sally: (still as easy-going as if she had simply used the wrong color highlighter) Okay, I’ll make note of that.
Now, I am getting really pissed off. She keeps saying, “Oh, now I know that OTBP is treated the same as everything else.” That doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter that you didn’t know it’s treated the same! I specifically told you to take care of it if it didn’t appear on the first of Feb! It didn’t matter what kind of deposit it was! I said to tell me if it wasn’t on the first of Feb!
Now, this was right before she leaves at 3:30, so by the time I’m finished with my text conversation with Greg (‘cause he isn’t there that afternoon), she has already left. But I’m telling Greg that I have once again caught her being negligent, & she’s already had 2 written warnings about this, which means our next step is letting her go. Not to mention, her carelessness is still continuing. He said that he supports my decision to let her go. By the way, the final decision happened an hour after she left. If I had known before she left that we were indeed going to fire her, I would have done it before she left so she didn’t have to come all the way to work in the morning just to leave again.
So, on Mar 6 (Wednesday), I arrive early to work so I can be prepared. I am standing at my desk, watching her come in. This is unusual, so she frowns as she approaches me.
Me: Sally, we need to talk.
Sally: (still frowns at me)
Me: (handing her the typed up notice) We are going to read this together. “When reconciling the month of Jan, around Feb 5, it was brought to my attention that we had a deposit that hadn’t been reconciled. I gave you instructions to wait a report to see if it works out. If not, you would need to bring it to mine & the office’s attention for further instructions. This wasn’t done. It wasn’t until Mar 5 that you brought this to my attention again. You have been told many times the importance of reconciling the financials of the office. You have been warned several times of negligence. This is another example of negligence with respect to your job. All you had to do was follow my instructions. It is for this reason that it is now time to terminate your employment.”
Sally: When did you tell me to do this?
Me: (thinking, “Um, I kinda just told you when I told you do that, but, okay.”) When you showed me the Jan bank statement—
Sally: Yesterday?!
Me: You showed me the Jan bank statement a month ago when you were reconciling Jan. I told you to wait for the first of Feb & then—
Sally: You did no such thing!
Me: Yes, I did, Sally.
Sally: When does Greg get here?
Me: Around 9, like usual.
Sally: I’m calling him, ‘cause this is ridiculous. You’ve had it out for me from the very beginning.
Me: No, I haven’t.
Sally: Yeah, you have. Just like the other 2. (sets her bags at the front door, goes outside, & calls Greg)

1. How could I have had it out for you from the very beginning when we didn’t have problems for the first year & a half you worked here? If I’d had it out for you from the beginning, you wouldn’t have had a job the past 6 months. Need I remind you what Greg told you about the timesheet thing being something we fire someone for on the spot, but that Molly had gone to bat for you & gave you a second chance? Why would I have done that if I had wanted you gone from the start?
   
2. “Just like the other 2.” She’s talking about Irene (who had left in Feb 2023) & another employee (who we’ll call Phil). Phil had been fired (by Greg, by the way) for continuing to watch movies on his phone at his desk despite being told multiple times by Greg to not do that. & Irene? She wasn’t fired. She gave her 2 weeks’ notice. & we then discovered when going through the work she’s been doing as we started taking over her tasks that she didn’t just not do jobs. She would actually forge the work so she wouldn’t have to work. “A bank imbalance of $2.65? Well, I’ll just add it to the imbalance that’s been building up for who knows how many months & just label it as an over-deposit from the end of the month. That way, I don’t have to look into why the bank isn’t balancing.” But no, I had it out for them, apparently.
   
3. Does she really think that calling Greg was gonna reverse my firing her? Does she really think I would do something as drastic as writing her up or firing her without discussing it with my supervisor first? Did she really think I would do this behind his back?
   

Apparently, she did, ‘cause Greg confirmed that Sally tried telling him about all the stuff I’ve been doing to her as if he didn’t know. She hung up on him when he explained that he’s been told everything as it happens & he supports this decision.
Sally: (storming back into the office & towards her desk) I’m not signing anything.
Me: Ok.
Sally begins packing up her desk. I had known she kept a lot of personal items at the office, so I had gotten a big box or 2 out & placed them nearby for her to use to pack up her desk.
Me: We can give you a box if you need it.
Sally: I don’t need sh** from you guys.
Me: The only thing we’ll need is your office key.
Sally: You’ll get it when you get it. I’m packing my desk.
Me: Ok.
I go back to work, keeping an eye on her as she packs to make sure she doesn’t take anything she’s not supposed to or damage any company property. Sally at some point decides to use the boxes she didn’t want from us to pack up her many items. She takes both boxes to the front door where her bags are & sets them down to put the last of her things in. She picks up one box to take outside.
Sally: You are the worst manager ever. (goes out the door)
Me: (shrug)
Sally: (comes back in for the final box) Seriously, you’re the most evil person I’ve ever met. (leaves)
Really? I rank worse than the guy that beat you up? I’m worse than him?
I continued watching her to see if she’s going to come back to give up her office key. As she packed up her car, another employee had arrived (we’ll call him Randy). He had run into her on the way in & asks me if Sally quit. I explained, no, she was let go. I then see that Sally has gotten behind the wheel of her car without coming back to give us the office key.
Me: Well, I guess we’ll just change the locks.
Randy then takes it upon himself to go out to her car. He phrased it very gently by saying he wanted to spare her having to come back in to turn the key in.
Sally: I guess Molly didn’t have the balls to do it herself. (hands the key over)
& then…she was gone. Despite having to do the entire corporate office’s work all by myself & falling steadily behind little by little, I have never been more happy. I had forgotten how much I loved my job & how much I couldn’t wait to get to work. I haven’t been this stress-free in 6 months, & it feels fantastic! & the great part is, I’m not really falling as far behind as I expected to without her. Having to do 2 people’s jobs by myself is only affecting me a little. Really goes to show you how bad she was for the company & for my job when she disrupted everything that much. For example, me & her would get through maybe 5 to 6 offices’ reports between us in a single day when playing catch up after closing the previous month. One day? I caught up on 10 offices’ reports in a single day. By myself.
Oh, did I mention she smoked marijuana most days on her way to work or while on her lunch break? We could never actually prove it. But, come on, you don’t smell that strongly of marijuana on only select days if you aren’t smoking it recently. If it was leftover from the smell of your house or car, you would smell like that every day. But it was only some days she would come into work or back from lunch smelling like that. Obviously, smoking on the job. So very glad to be rid of her & her awful skunk smell. Although, I do wish her well on a new job search. I don’t wish ill on anyone, ever. But I am just glad she’s no longer my problem to deal with.
(Added 2 months after she was fired): By the way, I am actually gaining on my work. I’m not only not behind on my work, I’m actually getting it done soon enough to work on extra stuff. Also, out of the blue, we’ve started getting about 3 to 4 sales & scam calls every day since Sally left (for things like better Medicare benefits, better retirement benefits, & even one time recently where “Walgreens” was calling to ask if I still had diabetes). I’m convinced Sally signed us up for calls as retaliation. I hope they die down soon, especially as they are starting to get rude. (Our response to every one of these is “Sorry, this is a business.” This one guy responded to me with, “This is my job.” I said, “I understand this is your job, but this is a business. I am not allowed to take personal calls.” He said, “Why?” I said very slowly & firmly, “Because I’m working!” He started to say, “Can you explain to me why—” I hung up. Jerk.)

Guidance on navigating a convoluted employment/consultation scenario.
Well, guys, I’m in a bit of a pickle. Please don’t judge me..I realize some of this was poor judgement on my behalf. But here I am. Please note that I am consulting with a couple lawyers next week. Ugh.
Background:
I am a sport coach professional of 15 years. I have been working independently with a handful of private clients since 2018.
A little over a year ago, I was introduced to an investor who purchased property near me, seeking the guidance of someone such as myself to help develop the property out for a business in my related sport field. I did not seek this investor out, they sought me.
I told the owner I had no interest in running the business, but I would happily act as a consultant to get the best use out of the facility as well as get them connected with other professionals who may be interested in leasing the property upon completion.
We had discussed briefly what compensation would look like, with plans to get things down on paper the following week when the investors were in town. (You might be able to see where this is going).
Well, fast forward — the investoowner of the property decided they did not want to proceed with the professionals I had connected them with, and instead wanted to see what they could do to get me and my business partner in to operate the business. Keep in mind that the investors/owners know NOTHING about my industry.
At this point we are about 4 months into this whole dynamic or whatever it is. At the time, despite how dumb it may sound, I sincerely did not mind going out of my way to help a few hours a week with the guidance of developing this property. No one in the area can help them the way I can. This type of a facility is overwhelmingly needed in this area for our sport, and there are few other professionals, if any, in the area that can help guide the development of their vision for the facility. For the benefit of the community, the time I was putting in did NOT bother me. I wasn’t worried about getting paid, and trusted we would come to an agreement (as had been promised).
Well, upon being re-approached by the owner to please reconsider operating out of the facility, they sweetened the pot by offering an ownership share for the time I am putting in. We met for dinner, they had printed out a sheet outlining the infrastructure of the ownership between me, my business partner, and them. Although nothing was signed, I have a printed copy of what was handed to me. Again, you can probably see where this is going. The ownership offer for my time made it worth it to me to move forward and start this whole thing from scratch. At the time, I had no reason to believe they would go back on their word.
After the meeting, I began putting more of my time into the facility (10-15 hrs per week). By this time, I was working with my business partner to develop business plans, working with their lawyers for documents, and all the normal stuff of building a small business from scratch. I have a years worth of texts and drafts I made for everything regarding the business. We had weekly meetings with the project manager. I began interviews for the team, hired the manager, etc etc. Each week went by, with more conversations about our agreement, promises that lawyers were drafting the agreements, yet each week we wouldn’t see paperwork prepared for us. As I’m sure you can anticipate, the original offer has been redacted and changed last minute. I know, I am really dumb for letting this get this far. Please don’t beat me up more than I am beating up myself.
What they are now offering are three different options
— a small salary + a much smaller profit share percentage
— a bigger salary
— a small salary + a lump sum payment for my time over the last year
A lump sum payment for my time and walking away was briefly mentioned, and my gut is telling me to accept that offer. But I am worried that they may make it very difficult to receive payment for my time, because we never had anything in writing for my consultation except for what was discussed very recently with our project manager and written down (Again, no signing, but I do have a photo of what was written down for my consultation fee). We are a month out from opening, and I am feeling pressured by them to make a decision despite asking for the last 4-5 months to review the final agreement. “The meeting” where the original offer was redacted, involved a lot of degrading statements and manipulation tactics — I believe they are trying to scare me into quickly complying with shady business practices.
I opted for the lump sum payment for my time and smaller salary (verbally). Now, I am waiting for the documents to be sent over to me so I can review the specifications of the NDA and the non-compete with a lawyer.
Although everything the owner has done (the details of the meeting in which the original offer was redacted was terrible — the owner showed their true colors and although I feel dumb, I am generally a good judge of character, and was sincerely blown away) goes against my values as a person, the facility we have built would be incredible for my clients to experience. The follow up meeting with our project manager, where we discussed the details of the new offer and got the stipulations written down on paper to transfer to the legal documents, was one that they were trying really hard to keep me on board, “making up” for the previous meeting. The reality is, once we are operating, I wont be seeing much of the owner at all. Regardless, at this point, if it were for myself and myself only, I wouldn’t move forward. But because of my clients, I want them to be able to train out of a facility like this. We have NOTHING like this in the area. However, although the money isn’t worth it to me, with the encouragement of my spouse, I do believe I need to see something in my pocket.
I believe I have the upper hand because I bring the clients to the facility and the knowledge. The owners couldn’t do this without me and my business partner, period.
Here’s what I’m worried about (aside from the obvious if not already stated) —
The NDA and the non-compete are going to be ridiculous. To be honest, I don’t know what “Trade secrets” would be covered in the NDA aside from their financials…there are no trade secrets in my industry that I can think of. I do think they will try to cover something I discovered and discussed with the owner — lets just say, someone on the property who shouldn’t be on the property due to legal reasons. But this is public knowledge if searched (which is how I discovered we needed to talk about this person and get him off the property, or the success of the business is at stake). But I don’t know if that’s legally possible. However, I do know that I saved “them” by bringing this to their attention because if discovered, quite literally their operation would have been completely shut down and ostracized by the governing body of my sport (For good reason). I also have reason to believe that after this person’s legal situation settles, they are trying to make him part of the business on other aspects of the property. With that, I think they are trying to shut me up regarding this situation. I also think they are going to try really hard to make it difficult for me to leave with the non compete.
Is there a way for me to negotiate protecting myself and the clients I am bringing to the business with the non-compete? Is it reasonable to negotiate that the non-compete cannot apply to the clients I am bringing with me? Or that, if I am fired, or the conditions of my employment change, the non-compete is null and void? How does the recent new ruling on non-competes affect this?
Do I have enough hard evidence to ask for my consultation fee for the last year and just end with that? Or am I completely screwed out of that?
Do you have any advice for me at all?
Like I said, I am meeting with lawyers next week who specialize in my industry and employment, but I just wanted to pick the brains of lawyers here about my situation. Their business practices are clearly shady, and I need to get my head out of my ass and need help with what I should be on the lookout for.

Please be literate, descriptive and over the age of 18 (preferebly 24+) There was a mixup with the paperwork and our characters end up as roommates in college. If you have any questions or if you're interested in this plot, feel free to send me a message.
The young man named Aaron walked down the bustling college campus, he couldn't help but feel a mix of excitement and nervousness coursing through his veins. This was the beginning of a next chapter in his life, where he aimed to meet new people and to learn a vast majority of knowledge from his teachers. With each step he took towards his new dorm room, his heart pounded with anticipation, and his mind raced with thoughts of what lay ahead.
Eventually, he reached the building that housed his dormitory. As he entered the hallway, the smell of fresh paint hit his nostrils, a sure sign of recent renovations. The walls were adorned with motivational quotes and colorful posters, creating an inviting atmosphere for the students. With his backpack slung over his shoulder, he followed the directions on the piece of paper that one of the faculty members gave to him.
Arriving at room 202, he paused outside the door for a moment. Taking a deep breath, he inserted the key into the lock and slowly turned it. With a gentle click, the door swung open, revealing his new sanctuary for the next academic year.
Aaron stepped into the room and was impressed with how clean and organized the room was. The room was comprised of two single beds tucked against opposite walls, each defined by their own corner. A large, sturdy wooden desk sat against the window, which gave off a lot of natural light that streamed through the slightly dusty glass panes.
Taking a moment to scan the space, he noticed the pristine white walls, no doubt most people would cover these bare walls with posters and pictures to give the room more personality. There was also two spacious closets, complete with sliding doors that would accommodate all his belongings.
His phone began to vibrate loudly in his back pocket. No doubt one of his friends was texting him to come see their dorm room. Aaron stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone to respond to his friends text message.
"Hey, have you seen your dorm room yet?! They are awesome, aren't they? You should come over to mine."
"Can't. I'm still unpacking."
"Still?! You're so slow, Aaron. Text me when you're done and we'll go cause some havoc in the school."
"lol"
Aaron tossed his phone onto one of the beds. He noticed the meticulously made twin-sized mattresses, adorned with fresh sheets and fluffy pillows. Thankfully the beds were comfortable, almost as comfortable as his own bed back home.
His gaze then shifted towards the large window, framing a picturesque view of the campus. From here, he would witness countless sunrises and sunsets, changing seasons, and the ebb and flow of campus life. He imagined himself sitting there, coffee in hand, taking a moment to appreciate the beauty and serenity that each day would bring.
From outside his dorm room he heard the footsteps of someone coming closer and closer. Aaron assumed that this individual was most likely going to be his roommate for this school year. He didn't want to just awkwardly stand in the middle of the room when they walked in so he began to empty out the contents of his backpack onto his bed.

Fellow redditors…I don’t know what’s happened. My white sheets turn yellow within a couple of days of sleeping on them and they never used to. I shower at night and only use lotion on my legs due to dry skin. I crank my AC down to 69 at night with a fan. But they still. Turn. Yellow. And it does not come out.
I’ve tried overnight soaking with Borax, overnight soaking with Oxiclean, dumping Oxiclean straight onto the stains and letting it sit for 1+ hours, I wash with hot water with MOAR Oxiclean and MOAR Borax…I cannot get the yellow out. I’m about to resort to bleach.
And I tried switching to colored sheets but it’s actually worse because my body’s mutant sweat actually stains the dye.
How do you people who share in my mutant sweat/body oil woes do this?

Join Jen, George & Jesse for another Episode of the Renegade Rundown

Previous entry: https://www.reddit.com/quilting/s/8tbuxVoF61
I think I figured out what happened. I threw the quilt in the wash with what I thought were 3 color catchers. It turns out 2 of the sheets were NOT color catchers, but maybe dryer sheets instead. I guess I assumed they were just a different brand of color catcher 😖
Pretty sure it was the backing fabric that bled. I’m not sure why it only seemed to stick on some of the fabrics, but I guess I should be thankful for that!
I gave it a synthropol soak and wash and it maybe improved a bit, but there’s still bleed on the pink fabric.
The quilt was not my vibe from start to finish but my husband says he likes it and claimed it for his own ☺️ Lesson learned!

I’m optimistic the new CFB game will be a hit, and if it does live up to the hype, then that means NCAA 14 will be going right back to storage for me.
I feel like a nerd for saying this, but I’m so damn happy that NCAA 14 has managed to fill the void for all these years, and the game definitely deserves one last RTG and Dynasty mode play through.
I believe the best send off for NCAA 14 is to turn Idaho into a college football powerhouse, and hopefully hang some banners in the Kibbie Dome!
I’m definitely going to miss this game though, I’m glad it managed to fill the gap when it looked like we would never get another CFB game again. I’m really excited that with the new game on the horizon, we will have even more teams to build into championship contenders, and honestly I was getting tired of having to shuffle teams around at the beginning of each Dynasty play through just to make conferences at least half ass up to date lol

Last Updated List: 19/05/2024
 
I'm primarily looking to trade for games from my wishlist, otherwise I am also open to selling them. I am not interested in games I already have and all games I'm getting are for me and activated on my own account. Other than that feel free to offer your list of Steam games and something I may not have and fulfills my criteria I could/would be willing to trade for it/them.

• To trade you must respond to this thread first, I will not respond or accept anyone outside of this thread, only exception are unless we've traded more than once before.
• Only interested in trading for games on Steam.
• I don't do Humble gifts whether receiving or giving, all my keys are in unrevealed form right after purchase.
• No interest in any keys from an unofficial retailesource (aka grey market), curatoreviewer keys (aka beta/reviewebeta-testing/etc.), abandonware, keys for games that are already free on Steam itself, Steam profile-limited keys, and only slight interest in VR-titles and/or de-listed games (no banned games).
• Anything marked as wishlist/paypal, it's self-explanatory and I won't look through lists.
• All my keys are EU keys, if you are outside of EU, make sure you double check for any region locks for your country. For quite a few which I was aware of I already listed the region lock, however this is not my responsibility as I did specify the key's region.
• When buying, I only accept payments in Euro's. Minimum purchase of €1,00. Fees are on buyer.

If you're either trading or buying please state the game(s) you are interested in and your offer (game(s)/list/price).
 
Info:

• Region (and keys region): Europe
  
• IGS Rep Page
  
• SteamTrades
  
• SteamRep
  

 
I kindly ask of you is to be reasonable when making offers to make it a fair trade for both of us.
Let's have a good exchange/trade!
 
List of games:

• 100% Orange Juice
• 16bit Trader
• 20XX
• 4089: Ghost Within
• 9 Years of Shadows
• 911 Operator
• A Demon's Game - Episode 1
• A Game of Changes
• A Juggler's Tale
• A Normal Lost Phone
• A Plague Tale: Innocence (wishlist or Paypal only)
• A Tale of Paper: Refolded
• ABZU
• Aces and Adventures
• Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion
• Afterimage (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Afterparty
• Airborne Kingdom
• Alien Breed 2: Assault
• Alone in the Dark (2008)
• Amanda the Adventurer
• AMID EVIL
• Amnesia: Rebirth
• An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire
• Animal Shelter (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Anomaly II
• Anomaly: Warzone Earth
• Arcade Paradise
• Arcade Spirits
• Archipelago
• Arizona Sunshine: Deluxe Edition
• Arto (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Ary and the Secret of Seasons
• As Far As The Eye
• Ashina: The Red Witch
• Athena Trivia
• Attack of the Earthlings
• Autonauts
• Autonauts vs PirateBots
• Axiom Verge
• Axiom Verge 2 (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Back 4 Blood (Region Lock: Sub ID) (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Backstage Pass
• Baobabs Mausoleum Ep. 1 Ovnifagos Don't Eat Flamingos
• Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
• Batman: Arkham City - Game of the Year Edition
• Batman: Arkham Knight Premium Edition
• Batman: Arkham Origins
• Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Season One
• BattleTrucks
• Beacon Pines (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Beat Or Die The MiniGames
• Beholder
• Ben 10: Power Trip
• Beyond the Long Night
• Big Crown®: Showdown
• Bighead Runner
• Bionic Commando
• Biosys Inc
• bit Dungeon II
• Black Book
• Black Paradox
• Black Skylands
• Blackguards
• Blackguards 2
• Blasphemous (Region Lock: EU/US only)
• Bleep Bloop
• Blind Fate: Edo no Yami
• BLOCKADE War Stories
• Blood And Zombies
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (wishlist or Paypal only)
• BomberZone
• BPM: BULLETS PER MINUTE
• Brick Breaker
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
• Bud Spencer & Terence Hill - Slaps And Beans
• Buggos
• Calico
• Caliper
• Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
• Cardboard Town
• Carton
• Castle Defender
• CastleStorm
• Cat on a Diet
• Caveblazers
• Cavity Busters
• CHESS CROWN
• Chicago 1930 : The Prohibition
• Children of Silentown
• Chorus (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Chronicon
• Citizen Sleeper
• City Siege: Faction Island
• Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues
• Colortone
• Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
• Company of Heroes 2
• Company of Heroes 2 - Ardennes Assault
• Company of Heroes 2 - The Western Front Armies: Oberkommando West
• Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor
• Cook, Serve, Delicious!
• Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!
• Cookie Cutter (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Copy Kitty
• Coromon
• Corrupted
• Cosmic Star Heroine
• Crash Drive 2
• Crazy Machines 3
• Creepy Tale 3: Ingrid Penance
• CRYPTARK
• Crystals of Time
• Cthulhu Saves Christmas
• Curse: The Eye of Isis
• Cybercube
• Dad Quest
• Dark Deity
• Daymare: 1998
• Dead Estate
• Deadlink (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
• Death's Gambit: Afterlife
• Deathtrap
• Decarnation (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Decay: The Mare
• Deceive Inc.
• Decks Of Power
• Deep Despair 2
• Deflector
• Deponia
• Desert Parkour
• DESOLATE
• Destroy All Humans!
• Dicey Dungeons
• Dinosaur Fossil Hunter
• Disciples II: Rise of the Elves
• Dishonored
• Dogfight 1942
• DOOM II
• Drawful 2
• Dread Templar
• Dread X Collection
• Dread X Collection 2
• Dread X Collection 3
• Dread X Collection 5
• Dread X Collection: The Hunt
• Dreamscaper
• DreamWorks Dragons: Dawn of New Riders
• Driftland: The Magic Revival
• Drunken Robot Pornography
• Dungeons
• Dungeons 2
• Dungeons 3
• DUSK
• EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + 18 DLCs (Complete)
• EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 WINGDIVER THE SHOOTER
• Eldest Souls
• ELEX II (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Eternal Threads
• Everhood
• Evil Genius 2: World Domination
• Evoland Legendary Edition
• Expect The Unexpected
• Extinction: Deluxe Edition
• Factory Town
• Fairy Escape
• Fall of Porcupine (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Fantasy Kingdom Simulator
• FAR: Lone Sails
• Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R
• Feel-A-Maze
• Fight'N Rage
• Figment
• Finding Paradise
• Firelight Fantasy: Resistance
• First Class Trouble
• Fishermurs
• Flashback
• Fly O'Clock
• For The King
• Forgive me Father
• Fred3ric
• Frederic: Evil Strikes Back
• Frederic: Resurrection of Music
• From Space
• Frostpunk
• Fury Unleashed
• Garden In!
• Garfield Kart
• Garfield Kart - Furious Racing
• Generation Zero
• Get In The Car, Loser!
• Gloria Victis
• Going Under
• Golden Light
• Golf It!
• Gone: Survival
• Good Night, Knight
• Gotham Knights (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Graveyard Keeper
• Gray Dawn
• GRIP: Combat Racing
• Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
• Guts and Glory
• GYLT (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Haegemonia: Legions of Iron
• Hamilton's Great Adventure
• Hands of Necromancy
• Hard West
• Heads Will Roll
• Hell Pie
• Hellbound
• HELLCARD
• Hellslave
• Hi-Fi RUSH (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Hollow Knight (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Holy Potatoes! A Spy Story?!
• Homestead Arcana
• Home Sweet Home
• Homeworld Remastered Collection
• Honey, I Joined a Cult
• Hue
• Human Fall Flat
• I Am Fish
• Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure
• ICEY
• Inertial Drift
• Inexistence Rebirth
• Injustice 2 Legendary Edition
• Internet Cafe Simulator 2
• Interstellar Space: Genesis
• Is Simon There?
• ITORAH
• Jagged Alliance: Rage!
• JANITOR BLEEDS
• Jotun: Valhalla Edition
• JUMANJI: The Video Game
• Junkyard Fury 2
• Just Die Already
• Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth
• Killing Floor 2 Digital Deluxe Edition
• King Arthur Collection (Sub ID 25825)
• King of Dragon Pass
• King Of The Castle
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance + Band of Bastards DLC (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Kingdom Wars 2: Definitive Edition
• Kingdom Wars 4
• King's Bounty: Armored Princess
• Kitaria Fables
• Kitchen Simulator 2015
• Kraken Academy!!
• Kyle is Famous: Complete Edition
• Legend of Keepers: Career of a Dungeon Manager
• Leisure Suit Larry 7 - Love for Sail
• Life is Strange: True Colors (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Lila’s Sky Ark
• Little Orpheus
• Loddlenaut
• Loop Hero
• Lord of the Dark Castle
• Lords and Villeins
• Lords of Football
• Lost Castle
• Lost Planet 3 Complete Pack
• Lucius III
• Lumberhill
• LunarLux
• Mad Max
• Mafia III: Definitive Edition (Region Lock: Sub ID) (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Mago
• Maid of Sker
• Mail Time
• Main Assembly
• Maneater
• MARSUPILAMI - HOOBADVENTURE (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Marvel's Midnight Suns + DLC (Region Lock: Sub ID) (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Mechs & Mercs: Black Talons
• Medieval Kingdom Wars
• Mega Man Legacy Collection
• MegaRace 1
• MegaRace 2
• MegaRace 3
• Men of War
• Metal: Hellsinger (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Metamorphosis
• Metro Simulator
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY
• Middle-earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition
• Midnight Fight Express
• Minute of Islands
• MirrorMoon EP
• Monaco
• Moon Hunters
• Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
• Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Mortal Kombat XL
• Moto Racer Collection
• Moving Out + Movers in Paradise DLC
• Music Racer
• My Little Universe Soundtrack (DLC)
• My Little Worms
• Mystery of Unicorn Castle: The Beastmaster
• Mythforce (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Mythic Ocean
• Nadir: A Grimdark Deckbuilder
• NARUTO TO BORUTO: SHINOBI STRIKER
• Nash Racing: Pursuit
• Nearly Dead
• Necronator: Dead Wrong
• NecroWorm
• Neon Abyss Deluxe Edition
• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
• Nimble Fish
• Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• No Place Like Home
• Nobody Saves the World
• Nomad Survival
• Oaken
• Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
• Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty
• OlliOlli World
• Onde
• One Finger Death Punch 2
• One Hand Clapping
• Onee Chanbara Origin (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Operation Tango
• Orange Cast: Sci-Fi Space Action Game
• Orbital Racer
• Orcs Must Die! 3 Complete Bundle
• OTXO
• Out of Space
• Overcooked
• Owlboy (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Paint the Town Red
• Papo & Yo
• Patch Quest
• PAYDAY 2
• PC Building Simulator
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition (Region Lock: Sub ID)
• Plunger Simulator
• Police Stories
• POSTAL 2
• Primal Carnage: Extinction
• Prodeus
• Push The Box 3D
• Qbik
• QUAKE II
• qubo
• RAD
• Rad Rodgers Radical Edition
• Radio Commander
• Railway Empire
• Recipe For Disaster
• Red Faction: Armageddon
• Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered
• Red Solstice 2: Survivors
• Redout: Enhanced Edition + 5 DLCs
• Regency Solitaire
• Regions Of Ruin
• Remnant: From the Ashes - Complete Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Remnants of Naezith
• Repetendium
• Resident Evil 0 HD REMASTER
• Resident Evil 4 (2005)
• Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition
• Resident Evil 6
• Resident Evil Revelations
• Resident Evil Revelations 2 Deluxe Edition
• Retrowave
• Reventure
• RHEM I SE: The Mysterious Land
• Rhythm Sprout: Sick Beats & Bad Sweets
• River City Girls
• River City Ransom: Underground
• Road 96 (Region Lock: Sub ID)
• Röki
• Royal Battleships
• Rustler
• Saints Row (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Salt and Sanctuary
• Sanctum 2
• Sands of Aura
• SATAZIUS
• Satellite Repairman
• Say No! More
• Scarlet Tower
• Scars Above
• Scorn
• School Years
• SEGA Bass Fishing
• Sense - 不祥的预感: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story
• Severed Steel
• Shadows: Awakening
• She Sees Red - Interactive Movie
• Shift Happens
• Shing!
• Shut Up And Dig
• Sid Meier's Ace Patrol
• Sine Mora EX
• Sigma Theory: Global Cold War
• Silent Service
• Sinking Island
• Sir Whoopass™: Immortal Death
• Skeletal Avenger
• Slaycation Paradise
• Small World + 1 DLC
• Snafu
• Sneak Thief
• Sniper Elite 4 Deluxe Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts
• Snowtopia: Ski Resort Builder
• SONG OF HORROR COMPLETE EDITION
• Sorry, James
• Soul Grabber
• Soulblight
• Soulstice
• Space Crew: Legendary Edition
• Sparkle 2 Evo
• Sparkle 3 Genesis
• Sparkle ZERO
• Spirit of the Island
• SPOOKWARE
• STAR WARS Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy
• STAR WARS Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast
• Stacking
• Starblast
• Starpoint Gemini 2 Gold Pack
• Starpoint Gemini Warlords
• Startide
• STASIS
• Stick Fight: The Game
• Steel Rats
• Steelrising (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Strange Brigade
• Streets of Fury EX
• Strider
• Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
• SuchArt: Genius Artist Simulator
• Sucker for Love: First Date
• Suite 776
• Sunblaze
• Sunlight
• Sunset Overdrive
• Super Catboy
• Super Indie Karts
• Super Magbot
• Super Meat Boy
• Superbugs: Awaken
• Superliminal (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Survive the Nights
• Swag and Sorcery
• Switchball HD
• Sword of the Necromancer
• Syberia
• Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Synergia
• SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising
• System Crash
• S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster
• Tacoma
• Tallowmere
• Tenta Shooter
• TERRACOTTA (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Terraformers
• Terror of Hemasaurus
• Tesla Force
• The Amazing American Circus
• The Banner Saga Trilogy Deluxe Pack (Sub ID) (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Bluecoats: North & South
• The Callisto Protocol (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Chronicles of Nyanya
• The Citadel
• The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Dark Eye: Memoria
• The Dream Machine: Chapter 1 & 2
• The Dungeon Beneath
• The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos
• The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
• The Esoterica: Hollow Earth
• The Evil Within 2
• The eXceed Collection: Aural Brutality Edition
• The Executioner
• The Falconeer
• THE GAME OF LIFE
• THE GAME OF LIFE 2 (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Gunk
• The Haunting of Billy Classic
• The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut
• The Initiate
• The Initiate 2: The First Interviews
• The Inner World
• The Knight Witch (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Legend of Tianding
• The Long Reach
• The Moment of Silence
• The Quarry - Deluxe Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Quarry – Horror History Visual Filter Pack (DLC)
• The Red Lantern
• The Sapper
• The Talos Principle
• The Talos Principle: Gold Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Tarnishing of Juxtia
• The Tenants (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Town of Light
• The Undying Plague
• The Witness (wishlist or Paypal only)
• There Is No Light: Enhanced Edition
• This War of Mine
• Those Who Remain
• Through Abandoned: The Refuge
• Ticket to Ride
• Timberman
• Time Lock VR
• Time on Frog Island
• Tiny Tina's Wonderlands: Chaotic Great Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Tinykin (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Titan Quest Anniversary Edition
• Toki
• Toodee and Topdee
• Totally Reliable Delivery Service
• Tower of Time
• Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt
• Train Simulator Classic + 2 DLCs
• Trifox
• Tropico 3 Gold Edition
• Tropico 4 Collector's Bundle
• Troublemaker
• Trover Saves the Universe
• Turbo Overkill (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Turmoil
• Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
• Turok
• Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
• Twin Mirror
• Two Point Campus (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Ultimate Zombie Defense
• Undying (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Unity of Command Trilogy
• Up and Down
• Vampire Survivors
• Vanguard Princess
• Verdun
• Violett Remastered
• VirtuaVerse
• Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire
• Wanted: Dead (wishlist or Paypal only)
• War for the Overworld
• Wargroove
• Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon + Soundtrack DLC
• Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon - Da Orks
• Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
• Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach
• Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2
• Wayward
• West of Dead
• What the Fog
• Where The Water Tastes Like Wine
• Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus?
• Within Skerry
• Within the blade
• Wobbledogs (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Wolfenstein 3D
• Worms Rumble
• WWE 2K23 (Region Lock: Sub ID) (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Yoku's Island Express
• Yooka-Laylee
• XEL
• XIII - Classic
• X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
• Yakuza 4 Remastered
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon (wishlist or Paypal only)
• You Deserve
• Zombie Army Trilogy
• Zombie Driver HD
• Zool Redimensioned

Last Updated List: 19/05/2024
 
I'm primarily looking to trade for games from my wishlist, otherwise I am also open to selling them. I am not interested in games I already have and all games I'm getting are for me and activated on my own account. Other than that feel free to offer your list of Steam games and something I may not have and fulfills my criteria I could/would be willing to trade for it/them.

• To trade you must respond to this thread first, I will not respond or accept anyone outside of this thread, only exception are unless we've traded more than once before.
• Only interested in trading for games on Steam.
• I don't do Humble gifts whether receiving or giving, all my keys are in unrevealed form right after purchase.
• No interest in any keys from an unofficial retailesource (aka grey market), curatoreviewer keys (aka beta/reviewebeta-testing/etc.), abandonware, keys for games that are already free on Steam itself, Steam profile-limited keys, and only slight interest in VR-titles and/or de-listed games (no banned games).
• Anything marked as wishlist/paypal, it's self-explanatory and I won't look through lists.
• All my keys are EU keys, if you are outside of EU, make sure you double check for any region locks for your country. For quite a few which I was aware of I already listed the region lock, however this is not my responsibility as I did specify the key's region.
• When buying, I only accept payments in Euro's. Minimum purchase of €1,00. Fees are on buyer.

If you're either trading or buying please state the game(s) you are interested in and your offer (game(s)/list/price).
 
Info:

• Region (and keys region): Europe
  
• IGS Rep Page
  
• SteamTrades
  
• SteamRep
  

 
I kindly ask of you is to be reasonable when making offers to make it a fair trade for both of us.
Let's have a good exchange/trade!
 
List of games:

• 100% Orange Juice
• 16bit Trader
• 20XX
• 4089: Ghost Within
• 9 Years of Shadows
• 911 Operator
• A Demon's Game - Episode 1
• A Game of Changes
• A Juggler's Tale
• A Normal Lost Phone
• A Plague Tale: Innocence (wishlist or Paypal only)
• A Tale of Paper: Refolded
• ABZU
• Aces and Adventures
• Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion
• Afterimage (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Afterparty
• Airborne Kingdom
• Alien Breed 2: Assault
• Alone in the Dark (2008)
• Amanda the Adventurer
• AMID EVIL
• Amnesia: Rebirth
• An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire
• Animal Shelter (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Anomaly II
• Anomaly: Warzone Earth
• Arcade Paradise
• Arcade Spirits
• Archipelago
• Arizona Sunshine: Deluxe Edition
• Arto (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Ary and the Secret of Seasons
• As Far As The Eye
• Ashina: The Red Witch
• Athena Trivia
• Attack of the Earthlings
• Autonauts
• Autonauts vs PirateBots
• Axiom Verge
• Axiom Verge 2 (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Back 4 Blood (Region Lock: Sub ID) (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Backstage Pass
• Baobabs Mausoleum Ep. 1 Ovnifagos Don't Eat Flamingos
• Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
• Batman: Arkham City - Game of the Year Edition
• Batman: Arkham Knight Premium Edition
• Batman: Arkham Origins
• Battlestar Galactica Deadlock Season One
• BattleTrucks
• Beacon Pines (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Beat Or Die The MiniGames
• Beholder
• Ben 10: Power Trip
• Beyond the Long Night
• Big Crown®: Showdown
• Bighead Runner
• Bionic Commando
• Biosys Inc
• bit Dungeon II
• Black Book
• Black Paradox
• Black Skylands
• Blackguards
• Blackguards 2
• Blasphemous (Region Lock: EU/US only)
• Bleep Bloop
• Blind Fate: Edo no Yami
• BLOCKADE War Stories
• Blood And Zombies
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (wishlist or Paypal only)
• BomberZone
• BPM: BULLETS PER MINUTE
• Brick Breaker
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
• Bud Spencer & Terence Hill - Slaps And Beans
• Buggos
• Calico
• Caliper
• Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
• Cardboard Town
• Carton
• Castle Defender
• CastleStorm
• Cat on a Diet
• Caveblazers
• Cavity Busters
• CHESS CROWN
• Chicago 1930 : The Prohibition
• Children of Silentown
• Chorus (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Chronicon
• Citizen Sleeper
• City Siege: Faction Island
• Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues
• Colortone
• Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
• Company of Heroes 2
• Company of Heroes 2 - Ardennes Assault
• Company of Heroes 2 - The Western Front Armies: Oberkommando West
• Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor
• Cook, Serve, Delicious!
• Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!
• Cookie Cutter (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Copy Kitty
• Coromon
• Corrupted
• Cosmic Star Heroine
• Crash Drive 2
• Crazy Machines 3
• Creepy Tale 3: Ingrid Penance
• CRYPTARK
• Crystals of Time
• Cthulhu Saves Christmas
• Curse: The Eye of Isis
• Cybercube
• Dad Quest
• Dark Deity
• Daymare: 1998
• Dead Estate
• Deadlink (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
• Death's Gambit: Afterlife
• Deathtrap
• Decarnation (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Decay: The Mare
• Deceive Inc.
• Decks Of Power
• Deep Despair 2
• Deflector
• Deponia
• Desert Parkour
• DESOLATE
• Destroy All Humans!
• Dicey Dungeons
• Dinosaur Fossil Hunter
• Disciples II: Rise of the Elves
• Dishonored
• Dogfight 1942
• DOOM II
• Drawful 2
• Dread Templar
• Dread X Collection
• Dread X Collection 2
• Dread X Collection 3
• Dread X Collection 5
• Dread X Collection: The Hunt
• Dreamscaper
• DreamWorks Dragons: Dawn of New Riders
• Driftland: The Magic Revival
• Drunken Robot Pornography
• Dungeons
• Dungeons 2
• Dungeons 3
• DUSK
• EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair + 18 DLCs (Complete)
• EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 WINGDIVER THE SHOOTER
• Eldest Souls
• ELEX II (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Eternal Threads
• Everhood
• Evil Genius 2: World Domination
• Evoland Legendary Edition
• Expect The Unexpected
• Extinction: Deluxe Edition
• Factory Town
• Fairy Escape
• Fall of Porcupine (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Fantasy Kingdom Simulator
• FAR: Lone Sails
• Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R
• Feel-A-Maze
• Fight'N Rage
• Figment
• Finding Paradise
• Firelight Fantasy: Resistance
• First Class Trouble
• Fishermurs
• Flashback
• Fly O'Clock
• For The King
• Forgive me Father
• Fred3ric
• Frederic: Evil Strikes Back
• Frederic: Resurrection of Music
• From Space
• Frostpunk
• Fury Unleashed
• Garden In!
• Garfield Kart
• Garfield Kart - Furious Racing
• Generation Zero
• Get In The Car, Loser!
• Gloria Victis
• Going Under
• Golden Light
• Golf It!
• Gone: Survival
• Good Night, Knight
• Gotham Knights (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Graveyard Keeper
• Gray Dawn
• GRIP: Combat Racing
• Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
• Guts and Glory
• GYLT (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Haegemonia: Legions of Iron
• Hamilton's Great Adventure
• Hands of Necromancy
• Hard West
• Heads Will Roll
• Hell Pie
• Hellbound
• HELLCARD
• Hellslave
• Hi-Fi RUSH (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Hollow Knight (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Holy Potatoes! A Spy Story?!
• Homestead Arcana
• Home Sweet Home
• Homeworld Remastered Collection
• Honey, I Joined a Cult
• Hue
• Human Fall Flat
• I Am Fish
• Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure
• ICEY
• Inertial Drift
• Inexistence Rebirth
• Injustice 2 Legendary Edition
• Internet Cafe Simulator 2
• Interstellar Space: Genesis
• Is Simon There?
• ITORAH
• Jagged Alliance: Rage!
• JANITOR BLEEDS
• Jotun: Valhalla Edition
• JUMANJI: The Video Game
• Junkyard Fury 2
• Just Die Already
• Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth
• Killing Floor 2 Digital Deluxe Edition
• King Arthur Collection (Sub ID 25825)
• King of Dragon Pass
• King Of The Castle
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance + Band of Bastards DLC (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Kingdom Wars 2: Definitive Edition
• Kingdom Wars 4
• King's Bounty: Armored Princess
• Kitaria Fables
• Kitchen Simulator 2015
• Kraken Academy!!
• Kyle is Famous: Complete Edition
• Legend of Keepers: Career of a Dungeon Manager
• Leisure Suit Larry 7 - Love for Sail
• Life is Strange: True Colors (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Lila’s Sky Ark
• Little Orpheus
• Loddlenaut
• Loop Hero
• Lord of the Dark Castle
• Lords and Villeins
• Lords of Football
• Lost Castle
• Lost Planet 3 Complete Pack
• Lucius III
• Lumberhill
• LunarLux
• Mad Max
• Mafia III: Definitive Edition (Region Lock: Sub ID) (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Mago
• Maid of Sker
• Mail Time
• Main Assembly
• Maneater
• MARSUPILAMI - HOOBADVENTURE (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Marvel's Midnight Suns + DLC (Region Lock: Sub ID) (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Mechs & Mercs: Black Talons
• Medieval Kingdom Wars
• Mega Man Legacy Collection
• MegaRace 1
• MegaRace 2
• MegaRace 3
• Men of War
• Metal: Hellsinger (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Metamorphosis
• Metro Simulator
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY
• Middle-earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition
• Midnight Fight Express
• Minute of Islands
• MirrorMoon EP
• Monaco
• Moon Hunters
• Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
• Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Mortal Kombat XL
• Moto Racer Collection
• Moving Out + Movers in Paradise DLC
• Music Racer
• My Little Universe Soundtrack (DLC)
• My Little Worms
• Mystery of Unicorn Castle: The Beastmaster
• Mythforce (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Mythic Ocean
• Nadir: A Grimdark Deckbuilder
• NARUTO TO BORUTO: SHINOBI STRIKER
• Nash Racing: Pursuit
• Nearly Dead
• Necronator: Dead Wrong
• NecroWorm
• Neon Abyss Deluxe Edition
• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
• Nimble Fish
• Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• No Place Like Home
• Nobody Saves the World
• Nomad Survival
• Oaken
• Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
• Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty
• OlliOlli World
• Onde
• One Finger Death Punch 2
• One Hand Clapping
• Onee Chanbara Origin (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Operation Tango
• Orange Cast: Sci-Fi Space Action Game
• Orbital Racer
• Orcs Must Die! 3 Complete Bundle
• OTXO
• Out of Space
• Overcooked
• Owlboy (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Paint the Town Red
• Papo & Yo
• Patch Quest
• PAYDAY 2
• PC Building Simulator
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition (Region Lock: Sub ID)
• Plunger Simulator
• Police Stories
• POSTAL 2
• Primal Carnage: Extinction
• Prodeus
• Push The Box 3D
• Qbik
• QUAKE II
• qubo
• RAD
• Rad Rodgers Radical Edition
• Radio Commander
• Railway Empire
• Recipe For Disaster
• Red Faction: Armageddon
• Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered
• Red Solstice 2: Survivors
• Redout: Enhanced Edition + 5 DLCs
• Regency Solitaire
• Regions Of Ruin
• Remnant: From the Ashes - Complete Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Remnants of Naezith
• Repetendium
• Resident Evil 0 HD REMASTER
• Resident Evil 4 (2005)
• Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition
• Resident Evil 6
• Resident Evil Revelations
• Resident Evil Revelations 2 Deluxe Edition
• Retrowave
• Reventure
• RHEM I SE: The Mysterious Land
• Rhythm Sprout: Sick Beats & Bad Sweets
• River City Girls
• River City Ransom: Underground
• Road 96 (Region Lock: Sub ID)
• Röki
• Royal Battleships
• Rustler
• Saints Row (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Salt and Sanctuary
• Sanctum 2
• Sands of Aura
• SATAZIUS
• Satellite Repairman
• Say No! More
• Scarlet Tower
• Scars Above
• Scorn
• School Years
• SEGA Bass Fishing
• Sense - 不祥的预感: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story
• Severed Steel
• Shadows: Awakening
• She Sees Red - Interactive Movie
• Shift Happens
• Shing!
• Shut Up And Dig
• Sid Meier's Ace Patrol
• Sine Mora EX
• Sigma Theory: Global Cold War
• Silent Service
• Sinking Island
• Sir Whoopass™: Immortal Death
• Skeletal Avenger
• Slaycation Paradise
• Small World + 1 DLC
• Snafu
• Sneak Thief
• Sniper Elite 4 Deluxe Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts
• Snowtopia: Ski Resort Builder
• SONG OF HORROR COMPLETE EDITION
• Sorry, James
• Soul Grabber
• Soulblight
• Soulstice
• Space Crew: Legendary Edition
• Sparkle 2 Evo
• Sparkle 3 Genesis
• Sparkle ZERO
• Spirit of the Island
• SPOOKWARE
• STAR WARS Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy
• STAR WARS Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast
• Stacking
• Starblast
• Starpoint Gemini 2 Gold Pack
• Starpoint Gemini Warlords
• Startide
• STASIS
• Stick Fight: The Game
• Steel Rats
• Steelrising (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Strange Brigade
• Streets of Fury EX
• Strider
• Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
• SuchArt: Genius Artist Simulator
• Sucker for Love: First Date
• Suite 776
• Sunblaze
• Sunlight
• Sunset Overdrive
• Super Catboy
• Super Indie Karts
• Super Magbot
• Super Meat Boy
• Superbugs: Awaken
• Superliminal (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Survive the Nights
• Swag and Sorcery
• Switchball HD
• Sword of the Necromancer
• Syberia
• Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Synergia
• SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising
• System Crash
• S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster
• Tacoma
• Tallowmere
• Tenta Shooter
• TERRACOTTA (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Terraformers
• Terror of Hemasaurus
• Tesla Force
• The Amazing American Circus
• The Banner Saga Trilogy Deluxe Pack (Sub ID) (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Bluecoats: North & South
• The Callisto Protocol (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Chronicles of Nyanya
• The Citadel
• The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Dark Eye: Memoria
• The Dream Machine: Chapter 1 & 2
• The Dungeon Beneath
• The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos
• The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
• The Esoterica: Hollow Earth
• The Evil Within 2
• The eXceed Collection: Aural Brutality Edition
• The Executioner
• The Falconeer
• THE GAME OF LIFE
• THE GAME OF LIFE 2 (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Gunk
• The Haunting of Billy Classic
• The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut
• The Initiate
• The Initiate 2: The First Interviews
• The Inner World
• The Knight Witch (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Legend of Tianding
• The Long Reach
• The Moment of Silence
• The Quarry - Deluxe Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Quarry – Horror History Visual Filter Pack (DLC)
• The Red Lantern
• The Sapper
• The Talos Principle
• The Talos Principle: Gold Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Tarnishing of Juxtia
• The Tenants (wishlist or Paypal only)
• The Town of Light
• The Undying Plague
• The Witness (wishlist or Paypal only)
• There Is No Light: Enhanced Edition
• This War of Mine
• Those Who Remain
• Through Abandoned: The Refuge
• Ticket to Ride
• Timberman
• Time Lock VR
• Time on Frog Island
• Tiny Tina's Wonderlands: Chaotic Great Edition (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Tinykin (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Titan Quest Anniversary Edition
• Toki
• Toodee and Topdee
• Totally Reliable Delivery Service
• Tower of Time
• Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt
• Train Simulator Classic + 2 DLCs
• Trifox
• Tropico 3 Gold Edition
• Tropico 4 Collector's Bundle
• Troublemaker
• Trover Saves the Universe
• Turbo Overkill (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Turmoil
• Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
• Turok
• Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
• Twin Mirror
• Two Point Campus (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Ultimate Zombie Defense
• Undying (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Unity of Command Trilogy
• Up and Down
• Vampire Survivors
• Vanguard Princess
• Verdun
• Violett Remastered
• VirtuaVerse
• Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire
• Wanted: Dead (wishlist or Paypal only)
• War for the Overworld
• Wargroove
• Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon + Soundtrack DLC
• Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon - Da Orks
• Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
• Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach
• Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2
• Wayward
• West of Dead
• What the Fog
• Where The Water Tastes Like Wine
• Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus?
• Within Skerry
• Within the blade
• Wobbledogs (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Wolfenstein 3D
• Worms Rumble
• WWE 2K23 (Region Lock: Sub ID) (wishlist or Paypal only)
• Yoku's Island Express
• Yooka-Laylee
• XEL
• XIII - Classic
• X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
• Yakuza 4 Remastered
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon (wishlist or Paypal only)
• You Deserve
• Zombie Army Trilogy
• Zombie Driver HD
• Zool Redimensioned

the new NCAA football game is definitely the reason why NHL24 was another copy paste this year, EA higher ups put all their money into the NCAA football revamp
The visuals and detail look wild, I played the last one in 2014? And it actually looks tempting to a non football fan just for the visuals and graphics

Zhidaole!

Mui is the right-hand woman to Shen Xian and a vital member of the Union. While she doesn't have a Negation like the rest of them, she chooses to fight using extreme proficiency in martial arts and her plethora of artefacts. She's also a close friend to Fuuko Izumo and Andy.

Key

Scaling

• Andy / Undead
• Feng Kowloon / Unfade
• Fuuko Izumo / Unluck
• God / UMAs
• Nico Vorgeil / Unforgettable
• Shen Xian / Untruth

Notes

• Feats are listed in order of appearance. Hover over a link to see the chapter(s) of origin.
• Feats from chapters up to 132 are from the 100th Loop.
• Feats from 133 on are from the 101st Loop, with this RT leaving off at 206.
• Character profile.

Strength

Striking

• Smacks away a junior of UMA Summer using nunchucks
• With Shen, sends the Nyoi-Kinko staff into Spring
• With Shen, sends the Nyoi-Kinko staff into God
• Stronger than Shen
• Kicks Shen into the sky, the area around her hand on the ground having broken from the force
• Axe-kicks Shen down into the Tenraisai block, pulverizing it
• Counters UMA Color's projectiles
• KO's UMA Platinum with Shen

Other

• Throws several nails into a sheet of metal at once
• Pumps iron
• Cuts an UMA Summer junior in half with a sword artifact
• Stabs through Shen's chest

Durability

Blunt

• Fuuko's Unluck causes a brick to fall on her hand and break in half, briefly KOing her
• KOed by a kick from Feng
• Beaten by Nico
• Uses Shen's palm strike to the chin as force for her chin kick on Shen
• Sent flying after taking the full brunt of Shen's Tetsuzanko without being able to block

Other

• Union member suits are bulletproof, stab-proof, and generally incredibly durable
• Her mind handles using eight different artifacts

Speed

• Makes manga really fast
• Clocks in at faster than Shen

Skill

• Is noted in her character profile to be very skilled due to training with Shen
• Knows kung-fu as a result of daily training
• Engaged in combat with Shen against Creed and Yusai offscreen
• After all the world's languages were unified into English and she lost the ability to speak Chinese, she starts teaching herself how to speak it using only a book written by Nico
• Trounced Luo in kung fu
• Trades furious blows with Shen

Gear

Weapons

• Nunchucks
• Sword artifact
  • Dual wields two of them
• A different sword

Utility

• The neckties of Union suits grants the wearer access to a number of public services and organizations and it also functions as a universal translator which even works with writing
• Healing pill artifacts, made from her own life force
• Uses the Game of Death artifact to turn Shen into a jiangshi, a reanimated corpse that automatically protects her when she's in danger and can't act on his own unless she orders him
  • Information page
  • Shen's RT
• A hand fan artifact that dispels a large cloud of dust when used

Negation: Untruth

Type: External-Targeting, Compulsory Activation
Tragedy: The death of Shen right in front of her.
Untruth is an ability that originally belonged to Shen, which allows the user to make any target in their vision do the exact opposite of what they wanted, so long as the user is fond of the target.

• Unconsciously makes Shen and Andy come to a dead stop mid-attack
• Prevents Feng from avoiding a combo attack from Shen and Andy
• Forces Feng to walk into Shen's attacks after he starts trying to back down
• Makes Apocalypse reveal why the Union has never been able to defeat UMA Summer's second phase in any previous loop, despite it not wanting to

You're on!

🪞
Welcome back to the Asylum write-up, where we explore the decade-long slow-motion car crash that is the Emilie Autumn fandom.
Sorry this installment took so long to upload! Just a heads-up, I may take some time to deliver the last one too – these posts take forever to format on Reddit's finicky-ass editor, and my dumb real life is currently keeping me from precious Internet time. Thank you for your patience! You have my word that everyone who pre-ordered the final installment will receive a PERSONAL, HANDWRITTEN letter autographed and illustrated by me, a list of the snacks I consumed while composing this write-up, some exclusive behind-the-scenes secrets, and a pony.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4.1 – Part 4.2 Part 5

Places, everyone This is a test Throw your stones Do your damage Your worst, and your best (...) And if I had a dollar For every time I repented the sin And commit the same crime I'd be sitting on top of the world today (“God Help Me”, 2006🎵)

Quick recap of where we left off. First, there were five to ten halcyon years of pleasant and meaningful interactions between EA and her blossoming fanbase, prominently by way of her official forum. Then, circa 2009-2010, EA's online presence shifted towards sudden anger outbursts, ban-hammering, and an increasingly top-down communication style.
This created a sort of primordial rift within the fanbase, between those who supported EA's right to speak her mind and regulate her own fan spaces however she pleased – and those who thought that her reactions were rude and inappropriate (at best), and that even fan spaces should allow for reasonable, non-abusive criticism of the artist.
Between a poorly-handled book release (see Part 3), the controversial (Part 2) or dubiously true (Part 4) contents of said book, and serious shade from various former collaborators (Part 5), more and more fans had pressing thoughts about EA's work ethic and choices. EA attempted damage control through drastic forum rules that made it virtually impossible to voice any “serious” critical opinion. It didn't work, of course: instead of squashing the mutiny, she created a schism.
Critical fans and active haters started congregating on unofficial platforms.

“WITH MUFFINS LIKE THIS, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?”: TROLL LIKE A GIRL

So here we were, the early 2010s. The official forum (which had about 700 members in 2006, if you recall) was now thousands-strong, reaching just over 12,000 registered users in 2012 – not all of them active, but still. In terms of sheer numbers and content creation, the party was POPPIN'... but increasingly in parts of the Asylum that escaped EA's jurisdiction, such as Tumblr, where they could speak their mind freely.

You play the victim very well You've built your self-indulgent hell You wanted someone to understand you Well, be careful what you wish for, because I do (“I Know Where You Sleep”, 2006🎵)

In one wing of Asylum Tumblr, a smattering of call-out blogs emerged, which laid out EA's various lies, faux pas, shitty takes, and general deep-seated terribleness in detailed timelines and screenshots (or, short of that, long-winded bullet points). While many such blogs framed it as “serious” whistleblowing and did their best to remain as fact-based and neutral as they could, there was some genuine disgust, animosity and creepiness towards EA on that side of Tumblr; for some ex-fans, “exposing the truth” was mostly justify obsessive hatred, prying and verbal abuse. Some, for instance, felt the bizarre need to side with EA's mother in their estrangement. (One user, with the URL “emilyautumnfischkopf”, argued in a serious and down-to-earth tone - but with zero sources - that EA's upbringing had been nothing but peaceful and supportive until she ungratefully kicked her loving family to the curb for no reason at all. They were later revealed 🔍 to have an alternate handle as “eaisalyingcunt”.)
Either way, through these blogs, a number of potential drama bombs that had mostly flown under the radar were dredged up from over the years – some of which were hard to ignore, even for supportive fans. Where to begin?
There was that nonsense in-joke song, captured twice on camera during the 2009 tour (to very little outrage, at the time), crassly called “Manatee Retard”📺. Or EA's scathing response, in print, to a wheelchair user who found it insensitive that she used a bedazzled wheelchair as a prop to do sexy acrobatics on stage. (“Your offence taken at my hard-won self-acceptance proves that I indeed have something to fight against”, she wrote). Spoken word tracks where she made trivializing knock-knock jokes about serious mental illnesses she didn't have, like schizophrenia and OCD. Multiple instances of calling Britney Spears a “bimbo” and a “Hollywood fucked-up”, resentfully claiming that she only shaved her head because she was “hopped up on drugs” and certainly not because she was “bipolar”, a word the press liked to wield as an insult anyway. (“That's almost like calling someone a retard!” Yeah, heaven forbid.) The meanest, most distasteful paragraphs in the book. Basically everything problematic EA had ever said or written.📝 In retrospect, it had been a long time coming, but it was a lot to take in – and certainly more off-putting, even to less emotionally invested fans, than silly lies about her age and last name.
In another wing of Asylum Tumblr, some fans had had it up to here and just wanted to have fun. 🎵 If Plague Rats had learned one valuable lesson from EA, it was how to crack a joke in the face of absurd tragedy – and the general state of the EA fandom certainly warranted a few.
In 2012, Fight Like a Girl was released. After six long years, three of which had been peaceful, the Opheliac era was officially over. The new album and ensuing tour confirmed that the Asylum had entered a process of glamorous Broadway-style militarization. 🎵📺
The mood board was “Roman general meets Vegas showgirl meets Victorian street urchin”.🪞 The color palette was, to naysayers, “musty pink and rotten, stale piss yellow”. 🐀 The keyword was “REVENGE” (through the power of... self-expression! sorority! brutal assault with rusty medical implements!). The chorus of the title song had an intriguing run-on line about getting “revenge on the world, or at least 49% of the people in it” 🎵 – which seemed like an awful lot, and was widely interpreted (to cheers, boos, or uncomfortable sighs) as a misandrist jab at literally all men on Earth.
The show was essentially a demo version of the musical, in that the setlist vaguely reflected the order of events in the story – but prior reading was essential in order to get what the hell was going on on stage. This one Broadway reviewer had not perused the literature before seeing the show 🔍, and hated: the set, the choreography, the skits, the plot, the lyrics, the music, the concept. (Seriously, you should read the review. It's not even my show and I feel like quitting show business.)
Pre-show VIP encounters, now violin-free, were lorded over by EA's new manager🐀, whose official title was “Asylum Headmistress”. (Interesting choice – she sounds fun!) The swag bags were less substantial than before, and the “greet” part of the meet-and-greet was rarely more than a quick hug and photo op.
On Twitter, EA continued to embrace her “I am very badass” fronting attitude...

Often wonder if cyberbullies r aware they’re fucking w/ a girl who’s BFs w/ maker of the SAW films & is marrying a knife-throwing scorpion. (🐀📝)

...and her taste for needlessly inflammatory statements. About an aisle sign in a supermarket:

If this does not infuriate you, then you're a fucking potato.

(Again with the confounding crypto-ableism, EA! 🔍) She also went through a phase of raging against Lady Gaga 📝, who had stolen her idea of using a wheelchair on stage as an able-bodied woman. 🔍 That failed to convince anyone that she wasn't the histrionic diva that haters made her out to be.
Spurred on by EA's rallying cries and “us vs them” mentality, loyalists turned the white-knighting up to 11. On Twitter, some Plague Rats got into cat fights with Lady Gaga's Little Monsters (what a time to be alive). Others tried to balance out the Tumblr negativity with initiatives like “Spreading a Plague of Love” – a “positive-only” confession blog, whose extreme fangirling, comically drastic rules and hyper-defensive tone📝 did not debunk the increasingly popular notion that “true Plague Rats” were a bunch of authoritarian and hopelessly brainwashed fanatics.
EA truthers and other anti-fans started lashing out at anyone who dared express any positive opinion of EA, solidifying claims that the backlash against EA was just a conspiracy of bitter, hysterical bullies.
All this to say: every passing day brought new reasons for fans to get mad at EA and each other, and everyone in the Asylum was in need of a laugh. It's not easy having a good time.🦠
Leading up to Fight Like a Girl and in the years that followed, user-submission-based meme blogs took off, most notably “Spreading a Plague of Lulz / Troll Like a Girl”. A lot of the early submissions were absurdist humor and toothless, cheezburger-Impact memes (a style that was, oddly, already dated at the time). Those often originated in good fun, and from loyal fans, on the official forum. But there was also true snark, satirizing EA's questionable ethics, outrageous claims, and easily spoofed artistic gimmicks. A new slang of Asylumspeak emerged: Glittertits (slight NSFW), GAGA!!, EA Gusta and all its memeface variants, Get outta mah house!, Are You Suffering?, Fight Like A Goat, [Random celebrity] copied EA (a subgenre in its own right), ...
Most of the “trolling” was directed at unrepentant bootlickers and, to a lesser extent, red-in-the-face haters and creeps. Meme blogs would post joke comments under “serious” or gushing submissions on Wayward Victorian Confessions, and taunt loyalist accounts by tagging them in their posts. When a few people complained on WVC that almost all of the Bloody Crumpets to date had been thin white able-bodied women, and a few fans responded by sharing their dream-casts for a more diverse line-up, the blog was flooded for days with confessions that “X should be a Crumpet” (candidates included RuPaul, Mitt Romney, Nicki Minaj, EA's therapist, and the WVC admins). Farcical shenanigans like that.
Ah, but some people will always cross the line, won't they. EA threads popped up on merciless, bully-friendly snark platforms like Lolcow, Pretty Ugly Little Liar, and Encyclopedia Dramatica. Snarkers with a mean streak and obsessive haters mingled in some of the more aggressive, 4-chan-spirited retaliation against EA – which would be called “brigading” in modern parlance. This included flooding EA's Goodreads page with one-star reviews (see part 4), repeatedly editing her Wikipedia page to include her legal name and birth year, and ensuring that Googling said name would bring up current pictures of her.
All of this compounded agitation fragmented the once-united fandom beyond recognition.🦠 Through substantial disagreements among fans, personal bickerings, layers upon layers of inscrutable in-jokes, and cross-platform telephone games, the Asylum morphed into a booby-trapped Escher room.
Satire blogs were taken in earnest. Earnest fan blogs scanned as satire. Memes would get called out as abuse. Appreciation without attached criticism would get mocked as bootlicking. Obvious jokes made by EA would be taken at face value. One divisive confession could trigger days and days of debate, to the point that WVC eventually banned confessions in response to other confessions. New waves of infighting created a confusing web of rival sub-factions🐀, each accusing the others of being toxic, cliquish, and delusional.
The shared fantasy was broken, the collective vision had crumbled, no onez was speaking the same language anymore. Fans would jump down the throat of other fans who held almost identical views about EA, except for that one thing she said or did that one time. Everyone had differing thoughts on what should or shouldn't acceptable to discuss, question, excuse, make fun of.
War is hell.

SCORCHED EARTH SHENANIGANS: HONEY, I SHRUNK THE ASYLUM

Would you tear my castle down Stone by stone And let the wind run through my windows Till there was nothing left But a battered rose? (“Castle Down”, 2003🎵)

Haters vs sycophants is not really the kind of conflict where one side can come out on top (if you're participating, you've already lost). But in the long tug-of-war between “grassroots” and “EA-sponsored” fan spaces, the ultimate winner is obvious – in that the former is gasping in agony, a shriveled husk of its former glory, while the latter... is non-existent. This is due in no small part to EA's tendency, like the Czars of old, to settle conflicts by setting Moscow on fire.🔍)
That's not entirely fair: unlike EA, the czar only did it that once.
By early 2013, as EA was gearing up for her third Fight Like a Girl tour at the end of the year, the official forum was... not as lively as it once had been. Not just because of the stifling rules and disgruntlement towards EA, or because EA herself hadn't really posted anything on there in years; the Internet was also changing, and forums in general were fast becoming passé.
This made it difficult for EA to create a safe space where she could talk to fans, and fans could talk to and about her, in a way she deemed suitable (ie, a space she could gate-keep and regulate enough to keep it completely free from negative criticism). Social media was a minefield; she still posted regularly, but didn't interact very much. So EA and the Headmistress came up with a way to filter out the unbelievers: an official fan club📝, aptly called the “Asylum Army”, with a $100 entry price.
Joining the AA came with a dog tag, a sew-on patch, and a lifetime membership certificate signed by EA and – for some reason – the Headmistress. (Unlike EA's best friend and sound engineer back in the forum's heyday, I don't think fans ever really embraced the FLAG-era manager as part of the Asylum in-group. She came across more as a coordinator / businessperson / adult chaperone, at best.🐀) So, slightly better goodies than you'd get by joining the other AA 🔍 ... but not by much. The main appeal was that members would have access to exclusive content, special merch, giveaways, early bird tickets for future shows, and regular video chats with EA.
The concept itself drew a fair amount of criticism, as you can imagine. Between the name🐀, the price, and the inherent gatekeeping of a pay-to-join fanclub, many balked at the monetizing of a concept that had once (like, three years back) been significantly more DIY, grassroots, and inclusive. 📝🐀
Then again, many also longed for a positive, drama-free space where fans could just be fans. And while the creation of the AA was generally recognized as a quick cashgrab, a lot of people were surprisingly cool with it. EA was trying to finance her dream musical, after all – although a number of fans wished she had gone about raising funds in a less sketchy way.
So around 400 fans shelled out (which, according to the Headmistress📝, “basically cover[ed] the cost of running the fanclub itself – keeping the database up, website, etc.”). Enough for a close-knit, but sizable community. But already, there was a conflict of interest: a high fanclub entry fee essentially demands that you pledge loyalty to the artist over loyalty to your fellow fans, who wish to join but can't afford to. Sharing, caring, and ensuring no one felt left out were some of the more positive values cultivated in the fandom... but leaking exclusive content would surely piss off other paying members🐀, and make EA feel betrayed all over again. (And she had barely just started to mellow out on social media!)
...But then again, this is the internet. After the first month of secret AA drops (lyric sheets, some photoshoot outtakes – nothing too juicy, really), there were, yes, some leaks. EA was predictably miffed, and retaliated by... ghosting the fanclub for weeks at a time in its first few months of existence (great look!). She eventually found the “solution” to her problem, by providing something you couldn't right-click-save (and which had been part of the promised perks to begin with): live interaction.
Over webcam, she was her usual in-person bubbly, charming, funny self. Everyone seemingly had a good time during the fanclub video chat, and this gave people faith and hope.
There were a few more events, giveaways, etc. As promised, ahead of the fall 2013 tour (the last one to date, it would turn out), AA members got priority access to show tickets and VIP bundles. The latter were much pricier than before, and only included soundcheck, a photo-op, and three goodies: a tin of loose-leaf tea, a signed printer-paper setlist, and a small flag that said “F.L.A.G.”.🔍 Some stuff continued to leak – but, as some of the outlaws pointed out (scroll down to the Disqus comments), they were mostly relaying information that was relevant to the entire fanbase, such as updates about ongoing projects (the dragged-out recording of the audiobook, for one).
In early 2014, lifetime memberships were closed, and replaced with monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription tiers. Bizarrely, you ended up paying $3 more per month if you bought a $99 yearly subscription📝 – but it did include the patch, dog tag, and piece of paper!

Sometimes I kind of want to be part of the cool kids and register to the Asylum Army. Then I remember how it came about, what you could get for the same price a couple years ago, how the whole thing was and is handled, and that I won’t support any of this bullshit. (And then I roll around naked in all the money I’m saving.) (🐀)

Still, a number of fans rejoiced at the affordable monthly option, and joined – if not for the exclusive content and merch (which were... okay, but not much to write home about), then for the friendly, drama-free exchanges with an artist they actually did love, in spite of all the frustration.
For the still-too-poor or still-undecided, there was always the forum! It wasn't as active as it used to be, but a few die-hards still managed to keep the lights on... until, inevitably, Someone Did Something and Ruined Everything. (Once again: EA's wrath is spectacular, but rarely completely unprovoked.) The incident features one notable figure in the Asylum community. Let's call him the Collector.
OK, so maybe you remember the meme I linked to in Part 4, with Christian Grey and the ginormous EA hoard. Well, that's the Collector's collection. The “Violin” promo that I called the "Holy Grail of the fandom" in the same paragraph? Also his. The handwritten lyrics that went for $940? Guess who won that auction. Over the years, the Collector had probably spent five figures on EA merch and shows, and although that fact was a little unsettling, he was a very active, easy-going, and generally well-liked fixture of the fandom.
One day in 2012, shortly after the Headmistress had replaced EA's old Chicago BFF as main forum admin, the Collector's account got banned or restricted over something dumb. When the ban wasn't lifted as quickly as he hoped, he took it... the way one takes things when one is unhealthily invested: he started spamming Headmistress and the mod team with increasingly rambling and abusive emails (lost to time, probably for the best). When that didn't work quickly enough, he tried a different route.
One of the many auctions that the Collector had won, some years prior, was EA's old iPod Touch📝 – which contained all of her favorite tunes and, buried somewhere in the data cache... a phone number. Which the Collector tried calling. And wouldn't you know it: EA picked up. She congratulated him on his sleuthing skills, listened patiently as he made his case, apologized for any distress caused by the unfair account restriction, and then they got married.
Kidding! She freaked the fuck out, hung up, and banned him for life from the forum and all EA shows and events.
After his ban, the Collector allegedly still tried to attend at least one VIP pre-show (one source in the comments says he was allowed to buy some merch, refunded for his ticket, and escorted out). He joined the Reform forum to bitch about EA and try to rally people to his cause, possibly made revenge posts about her on darker snark forums, and continued to hound the Asylum mod team. So in June 2014, EA came up with a radical and unexpected fix to the Collector problem.

The official Asylum Fan Forum has been shut down permanently. I have personally paid thousands of dollars each year to keep the forum safe and secure for you ... Unfortunately, the forum has not been kept safe and secure for me, a truth which disappoints me greatly, instead becoming a place where people who have physically threatened myself and my staff prey upon forum members, pressuring them to contact me and my staff on their behalf. If the gullible wish to humor my stalkers (who live in their parent’s basement at age 30 something) and thus put me in danger, they may do it on their own dime. They may also fuck off, because stupidity can kill, and I won’t be your victim. To those who enjoyed the forum, you know who to thank for its closure. (“On the closing of the Asylum Forum”)

Voilà! This is how a decade-long archive of shared history ends: not with a bang, but with a dirty delete and a sod-off communiqué.
The obliteration of the forum took everyone by surprise...

I was actually on the forum when it was taken down. I was navigating between posts and when I went to click on a different board, an error message came up. I honestly cried a little, I'm not ashamed to say. (WVC admin on Reddit, 2024)

...and I do mean everyone:

Chicago BFF / ex-admin, the next morning: Whoa, EA forum shut down? Ex-mod: It turns out that if someone spends enough years actively “waging war” to destroy what they can’t have, eventually they’ll be successful. * eye roll * Not even mods got prior warning. Just all the sudden, poof, gone. BFF: Really? She did not let the moderators know?! This is sounding worse and worse. Uggh. I’m so sorry. Such a loss. (...) Ok, threats are serious, but why not just put it in archive mode so no one can post? (...) Sad. I shall light a candle in the forum's honor. (Facebook posts; scroll down for screenshots)

It was a gut punch, especially for people who had poured countless hours into the community, or could have used some prior warning to save years of their own writing from the role-playing threads. One last chance to take a look around the place that had meant so much to so many.

From the wording of the announcement of closing the forum and a number of other things, it sometimes seems like EA doesn't like her fans much. :/ (🐀)

Three months after the forum was nuked, Battered Rose (a venerable EA fansite, which had been around since the Enchant era and had one of the most complete EA galleries online) announced that it was shutting down too.📝 The admin, who had also been a long-time forum mod, cited a lack of “time, energy, passion, or money” to keep the website going... and being upset at the sudden disappearance of the forum. It was, truly, the end of an era for the Asylum.
...Well, no point in living in the past. For those who could afford it, and still wanted to talk to/about EA after that (not everyone did 🐀), there was always the Asylum Army fanclub!
Over the summer of 2014, EA held regular live chats and Q&A's, and... many attendees really enjoyed them, and thought the AA was well worth the money after all. She also quietly parted ways with the much poo-pooed Headmistress around that time.

Just spent over 4 hours giggling, drinking tea and playing guessing games in chat with EA and other Asylum Army members ... No griping, no downers, just lots of fun. I think I like the way the ‘new fandom’ is going and now I’m really glad I finally decided to join the Army. (September 4, 2014🐀; Battered Rose had closed the day before)

The forum was lost forever, but perhaps that was a chance for a fresh start. Could this fanclub thing really be the Asylum Renaissance that fans had been longing for?

...I have come today to a very difficult but necessary decision, and that is to discontinue the Emilie Autumn Official Fanclub. The site itself, and the community chatroom, will remain open to you indefinitely, but I will no longer be making updates to the site. (Newsletter, September 8, 2014📝)

...Never mind, then.
Turns out the fanclub had been the Headmistress' idea all along. EA had been reluctant from the start, and although she really enjoyed the live chats with a safe community of people “who are there for the right reasons”, she couldn't overcome her fundamental discomfort with the concept. Lifetime and regular members would receive a bunch of digital downloads and a -35% coupon on the Asylum Emporium for their troubles. EA said she would definitely pop back once in a while for live chats, for free, just for fun, but to my knowledge, she never did.
And so the most devoted fans were left standing in the rain...

She is happy, she made it. She is fulfilling her dreams, found love and happiness after all the pain. I understand that she now doesn’t need “us” anymore ... That doesn’t change the fact she broke my heart with taking the Asylum Army and the forum from me. Yet, I am happy for her. (🐀)

...while naysayers pointed and laughed, Nelson-style.🦠

I don’t feel sorry at all for the people that paid for the Asylum Army fan club. Most of them knew that EA is an atrocious business woman and has broken many promises before. In fact, I laugh at them. They seriously thought that EA would actually stay consistent with this? (🐀)

EVERYTHING MUST GO: THE ASYLUM WHOLESALE

EA fans were left without an “official” home for about three years. This gave them plenty of time to be annoyed at EA for: not releasing the audiobook on time, not materializing any new project for a while... and the new sin of peddling random, ridiculously marked-up AliBaba jewelry as “merch” on her official store. Think faux-antique cameo pendants and $30 Big Ben rings (...because the Asylum story is set in London, get it?).

The whole accessories section looks like a tacky overpriced English souvenir shop. (🐀)

The fanbase lost a lost of steam in those in-between years, because there wasn't much to stick around for. As evidenced by the positive reception of the AA live chats, even in the midst of unresolved drama, out-loud interactions in a friendly environment have always been EA's saving grace. Considering the amount of online hate, there are shockingly few accounts of bad IRL encounters with EA: most people say that in live conversation, she comes across as a fun, warm, and genuinely sweet person. Some report that their negative opinion shifted after meeting her.
But there were no chats or live shows anymore. There was only social media, where she ignored questions and vague-posted about overdue projects – and the newsletter📝, which was all saccharine love-bombing to promote bland dropshipped trinkets. For fans who remembered the handcrafted merch (and two-way communication) of the early years, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

CONTINUED IN COMMENTS

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