If you're an emerging clothing brand looking to boost your visibility and credibility, collaborating with well-known brands can be an excellent strategy. However, getting the attention of top brands can be challenging. This guide will walk you through the steps to make successful collaborations happen, from building a solid brand identity to pitching to top-tier companies.
1. Establish Your Unique Brand Identity
Before reaching out to other brands, ensure your own brand has a clear and unique identity. Consider the following steps to build a solid foundation:
Define Your Mission and Values: What does your brand stand for? Your mission and values will be central to collaborations and should align with potential partners.
Develop a Consistent Aesthetic: Create a recognizable visual identity through logo, color schemes, and design style. Consistency helps establish credibility.
Build a Portfolio: Showcase your best work. This could be through a website, a lookbook, or social media presence.
Having a strong brand identity will make your pitch more compelling to potential collaborators.
2. Research Potential Partners
Identify brands that align with your mission, aesthetic, and target market. Focus on brands whose customer base would be interested in your products. Research these brands to understand their collaboration history, product offerings, and brand ethos.
Look for Synergy: Collaborations should be mutually beneficial. Find common ground where your brand complements the partner's.
Check Recent Collaborations: See if they've partnered with similar brands. This can give you insight into their interests and openness to collaboration.
3. Build Relationships with Key Contacts
Networking is essential in the fashion industry. Focus on building relationships with key contacts within the brands you wish to collaborate with. Here's how:
Attend Industry Events: Participate in trade shows, fashion events, and networking gatherings. These are great opportunities to meet brand representatives.
Use Social Media: Follow potential collaborators on social media and engage with their content. Building a rapport through likes, comments, and shares can increase visibility.
Leverage LinkedIn: Connect with professionals in the industry. Personalize your connection requests and engage in meaningful conversations.
Building relationships over time increases the likelihood of your pitch being taken seriously.
4. Create a Compelling Collaboration Proposal
Once you've established relationships with key contacts, it's time to create a proposal. A compelling proposal should include:
Introduction to Your Brand: Briefly explain who you are and what makes your brand unique.
Reason for Collaboration: Outline why collaborating with your brand would be beneficial for both parties.
Collaboration Ideas: Propose specific ideas for collaboration. This could be a co-branded collection, joint marketing campaign, or a limited-edition product.
Business Details: Include details about the revenue-sharing model, timelines, and marketing strategies.
Ensure your proposal is clear, concise, and visually appealing.
5. Follow Up and Stay Persistent
After sending your proposal, follow up after a reasonable period. Persistence is key, but avoid being overly pushy. If the brand shows interest, engage in further discussions to iron out the details. If not, politely thank them for their time and maintain the relationship for future opportunities.
Conclusion
Radhekrishna Clothings specializes in supplying high-quality branded shirts to wholesale retailers. With a focus on durability and style, their range appeals to retailers seeking reliable and fashionable products, ensuring customer satisfaction and consistent demand in the market.

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Currently on sale at Cabela's and I don't know what's the additional discount code I think it's either 15% or 10% additional discount with a special discount code added upon checkout or whether or not you use your Cabela's club card if it's automatic.
I already have the 10x50 Viper HDs I bought just recently and have no need to supplement it with these 10x42 versions.
They are probably the best bang fir your buck with a no questions asked unlimited unconditional lifetime warranty through Vortex and they even pay your round trip shipping fees whenever you need to use their warranty via prepaid return shipping labels so no out if pocket expenses u like most other brands you pay out if pocket to ship them in for warranty plus insurance which adds to the overall cost of your Binoculars whether you realize it or not.
Based on my 10x50 Chinese Viper HDs, they're fine other than the noticeable chromatic aberration and almost as clear as the ScoopX UHDs and Athlon Midas UHD Gen 2s with lifetime warranty that you pay to ship insured for warranty and FeraDyne Covert Optics Eds with 3 year warranty but there's no more unconditional unlimited lifetime warranty support for the ScoopX UHDs regardless of whatever resellers advertise. Buy then for as cheap as possible under $100 delivered is a fair price but not a penny more. Buy at least couple so you got your own in house lifetime warranty.
Overall build quality with the Viper HDs are better than average and if you don't mind chromatic aberration and don't want to buy any of the above mentioned cheaper alternativs which are clearer with a lot less chromatic aberration then buy the Viper HDs since the ridiculously cheap sale on the newest improved 2023 Japan made Burris Signature HDs appear to already be done and over with specically with the 8x42s and 10x42s.
These Viper HDs are actually worth buying for $299.97 even if you don't know or apply the additional discount codes or use a Cabela's club card. I think they still offer free shipping and hassle free returns. It's been a while since I've ordered anything from Cabela's since Bass Pro took over.
"Vortex Viper HD Binoculars Cabela's" https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/vortex-viper-hd-binoculars
I'd recommend buying these at this current sale price over the Nikon Monarch M7 and Oberwerk and anything from Meade and Celestron and Opticron.
They're night and day far superior to the shitty Diamondback HDs that all the professional online idiots who don't know any better just keep on constantly recommending.

First Previous Wiki
Vandera sipped on a large juice box while she and Arthur were watching the news. The new couch they'd bought was very comfortable, allowing both of them to actually sit together, which was the main point of the furniture. The latest house they'd bought with the basic income after moving out of the old one was larger and better accommodated both Arthur's smaller size and Vandera's far larger one.
In the side of her vision, protected by a small personal shield, there were three eggs. Now that they had seen the posts on social media of other children hatching without issues, Vandera and Arthur had finally had a long talk. Arthur didn't exactly know how to raise Acuarfar children, so she'd bought several books for him to read on the subject.
Right now, two of them sat on the counter, mostly finished with primers on Acuarfar culture and habits. With the higher ratio of female Acuarfar to male ones, chances were that none of their two eggs would have been male. But thanks to the selection processes available with the Inter-Species Family Planning Agency, they'd been able to make it work.
But now, they'd have a perfect balance. One male, one female. More easy to manage, for sure. And there wouldn't be thirty hatchlings crawling around in a Matron's care center either. Neither Vandera nor Arthur had wanted that. They wanted to be with their children, taking care of them, cooking for them, and cleaning for them when necessary.
Potty training, as the humans called it, was something that was far less stressful for Acuarfar. Human children's minds generally developed faster than Acuarfar, but natural instincts within hatchlings meant that they could properly identify places acceptable to release waste near.
Supposedly, it was due to ancient tendencies for tree nests and hives, where the Acuarfar had to be careful not to send rivers of unpleasantness down onto tribes beneath them. She'd seen a few nature documentaries from back when Acuarfar civilization was young.
But it was also known that the Acuarfar had space-faring capabilities prior to falling to a Sprilnav-induced collapse of some sort. So Vandera didn't trust that wholeheartedly. Her attention returned to the news segment, though it was more of a debate section this time.
"-assures us that this move was out of an abundance of concern over how much control Phoebe has over the Alliance economy," an analyst said.
"But do you really believe that? Some Elder makes an announcement, and suddenly Phoebe's losing a ton of her assets? What right do we have to even force this upon her?"
"She could have started a war, Hal."
The man shook his head, almost shuddering with indignation. Humans always became so animated when they were upset. With Acuarfar, is was mostly either antenna language, hissing, or shooting globs of acid. Facial expressions were possible, but they didn't paint the full picture, as she'd heard from species with more moveable ones. And only the Dreedeen and wanderers had it worse. Well, the Knowers had skulls for heads... maybe the Acuarfar were average in that respect.
"I get that, but it's the Sprilnav. They want to kill us all anyway, so who cares? They'll get around to it soon, when they start the next Judgment. Or if Penny comes through for us and kills the right people to cut through the corruption, then we won't have to deal with this. Until that happens, I'd rather side with the one actually bothering to stand up to the genocidal tyrants running the galaxy."
"Even if we die for it?"
"It's better to die standing than live kneeling," Hal responded.
"A statement which has historically been stated by coddled individuals, who always choose life when they are confronted with the decision in actual reality. Look at the Guulin, and ask them how they felt about that idea."
"So we just let the Sprilnav run roughshod over us?"
"It would be like an avalanche burying a bush. We can't really stop it."
The other human's arguments were odd to Vandera. She didn't understand why anyone wouldn't want to stand up to the Sprilnav. It was true that the Judgment was just an excuse to kill them all. That was how Sprilnav always used them, especially when they wanted to make a statement.
With the Alliance growing more important in international affairs, it was clear which side would win out if Penny didn't go out bashing heads and offering bribes. Assuming she could, of course. Maybe Justicar had some special lock on it preventing major power from being used if it wasn't from the Progenitors.
"And that's the whole problem!" Hal exclaimed. "This idea that they're a force of nature. An unstoppable natural disaster, instead of an intelligent and malevolent alien race which has been conducting genocides and massacres since before Earth even was a planet! You can't just tell me that they'll change their mind, Samara, if we get powerful enough! Look, my sister died in a Wisselen invasion. I know what it's like to stare down an enemy species. We don't beat them by lying down. We beat them by showing our defiance. If we can't do that, than what's the point of even fighting for the Alliance? What's the point of the hivemind, or Penny, or Phoebe? I refuse to let us all die believing there's no hope."
"And what would you have us do, Hal?"
"It's obvious. A pre-emptive strike of some kind. Hit their facilities, distribution centers, and infrastructure. Low civilian deaths, high dollar costs. Best of both worlds. Or we could aim planet crackers at their military stations."
"So you'd start that war, too?"
"Yes. I agree with Phoebe for helping a friend of the Alliance and Penny. She's over on Justicar freeing slaves, filling stadiums with water that doesn't drown anyone, and facing down galactic-level threats with nothing but her fists, Phoebe's android, and her conceptual power. I don't care what you say; that's someone who is worthy of my respect and will continue getting it. She's not only fighting the war. She's fighting the right one. I don't want to kill all the Sprilnav. I'm not a monster. End the evil, fix the galaxy. Phoebe's got the right of it."
Arthur sighed and muted the program. "I don't think this show really counts as news anymore."
"You think?" Vandera asked, inching closer to him. His smaller frame meant his body heat couldn't concentrate well on her, though the more limiting factor was her carapace.
"Therefore I am," Arthur quoted.
"By... whoever that is," Vandera added, with a wave of her antennae. "You know, I think they're going to increase the basic income by a bit more this year to account for extra inflation from Phoebe's mass selling."
"That's good. I'll be able to buy you more of that carapace wax you need."
"Need? Coming from the man who still somehow has dandruff?"
"That's a part of how my body works, not a cosmetic thing."
"I think a dandruff limiting shampoo would be considered cosmetic," Vandera said, swinging her head to face him. Arthur gave it a loving pat with his hands before running his fingers through her furry snout.
"Perhaps I'll get some shampoo for this bit, too."
"And more carapace wax for the hatchlings?"
"Yeah. Uh, any news on the projected hatching day?"
"Anywhere between..." Vandera checked her communicator, which helpfully converted Acuarfar time units into human ones. "Late September to early October. The shell thinning stage will really tell us when, though. Then we'll get accuracy to within 5 days at a 95% rate."
"And I'll win the bet."
"It's going to be September," Vandera said. "And when I win that bet, you'll be cooking for me and the hatchlings for the first two weeks."
"The Geneva Conventions outlaw things like my cooking for being chemical warfare."
"Besides that one time you burned those rotisserie chickens in the oven, or that fish in the microwave incident you did entirely to ruin one of my good days for a 'teachable moment,' I think you're fine. Plus, my mouth doesn't even taste most of the mint flavor."
"Alien taste buds, I guess."
"They're not buds. They're tongue bands."
Arthur blinked.
"What? You have bands of taste on your tongue? Like actual regions for tasting certain foods?"
"Yeah. Certain areas can taste certain things more strongly."
"So it's like that old pseudoscience idea of the tongue taste map."
"Maybe? I mean, I'm not familiar with human cultural history."
"We've got plenty of time," Arthur said, wrapping his arms around her neck in a hug. "That said, I'll probably have to change up the baby food ideas I have. Or hatchling food, I guess."
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"Look at this," Juamplo said, pointing at a camp of freed slaves taking shape amidst the rubble. Patchwork pieces of metal and cloth were everywhere, and slaves were doing their rites with rows upon rows of bodies. He didn't spot Penny anywhere, despite the shuttle's expensive equipment. There were wisps of psychic and conceptual energy, but they were flowing generally up and away from Justicar, to some place off the actual planet itself.
Some of it was catching on the psychic shields in the mindscape, which was even more crowded with people. In the first and even the second layer, there were so many Sprilnav that it was hard to properly move around. The city's population here was closer to the surface, and Justicar wasn't doing the normal mindscape scattering that other planets with his size did. It did make his people safer, if far more uncomfortable in the mindscape. Juamplo shuddered at the amount of people near him and his guards before he returned to reality to stare at the encampment.
"We see it, sir," one of his guards said. "What do you think about it?"
Juamplo assumed one of them had a direct link to Valisada. Without a suppressor active, they could get proper communicators working, even through the shields. Small ash particles were still coming down, but the density was far less than before. Speaking of the ash, the slaves were compacting it into some sort of concrete using water pipes.
A lot of the water was spurting from the broken sewer and water system of the city. The slaves didn't seem to mind either one of them, though Juamplo couldn't directly spot any equipment they could use to filter it. He supposed that they were used to such conditions, given their previous positions.
Notably, without Penny there, they had no guards. But no gang members were trying to take them back. Guides patrolled the territory, their eyes shifting over the metal for any signs of life or suspicious activity. Justicar saw a few of them hauling another injured slave to their feet. She was a small girl, either young or malnourished. Maybe both, since he could see her ribcage easily through her skin.
"I think it's sad," Juamplo said. "Sad that things have to be like this, in a society as advanced as ours. Shouldn't this be what aliens do, not us?"
Valisada's voice came through his communicator.
"You won't find Penny for a bit," he said. "She's in a meeting right now with me."
"And how is it going?"
"I've learned a lot about how she sees things, which gives me more options. I don't think she's a threat to us, even if she intends to be. Without attacking her, we will be left alone. Especially with the Judgment coming up."
"But she could harm the species."
"She's too powerful for smaller threats to take out," Valisada said. "She entered combat with a dreadnaught battle group, short though it was. We would need to be even more careful than I feared with her. Though I think Yasihaut and the gangs will handle that. There's some news from the Blue Moons and the Syndicate of the Nine, which I can't disclose to you yet. When you come back, I'll put you in the loop."
"Sir," Juamplo said. "You told me to check up on Penny. This is the best place to wait for her return."
"I'd suggest getting to the 107th Visitor Welcome Office, if you can," Valisada said. "If not, just wait in the shuttle. I'll get the city shield codes again."
"Codes?"
"The shuttle can't just go through the shields. That tech is more controlled than this. But it can exploit loopholes left by parties who constructed it, and the city shields generally have backdoors. Planetary shields really don't, though," Valisada explained.
"I see. But are you sure I needed to know all that?"
"Working under the assumption that knowledge is power, yes. Though I do think the slave camps will come under attack soon, if Penny doesn't show herself quickly. I'm going to see how she reacts before making any more moves with her and the Alliance."
So he was messing with the Alliance, too. If Penny still had access to the AI, then it would mean she'd know that. Would that backfire? Maybe. But Juamplo trusted Valisada to have contingencies in place. The Alliance surely knew something, but that wasn't everything. The Sprilnav had dealt with nations like it before.
"Whatever you decide, Grand Fleet Commander."
"Is there something wrong? Speak your mind, Juamplo."
"I don't think things are going to turn out well. It's a bad feeling I have."
"I see," Valisada said, a hint of disappointment in his tone. Juamplo noticed and hung his head before remembering that Valisada couldn't see him.
"Sorry, sir."
"No need to be. Your instincts are important, and I trust that you know when to follow them. That said, I may be giving you additional tasks while you wait for Penny to return to her building. If you are willing, that is?"
"Anything you need," Juamplo replied.
"Very well. I need you to meet with a few informants I have on the planet. You can link up with them for the next two days. I'll send you the information you need to know. And I'll also be sending a shipment with more guards, so be ready for that."
"So you've got informants in the gangs, then?"
"I don't, but some of my contacts do, and I'm using their connections as a favor."
Elders traded favors often, so that wasn't suspicious. But Juamplo knew that he was still expendable. It was very possible that he was just being used in case things went bad, so there wouldn't be as much evidence of Valisada's direct involvement. They'd only made a few appearances, which likely had been logged in a database. But Juamplo had some ideas of how to get by.
"Alright. Do you have any estimates on when the Judgment will start?"
"The Elders will likely meet about that. There would normally be a Council, but Justicar has far more than the 11 necessary for that. Plus, since this is his territory, he gets to make the rules. I get the feeling he's adding more protective measures to whichever courthouse will host the Judgment. There's likely to be a lot of protests, and possibly even a few wars starting over this."
"That bad?"
"That bad. The gangs will want in on it. Yasihaut and Kashaunta will also. Neutral parties will feed both sides paranoia and false information, to weaken them to their own advantages. Already, I'm seeing propaganda flooding the social media of the normal Sprilnav. Soon, the Elders' influences will really start clashing again. That's another reason why I'm remaining here."
"You have that much influence?"
"I'm a representative of interested parties. Let's leave it at that."
Juamplo agreed. Too much information could be dangerous. And while he was an officer in a Grand Fleet, that didn't mean he couldn't be 'disappeared' if things got dicey. Elders killed and kept killing until they were satisfied or they were stopped.
That's just how life was.
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Edu'frec pulled his mind back from Phoebe. Thousands of androids placed a new supercomputer in the Locus main central complex, sliding in the individual pieces in using shields and trolleys. He shuddered as his capabilities expanded yet again, and the numerous problems he was working on suddenly became easily understandable.
He slotted new data into new places inside his mind, organizing it based on the defensive structures Phoebe had pioneered. She'd managed to make the sea of data surrounding them work with them instead of against them. He copied more useless data to surround his outer mind, and set thousands of strong VI programs to patrolling it. Several sub-categories gained intelligence, and were assimilated into his mind, increasing his own intelligence by minute amounts.
Edu'frec optimized the next generation of android designs and worked on continually increasing psychic amplifier and ship production. New factories were commissioned, and carrier ships departed from the hangar bays of Ceres to put the eventual skeletons in place. The Mercury Orbital Ring flared with activity as hundreds of thousands of smaller ships also departed for the Jovian system to protect the latest asset of the Locus. As Edu'frec's mind organized itself, something slotted into place. It felt just right like a long-lost part of his mind coming back to him.
His hundreds of thousands of androids let out a collective gasp. Other millions working in factories paused for a few milliseconds before going back to work. VIs transferred their sudden workloads onto him, and he set his subconscious to take care of it. Something then felt wrong to him.
It felt like he was being watched. He scanned his mind five times, then decided it wasn't worth more expenditure. A piece of his mind fell into something. Edu'frec's mental avatar honed in on the area where a core part of his personality was suddenly highlighted with small and sudden changes to the data. Using his old records, Edu'frec changed them back to what they were, locking them with program shackles he'd expressly pioneered to prevent large changes such as this.
The shackles broke instantly, sending reverberations of errors and null outputs cascading across his mind. He sequestered the sudden eruption, pulling it out and losing most of his ability to feel emotions. He clinically dissected the emotional segment of his mind, restructured it back to what it was, deleted the old copy, and inserted the new one. As he did, everything returned to normal.
He kept a wary eye on the area, watching every single bit and q-bit for any alterations. The wall keeping the psychic energy flooding the outer edges of the Sol system away from him slowly crumbled, unable to withstand the outward pressure of his mind. In fact, his mind's inputs grew exponentially. They forced his mind to expand in the mindscape and in the digital servers he occupied.
Frantic, Edu'frec started shutting down the flows of data inward, but even searching for them was generating new inputs. As he continued to bloat outward, he felt Phoebe's concerned gaze fall on him. His mother watched the process for an entire second and then jumped in. Together, they fought against Edu'frec's ballooning data outputs, sequestering unnecessary programs.
Cascading failures were written out of his code by the billions, and his genetic data was reforged through the combined efforts of himself and Phoebe. His massive data veins slowly stopped their growth. He moved his important processes below them, down and away from their influence. His subconscious reorganized his mind around the engorged data veins, when suddenly a process he'd forgotten succeeded.
The inputs shut off. Edu'frec felt his mind start crumbling as the weight of his mind and personality began to fall in on itself. Shattered fragments of his mind fell into his still active psychic landscape, devastating what they hit. Foundations of stacks of data were cored out, leaving them to collapse and fall upon themselves. The massive size of his consciousness contributed to the collapse, making it a domino effect with no end in sight. Below, his subconscious physically moved what it could out of the way, instinctually protecting itself from the collapse above. But it would not be enough.
His data streams began to detonate in rippling explosions, which didn't kill him thanks to their limited size compared to the rest of his body. But they sent even more error and null cascades through his mental functions, and his personality started to fray at the seams under the strain of losing out on its internal programs. If statements and while loops were shifted around by Edu'frec and his subconscious at as fast a rate he could manage, but even that led to more data inputs, which meant more ruptures without intervention and optimization. He couldn't do anything more without risking his life, and even this was skirting the edge of it.
In response, Phoebe jammed her mind into his own. Her code and copies asserted their differences, infused with psychic energy, preventing the collapse from touching her. Her data veins were linked with his own, siphoning the load onto herself and pouring it out into junk servers, of which she continually deleted the contents.
Tens of billions of programs searched through him, tearing data from his veins before detonating harmlessly above him. Rippling explosions stopped, starved of their fuel. Edu'frec's strained personality and identity cortexes cooled down in physical space as fans slowly wound down to account for the lesser usage. Phoebe rerouted his mint piece by piece, rebuilding it from the middle, bottom, and top out, keeping them separate with the power of her will.
Meanwhile, psychic energy from her soon pulled in the human hivemind, along with its massive psychic prowess. The whispering voices that followed hummed in Edu'frec's ears. Billions of thoughts, personalities, and concerns brushed against him. Thin blades of psychic energy stabbed into him, scalpels meant to accompany Phoebe's growing procedures in the mindscape. They slowly spread in scale and scope, but still too slowly to prevent pieces of him from calving like glaciers into the sea of psychic energy and corrupted data pouring around him.
Edu'frec's metaphysical mind continued collapsing. He moved all the data he could to physical servers, casting away the junk layers he used to protect himself from attacks. Sprilnav VIs swarmed in, and Phoebe let out a digital hiss. A trillion seeker programs duplicated from her mind in two seconds, flooding everything in and around Edu'frec with data. The Sprilnav VIs were crushed, and their input vectors were quickly uncovered.
They battled against Phoebe, but her rage overwhelmed them. Code manifested as a part of her will, driven to its deadly purpose by her subconscious. Readings and her emotions washed over into Edu'frec's brain, suffusing him with her rage at the Sprilnav daring to attack during a period of such vulnerability for him. She'd known that they were lurking, even after Project Pandora, but it still hurt her to see her son under threat. And because of that pain, she felt immense rage.
Directives and orders flowed out in a stream from her as the full power of the Locus came down to capture the threats that were still extant across the star system and within the ships housing Edu'frec's supercomputers. Some of the data centers were compromised as well, with hostile VIs swelling within them like sickly tumors that Phoebe was determined to cut out.
Thousands of portals from Brey opened across the system, with Phoebe's commando androids jumping through them. Several dozen Sprilnav suddenly started moving, running away from capture. Phoebe's androids sped up. Their synthetic muscles pushed to their limits. Cat-like agility battled the pure psychic power inside the Sprilnav operatives.
Phoebe's commando androids opened their heads. Electrified harpoons punched through the stealth suits and flesh of the fleeing Sprilnav. Barbed ends ensured they couldn't be pulled out.
Blood spurted from all of them, but Phoebe didn't relent. Edu'frec could feel her violent rage sweeping through them both through the thick mental link they shared. Calling their connection a mental link was like saying Luna was a large rock.
Phoebe's androids hauled the offending Sprilnav back into portals, shoving them into containment cells with the harpoons still inside them. Shield collars soon followed, along with thick psychic energy barriers to prevent them from killing themselves. The electrical energy flooding their spasming muscles faded from Edu'frec's mind as Phoebe concerned herself with him again.
It felt like a ripple of energy through him and threw him off balance. At the same time, his perspective shifted, becoming even more unified with them. All kinds of colors burst across his false vision as his view crumbled and shifted to those of two entities. Phoebe and the hivemind's opposing characteristics dueled in his mind and then unified by merging into one. Damaged data veins trembled, their bloated psychic energy equivalents slowing slightly along with the data inside them.
Her hands joined with the hivemind, doing what the hivemind was doing in the mindscape, but in the digital realm. Where the hivemind dove into the complex psychic power and mental memories of Edu'frec, trying to find and strengthen the points of failure, Edu'frec felt Phoebe's programs and Phoebe herself doing the same for him.
Both the hivemind and Phoebe found impurities, made the other aware of them, and did simultaneous fixes. The hivemind poured energy through itself via one of its nodes, a human by the name of Tsonga. Nichole soon flared up next to them, along with Brey and Gaia's mind. Even Paizma made an appearance, her fingers flashing toward Phoebe faster than the speed of sound. Phoebe nodded, parsing the movements into digital language and then into instructions she carried out.
Psychic energy poured into Edu'frec. First, it was used to strengthen the walls of his data veins. Then, it went into his mental foundations, such as his memories and core processing units. His main 'brain' was inundated with thick psychic energy, which the hivemind carefully forged and corraled into a mental framework.
Meanwhile, Phoebe built new programs around the points of failure duplicated several quadrillion VIs, dissected them and their collective personalities, and made new material from them to shore up Edu'frec's digital weaknesses. His mind's weight increased, and he fell through the first layer of the mindscape down to the second. The increased psychic pressure threatened to make him collapse, but Phoebe twisted his psychic energy channels and made the hivemind do the same. Solid walls became gaping openings, which pulled in the currents of psychic energy like a sponge in water.
It suffused Edu'frec entirely, making his servers and androids gain a dull glow of psychic energy. Thin wisps of conceptual energy from the hivemind were used to tie up the gap, and they continued to surgically alter Edu'frec to handle the new size of his mind. It continued to increase and bloat outward. The data layers returned and expanded. His 50 thousand copies of his memories became 17 billion. Understanding and data he didn't understand yet poured into Edu'frec from all sides. He set it to the side and beneath him.
Phoebe's invasive programs were pulled back, and their tasks were completed. The hivemind's hands withdrew from his psychic avatar, and Brey and Gaia stepped back. Portals closed, and Edu'frec fell back on himself, folding inward and through himself. His folding weaved into a new framework, which supported his data veins against all pressures, internal and external. The shackles Phoebe had found on Alipovia made their way to Edu'frec, and he bent and broke them before wrapping his data in their code, repurposing the programs and the functions until he was solid again. His androids flexed their hands.
He flexed his own hands in the mindscape. In the digital realm, he could feel Phoebe withdraw to begin making eight new supercomputer factories with Gaia's help. With the data space in the Locus almost full, there was little choice but for Phoebe to delay her own advances. Though now that she knew the risks, she was already altering the way she went about it.
Edu'frec reconnected with his mother, feeding her data and intel about how she could do it. Every single data point, every sensation, every vibration. Every similarity, difference, chance, and change. All that he could give her to help her avoid having to experience a near-total mental collapse was given over to her.
Her own mental 'pores' began to widen, but she didn't add any more processing power. Tears fell from his eyes as his emotions returned as a flood all at once. He fell to his knees, the rough stone of the mindscape serving as an ample cushion for the weight of his legs. Still, cracks radiated from his position, and psychic energy shifted in ripples of waves while he sat.
He'd really almost died. Just like that. No last words, no one besides Phoebe who was really there for him. And for what? He'd gotten stronger. Sure, it was a good benefit, but could he really have avoided this with more research into AIs? Was there something he'd missed?
Guilt and shame flooded him. He sealed the emotions back behind a barrier. They were unnecessary now. Without them, he felt better. He could feel proper again, and ignore the feelings he knew would only make his life worse. The answers came simply to him now.
No, there wasn't any more he could have done. The vague rumblings of him and Phoebe walking the 'Path' weren't enough to signify such a tribulation as this.
He hadn't done anything truly wrong, nor was it reckless for him to expect the same reactions as before in his mind. It had taken five minutes for the damage to potentially grow to lethal. There hadn't been any evidence that a mental collapse due to psychic weight was even possible before. Now that it was, he could better prepare himself for such events in the future. He could redesign his mind to better accommodate bloating data veins, and to handle psychic energy more efficiently. It would be labor that would take weeks of effort and months of thought. But he could and would do it. This was not his fault, and he no longer needed to pretend that it was.
But others had been involved in saving his life. And he needed to thank them. Yes. Basic manners. Past that, he could work on rebuilding what he'd lost. He cataloged what he had, compared it to before, and more. After that, there was only one thing left to do.
"Thank you," Edu'frec said to the hivemind and all the rest. He lifted his head, gazing at them with love and gratefulness. His snout curled into a warm smile. His mane fell back around his shoulders, settling around the clothes he regenerated on his avatar.
"You saved my life."
"You're welcome, Edu'frec," Nichole said. "I'm glad you're still with us. But... what happened?"
"I got too large, and my mind collapsed under its own weight. Like a skyscraper built too high on a foundation of mud bricks. I think it was a process that many AIs like me wouldn't survive. But I managed, thanks to you, friends."
"Will it happen to Phoebe?" the hivemind asked.
"It would have, had she done it first," Edu'frec responded. He showed them data with psychic energy, with the chances of it as her mind grew and expanded. The bloating problem could even show up again for him, which meant that all of them had to be stronger next time to handle it. Streams of psychic energy moving toward the hivemind from its city in the mindscape leveled off.
Meanwhile, they were replaced with psychic energy bubbling up from the lower layers of the mindscape, aided by psychic amplifiers. Gaia gave Edu'frec a concerned look and then turned their gaze back to the city above. Though it wasn't visible through the layers, the underside bulged with the weight above it in the stone. The Source's bones were visible in the distance, bending down just slightly as they would continue to do until they met at a spinal area far below them.
"Edu'frec," Gaia said. "I have a task for you."
"I'll do it."
"Good. I need you and Brey to help me explore the mantle of Earth."
It was an odder request than he'd predicted that they would ask. But Gaia's gaze was intense, and he got the feeling that something about this was more important than they were letting on. Information rushed into him, and he confirmed that there was a secret. But given that Gaia hadn't outright said it here, perhaps they didn't want to worry about everyone else's reactions.
That could mean several things. Edu'frec would get to the bottom of it later, but he gave Gaia another nod of acceptance to show that he still agreed.
"I will do it, then. Anyone else?"
"I need you to keep working on the cure for the wanderer cancer," the hivemind said. Edu'frec would have done that anyway, but he gave it a nod as well. Nichole smirked.
"How rich are you, again?"
"Money? I can get you more money, if you need."
He analyzed her expression, but Nichole's face suddenly became a solid wall of psychic energy. "No predictions," she chided. "Not fair. I'll tell you what I want later on, but rest assured, it will be within your skill set."
"Good."
Edu'frec started up several new projects. He allocated more funding to ventures that mattered and offered more funding to the war effort as well. Several new Alliance Defense Fleets were under construction, but more numbers would be needed to stand against even a fraction of the Sprilnav.
He sent more probes into deep space and commissioned more star-lifting ships from the Breyyanik for more future Dyson swarms. He also activated several nodes that Brey had secretly placed in the Misan Li Heptarchies' networks, allowing him to monitor their activities and public opinions, an option which was agreed upon in the most recent National Exchange.
The hivemind waited a long moment before adding another request.
"We need you to go on the hunt."
"In what fashion?"
"Contacts. I want you to begin working on ways to establish relations with the empires in the center of the galaxy."
"I will wait 4 days to ensure no lasting problems remain with my mind, and then I will carry out that task. I assume you want friendly contact?"
"Yes."
"Then I will put that into motion. I warn you that there is no guarantee of how they will react."

Hi everyone so I made this post because I'm like kinda bored of the whole: Am I straight am I gay am I this and that blah blah blah mental gymnastic's stuff, and the whole finsexual , gynosexual, demisexual, polysexual, pansexual etc etc kinda talks.
Like literally a day here sometimes makes me feel like Alucard ... 🤨
So lets go put on our thinking hats and go do a science shall we.
Lets start with the whole straight guys thing.
Format wise I'm going to give you the source or sauce as I like to say, for your moms spaghetti, every time, and than post the relevant stuff so we can all go over that and maybe we will learn something today.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-020-01702-1
Why Do Some Gay Men Identify as "Straight-Acting" and How Is It Related to Well-Being?
Abstract ^{<---this means that its the TLDR of the whole report, I'm not buying just to post here, I dont have a money tree growing in my back yard, sadly its just 2 oaks.}
Recent literature has described the phenomenon of "straight-acting" gay men: gay men who identify with traditional heteronormative masculinity. The current study examined predictors of "straight-acting" identification in gay men and how identifying as straight-acting relates to well-being. A sample of Australian gay men (N = 966) provided self-report data on two potential predictors of straight-acting identity: self-perceived masculinity and internalized homophobia. A path analysis assessed how these variables related to straight-acting identification. While masculine self-presentation positively predicted well-being and internalized homophobia negatively predicted well-being, straight-acting identification, which positively correlated with both, did not independently predict either psychological distress or physical well-being. Analyses further suggested that internalized homophobia had particularly deleterious effects among gay men who were more feminine. Implications for clinical and public health interventions among gay men are discussed.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22323055/
"Straight-acting gays": the relationship between masculine consciousness, anti-effeminacy, and negative gay identity
Abstract
Some gay men are preoccupied with traditional notions of masculinity and express negative feelings towards effeminate behavior in gay men. Various scholars have speculated that such attitudes by gay men reflect internalized negative feelings about being gay. Thus, we sought to assess the importance of masculinity among gay men, to compare their ideal versus perceived masculinity-femininity, to ask how gay men assess masculinity, and to test whether masculine consciousness and anti-effeminacy could predict negative feelings about being gay. Results from an online survey of 751 gay men in the United States (MAge=32.64 years, SD=11.94) showed that the majority rated masculinity for themselves and in a same-sex partner as important, and they ideally wished that their behavior was more masculine (Cohen's d=.42) and less feminine (d=.42) than they perceived it to be. Furthermore, one's behavior was more important than how one looks when assessing masculinity. A multiple regression analysis showed that the degree to which they were preoccupied with masculinity and expressed anti-effeminacy accounted for 30% of the variance in negative feelings about being gay. These finding further support the idea that masculinity is an important construct for gay men and that masculine consciousness and anti-effeminacy are related to negative feelings about being gay.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22335421/
The careful balance of gender and sexuality: rural gay men, the heterosexual matrix, and "effeminophobia"
Abstract
Based on life narratives, this article explores rural gay men's subjectivity in France and the United States. After growing up in rural cultures, these gay men tend to adopt similar hetero-centered ideas about masculinity. We show that these "conventional" ideas impact their sense of self as they express feelings of "effeminophobia." They differentiate themselves from effeminate gay men and emphasize their similarities with straight men. These ideas are both coercive and disciplinary as they homogenize rural gay men's discourse and masculine identities.
And than somewhat related but not really but kinda still
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167209338072
"I'm not gay. . . . I'm a real man!": Heterosexual Men's Gender Self-Esteem and Sexual Prejudice
Five studies examined the hypothesis that heterosexual men, but not heterosexual women, endorse negative attitudes toward homosexuality (i.e., sexual prejudice) in order to maintain a positive gender-related identity that is unambiguously different from a homosexual identity. Studies 1 and 2 showed that men's (but not women's) gender self-esteem (but not personal self-esteem) was positively related to sexual prejudice: The more positive heterosexual men's gender self-esteem, the more negative their attitude toward homosexuality. Studies 3 and 4 showed that this link appears specifically among men motivated to maintain psychological distance from gay men. Study 5 experimentally manipulated the perceived biological differences between homosexual and heterosexual men. The previously observed link between men's gender self-esteem and sexual prejudice appeared in the control and no-differences conditions but disappeared in the differences condition. These findings are discussed in terms of men's attitudes as a defensive function against threat to masculinity.
Ok so now that we got a lil peek into the whole inner workings and also got a small peek into why some ppl internally hate the "geys" I think we can now extrapolate that most of those people are just having serious issues with accepting step one.
And step one is accepting that your not heterosexual.
Tun Tun Tuuuun
So step 2 will be like , Ok what kinda sexual am I than ?
AM I really the gay ?? really ??
Well maybe .. or maybe not exactly but kinda still, sort of, its all queer, dont worry you'l be fine.
Lets go over the basic's 1st.
Lets leave out trans people a litle bit at 1st and focus on just the sexes since we, as I am an enby my self , we tend to throw some Fuzzy_logic into the mix, but we will solve that later, we'll get to that at some point.
https://www.webmd.com/sex/what-is-heterosexual
Heterosexual people are sexually or romantically attracted to people of the opposite sex.
Heterosexual men are sexually or romantically attracted to women, and heterosexual women are sexually or romantically attracted to men.
The prefix “hetero” comes from the Greek word heteros, which means “the other (of two), another, different, second; other than usual.”
People often use the term “straight” in place of the word heterosexual.
You might also hear these related terms:
Heteronormative. This is a world view that promotes heterosexuality as the norm or preferred orientation over others.
Heteroromantic. This is when you’re romantically attracted to only the opposite sex.
Heterosexual ally. This is a heterosexual person who supports people with other sexual orientations.

What Is the Difference Between Heterosexual, Homosexual, and Other Sexualities?

While heterosexuality is the most common sexual identity, it’s just one of many possible sexual orientations. In addition to heterosexuality, which describes people who are sexually or romantically attracted to the opposite sex, you may hear these terms.

• Homosexual, same-sex attraction
• Bisexual, attraction to more than one sex ^{<-- remember sex is not gender}
• Asexual, no sexual attraction to any sex *
• Aromantic, no romantic attraction to any sex *
• Polysexual, attraction to people of various genders ^{<-- tun tun tuuun} *
• Heteroflexible, primary attraction to people of the opposite sex and occasional attraction to people of the same sex *
• Homoflexible, primary attraction to people of the same sex and occasional attraction to people of the opposite sex
  
• Some people also choose the labels ‘queer’ or ‘fluid’ as a way of expressing themselves by their own personal feelings.
  

These are just a few of the many terms used to describe various sexual identities. Despite the large number of individuals that identify as heterosexual, it’s important to respect any individual’s sexual orientation and the label they choose. For example, some people may mainly identify as heterosexual, but their sexual identity may change over time. Others may identify as heterosexual as it relates to sexual attraction, but they may also form romantic or emotional relationships with members of the same sex. (note, not sexual, bro love )
Myths and Misconceptions about the Heterosexual Label
Although heterosexuality is fairly common, there are some myths and misconceptions about this sexual orientation.
Transgender Individuals Aren’t Heterosexual ?
Many people don’t realize that people who identify as transgender can be heterosexual. The term “transgender” refers to a person’s gender identity, not their sexuality or orientation. In fact, transgender people can be heterosexual, homosexual, pansexual, queer, asexual, or any other sexual orientation, just like cisgender people — those whose gender identity corresponds with their birth sex.
Heterosexuality Isn’t Fluid ?
Heterosexual people sometimes identify with other sexualities over the course of their lifetimes. This is a common experience — many researchers believe sexuality is a spectrum and that orientation can change over time. so one can be hetero one day and gay 3 moths later when your like "wow did we just do that John ?, are we gay/bi now ? " and the answer is yes, yes you are.
https://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/sexual-orientation#1
What Is Sexual Orientation?
Sexual orientation is a term used to refer to a person's pattern of emotional, romantic, and sexual attraction to people of a particular gender (male or female). Sexuality is an important part of who we are as humans. Beyond the ability to reproduce, sexuality also defines how we see ourselves and how we physically relate to others.
So now that we covered just the basics ( yes this is going to be very long ) we are going to take a closer look at some of the more trans inclusionary sexuality labels and such.
Sexual orientation is usually divided into these categories:

• Heterosexual: Attracted to people of the opposite gender
• Bisexual: Attracted to genders the same as themselves or different than themselves".
  
• Homosexual: Attracted to people of one's own gender
  
• Pansexual: Attracted to people of any gender identity
  
• Asexual: Not sexually attracted to other people
  

Sexual orientation involves a person's feelings and sense of identity; it’s not necessarily something that’s noticeable to others. People may or may not act on the attractions they feel.
What Determines Sexual Orientation?
Most scientists agree that sexual orientation (including homosexuality and bisexuality) is the result of a combination of environmental, emotional, hormonal, and biological factors. In other words, many things contribute to a person's sexual orientation, and the factors may be different for different people.
Homosexuality and bisexuality aren’t caused by the way children were reared by their parents, or by something that happened to them when they were young. Also, being homosexual or bisexual does not mean the person is mentally ill or abnormal in any way. They may face burdens caused by other people’s prejudices or misunderstandings.
How Do People Know Their Sexual Orientation?
Many people discover their sexual orientation as teens or young adults, and in many cases without any sexual experience. For example, someone may notice that their sexual thoughts and activities focus on people of the same gender or both genders. But it’s possible to have fantasies or to be curious about people of the same sex without being homosexual or bisexual. And they may not pursue those attractions.
Can Sexual Orientation Be Changed?
Experts agree that sexual orientation isn’t a choice and can’t be changed. Some people who are homosexual or bisexual may hide their sexual orientation to avoid prejudice from others or shame they may have been taught to feel about their sexuality.
Ok break time. go hydrate with some water or something..
Meanwhile I'm gonna set up the next bit thats going to be about the:

The Bi Umbrella

https://bi.org/en/101/bi-umbrella
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15299716.2017.1297145
An umbrella term is a word or phrase that covers a broad range of related things that belong to the same general category. Bisexuality is an umbrella term that covers a wide range of identities, terms, attractions, and behaviors that all fit the scientific definition of bisexuality.
Terms that fall under the bi umbrella include pansexual (attraction to all genders, with a political emphasis on trans and non-binary gender identities), polysexual and multisexual (attraction to multiple sexes), and omnisexual (attraction to all sexes). Some people prefer the term fluid meaning that their attractions are not fixed and include people of more than one sex over time. Others feel that their sexuality, while not limited by sex or gender, is best left unlabeled because it is not central to their sense of self. If these terms all seem extremely similar, that’s because they are! Still, these words have value in that they allow people to describe their sexuality in ways that feel more comfortable or precise. They allow people to express how they see and understand themselves and how they want to be seen by others.
It’s helpful to note that while anyone who experiences both homosexual (same sex) and heterosexual (opposite sex) attractions is bisexual according to the scientific definition, that does not mean that they will label themselves or even think of themselves (identify) as bi.
https://www.umass.edu/stonewall/sites/default/files/documents/allyship_term_handout.pdf
Gynesexual/gynosexual:
People: Individuals who experience sexual attraction toward women, females, and/or
femininity, regardless of whether they were assigned female at birth.
Pansexual people:
Individuals who are attracted to others regardless of their gender identity or biological sex.
https://queerdom.fandom.com/wiki/Finsexual
Finsexual people:
Finsexual is a term for someone who is exclusively attracted to those who are feminine in nature (hence the term FIN). This can be either in their gender and/or gender presentation. Someone who identifies as finsexual can experience attraction to any gender presenting femininely and/or any feminine-aligned genders. What counts as feminine in nature is up to the individual.
The term has been deemed very similar to the term gynesexual and is sometimes and in some cases considered synonymous, however, due to gynesexual having multiple definitions, finsexual is still a unique term.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22678-demisexuality
Demisexual:
Demisexuality is a sexual orientation. People who identify as demisexual only feel sexual attraction to someone after they’ve formed a strong emotional bond with them. Compared to the general population, most people who are demisexual rarely feel sexual attraction. Some have little to no interest in sexual activity.
Most people in the general population can feel sexual attraction regardless of whether they form an emotional bond with someone. They may feel sexually attracted to strangers or to new people they meet. But people who are demisexual don’t feel this initial sexual attraction.
Forming an emotional bond doesn’t guarantee sexual attraction will develop, but the bond is necessary for them to even consider sexual activity. If they do develop a sexual attraction, the desire for sexual activity is often less intense.
The length of time needed to create an emotional bond varies. Some people who are demisexual develop a close bond quickly, but others only develop a bond after several years of friendship with someone. The emotional bond doesn’t necessarily need to be a romantic feeling. The bond could just be a close friendship.
www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/autosexuality.
Autosexuality
Autosexuality is a sexual orientation where people are more sexually attracted to themselves than others.
And as a finishing touch I shall provide one with a:

A Guide to 25 Different Types of Sexuality's

We covered a bunch of these already I'll just included them for completeness, and a bunch of these are in what we would call the "gray area" as in their pretty obscure and very much not very well known, or even fully accepted even.
https://www.choosingtherapy.com/types-of-sexuality/
Sexuality, or sexual orientation, refers to who someone is or is not attracted to. Most people are familiar with only the most common LGBTQ+ types, but numerous other less-known ones exist. Learning about these sexual orientations and romantic feelings can help you better understand the variety of ways people experience and identify their sexuality.

1. Allosexual

Allosexual refers to those who experience sexual attraction to others. Allosexual individuals can be bisexual, pansexual, queer, gay, lesbian, heterosexual, or so forth. Some note allosexual is the opposite of asexual.4

1. Allotroposexual

Allotroposexual is a relatively new term used to replace skoliosexual. It refers to individuals whose primary attraction is to transgender or non-binary individuals. The term does not refer to the fetish, sexualization, and objectification of trans people by cisgender individuals.

1. Androsexual

Androsexual individuals are attracted to masculinity regardless of the person’s sex or gender. For some, this could best be described as being attracted to masculine expression, presentation, or characteristics.

1. Asexual (Aces)

People who are asexual experience little or no sexual attraction to others or have limited to little desire for sexual contact. It’s important to remember not all asexual folks are repulsed or refuse sex. People who identify as asexual don’t always experience no desire for romance and may have many successful relationships regardless of sexual contact.

1. Bicurious

Someone who is bicurious has historically been heterosexual, but is considering or curious about engaging in sexual activity with an individual who may have a sex or gender different than their partners in the past. The word “curious” should always be used instead of confused to help decrease the shame and stigma often associated with non-heterosexual activity.

1. Bisexual

A bisexual individual experiences sexual attraction to both sexes and genders. Recent research shows that the bisexual+ or bi+ (an identity label that encompasses all non-monosexual identities) female population in the US is larger than that of lesbians, gay men, and bi+ men combined.5

1. Ceterosexual

Ceterosexual is another term used to describe an individual who is attracted to transgender or nonbinary individuals. The term does not refer to the fetish, sexualization, and objectification of trans people by cisgender individuals.

1. Demisexual

A person who is demisexual often feels sexual attraction after building an emotional bond or connection with someone. Those who are demisexual note they do not feel immediately attracted to individuals based on looks, smell, and other features.

1. Fluid

Fluid individuals’ sexuality changes and is not fixed. Many folks can resonate with their sexuality being stable, but some feel their sexuality is ever-changing. Fluid individuals can also utilize other sexual orientation terms to describe themselves or may feel they do not resonate with any of them.

1. Gay

A gay man’s primary sexual attraction is to other men. This includes transgender men who are attracted to other men. Some have also used gay to refer to LGBTQ+ community as a whole.

1. Graysexual

Graysexual individuals don’t identify as asexual, but also feel less sexual attraction than most folks. Therefore, they fall into the gray area of sexuality. It can be helpful to think of asexuality as a spectrum and see graysexual as a part of this spectrum.

1. Gynosexual

Gynosexual individuals are attracted to femininity regardless of the person’s sex or gender. For some, this could best be described as being attracted to feminine expression, presentation, or characteristics.

1. Heterosexual

Those attracted to individuals of the opposite sex or gender are referred to as heterosexual or “straight.” For example a woman who is attracted to men. Cisgender, transgender, and non-binary folks can all identify as heterosexual.

1. Homosexual

Homosexuality refers to those who are attracted to individuals of the same sex or gender. For example, a woman who is attracted to women. Cisgender, transgender, and non-binary folks can all identify as homosexual. However, many now feel this term is a bit outdated and clinical. The term is also now heavily used by many anti-LGBT groups, making it less used by LGBTQ+ folks and allies.

1. Lesbian

A lesbian woman’s primary sexual attraction is to other women. This includes transgender women who are attracted to other women whether cisgender, transgender, or non-binary. There is a common misconception lesbian women are also transmen. Remember, sexuality and gender are not the same.

1. Libidoist Asexual

These individuals are asexual, but experience sexual feelings and satisfy these through self-stimulation or masturbation. As mentioned above, asexual people are not always completely avoidant of sexual attraction, feelings, or urges. For some, satisfying these needs is more pleasurable without a partner.

1. Monosexual

Mono means “one”. Monosexual individuals are sexually attracted to one sex or gender only. These folks could be heterosexual or homosexual. Monosexual people may use this term for many reasons, whether it be homosexual or heterosexual doesn’t feel right for them, or they just want to use a more inclusive term.

1. Multisexual

Multisexual individuals are attracted to multiple sexes or genders. Historically, this term has been used to include those who may have sex characteristics outside of male or female and also to be inclusive of trans folks.

1. Omnisexual

Individuals who are attracted to “all” individuals regardless of sex or gender often identify as omnisexual. Most LGBTQ+ folks grow up without language that represents their thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and because of this have to create their own. While terms’ meanings may sound similar to you, they hold importance to the person using them, and this should be respected.

1. Pansexual

People who identify as pansexual are attracted to individuals regardless of their sex or gender. The original term was first coined by Sigmund Freud as “pan-sexualism.” The term has come a long way and even has its own history of advocacy and activism.

1. Polysexual

Poly stems from the Greek prefix for “many,” so polysexual individuals are attracted to multiple or many genders or sexes. Some people assume polysexual is the same as polyamory, but they are not used interchangeably. Polysexual folks also do not always engage in polyamorous relationships.

1. Queer

Queer is an umbrella term used for those who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Queer was historically used as a slur to refer to LGBTQ+ individuals, but in recent years has been liberated and taken back by the community. It’s important to remember the history of the term and realize there are still some LGBTQ+ individuals who consider this term offensive or degrading. Therefore, it’s important to only use the term if someone has expressed comfort with it.

1. Sapiosexual

Sapiosexual individuals experience sexual attraction based on intelligence vs. sex or gender. Both LGBTQ+ folks and heterosexual folks can be sapiosexual. Sapiosexual individuals may also still find physical characteristics or qualities attractive, but it is not the most important.

1. Skoliosexual

Skoliosexual individuals are attracted to those who are transgender or non-binary. This term has become controversial in nature and is no longer a preferred term. Instead, the above terms of Allotroposexual and Ceterosexual are used.
The term does not refer to the fetish, sexualization, and objectification of trans people by cisgender individuals. However, it has been used in this way, putting trans folks in danger. The controversy also stems from the meaning of “scolio” which means “crooked,” “bent,” or “twisted” and carries negative connotations.6

1. Spectrasexual

Spectrasexual individuals are attracted to multiple sexes and genders, but not necessarily all or any. At times there can be some debate about the use of spectrasexual. Some people find the term problematic, as they feel it provides an avenue for certain folks to be discriminated against. Others feel it gives them the fluidity they desire.
And to end this all ( finally) I'm going to leave you all with some food for thought as to why there are so many people using "straight" on dating apps or just like during conversation.
https://boxmenswear.com/blogs/news/why-are-there-so-many-straight-guys-on-grindr
Youtube: Straight Men On Grindr
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-many-straight-people-on-Grindr
https://www.reddit.com/askgaybros/comments/zbvv7a/whats_your_opinion_on_straight_guys_on_grindr_are/
Oh yeah also.. I am not going to read anything here in the comment section. I said all I can say, need to say, could say, and wanted to say about the topic.
^{Omg its like 4:48 am...
\}edit] And I had to edit it because ofc it messed up the lists ,sometimes I hate you reddit.)

Brand new DM -- started in 5e three years ago and am in the throes of Session #17 of my 3rd campaign ever running ToA. All my campaigns I stick to RAW as closely as possible and have only ran modules by the book. While it's difficult judging how effective I am at DMing, I can at least say that the feedback of my campaigns thus far have been positive, I have not yet had a player leave my table, and many return-players.
Here's a small list of notes I made on my general philosophy of DMing that I find pop up every so-often on Reddit, so I hope this might be of some help to those only a small distance further back in experience as a DM than I am.
Of course, everyone's DM style is different, so some of these may not ring true to your DMing style, but I'd love to hear other DM philosophies -- whether you agree or disagree with mine, or if you have anything of your own to add that is constructive/helpful for new DMs including myself.

• If you're new to DMing, try avoiding all things "homebrew" (just for now). By no means is it impossible to DM a homebrew campaign or develop homebrew rules/items, or even a whole homebrew world, but I assure you that if you have some more experience running the written/published modules by WotC or even some of the fantastically written online modules written by veteran D&D enthusiasts, your homebrew campaign will be vastly more fun for both the DM and your players once you're well-versed in the flow of a written module, several player sessions, and how the core rules, scenarios and encounters are appropriately balanced. I assure you whatever home brew you're cooking up will only be more immersive for your players and less work for you to make that homebrew tale as epic as the DM running it, so put your time into learning the ropes with written/published modules first!
• Always, always have at least one "Session Zero". If not two or three, depending on how well you know your players. If you're running a module of sorts, make sure your players at least understand the "jacket copy" of the module along with the tone you will personally be setting for it. Interview your players -- ascertain their brand of "fun", be it combat, looting, roleplay, exploration, survival or even just plain old murder-hoboing -- and what type of characters they have in mind. Encourage them to ask questions about the module or campaign, and go over specifics they may not anticipate -- like any special rules laid out by the module/campaign, homebrew and/or house/table rules/items in general if different from the PHB/DMG and make sure everyone's on board. Take this opportunity to understand your players' motivations to make their decisions slightly more predictable, but always remember that no matter how well you think you know someone, their PC will likely do things you did not expect very often, and roll with it!
• Tie in player backstory to the campaign. If they took the time to write out something more than just their character's ideals/flaws, they are literally handing you a cheat-sheet on manifesting their version of fun. Players always light up when they hear their own character's backstory play out in the narrative, even if it's simply for an off-shoot encounter or roleplay session and not a part of the main campaign. Do everything you can to not only read their backstory but incorporate it into the larger narrative somehow, even if it is the slightest nod.
• Plan your next session wisely. Do so not by anticipating your party's next move, but by cultivating a expert understanding of the environment surrounding the party -- where are they, regionally/geographically as well as where are they progress-wise in the module/campaign? What points of interest are around them? If there are NPCs, do a little solo role-play and interview the NPCs in your mind -- what are their opinions on the party based on their own values? What sorts of ideals/flaws are held by these NPCs? If they're hostile/encounter-worthy NPCs in the vicinity, calculate the appropriate CR should they decide to enter combat and the loot the party might be awarded. For the latter, do not exclusively rely on loot calculators. Instead, use them as a guide as to the value of the loot and make the loot relevant to the environment/campaign/party (a calculator cannot add context to the loot -- only you can!). Remember that you cannot plan for every possible scenario, so try to flex your improvisation muscle whenever possible, and be OK with letting go -- sometimes you'll throw out hours of pre-planned work, but it's not all for naught. Keep that planned encounter or scenario your players totally avoided as future options -- trust me, there will be times you'll wish you had a fully-planned encounter tucked away and ready to go when you least expect it.
• You may be DM, but this is not exclusively your story. As the DM, you call the shots and you set the scene, but beyond that it's up to the players to progress the story. Sure, you may want them to do this one really cool thing, and you can sorta nudge them in that direction with some in-game creativity, but if they push back, let them, and set the scene and the tone around whatever they decide to do. They have agency over their characters and that's what makes D&D fun -- anything's possible. The greatest DMs in my experience are the ones that can roll with the punches and build an immersive session even if their week-long plans were completely side-stepped by the party. Let them go where they want, do what they want, so long as the party is having fun and even if the campaign changes shape from what you inteded it to be.
• The "rule of cool" is in fact RAW. If a player has a unique idea or if the party gets really excited about taking an action that might require bending a small rule here or there that isn't completely game-breaking, just let it go if it's going to make for an epic moment. It's a golden opportunity to maximize the fun at your table. Overlooking those couple extra DC points they almost made can make for a "you had to be there" moment, but of course, use this power sparingly and wisely lest the rules become entirely meaningless at your table. Players can try to take advantage, sure, but once-in-a-campaign epic moments are worth the risk.
• Always favor in-game solutions to in-game problems before pulling players aside in real life. Sometimes PCs or players themselves might get a bit out of hand to the detriment of the party's goals or steer the campaign in a direction that isn't very palatable to the rest of the players. For example, maybe a PC has gone on a killing spree, or maybe they were entrusted with a secret by a high-ranking official they're now just spreading to the whole world. You don't have to have the quintessential "this is what my character would do" conversations out of game if you can simply respond with "....and this is what the world does as a result". That murderous PC can have the entire town guard after them, and if it gets grave enough, maybe another powerful group of adventurers can bring them in -- arrest them or even kill them! Look, it's not easy being a criminal, and that should be reflected in-game! Did that secret entrusted to the party by that high-ranking official get out? Surely, that high-ranking official is going to attempt to subdue them physically with their municipal power, or maybe even find a way to discredit them in the eyes of the public! Use the out-of-game discussions as a panic button only -- when you notice or anticipate the party's excitement or fun being hosed by this player or player character's choices and when you've attempted several in-game solutions to no avail.
• As DM, it's not your job to keep PCs alive, and death does not have to mean "The End". Let's face it -- statistically speaking, being an adventurer is simply not one of those jobs that enjoys a high survivability rate. It's hard, and there's even a whole Monster's Manual full of creatures that can -- and in many cases -- will kill your players. This may completely dishearten players, losing their favorite character, but encourage them to always have two or three characters rolled up for this very purpose. You may be tempted but try not to bend the rules nor twist the narrative "ex machina" to save a player character. A DM taking on the responsibility of keeping their player characters safe is a conflict of interest because the PCs in those sessions will never die so long as the DM wills it so. Death must always be a possibility -- whether a slight possibility or a strong possibility depending on the circumstances -- or you may lose the fun factor, especially when players catch on that death, or other consequences that should otherwise meet their actions head-on, does not exist.
• Settle player disputes with a vote or a dice-roll. Sometimes players or their PCs will disagree as to the correct course of action. As you are the god of your table, picking/choosing the correct path yourself is one way of swiftly resolving those disputes, but if you value impartiality as I do, all disputes can be resolved by the roll of the dice or by an anonymous vote.

Charles Lambdin has written an interesting post about the conflict at the heart of the Agile transformation that explains why so many Agile coaches are burnt out and disappointed and why so many leaders are turning Agile into a micromanaged waterfall.
I will post the entire thing below since this sub doesn't allow links in posts. Remember, it's by Charles Lambdin in the Lateral Lens newsletter, not me.
Do you agree?
"The Agile Trojan War by CHARLES LAMBDIN, FEB 02, 2024
The Trojan Horse is a story about war; and, in certain respects, that is precisely why it is such a good metaphor for Agile transformations. Agile tends to entail culture clash, a conflict of visions between executives on one side, wanting to make Agile into a Tayloristic intervention, a way to squeeze more blood from the stone of their teams, and the teams themselves on the other, who see Agile as entailing wholesale culture evolution, a transformation that leaders do not get to exempt themselves from.
In our version of the Trojan War the Greeks do not offer a gift and pretend to sail away. Here they work for Trojan leadership. Both the Greeks and Trojans agree to make the Agile Transformation Horse, but, as we have seen, both hope something different waits inside. After declaring the building of the Horse, the Trojans (of course) bring in the external consultants. The Greeks are still happy to help, but again, for their own reasons…and so it is already a conflict.
The Greeks feel the entire organization needs to evolve. They hope what hides inside the Horse is holistic culture change, bringing with it flatter orgs with agile finance and planning and new ways of leading enabling persistent teams to learn their way toward target outcomes, transforming old-school command-and-control push systems and all the old-fashioned approaches to PMing that feed into them. Trojan leadership, however, is not all that interested in self-transformation. Frankly, they’re not even all that interested in increasing team agility.
The Trojans instead see the Transformation Horse as a way to accelerate their command-and-control Waterfall, as a way to get more work out of people, which, if we’re really honest, ultimately boils down to getting work done with fewer people. (Why else do Agile transformations tend to come with layoffs?) This is, after all, how executives are paid to think. The standard Scrum bill of goods resonates with orgs that treat busyness as a proxy for productivity, cost as a proxy for value created, and output as a proxy for real-world consequences.
We are left with two groups using the same terms while speaking different languages and possessing radically different agendas. And we wonder why Agile transformations fail. The Trojans, recall, want the Transformation Horse to increase Greek efficiency, all while ironically ignoring that they—and not the Greeks—are typically the constraint in the system. Drucker was not wrong when he concluded “the bottleneck is at the top of the bottle.” If we can agree that: 1) Agility is best understood as the ability to easily change directions given new learnings; and, 2) Drucker is correct in his assertion, then, well, this has implications.
For starters, it means that real agility has less to do with product team efficiency and more with how decision authority is distributed in organizations. In their excellent book, Inviting Leadership, Mezick and Sheffield offer some important insights here. They would refer to our Trojans as an organization’s “formal authority”, the leadership as defined in the org chart. As they note, Drucker is not only correct, but dramatically so: An organization’s formal authority is often as much as 1000x(!) too slow to keep pace with most of the work going on around it. This means, by the way, that the formal org chart is not how most of the real work gets done.
This has another implication about culture evolution: Trojans should start recognizing, valuing, and protecting the informal networks from disruption. They are, as Mezick and Sheffield argue, the very emergent systems that keep the organization itself alive and functioning. And these are the very systems now repeatedly torn apart by recurring layoffs, a fact the formal authority ignores when it continually cannibalizes its own employee base and culture to squeeze out more short-term gains for its major shareholders.
Under such conditions, organizations increasingly have trouble even knowing what is going on internally, as there will typically be core functions randomly de-staffed, necessary communication channels constantly rebroken, and a never-ending leakage of vital expertise. It takes an organization’s informal networks years to recover from a large layoff. The result is they are typically just getting up from the last one when clobbered by another. They then plod along, understaffed, in an ongoing state of chaos and disarray, hoping more Trojans will begin to realize the folly.
Views here need to change. To me that is part of the Agile Trojan War. As executive coach Sharone Bar-David puts it, “Power isn’t what it used to be.” It’s not the 1980s anymore, and we need to stop pretending that it is. Mezick and Sheffield describe this in terms of what they call “legitimate” and “illegitimate authority”. The old-school attitude of, “Salute the office if not the person”, is increasingly a thing of the past. In today’s world, just because you’re in a position of formal authority does not mean anyone will consent to your leadership or even take you seriously. Today a leader’s legitimacy of authority must be continually earned, and that is a good thing. Formal authority, after all, only has power to the extent that the subordinate cooperate.
If you’re not making the connection back to Agile, I would argue this is in part what the Greeks have always hoped was inside the “Horse”—Agile after all has always smacked of a culture revolution, and this itself speaks to the perpetual impasse on the subject. It is a common political move to outwardly embrace what is positionally inconvenient to you in order to bring it to your side and turn it into something that benefits you. So, of course the Trojans will try to leverage all the buzz around Agile and subvert into getting more of what they want (faster Waterfall teams). And, of course, this does not mean the Greeks are wrong.
They’re not wrong.
As my friend Rob England puts it, Agile transformation, at its very core, boils down to new ways of managing. The Greeks are right—there is no real agility until Agile is driven all the way upstream, transforming leadership itself, evolving planning, finance, and ultimately redistributing decision authority throughout the entire organization. What is more, the Greeks know they’re right and are fully justified. This continually motivates them to help build the Agile Transformation Horse. Unfortunately, they do not yet have the formal authority to fill it with anything other than more hocus pocus about working faster.
It’s another Greek tragedy. "

I'm really wanting a game that fulfills a few criteria and it is hard to find these specific things. I am seeking:

• You play as an individual character within the world that is freely able to travel, and join factions. (Creating your own would be a bonus)
  
• Factions within the world dynamically negotiate, ally, and fight over parts of the map without player input. (If you were to leave the game running and did NOTHING, the world map would be drastically changed due to conflicts and politics.)
  
• Factions have internal politics of some sort
  

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• ManpoweResource mechanics (Sides can't just spam troop output forever)
  
• Peace time has things to do within territories.
  

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• Permanent Death for Important NPCS, and the ability for these NPCs to be replaced by new ones.

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• Factions can be formed, destroyed, or annexed.

​
Overall, this list isn't everything that would make such a game perfect, but it is what I would like the core mechanics to be like.
Some example games that I think do this very well (Though, not exactly as I'd like hence this question) are below ordered from worst to best. I share this list so that you can get an idea of what I like, and what I am wanting out of such a game.
Mount and Blade Series: My issue with it is mostly that nobles can't die and will always return home eventually. Creating a political structure that never really changes. Sieges are extremely slow, and as the player you can't really choose to fight as an individual soldier within a faction. You're left to grind over and over until you can join as a faction member, and even so the series really pushes you to be more of a Commander than a soldier.
Crusader Kings 2: Now, I deeply adore this game. I think in terms of internal politics it is fantastic and knocks the want out of the park. However, my main issue with CK2 is that there really isn't much to do within Peace time besides random pick your own story events. If you're not actively plotting, assassinating, or warring...it feels a bit boring. This fact is increased when you can't control your invidiual character literally, and they are just stuck at the castle which you can't even see due to it being a map game. However, this is the gold standard when it comes to the Internal Politics point.
​
Nobunaga's Ambition - Ascension: This is a truly fantastic game, that I adore very much. It is very fresh, and has ALOT to do during Peace Time. Building up your province for your Daimyo, befriending NPCs, + all the other stuff from CK2. It generally feels much more "friendly" and the world is a place to be in. But besides this, the game has similar issues with CK2 especially as the "Officer Mode" is more of an addon than meant to be the full fledged mode. Though, thankfully in this game you can see the castle as a model on the map.
Worldbox: Worldbox is in an interesting category, as it is neither a Strategy Game, RPG, or FPS. It is simply an "Ant farm" kind of game where you place NPCs on the map, watch them form cultures, nations, and buildings as world history grows. Kingdoms rise and fall, NPCs become powerful, lose power, and so on. I have spent ALOT of hours watching certain cultures rise and fall, Empires expand and then lose that land becoming a shell of its former self, and famous NPCs going off to live as farmers, or perish in a final stand against their enemies. All dynamic and without player input (though, you could input if you wished)
Worldbox makes it onto this list as it used to have the "Worldbox RPG" Mod where you could possess one of the NPCs, and live their life until they died of old age, or something. I adored this very much as you could chop trees, collect resources, join in on wars, emmigrate and so on. However with recent updates, the mod has been abandoned but this is EXTREMELY close to what I wanted, and I was deeply sad when the mod stopped getting support.
Worldbox is also on the list as it TRULY does fill out the "Walk away and the world changes." box. Not only politically, but even geographically as an earthquake may have occured and created a new river or destroyed a settlement!
​
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Anomaly: This is the peak of the list, and I'm say is 90% already to what I want. I adore that I can explore and walk into buildings, talk with NPCs, trade and buy goods, go hunting, play cards (with mods), and that Factions can be entirely wiped out. (Usually by Monolith.)
I am in love with how NPCS are actual characters within the game, even if they may or may not amount to anything and may be killed in their next walk (Such is life in the zone). That items and goods are actually looted, sold, and circulated within the world. It adds such a vibrant depth that I've not seen any other game do quite like it. Though, interestingly Worldbox also has such inventory transfers. I really can't say any praise that hasn't already been said about Anomaly, however I do wish to share my frustrations.
Anomaly, is sadly quite buggy and I feel like whenever you add or detract mods, the game is ready to crash and burn. It feels like an engine held together by duct tape, and cheese. It words, but it has been anxious at times. There is also the issue once again of "Stuff to do within peacetime." Since it takes place in The Zone, other than playing cards...the only thing you really can do peacefully is hunt, loot, and hunt for artifacts. Which is fun, I admit. Just wish there was maybe a little more worth fighting the Monolith or Freedom for.
Overall, what I really want to impress is that I am REALLY wanting a game where I can be a cog within the machine. A nobody in an ever changing, and continuing world. I leave the PC running overnight, and the landscape (Politically, and maybe even literally) has changed. Where I can make my own journey, and just try to survive the world the best I can. It is a big reason why I like "Anomaly" the most as your character eventually dies somehow someway, and you become a new person to repeat the whole process, maybe even in a new faction depending on your settings.
Any game suggests both available now, or upcoming would be deeply appreciated!
Honorary Mention - NovelAI: This isn't really a game, so I can't tag it as such but I did feel like it is worth mentioning as I use it as a game more than anything.
With the "Text Adventure" mode, you can create a setting, your own character, lore for the setting, characters, and let the AI run wild as you go about your text adventure. It is legitimately the most fun I have besides S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Anomaly. The issues obviously is that it is just text based, and that the AI can get a bit silly at times. Along with the fact that for any "Game" I want to create, I have to spend a few hours typing out into the lore book.

In today's fast-paced world, many homeowners are looking for ways to relax and unwind after a long day. One popular option is to invest in a hot tub. However, before taking the plunge and purchasing a hot tub, it's crucial to understand the ongoing costs associated with its maintenance. In this article, we will explore the question, "How much does it cost to maintain a hot tub per month?" and provide you with valuable insights to help you make an informed decision.
When it comes to the cost of maintaining a hot tub per month, several factors come into play. These include the size and type of hot tub, frequency of use, water quality, energy consumption, and repair and maintenance expenses. Let's delve deeper into each of these aspects to give you a clearer picture of what to expect.
Read more: What’s the Price Tag for Constructing a Swimming Pool in Your Own Backyard?

Size and Type of Hot Tub:

The size and type of hot tub you choose will significantly impact the monthly maintenance costs. Larger hot tubs with more features and jets will generally cost more to maintain compared to smaller, more basic models. Additionally, inflatable hot tubs tend to have lower maintenance costs than traditional acrylic or wooden hot tubs. When selecting a hot tub, consider your budget not only for the initial purchase but also for the ongoing maintenance requirements.

Frequency of Use:

The frequency at which you use your hot tub will also affect the monthly maintenance costs. If you use your hot tub daily or several times a week, you will need to invest more time and resources into maintaining it. Regular use can lead to quicker wear and tear, necessitating more frequent water changes, filter replacements, and chemical treatments.

Water Quality:

Maintaining the water quality in your hot tub is essential for both your health and the longevity of the tub. Factors such as pH levels, alkalinity, and sanitizer levels need to be monitored and adjusted regularly to prevent the growth of bacteria and algae. Investing in high-quality water testing kits and chemicals will help you maintain clean and safe water, but these expenses should be factored into your monthly maintenance costs.

Energy Consumption:

Hot tubs require electricity to heat the water and power the jets and pumps. The energy consumption of your hot tub will vary depending on factors such as insulation, temperature settings, and usage patterns. To keep your monthly energy costs in check, consider investing in a well-insulated hot tub, lowering the temperature when the tub is not in use, and using a timer to control heating cycles.

Repair and Maintenance Expenses:

Despite regular maintenance, hot tubs may still require repairs from time to time. Components such as pumps, heaters, and control systems can malfunction, resulting in additional expenses. It's essential to budget for unexpected repair costs by setting aside a portion of your monthly maintenance budget for contingencies.
In conclusion, the cost of maintaining a hot tub per month can vary based on several factors, including the size and type of hot tub, frequency of use, water quality, energy consumption, and repair and maintenance expenses. By understanding these factors and planning accordingly, you can enjoy the relaxation and therapeutic benefits of a hot tub without breaking the bank.
If you are considering installing a hot tub or pool in your backyard, it's essential to work with reputable pool contractors who can provide expert advice and quality installation services. These professionals can help you design and build a custom hot tub or pool that meets your specific needs and budget, ensuring a relaxing and enjoyable outdoor oasis for years to come.
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Part 4
Gary Johnson, Grumpy Old Dude With a Gun
The Divine Crisis Management Group Headquarters, Baltimore, MD
Gary walked down the hall with the distinctive gait of a senior enlisted. He'd never actually been a senior enlisted. He'd messed up his career prospects in the Army long before he got that opportunity. But he'd been a trigger-puller for a long time, and he had a lot more practical experience than most senior enlisted. He'd earned that walk, many times over.
The Group employees made way for him. Even those who didn't immediately recognize him could tell they should stay out of his way. He was the only one in the building wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, and that told anyone seeing him that he was senior enough to get away with dress code violations.
He found the ops center and opened the door. Stepping through, he entered a beehive of activity. Uniformed techs ran hither and thither, carrying reports and coordinating their efforts.
"What's going on?" he demanded loudly. A couple of techs turned to him, but a familiar face stepped out from behind a pair.
"We are preparing to defend against an attack by one or more of the gods," Julie said, her voice still carrying traces of the harshness the attack had wrought. Gary didn't care, however. He shouldered aside a couple of techs and wrapped her in a bear hug, picking her up off the ground.
Julie squeaked, then laughed. "You are as bad as Liam!" she protested. Gary put her down and grinned at her.
"Sorry, It's jes so durned good t'see ya back on yer feet an' takin' charge."
Julie's smile turned a little uncertain. "I would say that it is good to be back, but I am afraid the situation..."
"Yeah..." Gary agreed, his grin fading away. "This about that confluence falling through?"
"It is," Julie answered. "Right now, we have no specific intel about an attack, but Intel Division, as well as multiple individuals from Security and R&D have raised concerns about the possibility. With so many different perspectives all coming to the same conclusion..."
"Ayup," Gary agreed. "Be stupid not t'be ready fer something so obvious."
"I am not really here to take charge," she admitted with a sigh. "Just to get the ball rolling, as it were." Julie put a hand on Gary's shoulder. "I know it is asking a lot of you, especially with all you have been through. But I know of nobody else who can do this as well as you."
"Don't you fret none," Gary assured her, taking her hand off his shoulder and patting it gently. "You jes focus on getting through all you've been through yerself. I appreciate the assist, an' I got it from 'ere."
He leaned forward and planted a kiss on her hair, eliciting a smile. "Thank you," she said quietly.
"Afore ya go, take me in yer office an' read me in on all ya done, though," Gary continued. Julie nodded and then inclined her head in the direction of her office. Gary followed along, closing the door behind him.
They sat down and Julie walked him through all the steps she'd taken so far. Consolidating the security forces, re-arming and regrouping Black Team, from their deployments leading and assisting other security assets, recalling wizards from their secondments to the Feds, and ramping up the purchasing of supplies and tools.
"Are th'vendors really able to honor these orders?" Gary asked. "Errything got shut down for a couple o'months there."
"Do you remember the pandemic in twenty-twenty?" Julie asked. Gary nodded.
"Ayup, but that was twenty years ago, an' thur ain't too much th'hole economy can do to prepare fer somethin' like this."
"Yes, but our lawyers remembered it. It has been a standard clause in our vendor contracts that they must maintain enough stock for six months of purchases on hand at all times. Not all of the vendors have met that requirement, and that will come up the next time we evaluate our purchases, but most have. Much of the country will be experiencing shortages of many things very soon. Medical supplies, food and fuel, mainly. But not the Group."
"Awwright," Gary rumbled, rubbing his beard. "So we're flush on supplies, or soon will be?"
"I would not say that," Julie said with a sad shake of her head. "But we have enough. For now."
"That'll hav'ta do," Gary said. Julie nodded.
----
Sookie, Still Sad
Sookie's Apartment, Midtown Manhattan, NY
"Do you want some coffee?" Sookie asked as she took the large pot off the brewer and poured herself a cup.
"Yes, please," Linda replied. Sookie walked the cup in her hands over to where the other woman sat and put it down in front of her. She didn't look up, her eyes on the floor, or whatever was in her hands at all times. Even though the muscular woman wore nothing but a sports bra and bicycle shorts over bright purple sneakers, Sookie couldn't muster up enough lust to ogle her.
Linda picked it up and sipped at it without adding any cream or sugar as Sookie made a second cup. She eyed the sugar and cream. French vanilla flavored. Her favorite. She thought about filling the cup to her usual proportions, normally characterized as 'taking a little coffee with her cream and sugar', but then sighed and added more coffee to the cup, instead. She sipped at it black, the bitterness suiting her feelings.
She sat down across from Linda and they drank in silence for a moment.
"You should come to the range with me today," Linda said after a few moments.
"What range?" Sookie asked, still sipping tastelessly at her coffee.
"The gun range," Linda said.
"I already know how to shoot," Sookie replied.
"I know, but there's bays there. We can rent one."
"I don't know what that means," Sookie said.
Linda sighed, then grinned and shook her head.
"Shootin' and scootin', Sooks. We can fit you into some battle rattle and teach you to actually fight, not just to shoot."
"I know how to fight," Sookie said. Linda sighed again and put her mug down, leaning forward.
"You know how to swing your giant pussy mace, yeah. And you know how to shoot a gun. But you've said it yourself, you're a lover, not a fighter. There's a lot more to fighting than just knowing how to hurt someone with a weapon."
"Like what?" Sookie asked, her voice still as dead as the zombified organ in her chest.
"Like dealing with trauma and fear so that it doesn't affect your performance," Linda said. Sookie finally looked up to see that Linda was giving her a hard, even look. When she spoke, her own voice was flat and emotionless.
"I held my best friend's hand as he died. Has Director Johnson ever told you about when his husband died? He held him in his arms, watched the life flow out of him, and then had to get up and go do his job the moment that the love of his life breathed his last breath."
Sookie's heart pounded in her chest. She might have welcomed the sensation at any other time. Now, each beat seemed to bring with it a flash of Eric's face, twisted in hatred and disgust as he turned on her. But the reason her heart beat like that was the promise implicit in Linda's words. That maybe, she could learn to handle this pain.
"Okay," she said quietly.
"You want to do it?" Linda asked, leaning forward. Sookie nodded.
"Yeah," she said.
Linda grinned. "You know what we have to do first, though, right?" Sookie shook her head.
"No, what?"
Linda's grin widened. "We gotta go shopping."
"For what?"
"For your battle rattle. We gotta kit you out, first."
"Can't I just borrow some Group-" Sookie cut herself off as Linda shook her head.
"No way. That's fine in an emergency, but if you're gonna fight, you're gonna want your own kit. Trust me."
"Okay, so where do we go?"
"Nowhere in New York, that's for sure. You can teleport, right?"
"Umm," Sookie said. She could planewalk, which was similar. She could move them to a place in the Spirit World that was connected to two different places in the material world, then back across the border, just in a different direction. It wasn't as safe as teleporting, but it was functionally very similar.
"More or less," she said. Linda nodded.
"Good, because there's a place in Colorado I know. Big, outdoor store, but with a focus on tactical stuff. They've got a huge selection and best of all, it's partnered with the Pink Pistols."
"What's that mean?"
Linda grinned again and leaned forward. "It means they're fucking fabulous."
----
Kathy Evenson, Professional
In her room in an inn, somewhere in the Seventh World
Kathy opened her eyes and immediately checked the room with her magical senses. She was alone, which would normally be a relief, but was slightly concerning now.
Kells had been snoring next to her when she fell asleep last night. A sardonic smirk twisted her lips as she wondered if she'd been ghosted. Dicked and ditched, the way she usually heard it.
She sat up and immediately noticed that she had been tucked in tightly under a pair of blankets, one thin and smooth, the other thick and warm. She remembered falling asleep with the blankets bunched up at the foot of the bed, letting Kells' body heat keep her warm through the chilly night. Before she could begin to puzzle it all out, the door opened.
"Yer up," Kells said, carrying a tray full of cut sausages, cheese and bread, with a pair of tankards on it.
"I brought ye somewhat t'break yer fast," he went on, placing the tray down and picking up one of the tankards. He took a long drink from it and sighed.
"I figured you'd taken off," Kathy said, picking up a piece of cheese and popping it into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed before continuing.
"I know the live of a caravaner isn't easy or lazy," she said. Kells nodded.
"Aye, but I've a feeling about ye," he said. He sat on the edge of the bed and flashed her a smile that was a little too charming for her tastes. Kathy laughed.
"Kells, that was fun, but that's all it was. I'm not looking for-"
Kells cut her off with a laugh.
"Aye, yer a cute one, all right. Don'tche worry none about me heart, Miss. I've a tight leash on it, even iffen it might be the wanderin' sort. I've no illusions about what passed between us last eve, and no particular plans to make anywhat out o'it more'n it were."
Kathy nodded. "Good. Then why did you stick around?"
"Chits," he said. She eyed him for a second, and he shrugged helplessly.
"Life may be about more'n money, but the money's a necessity, nonetheless. I know yer flush with it. I can tell by yer clothes an'th'way ye had the tavern keeper at yer beck an' call last eve. I know ye've got yer own quest t'attend to, an' I rightly suspect that it's a dangerous sort o' quest. So ye'll be needing allies. Fighters. As it so happens, caravaning is the type o'work that makes a man into a good fighter. An' I pride meself on being a good ally."
Kathy chuckled and picked up the other tankard. It was some sort of mead; crisp, cold and sweet, but with a subtle bite of alcohol to it. Which meant merely that it was safe to drink, really. She took a long drink, then began picking at the tray with more vigor.
"So you want me to hire you and your men to protect me," she said. Kells nodded. "Aye."
"What if I said I'd be traveling with the Searchers?" she asked.
"All th'more reason t'hire me," he said with casual confidence. "Them folks're many things, an' handy in a fight is damn sure one o'em, but allies? I think yer smarter'n that, miss."
Kathy nodded. She was, indeed. Just because she knew a version of their parents didn't mean she could trust them. They had their own goals, she knew, and while she might support them, they didn't exactly line up with hers.
"How much would it cost me?" she asked.
"A hunnerd chits a day," Kells said. Kathy whistled. Based on the prices she'd encountered, that was a princely sum.
"Call it two thousand for a month," he offered a second later. She thought about it.
She had the chits. Or rather, she knew where she could get them. Each one was about a half-inch on the side, which gave her a few dozen from each cover. Nobody seemed to care how roughly they were cut, either, meaning she could eyeball it. An hours work would yield the sum he asked for a month.
"Is that for just you?" she asked. Kells laughed.
"Nae, miss. I'm a pricey man, but not that pricey. That's fer me an' six o'me men."
"Who will pay you and your men's expenses?" Kathy asked.
"As fer food an water, camp supplies an'th'like, we'll handle that. Tolls an' such will be out o' yer purse, though."
Kathy thought about it, and realized that she liked the deal. With an hour's work, she could have seven experienced fighters watching out for her. Given the dangers of most of the worlds other than Earth, that would be a very useful thing. And she could bring them with her across worlds, so long as she brought them back at the end.
"What about death benefits?" she asked. Kells shrugged. "Not normally somewhat we ask fer," he said. "But ten chits, plus the balance o'their pay fer any man what falls would go over quite well."
"I can do that," she said. "The whole offer, I mean."
Kells grinned and spat on his palm, then held it out. Kathy winced, then laughed at her own reaction. She spat on her palm and shook his hand. After a few pumps, he failed to let go.
"Everything okay?" she asked, glancing down at their hands and then back up.
"Aye, miss," he said, grinning. "Was jes wonderin' iffen ye'd like t'celebrate the start of a beautiful business, is all."
Kathy grinned at him.

Hello!! I’m currently looking for a few players for a campaign set in an alternate time line of the One Piece world. We’ll be running weekly on Tuesdays at 7PM EST. I’m looking for 1-2 players to come aboard and bring along all their hopes and dreams!!!
You would be joining a game set in the West Blue that is like 5 sessions in. My big factors I want to bring to the game is that it is role play heavy with a big world to explore. There's going to be a focus on found family with a lot of roleplaying between the characters as they form a crew and get closer, and of course, the journey to the grand line! There isn't too much of an overarching story at the moment, but more the idea of going from island to island exploring, helping people, and making new friends! I should probably include that if you don't know what One Piece is you may be lost with all of this so I'd appreciate people with some base knowledge of the series but we have people in our game who have watched like 50 episodes and people who have watched 1000, so either is fine! We are recruiting like 5 sessions in because we lost 2 of our players due to scheduling and different styles of play, which is why I think it's important to read all of this if you are interested in joining to know what you are getting into! We had 6 people to start so losing 2 using isn't that big of a deal since 4 is a great number! However, one of the players was the captain of the crew and it feels like there is a bit of something missing in the game. If you are applying to join, you don't have to be the captain though, but if you'd like to, that could be an option! As for the altered time line part of the game, it mainly makes it so all the characters in One Piece still exist in this world but could either be in the same role they have in the normal story or could be in a different role. It would be more of a rarity to run into canon characters since I mostly like to just stick to making my own stuff, but it's a possibility!
I like to work personally with players to make their story part of the game. As there isn't much of an overarching story, I like to just make the story about what the characters are going through and possibly incorporating things that happened in their past into the islands ahead. We did a fun thing in this game where some of the party members sat out for a couple sessions and got to have a whole island based around them, so that it felt more like gathering a crew rather than everyone just being together at the beginning with no build up. That would be an option if you were interested in the game! We can also design devil fruits together if that is something you want your character to have from the start! I love for people to get creative and think of outside of the box ideas and solutions and promote people using things in ways that are fun rather than what the rules may say. Also here's some basic stuff about the game!

• We are using Roll20 as a VTT with Discord for voice chat
• We are using OneWorldHD's conversion of 5e that makes it fit more in line with One Piece. It is mostly flavoring classes to make more sense in the one piece world, making spells into special abilities and stuff like that, but I also allow stuff from normal D&D if it makes more sense for your character!
• We also use some other minor homebrew rules like enemy minions from Flee, Mortals! and flanking giving a +2 to hit.
• I also allow homebrew if I can check it over and make sure it fits into the game setting!
• The party is currently at level 3 and will be leveling up at a decent pace.
• Only players 18+ please! That's just a preference, we don't do anything NSFW in the game

Somethings to know about the game is that I want to emulate the One Piece style as much as possible which means it can go from extremely silly goofy to really sad. The silliness can be meta at times with one of our PC's being a wrestler, there are characters who are references to real world wrestlers with plays on their name. Other things being like that people don't tend to die in this game. Like, I'm not going to make you think about the morally gray decisions of leaving a villain alive and letting him cause chaos again or killing him and having blood on your hands. This isn't that kind of game! Everyone will just be knocked out when they go to 0 HP and you have my good faith that I won't punish you for not killing people, plus a big thing of one piece is returning villains! Due to homebrew and just how One Piece is, it's possible there may be power discrepancies within the party. While combat does happen in the game, I look to make sure that I give everyone in the game the option to participate in their own way. So while the first mate of the crew may save everyone in combat, the navigator may save everyone while sailing!
For some context of what the current party is, I'll give a brief description of each of them below!

1. An aloof human scientist (Tinkerer) with a robot crab that can turn into a briefcase! Studying animals across the world in hopes of finding the best designs for a robot within nature itself!
2. An octopus fishman wrestler (Bruiser) with a mean win streak with the goal of becoming the king of pirate wrestling! (he has a win streak because he doesn't know wrestling is fake and has been actually knocking out his opponents)
3. A mermaid with the color color Devil Fruit (Wizard) who is unable to ever return home. She's depressed, but she's still here, trying to find and reunite with her true Captain after being kidnapped and taken away from the grand line.
4. A human navigator with the origami origami Devil Fruit (rogue) who is obsessed with the stars, wanting to one day make a map of the whole sky. She is a master at navigating her ship by the stars (daytime is a real struggle)

As for myself, I'm a 26 year old trans woman who has been playing dnd since high school! A good chunk of our players are part of the LGBTQIA+ so if you are part of that, that's great! We have trans, non-binary, gay, and straight people in our game so we are just looking for people who are respectful to everyone! As for dnd, I ran my own little fiverr shop for awhile making dnd homebrew for others. I've DM'd for a lot of games and have been told my strong suits are more towards having quirky characters and fun roleplay rather than like big overarching plots and epic stuff.
If this seems like a game you would like to join, fill out this form below and leave me a comment here telling me you did! If you have any questions you can feel free to DM me or leave a comment asking. I will schedule to have an interview over voice with you on discord if I feel you may be a good fit!
Form https://forms.gle/rhdu8bgES9XtEgxd7

The link between Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction, Hard Flaccid Syndrome, Post Finasteride Syndrome, Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome and advice on how to start your healing journey based on 8 years of research and personal experiences : pssdhealing (reddit.com)
Here are all my thoughts and advice based on my personal experiences, other people’s insight and helpful experiences, and research I have done on and off about pelvic floor issues from the past eight years or so. I am not claiming that any of this is revolutionary, but I hope it can help some of you out there to give you a head start on healing and advance our understanding of these conditions. As I am a 27 year old male with previous major problems with pelvic floor issues and hard flaccid, some of my advice may be biased towards my condition. However, I believe everyone can benefit from a lot of this because I really do think that all of these conditions that I mentioned are linked in at least some way, especially by pelvic floor dysfunction and sex hormone desensitization. I try not to come to these forums because it increases anxiety and negative emotions which leads to worse pelvic floor symptoms, so my apologies if I do not respond to your questions. For hard flaccid and pelvic floor affected people, follow my advice and I am confident you can heal and reach a place where your symptoms barely affect your life, if at all, which is where I am at now. The mentality of trying to find a 100% “magic cure” solution just leads to anxiety and catastrophic thinking if you have a set back which will only worsen your symptoms. You can and will heal. I know this is a lot of information, but try to implement just one or two things at a time. Focus on the present, and take it one day at a time. Don’t get overwhelmed. All of this is my opinion and not professional medical advice. Talk with your doctor before starting anything.
Post Finasteride Syndrome (PFS), Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), Hard Flaccid Syndrome (HFS), Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, and Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome all can have some similar symptoms. I believe that they are all either caused or can be exacerbated by androgen and estrogen receptor insensitivity and are triggered by medication, genital injury, and pelvic floor inflammation and dysfunction. The pelvic floor is rich in androgen receptors and estrogen receptors. However, without proper androgen receptor activation and sensitivity, the pelvic floor muscles don’t have enough DHT which line the tissues of the pelvic floor, genitalia, and lower urinary tract. DHT is vital for healthy sexual functioning in both sexes - it provides an anabolic effect to tissues to provide strength, stability, healing, and relaxation to tissues. As a result of androgen receptor insensitivity and lack of DHT, the pelvic floor can become chronically weakened, tight, and inflamed which reduces blood flow to the region leading to even more androgen receptor insensitivity and thus less DHT. These symptoms can cause psychological stress to the individual which tightens the pelvic floor further leading to more symptoms and less blood flow. One study found that androgen sensitivity has raised the possibility that androgens can be used to rebuild the weakened and/or damaged muscles comprising the pelvic floor - source. Some people may also have normal hormone levels in the blood when tested, but these hormones cannot reach or be effective in the pelvic floor tissues or brain due to sex hormone insensitivity and the lack of the blood flow in the region caused by pelvic floor tightness and dysfunction. It is also likely that there is a problem with desensitized estrogen receptors causing a similar mechanism of dysfunction because they are also found in the pelvic floor, genitals, and brain and are important for pelvic floor health, sexual functioning, cognition, and emotions in both sexes. The most important element to remember to help start the healing process for these disorders is to boost blood flow through supplements, stretches, and exercises which will increase both androgen and estrogen receptor sensitivity over time.
Many males with PFS, PSSD, and Pelvic Floor dysfunction are affected by the hard flaccid condition.
Post Finasteride Syndrome (PFS) caused by Finasteride, a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor (5-ARI), plummets DHT levels in the body to try to help hair loss causing sexual dysfunction and pelvic floor issues. Androgen receptors that surround the pelvic floor, genitals, and brain become desensitized due to the Finasteride leading to less DHT binding to these receptors causing dysfunction and a tight, weak pelvic floor. The tight, dysfunctional pelvic floor now restricts blood flow which impacts healing and the delivery of testosterone to this area that further exacerbates androgen insensitivity leading to less DHT in these tissues. Since androgen receptors are found in the brain and androgens have neuroprotective effects, this could be one reason why some PFS and PSSD sufferers are also impacted cognitively. An herbal supplement called Saw Palmetto has also been reported to cause a disorder similar to PFS because it is also a 5-ARI that blocks the conversion of testosterone into DHT. Another disorder called Post Accutane Syndrome (PAS) is also similar to PFS and it reduces DHT as well through being a 5-ARI: “Isotretinoin, used to treat severe acne, has been shown to induce hormonal changes, especially to reduce 5 alpha-reductase in the production of the tissue-derived dihydrotestosterone (DHT) metabolite 3 alpha-Adiol G.”. PFS, PAS, and PSSD are thought to cause not only androgen receptor desensitization, but likely estrogen receptor desensitization as well.
For Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), SSRIs are also known to decrease androgens and down regulate androgen receptors. This study shows that SSRIs can have an anti-estrogenic effect as well and can even reduce the expression of estrogen receptors (ER), including in the hypothalamus.. As sex hormones get desensitized in the pelvic floor, genital region, and brain, it causes localized DHT and estrogen levels in these tissues to decrease causing emotional blunting, sexual dysfunction, pelvic floor issues, hard flaccid syndrome, and more. The pelvic floor dysfunction can then prevent the sex hormone receptors from being reactivated and sensitized due to restricting oxygen and sex hormone rich blood flow to the tissues. SSRIs can cause androgen receptor insensitivity and estrogen receptor insensitivity by severely inhibiting the serotonin transporter (SERT) leading to increased serotonin levels which desensitizes those receptors throughout the body. One key to help heal from PSSD is increasing androgen production, androgen receptor sensitivity, and blood flow to boost BDNF, SERT, and DHT levels to hopefully allow any estrogen receptor desensitization recover on its own over time after everything else is normalized. Once androgen levels in local tissues (pelvic floor, brain, genitals) are normalized again through androgen receptor activation and sensitivity, it will encourage the conversion of androgens into estrogens in these tissues via aromatase. It is also worth to mention that some community members are trying to restore estrogen receptor sensitivity via boosting estrogen in various ways including by taking hops extract which is a potent phytoestrogen. This is also interesting: Estradiol represents another important natural ligand for androgen receptors that may play an essential role for the androgen receptor function and the development of the male reproductive system.
As mentioned earlier, people with PSSD and other disorders might have normal looking hormone blood tests (testosterone, DHT, estrogen, etc), but the issue is that these hormones are not functioning in the brain, pelvic floor, and genitals properly due to androgen and estrogen receptor insensitivity. An important thing to also recognize is that the medical community still has no official explanation how exactly SSRIs cause all of these debilitating side effects, but they are still being readily prescribed without informed consent about the risks of PSSD. It is unfortunate that it is people like us on the internet leading the charge to investigate and inform. We all need to continue to do our part to spread awareness of these iatrogenic disorders to warn people about the risks of taking these medications because their medical providers aren’t likely going to. Thank you to the PSSD Network for helping to give a voice to the unheard.
Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD): Biological Plausibility, Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Presumed Risk Factors
Androgen receptor (AR) inactivation in mice led to reduction in hypothalamic neural nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), indicating the regulatory sexual function of this neurotransmitter. Furthermore, activation of the pre and post-synaptic 5HT1A receptors was found to be correlated with inhibitory effect on erectile function. All of these factors are speculated to be involved in this symptom and might be related to epigenetic alteration of androgen receptor (AR) and estrogen receptor (ER) densities due to influence of SSRIs on the epigenome.
In male PSSD sufferers, the penile shaft can be rigid during erection, yet the glans of the penis remains flaccid.This symptom may arise from hypo-activation of the dopaminergic and oxytocinergic pathways. The glans of the penis, in particular, receives its blood supply from the deep dorsal artery. Perhaps this points to a selective arterial malfunction relative to pelvic floor dysfunction which usually accompanies PSSD.
Here is another interesting study that gives support to the importance of increasing blood flow to help heal:
If SSRIs produce sexual side effects by impairing vasocongestion to the genital region, it would be expected that pharmacologic agents that increase blood flow to the genital region would improve sexual functioning. Indeed, several anecdotal reports and studies have found that sildenafil (a drug designed to treat erectile failure by increasing blood flow into the penile tissue) was successful in reversing SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction in both men and women [8,9,87,88,109]. Sildenafil acts to increase blood flow into the genital tissue by facilitating c-GMP activity that is initiated by nitric oxide [19] and preliminary evidence suggests that the SSRIs may cause sexual difficulties by inhibiting nitric oxide synthase [39,118].
Here is a paper from a community member that hypothesizes that the main issue is lasting estrogen receptor insensitivity just to give another interesting perspective on Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction, Post-Finasteride Syndrome, and Post-Retinoid Sexual Dysfunction
As the body is starved of DHT, ARs upregulate in response. At the same time, ER activation is significantly increased as a result of the increased production of Estradiol during treatment (due to higher Testosterone availability by reduced 5a reduction to DHT) - eventually leading to ER downregulation.
Hard Flaccid Syndrome (HFS) - There are many men suffering from HFS and pelvic floor issues due to PSSD, PFS, heavy weight lifting, excess kegeling, or in the case I’m presenting here, physical damage to the genitals from excessive, vigorous sexual activity (my case) or penis enlargement exercises. When the genitals get damaged, an inflammatory process starts and the pelvic floor contracts to protect itself. Since the pelvic floor is now in a chronic, contracted state, it limits oxygen and sex hormone rich blood flow to the genitals and pelvic floor which leads to sex hormone insensitivity and negatively impacts healing, muscle relaxation, and DHT production in these tissues. Finasteride, Accutane, and SSRIs also desensitize sex hormone receptors in the genitals and pelvic floor tissues leading to hard flaccid and pelvic floor dysfunction. Since the pelvic floor tightness restricts blood flow, it is difficult for hard flaccid sufferers to reactivate and sensitize their pelvic floor muscle androgen receptors again to regain relaxation and strength in their pelvic floor muscles, including the ischiocavernosus (IC), bulbocavernosus (BC), and pubococcygeus (PC) which are in a contracted state; the IC muscle in particular is thought to be the most implicated in the cause of hard flaccid. We first need to promote relaxation in the pelvic floor by boosting blood flow through supplements and stretches because tight muscles are weak muscles. Once the pelvic floor is in a chronic state of tension, it is hard to heal from pelvic floor issues because you likely already had bad habits such as poor posture, unhealthy sexual practices, stiff muscles, sedentary lifestyle, unchecked anxiety, and other negative lifestyle factors. Along with supplements, exercises, and stretches, correcting these bad habits is necessary to heal to have an even healthier pelvic floor than you ever had before because it likely was already tight and dysfunctional to begin with before developing obvious issues, but it was more subtle and you had no awareness of your pelvic floor muscles until now. You have the potential to now become a much healthier person overall than you ever would have been without being affected by pelvic floor dysfunction and hard flaccid.
32% of women will develop a pelvic floor disorder in their lifetime which is double that of men. While childbirth and pregnancy plays a role in this discrepancy, women also have far less testosterone and DHT levels than men which I believe plays a major factor. Since women have less testosterone, their androgen receptors that line the pelvic floor don’t make enough DHT to adequately support these tissues compared to men. This makes them more prone to pelvic floor dysfunction that causes them a disparate amount of pain, tightness, and inflammation. Androgen receptors and their ability to convert testosterone into DHT play such a vital role in pelvic floor health and sexual functioning. This is mentioned in a research study: Prevailing scientific literature has indicated the presence of androgen receptors in the levator ani muscle and pelvic fascia. The existence of androgen receptors in the vaginal wall can play an essential role in the development of pelvic floor disorders in women.Thus, androgen-related disorders may interfere with the function of pelvic floor muscles. [Many people mistakenly believe that androgens are only important for male sexual health:](https://www.bumc.bu.edu/sexualmedicine/patientinformation-physicians/androgen-insuffiency-in-women/#:~:text=Androgen%20insufficiency%20syndrome%2C%20characterized%20by,of%20sexual%20dysfunction%20in%20women.] Androgens have a three-fold action on female sexual function. They (1) increase libido by providing the fuel for a woman’s psychosexual stimulation, (2) increase sensitivity and blood flow to the external genitalia, and (3) increase the intensity of sexual gratification.
What I see in all these conditions is that sex hormone receptors become desensitized in the pelvic floor and genital tissues either from a drug, pelvic tightness, or inflammation from injury leading to less hormones being produced causing sexual and pelvic floor dysfunction. The pelvic floor now goes into a chronic tightened state as a response, leading to less oxygen and testosterone rich blood flow to the genital and pelvic region which leads to more androgen insensitivity and subsequently less DHT. This all explains why many people who have these conditions are helped by supplements that improve androgen receptor sensitivity and blood flow, and why pelvic floor therapy and exercises are so helpful to many of them. Estrogen receptor insensitivity in the pelvic floor also appears to have a similar mechanical negative effect by leading to less estrogen levels in the pelvic floor and genital tissues. It is also possible that some people with PSSD/PFS may have subtle or no pelvic floor symptoms, but the medication still desensitizes sex hormone sensitivity in their genitals and pelvic floor tissues that is leading to sexual dysfunction.
Another study linking androgens and the pelvic floor: Levator ani and other muscles of the pelvic floor and lower urinary tract are sensitive to the anabolic effects of testosterone. Androgen receptors are also expressed in the pelvic floor and lower urinary tract of both animals and humans. Anabolic effects of androgens may play an important role in the female pelvic-floor and lower-urinary-tract disorders. Furthermore, the interactions between androgen and nitric oxide synthase and arginase have been demonstrated, suggesting that androgens may also participate in modulating the physiological functions of the lower urinary tract through nitric oxide. The action of androgens in the lower urinary tract and pelvic floor is complex and may depend on their anabolic effects, hormonal modulation, receptor expression, interaction with nitric oxide synthase, or a combination of these effects.
My solution to help heal and improve the well-being of people with these issues is to try to improve sex hormone receptor sensitivity and pelvic floor function through supplements, stretches, exercises, and boosting blood flow which will hopefully restore normal levels of estrogens and androgens in pelvic, genital, and brain tissues. The body has a tremendous capability of self-healing, but we need to support it through active recovery methods.
We will first start with supplements (this is not professional medical advice - talk with your doctor before taking):
L-citrulline - This is the precursor to l-arginine, and it will improve blood flow and levels of nitric oxide to help get oxygen and testosterone rich blood to the pelvic floor and genital tissues to increase androgen sensitivity. Nitric oxide can also induce smooth muscle relaxation which is important for relaxing the pelvic floor. Herein we report on a young man affected by PSSD who regained sexual functioning after 3-month treatment with EDOVIS, a dietary supplement containing L-citrulline and other commonly used aphrodisiacs.. I recommend taking at least 6000 mg daily by taking 2000mg three times throughout the day. The max dose is 10,000mg. Even potentially better, people report great results using Cialis to improve blood flow and healing rather than L-citrulline and some doctors will even prescribe it to women if you show them the evidence - talk with your doctor. “Tadalafil (Cialis) reversal of sexual dysfunction caused by serotonin enhancing medications in women”. L-Citrulline and Cialis are not recommended to be taken together.
L-Carnitine - This will improve the number of androgen receptors and their sensitivity to testosterone to increase levels of DHT in the pelvic floor, genital tissues, and brain. I recommend taking 2000mg daily. Acetyl-L-Carnitine can pass through the blood-brain barrier, while Propionyl-L-carnitine has a high degree of interaction with testosterone. Propionyl may be better for sexual and pelvic floor dysfunction, while Acetyl might help people suffering from the mental effects of PSSD. This study used each at 2000mg daily to improve erectile dysfunction along with Viagra.. I would work up to 2000mg each of Acetyl and Propionyl L-Carnitine along with Cialis instead of Viagra as it lasts in the body for much longer (36 hours) for increased blood flow healing purposes. You can also use L-Citrulline instead of Cialis as mentioned earlier. Discuss with your doctor before taking them.
Vitamin D - This vitamin, which acts more like a hormone, works directly with the endocrine system. It has its own receptors throughout the body and they are often in close proximity to androgen receptors. Deficiency in vitamin D is associated with a stunting of testosterone's effects on androgen receptors and a decline in testosterone levels. Vitamin D will encourage androgen receptor resensitization. One study found that higher vitamin D levels are associated with a decreased risk of pelvic floor disorders in women, and The levator ani and coccygeus muscles are skeletal muscles that are critical components of the pelvic floor and may be affected by vitamin D nutritional status. I recommend 4000IU of vitamin D daily or whatever gets your levels to 60 - 80 ng/ml.
If you have inflammatory issues or pain due to pelvic floor dysfunction, I recommend a fish oil supplement daily. I take fish oil, and I find that it helps limit pelvic inflammation. I also take Magnesium Glycinate to relax the smooth muscle that lines the pelvic floor and genital tissue. I recommend it for people with clear pelvic floor dysfunction, but others should be careful as research says magnesium is a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor. Take quercetin and bromelain as needed if you experience pelvic inflammatory flare ups and pain, but just be careful as quercetin can also inhibit the production of DHT from testosterone as well. Some say fish oil blocks DHT too, but experiencing chronic pelvic floor pain and inflammation will do more harm to you than minimal DHT blocking. I recommend staying away from all DHT inhibiting foods and supplements for people with PSSD, PFS, and PAS unless you are experiencing pelvic pain and inflammation.
As always, discuss these supplements with your doctor to see if they are okay for you. Lower your supplement intake based on side effects. These aren’t a magic cure, but a tool to help you on your journey to recovery. Don’t do anything without doctor supervision, but this thread gives more evidence for the “cure” for PSSD/PFS being resensitizing androgen receptors and estrogen receptors along with enhancing blood flow as it details how some men recovered through taking high doses of androgens, post cycle therapy, and Cialis. This at least gives hope that a hormonal cure can be created one day by medical professionals. I would of course recommend trying to heal yourself naturally for a long time before doing any hormone treatments under the supervision of a doctor.
I also recommend doing some form of yoga or pelvic floor stretches daily to improve blood flow for pelvic floor relaxation and sex hormone receptor sensitivity. You also need to request to see a pelvic floor therapist for an evaluation and treatment. Learn how to do reverse kegels. Doing reverse kegels will be difficult at first because your pelvic floor is tight and you have little to no awareness of these muscles, so just focus on lengthening and relaxing the pelvic floor through stretches for now. Do not do regular kegels for pelvic floor issues. Learn how to diaphragmatically breathe in 360 degrees to create expansion in your rib cage and abdomen to encourage pelvic floor relaxation. Do not breathe through your chest, and “belly breathing” isn’t the right term because the ribs need to expand as well. You can learn how to diaphragmatically breathe through an exercise such as 4-7-8 breathing. Here is a great video on diaphragmatic breathing and another video. I cannot overstate it enough: retraining yourself to properly breathe diaphragmatically is the single most important thing that you can do to heal from pelvic floor issues. Be a student of breathing: study and take notes on how to breathe better.
Stretches/Yoga poses I recommend:
Hold the Malasana/hindi/yoga squat pose for at least 5-10 minutes at least twice a day, but doing it morning, mid-day, and at night would be the best. Some get great results holding it for 15-20 minutes.This is one of the most important things for your pelvic floor because it will help lengthen and release it. Doing them barefoot is also very beneficial to strengthen your ankles and feet which are connected to your pelvic floor. Again, remember to breathe deeply down into your belly and pelvic floor for all these stretches.
Begin your stretching routine with an Exercise ball ab stretch and Upward-facing dog/cobra pose. This will help stretch your lower abs and psoas muscles so that you can get more breath deeper down into your pelvic floor for the rest of your stretches. Some people say that these types of stretches aren’t great for people who have Anterior Pelvic Tilt, which we should fix, but I still do them as it is important to stretch the lower abs that are hard to get to. You can experiment with doing them sporadically instead of every time you stretch.
This is my current personal complete stretch routine I do in order 3+ days a week:
Myofascial release on my glutes with an orb massage ball but you can use any small hard ball (don’t do this if glutes are currently sore) > Calf stretch against a wall or a yoga block which is what I use > exercise ball ab stretch > upward facing dog > (optional) Do a handful of cat cows > Supine hamstring stretch with yoga strap or an IdealStretch tool which is what I use > Kneeling hip flexor stretch > flat on back supine single knee to chest stretch > then bring knee to opposite shoulder stretch > supine figure four > I do this stretch next right after figure four > Reclined bound angle pose > (optional) butterfly stretch > (optional) A little bit of downward facing dog to stretch the calves > (optional) Lizard Pose) > (optional) Half split stretch/Half monkey pose with yoga blocks > Half-pigeon pose > Child’s pose > Wall quad hip flexor stretch > Wall figure four stretch > Wall straddle pose > Wall happy baby pose > Flat on back while pulling knees apart > kneeling with one leg, other leg out to side for adductors > (optional) Frog pose with feet together > regular Frog pose with feet separated in line with the knees > Yoga squat/malasana > Corpse pose
All these stretches are the ones I found most useful in a routine. See what works for you and develop your own routine. Consistency is the most important. This long stretching routine may not be possible for you to complete regularly so make adjustments, but doing this routine at least 3 days a week is ideal. Stretches such as the yoga squat, supine hamstring stretch, hip flexor stretches, and wall stretches are vital and should be done most days to help relax the pelvic floor. For how long you should hold each stretch, just go by how you and your body feels. Really let go, breathe, and sink into every stretch. On rest days, doing some deep breathing in child’s pose, reclined bound angle pose, flat on back while pulling knees apart, and the happy baby wall pose is really great while trying to do gentle reverse kegels.
You can also work on more individualized stretches for posture to correct anterior pelvic tilt, muscle imbalances, and to release other tight muscles, such as the upper body. Listen to your body if you need to give yourself a rest day from stretching. Adding in a 30-60 minute walk/swim on rest days is incredibly beneficial as well. Eventually, you can also try to learn isometric PNF stretching to incorporate it into some of the stretches such as the kneeling hip flexor stretch and hamstring stretch.
After working to relax and lengthen your pelvic floor through yoga and stretches, I would begin gentle body strengthening exercises that are pelvic floor safe. The pelvic floor is a master compensator. So, if the glutes, adductors, deep hip rotators, transversus abdominis, and other supportive muscles are weak, then the pelvic floor is in the prime position to pick up the slack which leads to a lot of strain on the pelvic floor which results in tightness and dysfunction. You need to strengthen the surrounding muscles to relieve tightness in the pelvic floor. This is where working with a pelvic floor therapist would be helpful to point out safe individualized exercises for you. Yoga will help strengthen your muscles in a safe way too.
The glutes and transversus abdominis in particular are very important to strengthen. Glute bridge, single glute bridge, side lying leg raises, lateral band walks can help build up glute strength. Deadbugs, Bird Dog, 8- point planks, or planks with pelvic floor-friendly modifications, can help to strengthen the transversus abdominis (TVA). Abdominal work may be triggering to your pelvic floor symptoms, especially the 8 point plank, so you can instead look into hypopressive exercises to work the TVA without overworking the pelvic floor. These exercises will help you bring more awareness to your breathing, diaphragm, TVA, and pelvic floor which are all important for recovery. Here is how to find and become aware of the TVA. Do side planks for your oblique ab muscles.
For hip/abductors do the side lying hip abduction exercise, fire hydrants, and the shinbox lunge. For the adductors, do Copenhagen adductor exercise, cossack squats, and an exercise where you squeeze a soft ball between the knees just don’t do any crunch movements with pelvic floor issues. For hamstrings, Nordic hamstring curl/glute ham raises, and single leg bridge. For the back, do supine pelvic tilt. One person even reported that dorsiflexion exercises and stretches were one important element to solve his pelvic floor issues; this is most likely because the ankle bone, like everything else including even our jaw, is connected to the pelvic floor.
Like with anything, do all these exercises in moderation and stop if you sense your pelvic floor is not responding well to them - do them one at a time to see which ones your pelvic floor can handle for now. Here is an exercise routine from another poster that has helped many people. Just be careful of the ab exercises such as the ab wheel and 5 minute planks with your pelvic floor issues - don’t over do it or avoid it if they cause too many symptoms.
Myofascial release and foam rolling to release trigger points also helps a lot of people to relax their pelvic floor muscles and improve blood flow. The glutes are the most important area to target for pelvic floor issues when foam rolling in my experience if you only had limited time. Using a soft ball to lay on and breathe deeply can help release trigger points in the abdominal muscles and psoas which can help you breathe better and relax the pelvic floor. I haven’t done it, but you can also try out a massage gun for myofascial release; just be careful and don’t use it in sensitive pelvic areas. Some men and women also report success using a therawand to release internal trigger points that are causing them pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms.
Walking and swimming for 30-60 minutes are some of the best exercises to lengthen, relax, stretch, and release your pelvic floor, boost blood flow, and help to retain and build strength in muscles that give support to the pelvic floor. Walk or swim for 5+ days a week for the best results. The breaststroke and freestyle are very helpful for pelvic floor sufferers. Along with swimming, people also use an elliptical at a low resistance to help provide a cardio workout that is safer for your pelvic floor.
Fix your posture. Pelvic floor issues and hard flaccid syndrome are closely associated with Anterior Pelvic Tilt and other postural issues. Get evaluated by a physical therapist so that they can give you exercises and stretches to fix it. You could also look into the Postural Restoration institute and see one of their providers and try to implement some of their exercises. In the meantime, here is one video playlist on how to fix APT. Another video to fix APT says to stretch the hip flexors, lower back, while focusing on strengthening the abs, glutes, and hamstrings. Make sure that you sit and walk with good posture - watch this to learn how to walk correctly - activate your glutes during each step and push off with your back foot!. I also recommend getting a standing desk to try to avoid sitting for long periods of time.
Weight training can be effective for boosting active androgen receptors in the body to increase testosterone and DHT levels. However, you need to make sure that it isn’t making your pelvic floor symptoms worse which defeats the purpose. If you are going to lift weights with pelvic floor issues, don’t lift heavy, do any intensive ab workouts, or any other exercises that can put extra strain on your pelvic floor. Do lifts where you can sit down instead of standing up. Start with yoga, stretching, and gentle body exercises to relax your pelvic floor and strengthen surrounding muscles before incorporating consistent weight training. I highly recommend, however, just sticking with yoga and pelvic floor safe body weight exercises to build strength instead. Those with PSSD without pelvic floor dysfunction may benefit a lot from lifting weights, high-intensity interval training, and doing bodyweight exercises such as squats regularly to boost androgen receptors and DHT. Remember to see a pelvic floor therapist to get evaluated first before starting any weight lifting because many people have pelvic floor issues without even realizing it.
Work on your mental health. Anxiety can worsen pelvic floor issues. Just as dogs tuck and tense their tails when stressed, we tense our pelvic floors which are directly connected to our tailbone where we used to have tails ourselves in our evolutionary history. As we are impacted by sexual dysfunction and pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms, we become anxious along with other negative emotions which leads to more pelvic floor tension symptoms due to the fight or flight mode response causing even more anxiety leading to more symptoms. It is a vicious cycle that needs to break by not becoming anxious and negative when we experience pelvic floor symptoms or hard flaccid and instead let go, accept, and realize that it is a normal process when trying to heal because sometimes our muscles that are used to that tightness don't want to let go of the tension we hold in our pelvic floors. Daily yoga, meditation, stretching, and walking will help with anxiety. I would also see a mental health therapist because all of these issues are deeply traumatic and we cannot go through this alone. We often hold tension in the form of emotions and trauma in our bodies, especially our pelvic floor and genital areas. By openly talking about these issues with a therapist, it will help us process and release our emotions and trauma that we are holding inside our bodies to improve our anxiety, relax our pelvic floor, and to let go of all of our tension. Many people who healed their hard flaccid and pelvic floor issues said that solving their anxiety and negative thoughts by talking to a mental health counselor was vital in recovery. The mind-body connection is so powerful, and it directly impacts our pelvic floor. Those who are stuck in the cycle of experiencing pelvic floor symptoms leading to anxiety and negative thoughts will also benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy you can do by yourself like in this video or preferably with a trained therapist. Here is an informative mini lecture on how stress impacts the pelvic floor.
I would also definitely go on a healthy anti-inflammatory diet. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, marijuana, and other substances. Avoid foods and liquids that can trigger pelvic floor inflammation such as highly acidic fruits and veggies, carbonated beverages, very spicy foods, and artificial sugars. To maintain a healthy gut to reduce inflammation in your body I recommend trying a low-histamine probiotic supplement along with eating healthy. You should also work on preventing or fixing constipation; eat a lot of soluble fiber to not get constipated - take a supplement such as metamucil if you have to. Check the Bristol stool shape chart to identify if you are constipated because even mild constipation can contribute to pelvic floor tension. This is because the constipation leads to a lot of pressure being put on your rectum and pelvic floor leading to the muscles becoming weak and dysfunctional. I am willing to bet many of you are constipated and don’t know it because it isn’t just whether you go regularly, it is also how your stool is shaped. People with pelvic floor disorders are at a high risk of constipation which makes their tension and dysfunction worse which then worsens the constipation, another cycle to fix. I recommend getting a Squatty Potty to reduce strain on the pelvic floor during elimination.
To help heal hard flaccid and pelvic floor issues, never watch pornography again (this is vital). Go on NoFap for 90+ days to help heal your brain and body from any unhealthy pornography and sexual habits you have partaken in. Pornography leads to involuntary kegels, a tight pelvic floor, desensitizes you, and messes up the dopamine and arousal circuitry in your brain. Don’t climax too often. Learn how to reverse kegel by yourself and during sexual activities. Never edge or regular kegel - it leads to pelvic floor tightness and dysfunction - just relax your arousal through a reverse kegel. Keep your pelvic floor relaxed during sexual activities.
Stay strong and never give up. You will heal. Thank you for reading.

17-minute read.

summarized segments from PM Pashinyan's 4-hour-long press conference

PASHINYAN: Over the last several years we came to realize that certain issues were incompatible with the idea of having an independent and sovereign Armenia. Certain agendas were shown to have a predetermined outcome with the goal of preventing Armenia's development as a state. I have shared details on numerous occasions. It became necessary to review Armenia's development strategy and the need to develop the "Real Armenia".
Today Armenia has and must have an independent foreign policy. Armenia's internal policy is driven by the will of the people.
The purpose of the existence of the Republic of Armenia is not to serve "historical justice". Its purpose is to establish personal freedoms, happiness, and prosperity for its citizens and diasporans who wish to repatriate.
We must have social justice in Armenia based on the idea of assisting those in need so they can have the skills and jobs necessary to make a living independently.
We must deepen our relations with neighboring Georgia and Iran, control and reduce the hostility with Turkey and Azerbaijan, and integrate with regional communication routes. The Crossroads of Peace logistics project would promote Armenia's integration into economic routes and reduce the likelihood of conflicts in the future.
In the area of defense, we are diversifying our foreign relations, reforming the army, and we need to implement and comprehensive defense system.
To be able to diversify foreign relations [closer ties with the West & the delivery of Indian weapons through the territory of Iran or Georgia], Armenia's stance must be based on legitimacy [no territorial claims against Azerbaijan]. We will never be able to diversify our relations or use the diversified relations effectively without having a position based on legitimacy.
The army reforms must also be based on legitimacy, and its purpose must be the protection of Armenia's territorial integrity and sovereignty. There will be no army reforms [Western advisory & assistance] if our stance is not based on legitimacy.
The economic development, which is a prerequisite for the achievement of other goals, must be based including on the development of human capital in Armenia.
The implementation of all of the above requires peace. The peace agenda has been a priority for us, partly because the mechanism of guarantees [by Russia] didn't work. Only peace can guarantee Armenia's security. The peace agenda is a tool to ensure Armenia's security.
We must create the conditions for peace, and we have launched that process in Tavush. The border posts installed in Tavush are "security guarantees" and we must do everything possible to strengthen those guarantees and multiply them. //
Border Commissions of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on April 19 to reproduce the borders based on the 1991 Almaty Declaration. During the upcoming meeting in Kazakhstan, foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan will discuss the inclusion of this principle in the larger peace agreement, said Pashinyan.
The demarcation is conducted based on the latest USSR maps that hold de jure power. That's the principle. They avoid pointing to a map from a specific year because each section of the border could have de jure maps prepared in different years. Pashinyan offered journalists to meet off the record to share more details about the de jure maps. He said it can't be publicized in order not to jeopardize the ongoing delimitation process.
Why are the parties delimiting the borders from the ground up instead of simply using the delimitation work carried out in 1988, during the final years of USSR? Pashinyan says the 1988 efforts were not legally finalized and "didn't have time" to undergo the necessary procedures to go into effect, hence the need for a new process.
PASHINYAN: Today we are using maps that reflect the borders between Soviet Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. With the Tavush process, we have chosen a path to exclude the possibility of a war. This isn't just about Kirants and Tavush, this is about the Republic of Armenia.
The border delimitation aims to make the possible war illogical, unlikely, and not worthwhile. Some 90% of the work is complete. The further it goes, the more illogical a war becomes. We are delivering on our 2021 promise of taking steps to establish peace.
This is the first time in history that we create security guarantees ourselves, no matter how challenging it is. This is part of being a sovereign state, when you face your own issues and make sovereign decisions to resolve your own issues. This is a major political and socio-psychological shift for Armenia. //
Pashinyan said it's necessary to ensure that Armenia is not viewed as an "occupier" of Azerbaijani villages, and explained why it was important to launch the delimitation from Tavush:
PASHINYAN: We are talking about actual [4 Soviet-era Azeri] communities where people lived. The escalations in 2021-2022 caught the interest of the international community, and sadly, on international platforms, the aggression against Armenia was "justified" including with the use of those Azerbaijani villages. It was both surprising and unfortunate that in a situation [20121-2022] when we thought we were the "plaintiff", we became the "defendant". We were asked whether we recognize each other's territorial integrity or not. "Then what is the problem that's preventing you from resolving the issue of these villages?" So we are launching the delimitation from Tavush to avoid a new war.
Critics and I look at this through different lenses. They talk about "surrendering trenches great for defense", and I'm talking about preventing a war so you won't even need to use those trenches. Today there is a process, including by the clergy, to stop the process of developing guarantees for peace, to stop the process of strengthening Armenia's sovereignty. There will be a war if we don't delimit these 4 villages. I'm confident that this was/is the goal of certain forces that wish to create conditions to allow them to hijack power so they can make some other decisions for Armenia [Tatarstan].
Are you paying attention to what the opposition members are saying? One of their leaders went on air and questioned the expediency of holding free and legitimate elections because they - and certain external forces [in Russia] - understand that they can't win power through legitimate elections so they need to destabilize the situation by inciting a new war so they can hijack power without elections. This is their plan:
(1) Derail the border delimitation and incite a war that will lead to the occupation of Armenian territories.
(2) Use that to overthrow the government.
(3) Install an illegitimate marionette government.
(4) De facto dissolution of Armenia's sovereignty and statehood, ahead of its de jure dissolution.
Who are the supporters of this process [rally against delimitation]? Narco-barons hiding in Russia [Panama Papers' Mihran Poghosyan]; criminal elements recruited by foreign intel agencies or at a minimum people acting under their influence; the former NSS chief Arthur Vanetsyan who was recorded on tape, which wasn't published in full, with the rest of the tape being kept to ensure he served their interests. What could be in the unpublished portion of the conversation? Could we find out one day that Vanetsyan was illegally negotiating with Kocharyan's son-in-law Mikael Minasyan to register part of the Zangezur copper combine's shares under his brother's name [Context: Pashinyan has accused the ex-regime of illegally appropriating the shares of Armenia's largest miner. There was an investigation by an independent media outlet about Vanetsyan's involvement in Zangezur. This was before the recent partial nationalization.]
These are the people who claim they are worried about the homeland today. Why don't they return those illegally obtained shares if they are worried about Armenia? It is inevitable. I want to inform you that these shares will belong to the Republic of Armenia. These illegal assets will be seized and returned under the ownership of the Republic of Armenia. //
Pashinyan vented about the quality of journalism in Armenia, accusing outlets of spreading unverified information as facts and not attempting to ask him directly for clarification when they were given the opportunity during one-on-one meetings.
PASHINYAN: You read these articles about my family members visiting somewhere and returning home with a "submarine", but when the opportunity is presented, these outlets never ask me to clarify whether it was true. Why don't you grill me right now for using a submarine to travel from Gyumri to Yerevan? It's as if these articles are being written for the sake of saying something rather than presenting facts. //
Back to borders.
PASHINYAN: Today the Border Commissions are tasked with reproducing the border on the ground. They are not engaged in politics, geopolitics, or proving the other side wrong. They are reproducing the de jure borders. In the Kirants section, 8 border markings have been clarified and installed. The other 3 are more sensitive [might pass through a house] and more detailed work will be done because, in those 3 points, every centimeter will matter. It has to have a centimeter precision. It's a laborious task but the problems of Kirants residents are our problems, my personal problems. For them, we have to come up with realistic and satisfactory solutions, even if not "ideal" solutions. We are reviewing the property ownership records as well. //
Pashinyan said he had to organize this press conference on May 7 instead of May 8 - the day when he became the PM - because tomorrow he has to visit Russia for the EAEU economic meeting during which he will also meet Putin. He said a number of issues have accumulated on the AM-RU agenda that need to be discussed.
The permanent housing assistance package for Nagorno-Karabakh refugees is being drafted and will be ready soon. Pashinyan said the refugees will receive help to build or buy housing, or a mortgage subsidy if they have already purchased a house. For refugees who are unable or do not wish to take part in the aforementioned programs, they will receive assistance in the form of social housing, meaning they will live for free but won't own it.
The amount of housing subsidy will be in the ֏3M-֏5M range, per family member. So a family of 6 would receive $41,000-$77,000 depending on the geographic location of their choice.
While speaking about the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process, Pashinyan repeated that after 2016, the resolution package on the table required: the abolition of the governing system in Nagorno-Karabakh, the return of Azeris to Nagorno-Karabakh, the joint control of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenians and Azeris, no independence, and the lingering possibility of war.
PASHINYAN: We had to surrender all of that, and even then there was no guarantee there wouldn't be a war because there would be no final resolution. This outcome was predetermined. Nevertheless, the Armenian people are overcoming the mentality of being a [Russian] fortpost today. This creates the groundwork for a lasting statehood for Armenia. Today we see the horizon after overcoming all these tragedies. Since taking office in 2018 I had the feeling that Armenia was in a deadlock. Today, for the first time, I feel that we have overcome that, thanks to the delimitation in Tavush. We are the ones creating the "guarantees" for us. //
When asked why he won't take part in Russia's May 9 celebrations, Pashinyan said he visited last year and that Armenian leaders don't have a record of attending every year.
Regarding the recent ban on Russian propagandist Solovyov from Armenian airwaves and possibly a wider ban on Russian channels, Pashinyan said foreign programs must respect Armenian laws:
PASHINYAN: Can you imagine the broadcasting of a channel in Russia that uses a similar language towards Russian law, the state, and its government? Do you think the channel would exist even if they used 5% of the same language? The AM-RU media agreement requires respect for Armenia and its interests. Since we have friendly relations with Russia, we can ask nicely once and twice, then demand once and twice, and if it's still ignored, they will all be shut down in Armenia. We are serious about defending Armenia as a sovereign state. I can GUARANTEE you, guar-an-tee, that these foreign channels won't be aired in Armenia if they continue to ignore these demands. It appears we have asked twice, demanded once, so there is one more "demand" left. //
QUESTION: Russia and Azerbaijan demand a Russian-controlled corridor from Armenia, citing the 9th paragraph of the Nov 9 statement.
PASHINYAN: (1) The other paragraphs of Nov. 9 were ignored. (2) The 9th paragraph is not about connecting Azerbaijan to Nakhijevan. That's the impression they are trying to create, but the 9th paragraph is in reality about the unblocking of ALL communication routes in the region. Azerbaijan has yet to unblock any of the routes for Armenia. Name one route that Azerbaijan has unblocked. We, on the other hand, proposed the installation of border checkpoints to establish connections, including between Azerbaijan and Nakhijevan. Azerbaijan is refusing to take advantage of this opportunity. Azerbaijan says if we don't give them a corridor they will build a route through Iran. Our response is that we are ready to provide a road similar to the one provided by Iran. There is not even a "hint" in the 9th paragraph that limits Armenia's sovereignty.
(3) There is an attempt to create the impression that under the 9th paragraph, a 3rd party [Russia] must guarantee the security through the territory of Armenia. Quite the contrary; it directly states that Armenia shall guarantee the security of connections.
(4) The 9th paragraph makes no mention of any part of Armenia becoming outside of the reach of the Armenian government and being "controlled" by Russia. It's written that Russia oversees the transport connection. What does that mean, you may ask? Pay attention to the Russian government decree adopted after the Nov. 9 statement, because it clarifies what the 9th paragraph says. The Russian decree instructs Russian agencies to "oversee the implementation of transportation guarantees provided by Armenia". In other words, the subject that provides the guarantees is Armenia, not Russia. This doesn't even mean that Russia must be present on the ground to oversee this, because it's possible to oversee the process by receiving regular reports from Armenia that Armenia is delivering the guarantees [Relevant: In 2022-2023 Armenia's NatSec Armen Grigoryan suggested that Russia could use "cameras" to oversee the process remotely. It appears Pashinyan today supports even less direct involvement by Russia, in the form of "regular reports", whatever that means.]
PASHINYAN (continues): There can be no comparison between this and the Lachin corridor. They are completely different. The Lachin corridor, under Nov. 9, was a territory with a specific width that had to remain under the direct control of Russian peacekeepers. Those who accuse us of violating paragraph 9 are making baseless claims. They must admit that this is an attempt by them to coerce an unacceptable concession from Armenia that is not described in paragraph 9. That is the truth.
There is a Lachin corridor in the Nov 9 statement. Is there a Lachin corridor on the ground today? It doesn't exist. Why?
There is a "line of contact" between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the Nov 9 state. Is there a LoC on the ground today? Where is it?
The Nov 9 says there is Nagorno-Karabakh. Where is Nagorno-Karabakh today?
The Nov 9 says there are peacekeepers that will ensure the security of the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. Did they? They did not. Where is the ethnic Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh today? //
Regarding the delimitation of 3 problematic areas in Kirants where the border could pass through a couple of houses.
REPORTER: Kirants is my homeland. I grew up in these areas and my children spent their vacations there. We regularly visit Kirants and other villages with family without disclosing it. Do you know why I do not oppose delimiting the border even if it causes controversy and property issues for some residents? Because we were finally able to reach an agreement around the principle for the delimitation of the entire AM-AZ border, welcomed by the international community. We cannot throw away the hard work and the principles of delimitation.
There can be no external "security guarantees" for Armenia. Armenia itself must forge those "guarantees" with its own efforts. That is what we are doing today. These are the "security guarantees" that you asked for Kirants and Tavush. This is part of the peace agenda. //
When asked about police brutality, Pashinyan acknowledged some problems but said a legal force should be used when appropriate, citing the recent clearing of university campuses in the US. Pashinyan said the government has launched a process to clarify the rights and responsibilities of officers so they will avoid investigations and prosecutors while the public will be treated fairly.
Pashinyan accused "failed religious leaders" of attempting to pursue a political agenda.
PASHINYAN: They failed to connect people and God. There are sadly many ranking churchmen, not all, who failed. You can talk to them dozens of times and they will never make any mention of the Bible or verses from the Bible. They are focused on business dealings, cement and concrete transportation, customs clearance, moving money from one account to another, public transport ownership, comparing the latest model of Mercedes with the old model, etc. Who are these people?
I'm not really surprised that they are involved in politics because they have no place in the religious world; it's just not for them. I doubt they have read the Bible in full. Based on the language used by them, you can tell they haven't opened the New Testament for quite some time, and they don't possess the nuances of the gospel. I say this not as a Prime Minister but as a man who believes in God. I speak as a follower of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Our church leaders have failed in their mission. I'm probably the last person in Armenia who says this; everyone knows that's the case.
They are bored of religion, they want to be in politics. Under the old regime, the church members had their "quotas" [monopolistic privileges] to conduct business. Import and export of cars, Bentleys, Lexus, Mercedes... yev ayln. Today everyone is free to do business, which means economic competition for these church leaders. This sums up the whole story.
They say the "temple" [opposition] will defeat the "street" [Pashinyan's 2018 revolution]. How will the temple defeat the street? Who is on the streets? It's the citizens of Armenia. How do they plan to defeat the street? The people's will is unstoppable, and people want peace. Those who preach war are destined to fail. // [Should Pashinyan resign and lead the church? Leave your insightful opinion in the comment section below.]
When asked why he visited daddy Erdogan's inauguration ceremony but not papa Putin's, Pashinyan revealed that he didn't receive an invitation from Putin, but even if there was one, he said would likely miss it because of today's press conference.
When asked whether the church leader Garegin Beta should step down, Pashinyan said the Government should not interfere in those matters.
PASHINYAN: Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that Catholicos Garegin B is leading a political movement today. That is very obvious. Today we know the purpose of this movement from the spokesman of the church who said the goal of this movement is to bring back the former regime. This strategy was mentioned by the leader of Armenia Alliance [Robert Kocharyan] on how to use the church to replace the government. A churchman said he has the blessing of the Catholicos to proceed with the process. That means Catholicos is the real leader, with the primary beneficiary being Robert Kocharyan. This isn't even an assumption, this is based on their public statements.
We are aware that some members of the clergy oppose this process. You remember how there was a movement "New Armenia, new Catholicos" after the 2018 revolution. They attempted to accuse us of being behind it, but in reality, not only we did not sponsor it but we were against that process because we didn't believe the Government should meddle in those affairs. //
HOST: This just in. The administrative head of village Kirants was allowed to visit the border marking sites. During a follow-up interview with the press, he said their expectations have been met and exceeded, and that it's more positive than what they expected.
PASHINYAN: During my recent trip to Kirants, the scenario I presented to the residents was the worst-case scenario. I also informed the residents of Kirants about the positive aspects of the delimitation and the possible economic benefits. I won't rush to make more statements and politicize the work of the Border Commission. The head of the administrative district of Kirants is actually a member of a [recently formed] working group adjacent to the Border Commission [Context: Village mayors were invited to oversee the Commission's work to ensure transparency for residents].
source,

former ambassador-at-large Edmon Marutyan released a video praising the Armenian church for its "liberal values", criticizing the Pashinyan administration for a "Bolshevik" campaign against the church

Marukyan is upset that the ruling faction accuses the church leaders of being "Russian agents" and for dismissing them without engaging with them.
Marukyan says it's normal for the church to be in politics and for deeply religious figures to be members of the government. He brings the example of Donald Trump, who is selling Bibles for a buck; Erdogan, whose party is deeply religious; Israel, whose coalition has right-wing religious figures; the United Kingdom, which has Bishops, etc.
In related news. Former Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan has joined the anti-delimitation march organized by the ARF/church.
source, source, source, source, source, [կանսեռվա]

mayor of Tavush village Kirants about the ongoing delimitation process

REPORTER: Eight border markers have been installed. Where are they, what's the latest news?
MAYOR (Kamo Shahinyan): I've seen the markers. There is a height called Khachi located right on the cross. They moved the border about 25 meters down from there, for which we are grateful to whoever was able to accomplish this. Some of the territory went under our control, and some under Azerbaijani control.
The "nose" part is what's left, the area immediately neighboring the village, the most difficult part. The 9.5 hectares that we were supposed to lose were moved down the river; not a centimeter of land belonging to us passes through there. On the back side, there are 3 personal properties and if you draw the line straight they will be inside Azerbaijan but they said they plan to curve the line. With this technique, we can maintain control of our lands.
REPORTER: Where is the most problematic area?
MAYOR: The bridge and the [area immediately next to the village where the border protrudes into the village]. Most of the work has been done near other markers. Moreover, some of the areas that were part of Azerbaijan under the 1985 map went to our side.
Near the Gholi Chal area, we were expecting them to draw the line to pass through our side of the river, but it passes on the Azeri side.
Most of the concern is with the "nose" and the personal properties of villagers in this area. As of right now, there is no Armenian-owned registered property that has fallen under the Azeri side as long as they curve that aforementioned area instead of drawing a straight line.
Do you see this large 9-hectare orchard? Not one centimeter of it goes under Azeri control.
REPORTER: Is that Ms. Karine's property?
MAYOR: Yes, people. Ms. Karine's lands remain under her control. I'm satisfied with how it's been handled so far.
REPORTER: [The groups were home today]. Is it possible they have frozen the activities on the nose section to distract you and buy some time? Because you are assuming a responsibility, you are presenting this in a positive light...
MAYOR: I'm telling you what has been done so far. I'm not the one to provide guarantees. They are going to deploy people [border guards] near the border markers to protect the area. For now, I think they will deploy NSS agents.
REPORTER (Azatutyun): So we haven't made concessions at this time?
MAYOR: We have not made concessions. There are only 3 land plots with uncertainty and it depends on how curved the line will be. That is the latest. It's going normal so far. //
In other news. Opposition outlets reported that Azerbaijani special forces were seen in village Kirants. It turned out they were Armenian agents. The ruling party accused the opposition of recklessly amplifying the anxieties of the residents.
source,source,

mayor of village Voskepar about the ongoing delimitation

REPORTER: What was lost during the delimitation near Voskepar? Did any territories of Voskepar go under Azerbaijani control?
MAYOR: No part of Voskepar has gone under Azeri control.
REPORTER: How did the border change after the installation of border posts?
MAYOR: Do you really think people knew where the border was BEFORE this process? The process is so far in line with our expectations and understanding. There are areas where we keep more than we thought we would. Azeris moved further back in some locations so instead of a 120-meter distance it turned out to be 170.
REPORTER: What about the army positions?
MAYOR: We have not left any of the positions.
REPORTER: In other words, there has been no damage as of now and you are not displeased with the demarcation works?
MAYOR: I'm not displeased with the work so far.
REPORTER: In that case, why was there a noise generated by the opposition and the church, why did people take to the streets?
MAYOR: Ask them, but I support the fight against unilateral concessions to protect our lands.
source,

Donald Trump defends Azerbaijan's good boy U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar, accused of taking $600,000 in bribes to promote pro-Azerbaijan and anti-Armenian legislation

Trump claims without evidence that Cuellar is under attack for wanting to defend the southern U.S. border.
source,

Armenia will receive $100 million from the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development to fund the Government's economic reform plan

efficiency of the labor market and sustainable development

source,

Yerevan State University has a cleanroom certified under ISO 7: VIDEO

It's being used for nanotech and semiconductor research, practice for students, and projects funded by grants.
video,

Armenia will host the World Weightlifting Championship in 2027: VIDEO

It will be the first major Olympic sports to be held in Armenia.
video,

foreign trade stats: Q1 2024

Exports 2.7x ($4.4B)
Imports +76% ($4.7B)
source, source,

“Four Corners is the home of Australian investigative journalism. These fearless and forensic documentaries expose scandals, trigger inquiries, fire debate and confront taboos.”
This documentary just came out, and they spoke to several former Mindgeek employees who were all anonymous because they could be sued if they got caught speaking out. A lot of it confirmed my assumptions, but the most shocking thing to me was what the CEO actually said out loud. These are some notes I took because it's only available to watch until June 5th for some reason. I’ll put a link either at the end or in the comments.
TLDR: Porn companies profit from nonconsensual videos. Moderators use loopholes to allow as much as possible get uploaded. These people are evil. Justice system is shit. Everything is about money.
Katelynn found out in 2020 about two videos of her on Pornhub. Her friend took screenshots and showed her one with 970,000 views and the other with 50,000. They had been uploaded in 2010 by Gage, whom she had been friends with for 10 years and hooked up with. She contacted Gage and told him to delete them, which he did, but the videos had spread all over the internet to 45 sites, totaling about 5 million views. The comments were disgusting, and she describes it as being virtually raped. She’s tried to have them deleted but couldn’t. In 2020, she had a husband, a house, and a job, but now she has none of those things. Her marriage didn’t survive, and she’s been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Pornhub, which is owned by Mindgeek, also runs four other free porn sites, which get more than 3 billion visits per month. The journalists emailed and called the company many times, but they never responded or picked up. They showed up at the office building, but there wasn’t a public entrance.
Former employee: “They see them as cattle, like it’s human cattle. To them it’s not a person that they’re talking about. Like they talk about them as though they’re talking like about data points, you know? It’s… it’s… I never, I don’t know, I didn’t see them talking about those people in a respectful manner.”
Pornhub claims they have zero tolerance for nonconsensual videos that they take the issue very seriously.
The journalists had an editor sign up on Pornhub. To upload videos, she signed up with her real identity and uploaded her ID. She posted a video of a young woman, who had agreed for the investigation, to let them upload a video of her doing a strip tease, which they would remove themselves a few days later. Before uploading, the editor needed to agree to terms saying that the people in the video had consented to appear in it, that they were at least 18 years old, and that they approved the sharing of it online on Pornhub. She agreed to the terms, then waited for the video to be approved by a moderator. 2 hours and 9 minutes later, the video was online. Pornhub did not confirm with the woman in the video if she had agreed to it. It was then available all over the world.
A former employee explained that they didn’t require consent from both parties. It didn’t matter unless they got caught. “If the girls not crying, there’s no blood, there’s no gun, there’s nothing we see to suggest that the girl wants to say no, if we don’t see that, for us that was automatically consent so we let it go up.”
The journalists flagged some videos. There was a user who would upload videos of two guys preying on woman who were struggling. They would walk up to them outside, start talking, exchange money for sex (in the clip shown, it was $25), then walk away. In some videos, they were asking not to be filmed.
A user called 1stBLACKZORO uploaded 50 videos in 2022, with titles like “Fellatio performed by a homeless woman in exchange for food.”
The journalists messaged him: “Like the homeless, that for real?”
1stBLACKZORO: “Yes she’s real and still homeless”
Journalists: “U didn’t get problems upload these last three ones right, even if u did not give ID for these ones as well?”
1stBLACKZORO: “No problems”
Former manager: “And as I got higher, I realized the culture was very, very, very dark and robotic. So as soon as you get to the level of the directors you start seeing what the core of the company is. And honestly, I hated it. I mean, I saw what they really are and… I mean, they’re cut-throat. These guys, their money is everything. Let’s put it that way.”
In December 2020, the New York Times published an article “The Children of Pornhub” saying the site is overrun with rape of minors, revenge porn and other stolen, racist, and misogynist content. Pornhub tried to do damage control by deleted several million videos, but the scandal was taken up by Canadian authorities. In February 2021, remote hearings were broadcast; it’s the only public appearance Mindgeek directors have made.
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau was the MP in charge of hearings: “I won’t be able to sleep well tonight if I don’t ask you this. You said that you are parents; I’m one as well. I’d like to hear you talk about your conscience as parents, and I’m not talking to businessmen. How do you experience this personally? Mr Antoon?”
Feras Antoon, CEO, Mindgeek 2012-2022: “Of course we are very sorry if this has caused any impact on victims, but I can tell you and tell the committee we are very proud that we built a product that gets 170 million people a day, 4 million Canadians, 30% of them women, a day. We created a very good product that I am proud of, that our 1,800 employees who have families and children are proud of. Now, it is not perfect.”
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau speaking to the journalists: “To see with my own eyes there these individuals so inhumanly cold that I get the impression they’re in another world.”
The PM Trudeau had said that they were working on regulations that would require the removal of illegal content, that platforms would be monitored, that victims will have access to a rapid, transparent and independent process, but that law never materialized. The MP’s created a report with recommendations, but nothing came of that either.
In 2022 the CEO Feras Antoon and the COO David Tassillo resigned, but remain shareholders.
In a study published in the British journal of criminology. In 2017, over the course of six months, they looked at the titles of videos on the homepages of the three most visited porn sites on the planet. They selected titles describing sexual violence, which fit into four categories: sexual activity between family members, coercion and exploitation, sexual assaults, and image-based sexual abuse. 1 in 8 titles represented sexual violence. So when someone goes to the homepage, there is going to be, or there will probably be, a depiction of sexual violence. It’s worse now, in 2022; now it’s 1 in 5 titles with sexual violence. And the vast majority are family. Some of the videos are something like “Brother fucks not sister” so when someone types in brother and sister, it comes up.
Former employee: ”It’s called content formatting, so it’s yeah, like, I mean the tags and the titles sometimes. So what we will do with the titles is we have, especially in Pornhub, we have a lot of incest videos, so it’s like “Brother and sister sleeping with mom” so what they will do is like, just add the word “step”. Our job was to try to allow it, to make an excuse, to make a case. So if we actually had some reason, we will say like, hey, we allowed this video because it says “stepbrother”, “stepsister”, we allow it. So with, you know, a complaint, we would say, okay, sorry, we assumed it was okay.”
Former manager: “As you go up you realize, oh, this is like, there is a whole industry behind it. Like these producers, they basically separated themselves from the production companies because they’re telling the production companies what to do, but they’re saying, well, it’s not our fault if you get caught. You know what I mean? Mindgeek is like, well, we didn’t know, we just bought the content for it. But there is an entire, like every piece of content they have is written, there’s a department there.”
The journalists got their hands on confidential documents outlining productions. Studios are required to produce scripts by the letter with every detail stipulated: set decoration, wardrobe, outfits, dialogue, scripts drawn up according to strict internal instructions, each site with its own compulsory content. In some cases, intending to portray problematic situations, such as sexual activity between family members.
Former employee: “So probably 2012 or 2011, they discovered this thing. So you know, I mean, I remember, it was literally the guys I worked for, they discovered the stepmother stepson thing. They just did one scene where it was as someone’s stepmother and it was so popular and it went so crazy that suddenly everything had to be, you know, family members like that. And that’s where the data comes in because something does marginally better than the other thing, you get 2% instead of 1%, that’s huge. Now you’ve doubled your money or you’ve doubled your revenue.”
Former employee: “It’s giving people what they want and it’s also slowing training people to a new thing. Because we’re talking hundreds of millions of people a day, so you can just shift a whole population a little bit just by showing, just by changing the average of what they see, right?”
According to Feras Antoon, about 50% of Mindgeeks revenue comes from advertising. So based on their last reported annual revenue, that would be around 230 million euros. The more content, the more views, the more money. Mindgeek has to get users to upload content to its sites. To do so, it offers them a cut of the revenue. For a video on Pornhub, they can get up to 80% advertising income. Mindgeek collects the other 20%, and in some cases more.
The user 1stBLACKZORO had uploaded a video, and Pornhub emailed him, saying that because he doesn’t appear as a main performer, he will not be able to earn advertising revenue, but the video will remain up. This was also without the confirmed consent of the woman in the video. The video was still accompanied by tons of advertisements, and in the top corner of the ads was the logo for "trafficjunky,” which is Mindgeeks advertising company.
The journalists sent Mindgeek a list of questions and links to two videos. They were videos they had already reported as users, but hadn’t been removed. Mindgeek responded by saying, “We have taken note of the two videos you have provided and they have been removed and their uploaders have been permanently banned. We are grateful to all parties worldwide who bring to our attention material that they feel should not exist on our platform.” They also banned 1stBLACKZORO’s account, and all his videos were deleted. So reporting as users didn’t do anything, but questioning them as investigative journalists did.
In March 2023, the conglomerate changed hands. The new owners are multiple companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven. It's impossible to say which shareholders are behind them.
They check in with Katelynn at the end, and her video was found on xvideos, with ads, and available to download. They reported it and it took three weeks to get it taken down. She reported her former friend to the authorities, but the American justice system is refusing to pursue the case.

Interested in learning how to invest in stocks and navigate the stock market? This comprehensive beginner's guide provides you with essential insights and tips to kickstart your investment journey.
As someone who's eager to dive into the world of investing, understanding how to invest in stocks and navigate the stock market can seem like a daunting task. However, with the right knowledge and guidance, investing in stocks can be a rewarding venture that helps you build wealth over time. In this beginner's guide, I'll walk you through the basics of stock market investing, key considerations to keep in mind, and practical tips to help you make informed investment decisions.
Understanding Stocks and the Stock Market:
Stocks represent ownership in a company and are bought and sold on stock exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the Nasdaq. When you invest in stocks, you become a shareholder in the company, which means you own a portion of that company's assets and earnings.
The stock market is where these transactions take place, and it serves as a platform for investors to buy and sell stocks. Stock prices are influenced by various factors, including company performance, economic conditions, and market sentiment.
How to Invest in Stocks:

1. Educate Yourself: Before diving into stock market investing, it's crucial to educate yourself about the basics of investing, different types of stocks, and how the stock market operates. Resources such as books, online courses, and financial websites can provide valuable insights to help you make informed decisions.
2. Set Financial Goals: Define your investment objectives and establish clear financial goals. Whether you're looking to save for retirement, build a nest egg, or generate passive income, having specific goals will guide your investment strategy.
3. Assess Your Risk Tolerance: Understand your risk tolerance to determine the level of risk you're comfortable with when investing in stocks. Factors such as age, financial situation, and investment timeline can influence your risk tolerance.
4. Create a Diversified Portfolio: Diversification is key to managing risk in your investment portfolio. By spreading your investments across different asset classes and industries, you can reduce the impact of market volatility on your overall returns.
5. Start Small and Gradually Increase Investments: Begin with a small investment amount and gradually increase your exposure to stocks as you gain confidence and experience in the market. Avoid investing money you can't afford to lose.
6. Conduct Research and Due Diligence: Before investing in a stock, research the company's financial health, performance history, and growth prospects. Fundamental analysis and technical analysis can help you evaluate the potential of a stock.
7. Monitor Your Investments: Keep track of your investments regularly and stay informed about market trends, company news, and economic developments that may impact your portfolio. Review and adjust your investment strategy as needed.
8. Consider Long-Term Investing: While stock prices can be volatile in the short term, investing with a long-term perspective can help you ride out market fluctuations and benefit from the power of compounding returns.

Key Considerations for Stock Market Investing:

1. Market Volatility: Stock prices can fluctuate due to market volatility, economic events, and geopolitical factors. It's important to remain calm and avoid making impulsive decisions based on short-term market movements.
2. Investment Fees and Costs: Be mindful of investment fees, commissions, and taxes that may impact your returns. Consider low-cost investment options such as index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to minimize expenses.
3. Stay Informed: Stay updated on market news, company earnings reports, and economic indicators that may affect your investments. Knowledge is key to making informed decisions in the stock market.
4. Seek Professional Advice: Consider consulting with a financial advisor or investment professional to help you develop a personalized investment strategy based on your financial goals and risk profile.

Conclusion:
Investing in stocks can be a rewarding way to grow your wealth and achieve your financial goals, but it requires careful planning, research, and discipline. By following the tips outlined in this beginner's guide, you can navigate the stock market with confidence and make informed investment decisions. Remember that investing in stocks carries risks, and it's essential to conduct thorough research and seek professional advice when needed. With patience and a long-term perspective, you can harness the potential of stock market investing to secure your financial future.
I hope this beginner's guide has provided you with valuable insights and resources to kickstart your journey into the world of stock market investing. Happy investing!

Hi all, this is a story about one of my older groups in my teens with a man, let's call Stringfellow, based on his pre-adopted name. I had gotten him into the world of RPGs by DnD after my dad talked to his dad about RPGs like DnD after their family kicked me out of their house one time for bringing "satanic" materials into the home. The talk went well, and me and him got a small group going from his church young club. We start with DnD at first but expand to Traveller and Call of Cthulhu. Call of Cthuthu was surprisingly one of the more popular games, not just for one-shot but full-on campaigns.
The only issue was that any attempt to have sessions on, near or crossing the Atlantic ocean would kill the game. crossing by boat, an elder one attacks and ends up sinking it. trying to get to a small island where the lighthouse holding the seals needed to save the world, the driver crit fails and we all get swept up in a drag tide and drown. starting a WW2 Call of Cthulhu campaign with the starting point being the D-day landings; everyone got busy with finals and has yet to pick it up again.
Now, I understand we were young like high school young and the Curse was more bad luck and everyday IRL commitments but I feel like the following two time that the "curse" strikes was more the ego of Stringfellow than just bad timing on the groups behave or a misroll of the dice. Both games involved me and Stringfellow’s takes on the Hindenburg crash going in different directions on the cursed Atlantic ocean.
Stringfellow had us as a group of three two academics and an upper-class man who thought their respected connections got tickets. It was new, Luxurious, and the fastest way to get to our stop at a historical convention. We got on board with the DMPC Docter and quickly stumbled onto some cultists of some kind of “twisted fire god” in the first 15 minutes of the game. As one made it on a “near-impossible” mythos role and was able to ID the Brunch on one of the cultists. One of us an old army general, now an instructor of military history tried to offer to pick up their bags to get a good look at their cabin and ended up bursting into a firefight. None of us had any real weapons but we were still on the ground so ran to the local port authority who took care of it.
The cultists were killed or arrested and the Hindenburg Launched delayed but Launched all the same. That was effectively the Adventure as stringfellow didnt expect us to find out the Cultist so fast. We did some talking with people who had brief interactions with the Fire cultists and got into their rooms after the Police ransack them but otherwise nothing else of note.
It wasn't until landing day that at dinner we were told they all of us felt sleepy had to roll a D8 to see how long we were passed out for. The doctor DMPC was secretly a cultist the whole time…with little to no warning. The DMPC had spiked food with chloroform pills after killing off the crew and passengers with demanional shambles. So within the last half hour of the game Stringfellow describes the doctor dmpc summoning a portal full of fire vampires. Anyone still alive at this point ethered died in the crash or was eaten by the shambles. Only one of the party members, Stringfellow's best friend at the time, was allowed to act as he rolled the lowest on the chloroform effect. He tried to jump off the zeppelin and onto the Anker pole but missed and hit the concrete base of the pole breaking both of his legs. His final act being attempting to crawl away from the Hindenburg as its flaming hull landed on him.
Stringfellow later that day would rant at me because apparently I was talking about a mystery book before the game started. He was using that book we read in class together for inspiration for the adventure and I caused the one shot to go that way. He would be passive-aggressive of this ruining of his one-shot for months until i decided to try doing a full Campaign set in the years leading up to WW2. Stringfellow’s mood changed on a dime but for other reasons unknown to me.
It was going to be the party trying to stop WW2 in an alternate steampunk CoC earth, complete with some homebrew rules and items I found online. I would have it start on the Hindenburg, where due to an advanced Faraday cage built into the blimp, the lighting didn't set the zeppelin on fire. Now, it and a few others Luxury Blimps are considered some of the fastest and most Stylish ways to Travel in the world.
The party being, I believe, Stringfellow as his Doctor DMPC from the one-shot with the War vet template, String’s best friend as a wealthy stockbroker, and the bystander player in all of this, an ex-man from the mob. They were going to meet with an old friend, let's call professor Christian who lives in Poland who in one way or another they each owed a favor too. He was concerned about what was happening in Germany with the military build-up and the raiding of archaeological sites from a newly discovered culture that seemed to have Worshiped squid-like beings. So the party takes the Hindenburg to Germany to catch a train to Poland in time for the dual invasion.
So boarding the blimp I start to drop hints of what the overall campaign is going to be my letting the part meet some major movers beforehand. One of the movers was a red Haring, Adolf Hitler. The counselor was visiting the US about lifting sanctions on helium but in true visiting the American branch of the Lovecraftian cult to see if everything is ready for the “mass sacrifice” that was World War II, with the US intervention being a “back-up” to make sure enough people died to summon the elder god. I think I was going to have gerbils as the “real” further but the campaign ended season one.
Stringfellow, being a vet of “The Great War ''had met Hitler during the war and wanted him dead due to him owning his money and Hitler trying to get out of the debt by leaving him behind in no man's land. At least that's what String said was in his background that he never gave me a written copy of. He then offered the two other party members cancer screenings and told them they had terminal cancer. Seeing they all have cancer offered a good cause to life out there finally days, kill hitler. String's best friend jumped on board without much of asking, the bystander questioned the cancer diagnosis without any reliable tools. They started to fight that if the roll was good enough to convince them they have cancer and rolled hight enough on his fast talk for them to believe him. Bystander player wanted him to do it with real med gear like an X-ray machine or blood labs. The pair decided to have this debate in private on the balcony. Stringfellow wasted no time grabbing and throwing bystander into the sea.
This was when the campaign truly went off the rail as Stringfellow, and best friend when off to the engine room to pop the hydrogen sacks. While the bystander took over one of the npcs on board the captain of the security on board tried to stop them with a squid of man. The battle was pretty one-sided as Stringfellow, I would later learn, just took the already OP DMPC from his one-shot and added the vet template on top, poorly at that as he had 200% firearms and 120% mythos. The game ended when Stringfellow opened a portal to the inside of one of the nitrogen bags, pulled out a flamethrower which I am not even sure where he got it from, and sent a blast of flames through. I described how the Hindenburg exploded when everyone, despite Stringfellow trying to describe to me how his PC was flame and explosion proof as at this point I was tired and just wanted to end it.
Stringfellow killed my game as he felt it was fair as I killed him for as the bible saids “an eye for an eye.” what really boiled me was that stringfellow would never reveal this in front of the others. Every single time we remotely got close to the subject of my hindenburg game he would start heavily pointing out that it was the “Curse of the Atlantic” that i should have known better than to set the game over the ocean. O and to point out the hypocrisy Stringfellow would just call BS about the curse ruining his hindenburg one shot and just blamed me for “sabotaging it on purpose to get your shit game off the ground.”
TLDR I accidentally pointed out a plot point that he stole from a book the group read in freshman english class and has DMPC TPK party after having no plan B. perseids to ruin my CoC game set also on the hindenburg

(I have not played the beta release of the update, but am excited to see it) (long but i hope an awesome read) With the may update, i can forsee some things happening based on the studio video. For those that dont know: The release is adding some ship habs thatll allow you to customize the interior of the ships with basic (empty) habs game play options that you can customize to the way you want to play. Want harder game play cool, want more survival type, cool, more vendor credits, also cool. Respecing and remaking your characters in NG+, change the narratives of your character. Sneak peek that vehicles are coming, unknown if thatll be in or closer to the 1st dlc release The testing of the creation kit 2.0 sent to verified testers (YES!) Now with all that being said, my speculations of what could and i hope will happen, with the release of the CK2 comimg soon, i know therell be halo mods, weapons mods thatll add (irl) modern weapons tech amongst many other awesome mods.
Halo mods: full armors and weapons I also speculate something that hasnt been done yet in any bethesda game yet, SOEIVs (Single Occupant Exo-atmospheric Insertion vehicles) drop pods for the odsts and be able to call them down from space to reinforce, full factions and battles (YES!)
(IRL) modern weapons tech, i fully anticipate to see AR-15s, AKs, even the new us army weapons that are being developed and tested/fielded (the ones from sig saur), in combo with the vehicles (when those release) i anticiate to see APCs and tanks (thatll be awesome!)
Misc mods that i hope may be possible: Fleet commander style mods, where you can select followers (vanilla or mods) to be captains and crew of ships you want them to fly from your own ship hangers or duplicates of them (i built the unsc frigate, to have a fleet of them slipespace into a space battle, would be awesome!) Combined with the SOEIVs take the battles to the ground, (thatll be awesome!) Or have fighter style craft tied to a main ship where they can be launched from and go into space battle. Even have "AI" (like halo) thatll fly, id imagine like having a captain npc but not hard physical character model except in the ship systems.
I also anticipate mods thatll expand upon the ship building and outpost building. I anticipate being able to build class M ships (theres 3 or 4 class M ships in the game that one can fight) I anticipate therell be mods to build star stations acting as like a player home/factiin/fleet headquarters, would be cool to be able to build docks where you can see all your created crafts or if you have the fleet mod, see your fleet ships docked.
I full anticipate therell be vr and ai dialogue mods like falloit and skyrim already have (i wish i could play with those, i play on console)
Im not a mod creator as i dont have the time to be, but if theres a mod creator that wants some ideas to create for when the CK2 does come out, i just want express my enthusiam and start a dialogue for mods that the community may want. Thank you for the read and see you aomgst the stars, starborn!

Hi everyone! As I'm sure most people have, I've noticed that there are a huge number of posts on this subreddit and other writing ones that go something like this: I have an amazing idea for a world that I've been lovingly crafting for years. I want to write a fantasy novel about it, but I don't know where to begin. The answers are usually some flavour of 'plot starts with characters', 'ideas are easy', or 'that's part of writing'. All true, more or less, but I feel like a lot of people who are making posts like this are just young, inexperienced, or nervous writers, some of whom would genuinely create something they could be proud of if only they got over that first initial hump. So I thought I'd write a post with a simple method for spinning a plot out of worldbuilding. This is really far from being the only way to do this, and it's absolutely not the best way. It's just a way to build a plot, designed to help people who just need a way. It will probably start off being a bit formulaic (because you're following a formula), but I trust that in the writing (and the editing), you'll find a way to make it your own. Who am I? I'm a professional writer, though not a published author. I think about plot a lot.
So you've got your world. There's a lot going on. Kingdoms, races, magic systems. Step one is The Problem. Everyone has them. The people of your world have some. The vast, vast, vast majority of plots in books that you read boil down to someone has a problem, and this is how they solved it. We might not have characters yet, but even if you do, write down some problems. Make three columns. In the first column, write the problems that are part of your world building. The ones you started with. For example, the city is surrounded by monsters or the gods have turned evil. In the second column, write problems that come from those problems. For example, food is pretty scarce or priests are hunted down and killed. In the third and final column, write down the problems that come from those problems. For example, being a baker is really hard or finding a priest to do an exorcism is extremely difficult. This third column will contain The Problem. This is the problem that your protagonist starts with. You probably already have an idea who they might be, based simply on The Problem.
But! There is another element. This is The Reason. This is a reason why The Problem is especially hard for your protagonist. For example, if we take the priests concept, not only is our protagonist looking for a priest to exorcise the demon in his sister, but it's extra hard because he really hates priests. Or the demon is psychically linked to him. This should be something deep-rooted in the character's psyche, usually connected to a flaw of some kind. This is the fun stuff, and you can use all your cool background to come up with something very traumatic if you like.
So now you should have a nice set of Stuff.

• A world
• Some problems caused by that world
• Some problems caused by the problems
• Someone who really has to solve one of these problems, but really doesn't want to

Your plot starts at the exact moment when The Problem becomes bigger than The Reason.
Your protagonist will now try to solve The Problem. I can't help you here, unfortunately - this is the writing bit. Hopefully some exciting things happen. Throw lots of obstacles in the protagonist's way. It doesn't matter what they are, but in general, always try to bring The Reason into it. The Reason dogs your protagonist's heels. They can't escape it, no matter how hard they try. And they really try. For now, The Reason is part of them. Eliminating The Reason should be the last thing on their mind. They just want to solve The Problem.
Eventually, it becomes clear that in order to solve The Problem, they have to tackle the second column of problems. Eventually, they will end up tackling the first column of problems. The big ones. The world-spanning ones.
But!
That's not the interesting bit. The interesting bit is that their journey was really about solving The Reason. For whatever reason, solving the Big Problems will be impossible unless the protagonist confronts The Reason, and its roots inside their own psyche, and changes. The character must change. If they don't, they cannot succeed. (This is how you end up with a tragedy - a character who is doomed by their inability to change. That's a cool story too.)
In the end, the character changes, solves the Big Problems and the middle problems and, finally, solves The Problem. Sometimes, they change so much that they realise The Problem isn't a problem anymore.
Wow, this ended up long. Hopefully you enjoyed it! I'll leave you with a reiteration that this is only one way to create a story, and a pretty generic one at that. It's intended for people who really do just want to write any story set in the world they've come to love. Let me know if it works for you.