Cone crusher producer in india7675989907
Driving the Charge in Cone Crusher Creating buildmate
At the cutting edge of advancement and exactness building, cone crusher makers in India are changing the scene of the mining and improvement industry. With a persevering commitment to quality, unflinching quality, and capability, these makers are not reasonable making machines; they're making courses of action that lock in businesses to prosper inside the foremost asking circumstances.
The Substance of Brilliance:
Quality Craftsmanship and Building Dominance
Cone crusher makers in India are prominent for their constant intrigued of significance in craftsmanship and planning. Each component is meticulously arranged and manufactured to requesting measures, ensuring perfect execution and quality. From solid traces to precision-engineered crushing chambers, each perspective of the cone crushers reflects a commitment to quality that sets the industry standard.
• Headway at Its Center:
Movements Driving Mechanical Breakthroughs
Headway is the soul of cone crusher manufacturing in India. These makers are ceaselessly pushing the boundaries of development to communicate cutting-edge courses of action that address the progressing needs of their clients. Whether it's initiating advanced materials, overhauling mechanization capabilities, or optimizing imperativeness adequacy, improvement is woven into the surface of each cone crusher conveyed in India.
• Custom-made Courses of action:

Customization for Each Application
• Commitment to Practicality:
Eco-Friendly Courses of action for a Greener Future
Normal viability may well be a beat require for cone crusher makers in India. From optimizing essentialness capability to lessening carbon outpourings, these producers are driving the charge towards a greener, more viable future. By contributing in eco-friendly developments and sharpens, they're not reasonable diminishing their characteristic impression; they're additionally making a distinction their clients minimize their influence on the planet.
• The Human Touch:
Customer-Centric Approach to Advantage and Support
Past reasonable passing on best-in-class things, cone crusher makers in India are committed to giving unparalleled advantage and support to their clients. From affect specialized offer assistance to comprehensive planning programs, they go over and past to ensure that each client gets the thought and care they justify. It's this customer-centric approach that sets Indian producers isolated in a swarmed commercial center.
• Conclusion
cone crusher makers in India are not reasonable suppliers of device; they're assistants in progress, driving headway, practicality, and fabulousness inside the mining and improvement industry. With a energetic center on quality, progression, and client fulfillment, they're shaping the longer term of cone crusher advancement, one breakthrough at a time, "Sy no 60,61,62, Gundlapochampally Village Medchal Road.Hyderabad - 500014. Telangana, India."

Hi everyone. I need some help with an upcoming event and was hoping you could all offer some advice.
I am hosting a hybrid English Day and Camp for primary school students. The day students (years 3 & 4) will be in the morning until lunch time. After that, the camp students (years 5 & 6) will come at about 1 and then will stay overnight at a local hotel. The following morning will be more activities until about lunch time, at which we can finally say catch ya later alligator and then head home.
This is my 3rd time hosting an event like this and I wanted some advice on activities. Bit of backstory, the first year was an absolute shit show (I’m a CIR and had no idea about planning English games and events) but we made it work somehow. The next year was a lot better, we had a main theme which was Halloween and cooking. The Halloween games we threw in here and there, but the cooking games culminated in us doing a cooking class where the kids could put into action everything they practiced in the previous activities and make their own dinner.
This year I would also like to do a theme of some sort, which we can base a bunch of games/activities around and then top it all off with like a main activity.
Does anyone have any recommendations? Alternatively, has anyone else been apart of an English Day or Camp? What activities did you do there? I would love to hear some advice from others who have done something like this! My bosses are adamant about it being all English and different to what they would normally do in classrooms 笑
Thanks heaps!

I honestly just need to say this to get it out there but any advice or encouragement is welcome. I feel like my life is so fucked, so much has happened in the past two years. My dad passed away suddenly and since then my family has been dealing with what has now turned into a legal lawsuit (against my aunt and uncle on his side) regarding his properties out of the US. It is a lot and honestly has been driving a wedge between my family members and there is still a long way to go with it. With all the legal stuff picking up it is making me miss my dad and I think so often how I just wish he was here and we wouldn’t have to be dealing with this. I miss him so much and even seeing old pictures makes me bawl now. And to add onto that I am financially struggling like crazy. It makes me so upset every single day because I have so much money I owe and things I have to pay for including legal things, and every day it is like there is something new for me to pay for. I can’t even pay to get my car tags renewed and it has been almost 6 months since they expired, but there is so much that renewing them is at the bottom of my list. I also found out I owe almost $1,000 from toll tags and at this point all I can say is “it is what it is”. I feel like all I can do is work as much as I can (which has not been a lot because I also have been going to school), and I can’t catch a break. I am starting to feel really alone. I have my family and my best friend but recently I have been feeling so dismissed and like they don’t really give a shit about what I have to say. I get talked over all the time, and I have to repeat myself constantly. Even if they are “listening” they aren’t really listening and just give me robotic responses. I go to therapy once a week which is super helpful but at this point I don’t think its enough. I think I am starting to get depressed again which just sucks because I feel like no one understands me when I speak even on the smallest thing and I just want to be able to live my life. I also feel like I am starting to not like who I am as a person; I feel so annoying a lot of the time, I don’t like my body, I even feel self conscious about the way I talk. The only good thing that has happened is that I got off of financial aid suspension and passed my classes for this semester. I will be taking a gap semester in the fall and working more during that time but im just really struggling at the moment. I don’t want to come across as whiny or ungrateful, im aware people have bigger struggles, but mine have just been getting to my head the past few months. There is a lot more shit that I won’t even bring up because this is already a long rant so I appreciate anyone that has taken the time to read this.

Some of the commenters during Sunday's Stream mentioned the global campaign to bring federal lawsuits and petitions against videogame publishers who intentionally sabotage the functionality of videogames when the servers shut down. They wanted Ludwig to do a Mogul Mail about it. I wasn't 1 of those commenters, nor am I a representative spearheading this initiative, but I am somewhat familiar with what's going on and wanted to explain it here to see if others are interested. So what is going on?

The Crew

The videogame "The Crew", published by Ubisoft, was recently destroyed for all players and had a playerbase of at least 12 million people. Due to the game's size and France's strong consumer protection laws, this represents one of the best opportunities to hold a publisher accountable for this action. If we are successful in charges being pressed against Ubisoft, this can have a ripple effect on the videogames industry to prevent publishers from destroying more games.

Source
More about "The Crew" Specifically
This includes both physical and digital versions of the game, by the way, as the game cannot function without pinging to the now offline servers, making it completely nonfunctional.

The Petition

Official government petitions have been introduced to prohibit the practice of intentionally rendering commercial videogames inoperable when support ends. Currently, petitions for the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have been launched and will soon be open for signing. Plans are also underway for the European Union, but will unfortunately be delayed due to processing times. Further government petitions may be started later with enough assistance.

You can go to the website https://www.stopkillinggames.com and click "take action here" to sign a petition for your country. Depending on the country you're in, you may have to have actually owned the game "the crew" in order to sign, but regardless it's important to understand this increasingly prevalent issue and bring awareness to it.
Here's a video about the initiative from its founder

Erasing Videogames and History

This ties into another videogame-related issue. Most videogames cannot be legally obtained anymore.

Only 13 percent of classic video games published in the United States are currently in release (n = 1500, ±2.5%, 95% CI). These low numbers are consistent across platform ecosystems and time periods. Troublingly, the reissue rate drops below 3 percent for games released prior to 1985—the foundational era of video games—indicating that the interests of the marketplace may not align with the needs of video game researchers. Our experiences gathering data for this study suggest that these problems will intensify over time due to a low diversity of reissue sources and the long-term volatility of digital game storefronts.

Video about the study.
But Nintendo has like 20 N64 games available on Nintendo Online so....

A Symptom of a Wider Problem

Videogame companies are doing what all companies have been trying to do for years now: stop you from owning anything, and requiring you to rent everything.
Ubisoft’s Director of Subscriptions Phillippe Tremblay said: “...gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That’s the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That’s a transformation that’s been a bit slower to happen in games.” Source. Video talking about it
They don't want you to own your games. They want to be able to take away the thing you "purchased", destroy it so it no longer works, and force you to buy something new.
GamePass
Gamepass is literally exactly what the corporate overlords are trying to push the entire industry toward: rentiership of all videogames. "Games as a Service" is a fraud.
It's not just videogames
Whenever you "buy" an ebook or movie from, say, Apple, Amazon, Google, etc., or a videogame from Steam, Sony, etc., you don't actually own that piece of digital media. You are renting the product and getting a perpetual license. That license can be revoked at any time for any reason by the company and you will have the thing you "bought" revoked.
This has happened a lot over the years. For example: Telstra.

...[Telstra] announced it would shut down the service in June. Customers were told that unless they moved over to another service, Fetch, they would no longer be able to access the films and TV shows they had bought.
This isn’t simply a case of Netflix removing Friends from the service when a content agreement runs out. These were films and shows people had bought with the expectation they could watch them whenever they wanted – indefinitely.
Vicki Russell posted on X last week saying she was being asked by Telstra to pay $200 for Fetch to retain access to what she said was $2,500-worth of purchases.

Source, fantastic video talking about article
Microsoft Book Store
In 2019, Microsoft shut down their ebook store, erasing all customers' books from their devices. Fortunately, Microsoft offered a refund for the books purchased. Something they did to not raise customer ire, not because they were legally required to do so.
They are able to completely erase the books the customers "bought" because of Digital Rights Management (DRM)

"One of the things that I think people don't realize that's crucially important is that DRM and related software tools are embedded in all sorts of devices that we buy," Aaron Perzanowski, the author of The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy, tells NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
"Your car, your smart home appliances, your home security system – all of these systems have software that allows for this kind of control over how the devices are used, and I think we're going to see these same sorts of situations crop up in the context of physical devices that are being used in people's homes."
"As this technology has been deployed what we've seen is that the big beneficiaries of DRM have not been copyright holders. They have been technology companies like Amazon, like Microsoft, who are able to control these ecosystems to make it harder for consumers to switch over to new platforms."

Source
Sony
TV Shows "purchased" through the Play Station store were slated to be erased according to an announcement in December 2023. However, do to the immense and justified backlash, they reneged for now.
Apple
Apple can remove a movie from the App Store and, in some cases, make it impossible for you to access your "purchased" version if you don't have it downloaded. Source
Amazon
In 2020, a Class Action Lawsuit was filed against Amazon for this very reason. "Caudel v Amazon"

The plaintiff claimed that Amazon misleads customers about the reality of what it means to “purchase” a video through the site. Allegedly, the company is aware that customers will believe that purchasing a video gives them unlimited access to it because that is the usual understanding of the word “buy.”

The case was dismissed out of the California Federal Court due to lack of standing). Source.

These Terms of Use expressly state that purchasers obtain only a limited license to view video content and that purchased content may become unavailable due to provider license restriction or other reasons.

AKA: You don't own anything.
Source
More on the lawsuit. The legal filing. Dismissal
This phenomenon is part of what is known as "rentism", "rentier capitalism" or "techno-economic rentiership". It goes far beyond just movies and videogames, but this is getting a bit far afield from what one might expect from a standard Mogul Mail, so I won't dive deeper into that aspect of the subject, but you can google those terms and phrases to find some fun reading.

I forgot to tie this into the "Right to Repair" but this post is getting too long.

Can't even fix the stuff you own. Do you even really own it?
Tractors.
Ludwig, if you're reading this, please do a Mogul Mail about this topic; at least the videogame stuff. You can use all of these sources I've compiled and you don't need to credit me for the compilation. I don't care. This is important and more people should know.

Hello, this is a new account I made for this, as it's something that I've kind of been left simmering with, with no real network of support. For some context, I have autism, and anxiety, amongst a couple of other things that can affect the way I interact with people negatively, and I am receiving the appropriate professional help for that, but this is still something to factor in with how I'm feeling, so it would be irresponsible(?) not to mention it, if I'm intent on providing the full picture here.
I (18, NB) go to University, and I have a relatively large circle of friends that I have accumulated here throughout my first year, which on the surface level seems great. It seems that now we're in the final term of the year though, with stressful exams looming over our heads, people's true colours have started to emerge. I find myself in a difficult position where the behaviours of my friends have, at times, caused me to feel resentful toward them. I simultaneously feel really bad for feeling this way, and think myself a bit of an AH for being this way.
Recently, I noticed more and more that being friends with these people, for me, felt like an uphill battle that I was losing. It wasn't everyone in the group, but I would start getting invited to things directly less and less, people would go places without me, and I just felt really left out. I did try to kindly bring this up to a couple of them, and received promising-sounding apologies, but I didn't receive the changed behaviour one would hope for with a genuine apology. I would use forms of communication I learned in therapy, "non-violent" communication: you state what you see, without assigning blame, explain how it makes you feel, break that down into a need that hasn't been met, and suggest an alternative action that can be made to make sure that need is met in the future. With my friends, I feel like they've been hearing me, but haven't listened. This really hurts, as they know I have little to no support at home, so they're the only platonic support network I have, and half the time they won't even pick the phone up to talk to me.
Recently, though, it's gotten petty, and has involved someone else- and this had left a really bad taste in my mouth.
I know it isn't my battle to fight in terms of the way people are speaking about my friend, but it has bothered me, because I can't deal with childish gossip like this, especially when the person being spoken of hasn't really done anything that wrong. My friend, 'A', started seeing someone a couple of months ago, and ever since that relationship began, I noticed that my friends increasingly began to complain that they weren't there, and that they would instead spend time with their partner. If it wasn't that, it would be complaining about how much 'A' texted their partner, and not any of them. Sure, it makes 'A' seem ignorant, but they aren't being entirely fair with their criticism there. First of all, isn't it normal to want to text a romantic partner more than friends? Everyone communicates in a different way, but I would hope the person you're being the most emotionally intimate with would be spoken to more than a group of friends, surely. It just seems like common sense to me. Even so, its not like 'A' is ignorant. We're all adults doing 'grown-up' degrees. 'A' turns their phone off during work, so that they can get on with it, also perfectly reasonable behaviour. Even with this, they will still usually get back to a person within the hour the message was sent, so they're a very dependable friend, as well.
The main issue that our group of friends have had was with 'A' being a bit tone-deaf to the feelings of others, and even this wasn't that bad. One friend was complaining about a grade they got, and all 'A' said was, 'if you went to lectures and studied more, you would have been fine'. I get where they were coming from being upset by this, but they also made clear it hadn't really gone any further than this, and it's ironic to me that they complain that this friend can't understand how they hurt others, when they have been doing the exact same, if not worse right back.
This all sort of blew up in my face in terms of how I was feeling about it when 'A' invited me on a night out, and introduced me to some of their own friends outside of our shared group. They knew I had been having a rough time, and wanted to have a good night with me, making sure I was keeping my head above water and all. On the walk back though, I started thinking about some of the things that the others had been saying about 'A', and I felt bad, it felt wrong to just sit on all of that resentment(?) towards my friend, when they had only done one thing particularly wrong. I told them what the others had been saying about them, and 'A' wasn't surprised or anything, it just opened up a dialogue with them about the state of their friendships with everyone.
The jist of what they said about the others went something like this "To be honest, I'm getting bored of them, they're good people, but they never leave their rooms, never communicate, they kind of just stay holed up and watch series together, which isn't my thing. As well as that, I had an idea that they all disliked me in some way, and it doesn't really bother me to find out the truth about them either. Something that does, though, and I noticed this with you as well, is that our friends will almost take advantage of us. They'll come round for the promise of free drinks, free spaces to host parties and stuff like that, when they know we're the poorest two out of the nine of us. I mean (friend's name) still owes me money from laundry, and the same friend took two weeks to pay you back for a favour, when you needed it. I also don't like how some of the girls go on and on about being middle class, it feels a bit like a slap to the face, I'm sure you can also relate on that one."
'A' was right, it had been something that I didn't realise was bothering me, I always lamented the fact that I couldn't have the same interests as them, such as ice-skating, or dancing lessons, or theatre, because of the fact that I didn't have the same opportunities, financially, to have access to those kinds of things growing up. That's not their fault at all, but the fact that the same friends won't indulge in stuff that I do find fun, something simple, like a video games night, or a craft night, is a bit more conceited on their part, I think. Sometimes, it almost feels as if they're better than me? They have been encouraging for me to take part in the same stuff they like now that "I have the means to" (I don't), but it still feels a little patronising, like they were encouraging a toddler or a young child to play nicely.
Their behaviour toward both me and 'A' was troubling, to say the least, they would minimise problems, with the whole 'sorry to hear that, it'll get better', but make a big deal out of others' problems, it was that night that I found out 'A''s father was still sick, and I felt awful for not really asking before. They would sometimes make fun of our accents, which is more of a classist thing, we're mostly from the same country. Hell, they even made fun of 'A' for their last relationship going badly, calling them a bad partner for being uncommunicative, it cannot be any wonder that 'A' would throw themselves into this new one.
I called them out the next day when they began to talk negatively about 'A' while they weren't there, and just said that their assumptions about our friend weren't fair, and it wasn't fair to talk about them while they weren't here. I got told to calm down, and that the whole time they had been joking. It didn't seem much like a joke?
I do like these people, a lot, but I'm at a bit of a crossroads here, there are things about them that do make me a bit upset, but these same people have literally, on occasion, held my hand in the hospital before. I do appreciate these people, but I wish that they were more receptive to the things I, and other's say. It's been a shame to see 'A' pull away like this, and I'm not sure what I can realistically do to help the situation at this point, since gossip will only breed more. I'm just a bit exhausted with some of these people.

My partner and I have been seriously dating since January of this year. Before that we have been friends and co-workers for many years.
Since last week he has been acting really cold and aloof with me. He barely replies to my messages and when we meet all he talks about is the weather and how many classes he had that day. When I try to talk about anything else he shuts down and appears visibly uncomfortable.
I have been trying to give him space and not pestering him too much because he is someone who doesn't like to be burdened with a very needy partner(told me this himself at the start of our relationship). However it is causing me pain because I stay up all night wondering what I have done wrong.
Yesterday I told him about my insecurities and how when he treats me coldly it makes me feel alone and misunderstood. He made a silly joke about it and said nothing. Today morning I overheard him say to one of our colleagues that I was acting a bit too jealous... basically he told her about our personal conversation.
I need suggestions on how to proceed. I love this man and would do anything to us get through this. He has always been kind and affectionate towards me.
I am trying to make up my mind between these three decisions:
1) I match his energy and stop replying to him...start ignoring any attempts at intimacy and try to make him feel the way I do now(The reason I am hesitating- He told me once that his biggest fear is people abandoning him when the going gets tough...I cannot do this to him when I know about it)
2) Ask him outright what I have done to make him behave this way. Is this the end of us. Can we do anything to fix it?(Why I am hesitating- I am afraid he will share our messages or conversation with his friends and our colleagues and make fun of me. It will become a fodder for departmental gossip and affect my credibility. Also it is deeply humiliating...disrespectful and the worst thing he has done. I didn't think he would be capable of something like this...but his actions have proved otherwise
Additionally he hates clingy desperate women and I am afraid my behaviour will feel suffocating to him and he will run)
3) Say nothing and go on showering him with affection with the hopes that he comes back when he realises how good it feels to be with me(Why I am hesitating- it feels manipulative and dirty....because in my heart I will know that it is not just out of love but also a desperate bid to get his attention. Feels very disrespectful towards him and towards myself)
I am leaning towards number 2...but I am scared that i will never recover. I cannot walk away from him without giving our relationship a chance. Can you all please help. I am sorry for writing such a long essay...but there's so much in my mind and no one to tell.
Tldr: my partner suddenly appears disinterested and I don't know whether to let it be or to confront him about it

I was scrolling through insta and saw this girl I follow post her and her friends and mashAllah they are all beautiful and studying to become doctors/lawyers. It kind of made me question my whole existence all over again. I've been having a weird quarter-life crisis recently (as of Oct of last year, for obvious reasons) because I just hate that I feel so useless.
I live at my parents' house and work a stupid corporate job in Communications. I don't do anything or have any skills that could benefit the community, the world, the oppressed. I always wanted to do something special with my life. I'm not smart enough for medical school. I'm kinda creative but not very significantly or anything. I majored in an art career in my undergraduate studies and actually did really well, was one of the top in my class and got an in internship at the company of my (and pretty much my whole school's) dreams.
Things didn't work out--covid, bad job market, blah blah blah. So now I'm working some dumb corporate job. And...Alhamdulillah, I'm grateful to have a job, don't get me wrong. But I feel like I grew up kinda privileged and don't have much to show for it. I volunteer a lot with this organization that works with refugees, and am really interested in refugee work, but I don't know what I'd do with that. I just feel dumb and ugly man...
I know I sound really ungrateful...but Alhamdulillah I know of my blessings and am moreso ashamed of my own actions, not my blessings. I'm engaged to the sweetest guy and will be moving to a new city across the country soon but I feel so lost in life. Every time I see a woman (especially a Muslim woman) in law or medicine or something I feel so proud of them like mashAllah they will truly change the world, and then I feel a pang of guilt that I'm not doing the same thing. I'm not benefitting the world in any way. I won't help heal the injured, fight for justice...I'm just doing corporate communications loool. A joke.

The ~Commercial Airport Full Body Scanners market~ is expected to grow at a significant CAGR 8.4% during the forecast period (2023-2029). Commercial Airport Full Body Scanners Market research report refers to gathering and analyzing significant market data serve as best medium for various industry players to launch novel product or service. It is vital for key firms to have constant observation of latest market trends which keep on changing. Constants shifts in the trends and key advancements are observed in the market through this Commercial Airport Full Body Scanners Market report and inform key firms about them. By knowing this, business owners can take effective actions before actually developing any product or service. It also aims at offering thorough knowledge regarding competitors to assist them in taking strategic decision making.
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Nuctech, which is partly owned by the Chinese government, is one of a provider of border-control and security screening systems. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the aviation security agency, issued a circular in April 2019 mandating 84 hypersensitive and sensitive airports to replace walk-through metal detectors with full body scanners within a year. Following a global tender, AAI opted to award the contract to Nuctech, a Chinese business, however it was withdrawn and According to a Ministry of Civil Aviation official, a new plan has been sent for budgetary approval, after which a new global tender will be published. The full-body scanners will take the place of walk-through and hand-held metal detectors, which are unable to identify non-metallic weapons and explosives. Security agencies praised them as well, claiming that the scanners will eliminate the need for pat-down searches at a time when COVID-19 has mandated contactless frisking at airports.
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o Active Scanner
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When crafting characters for your stories, consider the following advice for a compelling class presentation:

1. Depth and Complexity:
   
   • Develop characters with depth by exploring their backgrounds, motivations, and fears.
   • Consider the complexity of human nature, incorporating both strengths and flaws to create well-rounded characters.
2. Relatability:
   
   • Make characters relatable by giving them qualities or experiences that resonate with your audience.
   • Showcase universal emotions, struggles, or aspirations that connect the characters to the readers or viewers.
3. Consistency and Growth:
   
   • Ensure consistency in character traits and behaviors, but allow for growth and change over the course of the story.
   • Characters should evolve based on their experiences, making them dynamic and engaging for your audience.
4. Unique Voices:
   
   • Give each character a distinctive voice and personality to make them memorable.
   • Consider individual speech patterns, mannerisms, and perspectives that set characters apart from one another.
5. Conflict and Relationships:
   
   • Introduce conflicts that challenge your characters, driving the narrative forward.
   • Explore the dynamics of relationships, whether friendships, romances, or conflicts, to add depth and intrigue.
6. Show, Don't Tell:
   
   • Use actions, dialogue, and reactions to reveal character traits rather than explicitly stating them.
   • Allow your audience to infer characteristics through the characters' choices and interactions.
7. Symbolism and Motifs:
   
   • Incorporate symbolism or recurring motifs that reflect aspects of your characters.
   • This adds layers to your narrative, providing subtle cues about character traits or story themes.
8. Backstories and World-building:
   
   • Create detailed backstories even if not explicitly shared in the story, as these shape character motivations.
   • Consider the world your characters inhabit, as it influences their perspectives and choices.
9. Reader Empathy:
   
   • Elicit empathy by portraying characters facing relatable challenges or dilemmas.
   • Engage your audience emotionally, fostering a connection that keeps them invested in the characters' journeys.
10. Feedback and Revision:
    
    • Seek feedback on your characters from peers or writing groups to gain diverse perspectives.
    • Be open to revising and refining your characters based on constructive criticism for a more impactful narrative.

There have been several posts from QuickBooks users expressing frustration with Intuit. I believe Intuit holds a monopoly in the US, has pushed users towards QuickBooks Online, and has made this product dysfunctional, causing significant harm to its subscribers.
Key Concerns:

1. Forced Adoption of QuickBooks Online: Many users feel coerced into switching to QuickBooks Online. What are your experiences with this transition?
2. Product Limitations: QuickBooks Online appears to have undisclosed limitations that impact usability and functionality. Can users share specific examples of these limitations?

Seeking Feedback:

• User Experiences: I invite users to share their experiences and opinions on how Intuit's practices have affected them.
• Legal Insights: If there are any legal experts here, I would appreciate insights on how a class action lawsuit might be initiated against Intuit. What kind of evidence would be needed to prove intentional sabotage and monopolistic behavior?

This is a serious discussion, and I hope it can lead to a productive exchange of information and possible solutions.

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"Scargiver, this is Scathach." The Warmaster's voice came out of the Captain's wrist console. The wrist console looked the same as the ones they'd used in the Confederation, but it had been extensively modified to prevent anyone from hacking into it.
"Scathach, Mims." Captain Mims kept walking. They were almost to the bridge of the Encounter. "Go ahead."
"The Klaath are here."
"We know." Mims slapped a control panel. The door to the bridge slipped open. "The Federation called them, somehow."
"We saw the energy surge," the Warmaster informed him, "and we saw you disable the human ship. Do you intend to take up the hunt?"
The Oluken had roughly ten thousand Military ships in Tendril Sector. They were oddly designed, with glowing lines that shifted in strange patterns across their oblong hulls. Long metal tentacles sprouted from the ships, each tipped with some variety of energy cannon. Ten thousand ships was plenty for keeping order in a trading sector, but Yvian doubted it was enough to repel an Incursion.
"Hell yes," The Captain walked past the holodisplay, heading for the consoles at the far end of the bridge. "I never pass up an opportunity to kill the Klaath."
"I thought as much." The Warmaster grunted. "Have your Queenships protect the Gates. My Hunters will secure the stations. I've called reinforcements, and they will be here shortly." He gave a short, annoyed growl. "Someone will have to speak with the Oluken before they soil themselves."
Mims pointed at Lissa as he took a seat in front of the center console. "I'm on it," she acknowledged, taking the console to his left.
"Alert," said Kilroy. "Klaath clusters detected in Aldara sector."
"Of course they are," Mims gritted his teeth. He commed the Warmaster. "Lissa's taking care of the Oluken. We're having," he pointed at Kilroy, "two Queenships jump to each Gate. That should be more than enough."
"Affirmative," Kilroy acknowledged.
"The rest are coming with me," the human continued. "There's another Incursion at Aldara."
"Aldara?" Yvian could hear the Warmaster's raised eyebrows. "If the humans want to throw their planet away, let them."
"I can't do that." Mims took his hand off the comm and pointed at Yvian. "Systems check."
Yvian nodded and took the console to his right. She started a diagnostic routines. Scarrend squatted on his haunches next to her, pulling up a sensor display on his console.
"You can and you should," Scathach disagreed. "The humans are using the Klaath as a diversion. We're bound to defend the Oluken by treaty, but wasting forces on an uninhabited world is foolish."
"I know." Mims pulled up flight control on his console. The Random Encounter was nestled up against the massive hull of the Monster In Paradise. He eased the ship away from the Peacekeeper Queen and raised the shields. "I'm not asking you or the Empire to help. The Peacekeepers and I will be enough."
"Perhaps." The Vrrl allowed. "Unless the humans are dividing our forces in preparation for an attack."
"It's possible." Mims shrugged. "But I think this diversion's for something else. I'll explain later. I've got Klaath to kill."
"Then kill them here," Warmaster Scathach voiced. "Don't let the humans dictate your actions, Scargiver. Protecting their world is an act kindness that will come with a cost."
"This isn't kindness," Mims told him. "It's spite. The Klaath will never have Aldara. Not while I breathe. Can I count on you to take care of things here?"
Yvian's diagnostic programs finished. "All systems green," she reported.
"Foolish." The Warmaster chuffed in resignation. "But I suppose it can't be helped. Go defend your territory human, even if it's not your territory anymore. The Vrrl Starfang Empire will take care of things here."
"Thank you," said Mims.
"Do not thank me, Scargiver," Scathach chided. "The Oluken are of use to the Empire. An attack on them is a challenge to us, and challenges are answered with tooth and claw. We are the Apex."
"Fair enough." Mims pulled up a Nav console and entered the coordinates for Aldara Sector. "May Fortune favor you on the cusp of The Crunch."
The Warmaster grunted. "May your prey be worthy of the hunt." He ended the transmission.
"Our weapon systems are fully functional," Scarrend reported. "Shields are still charging. They will be at full in twenty three minutes."
"We'll go when they're full," said the Captain. "Kilroy, I want two Queenships at every Gate in Aldara. Have Admiral Zhukov send in half a million Stinger units, too. I want half of those protecting the planet. The rest will break off into groups of a thousand and go hunting."
"Big Daddy Mims," Kilroy objected, "we only have eight hundred twenty three thousand and four Peacekeeper Stinger Units. Sending that many to Aldara will greatly reduce the defenses of New Pixa Sector."
"Just do it, Kilroy," Mims ordered. "We've still got forty Queens and millions of convectional ships. If we get hit with more than they can handle, half a million Stingers won't make that much difference anyway."
"Affirmative." Kilroy hesitated. His eyes flashed purple before returning to the red of combat. "Big Daddy Mims, there is no reason for you to go to Aldara yourself. Peacekeeper units will be sufficient."
"No, Kilroy," Lissa disagreed. "We have to go." Yvian nodded her agreement. She knew the man's history, too.
"This ship is a standard Federation built gladiator," the Peacekeeper reminded them. "It will have negligible impact on an Incursion, and is at significant risk of being destroyed."
"I know," the Captain snapped. Kilroy's eyes flashed blue. Mims took a breath. "Sorry, Kilroy. I know the Encounter's not built for this. I know the Peacekeepers can handle this better than I can." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. It's Aldara. The last time the Klaath came there I... I can't leave it alone. I have to go. I have to make sure they can't take anything else."
The machine left his console, eyes still blue. He walked over to Mims and put a hand on his shoulder. "This unit understands." He returned to his station, eyes flicking back to crimson. "Aldara will be protected. The Klaath will be destroyed. We will be sufficient."
"We will be sufficient," the Captain echoed.
"This is foolish," Scarrend objected. "You are throwing away Peacekeeper lives for sentiment."
"You're not wrong," the human admitted. He tilted his head, thinking. "Though to be fair, we'd probably be sending them anyway. A chance to capture more Klaath Queens is too good to pass up."
"Affirmative," Kilroy agreed.
Yvian pulled up a sensor display. Tendril Sector had a sizeable solar system. Lots of planets, and three hefty asteroid belts. None of the planets were habitable, but there were plenty of resources for mines and manufacturing. The sector doubled as a trading hub, and there were nearly a million stations scattered throughout the system. Most of the stations were unarmed. It was something Yvian had expected growing up in the Confederation, but now that she'd seen more of the galaxy unarmed stations struck her as a terrible idea.
Despite the large number of stations, there were only a few hundred thousand ships in the sector. Mostly unarmed Oluken cargo haulers. Yvian assumed anyone who had a jumpdrive had already escaped, leaving the rest of those poor souls to flee to the nearest station and pray that the Elders would drop shields long enough to let them dock. There were also a few hundred ships of the Vrrl Starfang Empire circling a few of the trading posts, gunning down any Klaath that came close. Several dozen vessels of the Pixen Technocracy were doing the same.
Half a million Vrrl capitol ships were dividing into smaller fleets and heading for the stations. The Priderender had already left the formation with an escort of four battlecruisers. More Vrrl were pouring out of each of the Gates, with fighter class Hissiths and Clawwings undocking from battlecruisers and running for the farthest stations at maximum acceleration. None of the Vrrl bothered avoiding the Klaath. Nor did they seek them out. They just moved to their destinations, smashing anything stupid enough to get in their way.
There were roughly fifty thousand Klaath Klusters so far, but more were appearing every second. Each Kluster was a sphere, made up of twenty Raiders grouped around a single Klaath Fighter and fused together. Most of them would drift aimlessly through the void until they came within a few hundred kilometers of a ship or a station. Then the Klusters would erupt, the ships separating and zooming in for the kill. Other Klusters gathered together, forming circles of spinning ships. Space rippled within the circles, opening portals to allow Corvettes, Frigates, and the dreaded Destroyers into the sector.
Two Peacekeeper Queenships were coming out of Tendril Sector's East, South, and North Gates. The Queens would take half an hour to exit the Gates completely, but that didn't stop them from putting their beam weapons to devastating use. The Queens concentrated their fire on the Klaath nearest the Gates. The Klaath didn't use Jumpgates, and destroying the Gates would be the first thing they tried. A few thousand Stinger units detached themselves from each of the Queens, switching their diffused anti-MAC weapons back to traditional long range beam cannons. They would circle around behind the Gates and kill any Klaath attacking from that direction.
The Monster in Paradise and one other Queenship stayed where they were, about two hundred thousand kilometers from the West Gate. Their Stinger units were launching as well. The Random Encounter idled within the Monster's shield bubble, staying protected until its own shields were charged.
The Oluken Military were doing what they could, where they could. All their ships were roughly frigate sized, about two thirds of a kilometer in length. They were fast, almost as fast as a Federation ship, and their shields were much stronger than Yvian expected. Their weapons were less impressive. Each ship had thirty two metal tentacles with cannons on the end, but they packed less punch then Confederation guns, far less than the humans and the Vrrl. The Random Encounter had more firepower, and it was just a fighter. The Oluken had been patrolling in groups of eight, and they were desperately trying to link up with each other or the Vrrl before the Klaath overwhelmed them.
Yvian moved to access the sensor reports of Aldara Sector, but a question from Scarrend interrupted her. "Shouldn't we be sending someone after the spy?"
"In the middle of all this?" Lissa gestured at the sensor display.
"We don't have to hunt her down ourselves," Scarrend pointed out. "A few dozen Peacekeeper units would be more than enough."
"There's no point," said the Captain. "The Peacekeepers let Myrsa get away on purpose."
"They did?" Yvian frowned at the machine.
"Think about it," said Mims. "A Peacekeeper unit's a walking lie detector. Do you really think they didn't know Myrsa was a spy? Or that she wasn't being monitored? There's no way she got to an unattended ship without them knowing."
"Affirmative," Kilroy agreed. "Peacekeeper units had to manufacture an emergency to explain why Myrsa Trin was unattended. The riots provided excellent cover."
"Ok, but... why?" Yvian frowned harder. "Why let her get away? Why let a spy work with Lissa at all?"
"I've got a better question." Lissa's tone was frosty. "Why didn't you tell me about it?"
"That was my call," said Mims. "You're an amazing person, Lissa, and I love you dearly, but you're not cut out for spycraft."
Lissa regarded the human with a glare so furious Yvian could see it through her helmet. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Mims returned her look with the seriousness it was due. "Lissa. If you knew Myrsa was a spy, would you have still made friends with her?"
"What? No!" The glare receded. "I wouldn't have let her work for me at all."
"Exactly," said the human. "It's standard practice to keep track of known spies. If our enemies have a spy in place they're less likely to try sneaking in another one, and it lets us feed false intel and uncover other spies. It's good spycraft, but it only works if they don't know their cover's blown. You're smart, beautiful, and a born leader, but you don't have it in you to pretend to be someone's friend when you're not. Not for long, at least. If we told you about Myrsa, she'd know you were on to her within a day."
"That's..." Lissa started. "I could... No." She sighed. "You're right. I don't have to like it, though."
"Intelligence is a dirty business," said the Captain. "No one likes it."
"Ok, but why'd we let her go?" Yvian came back to the matter at hand. "Why give the humans their spy back?"
"Good question," said Mims. "Kilroy?"
"Myrsa Trin has gathered extensive intelligence on our capabilities," Kilroy answered. "The information she has acquired implies that we are considerably more powerful and dangerous than we actually are. This will increase the likelihood the meatbags will surrender. More importantly, Myrsa Trin will give the humans access to a Lucendian crystal implant."
"What good will that do them?" asked Scarrend. "The only Lucendian ship outside of New Pixa is the child yoked to their anti-tech ship, and that specimen is too small and weak for the humans to pilot."
"Negative," said the machine. "There is one other Lucendian vessel outside of our custody. A vessel with the same capabilities as the fallen Skygem."
Another Skygem? Oh. Oh, Bright Lady. "Blingy," Yvian breathed. She'd handed the ship to the Xill shortly after getting her implant. She'd known the ship was alive. She hadn't realized just how sapient the crystal ships were, but she'd known she was alive. She'd known, and she handed her over anyway. Condemned Blingy to torture and experimentation at the hands of the machines. It might be the worst thing she'd ever done. "You're talking about Blingy."
"Affirmative," Kilroy confirmed. "The ship known as Blingy is still in the custody of the Xill. Specifically, the ship is located at Hub 14, under Reba's control. It is not possible for Peacekeeper units to retrieve the vessel without provoking a war with the Xill. Nor is it likely Exodus the Genocide can convince Consensus to return the ship to us if they succeed in defeating Reba."
"But Reba might give the ship to the humans," Yvian guessed.
"Especially if it'll help screw us over," Lissa added.
"Affirmative," said Kilroy. "Without a functioning Lucendian vessel, the Pixen Technocracy has no way to counter the Vore when they return. We cannot retrieve Blingy from the Xill, so we must take Blingy from the humans."
"A dangerous play," Scarrend remarked. "I have seen what these ships are capable of. If the humans have one when we do not..."
"They might be able to win," said Lissa. "And they know it. Why else would they do..." she gestured at her sensor display. "All this?"
"It's a big risk," Mims agreed. "But I think it's one worth taking. Good work, Kilroy. Tell the other units I'm impressed." He glowered down at his console. "I just wish... What the hell?"
Yvian checked her own display. The Klaath were leaving. Fast. Klusters circled up, opening portals to take the bigger ships out of the system. Those Klusters not forming portals disappeared, going back to wherever they came from. Raiders and Fighters still mindlessly shot at whatever targets they'd found, but the rest of the Klaath were leaving. In a few more minutes they'd all be gone.
"I've never heard of the Klaath just leaving." Yvian could hear Lissa's frown.
"We've never seen an Incursion without a habitable planet either," said Scarrend. "Maybe they figured out there's nothing here but gas giants and barren rocks."
"We get Klusters in uninhabited sectors all the time," said Mims. "Usually just a couple, but I saw a couple thousand pop in at Trinog Sector a few years back. They don't leave. They just float around until the bastards starve to death or someone kills them."
"Big Daddy Mims," Kilroy spoke up. "The Klaath are leaving Aldara Sector as well."
"What the hell?" Mims repeated himself. He typed into his console. Yvian followed his example, pulling up the sensor feed being relayed from the ships in Aldara Sector. It was just as the Peacekeeper said. The Klaath were leaving.
"Strange," Scarrend remarked, "but I suppose we shouldn't complain when a problem solves itself."
"No." The Captain's shoulders were taught. "It can't be that easy. Not with the Klaath." He was silent for a moment, head bowed, breathing slowly. His shoulders relaxed slightly, and he raised his head. "Kilroy, I want everything we can spare at Aldara. Right now."
"What do you mean everything?" Lissa asked.
"I mean fucking everything." The Captain was grim. "Every ship, every weapon platform, every fucking gun Zhukov can spare."
"Are you experiencing a hunch, Big Daddy Mims?" A tinge of purple crept into the red of Kilroy's eyes.
It was another scary thing about the humans. Premonitions. Hunches. Mims claimed there was nothing supernatural about it. Just his subconscious processing information, a benefit born of experience and the brain's tendency towards pattern recognition. Yvian wasn't sure it was that simple, but she did know one thing. When the Captain had a bad feeling, things tended to go very bad, very quickly.
"I don't know. Could be PTSD." Mims clenched his fists. "But better safe than sorry."

Author's Note:
7700 words, broke Reddit's character limit, so you know the drill. Will be split into two parts, both posted today. Enjoy!
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"Stop! STOP!"
The terror in Kismet's voice rose higher as death drew nearer. He fled from Rob's grasping hand, but a Purge Divinity-infused fingernail managed to graze him, carving out a scoop of divine essence as if flaying a mortal's skin.
Kismet let out a screech as the Purging energy added to his growing collection of scars. A dozen small holes now dotted the surface of his mana-body, looking like he'd been pockmarked by wasting disease. Each wound represented a moment where the god had narrowly escaped with his life.
If those injuries had been inflicted by any other ability, then he could have rejuvenated himself in the time it took to blink. Purging energy was not so kind as that. It was purifying wrath in the shape of a Skill; their vengeance given form. Whatever divinity it touched, it extinguished.
As if cleansing the universe of a sickness that had infected it for far too long.
The BERSERKER continued his unrelenting advance. In response, Kismet threw up a frantic barrier of mana. It was strong enough to deflect one of Ragnavi's Annihilation beams–
And Rob blasted through it like paper mache. His charge sent broken shards of energy scattering across the divine realms. More mid-air rifts tore open, the HUMAN's aura strangling the surrounding area in a vice grip of power. Purge Divinity seemed to glow with light emanating straight from the pits of hell.
None of which was anywhere near as unnerving as the murder contained within his piercing gaze. When Kismet met Rob's eyes, he saw the end of eternity fast approaching.
The god's next barrier was just as frantic. However, this one was not comprised of mana, but of solid matter. Kismet summoned the hardest, most dense substance known to the mortal realms, then transmuted it into something that otherwise could only have been forged inside the heart of a dying star. It was many times more durable than the impossibly tough walls of an aberrant Dungeon.
So when Rob demolished it with a single punch, he actually had to put a bit of elbow grease into his windup.
Another wall materialized in front of him. He crushed it, then the one after, and the one after that, lashing out with bestial ferocity. The BERSERKER plowed through Kismet's hastily-built defenses like a bulldozer of fists and savagery. Rob was knocking them down as quickly as the god could make them, relishing the sensation of being able to vent his anger on targets that weren't fucking running away.
Then the twelfth wall fell – revealing a monstrous, spiky, fanged behemoth concealed behind.
Rob paused, momentarily taken aback at the sight of a mundane creature within the divine realms. 'Mundane' in relative terms, anyway. This monster was on par with a newborn Blight, radiating power that would have sent ordinary fighters sprinting for the hills.
It was also barely cognizant of its surroundings. The monster stared at him with unblinking, vacant eyes, just the tiniest glimmer of awareness present in its gaze. Rob noted that segments of its flesh were bubbling, as if the creature was fresh out of the oven and still needed to settle.
He couldn't help but feel a modicum of pity. This was yet another thoughtless creation, condemned to existence by an uncaring maker. Even monsters deserved better than that.
Rob caved the beast's head in before it could realize that it was alive. Pity was not the same as hesitation, and this was the only mercy he could afford to grant right now.
Didn't matter. Kismet's pawn served its purpose. In the brief instant that Rob spent getting over his initial surprise, the god had teleported to safety. He was already planning his next stunt that could buy him a few precious seconds of survival.
The HUMAN grimaced as he turned to give chase, unable to suppress the burgeoning sense of unease growing within his chest.
It almost didn't seem fair to feel that way. Rob knew he was winning – at least on the surface. Any outside observer would've bet their life savings on him, especially after the show of overwhelming superiority he'd just displayed. Kismet had been at a disadvantage before Never Forget Your Rage's recent upswing, and now it was no contest. Rob was confident that he would still be stronger even if the eight gods merged into one super-deity.
He also knew that he was living on borrowed time.
Whenever he moved, or activated a Skill, or even breathed...the sensation was there. Strength accompanied by incongruous frailty. Like background noise that kept getting louder with every action he took. His body felt close to pulling itself apart, as if his very molecules were a hairsbreadth away from coming undone.
It was different from Soul Instability. Whereas that threatened to collapse his soul, this frailty was an affliction of the flesh. The longer he fought, the more his physical form was at risk of popping like a balloon.
Such was the price of constraining godlike power within a mortal shell.
"Stay back!" Unaware of the turmoil fermenting in his assailant's mind, Kismet threw up his hands and...inverted...space? Rob didn't have a name for what he was seeing. Rather than stopping to puzzle out this latest brand of divine bullshit, he sent out a pulse of Purge Divinity, canceling whatever esoteric effect Kismet had been attempting to produce.
His Purging energy scraped against the divine realms like a cheese grater. Five rifts immediately tore open near both Rob and Kismet, with the god anxiously retreating from one that appeared just inches away from him. A low rumble echoed around them, and for a moment, they felt struck by an abrupt feeling of vertigo – until the realms gradually stabilized, righting once more.
For now.
Rob eyed the rifts with a detached, clinical gaze. An endless sea of mana resided behind them; the bedrock of the system itself. While he recognized that the rifts tearing open was bad news, he also couldn't really muster the energy to care. Between his overflowing rage, overtaxed body, and overburdened soul, minor details like the impending destruction of reality were hard to give much focus.
There was a way to fix all of that, of course. Rob couldn't outright deactivate Never Forget Your Rage – not without losing its bonus stats. But he could attempt to ease the storm of fury in his heart. By lessening his anger to more reasonable levels, Never Forget Your Rage would put less strain on both his body and the divine realms.
The notion forced a peal of hideous laughter to claw out of his throat. Lessen his anger? He'd have better luck trying to douse a volcano with a garden hose. No. For a wildfire that had grown this out of control, the only thing to do was stand aside and let it burn, burn, burn.
Until naught remained.
"I said stay back!" Kismet bellowed. He lifted his arms into the air. "Begone!" One moment later, Rob's vision was filled with scorching light. An apocalyptic geyser of mana burst forth from underfoot, intense and searing. It stripped the flesh from his bones in no time flat, powering through Almighty Resistance with pure, unmitigated violence.
And it still wasn't fast enough. Rob flickered a Purge Divinity shield for just an instant, allowing him to escape the geyser with his upper body – and most of his HP – intact. Lifesurge swiftly patched him up, leaving both combatants right back where they'd started.
Slowly, Kismet lowered his hands. They were shivering. "What are you?" he whispered. "Why are all my efforts in vain?"
To be honest, Rob was mildly impressed that Kismet had held on for this long. The god's combat efficacy was increasing as time passed, improving from panic-spamming teleports to more inventive maneuvers – as if he was learning how to fight on-the-job. He'd also stopped draining the other gods to supplement his power, having found an alternative source of fuel: mana seeping out from the sporadically-opening rifts.
It was the one silver lining to fighting an implacable BERSERKER so powerful that he fractured reality. Whenever Rob utilized Purge Divinity, more rifts opened up in the realms, and more mana leaked out from inside. The gods had invested that energy into the system millennia ago, and it typically would've been off-limits until they closed up shop and left Elatra. Kismet was making use of it now, absorbing the extra mana to strengthen himself, like a lifeline barely keeping him afloat.
The god's tenacity was...calling it 'admirable' would be going too far, but it did warrant a sort of begrudging respect. As someone who'd tangoed with multiple Blights, Rob knew what it was like to square off against a frenzied beast that could end him with a touch.
Being the scary one was a nice change of pace.
In exchange, Kismet had graciously donned the role of their battle's Combat Class user; fragile, outgunned, and pulling improvised maneuvers out of his ass for a chance at victory. The god could finally feel what it was like to be vulnerable. How exciting! Rob was more than happy to assist. Learning experiences such as these only came around once an eternity or so.
Flippancy aside – while Kismet still possessed room for improvement, this was the most that could be asked of a deity who hadn't seen combat in literal eons. His biggest fuckup had been taunting Rob in the wrong ways, but he couldn't have known about Never Forget Your Rage, that was an excusable oversight. By all other accounts, Kismet was performing adequately.
Even so...
"YoU aRE noTHinG."
The sound of Rob's voice caused two fresh rifts to open up. Kismet flinched, casting a teleportation spell out of pure reflex. Without pause, the HUMAN resumed his hunt.
Nothing. Perhaps that statement was hyperbole – yet it rang true nonetheless. While Kismet may have been a creature of supreme divinity, on the field of battle, his pedigree meant nothing. In the face of an implacable, unstoppable foe, his power was worth nothing. Very soon, he would be nothing, consigned to oblivion by Purging energy.
Rob couldn't help but unfavorably compare Kismet to the final Blight. Weren't these supposed to be two sides of the same coin? Each one-half of an original transcendent Will? Yet the Second Will had brought Rob to the edge of despair...and Kismet was fleeing like a cornered rodent. It was difficult to reconcile the two divinities as theoretical equals.
Although he knew that was an unfair comparison. Rob had fought the Blight before learning Limit Break and Never Forget Your Rage. Kismet wasn't weak.
The HUMAN was just far too strong.
If he rematched the Second Will today, he would beat it to death with his bare hands.
"Look at what you've wrought!" Kismet swept an arm out, gesturing towards some of the many rifts that Rob's presence was tearing open. "Do you understand what will transpire if you persist in this folly?! If the divine realms shatter, then so will all of Elatra! You are on the brink of destroying everything which you have striven to protect! Cease this–"
"CAN'T."
In a flash, Rob dashed forward and scooped out a chunk of the god's mana-body with Purge Divinity. Before he could do more, Kismet shrieked with pain and teleported away, leaving the BERSERKER to crush his prize between five clenched fingers.
"FoRCed mY HAnD." He located Kismet again. "NO GOING BACK."
Stopping wasn't an option. If the divine realms crumbled and Elatra imploded...well, that would be a faster end than what the gods had in store for its people. At least this way their deaths would be quick and hopefully painless – and his friends wouldn't be turned into Skills tortured for all eternity.
Still, Kismet did have a point. Destroying reality wasn't exactly the ideal outcome. There had to be a way to speed up the conclusion of their fight. Rob was certain he would win if given enough time, but he couldn't guarantee it would be before either his body or the divine realms collapsed.
{Ascend.}
Like a snake slithering through a minefield, Leveling High skirted past the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions raging within Rob's mind. He attempted to tune out its voice, yet Humanity's curse refused to be denied, the static loudening until he was compelled to respond. Quit distracting me, he snapped. In case you haven't noticed, I'm FUCKING. BUSY.
{You seek to ensure victory over those who rule above,} Leveling High continued, without missing a step. {As do I.}
Then sit back, shut up, and–
{Ignoring your deficiencies will not make them disappear. This body is...feeble. Incomplete. Unfit to wield the power contained therein. Like a polished sword attached to a brittle hilt, liable to snap in twain at any moment.}
Rob grit his teeth. He couldn't deny Leveling High's assertions. Normally he'd just tell it to piss off, but considering how much was at stake here...
With a feeling like he'd sat down to deal with the devil, Rob sighed. Then what do you propose? That we upgrade my body somehow? I don't think putting more points into Vitality would help, even if I had any to spare. Me being so juiced up on stats is half the problem.
It shook its head. {You have far surpassed the limitations of mortality. Strengthening your power further would be akin to pouring water into an overflowing cup.}
So we...what, increase the size of the cup?
Static akin to laughter echoed inside his head. {We do away with it entirely.}
An icy chill began creeping up Rob's spine, as if the cold hands of fate were working their way towards his neck. He recalled a system notification from days before – 'Your Race has morphed from Human (?) to: Ascending HUMAN'.
Not Ascended. Ascending.
Weeks-old memories came surging to the forefront. 'The Heartkiller is closer to our form of life than those you call friends,' the Blight-child of Elysium had once said. 'As long as you continue to live, eventually, you will become an existence with the power to crush the Others and free the Skills from their shackles. You are no longer one of the Ephemeral. Now, you are a cocoon, metamorphosing into something grander. When you emerge, you will be as the Eternal.'
The Blight-child had laughed at him, then. 'After joining us, preserving these worlds will no longer be your desire.'
Rob grimaced. Denied, he flatly told Leveling High. Whatever you're about to suggest isn't happening.
It scoffed at him. {Your prejudices blind you. Do you think the gods have need of physical bodies? Does it hinder them in any capacity? No – the opposite. By definition, infinity cannot be constrained. Discard this useless flesh, and your conquest of the divine realms is assured.}
Maybe you didn't hear me when I said–
{By all means. Spurn my counsel...and condemn your friends to death. Shall their lives be worth it, in the end?}
Rob sucked in air through clenched teeth.
{Ascend.} Leveling High purred with anticipation. {You are bound by a prison of meat, bone, and blood. Break free. Finish what has already begun. Gaze upon the tapestry of infinity in all its dreadful splendor. Seize victory not as a Human, but as a completed, transcendent HUMAN.}
With a scream to drown out the static, Rob chased after Kismet again and again. The god was in full-on panic mode, eschewing offensive attacks in favor of perpetual retreat, focused wholly on keeping the BERSERKER as far away as possible. He would teleport the instant that Rob laid eyes on him, frantically stalling for his life.
It was – quite unintentionally – providing evidence to Leveling High's claims. If Kismet was on the defensive, catching him would take time they might not have.
I... Rob narrowed his eyes. How would I finish Ascending, anyway? It isn't like I can just flip a switch and make it happen.
{Incorrect.}
He blinked. WHAT?
{You have long since achieved the qualifications for true godhood,} Leveling High explained, in a lecturing tone. {There is no milestone that remains necessary to achieve. Rather than needing to overcome some hurdle of strength or power, the obstacle barring your path is more...arbitrary. Self-imposed.}
Humanity's curse seemed to peer into his soul. When it spoke next, its voice was filled with disgust. {You remain mortal because you wish to do so – both consciously and subconsciously. The Ascension of a nascent deity has been obstructed by cheap sentimentality.}
Rob almost started an argument over its usage of 'cheap', but he exercised restraint, keenly aware that there was bigger fish to fry. Can't do anything about the subconscious. I am \not* activating Melancholy Resistance.*
{Nor should you,} Leveling High remarked, shuddering at the prospect. {A grand statement of intent will be sufficient to shift your mentality. I believe...yes.}
The static churned like a hive of buzzing wasps. {When you next tear off a piece of the leader god's mana...even if just a sliver...devour it. Gorge yourself on their essence.}
Bile threatened to rise to the top of Rob's throat. Seems excessive, he mused, trying and failing to keep his tone lighthearted. To become a god, I eat a god? Wouldn't that make me a divine cannibal?
{You ARE a cannibal.} Leveling High's voice wavered, its veneer of helpfulness slipping to reveal the madness that lay beneath. {What do you think you've been DOING for nearly a YEAR? You kill, ingest your prey's Experience, and MAKE THEIR POWER YOUR OWN. This world is one of consumption and parasitism – devouring a god's essence is merely a more HONEST variant of THE SAME actions.}
...You clearly weren't paying attention during Diplomacy's PR lessons. Rob pursued Kismet once again, pressing his fingernails into his palms when the god hurriedly teleported away. There is such a thing as being too straightforward. If you want people to listen to you, then maybe dress up your words so they don't sound so horrifying.
{BUT AM I WRONG?}
Rob had no answer to that.
Bolts of divine mana peppered his skin. Kismet had barely managed to squeeze an attack in-between his escapes. The bolts ricocheted off Rob's skin like ping-pong balls, leaving minor scrapes and nothing more. It wasn't anywhere close to bypassing Almighty Resistance and his massive HP pool.
Yet it also reminded him of the mana-spears that Kismet had sent towards the rest of Riardin's Rangers. His Party members only possessed a shared, diluted version of Almighty Resistance, and their HP was a fraction of his. If Kismet aimed another attack of that caliber at them...how many would perish, right then and there?
Was Leveling High correct? What point was there to sentimentality if it just got his friends killed?
In truth, Rob knew that it didn't really matter if he completed his Ascension. Based on what he had planned for himself after the gods were dead, little would change either way. Still...he also knew that Ascending would be a one-way trip. No take-backs. If he went through with it, a fundamental part of him would be irrevocably altered.
Something twinged in a corner of his mind. It wasn't Leveling High, or his rage, or any of the other emotions currently dominating his headspace. This was a familiar friend; perhaps Rob's #1 most trusted confidant since he'd first set foot in Elatra. One that had rarely ever steered him wrong.
Paranoia.
And at the moment, it was telling him to be very careful before jumping into the deep end.
Ten teleports.
{What?}
Give it ten more Kismet teleports, Rob said. If I haven't dealt him a serious injury by then....I'll do what I need to do. He grimaced as Kismet vanished before he'd even finished the thought. Ten starting now.
Leveling High's static quieted. It resembled a patron at a restaurant who'd ordered their meal, and was waiting patiently for the main course to arrive.
Rob didn't waste time being offended over its nonchalance. Free of distractions, he immediately swept his gaze across the divine realms, pinpointing his quarry in a micro-instant. The BERSERKER dashed forward, pushing his body as far as he could, layering Rampages on top of Dexterity that made the laws of physics want to curl up and weep.
Kismet was prepared. He'd drawn more mana from the fractured rifts, quickening his speed and reactions. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep his head above water, not yet outpaced by their continually escalating arms race.
The HUMAN struck, the god fled, and both were left in the same position as before.
{One.}
Rob turned on a dime, charging without needing to look. He'd heard the moment that Kismet's teleport ended. It afforded him a split-second head start.
A gravity well suddenly appeared below his feet, as if a miniaturized black hole was weighing him down. Apparently, Kismet had set it up ahead of time as a just-in-case trap. Rob pierced through the spell's area of effect before it could ramp up to something dangerous, but his pace was slowed by a hair in the process, and his prey escaped.
{Two.}
You know what? Screw this. Rob whirled away from Kismet's newest location and blasted straight towards one of the lesser deities that his Party members were fighting.
He'd been too hung up on getting even with a hated foe – when there were seven other juicy morsels for him to play with. This way, Kismet would either sit back and watch as his allies were massacred, or the god would be forced to act instead of running like a goddamn cowar–
Sense Mana alerted Rob to magic gathering behind.
Pivoting, he leapt into the air. Rob superimposed himself in front of Kismet, bodyblocking the rainstorm of destructive mana that was about to be unleashed upon Riardin's Rangers.
Due to his swift response, the attack was released early. A simple Purge Divinity shield prevented him from incurring any damage. Rob still felt no sense of triumph as the mana dissipated around him. He just wasn't fast enough to kill the lesser gods and protect his Party at the same time – or at least not fast enough that he should gamble their lives on it.
Kismet disappearing a moment later didn't help matters either.
{Three.}
Frontal assaults weren't guaranteed to succeed, and targeting the other gods was a no-go. Could he take Kismet by surprise? Increase his Dexterity?
Rob contemplated mining Never Forget Your Rage for more stats, but swiftly vetoed the idea. His body was already struggling to hold itself together. Putting additional strain on a shaky foundation seemed...unwise.
Plus – at the risk of eating crow in the near future – he didn't actually think it was possible to feel angrier at the gods than he was right now. Seriously, what was left?
He hated them for sending him to a fantasy deathworld. He hated them for tormenting his friends and family. He hated them for being partially responsible for the Blight. He hated them for what they'd done to Elatra and Earth. He hated them for all the lives they'd stolen. He hated them for being the living embodiments of indifference and cruelty. He hated that they fostered good PR among the people they oppressed. He hated how monsters of such craven hypocrisy were also immeasurably powerful. He hated the sensation of divine mana crawling on his skin. He hated the unsettling sound of their voices. He hated their bizarre formless appearances. He hated them for being pompous pricks. He hated whenever they tried to relate to him. He hated whenever they didn't.
Most of all, he hated that they were still alive.
Even if he found out that they'd personally antagonized him since birth or some petty nonsense like that, it wouldn't measure up to the litany of transgressions they'd committed thus far. The blazing inferno within his soul could burn no hotter. Should burn no hotter. For his sanity's sake, if nothing else.
Kismet teleported. It wasn't in response to anything. He'd merely anticipated some sort of action – and was then baffled afterwards when he noticed the rampaging BERSERKER standing quietly in deep thought.
{Four.}
Rob advanced. While he didn't have a plan yet, he'd also learned that if he gave Kismet the slightest amount of breathing room, bad things tended to happen.
Can any of my Skills give me an edge? Unfortunately, he didn't think so. As usual, his lack of ranged options was biting him in the ass when it mattered most. Almost everything he could use required getting in close – which was the whole freaking problem – and none would be more effective than Purge Divinity, regardless.
Maybe I could set up a Waymark point, then catch Kismet's teleport with one of mine...no, that won't work either. The odds of him popping in next to a random Waymark point are slim. Could fill the battlefield with lots of Marks, but even then I have to consider the Skill's activation time. With my current Dexterity, it'd honestly be faster just to run at him.
The vast majority of his abilities simply weren't up to par in a clash with divinity. Limit Break, Purge Divinity, and Never Forget Your Rage had been specifically designed by the Skills to facilitate deicide. Something like Power Slash couldn't possibly compare to jailbroken stats and a touch of death.
As an act of defiance against his own logic, he cast Enmity, the only ability that could feasibly hit Kismet at range. The god casually shrugged off its effect before promptly escaping.
{Five.}
Like a frustrated animal, Rob snarled and gave chase. Just need to keep trying. Kismet isn't perfect.
{Six.}
Sooner or later, he's going to mess up.
{Seven.}
He's going to mess up.
{Eight.}
HE HAS TO MESS UP.
Suddenly, Kismet transformed his right hand into a blade of mana. With one harsh motion, he sliced open his own left arm.
By now, Rob had conditioned himself to never stop moving forward, even if something shocked him – which this sight very much did. His mouth dropped open, and Leveling High paused in the middle of eating its metaphorical popcorn. They still kept advancing without an iota of hesitation.
And ran straight into the mana cloud leaking out from Kismet's wound.
Rob blinked, opening his eyes to a wonderful day. The twisting plains looked dazzlingly beautiful, with fauna and plantlife lit by rays of effervescent light from the twin stars shining above. People cheerfully went about their day, happily shaking their trunks in shows of greeting, or rattling their scales to initiate merry games.
All was at peace.
Until – in unison – everyone froze. The tumult of life went quiet in an instant, replaced with pensive silence.
As if they'd been struck by the creeping, pervasive sensation of being watched.
A sound rang out. Half of them immediately fell over dead, fluids gushing from their ruined bodies.
The survivors could only lay there, crippled and in pain, as more people slowly rose into the air. Invisible fingers seemed to pluck them from the ground – and then began ripping off their limbs, one at a time, like a child dissecting butterflies–
Rob dragged himself back to the present.
It had taken much less time than before to recognize what was happening. Now that he knew what to expect, experiencing the remnant souls' lives wasn't so different from the dreamlike quality of an Attunement vision. Although...realizing that he'd witnessed the end of a world preceding Elatra did cause his thoughts to hitch for a single moment.
Which was just enough for Kismet to forge a spear of mana, then send it plunging through Rob's eye, skull, and brain. Its tip was forged to shred anything it touched, no matter how durable or Resistant.
The god whooped with glee – only to wince as the HUMAN's sole reaction was a long, drawn-out sigh. With an air of exasperation, he reached up and yanked the divine spear free with a nauseating splorch.
His eye had been reduced to a seeping red mess. He closed its eyelid. When he opened it again, the orb within had already Regenerated, now sporting an unamused glare.
It was something of a unique moment. Mid-battle events didn't typically leave both combatants feeling disheartened. The all-powerful god was losing faith that he could ever hope to stop Rob's onslaught...
And the BERSERKER didn't know if he could justify continuing on like this. His body still felt like it was pulling itself apart; if anything, the sensation was growing more pronounced as their battle progressed. While Kismet would make a fatal mistake eventually, Rob couldn't guarantee that he would last long enough to capitalize on it.
Unless he followed Leveling High's advice and–
With a howl that shook the divine realms, Rob launched his stolen spear at Kismet. His aim was true, yet it sailed through empty air, the god's afterimage tauntingly fading away.
{Nine.}
Final chance.
​
--
​
Link to Part 2

I met this girl in school last year, and we started dating just before we graduated. Because of that, we didn't get to spend much time together as a couple while in school. After graduation, we went our separate ways—she's studying architecture, and I'm studying engineering at different colleges.
At first, our relationship was amazing. We were like lovebirds, hanging out every week, whether in person or online. Both of us are shy, so it took a few weeks before we had our first kiss. But after that, things started going downhill.
We finally posted our first stories together on Instagram, hiding it from her mom because she's a strict Christian who doesn't allow her daughter to date until she's independent. Somehow, her mom found out, and since then, we've rarely gone out together. We decided to stick to messaging until we can figure out a better solution, or when she visits her grandma for a month in the middle of this year. Her grandma supports our relationship.
Things seemed fine at first, but then I started noticing some strange behavior from her. She constantly likes videos of other guys on Instagram and TikTok, like Michael B. Jordan, anime characters, and Justin Bieber. She doesn't seem jealous at all. She says that if someone wants to cheat, they'll cheat, so why bother worrying?
The most frustrating part is how long she takes to respond to my messages. I understand we have different schedules—I study in the morning, she studies in the afternoon, and she goes to church every night. But come on, I go to the gym and sometimes have classes in the afternoon too, yet I never take long to reply. She treats me well, tells me she loves me, and talks about marriage and kids, but her actions don't match her words. She uses TikTok daily but rarely sends me couple videos or calls me like she used to.
I'm really at a loss here. I love her so much, and she's the perfect girlfriend in many ways, but all these issues and her mom's interference are driving me crazy. Should I wait until she visits her grandma to try and fix our relationship, or should I just break up with her?
OBS: She was the complete opposite when we first decided to date. It could be because we were on our winter break, that's why i'm trying to hold our relationship until summer break. But I don't know if it is the right thing to do.

This is kind of a long rant becuase I cant sleep at night so I'm not expecting anybody to comment back or reply so its really just for me to write down and re-read later on. If somebody does decide to read this or even the first sentence, Thankyou 🙂
I have never been anybody first pick when it comes to friends or dating. I have a tooth gap and weigh almost 13 stone at 17 years old (5'3). Iv always been a bigger girl with a double chin and a large stomach and iv always been insecure about it. In primary school I will always remember the moment that a boy tried to compliment me by saying that I was only the second ugliest girl in our class and I actually remember feeling very flattered by being called the second ugliest. I never had alot of friends and even when I did finally get into a friendship group I still was nobody's best friend or somebody that someone REALLY wanted to play with.
In secondary school all my friends started getting boyfriends and although not serious relationships I still felt left out and wanted to have some "boy fun" too. This lead me to getting on apps like "amino" I at 11 years old sexted sooo many strangers it was wild. I then met my ex who was 19 at the time and just like that for the next 6 years I was abused, manipulated, brain washed and gaslit. When I was 16 I started noticing that my ex started to distance themselves from me and no longer texted me to called me. I got so frustrated and angry with them all the time. They would sometimes go a day or a day and a half without messaging me (I fortunately for myself never met my ex in person our entire relationship was online). I used to argue with them all the time but I was gaslit into thinking I was crazy eventually it drove me into a psychotic brakedown. I eventually realised that they were cheating on me with there roomate. I realised this after our brakeup and I think I knew that they were deep down but I just refused to belive it. But the person I had been with for 6 years of my life and I had loved for so long and genuinely though that I would share my life with no longer wanted me and wanted somebody else.
I got a job at 16 working in a restraunt I seriously love working there and I still do. I love most of the people I work with and I just love my job in general and I have even decided that I want to go up to manger there over the next coming years.
2 months after my brakeup with my ex I started talking to this guy that I found attractive. He knew i liked him and he and I texted for a little while. He would always tell me about how this girl liked him and that that girl liked him and eventually started telling me that his ex who he is madly in love with and him are going to get back together. I lost feelings for him after that but again somebody wanted somebody else. 4 Months after the brake up another person I worked with fell in love with me. However, he was dating another girl. I told him I wanted nothing to do with him if he was dating another girl. He told me that him snd her were in an open relationship and that she's fine with him messing around with other women. I reluctantly agreed and in a parking lot he forced me to have my first kiss. I tried moving away but he keped forcing me to kiss him even pulling me towards him. I eventually just gave in and I ended up letting him do things to me in a bathroom. I felt nothing, nothing emotionally nothing physically. I can't say that I regret the experiance but it sucks that I felt nothing. After it happened he told me "Don't take this the wrong way but it just didn't feel right" and he never acted that way with me again I try to block out the feelings of being lied to and the feelings of being used
Not long after my best friend who I was friends with in secondary school came back into my life. Me and her had so much fun together this past year. I even got her a job at the restraunt I work at and it was so much fun now being able to work with my best friend. However, she met her now boyfriend there. I am very very happy that they have found eachother and I genuinely am so pleased that my best friend has found somebody that makes her feel happy and that treats her right and spoils her rotten. It makes me so happy that she's happy. But I am so angry at myself. I started to feel jelouse of them like really jelouse and it made me angry becuase I didn't know what I was jelouse of. I always thought that my best friend was able to get boyfriends very easily which is very true she does. She is very very VERY beautiful and has gorgeous wavey hair and an absolutely to die for body. But I just felt so angry and upset becuase I think I was worried he would take her away from me which is kinda what ended up happening. We went from hanging out everyday to only seeing eachither twice a week. We had plans to get a flat together but now she wants one with him. We had plans to go on holidays and go on trips to places but now she wants to to with him. Everytime I'm with her she's constantly messaging him. And everytime I'm with them both together there always holding hands and kissing and very obvious making me just left on the corner making me wonder what I'm doing there. It makes me so angry that I can be friends with her for so long and she can just leave me like that. Due to my feelings I started to distance myself from her and I started to lightly bad mouth her to people that would listen. I regret my actions. I really really do love her and I can't help but feel like our friendship has declined becuase I have been a horrible toxic person I have been so astranged for her but I feel like she's abandoned me becuase once again iv been left for another person.
I feel like I'm going crazy becuase nobody ever wants me. I get so very VERY angry at people for no reason and I constantly argue with people in my head. They just don't understand how I see the world and how I feel at all.

Hey Everyone,
Recently, I (female, 30s) was ghosted by more than one friend. I feel like logically, I know I didn't deserve it but there is still this nagging feeling that I did. So I guess I'm just looking for outside opinions even if they are negative towards me.
To explain some of the situation, the first friend (Ghost #1) to ghost me was a female friend whom I was trying to have a heart to heart with. She was responding badly to what I was trying to talk about, so it wasn't a huge surprise when she ghosted. To summarize, basically I had introduced this friend to all of my other friends. Then surprise! They really liked her.
So she (Ghost #1) started getting invites to outings (by people I introduced her to) that even I wasn't getting. I tried telling her how this made me feel, that it made me feel used, left out, and that my friends (including her) didn't actually like me. I tried asking for her to include me more when these situations happened. So if she was invited out by people I introduced her to and she saw I wasn't included, for her to just include me and invite me. She didn't accept my feelings about the situation at all and she kept arguing, essentially telling me that my feelings were wrong. She also took it very badly, and said that I was being controlling and that I was accusing her of things. She also said that I should be taking up my issues with the people who weren't inviting me. She also didn't agree with me because according to her, I was only not getting invited because I could not go anyway (I work a lot of weekends and I don't have a car). For the record, there were some weekends where I could have joined but the only reason I didn't was because they didn't even try to invite me. I said back to her that it was invite that counted and that even if I could not go, the invite would make all the difference. But she just didn't agree or seem to want to understand.
I tried my best to understand her (Ghost #1) perspective, but because she wasn't trying to understand mine, it was really hard. But I did get what she meant about the accusations and the controlling aspect. I told her that I did not want to be that way but I was just hoping for some care and understanding. I also tried to get her to understand that I was only asking her to do what I had done for her. I just wanted her to include me the way that I had always included her. The only reason she met all of my friends was because I had always included her. Anyway, we were just not understanding each other and instead of continuing to try to talk it out, one day she just stopped responding entirely. I wasn't that surprised because it was obvious we had deep incompatibilities and she didn't seem to care much about my feelings. I was only surprised by the immaturity of her not being able to say something like "I need some time to think, so I need a break from responding" etc. But how she handled the rest of the conversation wasn't great either so that's why it wasn't that big of a surprise. She and I had been friends for 2 years.
Then something so horrible happened, I still can't even believe it and can barely type it out. My younger brother was killed by a truck over the winter holidays.
I had to tell all of my friends about this because they had to know why I wouldn't be responding for awhile. So I told everyone, except for Ghost #1 because at this point she had already stopped responding.
After telling people what happened to my brother, I didn't respond to any friends for about a month. After some time, I was able to start talking to people again. This was when I also realized that Ghost #1 had actually ghosted me. I didn't realise it before because I wasn't thinking about it. But after realising Ghost #1 had ghosted me, I was left with a difficult decision, should I tell people or not?
I decided to start telling people that Ghost #1 had ghosted me. The reason I chose to tell people was because as I said earlier, I had introduced her to all of my friends and she was apparently still socialising with them but not me. I wasn't sure if it was the right decision to tell others because I knew it would be involving them in drama they didn't ask for. But at the same time, when I introduced Ghost #1 to my other friends I was essentially "endorsing" her as a good friend but after her ghosting me I could no longer "endorse" her. Also, if my other friends didn't know that she had ghosted me they might inadvertently invite her or tell her things about me etc. Then the final reason was that if a friend had introduced me to a friend of theirs, I would want to know if they're a ghoster.
Anyway, so I told the other friends. The other friends didn't seem to believe it and the reactions were mixed but it seemed like they understood me and why I told them. At least they didn't seem to think badly of me.
But then surprise! Shortly after telling others that Ghost #1 had ghosted me, she got back in touch with me. Basically, she (Ghost #1) didn't apologize at all for taking long to respond to me (2 months) and she just provided condolences about my brother and said that she was there for me if I needed to talk about him. At first when I got this message, I thought it was kind of her. But then I thought about it more and realized it was a very self-serving message. She was essentially saying that she would not take any responsibility for how she hurt me. I felt that she was just using my brother's death as a way to make herself look better and get rid of her own guilt. Since she had ghosted me for 2 months, she knew I wouldn't reach out to her for support regarding my brother. So it was a very empty offer. It also put me in yet another shit position because now I had to figure out how to handle her new response. I thought about trying to hold her accountable again for the cruelty in her lack of actions but I was so tired of it. I decided to just send her a single emoji as a response (hands shaped in heart emoji). Another hard decision was figuring out if now I should tell people that she didn't technically ghost me?
I decided not to tell people that she had eventually responded. The reason I chose not to was because like i said I was really tired of dealing with her and talking about her. I had so much weight on my shoulders already and I am grieving my brother. I decided that if someone asked me directly if she had ever gotten back to me, I would tell them that yes she had. I would tell them that even though she did eventually get back to me, she did not apologize for her own actions and the message she sent was self-serving. And that even though she did not technically ghost me, she did spiritually because she only did the barest minimum so that she would not look bad. That is why I still consider her as having ghosted me and she is still Ghost #1. But no one ever asked me about her again.
Anyway, so then not long after that I was talking to one of the friends that I had introduced to Ghost #1. We were talking about doing a boxing class and it was difficult to organise because she and I had different schedules. Eventually we decided on a day, and I was getting ready to meet her for the class and she texted me to say she was stuck at work and couldn't come. She used a lot of crying emojis and apologized a lot. It seemed like she was genuine about the situation. I texted her back to tell her not to worry about it and that I was nervous to go to the class anyway. Then I asked her if she would maybe like to just go to a regular gym and use the machines. I told her that this might be better because then we wouldn't be confined to a specific day/time. And then I haven't heard from her since then (3+ months). So she became Ghost #2.
For extra context Ghost #2 seemed to really like Ghost #1. Ghost #2 was actually one of the friends who was inviting Ghost #1 out when I wasn't included. However, when I talked to Ghost #2 how it was leaving me feeling excluded and uncomfortable, she responded really well and it seemed like she really understood. Ghost #2 even put my feelings into words I had not even thought of. She told me that she hadn't invited me because she thought I could not come for various reasons. And then she said that she now understands she should have left the decision with me instead. I felt like she really understood me. Ghost #2 seemed like such a kind and genuine person. So when Ghost #2 ghosted me it really surprised me. I had been friends with her for over a year.
I know that there is a strong possibility that Ghost #2 ghosted me because of something to do with Ghost #1. But I will never know for sure. If it had been just Ghost #1 then I could've brushed it off and said it was just her but adding Ghost #2 to the mix has really damaged me. I'm thinking that maybe I did deserve it. Maybe I was being "too much" for them. Or asking for too much. Or I just wasn't valuable. Or that I did something wrong by not telling everyone that Ghost #1 did not technically ghost me. As if I was spreading drama or bad mouthing or controlling or manipulating etc. Or that I did anything to deserve it. I don't know.
So this wasn't the end of my ghostings. Eventually another friend who wasn't super connected to Ghost #1 or Ghost #2, started to take longer and longer to respond to my messages. So she became Ghost #3. Now it's been over a month since I've heard from Ghost #3. Ghost #3 did not super ghost me, because my last message to Ghost #3 didn't have any specific questions in it. But Ghost #3 indicated that they were really interested in hearing about a trip I was going on. But now the trip has passed by many weeks. And Ghost #3 never got back in touch with me, even though I was the last to send a message. Ghost #3 may still get in touch with me but she has never taken this long to respond before.
So finally, I had yet another ghosting by yet another female friend, Ghost #4. So Ghost #4 wasn't a close friend of mine. I met Ghost #4 through Ghost #3, they were once roommates. As far as I know, Ghost #4 and Ghost #3 are still good friends because the last I heard they also work together. Ghost #4 reached out to me to find out how I was doing because she knew about my brother. I responded back to her and tried to keep the focus on her. I asked her about her job and etc. And then I never heard from her and it's been over a couple months. What upsets me about this, is that no one asked Ghost #4 to reach out to me. I didn't. She could've just never messaged me. But she did and at first I thought that was nice of her but then she ghosted me. And it's just so senseless, that she put me through a ghosting when she didn't even have to message me.
So those are the ghostings. Most days I can rationalise it, that these friendships had already run their course and the extra stress was enough to break the friendships. I also think that ghosting has nothing to do with how kind someone is but how brave they are. And you never know someone's level of bravery until something bad happens. So I didnt know I was friends with so many cowards.
And for extra context we're not young and we're all women.
The major lesson I learned is that you shouldn't introduce friends too early because then it complicates the dynamics. That was what really kickstarted my problems with Ghost #1. I shouldn't have introduced her to all my friends and should have been more careful. But I'm struggling to learn anything from all the ghostings. Because it was so many of them. I still have that feeling that I deserved it. Because how could 4 friends ghost me within a few months of each other, if I didn't deserve it?
Anyway, I guess I'm taking it to jury of the internet to see what everyone thinks.
AITAH?

I'm running some one-shots over the next few weeks to find players for a long-term campaign set in the Forgotten Realms. Patient veterans and complete beginners are welcome!

When

• 9pm EST (6pm PST, 11am AEST), May 21 +

Style

• D&D 5e / Forgotten Realms / Gritty Heroic / Immersive / Core Races & Classes / Adults Only
• Various WOTC publications used as a backdrop to allow for a dynamic player-driven story.

Platforms

• Roll20 (Maps & Video) / Discord (Text & Voice)

Additional Info

• Very experienced DM. Beginners VERY welcome.
• The balance of role-play to combat depends on the players. Character actions have consequences, and character death is always a possibility.
• PHB, SCAG, XGE only. Homebrew is limited to a few optional rules for combat, movement, and injuries.
• The game is role-play heavy. That doesn't mean a lot of talking with PCs and NPCs in funny voices -- it means decisions and behavior should be shaped by a PC's race, background, personality, and the setting.
• All players are expected to be patient and open to compromise. Cooperative story-telling requires everyone to work together, share the spotlight, and help each other achieve their goals.
• Although it is a fantasy setting, verisimilitude is important for engagement and immersion. The setting is quasi-medieval, so in addition to gritty combat and a serious tone, players should also expect many of the NPCs they encounter to adhere to morals and values which we might consider inappropriate in the modern world. Although it will not be tolerated from players, bigotry exists in the game world, and PCs will likely encounter it during their travels.

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I love playing characters in games that have some kind of magical/mystical/mythical/spiritual companion or pet creature: be it a god, angel, spirit, demon, devil, fairy, elemental, ghost, zombie, mythical creature, monster etc. The companion or pet fights on the character's behalf, while the character either actively uses abilities that enhance the pet or companion, or they have passive abilities that make the pet or companion improve over time.
I wish Baldur's Gate 3 had something like this. The closest is the Beast Master Ranger subclass. At level three they get a permanent beast companion, doesn't require any resource other than an action to summon, can be resummoned once per short rest and will last until a long rest. As the Ranger levels up, the beast companion will get bonuses to their attack rolls, damage, armor class, and hit points, and will learn to dash, disengage, and help as bonus actions, and even gain an extra attack. They'll also change visually over time, gaining armor and such to make them look tougher.
This is exactly the kind of subclass I would want for a magic user, just swap out a mundane animal for god, angel, spirit, demon, devil, fairy, elemental, ghost, zombie, mythical creature, monster, or what have you.
The closest thing is the Necromancy School Wizard subclass. At level six they gain Animate Dead for free and are able to summon one extra undead when using it, and the summoned undead will have increased damage and Hit Points. But that's it, that's all that subclass gets in terms of improving their undead companions: you have to wait until level six to get such bonuses, and then that's the end of it. Undead also have the problem in that they need new corpses every time you take a long rest, which can be a problem if you want to summon a lot at a time but also want to long rest for cutscenes or replenishing hit points and spell slots.
I actually thought the Necromancy School subclass was better than it actually is, as I thought the bonuses applied to any undead that were under the control of the wizard, such as from the Second Marriage, Create Undead, Danse Macabre, Fungal Infestation, etc. But as I understand it, the bonuses are only exclusively to the Animate Dead spell and not other ones.
There are several other classes and subclasses who gain spells that raise undead minions but I don't think any of them have any specific features that enhance their undead minions.
As for other companion-related features, there's also the Warlock's Pact of the Chain Pact Boon at level three. That gives the Warlock an imp and a quasit familiar. Unfortunately they can't be summoned at the same time, and their abilities are pretty low, so they are not that useful in combat except for finishing off enemies that only have a few hit points left, getting a surprise attack in while invisible, standing near an enemy to let rogues use their Sneak Attacks, or controlling them as a "scout" to see what is ahead. The only improvement they get is receiving an extra attack at level five, but later in the game most of those attacks will miss anyway. While they have their uses, they are not really full-on battle companions, more like little helpers that at later levels can take one or two hits, or maybe kill something that had one or two hit points left.
Anyhow, I'd love to play a character that focused on either conjuration magic for summoning a special companion creature or necromancy magic for a raised undead companion creature, with level up abilities focused on improving said companion to being a continuously useful battle buddy. Again, the Beast Master Ranger subclass handles this great to me. I just wish there was a class or subclass that did the same thing except with a magical theme rather than a nature theme, and with some kind of unusual companion rather than a mundane animal.