Reteaching myself linear algebra after almost a decade. Imagine we have some vector v in 2D space (x,y). I apply some linear transformation M:
0 -1
1 0
This has the overall effect of a 90-degree rotation counterclockwise. My question is: Is it possible to trace the path of the original vector as it transformed, or is it not uniquely defined? Did it travel in an arc? A straight line? The question was born after watching 3Blue1Brown's video on matrices. I began to wonder what was going on under the hood in his animations of linear transformations. He mentions some requirements of keeping grid lines equally spaced and parallel, but I wasn't sure how to enforce that generally or if it actually followed from the formal definition of linear transformations.
My attempt at finding an answer:
I've been playing with making some drawings to try and make sense of this. If I define v_0 and v_2 as two sample input vectors, transform them by M (call these v_0' and v_2'), I can take their difference and draw a delta_v which sort of encodes a straight line path between the original vector head and the transformed vector head.
I'd like to create a vector field of these delta_v's: something like this. And I guess you could scale them to make it more readable like this. This is where I get a little lost. I can imagine increasing the number of vectors in my vector field, making them closer and closer together until I have some continuum. My guess is something like concentric circles would appear. This hints to me something like the vectors travelling in arcs, but perhaps I'm chasing some invalid intuition here. They would travel in arcs if we restricted them to being rigid, but that doesn't seem like a requirement for the linear transformation.
Anyway, I actually had trouble finding other people asking questions like this one online, but perhaps I wasn't using proper vocabulary in my Googling. If you have any topics/reading you think will help me, please suggest away.

I love the dark. It erases everything and replaces it with nothing. In true darkness, you could hold your hand inches from your face and not see a thing. In a dark, messy room, the mess didn’t exist. All that did was you, the pillow your head sat on, and the blanket keeping you warm. It was a void of peace and quiet that I never got enough of.
Until it wasn’t. Until there was something it didn’t erase, choosing to make itself known.
Despite replacing the bulbs a dozen times, the basement of our house never got light. It wasn’t stingy or old, or creepy like in movies. The stairs didn’t creek with each step, and you weren’t met with dread-filled storage rooms unless you looked for them. No; you were met with a fluffy, black couch and a few old chairs, with a coffee table in between. An entertainment center held candles at each corner along with my sketchbooks and a few pencils, sprawled messily across the hard wood surface. Admittedly, the boarded up window on the other side of the room wasn’t welcoming, but I wasn’t supposed to go down here anyways.
The entrance to the basement was a white door in the middle of our kitchen. It was made to blend in with the rest of the wall, and as such was featureless beyond a small keyhole, marked by nothing, where a knob would be. My parents had the key. Yes, I stole it. They turned their whole room upside down while I laughed quietly in my room, stashing it in a drawer under my bed that was previously for clothes. The keyhole clicked when it unlocked, loud enough to hear from the living room, so I saved my time in the basement for movie nights on my phone while they were sleeping, or on week days when my parents were out.
Sometimes I’d hear something skitter across the hard floor in far off rooms, but it never bothered me. Rats were bound to live in the places we didn’t. They didn’t invade my spaces. I didn’t invade theirs. My focus was on whatever abstract creature my mind was putting to the paper of a notebook, anyways. We were fine. I thought we were fine.
It was at night when I realized that it wasn’t a rat. It’d been about a month since I got their key, and for some reason they wouldn’t stop looking for it. It wasn’t like they went down there themselves, so I didn’t understand their panic. On this night, my mother was on vacation with some of her friends for the rest of that week, and I thought my dad left for work about an hour before. I had spent this hour laying in my bed, straining my ears for the smallest of sounds just to make sure, and by this time I felt confident. I opened my drawer, taking the cold metal key in my hands. The ridges at its end never stopped captivating me, and I’d run my finger over it time and time again.
But if I was going to do this, it was now. The sooner I got in, the better. I slipped the key into my pocket and opened my door, striding through a long hall with as light of steps as I could manage. I got down the stairs and turned the corner into the bright kitchen. Most lights in our house were yellow-ish, except the kitchen which had to be the brightest shade of white my dad could manage. I was by the basement door when I heard him, because of course he wasn’t actually at work. Footsteps went hurriedly about his bedroom, just one room down from where I was. They started coming closer. I pulled my hand from my pocket and walked to the cupboard, grabbing the nearest glass cup I could find and walking to the sink.
My dad peeked his head at me from the living room. “Hey, Brian. What’s going on?”
“Oh, nothing, I was just thirsty,” I said as I filled the glass with water. “What about you? I thought you had work.”
“Just about to go in, actually. There were some things I needed to do from home real quick.”
“Ah,” I said. I took a giant drink of my water, leaning against the counter closest to me. Half of me was waiting with impatience for him to leave, while the other was genuinely interested.
“Got anything in your pocket?” My dad asked. I realized my hand was covering my pocket and immediately let it fall to my side. I felt myself shrink at the question.
“Oh-- uh-- why do you ask?” I asked, trying to sound calm. I pulled out my phone so he could see. “I’ve got this.”
My dad looks me in the eyes for maybe half a second. His expression was something I couldn’t place at the time. I thought he might have known something, but before I could ponder it too long, he’d shifted his gaze to my phone. “Yeah, that makes sense. You carry that thing everywhere.”
“Jaden loves to steal my phone, we know that much,” I said.
“Fair enough. Alright. You get some good sleep tonight and you enjoy it, because I can’t.”
I laughed. “I will, I promise. See you tomorrow!”
“Yup, see you.” His heavy shoes pounded the floor as he walked to the front door and left. I wasn’t sure if I got away with it or not. Surely he couldn’t have known, I thought. There wasn’t realistically a way he could have known about it, especially without prying me for it if he actually thought it was there. The thing was way too precious to them. Yet my brain found small reasons to doubt my reasoning, like it always did.
Now I knew he was gone, though. He likely would be working until five or six in the morning, which gave me ample time to enjoy myself. I walked to the keyhole and inserted the key. It turned with a lurch and a loud click, and with that the door floated open above the long set of stairs trailing into the dark. I stepped down to the carpet of the stairs and closed the door behind me, the same click locking it back in place.
How did I get down without falling? A mixture of feeling my way and having a mental map. There were exactly ten steps, the last one bringing me to the floor level. To the immediate right of this last step there were two flashlights on the floor. I picked them up before I walked three steps over and then a large step right, falling into the fluff of my couch. It was like a trust fall. The flashlights were with me so that, if I so chose, I could see something. For now, I didn’t want to.
I propped my feet up on the couch and laid my head on a small pillow, letting the dark engulf my presence. Total black was soothing to me. I knew what was in front of me, but I didn’t have to see it. I didn’t have to be there, which was nice because at that moment I wanted to be as far from there as I could be. Life itself might as well have been rejecting me - no matter what I did, the only thing that felt right was nothing at all. I had no friends to stay for besides my brother, who admittedly was awesome. But even he annoyed me sometimes. Maybe I annoyed him more so. The thought of that made me want to sink into the ocean.
As I felt like I was finally losing my senses, something jerked them right back. It was the scuttling sound. Claws meeting hard floor as something ran about in the storage room. You can’t miss it; except at this moment I noticed how loud it was. It felt like it was coming from something bigger than a rat.
What else could it have been, though?
Since it already interrupted my peace, I might as well have gone looking. Where rats were, their droppings likely were too. I knew where to look. There wasn’t any reason not to confirm it, so I sat myself up and took a flashlight in my hands. Standing up, I flicked it on; a large yellow, hazy circle appeared on the opposite wall, almost directly on top of the wooden board which covered the window. I walked without much hesitation to two small entryways; one led to an old washer and dryer which never worked, while the other led into a winding storage room. Once you’d seen one part of the washing room, you’d seen all of it, so I moved on quickly.
It was the storage room that got complicated. I set foot into it, immediately noticing a thick wall of chills. Piles and piles of anything between boxes and furniture made tight pathways for me to walk through. There looked to be enough in here that we wouldn’t need to buy furniture for decades to come, yet my parents left it entirely ignored. As I marched throughout the paths, little chains would find themselves hanging in my face. Pulling them supposedly turned on the bulbs attached, but like everything down here, they didn’t work. Now they were only annoying.
I hadn’t heard whatever was there since I got up. Rats were skittish, after all, and they were probably scared to death, so it made sense. But I also noticed that the floor, contrary to what I thought, was relatively clean for a place that hadn’t seen the light of day since I was born.
And then I did hear it; something ran past my side. It sounded close enough to be right by my feet, and a part of me recoiled. I spun around, whipping my light around with me, only for it to flicker and die in front of… I didn’t know what it was at first. There were two dots close to the ground, both green-ish with a hint of hazy yellow. It reminded me of the way a cat's eyes would glow.
As that thought crossed my head, it clicked. They were eyes, watching me, entirely unmoving. I instinctually froze with it, locking my gaze with its own. Whatever form was behind the eyes blended in seamlessly with the dark that both of us took refuge in. It was a weird feeling - learning that an animal you didn’t invite was living with you. Rats or squirrels were one thing, but anything else felt surreal.
I lifted my foot and inched it forward. The pair of eyes moved back, and after a few seconds they darted away. I clicked my flashlight again and again, but it refused me. I turned about in my spot, trying to feel my way around, but there were no real walls; only the uneven, sloppy stacks of chairs, benches and boxes. Eventually I made my way. I only knew by the transition to a flat carpet that I was at the door, and from there it was easy to feel my way to the steps and climb back out. I opened the basement door and crossed the threshold into the blinding kitchen light.
As I looked back down, what is usually a wall of black was broken by the same glowing eyes staring back. The light above me blinked ever so slightly under its gaze until it decided to vanish. As soon as it did, I shut the door and locked it tight.
“Brian?” I heard behind me. Looking back, I saw Jaden. His eyes were wide open, his attention locked on the key in my hand. ____________________________________________________________________________
“Jaden, I need you to keep quiet about this,” I said. We were in Jaden’s room; a mess of toys and trinkets. It’d been about two years since the last time he touched any of them and I was surprised our parents hadn’t made him clean it years ago. I guess that’s what it’s like to be the favorite child.
“They’ve been looking for that key like crazy and you’ve had it the whole time?” Jaden asked.
“Oh, stop acting surprised. You’ve stolen enough of my stuff to know how I did it.”
“Yeah, I steal your phone and then give it back the next day. You stole the basement key!”
“Big difference,” I said sarcastically.
“What’s even down there?”
“It’s like a second living room. The entertainment center we used to have is down there, with a few couches and chairs. Even a coffee table.”
“Of course you’d keep that to yourself,” Jaden said.
“If it makes you feel any better, none of the lights work. You’d piss yourself in the dark.”
Jaden slapped me lightly on the arm, stifling a laugh. “Hey! I’m not five. Can you get me down there?”
I looked him over. “Ok, I can. But you have to follow some rules.” He watched me intently. “First, I hold the key at all times. It goes in the drawer under my bed. Second, we only go down when our parents have been asleep for an hour, or when they’re at work. And I will always be there with you, and you’re going to deal with that.”
“Damn. Alright,” he said. “You looked scared when you came out.”
I forgot about that for the few minutes we’d been talking. On my phone I’d looked up what a cat's eyes looked like - when their eyes were glowing against a light, it looked damn identical to what I’d seen. Something was off, that was for sure, but I couldn’t put it together yet. “There’s a cat down there,” I eventually said.
“A cat?”
“Yeah. It could’ve sneaked in through the boarded up window, I don’t know. I only saw its eyes.”
“And you found out…?”
“Like, twenty minutes ago.”
“Wow,” Jaden said. “I don’t think it can survive there for long, can it?”
Jaden loved cats, so of course this was the first thing he thought of - yet he did have a point. A cat, trapped in our basement where nobody went at all. What food could it find?
“You’re right. I mean, however it got in, it could get out again if it had to, right?” That question was more to myself than to him. The truth is I didn’t see a way to get in at all. The plywood on the window was too tight, and there wasn’t a hole. The basement door was its only way out, and it wasn’t open nearly ever.
“I don’t know. Do you think we should get it out tonight?”
“Tonight’s our best shot. Dad’s gonna be out of the house for hours.”
“Wait,” Jaden said. His face lit up in excitement, something I’ve grown to half dread. “Remember that fishing net dad got me?” He went to his closet and pushed its doors open, searching for something. I very well remembered it; Jaden got the thing during his fishing phase on his birthday. I knew he’d never use it, and lo and behold, I was right. He instead stuffed it into his closet.
Jaden valiantly raised his hand up to show it; a giant, loose net, connected to a metal pole. My dad said that in ponds, it could catch a lot of fish. Anywhere else it wouldn’t be so useful.
“You’re really gonna try to catch a cat with a fishing net?”
“I apologize, ye ole’ smartass, do you have any better ideas?”
I laughed. “Ehh… no, I don’t. It’ll be traumatizing as hell for the poor thing but it's better than having it starve.”
At that moment, our minds were made up. A part of me felt like I was losing an opportunity. The cat could’ve been a pet of my own - I could sneak in and feed it every night, maybe gain its trust. I could sit down there every night and let it cuddle up when it wanted. Nobody had to know. But what would happen when I moved out? It’d wonder where I went, waiting for its food which would never come. The thought of that depressed me even more.
For its own good, it needed to be freed.
I led Jaden to the basement door and slid the key in. It clicked and the door opened again. I could practically feel Jaden shudder at the steps. “You think you’re gonna be ok? I’ll hold your hand.”
He stayed silent for a good few seconds before grabbing mine. “I’m not chickening out, but that’s freaky as hell.”
“If only you liked the dark like me,” I said. “You’re missing out.”
We walked into the depths of the cat’s lair. I told Jaden how many steps there were and that seemed to ease his anxiety. From there, I had him follow me to the couch where I finally picked up my spare flashlight and turned it on. This time, the light was much more narrow, but it was a lot brighter as well.
“So this is where your drawing books are?” Jaden asked.
“You were looking, weren’t you?” I asked. Jaden didn't reply.
“Where’s the cat right now?”
I shined the light at the entrance to the storage room. “That place, most likely. It’s the storage.”
“We aren't going in there.”
“Do it. For the cat.”
Jaden took a deep breath, and we were gonna start walking when I saw it. The two eyes peeked from around the doorframe, and I thought I saw its body for a split second; yet again, my flashlight died the instant the animal showed itself. I slapped it a few times, trying to jumpstart it, but my attempts meant nothing.
“Do you see that?” I asked.
“Yeah!” Jaden said, excitement filling his voice. He knelt on his knees and started getting its attention with noises. The cat stayed in its spot, its iridescent eyes darting between the two of our faces. Something occurred to me that didn’t before; cat’s eyes glow against a light. But for the second time, my flashlight had died in its presence, so what was catching its eyes like this? Before I got to ponder it any longer, Jaden would try to move a little bit closer, and the cat would retreat. I took the net from Jaden’s hands.
“Actually, stay right here. I’m gonna catch the thing. We don’t have a light anymore and I want you somewhere I’m familiar with,” I said.
“I wanted to do this together!” Jaden said.
“Just… trust me, please. I’ll chase it out, and when you see it you can lead it towards the stairs.”
“... Ok. Fair enough.” Jaden was clearly disappointed. As much as I’d loved to have him help me, something felt very off. What it could’ve been, I didn’t know - but if this cat was somehow dangerous, I didn’t want Jaden in its way.
This time, though, I knew the routes better. I knew where it could be. To my surprise, it wasn’t hiding. I watched it dart around me, observing from different angles as I walked. I’d try to interact with it but it seemed to be too shy. When I kneeled to it and held my palm out, it’d hesitantly take a step forward, but even then it’d back up again and vanish, only to appear behind me. It was curious, but way too cautious.
After a while of this, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t gonna be friendly with me. Not in the span of one night, anyways, which is all we had. So I started chasing it. It ran around corners and through the stacks, but I’d always find it again. Somehow, it managed to get even deeper into the storage room with every attempt. I decided to go to the very back of the room and chase it back from there. For a bit, it worked, though I had to be quick on my heels.
By the end, I was out of breath. Its glowing eyes peeked out from under a wooden bench, almost taunting me. I knew it was scared, but why did it keep coming to check on me? I didn’t know. My calves were starting to burn. I ran at it, and it turned to sprint away. I kept up, holding the net in its position. It was going to take a hard right turn when it instead slipped, scrambling about in its place. When the cat got to its feet, it made quick glances between me and something to its right. I should’ve caught it right there but I wanted to know what it was afraid of.
It tried to take off again but Jaden jumped in front of it. He lunged for the cat and it leapt back at me, to which I brought my net to the ground as fast as I could.
I felt the net hit something, forcing it to the ground. It writhed on the floor, but it wasn’t going anywhere.
We finally did it. We caught the cat.
The net tore open. I saw its eyes leap at my leg, and it landed on my side before pushing back off. I didn’t spin around to catch it - in fact, chills paralyzed me in my spot; when it jumped onto my leg, it wasn’t paws that hit me, but pairs of hands. Dozens of fingers wrapped around my calf before pushing back off with a force that sent me to the hard, cold floor. I screamed. I felt nausea stir in the deepest pits of my stomach. As I propped myself up I turned to see it glaring at us.
A rumbling growl rolled from its place. Its two hazy eyes floated from the floor, gaining height until they towered above both of us. Boxes on either side of us shifted while something grabbed hold, digging what I now knew was its nails into the cardboard. Jaden grabbed my arms and pulled me up, and then he dragged me along as we both started to run.
My memory phased in and out after that. Next I knew, we were running up the steps towards the kitchen. Slamming its fists into the stairs, it followed. The kitchen light went out. We rushed for the living room as it jumped at the kitchen table, throwing the table onto its side. Glass shattered as it fell into a China cabinet, but we kept running.
The living room lights went out. We ran up the stairs towards our rooms. It leapt to the couches and then onto the railing of the stairs. I heard the metallic sound of its hands sweeping across the metal. The light at the top of the stairs went out. The only light left was in my room. My foot touched the carpet as my room light went out. I threw Jaden in front of me before I spun around, grabbing the knob and almost forcing it closed.
Its hands slammed the door from the other side, and the door instead hit me and threw me into my dresser across the room. I remember barely being able to move, and in an instant something was in front of me. Two hazy yellow eyes, inches from my face. Unmoving. Except now, I could see they were filled with rage. Absolute hatred, instead of the shy curiosity they held before. The key laid in my open hand, which laid limp on the floor. Jaden was on the wall opposite from me, next to my bed. His face was buried in his hands.
Darkness had never felt so malevolent. Before, it was engulfing; now, it consumed me and my every thought. The world didn’t exist. Nothing did, except me, the hard wood of the dresser I rested on, the tingling in my arms, and the blood trickling from my nose. ____________________________________________________________________________
I woke up in my bed. Sunlight poured through my windows. My blanket wrapped around me like a burrito, and something was in my hands. It wasn’t the key. I tried to pull my head up but my neck burst into pain. I instead pulled my hand up to my eyes. There was a note;
"I knew where it was this whole time, did you know that?
While I didn’t know it would go as far as it did, take what happened as a lesson.
Sometimes, the best lessons are learned the hard way. The lesson here being, we have reasons for what we do."
It was signed by my dad.
When I was done reading, the knob of my door turned slowly as someone peeked through my doorway.
“Brian?” They asked.
“Jaden,” I said back. A smile grew on his face as he ran to my bed and gave me the tightest hug he could manage. It hurt a lot, but I didn’t care. As happy as he was to see me, I could’ve been even happier to see him. Along side our joy, however, something lingered. We challenged our parents rules for the first time, and it was becoming more and more clear that the consequences weren't a dream. And though we never spoke it in that moment, we both knew we messed with something bigger than both of us, and we could've died for it.

I can’t find where to obtain the prepaid shipping labels for equipment return and I’m being billed on an account that should be closed because the equipment hasn’t been returned.

Is there an app/website where one can hire someone for small jobs like fixing AC, washing my car, find a personal trainer, assemble some furniture or some other similar jobs? I have found all of this online, but it almost requires a registration for each service. Do you know one app/website that deals with all of it?

Since Easter, I've been told conflicting information regarding my plan. My old LAC was taken off me and replaced with a Delegate. My previous LAC has stated in emails to me that mt plan is no longer Plan Managed and has since changed to Agency Managed. However I have spoken to the NDIS on their national line, and they have stated that I am still plan managed, as Maple Plan as still my Plan Managers. I asked them why they took my LAC from me, and their response was that I was too complex. I have had one chat with them via their chat, and was requesting they reallocate my last one to me or similar, I had then asked for a receipt on the chat, and conveniently the chat disconnected on me. So nothing was resolved. I then emailed the LAC office and NDIA Enquires, Including Bil Shortens office... that was over 10 days ago now.
Due to the confusion, my phychosocial disability, Major depression and trauma it has paralysed me to a huge degree. As all my services have been down since before all this happened prior to Easter. Not knowing where I stand or what type of providers I can use in the way of services and who pays for them. It has felt completely hopeless and I have been paitently awaiting a reply from the NDIS.
I did unfortunately try to leave the NDIS before all this happened due to a number of dodgy providers, bullying from providers, and support workers frauding my plan. So my mental health as a result became worse so. This all made me want to get away from all that and the kaos. I did fortunately change my mind when a delegate was processing my leaving and I Reversed my decision. But like i said my services are all down, and im awaiting to see my therapist in July. She wasn't sure what to do either as obviously she will need to be paid. I've assumed it was still Maple Plan. But how could ndis tell me conflicting info like this?
The stress has not helped my depression st all. And their services especially last year induced post trauma so I now find it hard to trust people in order to work with service providers. The system so far has failed me.
My dad was going to go into their office, as I've issued him permission etc. Unfortunately I don't feel up to going because I don't want my mental health to suffer as a result. Unfortunately I do have passive suicidal tendency under high stress, so I'm fearful of that. I never expected to feel so bad about this.
Can anyone suggest anything, I'm just becoming exhausted because of this.
Thanks for listening.

Hello! I've been searching for the Animax dub version of Maid Sama for going on nine years now and have not seen it since the days of high pitch sped up youtube copies. I'm aware there is a (some argue better quality) Sentai english dub but I grew up with the Animax version and I can only take Monica Rial in small doses. I've contacted Animax multiple times over the years and multiple reddit users who claimed to have it but are no longer active. If anyone knows where I might find it or has a copy (even if it is terrible quality) I would be forever grateful!

We've been married 9 happy years, I know this to be true even if he did end up cheating on me last night. My husband Ben doesn't have many friends at all and lately he's been hanging out with a co-worker named Al who is recently divorced. I have never had any problems with their relationship which has generally consisted of at most a couple of drinks and coming home before 12. Our relationship has been, up until now, one of complete trust. I'll stick to just the facts from last night.
10:30-1am: I'm at home watching Disney plus followed by bed. Ben is hanging out with just Al at a dive bar
1-3am: They move the party over to the strip club. We've never had a discussion about if either of us finds strip clubs disrespectful to the other so this is grey area. However staying out this late solo on a Tuesday is not something he's ever done before
3-4am: They Uber to Al's house, Ben says with only the two of them in the vehicle
4:02am: I called 20 mins before this as I was worried but no answer. This time there's a pickup but I don't say hello because I can hear women's voices and immediately am apprehensive and thinking this must be an accidental pickup. There is some distortion so I can't really hear what the women are saying but then very clearly an energetic male voice cuts in with 'This dick isn't going to suck itself'. Woman voice again followed by eventual hangup on the other end
His side: Ben maintains that the voice I heard was Al's who came upstairs with strippers from the club to find Ben where he was hiding out on the rooftop patio sleeping and rope him into joining in on the fun. Al woke Ben up with his loudness and then Ben noticed I was calling him so he picked up. NO HELLO, just kind of held the phone in his hand and didn't say anything because he was drunk, disoriented from waking up, and his buddy was trying to solicit sex (so polite!). He thought it was a bad connection and hung up.
I think all this sounds like bullshit and have been furiously googling divorce lawyers since. But I also wanted to get a sanity check here first before I actually do anything. I can't ask anybody in my life because my friends and family will probably get as far as him going to the strip club and make a judgement then and there (East Asians. Ben is white and thinks strip clubs are not a big deal). I was so sure at the time but now in the cold light of day I can't say for certain the voice was Ben's as opposed to Al's whom I've never actually met. Ben is a huge nerd whose passions include Star Wars and wildlife photography. He doesn't really exude 'come suck this dick' energy and while he admits he made a lot of bad choices last night, he vehemently maintains he never cheated. Could never cheat, loves me, etc. He let me go through his phone but he is a technologist and I wouldn't find anything if he didn't want me to so I asked if he would be ok if I put a tracking app on his phone and forbid him from seeing Al anymore. He agreed with no hint of protest and he HATES being ordered around.
I'm tired and sad and angry. Should I ask for marriage counselling first? What's there even to talk about if the issue is whether he cheated on me or not (You did! No I didn't!). I don't actually want to be his warden the rest of my life. How does trust recover?

Context

Mythic Plus is arguably the greatest addition ever made to World of Warcraft. However, it is not without its flaws. In this post I want to articulate some pain points that I think should be considered by the Blizzard going forward, some that you may hear a lot and some that you may not have heard before. I would also welcome any further suggestions or criticisms of the points I make here, all in the spirit of trying to make Mythic Plus the best it can be.
Before I get in to the main section of this post, I want to take a second to be transparent about who I am as a player - both to given context to my opinions but to also be clear about any potential biases.
Here is a short summary of my "player profile" to keep in mind as you read my thoughts:

• I am a warrior only player (at least in the context of high-end content) with ~990 days played on my warrior since 2006.
• I have 6x R1 title as dps warrior (i.e. every season since they introduced it). I very actively try to keep this up, which is to say I will play warrior in every season regardless of how good or bad it is.
• I mostly at least partially pug keys, I have not really played as part of a team during any of these seasons (i.e. I am very familiar with the LFG simulator).
• I raid in a relatively high-end guild, and so I have access to all the best gear in the game.
• I have a full time job and a fiancée (i.e. I don't have time to sit and play all day every day).

Now, that should give some context to my points below, but I believe most if not all of them would be beneficial for players of all backgrounds.

Pain Points

Here I will list out some of the main pain points I find with the current iteration of Mythic Plus.
Compositional restrictions
As I'm sure most players can relate to, what happens in high levels of play has a tendency to trickle down to lower levels - regardless of if it actually makes any sense at that lower level. This means that whatever is the current meta classes for a given season will inevitably be strongly preferred in all levels of play. This, of course, is not a new observation - in fact it is one of the most common complaints about Mythic Plus. However, there is more to the story that many people who play classes outside the current will have undoubtedly experienced, and that is the compositional restrictions that are placed on Mythic Plus groups, in the name of diversity.
Consider a group in the LFG tool that consists of 4/5th of the current meta: Vengeance Demon Hunter, Restoration Druid, Shadow Priest and Fire Mage. This seems like a pretty solid baseline group that should be able to invite more or less any DPS-spec for the last spot. However, imagine this is Raging week - even though it is not technically required, a majority of groups will only consider an Augmentation Evoker because of it's AoE soothe (and of course the fact that is it meta).
Now, consider a group that already has one spec outside the meta, let's say exchange the Fire Mage for a Retribution Paladin. This group will now additionally "need" a Bloodlust. I won't bore you with further examples of compositions but I think you get the point. The problem is that the more you deviate from the meta, the more likely you are to run in to these compositional restrictions. One might say it's just a coincidence that the meta classes are also the ones that, when combined, bring all the required utility - but that is not the case. The meta composition is the meta composition because it brings all the required utility.
Let's take a second to consider all the different compositional requirements that a group might have:

• Bloodlust
• Combat Resurrection
• Soothe (especially on Raging weeks)
• Bleed Dispel (dungeon specific)
• Curse Dispel (especially on Afflicted weeks or dungeon specific)
• Disease Dispel (especially on Afflicted weeks or dungeon specific)
• Poison Dispel (especially on Afflicted weeks or dungeon specific)
• Non-healer Magic dispel (especially on Afflicted weeks)
• Offensive Dispel - (dungeon specific)
• Incorporeal CC

While not all of these are required for every dungeon and every affix set, it still imposes a massive restriction on what classes can be played in Mythic Plus. Notably, Warrior does not bring any of the above (except for a having to swap a talent to be able to clear an Incorporeal on a 3 min CD), and similarly Death Knights are near useless in this regard as well.
Of course, this is not all the utility that one might bring in a group. Interrupts, stops, knockbacks etc. are also important, but these are much more abundant and are not binary checks in the same way many of the above are.
Before we move on to the next topic, one might ask why there are so many restrictions put in place. The answer is that Blizzard operates under the inverse philosophy of what many players end up experiencing: rather than "I feel so awesome when I bring this" it more often becomes "I feel so useless because I do not bring this". I don't want to speak for everyone, but I think I can safely say that no mage has ever felt super awesome because they can dispel an Incorporeal, but I can assure you many warriors and death knights have felt very powerless when they see the an Incorporeal cast go off and can do nothing about it. That is not to say that classes should not have unique utility, but I will get in to more of my suggestions for how to fix it later on in the post.
Ranged vs Melee tradeoffs
Historically, ranged and melee have had clear tradeoffs - most notably ranged have much more space that they can utilize while still reaching the boss, but usually suffer more of a damage loss if they are forced to move whereas melee can freely move and attack but are restricted to a much smaller area. This is not in and of itself a problem, but changes made to Mythic Plus specifically over the years have drastically exacerbated this issue.
Let's list out some of the main differences between ranged and melee:

• Ranged are more punished by movement, but have more space in which to move.
• Melee have a shorter cooldown interrupt.
• Ranged typically have higher target caps, whereas melee usually have lower (this is not true of all specs, but is a general trend).

Looking at this, it becomes pretty clear that ranged would do better in a scenario where everything is pretty stationary and there are a lot of targets, and not too many interrupts are required. Melee would conversely do better in the opposite scenario where there are fewer targets, more interrupts required and forced movement.
Over time, trash packs have been getting more and more abilites, to the point where more or less every mob has at least one ability. This includes both interruptable /stoppable abilities but also ground effects and frontals. One subtle thing that was changed over the course of Shadowlands and Dragonflight was that interruptable casts now always go on cooldown if they are stopped by another mean than a kick (e.g. a stun). This has, in conjunction with other things, lead to increased pull sizes since it has now become possible to control much larger groups of mobs.
So, what does this mean for the ranged vs melee situation? Well, this has heavily favored ranged dps because:

• Ranged are generally not very affected by fronts/ground effects, since they tend to be local to where the mobs are standing.
• Melee having a shorter kick has become a lot less of an advantage, since other stops work just as well as kicks for the most part.
• Ranged tend to do more damage on large pulls, due to their generally higher target caps.
• Ranged tend to not be limited by their damage loss from movement, since fewer and larger pulls are gathered and then killed in one spot.

This has lead ranged dps are much more likely to be the meta, rather than melee. Looking back at this expansion, the highest keys in S2-S4 have all favored the exact same dps setup: Fire Mage, Shadow Priest and Augmentation Evoker. Looking further back we can see that for the past few years (https://mythicstats.com/meta?expansion=all), a strong triple melee meta has really never been the case (although it was not uncommon to see triple melee in BFA, before the interrupt changes).
This is not to say that melee are horrible and ranged are amazing, but I think systematically Mythic Plus has moved in a direction that has heavily favored ranged, and if nothing is changed I would suspect that outside of massive outlier tuning, ranged will continue to be favored.
Tuning
Historically, Blizzard has been very conservative with their tuning with respect to Mythic Plus. When there are class changes, those are mostly done with raiding in mind, and Mythic Plus is more of an afterthought. This has leads to a number of issues, since what makes a spec good in raiding does not necessarily make it good in Mythic Plus (even if we've spoken about utility in the above sections, it should be noted that more often than not the meta usually contains classes that do the most damage). In fact, it creates a very strange dynamic where classes with a strong causational relationship between their raiding performance and their Mythic Plus performance fundamentally are very unlikely to become meta in Mythic Plus. This is because, if they overperform in raid they will be nerfed and if they don't overperform in raid their performance in Mythic Plus will not be top tier.
Let's look at an example I am very familiar with: Fury Warrior.
Fury Warrior's AoE damage comes directly from their single target damage, since they effectively cleave a per centage of their single target damage on to nearby targets (capped to 5 targets). This means that for Fury Warrior to have top tier AoE damage, they need to have top tier single target damage. This creates a dynamic where Fury Warrior as long as this remains to constitute the majority of a Fury Warriors AoE damage, they can not be a top tier performer in Mythic Plus (in terms of damage, but to add insult to injury they also bring limited utility).
The unwillingness of Blizzard to tune for the sake of mythic plus (outside extreme outliers) leads to a problem where the meta becomes even more rigid than it needs to be.
Affixes
As I mentioned briefly earlier, affixes impose certain restrictions on what classes can be played. I don't think it's a bad thing that some classes can use a knockback to move mobs out of Sanguine, since that is not a binary check but rather a potential time save by virtue of utilizing the utility. However, when it comes to more binary checks like Incorporeal or Afflicted, where failing to CC or Dispel respectively is very likely to end a key (especially since those failures tend to come in large critical pulls where a lot of other things are going on), I do think that is a problem.
While the point of affixes is to create a more varied dungeon experience, I think most people can agree that is simply not fun that some affix set versus another can effectively change the difficulty of a key by several levels. Having certain "push weeks" and certain "dead weeks" is simply not fun and it would be much better if every week was more closely aligned.
Timer vs One Shots
Given an infinitely scaling system, at some point there must at least one restricting factor that limits the success of groups. In Mythic Plus, this historically has come down to one of those things:

• The timer
• Living large "one shot"-style mechanics

The pendulum has swung a few times on this, where in Legion one shots were a big issue and such Blizzard reacted to that by moving away from that for a while and instead limited dungeons more by the timer. Currently, we are back to a place where the timer is not very tight but many dungeons have abilities that can potentially one shot players.
This is a tough one to balance since, regardless of which of these two ends up as the limiting factor, some classes or specs will always get the short end of the stick. Which one is preferable comes down to personal preference, some people like to fight against the timer and some people hate that - but at the end of the day what will always feel bad is if your specific character cannot counteract whatever is limiting the key (be that being too squishy or doing too little damage).

Proposed changes

Here I will list out some simple changes that I think could be made to make the experience better for everyone involved.
Compositional restrictions
I think there are some very simple changes that would go a long way to lessening the compositional restrictions - and it is simply more fun to be able to invite more different people to your group.
Here are some simple suggestions:

• Buff drums back to 30%
• Give Bloodlust to one more class
• Give enrage dispel to one more class
• Give combat ress to all healing specs and/or improve the engineering combat ress
• Remove or change affixes that have binary checks where only certain classes can contribute (e.g. Afflicted)
• Be more careful with dungeon design to provide alternatives (can be a slightly worse alternative) to certain very specific utility checks
• Remove raid buffs in Mythic Plus, since it really serves no useful purpose and just further reduces the perceived possible compositions

Ranged vs Melee tradeoffs
While this is not the biggest issue of the bunch, I still have some things I would like to see changed:

• Reduce the amount of ground effects / frontals in melee - there is simply too much clutter
• Similar to how it is sometimes better to have certain utility (e.g. Curse Dispel) but not mandatory, make it sometimes better to have some melee kicks as opposed to ranged kicks. This used to be too much in the favor of melee the other way around but should be dialled back a bit.
• Looks over if the current target caps make sense. If one spec is capped to 5 targets and another is uncapped, the spec capped to 5 targets should always do more damage on 5 targets than the uncapped spec - otherwise the separation makes no sense.

Tuning
The answer here is pretty simple: tune more! But to make it in to a list format:

• Make more frequent and smaller micro adjustments to over- and underperforming specs.
• Consider both Mythic Plus and Raiding, and utilize the ability to tune certain abilities separately if needed.

Affixes
This one is a bit more tricky, but I think there are some simple changes that could be made:

• Remove or change affixes which impose binary checks where only certain classes can contribute (duplicate from above)
• Make affixes, or more importantly the affix combinations, more consistent in difficulty.
• Lessen the overall impact of affixes, since we already change dungeons every season affixes don't need to be the main driver of difficulty.

Timer vs One Shots
This one is very tough, and I don't have any great suggestions for how to balance this to make everyone happy. I do however think that this needs to be a very conscious decision that Blizzard makes and that they consider this for every dungeon they put out. It doesn't feel fun to be one-shot by a mechanic and not have any way to avoid it, but nor does it feel good to have a near perfect run and still fail the timer.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading my rant, I hope you found (at least some of it) interesting. I would love to hear your thoughts on the above, and if you have any further suggestions.

Hi, I live in Jeddah at the moment, and i am taking my A levels in next Oct/Nov. I am taking MATHS, BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. And i was hoping to find a group of students who are also taking these subjects and have similar prospects for university. my idea is to start a group where we can perhaps meet online. discuss chapters. share and solve practice papers, and overall sharpen each other. If you are interested, please Dm me
Ps: i am taking the exams from home, so that's why i can't do this with people from school.

Hello,
My partner and I are visiting from San Francisco, we both are massive stoners and are a bit spoiled with how cheap our local dispensary is.
Coming to Chicago we’re realizing how expensive everything is dispensaries. So I was wondering if there’s any place that offers good deals or is cheaper than the average?
Thanks in advance

I just moved back to the super NW suburbs after going to school in the Twin Cities, and I’m struggling to find Cold Brew beans anywhere local. I like making my own CB, and grocery stores in MN had beans specifically for cold brew but I can’t find any here, and other roasts I’ve tried so far are super bitter.
Any suggestions for where to find Cold Brew blend beans near Vernon Hills/Libertyville/Mundelein? Thank you!

Last night I got sick in front of my bf , spent about 20 mins freaking out worrying that I might get sick. And yeah I did. It’s not fun tbh it’s kind of boring. I was just waiting until it stopped so I could go tell my bf that I was okay. Getting sick isn’t fun. It’s not the best feeling. But you ALWAYS feel so much better afterwards. If anything it upsets me how much better I feel after it happens bc it’s like, really? Why was I so worried about that. It’s uncomfortable and can sometimes be scary but nothing bad will happen. Just sit down and let your body do what it needs to do then go lay down. No matter how many times you may get sick or how long it lasts, you will feel better. As someone who’s had this fear since the second grade (I’m 19 now), every time I get sick I realize that there’s actually nothing to be worried about. Even if I’m out in public, getting sick is a social norm. Everyone does and tbh we or others have witnessed individuals getting sick pretty frequently. As someone who used to SH whenever I’d have the slightest feeling of getting sick, trust me when I say it is not worth hurting yourself over. Go out and do the things you want, eat the food that you’ve been craving. You never know what might happen but after years of worrying you will wish you had spent more time enjoying yourself. And yeah I’m still nervous , I’m worried I may get sick again but so what? If I do then I do the same as last night and then lay down and watch my favorite show. I know the unknown is terrifying but it’s scarier realizing how many days / years have passed where you’ve spent so much time hurting and or preventing yourself from enjoying life. You have to have the bad in order to have the good, without the bad life would simply be plain and boring.
Apologies for ranting but just know no matter what you are okay, your feelings are valid, and you will eventually find peace with your fears <3

Hi, a few days ago I saw advertising for a game where you started by coming out of a shelter in a world full of zombies. You had to find stuff and rebuild and could even chill out fishing.
I looked in the app store but can't find it. Can someone help me... Of course I didn't write down the name.

Long story short, I need to find a note taking system that works for me.
I used to have everything in Dropbox but for some types of notes that I want to be able to easily view/edit from other computers, web browsers or mobile devices, then Dropbox wasn't the ideal tool. So for these kind of notes I started to look at other solutions.
Trello:

• Pros
  • Can access from any computer with a web browser
  • Mobile app is great, low lag and offline support
  • Easy collaboration with other family members
• Cons
  • Limited depth of organisation (boards, lists, cards)
  • Each card had limited layout and content options. I couldn't create a nice rich how to guide with interleaved text, images, videos etc.

Notion:

• Pros
  • Could create pages in the layout I wanted.
  • Databases are great for some cases
• Cons
  • Annoying organisation depth in that they are just sub-pages that appear as a link on the parent page
  • Database structures had to be created upfront, sometimes you build out a database and then realise it'd work better in a different way.
  • Mobile app is not very responsive

Obsidian:

• Pros
  • Lots of flexibility
  • Owning the data myself (also a con)
  • Lot of plugins and features to extend functionality
• Cons
  • Not great to use on mobile device - also need to get their sync paid add on or setup Dropbox sync'ing
  • Can't easily use on another computer (i.e. cannot use via web)
  • Not great support to collaborate with family members.

Anyway, I'm now in a complete mess where my notes are now in 4 different systems (Dropbox, Trello, Notion and Obsidian). I'll always have Dropbox as there's some files/notes that are better for there.
However, for the rest of it, I want to consolidate into one tool so I can fully migrate away from Trello, Notion and Obsidian.
So my list of requirements are:

• Easy to access notes from anywhere: web browser (i.e. any computer) and a really good mobile app that has offline support.
• All clients must be responsive. Really hate lag. Sometimes you just want to open a note really quickly, write a few words and then done. A few seconds to load kills this whole experience. Google Note is a great example of being responsive. Notion is a bad example.
• Ability to organise notes of completely different topics. But still allowing me to search across all notes or a specific section.
• Ability to collaborate with a couple of family members.
• Ability to create rich content layout with interleaved text, media, links etc

I feel a lot of the examples online for how Notion and Obsidian are used is for one set of note types. E.g. study notes or for notes related to someones social media content creation.
Any suggestions or advice?

Hi welding, redirect my post if needed, I couldn't find a better steel fabrication related sub.
I'm taking on a landscaping project where I could use CORTEN or weathering steel... but I can't find ANY around me in new england. I'm recreating the EdgeRight product for my own use case. Not because I'm cheap... EdgeRight's pricing doesn't work for the project budget.
Somebody recommended I use hot rolled steel instead and that it will patina, but it will eventually turn to dirt (imo). Are they full of it, or is there something I'm missing about just using hot rolled instead?
IF I use hot rolled, can anybody direct me to a process for achieving the corten patina and protecting the hot rolled steel? I've welded cars but never taken on a DIY steel project before.

Black Sheep Family
Part 56
Arc 6
We don’t abandon family.
"Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten." ~ Lilo, Lilo & Stitch
(B)(S)(F)
GO!
Saturday February 25, 2079
Cassandra was huddled between Alan and Endara in the open and pleasant looking waiting room of Doctor Sheila Sindra, the family’s therapist for group sessions. Danny was either asleep or supremely focused, but his light snoring lent evidence to sleeping. Agatha was on her phone typing furiously and glaring at Danny. Anna was on Alan’s opposite side, reading a book on animals of the amazon.
Cassandra was almost bored enough to lean over to Anna to see if they could read the book together, but her nervousness prevented her. She was still slightly uncomfortable with doctors, but this place felt safe and her parents were sticking near her. Then she reached out and “knocked” at Anna’s senses. Soon she was reading the book through Anna’s eyes.
About ten minutes later the door opened and another family left. Alan stood up and let Endara guide the family in, he followed behind, taking a seat in a circle of chairs. Anna and Cassandra both took a chair opposite of him. Endara sat next to Cassandra on the opposite side. Agatha sat next to Anna and Danny was between his eldest sister and his mother. Dr. Sindra squeezed in and wheeled in on her simple office chair.
“Well, I see the Quains are growing.” Dr. Sindra smiled, “Hello, I’m Dr. Sindra and I want you to know you’re safe here. You don’t have to talk unless you want to.”
Cassandra stared at the woman and blinked, “I’m being dissolved by my own DNA. I’m not ‘safe’ anywhere.”
“We’re gonna fix that.” Alan said as he hugged his newest child.
“Yeah.” Anna nodded, “Like Bubbles said, ‘No one gets left behind.’”
Danny blinked, “Bubbles said that?”
Anna nodded, “It was at Christmas, he was talking about a family in Hawaii that his grandfather worked with. Was oddly secretive though.”
“He was talking about the concept of Ohana.” Dr. Sindra smiled, “It’s perfect for this because it’s not limited to blood relatives.”
Anna nodded and smiled proudly, “I’m not gonna let anyone take my sister.”
Endara nodded and squeezed Cassandra closer. “You’ll be fine.”
Cassandra sighed, “Doesn’t feel like it.”
Danny sighed, “Because we don’t know for sure. We’re all hopeful though. And confident. Unlike Gravitas.”
Dr. Sindra turned to Danny, “The man who took control of your school and wrecked the front.”
Alan cleared his throat. “I uh, I ruined the front to be honest. They had just won and I had arrived fashionably late.”
Danny nodded, completely serious as he addressed the question. “His apartment was empty and that's because the cops that walked in mysteriously returned before realizing they hadn’t done anything there. Uncle Stephen’s just as concerned.”
“Speaking of Stephen, he has chosen not to come to today’s session I see.” Dr. Sindra noted.
Alan nodded, “He was afraid he’d get too angry about Gravitas. He’s the one that put Cassie into this situation.”
Dr. Sindra sighed and nodded.
“He’s going to go over it with his personal psychologist.” Endara advised, “He’s also incredibly focused on ensuring the trip to Brazil goes off flawlessly.”
“I’d heard about that.” Dr. Sindra smiled, “Part of helping your daughter is it?”
Anna nodded, “We have to traverse the MOTFA.”
Agatha focused on her sister. “What?”
“Middle of the friggin’ Amazon.” Anna smiled. “I switched a word out.”
“Yeah.” Danny nodded, “Save our sister, then find Gravitas.”
Alan nodded and sighed. “We have to succeed.”
Anna stood up on her chair. “We have the world’s strongest telekinetic! We have Uncle Stephen who can turn things to glass, or whatever he wants! We have Endara who is so strong it’s not funny! We also have Bubbles who isn’t gonna stop until he gets Cassandra fixed!” Anna crossed her arms and dropped into her seat once more. “We can’t possibly lose!”
“You forgot yourself kiddo.” Alan snorted, “You and that dragon of yours.”
“We’re gonna be on bodyguard duty.” Anna nodded and smiled at Cassandra.
Cassandra smiled back, her confidence in survival rising all the more as her sister continued to rally the family.
---B)(S)(F---
Sunday February 26, 2079
The next day the family was up early at six in the morning and at the airport by eight. They didn’t have to wait through a long line as Cedric Meissner had lent his private jet to the family for the purpose of the mission. The family was grateful as neither of the Quain brothers had ever thought to buy one and did not want to have to deal with overzealous security on a more public flight. Still they did have to check bags and wait for the plane to be fueled.
It was during this time that the news flashed an important announcement, that the Central Dross police station had been robbed. Hundreds of pieces of evidence had been stolen, among them was all of the evidence from the assault on Thrush’s Academy. Danny stared at the television in rage as he clenched his fist.
On the plane he was sitting across from his father and uncle, partially to give his sisters and mother time to talk and partially to just try and cool down and be left alone. That didn’t work as Bubbles soon sat next to him and immediately picked up on Danny’s mood.
“Something wrong?” Bubbles asked in his usual stoic tone.
Alan paid close attention to his son at that moment. “Saw the news, didn’t you?”
Danny huffed and nodded. “He’s fucking laughing at us.” He hissed in anger.
“Probably.” Alan nodded, “They all think they can escape, but they can only run and delay the end. That’s the thing about villains and super villains. They think they’re better than everyone, that they deserve to have it their way. But we always prove them wrong, they always slip up because they’re always on the run and always dodging out of identities or hidey holes. Granted some of them just got some wires crossed and just need some help, but you mostly find those in the basic and gimmick criminals.”
“Yeah...” Danny shook his head. “Look I don’t want to talk about it right now, okay?”
Alan nodded, “You know where I am for the next, what eight hours?”
“Ten.” Bubbles said, “Stopping to charge.”
“Right, planes actually eat fuel cells.” Alan sighed.
Danny was silent for a moment. “Dad, have you ever met anything inhuman, like no-humanoid, I guess?”
Alan paused, “This about the whole you meeting something on the other side?”
Danny nodded.
“Once.” Alan said, “Definitely not humanoid. I was fifteen or so. I had gotten cocky with a villain called Freestyle, he was an anarchist like Blunt Force, but had powers to turn sound effects into attacks. He caught me off guard and kidnapped me, put me in a restraint collar...”
“You will note that is a common trend for your father’s early adventures.” Stephen smiled.
“At least I didn’t get taken in by the ‘Alien Princess’ scam.” Alan smirked.
Stephen paused in obvious frustration. “Continue.” He sighed.
“Well, I woke up in some larger than average piece of shit shack. Freestyle was really quiet until I tried to escape, then he cracked me in the face with what I’m pretty sure was some invisible bat bullshit. Next thing I knew he was screaming and then his body dropped to the ground without a head.”
Bubbles paid attention after that, slowly closing his tablet’s news section.
“Well the creature was big, built like a fuckin’ Clydesdale but with reptillian-ish skin. Still had a mane. Its mouth was like Salem’s but ten times worse with two large pincers on either side that had Freesstyle’s had skewered on either side.” Alan paused and noticed his family was now paying full attention to his story. He smiled and shook his head. “I was pretty sure I was dead. I locked up in fear and almost freaked out when it approached, then it bit into and tore the collar off. Then it just went away.”
Stephen stared at his brother. “You said a mountain lion surprised him.”
“Yeah because telling the news a monster saved me was going to...” Alan paused and felt around his pockets. “Damnit, where did I put it!” He felt around his jacket and pulled out a few slips of paper. “Anna, Cassie. Got these for you a while back. Kept forgetting to give them to you.”
Anna took her slip of paper and squealed in joy. Cassandra smiled as she saw hers.
“You got MantiKat’s autograph!?” Anna giggled, “How?”
“Got called to help her when she was on the lake. Episode won’t be out for a bit, got curtailed for evidence.” Alan smiled, “But she was happy and thankful. The thing she wears, less so but it was grumpy.”
“Byte’s adorable.” Cassandra smiled.
Alan stared at his daughter and shook his head. They were weird, but they were his and he would love them until the end of forever.
---B)(S)(F---
The flight was easy and gentle, which the entire family was thankful for. They got through customs with minimal issues, their passports marked Alan, Endara, and Stephen as licensed heroes from America, and that drew attention. Alan did his best to keep a rush of fans from getting to his family, but a few overzealous individuals got past him and met the very stern arms of Bubbles who turned them right around.
After fighting their way through the crowds of fans and a few newscasters that caught the Quains arriving they finally arrived at the hotel they would be staying in while in Manaus. They got into the lobby with not trouble at all and Jazz was waiting with the Black Sheep Company crew that Alan had chosen to personally assist with this emergency.
“Greetings Sir.” A man dressed for jungle traversal held out his hand as he approached Alan.
“Tanner.” Alan nodded, “We good to go tomorrow?”
Tanner “Tagalong” Mannith was a muscular man, built like a soldier, an obvious deep scar ran along his right arm with a wrap covering the majority of the old wound. He bore the darker skin and the accent of the country, but the accent was dulled from years of working around the globe. A machete was kept on the side of his legs. His face was mostly shaved, except for a rough five o’clock shadow and his eyes were intense and focused.
“We’re good sir.” Tanner nodded.
“Alan.” Alan corrected his subordinate. “No powers in this group, right?”
“Not unless you count Grant’s ability to scare wildlife after a meal.” Tanner said with a straight face.
A large and pale man stood at the rear of the lobby, doing his best to appear intimidating. He would occasionally divert his attention down the halls and help the hotel workers with heavy items or moving carts.
Alan smiled, “Good, we won’t be using our powers much, don’t want to tip too much of our hand.”
Tanner nodded, “All due respect, your wife is half-infernal. Whatever things are there, will know she’s coming.”
“Good.” Endara stood up and took off her heavier top to reveal a black tank top and her own muscular frame.
Alan stared at her like a smitten teenage boy.
“We have Miss Abarwa as the main medic.” Stephen joined the conversation. “A good choice, second in her class, good marks and a desire to make sure others survive without a death wish herself.”
Stephen watched the Middle-Eastern woman check her rifle over several times. She had her medic’s uniform off to the side and several makeshift splints hanging from her backpack. She looked more prepared than any of the others going on this mission.
“Yasmin’s got heart, but she will gun down an insurgent as soon as she sights them. Thankfully we don’t expect any here.” Tanner nodded.
“Don’t expect much talking out of Innmuth.” Jazz snorted.
Alan tilted his head. “That’s a funky name.”
“She’s got her secrets, but she’s the best cartographer and techie for jungle travel. Picked up lidar reads of the area.” Tanner nodded.
Maggie Innmuth was busy helping the Quain teens get to their rooms. She didn’t say much but was very clearly paying attention to Anna’s endless chatter about animals she and Cassandra wanted to see. She smiled and nodded mostly, her own reddish blonde hair was bound back in a bun and a radio was strapped to her left arm.
“Ollie been handling being back okay?” Alan asked as he watched for the young hero in training.
“Ollie’s been a champ.” Tanner smiled, “Somehow that seventeen year old knows more about my home than I do.”
“Ollie’s powers let him communicate with nature.” Alan explained, “And we don’t know the distance on that.”
“Alan, I’m going to see if the kids want to eat out or not.” Endara said as she tired her shirt around her waist.
“I’d advise eating in. Right now the area’s peaceful, but they got their own villains and such down here that don’t play by your family’s rules.” Tanner said with a nod. “Got a really nasty piece of work called Mandíbula, Snapjaw internationally. Kidnaps rich families and holds them hostage with bombs strapped to kids.”
Alan nodded, “Eat in it is.” He then grinned as he looked over at Stephen and Bubbles, “You guys wanna help me pick up dinner for the family?”
“He’s going to cause problems.” Bubbles sighed.
Stephen nodded, “I would love to.”
Bubbles looked at the twins and sighed, “Someone needs to make sure you don’t get too crazy.”
Tanner laughed, “My friends, be careful that’s the kind of talk that provokes men like Mandíbula.”
Alan smiled and seemed to vibrate in anticipation.
“Alan, no provoking international incidents.” Stephen smiled gently at his twin.
“That’s my job.” Jazz smiled.”I’ll come too once we get all the orders.”
Alan nodded and handed his sister a card, “Get it for all of us, and see if the hotel folks want a free meal. Least we can do for turning their lobby into a prep stage for an expedition.”
“Hotel Manager volunteered it when he heard it was to save a kid.” Tanner nodded, “But I will pass on the offer. They got a bar too, if you want anything.”
Alan shook his head, “Maybe after we save my kid, can’t afford a foggy head right now.”
Tanner nodded in understanding and walked off with Jazz.
Alan noticed Endara had left to talk to their children as well. Stephen took a moment and went to the bar with Bubbles. Alan watched the agent keep a lingering eye on him, he smiled, he knew Bubbles was concerned about the mental states of the family and Alan in particular was feeling drained by the near constant barrage their lives had been subject to as of late. He just wouldn’t give in, it wasn’t in his nature to snap under pressure. He would bend, buckle and bruise until the end, but never break. He sighed and went to follow his wife.
When he got upstairs he found his family talking with Maggie Innmuth, or rather Anna was still chattering and Cassandra and Cxaltho had joined her. Endara looked amused as she watched the two youngest carry on. Danny looked up with eyes begging for a merciful reprieve from the chatter. Agatha was asleep on a couch. Alan sat on the arm of the couch Agatha was asleep on.
“We’re gonna order out, Tanner, the expedition leader and Aunt Jazz will come around for orders. We don’t get to be picky here.” Alan explained.
“I hope it’s a local restaurant!” Anna smiled.
“Your kids are...” Maggie spoke for the first time, her voice was little more than a whisper, but it carried enough to be heard. “Well they’re energetic.”
Alan nodded. “Thanks for putting up with these two. I know they can be a bit much.”
Maggie smiled, “Good kids. Energetic, but good.” She stood up, “Gonna go find the two taking orders. I’ll report back on where we’re getting from.” She nodded and left.
---B)(S)(F---
The next morning the Quain family was up early and gathered with their expedition’s forces. Yasmine started fast and took vitals on as many people as she could. Cassandra has to explain that she would be a difficult case due to not having a traditional body structure. Maggie flat out refused and almost got into a fist fight with the medic before Alan stepped in and broke them apart.
Once the group was fully ready they piled into the two vehicles, powerful trucks, that took them down the roads a few hours. When the trucks stopped the drivers got out and helped unload the packs. Alan also grabbed a heavy rucksack and watched as Endara took the spare radio and medical equipment. Then they waited and soon Ollie Simmons walked out of the jungle. He waved and smiled.
“We’re good to go, the village is willing to have us!” Ollie shouted, “And you’ll get to see how they live. It’s really a life changing experience.”
The family and their guards approached and most looked around cautiously before entering. Once they crossed the boundary though Cassandra began to cough and convulse. Anna quickly helped her sister stand and Cxaltho coiled around Anna’s arms as he too began to cough. Then they both vomited a black sludge.
“What is that?” Yasmine asked.
“It’s her cellular structure.” Stephen said. “Broken down and tossed away. They know we’re coming.”
Alan nodded and hugged his daughter close. “Well, then they'd better start practicing their apologies.”
“Cassandra, what do we do with it?” Bubbles asked.
Cassandra wiped her mouth and Cxaltho rubbed his own against Anna’s shirt. “Glass it. I’ll have to eat a big dinner I guess.” She tried to smile, but found she couldn’t. “Just don’t leave it.”
Stephen nodded and touched the masses, turning them to solid granite.
“Still scary as shit to watch.” Tanner shuddered.
“Good.” Stephen stood and hugged his niece. “Let’s not waste any time, yes?”
“No.” Yasmin said, “Clear a spot, I want to check her. No arguments, I need something to measure against.”
“Volume.” Stephen nodded, “Trust me Cassandra?”
Cassandra smiled and nodded as she followed her uncle. She ended up basically stepping onto a special scale that Yasmin had on hand. Stephen helped her take notes and provided an estimation on the volume and mass lost from the attack. Not long after that the group began to move again, Only Endara passed off the extra medical bag to Bubbles and insisted on carrying her daughter. Cassandra did not argue, she was too tired and honestly was happy to be held close by her mother. A new and wonderful sensation she hoped would continue past this adventure. Anna walked beside them both, keeping a constant eye and ear out for danger with Hong Long coiled around her neck and also staying alert, they also tried to keep Cassandra entertained.
Ahead of the group Ollie was trailblazing with Tanner and Jazz. Well they were trailblazing, Ollie was simply walking and the plants parted for him on his approach. Jazz nodded in approval, but Tanner was clearly nervous.
“Is this magic?” Tanner asked. “I’ve been out here as a kid, saw a shaman use vines to twist a man in half.”
“Magic isn’t the right word for it.” Ollie sighed as he gently patted a series of nasty looking plant bulbs, “Magic is about ritual, formula and willpower manipulating reality. This is me asking the planet, the earth, the plants, animals even, to help.”
“Neat.” Jazz nodded, “That’s actually really cool.”
“I think Cassandra got the same powers, sort of.” Ollie said. “I just don’t know how or who managed that.”
“GOBAL, through horrifying experiments.” Jazz nodded, “Combined her DNA with well, whatever Cxaltho is and this Blood of Gaia, at least that’s Stephen’s theory. How about you?”
Ollie nodded, “Fair is fair. I won’t value another’s life over the secrecy I was sworn to, that’d be a betrayal of what I was given the powers for.” He sighed, “I was about seven, maybe eight and my dad brought my mom and I to help fight a native relocation. I was having fun with the kids of the village. Well, I was a dumb kid and separated from them. I was lost and it got dark. I fell into cenote and it had a whirlpool and I got sucked into it.”
“Damn.” Tanner, “How’d you survive?”
“Who says I did.” He laughed and shook his head with a vicious smile, “Anyway, I woke up with weird green patches on my body...” He rolled up his sleeve where markings like vines snaked across his arm, then pointed to the patches on his neck that looked like leaves. “After that I spoke to the lady who lived there. She called the place ‘The Glade’ and had its guardian escort me out.”
“Someone we should be worried about?” Tanner asked.
Ollie shook his head, “We’re not here to destroy, despoil or demean the land. We just want to save Cassandra, he’ll understand that.”
Jazz nodded, “Is this Guardian going to be easy to spot?”
Ollie gave a smaller, but still vicious grin. “If you see him first, yeah.”
Tanner continued his pace before looking over to Jazz, “Nice kid, creepy smile.”
Jazz shook her head, “I’ve seen worse.”
The group would travel for two more days. Cassandra would quickly take to walking again, but was easily winded, slowed and sometimes just unable to move. On the dawn of the second day Alan pulled out a small rectangular device from his pack, it looked almost like a phone, at least until he sat it down and plugged in the satellite phone to it. Then it grew into a door sized frame and locked itself into place. Then the space between the frame filled with what seemed like an image. Then the tall frame Vile stepped through and into the Amazon jungle. He carried with him multiple packs and rushed back for several more before he waved to the watching form of Stella Meissner and the strange doorway closed.
“Diving gear.” Tanner noted, “Was wondering about how you planned to navigate a cenote.”
“And an Icathian.” Maggie Innmuth glared at Vile, who seemed to either ignore her or not register the glare.
Vile nodded his head, “I will be taking the lead on the dive, just in case we are attacked from the front.”
“I got the rear then.” Tanner nodded and pulled out a small rebreather from a side pocket. “Always be ready for bullshit when in the Amazon.”
“Once we get to the village, we’re gonna take a day then head to the cenote.” Alan nodded, “”This one got a name Ollie?”
Ollie nodded, “The Fool’s Well.”
“I suddenly don’t like this place.” Grant said with a nervous laugh.
“Relax, I survived falling in as a kid.” Ollie smiled.
“I thought you didn’t.” Tanner frowned.
“Who can say, I was alive when I woke up.” Ollie smiled, “But we’ll be fine, the Guardian will likely be helping us.”
Cassandra was sitting with Anna when Vile approached her and kneeled down.
“Hi.” Cassandra smiled.
“I will fight to ensure your survival and failing that I will ensure you are avenged and buried properly.” Vile bowed his head.
Cassandra paused and Cxaltho’s jaw dropped. Anna just gave a deep sigh and shook her head.
“Thank you.” Cassandra nodded politely, “You still have problems talking to people, don’t you?”
Vile stiffened for a moment before slowly nodding.
“We both appreciate the thought.” Cassandra smiled, “But vengeance doesn’t help here.”
Vile nodded and stood once again, he looked at Alan and grabbed a case of diving gear.
Alan nodded, “All right, let’s pick up and go.” Alan said as he focused and levitated all of the extra diving equipment.
“What happened to low power usage?” Agatha asked.
“Required, no extra bodies to carry it.” Alan said. “And no, we aren’t summoning a fire goat in the Amazon.”
Agatha gave a huff, “It’d be so cool!”
“Not really.” Danny scoffed, “We’d be in the world’s largest tinder pile.”
“It’s all wet.” Agatha argued.
“Remind me, doesn’t Baaphomet breathe hellfire?” Alan asked.
“Right, yeah...” Agatha sighed, “Okay, point made. Should probably use the spells Professor Illidae has been teaching me.”
“We also have a potentially large dragon.” Anna suggested.
“Who glows.” Danny said, “Not great for keeping a low profile. Dad can at least make his TK invisible.”
Anna puffed her cheeks up in anger as she quickly took stride to be next to Cassandra once again.
Danny stared in confusion at his sister.
“Welcome to treachery.” Alan smiled at his son.
“Ahh...” Danny nodded, “Now I get it.”
“No you don’t.” Agatha laughed.
Danny sighed, “I really don’t.”
“Your family is weird.” Maggie snorted as she stood behind the teens.
“Thanks, it’s in the blood.” Agatha cackled wildly at her own joke.
In the distance two yellow eyes focused on the group. They were loud and noisy, but the Guardian could smell the sick one and he felt the power of another Guardian. He would watch them closely as they approached the village. Then, if he needed to, he would act.
/////
The First Story
Previous Part! //// [Next Part!]()
Arc 1 - Black Sheep Family - Arc 1, First Chapter
Arc 2 - Paradigm Shift - Arc 2, First Chapter
Arc 3 - Gravitas Rising Arc 3, First Chapter
Arc 4 - The Director’s Chair Arc 4, First Chapter
Arc 5- The School War Arc 5, First Chapter
Spotify
/////
Credit where Credit is due:
Kyton & Cassandra Quain are © u/TwistedMind596
Obsidian is © u/Ultimalice
Ixton the Blade of the Wielder is © My friend Forged of Souls who does not use reddit
Furnace is © my friend Matt who does not use reddit
Cedric Stein Meissner aka Tesseract is © my friend James, who does not use reddit.
All other characters and Dross City are © u/TheSmogMonsterZX
//// The Voice Box ////
Smoggy: Oh, I forgot where this arc started...
Perfection: Yeah and you have the dime store kothoga in it too...
Smoggy: Quiet! They might not recognize the description!
Wraith: Well now they will.
Smoggy: (grumble)
DM: Working on GSD now?
Smoggy: If I can find the energy and the will. So much stuff has been canceled for my games and I'm actively looking for a new job. Things might get wonky for a bit.
Perfection: And its June. Been a while. (Clicks on the rainbow disco light)
Smoggy: But we're always safe for anyone to be around.
Wraith: Except Nazis.
Perfection: (twangs a string of fate and smiles) Perfectly punchable Nazis.
DM: No superhero story is complete without punching at least one out.

Hi Everyone, as the subject line indicates I am in a tough situation right now and I plan to use this post as a way to obtain some advice as well as vent to people who understand what it's like to share a home with an elderly parent who does nothing to help themself.
So I currently live with my husband and his father. My husband and I started dating roughly 10 years ago and that's actulaly how far back the background to the mess we're currently in goes. To spare everyone the drawn out details. A few months after my husband and I started dating back in 2014 and before I moved in with him, he rented the current house we live in with his dad. His dad collected disability and did not work. Basically he was just there to rent a room and pay a portion of the rent. My husband's then landlords approached him with the opportunity to buy the house from them for $185,000. The house is on 7 acres of land in Massachusetts. Not sure how many of you live in MA but that kind of deal is UNHEARD of and he knew he had to act fast. Unfortunately, his credit was wrecked- some of it self inflicted no doubt but it really took the majority of the hit when he got divorced. So he turned to his dad. And this is where the nightmare begins. I had my reservations at the time because my husband really didn't have an amazing relationship with his dad. He got along fine with him but his dad was not a constant presence in his life growing up (drugs, alcohol, etc) but again, we had just started dating, wasn't really my place to say anything and I knew how important it was for him to have a home to call his own. So I kept quiet.
And here we are today. His dad is now 67 years old and a life of drug abuse, alcoholism, and smoking has caught up with him. We have done EVERYTHING in our power to try and help this man and he does nothing to help himself. The past three years have been unbearable.

• He urinates himself just about every night- refuses to wear depends, refuses to sleep with a mat under him, will leave his pee covered bedding on his bed days until we finally ASK him to wash his bedding because our house smell like straight urine.
• He falls almost every other day due to low blood pressure (something they are trying to figure out with meds). We have multiple cameras in our house showing him falling, not calling 911 like his doctor has instructed him to do so and have shown all his care providers. He won't use a walker, cane, crutches, or anything to help aid his mobility.
• His ex wife (my mother in law who is a saint) has stepped up in so many ways to arrange at home care for him but even that we're only getting 9 hrs a week and the bulk of that time has to be allocated to cleaning and sterilizing his disgusting bedroom.
• He cant make his own meals because he is so frail and unstable, so we arranged for meals on wheels to deliver him food everyday, but were forced to cancel the services after only a few weeks because after we would leave for work, he would let our dogs out from behnd the gate. We told him EVERYDAY to please keep them behind the gate until the meals on wheels people deliver your food (we have a dog that can get skittish about strangers approaching the house and it's just not worth the risk).
• I have walked into my bathroom on several occasions to find urine dripping from the walls, our shower curtain ripped down, piles of towels tossed in the corner soaked in urine. He just leaves it there. Doesn;t atempt to clean up. Can't even pull my husband aside and say "hey...I kind of made a mess in the bathroom...i picked it up the best i could. im sorry"
• We have had to get a lock with a key for our bedroom door or else he will go in our bedroom and drink any alcohol we have. In fact I can't even buy myself a six pack and keep it in my own fridge. It will be gone when I get home.
• He incorrectly takes his meds. Despite us putting everything in pill organizers. He claims his mussle relaxers are oxy and takes four of them at a time. Again- all reported to his care team.

So thats where things are at. He is co borrower on the home loan. He is on the deed. and I am completely freaking out that that's going to get in the way of getting him out of our house when/if that day comes. I know sound harsh but I am just at my breaking point. It hurts my soul to have this much resentment towards a person but I do and it is just mentally wearing on me day by day. He is ungrateful for the help he gets and has no care or compassion about what this is doing to us. We literally feel like prisoners in our home.
So with that said here are my questions:

• I know I can probably google the process of getting him off the deed/ loan but I am looking for anyone who's actually gone through this, How dificult was it? Were there any hang ups?
• What more can we do to pleed our case that he needs to be moved to a facility? Personal feelings aside, this man is 100% not safe to be left alone. Everyday I wake up and am fully prepared that I am going to find him dead and the amount of anxiety and dread it gives me is consuming because I am awful in situations like that. My husband and I both work full time. He should NOT be alone. I make him dinners but again, I am not there during the day and if I am being honest- I'm not willing to help prep anything for him in terms of breakfast/ lunch at this point. He never gives me money to help with groceries and when I do ask him it's a whole ordeal. We have told the doctors and his care staff he is not capable of making his own meals (his rapid weight loss backs that) and still...they are not convinced he is nursing home ready.

If you made it this far you are a saint. Thank you. I hope I don't come off as cruel....we're just all really in a bad place right now and it's like no one will take us seriously.

I was using the SAT black book 2nd edition to study for the SAT, but I was looking for the practice tests online that matched up with the walkthrough, as I looked through the college board-provided tests, none of them seemed to line up with the questions that were displayed in the book. Do you have any advice on where I can find these tests, or if I can even access them at all? Any help is appreciated, thanks!

I have been using the wooting double movement software for a while now but its not working anymore and lock input as mouse still makes the controller interfere and if i use ignore controller input it makes it where it doesn't register and make character move cause its ignoring all controller inputs can someone help me fix it or find a decent soultion cause i hate the built in movement and it feels so slow and choppy when i use it

Hi, I live in Jeddah at the moment, and i am taking my A levels in next Oct/Nov. I am taking MATHS, BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. And i was hoping to find a group of students who are also taking these subjects and have similar prospects for university. my idea is to start a group where we can perhaps meet online. discuss chapters. share and solve practice papers, and overall sharpen each other. If you are interested, please Dm me
Ps: i am taking the exams from home, so that's why i can't do this with people from school.