Travel trailer stabilizer jack upgrade

Does anybody fly regularly to SCL (Santiago, Chile)?
I’m curious how full these flights are in the winter time, which is spring/summer in South America so I’m guessing peak travel season
Visiting Chile for the first time in November of this year and trying to decide if I should just buy D1 or go main/C+ and hope to get a cheap upgrade offer. Or just stay in either cabin if these flights are relatively empty.

Chapter 1 - Stranger
When Daglan woke up that morning he didn't see anything unusual. He had awoken from a drop of water falling from the ceiling as he did many mornings. His best friend Rozere was in the kitchen with her father cooking what smelled of eggs. The sun was shining through the cracks in the curtains and holes in the walls as it always did. What felt different? Then he heard voices outside, voices that grew louder and louder. At this point Rozere and her father Koshu had heard the commotion as well and stepped outside to see what it was. Daglan hastily followed suit, after finding his tunic and boots. Lying on the ground outside was a young man, no older than 25. He lay face up in the dirt wearing only baggy purple pants and a black conical hat covering his face. His long black hair seemed to be tied at the base of his head in a long spiky ponytail, his slender muscular body was covered in dozens of battle scars, and at his waist was a black katana with its sword tied firmly inside its sheath. Almost the entire town had crowded around him, murmuring and shifting anxiously. It wasn't often people arrived in town, mostly just traders on their way to and from Inoris, and that too was a rarity. "Back now people, give this man some room! And for the love of Reza, quiet!" Barked Doc Silvis as she pushed through the crowd. She immediately knelt down and felt his neck with her fingers. She paused for a moment and gave a very annoyed sigh, slapping away his hat. "He's alive alright. This dumbass is sleeping in the street." She gave the stranger a hard slap across the face, one that would have probably knocked him out, had he been awake. The crowd watched in awe as he yawned and scratched his nose, barely affected by Silvis. "What should we do?" Someone asked. "Do you know who he is?" Asked another. As the murmurs heighted Daglan could tell Silvis was getting fired up, over the years Daglan had gotten to know Silvis quite well, with all his escapades outside the town walls. Daglan knew better than anyone that Silvis hated when a patient ignored her, and more so when she had to repeat herself. "I said quiet! Don't you lazy bums have more important things to do?! Livani! Koreso! Aren't you two on watch?! Scram the lot of you!" A wave of fear crashed down upon the crowd and everyone began to disperse. All but Daglan, as Rozere pulled on his sleeve. "Come on Daglan," she hissed, keeping an eye on Silvis like she was some wild animal, "You don't want to make her angrier." "I'll be fine," he whispered, without looking back, his eyes stuck on the sleeping man. What was this feeling? It was like the feeling he got when Silvis healed his wounds, but not as warm. Almost closer to the feeling he got when abominations were near, when he ventures past the walls, but not as malicious. Before he knew it he was kneeling next to Silvis, watching her run her hand across his body, her hands glowing faintly, his curiosity bubbling. "He isn't cursed or hypnotized, I can't feel a single thing wrong with him. I do believe this man is really just asleep, and slept through a slap in the face." Silvis sighed. After a few moments she looked at Daglan with a tired smile, then frowned. "Thanks for being quite Daglan, now since you're gonna bum around, get to work hauling this bastard back to my infirmary and don't let him out of your sight. I want to know as soon as he wakes up." Daglan looked around to ask Rozere for help but she was already gone, how long had he been watching this stranger and Silvas? He looked down at the smiling, snoring face of the stranger, scooped under his arms, and with much difficulty began dragging the older, bigger boy to the infirmary. The infirmary was quiet today, there hadn't been a major abomination attack in quite a few weeks which didn't happen often. It wasn't long before Rozere came in with a grimace on her face and her fingers on her nose. "Honestly," she said in that strange nasally voice when you hold your nose, "I hate how much time you make me spend here. Between you getting hurt and my dad making me help Silvas, I can't get away!" She plopped down next to him and sighed. "So what's with this guy? Why are you still here with him?" "Silvas asked me to watch him and tell her when he wakes up. Apparently I can't let him leave till she talks to him." He shrugged, trying more to convince himself. She eyed him suspiciously, but immediately dropped the subject. "Did you notice his sword was tied closed? I wonder what that's about?" She reached out and placed a hand on his sword, and just then the weird energy the stranger gave off changed from similar to those of the abominations , to even scarier than anything he'd ever felt from them. Rozere fell to her knees and screamed as the stranger stood over her. When had he stood up?! Daglan shot to his feet, a smile ripping across his face as excitement crackled through his body. He prepared to defend his friend, when just as quickly as the evil energy had manifested, it disappeared. In fact the feeling Daglan had been getting from the stranger had all but subsided completely. He stared at Daglan and Rozere with a confused look. When Rozere had eventually stopped screaming, Daglan held out his hand to help her up. Daglan’s mind raced with questions but could he do nothing but stare at the stranger as he stared back. “Uh, hello-” he began and just then Silvas and Koshu burst through the door with Livani and Koreso close behind. Koshu sprang in between Rozere and the stranger, towering over him. "What did you do to my daughter!" He said through gritted teeth. The stranger scratched the back of his head and opened his mouth when Rozere spoke up, "It was nothing dad, he just woke up and scared me! Look at me I'm fine, now would you stop!" But Koshu didn't flinch, not until Silvas spoke up. "Back off Koshu, Rozere is right, she's fine, and this boy is obviously no danger at the moment." He mumbled something under his breath but did as he was told. "Yeah, listen to Silvas and not me." Rozere grumbled, crossing her arms. "Now listen here young lady, you will show your aunt some resp–" Koshu began but Silvas smacked him in the back of the head. "Now isn't the time, Koshu, take her and go," she glared at the stranger, who was still smiling awkwardly and scratching the back of his head. “Everyone out, now.” "Uh, where am I? He eventually stammered. "Daglan, out." Silvas said forcefully, without taking her eyes off the stranger. As well as Daglan knew Silvas, he'd never seen her this worked up, not even about the abominations . She was so strong-willed, so much more than anyone else in town. He had heard stories about Silvas, but only bits and pieces around town, probably all made up. Still there was one he heard more than others, he had heard before she lived in Graybarrow she had fought in some kind of war. Daglan sat outside the infirmary trying to hear as much as he could. Wondering what could have gotten Silvas so worried, and if that man was even human. He could barely hear anything, mostly Silvas's mumbled questioning and the nervous laughter of the stranger. As he sat and pondered, an extremely tall, wide shouldered man sat down next to him and lit a cigarette. He had a long thick mustache that covered his upper lip but came down on the sides past his chin, and scruffy brown hair that stuck up at weird angles. "Oh, hi Mr.Lucio." Daglan said as he pretended to have not been eavesdropping. "I haven't seen you in class," he said as he blew out a cloud of smoke, "and I don't often see you hanging around here by choice." He continued to puff his cigarette as they sat in silence. "Mr.Lucio… I can feel him like the abominations and Silvas's healing. What is he?" "I'm not sure, from what I've heard he sounds human enough. What do you think?" "I don't know… I think he's human? But why can I feel him?" "There must be something similar between him, Silvas's healing, and the abominations from the mountains and forest, hmm?" "I guess so…" They continued to sit in silence until Lucio had finished his cigarette. "You can always talk to me if you need help, Daglan. You may like getting experience more, but a little book learning can go a long way." He stood up, pressing his cigarette out between his fingers and putting the butt in his pocket. "It's always good to see you, don't be a stranger." He said as he waved his hand walking away. Daglan thought about what Lucio had proposed, something similar. It didn't seem like Silvas or the stranger would be coming out soon so Daglan decided to go home and see what Rozere thought about all this. When he did get home both Rozere and Koshu were in foul moods, having most likely fought since earlier. Deciding that he'd rather not be part of that, he grabbed his bag and scurried out the front door before Kusho had time to notice. It's a short walk to the gate, the guards had patched up his last hole in the wall, but he had since come up with another, more thrilling way. Climbing up to the top of the traders hall, he'd be high enough to jump to the wall once the guards had passed. Then it was a quick jump down and a sprint out of their eyesight before he was able to relax. He walked along a path he knew quite well until he came up on a small ladder, it was built into a tree that led up to a small treehouse. His exploration headquarters as he liked to call it. The inside was small and filled with trash, and his souvenirs from his adventures sat on a roughly made table. A small Salegitti skull, a broken dagger missing its tip, and a small crystal like rock that shown with faint yellow light. Next to them were three well worn books. He picked up the book titled journal and sat on the ground, scribbling furiously with a small piece of charcoal. He then began to study the other two, older, bigger books. One titled, Abominations of Hel’s Peaks, and the other, Creatures of South Shodun. Mr Lucio was right about book learning, but he liked his own books.
Back in town Rozere was wandering around with her hands behind her head, whistling to herself. “I wonder where Daglan is?” She pondered allowed, before realizing she had stopped in front of Silvas’s office. She stared at the large building with its off-white stone, and massive steel doors. There were various cracks and dents all along the wells and doors, as well as wooden planks over the windows, Silvas called them the clinic’s battlescars, there was nowhere safer to hide in the whole town. She stared for a long time before realizing there was a man sitting in the grass, a large bottle of alcohol in one hand, and multiple empty bottles sitting neatly by his legs. His long spiky hair was a little cleaner, and the copious amounts of drool were now wiped away. His face was a bright red, and he had a cigarette hanging from his lips. He stared at her with a slight wobble, “Hey… You're that girl that touched my sword right?” He took another large gulp from his bottle. “Yeah? What of it?” She asked with defiance, her hands on her hips. He smiled a sickening smile and shot to his feet faster than Rozere could see. “Why don't you try it again? Or will you simply scream for help? Little girls shouldn’t play with monsters.” He said as he towered over her. “Go ahead.” He lifted his arm in the air so his katana was unblocked. Rozere’s knees began to shake and a lump formed in her throat but she did not look away. She was an ant, and this man was a giant. She wasn't going to back down, but he could stand faster than she could see. Surely dropping his arm even faster would be no problem right? He was right, she wanted to scream, but she stood firm. “Maybe I will!” She returned his malicious smile and reached out for his sword as fast as she could, bracing for the impact and the horrible crunch of bones as he grabbed her arm and snapped it in half. She flinched as her nerves went off, electric sensations coursing through her fingertips. It's happened! But what she felt wasn't pain, but the hard yet somehow soft grip of a katana hilt. She opened her eyes to see her hand firmly gripping his katana and a much more playful smile somehow even wider across this strange man’s face. He began to laugh loudly as she stumbled backwards and fell. He held out his hand, still giggling a little. She eyed him hard then after a moment smacked his hand away. She stood up, and began to brush herself off, glaring at him all the while. He apologized in between giggles. “My name is Noboru, you've got quite the spirit to face me down. What's your name kid?” He asked as he sat back onto the grass and took another long swig from his bottle. Rozere straightened up and looked at him with a fiery gaze. “Rozere of Grayborrow.” She said, crossing her arms. “And you dont scare me!” “What are you yelling about Rozere?” Silvas asked as she appeared behind her. “You!” she exclaimed as she saw Noboru “Where did you get all of that from!? Rozere give me a hand and throw away these bottles would you?” “She's already gone.” Noboru giggled. Silvas spun around to see that Rozere had indeed disappeared, as Noboru began to laugh louder. Rozere could hear the slap from across town as she sat against the traders hall. As she pondered just how big a lump must be on the side of Noboru's face, a ball smacked her’s. “Hey who did that!?” She demanded as she hoped to her feat, tears forming in her eyes, which she quickly wiped away. “Oh, sorry Rozere! I didn't mean to! Honest!” Said the boy as he ran up and grabbed his ball off the ground before the evil Rozere could kick it away, her foot swishing in the air. The boy was a few years younger than Rozere, had shaggy blonde hair, a tunic that was two sizes too big for him and a pair of round glasses broken in several spots. “You better be sorry, pipsqueak!” she said, wiping her eyes and now running nose. “I'll have to beat you up if not!” “Come on give Vilcus a break he said sorry. What are you doing over here by yourself anyways? Daglan run away again?” Said another girl with little blonde pigtails and red cheeks, as she came up behind Vilcus. “Hi Meska and no he didn't run away again.” Rozere said, sticking her tongue out. “I just think he went for a walk is all… he'll be back… soon!” She crossed her arms and held her chin up. “Well why don't you come play with us until he gets back?” Meska asked, turning around and walking away, “We are playing dodgeball, maybe you can hit Vilcus in the face.” “Hey nuh-uh! She won't hit me!” Vilcus persisted as he followed after her. Rozere sniffled, rubbed her nose with her sleeve, and smiled. “Okay fine, but wait up!” She yelled.

As Daglan walked through the trees, he could feel the malicious energies from abominations all around him, it was making his blood boil. He remembered the stranger looking down at him and Rozere, overflowing with the most malicious intent he had ever felt. A smile began to creep across his face once more, as he could feel something close behind him. He spun around to see a creature he had only seen in books, the sight of which excited and terrified him. 

A giant humanoid creature with a long smooth snake-like torso, and grotesquely elongated arms and legs stood before him. It had a small pair of arms on its hips that bounced as if boneless, and a strange human face. Smooth indents of skin sat where the eyes should be, and it had a beak lined with razor teeth that jutted out at multiple angles. It clicked its tongue and sniffed the air then began to lick its beak with what could only be called a smile. “What should I call you big fella?” Daglan asked nervously as excitement shot through his body. This wasn't like anything he'd ever encountered in the forest, or during attacks. This creature was much more dangerous. He gritted his teeth and forced an equally disgusting smile, even though he was sure the abomination couldn't see him. He pulled out the dagger he had smithed in secret at Koshu’s forge and dropped his stance lower, lower, lower. The creator was clicking and sniffing in anticipation, no doubt it could feel Daglan’s bloodlust. Daglan took a slow step forward, then another. The creature's head tilted and it sniffed harder, then in a flash that Daglan couldn’t even see, it lashed out, slashing his shoulder apart. Adrenaline had already made its way to Daglan’s brain and he didn't even feel the warm blood soaking into his tunic or notice his limp arm flailing behind him as he attacked. He rolled under the creature’s arm and slashed at its ribs ripping its open sending its guts pouring out. It screamed in pain and whirled around, but its tall body and long arms whizzed over Daglan’s head. He rolled again, this time in between its legs, slashing at its knee, cutting down to the bone. It screamed again and fell to its knees with a gross squishy thud from one. It twitched and spazzed as it began twisting its body around in a disgusting manner. Daglan approached cautiously, but the adrenaline had worn off and he looked down at his arm. It was almost completely blue, and the little skin and bone that held his arm to his body squirted copious amounts of blood. There was a blur then he was flying through the brush stopping when he thudden into a tree. His eyes began to blur with red, then black. The last thing he heard was a familiar voice… “You are by far the most interesting of the bunch. Hey, can you hear me?”
When Deglan awoke he was looking at a ceiling he knew all too well. In a bed he had awoken in many times. But this time he couldn't move. “Silvas! What's happening?! Silvas! Rozere!” Daglan began to thrash when he heard that same voice, “Hey hey hey! You're going to hurt yourself more than you already have!” When standing over him, blocking the light with his conical hat, was the stranger. “That was a nasty creature you were tangling with out there. I heard you like to fight but I'm guessing you've never seen a lasari before? Ugly things, and not easy to kill with small weapons if you don't know how.” “I do know how.” Daglan said matter of factly, “They have two brains located behind the eye sockets.” “Oh-ho-ho,” the stranger smiled maliciously, “ but how do you stop them from reproducing after that?” Daglan went silent for a moment. “What do you mean?” “Lasari have a fun ability to reproduce from their corpse. Specifically, their heart has two eggs inside that will hatch if it ever stops beating. So to properly kill one you must burn the heart.” He laughed and presumably sat back down, out of Daglan’s eyesight. There was a slight pause and Daglan was about to speak when he heard a gasp and the stranger continued. “Anyway, you almost lost your arm. Luckily, your doctor and blacksmith were able to fix you up, those two are something else. It'll take some time for your bo-” Daglan cut him off. “What do you mean I almost lost my arm?! What did they do to me?!” He exclaimed, thrashing, memories of his broken and bleeding arm flashing through his mind. “If you don't calm down, I will calm you down.” He said forcefully. “I hate babies. I thought you were supposed to be a tough kid? Now anyways it's just me and you here, everyone else is asleep, so please. I know you've heard of the metal prosthetics of this country, Metics, I think they're called? I’ve seen people in town with them. Well your blacksmith had to help your doctor make you a new shoulder.” “So why are you being so helpful? I don't know you, and you feel the same as an abomination.” “See it's things like that!” He shot back up his face noticeably red. “You're so interesting! I don't remember how I got here…” He scratched his head for a second, “but boy have I had fun since I've shown up!” Your girlfriend Rozere-” “She's not my girlfriend, and you leave her alone!” He shouted. “Well she's fearsome! And you’re so interesting too! Definitely the best five year o-” “I’m twelve. Rozere is thirteen.” “Well twelve then. Point is, I like you and your little girly friend, so I thought I'd help out and not let you die.” Then it dawned on Daglan, there was no way a search party found him like when he normally gets in a scap and passes. He had thoroughly lost and was deep in the woods. By all accounts he should be dead. Daglan was so angry he hadn't even thought about what happened afterwards. “It was you. So what do you want from me? Are you some abomination loo-” This time the stranger cut him off. “My name is Noboru, the handyman.” “I've never heard of that species.” “Well I'm not an abomination, I'm a jack-of-all-trades, so to speak. I travel from place to place making money doing odd jobs. Anyways, you remind me an awful lot of someone I used to know. So don't go throwing your life away against such low level trash as the abominations around here.” Daglan began to feel the intimidating malice from Noboru, almost that of when Rozere had touched his sword. “I know you can feel my energy. Unlike the people of this town, save a few, I think you're gifted.” Then it was gone just as quickly as before. “What do you want, Daglan.” Daglan’s blood was fire and his eyes daggers, piercing the ceiling with determination. “I want to be remembered.” “So get out of this town and maybe one day you can fight me, and I’m not even the strongest out there. Come… show this world what you're… made of because I for one… can't wait.” Just then Daglan heard a thud followed by an endless cascade of snores from Noboru. “Would someone get me out of here!”

Okay so one of my previous posts I talked about how absurd the powers of an LoTM is and I was replied to with 'klein is star level' which I wasn't even talking about Klein but the power of the LoTM but okay. Anyways now I'm going into a detailed description of all of the LoTMs powers out of annoyance. I know I'm petty but I don't care.
[Worm of time] Time manipulation: is capable of slowing and speeding up the passing of time on surroundings and select objects. Can also steal time and reverse it to some extent by "giving" stolen time away.
[Secrets sorceror] Space manipulation:first control of space is not the power to travel through the spirit world as a traveler but the ability to split space to create a concealed area as a secret sorceror. Eventually this control becomes so deep that you can cause space to collapse, open a 'door' anywhere even in the vast cosmos, can seal basically anything, can swap 2 locations with each other, etc
[Traveler] Telekinesis: invisible hand that is briefly mentioned but hey it's telekinesis that probably gets much stronger as you get higher sequences
[Fool] Grafting at a conceptual level: can graft graft concepts onto objects, others, or oneself for example you can graft the concept of a star onto yourself to become a walking sun
[Fool] The ability to actively decieve time, history, and fate: you are a reeeeaaaally liar and can trick history into splitting an objects past and future, fool time into speeding up or slowing down, or even fool fate that Amon won't kill you and become LoTM (visionary Adam planned for Amon to become LoTM and I'm gonna go out on a wild guess here and assume they have some control over fate.)
[Miracle invoker] The ability to grant wishes with basically no cost or known limit other than gradually accumulated power: litteraly the power to create miracles. How this is star level idk probably the only limit of accumulated wishes which is likely becomes more lenient at higher sequences.
[Parasite] The power to steal concepts: aside from stealing strength parasite is the first instance where the user can steal concepts like thoughts. This is later strengthened to the point you can steal someone's sense of self, identity, fate, etc.
[Planeswalker] The power to replicate any power they have a sufficient understanding of: the staff of stars did this. If you remember how broken that was in the hands of someone with understanding of others powers think about it without any negative side effects and at the level of a deity
[Door] The power to transform into a conceptual existence to avoid damage: Planeswalkers can transform into symbols to travel across the cosmos through the astral world is upgraded to the level of conceptualization
[Mentor of deceit] Can decieve the very laws of nature and the rules of the world: you are such a good liar you can decieve reality into thinking the natural laws of the universe are in fact supposed to act unnaturally. perfect power to pair with fooling.
[Error] Can create and fix errors in everything that seems normal: gonna be honest don't really understand what this means but I'm just gonna assume it means you can find loopholes in reality
[Cryptologist] Can understand the secrets of anything with minute information
[Faceless] shape shifting: it's shape shifting what more do you want?
[Miracle invoker] The ability to resurrect after death: limited immortality
[Miracle invoker] Minor control over probability: could increase the probability of certain outcomes at sequence 2. No idea how much stronger this power is now but still.
[Scholar of yore] Can summon any object (maybe concept?) he understands the corresponding history of to present day: can maintain these projections for hundreds of years and if I remember right with all of the people he summoned around the table at the end I'm gonna assume he can summon dozens of them. If Klein knows the history of a super nova or even an ultra nova he can theoretically summon several imploding stars and even graft them together. Totally star level strength right there.
[Mareonetist] can control ones spirit body threads and turn them into marrionetes: objectively the most terrifying of an LoTM's powers. Why? At sequence 4 bizzaro sorceror this power gets a qualitative change and his marrionetes can use the same powers as him. Let that sink in. He can turn a flea into his marrionete. That flea will have ALL of the previous beyonder powers mentioned. He can theoretically fight against a true sequence 0 god with a flea. He can also turn sequence 0 gods into marrionetes now. After all as an LoTM his sequence is not only on par but superior to theirs. If Klein were to turn oh idk Adam into a marrionete he would have a marrionete with all of the previous beyonder powers but also the power of imagination. Idc what anyone else says the LoTM's marrionete powers are his strongest authority.
And these are just the powers up to sequence 0 of the 3 pathways. LoTM would strengthen all of them and even comes with new powers/authorities. I get they are one of the pillars but still. Don't get me wrong LoTM is not even universal they are only a fragment of the original one but their abilities are just absurd. This isn't even all of them either. There's still divination, blind stupidity (which we've only seen used in the most rudementary way) , and more

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/tWJvgb
First: What do you think of the build?; For quality 1080p gaming, maybe 1440p in the future if I get a better monitor. Games like: Diablo 4, CP77, Hogwarts Legacy, Heavily Modded Games, Future AAA titles, some MMOs. Had a budget of around $1200-1500 in mind but was aiming for lower end of that.
Second: What Tips/Advice/Warnings/etc. do you have for me as I go into this build?; As a first time PC builder who will be starting the build next weekend with his dad for Father’s Day (My dad is a long time PC gamer and works in IT field so he has some knowledge and experience to help me with it and is excited… however it has been many, many years since has built me or himself a PC)
Context: Upgrading from my old system which I think was a i3 or i5 something and 1050 Ti that did me good for several years but hasn’t been able to run newer games at an enjoyable performance rate. Decided to go with a fresh new build for the experience of building it (especially with my dad), and in hopes of a cheaper total price, and for more customization, and yadayadayada yeah pre-builts are bad anyways I settled on this setup. Luckily I had a Microcenter nearby and got a package deal on the CPU, MOBO, & RAM. Originally I was thinking of going with a Zotec RTX 3060 OC 8GB card but swapped to the RX 6700 XT 12GB which I think was a good move as it is a big performance difference for an extra $40 and since the system is only for gaming I’m not privy to the pricier nvidia GPUs that I hear are better for “work” or other PC uses. I’m still pretty open to suggestions on the build as I could easily go back and return/swap any parts if something is really off or there is something arguably much better around the same price. Currently have all parts at home waiting to be assembled but I’m traveling for work this week plus my dad is pretty busy as well so again I plan to start by Father’s Day weekend.
Any helpful responses are appreciated, thanks in advance and cheers!

My S10 has been the best phone I've ever used, and I've kept it until now because it has a headphone jack and SD card slot while also being a flagship phone. Unfortunately the battery life and performance aren't keeping up, so it'll be time for a new phone soon. Are there any upcoming phones that would be worth upgrading to? If not Ithen my only option would be the Sony Xperia 1 V which is incredibly overpriced in my opinion.

Part 2
If you travel far enough North on the map, well above where the Civilized Nations stop because no crops grow, you'll find a mountain range. Crossing this range leads to the Monster Kingdom, though for some reason they prefer the name 'TFSU.' Yes, they prefer. The literal forces of anarchy and chaos in the universe have a government. However, ignoring that whole thing, the Monster Kingdom is fine. No armies march on them, mostly because of supply and logistical issues. The Monsters never say how they grow their own food, but given that they don't trade and millions of kobolds worth of food don't go missing every day, it's safe to say they make their own. Now, that doesn't stop the Civilized Nations to send one hero a decade to 'keep them in check.' Four decades ago, the hero closed off a mountain pass, which was supposed to cause a massive flood. Four days later, it was cleared, and the only thing to show for it were the cities that glow like the sun at night. However, yesterday, the Hero returned having burnt one of the bigger cities down. It was empty of all monsters, but the act was the first real damage they had taken in seven hundred years, since their founding. For seven hundred years, the TFSU have taken the beating of seventy heroes and simply moved on. But now. Now, millions of kobolds make up heavy 'machinery' units that march in armored, self-moving caridges that spit fire and metal. Thousands of beastpeople make up scouting and light infantry ranks. The TFSU use hellish 'guns' that hit harder than a catapult from kilometers away, all in a single 'bullet' not the size of a human's thumb. Metal birds and dragonflies join dragons as they assault cities. We poke the very literal sleeping dragon in the eye. Yet the armies don't do much. They march for our capitals and leaders, but on the way our civilians live. Surendees live. People go about their daily lives without too much change. Of course, that fact didn't stop the front line from finally crashing over my small village, located so close to the pass for a while we thought they the monsters had bypassed us entirely. The Civilized Nations had decided to send an entire legion to prevent the Monsters from getting across a nearby canyon pass. We were hit with an air-based assault with only dragons and metal dragonflies, our balista uselessly demolished by pillars of metal and flame thrown out of the metal dragonflies. I blacked out when the legion managed to shoot enough arrows to take down one of the dragonflies. I remember it crashing down onto my house... and then nothing.
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The elf stirred as they woke up. I'd been raised in the Terra Firma Sapience Union, so I was... less than familiar with the clothing and lifestyle the Southerners used. The elf groaned again, before their eyes shot open and they looked around, quickly settling on my frame. "A-Are you going to kill me now?" They asked, their voice shaken with fear. I let out a laugh. "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead." I decided to transmorph into my secondary form - a cat - to help the conversation go better. In a land where humans lived to forty, elves only lived to a hundred, and that meant that even I was older than this elf, and they were no older than thirty. The elf, to their credit, quickly figured out I wasn't pulling any mindgames. I'd heard tales from my relatives before the Kobolds founded the TFSU. People, especially when panicked, usual acted with more than enough stupidity to make the situation worse. "Where am I?" The elf asked. Their tone told me that they were still suspicious, but it wasn't outright denial of the situation. "My home," I answered bluntly. "Your village tried to fight our ground forces when they moved in, so most of them are currently under house arrest." Still in my cat form, I created a portal into my storage cavern and reached my arm through, while summoning a lab coat around my shoulders and glasses. It was a trick I had only learned to do recently. "Let's see..." I found the clipboard and brought it out, flipping to the elft's page and taping the pen against the paper. "You suffered a collapsed lung, severe burns on the right side of your body, three broken ribs and two fractured ones, shattered three wrist bones, three breaks in your right upper arm and another two in your lower arm, and on the left side you have another fractured rib and three broken fingers. Your left leg was shattered and your left foot was completely torn up. Healing magic stabilized you and surgery did the rest. You've been comatose for the past three days, and was brought to my home yesterday due to a surge in hospital patients from the seige of Trembolorne. "In terms of organ damage, that was also severe. A busted kidney, I already mentioned a collapsed lung, and your entire digestive system was... well, pulverized would be putting it lightly. Also, unrelated to the incident with the helicopter, you had cancer in your liver and kidney. "In terms of medical treatment, you've been given an IV line for the past couple days and several painkillers, and you underwent four separate surgeries. We reconstructed your organs, welded your bones to metal plates, and used a genetic printer to replace your skin. You're lucky to have gotten time with the genetic printer in the first place, you know; those things are expensive, and I mean expensive to run. Though it's all billed on the government anyway, but that just means that they'll only run it if they have to." The elf sat up in bed looking at me as I just stood on two paws on the cave floor. "Right, sorry, you wouldn't understand most of that." I sheepishly scratched the back of my head with my right paw. "Um... put this way, you were crushed by debris and we basically reconstructed your body before you died. So not necromancy, though you did get close to needing more advanced magical treatment." "Oh," The elf replied. The cat thing seemed to have helped, because they were no longer stuttering with their single word response. "Um... do you want anything to drink?" I tried to kickstart a conversation. "Where am I?" The elf asked again. I was silent for a second. "My home? It's right on the edge of TFSU territory, one of the southernmost places you can be while still being with the recognized borders. I chose this place because I like to fly out in the summer over the flowers in the forest at the foot of the mountains. Your village is a couple hour dragon-flight time away." "Mmmhm." The elf commented halfheartedly. "OK, um... who are you?" "My dragonic name isn't something most can pronounce, so my public name is just Vixie Remminie." I answered. "What's yours?"
The elf's eyes narrowed. "Why do you want to know my name." I blinked. "Because... It's a name? I'm not a Fey, you know, it's not like I can tie ancient demons to your soul and call it a prank or something ridiculous like that. Besides, you asked for mine; now I get to ask for yours." "And who says you won't just burn my village to the ground and eat me right now!?!" The elf suddenly burst out. "You monsters ruin everything! You trespass on our land, take our resources, and kill our people! All we did was try to defend ourselv-" I cut him off, and poured just a bit of attention in giving myself an aura. Blue fire licked the bottom of my vision as I rebuttaled his point. "Don't forget, you stole the land from us. We were the ones living in the wild when you razed our forests and grew crops. We couldn't even purchase land to live on! So yes, we stole what we could to survive and those who didn't starved and died! And when all was said and done, you tried to kill us and turned it into a war, one where we had no choice but to kill you back. And when we found someplace to run, a spot to hide and do our own thing with our own land? You blistering idiots sent you 'courageous heroes' to try and kill us! What for? Nothing! Just your stupid, moronic fear making, forcing you to decide to 'kill the big thing over there!' We can't even have freaking farmland, we have to grow it all in hydroponic farms and harvest thousand-year-old vines out of caves because this is all we have!" I realized that my aura was burning fully and scorching the ground around me. I let out a long sigh, and it died down. Several memories flashed through my head, but I pushed them away. "Apologies, my parents are still a... sensitive topic for me. It would be best if we just stayed away from talking about the war until the hospital has room for more patients again." "Yeah?" The elf was still enraged. Even sitting down, they were still trying to construct an argument. "You parents who killed how many? Your family killed how many more? You dragons, you monsters are nothing more than one large grouping of murders that deserve to die! As the gods will!" The elf was spitting in rage, but I recognized his determination to hold onto his worldview. It was the one thing I needed to pry away before it got out of hand. "And you elves killed how many more?" I asked in a low voice. "Can you tell me the number of kobold dens exterminated in caves, the number of beastpeople sent to an early grave in slave camps? Because I can tell you ours. My father's was two, my mother's four, and my extended family including deceased relatives is one hundred and thirty seven. "You declared war against monsters, you child of an elf," I growled. "And death the reality of war. We know. The Unification Wars weren't fought with swords and honor. They were fought with artillery barrages and death. They were fought with miniature suns and political backstabbing, with tanks and guns and submarines and warships and all the more death. "You say the gods don't like us! That's put lightly. They forsook us! Abandoned us in our hour of need. So we learned to live without them. There are no gods we pray to anymore, elfling. Only each other, our creations, and the universe itself. They don't want us, we don't need them. It's more than they deserve." My aura was once again charring the floor and I had transformed back into my dragon form, but this time I refused to cool it down. "You call us creations of death, the primal forces of anarchy? We are you. You are us. We are sapient, we are all mortals, no matter our advantages. We are bound to this dimensional plane, forced to serve our betters, and live out our lives not with earnest but with trepredition for when it ends. We are all death incarnate, because we can all die. That is just the way it is. Besides, you've wondered about my kill count; tell me, can you tell me the gods'? Can you tell me how many souls they have cut from fate for their own entertainment? No? I can tell you." I growled, moving closer until the blue flames enveloping my body threatened to light the elf's cot on fire. "More people than are alive on this planet right now." I pulled back, bottling up my aura and reverting to my cat form. "We can talk all we want about death and destruction, and I won't lie and say you aren't victims of the war; pre-unification dragons we're exactly kind and merciful to those with treasure hoards. But perhaps, I implore you to consider that maybe we both are victims of the war, and maybe we can one day work together instead of fighting each other. "Maybe, one day, we can fight for our rights against the gods." I moved into my dragon form and darted deeper into my cave, moving so fast I could hear the howl of the wind against my ears. Only when I had reached my memorial wall for my parents did I stop and take a breath and think over my conversation with the elf. We had a long way to go, but I hoped I had put a little bit of sense into him. I hoped that the world could change.
-----
When the dragon cat thing sped away, I took a moment to survey my surroundings. Only now did the effects of my first question hit my formerly-groggy head. "My home." He said. Dragons live in caves. Oooooh. I'm screwed. However, there were no treasure hoards visible from my perspective; then again, while the Monsters were stupid, they still had brains to them, and carrying me into a treasure room would probably be something they'd be able to tell was a bad idea. Pops said never underestimate you foe, A voice in the back of my head said, and the dragon even launched in a full conversation with you. You're selling the dragon very, very shor- Shut up I growled internally to the treacherous voice in my head. The cave itself was... a cave. There was a metal slab on one end, it went deeper in the other, and that was that. In a 'corner' of the jagged room there were a number of red, glowing rods attached to some kind of giant mechanism three elfs wide and six deep, but the rods glowed against the cave's light- What light source? My eyes darted around looking for one. Only now was I aware of how unnatural each shadow was, how awkward each shining rock looked, how each stalagmite could hide an entire dragon, and that was before they started transfiguring into cats. How bright the ceiling- I looked up. The bright light burned my eyes, but I needed to know what fiendish magic was in play so I could counter it. But the light didn't flicker like fire - they were far too bright for that anyway - but they also didn't have the magical circles surrounding each spell. They were... lights. As if the universe simply willed brightness into existence. Each far-too-bright-hurts-to-look-ats was placed along a main hallway clear of stalagmites running from the metal slab deeper and around a corner where I couldn't see. The lights were only poised above this one hall, and they just... shone one the rest of the cave. Looking closer, I could see thin black lines, too thin to be mana feeds, running along the walls to both the glowing red rods and to the so-shiny-the-lit-up-the-cave. And... that was that. There was no massive pile of treasure in the hall, though I suspected the dragon kept their hoard deeper than... wherever I was. There was no pile of skull trophies or the banner of cities and armies slain, and I noted that while he had told me his parents', the dragon had never told me his own. Then again, the cat thing could be lying. Dragon transfigured into a cat. Probably has Circle Of Truth around his entire den. Nonsense, dragons can only do elemental magic. Evidently not. Would you just shut up already? No- I moved my attention back to the metal slab, cutting off whatever the voice in my head had to say about my current situation; it wasn't every day one just got kidnapped by a nation of monsters, after all. The slab was truly elegant. It was painted with the monster language, and then was painted with some kind of mural. I could barely make out a blue circle with green splotches on it surrounded by twelve rings in the bottom corner because most of the door was taken up by a ice-blue cat with lighter strips engulfed in blue fire. It was a mural of the dragon cat thing. That didn't stop it from being pretty, and someone had obviously put a lot of effort into it. The flames looked realistic from what I had seen minutes ago, and the cat's details were perfectly engraved. It was... acurrate. Yeah, because I think Vixie was just trying to tell you that they built their civilization for a reason, and it wasn't carnage. You don't know what you're talking about. We both know I do. How else to you think- Listen to me, you treasonous voice of a- No, you listen to me, you pathetic excuse for a brain. The dragon was able to hold and win an argument with you, fixed your wounds that would've been a dead write-off for any other hospital, and then you think SHE barely meets the threshold for sapient? THE ABSOLUTE MORON I'M ARGUING WITH IS THE ONE YOU BARELY MEETS IT!!! You moved to your frontier village because the world was changing, Lazerot the Sixth. Congrats, you were right. It did change. Now shut your OVERSIZED EGO up at being bested by a creature ten times older than you, and go appologies before they decide that saving your life wasn't worth it. I... I... OK- No. I'm in control now. Shut up. I....... yes, sir. Good. With new resolve, I stood up. My head throbbed, and the next thing I knew was my face hitting my cot again.
-----
When I heard the thud of something falling in the entrance cave, I carefully moved back into the entrance cave. The elf was face-down in their cot, unconscious again. It looked like they had tried to stand and just.... fallen over. I sighed and used a claw to nudge the elf back onto his pillow, and then covered him with a blanket. I watched him for a minute, and then returned to the deeper parts of my home. The TFSU was completely overloaded with the number of patients needing treatment. Apparently, the Southener's hospitals just... didn't do anything, so in addition to soldiers, there was a massive influx of civilians to our hospitals too. Of course, this meant that they were absolutely overloaded, and the Civilized Nations strategy of fighting to near-death and then surrendering wasn't helping. So, stable recovering civilians like the elf were just... shipped out. When shelters filled up because the Civilized Nations overpopulation crisis was too bad to do anything, people just had to take them into their homes. Long story short, the government was in way over their head attempting upgrade the standard of care in the Civilized Nations while occupying their territory. My job so close to the border was remote infrastructure maintenance, and my ability to change size while not dissolving made me an expert at it - and that was before my two hundred years of experience. And then I didn't need a vehicle to get on-site, and was fast. The alarm pinging me that one of the space radars was down again gave me an excuse to avoid the elf and do some work. I grabbed a pack of supplies, put on my shapeshift-compatible uniform, and wrote down a note on a piece of paper. On my out past the sleeping elf, I dropped it for him.

Space radar system needs repair, as it's returning a false positive. It's my job to repair all the infrastructure around here, so I need to go fix it. I'll be back soon. If you're hungry, my pantry is the first cave on the right. You can just eat anything that's easily open-able in there. If it has a lock or airtight opening mechanism (anything more than a clip, really) then don't eat it. If your thirsty, there's a stream in the entrance cave near the heaters. When the door mechanism beeps, step back. Sometimes pressure in the cave can get a bit wonky, and I don't want you to get hurt. Other than that, feel free to explore. I've locked all the doors to the rooms I don't want you to enter. For toilet necessities, the second cave on the left has a properly-sized toilet. And running water, but stuff I can explain later means don't drink it. See you soon! - Vixie.

Satisfied, I left opened the door. There was a puff as the air from inside flowed out to the lower-pressure atmosphere. I could spot a snow squall to the north, and the pressure meant that it was probably coming my way. I moved out onto the ledge and closed the door behind me. At high altitudes this far north, the air was already near-zero and it was still five in the afternoon. I took just a second to confirm with the weather report that the snowstorm was in fact going to arrive on my doorledge using a smartwatch I had strapped around my wrist. When I found that the storm was coming, I opened my wings and flew. Being an Ice Dragon had its advantages, but being a Water-Ice Combined Dragon was much better. The frosty air curled around my wings as the freedom of ignoring gravity filled my brain. Ice and Water dragons both had large wings to deal with the cold air (and lower pressure leading to the requirement for more surface area to achieve the same amount of lift) and incompressable water physics (to let the wings act like a one-way fan blade as they move back and forth, increasing efficient). Dragons might be magestic creatures, but we were still bound to the physics of the mortal plane, after all. Being part of both, my wings were even bigger, making me one of the best high-altitude fliers on the planet. The ability to use both gills and lungs at said altitudes helped with oxygen also helped. Air Dragons were better at flying in normal air, but I liked to think of it like stats from a video game. Air Dragons min-maxed their stats for low-altitude, but I could go anywhere - even underwater - can keep my speed relatively high. I took full advantage of this on my way to the space radar, soaring well above the cloud ceiling and to the point where I could make out the curvature of the planet below me. The ocean spread out to my west, while more land was to my east. Snow covered the north as to the south was the telltale splotchy color of industrialism. My smartwatch beeped, as I crossed the normal altitude limit. I hadn't realized I'd gone so high; I had a radar to repair, after all. I dove down towards the surface, ignoring more beeps as I crossed half the way to the speed of sound. The wind howled angrily in my ears, but I flattened those (thank you, streamlined water genetics) and came out of my death dive right over the radar. The repair itself went relativity smoothly, though I couldn't find a broken component and chalked it up to more space anomalies. They weren't infrequent, and usually marked where the gods decided to look over the planet. For my radars, anyway. Further north, ignoring the north pole, almost no gods came out and wanted to deal with us. Our unspoken agreement was held that way. I flew straight back for my return journey. The storm was definitely closer, but fifteen minutes of flying later and I was entering the opening mechanism for my door. As it swung inwards, I heard the high-pitched scream of an elf.
-----
When I awoke, I found myself tucked into some covers. It took all of seven seconds for reality to catch up with me. Right. I got into a heated argument with a dragon. I instinctively touched the part of my face that had been closest to the dragon's flame. I'd read about Auras in books, but never thought I'd get to see one. They were only ever found in the most powerful and competent individuals of a race in an entire plan of existence. I wondered which skill gave the dragon hers - Vixie, I reminded myself. Either way, given that Auras are technically illusions, I wasn't hurt. The flames didn't get close enough to hurt anyway, but that didn't stop me from checking. This time, I was much more careful when I stood up. I sat up first, then started to kick my legs back and forth. That's when I spotted a paper on the other side of my cot. I stood up without thinking, but managed to keep my consciousness this time and moved towards the note. It was handwritten and contained a lot of jargon that I wasn't familiar with. Space. Radar. False positive. Airtight opening mechanism. Heater. Beep. Pressure. Toilet. Running water. I could deduce some of it. A message had come in requesting the services of the local dragon to repair a thing that has an issue, and that she would return shortly. I could wander around as I pleased, besides eating food that wasn't open or contained in a clip bag. From the tone of the message, I could deduce what a 'toilet' was. The heaters would logically be things that produced heat, so all I had to do was look for those. I wasn't able to tell time, but I supposed at this point it didn't matter. I moved over deeper into the cave, and quickly heard the sound of a stream. It led directly into a forest of stalagmites. After clambering over those, the temperature started to increase, which was all I needed to know that I was getting a drink of water. I was only now catching up to the fact that I had been out for three days, and that meant that I was extremely thirsty. I wasn't sure how I wasn't dead of dehydration at this point. I found the stream next to the glowing metal rods, and with it a clear path to my location. Sighing slightly at the wasted effort on climbing through Rock Forest, I snatched an undersized cup off a rack built into a nearby jut in the cave wall and filled it, before entering the bliss of fresh water. Back in the village, we had some of the best and cleanest water in all the land thanks to snow melt, but this took that to a new level. Cold, crisp water melted in the sun only minutes ago. It was... pure. I spent the next couple minutes simply drinking and processing everything over in my mind. The gods might have willed the monster dead, but if even the monster gods had abandoned them and survived... then how come the Pantheon never told us? Religious issues aside, there were more practical issues regarding my own survival. How did I get out. There was a thud at the metal slab, and I moved back towards it, leaving my cup to dry on the rack I pulled it from. The engraving of the cat on the metal slab was- BEEEP! What was that sound? There was a hiss, and the slab started to peel away. A gust of frigid cold air washed over me as a mage Ice-Water hybrid Aura-capable dragon that I had argued with stared me down. I did the instinctive thing and let out the scream of a human three year old, squeezing my eyes shut and waiting for the final blow. When the end of my life didn't arrive, I reopened my eyes to find the sky-blue cat standing in the hole where the metal slab was supposed to be. Then there was another... sound, and the metal slab started to move back into position. The cat was surprised for a single moment before simply charging the door and jumping through, skidding to a halt right in front of me. Which meant that I got a closer look at her. Ocean-blue strips crossed an ice-blue body fur in a fifty-fifty ratio. Small crystals of ice twinkled, floating here her wings would be. One tail was accompanied by two more made of pure blue-white energy, and the cat even had a halo. Six orbs of blue-white light hovered in lazy circles around her back, and even in a diminutive form the size of a cat the being radiated the power of an aura-capable creature. "Oh, right, sorry," Vixie said, and all the ethirial energy disappeared. Now that I knew what I was looking for, however, I could just barely tell, using my power as a mage, that Vixie was using illusion magic to hide her true energy. "You don't need to hide your reserves," I said. "Though if you're shapeshifting into forms so small that you need to expose yours, then you should just burn yours instead. It's not worth the trouble of people bottling yours." Vixie gave some kind of half-shrug. "They're not reserves, no." She said, emphasizing the word. I looked at Vixie with a sharp look, and for a second I forgot I was talking to a dragon. "Then what are they?" "They're..." The cat blushed, something I wasn't even aware was possible. She let the illusion fall away, and the tails, crystals, orbs and halo returned. "They're my regenerative baseline minimum." I looked her up and down for a second, dumbstruck. She really is a creature of power, huh? "Um.... uh..." I stuttered. "Is... that where you get your aura from?" I asked. Vixie closed her eyes with an expression on her face, and this time green flame started to peel off her. "Part of it, yeah." To control an aura like that... two auras. Just how powerful is she? I was so deep in thought that I didn't realize that the expression on her face was pain. "I... uh... what happened?" I asked, shellshocked. "Why aren't you fighting in the war?" The worldwide-powerful dragon masquerading as a cat sighed. "I... haven't told anyone. It's... personal." "I..." Only now did it hit me that I was talking with a dragon, not another person. Not just a monster, but a... creature with emotions. "You don't have to tell me." I quickly backtracked. "No, no, it's a fair question. It..." The cat let out a chuckle, and it filled the cave with a beautiful sound. "I suppose it's kind of ironic... but it starts with a kobold and a god, back when the Firma kobold tribe decided to travel north to escape the civilized nations, shortly before the amassing of all creatures in these same northern mountains and the Unification War. "Back before the gods forsook us."
Original Prompt: [WP] For as long as all the races have known, Dragons have been seen as violent, destructive creatures. After an attack on your village, you black out and find yourself in the den of a dragon. It's rather annoyed that that is how they're seen, and wants to prove that isn't the case.
u/Lycan_Jedi thank you for the prompt!
Part 2

I would like to start this by saying I know this is long I'm sorry, it's a drawn out situation. I'm diagnosed with depression and general anxiety, I over think everything because lots of childhood trauma. I don't have access to therapy (financial reasons) but I take medication prescribed by a primary family doctor. I am mentally draining myself every day thinking about which would be the better decision and have weighed the pros and cons of both but still am at a crossroads and the anxiety is eating away at me. I have self sabotaging patterns towards things that are good for me thinking I don't deserve them, but I also when in bad situations tell myself "I deserve better" so I don't know if my decision would be based out of repeating trauma or breaking the pattern. I'm trying to make the best decision for myself and would like to hear others thoughts.
I (22F) met my boyfriend (23M) 2.5 years ago online who lived an hour away and it became a steady blossoming love that grew over the span of a couple months. When we got together we were still living at our parents houses, saw each other often and things were great. Even after we got out of the honey moon phase we were always communicating our expectations, feelings and thoughts, hearing each other out wholeheartedly, looking within ourselves to self improve, smoked some ganj, went on adventures/traveled, sex was good, had stable incomes, and it was a great partnership. Then something shifted a year in, it wasn't any particular thing that happened but it was a definite shift.
I remember around the time the shift happened, depression was getting to him and my cat had developed bladder stones and was blocked and needed urgent care. Kitty recovered well and is healthy, but the whole vet ordeal sent me into over $3,000 in debt and took so much of my savings. I confided in my partner emotionally, also saying I would need financial help because I needed to pay roughly $90 a week to pay off a loan from care credit of $2,200 in 6 months before I got hit with an insane APR. We had stable jobs but that was still a huge hit and we both already had credit card debt.
For some reason he decided it was a good idea a couple weeks after that happened to go down to part time at his job when he was working full time. His job paid around $15ish for full-time and $13ish for part time. He said it was because he disliked the job which was totally fine, but instead of looking for a different job he went down to working 15-20 hours a week. I understood him wanting to not work there because being stuck at a job you hate sucks, but I didn't understand why he didn't get a different job entirely, instead of going down to part time especially knowing I needed his financial help.
Eventually our financial situation got very tight because of both of our circumstances and he ended up rarely working at his job (like one 5 hour shift a week). He ended up racking two grand of credit card debt and my savings got drained down to a couple hundred while before it neared two grand. Throughout the next couple months we didn't do any more fun things and it would consist of him doing odd side jobs to get a couple $20's in cash for bare necessities. He attempted to get stable full time jobs but would quit a month in because he didn't like it (before securing a different job), would fail a pre-employment drug test (he messed up doing the fake pee), or got fired because of tardiness, or having a workplace accident and then failing the drug test that followed. I was really understanding through all this and did my best to be there for him, but I was so drained.
I'd kept my stable job the entire relationship and a couple months into the rough patch I eventually got a raise from $17 to $19.50 and was providing a lot of the necessities for our relationship while also trying to keep the relationship "fun" (picking up the tab to a restaurant, going to a movie, mini golfing, arcade, etc.). After about a year passed going through this rough patch I started to become resentful. I'd communicate with him how I felt alone in trying to fuel this relationship. He started emotionally clocking out, not doing romantic things anymore, not putting effort into finding jobs (it would be months in between job attempts), and he would hear me out and apologize for everything and then would say it's because of depression. I understood depression so heavily and I encouraged him to reach out for help. He was on his parents insurance and it provided free doctors visits and free therapy allowing him to switch his therapist for free at anytime if he didn't like them, but he was so reluctant to use those resources. Eventually he started trying medication but said it didn't work so he switched it to something else and then said that didn't work either, but he was pretty inconsistent with taking his medication. He'd schedule visits with his therapist and call last minute before the appointment saying he wouldn't be able to make it or just didn't show up in general with no warning.
It seemed like he just kept getting worse and didn't have any will to get better. When it came to our sex life I told him sex positions I liked and he would rarely do them, all while we would do the positions he liked almost every time. When it came to cuddling it was always me holding him with his head on my chest but never the other way around. When we would be grocery shopping and I would be buying all the groceries he wouldn't even push the shopping cart or pick up heavy things (not refusal, just never offered). I felt like he was benefitting from me while I was suffering. I brought up to him that I felt alone all the time and it was always met with a sincere apology but no changed behavior.
Eventually I gave him an ultimatum that I was going to leave if things didn't change. Then he would change for a couple weeks and then it would go right back to what it was. I would communicate with him again and again and it felt like I was nagging him to meet my needs. I felt like I must've done something wrong, at the very least enabled the behavior. I wanted to move out, go to the gym, eat right, get my life together and he didn't have near as much will to do those things as I did. I was so filled with resentment I started emotionally clocking out, and then that's when he started to change things.
He started doing all the things I've been asking him to do for over a year (some things have still not changed though) and he 's about to get a job he's dead set on keeping, he found a medication he thinks is working, and we have plans to do fun things this year, but I'm so weary. I'm having a hard time putting faith into his ability to offer stability. I'm also having a hard time building that trust back into him after all the empty promises he's made.
At the height of our "conflict" (we never yelled at each or name called) we were having a discussion on financial matters...again.. and when I expressed I was tired of buying food for the both of us he said "Well I just won't eat then" and when I told him I was tired of being the only one to pay for the fun dates to keep our relationship exciting he said "I never asked you to spend that money." Yet for an anniversary present I made a "date idea" jar and it was filled with little pieces of paper with cheap/free/at home/outside date ideas. I gifted it to him and only ONCE has he expressed interest in using the jar, and when he pulled a piece of paper out and read the date idea he said "I don't feel like doing that" and put the piece of paper back in the jar, then back on the shelf.
It feels like it's only changed because I've begged him and said I'd leave if things didn't change. But now that he's proven he was fully capable of doing all those things all along, and just watched me suffer while I held up both ends of our relationship, it makes me wonder what would happen if he spiraled into another depressive episode. Would this same thing happen again?
He's a kind man who's always there to lend a helping hand if asked, my family adores him, he's the kind of man that would NEVER cheat, he has good friends that respect and love me, he's caring to animals, he listens attentively when I have something to say, etc. but I wonder to myself... is that the bare minimum as well? Now that he's doing a majority of the things I asked, is it wrong to leave? I just still have so much resentment left and no idea how to get rid of it and I still find myself emotionally distant. Or is it valid to leave because it took so much begging and suffering to get here and I can't guarantee it won't happen again? TL;DR - Boyfriend was putting A+ effort into the relationship in the beginning, stopped putting in effort a year in and was putting in basically nothing, then after me communicating frustrations multiple times and finally an ultimatum, he straightened up but it still doesn't feel legit.

19f [friendship] dark and twisted = ♡
Hi☆ I'm a Canadian who's in love with nature and rock music! I collect bones, trinkets, horror figurines, dolls, and anything shiny like a crow Im going to college for esthetics but I'm really hoping to travel in a few years. I want to hike the Appalachian trail. My dream would be to live in a trailer on a piece of land and go traveling :) pals to send postcards with or just lettermail would be super cool, I'm interested in photography. Skincare, crochet, painting, horror. The macabre. Anything dark and twisted, and being outside :) if you wanna be travel buddies someday or just regular buddies! Hmu :)☆☆
I'm currently getting into fitness! Probably going jogging tonight, been doing yoga, belly dancing, hiit, and abs exercises. I love baking, and if I like you I'll want all your attention ♡ tell me a secret:)
I've been looking into astrology and spirituality. I've made a few other posts as well. Hoping to find someone I really mesh with

I posted this years ago and hated it so I deleted it.. I have since revised it several times and now I think it's ready. I finally have time to continue writing so please let me know what you think, especially if you don't like it and what you didn't like about it

Boab'shek sighed as he opened his eyes, taking a moment to wake before he swam lazily out of his resting tunnel. Not particularly excited for another grueling [day] slogging through anomaly reports, he slowly closed his eyes and steeled himself as he had done every morning for the last [13 years]. He had 35 mouths to feed, and the bills weren’t going to pay themselves. After a quick breakfast at the grub farm, and feeling much better for it, he began swimming towards the work module.
The station, of which he was the sole occupant, hung motionless in empty space. Positioned near the top of the Galactic disc, it had a direct line of sight to each of the many observation outposts which it serviced. Tight-beam receivers dotted the "bottom" of the gangly-looking station, pointed in seemingly random directions forming a tangled mess of structural supports and antennae, though they were all precisely oriented to receive the incoming data streams.
Some of the more densely populated sectors of the Galaxy had entangled communicators at each of the observation outposts, providing near real-time updates of the goings-on to the Trade Coalition, but so many communicators were obscenely expensive to operate. Out here, near the rim of the Galaxy, there was simply not enough revenue from hyperspace tolls to support real-time obstacle charting. On the other hand, there were not enough hyperspace travelers to necessitate it either. Infrastructure was upgraded as needed, and tolls were adjusted to cover the cost.
And so it was Boab'shek's job to monitor the findings of the outposts as they were beamed to his station, albeit after a substantial light-speed delay, and report to the Coalition anything worth reporting through his station's entangled communicator. A soul-crushingly boring job, as far as he was concerned, but well-paid and not too physically demanding; which he appreciated. He swam his way through the long corridor into the work module, nesting comfortably into the saddle and engaging his dexterous prehensile whiskers with the computer controls. The two screens lit up simultaneously, one for either eye, and he began scrolling through the anomaly reports that had come in while he was asleep.
An odd glint was reported from outpost HX-253. The optical feed showed an empty patch of space flash once, nothing spectacular but unexpected nonetheless. He instructed the computer to calculate and overlay the position of other observation outposts over the video. Unsurprisingly, it showed a different outpost located right where the flashing originated from. A reflection from the waste-heat radiator panels, he surmised. He added a rule to the filter to ignore anomalies originating from outpost locations. No need to waste time on one of these anomalies in the future, should it occur again.
Outpost HT-628 reported a celestial collision. A rare occurrence in his sector, he excitedly pulled up the video feed and observed as a neutron star orbited a dark swallower closer and closer, spiraling inwards as its energy was sapped out of the system by ever-increasing gravitational disturbance. It circled faster and faster as it approached and finally was pulled apart, becoming a bright streak and then a ring around the swallower, shining brightly as it was accreted. The sinusoidal readout from the interferometer of the outpost showed the gravitational waves increase exponentially in intensity and then drop off as if nothing had happened. More and more of the star was pulled in and suddenly the system went dark again, as the last of the star was unceremoniously slurped up by the swallower. Beautiful, he thought. Such a privilege it was to observe the natural cycle of the universe. He lived for these moments.
He approved the automatic suggested update to the star charts and scrolled onto the next report. HU-808 reported an unknown disturbance. An unusual gravimetric reading as well as unidentified fast-moving object. Boab’shek stared at the report listing. An odd designation, he couldn’t recall if he had ever seen this class of anomaly in all his [years] working for the Coalition. He pulled up the video feed and gravity readings, flaring his fins in surprise at the length of the video report; the reflexive motion causing him to lurch backwards. The duration of the video was just over [1.7 years]. Why had the outpost taken so long to report such a disturbance?
He started at the beginning and watched as the time-compressed video showed a light appearing from nowhere, approximately [8.3 light-minutes] from a single ordinary, stable star. With his other eye he looked at the star map of the area. The light was hundreds of light years from the nearest hyperspace waypoint. Nobody would be crazy enough to travel that far from a waypoint, he thought, being forced to travel at a ridiculously unsafe speed while in cold-sleep, quite possibly exceeding the safe duration for hibernation even then.
It must be natural in origin, then, though he had never heard of such an object. Puzzled, he watched as the light gradually increased in intensity and started moving, traveling in a straight line towards a nearby trinary star system at an ever-increasing rate of speed. The light, becoming ever-brighter, shone a brilliant white as its velocity continued to increase. His jaws hung open in disbelief as a bright cone appeared to the sides and around the light, resembling a bow shock wave like the ones that trailed behind the high speed transports that sailed above the oceans on his home planet. He checked the spectrometer, unbelieving as the range displayed full-spectrum emission with increasing UV, X-ray, even gamma emissions!
The conical bow-shock became more and more acute in angle as the light shone brighter and gained momentum. It closed the distance between the star systems impossibly quickly, and when it had almost reached the nearest red dwarf in the trinary system almost all at once it slowed as the luminosity peaked and it appeared to explode. A beam of plasma erupted from the source of the light, apparently traveling near light speed, and expanded as it left the source where it had stopped, a short distance from the red dwarf. The gravimetric reading reported an error. He managed to peel his eye away from the video feed and defecated in shock as he observed the chart. It was flat and steady as it should be, up until it immediately spiked straight up and off the chart.
Glad for the filtration intake below his saddle, Boab'shek observed as the reading abruptly ended reporting calibration error, and possible damage to the interferometer. The outpost had apparently not thought much of the disturbance up until the gravimetric reading was observed, at which point it had flagged the anomaly for reporting. Never had he heard of anything like this. He contemplated for a moment on what this object could possibly be, until he had a sudden idea. Frantically mashing the controls with his whiskers, he instructed the computer to calculate the distance the light had traveled. The computer overlaid the measured distance on the video feed. Approximately [4.25 light years]. Whiskers shaking, he looked again at the length of the recording. [1.7 years]. Whatever in the deep depths this thing was, it had traveled through real space at over twice the speed of light. Impossible, he thought.
Surely another outpost would refute these readings. He instructed the computer to show the live feed from HU-807, an outpost which was more distant to the anomaly. It would receive readings from the same anomaly, but with a calculated [8 month] delay compared to HU-808. On screen, there was the light shining proudly, already traveling faster than lightspeed. Boab'shek, still in denial, examined the spectrograph readings from this outpost more closely. It was then that he noticed the emission lines in the light signature. It showed prominent signatures for hydrogen, helium, beryllium, and oxygen. Undeniably the signature of an unshielded fusion reactor.
Frantically, he began writing an incident report. Under the subject field, he selected UNIDENTIFIABLE TECHNOSIGNATURE. This was going straight to the top.
Excitement hung in the air aboard the UNES Hermes. After many years of preparation, the time for departure had finally arrived. In a matter of minutes, the colossal ship would engage its prototype ICEFIRE engine and leave its comfortable rectilinear halo orbit of the moon, where it had circled since the keel was laid so many years ago. The ship consisted of a massive cylindrical habitation drum, over a kilometer in diameter and five kilometers long, with an equally large spherical water tank forward tipped with the powerful thermal laser shield, and the behemoth of a drive cone bringing up the rear. The drum spun slowly, providing comfortable spin gravity to the civilian colonists, most of whom were sporting massive hangovers from the completion celebration the night before. Many of the passengers had been involved in the engineering, assembly, and calibration of various parts and components of the ship. Some had celebrated a job completed, others out of excitement, and some feared that it would be their last night. No expense had been spared in building or testing during the ships’ construction, and all assurances had been made that everything would go well, but nobody could deny that this ship was experimental.
The crew of the Hermes had long since gotten all of the festivious urges out of their systems, opting to celebrate the completion of the preparations before the colonists had arrived. Every system had been checked, double checked, and triple checked. Mission Commander Huxton stood in the center of the bridge and observed the buzzing commotion of the crew surrounding him, eyes fixed on their station monitors while calling out checkpoints into their headsets and to the surrounding operators.
One by one the operators fell silent as they completed their checklists and lifted their eyes to Commander Huxton, awaiting further orders. As the last operator reported "All systems go" into his headset, silence fell upon the bridge. Rehearsals had been performed. Speeches had been given. Goodbye messages had been sent. Diagnostics and checklists had been run through. Living wills written. It was finally time. Huxton stood silently for a moment, slowly scanning his eyes around the room. His face beamed with pride at the exceptional performance of his crew, tinged only by the apprehension for the coming danger.
Huxton broke the silence. "Comms! Open a channel to STC, mirror to the PA" he barked. A soft chime indicated that the microphones were listening. "Space Traffic Control, this is UNES Hermes. Requesting clearance for departure." His voice boomed throughout the ship, where every colonist and crew member was listening intently. Seconds later, his voice was heard by the crew of the STC, where silence reigned as every soul was glued to their monitors. A few moments later, their response was heard throughout the Hermes. A tinny voice crackled through the PA system, "UNES Hermes, this is Space Traffic Control. You are cleared for departure. Go bravely. Godspeed."
Huxton closed his eyes for a brief moment, savoring what could be his last breath. He opened his eyes. "Engineering, light it up!”

<<>>
Disclaimer: I love the Star Ocean series and have always fondly remembered Star Ocean 2 and 3, and replayed Til the End of Time a few years ago. I’m not here to be a hater, but it’s going to come out that way, because:
This. Game. Sucks!
I want my 30+ hours back.
GAMEPLAY: The primary issue that plagues the entire game is that they botched the difficulty curve so hard that 95% of the items, abilities, character skills etc are irrelevant. The DUMA system makes you way too powerful way too early in the game. I had one challenging fight, the big worm in the cave. After that, the entire game was brainless. The main character starts out with a skill that is too strong (Boulder Crash?), and you can just press R1 and then Triangle for the entire game and basically teleport around the battlefield one- or two-shotting enemies. Without ever grinding, just playing through the game normally, you end up way too strong for the enemies, and the whole thing becomes mindless. Technically you could fast travel… but if you ever click to do it, a big warning comes up and says basically “I WOULDNT DO THAT, YOU’RE GONNA MISS CUTSCENES!” — so you don’t fast travel and kill every enemy naturally in your path and thus the problem is compounded. I actually intentionally went large swaths of the game without even going to the skill tree and upgrading my characters, because I could tell I was already way too strong. Crazier still is that with each town they keep giving you stronger and stronger weapons, making the cake walk even cheesier.
A big issue is the GUTS stat which reduces status effects. They give you so much of the stat that status effects don’t come into effect for (not exaggerating) 99% of the game. I think in 30+ hours I had 2 status effects inflicted on me (maybe a couple more in the final boss fight). So that means entire categories of items, abilities, etc to combat status effects are useless.
You end up with 9? different characters with like 20 abilities each but there’s never any reason for you to mess with any of it. Every battle is over almost instantly, so there isn’t even time or a reason to hot-swap to other characters to check out their unique styles. (I played as Raymond, for the record)
I double checked my difficulty 3 times to make sure I was on the primary Galaxy difficulty made for the standard experience. At the end of the game they overcorrect and suddenly the last few bosses are able to basically instantly KO party members… but again, you have like 9 people and infinite item resurrections per battle, so you can just pop people back up or even go into the pause menu and change out all of the dead people for living ones so there’s never really any sense of danger. If it wasn’t low-stakes enough, they also give you something called Estuary? Cage from DUMA that adds to your utter invincibility (and I never put a single point into upgrading those skills). Sadly, about 95% through the game it introduces brand new mechanics like DUMA being restricted in a fight, which could have added a nice little wrinkle to the gameplay if they’d introduced it about 25 hours earlier.
STORY: The first 75% of the game is running back and forth on an underdeveloped planet with very low stakes, and the back 25% of the game is SO MANY cutscenes. At one point it became comical. There are literally times where you sit through a big cutscene then it has you walk to a different room to resume more cutscenes. Because the combat is all so simple and full of almost instant victories, I would say you probably spend more time in cutscenes than playing the game in the last 25%. Im not exaggerating, there has got to be HOURS of cutscenes.
I think the best explanation of the story is that at one point they literally have you walking around a town picking up bird crap.
There’s also a weird sexualization of all the women, like the youngest teenaged? girl Chloe wearing a space thong the entire game, or the Android designed to have big boobs bursting out of her unzipped top. All of the women are so top-heavy they’re about to fall over, but I guess you can chalk that up to horny Japanese developers.
Oh and some of you will tell me I’m just dumb for this but evidently I missed the NPC that kicks the thing off so even though I was very thorough collecting chests and items during the game, I didn’t even unlock the crafting aspect of the game. (Which is a little telling in itself because without crafting a single item I had way more money than I needed and was way more powerful than I needed to be as well) — So I ended up with another 200+ items that just sat in my inventory and did nothing because they were part of the crafting stuff.
I’m not trying to nitpick so I won’t say more, and I know this game has a 69 metascore and 6.5 user score so I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece — but this just seems like such a step DOWN from the games they were already making 20 years ago.
Please reply and tell me I’m a hater or tell me you had a similar experience — I am just so confused by the whole thing.

When going over VODs of the Copenhagen Major, I started to notice Flores as the perfect flex pick. A do-it-all operator that I find seriously underappreciated. Let me outline his kit's numerous uses:
- Utility clear: By far his greatest strength. Can wipe out multiple defender gadgets with very little risk. Prime example is Oregon basement. A once notorious bunker shield that took a considerable amount of time to clear is now dealt with in seconds. He also has flashes for clearing ADS/Wamai magnets.
- Soft breach: While he isn't as effective as Buck/Sledge/Ash, he still has the soft breach capability, which makes him especially useful as a backup plan in case the main soft breach dies, or if a site requires considerable remodeling (Open Area on Bank). Overall, just a nice additional use.
- Intel: While regular drones are obviously superior for intel-gathering, his RATEROs can also do the job. While utility clearing, you can also take that time to get a short peek at what is around the utility, providing intel to teammates.
- Area denial: Considering his gadget will kill (or at least do damage to) any defender in its radius, area denial is another capability of his drones. Although very situational, there are some instances where this can be used. For example, Flores can push defenders out of small power positions, such as Chalet library corner or Club garage catwalk. This might not kill or even fully push the defender out, but it will make their job much more difficult. Another use of his gadget (albeit situational) for area denial is to deny defuser disabling. Simply hop on his drone and set it to explode on top of the defuser.
- Distraction/entry: A very niche part of his gadget that is rarely used. This is the unique ability of getting on his RATERO, sending it in a direction, then getting off the cam before detonation. The RATERO will continue travelling even when you are not on it. This is great for throwing off defenders in an area you want to enter, providing a distraction as you look for kills (similar to baiting a Iana hologram).
Flores does have his share of counters and downsides. His biggest being Mute (you can throw Mozzie in this as well). Well-placed jammers can make it especially difficult for Flores. However, Mute's jammers are pretty easily counterable, depending on their position/location.
One of Flores' biggest downsides is time. Unfortunately, Flores requires a considerable amount of time in order for his drones to be effective. An effective Flores means using that precious time efficiently. Ideally you should not be wasting his drones, you want to get them in quick and do your job. A lot of this comes down to positioning and planning (close enough to get the drones in fast, and having a plan on where to use them).
The Soniqs used him expertly in their Bank match against NIP in the quarterfinals of the Copenhagen Major. Here are some clips showcasing how they used him:
Example #1: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxVATfDGd5_rOdSCy3lj6etijnfCV8Qr-f Rexen wastes no time opening up sightlines onto Open Area. These sightlines later allowed a pinch play that killed kondz and helped the Soniqs win the round.
Example #2: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxR66yfDj1H3gQcp1dPKfhvTesBElntwma CTZN takes just a couple of seconds to take out a shield, severely damaging the effectiveness of kondz's power position.
Example #3: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxZGwlD14z72bq-UZEpwghseDnNBVXqTgD Geo not only gains valuable intel on Psycho, but he also adds pressure, which forces Psycho to back off his aggressive hold.
Example #4: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxVpf1lextpjKedVKhw0v64uyusuPHS5gf Same round as Example #3. With Buck dead, geo uses his RATERO to provide vertical pressure onto archives.
Example #5: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxdh0Abfkl7QD2eF3hMZmG5U6zP_5qpPu1 Again, same round as the previous two examples (geo putting in work, as usual). Here geo uses his last drone to clear out archives, and to expand the rotate to allow easier access for his team.
To sum up those last 3 examples: IN ONE ROUND, geo helps pressure the roam, provides vertical, and clears out archives, all with zero risk of death. This round perfectly showcases the jack-of-all-trades that is Flores.
This is my first post of this kind. Please be gentle lol and provide any constructive criticism you may have, or feel free to start a discussion. Thanks!

I have booked a trip with my Amex Green but see I have an upgrade offer to Platinum. If I upgrade do I receive the travel protection as if I purchased the trip with the Platinum?

I'm building a trans jack adapter, specifically to use an OLD(all steel, found on side of road for free better than 10yrs ago) Pittsburg jack, and to lift 42RE transmissions.
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My current plan(parts already cut out), is a U shaped channel, 12.5"x19" of unequal leg angle iron(old bed frame of some sort). 19" long so as to give a sufficient length to slide the trans along to seat the torque converter once raised high enough. The only direction of travel this design doesn't give me is side to side adjustment()unsure how I could do so, especcially with the jackl having a sub 12" wide footprint.) Under that being a 2.5"x1/2"x12" piece of flatstock, with a hole drilled into it for a ground down to fit Front wheel spindle from a '87 Ford Ranger, as it was the only stock I could find in the massive scrap pile that was close to the right size.
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Tomorrow nights project will be to get it welded together.
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My question being if I want to include a pivot point, which would simply be adding a second piece of the 1/2" flatstock, and a piece of tube cut into segments as a barrel hinge(unsure if I have such tubing on hand). My debate being if it's worth the extra height or not, as I've got to hang the transmission under the Jeep with ratchet straps over a stack of blocking to get it high enough to get the jack under the transmission, as I can't get the Jeep high enough to even slide the trans under the frame rails with anything under it. I just installed this transmission last week, then found it had issues, and it took 2 attempts this last time to get it back in. Torque converter having come unseated on the first attempt, which may have caused damages resulting in removing it this time(suspect pump inner gear got cracked.) My original thought being to use a u-joint cut off an old driveshaft for both tilt and rotation, but that seems like way too much flex to be remotely stable. Thinking I'll either control the pivot manually, or put some type of turnbuckle under to adjust but hold the angle.
As far as the reasoning for not just buying a transmission jack, all that I've seen are designed with small wheels designed for asphalt/concrete, while I'm working over a thin layer of dirt over very degraded concrete.

I travel a lot, but have been using my Delta Reserve for the last 6-7 years because I mostly flew delta (or Air France if to Europe). It allowed to get many upgrades, got to delta Platinum status every year with ease (as I spend close to 100k on the card), and received many miles that I end up using to purchase flights.
However recently I have been almost always purchasing first class or delta one on my own, so haven’t been needing upgrades (they anyway suspended upgrades to delta one for international flights). Also I have been using other airline often (emirates), to travel between Asia and Europe. I can’t get in to many airline lounges in the airport, because reserve is powerless outside the US.
I got recently offer to get the Amex Platinum, and have been debating whether it would be worth it if I already have the reserve card.
If I do get it, I was thinking to split it in a way where I spend all my delta related costs on the reserve, and use the platinum for anything else. I have no problems with the cost of the card, especially if I can make it up with the benefits.
What are your thoughts?

I'm debating on buying a paperwhite and would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations for my situation. I feel like owning 3 kindles is a bit much but I know yall will understand.
I've had an oasis for quite a while and recently upgraded to the scribe in December. I absolutely LOVE the scribe and haven't used the oasis since purchasing it, however I failed to realize the scribe isn't waterproof. I've got a trip to the beach coming up and don't want to risk damaging the scribe. I'm also thinking the smaller device would be much more convenient to travel with. A normal person would just take the oasis but the battery life is horrible and it uses a different charger than everything else.
I'm thinking I would be much happier ditching the oasis and getting a paperwhite instead. I'm just not sure if the smaller screen will bother me or if it's worth spending the money when I already have two others.