Finally finished my all King Arthur card, down to the bingo wire!
You can see my first post here, which reviews and discusses the works I read (and didn’t read) up to and including the 20th century.
This post is for the modern works - 2000 up until today. Thanks for reading!

How I rate these books

In no particular order:

• Writing skill and prose
  
• Characters
  
• Level of depth and/or adherence to either Arthurian legend and myth, or subversion thereof, or interesting changes from the sources
  

Novels + Story Collections

The Doom of Camelot - edited by James Lowder (2000)

Two or More Authors (HM), Historical SFF, Five Short Stories
It’s quite fitting that this was my last read of the card, as every story is set around or after King Arthur’s time has come to an end.
The Doom of Camelot is another interesting gem that’s come out of Green Knight Publishing (see also: The Life of Sir Aglovale de Galis from my first post). Each story was well-written, keeping my attention all the way through, and worth reading, but not many of them appealed to me very strongly. There were two I liked best: “The Last Road” by Elizabeth Wyrick Thompson, Arthur’s end told by Sir Lucan’s nameless squire, and “The Battle, Lost” by Susan Fry, a story from a point of view you don’t see very often, a common farm woman during Arthur’s latter days. The anthology’s closing tale, the novella “Avilion: A Romance of Voices” by Verlyn Flieger, was ambitious, and I do think the author did a great job of capturing the unique voices and perspectives of all the prominent figures in King Arthur’s stories. The only thing I wished the author didn’t include was clear misogyny in many of the chapters. I thought to myself the first time, “maybe Kay’s opinion on women is supposed to be realistic for the time period…” but then each female character’s perspective after that calls Genever a bitch, and Genever’s chapter opens by directly stating she has no use for other women and continues in the same vein from that attitude, so, maybe the author was working through something, who knows.

3/5

Here Lies Arthur - Philip Reeve (2007)

Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), Anti-Hero (HM), Cool Weapon (HM), Name in the Title, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts (HM)
Gwyna is the offspring of an unnamed slave woman on Lord Ban’s holding who manages to escape into the nearby river when Arthur’s warband comes to burn and pillage. Myrddin finds her and takes her under his wing, disguised as his servant boy.
Here Lies Arthur won the Carnegie Medal for children’s literature in 2008, which is a bit surprising (to me, at least) because this story is quite dark. Reeve subverts the heroic Arthur and magical Merlin and reveals them for what they may have actually been - a petty, power-hungry warlord and his clever tale-teller. The book of course doesn’t have the detail and length of The Once and Future King, or Sword at Sunset, but still manages to fit in significant depth to most of the characters. I liked how gender was touched on with Gwyna living much of her life as “Gwyn”, and “Peri” being raised as a girl by his mother before becoming Peredur.
It can be read without knowing much of the original legends, but there are a few references here and there to the individual Arthurian figures’ tales, and on top of that the subversion doesn’t work as well without at least reading something like The Once and Future King first which explores Arthur and his knights’ tragedy from a heroic, sympathetic perspective.

3.5/5

Lancelot and the Lord of the Distant Isles: Or, the Book of Galehaut Retold - Patricia Terry, Samuel N. Rosenberg (2007)

Standalone (HM), Cool Weapon, Name in the Title, Author Uses Initials, Indie Publisher
Galehaut is a relatively obscure character from the original Vulgate Cycle (13th century), who nevertheless played a huge part in Lancelot’s life. Terry and Rosenberg’s book here is an effort to bring this character into modern consciousness again.
To understand the background of this character, if you’ve never really heard of him, I have a few suggested readings based on how deep you want to go.

1. Timeless Myths has a great quick overview
   
2. They also have longer summaries - an intro to Lancelot in the Lancelot-Grail, and the key section on Galehaut
   
3. For the real fans, Archive.org has all of Oskar Sommer’s early 1900s translations of the original French. Galehaut is not in all the pages in a row, but he first appears in Vol 3 page 201 in the book, page 206 in the archive copy, and goes until about Oskar Vol 4, page 160 in the archive, 155 in the book.
   

Going into this novel, I was expecting more of a retelling, not just a very similar style and tone to the original Vulgate cycle with some creative license/editing parts out - maybe because of the “Retold” in the title. As they state in the prologue, the entire first part of Lancelot’s story involves Galehaut heavily, so it is indeed surprising no one has really covered this topic before. This was to me a missed opportunity to tell the story in a way that gave dimension to the characters. In the original, Lancelot seems almost indifferent to Galehaut, and Galehaut’s instant love and admiration for the knight is much more one-sided. This could have gone into that aspect in depth - or could have even gone the other way, writing it as if Lancelot really was torn between Galehaut and the queen, loving each in his obsessive way. Except it just ended up as still one-sided, with a few lines here and there where these authors give Lancelot a few extra opportunities to tell Galehaut he also likes his companion a lot, but his actions being, as in the original, wholly revolving around Guinevere.
The book unfortunately ended up being slow to get through, since it is just the original text retold with a bit more extra detail. It might have been faster to get through if I hadn’t just read the translated original, because it was almost like I had read the whole thing over twice in a row, but at the same time it was also good to have a basis of comparison. If this version had done anything new or different, I would have appreciated having the Vulgate context even more.

2.5/5

Tarnished Knight - Jack Campbell (2012, The Lost Stars #1)

Set in Space (HM), Anti-Hero, Revolutions and Rebellions (HM), No Ifs, Ands, or Buts
The war with the Alliance has destabilised the Syndicate Worlds, and the Syndicate’s control over their empire is crumbling. In the Midway star system, CEOs Artur Drakon and Gwen Iceni form a tentative, secret partnership to take out the Syndic government’s Internal Security Service and establish independence for Midway and its neighbouring star systems.
Tarnished Knight is the first book in the series The Lost Stars, part of the larger Lost Fleet Universe that began by following the Alliance. The Syndic characters in The Lost Stars may have been introduced in previous books, but I picked it up without having read any of them and it wasn’t difficult to understand the premise. Although there is a bit of missing backstory with the Alliance and the mysterious alien enigmas, it doesn’t take away from the current storyline. Tarnished Knight was an easy read, which doesn’t try too hard to deviate from what seems to be standard Space Opera/Military SF fare, relying mostly on action and political dialogue to carry the story. For some reason, Campbell seems to be allergic to describing basically anything in his writing - after I noticed, I went back and skimmed some reviews of his first Lost Fleet book and readers had commented on the same thing even back then. There is not a single word of description given to the characters, so you have no idea what any of them look like, and many of the locations are briefly named halfway through an action scene as “the building” or “the facility”, if at all.
Character-wise, both Drakon and Iceni are similar, being former ruthless CEOs in the Syndic corporate structure who are now trying to figure out how they want to do things differently after achieving independence. The only Arthurian connection that goes deeper than just the name is the broad character strokes of Drakon’s subordinates: Malin, a loyal and technical “wizard”, Morgan, a scheming, bloodthirsty soldier, Gaiene, a womanising drunk, and Kai, dependable but unimaginative.
I enjoyed Tarnished Knight after accepting it for what it was - the space battles and political maneuvering were well done and interesting enough to make up for the two dimensional characters and the lack of description.

3/5

The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro (2015)

Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), BIPOC Author
An elderly couple in Britain struggle to recall any memory of their earlier lives while living in their village. They set off to visit their son, and on the way encounter a boy with a strange wound, a Saxon warrior, and a knight of Arthur’s court.
This was my first Ishiguro, and it seems like it was not a good one to start with. The premise was interesting: King Arthur has passed, and left behind a now peaceful land, with Britons and Saxons living and working together, but no one can recall any past events, and they even have difficulty remembering what happened an hour ago. The execution didn’t live up to the idea, however. Axl and Beatrice, the elderly couple the reader follows, are terribly boring. The boy who leaves his village with them is weird without any explanation, and only the Saxon and the knight have some depth, but they are secondary to the story. There is so much repetition and extraneous dialogue that it gets painful to read at points. Every paragraph of speech between every character is bizarrely polite, making every conversation twice as long as it needs to be. The book’s conclusion stops before the end of the couple’s journey, trying to leave it up to the reader to infer their fate, but it just ends up being confusing and unclear, and I still have no idea what happened to them.

2.5/5

The Lost Queen - Signe Pike (2018, The Lost Queen Trilogy #1)

Historical SFF, Family Matters (HM)
Adam Ardrey’s Finding Merlin presents historical evidence that the legend of Merlin originated in sixth-century Scotland with a man titled Lailoken (which Ardrey translates as “Chief of Song”). The historical Lailoken’s twin sister Languoreth is the protagonist of The Lost Queen, who was a queen of Britons in her own right but is now largely forgotten in modern times. The novel tells of the twins’ coming of age in the Kingdom of Strathclyde, which is undergoing social and religious change as a result of the rise of Christianity, and is also suffering from the incursions of the Angles from the East. Fortunately, a warrior named Emrys, the Pen Dragon, has risen to the challenge of defending the Britons’ lands and way of life.
I felt The Lost Queen was a bit of a simplistic tale at first, but about a quarter or a third of the way through it picked up and became more engaging for me. I give partial credit for this progression to the audiobook I listened to for a while, wonderfully narrated by Scottish voice actor Toni Frutin. The story’s plot even came together well enough for me to finish the last third in basically one sitting.
Languoreth is in a tough position, because while her father the king gives his daughter more freedom than most noble parents might have in that time, she is still bound to make a political marriage eventually. The first half or so of the novel follows her childhood and teen years as she grows and comes to terms with this fate, and the rest shows Languoreth’s involvement in Strathclyde’s political conflicts, and how they affect the fate of her family and her kingdom. Unfortunately, which might be historically accurate or might not be, Languoreth being a woman means she is not able to accomplish much. The men in her life make the decisions, and poor Languoreth generally suffers because of it. Perhaps she is able to gain more agency in the sequel, The Forgotten Kingdom, but she wasn’t given much opportunity to do so in this first part of her life, sadly. Meanwhile, the villains of The Lost Queen are one-note, each of them being power hungry, malevolent, and cruel, but for the most part the other side characters are developed well enough to be interesting and at least multi-dimensional.
It was certainly refreshing to read an Arthurian tale set so far north, and in my uneducated opinion, it seems that Pike succeeded at writing a reasonably historically accurate tale.

3.5/5

By Force Alone - Lavie Tidhar (2020)

Weird Ecology (HM), Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), Cool Weapon (HM), Revolutions and Rebellions, Award Finalist, but Not Won (HM), Shapeshifters (HM), No Ifs, Ands, or Buts (HM), Family Matters (HM)
What if Uther was just a soldier who wanted power? What if Arthur was just a leader of a bloodthirsty gang of boys that murdered his way to the top of all the criminal gangs?
If you want to read how about edgy this book is, how it’s a real missed opportunity, and how it has lots of weird shit in it, head to my Goodreads review.

2/5

Legendborn - Tracy Deonn (2020, Legendborn #1)

Historical SFF (HM), Book Club, Cool Weapon (HM), Urban Fantasy, Features Mental Health (HM), BIPOC Author, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
Bree Matthews’ mother dies 3 months before she gets into Early College admission at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While she’s starting school there, still dealing with her grief, she witnesses what appears to be magic at an off-campus party. When she makes a connection between the magic she just saw and the magic she now remembers seeing after her mother’s death, she infiltrates the campus society known as the Order of the Round Table.
Legendborn was solidly written, and skillfully paced in most parts (less so the middle), but the typical tropes of YA present throughout the book really just didn’t work for me. It’s written in first person, an outsider girl who happens to be super special and unique stumbles into and joins a secret society (and a competition), naturally the two attractive and prominent boys of this society form a love triangle with the girl, and on top of that she and one of them are in love after the entire 2-3 week duration of the novel. Towards the end it was so egregious that I was rolling my eyes at any lines dealing with the triangle. Safe to say these types of books aren’t for me.
I thought the best parts were when Bree’s grief was addressed, and the moments with her family, and when she got to discuss and learn about her family’s history in Carolina. It was also important how the everyday and insidious racism she had to deal with was not brushed over for the reader. Otherwise, however, the majority of the character work outside of Bree was neglected. There were so many characters that she interacts with who belong to the Legendborn society and all of them outside a select few are so interchangeable it was hard to differentiate them when any of the names came up. Even her best friend, who is given some background and a bit of development early on, is shunted to the side as soon as Bree enters the Order and forgotten about until the end, where she comes back briefly to be given the role of following Bree the hero around.
By contrast, I did actually really like the take on a secret society revolving around the descendants of King Arthur and using Merlin’s magic, but that part of the book felt like it would have been way more interesting and relevant if it was set in Britain. It felt like with everything else about the American South the author was trying to address - racism, slavery, inequality - something like a secret Founding Fathers society would maybe have been more thematically appropriate and less disconnected from Bree’s local history and ancestry. Although of course, they don’t have a convenient, well-known magic user like Merlin. Maybe Benjamin Franklin could have turned out to be some kind of wizard instead.

3/5

Sword Stone Table - edited by Swapna Krishna, Jenn Northington (2021)

Two or More Authors (HM), Five Short Stories (HM)
A really solid set of short stories, divided into Once (more medieval/original myth settings), Present (more modern day, urban settings), and Future (futuristic - self-explanatory I suppose).
There were a couple duds, but for the most part they were all worth reading, and a few were standouts for me.
In Once, Roshani Chokshi’s “Passing Fair and Young” imagines that the Arthurian characters may have their fates and myths written on their bodies from birth, and Elaine of Corbenic and Lancelot determine for themselves how to interpret their own myth marks. Daniel M. Lavery’s “Galehaut” short story (available to read here at LitHub) is a shorter version of what I wish the earlier Galehaut retelling I read was like.
In Present, “Mayday” by Maria Dahvana Headley is pure brilliance. Written as an evidence report of items found in an abandoned lighthouse on a Lake Erie island, it tells of the Pendragon corporation’s rise and fall power in late 1800s America. It’s hard to live up to “Mayday”, but without going into all of them in detail, I did also really enjoy “Flat White” by Jessica Plummer - an Elaine of Corbenic coffee shop AU, essentially. What if a French guy named Lancelot walked into your coffee shop, and also had two best friends named Arthur and Gwen?
I think Future’s standout is Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “A Shadow in Amber”, where Elaine of Shalott is a wealthy woman in a future city, living at the top of her skyscraper, paying a dealer to bring her illegal memories she can ingest and experience as if they were hers.

3.5/5

Sistersong - Lucy Holland (2021)

Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), Award Finalist, but Not Won, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
SIstersong aims to retell and add detail to The Twa Sisters, a ballad whose earliest recording was in the 1600s. Holland sets her book in Arthur-adjacent Cornwall (“Dumnonia”), following King Cador’s three children as the kingdom begins to come under the threat of Saxon invasion, while also dealing with a Christian priest who wants to convert the Dumnonii to Christianity at all costs. The ballad sometimes has an extra sister in addition to the titular two sisters - here, Holland writes not only the sisters, Riva and Sinne, but a third sibling as well, Keyne, who is born as the middle daughter but comes to identify as a boy. The itinerant magician Myrdhin, who has secrets of his own, helps Keyne in his journey.
I went into Sistersong expecting a focus on the two sisters, and what I got was a book that ended up mostly focused on Keyne. The three siblings have relatively equal points of view for the first two thirds of the book, but as the Saxon threat increases and Keyne takes on more expansive and traditional male roles to help protect the kingdom, his sisters and their conflict over a man fade to the background. It seems like Keyne’s story was the one Holland really wanted to write, which is great, but Rive and Sinne could have been left out completely and Keyne’s story would not have changed. They loved him and he loved them, despite their conflicts, but his sisters’ tragedy serves as a sad chapter on his way to become who he is.
Many of the characters weren’t as fleshed out as I would have liked. Sinne, the youngest, is mostly a typical shallow, vapid blonde, and the eldest Riva is jealous of her looks and her beauty. Riva is probably the more developed of the two, as she has a physical disability and has to learn to overcome her fears and insecurities (thanks to a man, though, I suppose). The Christian priest is one-dimensionally cruel, except for one or two scenes where he breaks character for some reason and briefly treats Keyne with respect, and as for why the king and queen allowed him to terrorise their children and their villages, the belated half-baked explanations given don’t make a lot of sense. Myrdhin is just “mysterious” - Keyne even tries to learn more about him, asking where he came from, and Myrdhin refuses to answer, and it’s just never brought up again.
I would probably only recommend this to someone looking for a trans story set in Celtic Britain. If you’re looking for a multi-character-focused story with at least a semi-accurate historical focus, look elsewhere.

3/5

Blackheart Knights - Laure Eve (2021, Blackheart Knights #1)

Urban Fantasy (HM), No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
Set in an alternate, queernorm, Blade Runner-like London with circa 90s-00s technology, this is a very ambitious modern Arthurian story that I really enjoyed. I think I’ve learned that I’m easy to please with the modern retellings, and because there are so few of them, each one feels like a special find.
Blackheart Knights is well paced, with two interesting POV characters’ stories being told in alternating chapters in different time periods, building up to a meeting point. I thought the two protagonists were developed well, with some interesting nuances, but the side characters could have used some work, since for the most part the writing tells us about them a few times rather than giving them pagetime and showing us. One thing about the writing I would have changed is we are sometimes not given a character description at all, like we have no idea what even Artorias looks like until his hair colour is mentioned maybe two-thirds of the way through the book. The world is cool and has a lot of potential, being set in a London that’s split into multiple districts named after their founding seven Saints, each unique, and there are Kingdoms outside of London, but they’re never expanded upon and only a few of them are even named, in passing only. This modern London has knights that are essentially celebrities and fight in their arenas like gladiators for fame, money, and to settle legal disputes. Some people are born with magic powers, but are looked down upon by society, and are forced to register themselves by age eighteen. This part of the story was super interesting but underdeveloped. I did enjoy the references to the King Arthur mythos that I caught, and I’m sure I missed many at the same time, but for the most part only one key storyline from the original was kept close to intact. I was happy to see a Lailoken mentioned, who is the Merlin character in The Lost Queen.
I would recommend Blackheart Knights as a fun, fresh take on King Arthur, if you go in without expecting everything about the world to necessarily be explained in the first book and just enjoy the ride.

3.5/5

Spear - Nicola Griffith (2022)

Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), Book Club (HM), Cool Weapon (HM), Published in 2022, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
Nicola Griffith pens a queer retelling of Percival, drawn mostly from Chrétien de Troye’s Perceval and Peredur Son of Efrawg, one of the Three Welsh Romances, along with an added dose of the Tuath Dé from Irish myth. Griffith was originally asked to write a short story for the Sword Stone Table anthology, but Spear grew into its own standalone novella instead.
Having recently finished Mary Sutcliff’s A Sword at Sunset, I felt the writing and the choices Griffith made in Spear were very much in a similar spirit, with a focus on what historical Britain was likely to have been like at the time, although Spear certainly has much more magic. Beyond the setting, the parallels include both Llanza (Lance) of Spear and Bedwyr of A Sword at Sunset being disabled but unmatched horsemen, and each being in love with not only the king’s wife, but their king as well. While Sutcliff wrote a gay relationship for two of Artos’s Companions (in 1963!) but kept Bedwyr’s love for Artos as only subtext, Griffith establishes many of her characters as explicitly queer, beginning with her protagonist, from the moment Peretur - a girl who has grown up alone with her mother in the wilds of Wales - encounters a pretty young woman in a nearby village. Spear is a lovely, well-written story, with a particularly fascinating take on Myrddyn and Nimuë - I only wish it could have been a full-length novel, with time and space to flesh out more of Peretur and her time in Wales and Caer Leon.

3.5/5

Dark Earth - Rebecca Stott (2022)

Historical SFF, Standalone (HM), Cool Weapon (HM), Published in 2022, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
Set in and around the abandoned Roman city of Londinium (the “Ghost City”) circa 500 AD, Dark Earth follows two Saxon (“Seax”) sisters living near the Thames in Seax territory under the control of King Osric, who in this story is a recent descendant of Hengist and Horsa. Isla, the eldest sister, has been forging swords alongside her father the Great Smith even though Seax law forbids women from stepping inside a forge, and Blue, the youngest, has the makings of being a wicca.
I think I wanted Dark Earth to be more than what it was. Arthurian-era stories that touch on the Briton-Anglo-Saxon conflict are almost entirely from the Britons’ point of view. I enjoyed the writing and certainly appreciated the historically detailed setting, but I was hoping for more of a deep dive into Saxon settlements during this time period. Isla and Blue are both outcasts from their family’s original camp, so they’ve been isolated from all of their people from a young age, and only briefly do they visit Osric’s palace during the story and speak with other Seax again. The people the sisters do encounter after that are interesting, as at this time the area of Essex was occupied by a fascinating mix of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians, as well as any native Britons from various tribes who had intermixed with the mainland settlers, like the sisters’ mother who was Iceni (“Ikeni”). Unfortunately, the novel doesn’t go into as much detail as I would have liked about why the characters might have settled there, or much history of their lives in the Old Country, or their beliefs and how they’ve integrated their cultures now that they’re in Britain. King Arthur is briefly referenced as “the boy in the west”, but the larger political and cultural context isn’t expanded upon either.
Isla is the least interesting character in the cast, which is unfortunate because she is the point of view for the reader. Isla and Blue have been traumatised by the actions of Osric and his cruel son Vort, and have been deeply affected by their mother’s disappearance in a raid years ago. Isla’s smithing is forbidden by Seax culture, so she lives in fear and hesitation of anything bad that could happen to her or her sister - which is certainly sympathetic, but not the greatest to read about for basically a whole novel, especially when contrasted with her more courageous sister. Isla barely makes any decisions of her own, just goes along with Blue and their allies’ directions, after declining and protesting out of fear each time at first. There is a bit of growth towards the end, but it’s not enough to make up for the faults in Isla’s story during the majority of the book.

3/5

Short Stories + Novellas

The Green Knight’s Wife - Kat Howard (2016)

Didn’t end up fitting on the board
Available to read at Uncanny Magazine.
What if the events of Gawain and the Green Knight didn’t just happen to Gawain, but happened whenever someone asks for something wondrous, beginning in medieval times through to the present day? What if The Green Knight’s wife never had a say in her husband’s game?
An interesting short story from a different perspective - certainly the original poem doesn’t consider how the wife feels about the time when Gawain stays at their castle, or whether she was pressured to participate or chose to do so willingly when her husband suggested it.

3/5

Once, Future - Kat Howard (2018)

Standalone (HM), Cool Weapon (HM), Revolutions and Rebellions, Urban Fantasy, Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Family Matters
Found in Kat Howard’s anthology A Cathedral of Myth and Bone, “Once, Future” takes place at Severn University, in the graduate seminar The Arthurian Legend in Time. The students’ discussion brings up a question: why are there so many retellings of this legend? Is it that writers are deliberately placing the elements to make it recognisable, or do the core aspects of the story somehow make themselves known and repeatable? Professor Link proposes the students each be assigned a name from the legend and keep a journal for the semester, to see if any patterns emerge in their lives.
I really liked this novella. Without spoiling too much, it questions the nature of fate, and how stories should end, and how the original legend was supposed to play out. As I find with many novellas, I would have liked more, since there isn’t enough time for in-depth explanations or backstory, when I would have liked to be able to dig deeper into many parts of the story. Even without that, however, if you just let it take you along for the ride, it’s a great blend of modernity and myth.

3.5/5

Didn’t Finish

Queen of None - Natania Barron (2020)

I wrote a pretty scathing review on Goodreads.

Half Sick of Shadows - Laura Sebastian (2021)

Half Sick of Shadows is set in a somewhat alternate Arthurian universe, where there was a “fey war” prior to Arthur’s lifetime, and Lyonesse is a kingdom in the north that Uther has been trying to conquer. Elaine of Shalott moved to Camelot with her mother when she was younger, and is now known as Elaine the Mad after she had a vision for the first time and went screaming through the castle. When she first meets Morgana, the fey-blooded girl with magical powers convinces her to come back to Avalon, where she can learn to control her skills as an Oracle, and where she meets and befriends Gwen, Arthur, and Lancelot.
Unfortunately, I dropped this one a quarter of the way through. The writing was adult enough, but many of the tropes employed are too simple for an adult novel. Morgause is a one dimensional Mean Girl, Mordred is Arthur’s Evil Stepbrother, and Camelot is a typical High Fantasy Court exclusively home to brainless, fancily-clothed nobles that none of our group of friends could possibly fit in with. Not enough is explained in the pages I read, like why Gwen has been on Avalon the whole time, or why Morgana left Camelot in the first place, or why when they all go back to Camelot, Elaine is suddenly a skilled political advisor to Arthur even though she was a shunned outcast at court and left in her early teens. I was interested to see how the mythical Elaine of Astolat could be retold in a feminist way, but I guess the author’s answer here was to change almost everything about the character and place her in a different setting altogether.

Other 21st Century Works I didn’t get to in time

• Under in the Mere by Catherynne M. Valente (2009, novella)
  
• Kingfisher by Patricia A. McKillip (2016)
  
• The Story of Silence by Alex Myers (2020)
  

The following analysis looks at attacking player’s Goals, Assists, Expected Goals (xG) and Expected Assists (xAG) to create differences and ratios that can help us look at players to see if they are over-performing this season when it comes to scoring goals and how much luck they might have when it comes to assisting.
The data I’m using was pulled from FBREF and looks at players who are leading the scoring and assist charts in the top 5 leagues. I then used the Compare Similar Players option to pull in those players too (hello Henry Martin). The data was then transformed using Python into a format I could then use to display the data visually. The interactive version of this dashboard is on Tableau Public and feel free to play around with it and give feedback!
​
Tableau Public interactive dashboard

Note: the Tableau version will perform better if opened up on a non-mobile device.

Firstly, before we begin lets quickly discuss xG and xAG:

What is xG?

Very simply, xG (or expected goals) is the probability that a shot will result in a goal based on the characteristics of that shot and the events leading up to it. Some of these characteristics/variables include:

Location of shooter: How far was it from the goal and at what angle on the pitch?
Body part: Was it a header or off the shooter's foot?
Type of pass: Was it from a through ball, cross, set piece, etc?
Type of attack: Was it from an established possession? Was it off a rebound? Did the defense have time to get in position? Did it follow a dribble?

Every shot is compared to thousands of shots with similar characteristics to determine the probability that this shot will result in a goal. That probability is the expected goal total. An xG of 0 is a certain miss, while an xG of 1 is a certain goal. An xG of .5 would indicate that if identical shots were attempted 10 times, 5 would be expected to result in a goal.
npxG is the expected goals not including penalties. Penalties have an xG of 0.79.

What is xA (expected assists) and xAG (expected assisted goals)? How do they differ?

xA, or expected assists, is the likelihood that a given completed pass will become a goal assist. This statistic developed by Opta assigns a likelihood to all passes based on the type of the pass, the location on the pitch, the phase of play, and the distance covered. Players receive xA for every completed pass regardless of whether a shot occurred or not.
In order to just isolate the xG on passes that assist a shot, there's Expected Assisted Goals (xAG). This indicates a player's ability to set up scoring chances without having to rely on the actual result of the shot or the shooter's luck/ability. Players receive xAG only when a shot is taken after a completed pass.
We use xG + xAG for goal contributions since players' goal contributions are typically Goals + Assists and this better matches that standard.
For my analysis I will be using xG/npxG and xAG to create visualizations that hopefully give insight into how the top forwards from multiple leagues are performing this season.

GOALS DIFFERENCE vs ASSISTS DIFFERENCE

The below charts looks at goals difference and assists difference where by:

Goals Difference = Goals - xG
Assists Diffrence = Assists - xAG

A value of 0 indicates that the player is performing as expected.
A positive value means that they are overperforming their expected
A negative value means that they are underperforming their expected
Difference Total: we can separate the chart into four quadrants, with players over performing in goals in the top two quadrants, and players over performing in assists in the two right quadrants.
Difference per 90: we can separate the chart into four quadrants, with players over performing in goals per 90 in the top two quadrants, and players over performing in assists per 90 in the two right quadrants.

GOALS RATIO vs ASSISTS RATIO

The below charts looks at goals ratio and assists ratio where by:

Goals Ratio = Goals / xG
Assists Ratio = Assists / xAG

A ratio of 1 indicates that the player is performing as expected.
A ratio above 1 means that they are overperforming their expected
A ratio below 1 means that they are underperforming their expected
Ratio Total: we can separate the chart into four quadrants, with players over performing in goals in the top two quadrants, and players over performing in assists in the two right quadrants.
Ratio per 90: we can separate the chart into four quadrants, with players over performing in goals per 90 in the top two quadrants, and players over performing in assists per 90 in the two right quadrants.

PERFORMANCE GOALS vs ASSISTS

Performance Total: this chart is separated into 4 quadrants (using averages amongst the players), with the top left quadrant being your poachers, your bottom right quadrant being your creators and the top right being players excelling at both.
Performance per 90: this chart is separated into 4 quadrants (using averages amongst the players), with the top left quadrant being your poachers per 90, your bottom right quadrant being your creators per 90 and the top right being players excelling at both per 90.

EXPECTED GOALS vs ASSISTS

Expected Total: this chart is separated into 4 quadrants (using averages amongst the players), with the top left quadrant being players getting into good goalscoring positions, your bottom right quadrant being players creating a lot of chances and the top right being players excelling at both.
Expected per 90: this chart is separated into 4 quadrants (using averages amongst the players), with the top left quadrant being players getting into good goalscoring positions per 90, your bottom right quadrant being players creating a lot of chances per 90 and the top right being players excelling at both per 90
What we can see here from the difference and ratio charts are four quadrants are created as we use the fact that a difference of 0 or ratio of 1 means the player is performing as expected.

G < xG and Ast < xAG

Players are scoring less than expected and have also been unlucky to not have more assists
Bruno Fernandes – looking at the differences chart it becomes very apparent how unlucky Bruno has been this season when his Assists – xAg is at -7 meaning he should have 7 more assists if his team mates were converting the chances he was creating. He also has been struggling a little more in front of goal this season with his Goals – xG being below 0 too. Despite his goal scoring not being is a high compared to when he first joined United, what is clear from these charts and especially the Expected chart – Bruno is a World Class creator being ahead of Kevin de Bruyne this season and only second behind Dusan Tadic in Expected assists.
Kai Havertz – we’ve seen Havertz on the scoresheet a lot more in the last few weeks, however compared to his xG Havertz is still under-performing in front of goal. With question marks around whether or not he is the right striker to lead Chelsea, one thing that might have been missed by everyone is how unlucky he has been to not have another 4 assists with an assist difference -3.8.
Darwin Nunez – despite a lot of the memes earlier on this season Nunez has been contributing to sub-par Liverpool this season with 4 assists and 12 goals. Although 3 goals of his expected goals count, one thing that is impressive about Nunez is xG per 90 as he is the 5th highest only behind Haaland, Ramos, Benzema and Osimhen. With Liverpool likely to return to better form next season the might be an impressive force if Nunez can become that little more clinical.

G < xG and Ast > xAG

Players are scoring less than expected and have also been lucky to have as many assists as they do
Youssoufa Moukoko – Dortmund’s teenage sensation has an impressive 6 goals and 5 assists from 24 matches played (13 starts). Only slightly underperforming his xG so far this season the biggest takeaway is accumulating 5 assists from only an xAG of 1.3 (4 more assists than expected). Regardless of him possibly being a little lucky this season with assists, the future looks bright for this youngster!
Ansu Fati – bursting onto the scene as a 16-year-old back in 2019 and scoring 8 goals that season, Fati has been extremely unlucky battling back-to-back seasons with a knee injury. This season he is back and has made 4 assists (3 more than expected) however, he will probably be frustrated not having more goals with having 4 less than expected with only 3 goals. However, the 20-year-old is still very young and coming back from almost two seasons of injury so it’ll be interesting to see if he’ll mature into the player so many people thought he would!
Thomas Muller – Bayern’s all-time third top goal scorer is having a slightly quieter season this season in his contribution to goals and assists underperforming in goals by 2 and also tallying up more assists than expected. Could this be the start of a decline in his goal contributions?
Rodyrgo – probably the newest member of Real Madrid’s cult heroes for his memorable substitute performances and goals which helped drive Madrid to the Champions League last season! However, this season he is only on 7 goals from an expected 12. Still only 22-years-old, he’s proved that he can score goals in big moments, but will he be the man to lead the goals for Madrid when Benzema eventually retires.
Gabriel Jesus – everyone thought Arsenal would plummet after losing Jesus to injury after the World Cup. Whilst returning to injury last week Arsenal fans will be happy to have him back as Eddie Nketiah, although starting well, has struggled to be the clinical striker fans were hoping for with only 6 goals from an expected 10. Jesus on the other hand isn’t that clinical striker either, as he has only 5 goals from an expected 9. However, with 6 assists and having Saka, Martinelli, Odegard and now Trossard around him it seems that Arteta’s trusts that the ex-City forward offers so much more than goals.

G > xG and Ast < xAG

Players are scoring more than expected and have also been unlucky to not have more assists
James Maddison – man if this guy just stayed fit he would probably be right up there this season. 15 goals and assists in 20 goals with a combined xG + xAG of 10.40. He is definitely over-performing and playing very well when he is playing!
Joao Mario – although 12 (14 attempted) of his 31 goals have been penalties if you remove the penalties he still remains in this group and is having quite the season. Each penalty has an xG of .79 *14 = 11.06 so he is still above target. 14 penalties in a season is pretty crazy regardless. Have Benfica been lucky or is not just the Premier League dealing with poor officiating this season?
Julian Brandt – the Dortmund midfielder looks to be having his best season to date as he outperforms his expected (4.5 xG) by double with 9 goals this season and also, being unlucky to not have 2 more assists. As Dortmund look to end Bayern’s decade long reign of Bundesliga titles, Brandt keeping up this form will be crucial as the season closes out.
Christoper Nkunku – although only holding 2 assists to his name this season Nkunku has been outperforming his expected goals with 15 from an expected 11. He’s also been unlucky to not have 3 more assists. With the RB Leipzig man moving to Chelsea this summer, questions will be asked to whether he continue this form into this Premier League, however if he can Chelsea no doubt will believe that can be enough to challenge again for the title next season.
Martinelli – the young Arsenal forward has been on fine form this season scoring 13 goals, 3 more than expected and has also been unlucky to not have more assists with only 3 from an expected 7. One thing is clear this season, Martinelli has been crucial to Arsenals title race contention and will continue to be, as we come into the last 10 games of the season.
Giovanni Simeone – per90 this guy is only behind Haaland and has been instrumental coming off the bench for Napoli this season overperforming with 7 goals from an xG of 3.5. Double than what he was expected to be getting. This is definitely an important factor for any team that is challenging for the league and Napoli are more than challenging at the moment as they seem to be running away with it.

G > xG and Ast > xAG

Players are scoring more than expected and have also been lucky to have as many assists as they do
Erling Haaland – I mean if you’re looking for outliers, Haaland is one of the stand outs other than Bruno Fernandes. The most impressive thing about Haaland is he is showing the world how clinical he is with 38 goals from an expected 26.9. That’s 11 more goals that expected. This is probably why Kevin De Bruyne has more assists than expected this season because Haaland is well…a goalscoring freak (in the best way of course). Have City found the missing piece to the Champions League puzzle?
Randal Kolo Muani – I’ll admit I don’t know much about Muani, besides a couple of very impressive performances at the World Cup. However, he is definitely having a great season scoring 13 goals and notching up 10 assists (6 more than expected) and looks to be the future of France’s front line as Giroud ages and Mbappe operating on the left hand side for the National Team.
Kvicha Kvaratskhelia – highly regarded as the ‘Georgian Messi’ Kvicha is having some season over-performing with 14 goals and with a little bit of luck notching up 14 assists too (6 more than expected. Although, a little lucky with some of his assists – this could be in align with Victor Osimihen scoring 5 more goals that expected this season and the two of these developing a great partnership leading Napolis attack and contributing heavily to their fantastic season.
Neymar – no surprise to see Neymar here as he’s quietly going about another impressive season. When you look at his per 90 stats as well how can you not be impressed with 1.21 goals and assists per game. With 15 goals and 13 assists goals this season, PSG must be scratching their heads to why they haven’t made it further in the Champions League this season.
Lionel Messi – only second to Haaland in Goals and Assists this season, Messi continues to show his class at the age of 35 and on the back of winning the World Cup. Messi leads the assists charts with 17 this season from an expected 12. Some people might call this lucky, but everyone who watches football knows that this just Messi.

CURRENT LEADERS

Current Top 30 Goals + Assists Leaders
Current Top 30 Goals + Assists Leaders (per 90)
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TEAM ANALYSIS

Now lets take a look at some teams to see if their player productivity is impacting there team performance:
Arsenal Differences Chart
Arsenal
What’s apparent when you look at the Arsenal players here is that everyone is either overperforming their expected goals or assists (top and right quadrants). With Saka overperforming this season and being one of seven players this season to enter double figures with 13 goals (10 xG) and 10 assists (7.8 xAG), Arsenal’s main talisman will look to continue this as Arsenal enter the last third of the campaign. We can see that, maybe Martinelli (13 goals, 3 assissts) and Odegard (10 goals, 6 assists) would have more assists if Jesus (5 goals, 6 assists) and Nketiah (6 goals, 2 assists) were more clinical this season. Additionally, it seems like acquiring Trossard (8 goals, 8 assists) was a masterstroke signing by Arteta, as he is continued his great form from Brighton to Arsenal and filling in at the false-9 position. Despite their strikers underperforming in front of goal, it hasn’t stopped Arsenal scoring lots of goals and creating chances as they look to hold on to clinch their first Premier League title in nearly 20 years.
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Man City Differences Chart
Man City
Despite the obvious outlier (Haaland), we can see that Foden is having an excellent season outperforming his expected goals and assists by almost double with 10 goals (5.5 xG) and 6 assists (3.7 xAG). Despite Kevin de Bruyne not firing in front of goal like he was last season, 15 assists puts him only two behind the leader Messi this season. It looks like City have finally found the answer to de Bruyne’s prayers with Haaland coming in and them developing an instant relationship already to a point where de Bruyne has more assists than expected this season (12.4 xAG). With Mahrez (8 goals, 6 Assists) performing around just as expected, Grealish.(3 goals, 5 assists) being a little unlucky and Alvarez contributing when he gets game time will City be able to take the title race all the way to the end of the season and could this be the year they finally win the Champions League?
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Manchester United Differences Chart
Manchester United
What stands out here in this chart is how reliant United have been on Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes this season. With Rashford out performing his expected (15.70 xG) with 20 goals and 4 assists (3.4) and Fernandes (6 goals, 8 Assists) underperforming and being extremely unlucky to not have more assists, it’s obvious to everyone that United are missing another player that can contribute to the attack more regularly. With Sancho (5 goals, 1 assist) and Antony (6 goals, 2 assists) overperforming this season we’ve these small numbers, one thing that these players do lack compared to the other players in their position is their expected goals and assists. If United want to be competing the likes of Arsenal, Man City and even Liverpool they will need to have players creating more chances. United will also be glad to have Eriksen return soon as hopefully he can continue his great creative form with his 9 assists more than double his expected this season and although a little lucky, United will need this with a heavy fixture schedule going into the last part of the season.
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Napoli Differences Chart
Napoli
Probably the most in form team in Europe at the moment with the deadly combination of Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia leading the front line for Napoli. Victor Osimhen has 25 goals (20.4 xG) and 4 assists this season and is the third highest goalscorer behind Haaland and Mbappe and Kvaratskhelia is one of seven players with double digits in both goals and assists. Nineteen points clear with only 11 games to go this season and still in the Champions League, the differences chart also shows us Piotr Zielinski is also overperforming this season too, with 7 goals (6.4 xG) and 9 assists (7.6 xAG). With Napoli, 19 points clear of Serie A and looking near enough impossible to catch at this moment will they be able to add to this season by winning the Champions League as well? If there plays keep over peforming like they are right now, then surely they are strong contenders!.
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Bayern Munich Differences Chart
Bayern Munich
The stand out for Bayern this season is as everyone expected … Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, but seriously what a season he is having. Almost overperforming his expected goals by double with 14 goals (7.7 xG) and accumulating 2 assists the back-up to Robert Lewandowski last season is having quite the season! To add to this Bayern seem to have another gem for the future in Jamal Musiala who has 11 goals (8 xG) and 10 assists (6.4 xAG) so far this season, which is quite astonishing for a 20 year old. Additionally, Bayern have Sadio Mane (9 goals, 5 assists), Leroy Sane (11 goals, 5 assists), Serge Gnabry (11 goals, 7 assists) and Kinglsey Coman (6 goals and 5 assists) all outperforming their expected goals which is pretty remarkable. It’s no surprise that, Bayern are considered the favourites for the Champions League this season. Will Nagelsmann’s sacking interrupt their season as they battle it out with Dortmund and Berlin for the title and also try to secure another champions league.
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PSG Differences Chart
PSG
Well, we can’t not talk about PSG and more importantly about Kylian Mbappe. Only behind Messi and Haaland in total goals and assists Mbappe has 26 (21 xG) goals and 6 (6.6 xAG) assists this season. After another fantastic World Cup, the PSG strike force will be frustrated to again have their Champions League dreams ended early with a very unconvincing display against Bayern. Despite having Neymar (15 goals, 13 assists), Messi (17 goals, 17 assists) and Mbappe, PSG continue to fail in the Champions League and could this know be the final straw that sees them lose at least one, if not both of Mbappe and Messi at the end of the season.
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Benfica Differences Chart
Benfica
Ten points clear of Liga Portugal and making a return to the Champions League quarter finals this season, Benfica are not a team to take lightly this season. Leading their line this season they have the talented Goncalo Ramos with 19 goals (20 xG) and 3 assists (2.9 xAG) and seasoned Joao Mario with 23 goals (19.5 xG) and 8 assists (8.9 xAG) who seems to be have his best season ever. With Rafa Silva contributing 11 goals (12,2 xG) and 4 assists (4.1 xAG) as well we can see why Benfica are having the season they are having year. Could this year they make the semi-finals of the Champions League, for the first time since they reached the final back in 1989?

CAVEATS

One of the biggest questions that might come in to play here is looking at the strength of the league so a future addition to this analysis and dashboard would be adding a league multiplier which could be based on the strength of the league. FiveThirtyEight have created a SPI (Soccer Power Index) which evaluates the strength of each team and Global Football Rankings have then used this to evaluate the strength of the league. You could then normalize the leagues SPI’s on a scale from 0 to 1 and then use this as a multiplier against the statistics used in this analysis. This would be a little difficult to apply to players like Cody Gakpo who moved halfway through the season and the majority of his goals and assists this season from when he was playing at PSV. As an example here, the league strength of the Dutch Eredivisie compared to the Barclays Premier League is 52.88 to 72.40. So in this, the multiplier would have a big effect on Gakpo’s goals and assists at PSV.
You might notice goals and assists missing from cup competitions as I seemed to have some issues adding these competitions on FBREF as it wasn’t consistent across players. So, I decided to leave those competitions out to make it fair.
I also had to leave out some players out as the xG and xAG for these players was just way off:
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Players	Goals	xG	Assists	xAG
Cristiano Ronaldo	10	1.9	2	0.4
Wout Weghorst	8	1.3	5	0.7

Anybody watching Man United this season knows Weghorst xG should be a lot higher than that since he’s scored two goals in the 3 months he’s been at the club. Also, Ronaldo’s look a little suspect too. So I decided to leave these out!

CONCLUSIONS

There are probably more questions than answers with this analysis, however I think using these differences and ratios gives us some sort of idea of how players have been performing this season and who has had a little luck on their side. We all know that when it comes to assessing performance goals and assists don't tell the full story, however using xG and xAG definitely gives a better idea about how these players are performing.
Players with higher xG means that they are getting into good goalscoring opportunities, which indicates that they will always be a threat in the game. There's been plenty of commentary about Darwin Nunez not scoring enough goals this season and missing chances and although that might be true at least he is getting into those chances. He might not be as prolific as Haaland, but if or when he does finally find some form you'd imagine he could be getting 20+ goals a season regularly. When you look at this per 90, Nunez again is near the top of this list.
Players with higher xAG means that they are creating chances for people, it's nice to see the data back up what we already know when we see players like Dusan Tadic, Bruno Fernandes, Kevin de Bruyne, Neymar and of course Lionel Messi leading the expected assists. When you look at this per 90 those names don’t change, however it does give you an idea about the other creators in Europe and the world like Jonas Hofman and Kingsley Coman (when fit).
Moving forward, adding a league multiplier might be in the next addition of this analysis, which helps factor in the strength of the league. Finally, it will be interesting to see if these players are still in the same quadrants at the end of the season and if the relationship between how many players you need to over perform to win a competition.
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TLDR:
Haaland is really really really good, Bruno is pretty unlucky this season, Joao Mario is a penalty merchant, Ronaldo's data doesn't add up. The more over performing players you have the more likely your team will succeed (unless you are PSG). League difficulty multiplier might be a great addition to understanding player performance on league strength.

I was referred here after posting on stopdrinking.
I’ve been with my partner for 12 years. (minus a break in between while we decided to grow up finally)
We met in a bar, we drank like absolute animals, and we were just “that couple” that you knew would always be the fun ones. In other words, we were the “barstool buddies” of our city.
Best friends, first and foremost, we’ve been inseparable even when apart, and that will not change. But I have.
When we got back together, we discussed cutting back - and he has, he has, but it’s not enough. I don’t mean by my standards but by the standards of a functional relationship. We don’t argue, and we laugh all the time, but every weekend, everything is perfect; it’s just the bar. If it were me or the bar, I wouldn’t win. I’ve said it, but I won’t give that ultimatum.
I had about six spinal surgeries last year, challenging stuff, and he was my rock through it. Undeniably. When I was in rehabilitation and staying with my family for round-the-clock care, he was crushing it by quitting smoking and rarely drinking. (He didn’t just claim to, he switched to vaping and spent time with me every chance he could) Since I’ve been medically cleared to move and found a new condo, as he’s moved in and primarily spent time here on the weekends, he’s drunk from start to finish. He’s back to working a weird work shift, so he has nothing to do when he gets home but drink in front of the tv. He has no hobbies.
He especially drinks (at home) Friday, so it isn’t really “clear” on Saturday. Saturday afternoon/night, we end up at a bar, which affects Sunday morning, which rolls into Sunday night. I can go without drinking. I don’t know how or when things shifted for me, but I know it has no value. I rarely drink, and it’s only with him occasionally because we’ve ended up at a bar again.
He says, understandably, it’s how he was raised and how his people function, and even if he cuts back, he will never quit entirely. And I’m almost willing to accept that, except there is no consistency. I want to do things now that I’m physically able again, but if I don’t devise a plan, it won’t happen because the default is: bar.
He is fantastic, so honest and loyal and kind and caring, but he also suuuuuucks at communication. It’s my job, personality, and pride to articulate feelings, moods, and motives, and I feel like I’ve done all I can to communicate. I need this to end, but I’m waiting for a promise that will never be kept. When we agreed to get back together, he promised to address this. It’s been years.
I don’t know. I could say more, but it wouldn’t paint him in the right light because it’s hard to express issues without feeling like I’m trashing him, and he doesn’t deserve that.
You can’t help people that don’t want it, but at the very least, I need help living with this.
I have nothing left in me to beg anymore. I have no expectations, no reason to believe it will change, and no mental capacity to continue to hear things will be different when experience dictates otherwise. It probably shows that I have other aspects of my life where this same thing is occurring (daughter with mental health and addiction issues), and I have no fight left in me. I’m not even broken from it anymore. I'm just numb.
I know the obvious. I know that it’s taken me years to finally tell my daughter that if she doesn’t get help, I can’t be an active part of her life. I know I need to do that with him; I just am caving over and over, giving myself no credibility because I can’t honestly do it for him. I understand that makes me the problem, the enabler, the one allowing it to continue. I know. So what now?

Before going into this I want to pre-fix something rwal quick: I have nothing against deep cut themselves, i like them. The thing I dislike is how they are handled.
Tl/dr deep cut, instead of being their own group gets shoe horned by nintendo into the squidsisters. Possible fixes is making deep cut basicaly team rocket like villains in story mode therby leaving room for a good character dlc on them or making them the focus of the story mode example is down there.
With that out of the way lets continue. I personaly dislike that deep cut gets shoe horned into the things. Lets take a look at the story mode first. They get their introduction after unsealing the gateway to the second site and its great. You immidiatley get the basic picture of who they are and they dont stay around making everything about them which is great sonce they werent meant to be the centere of the story mode. Their bosses do what they introduction did but they focus on one member at a time fleshing them out more. It falls a little short but if I was expection a complete character analysis id be stupid.
The problems only start at the end of the game when after getting the treasure they stay around and get forced into the story which isnt a good idea to do at the end of a game. They stay around and are made out to be this very nice people which isnt the problem in itself. The problem is that they only say how nice they are. This breaks the basic rule of "show dont tell" which causes it to fall flat and since they want to characterize deep cut falling flat isnt a good option. At the end before the final boss starts they get made into the reason that it could even happen which doesnt feel organic and could be wasily replaced by the former 3 using special and catapulting neo3 into the boss fight or octavio shows up earlier brings you into space, gets hit and neo 3 has to buy some time. Those are two ways how you could delete deep cut from the ending stretch and it wouldnt really changed anything significant which is sad. Calli and marie in splat 1 story were also pretty replacable. The difference is that they were never spun to be more than commentators. Marie and calli were the vocal point of splat 2s story mode. Sheldon was used as a tool nothing more and he was never really used as more. Off the hook was also only ever spun to be important in their dlc. Deep cut is the only one who is made out to be this very importand thing while being replacable. The worst thing for me is that they get shoe horned into the squidsisters music. The calamary inkantation togethet with splatt atack are the 2 most iconic music pieces of splatoon. Splat attack is something basicaly everyone has a version of which is great! The calamari inkantation however was always the song of the squid sisters and deep cut just taking part into this even though they were the villains 10 minutes ago leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Same withe bigman singing in this new song of them (i dont mean tommorows nostalgia today.). It just feels like that nintendo rather shoe horns them into the squid sisters instead of letting deep cut be their own idol group even though they still have so much potential.
Ofcours only complaining is bad so I thought of two solutions already. 1 simple quick fix and 1 extrem change to the story mode.
The quick fix would be after marie giving them the treasure they run up to it want to take it but then it blows up blasting them away kinda like team rocket.
The extreme change is based on a "pattern" if noticed having played all the games. In splat 1 you ate always very distant to the idols. In splat 2 you start as being nithing but a tool fir marie to achieve her goal but over the course of the campaign she grows very close to you. In octo expansion you go from stranger to close friend in the matter of 3 minutes. So I thought hiw about we continue the trend. How about instead of a narrator guiding you thru the tutoriel 3 people guide you thru it. Their names are all ??? But one is blue, one is yellow and one is grey (take a gues who it is). When in the city they explain you the hub as usual but when the camera goes to deep cut they praise them into the high heavens and when they go to the story mode entrance they say "thats where we will meet".
If you enter they will great you. Because the story is about the player and deep cut going treasure hunting! After opening a way to alterna deep cut obviosly wants to go there and you do but the player stops and stares into the distance before being pulled into the entrance by a random deep cut member after which we ge a shot of someones leg and their weird shoes (agent 4 snow boots) Story mode basicaly goes as normal but deep cut is the commentator. The first difference here would be that the boss fights have a long hallway in which we hear the deep cut memeber which we would normaly fight get attacked by something and when you arrive the boss is pretty normal but they wear some weird glasses (hypno shades) and repeatedly ask you to leave. After winning the fight you all come to the base to discous who was the attacker. After thebfirst deep cut boss it would be confirmed that they are a squid with long tentackles with the one attacked trying to remember their skin color. After the second fight they try to remember the eye color. And after the third the eyebrow.
If you have collected the 3 treasures and start the last stretch of the game agent 4 (as you described them) appears, knocks them out and steals the treasure. After waking back up you see that the fuzz around the rocket is gone and conclude that the attacker must be there. So you do that sequenz and climb the rocket while deep cut reports that their way got sabotaged meaning that it takes a bit till they catch up. And at the end you have to face off 4 who laments that you didnt leave. This boss fight is not one you are supposed to win. You are supposed to survive for 4 minutes. Here you could impliment 3 ending paths. The first is you loose the battle dont press continue and get a cutscene where 4 puts hypno shades on you this is followed by having a boos gight against all of deep cut gighting together. After winning you get a cutscene where 4 and cap3 kick grizz into space. The NNSS leaves and you look back at your adventure.
Ending path 2. You survive 4 minutes deep cut arrives and the 4 of you battle against 4 off screen which leaves deep cut exausted while 4 seems slightly annoyed. Then the rocket starts. Marie and callie are like "welp guess thats it." Cap3 and 4 look at each other and cap3 says something like "its nitb4 o'clock just yet. Think you get there in time?" 4 replays of ofcourse and leaves the scene. Deep cut confused asked whats this all about and we get the basics of grizz being about to destroy the world. Deep cut sends neo3 into space. Fight as normal. The difference is that octavio and 4 arrives. Instead of big frye, 4 is gonna buy them the time. And here we coud do 2 endings (for a total of 3) if you win in the time limit you get the normal ending 4 is relieved that everyting worked out fine in the end, calli is hyped as always, marie looks tired and the cap looks a bit annoyed. If you loose 4 sends the player and octavio back and defeats grizz by landing a splashdown on grizz (not a normal splash down, in the normal one you jump up a bit and come down fast, in this scenario 4 jumps from grizzes belly back into alterna for that ungodly splash down.) 4 falls back to earth and has lost every bit of energy they had left the NNSS leaves calli being worried about 4, cap3 and marie are mad.
Also deep cut and the squidsisters shouldnt be kept seperate so each group can be themselves and not be overshadowed by the other one.
Well thats about it. If you like to add anything to this trainwreck of a post please respond, id like to hear others opinions on this.

Translations and features of formal Welsh from the document referenced here in an earlier post:
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Gwnaed mwy na 90 miliwn o ymweliadau â Chymru yn 2019
More than 90 million visits were made to Wales in 2019

Use of impersonal past conjugation (this is irregular for gwneud, gwnaethpwyd is also seen). The usual ending seen is -wyd
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Byddai'r ddeddfwriaeth arfaethedig hon yn galluogi awdurdodau lleol i gyflwyno ardoll yn eu hardaloedd os byddant yn dewis gwneud hynny.
This proposed legislation would enable local authorities to introduce a levy in their areas if they choose to do so.

Use of y ... hwn / y ... hon / y ... hyn rather than y ... 'ma
Use of bydd- for stems not bas- for conditional would. Buaswn is I had been. Also: Pe buaswn - If I had been
Use of alternative ending and the dropping of pronouns: byddant rather than byddan nhw
​

Mae'r Rhaglen Lywodraethu, sy'n uchelgeisiol ac yn radical, yn cydnabod faint o weithgarwch sydd ei angen wrth inni adfer yn sgil pandemig y coronafeirws.
The Programme for Government is ambitious and radical, recognising the scale of activity required as we recover following the coronavirus pandemic.

Use of alternative endings for conjugated prepositions and pronoun drop: inni not i ni (so: imi, iti, iddo, iddi, inni, ichi, iddynt)
​

Un o'n hymrwymiadau allweddol yw ‘cyflwyno deddfwriaeth sy'n caniatáu i awdurdodau lleol godi ardoll twristiaeth’, sydd hefyd yn un o'r meysydd y cyfeirir atynt yn y Cytundeb Cydweithio gyda Phlaid Cymru.
One of our key commitments is to 'introduce legislation permitting local authorities to raise a levy on tourism', which is also one of the measures referenced within the Cooperation Agreement with Plaid Cymru.

ydy / ydi are not used in formal Welsh but yw instead.
Use of impersonal conjugation for verbs and inclusion of preceding y in present / future and conditional tenses, pronoun drop: meysydd y cyfeirir atynt
-ir is the impersonal present / future tense ending.
​

Treth leol newydd a gaiff ei dylunio mewn ffordd sy'n gweithio i gymunedau lleol, busnesau ac ymwelwyr â Chymru fyddai ardoll ymwelwyr.
A visitor levy would be a new local tax designed in a way that works for local communities, businesses, and visitors to Wales.

Use of present / future tense conjugated forms of cael: caiff. This is a focused sentence using the conditional fyddai to join to the predicate.
​

Maent yn ffrydiau refeniw pwysig sy'n sicrhau cynaliadwyedd parhaus y gwasanaethau lleol a ddarperir i'n cymunedau – gwasanaethau sydd o fudd enfawr i bob un ohonom.
They are important revenue streams which ensure the continued sustainability of local services to our communities – services from which we all derive huge benefit.

Use of maent rather than maen nhw.
Use of present tense impersonal including previous relative pronoun a: gwasanaethau a ddarperir - provided services
​

Maent hefyd yn gwneud cyfraniadau allweddol at gyflawni ein huchelgeisiau ehangach ar gyfer Cymru gryfach, decach a mwy gwyrdd.
They also make key contributions to our wider ambitions for a stronger, greener, and fairer Wales.

Use of prefixed possessive pronouns without a following reinforcing pronoun: ein huchelgeisiau ehangach rather than ein huchelgeisiau ehangach ni. Reinforcing pronouns are only used when emphasis is required.
​

Byddai'r ardoll rydym yn ei gynnig yn ddewisol ei natur, gan mai awdurdodau lleol fyddai'n penderfynu a fyddant yn ei gyflwyno ai peidio.
The levy we are proposing would be discretionary in nature, as it would be for local authorities to decide whether to introduce it.

Use of byddai, not basai.
Use of rydm yn not 'dyn ni'n / rydyn ni'n
Use of fyddant, not fyddan nhw
​

Rydym yn gobeithio y bydd ymwelwyr yn parhau i fwynhau'r cyfan sydd gennym i'w gynnig – nawr ac yn y dyfodol.
We hope visitors will continue to enjoy all we have to offer – now and in the future.

Use of Rydym yn gobeithio not 'dyn ni'n gobeitho.
Use of preceding y in y bydd
​
Use of formal conjugation of prepositions with pronoun dropped: sydd gennym not sy gynnon ni

Bydd cymryd rhan yn yr ymgynghoriad hwn yn helpu i lunio treth sy'n gweithio i Gymru.
Involvement in this consultation will help shape a tax that works for Wales.

Use of yr ymgynghoriad hwn not yr ymgynhoriad 'ma
​

Rydym yn ymwybodol o'r heriau sydd wedi wynebu busnesau drwy gydol pandemig y coronafeirws, ac y bydd gan lawer ohonynt bryderon dealladwy am effaith bosibl ardoll wrth iddynt geisio codi'n ôl ar eu traed.
We are conscious of the challenges businesses have faced through the coronavirus pandemic, and that many will have understandable concerns on the potential impact of a levy as they seek to recover.

Use of Rydym yn ymwybodol not 'dyn ni'n ymwybodol
Use of ohonynt not ohonon nhw; iddynt not iddyn nhw
​

Er ein bod yn gwerthfawrogi'r amrywiaeth o safbwyntiau sydd wedi'u mynegi hyd yma ar yr ardoll, rydym yn ddiolchgar am gyfraniad busnesau unigol a grwpiau sy'n eu cynrychioli hyd yma o ran deall yr heriau sy'n eu hwynebu.
While we appreciate the range of views expressed to date on the levy, we are grateful for the involvement of individual businesses and representative groups to date in understanding the challenges faced.

Use of ein bod not ein bod ni
​

Caiff ardollau ymwelwyr eu defnyddio ledled y byd er budd cymunedau lleol ac ymwelwyr.
Visitor levies are used across the world to the benefit of local communities and visitors.

Use of conjugated present / future of cael - caiff for a passive
​

Cânt eu defnyddio ar lefelau daearyddol amrywiol, o ardaloedd trefol mawr i ranbarthau llawer llai, gan gynnwys rhannau o Ffrainc, yr Eidal a'r Almaen.
They are applied at varying geographical levels, from large urban areas to much smaller rural regions, including across parts of France, Italy and Germany.

Use of conjugated present / future of cael - cânt not cân nhw or maen nhw'n cael
​

Mae egwyddor tegwch yn sail i ardollau ymwelwyr ac yn sicrhau y caiff y costau eu rhannu'n fwy cyfartal rhwng trigolion ac ymwelwyr.
The principle of fairness underpins visitor levies and ensures a more even share of the costs between residents and visitors.

Use of caiff for passive
​

Drwy'r broses hon, rydym am ddylunio treth sy'n gyson â'n hegwyddorion treth craidd.
Through this process, we want to design a tax that is aligned to our core tax principles.

Use of rydym not 'dyn ni
​

Mae gennym arlwy cyfoethog o dirweddau unigryw a phrydferth ac amrywiaeth o atyniadau i ymwelwyr sy'n parhau i ddenu miliynau o ymwelwyr i'n gwlad bob blwyddyn.
We have a rich offering of beautiful unique landscapes and a range of visitor attractions that continue to draw millions of visitors to our country every year.

Use of gennym not gynnon ni or ganddon ni
Formal Welsh conjugation of prepositions may differ from informal usage and pronouns are usually dropped.
​

Byddai ardoll yn cynnig dull o sicrhau cyfraniad gan ymwelwyr tuag at wasanaethau a seilwaith lleol yn yr ardaloedd hynny (y maent yn cael budd ohonynt ac yn dibynnu arnynt fel rhan o'u hymweliad)
A levy would provide a mechanism to ensure a contribution from visitors towards local services and infrastructure provided in those areas (which they benefit and rely on as part of their visit).

Use of y maent yn cael; ohonynt not ohonon nhw, arnynt not arnon nhw
Use of y before mae, maent
​

Byddai ardoll a gaiff ei ddylunio a'i roi ar waith yn effeithiol yn cynnal ac yn annog ymwelwyr â Chymru.
A levy, designed and delivered effectively, would serve to sustain, and encourage visitors to Wales.

Use of a gaiff (here with preceding relative particle) to form a passive
​

Un o'r trethi a ystyriwyd gan Gomisiwn Holtham oedd treth dwristiaeth.
One of the taxes considered by the Holtham Commission was a tourism tax.

Use of past tense impersonal conjugation: ystyriwyd - (was) considered
​

Rhoddwyd ‘treth dwristiaeth’ ar restr fer fel treth i'w chyflwyno o'r rhestr hon o syniadau a luniwyd gan y cyhoedd yng Nghymru ac, yn dilyn hynny, cafwyd trafodaeth yn y Senedd i ystyried y syniad ymhellach.
A ‘tourism tax’ was shortlisted as a tax to take forward from this list of ideas generated by the Welsh public and there was a subsequent debate in the Senedd to explore the idea further.

Use of past tense impersonal conjugation: rhoddwyd - (was) put
Use of past tense impersonal conjugation: cafwyd (from cael) - (was / were) had
​

Mae'r awgrymiadau ar gyfer ‘treth dwristiaeth’ wedi cael eu datblygu'n gynigion a gyflwynir yn yr ymgynghoriad hwn fel ardoll dewisol i awdurdodau lleol ei godi yng Nghymru. Rydym wedi defnyddio'r term ‘ardoll ymwelwyr’ am ein bod yn cydnabod y gellir dehongli'r term ‘twristiaeth’ mewn ffordd gul i olygu pobl ar wyliau, ond mae ‘ymwelwyr’ yn derm ehangach.
The suggestions for a ‘tourism tax’ have been developed into proposals presented in this consultation as a discretionary local visitor levy for local authorities to apply in Wales. We have used the term ‘visitor levy’ as we recognise that the term ‘tourism’ may be interpreted narrowly as recreational holidaymakers whereas ‘visitor’ is a broader term.

a gyflwynir - that will be introduced
y gellir dehongli'r term - that the term may be interpreted
​

Rydym wedi ymgysylltu'n helaeth cyn yr ymgynghoriad hwn er mwyn helpu i lywio ein ffordd o feddwl a datblygu'r cynnig ar gyfer ardoll ymwelwyr.
We have undertaken extensive engagement ahead of this consultation to help shape our thinking and to develop the proposal for a visitors' levy.

Rydym wedi not rydyn ni wedi
​

Ni ddylid ystyried bod cyfarfod â swyddogion neu Weinidogion yn arwydd o gefnogaeth i'r ardoll gan y blaid honno. Dylid nodi y cafodd amrywiaeth eang o safbwyntiau eu mynegi ar y syniad o ardoll mewn egwyddor a chaiff y safbwyntiau hyn eu hystyried yn fanylach drwy'r ymgynghoriad hwn a'r asesiad effaith rheoleiddiol rhannol.
Meeting with officials or ministers should not be taken as an indication of support for the levy from that party. It should be noted that there was a wide range of views expressed on the principle of a levy and these views are explored in more detail through this consultation and the partial regulatory impact assessment.

Use of ni to negate a conjugated verb and no use of ddim
Use of imperfect impersonal conjugation -id (this has a past tense meaning for modal verbs eg. gellid, dylid)

Dylid nodi y cafodd amrywiaeth eang o safbwyntiau eu mynegi - It should be noted that a broad range of views were expressed

​

Treth leol a fyddai'n cael ei chodi o fewn ardal awdurdod lleol fyddai'r ardoll, a byddai'n ariannu gwariant awdurdodau lleol. Rydym yn cynnig y byddai awdurdodau lleol yn gallu dewis p'un a fyddant yn cyflwyno'r ardoll ai peidio, yn unol ag anghenion eu cymunedau.
A visitor levy would be a local tax, charged within a local authority area, and which would fund local authority expenditure. We propose that local authorities would be able to choose whether or not they introduce the levy according to the needs of their communities.

a fyddai'n cael ei chodi - that would be raised / charged

Rydym yn cynnig y byddai awdurdodau lleol yn gallu dewis
We propose that authorities would be able to choose

​

Ardoll – Caiff y termau ‘ardoll’ a ‘treth’ eu defnyddio'n gyfnewidiol drwy'r ddogfen hon. Rydym yn cynnig cyflwyno treth leol newydd y cyfeiriwn ati fel ‘ardoll ymwelwyr’.
Levy - The terms ‘levy’ and ‘tax’ are used interchangeably throughout this document. We are proposing to introduce a new local tax which we are referring to as a ‘visitor levy’.

y cyfeiriwn ati - which we are referring to
​

Drwy'r ddogfen hon, cyfeiriwn at grwpiau neu eiriau amrywiol y gall y sawl sy'n darllen eu dehongli'n wahanol.
Throughout this document we refer to various groupings or words that may be interpreted differently by those reading.

cyfeiriwn - pronoun omitted y gall - short form present with preceding particle
​

Cydnabyddiaeth - Consideration
Unrhyw fath o werth a roddir, y deellir yn gyffredinol ei fod yn golygu ‘arian/arian parod’.
Any form of value received, generally understood as ‘cash/money’

a roddir - that is given use of impersonal present / future y deellir - is understood
​

Llety ymwelwyr - Visitor accommodation
Ystafell, grŵp o ystafelloedd neu adeilad, llain o dir ar gyfer lleoli llety dros dro (carafán, cartref modur, pabell neu adeiledd dros dro arall), neu gwch preswyl (cwch cul), lle y gallai rhywun aros dros dro, nad yw'n gyfeiriad parhaol iddo, ac a osodir i ymwelwyr yn fasnachol.
A room, group of rooms or building, plot of land for siting of temporary transient accommodation (caravan, motorhome, tent or other temporary structure), houseboat (narrow boat), where someone might stay on a temporary basis and is not their fixed address and is let to visitors commercially.

​

Rhoddir gwybodaeth ychwanegol drwy'r asesiad effaith rheoleiddiol rhannol sydd wedi'i gyhoeddi ochr yn ochr â'r ymgynghoriad hwn.
Additional information is provided through the partial regulatory impact assessment that has been published alongside this consultation

Use of rhoddir
​

Wedyn, bydd angen ystyried y fframwaith a'r rheolau y byddai'r dreth yn gweithredu ynddynt (cwestiynau 3-8).
It is then necessary to consider the framework and rules within which the tax would operate (questions 3-8)

Use of ynddynt
​

Rydym yn cydnabod bod gan drefniadau trwyddedu statudol ran i'w chwarae hefyd, a chaiff cysylltiadau rhyngddynt a'r cynnig ar gyfer ardoll ymwelwyr eu hystyried yn yr ymgynghoriad (cwestiynau 15 ac 16).
We recognise that statutory licensing also has a role to play and links to the visitor levy proposal and this is explored within the consultation (questions 15-16)

Use of rhyngddynt
​

Wedyn, bydd yr ymgynghoriad yn symud ymlaen i drafodaeth am y cyfraddau y gellid eu codi, effeithiau posibl gwahanol gyfraddau a sut y dylai'r cyfraddau gael eu pennu (cwestiynau 17-26).
The consultation then leads to a discussion on the potential types of rate that could be implemented, an exploration of the potential impacts different rates may have and how rates should be set (questions 17-26).

sut y dylai'r cyfraddau gael eu pennu - how the rates should be set.
​

Caiff ardollau ymwelwyr eu defnyddio fel mater o drefn mewn cyrchfannau ymwelwyr ledled Ewrop ac mewn cyrchfannau rhyngwladol eraill.
Visitor levies are routinely applied in visitor destinations across Europe and other international destinations.

​

Fodd bynnag, bydd y ffordd y cânt eu rhoi ar waith yn amrywio o un cyrchfan i'r llall gan fod y mathau hyn o ardollau'n cael eu defnyddio ar lefelau daearyddol amrywiol (tref, dinas, rhanbarth, gwlad)
However, application varies by destination with these types of levies being applied at various geographical levels (town, city, region, country)

y ffordd y cânt eu rhoi ar waith - they way that they applied
​

Rydym yn cynnig mai diben yr ardoll ymwelwyr a gyflwynir yn yr ymgynghoriad hwn yw darparu refeniw ychwanegol i awdurdodau lleol a system drethu decach. Ni fwriedir i'r ardoll gael ei ddefnyddio i gymell pobl i beidio ag ymweld â rhannau o Gymru.
We propose that the purpose of the visitor levy presented in this consultation document is to provide additional revenue for local authorities and a more equitable taxation system. It is not the intent that the levy is used to disincentivise visitors to regions of Wales.

Ni fwriedir - It is not intended
​

Y rheswm dros hyn yw ei bod yn amhosibl codi treth ar ymwelwyr mewn modd detholus heb ddull o gadarnhau prif breswylfa unigolyn.
This is because without a method of verification of an individual’s primary residence, it is not possible to selectively tax visitors

​

Mae'n debygol na fyddai system o'r fath yn ddichonadwy oherwydd byddai'n golygu bod angen i unigolion fynd â phrawf adnabod gyda nhw ac y byddai'r busnesau wedyn yn gwirio'r wybodaeth hon.
Such a system would likely be unfeasible as it would require individuals to carry relevant identification with them and businesses to then check this information.

​

Byddai'r ardoll yn cefnogi twristiaeth gynaliadwy, fel y'i diffinnir gan Sefydliad Twristiaeth y Byd y Cenhedloedd Unedig: twristiaeth sy'n ystyried ei heffeithiau economaidd, cymdeithasol ac amgylcheddol yn y presennol a'r dyfodol yn llawn, gan fynd i'r afael ag anghenion ymwelwyr, y diwydiant, yr amgylchedd a chymunedau sy'n derbyn ymwelwyr.
The levy would support sustainable tourism, as defined by the UN World Tourism Organisation: ‘tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities

fel y'i diffinnir gan - as it is defined by
Adverbial verb phrases follow fel with a y particle. Infixed object pronouns can be attached to the particle, as here.

Hi everyone, I'm not sure why I'm posting today but I think I need to speak up on topics to get outside opinions. Let's start with introductions:

• Me: I am a calm and reasoned man, I have a stable life, a job I got after my master, and I am financially independent. The stereotype of the guy you could introduce to your parents without any problem.
• Her: Younger and still studying, she is not financially independent and regularly lacks money (that's why she sells charm pictures). She has a very, very heavy past, which has caused traumas that are difficult to bear. As a result she takes medication, and she also uses drugs relatively excessively at night. She is a person who could be described as unstable.

You're going to tell me how I was able to hook up with her given these differences? Probably because of this difference and her original personality which detaches me from my usual standards. A kind of interview to the dark side?
---
JANUARY
I met this girl at a techno party (my dark passion) at the beginning of January and I quickly got hooked. However I had my eye on another girl for several months, so that delayed our connection a bit. Finally, by a combination of circumstances we got closer although she was aware of my intentions towards the other girl.
I decided to talk with my crush and I drew a line under it. So I spent two weeks with our protagonist with the will to move on and without putting her in the uncomfortable position of second lead. But, I did tell her that I didn't want to be in a relationship.
FEBRUARY
That's what caused a rift between her and me in early February: she wanted more, I didn't. And she met another person, with whom she wanted to try to see the advancement. I basically didn't feel much at that time.
After cutting off contact for a few weeks, we started talking again a bit with text advances. However, we didn't see each other again for a while.
MARCH
Finally at the beginning of the month she came to my place, and we had a great time. As luck would have it, it turns out that she has moved on from her previous relationship with a violent and vulgar man. Moreover, she is on her way back to more stability and correction of her problems (stop drugs, appointments with specialists etc). Implicitly I like this, and I know that my natural empathy is developing a kind of savior syndrome with her.
We spent two weekends in a row together at events with mutual friends, and I was freed from the weight I had before. Much less restraint, and no fear of judgment from my group of friends. I really enjoyed those moments and so did she.
---
I realize that this time I am starting to get more attached to her, and that worries me. I thought I could just catch the good moments and keep a distance like I did in the beginning, but that's not completely the case anymore. What do you think and what should I do? I realize that the whole thing is ephemeral in one way or another, but I want to take full control of the situation.
TL;DR: I am becoming more attached than I expected to this unstable girl with a difficult past and various addictions. What should I do?

Cocaine Rock Heroin Roll cycle
Kingdom of Light = forever, always = all cocaine, History = His Story
9PM-12AM only cocaine during cocaine high
9PM Christ cocaine born (Christmas)(cocaine shot right arm)
10PM Father God cocaine (cocaine shot left arm)
11PM Holy Ghost cocaine (cocaine shot both arms)
​
12AM Anti-Christ wakes inside Christ cocaine when Christ cocaine shoots heroin
​
Rocking = Christ cocaine dominant, cocaine addiction
(12AM-3AM zigzag heroin during cocaine high)
(zigzag between Red 1 and Blue 2)
American Pie
shoot (heroin) to thrill (cocaine)
sometimes, something = some heroin
time and thing = heroin
​
1AM Red = some heroin mostly cocaine (black dot white bar)
person
the sun, the son, Sunday, 7, A, alpha, 1, I, X, cross, Chi = Christ cocaine
A = alpha = 1st letter Greek alphabet, value = 1
X = Chi = 22nd letter Greek alphabet, value = 600
one eye open, black hole sun, spick, wake up = black dot white bar
today, here, now, present = time = black dot white bar
name, I am = identity and existence
the one, the way, the path = the person
the light = illumination or enlightenment
everyone, everything, everywhere = inclusivity
all, whole = entirety of something
hope, happy, pink, light, easy, smile, live = positive emotions
think, thought, logic = positive mental processes
help, give = positive aid
do, see = positive action
music = positive creation
new, clean, paint, dress, style = beautification
young, girl, chic, lips = youth and beauty
nice girl = pleasant person
city, urban, west = location
mile = distance and space
spring = growth
stop, walk, stand = movement
body, head, eye, = body parts
sugar, sweet, cake = taste
mountain, sea, rock, stone = nature
story, speak, write, words, letters = language
paper, sheets, sail = printing
knows, nose, teach, believe = knowledge
reason, why, want, how, knowledge = motivation and knowledge
rich, million, strong, right = wealth and power
buy, diamonds, business, work, make, build = commerce and creation
queen, law = rule
control, cops = law enforcement
free, loose = freedom
fat, wide, = 9PM-6AM space
love, sex = positive emotions and actions
pinky (1), index finger (1 or 4), love sign (1,4&5), fist = hand gestures
​
2AM Blue = more heroin mostly cocaine (white bar black outline)
person
the moon, blue moon, B, 2, 5, V, star, omega, w, P, Rho, 6, Saturday = Anti-Christ heroin
something, sometimes, anything = some heroin
use, try = something
take, took, got, change = something
what = something
more = something
the blues = melancholy or sadness, feelings of loss, heartbreak
fool, 17, illegal, boy = immature, blue
B = beta = 2nd letter Greek alphabet, value = 2
P = Rho = 17th letter Greek alphabet, value = 100
king = royal and law, blue
babe = endearment, blue
air, sky, ocean, rain, breeze, wind, cold, world = natural blue
hopeless, heavy thoughts, burdened = mind person blue
poor, weak, broken, bruised = outer person blue
wrong, sad, frown, mourning = inner person blue
ok, fine, well = inner person kinda blue
bawler, bawl, cry = inner person blue
colors, rainbow, bright = parts of light
endless day, summer, morning = sunshine
east = sunrise
soul, mind, heart, feel = inner life
heard, no words = silent
numbers = no words
something's wrong, better way = change
wish, superstition = magic
rape, lust, love drunk = desire, blue
go, move, trip, speed, run = forward, blue
play, vacation, holiday = leisure, blue
risk, reckless, trouble, wild, dare = risky, blue
fake, part = falseness, blue
V, thumb, horns sign thumb in (1&4), shaka sign (1&5) = hand gestures
song, hum, chorus, = general idea of music
matter, material = substance
first one, blue ribbon = recognition
dance = music in motion
make to bed to sleep to dream
speak to say to meaning to things
see to look to watch to understand
city street to rural road
stand to lie down
buy to sell to pay to debt to money
head to face
lips to hips
do to don't
easy to difficult
soft to hard
nose to smell
believe to blame
​
3AM Mercy hour (Chi Rho, XP, Christ/Anti-Christ)
lavender, purple, violet
Anti-Christ heroin kills Christ cocaine, mostly cocaine syringe becomes mostly heroin syringe
(stop the clocks)
(3 = middle finger = Anti-Christ heroin fucks over Christ cocaine)
(Ouroboros = Dragon heroin addiction consumes body of Christ cocaine addiction)
(the day the music died)
​
Rolling = Anti-Christ heroin dominant, heroin addiction
3AM-6AM zigzag cocaine during heroin high
(zigzag between White 4 and Grey 5)
play (cocaine) to kill (heroin)
somewhere, somehow = some cocaine
​
4AM White = some cocaine mostly heroin (white dot black bar)
person, someone
Anti-Christ heroin woman
Sisyphus = heroin addict pushing cocaine addiction to the 6AM Wall
my son, baby, you, your, yourself = person
wherever, somewhere, someone = some cocaine
trauma, bleeding = wounded
still here = survival, resilience
lost = uncertainty or disorientation
let go, come on = urging someone
share, meet = together
meat, apple, wine = food
wife, mother, sister, mama = female family members
orphan, little one, bastard, rock star, hitchhiker = people
whistle, sing, ringing, noise, blow = sounds or noise
tonight, right here, right now = specific time
go ahead = permission
fall, leaves, forest, winter, snow, star light, first star = nature
speck, pool, watch = white dot black bar
bone, ball, pillow, skeleton, grain of sand, tattered clouds = objects
smoke, sweat, tear = body reactions
see to look to 3AM door to watch to close eyes to 6AM die
train station, town, coffee shop, diner = place where people hang out
house, mansion = object
frontline, north = location
free from sin = person
shine, reflected = outside light
wild courage, brave, wonder, crazy = mind
chosen one = person selected for a role or purpose
one in a million = unique
times like these = unique and challenging
waiting on a miracle = extraordinary outcome
new dimension = new viewpoint
unique, apart, only, just, so = exclusivity (white dot black bar)
always free, up, jump, bounce, around, all over = movement
uptown, highlands = places
much more = quantity
know to don't to forget to remember
message, answer, call, SOS = message
meaning of things, symbols = understanding
careful, blind = behavior
wedding, pretend = action
should, would, will, won't = modal verbs show possibility, intent, ability, or necessity
wanna, gonna, gonna make, tryna find = informal contractions
clubs, agriculture = farmer, growth
good luck, bounty, reward, bring back = return
student, learning = education
fly away, dove, little bird, bunting = prey
alright, tucked in = position/location
preach, pray = religion
shudder = from fear
broken glass, dish, = household items
photograph, TV, = picture
amazing,
​
5AM Grey = more heroin (black bar white outline)
thing, someone else
Anti-Christ heroin man
Blackjack, (the ace of spades),(shot caller), liar, yeah, um, no,
me, my, mine = referring to oneself
them, they = referring to others
the man = power and law
papa, father, husband, brother = male family members
keeper, guide, finder = supporting oneself or others
ourselves, us = group of people that includes oneself
alone, lonely = being by oneself
it, thing, telephone, radio, clock, a watch = objects
gun, pistol, shotgun = weapon
cannonball, bullet, rounds = ammunition
bottle, cup of coffee = object for holding something
shadow, closed eyes = absence or darkness
time = heroin
shame = negative feeling
lucky star =
debt = negative matter
south, desert = location
last night = time
empty, nothing, nowhere, nobody = absence
buried, underground, deep down, hole, low, south = hidden or buried
grave, closet, trunk, coffin = death and burial
sand, dirt, mud, earth, trunk, tree = nature
yellow, golden, hazel, brown, green, glow, faded = color
broken, old = age or condition
feeling, need, hunger, itch, habit, debt = desire
peace, hush, silence, die, dream = finality and rest
pain, fear, misery, disappeared = negative experiences
crooked, little = characteristics of object
restless, sleepless, warm within, inside = feelings
burn, fire, wreck, destroy = destroy
lucky, insane, mad, madness = emotions
truck, train, horse, wheel, mule = transportation
turn, drink, pull = action
iron, rusty nail, spoon = household items
to prey, fight, hunt, chase, hit, crash, catch, kill, force, bite, take, race = action
military, war = war
brawler, knight, soldier = fighter
pressure, gravity, squeeze, tight = physical forces
hand, hold, grip, mouth, heart, side, horn, hair = body parts
hung, hang = hanging
hunter's pouch = hunting object
home, roof, shelter, hometown, country, downtown, southern = location
never go = prohibition
remember, found = memory
game, symbols, star, V, 5, spades, 21, ?, bell, (hell's bells), bad sign, horns sign thumb in (1&4), thumb, number, no name,
green jealousy = fear of losing something already in possession involving 3rd party
6AM Black = (Black bar) all heroin
Devil, Dragula, Sandman, yeah-yeah, mother nature = Supernatural Beings
Devil heroin castle, (The Wall), hell, never never land = locations
green, black = money (root of all evil)
green greed = desire something by itself
green envy = desiring what someone else (Grey 5) has
grass, sunrise, afterglow, softly clears = nature
---------
More Metaphors:
cocaine: Dutch, hills, 9, truth, hard, touch, silver, ...
heroin: slip, strangle, slam, smack, dig, ditch, velvet, Italian, poison, 8, dark, gone, strange, stranger, spread, bad, lies, ...

The voices are different at my new school. Not too different, they mostly still talk about the same things. But just different enough for me to notice. They seem less… worried. The colors are less purple and blue than before, they’re more orange and yellow. Yellow voices are always happy and friendly. I really like yellow voices, but there’s never enough of them around me.
My name is Lizzy, which is one of those “blink and you’ll miss it” names. I like using that phrase because my mom said it would make me sound more mature. I don’t really like saying this, but I’m one of the “weird kids”. One of the kids who never fit into anything, who never understood how everyone else could just talk and be part of social groups and not have that be the most awkward experience of their lives. Now that’s not to say I don’t have friends, I do! It’s just that I can’t figure out how to be a part of one of those big friend groups where everyone has a great time with each other, like, genuinely.
I’m just bad at being social, I guess. Whenever I try to introduce myself to other people they always get weirded out by me. I think it might be the way I talk to them… or the way I can never maintain eye contact with them. Sometimes when I talk to people all I can hear in my head are the voices, and when I’m a little tired or bored I just pick the loudest voice I can hear and say it out loud. Whenever I do that though, the voice of the person I’m talking to gets purple and blue, and then they don’t want to talk to me anymore. Weird.
Alright, enough about my terrible social life, I started my first day at my new school today! My new teacher, Ms. Winter, is really really nice! She had me introduce myself to the rest of the class, and she was really supportive and gave me hints on what to say before I went up. I hate public speaking, but she actually made it really easy for me! I remember I said something like, “Hi, I’m Lizzy Culligan, I just moved to Eastwood, and I’m really excited to be here and meet all of you!” I didn’t want to say that last part because it didn’t sound genuine, but Ms. Winter told me that it would make me sound more friendly, and her voice said that too so I just decided to listen to it. I thought the other kids would laugh at me for that last part, but they didn’t. A lot of their voices turned yellow, actually! Ms. Winter is so smart!
Ms. Winter does this thing where she takes a picture of every student and prints them out on these little laminated pages and tapes them to our assigned seats. While the rest of the class was reading, she took a picture of me at my desk, and she said she would print it out that night. “That’s so sweet of you,” I said. I would never say something that… sophisticated… but her voice was saying that about me, so I just decided to repeat it out loud. Ms. Winter replied, “Oh, thank you Lizzy!”, but she seemed confused for some reason. After that, she went back to her desk and sat there with this weird look on her face for a few minutes.
https://imgur.com/a/HhO6xze
Sometimes I really wish I could turn the voices off. I have these huge, pink, puffy headphones that I carry around in my bag. My therapist told me to try wearing them, and they really do help! If I wear them, the voices get really quiet, quiet enough to where I can’t make anything out. But I really don’t like wearing the headphones. At my old school, whenever I wore them, people would give me the weirdest looks. And even though they helped with the voices, I could still see colors around people. Whenever I wore the headphones the colors around some people became this strange mix of green and red. It almost looked like the color of puke. So, I never really wear my headphones, mostly just to avoid that color.
Speaking of Ms. Winter’s voice, it’s actually really similar to my previous teacher’s. Whenever Ms. Winter is talking to other students, her voice is all happy and cheerful and yellow, but whenever she was talking to me on that first day her voice got a little worried, even if I didn’t say anything. Early in the day, she was reading something on her desk and her voice was reading along, but I could only understand a few parts of it because there were a lot of big words that I don’t know yet. I caught things like “Keep an eye on her,” and “Tell her to look for the color red,” and “I know this is extremely strange, but you have an oblig-” Something something. Once she read that she looked up at me and her voice became really purple for a few seconds, but then it went back to normal.
Even though this is my first day of school, it’s actually the second day of classes, since I got to miss the first day because I was in Washington D.C. Cool, right?! I go down to D.C. a lot, but not because I have family who lives down there or anything. It’s because I actually have to go to a doctor down there every few months, but it’s different than my normal doctor who does my physicals and asks me questions like “Are you on your period?” when I’m obviously not. I thought periods went at the end of sentences, how could I be “on” a period? This doctor is actually way better because they never give me shots or look at me from weird angles. All they do is ask me a few questions, then give my parents a ton of forms to sign. I say “they” because it’s a different doctor every time. They also take pictures of me, but not pictures like Ms. Winter does. Here’s the picture they took of me yesterday:
https://imgur.com/a/FF9G5QI
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Well, I don’t know what you’re thinking because you’re reading this on a screen somewhere, but that’s a phrase I’ve heard a lot of people say recently and it makes me feel really satisfied whenever I say it, so I just said it. But, you’re probably thinking, “This looks like a mugshot, Lizzy!” And while you’re technically right, when I asked the doctor that exact question, he said that it wasn’t a mugshot, and even let me keep the picture! Also, you know it’s not a mugshot because they let me smile, and they made me stand on a 2-foot tall stool because I was too short.
Whenever I go to D.C. the voices there are always really loud and sharp. Especially near the Capitol building, the voices are really loud and red and strange. I have to go by the Capitol building to get to the doctor’s office because it’s close by so I hear their voices a lot. Maybe someday I should go in there and tell everybody to chill out and be friendly.
More recently though, the doctors have been doing this thing where they put me in a brightly lit room with a one-way mirror. Fun fact, I only know there’s a mirror because the voices there told me there was. It literally looks exactly like a normal wall. Anyways, they put me in that room for around an hour, and just tell me to write down any voices I hear in a notebook on a table in the middle of the room. I thought it would be cool to just mind my own business for an hour, but the voices in that room are always really strange.
A lot of the time they aren’t in English so I can’t understand them, but when they are in English they’re usually really red and scary, but not the same red as the Capitol building. I just write down what I can understand in the notebook and after the hour is over they take me out of the room and look over the notebook. One time two years ago they asked me to listen and see if the voices said the names of any countries or cities. The only location the voices said that day was somewhere in, like, Pakistan? I’ve never heard of that country though…
When I explained to them one time that I couldn’t understand what the voice was saying because it was in another language, they all went into this big room for a few minutes and came out telling my parents that they would pay for me to take lessons in Arabic so I could understand what the voices were saying. I just started those lessons a few weeks ago, but I’m not really paying attention to them because they’re boring. Why learn a language I’ll never use in real life when I could be paying attention to my actual schoolwork or trying to make new friends?
Anyways, back to talking about today. After Ms. Winter read that paper, she got up and told me to come out into the hallway with her. There, she said, “Lizzy, make sure to look out for red, okay?”. It was the exact same thing my teacher at the last school told me to do and the exact thing the paper just told Ms. Winter to tell me to do. Wow, that was a weird sentence. Anyways, I just shrugged and nodded and said, “Okay”, and Ms. Winter gave me this funny look before turning around and going back into the classroom.
Later in the day, we’re doing math and learning about division and decimals and things that my last school already taught me. I can tell everyone else is engaged because their voices are just thinking about what we’re learning, so I’m sort of left to wander off in my own thoughts. As I’m thinking though, the craziest thing happens! I see red! It’s moving down the road outside of the school. I put down my pencil and glance out of the window, trying to get a better look at what’s causing the red light.
I can see a car going down the road, a little bit too fast. The car is almost painted with red light, it’s like the brightest color I’ve ever seen! It turns into the school’s parking lot a little bit too hard, and its wheel hits the curb on the way in. My mom says that’s called “curbing it” because my dad did that once and ruined one of the tires on his Toyota Prius and my mom has never stopped teasing him over it.
I raise my hand to tell Ms. Winter that I can see red, but she’s busy helping someone on the other side of the classroom. As I keep watching the car, it stops across two parking spaces. My mom hates people who do that. She told me that it’s “inconsiderate”, but her voice said, “People who do that are fucking assholes, Lizzy”, to which I said, “Mom, language!”, to which my mom just smiled at me and said, “It’s okay, nobody could hear that”. I don’t know if I should write down bad language in this journal… It’s not like I’d share this anywhere unless I was all grown up and thought it was okay…
At this point the red is nearly blinding me, it’s so bright! As the car door opens, the redness spills out of the car and through the window and into my eyes, forcing me to look away. All of the voices around me of the kids and Ms. Winter are drowned out by a new voice, the red voice. It’s low, deep, and slow, but I can’t make out what it’s saying. I raise my hand higher, trying to get Ms. Winter’s attention.
Finally, she sees me. At this point, somebody has gotten out of the car with a big backpack, but I can barely even look in that direction anymore because of the red light. She slowly walks over to me, but I lose my patience first and shout, “I see red in the parking lot!” Ms. Winter gets really still for a moment before rushing to my side and glancing out the window. I don’t know what she saw, but an instant later she’s rushing to the phone and calling the main office in a frantic tone. Her voice is too jumbled up to make out any sensible words. All of the other kids in the class just sit there wondering what the hell is going on.
Everything after this is just a blur for me. The intercom comes on to call a lockdown drill. I remember that they make it clear that it’s just a drill. Then, our entire class is hiding in a corner, and Ms. Winter is constantly glancing between me and the door. Her voice is really, really purple. The red light from the parking lot makes its way inside the school, heading toward us. But then, a lot of orange colors suddenly appear and surround the main entrance. When they burst into the school, I can hear a few noises like somebody popping bubble wrap, then nothing. The bright red light slowly gets darker until it’s gone, and I can finally hear other voices again. One of the new orange ones says, “What the actual fuck..?”
After like an hour of being on lockdown, it’s lifted, and we all get to go home early. As I’m leaving, Ms. Winter takes me aside. It looks like she’s about to say something, but she just shakes her head and sits down at her desk. Her voice is completely silent, and I can’t tell what color it is. It’s like a mix of yellow, purple, and blue. For some reason, they tell us to go out of the back side of the school and walk around the playground. The voices in the school’s entrance are all blue and quiet.
Now, I’m sitting in bed, watching Youtube on my iPad. When I came home, my parents seemed a little different. They were hastily whispering to each other and pointing at me. Eventually, they told me to go to my room, but not because I was in trouble. As I sat in bed, my mom’s voice said from downstairs, “We can’t let her watch the news tonight, right?”, and a few minutes later my dad’s voice said, “She just saved hundreds of people, and we’re locking her in her room? Tina’s right, though, and she doesn’t mind being up there, I guess”.
As I sit there, I try to listen for other voices. I can hear my parents talking out loud downstairs over dinner. I can hear their voices saying “How long do I have to keep faking this until she goes to bed?” My neighbor’s voice thinks about how he is so excited to get the day off from school today as he plays video games.
My neighbor’s parents’ voices are purple. Not because of me, though, for perhaps the first time in my life. They’re purple because of what they just watched on the news. I can hear the reporters through their voices. I can hear it through all my neighbors’ voices. The reporters worm their way into my brain, filling my head with every possible angle of what happened. I can’t take it anymore. I stumble out of my room, go downstairs, and fall into my parents' open arms. They don’t tell me to go back to my room.
The TV goes on about how the quick actions of Ms. Winter prevented a tragedy that day. I cry, but not because of what the TV is saying. I know Ms. Winter knows what really happened. I don’t cry because I can’t feel proud of myself or something. I do feel proud of myself, but who could I possibly say that to? I cry… because I know what happened today, and… I wish I didn’t.
I can’t turn the voices off. I can’t stop listening to everyone’s thoughts. I wish I could, but I’m stuck with this stupid fucking curse. It keeps getting worse as I’ve gotten older, I can hear thoughts from farther and farther away, and it's just getting louder and louder and I can’t make it STOP!! I don’t know how to make it stop! The doctors and the people in the Capitol building in D.C. call me “unusual” when they think they’re far enough away. I hate that name…
The voices were different at my new school, on that first day. They were yellow, orange, happy… determined. As I try to go to sleep in my parent’s arms, I think about how people’s thoughts will change tomorrow. For the next few days, people’s thoughts will be different, I’m sure. But… whenever we hear about this on the news, everyone’s thoughts always go back to normal way too quickly. People don’t care about this kind of thing, even… even…
They don’t care about this even when it happens in their own backyard. I’m scared… I’m scared about… what would have happened if I wasn’t paying attention? What if I had been sick? What would have happened to my friends, or Ms. Winter, or the rest of the school?
​
js

I am a young adult (25M), currently working a job that's not too demanding, good hours, flexibility, and pays for living life - pays about 30% above minimum wage (not American). Nothing amazing, but good for early career. It's in my area of studies - economics.
My girlfriend (34F) gave up her career as a teacher despite making decent money she could not deal with the way they treated disabled kids - her specialty. It made her feel bad to the point of quitting. She has been working random jobs for a while, but now she's settled working as a dentist assistant, she's now on her 3rd job in this career path.
3+ years now. We get along great. Have common tastes, common values and common interests. The relationship has been very messy since the beginning. She has a mental disease, which affects her mood most of the time. She has a shit family as well, that is mostly responsible for her mental disorder. We've been through an abortion (not our fault) a suicide attempt on her part, a psychosis event, which had her in medical leave for about 4 months and obviously messes up with someone. My thesis as well was very hard for me to do and she supported me through it. As did I through all her problems. In fact, she states I have saved her life, which I did. If I was not there, the people surrounding her, mostly her mother, who's basically illiterate (seriously), did not know how to deal with it and neither did her friend. She's stable though and an amazing person.
To add to this, she has 4 small animals, cats and dogs, that she loves dearly, as do I. Their apartment (her and her mother's) gets a bit crowded - her mom also has a cat. She takes very well care of the pets both emotionally and health-wise. I know that if she ever has to choose between me or the animals she will have no choice but to choose them, although I don't see how that is a possible cenario.
The relationship only has 1 day of life per week. I live with my parents atm, looking for a place in the city. We live in a suburban town end there's basically nothing to do besides taking a walk or going to restaurants, which neither of us care for and there's only so many times you can do that before being bored I work in the city, so I commute. And her place that one day a week is the only time and place we actually have privacy, without going to hotels, which neither of us have really money for. We end up most of the time just staying home watching movies or going to the movies on other days. We also don't have a car, which is important for a suburban town like this. Because of these privacy restraints, we haven't done anything different in so long and I'm going kind of crazy about it. She wanted to do a trip recently and I said no.
I trust her fully, emotionally. Relationship-wise. And I know she'll never betray me. But in terms of human competences, like finances and such, not so much. It's not that she's going to go in a shopping spree with our shared money (eventually), but for example, if she had to negotiate something with the landlord I knew she would mess it up somehow, due to her well intended nature. This is a problem like everywhere. The other day she put down her wallet on a clothing store (on the counter), open, with money inside. The money was expectedly stolen. She was heartbroken and said she needs to pay more attention to things for living in the city (but she's always lived in an urban area).
Recently, her niece tried to kill herself (she lives about 1000 km away, so they are only together about once a year, but they are close. Her cat got sick had to go through operation. Now her dog is sick and needs to go to surgery. And then and then. I feel like I'm always waiting for food times to come and it seems they never will. Something will come along, Christmas blues that she gets 3 months out of the year due to past traumatic events in her life - November December and January she's sad pretty much all the time. And it passes onto me. The osmosis of her feelings takes place constantly. I feel like this is the main problem for me. One thing my friends noticed is when they naturally ask me about our relationship, like how's things, a coloquial question, I get notoriously nervous and disturbed. I think it's because just thinking about her or the relationship makes me nervous. I've also been told it's a weird thing to ask.
I'm thinking about ending things and I've told her my feelings. We're currently having difficult conversations. She wants to open a line of communication and has a psychologist lined up for couples therapy. I want advice on if I should break up with her even though I do love her.
TL;DR: girlfriend has a shit life and it affects my mood quite a lot, despite her being an amazing human being

If you are a sci-fi movie geek, you have probably seen Ex-Machina, one of the best sci-fi movies of the last two decades. Alex Garland directed the film, which was released in 2014. The film is entirely based on the humanoid robot Ava, who has already passed a simple Turing test and now needs to pass more tests to prove her capability of thought and consciousness.
If you think of a humanoid robot in the last century or decade, you will find that there was no or very little thought about it because we did not see the need for such advanced technology in our lives, but after Covid-19, everything changed dramatically. During the Covid isolation, humans went into the virtual world to interact with one another, and with the need for the virtual world, humans also felt the need for humanoids to make life easier and more agile. Covid has heightened the demand for such robots, particularly in the healthcare, retail, and hospitality sectors, to reduce infection risk. Aside from the healthcare sector, humanoids could be used in automobiles, the technology industry, the service sector, the logistics sector, the agricultural industry, and even warfare. Humanoid robots are also used in power plants where human presence is more prone to risk due to hazardous environments; thus, humanoids are used in power plants for repair, maintenance, and logistics work.
Reportlinker.com recently published a report titled “Global Humanoid Robot Market 2023-2027.” They published a comprehensive analysis of the humanoid market, including market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, in their report. The market for humanoid robots was $1.5 billion in 2022; it is expected to reach $3.9 Billion in 2023, growing at a staggering 52.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2017 and 2023, and $17.4 billion by the end of 2027, and its value will be massive in 2032 with 214.4 billion market size; this is an astonishing growth, and the market’s contribution to the economy will be commendable. The market will contribute a massive $1.6 billion in 2023 alone.
The report conducted a current market scenario analysis, including the most recent trends and drivers, as well as the overall market environment. Initially, the cost of any humanoid robot will be higher due to less flexibility in goods availability and little knack in this field of study and expensive research and development, but demand will eventually rise due to an increase in the geriatric population in developed and developing economies. Because of the growing influence of robots in the educational sector, there will be a demand as well.
This report provides a detailed analysis of several leading humanoid robot market vendors, including Boston Dynamics Inc., HANSON ROBOTICS Ltd., Invento Research Inc., Kawada Robotics Co. Ltd., Macco Robotics, PAL Robotics, Hasbro Inc., Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Promobot LLC, ROBOTIS Inc., EZRobot Inc., Hajime Research Institute Ltd., Sanbot Robot Co. Ltd., SoftBank Robotics Group Corp., Tesla Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. The report has also talked about upcoming trends and challenges and the future application and implications of humanoid. This will be going to help organizations to strategize their future plan and help them to take leverage of any upcoming opportunities. Continue reading...

My insurance told me today they will no longer cover ozempic. It's incredibly frustrating but got me thinking of a solution that I wanted to run by the group. I can buy an 8mg pen for $907 locally but the starting dose is 2mg, much higher than I need. After seeing a hack online to get more from the pens once they are empty by inserting a insulin syringe and extracting remaining medication. It got me thinking if I could just dose it that way with syringes. At. 75mg it would last about 11 weeks which would significantly reduce the monthly costs. What are your thoughts on this? Possible?

I received a call from a call recruiter from "IMCS Group" and an email with the job description. Later I got a message on LinkedIn from the same person. He called me 3 times in total. The first was to tell me about the interview, a call I couldn't pick up, so he left a voicemail. 2 hours later he called again before I could call back, about the same thing and I talked, his English was poor. On LinkedIn and by email, he asked me to submit my resume and some information like my DOB, Full name, and postal code. I didn't give my DOB or correct postal code. When I didn't reply in a few minutes he called me asking about the documents. He messages me on Linkedin asking for the same and told me "Don't be afraid" and sent me some RTR today with a few grammatical errors. Also, his English was very poor and unprofessional while talking on LinkedIn. I have attached the "RTR" below.
​
Right To Represent Agreement
I authorize IMCS Group to represent me for Operations Clerk( City Specialist ) :: London ON :: (Rate of CAD$ 23 / HR ON T4 )
By replying to this email, I am giving consent to only IMCS Group to represent me for the position noted below.
Furthermore, I understand that only one staffing supplier may represent me for this job posting at Client Uber and that duplicate submittals by more than one supplier per job posting may void my candidacy at this client. So ,I authorize the IMCS group to present my candidature to Client DoorDash's and no agency can represent me for the below role.
Furthermore, I confirm I will go onsite in London, ON
Job ID: 23-29715/ 861
Job Title: Operations Clerk( City Specialist )
Candidate Signature:
Name:
Title -Operations Clerk( City Specialist )
Location: Winnipeg MB or London ON or Victoria BC
Duration: 6 months Contract with possible extensionCity Specialist - part-time basis, 20-25 hours a week Description: About Doordash - DoorDash is a technology company that connects people with the best in their cities. We do this by empowering local businesses and in turn, generate new ways for people to earn, work and live. We started by facilitating door-to-door delivery, but we see this as just the beginning of connecting people with possibility — easier evenings, happier days, bigger savings accounts, wider nets and stronger communities. About the Role We're looking to grow our Local presence in some of Canada’s largest cities! Join Client as a City Specialist to become an expert in investigating and addressing the most pressing needs and concerns of Client local partner merchants.

• Looking for part time workers, preference is someone that will work 4 hour Mon, 6 hours Tues - Thurs (however I can be flexible)
• Sales backgrounds preferred
• Candidates able to commute the metro areas – they will receive reimbursement on gas (0.75c per km) and a $15 lunch reimbursement each day worked

Projects you’ll work on will include but not be limited to merchant outreach (both over the phone and in person), menu and photo optimization (ex. Fixing menus and adding photographs), in person customer promotion. You'll be part of an exciting, fast-growing team designed to take our support to the next level. You are A go-getter - You have a bias for action and love to always have something to work on Curious - You love finding the root cause of the problem and building the best solution. Gritty – You roll up your sleeves and do whatever it takes to make things successful. Unafraid of ambiguity - Rapid change and learning is exciting to you, and you thrive in ambiguous, startup environments. Customer-oriented - you love communicating with and helping people.
Requirements You have Strong Communication skills. English as well as a second language Ideally one of the following: Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu You have Microsoft office/ Gsuite proficiency - (Word/Docs, Excel/Sheets) and basic technological fluency; phone, tablet, computer and are comfortable with basic troubleshooting. You are comfortable traveling within the city, You’ll have the opportunity to explore different parts of the city and learn where all the best restaurants are! (Vehicle/bike required) You are comfortable working weekends occasionally for special events Bonus You have a background in sales You are bilingual.

Mobile application development has transformed into an essential component of the current digital era. An app exists for almost every facet of life, from financial management to e-commerce, and the count of available apps continues to mount. The domain of mobile app production is continuously progressing, with novel techniques and trends emerging continually. To remain ahead of the game and create original apps that compete, developers must remain up-to-date on the latest improvements.
As the domain persists to change, it is vital to remain mindful of the up-and-coming trends and techniques driving innovation in mobile app production. In this blog post, we will explore the paramount trends in mobile application development and their prospective impact on the domain.
The Evolution of Mobile App Development
The mobile app domain has undergone remarkable growth in recent years. Statista reveals that the count of downloads from global app stores in 2020 reached 204 billion and is anticipated to generate over 613 billion USD in revenue by 2025. This development is driven by several factors, including the burgeoning fame of smartphones, the growing desire for ingenious apps, and the advent of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. As the domain progresses, so does the methodology used to produce apps.
Presently, developers have a plethora of alternatives to select from, including hybrid and web apps. Low-code/no-code app production platforms have also gained traction, enabling developers to create apps with minimal coding experience.
Cross-platform app development has also gained more acceptance, facilitating the creation of apps that operate across various platforms. This technique is gaining popularity as the count of mobile platforms continues to escalate. Developers' ability to produce an app once and launch it across multiple platforms is a significant boon, as it curtails development time and expenses.
The mobile app industry is thriving and is predicted to sustain its growth for the next few years. The cumulative revenue produced by mobile apps soared to 111 billion USD, a 19% year-over-year increase. With such a colossal market opportunity, the future of mobile app development appears to be exceedingly promising.
Overview of the Current Mobile App Development Landscape
Mobile applications have become an indispensable component of our daily existence. An App Annie study indicates that an average individual spends a whopping 3 hours and 40 minutes per day on mobile devices, with a substantial 90% of that time consumed by mobile apps. The market is ripe with potential for application developers.
Presently, numerous corporations are dedicated to building pioneering mobile applications and providing software, such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, IBM, and SAP. They are continually pushing the limits of innovation within the industry by developing new technologies and services that simplify application development, deployment, and maintenance across diverse platforms.
As the need for mobile applications expands, developers are presented with even greater prospects to create exceptional and pioneering applications.
Emerging Trends in Mobile App Development
1.Increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)
AI and ML are among the most auspicious and promising technologies in the domain of mobile app development. By harnessing the capabilities of AI and ML, app developers can create apps that deliver bespoke experiences for users. Furthermore, AI-driven applications possess the aptitude to make superior decisions than their human counterparts, thereby allowing developers to fashion apps that provide real-time insights into customer behavior and preferences.
Through the utilization of AI, app developers can conceive applications that are tailored to the customized needs of individual users, thus enhancing the user experience in a personalized and engrossing manner. AI can also be employed to dispense more precise recommendations to users based on their prior interactions with the app. For instance, a streaming service can utilize AI to propose movies or TV shows to users based on their past viewing habits.
The integration of chatbots and virtual assistants constitutes another facet through which AI is augmenting the mobile app experience. They are frequently employed for customer service, but can also be leveraged for marketing purposes or to address frequently posed queries.
The employment of voice recognition technology embodies another approach through which AI is boosting mobile apps. By capitalizing on voice recognition technology, app developers can create apps that can be controlled through voice commands, thereby enhancing the user experience. This can be utilized for diverse app types like gaming, music streaming, and navigation, among others.
2.Integration of the Internet of Things (IoT)
The advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing the way in which mobile applications are developed and utilized. Through the integration of IoT, developers can create novel functionalities like geofencing, real-time data analysis, and predictive maintenance. The integration of multiple data sources facilitated by IoT-enabled applications can also provide users with personalized experiences based on their preferences and location.
In addition, IoT is reshaping the healthcare industry. Connected medical devices like smart inhalers, wearables, and contact lenses are assisting healthcare providers in accurately tracking a patient's health. These devices are capable of collecting data in real time and transmitting it to healthcare providers to enable swift action when required.
The rapid expansion of the IoT market presents numerous opportunities for developers who desire to make their mark in this field. Developers have the potential to create groundbreaking solutions that integrate different systems, enhance smart home and smart city applications, and contribute to the betterment of healthcare services.
With the proper expertise and knowledge, developers can be instrumental in shaping the future of IoT and building the next wave of interconnected solutions.
3.Use of Blockchain
Blockchain technology is commonly used in mobile app development for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Its decentralized ledger enables secure and fast transfer of funds worldwide without intermediaries.
A successful implementation of blockchain technology in a mobile app is CryptoKitties, a popular game built on the Ethereum blockchain. Players can buy, sell, and breed their digital cats on the platform, making it one of the most popular blockchain-based games globally. This proves that blockchain technology can create engaging and entertaining mobile apps.
As blockchain technology continues to evolve and expand, we can expect its use to grow in mobile app development. Furthermore, with more companies adopting blockchain technology to store sensitive data like patient records, we may see an increase in blockchain use in healthcare apps.
4.Growth of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
AR and VR are two technological advancements that are quickly gaining popularity and are being incorporated into mobile app development in increasingly innovative and ingenious ways.
AR and VR are being utilized to craft a more captivating and engrossing user experience, granting individuals the ability to interact with digital content in a more lifelike manner. As an illustration, travel apps such as Yelp integrate AR technology that allows users to explore a location's attractions through a virtual map, while gaming apps such as Pokemon Go leverage AR to empower users to explore their surroundings and engage with virtual creatures in a realistic and convincing way.
Moreover, VR technology is being implemented to construct more immersive and interactive experiences for users. For example, Google's Expeditions app facilitates teachers in taking their students on virtual field trips, presenting 360-degree views of landmarks worldwide. Additionally, the classroom can be brought to life with VR apps like EngageVR, which enable students to engage with 3D objects and simulations in a simulated environment.
As we progress, it is reasonable to anticipate observing more innovative and resourceful applications of VR and AR technologies in mobile app development. Furthermore, as more corporations invest in VR and AR technologies, users can anticipate encountering an even more diverse range of applications for these technologies, extending from medical imaging to gaming and beyond.
5.Use of Cloud-based Technology
The field of mobile app development has undergone a transformation due to cloud technology. The advent of cloud-based app development has allowed developers to create and test apps in a virtual environment, thereby redefining traditional app development processes.
A major advantage of cloud-based app development is the ability to reduce the time and cost involved in developing and deploying apps. The traditional app development model necessitates the use of personal hardware and infrastructure to build and test apps, but cloud-based app development enables developers to utilize virtual machines and cloud services furnished by cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Cloud-based app development also presents developers with greater flexibility and scalability. Developers can effortlessly adjust their cloud resources based on their app's demand and usage, allowing them to optimize their expenses and ensure their app can handle sudden surges in traffic.
Furthermore, cloud-based app development encourages collaboration and sharing of resources. Developers can effortlessly share their code and resources with others, streamlining the process of developing and testing apps collaboratively.
6.Integration of Wearable Technology
Wearable technology has experienced an increase in its fusion with mobile applications, facilitating its users to monitor their physical well-being and conditioning, receive timely notifications, and efficiently control other electronic gadgets via their wearable devices.
One manifestation of the integration of wearable technology in mobile applications is evident in the Strava fitness application, allowing its users to meticulously keep track of their running, cycling, and other exercises through the synchronization of their fitness trackers and smartwatches.
Moreover, the integration of wearable technology into mobile applications holds significant implications for the future of mobile application development. As wearable devices become more sophisticated and high-tech, developers have a vast potential to provide consumers with more immersive, interactive, and innovative mobile app experiences. This is evident in how augmented reality and virtual reality experiences could be amplified by wearable devices, thereby allowing its users to have more natural and compelling interactions with digital content.
Wearable technology also has the potential to create new use cases for mobile applications, such as remote monitoring and device control. For instance, wearable devices could be utilized to operate smart homes and even vehicles remotely.
Overall, wearable technology offers immense opportunities for mobile app developers to design and develop innovative, interactive, and user-friendly mobile app experiences. By incorporating wearable devices into mobile apps, developers can not only improve the user's experience but also open doors to novel use cases and possibilities for mobile app development.
Conclusion
Staying abreast of the latest developments in mobile app development is crucial for developers looking to remain competitive in a rapidly-evolving industry. With user demands and expectations constantly evolving alongside technological advancements, developers must adapt their approaches accordingly to deliver top-notch apps that meet the needs of today's users. Embracing emerging trends is key to achieving these goals, and developers who do so are likely to find success in the highly-competitive world of mobile app development.
Source: Doota Technology, Design & Innovation Company
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This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 46%. (I'm a bot)

BAGUIO, Philippines - Philippine police seized more than 500 kilograms of suspected methamphetamine concealed in tea bags Wednesday and arrested a suspected Chinese drug dealer in a northern mountain resort city, police officials said.
A drug syndicate apparently hid the suspected drugs, locally known as shabu, in Baguio, a popular tourism destination known for its mountain scenery and pine trees, and not in metropolitan Manila due to an ongoing anti-drugs crackdown in the capital region, Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos and police officials said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in June, has vowed to press on with his predecessor's crackdown against illegal drugs, which left thousands of mostly petty drug suspects dead, but said it would be done differently and focus more on rehabilitating drug dependents.
Duterte had denied condoning extrajudicial killings in his so-called war on drugs but had openly threatened to kill suspects until his final years in power.
Police say there have been considerably fewer killings of drug suspects under Marcos, but human rights groups have still expressed alarm over the continued killings under the government crackdown and asked Marcos to cooperate with the ICC in investigating the killings that took place when Duterte was president and a longtime mayor of southern Davao city.
After the ICC rejected a Philippine government appeal to stop investigating the Duterte-era killings, Marcos said Tuesday that his administration would cut off contact with the Hague-based court.

Summary Source FAQ Feedback Top keywords: drug^#1 kill^#2 ICC^#3 suspects^#4 Philippine^#5
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NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic. Please do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here.

A medical oxygen plant can produce a consistent and reliable supply of oxygen that can be used for various medical applications. This can be especially crucial during times of high demand or emergencies when traditional sources of oxygen may be limited.

The building is just another beautiful house in the suburbs, perhaps not what you were expecting, but then businesses like this were to be expected once the laws changed. Still, as you step out of your car its undeniable how the white façade and glass doors look like every other spa and salon in the area – with polished stones atop gravel leading you to the front entrance, flowers, a koi pond.
Stepping through the doors you enter a luxurious lounge with eggshell walls, modern couches, and huge glass windows that look out onto the serene gardens. The only pop of colour is a lavender wall behind the reception, adorned by a signed in ornate polish steel lettering that reads The Lavender Salon. But what’s even more eye-catching is the petite brunette sitting behind the reception with the beaming smile.
“Hi! Do you have an appointment?” she says in a chirpy tone and a huge, warm smile. Her long hair is pulled into a high, dead-straight ponytail and she’s wearing a white, tight-fitting masseuses tunic. Her nails are long and, you guessed it, polished white.
“Um, no booking,” you reply, before handing her the card. “But, I do have a gift certificate.”
“Oh, not a problem at all, I’m sure we have some vacancies. Let’s see here…” she says, checking the card and entering the serial number on the iMac in front of her. “Perfect, that’s one session. Have you visited us before?”
You shake your head. “No… I’ve never been to a… place like this before.”
Her eyes go wide, lighting up and her lips pull into a devilish smirk. “Well…” she says, before slowly standing up. You realize that her tunic is skin-tight and short enough to show of her long, bare legs. Even in heels, she still tiny. “My name is Ariana and let me be the first one to welcome you to Lavender, the premier blowjob salon in the city. As this is your first visit, I’d love to run your though our services. Why don’t you have a seat right there? Can I get you a drink? Coffee, champagne?”
“Some water?” you say, following her outstretched hand towards one of the plush sofas.
“Of course.” She disappears for a second, before returning with a chilled bottle of Perrier and a iced glass on a silver platter, which places on the glass coffee table in-front of you. She turns and skips to the reception desk, glancing back over her shoulder at you with a giggle, before she grabs an iPad and returns to sit on the edge of the adjacent sofa.
“So, our salon strives to offer the highest quality of personal attention. We cater to every taste and every blowjob fantasy our clients might have. Lavender girls are experts in the art of fellatio – your desire, is their pleasure…” She looks up from the iPad and leans in a little, her tone getting softer. “To be honest with you, these girls are here because they love what they do, that’s what separates us from the competition.”
“And unlike our competition,” she goes on. “We charge a flat rate per session, all inclusive. That’s one hour a session. Any longer automatically activates a second session – not that we have had anyone last longer than an hour, right!” She giggles, before swiping on the iPad. “Anyway, while you can come in for a single session, we have several options for a monthly membership in case you want to come in a couple of times a week… or every day. The Premium Membership allows you to come in as much as you like, and it also has the special feature of allowing you to message the girls via our app. We also offer group specials… bachelor parties and such, you know?”
“Speaking of our app, this is the best way to use our service. Here you can see which girls are available, check for any updates or specials, we have events several times a month too, and you can make your booking of course and other things like request outfits” she explains, glancing up with a smile. She stands and moves to your couch, sitting down beside you. She holds the iPad so you both can see. She smells like vanilla.
“Here is the fun part,” she says. On the screen is an image carousel of gorgeous woman, yet the pictures are tasteful – a smiling headshot and a posed full-body shot for each girl. “Here is where you pick your fellatrix. We currently have fourteen girls on staff, including yours truly,” she says with a pouty smirk. “However, as you don’t have a booking, there are currently XX girls available. You’ll see each girl has a star rating. It’s like Uber, you know? And once you are a member, you’ll get one too. So… why don’t you take this and see if who catches your eye, and I’ll get you set up on our system in the meantime?”
“Thank you,” you reply as she hands you the iPad and slowly rises to her feet. You watch her walk away, noticing the length of that tiny little tunic again. It barely covers her butchers. You take a breath and look back at the iPad. You see the row of images for the girls marked as available and click on the first one.
Nicole
Star rating: 4.83
Age: 26
For big boob lovers! Nicole is a busty brunette with green eyes, and tanned, silky skin. She is fun and sexy, and the type of girl that would get along with all your friends. One of our most skilled ladies, Nicole knows her way around a big member. You’ll melt when she wraps her big, perfectly round breasts around you and goes to town. Our resident size-queen, she loves big cocks because it lets her pull out her signature move: the tit-job/blowjob combo. Bliss!
Specialty: Titty-Fucking Fun!
Likes: Big cocks & Facials
Kylie
Star rating: 4.76
Age: 22
The sweetest girl you’ll ever meet. The curvy, blue-eyed, platinum-blonde is a preacher’s daughter and knows all about manners – please and thank you! Her curves are all natural and loves getting her pillowy breasts out. She might giggle and blush but, trust us, she loves nothing more than a big mouthful. Whisper naughty nothings to her and she will be your sweetheart forever.
Specialty: Cuteness overload!
Likes: Head pats
Lana
Star rating: 4.99
Age: 37
You know the fit girl in the gym, usually on the treadmill with the tight booty and bouncing ponytail? That’s our Lana. Petite and toned, there is not an ounce of body-fat her body. With dark hair, dark eyes, and plush lips, our resident yummy mummy means business. Don’t let her size fool you, Lana could crack a walnut between her thighs, so hold tight because once she starts, there’s no stopping her. Forget all you know about MILFS.
Specialty: Stamina and speed!
Likes: Protein
Alexis
Star rating: 4.54
Age: 19
Former Cheerleader and the newest Levander girl, Alexis is bubbly and bratty and has no gag reflex. Seriously, none – we checked. With her banging body, honey-blonde hair and love of shiny things, you might think she would be spending more time on Instagram than working at our humble salon, and you’d be right… did we mention she has no gag reflex? So, if you can handle her spicy attitude, you can find out why she was the most popular girl in her high school. Seriously, can someone shut this girl up?
Specialty: Deepthroating, like… duh!
Likes: Getting spoiled
Jade
Star rating: 4.90
Age:29
Exotic, luxurious, sultry… these are the words we would use to describe Jade. With a mixture of Colombian and Russian heritage, Jade is raven-haired, caramel-skinned beauty with brown eyes and a sensual mouth. But her gorgeous looks and South American booty are not the only thing Jade has going for her – she has serious skills at making toes curl. Oh, and she has a really long tongue, so use your imagination.
Specialty: The longest tongue in the West
Likes: Ass play
Hey guys,
Hope you liked my prompt… it blew up a bit and took way longer than I expected, but I think this could be fun. So, let’s say after weed became legal, sex work followed shortly thereafter and some kind friend gave you a gift certificate to this lovely and very professional establishment.
So, anyone strike your fancy?
Ariana is working front desk today, so I’m afraid she is not available. But if we click as roleplay partners and we get stuck in, I’m sure you will get a chance to unlock more girls. But for now, whoever you pick, I’ll play in first-person and if we do continue, I can switch characters later. We can play around with it and have some fun. Also, there is an option to book two girls on the app, or more, and you can add another during a session… for a higher price of course. Did Ariana mention that?
So, is it all blowjobs? Well, that’s the business model, that’s what pay for and that’s what you can expect. That’s what the girls are paid for, but let’s see how you get along with them. The girls are different and like different things, so… use your imagination. Tips not included.

TRUSTED SERVANTS

March 29
They are servants. Theirs is the sometimes thankless privilege of doing the group’s chores.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 134
In Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis describes an encounter between his principal character and an old man busily at work planting a tree. “What is it you are doing?” Zorba asks. The old man replies: “You can see very well what I’m doing, my son, I’m planting a tree.” “But why plant a tree,” Zorba asks, “if you won’t be able to see it bear fruit?” And the old man answers: “I, my son, live as though I were never going to die.” The response brings a faint smile to Zorba’s lips and, as he walks away, he exclaims with a note of irony: “How strange—I live as though I were going to die tomorrow!”
As a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I have found that the Third Legacy is a fertile soil in which to plant the tree of my sobriety. The fruits I harvest are wonderful: peace, security, understanding and twenty-four hours of eternal fulfillment; and with the soundness of mind to listen to the voice of my conscience when, in silence, it gently speaks to me, saying: You must let go in service. There are others who must plant and harvest.

Hi, I am new Immigrant planning to move to windsdor. I previously studied in Toronto, but didn't like the city that much. I am considering moving to London or Windsor at this point. The mains reason I want to move is to settle down in a small and quite city. I have worked and lived in big cities all my life and been finding it exhausting lately. My only concern is public transit. Is windsor friendly to people who don't own car? I don't drive due to medical reasons and will be depending on public transit heavily to commute to work and running errands. Kindly advice. Thank you.

Welcome to the third discussion for Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel.
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Chapter summary
Jeevan goes to interview Arthur who tells him he is leaving his second wife and makes him promise to keep the secret for 24 hours before releasing the story. Jeevan and Frank barricade themselves into Franks place, where they survive alone for. Frank continues to ghost-write a book and life as they know it slowly starts to end. Frank and Jeevan talk about how they would survive when they have to leave their home. Frank says Jeevan should go without him and that he will go first.
Kirsten is being interviewed and talks about Arthur and the night he died. She tells of how her minder gave her a paperweight to calm her down after seeing Arthur die. Kirsten still has it. She tells the interviewer how she never saw her parents again. Her and her brother eventually had to leave their home. They spent a year walking and crossed into the USA.
Jeevan is walking. He is alone. We learn that Frank took sleeping pills and died. Jeevan walks for 5 days before he meets other people. They walk together for a while.
Kirsten and August find a magazine article speculating that Miranda and Arthur were involved again. Kirsten says she was there when they met up but she doesn't really remember. Kirsten thinks about the scar the man they just met had, and thinks it was the shape of an aeroplane and that the prophet did it.
Two weeks before the end of air travel, Arthur calls Miranda and tells her his father has died. She goes to the theatre to visit him. They talk about the book of his letters being published. Kirsten visits Arthur, who invites her to stay in the room with him and Miranda. She has ran away from her minder because one of the other kids is mean to her. Miranda notices how different he is in Kirsten’s presence. Miranda gets back to her hotel and realises she forgot to give Arthur back the paperweight that Clark had given them, so she arranges for it to be sent to him.
Clark is given the task of informing Arthur's family and friends of his death. Arthurs lawyer Heller reveals that he was having an affair with the plays babysitter. Clark gets a flight to go to Arthur's funeral but the flight is diverted to Severn City Airport. Meanwhile Miranda is in Malaysia when the pandemic strikes, she contracts the flu and dies.
Clark, along with Arthurs second wife Elizabeth and his son Taylor get stranded at Severn City Airport. The airport shuts down. A lot of people leave, but there is a large group of people who stay. By day 100, they decide to send out a group to see what is happening in the nearby town. Clark decides to create a museum of pre pandemic items that now no longer work. The scouting party returns with supplies and says that the airport has a quarantine sign outside it, which is why no one has come to them. The next day, a stranger turns up at the airport saying he thought he was the only one.
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See you next Wednesday for the last section!