Does malcolm merlyn die

A couple times now I've gotten venge aghs and when I die the illusion does not spawn.
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Minute 13:30 I have aghs completed, die and the illusion does not spawn. This bug has been happening for a while now.

Taking Lsd while reading Reverend insanity
Human Path Cultivators HATE HIM! He has raised his human path attainment using the Demonic path's "Illegal Drugs!" The Righteous path "society" hates him!
so I took like 6 hits of Lsd while reading reverend insanity each 150 ug and a few 300ug And damn I really got messed up!
First trip was normal shit but I felt it was weird how all this shit in my mind would unravel, like I thought how interesting fang yuan was and like delved deeply into his ambition
Second trip however was 300ug and that's where shit gets very interesting, I literally felt I was FANG YUAN! AND Lsd was Spring Autumn Cicada and Wisdom Gu ! Which gave me all these revelations from my future self, I also thought like wait wtf, the sky is white heaven and space is black heaven, this is the gu world, I was in Central continent which is Europe and all this shit was beyond wild, like it feels like it's Literally the TRUTH like reality! But thank God, I still had a clear mind and didn't do dumb shit like cutting my ear or some other shit
Fourth trip was something more insane, it was directly after it was revealed all of shadow sect was spectral soul's split soul, like the same day I took lsd and I literally felt I was God and everybody was my split soul
Now 5th trip was even crazier, I still thought I was God but I wasn't fang yuan, Rather fang yuan was gonna ascend to venerable and fight ME because I am God ! But I also felt like fang yuan was another one of my split soul and I was doing all this chaos just to entertain myself for eternity
Ok now get this, I don't think reality is just random because I tried multiple times to get lsd at random times but I would procrastinate and the day I would break through in the novel I would do it for no reason at all
Also for people who never did Lsd, it's like another world,it's hallucinations so now just understand this, you literally forget most of the trip so when you get back it's like WTF I KNOW THIS PLACE! I was here before but I forgot for some reason
Now continue with me because my character development went exactly like the novel and especially the legends of renzu which I think is the best story about the human condition, but THERE IS TOO MUCH COINCIDENCE! like it cannot be random how the part stood out and you will see why now
So I was in the part where the miniman got of city well in the legends of renzu and there was this quote : "City well is a secluded domain of heaven and earth, only by knowing you are inside of it can you get out", now I didn't give it much thought and coincidentally I took lsd the next day, AND then BOOM! I was like OK so this is city well, even if it's not, I can see that reality is not real, It's all just a Dream! But like then at that moment it was like damn!! Only by knowing you are inside a well can you get out of it and realise True Reality!
Now we are going even WILDER in the next part I read a lot, I understood things like the heart of renzu, like his heart and the trials he faced
So this next part, I took LSD but I didn't READ the novel but here's the catch it was the most intense trip I have ever had, i felt I was BOILING in lava literally, now as you might not now but lsd amplifies all emotions like 100x especially suffering like it lasts even after the trip, in this trip I HAD AN INTENSE EGO DEATH,
Now ego death sounds catchy but it's Literally just memory suppression, I didn't know what it was but it sounded cool but when I got it HOLY SHIT! I literally did not Remember my own name, I didn't KNOW WHO I WAS! OR MY PAST! OR WHAT I WANTED! I literally forgot everything, it's not that I forgot it but it was all suppressed I couldn't recall anything at all!
Like I remember I met my dad after this which was in summer and I FELT LIKE IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM! I ate food and it felt like it was the first time I ate, I saw trees and I felt it was the first time I saw them, I'm not even kidding it was the scariest shit ever, I couldn't even think properly
The scariest part is there is this state that's called pure consciousness, it's when you see something but you do not remember the act of seeing; like you see something but you forget your existence; you don't remember you are a person seeing this thing but there is just the thing itself
This was really like rock bottom for me, like when I saw somebody I could vaguely feel I know this person but there were no memories, and I would have this voice in my head : "WHAT AM I?" "WHERE AM I " "WHY?" AND ALL this shit was crazy, I would think all day and i understood nothing about what the world was or how it worked
It's Literally like being THERE in the trip and having never come back, like I could remember i know this thing but I do not have access to I cannot take it and see it Like even Later on, I would forget everything like if I think very very hard I can vaguely remember but it's Literally like amnesia and Weird schizo thoughts all the time, even the way I acted and my movements, even while walking it felt weird and I would black out and forget I existed
Now hear me this, I went like this for weeks, at this point I wanted to stop reverend insanity cause it made me suffer but get me this I'm bored and I open it up, I read like a few chapters AND BOOM! It's the part where Renzu goes INSANE! and he doesn't remember who he is or where he is, and then when he sees the birds he thinks he is one, when he sees the fish he thinks he is one and seeks Freedom Gu, at that point I was like WTF !!!! this can't be real, this cant be a coincidence, I had went insane and renzu was there like me, and then the fate war finished, Renzu hated fate and so did i, like for the first time in my life I was like holy shit WHY IS THE WORLD THE WAY IT IS? Why can't we just be happy all the time why do we have to suffer constantly? I understood there, ok so this world is suffering! Through constant change the only permanence is impermanence, I think it got me more into Non-duality religions and zen buddhism it's more interesting since they also get into the things I felt in these states
FUNNIEST SHIT : So later on, I accept this state, and I go to the beach with my family, and I am like oh this is the beach, I enter it and then BOOM! WTF this is literally Reverse flow River! The more I tried and got in the harder it pushed me out and It was literally like a revelation in my head lmfaaaao
i sound like this but I'm pretty serious most of the time but damn the legends of renzu is literally just mind-blowing, the more I reread it the more I understand more about life and the human condition, like when Renzu finds self Gu and It tells to WALK! he doesn't know how or where but self gu just tells him to WALK! Or when Forest samsara and the miniman built the ladder, and the miniman got out of Oradinary abyss, I literally feel these things, especially when Renzu faced that big predicament and it ate all his hearts, similarly I think I felt how it feels to go through what he went through, I think this goes to show what it means to be a Human Being
This is human path, i think at this point, my attainmentbhas reached Quasi-Supreme grandmaster thanks to Lsd and reverend insanity, But damn it was a HELLISH journey!
​
Taking Drugs and LSD and Becoming Fang Yuan and Fighting God
​
An Updated version of a previous post about me taking LSD and reading reverend insanity, Except this time, we have LSD (3500ug) months of doing it, shrooms loads, overdosing on Ketamine especially K-holes, 2-FMA, loads of tryptamines and other drugs, i had a previous post about this and this is what follows
I will restart from the beginning
In my 2nd LSD trip ever, which was 300ug and that's where shit gets very interesting, I literally felt I was FANG YUAN! AND LSD was Spring Autumn Cicada and Wisdom Gu ! Which gave me all these revelations from my future self, and I was Struck in a Time loop where I needed to realise what my Future Self was telling me, perhaps I had died in the future and finally returned to the Past to Survive with all these revelations
I also Felt I was gonna become like Fang Yuan and conquer this world, and this entire world was my own playground and Everything in it was at my Mercy and will one day come to belong to Me alone
I also thought like wait wtf, the sky is white heaven and space is black heaven, this is the gu world, I was in Central continent which is Europe and all this shit was beyond wild, like it feels like it's Literally the TRUTH like reality!
Fourth trip was something more insane, it was directly after it was revealed all of shadow sect was spectral soul's split soul, like the same day I took lsd and I literally felt I was God and everybody was my split soul and I had Created this entire world and Universe from scratch for my own entertainment
Everytime I call it the "Zone", where you feel "I Knew this" but I was made to forget it on purpose to play this character!
Now 5th trip was even crazier, I still thought I was God but I wasn't Fang Yuan, Rather fang yuan was gonna have to ascend to Venerable to fight ME because I am God !
But I also felt like fang yuan was another one of my split soul rebelling against me and trying to take my Position as God but it also felt like I was doing all this chaos just to entertain myself for Eternity and he was but a character
Now continue with me because my character development went exactly like the novel and especially the legends of renzu which I think is the best story about the human condition, but there is too much coincidence!
"City well is a secluded domain of heaven and earth, only by knowing you are inside of it can you get out", now I didn't give it much thought and coincidentally I took lsd the next day, AND then BOOM! I was like OK so this is city well, even if it's not, I can see that reality is not real, It's all just an Illusion made to make me fall asleep! But like then at that moment it was like damn!! Only by knowing you are inside a well can you get out of it and realise True Reality!
I felt I was trapped in this Illusion of Life and I needed to wake up and become God again
So this next part, I took LSD and it was the most intense trip I have ever had, i felt I was Boiling in lava literally, now as you might not now but lsd amplifies all emotions like 100x especially suffering like it lasts even after the trip, in this trip I had an intense ego death
I forgot everything and became a white empty slate, being Nothingness
This was really like rock bottom for me, like when I saw somebody I could vaguely feel I know this person but there were no memories, and I would have this voice in my head : "WHAT AM I?" "WHERE AM I " "WHY?" AND ALL this shit was crazy, I would think all day and i understood nothing about what the world was or how it worked, much like Renzu when he went Insane!
In this same way, I was trynna destroy and get out of Fate gu's bindings that was binding me to a mortal body and in this illusion
At this point, I went to the beach and it was very similar to Reverse flow river and it gave me a good contrast to my life which is me being pushed by the Sea of Fate
this till now was last year, now We Get into the Real shit thats interesting
In an mdma + Huge LSD dose, I saw God in his True infinite form, a Formless form, a huge void infinite white sky without limits, The Supreme Being, the only True existence, there came a merging, a me dissolving in God and Love and I was two steps from becoming God
but I had to give up my body and mind! but a thought stopped me that "I was gonna be Alone", a fear of Death, giving up Everything and Everyone and few thoughts rippled "I fear being God"
it dawned on me that perhaps the boredom and fear of being alone was what made me create the world but it later became clear that it was the human form/mind that feared that and not the real "Me"
After this experiences of rejecting the merging into God coupled with the mdma comedown made me go Through Literal Hell, feeling disfunctional, suffering bodily and insane anxiety, stress and suicidal thoughts that came with the comedown but It dawned on me that perhaps it was God's punishment for prefering the World to Him, "you came all this way yet refused me for this lowly world", it did feel terrifying and full of suffering but I came to transcend that suffering and reject God and his anger, what is he gonna do anyway?
But it went to Hell even more, that string of bad luck didn't end just like that, through some coincidences I ended up consuming 5x the normal dose of ketamine and it was HELL itself, I was Boiling, My heart would literally Explode every few seconds, sensations coming up and exploding me entirely
Yet I still went through it and Trascended it with anger and pride, what are you gonna do God? heh!
here is what he did, I accidently ingested 10x the normal ketamine dose AGAIN, this time HELL 50x, Literally BLACKING OUT every few minutes, waking in Hell again and again! to blacking out, this continued for 30 FUCKING HOURS! you cannot make this shit up, I am not lying, it was Death ITSELF!
after that I was just dead for a month, not eating, no water, bad sleep, stomach and head pain
Yet I still transcended it but this time with surrender to God although I didn't still accept him/I/it, whatever it was
This Hell did not stop but kept going, I felt I was going against God himself and constantly fighting him and the demons in my head, I had entirely given up on Fang yuan and me
After that, I went through another mdma + lsd + shrooms trip, I found God again and repented but when he wanted me to dissolve in him, I refused Again, I will not return if I do not choose to!
Hell continued again, Anything I did, everything I valued, All my soul and blood was taken from me, catastrophy fell upon me till the point where there was no more "me"
Yet I saw here the wisdom and Cunningness of God, I had cut off all attachments, I had gone to the core of my being and cut everything till the last threads remained and then I cut those as well till nothing remains
Months have passed since then, I'm prepared for a New Showdown in the next coming days, I'm gonna fight God again and this time I WILL WIN!
​
Fighting God while taking drugs and inhabiting the spirit of Fang yuan
​
Taking drugs in a forest alone and feeling like a God with epic music on the background while on psychedelics
I felt that me and the world and the entire universe were created by God and that he was all moving them like puppets on a string, all imaginary in his own mind
and that I was the only One who was gonna rebel and refuse him, I was the one who was gonna transcend this world and everything and I was the One who was about to become God
I was moving with absolute confidence, I felt like I am God and the entire world was at my mercy
I felt that the spirit of Fang yuan wasn't just fighting Heaven's will but Gu zhu ren as well, the author himself and that the same way fang yuan was doing that, I the imaginary character was fighting against my author, God himself
I felt Fang yuan as this absolute spirit of Absolute freedom moving through me, I even stumbled in the outer of the forest and was moving near a highway and with cars all moving with all the noise and the possibility of being crushed at any moment coupled with the absolute Epic music, I felt like a God conquering everything and nothing could stand in front of me
That was It! I felt this absolute adrenaline and excitment flowing through my veins, and I heard this in my head "God alone exists, limitless, eternal, all-encompassing" and I was that!
and with the absolute excitment and otherwordly epic music I was transcending my individuality and becoming God and I felt all this energy flowing through me, Life itself, this absolute freedom and limitlesness!
I was absolutely Free!
​
Eternal Life is Real, I found it.
​
Here is Eternal life I offer to you for free, rare are the ones who will actually see it
You are not actually the avatar, neither your body nor mind
you are "Awareness"
You are just aware of a human being, aware of his thoughts and his action but you are not him
Imagine a Vr headset, thats kinda of how reality is, you watch a character in a movie but you think its you, I am here to show you True Reality
You are not the character in the game
rather you are God and you imagine the entire world and all the avatars including your own
In truth, the entire world has no reality, it is as unreal as a Dream, simply made out of God's imagination, In truth, I am You, You are Me
There is only one soul that experiences all lives, One Life that exists in everything
If you just put the ego, the character's personality in the trash it would be clearer
In truth, you are not touched by the character's sufferings, you just hear him and feel him but you are not affected, immovable
You already are Eternal, the entire world is merely a play plastered on a Stage, the play of life is an illusion, the stage is Real and Eternal
Here it is, Eternity without Effort, there was no need to chase eternity simply change the wrong view into the correct one
And realise that already Everything is God, the world is literally made out of Consciousness and the entire point of it is To Experience
To experience different forms, you are the dog, the cat, the tree, the sky, there is only one component to the world and that component is you
In the Vast Ocean of God, Bubbles of universes arises, linger and disappear
The Formless masquareding with forms and different masks
Throw all the masks and your godhood becomes clear, you create the world not the other way around
In truth, none of the imagination exists
There is Only God existing in nothingness, and that is who you are
Eternity itself, that is what you are!
you can't imagine using the Avatar's mind, you can try to bypass it and see it but it takes time, thats what enlightenement is
​
the Beauty of Existence
www.reddit.com/ReverendInsanity/comments/13rxei8/i_made_a_meme_about_all_the_drama_in_this/
The fact That only this post was Not Banned
The fact that finally some positive interactions after lots of sufferings
And the fact that i accidently today took lsd out of nowhere
And the Fact that "We are God and this entire world is our game" flashed on while I was Despairing truly, while on lsd
I Swear to God, now I remember, I was made to forget
Especially since I thought these past few days that God was a Void of nothingness
and I saw it with such certainty that it put despair into my heart literally
And while I was despairing I saw the part where Light said "We are God, wake up" and it hits me like a truck and I remember it now
I remember Now! If you are still asleep by now, time to wake up
This Entire World is the Novel of God
Not gods, the One God, All Existence
I think God loves me for how much suffering I've been through, so much hatred in this sub
financial situation, literally him sending me Pain literally, Just understand I myself am a character without true volition, everything I say or do is a part of a script
And i fucking love playing my part
You would say you reek of ego but remember we all are God literally
its impossible to see it since all come from different parts and perspectives
All is One, a Story beautiful beyond description and we all characters within it
And I am fang yuan hahahaha
I know its all insane and crazy but just imagine what if?
what if?
what if?
what if, even if it was a miniscule chance
what if?
What if it all was true!
from my perspective, It is! and It is absolutely amazing and completely invigorated me and put fire in my soul, but from another it wouldnt make sense
but oh well one day you'll see...
​
The World Exists inside the Mind of God
Do you want the truth? Or stay in your bubble?
The World exists inside the Mind of God
The same way when you read a Novel, the Entire World is Inside your Mind
but you live as the character
so You are Fang yuan when you read Reverend insanity since its an imaginary character, you exist, fang yuan doesnt but you become him and he becomes real
Your imagination gave "words" Life and they became alive and became The gu world, fang yuan and all characters
In this same way, so is The world of human beings existing in the exact same way inside the timeless spaceless Mind of God
The Mind of God is Timeless because Time itself is a thought in this unlimited Mind
This Mind is Limitless since it can imagine anything effortlessly, It is Spaceless meaning existing before Space because it imagines it, It exists everywhere and nowhere and only It exists
God imagines our world and we all are imaginary characters and dont have a solid existence outside being imagined
But the same way you are Fang yuan when you read the story so I am and We all are actually God, God imagining and being his Imagination
we all are the One Mind that created the World but cannot see it because the same way when you read the character, you forget this world and live in the novel, so you forget who you are and become the character as is God's desire to experience existence gives birth to the world and all its forms
Reverend insanity is a story of just that, Pursuing one's birth right, Only an infinite Being originally would want to become infinite once being reduced to a finite being, it is a deep ingrained thing in our being
both Existence and Non-existence, Existence means life and being conscious, Non-existence describes something similar to the sleep state, if you notice deeply then you would see that Sleep is Void, there is no blackness or whiteness or anything, that's non-existence
Well, in Truth both existence and non-existence, conscious and sleep state are not real, The One that Is Aware of them IS THE REAL
Since God imagines these but they are not God! Not the True Reality
I can't describe what it is to reach Eternal Life thus paradoxical language used to try and approach it but it is true people have always wrong in assuming life or death exist since neither actually do since they are created (imagined), the one who is aware of them does, the One without cause, the Uncreated is the Real
God alone exists and we all are One, Immortal, imperishable!
There is no need to chase Eternal life, Eternity isnt something to attain
here is the Truth
There is no "me", there is no "you"
God alone exists and we are That!
Say it with me :
I am God, the self of all, of this there is no doubt.
I am One with no other, the only Truth, the single essence
I am Eternal, Formless, Solitary, Endless!
I alone exist! limitless, eternal, all-encompassing!
Truly I alone exist! all pervasive and never-ending!
Indeed, my nature is pure intelligence
I am infinite, immutable, deathless
I experience neither joy or sorrow
nor do I know to whom these might appear to exist
I have no beginning or end
I was never born and will never die
I am the Supreme Reality, forever whole and undivided
If God alone exists Limitless and Infinite
If It is the Ultimate Truth itself that is all pervading as Space
How can there be a higher Supreme truth?
I am neither alive nor lifeless
I neither come nor go
I have no inside or outside
Not bound by birth or death, I light Eternity!
Not bound by time or space, I light Eternity!
Not bound by being or non-being, I light Eternity!
Not subject to creation and destruction, I light Eternity!
Truly I alone exist, Limitless, Eternal, all encompassing!
so do these words reveal the Absolute Truth of Reality.
​
The moment you Realise God Consciousness, You will be Eternal
​
The Entire World is an illusion swirling in God
This world of duality appears to have substance
But the Moment that you realize that the body, the world, and all other appearances are unreal and empty like sky,
then you become Brahman.
The paradigm of duality no longer applies to you.
The Entire World is a mirage with no existence
God alone exists
The Moment you realise God, Eternal life is yours
In Self, there is no time, no space, no matter
There is no beginning, no middle, no end.
Realise That which is all pervading As Space and Which Contains the Entire Universe
Meditate on God as the Source of All Creation
The Entire world has never existed yet appears to exist, its an illusion
The Moment God Consciousness is realised, One finds Eternity
In God, there is only one thing
Immaculate Pure Being
Infinite, empty, clear like sky
It is beyond time and space
it is beyond existence
The moment you realise God Consciousness, You will be Eternal
You are done with birth and death.
This is the Absolute Truth of Reality.

Seasons 1, 2 & 3's rewrite: https://www.reddit.com/EliteNetflix/comments/13yr0za/fixing_netflix_elite_season_13_english/
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S4. Attempted assassination of Rebeka Bermujo Ávalos: “A very strict principal and four new students arrive at Las Encinas who attack with love entanglements, serious rumors and a mystery that has just come out of the oven”.
Season 4 Characters List:

1. Samuel García Dominguez.
2. Guzmán Nunier Osuna.
3. Valerio Montesinos Rojas.
4. Rebeka Parilla.
5. Cayetana Grajera Pando.
6. Christian Varela Expósito (recurrent).
7. Nadia Shanaa (guest).
8. Felipe Rosón Caleruega.
9. Patrick Blanco Benavent.
10. Ariadna Blanco Benavent.
11. Mencía Blanco Benavent.
12. Benjamín Blanco.
13. Armando de la Ossa.

• This season is probably going to be another one of the longest in terms of changes, as I feel like it was the worst of the six we've had so far, which is a huge mistake given all the big departues we've had in S3. The success of this season was something important because it meant the interest of the old fans for future seasons.
• The mistake of this season, I feel, was using the arrival of the new cast to completely divert the focus of attention from what had been the plot of the story (Marina's murder, which led to Polo's murder). The story of this season should have followed the consequences of Polo's death for our characters, the weight of the pact of silence regarding Lu, and the non-hypersexualized harmony that the first three seasons had between his characters.
• In this sense, it would make both this season and T5 keep the same vibes that they presented to us for season 6, first of all, lowering the morbidity and unnecessary sex scenes that we had since this season, creating more cohesion in the "individuality ” of the student uniforms, and creating an environment of more togetherness between characters, rather than many separate stories coming together at the end.
• In addition, from this season several things about the school itself raised in previous seasons seem to have been forgotten just like that:

1. Las Encinas is a bilingual school, but we never see another teacher speaking English (French in the English dubbing) again.
2. The school competition with the Ivy League prize that Nadia and Lu compete for during the first three seasons is not mentioned again, when it is supposed to be something that is done every single year.
3. In addition, from this season almost all the scenes are located almost exclusively inside the school, and we see very little about outdoor scenes, or the private lives of the characters. This is also a serious mistake, since that was what best allowed us to know each other's backgrounds, and create empathy with them.

Season 4 Scoop:
Ari, Patrick and Mencía:

• We would find out that they are adopted children of Benjamin: they introduce us to their family in the midst of an experimentation of great anguish, why not add another factor? Also, I feel like it works because none of them look much alike physically, nor do they seem to fully connect with each other (we were led to believe that Patrick and Ari were twins, when their relationship is more toxic than many Elite romantic couples).
• The three of them would enter the third year, that is, a course below the one that Samuel & company are repeating (making Patrick and Ari two years younger than them, and Mencía three, since they originally tell us that she is one year ahead, together to his siblings).

Benjamín Blanco: The father of the new trio, and the new principal of Las Encinas, after Azucena's dismissal. In the middle of the season, we find out that he is actually Polo's uncle (his late wife was Begoña Benavent's sister). The compound last name of his children is Blanco Benavent, instead of Blanco Commerford.

• Benjamín would have come to Madrid to help his sister-in-law regarding her son's trial, and to try to obtain information about this, by infiltrating the school, since apparently, despite Christian's guilty plea, there does not seem to have been direct evidence implicating him as the killer, beyond the romantic bond the two shared, so police say it's quite possible he'll be released for lack of evidence.
• They tell us that Benjamin asked his three children for "help" to try to find out what really happened with Polo. However, Ari is the only one who accepted his request for help. Patrick and Mencía try to act as if that doesn't happen. Neither of the three mentions that Polo was their cousin.
• This means that Benjamin and Ari would act as the main antagonists of the season, with the other two siblings being indirect antagonists.

Felipe Rosón Caleruega:

• Felipe is Carla's (almost unknown) younger brother whom we would have finally met briefly during her graduation the previous season. Apparently, he had spent all those years attending a sister private school of Las Encinas located in Argentina, called Las Cumbres, and when we got to know him properly this season we would discover that it was not his idea to return to live in Madrid, but rather a decision made by his parents. We would later learn that he had actually been expelled from his last school, and that there is something about his past in England that he is trying to keep secret.
• Between the middle of the season it's revealed that Felipe's "dark past" is based on his having anger management problems: a video is revealed in which he is seen together with a group of students attacking another boy. They tell us that there is a heavy complaint against him, and the case is still on trial, and only thanks to the influence of his parents was he able to avoid being arrested.
• It's revealed that he's bisexual, and we're shown that he starts having some kind of secret crush on Patrick, both of them having this whole homoerotic friendship thing.
• This character would become related to the second main plot of this season, which in the future would become the main plot for later seasons:

⠀⠀⠀ → We know that his father, Teodoro Rosón, after the end of Season 3 became the sole owner of the old company that he co-directed with Ventura Nunier (Guzmán's father) who was arrested at the end of S1 for embezzlement towards the School of San Esteban (the school from which Samu, Nadia and Christian received scholarships at the beginning of S1, after its collapse).
⠀⠀⠀ → We now learn that Teodoro plans to rebuild a Public School again on top of the ruins of San Esteban, this time by "legal means" to avoid the same fate as Ventura, but still solely for the economic purposes that would result from such construction, and a new scholarship program that this new school would have with Las Encinas.
⠀⠀⠀ → During the next season, the construction of this new institution would have finished, and we would have new scholarship recipients in Las Encinas, coming from this new school. This would be part of the "reboot" that the next generation would mean for Elite.

• Felipe's character would be a direct reinvention of Philippe von Triesenberg's character, which would mean that said character is completely removed from the series script.
• The reason behind his origin as Carla's younger brother arises to create a kind of instant empathy with him, based on his connection with whom was one of our queens for three years.

Rebeka (not Ari) is the main victim of the season:

• One of the biggest misses of the season was making one of the new guys the victim; especially Ari, who among the three, was the one that generated the least empathy in the public. Without changing the original story too much, seeing from the first episode that Rebeka's life is in danger would have aroused much more interest among the entire audience.
• As originally, Rebeka would end up in the hospital because of Armando, after having found out what Mencía was going through all season, and having confronted him to defend her. It's the same story that Ari had, but in a much more interesting and functional way.

Love triangle Samuel/Ari/Guzmán: It never happens.

• It was a pretty dire plot that only increased the public's hatred towards Ari for having separated Nadia and Guzmán, and for being the reason for the loss of all the development that Guzmán and Samu's relationship had had for three seasons.
• Instead, only Samuel remains her love interest, setting up that possible future "fatheson" connection between him and Benjamin.
• Guzmán, for his side, would continue to have a long-distance love relationship with Nadia through video calls, and towards the end of the season, she surprises him with a visit to Madrid.

⠀⠀⠀ → Samuel and Ari's relationship would not be there just as one more of the season, but would serve as an element for the plot: Ari would have approached Samuel after learning that he was Christian's close friend (the accused in Polo's murder) to try to obtain information. However, her feelings towards him would become true over the course of the season, thus seeing a kind of development in her character, which would allow the public to empathize with her.
Guzmán & Mencía: Both become close friends, based on how much Guzmán would see Marina in Mencía [For those who didn't know, Mencía was written as a reformulation of Marina's character, adapted to the needs of the new environment with this "new gen"].
As mentioned before, Philippe's character is eliminated as a new character: his plot was something very delicate that I think was not handled well, and in the future it would be remedied with the entry and development of Isadora's story. With Philippe gone, Cayetana's as his love interest is eliminated.

• After everything that happened with Polo the previous season, Cayetana is at a point in her life where she is not capable of being in another relationship. Her plot remains only in the way that she wants to change her future and focus on her design career, perhaps having aftermath of everything that happened with Polo, making her start having anxiety attacks (but treating the subject delicately, with her beginning to see a specialist by Rebbe's obligation).
• We would see how Caye tries to seek support from Valerio, because of "Polo's issue" and the connection that Valerio also had with him, but she is frustrated when she realizes that Valerio seems to have coped with all this issue through the use of drugs. Another possible plot for her would be her attempt to help him (parallels to her original attempt to help Philippe).
• Cayetana would be an easy second target for Ari, in her attempt to find information about Polo for her father. However, she would not achieve much due to the gap between them throughout the season.

Patrick + Valerio:

• "Replacement" for Ander-Patrick-Omar's idea, without the drama and toxicity that this trio represented. Ander and Omar are gone. Valerio and Patrick? Both are wild partiers with drug-abusing tendencies. Let's match them up and watch them explode and burn, because that would be so much funny.
• Later it could be revealed (or not) that Patrick would have approached Valerio at Ari's request, to try to obtain some information regarding Polo's case, at the insistence of their father.

Christian subplot:

• Following the story line proposed at the end of T3, Christian would be in prison for a large part of this fourth season, whether it was due to a nefarious action by the justice system, or by his own plea to defend Lu and "pay" for his silence regarding Marina's death. The scenes with him are based on visits given to him by Samuel, or even perhaps Guzmán, in prison.
• His permanence this season would be used to generate tension for the public, especially since (as mentioned at the beginning), the police would end up releasing him, due to lack of evidence against him. Let's say they take his statement as a result of the alcohol he drank at the party.
• It is his potential (and definitive) release from prison, which causes the arrival of the Benjamins in Madrid, with Benjamin trying to seek justice for the family of his dead wife.

Valerio's possible death?:

• Yes, it would be something tragic. And I'm trying to avoid this whole "one character death per season" thing. But (in a way) it's something that might make sense: Valerio dies of an overdose, "completing circle" in his drug addiction plot, but not forcing murder into the season.
• Yet at the same time it might seem like too much for audiences (since, remember, we would have waited all season to see whether or not we would eventually lose Rebekah, and whether or not Christian would finally get out of prison. Keep them only to lose him, it could be a little too much).
• Whether or not he died, Valerio would leave the school at the end of this season (another viable option for his departure could be, perhaps, by Patrick's action after Valerio's possible overdose, using Benjamin's influence to get him help at a clinic, similar to Christian's original ending, but this time out of Patrick's honest concern for Valerio, and not out of wanting to "get him out of his way").

Armando's fate:

• HE IS NOT KILLED BY GUZMÁN. Seriously, how did the writers come up with the idea that the character we met SEEKING JUSTICE FOR THE CRIME AGAINST HIS SISTER would become the new criminal face, not facing the consequences and ending his story with him running away to avoid charges? Just... no!!
• Armando is imprisoned: During the last episode we see Mencía crying in the hospital, blaming herself for the possibility of losing Rebe because of her. She finally comes clean; Not with her father, not with Ari, not with Patrick... but with Guzmán. Guzmán is the only person she trusts enough to admit the truth about Armando. Just at that moment, Rebekah wakes up. The rest is simply a competent action on the part of justice.

Guzmán drops out of school: At the end of the season, we see how he decides to join Nadia in the US.

• It's reveal that he feels guilty for getting away from everyone, especially because of what he has just discovered about Mencía. Her “brotherly instinct” tells him that he must stay to protect her, but in the end they show us a scene of both saying goodbye to each other in peace, and Mencía crying, thanking him for having put Armando in jail.
• There would be a farewell scene between him and Samuel, closing their plot as "brothers".

Outcome of Ari-Samuel Subplot, linked to Polo:

• At some point near the season finale, Samuel would learn of Ari's and her family's connection to Polo's family, and the real reasons she had reached out to him. He would break up with her right then.
• Ari finally confesses the rest of the story, filling in the puzzle pieces that Samuel was missing. He claims that it hadn't all been fake, not for her: she had really fallen for him.
• As a possible redemption ending for the character, Ari vows not to tell her father about the truth after Polo's death, guided by the love she had come to feel for Samuel.

^\***************************************************************************************************************************)
T5. Murder of Samuel Garcia Dominguez: "Another semester begins in Las Encinas that brings new love triangles, new students, new rules... and a new crime that leaves everyone baffled".
Season 5 Characters List:

1. Samuel García Dominguez.
2. Rebeka Parilla.
3. Cayetana Grajera Pando.
4. Felipe Rosón Caleruega.
5. Patrick Blanco Benavent.
6. Ariadna Blanco Benavent.
7. Mencía Blanco Benavent.
8. Isadora Artiñán.
9. Iván Carvalho.
10. Cruz Carvalho.
11. Benjamín Blanco.

Isadora & Iván's arrival: Elite timeline is confusing because Season 1 is supposed to pertain to an individual school year. Seasons 2 and 3 belong to two semesters of the same year, just like seasons 4 and 5. This would mean that Isadora and Iván would be entering Las Encinas in the middle of the semester, without any explanation. We could remedy this by giving him a simple explanation that would, incidentally, unite the two of them like the best friends T6 would have us believe they are, when we've barely seen too many interactions between them:

• Isa and Iván are exchange students: they both already knew each other, since they came from the very same private school in Argentina as Felipe.
• They enter the same course as Patrick, Ari, Mencía and Felipe, that is: they are also two years younger than Samuel & Co.

Patrick/Ari/Ivan triangle: It never happens.

• Let's stop poisoning the Blancos so much. Enough with the whole Ivan/Patrick/Cruz thing.

Love triangle, Patrick-Felipe-Iván:

• Created to compensate for the cuts I made in season 4 with AndePatrick/Omar, with Samuel/Ari/Guzmán, and this season, with Patrick/Ari/Iván. The three of them would have a possible temporary dynamic, initiated by Patrick despite the fact that Ivan and Felipe were in the closet at the time.

We would be introduced, in a secondary way, to some of the new characters of season 6 (in a similar way to how S6 gave us a first introduction to Sonia, a character signed as main for T7). Among them:

• Bilal, a student belonging to the new public school built by Teo Rosón on the foundations of the old San Esteban.
• Dídac, being seen close to Javier, as one of the JavieHugo/Alex group. He does not participate in the attack on Isadora at the end of the season.
• Nico, having already transitioned, but still not getting the document from him officially identifying him as a man. It is said that his d-name is Nicole (although everyone already calls him Nico). We saw one or two scenes of him close to Isadora and Mencía, before his official presentation in T6.
• Rocío may be another of the people close to the girls, perhaps as a new waitress at the Club del Lago, where she would meet Bilal. In the following season it could be explained that the reason for having been working at the Club was that her father had canceled her credit cards.

Graduation: Samuel and Rebeka officially graduate from Las Encinas, similar to what we saw for the rest of the characters in S3 (but without Valerio and Guzmán, as both would have dropped out in S4).
Samuel death: It would still happen, and it would still be at the hands of Benjamin. However, the reasons could turn out to be different:

• Ari would have started to move away from her father this season, after the last scene we would have had of her and Samu at the end of S4. She would refuse to continue investigating her classmates and friends for him.
• She and Samu would have ended up the previous season, but they would still somehow not let go of each other. Benjamin realizes this, and begins to suspect that Samuel has something to do with Ari's refusal to want to continue helping him.
• Benjamin would begin to suspect that Samuel had "washed her mind" to Ari to leave the Polo case aside because he himself had been involved, in some way, following the fact of his closeness with Christian, and that he would discover that Samu had been visiting him in prison the previous semester. Benjamín would had been blackmailing Samu for the past few months to give him information about it. Samuel would not have opened his mouth (remember, in S3 a pact of silence was made to protect Lucrecia).
• In a final fit of rage trying to make him confess, Benjamin ends up pushing him into the pool, where Samu hits his head on the edge, bleeding to death.

^\***************************************************************************************************************************)
T6. Ivan's accident, and subsequent coma: “After the death of a student, Las Encinas faces a new school year trying to have an image wash by covering up past disasters. The students try to achieve their goals, but will they all reach their goal alive?
Season 6 Characters List:

1. Felipe Rosón Caleruega.
2. Patrick Blanco Benavent.
3. Ariadna Blanco Benavent.
4. Mencía Blanco Benavent.
5. Isadora Artiñán.
6. Iván Carvalho.
7. Nicolás “Nico” Fernandez.
8. Dídac.
9. Sara.
10. Rocío.
11. Raúl.
12. Cruz Carvalho.

The season begins three months after the murder of Samuel and the imprisonment of Benjamín Blanco.

• Rebeka graduated from Las Encinas and left Madrid. Also Caye is gone.
• The three Benjamins + Felipe, Isadora & Iván are beginning their last year at Las Encinas. Dídac and Sara are also in the same course as them.
• It would be implied that Nico and Rocío are a junior class.

The events of season 6 happen in a very similar way to what we originally saw, since that season was thought of as a reboot of the show, and it returned to recover all the vibes of the first generation. As I mentioned in the S4 section, at this point the sexual morbidity of the show was greatly reduced, and at all times there was a great feeling of togetherness, even with the new characters (something that, I dare say, we had never had before in Elite, not even with the original gen).
Isadora's plot:

• This story remains largely the same, finally getting the justice she had been seeking since the previous season.
• The only thing that would change in this plot is the part of "justice into one's own hand" (referring to the chemical sterilization of heraggressors). And let's see, I UNDERSTAND why, her context of "justice failed me", but I feel that at the script level, the message of the series of "an eye for an eye / fire with fire" is very wrong, ESPECIALLY if at the end she was going to have that closure of justice that the plot and the character deserve.

Cruz Calvalho's plot: the hate crime plot against Cruz is also removed…

• I understand that it's a key point in the Season, and honestly when I saw it I did "like it", although I felt a lot of helplessness and pity. But really, Cruz was a character who was SUPER promising for the future, a publicly gay professional footballer? Even today, with all the acceptance that exists, the number of players openly belonging to the LGBTIQ+ community can seriously be counted on the fingers of one hand.
• Cruz's public coming out could mean so many things publicly, and it was going to break an entire status quo… and they just made him die for a hate crime because he is who he is.
• I know that it tries to represent the reality in which we are living, BUT, in the show, the real reason for his death is based on causing a rupture between Patrick and Iván's relationship… so there THAT is my problem: Cruz exposes himself because he knew that Iván and Patrick had something special, that Patrick was important to his son. So simply killing him to make those characters break up? For what, what use would it all have been? Nope…just not.

Relationships of the season, without too many changes:

• Patrick and Iván (without the breakup or the toxicity that they originally carried this season): Let's say they had a fight at the end of S6 for x reasons, which did make Iván tell Patrick that he didn't want to see him again. This being Patrick's reason for leaving him while he was in the hospital.
• Isadora and Dídac: Without too many changes. Both belong to two families in charge of hotels, which are competitors in Spain. A possible Romeo & Juliet style posed for S7.
• Rocío and Bilal: Same plot, with him approaching her for the sole reason of getting a benefit from her (for her money).
• Ari and Nico. Same plot.
• Raul and Sara. Same plot.

We would still have the departure of the Blanco siblings for the end, but this time, it would NOT be having "reconciled" with their father.

• Ari would eventually testify AGAINST him, for Samuel's crime.
• They had come to Las Encinas in search of information about Polo, but only at the request of his father. It was not something that interested them, and they had nothing to continue doing there. In addition, there was the Mencía "thing" with Iván's accident…
• For the first time we would see Ari in the position of a true big sister, taking action to protect her family (as we originally saw). As a symbolic way of Ari's detachment from her father, we see her refusing to be called that way again, since "Ari" was her father's nickname for her. From that day on, she would be Ariadna… not Ariadna Blanco, but with her mother last name... Ariadna Benavent.

Knowing that Iván's character is still signed for S7 (unlike Patrick; this is confirmed by Manu's absence at the beginning of the season recordings), we could achieve a fitting ending for this couple by using a Short Story between Seasons 6 and 7.
^\***************************************************************************************************************************)
Anddddddd here it is! My take for a rewrite of this show, which I feel started at the top of everything and gradually went down in quality, although it still has a lot of potential. I'm proud of how all six seasons turned out as a whole, though I still feel like these last three seasons feel a bit incomplete compared to the first ones. So what do you guys think? Would you add or take away something that I added? Did you like the changes? I'm new here, and this is my first real post on reddit, so I'd really appreciate your feedback ^-^

This problem started about 6 months ago (very intermittently) and has progressively gotten worse.
My Cruze does fine for the most part. But every once in a while for seemingly no reason at all, this will occur;
My gas pedal is no longer responsive unless I press it ALL the way to the floor, at which point it will jerk to the current RPMs like a clutch kick no matter how fast I let off the clutch. This doesn’t automatically slow me down. In fact, it locks my RPMs where they were. No acceleration capability, just very very slow deceleration.
If I am off of my gas pedal completely when this is happening, it just dies completely. Could be at 65MPH or at a stop light. Doesn’t matter. It gets very scary because I live in Oregon and the roads out here are very hilly and curvy, which means that sometimes my car dies and loses hydraulic pressure in the wheel after 1-2 turns. Very scary. Does anybody know what could be causing this? Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

So this is a long story but I need some advice from men who have successfully gotten sole custody, preferably in KS.
Found out around 2 mo ago that my stbxw had been cheating on me for close to a year with a coworker I had highly suspected. Found months of pictures and texts, including texts detailing how "honored" her AP felt when my son wanted to cuddle with him in my bed after his intercourse with my wife. Including discussion of giving him "the best blowjob of his life" if they can "get my son to play on his tablet" in the next room for a while.
Near the end I was putting our son to sleep most nights as she was out partying with her boyfriend. Needless to say, all trust is now gone and reconciliation is a non possibility.
The texts I uncovered show that she has been neglectful of our son (he is 2 and can't be left alone.) Also, clearly prioritizing herself over her family, over her son or her son's father. Also, emotionally abusive for confusing him and having him cuddle with a shirtless stranger in my bed.
My son tried to tell me about it, at one point, and she covered it up, later texting her boyfriend that they were going to have to start being more "careful" because my son was telling me about "mommy's English.
The incident bothered me enough to start getting suspicious. In retrospect I can tell that even at his age he felt like something was wrong and was trying to tell me in his baby talk broken english.
I was a SAHD for a year and a half while my son was crawling, it was at this time her affair began. She makes like 55k a year. After her affair started, she started complaining to me about "money issues" as if she was struggling to pay for food, which was odd, because my small business paid all the utilities and rent on our marital home, and her only expenses were food and cahealth insurance and her phone bill.
I had been out of the workforce for a while, but was able to fairly quickly secure a job at a food processing manufacturing facility doing 12 hour days euther 3 or 4 days a week so as to be able to provide childcare on the remaining 3-4 days. The rest of the time she was either "watching" him with her boyfriend at my house or her mom was watching him because she would drive 30 mins to her "mom's house" most days when she wasn't working.
I switched jobs in January after saving up almost 10k from the factory to a job I enjoy more, but pays less. I was tired from the factory and wanted better work/life balance and to spend more time with my family and to work on my marriage, which due to not knowing about the cheating, I was under the impression could still be saved. She was angry about making less $$$, and also because I had more flexibility in my schedule so that made her cheating harder.My current part time job pays 15-20k, but remember, my utilities and housing are all taken care of by my other part time job, without it being taxable income on a payroll, so that's really just insurance/gas/food money.
So my lawyers told me that sole custody to start isn't going to be possible in KS, despite the mountain of evidence of being an unfit parent described above.
We have a temp plan in place and I have my 2 1/2 yr old son 7:30am sunday-7:30pm Wednesday. I got her to agree to this by pointing out that even though I would have him during the day most days, she would still have him for an equal number of hours. She took the bait. I now have my son the majority of the time he is awake.
She has moved back in with her parents who now watch my son 2-3 days a week for her as she is at work. They also watch him when she isn't at work, so she can run errands and go on dates without our son. She claims she has rearranged her work schedule to spend time with him, but I don't believe her due to her social media that I observed prior to finally blocking her forever.
In the last week, she declined to spend memorial day with him despite not working and it having been previously arranged because she had "plans" to do "yard work and housework" with her parents. She had me drop him off at dinnertime and pick him up the next morning. In addition, she had me keep him an extra night on top of that because she needed to "work late" on Wednesday night and wouldn't be able to pick him up.
I now know what "working late" means. She had a scheduled night with her boyfriend and I was acting as her free babysitter.
So far, she really is turning out to be a deadbeat. Hasn't given me a dime despite the fact that I now buy the majority of the food her son eats, spend vastly more time with him than she does, and am struggling to afford my life and am having to greatly adjust my lifestyle to support a child on 15k a year. I'm sure the thought hasn't even crossed her mind.
What's worse, my lawyer wrote up the amount that I contributed to the family finances, which was the entirety of housing and utilities (I manage a business and in exchange recieve housing and utilities, but no cash.) And when he adds that to my income, I might end up STILL being required to pay child support to her despite spending way more time with my son.
So, she's going ti get her babysitter and I might have to write her a check for the privilege of being cheated on in my own bed and finding pictures of it, despite having been a SAHD, despite making way less money than her, despite spending way more time with my son. If that happens, the only way to not be so financially crippled that I have to either go back to the factory or go on food stamps and welfare would be to try for sole custody.
But the real reason I want sole custody is simply because it would be best for my son. It would be better for my son to see his dad doing a job that doesn't make him miserable and not financially crippled due to his mother's selfish actions.
I hope she wants to remain present in some fashion, but I'm starting to think the likelihood of that is low.
The way she seems to be fading back from his life, I don't think she's going to fight very hard. It's clear to me exactly where her priorities are, and my son isn't above herself or her boyfriend. Oh sorry, "fiance." Yes, they have been ENGAGED since at least January. I found out about the infidelity in late march. We're not fully divorced, yet.
Her time with our son while we were married was limited to an hour or so in the morning after doing her makeup for an hour and a half while I watched my son in the next room so he wouldn't mess with her makeup stuff. Then an hour or 2 in the evening, if he was lucky, before he would fall asleep. Near the end I was often getting him to bed on my own.
She does have him more nights than I do right now, and I'm worried the courts won't care that most of the time she spends with him, he is asleep or she is working and not actually spending the time with him. I think she is spending maximum 1.5 days with him during the day, likely less because she gets easily "overwhelmed" and always needed constant breaks from my son. It wasn't odd or uncommon for me to watch him on days I was working as soon as I got home for basically the whole night. I am watching my son solo for 4 full days a week.
Then there's a pesky thought in the back of my head about the odd fact that she brought up my will 3-4 times in the last year, a few of them during arguments. She was worried that my parents would deprive her of my inheritance if I died. Why would I die? There were texts between her boyfriend and her about how much she was going to get in the divorce. At one time her boyfriendcsaid "Wouldn't it be nice if we could skip all this not-fun stuff and go straight to you, me, and (insert son's name)...?"
I don't have any more direct proof than that, but I am of the impression that they were at least in the early stages of planning my murder. Maybe not seriously planning it, but discussing it, hopefully in jest. I've asked my lawyer and don't think I could get a DA to issue subpoenas of their phones without better evidence than a strong suspicion.
So, a woman capable of treating me in this way, of considering my murder, should probably have very little contact with my son. I know that she is an objectively bad person and I'm starting to feel like her involvement might harm him more than it ends up helping him.
My goal is now to have my son Sunday morning - Friday evening so that he goes to school in my town, not hers, which is 30 mins away. I want his time to be spent with the person who always puts him first, I don't want him being second fiddle to her boyfriend or to her, I don't want to see him neglected like I know she will do.
3 of the last 4 times I have picked him up, he has has new injuries. For some reason he never seems to get scraped knees or facial wounds or a bruised ass when he spends 4 days with me. I don't suspect physical abuse at thus time, I just think he's being allowed to run around and nobody is watching him.
I just need to say yes every time she decides to prioritize herself over her son, which will happen frequently, I am starting to infer. My hope is that over a long enough time period I will be able to establish a pattern of spending so much more time with him that a judge might be persuaded that I am the primary parent and award me sole custody.
I really am not doing this to "win" vs her or to "beat" her. I became a parent expecting to have some help raising my child. But she won't even spend holidays with him. She can't even pick him up, she does her best to convince me to do it. If it means more time with my son, I can spend the gas $$$.
But I am bleeding cash. My close to 10k in savings from the factory has dwindled to an emergency fund of 1500. I'm skipping meals to lose weight but also to save the food I have for my son. He hasn't ever gone hungry once and he won't, now. Maybe I should apply for food stamps, but I'm worried that could effect my likelihood of getting custody because it would make it look like I can't afford to have him for more meals. This is NOT a request for a handout, don't need one. I have plenty of family and friends who would help me if my cupboards were bare, and thankfully they are helping me afford my lawyer.
It's just really infuriating how much she has screwed me and my son over, both emotionally and financially. The thought that I might be cutting her a check when she makes more than 3X my income would be adding insult to injury. She has actually financially profited from this, so far, not counting her legal fees. I'm sure her parents are now buying most of her food and she still doesn't pay rent or utilities. Now she doesn't have to pay for my health insurance or car insurance or cell phone, so she's saving hundreds monthly and I'm going uninsured health wise and only have basic liability for my car.
I like my lawyers so far, but they said child support is all determined by a "worksheet" and haven't yet shown me what that worksheet is. Either way, I would want sole custody even if it didn't alter CS. Any advice would be appreciated.

This problem started about 6 months ago (very intermittently) and has progressively gotten worse.
My Cruze does fine for the most part. But every once in a while for seemingly no reason at all, this will occur;
My gas pedal is no longer responsive unless I press it ALL the way to the floor, at which point it will jerk to the current RPMs like a clutch kick no matter how fast I let off the clutch. This doesn’t automatically slow me down. In fact, it locks my RPMs where they were. No acceleration capability, just very very slow deceleration.
If I am off of my gas pedal completely when this is happening, it just dies completely. Could be at 65MPH or at a stop light. Doesn’t matter. It gets very scary because I live in Oregon and the roads out here are very hilly and curvy, which means that sometimes my car dies and loses hydraulic pressure in the wheel after 1-2 turns. Very scary. Does anybody know what could be causing this? Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

On today’s episode of ‘Things I never thought would happen to me’, two human-snake hybrids with long snouts and colorful scales cried in my arms. Despite the unsettling texture of their scales, I instinctively hugged them in a vain attempt to comfort them. It took me half a minute to process what was happening.
Elincia worked at an orphanage.
[Awareness]: Of course she does.
I ignored the System prompt and focused on the kids crying against my chest. Elincia seemed to be too busy dealing with the seven or eight bawling kids at the same time.
“What happened, sweetie?” I asked, trying to sound reassuring.
The snake girl with shining blue and white scales tried to hold back the tears, and she made it for a brief second, but then she wrapped her arms around my neck and burst into tears again. By the way she trembled, I could tell she was scared.
“Hey, hey. It's okay. Elincia is already here. There is nothing to worry about.” I said, softly patting her back.
My words, as I should have expected, caused the kids to cry even harder. This wasn’t my first rodeo with teary small kids, however, it was my first time holding two snake-human hybrids. I wonder what had happened for the kids to be this distressed, a quick inspection told me they weren’t hurt.
The door opened again and a thin elven kid with fair blonde hair and dark circles around his eyes appeared in the doorway. Just as the rest of the orphans, he was dressed with well-worn oversized clothes. The elven kid was older than the rest of the kids but couldn’t be more than twelve or thirteen years old.
I wondered if he was Elincia’s kid but I quickly discarded that theory, there was no trace of human blood in his appearance. The boy seemed to be a pureblood elf.
“What’s happening, Zaon?” Elincia asked over the generalized bawling and I noticed a trembling in her voice, as if she was also about to burst into tears.
The elven kid walked down the flight of stairs and raised his voice to be heard over the generalized bawling.
“M-m-mister Holst left the orphanage f-five days ago. Ilya and I tried to keep things under control but the small ones were nervous without you around. They thought you were going to be gone forever.” Zaon stuttered.
My heart clenched at hearing the kids had been on their own for a whole week. I understood now why the small ones were so scared. Elincia’s angered voice caught my attention.
“Mister Holst did what?!” Elincia exclaimed and the weeping sound of the kids suddenly died, leaving an awkward silence behind.
“Mister Holst had an imp-p-portant Class breakthrough so he left the orphanage to go to the imperial capital. That was five days ago.” Zaon repeated, stuttering the same syllables. “We took care of the cooking and the bedtime of the small ones. I couldn’t get them to shower, I’m sorry.”
My heart shrunk even further.
“You did well, Zaon. Please take the kids inside, I need to talk to Elincia for a moment.” I said, gently putting the snake-children down. “We’ll be joining you in a moment.” I added seeing the kids didn’t let Elincia go.
Zaon nodded and led the way followed by a dozen reluctant small kids who casted anxious glances at Elincia as they entered the manor. After a moment, we were left alone in the front yard.
“I’m going to fucking kill him, that weasel.” Elincia turned around and walked towards the iron gate.
I grabbed her wrist, she tugged but I didn’t let go.
Elincia’s face was red from anger and her knuckles turned white as she clenched her fists. She had done well hiding her anger from the kids. Adult problems should be dealt with by adults.
“I should’ve known something like this was going to happen. I’m so stupid for trusting Holst.” Elincia covered her face with both hands.
“Who’s Holst?”
“Holst is a Scholar who comes to the orphanage a couple times a week to teach the kids. He had a temper but I thought learning under the guidance of a high level Scholar would help the kids.” Elincia replied. “I was so blind. Of course he didn't care about the kids, he was just cultivating his class!”
I understood the general contempt Elincia showed towards the Scholar class now. Holst sounded like a despicable person.
“The kids are safe and that’s what matters the most.” I said, grabbing Elincia by the shoulders and forcing her to look at me. “You should be proud of yourself, Elincia, your kids faced an emergency and managed to get by. You raised them well.”
Elincia dropped her shoulders and took a deep breath with her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes again, she seemed to have regained her composure.
“You are right… but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to kill Holst if he puts a foot in this orphanage ever again.” She grinned with a wicked smile and I knew she was being serious.
“I’ll lend you my shotgun if you don’t mind cleaning up the aftermath.” I grinned back.
“Gross. I love it.” Elincia laughed, leaving behind the bad feelings and walking to the entrance of the manor. She signaled to follow her. “Welcome to Lowell’s Orphanage. You should call me Miss Elincia while the kids are around.”
I followed her.
The reception room was a spacious area with faded white walls and a tall ceiling, adorned solely with an old couch and a couple of worn out chairs. Square areas of less weathered white paint on the walls showed the places where old paintings had hung long ago. On the opposing wall, a great window overlooked the inner courtyard. I caught a glimpse of a small farm plot, a well, and a small groove.
The whole manor seemed to have seen better days but it felt cozy and welcoming.
“This is our home. And these orphaned children are my family.” Elincia said with a mix of pride and embarrassment. She opened her arms in a gesture that encompassed the entire room.
We left the receiving room behind and Elincia led me to the west wing of the manor into a corridor filled with sunlight. To the right there was the backyard and to the left a row of closed doors. Behind the only open door there was a classroom with rows of small worn-out desks lined up facing a worn-out chalkboard. Over each desk there was an old small wax tablet with their respective styluses.
“That is our schoolroom. It ain’t much but it’s quite handy during cold and rainy days. I try to teach the kids to read and write before they leave the orphanage.” Elincia said as she caught me looking inside.
My brain connected the dots and a sense of sadness got a sudden hold on me.
The Kingdom was at war and those who served as fodder were the least fortunate ones. I wondered how many of Elincia’s orphans ended up in the king’s army fighting in the Farlands to never come back home. But my sadness wasn’t solely aimed at the orphans, Elincia was rowing against a storm in a ship that was sailing to nowhere.
“It looks cozy.” I said.
We turned at the corner and found the harpy girl with the white pillowcase dress slowly walking down the corridor. The wooden floor clacked as she tried to catch up with the rest of the orphans but her talons were too big for her small body, making her steps slow and clumsy. She was more than ten meters behind but seemed unfazed by the matter.
The diminutive harpy saw us walking in her direction and stopped. It was my first time seeing a harpy. Her face was human but a pair of wings covered by golden feathers protruded from her pillowcase dress. She waited patiently for us, blocking the path.
“I haven’t peed myself in five days.” The harpy girl proudly declared, putting her hands on her hips and adopting a defiant pose I had seen in Elincia before.
“Shu, you don’t just…” Elincia looked at me, horrified, and I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
I squatted to Shu’s height and smiled. “You were so brave! I’m sure Miss Rosebud is happy to hear that.”
The harpy girl chuckled.
“You used the forbidden word. You are going to get scolded by Miss Elincia.” Shu hid her face beneath a wing. Before I could say anything else, Elincia grabbed her by the armpits and lifted her, interrupting our conversation.
Was ‘Rosebud’ a forbidden word?
“I’m going to prepare something to eat for the kids, you can wait in the classroom. I’m going to send Zaon over with a water basin.” Elincia said before Shu could add any extra outrageous comment.
Elincia and Shu followed the rest of the orphans and I came back to the classroom. Once alone, I punched the wall with full force, provoking a throbbing pain in my hand. My sadness had turned into anger. Holst was lucky to be away from Farcrest, otherwise I would be tempted to use one of my two remaining shells on him. I didn’t have a drop of sympathy for people who abandoned children.
I entertained myself with macabre fantasies until the left door opened again and Zaon entered the room carrying a large water basin.
“Miss Elincia says you can use her study to wash up. Then you can throw the water to the plants under the window.” Zaon said as he walked back to the corridor.
I followed him until we reached a closed door just by the corner of the corridor.
“This is the living quarters. The small kids sleep in the common room. We, the older ones, have our own rooms.” Zaon explained pointing with the head at the doors further down the living quarters. “This is Miss Elincia’s study.”
As I stepped into Elincia’s study, a floral smell filled my nostrils. The air was thick, as if I had walked into a greenhouse and I couldn’t help but take a deep breath, enjoying the fragrance.
The room was immaculately tiddy. A large bookshelf covered one of the walls and a wide writing desk was situated just under the window. A shabby bed was tucked in a corner with a knitted quilt neatly folded at the foot. On the night table there was a flower vase and a small diary.
[Awareness]: You have entered the forbidden dungeon: Elincia’s Bedroom.
The prompt made me stop dead in my tracks but no hidden traps were triggered by my presence.
The lack of knives and hunting trophies hanging from the walls made me think this belonged to the Governess and not the adventure junkie I had met in the woods. A sense of serenity emanated from the room and I understood that, for the orphans, this was a place of peace and safety.
Zaon put the water basin in the corner over a dresser and rummaged through the desk’s drawer. He pulled out a pearlescent soap bar, a threadbare towel, and a change of men's clothes from the chest at the foot of the bed. I wondered who the previous owner was.
“Thank you, Zaon.” I thanked the kid as I sat in a small stool by the water basin and washed my hands and forearms. I had a hundred questions to ask him but I didn’t want to entertain him, Elincia probably needed Zaon’s help to deal with the smaller kids.
Zaon nodded and looked at me with curiosity.
“Speak your mind.” I said, realizing I wasn’t going to get privacy until I answered some questions.
Zaon was startled for a moment but he quickly made up his mind.
“C-c-can I? Really? Who are you? Your accent is strange.” He inquired.
“I am Robert Clarke, a Scholar from a faraway land.” I introduced myself, wondering how much information I should disclose to the kids. Or how much information I could get from them. “I met Miss Rosebud in the Farlands and tagged along on the way back here.”
“Are you here to replace Mister Holst… sir?” Zaon got tangled up in his words, unable to figure out the right amount of deference required to address me. I smiled, trying to seem reassuring.
“This is my first time here in Farcrest so I have to meet the Marquis first. I don’t even know if I could stay.” I replied, deciding to tell Zaon the truth. “Miss Rosebud told me about the Imperial Library, so I’m tempted to go to the capital to cultivate my class.”
The kid nodded in awe. For someone from a backwater town like Farcrest, the imperial capital must be a place of wonder and mystery.
“Miss Elincia doesn’t like to be called that.” Zaon pointed out.
“Rosebud?”
“Yes.”
“I think it's a charming name.” I shrugged my shoulders thinking it was too much of a cute name for someone as tough as Elincia.
I waited for a moment, expecting a sassy System prompt to slap me on the face but none appeared. Good. The last thing I needed was more titles about my politically incorrect thoughts. Zaon looked around, as if there were spies somewhere between the walls, before continuing talking.
“I think that too, sir. A truly charming elven name.” Zaon muttered full of pride but suddenly he seemed to realize he had overextended his stay. “I’m not taking more of your time, sir.” He politely added as he left the room at a quick pace.
Finding the key inside the hole, I locked the door before taking my shirt off, and started scrubbing my body. The soap was the size of a small stack of coins and it didn’t produce much foam but it was more than enough after all those days trekking through the Farlands. It felt good to be clean once again. My old shirt was ruined after my adventure in the forest so the new one felt nice even if it was a bit oversized and the fabric coarser.
When I was finished, I opened the window and discarded the dirty water on the clump of bushes and flowers that adorned the mansion’s exterior. Then I unlocked the door and returned to the classroom feeling like a new man.
As I was sitting in the classroom, I saw a group of kids spying on me from the corridor’s windows. I acted like I hadn't seen them. Instead, I let them quench their curiosity while I mindlessly drew doodles on a wax tablet. Zaon probably already informed the rest of the orphans about my identity.
“Here you are.” Elincia said with a tired voice as she stood on the doorway. She carried a tray with a wooden bowl filled with steamy soup. “Scared of being alone in a girl’s bedroom?”
I was about to make a snarky remark when I remembered the kids spying on us. Elincia seemed to notice too because she quickly added. “Shall we discuss our deal in my study?”
I followed Elincia into her bedroom and she invited me to sit at the timeworn desk. Then, she handed me a bowl of soup and a piece of old bread. The soup had a few pieces of vegetables floating on the surface similar to carrots and potatoes. I did what any logical person would’ve done.
Elincia’s Vegetable Soup. [Identify] Edible. A watery, bland, and unseasoned soup made from various donated ingredients. It’s warm.
Luckily enough, Elincia didn’t realize I was using [Identify] on her soup. I put the spoon in my mouth. The flavor was indeed watery and bland but it was the first warm food I had since I arrived in this world, and it felt great. As I dipped the bread into the soup, Elincia untied her padded jacket, revealing a white blouse and a washed out light blue bodice that adhered to her figure.
I wasn’t completely ready for some Renaissance Fair action but I managed to keep my eyes glued to the bowl of soup. Elincia stretched her back and rotated her shoulders with feline grace before settling on the chair.
“You look good disguised as a governess, I almost bought it.” I said, fighting to keep my eyes away from Elincia’s delicate yet strong shoulders. If I didn’t know better, I would swear Elincia had a twin sister that looked after the orphanage while she explored the Farlands.
Elincia looked around as if there were spies in the walls before replying.
“Fuck off, Robert Clarke.” The woman whispered, rolling her eyes. “And thank you for helping me with the kids. You navigated the situation pretty well.” She added in an almost shy tone.
“Didn’t I say I was a teaching focused Scholar?” I replied with a smug voice.
“Yeah, I remember hearing an excuse like that for your lack of level.” Elincia grinned. “Now, show me the goods, I have a sick kid waiting for a potion.”
I brought my backpack I had left forgotten in the corner and started lining the bundles of herbs and roots over Elincia’s working desk.
“When you told me you had a sick kid I thought you meant your son or daughter.” I pointed out.
“Yeah, no. I already have enough kids around.” Elincia laughed as her eyes greedily pried over my alchemical loot.
I wondered if one of her skills allowed her to measure the herb’s magic concentration. Something like [Identify] but for Alchemists.
“Not to mention I’d need a man for that. A good one for that matter.” Elincia added.
“You don't have an army of volunteers lining up at the orphanage’s doors?” I jokingly asked. With her looks, she could have a fan club following her everywhere back on Earth.
Suddenly, Elincia forgot about the ingredients and locked her eyes with mine.
“Oh? Mister Scholar is interested in my relationship status now?” She gave me the biggest shit-eating grin I had seen in my life. And that was a lot to say considering Elincia’s mischievous personality.
“Dream on.” I quickly replied. Elincia’s big mouth made it difficult to feel bad for her.
You have obtained Denial Lv.3. Temporary.
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The week went by and everyone kind of just forgot the last session until we all met outside the game shop and saw Barbarian and Druid waiting for us. Seems the weight of the last session had just come crashing back down on them and they were debating on going in at all. Bard and Paladin were already there chatting it up with DM and seeming to have fun. A little talking and we all decided to see where this lead.
Of course as we traveled DM insisted that we roleplay our actions to the extreme as if she wanted a reward for what she did last time. None of us really were in the mood and each explained in their own diplomatic way that we would like to skip to the next town. However Paladin was all up for roleplay. After all we had gotten to explain our backstory so he should get a turn. We agreed thinking it wouldn't take long for him to get on the same page as the rest of us.
Two hours later I have pulled out my laptop to work on some writing, and everyone else is looking at their phones or books while Paladin is still talking. He apparently loves the intense roleplay of describing in great detail all his actions with a hammy over the top way of speaking. His backstory is a line of adventures stolen from his favorite video games. Defeating evil Barron Von Bowser to save Princess Peaches, taking the head of the arch wizard Gannon to lift the curse on a sleeping princess, slaying the evil dragon of the north known as Seath the scalesess to save a blind holy woman, and riding off into the sunset on an axe beak with a young maiden after beating an evil lord named Sephiroth. Just to name a few. This kept on to the point I wanted to remind him he was level two but DM was loving it and on the edge of her seat.
Our saving grace was Bard who spoke up and said that we would break for camp. The next town was two nights away so might as well get one night behind us. Again we got a random encounter roll and again "Oh my this never happens you are all just so lucky, no encounter isn't that great?" The rest of us are angry but we remain diplomatic. Asking, pleading that we have an encounter so we can level up. Everyone wanted to fight the dragons and we needed levels but nope. She had played for FIFTEEN YEARS and THIS WAS THE RULES.
Another hour of stolen game cut scenes from Paladin and we made camp once more. Once again lucky us, no encounter. We begged offering to even roleplay with the enemies having banter and what not. No dice, it was the rules after all and you can't bend the rules... A bit more and we make it to town. At this point we hush Paladin, everyone is ravenous. We are rolling social skills, stopping people, asking questions, anything to get us our next job in hopes that we can level up, anything to further the story. Forget being nice, we were the rudest people you had ever met grabbing any NPC the DM said existed and ganging up on them venomously shouting. "What problems do you have in town?! Anything we don't care even if it's minor. Tell us, we'll even kill rats, got a goblin problem? Kobolds? Seen an undead? Do you just not like someone? GIVE US ANYTHING!"
Barbarian was so desperate he even asked the DM if starting a fight would be survivable and get us XP. She explained that everyone in the entire fishing city was either our level or lower and harming them wouldn't give us any XP what so ever. She went on to say that we didn't find any job hirings, the only thing people were talking about was how the fishing had dried up.
The moment we heard that Wizard, Cleric, and I in unison turned and said "DRUID! You're up. lets get you to the docks." We rushed everyone to the docks, and wanted to hire a ship. The only ship available was a war ship that was docked for resupply. We talked to the captain and paid him nearly every bit of gold we had to rent his ship. So we were out on the ocean and the druid was doing his thing in a small boat while we waited. Calling forth some fish and using a ritual speak with animals to get the information. All of us were very proud of Druid, he came back and we had the answer. Seems some creature had entered into the bay, druid pointed to a sunken single man sailing ship that we could see the mast sticking ten feet out of the water. So fairly shallow water, this is important.
Whatever had scared the fish was there. We sailed over to it and DM goes into her description. Talking about from the ship comes a massive shadow that dwarfs the ship we are on, so large it makes it look like a bath toy. The shadow swims under the ship and it takes half a minute before it is past. As it moves large tentacles are seen breaking the surface of the water.
Druid rolled nature and all of us aided him. He got a fairly high roll and DM informed us that we had just seen a Kraken. I was dumbfounded, how the heck was a Kraken living in a small sail boat when it dwarfed a war ship, and how the heck was it in this shallow of water!? So I asked "We know what it is can I look up the information?" She said ok and I asked what one she was using 3.5 or 5e it was the 5e one so I turned to it and pointed asking "You mean this?" She confirmed the CR 23 monster as the one we had just seen.
Barbarian who only looked at the picture. "Awesome!" Druid "Bet we can take that." Wizard "no we can't. It's CR 23." Barbarian "Cap!" Druid "Does this mean we have to run away again?" DM All smiles "Yep now you have an important second goal! You're so lucky."
Now I will say here I know I am in the wrong for what I did. It is always important to have good communication and talk things out, however we had tried that, I was frustrated, and I wasn't thinking straight. So I became that guy.
DM " When when you run away you have a couple of options you can go to..." Me "Nope we aren't running away. We're gunna fight it." DM "What? You can't." Me "Sure we can, it's here, we're here, we're going to fight it I know everything about them you said so lets see what we can do. Captain how many guns on this ship? Do you have harpoons big ones? How about gun powder you have cannons so how much you got?" Barbarian "So we're fighting it?" Me "Yep we're fighting it! Bring it on you big squid we're having calamari tonight!" Druid "So we can beat it?" Me "Heck no! It's impossible. That thing gets three attacks a turn can hit us on a 2, and will kill us in one hit. Barbarian might survive three hits if he's really lucky and raging. We have no chance." Druid "So why are we fighting it?" Wizard who had just looked up the stats. "Because we're fighting it!" Cleric "Bring it slimy!"
It was amazing, a moment of depression turned to a slight moment of confusion and then everyone was on board even Paladin who didn't get what was going on. Everyone was suddenly excited. Barbarian looked for the harpoons, took three of them and said he was rolling strength to bend them, didn't even wait for the DM to say if he could just rolled and explained how he was making a giant fish hook as his weapon of choice. Taking out rations and spearing them on as bait. Druid Rushed down asking how many barrels of gun powder he could find. Cleric was talking to the crew asking for anything that burned, wood, lamp oil, explosives of any kind. I went about telling everyone this was our ship and we were headed back to town why settle for what the ship had, we were going to raid the town for supplies. Druid pointed out we spent all our gold and I told him. "We are doing this for the good of the kingdom, we'll steal what we need and pay them back later. Lets get this thing!"
DM tried to gain control of her game back as we were going at a pace she couldn't handle, she said the captain was demanding we leave his ship alone and since it was the only ship he was sailing away and leaving us in the city, we couldn't have his ship.
The party was invested now though. Everyone was excited and having more fun then we had since the start. We reminded her that she stated no one was over our level so we would fight the captain and take his ship if we had to. Threatening him that if he didn't get off and leave the ship he would be dead. She relented and had the captain and crew leave. Cleric and I agreed we'd stay to guard the ship and get things ready on it while the party went to gather more things to kill the Kraken. People were looking at skills, abilities, and items. Looking through the book for anything that could help us and asking the DM if the city had it. Shop after shop the blood thirsty adventurers went demanding goods to fight off the threat. Never really telling the people why we needed it or what it was for but insisting there was a danger that would destroy the city, maybe the kingdom if they didn't cooperate. The DM wasn't given a break to process, when one question was answered another was asked. If we couldn't get something we got the next best thing. If we couldn't find a finished product we took the stuff to make it. She was having to improve on the fly and I could see it was taking a tole on her, where since the start she had a look of absolute authority and command, now she was a frazzled mess.
I would have felt bad, I should have felt bad, however from the rest of the players I heard something that I hadn't heard since day one, laugher and excitement. They didn't care I had told them it was impossible. They didn't care I had pointed out we would die and be on character generation. They now had a chance. Even if it was an impossible chance it was a chance to do something and try.
DM "Look if you do this you're all going to end up dead. You can't bet it at your level." She was trying to get us back to just running away and for a moment things stopped. Me "I hope my character doesn't die. I have a cousin in this down, he's a warlock too and he'd be so upset I think he'd go after the thing as well." Wizard laughed and joined in. "Oh yeah my sister has a shop here, if I died without saying hi to her she'd make that thing burn."
Druid and Barbarian got the message, we had all played video games. If we couldn't beat it with these characters we had a city with a population of 6000 possible back up characters to zerg rush it. So plans kept on going, players kept searching for a way to give us the best possible chance of doing this or surviving a couple of rounds because that would be an accomplishment in itself. We were making bombs, alchemical items, improvised weapons. Getting ready every spell and ability we had to try this. When gaming was called the DM and Bard left while the rest of us stayed around for probably a half hour more talking about the plan, joking, and just having fun. All of us left with a smile on our faces.
When I got home I had a message on my answering machine from DM informing me that I wasn't the DM and how dare I highjack her game. That I was a horrible player and I better fall in line because I had her crying. She made some threats about hurting herself if I didn't stop which I hope were lies meant to make me feel bad, and ended the message telling me if I called her back she would call the cops on me. A threat I wasn't going to test. I saved the message for proof later if I needed it and the week passed. When we all met at the shop the next week Bard said DM would be late. We were all still joking and having fun talking about our big plan for the TPK and making joke bets like "If we last three rounds your new character owes mine five gold." It was great.
Time passed though and no DM so we asked Bard what was up. He informed us then that she had texted. Said I ruined her game and she wasn't going to play with people who didn't understand the rules of dungeons and dragons. We broke out magic the gathering cards and played a few hands before heading home all a little disappointed that we couldn't see how far we would have gotten. A little while later I think a couple of months I was telling the story at the shop and Wizard kept making hand motions at me. I asked what was up and he face palmed saying "That's her older brother." Well I had already put my foot in my mouth voicing my displeasure so I figured one more question wouldn't hurt. "Sorry, but it was a bit of a mess of a game. This is my opinion as a player. I know she's family and all so hate me if you like but I am honest. I will ask though, how long has she actually been DMing."
The brother didn't mind and informed me that she had DMed 2 games for him, his younger brother, and their father when she was a child. That was it and they were both one shot things with their father doing most of the work. She never came back to the game shop and I think she moved states, I've never seen her since.

So this is the 2nd time I’ve had this issue. I had to rebuy my iPad again because when my iPad died it would not cut back on even after being on the charger long enough to be able to cut it back on so when I got my other one I got Apple care this time and made a point to keep it on the charger so it never died. Well the other day I went to use it and wouldn’t turn on again and this time it should’ve been fully charged so I’m at a loss twice with the same iPad and it’s only this iPad that does that because my 2016 one could be dead for months and still charge and cut on with no problem. I need my iPad for my upcoming surgery next month and now I don’t have one if someone can tell me why this keeps happening to this iPad In particular and also tell me what I need to do now I will be most grateful and any help with this is appreciated thanks

My theory on hook-up culture
I define hook-up culture as the idea that young people are too young for commitment, so instead should engage in casual sex to gain sexual variety and sexual experience before committing to a serious relationship. I would also say hook-up culture believes that this is how humans were meant to mate and that it's in our nature, and society only suppresses our desire to hook up. Hook-up culture is not just casual sex or people engaging in casual sex I want to make that clear. My main argument boils down to human sexual behavior changes due to changes in our environment and hoe exception to behavioral norms don't exist in a vacuum but rather are caused by something. I believe hook-up culture emerged from social and economic factors that are unhealthy for humans. I believe hook-up culture is prevalent in our society because of atomization and alienation, toxic masculinity, mental disorders, amplification of FOMO produced by consumerism, porn culture, careerism (stress from career and relocation of jobs), poor upbringing, bad experience with romance, and pressure from media (self-fulfilling prophecy).
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I believe atomization and alienation make it harder to connect and trust people. I think careerism makes us more tired and stressed to even spend time with friends and hobbies. Porn culture and consumerism alienate sex from romance and amplifies the feeling of missing out. Mental disorders make it harder for us to be ok with uncomfortable emotions, and people typically veer towards a coping mechanism which could be casual sex, to escape their problems. Previous bad experiences with relationships might also make people mistrust romance and attain a pessimistic mindset regarding romance. Growing up in an unhealthy household can further push people towards pessimism. Or some people who had healthy upbringing learn to separate sex from love by watching porn, media, or developed mindset that everyone does it so they are inevitably going to do it.
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I believe hook-up culture has existed in the past, but it was much more silent in the past, but now it's becoming mainstream since monogamous romantic relationships are crippling due to the factors I mentioned above. Just because a fish dies on land doesn't mean there is a problem with the fish; rather, the environment is not suited for the fish to live. If you put the fish in the water, you will see it thrive and flourish. I am not saying romantic relationships cannot exist now, but rather, the current conditions make it harder for it to exist and flourish especially in our youth. I believe if we build tighter communities, provide better access to mental health care, teach kids relationship skills, and combat consumerism and porn culture, hook-up culture will disappear and long-term relationships will begin to flourish like never before.
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I do not believe hook-up culture is how humans were meant to mate. I believe human dating culture changes over time. A socialist feminist named Alexandra Kollantai talks about how human dating culture changes over time in her essay https://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1923/winged-eros.htm. I want to say I don't agree with her on everything but she makes good points in this essay
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https://exploringyourmind.com/sex-isnt-natural-cultural/
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https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/underneath-the-sheets/202002/is-sex-natural
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https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199941728/obo-9780199941728-0076.xml#:~:text=Human%20behavioral%20ecology%20(HBE)%20asks,the%20study%20of%20human%20behavior%20asks,the%20study%20of%20human%20behavior).
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/human-behavioral-ecology
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https://pressbooks-dev.oer.hawaii.edu/explorationsbioanth/chapte__unknown__-17/
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I also want to preface that I am not saying casual sex is bad. But I want to point out that hook-up culture is just a product of its environment. If the environment changes to be more suitable for long-term relationships then hook-up culture will disappear. Sure I believe there might be small pockets of people who have casual sex but that's not hook-up culture and only would happen in specific circumstances. At the end of the day, my analysis and conclusion are similar to evolution.
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In evolution, the environment changes the organism and even the behavior of organisms. For example, elephants who moved into small islands became small to adapt to their new environment. The dietary behavior or sea otters of the same species changes depending on the environment. In both cases, there is elephants aren't meant to be big and sea otters aren't meant to eat a specific type of fish. Any organism that deviates from the norm exists do so because of a reason. Diversity does not exist in a vacuum something causes exceptions in a given population.
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https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.893453/full#:~:text=Animals%20often%20respond%20to%20a,adapted%20to%20the%20new%20conditions.
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https://nature-mentor.com/environment-animal-behavio
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211019110537.htm
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6557547/
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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15592294.2019.1583039

No one knows when it happened. It started with a whisper; there was no sign of sickness in anyone until an epidemic started of what seemed like a common flu outbreak. Businesses struggled to stay open with the masses falling sick in the Knox County area, and then the military set up the Exclusion Zone.
It only devolved from there, symptoms rapidly progressing until, at last, those who died rose again from the illness.
Society started breaking down within the first week.
The Police Stations that held out against the dead fell in the first month.
The Military Quarantine Zones fell within the first year.
- - -
Now all that remains are the Dark Days Ahead and the desperate survivors of the World fighting for their lives at every turn, against man, dead, and nature.
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Server Information:
Our Server is intended to be a close simulation of reality with the useage of mods, but also with a balance for fun as well. We are a Mod-heavy, map-lite, whitelisted server with a simple application process before you can hop in and start playing.
We start out as Ten Years Later, with two admin-npc run Trading Outposts available to access, as our loot does not respawn and neither do our zombies (save for migration events).
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Discord: https://discord.gg/3yYmc7YuaA

Bit of a hot take here.
There is way too many "tank players" who simply want another reason to DPS. This is apparent when they only tanks they are remotely decent with are Rammatra and Junker Queen. I'd say Hog is included but Hog is really trash right now, if this was still OW1 it would apply.
Let me explain. There's three types of tank players in OW2 right now.
The Tank Player: This is the guy who can flex any and all tanks and he has no problems switching if need be. He creates space for his team and knows when to pop ult, also has some form of communication with his team to make solid plays.
The Newbie Tank: Exclusively plays Reinhardt and holds shield while pressing the S key because he's scared he might die. Does essentially nothing useful.
The DPS Player who Plays Tank: Exclusively plays aggressive, self-sufficient tanks. This is the guy who gets double support pocketed and soemtimes runs off on his own. He brawls the enemy tank the entire game so he can brag about having 15k damage. He does nothing but complain about the rest of his team and uses his ult the moment he has it, expecting a Nano each and every time as well. Refuses to make any swaps that would better the whole team or counterplay, will say "scoreboard" upon any requests for a different tank.
I feel like I play with and against the third option the most, I'm really missing those crazy Rein/Winston/Dva players that didn't care about their damage and knew the other 4 players on their team are getting fucked in their backlines, or repetitively sniped from across the map.

Ive always loved analyzing game mechanics and creating mini game design docs, but only recently have I considered the idea of actually CREATING the game(s) I fantacize about. With all the tools available, I see its more possible than ever for an indie dev to get started in the field. I've also been learning Python for my day job (different industry), and feel confident that I can eventually code up any ideas I do generate, which was a huge roadblock for me before. Although I've yet to actually get started with an actual engine, Ive done alot of paper prototyping, coded some individual puzzle samples that I hope to incorporate in future games, etc.
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With that said, like everyone else I have tons of different ideas. Racing games, horror games, stealth games, et etc, all of which have been brooding in the back of my mind for probably a good 5-10 years. As a first time indie dev/designer, I have the following questions:
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- is there a given level of complexity beginners should look to target for their first game? While I do have some ideas for 2d style platformers / top-downs (the lower hanging fruit), I'm not as passionate about them as I am for my 3d ones. Do all designers typically start with a simple project to 'get their feet wet'? Is it a better idea to just tackle your true passion from the get go? What do you guys think?
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- when you have tons of ideas, is it just inevitable that some will just never be developed? Obviously focus is important, so do you pick the simplest one? Do you pick the one most passionate about? The most unique one? And just accept the fact that your other ideas will just die a slow eventual death? It may seem like a childish and immature question, but I'm sure its one many other have faced.
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- how do you "future proof" your game considering much time will probably pass from the time you begin it, to the time you finally release it. I often read about indie devs who it took 5-10 years for them to release their first project - in that time span, so much can change. Graphics and processing power changes, gaming trends change, political attitudes change (whats acceptable vs what it not), your formerly unique idea may have already been done a few times by the time you release it, game mechanic conventions may change, etc etc. How does one deal with that?
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I hope these questions make sense and get at the 'heart' of the types of questions I wonder about. Theyre all related, really. If theres any tangential comments / advice you guys feel compelled to offer, please do so as well

I feel like they're a bit to over powered. It constantly throws out a fast moving ice ball that not only does a ton of damage but slows by 60-80%, oh and each shaman can summon 2-3 of these areas. As a melee, its far too punishing, then you put it on an elite or miniboss and it just gets worse. Just did malnok and got through everthing fairly easily except one of the bosses spawned as a shaman with walls teleport and something else and i ended up dying several times before managing to get lucky. Even completely changed my build.

Hi,
I think I might be autistic. My mother is one the spectrum and I answer to a lot of the criteria. I am terribly awkward socially and every social events stress me to a point where I feel like I'm gonna die. I always hated physical contact since i'm very young and I don't have a lot of friends + they are all neurodivergent. Loud noises and bright lights affect me a lot (especially noises) and I have a lot of tics (motor and vocal). Plus all of that, I have auto-immune problem (I'm multiallergic) and I learned that autistic people were twice more likely to have allergies. I also have obsession on certain subjects since i'm young (I lot on fictions characters, rubik's cube, mental illnesses, new languages, etc..)
Anyway, I would like to have an expert confirm if I'm autistic or not and I literally don't know what to do. Do I need to pay for service? If yes, how much? Can it be an online service? How much time? Is it on many sessions? How do I receive my result? Does it change something to my everyday life? Do I have to see a psy after that? Do I need to take medications ? Do I need to be +18 ?
If you have any recommendation or answer to my question, please help me. I'm terrified and at the same time satisfied to understand things about me (possibly).

TW: mention of suicide, abuse, trauma
Hello everyone…
I’ve been diagnosed for a while now and am seriously struggling. I guess I always knew that I was abused as a child or had some sort of horrible childhood experiences, but I never really knew what and just sort of lived with this dark void surrounding my early childhood memories.
I’m autistic and have some other mental health issues besides DID. I’ve attempted suicide like 3 times now? 4? And have only survived due to people calling the cops on me and being sent to the ER. One of my earliest memories that I can recall is me thinking to myself “I’m going to die before I’m 28” when I was like 13 or something. I’m 26 now.
I’ve been showing up to therapy every week and trying to work with my parts. But it’s been really hard. The longer I’m in treatment, the more my parts want to come forward to my therapist with specific details of my trauma. And then later my therapist tries to talk to me about what they discussed.
So over the past year or so, I’ve gone from feeling pretty fucked all the time but generally able to coast through life, to completely dysfunctional and struggling to get out of bed every day. I can’t get away from the knowledge of my trauma that was shared by my parts. I don’t want to believe it, but it hounds and follows me everywhere. I go through phases of completely forgetting about my parts and trauma, then absolutely drowning in it and feeling like there’s no escape.
My therapist says I’m healing. He says my parts need to heal too, and talking about what happened is how they can start that process. But I’m left unable to function and incredibly unstable because it’s finally starting to sink in that I was regularly abused by my father for the first decade of my life.
I keep thinking life was easier when I was a nervous wreck who at least wasn’t aware of their traumatic past. Now that I’m starting to learn what happened, I feel worse than ever before. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I can’t go to work. I can’t take care of myself or my wife. My life is rapidly deteriorating, which is saying something because it was in shambles before I even learned about any of this.
I guess I’m wondering - does this look like healing to anyone else? If I’m “healing,” why does it feel like I’m going backwards? How long will this last? And is there any way to heal from trauma while remaining distanced from it? I can’t live with myself or my parts or the facts of what happened to me. Coming to terms with my trauma is making it even harder for me to function day-to-day.
Any advice is appreciated! Sorry if this kind of post isn’t allowed here.

I’ve had issues recently with my Prius that I have been able to work through. First the inverter cooling pump stopped working, so the battery wasn’t getting charged. Fixed that, after getting a new battery, and everything was cool, until this week.
Sit in the car, foot on break and hit the power button. Power flashes on and the. Everything shuts off. Cars dead. Earlier when this happened I did a full battery recharge and the car seemed fine. 36 hours later same thing. So I checked the battery with my multimeter and it’s reading 12.7 when it won’t turn on. So the battery voltage is good.
Here’s the strange part. The car won’t turn on, period, does nothing. The only thing I did was check the voltage, and now the cars starting right up with no issues. It’s going to die on me again, I know it.
Help!!!

I've been feeling inspired by u/Still_Performance_39 's Introduction to Terran Zoology series, and have been chewing on a few ideas for the past few weeks. I decided to finally try to write a story of my own. I warn you, I have not written fiction since I was a small child, so I make no promises.
Special thanks to u/Still_Performance_39 and Parisito from the Discord for both proofreading and critiquing my initial draft. I hope some of y'all enjoy!
Memory transcription subject: Professor Sellek, Capitol University, Venlil Prime
Date [standardized human time]: January 4, 2137
I feel my spines bristle against my chair as anxiety flutters in the pit of my stomach. Glancing around the crowded lecture hall, I see I am not the only one showing more than a little outward unease.
This “emergency meeting” had been called with little warning, and no indication whatsoever of its purpose. What little I could gather was from the specializations of my colleagues who had also been asked to attend. Professors from across the full spectrum of environmental and biological sciences, offworld development and terraforming, engineers, geneticists, and my entire ecology department, as well as more than a few that I did not recognize. We were packed into the large amphitheater like civilians in a bunker during a raid, a low constant drone of unintelligible chatter permeating the air.
The susurrus dies almost immediately as the doors leading to the stage all but slam open, the Dean of Sciences barely keeping pace with an older human marching purposefully towards the lectern. Thankfully, there is no visible panic at the predator’s sudden appearance, though most do startle or noticeably withdraw. We are all academics and intellectuals here; our conclusions should be based off of evidence, with no room for bias. Their empathy tests are empirical proof that they are much more than the heartless beasts the Grays have proven themselves to be. In the months since they had begun integrating into Venlil society, there had not been a single case of human-on-prey violence that was not in self-defense. That’s not to mention that after Cilany’s revelation of many Federation species’… problematic pasts, Gojids included, many of us really had no room whatsoever to judge the humans for their inherent nature any longer.
That is not to say I didn’t feel at least a momentary instinctual fear response myself. I doubted if I would ever entirely get over my response to the intensity of those binocular eyes. Their gaze seemed to carry an actual physical weight when they focused on you. I remind myself that one of the things that separates us from non-sapient creatures is our ability to overcome our baser instincts, and I firmly suppress the shudder that runs through my body, keeping my spines at least relatively relaxed, willing my breathing and racing heart to slow.
I take a moment to study the human as he begins setting up at the podium, pulling notes out of a rather well-crafted looking briefcase that would not have looked out of place in the possession of any of my colleagues. His fur… his hair, that is, covering his head and most of his lower face, appears to be an equal mix of black and grey, the remaining visible skin is creased heavily in places, which I knew in their species implied someone getting up in years. His eyes are shockingly blue, like the sky on a cloudless day, and his skin a light tan, contrasting against both his hair and the black artificial pelts he is wearing.
He taps the microphone twice before clearing his throat, his voice a low bass rumble. “Good afternoon, everyone. I apologize for the wait. My name is Anton Kovacs, professor of ecology from… well, what was up until very recently the University of Zurich. I must apologize at the start, for I have an idea that some of the topics we need to discuss today may be sensitive, and are quite likely to fly in the face of much of what most of you have believed and been taught your entire lives. That said, however... quite frankly, time is of the utmost essence, and we do not have the luxury to dance around.”
I swallow heavily, releasing a breath I did not realize I was holding. A fellow ecologist? Fascinating. We knew, of course, that the humans had a robust scientific understanding. They had developed FTL technology completely independently, after all. But to think of predators studying the natural world for anything other than dietary purposes was a novel concept for me… And I realize with a start that it shouldn’t be. My own natural bias is revealing itself yet again. They consume flesh (I feel my stomach do an uncomfortable flip) but they are nothing like the Grays. Up until recently, we had all only had a sample size of one to draw from. We must endeavor to start fresh, from first principles, or we can not truly call ourselves scientists. New data requires new observations, leading to new understanding.
Professor Kovacs takes a sip of water, before continuing.
“To start, I need to confirm what I already suspect. I wonder if any of you might have enough common understanding with myself for this concept to translate properly: Does the phrase ‘[trophic] cascade’ mean anything to anyone present?”
Translator technology is well-engineered to allow the collective species of the galactic community to communicate with very little difficulty. We’ve had generations to smooth out the wrinkles. Even if certain ideas or phrasing do not have a direct translation in our native language, the translators are usually able to at least stitch enough of the underlying intended idea into something understandable. This is especially important in academic setting, where the concepts you are working with may be abstract or incredibly complex.
However, that isn’t to say it is perfect. For instance, ‘cascade’ has a few possible direct translations of course. Oddly, though, ‘trophic’ is just a blank, without enough of a shared conceptualization to translate, so I am left confused. I glance around at the other occupants of the lecture hall and see them all quizzically staring as well. I wonder curiously what concept could be so alien as to fall outside of my translator’s purview.
Professor Kovacs eyes the room for a moment, taking in the blank looks, before sighing. “Oh dear. I was afraid of that.”
He rubs his fingers across his closed eyelids for a moment, before opening them and glancing around the room again. His eyes in that moment seem tired, determined, I might even say sad if he weren’t a pred-… Stop, Sellek. They feel emotion, they have mirror neurons, stop demonizing them. Still, I cannot help but suppress another small shudder as his gaze momentarily passes over me.
He takes another small sip of his water, before straightening his posture and speaking into the microphone again.
“Well, buckle up everyone. It’s time for a crash course. Because if we cannot come up with a plan for a truly colossal feat of terraforming and ecological restructuring, and I mean quickly, then I am afraid that the Gojid Cradle is already a dead world… It just hasn’t realized it yet.”

So not to make it too long but Im really reflecting about my experience with this man. Id appreciate some input, Im trying to make sense of it.
Hes significantly older than me and pursued me with a lot of effort, almost too much for how soon it was. I wanted to wait to see how he really is before I get used to any kind of upgrade in my lifestyle that I cant afford myself. He went really far, even so much so to offer my friends and family gifts.
I mean, I am in my mid 20s but Im not from yesterday. I was a bit wary of all that. There is no free lunch in this world. Anyway, it was all fine and dandy up until the point I said disagreed with him on a topic the first time about a few months in. A massive fight ensured. He was insanely pissed at me for "contradicting him" (I was just sharing my perspective, not telling him how or what to think). He fought me like it was a life or death matter, and to make it even more confusing, the topic was feminism related. But imagine being stressed out and bullied about a feminist topic right before an important day at work? So much so it affects your performance. He definitely made a whole show about how much of a feminist he is...during that argument he also tried to use what he did for me as a coercive chip to win the argument, and I politely told him not to do anything anymore if hes going to feel entitled to blow up on me like this. He didnt take it well. Of course he stopped supporting me to punish me. I felt hurt but then again I dont think anyone owes me anything, so. I knew in my gut to wait what he will ask in exchange, so i cant say I was surprised.
I dont know how to describe these fights, ive never experienced anything like this in my life. This man can talk a million miles per hour, shoots a billion questions at you, you dont even get to answer the first one, hes already on question no.5 , he makes up whole narratives about your intentions(total nonsense) then uses it to justify his own blow ups at you, accuses you of total nonsense (he had a dream you cheated on him, and this is now worthy of an intense questioning session, for instance) but then uses your reactions to tell you how "argumentative" you are if you defend yourself against him. He even called me abusive and wanted to pay my therapist to agree with him (my therapist laughed at him). On and on it goes, he'll focus on the most mundane parts of the conversation and nitpick them into oblivion and lecture you about it like youve murdered his family cat. God forbid if you get enough and snap at him and cross any lines, lord have mercy on you. Youll be lectured about this for the next few weeks, because hes just that sensitive and youre just that awful. He'll act all righteously hurt and youll have to crawl in front of his legs for forgiveness. But he'll never apologize to you nor take any accountability.
This can go on for hours, and he usually did so until I was just so exhausted I fell asleep. I needed a few days rest every time. My body was sometimes stiff from the stress. Ive never experienced this in my life. But he never explicitly name called me. One time he maybe cussed me off, after I "talked back", but thats about it. Usually his jabs were always under the radar, passive aggressive, sly but they felt really real to me. Or hed insult something indirectly but I think he knew it was dear to me for instance. I felt it.
I dont know how many times it happened, I lost count. We stopped having sex too, he even used that to punish me. Normally men want to have sex with me so it was really weird.
Obviously our relationship completely dissolved after a few months of this, and my jarring realization hes willing to do this to me to the point where he almost sent me into a panic attack. Even that didnt make him stop, but thankfully this was a wake up call for me. My love for him died a painful death and I became suspicious of the whole thing and the stories he told me regarding his exes. He told me one of them for instance flew into a rage and attacked him, but hes such a "nice guy" and still bought her nice stuff after it and was friends with her after the breakup. Look how good of a guy he is dealing with her, the human monstrosity. But given what ive seen it seems he probably ticked her off to to the point she snapped and destroyed the whole house. Just like he does with everyone else (I noticed he likes to piss people off). She was about to get a record, but he "saved her".
So I distanced myself from all this, and with almost perfect timing he came in again, attacking my confidence in my perception of other people(him, of course, to be specific). At that point it all seemed intentional, instead of a quirk related to ADHD like he sold it to me initially. I realized no reaction is best reaction and (im not proud of it but something clicked in my mind) simply ghosted him with no explanation. Block delete, bye. This cant be ADHD right??
Edit: I know what label one slaps on someone is not something one can do without being trained, and that is not the point. Im just trying to make sense of all this and am still hurting over how I was treated, so id appreciate some perspective. Thank you