https://imgur.com/a/XxuXD9w
Hello people of reddit, I am the mighty Matt of England....
I hope you read that in a deep announcement style voice as that is how I typed it.
As stated I am Matt I happen to be male and English. If these are all things which do not bother you please read on.
I am 32 years old and live in a part of England called Yorkshire. Americans tend to say york-shire as in the place the hobits are from but it's Yorkshire. If you need help with this please message and I will attempt to help though voice notes 🤣
I'm a builder and like to keep fit and active, or at least try. I'm actually running a marathon in about 6 weeks so.if you have any tips that would be great.
I have also attached a pic if that worked you can see my ugly mug.
As you can tell I ramble so if that kind of chatting is your bag please message.
Matt out

Hello looking to see if anyone else has had a similar situation. My baby boy is 4 months old and exclusively breastfed. just to be clear I absolutely love breastfeeding and ideally would like to continue doing it. But his weight has recently dropped to the 0.5 centile. I have an aunt who is a doctor so I asked what her medical advice would be. She suggested we add in a couple of bottles of formula and see if that helps. She would ideally like to see a bit more meat on his arms and legs.
Now my husband is very anti formula. (He will deny this but I've even had other people pick up on this so I know I'm not wrong). His mum is a doula and a big breastfeeding advocate so will her advice is very breastfeeding heavy which I think is why my husband has become so against the use of formula.
When I bought up my aunt's advice he got very defensive saying that she didn't have all the facts ( she definitely did) and that my mum had been in her ear pushing formula. This is ridiculous my mum does care how we feed our baby as long as he's healthy.
I'm just feeling frustrated that he would dismiss advice from someone that is medically trained all because it involves formula.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Any mums of small breastfed babies have any advice?
Thanks in advance and sorry if I rambled on a bit.

Firstly - I know it is trivial to be upset over something like this. I don’t want to sound hypocritical, as I never tell or warn people when my birthday is coming up. So perhaps I’m asking a lot, for my friends to remember it on top of everything else in their lives.
But… it was yesterday, and I heard nothing. It just hurts a bit. I always remember their birthdays, and I’d feel pretty terrible about forgetting it. I’m currently on a gap year, travelling abroad, so maybe it’s because we’ve all been busy and they haven’t thought about me in a while?
I also didn’t tell any of my new travel-friends about my birthday yesterday, as I feel awkward about bringing it up. So I only really heard from my parents, my brother and one or two friends from my hometown. Sorry if I sound ungrateful, but it feels like a blow.

14 hours…. 3.5 million gold made….. 2 kraken and 12 meg….. ZERO ancient skeleton and ZERO shrouded ghost… still had a blast! Thanks everyone on the three servers we were on (merges) for the amazing sportsmanship shown. Spent most of the time in completely alliances servers. Even the non alliance ships seemed to pass on by without an issue.

Hello people of reddit. I wanted to ask other people for their opinion so here I am to ask am I addicted to games? Note: I am 15 years old.
With what I search up about video game addiction I get these results of symptoms also what I say after is my response to it:

• Thinking about gaming all or a lot of the time

I do think about gaming but not a lot. When I am doing an important task or schoolwork I am often just thinking about what i'm doing and what I will do.

• Feeling bad when you can’t play

unless I am unable to play for several days straight which I would get slightly annoyed about not really I just chill and do other things such as cleaning or schoolwork.

• Needing to spend more and more time playing to feel good

Not really because occasionally when it's been like really empty with nothing to do the maximum I have ever played was like 5 hours. but that's the max. often when I can play, I play for like 1-2 hours. also I play a game called Valorant with each match being around 30-40 minutes. without warmups.

• Not being able to quit or even play less

Playing less I am fine with just an hour or less if I have more important priorities such as assessments or exams. not being able to quit, um I guess I don't really quit that much? I'm more of on and off kind of player but I don't think it's exactly reasonable to say quitting is a bad thing with addiction considering quitting would just be not playing.

• Not wanting to do other things that you used to like

I still like to draw, do editing and play with friends and I still cleanup and get good grades such as A's and B's with occasional C's.

• Having problems at work, school, or home because of your gaming

No I don't work but in the past I did which I did fine so Gaming did not impact work, School as I said previously I have friends at school to play with and I have good grades, home? my parents don't exactly like gaming that much and I play which I believe is a reasonable amount considering other kids normal is like 6 hours considering the max I ever play in a row is 5 which is almost never.

• Playing despite these problems

No not really.

• Lying to people close to you about how much time you spend playing

partially but that's more of a scenario of when I am disturbed or have to stop so I say I didn't get to play as much which is true because I am disturbed.

• Using gaming to ease bad moods and feelings

I do not like to play games very much when I am in a bad mood because I prefer to play when I am in a good mood so I actually enjoy it more. Also I don't get into a bad mood very much I am mostly a positive person.
So that is basically it. My big brother made me delete Valorant because he said I was addicted despite working on personal projects such as YT. getting good grades, limiting my play time, and cleaning up. Also when I do play it's when I am not busy and it's either in the afternoon or in the morning after I get ready for the day. I almost never play late at night because I like to sleep early. So reddit, now that you have read everything. Do you think I am addicted to gaming or no? because I admit I do have my faults I'm not perfect but I believe I am still pretty good with limiting my time and enjoying proper things. I hope everyone who is reading this has a good day and is willing to tell me their opinion of the matter.

I'm gonna be honest, this is coming from a place of frustration especially today :(
We stay on the second floor of an HDB block, and there have been people who burn on the grass directly below our window. There's no designated burning bin there, but I'm not sure if that's okay? We've seen people setting up both the sticks (sorry I'm unfamiliar with the correct language!) and also burning the papers. I am also pregnant and the smoke is not great for both me and my baby.
Can someone please explain the significance of the burning? I want to ask people to move to a designated burning area, but I'm not sure if it would be rude for me to ask-- since I'm not sure how sacred the act of burning actually is I'm not sure if I should interrupt.
Besides my obvious personal annoyances, I'm also pretty shocked at this regular practice considering how bad it is for the environment! Have there been any attempts to modify the ritual to make it more eco friendly over the years?
I hope I'm not offending anyone...just hoping to hear some personal descriptions rather than the general statements I can find on Google. Thanks all.

I met three people at a camp last semester and we ended up hanging out all the time as a group. Since coming home, we’ve been keeping in touch, one of them I talk to every day. However, recently they posted on their stories and I saw they had planned a reunion trip— but I hadn’t even known about it. At first I thought maybe it was because I live a little farther away from the rest of them that I wasn’t invited and I didn’t think much of it, but now they never use the groupchat we usually chat in (that they used to chat in daily) I’m guessing they made one for their trip and speak in that one now. I don’t know if it’s logical for me to be but I feel hurt. For further context (that may or may not factor into this) There is friction between me and one person from the group, I’ll call them A. A and I we were never close because they did and said some things that really bothered me. They had a major superiority complex and would constantly bring others down to make themselves feel better (for example, if someone was upset about getting a bad grade they would say “well, can’t relate. I always get all As), brag and talk about how much better they were than everyone, criticize others incessantly, lie, traumadumped constantly and was just overall unpleasant to be around. If they said something out of pocket I would call them out (none of the others did) but I never expressed any animosity towards them. There are many examples I could get into but they recognized their behavior as wrong and admitted to behaving narcissistically to vouch for their insecurities in an argument they had with one of the others (though they didn’t seem very ashamed of it) so I wasn’t just nitpicking randomly, they genuinely behaved in a way that was pretty unbearable. I don’t know how the others truly felt about them because most of the time they remained passive until A took things too far and they would snap. The other two were very conflict avoidant in the sense that even if they were clearly uncomfortable they would just dismiss A’s comments until things boiled over. Another person, who I’ll call C, would bicker often with A because A would constantly criticize them and say rude things. However, I think my relationship was more tense with A because while I often just ignored their comments instead of reacting, when they said something out of line I would straight out tell them I didn’t like that instead of passing it off as a joke or being passive aggressive like the other two. However, my relationships with the other two was close, so that is why I feel kind of blindsided by this. It just kind of hurts because A is literally at times verbally abusive, yet it feels like I’ve been made the odd one out. This is just how I feel though, I don’t really know their reason for not even telling me about it, but it hurts nonetheless. Normally something like this would roll off my back because I tend to try and not take things personally, but It really touched a wound in me and now I feel like the middle schooler who was always the odd one out that was unseen and left behind.

So I was on an island visiting my brother. I am broke so he sent me to 7/11 with his money to buy stuff for our wives and my daughter. When I was there an Indian guy approached me and told me "hello, you have a very good aura, I can sense it. Something good will happen to you in the future." I said thanks. I was caught off guard. He then said "I am a psychic and I can prove it to you. Right now I can tell you your birthday and year, I can tell you your mom's name, your father's name, and your brother and sisters name. I can tell you how old they are as well." So I said "okay, let's hear it. But I'm not gonna give you money." He said "why not try it? Look, I will tell you all of this info before, and if I'm right, you can give me a tip. If I'm wrong, don't give me anything." It was so bizarre and cool (even if a scam, I think those tricks are interesting) I probably would have done it, I'm on a vacation why not? But it wasn't my money so I told him I can't do it. Then I left.
Is this a known scam? It was so bizarre and confusing. I'm sure it is a trick, but what's the scam? If he was wrong I wouldn't give him a tip. It's not like he knew who I was, I was on an island I've never been to before, my brother doesn't live there either.
I am very confused. Anyone heard of something like this? He was on the island too, and it's quite expensive, so I'm not sure what a foreigner would be doing tricking people on an island.

Northeast park
Two hours since the invasion began
The invasion is a success. Thousands of savages have been purged and dozens captured. Not as frightening as the vision said, but the description holds true. These are the pale skin. Strangely, some of them have very dark skin and some even have skin as brown as a dwarf's. Strange indeed. Most men were taller than elves and Rosians but not as tall as an orc.
"Excellent.", Ylindar said as he observed the captives being sent through the rift, "They will be fine specimens for studying. We must find their weakness."
The 'humans', as they called themselves, resisted but fell in line eventually. The smaller ones cried and called out to their parents. It made the Rosians present sick. One of the women broke the line and ran to Ylindar. "Please! Stop this! Why are you doing this? Who are you?", she said through tears and shaking breaths.
Ylindar slapped her, causing her to fall to the ground. "Silence you wench! You are not worthy of being in my presence, let alone speak to me. Take her!". Soldiers hoisted her up and dragged her towards the others.
"You monsters!", yelled a man, "You will pay for this! You will all die her-". Before he could say more, Ylindar pierced his chest with his sword. Then he turned to the rest of the captives, "Any more of you savages willing to test me?"
"Stop!", yelled the Rosian captain present, "I demand you give us our share now."
Ylindar raised an eyebrow to that, "Your share?"
"Yes. We fought, pillaged, and brought captives. We did what you asked and now it is your turn to keep your end of the deal."
This made Ylindar chuckle, but he would humor the young Rosian, "Very well. We are an honorable empire after all. You may choose ten captives and split them amongst yourselves."
"Ten?"
"Yes. Take them now before I change my mind."
The captain faced the captains. In truth, he wanted to save the weak and innocent ones from suffering, but he couldn't save them all. He pointed to them one by one, picking out the children and elderly first as well as a woman with a child and a strong tall man who fought against the ferals and dwarves. Perhaps he could give them some insight.
"You over exceed Rosian. I said ten.", said Ylindar.
"This is ten people."
"She counts as two.", he said as he pointed to the pregnant woman.
"She is with child. That is unfair."
"And what will you do about it?"
The captain stuttered. He wanted to save her but it would mean dooming another life. What was he to do? He cursed Ylindar internally. Honorable? Horse shit.
"Leave me.", said the tall human, "Leave me behind and take her. Please." The captain was stunned, to say the least.
"Excellent", said Ylindar, "It appears you can bring them all. Enjoy your spoils.". With that, he left.
The woman thanked the tall man who then grabbed the captain by the arm and looked him in the eyes. "If anything happens to her, I will hold you responsible.", he said.
The captain nodded, "You have my word, warrior.". The man was dragged to the elven slave lines and pushed through the rift.
Ylindar was sitting at his desk writing a letter to the troops on the other side, saying the invasion was a success and a foothold was established. Handing the letter to a messenger he got up and walked to observe his army. Ten thousand elves, all gathered in a barbaric land to bring civilization. He looked up in the sky and saw the wyverns flying through the air. As he looked at them he didn't feel proud, he felt confused. There were too few of them. He brought fifty wyverns, which is half of an army's corps. Now there were less than two dozen. How?
His question would be answered as several strange contraptions flew in the air at the wyverns. They didn't have wings but still flew in a straight line. The wyverns outnumbered them and Ylindar assumed this was a victory, but his hopes were crushed as the contraptions fired what looked like cannons and tore through the wyverns like a sword through parchment.
He stepped back in shock and watched as the cannon-wielding machines finished the wyverns and turned towards them.
"General!", called a soldier, "Enemy carriages approach! It appears to be their army!"
Ylindar grinned, "At last. Soldiers of the light! Prepare yourselves! The savages have finally sent their warriors! We will crush them and clear a path for our reinforcements! Formations!"
The infantry prepared their shields and spears, archers and mages took their positions, it was time to face this world's true force. The metal carriages halted and out of them came out dozens of soldiers. Then dozens more came from flying contraptions.
Raising his sword, Ylindar yelled out the order, "Attack!".
---
"Here they come!", yelled Paterson.
"Open fire!", ordered Jefferson. The rifles, machine guns, and grenade launchers wreaked havoc upon the enemy. Bullets tore through shields, machine guns ripped people apart, and explosions turned any poor fool near it into minced meat. Their tight formations only added to their demise.
The attack helicopters arrived when they finished the dragon things and opened fire with their chain guns and anti-infantry rockets. The enemies fell by the thousands and some even started to retreat while most fell to their knees and begged for mercy.
When the firing stopped all that was left of the ten thousand enemy soldiers were scorched bodies riddled with holes. There was almost nothing left of their camp. The screaming soldiers were taken into custody. All but one guy with a cape.
"You-You dare!", yelled the blue-skinned man, "Do you have any idea who I am!? Who I represent!? You shall suffer for your barbarism!". He drew his sword and ran to the nearest soldier, who promptly raised his rifle and shot him in the chest twice.
"Round them all up.", ordered Jefferson, "Send word to HQ that it's over."
The enemy captives were loaded up into trucks and sent to Fort Curz for questioning. As they were being loaded up, one of the blue soldiers started smiling and chuckling. "What's so funny?", asked Paterson.
"This is only the beginning.", he replied. Paterson widened his eyes and ran to Jefferson.
"Sir!"
"What is it?"
"I just information on the attack. This was the first wave. More are coming."
Jefferson wasted no time in reacting and grabbed his radio, "All units, prepare for a second attack! Air squadrons, hold your positions until enough of them group up and shot down those dragons! Don't waste ammo!"
"Rodger that.", said a pilot. The guard and police force pulled back and created a semi-circle out of armored vehicles facing the portal. Hundreds of rifles and machine guns were pointed toward the shining rectangle.
---
Captain Zorgin led the second wave through the rift. The remaining forty thousand elves and ten thousand dwarves marched to the other side. But something wasn't right. When the messenger arrived he reported that the invasion was a success, but later dozens of soldiers came back saying that they should not go through. They came saying how the savages have great machines of death capable of destroying armies. Be that as it may, general Ylindar was out there and Zorgin swore he would bring him back.
"General Bardek!", he called, "You will lead the charge with your troops. After you get through, our cavalry and wyverns will enter and attack."
"Right.", said Bardek, "I can't let Dalmin have all the fun after all.". He rushed forward on his war hog, leading his troops. "Warriors of Nundolar! The enemy we face is formidable! But we will show them the might of dwarven steel!". The dwarven warrior roared and charged through the rift. As soon as they passed through they were met with a horrid sight.
Thousands dead and burned, the camp nor the general could be seen, only the line of carriages and hundreds of enemy soldiers. Bardek didn't stop to think. The adrenalin carried him forward. He charged with his troops, screaming and firing, hoping he could break the enemy's defenses. But hopes were not enough. The enemy opened fire and Bardek experienced true fear. His hog was shot and he fell to the ground. The enemy's boomsticks fired without stopping, their cannons killed dozens of soldiers with each blast, and they couldn't even get close. His pride, his dwarven pride, was broken. He could only lie down and pray he would survive.
Zorgin led his cavalry through. He looked for his general but found nothing but dead bodies and ash. He snapped back as he heard cannon fire and redirected his troops. "Over there! Their flank is less defended! We will break it, come on!". Leading the cavalry charge he kept observing the enemy. They had strange-looking black shields and only a single line between two carriages. They opened fire with their boomsticks and Zorgin's cavalry started taking casualties but still held on. Zorgin was closing in, but then the enemy soldiers fired some sort of metal boxes that spewed smoke. 'What trickery is this?', Zorgin thought, but when the smoke spread and got into their eyes, they understood its purpose. It made their eyes burn and they could hardly breathe. The horses were affected the same way as they stopped in their tracks. They couldn't see anything but they felt as if they were knocked out.
More and more soldiers exited the rift and with their sheer numbers, they were starting to get close. But as they did, the flying monsters of metal rained fire upon them and their numbers kept dropping. The wyverns were blown to pieces by either them or the cannons. It wasn't a battle, it was more of a one-sided slaughter. Only a few dozen were able to run back to the rift. Most were either wounded, screaming from the killer smoke or just lying down and surrendered. Surprisingly, the enemy took them captive instead of killing them. Zorgin tried to resist but to no avail.
"Where is general Ylindar?!", he yelled as he was dragged, "I demand you answer me immediately!"
One of the soldiers in light brown armor came up to him and grabbed him by the arm and dragged him in another direction. After stopping he pushed him to his knees. "Here.", he spoke, "Is this him?"
Zorgin could barely see, his vision was foggy, but there was no mistaking it. The armor, the cape, the helmet, it was him. Zorgin shed tears of regret, regret that he failed in his duty.
"I'll take that as a yes.", said the soldier before lifting Zorgin back on his feet.
"You haven't won!", Zorgin yelled, "Our fleet has taken your shores by now! Soon enough, more ships will follow and you will perish!"
"I wouldn't worry about that.", said the soldier in a calm tone, leaving Zorgin puzzled.
---
Three hours earlier
South coast of California, Del Mar, near San Diego
Admiral Lothar Tanros has passed through the rift. Large enough for more than a dozen ships to pass through it advanced his progress. Each fleet was well-equipped for an invasion. It consisted of twenty troop carriers with held ten thousand troops in total, thirty attack ships with eight cannons, five wyvern carriers with five to six wyverns each, and forty-five supply ships with materials necessary to build and sustain the fleet and build a coastal fortification. All are led by the admiral's personal grand ship. A huge naval vessel with several sails and cannons on both sides. Truly a powerful presentation.
"Admiral!", shouted the first mate, "Land is within sight!"
"Excellent!", said Lothar, "Let the wyvern carriers pass through first. I want air superiority as soon as possible. Along with them, I want half of our troop carriers. We need to take the shore immediately."
"Yes, admiral!".
---
Lieutenant Mitch Floyd was just doing his routine patrols. It was his turn to take the patrol boat for a spin. All he had to do was go to Dana point and back, simple, he's done it dozens of times before. All the while the crew was gathered around a TV and watching the live recordings of the attack in North Carolina. What they felt was beyond words.
"Sir, how can you not watch this?", asked a crew member.
"It's cause I trust our boys to kill those freaks.", Mitch replied, "Don't you?"
"W-Well of course but, damn. This shit is insane. Gotta say I'm jealous, I kinda want to shoot some dragons."
"Careful watch you wish for, kid.". As Mitch sailed on he began to notice something strange in front. A large number of wooden ships heading towards Del mar. In the sky were large dragon-like reptiles. 'Just my luck.", Mitch thought.
"Battle stations!", ordered Mitchel, "Looks like your wish came true Fred!"
Fred looked out and saw three dragons flying toward them, "Holy shit! I didn't mean now!". He ran towards the .50 caliber machine gun and readied himself. The cyclone class patrol boat wasn't something to be messed with. As the dragons got closer, the 25mm machine gun raised itself, aimed, and let loose. The lizards couldn't even react before they got turned into Swiss cheese.
"Woohoo!", cheered Fred, "We got 'em!"
"Don't open the champagne just yet!", Mitch shouted, "We still have those ships to deal with. I count roughly a hundred, various sizes. Richerdson, get in contact with HQ! Tell them what's going on, we need air support. Alert the National guard as well."
"Yes, sir!", said Richerdson.
'God help us.', Mitch thought as he sailed into the fray.
---
"Admiral!", yelled the first mate, "Some of our wyverns have been killed."
"Where?", Lothar asked.
"They spotted a ship coming from the south and decided to deal with it, but now they're dead."
"A single ship?"
"That is what the captain said."
"Tell them to send what attack ships are near to destroy it. Nothing must disrupt this invasion."
"Yes, Admiral."
On the shore, the savages run. They run from the water and into their city. The wyverns already started swooping down and devouring them. Their soldiers in blue clothing fired at them with their boomsticks but did next to nothing. A few managed to shoot down the riders, but that didn't stop the wyverns themselves. Now that the shore was empty, the troops could move in. Dozens of landing boats rowed to the shore and dropped off hundreds of soldiers who rallied and attacked the savages, but their weapons halted the assault.
"Push through!", yelled a lieutenant, "They are few in numbers! We must clear a path!". At that moment, two wyverns descended unto their carriages and destroyed the soldiers in blue. With that, the cohort marched on and reached the wide road. However, in the distance, they saw more metal carriages, but these were bigger and in a different color, with large boomsticks on top. The wyverns flew at them, but they soon got shot down and the carriages halted. Out of them came dozens of enemy soldiers, all dressed in vastly different armor than their blue counterparts.
The cohort got into a shield formation and the mages prepared to block the enemy's weapons, but they couldn't. Their magic wasn't working. "Do not falter!", the lieutenant shouted, "We must-". His mouth stopped moving as soon as it got blown to pieces by the enemy. The shields and armor provided them with no protection. They were all cut down and the enemy advanced. More and more of their carriages arrived and they quickly retook the shore.
"Admiral, we have a problem on the shore.", said the first mate.
"I can see that!", yelled Lothar, "Tell the attack ships to form a firing line and destroy the enemy! We cannot let them... are you listening?". The first mate pointed out towards the approaching ships in the distance. Five of them, two large and the rest smaller, all made of metal, and above them over a dozen flying arrowheads, dropping what looked like eggs. Each 'egg' landed on a ship and blew it to pieces. Dozens of ships were destroyed just like that. Lothar didn't have the words to express himself. He kept looking toward the enemy ships as they aimed their cannons and fired from impossible distances. The crew panicked and begged for help, but Lothar couldn't say anything. In his final moments, he watched as a giant metal rod flew into the sky from one of the ships and blew him to pieces along with his crew and ship.
---
"Boom!", cheered Fred, "They got the big one!"
"Shut up!", shouted Mitch, "Let's do what we came here to do.". He guided his cyclone patrol boat along with another one towards the enemy 'landing crafts'. The two opened fire with their 25mm chainguns they tore through the boats and ripped the soldiers inside apart, scattering their remains across the water. Along the way, they picked up the handful of survivors and tied them up.
In the main battle, two destroyers, USS Dewey-2, and Cutter opened fire on the enemy fleet. They targeted the largest ones first, and when they were done they moved on to the armed ships. The enemy was in complete chaos. Destroying the lead ship with the cruiser missile was a good idea, now they were leaderless and easy to take out.
The jets destroyed the ships on the outer formations and later moved inwards. Eventually, there were only thirteen ships left. Four had cannons and nine looked like they just carried supplies. They surrendered and raised white flags, a smart move. The coast guard boarded and cleared all of them before arresting the crew and towing the ships back.
"This is quite a mess lieutenant.", Fred said.
"It is. You just had to wish for a dragon, huh?"
Now that the attacks were stopped, the hard part began. Counting the losses and making a plan for what to do next.
End of chapter 3
---
Sorry for the short chapter, in hindsight I should have just written one very long one. Won't happen again, pinky promise.
Thank you very much for watching. If you'd like to support me (for some freakin' reason) and get access to future chapters early feel free to upvote, follow, and support me on Patreon (DM me for the link please)

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Northeast park
Two hours since the invasion began
The invasion is a success. Thousands of savages have been purged and dozens captured. Not as frightening as the vision said, but the description holds true. These are the pale skin. Strangely, some of them have very dark skin and some even have skin as brown as a dwarf's. Strange indeed. Most men were taller than elves and Rosians but not as tall as an orc.
"Excellent.", Ylindar said as he observed the captives being sent through the rift, "They will be fine specimens for studying. We must find their weakness."
The 'humans', as they called themselves, resisted but fell in line eventually. The smaller ones cried and called out to their parents. It made the Rosians present sick. One of the women broke the line and ran to Ylindar. "Please! Stop this! Why are you doing this? Who are you?", she said through tears and shaking breaths.
Ylindar slapped her, causing her to fall to the ground. "Silence you wench! You are not worthy of being in my presence, let alone speak to me. Take her!". Soldiers hoisted her up and dragged her towards the others.
"You monsters!", yelled a man, "You will pay for this! You will all die her-". Before he could say more, Ylindar pierced his chest with his sword. Then he turned to the rest of the captives, "Any more of you savages willing to test me?"
"Stop!", yelled the Rosian captain present, "I demand you give us our share now."
Ylindar raised an eyebrow to that, "Your share?"
"Yes. We fought, pillaged, and brought captives. We did what you asked and now it is your turn to keep your end of the deal."
This made Ylindar chuckle, but he would humor the young Rosian, "Very well. We are an honorable empire after all. You may choose ten captives and split them amongst yourselves."
"Ten?"
"Yes. Take them now before I change my mind."
The captain faced the captains. In truth, he wanted to save the weak and innocent ones from suffering, but he couldn't save them all. He pointed to them one by one, picking out the children and elderly first as well as a woman with a child and a strong tall man who fought against the ferals and dwarves. Perhaps he could give them some insight.
"You over exceed Rosian. I said ten.", said Ylindar.
"This is ten people."
"She counts as two.", he said as he pointed to the pregnant woman.
"She is with child. That is unfair."
"And what will you do about it?"
The captain stuttered. He wanted to save her but it would mean dooming another life. What was he to do? He cursed Ylindar internally. Honorable? Horse shit.
"Leave me.", said the tall human, "Leave me behind and take her. Please." The captain was stunned, to say the least.
"Excellent", said Ylindar, "It appears you can bring them all. Enjoy your spoils.". With that, he left.
The woman thanked the tall man who then grabbed the captain by the arm and looked him in the eyes. "If anything happens to her, I will hold you responsible.", he said.
The captain nodded, "You have my word, warrior.". The man was dragged to the elven slave lines and pushed through the rift.
Ylindar was sitting at his desk writing a letter to the troops on the other side, saying the invasion was a success and a foothold was established. Handing the letter to a messenger he got up and walked to observe his army. Ten thousand elves, all gathered in a barbaric land to bring civilization. He looked up in the sky and saw the wyverns flying through the air. As he looked at them he didn't feel proud, he felt confused. There were too few of them. He brought fifty wyverns, which is half of an army's corps. Now there were less than two dozen. How?
His question would be answered as several strange contraptions flew in the air at the wyverns. They didn't have wings but still flew in a straight line. The wyverns outnumbered them and Ylindar assumed this was a victory, but his hopes were crushed as the contraptions fired what looked like cannons and tore through the wyverns like a sword through parchment.
He stepped back in shock and watched as the cannon-wielding machines finished the wyverns and turned towards them.
"General!", called a soldier, "Enemy carriages approach! It appears to be their army!"
Ylindar grinned, "At last. Soldiers of the light! Prepare yourselves! The savages have finally sent their warriors! We will crush them and clear a path for our reinforcements! Formations!"
The infantry prepared their shields and spears, archers and mages took their positions, it was time to face this world's true force. The metal carriages halted and out of them came out dozens of soldiers. Then dozens more came from flying contraptions.
Raising his sword, Ylindar yelled out the order, "Attack!".
---
"Here they come!", yelled Paterson.
"Open fire!", ordered Jefferson. The rifles, machine guns, and grenade launchers wreaked havoc upon the enemy. Bullets tore through shields, machine guns ripped people apart, and explosions turned any poor fool near it into minced meat. Their tight formations only added to their demise.
The attack helicopters arrived when they finished the dragon things and opened fire with their chain guns and anti-infantry rockets. The enemies fell by the thousands and some even started to retreat while most fell to their knees and begged for mercy.
When the firing stopped all that was left of the ten thousand enemy soldiers were scorched bodies riddled with holes. There was almost nothing left of their camp. The screaming soldiers were taken into custody. All but one guy with a cape.
"You-You dare!", yelled the blue-skinned man, "Do you have any idea who I am!? Who I represent!? You shall suffer for your barbarism!". He drew his sword and ran to the nearest soldier, who promptly raised his rifle and shot him in the chest twice.
"Round them all up.", ordered Jefferson, "Send word to HQ that it's over."
The enemy captives were loaded up into trucks and sent to Fort Curz for questioning. As they were being loaded up, one of the blue soldiers started smiling and chuckling. "What's so funny?", asked Paterson.
"This is only the beginning.", he replied. Paterson widened his eyes and ran to Jefferson.
"Sir!"
"What is it?"
"I just information on the attack. This was the first wave. More are coming."
Jefferson wasted no time in reacting and grabbed his radio, "All units, prepare for a second attack! Air squadrons, hold your positions until enough of them group up and shot down those dragons! Don't waste ammo!"
"Rodger that.", said a pilot. The guard and police force pulled back and created a semi-circle out of armored vehicles facing the portal. Hundreds of rifles and machine guns were pointed toward the shining rectangle.
---
Captain Zorgin led the second wave through the rift. The remaining forty thousand elves and ten thousand dwarves marched to the other side. But something wasn't right. When the messenger arrived he reported that the invasion was a success, but later dozens of soldiers came back saying that they should not go through. They came saying how the savages have great machines of death capable of destroying armies. Be that as it may, general Ylindar was out there and Zorgin swore he would bring him back.
"General Bardek!", he called, "You will lead the charge with your troops. After you get through, our cavalry and wyverns will enter and attack."
"Right.", said Bardek, "I can't let Dalmin have all the fun after all.". He rushed forward on his war hog, leading his troops. "Warriors of Nundolar! The enemy we face is formidable! But we will show them the might of dwarven steel!". The dwarven warrior roared and charged through the rift. As soon as they passed through they were met with a horrid sight.
Thousands dead and burned, the camp nor the general could be seen, only the line of carriages and hundreds of enemy soldiers. Bardek didn't stop to think. The adrenalin carried him forward. He charged with his troops, screaming and firing, hoping he could break the enemy's defenses. But hopes were not enough. The enemy opened fire and Bardek experienced true fear. His hog was shot and he fell to the ground. The enemy's boomsticks fired without stopping, their cannons killed dozens of soldiers with each blast, and they couldn't even get close. His pride, his dwarven pride, was broken. He could only lie down and pray he would survive.
Zorgin led his cavalry through. He looked for his general but found nothing but dead bodies and ash. He snapped back as he heard cannon fire and redirected his troops. "Over there! Their flank is less defended! We will break it, come on!". Leading the cavalry charge he kept observing the enemy. They had strange-looking black shields and only a single line between two carriages. They opened fire with their boomsticks and Zorgin's cavalry started taking casualties but still held on. Zorgin was closing in, but then the enemy soldiers fired some sort of metal boxes that spewed smoke. 'What trickery is this?', Zorgin thought, but when the smoke spread and got into their eyes, they understood its purpose. It made their eyes burn and they could hardly breathe. The horses were affected the same way as they stopped in their tracks. They couldn't see anything but they felt as if they were knocked out.
More and more soldiers exited the rift and with their sheer numbers, they were starting to get close. But as they did, the flying monsters of metal rained fire upon them and their numbers kept dropping. The wyverns were blown to pieces by either them or the cannons. It wasn't a battle, it was more of a one-sided slaughter. Only a few dozen were able to run back to the rift. Most were either wounded, screaming from the killer smoke or just lying down and surrendered. Surprisingly, the enemy took them captive instead of killing them. Zorgin tried to resist but to no avail.
"Where is general Ylindar?!", he yelled as he was dragged, "I demand you answer me immediately!"
One of the soldiers in light brown armor came up to him and grabbed him by the arm and dragged him in another direction. After stopping he pushed him to his knees. "Here.", he spoke, "Is this him?"
Zorgin could barely see, his vision was foggy, but there was no mistaking it. The armor, the cape, the helmet, it was him. Zorgin shed tears of regret, regret that he failed in his duty.
"I'll take that as a yes.", said the soldier before lifting Zorgin back on his feet.
"You haven't won!", Zorgin yelled, "Our fleet has taken your shores by now! Soon enough, more ships will follow and you will perish!"
"I wouldn't worry about that.", said the soldier in a calm tone, leaving Zorgin puzzled.
---
Three hours earlier
South coast of California, Del Mar, near San Diego
Admiral Lothar Tanros has passed through the rift. Large enough for more than a dozen ships to pass through it advanced his progress. Each fleet was well-equipped for an invasion. It consisted of twenty troop carriers with held ten thousand troops in total, thirty attack ships with eight cannons, five wyvern carriers with five to six wyverns each, and forty-five supply ships with materials necessary to build and sustain the fleet and build a coastal fortification. All are led by the admiral's personal grand ship. A huge naval vessel with several sails and cannons on both sides. Truly a powerful presentation.
"Admiral!", shouted the first mate, "Land is within sight!"
"Excellent!", said Lothar, "Let the wyvern carriers pass through first. I want air superiority as soon as possible. Along with them, I want half of our troop carriers. We need to take the shore immediately."
"Yes, admiral!".
---
Lieutenant Mitch Floyd was just doing his routine patrols. It was his turn to take the patrol boat for a spin. All he had to do was go to Dana point and back, simple, he's done it dozens of times before. All the while the crew was gathered around a TV and watching the live recordings of the attack in North Carolina. What they felt was beyond words.
"Sir, how can you not watch this?", asked a crew member.
"It's cause I trust our boys to kill those freaks.", Mitch replied, "Don't you?"
"W-Well of course but, damn. This shit is insane. Gotta say I'm jealous, I kinda want to shoot some dragons."
"Careful watch you wish for, kid.". As Mitch sailed on he began to notice something strange in front. A large number of wooden ships heading towards Del mar. In the sky were large dragon-like reptiles. 'Just my luck.", Mitch thought.
"Battle stations!", ordered Mitchel, "Looks like your wish came true Fred!"
Fred looked out and saw three dragons flying toward them, "Holy shit! I didn't mean now!". He ran towards the .50 caliber machine gun and readied himself. The cyclone class patrol boat wasn't something to be messed with. As the dragons got closer, the 25mm machine gun raised itself, aimed, and let loose. The lizards couldn't even react before they got turned into Swiss cheese.
"Woohoo!", cheered Fred, "We got 'em!"
"Don't open the champagne just yet!", Mitch shouted, "We still have those ships to deal with. I count roughly a hundred, various sizes. Richerdson, get in contact with HQ! Tell them what's going on, we need air support. Alert the National guard as well."
"Yes, sir!", said Richerdson.
'God help us.', Mitch thought as he sailed into the fray.
---
"Admiral!", yelled the first mate, "Some of our wyverns have been killed."
"Where?", Lothar asked.
"They spotted a ship coming from the south and decided to deal with it, but now they're dead."
"A single ship?"
"That is what the captain said."
"Tell them to send what attack ships are near to destroy it. Nothing must disrupt this invasion."
"Yes, Admiral."
On the shore, the savages run. They run from the water and into their city. The wyverns already started swooping down and devouring them. Their soldiers in blue clothing fired at them with their boomsticks but did next to nothing. A few managed to shoot down the riders, but that didn't stop the wyverns themselves. Now that the shore was empty, the troops could move in. Dozens of landing boats rowed to the shore and dropped off hundreds of soldiers who rallied and attacked the savages, but their weapons halted the assault.
"Push through!", yelled a lieutenant, "They are few in numbers! We must clear a path!". At that moment, two wyverns descended unto their carriages and destroyed the soldiers in blue. With that, the cohort marched on and reached the wide road. However, in the distance, they saw more metal carriages, but these were bigger and in a different color, with large boomsticks on top. The wyverns flew at them, but they soon got shot down and the carriages halted. Out of them came dozens of enemy soldiers, all dressed in vastly different armor than their blue counterparts.
The cohort got into a shield formation and the mages prepared to block the enemy's weapons, but they couldn't. Their magic wasn't working. "Do not falter!", the lieutenant shouted, "We must-". His mouth stopped moving as soon as it got blown to pieces by the enemy. The shields and armor provided them with no protection. They were all cut down and the enemy advanced. More and more of their carriages arrived and they quickly retook the shore.
"Admiral, we have a problem on the shore.", said the first mate.
"I can see that!", yelled Lothar, "Tell the attack ships to form a firing line and destroy the enemy! We cannot let them... are you listening?". The first mate pointed out towards the approaching ships in the distance. Five of them, two large and the rest smaller, all made of metal, and above them over a dozen flying arrowheads, dropping what looked like eggs. Each 'egg' landed on a ship and blew it to pieces. Dozens of ships were destroyed just like that. Lothar didn't have the words to express himself. He kept looking toward the enemy ships as they aimed their cannons and fired from impossible distances. The crew panicked and begged for help, but Lothar couldn't say anything. In his final moments, he watched as a giant metal rod flew into the sky from one of the ships and blew him to pieces along with his crew and ship.
---
"Boom!", cheered Fred, "They got the big one!"
"Shut up!", shouted Mitch, "Let's do what we came here to do.". He guided his cyclone patrol boat along with another one towards the enemy 'landing crafts'. The two opened fire with their 25mm chainguns they tore through the boats and ripped the soldiers inside apart, scattering their remains across the water. Along the way, they picked up the handful of survivors and tied them up.
In the main battle, two destroyers, USS Dewey-2, and Cutter opened fire on the enemy fleet. They targeted the largest ones first, and when they were done they moved on to the armed ships. The enemy was in complete chaos. Destroying the lead ship with the cruiser missile was a good idea, now they were leaderless and easy to take out.
The jets destroyed the ships on the outer formations and later moved inwards. Eventually, there were only thirteen ships left. Four had cannons and nine looked like they just carried supplies. They surrendered and raised white flags, a smart move. The coast guard boarded and cleared all of them before arresting the crew and towing the ships back.
"This is quite a mess lieutenant.", Fred said.
"It is. You just had to wish for a dragon, huh?"
Now that the attacks were stopped, the hard part began. Counting the losses and making a plan for what to do next.
End of chapter 3
---
Sorry for the short chapter, in hindsight I should have just written one very long one. Won't happen again, pinky promise.
Thank you very much for watching. If you'd like to support me (for some freakin' reason) and get access to future chapters early feel free to upvote, follow, and support me on Patreon:
patreon.com/SimpleWrites

This is a repost from another sub and Ik this is going to look messy and not make much sense but I'm not sure how to word it lol and for context recently some classed have changed and stuff and in sat next to this gir (were both 15)l who I don't really know but she's friends with one of my friends who liked her and got friendzoned and won't admit it or atleast I think and in lessons she jokes around with him and stuff but since the classes have moved I'm sat near her in a few lessons and she's started joking around with me and it might be cos I'm sat near my friend but it feels like she does it more to me than him and she's always laughing and sometimes it feels a little awkward and she does stuff like poking me to get me to turn round or taking a pen even tho I don't know her and I just brush it off most of the time and it's only been a couple of days and she does the same with my friend but it feels weird cos I'm not friends with her and i don't have her number or anything
The only thing is before we moved I saw her occasionally outside of school and then my friend would ask me if I saw her which makes me thinks she was talking about me and it seems weird to talk about someone who doesn't know to him but then I think jt might just be cos I'm his friend and she knows that
I've never been in a relationship before or anything so I don't know what to expect but I'm old enough now where its not like just little relationships that last a week and people are more serious about it and I'm not really friends with any girls it's not that I don't know any it's just I'm not really friend with any so idk if she's just being friendly or flirting or it's just cos I like her but it feels weird and honestly idk what's happening so i was hoping someone could help
Edit:
this post is kinda sloppy but I forgot to mention it's so obvious my friend likes her so idk if it's obvious i like her too and she knows I do but I haven't really been doing anything back or at least I don't think I have or I've been like hinting that I like and I haven't said anything to her so from my perspective she doesn't know how i feel but maybe she knows I do and just hasn't said anything either
My friend has never asked her out or anything either so maybe their not just friends and its just no ones said anything and i don't want to say anything to her or do anything incase she doesn't like me so I don't know
Now I'm thinking that if she friendzoned him and is still just joking around with him being friends if she's friendzoned me too cos she knows I like her but that doesn't really make sense cos I've never really spoke to her but maybe when I was near her and my friend and they were joking around it was obvious I liked her so she did the same to me even tho I never said anything
This second part is more of a rant lmao
I don't think she likes me but I'm always thinking what if she does and I'm not the most confident person so it's hard to imagine that she actually does if that makes sense but the main thing is I have 0 experience with this kinda thing so I'm clueless
Another edit lmao:
Ik this is already long but there's so much I want to say and one of the main things is that I don't have a crush on her I just like her or at least I think but the thing is out of all the girls in my year she's the one I like the most but I had a crush on a girl a year above me ages ago that's kinda faded and I feel nervous when I see her occasionally but I don't feel nervous around this girl and the other thing was that I know for a fact I'm not the only one who likes her cos there's my friend I said about and another one of my friends who asked her out and got rejected so there's probably other people who like her but neither of them no i like her cos I haven't said anything to anyone
In short, there's a girl who moved next to me in some classes and I can't tell of she's flirting with me or not if that's even what you can call it

I have coding experience, I can do a fair amount of 3D designing and also have dirtied my hand with game development. Recently I started blogging and tried to do affiliate marketing for certain products and brought traffic through paid ads. I haven’t earned a single dollar till now. But I can’t make up my mind on what to do actually and that actually makes me money. I have seen many courses and people that just are selling their own courses and teaching same things I.e how to earn passive income and they have the same information. Nobody is showing what to do actually.
Please guide me help me on what to do. I have 1 month with my current job as the company is shutting down. And I don’t wanna do job anymore. Hope I can get some actual help. 👏👏🤟🏻🤟🏻

When non-IT people are buying a laptop, what are they looking for? Do they look at brand? Do they look at certain specs? What do they make their decision on other than price?
This is a discussion, what do you guys think?

I was talking to one of the immigrants there and he told me not to go for MSc this year as the job market has really taken a hit, especially for people on work visa (immigrants). He told me that he himself had to go back to India for now as he wasn't getting any permanent job there himself.

Just a thought. It seems to me like there's practically no dramatic "big market drop" articles doing the rounds. Yet here we are.
Vanguard World unhedged peaked on 12th Nov 2021. We're now 10.2% nominal, and approximately 25% real down.
A hedged world tracker (e.g. IWDG) peaked 31st Dec 2021. We're now down 16.6% nominal, approx 31% real down.
I think it's a bit of a blind spot with people not really counting the very high inflation going on in market returns.
Further to that, we all generally hope and expect not just for a steady state but positive returns to actually make FIRE work, which of course are now absent.
During COVID we saw lots of nonsense "end of FIRE" articles. Well, I'd say this situation is far more gritty and with few signs of abatement yet (though still no reason to believe it's the end of FIRE - this is far yet from the worst ever).
Of course for most here this situation is great for building your FIRE pot and I hope you aren't hesitating to throw more into your pensions and ISAs.
In my case it's my first grinding bear market as a FIRE'ee. There's no point pretending it isn't a little disconcerting to see both the market falling and prices rising sharply, but at the same time we've just had one of the longest bull markets ever, and so you just have to get on with it.
edit: if the above sounded a bit like me talking to myself in the mirror, then yeah there's a bit of that going on :-)

Update for losers (our players)

New: Pass Royale 0.5

• Removed all valuable items from Gold and Free Pass
  • Dev comment: WE noticed that both free and gold pass gave players way too much value. 5$ for 20 champions via book of books? That's obscure! We reduced the value of pass to milk more money from our community.
• Increased Gold Pass price from 5$ to 6$
  • Something something inflation something.
• Added new Pass Tier: Diamond Pass
  • Dev comment: We actually had this revolutional idea of "what if instead of milking 5$ a month we milked over double of that amount? Ka-ching!". We market that the diamond pass has "champion at the last tier" and hope that everyone forgets that we used to give out free champions on the free track of the old pass.

New: Season Shop

• Now instead of getting all the rewards, you can choose couple of them to your liking!

New: Special Challenges 0.1

• Every challenge has now exactly same rewards: season tokens
  • We noticed that we were just too lazy to constantly come up with variety of new challenge reward so we just said "fk it, players can choose the rewards themselves".
• Removed excitement
  • You no longer need to win any match in a special challenges to gain exactly the same rewards as everyone else. Skill is not required nor is brain. We pretty much forgot what the word "challenge" means and replaced it with "daily chore"
• Challenges & Party modes no longer give crowns toward the pass
  • Last autumn when we f-ed up the ladder by splitting in to two parts we noticed that people were no longer interested in ladder. So now we're forcing players to play it.

Grand Challenge nerf

• Cost and rewards of Grand Challenges reduced by 50%
  • Dev comment: we market this change as if it was good for the players but in reality it's exactly the same except you need to win twice as much grand challenges to get the old amount of rewards

Are you ready to team up and destroy the competition? Join TAG TEAM! The Game Room is organizing its first ever Team Draft League!!
Team up with your favorite coach to take on other teams in a chill collaborative competition. This doubles league will feature most Pokemon available in the Paldea region. We've chosen to exclude paradox and ruin Pokemon because we believe the friendship you have with your teammate isn't a paradox and it's certainly not ruinous! Join this league to share this amazing game with a friend or meet new people. Veteran or newbie... Either way, it's bound to be a fun time!
As an optional bonus, you get a free logo for your Tag Team by brave. Apps will be open for the next 2-3 weeks. Fill out the link below to join TAG TEAM!
App Link: Application form
Discord Link to The Game Room: The Game Room Discord

I think largely the whole recognition of the franchise as being "About having choices that matter" is, but was always, overestimated by fans, especially when it comes to the ending. As in, I don't even think that the ending's primary mistake is to not land the story in a way where all choices mattered.
Every game in the series actually runs linearly in many ways. Mass Effect 1 has a beginning, middle and ending that's the same but with granular changes here and there. Mass Effect 2 also has a beginning, a lot of disjointed middle missions, and an ending that is largely limited to the same plot happening in the same way, but they emphasized choices to great effect and emotional impact here. Mass Effect 3 is more like ME1. It has a beginning, middle and ending where the narrative flows through the same dramatic swings, but deceptively, 3 actually has the biggest branching variance to its middle, whereas the ending is more like ME1 where it's the same almost no matter what but a few granular flip-switches are set and others are not.
What really pissed many off was how they were still somehow expecting all the choices they had made previously to determine the kind of ending they would see, and then realizing that no, none of that really happens but you get the A, B, C choice and that's it. If we pretend Extended Cut was always there (how many LE players saw it), we can at least admit that ME3's ending has as many variations as the Suicide Mission combined with the original endgame's granular changes. It's not as emotionally impactful to see slideshows of choices you already made, as it was to see a character live or die in the Collector Base, but there's actually a huge number of factors going into both the content of the speech in Extended Cut (all 3 speeches, but mainly the Control one) and what the slideshows depict. A great reminder of how your entire journey turned out, in summary.
The thing is, a lot of what made us care about any of this happened because the mainline plot's writing is strong enough and through its context, the side-chapters and characterization of the cast, and detail of its world was strong enough just in pure writing skill that it felt real, and that made you feel invested. If you removed all choices and damn near picked any branch of narrative, even largely the Renegade path, as the "only" outcome, all 3 games would still be compelling.
Admittedly, the way you select who Shepard is, their gender, the romances, the save-import between the games and fun optional interactions and branching side-quests all made us feel like we mattered in the game. That's what I personally love about choices; it's the interactivity of the story as a video game, where the player is put into the driver's seat. However, in the end it really is just a series of granular decisions that provide an alternate spin on the same scenes that almost everybody see. I think that's not a weakness, even though there were disappointing choices in particular (Rachni Queen, anyone?).
I just think largely what compelled me about Mass Effect was the impression that I was being made to choose things, and that the moment that I do I'm seriously considering the ethical dilemma of things, and the personal opinions of the characters I cared about in making a choice. And largely, that's also the things they capitalized on: Whether the choice itself was "Paragon" or "Renegade" because Mass Effect is a tale about Morality, even the final choice where they fuck with you by throwing subversive ambiguity about what characterizes something as renegade, paragon or... green (lol). But more effectively, the characters often end up having comments that tell you what that character would've done in your shoes, and through that they explored the other themes of the clash between alien cultures, and things like honor, pride, psychology etc.
They used choices as a storytelling tool, not as a way for the player to "make their own story". However, marketing people LOVE stuff like that. If you wanna blame anyone for misleading you into thinking Mass Effect was 100% gonna be your own individual story, that's because BioWare and EA marketing people were pushing that narrative. Even Casey Hudson, ending-lies aside, was never really that adamant in interviews that the entire narrative would form around your decisions. He emphasized the great way that having choices would impact the sense of cinema and action they were going for, and ultimately Mass Effect is just a form of interactive cinema, and that's what its choices were made to support.
TL;DR: People don't always appreciate Mass Effect's choice systems for what qualities they actually brought, by over-focusing on "outcome" instead of the values the choices in the series did provide: Themes, moral dilemmas, character opinions, and the feeling that you were in control as you had to consider them.

Hello people,
I got to know this girl three weeks ago: she's incredibly nice, cute, funny, she's my type regarding beauty, she's humble, she seems mature, my head is completely lost for her (and usually my head gets lost very rarely, so that means that this girl is quite special).
It could be that I'm idealizing her because I still don't know her, but still, I'm lost for her.
The thing is: I don't want to have a crush on her, so I don't want to date her or stuff like that. And that's making be suffering obviously because my hearth wants her, but not my mind.
Why my mind doesn't want her? First of all because of distance: we are both in a city for just some months (internships abroad), so eventually we'll have to be distant for some time. Also, I'm not that nice looking guy (high value man), so honestly I don't think I will have many possibilities with her when out there there are way better men than me. Third, I feel I'm still young to be stuck in a relationship: I would really like to focus on my growth and career first.
That being said, maybe the best thing to do is to cut contacts. But probably it is not gonna be easy: we are both preparing a half marathon coming in few months so probably we'll do some trainings together (already done some), also we are more and less in the same friends group, so I don't want to disappear and look like an asshole (even though I would like to...).
I just sent her a message regarding running stuff but I would like to stop with that...
What should I do? Thank you.

We're new to sw5e, and another player (who is usually very reasonable and who is not the GM) at the table is absolutely convinced that it expends a unit of fuel to regenerate a power die every turn. I've shown him that it does not say that, wherever it would probably say that in Starships of the Galaxy. He is just saying that there is no evidence that it doesn't. This player normally trusts what is seen on the internet a lot.
So, can any of you, who can, please explain the answer to this question and how you got this answer? I'd like to show the other player what other people, who know what's what, say in this post.
Thanks in advance!