Why isn't razer synapse opening

Miscellaneous
Dodge recovery cancel 100-300 ms on miss and on hit for the second hit of the zone, all heavies and skewer*
Recently dodge recovery cancels have been locked at 300 ms into the recovery but in this case it's only after heavies so we have a trade-off of where the recovery cancel is but it's very good
\In skewer's case it should be on miss but it needs to stay like live on hit because being able to dodge out of the recovery after having let the three ticks happen will certainly lead to him having a confirmed dodge bash and that shouldn't happen*
​
3 and 4 light chains removed
These chains are only useful against low levels and are useless elsewhere
​
​
Lights
Top chained

• 500 ms
• 13 damage

​
Dodge forward

• 200-500 ms into the dodge
• 18 damage

A little bit more respectable damage for a rollcatcher
​
All dodge directions

• Enhanced

Should be standard (except maybe tiandi but that's another discussion)
​
​
Heavies
Finishers

• Undodgeable

Currently they're not really worth going for over skewer but with this change it gives them a mix-up with toe stab, normally undodgeable finishers are 28 damage but also normally the bash that comes with them does 14 damage so i think it's fine to leave it at 30 since the bash in question here does 10
​
Chained skewer

• Throw window between 2nd and 3rd tick same as the others
• Damage changed to 1D+8B+8B+10B (27 total, 40 with wall)

There's no reason to have an input be hard to do for the sake of having it hard to do
D=direct B=bleed, all bleed is in the form of 2 damage ticks
I feel that 27 is enought for what it does considering it's application in ganks and additionnal damage with walls
​
Deflect skewer

• Throw window between 2nd and 3rd tick same as the others
• Damage changed to 2D+4B+6B+8B (20 total, 35 with wall)

20 is fine for a deflect
​
​
Zone

• Both hit 15 stamina cost
• Second hit slowed to 700 ms (still confirmed)
• Chains into toe stab
• Second hit feint cost 10 stamina

At 600 ms it has a tendency to hit people out of their dodge attacks that were done against the bash part so hopefully that fixes it
Everything else chains into toe stab so why not the zone?
I don't know if it's me miseunderstanding but the info hub seems to say the second hit costs 40 stam to feint
​
​
Bashes
Chained toe stab

• 466 ms
• minimum chain link increased by 33 ms

yadda yadda 500 ms bash bad you know the dance
​
Dodge forward

• 433 ms
• Chains into chained light (which is confirmed)

There's no reason for that thing not to confirm damage, even back when it stunned it was barely above useless because of it's lack of damage
​
Side dodge

• Chains into chained light (which is confirmed)

See above
​
Parry riposte

• Stun removed
• 300 ms
• 3 damage on hit
• Chains into light or heavy opener (light confirmed)
• Wallsplat (this confirms an heavy)
• Hyper armor at 100 ms
• 300 ms Dodge recovery

Stun is simply unecessary and annoying on this
The 3 damage is so that it's the optimal parry punish above the zone and i think it simply makes sense that ripostes should generally be the optimal punish
Wallsplat just makes sense to me, in this case 26 is fine since the distance is so little, and yes it does mean it doesn't chain into skewer
Dodge recovery is for teamfights mainly and i do mean the entire recovery to dodge is 300 ms
​
New move: bash deflect

• Done by inputing guard break 200-400 ms into a deflect
• Otherwise indentical to the parry riposte

Glad doesn't really have anything when it comes to deflecting against hyper armored follow ups and while i generally disagree with simply making deflects break it in this case i think this can work where you have one that loses to armor and another that beats it but for lower damage

New stream of Eversax talking about KC after the Spring Cup. I don’t know how many interviews we will have so I wanted, at least, to translate the recap of Eversax as usual.
This translation will be long and separated into 3 parts:
- Part 1: Spring Cup (Preparation, Vitality, BDS, Grand Final, ExoTiiK, Itachi, Playing many BO7s, fatigue, bracket reset)
- Part 2: Negative side of social media for “unpopular opinions” from “fans” and Pros/Coaches/Casters (Toxicity, pressure to perform, Negative comments, people farming impressions, mean people on the internet)
- Part 3: Other information (EU/NA level, player’s performance, Vitality's winning streak, best coach)
Link to the replay: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1831882651 (starts near: 8.23)
I would advise you to read the parts talking about Vitality + Part 2.
→ Part 1: Spring Cup
● Spring Cup
- Preparation (12.58): He was happy since they improved compared to the Spring Open. A top 4 is a great result, but they were not good. They worked a lot between the two regionals since they had to improve after the long post-Major break [In the last translation Eversax explained that they didn’t prepare correctly before the first regional due to schedule conflicts]. His players wanted to come back so bad but it was more negative than positive. Indeed, they started to play too much and It’s not the best thing on RL. You don’t use your time efficiently and you often finish by playing without thinking so you don’t improve. That’s why he told his players to take a break of 3-4 days between the two regionals. It was risky, but It worked because they played much better during the Spring Cup. It was the first time that KC started to play well throughout the whole minor.
- Devil Fruit and PSG Tundra(14.45): On Friday it was quite easy because they were stronger than Devil Fruit and PSG Tundra.
- Guild (15.03): To reach the top 3 they had to beat Guild, a team that won against Oxygen. He thinks that KC played really well leading to this no-match (4-0). Everything was controlled but he can’t say if KC was too strong or if Guild was too scared. He said that because Guild was totally different when they had to play against BDS. But in any case, they reached the semi-final winner bracket by beating Oxygen so Guild deserved to be there since their bracket was not free.
- Winner bracket final against Vitality: Vitality played well as usual while KC was just bad. It was a no-match and they were better so they deserved to win (11:20). Their weakness was more about mentality and maybe the last regional impacted their series. KC had difficulties playing well while Vitality took advantage of this weakness from the beginning. But as usual, there was no problem with the team and they used their break after to speak together (15.45). This sweep allowed them to realize that, in their head, Vitality was different from other teams and it was one of the reasons for their bad performance. Fortunately, they solved that for the next matches and it should not be a problem anymore. That’s not something new because they had the same apprehension with BDS and rival French teams last year. They took these matches too seriously even though they should not make any difference between opponents (1.00.40).
- BDS (16.12): When they came back after their loss against Vitality, KC was not the same team. Fortunately, this defeat didn’t negatively impact his players and they won 4-0. Even though it was closer than the result, they played well and you could see that KC was the better team on the field.
- Grand Final against Vitality: As a bracket reset is difficult he wanted his players to try their best. And he thinks that’s what they did (16.57). During the first series, they took advantage from the beginning and the games were great. In fact, he said that it was the most beautiful match he had ever seen as a coach because everyone was playing so well. It’s difficult to explain it but he had this special feeling where you had only 3-4 opportunities to score in each game because players were making few mistakes. The winner was only decided on who would have taken advantage of more opportunities. However, after the bracket reset, they had to play an OT of 5 minutes in game 1. For Eversax, It was not difficult mentally but It added one more game and players started to accumulate fatigue. It’s short but also exhausting since you don’t have any breaks + every game is intense. He still thinks that KC was able to fight until the end but Vitality deserved their win because they bounced back after the bracket reset. Indeed, they still had energy after the 2-2 to punish small details while KC was making mistakes that they were not used to doing (19.40).
- Preparation for the next regional (20.03): You could see that fatigue affected all players and the last 2-3 games were difficult with all these mistakes. Now he knows how to prepare his players better. Usually, they prefer to eat less before matches. But when you have to play 4 BO7s from 5 pm to 10 pm without anything in the stomach, it’s not the best thing. So they’ll try to adjust that for the next minor.
- Importance of each regional (21.25): Each minor is important to prepare the MajoWorlds. That’s why KC cares so much about minors and they’ll work even harder to win these tournaments even if Majors and Worlds are more prestigious. Why? Because all their efforts will allow them to prepare for the last step: Worlds.
- ExoTiiK: ExoTiiK was particularly good against BDS because he led coms. Eversax didn’t understand why some people thought that he was the weak link of the team because performances depend on the three players and not only one of them. They win and lose together (51.18). People continue to underestimate him but Eversax understood what ExoTiiK can do when he’s peaking. In general, he goes on every ball and he controls his moves so well despite his 0.30 dead zone (1.02.15).
- Itachi (1.05.14): Eversax was so proud of Itachi because he started the Winter Split thinking that he was the best player in the World, but after the 3rd regional + Major, he was a little bit disappointed. Eversax felt like Itachi was missing a small thing, but during this minor, he saw this small thing again. And overall he’s so proud of his 3 players.
- Conclusion of the Spring Cup (44.35): He’s proud of their run. Indeed, his players were individually strong in the first series of the grand final and they improved since the last regional. Yes, a top 2 is not enough, but that’s also good to have some competition within a region for motivation and improvement. This rivalry between KC and Vitality will push each team further and they are creating hype for the next minor.
● Double-bracket elimination format
- Playing many BO7s (08.38): Eversax thinks that players can play 4 BO7s in a row but it’s difficult to prepare these runs. It's the particularity of this format and different from the two other splits where you normally play 3 BO7s on Sunday with breaks. He thinks that BDS would have struggled much more since they started their loser bracket way before KC. A longer break could have helped, but he can’t blame the format because you can rest if you stay in the winner bracket. That’s why the only solution as usual is to win.
- Fatigue during the bracket reset (11.50): We saw that It was difficult to stay at a high level between games. They made so many mistakes due to fatigue and it didn’t affect only KC. For example, Radosin’s own goal was unlucky and he saw that he was tired too.
- Mentality throughout the bracket (12.25): It’s difficult to not mentally drop after a 4-0 but KC bounced back and swept BDS too. They even won against Vitality once to reset the bracket. Maybe playing in boot camp would have helped to deal with fatigue but it's difficult to play at that level for so many games with so much coms.
- Is resetting the bracket too difficult?: He knew that this format gives a huge advantage to the winner bracket so it’s almost “impossible”/too difficult to reset the bracket and win the final. He just wanted the team to play well from the beginning and try their best (16.45). Still, for Eversax, this format is not the best. Indeed, it’s rare to have a bracket reset and you can see it because, for this season, KC was the first team to reset the bracket. It’s so rare to reset the bracket, but even more to win the second series. And he would say the same thing if KC was still in the upper bracket. You should have a clear advantage for the winners, but not a 80% chance of winning. Still, Vitality played well and they needed an advantage. The format is the same for everyone and if they want to rest more, KC has to win, so there’s no excuse for their loss in the Grand Final (19.05).
- BO9 with 1 game in advance (11:40): For him a grand final in BO9 with one game in advance for the winner bracket could be interesting. However, he thinks that Psyonix will never accept BO9s so It’s complicated.

I've had the same fp for like 10 years, and she knows she's my fp. She also knows about my mental health issues including sh. We've been romantic on off for most of that time. Last month out of the blue she completely stops answering. I reached out a few times asking if she was ok and never got a response. After more time passed I sent her a message basically saying I give up and I'll stop trying to contact her. Then she answered and apologized for leaving and hurting me and said I didn't have to stop contacting her. But then she went right back to ghosting me and didn't even open anything I sent. At this point BPD went into overdrive and I started worrying more about being abandoned. I sent and deleted like 5 messages trying to find the right words to say and she didn't open anything. Then I texted her basically begging her to just tell me what's going on and if she's ever coming back. She finally answered and told me she didn't know and that messaging her so much wasn't helping and freaking her out. So is it my fault for reaching out so much? I feel like I went overboard but I also don't think I should've been ghosted twice and she should've just told me in the first place she needed space.
Tl;Dr - fp ghosted me, then she came back and apologized for ghosting me, then she ghosted me again, then she said me messaging her so much asking why she ghosted me and if she she'd come back was freaking her out and making her not want to come back

Hello, I’ve spent good half a year searching the history of Bulgaria people and the language.I would like to discuss the historical debates of the country.I’m Bulgarian of Turkic origin myself. And here are my questions and what I’ve found so far; 1-Do you think that historically theory of Bulgarians coming from Turkic people are true? 2-Are Turks living in Bulgaria realy has connection with the Turks? 3-Why is there not enough historical research about our countries history? And my opinions on these questions based on what I’ve found are; First question is highly debatable but certainly Bulghars who were Turkic tribe were founders of the Bulgaria, while population being mostly slavic, frankly the other Bulgars who were moving from asia did not manage to create their own country, such as Bulgars moved to Iraq, Italy. And Volga Bulgars preserved their Turkic language in process while Bulgars who moved to Crimea later on Bulgaria lost its language later the religion.I believe this theory is not accepted by Bulgarians mostly rather its accepted by American historians more. So on my 2nd question, As a Bulgarian who had Turkic roots I was led to believe that we’ve moved there when Ottomans ruled Bulgaria, and in Bulgaria there was counter arguement that we were assimilated Bulgarians. So I’ve started to look in to it historically first, as there were no evidence of Turks who were moved to Bulgaria really, apart from Kardzhali region. Secondly Linguisticly we dont speak Turkish as Turkic in Bulgaria.Turks in Kardzhali being exception and considered speaking derivative of Modern Turkish. Turkic people who lives in Shumen/Razgrad/Targovishte/Silistra were classified as speakers of Balkan Gagauz linguistically and native speaker of our own language I’ve found Gagauz Language so similar to my mother tongue, and turkish were more distant.Thirdly I did some genatical research, with some friends and myself did a DNA heritage test whether to see if Im more closer to be Bulgarian or Turkish which theory was right?So I’ve found out my closest ethnicity was Bulgarian with influence from Finnish and Chuvash.And no traces with Turkish ethnicity.Finding that I was so confused, that meant that either we were assimilated or there were not enough research. What do you guys think of Turkic people of Bulgaria? And for Third I rather see different debates on hot topics some American and eastern historians being on the opposite side of the debates mostly. I would like to see people who are interested in this topic to discuss and see what we can find out more. I’m open to question as I was conducting huge research especially of Turkic Bulgarians and the heritage and can respond DM’s. thank you for your attention all! have a good weekend!

Here are mine:
Optimus Primal-Optimus Prime/Elita 1: This kind of goes without saying, Primal looks and acts like optimus, carried the matrix of leadership and called optimus his ancestor in beast machines. So I hope theirs no disagreement here
Cheetor-Bumblebee: Another obvious one, both yellow have pronounced horns. And are one of the youngest members of the team and filled with energy.
Rattrap-Ironhide/Chromia Now I know rattrap does say that his great aunt was arcee, I like to think that since chromia and arcee were sisters in the bayverse. That in G1 they are also sisters, or at least are close enough for arcee to be considered an aunt. And that
Rhinox-Wheeljack: Their both loyal scientists who are strong enough to hold their own in a fight. They both have grey and green as their primary colors. Theirs really not much else to it
Silverbolt-Silverbolt: Simular enough design and share a name, good enough for me.
Dinobot-Cyclonus (Formerly known as Skywarp): Both have pronounced horn like formations on their helmets. Both are noble and honourable. Plus its easy to see why a child of cyclonus would be chosen to be megatron's right hand man.
Tigatron-Jazz: both are voiced by black men. Both are portrayed as smooth fighters. And both feel a connection to earth and its like in a way that none of their other comerades do.
Airazor-Skydive: Given her apearance and name, I think its safe to say she's an aerial bot. Skydive seems to be one of the more reserved and cautious of the aerial bots. So I think he's the most likely
Depth Charge-Seaspray: Simular personality, depth charge was nearly called seaspray. Both connected to the ocean, need I say more?
Transmutate-Arcee/Springer-This is pretty much entirely driven by the fact that susan blu voices both arcee and transmutate, Their also both relatively pale. And don't seem to be very bulky by transformers standards, so theirs that.
Megatron-Megatron/Nightbird: theirs the obvious factors, both have same name. Same aspirations, both are bulky bucket-heads with canons built into their arms. However I have heard some people say starscream could be his ancestor, since being a child of the original megatron would automatically give him respect within the other predacons, which doesn't make sense given beast wars megatron is an outcast. And they argue starscream works better since megatron's spark seemed immortal and floated around possesing sutff, but I argue that all sparks were kind of like that in beast machines. Plus I think it would actually make him more of an outcast amongst the predacons if he couldn't live up to, or even disgraced his father's name. I also argue theirs a good chance nightbird is his mother. Megatron vowed he would return to earth, nightbird was still awake and at least somewhat sentient. And it would explain beast war megs's purple colors.
Waspinator-Scraphnel: my evidence for this is that their both funny little insect guys. And when waspinator gets hit he believes he is schrapnel for a brief second, which would be weird since I wouldn't have though schrapnel would be a decepticon remembered throghout history. It makes more sense if he was a relative of waspinator. I do also think starscream is possible if only for the extraordinary things waspinator survives.
Black Arachnia-Repugnus: She enjoys being bad even after her predacon programing is removed, plus she has bits of a yellowish color with huge claws.
Tarantulas-Unicron: If you had asked me this question during season one or two of the show I would have said shockwave, both treacherous purple scientists with one eye. However the show reveals his ancestry is neither predacon nor maximal. And megatron's comment about him being a spawn of unicron, has been accurate in other continuities. So im going with that.
Inferno-Inferno: I don't see why he would have the name of an autobot otherwise, and besides beast wars inferno is always eager to prove himself.
Quickstrike-Slag: I know it kind of raises the question as to how the dinobots managed to have a relatively intelligent child, but quickstrike like slag before him seems to really enjoy combat. And he loves to melt or "slag" his opponents. So I like to think he is.
Rampage-Starscream/Skyfire: This isn't really up for debate, he was created to try and create a replicate starscream's spark. Therefore he was probably made from parts of starscream's body. Given his unusually large size, I also like to think skyfire's body was used to create a strong soldier and to fill in the missing parts of starscream, consider how well he was preserved frozen in ice. So his body is sort of a horrific fusion between starscream and skyfire.
Terrorsaur-Starscream: need i explain? Both are red and white, both are treacherous. Bot have wings that stick out of their shoulders. They both share a voice actor, all signs point to starscream.
Scorponok-Soundwave: dark coloration, a single visor. A small minion they can send out to attack enemies. Undying loyalty to their megatron. Plus come on, it explains why scorponok was made second in command by megatron. Sure he might not be the brightest in some regards, but he's soundwave's kid. One of the greatest of all decepticons, who saved the original megatron countless times.
I don't know enough about the characters who were only in the toyline to make an informed decision on them.

"My (29) best friend (29) is getting married this fall. I am the best man. We have a bachelor party in Vegas planned for July. His fiancé, who is a bit of a control freak, has badgered me a few times about what we have planned for the trip. Tbh, I don’t have many concrete plans in place yet, and I’ve told her this.
After maybe the fourth time she asked, I told her I don’t know the plans yet, and I wouldn’t be telling her anyways. She got all huffy and puffy about it and I basically told her to fuck off and that my job is to throw a fun party for my friend, not to get it approved by her.
My friend is telling me I should apologize even though he admits she’s being coo coo about this because it will stop her from nagging him. I don’t want her to keep annoying him but I also don’t want her thinking she has a right to do what she’s doing. We have other married friends and none of them said their wives did anything like this."
PS: This isn't my post, I wish I could have added his comments he was saying on that post. This original post sounds like the fiancée is just controlling and crazy but then he starts revealing the true picture.
His most alarming comment IMO was: "I’m not sure. I’d advise him not to use any hookers but if someone else wants to take a whack at one I’m not going to stop it. I’d 100% keep it a secret. Why would I say something? But I really don’t think that would happen."

I was fired back in March from a job I only had for 2.5 months. Prior to that I worked as a teller for 5 months, but hated so much I tried to get a different job. I graduated from uni back in June of last year.
I wasn't passionate about the job I was fired from, but it paid more and I thought it would open more doors for future opportunity. There was practically zero work for me to do, I got lazy, made mistakes, and was fired for it.
I have two resumes, one with the fired job and one without it. I've gotten more interviews with the resume that had the fired job, but interviewers always ask about why I left my previous two jobs and while I lie about it, it's obvious they can tell I was fired and that hurts me. I've applied to an equal number of jobs using both resumes, but have only heard back with the resume with the fired job. It's nice to get interviews, but it's really starting to hurt me and I really need a job.
Problem is, the resume without the fired job would say I was practically unemployed for six months. It looks really bad and it hurts me a lot. There's also the fact that I don't have much experience outside of a few student worker jobs.
What do you guys think? Keep the resume with the fired job or without it?

Every Sunday morning I go to a local donut shop called sunshine donuts. I go when I need to get my mind of things but one day my boss called me to work more because business was going low. At 10:30 I was finally ready to go home, I got to my car and went straight to the donut shop.
When I got there the place was empty and no cashier I waited for what seemed like hours but then I glanced to the counter and the cashier finally show up. I got up from my seat but then I got a chill down my spine. There was something about the kid's face that just really creeped me out. He was very skinny and pale and I noticed his hands were dirty with long nails. I also notice that he recked of dead carces and vomet, and he just staird intently at me for what felt like 10 mins but then he finally spoke, he said "what can I get for you sir" in a very high pitched rachy voice for a kid.
I said just a classic donut with a coffee. Then he smiled and walked away. He made me wait for quite sometime. Then he came with my donut and my coffee. In the same weird voice he said enjoy. This kid was really starting to creep me out and I had so many questions, why is the place so empty tonight and what's going with that kid but I just wanted to take my donut and my coffee and leave. So I grabbed my donut and walked to the door but I realized it was stuck.
The kid then said, oh I hope you don't mine waiting the door likes to stick and I forgot to oil the door, then he walked away. I thought nothing of it then went back to sit down again I waited and waited and waited, I checked my watch and it was exactly 12 am and the kid still was nowhere to be seen and I started wondering what in the world is going on back there. And I don't know why but I decided to open my cup of coffee. I opened it and the coffee was red I looked at it and I realized it wasn't coffee it was blood.
I was shock I drop the coffee but then I saw on eye ball in there I yelled in panic, what is going on! I yelled. Nobody answered, then I yelled Answer me! Still nothing. But then I felt like I was in danger I kept trying to open the door and I heard someone say, you can't leave. That's when I finally got scared I grabbed a chair and through it at the window causing to shatter. I jumped out the window and started running as far as I can, but then when I look back there was a sign that said closed. At that moment I was really confused but then I remember that place closes at 9pm.
I went home locking all my doors and windows and just tried to forget about all this and try to get some sleep. The next morning I reported this kid to the police and a few days later I was watching the news on tv and they arrested the kid, and it turn out that a 18 year kid went crazy and became a serial killer and he killed the the employees closing the donut shop I went too. To this day I'm still very lucky I got away when I did.
I never went to that donut shop again. And sometimes I try to forget about it but who knows I probably never will.

TW: Hanging, Death and Blood
I grew up in a small town called Evelanch, its located on the outskirts of Delaware, the population there was just over 1,000, I grew up there with my single mother and two brothers, I was the youngest so was the punching bag of the siblings but we all loved each other really. Its the type of town where everyone knew everyone, all the shops were owned by families that lived there and the bakeries always had fresh homemade goods... overall it was a great place to grow up in... apart from the fact the town was very superstitious about the surrounding woods. It was surrounded by these massive woods, miles and miles of woods, the kids and adults never went in them, the only people you ever saw in there was woodcutters. There was only one road that went through them, it was always referred to as the Lumberjacks Highway as all the wood cutters would use it to transport all the cuttings from the forest back to the town, They were the only people to really use it as not many people came to visit Evelanch. Growing up, all the kids were told never to go playing in them, all the adults of the town had these made up horror stories about giant bears and packs of hungry wolves to scare the kids into staying away from them, and were warned not to listen to the 'animal' noises we heard at night, the adults old us they were wailing, or it was their mating call and we believed them but as we grew up, we started to notice that the noises coming from the woods at night, weren't noises of an animal, but none of us could ever identify what they actually were, well that was until the summer of 1997 and I wish with every bone in my body we hadn't.
It was a hot summers day, me and my closest friends, Bruno, Stacy were all playing in my back yard, that night we had planned to sleep in the field just at the back of my house, a make-shift camping night, but since we were only 11 we didn't want to go too far from home, the field at the back of my house has a barbed wire fence surrounding it, it keeps the field and the woods separate, it was around 7ft tall the barbed wire at the top adding around another foot onto it, so no-one in the town was capable of climbing it, many have tried and failed miserably ending up grounded or in hospital. We placed outdoor camping lanterns all around the tent lighting up the area around us meaning we could see just past the fence. To explain the set up, we had one of those tents with the clear back, it was like a window and it had the piece of fabric you could roll down like a crappy curtain on it, the window was facing the fence with the fabric rolled up at the top because it was tangled and we were all to young to know how to untie it so we decided to just leave it open, to make us feel better we all turned or sleeping bags to face the window so we didn't have our backs to it. By the time we got settled in our sleeping bags it was around 11pm, we decided to tell stories and play some card games before heading to sleep, we eventually fell asleep around 12pm meaning the area that wasn't lit up by our lamps was pitch black, making us all feel a bit un-easy.
The next thing I remember was being shook awake by Bruno, I half lifted the sleeping mask of my eyes and looked up to see him hovering over me, trembling, he was panicked and looked like he was about to cry, I was still half asleep and confused what was going on, I remember asking him what was the matter and he just raised his shaking hand and pointed into the treeline, I rubbed my eyes and looked out the tent window and thats when I saw them, figures, just standing in the treeline, staring at us, they were almost as tall as the fence, must of been around 6.5ft with out of proportion limbs, their arms were almost as long as their body, and their head was smaller than a humans, they had smiles painted onto their unmoving face and there was gaping holes where their eyes should have been, at the end of their arms were small slim hands that warped into talons where their fingers should have been, and they were all swaying, crying all in sync, that was what the wailing noise was...
I was frozen, I couldn't move, I tried to scream for my mum, I tried to run but my body wouldn't let me, after what felt like hours, Stacy woke up and in a sleepy daze followed our gaze and met the same horrific imagine we were seeing, she let out a shriek and that jump started my brain, I threw my sleeping bag off and tumbled out of the tent Stacy and Bruno followed behind me, Bruno still shaking and Stacy crying hysterically suddenly we all heard this scream, sounded like everyone in our town began crying and wailing together, I looked back to see they were now pressed up against the fence, Pointing at us and screaming and clawing at the holes where their eyes should have been, seeing this we all picked up the pace, jumping over my fence and tumbling into my backyard, we began banging on my back door begging for my mum to let us in
She swung the door open and pulled us all inside asking us what the hell we were doing at this hour, once we explained, her annoyed expression soon shifted to a look of terror, she stormed out of the room and got our house phone, she called someone and told them exactly what we have told her, she then hung up and lead us all into the basement, after around 10 minutes we heard someone enter from our front door, they came into the basement light and we could now see our local priest, he had holy water, a bible and a cross with him, he rushed in and imminently started chanting verses of the bible and splashing the the water in a circle around us, he soon looked panicked when the water around my two friends began drying up but the splashes around me were untouched, confused I asked what was going on but he ignored me and took my weeping mother outside to speak to her. After around 10 minutes my mom and my two friends parents came back into the basement, they were all crying and hugging each other, my mom was telling their parents how sorry she was and kept telling them it would be okay and to use what time they had left to enjoy it, we were all still terrified and confused...thats the last thing I remember.
A week later, Stacy and Bruno went missing, both on the same day, an hour apart, they were found a day later... hanging from a tree with their eyes cut out, and limbs shred and scratched to the point where the skin was hanging off the bone, the police didn't investigate nor question anyone, the town knew why they were like this. For years I asked myself why I wasn't taken too, I was there, I had seen the same thing they had, It wasn't until my mother was on her deathbed that she told me, the sleeping mask I wore that night stopped them from seeing my full face, if it weren't for that sleeping mask, I would of been hanging from a tree just like them. I moved out of that town shortly after, my brothers decided to stay. I now have a wife and son and have tried to move on, but I recently got a letter, telling me that my brothers son, had met the same fate as my two childhood befriends, thats why I'm writing this, don't listen to the wailing from the trees, don't go exploring the woods at night, and do not let them see your face. The things that hide in the woods are hiding for a reason.
May god be with you all.

Xan is the world's most dangerous criminal mastermind. He’s also in hiding and completely broke. That’s fine. He’s between master plans. It’s normal to be at rock bottom between master plans. He also forgets stuff and may be trapped in a dream.
Because at night, Xan thinks he’s an old lady, trapped in a dingy apartment, by an angry fellow who wants to kill her. Not her idea of a good time, but she’s keeping an open mind. It is excitingly visceral. Could turn out awesome.
Safe is a sci-fi, progression, comedy. Guaranteed to cause more mental problems than it solves.

First Next
Dark City - Large Apartment Complex
I wake to frailty and a psycho yelling die in my general vicinity.
“We need to figure out how people keep finding us.”
The police haven’t found us.
“That just raises more questions.”
I pour myself a bowl of salty goo and garnish it with spicy peanut butter crunch. It’s pretty fucking good. The psycho rants and raves past the apartment a few times. A little dinner entertainment.
It’s surprising the psycho keeps finding me and the police can’t. Compare their resources. The cops have investigators, eyedrones, and spyware. The psycho has a one word vocabulary and a tendency to stab doors. One organization seems more pursuit capable. And yet here we are.
Not sure how I feel about it. It’s easier to evade the psycho, but safer to get caught by the police. Better to surrender than fight a knife with a spoon. Unless surrendering gets me locked up with a bunch of stabby psychos.
Dang.
For now, I'd like to avoid everyone. To do that, I need to figure out how the psycho keeps finding me.
“How would you find someone?”
I don’t know. But let’s do it tomorrow. Today you’re going to a doctor.
“Can’t we do both?”
Probably not. You’re only awake two hours a day.
“Fine. How do we find a doctor?”
A web search shows sixtyfour auto-hospitals in the city.
“How many have human doctors on staff?”
I don’t know. It doesn’t say. Probably none. Why?
“We need a human doctor. A decision-bot doc will require my Citizen ID. We’ll just end up in jail.”
We don’t know that. But yes - it is a risk. Can’t we fool decision-bots?
“I don’t think pretending I’m a trashbag will lead to quality care.”
When you say it, I see the problem. We need more information. Unfortunately, the web has very little on auto-hospitals. Or Citizen ID’s. Honestly, everything from the last 100 years looks like it was autoloaded by d-bots. Maybe we should find a human doctor…
Or any human. I gaze out the window. Empty streets and thousands of flying drones. In the Bright City those drones would be spies and weapons. I figure most of these are shipping crunch.
Is everyone asleep? Leaving d-bots to truck along as best they can? That would explain a lot. But is that possible? Can a city run on auto-pilot for 100 years? Volt can’t go ten minutes without fucking up. Then again, neither can I. Maybe human oversight is overrated.
Okay, I found a pixel tracker. We can message a doctor, and when he opens it, the tracker will send us his approximate location.
I freeze. Look at Volt. Psycho fills the silence with a dopplering rage warble.
“Sorry. What?”
A pixel tracker. When you open a picture on the internet, the image isn’t downloaded. It’s just a link. You can send an invisible picture - a transparent one pixel image - and no one needs to know. When they “open” the “image”, their phone asks for the pic. That request contains the phone's location. Or the location of the nearest router or cell tower. Which is usually within a hundred feet of the target. Gets you pretty close.
Psycho howls in our general vicinity.
“Volt. Have you been opening any messages?”
My threat detector monitors all information related to you.
The city’s doomed. “We need to check the settings on your threat detector.”
Sure, but tomorrow. We’re busy today. Also, no doctors are checking their hundred year old emails.
“You have my messages! They will have my Citizen ID!”
Oh! Brilliant! According to your Reddit account, your ID is MuffinMuncher420. Let’s go to the hospital!
Jesus Christ. Goddammit.
I waste an hour trying to dox myself with ancient reddit history, but it’s futile. There’s nothing identifying. Just moldy shitposts from a woman I don’t remember and barely understand. Our past selves are worthless.
Volt gets increasingly agitated as I fail to find myself. She’s ready to roll the dice on an auto-hospital. My health report may be grimmer than she lets on.
“Let’s go to a vet clinic.”
Why? You’re not a pet.
“Vet’s are better than doctors. More versatile. Also, pet’s don’t have Citizen ID’s.” Probably.
Okay. Sounds good.
I gently shoo some bugbots off the holodrone box. “Let’s get you into a new body.”
No! Tomorrow! You’re gonna pass out in like 45 minutes! We gotta go!
Fine. We pack our loot. Slip Volt into my pocket and plod into the night. I assure Volt that we’re strategically stealthy, but I can’t be arsed. Too tired and almost dead. Psycho doesn’t notice anyway. Another cunning escape.
My apathy extends to driving our stolen truck. It’s objectively a bad decision - the police could be watching. But at my age, long walks are also risky. The cops are probably asleep. If their d-bots hassle me I’ll disappear in a trashbag.
We get to the clinic without any drama. The veterinary d-bot is a bed, a multipurpose arm, and a hologram of a dude in a lab coat. Functional and reassuring. I like him. Also, he starts my examination without asking for ID or payment, so that’s good.
He squints at me for a minute. “I don’t treat humans.”
The Dark City d-bots are pretty smart but seem weak at visual identification. “I’m a talking chimp.”
Doc-bot nods. “Cool. Very popular these days. Do you have an ant report?”
After a brief file transfer, the Doc shakes his head. “Well, I see why you love her. Look at this DNA. She’s a classic. But she’s seen better days. On a molecular level, she’s toast. It’s more humane to build a new one. Cheaper too. I’ll fire up the cloner.”
Volt is aghast, but Doc makes some solid points. I’m very tired. “It may be time to let go. Just give me a shot of Super Strong and we’ll skedaddle.”
“No!” Volt snaps. “I love her! Fix her!”
Doc and I share a look. This is awkward. He lays on some bedside manner. “Look, it’s not just her many diseases, these DNA mutations are way past critical mass. Apes naturally get 50 DNA mutations a year, and no mammal can function properly after 3000 or so. That’s when old age hits hard and everything goes at once. That’s what we’re seeing here, except it started a few decades ago.
“Immortalis can heal DNA, by snipping out sections of damaged dominant genes and replacing them with their undamaged recessive partner. But that process is lengthy and physically demanding. In her condition, she’d only die faster.”
I nod reassuringly. “Yep, it’s my time. Just give the Super Strong, and we’ll bounce.”
“Yeah, I’m not giving you Super Strong. It would end you in agony. Also, Super Strong chimps are a terrible idea. You’re bitey little bastards.”
Dammit. Betrayed by my lies. While I contemplate a future without superpowers, Volt tries another tack. “What about other treatments? Could we build her up enough to survive Immortalis?”
Doc chuffs. “I don’t know. Most of her energy is spent feeding tumors. Theoretically, if we slow the cancer, she’d have some resources for other healing. But even Immune B could push her over the edge.”
Doc visibly concentrates. We wait.
“We could smash the tumors mechanically. Blast them with soundwaves. That will free up some energy to fix her general frailty. Freshen up her bone marrow, so she can grow better blood. Some skeleflex wouldn’t hurt either. She’s one good jump from having no knee cartilage.
“With the cancer slowed and the ability to survive a slip and fall, she could live through the week. If she does, a quarter dose of Regen A would revive some muscle tone. If she survives that… I don’t know? Another ant report? See where she’s at?”
He shakes his head slowly. “Lots of ifs here. Many probable points of failure. But it’s the only way I see forward. Even if it works, she won’t be ready for Immortalis for at least a year. It’ll be a photo-finish between drugs and entropy.”
I raise my hand. “Question. Can I have some No Bleed?”
“No. That’s a synthetic blood substitute. We’d have to replace 15% of your blood for it to work. You need all your blood to fix the rest of your body.”
“Cool, but I don’t wanna bleed.”
“Are you bleeding right now?”
“No.”
“Then fuck off.”
Now that we’re saving me, the bedside manner appears to be turned off.
I lay down and get blasted with targeted ultrasound for the next hour. It’s not exactly painful, but I don’t like it.
“Your body will pass the crushed tumors. You had a fuckload, so expect some weird pee. I won’t say it’s normal - normally you’d be dead - but it’s what’s going to happen.”
“Alright. Why can’t I get any super powers?”
“Most of the super-enhancing drugs are designer endosymbionts. They grow new organelles in each cell of your body. You need to be in amazing shape to survive the process. You also need a vet dumb enough to give a chimp superpowers.”
The future is terrible. Also annoying.
We slip out on the bill and Volt drives us to a new building. It’s a bad idea to let her drive, but I’m wiped, and there’s no one else on the road. We crash in the first empty apartment we find. Utterly beat.
Will the psycho find us? I won’t check any messages.
“I dunno. But I got a plan.”
Really?
“Yeah, we’re gonna wake a cop.”
-----
Next Chapter
-----
Pixel Tracking

• What is a tracking pixel and can strangers really spy on me through email?

Immortalis

• Mystery of why humans die around 80 may finally be solved
• ‘Softer’ form of CRISPR may edit genes more accurately

Cancer Crusher

• A new technique successfully fried up to 75 percent of tumors using ultrasound

Marrow

• Research may reveal why people can suddenly become frail in their 70s

Per the Harvard Police Department, I need to obtain a court order to release the firearms confiscated from my grandfather's home after his death. There are no open probate cases against his estate. I have a valid FOID card. Let's do this! Why YOU must be based in McHenry County, I don't understand. Is it, not 1 state? DMs are open. Thanks!

25M is in the military, works in a secure setting that doesn't allow him to have his phone during work hours. we are currently a few states apart. His contract ends in four years
He has had two serious relationships. He was cheated on in both. He was long distance with one and got cheated on. He told me he doesn't want to do long distance.
While spending time together, I asked him 'what is the point of this if you don't want to do long distance?' he said because there's a super high chance they'll be relocating him back to the state I currently live in and then we would be able to have a relationship.
BUT he doesn't want to do long distance because 1. he is a bad texter and 2. he tried it once and he really got hurt over it (cheated on). so for him, that is now his boundary--we have to be in the same vicinity.
He said it is easy for him to detach himself from other people because he moves around so much. Like he has gotten so good at ghosting people. I asked him why? He said it's a def mechanism--like if he's constantly moving because of the military, he'll get hurt when he establishes ties that are too close. friend or relationship does not matter. He told me when someone starts caring about him, then it scares him because then he starts caring about them and that essentially ruins his ability to protect himself.
I told him well since you don't like getting close to people, I don't want to get too emotionally invested in you because it's just going to hurt me in the end. He said 'well, yes but if I move back here, then we would be able to probably work it out'
He was on a boys trip and I was going to work--none of us thought we would meet one another and connect the way we did. He told me i threw wrenches into everything and bringing up all these emotions of his. And now he's just overthinking it all and doing all these calcs in his head to see what the probability of this working out is. He was like why did I meet you because now you've also set the standard so high and I'm going to compare every girl to you
I think this situation really caught him off guard and now he doesn't know how to deal with these feelings
Assuming he moves back here (very high chance he will be but also small chance he'll be sent to Germany), we are still going to be two hours away from one another. And as a result, that is still sort of long distance. And if he isn't able to have that constant communication over text or call right now...when he is in a different state...isn't that just proof that even when we are in the same state, long distance still wouldn't work out?
We would only be able to see one another on weekends.
If he can't make me a priority right now and doesn't want to do long distance, then doesn't it just show that it isn't going to work even when he relocates to the same state as me?
Do I let go of this?

Over the years and through all of my miscarriages, my friend circle got very small, because I couldn't manage acquaintance-level relationships with people who wanted to talk about parenting as a means of connection, which is a lot of friendships when you have young children. So I withdrew and focused more on giving my time and energy to my closer friendships, the friends who I could tell about what was happening with me, and how I felt about it. I thought this was working.
Over the last few years I think I've found that it isn't working. I've found myself frustrated with my friends and their problems, and maybe worse--my friends and what they talk about when their problems are resolved, when in the general ebb and flow of life they have high points and want to chat about the mundane things that challenge them. I think I feel like there's no room for me in these relationships, that when I bring up how I am not doing well, how I am never doing well, I get maybe a brief flicker of acknowledgment, or sheer panic at the pain I'm sharing, and then the sense that they have to treat my pain like an EMERGENCY, and then in the flurry of EMERGENCY they forget and then we're just back at their mundane non-problems. I get tired of talking about how I really am only to have it not cared for, not carried when I can't carry it myself. To just end up feeling like I have to carry it myself as always. I get tired of having to navigate the triggers I have with these friendships. I am starting to wonder whether and why it's worth it.
I told one friend a version of this problem--the family version--and she said, well, fuck 'em, seriously, if they can't be there for you on your terms then they're not worth your time. Except, as I told her then, we're talking about literally everybody, and if I say fuck 'em to literally everybody where does that leave me? She didn't have an answer to that. No one ever does.
And at the core of this I know the old adage that if the problem is everyone, the real problem is you.
So to you all, I ask you: do your friendships sustain you? Have you found someone who gets it, or gets you, who you feel safe with? Even the person who gets me still has two young children under 5; is the picture of what life is like when this hell ends and you can move on--being with her is just as painful as not. But I don't know what I can do differently here. What can I do differently?

And I'm not sure why. I'm on Manjaro (Linux 6.3.5-1) and was previously on Manjaro (Linux 6.1.31-1).
Until a bit over a week ago I had my Ryzen 5 3600 paired with an RX 5700. Not a super powerful card, but with low enough settings, this pairing was able to put out >100 FPS in Cyberpunk at 1080p and easier games like RoR2 ran at 144 FPS flat at 1440p.
I switched to an RTX 3080, assuming that there should be some performance benefit, yet my performance is significantly worse than it was before. And it's not just a lack of performance - even lowering settings drastically (and I mean Cyberpunk at 1024x768 on lowest settings with FSR or DLSS on Performance mode) I'm looking at sub 60 FPS. In RoR2 I'm at 100 now, frequently dropping below 60. It's the same in basically every game that I've tried
This makes zero sense to me.
I figured that it might be an issue with the installed driver, so I went ahead and got a fresh install and tried several Nvidia driver versions, namely video-nvidia and video-nvidia-470xx as suggested by mhwd, as well as version 525 from Nvidia's own website. Same results across the board.
My next step was to consult the wikis, namely Arch and Manjaro wiki. However, there wasn't much there. The Arch Wiki did have a section about performance issues but after verifying that direct rendering is enabled, that ended up a dead end, too.
Casting my net wider, I tried various different search terms. Stuff like "low fps rtx 3080 linux", you get the idea. There wasn't much of substance. The fact that a lot of Windows users seemed to have performance issues with their 3080s and took over my search results didn't help my case as all of that information obviously did not apply to me.
One last thing I tried was to try and figure out how my graphics card actually behaved. With my RX 5700 I had the issue that the fan speed would be locked in at about 1300-1400 RPM and wouldn't change no matter what, obviously leading to thermal throttling. I circumvented this by using fancontrol to set the fan behavior manually. Since the 3080 didn't show up for me using the same method, I never set the fan behavior manually.
So just to be sure, I observed the fan speed, temps and utilization with watch -n 1 nvidia-smi to see if I could find anything out of the ordinary. Nothing there, though, the fan speed increased with temperature and the throttling temperature of 95C/203F (according to Nvidia X Server Settings) was never reached.
The power draw was also consistently between 300W and the 320W limit, with utilization sitting at >90%.
This all seems normal, but the sub 60 framerates I'm getting do not.
So I'm at the end of my rope here. I've checked all the things that I know about and it all seems fine, except for the end result.
And lastly: to rule out that it was a hardware error - I bought the card used after all - I slotted in another SSD running Windows and booted from that. Downloaded some games and the performance there is what it should be. So that isn't it.
Does anyone else have any ideas? Let me know if I've left out any crucial details and I'll add them.
Full hardware specifications: CPU - Ryzen 5 3600 GPU - RTX 3080 RAM - 16 GB 3200 MHz memory PSU - Gigabyte UD750GM (750W, 80 Plus Gold)

My boyfriend (25) and I (F23) have been in a long distance relationship for almost 10months. Today he told me he's going to see a van gough 360 show with one of his girl friends from his hometown. And I was ok with it. And later he told me she's staying over at his place because the show ends at night and she can't go back alone. Idk why I was upset because I literally don't even know her. She has only come up in our conversation like once before. Obviously I want him to have female friends but it wasn't ok with me because he literally hasn't even introduced me to her. I don't known how to feel cause I don't know if I'm being controlling or if he isn't setting boundaries.

Hi
Tl;dr: 4 yrs ago i used to chat with a guy on facebook for a few weeks because i was flattered by a compliment he gave me and we shared an interest. I told my boyfriend everything from the beginning, so no secrets. i feel bad, he tells me not to feel bad at all.
I (28f) am in a long relationship (8 years) with my bf (30m) We love eachother alot. But we have our ups and downs.
4 years ago a random guy started chatting with me on facebook because we shared an interest. It was fun, he gave me a compliment, i made him clear i had a boyfriend. We started chatting about the usual stuff and our lives.
I have autism and anxiety and i am bad at dealing with compliments and overthink a lot. I have had this all my life. When i get a compliment from a guy i will feel so happy and flattered and think about the guy for a while, like a mini crush or something it never lasts long. I also had this multiple times in my previous relationship. I have a bad self esteem.
So we talked on Facebook about random stuff and our lives. I think i liked talking to the dude because of that one stupid compliment. Sadly my boyfriend barely gives me any compliments, besides that he is the best boyfriend ever.
My boyfriend knew from the beginning that we were chatting on facebook so there are no secrets. We know everything about each other. The facebook guy knew i was already dating, i also helped the guy with giving tips because he had a date at the periode we were talking to eachother. I just hate the fact i texted him so much and that i felt so flattered because i knew he thought i was pretty. It was the feeling i had before, like a mini crush, even though the guy wasnt even my type. I also compared him with my bf or thinking the grass is greener on the other side only because he gave me a compliment and my boyfriend barely does.
My bf knows all this and he says i don't have to worry about it. He said he knows he have to give me more hugs and compliments.. he also said it isnt emotional cheating.
I suffer from ocd and anxiety alot the past 6 months. mentally i am in quite a bad state. So i think thats why i am so stressed about it now, years later.
I just feel so bad..
Is my boyfriend right? I feel like a trash human being all the time. I hate myself.

So this isn't something I've paid a lot of attention to, since most of my time using the site has been me reading and I never had a preference, although I've only gotten into writing on the website around four months ago, andI became curious about this.
I'm curious to know whether readers are more inclined to read short or longer stories, and why? Personally I write am writing a longfic (like 200k words and it's not even close to being done yet), and it had gotten a lot of traction, over 100 comments/kudos and around 10k hits, but just in general, I want to know if people are maybe intimidated by longer word counts and prefer shorter stories, or they love the longer stories with more worldbuilding and lore