Is publix open today july 4th

I love you I messaged you that because it’s been a while since we last said it. This whole week we’ve been distant. I needed you, I did my best opening up. I told you what was going on, but you didn’t understand. It feels like you didn’t even try to. You were too occupied with your own things, not worrying about me or what I was needing. I told you how I was feeling and all you said was “sorry here for you tho!” And continued to be distant. I asked if you knew what I was going through if you’ve heard of it and all you said was no. No interest in wanting to know more or ask more. You were so quick to move on from it. And so today, I messaged you that I love you and that I feel like we haven’t said that in a while and all you said was “I love you to too” “gonna go workout” another quick dismissal. Since last night I’ve been wondering if we even belong together. We don’t understand each other. We have similar interests and always have a good time together but do we understand each other? I’ve been thinking that maybe we should just be friends. Maybe we’re better off that way. It’s what it’s felt like this week anyways. There hasn’t been much romantic connection. Maybe we ran out of it, and now all that’s left is friendship, if that. I don’t know. I wish I did. Or maybe the truth is I do know and I’m just terrified of admitting. That’s why I’m so torn and crying so much because I know the truth but refuse to believe or give in to it. But here I am crying on my bed waiting for some sort of sigh from you that i know I’ll never get. So instead I look for ways to escape and ignore these thoughts. A way to pretend that everything is alright. When deep down, I know, we’re running out of time.

Hey guys, I have been haunted by this for a while now. I first want to say I have always been the guy who always took a girl’s word whenever there were accusations but this thing has been haunting me since I don’t feel like I did what I was accused of. Please take the time to read everything as I will not leave out anything that I can recall.
I have been accused of rpe by a girl a few years ago and I don’t think I did it but it still haunts me and I want people’s opinion. What I will tell in the next lines is everything that has happened as best as I can recall. I want to know if this is rpe or not. I don’t feel like it is but I can’t help but wonder because if I did it I have to meditate about it and stop thinking the way I do about it because I always seek to become a better person.
I had known the girl for years, she was a friend of a friend, I had seen her a few times at parties and stuff and she had always been open to my friends about being very attracted to me. I had not seen her for a while and then we stumbled upon each other in a public area when we were 17 (me) and 16 (her). We told each other that we should hang out again. This and the following events took place about 4 years ago.
I invited her to hang out at my parent’s where I lived at the time since we lived nearby and there wasn’t much to do in this town. I had no intentions at this point. We hung out and eventually we started kissing, she took her top off and we eventually went to the bedroom but I couldn’t get hard, said I was sorry many times and then we kept watching netflix and she went back home later on.
Then comes the second (and last) time I saw her. She came at my parents again. It kind of went like last time but this time I could get hard (she was caressing penis under my underwear) and I asked if I should put a condom on, to which she replied yes. So I did, and me not having much experience at the time and also not wanting to get softer because of the tightness of the condom (which had happened before with other people), I did not eat her out or anything, which I know is bad and I of course have learned a lot since and don’t do that anymore. We then had intercourse in missionary position and I have to say it seemed like it did not feel that good for her but I asked her if I should stop and she told me to keep going. I know now that I should have stopped unrelated to any accusations since it didn’t seem like it was giving her much pleasure. We kept going and I came in the condom and then we stopped. We went back to watching netflix and she reminded me of how sexy she thought I was, how she liked my body but also asked me ‘do you know I’m not a virgin?’ which to me today seems to mean she was not having fun. We kept hanging out and she slept over, we were cuddling and stuff. Early the next morning before my parents were up she left (we were both up and I took her to the door and we hugged and said goodbye.
Now something that I hate about myself at this time was that while I don’t feel I was a bad person, I had a habit of ghosting girls before things got too serious. I am really not proud of that at all and have changed a lot today. I am also happy in a couple since more than 3 years and have resolved my commitment and trust issues. But this girl, I ghosted her. We kept texting for a bit but I remember I stopped answering eventually. I don’t remember if she invited me to hang out again after that.
About a year later I hear that she has mentioned my name while talking about being rped. I have lost a lot of friends due to this because they trusted her and ghosted me, and I have never had the chance to talk with them since. What I am looking for here is not reassurance, it’s honesty. I know it was not good sex by any means and that I have not been good to her by ghosting, but I can’t help but feel like I did not commit rpe. Please help me know, I am lost and haunted.

My MIL took my son (3.5) to a local lake beach to play today. Then they went out for lunch and he fell asleep in her car (around 2:45) on the way home. We let him sleep until 3:45 then brought him inside ( he was sleeping in the carseat with the doors open. My husband made him go potty but he was super sleepy and promptly passed out again.
He is still sleeping.
He usually sleeps 8-7ish and then naps 12-2 on school days but usually doesn’t nap on the weekends unless he falls asleep in the car (for an hour or two.) He did wake up at 5:30 am today and on Saturday he skipped nap and fell asleep in the car around 5:30 and then slept through the night until 5:30 am.
I am worried that A- something is wrong Or B- he will wake up for the day at 3 in the morning.
Advice?
He doesn’t seem sick- maybe just a growth spurt? Or tiredness from three long days with no nap?

I spent several hours working on a file today. Saved many times. 20 years in the biz, Ctrl+S is mindless habit now. Plus Autosave is also on. PLUS plus I dropped a copy of the file into Google drive after I was done working. I closed it down, came back later to do some more work, and none of the changes are there. Thought the Google copy would save me, nope. Any idea if I can find these changes? File -> Open Recent doesn't work because I have already opened both of them and they're the days-old version. I tried looking for the recovery files in the AppData folders, all empty. It just doesn't make sense.

Is target or Tsaoca open today? What restaurants are open?

So today I went to the Periodontist because one of my teeth has a gum that was receding something terrible very quickly.
For context, I'm 33 y/o female and I had braces put on about 2 years ago.
Apparently my braces doctor is a doctor that works closely with the Periodontist I went to (I was self-referred.)
First off, I'm mad they didn't refer me to the Periodontist prior to putting my braces on.
Second, they have to pause the braces.
I go in for two sessions of root planing in July and August, and I'm terrified, sad, plain upset with myself that I didn't take care of myself when I was younger.
Does anyone have any advice on things to do until then? I'm brushing twice a day with toothpaste and clove oil. I have a waterpik but need to be better at using it. Should I use it once a day?
She told me to bring in all my teeth stuff and she'll be showing me how to clean properly using what I have, but this feels so DEVASTATING.
I have gum disease with advanced bone loss and a couple pockets up to 9mm, a few scattered 7s and 8s and a lot of 3s and 4s.
I'm just really scared, and really embarrassed.

I see many things that are supposed to be on my 4th step as things that I did or were done to me that for many years drove me to drink
lots of trauma, unfinished emotional business, CPTSD, etc
I had trouble going crawling through this stuff on a therapy room with a trauma informed therapist
the idea of listing them all and finding my wrongs, just the idea threw me into a panic today
I know I have to clean my side of the street and "throw away the trash", but nothing is very clear to me right now

Some of y’all may remember that time when I had that date with the dude that I had met on that other group, how we connected really well through texts and emails, and how, when we finally met face-to-face in March, my gut started making a big fuss in trying to dissuade me from him.
A bit of time had passed since I informed him that while I was available for friendship, I was not available for dating (at least not with him). And a big part of that was that he had only been divorced for 7 months, which was certainly not long enough time for the dust to settle, and that I had no desire to be a rebound.
For the most part, he respected that, though he did confess that he was hoping that I was open to something more than just friendship. And for the most part he allowed me my space.
Mind you, up until not too long ago, I was thinking that this was simply a case of the right person but the wrong time. However, given the messages I received today, I’m reconsidering the “right person” bit.
You see, in the series of messages I received today, he mentioned the challenges dealing with his ex that caused him to lose respect for her.
And from that I realized that had I been open to pursuing a relationship with this dude, I would have undoubtedly been sucked into this messiness, especially when their children are still underage. (The older of the 2 is 18.) No way in hell do I ever want to be involved in a relationship where the children are not adults, especially when there’s drama going on with the ex. I don’t need that entanglement.
Well, it gets even “better.”
Because we met on that other sub, I assumed that he was in his 50s. And when he asked if I had any issues dating younger men, I thought he was somewhere around 10 years younger than me and 13 at the max. He wouldn’t tell me how much younger he was, and when he told me his birthday, he purposely (by his admission) omitted the year, which I thought was rather odd.
Anyhow, today I decided to snoop on his Facebook (where he recently added me as a friend), and was shocked to see that he was not even 50, even though we met in a group for folks over 50. In fact, he was 17 1/2 years younger than me. What’s even more disturbing (to me at least) was that there was a smaller age gap between him and my daughter than there was one between him and me.
That’s turned me off even more, and I’m peeved with myself for having allowed myself to get emotionally invested in him.
I have not responded to his last message simply for the fact I did not have the bandwidth. And I really don’t know if I want to communicate with someone who was misleading, even if by omission, his actual age.
(And in the meantime, his social media posts suggest that he’s desperate to fill the void in his life that was created by his divorce, where I’m suspecting…though I cannot be 100% certain…that he was the “blindsided” one.)
Right now I’m weighing my choices: ghosting or blocking.

so my parents have this habit of inviting people over to the house without telling anyone until literally 10 minutes before the guest get here and then expect the house to be clean by the time the guest arrive. they also have a habit of being gone while the guest come over and leave me and my siblings to entertain guest we didn’t even know were coming. Not even considering if we had plans. so yesterday was sunday aka the day my bf is off of work and able to take care of the baby so i can get some rest as i was so tired i’d been falling asleep while holding the baby. So my parents ended up taking the baby to breakfast and right when they left i went to go lay down and get some rest while i’m baby free. Well within a matter of 5 minutes i get a phone call that my mom needs me to go pick up my little cousins and drop them off at their house (which my aunt asked HER to do in the morning) but she never communicated that with me until right when she needed me to do it. i told her im too tired to drive as i’m fighting to keep my eyes open and she says well she has my baby and is doing me a favor so i should do her one too. I end up going about a 15 minute drive to pick them up and then 20 minutes towards their house but one of them was hungry and now they wanted me to take them to eat. At this point i’m irritated but not as tired so i was like fine. They finish eating and when i get to their house my little cousin is refusing to get out of the car and go home. Now if the kid was being abused i would understand but he’s really just a brat and anyone that knows him knows he thinks he can do whatever he wants since his mom is rich and let’s him. after 15 minutes of trying to talk him out of the car I start yelling at him to get out. He locks the door from the inside and stays. so i give in and take him home with me. he’s loud and dirty. the type you can’t let in the house without watching everything he’s doing. So now i’m stuck babysitting on my kid free day. So i got no rest and his mom never came for him so i was there watching him from the morning until about 8pm.
Fast forward today is memorial day and my bf is off again so i thought i could take advantage of it and get some rest. Well my baby fell asleep and my bf ended up leaving with my 2 brothers to go play basketball while me and the baby nap together. Right before leaving my little brother mentioned to me that my parents had company on the way which is my cousins aunt and uncle. (which they didn’t communicate with me F23) Well my parents are no where to be found and i’m tired so this really irritates me. My uncle and aunt got here with the kids and i locked all the doors went in the room and laid down with the baby. am i the ass for doing this? they’re outside waiting and i feel guilty but also feel like my parents are being inconsiderate and expecting me to entertain their guest which i have no intention on doing. i’m currently battling depression and am restless from being with my son everyday with little to no help.

>**What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.**
Call of Duty, Fortnite, Premiere / video editing software, running multiple windows of Chrome
>**What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?**
$1250 on PC, $250 on monitor. Willing to go a bit up for certain parts if it gets me to next tier of quality
>**When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.**
Next 2 days
>**What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc\)**
Tower, monitor
>**Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?**
SF, California. no microcenter access
>**If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.**
n/a
>**Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?**
no
>**Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)**
Monitor:Would like high res, high FPS, fast refresh and response time. Ideally 24-25 inch. https://pcpartpicker.com/product/bcD7YJ/ would be ideal but not sure if overkill for rest of setup, lmk
PC:Mainly looking to have COD run as smooth as possible. Looking to max FPS and graphics for my budget. I also make videos and abuse Chrome so need good RAM and graphics card.
>**Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?**
no preference
>**Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?**
no
Edit: would love direction re building the pc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL4DCEp7blY is what im gonna follow unless you have better idea!
​

I live pretty far please let me know 🥺

I got a new mouse and keyboard yesterday and decided to open up razer synapse to tweak with the settings, and I hopped on Valorant today to find out I'm permanently banned. This is my first Valorant game ban, but I have been chat banned before. I've made an appeal, do any of you think I'd get unbanned?

It makes me so sad reading some of these posts. I've told my partner so many times that I would quit and get help but I never have. I feel such a deep shame. I want to be free of this desire to drink. I just can't help it, I subconsciously plan to buy booze and then get rid of the smell by eating garlic and onions or using strong listerine. Tomorrow is my first day stopping. I usually drink about 6 500ml cans while my partner is at work and on the two days a week she is off I drink nothing because I can't hide it. I just drank 3 cans before 7pm. I opened my 4th and poured it into the dirt on my garden. I can feel the alcohol making me ill and sluggish and forgetful. I repeat myself daily from what I'm told. I feel like it's scrambling my memory and things don't make much sense anymore. I'm asking you guys for support. Please say things that will help fight the part of me that will try scheme a plan to have a drink. It's like there's another person inside that always finds a way for me to get booze.

hi everyone, im new here and i feel bad for bothering and venting to my friends about this and felt better if i just shared it here :/
me (20F) has finally gotten back into i guess the “dating scene” after a really bad situationship and was recently asked out by this guy who came up to me at work. he was pretty, charming, and very funny and even told me where he worked. after he left my coworkers told me he was flirting with me, and as someone who cant read body language or social cues very well I was super surprised. i ended up finding out he was a lifeguard at our university rec center and I gained the courage to give him my number. he seemed very flustered and happy which, for me felt like an obvious indicator he was into me too. i even had my friends hid behind a corner while i asked to get their their opinions on the interaction too. he ends up texting me the following day and we begin talking, flirty, all of the cringy stuff and he asks me out on mothers day. i had to reject since i was spending time with my mom in a different city and by the time i’d be back he would he with his mom already. he made it seem like he completely understood and we kept talking. i thought things were going really well and was waiting for him to reschedule our date before i went to chicago for a vacation with my friends. he never did reschedule but seemed like he was excited for me to go on my trip. but the day i left he seemed to completely stop talking or take half the day to answer my texts. he would always find an excuse and apologize and i thought nothing of it, until it kept happening again and again. he ended up ghosting me, which didn’t hurt as bad since ive been used to getting rejected or ghosted for most of my life. although i do have to admit it still hurts. i decided to redownload bumble and swipe just for fun, since nothing really comes out of it anyway. i ended up meeting this one guy, D (23M) who looks shockingly a lot like alex and was very sweet. i also noticed from his profile that we also do have a similar taste in music! he asked me out on a date the following weekend to a korean restaurant that recently opened up on the other side of town and even offered to pay for me. this was a little out of my comfort zone considering i havent met anyone in real life off of a dating app. so i suggested to go to our city’s annual festival, since i have never went before. there was going to be a firework show, rides, and food—so i figured, why not? he was sweet enough to buy everything the whole day. i felt like we connected quickly, we had a lot of similar interests and seemed like someone ideal to be with. the day of our day i got ready, i also let him know how nervous ill be since in general im not great with meeting new people. he completely understood and expressed he was nervous too, which made me feel slightly better. on his profile i saw that it says in the “looking for” section he only put “something casual” which did make me nervous that he was going to be too touchy or want to hookup. but on the day of the date he did not seem that way at all. he was kind, respectful, funny, and very laidback. we didnt even hold hands until towards the end of our date. after going on fun rides and getting pizza we headed over the firework show and ate our food while watching it. i thought that he would at least kiss me at that point but i could tell he was also pretty nervous. we talked for about 2 hours after the firework show ended and once it started to get too hold we started heading back to his car. on the way i took him to some of my favorite parts of downtown. which in my opinion were the best places to share a first kiss with no one around, but it didnt happen. i was also okay with the fact it didn’t happen, since i didnt want to pressure him into anything. once we got to the parking garage we hugged goodbye and i walked home. once i got home he texted me saying he was locked out of the parking garage and that he accidentally parked in a university parking garage. i work with id services at my job, so thankfully i knew what to do in the situation to get him help. he expressed a lot of gratitude and we texted until we both fell asleep. the next day he responded to my text i left him before going to sleep and i began to notice he was only texting me every 1-3 hours throughout the day. i began to catastrophize, worrying that i was just going to get ghosted again. but whenever he did text back he seemed really into what we were talking about, so i didnt worry about it too much. the next day (yesterday) it was better, it turned into every hour he was responding, but then suddenly stopped at around 8pm. i tried making myself not worry or spiral as i know he is a human, is busy, and has a life of his own. he sent me a good morning text and answered the text i left him (around 8:30am this morning). after i answered he hasn’t interacted, opened, or talked to me all day. which worries me that i am inevitably am going to get ghosted. earlier today i suggested another date by going to see a movie, still no answer until while writing this post. he told me hes going camping this week and asked if next week will work and finally interacted with the things i sent him. im just worried he might be losing interest or will ghost me. or he could just be busy? im so used to sprouting relationships with all green flags suddenly crashing down by ghosting or being rejected. does anyone know how to cope or can give me any advice? or assurance that they felt similar to the way i am? or am i just acting insane? lol

>**What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.** - I would be using this PC to stream modded minecraft and phasmaphobia! along with coding using visual studio code.
>**What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?**
- Total I would use to spend is $3000 (I was thinking of paying monthly using Affirm is possible)
>**When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.**
- I would perfer to buy and build the pc by the end of June or July.
>**What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc\)**
- Outside equipment for example Keyboard and moniter is not required. I only need the PC pieces
>**Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?**
- I do not have access to a Microcenter but I do live in the US (Colorado).
>**If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.**
- I do not have any pieces to reuse except a keyboard, mouse and a moniter.
>**Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?**
- Which ever is best! Since I'm not too knowledable of PC parts.
>**Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)**
- I'd like to have 1TB of memory for the system to download a few heavy games. But as well as a high ram (more than 4)
>**Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?**
- Having LED lighting be shown would be nice!
>**Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?**
- The newest windows which I believe is Windows 11.
>**Extra info or particulars:**
- I'm new to PC building so if a place I can purchase a prebuilt or build a PC would be very helpful! besides that: A PC that can run modded Minecraft smoothly and streaming it would be very appreciated!

A day late but we're here, my little cheeto eaters! Remember as always to grab your bingo cards and let's get our little long weekend slumber party going. This whole fucking thing is FORTY MINUTES LONG, you're all lucky that my sibling who was supposed to spend the day chilling at my place has apparently forgotten that plan.
​

• There's a new opening style than all her other vlogs. Not sure if that's because of Morgan but also I don't care enough to go hunt down exactly which influencer she cribbed this style from. It features a lot of horse butts. Also her using her phone in bed, which I thought she didn't do because she's mindful.
  • The music she uses is this song, which is DEFINITELY not copyright-free, so have fun learning how actual copyright law works, Paige! The lyrics playing over the are "there are times when/it feels right to/run away, run away/when you ask the same old questions/every day, every day/Why do I set the stage?/Why do I find my place on the pedestal?", because I guess Paige went to the Love is Blind school of "make sure the lyrics of whatever song you use are really, REALLY literal"
• Giveaway winners! Congrats to the three people who won a pile of Paige's old garbage! Don't worry though, if you didn't win her trash, she'll be doing a lot more of these because she "appreciates [us] guys so much" and "wants us to experience some of the things that I'm so grateful to get".
  • Nothing says grateful like giving away your extras to strangers and instead of doing anything to promote them like you were supposed to in return for getting them for free, using the existence of this stuff as a way to leverage yourself up on the algorithm.
    • There's also Dairy Boy in the giveaways, of course, because no one's buying it organically.
• She explains moving Louie, it's the same stuff she said on Instagram. Weirdly horses are like the only animal I've never gotten super obsessed with, so I have no idea how BS this is, but it's almost word-for-word her IG explanation, so it's the same level of BS that was. She does word this though as it being a "charity project" and "passion project" she "donated to", because there was a dearth I guess of places to keep your horse in the rich people part of Connecticut.
  • She has to first run to get a grazing muzzle so Louie doesn't overeat in the pasture. This sets off my internal bad animal treatment alarms in a huge way, but again, don't know enough about horses to know if this is warranted.
• Just kidding! Don't let Paige into a Tractor Supply unsupervised, she's too much of a ~country girl~ to not come out with "so much shit". She also got this beef jerky that looked "so good". It's Iowa Smokehouse beef jerky.
  • It apparently looked good because all she had for breakfast was coffee. Why she only had coffee I'm not sure, since it's not like she didn't have the time to get something better. Coffee and beef jerky for breakfast sure is a choice, and one I'm sure her intestines didn't make her pay for later. This summer is all about ~hot girl indigestion~.
  • Story time! This looks like "legit, real beef jerky", which Paige knows because when Paige was in boarding school she stayed with a family who had a lot of cows and they made their own beef jerky, which Paige was of course intimately involved in, I'm sure. Anyway this makes her have such high standards, which is why she loves when somewhere like Tractor Supply (an enormous fucking chain, Paige) or a "local country mart" sells jerky because it's always better.
    • Fun fact that took me less than thirty seconds to Google, this "real" beef jerky is also available on Amazon
• More of the same definitely not copyrighted song as she packs up Louie's stuff and moves him. There's a lot of woman laughing alone with salad shots as she packs up and pretends to talk to... someone and "carry stuff" (ie: stand around touching her own body awkwardly)
• Some weird things about this whole sequence - 1) the "farm" she moves Louie to appears to have very poor, dilapidated fencing, red flag for me. 2) Paige is wearing a white shirt and then a white cardigan the entire time while DEALING WITH A HORSE and it never gets stained or dirty, which tells me she did fuck all, 3) the only guy with her is this big bald much older man who I assume is the guy starting this venture, meaning he's almost certainly who films her cantering around on Louie without her wearing a helmet laughing, which is so unbearably awkward. Like imagine asking a random older dude to film you doing that in a pure white sweater, 4) when Paige brushes Louie he sheds SO MUCH. Is that bad? It feels bad. When a dog sheds that much, even in the spring, it usually means no one's been brushing it regularly, 5) Louie has such a dip in his back and it makes me wince every time, especially when Paige shows him next to another horse. I don't know what that's from, but I hate it and it doesn't look comfortable for him.
• Nance and Baloo are at home when Paige gets back so she's just going to "throw on a little outfit" and they're going to go out for Mother's Day in Brooklyn. Paige really, really didn't want to go into the city because I guess she's suuuuch a country girl (nice, Paige) but she's doing it for her mom and to see her sister
  • Oh my god she DOESN'T CHANGE HER SHIRT FROM THE BARN, she wears a white henley, what look like blue pajama pants, and a leather coat.
  • Nance steals some of Paige's clothes (how I don't know since they're totally different sizes) and according to Paige is"slaying the boots", a phrase I will pay actual cash money to never hear Paige say again
• Next morning, return of the out of focus camera, though it may have been by accident this time because it stays out of focus. Anyway serious business Paige with her serious business glasses is starting the day with some "desk work". Is that a thing? A phrase? What the fuck is "desk work"? Has anyone who actually does work at a desk ever called it that?
  • When she's in Europe it's definitely harder for her to sit and do computer work even though she has a laptop but starting the day on her desktop at the same time as her "whole team" (WHO) it really makes a difference for them being all on the same page.
    • Okay so my actual job in real life is doing shipping and order management for a small creative goods company. I know very intimately what goes into product development, order fulfillment, etc, and Paige is just straight up saying nonsense. Like I paused and gave serious thought to what possibly she could be talking about, and I don't know what all this "work" is. If she was making everything in-house that's one thing, but that's not work she could possibly be doing or overseeing from Europe. But if she's outsourcing stuff, having it sent to a warehouse, and, then paying someone to ship it out for her, I guess she's doing... development? But that makes no sense because again, she outsources everything. She isn't doing wholesale, there isn't a lot to arrange for pop-ups if everything is outsourced and pre-made and she's only supposedly having one this summer, she only has eight products so the website maintenance is pretty easy, as is accounting, and she only really sells stuff around a drop which she does maybe twice a year.......... like genuinely I'm baffled here. It's my job to do this exact same thing every day with products that aren't jeans or sweatshirts or whatever and I'm so, confused about what her "work" is.
    • Allegedly they're on the "final push" for so many big projects and you know what, if any of these projects involve Paige actually doing anything besides feeling three different samples of denim swatches or deciding which vendor she's going to outsource oven mitts to and saying "I like this" or "I don't like that", I will issue her an apology. I feel safe in the idea that I won't have to issue her an apology, but I will keep on on offer in the off-chance I'm wrong.
    • She just finished making a line sheet (genuine lol once I looked up what that was) and apparently we are going to freeeeak out when we see her new merch - sorry, elevated lifstyle products.
    • It's denim. She's been working on denim. She shows us the final washes but it's in direct sunlight so it's all blown out and out of focus so they look mostly white? But she got the "perfect color". IDK, it's a light wash. I prefer dark wash, actually. It's a lot more flattering and forgiving. But we've already determined my aesthetic and Paige's aesthetic are not the same aesthetic. She's nobly pushed back production six months because she refused to do a full run unless the wash was absolutely perfect. It was so expensive but she needed to love love love the denim, because it's really what she's passionate about and what she wants to do, she wants to be the best denim brand out there. You know, because she's hand-making this denim herself, not just sending instructions to low-wage Chinese workers while being afforded the privilege to fuss over the perceived quality for six months because she has parents who are willing to flush money down the toilet on this. Also, for the record, but denim is like... a choice? Like what is the vision, exactly, because every clothing retailer has some version of denim and people are already super married to their faves, so how exactly is this business model working for her, here. And it doesn't look like stretch denim either, which means it's going to fit a very, very narrow group of body types. Like speaking from ample experience crying in GAP dressing rooms over my "freakish" (read, not built like a popsicle stick) as a teenager in a time before jeggings, jeans are not forgiving and easily worn by everyone. The thing about what Paige is doing so far is that it's universal enough. You don't have to really tailor an oversized sweatshirt or trucker hat to fit you. Everyone can make room for another overpriced candle. But denim??? IDK girl, you do you.
• Paige makes Olivia a latte. Olivia comes in and say it's story time about coffee. Paige asks if she should turn off the camera for this and Olivia says no so Paige continues to film herself preening while Olivia tells her a story about how messy she is frothing milk. Paige spends the entire time interrupting her to go "no! No! No! No!"
  • They look at buttons and rivets and embossed leather patches for the back, and then sweatpants leg panel samples. Baloo hangs out with them and Paige tells him he's stinky. She eats toast.
    • WHAT IS THE POINT OF ANY OF THIS. She's not DESIGNING anything, she's just doing that thing like, you know when you're choosing your racer in Mario Kart and there are a couple hundred variations of wheels and chassis and you just choose the unique combos you want to put together? She's doing that but with generic clothing. I've been jokingly referring to her stuff as "elevated Zazzle" but this isn't even Zazzle because Zazzle you UPLOAD ACTUAL ARTWORK TO. Why is she re-inventing the wheel? What improvements does she think she's making TO A PROVERBIAL WHEEL.
• Not sponsored showing off gifting time! It's not in focus at all so we can't really see any of the products (professional!). One of the products she mentions is that she's friends with CYNTHIA ROWLEY'S DAUGHTER who has nepo baby'd her way into dropping oven mitts and aprons that look like Strawberry Shortcake's rejects. Like they're cute, but they're again little strawberries on white. Like tell me none of you silver spoon-ass bitches cook without telling me by making WHITE OVEN MITTS. Those will turn yellowish and burnt after, what a single batch of brownies? Taking a piece of toast out?
  • This haul includes her tennis Tommy bag. Not sure how she got it since she brags about it being "sold out everywhere even Poshmark and depop"
  • There is sooooooo much of this free bullshit. How does she even get this much free bullshit. Why do companies waste so much money sending this to people like Paige who don't fucking care and openly give it away. What is the point of an influencer. IDK at this point I'm spiraling, this vlog is like a third of the way through and nothing has happened.
• Paige unpacks with Nance. She has so many clothes and I don't think she's worn any of them. Full disclosure that this was the point I actually got annoyed and had to take a break and play some video games for fifteen minutes because while growing up comfortably or on the upper end of middle class in a generational wealth type of town has taught me a lot of patience for people with too much money, there is at some point a limit to how conspicuous over-consumption and waste I can handle, and that point for me came when I saw how many sweaters Paige has that look like they've never been worn. And the on top of this she has a giant suitcase of stuff she's going to depop! The environment? Never heard of her.
• Paige is going to get groceries. She's needed Nance's help to do all the hard stuff she's had to do today like going grocery shopping and having soooo many clothes. She goes to Trader Joe's, then goes to a horse shop and of course buys MORE SHIT SHE DOESN'T NEED. I'm not condoning what the French did when they invented the guillotine, like that was really violent and horrible, but the point is that the longer I watch this vlog the more I'm understanding their motivations.
• Paige goes on a sunset ride with her friend Lauren, this song plays in the background as a flagrant copyright violation, I realize at this point that there's no way this video is going to stay up without Youtube copyright striking it so I have to be extra detailed for posterity and we still have so much to go and this is going to take forever. Louie's back still looks horrible and as someone with inherited lordosis, I feel for him.
• Tommy facetime! He says exactly one sentence and catches a tiny fish, for those of you keeping track on your Bingo cards.
• Nance is still over Paige's house when Paige gets back because she never leaves. Paige is wearing old Dairy Boy sweats. At this point when I scrolled down to press the play button again I realized that Nance has posted a comment about how proud she is of Paige within seconds of the video being uploaded. I live with my mother and sometimes I still need her help on stuff like yelling at health insurance until they cover stuff for me and even I am confused by how codependent their relationship is. Like doesn't Nance have her own house? A husband? Other children? Paige has spent this entire vlog needing Nance's help to do everything from grocery shopping to folding laundry and acting like a teenager. It's a rich text for a therapist to one day unpack.
  • It's Taco Monday, this is just a dumb and boring version of Paige performing the white people taco night song. Also bewildering, Paige seemingly DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO MAKE TACO STUFF. It involves almost no cooking! She even bought the spices pre-packaged! She needs Nance's help on this too!
  • Undisclosed new cooking knife brand product placement. They are amazed that it............slices.
    • OH NO SHE SAYS SLAYING WITH BOOTS AGAIN ABOUT THE KNIFE END THIS MISERY
  • Ahahhahah the reason they're so impressed is because they've apparently been cooking with unsharpened knives. Like Paige didn't know you could sharpen knives. A master chef, ladies and gentlemen!
• Oh god we're only halfway through. Paige wakes up the next morning. She got so freckly yesterday (read: she's courting melanoma and is going to age like a raisin). She's going to go play tennis at a club in Greenwich her parents are members at (Note, she shows the logo which means you can spend five seconds googling to discover it's this club. Membership is invite only and it's gauche apparently to discuss how much membership costs, but the estimate is EIGHTY GRAND A YEAR. To be clear, that is nearly THREE TIMES the average American household income. Paige is the child of people who spend more in one year to play tennis a few times a week than most people do getting fucking doctorates, which clears up a few things for me: one, I've never gotten those texts where she casually demands Morgan Wallen pay her back tens of thousands of dollars like it's $50, but I guess to her it is like $50, and two, why everything about Paige and how she acts towards people and money in this video is a million times more effective at radicalizing people on economic policy than anything Bernie Sanders has ever lain awake at night dreaming of.
  • Camera going in and out of focus during this explanation.
  • Ah she's doing it with her mom. Again. Heaven forbid Paige breathe without Nance.
  • Oh also she has to shoot an ad in the tennis dress, but she definitely likes and would go to play tennis anyway.
• More unboxing undisclosed adver- I mean PR.
  • I'm so serious, tthe flagrant wealth being thrown around in this video and the amount of free stuff a trust fund baby with absolutely no merits or skills whatsoever is getting because she has 300K followers on Instagram that she probably bought half of is like the best argument for socialism I have ever seen.
• .Paige gets dressed in the third outfit of the day to go to the dentist. The pants are pointedly too big on her so they don't stay up in the waist and create this weird enormous kangaroo pouch around her crotch. She pairs that with a toddler sized medium t-shirt for a football team she's probably never heard of, a choker that looks like something a boy band member in the early 2000's would wear but out of fake pearls, and cowboy boots. It's... the look sure is looking, let's just say that.
• Paige opines on how much she prefers to do vlogs at home, but don't worry, she won't stop doing travel vlogs for us! (Oh thank goodness, where would we be without the insights we get from them.) She feels like they add variety to her channel (what, no, we LOVE coming with you to the barn to watch you ride without a helmet over unsourced music! five times a vlog!). Sometimes she feels like there's this pressure to show us as much as she can, which explains why all we see in her travel vlogs is hotel room bathrooms, tennis matches, and the tops of various tabletops in restaurants. Anyway she feels like there's pressure because in reality she's there for Tommy. Which we KNOW, that's the entire PROBLEM, Paige. If you were HONEST about the fact that being a WAG on tour sucks and you don't get to actually see the places you're pretending to really go and immerse yourself in, we WOULD HAVE FEWER COMPLAINTS AND YOU'D FEEL LESS ANXIETY, the problem is that you have to keep compulsively lying about how cultured you are and how you really ~got a feel~ for the location. Just stop lying!!! Stop!!! Lying!!! Challenge!!!!! The anxiety you feel and the reason you have to monitor this subreddit comes from your CONSTANT LYING.
  • Ugh she would NEVER have gone to ROME if it weren't for Tommy. I think this is a ploy for authenticity but boy is it coming across as privileged.
    • I do think in her own Paige way though this entire monologue she has is about something I've noticed her talking around a lot - I think she's afraid if she stops travelling and being a WAG no one will care about her. I think she's terrified of doing what makes her happy, which is being home, hanging out with her mom, riding her horses, and spending her parents' money. But if she just let herself do the things she actually liked and stopped trying to always pretend to be cooler and more interesting than she is, no one would keep paying attention to her, because it's not like she has a sparkling personality or wit or unique point of view. Like I'm an interesting person to talk to, but if I tried to make a vlog of my life it would be pretty boring. I work a 9-5 M-F job and the most interesting part of my life is when I go to a concert or craft fair on the weekend or one of my neighbors goes out of town and I watch their cat. It's not riveting, but I also don't need to be doing fascinating things in order to be or feel like an interesting person. But people like Paige who need to always be travelling and going to events and flaunting how busy they are are often really sad and empty people. They're not doing any of the little mundane things that make people happy and spending time connecting with the people around them, they're just always moving around because they're afraid if they stop for five seconds, people will see that the only thing they have going for them is all that movement and travelling. I think Paige is constantly torn between the anxiety that comes with constant travel and isolation and putting herself on display and removing herself from the things that bring her a sense of calm and security, and the anxiety that if she allows herself to feel calm and secure, she'll lose the attention she craves. IDK seems like a thing she shouldn't keep indirectly admitting to in vlogs, seems to kind of undercut half of her material, but what do I know.
  • Also she really is going to positively contribute to Tommy and his life and career, ie: she needs to go home and feels comforted by home because that's where her mom and Amanda wait on her hand and foot and everything is about her, which she misses when she's with Tommy because when she's on tour with Tommy she has to accept that he's the center of attention and she's not.
  • Her home vlogs have been performing the best, like, significantly. Since she probably buys views and comments, this just means she likes them better and therefore buys more engagement for them.
  • Apparently her analytics are telling her that 30% of her views are coming from the "explore" feature, which she says is YouTube rewarding her for being consistent, and, uh. No. Not how that works.
    • I mean yes if you buy engagement it will put you in the algorithm more, but this is the time in the video where she accidentally self-owns. If you're an actual channel getting actual views from people who actually enjoy watching you, then VERY LITTLE of your viewership should be coming from the "explore" feature, MOST of it should be coming from subscribers or regular viewers or people who watch similar content. That's how the majority of people watch YouTube or find new videos to watch. But if fully a third of your viewers are coming from what's essentially a randomizer button, that pretty much confirms Paige is buying views and/or that a lot of viewers leave after a minute or two. Because if her content was good on its own, people would see it and subscribe, and then she wouldn't need to rely on the "explore" feature. But if she, as she says, is consistently getting a third of her viewership from that feature, than that means that a third of people are just randomly watching whatever YouTube puts in front of them and not engaging with her at all, meaning the ONLY POSSIBLE explanation is that she's essentially buying enough engagement to keep appearing on the explore page, but buying the opportunity to be put in front of people isn't actually getting her a larger audience because what she's serving them is a warmed-over turd.
  • Anyway Paige is counting on you not knowing the extreme basics and trusting that she "knows someone who used to work at YouTube who told her that's how the algorithm works"
    • Um if you don't know about social media - no one who works at YouTube or any social media company knows how their algorithm works unless they're the ones writing it, and if they do know, they're not going to tell you because that's extremely valuable, proprietary information and also there's like a lot of papers and NDAs and non-competes they'd be breaking if they did. They're telling you to upload consistently because it's good FOR THE MEDIA COMPANY. The company is trading in being a content hub, so they need people to consistently be uploading content, ie: raising the value of their site in a way they don't have to pay for. That's the entire business model of every. Single. Digital media platform. Heck, that's how most dating apps work too. The product is data. They want you to be giving them free product.
  • "I don't know, like I don't like doing things just for social media anymore?" HAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAH
    • And a week later you spent a weekend attending influencer parties in the Hamptons for....... what exactly. The scintillating conversation?????
    • She's very quick to say that's not the case if she has to shoot an ad! Loves shooting ads! Please keep sending her free stuff!
    • God this is taking me multiple hours but at this point I've sunk too much time in and also am convinced this won't stay up for copyright issues, so I'm taking a break to like, stretch and clean the bathroom, anything to get me moving and listening to my own thoughts which are in complete sentences.
• I'm back after cleaning the bathroom. I've been at this so long that my sibling has shown up. But I only have ten minutes to go and I REFUSE TO GIVE UP. This whole completely unhinged and unintentionally revealing rant has approximately a trillion uses of the word "like" is from 21:00 to 26:00 and if you want to watch it you can. I probably should have transcribed it for a full AP Lit level analysis, but I'm tired. If we're lucky, when Paige tries to re-upload this with copyright-free music, she'll have kept that in there.
• Paige ordered a shed! She's so excited!
• The fence looks mildly less jacked up when they go back. Paige is brushing Louie constantly in this video. Fourth time I think we've seen her do this. I feel like there's a lot more to horse care than brushing them and she only shows us this part because it looks aesthetic and she doesn't do any of the actual hard or necessary parts like shoveling horse shit, but what do I know.
  • This sequence uses unsourced but definitely copyright song number three!
  • Fun fact: Paige is the same fake brown color as Louie's dappled neck. Aw, you know how pets eventually look like their owners? Cute.
  • Shout out to Paige's friend (perhaps Amanda? Olivia? Can't keep the preppy brunettes straight anymore) who actually wears a helmet riding.
• Next day, we open with a bit of this song (not sourced, copyright infringement number four, possibly more that at this point I no longer notice tbh). Paige puts on boots to go to the new shed and realizes the vlog is going to be so long because she's never done a whole week at a time before. Because I've made it this far, I'm the best. (Aw.)
  • Paige calls Tommy to wish him happy birthday and films it, which seems... odd. Especially since she doesn't film it in a way where he can see she's filming.
  • Paige gets tea for breakfast (nutritious) and a coffee for the guy at the barn we must have seen earlier. His name is Aaron. I could do some google sleuthing and find him probably, but I don't care. Paige met him going on trail rides at her old barn. Do middle aged men usually hang out at barns doing trail rides? Just scoping out young idiots with disposable income? The whole thing seems sus. Apparently he has like seven kids.
  • Paige never realized how expensive pre-made sheds were, but it's a local business that makes it by hand! I assume the local business is called Costco And Sons.
  • More uncredited The Shins plays as Paige only loads the shed with blankets and nothing heavy or unpicturesque.
  • Another Tractor Supply run, at this point they're who really should be sponsoring Paige
  • Paige goes to say goodbye to Louie and he HIDES FROM HER IN THE WOODS
    • Girl.
    • Oh my god no wonder he's mad at her, they've been staying somewhere WITHOUT A STRUCTURE. He's been sleeping OUTSIDE. It got into the 40's every night in New England last week!!!
• Out of focus Paige talking about how she had suuuuuch a long day "running errands". Olivia didn't get to join Paige on her little horse girl excursions because she had to be at the warehouse and onboarding a new DB employee. Anyway Paloma is in town now
  • Paige learns that apparently you're supposed to be washing veggies as she prepares things to grill. PAIGE HAS BEEN COOKING THIS WHOLE TIME NOT WASHING VEGGIES. I.......... I am going to need to be sedated after this.
• Paige exfoliates and puts on a definitely not sponsored face mask
  • She's wearing skiing pajamas. In case we forgot she was a skier. Did you know she was a skier????
    • PSYCH, these are from previous ads with PJ Place but actually she really likes these and this one ISN'T an ad she just loves the product so much
• Paige is doing her makeup! We're at the end stretch! I'm almost there!
  • She took a day off of vlogging to go see her grandparents, but immediately segues into her Ulta trip. Because of her stupid grandparents, she didn't get to go to the barn, frankly how can she survive in these conditions.
  • Dairy Boy phone case plug! She was soooo specific about what she likes in phone cases and definitely didn't just choose between Zazzle, Redbubble, or (insert other brand here)
    • It's a shitty thin cover that looks like it protects your phone from approximately nothing and should cost $10 but I estimate she'll sell it for at least $40
    • Of course because Paige was so super particular about the details and business-minded when it comes to quality it took a long time to make........phone cases.......
  • Tommy calls and says hi
  • Paige rambles about her day and makes coffee. Tommy sent her peonies because he's "so cute". We see the phone cases and they're weird and ugly. More "gifting" (undisclosed advertising) that came in the mail
• Paige makes pickled red onions, every time she does it she changes the recipe a little bit even though she totally has a recipe and isn't googling. She starts pickling carrots which she says are going to "go bad soon" (that takes like six months, how do carrots even go bad?) She also does it in a water glass which, good luck ever drinking from that again without it tasting like vinegar.
• And then with no warning, it cuts off. That took me three and a half hours. It's been a journey and I hate it. If there is ever a vlog this long, I'm doing it in segments across multiple days because I'm exhausted by this much wealth and inanity. Time to go touch grass, start dinner, wash my vegetables before I do so. You know. The little things.

This week, we're continuing the blockbuster summer kickoff with a celebration of the web-slinger in honor of the new animated Spider-Man movie opening today. Each one of these made their studios a gajillion dollars, Sony made so many terrible moves off the profits from just our second movie alone. And if you're wondering where Ant-Man & The Wasp went in the Infinity Saga's wrap-up, as it fits between last night's movies and tonight's first one, we shooed them away because there wasn't room for cramming 5 of these things down your throat over 2 nights -- hell, this night alone is gonna be a long one.

• Firstly, mankind lost the Infinity War and it was a real bummer, so the Russo bros decided to make it up to audiences with this culmination of everything that ever happened to anyone, plus a few extra, in a way that's a bit cringey; did it all come out like how you'd expect cramming a hundred major characters into a blender to be? Tell us in chat when the film is wrapping up. There will be bitching.
  
• Then, this Spider-Man movie deals directly with the fallout of our last film by globetrotting, and answers the most important question of the entire Infinity Saga: is Aunt May still hot?
  

We are starting at 8:00pm Central.
All Links Here

• Avengers: Endgame (2019 run 3:01:11) ^{no end-credits scenes} - Disney+
  
• Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019 run 2:09:23) ^{mid-cred scene at 1:57:45; end-cred scene at 2:07:17}
  

Fusion Friday: your home of lazy blockbuster summer programming!

You close the door of the black sedan behind you and assume a comfortable position in the leather seat. The driver doesn't say a word to you, the only acknowledgement of your presence being the quiet rumble of the engine as your ride takes off. A quick look through the dimmed window reveals an open field of concrete with some plain warehouses scattered around and several dozen people tending to pieces of machinery, but the speed at which you're going makes you unable to examine them closer. You've never seen this part of the military base. The one you're familar with was filled with everpresent mud, cramped barracks that reeked of unwashed recruit bodies, and sergeants with voices so loud they almost destroyed your eardrums. It's definitely not a place you'll remember fondly. A month of exhausting drills and boring mental tests is what took your superiors to get your sorry rear in shape they were content with, and even then you wondered if it was enough. You're just a regular civilian, so what are they expecting you to do here, exactly? Especially now, since you were chosen to take part in something bigger than becoming yet another crossed out name on the list of fresh cannon fodder.
Before you can begin contemplating your life choices, something bright in front of you draws your attention. A screen built into the back of the seat in front of you lights up, greeting you with a logo of Whitehart Motors. Suddenly, you hear a voice that could only be described as lifeless and robotic.
Welcome, new recruit. We are honored to have you here - a brave soul willing to become a stalwart shield of our glorious nation. You may not think that you are fit for such a role, but you were chosen for a reason. We believe that you have the skills required to become a pilot of a Synchro Frame. The brainchild of Whitehart Motors and the Research Institute of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, Synchro Frames were built to protect our country from threats from beyond. Utilising the former's cutting edge machinery together with the latter's advancements in the field of man-made life, we managed to create a true marvel of technology that continues to impress. As a Synchro Pilot of the GLD-02 "Grail Seeker", you will be tasked with controlling a Synchro Frame alongside a Synchro Operator - an artificial lifeform designed to bring out the true potential of a Synchro Frame. Your assigned Synchro Operator will also serve as a teacher, guide, and companion, always ready to answer any and all questions you might have. We hope th-
The car stops, and silence once again fills the luxurious interior. Before you can start questioning the incredibly confusing and vague things you just heard, you feel that it's time for you to exit the vehicle. What you find outside is a hangar, bigger than any you've seen before. You're standing right in front of its giant doors, and as soon as you turn your head to look for anyone that might be looking for you, they begin to open. Through the slowly widening crack, illuminated by the bright midday sun, you see something that takes your breath away. A steel giant in the shape of a human, so large that you never even considered the possibility of such a machine existing. Not until today.
There's something else as well. A much, much smaller figure steps out of the hangar and heads in your direction. A couple moments pass, and you're able to see that it resembles a woman wearing an oversized hoodie and baseball cap, her long, white hair flowing in the wind as she walks.
"Greetings. I assume you're my new pilot." She stops right before you and extends her hand. A piercing blue gaze meets your own eyes. "I hope you can lead me well."
Hello there! I hope you enjoyed this little introduction to the concept! This prompt is centered around the idea of your character becoming a mecha pilot of a Synchro - a union of a giant robot and an android sharing an empathic link - and being thrown into a massive conflict where the life of an individual doesn't particularly matter. Your primary objective here is survival, and perhaps learning more about the mystery of the war your nation is currently fighting.
A little bit about myself - I'm a 21 year old gal from the GMT+2 timezone who got into Gundam a few months ago thanks to Witch from Mercury. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it! It's what prompted me to watch yet another Gundam series - Iron-Blooded Orphans, which I haven't finished yet. Thanks to them I realized just how fun a mecha setting could be, and now I'd love to meet other people who think the same!
This rp is meant to follow a lot of the themes of the Gundam series, like the horrors of war and discrimination, but that doesn't mean there can't be some lighter moments or bonding with your friends, resulting in potential romance. However, I'm planning for this to be a long rp, so anyone wanting to hold hands with your cute android companion will have to be patient.
I'd like to assume a sort of a GM role where I control the world and most of the characters, while you'll be following along a certain route due to having to answer orders from your superiors, you will be free to do what you want during downtime, so I'm heavily encouraging people who enjoy taking initiative! Hell, you could even defect from the military with your giant robot and join the opposite side if you'd like, but remember that your actions have consequences!
As for your character, there are only two strict requirements - she has to be a woman, as I have no interest in writing romance with male characters, and she has to be a new recruit, like described in my introduction. Aside from that, get creative! Doesn't matter if she's cis or trans, younger or older, all I'm looking for are fun ideas that will the roleplay more enjoyable. I will share more info on the setting in private messages, but feel free to just spitball anything that you might find interesting.
Requirements for you, the player, are a bit more strict, but I'd like to ensure that I set the right expectations: - No misogynists, racists, homophobes, transphobes. I'm a trans lesbian and if you're the kind of [REDACTED] who would have a problem with this then don't even bother wasting my time. - Be literate. Usually I write between 3 and 6 paragraphs, sometimes even more, but for a good time with me you'll be fine with 2-3 solid paragraphs that will give me something to work with. If you give me more, then I'll personally kiss you. - Be flexible. I have ADHD and a lot on my plate thanks to college, so I'm not the great at replying consistently. Sometimes you'll get two responses in a day, sometimes none for a week. Make sure to keep that in mind. You don't have to worry about me nagging you over a response either. - Use Discord. It's the only platform I use to rp due to the ease of storing important information. As a part of that, do not contact me using reddit chat. All chat requests will be ignored. - (Optional but appreciated) Talk to me! I enjoy chatting with my roleplay partners a lot, as I believe good ooc often leads to good ic.
I think that's everything! Haven't made a prompt post in a while so I might go back and edit some stuff later, but hopefully I was able to interest you in the concept. Have a nice day!

I have been very stressed this past day. I have been talking with girl for 4 weeks. The problem is that she lives 5 hours away and won’t be home until end of July because she is studying all day every day for board exam. She told me she would let me know by end of last night if she is still down to meet today because her flight arrived really late. And then it was 9:30 pm and I freaked out last minute and said maybe we should bookmark this until she finishes her exams and will be home permanently at end of July. She responded that she completely agrees and is so grateful because she got home super late and thanked me for being understanding. However, right after this she changed all of the prompts on her dating profile. Does this mean she is moving on? What should I do? Should I continue to talk to her? she is my dream girl in every way and I feel we formed a really strong connection. But I also don’t want to spend this summer waiting for her board exams to find out she is no longer interested.

In the dawn days of humanity, off the banks of the yet-unnamed Euphrates river, the Shaper sits to meet with Ikat, New Meeter of her band. Today is the day her people put her latest dream into practice, altering their yearly route to coincide with the local goats' movements so they might take a few for themselves and have meat all year round, a practice the Shaper says ought be called "herding." He seems troubled by this development, though, able to see what Ikat cannot in her innocence, the full scope of what this idea will mean for the land all round. He's only here to talk, of course, but with gods it's rarely so simple as that...
My reading partner and I had quite the extensive discussion over whether Clough's characterization of Dream is in keeping with how he's portrayed in the comic. That Dream would feel at all troubled by an idea born in his realm finding fertile ground in which it can grow and spread and begat a millionfold others seems odd given his typical philosophy of letting things play out as they must. The Morpheus we see in flashback during Brief Lives is as distanced from the patterns of intelligent beings and their civilizations from his part in passively shaping their course as Destruction is disturbed at seeing the early stages of a terminal phase play out afresh, for much the same reason between them. Both have done this dance a billion times on other worlds, and feel at that time they will do it a billion times more. To even imply Dream sees herding becoming agriculture becoming civilization spread round the entire globe and thinks, "Hmm, don't know how I feel about this," sorta implies this narrative features a very, very young Dream, and while I'm certain such doubts plagued him the first time something begun in his realm found rooting deep enough to spread past a single tribe uncountable worlds away, the aspect in prominent expression during the birth of herding on Earth feeling so doesn't seem right.
Course, one can take a few tacts to explain the oddity away. The fluid nature of reality in Sandman alone opens the floodgates for saying this isn't necessarily Earth or else Morpheus' exact history isn't strictly set in stone, depending on how each individual beholder is biased to perceive. Seizing on this, I do think the story proves an interesting brief exercise in examining a corner of Dream's character.
Unable to comprehend or so much as see Morpheus' attempted shared vision of the future, Ikat's perspective on her encounter is strictly one of the moment. She's so far away from what humanity will become as a result of her idea, she sees no reason in Morpheus suggesting the nearby river ought have a proper name - names are for personal things, ideas with use, people you know. The river is a river, and otherwise belongs to itself. Still, she is by self-admission given to rambling and self-storytelling as a result of her function as the band's greeter for all things new, so it is through her eyes we understand Morpheus' words of caution translate to discomfort with this new idea on his part, translate to potentially wanting the idea smothered in its crib. And why not, for if the embodiment of dreams manifests physically where he otherwise leaves a light but apposite tread, could it be for any other reason than halting intervention? Ikat is so caught in the idea the Shaper is opposed to her continuing this thread, she interprets her people's discovery of a young boy who spoilt the first herding excursion and looks past her club foot to see a suitable mate as an attempted distraction by the dream god, and resolves to look after her growing brainchild equally well as her future physical children.
But then, the boy was probably already there before Dream made himself known, would have returned home with the others and met and fallen for Ikat regardless what the Shaper said. All what changes is Ikat's priming to think this is some ploy to make her forget about herding. If Morpheus didn't manifest before her, speak his guarded words, show any direct interest in the course of history, is it not possible Ikat WOULD forget her dream and focus entirely on childrearing of a more literal sort, absent the stimuli to gird herself against distraction?
I just find it interesting to contemplate Dream as so inherently tied to those thoughts and ideas from out his realm, a well-meant word of caution primes the future more than if he left well enough alone.
What do you all think?

Fellow Communal Enthusiasts: Today is Memorial Day, which marks the unofficial start of summer and the seasonal opening of all outdoor Public Swimming Pools primarily in the United States! We could really help each other out by visiting our local swimming pools and checking out the changing rooms and showers. If we find surviving communal showers in these facilities, we can snap pics and upload them here which will then be added to the map. Most municipalities and park districts aren't going to spend the money upgrading facilities to "modern" standards until complete renovations become more cost-effective than patchwork repairs AND they can get a municipal bond passed and issued. Furthermore, communal showers are usually seen as less of an issue at pools in present day as all patrons can choose to shower nude or in the privacy of their swimsuit. Therefore, this could be a potential gold mine of locations where communal showers survive to this day. Y'all willing to take a little time and check out the public swimming pools, not only in your community, but in a wider area so that we can make the map as complete and resourceful as possible? Imagine the impact we could have if we all committed to visiting the nearest 5 pools to us and sharing photos of the surviving communal showers. Let’s do it!