It doesn't need to be a grand gesture, it can be: completing chores, getting out of bed, getting a new job, staying alive, doing something scary, taking a shower, etc.
Share what you are proud of from this past week. Pat yourself on the back. Treat yourself to something nice today.
If you need self-care ideas, tips for finding a therapist, or links to call/text a hotline check out our Resources Wiki Page here.
We're on discord! Join us here.

Hi all,
I've had different usernames on my Lyme journey and have been lurking, hanging out, and posting on here for so many years.
I was born & raised in NJ. Bitten by 10-15 ticks in one of the highest lyme rate counties — all in one day. I never got a rash. Didn't develop symptoms. I got sick the day I turned 23.
A few days later, I moved 600 miles away from the area I grew up. I was immediately thrown into some of the worst stress of my life. My mom was being abused, I couldn't find work, I tried working as a stripper (only lasted a day—it was horrible).
I partied like anyone else who was 21 and 22. I liked getting drunk off beer. The final year before I got lyme, I was doing small doses and moderate use of MDMA every other months (never drank during it.)
On the night of my 23rd birthday, I drank like 7 baybreezes through the night. I was pretty damn drunk. Went to bed and woke up feeling funny. I had gotten sick but not hang over sick. It felt like a really bad flu.
And the symptoms kept getting worse and worse.
And kept lasting for weeks, then months.
FULL LIST OF SYMPTOMS I HAD (that went away with time and treatment): severe knife stabbing joint pain, breathlessness, soaking through my sheets at night, UTI problems and crazy amounts of bladder shedding with no actual UTI, hip pain, missing menstrual cycle for 6 months, swollen knees, ear ringing, ice pick headaches, couldn't read because letters would move around a page, and having a several month bout of EBV when I was 25-26, inability to grip or use my hands, pins and needles in various places.
I'm probably missing some symptoms, but its been such a long time now.
FULL LIST OF SYMPTOMS I DEAL WITH DAILY NOW: constant ear ringing (*maybe due to ABX use for embedded UTI as well as lyme), mild and occasional joint pain, mild herxes to new herbals or ABX that last 1-3 days max, can't consume gluten or alcohol, chronic UTI problems currently being treated by a new doctor.
^ It's almost nothing compared to what I dealt with all through my 20s.
Now I'm almost 32 and wanted to share the most important points of how I got better.
Breakdown of physical meds/herbals and medical actions that helped me in order of usefulness:
-Moving out of condo with mold problem
-CBD Oil
-Terry Naturally's Pain relief curamin
-Doxycycline for 1 month (***Early on getting my illness, 1 month of Doxy is what cleared the swollen knees, ice pick headaches
-Finding an LLMD ~4-5 months into my illness
-Going gluten free
-LLMD put me on dong quai and I got my period back in the same month (after 6 months of nothing)-
-cats claw
-NAC
-green tea with chamomile at night
-magnesium before bed is a MUST — at least 800 mg/night)
-Leaving my LLMD at the 8 year mark
-Getting a new remote doctor who wants to take me the rest of the way that my LLMD couldn't figure out
-Allimax x1 a day now
-x1 Biocidin
-Currently on and off a very small dose of Eluthero
​
Things that helped me get mentally better and live a decent life with lyme:
-Not letting asshole doctors get to my head when they said "Lyme disease, don't you think that's a little too much?"
-Self published a book about some of my painful experiences and it aided me a lot in part of my grieving
-Walk on a daily basis (started as soon as I was able to)
-Switched careers towards things better geared for lyme. Went from teaching to aerospace to copywriting remotely.
-Learned new things

Link(s) for previous post(s) -

• Prologue

Book 1: Pale

Epigraph 1 - (had to put up the whole thing really; won't be doing this for every epigraph; just the imp. ones)

In the eighth year the Free Cities of Genabackis established contracts with a number of mercenary armies to oppose the Imperium's advance; prominent among these were the Crimson Guard, under the command of Prince K'azz D'Avore (see Volumes III & V); and the Tiste Andii regiments of Moon's Spawn, under the command of Caladan Brood and others.
The forces of the Malazan Empire, commanded by High Fist Dujek Onearm, consisted in that year of the 2nd, 5th, and 6th Armies, as well as legions of Moranth.
In retrospect two observations can be made. The first is that the Moranth alliance of 1156 marked a fundamental change in the science of warfare for the Malazan Imperium, which would prove efficacious in the short term. The second observation worth noting is that the involvement of the sorcerous Tiste Andii of Moon's Spawn represented the beginning of the continent's Sorcery Enfilade, with devastating consequences.

All this seems intimidating to say the least!
Epigraph 2 - About a mother lamenting for her boy (it seems), who's now a young soldier, but who's not yet seen what war is about ("bright heart not yet cooled to hard iron"). Is this close to what it's depicting, or...?

Chapter 1

• 1161st year of Burn’s Sleep; 103rd year of the Malazan Empire; 7th year of Empress Laseen’s Rule.

QUICK RECAP

• 7 years since the events of the Prologue.
• Laseen is now the Empress, and the Empire is ever spreading under her rule.
• An old witch, Rigga [1st app.] is alongside a young fisher girl (unnamed) on Itko Kan, watching on as a Regiment of soldiers pass them by.
• The witch is speaking about some prophesies concerning the girl, but the latter is seemingly uninterested. Rigga seems like a cool charac… oh, never mind. She’s dead. (by a swinging gauntleted hand from one of the soldiers, hitting her in the head, and killing her). Well... anyways, moving on.
• With the soldiers now out of sight, and old Rigga lying dead at her feet, the girl encounters two men – Cotillion [1st app.] and Amanas [1st app.], along with a sudden appearance of 7 massive hounds out of nowhere, who then follow the path the soldiers had taken when the latter, shorter man gives the order to do so.
• After a while, screams can be heard. The girl, now a witness, is engulfed by shadows through Cotillion, who says that she’s now “a pawn of god.”
• Some time later, Adjunct Lorn [1st app.] arrives at the horrifying scene where the men, women, and horses of the 19th Regiment of the Itko Kanese Eight Cavalry have been brutally massacred. Along with the locals, over 400 have been killed. (Jeez!)
• Paran, who wanted something challenging, and was hungry for prestige, has now joined the Malazan Army. Now as a Lieutenant, he’s overseeing the investigation of the carnage.
• After discussing his opinions with the Adjunct to the Empress in his usual fearless, uncaring, and confident manner, Paran is hand-picked by Lorn into her staff, to become an aide to the Adjunct. Lorn is sure that the merciless murder of so many is a diversion from something much bigger, and that gods and sorcery are now involved.
• Lorn is no ordinary woman herself. She’s young, dangerous, and a mage killer. The one who hunts down and kills mages. The scorpion in the imperial pocket. And who arrived in Itko Kan thanks to “eerie magical Warrens”. (first mention of the magic being used)
• Meanwhile, Staff Seargant Aragan [1st app.] is faced by a very young, hardly 12/13 year old girl, named Sorry [1st app.], who is there to be recruited into the Malazan Army, specifically under the command of High Fist Dujek Onearm – Onearm’s Host, which is currently overlooking the Genebackan Campaign (which is apparently in a mess of its own).
• Paran is tasked to gather intel of the massacre from a nearby town named Gerrom. But when he reaches there, it’s completely deserted. Even worse, inside the Imperial Constabulary, everyone is dead, killed by magic.

Sweat and death clung to the air thick as gauze.
The dark bloom of sorcery was a stain few cared to examine too closely. It had a way of spreading.

OK, now that sounds like something, eh?

• A short while later, he’s met by Topper [1st app.], a Claw of unsurpassed skill who took the lives of Unta’s royal line. Also, loves the colour green, and wears a lot of colourful rings on both his hands. Oh, and also is apparently the Commander of the Claw itself. (although he persists that Laseen still commands it, and he just assists her)
• After a quick bite of food and a sip of wine, Topper guides Paran and his horse through the Imperial Warren.

Paran turned to see a curtain in the air tear open on the road, spilling dull yellow light. A Warren, the secret paths of sorcery. "Hood's Breath." He sighed, fighting off a sudden chill. Within he could see a grayish pathway, humped on either side by low mounded walls and vaulted overhead by impenetrable ocher-hued mist. The air swept past into the portal like a drawn breath, revealing the pathway to be of ash as invisible currents stirred and raised spinning dust-devils.

First look into the "Warrens".

A short while later they came to a stone archway. It had been recently constructed, and Paran recognized the basalt as Untan, from the Imperial quarries outside the capital. The walls of his family's estate were of the same gray-black glittering stone. At the center of the arch, high over their heads, was carved a taloned hand holding a crystal globe: the Malazan Imperial sigil.

First look at the Malazan Sigil.

• Passing through the archway, they land directly inside the the Hall of The Throne in Unta, where Laseen is sitting atop a throne of twister bone.
• After exchanging a few “pleasantries” with the Empress, Paran meets up with Lorn (who is casually dressing up while Paran enters, but when the latter turns in embarrassment, Lorn replies with “I’m not one for modesty.”). OK lass, fair enough.
• After discussing a few things, Lorn orders Paran to return to his home in the capital for now, and that there will be a reckoning/revenge for the carnage at Itko Kan. Paran answers straightforwardly (as usual) that he’ll be there when that time comes.
• Paran return to his family home, where he is met by Gamet [1st app.], the guard. Once inside, he’s greeted by Tavore [1st app.], his sister who’s a year younger. After very briefly discussing about their father and his business, she mentions that Felisin, the youngest sibling, is at her studies and that she would be happy to see Paran, but sad to know that he’ll be leaving soon. Before leaving, Tavore also mentions that Felisin is “too soft for this world, brother. For any world, I think.”

​
BEST OF: QUOTES / DIALOGUES

The Empire's been grinding this land down for a hundred years. You was born in it. I wasn't. When I was your age Itko Kan was a country. We flew a banner and it was ours. We were free, lass.
Rigga to fisher girl.

​

Across the sea the Empress has driven her knife into virgin soil. The blood now comes in a tide and it'll sweep you under, child, if you're not careful.
Rigga to fisher girl.

​

You are now one with the body of Empire, Lieutenant. It commands you. You respond unquestioningly to its will. You are a small part of a muscle in that body. No more. No less.
Topper to Paran.

​

The Claw smiled. "You have begun to learn, Paran. Never be too easy with the knowledge you possess. Words are like coin—it pays to hoard." Topper
"Until you die on a bed of gold," Paran said.

​
BEST OF: SCENES / MOMENTS

• The Itko Kan Massacre. 'Nuff said! (honestly, something about those four words has a different feeling about them. There's more Gravitas surrounding them, I feel personally. Whenever I think about the whole thing, it just feels like the start to something dark and dangerous. Is it just me?)
• Rigga's prophecies were something to ponder upon for sure!

​
FINAL THOUGHTS + THEORIES AND SPECULATIONS

• There are a couple references present to the Prologue. Firstly, Paran pondering on the words "live quitely" by the Commander. Secondly, Laseen pointing out to Paran that he didn't take the Commander's advice of not joining the Army after all, and that the Commander himself didn't heed to hers (no detail about the latter is present though).
• From what I could gather, there's an unease, a kind of tension between Paran and Tavore it seems. On the other hand, Felisin seems to have a good bonding with Paran.
• Overall, a very good start imho. Of course, there's some names of people and places that you have no idea about, but I'm just enjoying the ride tbh!

​
A huge shoutout to 'Malazan: Search of the Fallen'. It was a massive help, and I hope to continue using this amazing tool. Credit where it's due.
​
Any feedback is always welcome. Hope you enjoyed.
Cheers!

I recently completed the Empires and Puzzles offer level 21 (pends early at 20) for 3000 sb (it was an earn as you go offer). The other levels I completed pended instantly but when I completed level 20 I noticed my sb wasn’t pending. I checked the discover page to see if the offer was still there and it seemed to have been removed. Will I be able to submit a ticket to get my SB or am I out of luck?

As I swung open the door to the emergency room, with panic in my eyes. My mind went back to work just half an hour ago. … It had started off as a normal day. Me getting up at 6am to get ready for work. My wife hadn’t been feeling all too well the last couple of days but it wasn’t too bad, she was still able to go to work. This morning however as I kissed her goodbye, she just let out a groan and. Kept her eyes closed, just telling me to leave her alone.
I had thought nothing of it as I left the house and went off to work. As usual, it was a boring drive to work, surprisingly the traffic was light and I had hit all green lights. So I made it to work a little earlier than usual. It put me in good spirits.
I grabbed somebody bland office coffee and went to my desk and sat down. I was IT help desk for a large corporation that will stay anonymous. As I put the head set on my head I heard the phone start to ring, my day officially starting. …. I breathed in lungfuls of air as my eyes scanned around the emergency room, my mind im suddenly a blank. I briefly wasn’t sure what to do until my eyes landed on the emergency room front desk.
I hurried over to the desk, my eyes filled with panic. Today had been going so good, why oh why had this been happening. When I reached the desk I placed my hands on top of it and looked at the brunet nurse behind the counter.
I asked for my my wife, trying to keep the panic out of my voice but failing. A sad look came over the nurses face, telling me she had been brought in 2 hours ago.
She picked up the phone and paged the emergency room doctor to come to the front desk … I pressed the end button on the computer, ending the phone call. I took off my headset and placed it on the table. 4 hours had passed since the start of my shift, the morning had just flown by. One call had come in after another, keeping me busy.
Finally it was time for lunch! Management didn’t allow us to use our personal phone while we were working so I had stashed it in my pocket and hadn’t looked at it since I started my work day.
As I stretched and got up out of my seat, I took out my phone and headed to the lunch room to grab some lunch…
You have 20 missed calls.
I froze in place, Lucy behind me nearly walking right into me. She complained, but I barely heard her. I looked and looked at my messages
7:30am Christina: I am having sever cramps. I can’t go into work today.
8:30am Christina: I am vomiting something might be wrong…
930am there is blood everywhere! Where are you Mike!
Several calls and messages had been left on my phone, after going through them the last one was from the hospital saying Christina had been admitted and was currently in surgery and that he needed to come immediately.
This was an half an hour ago … I sat down in the waiting room chair, nearly hyperventilating at this point. It seemed like hours had passed since the nurse had called for the doctor.
Finally I saw a doctor come into the waiting room, him asking for Mike.
I sprang up to my feet and hurried over to him. Eagerly waiting to find out what was happening to Christina.
When I finally approached him he looked at me sadly and my heart dropped, I knew what he was going to say.
I am sorry, he said. But your wife had a miscarriage.
I was not one to get emotional, but when I had heard those words, my heart dropped, I nearly fell to the floor. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. We had tried to have a baby for years and when Christina announced she was pregnant we were both ecstatic.
We had names already picked out for our baby girl. She was going to be name Abigail. The nursery had already been painted and decorated. Everything was set up, only 3 months left to go in the pregnancy. … I quickly told my boos that I had an emergency and that I needed to leave. I didn’t really hear his answer, and I really didn’t care. I ran out of the office and got to my car in record time. I started to car and sped out of the parking lot.
I sped all the way to the hospital, calling my wife’s phone over and over again. Only getting her voicemail each and everytime, I am pretty sure I went through a couple of red lights and am surprised I wasn’t stopped for speeding. I just had the worst feeling in the pit of my stomach knowing that when I got to the hospital that the news was not going to be good.
My tires screeched as I pulled up to the emergency room waiting area, turned off the engine and ran up to the doors of the hospital. … After i had finally calmed down enough, the doctor told me that she had just come out of the recovery room and was now resting in a regular room and that I was able to see her.
The walk to the room was not very long, but with each step, time seemed to stretch, seconds seemed to take minutes, minutes seemed to take hours. When I finally reached the door, my hand hovered over the door handle. I could hear the sounds of weeping on the other side.
I finally worked up the courage and opened the door. Christina’s back was towards me, and as I entered the room, she didn’t even turn to look at me. I approached the bed my hands hovering in the air above her body, unsure what to do next.

I’ve asked a few of you here already, but want more criticism. What am I doing wrong? https://www.amazon.com/orthopedic-dog-bed-medium-dogs/DP/B0BW7SRNHJ
Fyi, the sales are barely moving (0-1 a day). Spending average $30/day on ppc averaging 11 clicks/day. CTR for TOS is high 1-3%, but CTR on product page is shit 0.02%.
All campaigns have a really high budget of $100. I tried doing TOS adjustment, but apparently Amazon refuses to show my product because it deems it irrelevant. So despite high budgets, i only spend $30~$50. The only ad that Amazon likes spending full budget is video ads, which gets good CTR (over 100 clicks) but 0 sales so i paused it.
EDIT: PUT THE WRONG LINK SORRY. IT’S BEEN UPDATED NOW. Accidentally put my competitor’s lol

Greetings friends! So I've been working my way through Darkness That Comes Before for the past month or two. At first I hated it, I mean really hated it, but I've come round and am now on Part 4. I still have complicated feelings about these books - On the one hand, what an amazing series! Scott Bakker is obviously an excellent writer and the world he's constructing is very compelling, original and intriguing. The philosophical explorations at the heart of the book, the writing style, the characters. But, my, ... god, the pervasive exposition kills me. It's better now that we're on Part 4, admittedly. But I do feel like there are better ways to cram all that information into your audiences' top ramen - see George R. R. Martin or Dune or OG Star Wars or any Weis and Hickman for examples of this. Much like my experience with Malazan Book of the Fallen, there's just too much goddamn information and it's not delivered in a particularly naturalistic way which makes reading the book quite a slog for the first, 200 pages or so. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Again, love the series, now, lol but I definitely have my issues with it. It's the inevitable consequence of having created so vast a world and not being sure how to describe it for your audience. All that vomiting up of empires and races and locations and the relations between them, it takes a while before you can feel truly involved and not just like you're catching up.

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Hey guys, I'm looking for the highest velocity/cfm plastic pedestal fans. I have a cat and plan on having more pets in the future, so I'd rather get a plastic fan for safety concerns.
However, every plastic pedestal fan I have ever used has an oddly low cfm/velocity rating even if they advertise otherwise when compared to metal pedestal models in my experience. The best I've used high cfm/velocity plastic fan wise are plastic box fans like the classic Wind Machine. Unfortunately, I'd prefer a plastic pedestal fan as my bed is rather high up.
Any recommendations for plastic pedestal fans with high cfm ratings or perhaps even methods for obtaining cfm/velocity ratings would be appreciated! Cfm/velocity specs never seem to be available on plastic pedestal fan product pages like with Lasko and other plastic fan brands on Amazon for example.
Thank you so much guys!
EDIT: Also an oscillating fan is a must please! :) I'd also love to know if you have any takes on which brands and models of plastic pedestal fans last the longest!

tl;dr husband seems to turn everything on and claims I make everything his fault
Lately, I’ve had this big ball of anger building up inside me that I didn’t realize until today was there. I got up this morning, changed and fed the baby and went back to be in bed with my husband. In the past, my husband would complain to me about never being in bed when he woke up and always being with the baby. My husband tends to sleep in longer and I’m our son’s primary caretaker, so I’m the one responsible for getting him up and ready for the day. To appease him, I started only feeding and changing the baby in the morning and then quickly heading back to be in bed with him. Been making a habit of doing that. The past two times I have done this for him he has gotten up out of bed and then stayed with the baby, even though I waited up for over an hour in bed just so we could be together. This morning when he did it I was very upset. It’s like he didn’t even acknowledge the effort I was making for him and just was just like “okay, you listened to me, now I’m gonna go on about my day.” I confronted him about it and he said I must have been talking to someone else because he doesn’t understand what I’m on about. I kept trying to explain to him why it bothered me and he acted like I was making a big deal and basically ended the conversation. Mind you, when I wouldn’t be there in morning, he used to blow up and get all upset with me. Anyways, I storm off upstairs clearly upset. He comes back up a little later and starts getting dressed to leave the house and saying “we’re not on the same page.” I told him I wasn’t trying to argue and I just wanted him to hear me out and try to understand. Every time we have a disagreement he gets upset, blows up at me, and leaves the house entirely. Every. Single. Time. This time I lost it. I took his keys and was attempting to block him from every exit. I know that was wrong, but I was just so tired of him running away all the time and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I really feel like I reached my breaking point. I tired of constantly begging him to stay and talk things through with me. Running away is not an all time solution. Like I said, I didn’t realize how angry I was inside and how hurt I was. I didn’t put my hands on him or anything or nothing too crazy. I just took his keys and blocked the doors. Eventually, I did just give up on that and just let him go. The reason I feel like I might be being manipulated is because my husband turns everything on me, even though he says it’s me who is always blaming him. He nitpicks every little thing I say and how I say it. It’s like everything has to be his way or no way. He tells me when not to answer the phone and when I should be in the room. He makes me seem like I’m being crazy or that something is wrong with me. The craziest thing I’ve done is take his keys and block the door. One time we were out and I saw a red dress I liked and he blew up at me because I said I wanted it. He had told me I could pick out whatever I liked. I did, but he was unhappy. He bought it for me out of spite. When we got home he said I got the dress because I wanted male attention and completely character assassinated me. He wasn’t mad because the dress was revealing because it literally showed nothing, he was mad that it was red… He said it was too flashy and would attract too much attention and that that was the reason I wanted it. I just wanted it because I thought it was pretty and thought it would look nice on me. He later apologized, I’m guessing one of his friends talked some sense into him. Another time we were arguing and I suggested we go to therapy and he said he would never go with me. I could really name a lot of things, but I’m just looking for someone to tell me if something is really wrong with me or if it’s him. I keep changing things for him and apologizing and I just need to know if it’s all me. I really need whatever advice anyone can give because I can’t keep crying all the time. I’m pregnant with my second and I can’t deal with any more stress.

Thank you for reading my articles. I have a new article:
ON KAY J
by Andrew Roller
Kay J is a nude model who has mostly lived in Ukraine. This article is about her content on the metartnetwork ( dot ) com.
In her video “Wet Dreams”, Kay appears on a bed. The same bed is present in her photo gallery called “Astier”. ( Photo number 112. )
With regard to the bed, note the following:

1. The headboard is white.
   
2. The railings in the bed’s headboard are long rectangles.
   
3. The striped pillow printed with the words, “Happy Place”. ( The stripes on the pillow resemble a beach, under a blue sky. )
   

You may wonder, “So what?” In “Wet Dreams”, Kay bears whip marks and bruises. This despite the fact that “Wet Dreams” is simply meant to display her nude beauty.
The question, then, is:
“Did Kay bear these same whip marks and bruises in ‘Astier’? Did Alex Lynn, her photographer, airbrush away her whip marks in ‘Astier’?
No known photo gallery accompanies Kay’s video “Wet Dreams”. Such a state of affairs is unusual. Is “Astier” the ‘missing’ photo gallery, that was meant to accompany “Wet Dreams”?
Kay’s video, “Dreaming”, was filmed about a day after “Wet Dreams”. In “Dreaming”, she bears the same whip marks as in “Wet Dreams”. However, due to the passage of time, some of her whip marks have vanished by the time that “Dreaming” was filmed.
The photo galleries that are meant to accompany “Dreaming” are “Lacy Pink” and “Maru”. In both of these photo galleries, the real Kay had whip marks on her body. However, Alex Lynn airbrushed her whip marks away.
( It is impossible to airbrush out whip marks in a video. That’s because a video has too many frames of film. )
( At the now defunct web site called “alex-lynn ( dot ) com”, Kay’s photo gallery, called “Lacy Pink”, was called “White”. Free samples from “White” are available all over the Internet. )
On Kay J’s page at onlyfans ( dot ) com, there are a half dozen or so photos of her in bondage. These photos are scattered across her page ( over time ). All of these photos appear to have been photographed in a single photography session.
Kay J’s only fans page is: ukaybb. ( No period. )
My article is excerpted from Editorial Thunder issue number 265. You can read the entire issue at my free web site:
http://andrewroller.com
This article is an excerpt because parts of my issue do not directly relate the interests of pornstar_research.

I just started Heir to the Empire yesterday and I can’t put it down. I’ve read a lot of the Old Republic EU novels, but in anticipation of the Ahsoka show and Filoni’s film, I felt like I had to finally pick it up.
I’m just getting back into reading (grad school really killed the motivation to read for pleasure) and I drilled through the first 130 pages yesterday. I just got to the part where Luke is prepping his X-Wing to head to Dagobah and I couldn’t be more excited to get off work and keep reading. Haven’t been this invested in a Star Wars novel since Deceived, and I’m so glad I finally took the time to start reading again!

Is ussop connected to joyboy ? In this theory I will explain why he might just be.
At first glance you will say ussop is the comic relief that he is the weakest straw hat but that’s precisely why I think he is the most important straw hat. Oda puts a lot of himself in ussop and while he may say luffy is his favourite and give Zoro the best moments and give sanji the best backstory the thing is he is ussop,
Ussop is someone who underestimates himself who over looks himself and while he talks a big game that’s all for show in the crew he is the most human which is why I think he will shine the most.
Now out of all the crew members ussop is kind of irregular when it comes to his bounties.
Ussop despite being part of the weak trio has the 6th highest bounty higher than brook and franky at 500m and truth be told I do not believe he’s going to stop there. I can see him surpassing robin and jinbei in the future and if I may be so bold I could legit see the series ending with oda ending it on a joke with ussop having a higher bounty than Zoro and sanji because at the end of the day I believe ussop will be the true vice captain.
It’s not that he will out rank Zoro it’s just that’s how the world would see it.
Now in this theory I will explain 3 things.
1 ussop connection to joyboy

1. His coc capabilities and
   
2. A potential devil fruit.
   

As for joyboy the theory works like this.
I do believe ussop is connected to joyboy to what extent I am not entirely to sure but there’s something there.
The original joyboy is an African deity who travels around playing the drums and inspiring people to dance with joy hence the name
Now ussop in the famous bone fire scene was seen dancing around next to luffy doing his Nika pose but I believe that was a red herring and we should be focused on ussop who is playing the drums and is the only one with a visible smile on.
Ussop is also a god of liberation.
​
https://preview.redd.it/qy760pb1h75b1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7539e8cdcd9303fbb07fdf7a71901d93dd0d4153
https://preview.redd.it/w92ylob1h75b1.png?width=1620&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5ac225bf121c87ff985745d0a6dadc66f2a081d
There’s also the fact Nika ran around with a sword and spear which could be like ussop who uses a slingshot and hammer.
But there’s also his connection to noland the liar.
When luffy heard the story he kept confusing Noland for ussop and later ussop lied saying he was related to Noland and all his lies become true.
Noland is noted for his chestnut hair style and look at this
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He is also the only other straw hat to get statues build of him besides luffy.
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Could oda be setting up that ussop could be related to joyboy in some sense ?
Ussop always brings joy to people you got to remember, he is often the one seen playing with luffy and making luffy laugh, he brought joy to the tontatta and the slaves of dressrosa.
But his introduction is proof.
Ussop gathered 3 kids to follow him and he made life entertaining for them, he gave them some fun to have and later when he found out kaya was sick he would go out of his way to comfort her and tell her stories and eventually she learned to laugh against after the lost of her parents.
Ussop gave her joy. He would annoy the villagers to the point they would chase him but when he did leave and stopped pranking them it was shown that the Villagers were out of sorts as they grew dependent on ussop waking them up in the morning and they even admitted that the villagers had fun chasing ussop around as it gave them something to do and some even felt bad thinking they went to far with ussop the day earlier. Ussop brought joy to these people but he always inspired them he inspired the 3 kids to go off and chase their dreams and he inspired kaya to get out of bed and sturdy to become a doctor.
It was merry who then confirmed why ussop lies all the time. When he was a kid his mother was sick and ussop would tell her lies about his father coming back to save them and would do everything in his power to make her happy. Since then ussop can’t stand seeing people sad and often acts the clown to make those around him happy,
In enies lobby again he liberated the 2 giants there and how he did it was that he saw them crying and went over to see why and then when he heard they knew them giants from little garden ussop would mimic their laughter to prove he met them and that they are fine their brought joy back to the 2 giants who got back up and carried ussop to the castle fighting alongside him.
In thriller bark he fought perona and her powers didn’t work on him because as he states
He’s always depressed so he built a immunity around it, but that doesn’t make sense now because we found out sanji is always critical of himself as well through wci he just masks it better because he doesn’t want pity. Sanji was probably the only straw hat who really understood him, But sanji was still a victim of perona df. So perhaps it’s not that ussop is depressed it’s that he is joyboy his joy can fight off the depressing thoughts caused by her fruit.
Now 2.his coc potential.
Ussop I believe can unlock coc people say he is the last person who would have coc but I don’t think that is true. While ussop is easily scared he is no coward that is the one lie he actually believes. He has risen to the occasion many times before and faced his fears. Luffy isn’t brave he’s just fearless there is a difference.
In the end when pushed ussop always over co see his fears.
Now ussop is also a natural leader just not in the way you would expect people see drawn to him just like they are drawn to luffy except with ussop it’s either due to him lying or for him being in the right place at the right time but he has shown to be a sort of leader himself.
All his lies eventually come true and one of the most common lies he says is that he is the captain of the straw hat crew which I believe will come true at some point when luffy is taken out of the picture briefly and it will be up to ussop to lead the crew and the grand fleet in the final battle.
Now here is the thing we are told the crew of the rocks pirates did not get a long very well with one another and I believe that’s because they were mostly coc users as evident when wb and kaido were hesitant of letting more coc users joining their crew like wb was hesitant of oden stating he had bad experiences with his former crew. I believe this is also a case for the straw hats but with them it’s okay as luffy isn’t a conqueror like rocks he prefers to chill and let his crew be themselves which allows the crew to feel in control of their own paths but I do believe that them being coc users would explain a lot.
For example ussop has been challenging luffy for his position for captain since day one.
He just does it in very passive aggressive ways and in another crew he would be executed in luffy he either just yells at ussop or ignores it.
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But eventually this would lead to a fight as ussop let his insecurities win over him and refused to give up on the merry leading to the fight over who would captain the ship ( not the crew )
It was after this fight and after ussop apologised that he came back and from that day on he stopped inserting himself as the captain however has called himself the vice captain several times.
Ussop has also lied about having coc twice now. He told the tontatta after an earthquake that was him using his coc and when people were passing out from the kid vs big mom fight people assumed it was ussop doing it which should also demonstrate his power as he was running around completely fine from this coc blast
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So we covered his connection to joyboy and his coc potential the last is a df power,
People say he won’t get a new df because that would change his style of ammunition but not true at all as ussop is always changing his style of weaponry.
The rest of the crew have their powers and upgrade theme over time,
Like nami always uses a staff. In east blue she used a stick that broke apart into 3 pieces that she would put together, in arabasta she got a new modded staff from ussop with turns of tricks to it. Then she upgraded it in water 7/enies lobby then time skip she came back and it was modded with dials and then it was upgraded again and now it’s fused with zues.
But it was always a baton.
Ussop however not so much. His first gimmick was using tricked weapons, he carried balloons that looked like hammers he used rubber bands and little pellets with different ingredients like rotten eggs or spicy sauces which he would shoot in the mouth.
He would defeat chew by throwing cooking oil at him shooting the glass then shooting him with a fire starter to set him on fire. Then beat him with a hammer and a rubber band.
He would then start using dials before then moving to plants
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However it was clear that these plants were useless in wano. All of his attacks on page one were mostly useless at best he just slowed page 1 down a little but page one was not taking damage when he made his bamboo sticks come out of the ground they didn’t pierce p1 hide,
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When he blew him up he walked it off,
they were even useless in stopping the fire.
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Ussop needs a upgrade and I believe I found out what it is, For a while I been saying by the end of wano ussop would get kanjuro df a theory i since put to bed only for king jay to awaken it again.
I believe kanjuro fruit fits ussop very well as oda has stated ussop is a good artist in real life his profession would be a graphics designer but also I think oda puts a lot of himself in ussop which is why ussop should get this fruit as he is a good story teller and an artist.
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I believe ussop should get this fruit because of a few reasons.

1. Ussop if he is another joyboy he should have a similar power to luffy. Luffy can stretch himself and the world around him and essentially does whatever he can imagine.

Similarly ussop should do the same except it’s the ability to create anything he imagines.

1. Kanjuro was a spy and was purposely drawing badly to slow the crew down and to draw off suspicion.

However the first time kanjuro used his powers to draw something the way it was suppose to look was under ussops guidance and that’s when they made the flying ussop head to scar sugar.
Imagine what it could do in the hands of ussop !
Then there is the naming scheme where all sh df have to have numbers in them.
Now kanjuro df is the fude fude df which means brush brush fruit but another way of naming it is inku inku which makes up the numbers. 2.9 which is the number we are missing,
And finally could ussop already have it ?
After wano ended we kind of skipped over 2 weeks before they left and something strange happened in egghead
When the straw hats were knocked into the sea we saw them all swimming back up except robin and brook as they are df users even nami was fine.
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But ussop. If you look at him he was not swimming in fact oda specifically zoomed in on ussop and showed us a point of few of ussop reaching out to the surface above him as he sank deeper and deeper.
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they were then saved by Lilith before anyone noticed.
could ussop end up eating a df? Did he already off screen and oda is waiting for a surprise twist !?