Pop Up Tent Camping

Pop up camping style tent, portable fan, sand bucket/molds and a water/sand tower toy. Aside from the essentials of towels, sunscreen, hat, etc.

... and a cheap pop up tent. Staying at STATE park with camping facilities. Last...

...] has Best Choice Products 10x10ft Pop Up Canopy Tent with Sidewall, 1 Person... 1 Minute Set Up, Carry Case, 4... pockets to store all your camping or celebration accessories 1-PERSON, 1-MINUTE... four optional weight bags provide up to 112lbs of extra support...

... can you borrow a screen tent for playing board games or... Memorial Day and we're going camping as well. It was rainy... we have a pop up and a big 8 person tent too. I would...

... a similar tent and I love it. Being able to pop it up in a... in 2 minutes. Up and down even quicker than an "instant" tent. It's also... since you aren't packing a tent. Other downsides: not big enough ... looking tent for the price. There are many alternatives available, some from known off-road and camping...

... to soccer practice, you whistle up 2x robo-taxis - or everyone... you to, then just whistle up another one, leap-frogging on the... before with guns, ammo, cooler, pop up tent, steel targets and stands so... morning. Same to go hunting, camping, with a bunch of gear...

Songmics 3m x 3m Pop Up Gazebo with Sides & Carry ... a silver coating, this canopy tent provides UPF 50+ UV protection... Versatile Outdoor Living Ideal for camping, picnics, garden parties, or market...

... feel. 【QUICK SET & DOWN】: Pop up in a second, no tools... method to fold the whole pop up canopy tent into a compact carry... enjoy outdoor dining, picnic, car camping, afternoon tea at patios, garden... entrance doors can be rolled up. NOTICE. It’s NOT waterproof. Not...

... Sign up here regatta.com/member-sign-up The 2 Person Instant Tent is... perfect for quick weekend getaways and hassle-free camping. Pop-up... 3,000 mm hydrostatic head Pop up technology easy pitch mechanism allows...

Songmics 3m x 3m Pop Up Gazebo & Carry Bag, now £... use Secure Fixings Included This pop up gazebo comes with 4 guy... when a light breeze picks up Sun Protection & Light Rain... a silver coating, this canopy tent provides UPF 50+ UV protection... Versatile Outdoor Living Ideal for camping, picnics, garden parties, or market ...

... have not brought kids camping, but I grew up camping and my dad... hobo pies. We had a pop up camper with a fridge so ... can’t imagine fitting everything for camping! Granted, we’ve got a lot ... baby gear with us. Growing up, my dad had a front ... too scared of bears for tent camping lol

... Instant Tent is perfect for quick weekend getaways and hassle-free camping. Pop-up... 3,000 mm hydrostatic head Pop up technology easy pitch mechanism allows...

Good evening to you all! My husband and I are retired and have just stepped up from a bed in a box camper to a new 2026 Rockwood Freedom 2270FT tent camper. My husband camped in a pop up as a kid, while I camped with the Girl Scouts in a platform tent. We are looking forward to meeting you and learning more about what we hope is an awesome camping experience with our new Rockwood.

Okay I know this isn’t a pop up camper but we do use it in conjunction with our camper and figured you guys would be good to ask! We just survived a weekend of horrible rain while camping, it rained for about 26 hours straight. Anyways, we have this pop up tent we usually use for sun shade but we moved it to right outside our door to have a little area to sit. Long story short, water pooled up and leaked through the pool on all four corners. I know the pool noodle trick but there are no support beams going up to the top to wedge the pool noodle above. Any other advice on how to get the water to not pool in the corners? Thanks in advance! submitted by /u/MaverickWildcatWolf to r/popups [link] [comments]

We've moved to doing more basic car camping (sleeping in the vehicle) in fairly remote areas, and our biggest challenge is holding our camp site while we're out doing things without leaving a bunch of valuable gear just sitting there to hold our site. What's a decent instant/pop-up tent that i can easily set up to hold our campsite and possibly store some gear while we're gone? submitted by /u/Difficult_Cheek_3817 to r/camping [link] [comments]

Hey, so, me(19 F) and my boyfriend(21 M) have been dating for a while now, and I've been staying at my uncle's house since I'm legally homeless. He's also homeless, for context. I am also autistic, diagnosed, so I struggle a lot with reading things, hence why I decided to ask other people about it and make sure I'm not crazy. Today, he texted me this. That today he hung out with this girl at her house, rubbed her feet, smoked with her(the last one I don't care about, it's legal where we are) and admitted to loving her. There's also the fact he said he waited a year to "shoot his shot" with her. Then he asks about a throuple? Seriously? It's kinda fucked up, I think. But, I don't wanna jump to conclusions immediately. I mean, I'm happy he's not staying in a tent for a while, but it still feels wrong? I love the guy, genuinely. He means a lot to me. We are still early in the relationship, but I have been physically intimate with him, so it feels more intense. So, am I overreacting, or is this just basic stuff I shouldn't be bothered by? I'm not super good with relationships. (Edit) So, the people have spoken. And I'm going to talk to him and give an ultimatum. If he still doesn't respect it, then I will be dumping his ass. I'll keep y'all updated since you guys are incredibly nice and this helped immensely (Edit 2) I set my ultimatum guys. Told him that he has to choose. Either he stays with me strictly, or we're done. Now I'm just waiting for a response. He doesn't have anything with me, but he does have some of my stuff. But, it's just stuff, so if he doesn't give it back then whatever (FINAL EDIT) Guess who's newly single? Yeah, he was a dick about it. Said "Pimp out" and then told me when I asked what the fuck that meant that the "Horse is already dead" and I was just "beating it till the eyes pop out". He made his choice. Your girly is now single and honestly? I feel happy about this. I'm gonna keep moving forward with what I was doing. Get on SSDI, get assisted housing, and love for once in my fucking life. (PS edit) (i meant live, fucking fingers. Love too, but I meant live) (Another edit as a PSA because of some of these wild ass comments) Okay. Stop saying people deserve to be on the street. Because that's fucking ridiculous. I watched a man get stabbed and DIE in front of me IN FRONT OF A CHURCH right after I had dinner with him. Said now ex boyfriend actually had kept me safe during that and made sure I was okay while I was having a panic attack. We just had a bond because we were homeless. That's something I've realized now. It was cold. Warm body was right there. Things escalated. But to say someone deserves to be on the street when ICE is literally burning camps down, SOMETHING I WATCHED HAPPEN TO MY FUCKING FRIENDS, pisses me off. So no, no one EVER deserves to be on the street. That man who got stabbed wasn't the only death I saw either. Six people. In a WEEK. Dead and gone, right after I'd talked to them or ate with them. So anyone else who says that can shut the fuck up and get off this post. Thank you. Stay hydrated, stay safe, and don't die y'all. submitted by /u/Substantial_Trust902 to r/AmIOverreacting [link] [comments]

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/ThrowRAwhywut Originally posted to r/relationship_advice My (25m) wife (24f) is traveling alone with another man Trigger Warnings: infidelity Original Post: May 11, 2023 This feels weird to type out. My (25m) wife (24f) is going on holiday with another guy. I feel like there's a 0% chance she's cheating on me. I don't think she would ever do that, but I just hate the way it's making me feel. We've been married for a few years now. Basically, my wife has a new male coworker that she has really enjoyed lately. That's great, I'm all for new friends regardless of their gender. We haven't really had a relationship with insecurity about friendships of another gender. I have friends that are girls, she has friends that are guys. It's basically always worked for us. Anyway, my wife and this guy have become closer over the past few months that they've worked together. They snap and send each other memes all the time. It feels like half the time I'm talking to her that she's really just reacting to these messages. They've also hung out a lot after work. Going to get drinks and stuff often late into the night. I typically don't receive an invite. My wife just goes. She doesn't do so secretly, she texts me letting me know her plans but it's a little frustrating that she just goes out without inviting me and often last minute. Especially knowing that we haven't spent much quality time together in a few weeks. More recently, my wife and this guy have recently been talking about this cool hike that they want to go on. The only problem is that it would be an overnight trip that they go on, just the two of them. I am bothered by this. I know you can travel with platonic friendships, but I can't help but feel bothered. I really don't believe she would cheat on me. I just feel like I've been moved to second place by my wife as she goes off and has fun with someone she enjoys more. Meanwhile, I'm just the guy that does chores, comforts, and supports. It also doesn't help that I've only interacted with this guy a few times and usually for not very long. So I don't really know him that well. How do I handle this situation? I want to be honest and communicate how I'm feeling but I don't want to come off as insecure by telling my wife what she can and can't do. I also know that she is looking forward to this trip and I don't want to take that away from her. I feel like I'd be selfish to do so in this situation. If I should just let them go, what do I do with what I'm feeling? I'd appreciate any help Reddit. I'm not sure what I expect. Tl;dr: My wife is going on a trip with another man. I don't want to feel insecure about it or force her to stay. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: Call me crazy, but perhaps bring up the fact that you would prefer she doesn't have overnight dates with other men? Wild concept. OOP: Yeah. It doesn't sound crazy at all reading it from someone else. Commenter 2: So they're sleeping in the same tent/room on this hiking trip? This isn’t appropriate especially since you have really met the guy. Has she really never invited you? Why not invite him for a meal or a drink at the house with you around? I think your wife is being purposely evasive. Most women know that openness and transparency is important when you’re dealing with friends of the opposite sex and your partner, and this doesn’t feel like she's doing that. It might not be physical, but it does feel like an emotional affair. OOP: It's not that I've never been invited but I haven't been in a while. I hung out with them once. I was invited one other time, but I was busy and couldn't that evening. But that's about the extent. I do agree that maybe it's more emotional. Commenter 3: OP you need to tell her your boundary is not being alone 1:1 in private areas with another of the opposite sex (assuming this guy is straight?). That’s a perfectly reasonable boundary- I think it’s great if my husband has female friendships in public areas and at work. Heck he’s welcome to grab coffee with a female friend 1:1 or go to a public restaurant etc., but crossing into a private area (apartment, hotel, campsite) just 1:1 is definitely a red flag. Others are making some massive jumps, but you need to figure out if this guy is straight first and then ask your wife honestly how she’d feel if you did that with another woman and establish some boundaries. She may have cheated but that’s for you to find out. If not, at the very least an emotional boundary was crossed and you two need to communicate. OOP: Yeah. I think this is very reasonable. Thank you! I'm going to have a conversation about boundaries with her. Commenter 4: I'm quite certain that's what every other husband (or wife) that has been cheated on thought. That they're so loyal and they love me, right? .... Yeah man. It's 100% emotional at the very least and if it HASN'T gone physical yet, it will with this "camping trip". OOP: Well then what do I do? I know that I have to talk to her and figure it out, but if she's cheating or planning to cheat... Man. What do I do then? Commenter 5: Well since there is 0% chance she won’t cheat according to you then what’s the issue bud? OOP: I mean you checkmated me I guess. Maybe not 0%. Even if not cheating, it feels pretty awful that she's doing these things with someone else and not spending as much time with me.   Update #1: September 25, 2024 (1.5 years later) It's been like 1.5 years since I posted. A lot of people considered me a troll or making stuff up at first. Here's the current update and where things currently stand. It's gonna be long and things aren't fully resolved and I'd love some more advice. I'm really having a difficult time processing how I feel and what to do. I spoke with my wife about the situation regarding camping with her coworker. She immediately starting crying at the time when we talked. I was trying to be empathetic, I know she didn't want to miss out on a friendship. She kept saying things like: "I hate that you guys don't get along." However, she did apologize and back out of the trip. Things were better for a short period. But then they began hanging out at a similar frequency. We had some conversations about it, but I knew the guy would be moving soon and thought things might start to resolve afterwards. The next couple months were difficult, I still felt under prioritized and like my concerns weren't really heard. She talked about visiting him after he moved and I mentioned my concerns for that and she never ended up visiting. This seemed to cause a sort of falling out between them. My wife then changed perspectives and felt she was a victim of this coworker and that he was treating her weirdly by pursuing her. She ended up burning some stuff that he gave to her including a letter that he had sent after the move. She gets defensive still when this guy comes up in conversation and it's impossible to talk about it. Anyway, conversation/connection with him dies down. In the meantime, wife has another weird connection with a guy that feels too long to include on this specific post. This just adds fuel to the fire. And I continue to feel underappreciated and uncared for. Conversations with my wife around the subject are still touchy. After some time, I finally allow myself to feel my feelings and it eats at me. I eventually wake up at 3 am stressed and can't go back to sleep. I finally break and look at her messages with the old coworker. Obviously, there are a ton of messages. Lots of selfies they've sent back and forth (nothing explicit). A sort of flirty vibe to them and a lot of how much they appreciate each other. And then texts much later in the night than I thought about "Let me know when you get home safe" at like 4 am. Talk after our conversations of potential future camping trips together and travel. And then referring to a late night they were together at a state park as their "not camping trip." My wife noted having dirt all over her clothes and the coworker said "well, what do you expect when we wrestled." And then further he said, "I wish I would have held you tightly for longer instead of getting angry." Then a text he mentioned describing their night to a coworker and the coworker being surprised that they "didn't fuck." I know this is a lot. And even typing it out, I sort of feel like an idiot. It's just hard for me to imagine a world without her at this point. Sometimes it seems like she really likes and appreciates me. Other times, I feel myself questioning if she regrets marrying me altogether. Sometimes I wonder if it's possible for her to be naive enough to not understand my concerns. How can I communicate so she understands my concerns? I want her to know that it's hurtful. How do I get her to change and apologize? Tldr: Wife wanted to travel alone with a male coworker. After friendship ended with this guy, another friend came into the picture. Snooped on texts, found some boundary crossing behaviors. I'm struggling to process it all. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: Why in the fuck are you tolerating this??? Dump her. Move on. OOP: It just doesn't feel quite that easy I guess. Like, we've been together so long. It's just hard to imagine it differently Commenter 2: Hey, homie. Let me ask you a few questions. Are you happy with feeling undervalued and under appreciated by your partner? If you had a similar relationship with a female, do you think she would give you the same grace you are providing her? Are you comfortable knowing your partner is out “camping” and “wrestling” with another dude? I’d imagine all the answers to the above are no. If you don’t want to break things off, tell her “hey, me and one of my female friends are gonna go camping for a few days. Just me and her.” And see how she reacts to that. I’d be surprised if she didn’t lose her fuckin’ mind. When that happens, you already know the relationship between her and this dude isn’t kosher. She would likely equate what you are asking to do with what she’s already doing, which is probably fuckin’ around on you. I’d give the ultimatum: “you either cut the shit with all these male ‘friends’ you’re out ‘wrestling’ in the dirt with, or you get lost.” If she pulls the shit again, it’s done and over with. The tears are a manipulation tactic IMHO. She knows getting upset is going to cause you to pump the breaks, and it’s being used against you. She’s using it so you and her cannot have an open honest conversation about your feelings, and also about the situation itself. Fuck that noise. YOU are not hurting her. SHE is hurting herself and YOUR RELATIONSHIP. Don’t get caught up in the “what if I’m wrong” you are being treated poorly. You are waking up at 3 AM stressed the fuck out. You don’t deserve to live like that. Treat yourself better and either get her to prioritize your relationship/you, or get fucking lost. Life is too short to waste it being mistreated by someone you want to love, appreciate, and value you for you. OOP: Thank you for your long and thoughtful comment. I truly appreciate it. I'm still struggling with what I want to do. But I definitely am going to be thinking about your comments. I know I need to respect myself more. I just wish I could do both - as in respect myself and fix the marriage somehow Commenter 3: She knew what she was doing. She knew what was going to happen on that camping trip. Don’t let her convince you she was being manipulated, that’s ridiculous. And now, conveniently, there’s another man filling the emotional affair void. I’m sorry, my friend, but she keeps searching for the excitement and attention of other men. You are safe and comfortable, and she has very little respect for you and your marriage. OOP: But does that mean it has to end? Like is there no other solution? Commenter 4: Confront her about her clear and unmistakable infidelity. What she was doing is cheating, she had an emotional affair with him that was physical to a point and she knew exactly what she was doing, lied to you consistently, gaslighted you to make you feel controlling and is now trying to do it again with another coworker. Tell her you’re tired of being her second choice in your marriage and if her choice is to pursue other men and abandon you she can do it as a single woman alone without you to support her. OOP: I know you're right. It makes me feel horrendous. I feel like I let myself believe things aren't as bad as they were. I just wish it could work out. Like things used to be good. Commenter 5: You're in denial, and it's painfully obvious. She doesn't even need to gaslight you because you're already doing it to yourself. It's clear she's been cheating on you, at least on an emotional level, and yet you refuse to see it. You're letting yourself be walked over, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she and her affair partners have been laughing at your expense. What more do you need to wake up? Will you still be in denial when she gets pregnant by someone else, gives you an STD, or you catch her with another man? Her reaction after being "rejected" by her so-called friend wasn’t the reaction of someone losing a friend—it was the reaction of someone getting rejected by a lover. Even he knew she wasn’t worth it, so why can’t you see that? You need to start therapy, get tested for STDs, and, above all, start having some self-respect. OOP: It's just hard to believe. Like I just used to feel like I knew her so well. Like she would never do anything like this. And I just don't know what to do with it all now. Like I know these are the things to do but it just doesn't feel so simple.   Update #2: ** October 26, 2024 (one month later)** My previous post talks about an emotional and possible physical affair. I was in too much denial and let it slip right under my nose in so many ways. I was a doormat and I'm trying not to be that anymore. You can see some of the old posts on my profile too. And yes, it's the one with the camping trip she wanted to take alone with another guy. I don't know if I really have a satisfying update yet, but people have asked for updates, and it's been about a month. I did confront her. We went through a lot of the messages. She wasn't heated or defensive like I expected. She was apologetic and said she was sorry. We have had a few couples counseling sessions since then. She claims nothing physical ever happened. She had excuses for many of the text messages and what they said. Explanations to make them sound less damning, but she had a hard time explaining some of the others in a way that's satisfying. I'll be honest. She apologized the first time we talked. But since then she has deflected a lot. There is a lot of blaming other people and circumstances. She was afraid she would lose her job, or afraid how it would impact something, or she's this way because of some past trauma, only burned things because her friend wanted to, etc. I need her to own her part of it more. She denied ever having romantic feelings for him at all. I pointed out things were intimate and she did agree that it was intimate. But then immediately tried to justify why the intimacy occurred. Things just don't really seem to add up. She keeps telling me she loves me but how could she do this? I've been a wreck. I'm struggling to function at work and have a productive life. I really just want to crawl into a hole. I'm exhausted. I'm able to see friends and enjoy hobbies some. I have been able to forget in the moment, but the pain comes rushing back as soon as it's over. My self-esteem has been shot. And I can't stop feeling like I need to always process and figure it out. She's been out of town for a week and is back soon. I've spiraled a lot but have also had a really good week in other ways. I'm dreading her coming home. Some of that is dreading having to go through this stuff more but I think a lot of it is just dreading her in general right now. I don't feel any joy for seeing her right now. I just feel like I'm living in a haze. None of it feels real to be honest. I'm somehow trying to put one foot in front of the other. I feel like so much of it is me looking for people to tell me what to do which is not what I need. I need to make a decision for me. I'm leaning towards leaving right now. I've talked with a few friends and it's been helpful. And they have made me really ask the question, "What am I getting out of this relationship?" And right now, I can't think of much. I'm not sure if I'm hurt so I'm seeing things from the past negatively or if the scales have been removed from my eyes. I'm seeing more and more how much I've sacrificed for her. And seeing how she's not really that good of a person. Especially not in her interactions with me. But I keep getting stuck in how I would feel like a bad person for leaving. And how I would be hurting her. So I am trying to get that out of my head. Because I shouldn't be concerned with her, I should be concerned with me. Well, reddit, that's my update. Let me know if you can fix me. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: Dear OP, do you have children? I can’t remember the details of your story… If you don’t I would recommend separating temporarily. Distance would do you good and would allow you to see things more clearly. Whether or not they have been intimate is kind of beside the point. At the very least this is an EA. You don’t behave like this if you are in a relationship, that is just common sense. OOP: No children. So that makes things a bit less complicated. Commenter 2: This is not a normal or a happy marriage. Read this sentence over and over until it sinks in. Your wife’s relationship with this man is so over the line. I don’t care what platitudes she offered. I honestly don’t trust a single word out of her mouth. I wouldn’t if I were you either. You can’t spin the messages. The more you listen to her explanations the more you’re also going to further doubt yourself. You have been asking Reddit for advice. It looks like for years on this topic. Please separate and ideally leave your wife. To me, you do not have a strong enough relationship to warrant your marriage. At least a happy marriage. You both may love each other, but love is not enough. Remember that. Actions speak much louder. Take ownership of this narrative. This is your life. Stand up for your happiness. And your peace of mind. OOP: Thanks. I agree. I am making some bigger moves next week and just making perfectly sure of everything. I'll be surprised if we are still together at all by 2025. But I appreciate the encouragement. I'm doing my best not to care about others and be strong for myself. I have doubts but they're dwindling more and more every day. Has OOP receive therapy to deal with the issues he has? OOP: I've been seeing a therapist. It's been very helpful for me to have a safe place to process. And friends I've talked with have been great at validating and understanding so far. And you're right about salvaging the relationship being the doubt. Some moments, things can still feel normal and even nice but it never lasts.   Final Update: April 15, 2026 (1.5 years later) Final Update: My (25m) wife (24f) is traveling alone with another man. What to do? It's been a while since last updating everyone on my story. Not sure who really cares or wants to know. But I feel like someone will see this and hopefully it will give them hope, or encouragement, or at the very least sate some of their curiosity. Basically, the story began with my wife forming an inappropriate relationship with a coworker. It reached a boiling point when he asked her to go camping, just the two of them at a time that I wouldn't be available to join. This was the story behind my first post. Long story short, she didn't go camping after a long talk with her. Things seemed to progress to be a little better from there (Read: I was in denial). However, I reached another point of feeling insane that I read all her texts back and forth with this guy. This was just more and clearer evidence of infidelity with this guy. Which is basically where the reddit post history ends off. After that, we did therapy together and individually. Had lots of talks about what happened and where to go from there. About why she felt the need to go outside our marriage. More information came out and my wife was never able to fully meet what my needs were. We fought, we argued, and we tried different therapists. Unsurprising to many of you, things never turned out for the better. The two things I needed from her to start off were accountability and accepting new boundaries. She was unable to take accountability. It was always blaming someone or something else for what happened. There were times where it seemed like we were making progress. But then, it got to the point where she would take almost no accountability. Suddenly, she never did anything wrong, instead she argued she was just a victim of sexual harassment. Which then turned into her blaming me for not supporting her when she was a victim. And how she worried I wouldn't be able to support her in the future if something went wrong. Which gave me a moment of feeling a little crazy, but I was able to shake out of it. As far as boundaries go, we had talks about her friendships and what they needed to look like. I needed her to greatly reduce her friendships with guys and prioritize our relationship. There was another male friend in particular that caused some issues during this time. When we talked about it, she often seemed agreeable and understanding but behavior never seemed to really change. Two things in particular were bigger issues that popped up during this time: One involved my birthday, when we both already had the day off. She had let me know beforehand that she had a lot of work she had to do that morning/afternoon and wouldn't see me much until my birthday dinner that evening. Well, guess who she spent multiple hours with that morning into the afternoon. This new male friend. She showed up at home to me packed up and ready to go out and do some stuff for the day. My ex-wife immediately looked as though she knew she messed up and did profusely apologize. She even stated, "I don't know why I keep hurting you." The next event was when she really wanted to go to a concert with this same guy, just the two of them, in another city (Deja vu much). She ended up not going after multiple conversations and after I told her I wasn't okay with it. But she was not at all happy about it. There is a world where I think forgiveness could have occurred and where I think relationships heal after infidelity. But, that is not my story. Eventually, I was able to come to my senses. It took a lot longer and more suffering than it should have. But I am now divorced. Which has been a big mishmash of emotions. Some days I feel deeply lonely and sad. Other days I feel optimistic, hopeful, and at peace. Honestly, I never hated my ex-wife and really I still don't. I am still very angry and hurt by what happened, but I never really hated her. And maybe that's naive of me. But, the thing that really motivated me to leave was that I was able to love myself and choose what I needed for me. I feel very far away from the person that I was when this first started. I feel a little more confident and free than I have in a very long time. I am still trying to use this current time to find myself and probably will for a while. Not looking to date or anything at the moment. Not sure if marriage or a long term relationship is ever going to be on the able for me again. Which I think I'm oddly okay with. So much of my identity was in my marriage and being a good partner. It's hard to remember who I was before this and who I am apart from that at times. So that's what I'm discovering now. Plenty of other fighting and weird little stories in the past year or two as well. But that's it for now. Thank you to all the redditors who were helpful and gave their advice. It was almost entirely saying the same thing. Even though some of you were much nicer about it than others of course. But I'm not going to complain, I genuinely think explicitly calling me out helped me wake up some. My family and friends have been overall very supportive and made the transition as easy for me as possible. Her mom had a bit of a freakout about the divorce and sent me lots of long texts. And my (prior?) best friend, is maybe someone I might cut out? He was supportive at first. He knew more than anyone what was going on. But he tried to talk me out of the divorce after I already made the decision. He told me I was making a mistake among other bullshit during the time period I needed the most reassurance and support. So yeah, I'm not sure what that friendship is at the moment. I, honestly, haven't had the energy to care to try to address anything or talk with them. So I guess I'm wondering, any thoughts on if I should even bother addressing it? Or if I should just cut them off? I appreciate any advice! Relevant Comments Commenter 1: your ex moved you in the furniture category. The status where you only help out with her living needs like pay for her and clean the bathroom. The funny things she was keeping for the others, including the other "cleaning". Good riddance man, go on with your life and ignore the "friends" telling you are making a mistake. They've been listening to your ex hallucinating a bit too much. OOP: Truly. I was just convenient and helpful. But not someone she really wanted to be with. And yeah, it was kind of crazy to get that response from my friend. He knew about things for a long time and was supportive of the idea until something just changed. Commenter 2: Oh man proud of you for getting out and cutting the toxic people out. Just need some additional info, if you're okay sharing it: 1) What was her reaction when you divorced her 2) Is she still in her party phase or settled in another relationship. OOP: Well, divorce was something we talked about for a long time. So it wasn't some big dramatic unexpected moment for me to share unfortunately. She accepted it. I think she was on the same page and tired of arguing about this anyway. Not too sure. No relationship that I know of. I think she is trying to move somewhere new. Commenter 3: How long did it take you to realize and decide that divorce would be best? Was there a specific moment? Glad y’all don’t have kids, I hope things improve greatly for you. OOP: know! I was definitely so thankful to not have had kids. It would've made things even harder. I don't know if there was a specific moment. It was just build up over time of her behavior never changing in the way I needed. I kept believing that maybe she would wake up and snap out of it. I think one big event is when things started to slide backwards in how she felt about the infidelity. When she changed from agreeing that it was an affair to claiming she was just a victim in the situation, it made it clear that we were too far apart on everything. It felt like she was inching toward me before, but this was running the other way. Commenter 4: Hey friend, sounds like your buddy isnt being much of a buddy right now. It might be worth a quick conversation to at least gain understanding. You could mention how you were looking for support and how your friend instead pushed you in the opposite direction. Maybe there's a reason your friend was being that way that isn't rooted in dishonesty or malice? But of course if they refuse to talk or open up or they infact meant to cause harm, I'm afraid you should consider ending the friendship. I know that it may seem like things are falling apart, and in a way they are. But put a mental bookmark in your mind to keep this fresh: in time you'll see that while this stuff really sucks, you are shedding all the shitty people from your life and you are gaining understanding, confidence, and growing as a person. There are lots of awesome folks out there to befriend and some that will make awesome romantic partners. Your people are out there just waiting for you. Someone with a great heart like yourself will find the awesome folks you deserve to have in your life. Keep on doing what you're doing now, and eventually you'll find yourself in a much better situation with people you can truly relate with and trust. I know things aren't great right now and it's hard to find hope while going through such things, but I promise you, one day you will look back and think about this being a time of growth that allowed you to set better boundaries and find better people to share your life with. You are never alone. I wish you the best. Good luck to ya, friend. OOP: Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I appreciate the effort. And I know you're right, it feels weird how little control I once felt I had over my life. This sounds ridiculous to have to realize, but I get to choose and do whatever I want with it.   DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7 THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP submitted by /u/Choice_Evidence1983 to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

I was looking for a pop up tent to use with a composting toilet for privacy and found this one with a small shower. The price seemed low for the combination. I'm just looking to see if anyone has used this and your opinion on it: https://www.amazon.com/Camping-Portable-Outdoor-Privacy-Rechargeable/dp/B0FBRG2R2L/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=2byXy&content-id=amzn1.sym.4efc43db-939e-4a80-abaf-50c6a6b8c631%3Aamzn1.symc.5a16118f-86f0-44cd-8e3e-6c5f82df43d0&pf_rd_p=4efc43db-939e-4a80-abaf-50c6a6b8c631&pf_rd_r=2WSYZCX7QMWVGT1JW9WB&pd_rd_wg=egXL6&pd_rd_r=713bea3b-739c-4da3-ac64-9cab40ada0bb&ref_=pd_hp_d_atf_ci_mcx_mr_ca_hp_atf_d&th=1 submitted by /u/Paramedic229635 to r/carcamping [link] [comments]

I've decided to try the Moguri Mod. I want to be as close to the original version as possible, so I'm only going to change small things. Specifically, I REALLY want Borderless Fullscreen so I can take my notes while playing lol. The backgrounds aren't upscaled, because I feel like the abstract, almost painting-like nature of the artstyle adds to the whimsy. Crash site: This forest is really nice. The playful yet ominous music, the ambience of frogs ribbiting and birds chirping, while the moonlight filters through the foliage above. We run into Vivi, Steiner and Garnet, and enter a boss fight against an absorber enemy. OK, so for some context. While playing FFX, I managed to last all the way until the battle against (spoilers for FFX) Seymour Flux before I kicked the bucket, a fact I was very proud of. Even after that fight, I don't think I died until the end of the game (aside from Dark Aeons but we don't count those). So please tell me why I got A GAME OVER against like the first non-tutorial enemy in the game LMAO. I failed to save Garnet, I'm not proud of it. The battle system is quite jarring, especially since sometimes you're both awkwardly waiting for the other to make a move while gauges fill up, and then all at once everyone begins making moves. But I'm not gonna blame the game for my own stupidity, I should've been healing Garnet. We defeat the thing, before it retreats, taking Garnet with it. Vivi immediately blames himself, as does Steiner, while Zidane tries to calm everyone down. Suddenly, it (or another of its kind) swoops down and takes Vivi, and now it must die. No one steals my boy. This time, it doesn't get the chance to run away. And I steal a Broadsword from it! Vivi and Steiner are infected by the dying throes of the fiend (are they still called fiends?) and collapse. When we return to the ship, Baku tells us that the safety of his boys comes before the princess, while Zidane is worried for her safety. Which, again, begs the question: Why do they want Garnet in the first place? Are they after the Royal Pendant, too? I'm also wondering if Garnet ASKED them to kidnap her to get her away from Alexandria, although I don't know how they would've communicated it beforehand. It would explain why she was so willing to go with them, although I don't remember the exact details of that scene. Actually, she ran away from them as soon as she saw them in the castle. Hmmm. Plus, why is Zidane now so worried about her? Maybe he's nicer than I gave him credit for. He was nice to Vivi, which instantly boosts my opinion of him. Another interesting tidbit is that in an ATE (which I LOVE, by the way) Steiner sees a doll labelled "Princess Garnet, aged 15". What? On the ship? She's 16, not 15. And who made this? Why is it there? I don't even know where to BEGIN with that one. There's another ATE, and it's... oh, Cinna, outside... trying to find... his, doll. Of the. 15. Year-old... girl. ... Ummm. Let's just... move past that, for now... I explore the ship, collecting loot from chests, speaking to everyone I can, and I stumble across Vivi, resting in his room. He seems to be hurt, or at least pensive, about something Zidane says. I think it was "You've got some major power for such a little guy". Zidane's very nice to Vivi. Good. Everyone should be. After a flashback, Zidane resolves to take Vivi and Steiner and rescue Garnet. We clash with Baku for choosing to break the rules, but, and this is pure speculation, we might not be able to lose here? Perhaps I just got lucky, but there was a moment where I was on low health and about to die, but he missed. Do let me know if that's the case. Anyways, now that we're officially expelled from the gang, Cinna charges us for supplies. I use some of the 10K we got earlier to stock up on supplies, before I head back in to recruit Steiner and Vivi. Steiner, who is understandably pissed at us for kidnapping the princess, refers to Vivi as "Master Vivi" saying he has unimaginable powers. When we go speak to him, though, it's clear that he has some really low self-esteem. I'll say this once and then never again. While it IS very weird how everyone is talking about this 16 year old girl like a prize to be won and constantly talking about how beautiful she is, I understand that 16 in Japan is 18 to the rest of the world, and that it's just late 90's sensibilities in a modern context. So I don't think the game is trying to portray anyone involved as sleazy, just kids. Evil Forest: Anyways, we head back out into the forest, and see an ATE of the orchestra playing on the ship to boost morale, and another of Baku giving a map to Blank, who asks if he's sure about this. Not sure what "this" is, has he sent Blank after us to ensure our safety. So, wait, does every moogle end their sentences with kupo? Because I thought it was just the moogle NAMED Kupo from Alexandria being quirky, but now Monty says it, too. I don't think Stiltzkin did, though. The battle music absolutely fucking SLAPS, by the way. I like it WAYY more than the one from FFX. Heading into the woods, we fight against a huge monster - the Plant Brain. DAMN, this thing is REALLY strong!! Like it ALMOST completely wipes us out. If I hadn't stocked up on so many Phoenix Downs immediately after leaving the ship I would've been annihilated. Halfway through the battle, just as we're about to be wiped out, Blank comes to the rescue. It's slightly easier with 4 members, but some attacks still insta-kill. My strategy become: use Fire Sword with Steiner, defend with Vivi, and Steal/Defend with Zidane. When Blank joins, he can attack and heal as needed. We muddle through it, and get a whole 5AP(!). On Blank, two things strike me about him. 1) His skills are eerily similar to Zidane, and 2) He isn't on the box art. I don't think, anyways. These are instant death flags but, as mentioned, the story has barely started yet. I also notice that he has ZERO equippable moves, AND immediately after we rescue the princess and get jumped, I think my theory is about to be vindicated. He hesitates for a moment, and I think he's about to make the sacrifice play, but I'm relieved to see he runs with us. As we escape the forest- OHHH no, the fiends grab Blank as he throws us what I assume is the map he received from Baku. We just barely make it out in one piece, as thorny veins solidify into what looks like wood, taking Blank with them. And there's the sacrifice play... So, what was that about? Why did all the fiends suddenly turn grey and all devoid of life? It happened quite suddenly, too. Baku and Co. mentioned the Mist while on the ship - is that it? In camp, Garnet wakes up and Steiner is on our case again. Despite Zidane losing a close friend a short while ago, he's on our case for trying to steal the princess which, honestly, is understandable. Garnet interrupts and debunks my suspicion that the whole thing was coordinated in some way (yeah no shit I guess). We get a bit of world-building from Steiner. He tells us of the Mist - the vicious monsters it spawns, the abnormalities it stirs in the mind and body. Zidane also mentions a North Gate and South Gate, both of which are sealed off. So this "Mist" sounds a bit like Sin, except a lot less personified. For now it seems a lot more like a natural phenomenon than a being. Also, Zidane hasn't given up on Blank yet which, to me, is one of two things. Either he's in denial and wants to believe there's some way to save him, OR there IS actually a known way to de-petrify people, and the real challenge is getting back to his body. I lean heavily towards the former. At camp, we get a tutorial from a couple of moogles who COMPLETELY drop the pretense of not being in a game which is hilarious. It's mostly stuff I've seen before. This game came first, of course, but I've used the front-row back-row system in Metaphor: ReFantazio, and the ability system reminds me quite heavily of Pictos and Lumina from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. After the tutorial, we're in an open-world! I didn't expect something like this - we even have full camera control, which FFX, as far as I can remember, never gave us. It's nice having the extra degree of freedom, though there isn't much around. There's an entrance to an "Ice Cavern", and no much else, as far as I can tell. Before I can enter it, though, we get ambushed by some enemies. Hilariously, our character models are just facing the other way lol. And a pre-emptive strike is just the reverse. Ice Cavern: When we enter the ice cavern, Vivi tells us that his grandfather told him it would lead us to the top of the Mist. So we head inside, and immediately find a false wall that Vivi can break. We also get more encounters... I hope it's not a hot take to say that I prefer the battles in FFX (my only other point of reference for FF games). It's only been a couple of hours, so it'll probably grow on me, but I think if there was just some kind of turn order on the screen it'd be a bit easier. Sometimes I play a move and then have no idea when it's actually gonna happen. We continue on, finding chests and secrets as we go (that I'm not gonna detail), until we reach a path along the trail that puts us to sleep, one by one. When Zidane wakes, he hears a sound and heads towards it. Is he dreaming? Doesn't seem like it. Someone (or something) called Black Waltz No. 1 wonders why he isn't asleep, and that he should be dead by now. It summons Sealion, and we get thrown into a 2v1. Zidane doesn't have many options outside of regular attacks and stealing. Unfortunately, the Black Waltz keeps healing the summon with Blizzard, so I go for him instead. We defeat him, and the jesters from the castle reveal themselves at the top of the mountain. Apparently we need to defeat No.2 and No.3 as well, but that's for later. For now, I backtrack and find a side room with another Moogle, where I learn about... status... effect... ...there are HOW many?? And apparently getting KO'd isn't the only lose condition. We also lose if everyone has one of four specific ailments. That's a lot more complicated than I thought it'd be. There are also EIGHT different elements, not including non-elemental attacks. I'm genuinely reminded of the Undertale tile puzzle lmao, this is so complex. The Moogle reassures me it'll all make sense when I get used to it. I sincerely hope he's right. I don't know how precious tents are, but Vivi's low on MP and he's kinda important to have around here, so I pop one down. Speaking of fights, my general strategy right now is Zidane and Steiner up front, Vivi and Garnet in the back. Zidane with steal and attack, Steiner with attack and, occasionally, fire sword, Vivi with Fire and Blizzard, and Garnet with.... defend. She can't do anything right now lol. She can't learn offensive magic (I don't think), and can't afford any Summons. She heals occasionally, but I mainly default to potions. She's pretty useless, which I'm not a fan of - give her something, anything! We make it through the Mist and find a village at the foot of the hill. There's another spat between Zidane and Steiner, which leads to Zidane dropping his dagger. And so, attempting to escape her old identity, Garnet decides to change her name to Dagger! Well, I definitely wasn't expecting that. It seems like her character arc is going to be about transforming from a sheltered princess into a strong, seasoned adventurer. Nolrich Heights: The next open area, Nolrich Heights, is a grassy mountainous area with small, flying ships sailing through the air. It's peaceful. Or it tries to be, until I run into an encounter every 7 seconds lmao. There's one strange encounter, though. A small, red squirrel who, rather than attacking us, asks for some Ore. I select one from my items and hand it over. It thanks me, says "Say "Hi" to Mr. Ghost for me!" (???) and then leaves. The music was notably much more whimsical than usual, so I'm not sure what the hell that was about. It might have been a coincidence, but Zidane and Garn- or, Dagger, learned skills from that. Do those Squirrels give you a chance to automatically learn whatever skill you have equipped? Another interesting quirk of the open areas is the scale. We are HUGE relative to the landscape. I found a small spire overlooking the valley and went to interact with it, only to find it's actually a huge tower! Inside the tower was an old man named Morrid, presenting my first chance to play Tetra Master. Sure, let's play!... ...what the fuck is happening....? So I get how the arrows work, I think, but where are these numbers coming from? What is 0P00 supposed to mean? Game tell me things please! I bite the bullet and search a guide. The best one I find by FAR is from u/Zer0Ph34r here on r/finalfantasyix. So each card has arrows and stats, the latter of which is in hex for some unhinged fucking reason, the former of which is randomly generated. When I place a card such that its arrows face another card, who has no arrows facing me, it's a straight capture. If there are arrows facing each other, then they enter "combat", where the stats come into play. So 0 is the lowest and E is the highest, but the actual numbers are randomly generated. Meaning if you play an E against a 0, there is a... roughly 1/32 chance that you still lose lmao. So like is it just a trend to have the most god-awful tutorials for minigames in FF lol. After some practice, I get the hang it. It's actually very fun lol. I love how fast-paced it is. Everything is so snappy, it's really refreshing. After a few rounds, I end up with 20 cards in my possession - I think I won 5 times, drew twice and lost once, with one Perfect win. Village of Dali: We find an Inn and, much to Vivi's dismay ("but the windmill!"), head inside to rest up, immediately before some kids run up confirming what they just saw. The Innkeeper is suspicious, too, but apparently not of Dagger. We take the room anyways. Inside, Dagger tells us she has a good reason for wanting to leave Alexandria but can't tell us what it is. It's probably to do with this Royal Pendant, right? While we sleep, we hear someone singing, as Zidane wonders who it is. That's it, though, we wake up right after. How weird.... In the morning, we see an ATE that confirms my suspicions - these people are afraid (or at least wary of) Vivi. What exactly IS Vivi? What is a Black Mage? Are they some sort of estranged race? We also see an ATE of Dagger in the garden. She thinks that her mother shot down the ship (that SHE was on) to try to save her, which I don't think is true at all. She seemed way more interested in the pendant she had. Dagger tries to blend in by overreacting to an Oglop immediately after telling an old lady she wasn't scared of them lol The innkeeper is sleeping again, so I think I'll follow suit and go to bed (it was 1AM when I wrote this). I'm still firmly in the opening, and I've got no idea how things are gonna shake down. I know we have at least one more party member on the way (the weird red-haired thing), but I'm not sure what to expect beyond that. I can't wait to watch Somecallmejohnny's video on this game when I'm done lmao Thanks for reading! submitted by /u/Zeeshmania to r/FinalFantasyIX [link] [comments]

Resident Evil Requiem Speedrun Guide By: Midgetmon15 : PS5 Ethanfoster21 : Reddit Notes: - My end time was 2H 48M and I goofed a couple of times and was writing this while I was playing, so you should have plenty of time. - I made a lot of saves in case there were inopportune moments- these may occur and you might get hit a bunch running around which means you can reload - I did this run on casual to save myself stress - I DID NOT use the blood collector if you need that trophy, feel free to avoid it o If not feel free to help yourself, but it may add time. - I did this in a rush because I had to study for a top 200 drug exam, let me know if I missed anything lol - THIS GUIDE ASSUMES YOU PLAYED THE GAME ALREADY AND THERE ARE SPOILERS!!!! - Pressing start will pause your time. You can check your time from the challenge menu under the speed demon achievement. - This is my first guide I’ve ever written hope you enjoy and it helps Hotel (Grace) - Run to hotel and down alley, past kitchen and pick up photo with key. Use door. \ - Go upstairs, get wire cutters off table, open door and go to 204 - Look on bed to find top right picture and Memory (follow mum) - Post-memory and Go downstairs, look behind painting - Cutscene dude and use the Emergency exit City (Leon) - Keep left until intersection, cross diagonally to the right and go and on hood of car Clinic Intro (Grace) - Go right down long hallway and get cherub key from the drawer. and Backtrack to door - Grab lighter in closet and save - Go into nurses station and aggro into original room - Go back to nurses station and climb cart to get coin on top of cabinet - Move cart across room to get screwdriver from upper shelf - Go back to cherub room (can tank a hit from girl), get fuse and dip Clinic Intro (Leon) - Follow nurse, kill everything, cut down door and right to grace Clinic Main (Grace) QUARTZ #1 - West wing key card from med room, grab knife from storage, coin off side desk and Save - Get to kitchen, run past chef, open shortcut past zombie - Go through dining hall and get gun off floor - Continue down hallway and grab coin from the table - Run upstairs, through the bar, into the office and Grab trinket box with red gem - Use machine to get first quartz cube (Moon, Sun, Star, Moon) - Run downstairs, place quartz in door - Use red gem in door before kitchen, buy hip pouch, grab arm with E. keycard - Return to SAVE game in security office ( ~ 18 minutes) QUARTZ #2 - Run to east wing go left, pickup hemolytic, and run through the operating room - Make a right turn at intersection - Run past lobby and three zombies will emerge o Start left run past 1st zombie and cut right past the other 2 - Run upstairs and go straight to office and SAVE - Go left and pick up Security bracelet 1 and Chase - Go back downstairs and go through waiting room, smash vases on right for ammo o Open shortcut - Loop around through operating room and you should see Chunk o Rotate back around through waiting room and upstairs - Go past where bracelet was and get corrosive from conference room o Grab 2 ammos on the ground right after corrosive on the ground - Pour corrosive on lock à Next quartz ( Star, Sun, Moon, Sun) - Return downstairs and place quartz and Go SAVE in security room QUARTZ #3 - Run past the kitchen door and open blue security door and Grab green herb - Run into cherub door on left, pick up wrench next to typewriter and SAVE - Run past cherub door and into garage, pick up lungs and handgun ammo in crate - Return and take out driver and stop in right side and pick up herb and ammo - Return to cherub room and SAVE (~26 minutes) - Run upstairs and through the office, break box for handgun ammo and pick up herb - Go downstairs and hit chef with the hemolytic and Open door to right and get heart - Return to security office and SAVE ( ~28 minutes) - Open organ box o Hit dial , Mid-Mark on slide then 5 then 2 then Dial again - Go to E. Wing operating room and take out 3 zombies - Place organs and Kill zombie (requiem shot easiest) and pick up level 2 security band - Run to isolation ward + office, pickup herb, look at box and note on desk with code o Get Level 3 security bracelet - Run back to security office for kid and Pickup green herb (combine/use if necessary) o SAVE ( ~ 31 minutes) - Run through waiting room and back to office (kill zombies; 5 ), ammo in rooms - Return to office door after killing and venture into hole Clinic Main (Leon) - Smash box for ammo, pickup herb and move cabinet - Chunk fight, 3 staggers ( might require you to go up ladder) o Feel like shotgun should be on floor by him ( mine was not) - Progress and break box for ammo, hit button and go down ladder - Run out of office and to left through the bar and up the stairs - Enter study and go to pull lever behind painting - Pass time by killing zombies - Go up elevator and into computer room Underground (Grace) - Spawn in and run down hallway until lit room to SAVE ( ~ 41 minutes) - Run into cell block and get first joint plug - Run back to beginning of level where you spawned and insert the joint plug and push the crate. o Squeeze through fence pickup tool, return to fence and combine herbs o Loop around room to train girl and go through fence - Grab joint plug and run back to light room SAVE (~ 44 minutes) - Run to workshop and insert plug, use tool on vent, crawl through and grab next plug - Return through vent and pickup workshop plug - Run back to light room and SAVE - Run to collection pool and kill zombie covering panel o Open the panel and insert 2 joint plugs - Run into next room and crawl through pipe, pick up herb, and climb ladder - Run past panel and pick up lift key and use key and pick up bullets and pouch - Return down ladder and through pipes - Grab 2 joint plugs on the way out and return to light room SAVE (~48 minutes) - Run back to workshop, crawl through vent, and use plug and lift key - Follow bodies to break in the aisle, turn left and pick up ammo and move cart o Use this shortcut back to flip the switch controlling the bodies - Return through shortcut and follow bodies along assembly line and SAVE - Drain pool, climb ladder and collect ammo and Molotov and survive ( 1 shot/zomb) - Grab 3rd plug, climb back to SAVE, and crawl through vent - Pick up green herb and combine ( I had 1 injector and 2 G+G+G at this point) - Return to workshop, go through vent and pick up plug (juke out girl with lift) - Return through vent and go through window, pick up the last plug and use 3 @ block - Get Emily and run back to elevator, push bag and ride up, use door when she pops in - Run back to security office and SAVE (~ 58 minutes) use last quartz on door, LEAVE Courtyard (Grace) - Run into house and into VIP room, left side of room bottle of wine puzzle for helix - Plug helix into center podium and Ride elevator down - SAVE (~ 1 hour) - Run downstairs and through the lab, back up the stairs and into the operating room o Pick up helicopter key and interact with computer to open the door SAVE - Run back down the stairs progress to end and loop around and follow the path back up the stairs, thru the window, and back to helicopter ( hugging left side to dodge) Courtyard (Leon) - Vault through window, across the roof, up the stairs, pickup rifle ammo, and support - Slide down roof, throw tank, pickup ammo from helicopter, and snipe last zombie - Boss fight and use grenades and shotgun ( try to get ammo from top of stairs) - Leave after clearing out room Water Plant (Grace) - Follow linear path, go up the stairs, and back to open shutter SAVE (~ 1H 9M) - Pick up injector and bullets and go back out to main room and Try to open hatch - Drop down and pick up bullets (USE THE REQUIEM FOR THIS SECTION) - Go to left section with stiff handle first, use requiem shot to stun and crank it - Go to section farthest from this area next, past the switchboard and into closet o Pick up the crank handle and return o One shot of requiem and then crank it - Go to last section on the left of where we last cranked it, requiem if need be o CRANK IT - Use elevator to escape and use the hatch button à 1 shot requiem o Back to the shutter area with Emily - SAVE (~ 1H 15M) City (Leon) - Go to intersection and hang a right and Enter Hotel archway - Push through turning doors - Spider Fight – slash 2 webs and go near him, retreat back to where you came in o Tossed through the wall - Run through next door and up the stairs, slashing spiders and proceed to ladder - Kill spider and proceed - Go up the subway platform, up the stairs, and through the turnstile. - Run left of cutscene to the tent, turn on generator, read the doc on the table - SAVE - Stock-up if need be ( I recommend the case upgrade and all the ammo) - Hit button and search crate while its lifting and enter warehouse - Shoot down wooden crate and climb ladder (can ignore zombies) - Progress on shelves and shoot down next crate and cross - Enter door and pick up apartment keys and exit and climb the ladder - Keep progressing past generator and climb next ladder - Pick up the distributor and use binoculars and head down elevator (SAVE) (~ 1H22M) - Take gate next to elevator and Continue down the stairs and through the hallway o Enter the blue door and go down the hole - Enter sewage plant, drop down and 180 to find the crank, drop zombies to you and kill so they don’t get mutated - Kill zombies, finish cranking to make the bridge, and get the battery - Return up and turn right into the water, climb the ladder and progress to end of area - Get the 2nd battery climb the ladder and return to the electrical box to open shutter - Exit shutter, hang left towards the bodies (cutscene), and activate girder shortcut on right of gap ( use the console, no gas required) - Return to camp and open BSAA crate to get repair kit and SAVE ~ 1H 30M - Return across the girder and stay left to shoot down the ladder and enter gastation - Proceed through gas station and pick up can, return to main area and clear it - Fill up gas station at crank in the back ( can smash crates for ammo) - Head into the apartments where the dead BSAA are and go up the stairs o Pass the crank slot and drop down and CRANK ASAP and retrace steps o Now you can open the crank slot and head up the ladder - Head up the stairs to the roof, pass through the zombies watch for the mortar - Climb up the ladder and to the roof near the mortar and take the ladder on the back - Grab the receiver and retrace your steps back to the street and across the girder - Buy some armor and more meds and SAVE at the camp ( ~ 1H40M) - Head back up the elevator next to camp - Drop down the ladder and fuel the generator and zipline across - Head to the right and up the stairs, turn left and then right and go up the ramp - Break the boards covering the window and climb through and cross the beam - Shoot more boards and jump through then turn left and look at boards on ceiling - Head to end and down into elevator, watch for elevator cars - Progress and shoot glass out from below the cabinet to make a ramp and proceed up - Continue for last part of the relay and then go into the doorway and SAVE - Exit save point and cross bridge to the left and proceed - Continue forward and up the stairs, and keep looking for stairs o Past some zombies, one will be upstairs with a bomb – watch out or shoot it - Continue to the top and slide down and crank the wheel - Continue across the bridge, to the right and then drop into ambush zone o Continue linearly as you like, up the stairs and past the chainsaw guy o Can stop and break boxes for ammo if needed - Hit the other wheel crank and ride the lift - At the bottom, pass the water, go up the ramp and jump the gap to open the shortcut - Run back to camp, repair armor if necessary, and SAVE (~ 1H 50M) - Blow the gate and Motorcycle part RPD (Leon) - Proceed through west office and exit the room - Make a left up the hallway and then another left - Shoot down the ladder, climb it and enter the library - Grab the jack from the bookcases in the back - Head up the stairs and drop down the balcony through the door - Go to opposite side with jack and open metal shutter - Head left then right and proceed to flashback Orphanage ( Child) - Leave room and peep the open door - Return to the room and hide under the bed - Wait for children to leave and proceed through the nursery up the hall - Go downstairs and hide under the table - Enter the door they open, peek the corner with the children o Return to doorway you came through to de-spawn them - Enter where the children were blocking, turn on the lamp in the room and look at locked floorboard - Open drawer next to lamp and climb to get the key - The kid will fall where the hatch is, so backtrack and hide behind the boxes past the desk - Wait for them to leave and run to the hatch and go down the ladder - Follow the path and go to the back of the chapel, a door will open and you can reach for a ladder, hit a 180 and then pull a lever - Backtrack to a now open cell and pull out the casket near the gate o Climb them and over the fence to the fire poker, open the gate o Return to the ladder and climb - Proceed linearly to the projector and spam through the slides RPD (Leon) - Return from the hallway and you’ll see Mr. T o Follow the room he opened up and up the stairs to make the leap - Continue through the hallway into the room where a beam pokes through the wall - Immediate 180 and follow the hallway back to the chief’s office - Train him around the room and exit from the hole he made - Progress to the back wall and leave - Cut to the right through the gun shop - Pick up materials and ammo after and SAVE ~ 2H15M - Fight Mr. T (go for heart) - Enter orphanage and drop down - Follow path in sewer to doorway, climb out the grate - Keep following the main path and then stay down the stairs à enter train car - Shoot the plant and continue forward down the ramps - Pass through the train cars and rappel down rope - Keep following the path and shoot the two plants - Keep running and take out the 2 massive vines plants à Kill boss and enter ARK ARK (Leon) - Follow the path and at the first branch, you can take left to stock up on supplies - Leave this room and go down the stairs to the big room and interact with the screen in the past room - Turn around and kill the BSAA agents, exit the room and make a right - Clear out the agents, take the ladder, and clear out the rest o You can use the licker in the tank to take them out - Exit the room and make a right, go up the stairs and fight the commander - Use parry a lot and counter, can pickup supplies in the room after - Progress forward ARK (Grace) - Run past Leon and get boosted up - Drop down from the vent - Run up to the next SAVE ~ 2H30M - Go through sterilization chamber to chemical storage and get the acid and override key à get shortcut on the way back - Backtrack past save and use override key à grab magnetic key - SAVE - Go back to sterilization/containment area and use magnetic key - Enter cleanroom and rush to back and get animus orb from case o Backtrack to SAVE ~2H36M - Enter lobby and place animus orb in interface - Go through north door and downstairs to bioweapons - Walk through the next room and up the stairs - Get the noblesse orb from the crate and SAVE - Backtrack and place the orb in the lobby and progress ARK ( Leon) - Follow the path forward and stop across the bigger room if you want a quick save or stock-up - After proceed up the stairs towards where you need an override key - Hit a 180 from where you need the override key and go through the door - Proceed down the stairs and either kill or run past the lickers - Drop down and proceed forward to the red button and hit it o This will open a new pathway which should be followed - Go through the door and hit the next red button - Follow the new path that was opened up and go up the stairs - Grab the override key and continue through the door - Cut left and return to the override key area, place it and wait for the elevator o Use the barrels to blow up the lickers , use guns and other barrels for zombie o Ride the elevator after and progress forward - Switch over to Grace and progress to Leon - Release elpis which is necessary for the speed demon challenge - Victor – weaken until he drops the RPG - hit him - Nemesis part- Start by shooting arm blobs o Use submachine gun on blobs on the ground and then heavy hitters like shotgun or rifle for main portion – parry throughout TOTAL TIME 2H 53M submitted by /u/ethanfoster21 to r/residentevil [link] [comments]

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/TheNextMrsDraper Originally posted to r/RBI Neighbor Says They Saw a Tent in My Living Room Original Post: August 3, 2025 I honestly don’t know what to make of this. The simplest answer is that my neighbor is lying, but why? Here’s what happened. This morning, my neighbor knocked on my door and told me that while I was out of town earlier this month, they noticed my front door was open and that a “very nice, blue and brown, two-person tent” had been pitched in the middle of my living room. They said they thought it was a little odd and that’s why they mentioned it. I was on vacation over the the 4th or July, and my nephew and another neighbor both fed my cat while I was gone. Neither are the type to pitch a tent in my living room (though, to be honest, I’m not sure who would do such a thing). Nevertheless, I asked them about the tent and neither knew anything about it. I also don’t have anything that’s blue and brown and could be mistaken for a tent (my living room is mostly black and white). I also don’t own a tent. I’m not a camper. Nobody has a set of keys to my house. I have an Arlo camera by my front door, and I set one up in my living room while I was gone so that I could periodically check in on the cat (I’m a little neurotic about her because she very old). I checked all the footage going back to June 4 (because my neighbor couldn’t say for certain when exactly they saw this tent). Needless to say, there’s nothing captured by either camera. Unfortunately, the cameras do sometimes fail to capture everything. I’d say they have a 10-20% fail rate when it come to turning in when there’s movement. So there’s a slight possibility someone could’ve entered my house, pitched a tent, taken it down and left, and the cameras wouldn’t have caught any of it. But I feel like it’s a pretty slim chance that neither would’ve been triggered. To add to all of this, my cat has been acting super strange ever since I came back. She’s very nervous, refuses to go anywhere near the back part of the house, and is not using her litter box. So something did weird her out. So Reddit, any ideas? If my neighbor is lying (which is the most plausible), why? They’ve never lied before and always seemed like a reliable narrator. They also said their boyfriend saw it too and mentioned how weird it was. Is there any scenario where it makes sense for someone to break in and pitch a tent but also leave the door open so anyone can see?? Is it a glitch in the matrix? Is she somehow suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning? Am I?😆 ( Thankfully, the Arlo camera outside did capture part of our conversation, so I didn’t completely imagine it). It’s just so fucking bizarre! I’m just at a complete loss. The whole thing has left me feeling unsettled. Edit: Thanks to everyone who’s commented so far. To answer a some questions that seem to have come up: I took the cat to the vet and she got a clean bill of health. I’m trying some behavioral solutions (multiple litter pans, special cat food for urine health, calming cat treats, calming spray, felaway plug in, etc.). It’s been hard, but I’m committed to helping her get through this. The neighbor and her boyfriend are both older (I think in their late 60s) and we live on the same property, so she has to walk by my front door to get to the street. I’d say from the walkway to my front door is less than five feet, so she has a pretty good view of my living room. I agree with those who said her timing is strange (why mention it weeks later), but I had recently talked to her about my cat.’s behavior, so I think she mentioned it as a possible reason for the cat’s behavior. She did say, “maybe in the future you should let me know you’ll be out of town so I can keep an eye out for you.” At the time is sounded like a normal thing to say, but if she’s lying, then maybe it’s because she wants to know when I’m gone? My nephew is in his mid-twenties and very responsible. He owns his own home and works long days. Neither he nor his brother are campers and, as far as I know, don’t own any tents. The camera outside captured him entering and exiting all three days and he was in the house for less than five minutes. Same with the other neighbor who fed the cat. She came over three times, all for less than five minutes. Neither was aware of the where the was camera inside (but they knew I had one so I could check the cat). The camera also caught the cat chilling out in the house and all three days she was acting normally. TIL about “frogging” (or phrogging), lol. There is a crawl space under the house, but you can’t access it from inside. There’s probably a two- foot high crawl space in the ceiling that you can access from the closet in my bedroom, but I have a bunch of boxes and suitcases shoved up against the opening, and I don’t see how someone could put them back if they’d crawled back in. I will say that the more I ruminate on it, the creepier it seems. Update: Neighbor Says They Saw a Tent in My Living Room: August 6, 2025 (3 days later) So I spoke to all my neighbors again today. The neighbor who saw the tent is still adamant that’s what she saw. She said she and her boyfriend saw it around lunchtime and he confirmed. They said the tent was up when they went to lunch, and down by the time they came back. When I told her my cameras didn’t catch anything, she was unbothered. When I suggested that maybe she saw something else, she said, “it was not my imagination. I saw a tent from right here,” and the she stood on the walkway and pointed into my house. She seems to think someone might have a copy of my key and is accessing my house whenever I’m out of town. She thinks someone sabotaged both cameras and mentioned “black suits that aren’t picked up by security cameras” as a reason the tent sector wasn’t caught. She also mentioned that my other neighbor (the one who checked on my cat) had a large white tent in her yard a few months back. I saw that tent and can verify it existed. But this neighbor said that is not the tent she saw in my house. I rechecked all the camera footage one more time. There are no unaccounted for gaps. In fact, there are several snippets of the cat chilling in the living room looking completely unconcerned before and after the cat sitters came into the house. It’s actually making me rethink the timeline of when she got spooked. I rechecked the attic access and it hasn’t been touched. I also work from home, so it would be hard for someone squatting in the attic to go unnoticed. I also took the advice here to check internet data and electricity usage. Both weee way down on the days I was gone. My gas bill was smaller as well. But if the tent was only up for an hour, that makes sense. So then I spoke with cat sitting neighbor. She confirmed the existence of her white tent and explained that she was airing it out in her front yard after a camping trip (which aligns with all the tent care information in the comments). She also said that she has had similar conversations with this neighbor where what she is saying is bizarre and unsettling, but she says it with such conviction that you find it hard not to believe. She also understood my unease, saying the whole story reminded her of the Manson family and their creepy crawling (https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/hNd6ZWZ5Ug ). Once she mentioned that possibility, it made me understand why I was feeling so anxious. I have read about the creepy crawling and the Manson family was a “boogie monster” for me growing up. For those worried about my cat’s wellbeing, thank you. She seems to be slowly coming back to herself. Right now, I’m putting her in the kitchen at night and she has a cozy little bed where she sleeps. So far, she hasn’t peed anywhere inside since I’ve started doing this, but I do wake up before six every morning to let her out, and she promptly uses the litter pan I have set up for her on the porch. I also started using the urinary health cat food from Royal Cain that someone suggested on another thread, and that’s seems to be working. Fingers crossed. Next steps: asking the landlords to change the locks To end on a lighter note, cat sitting neighbor also had a whimsical explanation (not to be taken seriously and just for fun) that I also thought I’d share: apparently there’s a Japanese folklore tradition of trickster raccoons who shapeshift and wreak havoc. She pointed out that it is raccoon season where we live (and in fact, I just saw a mother and her babies by my porch a couple of nights ago), and maybe they snuck in and pitched the tent just to mess with me. I mean….its as probable as anything else at this point. Final Update: My Neighbor Says They Saw a Tent in My Living Room: August 9, 2025 (3 days later) Second Update This update will probably be more than a little anticlimactic, and for that, I apologize. To the people who felt like this was much ado about nothing, I agree! But like I said before, it’s her continued insistence and certainty about this bizarre idea that niggles at me. So away we go! The boyfriend does indeed exist. I’ve met him and spoken with him several times. He seems older than her, and is quieter overall. He has stated that he’s a cat person and has engaged with my cat in the past. But I have not had the chance to talk to him separately to get his side of the story. The white tent was in the front yard of my other neighbor’s house and faces the opposite street, so a reflection is impossible. That being said, the older neighbor does keep brining it up and is convinced people were sleeping in it. I’ve spoken with the front yard neighbor, and she was airing out the tent after a camping trip…no on ever slept in it when it was in her yard. But I think a lot of folks in the comments are correct when they say the white tent unsettled the older neighbor, because she brought it up several times. I did loop in the landlord’s, but they seemed to also believe the older neighbor. She’s rented from them for at least 15 years (if not longer) and they told me that in the past she’s been very reliable and truthful. They seemed spooked by the whole story and offered to change the locks. I figure it can’t hurt, so I agreed. The landlords and I questioned the older neighbor pretty rigorously, and she stuck by her story, even as we all expressed incredulity. She reiterated that she saw a two person tent, blue and white, fully erected in my front living room. She said it was not a pop up tent or pup tent. She said she saw it on a Wednesday, because that’s the day her boyfriend takes her to lunch each week. She said it was up when he picked her up and down when he dropped her off. She got a little defensive as we probed, so people who warned that this could happen if we challenged her were spot on. She kept reiterating that it was a TENT and that she could SEE it quite clearly. She seems to want to pin it in my nephew (and the landlords seemed to be leaning that way too), which IS really frustrating: he’s a 25 year old man with his own home! He has no need to air a tent out in my tiny living room. And he doesn’t even camp! The cameras: I double checked every Wednesday for the last two months (that’s the limit for the stored videos). No tent. No people entering my house. No footage of her and her boyfriend staring into my house. That being said, there’s one Wednesday with no footage because the battery had died and I forgot to charge it, but I was home. There’s only one Wednesday that I went out of town, but I left after 4pm and returned in less than 24 hours. I still feel like this is pretty solid evidence of no tent, but I have to allow for the fact that the cameras were not fully operational. The cat is slowly getting better, though we had a setback today when she peed in the kitchen after the gardeners scared her. She is consistently using the litter pan I set up for her outside with no problem, she just refuses to use any litter pan anywhere inside. I have one in the kitchen, one by the front door, one in the pantry, and one in the bathroom. She will only use the one outside. I do think the calming food is helping since we’re down to just one accident (and it was on the puppy pads). I am keeping her in the kitchen at night and letting her out before 6am every day. Hopefully I can eventually get her to use her litter pan inside. “Raccoon Season:” I think my front neighbor used this phrase because it’s baby season right now. We have a mom and two kits that hang out in our property. If you’ve never seen a baby raccoon, you’re missing out. They are adorable! So like I said at the beginning, not much of a resolution. At this point, I just want to put the whole thing to rest. I’m changing the locks, so if there are mystery indoor campers (or mischievous raccoons) with a copy of my key, they’ll have to find another locale for their shenanigans. I’ll stop questioning the neighbor because she’s adamant and now it feels a little weird to keep harping on it. I’ll endeavor to be patient and kind to my cat so that she gets back to her old self. And that’s the end of the saga. I’m surprised by how much attention this all got (Reddit says almost 1.5 million people looked at the post and the update, that’s nuts!). Thanks everyone for all your comments, suggestions, insights and comic relief! Even the snarky comments made me laugh. REMINDER: I am not the original poster. Please do not comment on linked posts. submitted by /u/chinchillina to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

First | Previous | Next Patreon | Official Subreddit | Series Wiki | Royal Road The Nexus. Just outside of the South-Eastern edge of the North Rythian Forests. Local Time: 1700 Hours. Emma [‘QUEST’ Time Elapsed: 76 Hours. Time Remaining: 92 Hours] [SURVEY PROGRESS… 12.5%. Estimated Time to Completion… 21 Hours. Data Fidelity: Nominal. Network Integrity: Stable. Primary Objective… Pending.] [Crystal Shards… Not found.] [AMETHYST DRAGON… Not found.] “Welp. Progress is progress. But as long as we keep up this pace, we should be on schedule.” I let out a tired sigh, gesturing to a screen that had once again caught Thalmin off guard. Though it wasn’t as if he was still in awe of either the screen itself or battlenet, nor was he surprised by the disappointing lack of progress, no. In fact, this squint… was a reaction I was used to seeing from both friends and family back home. It was a squint of judgement — whether by intention or biological reflexes — at the horrors of my personal preferences. Or to put it more accurately, at a certain screen setting that seemed to be the source of so many grievances — light mode. I’d practically flashbanged Thalmin, because unlike the brightness of the day, the growing evening had since sensitized his eyes to the dark. “I much prefer it when the ink itself is what glows against the natural tones of the parchment.” He mumbled out, my eyes narrowing at the allusions to the existence of a magical dark mode. “I don’t know how you humans do it, though I do know of more than a handful of species who have quite a natural inclination towards the light…” He muttered that latter line out in much the same way he did with the rest of his inside jokes; a trend that I was slowly learning to brush off. “In any case, we should be done with a full sweep of the forest by 1400 hours tomorrow. After which, we’ll have enough intel to dictate our next course of action. Hopefully we’ll find a stray shard by then, but if not… just under two days should be enough to snipe the dragon, no?” “We’d have to track it first, Emma.” Thalmin responded with a sigh. “Yeah, yeah. But that’s what battlenet is for! We have eyes in the sky looking not just at the ground, but the airspace above—” [PRIORITY ALERT! MULTIPLE AERIAL CONTACTS ENTERING THE AO. APPROACH VECTOR CONFIRMED: GRID SECTOR A-1-4-D; NORTHWEST QUADRANT!] My eyes lit up, as did Thalmin’s. All prior thoughts took a backseat to protocol, as operational algorithms drilled into me during drone operator training were immediately brought to the forefront. “Active camo and evasive flight paths, now.” [Acknowledged.] “Defer active ops and initiate threat-range scans.” [Acknowledged. Instructions relayed. Network Integrity: Stable. Redirecting assets. Standby…] The map shifted as the game changed in a matter of seconds. The familiar top-down perspective of the forest was promptly replaced by a panoramic view of the skies immediately in front of the drones, as individual status readouts, flight paths, and flight instrument indicators came to join the collage of tactical displays that had Thalmin’s eyes darting left and right. I couldn’t blame him, though. I had the same reaction despite the false confidence mil-sim titles had instilled in me. That’s why drone operator training took a sizable chunk of basic. The role of Swarm Queen wasn’t inherited but earned. Owing in no small part to the tried and true grind of experience, forged through the accumulation of FPV and C&C hours. The rest was good, old-fashioned neural plasticity, allowing one to get used to perceiving the world beyond the restriction of one’s own two eyes. [Fleet Redirection… complete. New flight paths… mapped. Network Integrity: Stable. Awaiting Orders.] “QSR: Identify contacts.” [Collating… Processing… Confirming… 3 Large Contacts… 12 Light Contacts accompanying in formation.] [TRACK ID: Winged Heavy 1-1, 1-2, 1-3] [TRACK ID: Winged Light 2-1 through 2-12.] “QSR: Signature profile.” [Visual: Winged Heavy 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, inconsistent with AMETHYST DRAGON and other recorded flight-capable species in the WORKING SPECIES REGISTRY. Winged Light 2-1 through 2-12 consistent with Local Aerial Asset: ‘DRAKE RIDER’.] [Thermal: Elevated, inconsistent with known aircraft. Consistent with local mounted air asset analogues.] [Mass/Volume: Large Contacts approx. 5 - 10 metric tons. Smaller Contacts approx. 400 - 700 kilograms.] [Payload: Underbelly Stowage Compartments Noted on Large Contacts. Repositioning for better analysis. Standby… Parsing… Updating visual feed… Analyzing… Design and configuration congruent with cargo/passenger cabins. Summary: Potential personnel and/or equipment transport.] “QSR: Tactical Profile.” [Unable to parse… Insufficient contextual data. Profile is beneath acceptable inference limits.] “QSR: Visual Tactical Readout.” [Winged Light 2-1 through 2-12. Ranged Air-to-Air Assets: > 24 Spears; Ammo Count: 24. > 12 Bows; Ammo Count: Variable, approx. 30. > Melee Arms: 12 Swords. > Armor: Plate Steel. ADDENDUM: Possibly augmented with exotic mana-materials and radiation. Capabilities unknown.] “Maintain current instructions. Continue monitoring.” [Acknowledged.] “Live feed readout. I want to see where this goes.” [Acknowledged.] Our eyes remained glued to the screen as the situation developed surprisingly quickly. The three large contacts simply dropped off their wood-and-steel-reinforced ‘cabins,’ unlatching leather and steel straps before departing without much fanfare. Meanwhile, 8 of the 12 drake riders departed soon after, acting as escorts for their large but lumbering cousins. The initial shock and preliminary concern that hit us eventually died down, especially as the remaining drake riders landed on the forest floor, taking up ‘resting’ positions with their wings flared and their heads tucked. Their two legs eventually folded in on themselves as well, giving them a sort of ‘loaf-like’ shape once their wings too were nestled beneath them. “Must be another group of adventurers.” I offered. “Sym did mention how he encountered a few dead parties in the forest.” “No. These must be men-at-arms, or a proper mercenary company at the very least. No adventurer, no matter how ostentatious, would ever in their right mind charter a greater drake.” Thalmin countered. “Right. Well… that might complicate things then.” I acknowledged with a sigh. “I don’t see anyone resembling a proper noble in the camp, though.” Thalmin offered, as he gestured for me to zoom in on several people down beneath the canopy. “There may be one from the looks of it. But I highly doubt that. No Nexian noble would oversee an operation of a diminutive scale. I’d wager this quest is being led by a few chosen ones, if not more.” The prince shrugged. “Either way, what this means for us is simple — expect slow progress on behalf of these interlopers. But given their numbers and outfitting, we shouldn’t leave anything to chance. You said we had 21 more hours until the forest is fully surveyed, correct?” “Yeah.” I nodded. “Then this changes nothing. Just make haste if you can, Emma. If we are to initiate ‘Plan B,’ as you call it, then we must act swiftly. We cannot allow these interlopers to take the dragon before we can extract what we need from it.” “Right. Okay. I’ll get the drones back in their original flight paths. Though if those drakes ever take flight again, I will have to reconfigure them to more evasive flight patterns, if only to avoid detection.” “Understandable.” Thalmin nodded. However, before he could move on, a question suddenly spawned. “Before—” “I’d like to—” Or more accurately, two questions simultaneously, as the both of us spoke at more or less exactly the same time. Thalmin “You go first.” Emma urged. “This may be a bit of a tangent, so I’d suggest you go first, Emma.” I countered politely. “Trust me, mine’s a tangent as well, so—” “To avoid an endless loop, I will take that offer.” I interjected with a harsh breath, before gesturing to the tablet in front of us. “That entire… exchange. Between your commands and the messages on your artifices, is this how you typically communicate between you and your swarm?” “Yeah.” Emma nodded. “Remember how I changed the scenery in the ZNK-19? This is more or less the same concept, just scaled up.” I narrowed my eyes, pondering a response as I once more leaned into the manaless window. A window… into the eyes and ears of what was frankly a swarm. Thoughts upon thoughts abounded one atop the other, with practical concerns clashing against the shore of intrigue, eroding what was already firm suspicion into outright conspiracy about the nature of Earthrealm. Or more accurately, the nature of their military capabilities. However, in spite of everything, all I allowed out of my mouth was a simple acknowledgement. “I see.” Instead, I took a moment to pause, to ponder, as I watched through the looking glass at the world through the eyes of a swarm queen. Each ‘perspective’ was composited — a mosaic of sights that resembled the world as seen through the eyes of bees, wasps, and any number of oddly eyed insects, their vision as alien as the manaless artifice through which it was relayed. I let out another breath before shifting my perspective back to Emma. “I simply feel the need to ask, as the abilities displayed here seem… seamless, practiced, rehearsed, and dare I say it, second nature. This wasn’t a simple command relayed to a static sightseer. This was the direct control of multiple manaless golems, as seamlessly as if they were an extension of yourself.” “Yeah, well, that’s because it kind of is! As in, mental adaptability is something that’s useful for us. You put someone in charge of a bunch of far-seers in a building, and they eventually come to ‘feel’ as if the building itself is an extension of them, you know? Same goes for helmsmen and ships, pilots and aircraft, and so on and so forth. Drone operators — i.e. most frontline personnel — are trained similarly. We have to integrate seamlessly into battlenet, because a second’s hesitation or delay might be what makes or breaks an engagement.” I took a moment to ponder that, to truly examine the seemingly spiritual connection between the human and their constructs. In a sense, it wasn’t unlike the bond between myself and Emberstride, or the soulstitched or soulbound bonds in many other battlemages, warriors, and knights. Yet as similar as it was, there was still… an unnerving alienness to it. Whatever the case was, I simply acknowledged the swarm queen’s sentiments with a nod before throwing the proverbial talking stick back to her court. “Your turn.” Emma “So, you mentioned chosen ones. I’ve heard this term thrown around a lot, especially at the adventuring guild. But no one’s really… explained it to me. So I've just kinda been going off of context clues and what we’ve learned about gifted commoners so far. Are chosen ones just another, more ‘fancier’ way of saying ‘gifted commoners’ or…?” “Correct, Emma.” Thalmin nodded. “Although, the term ‘chosen one’ is more often synonymous with gifted commoners who enter more martial paths. As opposed to, say, our elf server in the grand dining hall who’s only committed to using his magic for parlor tricks.” “How big of a threat are we talking about here? Because up to this point, I’ve only gone up against mages in challenges and whatnot. A proper fight is something I’ve only encountered once with Mal’tory and that was—” Thalmin snickered, stopping me in my tracks. “What’s so funny?” “If you survived an encounter with a Black-Robed Professor, I doubt you’ll have any issues against a mere Chosen One, Emma.” Thalmin bellowed out confidently, patting me on the shoulder. “Though, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be on our toes, of course. I’ve met many a chosen one who punched well above their weight class — using enchanted weapons and tools as crutch for their magical limitations, seamlessly integrating with them. To the point where the typical commoner might even mistake them for a mage at first glance. Though, typically, once you see a chosen one in action, you’ll know exactly what to expect. Since in the same vein that gifted commoners are ‘gifted’ with a single narrow sliver of magical acumen, so too are chosen ones confined to a very small sliver of magical potential.” “Right.” I nodded, my mind racing through the implications of this newfound intel. “Just so we’re on the same page, supposing there’s a guy who’s able to do fire magic, he’d more or less be locked to just fire magic, right?” “That’s simplifying the matter, but for our purposes, you’ve struck the kobold on the head there, Emma. There are, however, always exceptions to the rule. Such is the case with the jack-of-all-trades. But those are exceptionally rare, and usually only seen in illegitimate offspring between nobles and commoners.” The prince explained bluntly. “Even then, these individuals are still very much orders of magnitude weaker than true mages, but I digress. Suffice it to say, Emma, we’ll be fine.” Thalmin beamed, thumping his chest. “Look who you’ve partnered with, after all.” “Yeah, fair enough, my mercenary prince.” I chuckled. The next few moments were finally punctuated by silence as we watched the camp grow tent by tent. The drones counted at least a hundred or so contacts, and as dusk fully settled, quite a few peculiarities popped up. Most notable among these was the erection of some sort of altar at least half a click from the camp, with offerings wrapped in parchment carefully placed on each pedestal. “Erm… care to fill me in on that, Thalmin?” I pointed. “Oh, that’s just an offering, Emma.” The prince explained casually. To which I could only respond with an accentuated cock of my head. “Elaborate.” “An offering to placate the forest itself, Emma. To ward off potential… negative reactions to what could otherwise be perceived as an incursion of its territory.” I blinked rapidly, cocking my head. “Is that an actual thing, or a superstition?” “You’ve interacted with the forest face-to-face with one of its avatars, have you not, Emma?” The prince countered, as it took a second for my mind to finally register what the prince was getting at. “OH RIGHT! THE WEREBEAST!” I attempted to snap my fingers, only to elicit an unsatisfying motion that puzzled the lupinor. “Right, yeah, I remember now. So that actually was the forest talking through it, then? It never occurred to me to follow up on that, thinking it was just like, the werebeast being all high and mighty about himself.” “The werebeast might’ve merely been the most convenient enforcer at the time, I suppose. Though I can’t say for certain. Frankly, a forest is often an enigmatic force of nature unto itself. With some primitive cultures even going so far as to consider them gods of sorts.” Thalmin shrugged. “Though, given His Eternal Majesty refused to consume them — instead forging some sort of an alliance or some such — I doubt they’re anywhere near the level of deities.” “So what can we expect from the forest?” I immediately shot back, my mind still very much stuck in rapid response and assessment mode. “Are we looking at, like… an immune reaction or something? Vines and tendrils shooting up, moss to consume us whole, sinkholes forming, and slime creatures attacking?” “We’re not facing a druid, Emma.” Thalmin responded with a hefty chuckle. “If anything, we have no need to worry given the makeup of our current party. Forests typically do not target small groups, so long as they do not actively seek out their destruction. Moreover, with you being effectively lifeless in its eyes, there’s even less chance of it targeting us. Indeed, the presence of a far larger, more unsightly group in its Northwest region, will take up much of its attention.” I narrowed my eyes at Thalmin, crossing my arms to make up for the lack of facial expression to convey a certain level of doubt in the prince’s claims. “So… burning a good few acres of forest doesn’t count as actively seeking out its destruction, huh?” I chuckled darkly, alluding to a certain fight against a vorpal chimera. The prince surprisingly didn’t immediately counter this with an excuse or a loophole. Instead, he let out a nervous chuckle, a sly grin forming on his face in short order. “Heh, well… you could say I overlooked the potential consequences of my actions in the heat of the moment.” I placed a hand on the prince’s shoulder, gripping it tightly. “Spoken like a true orbital ordnance officer.” The prince’s brows quirked at this, possibly at the EVI’s attempts to translate the joke, but I counted it as fair game given the inside jokes he’d been leveling at me for the past week. Things wound down after a few more back-and-forths, our eyes still very much monitoring the situation over in the camp from above, until we finally noticed something else that caught our attention. “Huh. That’s a heck of a lot of cheese.” I noted. “I guess they had a run-in with our new friend.” Thalmin smiled brightly. “He’s quite a salesman, so it stands to reason that he must’ve made quite an impression on our interlopers here. Probably sold most of his stock from the looks of it.” “Yeah! Honestly, good for him.” I beamed as I quickly patted the pouch that held the little notebook the kobold had gifted me. I can’t wait to see the upgrades to your cart and wares once we meet again. I thought brightly to myself. Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 29. Ilphius and Kamil’s Room. Local Time: 1730 Hours Ilphius “Kamil.” I announced firmly, making my presence known with a SLAM of the doors. “It’s time you came out of hiding.” … Yet no answer came. I let out a frustrated sigh, clenching my fists, before unleashing fury in the form of disruption, disorientation, and dispelling magics which would’ve caused even the most stoic of mages to lose their footing. The result was immediate. Though not in the way I’d expected. Yaaaawwwwwnnnnnnnn! A voice strained from within one of the corners of the room as the lazy layabout finally uncloaked, focusing his two beady eyes on me. “I’m guessing your second and final proposal with Lady Airit did not go as planned?” The coward spoke with a lizard-like lisp, as a smug, self-satisfied giggle colored his voice. “At least I had the courage and mental fortitude to take chances.” I rebutted. “At least I exist in the material world.” I continued as I leveled both ire and frustration firmly against the wayward noble. “Yes, yes. Exist you do. Perhaps you should allow me to return to my immaterial world then—” “Stop.” I urged, my voice colored not by desperation, but authority. This did the trick, as the barely present lizard reacted without a second’s hesitation. His instinctive response to authority, true authority, was laid bare to me. “Whilst Lady Airit may lack vision, playing things safe as her master tends to do, I am unwilling to let this opportunity slip us by. This is why I am reassessing the situation, and requesting your cooperation in enacting my plans.” I stated firmly, eliciting a disgusting and debased roll of the lizard’s tongue as he seemed to mock my occasional tongue-flared hiss. “I sssseeeee.” He responded jeeringly before stretching his arms and legs lazily in all directions. “Convince me.” “Excuse me?!” “You heard what I said: convince me. I have no horse in this race, Lady Ilphius. The worst you can do is to interrupt my sleep and scatter my belongings… but it isn’t as if you aren’t already doing that now, are you?” He chuckled derisively, causing my whole body to tense and burn from the inside out. “When my plan succeeds—” “If.” “No, when it does.” I seethed. “When it does succeed… I will be in a better position to retake the peer group’s throne from that wretched merchant. And when that time comes, I will make sure to elevate our group, to push us forward, and to place us in a position where we can challenge the earthrealmer’s group for a position in the house we were robbed of.” … “Sounds quite ambitious…” “Indeed it is.” I acknowledged. “And by ambitious I mean tiresome, Lady Ilphius.” The man yawned. “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to do this on your own.” “I’ll unmask Teleos Lophime’s secret. I will uncover what it is he’s hiding in the healing wing.” I offered. “Hmm… now you’re speaking my language. Though you’ll have to give me more than just juicy drama to eat up.” Kamil chuckled darkly. “Coin.” I spat out. “Coin, you lazy, whiny, layabout—” “Carte blanche.” He countered. “Whatever spoils we may potentially earn from this escapade, yes.” I pushed forth a secondary counteroffer. To which the man finally relented with a long, drawn-out nod. “What’s your plan?” “I know there must be something that might incriminate the pair. That wretched and tainted avinor is most obviously a beacon of darkness. And the Vunerian? I’ve heard whispers of him slithering off to the libraries for some enigmatic purposes. Our task is to follow these two blighted beasts, and to determine once and for all what devious rule-breaking, or perhaps even law-breaking schemes they may be up to.” “Huh.” Kamil responded simply. “That’s easy enough.” “Indeed, and with your masterful camouflage skills, this will be even more—” “We’ll start tomorrow then. I’m tired from today’s classes.” He yawned once more. “No.” I seethed, grabbing him by the half-transparent arm. “We’re starting today.” The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. The Grand Dining Hall. Local Time: 2000 Hours Ilphius “Ahem.” Kamil interrupted, tugging at my uniform as he did so. “Are you certain the pair are up to anything—” “It’s just dinner, Kamil. Maybe if we trail them after this, we will see just what illicit activities they’re up to.” I intercepted the man’s concerns before he had a chance to fully voice them, as I continued eating, bite by agonizing bite, while maintaining a careful sentry on the pair. “You know you’re only resorting to such passive actions because without Lady Airit or Lady Ladona, you simply don’t have the power to go toe-to-toe against—” “Keep quiet!” Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Hallway. Local Time: 2200 Hours Ilphius “It’s curfew now. We have to go back.” “I was certain they’d have gone anywhere but back to their room! Are you sure we did not follow phantoms? Or maybe we might have missed their subtle exit through some other—” “Yes, I’m certain, Lady Ilphius. You’re talking to the master of camouflage here.” Kamil responded lazily. “Alright. We’ll just resume our sentry tomorrow.” “And if nothing comes of tomorrow?” He countered. “I have other avenues…” The Next Day The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. The Grand Dining Hall en Route to ???. Local Time: 0900 Hours Ilphius “Still nothing, Lady Ilphius.” “Patience, Kamil! Look! They’re leaving!” “And what makes you think they’re not just heading back to their dormitory?” “Because look—” I pointed urgently at their path. “—they’re taking the main stairwell this time around.” “Which means what exactly?” “They’re headed to the student lounge.” “Oh joy.” Kamil sighed quietly. The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. Student Lounge. Local Time: 1200 Hours Ilphius “And I said, ‘Panned cakes! It should be called panned cakes! For the cakes were made in a pan.’ But my private chef, in their infinite stupidity, refuses to acknowledge this, pushing forth a narrative of pan-cakes instead! Tell me, my dear fellows, are the cakes not panned? For a cake to be a pan-cake, it should somehow resemble a pan or in some way—” “He’s been at this, on the speaker’s chair, for hours now, Lady Ilphius.” Kamil bemoaned. “Are you certain this is what you seek?” “No… but what of the avinor—” “She’s been silently reading a book, sipping tea and eating nuts, occasionally being interrupted by the freaks from the fourth nook only to be rebuked. I’ve kept my other eye on her this entire time.” “Patience. Patience, Kamil. We will have our evidence.” The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. En Route to the Library. Local Time: 1400 Hours. Ilphius “There it is, there it is! We must follow him!” I urged, as we both silently scouted our way forwards, ducking in illusory magics until the Vunerian had entered that most unholy of places. We waited for several minutes more until we made our move, walking across the bridge and then entering the den of unspeakable evils to continue our investigation. Yet upon entry, we were met not by the scurrying of the increasingly pale-blue Vunerian, or any sign of him whatsoever. Instead, what awaited us was a small fox that looked up at both of us expectantly. “State your business! Do you wish to browse or to trade?” The fox questioned before moving up to sniff at the both of us, as if our illusory magics weren’t even there. “Hmm… neither of you seem to have anything to trade. Rather stale, honestly.” “How dare you—” “I’ve heard it much before, yes yes. Grumble and grumble, moan and whine. Let’s skip to the end now, shall we? Are you here to browse or to trade?” We both looked at each other before nodding. “Kamil, you—” “I’ll browse, please.” The man sighed, eliciting a nod from the fox, who simply… vanished the moment I turned to look back. “I’ll keep an eye on the avinor. We’ll meet for dinner.” “Right.” The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. The Grand Dining Hall. Local Time: 1900 Hours Ilphius “Well look who finally decided to show up…” I hissed softly at an exhausted-looking Kamil. “Found anything?” “No. I barely got out of that impossible labyrinth!” He seethed. “The deal’s off, by the way. There’s nothing in it for me. The fun’s over.” He crossed his arms. “And I doubt you found anything interesting about the avinor either.” I moved to speak… but found that I had nothing at all to say. “No, I have not.” I stated plainly. “But I have one final plan to enact…” I offered, garnering the man’s attention. “...what is it this time?” “The pair, they are both here, are they not?” “Yes, they are. What of it?” “This makes for the perfect opportunity to… investigate their den of sin.” “You can’t be serious. You can’t just break into another dorm.” He countered. “Au contraire. I can… and I will. And whatever is in there… I shall have my spoils.” The Nexus. Southeastern Quadrant of the North Rythian Forests. Local Time: 1900 Hours. Emma The relative ‘downtime’ that was the past 26 hours felt a heck of a lot like the fulfillment of one of Aunty Ran’s sayings. A lot of war is a whole load of sitting around doing nothing. Except for the one percent of times where all hell breaks loose and you’re fighting within an inch of your life. You use that 99% to prepare for the 1%. Or at least that’s what they say. I just prayed that we wouldn’t experience the latter half of that anecdote. [‘QUEST’ Time Elapsed: 102 Hours. Time Remaining: 66 Hours] [SURVEY PROGRESS… 100%. Estimated time to Completion… 0 Hours. Data Fidelity: N/A. Network Integrity: N/A. Charging. Primary Objective… Pending.] [Fleet Status: Charging.] [Crystal Shards… Not found.] [AMETHYST DRAGON… Not found.] “Right, do you want the good news or the bad news, Thalmin?” “We’ve been sitting around waiting for your drones to do most of the work. Let’s at least get some good news, Emma.” The prince grumbled. “Right, well, good news! Our interloper friends have not detected our presence, nor our drones. That’s even with their Shatorealmer flying around. Also, the drakes seem to be in hibernate mode or something. They’ve only flown them once, though granted it knocked a good few hours off of our survey time.” “Okay… I’m assuming the bad news is that there’s no stray crystal shard.” Thalmin sighed out. “Correct.” I nodded. “Damnit.” Thalmin cursed. “Well then, it seems like we’ll just have to go dragon hunting now, won’t we?” He managed bravely under a nervous grin. “Once the drones are charged up, I’ll be redirecting survey efforts towards tracking down the amethyst dragon’s lair. Given we have the whole forest mapped out now, it shouldn’t be too long before we narrow down a list of POI’s—” [PRIORITY ALERT! MULTIPLE AERIAL CONTACTS ENTERING THE AO! RANGE… 1400 METERS!] My blood ran cold as I tapped Thalmin on the shoulder, shooting him a look which he could not interpret. Though I wouldn’t need to, because what happened next brought the man up to his feet. “AGHGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” As a bloodcurdling scream, followed by the unmistakable FWOOOOSH! of fire erupted about a click north of our position. We had only one drone in the air, but that’d have to do. “QSR: Identify contacts.” [Estimated Count: 1 Large Contact] [TRACK ID: AMETHYST DRAGON] I felt my stomach clench as my arm moved to activate the railgun. Though I only did so out of precaution— [Estimated Count: 2 Small Contacts] [TRACK ID: Winged Light 2-1, 2-2.] —because we weren’t alone in this engagement. We didn’t need to watch what was transpiring on the tablet, as the action was close enough that the light foliage of the canopy allowed for a near-unimpeded view of the skies. Two drake riders were attempting desperate sorties against the dragon, as they moved to corral, slash, and even ensnare the dragon with rope, netting, and just about everything but the kitchen sink. This was all in a desperate attempt to save their ground forces from the brunt of the dragon’s fury, as we saw a small group of elves, dwarves, satyrs, kobolds, and even baxi desperately attempting to flee from the dragon’s ire — away from the wall of flames that halted their advance. However, with every advance towards a potential exfil route, the dragon shot out another line of fire, corralling them towards a path of its own design. It was as if the dragon was doing this on purpose, as if it was actively playing with its prey, giving them a false sense of hope of escape… only to snip that thin thread of reprieve away with the unbridled fury of dragonflame. We both watched in silence as this group of mercenaries was eventually boxed in, their last exfil route completely bathed in flames, leaving them in a literal box of fire that only grew closer and closer, with no potential of being put out. Though it wasn’t as if they didn’t try. As one of them — a blue-robed satyr — attempted to spray down the flames with some healthy jets of water, all to the tune of some weak bursts of mana radiation. The dragon, noticing this, flew low and slow, almost hovering in front of the satyr. The bassy BOOMS of its wingbeats shook the air, accelerating the ferocity of the raging inferno, sending even Thalmin’s fur into a shiver and my gut into a knot. Their eyes met, and in what I could only describe as a snort of amethyst embers and soot, it roared. SKREEAAAUUUUUCHHHHHHH!!!! A crackling noise soon followed, sparks haphazardly illuminating the dark of its throat. Then, a subtle ping of a mana radiation spike. Finally, a sudden FWOOOOSH enveloped all auditory channels. … Bright blue dragonflame, orders of magnitude larger than the satyr’s jet of water, vaporized everything it came into contact with… The water— Skkksshhhhhhhh —the foliage— Crackle! Hiss! —and finally, the satyr and his forward scouting party. Their screams were short-lived. But even so, the chorus of guttural bellows and bloodcurdling shrieks echoed into the night, each note and octave searing deep into my core. “Emma—” I heard a distant voice calling. But my body was frozen, my eyes staring blankly at the impressions of boots and hooves rendered into baked clay on the forest floor. “EMMA! We have to move!” Thalmin shouted, breaking through the haze of shock, as he attempted to shake me out of it. I blinked rapidly, staring at his finger as he gestured to the dragon moving to gain altitude, with the two drake riders in hot pursuit. This was our chance to tag and follow it. So without a second thought, I acknowledged Thalmin’s urgings. “Right.” Before quickly turning to the EVI. “EVI. Send the survey drone after it. Observe maximum threat range and stay clear of its sightline." “Query: Specify survey drone.” “The one we currently have in the air! SUR-DRONE03B—” I paused, my heart skipping a beat as I noticed something pop up on my HUD. [SUR-DRONE03… STATUS… CRITICAL DAMAGE… REQUESTING RETRIEVAL AND EXFIL] I craned my head up, following the ping of the lost survey drone, until I was met with the dragon roaring overhead. ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR! And while its roar tore across the silence of the night, a familiar red pulse emanated from a crevice on its back — a tiny antenna piercing deep into the empty dark. First | Previous | Next (Author's Note: And there we have it! :D The dragon makes its appearance, alongside a certain missing drone from back during the warehouse explosion! :D I hope you guys enjoy the chapter! :D The next Two Chapters are already up on Patreon if you guys are interested in getting early access to future chapters.) (Author's Note 2: Here's the Updated Map for Emma and Thalmin's progress so far! :D) [If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 150 and Chapter 151 of this story is already out on there!)] submitted by /u/Jcb112 to r/HFY [link] [comments]

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/RBI/s/ggzmHiiy91 First Update: https://www.reddit.com/r/RBI/s/Qhn1xsNpDQ Second Update This update will probably be more than a little anticlimactic, and for that, I apologize. To the people who felt like this was much ado about nothing, I agree! But like I said before, it’s her continued insistence and certainty about this bizarre idea that niggles at me. So away we go! The boyfriend does indeed exist. I’ve met him and spoken with him several times. He seems older than her, and is quieter overall. He has stated that he’s a cat person and has engaged with my cat in the past. But I have not had the chance to talk to him separately to get his side of the story. The white tent was in the front yard of my other neighbor’s house and faces the opposite street, so a reflection is impossible. That being said, the older neighbor does keep brining it up and is convinced people were sleeping in it. I’ve spoken with the front yard neighbor, and she was airing out the tent after a camping trip…no on ever slept in it when it was in her yard. But I think a lot of folks in the comments are correct when they say the white tent unsettled the older neighbor, because she brought it up several times. I did loop in the landlord’s, but they seemed to also believe the older neighbor. She’s rented from them for at least 15 years (if not longer) and they told me that in the past she’s been very reliable and truthful. They seemed spooked by the whole story and offered to change the locks. I figure it can’t hurt, so I agreed. The landlords and I questioned the older neighbor pretty rigorously, and she stuck by her story, even as we all expressed incredulity. She reiterated that she saw a two person tent, blue and white, fully erected in my front living room. She said it was not a pop up tent or pup tent. She said she saw it on a Wednesday, because that’s the day her boyfriend takes her to lunch each week. She said it was up when he picked her up and down when he dropped her off. She got a little defensive as we probed, so people who warned that this could happen if we challenged her were spot on. She kept reiterating that it was a TENT and that she could SEE it quite clearly. She seems to want to pin it in my nephew (and the landlords seemed to be leaning that way too), which IS really frustrating: he’s a 25 year old man with his own home! He has no need to air a tent out in my tiny living room. And he doesn’t even camp! The cameras: I double checked every Wednesday for the last two months (that’s the limit for the stored videos). No tent. No people entering my house. No footage of her and her boyfriend staring into my house. That being said, there’s one Wednesday with no footage because the battery had died and I forgot to charge it, but I was home. There’s only one Wednesday that I went out of town, but I left after 4pm and returned in less than 24 hours. I still feel like this is pretty solid evidence of no tent, but I have to allow for the fact that the cameras were not fully operational. The cat is slowly getting better, though we had a setback today when she peed in the kitchen after the gardeners scared her. She is consistently using the litter pan I set up for her outside with no problem, she just refuses to use any litter pan anywhere inside. I have one in the kitchen, one by the front door, one in the pantry, and one in the bathroom. She will only use the one outside. I do think the calming food is helping since we’re down to just one accident (and it was on the puppy pads). I am keeping her in the kitchen at night and letting her out before 6am every day. Hopefully I can eventually get her to use her litter pan inside. “Raccoon Season:” I think my front neighbor used this phrase because it’s baby season right now. We have a mom and two kits that hang out in our property. If you’ve never seen a baby raccoon, you’re missing out. They are adorable! So like I said at the beginning, not much of a resolution. At this point, I just want to put the whole thing to rest. I’m changing the locks, so if there are mystery indoor campers (or mischievous raccoons) with a copy of my key, they’ll have to find another locale for their shenanigans. I’ll stop questioning the neighbor because she’s adamant and now it feels a little weird to keep harping on it. I’ll endeavor to be patient and kind to my cat so that she gets back to her old self. And that’s the end of the saga. I’m surprised by how much attention this all got (Reddit says almost 1.5 million people looked at the post and the update, that’s nuts!). Thanks everyone for all your comments, suggestions, insights and comic relief! Even the snarky comments made me laugh. submitted by /u/TheNextMrsDraper to r/RBI [link] [comments]

[Second Update Below] [link to original post] https://www.reddit.com/r/RBI/s/ggzmHiiy91 So I spoke to all my neighbors again today. The neighbor who saw the tent is still adamant that’s what she saw. She said she and her boyfriend saw it around lunchtime and he confirmed. They said the tent was up when they went to lunch, and down by the time they came back. When I told her my cameras didn’t catch anything, she was unbothered. When I suggested that maybe she saw something else, she said, “it was not my imagination. I saw a tent from right here,” and the she stood on the walkway and pointed into my house. She seems to think someone might have a copy of my key and is accessing my house whenever I’m out of town. She thinks someone sabotaged both cameras and mentioned “black suits that aren’t picked up by security cameras” as a reason the tent sector wasn’t caught. She also mentioned that my other neighbor (the one who checked on my cat) had a large white tent in her yard a few months back. I saw that tent and can verify it existed. But this neighbor said that is not the tent she saw in my house. I rechecked all the camera footage one more time. There are no unaccounted for gaps. In fact, there are several snippets of the cat chilling in the living room looking completely unconcerned before and after the cat sitters came into the house. It’s actually making me rethink the timeline of when she got spooked. I rechecked the attic access and it hasn’t been touched. I also work from home, so it would be hard for someone squatting in the attic to go unnoticed. I also took the advice here to check internet data and electricity usage. Both weee way down on the days I was gone. My gas bill was smaller as well. But if the tent was only up for an hour, that makes sense. So then I spoke with cat sitting neighbor. She confirmed the existence of her white tent and explained that she was airing it out in her front yard after a camping trip (which aligns with all the tent care information in the comments). She also said that she has had similar conversations with this neighbor where what she is saying is bizarre and unsettling, but she says it with such conviction that you find it hard not to believe. She also understood my unease, saying the whole story reminded her of the Manson family and their creepy crawling (https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/hNd6ZWZ5Ug ). Once she mentioned that possibility, it made me understand why I was feeling so anxious. I have read about the creepy crawling and the Manson family was a “boogie monster” for me growing up. For those worried about my cat’s wellbeing, thank you. She seems to be slowly coming back to herself. Right now, I’m putting her in the kitchen at night and she has a cozy little bed where she sleeps. So far, she hasn’t peed anywhere inside since I’ve started doing this, but I do wake up before six every morning to let her out, and she promptly uses the litter pan I have set up for her on the porch. I also started using the urinary health cat food from Royal Cain that someone suggested on another thread, and that’s seems to be working. Fingers crossed. Next steps: asking the landlords to change the locks. To end on a lighter note, cat sitting neighbor also had a whimsical explanation (not to be taken seriously and just for fun) that I also thought I’d share: apparently there’s a Japanese folklore tradition of trickster raccoons who shapeshift and wreak havoc. She pointed out that it is raccoon season where we live (and in fact, I just saw a mother and her babies by my porch a couple of nights ago), and maybe they snuck in and pitched the tent just to mess with me. I mean….its as probable as anything else at this point. UPDATE #2 This update will probably be more than a little anticlimactic, and for that, I apologize. To the people who felt like this was much ado about nothing, I agree! But like I said before, it’s her continued insistence and certainty about this bizarre idea that niggles at me. So here we go. 1. The boyfriend does indeed exist. I’ve met him and spoken with him several times. He seems older than her, and is quieter overall. He has stated that he’s a cat person and has engaged with my cat in the past. But I have not had the chance to talk to him separately to get his side of the story. 2. The white tent was in the front yard of my other neighbor’s house and faces the opposite street, so a reflection is impossible. That being said, the older neighbor does keep brining it up and is convinced people were sleeping in it. I’ve spoken with the front yard neighbor, and she was airing out the tent after a camping trip…no on ever slept in it when it was in her yard. But I think a lot of folks in the comments are correct when they say the white tent unsettled the older neighbor, because she brought it up several times. 3. I did loop in the landlord’s, but they seemed to also believe the older neighbor. She’s rented from them for at least 15 years (if not longer) and they told me that in the past she’s been very reliable and truthful. They seemed spooked by the whole story and offered to change the locks. I figure it can’t hurt, so I agreed. 4. The landlords and I questioned the older neighbor pretty rigorously, and she stuck by her story, even as we all expressed incredulity. She reiterated that she saw a two person tent, blue and white, fully erected in my front living room. She said it was not a pop up tent or pup tent. She said she saw it on a Wednesday, because that’s the day her boyfriend takes her to lunch each week. She said it was up when he picked her up and down when he dropped her off. She got a little defensive as we probed, so people who warned that this could happen if we challenged her were spot on. She kept reiterating that it was a TENT and that she could SEE it quite clearly. She seems to want to pin it in my nephew (and the landlords seemed to be leaning that way too), which IS really frustrating: he’s a 25 year old man with his own home! He has no need to air a tent out in my tiny living room. And he doesn’t even camp! 5. The cameras: I double checked every Wednesday for the last two months (that’s the limit for the stored videos). No tent. No people entering my house. No footage of her and her boyfriend staring into my house. That being said. There’s one Wednesday with no footage because the battery had died and I forgot to charge it, but I was home. There’s only one Wednesday that I went out of town, but I left after 4pm and returned in less than 24 hours. I still feel like this is pretty solid evidence of no tent, but I have to allow for the fact that the cameras were not fully operational. 6. The cat is slowly getting better, though we had a setback today when she peed in the kitchen after the gardeners scared her. She is consistently using the litter pan I set up for her outside with no problem, she just refuses to use any litter pan anywhere inside. I have one in the kitchen, one by the front door, one in the pantry, and one in the bathroom. She will only use the one outside. I do think the calming food is helping since we’re down to just one accident (and it was on the puppy pads). I am keeping her in the kitchen at night and letting her out before 6am every day. Hopefully I can eventually get her to use her litter pan inside. 7. “Raccoon Season:” I think my front neighbor used this phrase because it’s baby season right now. We have a mom and two kits that hang out in our property. If you e never seen a baby raccoon, you’re missing out. They are adorable! So like I said at the beginning, not much of a resolution. At this point, I just want to put the whole thing to rest. I’m changing the locks, so if there are mystery indoor campers (or mischievous raccoons) with a copy of my key, they’ll have to find another locale for their shenanigans. I’ll stop questioning the neighbor because she’s adamant and now it feels a little weird to keep harping on it. I’ll endeavor to be patient and kind to my cat so that she gets back to her old self. And that’s the end of the saga. I’m surprised by how much attention this all got (Reddit says almost 1.5 million people looked at the post and the update, that’s nuts!). Thanks everyone for all your comments, suggestions, insights and comic relief! Even the snarky comments made me laugh. submitted by /u/TheNextMrsDraper to r/RBI [link] [comments]

[UPDATE BELOW] [Second Update added ] I honestly don’t know what to make of this. The simplest answer is that my neighbor is lying, but why? Here’s what happened. This morning, my neighbor knocked on my door and told me that while I was out of town earlier this month, they noticed my front door was open and that a “very nice, blue and brown, two-person tent” had been pitched in the middle of my living room. They said they thought it was a little odd and that’s why they mentioned it. I was on vacation over the the 4th or July, and my nephew and another neighbor both fed my cat while I was gone. Neither are the type to pitch a tent in my living room (though, to be honest, I’m not sure who would do such a thing). Nevertheless, I asked them about the tent and neither knew anything about it. I also don’t have anything that’s blue and brown and could be mistaken for a tent (my living room is mostly black and white). I also don’t own a tent. I’m not a camper. Nobody has a set of keys to my house. I have an Arlo camera by my front door, and I set one up in my living room while I was gone so that I could periodically check in on the cat (I’m a little neurotic about her because she very old). I checked all the footage going back to June 4 (because my neighbor couldn’t say for certain when exactly they saw this tent). Needless to say, there’s nothing captured by either camera. Unfortunately, the cameras do sometimes fail to capture everything. I’d say they have a 10-20% fail rate when it come to turning in when there’s movement. So there’s a slight possibility someone could’ve entered my house, pitched a tent, taken it down and left, and the cameras wouldn’t have caught any of it. But I feel like it’s a pretty slim chance that neither would’ve been triggered. To add to all of this, my cat has been acting super strange ever since I came back. She’s very nervous, refuses to go anywhere near the back part of the house, and is not using her litter box. So something did weird her out. So Reddit, any ideas? If my neighbor is lying (which is the most plausible), why? They’ve never lied before and always seemed like a reliable narrator. They also said their boyfriend saw it too and mentioned how weird it was. Is there any scenario where it makes sense for someone to break in and pitch a tent but also leave the door open so anyone can see?? Is it a glitch in the matrix? Is she somehow suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning? Am I?😆 ( Thankfully, the Arlo camera outside did capture part of our conversation, so I didn’t completely imagine it). It’s just so fucking bizarre! I’m just at a complete loss. The whole thing has left me feeling unsettled. Edit: Thanks to everyone who’s commented so far. To answer a some questions that seem to have come up: I took the cat to the vet and she got a clean bill of health. I’m trying some behavioral solutions (multiple litter pans, special cat food for urine health, calming cat treats, calming spray, felaway plug in, etc.). It’s been hard, but I’m committed to helping her get through this. The neighbor and her boyfriend are both older (I think in their late 60s) and we live on the same property, so she has to walk by my front door to get to the street. I’d say from the walkway to my front door is less than five feet, so she has a pretty good view of my living room. I agree with those who said her timing is strange (why mention it weeks later), but I had recently talked to her about my cat.’s behavior, so I think she mentioned it as a possible reason for the cat’s behavior. She did say, “maybe in the future you should let me know you’ll be out of town so I can keep an eye out for you.” At the time is sounded like a normal thing to say, but if she’s lying, then maybe it’s because she wants to know when I’m gone? My nephew is in his mid-twenties and very responsible. He owns his own home and works long days. Neither he nor his brother are campers and, as far as I know, don’t own any tents. The camera outside captured him entering and exiting all three days and he was in the house for less than five minutes. Same with the other neighbor who fed the cat. She came over three times, all for less than five minutes. Neither was aware of the where the was camera inside (but they knew I had one so I could check the cat). The camera also caught the cat chilling out in the house and all three days she was acting normally. TIL about “frogging” (or phrogging), lol. There is a crawl space under the house, but you can’t access it from inside. There’s probably a two- foot high crawl space in the ceiling that you can access from the closet in my bedroom, but I have a bunch of boxes and suitcases shoved up against the opening, and I don’t see how someone could put them back if they’d crawled back in. I will say that the more I ruminate on it, the creepier it seems. UPDATE So I spoke to all my neighbors again today. The neighbor who saw the tent is still adamant that’s what she saw. She said she and her boyfriend saw it around lunchtime and he confirmed. They said the tent was up when they went to lunch, and down by the time they came back. When I told her my cameras didn’t catch anything, she was unbothered. When suggested that maybe she saw something else, she said, “it was not my imagination. I saw a tent from right here,” and the she stood on the walkway and pointed into my house. She seems to think someone might have a copy of my key and is accessing my house whenever I’m out of town. She thinks someone sabotaged both cameras and mentioned “black suits that aren’t picked up by security cameras” as a reason the tent sector wasn’t caught. She also mentioned that my other neighbor (the one who checked on my cat) had a large white tent in her yard a few months back. I saw that tent and can verify it existed. But this neighbor said that is not the tent she saw in my house. I rechecked all the camera footage one more time. There are no unaccounted for gaps. In fact, there are several snippets of the cat chilling in the living room looking completely unconcerned before and after the cat sitters came into the house. It’s actually making me rethink the timeline of when she got spooked. I rechecked the attic access and it hasn’t been touched. I also work from home, so it would be hard for someone squatting in the attic to go unnoticed. I also took the advice here to check internet data and electricity usage. Both weee way down on the days I was gone. My gas bill was smaller as well. But if the tent was only up for an hour, that makes sense. So then I spoke with cat sitting neighbor. She confirmed the existence of her white tent and explained that she was airing it out in her front yard after a camping trip (which aligns with all the tent care information in the comments). She also said that she has had similar conversations with this neighbor where what she is saying is bizarre and unsettling, but she says it with such conviction that you find it hard not to believe. She also understood my unease, saying the whole story reminded her of the Manson family and their creepy crawling (https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/hNd6ZWZ5Ug ). Once she mentioned that possibility, it made me understand why I was feeling so anxious. I have read about the creepy crawling and the Manson family was a “boogie monster” for me growing up. For those worried about my cat’s wellbeing, thank you. She seems to be slowly coming back to herself. Right now, I’m putting her in the kitchen at night and she has a cozy little bed where she sleeps. So far, she hasn’t peed anywhere inside since I’ve started doing this, but I do wake up before six every morning to let her out, and she promptly uses the litter pan I have set up for her on the porch. I also started using the urinary health cat food from Royal Cain that someone suggested on another thread, and that’s seems to be working. Fingers crossed. To end on a lighter note, cat sitting neighbor also had a whimsical explanation (not to be taken seriously and just for fun) that I also thought I’d share: apparently there’s a Japanese folklore tradition of trickster raccoons who shapeshift and wreak havoc. She pointed out that it is raccoon season where we live (and in fact, I just saw a mother and her babies by my porch a couple of nights ago), and maybe they snuck in and pitched the tent just to mess with me. I mean….its as probable as anything else at this point. Next steps: asking the landlords to change the locks. SECOND UPDATE This update will probably be more than a little anticlimactic, and for that, I apologize. To the people who felt like this was much ado about nothing, I agree! But like I said before, it’s her continued insistence and certainty about this bizarre idea that niggles at me. So here we go. 1. The boyfriend does indeed exist. I’ve met him and spoken with him several times. He seems older than her, and is quieter overall. He has stated that he’s a cat person and has engaged with my cat in the past. But I have not had the chance to talk to him separately to get his side of the story. 2. The white tent was in the front yard of my other neighbor’s house and faces the opposite street, so a reflection is impossible. That being said, the older neighbor does keep brining it up and is convinced people were sleeping in it. I’ve spoken with the front yard neighbor, and she was airing out the tent after a camping trip…no on ever slept in it when it was in her yard. But I think a lot of folks in the comments are correct when they say the white tent unsettled the older neighbor, because she brought it up several times. 3. I did loop in the landlord’s, but they seemed to also believe the older neighbor. She’s rented from them for at least 15 years (if not longer) and they told me that in the past she’s been very reliable and truthful. They seemed spooked by the whole story and offered to change the locks. I figure it can’t hurt, so I agreed. 4. The landlords and I questioned the older neighbor pretty rigorously, and she stuck by her story, even as we all expressed incredulity. She reiterated that she saw a two person tent, blue and white, fully erected in my front living room. She said it was not a pop up tent or pup tent. She said she saw it on a Wednesday, because that’s the day her boyfriend takes her to lunch each week. She said it was up when he picked her up and down when he dropped her off. She got a little defensive as we probed, so people who warned that this could happen if we challenged her were spot on. She kept reiterating that it was a TENT and that she could SEE it quite clearly. She seems to want to pin it in my nephew (and the landlords seemed to be leaning that way too), which IS really frustrating: he’s a 25 year old man with his own home! He has no need to air a tent out in my tiny living room. And he doesn’t even camp! 5. The cameras: I double checked every Wednesday for the last two months (that’s the limit for the stored videos). No tent. No people entering my house. No footage of her and her boyfriend staring into my house. That being said. There’s one Wednesday with no footage because the battery had died and I forgot to charge it, but I was home. There’s only one Wednesday that I went out of town, but I left after 4pm and returned in less than 24 hours. I still feel like this is pretty solid evidence of no tent, but I have to allow for the fact that the cameras were not fully operational. 6. The cat is slowly getting better, though we had a setback today when she peed in the kitchen after the gardeners scared her. She is consistently using the litter pan I set up for her outside with no problem, she just refuses to use any litter pan anywhere inside. I have one in the kitchen, one by the front door, one in the pantry, and one in the bathroom. She will only use the one outside. I do think the calming food is helping since we’re down to just one accident (and it was on the puppy pads). I am keeping her in the kitchen at night and letting her out before 6am every day. Hopefully I can eventually get her to use her litter pan inside. 7. “Raccoon Season:” I think my front neighbor used this phrase because it’s baby season right now. We have a mom and two kits that hang out in our property. If you e never seen a baby raccoon, you’re missing out. They are adorable! So like I said at the beginning, not much of a resolution. At this point, I just want to put the whole thing to rest. I’m changing the locks, so if there are mystery indoor campers (or mischievous raccoons) with a copy of my key, they’ll have to find another locale for their shenanigans. I’ll stop questioning the neighbor because she’s adamant and now it feels a little weird to keep harping on it. I’ll endeavor to be patient and kind to my cat so that she gets back to her old self. And that’s the end of the saga. I’m surprised by how much attention this all got (Reddit says almost 1.5 million people looked at the post and the update, that’s nuts!). Thanks everyone for all your comments, suggestions, insights and comic relief! Even the snarky comments made me laugh. submitted by /u/TheNextMrsDraper to r/RBI [link] [comments]

Doing a lot of SOS lately and I've seen so many players not doing anything with their camps! Especially considering it's often mentioned that people miss customizing their home like in Iceborn. While that feature will hopefully return in the expansion, I would argue that currently your pop up camps are seen by many more players (because you don't need to invite them into your home) and are actually relevant for the gameplay. So: find all the camp locations on all maps (the game won't tell you so you might want to use a guide to confirm). Some are really hidden. build your camps (you can unlock more slots, 5 on most maps). Spread them out across the map with a focus on save camps to avoid too many becoming unavailable later. Some camps are also right next to the nest of serveral monsters, so you might change it depending on the hunts. Remember that people joining your quest have to use YOUR camp setup, not theirs. Quite lame when you are used to your own fast travel points but then on the SOS the host makes your ride all the way to the edge of the map. Customize your tents. Each festival added a few additional cosmetics but often I see people having just the boring default style with no furniture even... You can individualize the camps for each map and you get different player interactions depending on the furniture (e.g. you can bbq together like in the hub). The new item box will probably also be liked by other players. submitted by /u/SolidusDave to r/MHWilds [link] [comments]

I am NOT the Original Poster. That is yr_momma. She posted in r/Weddingattireapproval Do NOT comment on Original Posts. Latest update is 7 days old. Mood Spoiler: sweet Original Post: June 8, 2025 Title: Bride suggests wearing our own wedding dresses as guests? I have my wedding dress, and it fits. It's comfy and perfect for an outdoor summer event... I don't know what else I would wear really as I don't have a very limited (and worn) wardrobe aside from this and one other dress that was for a black tie event. I worry I would be the only one to do this and get looks from the (very large) crowd, so it kinda feels like a trap... but it's also literally in the wedding website sooo I kinda wanna do it to honour the request as also it's the comfiest public-facing garment I own. My husband and the groom have been friends for 25+ years. I have never met bride or groom as they live quite far so I can't contact them to ask if they're sure or get photo approval, but I could have my husband double check with the groom? I dunno I want to but I worry people could be kinda brutal about it if I do? Am I too in my head about this? My friends say I should just do it and if anyone has a problem with it, that's their issue not mine. What do you guys think? Image 1: OOP in her wedding dress Image 2: Instructions from the bride Transcription of instructions in the screenshot OOP attached: What should I wear? Here's [bride's] idea... How about, if you have one, and if you want to, and if you fit in it, your own wedding dress! Go on, it will be fun. If not, then as fabulous a costume as you feel up for, whether it's an 80s prom number or your sequinnest onesie. OR... just your favourite party attire, or chinos, or pretty much anything, just not formal. Extra points for medieval feasting finest. OOP clarifies: Time frame for the event is June 21 (summer solstice) on a farm in the English countryside. OOP updates in Comments: 35 minutes later Wow thanks so much for the super quick flood of affirming comments! Thanks y'all 😊 I feel much better about going for it. I plan to check charity shops in my area for some sort of cosy and cute cardigan/shawl/wrap situation to break up the white, and give me a cover. Otherwise I plan to wear this with my hair down in waves, with a wavy brimmed straw hat and summery t-strap flat sandals. Maybe a cute belt if I can find one to help dress it down a bit more? I'm hoping this is a solid summer solstice/celebration lewk I will also bring a backup change of some fun casual street clothes just in case I feel overdressed. We are camping on the farm as the feasting and partying will go well into the night and if a change is needed our tent should be just a quick dash away! I'm even more excited about this and my anxiety has decreased a lot with all your input. I'll try to remember to come back in a couple weeks after the wedding to tell y'all all about it! Some of OOP's Comments: The couple sounds so cool: They seem like such a cool couple and I am really looking forward to finally meeting them! We live 4.5 hours away from each other but they follow my husband's and my lil business on Instagram and seem to always be rooting us on from a distance! OOP explains: I haven't met either of the couple and my husband hasn't met the bride as he and the groom haven't seen each other in years, since before we met and married. We live on opposite sides of the country from them. They are in regular communication via a group chat of old school friends that stay in touch. Commenter: Just here to say that that dress is GORGEOUS. I want. OOP: Thank you! Here you go: Etsy Link My husband and I were planning on a proper wedding and reception but then a health scare made us move the timeline up and we wound up having a small ceremony with just our parents and my son in attendance. It was our plan to eventually still do a larger event and reception for our extended families, and I have a more formal dress for that when we get to it, but I got something a little less formal for our tiny little quasi-elopement off etsy. Here it is! (So comfy, nice fabric, but still so soft and breathable!) Checking with the bride in advance: Yeah I dont have direct contact with either of them outside of the context of them following our business Instagram account, and if I reached out it would be our first ever contact. I would rather wait for the introduction! Plus the groom was just telling my husband a couple days ago how swamped they both are with preparations. We are meant to be helping with food prep on the day as I am a chef and we run a food business together, so they were catching up on what that entails... the poor groom sounded like his head was spinning lol. I can only imagine she is in the same spot. Do you know anyone else going? We aren't sure of the guest list! There is one couple we are p sure is going but they are EXTREMELY well-to-do and had a crazy 6 figure wedding wherein she had some ridiculously fancy designer gown that I'm sure she won't want to wear to a glorified field party lol. Incidentally the black tie event I mention having a dress for in the post was their wedding. Could it be a prank? It's on their wedding website. It was a paperless invite and everyone got the same link. Can't imagine any couple would do this as a prank anyway! Update Comment: June 10, 2025 (2 days later) I was really enjoying letting the further commentary roll in. I got to read experiences from people that hosted or attended weddings like this, and even a Halloween-costume-party-turned-surprise-wedding where guests were all caught by surprise in costume! I was also able to share where to buy my dress from those that wished they could have one like it! But I'm unfortunately about to mark this as "done" now because it's begun attracting comments from idiots who haven't read a bit of it acting like I'm out of touch for asking this question. One person said white or cream should never be worn to a wedding as if I was a horrible person for thinking of this, one insinuated I did a visa fraud for marrying my husband a year sooner than we initially planned??? Others are accusatory about "the math aint mathin" regarding me never having met the couple, who lives on the opposite side of a country that I have lived in for less than 2 years... And generally I am starting to get rude shitty Karen comments now that the initial wave of interest has passed by. Wtf. So yeah, as much as this has been fun, I'm locking it. For those that want an update! On the long drive home, I will come back to this sub and post an update with whatever happens, and if the bride is cool with it, maybe some pics? When I finally meet her, I will be telling her all about this post and the lovely reactions her dress code got in the comments. I never expected this kind of response and from the little I know about her, I bet she will find this entertaining. Maybe we will even have a chuckle at the Karens in the crowd. Fun fact! This wedding seems different from any event I have ever seen before in all the best ways. We got a sign up sheet last night for people to sign up for dishes to help prepare for the feast (with recipes provided by the bride) and even a sign up for 8 bakers to bring different cakes of their own flavour and decor inspiration so they can offer a cake buffet instead of a standard giant cake. What fun! As a baker I was the first to sign up for a cake slot, and I am really looking forward to providing something special, delicious, and beautiful for their day. I also WILL be wearing my wedding dress for sure, though dressed down a bit, and feel much better about it now. Thank you to this sub for helping me battle my own social anxiety! Update Post: June 23, 2025 (13 days later, 15 from OG post) Okay you guys asked for an update after my post nearly broke the sub, lol, so here it is! I wore my wedding dress to the solstice wedding in Devon! Thanks to this sub for allaying my severe social anxiety around the decision. I styled it like so with pops of green, added some green and brown beaded necklaces, rocked some camel coloured flats and my camel coloured bag. It all vibed with the lush greens of the farm, its woodlands, and the hilly Devon landscape. I definitely dressed it down a bit but that really turned out not to be necessary as I was one of at least a dozen others wearing a wedding dress. This included divorcees that were still happy to rewear their gowns, and even a couple of men! Some accessorised very bridal while others dressed it down a bit like I did. One wore a flower crown as commenters suggested I should do. Some guests wore shorts and tee shirts, some wore medieval dress and looked like they walked straight out of a renaissance festival. There were also corsets, fishnets, and goat horns, and everything in between. It was very come-as-you-are and everyone came as their authentic selves to create a really special event. There was much music and merry making, including by the talented bride, and the whole event felt like hanging out for an evening in the happiest chapter of a fairy tale. Absolutely magical! The bride wore a black-and-white gown, with black floral appliques on the bodice spreading down onto the ruffled skirt. After the ceremony and first sets of performances, she changed into a smart and elegant white silk pantsuit. Nothing too wildly untraditional, but unique and her own style. Bride and groom were amused and surprised at the amount of attention my original post got and we got quite a kick out of sharing the response with them. Even the more unhinged comments like the person that said how "inconsiderate" the bride is for this dress code bc they paid good money to have their dress cleaned and preserved professionally, lol. (She said "AND YOU WANT TO," nobody is forcing you to crack open the hermetically sealed dress vault if you don't want to, Karen!) They approved me posting an update but tbh I was so busy enjoying the party and living in the moment that I didnt get much in the way of photos. That said, I don't have much to post here, but they assured me they will share a Google Drive link with photos from the photographers and participants, so I'll grab a selection of those and post them in a followup comment on this post when we get our hands on them. The bride said when the dress code came out, her friends joked that it was very much like her to get others wearing white to take the heat off of her and help her blend in with the crowd a bit better so all eyes weren't on her. However, her thinking was that wedding dresses are fun, beautiful, joyous and unique and should get worn for happy and beautiful celebrations. It's sad to let them sit never to be worn again! I love her very "unserious" (her word not mine) approach to it all. Thanks again for all the advice and the laughs! Image: OOP in her dress with a cardigan Some of OOP's Comments: Commenter: Loooove it. You look gorgeous and it sounds like the day was exactly what she wanted. I would be so flattered if my friends drug out their wedding dress for me. Or their horns and fishnets. I would probably cry from joy. She sounds like a treasure. OOP: I literally used that exact word and told her she is a treasure as we were hugging goodbye the next morning! You are 100% correct. Commenter: Her FMIL is planning some shit and she’s getting ahead of it lol OOP: Nope! Nothing nefarious, the bride is just that fun. There was nobody in that crowd that would have done anything but be loving and supportive. A lovely drama-free bunch of friends and family that helped pull off this wedding! The couple is wonderfully creative and bucks tradition. Click the link in my post text for a quick video of the reception hangout--it was the dreamiest vibe and just super unconventional by modern standards. Commenter: Okay, but did anyone dress in Medieval Feast attire?! OOP: Yes indeed! There were several musicians in medieval dress throughout the evening but a few attendees wore similar vibed clothing to what you see in this clip. There was one family in particular that looked like they could have stumbled in from the 1500s. It was rad af. One last thought from OOP: Nobody could have outshined this bride. She could have worn a potato sack and she still would have blown us all away with her beautiful vows, incredible talents, and beaming smile. I'm grateful to count the couple among my friends now, not just my husband's friends! Editor's Note: OOP commented on this post! Holy crap this is so funny--my husband just spotted this post and alerted me! I am OOP and we just got the link to the Google Photos folder of the event this evening. I put together a small selection of some of the best lewks of the day and a glimpse of the revelry. And of course, the beautiful couple. I'm glad this brought a smile to so many faces, it was such a dilemma for lil ol anxious me for NO REASON, and I was grateful to the sub for pulling me out of my head. The wedding was gorgeous and I consider myself lucky to now know such incredibly cool humans. Enjoy! Comment 2: Oh, AND, I signed up to bake a cake, but it did NOT survive the trip to Devon intact. Sad bc the flowers were inspired by medieval illuminated manuscript flower paintings and I was so keen to share it with the couple! Cake gore here We stuck a giant serving spoon in it on the dessert table and it still got devoured! submitted by /u/LucyAriaRose to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

Pic 1: Just hours before her escape. Pic 2: The day we got home from camping and after we gave her a bath. Being a potato sack without a care in the world or any appreciation for the life of luxury we provide her. She could’ve been hungry, wet, dirty, scared, and alone out there! On a mountain! Did I see all the warnings on Reddit about the risks of taking your cat camping? Yes, I did. Did I read that there were too many devastating lost ads to count? Yes, I did. Yet, I thought my fancy, indoor, ragdoll cat could beat the odds and turn into an adventure cat. Welp, I got humbled, and I now know for certain that one should NOT risk taking their indoor cat outdoors, as obvious as that may seem. My husband, dog, cat, and I went camping. Since it was to be our first 3-day camping trip, we worried about leaving our cat home alone since she had never been alone more than a night. Plus, she was on half wet food that we wouldn’t be able to automatically dispense like the dry food. We thought it would be more reassuring to keep her with us, and we even bought a new air tent that would make the entire tent as one zipped up seamless tent. I made sure to get a tent that had two compartments so that the outer compartment would serve as sort of like the airlock of a spacecraft. That way, we could secure her in the interior section before unzipping the tent opening. She was already used to the harness as she had gone on a few day trips with us before, so we also kept her on a long leash inside the tent. We packed everything that would help ease the stress of a new environment, bringing a scratch post, a litter box of decent size, and lots of snacks. It was fine until the early early hours of the morning. She had been meowing, which was not normal and I worried it would wake the other campers. Finally around 4am, she calmed down, and I went to sleep. At 5am, my husband woke to use the restroom and woke me up when he said in a panicked voice, “Coco. Where’s Coco??” We dumbly checked under the blankets and searched the nooks and crannies to no avail. I felt dumbstruck. We lost her. We lost our daughter. We became “those” irresponsible parents. We didn’t deserve them. After searching around the area, under cars, and walking up and down the road, we tried to tell ourselves and each other that we had another two days and Coco would come back to us. In our hearts though, we knew that she wouldn’t. She wasn’t one of those outdoor cats who came back home at night. She has zero survival skills, and she’s even a little clumsy at home! We thought of several other things to do like having the camp manager make an announcement over the loudspeaker, going site to site asking campers if they’d seen Coco, putting up notices on social media and local community sites, etc. We felt so heavy and our future as a family looked bleak - look at what happens when families lose a loved one? Then, suddenly my husband said let’s take the car and drive down to the village further down the mountain. We drove about two kilometers down slowly, calling her name out. When we reached the village, we turned around and on our way back up still calling her name, we saw her walking in the same direction as the car, up the hill, in the middle of the road looking back at us. As if she had heard us call her name. But the car was still rolling forward and she started running away. I unceremoniously threw my dog into the back seat (I apologized to him later), and I jumped out of the moving car running at top speed. I had lost sight of her though when I was jumping out of the car and at my husband’s shouted directions, I turned quickly into an open shed which had both sides open. Because I was still running, Coco, who had actually stopped running and had been sitting in the shed, was surprised by my fast approach and skittered into a 1.5-ish meter long piece of pipe. I quickly ran to the other side where I anticipated her exit, and her head popped out for a minute making eye contact with me, her wide eyes seemingly asking, “Mom?? Is that you?” Not to risk another flight, I blocked both ends of the pipe until my husband caught up, pulled her out and cradled her closely to his chest while simultaneously yelling, “COCO!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN????” It was a freaking miracle. Three hours of wild adventuring for Coco. Forty minutes of extreme anxiety for Mom and Dad. To make this already long story shorter, I will leave out the details about the grandma on the farm, my dog’s unusually loud whimpering just before we discover Coco, my husband’s fervent prayer, and my own almost-supernatural vision just before finding her. Lessons learned: don’t take your fancy indoor cat outdoors no matter how prepared you think you are, no tent is cat-proof, and pray hard. By the way, for those who might be curious as to how exactly she got out of the tent, we found cat hair caught on the zipper. Never having shown us that she could escape her harness and do more than open door handles in our apartment, we found she had another talent. She freaking nudged the zipper open. submitted by /u/LouisCocoUmma to r/cats [link] [comments]

I only started moto camping last summer and I knew I wanted to take my 13 yo boy this year. Found a cheap 4 person pop up on amazon and headed out to the desert last night, in a rain storm. 😂 Trip was definitely a success and it was so fun watching the range of emotions he experienced as the night progressed. Started out with anxiety in the car, followed by straight up fear when the sun went down. Only to be totally comfortable about an hour after sunset to the point where he wanted to go exploring in the dark. 😅 The new tent did pretty good. really fast setup and tear down but it got soaking wet on the inner walls cause all of the doors/windows were closed as it got down to about 40°. Just finished drying it out in the yard. Next trip will definitely be in the forest once it gets a little warmer. 😀 submitted by /u/Furadi to r/camping [link] [comments]

For over 4 hours, I drove 65+ miles on barely passable dirt roads in Southern Utah without seeing another soul. Absolutely gorgeous country and fun as heck to stretch my rig's muscles. A transcendent experience being out there alone amongst the 300+ million year old landscapes, petroglyphs, fossils, wildlife, and clear night skies. Found many many beautiful spots suitable for camping and debated which was the most perfect. I decided, set up my tent, left the car, went out for an evening stroll, alone in the wilderness at dusk. ...and then I came back to a guy who pulled up not more than 30 ft from my spot to pop his RTT for the night. WHY do people do this? It's not the first time either, but definitely the most egregious. There wasn't another soul for dozens of miles in any direction, and the area was rife with amazing spots. These are the same folks who take the next urinal in an empty men's room. Yes, Mike, I do mind, and no, I don't care if "you'll barely make a peep". Fuck you Mike. Don't be Mike. submitted by /u/LORD_CMDR_INTERNET to r/overlanding [link] [comments]

Hey everyone! Hope you're enjoying the game so far! I wanted to share what I believe is the most overpowered farming method Monster Hunter has ever seen. It revolves around Nightflower Pollen, a rare plant that can be force-farmed by resting until a Full Moon. (If you need a step-by-step guide on how to do this, I recommend looking it up on Google.) How It Works Once you've gathered Nightflower Pollen, you can trade it in at Sekka to obtain Golden Melding Tickets, Golden Relic Tickets, and Hard Armor Spheres. Simply rest to refresh her shop and keep trading. If you ever run low on points, I suggest looking up a point farming method. The best one I found was in a hidden waterfall within the Scarlet Forest. Make a Pop-Up Camp at Area 8: Underground Lake and catch all the fish in the cave (with the capture net) then fast-travel back to Area 8: Underground Lake and rest with Plenty. All the fish will be respawned and you will make a profit of about 500 to 800 Points per Rest. The Results Here's a breakdown of my farming session: 50 minutes of farming gave me 32 Nightflower Pollen. Trading everything in took about 40 minutes (since one refresh takes ~25 seconds, and the odds of getting a Melding or Relic ticket are about 1/3). This resulted in 32 Golden Melding Tickets. Total time spent: ~1 hour 30 minutes. What You Get With 32 Golden Melding Tickets, you can obtain: 320 max-level Weapon Decorations or 640 max-level Armor Decorations or 480 max-level Weapon Relics or 96 Hard Armor Spheres Why This Farm is Insane The best part? You barely need to think while doing it! It’s an easy, efficient, and brainless way to farm some of the best upgrades in the game. Hope this helps, and happy hunting! In-Depth how to: Nightflower Pollen can only be obtained on a full moon night. There are 7 moon phases, and each time you take a break, the phase shifts by one. Check the current moon phase, and repeat resting in your tent until it's just before the full moon. Where to look Go to Pop-Up Camp in Windward Plains (Area 10 Southeast) Rest and Set the Time to Plenty-Nighttime The Moon Can Only Be Checked During Plenty, as Other Times Are Cloudy Wait for About 1 Minute Facing East From the Marked Location Check the Moon's Shape to Determine the Phase Once you've determined the current moon phase, keep resting until you're one phase away from the full moon. Each rest changes the moon phase, so continue resting the necessary number of times to reach the phase just before the full moon. Note that each rest costs 300 Guild Points, so it's best to prepare them in advance. Moonphases Once the moon phase is just before the full moon, rest at the camp until Evening. If you switch to Nighttime, the full moon will already be up, reducing the number of Nightflower Pollen you can collect. Additionally, it doesn't matter which environment you choose when resting until evening. Accept Optional Quest 'Tempered Balahara' This quest will put you in Windward Plains at Evening right before nightime. So perfect time to let you farm the flower. The quest is given to you by Y'sai in Kunafa Start From the Pop-up Camp in Area 10 Southeast Head to Ephemeral Blossom in Area 10 and Wait Wait 1 Minute for the Flower to Bloom and Collect Nightflower Pollen Fast Travel to the Pop-Up Camp in Area 3 South Jump From the Cliff While on Seikret and Glide Collect the Second Ephemeral Blossom and Return From Quest Accept Optional Quest from Alma and Repeat Steps 1-6 Area 10 Location Area 3 Location Credit goes to gamewith for the pictures! submitted by /u/LeBahz to r/MHWilds [link] [comments]

Idk if somebody mention it already, but here it is for others that lazy to watch the preview submitted by /u/Creative-Desk-9346 to r/MHWilds [link] [comments]

First | Prev | Next --- Memory transcription subject: Slanek, Venlil Space Corps Date [standardized human time]: October 1, 2136 Our evacuation party was fortunate to skirt the orbital battle, and depart the system with a fair distance between us and the Arxur. The Terran transport unloaded its critically wounded passengers at a Venlil border outpost, while the rest of the posse trekked on to Earth. I wasn’t sure how the predators planned to deal with the terrified aliens upon arrival. Marcel had been stabilized by onboard medics, and didn’t want to send Nulia to a refugee site run by predators without him. In fact, I got the feeling that he bore no intention of leaving her in a camp at all. Every Gojid on the vessel gawked at him yesterday, when he launched into a silly song about a twinkling star to put her to sleep. Marcel was the reason I resisted the temptation to disembark, in the relative safety of a Venlil station. After every horror that befell him in space, I was uncertain if he’d ever return to the stars. Our separation could be permanent. The last thing I wanted was for our friendship to conclude with me showing fear and disgust toward his species. If someone told me when I signed up for the humans’ first contact program that I would willingly go to their home world, I would’ve keeled over laughing. But I felt guilty over how my instincts ran amok on the Gojid cradle, and how quick I was to fault the predators for things they had no role in. Was my trust in humanity really that conditional? Were my prejudices still alive? The mere sight of Marcel in the doorway had me in shambles, at our first meeting. Now, I don’t think about it when he snarls or picks me up. I don’t react to any humans’ eyes either, not even strangers or crowds. Maybe I’ve made more progress than I give myself credit for. All sorts of bizarre ideas waltzed through my imagination, when I tried to envision Earth. I was the first Venlil to visit humanity’s home; not even the bravest scientists or diplomats would venture to the “blue marble.” It was a massive step, which might be a far cry from my preconceptions of society. Landing on Terran soil would place me at the whims of their government, and expose me to the general populace. It would offer better insight into what the average predator was like, but was that a positive? I was woefully unprepared for what I had seen, mixing in with the UN military units. As the spacecraft touched down, I tried to remind myself that it was too late to back out. This was not the time for second thoughts; my fright would only contribute to the other passengers’ panic. “Gojid refugees, line up single file and prepare to exit the ship. Anyone who fails to follow the directions of UN soldiers will be hit with a tranquilizer dart, for your own safety,” a grating voice growled over the PA system. “Volunteers are handing out blankets, water, and dried fruit. If you require medication or special accommodations, approach the nearest human in a white coat or red cross insignia. You are safe here. Please do not panic.” I snorted. Easier said than done. The humans’ statements didn’t have the calming effect they desired; there wasn’t a single refugee that didn’t look petrified. One elderly Gojid collapsed with a thud, clutching her chest. The terror generated by this amount of predators could certainly cause a heart attack. Terran medics gestured for everyone to move back, and hurried to cart the cardiac victim out. For the Gojids on board, it must appear they were being towed to a predators’ lair as cattle. Ferocious-looking soldiers with massive guns were corralling them into the open air. Who would believe a beast’s claim, that they would return anyone that wished to leave to a Gojid or Federation territory, as soon as they arranged terms with their government? “Hi, Slanek,” Tyler said hesitantly. The blond human took a timid approach, as if worried about frightening me. As traumatic as his table manners were, the big guy’s intentions were benevolent. He couldn’t help that his taste buds evolved with such a vile proclivity. Like Marcel explained, it was biology that was beyond their control. I was aware that predators consumed meat by definition, and that didn’t negate everything I knew about their rich emotions. Humans weren’t like the Arxur, hunting living creatures; they cultivated cell samples in a lab. What was so amoral about that, other than the fact that it was appallingly gross? It’s on the same level as consuming fecal matter. Don’t exactly want to share a table, or drink out of the same saucer. But it doesn’t have to shape my entire opinion of him. Out of sight, out of mind. “Thanks for saving my life, Tyler. Sorry for freaking out back there.” I pinned my ears against my head, and saw his eyes soften at my scared expression. “It was a good idea on paper, for me to help humanity communicate with civilians. But I had no idea what I was signing up for. It was sensory overload, all the death, predation, and aggression.” “It’s cool. I forget how much you guys hate predators sometimes. I know, Marcel doesn’t…but how could he?” the flesh-eater muttered. Following Tyler’s sharp gaze, my own eyes landed on the redhead. I couldn’t help but notice the looks Marcel shot the Gojid adults throughout the ride. Clearly, his own species picked up on it too. This mission wasn’t the thrilling revenge jaunt he dreamed of. My friend’s right limb was stuffed in a sling, while his dominant arm held the spiky child. He was clutching Nulia to his chest, like he expected someone to take her away. His hazel eyes were glazed over, as he watched the adult refugees stumble outside. A tear rolled down his cheek, which the young Gojid poked with a claw. “Don’t cry,” she whimpered. “Why are you sad?” The human pawed at his eyes. “I’m not. Just tired.” The child tilted her head. “But you JUST slept for hours, Mawsle!” “Marrrr-cel,” he enunciated, rolling the r sound with a reverberating growl. “You can say it, dear.” “Mawah…sell.” Nulia hooked her claws into the corners of his lips, and tugged them upward. I gaped at her bravado, playing with a predator’s eating orifice. “There’s the happy snarl! Stay like that.” Marcel flashed his teeth with genuine amusement. He glanced at me, noticing that Tyler and I were both watching with concern. The vegetarian struggled to his feet, limping toward us at the rear of the line. We shuffled to the exit as a pack, and my nerves surged through my veins. Warm sunlight struck my face, as I took my first look at humanity’s home. The refugee camp was based in a decommissioned airport, judging by its appearance. Various structures had been converted to lodging, and tents dotted the runways. Humans were passing out supplies in what I thought was a former hangar bay. Doctors checked on any Gojids showing signs of life-threatening distress. Camera crews were parked on the other side of a chain-link fence. A few predators shouted the word Venlil, trying to get my attention. For better or for worse, my image was as the first representative of my species here. I forced myself to straighten, and offered the most human-like wave I could muster. UN guards manned the perimeter, allowing only cleared personnel through the gates either way. Alarm rocketed through my veins, as I spotted a ferocious, four-legged predator alongside them. The brown-and-black beast made the humans look cute and cuddly. I was sure its serrated fangs could puncture their flesh like pudding, but the primates seemed oblivious. It sniffed the air with twitching nostrils, and eyed the armed Terrans with hungry pupils. I knew they had forward-facing vision, but how could they be that blind to their surroundings? How could the dangerous beast have drawn that close to them unnoticed? My survival instincts leapt into overdrive. “RUN! PREDATOR! SAVE YOURSELVES! RUN, QUICK!” Wait, Marcel can’t run. He’s going to get picked off first; him and Nulia are an easy target. The humans need to gun down the predator before it gets to us! I bolted back toward the transport, overcome with a blinding terror. Tyler raced after me, closing the distance with long strides. He scooped me up despite my shrill, incoherent protests, and walked back to Marcel and the child. “There’s a lot of predators here, Slanek,” Marcel sighed. “What, you’ve never seen a human before?” I thrashed in Tyler’s grasp, trying to get him to put me down. My ability to formulate words other than “predator” or “run” was greatly diminished. A pitiful squeak escaped from my mouth, and I jabbed a claw at the monstrous quadruped. It was panting and slobbering over the humans’ boots! Were they the most clueless species in the galaxy? Nulia screeched as she spotted the beast, and understanding flashed in Marcel’s eyes. He massaged the child’s neck, seeing her spines pop up. Why didn’t the human seem the least bit afraid? Why didn’t he call to the guards to shoot the predator? “That is called a dog,” Marcel said slowly. “We domesticated them thousands of years ago…which means we trained them to be friendly to humans.” Tyler grinned. “I have one at home! They helped us with hunting back in the old days, but now we keep them as p—” “Companions,” my human interjected. “Dogs are loyal and obedient to us. They’re not sapient, but we have a close bond. Those UN guys have the ‘predator’ situation under control.” I watched as a Terran soldier patted the dog on its head, and its tongue lolled out of its mouth. The human fished into his pocket, pulling out a cookie. He placed it into his hand, stretching his palm as flat as it could go, then offered it to the fanged predator. What was this madman doing? Trying to lose a limb? The beast sniffed at the offering, and wagged its tail. Disbelief filled my chest as it snapped up the morsel, seizing the food without nicking the man’s hand. It barked at the Terrans, who were showering it with toddler-esque praise. Did that non-sapient predator understand their words?! I can’t believe even humans tried to befriend that…thing. Conditioning dogs “to be friendly to humans” means they weren’t always friendly, I mused. And Tyler keeps one in his residence, like that is normal. How can he sleep with it around? Tyler sensed that I calmed down enough, and placed me back on the ground. Was that how human hunting worked; co-opting other predators to do their dirty work? Marcel promised an answer once we were out of danger, but had yet to fulfill his vow. My outburst already drew a lot of unwanted attention though, so I decided not to say anything now. One human took brisk strides toward us, flanked by a group of soldiers. His thinning salt-and-pepper mane, and crisp coat with a UN pin, looked familiar. Dear stars, it was the Secretary-General himself; I recognized him from our landing at the outpost. Was his entourage coming to arrest me for inciting panic? “Slanek, isn’t it? Welcome to Earth!” Elias Meier leaned in, so close that I could feel his breath inside my ear. The air movement tickled the sensitive hairs, and I resisted the urge to paw at it. “Act natural and pose for the cameras for a moment. It’ll be bad PR for everyone if they think you’re afraid of us.” The human official draped his arm across my neck, and I forced myself not to shy away. Why did the predators always have to grab for the vital areas? All he’d have to do would be to lock his elbow, to constrict my throat. “I apologize for the canine presence.” The Secretary-General spoke the words in a booming tone, and I sensed that he was trying to tell the media that I hadn’t freaked out from the humans. “The dogs are necessary for security purposes.” “Security from what?” I whispered. Meier smiled, but did not answer. He slipped his arm from my shoulders, and gestured for us to follow him. I tailed behind the UN leader on shaky legs, terrified to traverse the checkpoint. Marcel and Tyler lurked at the rear, probably to seal off my escape route if I tried to run. The dog was tethered by a thin rope, on closer inspection, but it seemed to be pulling the humans more than anything. Those awful eyes were watching me; its yellowed fangs were the size of my ear. I couldn’t stop hyperventilating. A predator like that could smell my fear, couldn’t it? What could the Terrans do if it lunged at me? A tinted vehicle was waiting with a door ajar, and Meier flicked a hand toward the car. I didn’t need a second invitation to spring into the steel death trap. Marcel and Tyler squished in beside me, while the Secretary-General found a seat opposite us. The Gojid child was inconsolable after the dog sighting, sobbing into my human’s grimy uniform. Meier raised his eyebrows. “Where are your parents, kid? They must be worried sick about you.” “No they’re not!” Nulia wailed. “I called for my mommy and she never came back. She didn’t care if Mawsle or the bad monsters ate me.” Marcel gave her head a gentle pat. “Your mother made a mistake, darling, because she was really scared. She loved you very much.” Tyler nodded. “That’s right. You’re a good kid.” Meier’s eyes lingered on Nulia for a moment. His thinly-veiled displeasure suggested he’d prefer if Gojid children weren’t roaming his planet. Evidently, he decided it wasn’t good PR to force Marcel to leave her behind either. “Anyhow. Sorry about that mess, Slanek. I had no idea the Venlil were sending visitors, though don’t misunderstand me. We’re thrilled to have you here,” the Secretary-General said. “I’ll work out luxurious arrangements for all of you. If there’s anything you want, just ask.” I cuddled up to my human. “T-thank you, sir.” “Anything for our galactic neighbors. I’m pleased that you both returned alive, especially with how symbolic your connection has become here on Earth. Speaking of which…I have some positive news.” Marcel leaned forward. “Positive news?” “Sovlin has been arrested by UN forces. He’s being held in a clandestine facility for alien POWs, and is awaiting trial.” My eyes widened, while my friend’s gaze narrowed. How had the Terrans tracked down the sadistic Gojid? Regardless of their methodology, I was relieved the captain wouldn’t get away with his wretched deeds. If the predators executed Sovlin, it would satisfy Marcel’s wish for his death. The anger boiling inside him was taking its toll on his kind soul. “Take me there,” my human growled. “I want to see him.” Secretary-General Meier exhaled, shaking his head in the negative. “That’s not a good idea.” “So what? Pull some strings. I’m not going to do anything drastic,” Marcel said. “And why would I risk the political fallout, if you did attack an alien prisoner in our custody? There is zero benefit to any party, and we aren’t prepared to host visitors there regardless. You’ll be able to see Sovlin in court.” “C’mon! All I want is a short conversation, Meier.” The red-haired human’s expression was pleading, and his eyes searched the UN leader’s resolute face. “I’ll go along with whatever media strategy you want in return. You know I’m important to our propaganda efforts, at home and abroad.” The UN leader stared out the window in thought. Was Marcel’s claim that he was that vital to the Terran narrative accurate? The Secretary-General crossed his arms with a resigned sigh, like he hated his next actions. A holopad found its way into his hands, and he began typing out a message. “I’m sure I will regret this. I’ll let you peek at his cell from outside. You can enter only if Sovlin wants to see you,” Meier rumbled. “Understand?” Marcel nodded. “Yes.” My ears pinned back against my head. Those predatory eyes brewed with such a deep hatred, that it made me squirm. There was no telling whether the human could…or would restrain his aggression, once his tormentor was within grasping distance. Whatever happened, my primary hope was that this confrontation would bring him peace, at last. --- First | Prev | Next Support my writing on Patreon submitted by /u/SpacePaladin15 to r/HFY [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/SamirDrives to r/CampingGear [link] [comments]

2.20.2020 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct MegaThread Please use this thread for all pre-event hype and speculation, as well as post-event thoughts reactions. Watch & Discuss The event has now ended Watch VOD on YouTube Chat in our Discord! Recap of announcements Tom Nook has an eye for business. That’s why the staple Animal Crossing character took time out of his very busy schedule to host a new video presentation about his latest endeavor, the Nook Inc. Deserted Island Getaway Package. In the presentation, he details the ins and outs of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, launching exclusively for the Nintendo Switch family of systems on March 20. The video covers everything you, a potential Deserted Island Getaway Package customer, need to know to get started: an introduction to your new island life, the basics of home ownership, details about your new neighbors, land development, exploration, crafting and so much more. “The Animal Crossing games offer players a unique and relaxing escape from the stresses of everyday life, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons builds on that by letting players build their own island utopia from scratch,” said Nick Chavez, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “When Nintendo Switch owners pack their virtual bags and move into their new island home, they will experience more ways to customize their Animal Crossing life than ever before. Just like Nintendo Switch itself, the game lets you play the way you want to play.” Before you set off on your own island getaway, check out the full video at https://www.animal-crossing.com/new-horizons/. Some of the highlights of Tom Nook’s information session include: Features new to the series! Life on the Island: Nook Inc. confidently recommends a trip to a remote deserted island. And that’s not just because it’s the only company that offers this type of package! On the island, life is as peaceful and relaxing as it gets. Since the island is deserted, you can create your new life from the very beginning – just like a pioneer! Time flows as naturally as in the real world, including seasons and day and night cycles that mirror real time. DIY: By collecting specific materials around the island, you can craft a wide variety of things, including tools and furniture. DIY workshops teach you how to enrich your life by crafting DIY recipes. As you become more familiar with DIY, you can even learn special skills like changing the color of your DIY furniture or decorating them with custom designs. NookPhone: Nook Inc. will provide some basic necessities and services, including your very own NookPhone. It has standard apps, like a camera and map, but over time, new applications will be added to support your island needs. The camera can be used to take in-game photos all over the island – you can even add fancy filters like all the cool kids are doing! Nook Miles: For players looking for more concrete goals, and to help offer guidance and inspiration on the island, you can take advantage of the Nook Mileage program. As you fulfill certain challenges and experiences, you will earn miles to pay off the cost of the getaway package or, eventually, to exchange for in-game rewards. Rewards range from in-game Nook Inc. merchandise and helpful items that can enrich your time on the island, to tickets that you can use to visit distant islands. Island Tours: These “mystery island tours” are at the whim of the pilot, so you never know where you will end up! Once on these smaller islands, feel free to gather as many items as you want – like DIY materials and creatures – and take them back with you to your island. Party Play: With the Nook Inc. Deserted Island Getaway package, up to eight people can live on one island.* In Party Play, you can call up to three other players to explore the island at the same time. Whoever calls the others will be the Leader, making the others the Followers. It’s easy to change out the Leader, letting others quickly take charge. Any creatures or items found by Followers will be stored in a recycle box at the Resident Services building! Land Development: While you can cross rivers on your island by pole-vaulting and climb elevated land using ladders, you can also change the landscape by adding bridges and slopes. Once your island is fully decked out, you’ll receive a permit to freely pave your own paths, as well as perform major construction like changing the paths of rivers or building and demolishing cliffs. With your own maintenance and construction permits, you can flex your creative muscles on the land itself, not just the stuff on it. NookLink: Yes, Tom Nook likes to put his name on everything. But when it’s a Nook product or service, you know you are getting something that’s high quality. With NookLink, which is part of the Nintendo Switch Online app, you can scan a Custom Design QR Code pattern from previous games Animal Crossing:** New Leaf or Animal Crossing:** Happy Home Designer with your real-life smartphone and then download them to Animal Crossing:** New Horizons. When connected online, you can talk with friends who also have the Animal Crossing: New Horizons game with the Nintendo Switch Online smartphone app using your smartphone as a keyboard or for voice chat. NookLink will launch in March, soon after the selected departure included in your Deserted Island Getaway Package. A detailed breakdown of the Getaway Package experience! Choose Your Island: Before boarding your flight to the island, you will choose the island from a range of options. Choosing to live in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, for example, will affect the timing of the seasons, so select the location that suits you best. When the seasons change on the island, so do the activities. For Northern Hemisphere residents, spring will just be starting when the game launches on March 20, so expect blooming cherry blossoms to show up soon! Orientation: After landing on the island, you will receive a helpful orientation session from the Nook Inc. staff. At this time, you’ll be provided with the tent that’s included with your getaway package. You can chat with other island residents about where you want to set up your new home, and help them choose their home locations as well. Resident Services:** The Resident Services facility is available to support your daily needs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They provide you with services such as the sale of everyday goods, the purchase of unwanted items and helpful advice. Become a Home Owner: The tent provided to you by Nook Inc. is great, but have you considered a house? Home loans have no deadlines, interest or assessment, and you can pay your loan back at your own pace. A house offers much more space than a tent and also includes storage space for any extra furniture and baggage. Once you own a home, you can channel your inner interior designer, setting up the walls, flooring and furniture however you like. You can also use extension and remodeling services to expand and customize your home even more. Customization Deluxe: Animal Crossing:** New Horizons offers more customization options than ever before, from personalizing the look of your character all the way down to skin tone, hairstyle and clothing, to placing buildings and items wherever you want on the island. You can even decorate the inside and outside of your home! Turn that island into a MY land! Airport: This is the first place you will land on the island. (It is an airport, after all.) It’s also available to use 24 hours a day, beginning on the day after your arrival. At the airport, you can invite residents of other islands to your own island via the internet or local wireless. You can also travel and visit other islands yourself! Up to eight people can play on a given island at one time**, so feel free to get a good group together and make some fantastic memories. Island-wide Broadcasts: At the start of each day, Mr. Nook, CEO of Nook Inc., will make a broadcast to all residents, updating them with the latest on important island events and advice about how to best enjoy island living. Features and updates to further your island enjoyment! New Residents: When you first land on the island you will only have a few animal residents living there with you. But as you develop your island from the ground up, more neighbors will visit and choose to move in. You can even invite some of the new residents to live there yourself! There’s nothing better than a welcoming neighbor. Free Updates: Free updates will be added after the game launches, with seasonal events continually added throughout the year. The first free update will be on launch day, March 20. By installing this update, you can celebrate Bunny Day with a special event in April. If you own both Animal Crossing:** Pocket Camp for mobile devices and Animal Crossing:** New Horizons, you’ll receive special items in each game. Details will be announced at a later date on the official Animal Crossing:** Pocket Camp Twitter account. Additional Facilities: As you grow your island, more facilities will be built. This includes a museum showcasing the rich ecosystem of the island, a shop full of ready-made furniture and goods you can’t craft yourself, a tailor offering clothing and fashion items, and a campsite where you can invite guests for recreational purposes. Tourists & Events: Your island will not only be home to new residents, but also tourists as well! These temporary visitors are always welcome and can offer up items that cannot be crafted on the island. Visitors can also participate in fun events like Fishing Tourneys and Bug-Offs, which will pop up throughout the year. Through free updates to Animal Crossing:** New Horizons, new special events and seasonal guests will be introduced. amiibo Support: Animal Crossing:** New Horizons supports amiibo figures and amiibo cards from the Animal Crossing series. You can also invite these familiar faces to Photopia, an island that exists in the game, where you can place models in creative photo shoots. Twitter Takeover: Keep an eye out for social media savvy Tom Nook, who is rumored to take over the @AnimalCrossing Twitter account right after today’s video presentation. Animal Crossing:** New Horizons launches in stores, in Nintendo eShop on Nintendo Switch and on Nintendo.com on March 20 at a suggested retail price of $59.99. In addition to the game, players can accessorize with Animal Crossing:** New Horizons Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch Lite Carrying Cases, available in stores at a suggested retail price of $24.99 each. A special-edition Animal Crossing themed Nintendo Switch system will also be available in stores on March 13 at a suggested retail price of $299.99. The system takes design inspiration from Animal Crossing: New Horizons (sold separately), with lovely pastel green and blue Joy-Con controllers that are white on the back, with matching pastel green and pastel blue wrist straps and a white Nintendo Switch dock, adorned with images of characters Tom Nook and Nooklings Timmy and Tommy. For more information about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, visit https://www.animal-crossing.com/new-horizons/. Remember that Nintendo Switch features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about other features, visit https://www.nintendo.com/switch/. *Up to eight Nintendo Account holders can live on the same island within each game. With one Nintendo Switch system and one game, up to four of those Nintendo Account holders can play on the same island at the same time (additional accessories required). With additional systems and games, up to eight players can play on the same island at the same time via local wireless or online play. Nintendo Switch Online membership and Nintendo Account required for online features. Not available in all countries. Internet access required for online features. Terms apply. nintendo.com/switch-online. Games, systems, additional accessories and Nintendo Switch Online membership sold separately. **Additional games, systems, accessories and/or Nintendo Switch Online membership required for multiplayer mode. Sold separately. FAQ What is a Nintendo Direct? A Nintendo Direct is a pre-recorded video presentation to make game announcements and provide fans with general updates directly from Nintendo. What is the difference between an Animal Crossing Direct and a standard Nintendo Direct? This presentation will ONLY include information about Animal Crossing, unlike a traditional Nintendo Direct that would focus on a variety of games and topics. This one is approximately ~25m in length. What if I can't watch the Nintendo Direct live due to work/school/etc.? If you would prefer a spoiler-free experience, we will be editing the top section of this post to include a direct link to Nintendo's official video replay (once it's available). We will also edit a recap of the announcements into the post body. Just don't scroll down! This helps prevent you from accidentally seeing any trailers or video thumbnails if you visit Nintendo's YouTube channel listing or the Nintendo Direct website. There WILL be spoilers here on the subreddit, so watch the video first! If you see any posts that should actually be here in the MegaThread, please do us a favor and hit the report button. Our SOP for posts is as follows: We will allow one post per announcement. The post we allow may not necessarily be the one that was submitted first. We typically will receive about 15 of essentially the exact same post in the span of about 60 seconds and will select the one that has the best title and links directly to the original source when available. Commentary on the announcement(s) should take place either in this thread or on the related separate announcement post. Each person's specific opinion does not need its own post. submitted by /u/NintendoSwitchMods to r/NintendoSwitch [link] [comments]