I've seen multiple posts like above about offers on ps gift cards (100$ card for 80$). Mostly in USA I believe. Do we have any such offers in India? I'm a new ps5 owner and am looking to optimise my ps expenditure as much as possible. Please share your best money saving strategies for ps subscriptions, digital and disk games.

I have been looking to join a DnD game for, well years – unsuccessfully. If you are in the same boat, consider us! Rather than try to find an existing game to join, I’ve decided to host my own at my house: I have a dedicated gaming room with a table that sits 6 – so, we are looking for 4 more players (the two occupied seats are for myself and the DM).
If you are also tired of trying to find an existing game to join, send me a message with the following information:

• A/S/L
• Experience (in playing RPGs)
• Availability (which nights of week/weekend could you attend)

Below are a few details to consider:
What’s the catch? Well, for most people, I suspect it will be my location: I live in Lago Vista. If you are new to the Austin metro you probably have no clue where that is. That’s okay, I didn’t either until I moved here. :P I am roughly 20-25 minutes west of Cedar Park/Leander. (As a point of reference, the Costco on 1431 is about 25 minutes away).
I have a good friend who has agreed to be the DM. He has considerable experience being a DM for a variety of game systems, and is an exceptional story teller. We will be starting off with the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure module [which for those of you that care is a 5e module]. Our ideal is to run the game 2 nights a month. We will take a (more detailed) poll among the selected players to determine precise day/times for what works best for the most people, but our initial thoughts/preferences are to play on the weekends, twice a month, for about 3-4 hours each session. Just a little bit about me, the DM, and the space we will be playing in:
I’m male in my early 40s, unmarried, 1 dog (who cannot access the dedicated gaming room), business owner, former musician, lover of all things fantasy. (I’ve lost track of how many terrible B films I’ve watched just because they had dragons in them). While I have not played a DnD game before, I am familiar with some of its lore - having read a good number of the Dragon Lance books, all of Salvatore’s work, and I enjoyed all of the Neverwinter Nights video games (as well as myriad other fantasy worlds books & games). I’m an Excel geek, organized, clean, and just in case you are a true unicorn – a massive Battletech/Mechwarrior fan (the reason I have a dedicated game room). I even managed to work a few dragons into a Mechwarrior campaign I DM’d for a friend a while back. It was an unusual campaign for the Mechwarrior setting, but pretty fantastically integrated. If you like, or know of Battletech, you may need a towel for all the drooling when you visit the game room – it’s almost embarrassing the collection I have amassed.
A little bit about the DM (as described by me, not him): Male, also in his early 40s. He is a married, successful businessman working for a ridiculously large company with 2 girls that live with him and his wife part time, lover of animals, sci-fi, fantasy, and a gifted charismatic story teller. He excels at drawing people in and has a true gift for improvising on the fly as needed.
Both of us love beer, cocktails, wine, sci-fi, fantasy, good company, and lots of laughs.
We are both open minded. We don’t care if you are a he, she, we, them, they or whatever. People are people, and that is all that really matters. If you are a purple alien that only eats peanut butter you are more than welcome to join as long as you enjoy having fun and promise not eat us!
A little more about the space: I have plenty of parking – my two separate driveways can park six cars easily (I’ve hosted parties with 20 people or more here). The dedicated game room is not enormous, but can easily fit 6 of us. If we decide we need more room, I do have a very open dining area with a large table. There are refrigerators located close to both of those rooms if you want/need to keep drinks cold, and when we decide we need a break, there are 3 bathrooms in the house. [This place was built for entertaining]. I am fine with discreet vaping indoors [no huge clouds please], but any actual smoking will need to take place outside.

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Hi guys,
New player here. I love theorycrafting and Mesmer is my fav' char so I wanted to submit this idea to you for review and feedback.
The idea is to be a Power melee assassin who messes with your head by summoning clones all over the place, going in and out of stealth and constantly disabling you.
I know the go to for that kind of build is mirage, but honestly while the skills might be best for it, the tree doesn't bring much to the table imo. So I went Chronomancer.
http://gw2skills.net/edito?PiBBw6x/lVwuYJMFGKeMXntaA-e
Let me know what you think and keep in mind this is theorycrafting.
TIA!

Hi fellow mudpad users. I just picked up these 2 new pads today and wanted to review them, in comparison to the G-SR. In the past I did this comparison with the Radar & Jupiter.

- Background -

The Zowie G-SR is a slow control pad, which to the best of my knowledge got its popularity mainly from the CS:GO scene. This was my first pad for getting serious into FPS games, and it's still my main pad to this day. In my experience, the G-SR slows down significantly as it gets used, and my current one is about 2.5 years old. I'd call it on the extreme slow side after the break-in period, and it seems this pad has a kind of cult following, who love the very high "muddy" static friction.
I heard the ZPG1 and Qingsui 2 Pro+ are very comparable to the G-SR in performance and feel, so I wanted to try them and report my experience to others who may be looking for this information. Since I just got these pads today, it should be noted I can't report whatsoever on longevity, durability or consistency over time.

- Qingsui 2 Pro+ -

There are several versions of this pad. My understanding is that the plus version has a different base and stitched edges, as the regular Pro (non plus) version seemed to irritate many peoples' arms with its non-stitched edges. So I forked over the extra $10 for the Pro+ version.
It shipped in a flat box with a potent scent. A chemical scent, like the smell of a permanent marker. I notice moving along the X-axis is faster than along the Y-axis. This is so far true of all the control pads I've tested, to varying degrees, with the Radar being the opposite (it's Y-axis is faster). In gameplay I noticed it a bit more with the Qingsui 2 Pro+ than on other pads, but I'm not sure if it was enough to really mess with my aim.
I think the dynamic friction is less than my old, broken in G-SR, but I think it would be greater than a brand new G-SR. The static friction is so similar to my G-SR that it's hard to call, but I do think it's just slightly less. Still absolutely a mudpad right out the box. I'm surprised how similar it really is to a used G-SR, with the biggest thing separating them being that the XY difference is greater on the Qingsui.
Overall I like this pad quite a bit. I found the transition from a G-SR to the Qingsui to be pretty seamless. I don't have to change the way I aim much at all. My example is perfectly flat out of the [flat] box, with no apparent QC issues.

- GPZ1 -

Called "Zy's Rail" The material for this pad seems to have been chosen by the well known mouse reviewer and Quake player, RocketJumpNinja, in collaboration with Xtrfy, who sent him test samplesto see which one was his favorite. Here's Xtrfy, quoting RJN about the pad's performance:

It has this really interesting blend of control and speed, where if you move slowly, it acts as a control pad, but if you move quickly, it acts as a speed pad. It's like a material version of mouse acceleration but with consistent crosshair movement speed.

Now, I do think there's something to this observation, but I think it may be a bit different than Zy phrased it here.
It shipped rolled up around a tube in a box. So it's not completely flat yet, but it's close enough that I'm pretty sure it'll be flat soon if I keep using it. Has a little "new pad" smell - nothing too strong. Again I can immediately feel the sideways grain, meaning moving along the X-axis is quicker than along the Y-axis, but I did not find it noticeable in gameplay.
Now regarding Zy's above description of the hybrid speed/control character of this pad - there is without question something a bit unusual about the speed of this pad, but I'm not sure it's actually to do with how quick you move your mouse. Right now I think it's actually just an unusual combo of high static friction and lower dynamic friction. It feels like a mudpad when your mouse first begins to move, but as long as you keep it in motion, it feels considerably less muddy - although still in "control" territory.
In my limited experience trying mousepads, it seems more common for one of two things to be the case: either 1) the static and dynamic friction are roughly in step with each other, or 2) dynamic friction is a high compared to static friction. I've heard some people praise the combo of low static + high dynamic, the idea being you don't get that sticky muddy feeling of high static friction which can make tracking a chore, but you still get a nice controlled glide from the higher dynamic friction so you don't sort of, slip all over the place. The Gamesense Radar is exactly such a pad - it's fairly controlled midglide, but is easily moved from a standstill.
But the GPZ1 is the opposite, it's dynamic friction is less than you would expect for it's static friction, and it's the first time I've experienced that in a pad. But it's not necessarily bad. I actually like high static friction and find it gives me needed stability. And I would compare its static friction to the G-SR and also the Qingsui 2 Pro+. But its dynamic friction is definitely a touch less than either of those 2. Perhaps closer to the Gamesense Radar.
Overall I do like the GPZ1, it gives me the static friction I need, and I feel like I can adapt to the higher dynamic friction, especially if I put more time on it.

- Conclusion -

I figured this would be a fine place to rank all the pads in my collection, by friction type, and by my preference at the moment. Right now I only use the Model D Wireless and the stock skates that come with it. I have no objective measure of friction, this is my best estimate going by feel.

- Dynamic Friction -

LOWEST - Radar 3mm black ZPG1 Qingsui 2 Pro+ Jupiter G-SR - MOST

- Static Friction -

LOWEST - Radar 3mm black Qingsui 2 Pro+ ZPG1 G-SR Jupiter - MOST
LEAST FAVORITE - Radar 3mm black ZPG1 Qingsui 2 Pro+ Jupiter G-SR - FAVORITE

Howdy, I am estimating the cost of some home improvements, the most important of which is redoing the wiring in the house. I am new to the world of home improvements so I am going to be pretty stupid when it comes to this stuff.
The house is at least a hundred years old, and roughly 1,100 sqft. It runs on an old fuse box instead of a breaker. It is 4 bedroom, 1.5 bath, with an attic and basement. I figured that the wiring should be replaced ASAP due to the age of the house.
What is the best way to go about doing this, while making sure the job is done well? What are some complications I should take into account when planning the renovation? And most importantly, how much will a renovation like this cost?
Thanks!

What is the best running shoe? There are so many options...
I don't have a budget and willing to spend any amount. I like to do daily training, 6 times a week via HIIT through sprinting everyday and along with that I usually get around 7km's every day in running. My main focus is comfortability and functionality if that helps.
Just looking for a shoe to do it all. Doesn't have to be some super new release of 2023, just a really solid shoe all around.
There are honestly so many options I don't know anymore. I have been eyeing the nova blast 3 though. I don't know anything about running shoes so surprise me!

So I just moved to a new place that has an outdoor washing machine and no dryer. I wash most things on normal w/ Seventh Generation detergent and Everspring liquid fabric soften, then air dry. My clothes have the strangest smell on them and it doesn't go away. It even stinks up my closet when I put my clothes away. I literally don't know how to describe it... doesn't smell anything like human sweat, human funk, body odor, etc. I've tried doing a machine-cleaning cycle on my washer with Dr. Bronner's and vinegar, and the stinky clothes remain.
FWIW I live in Arizona where it is very hot outside. I leave my clothes out for about two hours to dry. Could the smell be from overheating my clothes? It might also be worth noting that my clothes are extremely crispy/stiff, even with fabric softener. I'm at my wit's end!

What's good? I guess this is the part where I talk about myself and my lack of friends. If you like nonfiction novels, you're in for a treat with this post.
I'm 33 and live in southern California. I'm not really the social/hang out and do things all the time type. I'm a homebody, always have been. Usually only going out when my partner drags me 'kicking and screaming' out of the house. Everything with Covid exasperated my antisocial tendencies, to say the least. So I typically only socialize with my coworkers and our clients. I don't crave physical interactions with people, the feeling of it being a requirement to make plans with people is not something I enjoy very much.
I'm here to find an online friend or two. I've been with my partner for 5yrs, literally only looking for a friend. Proud member of the LGBTQ+ community as well. Time zone wise, probably best if you're here in the states.
I'm pretty sarcastic and make self deprecating jokes on a regular basis. My sense of humor can be a little messed up, and I'll probably complain about a lot of things. The plus side to that is that I'm always down for a good vent sesh or good ol' trash talking. I have a lot of interests, but not many hobbies. But I do know how to sew. My latest vest has 15 patches on it that I stitched by hand. I have a collection of puppy teeth and I don't care how weird people think that is. I have a few good tattoos and a few not so good ones. I have 12 piercings, had 13, but that's a story for when I want to laugh at how dumb I am sometimes. I've been working with dogs for over 12yrs, which keeps me pretty active. We have a dog and a cat. Definitely more of an animal person than a people person. I'm a vegetarian. Not religious at all. I'm a product of divorce, shout out to all the single parents. I'm the oldest of my siblings, and that is why I don't have an spawns of my own.
I can eat my body weight in pizza, enchiladas, and hot cheetos. The more painful the hot sauce, the more I like it. Coffee before anything else in the morning is a must. I day drink on my days off so I can't be called into work, that's probably not healthy.... But it makes doing the laundry and dishes more bearable.
I prefer true crime documentaries and trashy reality TV due to the lack of plot and the ability to decompress after a stressful day at work by talking endless trash on the horrible people that go on those shows because they're perfectly content with showing the whole world that they are indeed horrible people. I don't play video games and you'll only catch me on a hiking trail if I was murdered and that was where my body was dumped.
I mostly listen to metal, but you'll still find me listening to early 2000s pop punk, emo, and screamo. Shows are fun, but I deal with chronic pain now that I'm older and I try to avoid the things that are going to remind me of my reality. Mosh pits make me hurt too much now.
Oh, and because my partner says it's "terrifying", I have 6 Capricorn placements in my chart and my Mars is in Sagittarius. So...do with that what you will.
If you've made it this far and don't find me as abrasive as most people do, shoot.
But don't DM with a single word or standalone sentence. Give me something to actually respond to that has more substance than the interaction you'd have with the barista making your overpriced beverage.

I'm still new to the game, but i definitely found most interest in the PvP/WvW side of content.
I've spent the majority of my playtime in the story, so I haven't been exactly practicing PvP, but I did play more games than just for the dailies.
My problem is, I don't understand what's going on... Ever, and i'm not even talking in big teamfights, just normal 1v1. In my defense i just got a new Elite Spec and I'm trying it, but given that I went from Mechanist, with a brain dead playstyle, to an Holosmith, that while still easy, has atleast a rotation and more stuff to do, but that just made me realize that I know nothing on how to read a battle.
I can not recognize big moves, or know when it's the proper time to use some skills, and while yeah, playing more it's definitely the best course of action, I've played 90+ games of PvP, and the only things I've learned are my own character's mechanics, and the maps...
There's gotta be a better way to learn the flow of a battle. Maybe a guild that coaches? Maybe there's a guide out there that I haven't seen, where everything is explained?
(Please don't ask me to play other classes, I'd rather stop playing GW2 entirely rather than using other characters, I just can't)

Hello, so this my trip report:
I started drinking hot water with ginger and some mint leaves for the nausea. Probably through 8-9:40 PM. I don’t like to puke, and frankly haven’t thrown up once in a sold 7 years or so, but I wasn’t willing to do it on psychedelics.
At around 10 PM I put all the seeds in my mouth and started chewing them. At first they were hard, but of course the enzymes in my saliva… and my teeth lol, softened them up. After some time it was pretty much a uniform pulp, with seeds still detectable to the touch of my tongue/between my teeth.
After 20 minutes of chewing this pulp up further, in an attempt to make sure no seed remains unable to be digested by my stomach, as well as an attempt to maybe start some sublingual absorption, I finally let it go down the hatch.
It went down my oesophagus in three parts, as I wanted to make sure before each part, that it really was all ground down by my teeth.
So finally, it was all gone. Now I was ready for the tripping part. I played some games, and I started remembering some interesting things, unrelated to the games at all, about my childhood.
It took me aback slightly, and made me believe that I’m entering some sort of psychedelic headspace. This had me excited I’m not gonna lie, but I didn’t let that get the best of me, because I still wasn’t sure of anything.
Couple minutes passed, I got bored of playing and put on some music, and I noticed my arms were feeling heavy. When I focused my attention on that, I started feeling nauseous.
Immediately I started think “okay, the Morning Glory seeds is definitely getting absorbed, but that still don’t mean it’s LSA for sure. Could just be the other alkaloids in em.
Well, I started feeling really hungry so I got some candy and went to bed, where I started watching a cartoon show. I wasn’t terribly interested by the show, but I think I did laugh a couple times at it maybe?
While watching it I was somewhat thinking about GTA Vice City, I think, because I’d seen screenshots from that game earlier in the evening, right after ingesting the seeds.
After I was all done with my candy, and bored of the show, I went to masturbate to pass the time. Beating the ole shmeatstick, I noticed I was feeling kinda funny. With that in mind, I did my business,
And
Almost immediately I felt an increase of the ‘trippy’ feeling. I started noticing visual effects all around me. Everything had a sort of visual effect on it, I can only describe as the acid effect lol. Everything has this grain, oversaturation hue on it it.
Everything seems sharper, brighter.
Aside from the outer effects. My headspace is getting really weird. Perhaps because of the vasoconstriction, or partly because of it, my body feels hypersensitive and numb at once.
I know the sensation im feeling in my head, if it was exponentially risen by 100, it would mean I’d be off my shit beyond any rescue attempt. Im talking let that bo die he gone.
But it wasn’t all the way there. I remember in that time, I was thinking: “man im feeling loopy. Im not sure i like this”.
I had some trouble formulating thoughts quickly, efficiently, but not the point LSD wit weed had me at once…
I left the bathroom, got all dressed and went to eat (again lol)
When I entered the kitchen, the floor again was under the acid effect. It looked really bright, and as if there was this fog all over it, maybe 5 cm off the ground level. I was noticing this and was very entertained, because I still knew what was going on with me, and wasn’t completely demented like I was on acid.
I ate some fruit and they were exquisite.
Then I went back and laid down in bed. Then I was on Reddit for… idk 3 hours maybe? Pretty much without break. I tried to sleep briefly, but after maybe 10 minutes I just accepted that it ain’t gon happen at all.
But, during this night I pondered the important issue, most prevalent problem in my life, and even tho it’s certainly not a solved case, I do feel somewhat better, especially about the fact how well I could collect my thoughts and make them into sentences to write down, than when I wasn’t off the LSA. Thanks to that, I could explain to myself some important boundaries, and show myself some acceptance and understanding.
Honestly I’m feeling pretty blessed. I feel this lovey feeling that maybe you lot feel on psychedelics. Just seeing this morning makes me giddy lol. And I’m really craving a cigarette hahaha. I’m feeling somewhat nostalgic… which in my case is s very good thing.
I’ve been on this sort of feeling for a couple days now for some reason, but this has grown now since I ate the seeds…

I am new to Docker, not extremely knowledgeable when it comes to networking, as it is definitely not my background. I try to read and find videos as best I can to figure out what to do.
Have a FWG set in router mode behind my ISP and has worked flawlessly for well over one year. I have 4 Unifi APs that were set up prior to my FWG installation, and they are fine, but want to set up the Unifi controller to update and fine tune the APs.
I found the recommendation for the script from Michael Bierman - https://github.com/mbierman/unifi-installer-for-Firewalla
I have used WinSCP and have SSH into my Firewalla Gold and can see the directory.
Do I know need to place the script previously mentioned into Open Terminal Window in SCP and run that? Does it go to the root directory of the FWG or elsewhere?
I currently have my network LAN set up as 192.168.X.X. Will that get automatically changed when the Unifi controller gets set up into 172.16.XX? Or is there a way to keep that the same?
Sorry for the newbie questions. I know I'm not an expert, and hate to brick the FWG or knock my internet offline for hours as I try to figure things out.
Thanks for your help and advice in advance!

TLDR: friend has outed me and acts like it’s no big deal. Advice?
My best friend has outed me twice by now, if my co worker wasn’t so stupid he would’ve actually pieced together that I was carrying. My job is pretty pro gun and out of seven people in my department, four of us carry. I don’t like telling people because then they tell more people which has happened to an old coworker of mine. nothing ever comes of it but I don’t want people knowing I carry. The problem is my best friend (who I work with) keeps making jokes about it and saying either people can’t hear him or people don’t care. Since I have told him his brother now knows I carry because he made jokes about it to his brother. At the gym once we were messing with each other and he says not quietly “yea we’ll what if I just shouted that you have a gun” which resulted in my quickly shushing him. What’s really got me worked up is today we were doing some common horseplay at work and his hand accidentally hits my gun and he says pretty loudly around my other co worker “hey what’s that on your hip”. My coworker goes “are you carrying your gun” (I just bought a new one and showed him) I had to play it off and my friend goes “ha look how big eyed this guy got”. Again not that big of a deal at work but it could be in public. Have you guys ever dealt with a situation like this and if so how did you handle it? I can’t really distance myself either because I work with him and don’t want to cause bad blood at the work place and if I say anything (which I have in the past) he will just play it off like it’s no big deal, he’s pretty immature. Even if I don’t get replies I just had to get that off my chest because again I can’t tell anybody because nobody but him and his brother know I carry.

Hi everyone, it’s been a long time since I’ve had gamer friends or even online friends. I’m getting a PC again this week, so I’m hoping to get into more social games again. I play a lot of single player though, so it’d also be fun to talk to others about single player and retro games, trade recommendations, etc.
I’m usually free after around 6pm Pacific on weekdays and don’t tend to do much on weekends. Voice chat is best but text ok too.
About me:

• I grew up with Nintendo consoles only and am only recently getting to play Playstation 1-5 and Xbox games for the first time
• I have a decently sized physical collection of Switch, DS, 3DS, PSP, Vita, PS1-5, Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbone games which has been fun to build up
• I used to play a lot of mobas, Overwatch, POE, and MMORPGs but the monetization and incentive structures on most of those games today is pretty off putting.
• I’m considering a return to FFXIV though, and I’ve heard Valheim is also good for community. I’d be interested in any survival craft type games.
• I’m also down to play console multiplayer, especially co op.
• A lot of new indie games are PC only so I’m excited to get into those too.
• I’m also into collecting anime figures, and anime/manga (though I haven’t actually watched much anime recently).

Feel free to PM, or my discord is violetsqed#9491.

Dellfriar became the only operational asylum in the world. Everything had collapsed, outside the Medieval castle, filled with laughing madmen. The skies outside had darkened and the world out there was entirely depleted of sanity. Only in our house was there any joy or reason. Only we possessed any agency that wasn't purely survival instinct. Our straight jackets and drugs and cells kept us isolated from the infectious and rabid degeneration of humanity. We stayed meek and contained as the rest of the world boldly spilled the noise of an era dominated purely by a singular human species. We fasted on grapes and dew as the last remnant of civilization devoured itself in seventy nights of terror, until things became utterly silent. Our song of bedlam remained as one continuous strain until that last shadowed silence fell.
Then it was our turn. We passed through the window and flew as ravens, twenty or so patients of Dellfriar. We were the Choir, the ones sent by our shiny new god.
We saw two suns hung in the sky, for Liminiel had made a second star. All had changed. Man was gone, and we, as ravens, were not intruding in the landscape where animals walked upright and spoke amid the wreckage of the cities. No more were the beasts not as men. They sat outside coffee shops holding broken cell phones and sipping empty tea cups and staring vacantly, trying to remember what their life as an animal was like, before. It was futile, for only the passing flock of patients as ravens knew the truth. Among us there was one crow, and as an animal that had not changed at all, the crow spoke as a human with proficiency and told them they were to know the truth, only in time.
Cory's promise to the ones below, made them wait for his return, anticipating that the secret would come freely. I doubted they would play no part in our survival. In the ruined world of dreamy skies, Man's Bane fell below our shadowed wingbeats.
We landed where we were told to go, by Aureus. The spell of Circe wore off and we became as we were, armed humans in straight jackets and giggling on the castle's drugs. We had flown backward in time and arrived at the height of the decades before our world had come to be. I sensed that I was within myself, watching from a farflung aeon. Some part of me existed at the very end of time and was looking at me, seeing what I was seeing. I was not interfered with or communicated with, just observed. I had always felt watched, but suddenly, as I stood there gazing at the Mirror of Time, I realized who I truly was. I knew I was also some being from many ages into the future. I knew I would remain as one of the very last. Part of me considered that I should, at some point, relay a record of my adventures. I had existed long before and long after, but it was those moments, knowing who I eternally was, that changed me. I felt like I was no longer innocent, and in a much different way than any thought, action or experience had ever made me feel before. Even going insane had not felt so different.
The Choir stood and admired themselves. As we looked we perceived an infinite number of possibilities in the Mirror of Time. It was Cory who broke our trance.
"The trap is that the more possibilities of your fate that you witness, the less there actually are. No dream you have in the mirror will come true, after you have seen it. Look away or lose first your best life, and then your second best and so on, with each gaze into the magical reflection. It will take all from you if you stare too long. You will eventually cease to exist, I am sure." Cory told us.
Not one of the Choir was willing to look at the mirror after hearing such a description. We went around it and beheld the object of our errand.
"Isn't this exactly like when we took such gems for the cats to make their Majara?" Cory asked me, in Felidaen. His meows distracted the rest of the Choir around us, but didn't reveal what he was asking me. I meowed back:
"It is, except now we are stealing for-" I agreed. and added in English: "-Aureus."
"Seems like this is not a good plan. We know that evil is-" Cory meowed and added in English: "-Aureus."
"For now we bide our time and help. When this is complete we will have our chance to stop-" I meowed and added: "-Aureus."
"Are you two meowing about Aureus?" Jacoby the Disorderly asked me. He used to work as an orderly at Dellfriar, but became a patient. From there his spiral into madness had led him to being transformed into a raven and sent flying through time and space to the distant city where a mirror tested all who wished to exist.
There was a gem to steal, and as my crow had pointed out, there always would be. We worked for Aureus and there was no sense in wasting anything. Aureus was a god and we could be faithful or we could be heretics. Only as heretics could we kill another god. We had to tell ourselves we knew what we were doing.
It was all too insane, the murders and mayhem. Crossing from world to world as ravens, stealing the essence, crystalized to us as glowing gems. I was terrified, knowing we were assembling something horrible for Aureus. Whatever it was, we needed something like the book of evil to tell us how to reverse our efforts and stop Aureus. Except we had no such book and no idea what Aureus was making.
There were yellow robed people who stood frail and short, armed with carved clubs too light to move a croquet ball, let alone cause us any harm. They guarded the gem fiercely, not realizing how much stronger and more violent we were. The Choir cut through them in seconds, glass bottles and chains and a razor sharp clawed hook making short work of the natives of the mirrored city.
After we had killed them all we took the gem, or at least, Jacoby did. He began sneezing and then the ground shook and we all fled, taking him along with us. Jacoby carried the gem as we stood on the raven's gesture, a glowing mist to us, visually. There was no actual mist or my right hand would have ached. We could see it and so could the people around us. Only we were enchanted to fly back home, and they could not follow us. At least that is what we presumed. We never saw them again, but other enemies, such as the Folk of the Shaded Places or the Fen and the Fell or even the cat-umbramancers, could follow us with their teleportation abilities.
We flew back and saw the recursion of the beast-men and the times before the end of Man. There we arrived at Dellfriar, standing throughout the times until the moment we arrived from when we had come. Cory advised me:
"If we don't die trying, perhaps we could fly south, instead of to the castle?"
"We would die." I was certain.
"In almost every probability of seven-out-of-seven." Cory clicked in Corvin. It meant that no other outcome was possible. The exception was when something impossible happened, which is what Cory was saying we should gamble our lives on.
I sighed. I told Cory: "You mean that with a component, presumably the last or most important one, if we have no other option, we fly away from the castle with? I don't know if it is even possible. When we are as ravens we fly in one direction, from or to the castle. We might not even be able to deviate our flight. I am certain we would die."
"Death is always certain." Cory said. He thought it was funny. He added his own favorite joke: "Death will always happen."
"Right." I agreed. We sat and waited in the darkness. The morning brought us our breakfasts in our cells. We sat there and waited for Aureus.
Eventually Aureus came to us. The gem of the mirror people was taken from Jacoby.
I asked Aureus directly:
"How many more gems or jewels will we need?" I asked Aureus.
"You think to know what I am doing?" Aureus asked me.
I felt terrified. Aureus suspected my treachery. Aureus asked me, not sounding too angry, but rather, perplexed: "Piecing together what I am making? Is it another Majara? No. I have designed it myself."
Aureus just stood there blinking at me. I asked, nervously:
"What is it?" I asked. Aureus monologued for a very long time, saying:
"It will make me seventy times more powerful. It will be like I have wishes, no - boons, of the gods. And such would be unlimited. I think I am calling it the Amulet of Aureus. The power of the Majara would be less than this talisman. I know of all of these parts of this thing from Creation, from the pages I have collected. I have learned that each world is part of another world. Each universe is part of another universe. And you see, in nature we can find patterns from all these other worlds. With those patterns it is possible to see into those worlds. And when we look through time and space and see the remnant of those worlds, we have, in our own way, a path to them. So we go and take the shining molecule from each of these worlds, not long before they die anyway. It is just the last spark of a dying ember. It is harmless in the light of the brighter particle within me, enhanced by each of the pieces of the center, than is near mine. There are two suns in the sky, and I intend to become a kind of third. Mine however, is much hungrier. I will be more of what you might call, a black hole."
"You are going to become a black hole?" I asked.
"I already have a piece from one inside of me. It is a hellgate. It can eat anything and possess anyone. I am already hungry and unstoppable." Aureus continued.
"I guess all of us are made of particles that are inevitably stuff from the stars. You're saying one of your particles is from a black hole." I said. "That doesn't make you a black hole. It means that some immeasurable fraction of you is the remnant from something from a very long time ago."
"That's just it. The time doesn't seem to matter. I already know the outcome of this. You find it hopeless and cooperate. All of your friends, the Choir, they are expendable. They all die, or whatever. Fate isn't entirely sealed. We both know what happens to you. I can see it in your eyes that you know your fate. Except it is changing, uncertain. I have one fate and that is to live as a god and then die one day and become as a black hole, as I decompose from my living energy. In part of my consciousness I can feel myself as the black hole, destroying whole galaxies. It is my will, and you are as what you are and I am as what I am. That is who we be. For now you must serve me, because it is your path. Don't change your path." Aureus told me.
"I live until some distant time, then so must you. Or we both die." I said. Aureus considered my forecast and said:
"It doesn't matter if I live to complete this or if I die and become the inward cascading darkness that takes all things into it. The horizon of my mind tells me that the time is irrelevant. Even the age of the whole world is insignificant to the scale of the black hole. My existence, even as a god, is but a speck, and trivial beyond measure, to the awesomeness of the black hole. Remember that the first to be consumed will be you and your crow. Then the whole asylum and then the cities beyond and finally the continents. When those are taken it will be the broken remains of your world and those as crumbs as the worlds of your system are all eaten. Then the very suns of your system, the old and the new, both will be eaten. Those before the other systems and then the whole galaxy are eaten. All of it in the incrementally and exponentially growing moments of time. In the end I shall have eaten an entire galaxy, but it will take forever. For now I am in the very nature of my being. It matters not if I die in this moment or in a thousand years. Such a span of time is forgotten against the awesome and endless aeons of the time I will spend eating the whole galaxy as a black hole. And you see, I am not really afraid to become that because I am conscious of such, in the core of who I am."
"I am not going to betray you, not until I know how." I told Aureus.
"You must do as I tell you, that is the only way you can contribute to this world's longevity." Aureus said and then left me and Cory sitting in my cell.

Hello! I've been playing both Middle-Earth: Shadows games for a long-time now. I technically haven't finished either (currently just goofing around and killing Grunts and Captains in the Shadow War in Shadow of War and haven't booted up Shadow of Mordor since I got SoW), but I've put hours into both and I love them dearly.
Firstly, once I finish Shadow of War properly, would it be best to start a new file? I know there's a sort of "endless" post-game content, but should I just do that forever or would it be more fulfilling to go back through the storyline and meet new Captains, Warchiefs, and Overlords from scratch, and do that over and over again equally forever?
And secondly, I want to play Shadow of Mordor again as well, but I feel like I'll miss all the new and exciting gameplay features SoW added (new Nemesis System traits and features, Ologs, etc). Does SoM still hold up?
Thank you so much in advance! I knew this was something I wanted some community feedback on.

I’m not sure where to start here cuz I know the current issue is a straw that broke the camel situation.
Basically I (27F) have an amazing sister (25F) who I love very much and admire as much as I envy her. I in no way want to demonize her here. She is highly intelligent and driven and is perusing a career that takes a lot of her time and focus and will require her to demonstrate complex knowledge and high levels of patience and empathy. I know she can and will do great things. She’s found a wonderful man and I can tell you that relationship is all but confirmed to be marriage endgame. My sister is amazing and I’m so proud of her and I want nothing but the best for her.
However, I don’t think she actually likes me? I know she loves me like you love any immediate family but I don’t think she actually enjoys my presence? I have noticed that most any effort to spend time together, be it specific or broad (think wanna see a movie Saturday or wanna make dinner together this week?) is met with non committal responses or flat out rejections (‘boyfriends coming over for an hour tonight so I can’t’ ‘sorry this week is a study week’ ‘sorry already made planes with a friend!’) it almost feels like she has a grab bag of other plans and I’m just never a thought on her end. Our interest intersect at a very niche topic but even then it feels like I carry any conversation when we do get talking.
The current issue stems from two particular past issues. 1) I always offer her food when I make it. I don’t like going to grab fast food or cook for just myself so I always make a point to ask anyone home if they want me to make enough for them. I see the act of providing food for others as a love language. So it hurts when other people in the house make food and don’t ask me if I want any. 2) when growing up my sister was the top student. Straight A’s, lots of friends, cheer captain, the works. She developed an anxiety disorder around this time and would often snap at me. Our mom would step in but tell me privately it was because she ‘felt safe around me’ however 10 years later and I still hear her voice echoing the words ‘you are so fucking stupid, I hate you.’ In my head. I know on some level she didn’t mean it. We had a confrontation about it before and she said she doesn’t even remember saying it, but she still apologized. I still gave her an ultimatum that day we talked. She was never allowed to treat me like a verbal punching bag again or I was done with her. It’s been years now so I’m very sure she forgot that. And clearly she’s stressed out again with the new job training she’s going through.
Today she came out of her room after taking a test and I’d finished cleaning the house, I told her I’d waited on her to have lunch and ask what she wanted. She said she’d just have one of the ready meals we had in the fridge. After a few minutes of shaking off my disappointment and searching for something for myself I decided to have a ready meal too. (Here I’ll say she did ask for there specifically but she had eaten ones I’d asked for a few weeks before so I figured one box would be fine) my sister snapped at me for eating her food. I explained I’d only wanted to try one since I hadn’t gotten a chance before and then exactly the same way she cursed me before all those years ago she mutters ‘you’re so annoying’ A monumental step down compared to ‘you’re so fucking stupid, I hate you.’ But the way she said it has it ringing in my head all over again. I tossed the frozen meal back into the fridge and neither of us have tried to even be in the same room since. I feel like if I brush this off I do myself a disservice, but at the same time it feels like it’s too stupid an incident to throw a fit over. She probably won’t even remember this next week and I’ll still have her words echoing in my head making me feel like I’m worthless and a burden on my family.
I just really need some advice: Should I remind her of the ultimatum I gave her and demand an apology? Should I do us both a favor and just not try to reach out again? Should I such it up and just move on?