Hello everyone, Have some items up for trade
All the buyouts for the selected items are just because of the rules.
TradeLink Steam Profile Twitter
I am open to discussing trades on Steam or Discord: Ab1r#1680 , feel free to add me there to discuss.
Some of the tradeable items are listed as follows:

Item	Condition	Float	Notes	B/O	Availability
★ Karambit Knife Bright Water	FT	0.20		615$	Tradeable
★ ST Bowie Knife Tiger Tooth	FN	0.01		280$	Tradeable
★ Gut Knife Fade	FN	0.00		224$	Tradeable
★ Shadow Daggers Doppler	FN	0.01		205$	Tradeable
★ Shadow Daggers Tiger Tooth	MW	0.07		174$	Tradeable
★ Stiletto Knife Safari Mesh	FT	0.35		172$	Tradeable
★ Gut Knife Tiger Tooth	FN	0.05		165$	Tradeable
★ Falchion Knife Bright Water	FN	0.06		150$	Tradeable
★ Flip Knife Forest DDPAT	FT	0.35		142$	Tradeable
★ Navaja Knife Vanilla				131$	Tradeable
★ Moto Gloves Cool Mint	BS	0.75		125$	Tradeable
★ Navaja Knife Crimson Web	FT	0.19		105$	Tradeable
★ Driver Gloves Racing Green	FT	0.28		43$	Tradeable
AWP Asiimov	BS	0.52		72$	Tradeable
ST M4A1-S Cyrex	MW	0.14		52$	Tradeable
AK-47 The Empress	MW	0.11		43$	Tradeable
AK-47 Neon Rider	FT	0.22		35$	Tradeable
ST AK-47 Neon Revolution	FT	0.33		33$	Tradeable
AK-47 Asiimov	FT	0.32		30$	Tradeable
AK-47 Wasteland Rebel	FT	0.24		26$	Tradeable
AWP Hyper Beast	WW	0.39		25$	Tradeable
M4A1-S Chantico's Fire	FT	0.36		21$	Tradeable
P2000 Fire Elemental	FN	0.05		20$	Tradeable
AWP Chromatic Aberration	FT	0.28		20$	Tradeable
M4A4 Cyber Security	MW	0.13		19$	Tradeable
M4A1-S Hyper Beast	WW	0.39		23$	Tradeable
AK-47 Neon Revolution	FT	0.31		16$	Tradeable
M4A4 The Emperor	FT	0.21		13$	Tradeable
FAMAS Commemoration	FT	0.20		12$	Tradeable
Desert Eagle Kumicho Dragon	FT	0.25		12$	Tradeable
USP-S The Traitor	BS	0.80		10$	Tradeable
Glock-18 Bullet Queen	WW	0.44		7$	Tradeable

& more
Some prices might be outdated.
Note: I have new items coming and going daily and everything is not included in this list but everything is up for trade just send an offer!
TradeLink: https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=201510509&token=5HbDjuiH
Check my steam discussion if you want to have a random CS item for free.

Death of My Mentor
So this is the fourth of my true paranormal encounters.
The first you can find on this subreddit.
It’s called “Devil at My Door.”
Second one was broken up into three different parts about the Circus Circus in Reno and I cant recall if the fourth story was before or after the second one.
I’m tabling my third encounter because this fourth one will make the third make more sense.
Last thought before the story.
Many have lampooned me for being a writer of fiction.
I want to let you all know that yes, I write fiction but this is a true story.
The year is 2016
Somehow I ended up becoming the general manager of the infamous Rainbow Bar and Grill on the sunset strip about two years before this event.
The head chef of the Rainbow whose name is Miguel Murillo, had rejected the three or four managers who tried to run the place between my reign and the reign of Tony and Mike, the original managers who ran the joint for 56 years respectively.
They retired and Miguel all but chased out the fuckboi new managers one by one until I came along.
The OG staff were like “I can’t believe how much Miguel has taken to you. We all thought you were dead meat.”
He started immediately by showing me how to fix the shitty ac units in the A-frame, where the breakers were, what light switches did what, how to handle the 100 year old shitters upstairs dumping fecal matter onto the guests at the downstairs bar with a wet dry vac and a pen in hand ready to comp away the shit in their hair and on their plates.
At a certain point, I got the vibe that Miguel was scrambling to pass on his legacy to someone he thought could carry the torch. It was an honor but also concerning. He was only 63, I didn’t think he was going to pass on so soon.
Little did I know…
Monday night at the Rainbow.
I’m eating habanero clam linguini that Miguels younger brother Sabino, who was the other head chef and a year Miguels junior, always made without me asking when he knew I was hungover. There’s a table in the kitchen for employees and regulars to chill at and eat or whatever and Im sitting their with the pasta.
Miguel sits across from me.
“Hey baby. How’s the comeda?”
Miguel was old hollywood and called everyone he liked “Baby”
He was always upbeat and lived like it all ain’t no thang.
His eyes drooped and I was encumbered by the weight of the world I finally saw on his old and sagging shoulders.
I asked him what was the matter.
He told me that he wasted his whole life at this place. He said that it has killed him and then the tears faded from his churlish eyes and with conviction and furrowed brows he told me to not let this place kill me and to get out. Get out soon, baby. It’ll kill you too.
He put the happy and in charge mask back on and went back behind the line like nothing happened.
I couldn’t shake the gravity of what he said. It followed me like that evil sun thing from the third Mario game.
The next day, the owner fired our prep cook Juan. He deserved it. He was drunk AF but then, he was always drunk and so was the owner. Miguel pleaded for them to let us bring Juan back because shit fell apart in the kitchen that week.
Sunday comes.
I’m pissed at having to make pizzas each night in a three-piece suit and I pick up the phone, call Juan. Tell him that I am sending an Uber and to get his ass back here asap.
The owner sees Juan walk in.
He yells at me.
I’d had it. Told him this is Miguels and my kitchen and to kick rocks.
He backs down and returns to his scratchers on the patio.
About 6:30pm
I’m having a steak sandwich in the kitchen again.
Miguel calls my cell.
“Hey baby. Did you find someone to replace juan for tomorrow?”
“Fuck that man. I brought Juan back. Told the owner this is our kitchen.”
Miguel choked up and exhaled.
“I’ll see you soon baby.”
Ten minutes later.
First, David the bar back (Miguels son) starts screaming and crying, curls up in fetal position in the middle of the kitchen.
Next Sabino screams “My brothers dead.”
Im startled and confused.
“What? Which brother?”
“Pinche Miguel! Ijo le punta!”
I told everyone to calm the fuck down. I just spoke to Miguel ten minutes ago for fucks sake.
David calms down and tells me that Miguel had a valve in his heart rupture at 4pm, he went to Cedar Sinia at 4:45, was pronounced dead at 6:33pm. He literally died as soon as we hung up.
I break down. Now its my turn.
I am sobbing and lock myself in the office.
Get drunk.
Kick all the patrons out of the restaurant like Jesus chasing the money changers out of Jerusalem.
Finally, I go to the end of the dining room to switch off the neon rainbow sign.
I hear a crash and turn around.
Table twenty is galloping like a stallion, levitating for about five seconds.
“Get out of here, baby. This place will kill you too.”

I'm going to take a provably unpopular stance and go into detail explaining why I think Peragus is not just a fun and thoughtful level, but also why I think it was designed and executed well. This is stupidly long, so be prepared.

Peragus Viewed Through the Lens of Design Intent

Before beginning to talk about why I enjoy Peragus and why I think others often do not, I think it's helpful to establish what Peragus actually attempts to do in order to analyze whether it is successful in its goals, and also why its design intent strongly impacts how people perceive the level as a whole.
Game levels are not always (or even often) just a calculus of "will this be fun?" Often, their design is imbricated with the game's themes, pacing and tone. This can range from the obvious--there is a reason Dead Space takes place on a run-down, damaged vessel with bad lighting, for instance--to the subtextual: is the reason Dragon Age: Origins concludes on the top of Fort Drakon, the very simbol of the King's power in Denerim, meant to represent the player overcoming the forces in Ferelden which stood against them and rising to the heights of power? Or is it meant to be a nod to Alistair, and the future which is intended for him?
However, between the obvious and the subtextual is, I would argue, a third category which often represents major design decisions which nevertheless are not directly tied to core gameplay components (such as movement, combat, or the plot of the game at large) and are focused instead on achieving a specific and narrow design objective, such as the creation of a unique tone or atmosphere. For simplicity's sake, I will refer to this as Structural Design, and this is the level at which I believe Peragus operates.
With this in mind, what is Peragus's design intent, and what is that design intent intended to accomplish? Let us first examine, in broad strokes, what Peragus actually does to the player, and from there we can work to extrapolate the broader intent of Peragus as a level. Peragus:

1. Unceremoniously dumps the player into an unfamiliar situation with no known allies, where the only two living beings they encounter are of suspect natures and loyalties;
2. Continually suggests the possibility of further human interaction to the player, only to continue pushing it further and further away, eventually revealing it was never possible at all. This also serves to make Peragus into a 'ghost station', where your only human interaction besides Kreia and Atton are the holo-logs of people you will never meet--because they died before you even awoke--speaking with great anxiety about the terrifying last days of their lives;
3. Goes to great pains to ensure that every victory is immediately followed by a defeat: you open the holding cells, but the admin terminal is cut off; T3 unlocks the mining tunnels, but is immediately ambushed and eliminated; you get through the mining tunnels, but the airlock is shut against you; you breach the airlock and enter the dormitory level, but the miners are all already dead, and the turbolift is sealed against you; you unlock the turbolift and can use the Harbinger to get to the fuel depot, but now you are on another ghost ship, with Sith present and hunting you; you reach the fuel depot access, but Kreia is badly wounded en route. At no turn do you feel in control of anything, often feeling as if you're just barely staying ahead of disaster;
4. Systematically removes pillars supporting the player, including the "death" of T3, the revelation that the HK-50 unit which was supposed to be your property was the architect of your capture, and Kreia's departure from the party and wounding by Sion;
5. Sequentially ambushes the player with unexpected encounters at extremely high threat for their level, eventually moving all the way to stealth ambushes by Sith Assassins.

Now, I strongly suspect that for many people I have just provided a convenient list of the exact reasons why they don't like Peragus. However, I am going to make the controversial argument that Chris Avellone does not simply hate his playerbase and did not design a level solely to make them suffer. To analyze the intent behind these design decisions, let's quickly take a look at the broader themes of KOTOR 2 overall:

1. Trauma and wartime PTSD, with an emphasis on redemption and/or coming to terms with one's past
2. Isolation from an in-group (Jedi), society as a whole (you are treated like a Jedi, even though the Jedi refuse to claim you), and the self (the loss of the Force and the Exile's inability to grasp what happened to her)
3. The failure of authority figures and systems to adapt to change or challenge without repression
4. Betrayal, both of ideologies and individuals, by superiors and juniors/inferiors, and also the self (Atris is queen here)
5. Self-Reliance and Actuation
6. Despair and Hopelessness
7. Disdain and/or disregard for common people's suffering

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it addresses the core themes of the game, and works well for our purposes. As you'll note, not every single theme is addressed well in Peragus; the Exile's trauma and PTSD, as well as isolation from the Jedi and the Force, are touched on on the edges but largely left as teases for the player, with the promise that they will learn more in the future. Similarly, while the failure of authority is touched on very lightly with the intra-miner conflict over whether to help or sell the Exile, the sub-plot with Coorta is extremely tangential and, unlike in other cases where challenges to authority are presented, we as the players are clearly not meant to sympathize with the challenger (Coorta); I would go so far as to dismiss this plotline as relevant to the correlated theme.
Yet a stunning amount of the remainder matches with shocking--and repeated--closeness to the game's themes:

1. There is hardly a module in Peragus where we don't see a betrayal. Excluding the ubiquitous presence of mining droids--whom we are constantly reminded betrayed their handlers through the presence of corpses, blaster scarring and holo-logs--there is also HK-50, who betrays the crew of the Harbinger, as well as the station administration and Coorta through his play-acting as the maintenance officer, as well as his "master" the Exile; Coorta, who betrays the station administration and his own boss, Sien, whom he indirectly murders; and Sion, who betrays Kreia once more on the Harbinger (though of course, their exact relationship is not known to the player at the time). Although no direct betrayal occurs through them, Peragus also contributes to an overall atmosphere of uncertainty and mistrust by cultivating a mysterious veil around the pasts of Atton and Kreia, forcing the player to question whether or not their own companions can be trusted.
2. Virtually the entirety of Peragus is done entirely in single-player, placing the Exile (or T3) alone against the unknown, and often truly dangerous, threats of the station. Even during those sections where you play as another character or gain additional party-members, these companions are lost suddenly twice: once when T3 is ambushed by HK-50, and once when you are ambushed by Sion. It also focuses somewhat on actuation, with the Exile starting to recover her connection to the Force, beginning her journey to come to terms with her past almost from the moment she awakes.
3. Despair and hopelessness is the big one. Peragus is deliberately devoid of human life, but the station was almost paralyzed by indecision and concern even before the fatal mining accident occurred, with different staff at each others' throats; mounting casualties from sabotage; and even more mundane (yet still consequential) concerns about the fate of the Republic and their fuel shipments to Telos. The hopelessness of the people on the station before they died well-complements the player's own hopelessness, as they are continually thrust into situation after situation where, despite their best efforts, matters always seem to be beyond their control. The almost endless sequence of "just one more try" attempts to resolve your situation hammers that hopelessness home fiercely, to the point that, when you encounter all the miners already dead, you might want to just sit down and give up yourself. It helps (or doesn't, depending upon your view) that Peragus is deliberately designed to encourage the player to think that absolution is just around the corner: everything is brightly-lit, well-maintained and clean, excepting those few areas where droids have damaged equipment. You keep thinking that you will find other people any minute, but they're never there. Instead, you just have an eerie, empty, doomed station filled with enemies and constant, mounting failures to escape it.
4. While not necessarily obvious, I think disdain for common people is another major theme of Peragus. HK obviously cares nothing for the miners and kills them all to get to you, as does Sion for the Republic soldiers on the Harbinger, but I would argue these are only the most obvious readings of the situation. The sleeper angle here, I think, is the Peragus administration: they don't care about their own mining staff enough to stop drilling, even as they are dying left and right. They constantly try to memory wipe the droids even when it's clear it isn't working, and issues are only mounting. They start to pull double-shifts to keep quotas up as more people die, instead of going into lockdown to try to salvage the situation. It's the first time we don't see clearly "evil" forces casually throw people away, but simply misguided, fatally aloof people. It's an important strike against the black-and-white morality system of the original KOTOR, and it comes nigh-instantaneously.

So, to finally bring this all together, what does all that say? Here is my thesis: Peragus is an intentionally-designed example of structural design intended to encapsulate the core themes of KOTOR 2. The intent behind representing all of these themes so early on, and in an isolated environment, is to present them to the player as a comprehensive introduction to the intended tone of the game and a means of preparation for content they will encounter in the future.

Does it Work?

Here I want to make the somewhat obvious but nevertheless important point that you can really, really dislike something and that thing can still succeed at what it intended to do--it might not be what you'd like it to have done, might not be done in the way you would've preferred it to be, and might just be downright unpleasant to you, but it can still achieve what it set out to. With that in mind, does Peragus stick the landing?
Operating under the assumption that our thesis is correct, I would issue an emphatic yes. In my most recent playthrough of KOTOR 2 I did not skip any dialogue, even alien VO; fully unlocked all holo-records and terminal entries and read them in their entirety; and defeated every enemy in the area (including every stealth group aboard the Harbinger), as well as doing some crafting. I did all that, and I was still off of Peragus in 3 hours, 30 minutes. The level manages to condense almost every single major theme of the game into a runtime of 210 minutes. And that's an example from me being slow.
People often complain about Peragus being unbearably long, and I understand those complaints, but viewed from this perspective, doesn't it seem incredible Peragus is as short as it is given the sheer thematic density it presents? It does to me; I often wonder if it even could be shorter and still succeed in the all-important attempt to subvert the player by constantly forcing them to fail in their efforts, breaking down their hope into hopelessness. Again: you might not like that, but is it not masterfully accomplished?
To me, Peragus feels like a master-class in design, constructing a compelling, localized narrative which leaves the player thirsting for more information about the uncertain and seemingly dangerous immediate past--both of the Exile and of the galaxy more broadly--while also managing to tie in almost all of the game's critical themes and introduce the player to what they should expect to see going forward. I can't think of a single tutorial level which accomplishes an introduction to the tone and themes of its product better than Peragus does for KOTOR 2. The closest is probably Dark Souls, but I hope it won't be controversial for me to say that it doesn't exactly deal with the same kind of heady themes KOTOR 2 does.
Still, success in objectives, as we've already noted, does not automatically mean a fun design. There are plenty of games that accomplish their goals admirably, but their goals suck, or the moment-to-moment gameplay and plot through which these goals are conveyed is unfun or tedious. Before we get to why I think Peragus is not just a successful but a good level, let me take a moment to acknowledge the criticisms frequently leveled against it.

Criticisms of Peragus and their Validity

I already touched above on the idea of length as a problem, and why I believe it is virtually impossible for Peragus to achieve its goals while being any shorter. This is not to entirely dismiss length as an issue; between Peragus and Telos, for those who aren't fond of the tone, structure or story of Peragus the intro to KOTOR 2 must feel like pulling teeth, even as compared to the terribly long Taris and much more bite-sized Dantooine, K1's cognates. Yet I do think that, with the objectives of Peragus in mind, the rationale behind the length is understandable. Peragus is not just long for the fun of it; its length gives it the ability to dangle sequential objectives in front of the player only to wrest their victory away each time, a critical component of its design intent.
Confusing design is a common complaint here on the sub, in that you frequently switch areas and characters, running in circles and often with only half-answers about what's happening. This issue is, I feel, more an artifact of initial impressions than a real point of failing for Peragus. A lot of people here now played this game as children. Jumping between the Exile and T3 then back without seeing T3 again for hours could easily be disorienting to a 12-year-old thrown into an unknown setting, but less so to an adult. Peragus does have you going in circles at times, especially when you later retrace T3's exact steps down the fuel depot, but I would not say that it is at any point structurally confusing.
The absence of many RPG elements is also noted. Despite playing a roleplaying game, Peragus is not just a zone where the player has barely anyone to interact with, it is also an extremely linear experience with barely any alternate means of achieving objectives (most of what little exists in that vein is token--bashing terminals to open doors instead of using conventional unlocks, for instance). The latter issue I fully agree with and believe is one of the few major failings of Peragus, though I would suggest that it's possible that alternate options were cut to avoid additional confusion for new players by overloading them with alternate routes, or bloating an already-long tutorial level. The former issue, however, we can see is a core component of Peragus's design, not just to establish the isolating and disconcerting atmosphere of the station, but also to introduce that the player will frequently need to operate alone throughout the course of the game. Thus once again, while this criticism is valid, so too is Peragus's rationale for its design choice.
Bad combat design is also often discussed, however this is very subjective and perhaps even outside of the scope of this analysis. I think that the mix of droids and assassins is interesting enough and the stealth teams add tension and threat as a welcome break in the monotony of droid combat at the 2/3 point of the level, but I understand many might not agree. That said, bad fights can contribute to disliking a level without contributing to a failure of its design intent, so even in the event that players don't like the combat, there's still the possibility to appreciate what Peragus sets out to achieve.
Among the most frequently-mentioned criticisms of the zone is a lack of replayability. This is understandable: Peragus is, at its heart, a massive murder-mystery, and when you already know the answer much of the tension that drives the level is no longer present. I fully acknowledge this as another problem with the level, though I do also want to note the same problems exist for virtually every other game which is designed around a mystery.
There is also a final--and, in my opinion, critical--complaint one often hears, but because of how important it is to my conclusions, I will save mentioning it for last. First, I want to explain why, despite its problems, I think Peragus is not just a triumph of design, but also simply a fun level.

Fun?

Fun is a buzzword subjective, so I can't just say "Peragus is fun, fuck you haters" and leave it at that. At this point I'm 18,000 characters and 8 hours in to this post and regretting my life choices, though, and holy fuck I really wish I could.
Ignoring my poor decision-making, we have touched on whether Peragus succeeds in its intent already, but not how it succeeds in its intent. When you wrap all of the themes contained within up in a Peragus-shaped box, what do you get?
The absence of NPCs or companions, while perhaps unconventional from the perspective of an RPG, leaves the player free to experience the mystery of the station without the risk of growing distracted or having their expectations muddled by other characters' perspectives. However, the main thing that the absence of NPCs achieves, and the reason I love Peragus even after 30+ playthroughs, is the punishing isolation which the player is made to feel virtually from the first moment. It is this isolation which leaves me coming back for more, and which more than lets me ignore the fact that I know where every enemy spawn is, know the mystery of the station, know just what every log says. I respect Peragus's design. I devour Peragus's atmosphere.
This atmosphere is, I think, actually part two of three in the Unholy Trinity of why people dislike the level. Aspect #1 is its length, but the atmosphere is, I think, an oft-overlooked bit of first impression that leaves a consistently sour taste in players' mouths. Because I would go so far as to say the atmosphere of Peragus is almost crafted too well.
Peragus is not a conventionally enjoyable level to play. You are alone. There are no people around you, but by all appearances there should be. Your "friends" are suspect, there are threats around every turn, and your attempts to escape are constantly, meticulously thwarted. And throughout all this, you are alone. We have spoken of all of this before in the context of design intent, but not in terms of the effect that actually has on gameplay.
I previously saw a user call Peragus a survival-horror experience, and another user said they were out of their mind. I don't think they were--I think that's exactly what Peragus is. Peragus is a horror game, complete with its own lumbering monstrocities hounding your every step in the shapes of HK-50 and Sion, and like all horror games, it is patently uncomfortable to experience. You are constantly looking over your shoulder (metaphorically and, perhaps, actually as well), constantly on alert for an ambush, constantly, desperately hoping that the next door you open will finally have someone behind it. But you are ALWAYS alone. Your attempts to escape are ALWAYS thwarted. The monsters are ALWAYS one step in front of you. You literally do not feel safe and confident that you've escaped until you finally see that hyperspace window open in front of you.
That is a triumph of design. And that is also, I am confident, the root of why so many people dislike Peragus. It isn't just the individual elements like the length, the constant defeats, or the ambush teams that make people hate Peragus. On their own, those are annoying but not damning, and even in aggregate without a total failure of all other aspects of design they could not, in my opinion, explain the hate which Peragus consistently earns. I am not dismissing the criticisms which I addressed above, nor their place as a component of the dislike for Peragus. For some people, I'm sure that really is all there is to it, and the atmosphere of the zone has minimal effect, if any whatsoever. But for more, I'm sure that it's left some deep-seated scars.
I say this because I was among that number. When I was younger, I hated Peragus. Even before TSLRCM I loved KOTOR 2 more than the original, but I always tried to speed through Peragus. I didn't like it. I couldn't talk to anyone, and it wasn't fun. I just wanted to rush through it to get to Telos, because there were people there, and that's where the story really began.
All that's true, of course. But though I didn't have the vocabulary for it at the time, the main reason was because I felt uncomfortable playing Peragus, even after I learned what the mystery was. I always felt like a rat in a cage made just for me, alone and hunted, even when I knew what to expect. Maybe for other users, once they finally suss out the story of the station that sensation goes away. It's certainly diminished for me by now. But it's still powerful, and the recognizance of just how masterfully the level had to be designed to construct that intentional feeling of helplessness consistently impresses me and leaves me wanting to experience it again. But for many of those who were kids when they first played KOTOR 2, I'm sure that just like me, a terribly unexpected impression was left, the remnants of which might manifest themselves still today in a deep-seated dislike for the level.
And that finally begins to touch on the final reason which I think helps explain why Peragus is hated.

The Poison Pill: The Divide Between Expectations and Intent

The final piece of the Unholy Trilogy standing against Peragus is none other than KOTOR itself. That final complaint you hear so often (so often that it almost boggles my mind) is that Peragus feels nothing like KOTOR. In some ways that's true, certainly--what other KOTOR level is a horror experience? But users who make this complaint take it beyond that, often suggesting that Peragus is almost the root of all evil, because it's the "start" of KOTOR 2 becoming a radically different game than the one they wanted it to be.
KOTOR 2, in many ways, both benefits and suffers from being a sequel: while it gains an established universe, history, set of characters and guidelines for its plot, it also inherits expectations about its structure, themes and tone from its predecessor. People went in to KOTOR 2 expecting a continuation of KOTOR, and instead they got a horror level that makes them feel extremely uncomfortable while it systematically subverts every major theme of the original game. And then it kicks the tone of KOTOR in the 'nads for good measure.
In other words, people had expectations, expectations which were inherently impossible to meet within the confines of the themes of KOTOR 2 as a whole and the design intent of Peragus specifically as a level. I do not say this to put the blame on those who went in with those expectations; after all, a sequel is meant to share much of the DNA of its antecedent even when it innovates, and especially for those of us who first played as children there was no reason why anyone should have believed differently. Rather, this is merely to acknowledge the implicitly obvious fact that people almost always play KOTOR first, and that leads them to anticipate something wildly different than what they receive when they start KOTOR 2. And, when what they receive is not merely different but disconcerting, it is--I would argue--natural to react viscerally. The whiplash is normal, if not necessarily by design.
But here I will ask my final question: is it be by design?
I would argue that yes, it is. KOTOR 2 is a game which is so wildly different from the original in structure, themes, tone and even relevant historical events that an introduction to prepare players for that difference is not only beneficial, but nigh-mandatory. Peragus is the amalgamation of all of the common themes of KOTOR 2 not just as a matter of coincidence, but, I would argue, a very conscious acknowledgement that the game needed an introduction which would make it abundantly clear to players that the experience they were in for was not like the one that they should be expecting. Peragus is, for lack of a more elegant way to put it, your alarm in the morning. You might well hate the little son of a bitch, but it serves a critical purpose. Once it goes off, you know what to expect.
Put another way, Peragus walks so the rest of KOTOR 2 can run. With all of the shock and frustration at dashed expectations and unexpected design decisions out of the way within the player's first hours, by the time they are on the Ebon Hawk and speeding to Telos, they have been reshaped into a blank(er) slate that is primed to accept the much different story of KOTOR 2 without as visceral a negative reaction.

Conclusion

Peragus is a level which is intentionally designed to present the player with the core themes of KOTOR 2, and often multiple examples thereof. Parts of the level suffer as a result of these design decisions, but most of the problems users take issue with can be traced back in some capacity either to bad memories of the level or design compromises that were made intentionally as a result of the level's intent as an introduction to the themes and tone of KOTOR 2. This decision was made, I argue, due to how different KOTOR 2 is from the original game, as a conscious effort by Obsidian to ensure that the player was prepared from the beginning to experience a radically different game than the original title and to ensure that subsequent levels would not suffer from consistently missed expectations from users continuing to assume the game would eventually become similar to the original title once again. In the process of achieving this goal, Peragus also achieves a unique atmosphere which I argue is akin to a horror game, which sets it apart from any comparable level in either game, and indeed in Star Wars more typically.

I am an MS student and I just passed my thesis defense.
My PI refused to give me a signature on my thesis and she said I cannot leave until I complete publishing a paper. So, we submit the paper 6 weeks ago but have not heard back about any revision yet. So, now she said I need to complete it to get her signature. Also, we got funds for this project and that is why I cannot leave until I complete it. (i am an international student) she ask me to sign the paper that I am aware of that, so if I am not meet those conditions, she will not give the final signature and graduation will be delayed.
I never appreciate the time I worked with her.

1. she often asked her personal favor (ex, came to her house to help unpack and install a TV table)
2. often make racist comments (ex, don't like football because a bunch of fat black, or My bf would be perfect if he is white. (I am in an interracial relationship) My PI and I are of the same ethnicity as Asian.
3. underpaid (when every other graduate student getting 4500$ +tuition wave for summer TA, she decides to have me RA with 3000$ +no tuition wave. I told her if she does not have enough funds, I can do half TA/RA, but she refuse and just decide to give me 3750$+ without a tuition wave.) when it comes to TA or RA, she said it is not my decision, it is her decision.
4. Kind of forces me to come to church. a) I am not Christian but I was open to it. b) she not only ask me but also ask my friends from church to convince me to come to church
5. safety concern. we had high school students in the Lab. she made them work during the weekend by themselves. one day one of the students used eye wash. she asked me to lie if someone ask that, I was there.
6. Mis-conductive a) unprofessional behavior ( never being on time for meetings, just no show whenever she is upset. b) abuse vocally ( one day, Just yell at me on the street for 10min bc I did not say hi to her) c) miscommunication (she does not know how to communicate, always blame on student or gaslighting)
7. Selfish ( she never does when it is not beneficial to her. she did not write my recommendation letter for ph application. but she would nominate me for some awards in school as her one of achievement.
8. toxic working environment ( never coming to the lab, never be a mentor for research but expecting student work even on weekends make result for her to publish since she desperately wishes to get another faculty job in our country) For Example, I am only a graduate student in her lab but she also never train other undergrads. So, she expect me to manage the lab, and train them and used to expect me to guide other projects as well.

need advice..........

I'm not talking about what we watched visually, I mean if each episode was written down and all we saw was the concept, out of all of them which ones were the most disturbing and least disturbing in your head? Here's what I think with my list below but I wanna see what you guys think and if you think I got anything wrong! Also if you don't like the show please don't respond and tell me how bad it is and telling me why I shouldn't bother mentioning it. I get it, but I just really want those who found some enjoyment in the show or had some kind of experience with it to respond, thanks.
1- Necro (Do I even need to explain lol) Child growing a connection with the corpse of her mother, embalming process, our lead fucking what she thought was a corpse and her and the love interest burying themselves alive. Plus more. I want more episodes like this truley, I don't want AHS to go 'tame'.
2- Facelift (An old woman struggling with her identity and facing her age wishes to feel a little better about herself in her finale years of life only for it to be completely taken from her and having her finale last days be in agony and loss of any resemblance of self-worth. Everyone she cared about either wasn't there to help or turned against her.
3- Milkmaids (A plague wiping our entire families, a woman woman feeding people her puss, the townspeople cutting up the corpses of their loved ones for a 'cure', the discrimination amongst certain people, extreme ideologiesand a son killing his own mother.)
4- Feral (National Parks across the world isolating cannibalistic creatures or people within the depths of the woods and the government hiding it from the public, a child taken from his family during a family camp, animals brutally killed, human trafficking in the woods, extreme and brutal lies to lure in a grieving family, park ranger eaten alive, and the family's son allowing the ferals to feast on his own parents.
5- Bloody Mary (Teens summon a mirror being that grants them their desires as long as they commit horrific acts, they believe they will have their eyes clawed out and be killed if they don't do it, they are all visually shown the aftermath of their actions if the do decide to commit the acts, flashbacks to the horrific pasts involving slavery, one of the firends killing two of the other friends and disfiguring their faces for wealth and power, the sister forcing to kill her sister so she can't kill her instead, our finale girl releasing and being replaced by the previous Blood Mary and being forced into the mirror realm and becoming the new Bloody Mary while the previous walks the Earth. (I don't know if I want to put this own higher though)
6- Aura (A woman everyday is traumatised by her past where a man wearing A FUCKIN SCARY ASS RABBIT MASK broke into her home and murdered her parents. She buys a door camera to allow herself to feel protected only for it to literally bring the past back to haunt her, paranormal hauntings, a lying husband with a control problem that previously murdered his fiance and child and got away with it, and once said husband is taken care of the poor wife that probably gets a poor income is haunted by him in her own apartment knowing if he ever gets in, he'll kill her.
7- BA'AL (A woman is gaslighted by her husband into believing a demon is trying to take her child she spend years trying to get for her wealth, fake paranormal activity, she believes she is going insane after she stabs her husband by accident during a ritual, she summons the real demon that mutilates the husband's friends and later fucks the demon for a second child.
8- Drive-In (A Drive-In unaware of the film's intentions and are affected by the movie trickery and start killing one another with no control of their body, they rib flesh and body parts with their teeth and cut into people with objects and sometimes their own body parts, the film is brought onto Netflix and cursing anyone who watches it.)
9- Drive (A woman is chased down by another car and is even hit by the other car, she searches the house with the thought of someone inside at night, flashbacks to the backseat urban legend story of a woman chased by a car warning her of man she is unaware of in her backseat who later stabs her neck and leaves her decapitated head on the front of the car, the lead woman tries to figure out who was chasing her so she can kidnap him and torture him in her basement by stabbing him and cutting off his finger to later stab a machete into his head, it's revealed she has killed and tortured a number of people previously by luring then out from a nightclub, she eventually kills her bestie with her husband.)
10- Dollhouse ( a group of woman are kidnapped and forced to pretend to be dolls for a rich toymaker trying to find the perfect mother for his son, toymaker dumps his cheating wife down a well and let's her rot there, dolls compete in tests and the loser is dumped into the well, during their escape attempt those who run into the woods one tries to kill the other, but both are shot and killed by the guard, the winner is turned into a life sized doll and has barely ablitiy to move, the doll maker and his henchman are burnt alive.)
11- Lake (People drowning a for being clumsy discussions, the deseased skeletons and bodies grabbing and drowning the son of the man related to the owner of the lake and dam, the dam caused a flood that caused a town to be completely submerged, those protesting against the dam were drowned, the woman is haunted by the spirits of the lake pretending to be her son by using the water around the house to get her attention, the woman finds the skeletons of those who drowned and her son corpse is gifted to her for coming back, the husband comes to the lake house house and the spirits use the physical corpses of those who have drowned to grab him and drown him in the lake because he is the closet relative to the man who built the dam.
12- Naughty List (A group of YouTube influencers film someone committing suicide for views, it backfires and they try desperately to gain back populairity and eventually go to the mall where an immortal being posed as Santa is currently working, after they mess with him they go back home and find out the Santa murdered and dismembered the real mall Santa and put is body in a Christmas present, they are then hunted down by the Santa and killed by being electructed by Christmas lights, having their neck twisted until their spine is shown, burnt alive and shot with candy cane arrows, their bodies are dismembered and decorated on a Christmas tree, the Santa Killer roams free until more people.

It’s a talk to text rant of what I can remember, so apologies for any typos.
The very first performance of the night was Anetra. During one of her stunts, one of the back up dancers attempted to lift her and she fell on his knee. He could not get up and continue the dance, so they had to stop it, and temporarily pause production to check on him. After about 20 minutes, it was revealed, he would not be returning, and every single dance number, for the rest of the evening would have to be modified as he was an all of them.
Next up was Luxx. A song about fashion… Exactly what you’d expect from her. Sickening looks.
Mistresses number was the most catchy tune. She got a killer song about drag delusion. One of the best moments of the night for audience reaction was when the dancers lifted her the air and held her up in the split position. Gagged.
Sasha’s number was phenomenal. She started out as a snake and revealed a goddess look to a song called goddess.
Next, we got a touching performance by Orville Peck, and the season 15 queens about drag not being a crime.
Jinkx monsoon then sang a Chicago number from her Broadway hit. (When you’re good to mama.)
They did a touching tribute to Bob Mackie, and gave him a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to the community and for being the first ever guest judge.
Ru then narrowed the field of four Queens down to Sasha and Anetra.
The final lip-synch was absolutely sickening. Sasha had a minor wardrobe reveal malfunction as it took her an extra second or two to get her down off. Curious if they’ll edit that out. Anetra held her own an absolutely slayed the song “knock on wood.”
They filmed each girl winning. Neither got confetti, and they did not film a double crowning.
Willow pill looked absolutely stunning. Kornbread’s look was incredible and she crowned Malaysia Babyfoll Fox as Miss Congeniality. (The audience was audibly surprised.)

I am a student studying for my masters in marine biology and an avid beach cleaner for the last 5 years down on the south coast of England. I have a passion for the ocean and underwater life and was disappointed and saddened by the lack of books which give a full reaching, broad, detailed guide to what lives beneath our waters. Sure there are books about sharks, whales and other specific species or general books which cover a range but only touch on a few of each. Other than the amazing World Of Fishes (Joseph S. Nelson, et al) the only decent resource I could find was Fishbase, ITIS and Animal Diversity Web, sites structured in ways the average person wouldn't appreciate.
I began compiling a picture of every family for each phylum that lives underwater and accumulating all the information equally for each to produce a book. I removed the background for each, found the main facts for each and have 2,300+ pages of information and have been structuring it so its simple, punchy, attention grabbing yet full of the same main information for everything, for every species of nudibranch, fish, frog, lobster, starfish, you name it. The second half of the book will be all about where they live, be it rivers, streams, lakes or ocean depths and world location.
I want to produce this book to teach and educate everyone, provide a full guide to all life so whether enthusiastic children looking to discover the full plethora of life, a hobbyist aquarium keeper or SeaLife centre owner, a snorkeller going on holiday or hardcore scuba diver, an animal lover passionate about life or professional, the information for everything is in one decent book. Also, for the next generations, as the world changes and climate changes, we care more about the life under the sea, with Seaspiracy and the backlash against industrial fishing, people worry about the bycatch and the hurt life but its mostly sharks and dolphins, with this book people can see all the life hurt by our actions too. Even ostracods have feelings too!
Please take a look at my crowdfunder to help raise the funds needed and if not financially, please support me with some love to get things off the ground it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Throwaway account as some personal information here and I likely have colleagues on here.
I find myself in quite a fortunate situation as a locum. I'm 27 (UK graduate) and have spent the last twenty-ish months working as a locum at a DGH covering medical outliers.
My Consultant is a godly man who used to be an infectious diseases professor and now runs the outliers service. He is an extremely well respected and competent mentor and has helped me progress clinically over the past two years.
We take referrals from the surgical teams in addition to looking after the medical patients on non-medical wards. I see all the referrals and new patients myself and seek advice from my consultant if necessary. He introduces me to patients and colleagues alike as his Registrar.
I've spent the last 2 years gearing my portfolio to the IMT syllabus and have signed off on all procedures and curriculum points. I've done MRCP part 1 and part 2, plan to sit PACES next rotation. We've made a plan for me to work more often as the take reg on his take consultant days so I can get used to running the acute take.
Now the question is where do I go with this? I like respiratory and would like to start training in resp after another year or so.
Am I resigned to having to do IMT, get paid a third of what I get paid now with less clinical responsibility, rubbish hours and poor clinical supervision?
Or is there another way I can skip IMT and apply directly to Respiratory?
Do I go to Australia and do resp training there? (this is a genuine option for me).

At first I didn't want to post this ahaha, but then I realized that I enjoyed looking at other people's acceptances so maybe this will be useful to some current juniors/rising seniors out there :)
​
Demographics

• Gender: F
• Race/Ethnicity: East Asian
• Residence: CA
• Income Bracket: $100-150k/yr, but due to some reason my financial aid needed is very high…
• Type of School: Public, pretty competitive
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): none

Intended Major(s): applied math, math, computational biology, bio
Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.92, 4.4
• Rank (or percentile): N/A, UW below 10%, UC GPA above 15%
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 14 APs as of senior year semester 1, 2 DE
• Senior Year Course Load:
  • Fall: AP Lit, AP Gov + AP Macroecon, AP Physics C, TA
  • Spring: AP CSA, Advanced Topics in Math, Weight Training (need that credit), AP Psych

Standardized Testing

• SAT: 1520 (730 EBRW, 790 M, did not submit)
• ACT: 34 composite, 35 super scored (35 E, 36 M, 34 R, 34 S)
• AP/IB:
  • Bio, Calc BC, CSP, Physics 1, Physics C Mechanics, Stats (5)
  • Chem, Physics 2, Lang, World History (4)

Extracurriculars/Activities

1. Co-founder of organization that hands out free math materials; 400+ members in server; Gr. 11-12, 2 hwk, 30 wk/yr
2. Internship at a hospital; machine learning research; pre-print; summer before 12th, 30 hwk, 10wk
3. Badminton team varsity captain + club president; placed in league; led team move up a league; Gr. 9-12, 5 hwk, 20 wk/yr
4. TA for math organization; answered questions, wrote handouts; Gr. 11-12, 1 hwk, 20 wk/yr
5. Event organizer of some volunteering stuff
6. Added some random not-so-important activities here

Awards/Honors

1. AIME qual x3, distinction in 10th
2. Top 18.5% in some math modeling challenge
3. CAML school top 10
4. AP Scholar
5. PSAT Commended Scholar

Letters of Recommendation
Math teacher, 8/10, had him for three classes, TAed for him but wasn’t super close
Econ teacher, 7/10, had her for US History + AP Econ, talked in class but wasn’t that close
Professor of research, 8~9/10, made my mentor (his student) write the letter and showed my dad and according to my dad it was pretty strong
Side note: initially I wanted my French teacher to write me a letter but she retired…
Interviews
UPenn: 8/10; online; he was nice but I stuttered a bit on a question about my research...
MIT: 8/10; in person; I had a 45-minute chat with her and I learned a bunch about life, workplaces, and obviously MIT lol. I knew I had a 0 chance of getting into MIT but honestly the application fee was worth it with the amazing convo :)
Rice: 9/10; online; I loved my interviewer! She’s a graduate student at UCLA, and she’s super nice :) we had similar backgrounds so we can relate to each others’ experiences
Duke: 7/10; online; my interviewer looked very strict haha, but she was probably paying attention to what I was saying instead of controlling her facial expressions
Essays
CA (7/10): wrote about founding my organization and how I tried to spread love of math; wasn’t outstanding; I really wanted to do something creative but my counselor wanted me to play it safe and wanted me to show some “achievements”
UPenn Supp: thank you note to 7th grade math teacher (9/10); contribute to Penn by founding fair trade club and play badminton (8/10); why Penn because computational bio + their research opportunities (7/10)
UCs: leadership (9/10), creative side (10/10 I loved this one!), academic subject that inspires me (8/10), make community better place (8/10)
Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)
Acceptances:
UC Davis
UCLA (THANK YOU UCLA YOU’RE MY LIFE SAVIOR)
UC Riverside (my only safety lol)
UC Santa Barbara
(erm I also applied to University of Cambridge, the one in the UK, for fun and got in)
Waitlists:
CMU (RD) (still on WL)
NYU (RD) (declined WL)
UC Berkeley (declined WL)
UC Irvine (declined WL)
UCSD (declined WL)
Rejections:
UPenn (ED deferred → Rejected)
Brown (RD)
Caltech (RD)
Columbia (RD)
Cornell (RD)
Dartmouth (RD)
Duke (RD)
JHU (RD)
MIT (RD)
Northwestern (RD)
Pomona (RD)
Rice (RD)
UChicago (EA rejected)
UMich (RD)
USC (EA deferred → Rejected)
Currently debating between Cambridge and UCLA lol; Cambridge has a super strong math program (ranked so highly worldwide) and only three years of college but UCLA is also super good with the sunny weather and in-state tuition… my parents are willing to pay for either one so…
I think the main problem with my application is my GPA; it's way too low for schools' liking. I shouldn't have trolled during my sophomore year--honestly I don't think I even tried-hard in high school in any year besides my freshman year--but I'll take the consequences. Once again I thank the UCs for not rejecting me and UCLA for finding value in me.
Hope this post entertains or helps you!

I paused on this scene about 20 seconds into the promo for episode 3. There seem to be a whole bunch of dead birds all over the cabin. So it looks like the theories about Jackie being eaten will reward the girls with more meat, basically like a sacrifice to the forest. I feel like we are really going to start establishing the rules of the Antler Queen.
https://preview.redd.it/e223bjy6zera1.png?width=1272&format=png&auto=webp&s=cbfca54c1fc632a8ceafcaca0f5b9112d7898dfb

Do you miss all of those extra leagues all around the world? Do you want your world to feel a bit more alive? Do you not mind your loading times getting progressively longer? Well have no fear, because the World Indie League Project is here! Granted, calling it a “project” is a bit ambitious, but hey ho.
Anyways, what is the World Indie League Project? Well, it’s my attempts to fill out the world with a lot of independent leagues throughout the world to breathe some life into the world. I find it really fun to just look around a little bit and see an injury-wracked Aristedes Aquino trying to rehab his career in Canada, or a disgrace Christian Yelich spend a year in Wichita after being cut, or seeing weird things like Clayton Kershaw’s final year being spent in Aurora, Colorado for a small indie ball team at age 37. But sometimes it’s a bit boring to just set things up like that.
And that’s where I, with help from all of you here, come in. I’m working on setting up leagues, and while I still need to sort out a bunch of rules to differentiate them even more, I have a framework down, especially with cities. But I don’t really know anything about these cities, so whatever will I name them?! And that’s why I come to you folks. I want to hear team names for any of the cities I put down below, and I’ll even take some swaps of cities. You think instead of Hialeah, Florida, I should have somewhere else? Then tell me about that! I’ll have the cities listed down below, alongside their leagues, and feel free to leave anything! Once I have everything set up, I’ll set out some quick starts, one with all of them, one with the WBC included, one with tehsuigi’s JPB, and one with the JPB and WBC. Don’t worry, I’ll find stadium names and (possibly) set up some former major leaguers in these indie leagues, but I just need help with names! Thank you!
CAB - Canadian Association of Baseball
West:
Regina Vancouver Yellow Knife Saskatoon Victoria Edmonton Abbotsford Calgary
East:
Winnipeg Montreal Ottawa Mississauga Gatineau Halifax Quebec St. John’s
IBLA - Independent Baseball League of America
West: Lubbock Wichita Salt Lake (City) Cheyenne Greensboro Spokane Aurora Paradise Mesa
East: Columbus Rhode Island (Providence) Richmond Hialeah Montgomery Little Rock Rochester Charlotte Buffalo
ALBP - Asociation Latinoamericana de Beisbol Profesional
Central: Guatemala, Guatemala San Salvador, El Salvador Panama, Panama Tegucigalpa, Honduras Belmopan, Belize San Jose, Costa Rica Managua, Nicaragua San Pedro (Sula), Honduras
Caribbean: Cancun, Mexico Nassau, Bahamas Port-au-Prince, Haiti Havana, Cuba Kingston, Jamaica San Juan, Puerto Rico Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Mexico City, Mexico
MLPB - Meridia Liga de Profesional Beisbol Quito, Ecuador Rio de Janiero, Brazil Lima, Peru Bogota, Colombia La Paz, Bolivia Buenos Aires, Argentina Caracas, Venezuela Santiago, Chile Barranquilla, Colombia Santa Cruz, Argentina
EUBA - European United Baseball Association
NORTH Edinburgh, Scotland London, England Dublin, Ireland Paris, France Flanders, Belgium Amsterdam, Netherlands
South Lisbon, Portugal Madrid, Spain Naples, Italy Barcelona, Spain Athens, Greece Rome, Italy
Central Stockholm, Sweden Copenhagen, Denmark Oslo, Finland Berlin, Germany Helsinki, Finland Vienna, Austria
East Bucharest, Romania Sarajevo, Bosnia Sofia, Bulgaria Budapest, Hungary Warsaw, Poland Prague, Czechia

I was just driving home and I passed 5 or 6 police cars sitting just off of North Ave and Lake St near Railroad Ave with their lights on. None of them had someone pulled over, a few were in parking lots, one was in the median on North right by the Shell on Northwest Ave.

I don’t get it… I’m a new player who’s been here a week, and up until i purchased lightfall I’ve been having a blast…
I watched the videos that brought me up to speed historically speaking so I would know whats what and who’s who, played the witch queen which was amazing and fun… bought some exotics of xur and got lucky on drops to make a powerful build.
And then, well i landed on neptune and it is basically unplayable… everything feels like its a nightfall as it’s default difficulty, public events are impossible and offer nothing, not that you’ll have anyone to help because there’s no players in neomuna, the latest dlc lol.
The campaign plays normally, though i find it boring and the characters uninteresting to be at the most polite….
So i just don’t get it, who the fuck asked for this exactly?
I’ve basically given up on neptune at this point, I absolutely hate it there.
My light level is 1755 btw, so let me know if im missing something please, cos god i sure hope i am!

As a Rek'sai main, I had originally not been a fan of her rework many years ago, especially considering they nerfed the damage on her E which was her highest damage skill in the past when it scaled off of Total AD and not base AD.
Rek'sai never needed an ultimate to execute cause her E damage was high enough to do the job and even now I knock up an adc, press Q for auto-reset and bite with E at full fury and they probably already ded...
I miss that she used to be able to teleport to her tunnels, we already have that on Twisted Fate though i guess what i want is a return to old rek'sai, while also taking some of the advancements of new Rek'sai if that makes sense...
Burrow could perhaps have an extra passive added to it... her Q seems perfect to me, maybe increase the projectile range of it, but that is just as it should be, it is meant for tracking
Sonar - return it back to 1 second delay please, 1.5 seconds is too slow with how fast all these new champions are with mobility. As she is currently the moment you see them on sonar they can probably already attack you... only advantage you have is being able to detect movement around walls or in bushes... and her passive regen is too low to properly sustain her in the jungle, i know they let her do it mroe often but having to burrow unburrow and burrow repeatedly to regen always makes me feel like a wack a mole...
E - just give it more damage
R - give back the teleport and maybe at passives to it, or you know, have her ultimate be like you know Karma's where it just becomes an improvement of your other abilities
R Q - Prey Seeker gets faster with larger width and increased damage R W - Burrow allows you to teleport to a tunnel R E - Your execute bite now becomes the current ultimate she has now
Just a thought, but I feel I want the return of old rek'sai while still having some of the kill pressure of new rek'sai... also some match ups are just annoying, either way
Long Live Rek'sai... Rek'sai best Voidborn, do not fall for the lies of Bel'veth, Rek'sai is Queen

I met up with a friend who started stanning since 2011. As a 2022 Kpop stan, that conversation was ENLIGHTENING. I can't believe we get so many narratives wrong in many kpop communities especially on Twitter.
As a TwiceVelvet fan, here's what I got from our convo:
Twice is so massively popular than they are being credited for. Which is SO confusing because it seems like stanning Twice these days is an uphill battle. As someone who just entered the fandom life, the whole declining narrative just seemed to be imposed upon me. Banking on album sales and ticket sales seem to be the natural projection of a massive group, even if they don't smash the charts anymore. But I'd say this and get hate in return. Even among k-fandoms themselves!
Red Velvet mistreatment isn't as bad as I thought it would be. My friend expressed how widely pushed the girls were as the "it girls" of their time. And that SM was not even being discrete about it. My friend who was an f(x) fan could tell how RV suddenly became the princesses of the company, especially SM capitalizing on giving the members solo activities outright. Even Twice didn't get that opportunity. Irene was even perceived to be their Queen Bee by other SM fandoms. Tbh, she may even still be rn. In light of that, then the SM shelving RV for aespa narrative isn't entirely true? Karina could've been a CF force at this point in their careers.
It's so refreshing to talk to someone who was already into the kpop scene especially during those golden years. I wish I could've seen many historical moments in Kpop as they unfolded. Especially at a time when idol interactions weren't so contained to be scandal-averse and politically correct.
Also, my friend isn't active on Twitter or on any platforms. She said that as you age in Kpop, you learn to just enjoy the music and the happenings in peace. I guess I'd get there too:)

Hi everyone, I’ve recently built this Kyogre mill deck, have been playing it for a bit, abd wanted some suggestions. This deck sets up at an ok speed, and can dish out a good amount of damage and destroy benches. It bricks once in a while, but other than that has been working smooth. It also has Palkia Vstar as a secondary attacker, in case the opponent has manaphy.
The plan is to basically discard some water energy using ultra ball or research, then attach those enrgy to kyogre and Palkia using Marnies pride or star portal. Then use Kyogre’s aqua storm to rain damage on the opposing bench. It’s worked fairly well so far, and has beaten meta decks like Mew by absolutely obliterating their bench and draw engines.
Pokémon: 16
4 Kyogre (celebrations)
2 Palkia V
2 Palkia Vstar
4 Bidoof
4 Bibarel
Trainer: 26
4 Battle VIP pass
1 Echoing horn
2 Energy recycler
2 Nest ball
3 Switch
3 Ultra ball
2 Lake acuity
1 Candice
3 Irida
2 Marnie’s pride
2 Professors research
1 Raihan
Energy: 18
18 Water energy

I usually don't do this, and this will be my first ever Reddit post, but my friends told me it could be helpful for other applicants. I want to share my experience and opinions regarding graduate applications.
I am a final yr chem engg UG student in a reputed priv engineering college. During applications, my cgpa was 9+. I have 2 onsite and virtual internships each. I won 2nd prize in an IEEE hackathon. Have two research publications. I am working on two projects related to core chem engg research fields. However, I have no industry experience. My IELTS score is 8, but I scored poorly on GRE, so I applied to those unis where gre was waived off. I began to submit my master's applications in Dec. No counselling or anything like that; I did everything independently like most of my peers. I applied to the following universities for MS chemical engineering-

1. UCLA- had to give an interview and was accepted
2. Georgia tech - took more than 3 months only to give me a rejection letter (lol)
3. CMU - within 2months offered me admission with a one-time allowance of 1000usd
4. Cornell - within 2 months, offered me admission, which I had never expected.
5. UMich- rejected my application.
6. TU Delft- my top #2 choice, and I was elated when I got an admit within 2 months of applying
7. NUS - I always thought this uni was entirely out of my league, but I was shocked when I got admission
8. UMass - has yet to give an admission decision, lol. It's been nearly 3 months.

So I have finalised NUS as it's my best option. For all unis except NUS, I procured LORs from my dept profs. Only NUS asked for a transcript and IELTS/TOEFL, no resume, no SOP. I needed some x-factor to get an admit, so in the additional doc section, I submitted a LOR from my final yr project mentor, a big-shot scientist in a govt research institute. I hope my post helps yall in any way possible. I am also ready to answer any query. Best of luck to all the aspirants :)

Praised solely on her looks for years, Lia was eager to put everything behind her and start anew… Until she got kidnapped and tossed into the harem of an unknown ruler. Desperate and afraid, Lia makes a deal with Karian, the handsome yet ruthless regent to the king, who seems strangely drawn to her. Will Lia be able to keep up appearances as Karian’s concubine long enough to search for the hidden ... Read The Secret Queen - Chapter 166 - MangaPuma. Read more at https://mangapuma.com/the-secret-queen/chapter-166