Only Sixteen Puns

I've pretty much exclusively been tackling missions in Madrugada and working with the Monteros, because the game told me to. But I only have the fisherman leader whom the game gives to you just for progressing through the story. Is this due to me overlooking opportunities, or is this normal?

i don't know if this is allowed but i kinda need to vent. my father is almost seventy-two. last year he was diagnosed with dementia. i am only sixteen (nearly seventeen). i hate that i feel so angry because this situation isn't normal. being a teenager and dealing with dementia that isn't in a grandparent.

i am pretty sure half the time he doesn't realise i am related to him. sometimes i think he believes i am just the kid who lives in his home. for context i am trans and don't use my birthname anymore.

he doesn't seem to be intact with reality anymore. like mother says that he will stare at her and be convinced he is talking. he will laugh at my mother for no reason.

i am the youngest of my siblings. the others don't live at home anymore. i hate that i feel like it's not fair because they get to stay away from the dumpster fire that is our father's health. i have to witness it everyday.

i don't know what to do because my father isn't my dad anymore. he isn't the same person.

i apologise again if this is incorrect. i just needed to get it off my chest.

Some background:

I’m not actually baptized because my Grandma is non practicing Jehovah Witness, and my Papa is a non practicing Baptist, and I live with them, so technically I’m not Catholic either, but I went to Catholic school from 3-12 years old, and then a Christian church and youth group from 11-14. I kind of went through a phase where I didn’t really believe anything, but in the past year or so I’ve really gotten closer to God and I have a lot of faith in the things I didn’t before. I want to get involved in the church again, but the first few times I started going with my great aunt who is Catholic, I caught covid and now my Grandma won’t let me go again. Also, my Aunt’s boyfriend is creepy and he goes with us so I don’t really wanna go with them anymore anyway. So I’m reading my Bible and praying and trying really hard to follow the Ten Commandments (I keep accidentally using the Lord’s name in vain and it’s going badly I’m so upset with myself). I want to get Baptized(I wanted to for soooo long when I was younger) but I’m probably gonna have to wait until I’m eighteen or whatever.

The issue:

So there’s a boy I’ve been talking to for a while. I thought we were just friends. We’ve never even hung out outside of school. He asked me out on a date though, and according to his friend, he really, really likes me. I’ve never even considered dating. It just wasn’t in my focus, but I told him I would get back to him.

He’s really nice, but he’s also an insecure teenager who says things sometimes that aren’t the best. He’s also got different social and world views that aren’t in tuned with mine or the Catholic values I’m trying so hard to live and think by.

I think his family is agnostic or atheist or something, and it’s not that I’m against people dating outside of their religion or beliefs, but that’s not what I planned for myself.

He’s also two years older than me, and his friend said it wasn’t a big deal because when you’re an adult there’s bigger age gaps and it’s fine, but it seems too old to me right now. He’s gonna go to college while I still got two years of high school to go.

I haven’t told my grandma all my resistance to it, but she told me that I should maybe go out with him because if I have dating experience now, it will help me when I’m an adult and looking to date. She said she had lots of boyfriends. I’m really worried now that I’m gonna be all messed up if I don’t date now. Will I just not know how and make a fool of myself or die a

This weekend was the first round of the Mean Sixteen Premiere League cEDH World Championship. For those unfamiliar, it's an invite-only 16 player league composed of players that top 4'd a major cEDH tournament in the past year.

The player list is pretty impressive.

Azurel

Bad Dog

chri

Cocoloco

comedian

DamnMonroe

Deco

Hissp

Kazu

killstars

michaelvlevine (me!)

Ondas

playm

RiverMayCry

Spleenface

Tsuami

My Deck: All Hail West Theros, a pro-active Heliod deck

For those who don't know me, I really have only been playing Heliod since it was released, and this year I came in first in fluid round points / top 4 at Okoberfest on this list.

For Mean Sixteen, I tried to metagame a bit. Originally cobblepot was playing, but dropped due to some health concerns and was replaced by Hissp. As cobblepot once said on Twitter, if I'm in the pod, you should play Stax as well, and I expected that he would be on a staxy or midrange type list. In general, I was worried that I could end up in pods with midrange decks or commanders like Najeela, Kodoma, Kraum, Winota, etc. that would be able to race under Knowledge Pool, so I was committed to slotting it out for Mean Sixteen. I was partially lucky - no Najeela deck was registered, and comedian chose to play a Turbo Naus list rather than Winota. However, my first pod was Opus Thief (DamnMonroe), Korvold Farm (Deco), and Ikra/Kraum Naus (Ondas), so I'm fairly happy I didn't try to Knowledge Pool lock that pod.

I was also super worried about Turbo Naus decks, so here I am on Chalice of the Void and Reidane, God of the Worthy. Even though I mostly want to Chalice on 1-2, and play a lot of spells on 1 and 2, most of my essential spells are at 3 or greater and I essentially break parity relative to Turbo Naus decks. Reidane is a more interesting choice, in my opinion. I've found that the current iteration of Heliod runs too many non-creatures to play a lot of Thalia effects, and really is too mana-lite to play Sphere. Reidane fits my general stax philosophy of "stop the broken stuff, not the normal stuff", only stopping opponents from accessing their broken pay-offs like Ad Naus and Peer before I can cast my own. This tournament includes 12 copies of both black draw spells, so I'm pretty happy with my choice. A lot of people are playing snow-covered lan

I continued, "Therefore, it's just a matter of a pinion."

I don't know how to explain their sound but it'd probably fit under indie/indie rock? Here's a few examples of what I'm looking for:

Amygdala

Wake Up

Good Company

Currently

Both a good image and a verification image:

https://preview.redd.it/ccom0g34uif51.jpg?width=1932&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c123ccce16f181e4027d8a07a65ab1c2447de865

https://preview.redd.it/opqzvvvttif51.jpg?width=1932&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c3d45bbb1351a05cbb3c8d2c2aebc6c046499812

Edit: Thank you all for the kind words. I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up and checked my Reddit to see that 19+ people had nice things to say about me. As I said in one of my replies, here is photo of me from before I balded.

This is me from eighth grade or freshman year, I think. Pardon the makeup, I do theater and I had just finished a show at the time and I was posing with a friend.

I’m only sixteen years old, and I don’t get my license for a few more months. Every day gets harder with my parents since I’m falling behind in school. They don’t want to believe that I’m mentally ill, and they constantly berate me and make me feel bad and make me think that I’m doing something wrong. I’ve started having suicidal thoughts because of it. And amidst this pandemic, I can’t spend hours at friends houses or anything. The only friend I have that can drive isn’t around very often to hang out with me. I’m basically completely stuck at home. I don’t know what to do because my parents are driving me crazy, and i don’t know how to get out. I need to get out of this house and there’s no way to. What do I do?

What are some things that annoy you about where you live?

Standard Disclaimer: I do not take credit for the setting, this story is set in the They Are Smol universe, written by our very own u/tinyprancinghorse*.*

TPH has a Website, a Patreon, and also a Discord if you need more smol shenanigans.

The first Smol Detective story can be read starting Here.

The second Smol Detective story can be read starting Here.

There will be some spoilers/references to prior SD stories in this one, so consider yourself duly warned.

___________

First Chapter

Previous Chapter

In the previous chapter

The Veridicator did a Query.

Some Smols were Captured.

But those Smols were also Sneaky.

In this chapter

Martin gives an Ultimatum.

The Veridicator does a Suspicion.

Oscar makes a Choice.

__________

The squad leader chewed the inside of his cheek. In spite of his prior threatening of the thieves he wasn't a sadistic man, and he didn't like the thought of what might be going on beyond that door. Sure, the prisoners were part of some plot to break into the base but there was no need to go that far...right? As far as he was concerned, once any wrongdoers were safely in custody they should be just chucked into a cell and given their phone call.

But he'd heard stories about Martin. The squad leader had a security clearance high enough to give someone a nosebleed, yet even that wasn't enough for him to fully understand just who his temporary boss was. All he knew was that compared to the shark of Martin he was very much a minnow. Still, did that mean he just had to stand by while three people got brutalized not ten feet away from him?

The door slid open with a faint hiss, cutting short his internal moral dilemma. Martin walked out of the room steering one of the captives by her shoulder. The latter's features were hidden under a cloth bag over her head, and she had her hands bound behind her back.

"Good news!" said Martin wit