Ulterior Puns

For example: I tried playing DnD for the first time, and someone in the party spent 3 hours after the session helping me build a character and explaining the game in depth. He explained things step by step in a way that I could understand, which usually takes a lot of patience.

I’ve always heard that there is a little bit of the “what if” in men’s mind. Like it boosts their ego or something. We played online if that makes a difference.

This is a legitimate question, so please don’t come at me.

(Sorry for format, on mobile)

Yesterday I (19F) went to a language exchange meetup. There I met a 38M, and we had a couple of interesting and thoughtful conversations.

We shared numbers to send some info, and today he texted me asking if I wanted to meet one of these days for a drink and a chat.

I'm interested because he works in a field I might go into in the future, we have common interests and life advice is always welcome.

But with the age difference, and after reading too many stories around the internet, I'm a bit scared he might have some hidden intentions. Obviously I don't want anything romantic or sexual with him, but I'm scared of manipulation.

So. Is it normal for a guy his age to want to talk to a 19 y.o.? I am mature for my age, and we had some good convo, but still. Is he just lonely and wants to chat about common interests? Or most probably he has some ulterior motives?

TLDR: Is it possible that a 38M wants a drink and a chat with a 19F, or he probably has ulterior motives?

EDIT: After reading all your comments I've decided it's not worth the risk. I've told him I felt uneasy meeting alone, but that if we coincide in another meetup we can still have a chat. Thank you all for your advice and wisdom.

The Beginning | Wiki Page | Ninth Part | Eleventh Part

I appeared in an empty room, dazed. It was the bottom floor alright. The aesthetic resembled the first area, but a little darker with some obsidian and red banners mixed in. Welcome to hell. I looked at Coppernose.

“Well, here we are. I’d best get moving. You know what to do.”

“Hey, wait!” she interjected. “This place reeks of springs! No way am I leaving you to this alone!”

I bobbed my head. “I appreciate the help, but won’t that hurt the evacuation timeline?”

Coppernose huffed. “Come on. You already talked it out with Ettrel. Everything is set! You’re worth spending some time and effort with.”

“Aww, that’s cute.”

……

As it turns out, Coppernose is a lifesaver. Not only is floor 50 rife with traps, but many of them are beyond my skill set! Despite the part where she licks everything, she was the perfect backup. She sussed out basically every trap over time, which we had to do because a bunch of them were motion-activated, removing her ability to fly past them with the UFO.

And we really had to just explore SO much space. Why you might wonder? Well, the boss door was a hallway over from where we started… but it was made of pure sterlite. That stuff is almost good enough to qualify as adamantium. NOT. MELTABLE. We were stuck with searching for the key after Coppernose almost lost an arm in the locking mechanism.

So we went step by step. She found the tiles that could move, then I either marked them with chalk or super glued them in place. Simple as hell, and never boring cuz you don’t know when something might go off. After about an hour and a half of slowly progressing through the area, we found the conspicuous miniboss door. It wasn’t locked, so I worked the latch.

The all-too-familiar mechanism inside started up, then stopped and started beeping slowly. Coppernose looked through the keyhole.

“Ohhh, it needs to be loaded. Give me a minute, and don’t touch anything until I’m back.”

She zipped off and, for once, I actually touched nothing when told to do so. A few minutes later and there was a zap, ending the beeping. I waited a bit longer until Coppernose returned, the

Quick warning: this theory was formulated around chapter 1023, written around the time chapter 1029 came out, and has spoilers for some of the more recent manga chapters (all should be spoiler tagged). Decided after the spoilers came out for 1031 to hold back on posting it for a bit because well, if you know, you know. Also, it’s rather lengthy. There’s a TL;DR at the bottom.

So, the gist of this theory is thus: Judge had an ulterior reason to start looking for Sanji. He figured out a way to “correct” his failure and give Sanji the genetic modifications he’d planned to give him at birth. He planned to do this steadily through >!the Raid Suit!<.

First, we can confirm that Judge was looking for Sanji at least two years ago (potentially even earlier). In chapter 826 Reiju reveals, that Judge was the one who sent the bounty hunters after Duval and furthermore that he’d been searching for Sanji for awhile.

Vinsmoke Judge: somehow responsible for one of the best jokes in One Piece

“Wait, Videl of the Future!” you cry. “We already know why Judge was looking for Sanji. It was for the wedding to seal the alliance with Big Mom!”

Ah! Wait just a moment! While we can pinpoint that Judge was indeed looking for his long-lost son at least two years ago (prior to the Time Skip), the wedding pact timeline is a bit more vague. However, we have a few clues that suggest the wedding alliance between Germa and the Big Mom Pirates wasn’t formed until sometime between Fishman Island and Zou.

First, for those of you who weren’t aware, Pudding’s currently 16.

Source: Library of Ohara

Two years ago, she would have been…14 (icky!). While not completely out of the cards for One Piece (looking at you Vander Decken IX eyeing 6-year old Shirahoshi), this still seems really young for a romance subplot.

Okay, maybe Big Mom really was going to marry Pudding that young or perhaps she had another daughter in mind. I still think the marriage pact between Germa and the Big Mom Pirates wasn’t even a thought until after Fishman Island.

In chapter 651, Pekoms and Baron Tamago meet Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji.

[C

Not to say I am that much more knowledgeable, I don't really care about Grammy, but I used to follow a western act in the past and let's just say I at least have paid attention a tiny bit more than certain people on here, if I am to judge by some of the hot takes I saw last year.

In all the years I've been a kpop stan, the kpop community never talked about or cared about Grammy but now in the span of like 1 year (meaning ever since BTS actually got a nom), everyone is an EXPERT at it. The takes last year from people who word their opinions like they are gospel and people selling themselves off as industry experts talking about how Dynamite is not ''deep enough'' for a Grammy (ignoring that plenty of ''not deep'' songs have been nominated and won in the past), and how Dynamite didn't win because it's not ''good enough'' and ''Grammy is about ''quality'', and ''a friend of my friend said that they don't deserve because...'', I had such a good laugh ngl. People wanted to make it seem like it lost solely because of ''quality'' when it's almost unrelated.

First off, Grammy is not about achievements nor quality or only this and that per se. It's a combination of things and at its core it's about favoritism. It's literally about how big your appeal is to the voters per genre/category or multiple categories and the then existing committee but there are just as many inconsistencies as there are repetitive, boring patterns. There are also so many different categories that can't be judged/analyzed similarly. And the voters are a diverse group of people (as diverse as it can get, that is) who are also just as biased as me and you. In BTS' case, they lose votes just for being a foreign Asian boy band, they have the least arbitrary biases to benefit from, they have neither white privilege nor western privilege. There are also certain ''blocs'' of voters, which in short means voters with 1 thing in common, and those often tend to have similar tendencies thus you can somewhat predict certain outcomes, meaning e.g. the UK voters bloc will always vote/favor certain UK acts above others, thus make them most likely to win. To give a more clear example, it's like we are all able to predict that for the yearly census majority of r/kpop is most likely to vote for RV or another big3 GG as the top favorite GG every single time regardless of what they release or how well it performs/is received, or that [r/kpop](https://www.reddit.com/r/kpop/

The Beginning | Wiki Page | Eighth Part | Tenth Part

“You have done well to come this far, intruder,” spoke a dark figure from a stone throne before me.

I kept the .50's crosshair on his head. “Evening, count bloodsucker. I know this is a boss-rush floor, but I’m open to talking it out if you don’t want to re-die.”

He looked confused, which did not befit his posh garb and drab throne. He swirled a wine glass full of blood. “How do you so swiftly assume what I am?” he asked, dodging my offer for a truce.

I rolled my eyes. “I’ve been around the block. But let me ask you more questions: Why are you here? How long have you been waiting? Why don’t you leave? Where are you getting fresh blood?”

He opened his mouth, then shut it and looked to the side. A flustered air washed over him as he gazed around like someone with dementia. I watched his struggle to answer the question burn at his soul. Vampires always love mental challenges, and I had somehow thrown the ultimate one his way off the top of my head. Unfortunately, he was getting more and more flustered, and—as it always is in the big open boss rooms—I was the only target for his potential wrath.

On that day, I learned the limits of vampiric reaction time. Despite his stature as an aged and likely experienced individual, the .50 Armor-Piercing-Incendiary-Tracer did not care as it zipped through the air at 2900 feet-per-second and turned his head to a fine red mist. His remains went limp as the wine glass clattered to the floor before he turned to dust. On any other day I might have talked him down, but not today. No unnecessary risks.

The wall to my right slid down as I reloaded. I approached the much grander 10-foot-tall steel door and beckoned my mule over from the entryway, only to remember I was alone. With a huff (which triggered the cracked rib pain again) I knocked on the door, finding it to be rather thick steel. My idea would have to wait a little longer as I cranked the latch to trigger the mechanism. I held up the Val in case of ambush, but the floor was being nice about not instantly attacking me.

What awaited me was the most gigantic room so far. The curve-vaulted cei

The Beginning | Seventh Part | Ninth Part

Several orcs and I were holed up behind a rock, some 100 feet from the water’s edge in a scouting mission before I put some plan into action tomorrow. I looked through my binoculars, seeing nothing of the snake-necked hydra turtle lurking the waters. The claims of its clairvoyance—striking the moment anyone drew near—kept me on edge. I didn’t see any ripples or bubbles to suggest a large creature, but I knew that meant very little. I ducked back down and stowed the binos before addressing the posse I had accumulated.

“Well I don’t see it, but the river is definitely wide enough for a shed-sized critter.” I tapped my chin. “Can it be baited out with meat?” I asked, doubting it would be so simple.

Elder Rutor answered me. “Frustratingly, no. We have left carcasses and placed livestock nearby, but it only ever strikes people. The head shoots out and snaps you in half at the waist before you can react.”

“That fast, huh? Might be hard, but… I’m thinking the best route here is a full dodongo.” I pulled a 2 pound brick of C4 from my bag.

The warrior scoffed. “One of our own died feeding it a barrel of poison, but it withstood the brew. What makes you think this substance will be different?”

“This isn’t poison, this is high explosives. You know how magic is when used here?” They nodded fearfully. “That’s what this thing does, but on-command.” I pulled the clacker and the detonator. “When I put this little metal bit in the explosive and flip this switch, it becomes armed and I just squeeze this clacker and boom. The hard part is finding some way to get this into the turdra.”

Some discussion ensued as I passed the brick of C4 to a blacksmith after presenting the idea of a metal shell for fragmentation. I moved on to planning how to bait out the turdra without getting anyone eaten, which was a long, circular, not-so-useful conversation. After going nowhere, I decided I would have to rely on the good ol’ gods’ chosen unnatural speed I had accumulated.

“Alright, smith, hand the C4 back please,” I requested casually.

“The elder has it!” he responded.

“Well, where’s the elder?”

Nobody spoke for a moment, then we all scrambled to our feet and looked over the rock in

The Beginning | Wiki Page | Sixth Part | Eighth Part

Ah the Shimmerlands, the one place I have been repeatedly, religiously, indisputably told not to go, and, coincidentally, the very place I happened to be riding through. Everyone gets so hung up on magic blowing up when used, but I—clutching a semi-auto shotgun—didn’t mind that quite so much. Gods can ban guns, but they can’t take them from me here! (As a… [former?] American, I am obligated to say some variation of that phrase. Cold, dead hands, etc.)

Magic going splodey is still quite an inconvenience, however. The frustrating thing is… it’s inconsistent, kinda. If a spell works once, it will work every time, if cast in the same way. Unfortunately, the only way to test this is to put your hide on the line and cast it your damn self. If you roll a 99 or 100, congratulations! You have a spell you can use. If not, then it’s nuke-meet-face. (I am told the explosion is enough to reduce a log cabin to splinters...)

This leaves a disappointingly small list of magic that is available in non-splodey form. Vitally to me, this includes featherweight, if cast outside the Shimmerlands. This spell—while not applied to myself due to prohibitive duration—is enchanted onto every piece of equipment I’m carrying, reducing several hundred pounds of kit to about forty. Other spells relevant to me are beacon-stones and their connected compasses, which are my guides to the Tomb of Instability; and placebo-grade healing potions, which, arguably, aren’t actually magical.

The rest of the spells I either don’t know and cannot learn fast enough or can’t use outright. Next, some (1/3 or so) creatures with innate—'organic' magic as hippiemancers put it—can use their abilities. The rule of thumb on that is: If it's in the Shimmerlands, it hasn't exploded, therefore it's good. Dormant magic is all but guaranteed to last until used, then you roll the dice on whether it's splodey. And, finally, any magic item looted in the Shimmerlands works as it should… until removed from the Shimmerlands, at which point you can’t take it back in without risking you-know-what. On top of that, magic items of meaningful

I think there has to be a reason to call her out but I’m still trying to come up with an answer. Here are some background bits of info:

• We know that they were friends before she met Harry.

• Princess Eugenie has been a member of Soho House, along with her parents.

• Princess Eugenie has been pictured with the infamous Epstein.

• MM has definitely been on some yachts as evidenced by her photos & by tweets asking her to join certain parties on their yachts, especially Haz’ old friend Skippy.

• I watched a documentary type show about the York sisters that claimed Princess Eugenie workswith charities that focus on “Racism and Women’s Rights”, oddly aligned with the same causes that Meghan herself said she was championing at the start of her entrance into the RF.

• Eugenie and Mischa are friends. Pippa was a soho girl, too, I believe.

• Eugenie joining the 40x40 flop.

• Eugenie congratulating on IG for births, birthdays, etc. one post said “dear cousin”.

• The Yorks are outcasts, but I wonder if Eugenie isn’t on the BRF’s payroll and is making these public remarks as codes warning shots to the Sux. I wonder if Mrs. Sux eluded to the Soho party with Eugenie as a shot back, like “I know what you did that night.”

[edited to include /u/ladymorely0106 ’s list]

I’m just writing this on the fly so I know I’m missing other relevant information. What can be added to this list? What theories do y’all have about why sMegs is making it known that she and Haz have ties to the York’s? (Especially since the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell is focusing a spotlight on the Yorks!)

Hi all! I'm a 28 year old female and safe suffered with moderate/but chronic anxiety and depression since I was about 10 years old. I have been on and off medication but haven't tried as many as I see a lot of people have tried on here.

I've been in fluexotine and welbutrin for depression/anxiety. And lamictal and Latuda for mood stabilization. My psychiatrist now believes I don't have a mood stabilization issue, and never have. Latuda gave me horrible side effects eventually.

Anyways, I found this new clinic that offers tms and ketamine infusion therapy. I didn't know that initially, and my motive was just to have a check up and check in on my previous diagnosis and medicines.

My psychiatrist was pretty thorough and I liked her. After she collected all the info she told me about my treatment options which included trying new medicine. But she strongly advocated for tms my conjunction with ketamine therapy. More so the tms if I had to choose between the two.

She described my brain as a field of white snow, untouched- but that I form a path, and then keep walking down that same path over and over and over. Leaving other parts of the field untouched. She said that tms would kept create new pathways, and stop me from going down the same loop. All of which made sense and made me feel hopeful.

Going on medicine isn't something I'm super into, as I know it comes with a lot of side effects and clearly iskt always effective. I guess the skeptical part of me felt like her description of tms and how it would help me felt kind of scripted and generalized. Like it was something she was planning to suggest and say before she even met me.

I understand that the literature shows tms is effective for many people. And I can see why, as a professional she would advocate for it. I'm just wondering if there's another piece of the puzzle to consider and weigh in on? Do clinics benefit financially from offering these treatments? It's a fairly new treatment and it's my brain. I'm not suicidal and pretty high functioning so I want to put a lot of consideration into my treatment plan.

Not to say there’s anything bad about it: the person gets to feel good about helping, and people benefit from the persons help. It’s mutually beneficial. But the motivation is still about the person getting something from it

Hey, urmeaza sa achizitionez un nou imobil si doream sa stiu ce varianta de credit ar fi mai avantajoasa.

Luand in considerare contextul de instabilitate economica, eu as fi inclinat catre cel cu dobanda fixa pe o perioada, insa acesta vine cu o rata lunara considerabil mai mare decat cea cu dobanda variabila.

Avand in vedere ca IRCC-ul a crescut anul acesta pentru prima data din 2019, voi pe ce varianta ati merge? Credeti ca va atinge iar un prag inalt de peste 2,5% sau ca il va depasi(IRCC)?

Cred ca subiectul ar fi de interes pentru multi de aici.

Until then, 🤫

I’m 24 and I feel like I’ve never had a male mentor who didn’t have ulterior motives.

My boss when I was 18 tried to sleep with me—he said he could help a beautiful girl go far in his line of work, but the implication was I would have to sleep with him to secure his continued mentorship. My favorite professor in undergrad actually dated me. I was 19, had a crush, still should have known better. My favorite professor in grad school, who was 60 and married and who took on a real mentorship role I thought would last for years, also tried to sleep with me. He told me that he didn’t want me to feel like I “purchased his mentorship with my body” but that he couldn’t resist how he felt anymore.

Now that I’m working full time, one of my male bosses has established a mentorship/friendship type role with me, and I am SO suspicious. I feel like I’m reading into every little thing he does. I don’t want to compromise a genuine mentorship by walking on eggshells, but I also don’t want to open myself up to getting hurt again.

Has anyone has good experiences with male mentors as a young woman? Do you think it’s possible to have a healthy male mentor/female mentee relationship?

My boyfriend basically said that I’m conventionally attractive so this is just the way it goes and I need to be on my guard. Not exactly an encouraging take.

CW: mentions CSA (child sexual abuse)

I took a chance on trusting and hoping to see the best in someone, who I genuinely believed was intent on healing from their own hurt and from hurting others. I know how “hurt people hurt people” works.

So I’m so disappointed to now discover that they were actually being cleverly deceitful to my face and were abusing vulnerable young people behind the scenes. I want to kick myself for not seeing their difficulty distinguishing sexual fantasy from reality and the harm this was playing out in. I thought I had seen what their “behind the mask” looked like and I thought that seemed manageable to me. I missed that their risk of causing harm wasn’t to me, it was to people far more vulnerable.

I can still see their own hurt and how deeply ingrained their issues trusting the world around them must be in order to be so detached from it that they would take it out on children; that doesn’t mean I can excuse the behaviour in any way. To continue the chain of harm to another is wrong, no two ways about it. I truly hope they find some way to trust in the process of honesty so that they can heal this aspect of them-self.

As much as I can understand that NPD is a part of this issue and that they deserve a space to express themselves and get help to heal, I think that misusing that support space and their elevated position within it to leverage their ability to recruit people to harm should result in the consequence that they do not have unlimited access to that position or that space. Such as being more closely monitored in their interactions, and not being given responsibility over others which can be leveraged by them to create an aura of them being trustworthy to vulnerable people. Safety and the prevention of harm has to be the priority above all else. If they are too clouded in their own judgement to see the effects of that behaviour, it has to be up to other people who manage that space to enforce consequences which prioritise safety.

Just A Thought: ULTERIOR MOTIVE FOR JOHN DUTTON & GARRET RANDALL’S SHOWDOWN???

Now, many of us believe that Beth recorded her conversation with the witch of Market Equities, Caroline Warner, and boy did she give Beth a lot of ammo! The ammo being what Market Equities and Caroline Warner wants to do to the Yellowstone Ranch and Montana - "I'll cut down every tree, dam every stream, etc..." This will put both the protestors and ranchers on Beth and John Dutton's side, especially when he runs for governor and doom the Airport Project!

But I found it very strange that Garrett didn’t say very much! (And reminded me of Beth being abnormally quiet during the tirade from Caroline.)

Many think Garrett planned to meet up with John Dutton, maybe he followed him so they could confront each other?

Perhaps with this ulterior motive in mind - to record the conversation with John?

Because Garrett didn’t have much to say in this confrontation which struck me as odd.

Maybe Garrett had figured out that the only solution for Jamie with Garrett as his father, would be for Jamie to kill him.

We know Garrett is devious and may have had the forethought to make this recording makes it sound like perhaps John Dutton killed Garrett if it exists and taking eyes off Jamie??

Wouldn’t that be a big Yellowstone chaps twist?!?!!!

(Also, did anyone notice the “Huckleberry Pie on the blackboard in the Café? Great Tombstone reference!)

I really mean no disrespect, I’ve read a lot of posts on here and it seems like this subreddit is filled with a lot of good people. I’m a girl and my boyfriend told me that (straight) men are always attracted to their female friends. Ever since hearing this I’ve been on a downward spiral and have had issues with my opinions on men but I’m trying desperately to claw myself out of that hole. I have had horrible experiences with most of the men in my life, but I want to see things critically and not let my personal experiences cloud my judgement and hold a subconscious prejudice to what is almost half the population. If this is only true in some cases, what should I look out for behavioural wise and how can I trust men again? I hate living in fear about being taken advantage of

Somehow over the years I've developed a distrust with men, despite not having a particularly bad history with them, and assume that whenever one is interested in me (which admittedly happens often as I'm a pretty attractive woman) is just because he wants something from me and not because he has legitimate feelings for me.

I don't know why but I feel like men are incapable of love. I know this is untrue and illogical but it doesn't keep me from thinking this way.

Why am I like this

At the beginning of the season, it was a really popular theory that the only reason Tom offered himself up to go to prison was to test Shiv and Logan’s loyalty to him. When they both immediately took him up on his offer, it seemed like that was going to push Tom to betray them and act as an informant to the FBI, securing immunity for himself and fucking everyone else over in the process. I loved this theory and held onto it until the most recent episode, even though most of Tom’s actions this season have not supported this theory. But now I can’t imagine that it’s going to happen.

When Tom met with Kendall, he refused his offer to team up and take Logan and Co. down. Tom said that it wouldn’t work because things always seem to end in Logan’s favor, whereas Kendall has been screwed over by his father time and time again. This is when I realized that there is no way that Tom is plotting to take down Logan, Shiv, and everyone else at the company. He knows he could never take down people with that amount of power.

Also, Matthew Macfadyen’s acting in episode 6 really made me question the theory’s validity. Tom has been talking about his fears of his impending imprisonment throughout the season, but in most of these scenes, he was just complaining to Shiv. Since I believed Tom had ulterior motives, I thought he was actually just trying to guilt/annoy Shiv, not expressing his genuine feelings. Episode 6 took a huge turn because it really showed how scared and depressed Tom is because of the possibility of jail time. Between Macfadyen’s stellar acting and the scenes with Greg and Kendall, I am now convinced that Tom has no plans of screwing over the Roys.

The Beginning | Wiki Page | Fifth Part | Seventh Part

“And Isilda can cover the Prairieton call… again… she’s got the skills for it,” I said to Pokle as I pointed around our scheduling book. “That’s three weeks open, should be enough to account for assorted disasters and stuff. Are you sure you can take care of Varia and Grif while managing the place?”

“No problem,” Pokle answered with a telling lack of confidence. She looked at my equally evocative face. “Hey, cheer up! You’re knocking out the biggest favor on the ledger!”

I let the change of subject slide as I pursed my lips further. “It only counts if I come back alive to strike it off the page. Going off what I know so far, it’s something nasty.”

“Oh come on, boss, you’ve dealt with some tough stuff in your time. How bad could it be?”

My eyes bulged. “Don’t fucking say it out loud dummy! That phrase never helped anybody!”

“Right, sorry. I forget you’re superstitious like that.” Her tone was apologetic solely out of obligation.

I repressed the urge to strangle her, considering I have a LITERAL GHOST IN MY HOUSE, and there are ACTUAL GODS LISTENING IN SOMETIMES and those gods are BORED! Instead, I wandered over to my office and finished the latest version of my will, just in case. After throwing it in my drawer, I sighed and decided that I wanted a drink. I got my dusty bottle of sweet rum and poured a glass.

That particular mood didn’t last. I’d stopped at one drink by the time Greesly leaned into my office. “Someone wants to talk to you,” he said.

“Alright, make it quick. I’m expecting a call.”

To my surprise, it wasn’t someone I despised walking through that door. It was Cameron!

“Whoa hey, Cam. What’s up?” I stood to shake his hand.

He gripped my palm with some major muscle. “Not much, man, I thought I’d swing by to catch up.”

“Oh, it’s a terrible time for that. You’ll have to make it quick, I’m about to get real busy.”

He stopped to mull over his next words. “Alright, umm. The gist is… adventuring sucks. I’ve almost died three times and only leveled up twice! I want a job—from you—that pays bills and grinds XP like you said it does.”

At that moment, Pokle rounded th

Just been thinking about this lately because it happens to me almost every time I make a decision for myself, wanted to see if it was and INFJ thing or just a me problem. For example, today I left school early because I felt extremely exhausted and felt feverish in English, yet later when I was feeling better, I beat myself up for it (figuratively). I also didn't go to therapy, and beat myself up over that too.

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