How long does fig loans take

has anyone been doing the new event? not played for a couple years but it looks like i maybe able to grind out a purple nanocore?
what's it like and how long should it take me ? im aware everyone only cares about the new upgradeable ones now

I hope this post doesn't violate any rules. I think that I need to learn from this experience so that I can raise my children the best way possible, and teach them how to be secure, and confident individuals when they grow up.
My fiance is 28 weeks pregnant with twins. My parents did NOT take that news very well. I think it is because they didn't know her very well before she was pregnant, and we aren't married. They were literally the only ones who did not express excitement over the news. Since I told them (about 20 weeks ago), I have noticed some notable changes in behaviour:
- They never talk to me one on one anymore, and whenever they call it is on speaker so both of them can talk at the same time.
- They have become FAR more interrogative every time we speak. I feel like I'm constantly being interrogated by them.
- They have expressed a "we know best for you and your kids" type mentality whenever we speak, and I find it pretty condescending and insulting.
At 27 weeks my fiance had an ultrasound and they noticed that her cervix was a little bit dilated. Since she was not showing any additional signs of labor, they let her go home, and even told her it was OK to still be working. This does, however, mean that I need to expedite the moving process (we are moving in to a new place for the kids), and get busy arranging everything.
As such, I did not tell my parents until about 4-5 days after the doctor told us she was dilated. Once I did tell them I got screamed at - literally yelled at - on the phone for about 15 mins. I was told I was not a man - that I was lacking in transparency - that they have a right to know everything about the pregnancy while things happen and not after the fact. I basically got reamed out and insulted up and down until I just hung up on them. I have not spoken to them since.
Are they being the entitled control freaks that I am thinking they are, or am I being an asshole for not including them enough during this journey? I'm thinking it's definitely the former and not the latter, but sometimes a person's emotions can blind them to their shitty behaviour. So I want to make sure that my emotions are not blinding me to mine.

I've resisted long enough. Too many drinks (tiki and not) require grapefruit juice. Searching this subreddit (and I've asked before), I think I've settled on u/Arcanum3000's report from Forbidden Idol's mix. How long would this mixture last do you think? 4 oz OJ and 1/2 oz Campari?

GTA Online is Rockstar's incredibly popular cash cow that has been keeping gamers busy since 2013. Although the game should be relatively mature at this stage in its life, it still has plenty of flaws, such as horrendous loading times. These loading time issues have annoyed countless players, and now one player has tracked down the root issue to improve performance.
GTA V fan T0ST recently picked up GTA Online again to finish some new heists that have come out since he last played, but he was "shocked (/s) to discover that it still loads just as slow as the day it was released 7 years ago." With some grit, determination, and perhaps even some spite, T0ST decided it was "time to get to the bottom of this."
gta online ridiculous load times fixed benchmark
In the process of digging into GTA Online, T0ST had to do due diligence and research to make sure no one else figured out the problem. Once it was established that no one had, he ran some benchmarks on his PC with an aging FX-8350 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU, 16GB of DDR3, and a "cheap-o" Kingston SSD. Though these parts may be old, they should be plenty to get GTA Online off the ground in decent time, but that is not what happened. According to the data in the blog post, T0ST got into the story mode in approximately one minute and ten seconds, whereas it took nearly six minutes to get into online mode. After some polling, it appears that many other users are having the same issue . What could be happening here?
gta online ridiculous load times fixed taskmanager
Using the task manager, T0ST found that his CPU was being eaten for around four minutes during GTA Online's load process. Perhaps it was just a bottleneck happening on his CPU alone, but that would not make much sense. To track down the issue, T0ST went to dump the running processes' stack, showing where the offending process is happening in RAM. This information, acquired through Luke Stackwalker, gave T0ST a place to look for whatever was causing issues.
gta online ridiculous load times fixed lukestackwalker
After falling down the rabbit hole of trying to track down where the memory pointed, it all started to come together through assembly code reading and obfuscation. Evidently, when loading into GTA Online, a whopping 10MB worth of JSON is being parsed. It seems that it is data for something called "net shop catalog," which is likely just all the things purchasable in GTA Online using in-game currency.
gta online ridiculous load times fixed parseloop
Why this parsing takes so long is due to a function used called sscanf, which, in this instance, can be loosely equated to reading Romeo and Juliet by reading one word, then rereading the play, and then jumping back to the next word in the play. Furthermore, there is another bad programming issue just beside sscanf, which goes through the entire list of JSON entries in an array, one by one, and checks to see if there are duplicates by comparing a unique ID assigned to each item called a hash. Ultimately, it is a lot of extra and unnecessary work that slows down everything.
To solve this issue, T0ST decided to write a .dll (Dynamic Linked Library) and inject it into GTA so that sscanf is effectively streamlined. Also, rather than running duplication checks, they can just be skipped as items inserted into the storage array will always be unique, as was set up during the parsing effort. Once T0ST injected the DLL into GTA with both issues fixed, he saw his load times go from around six minutes down to a solid approximate two minutes.
As T0ST explains, this "won't solve everyone's load times - there might be other bottlenecks on different systems, but it's such a gaping hole that I have no idea how R* has missed it all these years." Ultimately, Rockstar needs to dig into this issue to save all GTA Online players headaches during loading. If you want to see what T0ST did exactly, you can check out his GitHub here and see what is going on. In any case, perhaps we will soon get an official statement from the development company, so keep an eye on HotHardware for updates.

First time poster here, so hopefully I have come to the right place. As the title describes, we are getting screwed. We are building a vacation home in the Poconos and the entire process has been a nightmare, solely based on how long everything is taking. It is our first build. I won’t bore you with all the details, but this is a pretty reputable builder, have been doing this a long time, extremely nice people in person, but horrible at communication. It has gone weeks and sometimes months with no replies to our emails, when all we have is a simple question or just want some sort of update. We are not annoyingly blowing up their inbox. I will spare any more details on how drawn out this process has been. The short of it is, they originally said we were going to break ground in December 2021 and we’d be in the house within six months. Then when it was coming closer to actually breaking ground, they said things are taking a year now til we’d be in the door. Well they didn’t break ground till about six months later, May of 2022. Then there were all kinds of delays with drilling and cutting down trees, etc.. and the insurance company needed an estimated completion date, so they said July 2023 should appease them. Then they changed it to October. We now got an email from our insurance agent saying that our builders risk insurance premium will go up from $858/mo to $3,950/mo because it is taking longer than 1 year to construct our house. 5x!!!!! Needless to say, we are not happy. Is this as simple as it is our fault for only getting a year policy? We got a year policy based on the builder saying it should take 6 months. Then a few months later when they changed the estimate to a year, we didn’t think anything of it. We are new at this, so didn’t automatically think “Oh we need to extend our builders risk policy.“ IF the house is done by October as they claim, we will be paying $28,000 in builders risk insurance over the next 7 months, instead of the $858/mo that we have been paying for a year, which would be $6,000 over the next 7 months. This is insane to me and feel like we are getting absolutely f*kd. Also, our agent said most other insurance companies won’t provide a quote for a new policy when construction has already started. Would love to know if there is anything in the world we can do to not have to pay an extra $22,000 that was not in our budget. TIA.

Why does everyone always say “life is so short!” when it literally is the longest thing ever. Each DAY is so long, let alone every week, month, YEAR. We are expected to live everyday for like 70+ YEARS??? THATS SOOO FUCKING LONG WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT. And like, by the time you reach 40, you start to slow down and the quality of your life just depreciates as each day passes. What sort of life is that, how bloody shit. I’m literally only 20 and I’m expected to live another like 50+ years??? Fuck thaaaaat.
I feel SO horrible about this but any time I ever hear about someone dying at a young age, or dying at all, I always wish it was me who died instead. PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY ENJOY LIFE AND WANT TO LIVE IT TO THE FULLEST GET THEIR LIFE CUT SHORT, BUT ME, SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T WANT TO DO ANYTHING BESIDES LAY IN THEIR DUNGEON BEDROOM EVERYDAY, GETS TO LIVE?
I wish I didn’t have a family so I could just kill myself and nobody would be upset :/ I love my family and I appreciate them because they’re the only reason I’m still surviving, but if they just cared less about me, I could just go peacefully and not break anyones heart.

Hi, I am new to TDD. I went through R.C.Martin's "Clean Code", and currently working my way through K.Beck's "Test Driven Development" and M.Fowler's "Refactoring". I am trying to apply these principles as I learn on my current projects, and I have several questions that I can't find the answers for in these books.
First of all, one the main points of books on TDD (and many lectures I have attended) is to test the behavior of the program, not the implementation details. From this I take that I should test things on a higher level, instead of trying to write a test for every minor method. This makes sense to me as far as maintainability and time considerations are concerned.
What bugs me about this is that when building a larger application, while the general behaviors and use cases are not many and pretty well defined, there can be an extremely large number of setup combinations that come with these behaviors - things like combination of program settings, state of external programs that my program interfaces with, state of data that the program manipulates, etc. Suppose I were to write a test for every low-level method (I know I shouldn't, but let's suppose). Since they are very simple (each does one thing, and one thing only), it is easy to predict these use cases, there is a very limited number of them. For example, if a method has to divide one number by another, I can test for cases like - both numbers valid integers, both negative, one negative one positive, both zero, etc. There might be like 6-7 cases in total, and I would have confidence that I have tested for every possible scenario. However, such method is private in it's class and very low-level in my application, so following the philosophy of TDD, I shouldn't be testing it, but testing on a much higher level. Problem is, when this low-level method is called together with other low-level methods by some higher-level method, and that one is called together with others by an even higher-level method, the number of possible use case combinations becomes very large. Here is a visualization of what I mean (read it from bottom to the top): https://i.imgur.com/ZaD509T.png
So in this example, if I follow the principles of TDD, I should be testing only the high-level stuff, in this case the public method(s) of this class, but in order to cover every possible combination of data/program settings/program state/external dependency states, I have to write hundreds of tests or test setups in order to ensure that the program doesn't behave unexpectedly in some edge case combination. Of course, I understand that proper decoupling and encapsulation should reduce the number of these combinations, but there can still be a lot. In that example diagram I drew, if I were to test low-level methods (the non-TDD way), I would have to test 5+3+2+6=16 cases. If I were to test on the high level (the TDD way), I would have to test 5*3+2*6=180 cases to cover everything. You can see the problem here.
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For reference, I often have to code macros for SolidWorks (engineering CAD software). They read and manipulate data, as well as automate some actions of that application. While the use cases are simply in general, these macros unavoidably rely heavily on the state of the main application and hundreds of it's modules, so even running a simple task the macro can fail because the main application is in some weird state due to a specific workflow that user did prior to running that macro. So if I test high-level behavior, I often have to write hundreds of test setups to ensure that these low-level methods also get tested in every possible combination - otherwise I can't guarantee that I have 99% test coverage.
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I expect that this is a very basic question for experienced coders, but I would really love to you hear your input on how to solve this.

I work for a small, private, not-for-profit university in Ohio. We are supposed to be paid every two weeks (26 paychecks a year). We are always paid by direct deposit every other Friday and the money is always in our accounts by the morning of payday. Our last payday was Friday, March 10 and on that day, nobody received their direct deposit. There was no word from university leadership all day. I emailed human resources and they did not respond. That is extremely out of the ordinary for them.
At 5:41 pm ET, the president of the university sent out the following email:

Dear Team [university],
Thank you for your hard work and dedication to our students and the well being of each other.
Payroll distribution began today and will continue through early next week.
The good news is that our university community worked together very hard to reach our Spring headcount goal, and we exceeded it! Unfortunately, the troubled economy has hit our student population hard causing them to take fewer classes and to delay tuition payments.
In light of that fact, the decision was made not to wait for remaining tuition to come in before distributing payroll. [University] was able to supplement the tuition revenues, which is a testament to [university]'s commitment and resilience to be able to do so. However, that process takes a little longer. Therefore, we anticipate everyone will be paid by early next week.
With appreciation for all that you do for [university]!
[President]

By the morning of Monday, March 13, most or all of the university's hourly employees had been paid. As of today, 12 days later, none of the salaried employees have been paid. I don't know how many people that is between faculty and staff, but it's a lot. Easily dozens. On Thursday, March 16, the president's office sent another email:
​

Dear Team [university],
Thank you for your patience, as the university coalesces resources for payroll disbursement. We apologize for the delay that unfortunately has taken longer than anticipated but is close to being completed. As you may remember, [university] has undergone much greater challenges in the past, and met each one. We do so now.
Everyone will be paid, and here is why there has been a delay. The disbursement problems emanate from uncollected receivables owed to [university] from federal and state governments, as well as a significant percentage of unpaid tuition. Federal funding of over $3.2 million was to have been sent to [university] this Fall, and the university is still waiting, as are hundreds of other institutions and companies. Unfortunately, we cannot escalate the timing of when these federal government funds will arrive. There is also grant funding owed to [university] that should have been sent in January, and that [university] is just now partially receiving this week. That said, as a testament to [university]’s resiliency, the university has been successfully supplementing this significant amount, as we wait for government funds.
As [university] waits for external funding sources owed, daily operations and payroll become primarily dependent on tuition. However, this semester, a significant percentage of our students have not paid, nor made payment arrangements, further challenging the budget. Therefore, [university]’s collection policy is being revised. To augment internal funding, as is common practice in higher education when new funding is needed, we are securing external funds that will cover expenses sufficiently, while we wait. External funds, coupled with existing funds, will help close the gap from non-payment of tuition revenues. Although external funding was approved prior to payroll, we are still waiting for the funds to be deposited, which could be an impact of the current banking crisis. Funds are delayed but are forthcoming. Information expected tomorrow will give us a better potential timetable for processing funds and payroll disbursement. I will continue to update you.
Again, with deep appreciation for your patience, and belief in [university]’s resiliency,
[president's name]
President

The "external funds" that the president references above is a (presumably bank) loan that we have not been approved for as far as I know, despite what it says in the email. This loan, according to the president, would cover payroll expenses through the fiscal year. That much appears to be true.
I have done what I can to press the president's office for information. We mostly get radio silence or lies. I'm working with other office heads to identify some of the more financially vulnerable employees to try to get them some emergency help if we are not paid this coming Friday, the 24th, our next payday. We all continue to come in or log on and do our jobs every day.
I don't know what to do next. If we really are close to getting a loan approved, I'm afraid I could possibly tank that if I go to the media. Then no one gets paid. I would like to contact the proper authorities, but I don't know who that would be. The Ohio Department of Labor has places to file complaints for minimum wage workers denied pay or people denied overtime pay, but this isn't that.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

My girlfriend (21) of more than a year and I (28) are having issues in our relationship. From what she is saying, she is suffering from depression for a long time already, perhaps there are even more mental disorders (borderline?). Yet, for now these illnesses have not yet been diagnosed by a professional. She just recently started going to one. They had 4 appointments yet no diagnosis yet, or so she says (Is this normal?). She says he’s just mostly listens to her. He did give her pills, which she is taking.
We met online two years ago and it took a year for her to reveal her feelings for me. I told her that I can’t do long distance relationships and that if she’s serious about this, she will have to move to my country after a bit of time. It didn’t take her long before moving in with me. For a year everything seemed perfect. Even though she was telling me during this year, how rough her childhood was. How much abuse in the family there was. How many times she was bullied at school. How she was cutting herself and also had suicidal thoughts before our relationship. She did say those things, but I’ve never really seen the negative effects of this. She was still cheerful and affectionate around me. Our conversations were going very well. A lot of intimate evenings and even mornings. We had a joyful year. Sure, she didn’t always want to go out. Or didn’t always vibe with some people around us. But the thing is, I personally, never seen how bad the situation is because of her mental illness. She never showed it to me. Or maybe I’m just blind and ignorant. Though I don’t think so because recently she said how she wasn’t truly herself in that year. She thinks nobody will like her if she’s herself. To me this is unfair.
We did have some small arguments from time to time during this year, but to me, these didn’t seem all that serious. I always said how we’ll get through whatever we’re dealing with and that everything will be ok. That I love her. I always tried to stay positive. Never scream at her or hurt her (atleast not intentionally, through words. Never physical). Though I am more of a direct person, maybe I’m also not the best with being careful with my words. I try to describe them exactly as they are.
I work 8-9 hours a day, while I also go get groceries after work. She works 3-6 hours a day as a cleaning lady (sometimes she has days off cuz no work). I also pay for transport and for the food when we go out, always. She never even asked to pay for it once. She does split the rent half half. Because of me working more and paying more. I was kinda expecting her to make dinner for me. Like a giving and taking situation. More often than not. Sometimes she did say she didn’t feel like doing it so I would bring takeout, or make it myself after work.
So this is where the big problem started. It was around 2 weeks ago. I was at work and she called me saying how she doesn’t feel like making dinner. That she will herself go outside to buy food, IF she’s not ingame. (She plays a lot of video games). After I was done with work, I messaged her that I’m going to go get groceries. She instantly responded that she’s still ingame. I came home after 1 hour and asked if she got food. To which she just calmly responded with No. I was a little annoyed because her game rounds don’t last for one hour. And she said she will get food if she’s not ingame anymore. So I told her that she said she will go get food after her game. But she didn’t. She didn’t keep her word. That it feels dishonest. Part of my annoyance is that there were instances before where I come home after a long day at work, have to go get takeout and bring it to her while she just plays video games all day and laughs with her friends. It gives me a bad feeling. It gives me a feeling of being used. To be honest I think I am more sensitive to this because I feel like most of my life people were trying to take advantage of me.
So still during this call where I said this feels dishonest, I said I am not going to go get takeout. I am going to make myself dinner. Would you like something to eat? To which she replied that she doesn’t. After I ate, she came downstairs and gave me this “negative” look. Didn’t ask how my day went, nothing. She looked hurt. I asked her where she’s going. To the Psychiatrist. I asked her if she wants a ride. To which she said yes. On the way there we didn’t speak. I didn’t really like her attitude. I don’t think I did something wrong. After dropping her off and her counselling. She just messaged me “come get me”. I did. She started speaking a bit more normal to me. And she herself started the topic of our issue. How it was very hurtful to her to hear me call her a dishonest person. Even though I didn’t call her names. I just said it feels dishonest. We were back and forth arguing about it. She got a breakdown. Started crying. Went to bed. I started making myself another meal, thought I’d give her space. This might’ve been a mistake, because she did tell me once or twice that when she’s having a breakdown, the best thing I can do is cuddle her. I forgot about this, thought space would do her good.
Next day during my work, I messaged her saying that I’m going to go out with my friend. It was a Friday. I came from work, had to make dinner myself again. She was sleeping when I arrived, even though my sister said she heard her laughing a lot that day (my sister was in the house, another room). Could it be that when it was time to make dinner, she just thought she’ll go to bed so she won’t have to make it? When I went to our floor, she was still sleeping so I went on my PC to kill time. It was almost time for me to go with my friend and then suddenly she wakes up and comes to me. Looking all sad like, barely saying anything. Could barely answer my questions. Kept hugging me. She wanted to try to workout our issue I think. Talk about it. But I said I can’t right now. I told my friend I’d be there at a specific time and I keep my word. That we will talk later. So I went downstairs to make food. I didn’t tell her I was going to make food first. (it’s 3 floors). Before leaving the house, I hear her talking and laughing loudly. I got pissed off because she could barely talk to me, was all sad like. And suddenly she can talk and laugh. This is so weird to me when you say you’re depressed and feel very sad. This instant switch. Feels manipulative to me. Though again, I never had depression, barely know anything about depression. I did talk to her once about it. How she’s all sad to me but can laugh with her friends. She said she was putting on a mask.
I left and stayed until 6 AM at my friend’s place. I felt like shit for two days. Couldn’t concentrate at work and hearing her laugh when I was leaving also pissed me off. I didn’t really feel like coming back that quick. I was having fun with my friend. Charging up my batteries. I guess I needed some space to relax. When I came home she was being cute. Asking if I had fun etc. I didn’t feel good about our situation and I’m not just gonna ignore that I stayed with my friend until 6 AM. I told her why I stayed this late. That I didn’t really feel like coming back. While I was out, she was having a super heavy breakdown she says. That she can’t believe I left her. That I hurt her a lot. That something broke inside of her. We had a talk about this the next day. That this all happened because of my comment on her wrongdoing. She said she was going to do something and she didn’t. She could’ve told me that she changed her mind, say something, but she didn’t. I told her calmly, that it’s not ok. And how she reacted to this situation, escalated this whole thing. That she started to turn herself into a victim, even though I just commented on something I thought was not ok. After a while of discussion she agreed that she was being toxic to me. Acting a lot like her toxic mom. That she was playing the victim and that she’s sorry. After she said that, I relaxed because admitting to a mistake is a good thing. I hugged her and said that it’s going to be alright, that I love her and that we’ll get through this.
Next week she started this topic again. It felt like she was still holding resentment that I didn’t say sorry for making her feel like that. That I left her while she’s having the worst breakdown of her life. Even though, I didn’t. That day she just woke up, wanted to talk about our issue and I said that I can’t because I have plans with my friend and I keep my word. I didn’t know she’s having the worst breakdown of her life. She also didn’t try to call me or message me about it. We didn’t talk for long because I was busy with something. Next thing in bed, we start talking again and by that time I have already read like 20 articles about depression. It said how you should be more supportive. More like a caretaker. That she won’t have the energy to do some chores etc. That I should help out. That words can be very hurtful because her mind is already filled with negativity. So during our bed talk I said that I was sorry that I made her feel like that. That I could’ve just dropped the thing and got the food myself. That I’m reading about depression and will do better. That I won’t pester her about the dishes not being taken downstairs.
That’s when she dropped a bomb on me. She started talking about how much I hurt her. That she’s back into hurting herself (she had scratch marks on her upper left chest side). That she’s really not ok. That she’s tired of me not understanding her condition. That I left her while she was having the worst breakdown of her life. That I wasn’t there for her. That she hates this country and the people in it. That she hates her job. That she thinks she’s going to go back to her country to get space for an unknown amount of time.
I broke down in that moment. I just apologized for my ignorance about depression. How I’m reading about it and trying to improve. How often I said that I’m not going to give up and that we’ll get through this. Also after a year of her saying how important I am to her. How I am the only one that gives her a reason to live. How she wants to marry me and have kids with me. How affectionate she was to me. That before me she was going to either attempt suicide or give up on relationships. After all that, she’s just going to go back to her country to pretty much take a break from me? Probably that would also lead to a breakup, because it most often does.
I started talking about all that, how this doesn’t make sense. How do you go from 1 year of this talking, into thinking about taking a break after 2 weeks of having issues. Where I also showed the will to change and improve the situation. It just doesn’t make sense. I cried.
After a bit she said she won’t be leaving to her country. Which shocked me even more to be fair. This decision to leave my country to go back to hers is a big step that is supposed to be very thought through. To suddenly change decisions and make excuses that she won’t go made me feel even more like shit. It’s like playing with my emotions. I told her it was fu**ed up.
Since that night she’s being all cute with me, hugging, kissing, trying to have an intimate time (trying because I said no).
My gut says she is dishonest and trying to manipulate me. My logical reason doesn’t let me fall into jumping to these conclusions because I don’t understand depression. So I will give this more time. See what the psychiatrist diagnoses in her and see how it goes. I am very worried about our future.
tl;dr I'm not sure if I'm correct in my situation or more supportive because of my girlfriend's condition.

My dad passed one month ago, next week I have to get back to work. I fortunately work from home so if I need to cry I can do it. But I’m still struggling to be functional. For instance, I forgot 3 important appointments I had these weeks and I’m delayed with all the projects I have to do. I also work writing (specifically, I have to write comedy, be funny, be entertaining) and I’m struggling a lot to do so right now. I’m even struggling with just feeding myself and take care of my necessities. I’m still crying daily and struggling to sleep even tho I got Trazadone prescribed.
Does anyone have any advise on how to get back on track after loss? Any tips to self-regulate enough so you can work? Any advice is appreciated.
EDIT: sorry for the typo in the title

Hi all! I brought my little bean home from dental surgery yesterday and her best buddy hissed and growled at her like she was a stranger cat x.x I know her scent it probably funky from anesthesia/procedure. However she has been sitting in front of the bedroom door staring at it because she wants to be with her buddy ;-; how do I get her scents back? Or how long will it take for all the other weird scents to go? She isn’t grooming atm since her mouth hurts

Hey everyone! I got my first leopard gecko from an expo about a week and a half ago, they told me he’s about two months old. He just had his first shed with me yesterday and I’ve noticed some leftover shed stuck on his foot. However, he’s still wary of me and doesn’t come out of his cave when I’m around. He does have a humid hide, but hasn’t used it yet.
The rest of the shed seemed to be no problem, but I was wondering what would be the best way to go about helping him with his foot. I don’t want to make him more scared than he already is, and I can’t reach him while he’s in his cave and I don’t want to force him out. How long should I give the shed until it becomes an urgent issue worth scaring him for? Or is there a possible way to help him without removing him?
Thanks so much in advance!

I'm at a classic point in my current story, the Heated Argument That Changes Everything, and my writing has slowed to a crawl. I know that I need to get from A to B while hitting points C, D and E, but getting through all of that while making it sound natural and unforced is ridiculously hard. I think of one line that works for one character, then it's a twenty-minute pause while I think of how another character will respond. I keep feeling like I've written myself into a corner. I'm making progress, but who knows how long this is going to take.
My worry at the moment is that I'll discover that a critical plot point actually doesn't work, and now I need to figure out how to salvage a WIP that's already 60% published.

I was off medications for the past two months as I went through Genesight & ADHD testing and recently started (on day 6 today) Wellbutrin XL 150mg. While off medication, I had difficulty with orgasming. I just felt so depressed in my day to day life, pleasure seemed muted. Orgasms came, but took work and they weren't great.
Did anyone else have low desire and difficulty orgasming while OFF medications and Wellbutrin helped? And, if so, how long did it take to notice results? I had sex with my husband last night, but it still took so much work to climax. I want to be intimate and not have to struggle with it.

So this all may be related to my low ferritin as well which has been going on since January (ferritin was 8) but anyways long story short I had a panic attack at work, went in for some anxiety meds, was prescribed fluoxetine 10 mg daily. Took 5 mg daily for a couple of weeks, was severely fatigued could barely get out of bed to get my kids to school and felt very anxious during that time.
Fast forward to today, I’ve been taking 10 mg daily for 3 weeks now (so total of 6 weeks on this med). I am now experiencing:
-pulsatile tinnitus -fatigue very similar to when I first started this medication, hard to get out of bed, can barely get up and get kids ready for school, have to take naps when I get home for sending them to school -very bad anxiety in the mornings, past 2 days I’ve been waking up around 4-5 am with a racing heart and anxious thoughts that made it hard to fall back asleep
I also have been out of work since January due to the iron issues. I spoke with my doctor yesterday and she recommends that I increase to 20 mg a day and follow up in a month to see how I’m doing.
I almost want to stop taking this medication all together because the side effects are taking a toll and I don’t know if I will ever feel better on this medication. On the other hand I’ve spent hours reading people’s stories on here saying that it gets better.
When will I feel less anxious, fatigued, and back to “normal” again? Also when will the pulsatile tinnitus go away if anyone else has experienced this on this drug?
Someone please tell me they’ve been through this and it all worked out. I feel like I’m already at the 6 week point and still don’t feel the “click” or “activation” that I’ve read all about.

My girlfriend (21) of more than a year and I (28) are having issues in our relationship. From what she is saying, she is suffering from depression for a long time already, perhaps there are even more mental disorders (borderline?). Yet, for now these illnesses have not yet been diagnosed by a professional. She just recently started going to one. They had 4 appointments yet no diagnosis yet, or so she says (Is this normal?). She says he’s just mostly listens to her. He did give her pills, which she is taking.
We met online two years ago and it took a year for her to reveal her feelings for me. I told her that I can’t do long distance relationships and that if she’s serious about this, she will have to move to my country after a bit of time. It didn’t take her long before moving in with me. For a year everything seemed perfect. Even though she was telling me during this year, how rough her childhood was. How much abuse in the family there was. How many times she was bullied at school. How she was cutting herself and also had suicidal thoughts before our relationship. She did say those things, but I’ve never really seen the negative effects of this. She was still cheerful and affectionate around me. Our conversations were going very well. A lot of intimate evenings and even mornings. We had a joyful year. Sure, she didn’t always want to go out. Or didn’t always vibe with some people around us. But the thing is, I personally, never seen how bad the situation is because of her mental illness. She never showed it to me. Or maybe I’m just blind and ignorant. Though I don’t think so because recently she said how she wasn’t truly herself in that year. She thinks nobody will like her if she’s herself. To me this is unfair.
We did have some small arguments from time to time during this year, but to me, these didn’t seem all that serious. I always said how we’ll get through whatever we’re dealing with and that everything will be ok. That I love her. I always tried to stay positive. Never scream at her or hurt her (atleast not intentionally, through words. Never physical). Though I am more of a direct person, maybe I’m also not the best with being careful with my words. I try to describe them exactly as they are.
I work 8-9 hours a day, while I also go get groceries after work. She works 3-6 hours a day as a cleaning lady (sometimes she has days off cuz no work). I also pay for transport and for the food when we go out, always. She never even asked to pay for it once. She does split the rent half half. Because of me working more and paying more. I was kinda expecting her to make dinner for me. Like a giving and taking situation. More often than not. Sometimes she did say she didn’t feel like doing it so I would bring takeout, or make it myself after work.
So this is where the big problem started. It was around 2 weeks ago. I was at work and she called me saying how she doesn’t feel like making dinner. That she will herself go outside to buy food, IF she’s not ingame. (She plays a lot of video games). After I was done with work, I messaged her that I’m going to go get groceries. She instantly responded that she’s still ingame. I came home after 1 hour and asked if she got food. To which she just calmly responded with No. I was a little annoyed because her game rounds don’t last for one hour. And she said she will get food if she’s not ingame anymore. So I told her that she said she will go get food after her game. But she didn’t. She didn’t keep her word. That it feels dishonest. Part of my annoyance is that there were instances before where I come home after a long day at work, have to go get takeout and bring it to her while she just plays video games all day and laughs with her friends. It gives me a bad feeling. It gives me a feeling of being used. To be honest I think I am more sensitive to this because I feel like most of my life people were trying to take advantage of me.
So still during this call where I said this feels dishonest, I said I am not going to go get takeout. I am going to make myself dinner. Would you like something to eat? To which she replied that she doesn’t. After I ate, she came downstairs and gave me this “negative” look. Didn’t ask how my day went, nothing. She looked hurt. I asked her where she’s going. To the Psychiatrist. I asked her if she wants a ride. To which she said yes. On the way there we didn’t speak. I didn’t really like her attitude. I don’t think I did something wrong. After dropping her off and her counselling. She just messaged me “come get me”. I did. She started speaking a bit more normal to me. And she herself started the topic of our issue. How it was very hurtful to her to hear me call her a dishonest person. Even though I didn’t call her names. I just said it feels dishonest. We were back and forth arguing about it. She got a breakdown. Started crying. Went to bed. I started making myself another meal, thought I’d give her space. This might’ve been a mistake, because she did tell me once or twice that when she’s having a breakdown, the best thing I can do is cuddle her. I forgot about this, thought space would do her good.
Next day during my work, I messaged her saying that I’m going to go out with my friend. It was a Friday. I came from work, had to make dinner myself again. She was sleeping when I arrived, even though my sister said she heard her laughing a lot that day (my sister was in the house, another room). Could it be that when it was time to make dinner, she just thought she’ll go to bed so she won’t have to make it? When I went to our floor, she was still sleeping so I went on my PC to kill time. It was almost time for me to go with my friend and then suddenly she wakes up and comes to me. Looking all sad like, barely saying anything. Could barely answer my questions. Kept hugging me. She wanted to try to workout our issue I think. Talk about it. But I said I can’t right now. I told my friend I’d be there at a specific time and I keep my word. That we will talk later. So I went downstairs to make food. I didn’t tell her I was going to make food first. (it’s 3 floors). Before leaving the house, I hear her talking and laughing loudly. I got pissed off because she could barely talk to me, was all sad like. And suddenly she can talk and laugh. This is so weird to me when you say you’re depressed and feel very sad. This instant switch. Feels manipulative to me. Though again, I never had depression, barely know anything about depression. I did talk to her once about it. How she’s all sad to me but can laugh with her friends. She said she was putting on a mask.
I left and stayed until 6 AM at my friend’s place. I felt like shit for two days. Couldn’t concentrate at work and hearing her laugh when I was leaving also pissed me off. I didn’t really feel like coming back that quick. I was having fun with my friend. Charging up my batteries. I guess I needed some space to relax. When I came home she was being cute. Asking if I had fun etc. I didn’t feel good about our situation and I’m not just gonna ignore that I stayed with my friend until 6 AM. I told her why I stayed this late. That I didn’t really feel like coming back. While I was out, she was having a super heavy breakdown she says. That she can’t believe I left her. That I hurt her a lot. That something broke inside of her. We had a talk about this the next day. That this all happened because of my comment on her wrongdoing. She said she was going to do something and she didn’t. She could’ve told me that she changed her mind, say something, but she didn’t. I told her calmly, that it’s not ok. And how she reacted to this situation, escalated this whole thing. That she started to turn herself into a victim, even though I just commented on something I thought was not ok. After a while of discussion she agreed that she was being toxic to me. Acting a lot like her toxic mom. That she was playing the victim and that she’s sorry. After she said that, I relaxed because admitting to a mistake is a good thing. I hugged her and said that it’s going to be alright, that I love her and that we’ll get through this.
Next week she started this topic again. It felt like she was still holding resentment that I didn’t say sorry for making her feel like that. That I left her while she’s having the worst breakdown of her life. Even though, I didn’t. That day she just woke up, wanted to talk about our issue and I said that I can’t because I have plans with my friend and I keep my word. I didn’t know she’s having the worst breakdown of her life. She also didn’t try to call me or message me about it. We didn’t talk for long because I was busy with something. Next thing in bed, we start talking again and by that time I have already read like 20 articles about depression. It said how you should be more supportive. More like a caretaker. That she won’t have the energy to do some chores etc. That I should help out. That words can be very hurtful because her mind is already filled with negativity. So during our bed talk I said that I was sorry that I made her feel like that. That I could’ve just dropped the thing and got the food myself. That I’m reading about depression and will do better. That I won’t pester her about the dishes not being taken downstairs.
That’s when she dropped a bomb on me. She started talking about how much I hurt her. That she’s back into hurting herself (she had scratch marks on her upper left chest side). That she’s really not ok. That she’s tired of me not understanding her condition. That I left her while she was having the worst breakdown of her life. That I wasn’t there for her. That she hates this country and the people in it. That she hates her job. That she thinks she’s going to go back to her country to get space for an unknown amount of time.
I broke down in that moment. I just apologized for my ignorance about depression. How I’m reading about it and trying to improve. How often I said that I’m not going to give up and that we’ll get through this. Also after a year of her saying how important I am to her. How I am the only one that gives her a reason to live. How she wants to marry me and have kids with me. How affectionate she was to me. That before me she was going to either attempt suicide or give up on relationships. After all that, she’s just going to go back to her country to pretty much take a break from me? Probably that would also lead to a breakup, because it most often does.
I started talking about all that, how this doesn’t make sense. How do you go from 1 year of this talking, into thinking about taking a break after 2 weeks of having issues. Where I also showed the will to change and improve the situation. It just doesn’t make sense. I cried.
After a bit she said she won’t be leaving to her country. Which shocked me even more to be fair. This decision to leave my country to go back to hers is a big step that is supposed to be very thought through. To suddenly change decisions and make excuses that she won’t go made me feel even more like shit. It’s like playing with my emotions. I told her it was fu**ed up.
Since that night she’s being all cute with me, hugging, kissing, trying to have an intimate time (trying because I said no).
My gut says she is dishonest and trying to manipulate me. My logical reason doesn’t let me fall into jumping to these conclusions because I don’t understand depression. So I will give this more time. See what the psychiatrist diagnoses in her and see how it goes. I am very worried about our future.
tl;dr I'm not sure if I'm correct in my situation or more supportive because of my girlfriend's condition.

This has been a pretty dramatic week for my 15 year old male cat, Lynk. Lynk has been diagnosed with diabetes back in Oct 2021 and it’s been a learning experience for us. Lynk was NEVER an overweight cat and we had been feeding him a diet that had low/no carbs leading up to the diagnosis, so the cause was likely just age/that males cats are more prone to it and he got unlucky. Last week, Lynk started having seizures and he had all the physical symptoms of hypoglycaemia even though the blood glucose samples we took didn’t measure low enough for the vets or the hospital to believe it was severe enough to cause the seizures; however, they did find that he had pancreatitis and started treatment for it. He spent 4 days at the hospital and is home now, and while we are doing 3-4 blood checks on him daily since he has been home, his levels have been all over the place. Yesterday, he was over 19 at 6am, we gave 2 units of lantus, and by noon he had dropped to 4.8. I fed him some diabetic food immediately and raised it to 7.5 an hour after that reading. We did not give any more insulin until this morning when his blood was at 15 and we only gave 1 unit, per the take-home instructions and discussions we had previously had with the hospital. So, I have a couple of questions that I hope a professional who has a lot of experience treating diabetic cats can give some context to me on:
1) I know my little guy is going to be very sensitive to insulin right now, how long does that usually last after a hypo episode? 2) the clinic couldn’t comment on the relationship between hypo/diabetes/pancreatitis and the seizures he was having… they watched him for 4 days and concluded that they believed his threshold for seizures had been lowered because of his critical condition and not another cause like a tumour. I’m wondering if anyone has seen this before? I’m watching him like a hawk because I’m so scared that he could have another seizure and the clinic recommended against starting any sort of anti-seizure meds… i’d be scared to do that anyways right now because I need to know if he’s in any distress with low blood sugar and his pancreatitis.
My regular vet says that we should do a curve in about a week so that’s the plan, and then she will recommend if we re-check for pancreatitis to see if it’s cleared up. So in the meantime, I just need to understand if I’m overreacting or if this situation is normal after this type of incident? I would love to hear any feedback.

TLDR; My “best friend” of 7 years has crucially put a dent in our friendship by neglecting the friendship for the past year and a half, while we also are growing apart, and I am not sure if I am being dramatic and shouldn’t cut her off or if I should because she is bad for me.
Background: we have been friends for almost 7 years now maybe longer. We were always glued at the hip, at first we met each other and then I introduced her and my other friend and quickly we became a trio. The other friend I introduced her to had remained her friend while I fell out with my other friend three times for let’s say four years, but the last time we fell out was my choice as I told her I didn’t want to be her friend anymore because she was constantly over jealous and did not like my new relationship. Therefore it was left to me and my original friend.
Now, I am having some issues because I cannot tell if I am being dramatic or I just don’t understand relationships in the real world, but my friend of 7 years has always been, I wouldn’t say like a sister, but like a soulmate friend. We were literally the same person with the same humor and could talk every second of every day like we practically were dating lol. Well even when I was in my relationship, I actually would say I still liked her more than him lol but that’s because we were just so close for so long. Then covid hit and I remember the first month without her literally felt like centuries. We hadn’t hung out for a while after that and when we did there was just a shift I guess. After this, I realized we just started becoming different people and it progressed over the years. Then things got better for a short while and then we started college. It was like we never talked, she would ignore my texts for hours and days because she had made a new friend group. Sometimes when we talk she will tell me things like, “I just thought they were going to be my forever friends,” (her friend group) “I feel like I have nobody and I am so glad I can always come back to you and I am not just saying this because my friend group is falling apart,” there would just be comments that would make me take a double take but laugh awkwardly.
In addition to all of this, we have hung out in the past year and a half maybe 5 times. I have made it a point several times to what she is doing and she constantly apologizes. So I did what she did to me and not even a day and a half later she texted me saying “I feel like you don’t want to talk to me anymore,” “I feel like nobody likes me and I can’t stand it so can we be good,” WHEN the whole time I’ve been saying this to her. And for once I actually told her everything about how I felt and I genuinely thought we would make a turnaround but we haven’t.
During this time that she has ignored me, I’ve had time to reflect on our friendship, and she also was a very jealous friend but not over me like my other friend, she would be jealous around boys I guess, always making me the funny character you know. She would tell me to stop posting pics of myself because her crush would see it and like it. One time she sent a “nice” pic of me to this boy that she actually has been talking to for this past year and a half (he lives in a different state and they met on a beach and met 2 times in person after) and when he made eyes or something, she said, oh let me just show him this picture, and we were silly people so obviously it wasn’t great lol. Just small things like that, putting me down in ways I didn’t notice.
My dilemma comes in because I feel like I don’t want her to be my friend. Everybody around me also thinks she is bad for me, I feel she is bad for my mental health because I’m constantly wondering why she is ignoring me and such. We also have outgrown each other so much. We are two completely different people now, and I keep trying to make excuses to not cut her off but I still deeply want to. I just don’t know how. I also am not sure again if I am being dramatic or if I should just suck it up and realize people have issues and that I accept whom I want to take it from? I really don’t know.
TLDR; My “best friend” of 7 years has crucially put a dent in our friendship by neglecting the friendship for the past year and a half, while we also are growing apart, and I am not sure if I am being dramatic and shouldn’t cut her off or if I should because she is bad for me.

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Approximated Earth Date: 3. May. 2235
"Destination set: Earth's Moon. Estimated travel time: Fifty-five minutes, and twenty-three seconds."
Teresh had to catch himself with a hand as the ship suddenly roared to life. The world began to turn as he could feel its momentum change. Questions began to bubble in my head, like a pot of gotesh starting to boil.
Earth? Is that the name of planet 626, or another? Could it be a prison world? Was I just tricked by an elaborate ruse into surrendering myself to becoming a captive once more? Teresh shook his head. No, that's stupid. Unless humans are an incredibly cruel species, there would be no reason to lull me into a false sense of security. They are aware that I am unarmed and alone. Tom alone would be able to physically overpower me. I will just have to trust in my new ally.
Part of him wanted to escape, and another knew that it would be pointless. Even if he made it back to his ship there was no guarantee that he could get the hanger doors open. Then there was a chance that they would just blast him out of space the moment he left the ship. This was not the time to let fear rule him. He had to be strong, brave, and honorable, like his ancestors before him.
A brisk knock came at the door, which nearly caused him to jump out of his feathers. He saw the familiar orange and black form of Tom walk through the door. Along with him, an orange suit and helmet that he held in his left hand. Tom’s throat rumbled before he started talking.
"I looked through our spares. This is the smallest one we've got. Might be a little loose on the shoulders, but it should get the job done," he explained, holding it out to him.
"Thank you," Teresh replied, taking the bundle from him. The fabric was pretty soft and surprisingly flexible and elastic. Though, he did immediately think of one flaw. "You don't suppose my talons are going to poke through the fabric, do you?"
Tom stood there, a hand on his side. After a moment of silence, he shifted his weight to the other leg and responded, "Eh, I don't think so. Long as they're not razor sharp you should be fine. Just don't push too hard against the finger parts."
"Oh, you have five ‘fingers.’ As you called them," Teresh said matter-of-factually. He noticed upon looking at his suit and referencing Tom's that the hands had five ‘fingers’ each.
He held up his own, and they both counted four talons. One that took the same position as the thumb, with the only missing being a pinky equivalent. Fortunately, Teresh was quick on his feet.
"I'll do my best to keep it out of sight. At worst, I lost them in an accident," he explained.
"Huh, good ingenuity. We're going to need that if we want this to work," Tom replied, crossing his arms together.
Teresh wasn't exactly sure how to read the gesture, but his tone sounded positive. He would be sure to upload their language to the translator as fast as possible. When interpreting, the machine outputs everything in a dull, neutral voice. Once the language was properly recognized however, they could speak to each other as if there were no language barriers at all. That would have to wait, sadly, as it sounded like they were about to get moving.
He stood up and began donning his suit. Quickly finding a small zipper, which was a tad infuriating with talons. The Valaxi could manage them just fine, but the kooli needed their own zippers that featured a larger hole for their talons. Just another advantage they had from natural superiority.
Tom shuffled his feet a bit and turned away from Teresh in an instant. Causing him to pause and tilt his head at the human.
"Is something the matter?" Teresh asked curiously.
Tom throat rumbled again, and he coughed. Responding, "Sorry, I just figured you wanted some privacy."
The kooli shook his head, amused by his sentiment. His race didn't typically wear trappings like the Valaxi or the Leo-oup. Typically, such practice was observed as a way to either cover exposed genitalia or to accentuate their appearance. Kooli had no such exposure and preferred the natural beauty of their bodies and feathers. To don clothing atop was seen as a practice that only extremely narcissistic or Valaxi obsessed kooli indulged in. Even their own Jarva only donned a cape and crown when attending the imperial commune.
Of course, he had no clue why the humans covered themselves, but that would have to wait for future discussion. All he could do was theorize as he finally slid on the loose garb. The suit fit well enough, outside of bunching up near his feet and elbows. Not enough to be a hazard, but just enough to look a few sizes too big. He began to fight with the zipper again, seeing Tom glance back.
"Ah, did you need help with that? I imagine it's tough with the..." Tom paused awkwardly, "claws?"
"Talons. And yes, it would be very helpful, thank you," Teresh replied.
Ancestors protect me, he pleaded, realizing what it meant.
Tom took a few steps and knelt down, less than a foot away from Teresh as the gentle zzzzzzzip of the zipper traveled up the suit. The kooli held his breath through the whole process. His eyes strained to find some semblance of a shape inside the black void. Seeing a rough circular object move inside, with some strange jutting or jagged shapes around it. Unable to form a clear picture as the zipper reached the top of the suit. Tom gave it a small tug and seemed satisfied.
"Good, nice and secure. Not too bad a fit either. Just looks like a kid wearing his dad's shoes," he explained absentmindedly.
"Kid? Shoes?" Teresh asked, feeling much smaller when draped in the large suit.
"Ah, right. Kids are what we call our young. Children, kiddos, there's plenty more. As for shoes, we wear them on our feet to protect our skin," Tom explained, causing Teresh's eyes to widen.
So many questions chirped inside his mind. It was going to take hours just to process all the basic questions he had about humans, not to mention ones on culture and family unit. Tom seemed to pick this up too as he held out the helmet.
"I promise I'll answer every single question you've got once we get you to my contact. For now, just try to keep a hold on them in your head," he said, as if able to read his mind.
Now that wasn't something he considered. Though there was no evidence of such an ability existing, who knew what humans were capable of. Perhaps they could possess natural psionic ability. That discovery would make for an excellent essay or dissertation.
It was not the time for essays however, it was time to don his own black mirror. Taking the helmet, he slid it onto his head. It was a bit claustrophobic, and it hurt a little with his crown feathers being forcibly pressed against the top of the helmet. Outside of that though, it was perfectly serviceable. The entire world around him was shifted to a darker tone, including Tom. If he couldn't see his face before, it was now impossible to see anything past two layers of this dark glass. He could feel Tom touching parts of his neck, and he heard a few snaps as the neck and helmet joined together. Either magnetic or through some other means, he couldn't tell. Tom stepped back and gave him a once over.
"Perfect. This is actually going to work," he spoke softly.
"You doubted it working?" Teresh joked, the translator rumbling within the suit.
"Hey, this is completely new territory for me. I'll be happy if we make it past the front door," Tom replied, then pointing towards his chest. "Which reminds me. We're going to have to shut that off when we get there."
Teresh gulped, "B-But-"
"Yes, you'll have no idea what's going on. You're going to be in a new place, surrounded by tons of humans, and you may or may not be in danger," Tom explained, doing absolutely nothing to quell his fears.
However, what the human did next was something that Teresh never saw coming. He actually got down on his knee, more or less being eye level with him. Although he couldn't see them, he could tell that Tom was looking right through him.
Tom's voice was serious, low, and full of determination. Exclaiming, "Teresh. I need you to trust me when I say this. As long as I am with you, you are safe. I won't let anyone touch a feather on that head, and if they do, I'll knock them off their ass. My friends will be there with us too. All three of us are going to protect you. Okay?"
What is this feeling? Teresh thought to himself. There was something about his words that caused his heart to swell. He felt like he could do anything, that he was going to succeed. Not even General Vorin's words instilled him with as much confidence.
"Y-Yes Tom. I trust you," Teresh answered.
"Do you mind if I put my hand on your shoulder?" He asked. More confusion, but he was too inspired to question it.
"You may," the kooli replied.
Tom lifted his hand, causing Teresh to flinch as it slowly but surely impacted his shoulder. Feeling his strange finger appendages grip his shoulder firmly but not painfully.
"I'm with you. Don't forget that," Tom said stoically. Then standing and pulling back. "Let's do some rehearsal in the bay. You won't need to talk the talk, but you'll need to walk the walk."
"Talk the talk and walk wha-?" Teresh began.
"Don't worry about it kid. It'll be just like theatre," he explained, then going on, "that's a-"
"My people have theatre Tom, I understand," the kooli replied, grinning under the helmet.
"Right. Of course. Let's go," Tom replied, his tone suggesting a bit of embarrassment.
Together, they made their way out of the medical ward and into the main hanger, or "bay" as Tom called it. He saw the other two outfitted individuals watching their approach. Able to tell that both parties were engaging in a game of observation. Trying to discern the shapes underneath the suits.
Still only three crew members, for a ship of this size, he thought to himself.
With how small their crew was, perhaps this flagship was decommissioned. That would explain the lack of bodies and ships in the hanger. If their military was even more armed than this... they would make for a wonderful child race. The Valaxi would help them reach their true potential. If Teresh could accomplish that, he would consider it his greatest feat in life. It would cement him and his family in the good graces of the empire forever and bring honor to General Vorin's home.
Tom held up his hand and shook it around at them, announcing, "Hey guys, this is Teresh. Teresh, meet Maxim and Ally."
"Hello," a higher voice responded from the suit on the right.
"Howdy," another low voice emerged from the suit on the left.
"How-dy?" Teresh mimicked, shaking his taloned hand at them.
He heard a few coughs or strange gasps from them, and he just hoped he hadn't offended them in some way. Tom's throat rumbled like a growl, causing the two to stop. A show of authority it seemed.
"We're going to help Teresh get to Mikael. Once we meet, then we'll figure out what to do from there," Tom explained.
"Sounds good. How do we start?" The one called Maxim asked.
"First, Teresh," he turned to me. He tapped the side of his helmet several times, explaining, "if I do that, it means turn on your translator. If I do this," he made a flat sliding gesture on the bottom of the helmet, "it means turn it off."
Tapping, on. Sliding, off. Easy, Teresh internalized.
"Good. Now we're going to start practicing some scenarios. We have a little over a half hour left so we don't have too much time, but it should be enough. First, I'm going to explain what we're doing, then I'll give you the signal to shut your translator off. We need to get you used to humans talking or doing things around you. Whatever you do, you need to stay calm, cool, and collected. Think you can handle that," Tom asked, nodding his head at him.
He clenched his hands tightly, feeling truly confident for one of the first times in his life. Teresh focused his gaze on the three of them, "Let's do it."
It's time to prove my mettle.