I was on US Mobile (Verizon MVNO) for quite some time and pretty happy. Over the past years I've found Verizon to have the best coverage considering all areas of the United States, with T-Mobile only beating it on speeds (of the like that are overkill for my use) in Urban areas. For reasons I won't go into, I had to switch away from US Mobile and am planning on going back soon. I wanted to double check if anyone thinks another MVNO is better given my needs:

1. 5GB Data is plenty
2. I need Hotspot data as backup when I have rare/brief Internet outages in my home office
3. I want to get data when occasionally traveling overseas without having to order service from an overseas carrier

With US Mobile, their plan prices are lower than average, although not the absolute lowest. More importantly, if I travel overseas, I can temporarily switch to Unlimited Premium and get 10 GB eSIM International Data for free. And I could swear even on their 5GB plan I could use my phone as a mobile hotspot.
Is there a better alternative? The only downside of US Mobile which is not unique to MVNOs is at stadium events, my data of course crawls due to deprioritization but that's the trade off you get for a much lower price. I would think the only possible candidates would be Visible or Total as they are both owned by Verizon but I'm not aware if either of those have higher network priority than US Mobile. And even if they did, not sure how often that would be beneficial being I don't watch videos on YouTube/Facebook/Instagram on my phone hardly ever. Plus I think getting International Data Roaming is not as easy and cheap on Visible/Total as US Mobile. Amongst MVNOs they seem to be a very well run one.

I had a service outage earlier in May and I ended up rebooting my cable modem (Netgear CM500) and my router (Asus RT-AC68U) and, ever since, my service is good but my data usage numbers are off (Xfinity says I've used roughly 200GB more in May than the Asus router says I've used).
I've had the cable modem and router for several years and I'm wondering if it's time to upgrade (CM700 maybe). Or if something has changed on Xfinity's side.
Thanks.

here's the crash report
Description: Initializing game
​
java.lang.RuntimeException: Could not execute entrypoint stage 'main' due to errors, provided by 'adaptedorigins'!

at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.entrypoint.EntrypointUtils.lambda$invoke0$0([EntrypointUtils.java:51](https://EntrypointUtils.java:51)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.util.ExceptionUtil.gatherExceptions([ExceptionUtil.java:33](https://ExceptionUtil.java:33)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.entrypoint.EntrypointUtils.invoke0([EntrypointUtils.java:49](https://EntrypointUtils.java:49)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.entrypoint.EntrypointUtils.invoke([EntrypointUtils.java:35](https://EntrypointUtils.java:35)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.game.minecraft.Hooks.startClient([Hooks.java:52](https://Hooks.java:52)) at net.minecraft.class\_310.(class\_310.java:465) at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.method\_44604([Main.java:205](https://Main.java:205)) at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.main([Main.java:51](https://Main.java:51)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.game.minecraft.MinecraftGameProvider.launch([MinecraftGameProvider.java:468](https://MinecraftGameProvider.java:468)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.launch.knot.Knot.launch([Knot.java:74](https://Knot.java:74)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.launch.knot.KnotClient.main([KnotClient.java:23](https://KnotClient.java:23)) 

Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: field_7931

at com.clarkster.adaptedorigins.block.ModBlocks.([ModBlocks.java:17](https://ModBlocks.java:17)) at com.clarkster.adaptedorigins.AdaptedOriginsMod.onInitialize([AdaptedOriginsMod.java:15](https://AdaptedOriginsMod.java:15)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.entrypoint.EntrypointUtils.invoke0([EntrypointUtils.java:47](https://EntrypointUtils.java:47)) ... 8 more 

​
​
A detailed walkthrough of the error, its code path and all known details is as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
​
-- Head --
Thread: Render thread
Stacktrace:

at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.entrypoint.EntrypointUtils.lambda$invoke0$0([EntrypointUtils.java:51](https://EntrypointUtils.java:51)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.util.ExceptionUtil.gatherExceptions([ExceptionUtil.java:33](https://ExceptionUtil.java:33)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.entrypoint.EntrypointUtils.invoke0([EntrypointUtils.java:49](https://EntrypointUtils.java:49)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.entrypoint.EntrypointUtils.invoke([EntrypointUtils.java:35](https://EntrypointUtils.java:35)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.game.minecraft.Hooks.startClient([Hooks.java:52](https://Hooks.java:52)) at net.minecraft.class\_310.(class\_310.java:465) 

​
-- Initialization --
Details:

Modules: ADVAPI32.dll:Advanced Windows 32 Base API:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation COMCTL32.dll:User Experience Controls Library:6.10 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation CRYPT32.dll:Crypto API32:10.0.19041.2845 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation CRYPTBASE.dll:Base cryptographic API DLL:10.0.19041.546 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation CRYPTSP.dll:Cryptographic Service Provider API:10.0.19041.546 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation DBGHELP.DLL:Windows Image Helper:10.0.19041.867 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation DNSAPI.dll:DNS Client API DLL:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation GDI32.dll:GDI Client DLL:10.0.19041.2913 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation IMM32.DLL:Multi-User Windows IMM32 API Client DLL:10.0.19041.2673 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation IPHLPAPI.DLL:IP Helper API:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation KERNEL32.DLL:Windows NT BASE API Client DLL:10.0.19041.2788 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation KERNELBASE.dll:Windows NT BASE API Client DLL:10.0.19041.2788 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation MpOav.dll:IOfficeAntiVirus Module:4.18.23050.3 (91cf713774e4083376800dd3a1236363c5e087f6):Microsoft Corporation NLAapi.dll:Network Location Awareness 2:10.0.19041.2913 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation NSI.dll:NSI User-mode interface DLL:10.0.19041.610 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation NTASN1.dll:Microsoft ASN.1 API:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation Ole32.dll:Microsoft OLE for Windows:10.0.19041.1320 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation OleAut32.dll:OLEAUT32.DLL:10.0.19041.985 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation PSAPI.DLL:Process Status Helper:10.0.19041.546 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation Pdh.dll:Windows Performance Data Helper DLL:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation RPCRT4.dll:Remote Procedure Call Runtime:10.0.19041.2788 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation SHCORE.dll:SHCORE:10.0.19041.2845 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation SHELL32.dll:Windows Shell Common Dll:10.0.19041.2845 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation USER32.dll:Multi-User Windows USER API Client DLL:10.0.19041.2845 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation USERENV.dll:Userenv:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation VCRUNTIME140.dll:Microsoft® C Runtime Library:14.29.30139.0 built by: vcwrkspc:Microsoft Corporation VERSION.dll:Version Checking and File Installation Libraries:10.0.19041.546 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation WINHTTP.dll:Windows HTTP Services:10.0.19041.2075 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation WINMM.dll:MCI API DLL:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation WS2\_32.dll:Windows Socket 2.0 32-Bit DLL:10.0.19041.1081 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation WSOCK32.dll:Windows Socket 32-Bit DLL:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation Wldp.dll:Windows Lockdown Policy:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation amsi.dll:Anti-Malware Scan Interface:10.0.19041.2075 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation bcrypt.dll:Windows Cryptographic Primitives Library:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation bcryptPrimitives.dll:Windows Cryptographic Primitives Library:10.0.19041.2486 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation clbcatq.dll:COM+ Configuration Catalog:2001.12.10941.16384 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation combase.dll:Microsoft COM for Windows:10.0.19041.1320 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation dbgcore.DLL:Windows Core Debugging Helpers:10.0.19041.2788 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation dhcpcsvc.DLL:DHCP Client Service:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation dhcpcsvc6.DLL:DHCPv6 Client:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation fwpuclnt.dll:FWP/IPsec User-Mode API:10.0.19041.2913 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation gdi32full.dll:GDI Client DLL:10.0.19041.2913 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation java.dll:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft javaw.exe:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft jemalloc.dll jimage.dll:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft jli.dll:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft jna8525315708303291849.dll:JNA native library:6.1.4:Java(TM) Native Access (JNA) jsvml.dll:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft jvm.dll:OpenJDK 64-Bit server VM:17.0.3.0:Microsoft kernel.appcore.dll:AppModel API Host:10.0.19041.546 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation lwjgl.dll management.dll:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft management\_ext.dll:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft msvcp140.dll:Microsoft® C Runtime Library:14.29.30139.0 built by: vcwrkspc:Microsoft Corporation msvcp\_win.dll:Microsoft® C Runtime Library:10.0.19041.789 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation msvcrt.dll:Windows NT CRT DLL:7.0.19041.546 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation mswsock.dll:Microsoft Windows Sockets 2.0 Service Provider:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation napinsp.dll:E-mail Naming Shim Provider:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation ncrypt.dll:Windows NCrypt Router:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation net.dll:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft nio.dll:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft ntdll.dll:NT Layer DLL:10.0.19041.2788 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation perfos.dll:Windows System Performance Objects DLL:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation pnrpnsp.dll:PNRP Name Space Provider:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation profapi.dll:User Profile Basic API:10.0.19041.844 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation rasadhlp.dll:Remote Access AutoDial Helper:10.0.19041.546 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation rsaenh.dll:Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic Provider:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation sechost.dll:Host for SCM/SDDL/LSA Lookup APIs:10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation shlwapi.dll:Shell Light-weight Utility Library:10.0.19041.2845 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation sunmscapi.dll:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft ucrtbase.dll:Microsoft® C Runtime Library:10.0.19041.789 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation vcruntime140\_1.dll:Microsoft® C Runtime Library:14.29.30139.0 built by: vcwrkspc:Microsoft Corporation verify.dll:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft win32u.dll:Win32u:10.0.19041.2913 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation windows.storage.dll:Microsoft WinRT Storage API:10.0.19041.2845 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation winrnr.dll:LDAP RnR Provider DLL:10.0.19041.546 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation wshbth.dll:Windows Sockets Helper DLL:10.0.19041.546 (WinBuild.160101.0800):Microsoft Corporation zip.dll:OpenJDK Platform binary:17.0.3.0:Microsoft 

Stacktrace:

at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.method\_44604([Main.java:205](https://Main.java:205)) at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.main([Main.java:51](https://Main.java:51)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.game.minecraft.MinecraftGameProvider.launch([MinecraftGameProvider.java:468](https://MinecraftGameProvider.java:468)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.launch.knot.Knot.launch([Knot.java:74](https://Knot.java:74)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.launch.knot.KnotClient.main([KnotClient.java:23](https://KnotClient.java:23)) 

​
-- System Details --
Details:

Minecraft Version: 1.19.3 Minecraft Version ID: 1.19.3 Operating System: Windows 10 (amd64) version 10.0 Java Version: 17.0.3, Microsoft Java VM Version: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (mixed mode), Microsoft Memory: 1051169288 bytes (1002 MiB) / 2147483648 bytes (2048 MiB) up to 5368709120 bytes (5120 MiB) CPUs: 4 Processor Vendor: GenuineIntel Processor Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10GHz Identifier: Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7 Microarchitecture: Sandy Bridge (Client) Frequency (GHz): 3.09 Number of physical packages: 1 Number of physical CPUs: 4 Number of logical CPUs: 4 Graphics card #0 name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Graphics card #0 vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de) Graphics card #0 VRAM (MB): 4095.00 Graphics card #0 deviceId: 0x1c03 Graphics card #0 versionInfo: DriverVersion=31.0.15.3179 Memory slot #0 capacity (MB): 8192.00 Memory slot #0 clockSpeed (GHz): 1.33 Memory slot #0 type: DDR3 Memory slot #1 capacity (MB): 8192.00 Memory slot #1 clockSpeed (GHz): 1.33 Memory slot #1 type: DDR3 Virtual memory max (MB): 20078.32 Virtual memory used (MB): 11593.55 Swap memory total (MB): 3712.00 Swap memory used (MB): 126.28 JVM Flags: 9 total; -XX:HeapDumpPath=MojangTricksIntelDriversForPerformance\_javaw.exe\_minecraft.exe.heapdump -Xss1M -Xmx5G -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:G1NewSizePercent=20 -XX:G1ReservePercent=20 -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=50 -XX:G1HeapRegionSize=32M Fabric Mods: adaptedorigins: Adapted Origins 1.19-2.2.0-FABRIC architectury: Architectury 7.0.64 bucolicorigins: Bucolic\_Origins 3.6.4 \[FABRIC\] cloth-config: Cloth Config v9 9.0.92 cloth-basic-math: cloth-basic-math 0.6.1 exlinefurniture: Exline's Furniture 2.3.4 extraorigins: Extra Origins 1.19-4 fabric-api: Fabric API 0.75.1+1.19.3 fabric-api-base: Fabric API Base 0.4.21+70be179c85 fabric-api-lookup-api-v1: Fabric API Lookup API (v1) 1.6.20+49abcf7e85 fabric-biome-api-v1: Fabric Biome API (v1) 12.1.1+b5d379b085 fabric-block-api-v1: Fabric Block API (v1) 1.0.5+e022e5d185 fabric-blockrenderlayer-v1: Fabric BlockRenderLayer Registration (v1) 1.1.31+928d44d585 fabric-client-tags-api-v1: Fabric Client Tags 1.0.12+1134c5b885 fabric-command-api-v1: Fabric Command API (v1) 1.2.22+f71b366f85 fabric-command-api-v2: Fabric Command API (v2) 2.2.1+3fc4752e85 fabric-commands-v0: Fabric Commands (v0) 0.2.39+df3654b385 fabric-containers-v0: Fabric Containers (v0) 0.1.47+df3654b385 fabric-content-registries-v0: Fabric Content Registries (v0) 3.5.1+1d37d50285 fabric-convention-tags-v1: Fabric Convention Tags 1.2.2+8e4e694f85 fabric-crash-report-info-v1: Fabric Crash Report Info (v1) 0.2.14+aeb40ebe85 fabric-data-generation-api-v1: Fabric Data Generation API (v1) 11.3.1+40dc7a9485 fabric-dimensions-v1: Fabric Dimensions API (v1) 2.1.42+00a2eb1085 fabric-entity-events-v1: Fabric Entity Events (v1) 1.5.7+b83334a085 fabric-events-interaction-v0: Fabric Events Interaction (v0) 0.4.40+3baeb27a85 fabric-events-lifecycle-v0: Fabric Events Lifecycle (v0) 0.2.44+df3654b385 fabric-game-rule-api-v1: Fabric Game Rule API (v1) 1.0.30+99f9db8085 fabric-item-api-v1: Fabric Item API (v1) 2.1.10+312c329485 fabric-item-group-api-v1: Fabric Item Group API (v1) 2.1.12+1134c5b885 fabric-key-binding-api-v1: Fabric Key Binding API (v1) 1.0.31+bc01e09785 fabric-keybindings-v0: Fabric Key Bindings (v0) 0.2.29+df3654b385 fabric-lifecycle-events-v1: Fabric Lifecycle Events (v1) 2.2.10+23a79c8a85 fabric-loot-api-v2: Fabric Loot API (v2) 1.1.20+75e9821185 fabric-loot-tables-v1: Fabric Loot Tables (v1) 1.1.24+9e7660c685 fabric-message-api-v1: Fabric Message API (v1) 5.1.0+c85585f885 fabric-mining-level-api-v1: Fabric Mining Level API (v1) 2.1.31+49abcf7e85 fabric-models-v0: Fabric Models (v0) 0.3.27+11ba9c3b85 fabric-networking-api-v1: Fabric Networking API (v1) 1.2.17+4017a8cb85 fabric-networking-v0: Fabric Networking (v0) 0.3.34+df3654b385 fabric-object-builder-api-v1: Fabric Object Builder API (v1) 5.4.1+eb2a3ba985 fabric-particles-v1: Fabric Particles (v1) 1.0.20+f1e4495b85 fabric-recipe-api-v1: Fabric Recipe API (v1) 1.0.1+5176f73d85 fabric-registry-sync-v0: Fabric Registry Sync (v0) 2.1.0+f7b4d36485 fabric-renderer-api-v1: Fabric Renderer API (v1) 2.2.2+3a95925a85 fabric-renderer-indigo: Fabric Renderer - Indigo 0.8.0+3a95925a85 fabric-renderer-registries-v1: Fabric Renderer Registries (v1) 3.2.30+df3654b385 fabric-rendering-data-attachment-v1: Fabric Rendering Data Attachment (v1) 0.3.25+afca2f3e85 fabric-rendering-fluids-v1: Fabric Rendering Fluids (v1) 3.0.18+f1e4495b85 fabric-rendering-v0: Fabric Rendering (v0) 1.1.33+df3654b385 fabric-rendering-v1: Fabric Rendering (v1) 1.12.1+eb2a3ba985 fabric-resource-conditions-api-v1: Fabric Resource Conditions API (v1) 2.3.0+e63306e085 fabric-resource-loader-v0: Fabric Resource Loader (v0) 0.10.5+a91e48b785 fabric-screen-api-v1: Fabric Screen API (v1) 1.0.41+f1e4495b85 fabric-screen-handler-api-v1: Fabric Screen Handler API (v1) 1.3.13+99f9db8085 fabric-sound-api-v1: Fabric Sound API (v1) 1.0.8+75e9821185 fabric-transfer-api-v1: Fabric Transfer API (v1) 2.1.15+ccd377ba85 fabric-transitive-access-wideners-v1: Fabric Transitive Access Wideners (v1) 2.3.1+40dc7a9485 fabricloader: Fabric Loader 0.14.21 foxboi\_two: Kitsune 1.1.8 java: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 17 jei: Just Enough Items [12.4.0.22](https://12.4.0.22) minecraft: Minecraft 1.19.3 moborigins: Mob Origins 1.10.1 com\_github\_llamalad7\_mixinextras: MixinExtras 0.0.11 origins: Origins 1.8.1 apoli: Apoli 2.7.1 

additionalentityattributes: Additionalentityattributes 1.2.0+1.19.3
calio: Calio 1.8.0
cardinal-components-base: Cardinal Components API (base) 5.0.1
cardinal-components-entity: Cardinal Components API (entities) 5.0.1
playerabilitylib: Pal 1.7.0

 reach-entity-attributes: Reach Entity Attributes 2.3.1 origins-plus-plus: Origins++ 2.0 pehkui: Pehkui 3.7.0+1.14.4-1.19.3 kanos\_config: Kanos Config 0.3.1+1.14.4-1.19 pfm: Paladin's Furniture 1.1.3 yee: Improved Bedrockean 3.0.3 Launched Version: fabric-loader-0.14.21-1.19.3 Backend library: LWJGL version 3.3.1 SNAPSHOT Backend API: Unknown Window size:  GL Caps: Using framebuffer using OpenGL 3.2 GL debug messages:  Using VBOs: Yes Is Modded: Definitely; Client brand changed to 'fabric' Type: Client (map\_client.txt) CPU:  

I have been very patient with this as I know just how much work they have to do to try and keep up with the amount of tickets they receive and also because I believe that all disputes can be resolved civilly, but it's been over a month now and I paid for 12 days of service I didn't receive the month I was banned and have been charged for another month after believing my account had been restored and reactivated my account just to find out I was still banned. The reason I thought I had been unbanned is because when I would message the bot I would be told I was banned from using the bot, but a few days after sending in a ticket I was able to interact with the bot again and can send it commands so I assumed my account had been fixed. That's not the case, now when I try to use imagine it says I'm banned from midjourney so now I've paid for a month I'm still waiting on being able to use.
Now as I stated I've been very patient with this as i was banned on April 30th and am still waiting on them to correct their mistake. Yes, their mistake. I was banned for using automation, the only problem with that is I'VE NEVER USED AUTOMATION ON IT! And I'm really getting tired of having to repeat myself just to be ignored. Now I've spent ~$200 on this service, which isn't much to some, but that's not the point, and have lost access to the 59,994 images I've created, most of which are for my children and my mother. The terms of service state that we own the artworks even after cancelling our subscription with the service, but how am I to access what is stated to be my property when it's locked behind a wall that I can't get past?
I've reached out several times, have offered to prove my innocence and yet I still get ignored. I don't know how they determine if someone is using automation or not, but it's flawed and this is NOT up for debate. They are wrong plain and simple I was not using automation, I will not just let this slide and am willing to die on this hill. THEY ARE WRONG PERIOD! It would be different had I been, I'd let it go and open a new account, but I didn't and it's a matter of principle. They need to let their ego go and accept they are human and humans are susceptible of making mistakes. I've offered to record video of me doing whatever it was, they still haven't told me what I supposedly automated, too prove that yes, I can be that efficient.
I don't want a refund, I don't want any apology, I don't even want to discuss it at all, I just want to start making midjourney art again. I'm stuck in bed 24 hours a day, struggle with insomnia and restlessness from medications and this is how I spend my time, so if their"evidence of automation" is the fact that I can make art for 72 hours straight then they're going to have reevaluate what they consider evidence. Bottom line is I can prove I didn't use automation, I just need to know what they think I was using it to do so I can show them how I did it manually so this doesn't happen to somebody else. I just want my account restored and to go back to quietly making art.
I have already sent 2 emails resulting in filling out 2 ban appeals and still nothing. I did nothing wrong and am not going to drop it. If anyone can help me then please, I would be eternally grateful. It may take me a while to respond to any questions due to the fact that I'm having to use a Kali Linux vm on my cell phone to get on Reddit, unknowingly posted on a sub I had been banned on while on an alt account so every new account I made was shadow banned. So it's a bit of a pain firing up Linux deploy and vnc just to check.

So today the developers released a video listing the economy changes of blood bonds. Making things like hunter health bars and trait respecs take hunt dollars instead of blood bonds. In my opinion these are great changes making the blood bonds which has real world value whatever your countries currency may be have zero impact in gameplay. The next big thing of note was that they will be removing the win 5 matches a day and get 25 blood bonds and making weekly challenges give 50 instead. This I can understand mabey you don't have time to log in and extract with a bounty and miss a day. It can be frustrating to miss that 25 blood bonds reward and moving that to the weekly challenges instead makes it possible to miss a day or two and still get those rewards.
Ok now here is where it gets really messy is when they announced that they will be removing the small amount of blood bonds you get after playing a game. Now this may not seem like a big change at first but when looking at the bigger picture there are some problems here. First is that now means the only real ways of earning blood bonds without buying them are the weekly challenges that limit you to earning 50 blood bonds a week. Now if we do some basic math in order to earn 1000 blood bonds that would take 20 weeks and google says there is 4 weeks in a month which translates to roughly 4-5 MONTHS. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I don't know about you but I can't imagine doing the hunt weeklys for almost half a year just to save up 1000 blood bonds. And that's all assuming you fully complete the weekly challenges for 4-5 months without missing a week once.
There is the argument that you can earn them through the daily tribute and in game through registers and small blood bonds sacks which is true. But those are all rng related methods and not even a very high chance of finding or getting these especially since if you die with your found blood bonds mid match you don't keep them making these methods even less reliable. And on top of that would possibly create a wave of hunters looking up all register spawns on the map and ignoring nearly all core gameplay to not risk losing out on the opportunity of finding a golden register spawning going from compound to compound looking for sacks or golden registers. This not only would be incredibly boring,grindy, and unreliable it would also be insentivising this gameplay for people who can't afford to or don't want to pay for blood bonds. I think I can say this is not what the developers or community wants to see it's players doing.
The fact is that this change can't be ignored hunt is not a free to play game. Hunt showdown on sale most the time Is rought 15-16 dollars but base game not on sale is $40 dollars. Companies such as Ea with starwars battlefront 1 and 2 both games that are not free and were heavily criticized and looked down upon when they introduced a cap on the amount of progress they can earn in a certain time. Now I'm not saying crytek is EA or as bad as them but it can't be ignored that these are marketing strategies physiologicaly designed to make people spend more real money. There are already bundles released in the shop that you can't obtain with blood bonds and can only be purchased with real world currency and everyone is fine with that you have to make money on a live service game somewhere. But this change makes earning something like 800 blood bonds skin or a 1000 blood bonds legendary hunter or even a 500 blood bonds skin a complete grind fest.
Blood bonds were designed to be earned by playing the game providing incentive twords things like skins. There is no other way to get skins besides blood bonds and real money.The reason people are upset is that it's essentially slowing the pace down to a crawl in order to get you to buy them with real money instead .On top of the Hunters and gun skins that can't be obtained with blood bonds on top of paying $40 for the base game.
Please let me know what all of you think about this change and if you agree or disagree with me or let me know if I got something incorrect. The community is what keeps the game going so don't be afraid to voice your stand or opinions on big changes like this I would love to hear them.

In the most recent Video, Crytek (or rather its Franchise Manager) announced, among other things, that there will no longer be Rewards from playing matches with the next patch (1.13).
Let me present the case:
Hunt is in the silver tier of the "Best of 2022" Steam Showcase. There, Steam puts games into tiers from Platin to Bronze. The games are place based on Top Gross income. Since we do not have exact numbers we can only put them in perspective:
Hunt made more income in the year 2022 than games like Terraria, BF 2042, Path of Exile, The Witcher and many more (see links above). A lot of these games are not unknown to most ears.
So? What is this money spent on?
Let's have a look:
Servers:
We have servers that on average run on 30 ticks, so overly simplified, the server is doing calculations in 30 FPS. In Comparison, 128 tick servers are present in Valorant and CS:GO, which is an unrealistic expectation, but atleast 60 Hz or 30 Hz while loading in all Mobs in an idle state should be possible in 2023. Granted, the servers need to calculate a lot of A.I movement but the term "Hunt servers" is already put up in a negative light.
Anti-Cheat and Cheater consequences:
Quite frankly, it's awful. With stories like this, this and this really giving the impression that Crytek is not even permabanning cheaters, or do not act on soft cheaters.
Furthermore, Easy Anti Cheat, Epic Games' Anti-Cheat service is free for game developers. Data Security and Internet Privacy concerns aside (Tencent), the last news blog on cheating was about 3 years ago. We do not know when the last EAC update was either. I can't help but feel that this cat and mouse game has a cat napping near the stove.
Removal of BB Rewards for the Tutorial:
With the introduction of the new Tutorial, the BB Rewards from the previous "Tutorial" was scrapped entirely from 250 BB to 0. While it was reduced 2 years prior from 800 BB to 250 BB. That little change somehow didn't make into the patch notes but I am sure it just wasn't worth mentioning.
New Patches bringing new bugs:
From the Lemat Bug, to the Reload Bug, to the floating tools Bug and Hunt servers not being able to count reserve ammo or how many throwing knives/axes you picked up. Yes, we are getting there, and yes some get fixed. But it is pointless when 5 bugs are fixed per patch, and 5 new ones take their place.
This patch alone we had:
FPS drops when closing the map (quite noticeable when playtesting don't you think)
Weapon Holster on saddles dropping your main weapon when canceling (Weapons are exchanged in almost every game from downed hunters, why is this bugged?)
Completely unrelated to any changes: Hornskin somehow takes away any blunt damage reduction from your teammates, making you oneshot from Winnie Cen. Trauma or Hammers.
Saddle Bags previously were able to give you 5 consumables with Packmule, now it was "fixed", and instead of giving you 5 consumables, it just removes 1 consumable (from a consumables that has 2 charges) - They are, after all, toolboxes that have a different item pool.
An Saddle Bags sometimes not appearing for every Player.
The 1.12 Patch note is also the first Patch note on the Steam news tab that has the update info and Fixed bugs and known issues separated. Previously they were included at the end of the normal patch notes.
The last social media post about the Q & A Team playtesting Hunt was in 2019, I hope they are still doing good :)
Battle Passes get cheaper:
Let's see if they have the same amount of Quality and Levels as previous Passes. Also to do the math: To get 1000 Blood Bonds, you would need to play 50x20 - 20 consecutive Weeks, which is like 5 months to get a Battle Pass which is free to play.
New content:
Yes, I can't leave that one out, if I want to be fair. Good content is good and nice, and necessary to increase player count and player retention. However, what Hunt needs right now is QoL features and improvement of existing systems (and don't try to fix systems that already work fine *cough* up and downstair sounds and MMR system). Hunt needs an operation Health and I hope this goes hand in hand with the announced Cryengine update.
---
Did I forget anything? I mean they added Charms, and Charm rarity shortly after - so that's nice for Crytek. I kinda wished we would have seen those changes mentioned in the dev stream so chat could have Q & A with the devs afterwards, but a seperate video is also one way to do it.
Please, don't remove BB rewards for playing the game, for engaging with the game so that those who do do indeed buy BB and DLCs have (same skilled) enemies to play against. This change is extremly anti-customer and punishes players that play the game daily and regulary. Those who make up most of your player numbers.

Just got my first sysadmin job. Background is tier 1 and 2 help desk and homelabbing so idk anything.
We have a ticketing system and some time this year we'll be migrating to servicenow. But they showed me this excel document on SharePoint they(sysadmin team) uses. It has like 20 pages of different information.
Hardware info / warranty info / physical locations.
Bunch of subnets and static IP mappings and "this range is for this appliance/work function"
System owners/environment(prod/dev)/dead links to knowledge documents that don't exist anymore on onedrive. Dead links to diagrams relating to the system.
Decommed servers and apps
Patch night guides. "When you update this server make sure xyz is running and installed"
SCCM apps that need to be updated.
 
There's info on here from 2019 so apparently it's been in use for a few years.
I'm a junior sysadmin so I don't wanna come in here and puff out my chest and say wtf is this but in my head I'm thinking wtf is this and I wanna replace it. Set up lansweeper and put all the asset info in. Build network diagrams for each subnet in our SolarWinds. Put the patch guides into KB documents on service now when we get it or on the ticketing system we have now and then just copy it over.
 
Or maybe there's a reason for it being this way and they just never got the budget or time to address it. Im a new sysadmin idk.
I'm bringing it up tomorrow and seeing what they say. But on the off chance that they just never cared about documentation and they're fine with this one excel sheet, what solutions should I throw out for this so I can appear as a useful jr sysadmin asap?

Hi from what I've read on previous reddit posts on #comoxalley Fido (which uses Rogers) is best for Courtenay. I'm currently with Virgin who apparently uses Bell towers who apparently uses Telus towers in the valley, and the coverage is okay to abysmal. I really only experience dead zones with Virgin in the Puntledge valley and driving up lake trail or Cumberland Rd. According to this tower map Telus should have the greatest coverage on the Island! I am interested in people with Fido Mobile and their experience with inner and northern island coverage. I was just camping at Green Point near Tofino and had a trickle, but good enough, service there, and again I see Telus towers all over the place and Rogers towers in major centres. So people with Fido who camp at provincial campgrounds, how is it?

Hi, I am PLDT fiber subcriber in Laspinas. Starting from May 28, where typhoon Mawar had stepped in to PAR there was sudden cut off internet at 6pm for brief 3 minutes and my internet has been strange ever since.
The internet is working and has acceptable speed. But despite the speed of the internet I always get a high ping in every services. But this goes away too only at 12 midnight to 5 am in the morning. After this period the ping spikes again.
I asked the customer services about this and they replied me with
" Upon checking, your service is affected by an outage that's why you are experiencing a sharp spike in ping. This is already giving you lots of inconveniences so what we will do right now is send multiple follow-ups to our zone partner there in your area to notify them of the urgency. This will also serve as a request to expedite and prioritize the restoration of your service above all. Rest assured that your service will be restored as soon as possible. "
This behavior is unexplainable with just a term "outage". If this was really an "outage" then why it fixes it self every midnight to morning. This is impossible to be explained unless someone intentionally limits the flow of internet.
Then provided me with the ticket, I did check it and it says "Network/Techincal issue and estimated time of restoration will be 24~48 hours." Huh? Bro wtf the term "network/technical issue" is just them not knowing what the problem is and why even bother to put time limit if it is even not going to be fixed at all?
Heres the crazy part. In May 31 (yesterday) I tried to chat with PLDT customer care. I asked them about it and they said they dont know what is causing the phenomenon and aksed be if I want to be redirected to the technical team. I said yes and guess what. They just closed the chatting session.
SMH they cut the internet the fastest when the bill is not paid without prior notice and when they fail to deliver good services *The customer* is provided with 0 information 0 advisory and 0 customer service. I assume this is what monopoly does to a company. What a lazy incompetent idle fkers. I cant believe that they have audacity to bill me with out any compensations or what so ever.
In short,

1. Ok net but high ping
2. Fixes it self every 12 mid night to 5 am in the morning
3. Problem Ticket providing 0 information about the problem and also lies about time.
4. PLDT, they dont know the answer too
5. Asked to be redirected just to be kicked out of conversation

I've been with Fi for a couple years now and have never really had the greatest or most reliable cell service, but stuck with Fi because I'm usually on WiFi and like the low bill. But I feel like I'm starting to hit a breaking point with how unreliable it is off WiFi.
I live out in the San Francisco bay area will try to stream audio while I'm walking my dog around the block, and I'm lucky if I'm able to maintain a connection for 15 minutes out of 30. Attempting a call is out of the question since it will get dropped. It's not like it's trying to switch between data and WiFi or anything, it just has 0 network connection. This happened to me when I lived in Atlanta as well. I'm currently using a Pixel 4a, but had the same issue with two previous Pixels.
Has anyone else been plagued with the same issues? Is it Fi just that bad and/or the phones? Is there any kind of fix, or is it just time to switch?

Looking for a travel card for my wife and I to use. I travel for work a few times a year, and we travel internationally around once a year plus one or two domestic trips.
Top priorities: * Since we’d like to use this card internationally it being a visa seems to make sense * No foreign transaction fees and travel (rental car, flight) insurance. * Low/No AF
Medium Priority: * Rewards (points/miles)
Low Priority: * Lounge access * Precheck/global entry reimbursement (I get precheck through work, and we recently got my wife precheck).
We basically never use ubereats/doordash if that makes a difference. Anyone have suggestions for cards that might be a good fit here?
CREDIT PROFILE

• Current credit cards you are the primary account holder of: (list cards, limits, opening date): OpenSky Secured Card ($750 limit, 02/01/2016), Discover It card ($3100, 03/21/2018), AmEx Blue Cash Preferred ($31500, 10/19/2020)
• FICO Scores with source (see note on FICO score sources below): Transunion 797 (from discover card portal)
• Oldest credit card account age with you as primary name on the account: 7 years
• Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 6 months: 0
• Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 12 months: 0
• Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 24 months: 0
• Annual income $: 120,000

CATEGORIES

• OK with category-specific cards?: maybe - we have the amex for the grocery cash back (our biggest category), so mostly looking for a card for travel purchases.
• OK with rotating category cards?: Prefer consistent travel rewards
• Estimate average monthly spend in the categories below. Only include what you can pay by credit card.
  • Dining $: 700
  • Groceries $: 400
  • Gas $: 150
  • Travel $: $1250 (personal), $1250 (business, reimbursed)
  • Do you plan on using this card abroad for a significant length of time (study abroad, digital nomad, expat, extended travel)?: on the order of a week or two per year
  • Can you pay rent by credit card? If yes, list rent amount and if there's a fee for paying by credit card: no

MEMBERSHIPS & SUBSCRIPTIONS (delete lines that don't apply)

• Current member of Amazon Prime?: yes
• Current Verizon postpaid customer?: no
• Current member of Costco or Sam's Club? No
• Currently paying $13.99/month or more for Disney Bundle (Disney+ / Hulu / EPSN+) or other Hulu services? No
• Current member of Chase, US Bank or any other big bank?: Ally
• Active US military?: no
• Are you open to Business Cards?: (these are an option if you have any kind of side gig, such as selling on eBay or Etsy): no

PURPOSE

• What's the purpose of your next card (choose ONE)?: travel rewards
  
  • If you answered "travel rewards", do you have a preferred airline and/or hotel chain? Delta & Marriott, but not tied to them (usually have to go with the cheapest option for work, and often looking for cheapest option for personal travel over brand-loyalty)
• Do you have any cards you've been looking at? Chase sapphire line seems to be a popular suggestion, but the rewards system seems complicated?
  

Continued from Pt. 1, which can be found at:
Pt 1: https://www.reddit.com/Horror_stories/comments/13wymkl/ghost_word_pt_1/
WARNING: This story contains depictions of non-consensual sex and gun violence.
---------------------------------
Lyle found himself on foot, the valise at his side, the night air crisp and noisy. He realized he was ravenous. No surprise there, he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in twenty-six hours. The late evening traffic was brisk around the campus, and as he passed a roving pack of students Lyle realized it was Thursday night*. Thirsty Thursdays*.
In keeping with ancient tradition, the majority of undergraduates avoided Friday morning classes at all costs, preferring to begin their weekend revels on Thursday nights. Lyle followed his feet. He imagined power emanating from the briefcase at his side, thrumming up his arm. He felt, for perhaps the first time in a life of shrinking uncertainty, boundless.
And it felt extraordinary.
Somewhere inside of him a notion was forming that he did not dare articulate. But he followed his feet. The easy ebb and flow of walk signals, the pleasantly cool night air, the passing chatter, even the occasional car-horn—which in the past had never failed to startle him, jittery as he was—seemed buoyant and agreeable. The night was his. He realized he was sloping gently downhill, as he followed his feet. He realized he knew exactly where he was going. He found himself before O’Flaherty’s Pub, with its sandwich-board blaring LADIES NIGHT 1/2 WELL DRINKS -- TRUST ME YOU CAN DANCE in electric pink loops. It felt only natural to step beneath the awning, swing wide the knotted mahogany door, and enter the din.
The ham-hock manning security—probably a redshirt lineman in his off-season—turned toward Lyle on autopilot, one hand reaching out as a question formed on his lips, lemme see some ID. Lyle made no attempt to reach for his wallet because he knew the inevitable would happen when the bouncer took in his face, which he did a half second later. A tiny beat of recognition flickered and was gone, and the bouncer turned away. No need to card the old dude. Good luck navigating the vicissitudes of adult life, you Mongoloid, Lyle thought. The jag off had a Black & Mild tucked up behind one ear, Lyle felt an insane urge to snatch it off his head and break it in half. He did not do well with the pretend authority of chunky, dead-eyed adolescents.
But I’m not here for him.
Lyle wove his way into the evening crush with the delicate, shuffling little steps he always used in crowds. By fits and starts he made his way deeper, deeper, winding toward the back bar, the one with the full-length mirror. That was her favorite. O’Flaherty’s had a Crosley jukebox, wood-paneled and coin-operated, reaching for vintage but stuffed to the gills with Bluetooth and wi-fi and digital memory and whatever else. A woman’s voice was booming out of it, an empty pop ballad gussied up by her big, operatic sound. Lyle tried to think of the singer’s name, but couldn’t. He squeezed into a narrow gap at the back bar.
Darby was flirting as she mixed a rum-and-coke for a gawky, dough-faced kid in a flat-cap and a Harrington jacket. On the few occasions he had come out on Darby missions, Lyle had stayed well back from the bar, waiting for drink service at one of the small cafe tables lining the billiard room. But tonight, he wasn’t here to watch.
Darby handed off the drink and caught sight of Lyle. He winced—he could read the surprise, even discomfort, on her face. But she was tending bar, and she was quick on her feet, and she rearranged her expression into a smile. She held up a finger—*one sec—*to which Lyle nodded, as she took flat-cap’s (father’s) Amex back to the register and opened up a tab.
Lyle enjoyed watching her walk. Enjoyed looking at her from the back, or in profile. He usually saw her face, in class, big brown doe eyes and very pale, freckled skin. A shade away from clear, he had heard her joke once, to James, as she had invited him to touch the roadmap of blue veins on her inner arm. That had enraged Lyle—the sudden, unwelcome image of James with those long creamy legs locked over his waist, his long, slow thrusts.
Because he restrained himself from ogling her in class, it was a pleasure to come to O’Flaherty’s during her shifts and watch her as she worked. Darby was not the first of what Lyle thought of as his “favorites”. Every year or two there was a fresh, irresistible young thing, for him to think about, alone, late at night. One of the unspoken perks of professordom was the constant influx of eye-candy, of short skirts and long legs and high asses and pert young tits. In his mind’s eye it was an endless profusion of imagined aureoles, of wondering about their panties—boy-briefs or frilly little whatsits or g-strings or none at all—and even if Lyle never slept with them there was an intense eroticism in holding power over these girls he could never have bedded in his own college years. In pushing that term paper over the failing line and waiting, deliciously waiting, for them to come to his office hour and plead. Only Darby’s work was reasonably competent, so even that grimy thrill was denied him.
Darby finished up with the register and came over, the pale of her neck stark against her tight black t-shirt. O’FLAHERTY’S was printed on it in green, the name stretched to accommodate her bust. Her hair frazzled at the temples; she’d been working hard.
Just a little dirty, that’s how I like you, he thought.
“Dr. L! We missed you today, thought maybe you caught the gunk. You all right?” Darby beamed her big smile at him, a gift of the gods (and of immaculate orthodontics).
“I’m fine, Darby, thanks. Just a communication mix-up. I’m sorry you all waited.”
She kept smiling, seemed to be waiting for more. He didn’t give it to her.
“Well—can I get you anything?”
Lyle hesitated, trying to think of a manly drink, something urbane and—professorial.
“Scotch-rocks. A double.”
Darby continued to stare at him, expectantly. “Any… particular poison, or-?”
Lyle glanced up, made a show of studying the bottles arrayed behind her. He knew nothing about scotch. Stupid. He settled on Johnnie Walker Black, and Darby poured his drink.
Lyle realized his heart was racing. Darby set the drink in front of him and he downed half of it in one swallow. He managed to keep his face neutral as the liquor seared his throat.
“This is a—little bit of a departure, for you, huh?” Darby indicated the scotch.
“What?”
She must have known he heard her but she raised her voice anyway. The music had changed to a British pop group with a lot of electronic undertones, trying to sound haunting.
“The scotch,” she said. “Don’t you always order lemon drop martinis? When you come in?”
Busted. Two bright red circles appeared high on his cheeks.
“You know, it, it depends,” he replied. “Depends on my mood. And you—you make a hell of a lemon drop martini, here.”
Fucking idiot, he thought. They make the same Goddamn lemon drop martini as everybody else and she knows it.
Darby was smooth, though. Graceful. She rolled right past it. “I wondered why you never came over and said hi.”
“Well I don’t want to, you know, be a bother. You’re working. It’s always busy. And I’ve been coming here for years, off and on. You get used to seeing students out on the town. I try to give them their space.”
“Oh.” Her smile reappeared. “Well I’m glad you came over. Let me know if I can get you anything else?” She was already angling away.
“How was class today?” Lyle didn’t want to let her go. She glanced down the bar, she had customers waiting.
“It was great, really great,” she hurried her answer. She was giving him the brush-off. “James did great. He’s an awesome teacher. Awesome guy.”
“You know, I’d been meaning to ask you, about James…” Lyle leaned in, conspiratorially. Darby’s smile was faltering, but courtesy won out and she leaned in to hear.
“Are you fucking him?”
Darby recoiled, as though he had spit on her.
“What?”
“Do you laugh at me, when you do it? When you fuck, do you laugh at the scabby, horn-dog professor?”
Darby’s breath hitched in her chest, she looked like she was about to cry. She took a step back. She looked down the bar, and then past him—toward the door.
Bouncer, he thought. She’s looking for the bouncer.
“I think you need to—” she began.
Then Lyle said the Word. The alien Word, meant to be moaned, easy as pie, really, when you thought about it, how the sounds flowed together. The Word that meant libido.
Darby froze. Her pupils flickered, Lyle saw, they constricted down to pinpricks, and then dilated as wide as they could go, swallowing the puppy-dog brown of her irises. Her face went slack. That wide, expensive smile vanished, and her mouth hung slightly open.
“Moisten your lips, Darby,” he said.
Her tongue slid out, pink and supple, and she obeyed.
Oh, my God, she OBEYED.
Lyle’s penis twitched in his pants, he realized he was painfully erect, his balls aching. He realized he had been, had been since—since I said the Word—since he had her and a cruel, savage sense of triumph shook him, he felt his pulse hammering in his veins, he felt like standing up on the bar and—
ROARING I want to ROAR at this dewy twat and all her imbecilic peers—
But instead, he took his cock firmly in his hand, through the cheap fabric of his Ross trousers, squeezed himself, and said—
“What are we going to do with you, Darby?”
#
Lyle fucked her in the alleyway behind O’Flaherty’s. That meant hurrying more than he liked, the dumpster provided cover but the blocks surrounding the campus were too well policed. It was all right, though. Now that he was armed with the libido-Word, the next time could be more leisurely.
He took her in. All of her. The small, surprisingly dark nipples, nothing like he’d imagined. The fine, black hairs on the nape of her neck, the peach fuzz of her freckled low back, her inner thighs. Her panties were white briefs with green stitching, they were covered with tiny frogs. He tugged them down, and nuzzled her there. He left hickeys, on her ass, her mons. Her smooth, exquisite young cunt.
Lyle took her from behind and saw the groggy confusion in her dilated eyes, the amazement*—*and through that the pleasure, the unsuspected, unwanted, violating pleasure that jolted moans out of her.
Lyle sucked her neck, bit it, hard enough to sting. She gave a tiny mewl as she came, and her spasm triggered him also. Lyle buried himself to the hilt in her, finished in her, and felt—
Like a king. Like a GOD.
They stayed there as the minutes stretched out, panting, still joined. He savored her, until his own tumescence vanished, and he slipped out. Lyle patted her derriere.
“Get dressed and get back to work, Darby,” he said. “We don’t want you to get in trouble.”
She jerked her head, drunkenly, from side to side, as though she were trying to shake water out of her ears. Lyle breathed deep, in through his nose, the fine scents of the city. Fried food nearby, probably the Thai joint catty-corner to the pub. He stood and admired, as Darby tugged her frog-panties back up those long pale legs.
“I’ll see you in class.”
Darby stared blankly at him as he took up his suitcase, turned, and strode into the night.
#
When Lyle opened his eyes the next morning, he was only mildly surprised to discover that he felt no guilt at all. The sun streamed in, the world was up and running, coffee was calling, and by God he felt fine.
He sat up in bed, stretched. He glanced at the alarm clock, that hateful sentinel, now toothless—10:27AM. The mattress was bare, beneath him. He’d never washed the sheets. Puddled on the floor were yesterday’s clothes. He resisted the urge to tidy them up. Later. He padded to the bathroom and went about his ablutions, brushed his teeth, took out his shaving kit. He had used the sleep-Word on himself again, last night. After.
After! He let the memories wash over him. Her smell: the tang of sweat, bar-odors, the undercurrent of peach soap. The taste of her! And then the feast, afterward. He had followed his nose to Great Elephant Thai, wolfed down a plate of kai thot, fried to a crisp and dripping oil*.* It may have been the finest meal of his life.
And he had had such dreams! Dreams of Darby, and of favorites past. Dreams of fucking and of wealth and of slights avenged and of respectful, deferential looks, dreams of voices falling silent when he entered a room, of every eye on him. A song lyric drifted into his head, something from his childhood, a favorite of his father’s one long summer, repeated ad nauseam on the fourteen-hour drive down to Savannah.
“Twenty years a’crawlin’… were bottled up in Tommy… he wasn’t holding nothin’ back, he let ‘em have it all…” Lyle sang, full voice, into the morning. A stupid grin spread over his face, as he wicked away the last patch of Barbasol, the careful spot right over his Adam’s apple, and rinsed his razor. He took a long look at Mirror-Lyle, looked into his eyes. He almost always avoided a close examination of his reflection, force of habit, but today he was a new man, and he wanted to take that man’s measure.
“Everyone… considered him… THE COWARD OOOF… the COUNTYYYY…”
Something else surfaced, then, in his memory, something that cranked the wattage down on his smile. He didn’t get all of it, just a glimpse, like a dorsal fin rising above the water. He had dreamed of more than power and sex. There had been something else. Lyle had a vague red recollection of tangled depths and faceless figures. His mind offered up a fleeting image of a crumbling stone structure, of keening wind and squat pillars; and of a great broken vault overhead, through which could be seen a blasted sky.
Lyle charged his phone as he brewed up a fresh pot. It had run out of juice somewhere during yesterday’s festivities, and when it finally powered up again it began to vibrate against the Formica tabletop in his dining nook. He ignored the first two pulses, but the phone insistently continued, not with the regular rhythm of an incoming call, but rather the inconsistent bursts of message notifications trickling in from the cloud. He tapped the touchscreen, and saw he had seven missed calls: one from a colleague, yesterday; and six from James, each one with a voicemail attached. The most recent of these had come just twenty minutes ago.
Lyle sipped on his coffee as he retrieved the briefcase from beneath his bed. He sat at his dinette and removed the fascicle, easily finding the rigid page. He opened it, and this time the new Word was waiting for him below the first, long entry: the entry corresponding to the letter “A” itself. This Word was angry, Ks and Zs, a hornet-word, serpent-word. Lyle looked to the white space, where the definition would arise. He pricked his forefinger with the tip of a steak knife and squeezed out two droplets of blood.
der zorn
Lyle sipped. Lyle thought. Greek, then Latin, now German. Was it moving forward in time? He wondered again about those first shapes he had seen, in the library. The more he tried to remember the more he doubted they had been in Greek. Something older, maybe. Phoenician syllabary? He would likely never know. But the Words were changing. The book was changing.
And there was this: both of the—*spells, they’re spells, let’s cut the shit—*both of the Words it had given him so far had been…
“Intuitive,” he said finally. “Useful. Like it knew.”
Lyle took down the last foil sleeve of blueberry Pop Tarts from his cupboard. Pauper’s breakfast, he thought, but not for much longer. He searched through his contacts until he found the number for the Chancellor’s office. He thumbed the little blue phone icon beside it.
#
Lyle had just started boxing up his things when James burst into his office, perfectly symmetrical face distorted by fury, his generous features made ugly. Ah, the righteousness of youth. James took in the dense sheaf of Staples boxes, waiting to be folded; took in the bare walls, the stacked diplomas and photographs.
“What the fuck is this?” he demanded.
“Emergency leave,” Lyle answered with a dismissive wave. “I’ve had a family crisis. I’m afraid I have to attend to it. Professor Chole will be taking over my workload for the remainder of the semester, I’m sure she’ll be in touch—"
“What did you do to Darby? What the fuck did you do?” James spoke with the husky, quaking tone of pure adrenaline. He was just barely restraining himself from lunging across the desk, Lyle realized. He took the younger man in with bemused calm. He let the moment stretch out.
“Therese called me,” James continued, the words throttling out of him. “Darby’s roommate. She came home last night, she has—bruises, all over her, little, little *bites—*she won’t speak, she just sits there and cries, but she said your name. It’s the only thing she said. What did you do to her, Lyle? Did you rape her?”
“Dr. Hereford,” Lyle replied.
James craned forward. “What?”
*“*You don’t get to call me Lyle.”
Lower, now, almost a whisper: “Tell me what you did to her.”
“I made her come,” Lyle said. “And she fucking loved it.”
James did lunge then, he screamed and he leapt across the desk, coming down on Lyle in a tangle of thrashing limbs and rabbit punches, the two of them toppling Lyle’s chair, compressing awkwardly into the tight space between desk and wall. James kicked hard off of the gray metal drawers, managing to end up on top. His hands found Lyle’s throat and began to squeeze. Lyle felt himself constricting, felt the energy draining out of him, pinned, as he lost oxygen. He noticed the curds of spittle at the corners of James’s snarling mouth. He started to see spots in the periphery of his vision, and as he slapped ineffectually at James’s face he thought am I going to die here—?
Lyle dug down for the last of his strength. The Word chose me. This wasn’t the end. Couldn’t be the end. He extended his leg as far as it would go, and used the distance to drive his knee, hard, into James’s crotch. A grunting exhale was propelled out of the younger man*.* Lyle pulled back to do it again; James squeezed his thighs together to block, and when he did, he compromised his balance. He took one hand off Lyle’s throat and thrust out his arm to catch himself as be began to roll, allowing Lyle to draw in a long, ragged breath.
Then Lyle spoke the Word.
The der zorn-Word.
The word that meant anger, that meant rage, that meant WRATH.
#
“Son. Son, you’re bleeding, let me—let me help you, come on. Son, it’s gonna be okay, come on, now— “
The campus policeman approaches James like a dog that might be rabid, that slow hunched posture with arms wide, except for the policeman it’s only one arm because his right hand is flush up against his service weapon and his thumb snaps the little thumbsnap and it’s a very small noise but it’s so loud in James’s head and he shakes it, his head, does James, from side to side, in herks and jerks, like a dog that might be rabid, now, like there’s water in his ears and he’s trying to shake it out, is James, and the policeman is coming on and speaking in clear precise syllables that explode behind James’s temples, clusterbomb-words, and the cop is speaking but he’s hearing another voice, is James, and it’s Lyle’s voice, it’s Dr. L’s voice, not Lyle never Lyle, and Dr. L’s voice is saying snakebit you’re snakebit she fucking LOVED it and James touches his own face now and it must be true because there’s blood on his face and when he blinks his blink is heavy and liquid like he just dropped Visine in there but the thing is but only but except it’s blood and he’s bleeding from the eyes, is James, and now the policeman is right on top of him saying “son what happened can you hear me respond if you can hear me” and James hears the exploding words all right and he blinks and blood oozes from the corners of his eyes and the cop is changing now, in the blood, his face is BOILING and now it’s Darby’s face on the policeman and she opens her mouth and her head cranes back and she’s ruined inside OH FUCK SHE’S RUINED INSIDE SHOT HERSELF SHE SHOT HERSELF SHE’S SHOT and now it’s DR L IT’S DR L SCREAMING SNAKEBIT SNAKEBIT SNAKEBIT—
James rears back and head-butts the campus cop as hard as he can, the smooth acne-less center of James’s forehead connecting with the soft cartilage of the policeman’s nose. A sick crunch echoes in the lobby of the Humanities building, a young woman close enough to hear it vomits on the floor, it is the first puking incident of the day but not the last.
The cop recoils with a sick moan, in his surprise clapping his hands to his shattered nose; in that moment James bellows, an awful inarticulate animal sound of hate, and yanks the policeman’s service piece free of his holster.
The handful of rubbernecking students freeze as James shoots the policeman in the face.
The policeman’s name is (was) Lou, the students know, and he is (was) genial and well-liked. A silent second passes in the lobby, and then the screaming begins.
James dips down and pulls two spare clips out of Lou’s belt. He pockets them. When James looks up, he doesn’t see fleeing students.
He sees Dr. L.
A gaggle of Dr. L’s. A school, a clutch, a murder. He sees laughing Dr. L’s running in every direction, diving behind furniture, breaking for the street or hurtling into the stairwells. One Dr. L dives behind the reception desk. James starts after him on wooden legs.
When he reaches the desk, there is Dr. L beneath it, a cell phone in his hand, cackling. James shoots him in the stomach. Dr. L keeps right on laughing, howling with it now, whatever it is must be hilarious, a real knee-slapper, then James remembers its him, Dr. L is laughing at him so James shoots him again, shoots him so he’ll stop but there are so many more—
#
Lyle Hereford, Ph.D., rested his browning forearms on the wrought iron railing of his third-floor balcony. He looked out over the Gulf of Mexico. The breeze was warm and gentle, suffusing, but it no longer calmed him. He took no notice of it. He was lost, as he was always now lost, in thought.
The one, lone thought.
It had taken a little less than two weeks for James’s horrific shooting spree to drop out of the news. The demands for GUN CONTROL NOW (or, conversely, for guns in every classroom) receded and were shelved for the next go-round. Politicians took to the field and unfurled their heraldry for the usual pro-forma skirmishes. Then, mercifully, a Cabinet official fucked somebody he really shouldn’t have and the national discourse (such as it was) barreled off, like a dog chasing a ball that its owner had only pretended to throw. As to why a handsome, popular, well-adjusted student should suddenly snap and murder sixteen of his fellows? The theories ranged from medically reasonable (an inoperable tumor which could not be verified via autopsy, as James’s brains had been removed by the responding tactical unit); to the paranoiac (James had been the subject of a Manchurian Candidate-style CIA/NSA/Acronym-of-your-choice experiment gone horribly wrong); to the Occult (the Devil made him do it).
Lyle had enjoyed that last one.
What Lyle had not enjoyed was that some of the conspiracy theorists, and even some of the legitimate press, had mentioned him by name. He had disappeared, after all, on an auspicious and chaotic day, to manage a crisis no one could verify involving a family no one could find. It had not been difficult to remain ahead of any enterprising investigators, though. Not with the Words.
And there had been so many more Words. Words in French and Finnish and Russian and Spanish and Mandarin. Words that meant envy and silence and fear and blindness and, perhaps the most potent yet, a Word that meant stupid. Lyle had employed that one against a statie who pulled him over as he crossed the Louisiana line, coming through Vicksburg. The guy had been six-two, maybe two-twenty, with sharp, curious eyes sunk deep in his skull. Lyle hadn’t liked the way he had looked at him, so he used the Word. Now the statie—*Edmonds was his name, Trooper Edmonds—*was six-two, two-twenty of drooling simpleton, probably staring at a wall somewhere in the nearest brain injury ward and driving the resident neurologists absolutely bugshit.
By the time Lyle made it to a quiet, lazy town on the Cajun Riviera and decided to set a spell, he had traded in his Acura for a Beemer and was carrying close to a hundred and twelve thousand dollars in cash. He had also acquired a 9mm Ruger and a shotgun with a pistol grip (the dealer had called it a snake charmer just before Lyle killed him).
None of that matters now, though.
All that mattered was the Word. Which, he had come to realize, was the last Word.
Because the book was alive, of course, had always been alive, Lyle knew that. Hadn’t let himself come right out and say it, but he knew. It had slept, maybe, possibly, until he woke it, with his touch, with his blood, but if it slept, it woke up thirsty*.* The book was always ready with the next Word, the next thing he would need. The book was collaborating with him. It was dancing with him, and at first he had thought he was the one leading, but now he knew better.
Lyle felt it. Felt it—pulling on him. All the time. Felt it in the room behind him, pulling, knew that he would go back in, sooner or later, go back in, and open the book, the book that has been leading him. Knew that he would open its hundreds of pages, because it was longer now, because it had grown, because it was three inches thick and the front plating had vanished and it wasn’t pretending to be a dictionary anymore.
He knew that he would open it and on every single page, centered, would be a single Word, the last Word, the Word that he will say, that he must say, sooner or later, and under it swirling in blood, blood that must be the book’s own, the final explication, the final command, the final meaning, and God, oh God, Lyle was afraid, because the last Word was
DOOR

I think I maybe have done things a little wrong on this map...
It has been a lot of fun opening all the bridges and stuff, but now the "Heap of Work" mission shows up to open the tunnel. And I have used all the available Service Spare Parts !! I can't find any on this map or the Northern Aegis map.
Am I f..... now, with now possibility to move forward and open the tunnel ? Or am I missing a "hidden stash" somewhere ?

Dear reddit community:
I thought I would take the opportunity to introduce you to a fascinating laboratory technique that's been pivotal in cancer research, and more broadly, in proteomics: Reverse Phase Protein Array (RPPA). While the term might sound complex at first, I'll do my best to break it down in simpler terms
At its core, RPPA is an antibody-based technique used for quantifying protein expression levels in biological samples. You might have heard of gene expression studies using DNA microarrays; think of RPPA as the protein counterpart to these methods, focusing on the "executive part" of cells - proteins, which ultimately control the cellular function
In the RPPA process, tiny amounts of protein samples (these could be from cells, tissues, etc.) are immobilized on a solid surface, forming a 'microarray'. We then apply a specific antibody that recognizes a particular protein of interest. By doing this for many samples at once, and using many different antibodies, we can map out the presence and amount of multiple proteins across many samples
What makes RPPA really special is the ability to handle hundreds, even thousands, of samples simultaneously, providing a high-throughput solution for proteomic analysis. This scalability is critical in projects where vast amounts of data are needed, like studying tumor heterogeneity or performing large-scale drug responses
Moreover, because RPPA uses such small amounts of sample, it's particularly useful in scenarios where the sample is precious - like rare clinical samples
In summary, while it's a relatively technical process, RPPA has a wide range of uses and can yield invaluable information, especially in the field of biomedical research. I hope this introduction gives you a taste of the power of this tool. Please feel free to ask questions or share your thoughts