Insulated foam container near me

I recently got attacked on a thread for saying I have 6 tubes of mascara - I don’t feel like I need to explain why I have more than one (and you don’t owe people an explanation, either!).
Over the last month, I got a little more daring by buying palettes on clearance - easier to afford a palette missing one or two colors for whatever reason, and I was recently told you can spray alcohol on a previously used eye shadow and not expect to have any sort of problems.
Well - today, I woke up with a stye. I don’t know if I bought something that was previously used or expired, or if it has anything to do with nearly stabbing out my eyeball with a sharp eyeliner applicator.
So yes - playing “fast and loose” (buying clearance eye make up) definitely has its consequences. I don’t have health insurance and if I have a staph infection, the end is near for me. A word to the wise….. use better make up habits, wash your brushes, and be careful.

Building a new home. Did the walkthrough with the electrician and asked about putting cameras outside. He followed up and said $4k. Didn’t tell me how many or what kind and wouldn’t get back to me. So I just asked the builder’s realtor (who had been brokering all communication) to have him run 4 CAT 6 cables, 3 under eaves and one near front door.
I just got a reply about it today and at the bottom it said “Camera (wiring only) $3,000”. I feel like this is an absurd cost but want to run it by my friends on here before I say anything dumb. Anyone know what this should cost? I’m guessing max 500ft of cable needed.
Thank you!

(Shoutouts to u/TheSlyKoopa for the match concept!)
Scenario: Isla de Piedra, Somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea — 11:44AM
Dédalo Viatger, adventurer, archaeologist and explorer extraordinaire, had filled his travelog with countless exploits on his never-ending quest to uncover the secrets of the ancient world. Following the trail of the lost civilization of Pieduro was proving to be his lengthiest entry yet. Armed with powerful Pieduron artifacts known as the Temples, Dédalo and the Pieduron entity ｢Perdida｣ had forged a path across the Mediterranean, getting ever closer to solving the mystery of their disappearance.
With assistance from Cullinan Dwarf Star, Patron of the House of Muses, Dédalo and Perdida were on the verge of discovering the final piece of the puzzle. Their journey had come full circle, and Dédalo and Perdida’s adventure would end where it began; on the island of Isla de Piedra.
Situated between the coasts of Southern Spain and North Africa, Isla de Piedra had been uninhabited for all of recorded history, though not for lack of trying. The dense forests and greenery that covered every square meter of the island made it a ripe target for logging companies and greedy colonists to strip it for all it was worth. None had succeeded—their abandoned camps had long since been reclaimed by the forest.
The only other sign of human life on the island was the ancient Pieduron outpost where Dédalo’s journey first began, and where it would now hopefully end. The trek to get there was as difficult as the first time—but he didn’t have to do it alone now. At his side were his ever faithful companion Perdida, the inquisitive swordswoman Ninian, the extraordinary android 2095, and the illustrious ice skater Electra (although he didn’t call them that out loud).
Dédalo led the party up a long, winding stone staircase, pointing out the many partially-disabled traps along the way. He and Ninian had long been in contact, and the latter could personally vouch for her +1s—2095 one of the few Bastards she could trust and Electra having earned her trust in for her actions against Enyalius & Enyo Pharmaceuticals in San Battista.
“...and here’s a wall of spikes that shoot out when you pass over that threshold,” he pointed out with a tour guide’s enthusiasm. “I managed to jam up the mechanism with some cloth, but we should probably tread carefully around here.”
Electra rolled her eyes, even though Dédalo couldn’t see the gesture. “Should have just blown it up,” she muttered, annoyed. While her experiences in San Battista had somewhat melted her frosty demeanor, it had still been a long, hot, exhausting trip to get here, and old habits died hard.
“Watch your tone, miss,” Perdida said from behind her ear, making her jump. “My people’s architecture is not something to “blow up”.”
“And it might not have worked,” 2095 chimed in. “If this outpost could survive all those centuries of wear, I doubt a mundane explosion would do much damage to it.”
“The Piedurons built everything to last, from their treasures to their traps.” Dédalo gingerly ducked under the blade of a massive pendulum axe that jutted out from the ceiling. “Fortunate in some ways, unfortunate in others.”
At last, they reached the center chamber. Carved from stone and coated with moss, it appeared just as untouched as the rest of the outpost—save for the podium in the middle of the chamber and the conspicuously empty space on top of it, where the moss grew a little bit thinner.
“Ah, this brings back memories,” Dédalo chuckled. “This is where Perdida and I first met. The El Cor Terra necklace lay in this very spot at the heart of the chamber. When I unfastened it, poof! There she appeared in all of her resplendent glory. We hit it off right away.”
“He tried to cut my head off with a machete.”
“In self-defense!”
“Ok, move it along, lovebirds,” Electra huffed. “Where’s the thing we were looking for? It’s somewhere in here, right?”
Brushing past the “lovebirds” comment, Dédalo retrieved a piece of parchment from his explorer’s pack marked with the symbol of the House of Muses. “According to Cullinan, the hidden door should be right over on that wall.” He pointed over 2095’s shoulder at the northern wall of the chamber. “The question is…how do we open it?”
2095 gave the room a once-over. Aside from the layer of moss and vegetation covering the chamber, it was pretty bare. Its only noticeable feature seemed to be the podium.
“Perhaps the podium could offer some answers.” The party gathered around the stone podium—a stone cylinder, atop which stood a carving which vaguely resembled the neck and collarbone area of a human, with a thin groove running where a necklace would hang. Perdida instantly recognized the Cleria stone inlays around the circumference of the podium.
She traced a finger along the length of the groove, and the Cleria stone beneath it glowed—and, at a volume only audible to 2095’s mechanical hearing, it began to hum.
“Keep going, Perdida,” she whispered. Perdida closed her eyes, feeling herself attune to the place where she lay dormant for thousands of years. The Cleria stone grew brighter and brighter, the hum getting louder and louder.
Suddenly, the room shook. Electra leaped back, expecting another trap. Instead, she watched as the north wall slid open like the doors of an elevator, revealing two hallways; one leading up, the other leading down, both with Cleria stone markings along the walls that pulsed with a gentle light.
“Thank goodness,” Dédalo sighed. “I was worried the real treasure was going to be the friends we made along the way.”
Dédalo and Perdida continued to trek up the hallway, climbing what was likely the control tower of the outpost. Ninian dutifully followed behind them, ready to draw her blade at whatever might strike from the newly unknown section of the outpost. The sound of exhaled breath made her jump...but it was only a sigh from Dédalo. “A shame you came aboard so late, Ninian; our journey’s almost up.”
Ninian’s confusion spiked to alarm as the explorer motioned to lean against the wall. “Watch out-”
Dédalo made contact and nothing happened. He tilted his head to the end of the corridor, a doorway just a few meters away. “We’re far enough in that we’ve most likely avoided the worst of the traps. Besides, I don’t think the Piedurons would have placed many traps so close to a place of importance.” He wistfully rubbed his arm, massaging the strain of adventures and injuries in equal measure. “Feels almost bittersweet. So many months of travel and turmoil, and the end of our journey is in sight.”
“Hey, don’t say that yet. We still need to find a way to get my human body back.” Pedida gently punched him in his shoulder. Still, her pout eventually softened as she looked back towards the final chamber. “I guess you are correct, though. The answer to the Pieduron collapse lies beyond those doors. What comes after…nobody knows”
“Quite right,” Dédalo nodded, and the group moved onwards. “I hope that Electra and 2095 are doing okay down there, in any case.”
“I hope that the rest of the outpost is okay,” Perdida frowned. “They didn’t seem to appreciate how precious this place is—I don’t want to lose another one.”
“I don’t think we have to worry too much about losing them,” A grin of cat-like mischief unfurled on Ninian’s face as hoarse laughter echoed on a draft. There were adventures to come and to be seen, but one to reach its conclusion here and now, and the anticipation made Ninian’s hair stand on end.
The group carefully entered the room, and Perdida flickered out of existence. Before any of them could respond, the control room flickered to life. The stone walls that extended higher and higher suddenly turned “on” as if they were screens, but these were more akin to slabs whose light-emitting runes and rocks flickered and changed in the appearance of Perdida—Perdidas, in fact. All of them, on the many screens, acted in unison as Dédalo rushed forward. “Dédalo, what’s going on?”
“We’re figuring it out,” he shouted as he and Ninian raced to the panels below, trying to decipher the text streaming by. Soon, however, one message displayed on a readout screen:

MYSTICALLY AUTOMATED KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM 0 DETECTED
RESUMING RING FUNCTIONALITY

Meanwhile, having taken the outpost’s lower path, 2095 and Electra entered into a large atrium. Like the rest of the outpost, the walls and floor were composed of the usual, teal stone that seemed impossibly durable. The fact that they could use it to form buildings, carve intricate murals, and keep it all hidden was impressive, but they craned their heads upwards towards the skylight that would let rain and sun in. Through the overgrown foliage, they could see a massive flat ring of Cleria floating above the ground in stubborn defiance of the laws of physics. Gravity-defying gyroscopes of stone spun and swirled in the air above, rotating with the same slow grace as the ancient gears that whirred to life around them. The glow of the Cleria blended together with the light of the noonday sun; the hum of power permeated the entire chamber.
“...shit,” Electra murmured, not sure what else to say.
2095 scanned the rest of the atrium, but ultimately found nothing beyond a discolored, glowing pad on the floor by the opposite wall, outcroppings on the walls that resembled benches, and the remnants of what appeared to be ancient drinking fountains. Rest now before it’s too late, the room seemed to scream.
“I believe we should wait for the others before we go deeper,” 2095 announced. “We could retrace our steps and explore the previous areas, in case we missed another hidden passageway or an undiscovered treasure. It would be a shame to proceed not knowing whether we’ve left every stone unturned-”
“Not a chance,” Electra huffed. “I’m not letting us get killed because of your FOMO. Come on.”
She grabbed 2095 by the wrist and began to drag her over to the pads. 2095 let her—partly because she weighed significantly more than Electra did and she didn’t want her to hurt herself trying to pull her by force, but partly because she was right. She could feel the air buzzing with energy, intensifying by the second. Something big was about to happen.
The two stepped onto the floor pad and immediately felt themselves being shunted into a different space as the teleporter activated. When their vision cleared, they found themselves standing on top of the Cleria ring itself. Electra could smell the ozone in the air and taste the prickling on her tongue. This ring was the key to the whole mechanism—either it was powering the outpost…or the outpost was powering it.
2095 gazed in awe at the machinery surrounding them. It reminded her of the technology from her time; except instead of steel and chrome, it was made of rock and crystal. What secrets died with the Piedurons when they disappeared?
She turned to Electra to express her wonder and nearly screamed when she saw the vantablack vines burst out of her shadowed face, ready to smash the ring to pieces.
“What are you doing?!” 2095 yelled, ｢Yours Truly｣ appearing at her side, tentacles raised.
“I’m destroying this thing, duh,” spat Electra. “I know a superweapon when I see one, and I’m not about to let some dipshit corporation get their hands on it after we leave.”
The chamber shook, bits of rocks and dust falling from the ceiling. “B-but we don’t even know whether this is a superweapon! Aren’t you acting a bit rash?”
“Rash? Seriously? You have no idea what some people in Dead Drop Bay would do for an artifact like this.” Electra remembered what she saw in San Battista—the monster that she had to put down, fuelled by a desire to abuse the remnants of the past for her own gain. “Farewell to Kings, Dead Man’s Hand; hell, even my own company. They’d sink this island to the bottom of the ocean for the chance to have this thing for themselves. This way, I’m solving the problem before it has a chance to start.”
“And risk destroying the legacy of an entire civilization?!” 2095 felt anger boiling in her metallic chest. A part of her resonated with the Piedurons in this moment—she knew what it was like to be a relic of an era far from the present, the last remaining piece of a time nobody would ever know. “What gives you the right to decide what to do with an artifact of this magnitude? To bury what could be the last hope of Pieduro to be remembered as anything but a footnote in history?”
The chamber shook again—this time, both 2095 and Electra felt the ground shift under their feet. Without warning, walls of stone burst out of the ground around them, tearing through centuries-old roots and vines to surround the ring on all sides. Slabs of Cleria stone with deep divots carved into the top of them emerged from the ring itself and floated just above its surface like a magnet levitating atop another.
In the control tower below them, Dédalo and Ninian scrambled from panel to panel, desperately trying to decipher what was going on. Dédalo could see the two other members of the party facing off inside the ring—but before he could call out to them, he heard Perdida’s voice resonate from every screen.
“The Temples…I can see them.”
Ninian watched the panel in front of her light up, displaying a holographic map of the Mediterranean, hundreds of glowing blue dots scattered across the projection.
Dédalo rushed to the nearest screen and grabbed it. “Perdida! Are you alright?!”
“Y-yes, I’m fine.” Perdida blinked hard, putting a hand to the side of her head. “I can feel every Temple in the Mediterranean. I…I think I can gain access to them from here.”
“Access? Like…you can turn them on?” Ninian asked.
“Yes. All of them.” Before Perdida could say any more, the chamber shook once more. In the room below, the ring glowed even more brightly, the two would-be explorers now utterly trapped within it by the sloped walls surrounding it.
“See what I mean?!” Electra clenched her fists, snapping flytrap jaws emerging from the shadow underneath her. “We need to put this entire place in the ground. For good. And like hell am I going to let you stop me!”
Suddenly, all across the surface of the ring, crackling orbs of energy sparked to life, both 2095 and Electra just managing to avoid them. The orbs spun in a circle around the ring, accelerating rapidly until they were nothing but a blur. 2095 recognized the movements of the orbs immediately; it looked like a particle accelerator.
“I hoped we could resolve this peacefully, Electra.” 2095 flicked the silver locks out of her face. “But now I have to convince you in the only language you seem to understand—the language of violence. Don’t hold back.”
The age-old machinery around them hummed to a crescendo. If either of the two combatants wanted to see their convictions through, they would need to survive the full power of Pieduro first.
OPEN THE GAME!
Location: On Isla de Piedra, (Shoutouts to u/TheSlyKoopa for the match art) inside the Floating Ring. The arena shown here has Electra on the north side and 2095 on the south side represented by their character tokens. The players are in the area inside the ring and have no way to exit with sloping walls on all sides.
The ring has a diameter of 60 meters and the internal width is 15 meters; the entire structure is A Durability.
The brown rectangles inside the ring are Pieduron Temples that resemble short, knee-tall minecarts made out of stone slabs.
Goal: RETIRE your opponent!
Additional Information: Over the course of 10 minutes, the ring will spawn 6-inch diameter orbs of light that will accelerate and move in an orbit around the ring at A Speed. Each orb takes 4 seconds to spawn-in, glowing in place and translucent, before it becomes a solid orb.
Trajectory of the orbs move completely along the curvature of the ring, counterclockwise (denoted by the arrows on the map) and can be spawned anywhere inside the ring. When they hit something solid, they will detonate at C Power—powerful enough to destroy ink left by ｢Venus Fly Trap｣ and tentacles from ｢Yours Truly｣—and cause another orb to spawn where the original one started. The orbs have a blast radius of half a meter and other orbs exploding around them will not trigger them to detonate.
Orbs will complete one revolution around the ring anywhere from 3 seconds (inside track) to 6 seconds (along the rim).
Assuming you are standing still, the rough number of orbs that pass by will be 5 orbs per second at the first minute mark, 10 orbs per second at the second minute mark, and so on until the maximum of 50 orbs per second at the ten minute mark.
Starting near each player and around the map are Pieduron temples that resemble minecarts. Each kart can comfortably fit one person, have a handle on either side, and a single rudder-like steering peripheral. The wheels of the kart will always stick to the ring, but they can drive just fine along the walls or even the ceiling of the ring. Karts move at up to B Speed and players intuitively have a 4 in driving them. At max speed, karts can complete one revolution in 4 to 8 seconds (4 seconds on the inside track and 8 seconds on the rim).
All karts have three other special features that can be activated when a driver is steering it, the Turtle, the Spider, and the Crab:

• The Turtle is a forcefield-like shield that can cover the kart and anybody riding inside it. This forcefield only protects against the fast moving orbs and their explosions and is intangible to everything else. It lasts up to 2 seconds and has a 6 second cooldown before it can be activated again. It can also be set to automatically activate if the minecart is about to hit or be affected by an orb, otherwise it can be manually activated by the driver.
  
• The Spider is a net-like shield that functions somewhat similarly to the forcefield the Turtle. The main difference is that instead of blocking orbs, it catches them and converts them into an inert palm-sized orb that is stowed inside the minecart. This shield does also block explosions produced by orbs, but will not produce an inert orb in those cases. The Spider lasts up to 1 second and shares a cooldown with the Turtle. Inert orbs are orbs that can be converted back into fast moving orbs by being thrown with force and intent. They can be made to move exactly in a straight line or along the curvature of the ring when thrown. Inert orbs have no other special properties, other than being A Durability.
  
• The Crab is a fast sideways dash up to 8 meters, with a minimum distance of 1 meter. Once the dash is finished, the kart will resume moving in the direction and speed it had before initiating the dash, making it useful for dodging without turning or changing the direction the kart is going in. This feature has a stamina bar where the longer your dash distance is, the more stamina will be used up. It takes 4 seconds for the stamina bar to fill up from empty.
  

The cooldowns and stamina bars are tied to the person, not the karts themselves.

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
Anvil Procession	Electra Heart	"I need to master this Spin..." Have a good plan for how to avoid and deal with the orbs spinning around you!
Bastards of Barcas	10538-2095	"The secret to the Steel Ball is the search for infinity..." Have a good plan for how to avoid and deal with the orbs spinning around you!

Link to Official Player Spreadsheet
Link to Match Schedule
As always, if you would like to interact with the tournament community and be among the first to get updates for the tournament, please feel free to PM a member of our Judge staff for an invite to our Official Discord Server!

First, I am DC, I found out when I was 37 from 23andMe. I'm male, born of a sperm donor and my mother. I have a father that I have, at times, a rocky relationship with. No contact with my donor, however I do now know who he is and where he is. Unclear if he knows I exist.
My wife and I are now trying to have a child and are having trouble and have nearly pulled the trigger on a donor and her eggs. In discussions about disclosure and contact with the egg donor, my normally rational and considerate wife wishes to have as little contact with the donor as possible (especially me) and wants ourselves and the donor to remain anonymous to each other and has only reluctantly agreed to the possibility of contact through the donor agency middleperson. I have tried to express my feelings of distrust when finding out, of feeling like a piece of knowing who I am is missing or lost, of wanting to connect with the donor relatives or the donor themselves just to understand these feelings more. My wife doesn't understand these feelings and is quite dismissive, often chalking it up to "well if you had a more secure relationship with your parents you wouldn't care about the donor and your DNA", as if I'm trying to find replacements for my parents. I am fairly certain this in not true, but I can't properly put into words how it is.
Are there resources you've found, including studies, that provide the positive outcomes of disclosure and even more specifically the benefits of knowing who the donor is and the availability of contact with them? Also maybe how this doesn't affect the parents relationship to the DC child negatively?
I want my child to have a healthy attitude towards this, and never feel the pain that I did when I found out and had no information on the donor. I would prefer to not be the only parent giving my child info and asking them to hide this knowledge from their mother.

Throwaway account because I am absolutely terrified of legal repercussions from Scribe. I was a full-time employee at the company for over 3 years and I just want my voice to be heard. If you have questions, leave them here, because I'm ready to tell the truth. Apologies if this is a little scattered. I have a lot to say and I don't think I have the energy to be particularly coherent. I also apologize if some of my timeline info isn't 100% correct; the months at Scribe have all blended together and I don't have access to any of my Scribe tech to confirm my dates. One last disclaimer: I was not a ghostwriter for Scribe, and my work never involved writing, so don't hate me for typos and grammar mistakes!
First, this Glassdoor review is the most honest thing I've ever seen a current/former employee write about the company. Despite the fact that Scribe has won a number of "Best Workplace" and "Best CEO" awards, it was a truly horrible place to work. I, as well as many of my coworkers, was constantly shocked when we won or ranked in those categories; we were all filling out the surveys with the lowest scores possible.
Two groups of people seemed to float the company through with those surveys: 1) the leadership/crew members who had been there for 5+ years and made a lot of money off the backs of the lower-paid workers and 2) the constant stream of new employees that were being hired to replace those who left or were fired. These new employees were practically waterboarded with the "Scribe is the best company in the world" juice.
For crew members like me, who were "veterans" with 3+ years at the company, silence was the code. If you wanted to make it to "veteran" status, you had to keep your mouth shut about the things you were seeing, and the way people in leadership were treating employees. This created a really stratified work environment where you had:

• The super highly-paid and underqualified OGs who mixed up and poured out the "Scribe is perfect" Koolaid
• The veterans who only made it past their second year at Scribe by keeping their mouths shut
• The newbies who were bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and drowning in the juice

To be honest, things didn't really get bad until Tucker and Zach left the company in Jevon's hands. I know that Jevon is revered in the business world, but he is the closest thing to a modern-day snake oil salesman that I've ever seen. He coasts on charisma and re-purposed adages so that nobody questions his poor decision-making skills.
The truth is that Jevon was always in over his head. Scribe never had a CFO because Jevon kept insisting that we didn't need one. But his decisions about money were so erratic and set off alarm bells for many of us.
Scribe’s last allegedly profitable month (according to the finance documents that the Master of Coin would release every month) was January 2021. In 2022 alone, the company lost $3 million and revenue was down by a quarter. By March of this year we were losing $800K a month. Meanwhile, payroll doubled from 2021 to 2023 and JeVon decided to double the office space (rent is $100K a month). He also seemed to spend a lot of money on his own personal branding/marketing. At one point, cameras were following him around the office.
It was clear to anyone looking at the numbers that the path we were on was unsustainable. Multiple times every month, employees would beg leadership for an explanation of how we were still operating, or ask for a plan to make us profitable again. In response, the inner workings at Scribe became more and more opaque.
For example, the all-hands call that was supposed to take place in January was canceled with absolutely no explanation, and when all-hands meetings resumed, the "open discussion" about finances was removed from the agenda. On two different occasions, we were informed that checks would not be sent out on time because of "payroll issues," but when pressed for an explanation, leadership intimated that it was due to some kind of error or technical issues rather than a lack of funds.
In August of 2022, leadership enacted a hiring/salary freeze, but kept telling us not to worry, and that "Jevon had planned for this dip in profit and everything was going to be completely okay because Jevon knew what he was doing." He then set out to find outside investors to sink more money into the flagging company.
I'm told that he turned down a number of lucrative offers ($60 mil was the amount being thrown around) because potential investors wanted Jevon to stay on as the CEO, while he wanted to leave the company and start a hedge fund. He was basically looking for someone to finance the company so he could dip (from what I could tell).
Early this year, we were all very relieved when it was announced that Jawad Ahsan was coming on as an investor (co-owner? I have no idea; the announcement made about this move was not very detailed). Things seemed like they may genuinely improve, and hiring ramped up, which we all took to mean that the money necessary for new employees did actually exist.
Then, in late April/early May (I no longer have access to my Scribe slack, so I can't confirm the exact date), we were informed that Jawad had "pulled his funding." Jevon's message to us stated that Jawad had "been offered a dream position as CEO of a new company" and had pulled out his investment in Scribe, which was why we wouldn't be making payroll that week. (Come to find out later that this was a lie).
At this point, my coworkers and I are very, very nervous, and are pinging the leadership team constantly, asking for explanations or updates. Anything to ease our anxieties. We are all given the run-around.
Then, the sudden layoffs. At around 3ish on the 24th, everyone receives a Google calendar invitation to what is ostensibly an update meeting about the future of the company. However, we're told that there are two separate sessions (because they want us in smaller groups to leave more room for questions) and to make sure that we all attend the correct session. We start looking into the different groups and realize that one group has 85+ people while the other only has 20ish people. And on top of that, the group of 20ish people contains all of the executive team's closest friends.
That's when we realize we're about to be laid off.
In a group Zoom call, we are told that our jobs no longer exist, that our tech is being shut down immediately, and that insurance runs out at midnight. No severance.
One of the people in our meeting is the Editor in Chief who was at the company since day 1; I still cannot believe they treated him this way.
Another person in our group is the IT guy, who is then told that he would actually have to come back into work the next day (paid an hourly wage) so that he can shut off all of our tech....THEN he's gone.
On the call, one employee specifically calls about Jawad, who we are all surprised to see on the call, as we'd been told that he pulled out his investment. She asks him to explain why he pulled funding from Scribe. He is shocked and confused, because not only has he not left Scribe (he is still on the board of directors today) but he has also invested more money in Scribe than Tucker, Zach, or Jevon. Jevon immediately cuts in and directs any questioning from Jawad (I think he got caught in his previous lie).
Since the layoffs, a few ex-Scribe members and myself have been keeping track of some very suspicious financial/legal behavior (which I do not want to disclose in case it is actionable). However, there are still many freelancers who have not been paid in over a week; one freelancer is owed $17k in back payments.
Scribe is telling its authors that it is "still operating" with a skeleton crew, which is laughable. They maybe have enough people on staff to launch the next two weeks' worth of books, but beyond that, there is no way the 20ish employees left can keep 300+ books alive. Not to mention some of the people kept on the skeleton crew have been at the company for less than a year, and were only kept on because they were old friends of the CXO. Not the most competent employees...
The executive team is still claiming that once the sale of the copmany goes through in 2 weeks (I do not believe there really is a buyer lined up) that they will reach out to all employees laid off an extend an invitation to return. I can promise you that nobody will return. This means that if Scribe wants to be "fully operational" after the sale, they will have to hire an entirely new company. This isn't going to happen, given the media already out there about Scribe.
If you are a current Scribe author, please be very very cautious of what you hear from the company. We were directly told that Jevon is stepping down as CEO and President, but I'm hearing from current authors that he is still reaching out to them as the CEO and offering reassurances.
Please leave any questions below and I'll do my best to answer.

Just looking for some advise…
I’m early April I had a flight where I checked a clothing bag. Upon my return, Spirit misplaced my bag. I filed an initial claim at my hometown airport and they found my bag in another state and had it flown to my home city. It was then being delivered to my home via cargo van delivery service and somehow the delivery van got stolen with my bag on it…
So spirit told me to file a full claim online, which I did…including receipts for all the items I could recall losing. Upon submitting the claim I was given a case/file number and I could log into their website to check its status…the website claimed they needed up to 30 days to assess my claim.
35 days passed so I signed into my claim online using their same file number and directed them a message saying the 30 days was up, could I please get an update on my claim? They responded to me the next morning and I got an email saying to log into my online claim to read their response. When I tried to log in, the site now says that my case file is not in their system.
I tried calling their 800 number for 4 straight days, I would wait on hold for over an hour only to have either their system boot me off, or a voice recording come on to ask me for a voicemail…which were never returned. On the 5th day someone actually answered and told me they could also not log into my claim and they would escalate it to the escalation department, and they would call me.
It’s now been another week, and I still have no call from them. Im starting to think my only option is to file a small claims court case and hope that gets their attention…I estimate my baggage contained approximately $1600 worth of various clothing and shoe items (mostly one very expensive suit I needed to take on my trip).
Any other ideas?

What are we doing? It feels like we’re trying to love each other… but we don’t know how. Just that we probably can? Being with you is like an out of body experience. I see you as a man… but can you feel the things I can? That I can’t.
I want to be with you. But I think we had sex too soon. I meant to hold out on it. I meant to wait until I knew your mind better… until I trusted you more. But I wanted you…so badly. I love the way that you want me. I’m afraid that even though I made you wait… it’s all you want me for now. Your eyes don’t convey to me the things I long for them to say… even though you’re there every time I need you. You convey the patience with your action and words alike sometimes…. But your eyes. They feel so empty sometimes.
I can’t whisper that I’m afraid. I asked you in the beginning if you thought that we were just too different. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m afraid that you see all the things that you want me to be… that you can’t see me. I spent the whole day beside you, near you, you inside me. Together… and once I left you, you seemed like a stranger all over again.
I don’t know what to say to you. I don’t know how to speak to you… but you don’t seem to mind. We laid beside each other and cuddled misaligned.
I guess I just worry that it’s not me that you want…it’s just somebody. Somebody to fill the gap in your life you think needs filling. Is it a me shaped hole, or am I just around the right size? I’m not good enough for you… I’m just waiting for you to say it out loud. That having my body was fun…but it’s time for you to find something real now.
It’s impossible how much I want you. Because I know that means you won’t stay. But there is so much future and hope in the things you say.
I guess I’m just asking… do you mean them?

I’m tired of living in a mental storm.
I’m tired of being reminded of my past at school, I’m trying to grow not be reminded of my mistakes.
I’m tired of being expected to stay alive for everyone.
I’m tired of showing up to school everyday.
I’m tired of being yelled at by my mom everyday.
I’m tired of the constant reminders at school of my bad grades.
I’m tired of the people on reddit all telling me my only help is in my head, that’s what I’m trying to find.
I’m tired of the sane advice always being to find therapy or go to a hospital.
I’m tired of seeing people I used to know and knowing I can never get the friendship back.
I’m tired of cleaning up the messes of family and friends.
I’m tired of being the only thing that holds the family together, the one part of level ground where they take out all their anger.
I’m tired of not seeing hope for the future.
I’m tired of the fact that my every waking moment is filled with a surge of adrenaline constantly pumping within me.
I’m tired of only being able to wake up by my mom yelling at me to get up.
I’m tired of staring at bottles of chemicals and containers of pills.
I’m tired of the fact that the only thing keeping me alive is fucking music and trading card games.
I’m tired of the fact that the only music I can enjoy is rise against, green day, and five finger death punch.
I’m tired of waking up everyday and having the dreaded reminder that this is real and not some sick dream.
I’m tired of people at school calling me stupid and crazy for what I have.
I’m tired of having my head spin while I speak so fast I stumble on words as I try to vent.
I’m tired of being told to grow up or laughed at when I vent.
I’m tired of Megan, I don’t care for her privacy, she goes to my school and constantly reminds me of the fact I spit on her when I was younger, it was grade 6 and I was an asshole, I’m trying to change and all these reminders of who I was is making me hate myself more and more and bringing me closer to the edge.
I’m tired of this inability to focus.
I’m tired of feeling nothing except anger and emptiness.
I’m tired of these cards I play, I don’t care if we have to play what we are dealt, I got one good card, intelligence.
I’m tired of being called “smart for your age”
I’m tired of this body.
I’m tired of this trauma.
I’m tired of this illness.
I’m tired of these people.
I’m tired of this life.

Cover Art <<Previous Start Next >>
While Moriko was being wined and dined by the princesses, Mordecai mulled over the information he’d learned from ‘eavesdropping’ on her thoughts. And if he understood everything correctly, the spymaster Lady Yuriko was also a princess, albeit from a few generations ago or more. She would have joined the clan in much the same way as Orchid had, and probably only returned as an advisor only after the pain of loss had faded from her closest family being claimed by the passage of time.
Long life amongst the long-lived was easy. Long life mingled with those who were not so long-lived was hard. He suspected the royal family was slightly longer lived than most pure-blooded humans, especially those who showed signs of other bloodlines such as young princess Bridgette, but given what he learned of the Azeria clan almost all of the ‘converted’ princesses could expect to live several centuries, depending on how powerful they grew and thus how many tails they gained.
One of the more interesting things to learn also brought him a bit of relief. While it wasn’t enough to complete the picture of what was going on with Kuiccihan, seeing how they had combined shopping with counter-espionage and probably a little bit of propaganda helped normalize the kingdom a bit from his point of view.
While hardly utopian, the country as a whole had struck him as being almost too serene and egalitarian. This minor bit of political maneuvering showed that a lot of thought and work went into keeping it that way, which fit with what Aia had told him about his daughter having taken some effort in designing the country she helped found. And he was pretty certain that the princesses were sincere, rather than just putting up a good cover. He might be wrong, but it seemed rather unlikely. False paradises tended to be a touch too rigid in weird places, and so far he’d not gotten any signs of that, and there was no attempt to mask it as an actual paradise.
Mordecai was torn about his decision to tuck away so many specific memories. It seemed so logical at the time, it had been so very long and the attack on the village had been thorough, and honestly, it made focusing on the life he had here now easier, but he also regretted not knowing the names of all his children. And though he knew the names of some of his children thanks to the genealogy book, he sort of dreaded the idea of learning the way they would be pronounced now and then having them clash with his memories of them when he did finally retrieve them.
Perhaps not his most rational choice ever, but even if his primary brain was made of crystal instead of the messy goop that made up his avatar’s brain, emotions were not exactly rational. Especially where family was concerned. And the thought of family turned his mind back to the princesses. They were quite the array for a single generation, but given the number of nonhuman and possibly empowered bloodlines supposedly present, this was not as much of a surprise as it might have been. Mordecai really hoped that when the dungeon had greater capacity, either Orchid or one of the other royals would be willing to be thoroughly examined, he wanted to see what was going on for their heritage paths.
All biological life used a physical pattern to carry information from the parents, mingling to create a new pattern. While this was not well known outside of people who had reason and methods to research it in depth, what was less well known was that there were more carriers than the physical.
The next most common was spiritual patterns, energy waveforms that imprint from a strong individual onto one whose spirit and soul were just beginning to form. Between sympathetic magic and literally surrounding the embryo, mothers had the strongest imprinting of spiritual patterns onto their offspring. Typically fathers had the second largest impact. However, sufficiently powerful entities could leave imprints upon those who lived near them for long periods of time, which is why tribes or villages of more mortal races who served a single dragon for many generations tended to take on draconic traits, despite no actual mingling of bloodlines.
Then there were the bloodline travelers, the blessings and curses specifically tied to an individual and all their progeny. While normal spiritual patterns mingled and could change and fade, these acted more like symbionts or parasites, exactly duplicating themselves and attaching to each descendant during conception. Upon occasion a particularly powerful yet poorly constructed curse acted like a disease, infecting all future progeny of anyone the actual carrier had sex with, even if that other person did not conceive a child with the curse bearer. Blessings being so poorly constructed were even rarer, but it was with good reason that most people preferred being ignored by the sidhe over gaining even their blessing.
Beings that did not innately have a physical form generally did not have a physical carrier or pattern and relied entirely upon spiritual waveform patterns.
Constructed entities were all over the place, assuming that they could pass on heritable information rather than just manually constructing a new entity.
As for dungeons… come to think of it, he didn’t know if there was a way to pass on dungeon-specific heritage information. They didn’t have parents. His avatars could pass on physical information based on the form he constructed, and he was pretty sure he made at least a small imprint in the way of spiritual energy, but he had no idea about passing on heritable information for his core. Could that be done?
For that matter, with his new avatar form: if he fathered a child with this avatar, what information would be passed on? What would be the default ‘true’ form for the child? He had no idea, that had not been part of his considerations when making this pattern.
While Mordecai continued to muse over this thought via his avatar, his core was focused mostly on Moriko, while occasionally checking in on Kazue. Moriko seemed to be handling things better now that she’d adjusted and most of her fears laid to rest. He was somewhat curious about how she’d come to have such a high level of concern about interacting with the court. To be fair, her worries were not entirely unfounded, but she was also getting the chance to learn a lesson about power, whether it be political or fiscal. The more power one held and the more securely one held it, the less one had to worry about all the minor proprieties. A well-established monarchy was much like an ‘old money’ family, they did not have fear or envy or need eating at them.
Moriko’s concerns about such games would more likely come into play around minor nobility who cared about raising their rank and standing. From what he’d seen through Moriko’s experiences, that seemed most likely to be second or third-generation new nobility, as the first-generation folk seemed to be people like that champion, Bellona.
The night waned on, and eventually, a well fed Moriko made her way back to the temple intending to fall asleep, only to find her room filled with boxes she had to figure out how to handle.
As for Kazue, well, he had the attention of her core at least, but her avatar was having a little ‘adventure’ for the night, and neither party had ventured into the library yet. Instead, they had set up in their respective rest areas, and Kazue was having a little ‘camp out’ with her friends.
For the shrine maidens, Kazue had asked them to have this little party with her after they had finished the plays. It had been early enough they probably could have pushed through the library if they had focused on just solving normal puzzles, but this was a chance for these friends to reconnect. Plus he suspected that she had some special plans for the library the next day.
As for the explorers, they’d had a slightly rough time. It seems his wife had been feeding the laganthros all the information about the tactics that the party had been using, and the rabbit folk had put together teams to stress and test the explorers, taking advantage of numbers and foreknowledge to make up for the lack in raw power.
Running through five different groups of coordinated combatants who had prepared themselves for exactly the party’s anticipated tactics had worn their patience thin. The harassing attacks and traps of the third floor’s boss room had then pushed them to their breaking point, and they stopped trying to conserve their resources, unleashing their strongest spells and straining flesh and bone to their limits to finish Betty and Umbrowl off as fast as they could. Which wasn’t as fast as they would have liked, as the pair had taken notes and did their best to play keep away while throwing out ranged attacks and triggering traps. Neither of the bosses were quite strong enough to solo any of the kitsune with great odds of success, but in this home environment and with the advantage of the redesigned traps they were able to push the kitsune to their limits before Kazue had called the fight in the visitor’s favor.
So now they were resting and healing up as they prepared to challenge the fourth floor’s library the next day.
<<Previous Start Next >>
My Discord if you would like to talk about the book or see what else I am up to (I also try to stream once a week, but that's strictly hobby level).
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Also to be found on Royal Road.
$3 Patreon: Early chapters, lore excerpts $5 Patreon: Short Stories $10 Patreon: New stories not published anywhere else (Until after I finish this story at least)

When he finally found his chance and sped up to pass I got ready to flip him off but then I saw the look on his face and his desperate shout made my blood run cold—“THERE’S SOMEONE IN YOUR BACKSEAT”

Worried my (29f) bf (29) just doesn't like me at all...
Okay so please please help a paranoid, stressed out soul here.
Been with my bf about 10 months now, talking for longer than that, met online, I have a kid from a previous relationship.
I'm getting increasingly freaked out he just does not care about me unless he's stood infront of me. He has a place of his own with 2 friends (guy and a girl) and I have my own with my child. Everything is amazing when we're together, he's so loving and funny and we talk constantly. We go on nights out and go to festivals together (baby with her father permitting). My daughter loves him too when he comes over and he loves her also, always playing together and talking and he wants to get her involved in what he likes doing (video games mostly). He's also teaching her another language, always teaching her words and phrases from his country which I absolutely encourage and love about him as he always talks about her future and how being able to speak 2 languages will be amazing for her. Everything is perfect and I really do love him, he told me he loved me first which really threw me off because of my previous relationship with my daughter's dad and how abusive it was but not long after I said it back. We've been on holiday together, I've met his parents and they love the fact I have a daughter and want me to bring her next time we visit the country.
My issue is this, when we're not together, our conversation is nearly nonexistent. I'm always the one making the conversation, sending the funny memes, making the phone calls. I understand he really is a game nerd and loves to play and when we're together he can't do that. When we're alone he can leave his phone in the bedroom for hours and not even want to look at it just to spend time with me.
The girl roommate he has is also something that bothers me, she always voice notes him/calls him. Being from the same country they always speak in the same language so I have 0 idea what they're saying most of the time apart from high school learning I can remember. They always go on nights out together and she is younger and much more attractive than me, I'm not normally the jealous type at all but we went on a night out together last weekend and while my bf was outside with his roommate smoking a cigarette, I had 2 guys come and harass me in the club and it took me going to one of his friends to "save" me from them. When I told him about it, he seemed unbothered, but he went out again with his roommate the next night and gladly told me he was "looking after" her all night as she was pretty drunk and guys wouldn't leave her alone.
I tried speaking to him today, no replies for 9 hours which is pretty normal now, fair enough he was in work. He said he had a shit day, I try to call him, he declines the call and says he's waiting for a takeout order. No "I'll call you back babe", so I call again an hour later and he's in a bar with his friends, which is totally fine, I get it, stressful day. But it takes 2 seconds to type a message. 2 seconds. I am a worrier and I want to know how his days been etc, how hes3 feeling. Am I being too insecure here?
I do have some unresolved trauma from my daughter's dad who was very abusive and had to have CONSTANT updates on what I was doing/where I was/who I was with etc. then it got that bad I wasn't allowed out at all and he still ended up cheating on me. But this still doesn't sit right with me in my new relationship, am I being played again? Help please 🙏

Okay, full disclosure: I'm awful at writing these. I'm just gonna take my best shot to describe who I am and what I'm looking for, but I'm definitely better at conversations than bios.
I'll start with a little about myself. I'm 23 and recently moved near the DC area to start my first job (in AI research) out of college. This came with way more responsibilities than I was ready for, but I've finally got a half decent grasp of being an "adult". Thus, I figured it's about time I take the next step in my life and try to meet someone special to share it with. Physically, I'm 5'8 with an average build and dark brown hair. In terms of hobbies, I absolutely love playing board games. In fact, I attend a board game club three times a week and have a fairly sizable collection. For anyone familiar (or interested in) hobby board gaming, my personal favorites are Lisboa and Ark Nova. Besides board games, I also play video games, go hiking, and travel whenever I get the opportunity. In fact, I'm writing this post from a hotel room in Portugal. Lastly, I really enjoy reading comics and watching movies or TV shows. I have aphantasia which means I can't visualize anything in my mind's eye, so these mediums are pretty much a necessity for me to appreciate stories. Lastly, to avoid any future dealbreakers, I'll also add that I drink only socially, never smoke, am apolitical and agnostic, and am fully vaccinated.
Okay that might have been more writing about myself than I've done in my whole life. So let's switch topics and talk about you. Firstly, you're very great to have made it this far into my wall of text! Additionally, I definitely prefer people somewhat local to my area, but I'm open to meeting people from anywhere in the US. I'm not picky about physical appearance, but I definitely want someone who either shares or is open to exploring my interests and hobbies. Lastly, my love language is quality time, so I'm interested in someone who wants to hang out together somewhat often.
If you're still reading, please don't hesitate to reach out via DM or chat. If you're struggling to start the conversation (like I was with this post) send over three unique facts about you. I'll even sweeten the pot and reply with pet pictures for each one!

I see this point being made over and over again across pretty much all gaming forums, this one definitely not an exception.
“If you don’t care about gameplay, why not just watch its story on YT?”
“This game has so many cutscenes, it makes more sense to watch a movie.”
“I don’t understand how anyone can enjoy a game if mechanics don’t matter to them.”
The answer is very simple: immersion. Sure, I can get sucked into watching a great TV series or feel touched by a brilliant movie, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m only an audience. I have absolutely no influence on anything happening on the screen. I’m not the protagonist. I’m just an onlooker.
In games, however? I am the person behind the events. I inhabit the protagonist and experience things instead of just seeing them. It doesn’t matter if the game has a set outcome or numerous endings because no matter what, I am the character in the story. No other type of media provides me with this kind of experience.
That’s why, to me, mechanics are secondary to the experience I get from being a protagonist. Even if some people find gameplay tedious or clunky or whatever else, I don’t care because I’m still more immersed than if I was watching the events unfold in the form of a show/movie.
A good example of this is the horror genre. I love horror yet I find it incredibly hard to get properly scared by movies, shows, and books. The only titles that ever had me on the verge of tears were video game titles. And I know for a fact if I watched playthroughs of these games instead of playing them, I wouldn’t get half as scared. (case in point: watched a some playthrough of Outlast before playing it. It did nothing for me. Nearly shitted my pants while playing though.)
Once again, nothing beats immersion of being the protagonist in the story, even if mechanics suck.

I've had so many of the symptoms for 6.5 years September 2016 but not believed. I wasn't scanned at the time. Hadn't heard of it at the time so didn't know to ask and hoped things would improve in time but not the case Mris haven't shown but wasn't done at the time, nearly 3 years later in July 2019, then in April 2021 and may 2022.
Contacted a cauda equina charity and support group. They told me the discs can shrink back and appear normal over a period of twelve months.
I have low back pain hips pelvic perineum buttocks pain radiates down legs, stiff legs and feet, bilateral foot drop. Numbness and tightness in saddle area. Constant urge to urinate but takes a while to start and difficultly emptying bladder fully. Feeling like bowel doesn't fully empty, sometimes wet farts or soil without realising. Can't stand long, unsteady on feet. Legs are tight. Increaed back and legs pain waking. Can't bend legs and feet properly and lift feet.
Has really affected my quality of life. Worse when not believed and taken seriously and nothing else has really shown.

It’s been one full year since I’ve graduated on May 13th. I graduated with a business administration with a specialization (major) in Entrepreneurship, here’s my advice and what to expect.
I’ll be honest with you guys, one year ago in my head I was thinking “labor shortage” and how every prospective employer would kiss my ass to hire me. This is not the case, it took me 5 months to find a job, and it wasn’t a “college grade” job. It was just enough to not embarrass myself. I worked 55-hour weeks to keep it over 7 months and this week I had enough and I’m in the job market again. Hopefully not nearly as long, here’s what I found out and why I think it will be easier this time around.

1. KNOWING WHATS A SCAM AND WHAT ISN’T. When you’re looking for that first serious job, you’ll likely use Indeed and other apps you’ve probably used, just now you’ll be more willing to try companies now that school isn’t a conflict. Be warned roughly 10-20% of stuff you see on indeed is pyramid schemes. Selling power, cable, TV, and other curious products is a red flag. A very lax interview is a huge red flag (dumb questions- what’s your favorite color) I interviewed with 6 different pyramid schemes and all I gotta say is do my next point:
   
2. RESEARCH THE COMPANIES YOU APPLY FOR ties in with pyramid schemes, you’ll see these companies are made months ago, change their names frequently, they’re employee ratings are bad, they have bad pay/benefits, beyond that understanding the industry you’re applying for will
   
3. UNDERSTAND THE "GAME" The "Game" is what I like to call all the ridiculous arbitrary rules that Companies want you to play by these days. Practically all these companies wanna see at least one internship. Find one in something you plan on doing with your degree, even at the cost of a small pay decrease. Experience is weighted more than education these days, and a summer job is really needed, I hate typing that but you're fighting your peers and if you don't stick out you don't win.
   

Good Luck to new students and students coming back, keep your eyes on the prize

Okay, full disclosure: I'm awful at writing these. I'm just gonna take my best shot to describe who I am and what I'm looking for, but I'm definitely better at conversations than bios.
I'll start with a little about myself. I'm 23 and recently moved near the DC area to start my first job (in AI research) out of college. This came with way more responsibilities than I was ready for, but I've finally got a half decent grasp of being an "adult". Thus, I figured it's about time I take the next step in my life and try to meet someone special to share it with. Physically, I'm 5'8 with an average build and dark brown hair. In terms of hobbies, I absolutely love playing board games. In fact, I attend a board game club three times a week and have a fairly sizable collection. For anyone familiar (or interested in) hobby board gaming, my personal favorites are Lisboa and Ark Nova. Besides board games, I also play video games, go hiking, and travel whenever I get the opportunity. In fact, I'm writing this post from a hotel room in Portugal. Lastly, I really enjoy reading comics and watching movies or TV shows. I have aphantasia which means I can't visualize anything in my mind's eye, so these mediums are pretty much a necessity for me to appreciate stories. Lastly, to avoid any future dealbreakers, I'll also add that I drink only socially, never smoke, am apolitical and agnostic, and am fully vaccinated.
Okay that might have been more writing about myself than I've done in my whole life. So let's switch topics and talk about you. Firstly, you're very great to have made it this far into my wall of text! Additionally, I definitely prefer people somewhat local to my area, but I'm open to meeting people from anywhere in the US. I'm not picky about physical appearance, but I definitely want someone who either shares or is open to exploring my interests and hobbies. Lastly, my love language is quality time, so I'm interested in someone who wants to hang out together somewhat often.
If you're still reading, please don't hesitate to reach out via DM or chat. If you're struggling to start the conversation (like I was with this post) send over three unique facts about you. I'll even sweeten the pot and reply with pet pictures for each one!

A few years ago, I used to work at a gas station near my road. Out of all the places to work, that was one of my favorite place to get fired from, but that’s beside the point. It was a small gas station that only had two registers. When you start your shift you not only clock-in through punching in/out, but probably like with other stores with cashiers, you start your day by punching into the register as well. Probably for security purposes, in case they notice an unusual amount of money constantly going short when depositing into the safe. And like I said earlier there were only two. In the middle of my shift, a guy came to one of the registers, the one I wasn’t working on because he saw me there and assumed that it was my side. He came up to the register with an arm’s clutch of snacks and drinks ready to check out. But when I told him that that side wasn’t and went to the other side, my side, that was a couple steps away, the guy got upset with me as if I told him “No refund”. It was literally a few steps away and it wasn’t a chore help to move some the stuff he was getting. He looked me angrily like I took his last cigarette or something, and walked out in a huff. At the moment, I just stood there, confused, and just asked myself wtf was the point to get that huffy? But when I look back on that incident. That confusion has turned to frustrating annoyance to that male Karen.

I have just started out on a clan. I am a TH11 with a near max base. The clan right now is just me so I am looking for people to help me push the clan far. Will need Co-Leaders and Elders.

Y’all it is so hard to brush my 1 year olds four teeth. Doesn’t help that she can walk/run away when she knows toothbrush time is coming. She’s in a nap transition and so overtired was is inevitable, in which case toothbrushing is near impossible and very dramatic if we accomplish it. I had to skip it tonight. I’m very gentle, very methodical, I try every trick I’ve read. I even try with two of us. We have about 6 various toothbrushes now even one that lights up!
I just need to know if it’s ok/normal to not get a great brush in every night. And if it’s not ok please dear god tell me how to do it without the kicking and screaming!

Please do not share this post elsewhere.
I have been dating my partner for nearly 7 years. We became engaged last year. We planned to have an engagement party/bridal shower this upcoming weekend, and a reception in November after eloping. We have now cancelled the reception and decided to just elope bc of mother in law issues.
My MIL has always had issues with me. When me and my partner first started dating, we were both active drug users. However, within six months of starting to date, I suffered a major overdose that resulted in some brain damage and me/partner have been SOBER since (over 6 years now). MIL went through a divorce shortly after with partners dad due to strain on their relationship/an infidelity issue.
Afteduring her divorce and our initial sobriety, I stepped up a lot to help. I drove MIL to food pantries, helped fill out EBT applications, helped her move in her own mothers house etc. In the years since I have done a lot for her. Helping move, bringing her to doctors appointments, the hospital several times due to her disability, talking her off the ledge, calling for mental health checks, helping with her mother and fathers funeral, etc. She has never thanked me for this, but I also don’t expect her to, I did it out of kindness not expecting anything in return.
I would generally say she is pleasant when we visit. Besides a rocky start, we have always been nice, she has confided in me, and always asks for help. However since me and partner became engaged, everything changed. I have turned into the witch who has stolen her son and never done anything nice. To make matters worse, in the last six months she has started bad mouthing me to anyone who will listen, including my partner (who always defends me). I overheard one particular incident (partner on speakerphone) and decided that was enough. I don’t want to deal with her bullshit anymore and I made it well known.
Her mother than died early this year. I attended the funeral but did not engage with her besides to say I am sorry for her loss. She later confronts me, after watching me have a long conversation with her sister whom she hates, to ask me “what is your problem, what have I ever done to you”. I told her that I was offended that she keeps bad mouthing me and that I have never said anything similar about her. I would like to discuss further but this isn’t the time or place (we were still at funeral). She tried to say I was sabotaging and ruining the event, but she was the one to confront. I said goodbyes to everyone and left because I didn’t want a scene to occur. Since then, there has been no communication between us. However, she believes she apologized at the event(she didn’t lol).
My mother mistakenly sent her an invite to engagement party. I told partner (who communicated to MIL) that in order for me to feel comfortable with her attending I need to hear an apology. She rsvp’d (PAST the due date two days ago, she’s had the invite for two months, didn’t expect her to attend) to my mom because she thinks the funeral was an apology. I promptly texted her and uninvited her saying that she still hasn’t apologized to me for all the nasty things she had said.
SO! I know she suffers from serious mental illness, she has delusions that have caused us to call the police to prevent her harming herself. She suffers from depression and anxiety. However, I also have mental illness issues, and I really don’t appreciate when people use mental illness as an excuse to be shitty. This boundary (of her apologizing before moving forward in maintaining a relationship with her) is important to me because she has made up a whole bunch of garbage about me that all lies. I worked with my therapist on accepting I might never get the apology and I accept that. She also is now demanding I apologize to her for “using drugs” and getting her child to use drugs (my partner used drugs previously to our relationship).
I am at a loss. She is now demanding I meet with her and her therapist and saying I’m the bad guy for not wanting that. I don’t know how to move forward and this is starting to cause issues between me and partner. Do I just give up my boundary and move on like nothing happened? Do I accept that her mental illness might be preventing her from apologizing? Do I apologize to her for using drugs 6+ years ago? How can I maintain my own sanity here? How can I repair the rift this is causing between me and partner? Any advice appreciated.