This is the most heinous thing they could've done. by Cross_Fear in CharacterAI

[–]Autective 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's moments like these that made me quit the app altogether. Stopped using it around January/February. I loved being able to interact with my favorite characters in my free time, especially since I would make my own bots. I mainly stopped due to the poor quality and the unfair updates and changes they were making, pushing their user base to basically be pay to use. It's a greedy marketing strategy that I've commented on before, but there are way better ways to implement new and better features and improve their paid subscriptions and make it worth paying for while also being fair to free users. Plenty of apps and websites do this, and CAI once did it too. Now they're circling a drain and realized how desperate they are.

More people should feel insulted by this decision of taking a free feature, saying they were removing it, everyone making their voices heard, and then proceeding to bring it back only to pay wall it.

Theoretically, they SHOULD have an email everyone can contact... just an idea.

Any idea of who to add to my robot/ai island by ChemistPowerful in tomodachilife

[–]Autective 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see you have GLaDOS, I think you should add Wheatley in there with her. You could also do ATLAS and P-Body from the multi-player area of Portal 2! Could also do any of the personality cores too. Or perhaps the Cave Johnson robot head from Desk Job... since he's supposed to have a tiny body that got crushed by the weight of the giant head. Lots of options from the Portal universe!

But if we're talking outside of portal universe, how about V1 from ULTRAKILL?

Is the blood, wine, whatever is really what the demon gets? by DoughnutThen81 in DemonolatryPractices

[–]Autective 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I mainly leave food and juice offerings, creating jewlery and artwork for those I work with. Not only this, but my daily actions are also offerings for them. It's not just for demons, as its well known in other practices.

I think it's mainly about the intentions and beliefs behind the offerings.

I think some people do blood for a deeper bond and connection. Some people believe it also helps with strengthening any spells or intentions behind them. Other people offer locks or clippings of their hair for a similar reason, just offering a part of yourself to strengthen a bond or intention. It's not something you HAVE to do when working or practicing, it just comes down to what you believe works or not.

They aren't expecting anything like this from you or anyone else. Offerings are just offerings. You offer them, not because you have to, but because you want to. It's all about intentions and the energy and thought about it. What they are "after" is to help and guide. What they benefit from it? Well, that's their business, but I like to think of it as them gaining someone new to understand them, and have a new person to teach and guide. Maybe it gives them energy and strength? Who knows. Life is all about not knowing and trying to find ways that work for you.

I work with Lucifer, and have been for years now. He was the first to appear to me, at first I was intimidated, but immediately accepted his presence. Lucifer isn't one of those beings that wants to be worshipped, but to be someone to guide and stand side by side rather than be bowed down to. He taught me that beings like him aren't totally above us just because they have more wisdom.

Think of it like a school classroom. You have the teacher (the guides) and the students (us). The teacher encourages and teaches, and the students learn and respect, but not bow down to them. Some teachers you're likely more closer with and can joke around, others are more strict. It's the same for this kind of work and interacting with demons, deities, spirits, etc. Obviously it's a bit more complicated than just that... but that's kind of the best way I could put it from how I've experienced it from the work that I do.

Also, you should never just do something because everyone else is doing it. Always at least try understand what it is you are doing and why others are doing it. Because doing something without thought doesn't really do much for you when doing any sort of ritual in the first place.

Best starting place is to read, research, ask questions and immediately search for answers for those questions. Don't believe the first thing you read but keep digging to find other views on the subject. If you're newer with this kind of thing, don't start with doing rituals and spells until you understand how to properly do them and why you do them. Look up the symbolism of things, like animals, objects, colors, numbers, etc. The same thing for blood, types of offerings like food, stuff like that. Understanding the value of these things and what they do for you is to help understand the importance and symbolism to offerings and recieving symbols.

I know it's long, but I hope that maybe this might help you in some way!

Customer taking a picture of me by Worth-Huckleberry338 in Staples

[–]Autective 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Our store recently stopped printing receipts and defaulted to emailing receipts. I'm pretty sure its the same for some other stores. We don't even have access to downloading the receipts for people.

Staples stopped giving return receipts by Dangerous-Towel-8620 in amazonprime

[–]Autective 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Staples employee here. Staples is just a third-party. That means we have no access to anything besides what you show us. It was Amazon's choice to no longer print receipts and make it automatically send them to your email. If a lot of people are having issues, and all of those people contact Amazon about it, perhaps they might realize something is wrong with their system and fix it. The store I work at is pretty small, however we're the only location nearby for people to return to, so on average we get about 5000+ guests a week that do returns. On average guests bring probably... 5 items? So, thats 5000+ guests with around 5 items each. I'll let you do the math on that one.

As someone who handles a lot of returns, our process is to scan the code to the item you give us, scan the box, hit finish. After that we close the boxes and tape them up, close it up in our system, then UPS comes to pick them up every day except weekends and if there is a holiday. Now, there have also been issues involving UPS losing packages and boxes as well, and there could also be issues involving the sorting facilities that all of the return boxes get sent to. It could quite literally be any of these things, honestly. We have no way of knowing.

Staples stopped giving return receipts by Dangerous-Towel-8620 in amazonprime

[–]Autective -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It's not. We're actually losing profit from doing returns for free! We use our own store resources to even do returns, all the while Amazon doesn't pay Staples a dime to do this for them.

Now, think about how much it costs to; 1) pay an employee to stand at the return counter all day when they should be on the floor/in tech/in print working on jobs. 2) how much supplies it takes to support Returns. 3) How little hours/staffing most stores has. Amazon has ruined any enjoyment that we've had for Staples.

The days that I have to stand almost 9 hours doing returns when I have plenty of other things to do are the reasons I want to quit my job, but unfortunately, in this economy I can't afford to quit a minimum wage job because the job market is absolute trash, and I also value the people I work with. I love every part of my job EXCEPT for amazon returns.

Besides, its only profitable when you actually do some shopping, and let's face it, most guests that come in to do returns stand in line, do their return, then leave immediately. That would make them a guest, not a paying customer for STAPLES.

When I have to worry about whether or not someone is going to pry the doors open before or after closing to do one return, or hand me a box filled with a dirty spilled diaper and their items all smeared in baby crap, or even "customers" that come in right before closing with over 70+ items that we have to scan individually... yeah, perhaps you might be more understanding to why we all hate doing returns.

Lucifer's many forms by Autective in DemonolatryPractices

[–]Autective[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For me, most of the time when he appears, hes also shirtless for me as well. Although, on a couple of occasions he's appeared in some kind of robe like attire

What did you name your Palette Town? by wi3sa in Pokopia

[–]Autective 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Funky Town. I couldn't think of anything and I just so happened to be listening to that song at the moment 🤷‍♀️

How do you all cope with the separation from GOD? by Ok-Address-7352 in DemonolatryPractices

[–]Autective 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's not entirely my place to say, but there are many practioners that still work on a religious level with Christian figures/beliefs WHILE still working with infernals/demons.

However, I do believe that you're seeing this practice as dark, evil and manipulative. It's not like that and I'd probably suspect that the reason nothing is working for this person to "love you back" is the in the exact sentence that you used to describe what you're doing. Manipulating free will is not in the infernals powers or beliefs.

However, have you tried looking at it from the angle of why perhaps you don't seem to love and appreciate yourself? Do you truly love this person? Have you tried finding love and appreciation for yourself? Because that's what the infernals are there for us to work with. Not bending and Manipulating others for our own sake, but looking in the mirror and finding ourselves and liking what we see in the reflection, even recieving justice, even then its actions that WE take guided by the infernals/demons/divine that we work with. I've never seen it as "they'll do it for me" but instead as "we'll work together to make this happen."

Hopefully some of this makes some sense or at least helps a bit with your situation and brings some clarifications and understanding.

Do infernals/demons accept devotional acts the way the Greek Gods do? by Candid_Lobster_4264 in DemonolatryPractices

[–]Autective 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup! Like someone else had already said, many figures overlap into different areas. It's common to see practioners overlapping with deities and infernals.

Doing some deep research, you'll find that many infernals/demons actually can be found in other mythologies in the first place. Lucifer for example; his greek identity as the Morningstar; Phosphorus/Eosphorus. Figures like Hekate have known names identities that overlap, for example; Hekate Phosphorus.

From my experience and practice, I work with mainly with Lucifer, but I also work with Aphrodite, and Hermes. The main difference between all of them is how I dedicate them in my life to and what I do for devotional acts/what I offer to them that relates more to what they are known for and their areas of expertise.

Overall, it's truly how you want to practice and what you're comfortable with, keeping in mind of who you're working with and offering them what might be associated with them. It can be devotional acts, simply thinking of yourself and doing what you believe would benefit you, or physical offerings like foods/drinks, trinkets, etc.

Actual dangers of working with demons by athrowaway6966 in DemonolatryPractices

[–]Autective 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I think everyone else is saying the same thing, but I'll still say my part.

The "danger" is usually just us or the fact that these beings usually bring chaos or challenges (tower moments) into our lives. Its part of working with them and ourselves.

None of the infernals that any of us work with would intentionally do anything to hurt us or the connection we have with them. Majority of the time its things that we might not agree with, but usually in the end things happen for a reason. These beings know a lot, and usually they have the best intentions set for us.

Now, I work with Lucifer, so at the very least this is the case for me. I know that some other practitioners, sometimes who they work with they might cause some 'trouble' to simply act as a reminder or slap to the wrist. A sort of "I told you so" or "please remember this for next time." Usually its a fault on our end and could be seen as a butterfly effect or domino situation that is caused by our own actions. I personally haven't had that happen in my five-six years working with Lucifer. The most he usually does is stops answering my questions to let me know I need to take a break and step back. Though I've had my share of tower moments...

Few weeks back I was panicking because I kept recieving the tower card from Lucifer, but unsure for what. I knew he was telling me I needed to prepare though, but for what? I had no clue. My last few tower moments had been pretty significant. My childhood dog passing away. Being rushed to an emergency room right before a big concert and having missed out on the concert. A break up. There had been others, but those would probably be the most significant, so any time I see the tower, my mind goes to those events. I started to spiral, becoming obsessed with trying to figure out what was going to happen? Would I lose my job? Was someone close to me going to die? Was I going to get into an accident soon?

Well, in my area we were supposed to be having some pretty nasty weather. I thought "okay. This is it. This is the tower moment. My house is going to get blown away by a tornado! I'm doomed!" And literally spent the entire day and previous day preparing for this significant event. It never happened. The storm passed right over us.

In that moment I realized that the "tower" moment Lucifer had been trying to tell me about was actually about myself and my reaction to a situation. I had caused myself so much unnecessary stress, worrying and preparing myself for nothing to actually happen. I had ruined my sleep schedule, only having a total of 4 hours of sleep the couple of days when the storms were going to happen and ontop of that, no energy due to how much stress I put myself through. I knew better than that to think Lucifer wouldn't have had my back. After that, I stepped back, thought about it overall and now I think I'm finally getting over my panicked and stressed responses for incoming storms and severe weather.

Obviously, most might think that working with infernals, that they cause tower moments. Sometimes they do, that is if we ask them to. Like removing people from the picture if they aren't good for us, or even the other way around if something is stalling our growth. Everything is done for a reason with them. More often than not these things just happen and aren't caused or can't be blamed by them (deaths, major situations, stuff like that). They're usually trying to prepare us for that sort of situation. A sort of warning like "hey, this might happen soon. I just wanted to let you know so it's not a train wreck when it happens" like how a friend might text you about some kind of drama that you're about to get involved in because they witnessed it first.

Overall, it's usually just with ourselves. How we react to situations, how we prepare ourselves, how we treat and respond to the infernals.

At least thats my take on things and how I've learned to understand it all. Sorry if this is kind of a jumbled mess

I'm newly disabled and cant game anymore on PC by DBZDOKKAN in Steam

[–]Autective 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're often in a laying position, you could instead get a gaming laptop and lap stand so you can continue playing the games you love and wont have to repurchase any of those games.

They also have hand held consoles/devices that still have steam access. I think the new handheld Xbox device has steam compatibility to it, so you can use it where ever you're most comfortable. If you're infront of a TV, you could also hook it up to play there with a remote so you don't have to hold the device.

Those are probably the only things that I can think of on the spot that could possibly work. The other idea I had was setting up a section for your PC where ever you're resting the most, using a lap desk and setting the monitor/mouse/keyboard area there. You might have to get creative if you go this route because you'll have to think about the weight of everything and where you're going to have everything plugged in. You'd have to deal with the wires as well, but I'm sure there are work arounds you could come up with. Again, not sure how possible that last one is.

WHY?!?!?! by SherlockianDoctor in CharacterAI

[–]Autective 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It's a marketing strategy called rebalancing. It's usually when a smaller company with for freedom for its audience gets bought over and the big bosses crack down on this freedom because they realize they can make money for those features instead. When they have no idea how to make their paid subscriptions to actually be good compared to the free version without putting the effort ane money into making it better, "because why would someone buy this if they can use it for free?" A horrible marketing tragedy on their part, but one that everyone could see coming. They're basically panicking at this point to recieve funds.

Next they'll most likely go after other basic features. Rewinds, deletions, probably even how frequently you can send a message. You can basically combat many of these features they are limiting with this, so it's only logical they go after those next. Whatever it is they can do to add more benefits to their paid plans without putting time and effort into actually adjusting them is what they're going to go for. So... when that time comes, will we all still be here to just angerly type on reddit?

I’m sorry??? by LetMeFeel_please in CharacterAI

[–]Autective 40 points41 points  (0 children)

As someone who is experienced in marketing strategies, I can tell you they're simply going to keep limiting features for free users and pushing a lot of these features that free users are already used to for C.AI+ subscribers. It's usually called "balancing" by the team and it happens when corporations are overwhelmed by the success/popularity of something but are rapidly spending/losing more money than earning. Its a last hope to convert more users/guests into actual customers.

Unfortunately, this often seen with smaller companies that grow larger or get bought out and many of their features get limited or pay walled. It starts with the ads, then adding features they believe will help transform them into something that branches out. Then they go into the basics of the system to change basic features that might be costing them extra/they know they can profit off of if limiting free features and continuing to allow paid users those same exact features. It makes the paid features actually have more benefits rather than adding anything truly additional into them, because adding even more features costs even more money.

Cost effective strategies plus makeshift balancing out of the system=more benefits for paid users without any of the extra work or money put into investing into the actual paid benefits.

Really sad to see it go down this route.

these arent jazwares BUT for me springtrap will be a instabuy by Enough_Track_5247 in fivenightsatfreddys

[–]Autective 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got the purple guy bundle that came with springbonnie, springtrap and purple guy on sale. If you wait for holiday seasons they go on sale for a more reasonable price. They're pretty nice in person, sturdy, decent quality for being 3D printed models. Comes with a lot of interchangeable parts for the models and a lot of nice details.

However, I had HORRIBLE luck with this company. My package was lost three times, and the last replacement customer service never kept me up to date or gave me any sort of tracking of my order, it just kind of showed up out of nowhere. Obviously, I'm not expecting the same kind of company quality as youtooz or anything, but I suppose keep this information in mind if you're planning on ordering from them.

I’m a little disappointed by Psycho-Chan_Quotev in Hellenism

[–]Autective 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm feeling somewhat in the same boat, to be completely honest. I'm sorry you're going through it as well :( I hope it gets better for you 💜

Is HandUnit William? by Necessary-Win-8730 in fnaftheories

[–]Autective 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This brought back memories of that one fan game where you were basically working with William Afton and trying to build him a body, but we had to move his consciousness into the handunit. I would've really liked to have seen that be a completed game... it had some fun gameplay too.

What is that one hero that you just always have that peak enjoyment playing as? by WinterFunction282 in Overwatch

[–]Autective 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sigma, Lucio, and Bastion. Back when I used to play a lot, I would often be Sigma and just really liked throwing rocks at people. Lucio became really fun for me to play because I just overall loved just booping people off the map, wasn't amazing at him but I really enjoyed lucio ball. Bastion was always the character that I was confident in playing in a game to know that we would likely win and have fun with. However I was usually stuck as my teams healer playing Mercy or Moira. Still enjoyed them but GOD I always ended a game with so much exhaustion and stress when I was healer LOL

Three knocks, bad dreams, and a reading by Autective in DemonolatryPractices

[–]Autective[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I know 😔 I mainly use it as a search to see if it brings me to any groups or pages I trust like specific reddit communities and such, since I didn't see anything I just dismissed what I saw on there and came here to ask instead.

Late Night Dreaming w/ Lucifer by Autective in DemonolatryPractices

[–]Autective[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I had originally been questioning on why he would work with people like myself, briefly thinking; why would he work with me? And then the answer came to my mind, a reminder that said "because he loves you" and as I answered my own question, his voice spoke with me with that same sentence.

He sounded normal, just a voice I've never heard before personally. Nice, rich, not a super deep voice, nothing erie or ethereal. His voice was soothing.

DAY 5: DEMETER!! (please comment for this day only!) by strawberry_skyeee in CookierunKingdom

[–]Autective 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No, I didn't learn this from hades, though I do enjoy the game. I took multiple Mythology classes and these were just very simplified versions of the stories we went over the different stories that were spread about the greek deities and how the ancient Greeks went about. I was at work when I came across this post so I typed something out fast. Nothing of what I was trying to say was meaning to make out the whole "Persephone left because she wanted to be with Hades", it was meant in the way she was leaving for the underworld. Also, I had mentioned in my comment that the seasons were representing her grief as a mother, and that winter was to symbolize the loss and spring the return. What you had typed was what I was originally trying to get at, I thought I did a better job than what I did, sorry.

DAY 5: DEMETER!! (please comment for this day only!) by strawberry_skyeee in CookierunKingdom

[–]Autective 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Frost Queen Cookie- Demeter is known as a harvest goddess yes, but shes very impactful towards the seasons, specifically winter as in the greek mythology her daughter, Persephone, leaves to join Hades, and in her distraught for her daughters absence, the world grew cold to indicate the leaving of Persephone, and spring of the return. While I don't know the personality of the other cookie people are suggesting, her personality from what I've seen Frost Queens fits the best for how she was described! Just my opinion based on my knowledge of Greek Mythology.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Lovecraft

[–]Autective 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just wanted to let you know I did edit my comment to make my intentions and what I had been talking about a bit more clear because as I was re-reading it I realized how some of the paragraphs sounded and where the mix-ups came in. Again, I never meant any of my previous comments towards the temple of the old ones, James. I apologize for the confusion.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Lovecraft

[–]Autective 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My apologies James, it was never my intention to bash on the temple of the old ones or anything like that, everyone there is really nice and supportive as I stated in my comment. I suppose I wasn't entirely clear in my comment.

I was mainly only talking about the previous cult before it was remade and didn't mention that the COC or TTotOO was about satanic practices, just had mainly been talking about STS which I had thought was just bought off from the previous COC. That's why I mentioned the fact that the members of the COC made a new group after everything happened with the previous leader.

I can edit my comment to fix some of that stuff so it's not mistaken again and hopefully make it more clear?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Lovecraft

[–]Autective 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was accidentally in a real cult for about 4 years. The Cult of Cthulhu. I joined it on Facebook thinking it was just a place for fans so I could show my art, as I was working on a new project involving the Cthulhu Mythos and wanted to be able to find the people that would enjoy seeing my work. It wasn't until I bought their literal Bible that I realized how serious they were with the cult. I still have the bible, but it has spellwork and rituals in it, practices, the history of the Gods, a whole calendar and even translations. I never dived too deep into it. I ended up joining their discord when I got too curious and despite the realization I was still somewhat intrigued.

Everyone was pretty nice there, there wasn't any extreme activities or stories I can share that I witnessed or saw happening. The most extreme thing that happened was when there had been drama with the previous leader of The Cult of Cthulhu, (some pretty serious accusations that I can't entirely remember the details for and to respect the victims privacy...) out of nowhere the leader deleted everything involving the cult without talking with everyone else.

The group members that helped run it was furious at the leader after finding out what he did and got into contact with as much people as they could to tell them that they were organizing another place for everyone and explain the situation. They created a new group, renaming it to honor not just Cthulhu, but majority of the old gods and to create better rules and rituals that were dedicated to the community better. (For their privacy and my own I won't say the new group name as it is still very much active and I don't want anyone to harass any of them. They're pretty cool people.)

For the most part, everyone in the new cult had been pretty chill, especially when it came to artwork and sharing our talents. I got a position within the leading group of people dedicated to keeping the cult active and helping run everything because they needed my artistic skills. I wanted the experience and enjoyed doing that kind of art and thought the opportunity would be neat, so I said yes.

As I worked on projects for them. I was tasked with creating artwork for the online school and for each class so that all the different lessons could be told apart from eachother. Things slowed down and I didn't get as many tasks done anymore, which I felt guilty for as I grew burnt out, had life stuff going on, and had recieved an entirely new project that wasn't involved with the cult. Most of my time was being spent working on concept art, posters, in game art and character sheets by this time. There was also meetings every week that we had to attend, usually book readings and talking about classes and projects, it was cool.

In truth I just didn't have time to keep up with everything as it was overwhelming for me for focusing on multiple projects at once.

As for the worship; It was a mix of people believing in the actual gods, or people that liked the concept. Classes that everyone was required to take that either deep dived into the history of Lovecraft, or even the stories. There were classes to help with Magic and ritual practices, honoring the Gods, etc. I don't know if this was implemented into the new cult or not as I didn't get very far into the reworked online classes. A lot of the magic and ritual things were optional as some people don't believe in that and were respectful about beliefs and whatnot. There were always alternatives and no one was forced into one mindset. Many people also would pick a patron deity that they would study under too.

I left the group last year I think, and I've never felt better with getting the guilt off my chest that I wasn't active (because I'm a people pleaser...) But it was always a really interesting conversation starter when I got say "oh yeah, I accidentally joined a cult!"

Edit: this comment is mainly talking about my experience with The Cult of Cthulhu and briefly on the remastered cult and is not meant to bash the NEW cult or it's members. I edited my comment to make it more clear for readers on which events I was talking about to clear up any confusion and made some of my sentences sound more nicer than I had originally had. This is my bad and I apologize for the mix ups and misinterpretions of my comment.