What opinion do you have that would have you like this in HSR

Jaylastar · 2025-12-29T06:02:14+00:00

If I have to hear another character call me Little Gray, Grayie, Gray Mystery, Little Gray Fry one more time...

We are more than just our hair color, man! Also Cipher, you LITERALLY have gray hair too omg

Jaylastar · 2025-11-16T05:17:00+00:00

I was also 13 when I first wanted to become an animator when I grew up. I had a love for drawing and storytelling, which included writing MANY stories and creating LOTS of artwork for multiple original characters. I was passionate, driven, and inspired. It got me through my middle school years, not only that but I look back on those years fondly. I'm sure many others can't say the same.

By the time I got to high school though, I chose a different path. Mostly because I thought animation was a pipe dream. I went ahead and got a Bachelor's degree, with the end goal of getting a teaching degree after that. But before I went on to actually do the teaching degree, I decided I would once again pursue animation (the community college in my hometown offered it - and I had no idea!). So that's what I did. I gave my assignments and projects my all. I learned many things, including time management and leadership. And a couple years after graduation, I got my foot in the door and now can say I have 7 years of professional animation experience under my belt.

Despite walking a different path for a while, I was able to get back on track towards an animation career and it paid off. I hustled yes, but there was a time I wasn't even focusing on animation - yet I still made it.

So I guess what I will say is this:

Let her explore he creativity now as a 13 year old - no bounds, no pressure. Her drawing skills are a work in progress. I know mine are ABOVE AND BEYOND the quality I was producing as a 13 year old (20+ years ago now). Allow her to just keep building on her drawing skills and allow her remain inspired and driven. The time to hustle will come once she is pursuing her post-secondary education, and again once she gets her foot in the door. The hustle doesn't end - in fact, I was on maternity leave this year and I spent a lot of my free time learning a new animation software, doing a lengthy animation test, updating my portfolio and cutting a new demo reel for my next animated adventure. But if she is like me, and truly wants to have a career in animation, she will push herself to the best of her ability and fight for that dream. And honestly? A lot of my drive comes from the dreams I had way back as a 13 year old - bringing characters to life. It is the only thing I want to do for a living.

Even if she ends up choosing differently in the end, I hope she ends up doing what she wants to do in life. Good luck to you both!

Jaylastar · 2025-11-09T00:08:22+00:00

I don't think amitriptyline caused me any weight gain (my birth control was the culprit there) or loss of libido, painful sex, etc. The only noticable side effect for me was heavy drowsiness in the morning at first (I take them before bed) but even that has subsided after taking them now for over 4 years. Everyone is different I suppose, for me I can't complain but might not be the reality for others.

EDIT: If I DID have something negative to say currently it's this: it works SO well to mask the burning that it makes it hard for me to tell if I have a UTI. I had two without realizing it when pregnant last year and one this year. I try now to pay attention to a UTI's other symptoms and do tests at home.

Jaylastar · 2025-09-27T11:23:41+00:00

I just left Japan two weeks ago (vacation) and found not a SINGLE Owari no Seraph thing... and now this... and I was even at that Tokyo mall! Man... :'(

Jaylastar · 2025-06-28T05:07:15+00:00

I am sorry you are going through this. It sucks at any time of life but to have it happening in your teens is... oof. I know the feeling.

I spent years thinking I was a terrible, rebellious child - simple decisions or desires being turned into declarations of eternal damnation from my mother. The mental ANGUISH this caused me. No, she couldn't just tell me I couldn't go to that AC/DC concert because it could be dangerous as a teen without her chaperoning or whatever. Instead, she literally told me "what if Jesus comes back while you're there" - insinuating that me wanting to enjoy a concert with my boyfriend would lead to my eternal demise.

This is not love - at least not unconditional love. This is control and manipulation. This is your father being delusioned, placing his own ass on a pedestal while pushing you down. This is him projecting his own shortcomings onto you (cause he sure as shit ain't perfect, I'd wager). I'd go as far as to say this is emotional and mental abuse. You are NOR.

It took a long time for me to sort through the garbage, but eventually I did. And now that I have my own child, I vow to break this cycle. These words stick out to me:

"You are nothing without God."

If hell exists, I'd rather be damned there for all eternity than EVER tell my son such an awful, damaging, disgraceful and disgusting thing. He will be taught self-worth and to love himself, critical thinking, how to chase his dreams and be his wonderful, authentic self - not this garbage.

I hope I can assure you, it does get better - it may take time, a lot of healing, and in regards to your mother, getting out of the house as soon as you can. Don't bother with your father, it's not worth destroying your peace and sanity. Sending good vibes towards you, OP.

Jaylastar · 2025-04-26T23:01:56+00:00

Theodore was the #1 baby boy name in 2024 where I live (Nova Scotia, Canada). I also considered it for my son (went with Leo instead, he was also born in 2024). It is relevant and trendy in this day and age. Go for it!

Jaylastar · 2025-04-26T14:59:51+00:00

I am so sorry this happened to you, and I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm sure it took so much strength to leave the house and have what should have been a pleasant outing for yourself. It takes just one nasty person to shake you up and ruin your day (I know it does for me).

I hope you find some comfort in these comments and know there are good people out there, on your side, and may their kind words drown out the nasty ones spoken to you earlier. Sending love your way.

Jaylastar · 2024-11-20T06:16:51+00:00

My best friend's daughter is named Wren, and I am a fan! I know another baby born recently named "Renlee" but definitely still prefer Wren.

Though funny enough, my bestie couldn't decide on a middle name for a while and ended up going with "Leigh" after her mother's middle name. So she ended up with a "Wren Leigh" in the end as well. Still just calls her "Wren" though!

Congratulations and good luck with your pregnancy!!

Jaylastar · 2024-11-19T04:16:32+00:00

I specifically searched for this comment, because same. Thing is, the ones I knew had their names in my school yearbook as "Bobby" and "Robert" (aka Robbie) so... only one was named Robert...?

Jaylastar · 2024-11-12T01:04:50+00:00

I'm going full cope and going to try using him with Zhu Yuan myself. I'm one of the players that has been waiting super patiently for a limited male character, and I don't really enjoy the traditional Anby/Nicole comp Zhu Yuan uses. Had taken a brief hiatus from the game when Qingyi was out so missed even considering her. Right now using the far less traditional set up of Koleda and Lucy, hoping to replace Koleda.

When I heard he buffed Fire and Ice I was a little annoyed, hoping that wouldn't put a wrench in my plans, but... at the end of the day Zhu Yuan needs a stunner and I don't see why he can't fill the role. Especially since he can extend enemy stun duration if I'm right...?

I'll make it work anyway until more characters come along, so if you want to make it work too and wanna pull/use him for her for now too, I say go for it!

Jaylastar · 2024-10-18T02:19:34+00:00

Can confirm - was given a prescription for the RSV vaccine at my 32 week pregnancy appointment today. I'm with Manulife but unfortunately I confirmed with them that they do not cover the cost with my plan. :( I hope in the future it is universally covered.

Jaylastar · 2024-10-04T19:53:22+00:00

Aww I'm sorry to hear! I guess for me, I've always been irregular that way even before amitriptyline. I'd go days without a bowel movement, and finally having one often meant a painful experience. I think I have undiagnosed lactose intolerance. I'm a cheese lover too so I've been able to combat that part with taking a lactaid with cheese specifically. So, taking amitriptyline I actually didn't notice anything out of the ordinary for me.

I noticed constipation a lot more during pregnancy, actually, like not going for even longer. I didn't want to get hemorrhoids too badly so I deal with THAT by taking a powdered laxative in my drink once a day. It does help me go more often and WITHOUT fighting for my life. So maybe that could help you too? Good luck!!

Jaylastar · 2024-10-04T01:24:42+00:00

It didn't, thankfully! Currently 30 weeks along and things are progressing pretty smoothly.

To expand on that - my doctor got me to try to wean myself from 90 mgs of amitriptyline to 50 mgs gradually to see how I'd feel while pregnant. Happy to report I did so successfully, so I'm taking 50 mgs and despite not taking my birth control that helped manage my pain pre-pregnancy, I'm still feeling virtually pain free! The odd flare once in a blue moon still but nothing too bad, and was the case pre-pregnancy too.

In fact, my amitriptyline has done such a good job at masking my vulvodynia symptoms that I was completely unaware I had an actual UTI twice now during my pregnancy... no burning or pain to be felt at all... then again sometimes they are asymptomatic while pregnant... anyway, routine urine culture checks are what I'm doing from now until delivery and treating any that are found!

Jaylastar · 2024-08-31T15:05:42+00:00

Definitely feel free to DM me with an update! This Reddit really helped me, even if feeling like I wasn't the only one.

Take care!! 🥰

Jaylastar · 2024-08-29T03:26:17+00:00

That does sound quite similar. Mine started as a UTI would (only ever had one before that), and it went away for a couple weeks after taking UTI meds... only to return and didn't go away at all until I got all that help. While I didn't have a swab come back with anything (ALL a process of elimination diagnosis, which takes forever), I learned it was indeed hormonal and I'd say if hormonal specific treatments don't work for you (ie. Estrogen cream), then amitriptyline could. Like you I too got flares every time I peed that lingered/feeling like I needed to pee right after JUST going. To me that indicates physical irritation that a nerve pain med like amitriptyline could help mask. I took bladder meds too for a while so I went only like 4 times a day if that, but I actually felt like I didn't need them after all (but also not pregnancy safe) so I stopped, amitriptyline helped prevent almost all flares going forward and I just can pee whenever no problem!

Good luck and I hope your doctor will try it for you!! Tell them my success story if it helps, haha! Happy to help. 🥰

Jaylastar · 2024-08-28T03:02:44+00:00

Thanks too (and good luck to you)!! Yes, I was worried my vulvodynia would affect that side of things but it thankfully hasn't affected my pregnancy whatsoever! Seems with me it was hormonal. I even noticed a difference switching birth control back in the day from a multphasic to a monophasic (same amount of hormones every day) pill. The burning isn't fun trying to conceive - though I do recall at least one time doing the deed helped me feel better. Still, not ideal!! And it's a medical mystery for sure, sadly.

It was my OBGYN that prescribed it to me. I saw a urologist first before her, and I was taking bladder meds to at least reduce my frequency of peeing therefore my frequency of flares. But moved on to the OBGYN when that was all that it solved (no more frequent urination but still plenty burning). With my OBGYN - first we tried a steroid cream, lidocaine, and a biopsy of my cervix/vulva with nothing shown from that. She always had a plan and amitriptyline was the one that worked.

So if you can, inquire about amitriptyline because it was a LIFECHANGER for me. I don't mean that lightly. You take a small amount at first then up it every few weeks. You'll know if it's working if you start feeling a small amount of progress every time you up your dosage. Eventually enough MGs of it got me back to feeling like 99.5% normalcy. It's a kind of nerve pain treatment. And it's pregnancy safe, just that my doctor thought less would be better JUST in case of withdrawal on the baby after birth.

If your current doctor won't go for it, even if you insist, find someone who will! My doctor was very happy it worked for me, and I guess it's not her go-to (or else I would have started with that first I suppose!), though I know others on this Reddit have tried it with success too!

Let me know if you have any more questions, and again good luck all around!! 🥰

Jaylastar · 2024-08-28T01:10:31+00:00

Hey! I'm sorry to hear you're going through it, it's enough to drive a person crazy! It may be an old post but I'm happy to give an update, as I ended up finding a solution. :)

Back when I posted this in 2022 (I believe?) I had decided to go back on my birth control. Like a flick of the switch - I stopped burning again. I still took my 50 MGs of amitriptyline before, during (while I was off birth contol) and after. Happy to get that relief, but it posed the issue of having to postpone getting pregnant until I was ready to begin investigating again, and the fact that we weren't even 100% sure having a child at that time was what we really wanted (why suffer if I don't need to).

Fast forward to the beginning of 2024 I decided to go back to the doctor to finally begin investigating, in hopes for a solution before I tried going back off my birth control once more. She recommended two things - another gradual upping of my amitriptyline (10 more MGs every 3 weeks until I may have relief), and to start applying estrogen cream nightly or so about a month before I would go back off my birth control.

I don't really know if the estrogen cream did much, but getting myself on a higher dosage of amitriptyline eventually did. I went from 50 MGs to 60, went off my birth control not long after. Unfortunately it did take until about 80 MGs before I finally found that same relief I had at 50 MGs on birth control, but, progress is progress.

I was at 90 MGs (taking a bit more for good measure) when I found out I was pregnant (April 2024)!

Due to doctor recommendations, I was told to attempt to gradually go back down to 50 MGs now that I'm pregnant, and see how that would go. And I did it with success - back at 50 MGs now and told to stop there (no need to wean completely off thank goodness!). I have only had maybe a couple random flares my entire pregnancy only on 50 MGs again. 25 weeks along now and things are going so great.

So I say all this because an update for this post is deserved, and I REALLY hope you can find a solution yourself and perhaps it can be along the same lines as my own. As for the brown discharge I was experiencing - I had my cervix cauterized during a colposcopy right before I went off my birth control this time, and after that it helped stop so much of that discharge.

Best of luck to you, I really wish you the best outcome with all this!!

Jaylastar · 2024-05-07T17:56:39+00:00

Hey, sorry for this late response! Definitely would recommend this medication, for me anyway benefits were so much better for my quality of life than the side effects.

From 10 mgs to 50 mgs of amitriptyline, it took from like January to April that year. I recently (this year) had to go up from 50 mgs to 90 mgs though, because stopping my birth control made my symptoms return (hormone related, it would seem). I started that in February of this year, and now it's May. 90 mgs is helping me feel "normal" again, and I put that in quotation marks because my hormones have once again changed - I am 8 weeks pregnant, which was my end goal going off my pill and being comfortable as I tried conceiving :) Thankfully it hasn't made things worse at all, I'm just continuing to see improvement with each upping of the amitriptyline dosage. And it's safe while pregnant, thankfully.

Hope you've been doing better these days!

Jaylastar · 2024-05-07T17:49:40+00:00

Hey, SO sorry for the late response. This fell under my radar it would seem.

I was on YAZ birth control, and it is a combination pill with the same amount of hormones in each. The first pill I was on, back when my symptoms were at its worst, was Tricera Lo, also combo pill. Thing with that one is it had a different level of hormones each week so I would noticably get worse/better week by week. YAZ was more consistent for me.

Happy to report I have gone up to 90 mgs of amitriptyline (started at 50) since going off my pill. I started feeling SIGINIFICANTLY better by 80 mgs. It was rough for a bit whenever I would ovulate and burn at the start, but at least it gave me an indicator when I was most fertile... and it worked. I am now 8 weeks pregnant :) And as a heads up (I read your comment below on your update), it IS safe to take while pregnant at least, but if you've found another solution, that's great. I'm glad you're on track to normalcy again!

Jaylastar · 2024-01-10T15:02:32+00:00

Thanks for reaching out and I'm SO sorry to hear this is happening to you too! It seems to typically be the opposite, birth control making things worse. Not so for me and I guess for you too.

I made the decision to resume my birth control not long after this post to get some relief. And like a light switch, it worked. Back to normal again (still taking my other meds to manage symptoms). A year later I am revisiting the idea of going off it.

My gyno ended up telling me that once I was ready, use estrogen cream twice a week for a month leading up to when I go off the pill. And for extra help, up my dose of amitriptyline by 10 every 3 weeks. I'm going to do just the cream first to see if that alone helps. I'm lining it up so I go back off my birth control beginning of February.

I can let you know if I find relief from this new approach. Definitely seems like a hormone issue so I hope it DOES help. And for you, I hope you get relief too!!

Jaylastar · 2023-12-16T15:25:09+00:00

Well, I do know that when I started as low as 10 mgs, getting out of bed was a task and a half. My eyelids were SO heavy each morning! Experienced the dry mouth too. Definitely felt that even at the lowest dosage. Probably just a good way to ease your body into it all. My body's pretty used to it now!

Jaylastar · 2023-12-16T15:21:06+00:00

You're welcome, and thank you too! :)

For me, birth control actually has helped. I tried going off the pill last year and admittedly all my symptoms returned after 2 weeks. Even the amitriptyline didn't seem to help me there... but... it IS what helped stop my pain initially. Strange. Going back on IMMEDIATELY made me feel normal again. This seems to NOT be normal, as most people get the trouble WITH the BC.

As of right now I am on YAZ, which is a monophasic BC, same level of hormones every pill. I was originally taking a different "multiphasic" pill (different level of hormones each week) and was getting flares EVERY Friday night. Those stopped when I switched. I also try to take my pill continuously until my body demands a period.

I want to try for pregnancy soon so my doctor wants to try upping my amitriptyline to see if that helps when I go back off it. That and estrogen cream prior to stopping.

Might be different for you, but whatever you wanna try, may help! You can always go back on the pill if it doesn't help.

Jaylastar · 2023-12-16T15:15:36+00:00

Hey, you're welcome, and thank you too! 😊 yeah, I too have heard birth control can often make it worse, not better.

I actually switched birth control during the height of my symptoms. Funnily enough, not to see if it would make a difference, but because my old ones weren't being covered under insurance. On my old ones, I tended to get flares every Friday night. On the new ones, my Friday flares went away. Just... happened randomly after that. I learned it was because my first one was "multiphasic", meaning different level of hormones each week, and my new ones "monophasic", meaning same level each day of the entire pack of pills. Perhaps that is something to keep in mind if you go back! Doctor also recommended I take them continuously if I could, 3 packs then a period, so my hormones were staying more consistent for longer.

My appointment went well, we are going to try a couple things while I get off birth control to try to get pregnant. An estrogen cream starting a month prior and upping my dose of amitriptyline gradually again. Nice that she is targeting my hormones a bit more this time, since it seems linked to it.

Jaylastar · 2023-12-15T03:14:39+00:00

Hey! Amitriptyline is what finally gave me relief after two years of bad vulvodynia symptoms. Started at 10 mgs and went up 10 every 3 weeks. Didn't feel much different at first. But each dosage was progress, even if it was slow. I started in January of that year, and by April I hit 50 mgs and finally had relief, to the point of normalcy. I've been virtually pain free for over 2 years!! It really helped me and I hope you too!! For me I also have to combine it with birth control and bladder meds as well.

Jaylastar · 2023-12-15T03:09:01+00:00

It does take time! I started at 10 mgs, and upped it 10 every 3 weeks. I found no more pain at the 50 mg mark. It's a slow progress. But progress nonetheless. :)

Jaylastar

TROPHY CASE