Niece uncle kissing

I am not the OOP. The OOP is u/aitata8482828(Husband) and u/No_Card9780(Wife)
posting in AmItheAsshole and AITAH
Concluded as per OOP
2 updates - Long
Original - 10th July 2023
Update1 - 11th May 2024
Update2 - 14th May 2024
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AITA being pissed at what my wife said to our niece
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My sister and bil were abusive parents to my niece, Charlotte. I always tried to protect her, but my wife and I were only able to get custody threw years ago. We adopted her, and she's a good kid at heart, but she still struggles a lot. She's still in therapy and has come so far, but finds it difficult to accept unconditional love and that kids don't have to be perfect. While she's usually fine with my wife and I, she still sometimes tends to see our daughter (Chloe) as ungrateful and spoilt. I've worked really hard on this, and it's a LOT better, but sometimes it comes up in their teenage squabbles. It's not perfect but the girls generally get along.
Last Friday they had an issue. I was at work, so this is based on what I was told after. Chloe was refusing to do any of her chores, and arguing about it with my wife. Charlotte jumped in and basically called Chloe lazy and said that she should be a better daughter like her. Apparently my wife got pissed off and told her off. She 'reminded' her that she was 'lucky' we were taking care of her and to stay out of it. From there it got bad.
My wife says that Charlotte was extremely rude about Chloe. But she also admits she told Charlotte that we 'didnt have to' take care of her, and that basically unlike Chloe, we can send her back to her parents if she keeps it up. Ignoring the fact we legally cannot, that's just completely fucked up. They ended their fight with Charlotte just going to my parents for that night, and she's been really upset and withdrawn since.
When I got home my wife filled me in, and I was honestly pretty furious. The first thing that came to mind was 'what the fuck is wrong with you?'. Which admittedly wasn't a productive response but I was honestly just floored. The issue is that Charlotte doesn't get that a kid deserves unconditional love even if they're not perfect, so you fucking tell her that you'll kick her out if she doesn't behave? All the progress I worked with her for is gonna be shut back again.
I was mad and we fought about it. I get she can be difficult, but that was inappropriate. However she's still refused to apologise or anything. I've tried to talk to her and explain that we love her, and that it wasn't meant the way it was said. But my wife is just accusing me of babying and favouring Charlotte. Apparently I'm being unreasonable thinking what she did was disgusting. That I should care more about Chloe, as if this is a competition.
I am still honestly pretty pissed at her. While she just claims I'm unreasonable and being a shit dad to Chloe.
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Comments
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Ok-Arachnid-890
NTA your wife said a fucked up thing and really messed up with Charlotte. Your wife needs to apologize and looks like you're gonna have to have individual long talks with everyone

Husband OOP: That's exactly what I think. I honestly don't know how she could say it, let alone keep defending it. I've been trying to talk to the girls about it, but Charlotte is still icing me out other than apologising repeatedly.

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[deleted]
I hate to have to tell you this, but I think your wife could say a thing like that because that's how she actually feels about Charlotte, a charity case who should be grateful for scraps. That reaction wasn't a woman mediating a fight between her two daughters, this was her defending her child against this hostile kid she took in. If she spoke in the heat of the moment, she would have been horrified afterwards, not doubling down. It's possible she never wanted Charlotte.
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poeadam
NTA
You are correct here. It doesn't sound like you are favoring Charlotte at all. You aren't condoning or excusing her behavior. You issue is with how your wife dealt with the behavior, which I agree was completely inappropriate.
Your wife (and you) ADOPTED the child. She is your child. She can't be given back. And threatening to return her to an abusive situation is basically abuse in and of itself. Your wife should never suggest such a thing and should be ashamed that those words came out of her mouth.

Husband OOP: I agree, thank you. There's no world where I would ever give her back. I love her way too much to ever do that. I honestly don't know why she doesn't see it like you said

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Accomplished_Two1611
Your wife is only going through the motions with Charlotte. I am sure she and Chloe have made sure that Charlotte knows her 'place'.

Husband OOP:As far as I know this is the first time it's come up like this. Charlotte definitely would have reacted obviously in the past.
Chloe and her do get along mostly. I definitely don't think Chloe is a problem, beyond being a typical teenager

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l3ex_G
Other comments from op apparently shows that he threatened to divorce her if she didn’t adopt charlotte with him.
B3Gay_DoCr1mes
Oh, and there it is. OP's wife is a bubbling cauldron of resentments and it finally came out in the open. So, all theories that she does in fact view this as her daughter versus the charity case they took in are 100% accurate. They took Charlotte out of a blatantly toxic environment and brought her into one with simmering toxicity beneath the surface. With that kind of ultimatum underlying Charlotte's adoption a moment like this was inevitable.
l3ex_G
It feels like OP wants to be the saviour but not do the work. The fact he brought this child into a situation that started with an ultimatum is upsetting. Charlotte doesn’t stand a chance if these are the adults in the situation.
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**Judgement - NTA*\*
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Editor's Note - In the wife's post Charlotte becomes Kelly and Chloe becomes Sarah. There is now also a son. There is some age differences as well.
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AITAH for waking out on my “adoptive daughter” and telling her everything is her fault - 10 months later
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So I (36f) have two kids a boy Tom (5) and a Sarah daughter (18) plus my husbands late brothers kid (16f) Kelly who lives with us
14 months ago my husband came home with Kelly and said she would be staying with us for a while, I barely knew kelly because since her father passed away 10 years ago her mom has been struggling with mental health and addiction. Apparently Kelly was in a bad situation at home due to her mother’s new boyfriend being a let’s say not so nice person.
He told me it was only for 3 months while his parents who recently moved aboard got settled than it went to 5 till his sister had her baby just excuse after excuse till I stopped asking. as time went on my husband just acted like she was our daughter even bringing up adoption a few times which I refused even when he threatened divorce. I know I sound like a monster but you have to realise Kelly isn’t easy to deal with and my husband doesn’t allow her to face any kind of consequences
Kelly acts like she is the golden child and my daughter is the black sheep, she has violent meltdowns, she’s threatened our son that my husband will leave us if she tells him because he loves her more which traumatised Tom. she has tried and failed her mind games with me pretending to be a saint, her main target is my daughter she is extremely cruel towards her verbally like she’ll slut shame her for everything little thing like wearing make up or tell her she’s lazy/good for nothing for stupid reasons like sleeping late at the weekends
She’ll take her things ether will loss them or destroy them than cry to my husband who will excuse her behaviour even tho he spends 70% of his time at work. We are all in therapy which isn’t working like group sessions when someone points out Kelly’s behaviour or adoption usually end up with everyone fighting
It all came to a head last month Kelly was in a mood all week because Sarah had a big 18th party with all the attention on Sarah especially from my family which Kelly said mentioned in therapy. myself and Sarah were having a stupid “fight” over a non issue because Sarah used all my shampoo which she didn’t replace or let me know I was out of. Kelly came out of nowhere screaming at Sarah calling her a moocher, lazy, trash and spoiled she than said Sarah was an adult now and she didn’t pull her weight she’d get kicked out
I lost it I told her Sarah was my daughter and If she didn’t change her attitude she’d be the one kicked out, Kelly didn’t say anything just went into her room about an hour later my husband came back than started screaming literally i my face calling me names telling me he wants a divorce so he can protect Kelly. so I said ok I want a divorce and 50/50 custody I get my son he gets his niece now get the fuck out of my house with his niece
They left and have been staying with his brother since, husband now has to deal with Kelly all the time he wants more therapy to fix our issues so we can get back together and be a family again. They both came over yesterday to collect the last of their stuff and Kelly asked me was it her fault I said yes it was just as much her fault as her uncles (husband)
Husband told me I’m being a monster and Kelly is my daughter whether I admit it or not and I’ve abandoned her when she finally had a stable home that she doesn’t mean to lash out due it’s just due to her trauma and if we work together we can help her work through it
Honestly now I don’t know what to do and feel like an asshole
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Comments
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teresajs
NTA Your husband only wants back with you to dump Kelly on you again. She's a troubled teen and needs some serious help. Your husband is more interested in feeling like he's helping Kelly (not actually doing the real work involved) than in protecting his own kids.
Hire a good Divorce Attorney. Ask about getting child support for your son and possibly to help your daughter with higher education costs, if that's possible. Also, ask about getting a court order that your husband can't have Kelly around your son, given her past threats against him.

OOP Wife: I will be pushing for supervised visits with Tom as of now he had only had him with me or his sister in law present

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teresajs
But specify that these are to be supervised visits without Kelly present. Your husband seems to have blinders on and can't be trusted to make good decisions without a specific court order.

OOP Wife: In my country supervised visits happen in a centre with a social worker and security present I can call multiple witnesses to make sure she won’t be allowed in

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knittedjedi

In my country supervised visits happen in a centre with a social worker and security present I can call multiple witnesses to make sure she won’t be allowed in

I'm glad you live somewhere where they take child safety seriously.
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Update - 3 days later
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So yes the divorce is going forward even tho my husband has begged me to stay because he can’t handle the consequences of his actions and yes he is aitata8482828 he did change a few details and yes this isn’t our first follow out with me blowing up kelly isn’t my daughter and I wanted her out due to THEIR mistreated of Sarah we nearly got divorced last year but he used therapy and my emotional abuse as a tool to manipulate me to stay
Sarah hasn’t spoken much to her father since the first fall out because as people mentioned even on his post leaving a lot out about Kelly and just putting down Sarah it was clear who he only cares about. Sarah said she wants nothing to do with him and has warned family to but out. I’m sick of his emotional and mental abuse towards us for his niece and his threats of divorce to get his way so I hope he makes this easy on everyone
Yes Kelly has had a bad childhood and has suffered but she isn’t my problem anymore I want zero contact with her and will make sure she won’t have contact with my son. I’ve plenty of evidence and witnesses to make it happen I can sound cruel but she can fuck right off she isn’t my kid so I don’t owe her a relationship and regardless of how bad her trauma is she has no right to traumatise others. She could of had a life in America with her grandparents but she refused to learn English
As for my husband being her real dad that’s irrelevant to me because I won’t get the truth and would only cause more issues for my kids who’ve been through enough
Thanks to everyone for the advice I won’t be logging in after tonight and as I’ve said in the comments English isn’t my first language
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Comments
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dessertchef11
Your ex husband can now deal with Kelly and all her trauma. Good for Sarah for cutting off her father, he clearly sucks at being one for his kids.
Tabernerus
So did you legally adopt her or not? That’s a critical detail.

OOP Wife: No he claimed we did I didn’t want to adopt even when he tried to force me

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I am not the OOP. Please do not harass the OOP.
Please remember the No Brigading Rule and to be civil in the comments

PART ONE THOUSAND AND TWELVE
[Previous Chapter] [The Beginning] [Patreon+2]
Sunday
Lucas stretched and yawned in bed, taking a moment to enjoy the complete lack of needing to rise before his hand stretched out in search of Boyd.
And once again, that side of the bed was empty.
Biting back a whine of dismay, Lucas rolled until he was face down on Boyd’s pillow, breathing in the cologne they both now wore. The detective in him quickly deduced that Boyd had been gone a while based on the chill in the sheets. He curled his hands around the pillow and hugged it tight, wishing it was the big mountain of a man himself instead of this weak substitute.
As thrilled as he was about Boyd finding a new career that he was so passionately driven about, he was equally happy that his fiancé took his responsibility to his clients seriously. Still, would it have killed him to sleep in just one morning instead of abandoning their wrecked bed the morning after their engagement party?
After several minutes of wallowing, he finally accepted the inevitable that no amount of wishful thinking was going to make Boyd appear and climbed out of bed. He removed his snore rings and took a quick shower.
Once he was dressed, he felt a little better.
The next thing he had to do was strip down the bed and remake it. They’d been very busy last night, which was why he’d only just woken up at—his gaze fell upon the clock— DAMN! It’s nearly lunchtime!
“I’m gonna kill him for letting me sleep in so long,” he muttered under his breath, carrying the linen through the apartment and into the kitchen, which doubled as a laundry on their end. After nine years of living in this layout, he didn’t need to see over the pile in his arms to know precisely where he was, and with the load balanced on one arm, he turned at the right moment, opened the massive frontloading washing machine and stuffed it all in.
“Hey, Unca Luke!” Maddy’s shrill voice had him leaping into the air, slamming the door shut and swivelling around in front of it to hide the evidence. “Didja pee the bed?”
His brother and his niece were sitting at the island, Maddy with her breakfast of honey-and-cream-covered waffles, which were only half-eaten, and Levi patiently waited for her to finish since the plate in front of him was empty. The latter was grinning at him as only a brother could.
He’d forgotten all about them staying over.
It took a hot second for what Maddy asked to register with him, and when it did, his mouth dropped, and he glanced at his brother, who was twisting himself into a pretzel to avoid laughing out loud. Asshole. “No, Peaches,” he said, glaring daggers at Levi for not even trying to help him out. “Boyd and I like clean sheets every day, and it’s not fair to make somebody else wash them for us, is it?”
Bright red ringlets of hair swayed as the little girl shook her head. “Daddy makes me fix stuff too.”
Lucas moved the three feet between the washing machine to his brother sitting in Mason’s seat at the corner. “That’s because Daddies always know what’s best.” He wrapped an arm around his brother’s neck in a loose chokehold and gave him a noisy morning kiss on the cheek. “Ain’t that right, Daddy?” He said that last word in a sultry purr the way Robbie would, and the reaction from Levi was priceless.
“Fuck off with that shit, you prick!” his brother swore, shoving Lucas away with all his might.
“DADDY!” Maddy squealed in horror, and Lucas clapped his hands together once behind Maddy’s chair and raised his clenched fists in victory. He’d been angling for one swear word, maybe two to distract young Maddy from his not-so-discreet linen run. Three was a veritable home run.
Snickering quietly to himself, he went back to the washing machine, loaded it up with soap and softener and turned it on. Then, he walked over to the wooden box under the window. ‘Just think what you want,’ Charlie had told him at the party. ‘It’s a Nascerdios box that Robbie fills up throughout the night.’
He stared hard at the box while he considered his options, settling on a plate of breakfast tacos with seasoned mince, fried eggs, tomatillos, shredded lettuce, and cheese wrapped in soft tortillas buttered with a thin spread of mashed avocado.
After the last month, it didn’t surprise him in the least when he opened the lid and found that exact meal sitting there, waiting for him. Maybe the quantity, since they were piled three high, but not the meal itself.
The same could not be said for Levi when Lucas turned around with the plate in his hand. “Robbie had that ready for you too?” he asked, as Lucas grabbed a glass from the cupboard and placed it and the plate in his regular sitting place adjacent to his brother before sliding into his seat. He knew Levi wasn’t questioning Viola since the box itself was made and gifted by someone with the last name Nascerdios.
The veil was an ass.
“I told you; he did most of the catering yesterday, too,” Lucas said, reaching for the jug of juice. He was curious what it would be today. Yesterday, it had been orange and mango juice, with apple the day before.
A quick sniff made it most likely grapefruit.
He tightened the roll on the first taco and lifted it to his lips, enjoying the flavours that exploded in his mouth. Because Levi had finished whatever had been on his plate, he was watching him eat as if he’d never seen it before. It finally clicked why. “You want to try one?” Lucas asked, nudging his plate towards his brother. “There’s plenty here if you want one. Too many, if anything.”
Levi didn’t need to be told twice and reached over, using his fingers just as Lucas had. “How did he learn to cook so well?” Levi demanded, almost fitting the whole thing in his mouth.
“He’s always cooked,” Lucas answered, fudging things slightly. “When he was growing up, cooking was his chore while his mom was at work. He only stopped because Mom refused to let him help in the kitchen.”
“I would’ve fought that a lot harder if I’d have known he could produce this.”
“Yeah, you and me both, bro. Even when we were upstairs, he was forever watching the cooking channels for new ideas.” Lucas didn’t want to mention that these days, Robbie only did so to critique the so-called experts. “Have you seen Boyd?”
Levi shook his head. “I was assuming he was still in with you. If I’d known you were in there alone, I’d have sicc’d Maddy onto you.”
“I can wake Daddy and Unca’ Austin good!” Maddy said proudly. “I gets me a dolla’.”
“Ssshhh, Peaches. That’s out secr—wait. Does Uncle Austin pay you, too?”
Maddy was adorable the way she looked at Lucas like he would intervene for her. “Sorry, baby girl,” he laughed, eating another taco. “You’re on your own.”
The two brothers bantered as Lucas ate, with Levi stealing another taco, bringing Lucas’ total number down to five. Maddy told them both about wanting to be a vet, and Lucas knew precisely who to blame for that. Still, it was better than her previous choice of ‘stripping’ the way Robbie and Angelo used to. Levi’s meltdown over that revelation had been priceless, even if he, too, was firmly in the ‘fuck that noise’ camp.
When he polished them and half the juice off, he poured the last into Maddy’s cup and put his things and the jug in the dishwasher. “You can hang out here if you want,” Lucas said. “The guys and I are heading out this afternoon to play some ball over at Angus’ place, but if you call Austin and find out Pepper’s roommate is still with him, the TV over there has…”
“Every cable channel imaginable, I know. Charlotte—”
“Charlie.”
“Charlie told us last night.” Levi sat back in his seat and stared at his brother. “What do you make of Larry, Luke? Does he have kids?”
“Why?”
“He watched Maddy for me last night while I was having a shower, and Maddy loves him. You know how picky she is about people she doesn’t know.”
“I know he’s married to a career soldier and was one too before being assigned to us. I’m not sure about his past, but he’s a good guy and ridiculously protective of those either in his charge or that he happens to care about.”
Levi grunted. “Charl—lie said so too. He certainly knows his Spongebob.”
Lucas squinted. “Why all the questions?”
“Just thinking out loud. If he’s going to be here all the time with Robbie, and Austin and I get called into the house together, it’s always been a struggle figuring out where we can leave Maddy on short notice. We don’t exactly have time to drive all the way over to Queens to drop her off at either Mav’s or Mom and Dad’s. I mean, so far, we haven’t needed to, but it’s a constant concern.”
Lucas frowned at him. “We’ve been here for years. Why didn’t you ask before now?”
Levi seemed suddenly uncomfortable. “You know…” he said, gesturing to the ceiling without finishing that sentence.
And just like that, Lucas did understand.
Six men, all sharing one shoebox-sized apartment with two of them being sex workers, was not where anyone would want to drop off a little girl. Even if Lucas did vouch for all of them and swore they’d all be protective as hell over little Maddy. “Look, I can’t speak for them specifically, but Charlie’s here under house arrest for the next ten months, and Boyd now works out of his studio, so technically, someone will be here all the time. There’s not a chance in hell we’ll turn you away.”
“I’ll ask her and Miss W before we go.”
Lucas looked at what the two of them were wearing. “You know, I could duck out and grab you and Maddy some clothes just as soon as I check in with Boyd, if you like.”
He watched Levi look down at the shirt and boxers that were a little big on him width-wise and across at Maddy, who still wore Charlie’s favourite Giants’ shirt.
“That’d be good, thanks,” he admitted.
“I’ll get extras, and that way, she can have a few changes of clothes here. Actually, do you want me to grab you some spare stuff too?”
Levi stiffened in his seat. “I don’t need you to buy me clothes.”
Lucas wanted to slap him in the back of the head (and would’ve if Maddy wasn’t there). “Stop,” he commanded instead. “I’m already going to a clothes shop. It’s not going to be anything fancy, and if you hate it, you can swap it out with your own stuff later.”
Knowing his brother was still uncomfortable, Lucas waved his hand at the kitchen. “Seriously, Levi, look around. Look at how I’m living, and I’m not paying a dime in rent. Llyr won’t let me since we’ve been looking out for Sam for years. Let me do this for you, so you’ll always know you and Maddy have somewhere safe to go.”
Levi glanced around, his lips tightening before he finally nodded, unwilling to say the words out loud, and Lucas clapped him on the shoulder. “We’re family, dumb-ar—dumb,” he amended, with little ears sitting on the other side of his brother. “Dumb-dumb. I meant Dumb-dumb.”
Levi chuckled and patted his brother’s hand. “I appreciate it, bro. We’ll chill here until you get back. Don’t rush … apparently, you have a gazillion cable channels to choose from, and Maddy doesn’t want to leave until she’s seen them all.”
“I don’t think you’ll live that long,” Lucas laughed and headed back to his room to grab his gear since he was now leaving the apartment. As he clipped and slid everything from sunglasses to his wallet, keys, phone, badge bifold, and ankle-holstered BUG, he almost envied women with carryall handbags that could be grabbed on their way out the door.
Almost.
* * *
((Author's note: going out tonight, so I put this out before I left. Enjoy!! 🥰😘💕 ))
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I’d love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here
For more of my work, including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!

DISCLAIMER: Sorry this is a day late. I ended up having to rewrite half of this. Still, I hope you enjoy. After this, I'll be going on my hiatus. So I hope you like this last little bit of Roo-family cuteness. Thank you all and keep on keepin' on!
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Special thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 for creating the NoP universe.
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I'd also like to thank u/xskipy10 for their awesome fanart of the main cast as well as their recent Tohba meme and their fanart of Michael baysitting. You're work is a treasure!
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Thank you as well to u/Accomplished-Golf-59 for his take on Michael, Teylim, and Tohba in his submission for the Banner Art Contest, and u/Spacer_Catgirl4969 for their awesome music video featuring a pixel-art Dohkar in his bar. Be sure to give ALL of these awesome creators your love and support.
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And let's not forget u/Guywhoexists2812 who has been an awesome source of memes as well as sick pixel art, such as THIS and THIS!!!! And even THIS!!!!!! And how could I forget THIS!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much!
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Today, we see all the reasons Teylim has to keep going in the face of adversity. For when all is said and done, love truly does conquer all. LETTUCE...begin...
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Original Story
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[Accessing Camera Function…]
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[Accessing Saved Recordings Function…]
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[Play Selected Recording?: Y/N…]
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[Playing Recording!]
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[The camera opens up on a female Yotul with a satchel over her shoulder. She is walking backwards down a paved walkway while looking up at the person holding the camera…]
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“Alright! Soooo…here we are in… Michael tell us where we are!”
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[The person holding the camera gives an audible sigh…]
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“Do I have to, Tey?”
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“Yes! Come on, it’ll be fun!”
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[Another audible sigh is heard before the person begins panning the camera around the surrounding cityscape…]
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“We are in the beautiful, literally ALWAYS sunny capital of Dayside City!”
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“And what would you say we’re doing here in Dayside City?”
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“We were just at the Public Records building getting our paperwork verified.”
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[The Yotul woman is seen reaching into her satchel and pulling out a leaflet of documents…]
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“Oh! You mean THIS paperwork? Hmmm… I wonder what these might say… Mind helping me here?”
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“Seriously?”
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[The Yotul doesn’t answer, instead shoving the documents directly into the camera. Another, more amused-sounding sigh is heard…]
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“It says that your name has been officially changed to ‘Teylim Andrews.’”
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“Mmmmhmmm. And what about this one?”
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“That one says that Tohba’s name has been officially changed to ‘Tohba Andrews.’”
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“Aaaand why do you suppose that is?”
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[A shuffling sound is heard and the camera shifts as the person holding it pulls out their own papers…]
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“Probably because according to MY paperwork, while we’re still waiting for my Application of Citizenship to go through, I, Michael Ruiz Andrews, am now the full, legal, son of one, Teylim Andrews-”
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“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEE!!!!!!”
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[The Yotul woman darts forward, wrapping the person holding the camera in a hug. The camera is set on the ground and the face of the person is now visible. The two hold their embrace, rocking back and forth…]
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“I love you so much, my joey…”
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“Love you too, Ma…”
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[Recording Ceases…]
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[Play Next Recording?: Y/N…]
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[Playing Recording!]
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[The camera opens on a small kitchen area where two beings are sat eating. On the left, a male Yotul infant in a high chair is munching away at a human food identified as “Cheerios” spread across his tray. On the right, a male human idly stirs at a bowl of cereal while tapping away at a datapad…]
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[Eventually, after munching down another “Cheerio”, the infant catches a glimpse at the human and stares for approximately one second before his tail begins wagging…]
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“Mikey?”
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[The humans attention is broken away from their datapad and immediately focuses on the infant…]
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“Yeah, Bud?”
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“I WUV YOOOUUU.”
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[The infant’s sing-song voice seems to make the human smile before he leans forward, planting a “kiss” on top of the infant’s head…]
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“MmmMUAH! Te amo, mi hermanito.”
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“Whaz dat mean?”
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“It means, ‘I love you, Little Brother’. Want me to teach you?”
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“Hmmmmm… OKAY!”
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“Okay.”
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[The human chuckles slightly before scooting his chair in…]
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“Okay, so when you want to tell someone you love them, you say, ‘Te amo.’ Okay?”
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[The infant gives a curious ear flick…]
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“Teeeh…Mo?”
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“Close! Here. Repeat after me. Te…”
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“Teeh…”
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“Ah…”
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“Aaahh…”
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“Mo…”
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“Moh!”
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“Te…ah…mo…”
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“Teeh…aaahh…mo!”
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“Okay! All together now. Te amo.”
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“¡TE AMO!”
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[The human excitedly gets up from his seat and embraces the infant…]
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“YES!!! You did it! Awesome job, Bud!”
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“YAAAAYYY!!!! ¡TE AMO, MIKEY!”
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“MMMUAH!! ¡Te amo, precioso hermanito!”
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[The camera jitters slightly and a muffled giggling is heard. The human turns to face the camera…]
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“Ma? What are you- Have you been recording this whole time?”
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“Just a little!”
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“Must you record everything?”
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“As a matter of fact, yes!”
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“MAMA!!”
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[The camera zooms in on the excited infant…]
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“Hello, Precious! Is your big brother teaching you Spanish?”
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“UH-HUH!! ¡TE AMO, MAMA!”
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“Ooooh, that is just ADORABLE! Can you teach him to say ‘Mama’ in Spanish, too?”
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[The camera pans over to the human, who raises an eyebrow. After a moment, the human smirks and gives an exaggerated shrug while shaking his head…]
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“No tengo que hacerlo. Él ya lo sabe, mamá.”
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“Pffft! Smart aleck.”
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[Recording Ceases…]
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[Play Next Recording?: Y/N…]
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[Playing Recording!]
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[The camera opens up facing a pair of beds in a small room. On one bed, a female Yotul is sat with her infant in her lap as a male human walks into frame carrying a brightly wrapped gift box…]
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“Merry Late Christmas, guys!”
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“Merry Christmas, Michael!”
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“Mewwy Kwizmuz, Mikey!”
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[The human kneels down and hands the infant the gift box…]
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“Sorry this gift is a bit last minute, but I managed to grab it while I was out with ‘Nel the other day.”
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“I’m sure it’ll be perfect, Michael.”
​
“I hope so. Go on, Bud. Open it! It’s for you!”
​
“OKAY!!!”
​
[The infant rips away at the brightly-colored paper, and with help from his mother, lifts off the lid. The infant then excitedly starts bouncing up and down and reaches into the box, pulling out a bright-red plush…]
​
“WED TIWFISH!!!!!!”
​
“Oh, Michael! How? When?”
​
“I had to ask around online if anyone else had plushies from the aquarium ship, and I managed to find a guy here in Dayside. There’s…still a lot of things we lost at the house that need to be replaced, but I figured this would be a good start…”
​
“It’s perfect.”
​
[The three embrace and hold it for several seconds before pulling back…]
​
“BUT! I’m not done with gifts just yet.”
​
“What?”
​
“Here. Mind handing me your pad?”
​
“Sure?”
​
[The Yotul hands the human her datapad as he pulls a small drive from his pocket and plugs it in. After a moment, he smiles and sits down on the bed next to the Yotul. She is then seen gasping and covering her mouth with her paws…]
​
“Michael…”
​
“I overheard you on the phone with Aunty Triv, talking about how you wish you had some pictures of me when I was younger…”
​
“How on Liern-”
​
“It’s…a long story. When I was first taken into foster care after getting rescued, I was assigned a social worker to help me adjust. And after I got situated with Dad, he stayed and helped us out from time to time. He basically became like an uncle to me after a while. And since Dad didn’t really have any other family, whenever he wanted to share pictures of me growing up, he’d send a copy to my social worker. I’ve…been back in contact with him for a little while now, and it turns out he kept them.”
​
“Oh, Michael…”
​
[The Yotul and human lean against each other and embrace…]
​
“I love you, Ma.”
​
“I love you too, my joey.
​
[Still leaning against each other, they begin to swipe at the pad, presumably looking through pictures. After a few swipes, The Yotul begins chuckling hysterically…]
​
“Aaaawwweee…”
​
“Crap, I forgot about that one!”
​
“Who’z dat?”
​
“That’s…me, Bud.”
​
[The infant looks at the image for a while, still holding the bright red plush…]
​
“Teeheehee!! Fuzzy Mikey!”
​
“Can we please just swipe to the next one?”
​
“Wait. I’ve seen those kinds of human garments before! Aren’t those for…LITTLE…little joeys?”
​
“Look, I was a very emotionally stunted kid and I just thought they were comfy, alright?”
​
“This is SO going on the desk.”
​
“Please no. Any of them but that one.”
​
“Nope! It’s already decided!”
​
“YAAYYY! FUZZY MIKEY!”
​
“God, ‘Nel’s never gonna let me live this down…”
​
[Recording Ceases…]
​
Memory Transcript Subject: Teylim Andrews, Yotul Accountant And Loving Mother Of Two
​
Date:[Standardized Human Time] February 1, 2137
​
[Warning: REM Sleep Detected: Transcript May Be Fragmented Or Incomplete…]
​
Crrreeeeaak…
​
My eyes slowly squint open as the noise rouses me from sleep. I let out a yawn before looking for the source of the noise. I’m…back in my house… Sitting upright, I see that my door’s been opened, beaming The Dayside’s permanent daylight into my room. I was confused for a moment. The only other person here that would be here is-
​
“Uuuuhhmm… M-Mrs. Teylim?”
​
I looked down, and spotted the culprit.
​
Standing in the doorway was a small human child, cradling my Tohba in his arms. He was silhouetted from the daylight behind him, the light beaming past his adorable onesie pajamas creating a small blue outline around him, matching his eyes.
​
Strange. For some reason, I thought he was taller…
​
“Michael, sweetie? What’s the matter?”
​
Still carrying Tohba, Michael made his way over to the bed.
​
“Uuuhhhmmm… Tohba h-had a n-nightmare…”
​
“Ooohh, is that so?”
​
Something definitely didn’t add up. As he gently handed Tohba over to me, he certainly didn’t seem to be having a nightmare. In fact, even now he was still sleeping peacefully.
​
Michael, on the other paw, was DEFINITELY out of sorts. He was nervous, fidgeting, wrapped up in a self-hug, and even now, refused to even look at me. Whether that was because of his nervousness or if he was still convinced I was afraid of him had yet to be seen.
​
Stupid, ridiculous, Federation dogma…
​
I could tell he wasn’t being honest with me. Ordinarily, I would’ve been upset about him lying, and even more so about him disturbing Tohba, but looking at him now, I knew what he needed now wasn’t a scolding.
​
“Michael, you know you can be honest with me. Was it really Tohba who had the nightmare?”
​
I heard him nervously gulp as he tightened the self-hug around himself. After a moment, he shook his head.
​
“Mm’mm…”
​
I gave a tired, but loving sigh before holding out my free arm.
​
“Come here.”
​
With some hesitation, he stepped closer, allowing me to pull him into a hug. Michael had a lot of issues. From what I learned from his social worker, he’d been terribly abused by his previous mother and he’d lost his father only a few years after moving in with him. And now, with Earth under attack, he simply didn’t have anywhere else to go.
​
It will take a long time before he’s fully comfortable living here, I know that. I’m still not even entirely sure if I’m what he needs. I still wonder if I know what I’m doing when it comes to just raising Tohba. Even so, I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t try. He deserves a home, and a mother who loves him. All children do.
​
“I'm sorry for lying…”
​
“Ssshhh… It’s alright. Do you want to talk about it?”
​
“It was…the one with the scary fire people…”
​
Oh…THAT dream…
​
Exterminators.
​
“I don’t want them to come… I don’t want them to-“
​
“It’s okay, joey. They won’t get you here.”
​
“No! That’s not… That’s not what I’m scared of…”
​
I pulled back slightly, allowing myself to look directly at him. He sniffles and sobbed while trying to wipe away tears.
​
“You’re all so nice to me… \sniff** I…I-I don’t want the fire people to hurt you… I sh-shouldn’t be here…”
​
My heart broke in two. This poor child had already lost so much. It only made sense that he’d be afraid of losing us too.
​
I cupped his face in my paw, wiping away his tears.
​
“Michael Ruiz Andrews, I don’t care what you might have heard, but you have every RIGHT to be here. And if those scary people out there think they can come and take us away from you, they’re wrong. I will never let us be separated. You hear me?”
​
“. . .P-promise?”
​
“With all my heart. You’re MY joey now, and I won’t let anyone take you away from me.”
​
At last, Michael finally unwrapped himself from his self-hug and instead wrapped his arms around me, burying his face in my fur.
​
After a while of holding him, he’d finally calmed down enough to speak again.
​
“C-can I…sleep here tonight?”
​
Your joey needs you.
​
Yes.
​
“Of course.”
​
With some effort, he climbed up onto the bed and curled up next to me. I knew I most likely wouldn’t be getting anymore sleep, but that was fine. Just laying here, holding my boys in my arms. That was enough.
​
One after the other, I gave both my joeys a lick on the forehead.
​
“Goodnight my joeys. I love you.”
​
“Wuv…you…Ma…ma…”
​
“. . .Love you too...Mom…”
​
I love my boys. I love my family. I love…my life…
​
[Transcript Time Progression: 4 hours…]
​
Beebeebeebeep! Beebeebeebeep! Beebeebeebeep!
​
[Warning: Subject Regaining Consciousness…]
​
My entire body protested as I twisted and turned over to tap the alarm on my nightstand. My claw slapped blindly at it until finally, the agitating alarm was silenced. My eyes squinted open, revealing…I was back in our motel room…
​
Well…a girl can dream, can’t she?
​
It was a pleasant dream, I’ll give it that. As I sat up, I let my legs dangle off the side of the bed as I stretched myself out and let out a yawn. Once my eyes had fully opened, and the fog had been blinked away, I was immediately met with a sight that warmed my heart to no end. My still fast asleep, and back to being tall, new son, curled up with his baby brother on the other bed.
​
Precious boys. MY precious boys.
​
I did my best to remember if Michael had anything scheduled with Khornel for this paw, but nothing came to mind. He’d been working so hard lately, helping to keep us above water. Now that he wasn’t a refugee anymore, we were no longer receiving stipends from the program, which meant from here on out, keeping the bills paid was much more difficult. And that’s not even mentioning having to put aside anything we can to be able to eventually have the house rebuilt.
​
I kept trying for a while, I still couldn’t remember anything. For the first time in a decent while, he had a paw off.
​
Good. I’ll leave him be then. He’s earned some rest.
​
I let out one more yawn, before getting up. Unfortunately, while Michael didn’t have to work this paw, I wasn’t so fortunate. Thankfully, my recent injuries allowed me to continue to work from home instead of going out to the physical office. After one last stretch, I let myself slide off the bed.
​
I had to give myself a moment once I was upright. While my previously broken leg had healed for the most part, I still needed to be careful of how much weight I put on it. Once I was ready, I began walking to our small kitchen area. The fridge was nearly empty. I’d need to go to the store soon.
​
Thank goodness we’re staying in Soulroot, where literally EVERYTHING is expensive…
​
After cutting up some leftover fruit and strayu for myself, I went back to my desk. It was impossible to not notice the small stack of colorful books on the ground next to it. They were human kid’s books donated from the embassy here in Soulroot. Tohba would be ready to start going to school in just a few short cycles…
​
Will we be able to get out of here and back into our house before then?
​
Sitting down at my desk and booting up my pad, I found it hard to stay focused. There was still so much to do, so much to worry about. Before, when I was feeling overwhelmed, I’d have Loh, Dohkar, or Trivah there for me. With them around, it always helped things feel more manageable. But now…now I was alone again. Loh was gone. Dohkar and Trivah were stuck on the other side of that damned fence…
​
What are we going to do?
​
My head lowered. I stared blankly at the desk, partly wishing I could look through it at ANYTHING other than my work.
​
But then, there was a glint, just out of the corner of my eye…
​
I looked up, and saw something that I couldn’t help but smile at, something that even when I’m feeling low, reminds me why I have to keep going.
​
I reach out…and grab the two small frames off the corner of my desk and hold them in front of me. In my left paw, wass a framed picture of Tohba, the paw he was born. So small. So precious. So perfect. And in my right, was another picture. It was my new favorite picture.
​
A small, human child…in fuzzy, blue, onesie pajamas that matched his eyes.
​
My Michael. Still so small.
​
These two pictures. My boys. The villains outside could take everything else. So long as I have my boys, I will always have a reason to keep going.
​
I love my boys… I love my family… I love my life…
​
The End

I am close with my Dad, Mom, Sister, and Nieces and currently live 145 miles from them.
Background:
My Dad (mid-70s) started showing signs of cognitive decline around 2013. He was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2018. I confided in his sister, "A", about his diagnosis, prognosis and test results. "A" sent an e-mail to extended family (Aunts, Uncles, etc.) Advising everyone of my Dad's diagnosis, prognosis, and test results. "A" and I explicitly discussed that his diagnosis, etc. was not to be shared. I distanced myself from "A" as a result of her actions.
We moved my Dad into Assisted Living in 2021. He no longer knows or recognizes my Mom, Sister, and I. Processing everything is a heartbreaking cycle. The grief journey is so difficult - he's still alive, but he's not the person I knew as my Dad. He no longer communicates with us and pretends to be asleep when we visit. While it's hard to see him do that, I know it's not who he is. I miss him more than I'll ever be able to articulate.
As time passed, I forgave "A", but the relationship wasn't the same. I held back from sharing anything with "A".
In 2022, my Mom (early 70s), began having health issues - she became forgetful, depressed, tempermental, falling asleep on the toilet, falling asleep when eating, and was not sleeping at night. On multiple occasions we found her asleep in her car on the driveway with the engine running after her errands. (She no longer drives.)
Mom's decline has, unfortunately, been rapid. In 2023, she was diagnosed with a rare Auto Immune Disorder that had recently been discovered/identified/named. There is not much information about her Disorder and effective treatment options. The disorder is poorly understood, most neurologists haven't treated patients with it.
I spent a weekend visiting Mom in 2023. Mom was having trouble speaking, walking, sleeping, choking when eating, sleeping on the toilet, and doing minor tasks. I took her to the ER where, in addition to her Auto Immune Disorder, it was identified that she had had multiple strokes. I was crushed.
On my drive back home, "A" called and asked about my weekend with family. I began sobbing and had to pull over. I am losing both of my parents at the same time - it's heartbreaking, devastating, hard to process and make it my "new normal".
"A" asked why I was so upset, and I told "A" that my Mom had suffered multiple strokes, I wasn't processing (or coping well) and how much it hurts to know you're losing both of your parents at the same time.
"A's" reaction was to laugh. Hysterically. I plead with her that this was by no means funny - this is serious. Both of my parents are in rapid declines. "A" could not stop laughing the entire time. I understand laughter is sometimes a reaction to bad news, but this hit different.
An hour after I got home, I called "A" to tell her that I was hurt by her reaction. This is not a laughing matter - it never will be - this is serious. I no longer had/have one functional parent. I am losing both of them, together. I reiterated that I was really hurt by her actions. "A" continued to laugh the duration of my call. I ended the call due to being so upset.
I haven't spoken to "A" since. I shouldn't have told her what happened that weekend. It was so raw and I was really hurt. I place some blame on myself for thinking that I could trust her after the last time I confided in her.
I received a letter from "A": "I genuinely regret dismissing your fears about your Mom's health. I wasn't aware she was so ill. I ask your forgiveness. I hope there is something that I can be done to mend the split in our relationship. I miss you."
I'm not sure what to make of this. Is ignorance a valid excuse?
Would I be the Asshole if I don't respond? What do you say, lovely people of Reddit?

I female age 15 was living in a camper in Rhode Island with my mom age 31 and my dad age 33 along with 2 siblings my mom got into a car crash. Which gave her a concussion so I had to take care of my family and was like a house wife every time I got off from school. My dad didn't help unless it involved my siblings with his game console or with nothing other than steal my mom's stuff to go through it to make sure she didn't catch him cheating on her. Which she did but I hid it all which he had a suspicion of, but my mom was acting like a child at the time.
I wasn't focused on the remarks my dad would make. Whenever i was In shorts he would talk about how my butt looked like mom's but bigger, and how I was better than her. While my mom was getting better my was about to be 15, but something I did notice. While my dad made dirty remarks he was reading a online book, and I caught him multiple times. In my parents bedroom alone rocking his stick, and why I mentioned this. Is because that book he was reading was my whole bathroom situation, but with Mafia people in his book. While this was going on my mom was mostly recovered by the week before my birthday.
But my dad gas lighted her that I did nothing while he did everything, and my mom believed him. For 2 days before he tattled on himself about looking through her phone, and finding some evidence of him cheating. Which made them fight and argue which they were doing before the crash. During the week before my birthday I got a road rash which will be a scar. Forever a reminder of how my dad was able to look at me in the camper. The shower doors were made of glass and if the temperature was lukewarm then you could see everything on the other side. I turned 15 on the day of my road rash I got into the shower around 8:00 p.m. while washing my wound my father went in there and didn't say a word. Just started brushing his teeth and looking towards the mirror which at the time was not looking my way.
I was okay with it at first cuz I thought it would just be for that day, but the next 3 weeks. It went to a transition of him looking at the mirror then to him leaving the bathroom door open lean on the wall towards the shower staring. Playing toxic masculinity podcast of how young women should do what men tell them. I wasn't on social media a lot so I didn't know what "alpha" male ment, but women would refer them as that or they would refer them selfs as that. But then to every couple of days during those three weeks was like him pushing boundary after boundary to the point where I can't handle it. Cuz he tried to touch the doorknob to open the glass doors.
I told him that I wasn't comfortable two times along with my younger siblings telling him to get out because they saw him in there because the door was open. Which he told them that it was okay, that he was my dad, and if anybody deserve to be in there it was him. During the third day of the first week of this happening I wanted to prove to myself that my father wasn't like his stepfather. Which was a S A @bus€r of mine when I was 4 through 6. Because I thought it was because of my schedule of me getting in the shower late, so I changed my schedule throughout the last 2 weeks. During the time of him pushing boundaries I would change the times where it would inconvenience my mother . During her naps or whatever she needed to do to get better cuz she had appointments, or she would be like dead asleep. She would need me to watch my siblings, but I was busy in the shower.
They were messing with her while she had a headache, and my father was complaining about the hot water for dishes and other women chores. I need or my mother needed to complete, but the part that makes it the most messed up is that when it was 20 minutes of me being still in the shower. He would walk out and I would hurry up and get out and he would go back to his game console, smoke a cigarette, and not go to bed for a couple of hours. On the last day of the third week my mom asked me about it cuz she was finally starting to be aware of everything. I told her to wait and I would get in the shower as soon as I got home. He will be in there, and she didn't believe me.
But once I got home, and got in there he was in there with the door open. My mom grabbed him by his shoulder, and ripped him out and yelled at him and told him if he ever did that again that she would go get her shotgun. Cuz now she's more aware than she has ever been after the crash. His excuses that I was taking a shower late, then maybe I should be taking showers so late, then maybe I should be using all the hot water, and that I'm his daughter he changed my diapers so if he wants to be in there he can be in there. if i want the door open for some air he can have it open cuz he also pays the bills and owns everything and that I should be grateful. Which made my mom come up with a plan to start secretly moving after that day. I called my aunt and my uncle who did not believe me and thought there was a better explanation, but they did see my point of view but still thought I was being dramatic.
They question my father and he lied and said it was for 3 days more arguments started, and one day when I had a school day off. My dad as soon as he found out stayed home while my mom had to be at a appointment. She thought he already left but instead he went to chilled some where, and came back to have a conversation with me. Told me that I was delusional, and that if I was uncomfortable I should have told him. When I told him I did and that he didn't say a word he said that he must have not heard me. Once I told him that I said it loud and clear, and that all he did was sigh. Along with looked like he was about to cry and was mad. He said that I'm just like my mother, and that we deserve each other. Then went on to if he had to have boundaries with me, then I have to have boundaries with my mother and we can't get changed in front of each other.
Because we are both bisexual, and then proceeded to tell me that I don't know what's going on. Then told me that I should be ashamed because I don't know how it feels to feel like a predator in your own home. Which left me speechless because I know what it's like to have predators around you every corner, and he knows this and when I told him that. He told me to grow up, and that my hormones should be kicking in. I should have already forgotten about his stepfather already. My mom came home and my dad said he wanted a divorce which my mom says working on it. Then took me for a drive, I told her all about it, and then a couple of days later.
I woke up to my mom crying and naked because my mom had sex with my dad. When he was done and he got her done he kicked her out of the room. When she was wondering why he said she was more convenient then to go get a stranger and do it in the back of a truck. My mom told me to go back to bed and I did at the time not fully knowing what was going on till that day. That my mom going back on her word thinking she needed him. Telling me not to break up the family, and that if he agrees the counseling we're staying even if I said no and don't like it. Which he didn't of course, and also I told her that I would kill her and him and that I have thought about it. Was in their room multiple times with a weapon think about killing them both because of the things they do. Which made my mom understand that she needed to grow up and leave him now. Which is sad for me to say, but we finished up packing. We got a U-Haul and before we left my mom thought it would be fair to him if my siblings had a board game night with him.
Which later I left cuz I couldn't handle that my siblings get a perfect dad. While I always got a cursing, child beating, lying, and disciplining me for no reason father. Couldn't handle that my mom didn't leave them for a military, hasn't killed my father, or believe me on many occasions. Or didn't do anything because of him, and because of her always needing him. He went to go find me a hour later and talked with me said the same things as the other conversation. When I brought up multiple predators in my life and how he did nothing. For example, I had a high school boy threatened to r@p€ me in the third grade, and him and his friends chase me around and has kissed me and touched me multiple times for 2 years. He said that he couldn't because that high school boy was a friends son, but told him to stop but this friend was a mistress of his.
Which later to find out that it would have been 4 years of harassment if my mother didn't threaten to burn his house. Which again shows that my father is a liar and my mother even proved it to me by showing me pictures of text between the high school boy, his mother, and her. At the end of the conversation a dark side of me popped out, and just went to try to go grab the nearest gun to shoot him. cuz my father did was lie, gaslighted, manipulated, and acted like a brick wall. He thought we had a great dad and talk even though I was still crying. I guess he thought I was like my mom and I would given up. My mom stopped me and told me that I shouldn't go to jail, and that we are moving tomorrow.
She will make sure of it no more delays, no more of letting me down we move to Texas where we're originally from. While living with a relative my little siblings could talk to our father, which slowly broke the relationship. Because he would always try to bring up me, and how he wanted to talk to me. He couldn't stand not talking to me, and that he stopped paying child support until I talk to him. In between breaking the relationship with my siblings slowly they started seeing the dad that I saw. During staying here with my relative my mom got some console, and help but at the time my dad was paying for child support. But there wasn't enough to get me help which my family thinks I desperately need.
But when child support stopped her console stopped cuz she can't afford it. Then drama started happening with the relative we were with, and we've been moving ever since. But now my mom is on the road making a lot of money to make up for no child support. Until the child support office is gets their affairs in order because my dad gave them 27 different addresses. We are living with relative to relative that will take us in, and watch us. But my mom will be coming back soon to get a rent house, so that we can finally settle down. After a whole year of dealing with all this without him. I'll be 16, and I don't know how to feel cuz it marks the anniversary of a scar physical, emotional, and mental at my worst. But it is the same day as my celebration of birth. Which I sometimes wish never happened.

Haven't seen my niece and nephew in awhile and recently found out they love squishmallows. I was wondering if there were any exclusive to Japan that I could bring them as a surprise? I have a few days to track them down. Any suggestions would be terrific.

CHAPTER 9 – ENTROPY
DATE: MARCH 10th, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION) LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL
CAPTAIN HENRY O’TOOLE
"Ah, there you are Commander. Your message said there was something you wanted to talk with me about?" Henry asked as his executive officer approached the system map.
“Aye Captain, now's a good a time as any. As you know, the rate of disciplinary incidents has more than tripled in the last two weeks. We've had six fistfights, one near strangling, a few dozen counts of sexual harassment amongst different parties, and a few more incidents of a nature that I would rather not get into for fear of derailing the point of this conversation. I need additional resources to allocate towards ship internal security. With your permission, I'd like to borrow some of our more trusted marines to help the MA's out on their off shifts.” Commander Alvarez asked.
“Yeah, of course, take what you need to nip this in the bud. I can't say I'm entirely surprised; we expected a certain amount of this with the stresses of FTL travel. With everyone cooped up like this, maybe we should brainstorm some new outlets for the crew. Were there any specific incidents I need to get involved with?” Henry replied as he looked up from the list of updates and reports on his own console.
“No, I have it covered. It's just the regs state I need to ask permission to use marines for internal security matters.” The Commander waved it off.
“Excellent, continue to keep me in the loop then. Can I ask you a question?” Henry took the opportunity to ask something that had been bothering him.
“You just did. Hah! Just kidding, put the axe away boy! Now what would you like to know?” He said with a twinkle in his eye.
“I've seen your file, well, the parts that weren’t redacted anyway. If anything, I should be taking your orders! I mean, you're the Space Wolf! Nobody came even close to the number of ships captured or destroyed than you in the early days of the battle for the belt. Why would they want me to be captain when they had someone like you coming along the whole time? Why aren't you a captain anymore? By all right this should be your command, not mine.” Henry asked, after taking one last look around to verify they were still alone around the system map.
Commander Alvarez seemed stunned for a moment before he settled into a more pensive look.
“Listen, son, you're all full of the vigor and high passions of youth. By that I mean you've got a certain fire and aggression in you, yet I've seen you generally keep it balanced by wit and wisdom. You are a perfect match for the job, even if you could use some more real world experience. With some guidance, you'll do just fine, if you can keep strict standards for yourself and crew and a cool head when things get tough."
"I appreciate that, and I will definitely lean on your experience whenever possible. However, you didn't really answer my question... Why aren't you a captain anymore?"
"I... got a lot of damn good men and women killed in an impossible situation when we lost the Michigan-II, and I never truly got over it. No amount of medals, captured enemy ships, or the fact that I've saved many more lives than I lost can make up for that. I finally found peace with that, but that peace required that I relieve myself of any chance of future command. My legacy, for better or worse, is set in stone. Joining this expedition gives me another chance at adjusting the scales without breaking my former vows, even if the only people who will ever know it are here on the voyage with us.”
“So, you claim you have no aims or desires for leadership, but here you are a mere heartbeat away from it.” Henry said, carefully studying his executive officer's every reaction.
“My time for glory is mostly gone, yours is at your feet before you. To the world, I am retired in comfort and isolation. In reality you have me here to help make your will law. You can relax. I already turned down command of this expedition. I was plan A, why do you think they had to scramble to find you? I will take command of this mission only if you are incapable of doing so yourself, Sir. In the meantime, let my experience and whatever wisdom I can offer guide you.”
An emergency alert snapped both of their attention out of their conversation. "There's a fire in one of the officer's cabins?!" Henry’s pulse quickened as he referenced the map to find which one.
“Fuck, it started in Chantal’s room!” Henry said, horrified.
“I've got the CIC under control. Go on and get her out of there, I'll send the cavalry."
“Thank you, Commander.” Henry called back over his shoulder as he rushed for the quick lift.
The officer cabins were the in the very next deck overhead, so he was able to arrive quickly and break into a sprint. The ship shifted as it dodged some antimatter, causing Henry to slip and scramble back to his feet. As he rounded the corner he saw her door was closed and the keypad powered was off. He could hear thumps and muffled screaming from within the room.
"HANG ON CHANTAL, I'M COMING!" Henry shouted in the hope that she could hear him as he pried at the manual override panel.
Two modified Paladin exo-combat armor suits rounded the corner seconds later with a hospitalman trailing behind pushing a medical cart.
"WE'LL TAKE IT FROM HERE, SIR." A speaker-amplified voice spoke from behind him.
One of the Paladin suits accessed the manual control override and forced the door open enough for the other suit to reach in and pry it the rest of the way open as smoke plumed into the corridor. The second suit charged into the room with its flood lights on as a water cannon mounted on the right wrist sprayed flame retardant from a pack on its back. The first suit abandoned the door control and entered, emerging moments later with Chantal awake and coughing from inside the darkened door frame. She was quickly ushered into cleaner air, set gently down, wrapped in a blanket, and was quickly attended to by a hospitalman who began to check her vitals.
Relief flooded Henry’s mind as his adrenaline surge broke against the wall of worry he had built up during his mad dash from the CIC.
“Baby you came for me! I thought I was going to die in there." She pulled him into a tight embrace as she wept in cathartic release.
"Of course I did! I couldn't stand to lose you, especially not over something like this. So, what the hell happened in there?"
"Well you know me, I was all burning the midnight oil and then I smelled smoke! Then there were some sparks, the outlet pops then whoosh! My computer station and my desk are all ablaze along with half my notes, then the damned door wouldn't work! I had to drop to the floor under the smoke and pound on the door in hopes that someone would hear me. God, it was horrible... I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life." She replied with a deep shudder.
"You're safe now, it's going to be alright."
"I know, but what about my work?" She replied with a forlorn look back at her smoke damaged room.
"What about your work?"
"As you know, I lost a ton of it just now, but what’s worse is I don't even have the ability to recover them! Remember how I lost my backup drive last week? Like, I know I packed it and it is not here anywhere! It’s like some sick cosmic joke on me or something. Sorry! Gotta keep it positive, girl! I get to rethink my last few weeks’ worth of work from scratch... that was almost positive! I probably have most of this recoverable from email sent box backups. Fuck, what do you do if there's no good silver lining?” Chantal bemoaned.
Henry couldn’t help himself but laugh for a second, while his girlfriend stared at him, waiting for a response.
“I’m sorry, is this funny to you or something?”
“No, no of course not. This might be one of those times where the only silver lining is that you're alive. Plus, if anyone can remember and rebuild their notes, you can." Henry smiled down at her.
“Fine, fine, at least I am alive. I was only breathing smoke for a few seconds after all.” She said, rolling her eyes. “Thank you for rushing down here right away anyway, it means a lot. You're amazing, you know.”
Henry smiled, slightly uncomfortable for a moment, so he changed the subject.
“I do my best... Anyway, it seems like these electrical issues seem to be getting worse instead of better. Whatever patch these clowns have slapped on my ship to get her to pass inspection is clearly coming undone. What do you think is going on here?” Henry asked in mild exasperation.
“Honestly, I can’t tell you without digging into the systems myself, which I would rather avoid. My plate is full enough as it is right now, especially having to reproduce so much of my own work now. This ship has kilometers of power cables running throughout it, after all, and you have an entire loyal, capable team down there in electrical, so it should only be a matter of time before they sort it out for you. Let them do their jobs without harassing them too much, please?”
Henry felt a little irked at her for not giving him credit to know not to go overboard, but he stowed it, seeing as she ultimately was right.
“The crew has been under a lot of stress, too, between the technical issues with the lights going out, losing power to workstations, or the constant antimatter threat. More than a few people have tried to convince me to turn us around and return to S33 for a more in-depth refit and repair cycle before we try the mission again. So far, everyone has accepted the fact that we are continuing the mission without much argument, but I fear what may happen if these issues are seen as getting worse. Our orders are clear, though, we must continue the journey.” Henry said, uncomfortable with the implications, even if he didn't dare voice it.
“You should get on the Q-Comm to report the fire to S33. Maybe they will order us back to base after this.” She offered, looking for a solution to an impossible problem.
“Good idea, at least the Q-Comm is still working. It’s incredible to me those particles maintained their entanglement once we passed through the baryonic barrier. That alone has been a huge morale boost, being able to contact home base with no time lag.” Henry replied.
“It’s incredible to you because you only have a basic grasp of the science, hon. But that’s alright, very few people truly understand it. That’s in part what you have me here for anyway. Einstein called the effect spooky action from a distance; I always liked that line.”
Henry ran his fingers through his hair and looked at Chantal, with a shake of his head and a smile.
“Listen, Henry, I just had a crazy stressful experience and I need to unwind. Plus, I haven’t slept in almost a day, so I am bone tired. Let’s go to bed, huh? What do you say doc, am I clear to go?” Chantal asked.
The hospitalman closed her eyes and shook her head before responding. "Yes, you are cleared to rest, and only to rest, do you understand me?"
Chantal mouthed a thank you before she took Henry by the hand and led him off to the captain’s quarters. Henry felt no desire to fight it, nor flaw with her reasoning. Sleep sounded good, really good. Plus, he was about an hour from the start of his sleep shift anyway, and Alvarez had the CIC well covered. The lights flickered again, but Henry very purposefully ignored it.
“Hey, since we have a little time and we are both a little wound up, Why don’t we take a shower together real quick?” She said with genuine enthusiasm and a wink.
“Madam, I like the way you think.” The couple raced just a bit faster than regulations would have liked, and arrived at his door in record speed.
Inside the room they fell upon each other in great passion and need, stripping each other out of their BDU’s and underclothes. Henry tossed a giggling Chantal onto the bed, and proceeded to kiss her neck and nibble on her ear causing her to purr in anticipation before he moved down her chest, past her navel, and then eagerly began to move his kisses in between her thighs.
“Hah…. I haven’t showered. Are you sure? Oooookay! I think…. Hah…. Okay.” She said breathlessly as Henry began to work his tongue until she began to shiver and squirm before she cried out as she melted in his mouth.
“Enough, please, I can’t take it anymore! Just fuck me already!” Chantal pulled herself together enough to beg for it. Henry stood rigid and ready and set himself to granting her request, first slowly, and then with a growing intensity. She once more began to squirm as he paid close attention to her hip’s cues, knowing very well by now what she liked.
As she climaxed again, Henry lifted her from the bed and pushed her up against the wall, and then bent her over his desk for a bit before he could take it no longer and they finished together.
“Holy shit… my legs aren’t gonna work for a bit after that one. Help me up?” Chantal said in between shallow breaths.
“Yes, ma’am. It would be my pleasure.” Henry said as he helped her to her feet and into the shower, staying in longer than was strictly necessary.
Henry left the steam first, once more thankful that his cabin included its own small bathroom, rather than a communal one. Being captain had its perks, after all. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist, then handed another to Chantal who gratefully accepted it before it dropped to the ground as she stared straight past him.
“Henry!" She squeaked as she pointed past him.
"What?" Henry asked, confused.
"Henry, someone was in here!”
On their bathroom mirror, wiped from the steam were the words TURN BACK.
Henry's blood ran cold and his adrenaline spiked him into overdrive. He waved Chantal back into the shower and put his finger to his lips. She nodded then wrapped herself in her retrieved towel and dropped to the shower floor with her arms wrapped around her knees, whimpering slightly. Henry moved silently along the wall, watching the visible half of his room for any movement. He then burst round the door frame, only to find everything perfectly, precisely as they had left it. The shock of finding nothing collided with the spike of his adrenaline surge, which only fed his growing unease.
“There’s nobody here!” Henry called out after checking the closet, the only other place someone could have hidden.
“Did you lock the door?” Chantal asked, her mind already working on the mystery.
“I set the security protocol to auto lock every time it closes.”
“Paul. We need to talk to Paul.” Chantal said, squeezing her BDU’s up over her hips with a few hops. Henry pulled on his undershirt before tossing over her bra.
“Why would we want to bring that weasel into this?” Henry asked, incredulous at to how he could possibly help.
“Because he has access to the surveillance tapes, why else?”
Henry stared at Chantal, brimming with rage, trying his hardest to keep it isolated to Paul over the invasion of his privacy.
“Did you just say surveillance tapes!?!” Henry asked in an icy tone. “That does it, I’m going to strangle him.” Henry said, moving with a purpose toward the door.
“Stop. Turn around and give me a kiss. I already disabled the video cameras, at least all the ones I could find. He has audio at best, even that I doubt. What he does have that I want is the data from the motion sensor that he had installed just in case you found the more obvious bugs. Unfortunately, I sabotaged its effectiveness by blocking the sensor with dense foam, but there might be enough of something to give us a clue."
“How in the hell do you know about all of this anyway, and why the hell didn’t you tell me?!” Henry roared.
“This entire enterprise is run by an intelligence agency; how can you not have seen that one coming a mile away? I have gotten very good at catching bugs over the years. Just because I expect the invasion of privacy to be happening, doesn’t mean I have to make it easy on them. Just be happy I already took care of the issue, alright?” She replied firmly while staring him in the eyes with raised eyebrows.
“You’re incredible, I love you.” Henry blurted out before he could catch himself. Chantal beamed and tackled him to the bed sitting on his lap.
“What took you so long? Never mind, don’t answer that. I love you too, man have I wanted to say that one for a while now.”
“You know these things aren’t easy for me. I had to be sure, I also didn’t want to mess anything up. We need to be able to work together even if we had turned out to be a bad couple.” Henry admitted, Chantal made an show as she thought it over, but she then smiled and helped Henry to his feet.
“Alright, my captain. You speak great wisdom. While I have certainly felt, and thoroughly enjoyed, the depths of your passion, it is really nice to hear about it too. I do think it makes it all the better that you rule said passion with reason. It’s just one of the many things I love about you.” She said, laying her hand over his heart.
Henry took her other hand and kissed it before replying. “I think above all, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t take you for granted, nor suffer the same in reverse. A wise woman once gave me some great advice there that I have taken to heart.”
“Okay, Romeo, maybe you have a better handle on these things than you think. Now… Let’s go interrogate Paul.” Chantal had a fire in her eyes that Henry was loving very much at that moment.
“I have wanted to turn the screws on that spook for a while now.” Henry smiled as he spoke, and he opened up the connection to the ship’s intranet through his neural implant to send a message.
MEET ME IN YOUR QUARTERS IN 5 MINUTES FOR A DISCUSSION OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE – CPT. O'TOOLE
“That ought to get him there and alone.” Henry smirked. “Let’s go.”
Together, they made their way to Paul’s equivalent-sized quarters, which he had somehow secured for himself in the ship design to help facilitate his role as the official thorn in Henry’s paw. I guess being the captain’s handler has its perks as well. Henry’s eye twitched at the corner.
After making them wait far too long, Paul opened the door and gesturing them inside. The door closed and Paul turned towards them, narrowing his eyes, studying them both.
“Is this about the fire?” Paul asked before Henry punched the weasel right in the diaphragm, forcing him to gasp for air. The look of shock on his face as he bent forwards was priceless.
“What the fuck, Henry!?” Paul managed to choke out after a minute between gasps.
“Relax, I didn’t do any permanent damage, yet.” Henry said, Paul for just a second showed actual fear in his eyes before he sneered in defiance. “Oh? That got your attention, did it? Why were you spying on me?” Henry growled.
Paul closed his eyes, dropped his head, and began to laugh before Henry grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall. Foolishly, Paul even then kept laughing amidst the gasping. So Henry squeezed until Paul started slapping his arm, looking genuine fear once more growing across his face.
“Orders… I was following orders!” Paul managed to say amidst gasps and coughs.
“I thought it might be something like that. You're going to open up those files, now, and you're going to show me everything.” Henry said, dropping him to his feet at last.
“Fucking hell, Henry, I thought you of all people would have anticipated this was going to be the case. Do you think the people who made this all possible would simply let you fly around the most dangerous, advanced warship in human history without some insurance?”
“Don’t try and weasel out of your own personal culpability here. You may also want to think back to other people who were “only following orders” while performing acts they knew were wrong before you wave that line around like some get out of jail free card.” The fact that he had nothing to say spoke volumes.
“You should have told me, Paul.” Henry growled.
“That defeats the purpose! Plus, your girlfriend sabotaged them all before we ever left S33 anyway, and once more after! That type of tech doesn’t just grow on trees you know, and I don’t have an unlimited supply. You should be thanking me for covering for her and reporting back like things are normal!” Paul shouted in indignation.
“This is pointless, show me the files from around fifteen minutes ago, motion trackers, thermals, anything you have that's not blocked or sabotaged.” Henry commanded. Paul’s eyes narrowed, but after a long moment he huffed and closed his eyes.
Paul then sat down at his station and fired it up.
“Like I said, I've got practically nothing. No video, muffled audio and readings from what I assume to be a faulty motion sensor, that’s it. What are we looking for?”
“Chantal and I were, well, together. After we got out of the shower we saw that someone had written turn back in the condensation on the bathroom mirror. Only problem? My door auto locks when closed and only opens for my biometrics. That is why all of this even came up in the first place.”
“Motherfucker. That's a whole heap of bad news.” Paul said. Henry merely nodded, paying rather more attention to the screen to see if he could catch Paul in a lie about the extent of the spying.
“There’s nothing. No disturbances in the air that would even remotely resemble human movement between you two getting in the shower and you charging into your bedroom. With the noise of the shower and the distance to the microphone, there is nothing I can discern that is anomalous. You can see it all right here for yourself.”
Henry found himself even more confused and alarmed than before.
“How is that possible? Look again, run through some filters or something. There must be some evidence somewhere!”
“Alright, relax, I will get to work on this and get you a report by the end of C shift. In the meantime, you look like a mess. Get some sleep man! I can take care of it from here. Oh, and I want you to remember that I forgave you quite magnanimously for that little episode back there where you attacked me.” Henry and Chantal gave each other a look as Paul spoke.
“Wasn’t gonna apologize anyway, you had it coming. I’m going to hit the rack. I expect that report to be detailed and ready when I get up.” Henry took Chantal by the hand, and they left together, not waiting for a response.
“What a snake. Did you see him in there? Zero guilt or recognition whatsoever about spying like that. It just makes my skin crawl. Gives me bad memories.” Chantal said, turning pensive and quiet.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Henry asked, seeing that there was something clearly bothering her.
“I… had an uncle that lived with us from time to time and he would spy on me when I was dressing, try and sneak looks in the shower, stuff like that. Never touched me or anyone else that I know of, thank god, but man did it screw me up a bit still. Played havoc with my sense of security and even my sanity, never being quite sure it was real or all in my head. I wish I had said something, but I was afraid everyone would think I was overreacting or imagining it. I saw it in his eyes though, that look of... predatory lust. At least I didn't see anything like that in Paul's eyes. To this day it makes my skin crawl.”
“Good God, I can see how alone you must have felt in the middle of all that.” He squeezed her hand, she smiled up at him.
“Yeah, that was one of the hardest parts. I don’t think Paul is some raging pervert or anything, but it concerns me how normalized it was to him. Even if he isn’t being a creep with it, as if we can take his claims to be covering for me at face value. There is still no way I am going to let him have easy access to intimate videos of us, if I can possibly help it.” Chantal said before adding, “I’ll be all right, don’t worry about me. Let’s just get some sleep.”
Henry put his palm against the biometric scanner outside his room and the door slid open for them. They definitely needed some sleep after the emotional roller coaster of the past few hours, and the irresistible warm embrace of his bed called for him. The Q-Comm report could wait until he woke, he decided.
Better to have the electrical inspection ordered up, too.
I WANT A FULL REPORT AND INSPECTION PERFORMED ON THE ELECTRICAL FIRE IN CHANTAL’S ROOM BY THE START OF A SHIFT. – CAPT. O'TOOLE
Good enough. Henry thought as he sent the message. Now he could sleep. The chief could handle it from there.
MEANWHILE…
DATE : MARCH 10th, 7 A.U. LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL
FIREMAN APPRENTICE SARAH CALLAHAN
It'll be back again tonight...
Sarah’s haunted thoughts repeated like a mantra. She had to be ready, but how? Her skin crawled and itched, the long sleeves of her BDU’s prevented her from being able to do anything about the painful sensation from the inflamed scratches they hid. She blearily rubbed at her sunken eyes, and she drained the rest of her coffee. All the numbers on the screen had started bleeding in together and her eyes hurt horribly, with the throbbing pain in her abdomen only compounding her misery.
“My god, Sarah, you look a wreck, hon. How have you been sleeping?” Yvonne, her shift partner asked, with concern in her voice.
“I have a monster tension headache, I just hope the meds kick in soon. Can you check my math? I need to get out of these white lights for a few minutes. Close my eyes for a bit, something, anything. I've been having nightmares again.” Sarah felt good, being able to admit it, and Yvonne had long since proven her friendship, so it was easier to actually speak.
“Yeah, no prob. As soon as I am done here I will check your readings and we can get out of here. Do you mean nightmares from the invasion?” Yvonne asked, carefully picking her words and tone.
“Kind of the same general themes, but different. Everything is going wrong, like the worst possible outcomes of my worst nightmares are all combining together. Like, it feels actively malicious, I don't know, its hard to explain...” Sarah said, bleakly.
“That’s hard, I am sorry. You need a shower, and an uninterrupted nap. Sleep deprivation plays all kinds of hell on the body and mind. I had a friend who went through an insomniac phase so extreme he would go days without sleeping. Wound up in the hospital after trying to drive to work while hallucinating his dead fiancée was sitting in the passenger seat screaming at him to watch out. Wound up rear-ending the car in front of him. Thank God he lived to tell the tale, but that is why it worries me to see you like this.” Yvonne planted her hand on Sarah’s shoulder as she told the story.
“Yikes, I think I slept like two hours into my sleep shift before I started having the nightmares again, woke up, and passed in and out of some restless sleep. It got really bad around oh three hundred. There were sounds... noises like scratching and a loud bang, and the shadows were moving. I just kept feeling like I was being watched, but everyone else seemed to be having disturbed sleep in their bunks. God, it was a creepy feeling.” Sarah took a moment to compose herself.
“I know how crazy this will sound, maybe that I am sleep deprived and likely hallucinating like your friend, but just hear me out. There was something there Yvonne, in the dark at the edge of perception, I could feel it. I also know I wasn’t the only one tossing and turning either. I could also hear scratchy whispering, too. I just hid, strapped in under the weighted blanket. At some point I slept some more, I must have, but not for what felt like a few stressful and draining hours. I'm just making a total mess of explaining this, aren’t I?”
“No, you're fine, girl! I am sorry that happened, my dorm has been pretty quiet, but I have always slept like a rock. Is there anything I can do?”
“I could use a hug.” Sarah said, which caused Yvonne to laugh, breaking some of the tension. They embraced warmly for a good minute, which did wonders for relieving some of the headache and her black mood.
“Thanks, Yvonne, I know it’s all in my head and it’s a vicious feedback cycle due to lack of quality sleep. Thanks for listening without calling me crazy.“ Sarah said, shying away from the last thing she hadn’t the courage to say.
She didn’t dare mention how she had hidden under the covers as she felt it get near. How she had felt something pushing on the mattress. How as her fear peaked, she herself peeked over the covers to find nothing there just to have the oppressive feeling evaporate along with the sensation of pressure by her feet. Her dorm mates all seemed to stop stirring after that, and only then did the nightmares stop for her that night. By then she was left with barely enough time for one last short sleep cycle before the start of A shift that very morning. This was a secret she would have to keep to herself, nobody would believe her anyway.
“I think I'll ask the Chief for a break from my duties today to rest and to visit med bay. Maybe they can give me something to help catch back up on my sleep.” Sarah said.
“Good idea, can I come with? I’ll back you up.” Yvonne said. Sarah smiled at her friend before she nodded at her before they checked off the last of their duties on site and headed away to find the Chief.

My wedding is next month, and my fiance and I are trying to minimize the guest list as much as we can. On the invites, we have CLEARLY stated how many persons are invited to the reception, also have mentioned it's an ADULT-ONLY RECEPTION.
My father's uncle (late 80s) has three daughters, all of which are married. I will name them Tina (youngest, one 3 year old daughter), Jamie (middle, one 6 year old son), and Alexy (oldest with 2 young adult kids) for the sake of storytelling.
Two months ago, it was my bridal shower, and Tina brought her 3 year old with her without informing me beforehand (which is fine, she's 3), and then Alexy also brought her 21 year old daughter claiming "Jamie can't make it so I will get my daughter instead". This was done and over.
Now, the invites were given to them last week, we only invited my father uncle and his wife, and the three daughters with their husbands.
Yesterday, I receive a message from Alexy asking if her daughter can also attent, even though her card CLEARLY says the invitation is for 2 persons - her and her husband.
I responded saying we're on a tight number with the guest list, and that if Tina's husband who lives in Dubai can't make it, her daughter can take his place.
My father today is guilt tripping me that we shouldn't say no to their request, they're family, etc - but he's not the one paying for the wedding, my fiance is, and each guest costs us around $100.
Today, the youngest sister Tina sent a voice note, saying "I found a flower girl dress in my wardrobe, I will send you an image if you want my 3 year old to stand as a flower girl"
I never insinuated to her once that I was planning to have her daughter as my flower girl. There is only one flower girl, her dress is already decided, and even if I were to have other kids as my flower girls, there are others more close to me than her.
This bugs me because they keep trying to enforce themselves on a wedding they have no hand in planning, and nor am I that close with them. They're my father's uncle's daughters - I see them once a year at the most.
As mentioned, the event is adult-only. The only kids we are having are my fiance's niece and nephew who are the ring boy and flower girl, but something in me says these three sisters will bring their kids, and other relatives who do have kids will be offended.
I don't know how to handle this situation. Any advice?

My wedding is next month, and my fiance and I are trying to minimize the guest list as much as we can. On the invites, we have CLEARLY stated how many persons are invited to the reception, also have mentioned it's an ADULT-ONLY RECEPTION.
My father's uncle (late 80s) has three daughters, all of which are married. I will name them Tina (youngest, one 3 year old daughter), Jamie (middle, one 6 year old son), and Alexy (oldest with 2 young adult kids) for the sake of storytelling.
Two months ago, it was my bridal shower, and Tina brought her 3 year old with her without informing me beforehand (which is fine, she's 3), and then Alexy also brought her 21 year old daughter claiming "Jamie can't make it so I will get my daughter instead". This was done and over.
Now, the invites were given to them last week, we only invited my father uncle and his wife, and the three daughters with their husbands.
Yesterday, I receive a message from Alexy asking if her daughter can also attent, even though her card CLEARLY says the invitation is for 2 persons - her and her husband.
I responded saying we're on a tight number with the guest list, and that if Tina's husband who lives in Dubai can't make it, her daughter can take his place.
My father today is guilt tripping me that we shouldn't say no to their request, they're family, etc - but he's not the one paying for the wedding, my fiance is, and each guest costs us around $100.
Today, the youngest sister Tina sent a voice note, saying "I found a flower girl dress in my wardrobe, I will send you an image if you want my 3 year old to stand as a flower girl"
I never insinuated to her once that I was planning to have her daughter as my flower girl. There is only one flower girl, her dress is already decided, and even if I were to have other kids as my flower girls, there are others more close to me than her.
This bugs me because they keep trying to enforce themselves on a wedding they have no hand in planning, and nor am I that close with them. They're my father's uncle's daughters - I see them once a year at the most.
As mentioned, the event is adult-only. The only kids we are having are my fiance's niece and nephew who are the ring boy and flower girl, but something in me says these three sisters will bring their kids, and other relatives who do have kids will be offended.
I don't know how to handle this situation. Any advice?

[Verse 1: Chance The Rapper] If you keep the house in the family You can keep the family in the house If you on the run, you got family in the South We used to watch "Annie, Are You Okay?" on the couch My cousin used to slam me 'til I punched him in the mouth My aunty used to cook for twenty people every week My uncle in the basement, even if they never speak He come up, grab a beer, some time he kiss her on the cheek Know how to fix a plate, and fix a bike and fix a lеak Fried catfish, bootleg Madea plays Nosy aunty, likе "Let me see your grades" Read more...

TW: Alcoholism, drug addiction, violence, suicidal ideation, sex abuse
This is going to be a LLLLLOOONNNNGGGGG one. This story goes back quite a way, but yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the ending to this story and I'm feeling it, still got some guilt about everything that happened, wondering what I could have done differently and I just want to vent it out and hope to get some closure from it.
This story started in 2010.
Characters in this story (names are fake, duh!):

• Me, Guy, 32M at the time, 45 now.
• My BFF Stephanie, 33F at the time.
• Stephen, 40M at the time, Stephanie's boyfriend.
• Maryse, 27F at the time.

Background and intro
I had known Stephanie for many years and we had the kind of friendship that made her BFs and my GFs uncomfortable to put it lightly. We had never crossed that boundary and I wouldn't consider us in the friendzone, we were just friend, but the kind of friend where she would sit on my lap with her arms around my neck or her head on my shoulder.
At the start of 2010, Stephanie met her then boyfriend, Stephen. He tolerated me and my friendship with Stephanie because I also had a gf back then. She liked Stephanie, wasn't at all jealous of my friendship with her, so he didn't deem me too suspicious. Then my gf and I broke up for reasons unimportant and all hell broke loose for Stephen. He became convinced that I would try and steal Stephanie from him. He insisted that Stephanie introduce me to her female friends or female friends of his. Thus began what I called the year of the 50 blind dates. It was probably closer to 20, but still I like saying the year of 50 blind dates. Most of them were unremarkable and never went beyond the first date. There are some fun stories in there if anyone wants to hear them eventually!
In July of that year, I had to switch gears because I had to focus up and study for a professional exam for a certification important to my career. This exam required close to 600-800 hours of study over a 3-4 month period. So I hunkered down, told Stephanie to stop the blind dates for now because I had to focus on that. She respected my wishes and, other a text here or there, we went low contact for the last two months before the exam.
Except for one fateful night in September. Her birthday was in September and she always threw these big bashes at her house. She would throw a big pool party that started around noon and would go on to the wee hours of the morning. I knew she would harass me to go to her party, so I made some quick math and figured I would lose more energy and time trying to dodge her calls, texts and most likely visits at my place than by just going to the party itself. So when she called me to ask, I just said: "Okay I'll go to your damn party, now git." I texted her I would get there in the evening probably around 8. She texted back "Great, can't wait. Now study, bitch!"
So I ultimately get there around 8PM. Basically everybody is already drunk off their gourd. Stephanie sees me, squeals in excitement and runs to me in her bikini and just jumps in the air and slams into me, wraps her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist and gives me a big hug. I hug her back and just keep walking back to the pool where she had started, carrying her with me. I just duck my head around hers and say hi to Stephen, who just glares at me.
She drops back down and I give her her gift. We chat for a few seconds and says "There's beer in the fridge and food in the dining room." I told her I'd be right back.
I go inside and grab a beer from the fridge. I head to the dining room and the table is against the wall with a buffet of sandwiches, tomato pizza, salads, etc. I grab a plate and start putting food on it. I was focused on the task because I was starving. I barely noticed, sitting at the end of the table one of the most stunning woman I have ever seen. I just see her in my peripheral vision and I do a quick double take, quick glance at her and back to the food. I do that a second time. And finally a third time. At that point she is just straight up staring at me and I can't help but chuckle and whisper under my breath "Subtle Guy, sub-tle".
Thankfully she starts laughing too, saving me some embarassment. I look at her and greet her. She says "Hi, I'm Maryse and I'm guessing you're Guy?" I just nod and we start talking. At that point, I just thought I have no shot with her, she's so far out of my league that I'm just gonna talk to her until she sees one of the "models" hanging out by the pool and ditches me for him.
So I'm not feeling like I'm playing for anything, so I'm just myself and not nervous, just talking to her as I would any friend. We chat and she laughs at all my jokes, she gets all my cultural references. She never gets up or ditches me. The plate of food I had made and the beer I had gotten are sitting on the table next to me untouched, I was too busy with the convo to think about food or beer anymore.
After what felt like only 20-30 minutes, Stephanie comes in and tells me, fake grumpy: "So that's where you disappeared to. I invite my best friend to a party and he spends the whole night talking to someone else." I laugh and go: "What do you mean the whole night? I haven't been here that long." She says "Dude, it's 2AM. You've been here for 6 hours..." My jaw dropped and I just said: "Wow, time flies when you're having fun." Maryse chimes in, with a big smile: "It sure does!" That made me happy as you can imagine.
Now I was a little stuck because where Stephanie lived, there's no night service for the bus and the subway had been closed for an hour or so. I figured I would cab it. So I turn to Maryse and tell her: "It was absolutely lovely to meet you and I enjoyed our conversation very much." She says that she did too. I continued with "At the moment, my schedule is incredibly hectic. I'm basically working full-time, studying full-time and sleeping part-time. So I don't have a lot of free time, but if she was interested, whatever little free time I had, I would love to call her or text her to keep on getting to know her."
I see Stephanie in the backgroudnd, looking like a proud mama at how smooth that came out, knowing I was always anything but smooth with women, as proven by the string of blind dates! Maryse has a big smile and we exchange numbers. I go to Stephanie to wish her a happy birthday again. While I'm talking to her, my phone buzzes with a text from Maryse: "Just checking!"
I asked Stephanie "What's the best cab company to call in this area?" Maryse chimes in: "Where do you live?" I tell her where I lived and she goes "It's on the way to where I live, I can give you a ride if you want." Stephanie raised an eyebrow in surprise. I learned later, she did it because it absolutely was not on the way to her place, like, at all. I say that I would love that as it would give us a chance to keep talking.
We get in her car, driving to my place. We talk, she asks me what I'm studying as I hadn't mentioned it earlier. I tell her all about the boring maths I had to study. Much too quickly, we get to my place. She parks in front of my building and we keep talking. At some point, I tell her: "Normally, this is where I would try to "trick" you into coming up to my place..." She interrupts me: "You wouldn't need to trick me. I'm willing and able!"
I tell her that "As tempting as that sounds, I know who I am and I know that if you come up and things proceed to where they're going, I'm not going to be able to study for the rest of the month. I have a kind of obsessive mind and when I find someone or something I like, I can push everything else to the side in favor of that. So to make sure I can still focus on my studying, I have to go up by myself."
She looks at me, a little disappointed but then says, half-jokingly: "We don't have to go up, there's a backseat right there!" We laugh and I give her a kiss and wish her a good night. I managed to stay strong and go back to my condo. Damn it, why did I have to stay strong!!!
My exam was at the beginning of november. During the month of october, we texted a bunch of times and talked on the phone. We went for coffee a couple of times and dinner once. She respected my boundaries and never pushed for more, which I appreciated but also hated at the same time, if that makes sense. The exam came and it was a monster of a Friday. I slept for basically 18 hours after the exam as the adrenalin dropped and my system crashed.
I texted her when I woke up at around 1PM. She was working at the clothing store Stephanie owned. She said "I'm off at 5PM, wanna meet me." I said: "Duh! Why do you think I'm texting? ;)" So I met her at the store downtown. I asked if she wanted to grab a drink, go for dinner, or what. She proposed going to her place and getting some take out. Stephanie who was closing the store at that moment, came up to us and said: "Hey, so what are we doing?" I said: "WE, that is Maryse and I, are going to her place and getting some takeout. Bye!" I'm sure you'll understand when I tell you that no food was ever ordered that night!
Thus followed a whirlwind month of November where any free time we had was spent together, and I wasn't going to complain!
The troubles
By the start of december, things were still going great with us. One saturday night, we were having dinner at a restaurant and I mention that this coming Friday is my office Christmas party, that it's employees only, so we wouln't see each other that night. She tells me: "Oh sure, that's fine! It'll give me a chance to go see some girlfriends I've been neglecting lately." I said "Great! BTW I also got us a reservation at [this great restaurant she had mentioned a few times] for next Saturday, so we could go there and I'll tell you all about my party and you can tell me all about her night with the girls!"
That was settled, I thought. I was wrong. On Thursday, we had spent the evening together at her place and I was about to leave to go back to my place. She tells me: "So are you coming to meet me at the store tomorrow or do I go to your place?" I reminded her: "Neither, tomorrow is my office Christmas party and we won't see each other tomorrow." She said: "Oh right, I forgot." I asked her if she had made plans with her friends like she had mentioned last saturday. She said that they were all busy tomorrow and weren't available.
She suggested "If your party is boring, maybe you could come meet me." I retorted that it wasn't going to be, knowing who was going to be there.
"Yeah but what if?"
"But it won't"
"But what IFFFFFF?" she kept insisting and I kept saying no. After what felt like 30 minutes of that (probably only 2-3 minutes in reality), I had enough and just said to end the argument: "Okay, if it's boring, I'll come. but it won't be." She said: "Cool" with a big smile on her face. I came to learn that that smile meant "Challenge accepted".
The following night, my colleague and I were pregaming in a conference room before leaving for the party proper and my phone buzzes. Maryse was wishing me a good party. I replied. She texted me again. I replied. She texted again, but I was in a conversation with a colleague so I didn't reply or even look at the phone. My phone buzzes again. Still talking, and didn't want to be rude to my colleague. Another buzz. I just kept talking. Phone buzzes differently, she was now calling because I hadn't answered her texts.
"Why aren't you replying to my texts?"
"Hey, sorry, was talking to my colleague Patrick."
"What? you don't want to talk to me?"
"I am talking to you now."
"Why didn't you reply to my texts?"
"Because it would have been rude to my colleague to pull my phone out while talking to him."
"But you're talking to me now."
"Because I thought something was wrong, maybe it was an emergency."
"I wanted to talk to you, that's all."
"Well, gotta go back to the party. Talk to you later."
She kept texting and if I didn't reply right away, she would call after two or three missed texts. After about 2 hours of this, I stopped answering the texts. When she called back, I asked her: "Aren't you supposed to be working?" which started another round of guilt-tripping of "why are you asking me this? you don't want to talk to me?" At that point I had had enough and wanted to enjoy my party. I remembered that the Blackberry (no shaming old tech!) I had had an annoying feature, but I was hoping to put it to good use at that moment.
Whenever the battery would get really low, like less than 1%, it would let out an ear-piercing BEEP for about 3 seconds, reminiding you to charge it and giving you a heart attack all at the same time. It would do that even when you were in silent mode. It had happened a few days earlier when I was with Maryse. I figured, if I press a button on the Blackberry, it would make a beep too that could be heard through the phone. So while I was talking to Maryse, I pressed my thumb on the space bar for a good 3 seconds and sputtered; "what... the .... what?" trying to put on a somewhat believable performance.
She asked what that noise was and I tell her that it was my blackberry letting me know I was low battery and it might shut off any second. I told her "Listen I'm gonna wish you a good night, I'm having a good time at my party so I'll see you tomorrow at 5PM to go spend our evening together. I hope you have a good....." and hung up mid-sentence. I promptly shut my phone off and went back to the party. I concede that I may be a bit of an AH for that move.
The party was great, I got drunk much quicker than I expected owing to the fact that I hadn't had a drink in over two months because Maryse didn't drink so I didn't either when we were together, and we were always together. At 1AM, I went home and passed out on my bed.
This is another place where I may have been an AH. I didn't turn my cell phone back on and I unplugged my home line too, because I wanted to sleep the deep sleep of the drunkard. I woke up at around 1:30 PM, not knowing it was already too late. In my mind, I was meeting Maryse at 5PM to go out on the town that night. Maryse had other ideas as you'll see.
So like I said, I woke up at 1:30PM and was sticky with alcohol sweat, so I went straight for the shower to get clean again. While in the shower, my stomach grumbled with hunger and I started daydreaming of bacon and eggs. That pushed me out of the shower right quick. I dried myself off quickly, tied the towel around my waist and went to the fridge. No bacon.... booo. Looked at the egg compartment... no eggs... booo again. Okay then, how about a cream cheese bagel. No cream cheese, damn it. Look in the pantry, no bagels.... god. I was starting to get angry. Okay, cereals then. I pick up the cereal box, that mofo was empty and I get mad: "who's the idiot who puts the empty box back in the pantry?" I remembered I live alone.
I close the fridge dejected and see the grocery list stuck on the fridge, taunting me with everything I wanted to eat for breakfast written on it. But I felt like if I went to the grocery store hungry as I Was, I'm just gonna pay 600$ and not get one single healthy thing to eat. I then remembered there's a restaurant next to the grocery store that serves breakfast until 3PM. I get excited! I get dressed quickly, grab my wallet and keys, put my boots on, my coat on, wrap my scarf, my tuque and my gloves and go to the restaurant. If you notice, I didn't mention my phone in there.
I get to the restaurant and confirm that they still have breakfast and get even more excited when she confirms it. I order the "heart attack", at least that's how I nicknamed it: 3 eggs, 3 servings of bacon, 2 sausages, and, I guess to give one peace of mind, fruit (or to be precise, one single solitary slice of orange). Now that the food is ordered and coming I figured I would check if I have any messages. I pat the pocket where my phone always is. No phone. uh-oh. I start clutching evert pocket, no luck.
I wonder if I should go back home after the meal before going to the grocery store and decide against it, it would be too long a detour. So I scarf my breakfast down, rush through the grocery store. I get home and set my bags down in front of the fridge. I go pick up my blackberry. I turn it back on. The little tape icon tells me there are messages on my voicemail, at that time there were no red dots with a number in it to tell you how many.
I connect to the voicemail while starting to put the groceries away. The little automated voice tells me "You have 25 new messages." I pull the phone away from my ear, look at it in disbelief as if saying: "are you f'ing kidding me?" So I press 1 to start playing the messages.
Remember: Maryse knew I was at a party with a dead phone, no chargers and I probably wouldn't get home until 1AM. From 6:30PM, when my phone died, to 11:34 PM, when she went to sleep she left me 9 messages. BTW I know she went to sleep at 11:34PM because she left me a message saying "it's 11:34PM and I'm going to bed. Thinking of you." The 9 messages were in the same vein. These are the salient details, but the messages were all much longer.
She woke up at 7:15 the following day, I'll let you guess how I know that tidbit of information! She left me 5 more messages like those from the day before: 7:15 woke up. 7:35 going to take a shower. 7:55 out of the shower. 8:25 getting ready to leave for work 8:50 walking out of the subway to go to the store.
She leaves me another message at 9 that was different. She sounded very excited as if she had had the best idea in the world: "Hey it's 9AM, I'm about to start my shift. I know we're only supposed to meet after my shift, but what if you came and met me for lunch so you could tell me all about your party." I just did my best Scooby-Doo "Ruh-Roh" and chuckled that I blew that, not thinking the calamity that was awaiting me.
Another couple of messages to talk logistics: "I could take my lunch at 12 or 12:30, let me know which you prefer." "I'm taking my lunch at 12:30"
A slightly worried message: "It's 11:15 and you stil have not said if you were coming or not, are you okay?"
The first bomb goes off and I knew I was in trouble then: "Where are you? We're supposed to meet for lunch and you still haven't given me any sign of life, you're not answering your home phone either, what happened?" Reminder: we were not supposed to meet for lunch, she suggested doing so a couple of hours earlier and I never agreed to anything. I guess she told her colleagues I would meet her for lunch and it was now fact and could perhaps make her look bad in front of her colleagues.
The second bomb drops: "It's almost noon now, WHERE ARE YOU? Stephanie says you're probably sleeping off your drunk, but I don't believe her. I'm sure you got yourself a slut and cheated on me. Didn't you? didn't you, you asshole." Stephanie knows me very well, but that wasn't enough for Maryse it seems.
Ensued four more messages from 12:30 to 1:15, where she starts sounding more and more drunk and accusatory, spewing more attacks like in the message above. At that point I already knew it was over, there was no coming back from that. I can understand having trust issues, but that was nuclear. I don't tolerate jealousy because of horrible experiences with a couple of jealous toxic exes.
A final message comes in, and it's a different voice, that of my best friend being more than a little angry: "Hey Guy, listen, Maryse tells me you had a Christmas party yesterday, so I'm guessing you're sleeping off your drunk, still. But call me when you get this. I put Maryse, who's f'ing drunk, in the backstore so she can dry off and "do inventory". She can't be on the sales floor obviously and I just don't feel safe sending her home in the state she's in. Call me to tell me how you want to handle this."
At that point I had finished putting away my groceries and had put my boots and my coat on and was making my way to the subway to go to the store. I call Stephanie and tell her I got the messages and I was coming. She was right, I was sleeping off my drunk and had just woke up (didn't feel the need to mention the breakfast and grocery store). I ask her if she knows what I'm gonna do when I get there. She says that she knows and understands. She knows my bad history.
When I get out of the subway, I call her again before getting to the store. I ask her how she wants me to do this. It's her store and I don't want to create drama in front of her customers. Does she want me to wait outside and she tells Maryse to meet me in the street or do I go in the store and she takes me to the backstore and I do it there? She says to come to the store.
I walk in the store and every saleswomen on the floor looks at me and gives me the biggest case of the stink-eye. They only have Maryse's side of the story, so they think I did all these horrible things. I see Stephanie in the middle of the store and I walk towards her. She shakes her head and points me towards the cash register. I look over there and see Julia, a salesperson that I've known for a couple of years and really like, who also happens to be the biggest gossip in the store. I understand what Stephanie is trying to do. She's gonna make me tell her my story in front of Julia so Julia can spread the "good news" to the other employees and rehabilitate my name possibly.
So I get to the register and say Hi to Julia. She barely acknoledges me. Steph joins me. She asks me:
"How are you?"
"I was better an hour ago, before I listened to those voicemails. I had gone to our office party last night, had a great night, got drunk off my ass, got home at around 2 and woke up around 2."
Julia asks "Maryse told us you were supposed to meet her for lunch."
"No we weren't. I have a reservation for tonight at XYZ restaurant. I was supposed to take the day to do errands, stuff around the condo and meet her here at closing time. She suggested that it could be fun if I came at lunchtime to meet her, but that was never the plan."
Julia asks again "But why didn't you answer your phone?"
"It ran out of battery last night during the party and when I got home, I was so drunk that I forgot to plug it back in. I only plugged it when I woke up at 2. That's when the messages came in."
Julia asks "She says she tried calling your home line and you didn't answer and your machine didn't kick in."
"Yeah, that one's my fault, I knew I wanted to sleep and telemarketers have a habit of calling me early saturday mornings so I didn't want to be awoken by a call for a rug cleaning service, so I unplugged it yesterday morning, knowing I would be drunk when I got home and forget and be angry if I was awakened by a telemarketer."
Julia gave me a hint of a smile, showing me she was starting to believe me. She asked me a few more questions and then she asked what I was gonna do. I told her that whatever I'll do, I would tell Maryse first.
I looked at Stephanie and said: "Can you open the back store so I can go see her?" So we went to the backstore. As we reached the door, it swung opened and out popped Maryse, looking absolutely terrifying, I actually jumped back when I saw her. Her usual perfect makeup was completely smeared, her mascara streaking down her cheeks from the crying. Her hair was disheveled. She was a mess. Apparently, she had had enough of waiting back there and was planning on leaving the store to go home and had put her coat and boots on.
When she saw me, she went into an unhinged rant about me being an asshole for cheating on her, me not being great in bed, me not treating her right, etc. I let her vent everything she had to say, I looked at Stephanie and apologized for creating such a scene in her store. I tell Maryse we should go outside and talk in private. She keeps on yelling, but when I grab her hand to lead her outside, she follows.
When we get outside, her anger had started to wane a little, or maybe just her energy. I was able to talk to her to explain everything, how I had gotten drunk, had overslept (alone) and woke up at 2PM. I reminded her that we were only supposed to meet at 5PM not for lunch. The anger was leaving her and a smile almost appeared on her face. Through all of this I was being very calm and patient with her, which she interpreted as me not being mad at her. I then said in a firmer tone: "However..." and let it hang for a second.
The beginning smile vanished. I continued: "When you accused me of cheating on you, that broke me. That triggered memories of toxic exes who would always accuse me of cheating, not trusting me when I would tell them where I was, snooping on me, stalking me. Because of those experiences, I have a zero tolerance policy for jealousy. I told her that if she was behaving like after only two months of dating, it didn't bode well for the future and I have to protect myself."
At that, the tears started again and she just turned and ran/waddled away. I told her to wait, but she didn't hear me. I turned towards the entrance of the store to see basically all the employees and customers milling around the door trying to catch the drama. I went back inside to talk to my best friend. The mood had definitely changed and no one was giving me the stink eye anymore, but I didn't really care. I was just sad that it had ended, but proud of myself for having stood up for myself.
So AITA for getting drunk and keeping my phone turned off?
There is a lot more to this story and if you want to learn what happened afterwards, then read on.
The immediate aftermath
So I went back inside the store and talked to Stephanie. I told her that I had a reserrvation for XX restaurant and if she wanted to go with Stephen, she could take it, I wasn't in the mood for a dinner. She said "I already have plans for tonight, but thanks for offering." Julia said she would go with me if I wanted, but I just said that I wasn't in the mood to go out. I just wanted to crash and eat a pizza and get into a food coma.
Stephanie said she didn't feel comfortable leaving me by myself and I should join them at her house. They were having friends over to play board games and it could at least distract me a little. I said why not. So brimming with enthusiasm, I went to play bored games. I left early as I wasn't in the mood. I was feeling a little better, but still a bit down. I thanked Stephanie for the invite and left. I got home and just passed out on the bed.
I woke up at around 7AM the next morning and I saw along the corners of the window the tell-tale signs of a snow-drift and got excited as it was the first snow of the season. I pushed the curtains aside and looked on to see a beautiful white carpet outside. It was early enough that very few cars had marred the whiteness. I was admiring it when I noticed that, against the red bricks of the building across the street, there was a pink blotch. As I focused, the blotch became human shaped and I cleared my eyes enough to realize that it was Maryse and she was raising her cell phone to her ear.
On cue, my phone rings. I pick it up. Still sounding drunk, she asks me if we can speak. I ask her to give me five minutes to get dressed and I'll meet her down there. She asks why she can't come up. I say that I'm not sure I want her in my apartment. She says that it's cold out. I say: "Good, then this will be quick."
I get dressed and meet her outside. I'm still bleary-eyed from having woken up 5 minutes ago, but I try to get my wits together. I tell her that we're going to walk to the subway. It 's a 10-minute walk normally, but with her drunkenness, it might take 15-20 minutes. That's how long she has to tell me what she wants to tell me.
She wants to apologize for accusing me of cheating on her. She says she knows I'm a great guy and... I may be the A-hole at this point too, but I start to drift off in my little bubble and start daydreaming about, if I go back to bed, would there still be some residual heat or would it be cold? I could take a hot shower and warm the bed that way. I could still hear her in the background making excuses, saying how she had been cheated on, but I wasn't really listening.
During the daydreaming I notice it got quite quiet. I look on my left and she's not there, I turn around she's a good 5-6 steps behind me looking angry and she says: "you're not listening" I just say: "when you're right, you're right." I tell her that I understand she's been hurt too in the past, and I hope she can work to resolve her issues, but I was done and I'm going back to bed. I was a bit harsh there, but I was tired and still down.
I walk past her and get maybe 10 paces past her when I hear a scream coming from her. I turn around and I see her messing with something inside her coat. She pulls out a chef's knife with like an 8-inch blade. That wakes me the fuck up. Byebye bleary eyes, hello wakefulness. better than a cup of coffee or a red bull I tell you!
So she's got the knife, she's screaming something that I can't quite understand. She gets quiet and then she charges at me with the knife. If I'm being honest I could have stayed where I was and she probably would have missed me anyways, but someone charges at me with a knife, I'm gonna nope out of there. I take a massive side step and once she gets to where I was and realizes that I'm no longer there, she turns her head towards me and says heyyyyy.
At that point, I have a moment of clarity and see what's gonna happen. She's drunk running one way and looking another, I know she's gonna trip. As I predicted, she stumbled over her feet and starts falling to the ground. I start praying to god and anybody who would listen: "Please don't let her cut herself. I don't want to have to explain this to the doctors, EMTs and nurses. I don't want her drunk ass deciding to take revenge on me by saying I did it."
Thankfully, she winds up in a sitting position on the sidewalk holding the knife up and it was clean. Thank god for small miracles. She starts crying and, other moment of clarity, I know she's gonna turn the knife on herself now. I jump towards her and I realize I was right, the knife starts moving towards her left wrist. I tackle her, grab her right wrist and twist it so she drops the knife. I pick the knife back up and put it in my pocket. She looks at me crying and says: "Why did you stop me?"
I pick her up and take her back to my building. In my building there was a couch in the lobby, so I take her there and I sit her down and plop myself next to her. I look at her and wonder out loud: "What am I gonna do with you? What can I do?"
She goes: "Just let me go, I'll be good." I tell her that's not going to happen. I realize I have three options and I give her the three options.
"So here's the choice I give you.
1- I pull out my phone, call 911 and tell them about the attempted murder back there and they send the police to arrest you. I don't want to do that because that could derail your life and not get you the help you need. Besides, they might not do anything anyway as it's your word against mine.
2= I pull out my phone, call 911 and tell them about the attempted suicide back there and that you need to be placed on a 72 hour hold. I could do that, but at the same time, again it's my word against yours, so maybe they don't believe me.
3- I'm gonna hazard a guess here. From what I've seen, you have alcohol problems. So I'm gonna guess you were in AA, had been sober for a while, I want to say 6 months, maybe less, when we met."
She confirms my guess.
"alright so option 3, I'm guessing you had a sponsor in AA." she nods "we call them up and tell them about your relapse and what happened this morning. Can they come get you and take care of you?"
She takes her phone out and picks a contact and calls. She hands me the phone. Someone answers and I explain the situation. They said they were coming right away. I give them my address, they get here 15 minutes later. Maryse had fallen asleep in the meantime, so I wake her up gently and help her to the car. Off she went.
I went back to my apartment and just crashed back to sleep.
A month later
Mid-january, my phone rings and I see Maryse's number on there. I send her to voice mail. Another call. Voicemail again. 5 minutes later, Private number calling. "Gee I wonder who that could be." Voicemail once more.
Afterwards, I didn't get any unidentified callers for a little over a week. One afternoon, I was at work and my phone rings and it's a number I do not recognize. I pick up.
"Hello."
"Hi, is this Guy?"
"Yes, to whom am I speaking?"
"This is Hannah, Maryse's sponsor. we spoke last month." I started fearing the worst.
"Yes, I remember. How can I help you?"
"Maryse tried to reach you last week and you rejected the calls. I think it could help Maryse if you listened to what she had to say. You're obviously not obligated to entertain her, but I think despite everything that happened, you still care about her or you would not have called me that morning."
"You are right, I do still care about Maryse. I'm just not sure how good it would be for her to meet me this soon after everything that happened. I understand wanting to work through the 9th step and making amends, but..." She interrupts me.
"So you know about the steps."
"Yes I have friends in the program. which is how I could guess that she was in the program too that morning."
"You know it's important."
"I know. I know. How about this: we meet in public at a cafe, you would have to be there. Not necessarily at the table with us, but nearby in case she needs help, in case meeting me causes her pain. Tell her I promise to be in a more receptive mood than I was that morning."
So we make an appointment for that saturday afternoon.
I get to the coffee shop. She's already there, and so is her sponsor. I realize happily that she's not wearing makeup. I say happily because that means she understands that this is not a date, but something serious. She's still stunningly beautiful, and I feel sad almost right away.
I grab a coffee and go join her at the table.
"Hey" I say,
"Hey. So this is gonna be uncomfortable, but thank you for agreeing to meet me and for coming, I appreciate it more than you know. I'm sure you heard I quit the store."
"I have, I'm sorry about that, I hope you didn't do it just because of me."
"No, I needed time to focus on myself for now."
She proceeds to tell me about how I wasn't far off with my guess. She had been sober 4 months when we met. Now she had 39 days. She tells me that in AA, if you are single, they recommend not dating anyone new for at least the first year of your sobriety as it can cause issues, similar to what happened with us. I was like her "drug" and as long as I was available, she could get her fix. But the moment I wasn't available all hell broke loose, and that is what led her back to drinking that day.
I told her I'm glad to see her back sober again this quickly and I hope she can get all the help she needs from it. I ask her if she wants to talk to me about her drinking.
She starts to share a story about how she started drinking at around 11 years old. When puberty hit her, she got into a deep depression because the sexual feelings she was starting to feel were triggering responses. As a child she had been abused by two of her uncles repeatedly and her parents never believed her. They accused her of trying to make herself interesting. That was until they caught one of those uncles red-handed.
They finally believed and took the necessary steps to protect their daughter. But they were poor and they couldn't afford therapy. So she never really got help for it. At 11, she started self medicating the depression with alcohol. When alcohol wasn't enough, she added drugs.
At that point, I was full on crying. She asked me if I wanted her to stop. I told her that she doesn't have to stop. That the tears are there because that was one more thing we had in common. I was also a survivor of sexual assault as a child. In my case, it wasn't a family member, it was only a stranger, so it only happened once. But I also self-medicated with alcohol at the onset of puberty, switching to drugs later on too. I was lucky to avoid the pitfalls of addiction, but I was still dealing with my demons, slowly making peace with them.
So there we were, sitting at a coffee shop, both crying and holding each other. I tell her that I think it's great she's getting help for her alcoholism and addicion, but was she doing anything to help with the underlying issue, the original trauma? She said no, she couldn't afford therapy. I tell her that I am a member of a survivors group and if she is interested, I could get her into a meeting and perhaps learn to heal that part of herself too.
She said that she could give it a try. I tell her I have to talk to the other members to know if I can bring someone new and I would let her know. If they said yes, we would go to her first meeting together, I would introduce her and then we would coordinate so that I never went to meetings where she was. I wanted to do that because I wanted her first few meetings to be about healing and I didn't want our own history to be intertwined or mixed in with that.
After that, we left both feeling content and, while not necesarily happy, at peace if you will. Later on, I contacted Stephanie who was one of the "pillars" of the support group (that's how we met) to ask her if it was okay for me to bring in a new member to the group. She said sure. She asked if it was anyone she knew. I told her she would have to meet her at the meeting if she decides to come.
We were having a meeting the following day. I called Maryse, told her the time and place, and she said she would be there. She came to the group meeting and was shocked to see Stephanie there but Stephanie kinda guessed that it was Maryse I was referring to.
I introduce her, we start sharing stories, talking about how we're feeling, etc. The meeting was good and Maryse liked the vibe. So for the first six months after that, I never saw Maryse and we planned which meeting we would be attending to ensure we didn't cross paths. She started feeling much better.
After maybe 2 and a half years, she finally felt ready and she started dating again. She met someone and she fell for him. They were together for about six months, she looked happy. Unfortunately after about six months, she caught him cheating on her. We tried supporting her, being good friends, cursing his name, doing all the things we could to make sure she didn't relapse. But on April 5th 2014, she ODed on heroin. She was hospitalized for 2 weeks after that.
Hannah took her in and she set up a room for Maryse. She was still in a fragile state, so a group of her friends and I started taking turns watching over Maryse, making sure there was always at least one person there with her to keep her company.
Despite our vigilance, on May 14th 2014, when Hannah was out running a quick errand, she was gone maybe 15 minutes tops, Maryse found a way to cut her wrists and she died. We found a note saying that "the OD was not an accident, and neither was that. Thanks for everything you did for me. I love you all, but I can't do this anymore."
It feels good to write that story (I'll just ignore the fat tears rolling down my face!). Thanks for reading this far and sorry for the long story, I just started writing and couldn't stop. I apologize if it was a bit of a bummer.

I'm going to my niece's wedding at the Culloden in a few weeks. I've only been to 2 or 3 weddings before and also I live abroad and am unsure about what the expectation is regarding wedding attire for the uncle of the bride. The invitation states "Summer wedding attire / smart". Would I be OK in a smartish work suit, shirt and tie? Or as family would I be better renting something? Thankfully I'm not part of the "wedding party". Any advice?

I'm a 27 yr old, who feels kinda lost. Granted I have my 2 kids, a stable job, a wonderful boyfriend, and a supportive group of wonderful people in my life. I just found out that I'm pregnant and the family is excited. However I'm currently taking my abuser to court and it's been getting stalled. Multiple times. What I mean by stalled is that they keep pushing it off for one reason or another. I wanna give you guys some background before I ask my questions.
When I was 11 my biological father signed his rights away, gave me to my biological mother and (at that time) my stepdad, and left my life. I remember, on my birthday, the school threw a wonderful party for me. Then my dad picked me up from school early and we drove to a gas station miles away and I saw my biological mother for the first time since I was 8. My stepdad gave me gifts and I saw my dad signing something on the back of his car and handing it to my biological mother. We eventually got back to my bio mom's house (after a tire flying off the car and spending a night in a hotel room) and got settled. We lived in an old house and they converted the dinning room into a bedroom for me. So in order to get into the kitchen from the front room, they had to come through my room. Every night my stepdad would come by and run my head. Tracing over my hair from the front of my head to the end of my pixie cut hair. At that time I thought that this is what a dad who loves their kid does because my bio dad wasn't that affectionate. 6 months after we got home from the gas station, my stepdad adopted me. Since he was 14 years younger than my mom and only 10 years older than me, it was easy to get along with him. I saw him more as a friend than a father and my bio mom was distant so he'd be the one interacting with me. When I was 12 my bio mom and adoptive father used to check if I brushed my teeth by smelling my breath. My bio mom stopped doing it and asked my adoptive father to do it, so he was the main one that checked my breath. Once he joked about if I were to do it again that he'd kiss me. I told my adoptive father that I wasn't scared of him and he kissed me. The adult activities followed a few days after that. When I was 13, I had a boyfriend who I told that my adoptive father and I did adult things, because I wanted him to know that I knew about that world. My bf (at that time), let's call him Tod, informed me that my aunt needed to hear my stories. So I told her. I remember her face going pale for a moment and then she was back to her normal self. Since I was only at my aunt's house because me and Tod were picking out me a homecoming dress, we got in the car shortly after I told my aunt. She drove us (me and Tod) home and there was a white car there. I got taken into foster care until I was 14 (only spending the beginning of 8th grade in care). I felt so bad for talking about what happened between me and my adoptive father that I recanted what I had said and ended up being placed back in the house with my bio mother and adoptive father. The adult activities continued just a couple weeks after I got home. When I was 16, I ran away with a new bf. That bf got scary aggressive so I messaged my bio mom and told her I needed to come home. She told me she wasn't going to be there if I came back. I didn't believe her because she's lied to me multiple times before. I broke up with him. My adoptive father came to get me and got me back to the house. My bio mom ended up not being there. So for the next couple years, I still went to school, adult activities still continued, alcohol and drugs were introduced, physical violence started, more abusive language came out, and all of that my adoptive father made sure of. I found out I was 3 months pregnant when I was 18. I got kicked out. Keep in mind it was only me and my adoptive father in the house. I ended up getting myself an apartment and was able to make a little money by selling jewelry and crafts I made. All that time, I didn't understand that what he did to me was wrong. So when he showed up to my apartment with flowers and a card for mother's day(even though the baby wasn't born yet), I let him inside. My adoptive father apologized. The cycle started all over again except for the drugs and alcohol because of the baby. I gave birth and couldn't breastfeed so he started smoking green with me. My adoptive father caused a huge fight that cost me my apartment so I moved towns away into a friend's house. We will call her Bee. Bee had dated and had a kid with my brother and we were really close. I knew Bee since early highschool and she knew a lot of what I went through. I made friends there and Bee had my kicked out of their house so me and my first born moved into another friends house. I got beat there so I call my uncle to help me find a place. Unfortunately my uncle didn't know what my adoptive father had done so they showed up to pick me up together. We (me, son, and adoptive father) moved into adoptive grandma's house. The cycle started again. This time he was the only one who was allowed to drink and it was behind doors because Grandma was against it. I didn't even know until after. It was in that house, he disclosed to me that he used to peek through the slats of the wall of the bathroom while I showered when I was 11, and that he was the one to leave the vibrator on the counter for me to find. Adoptive grandma bought me and my adoptive father a house that needed some work on. Adoptive father attacked adoptive grandma so we got evicted and moved into that house alone. The house didn't have electricity or running water, but we were able to stay clean and comfortable because we knew how to survive in that environment, but even I can admit that's no way to live. Drugs and alcohol were common. Adoptive father also gave me(I don't think I have to say in what way) to several of his friends. One night, a friend of Bee's came over and hung out with us after my son fell asleep. The friend had brought alcohol over and we all had a few drinks. Adoptive father because angered and the friend left. My son woke up because of the yelling so I picked him up to comfort him. I should have left him there because what happened next I still hold a lot of hate towards myself for even though my son is perfectly fine now. Adoptive father became more and more upset by the minute so I moved so it'd put space between us. I moved to where there was a table between me and adoptive father. I'm still holding my son at that time. Adoptive father comes rushing towards the table and throws it out of the way. He swung at me and I turned my body thinking that I had to block the blow for hitting my son. I didn't turn quick enough and my son (only 1yrs old) had a red mark on his chest. Adoptive father paused for a moment in shock that he hit the baby and gave me enough time to put the baby down and grab my phone. I started to call my closest friend at that time (who was aware of my life story and was on call whenever I needed a safe place) but adoptive father grabbed my phone, hung up, and held me down until I told him I wouldn't leave the house. I waited until he was asleep and call my friend again. Minutes later me and my baby were in a car heading to safety. The last time I spoke directly to my adoptive father was when I was 21, and that was because he called me and asked if I pressed charges against him for hitting the baby. I told him, no I didn't but his bio dad (who he hated) was the one to talk to the cops and gave them pictures of my bruises. He spent 2 years in prison for assault and that was his third strike at that time. The states attorney found out that I had a child with my adoptive father and called me on the number I gave the cops. 4 years ago they opened a case of incest against him and have filed charges. The trials and sentencing dates have been postponed multiple times and the next courtdate is in July of this year. The last one was supposed to be in April, however the defense attorney was sick. 2 years ago, while I was in a lot of counseling appointments, I finally understood what grooming was and that my childhood and teenage years weren't supposed to happen. At least in a good family, the situations I was put in wouldn't have happened. I found out that my adoptive father married Bee (the friend who had a kid with my brother) and that they had 3 kids together. My brother found out that that couple had beaten my niece and now has full custody of my niece.
I currently live in a home with my kids and bf. I have a job. I have kept up with every court date. I have shown up for every courtdate. Even driving hours to and from the court house because I lived 2 years in a different state. I have done everything in my power to make sure my kids are safe and away from the situation. However I feel like my oldest will need to know who his bio father is eventually. He's only 8yrs old rn. He does resemble his bio father in some ways that are only shown when he's mad or trying to hide something and it scares me every time. I love my kid and I feel horrible everytime my mind sees my adoptive father in my son. My son knows that his biological father is responsible for a scar across his middle finger because his bio father turned on a industrial fan while my son's hand was on it, but that's all he knows about his biological father. How do I go about helping him not turn into the type of person his biological father is? How would I address it later when he has more questions?

I’ve been asked to be the power of attorney and Executor, of my partner’s only uncle. He and I have a pretty close relationship and have a lot of the same views and values. He doesn’t trust his immediate family including nieces and nephews to make a sound decision in the event that something were to happen to him. I’m just curious if I should share this with my partner, we’ve been been on and off for about about 14 years, so it’s not like I’m some random person entering the family’s life. Or is it even my place to say anything? I pride my self on being as honest and transparent as possible but I’m not sure if it’s my place to discuss someone’s “dying wish”. What should I do?

I already posted asking about it, but I'd like to discuss again, what do you think is gonna happen after James and Cassandra's uncle Jed, who got rich enough "for two lifetimes" after striking gold, dies? The more obvious would be, his fortune would go to his last remaining relatives, the Coopers and they'd become young millionaires, but this being this show, I figure things wouldn't be that easy. So I imagine the possibilities:

• He loses his fortune. Uncle Jed seemed a generous man capable of handling money at the drop of a hat. It's nos impossible for him to do bad investments or reckless spending resulting in his fortune being blown off before James and Cassandra can inherit anything.
• He doesn't leave his fortune to the Coopers. Sure he'd want James and Cassandra to be well-off but maybe he changes his mind after being rich for all these years and concluding that all the money in the world isn't really all that, and maybe his grandnephew and niece should have have a chance to build their own lives in their own. His fortune is all donated, and James and Cassandra are surprised, but not upset when they learn about his uncle's motives.
• Somehow, the fortune isn't handed to his heirs even though that was Jed's wish. Some legal loophole makes the Coopers unable to get their hands on Jed's money, having to start from ground zero.

Okay this might be the longest reddit post I've ever made. But this requires a lot of context before I ask for advice from you guys. So thanks for reading in advance.
Okay where to start? Me (20F) and this guy (20M) (let's call him P for anonymous reasons) were very good friends for around 8 years, before we even really considered the fact that we liked each other. So a few years back in 2021 (yes that messy year) he asked me out. And I said yes. I couldn't believe my luck honestly. I never thought he would ever like me back (maybe that's partly due to my self esteem issues idk) but he did!
Okay so we went out for a few months before things started to get a bit difficult. I met his parents early on and they liked me and everything was great. But then several bad things happened which I will now talk about.
First up we attended youth group together. This was amazing at first. But then there was this prom (if you don't know what that is its kind of like a disco) with a lot of young people together. And he ignored me basically the entire night which really upset me (as you can imagine) And this is when my mom started to really dislike him (they had a great relationship)
A few weeks after that we attended a camp holiday together. Even though I was slightly upset I did love him and I wanted everyone to get along. After all that's what everyone wants right? Anyway during this camp, P ignored me the entire time. And then I attempted to badly injure myself.Now you may think that's it right? No. And that's kind of where this entire mess starts.
After that my mom despised him. She started to distrust me (not just because of P but because of other unwise decisions I had made) she came across sexual messages on my phone from him, and as I claimed to be ace and was upfront about sex making me uncomfortable, this infuriated her. I was 17 at the time and I was studying for a levels (and so was he) she because of this forced me to spend a year without seeing him and we both really struggled with this. After that year took place and I got a place at uni, we mutually decided to see each other of our own accord. After a few months, I decided to ask him out again following a trip to his accommodation (and things being very tense between us) and he said yes, after being slightly hesitant over problems it may cause. So that's what we did. We became secret and loved each other in the way we always wanted to but couldn't.
So that brings us to the present. I recently told Mom in therapy I was seeing P again because I couldn't handle the guilt anymore (as you can imagine) and I told him after and he said that is was over between us. I knew he didn't want this and we had an argument regarding the situation (we rarely argue) and I later found out exactly why he was so angry (a friend really hurt themselves) so he wasn't acting himself. We tried to give each other space but couldn't, and we found ourselves flirting consistently with the other and then a few days later he asks do you want to be friends with benefits instead? I said yes (knowing this is probably the best I would ever get)
Now I don't know a lot about the whole friends with benefits situation, but it seems to be certain rules you stick by. Like the relationship is purely based on sex, and there's no kisses goodbye or whatever. No cuddles whatsoever. Now writing this I have just spent a weekend with him, and we both said we love each other several times. As well as having sex, and doing all the usual couple things. I am so confused at what we are.
Now I haven't yet told you in detail about his side of this situation. He is disabled (he had a stroke at 4) and half of his brain is damaged which has sadly impacted some of the decisions he has made. His parents got told by my mom and my uncle that he was trying to commit sexual abuse towards me and that I was emotionally far below my age. Now everything I did with him was purely mutual and consentual. We had discussions regarding me being ace and being comfortable in situations. Now his parents think we are just friends and mom has claimed she is going to tell both of them about him seeing me.
Guys I want to know what you all think. Am I right in pursuing this strong emotional connection with him? Our futures both align perfectly and even my friends have said how perfect our connection is, and how they dream that they could have something similar. I genuinely belive he is my soul mate. I know people have gone through relationships their parents have disapproved of and it's ended up okay. He is my rock and I'm his. I just want us to be together with no secrets.
Again thanks for reading and I appreciate all views! I just really need the help and advice on what to do next
Thanks

Mom was on drugs and too tied up with men. So I would constantly move from Las Vegas with her to Cincinnati with my father, back and forth. I got in trouble when I was 11 with the law and my mom sent me to my father, my father did not want me so he let the system take me. I started out in juvenile detention, then a group home like place called the stay center, after the stay center I went to a “training school” for 2 years. During which I was allowed home visits on the weekend but my parents did not come see nor come get me. I was supposed to be out in 1 year but something went wrong in the system and I ended up there for 2 years. Once they found their mistake they immediately let me out but put me in a foster home, while in this foster home everything seemed good until the foster parents niece and I were caught kissing. This lead to the foster parents telling my case worker that I was bullying the younger foster kid. When they said that it made it so that I was not allowed to be placed in another foster home, so they sent me to a group home. This group home was a group home for bad kids, ages normally from 15-17. I was the only white kid there. And I was 14. During my time there I was beaten up many times. I was discriminated against. But all the times weren’t bad! I also started doing well in school and got a job at McDonald’s. At 17 I graduated high school and the state gave me an apartment across from the college they helped me get into. I did not finish college for a host of things that I know now are just excuses. A lot of details of the story I have left out. But basically I have turned my life from nothing to now owning a house being married, 2 children and a high paying job.
Ask me anything

I just got an s24+ and I was trying to edit my nieces head to appear bigger (what good uncle wouldn't?) but each time I try it says that it "can't generate fill for this content." This is only happening with kids heads, I can change her mom's head in the same photo. They're both clear, so there's no difference in how the lighting is or sizing is. I have also tried with various other photos and it's the same. I can change everyone's head size except for the kids.
Has anyone else dealt with this? How do I fix it so I can make my niece look like she has a giant head?

Help! Throwaway account because i don't want to be recognized😅
I 35F am in love with my bff 47M....
Not just in love. Really in love.
We had a friendship that goes more than 20 years back. We had a connection back then but i never did anything with those feelings because i was under aged and never even would have considered he would feel something for me. I always thought he saw me as his younger siste niece kind of girl. I looked up to him and even thought that my feelings were because of my puberty and him just beeing awesome in my eyes.
We lost contact for almost 10 years because our shared contact went in to another fase of his life and social media and contact wasnt the same as now. Somebody wasnt easy to find once lost.
But 5,5 years ago i went to a party and... there he was! We were over the moon seeing eachother again! He proudly presented me to his wife, we had a blast that evening and promised we would now keep in touch.
I was single at that time and on that same evening I hooked up with a very cute guy for a one night stand ( first time in my life after a 14 year relationship). That didn’t turn out to be a one night stand... we had a relationship for 4 years.
Only a month in, it turns out he is really good friends with my friend who i lost contact with.
Well... that went really well! We spend a lot of time with the four of us. Went to parties, had nice evenings at home, stayed over at their place or ours, and sometimes it was just us 2 reconnecting and going away together. Sometimes just the 2 males away together, all combo's were possible.
The relationship between me and my male bff grew. We were really grateful for the second chance of spending time together. But... i did already caught myself thinking.... why didn’t i run in to him earlier? Why did we never find eachother? I hope i find a man like him. But i would never!!! Hook up with a married man or even suggest or let him notice! And time went on. Everything was nice.
Then he drops a bomb. His wife cheated. Big time. With a shitshow coming with that you can't even imagine. He told us everything. We were in shock! After about a month of frustration, thinking, seeking help... they decide they want to save their marriage. I supported that choice. I could get that you don't want to throw away if you stil think you can save it. My boyfriend did not. He couldnt forgive her.
Later on my bff warned me..... because he saw that my relationship with my boyfriend was not ok due to his anger management problems and addictions. Combine that with my childhood trauma where i was neglected and hit and scolded way too many times... i let this guy treat me like shit again. I also did things wrong within the relationship but was always honest about working on myself. It finally exploded with him beeing violent.
A lot of people around us were incredibly angry with him. I was shattered in pieces. I was thankful for the support. Also from this couple. Because i trusted them. After a few months of grief i was starting to get back on my feet. Finally.
And then... he calls and tells me they gave up on their marriage. He was gonna call it quits. Totally tired of trying to feel it again. Devistated it didnt work. Thinking he would grow old with her. And my heart broke too! I wanted it to work. For him.
And that's the moment i realised again. For him. For him. I don't care for her if he doesnt.
We spend so much time together. We had evenings full of sorrow and drinks and movies to get over the pain, helped him in his new house, so many nice laughs, parties and joy and my feelings expand and expand. Finally i blurred out that i always thought of him of a really perfect guy but that i would have never acted on it while he was married. He was in shock. He did notice the behaviour of the last period but it was there all the time? He honestly said to me... i need time. I need to heal from this. I don't want anything to happen between us and i may become a mistake. And i totally agreed. I'll wait.
It's one year since the divorce.. We had so many amazing times together. Totally comfortabel and beeing just us. And yes, some moments you can feel it in the air.
I can't wait anymore. I need to do something. Kiss him. Tell him again. Something. Or not? I'm so afraid of losing this one of a kind friendship. But i also don't want to miss out any longer on what could be our happy ever after?
I wanna give him the world. I would never betray him like that. I would give everything for a life together.