Super head and mr marcus on couch

/r/publix : where posting is a pleasure!

2010.12.09 19:55 CanisMajoris /r/publix : where posting is a pleasure!

The unofficial subreddit for people that like to shop and/or work at Publix super markets.
[link]

2019.03.19 12:11 JPieeeeere DIYAudioCables

A place to share pics, info, and guides about DIY audio cables.
[link]

2014.01.27 08:26 NicholasCajun BoJack Horseman

Subreddit for the Netflix animated series, BoJack Horseman, starring BoJack Horseman as BoJack Horseman.
[link]

2024.05.15 16:03 kC_77 Any Users Switched from Ninja & ConnectWise Manage to Halo have these issues?

Hi, Years ago we moved to Connectwise Automate & Manage....... now automate was probably one of the worst mistakes we made, it was really badly implemented and not setup correctly and just gave us so much unhandled noise, it became a full time job just to stay on top of it, and hours at the weekends to save my sanity on a Monday morning......
Last year I migrated us over from Automate to NinjaOne (but we still kept CW Manage as PSA), and this was an amazing move, everything just works so well, everything is automated/named correctly and just ultra reliable, the integration provided by NinjaOne into Manage is rock solid & super customizable.
Now this led onto better things, my time wasnt wasted chasing my tail on the mess that automate just spat out (one time i went on holiday for a week and came back to 800+ tickets (mostly noise) but still it gave me a whole lot of anxiety even having a day off... Ninja now its so well configured mostly takes care of itself, amazing monitoring/correctly named/to right teams etc
This then gave me a lot of extra time that I have over the past year become an absolute powershell/scripting whizz, using API's etc to automate documentation and gather info/reports, add amazing data into custom fields that the team wants, so my time is being better spent (than dealing with noise and crap) and I fear this is where we are heading again (while not as bad as automate) I can already see the mess that Halo is going to cause and extra time to deal with stuff. (ive made my points very clear to our CEO) but as the rest of the staff are all happy with Halo, Im the minority here
Now im not comparing PSA's here as they do a whole lot more, but specifically I am the one that deals with the RMM/PSA integration ticketing/alerts/monitoring etc
So our MSP decided to trial HALO, and everyone (except me) is happy, I voted that its a huge NO,
Things that are causing me issues
Are any of these the kind of issues you are seeing with ninja/halo (especially if you came from CW Manage?)
Although I'm not a fan of CW manage... The ninja integration is amazing and works as expected 100% reliable
Halo / ninja to me is going to cause me major headaches, a LOT of wasted time, Weekend Anxiety AGAIN! and that I have made my points clear to our org... But fear a lot! of wasted time ahead for me!
again im not here comparing Manage/Halo as a PSA on the whole, my Gripes are mostly (i think) aimed around the what appears to me be a very flakey webhook integration? (is it possible that the webhook in the trial version is just not as reliable/prioritized?)
Halo for me and Ninja/rmm alerts its a huge step backwards imho.... (holding out hope that one day things get implemented or fixed) now I do understand the needs of the business are not just around my needs, but it is counter intuitive to me to take this step backwards right now.
submitted by kC_77 to halopsa [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 16:02 docXfamas [H] DOOM Eternal DELUXE EDITION, Have a Nice Death, Dying Light Definitive Edition, Torchlight III, Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered, Omensight Definitve Edition and lots of other bundled games [W] Trepang2, PayPal, tf2 keys, gems, wishlisted games

Note:

HAVE

WANT

Mainly looking for PayPal (accepting most of the currencies, fees may slightly differ)
MY REP Wishlist
Gems
TF2 keys/ CS2 Cases
submitted by docXfamas to SteamGameSwap [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 16:02 PowerpuffAvenger Any wedding advice for a guest?

Since the amount of flair options is a bit limited, I figured I go with this one? So sorry if it's the wrong one. But I need some advice and I figured the potatoes (and maybe even potato queen) know best. Also, this is probably going to be long (because speaking/typing coherently is not my forte), so I apologise in advance.
I'm (32F, probably adhd, maybe on the spectrum, idk if that matters; I am in the process of getting officially diagnosed or not) in northwestern Europe, but English is not my first language. As an adult, I've only been to 1 (christian) wedding (and bachelorette), for which I was present during the ceremony and the evening party. I didn't know about the formality at the municipality, but I didn't mind, it was quite chaotic anyway. I felt a little overdressed (my semi-asian/european noble upbringing is rather strict on formal attire for formal events; it's a long story) in my formal dress with tights and heels. I went out and handmade mr and mrs gifts, along with a home spa gift basket for each.
Now my second wedding as an adult is coming up in early July and this one is stressing me out. My friend (29?F), who I was classmates and secondary school friends with, instantly told me about the engagement, and subsequent wedding date when she could (more than 9 months in advance even I think). As a good friend, I instantly let my manager know I would be taking that day off for said wedding. She and I also discussed wedding dinner plans over lunch some time later. Now, we are not the closest (she is extremely busy with 2 jobs, their puppy and wedding planning), so I wasn't expecting to be included in any bachelorette or such. Months went by (without meeting and barely speaking because she's busy), and I had to ask her about the invitation, because I wasn't receiving one (I got scared I was no longer invited). She told me she had sent them out, but hadn't had the time to drop mine off, so I ended up receiving mine last month at the gym where we both go. Lo and behold: I'm only invited for the party at 8pm... In my experience (1 wedding as an adult and 3 as a child), weddings are an all-day thing. And from the way she discussed it with me, I thought that would be the case for me. Eventually, I mustered up the courage to casually ask about it, and turns out only 30 people are attending the ceremony, and like 80 (30+50) people are invited to the party. I'm not mad I guess, but it just feels weird to me. Apparently it can be a thing to do weddings like this, but I'm having a hard time getting comfy with that idea. It feels like I'll get to watch a first dance, grab a drink, and leave money. Which is probably a thinking error on my part.
The other problem with only being invited to the party, is that, other than the bride, I don't know anyone. She mentioned some people, and there might be 1 face I might remember from high school (we didn't hang out, but she hung out with the bride a lot). However, I have 2 default settings: confidently acting like I own the place or crying in a bathroom (especially with sensory overload; best case scenario for the last one is hiding in a corner playing on my phone). My friend is well off with her 2 jobs (and her fiance working), and besides her rather high-maintenance attitude for this wedding (and life in general a bit too; but I'm not close enough to have a super juicy bridezilla story), she seems to live life spending more than me. I don't care about that in general, since we can still do lunches together and chat (and I don't feel inferior in that at all), but her suggestion for me getting to know some people for the wedding was joining the bachelorette. However, she also semi-casually said it would be €100-€150 for everyone, without knowing what activity/activities is/are planned. As a student, I unfortunately cannot come up with that kinda money. So now I'm already getting worked up on how I might have a bad day during the wedding and just have a bad time for not knowing anyone.
And finally, along with the money issue, comes the feeling that I need to put a lot of money in an envelope as a gift, which I'm also uncomfortable with, because I feel I might/will be judged for a "low" amount since I can't afford €100+. I'd rather put a lot of time and effort into finding and making something to kinda "hide" the direct monetary value of the gift(s) and instead make it look like a more heartfelt and thoughtful one. This extends to what I think I need to wear. I feel I need to wear a €100+ gown/cocktail dress/etc. Which I am unable to find (since dresses are often too short for my liking, have long sleeves, casual/holiday, or are in white/red/black which I think are inappropriate colours), and the dresses I already have don't feel good enough to fit the "summer chic" dress code.
My mum suggested opting out, but I feel I can't disrespect my friend by being ungrateful by not going. My mum also said I must gift money (although she suggested like €25 since we are not thát close). All I know is that I'm confused and stressed out. I don't want to disrespect my friend, but I'm also desperately trying to find a way to mentally prepare for this wedding.
So: - How do I get comfortable being only a party guest (especially if I don't know anyone)? - What is the best way to go about the wedding gift? - Would it be okay to wear a (formal) dress I already own?
Sorry again if it's too long fellow potatoes, but the other wedding subreddits don't feel like the right place. I'm really at my wits' end. Please help a potato out! :(
submitted by PowerpuffAvenger to CharlotteDobreYouTube [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 16:01 Redhood101101 Why do some people act like playing the PHB races is bad?

TLDR: I keep seeing players who only play as the weird exotic races and will just leave a game or complain endlessly if they have to play human or human adjacent and i don’t get it.
I’m running a game for friends of a friend who are all brand new to dnd. I decided to keep character creation simple and not overwhelm them that I would limit the options presented to the PHB races so I’m not dropping 50+ (I think that’s the right number. Feels like it sometimes) on their heads at once. As well as letting them focus on how the attack action works rather than trying to figure out the logistics of centaurs.
My friend who who set this game up for me to run has been a vet for 5ish years, and when I mentioned that I wanted to do PHB only he got very annoyed and did a “I guess I can maybe make an interesting character” after trying to convince me to allow everything.
I also see posts and comments about people complaining when the dm doesn’t allow lion people or the humble wood folks. A while ago I posted an idea for an all human oneshot and a bunch of comments were along the lines of “I’d rather just not play”.
Idk if this is just me but my favorite campaigns to play and run were the ones that had all human adjacent characters (elves, dwarves, etc).
Im sure there’s also lots of other factors that went into making those games so great but I do think the fact that the dm didn’t have to keep thinking about how the world reacts to a giant lizard person eating people did help.
This isn’t a post telling people not to play exotic races or anything. Ive had fun with some of them myself. But I feel like people use them to make up for not having an interesting character or wanting to be special in some way.
You can have a super cool and interesting human fighter with a lot of depth and creativity, and a crazy generic and boring character that has no defining characteristics beyond they sometimes shift into a half dog man.
I guess I didn’t really have a point to this post more just wanted to vent some thoughts and feelings I have had brewing in the back of my brain for a while.
submitted by Redhood101101 to DnD [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 16:01 docXfamas [H] DOOM Eternal DELUXE EDITION, Have a Nice Death, Dying Light Definitive Edition, Torchlight III, Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered, Omensight Definitve Edition and lots of other bundled games [W] Trepang2, PayPal, tf2 keys, gems, wishlisted games

Note:

HAVE

WANT

Mainly looking for PayPal (accepting most of the currencies, fees may slightly differ)
MY REP Wishlist MY IGS REP
Gems
TF2 keys/ CS2 Cases
submitted by docXfamas to indiegameswap [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:58 Then_Advertising6254 Dr. Knoweverything (dream #1)

I was some kind of reporter visiting my mother where she lived in this clean, classic suburban apartment and she slept on this small, single bed on the floor in the corner while his bed was on a frame at the head of hers.
She had long, black, straight hair and was naked when this guy came in, she'd ask questions that require specific answers.
"Dr. Knoweverything, how many pieces of cereal did you eat this morning?"
"42 (pieces), of course" the doctor said.
I asked my mother why she would continuously ask him specific questions.
"The doctor knows everything, of course."
The doctor kept showing me around and I saw a blonde woman on the couch who turned out to be his wife. I interviewed her and in my peripheral vision there was a small girl in moose or bear overalls. She was standing with her arm out up high with her hand flat, palm facing up like she was a waitress holding a tray of food and her foot was bent backwards.
The wife noticed I looked at the child and told me that "lamp thing" was this girl Darcia. Darcia then got out of position and smiled really wide like she was on drugs that made her giddy.
I looked back at the wife and she was distracted, staring at the wall, blankly, as if she was a robot who got it's memory wiped.
The doctor showed me to his hall closet where a homeless man supposedly lived, using the hanging clothes as blankets, but there was no one there so I assumed the doctor had an imagined the homeless man. He then showed me to his son's room where his baby was in a crib with one lone hanging light right above the baby. The room was empty, like the doctor had just moved in, but the walls were blue and there were a bunch of surgical equipment and tools a couple feet away from the crib.
In the the corner behind the crib was a little boy playing with toy cars and he stared at me the whole time, never stopping the cars or taking his eyes off me. The doctor never mentioned him. I assumed he was imagined as well.
During the tour, the doctor was telling me what he fed everyone; tiny hard things. I couldn't see what they were but he'd give my mother and his wife one piece. Though, he never fed the baby even though he had a few pieces next to his crib pillow.
For some reason, I had gotten ready to sleepover his apartment and later that night, his wife, my mother and I woke up and all simultaneously went to his room that was similar to the baby's room but instead had one surgical tabled in the middle, the walls, ceiling and floor were white.
An argument started and the doctor became extremely angry.
"DON'T YOU SEE, THESE ARE NAIL CLIPPINGS. THERE'S NO ONE NAMED DARCIA HERE AND I DON'T HAVE A SON. WE ARE THEM. YOU'RE DARCIA." He pointed to my mother and I suddenly remembered little Darcia had long, straight black hair just like my mother and the baby was blonde like his wife.
Was I the one imagining the other people like the baby, little boy playing with toy cars and Darcia? Maybe there was a gas leak or something that was making everyone a little crazy.. but why would my everyone imagine the same thing?
I can't remember if I escaped with everyone, if we killed the doctor or if he killed us but I do remember I came to a conclusion that we were already dead and a figment of his own imagination and that's why we could see everyone else.
They were figments just like us.
submitted by Then_Advertising6254 to scarystories [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:57 xbox_mac Seeking fulfillment due to emotional and sexual incompatibility

39m here, separating from my second wife after seven years together (my first wife and I were together for nine years). Long story short, I've always gone out of my way to make my most recent wife feel pleasure. Orgasm after orgasm, physical touch, just showing her how much I love her and think she's beautiful when we are intimate together.
I get these fantasies in my head that she will do the same for me, but she just uses no effort or passion. She had a lot of things go wrong growing up, and i'm very sensitive to that and being there for her... sometimes her view of sexuality is a bit different. It's not as high on her priority list and more or less doesn't get into it with any effort to make me feel pleasure or reciprocate.
Anyway, so I'm bi of course, and when we are intimate, I always seem to put toys in her butt. Whether it's my fingers, a plug, or a dildo, it's something she enjoys once in a blue moon. My problem is that when I want the same things (as a verse bottom), she gets too squeamish about butts in general, and well... it doesn't happen, even though promises of some-day or a different night... usual excuses for any sex acts... or even quitting her addictions... oh next time, oh next week, oh after the holidays....blah...
I want to enjoy her touching me that way. It makes me really depressed, and I mean, other things wrong in the relationship aside, this really bothers me. I don't get my basic intimate needs considered ever. Whether I want a HJ, BJ, or even just PIV, it is emotionless and cold, and she's never concerned about my needs and desires or what I really want out of intimacy. Heck, she puts a hand on my leg and I practically fall asleep because I don't get touched like that very often. I just want hands all over me and passionate kisses. I just crave that. someone i can make out with on the couch without even thinking about other stuff in the world, just freaking get LOST in me... thats all i ever wanted from her.
I mean, financially she's a mess, emotionally unavailable, addictions galore... just a hard person to be married to. enabled a lot of things that i look back and realize was wrong.
I feel so guilty separating and wanting more out of life... someone who doesn't taste like cigarettes or abuse drinking/Adderall, etc. Someone who can look at me and touch me and really want to give me pleasure and love and make me feel like I deserve it and I don't need to fight for my basic reciprocal intimacy. someone who wants to sexually explore eachother more, even though comfortable, i never want to stop being creative or trying things like threesomes or other exploratory stuff.
Anyway... we separated a few months ago, and I met a nice guy friend who I actually bottomed with (first time). I really enjoyed myself (riding on top, the other angles didn't work for me). Granted, I'm not emotionally attached to men, but the way he puts his hands on me and fucks me is just... meaningful and incredible and attentive. He just makes me melt.
I want that with a woman someday, but I'm grateful to know that greater love and intimacy and self-care are out there with other people in the world. Even though he's a hookup friend, it's nice to know people care about the things I desire.
i'm sorry if i come across as insensitive, i have really tried to be good and loving to her, and sensitive to her needs emotionally, physically, and in every which way... i just want that in return from someone again some day... who can look at me and just want to make me feel good and care about my needs and not just getting it over with and half-assed.
submitted by xbox_mac to bisexual [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:56 decho Pre-Match Thread: Almeria vs Barcelona [La Liga]

Match Information:

 
Match: Almeria vs Barcelona
Competition: La Liga
Date: Thursday, 16th of May 2024
Time: 21:30 CEST / 15:30 EDT - Convert to local time
Venue: Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos, Almería - 15274 capacity
Referee: Javier Alberola Rojas
 

Lineups and Squads:

 
Barcelona - Official squad to be confirmed
GK: Ter Stegen, Iñaki Peña
DEF: João Cancelo, Álex Baldé, Araújo, Íñigo Martínez, Christensen, Alonso, Koundé
MID: Gavi, Pedri, Oriol Romeu, Sergi Roberto, Frenkie, Gündoğan
ATT: Ferran Torres, Lewandowski, Raphinha, João Félix, Vitor Roque
Unavailable: Álex Baldé, Gavi, Frenkie (injured) Gündoğan (suspended)
Not called:
 
Almeria - Official squad to be confirmed
GK: Diego Mariño, Fernando Martinez, Luis Maximiano
DEF: Edgar González, Aleksandar Radovanović, Alejandro Pozo, Marc Pubill Pagès, Álex Centelles, Chumi, César Montes, Bruno Langa
MID: Iddrisu Baba, Lucas Robertone, Dion Lopy, Jonathan Viera, Melero, Sergio Arribas
ATT: Largie Ramazani, Luis Javier Suárez, Adrián Embarba, Léo Baptistão, Anthony Lozano, Ibrahima Kone, Marko Milovanović, L. Romero Bezzana
Unavailable: Aleksandar Radovanović, Iddrisu Baba (injured) Largie Ramazani (suspended)
Not called:
 

Form guide:

 
Almeria
Barcelona
 

Head-to-head:

 
 

Comments (Post-match thread):

 
Author: dwilliam24 Score: 369 pts Source
Araujo with a mask is basically Lenglet
Author: tbrakef Score: 316 pts Source
Sergi Roberto! Our captain and most composed player in front of goal in 2023...
Author: -The-Term- Score: 289 pts Source
We barely managed to scrape a win at home against the team that has not won a single game this season lmao
Author: SirCraigie Score: 244 pts Source
Wembley Stadium filled with all players better than Sergi Goatberto:
https://preview.redd.it/huct3cum9i7c1.jpeg?width=1300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa2dae5e3249acff5c11585fedc3b7bc90d4b8b3
Author: EditTheVideo Score: 153 pts Source
Roberto scoring twice proves that we are indeed creating chances enough for even a midfielder to score. Just apparently not enough for our front 3 to score in a sufficient manner.
Other than that, our pressing is still not as good as it used to be last season. The same can be said about our defense.
Author: itsvoogle Score: 144 pts Source
Game was exciting in all the worst ways possible…. Lol
Author: decho Score: 129 pts Source
Sergi Roberto Ballon d'Or when.
Author: kezzinchh Score: 105 pts Source
Wins a win, but this ain’t it.
Author: ParsaAtashani Score: 101 pts Source
We tried so hard to bottle this
Author: atn420 Score: 89 pts Source
It's a W, but to give 2 scores to the lowest team in La Liga, doesn't feel as good as it should, honestly.
Author: Working_Aioli8417 Score: 88 pts Source
Sergi Roberto saved Xavi's job today
Also Sergi should clearly be a higher choice than Romeu
Author: TrueCooler Score: 85 pts Source
https://preview.redd.it/l1dq8d2j9i7c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc5accd9810c6b2f9a7b59e66e4321984266fbe6
Al-Sad watching this performance
Author: Jelboo Score: 75 pts Source
I'm all here for the Roberto renaissance. Always been a classy, hardworking, intelligent player who has played all over the pitch and put in a shift. Many fans don't respect him but he is more Barça than any of us here on the internet can claim.
Author: HyggeAroma Score: 74 pts Source
BS that Roberto didn't get the MVP!
Author: Loose-Examination-39 Score: 74 pts Source
Who is Sergi Roberto? For the blind, he is light. For the hungry, he is bread. For the sick, he is the cure. For the sad, he is joy. For the poor, he is the treasure; for the debtor, he is forgiveness. For me,he is everything
Author: Kkasher22 Score: 72 pts Source
We struggled against a 20th place team…
Author: Professional_Code372 Score: 66 pts Source
We shouldn’t pay a dime for Felix
Author: atn420 Score: 49 pts Source
Who had Roberto scoring a brace on their card, I sure as hell didn't.
Author: Loose-Examination-39 Score: 47 pts Source
If Roberto has 10000 fans I am one of them
If Roberto has 1000 fans I am one of them
If Roberto has 100 fans I am one of them
If Roberto has 10 fans I am one of them
If Roberto has 1 fan I am the only one
If Roberto has no fans it means I am no longer on this earth
Author: tekkers_for_debrz Score: 45 pts Source
Our captain doing captain things. The best finisher in the club.
Author: Smooth_Profit_595 Score: 45 pts Source
what does it take for xavi to sub off lewy?
injury only?
dude missed half of the chances team created
Author: SteveTheNoobIsBack Score: 44 pts Source
WE WON A GAME
Author: Iyfebe Score: 40 pts Source
I like that the fans were giving confidence to the struggling players like Raphinha and Romeu. To Inaki as well after the mistake.
Author: SauceCarlicio Score: 32 pts Source
https://preview.redd.it/8axm1pgxdi7c1.jpeg?width=425&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f7d146c8ec268741bc6c00b9ff0a3feadf17de03
Xavi if Sergi Roberto didn't score a brace today
Author: TuffyTenToes Score: 28 pts Source
Imagine if the rest of the players cared for the crest as much as Sergi or Gavi do...
Author: guapetonydroga Score: 26 pts Source
Most of this subreddit has been trashing Sergi Roberto for years and look at him now. Take a bow at our current most composed player in front of goal.
Author: PLEASEDONTBANMEOK Score: 22 pts Source
Roberto im sorry, I wasnt familiar with your game
Author: tbrakef Score: 19 pts Source
What an absolute howler from Aruajo once again... Literally everyone has taken about 5 steps back from last season in terms on intelligence on the pitch..
Author: MrVaporDK Score: 19 pts Source
Roberto was massive! Torres and Raphinha were good.
Lewy played well and deserved to score.
Author: Numerous-Knowledge-3 Score: 14 pts Source
We make every team look like prime Ac Milan
Author: Forgemarine Score: 11 pts Source
Of course it is not Xavi's fault for the individual mistakes of players, but come on. This is dead-last Almeria, and we showed no real system and again with the 90 mins Lewy and no chance for Guiu.
Xavi needs to quit being stubborn in his substitutions, and his supportive staff for game plans should be improved. If not Barca should look for someone else
 

Quotes:

 
https://www.reddit.com/Barca/comments/1cqp6ze/open_thread_weekday_edition_21_may_2024/l450usx/
 

Latest News:

 
[Article] - Xavi: 'It's up to us' - fcbarcelona.com
[Article] - When and where to watch Almería v FC Barcelona - fcbarcelona.com
 

TV/Online:

 
Livesoccertv Liveonsat FCBarcelona.com
 
submitted by decho to Barca [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:53 Mssquishcollector How often do you deep clean your house?

Once a week?
Once a month?
I’ve recently found some bugs in our house (gnats in our drains that have spread even after using boiling water down every drain) and I’m feeling disgusted/dirty so I’m planning to spend the weekend deep cleaning. It takes me so long to actually deep clean stuff because we have a toddler that I just struggle getting it REALLY clean in here. I clean daily and clean a lot on weekends but my husband was away for 2 weeks so the house kind of got let go. Our house isn’t actually disgusting or anything but it definitely needs some work. How often does everyone super clean? How long does it take you? Last time I did it (before my husband went away for work) it took me a total of 2 days and by the time I got it clean on day 1 I had to redo almost everything because it was a disaster by day 2.
I’m talking like cleaning under the couch, rugs, going through closets, pantries, getting rid of toys, just really deep cleaning everything. I know I should probably break it up more but like I said if I make progress on 1 day it is all destroyed by day 2 and I have to just restart. If anyone has any tips on how to keep a cleaner house with a toddler, cat, messy husband, and me a very very messy cook it will be much appreciated. We’re going to be having baby number 2 soon and I’m stressing on how I’ll keep the house even slightly clean without hiring someone (which I’m really debating on doing right now honestly) Please no judgement I swear I try to clean constantly but my daughter makes it difficult because she enjoys destruction at the moment. Any comments are appreciated, thanks in advance!
submitted by Mssquishcollector to sahm [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:52 NikolaiOlsen Here's a Pitch Meeting inspired post, If Ryan George ever was to make one

Producer: So, you have a video game for me?
Writer: Yes, sir, I do! It's a battle royale game called Fortnite.
Producer: Fork Knife? Is it a food-making game where you eat with a Fork and a Knife?
Writer: Well, No actually, sir, this is a shooter game where players are dropped onto an island where they must scavenge for weapons and resources inside people's homes while trying to be the last person standing.
Producer: Sounds a lot like that game PUBG.
Writer: Well, yes, it's Very similar to that.
Producer: So, Isn't that kind of a rip-off? Whats the point of making this game if its gonna be a Complete rip-off?
Writer: What if we give the player the ability to build stuff in the game?
Producer: Thats different enough. So how do we do the building in this Fork-knife game of yours?
Writer: Well, we add a building mechanic where players can gather materials and construct forts and other structures to defend themselves.
Producer: So, they can build in the middle of a fight?
Writer: They sure can!
Producer: Won't that make the combat complicated and kind of confusing?
Writer: Oh, definitely. Super confusing. And we're going to have this cartoony art style, so it's all bright and colorful.
Producer: Cartoony art style?
Writer: Yes, sir, we want to attract a younger audience, you know, kids and teenagers.
Producer: Really? And what about older players?
Writer: They'll probably play it too. Some might even play it so much while filming themselves sitting, eating, and drinking inside a room infront of a bunch of cameras to a bunch of digital people on some kind of streaming-platform out there. And some older players might even be so good that they can be placed inside a room with other players that are as good as them.
Producer: Okay, okay, But wait. Why would older players be interested in a game designed for kids?
Writer: Because it's free.
Producer: Oh, older people love free things.
Writer: And we’ll have these things called Emotes where players can dance and do fun gestures for no reason.
Producer: Why would they need that?
Writer: To taunt other players and express themselves, and making it easier for other players to get kills!
Producer: And we're sure kids will love this?
Writer: Oh, absolutely. They'll be flossing in no time.
Producer: What’s flossing?
Writer: It’s one of the dances that we’ll include in the game.
Producer: Ah, okay, and how will we make money?
Writer: Super easy, barely an inconvenience.
Producer: How come?
Writer: Microtransactions.
Producer: Microtransactions?
Writer*: Yeah, Microtransactions. Players can buy this thing called V-Bucks, which is our in-game currency, to get skins, emotes, and other cosmetic items.
Producer: So, none of these items give players a competitive advantage?
Writer: Nope, just cosmetics.
Producer: And people will spend real money on that?
Writer: Oh, they definitely will.
Producer: How are you so sure?
Writer: Because we’ll make it really cool and hard to resist. Plus, we'll create this thing called FOMO.
Producer: FOMO?
Writer: Fear of Missing Out. We’ll have limited-time items so players feel pressured to buy them before they're gone.
Producer: So, we’re going to exploit psychological weaknesses?
Writer: Oh, for sure.
Producer: Exploiting psychological weaknesses is tight! So, how will players get to the Island?
Writer: They’ll skydive from a flying bus.
Producer: A flying bus?
Writer: Yeah, we’ll call it the Battle Bus.
Producer: Why would a bus be flying?
Writer: Because it's fun.
Producer: But How does it fly tho?
Writer: Listen, sir, i'm gonna need you to get all the way off my back about why the Battle Bus can fly using a very big sketchy pop-able baloon but only moves one direction, okay.
Producer: Okay, let me get off of that thing.
Writer: Oh, and every few minutes, a storm will shrink the play area, forcing players into a smaller and smaller circle until one player remains.
Producer: Why would a storm do that?
Writer: To make the game faster and more intense.
Producer: But thats not--- never mind.
Writer: And we’ll have different game modes, including solo, duo, and squads, so players can team up with friends.
Producer: What if players don’t have friends?
Writer: Then they’ll be loners. Solo mode is perfect for that.
Producer: And how will we keep the game fresh?
Writer: We'll have seasonal updates with new themes, items, and challenges.
Producer: Seasonal updates?
Writer: Plus, we’ll add crossover events with popular franchises from all our child hoods we can think off.
Producer: Like what?
Writer: Well, i'm just gonna throw some names out there, just top of my head, *Marvel, Star Wars, DC, Avatar, Family Guy, TMNT, POTC, Rick and Morty, and a Whole bunch of other stuff.
Producer: So, we’re going to have superheroes and nerds fighting each other in a game where you can build forts and dance?
Writer: Exactly.
Producer: That sounds amazing!
Writer: Oh, it’s going to be super amazing.
Producer: And that's Fortnite. So, what do you think?
Writer: I think we’ll make billions.
Producer: We're gonna be rich!
Producer: Wow, wow, wow. Wow.
Producer: But wait, you forgot to say what’s the story behind this game?
Writer: Oh, right, well, the island is constantly changing and evolving. At first, there isn't much backstory, only younger and older players ACTIVELY hunting each other down and killing each other, but over time, we introduce a series of events and lore that shape the game's world.
Producer: Interesting. What kind of events and lore are we talking about?
Writer: Well, Each season, we add new story elements to the game. For example, there's this mysterious organization called "The Imagined Order" that's manipulating the island. Players uncover clues and secrets about them as the game progresses.
Producer: So, there are hidden stories and mysteries?
Writer: Exactly. One season, we had a massive meteor strike that changed the landscape. Another season, a giant iceberg crashed into the island, bringing new areas to explore. We also introduced a volcanic eruption that altered the terrain significantly.
Producer: Sounds like a lot of natural disasters.
Writer: Ye ye ye. But all these events tie into the overarching narrative. There's this powerful artifact called the Zero Point at the center of the island, and it's the source of all these changes.
Producer: What’s the Zero Point?
Writer: It's a mysterious energy source that can manipulate time and space. Different factions and characters try to control it, leading to conflicts and alliances.
Producer: Who are these characters?
Writer: We've introduced various characters over time, like Jonesy, who starts as a standard avatar but becomes central to the story. He’s sort of the player’s guide and gets involved in all the major events.
Producer: And these characters, they have backstories?
Writer: Yes, each character has their own backstory and motives. Some are heroes trying to save the island, others are villains seeking power. We add new characters regularly to keep things fresh and engaging.
Producer: How do players learn about all this?
Writer: Through in-game events, cutscenes, and quests. For instance, we might have a live event where something dramatic happens, like a giant robot fighting a monster. These events often change the map and advance the storyline.
Producer: Live events? How do those work?
Writer: At specific times, we host live events where players can participate or just watch something big unfold. These events are usually massive, with millions of players logging in to witness them.
Producer: That sounds like a logistical nightmare.
Writer: It can be, but it creates a shared experience that players love. It's a huge part of what keeps the community engaged.
Producer: So, the story is dynamic and ever-changing?
Writer: Exactly. We keep evolving the narrative with each season, adding new mysteries and plot twists. It's like an ongoing TV show where the players are part of the story.
Producer: And this keeps players coming back?
Writer: Absolutely. The evolving story and frequent updates make sure there's always something new to discover and experience.
Producer: Sounds like you’ve thought of everything.
Writer: We’ve tried to make it as immersive and engaging as possible. The story is just one part of what makes Fortnite a unique and exciting game.
Producer: Well, I’m sold. Let’s make this game!
submitted by NikolaiOlsen to FortNiteBR [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:48 Eire_ninja_warrior My mother is an alcoholic. I caught her hiding a relapse last night

The last time she got drunk, she fell and smashed her head on a piece of furniture. Went to the hospital. We spoke about her drinking being life or death. She made a promise to quit. Last night, I saw her hide a bottle of wine under the couch pillow. Any words of hope in this difficult moment ?
submitted by Eire_ninja_warrior to AlAnon [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:46 Rust1emyjimmies looking for advice

I have had a black headed caique for 20+ years. As of recently he has started acting very strangely and I'm trying to see if anybody in this community has had a similar experience. Keep in mind I have already taken him to the vet over this, they claim its possibly arthritis but I think there's more to it.
As of the past 1-2 months he has taken to striking at his leg/thigh area - often times causing damage to himself and leaving little red marks that scab over time and heal. This was very alarming and what triggered me to bring him to the vet initially and this is when they claimed it may be arthritis.
As of the past few days he has started acting like I'm a total stranger, trying to strike me from within his cage when I change his food or even walk towards the cage he will lunge from one side to me. This is not like him at all, we have had a very loving bond for 20+ years of me constantly holding him/playing with him. Hes always been the bird I can take out when friends come over because normally he's super friendly and NEVER bites, like I'm talking never.
I love my little homie very much, it makes me very sad that the feeling of trust between us is almost diminishing out of nowhere and for no reason at all. I'm not sure what I'm trying to gain from this post other than maybe somebody seeing it that's had a similar experience.
Any advice or recommendations on this would be highly appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
submitted by Rust1emyjimmies to parrots [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:45 Rust1emyjimmies looking for advice

Hello,
I have had a black headed caique for 20+ years. As of recently he has started acting very strangely and I'm trying to see if anybody in this community has had a similar experience. Keep in mind I have already taken him to the vet over this, they claim its possibly arthritis but I think there's more to it.
As of the past 1-2 months he has taken to striking at his leg/thigh area - often times causing damage to himself and leaving little red marks that scab over time and heal. This was very alarming and what triggered me to bring him to the vet initially and this is when they claimed it may be arthritis.
As of the past few days he has started acting like I'm a total stranger, trying to strike me from within his cage when I change his food or even walk towards the cage he will lunge from one side to me. This is not like him at all, we have had a very loving bond for 20+ years of me constantly holding him/playing with him. Hes always been the bird I can take out when friends come over because normally he's super friendly and NEVER bites, like I'm talking never.
I love my little homie very much, it makes me very sad that the feeling of trust between us is almost diminishing out of nowhere and for no reason at all. I'm not sure what I'm trying to gain from this post other than maybe somebody seeing it that's had a similar experience.
Any advice or recommendations on this would be highly appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
submitted by Rust1emyjimmies to caiques [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:45 Oderus667 Escort inquiry leads to death threats

OK, so...I was in the mood for some company last Friday night, decided to call an escort, got in touch with one, then pulled the plug because she started putting off a heavy scam vibe. No money or deposit sent, and I thought that would be that. Am I a reckless, horned-up idiot? Yes. But I'm not a total idiot. The next day, I got a super angry text (from a Nigerian number) saying I wasted his girl's time and I owe him $1200. Of course, I blocked and deleted. The next day I got an even crazier text demanding that I pay, along with an extremely explicit death threat against me andmy family, along with a photo of two beheaded human heads. Super disturbing and now - pissed at behavior, deleted and blocked the scammer again.
And today (three days later) I get this: "Greetings I’m writing to you to tell you that yesterday you were talking to my girl and I lost a lot of money for your game I’m Tony Gonzales boss and proletarian of the dating house which you wanted to be with one of my girls and you only played I have your information and everything about your family we’re going to solve this in a good way that’s why I communicate with you you owe me 2500 you can pay everything or something until I finish the payment you decide how we do it on the phone or in person"
(The use of the word "proletarian" was pretty amusing, actually.)
They called my cel at the same time they texted this, and then listed my name and address. So naturally, I will keep deleting and blocking until they hopefully go away, but shit I'm not gonna lie this has been a little rattling. Again, I know I was impulsive and reckless, so I consider it a lesson I definitely needed to be taught.
submitted by Oderus667 to Scams [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:43 Tight_Philosophy8244 AITA for apparently making my friend's girlfriend suicidal?

The people involved (names are changed):
Jake – me
Tom – my flatmate
Kath – Tom’s girlfriend
Emily – Kath’s flatmate
TLDR (but context is very important for how the situation develops):
· Me and Emily get with each other at a party.
· It turns out Kath had forbidden Emily from getting with me. Since Emily went and did it anyway, Kath falls out with her.
· Kath ends her friendship with Emily. Me and Emily continue seeing each other.
· When I plan to go to see Emily at their apartment, Tom tells me that Kath is in a really dark place mentally, and the thought of me and Emily being there together while Kath’s there is triggering her anxiety, so he asks me not to go over.
· Me and Emily follow these instructions for months, while Tom and Kath continue coming and going to either of our apartments as they please.
· Emily eventually gets in touch with Kath to try and understand exactly why me coming over is an issue, since Kath has no problem coming to my place. Kath has a meltdown due to this and it makes her suicidal.
· Tom falls out with me because I knew about the messages that caused his girlfriend to feel suicidal.
(Skip to 'Late April' if you want to go straight to the crux of this post, but I do think it's quite an entertaining read).
Background Context
Me and Tom (both mid-twenties) have lived together in our apartment since I moved to the city last year. I’ve known him for several years and would put him in my inner circle of closest friends, so living with him was all just good chill vibes as expected - or at least it was for the first six months.
I met Tom’s girlfriend of several months, Kath, for the first time pretty soon after moving in. Although she was kind of shy, I thought she seemed nice enough. I noticed that Kath would seem to lean on Tom a fair amount when it came to support for her mental health (she had been diagnosed with anxiety), which of course is normal as her boyfriend. On one occasion, she had a particularly bad anxious episode during a group hangout, with Tom consoling her about it afterwards. Following this, Tom seemed exhausted, saying to me “I’m not a professional, I’m not equipped to deal with all this mental health stuff. She needs help from someone who can adequately help her deal with these thoughts. When she blows things out of proportion and she stresses out to me about her anxiety, it just ends up making my own anxiety worse”. He also said that he had even offered to pay for therapy for Kath, but she didn’t want to accept it.
I just felt bad for Tom, especially since I had some understanding of what he was going through. I had previously had a girlfriend who had anxiety/depression/BPD and put all her mental health issues on me. That girlfriend was also very manipulative and would mention suicidal thoughts any time she started feeling like she was losing control over me (just to be clear, there was no indication that Kath was acting in a manipulative way towards Tom at that point). In my experience, when you end up in a situation where you’re essentially acting as someone’s full-time personal mental health counsellor, it hardly ever ends well.
At some point in January, I met Kath’s “bestie” flatmate, Emily. I remember thinking she was cute, seemed nice and easy to talk to. We all hung out as a group a few times that month and I thought there may have been a little bit of a vibe between me and Emily.
So as you do, I slid into Emily’s DMs and basically let her know I was interested. I messaged her a week or two before our party that her and Kath were coming to, but her response was lukewarm so I just thought she probably wasn’t interested.
For context, I had recently broken up with my girlfriend in January, who had just got back from travelling for the last 6 months. Things in that relationship weren’t great before she even went travelling, and during the months she was away I had come to terms with the fact that it was best to end it. I waited until she was back to say it in person, as I didn’t want to drop that on her while she was travelling and ruin that once in a lifetime experience. However, deep down I knew I had wanted talk to other girls and explore new connections for the last few months, but obviously I didn’t want talk to anyone until it was cleanly over. Me messaging Emily was only a few days after breaking up with her, which I guess isn’t great, but in my head I had been ready to move on for a while, I saw no point in putting an arbitrary time limit on myself. I made sure to explain this context when I messaged Emily so that she was aware of my recent circumstances.
The Party (End of January)
So me and Emily end up getting with each other at the party. Initially, when I brought up me messaging her, she said “I think you’re cute, but I think it’s best we just be friends for the next couple months, since you just recently got out of a relationship, and we can see what happens afterwards”. But as the night went on, I guess Emily changed her mind, because as we kept talking it got increasingly flirty and we ended up getting together. Perfect end to the night, right? Not exactly.
At one point when Emily goes to the bathroom, she comes back into my bedroom saying “Kath is furious at me”. I ask why, and she says that Kath had basically forbidden her from getting with me.
Back when I first messaged Emily, she had of course shown Kath the messages straight away. It turns out Kath for some reason had a really intense reaction to this and was like “I can’t believe he has the audacity to hit on my best friend right after breaking up with his girlfriend! It’s so disrespectful using you as a rebound, it’s disrespectful to his ex and it’s disrespectful to me for hitting on my best friend like this! He was the only one of Tom’s friends that I actually liked but he’s ruined that too now!”.
Apparently, Kath had been used as a rebound before and this was triggering for her, so she didn’t want her best friend to be used as a rebound. She said “you can’t get with him, Emily, that’s my boundary.” Emily was a bit taken aback by the intensity of this reaction and was just a bit like “umm okay…?”. She tried a few times before the party to understand a bit more about why Kath had such a problem with it but didn’t get much further explanation than that.
Now, I agree that Emily was in the wrong for saying to Kath that she wouldn’t get with me and then went and did it anyway, and Emily also acknowledges this. Emily should have said from the start she wasn’t okay with this weird “boundary” Kath had set. It was a bit cowardly. Although given how intensely Kath overreacts to things, I can understand why Emily initially just agreed to whatever she was saying to calm her down. I can also understand how when you’re at a party having fun, drinking and realise that you do actually have a good vibe with the person, in the moment you might change your mind and be like “actually fuck that, who the fuck is she to tell me who I can and can’t get with?”.
Kath saw this as Emily having no respect for their friendship, by choosing some guy she’d just met over her. From Emily’s perspective she was choosing herself, choosing not to follow these nonsensical rules that had been imposed on her, and she was just tired of Kath overreacting to everything and trying to control her.
In my opinion, being this controlling for no good reason is pretty disrespectful in itself. Given that Kath’s reason for telling Emily not to get with me was because she didn’t want her to be used as a rebound…well that’s Emily’s risk to take, isn’t it? I can see how from Emily’s perspective, she knew Kath might not be happy about it, but it’s also not some deep betrayal, since based on the reason Kath gave, the consequence would only be on Emily herself. Emily had the exact same knowledge about my recent relationship status as Kath did, so why did Kath think she can tell her what to do?
As we get to further into this post and the real reason why Kath set this “boundary” is revealed, you will see why I actually think any argument Kath has against Emily for getting with me at the party is automatically void, but we will learn these details as they come.
Start of February
After the events of the party, Kath didn’t want to talk to Emily the next day when she tried to initiate communication via message (Kath tends to avoid in-person confrontation). Fair enough, Emily gave her space. Me and Emily spend the next day together just talking and getting to know each other more, and it’s clear that we vibe together and both feel very comfortable with each other, which is pretty rare for both of us.
I don’t see Tom for the first few days after the party, as he had been staying at Kath’s. When I do, I’m a bit surprised that he didn’t think much of Kath’s reaction at the party. He says “yeah I probably should have warned you about this beforehand”. We both agree that Emily was in the wrong for going back on what she said, but also that Kath shouldn’t have tried to control her like that. He did say “sorry I know this put you in an awkward position”.
A few days after the party, Emily again tries to get in touch with Kath via message.
Emily’s message essentially apologised for her actions, saying she was in the wrong for going back on what she said, and that she should have said from the start that she wasn’t happy with this “boundary”. She also said that Kath shouldn’t have tried to dictate her life and tell her what to do, especially when it’s something that’s none of her business, and that she is going to continue seeing me, taking the risk of being a “rebound”.
Kath’s response essentially said the whole incident at the party was only a small part of why she exploded so intensely, this was just the last in a long line of things Emily had done in the past which she had not forgiven her for. This was just the last straw for Kath because “it hit so close to home, so close to the love of my life”. She wanted things to be civil between them until the end of their tenancy, but this was essentially the end of their friendship.
Okay good, Kath flipping out so badly now finally made a bit more sense to me. Obviously, I wanted to know what Emily had done that was so bad to cause this, as any indicators of bad character would inform whether I choose to keep talking to her.
Emily went through these, explaining that these were incidents from their past that they had discussed at the time, dealt with and moved on from. I have cut these out for the word limit as they don’t add much to this post, but it was the most minor, nonsensical things (I can explain in the comments if anyone wants details).
In any case, I wasn’t particularly interested in what mistakes Emily might have made months or years ago, I was more interested in what her character was like now and going forward.
Early/Mid February
So here’s where the main situation we’re in now starts. For context, Kath and Emily’s apartment is in the city center, close to where both mine and Tom’s offices are, so it would make sense to go over in the evening and go into work from theirs the next morning, as Tom has been doing once or twice a week for the last few months.
It's worth noting that ever since the party right up to the present moment, Emily and Kath have not been interacting at all, avoiding each other in their apartment, only messaging for things like bill payments.
The first time I planned to go stay round Emily’s place was early/mid-February. When I mention this to Tom, he tells me that Kath has been having a really bad time mentally since the party, and the thought of me and Emily being there together triggers her anxiety. He asks me not to go over to their apartment for the next couple of weeks or so while she’s in this particularly bad phase. I don’t really understand what me going over and seeing Emily has to do with Kath’s anxiety (and Tom says he doesn't really understand it either himself), but I say okay fine it’s not that big of deal, I won’t go over for the time being.
Now, a valid question for myself is why I decided to keep seeing Emily, despite knowing that Kath had fallen out with her and therefore knowing it could potentially cause fiction between me and Tom. I don’t think I did anything wrong for several reasons:
· I suppose there’s the general visceral reaction against being told what to do. Like mind your own business, it’s not my fault Kath decided to get involved in my business. Why should she get what she wants when she’s the one being unreasonable? Why should we deny ourselves the opportunity of getting to know someone we seem to vibe with just because Tom’s girlfriend doesn’t like it?
· Before I even knew there was any issue at all, it was already too late; I had already gotten with Emily, they had already fallen out, and Kath already thought I was a dickhead. So what good would it do now to not see each other? Kath already didn’t like me (and she had also previously told me that once she doesn’t like someone, there’s no going back, they’re finished in her mind).
· In the initial first few days after the party, both me and Tom were kind of expecting that Kath’s reaction would blow over in a few days after she had cooled down. How could I have predicted that her reaction would instead continue getting increasingly intense as the situation went on?
· Frankly, I was annoyed at Tom at this point. He knew how Kath had reacted to me messaging Emily, so why did he just bend over and enable his girlfriends’ controlling, unreasonable behavior without question? If it was my girlfriend acting like this generally, I’d be like “why are you getting involved in their business, just let them do what they want?”, and especially so if it was directly affecting one of my close friends.
· Fundamentally, there’s no inherent reason why there had to be any issue at all? Okay Kath has ended her friendship with Emily and might not like that we’re seeing each other, but there’s no need for there to be any continued drama. Obviously we won’t all be hanging out as a four having fun like I had initially hoped, but that doesn’t mean we can’t just exist as adults and be civil? The only reason this continues to be an issue in the first place is because Kath is making it an issue for everyone else involved.
· Finally, I actually like Emily – from the first few days it was clear it wasn’t just going to be a FWB situation. If it felt like more of a superficial FWB situation, then yeah I probably would have just thought it’s not worth the drama, even though I thought Kath was the one in the wrong.
Late February
Over the month of February, me and Emily keep hanging out and getting closer. Whilst I was keeping a very close eye on her for any sign of character flaws (it was still possible that Kath could be in the right, even though her side of it didn’t make much sense to me), the more I got to know her, the more it seemed my initial judgment of her was accurate. I saw how she acted with her other friends, they all seemed to really value and appreciate her. I saw her helping out her friend in need of a fairly large amount of money without a second thought, I saw her going to accompany her friend for a medical scan they had, and generally she was really nice and thoughtful with me. Not exactly the behavior of an inconsiderate person.
Sometime in late February, Emily messages me completely baffled. She couldn’t believe that Kath had invited over a girl from their social circle, Dianne. The reason why this is a bit scandalous is because Kath is always talking shit about Dianne behind her back. And it’s not just “she can be a bit annoying sometimes”, it’s an explicit sentiment of how much she dislikes her, how much of a bad person she is and how much she wants her removed from her life. And she does this frequently, I barely speak to Kath and even I’ve heard her rant about how much she doesn’t like Dianne. So, she’s constantly saying this kind of stuff behind her back, and here she is now inviting her round for tea acting all friendly. I just found that so two-faced and this inevitably shaped my perception of Kath being deceptive.
Not long after I heard about this, Kath was round our place over the weekend. Me, Tom and Kath were heading off to our friend’s housewarming party later that day, with me driving us. At one point when the three of us are all in the kitchen, Kath speaks to me properly for the first time since the party, basically to clear the air. She says she doesn’t want there to be any bad blood between us and that her problem wasn’t with me, it was with Emily. I just say that I was cool with her, I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable with me or when coming over to our apartment, and that the situation between her and Emily was between them and not my business.
I wasn’t entirely convinced with her “clearing the air”, given that I had seen she apparently has no issue with being two-faced, but at the time I thought it was best to stay cool with her for the sake of me and Tom’s friendship and also I didn’t particularly fancy spending the rest of the day and a long car ride with awkward vibes.
End of February
At the end of February, Tom asks me how things are going with Emily and basically advises caution with her. He says that from what he’s seen she’s basically not a good person and she’s generally inconsiderate. I tell him I find that surprising from what I’ve seen of Emily, but I know it’s possible she could have just been putting on a front for the last month. I openly accept this, saying “I want to hear what you have to say, obviously you’re my friend and I respect your opinion”.
Essentially, he doesn’t bring up anything that I hadn’t already been told.
When I question Tom on why Kath thought she was a mind reader and assuming what my intentions were with Emily at the very start of this whole thing, Tom reveals he had since found out that the real reason Kath had forbidden Emily from getting with me in the first place actually wasn’t really to do with me recently breaking up with my girlfriend/using Emily as a rebound (Tom said this was a minor part of the reason, more of an excuse to base it on). It was more that Kath already knew beforehand that she wanted to end her friendship with Emily and was essentially trying to prevent her still being part of her life (i.e. by getting close to her boyfriend’s friend/flatmate).
Now it all made sense why Kath tried to “ban” her from getting with me in the first place. I’m not sure if Tom thought telling me this would make me more sympathetic to Kath’s side of it, but if anything, this deceptive behavior was even more of a red flag to me. As far as everyone (except for Kath) was concerned, her and Emily were best friends. Kath had even said to Emily a couple of weeks before the party that “she was like a sister to her”.
Tom didn’t seem to have much issue with this, saying something along the lines of “yeah I know she shouldn’t have kept all this stuff bottled up, but she doesn’t like confrontation, it makes her really anxious”.
After learning this, I think any argument for Emily being in the wrong for disobeying Kath’s instructions at the party is automatically void: Imagine having the audacity to be like “yeah I know I tried to control you by framing it as me being a protective friend looking out for you, but actually it was really because I wanted to end my friendship with you anyway teehee 😊”. In my view that is just so manipulative. No wonder the reason given to Emily for not getting with me made no sense to her.
When I revealed this to Emily, she said that she had been suspecting that was the case anyway, but it still really hurt to hear it confirmed.
Form her perspective it was like: “So was Kath holding all these grudges all the times I was consoling her for whatever mental health issue she was having at any given time?” (I wonder if Tom was thinking what a bad person Emily was when it was him and Emily staying up till stupid o’clock trying to console Kath who was crying about job applications a few weeks before all this kicked off). There are many other examples of things she had done for Kath in both the recent and more distant past.
Kath also knew that Emily’s best friend had killed herself a few years prior, and after going through the loss of her best friend, Emily had always said she was super hesitant to call anyone her “best friend”. Kath knew about this and still let Emily believe they were best friends, whilst she clearly didn’t really mean it, which I think is quite cruel of her.
Despite what I had seen of Emily so far, I still took what Tom said into account, and continued to watch her carefully.
Mid March
Another couple of weeks pass and given that my last interaction with Kath was her clearing the air with me, I thought everything was now cool between us. I mention to Tom at the start of the week that I’m planning to stay at their apartment later that week and he says “okay cool”. However, later that same evening, he once again asks me not to go over to their apartment. Apparently when he told Kath that I was going over, she started having a panic attack at the thought of me going there.
At this point I’m really started to get frustrated at this situation and again I try to understand exactly what the problem is, because this entire time Kath and Tom have been coming and going to either apartment as they please, so Kath clearly doesn’t have a problem coming to my apartment while I’m there. Tom again says that he doesn’t fully understand it himself, and that Kath doesn’t want to feel this way either, but she’s in a really bad place at the moment and me being there with Emily is really triggering her anxiety.
This makes no sense to me or Emily, because we obviously wouldn’t do anything to make Kath uncomfortable, and from our perspective this is just enabling her dysfunctional way of dealing with this situation.
Even though I still don’t understand what the fuck me seeing Emily has got to do with Kath’s mental health, I’m obviously not going to barge my way into someone’s home when I’m not welcome. So once again, I do as I’m told and say I won’t go over. But I do tell Tom that this situation isn’t going to continue going on like this indefinitely, and to me it feels to me like I’m being walked all over, in the sense of “oh yeah no worries, you two carry on going to either apartment as you please, I’ll just sit here like a dickhead and follow my instructions, don’t worry about it 😊”. He does say sorry and that he knows it’s inconvenient for us, but it's an even bigger inconvenience for Kath.
It’s worth bearing in mind that at this point, I could have responded to this situation by saying that if I’m not welcome at her apartment, Kath is not welcome here (or equally Emily could say to Kath “you can’t bring Tom round”). Whilst yes, it’s a bit petty, I think this would be a completely justified response to prevent a situation where we are being walked all over. Because what would be the alternative? They just carry on doing as they please indefinitely whilst Emily is told she isn’t allowed to have equal use of her own apartment? Now obviously telling your friend that his girlfriend isn’t allowed to come over is really a last resort and would definitely put a big dent in our friendship, and generally I have no desire to control what anyone else does, so of course I didn’t respond in this way.
Despite my frustration at this entire situation, I do feel bad for Tom because I can see how uncomfortable he seems during these conversations with me, he obviously doesn’t want to give me these unreasonable instructions. I can only assume he’s just trying to do whatever he can to keep his girlfriend afloat and prevent her next meltdown. I’ve been there myself dealing with a girlfriend with mental health issues, so I don’t want to actively make things worse for my friend either. However, I’m also worried that it’s likely to get worse for him the more he feeds into it and gets sucked into it.
At this point, the cynical side of me couldn’t help but wonder if Kath was being a bit manipulative and leaning into all the mental health stuff to maintain control of the situation.
· She seemingly is unable to give a reason for exactly why me and Emily being in her apartment makes her so uncomfortable. To me, this was completely indistinguishable from her just hating the fact that we’re together.
· All this reminds me of exactly the same kind of manipulative behavior I saw with that ex-girlfriend.
· She’s shown she has no problem with being intentionally deceptive – maybe if the entire basis of this situation hadn’t started off with Kath being manipulative she would have a bit more credibility in my eyes.
I know this kind of behavior is often not even intentional, and that it can be subconscious where the person doesn’t even realise they’re being manipulative.
(Still Mid March)
Now we get to the part that pisses me off the most in this whole situation. Only a few days after that conversation with Tom, for some reason Kath comes to stay in our apartment for the weekend while Tom was away at a house party. As in, it’s just me and Kath in my apartment.
Personally, I couldn’t imagine having the nerve to say to someone they aren’t welcome in my home because their presence triggers me, and then only a mere few days later actively choosing to go stay the weekend at their place while it’s just us two in the apartment. Like either my presence triggers you or it doesn’t?
Now to be fair, Tom had asked me a week or two beforehand if Kath could come to our apartment to hang out with someone from our friend group while he was away, and I said that was cool. Anyway, those plans fell through, but Kath still came over by herself.
But the main thing that pissed me off about this is that Tom, after knowing that I was already feeling like I was being taken for a mug in this situation, apparently didn’t even think it was worth bothering to check with me if it was still cool with me that Kath came round, given our conversation a few days prior.
If he’d at least checked in like, “I know it’s a bit weird that she’s coming to stay round by herself after having just said that your presence triggers her anxiety”, I still would’ve said okay, because I have no desire to control what anyone does. But it was just the fact he didn’t seem to care, saying “btw Kath is gonna stay here tonight” moments before leaving to his party.
To me it felt like he had spent the last month or so basically giving me instructions to make sure everyone caters to his girlfriend’s feelings, and yet didn’t give the slightest consideration to how this would make me feel. Part of me was thinking does he even see me as a friend or just as an inconvenience to his relationship at this point?
I spoke to Tom in the week following this, expressing how I had felt about Kath staying round. He did apologise and acknowledged he could’ve checked in with me, but he didn’t really seem to understand why her coming over like that was such a kick in the teeth for me. He said Kath doesn’t have a problem with me, it’s only a very specific situation that triggers her (i.e. me and Emily being in her apartment together).
Again I try to understand exactly why it’s a problem. Ever since the party, Emily’s presence in their apartment has consisted of her quietly staying in her room, quickly cooking her food and going straight back to her room. She doesn’t spend 2 hours in the kitchen making food like Kath and Tom sometimes do when he’s there.
Tom again says he doesn’t fully understand it himself. From what he understands, it’s triggering because her home is her safe space and if we’re both there it’s like there’s two hostile presences in that safe space. He reiterated that she is in a very dark place at the moment, and that she’s been having frequent panic attacks and suicidal thoughts.
Tom then says that Kath would be prepared to leave the apartment if me and Emily wanted to meet there, and Kath would basically get out of the way and come to me and Tom’s apartment instead. This did give me a bit more confidence that Kath wasn’t just purposefully making things difficult.
If Kath genuinely meant this, then of course that’s really appreciated, but I’m obviously not going to make her leave her own home and come all the way to ours to then have a 2 hour commute to her work. It’s so over the top and needless. I think that this clearly isn’t a functional solution going forward. What if one day when we want to meet up, Kath has had a long day at work and doesn’t feel like leaving her apartment (obviously, fair enough!), what if she’s got plans with friends in her apartment that evening? In any case, it’s still a situation where rules are being imposed on us, I can never just spontaneously decide to go see Emily one day after work or something. We still can’t come and go freely in the same way they have been doing for the past two months. It would be much better to understand why exactly it’s such a problem and see how we’re going to find a long-term solution, instead of Kath just running away from it.
The cynical side of me was wondering if Kath was just saying this knowing that neither me or Emily are realistically going to make her leave her own home, and if we do agree to it, then she can say “oh look how inconsiderate they are, making me leave my own home just so that they can be in the apartment”, ensuring that she keeps Tom firmly on her side.
Logically, I would’ve thought as time goes on, Kath would eventually get used to the situation and just accept it. Conversely, is it not quite understandable that the longer we have rules imposed on us, the more frustrated we become?
Once again say that I won’t go over and tell him that I won’t press this issue for the time being.
Late April
So now we get to the latest development in the situation, which is the crux of this post.
For the next month or so after that conversation with Tom, me and Emily have just been following our instructions and not pressed anything, whilst they continue coming and going as they please. One weekend we’re talking about the whole ‘Kath situation’ and we say “okay we’ve left it for a while now, it’s probably time to see how we’re going to move forward with this”.
In that next week, Emily sends Kath the following message:
“Hey, I appreciate this message might be uncomfortable but we need to discuss the fact that Jake can’t come here while you’re at home because I know that him and Tom have spoken about this but we’ve never addressed it with each other and I think it’s unfair that they’ve been largely absorbing this conflict this whole time. Can you please tell me what the exact problem would be and how we could make it work? At the end of the day we both pay equal rent here and I should be allowed to bring someone over, especially considering that Tom comes here whenever you want. We’re nothing more than just 2 housemates now and if you were living with a stranger from Spareroom such restrictions couldn’t have existed. I think I’ve let it slide and should have addressed it earlier, but it’s time we come up with a fair solution and I’d like to know if there’s anything reasonable we can do. I don’t want to go into other conversations about our fallout cause that’s done and dusted now, I want to strictly address this issue. Would you like some notice before he comes? I can’t always guarantee how far in advance I can let you know but I will do my best to give you enough time.”
Kath’s response:
“hey, I do not really appreciate this conversation being brought up 2 days before my birthday and I wish we can settle it today and not drag it on. And I do not appreciate you using Tom as a weapon to guilt trip me either. Please let me know if he is coming over tonight so that I can go somewhere else. As u probably already know I am in a really bad place at the moment and being in the apartment with both of you makes me feel very uncomfortable and unsafe. I’m already struggling to be there and I have been discussing with the agency about terminating the contract early, the terms have only been made clear to me today so I was going to message you about it. By paying a fee of £660 (£330 each) we can terminate the contract 12th of June and I wish u will consider this. I will be gone from the apartment for 2 weeks. I would really appreciate it if you do not bring him over in the next few days as I said it will be my birthday and I will be gone for 2 weeks after if you decide to do so after this, please let me know at least 2 days in advance so that I can leave (pack clothes and everything), but do not take advantage of this as it is extremely difficult for me to commute to work – it takes me 2 hours on the bus”
Emily’s response to this:
“I don’t appreciate you using your birthday as a “weapon” to paint me as an inconsiderate person once again as you’re saying you were going to message me anyway about terminating the contract. You always have Tom round without any notice, without ever considering if it was ever uncomfortable for me given what’s happened - but now you expect me to organise our schedule around you? We can’t ever do something spontaneous or simply make plans the day before? Jake won’t be coming tonight or in the next few days until you’re away. I was hoping we could talk about why exactly this makes you uncomfortable and unsafe as it’s quite clear we wouldn’t interact with you or do anything to purposely upset/annoy you. You also had no problem being in his apartment with him without Tom there, so clearly his presence must not be that big of a problem. I am going to get back to you about terminating the contract as I have to figure out where I would go, but I’d love nothing more than to leave this apartment as early as possible too.”
There was no response after Emily’s second message.
Tom comes back to our apartment the next day and ignores me all day until the evening when he asks “Did you know that Emily was going to send those messages?”.
I say “Yes, obviously?”. He responds with “Right, okay” and starts walking back towards his room.
I ask him what was wrong with the messages, and he comes back and says “what the fuck is Emily doing sending messages like that to my suicidal girlfriend?”. He essentially thought the tone of the messages, the proximity to Kath’s birthday and the fact that we’re once again bringing up this issue of me coming round was out of order. He also said that Emily’s 2nd message was implying that she was just going to bring me round without any notice anyway (looking at the message, no it wasn’t? It was just highlighting the unfairness of Kath expecting us to organise our schedule around her? None of the messages say that I’m going to come over, they are essentially just trying to understand exactly why it makes Kath uncomfortable).
We also did note that it was Kath’s birthday on the Friday (messages were sent on Tuesday). Maybe that wasn’t ideal, but we thought what real difference does it make? This is nothing new, it’s the same situation that’s been ongoing for the last 3 months anyway (and personally, I thought that up until the moment Kath says “okay sorry, I shouldn’t have imposed rules on you” then she shouldn’t expect that this won’t be brought up to her?).
I was a bit shocked at how angry he was and explained that we’re just trying to understand exactly what her issue is, because it still doesn’t make any sense to us. I bring up the general point about Kath imposing rules on people and expects everyone to cater to her feelings, whilst zero consideration has been given to how Emily has felt over the last 3 months, when not only does it make her uncomfortable as well that there are two “hostile presences” in her home, but especially given that those hostile presences have told her she’s not allowed to have equal use of her apartment she also pays rent for.
Tom responds with “but it’s not making Emily feel suicidal is it? Kath was having convulsions on the fucking bed last night after those messages. Why do you keep focusing on this tiny issue of coming to the apartment when my girlfriend is literally suicidal? She’s already said she’d make arrangements to leave the apartment for when you want to come over, and yet you keep pressing the issue and triggering her further”.
In that moment I was a bit taken aback and didn’t have much of a response. I kind of just sat and processed that for a few minutes, thinking “fuck, have I actually been in the wrong this whole time?”. Tom looked exhausted and stressed out, he must have been dealing with Kath’s meltdown the whole of the night before.
I say to Tom “tell Kath not to worry about me coming over while she’s there, I’m not going to, I’ll just leave it for good and won’t press this issue anymore”. Tom doesn’t give much of a response, but I think he says “I appreciate it”. He leaves for his two-week holiday shortly after.
I felt really bad that evening, thinking I had caused Tom to have to deal with whatever horrible meltdown because of me pressing this issue. Maybe I had been overly cynical of Kath, and she genuinely was just trying her best and not meaning to be manipulative.
When Tom got back from his holiday, he basically confirmed our friendship is over because I had known about those messages that caused his girlfriend to feel suicidal.
I’ve thought about the situation a lot since he left for his holiday:
· Looking back at the messages Emily sent, I think the tone is completely fine? Every single person I’ve shown the messages to has said they are actually quite kind and empathetic, and way nicer than they need to be given Kath’s behavior over the last 3 months.
· Tom’s reaction was essentially “how dare Emily have the audacity to ask for a reason why she hasn’t been allowed to have equal use of her own apartment for the last 3 months!”
· It’s true that Tom had mentioned that Kath had been having some suicidal thoughts a month prior, but I didn’t know that this would directly impact that, especially since I thought the message was quite nice and sensitive. Just the weekend before this Tom and Kath were out clubbing, having fun and they were going on holiday later that week. So obviously I didn’t realise she was still feeling so bad. How could anyone expect that simply asking the question of “why does this make you so uncomfortable” would result in this reaction.
· As soon as I did realise how intensely Kath had reacted, and what Tom had had to deal with as a result, I backed off straight away, saying that she doesn’t have to worry, I’m not going to press it anymore.
· Realistically, if this is how Kath reacts to being asked for basic fairness, then I think really she needs to be in a mental health crisis centre or hospital, not just carrying on with everyday life as if everything is fine, and certainly not in a situation where she’s imposing rules on people.
· At the end of the day, Kath’s mental health is not my responsibility, nor is it Tom’s responsibility. I think it’s unfair of Kath to have made it his problem to such a large degree.
Logically, I don’t think I’m in the wrong, and yet Tom’s reaction to this makes me feel like I’m going crazy. That’s why I wrote out everything’s that’s happened from start to finish to “audit” myself and evaluate each of my actions throughout the entire situation. I’ve looked back and don’t think I’m in the wrong for anything I’ve done. The only explanation I can think of is that Tom has been so deep in all of Kath’s mental health stuff 24/7 that he’s just not thinking clearly about this situation.
submitted by Tight_Philosophy8244 to AITAH [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:43 stevesan How I finally learned to love Fallout 4

As a long time Fallout fan, who has completed and loved all the main Fallout games (1, 2, 3, NV), I was looking forward to Fallout 4. But then it came out, the reception was very mixed, and it just didn’t click with me even after many tries over the years. But recently, thanks to the renewed buzz from the awesome TV show, I decided to give it another shot. This time I ended up loving it, and I thought I’d share what I did differently in case other fans are having a hard time appreciating FO4.
Let’s get this out of the way first: the writing, dialogue, and player choices are not as good as previous games. Not terrible, but not as good. Much has been written about this, so I won’t belabor the point, but if you absolutely need these aspects to enjoy a Fallout game, you best move on.
But trust me, the game still has a lot to offer: the world is vast and densely packed with interesting, lovingly-crafted locales. The VATS combat, while very different from 3/NV, is still immensely satisfying and rather unique among FPS games. This makes for a great looter shooter loop. And it’s still dripping with the thick atmosphere and dark humor the series is known for. It would be a shame for any Fallout fan to miss out on all this!
So here are some tips that helped me see the light. Hopefully they’ll help you too.
Building for VATS: I’ll start with this, because this is a big one. In FO3/NV, VATS was the main way to play, so Bethesda probably made sure it worked well in most builds. But for FO4, they clearly invested a lot into the real-time shooting as well, and the game seems to be balanced such that you can specialize your build for VATS or for real-time. This also means that you can accidentally create a build that’s really bad for VATS. I think that’s what happened during my first attempts, and I was left feeling like FO4 really wants you to avoid VATS. That was a huge turn off - I loved it in 3/NV and wanted more. So this time around, I watched some guides on YouTube and spec’d for VATS from the get go. Make sure you do this! The TLDR is to invest heavily in Perception, Agility, and Luck.
Another thing about FO4 VATS is that it is…a bit weird. Sometimes you’ll queue up some 95% shots and they’ll just all miss. This mostly stems from the fact that it no longer freezes time, so that 95% becomes outdated by the time the shots go off, but I’m also convinced it’s just a little buggy, especially on Xbox. Whatever the cause, the upshot is that if your shots are missing, just cancel VATS, get a better angle, and try again. Try to get as clear of a shot as possible. Unless, of course, you’re triggering a critical…
The critical hit system in FO4 is totally different from previous FO games and most RPGs in general. It really should be called a “super meter”, like in fighting games, because that’s what it is. Every successful hit in VATS fills the meter up a bit. Once it’s full, you can use it during any VATS shot, and that will make it a “critical hit”. There is no RNG involved at this point. The hit will do much more damage and BASICALLY NEVER MISS - EVEN THROUGH WALLS. Like I said, it’s basically a super and honestly feels a bit OP. Once you get the hang of it, it is TONS of fun. Watch out for perks and legendary weapons that make it even better. There’s a lot of depth here, and it’s probably my favorite new mechanic in FO4.
Honestly, after the initial hump, I’m having more fun with VATS in FO4 than 3 or NV!
OK, more random tips to help your enjoyment:
Most of the Minutemen quests suck. It’s unfortunate that they are the first faction you meet (major design flub, IMO), and if you just do their quests, you will have a bad time. You should do some of the early ones, but once you’ve got a bare minimum base established (I just did Sanctuary), you can ignore the rest. Some of them are good, or so I hear, but there’s a reason why the FO4 community universally hates on Preston Garvey. Instead, start heading to Diamond City or just wander around and explore random places. Undiscovered markers will show up as outlined icons on your compass, so let yourself gravitate towards them. This way, you’ll stumble upon new side quests and cool new places to explore and clear.
As you explore, don’t ignore random junk. Pick it all up, use your companion when you’re over-burdened, and periodically return to Sanctuary to dump it all into the workshop. You can use it all for weapon and armor crafting, and those systems are actually really cool. Unlike many loot-based games, there is an underlying logic to the huge variety of weapons and armor you’ll find in the wasteland. Once I understood how the mods worked, I really got into it. Again, watch some good YouTube videos on it, as the game doesn’t really explain it enough. Also, the UI isn’t great, but here are some small tips that may help: Sorting by damage is basically sorting by ammo type. Use the renaming feature in the weapon crafting UI to help. For weapons I want to keep, I prefix them with a dash along with the ammo type and damage. Find some system that works for you.
You can ignore settlement building. Maybe you’ll enjoy it, but I didn’t, and it’s really not necessary. I just made a bed near the crafting stations in Sanctuary so I could easily sleep between outings.
When exploring locations: the local map is useless. I have no idea what they did here and why they did it, but it’s horrendous. Maybe it was as bad in FO3/NV - I don’t remember. If you do get lost in a dungeon, just find a play-through of your current quest on YouTube and follow it. Most dungeons are fine, but some are pretty confusing (looking at you, Corvega Plant).
You can largely ignore the power armor. It’s tempting to use them, but I found them to be pretty tedious due to the power cores.
Finally, the early game can be a bit tough, so here are some combat tips:
Alright, hopefully this will help more people enjoy Fallout 4. The Commonwealth is really worth experiencing.
submitted by stevesan to fo4 [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:40 Desperate_Scar_1981 Should I be wary of this promotion?

Hey all
Just a quick one. Ive been offered a role within my exisiting company well above my head, I've held my current role for quite a while which has little progression but it's super safe
This new role is total deep end with minimal training and only assurances of support should i need it by others. As positive as this all sounds on the outside I'm an overthinker also. Could this be purposely setting me up to fail with the least liability to fire me because the role wasn't for me? In the 2 conversations I've had with my boss he even asked what my back up options would be because going back to my current role would not be an option
submitted by Desperate_Scar_1981 to auscorp [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:35 karenvideoeditor The Zoo [Part 6]

First / Previous
Back on the job, my eyes kept going to the camera that was on enclosure one. Andrew told me its real name, but I think that’d be a step too far, putting that out on the internet. I’d just stick with ‘Steve the bear’. Whatever it was, I just knew I’d have a nightmare about it eventually. Last night I slept fitfully but okay. But I know my brain, and I’d already had a nightmare about Yui stabbing me with one of her legs (they are not needle-sharp in real life, this was dream logic) and walking around, having not noticed I was a Ripley-kebab on her leg. I kept trying to get her attention but for some reason I’d been worried about sounding rude.
On my third walk around the zoo, at about 12 a.m. I saw Leila again, who I’d been noticing more and more often. She never looked interested in talking, only walking through the enclosures, and by that I meant any and all of them. She didn’t seem to have a favorite. I assume that however much of her mind that was left over from being alive still gravitated toward looking at the animals, since getting too close was what killed her in the first place.
Then, in enclosure eight, I saw a new creature and stopped abruptly. This one looked chill, but I wasn’t about to make any assumptions. It looked unique in a strange way, shaped like a giant lizard but built like a big cat of some sort. It had an uncanny valley human face, green hair for a mane, and also a horn like a unicorn. It felt like something drawn by an imaginative five-year-old brought to life, but was still somehow oddly endearing.
“Hello,” she spoke, noticing me noticing her. Her voice was distinctly female and oddly deep.
“Hello,” I responded with false cheer.
She pushed herself to her feet and I took an instinctive step back, but she seem to notice, much less take offense. “You’re the guard here?”
“Yup. That’s me.”
“Thank you.”
I blinked, taken aback. “Ah…you’re welcome. For what?”
She cocked her head. “For guarding me.”
That was different. Most of the impressions I had gotten from the animals so far were that they wanted to eat me. And the idea that this one was thankful for me doing my job was refreshing, don’t get me wrong, but made me wary. Call me a cynic, I guess.
“My name is tàiyang. You can call me Sun,” she told me.
“Hi, Sun. I’m Ripley.”
Then she looked toward the sky. “It’s going to rain tonight.”
After a thoughtful moment, I asked, “Does that make you sad?”
“Why would it make you sad?”
I smiled. “Because your name is Sun.”
She paused and then said, “I don’t understand.”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, telling a pun to one of the animals. “Never mind.” I glanced up at the sky. “I thought the rain is supposed to stay away from here. Are the ones who told me that wrong?”
“Yes.”
“Well that’s good to know,” I murmured to myself, thinking of my raincoat hanging in the security office closet. It wasn’t that surprising, honestly. Sometimes I felt like the meteorologists in Arkansas try to read the entrails of goats to figure out the weather. It’s all a mess and it’s all made up.
At that, the animal looked to the sky and fell silent. She appeared to be the most uneventful introduction I’d had so far, and I was incredibly grateful for it. Except then the animal kept talking. “He’s under a spell.”
I blinked. “What?”
She looked back to me. “Andrew. He’s under a spell. He’s very unhappy.”
I had no idea how to react to that. For a second I just stared. The sudden jolt of being told my boss was currently being afflicted by magic left me floundering. “He… What?” I finally asked. “Where is he?”
“In his office.”
Oh shit. My eyes instinctively darted in the direction of the main office. I always just entered through the door on the west side of the building, of course, since it led to the security room. It was unnecessary for me to go through the door that first led into the lobby-slash-office Andrew worked out of. Sometimes he even left early, so it was locked anyway. I had the key, but again, it was unnecessary.
Whatever had happened, assuming this animal wasn’t joking around (she seemed completely serious), I needed to establish whether she was right. Leaving the enclosure of the animal I’d just met, I quickly walked back to the small building.
Taking a deep breath, I knocked loudly. “Andrew, are you in there?”
The only reply was silence. I stood there until enough time had passed that it was obvious that no one was coming to answer the door. Taking out my phone, I dialed his cell number and wait as it rang. Then I grimaced when I heard it ringing inside.
Hanging up and shoving the phone back in my pocket, I stared at the closed door.
Trying the doorknob, I found that it was unlocked, and my heart skipped a beat. Andrew always locked his office before leaving. Opening the door slowly, the lights were off in the room, leaving only the faint red glow of the lights outside peeking around his curtains, so I turned on a light. Then my heart plummeted into my stomach, because there was Andrew, splayed limply on the ground, his eyes only half open.
I bolted to him and dropped to his side as he let out a whimper.
“Andrew,” I said, putting two fingers to the side of his neck. He remained silent, and despite his relaxed, wilted appearance, his heart was racing, and I wondered if he was in pain. The room smelled, and it was clear to me that he’d lost control of his bowels. I couldn’t believe I’d been working here for hours without knowing he was in the next room like this.
“Fucking hell. I’m so sorry it took me so long to find you. Can you hear me? What happened?” He made a small sound, unfocused eyes attempting to meet mine, but it was as if he were severely deprived of sleep or something, unable to focus. His mouth opened and he tried to say something, but he couldn’t speak. All I got was halting words mushed into each other. I felt for him; he must’ve been mortified by his condition. I would’ve been, at least.
The obvious solution would be to get Suzanne’s number from Andrew’s phone, so I searched him for it and found it in his right jacket pocket. I pressed the button the iPhone, swiped, and let out a sigh of frustration. He was security conscious enough to lock his phone with a code, of course.
“Can you… You can’t tell me the code,” I said knowing. He grunted quietly.
“What happened?”
I shrieked and jumped to my feet. Leila stood in the doorway, staring in shock at Andrew’s body. “You scared the bejesus out of me,” I exclaimed. I stopped myself before asking if she could make some noise when she moved or if I could put a bell on her. “What does it look like happened? Someone put a spell on him.” Abruptly, my stance changed, standing up straight. “Wait. Do you know how to get in touch with…anyone?” I asked desperately.
“I know Ms. Cooper’s phone number,” she said frankly.
My eyes widened. “Seriously? How?”
“Andrew gave it to me after I worked here for three months.”
That stopped my brain dead in its tracks. “You…used to work here?” I whispered. I remembered Andrew telling me that one of the night shift managers had been killed, but he hadn’t told me it was Leila. Whether it was for her own privacy or her dignity or some other reason, it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that I could call Suzanne.
“I worked here for three months,” Leila confirmed as I took out my own phone.
“Okay…what’s her number?” I asked, ready to dial. She rattled off the number and dialed it.
The phone rang twice times before someone answered. “Hello?”
“Hi, is this Suzanne?”
“Yes, who’s this?”
She had a British accent like Andrew did. I took a deep breath and said, “It’s Ripley Mason. I got your number from Leila. I’m here in Andrew’s office and he’s in really bad shape. Someone cast a spell on him and it’s like he’s lost control of the part of his brain that lets him move around and speak.”
“What?” she snapped. “What happened?”
“I-I don’t know,” I said, glancing back to Andrew. He actually looked calmer now, and I hoped that was because he knew Suzanne could fix this. “I was doing my rounds and I met Sun; she’s the one that told me and that’s why I came into his office. I don’t- Who would do this? What do I do?”
“It’s okay, Ripley. I’ll leaving now and will be there soon,” she told me. I heard rustling in the background, the sounds of getting out of a chair and footsteps. “Did you check the security cameras?”
My eyes shut in irritation against my stupidity. It hadn’t even occurred to me. “I’m sorry. Of course, I’ll do that right away.” Proof positive that I was completely out of it. Some security guard I was, not even able to keep my head in an emergency.
“Don’t apologize, Ripley, you’re quite within your rights to be discombobulated at the moment,” she said. “And I’d like you stay with Andrew, but I would prefer to know what happened. Leave his side just for a second to check the footage.
“Okay.” I crouched down to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll be right back.” His eyes flicked to me, but he didn’t make a sound. Getting back to my feet and walking over to the security room door, I went in and sat at my desk, putting the phone on speaker so I could more easily navigate the footage.
After fidgeting around with the unfamiliar aspect of the program, since I’d never needed to look back before and Andrew only showed me how to do it once, I finally went back to the point where the spell had been cast. “Okay, he walked into his office with two men at…4:08 p.m. and it looks like he was fine with it. He wasn’t under duress, from what I can see.”
“That’s likely Michael Wise and Eric Henry,” Suzanne told me. “They were allegedly making a donation, a herd of Bagot goats.”
“Allegedly?”
“Well, I’m operating under the assumption that they lied if Andrew is spelled.”
I grimaced. That was a good point. Watching them have a conversation, I saw Andrew tense, and then turn to dart toward his desk, but he only made it two steps before one of the men raised what looked like a wand, snapping it in my late boss’s direction, speaking something. As I saw Andrew’s body seize like he’d been hit with a taser and collapse, I hissed in a sharp breath. “Cripes.”
“What is it?”
“One of them had a wand,” I managed. “He-He did something with it.”
“I’m here, Ripley. Come back to the office.”
My eyes widened and I did as I was told, stunned to see her opening the front door. “How did you get here so fast?” I asked.
The woman gave me a small smile, rendered grim by the situation. “Call it a trick of the trade.”
“Oh. Gotcha.”
Suzanne was all hard edges, her pin-straight blond hair cut at an angle just below her ears, and she wore a smart blue pants suit with matching pumps. But then she looked to Andrew and her face softened, despair and fury flashing across it as she quickly walked to him and knelt at his side, taking his weak hand in hers.
“Oh, Andrew,” she whispered. “I’m so, so sorry. You’ll be okay. I already texted a healer and asked her to come by. A friend of mine named Janine.”
I looked back to Andrew’s face, his eyes open and his expression one of exhaustion, but then quickly looked to Suzanne. “Why would someone do this?” I asked.
“I have a feeling at least one of our animals is missing,” she told me, her voice low and hard.
Anger flared up in me. “What?” I asked tersely. I glanced back in the direction of the cameras. “Should we check the cameras to see which enclosure they went to? Do we- Are there cops you can call for this? What do we do?”
Suzanne’s face slowly faded to sadness. “I’ll take care of it,” she said. “You’re accurate in that I do have a different police I’ll call about this. But there’s a good chance we won’t get the animal back.”
“Wait, why? Come on, there’s got to be magic you could do, right?” I asked anxiously.
“The animal will have been warded and sold to someone immediately,” she explained. “They would’ve had a buyer set up, and gone straight there to reduce the risk of being caught with it. Anyone who is buying an animal like this is extremely powerful, which means that even if we catch the men who stole it, they’d go to prison, but they wouldn’t risk angering the buyer. They won’t tell the authorities who it was, even for a lesser sentence. Losing an animal to robbery has only happened twice in the zoo’s history, this is the third time, but that’s how it played out both times. Actually, in the first instance, the police didn’t even catch the people who took it, since they were wearing masks.”
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and Suzanne pushed herself to her feet, walking over and opening it without hesitation. “He’s in here.” I took the opportunity to open the windows and turned down the thermostat so it would start displacing the smelly air.
A woman walked in, Janine presumably. “Oh, goodness,” she breathed, going quickly to Andrew. She took his pulse with one hand as she pulled a wand out from her purse with the other. “It’s good he’s staying calm. Redire orior can be terrifying to be subjected to.”
“He wasn’t calm when I got here,” I told her quietly. “I’ve been here for hours and didn’t know he was here until just a few minutes ago.”
Janine swore softly. “All right. Let me get started.”
I didn’t know what that meant, so I turned to Suzanne. “What did she call this?”
“The spell is ‘redire orior’. It’s a regression of part of the mind, basically all the way back to when we were first born,” she said tightly, anger flickering across her face. “He has no more control over his body than he did when he was a newborn baby.”
I grimaced, looking back to him. “Oh my god,” I whispered. It meant exactly what it had looked like when I’d walked in: Andrew had been rendered completely helpless. Rage welled up inside me, despising the men who’d done this and wishing desperately that Suzanne had been more confident in finding them.
Suzanne took the opportunity to walk into the security office and I heard her sit in my chair. Janine put down her wand to have both hands free and told Andrew, “Just relax, concentrate on breathing slowly,” she said, carefully pulling both of his legs out and rolling him onto his back. She then put his arms at his sides and, picking up her wand, pointed it at his forehead.
I took in a sharp breath of surprise as I saw a faint glow coming from the wand, through the top of it and then to Andrew’s forehead. She held that position for a while, muttering under her breath.
A few minutes later, Suzanne came out and took her phone from her pocket, saying, “I don’t recognize either of the men in the footage. But they seemed distressed, particularly the one that didn’t hurt Andrew. I don’t think that’s what was meant to happen.”
“Meant to or not, it happened,” I muttered through clenched teeth. I’d already decided that my new to-do list every day included first checking the office cameras.
“Andrew,” Janine said, letting the glow fade. “Can you speak?”
“I…yeah,” he whispered.
Suzanne came over to my side. “Thank goodness. How are you feeling? How’s the vertigo?”
“Pretty much gone,” he said, closing his eyes for a long moment, though he didn’t try to stand up.
“Andrew, I pulled up the cameras in the office and listened to the audio,” she told him. “I know what happened.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “The cameras have audio?”
“It’s under admin privileges, but yes. Andrew, you should have known better,” she said softly, looking back to him. “The gun in one of the desk drawers? I presume that’s what you were lunging for, because those two men had just made it clear they were here for an animal.”
“Yeah,” he sighed. “I just…” He looked distraught.
“They told you to just let them get what they came for,” Suzanne said. “Why didn’t you?” My lips parted in shock.
“The last time this happened, I cooperated, but…I regretted it,” he growled. “We never saw Harriet again. I couldn’t just stand here and let them do whatever they wanted. Not again.” I assumed Harriet was one of their animals, but I didn’t ask.
“Don’t ever do something so foolish again,” she told him, on the verge of being upset, her emotions likely tempered by his condition. “I want to make it clear to you that this job, these animals, they’re immensely important, but they are not worth your life. He could have killed you. If someone gains access to the zoo again to steal an animal I want you to cooperate fully. Understood?”
“Yeah,” Andrew muttered.
The idea that Andrew had tried to bring a gun to a wand fight was staggering. Something heavy curled in my stomach at the thought. It was clear he cared about the wellbeing of the animals to a degree I hadn’t comprehended.
Janine took one of the small pillows from the couch and tucked it under Andrew’s head as Suzanne continued. “All right,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll go through the footage to determine what they stole and then call the authorities to report the theft. Janine, can you continue to treat him?”
I wasn’t sure what that entailed, but Janine apparently did, since she nodded and knelt back down as Suzanne went back into the security office. Janine did the same thing that she’d done before, that soft glow channeling light into Andrew’s head. Obviously, I wanted to ask what she was doing, but I knew better than to think I’d get an answer. Instead, I sat in one of the loveseats in front of Andrew’s desk, turning it to face them.
I heard Suzanne’s voice faintly speaking to someone on the phone and the minutes ticked by. Eventually, Suzanne came back out again and she stood next to me for a long moment, watching the healing process before turning to me.
“Andrew told me you were attempting to create some enrichment activities for the animals?” asked my boss.
“Oh, uh…yeah, I am,” I answered. I assumed she was trying to make small talk to distract me from the current situation, and I appreciated it. “The first one went well. Spike loves artichokes, pecans, and hazelnuts. I went with things that made it a challenge to eat, like it’s a challenge to pull out fingernails of its prey.”
Suzanne’s expression brightened just enough for me to notice. “Ripley, that’s wonderful. Very clever.” She let out a breath. “It’s becoming more and more obvious to me that Andrew chose well in hiring you.” I gave her a small smile. “Listen, I’m going to hire someone else to be here with you on duty,” Suzanne told me, “and by that, I mean someone from my neck of the woods. Andrew explained that to you, correct?”
“Not much. Just that you’re not from Earth.”
Suzanne smiled. “That makes me sound like an alien, but yes, I’m not from this dimension. I can hire someone who has similar abilities to mine, who can check in every few hours, make sure everything’s all right, but generally make themselves scarce unless there’s an emergency. He wouldn’t have been able to do much if he’d already been here, but he’d have known what was going on. Andrew would have received assistance immediately.”
I was curious of what those abilities were, aside from being able to see the animals, but I wasn’t bold enough to ask. Also, I was curious about who this new ‘employee’ would be, but presumably I’d find out sooner or later. “That would make me feel a little better,” I said, nodding. “Knowing there was someone else here.”
She nodded once. “It’s as good as done, then. As for Andrew, he’ll need to take a few days off to recover. Would you be willing to give the tours until he’s back in ship-shape?”
My eyes bugged out of my skull. “Wait, what? I can’t even see all the animals!”
Suzanne chuckled at my expression and shook her head. “I can enchant a pair of specs for you to wear,” she told me. “It’ll give you a bit of a headache, but you’ll be able to see all of the animals. Also, I’ll give you the background for each of them, because you’ll be speaking about them to the tourists.”
I blinked, thinking of how awesome it would be to finally know all about them all. And it was flattering, the fact that she had such confidence in me that, without hesitation, she asked if I could take over for Andrew. The best thing for me to do, of course, was to be confident and assure her that I could take any temporary promotion in stride. “I’m…I’m not great with people,” I managed.
Yup. Nailed it.
“You can be a little harsh with them if you need to,” she said with a small, knowing smile. “I assumed that signing up for a job where you interact with a screen of cameras the whole time means you aren’t great with people. And Andrew did brief me on you when he hired you. How good are you at couching your insults in polite talk? The British are quite skilled, but I know Americans aren’t too bad at it.”
I smirked, remembering how a coworker friend of mine once told a customer, “Oh, bless your heart,” in her thick southern accent and it sounded like the worst insult. “I can manage that, I think.”
A buzz from the gate that went to the panel on the wall drew our attention and Suzanne walked over to let the visitors in. It was three people, a man and two women, with a gurney.
Walking over to Andrew, I folded my arms with a small smile as Janine released his head from the glow the wand was emitting. “Hey. Sorry you had to lay on the floor for so long knowing I was cluelessly reading a book in the next room.”
“Eh, not the end of the world,” he whispered. “I’ll be back on my feet soon. So, no parties while I’m gone.”
I snorted and my smile widened, and he returned it.
Going back into the security room, I pulled the system back to the multi-camera exterior view, and I sat there and listened to Suzanne talk to one of the medics, explaining everything that had happened in detail. Once she’d done that and they brought Andrew outside on the gurney, presumably to a waiting ambulance, I gave my statement, and then…it was back to work.
Obviously going back to work like nothing had changed felt weird, but Suzanne stayed, letting me know that she would get some work done at Andrew’s desk until my shift was over. It was likely the opposite of necessary, the robbers were gone, but it did make me feel a tiny bit better knowing that she was in the next room with her wand.
First / Previous
***
Patreon
My Website
/storiesbykaren
submitted by karenvideoeditor to HFY [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:31 Monoheinztoo For the Humans that help me : The Angel in Whiterobe

The idea : Make a HFY stories without other species and take place on modern day earth, the goal highlight the most important component of humans, Humanity
Trigger warning : Heavy Suicide Theme
As Dr James walks to the rooms, he takes one deep breath. “Good morning Rudy, how was your sleep last night ?” he said from near the opened door. Rudy sight is now directed toward the incoming voice from the door. He sees one man in white robe holding a tablet accompanied by male nurse in his back*. Ah, here come the doctor’s.*
“I don’t want to talk with you, I just want to be gone from this world”, followed by shrieks from the patient. “I don’t have any reason to live, please let me goo”, *useless me can’t even finish the job*. The sentence is followed by a loud growl from Rudy as he tries to escape the bed restraints put on him.
The doctor was taken aback by such a strong reaction, Rudy can see that doctor James' face changes from a slight smile to what he assumes is the doctor's thinking face. “Aah I know !! Jamal, can you watch Mr Rudy for me? I have to take something from the outside” as James voice breaks the awkward silence that hangs in the room. Rudy is confused by the doctor's reaction.
Doctor James leaves the room as is, *no one wants to help me anyway*. Rudy could not help but to feel disappointment at the doctor as he went out, doesn’t matter my time here is short anyway. The room is filled again with silent awkwardness as the black nurse just stood in the door watching Rudy every moment. His brilliant brown eyes looking sharply at him, he felt nervous, *please let me go* .
After what felt like eternity the doctor came back to the room with one bag in his hand and laptop in another, *looks like a new model from zeon*. “Is that zeon zenith 12? “ his mouth bluntly said, *wait, noo?!!*. Dr James stopped by his bedside, looking a little bit surprised and quickly nodded “Yes, this is zeon zenith 12, are you a tech enthusiast ?”. Rudy did not answer, he gazed away from the doctor. “Well, looks like you know some tech update for the very least”.
Scrieeek……….. . “Ach…!!” Rudy covered his ear as the sound of metal chair scraping the floor ring aloud. “Ooh sorry Rudy, I did not know you’re sensitive to loud noises, i’ll be careful next time ” as doctor James stops the chair movement. Rudy stays silent, as Dr James takes a seat on a chair beside his bed. “So I know you don’t want to talk to me about your problem right now” James then grabbed the food table, “So instead why don’t we just watch some cute cat video i curated for this”.
Rudy turn his head back to James again this time confused looks clearly drawn in his face, is*n’t his job try to talk me out of suicide?*. “You want to talk about your problem now?” Rudy then looks away again from the doctor “Yeah I thought so. So why don’t we just watch this video and for a moment forget everything about the problem and just watch the video ?” Rudy did not turn his gazes, *how could i forget it if only bad things happened to my life?.*
His face began to puff up as he held back tears, “Alright if you don’t want to, I’ll watch it myself”. Meowing can be heard from his back, wait he seriously does it ?!. Rudy turn back his gaze toward the doctors with a slightly furious face, he looks focused on the video that played from his laptop. As doctor James looks back at him “want to watch ?” Rudy once again threw his gazes away. “Alright ” bruk.., the sound of the heavy laptop being placed in the food table and the sound of meowing continue. Rudy tried to look away still, but the cute voice made him curious, and feel awed. He finally looks at the video playing, he looks at the laptop intentley, almost like a child watching their favorite cartoons.
Rudy for this moment in time and space, he forget his problems, his shitty work at john’s pizza, his loud and inconsiderate upstair neighbor, his neighborhood that is brimming with trash and the gunshot he hears every night, his nonexistent love life, his friend who left him after uni, his grade from uni and highschool, his parents, and his past. For this moment he lives in the present, not overthinking about the past or the future.
They watch the video, both attentive in their own way, transfixed to the screen like a moth to a lamp. Through dozens of cute cat compilation videos they watch together, his face begins to relax from constant fury and agony to a more neutral tone. Then finally without realizing it he, smiled a little.
Chee-klick, a bright flash hit him. His arms reflectively move to cover his face but can’t because of the arm restrained to his bed. “Hey, why are you take a photo of me without **my permission !!!**”. “Oh I’m sorry for that, I just saw you smiling while watching the video so I need to take that” James explained. “I smile ??” Rudy asked as he felt dumbfounded by the word. “Mhemmm, here’s take a look “ Dr james then flip his phone and let Rudy take a look at his screen.
*I smile, does that mean i don’t want to die, no no no that can’t be right i want to die i can’t feel happiness anymore, if life is not happy then, then…..* . “Ah you know looking at it again you smile looks beautiful so I hope i can see more of your smile” Dr James said with a big smile on his face.
Now that Rudy takes a look at his face, he sees it now, his face. His bright eyes that are colored like sapphire, his blonde hair looks like it was made from gold, his face is soft but unmistakable masculine quality, his dark green shirt underneath his white robe. From his broken mind he sees a hope in the form of what seems like an angel to him. *He is… handsome*. His tan cheek is now adorned with light pink.
“Well that is one of the reasons, the other one is I need to make a report to Stephen charities that finance your stay in here”, *ah well that makes more sense*. His face gets back to a neutral tone. “Well, if you want to remove the photo, I can make an ex…”, “No, just give them the photo I can’t pay with my saving, and my insurance will probably not give the money” Rudy said with a stern voice, his face followed similarly but James can notice a hint of Sadness in there.
“With your consent, oh and also our session must end here i’m afraid, i have another appointment scheduled ” As dr James looked at his tablet that he brought from the beginning. “Don’t worry we have another session tomorrow” dr james put the tablet in the bag and shutting down his laptop. “Tomorrow our session will start at 8.30 am and end at 10.30 am so about 30 minutes off from today”. Dr James, who has already finished picking up his stuff then looks at Rudy, “So I hope you look forward to our session tomorrow”.
“Wait doctor James”James stops on his way to the door as he hears his patient call. ” I look forward to it too, and and thank you for today!” Rudy said as he shut his eyes out of embarrassment. “Yeah, your welcome, see you tomorrow Mr Rudy” unbeknownst to Rudy who still closed his eyes, James is smiling now just a little and more genuine.
“Come on Jamal , let’s go” creek.. The sound of the closing door allows Rudy to open his eyes again. Rudy began to process what just happened in his first season, “Is it that easy to actually made me not commit?, do I still have the will to live or does he give it to me?,”, and the last thought made him flustered “did i get charmed by him ?”.
As he overthink his head began to hurt “Stupid Rudy, very stupid"he muttered to himselt. "Well, if I survive and become a burden, I will make sure he take for his responsibility in this”
Hello everyone, i hope you enjoy this short story. The idea come to me after reading a lot of HFY that put emphasis on human physical traits. I feel like there is a need of hfy stories that focused on what i think the most impressive part of human Humanity and our bonds. I'm also intrigued by the idea of HFY story that is based on modern 21st century without no magic or alien, i feel like we human are already impressive now without any exageration of circumtances or another species to be compared too.
I'm gonna remind you all that our path to get here is literally unique and very impressive, and even without sci-fi tech we already have control of this earth akin to God. And even though our future is fraught with uncertainty, the odds are with us. Our form maybe flawed, but so does this universe so let us reach the infinite together !!.
submitted by Monoheinztoo to HFY [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:29 AnxietyFilledT3acher Advise Needed: How to get over a boy?

Hi there! I need some advise. I go to a church in Chicago and am very active in serving on different teams. On the team I serve on the most, I am always around the Pastor (around my age: early 30's and single) who leads it. We spend a lot of time together and have grown closer together the past few months. I annoyingly seem to have developed feelings for him. Part of me thinks that he may have them for me too.
One day I noticed that after days we seemed like friends and were growing closer together and getting to know each other more, that he would keep his distance the next time he'd see me. In conversation one day, I brought it up and he said he needs to be cautious of having certain relationships because he is one of the pastors. I completely get it...
I have asked God to take away these feelings. They are super annoying and I don't want to have them anymore. I thought of staying away from him, but I love to help at church and don't want to stop because of a guy... (ew). How do I move forward? Any advise on how to get rid of these feelings that are occupying too much space in my head? I'm not going to stop serving God or going to church... that's not an option.
submitted by AnxietyFilledT3acher to ChristianDating [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:19 potatorectangle Accidently sided w the raiders

That’s all. Thats the post :(
I started fo76 on ps4 and played very awfully for almost 2 years and barely made it past level 50. Switched to xbox about a year and a half ago and have built a really solid character that I’m very proud of, level 384 so not super high but decent…. Hopped back on the PlayStation a week ago to build up my character… was so ready for my Chinese stealth armor…. Monday I made it to the part where I had to choose and the overseer said “go talk to both of them” so I took that as ok I need to go hear both sides first…. I went to the crater first…. I knew it I freakin knew it… I was thinking why would I show Meg all of this info if I’m not gonna choose her but just decided well lemme get it to say complete so I can go head to foundation… Well, my dumb ass didn’t realize what was happening when I showed her the plan…
And now here we are. I just wanted to share my experience bc I feel so dumb. Working on getting my reputation up now w the settlers so I can eventually get my armor… I did read somewhere that you earn more xp on a specific side. Is that true?
submitted by potatorectangle to fo76 [link] [comments]

2024.05.15 15:17 broomstick88 Bus stop dog drama

I feel like I’m being put in a tough spot for a dumb reason right now and I can’t tell if I’m justified or not.
We live in a super friendly, tons of kids, everyone has a dog, neighborhood yard sale kinda place. Every morning we have a big handful of kids at the corner bus stop next to my house. Since I was laid off I’m the unofficial bus stop mom because the under third grade set has to have an adult with them for the bus company. This includes my own kindergarten boy. This means I get dressed and drag myself rain or shine or blizzard to the bus stop and hang out with the kids twice a day. All good, I’ve got nothing else to do until I get employed.
The drama is my dog. My giant breed dog who was bred, bought, trained and tested specifically to be a family friendly bestest boy. He does not jump or get physical with anyone. He sits politely so that he can get pets on the head and all the kids love him. Once in a while, he will send a friendly bark to a passing dog, but isn’t acting like an idiot. I spent thousands of dollars on this dog and hundreds of hours in training to have a well behaved family dog. He is very large and just under one years old and very friendly but in no sense of the word is he rude or pushy or aggressive. I make sure that when he meets new people or kids show up to the bus stop that he is sitting next to me on a leash calmly, and he is not allowed to approach anybody who does not invite him over to them. Pretty much all of the kids love him and look forward to seeing him and ask about him If for some reason he isn’t there like it is raining or too cold.
One little girl in the neighborhood has stopped coming to stand with everybody at the bus stop in the morning and instead waits inside her house until the bus pulls up and then runs over to the bus. I just assumed that she’d rather stay inside or hang out with her parents, but it was mentioned to me yesterday, casually that she stopped coming to the bus stop because she is afraid of my dog. I reinforce that I would make sure that he did not walk up to her or come over to her or anything and that he is very friendly and we have not had any issues whatsoever. The parent said that they knew he was a good dog and they did not have a problem with him, but their daughter is afraid of dogs and therefore will not go to the bus stop if he is there.
It was implied that I should not bring him with me anymore so that she can come to the bus stop with the other kids. This is the highlight of my dog’s day and also the other kids all look forward to spending time with him and getting to pet him and give him cookies . If this little girl does not want to touch him or even stand near him, I can stand farther back from the corner so she can hang out with other kids and the kids can come up to me to see the dog. I do not feel that I should be forced to leave him home when all the other kids want to see him and he wants to be there.
Am I in the wrong? No one else has a problem and even this girls parents acknowledge that my dog is not problematic. I feel like if it’s been unanimously accepted and assumed that I am the one getting pants on early in the morning and standing in the drizzle and also doing the afternoon pick up for all the kids that having my well-behaved dog sit next to me, shouldn’t be a problem.
submitted by broomstick88 to Mommit [link] [comments]

http://activeproperty.pl/