Dress up t.i

I met up with this guy from Tinder-we already had a few mutuals, as we found out, but we met up with the intent to hookup. When we were driving in my car (that I made the mistake of letting him drive), he stuck his fingers under my dress, without my consent. And in that moment, I froze-yes, he did finger me. I liked him, but in that moment, I froze and was scared, and asked him to move his hand. He didn’t, which freaked me out even more, because he was much bigger than me, and it took so much force to pull his hands off me. He then said “I thought this was what we both wanted.” And I felt confused in that moment. Its plagued me for the last few years-even with therapy.
Was what happened to me, sexual assault?

I met up with this guy from Tinder-we already had a few mutuals, as we found out, but we met up with the intent to hookup. When we were driving in my car (that I made the mistake of letting him drive), he stuck his fingers under my dress, without my consent. And in that moment, I froze-yes, he did finger me. I liked him, but in that moment, I froze and was scared, and asked him to move his hand. He didn’t, which freaked me out even more, because he was much bigger than me, and it took so much force to pull his hands off me. He then said “I thought this was what we both wanted.” And I felt confused in that moment. Its plagued me for the last few years-even with therapy.
Was what happened to me, sexual assault?

A friend of mine started playing Fates for the first time, so once again I got bitten by the “complaining about Fates” bug. In particular, watching chapter 18 of Conquest again after so many years really got me going, and while the general consensus I’ve seen online about this chapters writing was negative, I wasn’t that satisfied by any of the overviews of it I read. I decided to give it a shot myself.
Dissecting why something doesn’t work is fun and all, but I think it’s also important to be constructive which is why I wanted to rewrite this chapter alongside my criticisms. I really do think there’s a lot of potential here that could have been the highlight of the entire story, and so I’d love to try my hand rewriting this chapter to be what it could have been rather than what we got. I have most of it done already, but Reddit only has so many characters before it cuts you off and this post is plenty long enough as is, so I’ll save that for another part coming up soon. This will be part 1, explaining what the chapter is and elaborating on my issues with it, while part 2 will be rewriting it along with my thought process and explanations.
Recap: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Black_%26_White/Script
Corrin and Co are traveling when they decide to rest for the night at the nation of Izumo. They are greeted by Izana, the archduke of the kingdom, who seems to be a real goofball. After introducing himself, the levity is ended when it’s revealed the entire Hoshidan family has been invited here as well! Before any swords can be undrawn, Izana tells both parties that the kingdom has a strict neutrality pact neither of them can violate.
The scene cuts to later, where Ryoma enters Corrin and Xanders room to talk with them. Xander and Ryoma’s argument is cut short when Ryoma is dragged off by Nohrians. Turns out “Izana” is actually a Nohrian mage named Zola, who disguised himself to trick the Hoshidan royal family into a trap. Corrin and Xander don’t approve of such dishonorable methods to win, however, and fight to rescue their captives with Xander saying “we’ll win this war with honor or die trying”. After Leo kills Zola, the game cuts to later where we see Nohrians and Hoshidans alike having a meal, much to the delight of the real Izuma, who turns out is exactly as bizarre as the fake impression. Xander and Ryoma confirm with eachother that their fight will continue as usual, but Corrin states that no matter what happens they’re grateful they got to see both families eating together even if it’s not under the best circumstances, and the chapter ends with them saying they’ll revel in this feeling.
So on paper, I think this chapter is a great idea. Despite being at war, when one family is at the total mercy of the other, they lend a hand instead of kicking them while they’re down. This highlights how the two nations could accomplish so much together if only they weren’t at war with eachother. If utilized well, this could have been a great “eye of the tornado scene” emphasizing how tragic it is that these two families who share so much in common are forced by fate to fight eachother, making it all the more sorrowful when that’s brought to it’s conclusion through bloodshed. This would also encourage Conquest players to buy Birthright in a natural and subtle way as well now that they’ve had a nice sample of the other side. Of course, I don’t think this chapter was utilized well, and after reading the script again I believe it boils down to three major problems.
-Problem 1: The Lack of Worldbuilding Causes the Conflict to be Driven by Contrivances.
This is one of the many instances where the lack of fleshing out the world and it’s rules out really hampers the weight of the scenes. Unlike Awakening where there was a general cause-and-effect outlining the level structure, all of the Fates routes are much more individual and self-contained when it comes to chapters. This means the game has to really stretch itself to justify this elaborate setup being brought up and solved in one single chapter of regular length, and it’s very apparent when you write out the summary of events here.
Corrin and his army are just walking by when they happen upon the capital of the country. Corrin decides this would be a great place to rest for the night at and are instantly welcomed by its leader, who is also the only person in the game of that country. The entire Hoshidan family also just happen to bump into us because they coincidently came here at roughly the same time, with somehow neither party noticing the other until they were staring at eachother in the same room.
The only thing we know about this new nation we’ve never seen or heard about before is that it’s a peace-loving land with some sort of neutrality pact which means the two nations can’t fight here. What is the importance of this place that would entice all the Hoshidan royals to come over for a banquet in the middle of their country being invaded? Never explained. What exactly is this pact and what power does Izuno have to enforce it, if any? Never explained. Xander, prince of a nation at war and frontline general, has never heard of it. How does Garon or Iago never figure out or look into what happened here, considering the royals walked through their trap unharmed and everybody in charge of the trap vanished? Never brought up.
How many times here was this supposedly major event dependent on coincidences, seemingly important details left completely unexplained, and characters not knowing things that should be basic information of the world they live in? Things like all this quickly build up and make the world feel small scale and artificial, as if nothing truly exists until it’s in the peripheral vision of main characters. In a vacuum, this could all be excusable if the main meat of the chapter was just so dense and important that they just want a convenient excuse to delve into it. But about that…
-Problem 2: Nothing happens, either character-wise or plot-wise.
This is the only scene in both Birthright and Conquest where all eight of the royal families are together in one spot, and they’re unable to fight eachother. What a brilliant idea! How many great scenes could you come up with from this setup alone? How many directions could this move towards?

-The families bonding over their memories with Corrin (X)
-Calling eachother out for uncool actions, like Ryoma refusing to help Elise or Nohr siccing monsters on farming villages (X)
-Working together to defeat some threat they’d have trouble taking down on their own (X)
-Some cultural exchange (X)
-Some melancholy scene where, even if there’s a lot of resentment, they acknowledge how this may be the last time they ever get to have a meal with Corrin. (Somewhat?)
-Corrin sits down and has a mature conversation with his birth family elaborating on their choice to stay with Nohr (X)
-Some negotiation or debate between the two families about the future of their countries relationship, successful or not (X)
-Corrin being formally declared by the Hoshidan royals as a Nohrian, officially cutting them out of the family (X)

So what does Conquest do with this prompt? It does the unexpected route where all of them but Ryoma are shuffled out as soon as they’re introduced, captured offscreen, rescued offscreen, most of their dinner is offscreen, finishing their meal and leaving is offscreen, all of them sans Ryoma have barely any dialog, and none of them are even present in any of the CG’s.
We actually start off strong, Ryoma and Xander naturally puff out their chest and don’t get along when they’re in the same room, but seem to calm down when Corrin elaborates on how similar they are to eachother. But the game is so eager to get to fighting that it drags Ryoma away kicking and screaming before he even gets to share what he had to say to Corrin, let alone explore what having common ground means to the two of them.
1) I understand this is the Nohrian route so it makes sense the focus is mostly on them, but Takumi only gets three lines here, one of which is “…” Hinoka also only gets three lines, which I think is still more than she got in Birthright, and two of those lines are “You!” and “What are you doing here?”. Sakura lucks out as she’s the only sibling on either side who has anything to say whatsoever when Corrin says they’re grateful they could share another meal with the Hoshidans. That’s a start, but the fact remains Ryoma is the only sibling in the chapter whose remotely relevant, the rest could be omitted and nothing would change. They are only here to be damsels in distress heightening the stakes of defeating the local bad guy rather than providing any character development, checking up on how they are doing without Corrin and Azura, comparing and contrasting their differences between their counterparts, sharing any new information about them, foreshadowing Takumi’s possession, any notable interactions with their counterparts, etc. But no, nothing happens.
2) I also understand this is a video game and they don’t have all the time in the world before the next fight has to happen, yet Conquest is oddly completely uninterested in it’s own set-up. Zola, a minor chapter boss introduced and killed in this chapter, has more screentime and relevance here than any of the siblings, something you’d think would be the actual meat of the chapter they’d want to delve into.
The implications and weight of two dueling nations and families obligated to pause their fighting and dine with eachother could easily take up two or even three chapters as a pivotal arc, yet it’s completely blazed through as if the game considered it a cute novelty rather than a potential life-changing or history-changing moment. Simply put, it’s wasted potential, as if to say “Oh both of the two families meeting in a game about choosing between mutually exclusive families? Eh whatever.”
I wanna stick with just this chapter and not rewrite a good chunk of the entire story, but I can’t stress enough that in any other game this chapter would be the plot-defining moment paving the new way forward rather than chapter 15’s “we’ll expose Garon as a monster by helping him invade an innocent people.”
Neither of the two families are fighting because they outright want to, this isn’t a war about irreconcilable differences or mutually exclusive goals, the only reason for any conflict whatsoever as far as the game has shown us is that the guy in charge of Nohr is a sociopath who threatens to kill his own children at the drop of a hat. Sure, they probably won’t hold hands singing kumbaya after one extended conversation with eachother, but when all of them are in a truce far away from Garon’s authority having a meal together, nothing significant comes out of it plot-wise?
In fact, at the end of the day what significance happened here at all?

• -We learned about a new country, but we know very little about it and (other than Izama potentially joining the party later) absolutely none of it will be relevant after this chapter anyways.
• -Well, maybe this place is just set dressing so we have an excuse to meet up with our siblings again, but then nobody has any meaningful interactions, new info to share, planning ahead, or character development resulting from sharing scenes with them.
• -Then is the primary focus supposed to be on how this situation affects the Nohrian family? The antagonist and the conflict he brings is introduced and quickly solved without any consequences, with all the siblings instantly in agreement about stopping him. They don’t really talk amongst eachother about their feelings or how to go forward.

If there’s no juicy character interactions or exploration, and no setting up future events, then presumably the point of this big moment of Corrin and Xander leaping to save their enemies was made to show off that despite working in the same army, our heroes are indeed better than the swarms of war criminals under Nohr’s name we’ve seen and would never tolerate such things under normal circumstances. They’ve talked the talk about disagreeing with their father’s cruel methods, now here’s proof they’ll walk the walk, aren’t they such noble people? The way this is done however, opens up another can of worms…
-Problem 3: Protags come off as dicks
While our heroes are indeed more likeable and moral than blatant monsters like Garon and Hans, liking peace and disliking war crimes is not enough of a reason for a pat on the back. Our protags might not be burning villages for fun, but it’s difficult to take their proclaimed goal of peace seriously considering both the context of working for people who DO burn villages for fun and they way they handle themselves when presented with an opportunity to work on this supposed goal.
Corrin and Azura

• This is not seeing things under the worst possible interpretation to be a stick in the mud, Nohr is indeed invading Hoshido for no apparent reason and leaving war crimes wherever it’s armies go. Everybody in the building is aware of this to some extent.
  
• Azura and Corrin’s grand plan to expose Garon as a slime monster to his family indeed involves directly helping Garon conquer Hoshido, which they acknowledge will bring destruction and suffering that the nation and royal family have done nothing to deserve.
  
• Corrin and Azura are indeed presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here to sit down behind closed doors and communicate anything, just anything significant at all, to the royal family that still seems to value them, but our heroes don’t even try or seem to acknowledge that. Corrin doesn’t have any interactions with them that last more than a sentence or two, and Azura is never acknowledged nor speaks to them.
  
• And yet despite, all this, both Corrin and Azura are quite pleased with the turn of events here, with Corrin acknowledging they’ll “probably try to kill eachother next time they see eachother” but that they’ll “revel in this feeling.”
  

Azura in particular is problematic here. During Odovakar 's excellent overview of the problems with Fates writing, he goes into detail about how Azura’s line about “this is all quite heartwarming. We're like one big family...albeit, a dysfunctional one.” in particular comes off as incredibly tone deaf and tasteless given the circumstances of Azura and Corrin marching on one family’s homeland for the sake of the other family. What I think was also worth noting is the context leading up to that line…

Sakura: I was just, um...th-thinking...it's really nice to finally see you again. I'm glad you... I'm glad you f-found a way to be happy... Corrin: Sakura... I'm happy to see you too. Sakura: R-really? You mean it?! Oh, Corrin! Elise: HMPH! Back off, you! He/She's my brothesister! MINE! Sakura: Ah! I'm s-sorry! Corrin: Elise! Mind your manners, little one. Elise: But she's trying to take you away from me... She's my archnemesis

Whether intentional or not, this is actually a very clever microcosm of the family’s conflict acted out by the youngest and most innocent among them who probably weren’t even born when the conflict started. The Hoshidan loves their sibling, but their time with Corrin is interrupted by the Nohrian shoving them away and declaring Corrin for themselves. This is a great way to challenge our protags to some introspection about themselves.

Azura: Heehee! Corrin: Azura? Did you just...giggle?

Instead, Azura just finds this a real knee-slapper. I understand maybe this is just meant to be a cute image of imoutos fighting over oni-chan Corrin and nothing more, but the context makes it very hard to swallow the narrative’s insistence that all this is “heartwarming” as Azura puts it. Keep in mind that all the Hoshidan nobles are sitting at the same table watching all this. Do you think Ryoma also finds it funny that his little sister is scared off and declared an archnemesis by the daughter of the man who killed his father in cold blood? Do you think Hinoka also thinks it's like one big dysfunctional family when Corrin is preparing to march on her homeland with an army?
I get it, I totally know what they were going for, and in a vacuum it could be a great line making for a properly bittersweet moment. “Even if the two are at eachothers throats and the future is bleak, me and Azura are grateful we get to have at least one big normal dinner together like a real family.”
But the future is bleak because of Corrin and Azura participating in an invasion, the families are at eachothers throats partially because Corrin and Azura haven’t accomplished anything to reform Nohr. If anything, Corrin should feel great shame here. Elise just unintentionally reenacted the history between the nations where Nohr was clearly in the wrong, and Corrin is sitting directly across and staring at the family who’ve done nothing wrong to him yet are going to be hurt because of Corrin’s decision. Grateful they could spend time with them again? Maybe. But cheerful and laughing?

ProZD: D-did an alien write this game? blows gently

But at least Corrin doesn’t show outright contempt for the family they’re screwing over…
Xander and Leo

Xander: Corrin! There's no need to insult me like that. I could not possibly be anything like this sorry excuse for a prince. … Xander: We will win with honor or die trying. Come, Corrin. Let us go set free our sworn enemy. … Corrin: Heh, sorry... It's just that you and Ryoma really are so much alike. If you weren't on opposite sides of a war, I think you could have been great friends. Xander: Yeesh... Do me a favor and keep that nonsense in your head where it belongs. … Xander (to Ryoma): We only acted as Nohrian royals should. When we leave this place, you'll be nothing but an enemy to be defeated once more.

Okay, but why? Ryoma is not the one Xander overheard laughing to himself about how much he’s going to make Corrin suffer. How are the Hoshidan royals “nothing but enemies to be defeated” here when they’re just trying to defend their homeland from somebody who assassinated their king at a peace meeting? Where is all this contempt from Xander coming from?
It’s perfectly understandable he doesn’t get along super well with Ryoma because of the tensions between their nations, that makes sense, but I see no reason for why Xander is making several petty insults to his face unprompted, let alone so nonchalant and even somewhat eager to get back to waging a war Xander himself calls “a senseless war of greed and madness” in the epilogue.
He doesn’t treat his own people much better this chapter, declaring Zola and his henchmen as “traitors” to be “dealt with” for their dishonorable methods when ironically Zola taking over the country by disguising himself as the archduke is actually one of the least evil and self-destructive things we’ve seen the kingdom do so far. It must be emphasized that every sibling was in the same room watching Garon demand Xander kill Corrin if he interferes with killing POWs for his amusement, and half of them were in the same room when Garon ordered his henchmen to murder every singer they can find in a neutral country. So a few hundred or thousand innocent people, most of whom would presumably be young woman, murdered to snuff out potential assassins. Or Garon directly ordering the deaths of unarmed civilians in chapter 13 with Hans relaying “Villagers are just soldiers who haven’t picked up a sword yet.”
Xander talks a big game in this chapter about how “we’ll win this war with honor or die trying”, but how do you honorably win a war when your nation is constantly and openly rushing to pointless overkill brutality like this at every turn? What moral high ground does this country have that Xander is so determined to preserve he kills loyal soldiers over what he sees as sullying it, when at no point in the game does the influence of Nohr ever do anything but make life significantly worse? His sudden fervor towards doing the right thing is completely contrasted later on when Xander is the one telling Corrin there’s no justice to be found in war and you just gotta do what you gotta do rather than what’s morally right, in response to Corrin being upset the Nohrian army is killing woman and children who looked at them funny.

“Justice is an illusion, a fairy tale…Letting innocents die is a tragedy, but so is letting the chance for peace slip away. This is war. There is no such thing as a clean win when lives are on the line.”

“Justice is just a fairy tale, innocent people getting screwed over is something we have to accept in war because there’s no such thing as a clean win! But also we better win this senseless war of greed and madness with honor or die trying!”

• If “justice is an illusion”, how is killing Nohrian soldiers to free people who are apparently “nothing but enemies to be defeated” so you can fight them later on terms you prefer, directly prolonging a war which will lead to much more deaths on both sides, for the benefit of Nohr? By Xanders own logic, is this not letting the chance for peace slip away since there’s no such thing as a clean win? Forget Garon and Iago, I’m confident the citizens back home whose loved ones got conscripted would be the ones demanding his head if they found out about this. A very charitable interpretation is that ending the war this specific way will cause more chaos and fighting in the long-term compared to if they conquered and oppressed an innocent nation fair and square, but that’s nowhere to be found in the script whatsoever.
  
• If Xander believes in “We’ll win this war with honor or die trying”, why is he still following Garon? Garon is winning the war in part thanks to honorless and extreme acts of cruelty like blackmailing the Ice Tribe or making an example out of Scarlet’s body, yet instead of taking action against him like he does with Zola, Xander is instead the most loyal sibling to him to the point Corrin decides the best way to get him on his side is to expose Garon as a literal slime monster? Where’s Xander’s zeal of “Come Corrin, let’s go save our sworn enemies” when his father orders Hans is go through killing injured and surrendering foes who were promised they be spared? Where’s his conviction shown here about “not letting treachery go unpunished” when his father outright says he couldn’t care less about the welfare of his people and he’ll just kill anybody who complains to make an example?
  

I understand one might get the impression I’m going off topic or selectively picking and choosing quotes here from all over the game, but no matter how you look at it Xanders beliefs, morality, and priorities are just all over the place depending on what the plot needs him to do. This means not only is his motivation for helping his enemies here faulty no matter how you look at it, but it also makes the extreme lengths he goes to do so, killing his own subjects who won him victory on a silver platter because it wasn’t a “proper” victory, come off as baselessly self-righteous at best and outright cruel at worst.
I’m sure the game would assure us Zola and all his mooks are terrible people who had it coming, but the issue is no matter how virtuous you portray Xander and creepy you portray Zola, Xander is still directly managing the war for a megalomaniac and helping him achieve his goals in spite of his long history of open sadism and public crimes that make Zola look like a saint. By ignoring the clear root cause of Nohr's dishonor while going this hard against random goon's participating in dishonor, instead of being a gallant preserver of morals, he comes off like a bully who selectively picks and choices punishment.
On the topic of punishment, it particularly rubs me the wrong way how Leo just casually mercs Zola at the end, keep in mind Birthright confirms for all his faults he actually isn’t a complete monster like Garon and dies trying to help the protag.

Leo (smiling portrait): You’d probably rather die than live with the shame, correct? In that case…
Zola: Eek! No, please! M-m-milord... I was wrong! S-so wrong! I have seen the error of my ways! P-please...spare my unworthy life!!
Leo (still smiling): Make peace with it, Zola. Perhaps on the other side you will find forgiveness.

Leo makes a fair argument that the stakes are too high and Zola can’t be trusted not to snitch, but this is bit sadistic, no? One of the most powerful people in the country is smug and sarcastic as he’s getting ready to execute somebody whose bleeding on the ground begging for his life and genuinely confused as to why we’re upset with him. I know the intent of “I was wrong! I have the seen the error of my ways!” is supposed to be him saying whatever Leo wants to hear to weasel out of punishment, but that’s exactly the thing, he’s fully cooperating and doing everything he can to appease this guy. And then he’s just killed like a dog without trial or final words, presumably using the spell that skewers you with tree branches.
Didn’t the game use killing defeated foes like this to establish Garon as a bloodthirsty monster? Why is Corrin just standing there watching this happen? This exact same scenario in Birthright has them jump to spare Zola, but here their disapproval is very meek and only voiced after the deed is already done. It’s still apparently too much for Leo though, who chastises Corrin for being “too soft…I envy your innocence.” And then he declares the matter settled on their behalf.
I’m sure this scene was meant to show off Leo’s pragmatism and strategy skills, but it just makes him look like a sociopath and Corrin look spineless. And that’s the biggest issue with this chapter to me, more than the plot being driven by contrivances that aren’t explained or the lack of any character development or interesting scenes taking advantage of the setup, the actions and dialog of our protags don’t match the noble heroes the narrative insists they are:

• Corrin is openly enjoying spending time with innocent people they’re throwing under the bus so Corrin won’t have to risk their relationship with the Nohrian siblings by directly fighting Garon. They then clearly disapprove of Leo executing a surrendering foe begging for mercy but stand idle watching it happen.
• Azura sits directly across her former family who’ve been very negatively impacted by her decisions and actions, and will continue to be so in the future, yet she’s giggling about the conflict and doesn’t seem to be taking the fact that her two families might kill each other seriously.
• Xander insults Ryoma as a sorry excuse for a prince, and afterwards kills his own subjects to prolong a war of aggression so it can be won the way he personally wants it to be won.
• Leo seems to be having a good time killing somebody who’s surrendered and begging for his life. He then chides Corrin for being “too soft” when they wish that didn’t have to happen.
• And again, for no apparent reason, neither Corrin or Azura do the bare minimum to clue to the Hoshidans about what’s going on or even have a meaningful conversation with them despite claiming to care for them. This is the golden opportunity they were hoping for, yet they apparently spend the entire dinner instead talking to eachother about how happy they themselves are.

These are not the actions of heroic characters.
Summary: Overall, this is a very bizarre chapter. It feels like something meaningful happens here at first glance, your brain sees what’s going on and knows that this is supposed to be a huge moment. Peaceful music playing, a very well-drawn CG of dozens of individual units, liberating a country from Nohrian control, Corrin and Azura are happy and say some lines that sound like they should be deep and impactful.
But when you step back and analyze the bigger picture and context, you find that more or less embodies all of Fates writing, both good and bad. It has a brilliant premise that gets your mind going, excellent presentation to accompany it, and some individual scenes or dialogue in a vacuum are very welcome. If you’re a casual player who just wants context for your favorite characters fighting, it’s easy to feel satisfied at first glance and move on thanks to those factors, especially since the gameplay and MyCastle are very fun. At the same time, there’s no denying the severe flaws that hamper the experience.
Despite being the hyped-up main draw of the chapter, our exciting premise that opens so many doors is almost completely neglected in favor of (once again) exposition on meaningless settings and characters that aren’t relevant anywhere else and also reminding us how evil Nohr is, to the point the chapter title is Black and White. The context makes it very difficult to take the plight of our heroes seriously due to their lack of action (both before and in the present) to achieve their proclaimed goal despite ample opportunity, the proaction they do have being unnecessarily extreme and self-serving, and a narrative that insists they are in the right at every turn despite the results clearly showing us otherwise. There’s definitely bits and pieces of something great buried in all this teasing us, otherwise I wouldn’t be interested enough to write this much all these years later, but as is it’s just a mess. An enjoyable mess, but a mess all the same.

But what do you guys think of Conquest Chapter 18: Black and White? Do you also consider it a wreck, or was there something positive here you believed I missed? What would you like to see in a potential rewrite of it?

This story is based on ALLEGEDLY true events. It is inspired by a line in G-Eazy’s “Maximum”, where he claims her heard supermodel Adriana Lima fart and it was apparently so stinky he had to cover his nose and walk away. The events I describe in the story will be my own interpretation of what could’ve happened during this strange encounter between two celebs
It had been a long recording night in the studio for award winning rapper G-Eazy. The “You Don’t Own Me” musician spent much of his day working on the follow up album to his debut release which catapulted him to stardom. After sleeping overnight at Westlake Recording Studios in WeHo, G-Eazy gets a call from his agent to remind him that he’s scheduled to make a talk show appearance for NBC’s pop culture news staple “Extra”. Totally forgetting about this engagement, a restless G-Eazy pulls himself up from the couch and stumbles out the door as he heads out to the black Escalade awaiting to take him home. Once G-Eazy arrives back to his Los Angeles residence, he showers, changes clothes and takes a few calls from his team so they can go over what will be talked about during his Extra Interview
Later, G-Eazy hops back in the black Escalade which takes him to NBC studios where Extra is currently taping its latest episode. G-Eazy is met at the studio by his agent along with the rest of his team. They are all greeted by the show’s producer who takes them to the main dressing room. It is there where G-Eazy receives his hair and makeup and also gets to watch his crush Adriana Lima sit down with Extra for her own exclusive interview. G-Eazy has always been fond of the Brazilian supermodel and had no idea she was going to be a guest on the show. Not only does G-Eazy find Adriana incredibly attractive, he is aware that she is knewly single thus he immediately comes up with a plan to “shoot his shot”. The greaser-looking rapper figured rather than wait until call time to go out on set and perhaps run into Adriana after his interview, it was perhaps a better idea to leave his dressing room ahead of time and try to catch the Victoria Secret beauty on her way out. For the time being, he sat in his chair, studying Adriana’s body language, keeping his eyes glued to the movement of her mouth as she uttered soft spoken words under her thick, gorgeous accent. He stared her up and down and up and down, analyzing her every move, taking in her presence through the screen. The longer he watched, the more apparent it became, he HAD to have this woman
As the day longs, G-Eazy becomes a bit unsure of his master plan. Hair and makeup has been taking much longer than he had anticipated and Adriana’s interview was beginning to wrap up. He begins eyeing around the room, attempting to come up with a quick getaway as he fidgets in his seat. Finally, the words spill out and he tells the styling people that he has to go to the bathroom. Without even waiting for a response, G-Eazy jumps out of his chair and fast walks out of the door. Completely unsure of where Adriana would even be coming from once her interview had concluded, he runs around the lot in hopes of running into a 5’11, brown skinned model in long, white silk dress good enough to be worn at an overseas film festival. After aimlessly wandering around the lot, G-Eazy finds himself approaching the entrance to the soundstage where the interviews are conducted. He spots two of the hosts sitting as they get their makeup retouched. He then looks to his left…and there she is. Adriana is standing with a few other important looking folks, smiling and giggling in what seems to be a conversation being had between everyone. G-Eazy walks back toward the hall, only to stop halfway, he decides to stay there and “look busy” as he waits for Adriana to approach the walkway.
Sure enough, the Brazilian stunner begins making her way toward the entrance and she starts walking up the hall. She is joined by two other people, perhaps her agent and assistant. G-East looks up from his phone and commences his long awaited plan. He walks up and blocks Adriana from brushing past him. It’s then that he politely asks for a pic with the model and he is genuinely surprised when she recognizes the “No Limit” rapper and tells him how big of a fan she is. The pair go off to the side and take a few pics. Now for the good part. G-Eazy turns on the and sends a few flirtatious comments Adriana’s way to which she is obviously flattered and even blushes quite noticeably. As G-Eazy begins to put another move on the supermodel, he hears an odd sound. FFFFFRRRRR He initially suspects he just received a text as he whips out his phone yet there’s no new notifications that pop up on his screen. He looks around as he continues talking but his sentence is cut off when he gets a whiff of the foulest odor. G-Easy stops and looks up at Adriana who’s standing a mere two-three feet away from him. She looks off to the side as she plays with her hair. She says something but between her accent and the nasty stench floating in the air, G-Eazy has no comprehension of what she even uttered. The space between the two stars grows pungent, it’s as if a giant piece of dog turd fell from the sky and landed right between their feet. At that moment, all G-Eazy can say is that it was nice meeting the stunning Amazon and he awkwardly walks away, hearing Adriana’s faint “it was nice to meet you as well” only as he turns his back and covers his nose with his shirt. Somehow the stench is potent enough to start following him so he begins speed walking back to his dressing room

BACKGROUND INFO: My BF and I have been together monogamously for 4.5 years - I have never slept or been with anyone else, though I've fooled around - and we have been struggling with arguments & aggression. We have sex like once a month, if that. We broke up this past summer but kept texting back and forth, and this past fall regrouped and tried to be in a relationship again. My BF is the best person I've ever met and I love him very much, but we didn't accomplish our goals when getting back together and the fighting became worse. We may separate again.
STORY: About 2 weeks ago my BF and I met this guy at a family friend event. He approached me first and we chatted, and then my BF came and we all chatted. I didn't initially find him attractive and thought he dressed similar to people that I felt rejected by growing up. Among other info, he told us he was in a long distance relationship (I sensed some pain there, since he said he preferred it being long distance ?) and we later learned it had been for 3 years. He invited us to hang out with 2 other guys after the event and we all had a really great time. I spent more time with the guy than my BF (my BF was very drunk and loves to meet new people and socialize) and I was constantly laughing. I didn't *actually* realize until the train ride home that I was feeling some pretty heavy attraction bs. I didn't think I was "that kind of person" in the sense that 1. I'd have these sort of feelings while in a relationship with someone I love and 2. about someone like this (see below)
I liked things about him that were different than my BF: he's taller, has darker and thicker hair (like me), he's older, didn't seem to take himself as seriously, he's American (like me), he really liked my hometown which caught me up, so to speak (my BF doesn't), has a different career, grew up with many siblings (my BF is an only child), smokes weed like a few times a year, similar religious upbringing to me, comfort-oriented, etc. His friends said he was a really good athlete back in the day - I have never been or dated an athlete, I was an art school / theater person. And I'm sure others would say he's conventionally attractive. He seems really "normal / jock," he works with houses / real estate (?) but I feel like an outcast and I've always liked outcasts. During the family friend event, he told me a story about him cutting his and his siblings hair and I genuinely laughed a lot. Shortly after he told the story, I was looking at his face and I was just thinking.. huh.
At one point when we were alone together after the event he reeeally unexpectedly to me started singing some song, I gawked a little and my heart did something small. He saw my expression and chuckled. My BF is not musical and cringes at others singing - I can't sing when I'm around him (and I grew up musical). I also really dislike when people you just meet ask you what music you listen to, but when he asked me what I like to listen to it didn't bother me at all.
He asked me to squeeze in next to him to make room at one point, and I declined and said my BF could sit on my lap instead because I at least knew that I thought he was attractive. And he was looking at me a few times when he probably thought I didn't notice. But at some point when we were alone and laughing, he put his hand right around my wrist and like touch my shoulder or something a couple times. He did some other quirky things, too ex: I tried to record a video of my BF on my phone and he jumped into it, which really wasn't necessary lol. His friend come up to the two of us trying to give advice about parenting and said "You know, when you guys have kids -" and the guy jokingly said "When [my name] and I have kids together?" and I tried not to laugh. Later near a bar he beckoned me over, we spoke and then looked at me to try to initiate a link-arm-drink with me and I did it but we were just looking at each other and I just felt like.. I don't know man. He highly complimented me on a skill I had and he'd been really supportive the whole time. He also admired how I could hang out with a bunch of (random) guys with my BF - like not needing to only do date-dates with my BF. He asked my BF and I if we wanted to hangout longer and I wanted to, but it was late and my BF and I ultimately thought it was easier to go back home instead. Then, while I was with my BF he only asked for my BF's number, which felt appropriate. We hugged formally, left and on the train ride home my BF fell asleep and feelings hit me like a brick.
ONE WEEK LATER: I'd been trying to process this and how I'd misjudged myself (I also listened to every single song in my library like hours of music and I hadn't done that in years) - I spoke to my boyfriend about having sexual feelings for this guy. My BF is trying to handle the information, so I have yet to tell him other parts yet ex: me experiencing continued fantasies of - if my BF wanted to - having sex with both of them, or my BF just allowing me to have sex with that guy. I intensely want to smoke weed with him (which I also haven't done in years) and have sex with him.
I feel guilty, but I keep "uncontrollably" picturing him when I'm hanging out with my boyfriend. I have an urge to ask this guy if he's in an open relationship and sleep with him before I leave the city - my BF and I are moving away, potentially to separate locations. But I really don't know if I'd gain anything life changing from it. (P.S. I never gave any indication that my BF and I were having issues.)
What do you think? + What is happening to me, and what do I do?
TLDR: My boyfriend and I have been having relationship issues and talk about breaking up. We have sex once a month if that. We met this guy one time at an event recently in a troubled (?) long distance relationship, and I think we both know we find each other attractive. I started having sexual feelings for him & fantasies that I've wanted to act on even though I love my boyfriend and still don't exactly want to leave him. I'm leaving the area soon I don't know what my next course of action is, what is happening to me, and if the feelings should be acted upon.
Thank you very much!

I mean we can talk about a lot of stuff,
I’m into art, I read, I’m learning comp sci, Genshin?! ,
love for food, love dressing up (helps my confidence), I mean I’m all about music,
I’m a bit delusional and a believer of fake it till you make it.
I get burnt out easily though and have weird mood swings (can’t help it).
Looking for something genuine and nothing inappropriate please..
My personality type? - ENFP-T (Love them pseudoscience)
Age Limit- 19-27 (even that’s too far fetched, so let’s keep it relatable)
Will take time to open up and… am introverted at first so~
(Indian)- for people who have issues

BACKGROUND INFO: My BF and I have been together monogamously for 4.5 years - I have never slept or been with anyone else, though I've fooled around - and we have been struggling with arguments & aggression. We have sex like once a month, if that. We broke up this past summer but kept texting back and forth, and this past fall regrouped and tried to be in a relationship again. My BF is the best person I've ever met and I love him very much, but we didn't accomplish our goals when getting back together and the fighting became worse. We may separate again.
STORY: About 2 weeks ago my BF and I met this guy at a family friend event. He approached me first and we chatted, and then my BF came and we all chatted. I didn't initially find him attractive and thought he dressed similar to people that I felt rejected by growing up. Among other info, he told us he was in a long distance relationship (I sensed some pain there, since he said he preferred it being long distance ?) and we later learned it had been for 3 years. He invited us to hang out with 2 other guys after the event and we all had a really great time. I spent more time with the guy than my BF (my BF was very drunk and loves to meet new people and socialize) and I was constantly laughing. I didn't *actually* realize until the train ride home that I was feeling some pretty heavy attraction bs. I didn't think I was "that kind of person" in the sense that 1. I'd have these sort of feelings while in a relationship with someone I love and 2. about someone like this (see below)
I liked things about him that were different than my BF: he's taller, has darker and thicker hair (like me), he's older, didn't seem to take himself as seriously, he's American (like me), he really liked my hometown which caught me up, so to speak (my BF doesn't), has a different career, grew up with many siblings (my BF is an only child), smokes weed like a few times a year, similar religious upbringing to me, comfort-oriented, etc. His friends said he was a really good athlete back in the day - I have never been or dated an athlete, I was an art school / theater person. And I'm sure others would say he's conventionally attractive. He seems really "normal / jock," he works with houses / real estate (?) but I feel like an outcast and I've always liked outcasts. During the family friend event, he told me a story about him cutting his and his siblings hair and I genuinely laughed a lot. Shortly after he told the story, I was looking at his face and I was just thinking.. huh.
At one point when we were alone together after the event he reeeally unexpectedly to me started singing some song, I gawked a little and my heart did something small. He saw my expression and chuckled. My BF is not musical and cringes at others singing - I can't sing when I'm around him (and I grew up musical). I also really dislike when people you just meet ask you what music you listen to, but when he asked me what I like to listen to it didn't bother me at all.
He asked me to squeeze in next to him to make room at one point, and I declined and said my BF could sit on my lap instead because I at least knew that I thought he was attractive. And he was looking at me a few times when he probably thought I didn't notice. But at some point when we were alone and laughing, he put his hand right around my wrist and like touch my shoulder or something a couple times. He did some other quirky things, too ex: I tried to record a video of my BF on my phone and he jumped into it, which really wasn't necessary lol. His friend come up to the two of us trying to give advice about parenting and said "You know, when you guys have kids -" and the guy jokingly said "When [my name] and I have kids together?" and I tried not to laugh. Later near a bar he beckoned me over, we spoke and then looked at me to try to initiate a link-arm-drink with me and I did it but we were just looking at each other and I just felt like.. I don't know man. He highly complimented me on a skill I had and he'd been really supportive the whole time. He also admired how I could hang out with a bunch of (random) guys with my BF - like not needing to only do date-dates with my BF. He asked my BF and I if we wanted to hangout longer and I wanted to, but it was late and my BF and I ultimately thought it was easier to go back home instead. Then, while I was with my BF he only asked for my BF's number, which felt appropriate. We hugged formally, left and on the train ride home my BF fell asleep and feelings hit me like a brick.
ONE WEEK LATER: I'd been trying to process this and how I'd misjudged myself (I also listened to every single song in my library like hours of music and I hadn't done that in years) - I spoke to my boyfriend about having sexual feelings for this guy. My BF is trying to handle the information, so I have yet to tell him other parts yet ex: me experiencing continued fantasies of - if my BF wanted to - having sex with both of them, or my BF just allowing me to have sex with that guy. I intensely want to smoke weed with him (which I also haven't done in years) and have sex with him.
I feel guilty, but I keep "uncontrollably" picturing him when I'm hanging out with my boyfriend. I have an urge to ask this guy if he's in an open relationship and sleep with him before I leave the city - my BF and I are moving away, potentially to separate locations. But I really don't know if I'd gain anything life changing from it. (P.S. I never gave any indication that my BF and I were having issues.)
What do you think? + What is happening to me, and what do I do?
TLDR: My boyfriend and I have been having relationship issues and talk about breaking up. We have sex once a month if that. We met this guy one time at an event recently in a troubled (?) long distance relationship, and I think we both know we find each other attractive. I started having sexual feelings for him & fantasies that I've wanted to act on even though I love my boyfriend and still don't exactly want to leave him. I'm leaving the area soon I don't know what my next course of action is, what is happening to me, and if the feelings should be acted upon.
Thank you very much!

So my Gf (21F) and I (22M) broke up on Mother’s Day. As hard as the break up is on us both, I feel it was the right choice. We’ve been together for about a year and I knew starting out that saw life differently than I did. She handled stress differently and had different views on time management. It was that big of a deal to me at the time because I never really had a problem handling it and calming her down when she had meltdowns which were somewhat few and far between. I introduced my daughter to her shortly after dating because of an emergency that she offered to help with. (My Daughter is a 3 y/o T1 diabetic.) After that, she basically moved in after maybe a week and everything kind of moved pretty fast. She would tell me I don’t spend enough time with her and was always very insecure and accusatory of me cheating or talking to other women. I never had a problem with reassurance because I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but it never seemed to help her feel better. After she explained her concern for spending time, I cut back time on video games and going out with friends to watch movies with her and play games including her or do things she wanted to do. This went on for a couple months and things were ok, but soon she would say I still didn’t spend enough time. My working hours are between 8-5 and we normally go to sleep around 10 pm. The time after work I would normally spend with both her and my daughter if I had her, and the times I didn’t have my daughter, we would have date nights, movie nights, game nights, the whole 9. She still claimed I didn’t spend enough time and she wasn’t a prevalent figure in my life so I asked her how she recognized quality time and she explained it so we started doing that more. Then sure enough, I still wasn’t spending enough time with her. This lead to heated conversations that I feel broke the relationship in some ways. She got a job working with my family about halfway into the relationship so she had added stress of working a new job. She would have meltdowns and episodes of depression constantly and consistently because she felt stressed at her job and didn’t have a way to cope with it. I helped her cope and feel better in anyway I knew how and if my way didn’t work, I asked her what ways would help her and I started doing what she said. The meltdowns became more frequent and the tension began to rise. Meltdowns would stem from not enough time in the day to do things, her thinking I’m upset with her no matter how much reassurance I gave her, work stress, stressing about her life and where she’s at, stress with helping me with my daughter, and more insecurity because I still never spent enough time with her in her eyes. It got to a point I couldn’t help her cope anymore because I was spending more time trying to help her with life and how to handle it when it doesn’t go exactly her way, I no longer had time or money to myself. It all came to a head on Mother’s Day when she was worried we wouldn’t make it to her family event on time because she couldn’t get her hair to look how she wanted. She proceeded with another meltdown, but as I knew we were pressed for time, I told her to let me handle errands while she gets dressed and ready to go. She told me she no longer wanted to go while I was out no matter how much I tried to make her feel better because she told me weeks before how badly she wanted to go. 3 hours after the initial breakdown, I give up trying to help and just choose to spend Mother’s Day with my mom. After it was all said and done, I decided it was time to break up so that she could possibly learn some better coping mechanisms and ways of comfort for when life doesn’t go her way outside of me and I could work on myself and see if there were better ways I could learn to handle it when she gets this way. After the break up, she’s become borderline psychotic. She threatens to sleep in her car at night in random places because she refuses to sleep at her parents because it “doesn’t feel like home” and is finding any way to get back with me. She sends me 30-70 messages if I don’t answer her texts or phone calls because I just want to relax and cope with the break up too as I still love and care for her. Am I the asshole for breaking up and not roughing it out?

I mean we can talk about a lot of stuff,
I’m into art, I read, I’m learning comp sci, Genshin?! ,
love for food, love dressing up (helps my confidence), I mean I’m all about music,
I’m a bit delusional and a believer of fake it till you make it.
I get burnt out easily though and have weird mood swings (can’t help it).
Looking for something genuine and nothing inappropriate please..
My personality type? - ENFP-T (Love them pseudoscience)
Age Limit- 19-27 (even that’s too far fetched, so let’s keep it relatable)
Will take time to open up and… am introverted at first so~
(Indian)- for people who have issues

I enjoy watching Charlotte and thought, you all might enjoy this story. If it makes you cringe and awkwardly chuckle, I've done my job.
When I was much younger, I was dating a very nice man, We’ll call him Dan. He was a huge geek, something I actually like in a guy. He was intellectual, decent looking and sweet. Terms I’d never use to describe him would be sexy, intense, exciting, or passionate. To be fair, I loved him like a friend, but I was hoping my feelings for him would grow. So, I set up a romantic getaway for us for New Year’s Eve. We stayed at the Beekman Arms, the oldest inn in America, located in Rhinebeck NY. There was a storm warning for that night. I was looking forward to being snowed in for a bit.
It had just started snowing when we arrived, but it was coming down fast. We got to the cottage (a one room carriage house with bathroom) and it was a picture of romantic Victorian bliss. A large stone fireplace, a raised Victorian 4 poster bed, a large window that looked out onto the green with the town in the distance , and a bottle of champagne on the table. The snow was gently falling and quickly covering the ground so we decided to walk to dinner. We headed out and a few other couples were also walking to dinner, all of us dressed in our best. It was like stepping out into a real life Currier and Ives scene.
We held hands as we walked and joked about how lucky we were to be enjoying such a perfect night. There might have been a few snowballs thrown as well, much laughing, and fun was had. It was delightful and the only thing that would have made it better in my mind was if I were with someone I was totally into. We had a lovely dinner and afterward roamed around the town, now completely snowed in with no cars coming through at all. It was more magical than I can describe, looking up, everything seemed in slow motion with the flakes gently falling.
As we made our way back to our cottage, we talked about how nice it would be to sit by the fireplace and sip champagne while we watched the snow fall outside. We got to the house thoroughly chilled and started a fire. Dan had scooped snow into the bucket and had the champagne chilling with glasses at the ready. We started with a cup of warm tea to warm up and watched the snow come down. Candles burning and the fireplace crackling. I was warming up to this guy and thought maybe, just maybe I could develop more romantic feelings for him. Then I went to “change into something more comfortable,” a sexy satin nightgown and robe I bought just for the occasion.. I put on soft music and when I got back to the table he had taken two boxes out of his bag. I couldn’t tell what they were in the dim light. They were Magic the Gathering cards. He brought them along so he could teach me how to play. So did ya’ll hear the screeching brakes in your head the way I did? I had all I could do not to burst out laughing. I had my answer, we’d always be great friends, but that was it. There I saw in my sexy lingerie, and welcomed the new year while playing Magic the Gathering with Dan, sipping champagne and watching the snow fall as we enjoyed the crackling fireplace. I had fun, but by the time we were too tired to play on, the mood was over and we stayed on our separate sides of the bed.
A few weeks later we went our separate ways. He had met someone in his Dungeons and Dragons group and I was already looking for someone who was a better fit for me. While I regret nothing, as he was a great friend and that night will always be a special memory, It left a mark. As I began checking out online dating, I would always stop and check out the profiles that listed D&D free. For the longest time I thought they meant they didn’t play Dungeons and Dragons. I kid you not.

This is taken from and is copyright protected by globalsoup.net, a website that promotes flash Fiction with annual writing contests.
I am reprinting these Flash Fiction Prompts because they are outstanding ways to freewrite and offer plenty to work with for those who want to learn how to write Flash Fiction.
So check out these prompts and the article and work some of them into your journal! Post the best responses!
100 Awesome Flash Fiction Prompts - Plus Bonus Prompts!
We’ve put together 100 flash fiction prompts, each one designed for a very short story. These prompts will probably be best suited to a story of between 300-1,000 words. If you want to write a longer story using these prompts, you can easily expand these ideas to fit a story of any length.
What is flash fiction?
Flash Fiction is defined as a very short story that can be anywhere from just a couple of words to about a thousand in length. The beauty (and difficulty) of writing flash fiction lies in trying to tell a complete story in so few words. Great flash fiction is succinct, emotive, thought-provoking, and impactful.
What’s the difference between flash fiction and a short story?
The only difference between flash fiction and a typical short story is the word count. However, this scarcity of words means that writing flash fiction can feel like a completely new skill. Just like the short story is a different animal to the novel or novella; flash fiction is kind of unique.
When writing flash, you’ll need to use fewer characters, a simpler plot, and you’ll have to make each word count. This is why editing is so important. You have to be brutal. Cut out everything superfluous and really make sure each and every word is performing an important function in the story. If you’re interested in writing very short fiction, why not check out drabbles? Drabbles are stories of exactly 100 words in length, and they can be a great way to practice keeping your stories very, very short.
How to plot a flash fiction story
When you sit down to write flash fiction, you must begin by choosing an appropriate plot. You cannot simply use a short story plot and tell it using fewer words. A typical flash fiction plot is like looking at one part of a story under a microscope.
For example, let’s look at prompt #21 in our list of 100 Flash Fiction Prompts:

1. Two people on a sinking ship must decide who should take the last seat in the last lifeboat. If you were writing a novel about a sinking ship, you’d probably want the actual sinking to be the climax of the story. Of course, there are infinite ways to write a novel about a sinking ship, but this would structurally be the most obvious. You’d use the first part of the novel to introduce your characters and describe the voyage leading up to the sinking and the sinking of the ship would be the dramatic climax, leaving the last part of the book as the resolution.

The golden rule of writing short stories is to begin as close to end as you can. So, to turn the same story from novel to short story, you’d probably want to begin with the ship sinking. You haven’t got time to introduce the characters before the action begins, so you’d need to feed in exposition and backstory here and there during the events.
All stories need a good climax. So, you would find the most dramatic moment in the story and build up to it. Perhaps your climax would be the two main characters having to decide who will take the remaining seat on the last lifeboat.
Finally, you need a resolution. In a longer short story you do have time to bring in some kind of satisfying resolution at the end.
But, if you’re writing flash fiction and your story is only a few hundred words, you really need to zoom in on one tiny moment in that story.
You don’t have time to tell the entire story of a sinking ship, but you can turn one moment into a story.
We’ve chosen the lifeboat situation as the key moment in this hypothetical story. Two characters must decide which one of them will take the last seat on the last lifeboat. This is an appropriate plot for flash fiction because it’s simple, high-stakes, dramatic, and thought provoking.
Not all flash fiction will have a plot quite this dramatic, but all great flash fiction will have a plot that can be expressed in just one or two sentences.
If you have a plot in mind, but it seems more suitable for a longer story, you can sometimes find several flash fiction plots hidden within it. Just look for little stories within the story, like the lifeboat moment in our hypothetical tale of the sinking ship.
This brings us to our top tip for coming up with ideas for flash fiction stories:
if you’re ever stuck for ideas, you can find little stories within the story in books, movies, and TV shows. A full length feature film might have as many as 20 little incidents in it that could easily be flash fiction.
Don’t directly write a story based on the film, though. Just carefully pick out those little moments, write down what’s happening as a one or two sentence plot, and then use it to inspire your own, completely original flash fiction story.
One of our 100 Flash Fiction Prompts was actually taken from the movie Pulp Fiction!
How to write very short flash fiction
There are several reasons writers might start writing flash fiction. Of course, it could be that they just love and enjoy the form, but sometimes they’ll be a more strategic and practical reason at play.
Perhaps they want to practise the process of writing stories within the confines of a certain word limit. Maybe they are trying to develop a daily writing routine and they don’t have a lot of free time. It could be that they’re trying to break a habit of not finishing writing projects, or perhaps they are entering a flash fiction competition.
Whatever the reason, very often when we sit down to write flash, we must work under an imposed or self-imposed word restraint. We’ve set ourselves (or been set) the task of keeping the story under a particular number of words.
So, how do you plot a flash fiction story when you have to keep your story very, very short.
We’re not going to discuss stories of 100 words or fewer here. Technically, those stories are still flash, however, we prefer to categorise 100 word stories as drabbles and anything under 100 words as micro fiction.
But what if you have to keep your flash fiction story under, let’s say, 300 words? How do you write a flash fiction story that short?
The answer is: get your microscope out again. Remember earlier when we said writing flash fiction is like looking at part of a story under a microscope? If you have to write very short flash fiction, you’ll need to zoom in even further.
Let’s look at a couple of examples from our 100 Flash Fiction Prompts:

1. During a match, a young boxer must decide whether to throw the fight.

If you had 1,000 words to devote to the story, you could have time to tell the story of the entire fight. With only 300 words, it might be better to zoom in on the very moment when the boxer must choose whether or not to go down.
In a longer flash fiction story you might have time to go into detail about why he’s in this situation and why he’s so conflicted. In a 300 word story, you might only devote one or two sentences to his gambling debt and the large sum of money waiting for him if he goes down in the third round, as instructed.

1. A family must decide what to take and what to leave behind as a wildfire approaches their home.

If you had 1,000 words to devote to this story, you might be able to write about the whole process of choosing what to take and what to leave behind. You might be able to mention many different choices and have the whole family participate in the story. You’d be able to go into some details about certain choices and the stories behind individual objects or mementos, as well as the implications of choosing certain things over others.
With only 300 words, it would be advisable to zoom in on one member of the family and to focus on one profound and important choice.
How to write a flash fiction story
Now you have your mini plot, you still need to make sure your flash fiction feels like a complete story. It should still have a beginning, middle, and an end.
Just like a short story, you may need to bring in a little exposition here and there to give texture, context, backstory, and to bring some depth to the characters. But, unlike a short story, you won’t necessarily need to end with a full, detailed resolution. It’s quite common for a flash fiction story to end with a quick twist or plenty of ambiguity.
Flash Fiction is much more about eliciting emotions and provoking thought, than setting up and resolving a complex story.
100 Awesome Flash Fiction Prompts
A young ballet dancer chooses not to tell the other dancers in her troop about a loose paving stone outside their dance studio.
Two sisters realise they’ve both been on a perfect first date … with the same man.
On the car journey home, two parents realise they’ve left their child’s favourite teddy on a park bench several hours away.
A writer suffering from writers’ block looks for inspiration in a strange place.
Set 200 years in the future, a young man realises he’s too emotionally dependent on his robot assistant.
A young woman discovers she’s taken the wrong suitcase home from the airport. The contents of the case make her question her own life choices.
A murderer realises he has only 10 minutes to dispose of a body.
A child decides to walk home by themselves after their parent forgets to pick them up from school … again.
Your protagonist manages to talk the grim reaper out of collecting their soul.
Your protagonist suddenly realises they’ve been living in a simulation.
A young couple has chosen to spend the night in a haunted house to fix their marriage. Your story starts just as things get very weird.
Your protagonist finds a letter they wrote to themselves when they were a teenager.
Your protagonist must decide whether or not to drink from a fountain that erases all painful memories from the mind.
Your protagonist comes across a street called ‘Memory Lane’. They quickly realise the name is eerily apt.
A bride finds out something startling about her future husband an hour before the wedding.
Your protagonist finds an advertisement for a company that promises everlasting youth.
A youngest sibling shows up at a family reunion they weren’t actually invited to.
Your protagonist finds a piece of paper with a spell on it. If they say the words out loud they aren't sure if something terrible or wonderful will happen.
Your protagonist is watching a jazz band play when they realise they know the drummer from somewhere — but where? It takes a whole song for them to figure it out.
Your protagonist must meet their ex for lunch to tell them they’re now engaged. It’s been just a few weeks since they split up.
Two people on a sinking ship must decide who should take the last seat in the last lifeboat.
During a match, a young boxer must decide whether to throw the fight.
Your protagonist must pack their belongings before moving to a new colony on mars.
A pilot realises they have lost control of their aircraft.
Your protagonist doesn’t want to attend their 100th birthday party — and for good reason!
Your protagonist gets stuck in a lift with their ex … 5 minutes after breaking up with them.
A child says goodbye to the fairies in his garden before moving to a new home.
Your protagonist saves someone’s life … and then wishes they hadn’t.
Your protagonist arrives at a blind date. They’ve been set up with someone they actually know a little too well.
Set in a dystopian future in which public displays of affection are banned, your protagonist faces an agonising choice.
An agoraphobic must face their fear in order to save something important.
Your protagonist must make her partner fall out of love with them. Both their lives depend on it.
Your protagonist is hiking with her small children, they come face to face with a grizzly bear and her cubs.
Cinderella and Prince Charming realise they got married too quickly.
A message written in graffiti on a bathroom wall has serious implications for your protagonist.
Your protagonist finds a bag, looks inside, and realises the owner might just be their soulmate.
Your protagonist has been seeing the same stranger everywhere they go for months. They finally decide to confront them.
A couple realise their relationship is over during the trip of a lifetime. They’ve been saving up for the trip for years.
A public debate sees two previously married people letting their private grievances come into their arguments.
Your protagonist plans their escape from a retirement home.
A couple realise their fundamental beliefs are at odds with each other.
An artist develops an obsession with drawing a next-door neighbour.
Your protagonist finds themselves trapped in a cabin with a group of hikers during a heavy snowfall.
An ice skater must face going back on the ice after a dangerous fall.
A couple must decide their plan for New Year’ Eve. They both have secret reasons for their choice.
A family must decide what to take and what to leave behind as a wildfire approaches their home.
Your protagonist is waiting for someone important at the airport. They begin to think that person isn’t going to show up … and then they realise why.
Your protagonist must find their way through a maze. What they find in the middle of the maze is the last thing they were expecting.
An actor waiting in the wings has forgotten his first line.
Your protagonist is wrongly identified as a hero. Do they come clean?
Your protagonist realises their past is catching up with them.
Your protagonist overhears something that has serious implications for them while trying on clothes in a changing room.
Your protagonist is in a costume shop trying to decide what to dress up as for Halloween.
Your protagonist realises they’ve slipped into an alternate dimension.
A surgeon must make an impossible choice on the operating table.
A pregnant journalist interviews the mother of a missing child.
Your protagonist must ask his girlfriend’s father for his blessing, only to discover the father knows his deepest secret.
Your protagonist sees something on social media that will change their life forever.
Two work colleagues realise they’ve been dreaming the same dreams for weeks.
A reluctant daughter comes to terms with having to carry on the family business.
Your protagonist realises she must go on the run.
Two bank robbers disagree on their plan to rob a bank. This leads to a disastrous consequence.
A strange case of deja vous leaves your protagonist convinced of supernatural interference.
A sceptic begins to question their beliefs during a psychic reading.
Your protagonist uncovers a scandal at their workplace.
A hapless cook tries to recreate her late father’s favourite recipes in an effort to feel connected to him.
Your protagonist has a premonition that makes them certain they can’t visit their mother-in-law for Christmas. Now he must convince his husband.
A young backpacker discovers something unexpected in a cave.
An impulsive character and an indecisive character are brought together by chance. They must make an important choice.
Two characters cleaning up after a party discover an object that sheds light on something strange that happened earlier.
Two strangers are trapped together during a blackout.
Your protagonist must take a leap of faith in order to save something important to them.
Your protagonist discovers a huge part of their life has been a lie.
Your protagonist has set up an elaborate way to propose. Inexplicably, everything goes wrong.
Your protagonist must buy a dress for her mother’s funeral.
Your protagonist goes back to her favourite city in the world, only to find it has completely changed.
While stargazing, your protagonist realises the stars are forming secret messages in the sky.
Your protagonist hears a news story on the radio that will mean the world changes forever. However, she seems to be the only person who heard it.
Your protagonist is crossing a frozen lake. They see something under the ice that definitely shouldn’t be there.
A workaholic must come to terms with retirement.
An Olympic athlete must decide whether or not to report their teammate for doping.
A young mother feels isolated from her childless friends.
Your protagonist is about to realise their greatest ambition. Will it be everything they were hoping for?
Onboard a spaceship, a couple prepare to go into stasis for hundreds of years.
Your protagonist has an obsession with thinking about the past.
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, your protagonist meets an unlikely love interest.
Your protagonist visits a place from their childhood and realises their memories of that time might not be accurate at all.
A small child has decided to run away from home. Her parents watch on with amusement as she decides what to put in her backpack.
On a whim, a bus driver decides to radically change his route, much to the chagrin of his passengers.
Dystopian. A couple in love are only allowed to spend time with each other one day a year.
A shapeshifter begins to realise their powers are fading. They must decide what form will be the last one they take before they cannot change again.
The devil visits your protagonist with an offer on her soul.
Your protagonist suddenly has the ability to read minds. There’s only one place they want to go now!
Your very wealthy protagonist has designed a simple test to see who will inherit her estate.
An archaeologist discovers something that will change how we see the history of the world. It could be dangerous. Does he keep it to himself?
Your protagonist must clear out their late mother’s house. She discovers an incredible family secret.
Your protagonist is meeting his brother. They haven’t seen each other for 20 years.
Your protagonist develops the ability to see the world literally through someone else’s eyes.
Your protagonist starts to believe their partner might be a spy.
Your protagonist discovers a hidden camera in their living room.
Looking for a flash fiction competition? Check out our ‘Big List of International Writing Competitions!’ Looking for inspiration? Why not check out our list of the 20 Greatest Short Story Writers of All Time! Just received another short story rejection? Here’s our post about ‘How to Deal With Story Rejections’ Bonus Prompts! Two characters waiting by the side of the road realise they are both meeting the same person.
A woman loses her young niece in a busy shopping mall.
Three strangers must solve a riddle in order to gain entry to a secret club.
A poor woman must borrow ingredients from her neighbours to bake her husband a birthday cake.
A waiter finally finds out why an old man has been coming to the restaurant where he works every day at exactly the same time.
Two work colleagues must decide which of them is to take the blame for a terrible mistake at work.
Your disgruntled protagonist goes to confront the couple next door about the strange noises they’ve been hearing at night.
A family dinner party sees three characters make three very surprising announcements.
Two women argue over who should get to buy the last dress available in a store. How do they decide who should get it?
A young couple find out they knew (and disliked) each other vehemently as children.
Love writing stories? Register now for our free 7 Day Story Writing Challenges. Write a short story in a week, get extensive feedback on your entry, and compete for a prize of £500 in each round of the challenge. Register today!
Mastered the art of flash fiction? Now you can try submitting your stories to literary magazines! We’ve compiled a list of the best literary magazines that don’t charge a reading fee! Check out our Big List of No-Fee Literary Magazines.

I (23F) have been dating 25M for 9 months now. I am so scared I am going to sabotage this relationship because of my insecurities. I am just comparing myself endlessly with his ex and his ex-FWB, and even random girls.
It’s almost like I want to make myself feel anxious and insecure. I used to frequently view his ex and ex-FWBs’ social media, basically just to compare myself to them, now I do it less and less to try to intentionally stop doing it, like the scale down method as you do with obsessions. Regardless, the stuff that I found still comes to bother my sometimes randomly in my head.
For example he has liked his ex-FWB posts on IG, not even recently, but whilst we were dating. All lightly dressed - bikinis, very small crop tops, etc - posted last summer (when we had been dating for 2-4 months) he had liked. Even back in October last year he liked a picture of her that was very provocative, her with an angle from above, tongue out, angle tilting down into her tanktop with her nipple piercings fully visible through her shirt. We had dated for 5 months at that point. The fact that he was liking provocative pictures of a woman he used to have sex with makes me uncomfortable, although he hasn’t liked any of the most recent pictures she has posted - I question if it’s because of the weather being colder and her putting on more, and I worry over just the hypothetical of him starting to like them again in the summer when she whips out the bikinis and minimal clothing.
I also looked at his ex's IG profile, who is on a completely other level, no provocative pictures, but very beautiful and very clever, she is getting a double PHD and winning multiple awards, and starting her own business and doing tons of charity work. It’s just this perfect person and then he moved on to….me….
Recently I’ve also come to the realization that in the group chat with his friends my boyfriend added me to, you can look back at messages from before you were a part of it. Not sure my boyfriend knows about this detail, since he's always been in it. Regardless, I've scrolled far back to see a lot of messages about his ex-FWB and his ex girlfriend there as well, that just contribute to my anxiety. It’s important to note that this was from before him and I were dating. So, it shouldn’t matter, but it’s destroying what’s left of my confidence seeing what he’s said. I know I am the problem.
I saw some messages about his ex-FWB, from my boyfriend bragging to the all-boys group chat about how his ex-FWB sent him nudes, sharing them with them (she had given him consent to do so) when she first started expressing interest before they got involved, saying how hot she was and that it was rare to find a girl as kinky as her. I know they did multiple things together in the bedroom, and it bothers me enormously knowing exactly what they did and even seeing some pictures of it that he took while they were having sex, and sharing them in the gc (again, with permission, he's not an asshole). We are into some BDSM stuff, and I know from comparison that he used the same equipment on me that he did to her, which just makes me feel dirty and terrible.
Every time we do something intimate of that nature I can't help but wonder if he's thinking about her, or if he is thinking that she was better in bed, was more attractive, was more confident and more seductive, etc... Given she has an extremely large sexual history and my boyfriend only just took my virginity, I just can't help but assume those things are true. I am way more timid in bed because of my insecurities, and it feels like he wishes I was more like her, he tries to guide me into being more of a dirty-talker but these thoughts stop me.
I also saw this message: “I asked *ex-fwb* if she wanted to fuck again but she’s ignoring me lol” coming from after 8 days of us meeting, after he sent a “Met a really cute girl today, I think she likes me” etc. message about me, and 8 days before we became girlfriend/boyfriend. This hurts me because well, we knew each other at that point, I would even say we had had our first date at that point, and he had previously, before I saw these messages, told me that having sex with her that one time just made him sure that sex as just a means to get off wasn’t for him, that it was the emotional intimacy that made it important to him in the first place, he said he didn’t even enjoy it, wasn’t even attracted to her body type, etc…. yet he wanted to do it again?
These past messages include him also gushing about his ex, at the time they were dating but also a while afterwards. Saying how he loves how extremely outgoing and sociable she is, intelligent, and that she can converse with pretty much anyone and find a topic. He is much the same. That made me extremely insecure, because I am the complete opposite of that. I am very quiet and subdued, I like to observe more than anything and talking to strangers makes me nervous.
Even talking to his family I struggle with because I am so shy, I am constantly wondering in my head if he wishes I was more like her, his family does, or just that I was her in general. This was also brought on from early suspicions I've had about him not being over her, because some things he's said, that's then made my anxiety spiral even worse (while we were dating in the beginning he'd go on rants about what went wrong in their relationship, how he could've fixed it, he at one point told me that she was the "right person, wrong time" which he has since reassured me about not meaning, but still, etc).
I looked at all those previous group chat messages out of curiosity at first not wanting or even thinking about finding anything about his exes to make me insecure, now it's become a weird obsession where I have saved screenshots of the stuff that he's said about these women in a folder on my phone, and I visit that folder a bit more frequent than I'd like to admit. I don't know why I do it, it's like I want to hurt my feelings and make me feel insecure. There's also positive stuff in there that I've seen and saved to my folder as well, about me, how beautiful I am and supportive of him, but it just gets a bit overshadowed.
I also get jealous of girls we see when out and about. He’s told me he’s very attracted to girls with pale skin, blue eyes and dark hair - which I have, but every time him and I are out and we spot another girl with those features - worst of all if I think of her to be more attractive than me - I get so down, I can shut down and go all mopey and even though I try to pretend I am okay he notices, gets nervous and asks what happened, he thinks I got some negatives news on my phone or something. It just absolutely sucks. I have all these thoughts in my head about how he probably wishes I looked more like her, he would’ve gone up and flirted with her if I wasn’t here, etc. He’s also said he thinks girls in chokers is very hot, in a sexual way, and I wonder every time we see one wearing one if he is having sexual thoughts about her.
Once he scrolled past a random girl on his IG explore page with me next to him and said “damn, she’s cute” and went to her profile, scrolled it for 5 seconds, clicked on some images, then exited. Then it’s like he remembered I was there and he said “Not as cute as you, of course” but it didn’t feel genuine. That made me feel like shit. It’s not like he does that a lot, he’s done that once this one time, but it still sticks with me.
I genuinely don’t find other guys attractive anymore, it doesn’t even register to me anymore if a man I’m looking at or talking to is attractive or not, it’s like I’ve turned that side of my thoughts off. Which is why it hurts me even more he hasn’t seemed to do that.
This is me being insecure. I am aware of that, fully. I want to fix it. I am in queue for therapy, but with my country's’ psychiatric care being what it is, I can’t expect it to happen anytime soon. My friend waited for 2 years, and that is around the predicted time for anyone who isn’t willing to go the private route - which I don’t have money to do. So I’m doing my best with what I can do. I really don’t want to destroy this relationship, truly, he could be the love of my life. I’ve never *seeked* a relationship for this reason, I knew I needed to work more on my confidence and self-worth in fear of me. But I met him very randomly and unexpected, and just fell straight in love with him, immediately clicked and everything, in a way I can’t recall ever having done before.
I haven't fully made him aware of the extent of my insecurities, but sometimes I'll bring stuff up, like "hey, do you think we're too different being introverted and extroverted respectively?" and he will go on to reassure me a ton. Every time I give into my thoughts and ask him questions or express concerns he always is so loving, supportive and reassuring that he loves me for how I am, he's called me more attractive, trustworthy, more compatible, etc, that any girl he had a relationship with before, so it's not as if he is trying to make me insecure or anything. This is all in my head, but unfortunately being aware of that doesn't make it easier to get it out.
TL;DR: I'm struggling with insecurities in my relationship with my boyfriend of 9 months. I find myself comparing myself to his exes and feeling inadequate. I've discovered past messages about his ex-FWB and ex-girlfriend that exacerbate my anxiety, before we were dating and I obsessively dwell on them. His past interactions about his ex-FWB, calling her hot to his friends, seeing nudes that he has sent him and pictures he took of her while they were having sex. (All this from a groupchat, I haven't gone through his phone, more info above) Also about his ex, about how he thinks she's so amazing for being sociable and outgoing and I am the completely opposite. I worry that he still harbors feelings for her and wishes I were more like her. I also feel jealous of other girls and constantly fear he finds them more attractive. I feel jealous and uncomfortable with the fact that he has liked his ex-FWB provocative IG pics last summer while we had been dating for 2-4 months and one in October that was very provocative. I worry he will start liking her pictures again this summer when she starts to wear less clothing again, despite them seemingly not having been in contact since she ghosted him. I'm aware of my insecurities and seeking therapy, but it's not readily available. My boyfriend is supportive, but I fear my insecurities may damage our relationship.

I (23F) have been dating 25M for 9 months now. I am so scared I am going to sabotage this relationship because of my insecurities. I am just comparing myself endlessly with his ex and his ex-FWB, and even random girls.
It’s almost like I want to make myself feel anxious and insecure. I used to frequently view his ex and ex-FWBs’ social media, basically just to compare myself to them, now I do it less and less to try to intentionally stop doing it, like the scale down method as you do with obsessions. Regardless, the stuff that I found still comes to bother my sometimes randomly in my head.
For example he has liked his ex-FWB posts on IG, not even recently, but whilst we were dating. All lightly dressed - bikinis, very small crop tops, etc - posted last summer (when we had been dating for 2-4 months) he had liked. Even back in October last year he liked a picture of her that was very provocative, her with an angle from above, tongue out, angle tilting down into her tanktop with her nipple piercings fully visible through her shirt. We had dated for 5 months at that point. The fact that he was liking provocative pictures of a woman he used to have sex with makes me uncomfortable, although he hasn’t liked any of the most recent pictures she has posted - I question if it’s because of the weather being colder and her putting on more, and I worry over just the hypothetical of him starting to like them again in the summer when she whips out the bikinis and minimal clothing.
I also looked at his ex's IG profile, who is on a completely other level, no provocative pictures, but very beautiful and very clever, she is getting a double PHD and winning multiple awards, and starting her own business and doing tons of charity work. It’s just this perfect person and then he moved on to….me….
Recently I’ve also come to the realization that in the group chat with his friends my boyfriend added me to, you can look back at messages from before you were a part of it. Not sure my boyfriend knows about this detail, since he's always been in it. Regardless, I've scrolled far back to see a lot of messages about his ex-FWB and his ex girlfriend there as well, that just contribute to my anxiety. It’s important to note that this was from before him and I were dating. So, it shouldn’t matter, but it’s destroying what’s left of my confidence seeing what he’s said. I know I am the problem.
I saw some messages about his ex-FWB, from my boyfriend bragging to the all-boys group chat about how his ex-FWB sent him nudes, sharing them with them (she had given him consent to do so) when she first started expressing interest before they got involved, saying how hot she was and that it was rare to find a girl as kinky as her. I know they did multiple things together in the bedroom, and it bothers me enormously knowing exactly what they did and even seeing some pictures of it that he took while they were having sex, and sharing them in the gc (again, with permission, he's not an asshole). We are into some BDSM stuff, and I know from comparison that he used the same equipment on me that he did to her, which just makes me feel dirty and terrible.
Every time we do something intimate of that nature I can't help but wonder if he's thinking about her, or if she is thinking that she was better in bed, was more attractive, was more confident and more seductive, etc... Given she has an extremely large sexual history and my boyfriend only just took my virginity, I just can't help but assume those things are true. I am way more timid in bed because of my insecurities, and it feels like he wishes I was more like her, he tries to guide me into being more of a dirty-talker but these thoughts stop me.
I also saw this message: “I asked *ex-fwb* if she wanted to fuck again but she’s ignoring me lol” coming from after 4 days of us meeting, 8 days after he sent a “Met a really cute girl today, I think she likes me” etc. message about me, and 8 days before we became girlfriend/boyfriend. This hurts me because well, we knew each other at that point, I would even say we had had our first date at that point, and he had previously, before I saw these messages, told me that having sex with her that one time just made him sure that sex as just a means to get off wasn’t for him, that it was the emotional intimacy that made it important to him in the first place, he said he didn’t even enjoy it, wasn’t even attracted to her body type, etc…. yet he wanted to do it again?
These past messages include him also gushing about his ex, at the time they were dating but also a while afterwards. Saying how he loves how extremely outgoing and sociable she is, intelligent, and that she can converse with pretty much anyone and find a topic. He is much the same. That made me extremely insecure, because I am the complete opposite of that. I am very quiet and subdued, I like to observe more than anything and talking to strangers makes me nervous.
Even talking to his family I struggle with because I am so shy, I am constantly wondering in my head if he wishes I was more like her, his family does, or just that I was her in general. This was also brought on from early suspicions I've had about him not being over her, because some things he's said, that's then made my anxiety spiral even worse (while we were dating in the beginning he'd go on rants about what went wrong in their relationship, how he could've fixed it, he at one point told me that she was the "right person, wrong time" which he has since reassured me about not meaning, but still, etc).
I looked at all those previous group chat messages out of curiosity at first not wanting or even thinking about finding anything about his exes to make me insecure, now it's become a weird obsession where I have saved screenshots of the stuff that he's said about these women in a folder on my phone, and I visit that folder a bit more frequent than I'd like to admit. I don't know why I do it, it's like I want to hurt my feelings and make me feel insecure. There's also positive stuff in there that I've seen and saved to my folder as well, about me, how beautiful I am and supportive of him, but it just gets a bit overshadowed.
I also get jealous of girls we see when out and about. He’s told me he’s very attracted to girls with pale skin, blue eyes and dark hair - which I have, but every time him and I are out and we spot another girl with those features - worst of all if I think of her to be more attractive than me - I get so down, I can shut down and go all mopey and even though I try to pretend I am okay he notices, gets nervous and asks what happened, he thinks I got some negatives news on my phone or something. It just absolutely sucks. I have all these thoughts in my head about how he probably wishes I looked more like her, he would’ve gone up and flirted with her if I wasn’t here, etc. He’s also said he thinks girls in chokers is very hot, in a sexual way, and I wonder every time we see one wearing one if he is having sexual thoughts about her.
Once he scrolled past a random girl on his IG explore page with me next to him and said “damn, she’s cute” and went to her profile, scrolled it for 5 seconds, clicked on some images, then exited. Then it’s like he remembered I was there and he said “Not as cute as you, of course” but it didn’t feel genuine. That made me feel like shit. It’s not like he does that a lot, he’s done that once this one time, but it still sticks with me.
I genuinely don’t find other guys attractive anymore, it doesn’t even register to me anymore if a man I’m looking at or talking to is attractive or not, it’s like I’ve turned that side of my thoughts off. Which is why it hurts me even more he hasn’t seemed to do that.
This is me being insecure. I am aware of that, fully. I want to fix it. I am in queue for therapy, but with my country's’ psychiatric care being what it is, I can’t expect it to happen anytime soon. My friend waited for 2 years, and that is around the predicted time for anyone who isn’t willing to go the private route - which I don’t have money to do. So I’m doing my best with what I can do. I really don’t want to destroy this relationship, truly, he could be the love of my life. I’ve never *seeked* a relationship for this reason, I knew I needed to work more on my confidence and self-worth in fear of me. But I met him very randomly and unexpected, and just fell straight in love with him, immediately clicked and everything, in a way I can’t recall ever having done before.
I haven't fully made him aware of the extent of my insecurities, but sometimes I'll bring stuff up, like "hey, do you think we're too different being introverted and extroverted respectively?" and he will go on to reassure me a ton. Every time I give into my thoughts and ask him questions or express concerns he always is so loving, supportive and reassuring that he loves me for how I am, he's called me more attractive, trustworthy, more compatible, etc, that any girl he had a relationship with before, so it's not as if he is trying to make me insecure or anything. This is all in my head, but unfortunately being aware of that doesn't make it easier to get it out.
TL;DR: I'm struggling with insecurities in my relationship with my boyfriend of 9 months. I find myself comparing myself to his exes and feeling inadequate. I've discovered past messages about his ex-FWB and ex-girlfriend that exacerbate my anxiety, before we were dating and I obsessively dwell on them. His past interactions about his ex-FWB, calling her hot to his friends, seeing nudes that he has sent him and pictures he took of her while they were having sex. (All this from a groupchat, I haven't gone through his phone, more info above) Also about his ex, about how he thinks she's so amazing for being sociable and outgoing and I am the completely opposite. I worry that he still harbors feelings for her and wishes I were more like her. I also feel jealous of other girls and constantly fear he finds them more attractive. I feel jealous and uncomfortable with the fact that he has liked his ex-FWB provocative IG pics last summer while we had been dating for 2-4 months and one in October that was very provocative. I worry he will start liking her pictures again this summer when she starts to wear less clothing again, despite them seemingly not having been in contact since she ghosted him. I'm aware of my insecurities and seeking therapy, but it's not readily available. My boyfriend is supportive, but I fear my insecurities may damage our relationship.

I had an appointment today and I went out like I normally do. Capri’s, a band tee, hair down. I’m only 6mo on HRT and though there are changes, they aren’t that big. I know it takes time.
Well, I go to check in and the lady behind the desk doesn’t really look up as she puts me in.
She turns around to ask her co-worker where they moved some button and said, “I need to get /he billing info…”.
I was shocked and in the middle of processing that I was gendered correctly for the very first time in public, she looked up at me and it was immediate. Her eyes widened and she started to apologize over and over.
All I could do was say, “It’s okay hun.” But I’m kind of being hit by the realization that, sure, I’m a lot more fem than I was. But I’m still not recognized as a woman.
I know my own self view is the most important, but it still hurts so much.
I’ve tried to brush it off since then but when I walked past my bathroom mirror and glanced at myself, I broke. Just kind of been crying a lot and I wanna dress up and doll myself up as much as I can but that’s a terrible way to cope.
I don’t even really want to post because I don’t wanna bring anyone down, but I really need to get it out.
Anyway, Stay safe girls. 🩷

My(18F) partner Tilly (27F) planed a surprise date night for the both of us. I’m still living at home and she is staying with her grandparents until she finds an apartment so she got a room in a nice hotel in the city for 1 night. As soon as we get there Lily popped open a bottle of champagne and ordered room service. I drank a few glasses, turned on the stereo and started to dance. While I was dancing I noticed Tilly had put my purse in the safe. She asked for my phone to put inside as well but I declined as I prefer to have it within reach.
After a few glasses of champagne I started to get extremely woozy and rather tipsy. It was a bit past midnight and I really just wanted to call it a night. Tilly wanted to be intimate but I was too nauseous to engage. She starts to get upset, yelling, ranting, throwing a tantrum and we both go to sleep irritated. I wake up and immediately decide to leave. She’s still upset and completely ignores me. I get dressed and asked for her to open the safe so I could get my purse and she does not respond. I ask, and wait for about 30 mins but Tilly pretends that I’m not there. I go downstairs to concierge and tell them that I cannot get the safe open. They follow me to the room but since Tilly booked the hotel they couldn’t do anything and I had to wait. I waited in the lobby 4hrs until Tilly finally checked out. I took my purse from her and w/o saying a word and left.
She is texting non stop blaming me for the outcome. Saying I ruined date night, I’m an AH for getting security, that I don’t care about her. I have not responded. This is not the first time Tilly has lost her temper and pull tactics to guilt me into taking blame. AITA for calling security to get my belongings when all I wanted to do was just leave?

The next day finds the military part of the Bridger family waiting in one of the larger cargo bays. Paladin company and Shark Platoon are on hand, all in full power armor except for Makula, with the exception of Jaruna who's standing next to Jerry in a family uniform with her shotgun and sword slung over her back. Jerry had also elected for a dress uniform today, though he'd paired it with a 'ceremonial' curaiss that could still take a hit from a plasma cannon or two... and concealed a small shield generator. Mixed with his cloak and the Crimsonhewer war ax on his belt, Jerry thought he looked every bit the barbarian warlord... if a bit too clean cut for a Hollywood depiction of such.
The situation reminded Jerry of a similar reception back on Serbow... but this one was a bit less ceremonial and a bit more... dynamic. They didn't have any formal bonds with Clan Karchara, or their Khan, Komugai. So as a meeting of two new to each other factions, things could get... exciting. Which considering they were talking about Cannidor meant that things could potentially get very violent, very quickly.
They usually didn't. Not any more. Yet... it never helped to play it safe, even with a clan that had a decent reputation like the Karchara. More cut throat clans had been heard to disguise themselves for meetings like this for meetings so they could ambush their targets after all. Plus as always, there was tradition to observe and satisfy. Tradition which could be best summarized as 'Offer one hand, but arm the other.'. The Cannidor were ready to fight a war naked among any people but their own. They were beyond dangerous. So an armed society wasn't so much a polite society as the unarmed were likely mentally infirm, and to be politely left to their own devices.
A sharp whistle from the 1MC draws Jerry from his thoughts.
"Now hear this! The Clan Karchara envoy is arriving!"
The Karchara drop ship slides into view out of the black and makes it's way towards the docking day with all the leisurely grace of a terrestrial shark swimming towards a coral reef. Whoever's piloting it is clearly a hot hand on the stick because the ship moves as smooth as anything Jerry had ever seen out of Cruel Space, extending it's landing gear and coming to a halt with nary a hint of a bounce in it's suspension and shock absorbing gear.
"Hmmm. The Karchara..." Jaruna rumbles. "An interesting contact in Cannidor space to be sure. So to recap what we talked about, they're somewhat on and off again allies of my old clan. Decent types for the most part. No idea who the Khan is now, and a little searching online didn't turn anything up. Don't think the intelligence weasels had anything either. Save that they've been having some internal structural changes. Seized a new planet too, lighting raid, unconventional tactics, whatever that means. Gives them complete control of... ten decently populated and industrialized star systems I think. They're firmly in the middle of the power band for the Khans by that measurement, exact position depends on the number of warriors under arms they can bring to the Golden Khan's muster."
"Right. Well. Guess we'll have to see what Khan Karchara wants to chat about, and hear about this plan of hers."
The Karchara drop ship settles onto it's landing gear, and it's flight crew leaves the engines running. Tradition. You never knew if a reception was actually friendly after all, and it was also a mark of respect for the hosts. You might be asked to fuck off after all.
The forward assault ramp drops, and the honor guard warriors of the Khan march out, in power armor, but with their helmets off, fanning out to cover their leader. The lack of helmets was very much a declaration of intent, the human equivalent of open palms for a Cannidor in power armor.
Jaruna's brow instantly furrows as she scans the faces of the honor guard.
"...Wait. I know some of those girls. One of my aunts, Norkath is there on the left, and that's... but that."
Jerry can hear Jaruna's brain crunching that information.
"...Komugai. You said the Khan's name was Komugai? Not Jelvuna?"
"Definently Komugai."
"...Unless she changed her name... but then would Aunt Norkath join the Karchara proper without her...?"
Jaruna mutters to herself, clearly trying to puzzle whatever's eating at her out, when the sound of heavy boots on the assault ramp sound, and an utterly massive Cannidor woman starts to come into view. She cuts an imposing presence. Her uniform not too far off from Jerry's, a mix of barbarian warlord and modern dress uniform. The massive war ax over her shoulder tipping the scales on the barbarian - modern officer scale towards barbarian. It was easy to miss her other various weapons in the sheer scale of her. Her stark white fur, the three brutal scars across her muzzle, and another two over her left eye, which had a cybernetic replacement.
Khan Karchara stands for a moment, surveying the room silently... and before anyone can say anything, Jaruna breaks the silence;
"...Mom?"
Khan Karchara cuts loose with a booming laugh that reminds Jerry of Khan Isuras, and if this is indeed Jaruna's mother, he can immediately see exactly why the two women cut palms and swore sisterhood. He wouldn't be hard pressed to believe they were actual sisters.
"Heh. Glad to see all that time on Centris hasn't dulled your powers of observation! Always said you were a sharp one."
There's no sarcasm there, a little maternal teasing perhaps, but she's not mocking Jaruna. Anyone with eyes can tell Khan Karchara is damn proud of her child.
"And this'd be my son in law... bit small but hell just from your first date with my little girl I know you're a first class head kicker, plus you already gave me four grandbabies to spoil! Hahah. I suppose these bigguns here are the older girls? I... say. I thought there was three of you."
Karchara points at Makula.
"You're a bit old to be Hippolyta considering she was born a couple weeks ago. Who are you, girl?"
"Makula Sa'Bridger, I was adopted a few days ago. Honored Matron."
Karchara grins, her numerous teeth gleaming in the light of the hangar.
"Matron? Not Khan?"
"You are my mother's mother, standing in my family's clan hold. To refer to your title by right of blood is most appropriate."
Another bark of laughter.
"Well drilled and whip smart I see. You know the ways of our kind well, granddaughter." Karchara smirks, looking smug before turning to her honor guard.
"See girls? Five now! Haha! What a stud of a bull!"
Khan Karchara turns back to Jerry and Jaruna.
"Ah but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's get the formal bit done so we can go jaw a bit and then hopefully I can visit with my eldest daughter, my son in law and these fine young ladies."
She quickly shifts her body a bit, drawing herself up to her full, imposing twelve foot height.
"I am Komugai, Khan of Karchara. I come to broker peace and fellowship between our clans, to join them in a bond of steel that will stand the sword storm for all time."
Jerry nods slowly. More than they'd expected actually. That was laying out intent to conduct some very, very serious negotiations.
"I, Jeremiah, Khan of Bridger, Admiral of this fleet, lord of these proud warriors before you, bid you welcome, Komugai of Karchara, bring your banner among ours, that they might rest together while we discuss the business of peace, and of wars yet to come."
"Well spoken indeed... and the steel in your eyes." Komugai nods slowly. "Yes, I see what you see in him, Jaruna, well past his considerable combat skills. All the better my dear son-in-law that you have already begun working on my grand design... but come, let us dismiss our warriors that they might go and eat, drink and enjoy themselves. We need only you, Jaruna, and perhaps my granddaughters for this business, so that they might learn the ways of leadership."
"I think we can accommodate that." Jerry says before turning and pulling the ax off of his belt and raising it high, an ancient Cannidor signal for attention from the leader of a warband to their warriors.
"Warriors, we walk with friends, show them to the promenade, that they might share our table while we discuss business."
Jerry and Jaruna guide Komugai to the conference room they'd prepared, while Joan and the girls quickly hustle to get their armor stowed and get their tails to the same spot. None of them wanted to miss a minute of this!
Still, the tension in the room's fairly heavy when the door closes, and Jaruna turns on her mother.
"Alright. We got a couple minutes till the girls get up here. What the hell, mom? You changed your name? Took over the Karchara? What the heck is going on?"
Komugai settles herself in a Cannidor scale chair, grinning all the while.
"You should be happier, daughter. This was inspired by you after all. When you left our band. Left the old clan... I knew you were right. We won't speak of that business, but we were obligated... and I should have been brave enough to refuse, but I lacked the standing... and perhaps the courage. So I did what any good Khan worth her blades would do and crammed it down their throats. Broke that clan, took them in, then subsumed the Karchara with my new band. They've got the older name, so I became Khan Karchara instead of remaining Khan Jormuntide. Your Aunt's got the title now. I'd offer it to you, but you've got your own clan now."
"So Jormuntide remains at least." Jaruna shuts her eyes for a second and lets out a slow breath. "You really did all this because of my idealistic and childish temper tantrum nearly a century ago?"
"Hardly childish. Idealistic? Absolutely. There's something to be said for actually trying to live up to our own ideals though. Especially as warriors. However, that is personal business, and we have business to discuss for the Undaunted first."
Komugai turns to face Jerry square on.
"Admiral Bridger, I'm prepared to offer two things to the Undaunted. One. I want to ally myself and my clan formally with the Undaunted. Second, I prepared to gift an entire star system to the same from my holdings. It is populated, but sparsely across three habitable worlds. Ripe for ongoing colonization and industrialization. To keep things fair, people within my clans will be given a chance to move to or from as they please if for some reason they don't wish for Undaunted citizenship. The Undaunted will then have the standing to select a Khan for your Cannidor population, both in Cannidor space, and Undaunted wide. A non voting position at first, but as the clan grows you will achieve that status quickly I believe."
Jerry stops dead. "...Did you just offer us a star system with three habitable worlds?"
"Yes."
"...Okay, I'm on board, but why?"
"Simply put, the worlds are marginal. They need investment. They need settlers. You need worlds. A strong alliance with humanity... and being the first Cannidor clan to extend that hand formally, even having your realm within my space... only benefits me. As I grow my own territory I might even cede another system to the Undaunted. If the Undaunted Khan helps me in those battles I damn sure will." Komugai chuckles. "We'll see how many Khans are stupid enough to try to fight me in the next few decades of course. The other thing I'm trading on is Undaunted naval power. As you just learned, we don't really do navies. I want a professional navy, the Undaunted have agreed to help me get it... and help secure my space once we secure them my end of the bargain, that, Admiral, is where you come in."
Jerry arches an eyebrow and gestures for Komugai to continue.
"Simply put, you need to do what you just did with that border bandit Khan Irgalas, but across Cannidor space. This isn't a done deal. It's up to the Grand Council and I'm but one vote. You already have an in with some of the other Khans, and the Undaunted are doing business with Cannid Solutions. That's an excellent start, and you just made a stellar formal introduction of yourself to Cannidor space. A flawless orbital and ground fight like that'll make sure word gets around that the Undaunted are here... and as dangerous as their rep says they are. I got a little list of the other movers and shakers you need to press the flesh with to win over key parts of the council. You make the rounds, and I'll be doing the same on my end. We meet on Canis Prime for the council meeting, and then we either have a huge brawl to make our point or toast victory with some top quality booze."
"You make it sound pretty simple." Jerry says, clearly not believing there's all there is to it.
Komugai shrugs. "It is simple in its concept. Pressing the flesh and winning the various Khans over won't be. They'll all have their little tests and challenges for you to get the measure of both humans and the Undaunted. We've seen a lot on the trivid as a species. A lot of us have heard stuff in the news or from kin. This is your chance to just straight up show people who you are and what you're about. Because now you're here, and therefore 'real'. If that makes any sense. Cannidor don't really care much about shit happening on the other half of the galactic disk. Undaunted, Humans, being here? Now? Now people will really start paying attention besides idly seeing if there's some interesting amateur porn or more combat footage available."
The Khan points over at Joan, Boudicca, Khutulun and Makula. "These four will likely be very critical to the warrior house's opinion of you... your next generation of warriors, your daughters. How are they treated? How are they trained? What's their mettle like? If they're strong, and worthy, you will impress the khans in a very good way. If my granddaughters are found wanting, they'd question a great many things... and could cause trouble when the Grand Council meets to discuss my little proposal, among other orders of business."
Jerry looks over at Joan and the girls, all four of them are suddenly looking very tense, especially Makula. "I have every confidence in all of my daughters to deal with anything the Khans can throw at them. Even Hippolyta if a trial suited for an infant is on hand."
That gets a chuckle from the girls, relaxing them a hair.
"Still. We'll burn that bridge when we get there. No sense borrowing trouble that hasn't come yet."
Komugai nods. "Wise words. Your diplomats have already approved this plan on their end, they'll send you the itinerary and all the fussy details shortly. Unless you have other questions for me?"
"I've heard there's a grand council of patriarchs too. Would getting in good with them help?"
That gets a full on shrug from the massive warrior woman. "Yes? I mean. Probably. No good way to arrange that though beyond asking my hubby, and I have. He said their council will handle things if it's deemed appropriate, and I don't need to fuss about it too much, and I know a polite way to be asked to fuck off when I hear one... so keep your head on a swivel on that one Jerry, I'm sure the patriarchs are well aware of the Undaunted... and are looking at a possible way to make warriors out of their sons without making their wives piss their frilly panties."
The khan's brilliant white teeth glitter in the room. "Back when we were the more traditional kind of savages back on our homeworld, the bulls did a lot of the leading and the fighting on an individual basis. Women however have always fought the wars. As we grew as a species, developed power armor, space travel, had our population bloom, a bull fighting another in single combat became less practical, and the other traditional male roles of shaman, guide, and brain trust came to the forefront. The council of patriarchs is an old body Jerry. Pre space flight. One of our first forms of international diplomacy between the khans. The matriarchs hold all the power... but when the council of patriarchs speaks, people know to shut up and pay attention."
Jerry nods slowly. Seemed like he'd just have to wait and see... and make sure he made a good impression when the opportunity presented itself.
"Well. I think that concludes everything we need to talk about professionally. Unless you have something else Khan Karchara?"
"Aww, just call me Mama like my big fuzz ball over here used to when we're not working! I've heard a bit about this little fortress of yours, could you all give me the tour? I'd like a chance to talk to all my new granddaughters after all."
Jerry shrugs. "Sure, we'll head up to the Den for a bit, then head down to the promenade to join the girls for some drinks and skewers. Our Cannidor eatery's got the best skewers in wild space whenever we're there."
"Don't I believe it, get to try some more Earth meats too! Bought a little sampler pack from a friend and good goddess, if you start exporting that bacon stuff in bulk, I'm going to invest in a chain of gyms, because there's going to be a lot of girls fighting to keep their girlish figures!"
First Last (SFW) Last (NSFW)

So I’m going to be 18 in a few months so my mom has been hinting (not very subtly) that I should be acting more like a woman now. She has been saying “people still treat you like a baby cause you don’t wear makeup” or “your still a baby beacuse you don’t wear makeup or wear dresses”. I normally ignore her but my breaking point happened. She ALWAYS says she will never compare me to someone or anyone but she did yesterday. She told me “look at the other girls they have makeup on, they are wearing cute dresses, then look at you, your still acting like a baby, that’s how people are going to treat you if you don’t grow up and put makeup on”. That was my breaking point as I’ve been hearing this same stupid statement for the past year and a half. Was I wrong for yelling at her that I don’t care what people think of me and that I hate makeup and never will like it? She told me I was acting childish but I think I was justified.

I know that it’s hardly any different to 179 but my animal brain tells me that 1cm is important. I was always a short kid and a late bloomer so when I stand up straight and I’m suddenly taller than people I’ve known for years they always comment on how tall I’ve gotten. As I’m not out to anyone I can’t explain to them why I don’t like it either. I’m aware women taller than me exist but my height in conjunction with other tells may make passing impossible.
On a side note… does anyone know how to make shoulders appear slimmer? I’m already skin and bone so it’s just my would-be-perfect-if-I-was-cis frame that’s the problem. Is there a posture fix or a way to dress? Are there lower body exercises I could do to make my hips wider and shoulders appear smaller comparatively?

My journey began as a former somewhat Well known Mexican National team player, after retirement I decided to begin getting into coaching and after some patience, I somehow landed a job at Toluca in the Mexican top flight, but I quickly lost that job because I applied somewhere else (and didn’t get it) so the board fired me. (understandable) Then I got a job at a club i’ve had fun at in the past, Dorados De Sinaloa in the Mexican 2nd Division, this quickly soured however, I try to make decisions as I would in real life, so when the lads come mouthing off to me about not having enough quality at Left Back, while the club has no money, and I see no issues, it became a problem, I lose the dressing room and decided it would be best to resign and look for a job abroad. I found a great chance for me to get my foot in the door, IFK Varnamo in the Swedish Premier Division, at the time they were almost certainly relegated with just 6 games left, I gave it my best but couldn’t save the season, so we were sent down to the Swedish 2nd tier. This is where the chaos started, players retired, requested transfers and all around acted out, the fans and players had somewhat lost faith, which was understandable i’m an inexperienced manager from half way across the world. This is when things start to change, with the unhappy players out, and some new faces who want to be here coming in, we start making an absolutely legendary run in the Swedish Cup, we had favorable draws when needed, and legendary performances were a common occurrence, just before beginning the league season we advanced from the semifinals after defeating Top Flight club Mjallby, but this is when I felt a twinge of doubt, the final wasn’t for a few months, in May. We kicked off the league season in decent form with nothing notable to speak of, and heading into the Final we had been mediocre at best, sitting 5th in the league, 2 point from the playoffs and 3 points from automatic promotion. We went into the final and put up a spirited effort against IFK Norrkoping, unfortunately in the first Swedish Cup final of our clubs 113 year history, we fell short, losing 2-1 after conceding in the 93rd minute. Following the loss I reminded the media, fans, and players that what we did was still extremely special. We have now moved ourselves into 2nd in the table after 12 of 30 league matches, and continue our push for promotion. What a fun save so far.