I feel myself sample videos

I’ve always struggled to make friends, and I’ve never really felt like I fitted in anywhere, but I’ve never felt as alone as I do right now. I go to work, come home, feel lonely, go to bed, then repeat. I can’t go through life spending the rest of my days feeling like this.
I’m in a completely different situation to where I thought I’d be at 23. In some ways, things have turned out better, but in other ways, they’re a lot worse. I’m trying to get on my own two feet, but my future feels pretty bleak and lonely with the way things are.
I work a minimum wage job in retail, which I enjoy at times, but it’s not something I want to do forever. Right now I think having a job makes me one of the lucky ones. A job is better than no job. I know my job is important, as I need to earn a living, but I have a non existent social life. I know that the answer is to try and meet new people, but I don’t really know how to do this. I’ve never liked drinking or clubbing, which is what most people my age like to do. An enjoyable day out for me would be something like going to the cinema, or taking a walk along the beach, but I’m not going to meet people by doing these things. Most of my hobbies are things I can do by myself, and even with something like video games, I prefer to play alone as it’s my downtime activity to relax. I know there’s sites like meetup that have organised groups to meet people, but I work shifts for my job, and it’s very rare I’m off on a weekend. I’m not going to be able to meet people I could eventually hang out with on an individual basis, who would make plans with me around work, if I can’t show up to the groups in the first place.
I’ve tried to make friends online, but as I’m sure a lot of you have experienced, ghosting is a common problem. I’m not giving up, but I’m trying to strike a balance between trying to put myself out there, but not spending too much time searching. I’ve spent too long on the likes of Reddit looking to see if there’s anyone like me, but then feeling awful and more alone because I haven’t found it.
I do struggle with socialising a bit, but I’m determined to not let that hold me back. I’ve always been a quiet and introverted person, until I get to know someone well. I think it’s a coping mechanism I’ve developed due to past experiences that I feel like running a mile when someone new talks to me. My brain convinces me that I’m better off on my own than being vulnerable with someone and getting hurt, but deep down, I’d love to talk to someone. The idea of walking into a room full of new people and introducing myself absolutely terrifies me. My job has forced me to come out of my shell to a point, and even just small talk with customers makes me feel like I’m improving my social skills. However, even with colleagues who I’ve now known for over six months, I’m still planning my next response in a conversation or worrying whether I’ve said the right thing or not. I tend to trip over my words, but the more I try to correct it, the more my sentence just sounds like a bunch of noises. I’m also someone who goes red the more someone stares. I’m scared I come across as this awkward, pathetic kid, and I’m conscious that some colleagues sometimes seem to be more laughing at me than with me.
I’m also a trans guy and asexual. The dating pool is therefore already massively reduced, which is made worse by me being trans. Being trans has been the most isolating experience of my life, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. I’ve never been in a relationship, and despite being asexual, I would like some romance and someone to make some memories with. I also feel like the older I get, the more it will look like a red flag if I haven’t ever been with anyone. There’s no local groups for ace people, but I’ve tried online in various ace specific places. Despite being in the UK, which is small compared to the likes of places like the US, most people seem to be down south near London, whereas I’m up in the north. When you’re already part of such a small minority, it feels even worse when you’re then alienated from that community.
The problem is, you start to convince yourself after a while that there’s something wrong with you. If everyone else has friends and partners, and not you, you’re clearly the problem, right? The amount of times I’ve felt unwanted, unloveable, and invisible because no one has given me the time of day is too many to count. I try my best to be nice to people I encounter both on and offline, because I often think how nice it would be if someone just sat down and was genuinely interested in me and what I had to say.
I often wonder why I’m trying to build a life for myself. I don’t want to live if I’m just going to be doing everything alone. I know some people are perfectly happy on their own, and I respect that, but that’s no life for me. I’m getting pretty fed up of people saying ‘You’re young, you’ll meet someone.’ I have no one. I’m so scared I’m go to go through this life alone and die alone. I know I’m not very optimistic, but you start wondering after a while if things are ever going to change.

I’ve always struggled to make friends, and I’ve never really felt like I fitted in anywhere, but I’ve never felt as alone as I do right now. I go to work, come home, feel lonely, go to bed, then repeat. I can’t go through life spending the rest of my days feeling like this.
I’m in a completely different situation to where I thought I’d be at 23. In some ways, things have turned out better, but in other ways, they’re a lot worse. I’m trying to get on my own two feet, but my future feels pretty bleak and lonely with the way things are.
I work a minimum wage job in retail, which I enjoy at times, but it’s not something I want to do forever. Right now I think having a job makes me one of the lucky ones. A job is better than no job. I know my job is important, as I need to earn a living, but I have a non existent social life. I know that the answer is to try and meet new people, but I don’t really know how to do this. I’ve never liked drinking or clubbing, which is what most people my age like to do. An enjoyable day out for me would be something like going to the cinema, or taking a walk along the beach, but I’m not going to meet people by doing these things. Most of my hobbies are things I can do by myself, and even with something like video games, I prefer to play alone as it’s my downtime activity to relax. I know there’s sites like meetup that have organised groups to meet people, but I work shifts for my job, and it’s very rare I’m off on a weekend. I’m not going to be able to meet people I could eventually hang out with on an individual basis, who would make plans with me around work, if I can’t show up to the groups in the first place.
I’ve tried to make friends online, but as I’m sure a lot of you have experienced, ghosting is a common problem. I’m not giving up, but I’m trying to strike a balance between trying to put myself out there, but not spending too much time searching. I’ve spent too long on the likes of Reddit looking to see if there’s anyone like me, but then feeling awful and more alone because I haven’t found it.
I do struggle with socialising a bit, but I’m determined to not let that hold me back. I’ve always been a quiet and introverted person, until I get to know someone well. I think it’s a coping mechanism I’ve developed due to past experiences that I feel like running a mile when someone new talks to me. My brain convinces me that I’m better off on my own than being vulnerable with someone and getting hurt, but deep down, I’d love to talk to someone. The idea of walking into a room full of new people and introducing myself absolutely terrifies me. My job has forced me to come out of my shell to a point, and even just small talk with customers makes me feel like I’m improving my social skills. However, even with colleagues who I’ve now known for over six months, I’m still planning my next response in a conversation or worrying whether I’ve said the right thing or not. I tend to trip over my words, but the more I try to correct it, the more my sentence just sounds like a bunch of noises. I’m also someone who goes red the more someone stares. I’m scared I come across as this awkward, pathetic kid, and I’m conscious that some colleagues sometimes seem to be more laughing at me than with me.
I’m also a trans guy and asexual. The dating pool is therefore already massively reduced, which is made worse by me being trans. Being trans has been the most isolating experience of my life, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. I’ve never been in a relationship, and despite being asexual, I would like some romance and someone to make some memories with. I also feel like the older I get, the more it will look like a red flag if I haven’t ever been with anyone. There’s no local groups for ace people, but I’ve tried online in various ace specific places. Despite being in the UK, which is small compared to the likes of places like the US, most people seem to be down south near London, whereas I’m up in the north. When you’re already part of such a small minority, it feels even worse when you’re then alienated from that community.
The problem is, you start to convince yourself after a while that there’s something wrong with you. If everyone else has friends and partners, and not you, you’re clearly the problem, right? The amount of times I’ve felt unwanted, unloveable, and invisible because no one has given me the time of day is too many to count. I try my best to be nice to people I encounter both on and offline, because I often think how nice it would be if someone just sat down and was genuinely interested in me and what I had to say.
I often wonder why I’m trying to build a life for myself. I don’t want to live if I’m just going to be doing everything alone. I know some people are perfectly happy on their own, and I respect that, but that’s no life for me. I’m getting pretty fed up of people saying ‘You’re young, you’ll meet someone.’ I have no one. I’m so scared I’m go to go through this life alone and die alone. I know I’m not very optimistic, but you start wondering after a while if things are ever going to change.

I’ve always struggled to make friends, and I’ve never really felt like I fitted in anywhere, but I’ve never felt as alone as I do right now. I go to work, come home, feel lonely, go to bed, then repeat. I can’t go through life spending the rest of my days feeling like this.
I’m in a completely different situation to where I thought I’d be at 23. In some ways, things have turned out better, but in other ways, they’re a lot worse. I’m trying to get on my own two feet, but my future feels pretty bleak and lonely with the way things are.
I work a minimum wage job in retail, which I enjoy at times, but it’s not something I want to do forever. Right now I think having a job makes me one of the lucky ones. A job is better than no job. I know my job is important, as I need to earn a living, but I have a non existent social life. I know that the answer is to try and meet new people, but I don’t really know how to do this. I’ve never liked drinking or clubbing, which is what most people my age like to do. An enjoyable day out for me would be something like going to the cinema, or taking a walk along the beach, but I’m not going to meet people by doing these things. Most of my hobbies are things I can do by myself, and even with something like video games, I prefer to play alone as it’s my downtime activity to relax. I know there’s sites like meetup that have organised groups to meet people, but I work shifts for my job, and it’s very rare I’m off on a weekend. I’m not going to be able to meet people I could eventually hang out with on an individual basis, who would make plans with me around work, if I can’t show up to the groups in the first place.
I’ve tried to make friends online, but as I’m sure a lot of you have experienced, ghosting is a common problem. I’m not giving up, but I’m trying to strike a balance between trying to put myself out there, but not spending too much time searching. I’ve spent too long on the likes of Reddit looking to see if there’s anyone like me, but then feeling awful and more alone because I haven’t found it.
I do struggle with socialising a bit, but I’m determined to not let that hold me back. I’ve always been a quiet and introverted person, until I get to know someone well. I think it’s a coping mechanism I’ve developed due to past experiences that I feel like running a mile when someone new talks to me. My brain convinces me that I’m better off on my own than being vulnerable with someone and getting hurt, but deep down, I’d love to talk to someone. The idea of walking into a room full of new people and introducing myself absolutely terrifies me. My job has forced me to come out of my shell to a point, and even just small talk with customers makes me feel like I’m improving my social skills. However, even with colleagues who I’ve now known for over six months, I’m still planning my next response in a conversation or worrying whether I’ve said the right thing or not. I tend to trip over my words, but the more I try to correct it, the more my sentence just sounds like a bunch of noises. I’m also someone who goes red the more someone stares. I’m scared I come across as this awkward, pathetic kid, and I’m conscious that some colleagues sometimes seem to be more laughing at me than with me.
I’m also a trans guy and asexual. The dating pool is therefore already massively reduced, which is made worse by me being trans. Being trans has been the most isolating experience of my life, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. I’ve never been in a relationship, and despite being asexual, I would like some romance and someone to make some memories with. I also feel like the older I get, the more it will look like a red flag if I haven’t ever been with anyone. There’s no local groups for ace people, but I’ve tried online in various ace specific places. Despite being in the UK, which is small compared to the likes of places like the US, most people seem to be down south near London, whereas I’m up in the north. When you’re already part of such a small minority, it feels even worse when you’re then alienated from that community.
The problem is, you start to convince yourself after a while that there’s something wrong with you. If everyone else has friends and partners, and not you, you’re clearly the problem, right? The amount of times I’ve felt unwanted, unloveable, and invisible because no one has given me the time of day is too many to count. I try my best to be nice to people I encounter both on and offline, because I often think how nice it would be if someone just sat down and was genuinely interested in me and what I had to say.
I often wonder why I’m trying to build a life for myself. I don’t want to live if I’m just going to be doing everything alone. I know some people are perfectly happy on their own, and I respect that, but that’s no life for me. I’m getting pretty fed up of people saying ‘You’re young, you’ll meet someone.’ I have no one. I’m so scared I’m go to go through this life alone and die alone. I know I’m not very optimistic, but you start wondering after a while if things are ever going to change.

I’ve always struggled to make friends, and I’ve never really felt like I fitted in anywhere, but I’ve never felt as alone as I do right now. I go to work, come home, feel lonely, go to bed, then repeat. I can’t go through life spending the rest of my days feeling like this.
I’m in a completely different situation to where I thought I’d be at 23. In some ways, things have turned out better, but in other ways, they’re a lot worse. I’m trying to get on my own two feet, but my future feels pretty bleak and lonely with the way things are.
I work a minimum wage job in retail, which I enjoy at times, but it’s not something I want to do forever. Right now I think having a job makes me one of the lucky ones. A job is better than no job. I know my job is important, as I need to earn a living, but I have a non existent social life. I know that the answer is to try and meet new people, but I don’t really know how to do this. I’ve never liked drinking or clubbing, which is what most people my age like to do. An enjoyable day out for me would be something like going to the cinema, or taking a walk along the beach, but I’m not going to meet people by doing these things. Most of my hobbies are things I can do by myself, and even with something like video games, I prefer to play alone as it’s my downtime activity to relax. I know there’s sites like meetup that have organised groups to meet people, but I work shifts for my job, and it’s very rare I’m off on a weekend. I’m not going to be able to meet people I could eventually hang out with on an individual basis, who would make plans with me around work, if I can’t show up to the groups in the first place.
I’ve tried to make friends online, but as I’m sure a lot of you have experienced, ghosting is a common problem. I’m not giving up, but I’m trying to strike a balance between trying to put myself out there, but not spending too much time searching. I’ve spent too long on the likes of Reddit looking to see if there’s anyone like me, but then feeling awful and more alone because I haven’t found it.
I do struggle with socialising a bit, but I’m determined to not let that hold me back. I’ve always been a quiet and introverted person, until I get to know someone well. I think it’s a coping mechanism I’ve developed due to past experiences that I feel like running a mile when someone new talks to me. My brain convinces me that I’m better off on my own than being vulnerable with someone and getting hurt, but deep down, I’d love to talk to someone. The idea of walking into a room full of new people and introducing myself absolutely terrifies me. My job has forced me to come out of my shell to a point, and even just small talk with customers makes me feel like I’m improving my social skills. However, even with colleagues who I’ve now known for over six months, I’m still planning my next response in a conversation or worrying whether I’ve said the right thing or not. I tend to trip over my words, but the more I try to correct it, the more my sentence just sounds like a bunch of noises. I’m also someone who goes red the more someone stares. I’m scared I come across as this awkward, pathetic kid, and I’m conscious that some colleagues sometimes seem to be more laughing at me than with me.
I’m also a trans guy and asexual. The dating pool is therefore already massively reduced, which is made worse by me being trans. Being trans has been the most isolating experience of my life, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. I’ve never been in a relationship, and despite being asexual, I would like some romance and someone to make some memories with. I also feel like the older I get, the more it will look like a red flag if I haven’t ever been with anyone. There’s no local groups for ace people, but I’ve tried online in various ace specific places. Despite being in the UK, which is small compared to the likes of places like the US, most people seem to be down south near London, whereas I’m up in the north. When you’re already part of such a small minority, it feels even worse when you’re then alienated from that community.
The problem is, you start to convince yourself after a while that there’s something wrong with you. If everyone else has friends and partners, and not you, you’re clearly the problem, right? The amount of times I’ve felt unwanted, unloveable, and invisible because no one has given me the time of day is too many to count. I try my best to be nice to people I encounter both on and offline, because I often think how nice it would be if someone just sat down and was genuinely interested in me and what I had to say.
I often wonder why I’m trying to build a life for myself. I don’t want to live if I’m just going to be doing everything alone. I know some people are perfectly happy on their own, and I respect that, but that’s no life for me. I’m getting pretty fed up of people saying ‘You’re young, you’ll meet someone.’ I have no one. I’m so scared I’m go to go through this life alone and die alone. I know I’m not very optimistic, but you start wondering after a while if things are ever going to change.

Wade took a breath as he picked up his old duffel bag, now loaded with his DD uniform and a few other items from the Ceres mines as he slotted it to his side, with the large band handle around his neck. Having gathered his belongings, he joined Tina, who was waiting near the ship's open bay door as he walked over to her. The couple watched several of the other troopers inside marching out as well, some carrying crates of supplies and items out of the craft as they departed for the base outside. Kelly was one of the last ones still on board, checking on a section of the cargo bay as she did what Wade presumed was some maintenance work.
With the way now clear, Wade and Tina stepped off the transport, glancing at the massive base around them as they touched the roughened pavement. Throughout the large landing port were several more chameleon dropships, their crews disembarking with similar items and loads of rescued drones aboard. Beyond the ships were several hangar bays and fighter craft, mostly A-20s and their space-borne cousins docked in lines going across the pad. And beyond the landing zone, towering over several buildings at the base, were the few cruisers docked to the large clamps holding them in place.
Walking ahead with Tina, Wade observed some of the departing Coalition troops as they neared one of several tents stationed near an inactive group of planes, the military personnel interacting and exchanging the crates with the Coalition officers upon reaching each other. Hearing a low roar of engines from afar, the lover drones looked upward to see the large USN warship that was present at the factory earlier, having followed the transport convoy home and now was beginning to descend for landing. Wade gave a silent gasp as he caught a glimpse of the ship's name and SIC number at the side, remembering it from the ship he and Ron saw while returning to Earth.
"Always a wondrous thing to see, isn't it Wade?" Tina said as she and her boyfriend watched the ship slowly come lower to the unoccupied dockyard clamps below it.
"Sure is, wonder how they built those babies?" Wade replied as the two looked upon the landing starship, the former worker drone smirking as he added, "I could've swore I saw that same exact ship over Henderson when Ron and I came back, before we got mugged earlier."
Tina glanced to Wade with surprise as she spoke up on his claim. "Really? Well, that had to be the one that helped our friends here back at the factory. I think I saw the same name on it too!"
"Wouldn't surprise me, seeing all that's happened today." Wade replied as he chortled a bit, Tina doing the same as the former spoke further. "I wonder, what kind of ship is the... Vickers again? You know?"
"Autumn class, dear. A heavy destroyer variant, not as strong as those enormous Yamato dreadnoughts or Adelaide battlecruisers, but she'll put up a good fight for whatever comes at her." Tina explained as she held back another chuckle, thinking of her education on various USN craft as she teased Wade lightly. "You know, I may just have to grab one of those ship roster tabs when we get in the base. I'd love to show you all they got in their arsenal."
Wade chortled again as he gave his thoughts on the idea. "Well, it wouldn't be bad to have a little more knowledge in ship-story."
Tina almost burst out laughing at his crude pun, Wade smiling at her as F and Nathan jogged over to the two, the latter carrying his own backpack behind him as he spoke. "Well, not a bad place, huh? You guys heading to the clearance station?"
"Oh yes, we were just admiring the ships around us while we walked." Tina said with a stifled laugh, easing herself as she chatted with her new friends. Wade, however, was quickly overcome with panic as he remembered something. Checking his pockets, his fears were confirmed as he failed to find one of his key possessions: his ID card. Wade felt he must have lost it when he was stripped of his old clothing while in the factory.
Oh no, guys? I don't think I can pass through." Wade said with greenish-yellow circles for eyes as Tina and the others looked to him in concern, the drone feeling through his pockets once more before stating his issue. "My ID, they must've taken it off me when they turned me into a disassembly drone!" Wade began to hyperventilate lightly as he grew fearful of the potential outcomes when they reached the security gate ahead. "Oouuugghh, if I don't have my ID, they'll have to keep me lo-"
"Wade, Wade... it's okay. I'll have them make a pass for you, surely we can get them to after getting them to understand what's happened." Tina stated as she put her hand to Wade's chest, who eased his panic as he looked to his girlfriend.
"Yeah, and besides Wade, those people over there went around gathering what ever items the company stole from the drones during their conversion. I'm sure that once they find it, they'll have it sent off to be given back to you!" Nathan said as F nodded in agreement, shunting Wade's panic out of him with their words as he replied to the hopeful responses.
"Right, yeah, they should do that. Sorry." Holding Tina's hand, Wade spoke to her once more. "Lead the way."
Tina nodded to Wade before the two began to walk over to the security gate nearby, several people, drones and humans alike, already in the line as they checked themselves in to the base to relax after the hard-fought battle. Once they reached the line, the four stood together as they waited for the line to slowly go up, more troops and rescued drones coming over to add to the long line. During the wait, a loud, mechanical 'SLAM' erupted through the air, prompting Wade and Tina to glance over to the direction of the noise. The two felt at ease once more as they saw the Vickers finally landed at the base, the loud clang being the docking clamps attaching to the ships hull just moments ago.
As the line moved up further to the gate, Wade and Tina caught sight of a pair of A-20 aircraft passing over them, the two watching as the planes slowed down while descending onto the runway nearby. The four drones' collective viewing of the fighters landing ceased as they caught sight of J, who took flight as she departed the transport nearby before flying over to the tents near the hangar bays.
"Huh, wonder what she's over there for?" Nathan said as he observed J landing onto the ground in front of one of the tents.
"Probably checking on the drones we got back, or meeting up with one of those commanders there." F said as she motioned an arm towards the tents, J walking under one as she made her way to one of the soldiers coming over to her. "Seems like the latter, from the looks of it."
Wade shrugged as he responded to the group's pondering over J's actions. "Well, she'll be here with us if we need her, right? Shouldn't be much to worry about."
Returning their focus to the line ahead, Wade and his team waited as the line moved up over the next few minutes, moving impressively fast as the people in front cleared themselves in one at a time. Eventually, the four of them were up, Tina stepping up to show her ID for clearance. "Hello, it's been a busy day, hasn't it?"
The security agent smirked at Tina's small-talk. "Hah, not too busy here until you all showed up."
As the guard finished scanning Tina's ID, she handed the card back to her as she raised a finger to begin her request. "Oh, um, there's a little issue we need to resolve." Putting a hand to Wade's arm, Tina explained her boyfriend. "This is my dear friend Wade, Wade Carter. We both managed to escape that blasted factory with the help of those Coalition folks there." Wade gave a pleading look as Tina continued. "Unfortunately, Wade was converted into a disassembly drone before he was rescued, and it seems those people at the company took all his belongings he had on him, including his ID. Do you think there's... anyway you could write up something to let him by?"
Stepping forward, F gave her end of the story. "I can vouch for him, Ma'am. Wade and I we're among the teams helping in getting the worker drones out of the factory during the operation." The disassembly drone pulled out a pair of cards as she finished her explanation, one of them being her company-issued Disassembly Service Passcard, which resembled a normal civilian ID in appearance, save for the 'JCJenson (In Spaaace!) Logo on the top left and hazard markings around the rim of the card. As for the other card, it was a well worn, still legitimate ID card, showing F as how she appeared when she was a worker drone. At the side of her picture was a name with an initial. "FELICITY A LEE"
Taking the two cards in her hand, she looked them over and scanned them as Nathan tried to back Wade up as well. "So can I, Ma'am! I helped there too, when he was under the company's control. We all got him out of the factory so we could get him back in order." Pulling out his own ID, Nathan handed it out as the guard returned F's IDs to her.
The guard accepted Nathan's ID as she spoke over what to do with Wade. "Well, normally it takes clearance from higher ranked personnel here to allow someone inside without a legitimate form of identification. We can't just take someone's word on things like this, after all." Tina seemed to frown in disappointment as the guard explained her protocols, Wade looking down at the ground as he felt his worries were about to be proven correct. Going over Nathan's ID further, she gave an intrigued expression at the card before continuing. "Huh, interesting. Got two veteran folks here, I see?" She glanced to Nathan and F as she said that, taking into account their former military background as the former spoke up.
"Three, actually. My pal Kurtis is somewhere back there, I think. He should be heading down here later this evening." The guard glanced back at Nathan's ID as she took in the veteran drone's reply, sighing as she decided to make a slight amendment to the issue put before her and the four friends.
"Well, seeing you two here, I believe I can write something up. The Major won't be happy with me for this, but I think I can trust you with appropriate behavior." Taking a small sticky name-tag, the woman pulled out a pen before starting to write on it. Initially, she glanced to Wade, who stated his name again before she began to write his name on the tag. Once she was finished, the guard gave the tag to Wade, who slapped it onto his jacket before she spoke to him. "You should be fine to enter for the most part, just stick close to your friends and don't cause any trouble. Understood?"
Wade gave a stern salute to the security officer, who held back a chuckle at the honest, yet amusing effort the disassembly drone showed to her. Giving a simple nod and a flick of her hand, she permitted Wade and his friends entrance to the base, the four walking past the walkway barricades as they made their way past the gate.
Wade let out a heavy sigh of relief as he thanked his allies. "I owe you both so much for this, thanks!"
"Don't mention it, Wade." F said warmly as she and Nathan laughed at his joyful face.
"Yeah, just doing what any good friend should." Nathan said as Tina wrapped an arm around Wade, holding him tightly as the two walked together.
Looking to his girlfriend, Wade spoke to Tina about what to do next. "Well, since we're in, you wanna go fi-" He ceased his words as he remembered that there was someone else they needed to find amongst the base. "Oh, I almost forgot about her,"
"Jasmine!" Tina and Wade said aloud together as the former remembered her sister, Wade's words snapping her mind to Jasmine in an instant. "We should look for her, you think she might be here somewhere?"
"Probably. If they got Ron after they captured me, they have to 've picked her up too." Wade stated, Nathan raising a hand as he offered to help.
"I could go looking for her! You know what she looks like?" Readying a holo-projector, he tried to display an image of Jasmine from one of his many memories of her. The picture was, while pixelated and under a blue hue, incredibly well-detailed. And for Nathan, that was all he needed to see to note Jasmine's appearance in his memory. Nodding, he spoke again to his friends. "Got it! I'll see if she's around!" Then, turning to run down one of the paths leading to a nearby base facility, he stopped as he asked one more question. "Oh! One more thing, you got a smartcomm on ya, Wade?"
Readying one from his holo-projector hand, he nodded as he spoke into it. "Seems so, though I don't seem to have all my contacts added in."
Running back over, Nathan pulled out his own smartcomm before putting it up against Wade's hand one, allowing the two devices to exchange information. Upon the devices beeping, Wade and Nathan nodded to each other, the former ignoring a pop-up that stated, "New Contact Added" while the latter spoke once more. "Okay, I'll call you once I spot her!" With that, he began running down the path once more, intent on finding Tina's sister at the base, wherever she could be.
"Fowley! Her last name's Fowley!" Tina said aloud to the departing Nathan, hoping he heard her words before turning away from the miner drone and facing Wade and F again.
As Tina sighed in partial relief, Wade put his own arm around her before asking the question he tried to ask before. "So, uh, with that out of the way for now... You wanna go look for one of those ship tabs?"
Putting a hand to Wade's chest, Tina smiled as she replied. "Oh, certainly." Then, as the three began walking down a different path that Nathan hadn't taken, the pilot drone continued with a chuckle. "I hear they have a place here that sells model kits too!"
...
Jasmine sat in silent sorrow as she took another gulp of her glass of Proxi-Vodka, a tasty, but heavy alcoholic beverage produced at the colony of Proxima 2... and one of Jasmine's preferred drinks to have when she wasn't in a good mood. When she awoke after being stunned by the station guards, she found that she was just recovered by a group that called themselves the 'United Earth Coalition', and that her drone friend, Tina, was unfortunately taken by the JCJenson corporation to be turned into one of their horrid disassembly drones. While the people that saved her offered to help her find Tina, so far there had been no luck in doing so. No successful calls, no response from Wade nor Ron, nothing.
The whole situation widdled at her like scrapes to her form, slowly draining any bit of hope that she had in finding her sister. And once the mission at that factory was over, the ship began heading back to the Nellis Base to escort the recovered drones back to a safe area. Unfortunately for Jasmine, Tina's presence was not given confirmation. Alone, she walked off to one of the bars down at the base, specifically Drexler's Cantina, one of the more popular bars down at the military starport. Thankfully, though she didn't openly exhibit feelings of wanting to be alone in her wallowing, she was glad the place was nearly barren of patrons, with only a few at a couple of tables within the bar.
The stage at the back of the bar also had a few singer drones performing aloud, the lead singer girl reciting the words of a quiet, yet exciting song that, instrumentally, consisted of a strange mix of bass, techno, and a hint of opera. The song itself was one Jasmine had heard a good many times before in her life, known as, 'You Complete My World' by a decades old Earth band by the name of HeartStar. The song, as Jasmine and many others who'd heard it interpreted it, was about someone who described their world like a puzzle, and that the one whom the main singer cared for beyond all was the only thing that could keep their world from shattering into ruin before them.
An oddly fitting tune, given what had just happened on the JCJ Central earlier. For all Jasmine knew, Tina was either alive beyond her knowledge, hopefully searching for her wherever she could, or, the answer Jasmine feared... Dead.
Not wanting to even consider the thought, the human pilot took another swig of the colonial Vodka, relishing in its taste before forcing herself to swallow, almost gagging from the strength of the drink. Easing herself, she glanced out to one of the windows of the bar, taking the faint glimpse of night into her eyes. Then, looking to the clock at the wall ahead of her, she saw the time was about a little over an hour to 10 pm. Jasmine gave a sigh to herself, certain she would be alone for the rest of the night.
Unbeknownst to her, however, Jasmine had been spied upon a little while ago. Nathan, in his search for the woman Tina called Jasmine Fowley, had spotted a woman matching the physical appearance of the target. Knowing Jasmine wouldn't know who he was if he tried to talk to her himself, Nathan immediately went looking for Wade, easing his return to his team by calling the former worker drone and signaling him about his findings.
Deciding to check on the news, Jasmine slowly pulled out her smartcomm, resisting her urge to press the contacts button as she tapped the news app. Looking through it, she spotted a recent story that was posted just over an hour ago, titled, "JCJenson 'Recall' effort sabotaged by joint Government/Militia forces! The Truth Exposed!" Above the article was a video, a play button in front of it teasing Jasmine. Curious over this sudden development, she pressed the button, her attention in complete focus on the video as it began to play.
After the news station's logo appeared on-screen for a short few seconds, the current host for the story, Mrs. Tiffany Joy, appeared at her seat before beginning the story. "Good evening, this is Nevada-78, I'm your host, Tiffany Joy. Tonight, we start with a rapid development for the 'drone recall' incidents propagated by the business conglomerate JCJenson In Space. Throughout the afternoon up to now, several advanced factories under the ownership of the corporation have fallen under violent assault by various militarized forces, ranging from official United Nations operatives to private militia groups with varying goals." The small screen to Joy's left shifted to show the state of Nevada, zooming into it to show a portion of the Mojave desert as Joy continued her story.
"Among these facilities, one such factory based right here in southern Nevada has recently succumbed to the successful efforts of the USN Defense Force and a group by the name of the United Earth Coalition, an alliance consisting of humans and automatons working to create a unified world for both species." The screen shifted again to show the logo for the UEC, which appeared as one half of a human head outline and another of a drone's, along with two arms behind the heads belonging to both beings pictured. "With the attack having concluded just hours ago, we have reporters gathering at the New Nellis Staryards near Henderson City to bring you the aftermath of the conflict. We go to Mr. Jelico, on the scene in five."
The camera shifted after the countdown of five to show Mr. Jelico in front of the camera, the cameraman filming a large tent housing several worker drones being tended to by the base soldiers. "Alright, Jelico here, we're on station at New Nellis. What you're all seeing here are some of the recovered worker drones, many of them were pretty spooked by the events that unfolded in that factory earlier." As the camera panned over the lot of drones, some of them looked to the camera, curious at the news crew filming them as Jelico continued. "A few of them are real glad to be here, Joy. Seems like they feel safe here, as far as I can tell."
As the camera moved to show Jelico again, a plane could be seen taking off as he spoke. "Yeah, these people did them quite a service. The staff here are working to find their original owners and families, it'll probably be a little bit before they can get them all home." The camera switched once again to another view of the base, the lights of various buildings illuminating the night as the news story continued.
At the entrance, Nathan pushed open the door to the bar, the chime failing to catch anyone's attention as he, Wade, F and Tina stepped inside. Carefully pointing at Jasmine, he whispered to Tina, "That's her, from the looks of it. She's been here for a good minute!"
Taking another drink of the Proxi-Vodka, Jasmine listened further to the story. "The authorities didn't just recover a majority of the worker drones taken into the factory, however. A recent update provided by Mrs. Yuka, shows her interviewing a disassembly drone who claims to be among the unfortunate drones the assault force failed to save before their conversion."
"Jasmine!" Tina called out, the voice instantly grabbing the woman's attention as she paused the news story. Swiftly turning her head, her heart began pounding with immense excitement as she saw her drone sister, who grinned upon seeing her face.
"Tina!" Jasmine said aloud, somewhat weakly from her previous wallowing as she tried to run over to her sister, landing on her knees as the two embraced in a flush of emotions. Wade and his friends stood behind the two girls as they hugged each other, clinging onto one another as tightly as they could give. Jasmine seemed to erupt with a pained cough as she allowed some of her sorrow out of her heart, Tina carressing her back in a comforting manner as she held back her own tears. The sisters held the hug for a long moment, not daring to let go of one another for fear of losing each other again. Eventually, however, they did, the two sisters taking heavy breaths as Jasmine spoke up while wiping her face. "I thought I'd lost you."
"Can't say I didn't feel the same way, love." Tina replied as she broke out in light laughter, glancing to Wade before continuing. "But, fortunately, those Coalition boys helped out quite a bit. Though, not as much as my knight in his new armor."
Standing herself up, Jasmine took Tina's helping hand as she looked to the one her sister spoke of. A grateful smile formed on Jasmine's face as she saw Wade, standing in front of her and Tina as he returned the expression. Looking upon her family friend, Jasmine noticed something... different about Wade. He was taller now, his arms were shaped like white cones rather than the silver bendy tubes he and Tina normally had. As for his face, his pure green eyes were replaced with a set of greenish-yellow ones, and above his forehead was a band holding five yellow bulbs that she didn't know the function of.
While the pieces started to click together in her head, Jasmine took Wade's held out hand as she spoke to him. "Wade, I'm so glad to see you! You look different, too. Did something... happen to you?" She already guessed it by this point, but feigned confusion as she opted to hear Wade's take on the matter.
"Yeah, I hope you don't mind your sister dating a vampire from now on." Tina chortled in amusement at Wade's comment at himself, Jasmine raising an eyebrow in confusion at the former worker drone as he returned his expression to a more sincere smile. "The company got me too, and unlike the workers we got out... they managed to turn me into a disassembly drone. From now on, I'm gonna need to take in more oil than I usually did before I was turned. My cooling system's not as good as it should be, from what I've heard." Pulling out his two full canteens, Wade finished his partial explanation. "Don't worry, though. I've got some to keep me down."
Jasmine took in the news with immense surprise, noticing the hazard stripes at the rims of Wade's arms as she replied to her friend. "Oh... Well, if Tina's fine with it, then I see no problem with that, Wade." Admittedly, she was a bit unnerved by the change, concerned for both him and Tina's safety due to this supposed oil coolant issue. Trying to sound as nice as she could on the matter, Jasmine hesitantly asked Wade, "Though... I am a bit concerned with that bad cooling problem you mention. You... don't think you would-"
"Hurt Tina?!" Wade assumed, understanding Jasmine's concern as he gave a horrified glance to the two sisters. Standing with his fists to his hips, he gave his answer to Jasmine's presumed question. "Don't even say such a thing, Jasmine. I'd rather overheat than dare strike her."
Admittedly amused as well as concerned for Wade's selflessness, Tina chuckled at him before speaking up on the matter. "Now now, Wade. It won't be so bad. We'll manage."
Jasmine nodded as she agreed with her sister's optimistic view on the problem. "Indeed we will, we always do." Then, taking notice of the other two drones in the room, Jasmine smiled at them before speaking again. "Ah, I see you brought some friends too."
Wade and Tina glanced over to Nathan and F upon Jasmine's statement, the two friends smiling pleasantly as Wade spoke up. "Oh, yeah. These are some of my work buddies from Ceres, Jasmine. This is Nathan, I first met him when Ron and I came to the mines, showed us around a bit too." Putting a hand on F's shoulder, Wade introduced her too. "And this is Serial Designation F, or, just F. She was one of the guards keeping watch on the place while we worked."
F seemed to blush out of embarrassment as she remembered her and Wade's first meeting. "I... did come off a little rough on them when they first came in, though. Stopped Nathan's touring run too. Just following colony protocol."
Nathan patted F's back as he tried to ease F's guilt. "Oh, it's nothing F. We had to start work in a few minutes anyway. Besides, it's a bit more fun exploring the place yourself without a guide." He winked at the others as he finished his praise. "Trust me, it really is."
Wade, Tina and Jasmine all chuckled at their friend's amusing words, F joining in as she replied to Nathan's encouragement. "Alright, alright."
Walking up to the two, Tina put her hand onto Nathan's as she gave her own praises. "And they may not look like it, dear, but Nathan and F were both formerly in the military, from what Wade's told me."
Jasmine gave a proud smirk at the two as she responded to her sister's claim. "Well, that's quite something. Did she tell you we used to fly for them some years back?"
"Oh, she did, Mrs. Fowley." Nathan replied as he chuckled lightly, F giving a smile of her own as she added her own part to the story.
"Yeah, and given what's happening now, maybe they might call you back for service again. Wade told me you two were excellent pilots."
It was now Jasmine's turn to blush as she chuckled from the compliment, knowing Wade's high praise for her and her sister's flying as she replied. "Well, I can't say that's wrong, Tina saved the day during the flight back here. We ran into an asteroid cluster while in the middle of a jump."
Wade patted Tina on her back as he quietly cheered his love on. "That's what I'm talking about, she's a wonder among the stars, I'm telling you!"
The group fell into an excited fit of laughter at the conversation, a few of the bar patrons taking notice of the bunch as they eventually ceased their joyful moment.
As everyone calmed down, Jasmine spoke up, intending to bring the discussion to another place. "Well, with all that said, it feels great to see you all here. It was such a terrible day after all those company folk showed up." Then, as she scanned the group of friends around her, she noticed someone else missing from this puzzle. "Hey, uh... is Ron here? Did he head off somewhere?"
The mood was quickly put down to a mournful aura as Wade and Tina glanced to the floor in sadness, Nathan and F giving uncomfortable postures as they awaited for someone to speak up on the matter.
Eventually, Wade was the one to open his mouth, breathing steadily as he tried to speak to Jasmine. "Um, Jasmine? Things, uh... really took a nose dive after we got captured. You think we could find a place to sit? It's a lot to talk about."
Looking to the four drones with concern, Jasmine eased her returning fear as she nodded to Wade in agreement. "...Sure, there's plenty of space at the table here." Pointing her arm to the table, which was surrounded by a U-shaped seating bench, Wade and his friends began to move to the table as Tina spoke up.
"I can get us some drinks for the talk, you all want anything?"
"Just some oil, thanks. "Wade answered as F and Nathan gave their own nods to Tina, the drone girl walking over to the bartender near the stage as she went to purchase some beverages.
Sitting down, Jasmine picked up her smartcomm from the table, glancing to it as she spoke up on her half-finished drink. "Heh, and to think I was drowning myself in this drag of a drink before. Probably have to find a different glass."
"Proxi-Vodka? Haven't seen you touch that since we lost Aunt Susan." Wade said solemnly as he examined Jasmine's drink, sighing as he reluctantly continued. "Well, maybe it can go for a few more sips."
Looking to the vodka, Jasmine nodded as she put her smartcomm in her pocket. "I figured, I didn't think this was gonna sound good."
"I wish it did." Wade replied as Tina walked back to the table, a plate of three oil glasses resting on her careful hand as she set it down.
After delivering the drinks, Tina took a seat next to Wade, holding his hand as Jasmine spoke up. "So, where do we start this terrible story?"
Wade gulped a bit as he began to recount the events that transpired today. "Well, it all started when Ron and I came back from the mining colony."

I’ve always struggled to make friends, and I’ve never really felt like I fitted in anywhere, but I’ve never felt as alone as I do right now. I go to work, come home, feel lonely, go to bed, then repeat. I can’t go through life spending the rest of my days feeling like this.
I’m in a completely different situation to where I thought I’d be at 23. In some ways, things have turned out better, but in other ways, they’re a lot worse. I’m trying to get on my own two feet, but my future feels pretty bleak and lonely with the way things are.
I work a minimum wage job in retail, which I enjoy at times, but it’s not something I want to do forever. Right now I think having a job makes me one of the lucky ones. A job is better than no job. I know my job is important, as I need to earn a living, but I have a non existent social life. I know that the answer is to try and meet new people, but I don’t really know how to do this. I’ve never liked drinking or clubbing, which is what most people my age like to do. An enjoyable day out for me would be something like going to the cinema, or taking a walk along the beach, but I’m not going to meet people by doing these things. Most of my hobbies are things I can do by myself, and even with something like video games, I prefer to play alone as it’s my downtime activity to relax. I know there’s sites like meetup that have organised groups to meet people, but I work shifts for my job, and it’s very rare I’m off on a weekend. I’m not going to be able to meet people I could eventually hang out with on an individual basis, who would make plans with me around work, if I can’t show up to the groups in the first place.
I’ve tried to make friends online, but as I’m sure a lot of you have experienced, ghosting is a common problem. I’m not giving up, but I’m trying to strike a balance between trying to put myself out there, but not spending too much time searching. I’ve spent too long on the likes of Reddit looking to see if there’s anyone like me, but then feeling awful and more alone because I haven’t found it.
I do struggle with socialising a bit, but I’m determined to not let that hold me back. I’ve always been a quiet and introverted person, until I get to know someone well. I think it’s a coping mechanism I’ve developed due to past experiences that I feel like running a mile when someone new talks to me. My brain convinces me that I’m better off on my own than being vulnerable with someone and getting hurt, but deep down, I’d love to talk to someone. The idea of walking into a room full of new people and introducing myself absolutely terrifies me. My job has forced me to come out of my shell to a point, and even just small talk with customers makes me feel like I’m improving my social skills. However, even with colleagues who I’ve now known for over six months, I’m still planning my next response in a conversation or worrying whether I’ve said the right thing or not. I tend to trip over my words, but the more I try to correct it, the more my sentence just sounds like a bunch of noises. I’m also someone who goes red the more someone stares. I’m scared I come across as this awkward, pathetic kid, and I’m conscious that some colleagues sometimes seem to be more laughing at me than with me.
I’m also a trans guy and asexual. The dating pool is therefore already massively reduced, which is made worse by me being trans. Being trans has been the most isolating experience of my life, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. I’ve never been in a relationship, and despite being asexual, I would like some romance and someone to make some memories with. I also feel like the older I get, the more it will look like a red flag if I haven’t ever been with anyone. There’s no local groups for ace people, but I’ve tried online in various ace specific places. Despite being in the UK, which is small compared to the likes of places like the US, most people seem to be down south near London, whereas I’m up in the north. When you’re already part of such a small minority, it feels even worse when you’re then alienated from that community.
The problem is, you start to convince yourself after a while that there’s something wrong with you. If everyone else has friends and partners, and not you, you’re clearly the problem, right? The amount of times I’ve felt unwanted, unloveable, and invisible because no one has given me the time of day is too many to count. I try my best to be nice to people I encounter both on and offline, because I often think how nice it would be if someone just sat down and was genuinely interested in me and what I had to say.
I often wonder why I’m trying to build a life for myself. I don’t want to live if I’m just going to be doing everything alone. I know some people are perfectly happy on their own, and I respect that, but that’s no life for me. I’m getting pretty fed up of people saying ‘You’re young, you’ll meet someone.’ I have no one. I’m so scared I’m go to go through this life alone and die alone. I know I’m not very optimistic, but you start wondering after a while if things are ever going to change.

Long rant ahead
I joined this sub to feel more comfortable in my own body. I’m 5’1 and 22 and have struggled with ED for more than half my life, with my weight fluctuating between extremities. I thought I would find similar stories with people of similar stature. The posts here are so absurd and reek of “look at me”, “you can be this dangerously thin too just starve yourself but dw it’s not starvation because we’re under 5’4”. You lot are grown women asking demented Qs about body fat, calories and workouts. 1200 is not healthy- only my anorexia ridden self thought otherwise. Please evaluate your life if you think posting transformation pictures achieved through dangerously low calorie intake is anywhere near inspiring or worthy of being posted on public platforms with teenagers and literal children. This is not 2013 thinspo tumblr. Genuinely mad at myself for thinking I would find realistic advise on workout clothes that fit, sustainable diets that stick long term, shared experiences of being sexualised as petite women, effective workout splits for busy lifestyles. No lmfao here we have absurd exhibits of “ please help me starve so I can look good on my vacation in 2 weeks because the world will end if my arms jiggle “ or the “ look at this pic and tell me my body fat % because idk how to use google” or the god awful “weight lifting make me bulky help me lose all definition and switch to Pilates 😰”. I used to come to this sub as motivation to starve myself when I was severely ill. That is what this has become. ED thinspo. There is more to life than being the smallest version of yourselves and gathering an audience to divulge in your illness with you. I am guilty of this as well given my only posts here from last year are sharing how ill I was. For anyone looking for genuine fitness advice that isn’t about how to get rid of your bones and skin, I’d recommend following women who lift weights on YouTube/instagram. Their videos on healthy eating and movement is the only thing that’s gotten me into looking beyond numbers that most of you are so paralysed by on here. And fun fact- you can reach your goal weight and still hate yourself because what you envisioned isn’t what you got. How much lower will that number in your head go then? I wish most of you common sense.

Charlotte I love you and all your Virgo-ness, l am a Capricorn and we are completely compatible, love you girl!
I didn't realize I was petty until I started watching your videos a couple years ago. It's helped me realize the spectrum of hypocrisy and karma with people and how they handle things. Not saying that petty is a bad thing, I just always try to stay accountable in my actions even when they are petty and I try to do so without self hatred or too much criticism. I think it's important to stay accountable to your actions. l believe in karma and you get what you give so l try to stay humble in my pettiness. 😈
OK now the tea.
I know I am the a hole and I'm a proud a hole because I got really sick of being pushed down and decided to take action. I believe in the power of the Universe from a spiritual standpoint and I believe in trying to do the right thing but I wont always do the right thing when I'm getting hurt and the other person is getting away with their bullshit. this isn't always the case because I do the right thing when the amount of energy is matchable and I know I can accommodate the situation in a healthy way. This is my ideal situation but if I feel it's getting out of hand and there's no accommodation for me then I'm not afraid to be petty. This might be some Kane and Abel shit.
My brothe 29 has always blamed me for his problems ever since we were kids. Even jumping on the bed as kids and having fun, he fell off and blamed me for his injury when he broke his collarbone. My sick and dysfunctional family believed him over me (like they always do no matter how much l stand up for myself in truth🙄) and it has still followed me to this day in a joking manner so he can "get away with it". Jokes can be disguises for many things including jealousy and petty brothers.
Anyway, he is getting married abroad and l am happy for him. We have never been close except when we were delusion children and he has cut contact with me for about 5 years now. He fakes it when he sees me and plays my mom and dad to be "the good guy" but l see right thru him and when l call him out, he doubles down. Not ok, don't fuck with the goat. 🐐♑️
l have done everything in my power to alleviate the situation and make things right. All the situations... he has taken my power and ran in many, many cases. He has never apologized for his actions or how he treats my parents. l am the oldest daughter and if you fuck with them, you fuck with me. l have never been afraid to show him that. l think he secretly hates me and l don't give a fuck!
His wedding invitation came in the mail after a grand manipulation. Since he cut me off, and my parents for a short time until he needed something 🙄he did not have my address. He constantly complained how I'm needy and couldn't live on my own and when l finally did, he couldn't be happy for me and bashed me. He even manipulated my mom into thinking it was my fault l couldn't but l just lost my fiancé and moved home.She yelled at me on multiple separate occasions because of what he told her, it felt very abusive. He kicks people when theyre down and did the same thing to my mom when she was bedridden and that's when he said she had munchausens by proxy and yelled at her. l think this is a projection of how he feels and he is rein-acting his trauma, but just because you have trauma doesn't mean you can be an asshole! such a baby bro move but he's not a loss.
l saw this all coming a mile away and no one listened. l tried to tell multiple family members and no one listened, they only listened when l stopped talking.
Needless to say, the second l got his invitation, l ripped it up and threw it in the trash. I'm not sorry. l went along with plans with my parents to protect them and when l told them l didn't get it.... and was trying to protect them from this situation (because l actually give a shit about people and their feelings) they got mad 🥲 tha fukkk this is why l turned evil lol but since l was faking l took it on my chin.
Update: l recently told my parents l did get the invitation and it was a couple buildings down along with the save the date. Since it was such a problem for my brother to even be happy for his sister to get her shit together after a really hard time, boss up and move out (which l have been doing for about 3 years) l got petty. Everything l have ever done is a problem to him and that's not my problem.
l texted him l got the invite and replied yes.
Keep in mind, he hasn't talked to me for years and never texts me back. So l got wise and decided to play his game and completely detach from this fucker. It's May and his wedding is at the end of the year. He told my parents he couldn't accommodate me and not to come. He texted them....
l wasn't going to go anyway, but this is exactly the behavior l am talking about. l know l may have hurt my parents but l am putting that on my brother and adding to his pile. He can't even text me back. It's been 5 years and l think it's safe to say our relationship is over. Ive made peace with that and it's for the better at this point. My parents are having a hard time with it but l dont blame them and try to be understanding of them even if it hurts me. l think that's real love. And codependency lol
l decided to move on without him. l will never understand him and why he is so cruel in this because it's so painful. lt took everything for me to walk away. l could never do that to my parents, l don't know how he did. He has always needed someone to blame and l am that person for him. I've finally accepted that and if you want a chess match, prepare for check mate.
There are some details l have left out but l tried to do the best l can at 3am. Thanks for being an outlet Charlotte, stay petty 🩷

I am so unsure about my wife.

Dear Reddit. I come to you with my hat in my hand as I do not know what to do. I am split down the middle in terms of self respect, love, and fear.

I 36(M) have known my wife 35(F), since we were 18, and have been married since 2016

We have 2 kids M(8), F(9), a house, jobs, cars, dogs.

But things from the past have now come back to haunt me, and I am unsure about everything, about respect, love, pride, attractiveness, safe to say my mind is in the biggest turmoil it has ever been. I’m going to cut straight to the chase, with a little about me in order to get my point across as clear as I can.

We met young, and I found my soulmate with no prior experience with woman. She was my first everything, while I know that she has had a few sexual partners. This didn’t bother me at first, but years down the line I found out that while I was head over heels for this girl, she met with a random guy and had sex. (We were not a couple then, but became a few weeks later) She has not had many sexual partners; from what I’ve been told I am her 7th partner.

I must admit still to this day that, this episode doesn’t affect me much anymore, but with all that has/is happening right now its re-surfaces and stings like a needle.

Throughout our relationship she has done things that crosses my boundaries. Let me come with the examples here:

1) We were at a party with mutual friends, and one of our friends was hooking up with a guy, we went into their room and started teasing them as they were making out. Out of the blue, my wife, then girlfriend, grabbed his crotch and said “It’s not even hard” right in front of me, I obviously got furious, and we had a fight but made up over a few days.

2) During her school year, she had to travel to Germany with her class, and be with a German family as part of her education, sort of like an exchange student. While she was in Germany she went out with her entire class for drinks, and from what she says there was a few guys that was making moves on her, and since she got drunk and had no way to figure out how to get home safe to her exchange family, she decided to head home with one of her male classmates to his exchange family and went to sleep in his room. As she put it, he slept on the floor, and she slept in the bed. And he was a friend, not one of those making moves.

3) We were once again with mutual friends at a BBQ and was later heading out into the cityLife to hit up bars and discos. Me and my best friend were on the toilet, putting wax in our hair, putting on fresh cologne and all that jazz. She the suddenly burst in, saying she really needs to pee, proceeds to pull down her pants and thong, honestly from what I remember you could see everything. We had a big fight about this again.


4) This episode was last summer during two mutual friends that got married. She was the toastmaster, and after all was done, she needed to do a wardrobe change. We went to our hotel room; she got changed to another more comfortable dress. While walking back, we could see some of our mutual friends with their husbands, and she decided to lift up her entire dress up to the start of her bra and do a silly side-to-side dance. Everyone saw it no questions asked. I again got furious, and I told her calmly, that I will not tolerate this, and be disrespected like this, there is other men seeing what only I should be seeing. She apologized immediately, and I said, I don’t want to talk more about this now, as I don’t want to ruin the night. We didn’t talk about it afterwards.

5) This is a month ago. She was celebrating her 35 birthday and went out with all her girls. One of her girlfriends is addicted to social media, and she must post everything. I have a very strict rule when it comes to nights out, this goes both ways.

1. Don’t dance with other men!
2. Don’t go away from the venue alone!
3. Don’t take a pirate taxi, or a normal taxi home, call me instead!
4. Don’t flirt (This is a grey area, you cannot define flirting so if she flirts a little it’s fine, but don’t overdo it kind of way)
At this party I saw a video from the social media addicted girlfriend of hers on her snapchat story of my wife dancing and having a blast, she looked so good, and so happy, and I smiled when I saw it, quickly my smile faded away as a guy approached holding out both his hands towards my wife, and she looked different then, I can’t put it as to why, it’s like her personality changed, she looked very keen on going with this guy, to the dance floor, the exit, the toilets I don’t know because I could not see much from the video. What happened next is one of her other girlfriends grabbed her hard and pulled her away from the guy and the video ended.

I was the designated driver that night, so when she would call me in the night, I would come pick up her, and girlfriends and drive them home safely. But I got a call from one of her girlfriends that they could not find my wife anywhere and that she has been gone for like 30 minutes, they asked if I could track her from “Find my iPhone” but I have not saved her location so I could not. I got scared that she broke rule nr. 2 and that something bad might have happened.

Also in my mind, I thought about the video I saw, and then all else mentioned above. All the instances where she crossed my boundaries came flooding in. I am not proud of it. My first thought was her safety, the second thought was, did she envelope with this guy, and is doing something a married woman should not. Her girlfriend that called me, called me back 10 minutes later, saying they found her, and that she was just escorting the social media addicted girlfriend to her car, as she was not drinking, she basically broke rule nr. 2. I got relieved she was ok. But the pit in my stomach was still there.

I later picked them all up, and on the whole drive my wife obviously drunk, kept talking about nothing than men/boys “And then there was this guy” “And this guy looked like name of a friend we know” “and this guy reminded me so much of our boy” on and on, I was upset at this point, not showing it, but in my head I wanted to scream. All these emotions, all these times my line was crossed, the sex she had with another guy while I was in love with her. I know this is some sort of PTSD.

We got home, I put her to bed. And a few days went by, where I was silent, hurt, and went to the gym as much as I could as I could not look at her without being sad, hurt, angry. After about a week when we were lying in bed, I told her not to say anything but just to listen. It went something like this (it was not smooth at all, but I needed to get it out)

“In all our time together, you have touched a man’s crotch in front of me, went with another man and slept in the same room, not that I think anything happened between you two. You have basically shown your vagina, ass to one of my best friends with me being present, at the wedding you decided to flash nearly your entire body to your girlfriends and their husbands in front of me, and lately at your birthday party (I explained the video) and then you were gone for like 40 minutes with no one knowing where you were. I’m not saying you did anything, but can you see how all of this puts a boulder in my stomach?”

She cried and said we have talked about this before, and we have, many times. I let say her piece. But in my mind, it went something like this:

“Yes we have talked about it many times before, but you keep triggering everything by crossing my boundaries, and you know it, so don’t cry and play the victim, this is your fault, and just because we have talked about it 2-4 times doesn’t mean that my feelings just disappear, feelings takes times, and when you constantly say sorry but then do it again, how am I suppose to heal?” I know I should have said this out loud, but I just got so small in the moment, as I opened up about some deep feelings.

This brings me to now. Why I am reaching out for external inputs on how to proceed.

I feel emasculated as a man, I feel disrespected, I do not feel like the most important person for her, I’m angry, hurt, and all of this has led me down following options none of which I want to do, but I feel like I must in order to respect myself, and say enough is enough.
1) I have been thinking of divorce.
2) Swallow my pride and move on, maybe talk it over with a professional.
3) Continue as always.
4) Give her an ultimatum, that if she crosses any of these in the future, I am gone for good.
It’s all very hard, because I love her so much, I love my kids, I don’t want to destroy everything. But I can’t handle being disrespected and emasculated any longer, and have my boundaries crossed again.

I trust her fully when she says nothing has ever happened, she is not that kind of girl, but you can always be surprised down the road.
Am I controlling, is this all justified in your eyes, am I wrong?
Any help, tips, how to proceed, personal opinions is welcome.
TL;DR Wife keeps crossing boundaries in the relationship, should I leave or stay?

Hi guys, I just finished my second year of uni, I am studying Graphic Design BA (Hons)
I am currently searching for design internships over the summer so I have just finished updating my portfolio. However, our class was never given advice on how to make our portfolios.
I watched many videos on YouTube and portfolio reviews by Flux Academy, so I feel that I have definitely nailed the structure.
Please may you give me some feedback on it?
I would really appreciate it as it would save me spending money on a portfolio review from someone on Fiverr.
Thank you,
Alisha ☺️
Note: Please tell me if you think I should remove any of my projects, the last two ones are from 2023, so they may not be as strong as my other ones, but I am finding it difficult to judge by myself.
Portfolio Link: 🔗 https://alishaaujla.com

I feel like "don't recommend channel" etc doesn't work that well. If I even watch one video that is fine by itself but where the author has a dark past or part of the viewership is made up of idiots, I get tagged as a toxic idiot myself and am now entitled to an endless barrage of videos for toxic idiots.
Example: I've always been interested in Scientology as a dangerous modern cult. It's a fascinating story, and in the recent years more and more ex-Scientologists have been fighting back at what used to be the Voldemort of Hollywood.
It's also a rare bipartisan issue in the US. How do you unite the left and right against you? Forced abortions! The right takes issue with the "abortion" part, the left is not a fan of the "forced" part. It's fascinating, and it's just the tip of the iceberg - there's plenty more issues like that.
Unfortunately, that also means a lot of viewers who watched that seem to be into right-wing conspiracy theories. Every time I watch something about Scientology, I have to remove a deluge of toxic crap from my feed. It's like youtube is saying "oh, so you are still watching Scientology docus? You must want to go down the pipeline after all!".
I'm thinking about making a second account just for that, but I'd rather have some button like "don't assume stuff about me just because I watched this channel".

I have asked this before in the past over the last four years and only now I have learned enough about this to where it is no longer a complete mystery to me, and now that I partially know what it is, I am hoping to figure out a plan and a path to help me with my healing journey and learn how to uplift the veil/buffer that prevents me from feeling anything with my gifts, and to an extent, feeling normal in my heart chakra center.
Long story short, this is what happened that led to this veil be upon me. I had long awaited for my psychic abilities, and in turn my chakras, to fully awaken and begin to experience what life is like as a psychic and feel the world around me. I was unsure of when it would happen until I was told by a guide that they would awaken after I had turned 22 in 2020. After a lot of patience, that came true, and was unexpected to attract an unwarranted amount of spirits around me. They made me confused and anxious while I was just beginning to detect sounds and auras with my abilities coming out. And somehow, after all of this, I had only known a brief glimpse of a white, wispy silhouette of a male spirit walking away from my direction past what looked like a drawer, and then suddenly saw nothing. In short, that time in 2020 was the only time I could decently experience my abilities like I had hoped and could not find an explanation to why I couldn't have my gifts awaken without and interruptions or strange paranormal occurrences. In that year, I had felt rips and tears in my aura that felt a little draining, and as I can surmise, that contributed to my journey to recovery.
What had first started my healing and recovery journey was not only the strange attacks on my aura and the austere confusion that sullied my foretold, patient awakening, yet also a shut-off in my mind that I had later discovered from a reiki healer was in fact an energy blockage in my Third Eye, which he healed and helped me walk the first steps to growth and transformation. I have no certainty of when the veil was first put on me, but throughout the entire time afterwards, I was saddened and disappointed that I could no longer feel the healing energy of my crystals, the auras of spirit being or physical people, hear the voices and thoughts of the spirit beings, and the fact that I could no longer feel like I could daydream, know my dreams, know when I'm in a Zen state when meditating or even get a sense on how to astral project correctly. Every day since the closing of my Third Eye and the end of 2020, I felt soft, faint, numb, unfeeling and unaware of anything that used to make me feel the highs and lows of life and went about my days thinking that I had lost my sense of wonder and excitement in my heart. Scary videos and movies no longer shake or startle me, love feels/felt distant and unstirring, I could not experience bliss and excitement shared with a lover or on my own, and my artistic hobbies lost their spark. All of this simply made me feel more alien to my family and people around me while I was having reiki sessions and looking for ways to feel centered, balanced, grounded, and normal again. Although, this was considering after the fact that I had a spiritual awakening once my DNA activated my dormant psychic abilities.
All throughout this time, sometimes various spirit beings popped up and I could hardly even tell who they were or if they were even of divine love and light at all, so while this was happening, those very beings just made things more difficult to comprehend and allow myself to understand the reasoning of my family's help. Fast forward to this year after a long, austere, and oddly eventful four years since my 22nd birthday, I had in total 6 hospital visits, 2 stays at recovery centers for behavioral rehab, an absurd amount of medical debt, and an embarrassing amount of times I had argued with my family over a simple fantasy game that was a part of this four year-long story that I will not mention the name of; all of which for the same reasons that first manifested from my psychic awakening and circumstances that absolutely no nurse or doctor could even help or pinpoint. The only help I had ever received that gave me any progress was the reiki healings, medium sessions with my guardian angels and spirit guides, the crystals I owned to help with my chakras, and the cathartic realization that I was actually a starseed going through a really odd awakening.
I was sad, I was upset, I was overwhelmed, and I was simply itching for a logical, metaphysical answer that could help me further understand my internal circumstances and walk away from the chaos of trying to figure out how to even re-learn how to meditate, daydream, visualize anything, and even have a substantial certainty that I could have a trustworthy conversation with my true spirit team without any false beings intruding and confusing me. Since this journey started, I have grown a lot and had some progress in this, and in summary, I have finally found a happier ending. Yet was has perplexed me and eluded me was that I could not tell was was still keeping me from re-sensitizing myself to my abilities and feel more aware and connected throughout my body, just so that I could feel more normal within my new sense of self. What helped the most was not any doctor giving me a nasty pill for BPD or Schizophrenia, but talking with my guardian angels and them telling me that they put a veil/buffer on me to keep me safe from overstimulation and unnecessary encounters from low-vibrational beings (although from my personal perspective, it would have been helpful to not have this psychic problem with not even telling the difference between my spirit team and anyone else- thus, the great itch to remove it), and that it is very much possible to fully remove it since that it's temporary. I had even learned the real names of my angels and starseed family, and that I had a large team of angels watching over me. This helped me find progress and some peace in my heart.
And so, in the epilogue era of my life, I am still in search of the same, tangible connection with that spark of wonder and feeling comfortable and grounded within my body, as I have learned from attempting to meditate again is that there is something with my heart and mind that makes me feel so unaware, soft, and faint to the energies around me and feeling anything at all with my own body, most likely in my heart and crown chakras that could hold more answers to fulfilling my wishes. I have completely foregone the need to use a pendulum at all for spiritual communication and is not solely used for crystal energy repair and spell-work, so now I have to really use my senses to channel any information from my spirit team and feel confident enough that I can still try to get the same, transformative results that the more emotionally aware people know when they feel their breath and prana while meditating, getting a healing, and having spiritual journeys like other psychics and starseeds do. I have been feeling quite unconfident and doubtful of myself with reattuning to my senses, body, and emotions again, as now I am having encouragement from my spirit medium and my spirit team that I should endeavor into reiki practice, automatic writing, and do spirit channeling myself. Whatever is going on with my heart and how the veil/buffer affects me, its quite discouraging to even try when I couldn't even tell what's happening in my dreams at night. I do not even write down my dreams anymore ever since the end of 2020 when I had first noticed that they all felt blurry, faint, fuzzy, and distant from my usual experiences, and now, I don't even bother to try to see if I can recall any visitations or conversations with my guides and angels at night.
I am in a better position now than I was back then, yet my journey is not over. I do not know anyone that has felt like this or had known their abilities better than I did, and I would like to ask if there is anyone who knows what a veil/buffer like this is for and how I can prepare myself to be ready enough to fully remove it myself, and my angels said that I could indeed do that, although I could guess that it would have to be through some kind of spiritual journey into the self/subconscious self that I could uplift it from the inside. You can try to imagine what that would be like, with meditation, in turn, feeling as soft, faint, dark, and distant like I said.
I have noticed lately, that I can still feel sadness and joy enough to substantially make me cry a little, and I enjoy that actually, it feels more close to home of how it used to feel before I had the odd spiritual attacks and all of the other said factors of my recovery; yet nowadays, I still do not jump at a thing that would usually scare or startle me (like horror game playthroughs) or even feel a natural laugh coming on when I hear or see something that previously makes me giggle and laugh. So, I try to coax myself to smile and nod at the funny things or even fake at laughing to appear more normal in front of my family or friends. Bliss and pleasure definitely feel soft and faint as well, so I know that intimacy or romantic affection does not rouse me enough anymore. I pretty much have to encourage acting out my emotions and pretend a little, which I would rather restore the excitement and tangibility of instead of feeling low and calm all of the time.
I have no spirit beings affecting me anymore, and my life is now more steady and stable now. Yet, I know that I would still have to find a way to establish a safe and effective method to spiritually visit and talk with my spirit team so that they can help me understand my life, sense of self, and what I can do to learn more about my starseed mission and why I reincarnated into this world.
What else can I do to help further the progress I have made? What kind of modalities should I try out and help heal my heart, mind and body, to heal myself like my spirit team wanted? What kinds of advice and tips can help with a soul like me who feels somewhat "aphantasic" to formerly strong and tangible senses and feelings? What exercises and practices should I take up to help balance myself and feel and know the peace between thoughts during meditation? Perhaps more reiki is needed? Could learning reiki and other types of energy healing help me with healing and opening up my heart (where I think that most of the problem is)?
What can I do to bring more empathic awareness and start to feel normal again?
Happen to know anyone who knows what it's like to have a special veil on one's spiritual senses or had something similar to having a healing journey like this? Maybe a DNA activation or healing may help with this? Whatever it is, I would love what any of you in the spiritual community have to say, as this whole journey and how it started came as one heck of a shock and surprise to me. I never had this happen to me before. I have tried to find out if Qigong or regression hypnosis therapy would help, but if you can figure this, it was definitely not easy to even tell what kind of energy shifts were going on within me or around me, so that couldn't have helped me at the time. Neurotherapy brain scans did nothing for me, in case anyone wonders that. Any feedback on this would be great, as I don't think that it is just this veil/buffer that is the sole cause of my issue. Who else can explain this besides me? Atheist scientists cannot, priests cannot, so who else would know? Please do message me, I yearn to get closer to feeling the love and light of the universe again.
Who knows? Maybe it has something to do with a subconscious thing with my Inner Child that triggered this feeling? My former Reiki healer, Chris, did say that I had "shut off" my powers and that I had regressed inwards, so, let's see if that still holds true?

Hey there,
I hope you're all doing well. I'm reaching out for some advice and support, particularly from fellow females, regarding a challenging situation in my relationship.
My boyfriend and I are both in our early twenties, and we've been together for almost a year now. Our relationship has always been incredibly special to me - we've built a strong foundation of trust, communication, and love. We've always been there for each other, respecting boundaries and caring deeply about one another's well-being.
Recently, a month ago, my boyfriend's mom passed away, leaving him with the profound loss of both his parents. It's been an incredibly tough time for him, and understandably, he's been struggling. I've been doing everything I can to support him through this heartbreaking time. Whether it's suggesting outings with his friends to distract him, or taking him out, cooking his favorite meals, or just being there to listen when he needs to talk, I've been trying my best to ensure he feels loved and cared for. Additionally, we both have similar work, so I help him out with his work stuff so he could slack off and do other things he likes doing, like playing video games.
However, amidst all of this, I've found myself feeling a bit forgotten. Our time together has decreased significantly, and the energy and passion in our conversations seem to have shifted. I understand that grief can be all-consuming, and I empathize with the immense pain he's going through. But despite knowing all of this logically, I can't shake this feeling of loneliness and disconnect.
It's not that I doubt his love for me - he's reassured me countless times that he loves me just as much as he always has. But it's hard not to feel like I'm drifting away from him, like I'm somehow slipping through the cracks of his grief. I miss the closeness we used to share, and it's been weighing heavily on my heart.
I'll give you an example. We don't live together, so whenever we meet, on our way back, he'd text me a lot of cute stuff, including how pretty I looked and how lucky he is to have me, and just stuff like that. And he has stopped doing that, and my mind can't help but overthink that something's wrong with our relationship or that he doesn't love me anymore.
To add to this, a recent incident really threw me off. My boyfriend cracked a joke, and I told him it was uncool and made me feel weird. He got mad at me and said he'd stop cracking jokes altogether. I feel like I can't say anything or do anything without walking on eggshells. We used to communicate openly about things, even the little stuff, and about my mental health. But now, he just makes me feel bad for expressing my emotions, and I can't help but feel like he resents me.
I want to support him through this challenging time, but I also don't want to neglect my own emotional needs in the process. I'm struggling to find the balance between being there for him and taking care of myself, and I'm not sure how to navigate this delicate situation without adding more stress to his already heavy load.
If any of you have been through similar experiences or have any advice on how to cope with these feelings of loneliness, disconnect, and walking on eggshells while supporting a grieving partner, I would deeply appreciate your insights.
Thank you all for taking the time to read this and for any support or guidance you can offer.

Hey all,
I'm a 24 year old guy from Germany. I'd say im pretty extroverted and love talking to people. I've had some relationships in the past but it never really ended up working out, and I never got the right "click" in a sense. So here I am just looking to see if I might find someone where that happens.
About me: I work in software engineering and my hobbies are cooking, fitness and video games. Also love a good show or movie, essentially just the basics. I'm 6'3(190cm), bearded, and slightly chubby but also somewhat fit since I workout. I'm happy to share pics as well :) Personality wise I'd say im a very direct and honest person and I enjoy taking the lead. I can talk about a lot of things, sometimes I ramble a bit too much so feel free to stop me if I do. I'd also consider myself very responsible and trustworthy. However I am sometimes not the best with emotions (wanting to learn that though!) and take a little while to warm up. A few fun facts at the end of my introduction: I speak german, english and computer (haha), but I'm also learning swedish atm. My favorite animals are bears 🐻, and im vegetarian.
About you: I have a soft spot for shy girls who need a bit of a guiding hand. Doesn't mean you have to be that though. I mostly just want to be able to have deep conversations, do things together and see if we match, I think its a bit of an interpersonal thing for me. I do not have much of a preference looks wise, just be hygienic :P I do like shorter girls but since im pretty tall myself I think most will fit into that bracket. Be atleast 18+ but preferably 21+.
So yeah, feel free to shoot me a message and we'll go from there.

writing about me's is the worst and i have no idea what to say about myself
but, my name's haley! i work a late night shift during the week full time. i have a mini schnauzer thats my baby. i'm a homebody and like to play video games most of the time. i sometimes stream with my bff on twitch when we feel like it.
i enjoy reading, horror movies, video games (currently playing stardew valley and the finals) swimming, hiking, most typical nerd stuff. diet dr pepper is my shit and i'm basically an 80 year old woman at heart.
i'm pretty shy at first but i think i'm at least a semi cool person. i have discord like most chronically online people and am cool with chatting there if we vibe!

Hi there everyone, I kind of curious, I have been writing a crossover fanfic in the style of Super Robot Wars storylines. One of the Franchises I want to add is RWBY, however, I never really got into the series until playing Blazblue Cross Tag Battle and during his time I started read up on the series on various wiki pages.
So, if I'm wrong on any details or something does seem to match the character's personalities, please tell me!
In this point of the fanfic, it took place after my idea of an ending to the series, so here goes nothing!
The white haired huntress explained why she feels this is the case, telling them the story of her younger brother and his road for redemption.
For the longest of times, Whitley had nothing but hatred for his older sisters and saw the hunters and huntresses as below him, mocking Weiss every moment he had while she was under house arrest. Escaping from this sham of a home, she swore the boy and their father were nothing but monsters and for their actions were things that she never could forgive. That is until it was after the arrest of their father and their manor being invaded by Grimms that cracks were showing in his facade of pettiness.
"During that fight, Whitley wanted nothing but to run off, until he saw our mother fighting against the Grimm before falling from the underuse of her Semblance when he knew he needed to help."
After saving Willow and learning from their mother that Whitley was as much of a victim as anyone else that the middle child chose to mend their damaged relationship. During the fall of their home Kingdom of Atlas, he continued to help by having all the SDC Saircrafts to save anyone and everyone to relocate the people to Vacuo. When the Team RWBY and Jaune return from Ever After, he became part of the attacking forces as a commander to help defeat Salem's forces.
In the final battle, He was present to witness Ruby Rose and Kairi sparing the now depowered and mortal Salem, who was told to simply live with reminders of her sins haunting her until the day she died, as this was her last life. "While we watch Salem leaving to parts unknown, I thought Whitley was going to say something foolish, but to my surprise, he only watched.
In the four weeks after Salem's defeat, Whitley began his new life but it was something to adjusted to as he worked a part time job and began to start classes in that first week The heir of whatever remained of the SDC let his hair grow out slightly, he may have been inspired by a picture of Jaune's appearance during his time in Mistral but still kept a very clean appearance.
It wasn't until a week ago that there were some Jacques' old associates from Vacuo wanted to give Whitley the position of CEO of a new company, one named Phoenix Ash.
"At first, I thought he just wanted to go back to his old ways of life when he agreed to the deal, Asked from me was to trust him about this..."
Out of the blue, The new CEO of the Phoenix Ash Group called for a Public Announcement. Weiss and Winter were watching on a monitor in an aircraft outside of the city. Fearing for the worst, that he would be making empty promises to make a postive public image, the boy spoke of ending the practices of abusing Fanuas workers. This was a lie that their father made to the press when he was alive, before the young CEO spoke of his new idea.
When questioned by the Press, Whitley told the world that he his idea was to start finding better sources than just Dust to rely on, so he would put his own Lien that he held on since childhood to fund this research. If this research was successful, then he would personally see to the closure of all Dust Mines under the Pheonix Ash banter but threaten that if any of the Fanuas workers were harmed during his time as CEO, that under his leadership that he personally see it that the abusers' paychecks would go to their victims and repeated offenders would be fired as quickly as possible. The two sisters begin to noticed that four of The Board Members who hired him were in shaking in their boots.
"Young Sir, please think of the words you speak..." one of Jacques' remaining associates on the board begged to hopefully conviced the boy to reconsider these ideas
"I am fully aware of the words coming from my mouth as much as you were aware of letting my father's actions slide so you can make more Lien. So, to be quite blunt, SHUT IT OR FIND NEW JOBS!" This wasn't like the boy they once knew while Jacques was thriving, he was a new Whitley Schnee that wouldn't be swayed by the idea of making Lien in dishonest ways and wouldn't allow anyone under his leadership to harm the Faunus workers.
"DAMNED BLEEDING HEART BRAT, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE JACQUES, THE REAL HEIR OF THE NAME OF SCHNEE!"
The oldest board member, a muscular bald man of over fourty who was still extremely loyal to the deceased CEO of SDC, charged at the youth with a knife! The youngest of the Schnee clan knew there would be risks, but didn't have any fighting experience to counter this attack.
"WHITLEY!" Weiss cried out as she knew she wouldn't be able to stop the would be killer's attempt of assassination, however, a certain green eyed Faunus, who's loyalites to Robyn Hill last to this day, arrived in enough time to stopped the youth's would be killer.
"You really think that Fiona Thyme would let you kill your new boss? As IF!"
Within a mere set of seconds, the man of three hundred and something pounds was on the ground, each insult that was aimed at the girl was countered with his former boss nodding for the girl to wack the creep across his bald head. This last for a couple of minutes until the police to take his sorry ass to jail as well as charging the Faunus with a minor crime. The girl knew that there would no way to escape but chose not to surrender as she put her hands behind her head much to the cheers of some in the crowd.
However, In those five seconds before the cuffs closed on her hands, The CEO jumped off of the platform and stood in between the messy haired Faunus girl and the arresting officer, slapping the cuff out of the man's hands to the shock of the world. When asked to step aside, the boy's answer to this was something everyone in Remnant, who were either in the crowd or watched from afar from their scrolls, never expected.
"You're really asking me to step aside, so you could take away a war hero's future? I choose to refuse for we all know these charges against her are nothing but baseless. She fought on the side of various heroes! Heroes ] from the Battle of Beacon, like the Teams: RWBY, JNPR, SSSN, FNKI, ABRN and CFVY, the heroes without teams like Lady Kairi, Qrow Branwen, and Taiyang Xiao Long, Heroes like Ilia Amitola and the Belladonna clan who were once White Fang members but left before the assassination of Sienna Khan and return to fight to stop the once peaceful group when they saw what it became under the command of Adam Taurus, heroes like the remaining members of the Ace Operatives, who fought their own feelings of sadness when they lost Clover Ebi and came together after they realized James Ironwood was in the wrong, after the man fell into despair because of how the upper class saw the innocent victims in Remnant and used Atlas as a ram to prevent the Grimm from gaining another advantage point. These groups of heroic and wonderful people came together to save the world from the forces of Salem, so why can't we, the civilains they protected, do the same?!"
There were some mutters from the civilians that watch on the ground level before one of the rich members of the crowd, a man named Harry Marigold, brought up that Weiss may have saved the world but of her crime of summoning the Grimm at the charity event at Schnee Manor should be held accountable before the youth counter with.
"The crime that night was one in justified anger when you, Harry Marigold, who ignored her sadness and only wanted my sister's attention for bragging rights, that damnable trophy wife, her weak minded shell of a husband, the former CEO of the SDC, myself and many others of the Upper Class chose to cruely mocked the recently deceased of Vale and proudly laughing about the deaths of the many innocents of the fallen Kingdom who had nothing to do with the fighting. fates we claimed that civilains deserved!? If anything, she didn't summoned the Grimm to harm anyone but wanted us demons to understand that life is not to be taken as a joke or anything to not to be take lightly. The real crime that night was that the Grimm didn't caused more damages to Schnee manor and not having the monster hurt any of us because of our cruelity to the dead! But because the CEO of SDC cared for nothing but his public image, when she confronted that scumbag for our actions and for using her as a prize toy for everyone to see, his only reaction was to slapped my sister across her face and denied her Birthright!
This made the rich members of the crowd uneasy, as they knew that they were being put in their places. They wanted the youth to be silenced but he continued, angry and filled with something that he should've had a long time ago, a frightful sense of Justice.
"For too damn long, I was blinded by my family's name, not knowing it was nothing but an evil curse and if it wasn't for my sister's actions that night and the night her team and the remaining members of team JNPR saved the lives of my poor mother and the sorry shell of a person. I, too, would've remained under the very same spell of ignorance that the old fool relished in to keep us in line. So, for you to order me around, to use my sister justified attempt on the upper class to see her honorable view on life so who could silence my words, and to force this maiden, who has fought harder than anyone here because fearful paranoia bigots using unjust hatred of every Faunus to make her life a living torture device, for her to rot in a prison cell without a fair trial, just for saving my life? That command is UNFORGIVABLE!" The boy screamed loudly and in pure rage so everyone could hear his plea.
Fiona was in shock, she heard from various communities of the Faunus that the SDC and clan of Schnee were nothing but monsters, worse than any of Salem's Grimms. Even after meeting the huntresses of Team RWBY, she believed Weiss was the only one of the family who wanted to set things right in the world.
Even through she hated the idea to keep an eye on the Schnee heir, even if it was a jobn from her trusted leader. His father and the fellow members of the Board in the SDC saw the Faunus and wanted nothing but for them to be trapped in cages without futures, But to see with her eyes, the very son made to follow in these footsteps of selfish desires, meaning every single word that left his mouth, these words that were filled with a justified desire to save the young girl from an unfair fate, was so unreal.
"If anything, it was the wicked ideas of greed that the deceased CEO held dear tt were one of the many factors that broke our world, Jacques Sc..." The boy stopped for less than a second before continuing in anger.
"....Actually no, I refuse to allow that bastard to my family's name any longer, even in death! Jacques Gélé was never a father, he was nothing but an unredeemable thief without a sense honor, who used dirty lies to trick my dying grandfather into his once humble life, the honorable man that should've had the right to lived long enough to prevent the future Gélé wanted, Nicholas Schnee!"
"Who used my recently deceased mother's, Willow Schnee, love and trust to steal a company he was never worthy to rule over from underneath her. When she learned of his deception and his lies in their sham of a relationship, the once loving and carring mother only means to escape from his wicked virus was to drink her sorrows away and seclude herself from the world!
"His sickness was something that their three children were not immuned to as he saw nothing from us but to be used as pawns so he could gain more power! It wasn't until we learned better ways to live by others, others who actually cared, that we actually became good people!"
"The first of us was to learn this lesson was The Soldier who proven herself time and time again, who enlisted in the Atlas military to get away from the sickness that Gélé took pleasure in, who leaders knocked the views of hatred for the Faunus and the usage of cheap tricks out of her, my oldest sister, Commander Winter Schnee!
"My second oldest sister, Huntress Weiss Schnee, who learn of the shame that her family name carried at her time in Beacon, who was forced to leave after the battle by Gélé for supposed safety only to be paraded around as a prize trophy daughter for his friends in the upper class, who felt the sting of venom when that man refused to accept her heroic heart, forcing her to escape his maddess so she could continued helping those who were suffering!"
"And then there's myself, Whitley Schnee, the boy who was so scared with the various changes to his home life that he chose to follow in that thief's footsteps, who once mocked the dead of Beacon along with the others in the Upper Class, who has never fought for anything and even in that last battle, was so powerless to prevent more tragedies for befall those he commanded to fight on his behalf! The boy who's heart is filled with so much regret because of his idiotic choices in life but is now filled a newly found sense of Justice, who only goal now is to find a cure for the poison, so he could, no! will make our world a better place than it was in the past!"
The crowd was stunned thar they couldn't help but to stay silent.
"Gélé has cause so much suffering to the Faunus and to many other communities. That suffering spread in the Kingdoms like wildfire. When my grandfather died, so did the fairness and honor that the Schnee name held on to....but not anymore! MY DREAM is to stop the suffering that Gélé relished in so he could live like a damn lazy king!
Whitley then put his hands behind his head and told the world.
"So if this girl goes to prison, so will I! All I asked of those listening is not to cheer no matter what the outcome is, not to cry for this foolish boy who has fought for nothing, but to simply think about his words and the weight they pull!" Whitley's blood was boiling as The puppet CEO's bight blue eyes widden to show everyone that his dream was one that the boy will work for through his pain.
After this decree was finished, everything was slient before the officer asked. "Would you die for that dream..?"
Whitley, answered with all seriousness. "If I die, then I would gladly die with a hundred stabs to my heart and soul to make damn sure that my dream becomes reality." The officer waved to another cop to bring in a second set of handcuffs, much to both cops dismay.
"Alright, I'm sorry. Whitley Schnee for disobeying a officer of the law, you have to come with us."
Whitley said not a word as the cuffs latched onto his hands. As if to respect the boy's wishes, There were no one in the crowd, maybe even in Remnant, cheering about the arrest of these two, even though the boy said he had nothing but hatred of those that surround Gélé mocking those that died in Beacon, none of the them wanted nor could cheer, for to celebrate this would be nothing but hallowed.
On route to the department to put the two in the holding cells until they could make bond, the two talked, mostly it was Whitley asking the girl a thousands questions of the culture of the Faunus, the life she lived before becoming a war hero and so on. The poor girl was shaking with overwhelmingness but snapped out of it when Whitley explained something to her.
"This is the second time you saved me from the door of death, thank you, Lady Thyme."
Fiona was slightly confused before slowly piecing together that in the final battle she rushed to the location of downed aircraft, where a gravely injured woman layed under some debris being protected by her white haired son with a mere wooded stick he found on the ground screaming. "GET AWAY! YOU GRIMMS!" before being knocked backwards and then being held by his throat.
"HEY FANG FACES, I'M MORE OF A CHALLENGE THAN THOSE TWO!" The Fanaus screamed while the Grimm let the boy go to blocked her attack.
"KID! TAKE YOUR MOM AND GET OUTTA HERE, I CAN'T HOLD THIS GUY OFF FOREVER!"The boy nodded as he grabbed his mother and ran off, not knowing that he would plan to thank the maiden the next time they meet.
"No freaking way, you're that boy?"
"Yeah...but I'm not proud to admit that I'm not one for fighting." Whitley smiled as this surprised the girl.
To think, the meek boy she saved that one time and the guy who wanted to help others despite his family's reputation were the same person? How would this day become more of a weird fever dream?
"Hey you two, I hate to burst this bubble but ready for a fight, there was another vehicle besides ours that was on their way to the department." A male's voice explained when they noticed a man in a grey cloak sitting in the darkest corner of the vehicle.
"Before you asked, I've been here for the entire trip."
"Why is that important?" The only woman of the three thought while the Schnee youth figured it out.
"That ghoul of a Board Member?"
"'Faid so, he was taken in sometime before your speech and there are only two holding cells in the department, one for men and the other for women." The man explained.
"I could use my semblance to hold him in a..." Fiona was stopped when the mystery man continued.
"...And to prevent any escapes, the cells and those cuffs on your hands are laced with anti-semblance tech."
Fiona screamed. "OH CRAP!"
Whitley was shaken but kept cool as he thought. "I guess as this is a smaller scale city, I should've figured as much."
"Are you actually prepared to die for your ideas?" The man asked the boy, but his answer was simple.
"I'm not planning to back down now, to betray those words I spoke earlier, would be a wicked sin."
Meanwhile in an aircraft a little ways off. Both Weiss and Winter were dumbfounded by their brother's speech and actions. "He has changed so much since weeks ago." The middle child thought before Winter demanded the pilot to land that at the port nearest to the city.
Yang, Kairi, Jaune, Ruby, and Blake were on the aircraft but was confused by the sudden change of directions, before the commander explained. "The Board member that tried to killed our brother was sent to the holding cell in the department before Whitley's speech."
"OH CRAP!" Ruby and Weiss screamed as they thought in dismay that the boy was going to be in an one sided fight against a heavier opponent.
"Please hold on for a bit longer, Younger Brother..." Winter quietly whispered as the Aircraft was going as fast as possible to their destination.
Upon arriving and being settle in the two holding cells, it was when the guards left the redeemer was being used as a punching bag for the man's humiliation.
"DAMN BRATTY ASSED PUNK!"
"UGHHH!" Whitley groaned, being punched for a hour, his clothing became ragged and bloody.
"LEAVE WHITLEY ALONE!" Fiona cried out at the tallest in the men's holding cell, she was in the womens' holding cell that was across the room, luckly for her, she was alone in the women's side but not for Whitley, making things worse is that the guards were sent out on an emergency call, as their thinning numbers were sent out because of a few bomb threats elsewhere in the city.
"SHUT IT, SHEEPIE! I GOING KEEP BEATING THIS BRAT UNTIL HE UNDERSTANDS HIS PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE!"
"..." The man in the hood remained quiet as he watched this uneven fight. "You should stay down..."
"...As if I would..." The Schnee boy rose back to his feet through he knew nothing of throwing punches he refused to surrender just to spite the former Board Member of Phoenix Ash.
"HEH, for a skinny brat, you're stubborn, be a good little boy and admit that you're nothing but a puppet then I'll quit your rightly deserved beatings!"
Whitley regained his balance before flipping a bird claiming. "You...really...think this..puppet would let some smug ass with no respect for anyone but those in the Upper Class to order me around? SCREW....YOU!" The boy yelled spiting blood onto the man's ghoulish face to annoy the monster in human flesh.
"...WHY YOU LITTLE MAGGOT!" The man was even more enraged now, as he punched the stomach of the younger male causing the boy fall onto the cold floor.
Fiona was horrified as she witness the former spoiled prince rose back to his feet.
"Still standing boy?"
The youth was still standing to a point, until the man pulled a dirty shiv he found in the holding cell while waiting for this very moment. The two youths' eyes widden when they saw the makeshift weapon of sharpen hard plastic.
"...A weapon!?" Fiona cried out in dismay.
"Some poor sap must have made this sometime ago, makes me wonder where he could be now, anywho while I am slicing into your flesh, Whitley, I'm going tell what I thought of those pretty little ideas of yours."
The Faunus was in a state of fear for the young puppet CEO as the shiv user quickly sliced into the white haired youth's shoulder, with this the first time being cut, Whitley scream in pain.
"AHHHHGNN!"
"FIRST, YOU WANT TO FREE THE ANIMALS FROM OUR CAGES, THEY HAVE NO RIGHTS TO A FUTURE IN OUR SOCIETY!
The next was a stab on his left upper leg, luckly not hitting anything vitals as makeshift blade of sharp hard plastic was pulled out and blood dripped onto the flooring The boy's screams of pain echoing through the empty department.
"NEXT, WE CAN'T MAKE ANY LIEN IF BLEEDING HEARTS, LIKE WHAT YOU'VE BECOME, ARE IN CHARGE OF THINGS!"
The attacker then sliced the right side of Whitley's face leaving a scar under his eye.
"THE FACE OF THE BOY WITH A NAME THAT NOWS MEANS NOTHING TOTHE WORLD, USING TRUTHS TO PISS ON THE LEGACY THAT JACQUES BUILT, JUST SO HIS SON COULD REBUILD THE HONOR THAT IT HELD WHEN THAT WINDBAG WAS STILL KICKING! WHAT FREAKIN DRIVEL!"
then a slash across his chest.
"THAT BLEEDING HEART OF YOURS WANTING REDEMPTION SO HE COULD HAVE SOME ATTENTION BUT GUESS WHAT THERE'S NO SUCH THING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD OR IN THE REMAINING KINGDOMS OF REMNANT AS REDEMPTION!"
Then the right hand of the boy, the one Whitley pull in front of his body in an poor attempt to grabbed the makeshift Shiv.
"THESE HANDS OF A SOFT SPOILED LITTLE BOY WHO, EVEN IN THE LAST BATTLE AGAINST THE GRIMM FORCES, NEVER THREW A PUNCH OR SLAP ANYONE, ARE SUPPOSED TO CHANGE THE WORLD, ALL YOU HAVE DONE IN THAT BATTLE WERE ORDERING SOLDIERS TO FIGHT FOR YOU, SOLDIERS WHO SHOULD HAVE SEEN WHAT YOU'VE BECOME!"
Finishing this rant with a punch to the gut, and mocking his braverly. "TELL ME THIS, BOY? WHEN THIS SPINE OF YOURS GREW, DID YOUR STUPIDITY DOUBLED, BECAUSE COMPARED TO YOUR DAD, YOU'RE SUCH AN DOLT TO BELIEVE YOUR OWN CRAP!"
"WHITLEY! STOP, YOU'RE KILLING HIM!" Fiona screamed as the man got on top of the boy's body and punch the white haired youth's face twice before the monster yelled at the girl.
"I SAID SHUT IT SHEEP! YOU MAYBE A WAR HERO THAT I CAN'T PUT MY HANDS ON BUT YOU'RE GOING TO WATCH AS THE HOPES OF THIS BOY DIES ALONG WITH HIS BODY!"
Getting off of the beaten body of the Schnee, the man let Whitley try to get up before the boy fell on his stomach and the man grabbed the white hairs of his his head and pulled his face up, so the redeemer would look into Fiona's green eyes for a last time, one filled with tears.
"ACTUALLY, IT'S FUNNY, BECAUSE OF HER STATUS AS A WAR HERO, THE SHEEP WILL GET OUT IN THE END OF THE DAY AND BE ON HER WAY HOME, BUT YOU JUST HAD TO PLAY HERO AND FOR WHAT, WHITLEY SCHNEE?! FOR YOUR REMAINS TO BE MY PUNCHING BAG UNTIL I TRANSFER TO PRISON?....IT'S SO FREAKING SAD THAT I'M LAUGHING MY ASS OFF!"
The redeemer, who's face full of buises, forgotten that this is the case for minor first time offenders but didn't care at all. Ever since Fiona saved his and his mother's lives that day, he would've happily be arrested and be beaten, time after time, so he could thank her. He wanted to smile, to show his savior that he was happy with this outcome, even this meant that his life ended today, but could barely move his face but the only could wheezingly chuckled as tears as swell from his eyes
Before the man could finished Whitley off, a small blackout happened as the doors of the cells opened, Fiona ran to the boy who risked his life just so he could to talk to her. "WHY?!" Fiona cried she held the youth in her arms. "WHY CAN'T MONSTERS LIKE YOU SEE THAT THIS A NEW WORLD, THAT WE CAN BECOME BETTER THAN WE ONCE WERE." The green eyed girl demanded anwers but the man just mocked to anwered the Fuanus.
"Do you think animals like you could understand that only the strong and the Upper Cass are the only ones who have the right to control Remnant. He could have been one of those in control and still have enough Lien to be someone important but he chose to ally with the lower class, and for little lamb he paying for it, dearly."
Putting the boy's head gently on the floor wiping the tears on her sleeve, to hopefully keep friend she made safe for a bit longer, she attempted to use Pocket Demisions to rid the world of this demon, only to realize in the middle of her attack, the power returned and because she ran to help the youth, that she was in the men's holding cell with the real beast.
"....No!" She wimpered.
"Looks like there's some of my fellow board members of Phoenix Ash are still on my side." He smiled wickening as he began to explain their plans. "You see, little Sheep, we figured the boy has a bleeding heart, so to get rid of those childish wishes to loosen our hold, we decided yesterday to make up a plan, the one that you had to prevent. So during that little speech of his, we made a second one on the fly." He continued as he put his hand on an earpiece. "...That one being the threats to distract the guards and that little blackout. Plus thanks to this little device, my semblance to increase my strength with every attack I give, still remains."
"This can't be...." She was scared, as this man that she could taken down a few mere hours ago, was telling the truth when every step he made while approaching Fiona made small cracks in the flooring.
"Damn it, We going need to cause another..." A voice explained though the earpiece before he turned off the equipment's sound option.
"Now, since you annoyed me so much, you're going be my replacement, lamb chops!" The upsuper yelled in bliss as he pulled his fist to punch her small body. She dodged the attack but his second punch connected and sent her flying into the force field door.
"AUHHGGG!" She cried out, recoiling in the pain from her back before noticing the man was coming for her, managing to get up but unable to dodge it completely in this cramped arena. She felt the punch connected with her left arm, braking the bones in the limb, Then a kick to her gut. Knocking her a few inches near Whitley's body.
"....No...."
The youngest of the Schnee clan could only watch in despair through one eye, the two were being broken by a scummy excuse of a human, and the young redeemer of his name could do nothing but watched as his attempt to prove to the world his words were real go down in flames.
"...Leave...her...alone..." These words spit out ignoring the pain as much as he could while rising back to his feet and limping to get in between the Faunus woman and her attacker.
"So, the boy still has some fighting spirit...The boy that has never fought for anything in his life, I am certain that you're doing this for everyone's attention."
The man was right on a few things, Whitley was never a fighter or some ground troop, and it may have been that he wanted attention when he first started to go down this road but Winter quickly knocked that idea out of his head, but the man is wrong on others, for Whitley realize that all he wanted to do in life is to help in anyway, even he'll be happy as a sideliner act to the main heroes.
But one can't always stay in that role and hoped to change the world, for a long time he stood by as a witness to to his father's crimes, for longer his thoughts of heroism being dismissed by that bogus excuse of a father and as far as he remembered, Whitley had others fight for him. But no more!
"In this world, money and power pull the strings, and yet you choose death for a flithy animal? How more times are you going to PISS M-!" The man was interrupted while talking by, to the surprise of all, the white haired boy headbutting his taller foe, knocking the man onto his ass!
"...WHAT!?" The man screamed in horror as he started to bleed from his now broken nose, this was the first time the business man has ever seen his own blood.
"...I've...told...the world...I...would die for my dream....even if I die today....I'll be happy to die...hundred times over again..." The boy's body was mostly broken, each word he spoke caused more pain than his body could stand but the young man still had one part of his body to fight with, his hard head!
The next thing they all knew, Whitley continued headbutting his enemy, causing the man to gain a reality check, his ability were increasing his attacks but at a certain cost, The sole major weak point on his body, the one that held the brain to think of ways to screwed others over, the one with the eyes that saw everyone else as beneath him and the one with the mouth with a booming voice he used to make threats and promises to ruin his foes, his face weaken over time with every punch or kick he gave to the two.
"NONONONONO!" The man screamed with a bloodied and bruised face, before feeling the same despair he installed into his two victims just mere minutes ago. In a desperate attempt to stop these attacks, he grabbed the man in the cloak as a hostage, with the shiv he used on the boy still in his possession.
"You-ou wouldn't w-wan...me to stab some r-random person that had nuthing to do with this, uh?!" These ragged words were like the man himself, desperate and scummy, but was enough to stop the boy from getting closer.
The foe laughed thinking he has the upper hand. "I admired your old man's talent in making a profit, but he was just like you to a certain point, he was no killer, so now I advise we wait until they let us out or I'll be plunging..."
"Tsk...This old fart really been pissing me off since we got here!"
The cloaked man yelled as he stepped on the foot of his captor along with a gunshot ringing though the air. "W-WHAT!?" The man screamed in pain as he released his hold to grabbed his now bleeding foot. "DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT!" The larger man screamed before realizing why his leg strength wasn't up to snuff. While being headbutted by his Whitley, the earpiece fell out and was behind his two victims!
"No way this is happening...." He groaned in pain before the cloaked male took off his hood, just to make things worse for the would be assassin.
"...and here I thought I would have a peaceful life in prison..." The man sighed as he revealed himself to be a fomer ally of Salem, one who wanted nothing more but to rot in prisons for the remaining of his life.
"M-Mercury B-B-Black, why is a war criminal here?!" The man screamed, fearing for his life even more than before.
"I was supposed to transfer into the next city, mostly for some good behavior BS..." Mercury turned his attention to the white haired boy.
"Hey kid, you're the brother to that girl Weiss, right?"
"....." Whitley wanted to say something but really couldn't, with those last few headbutts, if he tried to speak now, he will surely faint.
"Man, the geezer really did a number on you, huh?" Mercury asked before = one of the guards and Whitley's sisters ran in.
"Holy...CRAP! WHITLEY!!"
"Why is our brother and Miss Thyme in the same cell as these two?!" Winter demanded answers before Mercury explained for panicing guard while pulling the earpiece from the ground.
"Whitley was being used by lord lard ass as a punching bag until few people from Pheonix Ash caused a short blackout, the girl ran in to stopped the beatings but was attacked as well until your little bro figuring out the buzzard's weakness by headbutting the man in his freakin' face. After that, The creep tried to use me as levelage but yeah, you can see how that worked out."
"DAMNED BRATS...." The man groaned as the two Schnee women got Whitley and Fiona out of this cell but froze in fear when he saw Winter staring down at the man.
"I figured that your group would pulled something like this when Whitley told me of the CEO position, so I looked into yours and the rest of the board's backgrounds...It was just as Black said, You and your three friends in the board of eight have more than just attempted assassination to worry about now."
This decree was worrying enough before Mercury Black turned his attention back to the older man."I guess I'm going to have a kicking dummy for a roommate now!"
"Please have mercy!" The man turned deathly pale before Fiona yelled.
"Like the mercy you shown to me and Whitley because he called out your sorry butt, I would think not!"
Weiss was next to insult the man for his behavior. "...If anything you deserve nothing but a fate in a cage, like the various futures you took away!"
"Looks like you're going to rot in a cell for the rest of your sad existence." Winter finished before the guards were told by the military commander to take her younger brother out of the room and to take his would be assassin to the other cell.
Before leaving, Winter asked the former ally of Salem.
"Mercury Black...Your sentence for your war crimes have been over with for a couple of months now, yet, you still choose to remain in prison, may I ask why?"
"Since Cinder died in the fight against our former partner and Salem's redemption attempt, I really don't have much else left. Besides it's like I've said during that battle with the hammerhead and her pretty boy lover, I have been forced to fight since I was born by a drunk abusive excuse of a dad, so even if I could be let back into society, I don't think I could be happy."
"You could've joined the military..." The eldest member of the Schnee replied before the younger male countered
"Yeah, but I hate following and giving orders, besides you've seen what this old bastard done to your brother, creeps like him and worse are everywhere in prison. So as long as I can beat them senseless, I'm freaking happy to serve more time for each brawl I get my ass into."
This silenced Winter for a couple of seconds before asking for two simple demands. "Just tell Em that I'm okay with how things ended between us, and tell her just to be happy with her new life, if she can do that, then that would give me some sort of peace."
A couple of hours later at the medical bay on the airship.
Kairi used the healing spell Curaga on both the boy and Fiona. "Thank you, Lady Kairi." Fiona bowed while still having her arm in a cast after Whitley opened his eyes, being healed.
"Hey, it's not a problem, but please, just call me Kairi for now on, okay, Fiona?"
"Ughh, what...Fiona..are you alright?" The redeemer asked his friend.
"Yes, but you took the blunt of the beating, please relax, Whitley." The Fanuas explained before the boy asked.
"Who payed for our bails? I doubt it was my sisters, our situation isn't as it once was."
At that moment, Weiss and Blake came in, the disowned heiress of the destroyed SDC was proud at the fact that her former enemy of a brother fought for what's right, explaining. "It those three you poined out from that charity that payed for your and Fiona's bonds."
"Huh?!" Fiona was taken back in surprise by this before the middle child of the Schnee family theorized
"My guess is, either your speech or being outed as horrible people that made those three pay with their own Lien to post bond. I only wished we got there quicker but the airport was on the other side of the city."
"That's good but I can only hope that the others in the crowd took my words to heart and none of the people recording that day alter the video."
...We can check for video or audio interferances later on today but something tells me those who heard your speech that they're going be thinking about it for a long time." Blake's words made the youngest member of the Schnee children a little more eased.
"If only mother lived to see her son became someone to be proud of." Weiss thought to herself that day before their last mission in Remnant before her universe was wiped from existence.
In the Hangar of the doomed Wunder, Weiss had a thought of what could've been the futures of the new CEO of Pheonix Ash and his loyal bodyguard could have been if their universe just lasted a little bit longer.
"Hey, Bozos I'm about to take the Eva-unit 02 F off of the ship, before figuring out a plan to stop Misato."
"Alright.." Aqua answered as the red-head walked towards the console before seeing something strange.
"You guys were here for the last hour right?"
"Yeah?" Duo answered before Asuka added.
"And no one else came in or tried anything funny right?"
"We've been here the entire time, what's with the questions, Langley?" Viral countered.
"...There's two signals of heat in the cockpit...."
"Umm what?" Jaune exclaimed as the console showing the statistics of the bulky armored version of Unit 02, showing two bodies of heat in the entry plug.
Before anything else was said in the group. A young male's voice came through the console. "Umm Hello? Can someone get us out of this thing?"
No one but the Schnee huntress recognize the youth's voice. "Whitley!?"
"Sis, can you hear me?"
Asuka spoke next, "How long were you two in the Evangelion for?"
"I think for three hours, oh right, Fi wanted to asked if there's any males in the area."
"Fiona's in there too?!" Wiess inner thoughts were of panic that were made worse after Jaune's answer.
"Yeah, there's four guys here, why?" Jaunne asked before Fiona screamed in embrassament.
"PLEASE GO TO THE OTHER ROOM OR SOMETHING, I CAN'T GO OUT LIKE THIS!"
"Fi, please relax..."
"RELAX!? YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE IN THIS THING WITH CLOTHES ON!" The girl whined while crying from embarrassment.
"Umm, could anyone bring clothing for Miss Thyme."
Duo began to smirked before being dragged by Viral into the next room. "Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself, Duo Maxwell..."
"Killjoy!" Duo screamed as Jonathan conviced Jaune to followed.
"Sir Arc, we should leave as well, as it is knights' honor to..."
"Already way ahead of you, Mr. Joestar. We'll see you all later when we come up with that plan!"
As this was all happening, an snore echoed out from behind the crates. "Is someone sleeping over there?" Aqua asked while checking to see who it might be.
There, Chibodee Crocket, of all people was in deep slumber, much to everyone's surprise.
"...We should wake him up..." Asuka sighed while Weiss went looking for any of the female members of the crew for some clothing.
But to the surprise of the two, he just walked into the next room while sleeping the entire time. "That...worked out way to well..."

I wanted to share my experience...
- during almost my entire life I was self-isolating, playing video games to the point of it becoming addictive, they degraded me mentally and physically...
- I was growing up with my abusive alcoholic father, at one point I was taken along with my Sisters by social services from him and we were fostered by our grandparents in another city.
- It was hard living in there, because we shared apartment with my cousins, mostly women, our cousins were going through hardship as well, my uncle was an alcoholic, he didn't beat my aunt like my father beat my mother but his alcoholism caused my cousins grief either way.
- I was bullied at school, when I came back "home" I lashed out, I was put to the ground hard BY MY COUSINS. My cousin's partners were also treating me badly, I didn't feel like a man there - I just wanted to feel respected at home, I craved that to HAVE SOME GLIMPSE OF SELF-WORTH... It was always my fault that I was weak...
I escaped from there back to my alcoholic father, my Sisters stayed.
- Back then in my Eastern European country there was a stage of education between primary school and high school, I was bullied through that stage too. I didn't have any chance to form any connection nor attachment with others, I was the odd one, an outcast, everyone's punching bag, I was weak physically and mentally, felt unattractive, couldn't differentiate between affection and attraction, some girls were nice to me humane, friendly - due to my OBSESSION WITH LACK OF MY OWN SELF-WORTH, I told myself that ANYONE TRYING TO HELP ME ONLY TOOK PITY ON ME, I saw pity as debilitating because IT MADE ME FOCUS ON MY BROKEN STATE EVEN MORE, that I can't handle life myself...
- In high school, being around my male friends was crippling me too, I felt INFERIOR and INSECURE around them, they went to the club I stayed, I was afraid that someone would pick on me and start bullying me and that I will ... JUST GET HUMILIATED WHILE EVERYONE WATCHES AND LAUGHS, I am sure my friends would defend me but what if they go somewhere, be busy... I HAD NOTHING TO DO AT THE CLUB EITHER WAY, NO GIRL WOULD TALK TO ME THERE, EVEN IF SHE DID SOME GUY COULD JUST COME OVER AND PUSH ME ASIDE... At the parties I only felt I don't belong there, that I have nothing interesting to say,that I will just look awkward or humiliate myself ...
It hurts like hell after reminiscing it. I thank anyone who reads it, I am gratefull for subreddits like this where I am FREE TO BE VULNERABLE IN SAFE ENVIRONMENT, where I can let my "guard" (maladaptive coping mechanism's that are mandatory for me IRL) down.
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Meta Haptics Studio provides everything you need to make your audience feel like they’re part of the action. By learning best practices on haptics design and iteration, you can spotlight key feedback and sounds that keep people more engaged within their environment. Learn what questions you should ask yourself throughout the design process to level up storytelling, and discover iteration best practices in this short tutorial video
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More learning resources: For our developer documentation, go to: https://developer.oculus.com/resources/haptics-overview/ For our Haptic Guidelines, go to: https://developer.oculus.com/resources/haptics-design-guidelines/ For sample projects, go to: https://github.com/oculus-samples/haptics-studio-examples
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQLU9TRv3fI&t=12s

Long story short: 2 months ago my ex of 2 years in long distance dumped me via text, saying he needed time for himself and wants to focus on his goals. Everything was going super well apart the last month together, bc he'd rather spend time playing video games w his friends than calling me max twice a week. I immediately went no contact with him, only for him to reach out after 2 weeks saying he misses me, he can't let go of me, would love to keep me in his life but isn't ready to be in a relationship with anyone yet.
We started texting almost everyday since then, and I told him 2 times that I couldn't give him a friendship bc obvs I still have feelings for him, and he said that he hopes this time in contact would clear his head. A little over 2 weeks ago he started following this girl on instagram. She likes EVERY SINGLE post he makes, and I think they went out last week bc I could recognise his car from her story. Bear in mind, I proposed to follow each other on instagram if he felt comfortable w it, only for him to lie and say ''he wasn't using it that much, but to send him a request and he'd confirm once he'd download it again''. Only when I told him ''hey I know you're using it, why can't you just be direct and say you feel uncomfortable with me seeing what you're up to?'', he confirmed me. I found out he still has all our pics together, and posts of myself too, but also put up again posts with his ex prior to me from 5 years ago??? this girl ''allegedly'' traumatized him bc she was stalking his family and his co-workers and committed self harm. He swears he doesn't have feelings for her at all, and was just ''deleting his archived posts''. Why would he keep my pics then?
Yesterday I couldn't deal with all of these lies anymore, and directly asked him whether he was seeing that new girl, to which he replied ''no, she's just a friend. She asked me to come w her to a concert, but I'm too lazy to go hahah i don't want to'', and then I straight up asked him whether he still likes me or not. Obviously, as his usual, he ignored the text. For me, that was the realisation that I need to completely cut this guy out of my life, for the way he treats me, the way he chooses to lie to me despite him swearing he ''loves and cares for me, thinks i'm beautiful and likes how i am as a whole''.
Last text I sent was ''very mature of you to ignore these types of questions.'', to which he replied ''I wasn't ignoring you, I ''forgot'' to reply to it. By the way, just because of this, I almost don't like you''.

I will never blame anyone else for my offense but myself, I chose to go against my morals and beliefs and contribute to the trauma and abuse of others, I genuinely do not think I deserve forgiveness. All the horrible things that have happened to me as a result have been earned. That being said my parents and brother don't deserve the hell I've put them through and I am greatful they still are even here for me. I don't know if I can ever really pay them back for the damage I've caused, I guess that's one thing that's been motivating me to keep going, is just paying back those who have stood by me through out this. I believe I am a horrible person and I've tried to change that thought again and again to no avail. There's many days where I've prayed to god even though I'm not religious, to just make me disappear, keep me from ever existingotr just reset my life. I don't know who I am, I don't understand why I did what I did even after reflecting on it in therapy and somb. I feel like it would have been better if the police just shot me when they raided my place. I've always been a failure and a anxious mess, I had very little friends through out life and never even dated and I'm in my mid 20s. I let opportunities pass me by over and over again. Even being in sports and after school activities I never felt connected to anyone, I always felt on edge and paranoid and I didn't understand why. Those feeling led to me to coping with porn and using it excessively and isolating by playing video games as well. I had one best friend in my life and I've since moved away from where I used to live. I see no light at the end of the tunnel and I feel like a dead man walking, like I shouldn't be alive, just a disgusting irredeemable being who is forcing himself to keep going. I cannot fix myself I have no clue what to do anymore and I just want to curl up in ball and rot away.