I started subbing this school year. I really enjoy the schools I do like because I have always worked with kids. However, recently I’ve work barely enough to pay my bills. I tried so many different schools and there’s only a few I’ve liked. I’m only 22, so working at high schools are weird for me because both the students and staff look at me and treat me different because I look so young if that makes sense. Unfortunately, depending on what kind of summer job I get, I don’t know if I’ll be back. I love kids but I’m so sick of the weird way they treat substitutes and how they don’t take me serious when I call the office about a kid. The pay just hasn’t been enough for me unfortunately. I feel guilty because I take days off even thought I see they need people on the sub locator. But it’ll be schools I’ve tried out who just didn’t work out, whether it be issues with students or staff. Last week, I had a staff member belittle me in front of students and other staff when they were going from class to class passing out stuff for teacher appreciation week. It wasn’t my first time there, although I don’t like the school, a teacher asked me to return and I said okay. The staff then handed it to me and told me in front of students “no it’s not for you, make sure you don’t take it” LOL! I had no intention of doing so , and it was a bag of un popped popcorn and matching socks. I’m just so sick of everything. Sorry to be so negative but sigh it’s not even good pay in Florida to be dealing with certain things sometimes.

To preface one thing - this is in Singapore, I am half singaporean and half thai, I have no close friends or family members around here, but I study here.
So after many years of dating and many quite one sided and manipulative relationships with guys and after 3 months of being single I finally got into relationship with my GF. First time trying lesbian dynamic. I felt it would be very different, she would understand me more and was less demanding of me and of course less physical and simply more harmonious, since, you know it's a fellow woman.
I was also taking it slow and we had like dozen dates before getting entangled officially couple months ago. She is quite lovely and well educated, slightly older than me, somewhat exotic looking around here and it felt we are becming good friends.
When we finally hooked up she had to guide me a lot because it's indeed quite different dynamic than with a guy but that was fine, I guess and she seemed to even enjoyed and would joke about how I was lesbian virgin and she can shape me to be suited for her. Which I thought at the time was cute.
Long story short I recently finally moved in with her and that was a mistake. I've been at her place most of the time we would hang out because my place was really tiny. Right after I moved in I was just in a span of week introduced to basically a laundry list of chores I should do and at the time I thought alright we pull this together right, but we didn't. After next couple weeks I realised (for the first time ever) that I am doing the same chores I would be doing for my former boyfriends and I started to feel, yet again, more as a maid with benefits. This time I had courage to voice that to my GF and she would apologise and be all sweet about how she didn't realise and that would coo me for another week, but no changes would actually happen. Only now I think it's been manipulative.
Since I am a university student and a "gym bunny" I have less free time than one would expect and suddenly it was filled mostly by coming home doing chores before going to gym and then coming from gym and my GF would be still up and then she would be demanding for attention, mostly in bedroom. This is when I've also noticed that while guiding me in bedroom she never seemed eager to pleasure me in return unless I would specifically ask and so for days I tried not to ask and suddenly it was super one sided bedroom stuff and she seemed perfectly fine with that. That stung because it immedaitelly reminded me of my last 3 boyfriends where it was the same.
I held a lot of this in, trying to keep being disciplined and do all she'd like me to do and chores and everything more and better in hopes of her seeing more value in me. But it simply didn't happen, not over course of two plus weeks.
Well this weekend I was using her ipad, where she always logged off out of all social and communication apps when she wasn't using. I always thought it's a like... internet safety thing in case the device gets hacked or something. But this time her whatsapp and wechat was logged in and I simply discovered that while I am at school and she's "working" from home she's hooking up at least once a week with guys. Or at least mostly with guys I wasn't in the mood to read into too much detail, seeing texts of your presumeably loved sending very intimite and heartfelt texts to guys and reacting to their D pics and sending stuff back... I felt betrayed but so far I haven't said anything and the routine contiues to my own detrement.
From doing gymnastics on higher level for 10+ years I'm used to some discipline and manners that would now be probably consider abuse, but what I learnt from that was to be quiet a lot not to cause conflict and please people. Despite my previous relationships with guys being basically abusive it was eventually always them to dump me, I never had the guts to do it yet (not counting middle school lol). This time I recognize the problem and I would like to end things but at the same time I moved too soon (in hindsight) and have nowhere to go at the moment.
And so for weeks I felt like maid and for 4-5 days now I feel more like bang maid who's also stupid and naive and I couldn't contemplate a good .. like escape plan, that's why I am making this post. In the meanwhile I continue the same old routine unable to almost meet my GF's eyes, yet she seem strangely not noticing any change and looking quite happy. On top of that you probably can guess how I feel being at school, knowing there's a decent change she's out hooking up. It just all crushing my selfesteem yet I feel stuck in the routine and my head.
TLDR: GF is cheating, doesn't know I know, because I am scared to confront her since I have nowhere to go if I'd move out.

Recently my wife (32F) told me(35M) that her parents would be visiting us for three days. We live in a god forsaken place which has no tourist attraction or even a shopping mall. The town has a small market which caters for the requirement of locals.mm
Their train was suppose to arrive in the morning at 1000 hrs so i excused myself from my work place and went to recieve them at the station. I drove them home and we settled them in the guestroom. After dropping them home i left for office as i had to finish some work and then came back home in the evening . I spent 2-3 hours with my in laws chit chatting and discussing life in general.
The next day i asked her if she had plans any for her parents that day and she said there was nothing do in the town so she had not made any plans. I suggested her to take her parents to a well known shop in the city which is somewhat popular amongst visitors, but she refused saying her parents are coming from the capital and they don't need anything from that shop. Then somewhere around 1400 hrs in the afternoon i recieved a text from a friend who had returned from the US and was in town that day and was scheduled to leave at 2200 hrs the same day. He asked if we could meet for an hour or so. Now this person was a school friend of mine and it had been almost 17 yrs since i had met him.
So i again asked my wife if she has any plans with her parents and she said no. I told my friend that i'll meet him for an hour but then i'd to leave cus my in laws are in town. He was cool with it. We were suppose to meet at 1800 hrs so i left for the rv at around 1745 hrs and met my friend. It felt great meeting my classmate after such a long time and we started reminiscing about school days n what not. 15 mins into our conversation and i get a call from my wife that she was planning to go to the local golf course with her parents but now that i am not there she can't go. I told her i'll be free in some time and she can take her parents to the golf course and i'll meet them directly at the course. To which she responded that i should have never gone to meet my friend as her parents are there for only 3 days and i should have been there. I told her i'll meet her at the golf course as my frind was sitting right in front of me and could probably make out what was being said.
Within minutes i recieved a number of text msgs from my wife (few of them deleted before i could read them) staing that i haven't been paying attention to her parents and i should have been and what not. I had just told my friend that maybe i'll leave in 15 mins and be back with my wife before he leaves so he could meet her as well. But after reading her nasty text msgs i just canclled the plan and stayed with my friend for the pre decided hours duration. Once i reached home wifey was in bad mood and won't talk to me.
My in laws are sweet people and i don't mind spending time with them. But they are not very talkative and most of my conversations with them are filled with awkward silences.

I’m in my separation period at the moment and while I still have somewhere to live for now, it’s not going to last forever. I met a man a few months ago and we have been casually dating so I’ve told him about my divorce and my anxieties about the future. He offered me his spare room at his house.
Now, obviously there are concerns for the relationship. It’s too soon, we don’t know each other well enough yet, etc. Those are all anxieties in my mind already. But the prospect of having to move out of my home and having nowhere to go is causing a hell of a lot more anxiety.
Being on a single income which is seriously diminished due to a disability that has developed the past couple of years, with a cost of living and housing crisis, I don’t feel like I have a lot of options. The idea of living with a man for cheap rent makes me feel some kind of way though.
I don’t want to feel like I’m taking advantage of him financially, and he’s the one who offered very affordable rent and my own bedroom and bathroom. But I also don’t want to be taken advantage of, either. While I’m a very tidy person and I like to keep a clean living space, I don’t want to end up taking over all the domestic duties out of a sense of obligation because of how little I would contribute financially. I don’t want it to be an expectation, or a point of tension.
I feel like I’ve been transplanted into the life my grandmothers lived: no work, housewives, spending the days looking after their husbands and households. Fortunately neither of us have children.
I just never thought I would face a situation like this. I went to university. I’m still at university. I had a career, but I can’t work now or for the foreseeable future. I did everything I could to try and stand on my own two feet and here I am terrified of the future. I worked as hard as I could to be able to look after myself and it wasn’t enough.
Do I just swallow my pride and mask my pain and cross my fingers that it works out with him so I have somewhere to live longer term? Do I move in but we reduce our relationship to strictly housemates? Or do I take my chances hoping I can find a rental for myself in a market that has next to no availability and is out of my price range just so I can live alone and try to be independent? I feel so vulnerable and anxious.

I can't believe I'm even considering this, I know the answer already but I think I owe it to my family to get some external thoughts. Because maybe just maybe, I'm blind, or I'm making the wrong decision. This is a long post so settle down with a cup of tea.
An overview of my situation: I separated from my wife, but we live together with our 2 kids, a family friend and her new boyfriend.

In August last year, I discovered my wife had been taking a class B drug (ketamine). I was naturally concerned, she assured me it was for her mental health and she knew what she was doing. And that it was under control. She's not stupid, so I said well ok. But keep it away from the kids.
Over time, I saw changes in her she slept for hours and hours. Then one day, the kids tried to talk to her and she wouldn't wake up. I later discovered this was likely a K hole. I gave her an ultimatum, the drugs or our relationship. She chose the drugs.
Fast forward a little, we live in separate rooms; she basically keeps herself in her room all day except to go out to smoke. Her boyfriend also moved in, who hasn't caused much in the way of issues aside from not contributing to the rent. We agreed on who should pay what to the rent, and she paid double what everyone else did. Over time, the drug use has increased and she now takes a variety of class A and B drugs. I've obviously grown increasingly concerned.
I had, foolishly, assumed that when our relationship ended she would leave. And in fact, at one point, she agreed to, but now she's changed her mind.
She doesn't really bother with the kids, at all. She literally hasn't seen them for over a week. Our family friend does a lot in terms of child care, he will put them to bed if I'm at the gym, and feed them if I'm out or entertain one while the other is out with me etc. The family friend and my kids have a really lovely relationship.
Now here's where the issue is: I got a well paid job, I was absolutely over the moon, it was in the field I got my Master's degree in, in the industry I love, and I was good at it! I made no attempt to hide that I had a job, however I continued to pay half of what my ex-wife paid towards rent. I'd actually been saving the whole time I was working this job, and I chose to use the saved money to take my kids on holiday. This has really, really, annoyed her. And I get why, she feels that it was unfair of me to keep money rather than share. From my side, she pays less than half of her wages, so I feel like, I saved y'know?
My kids welfare is what's important here, so constructive critism is welcomed however hard I may find it to read (I don't need captain hindsight saying I should have used the money for court!)
But here's the personal dilemma I'm facing, she's told me I should move out, without the kids. I'm the primary carer; meaning I do the school run, the food, the groceries, the 6am wake up for football training and I even solo'd my son's 10th birthday party while she was in bed. On the flipside, she earns a lot of money and can afford things like housing and food without me even helping if she had to. I simply couldn't afford to without her.
I feel like, I can't leave because I'm not even sure it's safe for my kids, and all the effort I've put in to get tossed aside feels pretty brutal. But, they love the family friend and my ex has told me that although she can't look after them, her new boyfriend can as can our family friend. Basically I'm torn between: Leave the house that the kids grew up in, with their pets, near good schools in an affluent area, or, take myself out of the equation and leave the kids there. I mean, if I leave maybe she'll come off the drugs? I really don't know what's best for my kids

It’s really annoying that we get so close to finishing them and we don’t finish them. Plus, also I don’t give a crap about no anti-tank mines!!! Why can’t you guys give us the goods?!? the stuff we want or any other cool stuff instead?!? Come on devs :(!! Plus obviously we’re not gonna finish these objectives. This is insane. Look at your player account. I mean your actual active player account like people who actually play often…. Don’t make the objectives based on some steam player account of a some random day … they can’t even do this like come on, dude… I know for a fact, you guys can see who are the real players who play for a decent amount per week.. or a few days because your major order don’t last a week so I don’t know why you would go for per week demographics.. please don’t tell me you guys were basing ur major orders off random statistics/demographics based on more than 4-5 days… especially after the garbage you guys/sony pulled.. made us lose so many people.. not just cause of region locking or refunding. But cause u soured many people away. I don’t know who is in charge of that company… or who did this move but they’re so freaking dumb… I have no idea how much money they lost the company but I know it’s like a decent chunk. It could’ve gotten you guys like at least another 300,000 mansions…. You guys should definitely fire whoever did this crap because … it made the players lose out and made the devs lose out and made the company lose out.. It’s literally lose, lose, lose and all directions not a single win. And it really sucks because I mean you guys had so much momentum of pure wins… really sucks man.
TL;DR: why are the major orders seemingly dumb with both lame rewards & non realistic goals… the least they can do is give us cool shih & make them realistic after the crap Sony pulled.

So I (27f) and my ex (28m) share a beautiful little daughter (5f) our relationship didn't pan out but we co-parent quite efficiently. He has her at the weekends and I have her during the week which we mutually agreed to and have been doing for many years now.
Last year he took her on her first holiday abroad and she loved it! She loved going on the aeroplane and loved going to see the sights and just had a grand time which I was so thrilled for her. He said he wanted to take her again this year and I said that was a great idea and to keep me updated with it!
Well I recieved a message today stating that he'd booked the flights and hotel and they were going on so and so dates. Now he never got past the stage of saying he was going to take her away. He never told me that he was looking at these dates, he never said that he was thinking of booking or anything. He just booked it and told me he was taking her.
I'm annoyed for sure about the complete lack of communication about it all. He's planning on taking her out of the country for 8 days, one of those days is her older sisters birthday (my child, different father) which makes me even more annoyed as he knew it was her birthday and he knows that we celebrate as a family. He had no regard about if we'd even booked anything for her sisters birthday that included our daughter.
I in no way want to stop her from going on holiday because I know that ultimately it'll be my daughter who misses out on a great life experience and a really fun time but I feel really angry and upset that he's done this and has basically forced my hand into agreeing to let her go without running anything by me.
So reddit, AITA? I've had mixed reactions from everyone around me

Reflections... Sometimes my letters are reflections, capturing our little world. Which, despite us not being together romantically, I'm so happy to say exists. We have a world, you and me. We make a world, just us, where we laugh, fake argue (bc we have to because we don't have real arguments 🥲), think about each other. The world which has all of the things we've watched together, alone. All the slight touches and glanced from across the room. A world that has our whole history and a world which expands the very every single day we say hi. Just as a preface... I love our world! Time to reflect.
A couple of days ago i slipped. You caught me at one of those moments where my brain-mouth filter gets overwhelmed by my urge for you boiling inside and what i feel just comes out (no puns! Stop looking for one!!! 🤭).
We were talking about tension building, and i got so overwhelmed i blurted out something like... "Tension is built in the space between us which keeps me from tearing you apart". 😭 Which, when i realized what i said, i first thought, yo that's cool af 😆... But then immediately had to cover it up.
I wonder if you knew that was meant for you? I wonder if you also knew that it just came out, completely original off the top. 🤣🤣🤣 So original i was honestly shocked that i said it. You're not stupid I'm sure you know...
I wonder if you find it cute that sometimes i can't contain myself so much that it just happens. Like when i moved to sleep next to you. As a side note i hope you know there was no funny business. I swear i just felt a pull so strong i had to go sleep next to you. It was the only way i felt ok again. Literally like a magnet that is now at rest because the Attraction to the other magnet is complete. The two not being able to get any closer. 😊
977 days of talking to you every day since that trip where we finally reconnected for real. 977 days I love you. 977 days and my body literally rejects the Idea of missing even 1.
Good morning love. Love? Doesn't even cut it... Good morning my soul 💌
🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🦝

A few months ago, my building's committee organized a small party for everyone living in our building to bond. It included some dancing and singing at the beginning and ended with a fancy dinner. My father was in charge of the food. During the party, the food arrived before dinnertime to ensure it was fresh and was set up on the buffet table. My dad went over to check if everything was up to standard.
Unfortunately, my neighbor, who is also my classmate, was there. He’s known as the class clown and is quite popular on Instagram for the funny stuff he posts. He secretly recorded my dad and posted it on his story, labeling him as someone who only comes for the food and can’t even wait for it. He also mentioned that he was my dad and added goofy music in the background. The whole school saw it, and needless to say, the next day wasn’t pleasant. A few people mentioned it and brushed it off as a joke, but I was dying inside and knew I had to get back at him.
Now, this guy is terrible at math and knew he would fail finals if he didn’t cheat. His roll number was after mine, so he always had to sit behind me. Throughout the year, I helped him pass the exams, but now there was no way I was giving him any answers. He realized this just before the math exam and offered to pay me a few dollars if I helped him pass.
I couldn’t believe his audacity. Not only did he ask for help after making a joke about my dad, but his offer was also ridiculously low. I was about to cuss him out but instead said, "Sure, you don’t need to study at all. I’ll tell you all the answers to the multiple-choice questions and you’ll pass for sure."
The exam time came, and I gave him the answers. After the exam, I asked him for the money, and he laughed and said, "I’m not giving you anything. You really thought I would pay you?" I laughed back and said, "You really thought I would help you pass after what you did?" He was shocked and I told him every answer I gave him was wrong. His expression was priceless; I wish I could have recorded it and posted it on my story.
A few weeks later, the results came out and he scored a 3 in math. He obviously failed and would have to repeat the year. I could hear his father yelling at him. A few hours later, I went to his house and showed his dad a screen recording of the story he posted. His dad, already furious that he failed, became even angrier. He then proceeded to discipline him right in front of me. I left immediately; I initially felt a little bad, but it was so satisfying. Apparently his dad was so pissed that he permanently confiscated his phone

Title of the post makes it obvious, right? But I suppose I can spell it out more for you guys.
I’m 24m from London; a degree and a masters in Classics and Classical literature, used to thrive at school. Since I graduated I attempted to go down a more creative route; digital advertising, production, ect. But the job market has been stale. I’ve had a few jobs in the past year or so but it’s been hard to get anything going stable.
Meanwhile my twin sister is thriving; started some influencer thing that is making good money and is about to sign for some stake in a start-up where she’ll work small hours for great commission if it blows up. I’m proud of her, really, but it just reminds me I still haven’t found my feet yet.
Not having a job is really just all encompassing. It’s the pity that’s the worst; I hate being felt sorry for. The problem is, I think I’ll be great at whatever is offered to me, I just can’t seem to catch a break. Mindless scrolling and applying and cold phone calls and emails.
I’ve been in therapy for an over a year now, nothing clinical or assigned; I just started because I get anxious and depressed every now and then and wanted to get a hang on it. Sometimes I wonder if my parents think I’m weaker for going to therapy. What with the stigma and all.
I don’t really know. I’ve got support and all, it’s just tough feeling like the liability. Like wasted potential.

My son is 6. Going to be 7 in August. He’s always had some behavioral and developmental issues that we’ve been working on. All in all, he’s doing a lot better now than before we started getting help. Anyways, one of our bigger issues is still waking up in the morning for school. My husband and I are in the process of getting a divorce and he is still at home for another few weeks. (Trust me, the divorce has nothing to do with this particular issue bc my son has been this way since he started school).
My husband will dress my son completely, even while he’s still laying down in hopes of just getting out the house on time. I tell him this will one day backfire bc he’s getting used to having everything done for him. Today I tried to get him up, and of course, he wanted nothing to do with me. I told him that he needed to be able to do at least SOMETHING on his own bc he’s growing up. We also have a 2 year old and when my husband leaves, it’ll be harder for me to get them both ready, so I need my son to be able to at least get his clothes on. I have no problem helping my kid, but I think doing absolutely everything, including dressing him myself, at his age is a little ridiculous.
I can understand him wanting to be spoiled and be treated like a baby and mom and dad helping him. But it just doesn’t seem realistic every time. My soon to be ex husband will be gone soon and even though he’ll be by most mornings to help/drop him off at the bus stop, it still isn’t the same.
I even told my husband that if our son misses the bus, that’ll serve as his natural consequence even if it means me driving him to school. My husband was upset that I have this mentality. So….am I being to harsh?

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

As the title, my beloved mal Quake recently got in a very bad accident and took off a huge amount of skin and flesh from one of his front legs- so bad that in parts he had no skin that could be stitched back together. It’s infected and is going to require him going to the vet every 3-4 days currently to have to recleaned and bandaged.
This morning he chewed through a ridiculous amount bandage to get at some of it, thankfully my partner is a doctor and did what she could until the next visit on Friday.
Resultantly however, we have had to put the cone on him, and he absolutely hates it to a degree I’ve never seen. With my partner, He was refusing to eat/drink with it on, was skittish like I’ve never seen before and just a bit crazy. We took it off once I got home because I can pick him up and generally speaking I bring him comfort, but i can’t always be here. Especially as we have to go away for five days soon for our pre booked engagement party.
Has anyone else experienced this? I feel like it’s a mal thing, it could also be a quake thing (he was bred as an Air Force dog and I adopted him at 8 months, might give him unusual characteristics). Either way, looking for any ideas at all! Currently my plan is to take it off for a few hours once I’m home, and then put it back on and cuddle with him in bed immediately (his favourite place in the world is our bed, which is a rare treat usually).
Was going to ask the Vet for drugs too, but that’s never ideal.
Appreciate any help!

I've been trying to deconstruct my faith for the last year and a half. However, I haven't accomplished much. I've bought four books people have recommended on this sub, but I haven't had the time to read them. I've tried to read the Bible more critically, but I get bored after a chapter or two. I do enjoy watching YouTube videos from Genetically Modified Skeptic, MindShift, Belief It or Not, Prophet of Zod, etc. Those have given me food for thought.
I get so overwhelmed thinking I have to know all this history, science, and philosophy that I feel incapable of doing this. People told me I was a smart kid growing up, but the life couple of years have beaten me down to the point that I worry I don't have the time, patience, or critical thinking skills to do this. Also, I still have this paranoia about being misled, that either side (Christians vs. ex-Christians) is twisting things to back up their narrative. It's like I have an angel and a devil on my shoulders, but they switch roles depending on how I'm feeling. Sometimes, I think I should give up deconstructing and keep going to church because that's all I've known. At the same time, I don't want to do that. I want to think for myself, not mindlessly accept whatever the guy from the pulpit is saying.
I've reflected on why I decided to deconstruct. Questioning my sexual orientation was a huge reason (I'll expand on that in a different post at a later time), but the other big reason is I was feeling increasingly disconnected from my faith. In college, I was often sad because I thought God loved my friends more than me. I felt like they were doing everything right and he was blessing them. However, even though I was trying my best, I often felt like it wasn't good enough for God. Was I not trusting him enough? Was I not praying or reading the Bible enough? Was he disappointed I wasn't telling everyone about Jesus? I was also burnt out from doing church stuff all the time. Almost every day since my freshman year, I was at church, at a Bible study, serving the community with my ministry, etc. By the start of 2020, I was so exhausted I thought about not going to church anymore, or at least less often.
What really cut me like a knife was when a close friend ghosted me. They're beliefs became more extreme, so they decided to leave and tell me and all our mutuals that we're going to Hell if we don't get on the same path as them. I know they're an extreme person, and our relationship had been very rocky, but it still hurt that they essentially said we can't be friends because I'm not the right kind of Christian. Then, I started working with this Catholic guy at my first full-time job. I think he said only Catholics go to Heaven (please correct me if that's wrong, ex-Catholics). At that point, I want to throw my hands up and say, "Fuck this!" If we Christians couldn't agree on what this book says or what God wants, why the fuck should I let this dictate how I live my life? That was a major sign that I need to reevaluate what I believe. I don't want to live my life paranoid I'm going to burn in Hell if I don't live a particular way.
I know deconstruction takes time; it could take years. I'm just having a hard time being patient with myself and making time to do the work. I work evenings, so I'm drained when I get home at night. When I'm off work, I want to make time for my hobbies or just relaxing. I'm hoping to go back to school in the near future. I don't know how to fit deconstruction into my life. I also don't know how to navigate my relationships with people at church when I have this rift in my faith, and I'm hesitant to share what's going on.
Anyway, thanks for listening to my ramble. I've been needing to get this off my chest.

working for kroger right now, been here a little over a year and a half and guys i am beyond burnt out. i tried to leave about 6 months ago when they had me working 50 hr weeks working at hrs of the day that didnt at all fit my schedule. all while being in school at the same time. now im on the opposite end of the spectrum, i am being severely underworked to the point where affording life is just impossible. im ready to move onto something else and animals are my passion, thats actually what im going to school for too, to become a licensed vet tech:). if any of yall could just give me a run down of your day to day and your overall honest opinion of your job, good or bad, i would be insanely grateful! i hear so much dirt about petsmart so im a little worried but i think overall it would be a step up from where im at currently lol

Every time I meet someone new that I’m interested in, for the first few weeks or maybe months I’m obsessed with them. I find it way too easy to start caring about someone, start imagining our life together etc.
Then, after some time passes, I stop wanting to be around them. Sometimes it’s because someone else pops up in my life, sometimes it just feels like I’m bored and at other times it’s something about that person that suddenly starts to bother me (even if it didn’t bother me before or I was happy to look past it initially).
It gets even worse if someone from my family or close friends makes a comment about that person, and then all of their flaws that I previously ignored just become so apparent. This happens both with toxic people and truly nice, kind guys too.
It leads to a lot of heartbreak because I let people believe in something that’s not true, and I begin to distance away. When I was a teenager, I fell for a lot of toxic guys so falling out of love for them didn’t leave me feeling guilty. But these days when I date, it’s almost always super nice and normal guys that I don’t want to hurt. I always end everything on a positive note but I can tell I’ve hurt some people.
It’s not just about hurting others which is bad enough on it’s own, irs also the fact that now it’s making me terrified that I’ll never build a relationship or life with anyone.
My parents are together, I’ve been in long term relationships before, I believe in love. I think I just might be a bad person or delusional at this point because I truly don’t know why I do what I do
If you’re in a similar situation or you have any ideas as to what I can do to not do this, I’d be grateful!

Like we know the dark gods are the same people and play both universes at once as daemons like skarbrand and whatnot have crossed from fantasy to 40k and vice versa
But that begs the question of how a mortal turner daemon from fantasy looks to see he's in a realm of space travel and aliens with chainswords and bolters and doesn't just... implode from the sheer differences.
Also they would probably be kicking themselves for not coming up with the idea of chainswords and chainaxes in fantasy. Surely the chaos dwarfs and regular dwarfs would have a field day with the idea.

I am a senior in college, graduating next year. I decided to stay home due to the fact living on campus was going to be financially draining. I commute using one of my father’s cars and I am responsible for paying gas and help pay for the service of the car. My father has been upset because my new partner (who is also graduating next year) does not have his own vehicle and lives with his mother. He doesn’t like the fact that I as a woman, is driving a man around rather than him driving me around.
In a later argument, He tells me he does not want any man he does not know coming to his house or near his house (my first bf was allowed to even though he didn’t meet my father yet at the time) even though I was just trying to get something I left at the house while me and my partner were hanging out (he has a tracker in the car for “insurance purposes” so that’s why he knew where I was).
Multiple times I told him I’m okay with driving him around wherever we wanted to go since he’s saving for a car and takes the train to see me. He pays for lunch and offers gifts since that’s what he likes to do. I also told my father I would never bring my partner in the house unless he met him in respect of his boundaries.
But my father does not agree and told me I will not be able to use the car anymore and I am only allowed to drive unless it’s for work. He then wants to force me back onto campus to again, pay for housing in which was really difficult to do when I had to live on campus sophomore year. He believes this is the right decision so I can “focus on myself instead of some man” during the summer and once school starts again in the fall.
I’ve thought about not getting him any gifts for occasions like Father’s Day, and even not inviting him to my college graduation. I feel sick and tired of trying my best to respect him and be nice to him, but he gets to insult me and disrespect the people I care about in my life. But I would feel like the asshole since I still live under his roof and he pays for my phone bill, etc.

Hi everyone, this is my first post here!
I really need to talk to someone about my situation, I appreciate any feedback, encouragment, tools, book suggestions, etc.
Summary: I am low-contact (almost NC) with my parents and I feel very guilty about it.
How can you stay firm in your decision and find comfort in your friends? I feel I am the only person going through something this massive and I cannot stop thinking I am a horrible person for doing this to my parents.
Context:
I have been going low-almost no contact with both of my parents since July 2023 after something pretty bad happened.
Our relationship was always pretty bad, but in the past I have tried so hard to "fix myself" to make things work between us. I started to go to the school therapist at 14 (on my own, my parents never suggested it).
I am now 41.
From the outside, I had everything (financially we were pretty OK), but inside the house it was hell: screaming, shouting, loneliness. I was my mom's therapist from a very young age. My needs and my personal opinions were never considered.
I was scapegoated pretty early because I never complied to their view of the world (I am unmarried, atheist, no childred) and I had pretty "radical" views at the time (I now live in the UK, but I originally come from a very catholic country...).
I was the problem in my family, the only thing that was bad according to them.
I was not able to express my interests or my personal preferences, because they were "bad" and I was labelled as being the bad one ("why you are not like the other kids, what is wrong with you").
I was a very diligent student (classic over-achiever), but very lonely and had pretty severe anxiety (about school, about what was going home at home, etc...) and some learning difficulties, for which I never received any help for.
I discovered three years ago after a pretty severe burnout that I have ADHD and 6 months ago that I am also autistic. Very high-masking. My life collapsed after this burnout: I understood my job and working environment were pretty toxic, lost a bunch of friends, discovered I also had C-PTSD.
I am now in recovering and trying topivot to a new career path: I feel very privildged that I can count on my savings to sustain my recovery, though it is still pretty hard.
Problem:
My mother definitely needs mental health support (she never wanted to get help), she drinks and she has very violent ourbursts. She also lies and manipulates people (including my dad and I of course). She plays the victim, but in reality she controls the family. She is really unhappy and she cannot keep any friendships, she needs someone that will not
My dad's power is money. My mom stopped working when she met him, and of course she couldn't leave him and find a job. My dad also controlled me with money, but not anymore.
Even though over the past 6 years I started to go low contact (gradually, it took me many years to process their narcissism), last year one was my last straw: I asked my mom help for my autistic assessment (not telling her what was the form was for, I had to protect myself ) and she became incredibly angry and nasty at me, starting describing me as the most horrible child on earth (for the UK ASD assessment, they ask you a lot of info about your childhood, etc).
That was my last straw. I went no contact after that. I was going through an incredibly stressful moment in my life (burnout, 2 ND diagnoses, 2 intercontinental moves in less than 1 year and a half, losing friends and my job, etc) and still you don't want to help me. I never asked for help from her for anything, but I needed this and still she used it to remind me "what a difficult child I was". Well, I was neurodivergent, of course I needed help!!
They tried to contact me a couple of times, my dad defended her (despite the fact he was not present) and again telling me I was a horrible child and human being ("you have no compassion, we are old, you will regret it, you would have never get so far in life without our help, you are so ungrateful, etc....").
We had a conversation without her and he confessed me that my mom has severe mental health problems, and that I needed to live my life and be happy.
I managed to stay no contact, only talked to them for some burocratic things. I felt better and free for the first time.
The previous Sunday it was Mother's day, and I didn't call my mom. This is the first time I decided not to do it.
My dad called me the day after and he went so mad, accusing me again of being ungrateful and a horrible human being ("the other children are so lovely with their parents, why you are not like them", "you never hugged us", "therapy made you worse than before").
I am not copying well.
This is not obviously the first time they said these things (they were pretty regular growing up), but they still hit hard.
I know I am doing the right thing, but I feel very lonely and guilty. I love my parents, and I feel for them: they need help. I offered multiple times to go to therapy with them, to help to find therapy for them, any kind of help but my parents refused and still refuse it. My dad says that therapy is useless and made me worst.
He doesn't want to acknowledge my mom is an alcoholic. He doesn't want to get help for himself. He of course does not remember the conversation we had about my mom mental health, and negates she has problems.
I am worried for them, and I want to help, but I need to help myself first.
I have no words left, I just want to be OK and happy.
I know it is a very long post, but if you managed to stick with me, thank you!
P.s. I have been to therapy, I have plenty of tools. I just feel awful and I needed to vent because my support system is not enough and I feel I am the only one going through this. I know I am not.
P.s.1 I hope I didn't left any incompleted sentences: if I'll spot one, I'll edit it, and please let me know!

Using a throwaway for privacy.
I (33F) recently moved back to my home country with my husband (M36) and our kids (2,5). We lived abroad for 7 years so this was my first mother's day back in our home country where both my mom and MIL live.
I don't really have a relationship with my in laws mainly due to my husband and them having a complicated relationship (lots of boundary stomping on their part, especially MIL who is very controlling, he had a bad childhood due to MIL not letting him have friends or leave their home for anything other than school and many other reasons). Him wanting to get away from them was the main reason he moved to another country and he had been NC with them for 2 years at one point. Now that we live ~30min apart, we see them every 3-4 months for a maybe an hour and that's about it. My husband sometimes talks to them on the phone, I don't.
Now, the situation. On mother's day, my husband and kids made me breakfast in bed, kids also drew me pictures. After that, my sister picked me and my mom up and we went to a spa and later a restaurant. My kids also drew a picture for my mom (encouraged by my husband I'm sure). My mom posted said picture and some other moments from the day on social media, which she, just like many other middle aged women, often does.
MIL saw my mom's post on facebook and called me (for the first time ever) angry crying, blaming me for ripping her family apart and rubbing it in her face on facebook. She thinks I chose the restaurant we went to just to hurt her (it's very close to her home and I did not choose it, my sister did). Apparently my husband did nothing for her on mother's day. Honestly, I didn't think about her at all that day as we're not close at all. Neither did I tell my husband to include her in his plans as he's a grown man.
I feel really bad about her yelling at me and crying because I hate conflict. My husband told me to ignore it because it's typical behaviour from his mom. According to him, she was unable to get to him so now she's trying to manipulate me into doing what she wants. My sister, however, said I probably should have invited MIL to the restaurant because it's literally 1min walk from her apartment so of course she's hurt now. AITAH here?

Hello, I’m looking for advice to make the transition from omnivorous to vegan!
I play football (soccer) in an amateur team and we recently got relegated so I’m looking to improve my health, performance and help the world be a better place. I’m currently 88kg (194lbs), since I was bulking for the last 2-3 years mainly for strenght and some muscle gain (I was 72kg initially) and my height is around 184cm (around 6ft) and I want to cut to be around 77-78kg to improve my speed and my jumps.
I was in a contemplation phase for a long time, trying to turn vegan several times during this last year, being able to last 2 weeks at best, however I always gave up to cravings like a piece of cheese. So any advice from someone who also had a rough time with their transition would be welcome!
I would like to know some good exercices to improve explosive strength or some leg workout more sport specific if you know about one since the one I’m sticking to is more focused on bodybuilding and also some ideas on how to distribute macros (I estimated that I need about 120g of protein to not lose too many muscle mass and I don’t really know if I’m correct), how to complete proteins (because I guess I will be eating mostly beans and wholegrains), some meal ideas, if I need to distribute my macros differently on match days and some myth busting about this topics.
Thanks in advance!