Hey there! I am a 30 year old guy from Upstate New York looking for someone that wants to make an emotional connection.
A bit about me: I'm 6’1". I get height can be a big deal for some women so I think it's best to just put it out there first 😅 I've got black hair, brownish black eyes. Average body, I'm muscular and wanting to start exercising both for health and a little bit for better shape. I like to think I'm fairly attractive but then most of us grew up with a relative always telling us we were not handsome or cute, etc. we can share pictures once we establish some comfort zone. If education is important, I am a college graduate with post-graduation degree as well. Now working as an engineer.
I have to lead with the fact that I can be pretty sarcastic at times. I also joke and (playfully) tease. I'm pretty easy going/chill and I like to keep things light and fun, but also enjoy getting into the really deep conversations as well. I'm a sucker for the whole good morning and goodnight text thing as well as checking in on those busier days. That doesn’t mean we have to just message good morning and good night for the whole week. Haha. I think most important part of knowing someone via online platform is initial conversations and if you don’t have enough time let me know otherwise that conversation is dead in no time.
I love animals. I've always felt very connected and attached to them and just enjoy interacting with them. While I am more of a dog person pet-wise, cats are still pretty cool in my book. Cats are more complex though I love the mysterious nature.
Anything outdoors is great in my opinion. Just feel like going for a walk? Let's do it. I do kayaking a bit in the summers, fish, hike, go for drives. I have the habit of occasionally stopping and taking pictures of plants and flowers I see around (I'm always down to share!). While sending me message write code - “I4U” so that I know it’s someone who actually read my post. Didn’t write in the end cuz some people might just skip to end. This doesn’t mean that you just send me the code. I am strictly gonna monitor now. I have skimmed through soo many texts and my innocent heart always gives chances, I am gonna try to be little strict this time.
It's not just the outdoors I love. I can also get down with chill days at home binging something on Netflix or playing something on my PC. Let's face it, I'm a bit if a nerd (everyone has something nerd about themselves) and if you like Jurassic park, board games, Any Mafia movies, gaming, etc we will get along great. I'm a sucker for horror movies as well and am always looking for recommendations. I listen to a lot of music. I shouldn’t brag but I listen to english ,german, Spanish, french and Hindi songs. Born and brought up in India. Hence, hindi songs.
A bit about (possibly) you: I'd prefer if you were in some sort of professional environment and ambitious. I'm not extremely picky about things like hair and eye color. Height is also not a big deal. If you're alot smaller than me and worried that it's something you’ll be insecure about, it's not. The big thing for me is personality. I think personality can make us a lot more or a lot less attractive. I want someone that is genuinely kind and sweet, someone that likes to laugh, someone that's not afraid to be goofy.
A final note: I'm a single guy and looking for someone dynamic. Sometimes I can respond immediately and sometimes it takes a minute due to the obvious circumstances. I also don't expect you to respond immediately to every message, I get that we all have lives and can be busy at times. It would be awesome if you are up for a voice chat. And please when responding write something about yourself.
If any if this sounds remotely interesting to you, feel free to reach out via reddit dm or chat!

Ok, i know that the title might meet you judgemental before you even read the whole thing but just wait to leave read the whole thing before actually reaching a conclusion. I'm going to narrate a long story. I started dating for boy who makes it very clear that he has pure intention of just a good time and nothing serious but then we had really good physical attraction so we continue the date for 2-3 months. Then then he got a job and before moving out of the city he tells me not to have high hopes he does not trust himself to be a very loyal person to me when I am miles away. And naturally lose all hopes and feel stupid, disrespected and kind of unworthy... Terribly upset. After he moves away, he maintains contact.... unexpectedly his calls are long, regular, daily and full of heartfelt conversations. I find him sharing every detail and calling me during all breaks and lunch hours from office. I find myself constantly checking his Instagram and Facebook because my faith in him was seriously shaken... He comes to visit me after 6 months, takes me on regular dates during his visit but I had bruised my ankle that time and while I limped to see him....it does not occur to him to drop me at my door insted of my regular spot from where it was easier for him to take a U turn. These small incidents keep happening, he cancelled date on a rainy day when I was half way through in ankle deep rainwater, he refused to receive me at the station when visited him because it was night and he didn't know what to tell his parents even after he had already introduced me to them as his gf. He would tell me almost everything over calls and that included the description of bodies, faces, smiles and hairs of his female colleagues in the city he was in. The things he did weren't big deal breakers but they constantly added to my belief that he actually doesn't love me. He only finds me suitable. And neither was I in love with him as I was constantly looking for red flags and I lacked love to make me see the good natured guy in him...he never had shouted at me, no violence, he sent gifts all the time, he called and checked in always, he complimented me, held my hands always, took me to all his favourite food places, made me meet his folks and friends.... I broke up right when our parents stated talking about our marriage (we made our parents meet). I was afraid to be married to someone who wasn't actually in love with me, and I believed I deserved better. He got married after 6-8 months of our break-up. I keep watching his Instagram, i wonder why hasn't he posted any marrige pic or anything... He used to tell me he'll post the best marriage pic of us on his insta....he is a blogger and has big followers... Now guys, did I do the right thing? Or was he the one that got away? I feel like a bitch now...was I?

I originally planned to write a comment in u/Mindless-Base8597’s current thread about our thoughts on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, just a handful of bullet points, but I am legitimately insane and I could not stop. And I have a major league passion for this IP, so I figured I would dump all my thoughts in here on the off-chance that some of you solid choombattas would give it a skim and share your opinions. There’s probably going to be overlap with a lot of thoughts others have introduced, but maybe there will be some ideas that challenge them too. There's also going to be alot of tabletoppish stuff as well, which I hope resonates with some people but I know it's not for everyone. I also understand that alot of these ideas may not even be plausible considering the work it'd take to implement them, however this game is going to be baking in the oven of development for several years and technology is advancing faster and faster day by day, so who knows. Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to click on my big ol wall of text and I hope my ideas can provoke some thought-bounceage, simultaneous dreaming or at least some mild entertainment.
THINGS I THINK THE SEQUEL MUST HAVE:
Crew building: The tabletop Cyberpunk is designed for a group of players that work together to do stuff, therefore the player should be involved in these kinds of team-oriented jobs in which they carry out their role. The concept of crews is well-established in the lore and game world, and would be a very welcome addition as a gameplay mechanic, especially given the focus on the crew in Edgerunners. It can be managed with slots via a “Crew” tab in the menu and your Street Cred could be the metric by which it expands. In 2077, Street Cred was bound to unlocking gear for some reason, which doesn’t make a lot of sense, because which Night City vendor is going to turn away eddies just because they think the customer doesn’t have enough street cred? Pretty asinine when you think about it. Maybe you start off with just one friend in your crew and as you gain Street Cred, you unlock more slots until you can have 5 or 6 other chooms you can be tight with and carry out jobs together. They could be fleshed out characters you can get attached to, and/or disposable replaceable gonks given how easy it is to die for nothing in Night City. A crew hangout or hideout where you get together and plan operations would also be fuckin nova.
Character networking: We see V making friends and contacts in 2077, and in Phantom Liberty we see V contacting them for help. It would be very cool to see more of this implemented in a broader scope. If we've got a job to do from a fixer or a task we have to accomplish in the story, but we're not equipped to storm in and handle it ourselves, maybe we call some buddies or hire someone from.. I don't know, Afterlife (you know, the mercenary bar full of mercenaries that are looking for work). We need some recon done, call up your crew’s netrunner and pay them for a quick rundown. We need information, we call up the fixer in whatever district we need the info for, and they have us do a task for them, pay them, or direct us to someone else to get the info. Networking can obviously also factor into crew building as well.
Player agency: I’ve only played a little handful of Phantom Liberty so far, but wow, they’re firing on all cylinders with this. Three moments stick out to me so far where I had the option to talk it out and make decisions, but was still allowed to bring my weapon up, and was able to just waste the threat on the spot mid-sentence. Now that’s what I call agency. I don’t think this simply just a want or an idea, I think it’s a given that more of this approach will be taken in the sequel if the way they handled it in Phantom Liberty tells us anything. More ways for us to really decide what we do.
A humanity system: Another cue from Edgerunners, where humanity was a big deal. If we're not playing as V, we don't have the Relic in our head, and that's something that has to be considered. They kinda put it in 2077 in part with the rage state mechanic but that's all the way at the top of a skill tree, and doesn't put you on MaxTac's radar or have any consequences. If modders can implement it into 2077 in their free time, CDPR can do it too.
Cosmetic and visual cybernetics: Come on choom, speaks for itself. Needs to happen. The Arasaka Cyberarms mod shouldn’t have to exist in a world where there’s droves of cyberarms just hanging around and laying in boxes. Give us subdermal LEDs (which are just junk for some reason). Neck/throat cyberware, ear cyberware, chest cyberware, lip cyberware, we want all of that. Such a standard thing for this world and adheres firmly to the rule of cool. Also when we chrome up, whether it’s functional or cosmetic, what cyberware we choose should appear on our person when appropriate. I wanna see that sandevistan protruding from my back. I wanna see that frontal cortex implant that gets me mad crit chance on my temples. And so on and so forth.
Separate tattoo locations: What if I just want one tattoo on my only 'ganic bicep? What if I like one part of a face tattoo but don't like the other stuff it comes with? Shouldn't have to use a mod for that. A tattoo artist isn't ever going to tell you "yeah, I can do that one on your arm, but I also have to put a snake on your whole torso" no matter how gonked off of secondhand drugs he is.
Regarding the story: We at least need a player character that isn't bound by the ludonarrative dissonance of impending death on a timer. If we've got a chip in our head that's gonna kill us in an urgent time frame, we shouldn't want to be hustling around the city buying luxury cars, participating in boxing matches and doing work for the police. Other than that, I don't care. CDPR are master storytellers, they'll make it and I'll like it. No good endings though, not in Night City.
Common sense fixers: Why on earth would a fixer hire a loud merc to do a quiet job? If you haven't spent any points in stealth skills, if you don’t have silencers in your stash, if you don’t have optical camo, etc., then fixers should not obligate you to carry out solo infiltration jobs where discretion is key. It just sets the player up to be chastised and paid less. They should simply not consider you for the job, but instead give you a different way you can contribute to the job. More on this later.
More functional optics cyberware: There’s no reason our Kiroshi optics shouldn’t be able to flick into thermal infrared or night vision mode if we buy a model with that feature. Why we weren’t available to buy optics with these features in 2077 is beyond me. A corp like Kiroshi has definitely entered this market.
Weapon customization: This is another no-brainer. Your weapons are an extension of yourself. You should get a say in what they look like. If I use Fenrir in 2077, why do I have to have that god awful Maelstrom logo on it when spraypaint clearly exists? At the very least, they should be fully cosmetically customizable. If you’re a techie, you should have the ability to tinker on them and fine tune them how you like, too. If you’re not a techie, there's good incentive to go make friends with one or have one in your crew. Might have a think about having your character just choose one or two weapons in the beginning and then you have to stick with them for the whole game as a component of your character, and those will be your special guns and your special guns alone. We pretty much do this anyway if we make a character build in 2077. Just like any characters we meet that carry and use their own iconic weapons, your one or two weapons will be YOUR special iconics and you can modify/have them modified to your tastes with progressively better stats, custom tuning, appearance customization and weapon effects of your choice. Jackie had two pistols and a machete that were definitively HIS hallmark weapons and components of HIS character and personality. Obviously you can use other iconics too, but they will never be YOURS. Yeah it does kind of cripple the freedom, but in a sensible way because it forces you stick to your role, make your character truly important and unique like they should be in an RPG. Plus it's kind of gonk for a corpo counterintel character to be using a sniper rifle all game and then decide they want to start using a katana without having spec'd into reflexes. What would you even do with a katana if your job has always been quickhacking and shooting from a city block away? An illusory freedom that wouldn't be missed for long, imo.
Meaningful vendors: I can play a whole character start to finish in 2077 without buying anything from a point of sale except for the odd trip into a clothing store. Even then, there’s clothes laying around for free all over the place. All of these gun shops, eateries, netrunner supply jams, junk shops, are pretty much useless. Find a way to involve them in the gameplay. Maybe some biz owners have work for you and unlock the real preem shit after you’ve increased your rep with them? Maybe you did a job that inadvertently allowed a proprietor to get a hold of some unique cyberware in their stock. Maybe you buy enough junk from a guy and he decides to sign an exclusive deal with you where he regularly sends junk shipments to your techie, who is in turn able to craft more things for you. Set up a gun dealer with a line on cost-effective components, I reckon they might be elated with the profit that they're gonna turn and maybe they've got something special for you in the back. I also noticed a vendor in Dogtown that asked if we're shopping for a Christmas present or to equip a small army. A merchant like that would be pretty valuable for someone who runs a crew that needs equipment.
Attention to economy balance: 2077 gets to a point really fast where eddies don’t mean a thing. One, because there’s not much to buy after you chrome up to whatever build you’re going for and you have all the cars and apartments you want. Furthermore, you can make more money in 10 minutes of murdering unmarked gangbangers on the map and selling their guns than you do in an actual gig. Make the Eurodollar important. Make it scarce. Think about introducing a technological macguffin that locks weapons to their owners like MGS4, not preventing you from taking them for disassembly but preventing you from selling them for easy money. You’re in a bleak, gnarly trash-ridden, sex-crazed psychotic neon dystopia where humans kidnap other humans to chop them up for XBD sales and cyberware/organ harvesting, people are enslaved in broad daylight and resigned to truly fucking heinous existences as sex and torture objects, and lives are routinely brutally ended over paltry sums of eddies. Only corpos live that high life, and even then, they're never truly safe. Make the eurodollar live up to the lore.
Trauma Team: Kind of speaks for itself but if we're neck deep in eddies, we aughta be able to invest in a Trauma Team coverage package. Instead of a game over screen and a reload from a checkpoint, why don't we implement this chef kiss worldbuilding into the actual gameplay? Don't let it go to waste.
THINGS I THINK WOULD BE INTERESTING:
Meaningful lifepaths/tabletop roles and gameplay implications: In 2077, we get the choice between three lifepaths: Nomad, Streetkid or Corpo. The tabletop roles include Rocker, Solo, Media, Nomad, Netrunner, Techie (can be combined with MedTech), and Corpo (I excluded Fixer and Lawman excluded for gameplay and narrative reasons). Gigs should be predominantly focused around these roles, allowing for some extreme diversity. The gigs that fixers give you should be the same for every character, but what you are doing in them will be different depending on your role. For instance, you're a rocker (rocker could mean rappeDJ/whatever too at this point), your role in the gig might be running interference or causing a diversion so the solos can make a hit. You're a netrunner, you're disabling security systems and providing recon for the rest of the crew. You're a media, you've gotta interrogate the miniboss at the end or slide your friend a story to air that will get the opposing faction's attention. You’re a nomad, you’re cutting off enemy reinforcements with your cool vehicle before they get to the gig site. Bang, now you've got ridiculous degrees of replayability, and not only do you have gigs that are far deeper than sneaking in/killing everyone and taking something after a quick one-sided phone call, your lifepath is meaningful and you don’t even have to live out a short intro for it. Maybe this is an implausible pipe dream because it might mean CDPR has to design every gig like 9 times though. But I'm sure many players would agree, less gigs is a totally acceptable tradeoff for higher quality. There are 81 gigs in Cyberpunk 2077 (I think). I would easily agree to chop that number down to 20 or 25 if they could implement this degree of depth, and encourage replayability so you get to experience these gigs from multiple angles.
In any case, this is going to limit players severely in what they can and can't do as far as their abilities go, but in a good way. It's going to up the RPG factor big time and make the player commit to the role they've chosen. Sure, now you can't do everything, you have a skill set limited to your chosen expertise, and it might be narrow, but.. good thing you'll have a crew that makes up for it! Need to craft stuff but you're not a techie? Get one in your crew. You a netrunner that can't handle the heat of firefights? You need a solo or two. Are you an ugly dirty nomad who hasn't had a hot shower for a few months and nobody wants to get near you? Get a hot, cool rocker to handle your social situations for you. So on and so forth.
Thoughts on tabletop attributes: I think they did a preem job adapting Cyberpunk 2020's tabletop attributes to 2077. It doesn’t need to be changed, really, but there are little ways they could make it evolve a bit so it’s not the exact same. The tabletop attributes are Intelligence, Reflexes, Tech, Cool, Attractiveness, Luck, Body and Empathy (excluded Movement Ability for obvious reasons). CDPR could think about how to implement the attributes they didn’t in 2077. Like Cool or Attractiveness functioning like Charisma in other RPGs, or being somehow related to your clothing. Hard to think about because clothing is so subjective, but it's the rule in Cyberpunk that you have to look as cool as possible and even if you fuck up, you have to make it look like you meant to fuck up. Empathy could be a stat that determines how well your can read people, tell if they're lying to you or not. Maybe the player can have one of those clothing store workers or a Mox contact appraise their Attractiveness and have them assign some kind of tasks to increase it? It's good the way it is now but just something to think about.
Vehicle customization: It’d be cool to have access to this via a garage or chain of garage businesses to trick out our vehicles cosmetically and functionally. Better yet, if you have a nomad in your crew/are a nomad, that you’d have access to exclusive modifications that will be available to utilize for gigs or just for aesthetics.
Gig preparation: Gotta intercept a convoy? Good idea to hit up your nomad choom first if you have one, and get him to install a custom EMP switcheroo in your offroad rig, or pay his buddies to set up spike strips lest you have to figure out a way to bring it to a halt the hard way. Pulling off a gig where you know there will be a big NCPD response? Best get equipped with an advanced area radio scrambler. This can kind of tie into your role-specific gig executions too. For instance, a rocker might have to go acquire some glitter and figure out a way to distribute it to the enemies on the site before the job so they’re all twacked out when the rest of the crew comes. This should also tie into the networking, more of utilizing your friends and acquaintances. Friends with the codefreak watching the Maelstrom warehouse? Give em a call, pay them/trick them/otherwise convince them to take the day off.
Role-specific activities: Just simple radiant quest-ish things that pertain to your lifepath that don't infringe on the story. Jobs that don't need to be facilitated by a fixer, jobs you get via phone or a job site on the Net. Solos could have radiants where they pick up a quick huscle job to provide overwatch for a deal, or go repo something. Rockers need to slap up gig posters and get secure lines on designer drugs for the clubs they play. Medias need to get requested footage or conduct a short interview. Netrunners doing security audits or subnet infiltrations. Stuff like that. In addition to eddies, players would also be gaining XP for their role that unlocks lifepath-specific bonuses that make you better at your role in gigs. Maybe an experienced team member can have access to different approaches in them, or get better rewards.
Tabletop skills: In the final version of 2077, we’ve got skills such as Headhunter, Shinobi, Netrunner, Solo, Engineer. The tabletop skills relevant to gameplay could be Authority, Awareness (or Perception), Athletics, General Knowledge, Interrogation or Streetwise. Perhaps some of these could be implemented, as Netrunner, Solo and Tech are already roles. Roles could give accelerated XP gain to these if they pertain. For instance, a corpo is going to eventually be really good with Authority, a solo is going to be really streetwise, etc.
Tabletop motivations: This might be a VA budget nightmare depending on how they'd run it, but when you create a character in the tabletop, there's criteria such as the thing your character values the most (money, honor, power, etc), your personality traits, how you feel about people, your upbringing, etc. CDPR is smart. If anyone can find a way to cleverly implement even light aspects of this, it would be them. You could be given small drip feed rewards for adhering to your character’s standards. Maybe your character is “stable and serious” which allows you to start with a bonus to Cool. Maybe they’re “friendly and outgoing” which would open speech checks with likeminded NPCs as a way to possibly advance in a mission or establish a contact. Maybe they’re “rebellious, antisocial, violent” so they get a slight damage bonus.
Gang/Corp relations: Doing a lot of work for a specific gang or corp? They should like you better and show it because it’s in their best interest that you are succeeding. Maybe they send some money shards or weapons from time to time, maybe they give you specific rewards, maybe they lend you someone you can add to your crew, maybe you can call some of them for backup in a fight or a deal or a gig. But if they don’t like you, you might want to rethink passing through their territory, have a plan or expect them to send someone to take you out. Or if you’re cool with them, maybe you can call on them to offload stolen goods you "found". Also note that all of the gangs in Night City in 2077 are completely fucking abhorrent except for one. Maybe they can create some new gangs or resurrect some left out gangs from prior lore. Incorporate some gangs that aren’t inherently nefarious, it'd be a good way to pick up some work for a new merc with no rep.
Neighborhood notoriety: If you're running around helping people all day in an community, guarantee they're all talking to eachother about it. Same if you're running around killing people all day. You could be respected as a protector of the district, or feared as a specter that will flatline whoever for being in the way. Westbrook vendors might give you discounts for breaking them free from Tyger Claw protection. Watson clubs might refuse to let you in if you zeroed some of their talent, or they might call the cops on you in SanDom just because they saw you wipe 6th Street party and they're scared. Maybe you'll get free synth noodles from a certain stand simply because the owner is scared to charge you anything. Maybe people should notice what you do and act accordingly, if your character's goals are anything like V's and every other aspiring merc in Night City. Maybe try to put your gun away before you talk to someone, lest they see a gun in their face and consider disliking you.
Think about stashing your money: If I'm a criminal in Night City where the cops don't do shit and I just watched you dump 30 legendary weapons into an automated sale box in Northside at night and it spit out a quarter million eddies, I'm going to flatline you instantly when you're not looking and electric slide over to the nearest dollhouse and live there for the next year. If I'm a netrunner and I scan you sitting in a booth at a club and see how loaded you are, I'm going to tell my crew and they're going to show up behind you next time you have to take a piss. If I watch you give Garry the Prophet 40 thousand eds, I'm following you down the stairs to Vik's but you're not gonna make it there. Maybe don't run around with millions of eddies on your cred chip. Keep your scratch safe at a safe in your crew's hangout and they can use it when they need it to upgrade their gear, acquire intel, hire huscle, upgrade your digs, whatever. It's Cyberpunk 2077, there's a whole ass net and you can buy your neon windbreakers and tight leather pants online from the safety of wherever is safe for you.
THINGS I THINK WE COULD DO WITHOUT:
NCPD scanner nonsense: Bounties for higher profile criminals would be fine, as the NCPD is generally really down bad on their budget and manpower, and can hardly control anything as it is. They could be accessed via the net. But just running around taking care of all of their business for them? No, choom, don’t be doing their job for them when they’d just as soon lock you up, zero you, or get you entangled in some corruption fiasco where you’re a loose end. No way. Don’t work for the badges unless it's in a gig facilitated by a fixer, it’s never worth it. Wipe these encounters entirely and put that energy and labor into something else.
Carry weight issues: Alright if we're chromed to the gills it makes sense that we can carry alot, but even so, who carries around 20 guns and 8 melee weapons on their person when you can only have 3 equipped? I think it should be toned down, and that would also benefit the economic immersion aspect of the sequel. If we run into a Tyger Claws hangout and massacre everyone, how about we call our crew to come pick through the shit off the ground instead of picking it all up ourselves and lugging it to a sale box? Also..
Effortless disassembly anywhere: If we're a techie, we're likely breaking things down into components all the time if we don't need them, putting them into the crew's pool. But why are we doing that in the middle of a Tyger Claws basketball court that we just slaughtered in broad daylight? At least take them to the trunk of your car, or better yet, your workbench back at HQ. If we're not a techie, well what are we doing trying to tinker with stuff? Go bring it to your hangout so your techie or nomad can take a look at it. Makes your lifepath and your crew choice matter more.
Regarding acting talent budget: Keanu and Idris knocked it out of the park, they are incredibly good at what they do, but CDPR should consider reallocating that Hollywood budget into other things. If they have to get celebrities, they don’t have to go all the way to Hollywood. There's a giant pool of very charismatic entertainers they could pick up, but the IP is ubiquitous enough at this point that they simply don't need the marketing boost from Hollywood star power. There are plenty of huge, well-known well-loved faces out there in the world of entertainment (music, youtube, comedy, athletics, journalism) that are avid gamers themselves would likely be thrilled to participate in the game that wouldn’t require a Hollywood paycheck. I could write more all day on tons of excellent looks for these roles, but I’ll save it for another time.
Regarding romance options: Might get heat for this one because romance options are nigh required in open-world RPGs, but I want a setting or at least a dialogue option to friendzone romance options right off the bat without losing story outcomes. Romance IS a possible factor in tabletop character creation but some people just aren't into it. Some people just want to be friends, too, and that's also very valid. Nudity and mature content is a given, obviously Cyberpunk is not a family friendly world and there's a modern understanding that games with adult content and gratuitous violence are going to be graphic. All I'm saying is it's fucking weird when I'm playing this game and my wife walks by and sees POV footage of my character splacking with moaning and gyrating tits. Makes me uncomfortable. Maybe just a problem for me, whatever. Simple options about it would be nice, something better than just slapping underwear on the models. Fade to black is such an easy solution.
Flying cars: Probably going to catch more heat for this too, because this is something everyone raves over, but I don’t find it necessary at all. Most AVs are generally autopiloted anyway and most Night City airspace is reserved for corporations, and introducing manual flying vehicles would a) totally undermine the existence of ground vehicles and b) result in a colossal psychocyberlibertarian airborne clusterfuck without an entire extensively supported NCPD air traffic control division, and from a lore standpoint, they just don’t have that kind of juice. And there’d have to be landing pads and AV parking all over the place, unless for some reason we are the only person in Night City that has a flying car; in which case, that just makes no sense. We'd be on the radar of every other freak that wants a flying car and they'd be itching to kill us and take it. Not to mention how many gangs and psychopaths would shoot it out of the sky for fun. Might as well just fast travel at that point, chooms. I’ll say it’d be a good idea for your crew to somehow acquire an AV for use in jobs, but just to fly around in a car? And do what? Look at shit from far away? Unnecessary.
Consumables: We don’t really need to be carrying around 47 cans of NiCola, 91 burritos, 20 containers of RAM Jolt, 75 slices of locust pizza, etc. in our pockets/invisible backpack/up our asses. Eliminate them entirely, instead replacing the whole concept with food stalls and eateries where you can order and immediately take a seat to consume an appropriate selection of a menu item that grants you a temp buff depending on what you order. Vending machines are strewn about all over the place and most players buy something once just to see what happens. Give those places a reason to exist.
Map marked collectibles: Collectibles are great but when you just scatter them on the map with map markers like the tarot graffiti, it just feels like a chore. It's the first thing I do after Konpeki, just driving around getting all the tarot spots just to get them out of the way. Consider erasing those map markers and making hidden collectibles much more valuable. Night City is an amazing world space, incentivize it's exploration.
Multiplayer: There should be no multiplayer BS involved if it’s going to take away from the singleplayer experience in any way, especially if CDPR has to piss swaths of their budget away for it. At the very most, make some kind of PvE jam accessed as side content. There are many players in the world with subpar internet connections, including myself, and they should not have to deal with connection issues for a singleplayer game. Having players roving the map at the same time as yourself is just going to turn it into GTA5 with griefing and other such bullshit, and make it so the game is unable to be paused, and I do not want to be bogged down dealing with other people’s children or hackers (players, not in-world adversaries) dicking with my shit. Also consider that an anti-cheat would have to be utilized and I don’t want CDPR to have to redirect any budget to be maintaining it to defend the game from people who just want to fuck it up. Lastly, keep singleplayer gaming alive. Look at all this fucking shit I wrote. Do you think I have friends? Not all of us have or even want a gang of friends/online strangers to be involved when we game. Play multiplayer games if you like multiplayer games, no need to make this singleplayer masterpiece into an online fuckfest when there's a hundred other popular online fuckfests going on.
IN CONCLUSION Thanks so much for reading or even skimming through this mess, chooms. Whether you like my ideas or hate them, I live in a world where not alot of people listen to me when I talk, so it actually does mean alot to me that you bothered to even click on this, for what it's worth. Even if you see something in that clusterfuck that made you go "no way, get real." Anyway, hope you’re having an awesome day, and if you’re not, I hope it gets better posthaste because you are, in fact, important. Also if anyone from CDPR sees this, feel free to steal all of my ideas for free.

Hey there! I am a 30 year old guy from Upstate New York looking for someone that wants to make an emotional connection, and would like to put efforts into conversations.
A bit about me: I'm 6’1". I get height can be a big deal for some women so I think it's best to just put it out there first 😅 I've got black hair, brownish black eyes. Average body, I'm muscular and wanting to start exercising both for health and a little bit for better shape. I like to think I'm fairly attractive but then most of us grew up with a relative always telling us we were not handsome or cute, etc. we can share pictures once we establish some comfort zone. If education is important, I am a college graduate with post-graduation degree as well. Now working as an engineer.
I have to lead with the fact that I can be pretty sarcastic at times. I also joke and (playfully) tease. I'm pretty easy going/chill and I like to keep things light and fun, but also enjoy getting into the really deep conversations as well. I'm a sucker for the whole good morning and goodnight text thing as well as checking in on those busier days. That doesn’t mean we have to just message good morning and good night for the whole week. Haha. I think most important part of knowing someone via online platform is initial conversations and if you don’t have enough time let me know otherwise that conversation is dead in no time.
I love animals. I've always felt very connected and attached to them and just enjoy interacting with them. While I am more of a dog person pet-wise, cats are still pretty cool in my book. Cats are more complex though I love the mysterious nature.
Anything outdoors is great in my opinion. Just feel like going for a walk? Let's do it. I do kayaking a bit in the summers, fish, hike, go for drives. I have the habit of occasionally stopping and taking pictures of plants and flowers I see around (I'm always down to share!). While sending me message write code - “I3U” so that I know it’s someone who actually read my post. Didn’t write in the end cuz some people might just skip to end. This doesn’t mean that you just send me the code. I am strictly gonna monitor now. I have skimmed through soo many texts and my innocent heart always gives chances, I am gonna try to be little strict this time.
It's not just the outdoors I love. I can also get down with chill days at home binging something on Netflix or playing something on my PC. Let's face it, I'm a bit if a nerd (everyone has something nerd about themselves) and if you like Jurassic park, board games, Any Mafia movies, gaming, etc we will get along great. I'm a sucker for horror movies as well and am always looking for recommendations. I listen to a lot of music. I shouldn’t brag but I listen to english ,german, Spanish, french and Hindi songs. Born and brought up in India. Hence, hindi songs.
A bit about (possibly) you: I'd prefer if you were in some sort of professional environment and ambitious. I'm not extremely picky about things like hair and eye color. Height is also not a big deal. If you're alot smaller than me and worried that it's something you’ll be insecure about, it's not. The big thing for me is personality. I think personality can make us a lot more or a lot less attractive. I want someone that is genuinely kind and sweet, someone that likes to laugh, someone that's not afraid to be goofy.
A final note: I'm a single guy and looking for someone dynamic. Sometimes I can respond immediately and sometimes it takes a minute due to the obvious circumstances. I also don't expect you to respond immediately to every message, I get that we all have lives and can be busy at times. It would be awesome if you are up for a voice chat. And please please when responding write something about yourself.
If any if this sounds remotely interesting to you, feel free to reach out via reddit dm or chat!

Date: 06/07/2024

Reading time: 3 minutes, 794 words

🪖 Military

Two Georgian Citizens Detained for Links to Terrorist ‘Islamic State’

The State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) reported the arrest of two Georgian citizens for the illegal purchase and storage of firearms and ammunition as part of the ongoing investigation of a terrorist crime. Automatic rifles, pistols, hand grenades, flags with symbols of the terrorist organization “Islamic State” and various types of evidence were removed from the residences of the arrested persons.

CivilGe

Russia is sending a nuclear submarine to the Caribbean Sea

Russian Navy ships will enter Cuba's territorial waters as a sign of friendship, Cuban Ministry of the Revolutionary Army announced in Havana. The nuclear-powered submarine will not have nuclear weapons, the statement said.

EuroNewsGeorgia

Zelensky: "NATO's eastern border cannot be terminated with Ukraine"

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Normandy on June 7. He met French officials in Paris, including French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden. He also received new terms of military assistance from the leaders. Emmanuel Macron announced that he will deliver Mirage military aircraft to Ukraine.

EuroNewsGeorgia

🏛️ Politics & Government

President of Latvia: By suspending candidate status, a clear signal should be sent to Georgia

President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkevičs, says the situation in Georgia requires an urgent and strict response from the European Union. He said by suspending the candidate status, the EU should send a clear signal to the Georgian government so that the situation does not worsen.

GeorgiaToday

CEC Complains about “Damaging Groundless Accusations” Ahead of Elections

The Central Election Commission of Georgia issued a statement, complaining about the persisting “unverified, baseless, and damaging statements about the election process” ahead of the crucial Parliamentary elections on October 26. The CEC claims that such statements and assessments are spread from abroad as well. The Commission echoes the ruling party’s longstanding narrative about alleged political interference in the elections.

CivilGe

Domestic Reactions to First Tranche of U.S. Sanctions on Georgian Individuals

U.S. State Department announced the first tranche of visa sanctions against “dozens” of Georgian individuals. Georgian Dream party members, MPs, law enforcement officials and private citizens among those sanctioned. Georgian opposition: "No one is afraid of these sanctions. We have declared our policy that we protect the country's interest"

CivilGe, Political evaluations of American sanctions from Georgia, Mdinaradze: We have right to know whether we are the first legislators who were sanctioned for passing a law, People’s Power MP on sanctions: Main partner made another gross mistake, black day of Western democracy, Mdinaradze: We have right to know whether we are the first legislators who were sanctioned for passing a law, US announces first tranche of visa restrictions comprising members of Georgian Dream

Orban: "War psychosis in Europe, supporters of peace are being silenced"

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán assesses the current events in Europe as a psychosis of war. Orbán also says that NATO and the European Union are moving towards war with Russia. He hopes that Donald Trump will win the American elections and thus a transatlantic peace coalition will be created.

EuroNewsGeorgia

Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova - waiting for a decision

The European Union is expected to start negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova in connection with the accession of these countries to the European Union in June. The European Commission wants to start formal negotiations with Kyiv and Chisinau as soon as possible before Hungary takes over the position of the EU presidency on July 1. Experts say that ultimately Hungary will not be able to prevent these negotiations. Georgia is lagging behind Moldova and Ukraine in the most important issues, says Kakha Gogolashvili.

EuroNewsGeorgia, European Commission: Ukraine and Moldova fulfilled all recommendations

💵 Economy

The government predicts 6% economic growth this year

Georgian government predicts 6% economic growth this year. First Deputy Minister of Finance Giorgi Kakauridze noted that in the first four months of this year, the economy grew at a much higher rate than expected.

GeorgiaToday

⚽ Sport

Georgian national team’s full squad trains in Austria ahead of Euro 2024

Georges Mikautadze and Solomon Kvirkvelia among 26 players in Austria. Georgia will play in Group against Turkey on June 18, Czech Republic on June 22 and Portugal on June 26. The team will play a friendly match against Montenegro in Podgorica on Sunday.

AgendaGe

Date: 06/06/2024

Reading time: 4 minutes, 981 words

🪖 Military

Ukraine Latest: Himars Strike Destroys Air Defenses inside Russia, Kremlin Warns of ‘Fatal Consequences’

Kremlin warns Washington that it could suffer “fatal consequences” for backing cross-border attacks. US has so far allowed Kyiv to hit targets within Russia only if they pose an immediate threat to Ukrainian forces. US President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to use American-supplied weapons to strike within Russia last week.

GeorgiaToday

🏛️ Politics & Government

BREAKING: US State Department Implements First Tranche of Sanctions against Georgian Individuals

U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller, announced at today’s press briefing that the US has sanctioned “dozens ” of Georgian individuals in its first tranche of sanctions. The number of sanctioned individuals is between two to three dozens.

CivilGe

Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics: Georgian Parliament Misuses Media Conduct Rules

The Georgian Parliament is using the new rules of conduct of media in legislature as a punitive tool against journalists. Journalists are barred from accessing first-hand information from the legislative body for one to six months.

CivilGe

Economy Minister says promoting green economy potential, sustainable development Gov’t “important priority”

Georgian Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili spoke at the 14th Local Economic Development Forum in Tbilisi. He said promoting the potential of green economy and sustainable development represented the Government’s ‘priority” in the country's economy. The Minister said the Government's policy aimed at developing the private sector's capabilities, effective management of resources and carrying out structural reforms.

AgendaGe

Opposition Parties Plead to the U.S. Congress to Commit Resources for Election Monitoring in Georgia

Opposition parties write to U.S. Congressman Joe Wilson, the initiator of the MEGOBATI Act. They plead with Congress to commit necessary human and financial resources to ensure due electoral observation for the October parliamentary elections in Georgia. The letter stresses the will of the “overwhelming majority” of the Georgian people for the country’s integration into the EU and NATO.

CivilGe

MFA Keeps SIlent, as “People’s Power” Lies About NATO’s Article 5

People’s Power, an offshoot of the ruling Georgian Dream party, issued a lengthy statement on June 5. It claimed that NATO Charter's Article 5 did not guarantee military assistance to Allies in the event of an attack. Georgia's Foreign Ministry has not responded to the People's Power statement. Civil.ge has approached the Information Center on NATO and EU.

CivilGe

Georgian Dream Introduces Draft Law to Restrict LGBTQ+ Rights

Georgia’s ruling party has introduced draft legislation that would limit LGBTQ+ rights. The measures come soon after the adoption of the “foreign influence” law, which resulted in months’-long mass protests and criticism for its perceived threat to democratic freedom.

GeorgiaToday

Georgian FM: Adoption of UN Resolution on IDPs from Russian-Occupied Regions “great success”

Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili celebrated this week’s adoption of a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly concerning Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees from the Russian-occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions. The resolution reiterates the right of return for all displaced persons and refugees to these regions, with 103 countries voting in favor, nine against, and 52 abstaining.

GeorgiaToday

TI Georgia: Chinese Company with ‘Questionable Reputation’ to Build Anaklia Port

Transparency International (TI) Georgia, a local corruption watchdog, says the government awarded the Anaklia Port project to a Chinese company “known for corruption scandals” The watchdog also warns that the deal raises corruption risks amid the growing crackdown on civil society watchdogs. The U.S. State Department echoed these concerns on June 1, stressing the importance of safeguarding Georgia’s security.

CivilGe

Georgian Witnesses at the Congressional Hearing Under Fire

The People’s Power attacked Ivane Chkhikvadze and Natalie Sabanadze for testifying before the U.S. Congress. PM Irakli Kobakhidze and ruling party MPs compared the two witnesses to Bolsheviks and fascists. Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said: “We have seen Orjonikidzes of the 21st century, who have snitched on their homeland”

CivilGe, William Courtney on the Helsinki Commission Hearing and Sanctioning Georgian Dream

Celebrating World Environment Day 2024: UNDP and Its Commitment to Georgia’s Environmental and Energy Sustainability

On World Environment Day 2024, the UNDP celebrated its ongoing work in Georgia with regards environmental preservation and sustainable energy solutions. Georgia boasts 100 protected areas which cover 13% of its land, where forests flourish across 75% of these natural havens.

GeorgiaToday

💵 Economy

Fitch Ratings Initiates Coverage of TBC Bank Uzbekistan with a BB- Rating, in line with the sovereign

Uzbekistan-based Joint Stock Commercial Bank ‘TBC BANK’ (TBCU) Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of ‘BB-‘ with Stable Outlooks and a Viability Rating (VR) of 'b' TBCU’s ‘b’ VR reflects its reasonable risk profile and asset quality and good capitalisation. The bank contributed 9% of the group's total revenue and 5% of net profit in 2023, although we expect it to increase further in the medium term.

GeorgiaToday

Date: 06/05/2024

Reading time: 2 minutes, 533 words

🏛️ Politics & Government

Parliament Bans Another Critical Journalist from Working in Legislative Building

The Georgian Parliament has banned Natalia Kajaia of the opposition-leaning TV Pirveli from working in the legislative building for one month, until July 3, at the request of the leader of the People’s Power party, MP Sozar Subari. The bans come as a result of implementing a controversial February 2023 Order issued by Speaker Shalva Papuashvili.

CivilGe

Roth: A Russian-style crackdown on LGBTI is another red flag for Georgia‘s EU ambitions

A Russian-style crackdown on LGBTI is another red flag for Georgia‘s EU ambitions. Georgian Dream must stop initiatives to destroy Georgia future, – Michael Roth, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the German Parliament (Bundestag).

GeorgiaToday

People’s Power Distorts NATO’s Article 5 Content

People’s Power, an offshoot of the ruling Georgian Dream party, issued a lengthy statement on June 5. The People's Power claimed NATO's Article 5 does not guarantee military assistance to Allies in the event of an attack. The statement accuses the “Global War Party” of misleading the Georgian people for years.

CivilGe

Russia’s Deputy FM: West is Trying to Implement Maidan Scenario in Georgia

Mikhail Galuzin, Russia’s deputy Foreign Minister, accused the West of putting “unscrupulous pressure” on “many sovereign states” in Georgia. The Russian official also lashed out at the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Estonia and Iceland, calling their actions “blatant interference in the internal affairs of an independent state”

CivilGe

EU Ambassador: EU to Check Whether Visa Liberalization Conditions Still Apply to Georgia

EU Ambassador to Georgia Paweł Herczyński said that the EU will consider “all options” that can be introduced towards Georgia as a result of the adoption of the foreign agents law, including the suspension of visa liberalization. He expressed his concern that ordinary citizens of Georgia will be affected and will have to pay a very heavy price.

CivilGe

U.S. Congressional Hearing Discusses Support for Georgia’s Sovereignty and Democracy

The United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission) held a congressional hearing on supporting Georgia’s sovereignty and democracy. The hearing came amid the recent adoption of the Russian-style foreign agents law and the U.S. announcement of sanctions against those undermining democracy in Georgia.

CivilGe

🧪 Science & Technology

Georgian Citizen Illegally Sentenced in Occupied Tskhinvali Region

Giorgi Mosiashvili, 35, was sentenced to two years in a general regime colony by the de-facto court in occupied Java, Tskhinvali region. He is accused of crossing the occupation line and fishing, in particular, catching about 25 kg of trout fry with an electric fishing rod.

CivilGe

Date: 06/04/2024

Reading time: 3 minutes, 704 words

🪖 Military

Informal mobilization in Russia

Wives of conscripted soldiers held a small protest in front of the Ministry of Defense in Moscow. The wives demanded the return of their husbands. They were announced as a foreign agent by the Russian government.

EuroNewsGeorgia

🏛️ Politics & Government

Stormi Daniels says she and her family are being threatened

Stormy Daniels claims she had sexual relations with Donald Trump 10 years ago. Daniels says she and her family receive serious death threats on a daily basis.

EuroNewsGeorgia

Congress starts discussing "MEGOBARI" - politicians talk about possible sanctions

Washington states that they are considering the US response to the actions taken by the Georgian government. According to the spokesperson of the US State Department, the US has announced the new policy of sanctions, although it has not yet announced individual sanctions. Opponents of the government say that along with the American visa restrictions, the EU member states should individually adopt such decisions.

EuroNewsGeorgia

“Georgian Charter” signed by 17 parties and 5 independent deputies

The administration of the President publishes information about political parties and independent MPs who have signed the “Georgian Charter” The charter talks about “repeal of laws harmful to the European course of the country”, liberation of the justice system and restoration of trust, improvement of the electoral system and creation of a new political reality.

GeorgiaToday

Parliament Slaps Bans on Critical Journalists at GD Vice-Speaker’s Request

Two journalists from opposition-leaning media outlets have been temporarily banned from the legislative building. MP Nino Tsilosani demanded their accreditations be suspended after the journalists approached her even though she refused to answer their questions. The bans come as a result of implementing a controversial February 2023 Order issued by Speaker Shalva Papuashvili.

CivilGe

Parliament Speaker Enacts “Offshore Law”

Georgia's 'Offshore Law' makes it easier to bring offshore assets to Georgia. The law is aimed at allowing Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, and his cronies to evade Western sanctions. President Salome Zurabishvili vetoed the bill, which was then overruled by the Parliament.

CivilGe, Parliament Speaker Presents Homophobic Legislation

Prime Minister’s Report Claims Progress in Foreign Policy, Defense, Economy, Governance

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze presents report to Parliament on June 28. Report covers foreign and security policy, conflict resolution and human rights, economic development and social development and human capital, and state governance. Ukraine is mentioned only three times in the 171-page document.

CivilGe

Expert Paper Details Risks ahead of Georgia’s Crucial Parliamentary Elections

The German Marshall Fund published a paper called “Georgia’s 2024 Parliamentary Election: Pre-election risk assessment” It details risks and vulnerabilities in the political pre-election landscape, legal framework and election administration, campaign environment, and media and information space. Author Laura Thornton anticipates political violence and arrests and challenges to the legitimacy of the election.

CivilGe

Management team plans to protect "family values".

The draft law, which, according to the civil sector, will limit the rights of LGBTQ+. Intimate scenes of same-sex couples will be cut from the films, these shots will not be shown on TV screens or in cinemas. Talking about the queer community in educational institutions may be prohibited, if it is considered as propaganda for the LGBTQ+ community.

EuroNewsGeorgia

MEP: GD tried to put the last nail in the coffin of Georgia’s European future

Georgian parliamentarian Thijs Reuten responds to the signing of the law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence” by the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili. “Georgian Dream” recently tried to put the last nail in the coffin of Georgia’s European future – but in the end they will fail, writes MEP Reuten.

GeorgiaToday

Date: 06/03/2024

Reading time: 2 minutes, 405 words

🏛️ Politics & Government

Georgian Infrastructure Minister: Gov’t continuing to develop sports infrastructure

Infrastructure Minister Irakli Karseladze opens stadium in southern Georgian city of Marneuli. The 2,000-capacity stadium is designed to host both local and international tournaments.

AgendaGe

Protesters against Foreign Agents Law Fined

On May 20, and the court fined several activists GEL 500 (approximately USD 180) in connection with protests against the Foreign Agents Law. This is the maximum fine for the offense, according to Article 174 Prima of the Administrative Code. Those fined include Saba Skhvitaridze, Anri Gorgiladze, and Boris Chele Kurua of the opposition party.

CivilGe, Parliament Speaker Enacts Foreign Agents Law After President’s Refusal to Sign, Parliament Speaker signs the law “On transparency of foreign influence”

Opposition Parties Sign Georgian Charter

Opposition parties which have agreed to sign the Georgian Charter will do so on June 3. Opposition parties For Justice, Greens Party, Girchi-More Freedom and Droa, European Democrats, European Georgia, Republican Party, For People, Ahali, Lelo for Georgia, Citizens, Freedom-Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s Way, United National Movement, Law and Justice, National-Democratic Party have already signed the Charter.

CivilGe, Gakharia: For Georgia not to sign “Georgian Charter” offered by President, Political parties sign “Georgian Charter” presented by President, Gakharia: For Georgia not to sign “Georgian Charter” offered by President

UK to have a new ambassador to Georgia

The United Kingdom will have a new ambassador to Georgia – Mark Clayton will be replaced by Gareth Ward in a few months. Gareth Ward will start working as the Ambassador of Great Britain in Georgia from August 2024.

GeorgiaToday

Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Georgia visites Machakhela Protected Landscape to review ongoing initiatives

Petr Kubernát, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Georgia, visited Machakhela Protected Landscape to review ongoing initiatives and discuss future partnerships for sustainable development.

GeorgiaToday

Date: 06/02/2024

Reading time: 0 minutes, 0 words

Date: 06/01/2024

Reading time: 0 minutes, 151 words

🏛️ Politics & Government

Georgians Gear Up for ‘Unprecedented’ Election Mobilization

Georgia's President Salome Zurabishvili has unveiled a roadmap for victory in October's elections. She has called the upcoming elections a “referendum’s referendum” between a ‘European, democratic, independent Georgia, or a Russian-led, authoritarian, and isolated Georgia. With the polling day approaching, opposition remains fragmented, with a unified opposition list.

CivilGe

Intimidation Campaign Against Opposition, Civil Society, Gov’t Critics as Repressions Announced by GD MPs

An orchestrated campaign of intimidation against opposition politicians, media, civil society organizations and critics of the foreign agents law has resumed on May 31, several days after the final passage of the infamous law. This time, Georgian Dream representatives don’t hide their involvement in this campaign, on the contrary, they openly announce the repressions.

CivilGe

Citizens Confront GD MPs Following Adoption of Foreign Agents’ Law

After Georgian Dream MPs voted on May 28 to overturn veto on the Foreign Agents Law, they have been confronted by angry citizens, opposing the law. Several cases of citizens writing on the walls of GD MPs’ houses and calling them “slaves” and “traitors” in public have been observed.

CivilGe

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I've been a fan since ’99 and still got my big box copy that I took the bus to buy with my paperboy money (and afterwards I got Cataclysm, HW2, Deserts of Kharak, the Remastered Collector’s Edition, the first and second print of the artbook, and now the HW3 Collector’s Edition). I used to frequent Relic News back in the day, Homeworld 1 is my top 5 of all time and I now work in research on games thanks to games like Homeworld leaving a big impact on me. Homeworld also turned me into a huge fan of 70s scifi like Chris Foss and Peter Elson and I regularly listen to all of Paul Ruskay's work. So to say that Homeworld has had an impact on my life is an understatement.
I get that Homeworld 3 isn’t perfect. I get that the cutscenes are very dissonant and doesn’t really explain things. I get that the campaign is short and over way too soon. I also get that there are some gameplay shortcomings and that there seem to be a lack of fleet diversity, but those can be fixed with the post-launch support.
But Homeworld 3 still feels like a Homeworld game and to me, it is at the very least *a good or decent* Homeworld experience. The space vistas are mind-blowingly gorgeous. the megaliths are straight out of concept art from HW2 we saw back in 2002. The ship designs are perfect transitions from the previous Homeworld games. Paul Ruskay’s music is once again a complete banger that feels unique and distinct, but still very much in family with his previous work. How he manages to do this for over 20 years is so incredible. Even though the cutscenes are nonsensical character drama, some of the imagery is pretty neat. The pilot chatter is the best in the series. The battle information that Fleet Command relays to you is also the best in the series in not just providing atmosphere, but also giving you a good overview of the state of your fleet when things can get hectic. They got formations back, they also got a “dock damaged ships” command that makes micromanaging much easier. The mission design in the campaign can be kinda cool and change things up in between missions (I only wish there was more or that the campaign was longer). There's a reason most critics scored it an 8/10, because there's still undoubtedly good stuff in the game.
As someone who really thought we would never ever get a new Homeworld for over a decade, Homeworld 3 as a project is a dream come true in the sense that Rob Cunningham, Aaron Kambietz, Paul Ruskay, Dave Cheong, Martin Cirulis, and a lot of incredibly talented new folks as well came together to make Deserts of Kharak and Homeworld 3. As a game experience, Homeworld 3 is at least right now a decent but especially an incredibly beautiful addition to the series and with the post-launch support, I’m sure some of the kinks will be fixed as already detailed in last week’s comprehensive dev update. I do wish BBI and Gearbox would do something about salvaging the story/campaign, but I don’t have high hopes. The point is that I get the doom and gloom, but I think it's also important to acknowledge and recognize the very positive parts about the game. BBI has spent 5 years working their asses off on this game and they care deeply about the universe and us fans. It’s not over yet and we can see what’ll happen in the future, so I think it’s important to keep in mind the good things and the good intentions by BBI with the huge effort they’ve made.
You have to understand, it’s such a dream come true to have old Homeworld people back together in a new company constellation to make a new space Homeworld. That it stumbled at the finishing line doesn’t detract from the fact that we’ve gotten some great things as Homeworld fans: re-releases of the originals, a GOG release of Cataclysm/Emergence, a hefty and nice artbook, a very well-made prequel by BBI that kickstarted things today, and then of course much more Homeworld with the mobile game, the VR game, the boardgame, and the tabletop RPG and vinyl releases. It’s been a great time to be a Homeworld fan thanks to BBI and Gearbox and I think we can still be positive about the future considering how much BBI and folks at Gearbox genuinely care about the series and likely will work hard to rectify or maybe even surprise us with something else.

Background & Context:

Throwaway account. This isn’t an immediate issue, or even an issue anymore. This relationship issue happened when I was 18. Now I’ve been in a loving relationship with my current girlfriend (we’ll call Mia) for 3 years (I love her to bits, I can’t understate that). This topic came up when I was talking to a group of people about our relationship history. I talked about my first relationship as nowadays I find it to be a funny story. Everyone laughs when I tell it, but they usually come to the conclusion that she was a raging A-hole and gaslit me, even though to this day, I think we’re both at MASSIVE faults for our behaviour. My closest friends have even nicknamed her ‘the devil’. It feels weird to me that despite feeling like I was also an A-hole, but everyone around me thinks otherwise. I was telling my girlfriend about this and she’s like, ‘you know what, you should post this on reddit, it’d be really funny to see the responses!’ Few days later here we are. Now that I’ve gotten context out of the way, Imma just start telling the story.

PART 1 - This is Where I Feel I Was Asshole:

Before The Break-Up:

After some time in the relationship, (I think 2-3 months in, not entirely sure), I felt absolutely awful. Not because she (we’ll call her Emily) was a bad person, not at all. 3 months-ish into the relationship, there were entire days were I would ball my eyes out, or feel completely sick, not able to really do anything apart from contemplate the state of the relationship, mostly because I felt like I was putting in a lot of effort, and she wasn’t putting in effort at all. I think around 3 months in, I ‘talked’ about how I thought ‘the relationship felt like a friendship’. I wasn’t completely open with how much it was affecting me at all (which was an issue on my end), however she kindly set her boundaries, saying how she thought the relationship was fine. She wasn’t mean or anything (maybe AT WORST), slightly dismissive. It was a very civil conversation. I did leave that conversation feeling better, but I also left that conversation thinking I was asking for way too much out of the relationship, and that relationships aren’t really how I thought they’d be. Regardless we move on.
Later on into our relationship, we go on one of our dates, and I remember it being one of the most draining outings I’ve ever had. On my end, and her end as well. I was drained because she was having a bad day before our date, and was frankly being rude to me when it wasn’t really justified. On her end, there were times when I being an idiot and frankly embarrassing, which looking back on it, WAS DEFINITELY TRUE. I remember we were making a joke on the train, and I got to into it and loudly said ‘GANG SH*T’, and then immediately regretted it because 2 or 3 old ladies looked at me, and Emily looked absolutely awe-struck with embarrassment. (Spoiler: A lack of self-awareness in certain moments plays a crucial role later in this post. I read my friend this story, and she said to me, please state that you are also autistic as I feel it also plays a crucial role in this story. I don’t know if that helps but that’s what she says I should say, so yeah). During the end of this date, when we’re both clearly kinda beat up, she brings up the point ‘Does this relationship still feel like a friendship to you?’. We had a civil conversation about it, got some pizza at a pizza place, and left the date on a rather sour note.

Break-Up:

Okay, let’s fast forward to the time when I ask her ‘Can we talk at ‘x’ location?’ This was after the semester in the summer. I wasn’t completely dead-set on ending the relationship, but I was pretty sure within this conversation, it was probably going to happen. She agreed, but later on the day, she texted me that she’d rather talk on the phone (later on within that conversation she jokingly said, ‘I’m not gonna lie, I’m not going to get all dressed up to get broken up with man’, which got a good laugh out of both of us’). We talked on the phone about the relationship and our issues with it, and at the time I thought ‘Yo, this is like the best break-up ever!’. There was very clearly no sort of strong dislike or hate between us despite our moments. We even started jokingly roasting each other during the conversation, laughing our assess of. Hell, she even said that she’ll invite me to her 19th birthday party at the end of the conversation. We even said to each other ‘let’s not tell our school friends that we’ve broken up, and then act like the most platonic homies ever in front of them!’ We both left that call feeling good about ourselves. I told my friends (who didn’t go into the school about the interaction), and they were happy. One of them even said ‘you delayed what could’ve possibly been one of the most calmest break-ups ever’. I texted her about what her friends said, and she said that she was going to tell them in the evening. I didn’t hear back from her about her friends, but didn’t really think anything of it. We very much occasionally texted sometimes in the summer. Sometimes about working out, sometimes about music…don’t really remember much of it, but it was calm (or at least I thought it was calm).
(As I type out this paragraph right now, I indefinitely cringe. The lack of self-awareness from me in this story is…a lot to say the least).

After The Break-Up (Back To School):

I go back to school to see Emily and my friend studying on a table. I see Emily and get slightly nervous, I haven’t seen her face to face for months on end, but I go up to her and my friend, and dap them both up. We have our conversations, go to class, and go home. It did feel VERY awkward being around her, and I did sense that something was wrong, but I chalked it up to, ‘Oh, you’ve just met your ex after months on end, it’s going to be slightly awkward’.
I saw my other friend (we’ll call Daisy), the next day, and she had broken up with her girlfriend. I asked her how the break up went, and she said the break-up went decently. She then asked me about my relationship break up. My brain goes ‘hold on, my ex told you about it?’. Additionally, she asked me that in the most sad way possible. I immediately knew that something was off. I ask her, ‘Yo what did she tell you?’. I’m going to give a very approximate re-enactment about how the convo went.
Daisy: She’s really hurt, from what I said
Me: What did I say?
Daisy: She said that she felt really hurt, the fact that you called her disgusting-
MY EYES WIDEN. I was like WHAT?!? ‘NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO’, THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT. OH MY GOD, I FEEL AWFUL…NOOOOOOOOOOO’
Daisy looked at me like she expecting my reaction, like completely unphased. She said to me that she told Emily:
Daisy: ‘You should probably talk to him, because that’s definitely not what he meant.’
Emily: ‘No, I’m tired of explaining myself to people’
I remember the feeling to this day, I felt absolutely awful in the moment. I’ve genuinely never felt worse about hurting a person in my life. I asked Daisy whether I should talk to Emily about the situation and apologise to her, but Daisy said that Emily really doesn’t wanna talk to me again, and that the damage has already been done. Maybe you can apologise in the future, but to give her some time. After school, I go home from this incident, still feeling like shit, and call my friend to tell her about my mistake. We’ll call this friend Steph. Steph listens to me, and doesn’t look amused. She says to me….
Steph: I don’t believe you called her disgusting
Me: What do you mean?
Steph: What did you say to her?
Me: I said to her that during the relationship there were times that I felt sick and couldn’t do anything in the day, as well as struggling with attraction (VERY BRIEFLY, LIKE A FEW SECONDS). Also during the break up, fast forwarding when we were both in a jokey mood, my ex said to me:
‘Why did you DM me a few days before this break-up calling me babe?’ ‘Like you knew this moment was coming hahaha’
Me: ‘Girl, when I did that I was absolutely DISGUSTED’
She laughs and we continue talking to each other making jokes and releasing some tension.
Steph says to me: So, you didn’t flat out say to her face, that she was disgusting…in a serious or jokey tone?
Me: I mean, what I said, can CLEARLY be interpreted as such man. Even though I didn’t flat out say it, I shouldn’t have said any of that, whether it was in a jokey or serious tone. And looking back on that, it’s stupid that I didn’t take that break-up as seriously as it should’ve have. Like…come on, I’m an idiot for roasting and joking around in a moment that should be taken seriously.
Steph: But she was joking around too right?
Me: yeah…
Steph: And she was roasting you too…right?
Me: yeah…
Steph: So why is she mad? That doesn’t make any sense.
Me: I mean, I don’t remember, but knowing me, I probably initiated the jokes.
Steph: Bro, don’t assume. And even if you did initiate the jokes, she would’ve had to play along as well. And the fact that she just assumed that what you said, meant that you found her disgusting, and didn’t find her physically attractive, without talking to you about that…DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.
Me: I don’t know…I still feel like I shouldn’t have done any of that
Steph: Bro, don’t PURELY blame yourself. Hell EVEN HER FRIEND TOLD HER, THAT’S NOT WHAT YOU MEANT! AND SHE DECIDED TO RUN OFF WITH HER ASSUMPTION ANYWAY!
As you can see, my friend was pissed on my behalf. She didn’t really convince me, I still felt awful for a LONG TIME. Okay let’s keep going with this story, it’s a long one

Birthday & ‘The Talk’

My ex and I, have the same birthday. Shocking I know. We were both in school, I didn’t see my ex for the entire day, but even if I did, her friend told me that she really didn’t wanna talk to me, so it’s not like I would talk to her in the first place.
When I went to get lunch, I saw Daisy and Emily were sitting at the table having lunch. I saw my ex, and I made sure not to make eye-contact and walked past them. I thought in my head, she probably wants to enjoy her birthday, and probably doesn’t want to see her ex who called her disgusting on her birthday. A day later, I talk to Daisy, and the topic of Emily comes up. Daisy said to me that Emily was looking for me on our birthday, to also wish me happy birthday, and got upset that when she finally saw me, I walked past her and ignored her. AGAIN, I FEEL AWFUL, but in the back of my head, I’m just like ‘wait, I swear she said she doesn’t wanna talk to me’. I inquire Daisy on this. (Unfortunately, since it’s been years now, I don’t remember what Daisy said). So bing-bang-boom, later on in the day, Daisy, my ex, Emily and my old friend group meet up. Emily smiles at me, but also looks emotionally beat-up. Bro, when I saw I almost teared up, and was like ‘not today, not today, not today’. After some small talk within the group, I ask Emily to talk privately with her. She was amicable and agreed to go to talk privately.
The first thing I did was apologise, and says that’s not what I meant at all, and clarified my feelings. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I said the comment about me being disgusted about my Instagram DM was meant playfully, to criticise my own behaviour. Additionally, when I said I was struggling with attraction and felt sick during the relationship, it wasn’t because of how you look. It was because of the nature of the relationship, and how I felt like I was putting inn way too much effort (within that conversation, I was trying to omit the fact that I felt like she put in no effort at all. I felt weird putting blame on her for that in the time) I even admitted within the break-up conversation, that I still felt attraction to her, but I know the relationship wasn’t working, as so did she. She said:
‘Well, I’m not going to ask for clarification, like oh maybe he didn’t mean this, when someone says something as blatant as that’
We talk some more. Emily said that she didn’t want to be friends because she was VERY hurt about what I said, but if we ever see each other, that we can be civil. She gives a lot of points about the break-up. I remember in my head disagreeing with the points, but unfortunately while I’m writing this post, I don’t remember those points. The conversation that we had was very civil and respectful. I remember that I disagreed with the points that she put forward, but I didn’t give any push-back. I was there to take responsibility for my stupidity and negligence, and apologise. Daisy told Emily what I said about just being there to apologise, and emily got annoyed saying ‘Why is he trying to act like my therapist?’ to her. Daisy told me she said this…I was confused but decided to leave it there, and not talk to Emily again, and reflect on how I communicate with people,, because I didn’t want to hurt anyone like that again.

Conclusion

Okay, everything I’ve said here, to this day, I still believe that I’m a MASSIVE ass-hole. The way I talked to her whether jokingly or not within that conversation was unacceptable. I should’ve kept it serious, no roasting, and not to give jokes at the expense of the other WHATSOEVER within a context as a big as that. Due to that, I hurt someone that I really cared about. Agree with me or not, that’s how I feel to this day. The experience has helped me for the better as it did help me change my behaviour in terms of how I communicate, and be more conscious of what I say. It’s carried on YEARS later, and whilst I slip up and may occasionally hurt someone’s feelings or say something out of pocket, it can easily be solved with a ‘hey, please don’t say that’, and nowhere near as bad as someone who is supposed attracted to you, feeling DISGUSTING. From here, this is where she does some things that dictate her as a massive asshole.

PART 2- This is Where I Feel SHE Was An Asshole:

Making Up

3-4 weeks go by , she seems a lot more chirpy and happy when I occasionally see her in school. One day she taps me on the shoulder, and says ‘Hey, I’ve thought about our conversation, and I think I’m over everything[…]I’d appreciate it if we can be cool again, if you would like, and we can hang out in the same circles. I light up and I say ‘yeah, that’d be nice’. Being in the same friend-circle with her was nice. We didn’t talk face-to-face often, but everything was friendly and cool.

Water-Incident:

3 days later. Somebody in our group spills water onto the ground in the cafeteria. I try to clean it. Emily and my other friend (we’ll call Marco) go to get some cleaning roll. She comes back giving me a death-stare. I was startled, but for some reason thought nothing of it. I thought it might’ve been how I was cleaning the water, as she’s very big on cleaning. She says ‘WHY CAN’T YOU GUYS CLEAN?’ Marco makes a joke along the lines saying ‘Men don’t know how to clean’ or something like that. She laughs, and I start thinking that ‘oh this is a bit’. As we’re cleaning the water off the ground, and then let the water soak into the tissue, she goes away from the water, and starts ranting to her friend. My friend and I start laughing, as we think it’s a bit. She storms out and says ‘it’s not funny’. Instantly I froze. I went over to her friend (we’ll call him Kyle. BTW Fck Kyle. He was a terrible person that sexually harasses women, despites them saying that they’re uncomfortable. I didn’t know about that during the time of this story, but I knew that later on during that year. Kyle, I if you’re reading this, I hope you’ve changed your ways, if not, fck you, sincerely). I went over to Kyle’s table and asked, ‘Yo is Emily okay?’
Kyle: It’s not my place to say what happened
Me: slightly panick Bro, I just wanna know if she’s okay
Kyle: okay…YOU AND EMILY GOT SOME ISSUES! AND YOU GOT SOME STUFF TO FIGURE OUT!
She shouted at me in front of the cafeteria, with multiple tables looking at me, some people laughing, and some people looking sorry for me.
Kyle walks away, and I just stand there for 5-10 seconds, give a large exhale, put my palms in to my hand, and walk back to the group. When Emily comes back, I ask her if she’s okay. She said something alone the lines of ‘Don’t make fun of someone, and then ask them if they’re okay straight afterwards…’. (She wasn’t mad at Marco for some reason, but was mad at me, but as Daisy said ‘I knew how her anxiety worked’.) I walk away from the group, and go outside and just look up at the sky. I thought that I had fucked up again, and not able to realise when I’ve crossed a line. I distanced myself from the group, and just stayed alone from a bit and studied for the upcoming exams. I was studying for around 14 hours a day, and when I wasn’t studying, I was thinking that I was a terrible person. It was probably that, and the combination of exam-stress that lead to me getting my first panic-attack when hanging out with my friends. When Emily came up to my group of friends with someone else, I left the group, and just wanted to be in my own space.

Getting jealous of multiple girls I was talking to and proceeds to stare them down:

I was talking to other girls in a group. Not in a romantic way. I was NOT in the space for another relationship, especially when I don’t know when I’ve crossed a line. I didn’t want to hurt anyone the same way I hurt Emily. There was a girl (we’ll call her Lacey) and another girl (we’ll call her Selena) that I got on pretty well with. We’ve been talking for a few months at this point. I was talking to them during my lunch-time, and I told her the story about my ex and I. She said to me ‘Is your ex the girl that’s been death-staring me?’
Me: Wait what?
Lacey: Yeah, whenever I talk to you should just death-stares me for ages. It’s made me so uncomfortable, I’ve wanted to get up from my seat and say ‘excuse me, do we have a problem?’
This battle between them apparently lasted for the ENTIRE YEAR until they never saw each other again.
Selena has talked to her and said to me ‘Yeah…I’m not going to lie, I don’t like her, you can do better’
I was like ‘guys, relax’
Them: My bad, my bad.
Selena: But, there’s better out there.
I was also notified by another woman that my ex death-stared them and made them uncomfortable because of it. That was really weird to me, but hey I wasn’t talking to her anymore, and I just minded my business. I haven’t talked to her since that ‘water incident’.

Make-Up No.2

Emily hits me up on Instagram, wanting to call. We have a chat about the current state of affairs, and both admitted that we had feelings for each other to summarise. She admitted that she was jealous seeing me hang out with other girls, and that she got mad at me again within the 3 days that we made up, and said ‘my bad about that’. We further clarified some stuff about the relationship, and we made up. I think a few days later - FOR SOME UNGODLY REASON, I DO NOT REMEMBER WHY, MY FRIENDS TO THIS DAY MAKE FUN OF ME FOR THIS - I asked her out. Maybe, it was the feeling of wanted to being rejected to fully get over her, I don’t know man. I was in a bad space. My friend as I’m reading her this draft, has now gotten on her knees, and started praying for my sanity. Emily rejected me, and to be honest the day after, I thanked god that we didn’t get back together.

‘Exploding at me’

We were hanging out in a group. I was being relatively quiet, and had learnt to shut up and think before I speak quite consistently until this point. I looked at Emily and she looked upset. I looked at her and was about to ask whether she was okay. From my glance alone, she exclaims at me: ‘If you ask me if I’m okay, I will shout/snap at you, just saying’. I put my hands up completely startled. I was thinking maybe she hates me asking if she’s okay. It had become a meme in the friend-group that I over ask people whether they’re okay if I think they look sad, so maybe I was annoying her.
Now, she later apologised a few days later saying Kyle had sexually harassed her, and she was really tense within that moment, and just exploded. NOW, people who were there said I was unfairly treated, however, something that’s as serious and harmful as that happening to someone, I understand blowing up at someone. So we moved on. As I said before, f*ck Kyle.

I WASN’T fully sure why she didn’t like me in this moment:

I saw Emily sad during the day, seeming sort of upset. I message her on Instagram during that evening ‘Hey, I know it’s a bit of a meme of me asking people if they’re okay, but you looked upset today and I wanted to know if everything was good?’. She laughs and says ‘everything is good’
I literally walked up to the group the next day, try to fist-bump everyone, and when I put my fist towards her, she ignored me. I thought she didn’t see me, so I stupidly fist-bumped everyone again and went towards her. This moment is comedic gold. She winces at me, and disapprovingly waves. My friend Marco says ‘Ooooooooo’, I’m like ‘woah’ and completely freeze, with my fist still in the air. Daisy tries to break the awkward silence and says ‘it’s just one of those days’. I’m completely frozen with my fist, still in the air during all of this happening, in complete awe, thinking to myself ‘what did I do this time?’. Daisy, to release me from this state, proceeds to rapidly first bump me 10 times. Once I register what’s fully happened, I leave the group and sit with my friends. I heard her from the other end of the cafeteria complaining about me to her friends. After that scenario, I didn’t talk to her one-to-one for the rest of the year, and tried to avoid talking to her. I accepted after that moment that no matter how I act, I’m going to be met with a negative reaction.
Later on after school had ended, I found out that she was upset because she thought I was dating my CURRENT girlfriend. Now to be brief, I met this girl in the beginning of the year. I remember we started talking very frequently as she was cool, but I wasn’t ready for a relationship whatsoever. She said really liked me, and in her words jokingly says that ‘she just waited patiently’. We went out for a couple of times, but these weren’t clarified to be dates (EVENTHOUGH nowadays we basically call them dates), and she admitted she liked me. I said that she was lovely, but that I wasn’t mature enough for a relationship, and that ‘you probably don’t want to date me’. I did start slowly developing feelings for her. All of this date stuff happened after being rejected from my ex. Now we weren’t dating at the time, and were strictly on friend terms. I guess it might’ve been obvious that we both liked each other, considering that Emily got upset and didn’t talk to me. Near the end of the year, we started dating, and as I’ve said before, we’re still dating to this day. Marco called it out that we liked each once we started dating, and we were like ‘welp, I guess the secret’s out lol’. Yeah that’s about it there.

A year later, Emily texts me when I’m studying my university degree, telling me I’m a dickhead, even though I blocked her:

I’m on facetime with my girlfriend. I believe we’re a year and a bit into our relationship, and then my ex texts me. Keep in mind, I’ve blocked my girlfriend on all platforms, and deleted her number. I should’ve blocked her number, because she decides text me, saying something along the lines of:
‘Hey it’s Emily here. Just wanna say you’re a dickhead for leading me on for 3 months, and telling me that you liked me when you didn’t. Thanks for adding to my trauma and my trust issues with people. Hope you and your current girlfriend are doing okay!’
Me: w-what? I’m so confused.
Seconds after, I then decide not to give a second thought, and then I blocked her.
Conclusion:
This was a long-story, but here’s my proper conclusion. I think I was an asshole for how I broke up with her as said in Part 1. I also think I was flat-out stupid for agreeing to be friends with her, despite her clearly resenting me. I think she’s the asshole for treating me horribly after the break-up, making some of my female friends feel uncomfortable by staring at them, getting mad at me multiple times without telling me she was properly mad, and then sending me an awful text, even when I’ve blocked her on all platforms.
Okay long story done. Discuss y'all.

Background: I (38M) have a 4 month old with my ex-gf (34F). I am the sole earner for our the household, she still lives with me with the baby. Each paycheck I give her what I can so that she always has some spending money, usually she gets equal or more money from me every two weeks than what I have for myself after paying all the bills and buying all the food. This money is around $350-400 every two weeks. I do this because she and I had a baby and the initial idea was for her to be a SAHM. Unfortunately our relationship crumbled during the pregnancy because IMO she has severe untreated mental illness that she refuses to deal with. We both come from VERY traumatic childhoods, but hers was much worse than mine...and mine was pretty damn bad.
Needless to say the pregnancy was a rollercoaster, she didn't work except for about 3 weeks the entire pregnancy, which I was fine with. What I wasn't fine with was her repeatedly breaking up with me and getting back together, leaving while I was at work to fly to stay with her friend, and absolutely destroying my apartment and breaking all my valuables in a rage because of something she read on my phone between my best buddy while I was asleep about how some girl was attractive. We patched things up and I sent a ticket for her to come back to try and be a family, but she would NEVER move on from any of our extremely stupid and small issues in the face of having a child. It was like I was supposed to apologize 800 times a day for perceived sleights 6 months ago, and no exaggeration she said outright that I should spend the rest of my life apologizing. I asked her how a relationship like that was even possible, but she did not have an answer.
So eventually I was done and broke things off with her because of how toxic the situation was and her emotional moodswings and threats to me. Since having the child all I do is try to maintain peace and order in my house for our kids' sake, to have stability and try not to damage him psychologically from the drama and erratic behaviors of his mother. She goes out and does not tell me where she's going, leaving me with the baby on weekends, and also will not tell me when she is coming back, or if she does, she will turn up often 4-5 hours after when she said she would be home. She will ruin my ability to make any weekend plans ever because she refuses to stick to a schedule or communicate maturely.
I have documentation that the first overnight trip she took was when my child was approximately TWO MONTHS OLD, I think being away overnight from a 2 month old is wildly inappropriate, and she has been leaving the child for overnights on weekends with "friends" pretty regularly ever since. Last night though (thurs night) was a new low, she woke me up at 2:30am to say she was going to her girlfriend's house who just had a baby because her husband had to take the mother in law to the hospital, and that she would stay with her until I got home from work the next day at 7. I told her I thought that this is inappropriate to be taking a 4 month old out of its home at 3am with people she barely knows, and also, that as his father she's interrupting my ability to sleep and work to provide for my son because I am not going to be able to sleep when my kid is leaving my home at 3am randomly. We got into a big argument about this but it is 100% clear she cares more about this husband and wife than she cares about me as my child's father, and she even referenced how my child prefers it over there and that her gf's husband "made her food", I literally make dinner for her constantly and provide all the groceries for our home.
I feel like she is being erratic and does not make good judgements at all and doesn't value stability (which is why we are not together anymore), and I fear for my son growing up in a chaotic, emotionally confusing environment. I hate hate HATE this so much and don't know what to do. I have no family who can help with any kind of childcare but I worry that I will have to pursue custody if this keeps up. AITAH for thinking my child should not be leaving home at 3am for some OTHER family's emergency, as a four month old?

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait, the story is not abandoned, I just got a bit lost in other stuff and have fallen out with the world of NoP a bit. I will continue the story, through I can't promise a new chapter every month.
On another note, I am quite proud of this chapter, this is definetly my favourite one, and I enjoyed expanding on Velnils past and mental health. (And tormenting him, of course. Nah, just joking. xD)
Thank you for creating this beautiful universe!
Also thanks to for proofreading!
Criticism is very much welcome, let me know what you think!
Enjoy!
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Memory transcription subject: Velnil, Arxur deserter Date [standardized human time]: 25th of October, 2136, Middle of the night
CW: panic attack, hallucination, self harm
[Note: Dream state detected. Reliving memory. Proceed? (Y/N)]
[Y]
The cold seeped deep into Velnil’s scales as he trudged up the hidden path of the forest, up onto a small hill where a single, just barely alive tree stood still. There was no wind, no new smells and no sound. It was calm, eerily calm, forcing Velnil to periodically stop and look around, seeing if anyone had followed him.
Every time, there was nothing. It was just the empty forest, filled with dying trees and withered bushes. There were a few animal bones here and there sticking out of the ground, but he did not care enough to spare a glance at them.
As he ascended higher and higher on the small hill, he felt as his breathing slowly returned to normal from the usually used powerful intakes and blowouts. He took a slow, deep breath, as he arrived at the tree, letting the cold air run into his lungs, and calming down his beating heart. He was here again. The only question was if he was really alone or not.
“Frostbubble, are you there?” He asked, almost in a whisper as he looked around, moving towards the tree. It still felt strange to use this nickname, but if it kept her safe and happy, he was more than glad to use it.
“Aww, you did come, Velny.” The voice was almost sickeningly sweet for Velnil’s ears, but he knew it was because of everything he had been learning. The warmth in his chest was just another proof to it, as he noticed her lanky shadow climb down from the tree, keeping a small bag up with her tail as she did so. He felt a slight blush creep onto his face as she hopped down, and quickly approached him.
“How have you been? I hope they didn’t manage to rough you up too badly this time.” The care in her voice made Velnil shutter and relax at the same time, as her hand landed on his arm, caressing the scar he had first received for insubordination.
He was four back then.
“No. I’m okay, Zar… Frostbubble.” More warmth filled his chest at her wide toothed smile. “They didn’t get me this time. I managed to trick them.”
“So clever and cunning, Velny.” Her grating chuckle, while repulsive to his ears, was music to his heart. He felt a soft pressure on his hand as she took it, and began leading him to the other side of the tree, facing away from the facility, and out towards the dying wilderness. The view has always filled him with dread, seeing as nature had slowly withered away with his feelings, only to eventually be replaced by even more factories and facilities. It was truly as if the planet felt his pain, his suffering as he was slowly broken down, only to be replaced by the ideals and will of Betterment.
They sat down on the ground, neither of them caring about the cold, as they leaned back a bit, looking up at the night sky. Everything was so calm, yet Velnil couldn’t keep himself from looking around, listening for any noise that could tell him they were not alone.His anxiety only grew, until he felt a soft touch on his chin. He let his head be turned back towards her.
Her smile was horrible(line through) beautiful. The shine of her eyes as she looked at him so calmly, like they weren’t in constant danger of being found out and killed. It angered him, but at the same time, it filled him with a strange feeling. It was still so alien to him, he never felt it before, only when he was with her.
“We are safe here, Veln. Don’t worry so much about it. I am always watching and also making sure that no one is following you. You don’t need to turn around that often. Let yourself relax a bit.” It didn’t make any sense. How could he relax? They were out and about without the knowledge of the masters, they were going against the rules.
She is not even supposed to be here. She was never in the facility.
He opened his mouth, but couldn’t say anything as she closed it, playfully flicking one of her claws on his snout. He shook his head, incredulous about what just happened.
“I know that look, Velny. Relax, just for this once.” As she leaned forward, his heart rate spiked, the alien feeling shooting up like fire as warmth filled his face at the feeling of her nuzzling his snout. He leaned towards her, eyes half-lidded as he felt his muscles relax ever so slightly. Perhaps Zartha is right. He could relax with her, and not be on the lookout for any danger that may be around them.
“Maybe… maybe you are right, Frostbubble.” He mumbled, his eyes closing momentarily as his snout moved to rub at her throat, with a sharp intake of air coming from her.
“Veln, I…” Zartha stopped for a few seconds, prompting Velnil to lean back a bit to look at her. She looked… troubled? Unsure? No, it was something else. Her eyes fluttered while looking all around, as if searching for danger, but they always returned to him, at which point she flicked with her tailtip, until it snagged at her satchel.
“I made something for you.” Velnil cocked his head as he watched her pull out a thermos, quickly unscrewing its top. He watched as steam rose from the thermos, filling the air with a sweet scent, creating an even more serene atmosphere.
“It’s Trilltilla tea. It took a long time, but I wanted to make it for you.” Velnil watched as she presented the top part of the thermos for him. Slowly reaching out, he took hold of it, their hands touching as their eyes met. The shining in her eyes, the way her irises grew, her tail that wagged more and more. He was sure she felt the same strange feeling he felt, as his tail wagged as well, albeit slowly.
He then took hold of it properly, lifting it up to drink. There was no need to say thanks. She knew he was thankful for it.
“So, this is where you have been sneaking off.” Velnil jumped up and whipped around, the top of the thermos falling to the ground as its contents spilled. Next to the tree stood his master, with two burly arxur standing on either of his side. The scowl on his master's face told him everything. They saw everything, the two of them have been found out.
It was over for them.
Zartha slowly stood up, to which one of the arxur moves so quickly to her, it was almost a blur. A painful yelp came from her as she was punched in the gut, tumbling forward, but she wasn’t allowed to fall to the ground. The arxur kept her up, while his master and the other moved in.
“So, you must be Zartha. I have heard quite a lot of you. A disgrace to our kind, really.” His master’s voice was full of contempt. Velnil didn’t dare to speak, nor did he dare to move, lest he might lose his head.
Or worse…
“I’m no disgrace. The only disgrace here is how you trea-” She wasn’t allowed to finish. Master didn’t allow her. The arxur holding her punched her again, forcing the air out of her lungs.
“Tssk. Such a waste of resources. This one is unfixable.” As his master’s eyes landed on him, Velnil felt himself freeze under the glare. “But you will still be redeemed, boy. Oh, you will be. I will make sure of that. You are allowed to return to your dwelling, at this instant.” His heart didn’t want to, but his mind knew he must move. Velnil’s legs, almost like he was on auto-pilot, moved, one after the other, as he began making his way down. He heard as his master turned to address the other arxur.
“Find its father and wipe its disgrace off this world. Then find its mother, and make sure that woman brings a proper arxur into this world.” An acknowledging grunt was the only answer.
The cold seeped deep into Velnil’s scales as he made his way down the hill, the warmth escaping, leaving him with a cold, painful pressure on his rumbling stomach that yearned for her tea.
But it will never feel its warmth.
~~~
Growling, and pressure on his stomach was what woke Velnil up. On instinct, he striked with his right arm, his sharp claws swiping at nothing. His head swiveled around, with no need for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the night, trying to find whatever was threatening him.
There was nothing.
Velnil began to work on calming his breathing as he tried to listen, focusing on the nightly sounds of the forest, seeing if he can hear the soft running of paws, or the strong thumps of human legs.
Again, there was nothing.
With a grumble, he rolled onto all fours, sniffing around and looking for any clues on what might have growled and pawed at him.
The sound repeated itself, this time however, Velnil felt the painful clamps of his stomach as it rumbled loudly, seemingly discontent with the lack of food inside of it. With the realization that he is just hungry - very much so -, Velnil got into a bipedal stance, and began making his way towards the farm.
Looking around as much as he could see of the sky, it must have still been well into the night. He could have just checked it on his holopad, but then his eyes would have to adjust to the dark again, and he would possibly give away his location - after all, he could never know if something or someone was watching him.
The night was annoyingly cold, but it was nothing like what he had to survive during his training. It molded him, made him stronger, able to ignore the cold seeping into his bones and keep on going.
He always had to keep going.
He promised it.
Velnil didn’t know how long he was walking when another rumble left his stomach, this time however, his mouth began to water at the enticing smell his nostrils had caught. It was a familiar smell, divine even, and the bigger breath he took, the more it filled his being, as the picture practically smashed itself into his mind.
Krakotl.
Yumm.
Dropping onto all fours, he made his way towards the source of the smell, taking great care to avoid stepping on a branch, or making any noise that might give away his position. He froze, and silently cursed himself at another rumble of his stomach. Do you want to be filled or not?! If so, be silent!
His stomach did not respond. Good.
Continuing to stalk forward, the smell started to become stronger as the wind carried it to him. Reaching another, much smaller clearing, he hid inside one particularly big bush, easily seeing out of it.
There, in the gentle moonlight kneeled a young, healthy looking krakotl. Its feathers reflected the moonlight beautifully, and he could make out some kind of red pattern on the otherwise greenish plumage that covered it. From scent alone he could tell that it was a female, possibly the same age, or maybe older than he was.
It was just the right age. He could feel himself salivating as he watched it do something, it had its back to him, he could jump out and just get it!
His muscles tensed as he prepared himself, but a sudden thought of realization of where he was exactly forced him to stop, tensing up even more as to not jump. Just then, the krakotl leaned back up, revealing what it had been doing.
Velnil felt himself recoil a bit at the sight of the familiar flower. How did the krakotl get it here?! Who even allowed it to plant that? Why…?
The slits of his eyes slowly rounded out as he watched the light of the moon shine onto the flower, prompting it to slowly unfurl, revealing five sickly green colored petals, with a bright blue colored inside. Velnil felt himself lowering onto the ground, his eyes becoming blurry - but why?
Reaching up, he felt something wet in his eye - tears. He was… crying? Why was he…
It is what she used to make tea for you that day. The memory hit him like a plasma bolt. The flower - Triltilla, or Lover’s poison as some used to call it, was a rare flower from the krakotl turned arxur colony world. Interestingly, the prey was the one that came up with the nickname for the flower - it was said that when the lover made tea from the petals, it’s effect depended on the care that was put into it - the petals had to be cleaned from any pollen, then cured and dried for the right amount of time, which was then followed by making the tea. If the maker of the tea put the proper care to it, it worked as sort of a love potion - it helped with maternity and helped the mates bond.
But if even the slightest mistake was made, if the maker wasn’t careful enough, the pollen, or not drying it for the proper amount of time greatly changed its effect - causing severe pain for whoever drank the tea, and in some cases, even death.
It was dumb. Of course it was, it came from a prey infested world that was cleansed by his ancestors!
And yet, that single flower was one of her favorites. He never truly understood why, but of course, how could he.
He was well into his training back then. He saw it as her weakness. One of her oh so many flaws that plagued her ability to live as a proper arxur.
Oh, because you always lived as a proper arxur? Came the sudden response to his thoughts, feeling another pang of pain from his stomach as he once again wiped a tear from his face. He forced back down a slight growl as he looked back up at the prey, his tongue running over his lips as he kneaded the ground beneath his paws. He wanted to to jump out, to strike, to once again taste his favorite food.
Could he really kill through?
A third, this time much louder rumble had escaped his stomach, it seemed this time the prey had heard it.
“Hello?” The prey’s head whipped around, staring at his general direction, as her soft trilling voice rang out. “Is anyone there?” Another question rang out, it sounded so young, and yet, he watched as his prey’s eyes slowly went over her surroundings, forcing Velnil to slightly pull back, and close his eyes until there was only a slight line visible.
As he imagined how it would taste, his tongue running over his lips, the krakotl took a tentative step forward, eyes still scanning the treeline.
“Lia, is that you?” As Velnil finally got over the fight inside his head, his hunger slowly winning, he prepared to pounce, his eyes opening more ever so slightly as his claws dug into the dirt a bit.
“Aw, damn it. How did you know?” Once again, Velnil almost stumbled out of his hiding spot as a sudden voice came from somewhere to his right. He watched as the prey turned their head towards the voice, as Velnil barely held back an angry hiss at the appearance of a female human.
The woman, referred to as ‘Lia’ seemed to be around [180cm] in height, as she made her way over to the krakotl with surprising silence. Light brown hair flowed down her back, tied into a ponytail. Similarly to other humans, she was also wearing fake pelts, with surprisingly light colored blue jeans and light green shirt.
For a second, Velnil wondered how the human does not shiver from the cold, but his mind quickly wound up with another question: how in the twisted wriss does she hunt in such light clothes? What other thing could she do here at a time like this?
“I didn’t. You scared the… Why are you even here?” The krakotl puffed its feathers up as it turned its head to its side to glare at the predator in front of it. Albeit the body language of the prey showed slight alarm and trepidation, its voice was surprisingly calm, maybe even reproachful. The human seemed to also take note of its voice, putting up her hands as she looked at the prey.
“Oh, I’m sorry miss ‘I go for a walk into the forest in the middle of the night’”. At this, the krakotl seemed to deflate, lowering their head a bit, but not for long, as the human stepped up to them, and brought their head back up with what he assumed was a gentle touch. “I just woke up to being cold, and after waiting a bit, and looking and not finding you, I became worried. Besides, what do you expect if my living, breathing blanket suddenly disappears?” The human chuckled, which was soon joined by the prey's own chuckling, extending a wing to strike at the human.
“Oh, hush, you! It’s not my fault your only protection is your strange pelts! Plus, why are you not wearing anything else, aren’t you cold?” A slight worry in its tone was sickening to listen to, as Velnil continued to watch the two interact, until the human female suddenly stopped, snapping their head towards his direction, accommodated by a cracking sound, which was then followed by the woman groaning, and massaging their neck.
“Shit.. That hurt…” She mumbled. Both the prey and Velnil seemed to jump slightly at the sudden movement, albeit for different reasons. As the prey started worrying over the human, Velnil pulled back even more, laying completely flat on the cold ground as his heart beat even faster. Impossible, this is impossible! The wind is coming from their direction, I was as silent as a night stalker, how could she know I’m here?!
His question wasn’t left unanswered, which confused him greatly.
“Are you okay? What was that?” Asked the krakotl for the third time, thankfully silenced by the human.
“Nothing, nothing, I just… I thought someone was looking at me. I could feel whatever it was.” At the answer, the krakotl tilted its head in confusion, clicking its beak a few times in contemplation.
“You… felt something staring at you? But… how? Aren’t you humans… you know?” The meek thing shrunk a bit again, but was quickly calmed by the human, who ran their hand over their back.
“Eh, it’s hard to explain, and it’s quite late. Let’s just say that sometimes we just get this… feeling of being watched. I have to say, it wasn’t the best idea to come out here without a flashlight, now that I think about it. This place gives me the creeps.” The human seemingly shuddered as she looked around, while the prey looked even more confused.
Before it could say anything however, the human sighed, and turned back to the krakotl.
“Anyways, we should probably head back, Suyla. I heard that tomorrow we will have a… not so good surprise. So we should probably, at the very least, get well rested.” At this, the krakotl seemed to realize something, as they huddled closer to the human, looking around with fear.
“Do you think that it’s… here?” It asked, its voice quivering a bit as the human put their hands on its back, trying to calm the prey.
“Well, I saw Rich arrive, so he must be already here somewhere.” At this point Velnil realized they were talking about him, and he held back a growl once again. He watched as the human led his catch away, leaving him with an empty stomach and an even sourer mood.
“NoT sO gOod SuUrPRisE..” Velnil mimicked mockingly, growling to himself after the human and his food left, grabbing and squeezing a handful of earth as he sulked. This is so dumb, as if the humans would be any better! They are weak and pathetic predators! Even he could take on a few of them! Probably.
Yeah, and you would get yourself killed. And prove them right.
Whatever! He thought to himself with a rumble. It’s not like I care about what they think.
Of course you don’t. Otherwise you would have to accept you are a-
Silence! Growled Velnil as he shook his head. For a few moments, he waited for a reply, but when it didn’t arrive, he raised his chin smugly.
He was about to get up to be on his way when he heard some rustling in front of him. Looking up, he noticed something that looked a lot like a sivkit, except it was wrong in almost every aspect, except for its eyes. He watched the animal approach the newly planted flower, and Velnil scoffed as the animal began to sniff at it.
Dumb prey. You don’t even know what that is, and you just approach it. As Velnil watched the animal, his eyes widened, and time seemed to slow down as he saw it open its mouth.
Oh no, you won’t. With a growl, he sprung from his hiding spot, his maw opening wide with razor sharp teeth as he caught the prey just before it could turn and run.
The metallic taste was a welcome sensation.
~~~
Velnil hummed a low tune for himself as he was walking back to his clearing, his hunger somewhat satiated as he let the cold air fill his lungs to their capacity. With his hunger sated for the foreseeable few hours, he could think a bit more clearly about his situation.
This place looked nothing like a farm. At least, not how a cattle farm would look like, but even those places had parts where they grew prey food to feed the cattle.
So if the humans are not going to keep cattle on this farm, apart from the alien one, why grow so much on such a big area? He knew humans can eat prey food, as revolting of a thought it was, they all could just eat more meat. Do they really care that much about the walking and talking prey that they don’t eat meat because of them?
Bah. Of course they care about their cattle. That way they won’t run away.
Though, the more he thought about it, the less sense it made. Do they really not eat the alien cattle that are here? Albeit he only just arrived, the animals didn’t seem to be scared at all. That woman - Lia, was his name, if he remembered correctly - even went out into the cold night to find her feathered ‘friend’.
Growling softly, he shook his head, banishing the line of thought to the back of his mind. He didn’t need to think about this - it was useless when it came to his survival. He knew the humans would do anything to save cattle - even if said cattle bombed them. If it needs to be, he can always take one as a hostage, and on the other hand - he probably could still get at least one of the prey riled up enough to attack him.
That will be spectacular.
But what else could he do? There was one saying he saw on a human website that described his current position quite nicely - He was a wolf among sheep. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. He had to get them to lower their guards, to not view him as a threat, but rather, one of those weak useless arxur who cannot do anything right.
Oh, you have experience in that, don’t worry.
“Shut. Your. Mouth.” He hissed to himself, stopping in his tracks as he looked forward. His arms shook slightly, but he forced his hands into fists to stop it.
What’s the matter, Velnil? Forgot about me so quickly? You hurt my - sorry -, our feelings.
“I said shut up!” Growling filled the air as Velnil leaned forward, the shaking moving to his shoulders.
Why should I? We are no longer in the Dominion. Betterment can’t get a hold of us. We are free.
“We are not free… We will never be.” growled Velnil suddenly turning to swiftly strike at a tree. He winced from the pain shooting through his right hand, but he didn’t care. He didn’t want to feel. He shouldn’t feel anything.
But we are. We ran away, fooled the humans, fooled their prey. We could go where we want. Or stay here. Live a new-
“This is NOT my home!” Velnil yelled. “This will never be. I am not free, just a damned prisoner of another species! I can never be as free as I want to be!”
And what would you call being free? Not like you would know it, of course. I can see it, after all. You know nothing about being free. You are just-
“Shut up! Shutupshutupshutup!” Velnil yelled as he began hitting his head against the tree, each time his body shaking in pain while the tree stood steadfast.
Unmoving.
Uncaring.
Emotionless.
With tears in his eyes, he slunk down against the tree, his breathing fast and uneven. The shadows danced around him, waiting in silence, waiting to pounce on his weak form. The sounds of the night sky became howls of predators, the ground further ahead opened up, the rotten, clawed hand of an arxur suddenly appearing at the edge of it, pulling it’s body up, revealing a set of familiar yellow eyes.
“V-veeeeelniiiilll” Groaned her corpse as she pulled herself up, taking a step closer. His breathing fastened as his eyes were trained not on her head, but her torn open neck.
“No… No… I- I didn’t…” His whines were left unanswered as her corpse took another step towards him, an arm reaching out as one of her eyes fell out, leaving the empty socket as a void to peer into and devour his weak soul.
“I didn’t want to!” He yelled, trying to crawl away, but the tree behind him didn’t let him. “I never wanted to! I-I-I wanted to keep you safe, but I-”
“Veeeeeel-” The corpse sighed out, before taking in a shallow breath - her torn open throat moving along with the action, opening to let air in, before she continued. ”-nyy.” Another step, then as he blinked, she was standing over him. A startled whine left him as he scooted back even more, pressing against the tree as she reached out.
“I’m sorry! I’m so fucking sorry, I wanted to save you, I did!” He screamed hiding away behind his arms as he shouted one last thing: “I loved you!”.
As he shrunk back even more, his breath slowed, his head became woozy as soon his consciousness began to slip away, hearing her speak one last time.
“Veeeeeelnnnyy.”
~~~
Velnil came back to consciousness with a start, head rapidly turning around as his breath hitched, until pain shot through his head. With a wince, he pulled himself up, gingerly touching his head - his scales were damaged, and blood was dried on his head. He winced slightly as pain shot through both his head and right hand.
Shit. They will definitely notice this… He thought to himself as he took a ragged breath. He looked where the hole had appeared - there was nothing, the ground was undisturbed. His gaze lingered on it, before he eventually turned, and continued to make his way towards his clearing, still in the darkness of the night, like nothing had happened.
It has been so long since the last one. Why now? Why is she tormenting me? His questions were left unanswered. He forced himself to stop, and after taking a deep breath, he looked around, listening for any nearby river or something. Sniffing around, he could feel the smell of water off in the distance, and so, he began making his way there.
I need to wash off the blood.
Within a few minutes, he had found a large river, the water flowing down with relative force. Kneeling down at its edge, he leaned forward, and began cleaning his head and hand with practiced, almost robotic movements. The proof of his weakness stinged and flared up at the cold touch of water, but he did not care. He watched as the water slowly took on a red hue, before disappearing down the river.
Within another few minutes, Velnil could easily make out the outline of the injury - it wasn’t too big, but it was most definitely noticeable, and will take days - if not a few weeks - to properly heal. He could hide it, since he was still somewhat bigger than everyone else - but then that would go against his plan on appearing meek and unsure about things.
Maybe I could use it. Play it off as having a bad night. Maybe I could get them to give me more food than they planned. The humans are very empathetic, I’m sure that after seeing this, they would feel bad enough for me to somewhat drop their guard. Maybe I can even fool some of the prey. Yes, that, being attacked by one should be enough for them to not view me as a threat.
Satisfied with the plan, Velnil got back up, and with a sigh and a few minutes of walking, he finally made his way back to the clearing. Lying down on the cold ground, he carefully rested his head atop his bag once again, looking at nothing in particular.
His next few minutes were filled with rolling around, unable to go back to sleep, as his thoughts were slowly but surely going back to the krakotl he saw. The green feathers, adorned by a red pattern, its yellow beak, and similarly yellow eyes.
Yellow eyes that stared deep into his soul.
The yellow eye that has fallen out of its socket, to leave an empty void to devour his soul.
Velnil forced his eyes shut, turning around again. Not again. He thought, forcing himself to think of other things - the taste of the prey animal he caught, his way towards Earth, the russif.
Eventually, within a gruesome few minutes, Velnil was finally granted the sweet release of sleep.
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Graphic images and descriptions below.Hello Drowners,
We as a mod team feel we haven't been working as hard as we could to promote and share resources and charities regarding recent tragedies and genocides going on in Palestine/Gaza. We have 8.4k members on this Subreddit, that's a pretty decent reach. With this post, we hope we can help spread information, donation links and awareness so more people can contribute to donating, boycotts and join in on the spreading of awareness.

So, why should you care?

We believe that the innocent people in the Gaza Strip deserve the same rights as anyone in the world does. The events going on in these places could happen to anyone in the world - yes, including you. These people's own governments are committing atrocious acts such as ethnic cleansings, colonization and mass attacks killing thousands of civilians at once, as well as taking civilians hostages and putting them through vile acts such as torture and rape in their own homes. At least 1.4 MILLION people are being forced to flee their homes, thousands have been killed and houses, schools, safe rooms and hospitals are being bombed, bulldozed and raided. Despite whatever side you might take, it is important to acknowledge these acts alone are inhumane and need to be stopped.
​

Charities/Fundraisers and How YOU can Help!

CHARITIES :
Palestine Children's Relief Fund - "Our mission is to provide medical and humanitarian relief collectively and individually to children throughout the Levant, regardless of their nationality or religion."
Unity for Gaza: Mutual Aid & Resilient Livelihoods - "Amid the breakout of indiscriminate violence in the ongoing war in Gaza, numerous families find themselves trapped in a dire humanitarian crisis. Our primary objective is to assist them by addressing their urgent needs."
Help feed homeless pets and people in Gaza - "Every day, countless people suffer from hunger, cold and displacement due to the war in Gaza. These face difficulties in surviving on the streets, and often face hunger, disease and injuries. You can make a difference in a needy life by donating today... Every donation, no matter how small, makes a big difference."
CADUS - "CADUS is a non-profit, independent, international emergency response organization from Berlin. In our projects, we provide rapid, needs-oriented emergency aid and promote long-term capacity building on the ground." - "We are internationally active with our projects. Our work is currently focused on Ukraine and Gaza."
BOYCOTTS/CAMPAIGNS IF YOU CAN'T DONATE :
BDS Movement : What is BDS ? - BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions and is a Palestinian-Led organization that organizes official boycotts. As stated by them, "The BDS movement is about much more than consumer boycotts: it is also about campaigning alongside others to pressure institutions, unions, and companies to boycott or divest and to isolate Israel academically, culturally, economically and militarily." -The OFFICIAL list of BDS boycotts. If you are interested in boycotting, we recommend following BDS' lead and focusing on boycotting a few, select companies at once - as targeted/more-efficiently-organized boycotts historically work better.
Cease Fire NOW - #CeaseFireNow is a call to political figures around the world to cease fire immediately, as they have the power and influence to end these tragedies.
We are also interested in holding a Charity/Fundraiser event for the Subreddit as well as the Discord server, where the prize would be a sum of money donated to one of the previously mentioned charities. So, keep your eyes out for this post in the future.

From the River to the Sea.

We also want to use our reach to uplift voices of the community, and would love to hear stories, opinions and voices from any community members who have been personally affected by these tragedies.
SOURCES :

• Hamas Fighters Attack on Israeli Civilians at Music Festival - 260 Bodies Recovered
• Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory
• PCRF
• CeaseFireNOW
• Israel Gaza war: History of the conflict explained
• Dozens reported killed in Israeli strike on Rafah
• How the Watermelon Became a Symbol of Palestinian Solidarity
• Israel begins bulldozing villagers' homes in West Bank

Thank you for your time,
SinjinDrowning Lifeguards

I come from a country that has recently had its election results out. Easy to guess which one if you know your news.
My country has in the last ten years seen an alarming rise in religious politics, with the current ruling party A actively weaponizing and amplifying hate and hate crimes against a certain community. Most people of the older generation belonging to upper class communities support the ruling party A, but with my generation ( I am 18) most of us are supporting the more secular opposition party B.
Again, easy to guess what I am talking about if you know your news.
I have only recently turned 18 and gotten into keeping myself updated with what is happening around me and in my country. And having political opinions. For a long time, I was a fervent hater of party A and a strong supporter of party B.
I did not vote in these elections. By my BF did. We both belong to religious communities which are not threatened by party A. Two days ago I came to know that party B has promised to increase reservations in government jobs and educational institutions.
For those who don't know, reservations is basically just a rule that a certain number of seats in any government institution is reserved for persons of a certain community. Already there is a 50% mandatory reservation in my country today. If the reservations are increased, this will actively harm the prospects of me finding a job and my siblings even getting into college. Because we belong to the general/upper caste community who are not eligible to access these reservations.
Already it is a struggle. My friend who got a 900 rank in a competitive exam could not get into my college whereas a guy with a 40k rank on the same exam did get in through the reservation.
Point is, I was talking to my BF today and he is a keen supporter of party B and their secular policies. I conveyed to him that I am not so keen on voting party B now because they negatively do affect me if they come into power. And he was livid that I am being so selfish. I argued with him on why I have a right to choose who to vote for on whatever basis I like, even if that basis is selfish. But he is mad at me for not going with the ethically right party B and thinks I am a pretty much shit person.
AITA?

A lot of men these days don’t want to work hard to protect their women, they will abuse, manipulate and lie to us so they can justify them being lazy and weak willed. Why are we raising men like this? Fathers are encouraging their daughters to leave the home, get a degree and become career driven instead of pushing their sons to be strong men that want to protect women and femininity. We are seeing an influx of masculine women purely because they were raised with this hustle mentality, they’ve been told men aren’t capable of looking after us, that we should work twice as hard as men to be able to provide for ourselves. The typical villainising of ALL men is ruining this generation.
Do we as a society not need men anymore? Is this the agenda we are going to push?
I understand a lot of this comes from the economy, how the cost of living these days is horrendous. Many people can’t survive on one income, so for that I can understand. But there’s no denying that we are still failing our women by sending them to work. This also raises concern about materialism, if a man can afford to have somewhere to live with his wife, then that should be more than enough for them both. Stop chasing materialism in this life and learn to live humbly, then perhaps things would be easier. We need to raise our children to be humble and determined, not weak and shallow like so many people are today.
I have always been feminine, every time I’ve tried to work I end up leaving within a few months and then I’m severely depressed after. Why? Because I was forced to take on masculine traits completely foreign to me. Society tells me that wanting to be a homemaker is wrong and to that I say f off. Don’t push me to conform to this western mindset, I never will.
Alhamdullilah I get to be a stay at home daughter, my dad doesn’t want me to work if I don’t want to. That to me is a real father and a real man.
I have no shame in saying I am 100% in tune with my femininity. I have no interest in taking on masculine roles that are unnatural to me. If I want to continue to live like this, I need a man who’s going to take care of me. Why is it so shameful these days to say, ‘yes we need men to look after us’.
I don’t want to work outside the home, I want to be taken care of and protected by a good man. Is this a big ask nowadays? Why must I try to be forced to go out and hustle? This is not within my nature and I simply don’t have the skills to live like that.
What happened to men wanting to feel needed? Do men not feel like this anymore? Or is this masculine woman epidemic driving you to loath the idea of having someone rely on you?
I want to remain feminine and for that I need a man in my life to take care of me. Gender roles have worked for thousands of years, why are we suddenly trying to push this liberal nonsense about equality? No…we simply are not equal to each other and never will be. Equity? Yes. Equality 100% no.
These feminists don’t protect women, they instead are the ones abusing us. Shame on them for trying to steal our identity and warp it with this disgusting liberal ideology.
And men, if having a wife and kids is not the goal for you then surely you’ll lose yourself and become lazy. We are wired different, a man needs goals, needs a reason to keep going, needs a reason to do SOMETHING. Women are content slowing down and living in the moment, I’m happy with my life feeling like a peaceful, steady stream of water. I don’t want that to be disturbed. Me going to work? Now that’s going to make my life a violent river and that’s not how I’m supposed to be.
I don’t want to be told that this is a delusional way of thinking, that it’s all fantasy. You are wrong. I’m proud to be a woman and I won’t have these incel feminist contemporary libbed out fools tell me I don’t get to live the life I’m supposed to have.
Wake up and stop giving into this woke agenda, it’s tearing everyone apart.

(High Cranial Volume Pr and AE Hybrid Users ONLY)
I still can't get AE to perform well on my M2 Macbook Pro running Sonoma 14.0 and AE 24.3. 32 GBs RAM — so obviously that's going to be immediate the culprit, but I do suspect that I could do pretty much anything I wanted on this computer if I could just optimize it correctly. That's what this thread is about. I know there are a million threads like this one but hopefully we can dig up some new dirt. I haven't really written about Sonoma but what I've read seems to indicate a lot of people have had issues. I'm not an OS guy I get enough of a headache with the shit I care about. Not sure if downgrading is possible. Maybe I upgrade my RAM (whoops hee hee nvm forgot i was on an apple computer).
You can stop reading there, because the rest of this is schizo nonsense. I've sobered up and I can't say that any mother would accept a child this ugly. But I'm also getting giddy at the thought of crossposting to editors and seeing what the Avid Professionals Working On Big Serious Productions With Budgets That Totally Won't Disappear in the Next 20 Years have to tell me about making some dough in exchange for the sweet intoxication of art. I also did a better job of listing my issues in my follow up comment
**Intro Apology**
**I've bolded out the sections with the mostly important shit:** I would take extra care to avoid anything that's been italicized because it is some of the most craven text ever set to paper. As if! I can't even use metaphors anymore. Will the graphic designers starve without their paper (why is it always either minimalism or hyper realism? I like texture too but not everything has to be made out of everything, or not made out of anything at all! Nature Without Ecology.)
This is just me typing and never stopping. For some reason. Well, it's no mystery. I'm avoiding anything that even resembles productivity.
I've already wasted time just stream of concussing every intrusive thought, so why would I waste more time reformatting and trimming the fat? Bahahaha I hope you like lamb. If I put forward attention to giving you direct information that effectively communicates an idea, I might just achieve nirvana. Like if I hyperfixate when I'm shitposting, then I am just going to realize the World-Spirit in-itself trying to abide by the laws of rhetorics. Let me tell you, the laws of rhetoric certainly don't make you any less schizo. How do you think we got here?
But that's the future the fucking tech bros made. And it's fucking awesome. Can't wait to be animating using my Rule 34 Paper Texture Parallax Datamosh VFX by AEAnabolics via telekinesis (is there a plugin for that?!??!)
So no I'm not going to make this thread easily accessible or interpretable because I really want anyone possessing any degree of intelligence to stay the fuck away (there are even intelligent people amidst the industry leaders, I once even met a film producer who knew how to count through 12! In any case, if everyone under 30 could exit the room, us pedants, drop outs and philistines will congregate somewhere other than all and we'll be happy to update you later with a summary of our findings.
I do apologize for the wordvomit — I took my meds abt 30 mins before I had the brilliant idea to open up a silly little text box on reddit during my awesome Pomodoro break. I had to be off the ADHD goodies for a week for some sports stuff I was trying to do which needed my heart at optimal function. Why did my doc just let me hop back on the same dose? I am emaciated from all this heavy lifting with my fingers.
Please though, don't dismiss this as pathological ravings. I am not sick, just an Adobe Creative Suite subscriber (somehow, five years later, I'm still on the student discount paying 30 bucks!!! Haha!!! Sticking it to the man!!!! Suckers!!!! Almost as bad as pouring thousands into software you don't own and can be shut out of for trumped up fraud charges if one of the cretins working at Adobe manages to actually check the accounts submitting all those pesky support tickets. Wait....)
So ya it's pretty simple: I was sunning my balls and cheating on five different women *holistically though* before taking my L-Carnitine to maximize the effects of my meth (don't worry I don't smoke it!), when I decided, yes, this Friday, with deadlines looming in the evening, I will nuke my morning by typing. and just not stopping. It's like stim sex, but literally no one is cumming. Wait, literally it's like stim sex.
Okay stop. I want you all to save the horniness for pitching to the Rule 34 Clients — the last to adopt AI in favor of authentic art and animation (bahahahhahaha I seriously do think *This whole AI thing, or at least its acceleration, can be put squarely at the feet of Gooners. They're horny and no human can create what will quench their thirst! Such a tragic condition. Like craving art that can speak to your soul. Ugh. Can't wait for Mister Horse to drop the Anime Waifu presets*.)
*(speaking of Misters, watch Mr. Rush Rush Client — who just needed this edit NOW — not even watch the video until Sunday. That rat fuck: maybe I don't have a social life huh? Maybe I don't want another shitty "underground" (as if such a thing exists anymore) rave on a Friday and a Hinge date on a Saturday?
Maybe genuine connection is dead and all some of us can love is the labor we put into our products. Or the efforts we put into our shitposts. Certainly the products themselves are far beyond loving.
Mr. Rush Rush: your 9-5 is shit and you are shit for thinking you are not a piece of shit because you force everyone to meet your fake timelines. We no longer cultivate produce, nor ideas, we just materialize urgency so the boss can larp as the boss and we can pretend society needs us to keep rhythm. It is the Master who needs the Master's Injunction. I like want to change the world man not reproduce it. I am barren.
Just let me work on Saturday. Asshole. It would have saved all of us from this post which was, of course, provoked by pure, unmediated anxiety — and absolute boredom.
*Fuck paper textures! Fuck any lower thirds that use paper textures. Shit is garbage. The elementary school audience went off to war — it's the latest Roblox minigame. So we're not even impressing anyone any more)*
Instantly — upon the epiphany that I don't owe people shit, even if they throw money at me, my brain ditched all ideals of productivity and decided it was time to write a fucking treatise on my experiences trying to optimize AE. Please do not mock me. I am an idiot. It's not worth countering snark with snark —because I can't even read. I am literally dictating this post to my iPhone and then having chatgpt re-write it. Also, I really hope some GPT or AI research tool digs up this thread. I'm sure they will wire only the relevant information to Mr. Prompter! He deserves the best. In fact he's the only one who deserves anything.
*If I was a GPT prompt I would be posing as a weird hermit who thinks he is the postmodern reincarnation of Plato. WELCOME to the republic ... of stupid — ruled under the auspices of the Kingdoms of Adobia, Resolve-ru, and Avidia (btw can we do what we did to Twitter to Avid? I just don't think it's a cool name. I'm not Avid anytime I have to use Avid. It doesn't have neurolink compatability and I can't do a million things very shitily. It just does like one thing very well. Who would ever ask for that?!?!?1*
For some reason I decided to pump up the snark to the max on this post — I hope that's okay. Maybe I want to write novels, not make videos. In any case, I promise you I'm not AI writing this. Unless ....
But at the end of the day I'm just trying to entertain myself instead of getting real work done — which I can't imagine is something a community of useless creatives would have trouble understanding. You couldn't do math good, and that's because you're lazy!!!
(Dan Ebberts if you're here I am sorry Father: but you are not a useless sack of shit motion designer, you're not making lower thirds for the Nelk Bros? You are the fucking Grand Wizard Abstract Quantum Mathematician my guy, the highest expression of the Enlightenment rationale, not a useless 2.5d animator — though I do secretly harbor a belief that all numbers are racist and you, as the Prophet of Numbers where they don't belong (computers) have a lot of reckoning to do. Guilt erotics won't get you out of this one — we don't want sorry we want solidarity!
**I'm half shitposting and half offering my own insight in exchange for yours.** I hope you don't read malice in my words. In any case I don't think myself a victim and I will be fine. Our world is about to turn nonsensical. The division of labor will collapse. Those who are both just intelligent enough to do dumb shit and lacking in morals will take everyone else's jobs. Technocracy of the morons! Somebody invite France too.
What's your intricate knowledge of a cavernous software versus my ability to write out prompts at 130 WPM? Basically, where you used to be able to get ahead with creative ingenuity you can now get ahead by typing fast. Good riddance lol. But if only we could get this piece of shit software to do everything I want it to do with not even a smidge of an attempt to optimize, pre-render, under smart principles?
But I'm hoping maybe we can have some conversations about the best practices to get this piece of shit software to work consistently. AE is so cool 90% of the time but it's like a girlfriend that's loyal to you 90% of the time. Now I'm not suggesting Adobe is cuckolding the VFX wannabes among us.^1 But I do want to say that there's a problem when your most random software that kind of just somehow works if you need how to cast a few voodoo spells and play around with different effects is literally un-professionizable. You can do amazing things in After Effects on just 16 GB of RAM (even 8 if you're willing to walk away from your computer for a fortnight for a few renders), which was so cool when I was getting started on the shitcans they hand out in college (I sound spoiled but you didn't spend the first year of your professional career on an outdated Mac Air desperately refreshing Google News for a stimulus check as literally everyone is jobless whilst you never even got a job to be jobless from. Like come on guys, if you got started in the 90s at least you have analog nostalgia and to anyone born after 95 you look like a wizard talking about chemicals and film crystals and shit. A Covid alumnus like me who graduated in 2019 doesn't get shit, and 2020 graduates didn't even get to bask in the delusion that they were ever the center of the world. I just pray UBI is installed before the robots take our land and our animals, because truly the new generation of digital creatives is going to feature some of the dumbest people to ever rank through society. Which is true in any era, but what's unique about ours is that young people are no longer angry, just cynical like they were in the 70s. Another round of hypernormalization.
**My Problem(s)
I need the experts here to just assume that I don't want to do things the right way. Every single person who has ever posted a query to Reddit, complex or one Google Search away, every single on of us cursed posters imagines that someone will waltz into their thread and provide an unheard of fix. Jesus take the wheel! I will provide more information on my specific issues, maybe even some idiosyncratic fixes I have found (Thank you Klutz GPT! But fuck you also.) but only if you show you're not going to snarkpost. Until then I will leave you to wade through the coagulated shit stew that is this post.
This is basically the situation with the people becoming editors and motion designers. Thanks Youtube. Thanks Twitch. You ruined Cinema more than capeshit did. Special shout out to the editors in the Philippines running their Macs through literal fruits Just as Mr. Jobs intended. (Don't worry, I'm from a country that is actually dogshit, the Philipines is beautiful and extraordinarily culturally rich)
The Jungle people here to take our jobs! Why aren't we worried about them like we are AI? They can do literally any job. And they can do it poorly. Literally exactly like AI, but no one getting their underwear in a twist when they're browsing the World section on Upwrok.
Don't get me started on what the Ruskiys are doing. You've seen Russian social media, but do you understand what Russian creatives are doing? Absolutely nothing, because Russian creatives don't exist. At best they can reform and reclaim their Orthodoxy in Siberia before coming back to St. Petersburg and writing some of the greatest novels known to man (which some of the absolute most dogshit interpretations and translations ever produced of any Western texts that are even close to the Canon)
Anyway, people like me are going to be around more and more. It's me you're going to be responding "CC Marvel Effect huahua" while the Gen Alpha nicotine tweaker blows clouds into your PC's air vents. Cloud bitch! You're fucked, because the anxiety from vaping makes him lazy as fuck. We are going to starve all because these fuckers got into too much of a dopamine deficit huffing shit with 5x the nicotine of cigs. If you think we're gonna take your jobs now, just wait until I grow my third arm. I will take your job. And when I grow my third cock, I will take your wife.
**I am a "creative director", that's how I market myself at least. I work in a lot of industries, make a shit ton of ads, but I think of myself primarily as a (documentary) filmmaker and editor (at this point it may be a formality and nostalgia because people just want reels and I like money).
I began packaging documentary projects with commercial packages, so the idea has been to first tell someone I'll make a doc for them, but along the way I can use the extra edits and unused interviews or just any of the millions of unused bits of a documentary/reality project and recycle it into ads.** You wouldn't believe how well this works on someone with a little bit of ego and a little bit of money. Netflix really convinced the chuds that their life is like a documentary lol. It's okay, not everyone can monetize their passion, or have it ripped out of their hands to transform itself from quasi art (or something challenging art) to a glorified mouthpiece for mediocre wannabes and has-beens. Bring back the Birth of the Nation or that movie about the Nazi architecture, Will, Will, what was it called? Anyway, I really thought I was going to make shit about dictators or like some genuinely awful people. Instead I got all of the delusion and none of the murder, just a bunch of whining about Instagram follower counts and the "blacklist" (I really wish they'd post a sign up, because I don't want to be seen. For real.)**
** I won't claim expertise as a motion designer. And for the sake of all that is holy you can and should call me a highfalutin dilettante with talent to produce nothing except derivative drivel (I mean, I I told you I worked in documentary right?). **
**But please, please, just assume that I may just not *want* to do things the right way.** ^@
**I know I should label and rename my files. But we're way beyond that, I have become one with Solid 1, to Solid 1 + N. I am going to get last in my comps and no I'm not going to Shy anything because I am an ALPHA! (Seriously though if you are a talentless unorganized adhd piece of shit editor and wannabe filmmaker like me, there's a plugin called Declutter which will automatically sort your project: it offers decent customization that could be helpful if you are just torpedoing a bunch of Linked Comps into AE like we're in the Pacific Theater. But with this magic hack, all those dismembered and charred bits of corpse gets insta sorted into the proper bin! And now your project panel doesn't look like shit and you can screen record while you troubleshoot some issues with an Adobe representative without feeling embarrassed. (maybe if he see it, we can get some sorting function that automatically puts comps in a specific folder (or files of any type into a pre-ordained folder, either in Pr or Ae would be cool. It's not like there are a million plugins that do the exact same shit. I'd rather anime ai waifu available at the click of a button though. What will the Gooners' do if we ever dare stop production?!?1
**Every problem I have had could be improved or entirely eliminated with a proper workflow solution. I am like really painfully aware of that. **
**I have shat blood figuring out how to make Pr Pro work consistently. That's my main app yo. I've genuinly poured hours into unlearning and relearning how to do things. I hope I can like put together an advanced guide some day. But like what's the point if the client who thinks he wants an editor actually wants to see his name and his logo animated in 10 different ways? And you know, I used to be content to produce that auto shit. But the more I animate, the more keyframes I ease (if you tell me you can ease in Pr I am going to smack the shit out of you unless it's to reccomend this
Frankly, AE is such a shitshow. It's old as fuck in a way that none of the other major apps are. Like Photoshop feels stuck in the 90s in the same way but at least its code isn't fucked beyond belief and it's relatively easy to diagnose problems (maybe you need to put more thought into performance for something that generates 24 images a second, but who knows? Not Adobe. Btw, wtf is up with caches in PS? Why are they so fucking greedy for all my data. Fuck you I want space and to have you open in the background. Seriously PS is old and I feel like no one points it out because you can just use Illustrator but fuck that I can't draw mfer)**
**I am going to be spending the next three weeks making animations for about 50 reels, to pair with some other branding deliverables for Youtube and the client's website. It's a huge project and one that I scored by advertising a diverse skill set (I apologize to the specialists but we're all going to have to adjust to foreigners in our lands — if you're American this should sound like a founding ideal more than a problem).
Or so I get the job done: don't get me wrong I cringe when people come in here and ask about making AE faster and it's clear they know nothing and didn't even bother to Google. I have Googled and spent a lot of frustrating hours trying to make shit work that just didn't work.**
Ultimately, if I don't slap on effects until I have the bulk of my animation rendered, and avoid working in 3d for no reason and tread carefully when I do, then I should be good.
But I love the 3D camera. As a filmmaker it's probably my favorite tool in AE because there's actually somewhat transferable skills or a demand for vision (and when Pr's shitty AI takes off and filmmaking becomes glorified prompt writing everyone is going to stop asking for real cameras anyway so might as well accept my fate right now and bin my C70 next to all of the piece of shit analog cameras no one uses anymore and just buy as many 3d camera plugins and softwares as I can, right? Right?! Hello Cinema 4D 8) ). Parallax is fucking awesome bro. I want to receive joy when I work, so ya I'll throw on deep glow and SS3. Am I a terrible person? Probably. I just want you to know, before you offer me solutions, that I want to have my cake and eat it too and frankly I am going to give you snark if you solve one problem but create another.
(for some reason) continued in the comments. Tbh the comment is more useful than this post. I'm just having a bad day guys and retreating into words to escape my problems.

Hey, I’m not sure if this is allowed here, but I don’t know where else to ask.
I started my first ever job at a dog daycare about a week ago. Yesterday at work (my 4th day working) it was a pretty chill day. I clocked in at 5:30 AM and had a woman there training me—keep in mind that the place I worked at has two different facilities, and the woman that was training me works at the other facility. They do things a little bit differently at her facility, but overall the training was pretty consistent.
Anyway, after break I was sitting on the stairs for a second and trying to figure out Zello so I could contact her directly until I saw her and asked her what my next task was. She told me that she was going to let another employee there keep me busy until I got off around 12; I told her that I worked until 2, and she said “oh, everything’s pretty much caught up and there’s a lot of people and I’m going to leave soon, so just let her (the other employee) keep you busy until then.” I asked the other employee what I should be doing, and she said since we were caught up that I could do extras on the task list.
I went through cleaning the cats room, cleaning some of the extra “suites” that the dogs stayed in, went outside and picked up garbage around the parking lot and perimeter, wiped down the top of the fencing where the small dogs were boarding, watched the small dogs (there’s a small dog section that usually isn’t supervised 24/7 except through a camera), scrubbed down a play area that was in the small dogs section, took dogs from clients and brought them back to their designated locations, cleaned up after a coworker’s dogs that were being kept in the enrichment area, and even set up a room for a new dog that was boarding.
At the end of my shift the girl asked me what I had finished doing and I explained to her that I did everything “except for the walls. Doing the walls sucks so I was saving those for last, but I was getting to them eventually.” She laughed and said it was fine. I left that day and the manager thanked me.
This entire time I was being told I was doing a terrific job by multiple people. The manager and boss would often ask me what I thought and if I was doing okay, to which I would respond that I like the job but just need to get used to it and that if I seemed off it was just personal problems at home and not the job itself. The boss seemed very supportive and thanked me for telling her.
When it came to jokes, I didn’t think it was a major deal. Everyone there seemed very relaxed and always cracking jokes. One of the girls at the front ended a call with a client and then called her a bitch to another coworker and they laughed about it. I’m really reserved and not great with people but I tried joining in on a team discussion and expressed my condolences to a coworker that had lost his service dog.
I thought I was doing well and I honestly really liked the job. I wasn’t scheduled today, but I got a call by the manager. She pretty much told me that I was having too many red flags and I needed to be let go. The red flags were that I sat on the stairs after break when I could have just used Zello to ask what I was supposed to do, and also that I talked about not cleaning the walls and “there’s a lot of walls at this place that need to be cleaned.” Keep in mind that those walls were all extras and I had cleaned walls before when I was asked and that were a priority. Apparently she had fired someone before that “had a great work ethic but didn’t prioritize things properly” and I completely understood that, so to me the walls for the extras seemed least important than other things that were on the list, like the mopping and cleaning the play structure in the small dog’s area.
I tried to explain that I was on my phone trying to figure out the Zello and that for the walls it was just a joke, it didn’t mean that I wasn’t actually going to do the walls. She said that “the team is super supportive so you could have asked anyone in the front” but that she’ll pass it on the boss. She said she didn’t think the outcome would be any different though. In her words, “is it worth investing time into this and then a week later have another problem come up? We try to make wise choices when hiring.”
There’s other issues at the place as well. It seems very cliquey and honestly I didn’t mind but because I’m kind of reserved, I just want to focus on cleaning and the animals.
They don’t let the dogs have any toys (which I completely understand when all of the dogs are let out during the day), but I don’t think the dogs get their toys at night either, which didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
There was a dog boarding there that just had a single blanket on the floor (the floors are made of concrete) and the woman training me told me that I didn’t do anything wrong but she was just nitpicking and said I should put an extra blanket down for that dog. I completely understood that, but the person before me that boarded that dog clearly didn’t think about it all and I was never told to do that. I’m also pretty sure I’m the only person in training, so it must’ve not been a thing they really cared about. After being told that though I did it for the new puppy that came in that was being boarded.
There’s also an issue with the fact that the small dogs aren’t really monitored like the big dogs are, and I texted the manager the suggestion that maybe they could be watched more often since it might be helpful for them to have someone there more. I didn’t think that was overstepping a boundary, but that was before I was told I was getting let go.
Can someone please give me their opinion on this? I don’t know what to think and I’m really sad because I liked this job.

Central Land and Cattle Company, LLC., the owners of Thornburgh now owe over 37 million. That’s up from 33.7 million as of January 1st. An increase of over $37,000 a day and the 2nd highest rate of increase since the loan started.
This is according to loan documents filed between Central Land and Cattle, LLC and Sortis REIT, Inc. with Deschutes Co. The loan started in 2021 with an initial 12.5 million. It’s been amended 10 times and has grown as per the chart below.

Date of	Amount	.	Dollar Increase	Amend	Link to
Agreement	Owed	Days	Per Day	No.	Document
Mar-25-2021	12,500,000			1	2021-19187
Oct-1-2021	16,250,000	190	19,737	2	2021-63316
Feb-16-2022	19,000,000	138	19,928	3	2022-06776
May-25-2022	25,000,000	98	61,224	4	2022-21551
Dec-2-2022	29,000,000	191	20,942	5	2022-42297
Mar-31-2023	30,270,000	119	10,672	6	2023-07523
Aug-1-2023	31,370,000	123	8,943	7	2023-19263
Oct-1-2023	32,485,000	61	18,279	8	2023-25890
Jan-1-2024	33,685,000	92	13,043	9	2024-01310
Apr-1-2024	37,090,000	91	37,418	10	2024-14087

It’s my opinion that things are going south for Thornburgh. Central Land and Cattle Company, LLC, the company was just administratively dissolved and then reinstated by the Secretary Of State. This normally means they did not file the paperwork on time and pay the small fee. This isn’t a big deal, but shows sloppiness.
I emailed the owner of Central Land and Cattle Co., Kameron DeLashmutt and said I would be posting this on Reddit and invited him to comment. Kameron’s contact information is on this public document. Feel free to reach out to him and get his side of the story.
I’m not an expert in real estate or loans. Please review the documents for details.

I have never been to Disney before, I am fortunate enough that I’m able to afford an all-out Disney trip. So I’m trying to plan one that involves everything I want. I am going September 15 - September 23. It’s just myself, so I don’t have to worry about wrangling anyone else around.
I understand no one on here is a travel agent but most of y’all have Disney experience and I’m just hoping for a general “yea you’re planning too much.” Or a “no you should be fine”
I work as a chef and I’m really interested in some of the food so the ADRs I’m looking to make are:

• Storybook Dining at Artists Point
• Beaches and Cream
• ohanas (for dinner but I’m a big stitch fan, so I’m contemplating if I should book a breakfast as well)
• garden grill (it has come highly recommended to me but I’m not going to be heartbroken if I can’t fit it in)
• Boma’s
• sci-fi drive in theatre
• via Napoli (again recommended to me, I heard the pizza is 9/10)
• and I’m vaguely interested in space 220 but more the atmosphere than the food

I’d say Bomas, storybook dining, ohanas (dinner), and beaches and cream are the most important.
Then the enchanting extras I’m planning to book are:

• the Wild Africa Trek
• build a droid
• build a lightsaber
• behind the seeds (does this run year round? I’m having trouble finding info on it)
• contemplating a dessert fireworks party but not sold on it.

My planned Itinerary is as follows and I’m wondering if I’m spreading myself too thin:
SEPT 15 - I messed up and booked a really late flight, so this day is basically a wash because I don’t arrive until late. My plan is basically: check into hotel, figure out transportation for next day. Buy genie plus for next day.
SEPT 16 - get into magic kingdom as early as possible, but I had a long travel day the day before so I’m not going to push myself too much. It’s going to be an easy, chill magic kingdom day.
I was planning to leave a bit early in the day and have dinner at Ohana.
I was planning on buying genie plus so I could get a few of the rides I wanted out of the way before I got tired.
SEPT 17 - Sleep in. No particularly set schedule for the day (weather dependant) but I was thinking waterpark from 10-2 (ish). Back to hotel, change, late lunch/early dinner at Beaches and Cream. I looked and the ideal time slot id want to reserve is 3:30. But obviously this is all dependant on what ADRs are available when I book my trip.
Then I have tickets to Mickeys not so scary, I read you can get in around 4, so I was planning to enter right after Lunch/dinner so I can do anything I missed in MK the day before.
SEPT 18 - Early entry to animal kingdom (if I’m not too tired after MNSSHP). Start the morning some rides and do the Wild Africa Trek sometime in the afternoon. Hoping to be able to do mostly everything in animal kingdom in this one day even though Wild Africa Trek takes up 3 hours of my day.
Will likely buy genie plus on this day as well.
Since AK seems to close the earliest, I thought it’d be a good day to do Storybook Dining - hopefully getting the latest possible reservation.
SEPT 19 - Hollywood Studios Early entry if possible. Then I want to build a droid, build a lightsaber and have lunch at the sci-fi drive in. It feels like a lot to do in a day, but it seems most of those things only take about 30 minutes each on average?
I’m hoping to be able to get all the rides I want to done as well in this one day.
Dinner at Bomas (maybe) at the latest reservation time I can get.
SEPT 20- rest day. Sleep in, go to Disney Springs. I’m planning on buying tickets to Drawn to Life. I don’t have any dining plans, but I’m curious what I could find in Disney springs for ADR.
I might do Bomas on this day instead. My resort is in Animal kingdom lodge area anyways, so it’s not super out of the way? But I also am curious about potentially getting dinner in Disney springs, I haven’t looked into restaurants there at all yet.
SEPT 21 - Magic Kingdom again (subject to change if I feel like I didn’t get enough done in one of the other parks but did get enough done in MK). Originally I read that MK was a 2 day park and the others were 1 day parks. So I planned around that fact. No ADRs today, but I am planning to stay until park close to see the fireworks (maybe do the dessert party if it’s worth it?)
SEPT 22 - Epcot (was originally planning to switch the 21st and 22nd but there’s another Not so Scary on the 22nd and I didn’t want my last magic kingdom day to be cut short).
Behind the seeds tour in the morning. Lunch at garden grill. Dinner at space 220 lounge (maybe just apps, I really just like the atmosphere) and then maybe stop at Via Napoli for dinner as well. I don’t think I’d be able to make an ADR for via Napoli if I make one for space 220 dinner though. They’d be too close together in time?
Would I still be able to get everything done with all the dining I plan to do?
SEPT 23 - breakfast at ohanas - my flight doesn’t leave until late, so just hanging around Disney springs or resort hopping until I have to go to the airport.
Am I able to get everything done that I plan to? Would it beneficial to add an extra day? Or do I have to cut some things out?

Ok buckle up.
11 years ago I received a Facebook message from someone who I thought was just a friend of my then partner saying all this stuff about am I her boyfriend etc. Partner was pregnant at the time and we lived together. Starting a family essentially. Replied to the message obviously being like wtf are you talking about? Had a word with her and essentially said look I don't know what's going on but you are pregnant and we are having a baby so you need to stop having contact with this guy. She made up some excuses, said he got the wrong end of the stick etc. After baby was born I suspected something was still going on so managed to get hold of her phone. Her WhatsApp icon was hidden in a massively obfuscated way inside loads of sub-groups. Big red flag. Anyway there were messages from a few days prior saying what time you coming round? love you etc. Clearly not just friends. So I ended up leaving. Baby was only 6 months old at the time but I wasn't prepared to stay.
Had full contact and shared custody I had my daughter every weekend and have never missed it once, taken her on loads of holidays etc.
There is a history of alcohol abuse and going out partying on her side that eventually led to her unfortunately dying in her sleep as a result of overdoing it.
Problem is now the funeral. I have obviously always protected my daughter from hurt by not burdening her with the reason why her parents aren't together but I guess she thinks it's my fault. I'm guessing her mum probably led her to believe that in a round about way.
The guy she was cheating on me with was still seeing her and was her on/off boyfriend. I heard from mutual acquaintances my daughter referred to him as "uncle" (yuck).
Anyway so him and his mum and sister were close to my daughter's mother and will be attending the funeral, which obviously makes it extremely awkward for everyone else in attendance.
There is a also an older ex- stepson (my daughter's half-brother) who I get on with fine and my daughter loves very much. They are very close. He is the one who has told me the other man and his family are coming to the funeral. He didn't say he couldn't come but he is obviously caught in the middle of this absolute mess and I feel so sorry for him.
So this is my quandary, Do I tell my daughter the real reason why I can't attend, or do I spare her feelings by taking the moral high ground yet again all the while letting her think I'm still the bad guy.
Bare in mind that by me not telling her why I left had probably damaged her view of me for the first 11 years of her life, and this will make me look even worse.
I have been struggling with this for about a week now and really can't decide how to play it.
My reasons for wanting to tell her aren't to make her mother look bad at all. I always wanted her to have a loving relationship with her mother no matter what she did to me and I was always civil to her after things died down and I got back on my feet and healed. It's more that I feel I've been made to look like the bad guy and that has caused my relationship with my daughter to suffer as a result, and I'm not prepared to do it anymore.

idk this has been a weird thing to think abt and to try and talk abt irl so here. kinda long sorry.
i (20F) have been single my entire life. i had a few people interested in me throughout high school, but i was never interested in return, not even enough for a friendly first date. i kick myself for it now because i’ve never even been on a date in all my 20 years and i don’t have the slightest clue how i would even navigate one but we move.
i’ve only had two major crushes — one on a guy that i’m like 95% sure liked me back but we were both chicken shit freshman. the other was my girl bff that took advantage of the fact that i was coming to terms with discovering my bisexuality and used me as an emotional punching bag that would stroke her ego.
i’ve never had any kind of sexual encounters with anyone but myself, i don’t like dating apps despite my best pathetic efforts, hell, i’ve only had one kiss in my life and it was a drunken peck with aforementioned ex girl bff. my only friends now are just a gay guy i like to get drunk with every 6 months and my long distance bff across the country.
this is meant in the least self-absorbed way possible, but i just feel it’s relevant: i’m able to step back and acknowledge I’m a pretty girl. i don’t have a big head about it, but i can look in the mirror and think i look good no matter the effort put in or whatever. but i begin to doubt myself because, what if im not? i know im far from perfect, but i really don’t think im that hard to be around. i’m not hideous, i can keep conversation going and make jokes so people will warm up. i can be sarcastic and kinda aloof i guess, but i like to talk with people and they usually don’t leave with a sour taste in their mouths, so what gives? am i just good for temporary company? if people need favors or to vent?
obviously doesn’t feel great — more often than not, i just sit around lonely and feeling like there’s some invisible force repelling everyone from me. at the end of the day, i just think i’m undesirable, if not physically then definitely personality-wise. i can make friends easily, but it just feels like i’ll never be seen as someone more than just the funny little sidekick. that i’m not someone worthy of a deep connection and unwavering love and care.
sometimes i think it’s because i live in a crappy suburban hell i feel stunted in, most days i really feel like it’s just something with me that i really can’t figure out no matter how much meditation and therapy i try.

June 3rd to 6th, 2024 Leading up to our Vegas trip, one of the things I enjoyed most was visiting this subreddit and reading the experiences others shared about their time in the city. It was consistently insightful, helpful, and quite entertaining to read.
While this post may be none of those things, I still wanted to share on the off chance it provides a bit of relief for those planning and struggling to piece their own trips together.
As a brief background, both my wife and I have spent time in Vegas before, but, for reasons I won’t get into on this post, we never had a “Vegas experience.” We agreed that this would be that trip.
For context, we have been together for 15 years. We are both 35 and have two kids. Most vacations are family-oriented - lots of planning, budgeting, and sniping the best deals and the cheapest things to do. We agreed to do a little of that for this trip, but to mostly roll with the punches and see what would happen. Outside of booking the hotel, the only other thing I did to prepare for this trip was make two lists of food. Food list number one were places that sounded unique or different and were within a 5 to 10 minute walk. Food list number two was the same concept, except 20+ minute walk or bus ride away. My wife and I also agreed that if we couldn’t walk somewhere by staying in hotels, we weren’t going to walk there.
I’ll get the total cost out of the way. We spent about $370 on food, drinks, transportation, and entertainment. Our flight was $80 round trip ($40 each through Frontier). The hotel was $350 total for 3 nights. Thats about $800 for 3ish days and 3 nights in Vegas.
Monday: Both my wife and I had a bout of food poisoning a couple of days prior to leaving. We nearly canceled our trip, but on Sunday, made the decision to carry through, as the sitter arrangement was already made and figured that even if we just spent the time in our hotel room, it would still be fun. By Monday morning, I felt okay, but my wife was still a little ill.
The plane into Vegas landed at 11am. We decided to take an Uber from the airport to Total Wine and Whole Foods in Town Square. At Whole Foods, we bought emergency snacks (breakfast bars, nuts, chips, etc) and 3 gallons of water. At Total Wine, we bought our favorite rum, mostly in fear that we wouldn’t find it on the strip - one 750ml bottle of Kraken ($20) - and a 10 pack of mini Coke Zeroes.
From there, we took another Uber to the hotel - the Flamingo - mostly because we were carrying a lot of stuff (the bus was the original option). We arrived early, tried checking in early using a kiosk, but refused to pay the extra $20. Instead, we walked over to the food court, got comfy in a booth, and made a strong drink to sip on while we waited. I should mention that we stopped at the Starbucks in the hotel and paid $2 for two waters (ridiculous!). We used those cups to make our drinks.
By 3:30, we were two drinks in and decided to try checking in again. The lines were longer now, too, but the kiosk line moved quickly. This time we were given our keys to the room. Having never stayed on the Vegas strip before, we opted for the strip view (more on this later).
We rested, showered, changed, made another drink, bought a 24 hour bus pass, and headed out. We caught the bus in front of Harrah’s and went to Cookies for edibles. Their selection was meager compared to what we’re used to in New Mexico, but made the best of it. Ate an edible then hopped back on the bus, south this time, and took it aaaallll the waaaayyy down to the Mandalay Bay stop. We did not go to Mandalay Bay, though. Instead, we walked down a bit more and got some carne asada fries at a little place called Sayulitas. We consider ourselves carne asada fries experts because it is our go to when we drink and NM offers tons of delicious options. Sayulitas did an exceptional job - crispy fries, perfectly seasoned meat, tons of cheese and sour cream. Their salsa bar was stocked with some delicious and spicy salsas, as well.
From here, we caught the bus back North and decided to grab a dessert at Eataly - a place I had on one of my food lists, specifically for desserts. There, we spent $15 on an exceptionally delicious cream puff and chocolate square thing. Took them back to the room, ate them, and fell asleep.
Tuesday: The Vegas strip is loud. Even from the 11th floor of a hotel. The view was also kind of meh. I’m a light sleeper and that view wasn’t worth the terrible night of sleep. Before getting ready for the day, I went downstairs to inquire about a different room. The hotel staff was accommodating and friendly, but said that we would need to come back after 11am to see what was available.
With about 2 and a half hours to kill, we decided a breakfast adventure was the way to go. Eggslut is an often mentioned (and very popular) restaurant that can be found in the Cosmopolitan. Somehow, we missed the bus stop to go south (we walked south instead of north) and ended up walking to Eggslut by going through Bellagio. When we got there, the line was sufficiently long - about 20 minutes. Hungry and not wanting to walk, we decided to wait.
It was worth it for two reasons: 1. The food was delicious. The sauce, specifically, used on the sausage, egg, and cheese made my heart sing. 2. When we reached the front of the line, a dude who did not want to wait in line offered to buy our breakfast if we allowed him to add his order to ours. We agreed because who wouldn’t? Free breakfast? Absolutely.
With happy stomachs, we caught the bus and went back to the hotel. As mentioned earlier, the hotel staff was accommodating and switched our rooms without issue. Our new room had a view of the garden, the Sphere, and that big Ferris wheel thing - a MUCH nicer view. The room was also cleaner and so much quieter.
We rested, took another shower (NM is hot, but not like Vegas), got ready again, and decided it was time to start drinking. I should mention that we brought flasks with us, too. After taking a couple of shots each, we filled up our flasks and made a rum and coke to go (same Starbucks cups from the day before!).
Feeling rejuvenated from the new room and rest, a decent Kraken buzz in tow, we headed off without any specific plans. By the time we made it through The LINQ and to Harrah’s, we decided Fremont was the place to be. We downed our drinks, stored our cups in my drawstring backpack, and hopped on the bus. By the time we got off, we were feeling great and our time there became a little blurry, so here’s a quick rundown.
Went into a hotel to use the restroom, stumbled around until we found a Starbucks to get ice, took our 4th and 5th shots of the day in some alleys out of public view (drunk logic), saw a deal at Binion’s for a $6 burger and coke, watched some street performers, and by 4:30, we hopped back on the bus.
Craving a donut, we got off at Circus Circus to find the Krispy Kreme. After they rejected our free coupon, we headed up to the midway. The arcade games were expensive, so instead we talked with the game operators and waited for the 5:30 foot juggling show. The show, a whole 6 minutes in length, was AWESOME!
We stumbled around some more and at some point, we took another drink. Our 24 hour bus pass expired by 6:30, so we got on the bus again before then. Feeling tired, drunk, and hungry, we stayed on the bus all the way down the strip to enjoy the sights. By the time we made it to Town Square, we decided to get off, grab a bite, buy another bottle of Kraken, and go to the movies. We ate a $2 slice of Whole Foods pizza and watched Furiosa in IMAX.
It was after 10pm by the time the movie ended. We bought another 24 hour bus pass and went back to the hotel for a night of quiet and restful sleep.
Wednesday: We had a very slow morning. Which was nice because with kids, slow mornings don’t exist. We also spent much of our morning trying to decide whether we wanted to drink again or not. Inevitably, the Vegas logic set in, but it took some “pumping each other up” before it happened. Prior to that, however, we decided it was time to get a meal. As you could see, Monday and Tuesday involved a lot of snacking, so we wanted to sit down in a restaurant.
After much debate, Nacho Daddy was the winner. Our slow morning kept us in the hotel room until about 11am. We got ready, and refused to make the same mistake about the bus stop, so we walked north and crossed in front of The Linq to catch the bus down to the Cosmopolitan. Nacho Daddy was a short walk from there.
We did an order of the spicy grilled wings and fajita nachos. Both were yummy and exactly what we needed. As we were still in the “do we even want to drink again” phase, we stuck with water and our brunch, excluding tip, was $55.
Feeling full, we walked our food off in the Miracle Miles shops. It was quite empty and relaxing to walk through.
Walgreens was nearby, so on the way back to the hotel, we picked up more Coke Zero and another gallon of water. We grabbed the bus and went back to the hotel to rest.
It was around 4pm when we decided to start pumping each other up, and by 4:30pm, we had had another two shots each, a flask full of rum, and a couple mixed drinks in our Starbucks cups ready to go.
We left the hotel, heading north, and walking through The Linq again, Harrah’s and the Casino Royale. Feeling good, the moving walkways that lead into the Grand Canal Shoppes were calling our names.
While there, we did a ton of people watching. After some commentary on how a lot of the people look like replicas of Sims characters, we challenged each other to see who could complement more people the rest of the day. The only rule was that the compliment had to be genuine. Being together for 15 years, we know what the other person likes - cheating would take the fun out of the game.
As we left the Shoppes, we needed ice for another drink and Treasure Island was calling our names. On our way there, my wife complimented a person wearing a Seattle Krakens shirt - not because we’re fans…simply because we were drunk on Kraken (1-0).
Why are people so weird about filling up cups with ice in Vegas? Once in Treasure Island, I asked at Senior Frogs for ice. Rejected. Panda Express. Rejected. The lady that worked at Popeyes gave me ice, but I won’t lie…I had to turn on the charm. My wife socked me in the arm and we laughed as we took another shot and chewed those amazing ice cubes together.
As we left TI, I saw a dude wearing a Linkin Park Hybrid Theory shirt. The score was officially 1 to 1.
Sufficiently drunk at this point, we decided to catch the bus back to Fremont because we overheard people talking about the Neon Museum and our interest was piqued. On the walk to the bus, my wife complimented a guy with a lizard-shaped fanny pack (2-1).
Fremont was BUMPING by the time we got up there and the vibe was exactly what we wanted. We stumbled around, looked for ice, took pictures, and watched street performers. I spotted a gentleman with an incredible beard and tied up our score (2-2).
My wife chatted with a few ladies dressed as dominatrix, inquiring as to why they couldn’t leave their circle to take pictures with people and how difficult it was to get hours. She tipped them, we took some pictures, and, of course, she complimented them (3-2).
Afterwards, we saw an older man drinking McDonald’s coffee so my wife and I made a bet - was it coffee or something else? My wife said coffee. I said he was doing some secret drinking. A quick game of rock, paper, scissors, and my wife walked over to ask. It was coffee. I had to pay for the Neon Museum tickets. Fair enough.
We drank our last drink and headed off.
The Neon Museum is about a 10 minute walk from Fremont. If you go, I HIGHLY recommend a guided tour. Our tour guide, Steve, was INCREDIBLE and I made sure to tell him so…multiple times (3-3).
After the museum, we were fiercely hungry and decided that pizza, yes, again, was the best choice. My food list came in handy and Secret Pizza became our mission. A bus ride later, and we were back at the Cosmopolitan. It was fun, not having researched much about the pizza place but knowing it was meant to be hidden, to simply stumble around and find it.
By this time, my wife and I were incredibly drunk and making easy two-minute friends. We lost track of how many compliments we were throwing out. I tried engaging a dude wearing a Goku shirt about Dragon Ball Z, but he wanted to talk about his flight and the pizza he was waiting for, so I lost interest.
We got two slices of meat lovers and went on an adventure to find water.
We called it a night after this - it was close to 1am.
Thursday: Hungover and tired, we stayed in bed until it was time to check out. Grabbed a burger at Sickies Garage on the way to the airport and called it a trip.
We had plans to do more before leaving, but the best laid plans, amIright? Either way, it was a fun trip.
Was it a full “Vegas experience”? Maybe not to everyone that bothers to read this…We didn’t see any shows. We didn’t gamble a penny. We didn’t buy a single drink from a bar or a hotel and the latest we stayed up was 1am on Wednesday. Were we day drunk the entire time, though? Yep. Did we eat some good food? Yep. Did we talk to random people and see weird stuff? Yep.
What really defines a “Vegas experience,” after all? Tell me.
TLDR; We drank a lot and had a great time. Thanks, Vegas. :)