Like with every new creative technology, we are seeing push-back from people both in and outside of creative communities. Cameras were "going to destroy painting"- synthesizers were "going to destroy music"- drum machines and sampled records "invalidated hip hop in 'the arts'"- Autotune "diminishes the value of proficient vocalists"... etc. etc. etc. But eventually, we always come around.
The AI debate has been much more public and much more heated- with many claiming it will be "the end of all human creative pursuits" or saying "we do not want AI to make images, video, or music at all"
The messaging of the people who make these AI tools are partially to blame for this discourse: their promotion/advertisement **is often positioning these as "tools that handle the entire creative process"

Google actually talked to artists, and showed people how they can use these generations as an addition to their existing tool belt and creative process.

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With music, they brought in Wyclef Jean and Marc Rebillet

Wyclef talked about how producers have used/modified samples from other works in the past, digging through records to find that perfect sound to add to the sound they've created in the studio manually. He explained that he now has a source of infinite, specified samples and sounds that he can add to the guitars, drums, etc. that he's already recording by hand

Marc is known for live looping and layering of sounds that he's recorded, sampled, or created on the fly. He explained how he can now quickly produce exactly the sound he's looking for to layer into what he's already creating
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With film-making and video production, they brought in Donald Glover (Childish Gambino)

His takeaway quote was: "That's whats cool about it, you can make a mistake faster... at least in art, that's what you want: to make mistakes fast" which is something that, at least in my own artistic endeavors, deeply resonates. Curation and refinement- making mistakes and getting closer to the actual intent, is one of the most important parts of creating great art. Knowing what should be kept and what should be left out- taste, and the process of bringing to life that which you imagine accurately. Ben Franklin said it quite succinctly- "The eye [imagination/vision] of a master will do more work than both his hands"

The point being that quickly moving through ideas frees up an artists time for further exploration and refinement- which in turn opens up the creative process to people who might not have pursued it otherwise.
Gambino's second takeaway quote emphasizes this specifically:

"Everybody's gonna become a director, and everybody should be a director- because at the heart of all this is just storytelling. The closer we are to being able to tell each other our stories... the more we'll understand each other"

This is, in my mind, the part of Google I/O where they really knocked it out of the park.

This perspective is how people will come to view generative AI as a way of enhancing creation and self-expression, rather than destroying it. Creative communities will increasingly embrace it, bringing us more, and better art- and perhaps art that wouldn't have ever existed from people with ideas and stories that they never would have told otherwise.

I really strongly believe that this is the lens through which all creative generative AI should be viewed, shared, and promoted. This is the rhetoric and the perspective that creative people need to hear, emboldening and empowering them, rather than making them fearful of being replaced.
I don't often give Google many props... but they really figured this out and nailed the messaging today.
This perspective has the power to shift the conversation and steer creative pursuits in a more positive and capable direction... and potentially to awaken artistry in people who wouldn't have otherwise pursued it- increasing our collective ability to express ourselves and understand one another.

Names have been altered/changed
So I (24,f) was in an LDR with my ex Sam (33,m) and upfront he was a nice guy, a really sweet guy. He made me always laugh and feel loved and I would always let him know that I would cherish every single minute that we were on a call.
My reason why I had to break up with Sam, was because of 3 events that happened during our relationship that went in weird way. Atleast my friends thought it that way.
So event 1:
I was out with my mom. Went to the hairsalon and got a new haircut and afterwards went with my mom to an asian vegetarian restaurant. We met up with my Mom´s knitting friends and waited for another friend to come. She was apparently the reason why they wanted to met in the first place. That friend.... She told mom and her knitting friends in the groupchat, that they had, that she would be late.... like 15 minutes...
She was everything but 15 minutes late. She was late for an whole hour...
We ordered some appetizers and drinks and started without her. Who would have known that hell was about to break loose. My Mom´s knitting friend eventually came..... but not alone......
Her Husband to whom my Mom´s knitting friend is 17 years married to, tagged along while the knitting circle upfront told her to not let him come with her.
A lot went from there on. When I stood up to change seats, sitting besides my mom, that husband grabbed my neck in a hold like a momma cat would hold her kitten. It was a very thight grip and I couldn´t release myself from him. Mom "kindly" had to ask him to let go of me. That husband lateron did stuff like asking about my phone, what games I play, what my sex-life was, how many men I did it with and asked how much earned.
I barely answered that husband any question and if anything he smelled bad.... really bad... beyond that I would almost say that a bag of plastic trash smelled better then him. (And I certainly do not mean it in a mean way. I just cannot imagine anything worse then that smell)
Now here is the thing. I went on discord and on the toilette calling Sam. He hung up on me and said he was out with friends. I told him that it was an emergency and that I needed his emotional support. The call lasted only 10 min. He told me he is sorry but he cannot listen to me rn and that I should call him in the evening. He was out with friends.
I understood that and said okay and would call him in the evening. I messaged to my male friend Alpii (26,m) who was instantly there for me as well as Elliana (24,f) and supported me emotionally as well as virtually, to not have to talk to this husband.
Later that same day, in the evening I called Sam again and explained what happened to me. In the most really dead pan voice Sam apologized to me and said he cannot see anything wrong with what happened to me and again hung up on me.
I told my best friend Suviana (29,f) about and she was pissed off, by how he reacted. It took me and Suviana 2 weeks to make him aware that what happened to me was something where I needed him and he wasn´t there for me.
Now 2 and 3 event were in one call that we had about 3 weeks before I broke up with him.
I had my days and am clinical diagnosed with pms. I told him that my cramps would really hurt and that I would go get a warm water bottle. Sam let a bomb loose.
Sam said that the pain of a kick in the groin is similar painful as having a period and it left me stunned. I tried explaining to him that period pain is for each woman each differently painful and instantly got dismissed by him. Sam then told me how he would see "US" in the future and said while I should work in home office, take care of "our" children and stand in the kitchen all day long, something inside me just ripped.
I instantly realized thats not how I would´ve like to live in a relationship, let alone in a marriage. 3 weeks after that call I told Sam that I would want to break up with him. He was of course shocked but I told him my reasons as of why. The whole week he bombarded me with messages and even went as far as wanting to come over. He never gave me a chance to really reply to his messages and it went as far as giving him an ultimatum that I usually wouldn´t pull.
I wanted to know if IWBTA for breaking up with him because of what happened

Hello, just looking for advice on best next step. I have booked a sport class for my son in February, and when the classes started in April the sessions were initially cancelled for the first couple of weeks and then changed to a different location. I have informed the branch manager that I could not attend that new location, and requested a refund. This request as well as my follow-ups by email and WhatsApp messages were ignored (I am confident the contact details were correct since I had received prompt responses from them before that point). I have received a response from the head office admin team quite quickly, but they just forwarded my request to the local branch manager so ultimately it's still been ignored. It's now been over a month.
I have the names and addresses of the company directors based in Company House, would the next be to send them some kind of letter before going to small court claim? Could someone tell what type of letter I should send, and maybe point me out to a template?
The amount is just over a £100 and I could live without it, but it's more for the principle!
Thank you!

Don't get me wrong. Pay is great, work is steady depending on where you work in the facilities, breaks are nice (again depending where you work, i hear horror stories from the cashiers), and generally? not a terrible vibe on third shift which is a god-send from the normal rabble.
What makes the job awful, much like any location, is the management. We've got several managers, much like any store, and of course they have their "favorites" who get away with everything barring murder. Some that walk around doing nothing all day, some that just sit in the wrong departments chatting, leaving the customers without help, some that ignore the customers asking for assistance as a whole, even a few that due the famous "U-turn" where they go back and forth from the bathroom and breakroom all night before clocking out. Everything we say about these individuals; in one ear, out the other. whether it's to HR, CXM, mod, directly to the individual in question or the boss of the store. Due to the crazy loops and mountain of paper-trailing required, the damage is already heavily implemented before anything can be freaking done about them, making the job twenty times harder than it needs to be.
Then you got the workers who bust their butt to make ends meet getting treated worse than the dirt you stand on because of these headaches. This goes on for every shift, but i need to focus on my own experiences through the third shift stress and tension as it has been getting extremely volatile. Between the problems above and a hard-headed manager interested in rushing to complete tasks over the safety of the worker, and the lack of stable workers since only 3 of us are full time + 2 part timers who do, essentially, full time hours, the strain on the night crew is insane. What sent me over the edge though wasn't the work.. oh no. I can handle the work load because whatever we don't get done is still there the next night. It's not hard to pick up where we left off and by the end of the week 99% of the time everything is done.
Below in the spoiler will be a pretty hefty rant of my experience involving what finally made me register my hard work means nothing. That we're simply replaceable fodder, and that our safety, no matter how much they plaster it as their priority, means nothing.

Back in January the area i live in experienced a pretty big storm. Didn't think much of it at the time, i've ridden my E-bike (my only source of transport) in storms before, even in the snow! But, unlike usual this storm had caused flash flooding. I had reached a particular point in the ride where I couldn't progress. The roads that legally allowed my bike to travel out of where I live had become flooded by nearly 6 inches of high speed water, with spots going as deep as a foot and more due to road conditions. Roads surrounding my route were also being slowly closed off as the storm continued and ubers were cancelling in the area (or outright rejecting rides due to the dangerous conditions.), making it progressively harder to get around. It was 10 minutes til work, and i still had 20 minutes to ride, and a 15 minute ride back home if something went wrong.
I pulled over at this intersection that was flooded and checked the news for the area. Local news networks labeled it a "local emergency", so i called it in, told my boss at night i wouldn't be able to make it due to the unsafe driving conditions and progressively worsening weather closing down major roads. He 'understood', told me it would not effect my points as it was a weather situation, and that several others were calling for similar problems. I returned home now soaked and the bike had to be carefully serviced to avoid any lasting damage from the heavy storm. Not a huge issue but annoying none the less.
Fast forward two weeks and i get brought into the office where the CXM and my boss are... and asked the famous line. "Do you know why you're back here?"
I truly had no idea, so i joked it off, I had won a recent raffle for 3 board-games, so I made the comment it was because I hadn't brought those home yet.
The CXM smiled, then said it was because i had received my 4th point for calling out without sick time. Now, mind you, I have no idea what's going on at this point. I knew i had missed 3 days (once in September, 2 times in october from bike issues leaving me on the road without a way in due to the battery dying.). So i asked where this 4th point was coming from. He mentions the day of the flood, my boss, who is keeping his mouth shut, looks away from me when he says this. At this point I sit down, rather miffed at this point because i was assured that it was okay due to it being a safety concern, and that others were calling out with similar issues without a problem.
I'm stunned at this point. Taking a seat at the wall, the night assistant manager closes the door behind me and the cxm begins to lay into me the normal spiel, about how they expect all workers to be punctual and that this was a writeup, and how i "needed to understand what was being said". The whole time he's smiling, I wasn't. I told him what I was told on the phone, that I was cleared due to the weather conditions and that a point wasn't on my record the last time i checked (which i was checking regularly the first week because i truly expected something like this to happen, and stopped checking 4 days prior to the meeting. This happened 2 weeks later on a Wednesday.) -The cxm says it doesn't matter what i'm told on the phone. And that I should have called an uber. -I told him that ubers were cancelling rides due to the roads closing. -He tells me to order a taxi instead then. Now. I'm getting riled up at this point. My leg it tapping, i'm clearly not happy, and the way the cxm is talking to me is actively pushing for a response like this as he continues to smile and REPEATS "do you understand why you're getting this write-up" over, and over, and over again. -The night shift boss is still not making eye contact with me. -So, I stare straight at the cxm and respond to his question. "I understand that I have 3 points, but the 4th point I do not agree with. I was told that I was okay, and that the local news had declared it an emergency. I do not agree with that fourth point." -They both look at me, and I continue to look directly at the cxm. I'm still pretty relaxed at this point even if i'm agitated mentally and tapping my foot. I just want to get back to work at this point because I know the cxm is on a power-trip based on his body language and how much he's smiling. However, it really shown when that smile went away at me saying that comment. The cxm folded his hands, his smile gone and said "look, you want me to be blunt? I don't care what you agree with, you just need to understand you're being written up for 4 points of missed work. I can't let you leave until you agree."
THAT shifted my whole mood. I went from calm, to alert. My foot stopped tapping, I sat back in the chair and I was glaring at the cxm at this point. I was LIVID. The night manager STILL wouldn't look at me, instead he was watching the cxm. So i stayed focused on him as well. I folded my arms, and gave my full attention to him.
He repeated "Do you understand why you're being given this formal write-up?" again, and I, again, said I didn't agree with it. He AGAIN said he didn't care what I agreed or thought was right. and he just needed me to agree with it. So. I said what he wanted me to say. "I understand i'm being written up for a point I don't agree with"
As if MOCKING me, he again repeats "do you understand you can't keep missing days like this?"
I stayed DEAD SILENT at this point, and he leaned forward and looked at me with a big ol' smile. and told me to "stop staring at me with that death-glare, it's not working on me, buddy"
I was fuming. I was NOT going to be treated like a tool like that for taking my own safety into consideration during a local emergency for the job to tell me I was still in the wrong TWO WEEKS AFTER the event happened.
I was forced to agree, because I was sick and tired of staring at him and getting nowhere. So i repeated the comment like a good little drone and left. God i wish i knew i could have commented in that signing page that i signed under protest, course I was so pissed off i doubt i'd have even realized where to write it if i had known. I signed the "admission of guilt" crap, and immediately went to speak to the main boss of the store. Took two more weeks to get ahold of him, and he agreed it sounded very unusual. Main boss went to HR with clarification on how to handle it because even he wasn't too sure on it.
Two weeks after that, i touched base with the main boss. AND HE AGREED THAT I HAD NOT DESERVED THAT POINT OR THE WRITEUP. HR had come back to him about it coming down to the manager who handles the call-out (in my case the night shift boss), and a second manager who confirms the callout. My only assumption is that my boss agreed and acknowledged it as a weather related incident, and the second manager, the cxm in this case, decided to over-rule that decision.
Every other manager I spoke to thought that point was bogus. THE MAIN BOSS said it was bogus, and HR agreed that it was a case-to-case issue due to their system not having anything concrete for localized weather emergencies (they only have it for snow/ice, and state emergencies.) but even our HR contact agreed that safety takes priority! So here I am, 3 months into this crap I didn't even deserve, all because this dude decided to swing his big-boy stick. Taking the proper channels to have it addressed, complaint sent in about the manager in question, and trying to do things by the book did nothing but hit me with a "well you didn't act fast enough so we can't fix it" response, because it took over a month to get it processed. On the plus side, since I explained the entire incident to the main boss of the store (including the response from the manager who was handling the write-up), He gave me his direct line and told me that if i EVER got caught in a major storm like that to let him know, and he'd be sure to clear the incident himself. So while it happened, the store boss pulled through and assured me it won't happen again since it was a situational decision based on whoever got the call-out to handle. The problem is that the one who made this a problem in the first place is still in a position to do said problem. And that, unfortunately, I am unable to address directly like this. It was untouched for almost 2 weeks, sent in as a point right at the end of the 2 week "edit" period, and then I'm written up a week after that, ensuring I had no way to fight it. This was, in all purposes, an abuse of power. But, i'm a drone. I'm only as strong as the voice of the rest of this cacophony, and that's why they keep everyone at eachothers' throats.

Like I said. It's a rant, so only pop it open if you want to see what triggered this message to begin with. It's the biggest frustration I've had in the many years working here that firmly got under my skin due to the way it was handled and how long it took to get properly addressed, for no other reason than to tell me it was too late to do anything about it. We're just numbers in this machine, readily replaceable and easily used to kick around in the name of "fun" for those in a position of power. Where the rules and regulations are waived so long as you're buddies with the other management, and those working hard and keeping to themselves are an easy source to dump the blame and pressure or exercise someone's "authority".

This is in Michigan.
About 5 years ago, my wife and I had a estate planning lawyer set up a revocable living trust for us. This included us signing a notarized Quit Claim Deed for our residential property, essentially signing over the property from ourselves, to ourselves as trustees. The lawyer gave us instructions NOT to record this deed, and instead store it in a safe place. He explained that upon our death, the successor trustee (our daughter) should then go record the deed to prove that the property is in the trust and avoid probate.
The lawyer also gave us a Property Transfer Affidavit which explains this transfer and that it is supposed to be exempt from tax uncapping, and said that we DID need to file that one. Now here's where I screwed up. I've just realized I never filed this Affidavit with the city assessing office within 45 days as required. As I understand the Michigan law, I am now subject to a maximum $200 fine (not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things... I want to make this right), as well as the taxable value of the property possibly being uncapped and us owing any back taxes and penalties associated with that (this is would be a bigger financial deal and would piss me off)
My questions are...

• Since this deed was never recorded, did any transfer actually happen? Does the Notary file the deed anywhere? Could we simply destroy it, sign a new one with a current date, and fill out and file a new property transfer affidavit without penalty?
  
• Should I just eat crow and go ahead and file the affidavit now? I'm not too upset about the fine, but can the assessor uncap my taxable value to be a jerk because I am filing it so late?
  

I left a message with the original lawyer that did this planning for us, but I'd like to get some additional opinions while I wait (it's been quite a few days -- they might be ghosting me).

Are there any actual living people at PM Support? This is just a rant because ultimately the issues I’m describing here were resolved in favor of both parties but both times I have had to reach out to support they fix the wrong problem.
In March a sale was delivered to the buyer’s Post Office (Alaska address so this didn’t seem weird to me). The item sat at the post office awaiting pick up, so after a few days I reached out to PM Support. I briefly explained the situation and essentially asked, “how long before my funds get released?” I thought they would send an email reminding the buyer to pick up their item. A couple days later they sent me a message that they considered the item “lost”, although the tracking information clearly stated it was delivered and awaiting pick up. They refunded the buyer and released my funds. I never got any communication from the buyer and they did not open a case so idk if they ever received the item they bought. I figured best case scenario; the buyer got the item free and I still got paid, so no harm no foul.
More recently I sold a set of items that arrived to the buyer with half of the set broken. They immediately opened a case. I responded asking if the buyer wanted a partial refund or return. The buyer asked for a partial refund. I submitted a 50% refund offer. The buyer never responded to or accepted the refund offer. Again, after a few days I reached out to PM Support asking for guidance. I included a screenshot of the convo with the buyer where they asked for and I submitted the partial refund. I was essentially asking them how to resolve (close) the case if the buyer doesn’t respond to the refund that they had requested. I thought maybe they would send the buyer an email explaining that a refund offer had been submitted and instructions on how to accept the refund. However, today PM sent me a message stating that they refunded the entire purchase amount to the buyer and released my funds. They also chastised me for not packaging the item better. These were plastic candle holders that I wrapped in tissue paper, then bubble wrap bags, and a padded foam shipping material on the top and bottom of the box.
I’m glad that the issue is resolved for my buyer but a little annoyed that PM doesn’t seem to actually read the information that is provided when I reach out for help. I’m also concerned that these issues will ultimately end up counting against my account in some negative way and that if I have issues in the future PM will not address them properly again. Anyone else have problems like this with support, should I do something different next time?

I (38 F) have been married to my husband (41 M) for 7 years, this coming June and together for 9 years. We have two kids, twin boys, that are 5 months old. I'm going to give a long backstory so stay with me or scroll to the bottom for the TL;DR.
2 weeks before Mother's Day, I found out my husband had been cheating on me for at least 7 months. I used his phone to use the Lowe's app to order lawn chairs since it's tied to our Lowe's card and I wanted to use our rewards. While I was looking for the particular set I want, he received a Snapchat notification from a woman. I didn't even know he had Snapchat so it peaked my interest. During this time, my husband was mowing the grass.
I open the snap and it's a nude of a woman looking to be in her mid-20s with the caption "I miss you being inside of me". My jaw hit the floor. I started going through his text messages and there were no conversations there with other women except employees from his practice (he is a dermatologist) that were harmless.
I started looking through his Snapchat and I guess he deletes everything because there were no chats between him and this woman. I am not familiar with Snapchat so I Google how to use it while I'm trying to figure out if I can retrieve deleted messages. I don't want to spend all the time I have left of him mowing reading through articles so I give up. I do go through his friend's list and end up coming back to it to take a picture of with my phone.
I look through the rest of the apps on his phone and they all seem benign except this secure folder. I open it and there's a passcode. I try three or four until I figure it out (the date of our first date, ironically) and it opens. There are dozens of nude photos of at least 3 women, including the woman from Snapchat. I know it's the woman from Snapchat because she has a very distinct tattoo on her stomach. Not only are there nudes but there are 2 videos of this same woman giving him oral.
My heart felt like it was trying to come out of my chest. I started shaking and tears started flowing. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down and then grabbed my phone and started taking pictures of the evidence. I even recorded clips of the videos, I just couldn't watch them in their entirety.
I look through all the apps again and realize that maybe he has some hidden. So, I google hidden apps on android and follow the instructions. Three apps were hidden. Two messaging apps and a hook-up app called Adult friend finder. I debated even opening them because I was so scared of what I would find. But I ended up viewing them because knowing is better than not knowing for me.
He had been messaging at least 4 different women, including the video girl. He had sex with at least two of them that I found proof of. All messages made me sick but the video girl's messages were the worst and completely shattered my heart. I had to stop to go throw up because of the stress and anxiety.
Some messages that hurt me the most were: Her: "Tell me how much better my p***y is than your wife's." Him: "Wetter, tighter and infinitely better."
Her: *sends nude* "How does my body compare to your wife's?" Him: "There is no comparison baby, you are a goddess."
There were so many others but those two come to mind as the ones that made me feel the absolute worst. Remember, I just had twins 5 months ago. I am very insecure due to all of the changes that happened to my body and my c-section scar. I am also 25 pounds heavier than I was pre-pregnancy. My husband and I stopped having sex because it was so uncomfortable for me about 2 months before I gave birth, around the same time he started messaging these women coincidentally. We've only had sex about three times since they were born due to my insecurity issues and just being so exhausted caring for and breastfeeding twins every day. I also have a business and work from home around the twins' schedules so I can stay at home with them.
I take photos of everything, using my phone again like before. The earliest messages were sent 7 months ago so I know it had been going on for at least 7 months, while I was freaking pregnant with our twins. Oh, I also found out that the night after I had a c-section and while our newborn preemie twins were in the NICU, he met with video girl for a hook-up at her apartment. He told me he was going to get food and check on his office. With our twins being preemies, anything could have happened and he wouldn't have been there because he was with her. But, that wasn't a thought for him I guess.
I close out all the apps, make sure the hidden ones are hidden from his home screen and put his phone back exactly where I found it. I also make sure the snap notification was gone. I was nervous that he would find out about the snap that was opened but he didn't.
I call my best friend of over 33 years who is also my business partner. I tell him everything and have a good cry to let it all out. He helps me to collect myself and gives me some sound advice. He tells me to not tell my husband I found anything yet and to speak with a divorce lawyer as soon as possible. He said to meet with the best ones in my area so that they couldn't represent my husband. He offers me and the twins a place to stay at his home if I need time away from my husband, assuring me that his husband would love to have me there.
Over the next week, my BFF helps me take care of the twins while meet with 5 different divorce lawyers and end up hiring, in my opinion, the best. She tells me not to leave the family home so I end up not going to stay with my BFF. She starts the divorce paperwork immediately. During this time, I am doing my best to continue on like nothing is wrong. I want to make sure all of my ducks are in a row before he realizes what I know.
Fast-forward to Mother's Day. My husband makes me breakfast in bed, gives me very expensive jewelry, flowers, the works. I can't enjoy it, of course, because it feels so fake now that I know what he's been up to. I pretend to love it though.
My husband's father planned a cook out that afternoon for my husband's mother, sister (let's call her Julie), sister-in-law (let's call her Fran) and me. We all have infants under a year old so it's everyone's first Mother's day, except my MIL's of course. I told my husband that I didn't feel like going and he guilt-tripped me by saying that my FIL had a big surprise for me and he's been really looking forward giving it to me. So, I reluctantly agree. I ask if my BFF can come since his mother sadly passed away just under a year ago. He calls his dad and my FIL replies that of course he can come. My BFF agreed to come to offer me support since he knew it would be very difficult for me to be there.
I plan to act like nothing's wrong and try to enjoy the day since it's my first Mother's Day after all. I tell myself that I will focus on the twins and get cuddles from my two nieces. Julie has an 8 month old daughter and Fran (husband's brother's wife) has a 10 month old daughter. I'm also the closest to Julie out of all his family since we became friends 10 years ago and she's the one who introduced me to my husband.
We get there and everything is fine. My husband is helping his dad, brother (let's call him Chris), BIL (let's call him Roger) cook on the grill. My MIL and the women are taking turns holding the babies. My BFF took over the kitchen, finishing up all of the sides so the moms could relax. It started out to be a really good day. I kept myself from thinking of my husband's betrayal for the most part and focused on the family.
After we eat my MIL starts taking pictures of the family. I'm sitting on the couch and she tells my husband to sit beside me for the photo. He does and then she tells him to put his arm around me and jokingly says "pretend like you love her" and I lose it. I start to uncontrollably sob.
My MIL pulls me up and hugs me and my FIL comes over and joins in the hug. My BFF comes to stand right next to me. My FIL asks me what was wrong. I look at my BFF and he gives me a "tell if you want" look.
I tell them that I found out my husband has been cheating on me for at least 7 months. Julie gasps and everyone stares at my husband. He stands up and says "that's not true at all, why would you think that? You know you and the boys are my whole world." Everyone is silent, looking at me. I tell them all that I found messages, pictures, the hook-up app and even videos on his phone. My husband looks faint and sits back down. Nobody says anything for at least 2 minutes.
Finally, Julie asks my husband, while crying herself, why? My husband tells her that "I made a mistake, I only talked to the women, I never physically cheated." My BFF quickly replies, "Liar!" Julie then asks me what all I found. I tell them everything, the nudes, the videos of my husband receiving oral, the messages and even tell them what those horrible messages said about me. He continues to deny it! I pull up a few message photos and show them to Julie, my MIL and FIL. My husband tries to gaslight me by saying that he admitted to talking to other women but he never slept with any of them. I really don't want to show them the video but I do find a few messages where my husband and a woman talked about their previous sexual encounters. My husband again says that he admitted to talking to them but never really cheated. He literally says "if the message talks about sex it was just role playing."
Roger (Julie's husband) goes over to my husband and jerks his phone out of his hand. My husband tries to get it back but Roger is 6'7 and my husband is 6'1 so he just holds it up where my husband can't reach. He asks me what his passcode is and I tell him. He then asks me where to find things and as I start to tell him my husband grabs his phone back.
At this point my MIL, Julie and Fran are all crying. Chris starts getting upset with me. He tells me this was not the time nor place to bring this all up and that I ruined Julie and Fran's first Mother's Day. Julie speaks up and says no, my husband is the one who ruined it. Chris starts yelling and saying that our personal business needs to stay private and that I had no right to bring it up to his family and ruin the only first mother's day the women will get. Fran agrees with him and tells me I'm definitely in the wrong for bringing it up, if it even is true.
At this point both of my twins start crying. I am not going to breastfeed them there and I want to get out of that house as quick as possible. I ask my BFF to take me home and we transfer the car seats from my husband's vehicle into his. My MIL follows me outside and says that Chris was right, I should have kept it all to myself and that now future Mother's Days will be a reminder of this fiasco for everyone. I just ignore her and put the twins in the car. My husband comes outside and asks if we can please talk. I tell him no, get in the car and my BFF, the twins and I leave. I end up feeling horrible and guilty that I let it all out to everyone.
My husband didn't come home and ended up staying at his parents house and has been there the past two nights. He got my FIL to come over Sunday evening and pick up clothes, toiletries, work stuff and various other items. While he was here I asked him, did I ruin Mother's Day? He tells me no that my husband did. He said that he asked me what was wrong and I was honest. He said he understood now why the "pretend like you love her" comment caused me to breakdown. I asked him about my MIL, Chris and Fran since I know Julie and Roger aren't mad at me. He said that they are still angry with me but they will eventually get over it.
TL;DR - I found out my husband had been cheating on me for at least 7 months with multiple women, starting while I was pregnant with our twins and continuing after I gave birth. I didn't tell him I knew for 2 weeks. At a Mother's Day cookout that his family hosted for his mother, me, his sister and sister-in-law, his mother made a comment that made me break down. I ended up telling everyone about the infidelity. His brother, SIL, and mother told me I ruined his sister and SIL's first Mother's Day. and that I shouldn't have said anything about the affairs.
Am I the AH?

Genocide looked to the sky. He thought of his mentor. The one who had saved him. He remembered his childhood. How powerless he was. He remembered the anger. He never wanted to hurt anybody. He thought of all the times he showed compassion. How much they hurt him for it. He saw the world before him, a graveyard. Humans. People that were supposed to be made in the image of some divine creator. They were but maggots feasting upon his remains. They ate away at his very being until nothing human remained. His thoughts were no longer his own. He had no joys in life that mattered. He hated humanity more than he could love anything about himself. He remember his first killing spree. Being gunned down by police. Left for dead. He remembered a hooded figure moving towards him. Getting closer the more he neared his death. He saw its pale face. Its impossibly black eyes. It was a man. This figure in question appeared to be of Japanese nationality with long, straight, loose hair. It emanated extreme malice. It offered him a choice. A purpose. Power. He thought the figure a reaper but it identified itself as Amakusa Masataka. Masataka guided him on how to kill and gave him specific locations to kill people in. In a sense, he became a hitman for quotas of people. He inquired what Masataka was. The presence of evil, his ability to appear and disappear at will, how he could control what people could see him and what people couldn't. While vague, years of killing for this being offered some insight. Amakusa Masataka belonged to a group of people not of this world. His people had been corrupted by a dark force long ago and had aligned themselves with the warlord who had subjugated their version of Japan. Their dark high priest assisted the warlord along with two others. These four rulers in turn served a larger order. The four were tasked with bringing about the end of the current world as an act of retribution for some fallen deity. Masataka's people acted as covert operatives for this empire. They were feared across the land and were collectively referred to as "Shinigami". An agent of the coming apocalypse, a servant of evil possessed by the will of those gods of death, Genocide would walk the earth.
Genocide stepped toward the station. A police cruiser rammed into him. He pulled out a knife and stabbed the hood of the car. The inhuman force of the knife created sparks which burst the engine into flames. The car crashed into a streetlight and exploded. A second cruiser neared the scene. No way a man could have done this. Yet still, out of the fires Genocide strode forth. It set upon the second vehicle, shooting out it's tires while jumping 9 feet into the air. The car tries to reverse but crashes into a wall. Genocide lands on the hood and kicks through the front window. Glass shatters under its boot, blinding the two officers inside. Genocide shoots one of the officers with a shotgun, killing him. The second officer in the passenger seat readies his pistol and takes aim. Only two shots fired, both directed at Genocide's head. It casually cocks its neck to avoid them. Then it grabs the officer's arm, breaking it. Genocide uses its free hand to grab the officer's head and bangs it into the dashboard no less than 5 times. The skull is shattered on the final impact. Genocide jumps off the car and continues on his mission.
Detective Evans speaks through a megaphone," This is your first and final warning. Stand down or we will use any and all means at our disposal to put you down." Genocide dropped its shotgun and raised its hands. A group of five SWAT team members rushed out the station, surrounding Genocide with riot shields. An officer accompanies them, edging behind the figure to apply handcuffs. Suddenly, Genocide springs to life , grabbing the officer behind him. He flips the officer over his head, slamming him into the pavement at his feet. Then Genocide stomps his head causing it to burst. Genocide drops a flash bomb from his coat sleeve, blinding the SWAT team as he draws his knife. He drives it into one SWAT member, the knife puncturing the shield and piercing his chest. Genocide kicks the corpse away withdrawing his knife. He goes to another, this time using the end of his boot toe in a rising kick to disarm their shield. He grabs them by the throat and drives the knife slowly into their eye socket. Another is tackled to the ground and beaten to death despite still being under the shield. Another is picked up and thrown into the fires still burning from the first auto incident. In no time, Genocide stood before an indistinguishable mass of gore, blood streaking across his black leather outfit. He laughed" So this is all you can give me. I'm not entertained." Officers took aim from the station windows, and snipers did so from other rooftops. Genocide laughed maniacally as he was rained down upon from all sides by a hailstorm of bullets. His body convulsed, but he did not fall. Moments more and he was on his knees. Still though, their efforts were futile. Gracia looked out and saw a black mist coalescing around the man in black. His blood. Blood erupted from his body only to transform into this dark mist that reentered his wounds. Genocide screamed. No. It was just an elevated pitch in his laughter. Optimism failed everyone yet again. Gracia saw Genocide holding something in his right hand. She could only make out a beeping red light. Genocide pushed the button triggering the carefully concealed explosives he laid in preparation for this event. C4 explosives went off in all the places he saw fit. The sniping posts he couldn't reach. The assault of lead lightened. Then Genocide drew an RPG from...somewhere. He collected himself and fired at the station's entrance. The explosion shook the station. From inside, the lights began to flicker. Communications were down on all fronts. Had he modified the rocket with some type of EMP? Not good. Amisdst the confusion Genocide entered using smoke bombs to mask his presence. Moving like a shadow, he killed everyone in the lobby silently with his knife. He made his way to the holding cells. Still they chanted. Still they praised. Still they raved for the arrival of genocide. Genocide shot the lock opening the cell. Jim Jimenez walked out and bowed before his master. Genocide smiled. He couldn't have imagined how proficient he had gotten with possession. Well, not quite possession. He had known of the Shinigami's ability to share their thoughts and emotions with humans. Shinigami like his mentor were ancient. They had so many years of memories, such strong a hatred for life that they overwhelmed the personality of the victim. The victim sees themselves as one of them. Shinigami can't force the will of the victim, so they find those who are already similar to them in some way. Genocide found the collective universal distrust of police to be a prime sentiment to capitalize on. He armed the inmates, infecting them with samples of his own dark essence.One particular inmate caught Genocide's eye. He knew the man's work. An arsonist. The one whom he recalls was responsible for blowing up his first car way back in high school. Rather than a standard firearm, Genocide gave the man a random assortment of grenades containing a special surprise. Genocide showed them visions of anarchy, of sending a message to a society that used and disregarded them. While this was also true of how he felt, years of living in darkness had changed him. He needed no purpose. No end goal. No justification. He just wanted to watch the world burn.
Genocide's small army broke off to engage several different wings of the station. Genocide went to the security room. He found Wayne, his informant, playing some FPS on one of the monitors. Wayne took of his headphones and asked," You kill everyone yet?" Genocide responded," No. You should get going before that happens. Your life becomes fair game if I run out of pigs to cook." Wayne clapped his hands, "Aight, GC my man, say less." He packed his things and left. Genocide drew a twin pair of handguns and laid waste to the station. He followed a group that took cover in the men's restroom. Kicking open multiple stalls he was surprised to find...nothing. Where had they gone? He turned around and saw his mentor, Masataka, smiling at him. It looked like him. Long, dark hair, black clothing, and soulless, empty eyes. But it wasn't. It was Genocide's own reflection in the mirror. Genocide smiled. He didn't notice the changes at first. They must have happened gradually. Subconsciously. From the final stall, an officer sprung into action, rushing Genocide, hitting him point blank with a shockgun round. Genocide felt the tingling sensation electrifying his body and grew numb. In spite of the pain, he took a single step. Then, another. He came within striking range of the officer and snatched the shockgun. Two more officers erupted from another stall, battering him with baton strikes. Genocide felt nothing. He clutched the shockgun in his hand like a bat and went to work pulverizing his attackers. An officer kicked in the bathroom door, a woman holding a pistol. She fired multiple times to no effect. Genocide stood covered in blood. He even let her reload. Twice. He wanted to see her despair. Her hopelessness. He walked towards her, shrugging off bullets as they pierced his body. His wounds healed nigh instantly due to the dark essence he had been imbued with. He held her face with both hands, lifting her body off the ground. As she screamed, he used her head to shatter the restroom mirror, running down the full length of it while smashing her into it at several points. He dropped the remains of what he held, washed his hands with soap, dried them, then exited the restroom.
The inmates that rallied for the cause of genocide attacked the station. Fortunately, they were nowhere near Genocide in terms of power and only carried one type of firearm each. They shared his healing ability but could be killed quite easily. Gracia encountered a sniper on the end or a west wing hallway. Other officers waited behind corners unable to get close. Gracia noticed the faulty lighting. In this hallway, the lights flickered in intervals of 3 seconds. Finding a pattern and timing her movements, she rushed the sniper at the exact moment the lights went out. Running the length of the hall, Gracia zigzagged, dodging the sniper inmate's bullets. She jumped on a wall, ran 3 feet on it, then kicked off it, pouncing on the assailant. She fired five shots into him, making sure to hit the brain and the heart. Two severe injuries that were impossible for Shinigami essence to heal simultaneously. Elsewhere, Evans took on another escaped inmate. A vehicular arsonist named Carson. Carson had a bag filled with an assortment of different grenades and was happily giving them out like candy on Halloween. "A flash bang here, a bit of tear gas there. Oh. Wait! Was that an ice grenade? Did the explosion freeze your leg to the floor? Whoops. Maybe a fire grenade will melt that for you. Hold on let me get one fore you," Carson rambled gleefully. Evans looked at the carnage before him. Officers burning. Officers partially frozen in blocks of ice. He took a breath and aimed his wristgun. He steadied his right forearm. Carson readied to throw a random grenade. Evans shot it the moment it left Carson's hand. The grenade exploded directly in front of Carson. Both Evans and Carson looked at each other in shock. Confetti. A party grenade? Carson quickly fumbled for another but was tackled and restrained by several officers. Meanwhile in the South wing, Lary had some colleagues set a trap for another shotgun toting inmate. He had them bait the inmate and flee. Giving chase he turned a corner and ran straight into Lary's fist. The inmate recovered and motioned to shoot Lary. "Let's tango. " Lary gave the code word. Nearby officers activated a device. A signal jammer of sorts. The inmate shoved the barrel of his gun into Lary's gut and pulled the trigger. Nothing. The special signal jammer in question was designed for firearms. It was a last resort as it left officers just as defenseless. Lary was having fun. He boxed the inmate in hand to hand combat. Despite the inmate's enhanced strength, Lary's technique pulled through. Lary ducked under one of the inmate's wide punches and did some type of rising uppercut where he jumped off the ground while spinning. One of the other officers whispered" The rising dragon." Lary smiled giving a thumbs up" Yeah, it was a rising dragon uppercut. Saw it in one O my kid's vidya games. Thought I'd try it out while I'm jacked on adrenaline".
Jim Jimenez looked long and hard at himself in the mirror. He was in the women's restroom. Some brainless woman had broken the men's restroom mirror with her face. For the first time in a long while Jim could think clearly. He was becoming sane. At the least he was no longer a raving lunatic. The life essence of the dark gods had healed the wounds to both his body and his mind. He saw his face, his scraggly dirty beard. He found a razor and shaved. He trimmed his beard somewhat. He liked it. He washed his hair. It fell down his face like silk, no longer greasy. His bloodshot eyes once burning with crazed intensity had cooled. He blinked. Just for a second, he saw the man known as Genocide. The man that attacked him. The one that killed him and gave him new life. The drug dealers. The police. They were all the same in his eyes now. They were all to blame for the world being what it is. Jim wanted to hate them. He wanted to take revenge, but he felt nothing. It didn't matter. He knew he was wronged, could logically justify acting against them, but he just didn't care anymore. About anything. He was finally free. Sensing his presence was no longer needed here, Jim vanished into the night. He needed to find someone who had had the answers he needed. Himself. Who had he been? Who was he now? Who could he become? Where was he going? So many questions to ponder indefinitely. So much time left in the rest of his life.
Genocide ran down the station's halls raining hailstorms of bullets upon its occupants. He had a handgun in each hand as well as a wristgun on each wrist. This effectively gave him 4 separate firearms that he could use simultaneously. Lary regrouped with Gracia, Evans, and a handful of others. They radioed all surviving officers near Genocide to flee to the roof. This plan had been set in motion days before the assault and had been kept hidden from most of the force. The plan involved scheduling flights for several helicopters to arrive at some point after Genocide arrived. There would be no way for him to prepare for them and pre-scheduling their arrival ensured they arrived regardless of if they were called or not. Lary and the others set about preparing the second jamming device. Genocide stood among a hallway of bodies. He saw one man clinging to life trying to crawl away. He decided on trying that other thing he saw his master do. He grabbed the dying man and pinned him to the wall. Slowly he drove a knife into his chest. As the man's life slipped away, something else entered his body. Genocide channeled a small amount of his essence into the vessel. He had steadily done this with other casualties around the station whose bodies were somewhat salvageable. He dropped the body he was holding and looked upon the others. He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, his eyed were black, both sclera and iris. The scene before him changed. Genocide had a vision. He saw a dead gray wasteland littered with bodies. These people however weren't cops and wore traditional Japanese attire. In his hand wasn't a gun or knife but a short sickle akin to a farming tool. He heard a dark voice call out to him. Slowly, the corpses around him began to rise, now mere puppets bound eternally to their master's whim. The bodies sold to the reaper who had claimed their lives. Genocide's vision ended. His eyes had returned normal. Around him, dead cops began to rise. His dark essence had entered their bodies and reanimated them. He sent his dead army to attack the officers fleeing to the roof of the station. These zombies swarmed the stairwell giving chase to the few survivors. There were five of them. They had two flights of stairs to climb and a horde of their former colleagues close behind them. One officer tripped and was set upon by the horde. The zombies didn't bite them but held them firmly in place. The other four officers stared down wondering what to do. They could hear Genocide chuckling. They could hear humming. They could feel the temperature rising. Their colleague and the two zombies holding him were hit by an enormous green fireball. Genocide had fired a Magnum Opus and had charged the bullet to level 3. The Magnum Opus was simply a magnum that shot fireballs, with bullets that could be charged by holding down the trigger. It had three levels of charges. Level 1 was a small reddish ball of plasma. Level 2 was slightly larger and yellow. Level 3 was the maximum charge and resulted in a large slow moving green blast of energy. The officer was ignited and Genocide watched gleefully as the force of the blast sent him flying through a wall. The four officers continued up firing occasionally to slow down the zombies. Soon they made it to a door leading to the roof. Before one officer could reach it, he was sniped by Genocide, a bullet to the head killing him instantly. The remaining three made it out. They regrouped with the others already there, 12 in total, including Lary, Evans, and Gracia. This would be their final stand. They just had to hold out until Genocide made it up there. They just had to keep Genocide occupied until the helicopters arrived. Genocide slowly ascended the stairs behind his horde. On the roof, the remaining survivors faced off against waves of the undead. Evans recognized the attackers. These zombies were being controlled by nanomachines. He heard the stories of several weapons encountered by soldiers on the battlefield. These creatures were called Metaldeads as they were reanimated via machines. They had been officially banned by most of the worlds' governments for being unethical. However, this did not stop the technology from being spread still between shady organizations, terrorists, etc. Evans wondered how Genocide got this form of nanotechnology. Evans long speculated that the dark essence used by most of the killers they encountered was a a form of nanotech however it was different from anything else he had seen or heard about. The dark essence seemed to be an amalgamation of other types of nanotech. Evans had to save his inquiries for later. He reloaded his wristgun and took aim at the approaching group of Metaldeads. Gracia steadied her handgun and shot two Metaldeads in the head. From the single door countless arms seemed to spill forth from the darkness. The other officers took turns firing in intervals. this allowed them to create a steady stream of fire where no more that three guns needed to be reloaded at once. The horde seemed to thin out over time as if they were making progress. In actuality, the Metaldeads were just making room for Genocide to enter. Genocide exploded in a sprint from the door. Everyone fired upon the killer. Genocide had now chosen a wrist mounted mini flamethrower to use as his weapon. He stormed past the oncoming bullets taking some damage, but refused to slow down. He unleashed a stream of fire that caught five of the officers in one fell swoop. Gracia fired five rounds into Genocide's face. He stumbled back. Lary took the chance to fire several mine gun bullets at Genocide's feet. The mines quickly detected his movement and exploded. In seconds, Genocide was on his back.
Staring at the night sky Genocide saw the moon. He reached for it. He called for the darkness to give him more power. His wounds began healing. In the sky he could hear the whirl of propellers. There were six helicopters in total. The first two had evacuated the survivors while the others stayed to engage Genocide. Genocide got up and unstrapped the sniper rifle from his back. He stood before the searchlights as a black silhouette, cornered but unwilling to back down. Lary stared down at him smiling. "Okay!" He shouted, "Let's Tango!" Upon this declaration the second jamming device was activated. Now, isolated on the roof, Genocide's guns couldn't be fired and the helicopters were out of range of the device. Now Genocide stood like a sitting duck. A helicopter fired a rocket. Genocide side stepped and grabbed it. He turned his body redirecting the rocket to hit another helicopter. As it exploded Genocide drew his knife and threw it at another helicopter. Behind the knife was such force that it shattered the helicopter window's glass, embedding itself in the pilot. This helicopter too went down where it exploded. "Holy clucknuggets!Did you see that!?" Lary said dumbfounded. Evans looked out the helicopter door he was in jaw open in shock. "There's no way." He collected himself quickly and radioed the remaining two helicopters to keep moving and to use their machineguns as much as possible. The helicopters reigned down upon Genocide tearing apart his body. Shreds of leather and darkened blood sprayed across the pavement of the roof. Gracia watched as Genocide's body was destroyed repeatedly as it tried to heal. Surely he had to stop at some point. After 10 minutes the helicopters had exhausted their cache of ammunition and soldiers opted to fire their own rifles and occasionally throw grenades. After about six minutes, they too had run out of bullets. Genocide stood unfazed. He had long since healed himself and now appeared intangible with gunfire seeming to pass through his body. His coat once ripped , now appeared whole though on closer inspection seemed to writhe. Gracia looked in horror as she remembered the tales her adopted father had told her. Tales he had in turn heard from his predecessors. Every so often officers had reported encounters with ghost like beings cloaked in a cloud of living dark mist. The beings were rumored to be responsible for the deaths of multiple people ranging from scientists, veterans, mafia, politicians, etc. They were seen near such crime scenes and even more shockingly appeared around several sites where suicides were committed. These beings were reportedly impervious to bullets and filled anyone who got near with an impending sense of dread. If Genocide was connected to them or somehow turning into one , there was little chance they would be able to defeat him. Gracia's fears were confirmed when she saw that Genocide's leather coat had been destroyed and he had replaced it with the dark mist coalescing from his own spilled blood. The dark mist, swirling, grew larger and several tendrils sprouted out from it. Gracia could briefly make out a figure standing next to Genocide. A hooded figure cloaked in the same black substance. The figure stared up at her with soulless, blackened eyes which seemed to beckon her to jump from the aircraft she was standing in. Compelling her to give in to the death that plagued the earth. Genocide kneeled to his master. The Shinigami, Masataka stared down at his disciple. "You have done a great service to us. Even now the sealed god stirs in its slumber. Its...Awakening will soon be upon us. It calls out for war. It begs for famine. It longs to continue its conquest. We are the death it so desires. The death that is necessary for this civilization to grow. Use the power that I have bestowed upon you. Finish the mission as you see fit." The Shinigami vanished and Genocide stood.Genocide stared at his hands. He remembered the first killing spree. He was on a bus. It stopped. A woman got on the bus and walked to the back smiling as she passed him. Something about her eyes unnerved him. They were so bright but something dark reflected inside them. He ignored the thought and put in his headphones. In minutes he had dozed off. He jumped awake. He looked around and froze in panic. All around him, everyone had been hacked to pieces. He saw the driver, actively being stabbed by a masked assailant. The mask, painted white with black eyeholes, stared back at him. It raised a finger over where its lips would be. Even under the expressionless visage, he could feel that same smile. He ran home that morning. He went to his room to find it destroyed. His posters, his computer, his tv, everything, had been ruined. He turned around and saw a man at the end of the hallway holding a sledge hammer. "The hell you been, boy?", his stepdad sneered. The man dropped his hammer and walked closer, veins pulsing with rage. He tried to explain how his car had caught fire forcing him to walk 4 miles to the nearest bus stop, but the man's fist was faster than his words. "Boy!Answer me when I talk to you!!" the man says as he backhands the taste out of the would be Genocide's mouth. He took that beating for several minutes before being left to stare at his ransacked room. He hated how his stepdad went out of his way to destroy the things he loved. Soon, another set of footsteps could be heard. It was his mother standing behind his locked door. She didn't knock, or say anything. She just stood there, doing nothing as always. He never knew if she came to talk to him or apologize. All he knew was that she could never bring herself to speak to or even acknowledge him. Maybe out of guilt or perhaps shame. A year or two later after he had had enough he ran away from home. Living out on the streets alone, without friends, or family, he would embark on countless killing sprees. These killings weren't of his own volition however. He was coerced by some corrupt officers from The Unit. They made him kill on their behalf. Sometimes they were protesters, sometimes they were drug dealers, other times, petty criminals they couldn't be bothered to process. It was routine for him to be used to kill entire houses of drug riddled addicts. During one such venture he entered a drug den, killing the dealer as instructed. He took out several junkies before turning to leave. A woman who survived her injuries clung to his heel begging him to stop. Looking down he aimed the handgun he was carrying at her head of long disheveled brown hair and fired. Feeling nothing, he kicked her body aside like trash when it hit him. Her face. This woman had been his mother. What was she doing in a place like this? He felt a shock of emotion. He wondered if she had always been like this, or had she changed after he left. He never made amends, but decided to stop killing from then on. The unit did not like that. Once it became apparent that he was no longer of use to them they started a manhunt to apprehend him with lethal force. They found him. They killed him. But he survived.
He remembered the girl on the bus. He remembered her eyes. Those of a sadistic killer. Still there was something else inside them. Something faint but deeper. So. Much. Sadness. Just like him. He felt the hatred begin to spread. His purpose, he decided, was to make all humans rot in the hell they created for him.
These people, he thought to himself, these living diseases, all needed to die. Their struggles, their problems, they spread like cancer to others. The only cure for humanity's sin, its collective wrongdoings, was genocide.
Around him, dark tendrils continued to form and expand, spinning in a vortex. Genocide pulled out two pistols. He squeezed the triggers to no effect. "As I see fit, huh? Hehe." He squeezed both guns in his hands, breaking them into pieces. He concentrated. In his hands, two more guns materialized now completely black due to being forged from the dark essence. Forged by his will. Immune to the jamming device that shut down conventional firearms. He raised his arms at each remaining helicopter and opened fire. Countless tendrils whipped out and slashed at his targets joining the dark essence bullets. It was chaos. Dark tendrils and bullets tore through every direction as Genocide spun and swirled around in 360 degrees firing randomly with purpose. A tendril pierced Gracia's right arm, another, her abdomen. She was however, fortunate, as the other passengers of her helicopter were dismembered. She barely had time to jump from the vehicle before it crashed. She fell 2 yards onto solid concrete. She felt immense pain as her right shoulder shattered on impact. She looked up to see Genocide's blade like appendages ripping through the other escape helicopters. She rolled onto her back and tried to steady herself. Within seconds her body began to repair itself. The nanocells inside her had saved her life but were now depleted. She would need another supplement lest she receive another fatal injury. The standard nanocells she and the others had were much less potent than those of the killers they faced. In truth, they had only minimal strength boosts being able to lift 5-8 more pounds than before and healing being limited to one or two fatal injuries so long as death didn't occur instantly. Gracia blacked out. She awoke the next morning in a hospital. There the doctors refilled her nanocells. She learned that the station had been left in ruins. Genocide had detonated some type of minature nuke following his rampage. He always blew up the stations as if to send a message. Gracia looked out the window thinking about why she became a cop. Twice her family had been murdered by them. Her biological family had been killed in an on record drug raid committed by a group of corrupt officers called The Unit. She had been adopted by another officer that arrived at the scene who found her as a child hiding in a closed. Sadly, he too was killed for trying to expose the activities of The Unit. Gracia joined the force to avenge both losses and bring justice to the killers that disguised themselves as normal people. Law enforcement was neither good, nor bad. It depended upon the people that made it up. In the dying corrupt world Gracia lived in, she vowed to be a beacon of light. Evans laid in a bed adjacent to Lary. "That damn Genocide's somethin else in' he?Like the stories you told us were understatements. That man could legit not die at this point in the story. Like he has friggin plot armor or somthin.'' Evans cut him off" I get it. We all got our asses handed to us. But did you see that ..thing that appeared next to him. Right before he created that black vortex that wiped us out. That must have something to do with his power. Maybe there's a still a way to stop him."Lary chimed in," That fella looked like he was on the way to a black metal concert wit all the black facepaint he was wearin' Creeped me out to be honest." As the survivors mulled over their predicament, the cycle of evil continued to spread elsewhere.
Budley flips through the pages of a magazine. He checks his watch. He looks around the gas station and doesn't see any customers. Seizing the opportunity, he puts in his headphones and begins playing an imaginary guitar as he jams to a progressive deathcore album. Oblivious to the screams coming from outside, the store clerk moves on to thumping two candy bars on the counter to simulate drums. Budley sees that his shift has ended and begins locking up the store. He sweeps the aisles and jumps as a shadow appears behind him. He turns and sees a well groomed bearded man dressed in a black hoodie, black shirt, and black and gray camo pants. The man holds out his hand and smiles. Budley rings up the pack of nicotine substitute gum. "Tryin to kick the habit huh?" Budley asks. The man replies, "Somethin like that. Gotta get my priorities back in check. Focus on the things that really matter. That damn KonCreep's a hell of a band aren't they?" He nods to the playlist on Budley's phone. "Yeah, they're killer. just got into them a month back." Budley answers. "You know, I'm something of a musician myself. Maybe you'll hear of me on the news someday." Jim Jimenez says as he sees himself out. He walks to the back of the building and passes an ominous form of graffiti. A woman lays unmoving and above her, written on concrete in red is a message that simply says "Genocide Reigns".

Genocide Reigns
(note: I'm an indie game developer making an action/horror title called Phantasphere. This story is a spin off set in the same universe)
Year 2480X Ryze County Police Department
He's coming. The ensuing panic spread like a virus infecting all present with symptoms of looming dread. Officers worked steadfast to prepare also taking what time remained to train the few combat hardened civilians whom had fled to the station earlier. If only they knew. This demon that presented itself as a man had led a string of senseless massacres across the country. Only recently had it begun to prioritize police stations and army bases as a means of breaking the will of civilians who knew they would be next. Officers from several counties across the states were transferred here for this last stand. This Genocide must not continue. Gracia checked her pistol. Some 20 bullets remained. "I can do this", she thought, "I have to". She had dealt with similar cases before. Some poor soul is overtaken by some inextricably evil force and makes it their life's work to propagate death. Gracia had killed quite a few already. Live arrests weren't always possible. Beyond saving, careful interrogations of the scarce live catches yielded a startling connection. These killers all alluded to a well of overwhelming hatred and despair that consumed them after making eye contact with...Pale, black eyed entities. Some type of demon? Ghost maybe? The idea seemed nonsensical, but there was evidence nonetheless that some outside force was using them to fulfill some unknown purpose. At the present time, all they could do was stop the killers after they had killed. It was always too late by then and more would appear randomly elsewhere. What good could be done here in an isolated station hoping to stop one guy out of possibly hundreds? "The guy we're waiting for is different from the others," detective Evans spoke from the center of a crowd nearby. Gracia moved in closer. "The others typically strike from the shadows, hide their faces behind masks, and prefer to get up close and personal with their victims. What we're dealing with is on a completely different scale. The trail of bloodshed this guy leaves is too difficult for the media to cover up. He loves the spectacle. Headlining the news. We can't keep using the burst pipeline excuse for 6 stations being destroyed in a row. We have to stop him before the world at large finds out. You wonder why we need so many people here? Its simple. We're gonna out-man this one man. He always attacks stations through the front door. Like other killers he's fast, strong- you know the usual, but he also uses guns." "What!", a voice rang out from the crowd. "They aren't supposed to do that!" another gasped. Officer Lary spoke with a cheesy grin" Ya tellin' me we just gotta deal with a regular ass gunman eh? That's a welcome change of pace init? Heck I'm too old to be running around being chased like I'm in some scary movie". The detective rebutted" You don't get it. He uses guns. Not a handgun, not rifles, not boom sticks, not rpgs, not knives not grenades but ALL of them. He uses guns. Plural. It'll take essentially an army to match his arsenal. He used to be a man named -redacted-, but in his pursuit of chaos he has become Genocide." A dark form manifests from the night outside the station. Genocide is coming.
Bang! something slams into the front door. Everyone freezes. Officer Tatum edges slowly to it, shockgun in hand. By no means lethal, the shockgun was lighter, easy to control, and could stun targets temporarily. If Genocide was here, Tatum could stun him and duck for cover leaving the station free to light him up like a Christmas tree. That was the plan they came up with. He got closer to the glass door and peered outside. He was met with hate filled bloodshot eyes framed by an unkempt beard and wild straggly hair. Tatum felt some relief. He knew the man outside. It was Jim Jimenez. Jim was a former drug dealer turned informant. He was found out and had to flee from his old life. He became homeless, hiding in plane sight. This allowed him safety at the cost of his mental health. Tatum knew the man, but those eyes were not his. Tatum blinked and saw that the look of malice had vanished. What he instead saw was a helpless, wounded man, bleeding from the right arm pleading for help. Tatum looked behind Jim, eyeing the empty lot. The coast seemingly clear Tatum unlocked the door and let Jim in. Jim had been roaming the town looking for shelter and tried squatting in an abandoned looking apartment complex. There he found that the building contained several murdered families some succumbing to gunshots but the majority having met their end to fire and suffocation. Jim had decided to make his way to the station to tell police what happened and met trouble on the way. He described getting stabbed by a man wearing a trench coat with long dark hair. Despite the injuries, Jim could move surprisingly well and seemed to ignore the pain. Jim insisted that the man had spared him on the condition he deliver a message. "What message?" Tatum asked. Jim beckoned him to come closer. Tatum leaned in and Jim whispered, "Tell them. Tell them that Genocide is coming closer." The following events were a blur. Jim had concealed the knife he was stabbed with. He stabbed Tatum 4 times in the chest and wrestled his shockgun away. Using Tatum as a shield, Jim engaged everyone in the lobby. Jim wasn't himself. He was stronger. He was faster. He was tactical. He would stun an officer in place only to stab them and use their as a body shield. No one could get a clear shot without hitting a colleague. Gracia watched the scene unfold. In minutes Jim had acquired a magnum from the holster of one of his victims. In seconds 3 officers had their heads exploded. The magnum rounds coated the walls red with those they hit and stained the clothes of those they missed. Gracia felt fear rising in her chest. She calmed herself and tried to think. She saw the bodies on the ground. The blood. She saw how dismissively Jim stepped over them. Like they were nothing. Like trash. She saw the man firing erratically into groups of people, not so much to kill but as to cause panic. That's it! As Gracia contemplated her next move it hit her. She was knocked backwards and landed on the ground. She weakly clutched her chest. Her breathing grew shallow. Jim mad his way deeper into the station. The officers were retreating from their standoff. Jim stepped over her body and saw red staining her uniform. Just another casualty. He moved on. At this point the civilians began panicking. Everyone gave up trying to save their allies and fired blindly at the madman. "Don't shoot the messenger," Jim laughed as he stripped his latest meat shield of an automatic rifle. Detective Evans took cover behind an overturned desk. To his left Larry struggled to light a cigar. "You still think this is a cakewalk?" Evans shouted firing 2 quick shots from his gun before ducking back down. Lary lost hold of his lighter and it clattered on the ground." Crap." He reached for it and looked in the corner of the room. A mirror. He looked at it for what seemed like ages and his smirk returned " Y'know that mex'n gal with the short hair. Where is she? I didn't see her get shot." Evans glanced a peak at Jim spraying lead in all directions. Behind him was a corpse. Evans blinked. It seemed to be getting closer. Its her. Gracia painstakingly inched her way into Jim's blind spot. She was roughly 6 feet away from him. Flanking him seemed like a brilliant idea but waiting idly by for the right moment as the people around her died filled her with anger. Worse still, she had to steal a blood soaked shirt from one of the deceased officers to keep up the facade. Inching ever so steadily she mad it within 3 feet of Jim. She reached behind her belt and unclipped a pair of handcuffs. Screams could be heard as more people were hit. Gracia couldn't wait any longer. Fluidly she got to her feet and rushed Jim. She kicked the back of his knee causing him to stumble as she put the handcuffs on him. Figuratively. The handcuffs were around Jim's neck. She yanked him back causing his gun to drop. "You don't know what you're doing." Jim spat. "We all need to accept it. The end of days is upon us. Death rides his horse through these forsaken lands. We must serve or be sacrificed in turn. Accept it!"He elbowed Gracia in the ribs causing her to let go. He spun around and lunged at her. She landed on her back, Jim steadily choking her. Gracia thought fast. She couldn't struggle. Jim was too strong. She delivered a precise chop to the center of Jim's neck which was exposed. Jim lurched back to catch his breath. A clean shot. A bullet pierced through Jim's back. Weakened, Gracia rolled him over and began punching him repeatedly using the handcuffs as brass knuckles. The sound of Jim's skull cracking echoed through the station. This would go on for nearly 20 seconds before Gracia stopped, checked his pulse, confirmed Jim was still alive, then finally put the cuffs on Jim's wrists.
Click. Bodies are wrapped and moved to a makeshift storage room. Click. The available weapons are gathered and redistributed. Click. Officers are assigned to sniping positions on neighboring buildings. Click. Police cruisers circle the lot outside. Click. In the holding cell, Jim opens his eyes. Click. Lary flicks his lighter. Click. Gracia sips coffee from a paper cup. Click. Shells hit the ground at the feet of Genocide. Click. Genocide walks outside a cafe and looks at the station in the distance. Click. Lary clicks his lighter.
"All ya'll gon' fall," Jim ranted." You can't drain the ocean. You can't put out the sun. Evil will always exist. That there Genocide is proof . I saw him. Saw myself within his eyes. Saw the evil in me that I could no longer try to hide. He taught me to embrace the darkness within. Its in all of us begging to be let out. Can you hear it!" Lary clicked his lighter and got up from his chair. He grabbed a cup of liquor from another officer mid sip and walked over to Jim. He doused it on Jim, the liquid stinging his open wounds. Jim yelped. Across the station, radios blurred to life. Several of their lookouts on the outside had been killed. "He's gon' get ya," Jim smiled imitating Lary's signature grin. "Genocide! Genocide! Genocide!" The other inmates saw the chance to irritate Lary and joined in all shouting in unison,"Ge-No-Cide! Ge-No-Cide! Ge-No-Cide!" The chanting grew louder. Unbearable. They invoked upon the name of the beast, and so it came.
Genocide is upon us. A wave of dread spread across the officers. They could feel its presence. Gracia knew the sensation. The awful aura that the other killers gave off. This was different. Far more oppressive. She struggled to breathe as the air got colder. Her instincts screamed for her to run. She could only imagine what the others were going through. Its time. Across the lot Genocide stood. A siren blared over the intercom. "Everyone get into positions!" Evans yelled. Wayne finished setting the last of the c4 near the station entrance. "That's the last of them. Have remote triggers set around all the major hallways. I'll be in the security room ready to pull the switch." Wayne acted as an explosives expert. His job was to detonate bombs placed throughout the station to slow down Genocide should it enter the building. He would stay in the security room, monitoring the cameras and giving real time updates on the officers' positions. From the holding cell, inmates chanted for Genocide. Lary got off his phone" That bastard mixed us up. How did we not notice?" Evans asked what he meant. Lary, dumbfounded, said that most of the town was already dead. Genocide had broken his usual pattern. He went on a killing spree across a defenseless town BEFORE attacking the police station. They had let everyone down. The people they swore to protect. This Genocide was a monster, but he was still a man. Capable of learning from his past actions. Planning. Adapting. It wasn't in his style to stealthily kill his victims or even use a silencer on any of his guns, but an exception had been made for tonight. An exception that would cost them. Gracia was stationed on the second floor. She peered out the window. Her heart skipped a beat. Two cruisers made slow donuts patrolling the lot and standing unmoving between them was a man all in black. Gracia called in to Wayne asking if he saw anything outside. Wayne said the monitors were all clear then checked again. He cursed. He noticed small details were off. The cameras showing the outside of the station were wrong. Sure they showed the same scenery and weather but cars passed by on screen too frequently for a dead town. Too many to make sense for the quarantine they had set in place. Wayne concluded that the cameras had been hacked. Different prerecorded footage was being shown on the live feed to misdirect them. Gracia saw the man look up at her. A light rain started to fall. The officers patrolling outside were contacted. From the holding cells, inmates called for genocide.

Original post:
https://www.reddit.com/polyamory/s/xpahbY5bmz
After my previous post, NP stopped responding to/answering Callie’s messages and calls. I was correct to be concerned that her behaviors would continue to escalate. In early December, she managed to worm her way into attending our baby shower through manipulation of a family member she knew. Initially, we didn’t want any drama and just dealt with the fact that she was there. It was easy to ignore her presence as we had ~150 guests in attendance (NP and I both come from large divorced families that remarried). Many family members had come from out of state and the shower turned into a huge family gathering that lasted well into the night. About half way through, guests started questioning her erratic behavior and expressing that she was making them uncomfortable. At this point she had not attempted to interact with me in part because I avoided her and also because my amazing meta Marie ran interference. People started avoiding her and dispersing when she came around (the weather was gorgeous and guests were mingling indoors and outdoors). As the evening was winding down and many guests had left, Callie’s behaviors became even more erratic. She started moving outdoor furniture. She kept aggressively throwing more and more wood onto the fire and yanking sticks away from our dog (to the point that he started piling sticks under my chair to hide them from her). My NP went inside to ask for assistance in asking her to leave from the family member who brought her along. While he was inside, she started carrying large branches from the wood pile over my head and throwing things into the fire causing embers to fly everywhere. She started moving furniture again and when asked to stop she launched the outdoor chairs she was carrying across the lawn. She was asked to leave and refused. They had to call her ex boyfriend to come get her. Marie and I had left to back to the home I share with NP. He stayed back to deal with the situation. I suggested calling the police, but his family wanted to avoid that if possible. The day after the shower, NP told all family members that Callie is not to receive any information regarding our family.
In the end of December, Callie used a fake instagram account to harass me and message my business partner and some of my clients with accusations that I abuse and kill dogs (I own a pet services business). Our course of action was still just to ignore out of concern that any reaction would instigate the issue.
In early January, she texted me calling me a bitch.
In February, she called me. I did not answer and she left a message requesting to come to the house and asked that I not inform my NP. Did not respond.
In March, she saw a post on instagram of my NP on vacation with his friends and she flew across the country and was there the same day the friend posted the photo
Two weeks ago, CPS showed up at the house. In our state, they no longer allow anonymous reporting and while the case worker couldn’t explicitly say Callie is the one who called, she did, in a roundabout way, confirm it was Callie who reported us for “deplorable living conditions.” Our case will be dropped once they’ve run the mandatory investigation. We have filed reports with local PD. For the time being she has not done anything to warrant an RO, officers said we’d probably be awarded a TRO, but didn’t think a judge would award a permanent RO. A TRO that does not become pregnant may make it more difficult for us to file a RO on her in the future.
On a positive note, baby and I are both very healthy! He is an extremely happy little guy, NP and I are very much in love with him, and my daughter is absolutely thrilled to be a big sister!

Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) is the subject of heated debate. How are mast cell activation syndromes defined? Which diseases are included? What is the diagnosis and treatment of mast cell activation syndrome? Prof. Dr. Knut Brockow, Clinic and Polyclinic for Dermatology and Allergology at the Biederstein, Technical University of Munich answers these questions in an interview with MeinAllergiePortal.
Mast cell activation syndrome: The most important facts!
-The prototype of mast cell activation syndrome is recurrent anaphylaxis
-Other forms of idiopathic mast cell activation syndrome are being sought; however, there are mainly symptom descriptions where the diagnosis cannot be made
-Clinical suspicion of MCAS is based on recurring allergy-like symptoms on the skin, nose, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract and circulation
-The diagnosis of MCAS is made according to recognized international criteria based on three criteria
-MCAS is often suspected even when symptoms are inappropriate and the diagnosis is unclear; the suspicion is then not helpful for patients
-The same medications are used to treat MCAS as are used to treat allergies, in particular antihistamines and cromoglicic acid
Prof. Brockow, what kind of disease is MCAS?
Mast cell activation syndrome is not an established diagnosis, but rather a concept. Historically, this concept arose because an increasing number of patients came to the doctor's office with complaints that gave the impression of having been triggered by mast cells. These patients sometimes showed symptoms similar to those of allergic reactions, anaphylaxis or mastocytosis, but a clear diagnosis for these diseases could not be made. Nevertheless, it was suspected that there could at least be a connection with mast cell diseases. Unfortunately, the term MCAS created more uncertainty than understanding. This is because MCAS is now thrown around as a diagnosis for many patients with many symptoms and an unclear diagnosis. This is not helpful for patients and fuels short-term hope of diagnosis and cure, which cannot be fulfilled later.
Is MCAS an autoimmune disease?
No, in autoimmune diseases mast cells are not primarily involved and not as lead cells, but lymphocytes that attack the body's own structures, in some cases by forming antibodies.
Is there a connection between mast cell activation syndrome and autoimmune diseases?
No, there is no known connection between MCAS and autoimmune diseases. It has also been claimed by specific authors that other diseases, such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) are related to mast cell activation syndrome. However, there are no good arguments for this. Unfortunately, such claims are easy to make and difficult to refute.
What is the cause of mast cell activation syndrome?
Mast cell activation syndrome is actually more of a symptom description than a diagnosis in its own right. Mast cell activation syndrome is fully applicable to recurrent anaphylaxis (severe allergic reactions in several organ systems such as the skin, respiratory tract, digestive tract and circulatory system), for example due to insect bites. All the criteria for mast cell activation syndrome are met here. Severe allergic reactions are the most common cause of MCAS. However, although the term MCAS is correct in this context, it does not provide any additional information, as patients with such events are better described as patients with a diagnosis of anaphylaxis or allergy, and the term MCAS is somewhat confusing.
Is mast cell activation syndrome genetic?
MCAS itself is not genetic, but patients with the genetic disease mastocytosis often suffer from anaphylaxis, particularly to insect venom, and therefore MCAS. In addition, it is currently being investigated whether people with genetically determined hereditary alpha-tryptasemia suffer more frequently from MCAS.
How did the term mast cell activation syndrome come about?
There were many patients without a clear diagnosis, some of whom predominantly showed the symptoms typical of mast cell diseases. Accordingly, the experts dealing with mast cell diseases saw the need to develop a concept that took into account the “undiagnosable” symptoms of the patients. In the course of this, the terms “mast cell activation” and “mast cell activation syndrome” were defined. In addition, an attempt was made to sort all mast cell diseases into a classification with regard to mast cell activation. However, the difficulty in classifying these complaints is that many of the complaints described by patients are subjective, relatively non-specific and can be both organic and psychosomatic.
How have you defined mast cell diseases and which diseases do they include?
Mast cell diseases are defined as recurring chronic symptoms that are compatible with mast cell activation.
Mast cell activation is classified on the basis of three criteria:
Recurrent typical clinical symptoms in at least two organ systems
An increase in mast cell mediators can be detected in the blood, most frequently by determining the serum tryptase level during an acute attack
Good response of symptoms to anti-mast cell mediator-directed therapy, especially H1 antihistamines
What types of mast cell disease are there?
The classification of mast cell diseases associated with mast cell activation syndromes defines three groups:
1. primary mast cell activation syndrome
Primary mast cell activation syndrome is explained by a clonal expansion of mutated overactive mast cells. It manifests as systemic or cutaneous mastocytosis. If these criteria are not completely fulfilled, but clonal mast cells have been detected, it is referred to as monoclonal mast cell activation syndrome.
2 Secondary mast cell activation syndrome
Secondary mast cell activation syndrome is present when clear triggers of mast cell activation are known. There are established terms for secondary mast cell activation syndrome that we are more familiar with, such as “anaphylaxis” to a known trigger. The classification in the second group of mast cell diseases is therefore merely a reclassification. Examples of mast cell activation are physical urticaria or cold urticaria. Allergies such as pollen allergies are also secondary mast cell activations, as hay fever also causes symptoms typical of mast cell diseases. In pollen allergies, mast cell mediators are found in the blood serum and drugs directed against mast cells have a good effect. If the symptoms recur in several organ systems, this is referred to as mast cell activation syndrome.
3. tertiary or idiopathic mast cell activation syndrome
Tertiary or idiopathic mast cell activation syndrome refers to mast cell diseases whose triggers are unknown. This group would include, for example, chronic spontaneous urticaria, which has additional symptoms in other organs. Here we know that mast cells are activated, but not by what. This group of idiopathic mast cell activation syndromes would also include patients with as yet undescribed clinical pictures who do not fulfill the diagnostic criteria of known mast cell diseases, e.g. allergy, anaphylaxis, but in whom the disease is triggered by mast cells. In these patients, however, the connection between the symptoms and the activities of the mast cells must be proven.
Does this mean that tertiary or idiopathic mast cell activation syndrome is a diagnosis of exclusion?
Idiopathic mast cell activation syndrome can be described as a diagnosis of exclusion insofar as the prerequisite for the diagnosis is that there is no other disease causing the symptoms. However, the symptoms described are often very, very unspecific and could also be caused by a variety of other diseases. However, there are the three criteria for mast cell activation syndrome already mentioned. If these are not all fulfilled, this diagnosis cannot be made.
How common is mast cell activation syndrome?
Anaphylaxis and severe recurrent allergies are not uncommon and represent the vast majority of appropriate cases for MCAS. In addition, mastocytosis patients often have multiple anaphylaxis and therefore also MCAS. However, our initial idea of finding a new disease, idiopathic mast cell activation syndrome, has not yet been confirmed. There are many patients with many symptoms for whom a clear organic diagnosis cannot yet be made. However, it is almost never possible to prove that a defect in the mast cells is primarily responsible for the symptoms. Many of these patients describe symptoms that could fit, and in some patients anti-allergic drugs also have a positive effect. But in only very few patients can an increase in mast cell mediators be detected during an acute attack. I now believe that somatic stress disorders could play a significant role in many of the patients examined.
Histamine intolerance is also a diagnosis of exclusion, is there a connection with mast cell activation syndrome?
Histamine intolerance can cause similar symptoms, but is not a mast cell disorder and has nothing to do with MCAS. When mast cells are activated, the messenger substance histamine is released, which in turn can cause symptoms. In histamine intolerance, the mast cell is not activated - it is not involved in any way. Rather, histamine intolerance describes patients with an increased sensitivity to histamine, which is supplied, for example, via the diet. This can lead to similar symptoms, but in contrast to mast cell activation syndrome, histamine intolerance has a clear trigger, histamine. As a result, the symptoms occur after eating histamine-rich foods, but disappear again if the patient follows a low-histamine diet. A test is also available to diagnose histamine intolerance.
So there are also patients with suspected mast cell activation syndrome who cannot be assigned to a classification group, even though they have corresponding symptoms?
There are many patients in whom no mast cell activation syndrome can be detected despite suspicion. They do not fit into one of the three groups. However, this also used to include monoclonal mast cell activation syndrome. These patients showed anaphylaxis and a KIT mutation, but not the full criteria for mastocytosis. In the meantime, a separate disease diagnosis has been created for these patients. The independent accepted disease of these patients therefore lies between mastocytosis and normal findings.
We thought that there might be other forms of idiopathic MCAS with clinical pictures that have not yet been described. However, this is not supported by the findings to date. There are patients who show symptoms but do not meet the necessary criteria for idiopathic mast cell activation syndrome. In these patients, the diagnosis remains unclear. In how many of these patients functional physical complaints play a role still needs to be investigated.
Are there risk factors that favor mast cell activation syndrome?
There are hardly any recognized studies on this. In a study conducted by Cem Akin in the USA, patients were examined who met the three criteria for idiopathic mast cell activation syndrome. They had the right symptoms, there was an increase in mediators and their symptoms improved with treatment. It was shown that many of these patients suffered from urticaria factitia, a scratch-induced urticaria, abdominal pain and flushing.
Recently, a genetic trait was discovered, hereditary alpha-tryptasemia with elevated basal serum tryptase levels. In patients with this trait and insect venom allergy, the severity of the allergic reaction appears to be increased. It is also discussed that the frequency of mast cell activation syndrome is increased in patients with this genetic trait. However, the published studies are not yet unanimous in this respect.
What symptoms can occur with MCAS?
The following symptoms could be signs of mast cell activation syndrome:
MCAS symptoms on the skin:
Appearance of sudden intense redness (flushing)
itching
wheal formation
Deep wheal formation (angioedema or Quincke's edema)
MCAS symptoms on the nose:
Nasal congestion
Nasal itching
MCAS symptoms in the airways:
Swelling of the upper airways
Wheezing
Shortness of breath
MCAS symptoms of the digestive tract:
Vomiting
abdominal pain
diarrhea
Systemic MCAS symptoms:
Syncope - where you suddenly lose consciousness, but only for a short time
Sudden drop in blood pressure
Allergic shock
These symptoms can occur together or individually. In principle, symptoms must occur in two or more organ systems for MCAS. These symptoms, together with the typical skin changes and anaphylaxis, are also typical of mastocytosis.
Are muscle pain and hair loss also symptoms of MCAS?
No, why would anyone think that these symptoms are primarily caused by a malfunction of mast cells? Mast cells are not important cells for muscle pain and hair loss.
How is MCAS diagnosed?
MCAS is a diagnosis of exclusion, i.e. there is no mast cell activation syndrome test. However, this does not mean that all other diseases must be ruled out before a diagnosis of MCAS can be made.
When testing directly for mast cell activation syndrome, three criteria would be examined, all of which must be met, not just two:
First, there must be a matching of symptoms to see if the above symptoms are leading, recurrent and occur in at least two organ systems.
Is there a substantial or complete improvement in the clinical symptoms when taking anti-allergic medication, antihistamines or cromoglicic acid? Then this criterion would apply.
The blood levels of tryptase in the serum can now be examined at two different points in time. This would check whether there is an increase in mast cell mediators or tryptase in the blood serum in a highly symptomatic phase or during a seizure compared to a time when there are no symptoms.
What does the tryptase level in the blood mean in the diagnosis of mast cell activation syndrome?
If the mast cell mediator tryptase rises by 20 percent of the basal value, i.e. the initial value, + 2 ng/ml during such an episode, the diagnosis of mast cell activation syndrome has been made without the need to rule out other diseases beforehand. However, taking blood samples to determine the tryptase levels is very time-consuming, because a blood sample should be taken in the normal state and then another blood sample should be taken during a seizure or a highly symptomatic episode. This means that the patient must see a doctor in good time for a blood test during the acute phase. If these tests are negative, mast cell activation syndrome cannot be confirmed.
Elevated tryptase levels also play a role in anaphylaxis, is there a connection with mast cell activation syndrome?
Anaphylaxis is an extremely strong mast cell activation, the “prototype” of mast cell activation, so to speak. The tryptase level rises, so that it is considered an indicator of anaphylaxis. Here too, the basal value is measured and compared with the value during an episode. The relevant factor is the resulting increase in the tryptase value. The therapy against mast cells is effective in this case. In this respect, anaphylaxis is the classic form of mast cell activation syndrome.
The tryptase value also plays a role in the diagnosis of mastocytosis, what are the correlations here?
Mastocytosis patients also have an elevated baseline tryptase level. This is therefore an indication of mastocytosis and an indication for a final diagnosis by means of a bone marrow biopsy. However, there is also a mastocytosis-independent correlation between tryptase and anaphylaxis. People who have a higher number of mast cells often develop more severe anaphylaxis than people with fewer mast cells. The tryptase basal value is therefore considered a kind of indicator for the total mast cells in the body. For example, insect venom anaphylactic patients with elevated basal mast cell tryptase levels in the blood are at increased risk of severe anaphylaxis.
What can be done against MCAS and which medications help?
The aim of treatment for mast cell activation syndrome is to slow down the effect of the overactivated mast cells and to calm the mast cells. In particular, the avoidance of allergic triggers is available for this purpose.
Histamine receptor blockers are tried as medication to block the effects of mast cell activation by histamine. Mast cell stabilizers or blockers of mast cell release, cromoglicic acid, can also calm the mast cells. Cromoglicic acid is also used in mastocytosis patients. It is important to know that the use of cromoglicic acid is not advisable if the attack has already run its course. On the other hand, many patients achieve a significant improvement in symptoms if cromoglicic acid is taken continuously as a preventive measure and in a sufficiently high dose. This has also been shown to be the case with antihistamines.
Another option would be leukotriene receptor antagonists and corticosteroids in the short term, but never over a longer period of time.
Unfortunately, many patients with previously unexplained complaints are given a suspected diagnosis of MCAS in the hope that this knowledge will lead to better treatment or perhaps a cure. However, apart from the drugs mentioned, which can also be used on a trial basis in cases of suspected MCAS, there are no other useful drugs available. In this respect, the suspicion of MCAS unfortunately does not offer patients any additional treatment options.
Are there foods that activate or deactivate mast cells?
No such foods are known in humans. Of course, it is possible to bombard mast cells in a test tube with high concentrations of food and measure whether the natural activation of mast cells is increased or reduced. However, such tests are generally not meaningful for humans when consumed.
Can naturopathy help with mast cell activation syndrome?
I don't know how it could help. Naturopathy is the attempt to achieve a positive effect through naturally occurring active substances. Is the avoidance of allergens in our natural environment already naturopathy?
Could certain vitamins, for example vitamin C, be beneficial for MCAS?
This is claimed by a few doctors without any convincing results. Vitamin C is also said to help against seasickness. After all, vitamin C, taken in normal amounts, is not harmful and is beneficial. Sometimes the conviction that a substance is good for you also helps. That's why the experiment doesn't bother me.
Is it possible to prevent mast cell activation syndrome?
Yes, by avoiding MCAS with a known trigger. This is the case with allergies. In the case of allergies and recurrent anaphylaxis as a form of MCAS, omalizumab, an antibody against immunoglobulin E, can also be used in individual patients.
Prof. Brockow, thank you very much for this interview!
https://www.mein-allergie-portal.com/mastozytose-mastzellaktivierungssyndrom-mcas/925-idiopathisches-mastzellenaktivierungssyndrom-ein-neues-krankheitsbild.html

Hello community, I need some advice. I’m been living in an apartment complex for about a year in a half. In this time I’ve had what I would consider a lot of issues thus far. Here you go. 1. Roughly 2 months after moving in, I had a downstairs neighbor who would knock on the walls all day so hard my bed would shake (bed leans against the the wall). It felt like someone was kicking the wall with in. It continued for maybe another month until I decided to report to the office. I finally did and I was advised by office staff to go to the police. I chose to wait. A few days pass, it’s a Monday , holiday around 6pm and a man comes knocking on my door somewhat aggressively. When I open the door (which idk why I even did) , he tells me I need to keep it down. Mind you, I live alone and I was napping. I tell him this (again, so stupid of me I know) and he says “I don’t think so”, I then told him to report to the office and closed my door. Based on this I decided to report these to issues to police. About a week after I reported, the banging stopped and it hasn’t happened since. 2. I requested for maintenance because my toilet was making weird noises and kitchen sink was a little clogged (twice I threw dirty carpet water in the sink, my bad). So when submitting a maintenance request online you have two options in terms of entry to your home - allow entry or not allow entry. I opted for allowing entry because I wasn’t sure if I was going to be working from home that day. The day comes and it turns out I stayed home. While working I heard someone unlocking my door, my heart dropped and I ran to the door, in which I found the maintenance person opening my door. Quickly he states while pointing at a piece of paper “it says here I can come in”. I looked past it and thought maybe I didn’t hear him knocking, I showed where the issue was and he left (very rude interaction the whole time he is here by the way). I decided to look back at my cameras just out of curiosity because I hadn’t remembered hearing a knock. I look back at my cameras and it turns out he knocked once (not very loudly) and helped himself into my home EXACTLY 7 seconds after knocking. I thought to myself , why wouldn’t he give me more time to open the door? Right. I let it go. 3. It’s 7am , I was still asleep. I remember waking up because I heard my door being opened (specifically when the key was turning, it makes a really loud almost screech sound). Quickly I yelled “don’t come in!”. I put myself together and went to the door. It was the same maintenance person. He stated there was a flood in my bathroom. I quickly run into the bathroom and sure enough, the toilet is clogged and leaking. In the heat of the moment I look at this man straight the eye and tell him he needs to wait at least 60 seconds before he opens my door. He was clearly upset, looked around the bathroom, saw toilet paper rolls and said the issue was to do with too much toilet paper. Those rolls are not all from one day you know? I’m not sitting here throwing loads of toilet paper down my toilet. I used the plunger and mopped the floors and apparently that was good enough because he didn’t come back until later. The situation had really spooked me so I had left. So I look back at my cameras to see what happened. At 7am a different maintenance person (maintenance person 2) knocked on my door twice and both times I didn’t answer. He then calls someone on the phone. About roughly 20 minutes later the other maintenance person (initial maintenance person who helps himself to my home) shows up. He knocks quickly and opens my door not even 5 whole seconds after he knocks. And that’s when I hear it and essentially woke up. I filed a complaint with the office and their response was something like “we’ve told our maintenance people to allow more time before entry, and it’s because they get to their jobs quickly they may be working too fast” (if anyone is genuinely interested I can provide screenshots of the email messages). I did reiterate that it was not the maintenance TEAM but just one individual. In which they then stated they spoke with him individually as well. 4. Again, working from home and the CO2 alarm goes off. I call the office and I am told they will be submitting a ticket for this issue (Given that it was an alarm, I called in, I could have easily submitted a ticket myself but I figured this was an emergency so I called the office). She tells me she can’t give me an ETA because they have other tickets to get to as well. I call the fire non-emergency line just to make sure and I am told by the dispatcher the office staff’s response was unacceptable and they are sending over firefighters immediately. They show up, it turns out it was the battery. Okay. I call the office staff member to let her know what had happened and this lady has the audacity to tell me that she KNEW it was the battery which is why she didn’t escalate it. Mind you, information she never shared with me when i had called her frantically about an alarm going off in my home. 5. Last straw- this happened today and this is what I need feedback on .. or other resources. This morning I received an email from management, in which they stated they’ll be doing an inspection on all units next week. This complex is for BMR (below market rate) but honestly not even that much cheaper.. so it’s mandatory that they do this every year. In this notice, they mention we can no longer have doorbell cameras. I’ve been here for almost 2 years and never before has a doorbell camera been an issue. So why now?. So I asked, and I was told by management that we were never allowed to have doorbell cameras. Which I find odd because so many people have them so I know it’s something they missed and just recently noticed. I can’t help to think they are now enforcing this rule because I reported one of their own and the only reason they couldn’t get away from it was because I had that evidence. Also, I won’t be able to sleep the same without a camera, this is going to interfere with my everyday life more than they know. What can I do? And by enforcing this rule I mean they threatened to evict.

Clearing out my collection after falling down the fragrance rabbit hole in December 2023. Venmo accepted (you cover G&S), Zelle or Cash App preferred. Cont. US only.
Bottles:
Barely sprayed 100ml Parfums Vintage Pineapple Vintage Intense w/box: $110 shipped
level shown: https://imgur.com/a/iX2DBBy
~50% full 100ml Bleu de Chanel EDT w/box: $60 shipped sold

Decants – Free shipping on $20 or more, otherwise add $4
Lightly used 10ml Creed Aventus Cologne twist travel atomizer: $23
level shown: https://imgur.com/a/N03j8ZC
Lightly used 5ml Electimuss Imperium: $10 sold

<1ml Decants: https://imgur.com/a/cIDkesH
Amouage Reflection Man $3
Guerlain L’Homme Ideal Extreme $3
Guerlain L’Homme Ideal L’Intense $3
Guerlain L’Homme Ideal Platine Prive $3
Initio Musk Therapy $4
Initio Rehab $4
Le Labo Another 13 $4
Nishane Hacivat $3
Parfums de Marly Habdan $3
Parfums de Marly Pegasus Exclusif $2
Parfums de Marly Percival $2

<2ml/>1ml Decants: https://imgur.com/a/GZZmBSg
Amouage Jubilation XXV $6
Amouage Opus XIV Royal Tobacco $7
BDK Gris Charnel Extrait $7
Dior Ambre Nuit $6
Fragrance One Office $5
Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur $6
Guerlain L’Homme Ideal EDP $5
Guerlain L’Homme Ideal EDT $5
Hermes Terre d’Hermes $5
Initio Blessed Baraka $6
Louis Vuitton On the Beach $6
Mancera Cedrat Boise $5
Marc-Antoine Barrois Ganymede $7 sold
Xerjoff Alexandria II $7

Parfums Vintage Samples: https://imgur.com/a/Qx7zyoS
Originally 2.5ml in 5ml sprayers. All have ≥2ml left except Imbue which has ~1.5ml (the labels go all the way around). Nine still have the sample card.
Emperor (Aventus clone) $5
Emperor Extrait (Aventus ‘’) $5
Emperor Napoleon (Aventus) $5
Emperor Maximus Extrait (Aventus) $5
Emperor’s Sunset (Aventus + Baccarat Rouge 540) $4
Emperor Cologne Intense (Aventus Cologne) $4
Evolution De L’Homme Soir (Roja Elysium) $4
Haciventus (Hacivat + Aventus) $4
Imbue (~1.5ml) (Gucci Pour Homme II) $3
Intense VI (Aventus) $4
Obsidian (Hacivat) $4
Rush of Unicorns Intense (Creed Millesime Imperial) $4
Sunset Extreme (Baccarat Rouge 540) $4
Utopia (Armani Acqua Di Gio Essenza) $4
Vanilla Intense (Aventus & vanilla) $4

Montagne Pineapple Classics Discovery Kit: $13 shipped
levels shown: https://imgur.com/a/O1dn4d6
Originally 2.5ml each of Pineapple Royale (Aventus clone), Pineapple Intense (Aventus), Pineapple Musk (Aventus), Pineapple Bonbon (Aventus + BR 540)

Voting ends today in the Maryland, Nebraska, and West Virginia presidential, congressional, and local primaries.
Per Ballotpedia, Maryland's topline election is the US Senate race, but there are various other state-level and local offices on the ballot. In addition to the primaries for federal offices in West Virginia today there are also primaries for governor and other state executive offices; the state house and senate; the state supreme and intermediate appellate courts; and one ballot measure. Nebraskans are voting on most offices apart from the governor.

Maryland

Resources

• WTOP: Maryland 2024 primary election voter guide: Everything you need to know
  
• Fox5DC: Maryland Primary Elections 2024: What's on the ballot in each county
  
• Maryland Matters: A glance at what to do, where to go to vote in Tuesday’s primary election
  

News

• The Baltimore Sun: Polls open Tuesday morning for Maryland’s primary election following middling early vote turnout

Analysis

• The Washington Post (soft paywall): Decision day in Md.’s hotly contested Democratic U.S. Senate primary Whoever wins Tuesday will shoulder the responsibility of holding the deep-blue state’s open seat against an onslaught of spending from national Republicans who see former governor Larry Hogan’s candidacy as a generational opportunity.
  
• The Washington Post (soft paywall): Maryland’s competitive 6th District primaries to set stage for November Democrats have lobbed personal attacks. Republicans’ leading candidates are an election-denying former gubernatorial contestant and a more moderate alternative.
  
• Politico: 3 reasons Maryland’s Senate primary is a must-watch race
  

Results

• USA Today: Maryland Statewide and Presidential Primary Results
  
• WBAL: Baltimore election results: 2024 mayor's race primary election
  
• WTOP: 2024 Maryland Primary: Local primary election results
  
• The Baltimore Sun: Maryland primary live coverage
  

Nebraska

Resources

• Nebraska Secretary of State: 2024 Primary Sample Ballots
  
• Nebraska Examiner: What to know before you vote in Nebraska’s first statewide election with Voter ID
  
• KITV: Decision 2024: KTIV’S coverage of the 2024 Nebraska Primary Election
  

Analysis

• Nebraska Examiner: 18 legislative, education races will be narrowed in Nebraska’s primary election
  
• AP: The Nebraska GOP is rejecting all Republican congressional incumbents in Tuesday’s primary election
  

Results

• Nebraska Secretary of State: Election Results
  
• ABC: Nebraska 2024 primary results
  

West Virginia

Resources

• West Virginia Secretary of State: [GoVoteWV](GoVoteWV.com)
  
• USA Today: West Virginia voting FAQ
  

News

• WCHS: About 90,000 ballots cast during early voting in West Virginia, down from previous years

Analysis

• Mountain State Spotlight: Thousands of West Virginia voters lack choices on their ballots. Here are the consequences of uncontested elections
  
• AP: AP Decision Notes: What to expect in West Virginia’s primaries
  
• AP: Election deniers: West Virginia voters must pick from GOP candidates who still dispute 2020 outcome
  

Results

• West Virginia Secretary of State: Election Results
  
• NPR: West Virginia Results
  

Announcement:
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So, to give a bit of a background - we have 2 kids - 7 and 2. Both me and my husband have always been working and only started claiming UC last year when the costs of living have become so unbearable to go without. My husband always worked full time and I did about 30 hours a week in pretty inhumane hours to keep the childcare costs as low as possible. Up until sort of September time, the younger one would go to the childminder, but then I got a really good job opportunity, which also meant increasing to full time regular office hours. The childminder didn’t want to work for us 5 days a week, so at the moment the little one does 4 days with her and 1 in the nursery. And it was all fine. I was spending most of my pay on childcare and then getting some of it back through uc, no issues.
But ever since the beginning of this year it just feels like the UC people checking our reported costs are trying to come up with a reason not to pay us. For example: the guidance on the gov.uk states that things like childcare providers registration number or the type of childcare have to only be proven once when you provide an evidence of having a contract with said provider (unless I’m reading it wrong?). It also states that the proof of payment that we provide each month has to include the dates of childcare I paid for, how much and when did I pay it, right?
Suddenly, 4-5 months in they notice that childminder’s invoice doesn’t have her registration number on it, so they can’t pay it? But that’s fine, our childminder is lovely, easy to reach outside her working hours and always helpful, so we got this sorted quickly.
Nearly two weeks ago, I get a message from the agent that I can’t claim for both providers for the most recent payments because the invoices don’t include the dates to show that we’re claiming for different days. I’ve replied within an hour to point out that the childminder’s invoice clearly states Monday-Thursday childcare, while the nursery one has a list of dates which are all Fridays, so it’s clear that they are all different days. They now (literally a day before our cut off) came back to me stating that the invoices need to include more detail, like ‘whether or not meals are provided’. I’m sorry, what? I read through that guidance like 7 times and I just can’t find any information about having to prove who provides my child’s food. And how has this never been an issue before?
Am I being stupid here or are they just trying to come up with reasons not to pay? One of the main reasons of me accepting the more hours job was because I was counting on the UC support. I thought the point of the childcare bit of it was to support parents in return to the working force?

Here's a rundown of what happened:
I initially had a glowing review of the property after touring a few weeks back. I informed them that I was only looking at the moment because my lease wasn't up until June. I left a great google review but was contacted via text by the tour guide and he told to remove the review as the company had a policy to not post reviews for tours. I thought it was weird but I deleted it only for me to see reviews about tours with acknowledgements from staff. Red flag #1.
Fast forward to this week, I saw an apartment within my budget and time frame for move-in open up in the building and sent a request to visit again before applying. To my surprise I was called by the leasing office and told the ID I gave them was fake and I couldn't apply to the apartment. Mind you, I received what I thought was a spam message saying "Fucken scammer, using a fraudulent id to tour property is a felony....I love how you think everyone is stupid..." and so on. This was sent to my personal cell phone over the weekend. I thought nothing of it until I happened to try to set up a new tour and had it confirmed over the phone.
So not only did they lie about leaving a review but I was harassed via text. When I tried to explain that the ID verification was a mistake(because it obviously is), I was sent a link to upload my passport. The link they provided would not let me upload my passport. I provided a screenshot of the error in the email and was told there was no alternative and I should look elsewhere. For seemingly no reason at all I was lied to and doxxed for what is a correctable mistake.
This entire situation was extremely weird and stressful as I have been struggling to find a place that meets my criteria. I was made out to be a criminal and treated like shit by this leasing agency. Is there any action I can take for my ID being falsely rejected and my phone number being used to insult me?
EDIT: Adding text message that was sent to my phone https://imgur.com/tbJmouG

Hello everyone,
I hope you're all doing well. I'm an officer in duty, and I'm looking for someone to have a friendly and affectionate chat with.
I got 3-day break from my duty and I would like to make the most out of it.
While I may not be able to share all the details of my work, I'd love to connect with someone who shares my passion for cooking and gardening.
I find solace in the kitchen, experimenting with new recipes and flavors, and I've recently taken up gardening to nurture a connection with nature. Whether it's swapping cooking tips, discussing gardening techniques, or just having a heartwarming chat, I'm all ears.
If you're interested in striking up a conversation, and/or like men in uniform, feel free to send me a message.
Looking forward to meeting you! 🌿🍽️

Hello all! I am looking for a 21+ RP partner. I have been RPing for a few years now so I’d like to find a partner who is also experienced and is committed to writing the best story we could possibly write.
I am very much in the mood for a romance story. Something slice of life where our characters meet and a relationship forms from mutual interests.
The idea I have in mind today sees me playing a convicted felon who just recently got released from prison on parole. I would have been incarcerated for four years on drug possession charges. Now that I am out, I plan on turning my life around and doing better.
You would play the parole officer that was recently assigned to my case. This would be very new to you so you’d be a little uncertain. Your job would be check-ins, which means coming to my home and making sure I am not doing anything I shouldn’t be. No concerning guests, no contraband, no illegal activity.
During my check-in, we would get hit by a major blizzard. Snow would pile up in front of my door and you would have no choice but to stay with me until the blizzard dies down and we can get the snow in front of my house cleared out. While stuck together, we would chat and talk about each other, getting to know each others interests, hobbies, and aspirations for life. An attraction may even start to grow, we can figure something out from there.
If this idea interests you, drop me a message!

About half a year ago, my therapist helped me get approved for VR for my anxiety and my learning disability. The facility I received services at is in the Space Coast area of Florida. I was really looking forward to their services, as it is hard for me to keep most jobs (fast food, cashiering) because of my extreme anxiety. I didn't know what to really expect. I'd meet up at McDonalds with my career specialist assigned to me. She was helpful by showing me better ways to hunt for jobs on indeed and prepared a nice resume for me which I appreciated. I felt a little confused about the fact they tried to train me on how to be successful at interviews. I appreciated their advice though, but that is about the extent of what they did for me. They'd occasionally send me job listings through gmail which I would apply to. They also offered to take me to interviews which I also greatly appreciated. I have to admit though, some things made me feel really uncomfortable. The woman who did my intake and helped connect me to my career specialist was often sort of cold and unkind. At one point, I was living with people who were getting evicted. I had explained to her that I might not be able to keep a job in that particular area because I might need to relocate. It took me a couple weeks to finally get moved in somewhere, but almost every day this woman called me to ask for updates. At one point, she got upset and impatient with me because I hadn't been able to settle in a location yet. She often had that sort of tone with me, which made me uncomfortable every time I saw a phone call from her. She also talked about other people who receive VR and how they frustrate her. To me, It seemed like she didn't like her job & felt impatient because time is money to these employees. They assigned me to a career specialist named S. I won't give her full name for the sake of privacy. While she was helpful at times, she too would come off very impatient. Despite telling her I was hoping to find jobs that would be less triggering for my anxiety, she would apply to walmart cashiering jobs for me and other positions that are the opposite of what I would be comfortable with. She continued doing so even though I explained my preferences to her. When I found a job I was interested in, that I had applied for and scored an interview with, she told me I was making poor decisions. I had a feeling she was also in a rush because she wanted to get paid. I went back to the other woman who did my intake, we will call her M. I told her I wanted to try to work with another career specialist. While talking to her about this, she seemed annoyed but went ahead and put me with a guy named A. A usually had a pretty good attitude, and I didn't mind working with him. He listened to my preferences and tried to help me find jobs I'd like. But because M kept calling me and telling me I was taking too much time to find a job, I applied for a local grocery store and got hired on as a cashier, despite knowing I wouldn't be able to handle it because of my anxiety. A week in, I contracted norovirus and got sick. I left work for two days, but came back with a doctors note. While working at this place, I asked my boss two times about my schedule, and each time I did, she was really upset at me for asking her. I was also really confused as to why it made her upset that I asked, because I had no idea where to find out what days I needed to work. This particular boss was just mean to her employees in general. The people I worked with were at least nice, but my bosses attitude combined with the fact I still didn't know what my schedule was (And i was too afraid to ask her for clarification) made me feel so uncomfortable that I walked out. I told my career specialist the truth, but instead of understanding, he got upset and suggested he and I set a meeting up with my boss so he can try to fix the situation. He said "I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but when we are in that meeting, I'm going to throw you under the bus a bit." He went on to explain that he was basically going to shame me in front of my boss about me having to miss two days and try to beg her to let me stay. I reluctantly agreed with his plan. It has been about four days and I haven't answered any of the messages or calls from VR. I know I can be sensitive, but I really felt uncomfortable with it all. I still do. I have had this impression, again, that the VR workers really don't care and they only care about getting paid. I felt similarly when I was in Jobcorps earlier on in my life. Myself and others were treated like delinquents and made to feel stupid there, in a place where people go to get career training.. to get help. But just like jobcorps, VR here feels like another place where people are treated with disrespect. Sometimes I don't know if its just me, or if these programs just suck. I know not everyone has a bad experience with VR. I would also like to mention that the office staff at the VR location I went to had a cold vibe about them. I don't know how to explain it. I mostly wanted to write about this here to get it off my chest. I don't know. Maybe I am the problem. Or maybe it is because I am in Florida.

I originally posted this as a comment but the guy deleted the post so reposting here…
The following is some information I’ve noticed that I’ll call a synchronicity between all the events going on. This is a document from the State of NY trial for Mark Hotel vs Weinstraub uploaded to government servers four days ago.
If you look at this document:
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=Whuxu1lEwI4LpVrGSKu1sA==&system=prod
You can see a timeline breakdown of events that draw a trail linking Weintraub to an unknown celebrity that just happens to match Drake's schedule perfectly and EP telling of some events on Twitter.

1. ⁠First on August 10th 2021 this document discloses Weintraub's reason to have beef with a celebrity over the situation with a bike leading him to be banned from the facility.
2. ⁠On July 17th 2023 a very interesting event occurs that suggests that Weintraub is timing is protesting to align with the arrival/departure of a certain VIP and also mentions an altercation with protestors sitting on the carpet. (Similar event occurs on another day Drake would be there July 18th with paparazzi attacking the protestors)
3. ⁠I want to mention July 21st because there are some interesting tidbits the protestors where chanting there around groping and things of that nature that are relevant to what we discuss here.
4. ⁠July 22nd is the most interesting tidbit of all and I think clearly shows Weintraub has beef with a certain somebody for that I'll let it speak for itself.

July 22, 2023: At approximately 8:20pm, Security Supervisor Mr. Anthony Gutierrez identified three of the protestors standing on the sidewalk. They remained there, in front of the team, without doing any activity. At 9.15pm, a fourth protestor joined them. After waiting in silence for a few hours, at 10.55pm, the protestors screamed "The Mark has “mice"—a statement previously chanted by the Defendant—only when a VIP hotel guest walked out, and then they left the area. The VIP and his entourage questioned the hotel management on the issues of the protestors' comments and wanted to know why they started to yell specifically when the VIP guest was leaving. Once the VIP left, the protestors left shortly after.
It is extremely curious to me that all of these days line up and even more curious if you look over the entire document at some of the stuff Weintraub and his protestors were chanting at "VIP #1".
There is no way this is playing out in court at the exact same time (This document literally was just uploaded), the diss tracks, and ebonyprince's cryptic messages that also involve the exact same dates on accident.
One other thing I would like to note the man that punched the protestor in the face and got into repeated altercations with them was promoted to head of front office shortly after; same guy from AK47's video last night.
Edit: Side note bad faith comments will be insta blocked not dealing with y’all today :P