Dearest gentle readers, did you miss me? it’s time for season 2! I’m gonna try to do all 8 episodes before s3 drops
Episode 1

• Daphne’s bangs have transformed from pringles mustache to a lovely diadem of hair
• I love lady danbury’s structural lace collar capelet
• The featherington mourning wear is twice as unflattering
• Lol @ gregory rolling his eyes about anthony’s list
• The art in the opening credits is interesting. The texture of it reminds me of a video game
• Ah penelope knows her worth and raised her prices. We love to see it
• Sharpening my knives for all of you damn girl
• pen’s fake irish accent is somehow different than nic’s real irish accent
• “Theyre the ones running around while you sit on your arse” get ‘im girl
• “All the young ladies looked the same” rude
• Violet: you want to give my treasured ring to just some girl? Do you have no respect for love? for me?
• The brothel scenes always crack me up because its just a bunch of big velvet curtains and some candelabras in the background. but Ive never been to a brothel so maybe thats accurate
• Anthony’s perfect lady: independent, intelligent, agreeable, no mama drama. May i suggest a golden retriever
• Anthony did not come off as this heavy-headed, overly burdened with responsibility tortured poet soul in season 1
• Kate!!
• Anthony is surprised and turned on
• It sounds like kate says “Oh fuck it” when he pulls up next to her but the captions say [speaks hindi] does anyone know what shes saying?
• Anthony is absolutely smitten. The stubborn dumbass
• Newton! LD is not a dog person
• The mature age of “six and twenty” keels over as an elderly 31yr old
• Eloise has a new ribbon hat contraption. This one has a round felt disc a la a beret
• Pens face as el talks shit about LW >:(
• Potatoes again?? Yes please
• Favorite fun fact: potatoes are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, and adding cheese adds calcium/vitamin d and makes it a complete vitamin source. My daily intake of cheesy potatoes is like a flintstone vitamin
• Lol the feather’s maid is like why dont you try selling some of this fancy shit if you need money so bad
• Kate has a blue ribbon braided in her hair. Its so pretty. This cerulean shade looks stunning on her. She’s wearing the bridgerton blue from day 1 ♥️
• Edwina’s perfect match: charming, handsome, a duke or a prince. Might i suggest a king charles spaniel?
• Kate’s perfect match: someone who understands her on a deep spiritual level. Might i suggest anthony
• As the sharmas walk into the ball, theres a horse pulling a carriage that looks like its feet are tied together or something. Its doing the strangest walk
• I love the classical version of material girl
• QC like hi mary still hate you bitch ok bye
• Benedict stealing el away from the gentleman version of chucky
• You know, the gossipy quality of the ton is a great way to give viewers background info
• Fake tears always work
• Phili and finch will make beautiful cheese babies
• LD: anthony is a perfect suitor Edwina: dibs Kate: goddamn it
• Anthony’s smile when he sees kate again 😍
• I want to reach through the tv and smoosh their faces together right now. This annoying adorable banter is too much “You find my smile pleasing?”
• LD and violet like shall we do it again this year? pick another perfect match together?
• Pen is an excellent business woman. 10 pounds for 1 LW edition? Thats more than a thousand bucks in todays money. Girliepop is a girl boss. A true she-e-o
• Aw regency chucky has a crush on eloise
• I sympathize with kate. I am also dreadful and unpleasant
• Benedict trying to get it in with madame delacroix again
• Anthony can dish it out but sure cant take it
• Lower those expectations and settle for someone - violet
• Pen writing to colin. THREE MORE DAYSSS
• LD dressing kate down like girl. I opened my home to you. You really gonna stand here and lie to my face
• Love that kate comes clean and LD is like okay good now that thats out in the open lets get this girl hitched. I can scheme too
• Agan kate in blue here is so beautiful
• I love QCs laugh
• I would rather die! Well well how the turntables
• Pen: i have managed to find joy in this whole spectacle Eloise: WOW so you hate feminism
• LD really looked at kate like watch this and then got edwina diamond-ed
• Edwina: i love a man who knows what he wants and is direct Anthony: doesn’t know what he wants and sniffs kate
• LW: suddenly writing feminist rhetoric Eloise: wow what coincidence i was JUST talking to penelope about this
• I love that QCs wigs have natural textured hair in them

okay good night! thanks for reading

Hello.
I (33f)have the CPTSD Ive known about it since a 2012 and have struggled since then to get treatment other than ssris. I recently had a mental health flare up and have finally found a therapist that I like. I lot of this have been coming up in therapy where my therapist thinks I should be kinder to myself or stand up for myself. I’m not sure because I’ve been trying to do so but it’s not seeming to work.
My husband works for himself/ works from home/ teaching himself to run a business for the past year. We live in hcol I work full time and pay for our health benefits, (he has an office in the apartment and we still split rent 50/50 (when he has the money to) and pay for all household goods and groceries (unless he is working and he will pay for half) I do most of the large purchases, car, insurance vacations, electricity and water and cell phones and he has the internet. He had liked to live month to month while trying to work as little as possible. I enjoy being with him when he has time for his own pursuits and he doesn’t like 9-5 life so I’m very happy with him not working as much as I do.
The thing is, is that he has been telling me that I don’t do enough, or that he doesn’t ask anything of me, or that I don’t spend enough quality time with him. He doesn’t like that I spend time after work reading or listening to audio books, scrolling Reddit or watching Tv. He says that he wants to see me being productive. He talks about how I need to have more productive hobbies. Like instead of reading, writing, or if I’m reading, blogging or reviewing it. He wants me to go on walks. He says I’d be less depressed if I did more things. He calls the time I spend in the evening mindlessly scrolling and said today that all the time I spend on my phone I could be spending with him. My screen time average is 2.5 hours/day. I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m just wasting my whole life away, it makes me think that he thinks very low of me.
This past year he wanted to start having dinner together at the dinning room table every night. (Like we are “supposed to” It’s been hard for me to rally for them. We would fight because I have a hard time eating without relaxing first and I would be so keyd up after a long shift he would get upset that I wasn’t appreciative. It took a lot of conversation to get him to understand that I need that wind down time before I can face dinner and conversation and real life again. I hurt my back and was unable to sit at the table so he has been understanding about sitting at the couch. After dinner and watching a show together he gets upset if I get on my phone when he goes in his office to work. He wants me to spend the time more productively. On my phone I read and listen to audiobooks. I read 5-6 books a month usually. Sometimes more if they are short stories. Idk how to explain to him that I like reading and it helps me relax. I suggested we read the 5 love languages book and he bought it which made me so happy, after he read it he said he excelled in all the love languages and that it was me who didn’t know how to speak his love language. What am I supposed to say to that?
He does most of the daily household chores ie dishes and laundry. I’ve told him in the past that if he paid for part of the electricity and the health insurance I could afford to get a cleaner. When I was in school and working part time I kept a better house but it’s a lot harder now because my job is stressful and mentally exhausting. I thought the cleaner would solve the issue. He doesn’t think we need one but gets upset that I can’t keep up with half of the duties. Dispite the fact he is home 24/7 and I’m only home in the evenings. Sometimes I work up to 14 hour days. Also, some days I need to be in bed. I give a lot to my job and I thought to was worth it to keep our lifestyle going weather he is actively working or not but now I’m hearing that the only thing I contribute is money and that it doesn’t count because he is going to pay me back.
It’s still hard for me though because I always have to make sure I have the money because I never know if he will be able to contribute or not. I don’t really want to work a bunch either. I am also just a work enough to survive kinda person.
The biggest issue I have is that I don’t think he respects me. Because how could you have such a low opinion of someone you respect? Why does he keep saying that I don’t do anything or that he doesn’t ask anything of me. How can he love someone who doesn’t do anything? He says that he is just trying to better me but I’m okay with myself. I’m not perfect but I’m not bad.
It’s true, I’m depressed and love to get cozy in the couch for hours at a time while listening to an audiobook and scrolling Reddit . I do clean on weekends that I don’t also work. I do the dishes twice a week and vacuum and clean the toilet every weekend. I do the litter box every other month. (It’s the crystal that get changed monthly) I buy the cat food and we split feeding them unless I’m working. I don’t do the dishes daily though(I get depressed with the endless daily tasks) I offered to buy a dishwasher because I had no problem doing that daily but he didn’t want me to spend money on it. I prefer to do larger weekly tasks because it’s hard for me to have the energy daily. I don’t like to cook after work so I’ll order us dinner or pick groceries that are quick meals. This is not what he considers healthy though and prefers to cook us healthy meals.
To me this relationship is me finding compromises and him finding reasons why I’m not doing things right. I am trying my best but I just feel like it’s never enough.
Am I crazy for being hurt by his attitude towards me despite him saying it’s to better me? Is my depression and laziness after work making me a bad partner or is my partner not being understanding of my needs?

My poor late boyfriend's evil older sister, "Queenie" (as she likes to be called🤮). I've posted about her here before.
She would get on some raging jag and send him texts, FB messages, call his cell phone and his house phone, berating him, or telling him how terrible her life is, or going off on how she's glad their other sister died or his wife died or... (Have you seen Baby Reindeer? Like that.)
I told him to block her. He couldn't. He needed to know what she was saying, and what she was saying about him on social media. She said some awful, mean-spirited things.
He felt he always had to keep track of her. She fed him lies and drugs. When she had an up day, she'd write some beautiful letter praising him for being the best brother ever, and giving him suboxones or whatever other drugs she had on hand.
Their sister (who took her own life in 2016) used to put flyers up all over town about how horrible of a person he was.
He truly wasn't a bad person. He had so much goodness and love that he just couldn't see, due to all the trauma...
At some point in the past few years, he stopped using social media as much, but still wanted to know what Queenie was up to. I made an extra account and have been tracking her and other unsavory family members for him. For several years.
I have screenshots that would make anyone go blind with rage.
My boyfriend, the absolute love of my life, my favorite, died at the beginning of February. Alcohol and drugs. Both things that Queenie introduced him to at an early early age.
When he died, she posted a happy video of herself and her family laughing it up at karaoke. Days after the funeral, she posted about how sad she is that she's the only one left alive in her family, and how she had to walk away because he didn't want to be loved and saved.
She made no effort to love him, ever. She made no effort to save him. She took out a restraining order against him and took him to court multiple times in the last couple years.
When he was at his lowest, drinking and having seizures in his house, she sent police to do wellness checks on him constantly.
This is not love. This is abuse.
And now. I can't stop tracking her.
Her house is up for tax sale at the end of the month because she didn't pay property taxes or her utility bills for the last two YEARS.
Today, she posts that the Universe gave her some "fun money" and she was going to have a blowout anniversary.
The taxes, Queenie.
But then says that her plumbing is fucked and she has to pay Roto-Rooter to come out.....
I... I need to get away from this. I don't know how. I don't even live there anymore.
But I have a righteous anger against her. I am writing what I want about her here and on tumblr, and even mentioning on my tiktok how her actions his entire life ended up killing my boyfriend.
I wish Karma would just SMITE her.
How do I get away? I know I could just ignore and forget, but I am still protective of my boyfriend's adult children too.... I don't want her to somehow ruin their lives....

Previous post a few weeks ago I posted about my son’s mom filing for an increase. I go to court & she’s not there. When I got the papers in the mail, it didn’t say anything about the state filing. It was her signature & it gave me the impression SHE went down & filed for an increase. All the signs pointed to her & not the state. Idk if she’s working or not but last year when we went she was. Nonetheless she didn’t show so im assuming they’ll throw it out because of her not showing. I give the guy my papers & he says you’re making $500 more dollars. I literally had the last 5 checks but he used the most recent one. I make $20.00 an hr & I gross about $1300 a check. Again GROSS not NET. They ask me if she’s working & I say idk you tell me. Pull it up on the computer. How do they have my info but not hers?? He said “is she on public assistance)? Like receiving cash? I say IDK but I’m paying $400 a month to. Why would she get cash from yall if I’m paying support? I mean HOW don’t they know if she’s getting cash ?? They can’t look it up in the system?? I mean that doesn’t make sense. This one check I grossed $1800 but that’s because of a lil OT. I don’t get overtime at all so when i got it I did it this ONE TIME!! He crunched the #s & it came back $750 plus my rears. I fucking snapped! One because of the money but two SHE DIDNT SHOW!! iv been to court several times with this bitch & aplenty times has she not shown & they’ve thrown it out. Why didn’t they?? Why would they give her MORE cash if I’m paying support?? Why wouldn’t they force her to work if she doesn’t have a job? How can she be the custodial parent but NOT work with kids?? HOW?? Btw I only have 1 kid w her. She has 3 by 3 different men. The guy said he wasn’t going to put the order in until he spoke to his supervisor about if she’s receiving cash from the state. This was Thrus the 9th & today is the 13th. First he called me & told me nothing happened but he’d call me by Monday which is today. He didn’t call me! I just happened to check my stub online but I don’t get paid until Friday. They took $356.59 for 2 weeks!!! Wtf!!! How & they didn’t give me & specifics? She never showed, HOW can they just take my bread like that!!!! Yall I barely work 80 hrs every check. It’s more like 69 or 70! wtf do they go by GROSS & not NET??! Why do they tax on money that I DONT ACTUALLY TAKE HOME??!! Does that make fucking sense?!! So now Friday I gotta go back down there, PAY FOR FUCKING PARKIKING & the FILING FEE just for a FUCKING MAYBE (Decrease). What’s my luck on that?? If I bring new stubs with my actual hours & pay would they give me a decrease??? wtf do I do yall??! I can’t afford $800 dollars a month!!!! Help please

A lot of people on this forum, and most of the people I play with (US intermediate to advanced i.e. 1200+) tend to buy/use rubbers that might range from $40 to $90. I myself use Yasaka R7 on both sides which costs $45 a sheet for me.
I have also noticed that most people in the skill level also only change their rubbers maybe once every 4 but usually 6 months or more. I was recently watching a video about how often pros change their rubbers and timo boll was an extremity when he said he uses the same rubber for a whole tournament (1 week long or so) and most pros change them every match or day or two.
ALL OF THIS TO SAY - would it be worth it to spend the same amount of money on cheaper rubbers, but replace them more often in order to have a crisp(er) topsheet for longer periods of time? Like is it worth it to drop $50 on a rubber if it's quality diminishes faster than it's worth it?
Thoughts?

This is a long post. I'm sorry, I just don't really know who to talk to about this.
My husband and I got married 9 years ago when we were fairly young (24 years old) and had no money and no place to live. My parents are poor and we knew that any wedding we had would have to be really simple and inexpensive.
I've always wanted a big wedding with all my family and friends there, I wanted to wear a black tulle ball gown, I wanted a sit down dinner with everyone and lots of music and dancing. I made so many concessions for our wedding because of budget and time.
We had planned to get married in July on a day that is really important to us, but nothing was working out. So we ended up changing our date to May of the same year because it seemed like the only way things were going to work out which meant that a bunch of people who'd RSVP'd were unable to come. Most of my husband's family wasn't able to be there which was a huge bummer, and some of my out of town family wasn't able to get time off work or change travel plans.
At the time we were engaged I was sleeping on the floor of my mom's room in a two bedroom apartment that we shared with my two brothers and my dad. There was not enough space for all of us, and I wasn't making enough money to move out on my own. My husband and I both come from very religious families so moving in together before marriage was out of the question. We knew we'd get married eventually so we figured why not now. That way I could get out of the cramped apartment. (Plus there was a lot of stress with my dad, and I was on my way out of my religion which was causing more contention at home). Which is why we moved the date up rather than back.
My mom and my aunts basically DIY'd our whole reception which was AMAZING. We had a short and sweet ceremony on the beach near where we live, and had a short open-house type reception at a community center near by. There was no dinner, no dancing, and it was only a couple of hours long.
I need to preface the rest of this by saying I'm suuuper grateful for the wedding we had! Our families put so much work and effort to make sure we had a nice celebration that was affordable. We had a really fun time celebrating and taking photos during and after the event. I have really fond memories of the day and I love looking through our pictures of the day and remembering how exciting and fun it was.
Now I need to explain where I'm coming from.
Even though the community center worked great for the type of reception we did, it just didn't look that nice and I was pretty bummed out that that's all we could afford.
The food consisted of appetizers and cake. We never ate any food because we were running around saying hi to everyone and thanking them for driving the 1.5 hours to the coast to celebrate with us. The only cake I ate was the tiny slice we cut and then was shoved in my face. We had bought 3 cakes for everyone to eat and the smallest one which was 8" was sent home with us because everyone thought we wanted it for our 1st anniversary. It was a spice cake which cream cheese frosting that we ordered because some of our family really loves spice cake. So it never got communicated that we didnt want to take the whole cake home, but that we wanted our guests to eat it.
The dress was an issue. Like I mentioned before, I really wanted a black tulle ballgown. Everyone one in my family hated the idea and said I would regret wearing black when I saw my wedding photos. (And the photos were the only thing we splurged on so I didn't want to regret those). They also said a ball gown wouldn't make sense for the beach so I should go with something else. My mom and dad wanted me to be modest so I tried to find a dress with short sleeves that would be comfortable to wear in 80° weather on the beach. I was really loving the off the shoulder and sleeveless dresses and at the time they had more details I was looking for. I hated white, and I wanted to go for ivory instead as a compromise but I was told that a bride shouldn't wear anything other than pure white. So I felt super stuck, and ended up feeling super confused and frustrated. I bought a $200 dress online that was pure white, but had tulle cap sleeves. Which was also a house disappointment because I had always wanted to go try on dresses with my mom and grandma and best friend. But because of the timing of the wedding, it wasn't possible and there was nothing we could afford in stores. The dress I bought ended up being too big in the bust and too tight in the hips so we took it for alterations. Seamstress was able to alter the bust so it fit properly, but the hips didn't have enough seam allowance to be taken out at all. So on the day of the wedding I couldn't even sit or go to the bathroom. I will say the dress did look really beautiful and I love my pictures, but everytime I think about it I'm just frustrated that I allowed so much control over what I wore. I wasn't comfortable in the dress or how I looked because I hate wearing whitr and the previously mentioned sitting/bathroom issues.
I had originally wanted my makeup done professionally by a woman I worked weddings with, but when we had to move our date up she had another wedding already booked. So instead I did some lessons with her and did my own makeup the day of.
My family knew about all of the concessions we were making for the wedding and everyone said that in the future we should do a re-do and throw the wedding we wanted originally.
So we planned to do this for our 10 year anniversary which will be next year.
Now, we're in the midst of planning. We've seen so many venues, I've gotten so many quotes for services, and everything is so expensive that my husband is scared off of doing the big wedding I wanted. We've had to cut our guest list, and we're back on track to DIYing a bunch of stuff. The other day we were talking and I felt the way I did when we were getting married originally. Like I'm making all of these concessions for other people and because of money. We've saved money for a while and if we threw the wedding we want, we'd blow through our savings. I'm just feeling frustrated and I don't want to wait another 5 or 10 years to do this. Prices will still be going up and I'm thinking we'll just never be in a place to afford the wedding I had envisioned.
I really wanted this re-do to be a celebration of our relationship as well as a thank you to our friends and family for the support and all the work they did for our wedding. I don't want to ask them for help because I just want them to enjoy the event and not stress. But I'm also feeling conflicted because I want to enjoy the event with my husband rather than running around to make sure things run smoothly. We can't afford a wedding coordinator, DJ, or catering staff, we'll be doing a lot of the work ourselves.
It's looking like we're back to engaged and cutting our guest list as well as DIYing decor and probably running the whole event.
My husband doesn't want to spend $10,000 on the event anymore which is what we had discussed and agreed on. But he also hasn't come up with a new budget and everytime I suggest a number he says no, or says nothing. So I feel stuck. I don't even know where to start looking for a venue. I don't think this is going to happen anymore and I'm feeling really upset. I feel stupid that I care so much about this dumb party, and I feel like an ungrateful brat even though my family hasn't said anything about it and they support the re-do.
I guess I'm just looking for comfort, or perspective. Do I need to reevaluate my feelings on this? Should I just let it go and put the money toward something else like investing or something? I have no idea..

Throwaway for above reason.
A few months ago, I took a new job with a new retail store opening in my area and was hired on as a third key. Everything started out ok when the schedule was 8-4 M-F, however, after the store actually opened and the schedule changed to opening/closing and weekend shifts - all of a sudden there was an issue with the assistant manager wanting to close.
For background information, I am a single, mid-20s single woman without children. The assistant manager came to me one afternoon asking to switch her one closing shift the upcoming week with my opening shift that day because closing shifts “make her tired” and she also referenced the fact that she is a mother, and that she needs to “get home to get kid, otherwise her husband has to take off work.”
I refused to switch shifts with her and honestly made up a reason as to why I couldn’t, even though I shouldn’t have felt like I needed to. I then went and reported this to the store manager, because she also disclosed to me that she claimed that she was told in her interview she would “never have to take a closing shift.” I presented this to the store manager and basically told him he needed to handle it, because I felt uncomfortable to have someone in a supervisor position come to me and ask me in a pressuring way to switch shifts.
The store manager was perfectly understandable of this, and he did speak to the assistant manager about it. However, she quickly figured out who spoke to him about it as I was the only one she had asked to switch shifts with. This then started some pretty extreme retaliation.
Despite being told not to talk to me one on one, the next day after being spoken to by the store manager, the assistant manager approached me and asked to speak privately in the office, without a witness. She approached me somewhat aggressively, and I had an uncomfortable feeling about this conversation. I agreed to talk to her there, however, on the way, I began recording the conversation on my phone. I live in a one-party recording state.
During this conversation, the assistant manager started the conversation by asking multiple times if “we can just keep this conversation a total secret, just between you and me” and then violated open door policy by telling me that I was incorrect to go to the store manager, that she “didn’t mean anything by asking to switch shifts” and if I was uncomfortable, I should have come and talked to her instead of going to my direct supervisor (the store manager). During the course of the conversation, I counted over 4 times that she said “next time don’t talk to SM name, just come talk to me” and told me I should be understanding to the fact that “she’s a mother” and why she wouldn’t want to close. It was a very uncomfortable and unprofessional conversation overall.
I of course reported this almost immediately to the store manager and showed him the recording. He agreed this was fully out of line and spoke to the assistant manager again asking why she approached me when specifically told not to. Not knowing the conversation was recorded, the assistant manager proceeded to lie and say she just “wanted to smooth things over” and made up a completely different narrative that what actually happened. She outright denied ever telling me I could not report anything to the store manager.
After this is when the retaliation started to come out in full swing. One of my job responsibilities is to visually merchandise the store. The next day when I came in for my shift, the assistant manager was tearing down and completely resetting a floor set I had just done the day prior. I asked very plainly “what are you doing?” And she immediately told me “I am not going to deal with your attitude today and I will send you home right now.” This was 20 minutes after I arrived for an 8 hour shift.
I walked away and went to the back office and interrupted the store manager who was in a district zoom meeting at the time and let him know the assistant manager was threatening to send me home. He left the meeting and then proceeded to “mediate” on the sales floor the rest of the day, as the assistant manager did not act out of pocket when under the direct supervision of the store manager.
Another notable incident was an act of attempted physical violence before the assistant manager was fired. I was in the back stock room with the inventory manager when the assistant manager, who was pushing a large rack on wheels of very heavy merchandise (I can’t be too specific as to what the merchandise was as I’m scared it may give away where I work, but this rack would have weighed 350+ lbs easily) burst through the back stock room swinging doors without warning into my direct path. I jumped out of the way with mere seconds to spare or I would have been run over and definitely injured at the speed she was going and yelled out “excuse me!” To try and illicit a response, just in case she did not see me there.
I got no response. No apology, no excuse me, just dead pan silence as she then stared at me as she went by. It felt VERY intentional. She even dropped off the merchandise at the back of the room, turned around and walked out without ever saying a word to me. The inventory manager even rushed over to me and asked if I was alright because she could see how aggressive it was.
The next incident involved the assistant manager threatening insubordination against me, and this is when I felt like she was using language to try and write me up for something. Over the weekend, the store manager (and NOT the assistant manager) completed a new visual set as directed by corporate. Since I was not present for it, I have been previously instructed by the store manager that if I feel there is a better option to fit the set to the corporate visual standard, I have the full power to make those changes behind him. This is because he prefers to set the floor set from the beginning himself and then let me go behind and tweak his work to “make it perfect.”
Since I was previously instructed to do this, when I came into work after the set had been changed, I then proceeded to “tweak” it. My honest contributions were changing the pants on one mannequin, swapping a necklace on another mannequin, and setting a hat shelf for a group of hats that were not set on the floor at all. While setting the hats, I was told that I immediately needed to stop what I was doing because “this floor set has already been set, so you changing it right now is insubordination.” I am smart enough to recognize when she adopted new vocabulary often seen in write ups that she was probably working on one. It was at this point I finally decided enough was enough, and I called HR.
The HR rep was very understanding and listened to my complaints. I do realize HR is there to protect the company more than anything, but with the hostile work environment she was creating I felt like she was a big liability to have on their hands. I complained about hostile work environment, retaliation, harassment, and discrimination because I was made to feel as if I should close because I’m childless. She told me she would investigate my claims and then report back.
To make a long story short, my suspicions were correct and the assistant manager has created an entire write up for my “attitude”that conveniently started the day after I told the store manager about the “private” conversation she had with me in the managers office. It took about a week from when I reported it, but HR did fire her for retaliation. I did not find out about the write up she had written until after she was fired.
There were a couple incidents in the week when HR was investigating her like her calling the district manager because I took our register money to the bank to get change as instructed by the store manager. She skipped calling the store manager entirely and just went straight to the district manager and attempted to make it seem as if I was stealing. The other incident involved her yelling in my face loudly at the register in front of multiple customers and calling me a liar because I corrected her on a work policy.
Once she was fired, she immediately started calling my personal cell phone multiple times. I did not answer. She then sent me a string of multiple threatening texts messages and also tried to say that my recording of our conversation was illegal (again, we live in a one-party recording state). She had a printed out copy of the law and I think is honestly dense enough to not understand that I am the one party to the recorded conversation, therefore making the recording not illegal. I told her to never text me again, and she then proceeded to get violent and threaten to fight me if I ever saw her again and call me multiple curse words. I decided to block her number, hoping that she’d move on.
The HR rep called to tell me they had “closed their investigation” and I’d be notified of the findings on my next shift, however I told the rep that I knew she was fired because she was calling me and sending me threatening text messages. IMO, the rep started to act indifferent and told me to “report it to my local authorities if I felt uncomfortable”
Now, over the past two weeks there has been an anonymous number calling the store asking to speak with me. I have yet to pick up one of these calls, however one of my coworkers did tell the person the first time that I was there. They asked to speak with me, and then when put on hold they immediately hung up. I was nervous she may try to show up, but nothing happened that I know of that night. I chalked it up to maybe it was just an actual customer.
However, today an anonymous number called again asking to speak with someone with my first name. We have two people who work there with my first name, so when my coworker asked “which one?” The anonymous caller immediately said my last name and described my physical features to a T. My coworker told the caller I wasn’t working that day, and they asked when I would return. She told them she doesn’t know the schedule so she can’t say, and then the caller hung up.
I have NEVER shared my last name with a customer, EVER and anyone who knows me well enough to know that information would just call my cell phone and definitely not from a blocked number. I have a strong suspicion this is her, although I’m extremely nervous as to why she would keep calling after it’s been weeks since she’s been fired.
What can I do to protect myself? Am I entitled to protection from my employer given the circumstances around her termination? Does this qualify for some kind of protective order? I genuinely do not feel safe going to work right now. I do not feel like I’ve been protected enough. I understand times are hard and the job market is tough, but she put herself in a position to be fired. The state of the economy makes me nervous that she may feel as if she doesn’t have anything to lose now.
TLDR: my assistant manager was fired for retaliation against me and is now threatening me and has physically harassed me in the past and is probably calling under a blocked number to get my work schedule.

My ex-fiance (38M), we'll call him John and I (30F) met 8 years ago. We both came into the relationship with kids from previous marriages but did our best to blend our family. I thought I knew what love was before him but he taught me what love really was. You know, that kind of love that when you think about it your heart hurts but in the best way possible. During the few years we were together we had broken up and gotten back together twice, but every time we came back stronger than before. During that time we got engaged, and even though we had our issues we were happy. When we hit our 7 year anniversary I thought this was it. We had made it through deaths of those close to us, medical issues, issues with family and COVID. If we could make it past all of that, past the 7 year itch it we were meant to last.
During those 7 years I had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder on top of my already crippling depression and anxiety, and God bless him for sticking it out with me while I was adjusting to all of those medications. I know I was an absolute mess during that time. But January of 2023 I started having a lot of strange symptoms that caused me to spiral. I eventually made a doctors appt and was referred to Neurology for possible MS. After a negative MRI I was referred to Pulmonology for a sleep study for Narcolepsy which I thought for sure was a waste of time and money, but I'd do whatever I needed to do to find out what the hell was wrong. Everything had caused us to fight more than we had in years and I was ready to get back to our normal. Unfortunately I had to wean myself off of all my medications for the sleep study which was by far the hardest month, but eventually got diagnosed and sure as shit I have Narcolepsy.
My medical team and I decided it best to stay off of my medications until we found a narcoleptic medication that would work. Through all of this I tried my hardest to let him know how I was feeling so we could at least know that there would be light at the end of the tunnel at some point. After months of trying new medications and dealing with the absolutely horrible side effects I found a medicine that seemed to be working. Because it can cause adverse reactions to just about everything, they didn't think that getting back on my other medications would be safe. (I have to check every OTC medicine I take with the manufacture to make sure it won't cause any issues, which I follow religiously since taking an antibiotic sent me to the ER already).
We hit a wall in September and decided therapy would be our last ditch effort to make our relationship work, the fighting had gotten so bad that we didn't know if we could keep going the way we were. We made it 2 sessions in before we had a huge blowout and both said we just needed to call it quits. It took me about a week before it sunk in and then it hit my like a freight train. I went from being sad to spending most of the day in tears and sobbing myself to sleep. During that time he moved into the guest room and I stayed in our bedroom to give us some distance until I could move out. He went on a trip to think and get away while I was in that house reliving every good memory we had had there. After he got back I broke down and begged him to work things out, I knew I loved him and didn't want to think of my life without him. I had gotten to the point that I had planned to end my life because a life without him wasn't one I wanted. So fucking selfish on my part because I'd be leaving my kids without a mom. He kept saying that we couldn't make it work and we just needed to move on. As hard as it was, I tried to accept it and shut myself off emotionally to get through it.
I eventually was able to find an apartment that would keep my kids in their schools and with their friends. My moving date was mid-November and I slowly started packing, getting rid of things I couldn't take with me since I needed to downsize and buying the necessities to start over. The night before my move he told me he wanted to work things out and not to leave. All I remember was being so damn angry that he waited until everything was paid for, rented and packed. As much as I still loved him I knew I needed to leave. We decided that we would try and see if we could work things out living apart, maybe that was what we needed. Some space to just get our heads in order. It didn't last long. I was so angry that he would wait until I was out the door to decide he wanted to work things out. After I had spent weeks begging him to work things out. I just couldn't see past my own anger, I wasn't ready to forgive him.
Around mid-January 2024 we started talking again and even though I knew I wasn't in a good headspace I decided to try and work things out due to his insistence. During that time he re-proposed but I just couldn't feel the same as I did before. I knew that I loved him, through it all I never stopped and said he was the love of my life and would be until the end. Despite that it lasted until the last week of February. I drove to his house with the ring in it's box and told him I just couldn't do it. I knew that I had broken him, but I couldn't see it working. As hard as I tried I couldn't picture us, even my own future. I was just so lost.
A couple of weeks later it clicked that everything I had been going through was my bi-polar rearing it's head, unmedicated and in full force. I was so erratic, going through the worst manics I had experienced, the depression and anxiety had gotten almost unbearable and the thoughts of suicide had gotten so bad that I didn't think I'd make it. I had pushed everyone I loved away and isolated myself from the world. I felt numb inside. Despite the risks I went in and got back on the medication I needed so fucking badly to survive.
During that time John and I started talking and seeing each other. I hadn't told anyone else about getting back on my medications and he had been there when I started them the first time. So who would be better at helping me through it than him? I made it abundantly clear that I wasn't ready for anything. I needed to work on my mental health and get to a good place before I could give to anyone. But if he was still around by the time I was in that good place mentally and he still wanted me, I would be all in. We would set a date and get married. No more dating, being engaged for years again, it would be marriage and till death do we part. Throughout that time he assured me that if he was still around and wasn't seeing anyone by then he would be all in as well. We both loved each other more than anything, I just needed to be ok.
During one of our conversations I told him I was close to being better but I wasn't 100% there yet, but he was the one. When he told me that I didn't need to be perfect, because my mental health would never be perfectly in check. I knew I was well enough that I could say that I was ready to be with the love of my life. I finally started to feel again, like everything I stopped feeling had been held behind a wall and it just came crashing down, flooding me with every last emotion I had suppressed. I told him I was sure and ready to move towards our forever. Once I did it was like a switch had flipped. He said he wasn't sure that I really knew what I wanted and that he needed time to figure things out before he could give me a solid answer. That was almost a month ago. We still talk and see each other but he says he is still trying to figure out if he can be sure that I'm all in.
I refuse to beg him to be with me, I've done it before and won't to do it again. I know I love him more than anything. I still get butterflies when I see him and my heart hurts so damn much when I think about how much I love him. I keep telling myself that he's going through a lot, and needs time and I need to be patient. But part of me feels like he's punishing me for breaking his heart in February. I'm at a loss. I'm hurt that after all of this time and all of those conversations we're in this state of limbo. Do I wait and hope that he eventually figures out whatever he needs to figure out or do I just give him space and cut off the daily communication and hope that one day he'll tell me that he wants to move forward?

I didn’t get in the first go around. Currently on 3 WLs so maybe they’ll change but it’s mid May and nothing yet so I’m not going to hold my breath.
Working on a reapplication and I was just talking things through with my mom and she is discouraging me from medical school, but not in the nice way. In the way of “you are too dumb”. Since I got my mcat score back, my mom has been on my back about retaking. I got a 514. Not the greatest score but not bad by any means.
Her reasoning is that 514 is too low for Asians. She is super big on that I need a 520+ in order to be comparable to other Asian kids. I told her I wanted to apply to this school that has a 514 and she screamed that I am wasting so much money on these unreasonable dreams.
She wants me to go to a DO school, but not for normal reasons of becoming a doctor. It’s so that she can tell people she has a doctor for a daughter (and by extension she is great for raising a doctor), but in the home she can belittle me for not being a “real doctor”. She believes DO doctors are less qualified than MD doctors which isn’t true. I’ve seen it first hand working at a top family medicine residency clinic and there is no difference in the abilities of the MD docs and DO docs.
Having parents who are unsupportive is just so draining. What sucks is that med schools make so many assumptions, and one of them is that you have a loving and supportive family and want to live as close as possible. No I want to go far from them. Phone calls are wayyy more than enough for me, even that gets frustrating because of how belittling they are (mostly my mom, my dad is emotionally absent).
Anyone else have unsupportive parent stories?

Boyfriend since HS hasn’t proposed
Like the title says… I 24F and boyfriend 25M have been together since we were 16. Broke up for a year during COVID and got back together in 2021. 8 years total.
In 2021, he moved into my small studio apartment. This was fine, as you do what you can for the people you love. After my lease was up, we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment together and have lived together ever since.
We have a really nice, healthy relationship. No fighting, no drama, no toxicity.
However, he doesn’t really do the things that a boyfriend would do, and sometimes I feel like a roommate lol.
Since living together, we don’t go on dates, unless initiated by me, he doesn’t get me flowers, or surprise me with things. I’ve talked to him about it, and he says he understands, but nothing changes. Essentially, it’s feels like there is no initiation on his end to build intimacy between the two of us.
Sometimes, I feel bad for asking for these things since we have a good overall relationship, but every woman wants to feel loved, heard, desired and thought of when they’re not around.
For the past year, I have been probing the idea of marriage and where he falls on the idea. Originally, he wasn’t thinking about marriage and it was the last thing on his mind, (I assume due to his childhood/family life) but I have brought it up enough to where he knows this something I expect to move toward in our relationship. We have had plenty of conversations about it, and it’s is very clear this is a non-negotiable for me.
The last time we spoke about it he said, 2 years is his time frame. While I am not one to force anyone to want to marry me, this seems like an unreasonable amount of time considering how long we have been together as adults. I rebuttled with 1year, when our lease is up.
I feel like a placeholder. It just isn’t something that seems to be a priority to him, and if he won’t deliver on little things like dates or flowers, how can I expect more of a gesture from him like proposing?
He says that he wants to have enough money to give me the life I deserve, while this is a sweet thought, how long will that be ? 2, 3, 4 years? While financial stability is everyone’s goal, does love and commitment not super-cede this? We have been regular, full-time hourly employees for the entirety of living together, so I understand the strain of wanting/needing more money, but I am not asking for a super expensive ring or a super lavish wedding just an engagement with some kind of commitment.
I feel selfish for saying that I am not keen to wait any longer for him to fully commit to me, and I really don’t believe in ultimatums. However, at this point, I am unsure if I am being unfair and impatient.
To add to it, I became pregnant last month, and decided against keeping it. I would like to be married first and have myself in order before bringing a child in this world. After the MA process, I feel less sad about the pregnancy and more so have been reconsidering the status/pace of our relationship.
Any ideas on why he hasn’t proposed? Am I unreasonable and selfish? Am I just a placeholder?
TL;DR - boyfriend since high school, living together (as adults for 3 years) hasn’t proposed, and doesn’t do much to keep the intimacy of our relationship (dates, flowers, surprises, etc) he says 2 years before he will propose, but how long do I wait for an engagement before calling it quits?

Boyfriend since HS hasn’t proposed
Like the title says… I 24F and boyfriend 25M have been together since we were 16. Broke up for a year during COVID and got back together in 2021. 8 years total.
In 2021, he moved into my small studio apartment. This was fine, as you do what you can for the people you love. After my lease was up, we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment together and have lived together ever since.
We have a really nice, healthy relationship. No fighting, no drama, no toxicity.
However, he doesn’t really do the things that a boyfriend would do, and sometimes I feel like a roommate lol.
Since living together, we don’t go on dates, unless initiated by me, he doesn’t get me flowers, or surprise me with things. I’ve talked to him about it, and he says he understands, but nothing changes. Essentially, it’s feels like there is no initiation on his end to build intimacy between the two of us.
Sometimes, I feel bad for asking for these things since we have a good overall relationship, but every woman wants to feel loved, heard, desired and thought of when they’re not around.
For the past year, I have been probing the idea of marriage and where he falls on the idea. Originally, he wasn’t thinking about marriage and it was the last thing on his mind, (I assume due to his childhood/family life) but I have brought it up enough to where he knows this something I expect to move toward in our relationship. We have had plenty of conversations about it, and it’s is very clear this is a non-negotiable for me.
The last time we spoke about it he said, 2 years is his time frame. While I am not one to force anyone to want to marry me, this seems like an unreasonable amount of time considering how long we have been together as adults. I rebuttled with 1year, when our lease is up.
I feel like a placeholder. It just isn’t something that seems to be a priority to him, and if he won’t deliver on little things like dates or flowers, how can I expect more of a gesture from him like proposing?
He says that he wants to have enough money to give me the life I deserve, while this is a sweet thought, how long will that be ? 2, 3, 4 years? While financial stability is everyone’s goal, does love and commitment not super-cede this? We have been regular, full-time hourly employees for the entirety of living together, so I understand the strain of wanting/needing more money, but I am not asking for a super expensive ring or a super lavish wedding just an engagement with some kind of commitment.
I feel selfish for saying that I am not keen to wait any longer for him to fully commit to me, and I really don’t believe in ultimatums. However, at this point, I am unsure if I am being unfair and impatient.
To add to it, I became pregnant last month, and decided against keeping it. I would like to be married first and have myself in order before bringing a child in this world. After the MA process, I feel less sad about the pregnancy and more so have been reconsidering the status/pace of our relationship.
Any ideas on why he hasn’t proposed? Am I unreasonable and selfish? Am I just a placeholder?
TL;DR - boyfriend since high school, living together (as adults for 3 years) hasn’t proposed, and doesn’t do much to keep the intimacy of our relationship (dates, flowers, surprises, etc) he says 2 years before he will propose, but how long do I wait for an engagement before calling it quits?

January 29, 2384 - the day of the last total eclipse is when the raid began. “The day of the sun's false shadow” as people call it now. We, humans, were an unsuspecting victims in a universe habited by multiple vastly stronger existences. When it happened the world had been thrown into utter chaos and shock. The sun had been completely covered by the moon and this event was supposed to last only a short while however after two hours sunlight had still not shown its face upon the earth's surface. This was the beginning of humanity's greatest tribulation. After days of the sun's light not being shown the planet's temperature began to drop and to compensate for this people began to create massive fires but this did not stop the problem. Photosynthesis in plants began to stop, making it harder for humans to breathe. This made humans build labs and create artificial oxygen, which took care of that problem but humans still began to die from hypothermia, frozen oceans, and forced stoppage of blood flow. After two weeks, the sun finally revealed itself and all hope had been restored in humanity collectively only for half the population to be massacred in an instant. “The watchers” had been slowly waiting with armies to colonize our planet and technology beyond our wild comprehension. Technology we can only dream of had been shown and used right before our very eyes and for the first time in all of human history, we had been united as one in our mutual fear and horror. 2 months later, 90% of humanity has been wiped out and the few who remained were used as slaves to cultivate energy. With the use of a Dyson shell, nearly 80% of the sun's energy and heat had been directed into maintaining their energy. Amongst all this time, humanity had collectively agreed to fight back. This began the creation of the liberation group, “the Plague”. These groups of people were the last hope of humanity and carried an extremely large ambition and dream on their shoulders. While “the watchers” were extremely advanced this doesn't change the fact that they were fallible and this group of people were their scourge. They didn't have the military might nor the advanced brain to even keep up against “the watchers” but through slavery and forced labor, the human body began to develop into something stronger. They began to surpass their limits and break the barriers that the human mind had once placed on themselves. Through the selective farming of “the watchers” a new plant had developed that was essentially a stimulant to the human body and a limit breaker for their physical capabilities. At first, they began by using strong levels of acid to corrode the buildings and structures and then stopping their heartbeat to give the impression of suicide so they could not be caught, however, they did not die due to a new system developed from the human's newfound evolution. Due to the strict regimen that we had to follow, we knew all of the places where they would and wouldn't be, all the blind spots of the planet, all the places where they were in close proximity to a chasm, and all the places where we were at a disadvantage. We used the blindspots as bases and hideouts where we could plan our vengeance. After a year of just observing their behavior, habits, bodily functions, and even their schedules we developed a hypothesis that 24 seconds after 7:39 PM we have approximately 19 minutes and 53 seconds in Greenland where we are not being watched nor located. We used this small window of time to gather the fundamental items we needed to fight back and build the foundation for our organization. We gathered food, plants, water, armor, and weapons. We realized that they were immune to cutting/slicing damage and could only be hurt through blunt attacks. With this knowledge, we developed a specific fighting style and used that small time frame to train others in it. We adapted to the harsh conditions and created clothes using spare pieces from “the watchers” specially made for insulating heat, weighing less, and being less penetrable by outside attacks. After a year every person on the planet was a master at this martial arts and had fully developed a counter to all technology that “the watchers” had. However, we could not initiate immediate war on them so we needed a plan. We came up with the idea to have one of our strongest members report to the watchers about our activity and give away one of our bases. This created the false notion that not only did they have someone working as a double agent on their side but also they knew where we would be so they could catch us off guard. We were all there like they expected and they attacked like planned. We had all moved our weapons, armor, and vital items into a different base but kept some things where they attacked to make them think we had not gotten far but this was a dud. Eventually, we had all “died” and had our bodies left at that place as a sign of victory on their side. However, because of this, their ego had grown and they began to underestimate us. The surveillance had gotten weaker as they assumed their “double agent” would tell them everything as a trade for luxury living. We knew that physical power would not be enough so our smartest man collaborated to develop a virus specifically made for their genetic makeup which took about 5 years to extract small strands of DNA without them realizing. Once the virus had been created the incidence began and eliminated more than 60 percent of “the watchers” because of how they were too distracted trying to develop a cure and the vast amount of them dying, we had gained more time to develop our forces and we began to ingest various harmful substances but in small doses in order to gain resistance to any harmful poisons and acids. After new children start to be born this began the origin of a new human species. One massively stronger, smarter, more durable, and with all the immunities and benefits without the downsides. With the birth of this new generation, all of the human race had experienced a collective euphoria. We had begun to secretly train these kids for years and strengthen them in a way the human race had never been before. Due to the circumstances of their birth, they had also developed a strong ability for adaptation and healing factor which ultimately led to humans finally being able to physically compete with “the watchers”. However, we were still lacking in numbers despite the virus taking a vast majority of “the watchers” away. Some of us grew confident and because we were now physically capable some believed we could win the war while others believed we couldn’t yet. This created division within our ranks but did not necessarily break our ranks but that was all depending on your interpretation. We gathered our smartest men and women to make a plan to initiate war, and for 14 days they were stuck in ruminative thought. 2 years passed and we had finally built up the numbers, technology, and physical capabilities to contend with the watchers. Now on the day of the war, all of our strongest soldiers imitated the attack. But this time they were an unsuspecting victim on a planet habited by a stronger species. During the war we had counters for nearly everything the watchers could dish out but one thing we were not aware of was the fact that the watchers could transform into a smaller but faster, stronger, and more durable form. This form took the shape of humankind. So closely related that it struck fear into the hearts of many. Not only was this extremely off-putting but the revelation that came along with it had altered the perception of humanity as we know it. The war had been put to a halt, and all forced fighting in the war had directed their attention to one watcher and one watcher alone. All forces had been completely immobilized and fighting back was no longer capable. With this, the words that had been spoken out of the watcher were a revelation that humanity had not even considered possible. “We are not your enemies. We are you but from the future. In our original timeline, we have been attacked by a species even higher than us. We had been pushed to the brink of extinction and our last hope was only to go back in time in hopes that if we returned to our past selves we could help evolve even more to contend with the world-ending threats from the future. This siege we had laid on this planet and the forced evolution, progression, and tragedy among humankind also brought extreme progression in human capabilities. All of you are vastly superior to your previous forms because of our arrival. While we acknowledge our methods were not the ideal we had no other option. This was the fastest and most effective method to progress the human species although we could not allow the human race to have this win. It would boost the ego of your race and our all of you in a state of comfort and stagnation. With this being said we resign from our participation in this war and would greatly appreciate it if you allowed us to help humanity rebuild and donate technology.” Speechless as to what humanity has just heard we just stood there in utter shock and disbelief. Not a single soul knew what to say and all of humanity had stood in confusion. One man spoke “how do we know this is true” the watcher proceeded to show pictures and videos of them being massacred while some stood in human form and others did not. They showed is this along with the words, “we initiated this war as a way to put the human race through natural selection and eliminate all the weak human being who would not be able to contribute to our growth and success in any upcoming battle. So with that being said what is your decision?” Our leader, and the smartest woman among us had stated, “We humbly decline this offer as we would prefer to evolve by our capabilities and we have already surpassed you so what can you possibly teach us.” After this being stated the war had been started again and the watchers had been for the first time since the “great cleansing” began utterly defeated and annihilated. With the war being won, humanity being victorious, and newfound abilities being discovered humanity had been thrown into an era of peace and prosperity. All tragedies had been blamed on the watchers and for the first time humanity had an ever lasting peace and a perfect utopia where everyone agreed and benefited from each other. With this, we have been vastly improving and slowly but steadily rebuilding our planet and all of humankind. Our members started family’s and genuinely enjoyed the life they were living once again. Everyone acting coyly and with one another was a beautiful side to behold. Everything was perfect until the same monsters who killed the watchers, showed up to eliminate us due to fear of what we could evolve into this time we had no way to fight back and our ranks were already diminished or severely weakened. How would humanity be able to survive this time???Most people had been massacre and captures to be experimented on. Very few of us had actually managed to get away from them and we had only been able to do this through shadow banishment. It was a skill that we had acquired through the technology of the watchers. Living in the void was not the ideal lifestyle as it was ruthless, dirty, and unsafe but the chances of surviving here were massively higher than surviving on earth. Only a hundred of us remained and the human species were basically extinct. With this small group left we had resorted to instead of trying to repopulate and exact revenge immediately we would take the short route. In the void monsters had no sort of civilization and the only rule amongst these creatures were the strongest prevail. There was no sort of rule, order, or even a sense of respect between these monsters. The weak were prey for the strongest, and the strong were killed by the stronger. We took this as an opportunity to not only increase our strength by training and battling but also amassing an empire. The remind of humanity collectively agree that we would bring order and peace to the void. The best way to go through this was by entering the tournament. The monsters held tournaments to watch the strongest fight and kill each other for pure fun. We joined this colosseum and while at first we easily overwhelmed our opponents we had slowly been facing harder and harder opponents as we rose through the ranks. By the time even a single one of us was defeated we had made a name and gained the attention of multiple monsters within the void. We were not necessarily respected or followed but we were feared and simultaneously an opponent that monsters wished to fight. After this we had developed our own fighting ring in which monster could fight and battle against us and only us. We implied a set of rules in this ring. Rule 1; no killing Rule 2; reservations must be made to fight Rule 3; both parties must consent Rule 4; do not make the fight personal Rule 5; it must be between a human and monster. These rules created a sense of security amongst the monsters and while driven by their desire of battle they also abided by the rules. Eventually after fighting throughout the tournament and gaining more traction with the monsters in it. Eventually even the most high ranked demons had begun to make reservations in for our fights. Our strongest soldiers had been the ones to fight them as nobody else can really compete. The first fight had been with a demon who had the ability of immunity. This ability did not only revolve around internal status effects but also could be applied to his physical body. The fight had been the biggest one the ring had ever experienced and it did not disappoint. Eventually we had won and this through the whole entire void and everyone in it into an uproar. Monsters who never even bothered to fight had shown up to battle. The strongest monster in the void and the only monster with a sense of order, self, and purpose had shown up to fight all humans by himself. He agreed that if we win he would pledge allegiance to us all and work under our rule however if we lose we will be killed. This monster bore an extreme resemblance humans. The structure of his body and the contents of it were all human like however he claimed not to be. This monsters name was angel and he possessed the ability to manipulate and control all matter with the sole exception of any other organic material that resided outside of his own body. Our commander and strongest member amongst us was the person to fight him. His name was Alexander and despite the fact that we didn't have any singular special powers like him however our physical bodies were honed greater than any other species in existence. They were evenly matched in speed and strength and even in our capabilities to rapidly heal from damage. They had been evenly matched in all physical ability and the fight had ultimately come to hand to hand combat and who could last longer. Angel was unmatched in combat and had barely even been hit due to how experienced in martial arts he had been; however throughout the fight Alexander had been naturally adapting to his fighting style and developing counters to everything. Our natural ability to adapt to all attacks and effects placed upon us had given a clear win condition; however time was needed to actually see and fully understand how to possibly adapt to everything. The longer the fight took the higher the chance of Angel losing. Alexander had slowly but steadily been adapting and developing new combat styles to counter everything angle could do and even had grown to use his own severed limbs as projectiles and use his blood as a coat over all other objects to cancel his ability to use his field. Angel's main ability had been to control the air around him to increase speed, power, and even get a sense of what his opponent would be doing before it happened. After finally adapting to this his body had begun to heat itself in an attempt to turn it into vapor and due to blood being organic matter of another life form he would no longer have control of the air and the surrounding area. After this the fight had come down to solely base physical capabilities and for 10 minutes they had been mindlessly brawling and instantaneously healing through the damage taken. After a long period of time their healing began to slow down due to bodily fatigue. Biting, punching, scratching, kicking, anything you can think of, they did it. That fight was a bloodbath unlike anything else and in the end they both passed out on the floor with nothing left besides their bodies soaked and bathed in each other's blood. After they had both been knocked unconscious their bodies had been left there in anticipation for them to awaken. The ring filled beyond capacity as people argued and fought about who would awaken first. In anticipation for this once in a lifetime event the whole void had stopped with all its attention. Angel was the first to awaken and he had been exhausted and utterly stunned as to how he actually had gotten knocked out. He had the opportunity to kill his opponent as he had technically won the battle but out of respect for his opponents strength and capabilities he possessed. After the fight had finished Angel had left and was never to be seen again. After 2 weeks Alexander had awoken in a small shack being guarded by one other human and confused after everything had been explained to him he had went around looking for angel but he was not to be found. After awakening Alexander had been massively stronger than before. Due to the physical state his body was put in and all the damage that he had taken from Angel his body had adapted and become more dense in order to take all the attacks while sustaining the least amount of damage possible. After his awakening this began our political revolution. We had now implemented the ring with rules and gotten multiple monsters to follow by these rules and with them being accurate to filling orders more now we had decided to initiate a leadedictator in a sense. The top 5 strongest creatures in the void had been the leaders and this had consisted of Alexander at 1, 2 other demons at 2 and 3, and humans to fill the final spots. We began to implement laws and rules in order to stop the mass murder and destruction happening and within a small time frame we had created structures similar to the ones of the earth. Houses and gyms in order to train in hopes of becoming stronger and even professional combat sports. After 2 months time had passed we had developed a military with our best members in it and humbly had began to repopulate. All this had been done in hopes of regaining the earth and defeated our oppressors. Fast forward 1 months the and the siege of the home planet had begun. They had not been suspecting us however took the preparations in case we had come. Based and soldiers set up in every corner of the world to fight back when the time came we did come back. With this an all out war for the fate of humanity had began and the extinction of either race lay in the balance between life and death.
After the war had began all forces had been deployed to different areas of the planet. Groups that had worked together best being deployed to one part while our strongest being deployed to another. At first we had been nearly even in everything besides technology. They had everything that we lacked and this gave them the combative edge. However despite lacking in technology we made up for it in numbers. Most fights had consisted of large groups of monsters fighting against one or two of our enemy and this has convoluted till their forces had been somewhat deployed. The one on one fights had been more dragged out and heavily impacted the war. Our strongest soldiers fighting against their strongest soldiers in a one on one fight. Everyone has put their all into this battle and left nothing to spare. Our second and third strongest soldiers had the most impact in this war not because of who they fought but because of what they could do. They didn’t actually have abilities specific to them but instead they were born with a type of energy within their bodies in which they called “synergy”. This synergy could be used to amp all their physical abilities but also be used to crate and use techniques or even use techniques that are specific to the traits of the individuals soul. The strength and physical stats of the individual depended on how much synergy they had at their disposal and while some of them were able to gather strength from other life forms it was not a very common occurrence. Alexander fought someone with the ability to control and manipulate momentum. They used synergy and funneled it through all objects of their choice to increase or decrease of momentum of that. This didn’t do much on a wide scale and was a very basic ability but in a solo battle this made it extremely hard to land attacks and even when they were landed they did little to no damage. The most important one to kill had the ability to manipulate all probability. Meaning the likelihood of us even winning this war was less then .0001 percent with them being alive. Whether it was because of a collection of small losses or one major loss did not make a difference. All odds were stacked against us as long as this person remained on the battlefield. In simple terms the whole war relied on the defeat of that person. Our second in command and smartest soldier, “Cassandra” decided to take this upon herself. She was the only one among us who possessed an innate ability and was viewed as the most special soldier but this came at a cost. She gained a talent no other human possessed but in return she no longer had the natural ability to adapt to all circumstances. Her ability was to take the form and attributes of any and all creature she knew to exist. Mythical or not she could take the shape and ability of these creatures and use it as long as she desired. However she could only use one at a time and had to wait 30 seconds in between shifting. Our third in command, “Vladimir” had took the roll of fighting their head technologist. While his opponent had not specialized in battle he still was one of the most dangerous and this was because of his ability to create machines as small as molecular level that shared his thoughts and emotions. These machines were used to repair his body in case on injury, transport information, invade any opponents body and restrict movement, anything that he deemed possible could be done with the use of those machines. But he chose to mainly use them as sort of technological tools to help him further advance his society. The rest of our battles were not nearly as important and were mostly group battles. Afro the beginning portion of Alexander’s fight he had been losing severely and could barely land any attacks at all. After a few minutes of getting beat down and not being able to fight back the adaptation process began. The first adaptation was only a temporary solution to the problem but his body had been explosively shooting out sharpened pieces of his bones and even using tiny droplets of blood as weapons. However this was only a temporary solution because eventually those bones and blood just started being slowed also. The final adaptation and most effective one happened when his body created a function in which he can store kinetic energy and then release it at any given time. This allowed him to rapidly boost his speed whenever his momentum had been slowed and basically cancel out his opponent power. However this still did not stop how his opponent made himself significantly faster. After this the fight had been more tipped into Alexander’s favor but still not enough to actually win. Throughout the progression of the fight Alexander had been gathering more and make friction between the clothes he had and his feet running against the floor. After gathering as much friction and kinetic energy as possible he let it all explode and release all over his body. This altered the form of his body. His body and skin began to form cracks and let off steam. He began to turn dark red and his eyes became shot with blood. His body was slowly crumbling and deteriorating. He had 5 minutes left to defeat his opponent and if he did not then his body would crumble and he would die. Due to his rapid healing factor he had a chance of living if he was able to end the fight within 5 minutes and give himself some time to rest but this all depended on how much he could get done. The battle had been tilted all the way in Alexander’s favor and had no longer been a battle. It had turned into if his opponent could outlast him in those 5 minutes. Brutally beating his opponent and taking full advantage of the situation Alexander did not relent on his rampage. Stopping his momentum no longer mattered and it seemed like the more he tried the faster Alexander got. Steam had been blowing off him. In the end he had managed to kill his opponent within those 5 minutes and had been at deaths door. Cassandra had began her battle and had been absolutely obliterating her opponent. The ability to shape shift from dragons, unicorns, hydras, centaurs, and any mythical creature you can think of. At first she had taken the abilities of a dragon but throughout the fight she had been developing into stronger and more complex creatures. After a while her opponent had been decreasing the probability of her even landing attacks. This made it extremely hard for her to fight and maintain the advantage. She took the appearance and abilities of the mythical deity sun wukong. Due to sun wukong being a monkey that ascended into a higher power he is one of the only gods that she can transform into. After this she gained the ability to not only make clones out of every hair on her body but also multiply the power of each clone. While she does not possess every power sun wukong has she possesses some of them and the most prominent ones. This fight had been a one sided beatdown and only lasted longer than 2 minutes because the probability of each clone attacking each other had been raised to its maximum percentage. Despite this every 1000 punches that had been thrown at least 1 hit her opponent and this was more than he could handle from millions of clones. Vladimir had no special capabilities; he only possessed an extremely honed body and battle experience. At first they had been near equal but the battle began to take a turn when the tiny bugs began to infest his body and eat him from the inside. Due to his advanced healing factor he had been able to stop any significant damage and fight with mild discomfort but this did not change that if he continued in for a longer period of time then he would inevitably be defeated by these bugs and killed. This made the battle a race against time. Expending everything his body had to offer and leaving not a single drop of energy left. Pushing his body to the absolute peak and physical limit. Even going beyond the known capabilities of his body he began to evolve into a higher form. He did not develop any new type of power or gain a newfound power but he did increase and rapidly evolve his physical capabilities. He began to punch with such speed and strength that he created shockwaves from breaking the sound barrier. With this his punches became far more explosive and with every punch thrown he was exploding giant parts of his opponents body and everything within the perimeter. With no regard to his surroundings the battle had destroyed everything in sight and left them fighting in a bare wasteland. Basically erasing everything within line of his punches he began to annihilate his opponent with speed and strength unmatched. Due to all the tiny machines within his body he regrow limbs and was able to counter attack with near no fatigue or even lag in his action. While pushing his body to its absolute limit his body had given up on him. Rapidly healing from constant damage, pushing muscles to their utmost limit, moving, attacking at his highest speed, and even understanding/ perception of all attacks massively faster then he could ever before. Due to all this his body began to give out and in the midst of battle he fell and was unable to recover. No longer able to fight back and maintain the performance he had, he was defeated. Being eaten from the inside, limbs being torn from his body, and being damaged so much that not even his regeneration could keep up. His head had been ripped off his body and with this humanity had suffered its first major loss. After this all other forces began to gain support from all his other bugs and humanities forces had been rapidly depleting. With loss in sight humanity had lost hope and accepted defeat. Right when humanity had accepted defeat and all hope had been lost the king had shown himself once again. Like an Angel coming to bless all of humanity he had run through and obliterated all enemies of humanity. Destroying everything in sight and bringing all enemies to his feet he had saved humanity and restored hope and just like that he had disappeared into the void once again. There was no explanation as to how or why but in that moment all of humanity knew who we would be forever grateful and indebted to. Not many opponents had been left standing but the few who were, were extremely weakened and overwhelmed by numbers. After this decisive battle humanity had been in a state of joy and excitement out of their new victory. Once all the excitement and happiness from winning had worn off all the sorrow and remorse from the losses had come rushing in. All the lost family members, dead soldiers, limbs lost, and mental trauma had taken a toll on humanity. After we had gotten our planet back we did not spend our time rebuilding and trying to repopulate. We spent months mourning the loss of our loved ones and all our soldiers. We laid in depression and sorrow for our mutual loss and mental trauma. This brought humanity closer as a whole and we bonded over our suffering. Humanity had been one but at what cost. After years of processing humanity had finally been able to rebuild all of our structures, population, and even expand to different planets. After all these trials and tribulations we had finally evolved completely and after ages of loss we had finally entered a golden age of humanity. After all this we had begun to explore the deep parts of our planet and while exploring we discovered something far beyond our comprehension. Humanity had only been a small part of a vastly bigger world and a whole new world had now been exposed to us. We had breached through the ice caps of the north pole and had been greeted with hostility from a race on our planet we did not even know existed. After entering this “new world” humanity had found out the truth of our existence and creation. After finding out the truth of our creation and the prophecy of our faith we had all collectively regretted winning that war. Beyond our world laid horrors and truths we were not yet prepared for. After all this we had once again been thrown into a dark age with no will to fight. In the end this was the beginning of the end for humanity…

Boyfriend since HS hasn’t proposed
Like the title says… I 24F and boyfriend 25M have been together since we were 16. Broke up for a year during COVID and got back together in 2021. 8 years total.
In 2021, he moved into my small studio apartment. This was fine, as you do what you can for the people you love. After my lease was up, we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment together and have lived together ever since.
We have a really nice, healthy relationship. No fighting, no drama, no toxicity.
However, he doesn’t really do the things that a boyfriend would do, and sometimes I feel like a roommate lol.
Since living together, we don’t go on dates, unless initiated by me, he doesn’t get me flowers, or surprise me with things or even get us dinnecook. I’ve talked to him about it, and he says he understands, but nothing changes. Essentially, it’s feels like there is no initiation on his end to build intimacy between the two of us.
Sometimes, I feel bad for asking for these things since we have a good overall relationship, but every woman wants to feel loved, heard, desired and thought of when they’re not around.
For the past year, I have been probing the idea of marriage and where he falls on the idea. Originally, he wasn’t thinking about marriage and it was the last thing on his mind, (I assume due to his childhood/family life) but I have brought it up enough to where he knows this something I expect to move toward in our relationship. We have had plenty of conversations about it, and it’s is very clear this is a non-negotiable for me.
The last time we spoke about it he said, 2 years is his time frame. While I am not one to force anyone to want to marry me, this seems like an unreasonable amount of time considering how long we have been together as adults. I rebuttled with 1year, when our lease is up.
I feel like a placeholder. It just isn’t something that seems to be a priority to him, and if he won’t deliver on little things like dates or flowers, how can I expect more of a gesture from him like proposing?
He says that he wants to have enough money to give me the life I deserve, while this is a sweet thought, how long will that be ? 2, 3, 4 years? While financial stability is everyone’s goal, does love and commitment not super-cede this? We have been regular, full-time hourly employees for the entirety of living together, so I understand the strain of wanting/needing more money, but I am not asking for a super expensive ring or a super lavish wedding just an engagement with some kind of commitment.
I feel selfish for saying that I am not keen to wait any longer for him to fully commit to me, and I really don’t believe in ultimatums. However, at this point, I am unsure if I am being unfair and impatient.
To add to it, I became pregnant last month, and decided against keeping it. I would like to be married first and have myself in order before bringing a child in this world. After the MA process, I feel less sad about the pregnancy and more so have been reconsidering the status/pace of our relationship.
Any ideas on why he hasn’t proposed? Am I unreasonable and selfish? Am I just a placeholder?
TL;DR - boyfriend since high school, living together (as adults for 3 years) hasn’t proposed, and doesn’t do much to keep the intimacy of our relationship (dates, flowers, surprises, etc) he says 2 years before he will propose, but how long do I wait for an engagement before calling it quits?

And I doubt she'll trust them anyways.
Bit of context: I'm non binary (25yo) and come out to most of my family, no one uses my new name and correct pronouns because it would be a mess with my dad and grandma (and I'm the one that choose not to change things for now) but there are some people that would switch to what I want in a heartbeat if I asked them, and that is enough for me to know I can trust them with my gender, and I feel validated by other things they told me. Other relatives don't understand it and I doubt will ever call me anything different than my birth name, but I understand I can't have everything and that's ok. My mum tho... She's a whole other story. Also, I'm italian, so I hope everything makes sense.
I've been in lists for bloodwork and other exams and psychology assesments (like dysphoria diagnosis) in order to see the endocrinologist and get HRT, my mother knows I'm non binary and I told her and tried to explain to her many times (even once with my therapist, and my therapist agrees with me that it's like talking to a wall). I also told her I'm doing these HRT things and she said she would help in looking for doctors and driving me to the appointments but that I had to come up with the money for the visits myself (oh, nice, thanks mum /s).
One day, late on the evening, she calls me and tells me

I can't take you to get the bloodwork the day after tomorrow, can I cancel it and take it a bit later?

I was pretty exhausted so I said "yeah it's ok", without thinking much about it because I figured those appointments can be max in a week time waiting list, so I was fine with waiting that bit more. The next morning she calls me and had taken it A MONTH AND A WEEK LATER (she choose the date) and I was crushed, but I manged to understand my feeling, and that I wasn't ok with that at all, only in the evening. I texted her asking to move it sooner or I'd do it myself, that it was too much time and I just can't wait anymore (I was being kinda dramatic bc there are still months before other assessments, but it felt like my life depended on it). She was like

ok but don't take it soon you'll have to move it again and pay again It's not like you're paying for it anyways

Then she kept insisting to postpone and similar stuff so I asked her

do you even want to help me? Might be just my feeling, but it feels like you're always putting yourself in my way even when you're saying the contrary

She got defensive and started saying her usual stuff like that I'm not grateful and I'm so bad at keeping the house clean and she doesn't even make me feel bad about the fact that I don't work or study (this is a lie, she does) and so I asked her

Ok, so can I ask you something easy to do to show me you want to help? Can you call me by my chosen name and pronouns when we're alone?

She didn't answer and kept going on with other arguments, I reiterated but she kept avoiding the question, she instead said that

Whoever you are. If you're looking for yourself. I don't call you in any way, person.

Don't mind how weird it sounds, she speaks weird in italian too, but that "if you're looking for yourself" and the fact that she'd rather call me "person" than my chosen name was horrible, it made me understand - coupled with other stuff she said before about me "being sick and needing the right medical path" - that she's just waiting for the doctors to see if I'm sick and stop me from getting HRT... When I first talked to her about HRT she was talking about the fact that I'm fat, about a surgery I had that could stop me from it, about the fact that she has a genetic disease that might stop me from it etc... And it could have been read as worry before, as being cautious and wanting to check all the possibilities so I don't have sad surprises after I start HRT... But it never was that, not even a bit, it was just a way to control my visits and send me to the path of failure (in her eyes, ofc psychologists would know better than not giving me HRT).
It was awful, that "if you're looking for yourself" was totally unexpected to me because I never had doubts since I told my therapist and that was months ago, and I was questioning for around 3 years already, and I never make a choice without thinking and I never wagered about wanting HRT a being non binary with my mother, so it's all her own mind that made this shit up. I'm tired.
This happened a while ago but I'm still very angry at her, I'm reaching a place where I know I won't be able to forgive her and it makes me actually feel better, at least I'll feel less guilty when I'll go little to no contact.
This is a rant about other stuff that I feel it's related but not specific about gender: I'm pretty sure about the thing that she doesn't believe I'm non binary because she didn't believe I was depressed either, just like she doesn't believe I am probably autistic (my psychologist also agrees with me) and doesn't listen to me when I tell her that I'm still in depression/autistic burnout and it's fucking hard to wake up in the morning, so how the fuck could I keep a job? Luckily my country has public healthcare, it's like €20/36 every visit - even if long waiting lists- so I can probably manage with some tutoring I do to some kids (plus, luckily my aunt understans me and would pay for it). But mother is very pushy to me about the fact that I need a job, even when I told her that in order to heal from autistic burnout I literally have to NOT have responsibilities and take them back slowly or I get overwhelmed and relapse right away (I know ot, I tried). And as responsibility I mean even dumb shit like brushing my teeth, I swear to god I'd never curse anyone to feel as hopeless as I do and as useless, but she can't understand me and doesn't believe me, it's like I'm a kid all over again and whatever I say had the same importance as a riffle of wind, unremarkable and unimportant.
TLDR: My mum is an asshole and thinks I'm mentally ill and that's why I want HRT. I actually am mentally ill (depression and autistic burnout) but that's BECAUSE I haven't been formally diagnosed all my life (CPTSD, dysphoria and probably both autism and ADHD). Plus, she doesn't want to pay for my HRT visits, and that would be like € 100/180 btw.

(My brother 18m graduated over the weekend. He also turned 18 1.5 weeks ago.) So, I 16m have autism. It was diagnosed 5 months ago, but we suspected it for a couple years. I have a hard time being social, and sometimes I have a breakdown if I am overwhelmed by it. I've learned to mask it over the years, but sometimes it's impossible to control. My brother turned 18 on May 2nd, and I wanted to get him a gift. So I sold all my expensive Pokemon cards(worth over a hundred dollars) at vintage stock for ten dollars. I've had them for my entire life, and cherish them to my core. They held a lot of memories of my past, and it was hard to give them up. But I pushed through it, wanting to make his 18th birthday special. Fast forward a week, and he's graduating. It's his graduation weekend, and I'm determined to make it special as well. I've been practicing his graduation music in band, even though I don't play anymore because of my social anxiety. Playing a trumpet kinda feels like yelling in a room where everyone else is only talking. On Saturday, we hold his graduation party. I'm woke up by my mom, and I spend the entire morning cleaning the house while being yelled at by my panicking mom. I then spend 3 hours decorating for him, all while he wanders around dwadlleing. People start showing up, and I retreat to my parents room where I proceed to babysit my dogs. The few times I did leave, they didn't stop barking until I came back. After a couple hours of sitting there, I get bored. I asked my brother if he is going to be on his vr headset. He tells me no, but says I can't play on it anyways, as he wants me to socialize. I tell him I'm going to play on my Xbox, only to be told not to. I'm kind of surprised, as it's my Xbox. There's no reason why I shouldn't be able to play. He then says I can either sit with the dogs or socialize. I'm taken a back, as he doesn't usually have the right to order me around. I shrug it off, and go back to sit with the dogs. I don't want to ruin his graduation party. I sit there for the rest of the party, only coming out to say goodbye to everyone. The next day, I'm woken up by mom again. This time though, I can tell is going to be a bad social day. But I play along, getting dressed so I can play for the graduation ceremony. Once I get to school, I try to avoid all contact with people. I mostly make it to the gymnasium, where the ceremony is being held, without losing my shit. That's when I see the seating arrangements. The entire band is shoved in a corner. Luckily though, some people didn't show up. This left a big gap, letting me sit two seats away from the people on my right, and four seats away from the people on my left. Then the principal decides he doesn't like how we look, and squishes us further into the corner and putting everyone shoulder to shoulder. I'm borderline breaking down now, but I get through the agonizing hour without breaking down completely. Eventually, we're let out. I walk over to my parents car, where my brother is standing with them. I ask if I can go home with him, because they're going shopping. Remember, I mask very well. They tell me that I'm coming shopping with them, and that my brother wants the house to himself. I tell them that I can't take going shopping right now, and I need to go home. They ignore my pleas, insisting that I'll come with them. Then they try a different tactic, saying the choice is up to my brother. He recognizes it's not fair for me, and says I can go home with him. They then try to pull every card in the book. "You used to be mean to him when you guys were home alone!" I haven't done that in over a month. The only reason I did it was because I was frustrated that my brother just got to order me around. I told them that I haven't done that in a month, but they go onto the next excuse. "It's his graduation day, it should be special" at this point, my mask is falling apart. I start raising my voice trying to convince them that I can't go with them. They then try bribing me with the offer to go to Petco so I could look at the animals, but my breakdown couldn't be fixed with that. Eventually I get in the truck, throwing my trumpet in and slamming the door behind me. Then dad, who is stubborn and petty, turns on the music at a very high volume. When we had first set out, mom told him to turn it off because it was too loud. Now she sat in silence, content with making my ride hell. I then curl up in the backseat, with my fingers in my ears. Eventually, they get out to go shopping. I stay in the car without argument, because we all know it would get worse if I was forced to go with them.When they come back, dad turns the radio on full blast again, and I go into a full meltdown. I start screaming at them to shut it off, and mom decides it's time to shut it off now. But dad, wanting to instigate me, decides to turn it back on at a slightly lower volume. Even mom recognizes this as instigating but before she can do anything about it, I open the car door. Keep In mind, we're still moving at about 30mph. I'm fully prepared to launch myself out of the car, and the only reason I don't is because I have to unbuckle my seatbelt. In that timeframe of me unbuckling myself, mom yells at me to shut the door. That snaps me out of my tantrum enough for me to shut the door. Mom then yells at dad to take her home. I yell at him to take me to the mental hospital. Both of them refuse because of how much money it takes. Once we get home, I get on my phone and calm down. Then I get on my Xbox and start playing powerwash simulator to calm me down even more. After I'm calm enough, I start playing multiplayer games. Today, mom wanted to take away all my electronics for the way I acted, saying that I was super selfish. I eventually argued my way into getting my phone back, leading to me making this. Her reasoning behind me being selfish is that I "made my brother feel guilty". She also brought up the fact that Sunday was mother's day, and that I shouldn't have acted that way because it was her day as well. Are my parents right, or should I take this situation to medical professionals?

Throwaway account because I’m pretty sure my exes friend stalks my socials
TLDR; My ex dumped me, we went no contact and I haven’t contacted them for months until I sent one letter expressing my feelings that was absolutely not threatening and not ill-willed whatsoever and had no expectations from it, and they decided to file a DV restraining order despite there being no DV at any point — not even stalking, because seeing them sends me into panic attacks. Now I’m confused and don’t know what to do or what to expect.
So basically, my ex (we’ll call them B) dumped me back in January and kicked me out. My ex from before them (we’ll call them P) reached out to them after the breakup. Now, a little context: P and I were together for four years. It was a terrible relationship and should have ended far earlier than it did. We were both very manipulative, toxic, and abusive. While the abuse was almost completely emotional, there were a couple instances that it wasn’t. I, at one point, grabbed their wrist to make them stop yelling at me and to actually look at me because they were berating me during an argument. Doesn’t excuse my action, of course. They hit me multiple times throughout our relationship, and would apologize later over message, claiming that they hit me because whatever I’d been saying or whatever we’d been arguing about reminded them of some trauma from their childhood. There was also a substantial age difference that I am in no way justifying. P was 17, I was 23, when we started dating. I was in a very bad point of life and spent my days drunk and on a med that made me zombie like, so these days are not easy to recall in the first place. I genuinely do not believe there was ever a point where one of us asked the other out, I think P just assumed and I felt too bad to break it off. I do not forgive myself for this either way. During our relationship, P began to coerce me into sex because I refused to have sex with them for a multitude of reasons. They coerced me into a threesome, and when I told them day of that I was not comfortable with it and did not want to, P told me to drink more alcohol or smoke more weed and I’d “be fine”. I was r*ped that night. After we broke up, we remained roommates (in separate rooms) because neither of us had money to move out and we had a third roommate. We stayed friends because we’re idiots. I started dating B and P hated B profusely. At one point early into B’s and my relationship, P and I went out to the stores and I bought some clothes and left the bag in the living room couch and told P I needed to recharge before I hung out more. They did not take this lightly because they didn’t ever like when people didn’t want to do the same thing as them. They texted me alluding to destroying my clothes, and lo and behold, my clothes were no longer in the living room. After begging them to give me my clothes back, they finally opened their door and pushed the clothes into me hard enough that I hit the wall. So I hit their shoulder. I did not punch them or slap them or anything like that. I hit them in the shoulder with the same pressure that they pushed me. They had in fact shredded my clothes. My biggest mistake was never taking pictures when they did things like this. I eventually moved in with B and P moved out of state. B and I did have financial issues, mostly due to my own financial immaturity as I have never been good with money, but B never really communicated the issues with me so I didn’t even realize most of the time. I would pay large chunks of bills when I could, such as a full month’s rent, their $3000 credit card bill, our $1000 PGE bill, etc. P and I seemed to have a good friendship, but when B broke up with me and P found out, they reached out to B and essentially decided to tell them all kinds of things that were wrong about our relationship, but specifically only from their side. Screenshots lacked what they were saying, stories lacked what they were doing. So I absolutely sounded like a monster. B kicked me out even sooner than planned, and left me homeless for a week and a half while I searched for a place to live. After a month, B went completely no contact and blocked me almost everywhere. I should note that I have BPD, it is a recent diagnosis. They also do, but have been aware and in treatment for many years. I responded negatively to this and began calling and leaving voicemails on their blocked VM inbox. I was not calling from a private number, I called from my own because I knew they wouldn’t be dealing with a bunch of missed calls. I went overboard and left a lot of depressing voicemails. Never, ever threatening. Just sad, often crying, and asking why they hate me or why they would listen to someone who they experienced first hand would harass me for hours on end for not responding to their texts. I realized I was being psycho and stopped, apologized and told them I had realized I had made them my favorite person (in the BPD way), and that wasn’t fair to them. I have not contacted them since then, except for about three weeks ago when I sent a letter. The letter was simply telling them that I am sorry, I love them and miss them, and I am working really hard on myself. I told them that I truly do believe we’ll come back together someday, but that we both obviously have to live our own stories before that’s possible. There was not a single ounce of threat or ill-will in this letter. Literally not even the smallest bit, and I’m happy to share that letter with anyone to prove such. I also very clearly stated that I do not expect a response from them, but if they would like an apology someday, I’m here and ready.
Now that you have quite the context to the background of this situation, here’s the issue at hand: After I sent this letter, they decided to file for a restraining order. But not just any. They filed for a DV one, which everyone finds wild because there was never a single bit of DV between the two of us. B and I were honestly wonderful together, loved each other so much (or so I thought), and never laid a hand on one another. Even our arguments weren’t bad. I’d have splits from being triggered and I could say mean things, but it was never physical and always discussed afterwards, either that day or the next. Their friend has been watching all of my social media stories despite neither of us following each other, which has felt weird until I realized why.
I haven’t been served yet because they come to my place when I’m at school so I can’t be there. I’ll likely just go into the station to be served at this point.
But my questions are the following: - What does RO court even look like? I’ve never had to deal with this. Is it a big thing? Or is it two people at a table across from a judge? Like I genuinely don’t understand what it would look like. - How likely is it that this would even be approved? I truly don’t believe the letter could be used as evidence into something like this because it was not negative or threatening. The voicemails were crazy but never threatening and ended quickly months ago. They could absolutely use the stuff from P, but that relationship has been over for 2.5 years, and the clothes incident happened just about 2 years ago. I have proof of what the letter said, I have proof of P admitting to hitting me and to the coercion and r*pe. I have been in therapy for two years and with the same psych for about the same amount of time, so I have character witnesses. I am not a stalker, I’m actually genuinely terrified of seeing them around town because I know it will break my heart all over again. I’ve had to see them drive by twice, once in their work vehicle and the next in the car I used to drive that is in their name, and both times I ended up in a full blown panic attack. So I am obviously not seeking them out or anything of the sort. They also know what this would do to me. They know that it will not only destroy me mentally, but that it could hurt me career wise due to the field I am going to school for. So how likely is it for this to be granted?
I am honestly shocked and hurt by all of this from them, because this is not the person I fell in love with. They have gone completely cold-hearted and have had no issue hurting me over and over again since the breakup.

I’m dating myself, if you didn’t know Treasures if the Deep is a 1997 title for PlayStation that involved being a part of an underwater mission battling pirates and some hostile sea life but was really memorable for its often relaxing underwater atmosphere and stunning musical score
So apparently I must be the target audience for EO Luminous. I have never heard of this game or franchise when I just stumbled across the game trailer on YouTube
My jaw dropped, a beautifully rendered diving game for my switch that didn’t involve undersea warfare or battling angry sea creatures or even worrying about filling up my scuba tank? Just swim around and catalog ocean life at my leisure while listing to relaxing music? The ability to play online with friends and family and share dives? Here, take my money!
I shared the trailer with my wife and she reacted much like I did and yes she even brought up how much we loved replaying certain levels of Treasures of the Deep so many years ago. She quickly ordered us two physical copies so we can dive together on our switches.
We got our copies a few days ago. We are both in love with the game and are enjoying exploring and figuring things out together.
Anyway thanks if you read this far. With all that, I do want to say I see and understand and respect I the players of the original franchise who are dissaponted and missing some apparently key elements missing from this latest release.
I hope you do get some enjoyment from this installment and maybe the game will continue to attract and grow the fanbase enough to encourage future releases especially on the next year or so if and when we get the next gen Switch.
Feedback appreciated and I will lurk and participate in this subreddit as I can but for now an trying to limit my exposure to spoilers and such.
Thanks for reading and happy diving.
TLDR: I’ve never heard of EO before discovering Luminous but my wife and got copies for each of our switches and we are very much enjoying the relaxed dives and being able to dive together online.

To start things off, I was always aware of our age gap and problems it may cause in our relationship.
My husband and I didn't meet until I was well into being eighteen, and he was twenty-eight. It didn't bother me much, as he doesn't act much older than me and I'd always felt older than I was due to having a ton of younger siblings, step siblings, and foster kids in and out of my mother's house growing up.
We got engaged when I was nineteen at a yungblood concert, and we originally planned to wait to marry until I was at least twenty. Plans changed when I decided to go into the air force, and we had to push up the wedding in order for him to eventually stay with me on base after basic training.
Fast forward a few months after we were married and I had left for Texas for training, I was injured during PT training and sent home. It was during the craziest parts of covid, so everything was on lockdown and they had strict rules about not keeping anyone on base for a long period of time if injured. I was medically discharged and sent home to heal and have potential surgery.
At the time, my husband was staying with his friend in the city we planned to move to. We already put down a deposit on an apartment when we found out I was going home, but due to Covid restrictions and eviction restrictions, it was returned to us and we were told we could no longer move in.
The first issue I was seeing when I got home was his disattention to me. I was gone for over a month and missed celebrating my twentieth birthday with anyone but the girls in medhold with me, so I was looking forward to spending quality time with my husband.
We went out to eat with his friend, his friend's girlfriend, and one of her friends. I felt like a fifth wheel during the meal, as I was sat at the end of the table instead of being at my husband's side where her friend was sitting. Most of the conversations didn't include me, and I ended up going back to his friend's place feeling let down.
The rest of the time we were staying with his friend, they wanted all of us to go mountain climbing, cliff jumping, and trekking through the woods as they lived in a nature-centered part of the area. (Keep in mind, I was just sent home for being injured, and I had both a knee and ankle brace on my right leg that prevented much movement other than some hobbled walking that was slower than a normal pace).
When I expressed that I wasn't comfortable doing those things and that I wouldn't be jumping thirty feet into a freezing lake when I could barely walk as it is, my husband got upset with me and eventually just left me there alone while they all went to hang out together.
Flash forward four years, it is now 2024 and we have a two-year-old toddler. I didn't end up getting surgery, and I spent nine months being sicker than I'd ever been in my life.
It was a really rough pregnancy for me, and I'd ended up in the hospital multiple times because I couldn't even smell food or step foot into our kitchen without throwing up.
That all went on until the beginning of my third trimester. We decided to travel back to his friend's place, and I was somehow roped into climbing cliffs, wading through treacherous water to climb another cliff on an island out in the middle of a lake, and sleep at the top of sand dunes in a tent on the ground a couple weeks before my due date.
I was then on antibiotics during birth, because my water broke and the hospital sent me home instead of keeping me. My son was born sick, and transferred to a children's hospital to be treated and receive a spinal tap. I ended up sleeping a week in a hard hospital chair in a leaking basement of the hospital because they didn't have enough space for us.
After we were home and everything was settled, my husband would brag about how difficult the whole situation was for him. He had to sleep on a futon during my labour, and he had to have food doordashed to the hospital because, due to covid restrictions, noone else was allowed in with us and he wasn't allowed to leave to get anything.
He ended up having steak, potatoes, and these other elaborate meals delivered to eat in front of me while I wasn't allowed to eat anything until the baby came out. He even thought about bringing his playstation into the hospital room, but I shut that down quickly.
The first year of my son's life, I went back and forth between staying home with him and working in the factory my husband currently works at while my grandma watched our son.
I won't get into too much detail, but at one point when my grandma moved back out of state (she lives in her camper and was only there for the summer), I had to switch to the afternoon shift.
There is a factory supervisor on that shift that is a male and close to my husband's age. Other than the other person in my same position and two maintenance workers, they only had migrant workers that didn't speak english. This limited the people I could talk to while working my twelve hour shifts (husband worked 3:30 am to 3:30 pm and I would work 3:30 pm to 3:30 am).
My husband got very jealous and territorial at this time. He would expect me to return nearly thirty minutes late from all my breaks, threaten to go up there if anyone told me I couldn't do that, and even punched a hole in the wall when I told him I had to get back to work.
Up until that point, my husband had shown no signs of aggression toward me.
Somehow, a rumour started to spread around the factory that I was sleeping with the production lead. This definitely wasn't true as a) how and where would I have done that? and b) I loved my husband and would have never done something like that.
My husband heard about it, and came home to confront me. He got in my face, screaming and calling me a cheater. He threatened to take our son and move back in with his mom without even letting me offer an explanation or defend myself.
To this day, it still bothers me that he is still so convinced that I cheated on him and that he has no trust in me whatsoever to not do something like that.
I ended up leaving that job and working at mcdonalds for a little while. I had worked there in high school, so it wasn't a big adjustment.
I only ended up staying there a few months to help us catch up on bills before we agreed it would be better for me to stay home with our son for a while.
Our son is two now, and it seems like our relationship has only become more strained. We used to be able to communicate most of our smaller issues and come up with ways to maneuver whatever issues we had. However, in June of last year, my husband's friend that we were staying with in the beginning moved across the state to be near us.
It was all fine and good in the beginning. He had proposed to his girlfriend, and they even asked the both of us to be in their wedding that has yet to happen.
However, once they got engaged, he'd began acting very sexist. Even though both he and his fiance work full time (he works down the road at the factory with my fiance, and she works forty minutes away at a hardware store and has to drive a long way at three in the morning to get there), he expects her to come home and clean up after him, also cook his meals before she goes to bed early to get up really early in the morning for work the next day.
My husband, now hanging out with him more often, started having some of these things wearing off on him.
At first, it wasn't a big deal and I brushed it off. However, I'd gotten a job as a property manager for an apartment complex and also work now. Instead of things changing to adapt our new lifestyle, my husband expects me to continue keeping up with all the chores and cooking.
He'd made a comment that, because he feeds our dogs, he expects me just to do everything that involves our toddler from feeding him, to changing his butt, to putting him to bed at night. It's like pulling teeth sometimes to get him to change his butt or even get pants on him.
We'd gotten into an argument over this, and I told him that it wasn't fair that he expected me to do everything. His response was that he made more money and worked more hours, so it was only fair that I covered everything else.
Sure, I don't work as much or make as much money, and my paychecks mainly cover our son's daycare and our car payments, but I feel like working doesn't excuse him from helping with the son we both decided to have.
It's gotten to the point where I told my husband that if any sexist remark is made, like I should be in the kitchen helping get dinner ready whenever we're at his friend's house, I will be leaving and going back home, and I won't be going back until it is resolved.
The friend's fiance and I have had private conversations about this, and we both agree that it has gotten out of hand, and we both believe they are feeding off each other as they'd never been that bad before.
Everything has only seemed to get worse from there.
We decided to go as a group, along with my brother and his girlfriend, to the draft in Detroit this year.
The whole point was to see players get drafted in person, and we'd managed to get into the crowd in front of the stage before the area was shut down and they weren't allowing anyone else in.
My brother is an avid football fan. He played in high school, and was even offered multiple scholarships to play in college. This was a once in a lifetime experience for the both of us.
At one point, my husband and his friend decided that they would rather stand at one of the screens out of the crowd and watch it instead of trying to get into the sea of people to see it live.
I was frustrated, and expressed that if we wanted to watch it on television that we should have just stayed home. After a heated argument, I thought we'd come to the agreement that we'd go back to the stage and watch it there.
My brother lead us through the crowd, and at the beginning my husband and his friend were following us. Somehow, we'd gotten separated and when I looked back once we found a spot to stand, they were gone.
My phone rang in my pocket, and when I picked it up it was my husband calling. As soon as I picked it up, he proceeded to scream at me for disappearing and called me a "stupid bitch" when I tried to explain that I thought they were following us.
He hung up, and I told my brother I was going to go look for them alone. I spent a good twenty minutes wandering the area that was barricaded, but they were nowhere to be found. I no longer had signal to get ahold of him, so I ended up just going back and watching the beginning of the draft with my brother.
By the eighth pick, texts started to come in from my husband. He had informed me that they all left, leaving the three of us alone. Luckily, I'd driven separate as I left work early to get there.
By that point, I was done with him. I felt disrespected and that hanging out with his friend was more important than making sure his wife was okay or even with him. After all, I was wandering downtown Detroit alone when it was starting to get dark out.
When the three of us inevitably got back to the car, I got ahold of my husband just to let him know we were on our way home. He tried to apologise and ask how everything was, but I was too exhausted and mad at him to try and hold a conversation. He was asleep by the time I got home, and I ended up sleeping in our spare bedroom on a futon.
The next day, my husband tried to act like nothing happened. When I expressed that I felt ignored and pretty much useless to him, he tried to play it off like his anger was warranted and completely ignored the fact that he was calling me names.
I told him that I was no longer going to any big events with him and his friend, and he just rolled his eyes like he didn't believe me.
A day later, I saw a message pop up on his phone from his friend. I guess he had told him what I said about not going anywhere anymore, and his friend said "women" with an eyeroll emoji and "she'll get over it eventually". I screenshotted these messages and sent them to myself, filing them away in a folder in my phone to keep for later.
I slept in our spare bedroom for a week after that.
After the draft, I've also kept notes in my phone with time and date stamps of all the times he went off on me since then. Whenever we get into arguments, my mind goes blank and I forget exact things like this so he likes to say it never happened if I can't remember it.
April 27th, we were sitting watching videos together on tiktok. When someone popular came on that he had been watching a lot recently, I exclaimed that I didn't understand how he got popular all of a sudden. He proceeded to get really agitated and yell at me for not understanding how the internet works. When I stood up to walk away because I was upset, this angered him more. He then expressed that my emotions were overrated and that he was sick of them.
May 2nd, I had gotten home from work and tried to show my husband an outdoor jungle gym on amazon that I thought would be cool to get our son. He claimed it was a waste of money and that we should just take him to the park. When I tried to explain that it was a better idea to get something like this, as realistically we wouldn't take him to the park every day, he freaked out and asked what was wrong with me. He then said "oh my god" when I tried to explain that it would be easier to watch him outside while getting stuff done around the house and decided to just go to bed without dinner and end the conversation completely.
May 5th, we went with his friend and fiance to a cinco de may party in the city. He was drinking most of the day, and on the way home he wanted us to stop some place and get ice cream. When he got out of the car, he hit it against the car next to us. When I told him he'd hit the car, he proceeded to yell at me in the crowd that I was crazy and acting like my mother. He then kept trying to go to the woman in the car and ask if he had, in fact, hit her car. After, he said he was done with me and I was on my own, that I would have to start paying my own bills from now on.
There's been many other entries in my notes similar to this, and I feel like I'm at the end of what I can handle. Divorce has crossed my mind, but I had divorced parents growing up and know how hard it would be on my son. I also don't think I'm in a well off financial position to go out on my own with our son and still provide the things he needs.
I also worry that, if we were to separate, he would push to take our son from me as he'd threatened in the past to do so.
Any advice would be helpful, as I don't know what else to do. Even getting this all off my chest online makes me feel a little better, but there's still the lingering thought in the back of my mind that I'm unhappy and don't know how much longer I can put up with this.
Thank you.

every reseller on earth is gonna come after me for this but if you guys want free sauce im gonna tell it to straight. first of all this is not affiliated with anything or any company. so let’s get straight into it VAPE RESELLING: people all over wanna sell you and tell you bullshit on how this actually work just so they can make money off of you and make you buy their products, so do not listen to anyone when it comes to this except me ive done this for 3 years straight and it’s made a insane amount of money. step 1: go to DHGATE and search for mrvi bars and find sellervape store and yeah yeah you guys can say whatever you want about DHGATE but if you want free sauce this is how it’s done and how you get the lowest price. if you didn’t know DHGATE is a shipping agent they do not house any products so all the stores on the site make vape products and they do this for the big reason that they have a US trade show every year and year after year the US company’s pick a vape from DHGATE to buy and package it for sale in the United States so trust me when I say DHGATE is where you get vapes that are actually quality. step 2: order the vapes and wait for them to show up. DH GATE is by far the best site to order from for the biggest reason is they have payment back guaranteed. so your payment is always safe plus I live in Canada and get 50mg vapes and they never get stopped at customs ever even tho 50mg is illegal is Canada where I am it’s never been a issue. step 3: how to market a product if you don’t know anyone who wants a vape. the easiest way is Snapchat if you didn’t know Snapchat has the best location algorithm on earth so basically you sign up to Snapchat with a brand new g mail and then you turn on precise location and then from there you make your Snapchat name #1 VAPEPLUG then and you wanna post a story 24-7 that has your vapes showing and flavours and price in the picture and then from there you just spam quick add over and over and over from there that’s how you get your clients for vapes that you don’t know.
Basically you pay around 4-6$ a vape and turn around and resell for 40-50$ a piece you basically just have to keep in mind that you are competing with the other vape stores so make sure you get a product that has more benefits then the stores whether that’s more puffs or better flavours or a digital screen or more nicotine in mg content
that’s the free sauce if you have any questions or are more interested I can teach you personally. but all the free sauce is there but if you wanna learn more or different hustles then you can feel free to message me but just thought I’d hand out free sauce for you guys so many people are struggling now days to make more money and with the shit economy now days i thought I’d add some good in the world. Rather than all the bullshit scams out there. have a nice day everyone happy hustling

I know this may be coming from an uninformed perspective since I am a sophomore in highschool. But as someone who comes from a family who can't afford college and qualifies for a lot of aid I know how much money matters since I don't have a lot of it. While I may never be a full pay applicant because of my financial situation I have friends who are or will be in the future and especially since we live in an expensive state we are always advised to pick the cheapest option. This may just be my opinion but the vast majority of random people on reddit are not telling you to let go of your offer to get off the waitlist so they can get your spot. I think most of us are smart enough to know that the odds of getting off the waitlist is extremely unlikely just because some random person on reddit convinced someone to let go of their offer. Focus on the price because saying "I went to harvard" will not erase 200k in debt. I'm sorry but it really is better to go to a full ride school even if it is public then a t20 where you have to pay the full price. This advice applies for people who just make it over the no financial aid braket since I know if you make 300k taking 75k out a year is still a huge financial toll. There are people on this sub who are privileged enough to pick the more expensive offer and they act like it is the case for most people but it isn't. Pick the best decision for future you not present you. All the "congrats on Princeton or any other t20" will not pay your debt 10,20, or even 30 years down the line. Best of luck to everyone make the best decision for you, your family, and most importantly your future :)

every reseller on earth is gonna come after me for this but if you guys want free sauce im gonna tell it to straight. first of all this is not affiliated with anything or any company. so let’s get straight into it VAPE RESELLING: people all over wanna sell you and tell you bullshit on how this actually work just so they can make money off of you and make you buy their products, so do not listen to anyone when it comes to this except me ive done this for 3 years straight and it’s made a insane amount of money. step 1: go to DHGATE and search for mrvi bars and find sellervape store and yeah yeah you guys can say whatever you want about DHGATE but if you want free sauce this is how it’s done and how you get the lowest price. if you didn’t know DHGATE is a shipping agent they do not house any products so all the stores on the site make vape products and they do this for the big reason that they have a US trade show every year and year after year the US company’s pick a vape from DHGATE to buy and package it for sale in the United States so trust me when I say DHGATE is where you get vapes that are actually quality. step 2: order the vapes and wait for them to show up. DH GATE is by far the best site to order from for the biggest reason is they have payment back guaranteed. so your payment is always safe plus I live in Canada and get 50mg vapes and they never get stopped at customs ever even tho 50mg is illegal is Canada where I am it’s never been a issue. step 3: how to market a product if you don’t know anyone who wants a vape. the easiest way is Snapchat if you didn’t know Snapchat has the best location algorithm on earth so basically you sign up to Snapchat with a brand new g mail and then you turn on precise location and then from there you make your Snapchat name #1 VAPEPLUG then and you wanna post a story 24-7 that has your vapes showing and flavours and price in the picture and then from there you just spam quick add over and over and over from there that’s how you get your clients for vapes that you don’t know.
Basically you pay around 4-6$ a vape and turn around and resell for 40-50$ a piece you basically just have to keep in mind that you are competing with the other vape stores so make sure you get a product that has more benefits then the stores whether that’s more puffs or better flavours or a digital screen or more nicotine in mg content
that’s the free sauce if you have any questions or are more interested I can teach you personally. but all the free sauce is there but if you wanna learn more or different hustles then you can feel free to message me but just thought I’d hand out free sauce for you guys so many people are struggling now days to make more money and with the shit economy now days i thought I’d add some good in the world. Rather than all the bullshit scams out there. have a nice day everyone happy hustling