TLDR at the bottom. Was not expecting this to be long.
Not from the US or Europe. So while english is still the main language I choose to speak, I'm still struggling to structure my sentences properly. Forgive me for the errors made here.
For context, he's the youngest son in the family and my parents tends to brush off whatever he does with the excuse of "we'll replace it". Well, my dad has stopped enabling that behaviour for a couple of years.
He moved in with his family to my parents' home after failing to make it big in Australia (my siblings forced him to come back after finding out he demanded 10k from our mother who is retired and has a stroke).
It's a 5 room flat, so my sister was kicked out of her room and had to occupy the slightly smaller study room until they moved out earlier this April (My husband and I plus our baby is currently staying with my parents while waiting for our house to finish being built). They stayed about a year plus and it was a nightmare with them over. In that span of time they were here, they complained about my son who either needed to be soothed back to sleep or just refused to sleep while (attempting) putting their new born to sleep; granted, I do feel guilty about that.
Then, they attempted to kick my and my husband and son out of the house when the two boys had covid (it only lasted a day for them) and I tried to rationalise it since you know, they have two kids, one was a year old and the other, about 2 or 3 months? Anyway, this pissed off the eldest who came down to mediate because I was already stressed out about the situation and my dad told me that, "No, you're not going anywhere. He has no right to do that." Besides, we used my parents bathroom to shower my son or when we need to use the toilet and rarely went out. This needs to be known as well that we had no where else to go. We couldn't go to my in-laws place because FIL, a stroke patient, just got back home from the ICU due to covid. So I thought we were done with that.
No. There's more lmao. When their son had HMFD, their safest bet was to get their daughter OUT OF THE HOUSE. So that was a fun week of being cooped up in the room again because not only did they allow their son to run around the house touching everything including my son's walker, they couldn't be bothered to DISINFECT it. Although granted, I was told it only spreads via saliva, it's safer to be cautious. First time mom with a then 6 month old and all that.
That's fine with all those, right? It couldn't get any more worse than that, right?
You thought wrong.
My younger brother throws a hissy fit whenever people touches his things without his permission. His wife especially. It got to the point that they started labeling everything that is theirs in the fridge. Like, no problem. BUT THE HYGIENE. Omg, the amount of times they would treat this house like they own it. Refuses to clean up after themselves, refuse to clear the stove after they were done cooking (lemme tell you, the amount of mould?wriggling white maggots we would find in their leftover pastas...I just.. 🤮), demanding my younger sister to cook extra for their kid to eat and then getting upset when she makes the wrong kind of pasta lmao. Only they can scold their son when he does something wrong etcetc
But god forbid we try and pull that kind of shit on them and they go complaining (behind our backs lol) to mom and dad or to one of the other in-laws (who let's us know on the tea).
Also, my nephew (1st brother) borrowed my brother's bag and it got washed because "it's dirty" LOL.
Anywho, they moved out early April and the rest of us silently cheered. Especially my husband. GOD he hated them. But that's besides the point.
A few days ago, I bought a whole ass packet (4 small boxes) of want want milk drinks. https://media.nedigital.sg/fairprice/fpol/media/images/product/XL/13185533_XL1_20230216.jpg?w=1200&q=70 (not sure if y'all can see it, google it if you can't) Bought 2 packets; or 8 cartons of those delicious, sweet milk. Got the white version (less sweet) for my younger sister. She took one (the red one) and I told her that hers is the white ones, but if she wanted the red version, to at least ask me beforehand since I wanted to bring the rest to work.
I forgot to bring it on a Friday so I was like, okay. I'll bring it on Saturday. Come Saturday, again, I forgot about it. But that's fine, we chill, I'll bring it on Monday. It's still inside the fridge last I check anyway. Come Sunday, I went out to go to an open house my friend was hosting. Did not check the fridge. Today, I took MC or, medical leave, cos my body is aching and I've been vomiting the past couple of days. I opened the fridge to take a carton out and, you guessed it, they were missing.
So of course, the first person I thought of was my younger sister. I went after her ass on the phone and she swore after the last time I told her to not touch my shit without my permission, she only took her white want wants. So I went to my mom and asked her if she anyone had taken them (We had guests over with kids on Saturday evening). She asked me to describe them and when I did her eyes widened and I heard her whisper, "I thought your younger sister bought them", which is like, the worst excuse you could come up with and it still doesnt escuse anyone taking them without permission btw.
So I asked what she meant and she said that my YOUNGER BROTHER TOOK THEM. WHEN??? WHEN DID HE COME BACK??? AND WHY???? Sorry, still extremely salty about that. He doesn't even live here anymore! If he took one single carton, hey, I'm fine with that. BUT HE TOOK ALL REMAINING 5.
????
I think the best part was my mom who said they (my parents) would buy it for me and I was like, "Tf?? Where's the logic in that. I want to know why that little sucker did that when he had the audacity to get upset when someone touches his items."
So I blasted him on our WhatsApp group. My dad says he'll replace it and to start writing our names on the stuff we bought just to be safe. I replied back with, "I can replace it on my own. I just wanted to know why he'd do that without asking who's it belongs to and if it was okay to take it. You don't see me waltzing into his home grabbing whatever tf we want. HE DOESN'T EVEN LIVE WITH US ANYMORE. Also, I might as well leave the house and rent a place instead if it means a 100% garuntee no one is going to take my things without telling me." (While it is heavily cheaper to stay with my parents, I can choose to rent someplace else. My mom just refuses to let me do such a thing because I'm also her "eldest daughter and baby" but that's another story for another time)
1st brother told me to quit it (messaged me directly), saying that the youngest of the brothers is the golden child and it is to be expected. I told him, "I ain't letting our parents pull that shit on me. I'm not going to let them enable him. He's not the only one who knows how to throw a tantrum." (This was spoken in the heat of the moment. I won't throw a tantrum, but I am NOT going to tolerate my parents enabling him further) Easily I would've just kept quiet if my dad had just stopped at "We'll investigate it", but the moment he mentioned "replace" I lost all my patience.
Anywho, everything's quiet as of now. No replies from my younger brother or his wife (who is a whole 'nother story lol) or my parents too. I'm simmering still, but not as angry. Gonna buy the drinks again if they still have it on sale later on 🥲
Thanks for reading. I've always been reading on entitled siblings/family but never really thought of my younger brother as one until he got married. Also, I am aware that I'm an asshole too, I'm just sick of my mother always defending his actions or enabling it (once my mom told my younger brother "jokingly" to slap our youngest. After the 3rd slap, and humiliating her, did our mom tell him to stop. She ran away from home for 3 days. I wonder why). This is an Asian household, I don't get why my younger brother is getting favoured because our youngest (sister) is the most successful out of all of us. Might be because he's the youngest son. I'm extremely petty, that's why my younger sister always listens to my warnings. The last time she didn't listen to me to stop using my make up remover when she already has one, I went and used up all of hers (she used up ALL of my coconut balm make up remover and didn't bother to close the lid). Since then, she's always heeded my warnings and would ask my permission in advance if she needs to borrow or use something of mine. I've gotten into a scuffle with my youngest brother as well but I'm pretty sure he's got nothing inside that head of his because he's learned nothing.
TLDR; Entitled Golden Child throws a hissy fit when his things gets touched without permission ironically does the same thing but instead of just taking 1 carton, who took the remaining 5 cartons of want wants. I'm upset and have been told to quit it all because it's over a drink.
Edit to add: There's always drama when they're involved so I may post again in the future but hopefully not too soon.

*Note: I am not a copyright lawyer, I'm not any kind of lawyer, nor am I making an accusation that anyone or any entity is infringing on the copyright or trademark of any other entities. That being said…
I have a theory that Wicked -- both Maguire's novel (Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, 1995) and more so the musical (Wicked, 2003 Universal Stage Productions) -- solely functions as a prequel to the 1939 MGM film the Wizard of Oz (now owned by WB), and not that film's public domain source novel the Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Let me explain...
Maguire wrote Wicked in 1994 in response to the Gulf War. His clever use of Oz characters passed scrutiny during publication in 1995 under parody and fair use laws, and because the Baum novel had long been in the public domain… as well as Ted Turner arranging to sell the MGM catalog to WB, circa 1997, making the timing ideal for Maguire's novel to skirt any copyright/trademark scrutiny for using elements from the non-public domain film.
We know what happened next, the book was a raging success and soon it was popular enough to be optioned by Universal and turned into a stage musical produced (after film & TV productions with Demi Moore and Salma Hayek separately attached failed to materialize). The musical opened first in San Francisco for try-outs and then Broadway in 2003. And writers Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman liberally peppered even more direct homages and winks to the 1939 film into leitmotifs and other elements of the book, score, and staging.
But, Wicked has TOO many elements from the 1939 film, and NOT ENOUGH from Baum's original book, to merit it being called a prequel to the book (this is also true of Disney’s 2013 admitted attempt to cash-in on Wicked’s success, Oz: the Great and Powerful – which is even more egregious than Wicked, and ironic, as its own title is directly lifted from the 1939 film misquote of the book’s moniker of “Oz the Great and Terrible”).
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So now, let's look at some of key differences between the book the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (WWoOZ) and its film adaption from 1939, and how Wicked (and that Disney rip-off - though I don’t want to have to keep mentioning that movie so just assume most of what I say applies there too) reinterprets these events and characters:
- In the book WWoOz it is established that there are four cardinal witches in the land of Oz. Dorothy vanquishes two unrelated Wicked Witches in the East (WWotE) and West (WWotW) as well as encountering the benevolent unnamed good witch of the North at the start of her adventure and a separate good witch, Glinda of the South, who helps her home in the end. MGM condensed the good witches into one character “Glinda the Good Witch of the North” as well as adding a subplot turning the Wicked Witches into sisters (providing Margaret Hamilton’s Witch more direct motivation to pursue Judy Garland’s Dorothy via the Witch’s presumed right to collateral inheritance of her sister’s shoes). Both Maguire and Disney follow the 1939 film’s continuity regarding these relationships making the wicked witches siblings, and Glinda the sole “good witch” in opposition to them.
-WWotW as depicted in Baum’s novel bears little to no resemblance to the green-skinned Margaret Hamilton in the 1939 film, and subsequently Maguire’s Elphaba. Oz illustrator W. W. Denslow, whom Baum worked closely with when designing the characters, depicts the witch as a hunched old hag with three pigtails and an eyepatch, tall brimmed hat, ruffed collar, coat and skirt. While MGM’s design team, led by legendary costumer Adrian, initially tested several looks for WWotW (including a glamorous sequined look inspired by Disney’s Evil Queen in Snow White). MGM screenwriter, Herman Mankiewicz (who expanded the role of the wicked witch from book to screenplay, and wrote several key lines for her including, “I’ll get you my pretty!”) insisted "witches should be ugly!" And Margaret Hamilton’s Witch was given green skin to broadcast her “wickedness” as well as make her face and hands stand-out against her black medieval gown, cloak and sharp brimmed hat. Needless to say this film only element of green-skin becomes a major plot point of Wicked. And Susan Hilferty’s stage designs for Elphaba retain the 1939 film’s silhouette and dark color palette.
-Another difference in Baum’s WWotW is that she only had one eye, but that it "was as powerful as a telescope", and this is how she spies on her enemies. MGM was again inspired by Snow White's Queen, and popular imagery of fortune tellers, giving Hamilton’s Witch the ability to scry in a large crystal ball, which made for some of the most memorable visuals of the film, of her looming eerily over the heroes. Unlike Baum’s WWotW, Maguire’s Elphaba retains vision in both eyes, and inherits her film counterpart's scrying abilities (primarily using a blown-glass orb).
-Baum’s WWotW importantly carries an umbrella, not a broomstick, as a source of protection for her aquaphobia. She has no need for transportation, her location is limited to her castle in the West of Oz. MGM’s script, howvever, gave Hamilton’s Witch a means of transportation that had long been popular in witch mythology, a broomstick, involving her more directly in the narrative (as well as giving the Wizard a macguffin to send Dorothy after). Maguire also chose to make a broomstick a means of travel for Elphaba, and Stephen Schwartz's “Defying Gravity”, the centerpiece of the musical, which sees a scene not included in the novel, where Elphaba defiantly flies over the Emerald City in protest of the Wizard, cemented the broom’s icon status within the framework of the Wicked franchise.
-The Flying Monkeys in Baum’s novel have a rich backstory involving their enslavement at the hands of a sorceress named Gaylette. The monkeys’ terms of imprisonment require they obey three commands given by whomever possess a Golden Cap, which the WWotW owns and uses to capture Dorothy and her friends. Dorothy comes into possession of the Golden Cap after WWotW’s demise (similar to her inheriting the slippers) and is able to command the monkeys to her own benefit later in the book. The Golden Cap subplot was scrapped from the MGM film in favor of giving the witch a more ambiguous command over her uniformed simian air force (though it still appears in the final cut as a prop tossed by Hamilton's Witch to Nikko, the flying monkey). Maguire’s Wicked makes no mention of Baum’s golden cap, giving Elphaba a monkey factotum, similar to MGM’s Nikko, now called Chistrey. The monkeys are given a vivisection backstory in Maguire's novel and are a result of the Grimmerie’s levitation spell in the musical, but Elphaba’s willful command of the their legions, without the limitations of the Golden Cap, is much more reminiscent of MGM’s Witch than Baum’s.
-Famously the slippers Dorothy inherits from the WWotE in Baum’s novel are made of silver metal (sterling silver shoes were popular as decorations and sugar bowls in Baum's day). The Slippers in the 1939 film were famously changed to ruby, so as to be more eye-catching against the technicolor yellow road. After some initial designs, MGM designer Adrian landed on the iconic red sequined pump seen in the film. Maguire’s novel, utilizing the film’s sibling backstory to motivate Elphaba, makes the famous pair of slippers into a sentimental pair of shoes adorned with beaded glass, in the musical referred to as "jeweled", which refract multiple colors, notably ruby red. Susan Hilferty’s choice of silver sequined pumps for the musical, given a red special lighting cue at a crucial moment, distinctly resemble Adrian’s 1939 design.
-Dorothy is a young child of roughly seven or eight years old in Baum’s novel and its illustrations. In Maguire’s take on the character she is depicted as a husky teenager prone to cloying musical outbursts. Teenage Judy Garland was famously derided at MGM for her weight, especially filming Oz, with Louis Mayor allegedly calling her his “little hunchback”.
-The Wizard appears as multiple facades in Baum’s novel; a giant head, ball of fire, glamorous woman, and monstrous beast. In the 1939 film the extent of his deception is the use of a giant head, similarly he only appears as a looming head in Wicked.
-But what I find most telling is that none of the witches in Baum’s novel directly interact with one another (later novels in the Oz series withstanding). The famous confrontation between the two witches in Munchkinland was entirely a fabrication of the 1939 film’s screenwriters. The musical’s entire premise, and a large portion of the novel’s, relies on the idea that these two opposing witches shared some past which informs their conflict in that scene, but that moment is solely a product of the 1939 film.
---
I think the way Maguire skirted copyright is incredibly clever and certainly well within fair-use (and probably long past any statute-of-limitations for any kind of damages sought by WB), but I find it wild that such a popular franchise as Wicked has basically used legal gray areas to bring a rainbow of color to Oz, all while claiming use of public domain versions of characters, and clearly mining the trademarked versions of those characters for most of their inspiration.
​
TL;DR Wicked does not function as a prequel to the book by L. Frank Baum, but only serves as a prequel to the 1939 film, starring Judy Garland. This is evident because the Witch in Baum's book isn't green, doesn't ride a broom, only has one eye, no sister, and never interacts with Glinda (who is an amalgamation of two separate characters).

I have reservations about telling these following stories. My life has taught me that nothing at all comes from reminiscing about the “golden years” as it were. But I am now an old man, bereft of any use except what I can remember. I want you to understand the person writing this in order for you to grasp why you are getting this story, why you are getting it now, and why it holds an affect on me still. I am not easily frightened or overwhelmed. But the bizarre nature of these events My simple warning to any casual observer wishing to find entertainment is. I don’t have the answers to the questions and I don’t think I have enough time to find them anymore. Though frankly I don’t think I want them.
Part one
In 1972 I found myself at a party in Beverly Hills. I was an experienced Hollywood agent by this point. I had already seen a rise and fall of an entire movement and generation, and the art industry is always following the generational peaks and pits
“Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe”
“Put your ray gun to my head”
For many clients of mine, the changing days were terrifying because it meant that they had to change or die out like a forgotten species of animal, for me I just kept following the money. If the kids wanna watch Eastwood shoot people instead of Wayne, that is more than fine by me. This was my thinking. Of course it isn’t that simple for everyone else, but I don’t make money based on the quality of the film my actors are in. I make money based on the actor and trust me, plenty of my bigger paychecks have been raked in by what my father would call “a ton of bull.” I disagreed with him and I do today but you see what I mean. An opinion doesn’t buy a home in the hills and a motorcycle. Anyways I was deep in something vaguely alcoholic and privileged that night. Then I saw a friend of mine, who I was sure drove me here, he was holding two full bottles of whiskey pointing the openings directly in his mouth. In the crowd around him was young and somewhat new actor client of mine Sawyer Thompson who was wearing black aviators indoors,(making me question whether I should work with him at all) the entire legal team for Pink Floyd, what could have possibly been Carter Jacobs or Lou Reed(I don’t know I was quite drunk), the guitarist from Deep Purple, Nancy Sinatra, and a dude dressed as Joey Ramone(he probably wasn’t) about 20 more packed around my chaotic friend as the last of the liquor slipped into his mouth. He raised both bottles above him towards the ceiling
“AAAaaaAaaAAAAAAHHHhhhHhhhhHhhHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!” Is what I remember him screaming. Then he pelted a bottle into the wall behind him and it was pulverized into tiny bits. If this didn’t look the effects of simple alcohol to you, it’s because it wasn’t. Edward Stockton Williams was a stuntman and a slave to many things, Cocaine was one of them. At any time of his last 7-8 years of life he could very possibly have been arrested for the pure amount he had in his 1967 Volkswagen Beetle, stashed in little hidey-holes throughout the vehicle. He very possibly could be alive today if that hypothetical traffic stop ever took place. After he threw the first bottle he spotted me.
“HeeeEEY! BboBBBYy! cRAtcH DIS!” He yelled as his arm drew back
My eyes widened. Then he threw the bottle at me. I ducked and saw it sail over me, perfectly past multiple people you would think were of note, and then with a solid hit it took out this music producer from the east coast. Just like that. Silence except for that Bowie record.
“When the kids had killed the man”
“I had to break up the band”
He hit the ground, and of course, that’s when we heard the sirens coming.
“Some crotchety old fart trying to get sleep at 8:30pm called the fuckin’ cops” is what I thought. And then we ran. I don’t mean me, or me and Stockton, I mean ‘we’ as in the party. It must have been 50-80 people of varying sizes and shapes all on their feet moving as fast as possible through the building. I saw a man in an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt attempt a dolphin dive through a window and he bounced off like a 210 lb beach ball. I crawled out a side window and found Stockton in his cocaine filled, dark red beetle the stereo was cranked up and he doing lines off the top of the dash “waiting for me”
“My Stars….”
“So far….”
“No one’s calling me home”
“mmhf” I mumbled.
I had thought that the night was winding down. Past a certain point at night, the moon disappears and before the sun begins appearing on the sky, there is an hour or two that are quiet and dark. This is when the night people rest. Even so, the night wasn’t over just yet. We pulled out into the street. The car was parked along the sidewalk far enough away from the house that was now a circus lit by red and blue. I had ran through the neighbors bushes and I have always been a smaller guy so no one saw me I guess. We drove up and down and along the hillside. Lesser men would be dazed by this and better men wouldn’t have driven in the delirious and spent condition we were in. Everything we said was just nonsense but it was also the funniest stuff ever spat out by humans. It wasn’t the worst of times and it was a quiet stretch of road. Not much around at all. When we saw the hitchhiker the question wasn’t “should we pick him up” it was “hEy Eddie is that… yOu know,” I said pointing. I thought he looked familiar, maybe an old client of mine. The radio was still on.
“There’s a killer on the road”
“His brain is squirming like a toad”
*tzzswwswsswsszzzt*
Eddie changed the channel. And pulled over to pick the man up. The man was wearing black dress shoes and pants, white dress shirt, black unbuttoned waistcoat, and blonde well kept hair. He was pale and he had sunglasses on. I thought he looked like a yuppie from New York or maybe an actor from the black and white days but he couldn’t have been any more than 27-29 years of age. I wondered what he did long enough for him to enter the backseat and for Eddie to pull the small gasoline-drinking creature back into the street. I snapped out of it and Eddie asked what he did
“So, what do you do?”
“Well, what do you mean?” He said politely
“I mean job mister nineteen thirty-three, what do you do?” Eddie belched
“Well, I guess… I am a merchant” he said
“English” Eddie snapped
I mumbled audibly, “he sells stuff”
“Alright then, What do you sell”
“A little bit of everything” he smiled warmly. The man had a presence that worried me. He seemed polite enough I guess, but he had an aura that made me feel like any second something was going to happen. I brushed this off as the effect of the substances
“We haven’t caught your name yet” Eddie asked confrontationally,
“People call me lots of things” the man said,
“Like what, stranger” Eddie said
“What do you do for fun” I said quickly, this guy was extremely imposing in a completely non-physical way. Simply put, he made me very nervous and Eddie was too drunk to be capable of nervousness. So I alone had to maintain the peace in the now cramped Volkswagen Beetle.
“I like to collect things that I find” he responded with “I travel around and I collect something from wherever I go”
“Mmmmm” Eddie mumbled while squinting at the winding white lines
“That’s interesting I guess.” I said, in one sentence all of the tension was shattered. This man wasn’t mysteriously evil like I suspected he was just a weirdo. A bizarre artist type who came to L.A to make it big with his shitty music or paintings of fruit crying or some crap like that. I wasn’t scared anymore, I was just bored. All that and no payoff. What a scam. To clarify, I was wrong about this.
We entered a tunnel and everything went dark around us except for the desperate headlights of the car. Then the radio started getting weird, first it flashed in and out of connection with the station and then it started flying through the channels back and forth, back and forth, I spaced out for a second before I realized that it was saying something
“zzzzIzzzzan’tzzzzzbreaaatthheezzzz”
“zzzzIzzzzan’tzzzzzbreaaatthheezzzz”
“zzzzIzzzzan’tzzzzzbreaaatthheezzzz”
I caught a glimpse of the rear view and I swear I could see the stranger slouching back in his seat and grinning as if all was right with the world. Then bright lights
shined into the car blinding us. The radio settled on the station 69.9 The Ocean which was playing the end of “When the Music’s Over” by The Doors
Eddie swerved a little and slowed down. We were in the main drag of Hollywood. Cars all around as we pulled up to a packed four-way stop.
“How the hell did we get here?” I thought as I sat up and peered confusedly out of the window.
“Hey, um… Bobby my man, when did we start heading this way.” Eddie asked
“I don’t think we did.” I said
“Then how-“ as we were talking a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia with the top down shot past our right loudly playing the same station we were oddly enough
“Music is your ooonnllyy friend”
“Until the end”
The car entered the intersection and I noticed the kid in the car wasn't looking at the road, he was staring up, head back, his long brown hair in the wind, his aviators pointed directly at the empty night sky. He ramped off a divot in the road at the entrance to the intersection and
less than a moment later he punched the car into the side of a gasoline tanker truck that had the green light. The tanker was pushed so that the side that was hit lifted off the asphalt. And then, in the time it would take to take a single picture of the scene and immortalize that moment on film the tanker exploded into a fireball that rose into the sky killing the kid in the sports car, the truck driver, and two people I hadn’t met in a ford sedan were passing through the intersection in the opposite direction. The worst part was the image of the truck driver looking out his window and seeing what happened and watching as he does nothing to save himself, watching the silhouettes of the sedan people panic, watching the kid in the sports car lift his head in time to see fire jump at him consuming him, and worst of all seeing the bodies rapidly melt and fall apart in the fiery explosion. Then the windshield shattered, the car lurched back and as the suspension rebounded we got a good look at the aftermath. Eddie got out of the car. (to help I assume) I looked back and saw that the stranger was gone too. Fire was creeping up a tall building on the corner nearest to the explosion and the tanker was still a large bonfire. Despite this the fire department was there with ambulances faster than I expected possible and despite some minor injuries from glass shattering no one else was hurt majorly. The next day Eddie called me.
“Holy fiery shit Robert, do you remember what happened last night!?”
“Yep” I said “the important parts.”
“Well I don’t, but I’m looking at the tv right now-“ Faint noises were layered under his voice and I guess it was the tv.
“-And I’m thinking, what kinda bloodbath did you drag me to!?” He said more shocked than mad.
“I’m thinking about how you were driving and also what do you actually remember” I replied
“Mmmm, I remember getting to the party, I remember some of the party stuff, and I remember leaving in a hurry because of something, I remember we picked up a hitchhiker that pissed me off and I remember the radio acting up.” He said
“You really gotta pull back on the, ‘party stuff’ Eddie”
I said
He told me, “fuck you, mom.”
Then I told him I would talk to him later and I got ready for work. I had an appointment with someone that day. I walked in and I waited an hour or two at my desk reading a western novel about a bronco buster who broke his arm or something. I don't know I was really bored that day. After that hour or two I walked out of my office to ask my secretary what was going on.
“Hey, Ali, where is the guy?” I asked
She sighed heavily “What guy Robert?”
“Saaaaa- ammy t-t tom tom Thomas, Sammy Thomas, Sammy Thomas’s the name” I said confidently
“I don’t have anything under a Sammy Thomas, Robert.” Is what she said to me.
“Are you sure” she said looking at her ledger
“Mmmm hmmm”
“Oh shit.” she said, “Did you mean Sawyer Thompson?”
“OH YEAH” I yelled “That’s the name!”
“Robert he died, like last night too.”
“Huh?”
“I was watching the news this morning and I thought I recognized that guy.” She said “Well shit, Robert I guess you have the day off”
Sawyer Thompson was all we had booked for that Monday I guess.
This is it for part one.

I’ve posted about my experiences so many times, but forgot a huge detail:
Sometimes I feel NAUSEOUS after waking up from nightmares, and a YouTube comment of a video of a guy feeling scared and nauseous at his job (dark restaurant by himself) and walked by a human face with big black eyes) the comment said that demons send out energy that cause nausea trying to possess you.
Because I’m so tired of retyping the same thing, I’ll just state the main symptoms:
Vivid nightmares: Has included seeing very clear and detailed, human-like beings, including an old man dancing around making surprised faces at me, mocking me for screaming in terror (screaming didn’t wake me up the first time) while my mom danced around in lingerie (at least the demonic old was fully clothed.
Another one was I was in my dark room (past house) and shined a light on this old man’s face. He had an unnatural, cartoon-like open mouth frown, white another guy was trying to remain hidden in the dark.
These were both nightmares where I woke up screaming at the top of my lungs, completely terrified, and felt like I was going to throw up, and seeing them stuck in my head and feeling like they were still there and I desperately prayed and read Bible verses.
Another was seeing this witch like creature (looked like Kamek from the Mario Bros. but with white human skin and black robe and hat instead of blue, definitely still had those huge glasses) LITERALLY PHYSICALLY INSIDE OF MY HEAD, like in my brain or my skull.
There was a black guy wearing a red top hat and, kind of like a musician dressed like Satan. I said “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus” and he disappeared so instantly I didn’t even see him disappear, I just looked down and back and he was immediately gone, like he was never there.
Another this Wiccan girl (I guess) summoned a demon (that actually looked like a demon) for a board game that was supposed to help us get ahead in life (not a Ouija board).
I’ve had many other very strange, vivid, uncanny dreams, some not necessarily bad, but feeling like I left reality and forgot I existed, weird glitch in reality stuff.
Intrusive thoughts: Keep thinking about hurting others, emotionally and physically.
Seeing demonic monsters, very clear and detailed, while wide awake, but not through my eyes or ears, only in/through my mind.
When I was 13 or 14 I literally woke up, got out of bed, ran down the hallway (not in control of it) and ran to my mom to tell her something was wrong. I suddenly started barking in her face, screaming out of terror, and it stopped after calling out to God.
I’ve also had episodes of suddenly speaking gibberish, my hand getting stuck in the air.
I could literally become possessed and controlled again and the police would just yell at me to stop and tase me maybe shoot me, and they’d just label me crazy and/or a criminal.
I even felt demons fill the room when I tried to pray to God one time, when I was 13-14 going through that serious, what was either spiritual warfare or bad medication side effect, but I haven’t taken that one in over a decade…..
But something I’ve been forgetting to mention is THE NAUSEA after some of this nightmares.
It’s getting harder and harder for me NOT to believe in the spiritual.
Maybe I just haven’t been convinced enough to sacrifice everything (current and potential) for God, but I still feel very hesitant and unwilling to just accept God’s will and plan and commit to things like willingly staying celibate/virgin (I don’t even want kids, this cycle needs to end, and don’t really see marriage happening for me, but I’m not asexual and don’t want to remain celibate for life or until my 30s or 40s, I’m 28).
I don’t know if I’ve simply thought so hard and deep about everything, that I somehow dug myself into insanity?
I have smelled what seemed like sulfurotten eggs, and something knocked my water bottle down and then my Uber Eats driver was literally named “Jesus” (a sign?).
On the flip side, I heard chanting in my head that translated to “god of death” or “devil of death”, and right after that happened to check this account, and had a DM that I had 666 karma, which I did, and today I reached 666 notes on my phone.
Also my parents found a huge orb on our security cameras, literally floating up and over the roof like it knew how to/where it was going on.
I’ve had plenty of nightmares that literally take place in my room and this house too, I recently saw my grandfather (who is alive, so it can’t be his spirit) open my door (after barely opening it at first, then fully opening to reveal it with him) and jump on me on my bed, wearing a toga made out of a bedsheet, and his face was disfigured, like, off, like kind of a pointed face and his eyes were kind of staring off and up to the side, like he was looking at me but not looking at me at the same time).
Also my sister grew a penis and flapped it around in my face while my parents just stood and watched.
An unseen person dropped a baby carrier (in the old house) and it was crying REALLY LOUD, like it was being tortured. I looked to check it was ok, and it was just a doll, and cried even louder and harder.
And usually I don’t even notice hearing any sound in my dreams!
The orb was real by the way, not part of a dream.
This suddenly worse last September or October,just suddenly feeling terrified and reality warping, feeling something trying to take control of my body again.
How can medical science and psychology possibly explain this?
I’m sure I forgot some details, but it’s impossible to remember everything.

*Note: I am not a copyright lawyer, I'm not any kind of lawyer, nor am I making an accusation that anyone or any entity is infringing on the copyright or trademark of any other entities. That being said…
I have a theory that Wicked -- both Maguire's novel (Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, 1995) and more so the musical (Wicked, 2003 Universal Stage Productions) -- solely functions as a prequel to the 1939 MGM film the Wizard of Oz (now owned by WB), and not that film's public domain source novel the Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Let me explain...
Maguire wrote Wicked in 1994 in response to the Gulf War. His clever use of Oz characters passed scrutiny during publication in 1995 under parody and fair use laws, and because the Baum novel had long been in the public domain… as well as Ted Turner arranging to sell the MGM catalog to WB, circa 1997, making the timing ideal for Maguire's novel to skirt any copyright/trademark scrutiny for using elements from the non-public domain film.
We know what happened next, the book was a raging success and soon it was popular enough to be optioned by Universal and turned into a stage musical produced (after film & TV productions with Demi Moore and Salma Hayek separately attached failed to materialize). The musical opened first in San Francisco for try-outs and then Broadway in 2003. And writers Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman liberally peppered even more direct homages and winks to the 1939 film into leitmotifs and other elements of the book, score, and staging.
But, Wicked has TOO many elements from the 1939 film, and NOT ENOUGH from Baum's original book, to merit it being called a prequel to the book (this is also true of Disney’s 2013 admitted attempt to cash-in on Wicked’s success, Oz: the Great and Powerful – which is even more egregious than Wicked, and ironic, as its own title is directly lifted from the 1939 film misquote of the book’s moniker of “Oz the Great and Terrible”).
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So now, let's look at some of key differences between the book the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (WWoOZ) and its film adaption from 1939, and how Wicked (and that Disney rip-off - though I don’t want to have to keep mentioning that movie so just assume most of what I say applies there too) reinterprets these events and characters:
- In the book WWoOz it is established that there are four cardinal witches in the land of Oz. Dorothy vanquishes two unrelated Wicked Witches in the East (WWotE) and West (WWotW) as well as encountering the benevolent unnamed good witch of the North at the start of her adventure and a separate good witch, Glinda of the South, who helps her home in the end. MGM condensed the good witches into one character “Glinda the Good Witch of the North” as well as adding a subplot turning the Wicked Witches into sisters (providing Margaret Hamilton’s Witch more direct motivation to pursue Judy Garland’s Dorothy via the Witch’s presumed right to collateral inheritance of her sister’s shoes). Both Maguire and Disney follow the 1939 film’s continuity regarding these relationships making the wicked witches siblings, and Glinda the sole “good witch” in opposition to them.
-WWotW as depicted in Baum’s novel bears little to no resemblance to the green-skinned Margaret Hamilton in the 1939 film, and subsequently Maguire’s Elphaba. Oz illustrator W. W. Denslow, whom Baum worked closely with when designing the characters, depicts the witch as a hunched old hag with three pigtails and an eyepatch, tall brimmed hat, ruffed collar, coat and skirt. While MGM’s design team, led by legendary costumer Adrian, initially tested several looks for WWotW (including a glamorous sequined look inspired by Disney’s Evil Queen in Snow White). MGM screenwriter, Herman Mankiewicz (who expanded the role of the wicked witch from book to screenplay, and wrote several key lines for her including, “I’ll get you my pretty!”) insisted "witches should be ugly!" And Margaret Hamilton’s Witch was given green skin to broadcast her “wickedness” as well as make her face and hands stand-out against her black medieval gown, cloak and sharp brimmed hat. Needless to say this film only element of green-skin becomes a major plot point of Wicked. And Susan Hilferty’s stage designs for Elphaba retain the 1939 film’s silhouette and dark color palette.
-Another difference in Baum’s WWotW is that she only had one eye, but that it "was as powerful as a telescope", and this is how she spies on her enemies. MGM was again inspired by Snow White's Queen, and popular imagery of fortune tellers, giving Hamilton’s Witch the ability to scry in a large crystal ball, which made for some of the most memorable visuals of the film, of her looming eerily over the heroes. Unlike Baum’s WWotW, Maguire’s Elphaba retains vision in both eyes, and inherits her film counterpart's scrying abilities (primarily using a blown-glass orb).
-Baum’s WWotW importantly carries an umbrella, not a broomstick, as a source of protection for her aquaphobia. She has no need for transportation, her location is limited to her castle in the West of Oz. MGM’s script, howvever, gave Hamilton’s Witch a means of transportation that had long been popular in witch mythology, a broomstick, involving her more directly in the narrative (as well as giving the Wizard a macguffin to send Dorothy after). Maguire also chose to make a broomstick a means of travel for Elphaba, and Stephen Schwartz's “Defying Gravity”, the centerpiece of the musical, which sees a scene not included in the novel, where Elphaba defiantly flies over the Emerald City in protest of the Wizard, cemented the broom’s icon status within the framework of the Wicked franchise.
-The Flying Monkeys in Baum’s novel have a rich backstory involving their enslavement at the hands of a sorceress named Gaylette. The monkeys’ terms of imprisonment require they obey three commands given by whomever possess a Golden Cap, which the WWotW owns and uses to capture Dorothy and her friends. Dorothy comes into possession of the Golden Cap after WWotW’s demise (similar to her inheriting the slippers) and is able to command the monkeys to her own benefit later in the book. The Golden Cap subplot was scrapped from the MGM film in favor of giving the witch a more ambiguous command over her uniformed simian air force (though it still appears in the final cut as a prop tossed by Hamilton's Witch to Nikko, the flying monkey). Maguire’s Wicked makes no mention of Baum’s golden cap, giving Elphaba a monkey factotum, similar to MGM’s Nikko, now called Chistrey. The monkeys are given a vivisection backstory in Maguire's novel and are a result of the Grimmerie’s levitation spell in the musical, but Elphaba’s willful command of the their legions, without the limitations of the Golden Cap, is much more reminiscent of MGM’s Witch than Baum’s.
-Famously the slippers Dorothy inherits from the WWotE in Baum’s novel are made of silver metal (sterling silver shoes were popular as decorations and sugar bowls in Baum's day). The Slippers in the 1939 film were famously changed to ruby, so as to be more eye-catching against the technicolor yellow road. After some initial designs, MGM designer Adrian landed on the iconic red sequined pump seen in the film. Maguire’s novel, utilizing the film’s sibling backstory to motivate Elphaba, makes the famous pair of slippers into a sentimental pair of shoes adorned with beaded glass, in the musical referred to as "jeweled", which refract multiple colors, notably ruby red. Susan Hilferty’s choice of silver sequined pumps for the musical, given a red special lighting cue at a crucial moment, distinctly resemble Adrian’s 1939 design.
-Dorothy is a young child of roughly seven or eight years old in Baum’s novel and its illustrations. In Maguire’s take on the character she is depicted as a husky teenager prone to cloying musical outbursts. Teenage Judy Garland was famously derided at MGM for her weight, especially filming Oz, with Louis Mayor allegedly calling her his “little hunchback”.
-The Wizard appears as multiple facades in Baum’s novel; a giant head, ball of fire, glamorous woman, and monstrous beast. In the 1939 film the extent of his deception is the use of a giant head, similarly he only appears as a looming head in Wicked.
-But what I find most telling is that none of the witches in Baum’s novel directly interact with one another (later novels in the Oz series withstanding). The famous confrontation between the two witches in Munchkinland was entirely a fabrication of the 1939 film’s screenwriters. The musical’s entire premise, and a large portion of the novel’s, relies on the idea that these two opposing witches shared some past which informs their conflict in that scene, but that moment is solely a product of the 1939 film.
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I think the way Maguire skirted copyright is incredibly clever and certainly well within fair-use (and probably long past any statute-of-limitations for any kind of damages sought by WB), but I find it wild that such a popular franchise as Wicked has basically used legal gray areas to bring a rainbow of color to Oz, all while claiming use of public domain versions of characters, and clearly mining the trademarked versions of those characters for most of their inspiration.
​
TL;DR Wicked does not function as a prequel to the book by L. Frank Baum, but only serves as a prequel to the 1939 film, starring Judy Garland. This is evident because the Witch in Baum's book isn't green, doesn't ride a broom, only has one eye, no sister, and never interacts with Glinda (who is an amalgamation of two separate characters).

Ok, to start off, I am a big fan of you Charlotte and I watch your videos almost every day. I have been watching for about a year now and you are so funny!
OKk, let’s go. I go to a private Christian school, which is pretty small, about 500 people go there in total (it goes k-12). So in this schoo,l everyone knows everyone pretty much. In my family, I (16 f), my siblings, and two of my cousins go there. Me and my siblings came to this school this year but our cousins have been going here since kindergarten. The girl I’m referring to we will call Sarah. Sarah is in my sister’s (13 f) grade and doesn’t really have many friends now, though she used to. Sarah also has a twin who we will call Sandra. Sarah and Sandra were adopted when they were like 3 by a family who goes to the church that runs the school and the couple has 5 biological sons and the younger of the two is like 6 or 7 years older than them. The two girls were in a situation where their biological parents were neglectful, resulting into Sarah having a burn scar on her face from getting boiling water spilled on her face.
When me and my sister came to the school we were her friend but now her and I are rethinking it. She seems very narcissistic, hypocritical, and ungrateful in my opinion. My sister is friends with all the girls in her grade because she’s really sweet and nice and she doesn’t like to get caught up in all the drama, she usually tries to stay neutral because most of it all is stupid. So, Sarah, at the beginning of the year, had 3 friends in her grade not including her sister. The three friends, my sister, and we will call the other two Haley and Cassandra, would always sit together at lunch and me and my cousin (12 f) as well as my best friend (15 f) sat with them. But about 2 months ago Haley and Cassandra decided not to be friends with Sarah because they felt she was a bad influence as she is very disobedient to her parents, 90% of her conversation is about suicide and death, she causes a lot of drama, and she curses in large amounts. Sarah got really mad about that and proceeded to do small things to poke at them and get them to retaliate like stealing their usual seats at lunch. She would also gossip about them. Me and my sister found this unappealing but we brushed it off because she overreacts a lot. A few weeks later my sister decided to sit next to a friend other than Sarah in a class and Sarah got mad at her for that and wouldn’t talk to her for days and proceeded to talk crap about her for it and was saying that Haley and Cassandra told her not to be her friend anymore and Haley and Cassandra were conspiring against her so that she would have no friends. This was not the case. My sister sits next to Sarah in another class and that class was the only one that they had free seating so she decided to sit with a friend she doesn’t sit with in any other class for once. This was a glaring red flag to me and my sister and it pushed her away when there was nothing between her and Sarah. Later other friends of my sister’s (I’m tired of giving them names so it’s gonna be other friend from now on sorry guys.) told her why her and Sarah aren’t friends anymore. This is the story. So, last year they were friends and everything was going well and then Sarah suddenly told them that she couldn’t be friends with them anymore because of her depression. She said that she was too depressed and couldn’t be friends with them anymore because of her mental health. The friends told her that they still wanted to be her friend but Sarah said no, they couldn’t be friends. Because they still wanted to be friends with her, Sarah said they were discrediting her mental health and saying her mental health wasn’t important, which isn’t the case at all. When me and my sister heard this it was disturbing and it sealed the deal for my sister.
So, my sister is no longer friends with Sarah, and I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to be friends with her, it’s really emotionally exhausting to be around her and she feels like a narcissist, but I can’t help feeling like an AH for wanting to not be her friend. I don’t want to invalidate her depression because, obviously depression is real, I have experienced it, but I just don’t feel like it’s a reason to push away your friends. Also, my best friend and Sarah are close childhood friends and I’m worried that if I’m not Sarah’s friend then it will create a divide between my best friend and me.
So, AITA for not wanting to be Sarah’s friend anymore?

This is the second doctor I saw. From the beginning he interrupted me and told me why I couldn't have what I wanted. He said I had too thick of skin and I was a bad candidate. He said he would not even consider me if I were an out of town patient and that I would have to have a bunch of cortisone shots years after the surgery, that it would take years for the swelling to go down. He then GRABBED the tip of my nose and said ?SEE how it goes red with the touch? look how big your pores are" He then said mine wasn't "as bad as some Asian and middle easterners" he sees. I walked out and as I left he said, "thanks for coming by!" wtf?
This guy seemed like a total crock, but I am concerned he said I was not a good candidate at all. Though it does seem more likely he was saying he didn't have the skills to operate on me, it still makes me nervous. The first doctor I saw did not mention anything at all, he just said exactly what he would be able to do. I'd like to hear from this community. Does thick skin make someone inoperable?

Place: A warehouse in North Gangdong
[Butcherer Union No 3 (Lunatic): Zygarde]: A, A+, A+, S, A
Zygarde: But- I love you. Zygarde: Most ardently
[Butcherer Union No 2 (Slicer): Hae-in]: LR+, LR+, A (Awakened), B, LR+
Hae-in: ... Hae-in: Have you been watching Pride and Prejudice again? Zygarde: Yes. Hae-in: Dweeb. C'mere.
Hae-in wraps her arm around Zygarde. Zygarde lays his head on her lap. His jovial expression turns into a worrisome look.
Hae-in: Chae-in. Am I right? Zygarde: Yes. She's been at it for a while. Ever since we found out it was the remnants of Big Deal. Hae-in: Don't worry about it. She'll be fine. Hae-in grabs his face and stretches his cheeks.
Hae-in: Now stop worrying and focus on me
Zygarde (flustered): Dwon't dwo twhat! (Don't do that!) Hae-in: You're so cute. I just want to eat you up! Zygarde: Twhats cawnanibawism (That's cannibalism) Hae-in (sighing): Nerd. Zygarde: Nawt a newrd! (Not a nerd!) Hae-in: Sure. Whatever you say.
She lets go of his cheeks. Zygarde hid his red face. He sulked.
Hae-in: Fine I won't call you a nerd. Zygarde murmured something under his breath. Hae-in: A what? Come again? Zygarde (softly): a kiss... Hae-in: Again? Zygarde: If you're sorry, kiss me!
Zygarde smugly stared at Hae-in. According to his calculations, Hae-in would never do that- Hae-in's gentle smile twisted into the smile of a ravenous beast. She grabbed both of Zygarde's hands and shoved him to the floor. Bewilderment. What was going on?
Zygarde (in his mind): This is not what I signed up for! Her other hand made a walking motion up his body and finally slid under his head. Zygarde: W-what are you doing? Hae-in: You wanted a kiss didn't you? Here it comes! Zygarde closed his eyes. Was he going to be kissed on the lips? Find out in the next part of Dragon-
Author: Nah I'd give it straight
It happened. Zygarde and Hae-in's lips connected. Zygarde felt as if his breath had been taken away. What was he doing with his life? What is this feeling? Am I crying?
[Imagine passionate kissing idk]
Both of their faces were red after the short session.
Hae-in spoke up first. Hae-in: How does it feel huh? Zygarde: Eh, it could use more effort. 6/10 Hae-in: Oh really? Zygarde: Y-yeah... Don't tell me you want to- Hae-in: Ask and you shall receive. Zygarde: Wait wait no- As Hae-in leaned in, she felt something. Hae-in: Oh. Zygarde: Yeah.
Silence filled the air. Tension was palpable. You could even cut it with a knife. Then, Hae-in suddenly scooped up Zygarde and ran. Zygarde: W-what are you doing? Hae-in: I can't hold it in anymore! Zygarde: If you need to take a shit do it yourself! Hae-in: Don't act all innocent. Brat!
Hae-in got into the room. Threw Zygarde onto the bed. Locked the door. What happened next could only be described as a hot passionate night between 2 young, immature souls. No one knew it then, but this would have a huge effect on our cast. One that lead to the death of Hae-in.

2023 was my most social year on record and if you look at my Instagram, every other post is me with a different group of my friends. I met so many people and got close to a lot. In March, I cut off one friendship who was unhealthy. Then I stopped hearing from my crush. Then my birthday on March 31, none of my 10 friends came. Not even my best friend showed up because she “didn’t feel like driving”. I’m lucky I had 1 friend show up and his birthday is the same week as mine, he also had a shitty birthday but at least all of his friends showed up. I was talking to a guy to try to divest my energy away from my crush not reaching out to me but he got too drunk to come to my birthday (we had planned weeks before he would show up) and just found out he went back to his ex. I’ve been stuck between forgiving my best friend (because I’m lonely and I’ve had good moments with her) or taking that shady behavior as a red flag that shows she’s not my real friend. Had to cut off my dad out of my life. My entire family is broken right now. Obviously, I have no partner. No longer at my job which was a big part of my social life. I got to go to Coachella and bought my brother a ticket who ended up trying to cancel on me 3 days beforehand because his friends weren’t going. Everyone’s been too busy to hang out. And my dog passed away on Friday. it’s been shocking to see how many of my “friends” didn’t even send condolences or check up on me. It feels like for one reason or another, everything is so fucking distant right now. Everyone is dropping like fucking flies what the fuck. I’m such a good friend to everyone I go out of my way for them to feel loved. I’m realizing my friends don’t appreciate me. Or that I don’t have real friends anyways. And I feel stupid. Like an imposter. Trying to look like I have friends on my Instagram when I’m a lonely fuck. I feel like extracting my energy from everyone but what the fuck is that going to do? Make me more lonely. I feel like there’s been an influx of people around me getting married and engaged but that checks out cause it’s only the anniversary of when my wedding was supposed to happen but didn’t happen. I just don’t know what the answer is. I want to be alone but I’m lonely as fuck and want some damn companionship and I just don’t want whatever the fuck this life is.

I would like for people to give me feed back on this trip report, and feel free to ask me any questions you have about it.
10:43pm, I first blended up the mushrooms, and mixed it with a tea to drink it, followed by taking 2 very big hits off of my weed cart. I have been using weed during my trips, because it makes the visuals more intense. I also have noticed that weed increases synesthesia, and makes you able to have tactile hallucinations. while I was waiting for the shrooms to kick in, I decided to watch some videos about the different levels of psychedelic trips.
11:31pm. I noticed the mushrooms starting to kick in, I was getting a buzzing feeling throughout my whole body, I started feeling like I was actually in the video I was watching. I noticed that I needed to pee really bad, so I took off my VR headset to go to the bathroom, but not before taking a couple hits of my cart. I must've taken 5 or 6 decent sized hits of this cart before going in the bathroom. Immediately I started noticing that the patterns on the wall were starting to move around, as well as some moderate visual distortions. I literally only walked a couple feet, but it was getting really hard to balance. Once I finally made it to the toilet it I began to really start tripping hard, as I was peeing I noticed that the texture on the floor had turned into water that would interact with my feet. Then my whole entire bathroom started to shake, and was gonna take off. I sat on the toilet for about 5 minutes while it was shaking just thinking "I better get ready, this is gonna be a crazy experience". I then got up and went back into bed, eventually the shaking stopped, and the whole room started flying away into space. once I was fully in space the room just felt like it was floating, while the visuals started taking up more and more of my vision, becoming increasingly complex. I decided to go under the blanket, and I started to see complex patterns in the fur, along with the blanket looking like it was changing size. after a few minutes, I decide to go out from under my blanket, when the room morphs into a fractal version of its self, that's repeating and getting longer by the second. I was completely amazed by what I was seeing, before getting sucked into it at a insanely high speed. I assume that at this point I blacked out, and had a complete break through. I was floating through this gigantic fractal dimension, that I was flying through. Eventually I found a lake that had the whole entire universe in it. I decided to stop at the universe lake, where there was a gigantic female entity floating in the full lotus position in the middle. The entity was surprised that I was there, and seemed to not want me to be there at first, but then grew to accept that I was there. He then picked up the universe, put it into a ball and showed me it. It was so beautiful, the entity started warming up to me, and telepathically explained to me that I could go wherever I wanted in the universe, I felt so powerful and decided to fly around and go to these crazy different fractal dimensions. I was there for what felt like days, just exploring the different dimensions, during which time I didn't meet anyone else. after a long time I chose to go back to universe lake, where I met the female entity again. The visuals started to become less recognizable, and everything felt like it was winding down, and the entity told me to come back again. I slowly faded back into my bedroom, where I sat there just trying to process what had happened. Suddenly I got the urge to use my phone and check the time.
1:36AM: When I checked my phone I couldn't believe it, I had thought I was there for days, at this point everything felt so great, I was just running around yelling "I love everything" I put on my VR headset and watched another 360 view fractal video. After a while I felt the effects starting to slow down, and I got that feeling that everything was unwinding again.
2:54AM: at this point I noticed that the effects were still going strong, but nowhere near the peak, and I decided to take another hit of the weed pen. I only took 1 small puff, I would estimate that it was about 5mg of THC, but this was enough to launch me into a psychedelic nightmare. after about 15 minutes I, noticed the first effects. My VR headset started feeling really uncomfortable, and my thoughts were coming and going increasingly faster, as well as becoming more and more abstract and negative/scary. I took the headset off, but at this point I was thinking I would say 4 thoughts per second, I was thinking them in one word, but I would have the whole concept of it in my head, the thought were completely random having nothing to do with each other. I was visualizing these thoughts as a giant ring in space that was flowing at an incredibly fast pace, with little red squares that symbolized my thoughts. this effect kept growing in intensity, to the point where I was unable to move, what happens next is by far the most crazy part of the experience. I was flipping through different dimensions, all where something scary/painful was going on at an insanely fast pace. at this point I was completely unable to open my eyes and was paralyzed, I would describe it as feeling every bad thing in the universe, and every thought that I had would come true, keep in mind I was thinking about 4x per second and they were all negative. Some of the sensations I can remember experiencing were, spiders crawling on me, falling at an infinitely fast pace, being boiled alive in acid, harsh cold winds, spinning at an infinitely fast pace, feeling my body vaporize into nothingness. this continued for an hour, before finally starting to slowly slow down, I remember then I was in this infinite white room, where this giant red and black striped worm was attacking me, I could literally feel it every time it bit me, slapped me etc. until that eventually faded out, and I was back into my reality. Relief washed over me and I began to cry and try to process what happened. This was by far the worst thing I've ever experienced. I rid out the rest of the trip, very traumatized at what had just happened. Other than the typical psychedelic effects, only 1 other significant thing happened. I heard my mom and my sister (who is dead btw) talking to each other just outside the door. I couldn't believe it, I was so happy to finally be able to here her just one more time. I wish I could remember what they were saying to each other, but sadly I can't.
8:00AM: the mushrooms finally wore off, and I felt the most peaceful and grateful I ever have in my life, as I slowly fall asleep.

Since I’m not able to get any medical attention right away, I thought I would ask about this here.
I have an ulcer on my inner lip (right side). It’s pretty big, but I never really thought much of it. It basically just looks like a canker sore. I’ve had it for about a year now, maybe two years at most. I really only started to notice it more because I got braces in September of 2022. So the hook of one of my brackets would rub against the sore and irritate it and that’s when I noticed it more.
After a week or two, the sore will be fine. Still there, just doesn’t hurt and I’ll forget about it. It’s been hurting this week, and every time it does, it feels impossible to eat because of my braces irritating the sore.
Never thought it could be cancerous until I looked it up. Turns out a mouth ulcer for over a year is a bit concerning LOL.
Just want to mention that I deal with multiple health conditions. I have been officially diagnosed with iron deficient anemia, tachycardia, asthma, and have multiple vitamin deficiencies. I am an 18 year old female and weigh 92 pounds. I am considered to be malnourished. Though this is pretty underweight, it is simply normal for me since I have always been very underweight.
I have been to multiple doctor appointments in the last year because my physical health hasn’t been the best, and my symptoms are assumed to be because of malnutrition and dehydration. I have no idea if this is all because my body is succumbing to the multiple years of physical health neglect, or because I actually do have mouth cancer and it is slowly attacking my body LOL.
As for the actual mouth cancer symptoms, an ulcer is about all I have. I do have a small lymph node in my jaw on the same side that is pretty tender and a bit swollen though. But I just assumed it was because of a cold I had a few weeks ago since that’s when I noticed it. Other than that, it doesn’t hurt to swallow, I don’t have any face or ear pain, no numbness or bleeding, no lumps, no red or white patches or anything. At least not that I know of… kinda scared to check LOL.
Also want to say that I do not have very good dental hygiene, so maybe that is the root of the mouth ulcers. I at least hope so.
I do have some pretty intense health anxiety, so I’m sure thinking about this will keep me up tonight. Just wanted some advice or reassurance, I suppose. I just want this to be some bad hygiene on my end so I can at least reverse the damage I’ve already done before it’s too late to do anything else.

Hi everyone! Need some advice.
I'm based in Canada and I'm talking to a POT from Germany who's very into transgirls. He's coming to Canada in July for a month and wants me to tag along for 4 weeks as he moves through different cities. He's on a business trip the first week where he wants me to be his girlfriend and look pretty in a big wig CEO cocktail party and then the next 3 weeks is his vacation.
We've been going back and forth for hours, and he's been super respectful and responsive. His replies have been very detailed and specific as to what he wants, and yet he does not pressure me and reminds me that I can always say no or leave at any time. He shows his face and name (as far as I know). I haven't really sensed a red flag yet (but maybe I missed something).
His offer : $2000 allowance a week before the trip to get anything I need, after which he'll provide $4000 per week for the duration of the stint. So in total.... $18,000 for 4 weeks?? Plus food, accommodation, flights, and shopping.
Am I justified for being overly cautious? Should I ask more questions? What else should I clear up? Would love to hear your thoughts - Please and thank you!!!

Top 12 Rookie Winners

1. Malachi Corley - On the surface, I don’t love the Jets landing spot for a rookie WR, but I do love the fit specifically for Corley given how his skill set meshes with the perimeter weapons there. And the “Corley no matter what” texts should add some hype to his ADP.
   
2. Brian Thomas Jr - It’s kind of weird that his ADP might actually fall simply because of the WRs drafted around him, but he still went to a great landing spot tied to a premium young QB, limited target completion on the perimeter, and 1st round draft capital.
   
3. Kimani Vidal- Man, I’m tempted to have him even higher on this list, but I’ll remain measured just because of the late draft capital. This offense can most likely support 2 fantasy relevant RBs, so he just needs to surpass 30 year old Gus or the most injury prone RB in the league to get a sizable chunk of an extremely appealing rushing attack.
   
4. Ben Sinnott - I’m still not sure of how I feel about Sinnott as a fantasy producer long term, but he couldn’t have dreamed for better landing spot and draft capital. He’ll never be an every down TE, but the target competition there is currently pretty thin and there’s legitimate opportunity for him to establish a meaningful role in year 1, which isn’t something you can say about a lot of landing spots for a guy like this.
   
5. Bo Nix - I remain skeptical of the talent, but he’s a week 1 starter with 12th overall draft capital with Sean Payton as his coach and his favorite college target joining him. That comes with a level of market value insulation that he couldn’t have possibly hoped for in any other situation.
   
6. Marvin Harrison Jr - Sure, sure he’s landing spot proof but that doesn’t mean you can’t still be excited for him landing in the perfect spot with a quality QB who just had a lot of success with someone who profiles very similarly to MHJ (DHop) and such a presumably consolidated target tree.
   
7. Jermaine Burton - There was talk weeks ago that the “knucklehead stuff” could make him fall entirely out of the draft, but instead he gets day 2 draft capital with Joe Burrow and the WR3 spot immediately up for grabs and Tee Higgins trade rumors continuing to swirl.
   
8. Keon Coleman. - He gets the Josh Allen landing spot he’s been hoping for and as icing on the cake, the Bills didn’t add anything else at WR. So for the time being at least, it’s him, Curtis Samuel, Khalil Shakir, Kincaid, and James Cook.
   
9. Xavier Worthy - 4th best almost feels too low for this landing spot. It’s the perfect fit for the player and the team. He might be a slow starter and take about half the season to get going but there’s little doubt that Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes will find a way to terrorize the rest of the AFC with him by December as long as he’s not a total bust.
   
10. Ladd McConkey - It’s crazy that a player of Ladd McConkey’s profile can do so much for the value of a top tier QB like Herbert, but it really does. Even in a Greg Roman scheme, the upside for Ladd is uncapped right out of the gate with a potentially large target share from Justin Herbert.
    
11. Caleb Williams - The landing spot was always known but it can’t be stressed enough what an amazing situation he’s walking into. DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze, Cole Kmet, and 2 good receiving RBs in Swift and Roschon. MHJ is also on this list but I feel like Caleb has to be the 1.01 in SF. If any competent QB had those weapons we’d be freaking out and here comes the best rookie prospect since Andrew Luck and it almost feels like the hype isn’t high enough for this.
    
12. JJ McCarthy - I never knew what to make of him pre draft, but this is the part where I’m tossing that aside because of Kevin OConnell and Justin Jefferson, and all the other great weapons like Hock, Addison & Aaron Jones. Given what we’ve seen this offense achieve with some relatively bad backup QBs, it feels McCarthy would have to be pretty bad to outright fail here. Sam Darnold is pretty bad, so JJ will have that job by November at the worst but hopefully week 1
    

Top 10 Rookie Losers

1. Frank Gore Jr - The thing that turned me off of him pre draft was his bottom 10 percentile RAS score but it’s still shocking to see him go completely undrafted given his NFL legacy pedigree. And then he just gets tacked onto the back of the Bills roster after they drafted Davis. Like why couldn’t you have signed in Dallas?
   
2. Joe Milton - RIP if anyone had him as their favorite QB sleeper
   
3. Rome Odunze - This one is going to be controversial especially after I just went on about Caleb but I just want people to consider the possibility this could be similar to JSN where he has a “good” but not great rookie year and everyone is waiting for things to clear out in front of him and they don’t because Keenan Allen is still really good. And so is DJ Moore. And they’re having a lot of success with Odunze in a tertiary role and just decide to keep it that way for a while.
   
4. Bucky Irving - a smaller, slower, less explosive version of Rachaad White lands behind Rachaad White. Not ideal. If he went elsewhere, maybe he could have had a meaningful role eventually but he feels completely redundant as long as White is there.
   
5. Adonai Mitchell - The later 2nd draft capital isn’t ideal and the landing spot has a high upside QB but the JT/AR rushing attack projects to take a big chunk and he’ll be competing long term with an alpha WR in Pittman and Downs who could probably will get as many if not more targets as he will.
   
6. Marshawn Lloyd - I liked MarShawn Lloyd a lot before the draft but I really don’t think Josh Jacobs is a dead man walking before the big deal he just signed even kicks in just because there’s some mild dead money clause in 2025. They signed him to be the guy. Lloyd gets to compete with AJ Dillon for the AJ Dillon role.
   
7. Brock Bowers - Yeah, I know. Bet on the talent. But that doesn’t mean the situation doesn’t kind of suck. Michael Mayer will eat into an annoying chunk of his snap share, Gardner Minshew/Aiden O’Connell limit the upside of the passing game. Devante Adams is still a target hog and Jakobi Meyers will continue to earn targets working similar areas of the field.
   
8. Blake Corum - Harbaugh’s Chargers pass him up in the third round and he lands with Kyren Williams in LA. The first thing Sean McVay said in the press conference about him is “we love Kyren Williams and he reminds us the most of him”. To me that signals they just wanted a backup for Kyren Williams but if you believe in the talent and think he’ll surpass Kyren in a system where there really is no role for an RB2 (and I suspect there will be a fierce argument about this subject all summer) then take him early so I don’t have to.
   
9. Braelon Allen - A Breece Hall sized nuke just hit his dynasty value after he already fell out of day 2 and just to rub salt in the ashes, the Jets drafted Isaiah Davis (RIP to him to by the way) a round later to compete with him and Abanikanda for the scraps.
   
10. Michael Penix Jr - I liked the player well enough pre draft but this is really an inexplicable roster building decision to win a 180 million dollar offseason bidding war for Kirk Cousins and then bet the most valuable asset the team has against him. And now everyone seems to think they’re going to run him out of town in 2 years and eat dead money to get him out of there but what about the scenario where Kirk is successful and they don’t want to run him out of town in 2 years and Penix really does have to wait until he’s 28 to get a chance to be a full time starter?
    

Honorable Mentions
Drake Maye - I don’t think Drake Maye is a loser by any means with the New England landing spot and 3rd overall draft capital, but he could have had McCarthy’s spot at number one winner if only the Pats would have pulled the trigger on the Vikings trade. They were probably right not to, but he would have for sure vaulted above Daniels and there would be 1.02 buzz.
Malik Nabers - Very similar situation to Maye. People will dislike the landing spot, but I like the potentially huge target share he could earn right away. 120-150 targets on the table if he plays all season? That offense could be rough, but volume could make up for it. We’ve seen Garrett Wilson do more with less recently when provided the volume to get there, so Nabers could do that also. But man, if he went to the Chargers at 5…
Troy Franklin - I get the argument for putting him in the losers column after falling to day 3, but he lands with Bo Nix and Sean Payton in a spot where Courtland Sutton’s future with the team is uncertain and everything behind him is equally uncertain.

At the time, I was sitting on the side of the road, on the outskirts of town, across the street from a dive bar that reeked of desperation and depression. And the only reason I wasn’t inside was because I had just been thrown out.
Let me back-up. I’m not gonna tell you my name, but if you live in or near Las Vegas, chances are you’ve heard of me. The king of the strip. The luckiest man in the luckiest city. The guy you want at your table. When I was a kid, it seemed like a harmless quirk; always hitting the ladders and missing the chutes, the perfect draws in Candyland, something for my parents to wow their dinner guests with when there was a lull in conversation. It was around middle school when I realized I could use my luck to my advantage. My school got bit hard by Magic the Gathering fever and while everyone else was doing their damnedest to craft the perfect deck, I was the one who was winning by drawing the perfect card at the perfect time. Made back my lunch money a few times over that year.
College wasn’t my thing, but neither was staying in town; at that point everyone knew to not play any games with me because I’d always end up winning. But I had bigger ambitions. I had gotten a taste for being the victor and now I was hungry for more. So when I turned 21 I hit the road, with a whole new world of unsuspecting people just waiting for me. Hustling isn’t exactly a difficult science; you pretend you don’t know what you’re doing, fold a few hands, then when they raise the stakes and propose a few big money games, you wipe the floor with them and move on to the next town. I lost a few teeth along the way to some sore losers, but with the money I was making it was never too hard to pay for dental work, ice packs, and aspirin.
But that wasn’t enough. I was ready to go big. And the glitzy lights and siren song of jackpots drew me to Las Vegas. Yeah, cliche place, but when you have my luck, the old adage “the house always wins” doesn’t mean jack. That’s when I started making real money, putting my luck to good use full-time. Every pull of a lever, push of a button, throw of the dice… it all came my way. Sure, I got a bad hand or a crap throw often enough, but by the end of the night I always left with more than I started. First few months I was there, I got dragged into back rooms to be interrogated by a bunch of stiffs in tight suits more times than I could count. They were convinced I was cheating. But they never found anything on me: no extra dice, no hidden cards, no cameras, nothing. I told them the truth; that I was just lucky. They didn’t like that answer, but with no proof, they would send me on my way, telling me not to come back for the day. I learned to pace myself: switch up where I was gambling each night, don’t win too much, stop when the dealer was starting to sweat.
Even with those restrictions, I was making more than enough to not just survive, but thrive. Got a nice little penthouse at the top of one of the hotels, spent my days gambling and my nights partying. Slowly, people started to learn my name, follow me around, and want to get close to me. They all were hoping to sap up a little bit of my luck. And the crazy thing? They did. When I was at their table, suddenly everyone’s hands were coming up in their favor. I watched grown men fight over the chance to sit at the slot machine next to mine. I wasn’t just a great gambler, I was the great gambler. The guy who got whispered about when I walked by. The Luckiest Man In Vegas. Hell of a title.
In the back of my mind I always thought one day my luck would peter out. I wasn’t expecting it to be so dramatic.
It started at the poker tables that morning. You know how unlikely it is to get four 2-7 offsuit draws in a row? But there they were, taunting me. The casino always gave me free drinks when I hit a cold streak, but the taste of defeat wouldn’t leave my mouth. Bad day for the tables, I figured, and moved onto the slot machines. Didn’t hit a single payout for an hour. I was starting to sweat; was this some kinda prank by the casino, rigging the games to take me down a peg? Even the lowliest gambler doesn’t have a day this bad. Insulted, I took my business down the strip.
But the next casino didn’t fare much better either. Snake eyes, 0s and 00s, couldn’t hit 21 to save my life. I began to hear the whispers; some of my regular hangers-on, worried that their cash cow was having a dry day. They started moving to other tables, hoping not to catch whatever dark cloud was hanging over my head. After I got two sevens and a lemon, I decided my day would be better spent in bed. It’d give my luck a chance to recharge.
When I swiped my card on the key reader and the light flashed red, I knew something had to be up. I stormed straight down to talk to whoever was working the front desk; I knew them all by name, so getting this sorted out shouldn’t have been a problem. So imagine my surprise to see some new girl behind the desk who didn’t believe me when I told her what was happening. She told me the system said I hadn’t paid my rent that month; I told her I had dropped the check off a week ago, like I always do. There was no record of it in the computer though, and she trusted it more than she trusted me.
Things went south quickly. I suppose I could have just waited for a shift change to talk to someone I actually knew, or given them a call to get this sorted out. But I was already having a bad day, and her attitude was pissing me off. So maybe reaching over the counter to grab her by the hair wasn’t the smartest idea, but the way those two guys the size of tanks grabbed me and threw me out of the building wasn’t called for if you ask me.
I was making a mental note to start looking into a new place to stay when my cell phone rang. It was my bank, telling me that there had been a lot of “suspicious activity” in my account, and that my cards were being frozen until they could sort it out. I definitely turned a few heads on the street with the string of obscenities I screamed into the phone, but I’m pretty sure they hung up on me halfway through; I would have checked, had I not thrown my phone to the ground and shattered it. I checked my wallet to see how much cash I had on me to make it through the day; I really shouldn’t have been surprised to see an empty space where the neat stack of 100’s usually sat.
The rest of the day was kinda a blur; attempts to contact anyone I knew were met with dial tones and busy signals, and in the mood I was in I got stopped from entering all my usual casinos because they said I “looked like I was there to cause problems.” Can’t say I blame them, but it wasn’t doing my demeanor any favors. Do you have any idea how pathetic it is to ask tourists for a little cash to spend at a gas station slot machine? They all thought I was some poor sap in way too deep, rather than the celebrity they should have been treating me like. By the time the sun went down, I had made my way out of town and plopped myself down at the aforementioned dive bar, and their one lowly, pathetic penny slot. I had found a penny in the gutter outside. This was it: the end of this horrible day, the clouds clearing, the path back to being on top of the world. I put the coin in and pulled the lever.
Watermelon. Bananas. Bell.
I stared at the machine. I swear, those stupid little symbols were laughing at me. I saw red, reared my hand back, and punched the machine as hard as I could; next thing I knew, a few of the regulars were hauling my ass out the door and across the street, throwing me into the ditch and telling me to stay out.
And so there I was. Luckiest man in Vegas, sitting on the side of a road. Everything I had in life, gone in the span of a day. No idea on how to get back to where I was… or even if it was possible anymore. My luck had finally run out, and it had run out hard.
That’s when I heard her voice.
“Whoof, you look like you’re having a rough day,” she said.
“Lady, you have no idea how much I don’t wanna talk right now,” I said back. I expected that to be it; people were quick to move on in this city when it was clear you were in no mood. Instead, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.
“Aw, don’t be like that,” she cooed. She had the tone of someone who wasn’t used to consoling people, but was trying her hardest.
I looked over at my visitor; she had on a sparkling red dress like she was headed for the fanciest club in town—odd given how far we were outside the city—and a matching red derby hat with a wide brim and feathers sticking out the side. You know those old ads you’d see for Vegas with some perfect-looking woman dressed to the nines inviting you to come throw your life away? She looked for all the world like she had just stepped right out of one of those, but with a sincere smile that somehow clashed with the rest of her look.
“What do you want?” I seethed, looking her up and down.
She sat down beside me.
“So, um,” she said, casually scratching the back of her head as she searched for the right words. “I don’t know how to tell you this—”
“Oh my god just say it and go away,” I snapped at her.
She nodded. “Alright. I’m… Lady Luck.”
Judging by her reaction, she noticed my eyes rolling. “Cute nickname. Tell me what you’re selling, so I can tell you no and to fuck off.”
“No seriously! I’m her.” She leaned forward a bit, staring me down intently.
This lady wasn’t gonna leave me alone, I figured. “Alright,” I said. “I’ll humor you a bit. Prove it.”
“Uh…” she mumbled, glancing around. “Kinda hard to prove luck… Oh!” She pointed at the bar across the street, where four people were exiting, three of whom looked like they were about to collapse and one who was clearly ready to end the night. “Okay, see the guy in the gray shirt?”
I nodded. “Designated driver, I’m guessing.”
“Good guess,” she said. “And he’s gonna get rewarded for that.”
Two of gray shirt’s friends had already been piled into the car by him, and he was struggling to get the third to follow suit. Like a cartoon, the friend fell straight down to the ground, leading to a world-weary groan from gray shirt. Just as he was leaning down to help his friend up, a truck passed by with its brights on. As the light hit his car, there was a momentary glint from around the driver’s seat. Abandoning his friend, gray shirt reached towards where the glint was; when he pulled his hand back, I could see the tears in his eyes as he held his clenched fist close to his chest.
“The hell…” I muttered.
“Alonzo lost his wedding ring six months ago,” she said, happily leaning back on her hands and surveying the scene. “If his friends hadn’t decided to go out tonight, if he hadn’t been selected as the designated driver, if Marty hadn’t fallen out of the car at just that moment, if that truck hadn’t driven by at that moment, he might have never found it.” She gave me a sheepish grin. “I’m really proud of this one! Love it when luck can give someone a story to last a lifetime.”
Everything she was saying was absurd. But the way Alonzo was cradling his hand, carefully placing something onto his finger, a smile brighter than any of the lights in the city… I was in enough of a terrible mood to buy it.
“Alright, fine, whatever. You’re Lady Luck. So what?” I said. “You come here to gloat? Brag about ruining my life?”
“Nah, I don’t like bragging,” she said. “I wanna apologize. I’ve been watching, today’s been way worse on you than I expected it to be.”
“Expected?” I looked her dead in the eyes. “You knew this was gonna happen?”
“Well, yeah,” she said matter-of-factly. “It’s my whole job to know. But I figured I owed you an explanation.” She turned to fully face me, sitting cross-legged like she was a teacher in a kindergarten class. “How do I put this… everyone in the world has a set level of luck when they’re born. It determines how likely forces beyond your understanding will intervene to make something happen, for better or for worse. Follow me?”
“No.”
“Yeah, didn’t think you would.” She mulled something over in her mind, trying to find the right words. “Okay, so someone is born, and their luck is ‘zero.’ That means anything in their life that comes down to luck is just that: luck. Complete random chance. But if someone has, say… ‘one,’ maybe they’ll be a biiiiiiit more likely to end up with positive results. Or if it’s ‘negative one,’ a bit more likely to end up with negative results.”
“So our lives are determined by stupid video game stats?” I scoffed.
“Not everything in life; in fact it’s only luck. It’s kinda an intangible, a mystical thing, you know? There’s nothing you can do to increase or decrease luck, it just is.” She gave me that sheepish smile again. “Sorry, I’m really not used to explaining this to people.”
“I can tell.”
“So here’s where things get a bit more complex.” She held her hands out in front of her, trying to diagram something that wasn’t there. “There’s only a set amount of luck in the universe. New luck can’t just be conjured from nothing, it’s gotta be distributed amongst everyone and everything. When someone dies, their luck is spread out among the rest of the world; when someone is born, everyone gives them a bit of their luck. So in general, things stay pretty stable. Got it?”
“I think so?” My inflection reflected my confusion. “Lot to think about, but everyone just has their own luck. Got it.”
“Annnnnnd this is where you and I come in.” She continued to smile; it was starting to get to me. “I’ve been doing this job for a looooong time. I’m good at it, but think about how many living things have ever existed. Having to balance all that luck is tough! And, well… I was bound to make a mistake eventually.”
At the word ‘mistake,’ I felt my eye twitch. “What do you mean, mistake?”
She put her hand on my shoulder like a guidance counselor telling a student they’d never make it to college. “Look, I’ll be blunt: you were born with waaaaaay too much luck. You ended up with more than a city’s worth.”
Hearing her say it was like a gut punch and an eye opener all at once. “Sonofabitch,” I mumbled, looking up at the sky and taking it all in.
“What, are you surprised?” she asked.
“Nah, it just… hits different when you actually hear it from someone.” I didn’t say anything for a minute; I just gazed at the stars above me. She went quiet too, giving me the space I needed. Once I was ready, I had to ask the next obvious question. “So, why today? I’ve been lucky my whole life, and then you come by and take it all away from me in a snap? Just wander on in and treat me to the worst day of my life?”
Her smile faltered; she shifted uncomfortably, clearly not thrilled at the prospect of answering the question.
“Well?!” I shouted at her.
“That’s why I’m apologizing!” She shouted back. “I only noticed the error today, so I had to correct things. And the best way to do that is to rip the bandage off, metaphorically speaking. Take all that extra luck and distribute it among everyone else. But yeah, considering the day you had, that was probably a mistake on top of another mistake, so I owe you an apology. This one is on me.”
I wasn’t sure how to react, but I certainly wasn’t feeling positive about her apology.
“‘On me?’” I said through gritted teeth. “That’s all you got for me?”
“I know I’m not good at this, but I can count the number of people I have had to apologize to on one hand, so please cut me a little slack,” she said.
“Cut you some slack?!” She winced when I shouted. “You ruined my life, then expect me to forgive you? Give me my goddamn luck back!”
“I can’t do that, it wouldn’t be fair to everyone!” She stood up; I quickly jumped up to meet her there. “But the worst of it is over now, you’re basically at zero from now on. I’m already having to break a rule to set things straight, do you know how much worse it would be if I—”
“Zero’s not good enough!” I grabbed her by the lapels of her dress. “You give all of it back right this fucking instant!”
“Let me go!” she yelled.
I saw red. Before I knew what I was doing, I drove my head forward; there was a sickening thud as our heads made contact, and she went down immediately. Blood started to trickle down from her forehead, the same color as her dress. I went into auto-pilot and dropped down.
“GIVE IT BACK!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I curled my hands into fists and drove them down into her face. “GIVE ME MY LUCK BACK!!”
Over and over and over, I brought my hands down on her. With each hammer, I felt something more give; another vicious crack, another splatter of blood, another tooth flying to the side. By the time a minute had passed and my senses were returning to me, the woman under me was unrecognizable; a red pulp of blood and bone that would make a medical examiner run from the room in horror. I breathed heavily, staring down at what I had just done, at the lifeless figure below me.
And then… she was fine.
She didn’t magically heal herself, her body didn’t reform and attach itself back together, there wasn’t even a spark or a sound. One moment she was a corpse, the next she looked as pristine as she was when she had come to me minutes ago. She stared back up at me, a mixture of annoyance and disappointment on her face.
“Seriously!?” She yelled.
My only reaction was to fall back, trying to process what I was seeing. She casually stood up and brushed dust off of her dress.
“I-I-I, I’m—” I stammered.
“I APOLOGIZED! I was genuinely sorry for what I put you through! I was trying to make good, and you ATTACK me?!” She put her hands on her hips like a disappointed parent. “See, this is why I don’t like talking with people; you’re all such assholes!”
“B…but…” was all I could get out. She reached down and took me by the shirt, pulling me up to my feet. The smile was gone; there was an intensity burning in her eyes.
“Fine. You want your luck back? You got it!” she said. “Boom. It’s yours again, congratulations. But you know what? You only get it for one more week. Then, it’s over. Got it?!”
I wasn’t about to argue with her. I nodded. “One more week, one more bad day, then all this luck stuff is over. Got it.”
She shook her head. “No. I gave you the chance to do it all in one day, and you decide to get all violent.” The smile returned; this time, combined with the look in her eyes, it terrified me. “You thought I ripped the bandage off badly by doing it in one day? Let’s see what happens when we do it in a minute.”
She shoved me away and turned to leave. I hit the ground, the dust kicking up around me.
“W-wait!” I said, scrambling back to my feet. “Can’t we—”
She was gone. There was no indication that anyone had been there besides me. I looked around frantically, but other than the bar across the way, I was alone.
I’m not sure how long I stood in silence, but eventually all I could do was turn back towards Vegas and start walking. No sooner had I done so then the street lit up and a truck pulled alongside me. The driver rolled the window down.
“Heyo, need a lift into town?” he asked. I nodded, and he pushed the door open and patted the seat.
“Thanks,” I muttered as I sat down.
The moment I closed the door the pitter-patter of rain echoed outside the car, turning into a near-torrential downpour in seconds.
“God damn, it’s really comin’ down!” the driver laughed as he turned his windshield wipers on high. “I usually don’t take this road neither, but my usual route’s backed up. Lucky I came this way or you’d be soaked right now, huh?”
That word rang in my head and I nodded again. “Yeah. Lucky.”
When he dropped me off at my hotel, one of the usual workers was at the front counter. He offered me a sincere apology about the mix-up earlier, said that the new girl hadn’t been told about me yet, and that they found my check behind a desk in the back. They left me champagne and a free gourmet meal for the trouble, but I left it out and collapsed into bed. The next day I went to the bank, where I was greeted with another apology; a clerical error was to blame for my cards being frozen, but now everything had been restored. They even increased my credit limit as an apology.
Things returned to normal for me. The dice were hot, and the hands were hotter. My luck was back. I should have been ecstatic.
But I wasn’t. I was empty.
I’ve been in a haze since then. Because every time I hit a jackpot, every time I get a win, every time someone hands me a free drink, I can see her. Out of the corner of my eye, she’s standing there, watching me with that same smile. But when I turn to look at her, she’s gone.
That was seven days ago. I’m sitting in my penthouse right now writing this. Over the last hour, the lights outside my window have faded, leaving the strip looking an eerie black. There’s no noise either. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard Vegas quiet.
A few moments ago, I heard a soft knock at my door and a woman’s laughter.
Lady Luck has come to collect.

Long, but comprehensive & caring.
Helping a veteran friend who’s like my Auntie unfuck her house for a few weeks now, so she can finally move away from the heat of AZ (that’s bad for her health), and I’m almost done! The end of the miscellaneous boxes is almost near!
Here’s the circumstances & how I approached them:

• house full of boxes and furniture in complete disarray because they quickly packed and moved everything out of the way to pull out the floors, and have all the walls painted to sell the house
  
• some boxes logically filled with like things of all kitchen stuff, or family photos; but some boxes are complete random wtf family heirlooms with kitchen and office and literal junk (packed by auntie’s friend who means well, and has helped tremendously since auntie isn’t able, but she isn’t the most organized person, and had limited time before construction, so she did the best she could and is totally forgiven)
  
• boxes from when auntie lived in lots of fun different places around the world (active military & after), boxes from her late mother, and her late husband, and sister, and the old lady who lived here before.
  
• organizing is my best skill, which I was a little sad about when I was younger because it’s not an exciting skill like singing or astrophysics, but I’ve learned different fun uses of my organization, like producing films, and event planning; and I’m always happy to help with a worthy mission; plus I’ve never been to this part of the country before, so I thought of it as a fun adventure of organizing a whole house in a far off mysterious land.
  

Here’s how I unfucked it all:
First things first, clear out one corner or closet, or already mostly empty space in one room to make your special keepers spot. Preferably a room or closet close to where you’ll load / move from, but out of sight, so potential buyers of the “for sale” items don’t see / want / be obnoxious about things that are not for sale, because they are special keepers. Maybe it starts with a small closet or corner, and as you get through more of the house it moves to larger spot, don’t fret about moving the keepers spot more than once, just be happy that it’s all sorted & ready to go.
Next clean out a spot that’s easily accessible for guests to make the “for sale” spot, I designated the garage, and cleaned off the good keep metal shelves that were in different spots of the house to put down the one wall of the garage instead, to put all the garage sale stuff on, and moved all the keep or miscellaneous stuff out of the garage to sort later. You don’t have to go this far yet of moving all non-sale out yet, or moving shelves, that’s just what I was able to do with the space and things I was given. If all you can do for now is make a lil 4x4 spot designated “for sale” boxes, start there and that’s still a huge win to know that it has a spot. Don’t fret! You’ll get there!
The next step is the hardest, but you’ll feel so much better when it’s done. Trash, Laundry, and Dishes. Apologies to your power bill, water bill, and garbage professionals, but you just gotta keep those appliances (hoping you have my favorite invention ever: a dishwasher) running until it’s all done; because it HAS to be washed before getting packed or sold/donated, and it makes a world of difference to not have those 3 things all over the house as you begin to sort more fun things like collectibles or something you love.
As you go through each room clean up & take pics of the big ticket or larger for sale furniture items to put online. Those items go to the sale spot in the house & immediately listed for sale online to get a head start on getting things out of there to make more room, and everything else gets sorted into categories.
To make sorting into categories easier, put boxes around a big table or comfy chair for things of common categories like “keep sewing” or “keep office supplies” or “keep kitchen” or “sale” etc. so when you do get a super random box of everything, it’s easier to sort into the nearby categories. Some keeper delicate things will need to be repacked later before you tape the boxes closed, but at least you know they’re all keepers of a certain type. & Have a big garbage nearby and extra (preferably crappy non-shippable) boxes to put the garage sale stuff in. & I like to sharpie marker the inside of the box flaps of the top so it’s easier for everyone to see what’s in it.
Also recommend sorting everything by general categories before sorting keep / sell / donate. Example: get ALL the shoes together before you sort which ones are to keep, so you know you keep enough formal or casual or which colors or whatever. Same applies to kitchen, and crafts, and everything else like the 5 vacuums. So yes, generally sort into types before you sort what’s to keep, UNLESS you have an emotional reaction to something in one way or the other love/hate, and then immediately put that item in keep or trash.
& yeah it’ll be emotional!!!! She keeps thanking me for helping because I’m impartial to the emotional attachments to the things, and I keep asking her if it’s worth the truck space?, and could we thrift a similar one where she’s moving?, or is it sentimental?, and it’s helping her to let go of a lot of things, or as she puts it “give it’s a lil kiss and thank it for its time and memories before it finds a new home”. And also there’s a lot of emotions of things that she hasn’t seen in years, like her mom’s photo albums, or a painting by Koko the Gorilla that she hasn’t seen in years and thought was lost, nope, I found it in a cupboard in the garage behind a box. I can’t blame her for crying when she saw it again. It was a lot of emotions of knowing that it’s not lost forever, and WTF?! why was it in the garage when I last saw it in the dining room where I was gonna hang it? So yeah, I try to space out emotional boxes for her to sort because I know they need a lil extra time, love, and an easy one like fun shoes or something happy to lighten the mood after, or a break.
& breaks are great! Take them. Play an app game or watch silly videos for 30min & chill before you go back to your brain trying to organize everything & moving around furniture and boxes, your brain and back and knees will thank you for the time out.
If you’re getting a moving van / cube / car topper, measure out a spot somewhere of that square footage & start a pile there to see how much you’re actually moving so you can easily see if it’s too much. & I recommend labeling all the keep boxes color coded rainbow heavy (books) purple at the bottom and red (fragile / do not smush) for the top. Crayons on all the corners, purple at the bottom & work your color way up the rainbow to red at the top corners of the boxes so you don’t smush something important, and it’s easy to load.
Sell big furniture & collectibles online. Facebook marketplace local for furniture and big stuff, but collectibles to a trusted source elsewhere depending on the niche, or maybe eBay and offer shipping to get more money, which might take lots of time.
Garage sale. Don’t expect much. Everyone is downsizing so what it would have got at a similar sale 10-20 years ago is not what it’ll sell for today. Honestly consider anything sold at a garage sale as a bonus extra, and whatever doesn’t sell after two weeks should get donated, or listed for $1-5 online so someone gets a deal & they’ll actually use it. So don’t stress too much about dragging everything outside; keep it simple and accessible, and advertise free on Facebook local sell groups and craigslist.
When you get overwhelmed, which will totally happen when going through a whole house, stop and take a look at the two clean corners of keepers and sale stuff, and how much bigger they’re getting, and be happy with the progress, and know that the rest can get they way too if you just keep moving.
& speaking of keep moving, this past month we’ve had the fun background noise of fun new albums playing in the garage, and Star Trek Deep Space 9 rewatch on the tv in the house, since it’s our comfort show that we don’t have to pay attention to since we’ve seen it so many times, and is fun to chat about to lighten the mood of the frustration of the misc boxes of: why is the huge heavy mortar and pestle in a box of electronics?!? Helps to laugh it off, or bust out singing like you’re in a musical. Being pissed about it is only going to ruin part of your day, and laughing it off of belting out a musical which makes you laugh, it’s a great peaceful release that is scientifically proven to make most brains happier.
Hopefully a little of this helped you find a way to approach your unique situation.
Best of luck to you all, and if you need a second opinion or more specific organizing advice, message me, I’m happy to help.
If you’ve read this far, Digital Hugs from the one and only - Liz Copic
Edit to add: yes I have my friend’s permission to post all this, even the emotional stuff, and she knows that I post as real me Liz Copic, and she doesn’t care. No Regrets for honesty. Qowat Milat Star Trek style.

Writing for a friend not myself… I am part of a culture that is very keen on arranged marriages. I have no issue with it and I have nothing against arranged marriages in many ways in my community they actually work out better. These relationships move very fast, I’m talking married within 3 months. Anyway to the story: My father is approached by this very wealthy family, both parents are successful physicians, all their children have advanced degrees, they are doing very well for themselves. They said they want to marry their oldest son to me. Their son is only 2 years older than I am, everyone sings praises about him, very stand up guy; no red flags anywhere. My father agreed to let the two of us sit down and meet and talk to each other to see if we were compatible. The whole time we sat together, he never looked me in the eye once, always down at his shoes. I thought he was just very shy. We had great conversation though, a lot in common, we hit it off really well. After a couple more meetings I told my father that I was interested in him and wanted to pursue the engagement. When the engagement was announced we set a date to take photos and have a family dinner. When the man and I were out taking pictures he would stand off to the side while I got my solo shots done. When I called him over so we could take photos together, he kept tripping in random places. I thought it was odd but didn’t make a big thing about it. While sitting at dinner he was lightly tapping around the table until he found the plate and silverware. I started to get a weird feeling but ignored it. When it was time to leave for the evening I noticed he left his keys on the table when I called him to come back and get them he walked over in the wrong direction and into a very obvious pillar. My family was there and saw what happened, at that point I asked him “did you not see where you were going?” He laughed and thought I was being funny, but when he realized I was serious, he asked back “did no one tell you I was blind?” At that point we had know each other about two months. I feel stupid for not realizing it. But it turns out his parents never mentioned it to my family. They continently forgot to mention he was blind. When I found out I felt so gutted I told him the marriage was over. He was trying to apologize and was desperate but I just ignored him. I haven’t contacted him since. So AITAH?