My story:

• We dated for just over a year (she broke up with me a week after our one year)
• She told me the reasons were a) I was too giving and she didn't have the ability to give b) Her needs weren't being met
• After breaking up we met once to talk, once to give me my stuff back and then she contacted me again a week later that she found something and we met again
• We haven't spoken/seen each other since that last meeting on 4/23 (3 plus weeks ago) - at that time she told me she needed space & would speak to me when I have my surgery (having surgery on my leg)
• On 5/8 I met with my Dr. scheduled my surgery and texted her to tell her that I'm having my surgery (didn't tell her the date). The text I got back was thanks for letting her know/best of luck.
• About a week ago I muted her stories on Instagram so she knows I'm no longer viewing them
• This past Thursday she texted me that she knows we haven't really been speaking, she's "checking on me" and wanted to know the date of my surgery. A few back and forth texts and she told me she's happy there are no hard feelings/it was good to chat. I then asked if she'd like to meet for a drink/a walk in the near future and she said "yes"
• She moved two days ago

Questions:
Did she break no contact?
I was planning on sending her a text on Monday somewhat kitchy "You have a drink in your future this week, you can't say no!" with a funny gif of someone voting yes
Does the above seem like she's interested? Being kind?
Thanks in advance :)

My story:

• We dated for just over a year (she broke up with me a week after our one year)
• She told me the reasons were a) I was too giving and she didn't have the ability to give b) Her needs weren't being met
• After breaking up we met once to talk, once to give me my stuff back and then she contacted me again a week later that she found something and we met again
• We haven't spoken/seen each other since that last meeting on 4/23 (3 plus weeks ago) - at that time she told me she needed space & would speak to me when I have my surgery (having surgery on my leg)
• On 5/8 I met with my Dr. scheduled my surgery and texted her to tell her that I'm having my surgery (didn't tell her the date). The text I got back was thanks for letting her know/best of luck.
• About a week ago I muted her stories on Instagram so she knows I'm no longer viewing them
• This past Thursday she texted me that she knows we haven't really been speaking, she's "checking on me" and wanted to know the date of my surgery. A few back and forth texts and she told me she's happy there are no hard feelings/it was good to chat. I then asked if she'd like to meet for a drink/a walk in the near future and she said "yes"
• She moved two days ago

Questions:
Did she break no contact?
I was planning on sending her a text on Monday somewhat kitchy "You have a drink in your future this week, you can't say no!" with a funny gif of someone voting yes
Does the above seem like she's interested? Being kind?
Thanks in advance :)

My ex-gf (F26) and I (M30), were in a situationship of about 4 months, where we weren't exactly together, were doing things regularly as if we were together, and weren't exactly seeing anyone else. We had been together for almost a year, before we broke up. After the breakup, we were on dating apps, and regularly told each other when we received matches, and spoke about them pretty extensively. That is, until one day, I received a date proposition from one of my female matches.
[For a specific note, we are VERY open with each other of sexual details about and related to each other.]
I told my ex-gf that this woman had asked me on a date, but I hadn't actually accepted the date outright. Fast forward about 3 months, and I tell my ex-gf that I decided I would take the woman up on her date. She sounded kind of bummed, but also said I should see how it goes. Later on, that week, she tells me she matched with a guy, and would also be going on a date that weekend. I congratulate her, and we continue our nightly rituals.
Following the date, I give my ex-gf the rundown of the date, and all that went down. I even mentioned that my date and I shared a sweet kiss, but there was really nothing behind it. She was kind of taken aback by this kiss notion, but she accepted it none the less. Then she had her date.
That Sunday after her date, she gives me the whole rundown, including the details of their event, dinner, and after dinner "events." She mentioned that they really got into it, making out, but it bothered me when she mentioned that they did some touching. Obviously, we aren't together, so I was fine with it, but I was just interested in how they even got to the point of him touching her boobs, anyways. But, whatever.
About a week passes, and we get back in a relationship. We are working on a project together, and she casually tells me more about her date. She now mentions that she used some of the things that I liked, on him, when she was giving him a handjob. I kind of looked at her in disbelief, because I was not aware that they touched each other THAT sexually. She mentions that he had fingered her, as well. I asked why she didn't tell me about these details, and she told me that she, "thought I would've asked about the details." I was angry and broke up with her on the spot, because I don't should have to ask for those details.
During that week, I don't talk to her. I called this restaurant waitress that showed me interest and went out with her. By the end of the week, I initiated with my ex-gf, and asked if she would take me back. She did. I told her that earlier in the week, I went on a date with a waitress, and she understood, but I didn't tell her everything. During our date, we sexually touched each other with our hands, and that's all it was. We did not have sex.
[DEEP NOTE] It has been 5 months since this waitress date happened.
Why should I have told her about these details, when she expected me to inquire about her specific date details? Would you consider this cheating even though I broke up the relationship?

Back in 2016, I was working at a roadside diner west of St. Cloud, Minnesota. Neat little place, had a bit of a 60’s vibe to it, but without the hairdo. On the slow hours of the day, or whenever we just had locals around, I’d be humming along with the chefs playing radio out of the kitchen. It wasn’t an exciting time, but it was nice to have a workplace that felt like a second home.
A couple of weekends a month, we had an all-night crew to serve passing truckers. You usually never had to do more than one shift though, and we got to make own schedules. Our boss was pretty hands-off. It was during one of those shifts, at the first week of early summer, that my life took a turn for the worse – and I didn’t even realize it.

We were used to having the occasional odd customer during those hours of the day. When this guy walked in, I didn’t know what to think. He was about 6’2, bald, and pale as chalk. He wore this worn-out t-shirt that looked like it’d been on fire. With every step, he dragged his feet, and collapsed in one of our booths, seemingly exhausted.
I looked back at the chef, and he just shrugged. Guy wasn’t hurting anyone, but he didn’t look like he was all there. But a job’s a job, so I went up to him.
“You alright there?” I asked.
He looked up at me like I was speaking a foreign language, then sunk his head back down, gently shaking it.
“Nah,” he said. “I, uh… I don’t think I am.”
He had this voice on the knife’s edge between a hysterical laugh and a howling cry. He was trembling.
“You need me to call someone?”
“Call?”
“Yeah, call someone.”
“How?”

I didn’t understand the question. I figured he was coming down from some kind of binge, and I wasn’t about to take any chances. I asked the chef to get me a side of bacon to keep the guy calm while I called the police.
As I slid the plate over to him, he sunk his face into his hands, sobbing.
“T-thank you,” he cried. “I-I’m… please…”
I sat down across from him, instinctively reaching out to grab his hand. He let me. Even at a light touch, I could feel the scars on his palm and fingertips. Whatever’d happened to him, it must’ve been awful.
“I can’t go back,” he sniffled. “Don’t make me go back. I can’t. Please, I can’t.”
“You’re not going anywhere. It’s okay,” I smiled. “You’re safe here.”
“Can you help me?” he asked. “Can you keep him out?”
“I’m sure we can figure it out,” I nodded. “Just eat up. It’s okay.”

His fingers trembled as he tentatively bit off a piece of bacon. His teeth were black, and he flinched.
“I need time,” he said. “I need time to run.”
“Don’t worry,” I assured him. “We’ve called for help.”
“I just… I just need time.”
We just sat there for a while. He calmed his breathing but kept staring out the window. I could tell he was looking for something – or someone. All I could see was a road and a handful of moths. We sat there for some time, in silence, as he carefully nibbled on the slices of maple bacon.
As two police officers entered the diner, he got up from his seat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bundle of scrunched-up trash. A couple of singles, a plastic card, dirt, and something resembling animal bones. He tried to straighten out the bills, pushing them into my hands along with the laminated card.
“Just… I need time. I’ll come back. Please.”
I didn’t understand. I just nodded and accepted it. Seconds later, the officers asked him to step outside and explain the situation. I got busy taking orders from a couple of passing truckers, watching glimpses of the scene through the window. A couple of minutes later, the strange man was taken away.

My shift ended at sunrise. I dragged myself to my car with a yawn, shuffling around my pockets for the keys. I hadn’t thought much about the items he’d handed me, but I took a closer look. I’d thrown away the animal bones and dirt, but there were a couple of dollar bills and that laminated card left. I checked the card first.
It looked like some kind of bookmark. On one side it was completely white, and on the other side there were dried blue flower petals arranged in a spiral. Kinda reminded me of a sunflower. And finally, there were the dollar bills.
I didn’t pay much attention to these at first. Just a couple of singles. But after a closer look, I noticed something unusual. There was a man on the bill that I didn’t recognize. It took me a couple of google searches to realize that this man was Walter Mondale – the man who’d lost to Ronald Reagan’s second run for president back in ’84. Why was this man on a one-dollar bill?

Before heading to bed, I put the items down on my nightstand. In a moment of silent wonder, I looked out the window. What had that man been looking for? What’d he been running from?
There was nothing out there.
Just a couple of moths.

Waking up the next morning, I had a full day off. I spent it cleaning my apartment, watching movies, having dinner with a couple of friends, and ending the night with a couple of drinks at the pub down on the corner. No binge or anything, just got a bit boozy. I was still gonna be in bed by midnight.
I took the scenic route home; a long walk. All the way down main street, past the lake. I took a shortcut through the park by the final stretch, speeding up a bit. That place was trouble.
As I hurried by the fountain, I spotted someone in the distance. A shrouded figure at the edge of the streetlights. I stopped to observe for a second, but as I did, the lights flickered. Coming back on, the figure was gone.
I chalked it up to imagination. I was a bit drunk, after all. Besides – it was small, like a child. What the hell would a kid be doing out at this hour?

A couple of days passed. I didn’t notice anything unusual, but I kept coming back to that distressing feeling of missing something important. Looking back at it now, I just feel dumb. He was there all along. Outside the supermarket. In the parking lot. Off the highway. Hell, he was outside my window at night sometimes, but just too short for me to spot.
I’m getting ahead of myself.
It wasn’t until one morning when I was driving to work that I got a clear view of him. I was crossing a four-way street, taking a sharp left turn, when I had to throw myself on the breaks. There was a kid in the middle of the street.
I hadn’t seen him that clearly before. He was probably around 6, maybe 7 years old. Wearing a plain black shirt and a pair of light blue canvas pants. Short black hair, dark eyes, and no shoes. That particular detail stuck with me. No shoes? Why?
I almost lost control, but I was lucky. There wasn’t much traffic, and I managed to stop further down the road. There were black lines in the pavement from my screeching tires swerving back and forth. Regaining my composure, I looked in the rear-view mirror.
The kid was gone.

But that was just the start.
I’d spot him every now and then. Looking out the window at work. At the gas station. A passing face in the crowd when shopping for groceries. Every now and then, something would pull on my attention, forcing me to whip my head around, looking for the source of that ill feeling crawling up my spine. Sometimes I saw him. And even worse – sometimes I didn’t.
I remember lying awake at night, hearing moths tap against my window. There was nothing else. Nothing outside. I patrolled my apartment six times, checking every window. I’d looked everywhere, and there was no reason for me to feel the way I did. I was growing paranoid.
And yet, in the morning, my front door was unlocked, and slightly open.

It all came to a head one afternoon when I was out on my smoke break. I’d barely slept for the past three nights, and you could kinda tell I was having a bad day. As I stood there, leaning against the side door of the diner, I see the kid again. This time just across the road, maybe 50 feet or so away. I’d had enough. This had to end.
I was furious. I stormed forward, calling him out with every slur and curse I could think of. I was psyching myself up. I was in the right, and I refused to be harassed anymore – kid or not. Didn’t matter. I crossed the road, barely dodging a speeding jeep, and met him face-to-face.
“What the hell do you want?!” I’d yell. “Why are you following me?!”
He was completely expressionless. He didn’t even flinch, no matter how much I pointed or screamed. I snapped my fingers in front of his eyes, and he didn’t even blink. He just stared at me, like a porcelain doll head on a swivel.

I wasn’t thinking about the bystanders though. A couple of middle-aged men stepped up, asking in no kind terms what the hell was wrong with me. I was held back and restrained. Someone called the police. Someone else called my manager – I’d forgotten to take off my apron, so they could see the diner logo. A couple of people filmed it. One of the videos got like 120k views in a day before it fell off the map. I still see it as a react gif sometimes.
It was a disaster. After a couple of officers came by to talk to me, he’d just disappeared into thin air. The officers took me down to the station – not to detain me, but to get me away from the heated crowd. That car ride downtown sobered me up to what the hell was going on. I was being stalked by this kid, but there wasn’t a living soul out there that would believe me.
Well, maybe one.
Maybe.

I was asked a couple of questions and released within about half an hour. They told me to go home and sleep this whole thing off. That wouldn’t be a problem. I didn’t have a job to go back to anyway, according to the (many) texts I’d gotten. I had all the goddamn time in the world.
I was just about to leave when something came to mind. The two officers who’d picked me up were still waiting by their car when I turned back to them.
“Sorry, you picked up the guy I called in about at the diner, right?” I asked.
“Sure did.”
“You got any idea what happened to him?”
The two looked at one another for a moment, shrugged, and turned to me.
“Didn’t have any ID and gave a fake name. I think they took him to psych.”
“Psych?”
“Well, he was saying some, uh… strange things. There were interviews with a, uh…”
The two quieted down and flashed me a smile.
“There’s not that much we can say.”

Coming home, I decided to get to the root of this. It didn’t take me that long to find the place where the guy’d been taken; there aren’t a lot of mental health facilities in this part of the country. Especially facilities that accept involuntary subjects.
But my eyes kept drifting back to the strange dollar bills he’d given me, resting neatly on my nightstand. They were so detailed. A bit old, sure, but that only made them seem more genuine. What the hell was he doing with a handful of clearly fake dollar bills? Like, what’s the purpose? There had to be a purpose.
That unnerved me.

I managed to arrange a meeting. It wasn’t easy, and I think a lot of it boiled down to the police having no idea what could make this guy talk. For some reason, he kept providing them with false information. Maybe a familiar face, for one reason or another, might make him talk.
Just a couple of days later, I was putting my items in a metal bowl on the second floor at a mental health institute in the next town over. I asked one of the nurses if I could keep one of my dollar bills. Apparently, that was okay.
I was shuffled through a couple of locked doors and escorted to an off-white side-room. No décor, no locks. The guy was already there.

He’d been dressed down into these neutral eggshell-white garbs. It was strange seeing him in a lit-up room like this. I didn’t know what to expect.
Getting a closer look at him, he was probably in his 50’s. It’d been hard to tell earlier. I couldn’t get over just how pale he was; it was almost a complete lack of pigment. It looked sickly. His thin arms didn’t help – he looked malnourished. And yet, he was smiling.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello to you too,” I smiled. “You doing okay?”
“I’m… I’m pretty good,” he nodded. “Thank you.”
I sat down across from him and took out the dollar bill he’d given me.
“I wanted to ask you about this.”
“For the bacon,” he said, matter-of-factly.
“Excuse me?”
“Sorry, was that not enough?”
“No, it’s…”
I took a moment to compose myself. I had too many questions.

He sighed, took the bill, and looked it over. Looking back at me, I could tell there was something painful stirring in his mind. His smile slowly faded.
“Sorry,” he said. “I try to forget sometimes. It’s easier than making sense of it.”
“Let’s start with something simple,” I nodded. “Like… your name. Where you’re from.”
“Those things are pretty far from simple.”
He was looking straight through me; his eyes sinking back to deeper, more uncomfortable thoughts.

His name was Samuel, and he was born around these parts in back in the 1970’s. He’d worked as a telecommunications specialist out of St. Cloud back in the 90's. He had a wife, three children, and a four-bedroom house.
“But it… that was all before, see?” he explained. “Then it all just…”
“Just what?” I asked. “What happened?”
He looked at me, opening and closing his mouth, looking for the right words to come out. Nothing happened. He shook his head, trying again.
“It started with the street preachers,” he said. “Hundreds of them, marching on every city. All saying the same doomsday shit as always. World was dying. All coming to an end.”
“I haven’t seen anything like that.”
“Then there were storms,” he continued without skipping a beat. “Some would last for weeks. Others longer. Entire cities would be flooded or torn apart. Earthquakes causing monster waves along the east coast, sending shockwaves all the way to mainland Europe. Then, Yellowstone.”
“Yellowstone?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Lights out.”

Samuel was painting this apocalyptic vision of a world undone. Catastrophe after catastrophe. Hooded people marching the streets, screaming for the mercy of a mad god. But there was more to it.
“Then things stopped making sense. It’s as if the rules changed,” he continued. “Roads would stop leading home. Trees would change color. People turned twisted and corrupted. Like… one of our neighbors couldn’t eat anything but gunpowder. There was a woman just down the street who tried to kill anyone wearing glasses. It was… pandemonium.”
I didn’t say anything. What he was saying didn’t make any sense, but he was trying his best to keep his rambling coherent.
“The plants died. Trees too. The only thing that could grow in that environment were these twisted blue things that popped up out of nowhere. But people… people are what got twisted the most.”
He told me of these towering 7-foot-tall humanoid creatures that roamed the forests. Black as night – not even reflecting light. Arms reaching all the way to their knees. Elongated, inhuman things that all used to be someone he knew.

“The doomsayers all said the same thing,” he continued. “That God was a scared little boy, and that he was dying. Everything that was happening was just an expression of that ceaseless, bottomless, existential grief.”
Samuel looked back and forth, finally burying his face in his hands.
“It all broke down. Roads stopped leading anywhere. No power. No water. Julie changed. Ollie changed. Tobie made himself a mask and wandered off into the woods. Ira just… disappeared. And for… years? Has it been years? It’s just been me.”
“But you’re here, now,” I said. “And what you’re describing, it… it didn’t happen.”
“It happened,” he insisted. “Just not… here. But here.”
He tapped his finger on the single dollar bill.
“Somewhere, somehow, I must’ve taken a wrong turn. I slipped through something broken, and now I’m here. And… and he’s coming to bring me back. He doesn’t want anyone to leave.”
“Who?”
“Just! Just…” he chuckled. “Just a sad little boy who’s been told he’s going to die.”
I didn’t know what to say. I just sat with him for a while, holding his hand.

Before I left, Samuel got up from his chair. He looked at me, forcing himself to smile.
“If I go back, I’ll try not to… to be like them. I’ll try. And… and I’ll be the one to say something.”
He let out a painful little laugh, shaking his head.
“Maybe just a… hello.”

I left that day with more questions than answers. I couldn’t picture the world he’d lived through. Then again, how could it be true? None of it had happened. But what was he gaining from lying about it?
That was the last time I saw Samuel. A few days later, he went missing, as if he’d disappeared into thin air. I didn’t know what to think of it. There was nothing on the cameras – no one entering or leaving the building. No quick escapes, no clever plans. He’d just walked into his room and disappeared. Nothing left but a couple of moths fluttering about.
And for a while, that was it. That was the end of the story. I got busy looking for a new job, and all the little items given to me by Samuel was put away into a little box in my glove compartment. Life soldiered on, and no matter how many questions I had, there was no one around to answer them. Even the strange kid that’d been following me was, seemingly, gone.

A couple of months later, I was driving home from a friend’s place. I stopped at a four-way street, waiting for a couple of trucks to pass, when there was a knock on the passenger side window. I almost choked on my own spit. Scared me half to death.
Looking out, I could see that kid again. I hadn’t seen him for some time, and I quickly bounced between curiosity and downright anger.
“What do you want?” I yelled out.
There was no response. Instead, the door just opened. It’d been locked. As he opened the door, he pointed to the glove box.
“You want his things?” I asked. “Is that it?”
He nodded. I wanted to lash out, but there was something telling me I shouldn’t. Instead, I reached over, opened the glove compartment, and pointed to the box.
“Just take it and leave me alone,” I said. “Get it over with.”

He reached in and grabbed the box. So much effort for a couple of mementos. I turned my head back to face the road. The kid backed out. But of course, I had to get the last word in.
“Not even a thank you, huh?”
That made him pause. He looked at me, tilting his head. As he opened his mouth to speak, a moth fluttered out. Then another. And another.
Then – darkness.

What happened next is hard to describe. My memory of it is fragmented. It’s like trying to watch a buffering video, where long stretches of it are just nothing – but you know something was supposed to happen in-between.
Blink. I was sitting in my car. There was a dark blue sky. No clouds, no stars. Figures in the distance. An open field with blue flowers bending to a howling wind. A powerful stench of ammonia stinging my nostrils. Something to my immediate left, ripping the car door straight off the hinges.
Blink. Running. Ruins of a town. It seemed familiar, but there was barely anything left. My leg was bleeding. I was being followed. No matter where I turned, or where I ran, I seemed to end up at the same intersection.
Blink. A three-story building, brimming with life. Glimpses of arm-long antennae through the broken windows. Clickety-clack of bursting wings tapping against crumbling concrete. A loud warning shriek as something rubs its legs together; a call for prey.
Blink. Hiding in a tipped-over trash container. The rain has stopped in mid-air. Raindrops held in indefinite suspension. I suck water drops out of the air to quench my thirst. My hands are shaking from the blood loss.

Countless little images. Some in order, some not. I have no idea how much time passed. In the moment, it must’ve been much longer than I can remember. Days. Weeks, even. There’s no way to tell.
Blink. Walking through a barren field. It feels like walking through a dead forest, but there are no trees. Only those willingly impaled and wailing.
Blink. An abandoned booth by a broken highway. A sign offers phone calls, in exchange for “real teeth”. There are six sizes of pliers hanging on a wall within. All are bloodied – even the small ones.
Blink. The church that had burned down the night before had reappeared. The people inside, too. They couldn’t leave. Tonight, they would burn again.

Somewhere in this nightmarish puzzle-pieced fragment of nothing, there was a constant drive in me to get away. To get out. I knew that if I’d gotten there, I could get back home again. I just had no idea how. Maybe finding the kid. Asking. Begging. Something.
The last fragment of memory from that space was being cornered in a cellar. They were banging on the door. I’d tipped over a wardrobe to keep them out, but they weren’t going to stop. They were never going to stop. I couldn’t let them kill me again – not like that.
One of the Changed ones were coming. I don’t know what that means, or how I know the name, but I knew of it. There was a mirror, and I could see the signs. It stepped out. Seven feet tall, black as night. Elongated arms and neck. Barely a body at all – just a void space vaguely shaped like the remnants of a person.
Except this one felt… familiar. It was the first one to speak.
“H E L L O.”

Blink. Running. A cold hand. If I squeezed too hard, my fingers went straight through it. I had to keep up. He was showing me something.
Blink. They were flooding over the school bus, tipping it by their sheer numbers. Eruptions from the sewer grates. They were famished.
Blink. An open field. Sunflowers facing me, no matter where I turn. It’s not far.
Blink. I look back, as I’m pushed over the edge. He looks just like the rest of them. They aren’t angered by his betrayal.
They feel nothing, as I fall.

In February of 2017, I was found by the side of the road. I’d been gone for months. My car was too. I came back with nothing but the clothes on my back and countless scars. I’ve been told that I didn’t make any sense at first; I was just rambling nonsense. Or maybe it just sounded like nonsense to these people.
Over time, I forgot more and more of these fragmented images. And the less I remember, the more I can move on. Still, I’ve written them down over time, and they paint an ugly, insane picture of what I’d been going through. Some of which I, myself, have a hard time believing. Then again, I know myself well enough to see that there’s no point in lying.

I haven’t seen Samuel, or that strange kid ever since. I think this is all over, for now. There’s nothing left for me to give.
But even now, years later, I still wake up to that feeling at night. That there’s something wrong, or that I’m forgetting something. That there’s something near that I’m looking straight through, or past.
And every now and then, I hear the flutter of a moth’s wing, tapping against my bedroom window.
And I think I know what it wants.
It wants me to go back.

Welcome to the Concrit Commune, where you can get bits of your fic looked at... for a small "price."
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From the first posts of 2022, we ran a long trial where we shifted the timezone of the Comment Cooperative and Concrit Commune threads approximately every month. The trial was proposed due to feedback that some people consistently miss the influx of comments due to the timing of the thread, and a changing time would give everyone an opportunity to be in the first period of the thread and also might help with picking up some new subreddit members who want to participate.
At the end of the trial, we sought feedback on the changing times, which times were preferred and at which people were able to participate more. While found that most people wanted the timezone changes to continue and also received feedback on what didn’t work as well. Most of this was regarding inconsistencies in the number of weeks and the communication of when changes would occur.
The last time we changed the times, it caused a lot of confusion. To avoid that happening again, we have updated the post to include the schedule of these changes and automated the scheduled changes. As you can see, the post time will shift by 6 hours every month. For at least the first 4 months, the new time will be stickied for the first week and if that works well, we should be able to continue that. If there are any inconsistencies in the times, please let us know in modmail so we can fix it up!

Months	PST	EDT	GMT	CEST	JST	AEST	NZT
February, June, October	Saturday: 8:30am	Saturday: 11:30am	Saturday: 3:30pm	Saturday: 5:30pm	Sunday: 12:30am	Sunday: 1:30am	Sunday: 3:30am
March, July, November	Saturday: 2:30am	Saturday: 5:30am	Saturday: 9:30am	Saturday: 11:30am	Saturday: 6:30pm	Saturday: 7:30pm	Saturday: 9:30pm
April, August, December	Friday: 8:30pm	Friday: 11:30pm	Saturday: 3:30am	Saturday: 5:30am	Saturday: 12:30pm	Saturday: 1:30pm	Saturday: 3:30pm
May, January, September	Saturday: 2:30pm	Saturday: 5:30pm	Saturday: 9:30pm	Saturday: 11:30pm	Sunday: 6:30am	Sunday: 7:30am	Sunday: 9:30am

Please note that there may be a difference of an hour during parts of the year due to daylight savings in various timezones.

Mirror Face is one of the least popular plot devices in the RGG series. Maybe even THE least popular. There are a lot of posts asking "why is Mirror Face a thing" or something to that effect, but...do you ever SERIOUSLY wonder? I did, and I wrote a bunch about it :3c
(any errors, tell me and i'll fix it! if it's a critical error that topples my entire premise then uhhh i cut off my pinky finger i guess)
let it be known this is not a defence. This is me looking into the circumstances that may have caused him. This features spoilers for Yakuza 5, Kiwami 2, Judgment and Infinite Wealth, just FYI
Ryo Aoki has made it clear he prefers to take care of "loose ends", i.e. assassinating possible information leaks. He did this with Ogasawara, so it's entirely in line with his MO that he'd want to assassinate Sawashiro too after he'd been assassinated. However, there are currently two big names at his disposal in the Omi that we know of that he could use:

• Reiji Ishioda, a man known for being loud, unpredictable and destructive. First seen using a wrecking ball. Absolute worst candidate for a covert assassination
• Yosuke Tendo, a hulking behemoth of an ex-boxer. Very capricious, and actually okay at assassinations, but Sawashiro's in prison - how would Tendo get him there? Not to mention setting up a fight with Tendo in Yokohama means 1) Ishioda gets even less than what he already has, 2) takes the air out of his fight with Ichiban in the Millennium Tower, and would make it much less of a final boss, not to mention he may not even be there as he'd be stuck in prison - also, the idea of an Ishioda final boss (or Masato only) would be very weird

Both these options aren't good, so it has to be someone else. Nobody in the Omi fits, not even any of the minor Omi characters encountered so far (like that one crazy guy who says he was gonna gut Ichiban like a fish)
Surely there can be someone else?

• (Infinite Wealth) The assassin who killed Hoshino might have been a good bet. Unsure of if he has prison access though, and it might also just be Mirror Face again? Also, most importantly, he wasn't present in the writing because IW wasn't out obviously
• Funny answer, (Yakuza 5) because his previous line of work was this exact kind of thing: Baba. Saejima was on the inside in this case, though, and also if he did this, it'd show he learnt nothing from Shinada
• From the above, I used to think Mitsuo could have been something just because he barely appeared. We don't know much about post-timeskip Mitsuo, but the prologue makes it clear Sawashiro did NOT treat him or Ichiban well, and one possible route could have been a resentful Mitsuo finally wanting him dead, as spending the last 18 years alone under Sawashiro with no Ichiban to act as a lightning rod both drove him over the edge and turned him into a hardened yakuza. I'd get not doing this though as you risk repeating Nishiki's storyline and having Ichiban come across as retreading Kiryu's steps with the "i just got back from prison for nearly 20 years for a murder i didn't do but took the fall for anyway but kyodai nooo don't kill people you're so sexy haha" stuff, and also because it'd be kinda shocking for Mitsuo to turn out that way

Nope. Still nothing :(
What other options are there?

• Have someone on the inside handle matters, the way Sera did between 0 and Kiwami. However, this involves pulling a guy out of thin air the player didn't know, and now you have to explain where they were before this. Kiryu has also not counted this as an option, stating only law enforcement could get to Sawashiro, so you can't send someone in to do this either, also if it's in prison the Ichigang can't get to him at all - no way to stop him
• A corrupt police officer. However, Aoki holds little influence over Kanagawa's police department as the Daidoji-backed CLP still holds their seat here, and you'd also need to make a new guy. I can't think of anyone else that can move in and out of prison like this
• Someone who can IMPERSONATE a police officer, removing the restriction of them having to be a Kanagawa PD officer. This works

With what you have now, you pretty much have to pull a guy out of thin air to assassinate Sawashiro as there are no viable existing candidates that make sense to kill Sawashiro. It's got to be a new guy who can also impersonate a cop well enough to get into a high security prison, AND get out. Since it's a new guy, he can be anything. RGG Studio decided that his degree of impersonation would be spot-on, 100% perfect, down to the voice and face, down to the muscles?
Why? Why a perfect imitation?
I...am not sure??? Maybe it was easier just to use the models of the people he impersonates rather than making "kind of but not quite" versions, or perhaps they realised the impersonation has to be at LEAST good enough for the players not to feel like the game wants them to accept a subpar imitation, and cranked the accuracy on his outfits up to 100%. Yagami and Kaito got by on much worse though, so maybe not that one, but THIS is the part that pissed a lot of people off. There could also be the issue of having to bring in another voice actor for an imperfect imitation, but I doubt they were anywhere near THAT hard-up for money. I'm not sure if they were any of these reasons, but I'm thinking of possible ones rather
(Why did he choose to impersonate some retired traffic cop anyway? Maybe if it were a big name cop, the ruse might fall apart due to someone figuring out where the real one was at the time, and the real one's word counts for something - for a nobody like Adachi, it'd just be easier to have the real Adachi take the fall for it)
So here we have the corner the writers have gotten themselves into: an assassin who can impersonate law enforcement very well, who until now has not popped up, and can't be in prison currently. They have, for whatever reason, perhaps one of the ones above, decided he can imitate people perfectly, with personality only slightly flawed. Some people are good at imitating voices very well. With the right tools, you can imitate a number of people, too. As far as body builds, it's difficult, but if you're lucky to have the same build as the people you're imitating, then fine. All three, without having to dedicate. (Not-Tendo has no Kansai drawl from what I hear, but he's still Pretty Close voicewise)
It's worth noting this isn't the first time perfect imitation of appearance has happened. Far from it - the Jingweon have demonstrated it, not least with The Man Himself, Yeonsu Kim, andFake Kazuki in Kiwami 2 . However, K2 didn't use him as a major plot point, so it's easy to understand why people are...a little more annoyed about Mirror Face in 7. (Lost Judgment)also features this, but shows an obvious drawback in that you can't talk too much in it, nor make certain expressions
(In Yeonsu's case it's permanent plastic surgery so it's different. (Kiwami 2) Kazuki though? Do you think someone really got themselves to permanently look like the host of some Kamurocho host club for the sake of a single scheme? He barely did anything too that's so funny)
What about his appearance in the finale?
Everything Mirror Face!Tendo said is something Tendo himself could have said. An earlier scene in the finale saw Aoki tell Tendo in no uncertain terms he is disposable; Tendo has already shown he's capricious and disloyal when switching sides during the Dissolution's fight (and killing Arakawa), so surely it wouldn't be OOC for him to turn on Aoki between that and dissatisfaction with being disposable? Doesn't need Mirror Face at all. Not really sure Mirror Face was really needed here?? The first contrivance was pushing it to begin with, and bringing Mirror Face back in (plus how did Ichiban get his number so easily???) is a little much. I think this could have done without Not-Tendo
What could RGG have done to not put themselves in this corner? Maybe avoid Mirror Face entirely, perfect imitation or no?

• Yokoyama himself has admitted he's a "write as I go" kind of writer, so it's pretty likely he wrote himself into this corner without realising it, if he was responsible for the circumstances that created Mirror Face. It's hard to give a "shoulda" to a guy with this writing style, but maybe:
• There could have been a corrupt cop introduced earlier on that would have fit the bill for this assassination. Aoki has the Tokyo PD in his pocket though, not Kanagawa,, so you might need to bring a corrupt Kanagawa PD officer in - corruption in the higher ranks has already been stated by Adachi
• (Judgment) Also, ANOTHER Tokyo PD hitman, making it two games in a row, within the space of less than a year, might be a little overdoing it. It would have made the Tokyo PD look like they have a really bad serial killer problem, though. It would be really funny however and I think that'd be worth it. Worth noting though that (Lost Judgment) Tokyo PD can absolutely muscle in on and even take over Yokohama investigations, so it wouldn't be ENTIRELY out of the question. Actually now I think about it Soma would have been a good candidate though I'm unsure of if the Ichigang could come out on top against him. He's a horror movie villain
• (Lost Judgment) Or...the rubber face masks Kuwana used. In that case, the lack of voice was very much an imperfection, and for Mirror Face you could have had him remain a man of few words
• A reason to bring Sawashiro out of prison briefly could be one to open up the assassin candidate list, but I have NO clue how, given he's in for murder (a charge that generally doesn't provide bail) in a place Aoki has little direct influence over the police. I think Sawashiro calling the police on himself in an attempt to get Ichiban to stop him was really well done and I wouldn't want to remove that, and removing Sawashiro entirely would remove the post-fight cutscene which was pretty good, even if the double locker baby plot twist took similar heat to Mirror Face after the game came out
• Have his "base" appearance resemble a slightly off Adachi. Just have him be a naturally big guy who only needs the makeup and outfit. That one's simple. The first appearance (on the Geomijul monitors) kinda just shows him to be a slightly taller guy with an average build - with no finale appearance, he doesn't really need to imitate Tendo either
• Having the Sawashiro showdown happen under completely different circumstances. However just going "they should have simply done it differently" is worth little on its own though. I'm not. I'm not a writer

My opinion? The issue was that his imitation had no imperfections other than personality. Make his face a little off, or have him speak very little. it's like magic as it is!!
TL;DR: They wrote themselves into a corner and Mirror Face was the most convenient contrivance they had because there was really little to nothing in the way of other possible contrivances. It almost had to be an expert lookalike assassin who previously hadn't popped up. There was no reason he had to be such a good imitator that it's almost supernatural, though. That's entirely on them and I have no clue why they did that - but the rest of it had to happen pretty much. Also he didn't need to be there at the end
TL;DR TL;DR: the worst sins committed with Mirror Face were his 100% perfect imitation skills and his unnecessary appearance as not-Tendo at the end. yes i still don't think it was a very good plot device
TL;DR except it's a gif:
https://i.redd.it/cz6l92ag481d1.gif

Hi everyone – I’ve recently been building a weekly business newsletter called Pulse of Progress and got my first 1,100 subscribers in just 14 days!
The best part? I used zero paid ads. All of my subs were completely free!
Here’s how I did it.
But first, let me provide some context…
For the last 6 months, I’ve been testing out different side hustle / business ideas. I have a running list of ideas that I test on forums like Reddit and Indie Hacker to get a pulse on what the public thinks. In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to validate an idea before investing any money or serious time into it. If it gets some traction or interest in the first few days, you know you have something. If not, its time to move on.
I start by generating some interest on social platforms and freelance websites (side note – I’ve come up with a method that helps me do this and get tangible results. So, if this is something you want to learn more about, let me know. I’ll make a post around this too). It’s an approach I’ve developed and tested over the last year with other ideas, so I just do the same with all other ideas I want to test / validate in the future. I want to see results fast, not waste time on non-value add activities.
Here are some of the business ideas I’ve tested:
1. Newsletter sponsorship marketplace – created a platform connecting newsletter businesses with potential advertisers. The marketplace allows the businesses to post their content and advertisers to find and book ad slots
2. AI based email marketing optimization tool – developed an AI tool that analyzes email marketing campaigns and provides optimization suggestions to improve open rates, click-through rates, and conversions
3. Remote language exchange facilitation – pair individuals looking to learn each other’s languages and facilitate their language exchange sessions online
I shut all of these down. I couldn’t get the momentum I wanted or hoped for to consider them a success. The AI based email marketing optimization tool went viral on Hacker News and Indie Hacker, but it was because I was able to generate some hype around it for a short period of time. But the hype faded fast…real fast. I had about 100 people sign up for the service. As for my other businesses, I had a few signups here and there but nothing worth keeping the business alive and investing more of my time into it.
Something I want to call out at this point: all of the businesses I tried starting in the past were bootstrapped. I never used money I made from the sale of my other businesses. I sold one business (a virtual event planning business that took off during the pandemic. We organized and managed virtual events, think webinars / workshops / conferences, for specific interest groups and professional communities). I never touched the proceeds from that sale to start the company I currently run. The reason I bring this up is because I think your business, regardless of what it is, needs to stand on its own. If it couldn’t, I knew it was time to move on. I didn’t want to give myself a false sense of hope that it would work by continuously throwing money at it.
The reason I started a business newsletter…
A newsletter was perfect. It was easy to start and required no money to get it up and running. The purpose behind the newsletter was centered around the idea of creating something that informed and educated people but was entertaining to read. Reading in general, news or not, can sometimes feel like a chore (at least for me). This was the opposite. This was something you genuinely looked forward to reading, the things that influence your world and the decisions you make on a daily basis.
The biggest issue I had with everything else out there was that the content was around things I didn’t care about. Not to mention it put me to sleep half the time. And that’s when it hit me – create a platform that genuinely helped people stay ahead in this information heavy world. Filter out the nonsense, deliver on high-value content.
The test phase…
I spent a couple hours looking up any Facebook group that was related to starting side hustles, escaping the 9-5 grind, online businesses etc. Once I came up with a small list of about 8-10 groups, I spent the next few days posting about the newsletter. One caveat for me when looking for which groups to post in: they needed to have more than 50K users. I wanted my posts to have some reach and didn’t want to waste my time in groups that were smaller and were barely active. I also designed some GIFs (I drew inspiration from the early Milk Road days when they posted funny GIFs / memes about their newsletter all over social media) but that didn’t work. Like at all. So, I shifted gears.
The first day, I posted about the newsletter in 8 different groups and got about 45 subscribers the next day. Over the next two weeks, I spent a couple of hours each day making similar posts within these groups and tried finding other groups I can post in. This proved to be successful. Making consistent posts got people engaged and subscribing to the newsletter. It was starting to gain some steam. And this is what lead to my first 1,100 subscribers in the first 14 days.
Why this worked…
1. Value creation: The best ideas appeal to what people want, and more importantly, need. It helps solve a problem. And in this case, people want high quality content that helps them make informed decisions, educates them along the way and is a joy to read.
2. Helps identify trends before they happen: Understanding emerging trends and market dynamics is crucial for staying ahead. This knowledge allows people to adapt quickly, innovate effectively, and capitalize on new market opportunities.
3. Sparks innovation and creativity: Exposure to different perspectives and new information sparks innovation and creative thinking. Staying informed about global trends, tech advancements, and industry breakthroughs inspires new ideas and approaches.
Things to keep in mind…
What I’ve realized is that you want your ideas to generate a “natural pull” from the world. It shouldn’t be something you “push” onto people. Trying to convince people they need something that doesn’t help improve their lives or satisfy a need is a waste of time. Listen to what people want. And build from there.
I’ve had multiple profitable businesses and the common theme between them all is that they cost me less than $100 to start and get product / market fit. I won’t lie, sometimes I let my ego get in the way when I put an idea out there and it got rejected. And trust me when I tell you, that’s happened more often than I’d like to admit. I spent way too much time and money putting something together even when I knew it wasn’t worth pursuing.
How does that saying go…the one about Thomas Edison and his attempt at building the first light bulb after trying and failing 1000 times. “I haven’t failed. I just found 1000 different ways how not to build a lightbulb.” And that’s just it…who cares if the idea didn’t work. Hate to break it to you, but most will. Instead, focus on the skills you’ve picked up and learned along the way while building this business and apply it to the next.
Anyways, I hope this post helps at least one person grow their business, subs count, social media presence. Now that I’ve grown my audience to over 10K subscribers organically, I’m looking into using paid ads to grow even more from here. The problem is I have no idea how to do that! So, if anyone has any tips or tricks, I’d love to hear them.
Good luck my friends.

Hi everyone – I’ve recently been building a weekly business newsletter called Pulse of Progress and got my first 1,100 subscribers in just 14 days!
The best part? I used zero paid ads. All of my subs were completely free!
Here’s how I did it.
But first, let me provide some context…
For the last 6 months, I’ve been testing out different side hustle / business ideas. I have a running list of ideas that I test on forums like Reddit and Indie Hacker to get a pulse on what the public thinks. In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to validate an idea before investing any money or serious time into it. If it gets some traction or interest in the first few days, you know you have something. If not, its time to move on.
I start by generating some interest on social platforms and freelance websites (side note – I’ve come up with a method that helps me do this and get tangible results. So, if this is something you want to learn more about, let me know. I’ll make a post around this too). It’s an approach I’ve developed and tested over the last year with other ideas, so I just do the same with all other ideas I want to test / validate in the future. I want to see results fast, not waste time on non-value add activities.
Here are some of the business ideas I’ve tested:
1. Newsletter sponsorship marketplace – created a platform connecting newsletter businesses with potential advertisers. The marketplace allows the businesses to post their content and advertisers to find and book ad slots
2. AI based email marketing optimization tool – developed an AI tool that analyzes email marketing campaigns and provides optimization suggestions to improve open rates, click-through rates, and conversions
3. Remote language exchange facilitation – pair individuals looking to learn each other’s languages and facilitate their language exchange sessions online
I shut all of these down. I couldn’t get the momentum I wanted or hoped for to consider them a success. The AI based email marketing optimization tool went viral on Hacker News and Indie Hacker, but it was because I was able to generate some hype around it for a short period of time. But the hype faded fast…real fast. I had about 100 people sign up for the service. As for my other businesses, I had a few signups here and there but nothing worth keeping the business alive and investing more of my time into it.
Something I want to call out at this point: all of the businesses I tried starting in the past were bootstrapped. I never used money I made from the sale of my other businesses. I sold one business (a virtual event planning business that took off during the pandemic. We organized and managed virtual events, think webinars / workshops / conferences, for specific interest groups and professional communities). I never touched the proceeds from that sale to start the company I currently run. The reason I bring this up is because I think your business, regardless of what it is, needs to stand on its own. If it couldn’t, I knew it was time to move on. I didn’t want to give myself a false sense of hope that it would work by continuously throwing money at it.
The reason I started a business newsletter…
A newsletter was perfect. It was easy to start and required no money to get it up and running. The purpose behind the newsletter was centered around the idea of creating something that informed and educated people but was entertaining to read. Reading in general, news or not, can sometimes feel like a chore (at least for me). This was the opposite. This was something you genuinely looked forward to reading, the things that influence your world and the decisions you make on a daily basis.
The biggest issue I had with everything else out there was that the content was around things I didn’t care about. Not to mention it put me to sleep half the time. And that’s when it hit me – create a platform that genuinely helped people stay ahead in this information heavy world. Filter out the nonsense, deliver on high-value content.
The test phase…
I spent a couple hours looking up any Facebook group that was related to starting side hustles, escaping the 9-5 grind, online businesses etc. Once I came up with a small list of about 8-10 groups, I spent the next few days posting about the newsletter. One caveat for me when looking for which groups to post in: they needed to have more than 50K users. I wanted my posts to have some reach and didn’t want to waste my time in groups that were smaller and were barely active. I also designed some GIFs (I drew inspiration from the early Milk Road days when they posted funny GIFs / memes about their newsletter all over social media) but that didn’t work. Like at all. So, I shifted gears.
The first day, I posted about the newsletter in 8 different groups and got about 45 subscribers the next day. Over the next two weeks, I spent a couple of hours each day making similar posts within these groups and tried finding other groups I can post in. This proved to be successful. Making consistent posts got people engaged and subscribing to the newsletter. It was starting to gain some steam. And this is what lead to my first 1,100 subscribers in the first 14 days.
Why this worked…
1. Value creation: The best ideas appeal to what people want, and more importantly, need. It helps solve a problem. And in this case, people want high quality content that helps them make informed decisions, educates them along the way and is a joy to read.
2. Helps identify trends before they happen: Understanding emerging trends and market dynamics is crucial for staying ahead. This knowledge allows people to adapt quickly, innovate effectively, and capitalize on new market opportunities.
3. Sparks innovation and creativity: Exposure to different perspectives and new information sparks innovation and creative thinking. Staying informed about global trends, tech advancements, and industry breakthroughs inspires new ideas and approaches.
Things to keep in mind…
What I’ve realized is that you want your ideas to generate a “natural pull” from the world. It shouldn’t be something you “push” onto people. Trying to convince people they need something that doesn’t help improve their lives or satisfy a need is a waste of time. Listen to what people want. And build from there.
I’ve had multiple profitable businesses and the common theme between them all is that they cost me less than $100 to start and get product / market fit. I won’t lie, sometimes I let my ego get in the way when I put an idea out there and it got rejected. And trust me when I tell you, that’s happened more often than I’d like to admit. I spent way too much time and money putting something together even when I knew it wasn’t worth pursuing.
How does that saying go…the one about Thomas Edison and his attempt at building the first light bulb after trying and failing 1000 times. “I haven’t failed. I just found 1000 different ways how not to build a lightbulb.” And that’s just it…who cares if the idea didn’t work. Hate to break it to you, but most will. Instead, focus on the skills you’ve picked up and learned along the way while building this business and apply it to the next.
Anyways, I hope this post helps at least one person grow their business, subs count, social media presence. Now that I’ve grown my audience to over 10K subscribers organically, I’m looking into using paid ads to grow even more from here. The problem is I have no idea how to do that! So, if anyone has any tips or tricks, I’d love to hear them.
Good luck my friends.

I've re-edited Kill Bill as one film.
Significant Changes:

• I've opted for a chronological order starting the wedding massacre and the villians going in chronological order (O-Ren, Vernita, Budd, Elle and Bill).
• Removed the bleeping of the Bride's name
• Buck, Larry Gomez and Esteban's scenes are removed. They serve no purpose (Buck's scene is overly cruel - the deadly vipers are enough villians, Esteban and Larry Gomez expand both Budd and Bill's characters but aren't necessary.
• Colored house of blue leaves fight and some extended/alternate shots.
• I was going to add the "Damoe" deleted scene but it came off as quite cartoonish compared to the other more serious martial arts scenes
• I edited it as if Sofie gave Bill and the deadly viper's locations to The Bride after the house of blue leaves fight.
• The Cinemassacre video is what inspired me to give my own take on Kill Bill as one feature film.

The wedding scene is the right place to start as it's what starts the events of the film.
I may also place Vernita's scene after she leaves the hospital as she uses the same car but the way it would be in the initial version is that like the original film, she gets Vernita's whereabouts from Sofie.
How would you re-edit Kill Bill as one film?

This is seeking advice, but might turn into a rant so here is the TLDR version first: WWs close friends who knew me knew about WWs affair while it was happening and actively encouraged it. I think WW expects nothing to change between me and her friends. How do I explain how humiliated I feel?
We've been together 14 years and married for 6, and I would say WWs EA with an ex lasted the entire 14 years and intensified about 8 months before it became a PA for 2.5 years. PA was supposedly "over" for about a year before Dday 4.5 months ago. I've seen nothing to contradict this so I'm believing my WW. I (43M) and my WW (47F) have been doing okay I guess. There are good days and bad days, but that's to be expected. MC has been very helpful for us as a couple and I wish we had started it a long time ago under different circumstances. Now we've wasted the better part of 2 MC sessions talking about this and I'm not sure what my wife's desired resolution looks like (and honestly I'm not sure what resolution would look like for me either).
Just for background, I discovered WWs affair when I was looking for some pictures of the kids on her old phone. Saw some disturbing pictures then had to read EVERYTHING on that phone. Worst Christmas day of my life... Anyway, there are 3 friends, 2 of which have been my wife's friends literally her entire life, and one is fairly new, but is probably her best friend of the bunch. Add my wife and it's a group of 4. One of them has an open relationship with her husband although she breaks ALL the rules of their open agreement. Another has been divorced 5 times because she's caught her husbands cheating and has cheated on them as well and if I count correctly F-ed at least 6 different guys during the 7 month window I have of my WWs affair. The last one is just so desperate to fit in with the group and for men's approval it's almost sad (drives hours to meet guys she's never met to give BJs, blew a random guy behind a bar on a girls trip, blew another guy she never met in his car in a parking lot for his 21st birthday etc...).
Not judging them; they can do whatever the hell they want. My problem is that they are (for all practical purposes) single, and my wife obviously is and was not. And when they all get together, they do drunk single party-girl things.
The first time I got truely angry about all this was when WW tried to tell me her friends didn't know. I was shocked. Do you not remember how I found how deep this all went was by reading your damn group chat? Seriously WTF!!?!?
The first time my WW had sex with her AP was on a girls trip. It happened at the AirBnB they were all sharing. The 3 left, AP came over, they did their thing, and he left to go home to his wife. WW sent a picture of the torn up bed to their WhatsApp group chat I guess as a way of saying "all done." Then the jokes... Don't sleep in the wet spot, y'all a bunch of hoochies, Nashville Sexcapade 2020 etc...
For another solo encounter, WW sent a screenshot of the WAZE directions to the hotel where she was meeting AP and immediatly after a screenshot of Amazon Music playing that Megan Thee Stallion song Girls In The Hood (listen to it if you don't know it. I had to. Not especially classy...).
Everytime in their group chat one of the girls would say something about girls trips, Nashville, sex, tequila, BJs, cum, or anything like that, WW sent this stupid "Miss Him" gif. They would all giggle and send emoji or "love" it sometimes mention his nickname and WW took screenshot and sent them to her AP.
She planned an encounter with AP at lunch with one of her friends.
She bragged to AP that she didn't have to lie to them.
This is all from reading their text group chat and screenshots of their group WhatsApp chat (side note, I've figured out how to load the local WhatsApp backup and could read their secret group chat as well as WWs conversations with AP. Not sure if I want though because from what I've seen it's bad. Really really bad...). But when she tried to tell me they DIDN'T KNOW? I was FURIOUS! That is irrefutably false.
Then tried to say she meant they didn't know HIM. I actually believe they never met him, but saying they didn't know him is TOTALLY different than telling me they didn't know about the affair.
Now it's "they all love you and think you're great" and "they never liked him for me" and "they disapproved the whole time." Nevermind all the joking WW and crew did at my expense (the dehumanizing and only being able to see the negative is very real).
But WW says they don't think any less of me now. Maybe that's true, although with all the shit she talked about me I doubt it. She says that if anything, they should look down on her for cheating. And while I don't disagree, they didn't sure as shit didn't during the affair and I'm sure they don't now either.
There are only 3 of them, but they are my wife's best friends. Friends that I've been to dinner with, been to parties with, met their spouses and boyfriends, gone on vacation with...
Thing is, I wouldn't have expected them to tell me. They were the only ones that knew, and they knew all along. The thought of doing anything with them in the future or even seeing them makes me feel sick. How do I get me wife to understand how humiliated I feel?
I know I know I know... How do you make your wayward partner "get it," right? Seems like I read that question worded differently in every other post. They can never truely understand the pain, but how do I get her to understand how humiliating this (specifically in regards to her friend group) is to me?