Hi I'm 20F and this happened around 3 years ago. For proper context I will be explaining about my "friends" first. I'm sorry that this is a very longgghg one but I needed to get it out of my chest. Also forgive me for any grammatical mistakes as English is not my first language. I'll start with my 6 year long ex bestie Bee, in short she was a huge pick me. Since the beginning she used to insult me infront of boys to make herself look good. I didn't really realise it back then because I thought that's what friends do. She literally used to drag me around a bunch of boys and would call me fat, crooked legged and eagle nosed. Even my mom and my brother kept asking me to break the friendship but I was too afraid thinking I'll be alone. I always had her back though, she used to come to me crying if she's facing any issues in her life and I was there for her. I started my college around COVID time so the friends I made were through online meetings. Once we all met, we hit it off. It was really great!. My best friend in college was a guy named Shawn. We were really close and one day he came up to me and said "I like someone", me being me started investing who it could be. Then a girl named Penny from our friend group told me that Shawn had told her "someone likes you". I was like YESS I found it! And I did my part and now they are a couple. I was soo happy. After a month or so he came to me and said he wants to break up cuz she's too controlling and jealous and I took her side because I kinda understood her since he was still talking to his ex. It became too frequent though and I just told him do as you please. And one more important thing is her family is extremely strict like she can't even talk to a guy. So in college I used to sit in between them like they asked me to do that teachers don't doubt anything and complain to her parents. But the issue was I had to be around them the entire day and be ignored by them. I didn't mind at first but it got frustrating as time passed. I would try talking to them and they would just ignore me but they didn't want me to sit away from them either. The moment we walked out of college they would walk away from me leaving me alone. Next Anne and Chris. Mann are they messy. Anne had lots of boyfriends but we did not know it back then when we used to talk to her. Chris is a senior who proposed to Anne and she accepted it. One day a random guy texted me and asked me Anne's contact details and I refused to give it. He then sent me the photos of her kissing another guy. I blocked him and texted Anne about this and she accepted she was cheating on Chris. But Chris, Penny, Shawn and me were really close at this point. I told Chris about this and he confronted her, he said when she went to visit her hometown, she asked for a break and that's when the cheating happened and when she came back to City she dumped that guy from village and got back with Chris. Guess what, Anne went to Village again and she ghosted Chris. Chris started texting my then bestie Bee. I told both of them not to grow feelings towards eachother or to talk that much because I knew Chris only wanted to get back at Anne and whereas Bee would use Chris as timepass. I mean yeah it's their life but only I knew this about both of them. They were acting serious and both of them were my friends, i couldn't let them do this to eachother. Well they ignored me. They did complain about eachother a lottttt though and I gave the same advice to stop talking so much. Anne returned from her village and she got to know Chris is talking to Bee. She simply asked him to stop talking to Bee and he DID. He told Bee he doesn't want to talk to her and he texted me "I got my everything (Anne) so I don't need Bee anymore" Bee felt bad and I told her well atleast don't repeat it again because I know he will text you again and Anne will cheat on him again. In between all of this drama I met my boyfriend through a online game. I used to talk to him whenever Shawn and Penny were ignoring me and I stopped caring about them. And yes I had told them I felt very bad many times that they ignore me and for like 2 days when I was around them Penny would say "oh we should talk to her or she will feel bad" and then talk to me. It was embarrassing really. In short my boyfriend is a great guy who moved to my city. Mind you he was just 17 when he moved. He convinced his parents he needed to study in my City for ME. He made me realise how much more i deserved so I just stopped being bothered by my friends. I introduced all of them to eachother so they used to hang out without me as well. Penny asked Shawn to not to talk to me. Chris and Bee started talking again and Anne left Chris again. But both of them would constantly complain about eachother about how much they hate eachother. Another thing about Bee is the guys she was dating were usually my friends. Like I would introduce my friends to her and she would go snatch the boys up and would ask them not to talk to me. I didn't care because I wasn't attracted to those guys anyway. Once I told about my crush and she literally asked me "ask him to follow me hehe". I was like wtf no I can't ask him to do that. She followed him. He asked me "why is your friend following me and sent a message request" I told him the truth cuz I was just fed up with her. He blocked her lol. He told me not to have friends like her. Anyway she started texting my boyfriend as well. She used to say "when you come to City let's go out to eat, buy me that, buy me this blah blah blah". Little did she know I had his account and I knew she wasn't "busy" so she couldn't reply to me. She needed 2k because she borrowed it from her mom to give a random guy lol. He never returned it but she was crying so I asked my bf to lend her 1k for now. He told her "return to my gf in cash since my mom can see my transactions". She ghosted me after he gave her the money. I confronted Shawn and Penny. I told them I don't want to be their friend anymore because I was there for them always and whenever I texted them they would straight up ignore me. There were some rough words. I told Bee about this and I cried because I did share good moments with them. I also told her they are planning an outing for which they will invite Bee just to spite me and told her I'll feel very bad if u go. She went :). I just asked her to return the money asap and wanted to end it all. The thing is they hated eachother so why go and meet them when I am the one who is helping you when you are in need? Not just the money, I was standing up for her in so many occasions.
She said she can send the money online because she knew I can't say ok to that. I asked her cash she ignored me. I kept asking her decently. I got fed up and texted her mom asking the money and then Bee replied saying "don't act so cheap and text my mom" I'm like huh? If I'm cheap then what are you for taking the money and ghosting me? I told her I'm just asking what u owe me so give it. She said ik y you are asking, it's because I went out with them right, i didn't even know u would feel bad. I told her consider the money as charity and get lost. Blocked. Whereas Chris talked shit about my friend group so I fought with him and he said "you are a b'tch and you don't deserve anything". This happened before I broke friendship with Shawn and Penny and they never stood up for me. Shawn and Penny were beside me standing and seeing me arguing with Chris and said nothing. While the only reason I fought was for them. Funny because what happened later proved who deserves what. My boyfriend moved to City (nobody believed he would come). I topped my last 3 semesters(I was tutoring them during exams and wasted my time before. Now both of them were scoring Avg marks and Penny even cried in class after seeing her marks and mine). I got placed in a huge MNC Company (Chris being my senior was working as a janitor in a clinic, not to shame but just saying). Shawn and Penny apologised to me later on for talking to Bee after we broke out friendship because they realised the kind of person she is. Shawn also mentioned that she had asked him for money but he said no even though he had it lol. Chris and Bee were in a short toxic relationship until he dumped her again for Anne. Bee is also now with no real friends or no real boyfriend and was seeing hanging out with her sister on her bday(I used to take her to Cafes). I would have been with them if I hadn't met my Boyfriend. I don't regret the friendship because I did my part as much as I could. So AITA?

So my boyfriend invited me to come with him and the soccer fanclub on a day trip (leaving 10am, home by 1am) to watch the team play in Seattle. It's free and they have some spare tickets, but I'm under 19 (18F) so I need to sign a waiver from my parents. We're from Canada. It's a recognized fanclub of the soccer organization, and its all funded by them. Except for food lol.
I ask my mom and dad nicely if they can sign it, my dad is chilling. But my mom is not comfortable with the fact I'm going into another country. She's worried something may happen to me , and I'll be home quite late. She's HELLA religious, and( traditionalFilipino mom)to be honest I'm not. Idk, I'm figuring it out but it's a quite traditional Christian church.
I get my father to sign it since he's okay with it and excited for me. Hes not religious but jokes that "is Lord going to be with her!?" My mom just leaves the living room going like " she never sets aside time for God!" And locks herself in her room. Whenever she gets upset with something I do she'll give me the silent treatment.
She usually keeps our passports and I'm worried she would not give it to me at all cause I didn't "obey her". I was talking to my boyfriend about it and he sent me the law about how it is a crime to keep/conceal ones travel document.
She starts sending me texts "ur Dad consented to it I m saying I m out of the picture cause what you did is an outright act of disobedience of my will....yeah ur 18 and can go anywhere u want..abd whatever I say is garbage! Shame ur telling me about crime stuff...what about disobeying God s law? It s a crime more than a crime! "
I didn't realize, and she actually gave me back my passport, threw it on my bed. Didn't realize because I was in the kitchen. Apologized for making an assumption about a crime but, honestly. 😒😒😒
It feels like she is pulling the "God card" into making me feel bad for going to travel. I'm like 18, I have a part time job. I just passed and finished my 2 semesters in college. I'd like to travel more this summer and explore beyond my hometown.
I know parents aren't always going to agree with everything you do, but this is daunting. Like okay if I want to do something of my own, in this case traveling, she's going to make me feel bad about it? Even worse saying I'm "disobeying God" 🤣😭 Since I do live under her house, I have no choice to go with her to church. I've been going consistently, so I don't get why she's getting upset over a day trip.
Anyways, she's ignoring me full out. Silent treatment as always. I appreciate if you read this far, don't know what to do at this point. Part of me feels guilty for doing what i want, but I'm also tryna embrace it and not let her disapproval get over me. Not sure what to do and how long she's going to be acting like this around me. It's so annoying and makes me feel like she doesn't care about me because I chose something for myself.

25 [M4F] hopefully meet someone
I've got a full time job, and looking for the right person haha. but still haven't found the right person. Lowkey a romantic and a flirt. But anyways if my description interests you, feel free to slide in the dm's and we can swap pics :)
About me:
25 years old
Currently abroad.
I’ve got a couple small tattoos, and some piercings on my ears. I wear glasses (I’m so blind hahaha. I can’t see a thing without them)
I’m 6’0 tall, I’ve got a lean muscular physique. I go gym 4-5 times a week and play basketball at least 1-2 a week. (I’m on a bulk rn tryna get big😤😤)
I would say i can be a little clingy and gives you fast replies. I can be awkward sat times but also flirty hahah so weird. ldr works too!!
I mostly speak in English exclusively.
Dog Person (I have a dog. She’s my daughter basically haha. She’s a corgi)
interests are: Video Games (Valorant, tft, stardew, etc) Anime NBA Fashion (teach me) Art (drawing and painting
Music wise i versatile. Love a lot of music so I’d love to know what you’re into!!

Hi I'm 20F and this happened around 3 years ago. For proper context I will be explaining about my "friends" first. I'm sorry that this is a very longgghg one but I needed to get it out of my chest. Also forgive me for any grammatical mistakes as English is not my first language. I'll start with my 6 year long ex bestie Bee, in short she was a huge pick me. Since the beginning she used to insult me infront of boys to make herself look good. I didn't really realise it back then because I thought that's what friends do. She literally used to drag me around a bunch of boys and would call me fat, crooked legged and eagle nosed. Even my mom and my brother kept asking me to break the friendship but I was too afraid thinking I'll be alone. I always had her back though, she used to come to me crying if she's facing any issues in her life and I was there for her. I started my college around COVID time so the friends I made were through online meetings. Once we all met, we hit it off. It was really great!. My best friend in college was a guy named Shawn. We were really close and one day he came up to me and said "I like someone", me being me started investing who it could be. Then a girl named Penny from our friend group told me that Shawn had told her "someone likes you". I was like YESS I found it! And I did my part and now they are a couple. I was soo happy. After a month or so he came to me and said he wants to break up cuz she's too controlling and jealous and I took her side because I kinda understood her since he was still talking to his ex. It became too frequent though and I just told him do as you please. And one more important thing is her family is extremely strict like she can't even talk to a guy. So in college I used to sit in between them like they asked me to do that teachers don't doubt anything and complain to her parents. But the issue was I had to be around them the entire day and be ignored by them. I didn't mind at first but it got frustrating as time passed. I would try talking to them and they would just ignore me but they didn't want me to sit away from them either. The moment we walked out of college they would walk away from me leaving me alone. Next Anne and Chris. Mann are they messy. Anne had lots of boyfriends but we did not know it back then when we used to talk to her. Chris is a senior who proposed to Anne and she accepted it. One day a random guy texted me and asked me Anne's contact details and I refused to give it. He then sent me the photos of her kissing another guy. I blocked him and texted Anne about this and she accepted she was cheating on Chris. But Chris, Penny, Shawn and me were really close at this point. I told Chris about this and he confronted her, he said when she went to visit her hometown, she asked for a break and that's when the cheating happened and when she came back to City she dumped that guy from village and got back with Chris. Guess what, Anne went to Village again and she ghosted Chris. Chris started texting my then bestie Bee. I told both of them not to grow feelings towards eachother or to talk that much because I knew Chris only wanted to get back at Anne and whereas Bee would use Chris as timepass. I mean yeah it's their life but only I knew this about both of them. They were acting serious and both of them were my friends, i couldn't let them do this to eachother. Well they ignored me. They did complain about eachother a lottttt though and I gave the same advice to stop talking so much. Anne returned from her village and she got to know Chris is talking to Bee. She simply asked him to stop talking to Bee and he DID. He told Bee he doesn't want to talk to her and he texted me "I got my everything (Anne) so I don't need Bee anymore" Bee felt bad and I told her well atleast don't repeat it again because I know he will text you again and Anne will cheat on him again. In between all of this drama I met my boyfriend through a online game. I used to talk to him whenever Shawn and Penny were ignoring me and I stopped caring about them. And yes I had told them I felt very bad many times that they ignore me and for like 2 days when I was around them Penny would say "oh we should talk to her or she will feel bad" and then talk to me. It was embarrassing really. In short my boyfriend is a great guy who moved to my city. Mind you he was just 17 when he moved. He convinced his parents he needed to study in my City for ME. He made me realise how much more i deserved so I just stopped being bothered by my friends. I introduced all of them to eachother so they used to hang out without me as well. Penny asked Shawn to not to talk to me. Chris and Bee started talking again and Anne left Chris again. But both of them would constantly complain about eachother about how much they hate eachother. Another thing about Bee is the guys she was dating were usually my friends. Like I would introduce my friends to her and she would go snatch the boys up and would ask them not to talk to me. I didn't care because I wasn't attracted to those guys anyway. Once I told about my crush and she literally asked me "ask him to follow me hehe". I was like wtf no I can't ask him to do that. She followed him. He asked me "why is your friend following me and sent a message request" I told him the truth cuz I was just fed up with her. He blocked her lol. He told me not to have friends like her. Anyway she started texting my boyfriend as well. She used to say "when you come to City let's go out to eat, buy me that, buy me this blah blah blah". Little did she know I had his account and I knew she wasn't "busy" so she couldn't reply to me. She needed 2k because she borrowed it from her mom to give a random guy lol. He never returned it but she was crying so I asked my bf to lend her 1k for now. He told her "return to my gf in cash since my mom can see my transactions". She ghosted me after he gave her the money. I confronted Shawn and Penny. I told them I don't want to be their friend anymore because I was there for them always and whenever I texted them they would straight up ignore me. There were some rough words. I told Bee about this and I cried because I did share good moments with them. I also told her they are planning an outing for which they will invite Bee just to spite me and told her I'll feel very bad if u go. She went :). I just asked her to return the money asap and wanted to end it all. The thing is they hated eachother so why go and meet them when I am the one who is helping you when you are in need? Not just the money, I was standing up for her in so many occasions.
She said she can send the money online because she knew I can't say ok to that. I asked her cash she ignored me. I kept asking her decently. I got fed up and texted her mom asking the money and then Bee replied saying "don't act so cheap and text my mom" I'm like huh? If I'm cheap then what are you for taking the money and ghosting me? I told her I'm just asking what u owe me so give it. She said ik y you are asking, it's because I went out with them right, i didn't even know u would feel bad. I told her consider the money as charity and get lost. Blocked. Whereas Chris talked shit about my friend group so I fought with him and he said "you are a b'tch and you don't deserve anything". This happened before I broke friendship with Shawn and Penny and they never stood up for me. Shawn and Penny were beside me standing and seeing me arguing with Chris and said nothing. While the only reason I fought was for them. Funny because what happened later proved who deserves what. My boyfriend moved to City (nobody believed he would come). I topped my last 3 semesters(I was tutoring them during exams and wasted my time before. Now both of them were scoring Avg marks and Penny even cried in class after seeing her marks and mine). I got placed in a huge MNC Company (Chris being my senior was working as a janitor in a clinic, not to shame but just saying). Shawn and Penny apologised to me later on for talking to Bee after we broke out friendship because they realised the kind of person she is. Shawn also mentioned that she had asked him for money but he said no even though he had it lol. Chris and Bee were in a short toxic relationship until he dumped her again for Anne. Bee is also now with no real friends or no real boyfriend and was seeing hanging out with her sister on her bday(I used to take her to Cafes). I would have been with them if I hadn't met my Boyfriend. I don't regret the friendship because I did my part as much as I could. So AITA?

Hi I'm just little girl from Asia come along with the unsuccessful of life and relationship family ya come with broken heart and fuck up feeling mind messy soon will get 🤣 .try to find some space that I can out my feeling can say from the bottom of my feeling 😑 thank you for Reddit finily find spot ,I'm not good at write and my economy English I'm not a written so if any of my annoying or any my mistake apologies first at here🙏🙏 what the target of life?what ur target of life?I never know what is the target of life .make money build house car family?? I think is too simple for me ,all I can do by my self I was an strong girl from young until now , fighting life by my self some times in relationships but most are the same with sad ending , starting in love got a level 1-2-3 or strong relationship 4 until forever ,all are same whoever told me not same at the ending is same ,level 1 very happiness I 1 u 1 sweeties ever never care anything's .Level 2 👉 get slow motion Abit .not really sweet just so so ,ask do or help wat just reply WAIT ... Level 3🔥 start qural some got fighting no more promotion ,ask do favor NNona you won't get any help at all or maybe got but very slow motion until jam ady to get up and help you favor .make each other borling become think of give up on relationship it so hard and tired borling no happiness and sweet romance anymore ,all same like dreaming happiness just awhile .some too love too hurt to hard to leave eveydays must suffered self and damn!! Relationship is the things that can't really talk and share out to anyone so eveydays keep keep coz can't put down the bad relationship I can understand this point that ,even know is suffer but still go ( coz the day Begin until now was not easy and not just break wids that awhile then no smell,eveytings narmal , I can say mostly relationship I heard and happen to me all are selfish maybe have 2% are geltman .but that times also young don't know how to cherish the good one ,times to times pass by are teaching me alot of things and yes I have learned alot too ,learn until when I will have that happiness again ??? Have narmal life and trust...next ep I want come talk about trust ..

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/WholePomegranate5342
Originally posted to TrueOffMyChest
My Parents Tried to Screw Over My Dying StepMother, Blew Up All Of Our Lives Instead
Trigger Warnings: infidelity, imminent death, terminal illness, financial exploitation, physical assault, emotional abuse and manipulation
Original Post: February 13, 2024
Throwaway for obvious reasons.
My (17F) stepmother "Jane" is a wonderful, wonderful woman. She and my father got married when I was 4, and she's been a rock in my life ever since. My mother was always my primary caregiver, but up until that point her relationship with my father was acrimonious and I basically never saw him. Jane was the reason they developed a stable co-parenting relationship, she encouraged everyone having a good relationship with each other and was always there to support me and my mom when things got rough.
Jane was always a really hard worker. When she met my dad, he was living out of a hotel and my mother was doing everything in her power to keep me away from him because she was petty and angry that their relationship didn't work out. Meanwhile Jane had a great job, a nice house, helped my dad get back on his feet, negotiated a visitation schedule with my mom (who hated her for a long time), and made sure my dad sent us money every week because neither one of them could afford an attorney to negotiate child support payments. Jane had no reason to do any of these things but as I got older she made it clear that she loved me as much as she loved my (half) brothers who were born a few years later. I even have my own room in her house because at the time we lived with my grandparents / various boyfriends of my mom and Jane felt that I needed a more stable environment than that. She's like the opposite of the evil stepmom.
When I was 15, Jane won a big lawsuit against an airline company and got awarded upwards of a million dollars. She used the money to build sizable trust funds for me and my brothers so that we would be taken care of later in life. Despite having a lot more money she still wanted to live a fairly modest life, so she paid off the house she has and has been living there ever since with my dad. Sure she bought a new car and they went on a few nice vacations but she didn't blow all her money on stupid things, which I respected.
About a year ago, things started getting really weird. Whenever I saw Jane she seemed to look sicker and sicker, but no one would tell me or my brothers why even though I know they knew. All we knew is that she was at the hospital a lot. Around the same time, my mom has been coming around my dad a lot more and acting really strange, basically like she was trying to romance him. Whenever Jane was in the hospital my mother would insist on spending the night at their house and playing mom to my brothers, which was so weird to me because she never liked them or Jane. She'd be the perfect little housewife and my mom is NOT like that at all. It was super fake.
Worst of all, my dad started falling for it. I'm not stupid - I'm pretty sure they were sleeping together. I tried to shield my brothers from it but they're not dumb either. I tried talking to my dad too but he insisted it wasn't like that.
Then a few weeks ago, my mom started talking about all the places she'd like to visit, how she wanted a new car and was looking to invest... which is weird because my mom has been a bartender her whole life and has lived paycheck to paycheck since before I was born. She was acting like she was about to get a lot of money, which started to make me really suspicious. Between Jane being sick and my mom acting all nouveau riche, I had a lot of questions.
Finally I decided to visit Jane in the hospital and ask her about my trust fund. I found out that if anything happened to her, that my dad would inherit all the money including full control of the trusts for me and my brothers. She asked me why I was so interested in the trust fund so I told her what's going on with my parents and how my mom has been acting with my dad. I didn't want to but after everything she did for me, she deserved the truth. It really hurt me to break her heart like that, especially once I found out that she was basically in hospice at this point because of irreversible kidney failure. She's only got a few more months. We both cried so much.
Then, two days ago everything came to a head. My mom stormed in furious and started arguing with my dad. Apparently Jane met with her lawyer and changed the trust so that my dad would get nothing and all of the trusts would be controlled by my step-aunt. She demanded to know how Jane found out about their relationship and I came out and told them that I told Jane everything. I told them that if they wanted to play stupid games they would win stupid prizes and that I wasn't going to let them screw Jane over after all the help she gave my family when she didn't have to.
My mom slapped me and my dad just looked so defeated. Then my mom told my dad that she didn't really love him, that she was just pretending to so he would marry her and she could get all of the money. The worst part about it is that my brothers witnessed the whole thing and now on top of their mom dying they have to deal with a cheating dad and his vindictive ex. Our whole family is in ruins and I feel like it's my fault even though I know it's not.
Yesterday I visited Jane again and told her about the fallout. She apologized and said that she had to dissolve my trust fund to make sure my mother didn't get a hold of the money, but that as "her oldest" I will inherit the house/property after she is gone and that's worth more than the other two trust funds combined. My father won't get anything because she's going to divorce him before she dies, and honestly I'm happy for her. She made me promise to take care of my brothers and told me that once I turn 18 this summer I can kick my dad out of the house if I want to. And I FULLY plan to do that btw.
I haven't talked to my dad since and I can't even look at my mom. I can't believe they would conspire to do this to Jane after all this time. Just proof that they deserve each other and I'm embarrassed that they're my parents. Once I turn 18 I'm going to cut my dad out as much as I can and cut my mom out completely. I hope she rots. Meanwhile I'm going to try and be at the hospital as much as I can until Jane passes away.
Anyways. I just needed to vent. I'm really messed up about the whole thing and I feel super betrayed, although I can't even begin to imagine how Jane feels. I'm gonna be so f-ed up when she dies. I can't even think about that right now. But at least she's not surrounded by people who just want to bring her down.
Thanks for reading.
Edit: Some people are asking a lot of the same stuff so I'll just clarify here --
My brothers - My plan is to use some of the estate money fight for guardianship for my twin brothers so that they can live in the house while I kick my dad out. If I can't get guardianship then I will have to let my dad stay in the house. However once I turn 18 I will technically be an adult so even if my dad leaves I'm still legally able to be responsible for them. The only thing I won't be able to do is stop him from taking them if he leaves. But they will be 18 in six years so even if they do have to leave they will always be able to come back whenever they want. In a perfect world my dad would just leave and let my brothers stay with me which I'm sure my bio-mom would be very supportive of because right now she hates all of us and I doubt that will change anytime soon.
The trust - from what I understand, my brothers will inherit 1/3 each of the estate and the remaining 1/3 will be used to keep the house running until they turn 18. After that it will be up to me if I want to keep the house or sell it. At that point my brothers will still have money left in the trust so they can branch out or do whatever they want, otherwise I will not sell the house and just pass it on to them or keep it and maintain it myself and they can just stay with me as long as they need to.
(Edit to the edit) So I just spoke to Jane and she told me that the reason she dissolved the trust is because originally it was going to be split 3x between us kids and my dad would inherit the house. She dissolved my 3rd and switched it over to make it to take care of the house maintenance, and instead put the house in my name so my dad wouldn't get it. Plus by doing that at least financially I would be getting a much bigger share (the house is worth about 1.5x the amount of my brothers trusts) I just wouldn't be able to do anything with it until my brothers are 18, which I'm totally cool with. Sorry if I don't have a better answer but I'm just trying to translate what she told me.
My parents - The big fight happened on Sunday and I haven't spoken to either of my parents since, I think they're both at my mom's place right now but that's fine with us because we're all still mad at them so they can stay gone for all we care. I know technically that's not legal to just leave us alone but I've been taking care of my brothers for over a year I can handle a few days while he gets his shit together. Screw both of them.
Hope that clears some stuff up.
TLDR; My bio parents tried to screw my terminally ill stepmother out of trust fund money, but she caught on and now no one on my side of the family gets anything.
Additional Information from OOP on her parents, stepmom’s health, trust funds

OOP: (Why isn't Jane on dialysis) - I don't remember the exact details but Jane has a genetic condition where she gets cysts on her kidney. She already had a transplant a few years ago but now she developed problems with her arteries or something in her legs so she doesn't qualify for dialysis. She could get another transplant but she doesn't want to because the last time was so traumatic (rejections, etc). So she decided to just let herself go onto maintenance medications to prolong her death until she gets her affairs in order. She has a few other health problems that make the typical treatments really dangerous and according to her she'd rather die surrounded by loved ones than on an operating table.
(Dissolving the trust fund) - Jane told me she didn't technically have to do it, but she didn't trust my bio parents not to do something shady and get a hold of the money before I turn 18. Even if my aunt controlled the fund my dad would still be able to collect if something happened to Jane before I turn 18. Her lawyer suggested it's better safe than sorry and I agreed that it was the best option. I'm not an expert tho I don't know the details.
(How my mom knew) - Like I said before I'm pretty sure Jane told my dad, who then told my mom and that's how the argument started. I can't think of any other way and I didn't really care enough to ask.
(Jane's thoughts on my mom) - she didn't know my mom was doing all of that. My mom has her own place and would only come over whenever Jane was in the hospital for a few days at a time. I've been living with my dad for a little over a year so he probably told Jane that my mom was there to spend time with me, if he told her at all. Besides she didn't "move in" until a few months ago, which I guess is when they started hatching their plan. Jane never outright banned my mom from visiting so there really wasn't anything she could do.
Hope that helps.
Edit for the last part: The remainder of the money belonging to the estate that hasn't been put into trusts for my brothers is going to be used to maintain the house (utilities, taxes, etc) until my brothers are 18 and then I can either choose to sell the house or keep it and maintain it myself if I'm able to. I plan to go to school in that time and get a better job with the goal of keeping the house, but if I can't then I have the option to sell it. Not that I will but that's how it was explained to me.

OOP on her stepmom and their relationship, provides thoughts on her bio mom

OOP: Honestly it's because she's more of a "real" mom than my actual mom.
My bio mom is kind of ambiguous about my existence but Jane was always extra involved, sending me to sports teams and paying for dance classes and just showing interest in my hobbies as I got older. Plus as the only girl I think we bonded on a level she can't with my brothers so she always made sure to let me know I was on equal terms with them. When I was younger we would watch movies and have girl time where it was just us 1:1 and those are some of my best memories with her.
Jane is also really mature and someone I wanna be like when I get older whereas it feels like my mom is a teenager in an adult's body. She was constantly picking fights with my dad about dumb things and Jane was always there to smooth things over and keep my best interest at heart over her own feelings. I know my mom made Jane's life really difficult for a long time but Jane never complained or said anything to me about it whereas my mom CONSTANTLY complained about Jane. As I got older I just always felt more at peace when I was around Jane than when I was around my mom.
If you want your step kids to love you just be there for them and treat them like your own. Ignore whatever drama you have with your husbands ex and just love your kids. Trust me if you really care about them they will know.

Relevant Comments
mattdvs1979: My only advice is make sure you work with a lawyer once she passes so you get your inheritance and your parents can’t try to intervene, and then you keep your promise to use that money for you and your brothers’ welfare.

OOP: Oh absolutely, Jane already gave me the lawyer's info and between him and my step-aunt I'm sure I will be able to do what I need to do for them. I don't even care about the money, most people don't have trust funds and turn out just fine. I'm actually more glad that she gave me the house because you can be damn sure it's going to be a safe space for my brothers whether I end up getting custody of them or not. My brothers are basically Jane's legacy so my goal is to give them the life and guidance that I got from her, and that they won't get because she'll be gone.

OOP on the relationship between her father and her stepmom before they got exposed

OOP: Honestly it hurts a lot because before Jane got sick they seemed to have the perfect relationship. Until my birthgiver (I like that) came in and fucked everything up with her toxic personality. Honestly in a perfect world my mom will end up broke and alone and in a shitty nursing home with bed sores. And when she calls me and begs me for a relationship (because she needs the attention) it'll feel so good to hang up on her over and over again.

OOP on Jane (stepmom)’s health and if Jane is mentally okay on the whole situation

OOP: I think so. Apparently it's a genetic disease so she always knew she was going to get sick she just didn't know when so mentally I think she was prepared for it. I just hope that she can find peace knowing the truth and knowing that I'll be there to make sure her sons don't grow up all fucked up.

OOP on her brothers getting therapy to deal with their mom/step-mom’s health and her imminent death

OOP: Yeah. I've already sat them down and talked to them about what's going on, they seem to understand but they're understandably really sad about the whole thing. I told them that when they go to school they should ask about a grief counselor and I'm trying to get their health insurance info from Jane so I can find them a therapist for kids. As much as all of this sucks I think it's brought the three of us a lot closer together.
Thanks a lot. I really love my brothers and I know it's my job to take care of them properly now that they won't have a mom around. Jane did so much to raise me and my brothers won't have the opportunity so it's only right that I help them.
Since finding all of this out my plan has always been to have my brothers live with me, I'm already in charge of taking care of them and the house for the most part the only thing my dad does is help pay the bills. Unfortunately I won't be able to kick my dad out as long as he's their legal guardian which is why I'm trying to find some other solution to that. But if/when that gets resolved he can live under a bridge for all I care.

 
Update: May 8, 2024 (3 months later)
Please check my profile for my previous post. :)
Hi guys it’s me again, a lot of you asked me for an update on my situation with Jane and my family so I’ve come back with a few things that have happened since I initially posted. I will try to organize this in a way that addresses the major points of last time.
Jane is still alive and doing surprisingly well considering the circumstances. She’s always been a fighter and although her disease has been progressing she’s keeping a positive attitude with everything that is going on. She says she’s grateful that she was able to see everyone’s true colors before she passed so she could go into the next life knowing the truth. We have become so unbelievably close in the past few months and it’s getting harder and harder to know that she’s getting close to the end. She doesn’t ever talk about it though and I know it’s because she doesn’t want to hurt me but we both know the situation so we’re just making the best of our time. I'm also not being completely transparent about all of the drama at home but tbh I don't think she needs to hear all of that.
We did end up having that surprise celebration of life that I planned, a lot more people showed up than I thought but they all got an airbnb near the hospital where Jane is and we were able to take her out and spend some time at the lake near the facility. It was super lowkey which I know Jane preferred and I was even able to get her old college friend to come after I found him on Linkedin lol. We had food and there was music and we played games and it was overall a really great time, except Jane started crying at the end but she promised me it was just because she was grateful.
My brothers are also doing okay, my aunt (Jane's sister) is currently paying for them to go to therapy and they've become a lot more open about talking about the situation. They just turned 13 but a lot of the time it feels like I'm talking to actual adults lol. They've become really independent lately (in a good way) and aside from me driving them places I don't really have to do much for them anymore. Their grades aren't super great but they're not failing and considering the circumstances it could be a lot worse. They still hang out with friends and I'm keeping an eye out for like depression symptoms and stuff.
The situation with my mom is as funny as it is embarrassing tbh. She spent a few weeks ignoring us and then she tried to crawl back into my life basically begging me to let her move in because her lease is about to expire and she has nowhere to go. That convo went about as well as you'd think and she ended up calling me an ungrateful b**** and that I couldn't just ignore her because she's my mom. I told her to get out of the house before I call the cops and to go back to my dad (who at that point was only coming home every few days to "check on us" and grab some clothes.)
After that she tried coming by a few times and when I wouldn't open the door she would lose her mind and start yelling through the neighborhood. After three instances of this I finally called the cops but because I'm 17 they told me there's a possibility that I would have to go home with her since technically I'm a minor and need to be with the custodial parent. I told them no way because I was the only one watching my brothers atm. That led to a whole thing where after a few hours my dad basically showed up and I was allowed to stay there because there was finally an adult present and I'd basically lived there for over a year.
After that the cops firmly told my mom that if she keeps showing up and causing drama (my neighbors confirmed that she'd been there a few times screaming) that they would arrest her for trespassing since technically it was Jane's house and not hers. She left and hasn't tried coming to the house anymore but for a while she would call me constantly telling me I owed her and all kinds of stuff. She's now blocked on everything and anything she needs to say to me gets filtered through my dad.
As for my dad... well, since he's basically required to be here for another 2 months until I turn 18 we've basically just avoided each other. It's not too bad though because I've been heavily relying on guilting him for everything to get my way. For example he was going to contest the divorce but I threatened to kick him out when I turn 18 if he does that so he just signed all the paperwork for a "quickie divorce" and is basically doing whatever Jane tells him to do. I don't openly disrespect him or anything (he's still my dad) but I've made it clear that I have no intentions on doing anything he says ever again and he doesn't fight me on it. Most of the time he's just in his room and sometimes he'll go back to my mom's but only for a day or two before they argue and she kicks him out again lol. I haven't decided whether or not I'll kick him out yet and we haven't talked about it either so I'm kind of playing it by ear.
As for me, I'm handling everything as good as I can. I found a new job where I make a little more money so I've been focusing on saving as much as I can and just being there for my brothers. Between working and school and visiting Jane I've been so busy I haven't really had time to really stop and think about everything, but I know it'll come. One of my friends has really stepped up and helped me manage everything and I'm super grateful to him for being there for me and my brothers so we'll see how that goes.
Anyways I wish I had something more exciting to share but that's what's happened since my last post :) Thanks again for all the support on my last post.
Relevant Comments
OOP on the possibility of her stepmom being poisoned from her parents to get Jane’s money

OOP: Hi there,
A few people have mentioned this and yes we are absolutely certain she is not being poisoned, it’s a genetic disease causing her kidney failure and we have known about it for a long time but she shielded us from the worst of it hence why her “sudden” decline in health was such a shock to us, we thought she had more time.
My brothers have also been screened for this disease and thankfully neither of them have it.
Edit to add: I’m turning 18 in a few weeks so I don’t need to get emancipated and my dad has already agreed that my brothers will stay in the house with me because they have nowhere else to go.

OOP on Jane making video clips for her brothers

OOP: Yes actually a few people suggested this on my last post and we have been doing this for a few weeks now. Jane has a little digital recorder that she’s been putting her thoughts down on and she’s also written a few letters to us for major milestones. My brothers do not know about this as we want to surprise them but that said they have been coming to the hospital more now that they’re in therapy and able to deal with it. I know they do not want to have any regrets even though it’s a difficult situation.

OOP on her father after being exposed and her bio mom trying to manipulate him

OOP: I do think he’s remorseful, he hasn’t said it but the way he’s acting is telling me that, he’s being really passive when normally he gets a little belligerent if he really feels like he didn’t do anything wrong. Also I know I have every reason to kick him out but he’s still my dad even tho what he did to Jane was terrible. He’s just kind of a weak minded person and my bio mom really manipulated the crap out of him and continues to manipulate him but I can tell he’s getting tired of her BS because he’s spending less time with her.
He didn’t know she was showing up at the house and when he found out he was super pissed at her, they’ve been fighting nonstop and I can tell he’s not as much under her spell anymore because he’s at home more but who knows.

 

DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP

I took a drop last year in Neet, had 516 last year and am scoring around 680 this year which is equivalent to maybe last year's 650-670. Just wanted to share a few thoughts regarding the current scene of competition and surrounding distractions in our lives.
I was in tenth to eleventh from 2020-2021 and this period and half of 2022 was only spent on online classes and on internet, I was wasted, i don't want to brag, nor someone overly forcing helping out to you people.
I just want to this to be out there because I eventually came out of that mess and in Diwali '23 I saw some of you peeeps' fucked up stories of this over indulgence on the internet, and this one girl who wasted on the internet on gore and shit, a serious backlog in her studies and useless tension now on her mind. I know there are a lot of you there morning 8 to 12 schedule internet, reels, shorts, games, some of you peeps go a level higher and it's just films all day, to the point where you are a walking talking Wikipedia of films, the delete reinstall cycle of games, wanking everyday, I know you, you may not be doing the same thing but it's the same cycle at any level, basic to it being the device and internet usage, it's only an overconsumption whether it be on reddit, fucking around on discord or on 4chan.
First off, there is a clear, definite, rational fucking answer to this, DO NOT fuck up your mind over this shit, regardless of everyone's u ique and different case the basic answers are the same
1.SEEK HELP: parents first, but if the environment in your house is a bit negative one please reach out to a psychologist, or even me, I'll try to help in whichever way I can, a good psychologist, actually gives you decisive answers and rational decisions best for your future
Clearing it out with your parents brings you all on a common ground. I was in a hostel and still the fallout and consequences of my usage had not appeared until l8tr after which I approached one(these "consequences" are not exactly withdrawal symptoms, but the fucking way this poisonous shit percolates into your mind, the changed perspective of yourself and the world through all this usage actually affects you BECAUSE REAL WORLD IS NOT LIKE THE ONLINE WORLD, i know you feel it too, whenever you sit down to study, you first try to study very seriously....and then you mind....drifts, thoughts and imaginations of your world involving the shit you saw or you recapping the films and getting and kicks out of that smiling on your study table, in your own world. Normalpeople are not like that, you need to stay in this real world, face these real problems, get kicks out of life, but don't worry cos the only difference between you and "normal" people is just a little effort, don't worry.
2.POSSIBLY CHOOSE A HOSTEL: the hostel environment helps you cut off from all distractions and especially a toxic environment around you if you have one and only makes you focus on the goal, it's a beautiful realisation of your capacity to do things and you can see in clarity how better you can be and how every moment you can utilise to being a better you. For my repeat I was at Sanjay Ghodawat Atigre which has got the benefit of reducing fees depending on your neet marks (sometimes even to the extent of 50k to 1 lakh)but you get all the exact same benefits as regular students which get into there for fucking 4.5 lakhs for two years
3.LASTLY remember a lot of people can just cut off from this shit but NOBODY can just sit idly without tasking your mind something, the mind is NOT made like that man, even if you do you'll find yourself drifting in your thoughts of this entertainment you sought earlier(the fallout of this shit that I faced earlier). Substitute it. Choose healthy habits, choose life man. Especially at this age (hoping you all are in 16-22) the body is damn active, when I did, i used to run 3-3.5 kms in 30 mins it felt amazing to devote the time to something like this, you actually tire yourself in good things(haha this is literally what even actual addicts do too, its just choosing to get your kicks out of other things, healthier things). You literally start noticing changes in your mindset too, tbh you guys maintain a very toxic environment here, which is actually sad because real life just ain't like that, anything and everything here distorts your perspective of the real world, even i, used to have Dr. House and shit as someone to be like but that ain't real, now it's people like Tatya Lahane, Baba Amte and Sindhutai Sakpal, those are real heroes no joke.
KEEP A POSITIVE MIND. You know that meditation, brahmakumaris and shit? Do that. Nah i don't believe in it either but trust me, the mind is no ambiguous thing it's just a restless little fish with infinite capacity and innumerous sensing, taking in all that you give it, so feed it good, and especially, trap it. That's where this meditation and shit comes in, it's just tricks man, see, a guy with a really bad reputation sits in front of you verbally abuses you and leaves, with your entrance exam on the near(even two years means near btw), what is the least fucking thing you can you can "do", brahmakumaris says "forgive em" pretty fucking stupid right? But that's the trick(on your mind) At this stage, rationally, without any emotion, you have to ask yourself what actually fucking matters, and trust me, they fucking don't, saying you forgive them means you LET GO of the hate of theirs you hold in your mind and CHOOSE yourself and your goal over them, or else you would be literally wasting your time too even when studying thinking over this person, trust me this isn't any different than the Stoic ideals of Marcus Aurelius and shit you read online, here it's just brought into effect ina different manner. They preach about God and to let go and give up control, surrender to them, how's that useful? That bitch cheating from your paper, your bus coming over late, you acting nice to a person but them not reflecting the same, let go, that shit wasn't in your control anyway. It's just little shit like this that helps in the long run.
AGAIN I'm not a psych or doctor, please seek actual help, communicate, reach out. I especially felt writing this out after parents literally took me to see their kid and he had been yabbering abiut a totally different problem but all about his room were the reflections of my life two years ago, that laptop, screen down, headphones connected, a phone nearby and a router, I knew immediately what the actual problem was, you guys spent so much time online that even when you do study, the actual things going on in your mind aren't the same. Him and that girl I read about on this place in Diwali, I hope for her, please keep a positive mind throughout all this, all of life indeed, you all are beautifully strong people. REMEMBER effort and discipline goes a long way than motivation and intelligence in this profession AND to focus only and only on the process, the effort, the goal and ambitions, all the time, even at the level of thought. Everyone and everything else will stay the same but you will "be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pounds; it stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet". Love you all man, all the best.
P.S. I had to whore for some karma b4 posting here, so I joined a few subreddits, please don't judge me on that, I'll be here once a while if you guys want to reach out, but mostly I'm leaving this toxic place too.

My husband(28M) and I(28F) have been together almost 12 years, married 8. We met and began dating senior year of high school. Our friends have often said we are relationship goals. Sure we’ve had a bump or 2 but nothing that couldn’t be resolved with a constructive conversation.
Important to know before I get to the point of the post that before I ever met my husband I dated Jay who was 17/18, while I at the time was 15/16. We only dated about a year but our relationship really messed me up as he was all but physically abusive. Our relationship ended when Jay left and traveled halfway across the country for someone he met in an online game(invu)that he had openly been(at the very least) emotionally cheating with. He had gone as far as showing me their texts, and gaslighting me under the guise of them just role playing their characters when I got upset over him calling her by the same pet name he called me (ex. Baby, sweetheart, etc). I was 16 and naïve so I believed him. He left before dawn one morning and didn’t bother to call to break up with me until he was already out of state.
My husband and I met about 8 months later. I told him early on about what happened with Jay and that I was pretty messed up from it. He took it in stride and has been very supportive of me as I have been slowly trying to heal and undo the trauma Jay left me with.
In recent years I’d been doing the best I ever had and truthfully my relationship with Jay was starting to feel like a distant memory. I was by no means 100% healed but I was beginning to feel like I could close the chapter, that is until my husband met kat(26). He and kat met almost 2 years ago when they both joined an online d&d campaign his best friend ran. They weren’t particularly close friends until 8 months when they started the new campaign. Admittedly this is when it began bothering me because until this point all his online friends were male, kat was the first female.
I’ve tried to push past my feelings and remind myself that my husband isn’t Jay and he would never hurt me like that, but some things he’s done/said have made it difficult like when he made a character to play specifically with her in a game they both like, bought her a $60 game so they could play together, and has admitted if she didn’t live so far away that he would build her a new pc as a gift (like he did with his best friend). We have talked multiple times about it all and how I feel. He seemed to understand and has reassured me dozens of times that he isn’t going anywhere and that he would never cheat on me.
Now I’m not too sure of anything. Last Saturday they had a d&d session, and after session my husband all but dragged me to his office because he wanted to show me the text conversation he and kat had during session. It started out normal until kat commented that she felt like she had the whole season of [insert season] in her mouth because of the hard candy she’d been eating all session. The following exchange happened:
Husband- [insert season] is my last name, you said you had the whole season in your mouth. Kat- for shame! I’m telling [littlegamerkitten]. Husband- It’s her last name too. Kat- then give me the seasons.
I fully admit I shut down and locked myself in my office for a few hours. All the insecurities I had been pushing down were just flooding my brain, and I didn’t want to be so emotionally charged when we finally talked. When we did talk he apologized, and said he wasn’t trying to hurt me, he was just trying to be funny. He admitted he should have stopped and thought about it before making the joke and reassured me that there was nothing going on between him and kat and that he’s not going to leave me.
We have been ok since then. But I find myself feeling like maybe I over reacted. Now that I’ve had time to reflect on it the joke was kinda funny but definitely not the most appropriate. I’m just having a hard time trusting my judgment.

Morrigan had just finished talking with her sister Horus. Horus said that father was in fact a sorcerer, a user of the powers that her adoptive father had once used. Morrigan was furious and was about to prepare her legion for war against her father. However, she intended to mull over this information while gardening, and spend time with her Lily. However, as she entered her room, she saw a ghastly sight, something that hurt her to the core, more than anything she ever experienced. Her lily in bed, their body connected to all manner of medicare machinery. Their skin was paler than usual. She could hardly see their chest move, and their body appeared paralyzed. Morrigan came to her lily’s bedside. “Apothecary, what is wrong?” The apothecary looked listlessly at the ceiling, their chest barely rising and failing, their arms limp at their sides. Morrigan felt a tear touch their eye, and they wiped it away. “Apothecary, you must tell what is wrong. Apothecary!” She yelled angrily, partly at her own inability to do anything to help them, and partly at the pain her lily was surely suffering through.
Then she heard a rasping voice behind her. A voice that sounded like a manifestation of someone she knew. “Mother. It seems your attachment to this psyker has nearly caused their demise. Pity.”
Morrigan swung her scythe towards the voice, and stopped shortly after seeing the voice was coming from Typhus, who was somehow still alive. “What do you want Typhus?” She said angrily, scythe placed on the cut that had severed his head. “What sorcery has returned you from your death?”
Typhus laughed, a raspy and hoarse laugh. “It matters not how I am here, but why I am here. I have a way to help your beloved apothecary. I can help them; all I need is your word.”
Morrigan looked back to her lily, seeing the immense pain they were in, then looked over at the vibrant garden they had cultivated. She then looked back to her son, in angry contemplation. “I will not be a puppet to whatever sorcerer has returned you to life. You aren’t a son of mine, and I shall not negotiate with you.” Morrigan once again removed Tyhpus’s head from his neck. She told her sons to burn the corpse and then throw the ashes into space. She would not let Tyhpus’s corruption interfere any longer.
She spent the night tending to her garden, taking breaks to check on her Lily, knowing deep inside that they may never get better. However, when she slept that night, she was taken to a nightmarish realm of her sons fighting against her father, their bodies corrupted by chaos. She could hear the bile filled laughter of a creature in the background, cackling at the disgusting sight of what her sons had become.
Finally, it called out to her. “If only cough you could change their croak fate. If only. You can *sickening gurgle* even help your poor apothecary.” The sight of her lily on the bed appeared before her, and Morrigan could feel a slimy hand upon her shoulder, the bile filled breath of some abomination. “I can help them. All you need to do is complete one little favor for me. What do you say, won't you shake a poor man’s hand?” Said the voice, a hand reaching out from the shadows.
Morrigan knew this must be a trick. She could surely heal her lily without the help of this thing, whatever it was. It may require her to do things she would rather not, but at least she would have a choice. At least she wouldn’t sell her soul “I don’t need your help.” She said stubbornly, sure that she did not need to make this deal as much as the voice thought she did.
The voice grunted angrily, showing her further horrors of the future, of bloated bodies, pestilence and plagues that rampaged her sons, her lily and her home world. “Fine. That is your wish” Morrigan was forced to watch as these visions played over and over in her head. The only way she could think of to escape was the one thing she never wished to do. She dug down deep inside, finding the psychic power she always knew she had, but refused to use. Only with the strength of will could she expel the visions from her head.
Morrigan woke up from her nightmare in cold sweats. She looked over to her side, to see her lily lying to her side, still limp, staring listlessly into space. She knew what she must do to help them, but she was not sure if she was truly ready to use sorcery like her adoptive father, or the Emperor, or Magnolia. She decided to mull over this and spend time in the garden, spending time alone with her thoughts. Perhaps then she might find an answer to her troubles.
She spent days alone in her garden, tending to plants that she could barely keep alive. It gave her something to focus on, something to keep her mind away from the choice she had to make. That was until her sons barged into her room, even though she had specifically told them to leave her alone. She got up, scythe at the ready.
Her son ignored the scythe, stating the purpose of his interruption, “Apologies for the interruption Mother, we are in need of the apothecary. The sick and injured are mounting, and we don't have enough personnel. We will lose more than half of our number without their help.”
She looked over to her lily, still laying near death upon her bed, hooked up to a matter of medicae machinery. “They are in no condition to help my son. But if they improve, I will send them down.” She knew her sons would not understand, and she did not want them to. Not yet. She was not ready to face the facts, not yet. But she would need to do the one thing she swore never to do if she wanted to save her sons and keep humanity safe, especially knowing that she knew her father’s true intentions, or at least she knew what he really was... Her sister Horus was probably letting her ambition run free and was trying to use her against her father. So she was the only one left to protect humanity from the ambitions of tyrants, sorcerers and murderers. ‘Ironic’, she thought, as she prepared to use her psychic abilities to heal her lily, so that they may help her sons, and then help humanity. She placed her hands upon their chest, repeating the same process she had seen her lily use many times in the apothecary when she thought they weren’t looking.
They awoke moments later, eyes flickering open as some light returned to their eyes. They gave a weak smile, their voice weak and raspy. “Is something wrong my M’lady? I feel like I’ve been sleeping for days.”
Morrigan laid a hand on theirs and gave them a glass to drink from. “We will talk later apothecary. Once you are ready, you are badly needed in the apothecary chambers. Incoming injured is overwhelming existing personnel.”
They could not read their lady’s face. Was it concern that they saw, fear, something else? How long had they been asleep? Why did their lady give off a psychic energy they had not before? They did not have the answers to these questions, but they knew now was not the time for answers. People were in need of aid, and so queries must wait. They took a sip from the glass, and then prepared to take on their apothecary duties once more.
Morrigan left, giving them privacy and so that she could see the apothecary, help her sons whoever she could. Maybe she could ask her lily about their abilities. Maybe she could find a way to use them for humanity’s benefit? Maybe it would all be for naught, and she would be right about the nature of such sorcery. But that could wait till later.

I’m still upset as I’m writing so if there’s any mistakes, left out info, or weird formatting (on mobile) I will fix it and add TL;DR later.
This year for Mother’s Day I finally had the means to team up with my brother and do something a little more special. However, she had a trip for work that my brother and I both thought she got back from on the night of Mother’s Day so I decided that when she gets back we can discuss a make-up Mother’s Day when all three of us are free. Turns out it was the night before. I had also made plans that night and was not home.
The morning of Mother’s Day after i realized she was home I texted my brother asking if he had made dinner plans, he did not. So I thought of what kind of dinner I could make, I had already had her favorite drink planned out days before, a movie I knew she wanted to watch, ect. I wanted it to be a surprise. I was feeling sick, but I was dead set on making it happen. For some background, she has a precedent for expecting the worse and dying on that hill even if she was wrong, so I was already worried. When I got home she was in her room with the door shut (which she usually only does if she’s mad). Even our cats were kicked out of her room. Her door wasn’t locked, and I know her well enough to know that tactic, she wanted us to see her miserable in the dark and to actively refuse to talk to us. My brother and I both tried but she would only give one word cranky responses. I came in later with an Italian soda (her favorite drink) and told her I was about to make dinner, she said she didn’t want either. The next day it was the same deal. I might be the asshole here, but I texted her essentially saying that we didn’t know, we’re sorry, but this behavior is not cool. I specifically mentioned her sister, who my mom loves to complain about saying “she’s always playing victim and won’t except either apologies or blame”, i said she was playing her sisters game.
Today I decided to take a page out of her book and did the same thing in my room across the hall from her. I didn’t even eat anything all day, I just laid in bed and wallowed. When my brother got home he asked if I was going to make dinner, I told him to ask our mom if i should. He came back with a hard yes, so I mustered up a third wind. I made a dinner I knew she’d like a lot, I set the table, and queued up the movie. It became very clear that my brother lied about her agreeing to join us. So I lovingly but firmly told her that this is the Mother’s Day I had planned before, and I made her some of her favorites and we’re going to watch the movie she’s been talking about, and if she doesn’t want to that’s ok, but that’s the end of my efforts. She came out to eat, barely said anything the whole time. I asked her if she would like to plan Mother’s Day event to make up for it, she didn’t reply. At that point is when I got incredibly frustrated and had to fight back tears. This is when the childhood memories of similar things started to pool to the surface. I ended up getting up and going to my room for a second to collect myself and came back shortly after. I tried to just keep eating and watch the movie in hopes she would come around. When my mom was finished eating she very curtly said “that was good, thank you” and went back to her room. The way she said it was just mean. As soon as she left I started crying again and asked my brother to put away the leftovers because I wasn’t hungry and went to my room.
I feel bad for my mom for being upset, but I feel like she made up her mind about being angry and won’t except anything to help. I feel bad for my brother because even though he’s in my same situation, he’s obviously feeling caught in the middle of something. So Reddit, AITA?

So here's the thing. I'm at the stage of my life where I want a partner to play this game of life we are all playing together. I'll try to keep this short, sweet and to the point.
I have a wide array of hobbies and interests, but my main love is gaming. I haven't been as much into lately as I'd like but I'm getting back into the grind. I'm looking for someone that loves gaming as much as I do and understands it's not just a hobby - it's a lifestyle. I'd also love to have a few little gamers join our ranks (it's ok if you already have your own minions) Let's have an epic gaming cave with epic streaming/creation setups and have awesome gaming date nights.
But, I hear some of you - "But I'm not into gaming" and you know what - that's cool too!
Love traveling and being outdoors? Let's visit 5 cities in each state and hit each of the national parks. We'll camp everywhere we can and hit all the things along the way. I also have plans to drive all of route 66 towards the end of 2025
Love DIYing? Awesome - let's buy a fixer-upper and create our own masterpiece exactly how we want it!
You love working on cars? Let's buy a project car and tear it down to the frame and chassis and rebuild it from the group up. Race it? Show it off at car shows? Possibilities are endless - We will probably need like a 10 car garage though for our toys
Love music? Awesome - concerts and festivals will be our jam! I have a few concerts planned this year and would love a companion on these trips! We can travel the US visiting all our favorite bands/artists
My point is there are lots of different things we can have in common and enjoy each other's company!
I don't really have any preferences as far as my potential partner - just mainly want someone close to me in age and distance (within a few hours) and someone that has their crap together. I'd prefer if you relocate to me temporarily then we can talk about the next steps after that.
Here's a little about me:
36 SWM Slightly taller than average height but I'm fluffy - I am actively working on it and WILL be healthy before the birth of my first child (Also something we could have in common) I have my own house and my own vehicle I love all the animals (but have a cat) I work in the IT field and make decent money I don't put that must weight in the physical appearance of my partner so I don't really need pics right away, but you're welcome to send em if you want to.
Guess it wasn't as short as I thought, huh?
Oh well! If you made it this far yay! I give you 10 internet points.

So here's the thing. I'm at the stage of my life where I want a partner to play this game of life we are all playing together. I'll try to keep this short, sweet and to the point.
I have a wide array of hobbies and interests, but my main love is gaming. I haven't been as much into lately as I'd like but I'm getting back into the grind. I'm looking for someone that loves gaming as much as I do and understands it's not just a hobby - it's a lifestyle. I'd also love to have a few little gamers join our ranks (it's ok if you already have your own minions) Let's have an epic gaming cave with epic streaming/creation setups and have awesome gaming date nights.
But, I hear some of you - "But I'm not into gaming" and you know what - that's cool too!
Love traveling and being outdoors? Let's visit 5 cities in each state and hit each of the national parks. We'll camp everywhere we can and hit all the things along the way. I also have plans to drive all of route 66 towards the end of 2025
Love DIYing? Awesome - let's buy a fixer-upper and create our own masterpiece exactly how we want it!
You love working on cars? Let's buy a project car and tear it down to the frame and chassis and rebuild it from the group up. Race it? Show it off at car shows? Possibilities are endless - We will probably need like a 10 car garage though for our toys
Love music? Awesome - concerts and festivals will be our jam! I have a few concerts planned this year and would love a companion on these trips! We can travel the US visiting all our favorite bands/artists
My point is there are lots of different things we can have in common and enjoy each other's company!
I don't really have any preferences as far as my potential partner - just mainly want someone close to me in age and distance (within a few hours) and someone that has their crap together. I'd prefer if you relocate to me temporarily then we can talk about the next steps after that.
Here's a little about me:
36 SWM Slightly taller than average height but I'm fluffy - I am actively working on it and WILL be healthy before the birth of my first child (Also something we could have in common) I have my own house and my own vehicle I love all the animals (but have a cat) I work in the IT field and make decent money I don't put that must weight in the physical appearance of my partner so I don't really need pics right away, but you're welcome to send em if you want to.
Guess it wasn't as short as I thought, huh?
Oh well! If you made it this far yay! I give you 10 internet points.

So here's the thing. I'm at the stage of my life where I want a partner to play this game of life we are all playing together. I'll try to keep this short, sweet and to the point.
I have a wide array of hobbies and interests, but my main love is gaming. I haven't been as much into lately as I'd like but I'm getting back into the grind. I'm looking for someone that loves gaming as much as I do and understands it's not just a hobby - it's a lifestyle. I'd also love to have a few little gamers join our ranks (it's ok if you already have your own minions) Let's have an epic gaming cave with epic streaming/creation setups and have awesome gaming date nights.
But, I hear some of you - "But I'm not into gaming" and you know what - that's cool too!
Love traveling and being outdoors? Let's visit 5 cities in each state and hit each of the national parks. We'll camp everywhere we can and hit all the things along the way. I also have plans to drive all of route 66 towards the end of 2025
Love DIYing? Awesome - let's buy a fixer-upper and create our own masterpiece exactly how we want it!
You love working on cars? Let's buy a project car and tear it down to the frame and chassis and rebuild it from the group up. Race it? Show it off at car shows? Possibilities are endless - We will probably need like a 10 car garage though for our toys
Love music? Awesome - concerts and festivals will be our jam! I have a few concerts planned this year and would love a companion on these trips! We can travel the US visiting all our favorite bands/artists
My point is there are lots of different things we can have in common and enjoy each other's company!
I don't really have any preferences as far as my potential partner - just mainly want someone close to me in age and distance (within a few hours) and someone that has their crap together. I'd prefer if you relocate to me temporarily then we can talk about the next steps after that.
Here's a little about me:
36 SWM Slightly taller than average height but I'm fluffy - I am actively working on it and WILL be healthy before the birth of my first child (Also something we could have in common) I have my own house and my own vehicle I love all the animals (but have a cat) I work in the IT field and make decent money I don't put that must weight in the physical appearance of my partner so I don't really need pics right away, but you're welcome to send em if you want to.
Guess it wasn't as short as I thought, huh?
Oh well! If you made it this far yay! I give you 10 internet points.

This is my first ever Reddit post and I’m posting to see some fresh perspectives. Any advice or help is welcome. Thank you.
I’ve been in a relationship for over 2 years now, and I can honestly say it has been the best time of my life. This woman helped me find myself and helped shape me into the man I am today. She always tries her best to listen to my problems, but lately I’ve been getting the feeling it’s too much for her. Which is why I’ve came to Reddit for help. (I’ve talked with my parents and a school therapist about this as well)
I’ve always had problems with anxiety. Ever since I was little I’ve cared far too much about what people think of me. It’s a problem that’s kind of taken a backseat these past few years, but has recently come up in a bunch of different ways. For around 7 months now, my relationship has been hindered by my chronic overthinking, 100% of the time wondering where she is and what she’s doing. I know that I can’t always know this, as that is controlling behavior, but it still upsets me deeply. Every scenario, such as being active on social media at the same time as guys I’m uncomfortable with, or not answering my texts when she is active on that app, makes me panic a bit. Instead of logically assuming she’s answering somebody else or just hasn’t opened my text yet, I always find the most catastrophic situation possible, like cheating. Even as I’m writing this, I’m wondering what guys she could be texting at that moment. I often have to talk to my girlfriend about these issues, and I often take her feelings for granted and I think it’s draining her to the point where I don’t think she can handle this as long as she thinks she can.
Let me give you an example of my head (For context, my girlfriend has just graduated and I am still in school.)
A couple of days ago, I was sitting in class with the knowledge that my girlfriend was going to be hanging out playing sports with her best friend (F) and a couple of guys, all of whom are her classmates. I end up learning that her best friend decided to stay at home, leaving her and these guys. I then learn that they are all planning on getting food at a restaurant in a neighboring tow. They get food, come back, then I learn that they are again playing sports, and after that is done, my girlfriend gives one of the guys a ride home as he does not have a car. Through no fault of my girlfriend, I’m learning all this new stuff through gapped texts, partly due to connection issues.
To most, this is just a normal day with nothing that could have happened. But my mind is not so simple. Let me take you through my thought process throughout the day.
First, let me go over one of her friends in particular, Fred (name change ofc). Fred has exhibited odd behavior since the start of the school year towards me and my girlfriend, and I don’t know if I’m justified in saying he has a crush on her. Please give me your thoughts. To my face Fred has called her the most beautiful girl in the school, knowing she was my girlfriend. He mentions her in class to me whenever he can bring her up, often unnecessarily. He sends her songs to listen to, and starts unnecessary text conversations stemming from questions he or she asked. Just after they got done as a group, he immediately sends her a video of a song and tries to initiate conversation, which she tries her best to shut down. After trying to shut it down, he then asks her if she’d want to get a group together and hang out again. How do you think me and my girlfriend should handle the situation? Any attempt at telling her anything about it makes me feel controlling and manipulative.
For context, Fred happens to be the friend my girlfriend drove home.
Back to the example, me learning that her female best friend was not there made me feel as if something was instantly going on, or that she planned this on purpose to be alone with Fred. Then when I learn she’s getting lunch with the guys, I feel as if she’s letting me go, while also wondering if she’s sitting next to Fred on the ride there. While they’re eating, I’m thinking about who she’s sitting next to and why it’s taking them so long to eat. When they return from the restaurant and are playing sports again I freak out wondering if this was her choice and if she’s using this as an excuse to be close to Fred or some guy that’s there now I don’t know about. By this point I’m out of school and at home, where I am trying to text her, but because she’s playing sports, she’s not answering her phone. Instead of thinking this, my already full head assumes something more is going on or that she’s not answering on purpose cause she knows I’m freaking out. By this point, Im in full panic mode, checking her location as often as possible, and after a short break, I see she is at Fred’s house. Her location is pinged there longer than it normally should be, and this just about sends me over the edge. Images of them kissing in the car or laughing while having good conversation pop into my head, and at this point there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I text her asking her what she’s doing, trying to almost set her up for a lie or expect the worst answer. When I do confront her about her location being there, she gives me a very logical, yet not complete answer, still allowing my mind to run free and wild. Looking back on it I honestly handled the situation very toxically, but in the moment I had no better ideas. Please tell me how I can react to these situations more calmly. I’d like to point out I’ve never outright accused her of cheating on me, but I have told her when it seems like at least a semi-rational scenario(even if it’s not).
So yeah, that’s what my brain thought of a seemingly normal day for my girlfriend was like. Please feel free to give suggestions on how I can change my behavior effectively. Also tell me if you think my girlfriend can change her behavior to help me.
These snowballing thoughts happen from the tiniest of things, and I need help stopping them before they begin. One of my main concerns is a trip my girlfriend is taking this summer, which includes Fred. There’s a high likelihood I’ll never see Fred again after this trip, and I’m worried he’ll make his move. I would love to say I trust my girlfriend, but in all honesty, for no reason at all I can’t trust her. She’s given me 0 reason to not trust her, and honestly I’m more scared of him making a move than her accepting it.
I’ve put thought into this, and I have 2 reasons. 1. Self-Confidence I am not ugly by any means, but lately because of my issues and changing appearance,I think I’ve started to get worried on whether or not I’m good enough for my girlfriend. 2. Fear of Loss One of the causes for lack of trust could be that I’m scared of losing her. Meaning I don’t want to completely latch onto her in case she hurts me. But I also feel Ive latched onto her too tight in other aspects of our relationship.
I know this post is extremely long, and I don’t think this encompasses everything I’m dealing with, so if you need more context feel free to message or leave a comment.
Thank you for your time.

Hello Sparks fans, I'm a new mod on the subreddit and doing some housekeeping to try to improve the subreddit. Chiefly, I'm trying to improve the subreddit CSS (if you aren't using old.reddit.com you probably should be).
What kind of things stylistically or feature wise would yall like to see in the subreddit style? I was thinking about drawing some inspiration from /lakers of which I'm sure many of us are also fans. Specifically I thought it would be good to have our championships front and center at the top bar with our starters and retired numbers to the left and right of it. On the more practical side adding the game schedule and record to the sidebar.
I've also added our first round of user flairs available for yall to choose from, currently it consists of players on our current roster and our retired numbers and defacto retired. Please feel free to suggest additional great Sparks past to add.
Lastly, please give suggestions on useful post flairs yall would like to see.
Go Sparks!

I (24 M) have a MTG (Magic the Gathering) hobby that I usually will hang out with my friends and my dad every Monday or whenever we’re all free on a Monday. If my (24 F) wife works on Monday I’ll go and if she’s off I’ll cancel and be with her. Me going when she’s working is an issue for her. I’ll leave our place around 3 or 4 pm and come back around 9 to 9:30 pm the latest. I don’t know if that’s unreasonable to others but to her it is. She’ll get mad and say I choose a card game over her which isn’t the case at all. It’s my one time a week and not even every week, to have laughs, and quality time with my friends and dad as well. No matter how many times I say that to her it’s the same response, “you choose a stupid card game over me. That’s not a real hobby. You left me here all alone.” Mind you, she gets off around 8pm on Mondays. I tell her I don’t shame her for being with her friends for any amount of time or whatever she does in her free time. But when it comes to this, it seems like she just doesn’t like what I’m into? She’s known I’ve been in this hobby for years and I like hanging out with my friends and dad at the same time. How should I respond to her saying these things? Do I give up my hobby to just get some peace of mind from this happening almost every Monday?
TL;DR- My (24 M) Wife (24 F) Doesn’t like when I have my day for hobbies while she’s at work.

Played a round robin with a group ranging from 3.75-4.25, with only one other 4.5. Myself and the other 4.5 both went 9 wins 1 loss. What I noticed is that only myself and the other 4.5 prefer 3rd shot drops over drives. The other players hit 3rd shot drives almost every time. If you are in this boat, please consider a few things:

• It is harder for your partner to poach a drive, whereas a 3rd shot drop allows your partner to easily poach and get some easy points
• If you or your partner hit a deep serve, a top-spin drop/hybrid 3rd shot drop can drop to your opponent’s feet as they are still approaching the net. Their forward momentum makes a half-volley more difficult and easily cause a pop up. If you wait to drop on the 5th shot, they are already at the kitchen and ready.
• A 3rd shot drive is still not a guarantee. For one, it can sail out. Second it needs to sail just over the net and if not, you may not make much progress towards equalizing (getting to the kitchen).
• I do realize the 3rd shot drive is often done to make an easier 5th shot drop, but remember that the only time to catch your opponent running to the kitchen (with their forward momentum making for a more difficult shot) is on the 3rd shot.

I’m not saying give up on 3rd shot drives. The pros use them just as much as 3rd shot drops. I’m just saying if you are in the 3.75-4.25 range, consider working the 3rd shot drop into your game if you haven’t already.

Howdy.
It's now been six months since Wizard With a Gun released, and I wrote a post about my thoughts on the game. If you want a looksie, here it is. In this post, we've got spoilers for new stuff.
Suffice it to say, I think the game's patched over a lot of what I had to gripe about in my initial post - but coming back to it after all this time has brought with it some new/old thoughts.
Movement still feels slow and clunky, so not much has changed there. General clutter was also basically the same as it originally was. That's fine, of course, and I don't think there's much you could do about the clutter issue - but maybe there could be something to do about making movement feel a little more snappy? I dunno, that might be a 'me' thing, but the game in general would improve a lot if there was something like a duck-and-cover combat system.
The outline is kind of there, since you can move behind things to avoid shots, but the mechanic...basically only matters in Talia's fight.
Maybe if there were more arena-like areas - and more space to move around in - it'd work out more nicely? I dunno. It's a question I'm not really prepared to answer since I'm not the game's designer, just a thought. Cube-based arenas are already kinda hard to account for, I suppose.
There still aren't a lot of permanent upgrades, either, so I'm still feeling the same on that point.
New stuff, though- I like it!
I didn't try out a lot of the new guns, but the fact that you could even get new guns was pretty cool. I especially liked the fact that you could, specifically, get each of the riders' weapons. I really liked how unique those ones felt, especially, so- good job! Cool guns in the gun game. I'll take it.
Lore-wise, the additional bits and details that were added were also pretty darn cool- at least, the ones I found, and what I pieced together. The point that Chaos is from one severely warped soul that can be contained from the very thing you've been respawning from is also interesting, and kind of emphasizes that the gods were just really good wizards - they weren't gods in the way that you might think of them. At least, I don't think they are.
I still don't know what the deal is with the wizard in amber, though. Maybe they did something there, but I didn't spend enough time in the game to do much more than take out the four golden bounties needed and then go charm the riders.
That part - finding voidskimmer parts and then recruiting the riders via charm - was neat, but wasn't especially intuitive, and I ended up just needing to look up the 'what to do here' online. That's partly on me, anyway; if I'd played the game from beginning to end on the current version, I'd have probably stumbled into that answer before reaching the final boss. Maybe Hilda even tells you to recruit the riders using charm? I dunno!
It's nice that Charm has an effective use here, though. It doesn't seem all too useful otherwise, for the most part.
Altogether, the game still feels very confined by its own world - you can't really explore beyond the space of the shatter, and even in the shatter, there aren't very many interesting places to find. No dungeons, just obstacles to bump into and walk around. Getting around is still kind of a pain, too, going back to the point about walking speed and all that. But, I'll say that if the last time I played the game I'd give it a D+, I'd bump it up to a high C. Maybe C+/B- territory if I was a fresh player and didn't have preformed opinions before going for the 'actual' ending.
It's definitely become much better than it once was, and it patched a lot of holes that it had on release. So, y'know. Cool! And thanks, Galvanic Games. I really appreciate the focus y'all have on the community; I lurk in the Discord, and I see you guys plugging away at the game and making it better.

Hi I’d like to ask the help of a statistician in uncovering fraud. I run a election poll company and I believe my associate committed fraud, but I need mathematical proof that he did it. Let’s start with the scenario, we have 4 political parties, we’ll call them team Red, team Green, team Orange, and team White. We ask a series of questions including what the condition of the town is, what their age group is, if they plan on voting, and if they have a voting license. On top of that we asked their preference for two political races, one for mayor and one for congressman. This is in a foreign country so it’s not your typical red versus blue battle, it is a country with four political parties, two of which are the predominant ones.
I conducted a poll consisting of 60 different people answering each questionnaires for a total of 120 interviews. He conducted research asking 100 different people to answer both questionnaires at the same time. It is crucial for me to prove without a shadow of a doubt that he committed fraud in order to be able to legally fire him. The interviews were to be conducted completely in secret. You were supposed to hand a person a paper and they would fill it out by themselves and place it in a sealed backpack so the interviewer would not see any answer. Here are the results for my associate’s poll and my poll. We polled similar spots and weren’t allowed to conduct more than 5 questionnaires in any single location.
Team Red Mayor: (41/100) 41% associate (14/60) 23% my poll
Team Green Mayor: (26/100) 26% associate (15/60) 25% my poll
Team Orange Mayor: (9/100) 9% associate (5/60) 8.33% my poll
Team White Mayor: (0/10) 0% associate (3/60) 5% my poll
Undecided Mayor (24/100) 24% associate (23/60) 38% my poll
Now the key aspect is the undecided vote in which I believe he committed fraud.
His responses for mayor included 24 undecided of which 5 left that part blank (20%) and the other 19 wrote in some form of not decided or not interested. Of my 60 interviews, 23 responded as undecided of which 15(65%) didn’t write anything of that part leaving it completely blank.
Now let’s talk about the polls for congressman in which I believe he did not skew the results as much and these are closer to accurate. I believe he was paid off by team Red’s candidate for mayor to skew the result in his favor but not in favor of the of the congressman as they are not in good terms. It is important to note that in his 100 interviews, the same person answered the poll for mayor and congressman, so there shouldn’t be mayor discrepancies among them.
Team Red Congressman: (30/100) 30% associate (12/60) 20% my poll
Team Green Congressman: (30/100) 30% associate (17/60) 28% my poll
Team Orange Congressman: (11/100) 11% associate (5/60) 8.33% my poll
Team White Congressman: (2/100) 2% associate (3/60) 5% my poll
Undecided Congressman (27/100) 27% associate (23/60) 38% my poll
Of his 27 undecided for congressman, 15(55%) were left blank. In mine of the 23 undecided, 16(69%) left it blank. This is why I believe he didn’t mess with these numbers as much.
My hypothesis is that he took the undecided votes for mayor that were left in blank, opened them up, and wrote down a vote for Team Red’s candidate for mayor. In my post I got a pretty consistent 25% red, 25% green, 40% undecided spread. In his poll the green candidate still got the 25%, but the red went up 15 points which were the same 15 points that were missing from the undecided vote. Additionally I found 16 of his votes that were very similar in writing in the voting section but completely different in the evaluation part. The key thing is that not only is he missing a large chunk percentage wise of the undecided vote in his mayor poll but he’s missing almost all of the undecided votes that should be left blank. I believe he also messed with the congressman’s vote to throw us off as he still doesn’t have the percentage required of undecideds, but believe he took a few of those and spread them throughout and didn’t focus on giving them all to team Red’s candidate. As one last side note, the day after we finished the polls, team Red’s candidate for mayor publicly said that he was up in the polls and that team green was well aware of this. We had not published the results of any polls as I was skeptical of my associate’s results and even though we were hired by team green to conduct this survey, they didn’t know the actual results of the polls. The fact that team Red’s candidate for mayor was the only one to say this and it was the first time he had ever mentioned polls made me even more sure that my associate had been bought off. Thanks for your help and hopefully I can prove my hypothesis which at this point I believe to be 99.9% accurate.

Hi I’d like to ask the help of a statistician in uncovering fraud. I run a election poll company and I believe my associate committed fraud, but I need mathematical proof that he did it. Let’s start with the scenario, we have 4 political parties, we’ll call them team Red, team Green, team Orange, and team White. We ask a series of questions including what the condition of the town is, what their age group is, if they plan on voting, and if they have a voting license. On top of that we asked their preference for two political races, one for mayor and one for congressman. This is in a foreign country so it’s not your typical red versus blue battle, it is a country with four political parties, two of which are the predominant ones.
I conducted a poll consisting of 60 different people answering each questionnaires for a total of 120 interviews. He conducted research asking 100 different people to answer both questionnaires at the same time. It is crucial for me to prove without a shadow of a doubt that he committed fraud in order to be able to legally fire him. The interviews were to be conducted completely in secret. You were supposed to hand a person a paper and they would fill it out by themselves and place it in a sealed backpack so the interviewer would not see any answer. Here are the results for my associate’s poll and my poll. We polled similar spots and weren’t allowed to conduct more than 5 questionnaires in any single location.
Team Red Mayor: (41/100) 41% associate (14/60) 23% my poll
Team Green Mayor: (26/100) 26% associate (15/60) 25% my poll
Team Orange Mayor: (9/100) 9% associate (5/60) 8.33% my poll
Team White Mayor: (0/10) 0% associate (3/60) 5% my poll
Undecided Mayor (24/100) 24% associate (23/60) 38% my poll
Now the key aspect is the undecided vote in which I believe he committed fraud.
His responses for mayor included 24 undecided of which 5 left that part blank (20%) and the other 19 wrote in some form of not decided or not interested. Of my 60 interviews, 23 responded as undecided of which 15(65%) didn’t write anything of that part leaving it completely blank.
Now let’s talk about the polls for congressman in which I believe he did not skew the results as much and these are closer to accurate. I believe he was paid off by team Red’s candidate for mayor to skew the result in his favor but not in favor of the of the congressman as they are not in good terms. It is important to note that in his 100 interviews, the same person answered the poll for mayor and congressman, so there shouldn’t be mayor discrepancies among them.
Team Red Congressman: (30/100) 30% associate (12/60) 20% my poll
Team Green Congressman: (30/100) 30% associate (17/60) 28% my poll
Team Orange Congressman: (11/100) 11% associate (5/60) 8.33% my poll
Team White Congressman: (2/100) 2% associate (3/60) 5% my poll
Undecided Congressman (27/100) 27% associate (23/60) 38% my poll
Of his 27 undecided for congressman, 15(55%) were left blank. In mine of the 23 undecided, 16(69%) left it blank. This is why I believe he didn’t mess with these numbers as much.
My hypothesis is that he took the undecided votes for mayor that were left in blank, opened them up, and wrote down a vote for Team Red’s candidate for mayor. In my post I got a pretty consistent 25% red, 25% green, 40% undecided spread. In his poll the green candidate still got the 25%, but the red went up 15 points which were the same 15 points that were missing from the undecided vote. Additionally I found 16 of his votes that were very similar in writing in the voting section but completely different in the evaluation part. The key thing is that not only is he missing a large chunk percentage wise of the undecided vote in his mayor poll but he’s missing almost all of the undecided votes that should be left blank. I believe he also messed with the congressman’s vote to throw us off as he still doesn’t have the percentage required of undecideds, but believe he took a few of those and spread them throughout and didn’t focus on giving them all to team Red’s candidate. As one last side note, the day after we finished the polls, team Red’s candidate for mayor publicly said that he was up in the polls and that team green was well aware of this. We had not published the results of any polls as I was skeptical of my associate’s results and even though we were hired by team green to conduct this survey, they didn’t know the actual results of the polls. The fact that team Red’s candidate for mayor was the only one to say this and it was the first time he had ever mentioned polls made me even more sure that my associate had been bought off. Thanks for your help and hopefully I can prove my hypothesis which at this point I believe to be 99.9% accurate.

Okay, honestly I've never actually finished the game because I've played year one over and over trying to get it as perfectly done as possible. So, here are some "advices" of my last run and probably the best I've had.
•Early bait maker: the best thing you can do is to start by fixing the bridge at the beach to reach the sea urchin and build the bait maker, that way you can quickly begin fishing the most profitable fish you can find. Recommended start fishing in the sea to level up quickly since there's less trash and you can save space by selling everything right away to willy.
•Early smoker: this one is harder since the cave jelly is a bitch to find. But, for PC players(I honestly don't consider this cheating, because I think it's pretty fair and something that should be added eventually) I use a mod to craft the jellies. Even better, you can take advantage of those fishes that aren't so profitable, using the smoker anyway but keeping them as food to save up money.
•Coal: Don't necessarily focus on mining for this, you can buy it from Clint, it's worth it since the reward is far greater when used in the smoker.
•Community center: Unlock it as soon as you can, and complete the easiest bundles quickly so you can reach the boiler room and have the minecarts, they save way too much time at the beginning of the game. Sprinklers: If you have SVE, buy them from Sophia. It's a bit expensive, but once again it saves time and energy.
•Axe: Level up your axe first, it's worth more than the pickaxe because it gives access to the secret woods to gather hardwood. Never forget to plant the mahogany seeds.
•Joja cola: in the last update, Joja cola now gives a short speed buff. Take advantage of it, so don't make the mistake of throwing away the joja cola you find when fishing.
•Prize ticket: make sure you never forget the daily quests. If you have ui info suite, every day click on the billboard in your inventory menu. This is very important, because after you exchange two prize tickets(I think it's two) you unlock mystery boxes where you can rather easily get deluxe speed gro, perfect for ancient seeds, strawberries and whatever you need.
•Fish: Have a chest with at least a couple of fish from every type, this way, when you get Willy's daily quests, you just make some bait and the quest is done in a couple of minutes at most. Save at least 9 iridium fish for the Stardew valley fair in autumn, because that's enough to win first place.
•By this point, you should already have a very decent amount of money, so what I did at least, was to upgrade coop and barn to the max before buying animals so you won't waste time feeding them every rainy day.
That's all I can remember right now. It's a lot, I know, but it's worth it. Just so you can have an idea of how useful this all is, I'm at spring 8 year 2, all five masteries, with three junimo huts, exchanging iridium ores for mega bombs,all ginger island unlocked, every tool enchanted, two silos, two barns(one still empty though), one coop, three ponds, max friendship with almost everyone and with currently 1.773.021 gold.
Either way, if anyone wants to ask something, go on and I'll do my best to answer.