Fire pre plan form

I am not the OOP. The OOP is u/This_Musician7165 posting in TwoHotTakes
User account has since been deleted
Concluded as per OOP
2 updates - Medium
Original - 15th January 2024
Update in a comment - 16th January 2024
Final Update (Link no longer accessible)- 16th January 2024
​
My Step Dad purposefully ruined my $900 prom dress by washing it! Is there anything I can do such as take legal?
​
Edit: Sorry for some reason Reddit took my original post down. This is my first time using Reddit
’ve never posted on here, but I really need advice because I’m so distraught and have no clue what I should do I’m only 17 and don’t know if there’s any legal action I can take. So for a little background I live with my bio mom and her husband since my dad and mom separated and were never married. I originally lived with my dad since I was 2 he won custody during the custody battle. However he later lost custody of me after having a bad work accident that made him paralysed and he wouldn’t be able to take care of me but I still see him every weekend and the whole summer. I moved in with my mom and her husband and their two sons ,1 stepbrother and 1 half brother, when I was 10. And ever since then my stepdad basically directly and indirectly says that I’ve disrupted their lives by coming back into my mother’s life, because I’m an extra person they have to take care of.
I’ve been working since I was in 10th grade and saving up for my senior yeacollege since last year with the money from my job since my mom and her husband let me know that only my mom would only help me with the basics such as my graduation cap and gown, senior dues, and senior class photo. Anything else I would have to pay for myself such as prom.
I get paid about $400 every two weeks from my job which Ive been saving in full, and then making extra money doing nails about $100 a week plus tip which I use as my spending money. Since it’s my senior and last year of high school I’ve been wanting to go all out for prom so I set a $800 budget for my prom dress. My prom is in April and I wanted to get my prom dress early since most of the actual cute ones sell out quick. So I went prom dress shopping in December and found a beautiful dress that’s costed $890. It’s dark green with a long train with rhinestone imbedded into it with glitter in the dress.
When I first showed my mom and stepdad the dress they asked how much it was, which I told them the amount and my mom said that she wouldn’t be paying for a dress that expensive which I replied it’s okay because I have more than enough money saved up to buy it, and I’ll still have a lot of money left over (23k to be exact but only my mom knows that) mom said I could get the dress and that it was very pretty, however my stepdad said that it’s irresponsible and a waste of money and I should use it for better things like helping out the family and paying some of the bills. And get a dress cheaper that’s max $300. Mind you both his son’s own PS5 and multiple $200+ shoes.
Long story short my mom disagreed with him and I ended up getting the dress in the end and she even put $150 toward it.
However ever since then he constantly brings up that I help pay for things around the house since I have so much money to throw away but my mom always shuts it down saying that I work hard for my money to save it and I already help about with paying the Netflix, Amazon prime, and Hulu bills while my step brother (18) don’t pay anything.
Anyway last Saturday we got into a really big disagreement because my stepdad suggested I should help my step brother pay for his prom to which I responded with no. He later called me selfish and said that it’s not fair that I get an expensive outfit while he doesn’t. And I guess I said with in a snarky way I responded with that’s not my child or my problem. He later tried to complain to my mom and she said that I was right and that if anything he should pay for his own prom.
Well today when I woke up from a nap I noticed my prom dress was missing from my closet since it’s in the very front of my closet and looked around for it. I then asked my stepdad if he has seen it since my mother was at work. And he said he had, and in fact he was washing it, while giving me a condescending smile. I immediately ran downstairs and saw my dress being washed on the heavy duty cycle I immediately cancel it and it was ruined. Majority of my rhinestones came out and the glitter was washed out the whole dress had been mangled.
I took one look at it and then threw it a trash bag and left for my friends house with the dress. I texted my mom and sent her pictures but I’m currently at my friends house and laying on her bed. My friends parent hanged it outside to allow it to air dry so my stepdad can’t put the blame on them if the dried it in the dryer. What makes me know he did to spite me because he never washes clothes, cooks or anything since “he’s the man of the house so he shouldn’t have to”, so there was no viable reason he could have for washing it, even if it needed washing.
Is there anything I can do? I know neither of them can replace being they are tough financial situation? I’ll update you guys when mom gets home. So far my stepdad has called 2x but I haven’t answered him. And my mom’s at work and can’t receive calls.
​
Comments
​
Fancy_Association484
My heart hurts for you. Get him to admit it over text then file small claims court.

OOP: He’s not gonna admit I don’t think imma try to get audio but we also have cameras with audio imma try and use them when my mom gets off

​
Rhodin265
I didn’t see this suggested, but since you’re paying for the streaming services, change your passwords and log out all devices. Giant toddlers don’t get their tanties rewarded with their stepkid’s Netflix.
​
Fromashination
It would be a dastardly shame if Step Dad's favorite shoes were accidentally left on the porch in the snow all night.
​
Update - 1 day later
​
Edit 1:I don't know how to add updates so imma just add an edit but my mom and me just got off the phone and she's pissed and otw home. She's currently otw home so me and my friend and her dad are otw to my house and my mom said she was gonna call the cops as soon as she get off the phone so they may be there by the time I get there. We've taken pictures and the uncle (my mom brother) will be over there by 8 bc I contacted him while at work. I've listened to all your suggestions about withdrawing my money out of my account so I thinking and I talked to my dad about that as well and told me I can stay with him
Edit/Update 2:When I got home my friend stayed in the car while her dad walked me in, and my step dad was already gone. However police were at the house. As of now police said they can’t really arrest him because it’s not like he broke the law of stealing (I don’t know how to explain it basically this theft isn’t breaking the law bc he washed it and didn’t keep it) they suggested I can get a confession and get him to pay or take him to small claims court. Also the dress is non refundable if damaged so I can’t return it or anything. While explaining to my mom what happened I kinda fumbled my words and started crying and she hugged me as I cried. And she said that he’s gonna pay for this, this financial issue has actually been a on going disagreement and I think he just pulled the last straw bc she is PISSED. Also I talked to my uncle and he’s actually off work and over his way over here.
Him and my stepdad apparently have a rough history since my dad has had a smart mouth towards him in the past. While explaining to my uncle what happened he said that it would be alright and if anything he’ll buy back the dress before it sells out, so I’ll have my dress by prom but he does expect my step dad to pay me back one way or another so I’m basically probably gonna get my dress for free. Maybe that’s a little win. I’ll update more probably later tonight. But things seem to be good.
Edit: Also to clear up some confusion I pay the streaming service bills bc I really want to watch the shows on those services and my mom works hard but doesn’t make enough to have those services on top so I’ve offer to pay them so we could have them. She not a horrible “I’ll pick my husband over you” mother and she always defend me and he’s never pulled a stunt like this just tries to convince her to control my money and savings. And she’s never spent my saving either. I feel like thats why they always clash because he has a mindset of we have all these financial troubles and your daughter could solve them with her savings and you have access to them.
Edit/Update 4: Okay so my uncle came over and he and my mom had a little argument bc he blamed her for enabling my stepdads behaviour by not leaving him and thats why he felt comfortable to do what he did. And she argued back saying she always defended me against him and has never taken any of my money (which is true). We all talked about it a bit and she revealed that last night they had actually had a argument about paying off a car payment because she made a comment about how all these bills are taking a toll on her, and he made a comment about how it wouldn’t be that much of a toll if she used my savings and didn’t allow me to spend it on foolishness and she got mad and defensive bc he keeps bringing it up.
He also said that the $900 I spent could’ve payed off that car payment for the next 2 months. Btw he only know about my savings because he know how’s much I get paid and that I’ve been saving all of it. So we think that’s what triggered him to throw my dress in the washer.
My mom and stepdad has also been texting back and fourth and he admitted that he washed it to teach me a lesson that I shouldn’t spend that much money on a dress that can be destroyed that easily but he put the setting on heavy duty so he obviously intended to destroy it. My uncle has also offered to replace the dress so I don’t need to worry about not getting to wear my special dress. We called the boutique and explained it to them and they say they can order another dress although it won’t be there until Feb 23 which fine tbh.
My mother sent my step dad a long threatening message basically calling him out shes kinda heated rn so imma try and ask for a screenshot later. Her and my father also spoke and decided that it’d be best that I get my own bank account so that my step dad can’t use the excuse that she has access to my account so that’s also great. My mom and I had a talk about what gonna happen after this and she said shes not sure as of just yet bc it’s all a little too much for her bc she seriously contemplating leaving him, but i guess she don’t wanna actively discuss that right now. Also my stepdad is currently at a friends house. I’ll continue to update possibly may get one tomorrow. My friends parent are gonna keep the dress over their house and imma pick it up tomorrow to have as proof.
Edit:I apologise for not being to update since Reddit took down my post because of a “no walls text rule” that I was unaware of but it’s all good now
Edit/Update 5: My uncle has transferred me $1000 for my prom dress and I’m actually planning on using the money for replace the dress and buy new shoes. He’s very well off, which was one reason I contacted him in the first place.
So I plan on just calling the boutique and seeing if they can reorder it and I’ll just pick it up from there sometime in February. However my step-dad still must pay in some form, or at least we are trying to get him to. My uncle has called my other uncles and aunts (with my permission) to basically vent about the situation.
So majority of my mom side who all live in GA knows about what happened. I woke up to a lot of text about the situation given sympathy, as well as money to have for prom which have totalled to about $300. So this is great. My mom has also contacted my step-in-laws who then spread the news with pictures and I guess most of them are shocked as well other than his mother his is buying his claim that it’s just a dress and it was a accident despite evidence. I got a call from my step-dad sister sympathising for me.
And through conversations with I learned that my step-dad has also been asking a lot of his family to help him with his finances. Because for some reason the dude has bought so many things to pay off he can’t keep up with them.
My mom called my step-dad for answers which we recorded. And he’s basically trying to blame her bc if she didn’t piss him off last night then he wouldn’t have done it. And that he was trying to show me why I shouldn’t be irresponsible with money bc I guess he planned to lecture afterwards.
Also my mom has broken up with him bc he blamed her for caring more about me than him, which is weird. Which ensured in a argument with her saying “you think i care about her more than you, your gonna see just how much I do”
Also they’ve been on a rocky relationship since he can’t manage money and this was her breaking point.
​
Comments
​
TaffyAppl
Just saw this update!! Now that you have the text, please show the police as confession as destruction of property and/or take him to court to pay for it. It’s not fair to your uncle. Once you get your step dad to pay up, you can pay your uncle back. Girl Good luck!
​
sherbear97124
What your step-dad did is called malicious mischief and is a crime. With the confessions and proof, there probably is a case. Just know that because of the monetary value, it's most likely just a misdemeanor charge. Regardless, you definitely have a small claims case against him. Sadly, by the sounds of his financial affairs, you'll be lucky if he ever pays, but it's still worth pursuing. Good luck!
​
Update - same day later
​
Edit/Update 6: Sorry to post on here Reddit keep telling me to try again later so sorry again
Okay so a lot of bs has transpired. Firstly we’ve place an order for my dress, and they are shipping it now and it should be at the boutique by Feb 23 so all that is taken care of. My SD and mom are officially broken up and my mom said she doesn’t now if she’ll move on with divorce proceedings yet bc everything is still fresh and lawyer are expensive and she can’t afford it rn.
Also they have a prenup so they don’t share assent and the house is my mother dad house she inherited (she had a different dad than all her siblings and all her siblings share a dad).
So my step father showed back up with his brother after a while and my step father decided to do and buy me a new dress from Macy that looks similar to dress in color and length but it’s very tacky and ugly. And look nothing like the original.
He then tried to apologise and said it wasn’t his intention to ruin the dress. he said that he was simply gonna wash it and say “see this is why you don’t buy things like this” and then he would’ve bought me another dress…. But that’s make absolutely no sense.
Also my uncle came back to my house after I texted him my step dad came back (he was at the store) and they got into a big argument where basically my uncle demanded to know why he destroyed the dress
And my step dad said he not gonna walk up in his house demanding shit, and my uncle called him a bitch. And then my SD said to call him a bitch again which he did and they ended up fighting. (My SD lost) he threatened to call the cops but we reminded him that he swung first
After that my step dad went on a tirade and cussed us out and left and took the dress with him.
We are actually planning on taking y’all advice and taking him to small claims court given the evidence and the damage. And hopefully we win. Also my SD is staying at his parents house currently.
Lastly for all curious about my brothers they are 15 (half) and 18 (step) .The 15 was at his girlfriend house since Friday so he wasn’t home for any of the commotion but did reach out to me today, I love him so much. And the 18 year basically sided with his dad so that all there is to say.
Also those who suggested changing the streaming’s passwords I have change them. And me and my mom are gonna get me my own bank account later today. Thank you guys for all the support I’ll continue to update as thing come and our plans of action and the verdict and all
​
Comments
​
​
I am not the OOP. Please do not harass the OOP.
Please remember the No Brigading Rule and to be civil in the comments

Well as a new PS5 player I have already had my shares of both incredible and absolutely rotten luck. This story has to be the worst luck I've had in my short career on the game so far. And yet somehow against all the odds I managed to come out on top! (for the most part anyway). Without further ado... A long time ago... On a sea far far away...
Our story begins with me doing some good ol grinding for the Merchant Alliance. My emissary flag was Grade 4 and I knew that one more Lost Shipment voyage would likely get me to Grade 5 so I decided to spring for that and chose to dive to it. As soon as I come up I pick up my first clue and then immediately check the map for Reapers. I see 2 on the map. One is pretty far away. Another is closer than is comfortable but not close enough that I could spot with my telescope. Weary of my unwanted neighbors I sailed to my next location.
I arrive to the next island and pick up the next clue (along with the key to the captains cabin) without incident. Until I got back on my sloop anyway. I check the map again and see that the one Reaper is now headed in my direction. Now I am aware that what I did next was very stupid. I don't need you guys to tell me because I worked that out for myself thank you very much. But I couldn't actually see them with the naked eye just yet and for some reason I wanted to wait to see if they were actually coming for me or if they were just passing me by to go somewhere else.
I wait for about a minute and eventually I see what appears to be a fully crewed Reaper Galleon. And yessir they are gunning right for me! In hindsight it is very obvious that they were definitely coming for my emissary flag but for some reason that didn't occur to me at the time. Kicking myself for wasting so much time I lower the sail and get moving but they were already gaining thanks to the headstart I idiotically gave them. The chase was on!
Now a salty old pirate once told me that no ship on the Sea of Thieves can catch a sloop that's going against the wind. I had never actually tested this for myself but now was as good a time as any! Problem with that was the wind was very much in my favor (ironically enough) and while I was fast the galleon was faster. I knew I needed to turn around but being a solo slooper making a quick turn while still keeping track of where I was going and where my Reaper friends were was easier said than done. And they had just gotten within cannon range and had started trying to take my mast down. Thankfully that effort failed but plenty of their missed chainshots were smacking into my hull which was also no good.
I see a big rock coming out of the water to the right of my boat. I decided I would use it as my opportunity to turn around and hopefully get a chance at repairing my boat. So I halve my sail and start turning around the rock. This gave me some brief cover from the Reaper but they did manage to get a couple more shots in beforehand while I was moving slower. I manage to get around the rock and put my heading against the wind but in the process managed to clip the rock on my right side. My ship now had tons of holes which I had barely gotten a chance to repair any of. And the Reaper had come around the rock at that point and were taking as many shots at me as they still could likely realizing what I was planning. I lowered my sails all the way and quickly made my way below deck to frantically repair and bail as fast as I possibly could.
Somehow I managed to salvage the sloop in the absolute nick of time. I check out the back of the boat and breathe a massive sigh of relief as I see that speed is indeed now on my side. The Reaper is still chasing but they're dropping farther into the distance.
In the excitement of the chase I hadn't gotten a chance to check where my next clue led yet. I do so now and realize I'm actually already sailing directly towards the island I need. However this presents a problem as the Reaper is still on my tail and stopping to search the island will likely give them plenty of time to catch up. I realize that unfortunately I'm going to have to sail past the island until they eventually give up.
They literally never gave up. Even with me gaining more and more distance I could still see them tenaciously still on my tail. This went on for maybe 3-4 minutes before my unexpected savior arrived. Remember that other Reaper I saw on the map earlier? Well they show up (another Galleon) seemingly out of nowhere. They likely saw my emissary flag as well but fortunately they saw the Reaper behind me and apparently decided that I was the lesser threat of the two ships. So they go right on my me to engage the other Reaper. (This is basically the only good luck I had throughout this entire tale).
I'll spare you all the minute details of the next 20ish minutes but long story short I managed to find all the other stuff I needed and eventually came upon the shipwreck whilst the two Reapers were still battling. I grab everything I need from there and check my map again. Once again it was just in the nick of time as one of the Reapers had finally sunk with the winner now coming for me once more.
I was now a Grade 5 emissary and had a good amount of loot on my boat. While I had initially intended to keep my flag up for longer I decided in the wake of the circumstances to make way for the nearest outpost and sell everything and get my flag down hopefully all before the Reaper caught up. That way I could face them head on without worrying about losing anything important.This time I managed to avoid my idiotic mistake from earlier and got moving immediately before they were in sight. The next Outpost was close enough that I was fairly confident I could make it and do everything I needed before they got close enough to be a problem.
If only it were so easy. For it wasn't long before distinctly ominous music began playing. I'm not yet experienced enough that I knew immediately what was about to happen based off the music alone but I knew it definitely wouldn't be good as whatever appeared, dealing with it would likely burn the headstart I had on the much more pressing threat behind me. Seconds later a skeleton ship rises up right next to me. My heart sinks. Usually I'd take the time to deal with a skeleton ship myself but with the Reaper getting ever closer I simply did not have that kind of time. I knew I had no choice but to keep heading towards the outpost while fending off the skellies as best I could.
It did not go well. The skeletons were hitting me fast and the efforts of keeping my ship afloat kept me from checking that my heading was correct. I was also unable to check the position of the Reaper so while I knew that my clock was ticking I didn't know exactly when it was going to ring. I eventually managed to spot the outpost with my naked eye so I do my best to point myself at the Sovereigns and then head back down for more repairs.
I come back up to see that I'm about to crash directly into the Sovereign dock. I get on my wheel to desperately try to correct myself. I would've just barely had time to do so if a cannonball from the skeletons didn't come flying directly into my wheel and remove my steering capability. I end up crashing directly into their dock.
Knowing I wouldn't have time to position myself any better I hit the anchor and ran back down to start fixing as much as I could. It turned out to be a hopeless endeavor. For every hole I fixed the Skeletons would put a new one in me and since I was parked there was little I could do. Looking out the back of my ship I also finally see the Reaper coming. They're moving at a steady pace but still far enough that I had some time. I decide to just get onto the Sovereign's harpoon and start selling everything I could while my ship was still afloat and I still had my emissary flag.
Next problem arises: Turns out I had crashed into the dock in such a position that neither of the harpoons could reach my loot. This was now officially the worst case scenario. I had no choice but to manually move all the loot onto the dock whilst simultaneously bailing and repairing to keep my ship afloat while the skeletons continued harassing me and the Reaper crept ever closer. Somehow by the force of pure willpower I managed to sell most of the important stuff and keep the ship afloat before the Reaper finally arrived. Knowing I was officially out of time I ran for the Merchant representative as fast as I could to take my flag down. Again, at the absolute last possible second I managed to do it and collect my final payout before the Reapers opened fire on my helpless sloop. With the combined efforts of them and the Skeletons it wasn't long before my beautiful ship made her way to Davy Jones's locker.
But along with that I heard the most wonderful thing I had all day. One of the Reapers was yelling "God damn it they took the flag down!!!". They seemed to be in a general rage that they had lost out on most of the rewards from catching me. At this point I revealed myself and threw all my firebombs at their ship whilst taunting them for their wasted efforts. Of course I died in battle before long but I did so with great joy knowing that against all the odds I was the one who came out on top. And given that they had to presumably deal with the Skeleton ship after me I dare say that their hunt for me was far more trouble than I was worth. Ended up losing some of my loot but not enough to be of any major concern. Definitely not enough to make their efforts worthwhile anyway. I don't know for sure if it was the same Reaper who was hounding me from the beginning of this story but man I hope it was because that would only make my victory here all the sweeter! And thus this tale comes to it's righteous conclusion.
Fin.

The era of Gods was one known throughout our realm as a time of chaos and destruction. Originally there was only one god, the Grand Creator of our realm, and to many he was the defining image of what godhood meant and represented. With a simple sway of his hand he could bring winds that could flow for miles, with a mere step he was able to create mountains, and many more grand feats. Despite his power, he abandoned his throne, and in his wake he left behind 7 seats for those who desired to ascending to godhood. As a result a war broke out amongst all throughout the realm, every race righting to have one of their own filling at least one of those seats. The amount of blood that was shed was enough to fill the oceans and birth a true Red Sea. Eventually, these 7 seats were filled, and with the end of the war came the Darkest Days of the realm, which left the new gods to pick of the pieces, and many to be left to wonder, what happened to the Grand Creator?
We were now in the era of humanity. The gods that held the 7 seats remained complacent within them, however, many took to blending in with mortals, disguising themselves under new identities for their own safety and as to not disrupt the balance of divine law. Naturally, their original titles were still worshipped, given as to disrespect the gods would be a fault in judgement. You were one of the gods that managed to earn a seat, and as humanity aged, you got to see the ways of many mortals, yet every time you got close to one or another, you were abandoned. This was the curse of godhood, immortality. Many believed that to live forever was a blessing, but in actuality the implications of it was vast, especially for you specifically.
During the war for the title of godhood, I was your one true love, the one you were willing to sacrifice everything for, the plan was for you to obtain a seat and for us to live happily ever after. I begged not to do it, but it was your dream. Upon the end of the war however, you learned that I was a casualty for your and everyone else’s quest for godhood. However, you couldn’t accept that, and as such, you begged to the heavens for an answer, and you were met with a being of darkness, one who said he would be able to rekindle our love in the form of a deal. Given your heart yearned for me as mine did for you, you were willing to do anything, and so your wish was granted. I was reborn anew, and we were once again in love, yet within three days time of my return to your side, I perished once more. You learned that the deal you made with that being of darkness was not a deal of returning me to you, but a deal of punishment. I was cursed with endless rebirth, meaning that I would always be reborn anew, yet all memories of my past lives would be dormant, and if regained, I would perish within three days time. To add insult to injury, with each rebirth, we would always fall in love, thus making each cycle that much more painful. Was it really worth it, to not only strive for ascension into godhood, but to defy the laws of life and death for love? As much as you tried to find a cure for my curse, just as your own, all trails were left dead.
As it stood my most recent death had come and gone, rebirth 1,078, and alone sat on your throne as king of our nation. In hopes of boosting your spirits, your advisors suggested hosting a grand ball for all to attend the realms. The 6 other gods that maintained their seats would more than likely remain within their own nations, mainly for convenience as most would put it, however, their citizens were allowed. Tonight was the night of the ball, and as expected the turnout rate was there, many dressed within their finery as they entered the castle walls, yet your eyes were looking for a distinct individual. Fate always a had a funny way of bringing us together, especially when you least expected it. Your tears were barely even dry, and it is was clear that our hearts would once again find each other tonight. “ My lord, is everything alright? You seem distracted, would you like me to direct the orchestra to play a different number?” Your advisor asks curiously while he stands at your side. Right as you are about to speak, you notice a distinct long flowing silver hair trace catch your eye for a second, were hallucinating, or was this truly your beloved?
Hey there, thank you so much for reading, I hope the length wasn’t too much. Either way, this prompt is meant to focus around fantasy and romance, pretty much a tale of eternal love between a god and his cursed love. This role can go a variety of ways, but for the most part a good chunk of it will be trying to free one another from the curse that the two are plagued with, along with fighting against a certain dark force that may or may not be trying to take over the realm. More details are to follow and creativity is more than welcomed, so don’t be shy to put your own two cents in. Mind you this is a fantasy based role, so you have every right to play anything besides human, because I know I will.
A bit about me:

• My name’s Rosa. I’m F21 and have about 4-5 years worth of roleplay experience, and consider myself open minded on a variety of roles, outside of fantasy and dystopian based ones.
• In terms of detail I can write about 3-5+ paragraphs, if not more depending on the circumstances and if I’m really into the roleplay. That being said, I also am a mirror, meaning that I usually will mimic your length at minimum.

Either way, if you managed to get through all of this, and would be interested, I would love for you to DM, letting me know a bit about you, and see if we could take this somewhere. Final note, I prefer to roleplay on Discord, so hopefully that’s isn’t an issue.

The era of Gods was one known throughout our realm as a time of chaos and destruction. Originally there was only one god, the Grand Creator of our realm, and to many he was the defining image of what godhood meant and represented. With a simple sway of his hand he could bring winds that could flow for miles, with a mere step he was able to create mountains, and many more grand feats. Despite his power, he abandoned his throne, and in his wake he left behind 7 seats for those who desired to ascending to godhood. As a result a war broke out amongst all throughout the realm, every race righting to have one of their own filling at least one of those seats. The amount of blood that was shed was enough to fill the oceans and birth a true Red Sea. Eventually, these 7 seats were filled, and with the end of the war came the Darkest Days of the realm, which left the new gods to pick of the pieces, and many to be left to wonder, what happened to the Grand Creator?
We were now in the era of humanity. The gods that held the 7 seats remained complacent within them, however, many took to blending in with mortals, disguising themselves under new identities for their own safety and as to not disrupt the balance of divine law. Naturally, their original titles were still worshipped, given as to disrespect the gods would be a fault in judgement. You were one of the gods that managed to earn a seat, and as humanity aged, you got to see the ways of many mortals, yet every time you got close to one or another, you were abandoned. This was the curse of godhood, immortality. Many believed that to live forever was a blessing, but in actuality the implications of it was vast, especially for you specifically.
During the war for the title of godhood, I was your one true love, the one you were willing to sacrifice everything for, the plan was for you to obtain a seat and for us to live happily ever after. I begged not to do it, but it was your dream. Upon the end of the war however, you learned that I was a casualty for your and everyone else’s quest for godhood. However, you couldn’t accept that, and as such, you begged to the heavens for an answer, and you were met with a being of darkness, one who said he would be able to rekindle our love in the form of a deal. Given your heart yearned for me as mine did for you, you were willing to do anything, and so your wish was granted. I was reborn anew, and we were once again in love, yet within three days time of my return to your side, I perished once more. You learned that the deal you made with that being of darkness was not a deal of returning me to you, but a deal of punishment. I was cursed with endless rebirth, meaning that I would always be reborn anew, yet all memories of my past lives would be dormant, and if regained, I would perish within three days time. To add insult to injury, with each rebirth, we would always fall in love, thus making each cycle that much more painful. Was it really worth it, to not only strive for ascension into godhood, but to defy the laws of life and death for love? As much as you tried to find a cure for my curse, just as your own, all trails were left dead.
As it stood my most recent death had come and gone, rebirth 1,078, and alone sat on your throne as king of our nation. In hopes of boosting your spirits, your advisors suggested hosting a grand ball for all to attend the realms. The 6 other gods that maintained their seats would more than likely remain within their own nations, mainly for convenience as most would put it, however, their citizens were allowed. Tonight was the night of the ball, and as expected the turnout rate was there, many dressed within their finery as they entered the castle walls, yet your eyes were looking for a distinct individual. Fate always a had a funny way of bringing us together, especially when you least expected it. Your tears were barely even dry, and it is was clear that our hearts would once again find each other tonight. “ My lord, is everything alright? You seem distracted, would you like me to direct the orchestra to play a different number?” Your advisor asks curiously while he stands at your side. Right as you are about to speak, you notice a distinct long flowing silver hair trace catch your eye for a second, were hallucinating, or was this truly your beloved?
Hey there, thank you so much for reading, I hope the length wasn’t too much. Either way, this prompt is meant to focus around fantasy and romance, pretty much a tale of eternal love between a god and his cursed love. This role can go a variety of ways, but for the most part a good chunk of it will be trying to free one another from the curse that the two are plagued with, along with fighting against a certain dark force that may or may not be trying to take over the realm. More details are to follow and creativity is more than welcomed, so don’t be shy to put your own two cents in. Mind you this is a fantasy based role, so you have every right to play anything besides human, because I know I will.
A bit about me:

• My name’s Rosa. I’m F21 and have about 4-5 years worth of roleplay experience, and consider myself open minded on a variety of roles, outside of fantasy and dystopian based ones.
• In terms of detail I can write about 3-5+ paragraphs, if not more depending on the circumstances and if I’m really into the roleplay. That being said, I also am a mirror, meaning that I usually will mimic your length at minimum.

Either way, if you managed to get through all of this, and would be interested, I would love for you to DM, letting me know a bit about you, and see if we could take this somewhere. Final note, I prefer to roleplay on Discord, so hopefully that’s isn’t an issue.

He has a form of Aspergers. (Like autism on the spectrum) This has been going on for awhile like 9-10 months is when I really noticed it. Every time I go to the bathroom he always follows me and for some reasons also goes in the same stall next to me and I can tell he tried and records me and all that shit. I also caught him setting up a camera in my dorm room when I told him that I was gonna change clothes, I told him to leave so I could change and he literally propped his phone up in such a obvious spot but you could tell he was trying to record it. Like wtf is going on? He’s also always following me and always does whatever I wanna do. It’s hard to drop him as friends because his brother is normal and he is my best friend but he is always with him whenever we hangout and we had a lot of plans this summer so I feel stuck. I feel if I confront him he will crash out and like kill me or something.

The era of Gods was one known throughout our realm as a time of chaos and destruction. Originally there was only one god, the Grand Creator of our realm, and to many he was the defining image of what godhood meant and represented. With a simple sway of his hand he could bring winds that could flow for miles, with a mere step he was able to create mountains, and many more grand feats. Despite his power, he abandoned his throne, and in his wake he left behind 7 seats for those who desired to ascending to godhood. As a result a war broke out amongst all throughout the realm, every race righting to have one of their own filling at least one of those seats. The amount of blood that was shed was enough to fill the oceans and birth a true Red Sea. Eventually, these 7 seats were filled, and with the end of the war came the Darkest Days of the realm, which left the new gods to pick of the pieces, and many to be left to wonder, what happened to the Grand Creator?
We were now in the era of humanity. The gods that held the 7 seats remained complacent within them, however, many took to blending in with mortals, disguising themselves under new identities for their own safety and as to not disrupt the balance of divine law. Naturally, their original titles were still worshipped, given as to disrespect the gods would be a fault in judgement. You were one of the gods that managed to earn a seat, and as humanity aged, you got to see the ways of many mortals, yet every time you got close to one or another, you were abandoned. This was the curse of godhood, immortality. Many believed that to live forever was a blessing, but in actuality the implications of it was vast, especially for you specifically.
During the war for the title of godhood, I was your one true love, the one you were willing to sacrifice everything for, the plan was for you to obtain a seat and for us to live happily ever after. I begged not to do it, but it was your dream. Upon the end of the war however, you learned that I was a casualty for your and everyone else’s quest for godhood. However, you couldn’t accept that, and as such, you begged to the heavens for an answer, and you were met with a being of darkness, one who said he would be able to rekindle our love in the form of a deal. Given your heart yearned for me as mine did for you, you were willing to do anything, and so your wish was granted. I was reborn anew, and we were once again in love, yet within three days time of my return to your side, I perished once more. You learned that the deal you made with that being of darkness was not a deal of returning me to you, but a deal of punishment. I was cursed with endless rebirth, meaning that I would always be reborn anew, yet all memories of my past lives would be dormant, and if regained, I would perish within three days time. To add insult to injury, with each rebirth, we would always fall in love, thus making each cycle that much more painful. Was it really worth it, to not only strive for ascension into godhood, but to defy the laws of life and death for love? As much as you tried to find a cure for my curse, just as your own, all trails were left dead.
As it stood my most recent death had come and gone, rebirth 1,078, and alone sat on your throne as king of our nation. In hopes of boosting your spirits, your advisors suggested hosting a grand ball for all to attend the realms. The 6 other gods that maintained their seats would more than likely remain within their own nations, mainly for convenience as most would put it, however, their citizens were allowed. Tonight was the night of the ball, and as expected the turnout rate was there, many dressed within their finery as they entered the castle walls, yet your eyes were looking for a distinct individual. Fate always a had a funny way of bringing us together, especially when you least expected it. Your tears were barely even dry, and it is was clear that our hearts would once again find each other tonight. “ My lord, is everything alright? You seem distracted, would you like me to direct the orchestra to play a different number?” Your advisor asks curiously while he stands at your side. Right as you are about to speak, you notice a distinct long flowing silver hair trace catch your eye for a second, were hallucinating, or was this truly your beloved?
Hey there, thank you so much for reading, I hope the length wasn’t too much. Either way, this prompt is meant to focus around fantasy and romance, pretty much a tale of eternal love between a god and his cursed love. This role can go a variety of ways, but for the most part a good chunk of it will be trying to free one another from the curse that the two are plagued with, along with fighting against a certain dark force that may or may not be trying to take over the realm. More details are to follow and creativity is more than welcomed, so don’t be shy to put your own two cents in. Mind you this is a fantasy based role, so you have every right to play anything besides human, because I know I will.
A bit about me:

• My name’s Rosa. I’m F21 and have about 4-5 years worth of roleplay experience, and consider myself open minded on a variety of roles, outside of fantasy and dystopian based ones.
• In terms of detail I can write about 3-5+ paragraphs, if not more depending on the circumstances and if I’m really into the roleplay. That being said, I also am a mirror, meaning that I usually will mimic your length at minimum.

Either way, if you managed to get through all of this, and would be interested, I would love for you to DM, letting me know a bit about you, and see if we could take this somewhere. Final note, I prefer to roleplay on Discord, so hopefully that’s isn’t an issue.

I use a CPA I pay $400/year for. We don't meet in person, I just send my docs to him. I've never met him in person, just have phone calls. Another freelancer referred me to him in the LA area.
I feel like I would get large returns with him so I kept using him. In 2021 I freelanced at multiple places, some long some short, some overlapping. I keep a spreadsheet of all of my income every year so I'm not sure how this happened but I missed two tax forms.
IRS says I owe $4654. So I pay it, done. Now they've come back and said it's recomputed and I owe $3886 more?
I already paid the IRS $3491 for 2023 for transferring money from my work IRA (layoff), to my Rollover IRA, and into my Roth IRA.
I just feel like every time I make progress on my savings I have to start over. It's been like that for the past 3 years. This year I've only had one contract, I get paid well for LA, and I moved into a friend's house for $800 rent in Pasadena. I'm doing everything to save money and every effort goes to taxes or sudden bills I completely didn't expect.
My dad hasn't been able to work as an uber driver because of chronic pain and my mom is going through the aftermath of a kidney transplant and one of the cysts on her liver popped, so lots of medical bills and blood tests. They're over on the east coast, so I send over money and do what I can.
I guess this has turned into a, why is this happening I don't know what I'm doing type of post. I thought I did. I made a 12 Week Year plan for how much to save every paycheck, wrote goals, calculated how much of my auto loan and student loans will be paid off by EOY. It's like no matter how much I make I'll still feel financially strained by my circumstances.
I'm so frustrated that I want to learn more about taxes and what I'm actually doing. The CPA is $400 because he's also a financial advisor mixed into it but I just don't think he has the time or is that attentive for that. What are some resources to learn taxes? Surely if it were that simple everyone would be their own CPA but I actually am so fed up, I need to learn this stuff.

My father pre deceased his mother which was my grandmother. He passed in 2018 at age 68 and she passed in 2022 at age 97. He was the middle of 3 brothers. Upon his passing, my grandmother’s will removed him. His younger brother who is my uncle and who I have a great relationship has just informed me that his mothers’s home will be out on the market in 2 weeks. It is worth a considerable amount and he will have quite a windfall after taxes and expenses. My question: Is my mother, who had a great relationship with her mother in law throughout her lifetime and who became widowed through the loss of her husband entitled to anything from the estate. Now I’m pretty sure if my father was excluded upon his death that there would be no legal claim to any portion of the estate, however morally does anyone think that my mother should get anything. Moreover if you certainly don’t think she is entitled to 1/3rd do you think that my Uncle should consider gifting her a small, but meaningful amount form the windfall. Any input is helpful. Thanks.

This is a long story so buckle up, hoping some fellow PPC marketers have some other ideas I’m not thinking of to help me get my account back to where it was. I work in the behavioral health space. I took over the account almost a year ago, with no prior experience in PPC, however, I am a marketer with tons of digital experience and figured it out.
When I took over the account last summer I did a huge overhaul, all new campaigns ad groups and keywords. I worked with my ad rep to get our account performance enhanced. We were set for a max click bid strategy and after enough data we made the swap to max conversions, and after a few weeks added in target CPAs.
It was somewhat of a rough start lots of spam, wrong # or insurances we didn’t accept. Typical for the nature of PPC while AI was in learning phase, I stuck it out and things got better and we were ROCKING into the fall & winter.
Something key to probably note, end of the year because things were going well I was directed to lower the budget significantly almost 40k. Now going into the new year we raised the budget back up but not to the peak amount we had it at originally. Now keep in mind unbeknownst to me I did not do any creative refreshes since the first overhaul last summer, in my eyes if it ain’t broke don’t fix it—the account was rocking there was no red flags to trigger me to change anything.
Now January started off I’d say normal to how it was in the past few years, once Feb/March hit we noticed a DRASTIC drop in performance, to the point our phones weren’t ringing at all.
I noticed alot of our search terms were revolved around quizzes, think “am I depressed quiz” so I took a shot in the dark and to combat the lack of performance created ads specific for the quizzes along with the keywords to compliment it. Right idea, but I might add we are not associating value to our conversion metrics, so wrong execution on our part.
Regardless, performance was back up (so it seemed) we were getting more form submissions than ever because of how I had our quizzes set up on our site. The quantity was there but the quality was lacking out of let’s say 200 forms in a week, only 20 were good qualified leads or insurances we work with. This led me to ask my ads rep how can I communicate back to Google that out of the 200 only 20 were good and to continue targeting those 20 only.
In comes the introduction to GCLIDs from my rep, this unearthed alot of technological issues for us. Our landing page speeds being shit, our target swap #s not swapping properly, target pools not properly created, GCLIDs not being collected properly or communicated back to Callrail or our CRM as intended, amongst a bunch more other issues.
Important to mention, while I was fixing all these issues March/May our account was underspending significantly after those quizzes kind of broke the ecosystem to the point we were only spending about 1/3 of our budget.
Fast forward to today, all these issues are now correct and conversion metrics, GCLIDs and all my systems communicating as intended—things are firing on all cylinders. Now to get us back to good standing in March/april we started from scratch on the still existing campaigns/ad groups (no creative refresh still) we opted for a target impression share strategy and after a few days had it set for absolute top of page. Performance started increasing, but so did our spend we were blowing through our budget, so we went back to max clicks. Things were going good on max clicks phone ringing, good policies in the door. Coming into May we swapped back to max conversions on only our 2 best performing campaigns because they had enough data and we wanted to get back to how optimized we were in fall/winter.
The switch to max conversion brought us nothing but the insurances we don’t accept while in its learning phase and the phone hardly ringing, form submissions were going strong but again not anything we could accept. We made the decision to switch back to max clicks over the weekend. I know we were inpatient and didn’t wait out the learning period as we should’ve for max conversions.
Basically I’m at a stand still right now, I don’t know what else to do to get our account back in good technical health and have it start producing with high quality and quantity like we were last Q3/4.
Any insights, ideas or suggestions are greatly, greatly appreciated.
Important to note, we haven’t done any A/B testing, still haven’t done a content refresh, landing pages look great but the speed score is around a 4-6/10, we’re also getting smoked on auction insights with <10 on most of our campaigns. Also back in Feb/March while our test with quizzes essentially broke our whole ecosystem of Google ads, our rep showed us a vertical trend index report that shows a DRASTIC and I mean DRASTIC dip in the behavioral health space in regards to search queries, so this definitely played a role as well. Thanks for any help or insights!

Hello, I am an incoming sophomore considering joining the EMS service at my school as an EMT ( they train you) since I think it is something I would really enjoy , in addition to working as an EMT at my local fire department (many close friends have told me great things about it and I’ve spoke to higher up members) when I am home. Has anyone done any similar experiences, or is this too “pre-med” to be doing and putting on a dental app? Additionally, if anyone has done something similar, did this come up in interviews? Thank you

First time posting here and just here to get it off of my chest.
Last month my dog Cole of 16 years gotten really sick. Despite his age he still moved around like he was still young even running at times and jumping up things. He's been sick before but has been able to bounce back time and time again. He's always been the type to mess with something or run into something by accident but he'd always get right back up and keep going.
When I let him out for his morning bathroom break something was different. Cole could barely stand let alone walk or run. I dreaded this day because my family said it was coming. I basically grew up with this dog I had him since I was 10 years old. He's been with me through middle school, high school college and 4 years after. Instead of doing my original plans for the day I stayed with Cole and held him until I had to go to work. He didn't eat his food or drink his water I set aside and thats when the gravity of the situation really began to dawn on me.
I went to work then came back afterwards and saw her ate some food but not a lot of it. Again I thought maybe he was trying to pull through. Despite this I was still worried about him and planned time visit a vet soon to see if anything could be done to ease the pain for him. After finishing my dishes for the night I told him good night and that I loved him. I didnt realize that was the final time I would say it to him..
The next morning is when. I found him. I came to let him out for his bathroom break at 7 in the morning and he was there. His eyes were wide open laying down in a different position than he usually slept in. Seeing him lifeless like that broke something in me. Like I said despite his age he never let being sick slow him down. He was never the type to dwell on the bad he just kept going. Not many people can say their senior dog would be up for a game of tag. I basically treated him like a brother instead of a pet because we grew up together. Hes been there through my highs and lows. We basically like to mess around with each other like siblings did. But now he's gone.
After telling my family what happened we took his body to the animal shelter where they said they'll cremate him however we could not get his ashes as it was a community cremation. That by itself also added to the pain. Next to nothing is left in the home of him beside the very few pictures we've took and his dog tags.
It took me a while to stop crying over him. But it hasn't even been a month yet and I think about him every day. Just missing him barking, us watching horror movies and toonami together, him chasing my toy car collection. I find myself sometimes going into the basement wanting to pet him or poke him while he's asleep because he would growl in a specific tone as if he was trying to form words to tell me to bug off. But then I remember he's not here anymore and it hurts.
I've vented to my friends and family about it. I try to focus on the good memories we've had but I also can't get the image of his body out of my head. His cage was at the foot of the stairs and every time I pass where it used to be I just get reminded of him. I remember the good days of him coming out of his cage to play, use the bathroom or just sitting in it watching in it watching dbz reruns. But then i also get reminded of that day. Seeing him laid out like that really messed me up. I know I probably should have gotten him help sooner or had him put down. But like I said he's gotten through a lot and always bounce back. I didnt know this would have been his last time.
My manager asked me if I was going to get a new dog and I almost cussed her out for asking something as insensitive as that. How do you replace someone who you basically grew up with in less than a month of their passing? The wound is still fresh.
I'm sorry if this is long. I really needed somewhere to get this off of my chest. I've been on autopilot since his passing and needed an outlet.

Round 1, Pick 6 - Malik Nabers, WR, LSU:
NFL: Nabers possesses the competitive fire and instincts teams look for in an elite receiver. The LSU wideout is a big-time playmaker who can make the game easier for Daniel Jones with his route-running and yards-after-the-catch ability, turning short passes into big gains for Big Blue.
CBS Sports: A+. I love this pick for the Giants. It says they didn’t believe in the quarterbacks who were left and now they get a playmaker on the outside. This kid will be a star.
ESPN: It's hard to have complaints landing a receiver as explosive as Nabers, especially once it became evident that getting any of the top three quarterbacks (Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye) wasn't possible. The Giants talked with New England on Thursday about pick No. 3 for Maye. But the decision was always in New England's hands. That was the problem with landing outside those top three picks. The Giants clearly weren't willing to settle for former Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Follows the ‘Draft Day’ Day tradition, even this year.
Round 2, Pick 47 - Tyler Nubin, S, Minnesota:
NFL: Nubin might lack a superpower as a prospect with no special trait, but he does a lot of things very well. He can be the Giants' post safety as an assignment-sound defender who will bring excellent intensity and commitment to the locker room.
CBS Sports: B-. Film is first-round caliber. Such a cerebral player with outstanding ball skills and solid range. Amazing ball skills. Will find the ball if it’s in his area. Best away from the line patrolling. Some stiffness as an athlete and not a true burner. Average testing numbers.
ESPN: A safety makes sense after the Giants allowed Xavier McKinney to walk this offseason. McKinney signed a massive deal with the Green Bay Packers. That left the Giants with Jason Pinnock and Dane Belton as the top two safeties on the depth chart. Nubin gives new defensive coordinator Shane Bowen an instinctive and versatile safety to work with. Nubin's pro comp is former Denver Broncos Pro Bowl safety Justin Simmons. The Giants would certainly take that.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: If he didn’t get drafted he was going to start his sourdough era.
Round 3, Pick 70 - Andru Phillips, CB, Kentucky:
NFL: Phillips had a few rough games last season, but he could develop into a useful piece in the Giants secondary, either as a nickel or an outside safety. His size and ball production are subpar, but his toughness and tackling skill(s) give him a solid floor.
CBS Sports: B-. Silky smooth inside-out CB. Serious juice in his lower half. Not incredibly long but perfect size to play at nickel in the NFL. Incredibly willing in run support but does miss plenty of tackles. Quicker than fast but certainly not slow. Wished there was more ball production in college. Chippy type.
ESPN: Another position of need receives a reinforcement. Phillips joins a group that only has last year's first-round pick, Deonte Banks, penciled in as a starter. This is a player whom some teams had a second-round grade on. Phillips is a smooth cover cornerback who plays with physicality, especially for his size. The Giants clearly came into this draft -- and Day 2 in particular -- looking to upgrade the secondary.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: He cannot bring himself to throw away his Transformers.
Round 4, Pick 107 - Theo Johnson, TE, Penn State:
NFL: Johnson opened eyes at the Senior Bowl, being featured more as a receiver there than he often was at Penn State. His long, athletic frame makes him something of a Logan Thomas-like prospect and a good understudy to Darren Waller -- if he plays this year.
CBS Sports: B+. Elite tester. Huge frame with intimidating length. Was low-volume option at Penn State but has the explosive chops to become a better receiver in the pros. Ironically not a great blocker despite his towering, filled-out body type. Has just enough short-area quickness to separate on occasion in the NFL. Easy drops on film but counters with contested catches.
ESPN: Johnson could help fill the void if Darren Waller elects to retire. He is still contemplating his future. The Giants have been operating as if Waller is not on the roster. Johnson adds the physically gifted pass-catching element they would need in their offense. He has the size and speed to be a major threat at the NFL level. Daboll could be asking for an immediate contribution from their newest tight end. It's also worth noting that Johnson is the third of the Giants' top four draft picks to have a pre-draft visit. That is important to this regime.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Is the nephew of Tom Kenny, voice of SpongeBob.
Round 5, Pick 166 - Tyrone Tracy Jr., RB, Purdue:
NFL: A converted wideout, Tracy shifted to the backfield last year and did well with the opportunity, averaging a stout 6.3 yards per carry. If Malachi Corley is the Deebo Samuel Lite of this class, then Tracy is sort of the Corley Lite. I expect Tracy to be used extensively as a receiver out of the backfield.
CBS Sports: A. Former Iowa WR turned Purdue RB. Incredible bounce and agility to make defenders miss when they’re ready to make the tackle. Some breakaway speed too. Contact balance is good, not great. At times seems tentative hitting the hole but has the goods to make more than what’s blocked. Older prospect who’s new to the position.
ESPN: Tracy is a much-needed piece being added to the Giants' offensive backfield. New York had newly signed Devin Singletary backed up by Eric Gray and Gary Brightwell entering the draft. It's likely they would have taken Trey Benson two rounds earlier, had the Arizona Cardinals not taken him four spots ahead of the Giants. This gives Tracy a chance to make an immediate contribution, even if it's just as an option out of the backfield early in his career. He was a wide receiver up until last year, so there is room for growth despite already being 25 years old.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Plans to moonlight as the mascot at his Alma mater in the offseason.
Round 6, Pick 183 - Darius Muasau, LB, UCLA:
NFL: Muasau reminded me a bit of former Vikings LB Kentrell Brothers, a short but stout hitter and playmaker around the line of scrimmage whose coverage deficiencies are a bit worrisome.
CBS Sports: A-. No-hesitation off-ball LB with length deficiency. Quicker than fast but can get to the ball in a hurry because of his smarts. Unafraid to meet blockers in the hole and give them a jolt. Average ball skills and tackling soundness. Feels like someone who can outplay draft position.
ESPN: Muasau brings speed and youth to the linebacking corps. He's also likely an immediate special teams contributor. There is a connection with Muasau to the Giants. Special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial coached Muasau as a freshman at Hawaii. This played a part in the Giants' comfort with their sixth and final pick of the draft.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Watches the 1986 Action/Thriller ‘The Delta Force’ on VHS every day.

After lengthy discussion and a look at the currently active mod team, we have decided that it is time once again to search for some fresh blood within the mod team! I've created an application on google forms for anyone who is interested to fill out. Click here for the link to the application. Reminder to be honest and only fill out this application if you are truly interested in this position and think you can handle the responsibilities of moderating a large sub that is often targeted by bigots. Keep in mind that as a mod on this sub, you will be exposed to the content the general public doesn't have to see. That includes transphobia, offensive language, explicit language, and NSFW.
The search for mods on the main sub also includes a search for mods for the secondary sub, ftmventing . At the moment, I am the only moderator on that sub, and now that it's starting to gain some traction, I will start to need some help. The goal is to onboard several new mods to this sub, and once they are all caught up and comfortable, anyone who is interested will have an opportunity to become a moderator for that sub as well. The rules are basically the same, but it will be a bit more of a draining task, given the nature of the sub. If you're up for it, there will be a section at the end to select if you are interested in potentially modding ftmventing . If you are not up to it, don't worry, it won't affect your odds of getting a mod position on the main sub. I don't plan on onboarding an entire group to the newer sub, and instead will be keeping in communication with the mod team and asking for volunteers to help with that sub when needed.

I unintentionally excluded information on my OF-306 form and now I'm worried this will hold up my background check. Basically, I still owe for federal and state taxes that I filed in 2022. I have payment plans set up already but I totally overlooked that question about "federal debts" and checked NO. Will this come back to bite me in the ass? I hope this doesn't mess up my chances. For background, I'm already a federal employee and applied for a new job within my current agency and office. Basically, I'm switching departments- but I still have to go through some onboarding stuff, like the e-QIP. My new supervisor is excited for me to start, and so am I, but it'd be a HUGE bummer if my taxes are what get in the way. Someone please give me peace of mind! Or tell me I'm an idiot lol

I (22f) am living with my ex (28m). We were living together when we broke up, stayed living together because we had a lease, but once the lease was up we stayed living together for the convenience. We broke up 8 months ago and have not been together in any way shape or form since. We aren't even really friends, strictly roommates.
We stayed living together because we knew we worked as roommates and cost of living is so high. My plan for the year was to save some money and work on myself. I wasn't looking for a relationship in any form not even dating apps.
This guy (22m) that ive known for a while and always thought was cool asked me out on a date. And I thought "well one date is fine". I really like this guy, we've been on one date so not to get ahead of myself but he seems to be everything I want in a potential partner. And it seems like he really likes me too. I want to tell him that live with my ex sooner rather than later. I'm not expecting him to like it or even be okay with it. Like if he leaves the second tell him can't blame him. honestly probably would too. But can't help but hope he will be understanding and maybe okay with it.
Honestly I like this guy enough have been looking at apartments to move into without my ex. But feel like if bring that up to him it is waaay to much. Like we've been on one date. "Hey live with my ex but we aren't together and I like you enough to move out but even if that happens it would still be like 2 months." That sounds fucking crazy. I guess just need any advice. How to tell him, like a coffee date and just spill everything? Please help
Tldr: live with my ex, wasn't looking for anyone new, found someone new really like, don't know how to tell them live with my ex.

I wrote a letter to remind myself to be kinder to oneself as surely this feeling will pass.. right?
Strangers by Correspondence
Neither friends nor strangers, we acquainted ourselves with one another, sharing desires for love that the other dismisses. Tormenting ourselves, we pity our own feelings, attributing the pain to our own making. In the liminal space, she existed before we truly knew her, her upbringing leaving wounds we thought we could heal. All this time, we believed our wait for something more would only lead to inevitable disappointment. The only one to blame is the fool in the mirror; so wipe away the paint and ask yourself: What are you? A kid pretending to be an adult, thinking you can handle it all.
Understandably, we longed for companionship, seeking the kind of relationship we saw in our friends. "When will it be my turn?" we asked, never considering that loneliness would creep up on us, slowly killing us inside. Desperation consumed us during those times, leaving no doubt in our minds.
Then came the day we approached her in class—frightened, confused, and terrified. We didn't know anyone, nor did we want to know anyone. But there she was, an angel—or her name was angel, as her ID said so, sat next to her and a nickname was introduced her otherwise true name —sweet and kind. Yet, it wasn't her looks that drew us in; rather, it was her perseverance and gleeful attitude.
As we saw her more and more, she grew more beautiful with each passing day. Butterflies runs around in our stomachs as we wrote these words, a testament to our delusions. We never intended to pursue someone so intensely, but in our worst moment, we blurted out our feelings in a burst of false confidence a drunken text.
We may have felt like idiots at the time, but we don't regret it. It was the first step towards regaining our confidence. Flattered she was, and hopeful we were. But fate had other plans.
In the end, we still hold on to hope, embodying the essence of the hopeless romantic. She may never see us the way we see her, but we still check up on her, because deep down, we care for her. For what's it worth we formed a bond. Created a safe space between us. We were never friends, nor were we strangers—just acquaintances, bound by fleeting moments of connection.

Sports injury surgery plays a crucial role in helping athletes recover and return to their sport by addressing significant injuries that may not heal properly with conservative treatments alone. Here's how it helps:
1. Repairing Damaged Tissues : Surgery can repair torn ligaments, tendons, muscles, and cartilage that are common in sports injuries. For example, procedures like ACL reconstruction can restore stability to the knee after a ligament tear.
2. Restoring Functionality : Surgery aims to restore the normal function of the injured body part. This may involve realigning bones, repairing joints, or removing damaged tissue to allow for proper movement and function.
3. Reducing Pain : By addressing the underlying cause of pain, surgery can provide relief to athletes who have been dealing with chronic pain due to their injury. This enables them to engage in rehabilitation more effectively.
4. Facilitating Rehabilitation : Surgery often precedes a structured rehabilitation program. Surgeons and physical therapists work together to create personalized rehabilitation plans that gradually reintroduce movement, strength training, and sport-specific exercises to rebuild strength and flexibility.
5. Preventing Further Damage : Left untreated, some sports injuries can lead to further damage or complications. Surgery can help prevent these issues by addressing the root cause of the injury and stabilizing the affected area.
6. Expediting Recovery : While surgery itself requires a recovery period, once healed, athletes can often return to their sport more quickly and with better outcomes compared to non-surgical treatments alone. This is especially true for injuries that require immediate stabilization or repair.
7. Improving Long-Term Outcomes : Successful sports injury surgery can have lasting benefits, allowing athletes to resume their sport at pre-injury levels of performance while reducing the risk of future complications or re-injury.
However, it's important to note that surgery is not always the first or only option for sports injuries. Many injuries can be effectively treated with conservative measures such as rest, physical therapy, and medication. The decision to undergo surgery should be made in consultation with medical professionals, taking into account factors such as the severity of the injury, the athlete's goals and expectations, and the potential risks and benefits of surgery.

When I set up a Instant Grantification track, how can I set up the time the “Pre-release” appears live on Apple Music. Is it attached to the first single being released after I send the form?

My wife recently had her 2nd C-section due to pregnancy complications, and was discharged several days later. On top of being exhausted, she was still in considerable pain since they cut through scar tissue from her first c-section.
On the day of her discharge, my job as her husband seemed clear enough: safely get her to our car with minimal hassle so we can finally go home! So after wheeling my wife to the front hospital entrance, I quickly run to get my car, pull up to the patient pickup area, and throw on my hazard lights.
To get to my wife, though, I have to cross the valet lane on foot. As I'm doing that, my focus is interrupted by a JARRING car horn coming from a gigantic SUV less than one foot from my body. I glance to my side to see this rich older Karen and her baboon looking son wildly gesticulating at me with disgusted looks on their faces to move my car. It was the classic "who farted??" look that entitled white Karens give when something doesn't go their way.
Except... their car was parallel to mine, which made her demand that much more confusing.

1. Why was she in the valet lane, when she wasn't planning to use the valet? (Answer: she got in the wrong lane)
   
2. Why not throw the car in reverse since there was nobody behind them and could easily rectify her mistake in less than 10 seconds?
   
3. If option 2 is seemingly too complicated, then why not drink a nice tall glass of stfu and wait for the ONE CAR in front of you to finish their business and move?
   

Nope. She chose Option #4, ie the one that requires the least amount of effort: hold down her horn until other people solve her problems.
Now I'm known for being calm and diplomatic in both private and professional settings — but this tweaked a nerve deep down that is especially reserved for entitled Boomers who have zero regard for your personal circumstances.
So I gave her a "what's your deal?" look and she rolls down her window. I then proceed to directly (and very loudly) explain my family's situation and how it connects to me temporarily leaving my car. And what is her response? She plays it off with a "Why are you so mad?!" with a little laugh, right out of the Tucker Carlson School of obnoxious gaslighting.
Ofc I'm exasperated at this point, and my wife is still waiting. However, luckily one of the hospital workers saw the whole thing and wheeled my wife to my car. As this is happening, the car in front of Karen moves (~2 minutes later) and she drives off. What made me feel somewhat better was the hospital worker walks up to me as we're loading up and goes "I have a lot to say about that lady but it might get me fired!"
Stupidity followed by entitlement, followed by gaslighting. Does it get any more Boomer than this?

NOTE: this Karen definitely was not there for some type of emergency because there's a separate hospital section for that. Likely she was leaving after picking up her son, or was there to visit someone.

“Ready to make history, baby?”
I looked over toward Sheila as she stood on the gangplank leading up to The Burger. I still couldn’t believe she named our research ship ‘The Burger’... emotional relevance be damned.
“It's not exactly history,” I corrected.
“Oh come on! If your survey is right, this trench might run even deeper than the Challenger Deep, and you’re gonna be the first person to explore it! How is that not exciting?”
“Might be deeper, we only have a limited amount of topological data. And even if it is deeper, we’re talking only a few hundred feet at most, it’s really not that im-”
Sheila silenced me with a kiss.
“Nerd.” She teased, and I found myself too flustered to reply. After five years of marriage, she still could leave me speechless with just a kiss. God… how did someone like me end up with a woman like that?
Then again, how did someone like me end up where I was in general? It was honestly a little overwhelming. Standing on the dock, getting ready to board that ship and join the ranks of Jacques Piccard and James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron) as one of the few people to take a manned submersible down to the deepest parts of the ocean. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scared too. Diving down that deep could easily be a one way trip if even the slightest thing went wrong. My submarine would be experiencing between 600 to 1100 atmospheres of pressure and while we’d tested it over and over again to make sure it would actually be up for the challenge, there was still a lingering iota of doubt in the back of my mind. All that needed to go wrong was one little thing, and that would be it for me.
The scariest part is that I probably wouldn’t even know what had happened… I’d simply be gone… and Sheila would be alone. The thought of that caused a momentary spike of panic in my chest that almost made me want to call this whole thing off.
Almost.
But, then I felt her hand close around mine. I looked up into her bright blue eyes, and saw her gentle smile.
“You’re gonna be okay, hun,” She promised. “You and your team have been running the numbers, right? It’s gonna go just fine!”
I nodded slowly.
“It’s gonna go fine…” I repeated, before she leaned in to kiss me, and gently pulled me by the wrist up onto the deck of the Burger.
She was probably right.
It probably would be fine.
Probably…
The trench I’d be exploring was a fairly recent discovery, located south of Greenland, in a vast stretch of water situated directly between Newfoundland and Iceland. It’d been uncovered during a topological survey in the area, and my team had taken an interest in investigating it further. At minimum, it was believed to descend to about 35,000 feet deep (over 10,000 meters), although the current theory was that it might have run even deeper. Determining the exact depth of the yet unnamed chasm was just one of the intents of our dive. The rest was studying the organisms that might be found down there, and how they might have differed from the ones found in other deep ocean trenches (some variation being expected given the isolated environment they were developing in.)
I had to admit, it would be exciting to see what new life might have developed in a place such as this, especially if it ran even deeper than our predictions… and that excitement was enough to make me chase the fear of the risks out of my mind, even if it was only briefly. While Sheila went to make sure we were ready to embark, I caught myself wandering out toward the rear of the ship where my submarine, The Tempura, waited for me. Did this submarine deserve a better name than The Tempura? Probably. But, this was my project, so I got to name it and since Burger was already taken, Tempura was the next best name I had. I liked to think that the subs namesake might approve… if she hadn’t died fifteen years ago. Shrimp don’t live very long.
As the ship began to depart, I caught myself reminiscing on how I’d ended up here… it really was all because of those damn shrimp, wasn’t it? Well… maybe not all because of the shrimp. But they were certainly part of it. Back when I was a lot younger, I never really gave much of a shit about anything at all. I guess I did have a thing for the ocean… the great, romantic vastness of it. The sense of adventure that it beckoned with. The endless mysteries that lay within its dark depths. I used to read about it all the time when I was a kid and I especially loved the classic adventures: Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and Melville’s Moby Dick… but that love was just confined to my books. I didn’t really have any interest in actually going out and seeing the ocean. Hell, the idea of going to a beach and standing in the sun with my toes in the sand seemed miserable to me. I was happier (although calling myself happy might’ve been a little disingenuous) alone in my room, enjoying the company of books as opposed to people.
Then came the shrimp.
One of my online friends kept them as a hobby. He used to post pictures of his tanks all the time, and I always thought they looked kinda cool. He said that if I was interested in them, I should try keeping some for myself, and during a particularly bad bout of depression, I figured that maybe it might be worth a shot. So, I bought a cheap tank and some cheap decorations, bought myself some shrimp… and promptly watched them die over the next few weeks. That… that bothered me. I don’t know why but… it really bothered me. I’m still not entirely sure how to describe what it was that I was feeling. Guilt? Defeat? Shame? Here I was, trying to set up a habitat for these creatures just to have something to do to keep the suicidal ideation at bay, and I’d failed almost right out of the gate.
Was I just that bad? Was I just that much of a failure? Was this just going to go to shit just like everything else in my life did, because I was just such an abysmal piece of shit who barely deserved the life she had? Had I just not tried hard enough? Was I too apathetic? What had happened? What went wrong?
It bothered me.
It bothered me enough that I made up my mind to just dump the remaining shrimp down the toilet and toss everything. Forget about it. Move on. End of story. But… that wasn’t fair, was it? The shrimp didn’t all deserve to die just because I couldn’t be bothered, did they? Sure, they were just shrimp, but they were alive too, just like me. They deserved to be alive.
I owed it to them to try and keep them alive, didn’t I?
So… I didn’t dump the shrimp.
Instead, I started doing some reading. Started looking into what I was doing wrong and how to do it all better. I actually got really into it and a few months later, I had a nice planted tank. Looking back, it was amateur shit… but it made me happy. I’d even picked out names for my two favorite shrimp. Burger and Tempura. They’d been the last survivors of my original batch, and they were the ones I ended up caring about the most. Caring for Burger and Tempura gave me a purpose. It became an obsession… and that little obsession drove me to finally start turning my life around.
Like I said, shrimp don’t live for very long. Burger and Tempura were long dead by the time I graduated with a degree in Marine Biology. But they were the ones who inspired me to finally get my life in order. Hell, the shrimp were half the reason that I met Sheila. She was something of an aquarium fanatic too… we’d met on a forum, and gotten to talking. I found out that she just so happened to be studying Marine Biology at another school, and we bonded pretty quickly after that. After graduation, I moved to California to be with her and after that, the rest is history. She was my rock. She was the one who always pushed me to be the best possible version of myself… and I loved her more than I ever knew I could love someone.
A glance back at the shore, fading into the distance tore me out of my reminiscing, and I shifted my focus to the present, going over The Tempura to perform some quick checks. My colleagues and I would be checking and rechecking the submarine over the next two days as we made our way toward the dive spot. Considering the danger that descending that deep posed, I didn’t want to take a single unnecessary risk.
I had too much to live for, after all.
***
The day of the dive, I couldn’t notice how excited the rest of the crew seemed… well… Sheila’s usual crew seemed excited. I guess to them, this was just another research expedition, no different than the ones Sheila usually took this ship out on. Lately her research had been focused on the analysis and study of whale calls. Her recent voyages had involved following their pods, recording their calls and playing them back to see how the whales reacted. It was fascinating stuff, but my research was admittedly a lot different than that.
My obsession had drawn me to the denizens of the deep sea. I’d used The Burger for expeditions before, although none of them had been on quite the same scale as this one. Up until today, the most ambitious thing I’d done was send down unmanned submersibles with cameras. Those submersibles had typically returned. We had lost a few early on due to technical glitches, but the past few years had been blissfully uneventful. Logically, this dive would probably be uneventful as well. But it was still hard to get the jitters out of my head.
My team and I did the final checks necessary to make sure that The Tempura was good to go, before setting up the crane to begin lifting it up. In less than an hour, I’d be inside of that thing, descending to the darkest depths of the ocean.
It didn’t feel real.
I felt Sheila’s hand on my shoulder, and looked over at her.
“Moment of truth, huh?” She asked. She probably meant it to sound encouraging, but it just sounded ominous.
“Moment of truth…” I replied.
“You’re gonna be okay, honey. I know you will.”
She reached out to gently squeeze my hand and gave me a reassuring smile that I meekly returned.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be okay,” I agreed, although there was an element of a lie in it. Statistically, yes. It probably WOULD be okay. But there was that lingering anxiety in the back of my mind that just wouldn’t go away. I looked quietly out at the submarine before me and couldn’t shake the thought that it sort of looked like a giant coffin. Unconsciously, I found myself squeezing Sheila’s hand tighter than normal. She just held me close and pressed a kiss to the top of my head, before gently rubbing my back.
“You’ll be okay,” She promised.
“Dr. Jenner, we’re ready for you.” I heard one of my colleagues say.
Moment of truth.
I took one last look at Sheila, and gave her a quick kiss on the lips for luck. She smiled at me, and I smiled back anxiously at her before heading over toward the submarine.
The crew helped me enter the cockpit and get myself situated inside. The cockpit of the Tempura was fairly cramped and not particularly comfortable. Space and comfort aren’t really luxuries you can afford in a submarine like this. The instruments I needed took up a lot of space, leaving little room for me in there… and I am not a very big person.
Once I was inside, they sealed the hatch. Then the diagnostics checks began.
“Grayson, can you hear us in there?” I heard Sheila say through the radio.
“Loud and clear,” I replied.
“Great. We’ll keep in constant radio contact, just to monitor the signal. In the meanwhile, how’s everything looking in there?”
“Green across the board so far,” I said, although I hadn’t finished running all my final checks yet. Ultimately, nothing was out of place.
This submarine was as good to go as it was going to get.
“I’m all good in here,” I said once I was done. “You can drop me when you’re ready.”
“You got it, honey. Let’s get you in the water, run one final round of tests and start lowering you down.”
A short while later, I felt the submarine begin to move as the crane lifted it off the deck and lowered it into the water. The Tempura honestly resembled its namesake in a way, being long and cigar shaped, only vertically oriented instead of horizontally oriented. We’d admittedly taken more than a few design cues from James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenger. Why fix what isn’t broken, after all?
Once I was in the water, a 1000 pound releasable ballast weight would cause the submarine to sink. Releasing that weight was also my ticket back to the surface, and I could either trigger it from inside the cockpit, or, in the event that the release failed for any reason, it would trigger automatically after roughly 12 hours of exposure to salt water.
Ideally, this would be the first of a number of dives I’d be undertaking… and if all went according to plan, the Tempura could be the first of many similar submarines that would allow other researchers to safely and effectively descend to extreme depths. If all went well, this could be a massive leap forward for researchers like me, allowing us to better explore the deepest depths of the Hadal Zone and learn all we could about the ecosystems down there via direct observation.
If all went well.
If.
Through the viewport, I watched as I was lowered into the ocean. A few of the other crew members had donned diving gear to escort me down, and after they did their final checks and I did mine, we were fully ready to go.
“All’s green across the board,” I said into the radio. “You can start my descent.”
“I hear you, honey,” Sheila replied. “We’re letting you go. Have fun down there.”
“Yeah, I’ll try…” I said quietly as finally, my submarine began its descent.
I took a deep breath, and told myself again that everything would go fine. We had checked everything on this submarine. We’d tested it rigorously. I wouldn’t have allowed myself to set foot inside of it if I hadn’t personally assured that it was safe. But anxiety never really goes away, does it? The crew couldn’t accompany me far. After only a few meters, they fell behind me as I sank deeper and deeper into the infinite, empty blue of the ocean. Soon after, the tether was released.
I was officially on my own.
“60 feet,” I heard Sheila say over the radio. “How are you doing in there?”
“Good,” I replied. “Doing… doing good.”
The submarine continued to descend. Through the viewport, I could see a few stray fish, but nothing particularly eye catching. I almost felt alone down there… almost…
“120 feet…” Sheila said.
“Still doing good,” I replied.
The descent continued, as the waters slowly grew darker and darker.
“400 feet…”
Everything around me just kept getting darker and darker. Only a fraction of the light from the sun ever reached these depths… and I’d be lying if I said that darkness didn’t feel a little… oppressive.
“800 feet… still feeling good?”
“Yeah, still feeling good…” I said, although it was a bit of a lie. If anything, I was second guessing all of this, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud.
“1000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…” I murmured. “I hear you loud and clear.”
Deeper… deeper… deeper.
“1500 feet…”
Three miles. I was three miles away from home. Three miles away from Sheila.
“2000 feet…”
Still a ways to go.
“3000 feet…”
By this point, it was fully dark outside of my cockpit. Outside, all I could see was inky darkness. Even the submarine’s lights didn’t really cut through it. And the kicker? Relatively speaking, I wasn’t that deep. Fishing trawlers reached deeper than this. Better to conserve power until I was at the bottom. My descent continued.
“6000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…”
The check ins were becoming less frequent. My descent still continued… deeper… deeper… deeper. By now, I’d entered the Hadal Zone. But there was still so much deeper o go.
“8000 feet…”
This was past the depths that most whales would dive to… and I still had a ways to go.
“10,000 feet.”
This was close to where the ocean floor usually bottomed out… and yet there was still so much further to go. No. I was really only a third of the way there. How long had it been?Not much had happened beyond my descent and a few sightings out of my viewport, but time had been passing. A glance at my watch confirmed it’d been almost an hour since I’d started to sink… and I knew I wasn’t even close to the bottom yet. The submarine continued to descend, sinking ever deeper as I dropped into an infinite darkness that few had ever dared to witness.
“15,000 feet.”
This check in came later than the others. At this point, Sheila and the crew must have figured that no news was good news, and they were right. I just continued to sink peacefully, down into the crushing depths of the ocean.
These were the depths that one might normally find deep sea fish… and yet I was going somewhere even deeper than that.
“20,000 feet…”
So close…
I continued to sink.
“25,000 feet.”
Soon… and finally…
“30,000 feet. You still doing alright, honey?”
“Yeah… yeah, I’m doing good,” I assured her. I was so close…
By this point, my real work had begun. I’d engaged the lights and begun documenting what little I could see using the on board cameras. Granted, there wasn’t much life at these depths and what little there was, was scarcely documented. Most of what was down here consisted of invertebrates and microscopic life that seemed to float past my viewport.
The light seemed to draw a few creatures in search of food. Small, hardy things that resembled shrimp.
“How’s it looking, Grayson?”
“Dark,” I said, half joking. “We’ve got some life… shrimp. They’re translucent. Can’t get a great look at them… but we’ll see what the cameras pick up.”
“They’ve recognized you as a friend,” Sheila said. I could almost see the smile on her lips as she said it.
“Yeah…” I replied, “Tempura sent them a message, told them I’d be down. How am I looking on depth?”
“35,000 feet… you seeing a bottom yet?”
“No… not that I would until I was there.”
“Damn… how deep does this go?”
“It can’t go that deep…” I murmured, although I really wasn’t so sure about that.
The submarine continued to sink…
36,000 feet…
37,000 feet…
38,000 feet… and then finally, just past the 39,000 foot mark, I finally saw solid ground below me.
Looking through my viewport, I could see a familiar dark brown diatomaceous sludge, covering the seafloor. Microscopic life, likely similar to what had been observed in other deep sea trenches, such as the Challenger Deep.
I needed to gather a sample.
As my submarine reached the bottom, I extended the mechanical arms, pressed flat against the surface of the Tempura, and opened the collection port near the bottom of the ship. Slowly, I sifted some of the sludge into the port. My disturbance of the seafloor kicked up a cloud of the microbial colony, and I could’ve sworn I saw something wiggling through the debris. A pale, white thing, perhaps some sort of sea cucumber? I hastily angled my submarines camera to try and catch a glimpse of it, before returning to my collection. Even in this forlorn place, there was still so much to see! And here I was… completely forgetting my fear as the excitement took hold of me! Few people had ever been down to these unfathomable depths… and yet here I was.
It didn’t feel real but it was! I had reached the deepest part of the ocean!
“How’s it going down there?” I heard Sheila ask. Her voice was a little garbled. The connection down here was faltering.
“It’s beautiful…” I said. “I can’t wait for you to see it!”
“I’ll bet…”
“I’m going to do a sweep of the area, see what samples I can gather,” I said. “What’s my time right now?”
“Three hours. You’ve got nine before your connection to the weight deteriorates and you start to ascend.”
“I’ll make the most of it,” I said. The plan was only to stay down there for six hours, and I didn’t want to push that limit. Life support would only last me for so long, and one little error was all it would take for the ungodly pressure down here to crush me.
I began to move the submarine. Mobility was limited. This thing wasn’t built to travel far. But I still had some limited movement. I recorded all that I could, filming the shrimp that investigated my light, and the things that slithered and crawled through the muck, likely feeding on the carpet of single celled organisms that populated these depths.
The first two hours were… well… I hesitate to call them uneventful, they were actually very fascinating, but little of note happened beyond my recording of a few specimens.
Midway through the third hour though, as I was reaching one of the rock walls of the abyss, I noticed something just above the edge of my viewport swimming away from the light. I could’ve sworn I saw slender, pale tentacles of some sort. Was that a squid? Were there squid down this deep? I wasn’t aware of any species of known squid who could reach these depths… but in this unknown place, what use was the known?
I moved my light and my camera to try and catch another glimpse of it, but whatever it was, it seemed to be gone. Maybe I’d see another one. I still had plenty of time.
“You made a noise. What’d you see?” Sheila asked.
“Something big… I think,” I said.
“Down there? Like a fish?”
“Squid. You wouldn’t find any vertebrates down this deep… the pressure would crush their bones.”
“Jeez…”
I didn’t reply to that, still searching for the thing I’d seen. I shone my light up along the walls of the chasm and angled my camera up as far as it would go. I could see a few volcanic vents, spewing dark clouds into the darkness, and more diatoms. But not much else. Strange invertebrates crawled along the walls. Small creatures, no bigger than an inch long. Related to isopods, perhaps? If I could collect one as a sample, I would have… although taking any of those back to the surface would surely kill them. They were built to live under the impossible pressure of these depths. Taking them to the surface would rip them apart.
I went back to my research, and it wasn’t long until I saw something in the darkness, just on the edge of where my flashlight reached. Trailing white tendrils, snaking their way through the darkness. My eyes narrowed as I moved the submarine forward, trying to catch whatever it was in the light. I saw the shape move, its body turning… I saw its tendrils unfurling. Whatever this was, it was big. It was almost as big as The Tempura… although it was also slender. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought I was looking at some sort of floating debris, but this far down? No. And debris wouldn’t move like that.
This had to be a deepsea squid… or perhaps some other type of cephalopod? Something that preyed upon the various invertebrates down here, perhaps? It seemed to float, just out of sight for a bit, as I tried to get closer. I angled up my light to get a better look at it. The light seemed to shine through it, like some sort of ghost… but I did manage to get a look at it.
Although that look…
That single look made me freeze up.
This things slender tendrils certainly resembled a cephalopod of some sort, but the rest of it… the rest of it looked like something else entirely. Its body was thin, emaciated and translucent, yet despite that it still had characteristics that almost seemed… human. It wasn’t human! Not by any stretch of imagination, but the resemblance was there. It almost reminded me of an exhibit I’d seen in a museum once, depicting a preserved, fully removed human nervous system. I could see a similar shape in its translucent body. Its head seemed almost human as well… albeit with no eyes, and a lamprey like mouth I could only describe as fleshy yet crablike.
Still, despite having no eyes I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was looking at me. And that was when I felt something hit the submarine.
I felt a sudden jolt of panic in my chest. For a moment, I thought that the pressure had started to crush me, but no… no, everything was still fine. Something had just hit me. But what? It didn’t take long before I got my answer.
Another pale creature floated past my viewport, swirling gracefully in the cold dark waters. I watched it for a moment with wide eyes, before noticing its ‘head’ turning slightly toward me. Then, almost instantly, it launched itself at the submarine, darting toward me with blinding speed.
I heard a distinct THUD as its body collided with me, and I could see its pale tendrils pressing against the viewport, twisting and writhing violently. It was trying to attack me. The first creature that I’d seen lunged as well, pounding on my submarine with another THUD. And moments later, I could hear more impacts against the hull. There were more of them… and they did not like having me down there.
“What’s going on?” Sheila asked.
“Somebody doesn’t like me…” I said. “One of the animals down here… some kind of squid, it’s just started attacking the hull.”
“How bad is the damage?”
“Not sure… could be nothing, could be-”
I felt the submarine shake as I tried to move it. The thrusters that pushed me forward weren't responding. Had something gotten caught in it? One of the creatures perhaps?
“Grayson?!” Sheila asked.
“Lost propulsion…” I said. “Fuck… I can’t move.”
“Then drop the weight and come up!”
“No, it’s fine, there’s no other damage, I can still use the port and starboard thrusters to-”
“Grayson!”
I paused. There was genuine panic in her voice… enough to make me realize that even if these things stood little chance of actually breaching the hull, taking the risk would be a fatal mistake.
“I’m on my way up…” I finally said, before reaching out to disengage the ballast weights.
Immediately, I felt myself beginning to rise, although the tentacles clinging to my viewport didn’t disappear.
“We’ve got you…” Sheila said. “Rising up to 38,000 feet.”
The submarine continued to rise, but the creatures clinging to me went nowhere. In fact… I was sure I could see more of them. More pale shapes coming up through the darkness, and these ones filled me with dread. I thought I had been looking at some sort of eerie undiscovered life. But seeing what was coming up toward me now… I knew that I was looking at so much more. The creatures swimming up toward me through the darkness carried weapons… makeshift stone spears and daggers. Primitive tools… but tools all the same.
Signs that these were more than just undiscovered animals.
Much. Much more.
The word: ‘Mermaids’ crossed through my mind, but these were something far different than the ones I’d heard of in folklore. These looked like they’d swam out of the depths of hell itself. Boneless pale tendrils reached for me… and they were getting closer. The pale shapes reached my submarine as I rose higher. I kept praying to whatever God may be listening that the dropping pressure would force them off. The air in a submarine is pressurized, so during normal operation, there should have been no danger of decompression sickness for me.
For them… well… normally I’d feel a little guilty about subjecting an undiscovered species of deep sea mermaids to the horrors of the Bends. But given my circumstances, I didn’t have a lot of other options.
They didn’t let go, though.
They should have. But they didn’t.
What were these things?
I saw a splayed hand press against my viewport. Or… it somewhat resembled a hand. It had suckers on it, like a tentacle and the ‘fingers’ curled open like tentacles. The creature crawled over my viewport, clinging to The Tempura as it rose, and I could see the folds of its crablike mouth opening and pressing against the glass. I could see some sort of bile rising up through its translucent throat, before it secreted it all over my viewport. Was it trying to digest me? Was that how these things fed? How strong were its stomach acids? Were they strong enough to-
The window cracked.
My heart skipped a beat.
“No… no, no no…”
“Grayson, what’s wrong?!”
“They cracked the window… S-Sheila they… oh God… oh fuck, they just…”
“THEY DID WHAT?”
“It’s secreting some sort of enzyme… it’s on the window, it’s… FUCK… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die…”
“You’re not gonna die, baby! Just… just keep ascending, okay? You’re at 30,000 feet… just keep going…”
I nodded, and kept on rising, although the question of whether or not the rest of the creatures were trying to digest the other parts of my submarine floated through my mind. How much damage could The Tempura take before it imploded? How much longer did I have? The submarine still continued to rise… 25,000 feet… almost halfway home… almost… almost.
The creature outside of my viewport slithered along the glass, searching for a better area to try and digest. Past him, I noticed a few of his companions dropping off. Maybe the change in pressure finally was getting to them?
From the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed a flashing light. A warning. The hydraulics on one of the Tempura’s arms were shot… what else was damaged?
I checked my oxygen levels. 32%.
I should’ve had at least 14 hours of air. I’d only been down there for about 6 hours… I shouldn’t have been this low.
31%.
No… no, no, no, no… they’d damaged the air tanks!
30%.
29%
“20,000 feet!” Sheila said. “You still with me, baby?”
“Y-yeah…” I said. I didn’t mention my air situation. I didn’t need to worry her further.
The submarine continued its ascent.
15,000 feet.
24%. I was running out of time.
The creatures still clung to the Tempura. How had the pressure change not killed them yet? My oxygen was dropping faster than before. I was hemorrhaging air. Another crack formed across my viewport. I let out a little, involuntary gasp before trying to force myself to stop hyperventilating.
“Grayson, what was that?”
“I-it’s fine…” I stammered, “It’s fine!”
“Grayson what the hell is going on down there?!”
“They’re still on the submarine… they’re still…” I paused, looking at my oxygen levels. “19%...”
“19% of what? Grayson what’s going on!”
I paused.
18%.
“Air… I’m… I’m losing air…”
“That’s fine, you’re going to make it!” She said, although I heard her voice cracking a little. “You’re gonna make it!”
I didn’t answer.
12,000 feet.
11,000 feet…
My oxygen level continued to drop.
15%.
14%.
12%.
9,000 feet.
The creatures still clung to me, as the submarine continued to rise. The one on my viewport was still there, slowly crawling along the glass again. I stared into its eyeless face and swore I was looking at the face of my killer.
7,000 feet…
Oxygen had dropped to 9%. It dropped to 8% before I even got to 6,000 feet. I was going to die here…
The viewport cracked again and I squeezed my eyes shut. The submarine rocked. I was sure one of the thrusters had been damaged. My ascent slowed.
“Grayson, what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry Sheila…”
Another crack spread across my viewport.
“I’m… I’m not making it back up…”
“YES YOU ARE!”
“I’m sorry…” The tears started to come as the reality of my death became clearer and clearer… this was it.
“YOU’RE COMING BACK UP, YOU HEAR ME! GODDAMNIT, I’LL BRING YOU BACK UP!”
“I love you…”
That creatures face pressed against the glass. It vomited more of its stomach acid onto the cracked glass, and I wondered if this might finally be what broke it. Part of me hoped it would be… the one good thing about dying this deep was that at least I’d die quickly. My suffering would be over. Then, the creature suddenly pulled back, twisting and writhing violently. I saw other shapes moving past it in the water, other ‘mermaids’ that had been clinging to the submarine.
Something was agitating them.
Something was scaring them off.
Then I heard it, over the radio… whale songs.
“What the hell…?”
“Grayson, are you still there?!”
“I… they’re finally breaking off. Sheila, what did you do?”
“I’m broadcasting some of the orca recordings we’ve been using. Are they still clinging to you?”
“No! They’re backing off! I… whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!”
The submarine kept rising.
5,000 feet.
4,000 feet.
4% oxygen.
I could still do this, right?
The submarine continued to rise.
3%.
3,000 feet.
2,000 feet.
2%.
1,000 feet… so close… I was so close…
I could almost see the surface through my viewport, rushing up toward me. I tried not to breathe. Tried not to move. All I did was hope.
500 feet.
I closed my eyes.
“Grayson we have your signal, we’re coming to pick you up!”
Sheila’s voice sounded so far away as my submarine finally breached the surface of the water… and with the last of my strength, I pulled the emergency release on the hatch, and threw it open, taking in lungful after lungful of fresh salty air.
I didn’t dare so much as touch the water beneath me… but I was topside again, and in the distance, I could see The Burger!
“We see you!” Sheila said, “We’ve got you baby… we’ve got you…”
“I see you too…” I said through the tears. “Thank you… thank you…” I didn’t have any words left in me after that.
As soon as I was back on the ship, I collapsed into Sheila’s arms, breaking down into tears as I clung to her, terrified that at any moment, some sort of unspoken other shoe would drop and I’d lose her all over again.
“Shh… it’s alright baby… I’ve got you… you’re safe… you’re safe…” I felt her fingers running through my air and I knew that what she said was true.
I was home.
I was safe.
***
I left my colleagues to review the data that the Tempura gathered during its short expedition. As far as I know, they haven’t published anything. I have a few ideas as to why, but I’ll keep those to myself. Let’s just say that some people would rather this information not become public.
I have a feeling that the Tempura may not be diving again for some time, if ever. I will confess that I do consider that a bit of a shame. Despite everything… I would consider it a success. It endured far more stressful conditions than I had expected, and from what I heard, required fewer repairs than I’d thought it would. But, even if it was approved for another dive, it wouldn’t be me piloting it. No. I will never be setting foot inside of that machine again, nor will I ever be returning to what my colleagues have been quietly referring to as ‘The Jenner Trench’.
I can’t.
Every night, I wake up crying after dreaming of pale shapes outside of my cracked viewport, clinging to Sheila and sobbing. I can’t put myself in that situation again.
I can’t.
Instead, I think I’m going to spend the next few years on solid ground. There’s a teaching position available at a local university. I think that might be the best place for me right now. Who knows, maybe I can help some other deadbeat discover a passion for marine biology.
After everything, my love for the sea remains unchanged… I’m just a little more wary of it, these days.