Should I Keep or Return my Jacket to my Friend
So context, 6 years ago some friends of mine gave me a nice but well worn trench leather jacket that had been floating around their house for a couple years, but they had not been able to identify the owner of. This has been my favorite and most worn coat for the past 6 years, it fits great, it keeps me warm, and it’s great quality. I LOVE this coat.
Fast forward to today, and our mutual friend from a different city was in town visiting, on our way out she noticed an identifying feature on the coat and realized it was hers. She did not ask for it back directly, but it was very clear she wanted it back. Saying it was her favorite and it was a Xmas gift from her mom.
I’m torn about what to do, I feel like the right thing to do is to give it back, but obviously I don’t want to part with it, and part of me can’t shake the unfairness of needing to just return something that’s belonged to me for so long. What should I do?

So context, 6 years ago some friends of mine gave me a nice but well worn trench leather jacket that had been floating around their house for a couple years, but they had not been able to identify the owner of. This has been my favorite and most worn coat for the past 6 years, it fits great, it keeps me warm, and it’s great quality. I LOVE this coat.
Fast forward to today, and our mutual friend from a different city was in town visiting, on our way out she noticed an identifying feature on the coat and realized it was hers. She did not ask for it back directly, but it was very clear she wanted it back. Saying it was her favorite and it was a Xmas gift from her mom.
I’m torn about what to do, I feel like the right thing to do is to give it back, but obviously I don’t want to part with it, and part of me can’t shake the unfairness of needing to just return something that’s belonged to me for so long. What should I do?

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We're white, middle class Australians. Just my son & I living in a two story, two bedroom townhouse in a pretty mediocre complex in a capital city.
While I make a decent income (~$107K AUD salary plus super, or just over 3K AUD/fortnight) we struggle to get by because my mortgage repayments are 1350/fortnight plus I have an arseload of bills (home rates, water, gas, electricity, body corporate fees, health insurance, plus our internet & phone bill is insane, so he can have the fastest, unlimited home network speeds, repayments on his iPhone 14 Pro, my Pixel 6) and his constant want for new (expensive) clothes, shoes and whatever else he demands.
He has a mid-tier gaming PC I built him a few years ago, along with a PS5 and a high end gaming monitor with an expensive desk and gaming chair in his bedroom, along with a very nice queen-sized bed and floating shelves with expensive collectables on them.
As a 49M I have given up on finding love again, or even a casual partner because he has damaged the crap out our home but his solution to getting more money is "get on Tinder and find a wife" so we'll have multiple incomes. I could do alright on Tinder if our house wasn't constantly getting trashed by his meltdowns. Or to constantly ask my mother for money. She's helped us enough as it is.
I even splurged on Childish Gambino tickets for us today (which will also mean travelling to and accomodation in Sydney on top of the $440 worth of tickets) and I was "the best dad in the world" but then his ASD and ADHD kick in and he starts focusing on wanting newer, better stuff.
Today (after giving up on telling me to buy a new house) he wants his room renovated, with his current desk etc back downstairs, a new desk with a MacBook, windows replaced, wardrobe replaced so he can be like a "normal kid".
When i was his age I shared a "sleep-out" (basically an enclosed verandah running down the side of the house) with three little brothers, wore what I was given and rode a cheapo "Toyworld" BMX to school, forced to participate in a cult "Mahikari" in a house full of cockroaches (especially the human cockroach married to my Mum who was molesting my older sister).
I understand he has ADHD (as do I, hence the essay, sorry) and he is at the highest of level 2 ASD (one point off level 3, which is the highest end of the spectrum in Australia) but he seems to think "all other kids" have better rooms/houses than him.
He won't listen when I tell him about teenage boys living in the middle east, where they're lucky if they have a bedroom and that they can't guarantee that their Dad will survive a day at work or they can't be sure they won't get blown up at school, or crossing the frikken road. Or about other kids who are in ghettos surrounded by gang life. Or even just other white, middle class kids in our own, safe, city who don't have luxuries that he has, streaming services, a Dad that is willing to pay for him to have a more expensive phone than my own, that will take him to a $200 concert.
What does the average 13 year old kid have where you live?
How can I convince him that he should be grateful (or at least satisfied) with what he has?
It does my head in that he thinks he has it so rough!
Sorry for the huge wall of text. I need to vent as well as get some advice, please and thank you!

hey there!
I've been reading here for a long while, learning, getting motivated from all the little and big ynab wins. now finally ready to introduce myself.
ive used ynab many years ago (ynab3, that many years ago) succesfully then, but then life happened and i stopped, debt acuumulated etc etc.
3 children and 1 divorce later, when i was at the lowest point, with 35,000 overdraft, 6,000 salary and almost double cost of monthly living, no alimony, i took the control back on my life. i changed a job to a better paying one, moved to cheaper housing and was finally ready to get back to Ynab.
I took the step at middle of December 23, when finally my income became bigger than my minimal basic expenses. the hope is to finish 2024 at a much better place, financially and less stressed about it mentally.
As of now, i completly closed the overdraft and im finally with a positive bank account, cc payed in full every month. if no surprises occur, i expect to be off the cc float by July and start using Ynab as intended. Next step is start building sinking funds, and putting money aside for the month ahead thing.
now- when i think about the month ahead and since im going to take the holding category method, im wondering: once i get to the full cost of a month or full income for a month in that caetgory, and given that my salary is quite regular (+-200 every month), and its payed on the 1st of every month, is there any reason to actually move the money from the holding category back to RTA, at the same time that i put new salary to the holding category? it seems like it could just stay there as a month ahead/emergency fund and that the new salary could be used to fund the new month. am i missing something? besides maby the psychological effect?
i would appreciate any of your wisdom.

Yesterday was 3 months since my wife drowned at home. The thoughts of my last words to her, to the way she looked at me and then she was gone 10 minutes later. The whole incident caught on CCTV camera. I had a choice to see her last moments but I don't think I will ever summon up the courage to see a soft, gentle and kind person during their last moments. A phycologist who saw the video said that it was almost like she past out. She was 49 years old with no health issues but she was an addict. A good addict for the most part. Loved some whiskey on her own in the middle of the morning or glass of wine at a restaurant followed up with a top up at our home bar whilst I was parking the car. (I never knew)
My kids found bottles of wine throughout the house in cupboards, hidden sometimes, sometimes not(i sometimes knew and found it). She would hide a bottle of wine in her pants to get to the toilet so she could chug down.
She always had an excuse or an apology which I was suckered into believing. I was a sucker for her. She was beautiful and kind and caring and cooked and took the kids to school and did their homework with them and went to school functions and and and.
Added to this she was on initially prescribed and ultimately unprescribed benzos for 10 plus years. We had benzos all over the house. Kitchen, vanity cases and drawers to name a few.
However, she was soft and kind and caring. She was a wonderful wife and mother, an avid cook and foodie who had the talent to make videos for Instagram of our holidays and her cooking preparation etc.
That day, after promising me that she quit and after 3 short stints in rehab for treatment of clinical depression I found out that she was drinking my whiskey which at her insisting was noticed because I had put a marker and noticed a significant drop in level she became sombre when confronted.
She then proceeded to the shallow pool to cool down. I got distracted by a call for someone to pickup some items from my front door. I chatted with the gentleman a short distance from where my pool is and where she was last seen standing.
When I turned and opened my front door with a clear view of the pool I could see her floating, stomach down, hair strewn in front of her.
I ran, pulled her out and attempted CPR and mouth to mouth. I failed. I was tired. I was screaming. My two children were over me screaming. My youngest video called his sister who is at University so she saw what was going on.
A doctor, a friend who stays a few doors away from me came through. It took him all of 5 seconds to announce that she was gone. Her feet were still warm. I felt them as he walked away. He said that it was too long. He was right as I later found out from the phycologist who viewed the footage to explain the chain of events.
She sunk in the shallow end, less than waist height for my wife and never came up. There was a struggle and a "jerk" of her body at 18.59 and 45 seconds. I got to her at 19:05 and 50 seconds. The Doctor was there at 8 minutes from her last movement.
I loved her for 30 odd years, was married to her for one month shy of 24 years and cannot get the images of her in the pool, lying on the ground, police sitting down in our entertainment area, family members, business colleagues and friends walking around and me constantly going to her, opening the blanket, wiping away the fluid that was seeping from her nose, asking her if she's okay, holding her hand and rubbing her feet.
Can there be anything more painful and burdensome for the living than losing someone who was truly and unconditionally loved? No matter the manner of death, the length of the suffering, the pain etc.

Written 5/8/2024- updates attached below

I tried posting this on kendrick almost a week ago and it got no response, I messaged the mods to ask about Karma restrictions or account age requirements and they never replied. I made a new account and it was the same issue, but I found out last night I wasn’t fully banned, so I figured I’d throw it up and see if anyone finds it valuable. It’s written for people who have no prior knowledge of the rap game/music business. I don’t have to go as hard on obscuring names this time. One of the influencers I mentioned in my last post is known for doxxing and threatening violence against people who mention the many contradictions in their stories. (Sorry for any typos/mistakes I want to go to bed.)
Origins
I believe the current Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef is either completely or partially fabricated by certain industry leaders or the parties involved in an effort to distract from something bigger going down behind the scenes. If you were an influential label owner facing major accusations, and you needed to deflect media attention from yourself, recreating one of the most defining moments in rap history during the social media era would be a way to do it. It also wouldn’t hurt that two of the biggest rappers in the world were already sending shots at each other in their music for years prior. The public consensus is they are simply two famous rappers who hate each other and fighting over the spot for the top like in the 90’s. Only people who were directly involved could paint a more cohesive picture of the whole story. Even when all the cards drop, there is a good chance the average person won’t be able to find direct sources on their own and will continue to support their favorite artists and dismiss any evidence of their crimes like the drizzy subreddit or Ak fans.

As I said the beef between Kendrick and Drake has been brewing in the background for years, with both rappers sending shots and sneak dissing each other over the course of at least 8 years. The most agreed upon origin story is the first diss was the 2016 Big Sean and Kendrick collaboration, “Control,” and Drake responded with, “The Language”. Things stayed relatively lighthearted for a while and both were intentionally vague for many years. Before I go deep into the Kendrick and Drake stuff, it’s really important to examine some of Drake’s prior beefs because they add a ton of context to my theory. In my opinion Kendrick and Co. started scheming all of this some time around Mid 2020-Mid 2022, well after the whole Pusha T beef had transitioned into the Kanye beef.

What exactly started the beef is debatable, but at the time many attributed it to rumors of Drake pursuing Ye’s ex Amber Rose. Unfortunately the timeline isn’t 100 percent clear, and if I included every detail this would be at least 200+ pages so I’ll stick with the important stuff. The ultimate outcome of the Pusha T battle in 2018 was the revelation of Drake’s son Adidon that he had previously been hiding from the world along with getting Ye directly involved in the beef.

Here are some more examples of Drake antagonizing Ye and of him trying to use women as pawns to get material for his diss tracks. The Drake line, “Yeah, I probably go link to Yeezy, I need me some Jesus, but as soon as I start confessin' my sins, he wouldn't believe us," could be a reference to sleeping with Kim Kardashian, trying to double down on his threats to harm him or his family, or it could be a double entendre. Another example is using the name Kiki in another song, which was apparently one of Kim’s nicknames. Some other possible examples include the theories he may have tried the same thing with Kendrick’s wife Whitney around 2020-2021 in an attempt to use as ammo against Kendrick, which I’ll go into later. I don’t listen to much of either artist's music, but there are probably many of other examples in Drake’s catalogue that I’m leaving out. There is also his song Omerta released in 2019, which I'll go into below.

“Your baby mother call me when she lonely My tailor see me twice a week, he like my homie Forever grateful, forever thankful Diamond necklace, but she wears it on her ankle”

(Probably referring to Kim Kardashian since she had a few pictures with her wearing diamond ankle bracelets and was trying to make it into a trend.

“I plan to buy your most personal belongings when they up for auction”

(There were various rumors floating around for a while that Drake was blackmailing Ye with something and he was fighting to keep it from the public. I thought about it and this line might be referencing a sex tape with Kim or her little sister who me was very touch before she turned 18. In 2022 there was a whole storyline on Kim’s show where Ye flies to LA to prevent her second sex tape from being released.)

West Hollywood, know my presence is menacing
Cosa Nostra, shady dealings
Racketeering, the syndicate got they hand in plenty things The things that we've done to protect the name are unsettling But no regrets, though, the name'll echo Years later, none greater
Death to a coward and a traitor, that's just in my nature, yeah
(Drake and Ye both frequented the Delilah Nightclub located in West Hollywood and lived closeby on the same street for a while.)
"I don't carry cash 'cause the money is digital
It's the American Expresser, the debt collector"

(Sounds a lot more like it could be crypto to launder or send large amounts of ill gotten gains. It started becoming mainstream around them)

"Last year, niggas really feel like they rode on me
Last year, niggas got hot 'cause they told on me
I'm 'bout to call the bluff of anybody the fold on me"

These lines stood out because they could be referring to Ye telling the public about Drake's alleged threats a couple months before the songs release. This happened not long after the release of Sicko mode which was towards the end of 2018 as well. Ye was discussing the incident on Twitter and reached out to Drake and Travis to talk to him in private. In the next set of tweets Kanye publicly accused Drake of threatening him and his family in a major way. Surprisingly Ye seemed genuinely scared and amongst his, “crazy rants,” some of the stuff he said makes a ton of sense in hindsight. This also the beginning of his second serious public struggles with Bipolar disorder after being committed in 2016 shortly after an on stage rant where he calls out Jay Z for selling out and says he's afraid he might kill him.. As someone who shares the same diagnosis, I have a pretty good understanding of mania and psychosis and firmly believe that it's important not to write people off right away due to their mental illness. Some of my most thoughtful, creative, and productive periods were inspired by mania. Industry bigwigs have also been using mental illness to discredit influential black celebrities and visionaries going back decades, but it really picked up in the 80’s.

Dave Chappelle has gone into this a lot in the past and claims he experienced something similar before he quit show business and dipped to Africa. Their stories have a lot of interesting parallels if you’re familiar or curious. I remember he actually visited Ye at his house in Wyoming after he was reported to have had a, "mental breakdown," during his presidential run in 2020 thus marking his third breakown in six years.. The reason I put it in quotes is because it happened right after he publicly accused Kim of cheating and delivered his legendary speech on abortion. Dave went as far as going on live tv and telling the public he wasn’t crazy, he was just really struggling because he was the only one at the time fighting against the narrative, which can often be a suicide mission or a ticket to obscurity. These are three examples of someone speaking up and being deemed crazy, two years later came the nazi stuff and I'm sure we'll have plenty in store for 2024.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the very common pattern of artists dying or having their careers destroyed either after they try to leave their label or threaten to reveal industry secrets. A few more interesting industry connections I made in my research include the connections between:

T.U.G. records and J Cole's independent label Dreamville are both managed by Interscope Records, whose parent company is Universal Music Group.

Universal Music Group also hac Drake's label OvO label as well as Ye and Kendrick's old labels on their roster before they left to form their own independent labels in 2022 (around the same time the disses between Kendrick and Drake started escalating). Finally Bad Boy Records, which is owned by Diddy, and Motown Records who own Diddy's other R&B label Love Records, are also both owned by Universal. This means every label I mention is currently or was previously owned by Universal Music Group.

Ye tried for years to get out of his contract with Defjam, which happens to be ran by Jay Z who is known to be a close associate of Diddy. Jay would always used his money and power to fight against it. Ye even spoke out publicly on a few occasions, including when he said Jay Z was trying to kill him during one of his concerts. My theory is after years of getting nowhere and having his reputation skewered, in 2022 Ye finally said, "Fuck it," and dropped all the anti- Semetic stuff intentionally in a successful attempt to force his label to into using their morality clause, which requires labels to drop an artist if they're accused of any major controversy that could hurt the label’s profits. For the fourth time in four years the media reported he was having a breakdown. Even though they tried to punish him by cutting off all of his sources of income and freezing his accounts he still managed to bounce back pretty quickly. It was often reported how much he was losing, but it rarely discussed how he still was filthy rich in spite of the retrictions. His label wanted to discourage other artists from trying the same thing. My theory is he might have bought Kim or Kylie's alleged sex tape and used it for his own leverage. For Kendrick, his transition to his independent label ApLang went a lot smoother, but he had to split ownership of his new label with the previous manager owner Dave Free. Sadly it's still difficult for new or more niche artists to establish themselves without the some help.

He may be a lot of things but Ye isn’t dumb just because he has a mood disorder and the guys at the top know this, which is why I think he has really played up his diagnosis when it benefitted him. He’s still one of the most talented musicians in the game and I really think he sees his bipolar like a superpower as he says. It’s like his own invisibility cloak. He can go off his meds for a little, make an album after staying up for 72 hours, go on a “psychotic” twitter rant dropping facts throughout, then start up again once he makes enough news headlines. I think it’s worth noting the first divorce rumors in 2020 coincided with Ye’s abortion speech during his presidential run and the cheating accusations. that led to him dropping out and moving to Wyoming, and a couple months ago in February 2024 he was committed again.

The point I’m making is bipolar is complex, but pretty manageable especially if you have a ton of money to find meds that work for you and a good doctor and can keep substance abuse and stress at a manageable level. I think Ye is smart enough to know this, but it’s just safer for him to really play up the mental issues in the media. He’s proven he can literally say whatever he wants after getting cancelled and the average person is just going to write it off as psycho babble. While bias in health care is a sad fact of society, if you can use it to your advantage I say go for it. It might’ve just kept the microscope off of him long enough to plan his attack.

Ye v. Drake: Quotes of 2018
(Start of the beef, drake threats, and suspicion towards Kardashian family. )

“ It’s not about rap. It’s about family. We have to be close as a family and never let these people infiltrate just for radio spins”

“We need to show the world that people can talk without people ending up dead or in jail.”

”This is a man speaking to a man that has been placed in the program to fuck with Kanye West head and set me up“

”See when you care about your family you don’t let no man push you to do nothing that could risk your freedom“

These first four tweets by Ye were all in reference to perceived threats made by Drake after their beef escalated circa 2018. He began speaking on the industry and talking more about his psych hospital commitment two years prior and how he thought they were going to kill him. It's pretty obvious how the whole thing was planned by the sketchy doctor who called it in and his physical trainer who has a ton of connections to weird shit involving his celebrity clients.

I found interesting that Ye might not have been the first major league rapper whose life Drake threatened. During a similar period of mental illness the up and coming rapper XXXtentacion accused Drake of stealing his flow and dissed him a few times. Not long after he made a post online saying if he dies, it was Drake who did it. There are tons of conspiracies online, but none of the evidence is strong enough to draw a definitive connection. Also while it maybe be coincidental, Kendrick’s latest album Mr Morale also painted the picture that Kendrick was dealing with some serious personal issues. Some lines throughout the album may have been used to bait Drake into escalating, but it wasn’t until The Weekend, Future, and Metro Booming dropped, “We Don’t Trust You,” then Drake and J. Cole dropped, “First Person Shooter,” which was followed a couple days later with, “Like That,” where Kendrick started the chain of events that has led us to today.

Kanye vs. Drake: Quotes of 2020

Summary: Ye runs for president and gets suppressed for saying what very well could be the truth and was immediately deemed insane by the media. Kim did a couple interviews and everything he said was immediatly false. There is almost guarenteed to be some sketchy shit going down revolving her and her family. Ye was absolutely terrified of her keeping the kids away from him and it seems like there are still efforts being made to this day to paint a certain image of him for ulterior motives.

Below are six more quotes from a fan taking a deep dive into his 2020 tweets courtesy of u/ thehatstore42069 on Yeezy
”NORTHY I AM GOING TO WAR AND PUTTING MY LIFE ON THE LINE AND IF I AM MURDERED DON’T EVER LET WHITE MEDIA TELL YOU I WASNT A GOOD MAN,” West, 43, wrote in the tweet, adding, “WHEN PEOPLE THREATEN TO TAKE YOU OUT OF MY LIFE JUST KNOW I LOVE YOU”

"I need a public apology from J Cole and Drake to start with immediately... I'm Nat Turner... I'm fighting for us."

"the utmost respect for all brothers" and said "we need to link and respect each other... no more dissing each other on labels we don't own"

"Ye is constantly trying to tell people that his family does not have his or his kids best interests at heart. He goes on to list others, linking them together with the thinking emoji. These people include rap artist Drake and Larsa Pippen, wife of Scottie Pippe. Kim K is goddaughter to Pippen's daughter, showing how close the families actually are. All of these families that associate with Ye through Kardashian connections, as well as Drake, have been accused of the same thing Kris has. EVERY SINGLE ONE of these people have mixed race children that are groomed from a young age to fuck around with celebrities so the parents can remain famous. Drake on numerous occasions has been accused of grooming girls and then getting handsy on their 18th birthday.”

“These labels want their artists to make them money and they dont care about anything else. When Kanye says things like this in an attempt to expose him, the first thing they wanna do is drug him up and put him back in the studio.”
“Righteous indignation is typically a reactive emotion of anger over mistreatment, insult, or malice of another. It is akin to what is called the sense of injustice. This is how they keep the black man down. Keep people outraged about trivial things and distract them from the real issues in the world. The real problems in the industry. If you tell people enough times that they are unequal or discriminated against they start to believe it. Drug them when they step out of line and toss them aside when the checks run out. Ye is realizing he is pawn in a bigger game, and now that he has all these roots in the game such as Yeezy or the Gap or his music, too many people cant risk (Afford) a Ye who speaks his mind.”
(End of quotes)

Amongst the twitter rant, Ye warned about the predatory nature of record deals and discussed trying to get out of his own deal, and said again how his life may be in danger if it wasn’t already and was doing anything he could to protect his kids. The most fascinating part to me though is the public call to arms he made to Drake, J Cole, and Kendrick on twitter. After inviting them to all link up, he said, “It’s time to get free, we will not argue amongst each other while some guy we don’t know in Europe is getting paid and putting that money in a hedge fund.” I believe if Ye was able to pull off this meeting, there is an ever so slight chance that all four artists might be working together to take down a greater enemy. Weirdly there have been times throughout the last couple years where these supposed enemies were photographed together being friendly or praise each other in interviews, then out of no where the disses would start flying again.

To wrap things up I want to share my a few of my theories about the Drake/Kanye beef

A. Everything is exactly as it seems and the beef is over. Ye let his mental illness ruin his life and career so Drake simply picked another target after Ye stopped putting out disses. All of these connections are just a coincidence and all of this was choreographed to boost Drake and Kendrick’s music sales and possibly distract people from the Diddy trial and possibly the complicated geopolitical issues currently facing the U.S.

C. There is also the possibility that all four rappers are in cahoots and Drake’s dirt isn’t as extreme as people are theorizing, at least in comparison to the rest of the business. This could explain why everything has played out like a movie and how they were able to predict each other’s moves so well. This could either mean they’re all just trying to boost their sales or they’re all trying to take down the “slave masters,” as Ye calls them, and change the dynamic of the music industry in favor of the artist.

D. They may be trying to help their friends in the industry who are being abused or in shitty contracts. I know a lot of famous rappers have done a lot of collaborations with Jhene Aiko and Anderson Paak, who were both signed to T.U.G. records which I mentioned above in the connections to Universal Music Group. Considering they are both frequent collaborators with all of the artists involved on both sides, it’s not unlikely they may have played some part in influencing the takedown.

T.U.G was started by Chris Stokes with his partner Ketrina Askew. Back in the early to mid 90’s were gaining popularity attracting lots of young up and coming talent. They often collaborated with Diddy and his associates. In the 2000’s Raz B from the boy band B2K claimed he was molested by Stokes and his friend Marques Houston, then quickly retracted his claims. Years later he came forward again and said we was bribed into silence and that the rest of the victims were bribed with hush money and had another singer corroborate his story and they came forward together to level the accusations. After some of his former B2K members made fun of him for his claims and accused it of being a shakedown, Raz B revealed Stokes and Houston had preyed a lot of the children associated with the label including at least one of the former bandmates and paid them off.

I thought it was worth noting that the second whistleblower named Quindon Tarver died young in a car crash after mentioning his abuse again a few years prior. He seems to have left the industry not long after the incidents occurred and has few credits to his name. To this day Raz B is still trying to get his justice, while Stokes and his partner Askew, who was also involved in the abuse are still running the label to this day. Askew also has a ton of lawsuits, accusing her of using shady tactics to try to foreclose on houses. (Don’t quote me if a lawyer wants to take a look just google her full name), and has been tied to a ton of LLCs, similar to Drake. This is a good example of a shitty record deal, but I'm sure they have countless other friends in the industry who have even worse. While they were never convicted even Chris Stokes' wife confirmed it to be true.

E. The theory I personally think fits the narrative best and is the most realistic conspiracy is that Kendrick and possibly J. Cole went to the meeting, but not Drake due to his close relationship with Lucian Grange, the president of Drake’s label. Silence often speaks louder than words and this could explain why Kendrick was so ruthless and put so much effort into finding dirt on Drake. Ye, Cole, and Kendrick co-writing would be like the rap allstar team and if J. Cole wasn’t involved, it would also answer the question of whether or not he baited Drake into the battle by asking him to feature. I don’t think Drake is really their primary target though, which would explain letting him off easy. Compared to his bosses and their bosses he’s a small fish. If you take the big guys down you stand a better chance of landing a bigger blow on their operation.

Another really interesting connection is Kendrick and Ye were both signed under Universal Music Group and they both got out of their deals around couple months apart in 2022. As we speak U.M.G’s CEO Lucian Grange, who is often acccused of giving Drake special treatment, is facing charges related to sex trafficking by no other than P Diddy. This could very well explain the timing of it all. The craziest timeline would be Diddy masterminding all of this and using his connections to get it done and all the allegations are bullshit. The guy does seem pretty confident all things considered and constantly posts himself in his Batman costume which could mean he’s a vigilante.

It seems like there's a slight religious angle as well. (Ye and Diddy are both very vocal advocates of Christianity and Drake and Lucian Grange are both Jewish.) Obviously this is a reach, but they’ve been saying rap music was specifically promoted by mostly white label owners in the 80’s to help in the ongoing effort to expedite the systematic oppression of those living in black neighborhoods and the destruction of their family systems. Apparently it was an intentional decision to heavily promote rappers that promoted the very things that were destroying their neighborhoods. (So people know I'm and atheist and have zero agenda, I just thought it was interesting, please stay away from anything antisemitic. War is wrong on both sides.)

*** If my favorite theory is true, there is a possibility the Kendrick and Ye are going after Drake due to their mutual disdain for him and because he’s got a ton of power to dominate the charts and hog the radio airtime like Meek Mill and OG Maco claimed years ago. Even him dropping a record the same day as you could really fuck your album sales up. I’m also sure some of the many rumors throughout the years have had a least some truth and he will most likely snitch to avoid cell block one. I think that Drake could have been instructed to instigate this whole mess in order to draw attention away from the UMG charges brought about by Diddy. Or on the other hand it could be that Kendrick, Ye, and possibly Cole, may have had intel that Drake was going to be involved in the Diddy trial and are just gonna let the receipts show themselves. It might not have been the original plan, but they’ve already accomplished their mission of humiliating him, assuring he couldn’t use his influence to slide through the cracks, and taking over the throne.

Please take everything I say with a grain of salt I have no connection to this world or lifestyle. Regardless I believe all of the knowledge above does a pretty solid job at painting a picture of what may have let up to this and what may have been the source.
——————————-
More details found the last couple days…

Drake and Diddy Connections+Coincidences

Drake- In the P Diddy wig video from 2016 he talks about going to party with Drake, Cash, and The Weeknd in Toronto. Drake is also one of Birdman’s protégées who is known for being a predator and is rumored to have used label artists to lure young women.

Travis Scott- Interview where he comes out and says Diddy tried to lure him. Still has a long history of associating with him, video of him running from Diddy, his connection to Ruby Rose while underage.

Tim Westwood- Diddy had connections with sex offender Tim Westwood who also inspired the Drake song, “Westwood”. They also both were victims of drive by shootings along with The Weekend and they were all facing some type of allegations.

T.I.- Also has been associate with Diddy through the years, in 2021 his kid died and 11 women can forward at the same time to accuse him and his wife of drugging and assaulting them. Clearly someone wanted to fuck his life up. Possibly due to him getting arrested so many times for wild shit and people wondering how he continued to get away with it shining a light on how powerful industry lawyers are. He also had recently talked about having a gynecologist check to see if his daughter is still a Virgin, which sounds like it could have been an industrty secret. Could have been because he worried about someone trying to take advantage of her to get to him? Regardless that shit is fucking insane.

50 Cent- Has been saying pretty much the same thing as Travis Scott and has trolled Diddy for most of his career. It came out that his wife was a sex worker who was possibly recruited Diddy to help ruin his career. It sort of worked, which raises the question if 50 Cent is the only victim.

Ray J- Him and his sister worked with T.U.G. records when they were very young. Chris Stokes in the nineties who had connections with Diddy. He has been involved in a lot of sex scandals and allegedly may have played a part in Whitney Houston's death. (Which is also allegedly connected to Michael Jackson's death and both were deemed suspicious and happened during their final tours when their masters (song rights), became more valuable than their lives. Sony Records and Tommy Motolla, who also abused Mariah Carey when she was trying to start her career. These are just a few of the alleged examples of labels taking out musicians when they were worth more dead, another is the signing of high risk artists and requiring them to get life insurance so they can profit beyond releasing all their posthumous records. Also the ever so common story of the rising star artist that die at 21 after their first album or two.

He also partied with Diddy in Vegas with along Floyd Mayweather and a bunch of other famous industry people and athletes.

Tory Lanez- Tons of blackmail, also was signed by Interscope under UMG. got sent to prison for ten years after trying to leave his label. Also history of SA and and other allegations of violence towards women.

French Montana- On Diddy's label, close with Rick and Khaled, tons of drug and sexual assault allegations, also dated a Kardashian. Generally grimy.

DJ Khaled- Diddy said he could get anything in Miami, either referring to drugs or women, could explain his connections and lack of any notable talent. (New update, he was one of the first to promote Chris Alvarez’s instagram not long after he turned 18).

Rick Ross- Diddy said some weird shit about him and licked his lips and kissed him at a show. Ross is also signed to Bad Boy under Diddy. He ended up getting involved in the current feud and spamming social media nonstop dissing and threatening Drake.

A lot of the back and forth was both of them threatening to release dirt on each other. One strange coincidence I found was Drake recently trolled Ross about the 20 million dollar renovation to his home on Star island, where Diddy is currently residing. It’s rumored back in the day that P Diddy was caught in a room full of rich guys on ecstasy possibly at the beginning stages of a gay orgy. Drake also mentioned in the same tweets about Rick Ross that Birdman owned a house on the island and asked Rick Ross why he didn’t help him out.

Considering Ross is so sketchy and Drake claims the house isn’t that big, that’s a ridiculous amount of money. He may be covering up evidence, or creating tunnels in his house to escape if shit pops off and Drake might know what’s good. Interestingly enough Ross is very close with French Montana and also signed to Bad. He said his beef was related to something involving French, and Drake’s tweet popped up the same day the info came out concerning the Chris Alvarez stuff.

The famous line from U.O.E.N.O.

Meek Mill- “OG Maco called himself defending his friend Quentin Miller by substantiating the ghostwriting claims and agreeing with Meek. He hit up Twitter saying, "Some of us been knew. Meek just put it in the air. Sucks to have to compete with 6 n****s and get compared to”

Meek mill also had a short beef with Drake, some disses included lines referring to TI’s homie pissing on Drake at the movie theater, which is also interesting considering the current case against him. He also dropped a line saying Diddy almost got a domestic charge when he smacked Drake, which could either be saying that Drake is like a woman, or saying he was Drake’s boyfriend/sugar daddy.
( If you made it to the end comment with the number 8)
I thought it was interesting how the beef just kind of disappeared and even Meek said it didn’t seem genuine. Considering the allegations against Meek in the Diddy trial, and his rumored affair with Kim contributing to ending Kanye’s marriage, Meek Mill definitely did some dirt on him.

“Niggas frauds I told the truth, don't ask me shit
All this industry fake enemy and rap shit”

“Money make a sucker that told look trill again”

One of the many chapters in Drake's history in which he is seen paying his way out of trouble and starting beefs randomly.
“Now when that shit went down with Chris, you wrote a check”
This line is referring to Chris brown beef, another beef that was lost to time. All I can remember off the top was someone throwing a champagne bottle at the other’s entourage.

Ty Dolla $ign- Huge feature artist, close with Ye. Grew up in the industry and talks about growing up on the road and being in the studio with his dad and Rick James who was should have already been in prison for life for dragging, torturing, and S assaulting multiple women and children throughout his career and was himself a victim of the industry. May be part of Ye's motivation, considering their recent close working relationship.
The end.
Courtesy of,
The Randomest Moniker

Shortly after Final Fantasy VII hit the gaming world in 1997, Cloud Strife’s howls of grief at the loss of his beloved companion Aerith Gainsborough were echoed by droves and droves of fans. These echoes gathered in swarms, reaching the developers in the form of petition signatures, each begging the makers of the game to allow Aerith’s resurrection. Though these prayers remained unanswered —until now—, there soon came more protests: this time, fans pleaded with the developers to consider making a remake of the original game. Both of these wishes were met with considerable derision, with large chunks of the fandom calling the requests delusional— which is why the Final Fantasy world had to prepare for another meteoric hit when the Remake project was finally announced in 2015. With Kitase, Nomura, Toriyama, Nojima, Uematsu and more of the original developers at the helm, along with longtime FFVII fan-turned-developer Hamaguchi, the Remake trilogy was met with great expectations. These were nevertheless surpassed, though one aspect of the trilogy’s first entry seemed to thoroughly puzzle some and enrage others. Far and wide, the resounding questions were “What are these Whisper things?”, “Why is Cloud having visions unrelated to Nibelheim and Zack?” and “Why and how in the hell did Zack survive?”
Friends, I believe the answer lies within this post. Welcome to my literary-analysis-based theory on the Remake trilogy’s most important and most secret plot point: Cloud’s hidden mission. I want to make this fun and suspenseful to read, so I will write my analyses in the same order and manner in which I encountered them while putting my theory together. You will be reading what initially sparked my curiosity, the path I took while researching for answers, the conclusions I made every step of the way, and only then will you read my theory, after which we’ll try and apply it to the Remake trilogy so far and see if it fits! I want you to experience the rollercoaster that I did when digging through SE content to bring you this post. Thank you so much for waiting for and anticipating this analysis, and I do hope you read every word to soak in every last bit of Clerith you can get. I also hope it’s really fun and touching for you (I cried at least once making this)! Let’s embark on our adventure through the compilation, other FF games and real-life events to find out what the Remake project is truly all about and anticipate the events of part 3.
N.B.: Please be aware that I have never seen this theory navigate online, so I have no idea if anyone has ever come up with a similar hypothesis. The big reveal I’m building toward might be something you’re already aware of or suspected. In that case, I hope this post doesn’t disappoint you if you’re one of the lovely people who requested it! At the very least, it will provide you with valuable literary and musical analysis, a ton of evidence you haven’t considered yet, and hopefully, entertainment too!
WARNING: Please be careful with the censored spoiler text, because I'll be referencing other FF games in this analysis and I don't want to ruin anything for you! Obviously, this analysis contains spoilers for the entirety of the FFVII compilation. Additionally, if you're not a fan of Clerith and you've stumbled upon this post, please stop here. I would hate it if something I worked on and posted made you angry, so please don't read this analysis. I have only good intentions and I just want everyone to enjoy the FFVII world as much as they can.

I. Groundwork: The Remake Timelines Theory

Before I take you on this ride, we must lay down the framework of the Remake Timelines Theory. In this section, we’ll be reviewing the general consensus of theorizers within the fandom on timeline/multiverse shenanigans, with some added specifications on my part. Please keep in mind that because the timeline mechanics are kept quite vague by the devs, there might be certain inaccuracies in my iteration of the timelines theory. Thankfully, these potential variances won’t have any effect on the legitimacy of the theory I’ll be presenting to you in this analysis.
I. a) Sephiroth’s Plan
The premise of the Remake trilogy is widely thought to be the result of post-OG Sephiroth attempting to succeed where he failed in OG. There are six key points we need to keep in mind to understand how this was possible.
I. a) i. Sephiroth in the Lifestream
Firstly, it’s important to remember that Sephiroth is dead and located in the Lifestream before OG even begins, and remains that way for almost all of OG's duration. He is only able to operate in the world of the living via his/Jenova's control over the living Sephiroth clones. In the OG timeline then, Sephiroth is sent to the Lifestream by Cloud twice: once before the game takes place on the night of the Nibelheim incident (pre-OG), and a second time during the final battle against Sephiroth (disk 3, chapter 3). During the long period between the Nibelheim incident and Sephiroth’s rebirth at the Northern Crater (disk 2, chapter 2), he exists in the Lifestream. After his ultimate defeat (post-OG), he returns there for good.
II. a) ii. Sephiroth Unintegrated
Secondly, because he is full of hatred and unyielding determination, Sephiroth’s spirit cannot become one with the planet. After both occasions where Cloud kills him in OG, Sephiroth retains his individual will and the memories of his lifetime, remaining a separate entity in the Lifestream. He says so himself in Nojima’s Advent Children prequel novel On a Way to a Smile:

“[Sephiroth] could sense the Lifestream trying to erode his spirit— the memories of his former experiences, thoughts and emotions. If he allowed himself to be taken into the current, the being he once was would soon disseminate and disappear amongst the spirit energy cycling around the planet. [He] thought this unacceptable. The planet was to be his to rule, and to become a part of that system would be nothing short of defeat” ("Lifestream Black 1").

Combined with Bugenhagen’s basic lesson on planetology (FFVII OG, disk 1, chapter 19), this excerpt provides interesting information on how the Lifestream normally works. Usually, when a life returns to the planet, its individuality (personality, will, consciousness, memories, etc.) is stripped away. The trappings of a soul’s former lifetime are progressively dissolved so that all that is left is the spirit itself, ready to integrate into the Lifestream. This way, soul energy can be “recycled” by the planet to animate new lifeforms in a sort of reincarnation process. The erasure of one’s memories in the Lifestream is necessary for the creation of a brand new life, poised to make its own memories: the slate must be wiped clean, so to speak. Sephiroth’s sheer hatred for and desire to dominate the planet is enough to keep him from undergoing this process.
It is also thought that Sephiroth cannot be integrated into the Lifestream because he was conceived with the use of Jenova cells in vitro. Given that so much of his consciousness and genetic makeup originate from an alien life force, it is impossible for him to become one with the planet.
Regardless of the reason, it is precisely this persisting individuality in death that allows Sephiroth to meddle in the world of the living during the post-OG events of Advent Children, as explained to us by post-OG Aerith in On a Way to a Smile:

“[Aerith] had sensed a different presence within the Lifestream cycling around the planet. It was the vehemence of a strong will, one that would never join with the planet. She knew this consciousness. It was [Sephiroth]. A merciless spirit hidden behind a beauteous wall. That spirit was now operating from within the Lifestream. [She] sensed that he was planning to exert his influence to the surface of the planet“ ("Lifestream White 1").

I. a) iii. The Lifestream Beyond Time
Our third point is that the Lifestream has existed for as long as the planet, and has therefore touched every part of its history— including, of course, the events of OG. On that account, one could think of the Lifestream as atemporal. Considering this, it is possible for a spirit in the Lifestream to communicate with or even travel to the past, provided the necessary circumstances and/or abilities. For instance, the Aerith that appears in Cloud’s resolution scene in Remake (chapter 14) is commonly considered to be a post-OG Aerith, appearing to him from the future to try and dissuade him from falling for her. This time-defying event is made possible by the fact that post-OG Aerith’s spirit has access to the atemporal Lifestream because she's deceased. In my view, this explains why she dissolves into green light (Lifestream visual cue) at the end of the resolution scene (5:19-5:45). This is not time travel per se, but it is a manner of communication unobstructed by the one-directionality of a linear timeline that only spirits can perform.
I. a) iv. Sephiroth Beyond Time
What we’ve covered so far amounts to our fourth point. Please familiarize yourself with the graph below before you continue reading. Refer back to the graph when you encounter text in bold.
The Remake Timelines Theory: FFVII OG Timeline
As we discussed in section “I. a) i.”, Sephiroth is dead and located in the Lifestream for the duration of the green arrow and beyond point D: in the context of the OG timeline, he can only ever be considered “alive” during the period highlighted in purple. In section “I. a) ii.”, we asserted that Sephiroth retained his individual will in the Lifestream, enabling him to exert his influence on the world of the living by manipulating his clones on the surface. In section “I. a) iii.”, we covered the atemporal nature of the Lifestream, which allows post-OG Aerith’s spirit to communicate with her past, living self thanks to her Cetra abilities. Now, I will explain to you how Sephiroth was able to do virtually the same thing, albeit his lack of Cetra blood.
To the characters of the story and a fully immersed first-time player of OG, the timeline above was not always an established series of events: when they first started playing FFVII OG, the player began at point B, with nothing existing beyond it. It is only as the player moved Cloud forward that the black, arrowed timeline was drawn, accumulating lived events (or points) in Cloud’s wake. The picture you see above is only available to Cloud and to the player with hindsight. All this to state the obvious: at point B, Cloud could not know what would occur, say, at point C.
During the period highlighted in purple, Sephiroth was “alive” again, accumulating new memories on the surface of the planet and adding them to his consciousness. When he entered the Lifestream for the second time at point D, he brought these memories with him. Simply put, after returning to the Lifestream at point D, Sephiroth remembers what happened during the period highlighted in purple. However, given that the Lifestream exists beyond time, upon Sephiroth’s consciousness’ return to the Lifestream at point D, his newly acquired memories were also made available to him at all points on the green, double-arrowed line— including point A, before the OG timeline even begins at point B. So while it is true that Cloud cannot know what will occur at point C if he is only at point B, Sephiroth indeed knows what will occur during the period highlighted in purple when he is only at point A. While a living, pre-OG Aerith would be able to receive post-OG Aerith’s spirit’s knowledge through the Lifestream thanks to her Cetra powers, Sephiroth has no need for this ability. The fact that he resides in the Lifestream for practically the entire FFVII OG timeline renders the limitations of time irrelevant: as far as the FFVII OG timeline is concerned, Sephiroth exists beyond time itself.
In summary, after point D was first encountered in OG, pre-OG Sephiroth (in the Lifestream) is made aware of his eventual defeat, and begins plotting an alternate path to victory. This time, with the benefit of hindsight, he will do things differently: we experience his "second” attempt at FFVII as the Remake trilogy.
I. a) v. Sephiroth Against Fate
Of course, the Whispers stand squarely in Sephiroth’s way. This leads us to our fifth point, which Remake Ultimania describes better than I ever could:

“According to Red XIII, who gained knowledge through his contact with Aerith, ‘The Whispers are drawn to those who attempt to alter destiny’s course and ensure they do not’ […]. It would appear that what the Whispers deem to be ‘fate’ is the original story of Final Fantasy VII” (section 08 “Secrets”, “Newly Arisen Mysteries”, “What Is the Goal of the Elusive Whispers?”, page 733).

OG’s plot line is the fated timeline, and the Whispers are tasked with its preservation. They prevent alternative paths from even beginning to branch out from the OG timeline, which poses a problem for Sephiroth: he cannot win FFVII if his destiny is to lose it.
I. a) vi. Sephiroth and the Multiverse
Consequently, our sixth point is that Sephiroth must dismantle the mechanisms of fate before he can even try to accomplish his dreams of godhood.
As Sephiroth explains in chapter 14 of Rebirth, “the planet encompasses [an ever unfolding] multitude of worlds”, and these “[new worlds are born] when the boundaries of fate are breached.” Since the Whispers uphold the “boundaries of fate”, a world in which Sephiroth’s evil plans succeed can only emerge after the Whispers have been defeated. Otherwise, destiny will continue to protect the OG plot line by preventing any significant deviations. Consequently, before the party vanquishes fate, the Remake timeline and the OG timeline are one and the same: before chapter 18, Remake Barret is OG Barret, Remake Tifa is OG Tifa, Remake Hojo is OG Hojo, etc. After the defeat of Destiny, the OG timeline is no longer protected by fate: there are now an infinite number of timelines or worlds, including those we see glimpses of in Rebirth: Remake Barret is no longer necessarily OG Barret, Remake Tifa is no longer necessarily OG Tifa, Remake Hojo is no longer necessarily OG Hojo, etc. Perhaps this is why Aerith gives the party the following warning at destiny’s crossroads in Remake:

“[This] is the wall of destiny. If we go through it… if we go beyond it… then all of us will change, too” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Destiny’s Crossroads”).

I. a) vii. Sephiroth’s Plan
Now that these six points have been elucidated, we can compose a solid hypothesis on how Sephiroth plots to win FFVII.
After gaining knowledge of his eventual demise (disk 3, chapter 3), pre-OG Sephiroth began thinking of what he must do in Remake from the Lifestream. First, Sephiroth must antagonize the Whispers in the initial stages of the OG timeline. He accomplishes this by commanding his clones to commit acts that drastically violate the fated timeline, engendering plot-line deviations that the Whispers must course-correct. The most extreme example transpires in Remake’s chapter 17 when the Sephiroth clone in President Shinra’s office kills Barret, forcing the Whispers to restore the fated plot line by coming forth and reviving him. The Whispers react to Sephiroth’s prodding by rushing in to protect fate, their efforts culminating in the protective wall of destiny that surrounds Midgar in chapter 18.
Secondly, after he’s created an opportunity for a battle against the Whispers, Sephiroth must convince the party to seize it and beat fate for him. After all, a mere Sephiroth clone is probably no match for Destiny. This second step is accomplished in Remake’s chapter 18 when Sephiroth successfully tempts Cloud to breach the boundaries of fate. Now that destiny is no longer a limitation, worlds deviating from the OG timeline can finally emerge; Sephiroth has a chance at victory.
The steps Sephiroth plans to take going forward are unknowable at this stage, but we do get more hints in Rebirth’s chapter 13. At the Temple of the Ancients, Sephiroth reveals a part of his plot:

“Sephiroth: My fragmented mother, these errant worlds... All shall be one again.
Aerith: The ‘Reunion’…!”

It seems Sephiroth eventually plans to merge the worlds created by destiny’s defeat in Remake’s chapter 18. My guess is he hopes to achieve godhood in part 3 and consolidate all diverting worlds into a single timeline protected by destiny once more— only this time, his victory will replace the ending of OG as the destined outcome. If he succeeds, Sephiroth’s Black Whispers will likely replace the planet’s Whispers as the arbiters of his desired fate.
I. b) Aerith’s Intervention
But Aerith can’t let this slide unchallenged!
We know that before chapter 18 of Remake, while the OG plot-line is still protected by fate, Aerith has knowledge of its future. This is insinuated by certain slips of the tongue: for instance, when Aerith reveals she knows Cloud is a mercenary upon meeting him for the second time in chapter 8, just like she knows Tifa will ask her to retrieve Marlene at Seventh Heaven in chapter 12. In the run-up to Remake, post-OG Aerith's spirit likely sensed Sephiroth planning his second try at FFVII in the Lifestream. She’s been able to anticipate Sephiroth’s plotting in the Lifestream before, namely in the context of Advent Children:

“[Aerith] had sensed a different presence within the Lifestream cycling around the planet […]. It was [Sephiroth] […]. That spirit was now operating from within the Lifestream. [She] sensed that he was planning to exert his influence [on] the surface of the planet” (On a Way to a Smile, "Lifestream White 1").

If you’re wondering how Aerith was able to maintain her individuality in the Lifestream like Sephiroth, On a Way to a Smile provides the following explanation:

“[Aerith] was an Ancient, which explained how she was able to maintain her individuality even within the Lifestream. If she so wished she could become part of the planet at any time, but [she] thought it too early for that just yet” ("Lifestream White 1").

It is thought that, as a countermeasure to Sephiroth's scheming, post-OG Aerith’s spirit used the atemporal nature of the Lifestream to inform her past, living self (pre-OG Aerith) of this new threat to the planet. Because the Cetra can commune with spirits, pre-OG Aerith would have been able to receive post-OG Aerith’s message from the Lifestream without a problem. Essentially, pre-OG Aerith received post-OG Aerith’s memories of the fated OG timeline. As a consequence, pre-OG Aerith embarks on the OG timeline with knowledge of the fated future that demands she give her life: the player experiences this version of her in Remake.
Be that as it may, it’s unclear how much Remake Aerith is aware of. You would think she’d be completely opposed to defeating, destiny since it protects the planet, but Aerith shows ambivalence toward the idea instead. Had she gotten a clear message from her future self that she must keep fate intact, she would not have allowed the party to enter the battle against fate in chapter 18. She doesn’t seem to know what the Whispers are the first time she encounters them either. Regardless, what’s important is that the Aerith seen in Remake is the result of pre-OG Aerith receiving knowledge from post-OG Aerith via the Lifestream.
I. c) Ambiguity: Memory Transfer or Time-Travel?
There remains an ambiguity pertaining to the Aerith we see in Remake and the question of time travel. What I’ve described to you in section “I. b)” is post-OG Aerith's spirit transferring her memories to her past self through the Lifestream. However, it’s possible that post-OG Aerith’s consciousness used the atemporal nature of the Lifestream to inhabit her living OG body instead, effectively time-traveling. There is no evidence to outright refute either explanation, since the gaps in Aerith’s memories of the OG plot-line in Remake can be explained in both cases. For instance, in a memory transfer scenario, it’s possible that post-OG Aerith only communicated the most essential information to pre-OG Aerith. On the other hand, in a time-travel scenario, one could interpret the following quotes as proof that the Whispers are progressively erasing Aerith’s memories of OG as Remake advances:

“Aerith: Every time the Whispers touch me, a piece of me falls away” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”)

&

“At any rate, Aerith is perplexed at how, like a flower being scattered, something inside is being taken away by the Whispers and lost to her” (Toriyama in FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”, “Scenario Staff Q&A - Answered by Motomu Toriyama”).

This ambiguity is completely irrelevant to Sephiroth’s situation in Remake, as we established in section “I. a) iv.”.
The specifics don’t matter nearly as much as I’m impressing upon you by explaining all these little alternatives. Simply keep in mind that: regardless of why, the Sephiroth and Aerith we see in Remake know the events of the OG game because they have acquired this knowledge from the future, and the events of Remake occur squarely within the OG timeline until the Whispers are defeated in chapter 18.
So there! That’s my iteration of the Remake Timelines Theory! I hope I’ve made it clear in your mind, or at least clearer. Now that we’ve established the widely theorized premise of the Remake trilogy, we can get into our theory on its hidden premise.
II. My Initial Curiosity
My theory first burgeoned upon going through Remake for the second time. I noticed something strange going on with Cloud, something that could not be explained by the Remake Timelines Theory. Key moments in Remake Cloud’s experience of the OG timeline (aka, everything before chapter 18) stuck out to me as strange and mysterious, and certain inexplicable audiovisual cues struck me as hugely significant. It was upon watching the tear fall from Cloud’s eye during my second go at chapter 8 that I knew I had to look into this.
At the very end of Remake’s chapter 8, Cloud watches Aerith walk away from him, humming happily into the night air as she sets off to lead the way to Sector 7. According to the VA script notes, “his heart skips a beat” and watching her walk away provokes a sudden “anxiety” within him. Triggered by the familiarity of the sight, a strange sensation overcomes Cloud:

“[There’s a] close-up shot of Cloud’s fingertips (they’re tingling). He presses them to his temples (his eyes are burning). A trickle of tears quickly rolls down from the eye hidden behind his hand” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “A Midnight Ambush”).

If you’re clever, you’ll recognize these lines as a reference to the speech Cloud makes in OG following Aerith’s death at the City of the Ancients (“My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!”) (disk 1, chapter 28). In this small moment in chapter 8 of Remake, Cloud experiences a flash of the profound grief he is destined to feel upon Aerith’s fated death.
Many players immediately recognized the composition of this scene: the blue-greenish air, the straight path Aerith heads down, the sight of her walking away itself… this moment closely resembles Cloud’s Sleeping Forest dream of Aerith in OG, wherein Cloud and Aerith’s very last words are exchanged (disk 1, chapter 25). Toriyama, codirector of the Remake project, comments on this scene thusly:

“It’s possible these similarities […] cause a memory of the future to be called forth in Cloud” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “A Midnight Ambush”).

The language used by Toriyama here is strange in both the English translation and the Japanese original: the term “memory of the future” makes no sense. One cannot remember things they haven’t already experienced, so why did Toriyama use the word “memory” to describe a "future" event? Couldn’t he have simply said that Remake Cloud experiences “visions of the future” rather than “[memories]”?
Cloud experiences a few moments like these throughout the game. These pseudo-premonitions are just as markedly exclusive to Remake as the Whispers are. I did not want to dismiss them as a foreshadowing device the devs included just to elicit emotional reactions from OG players; I felt they were more important. And thus began my digging! My mission was initially to figure out what these “[memories of the future]” (MOTFs) could signify… I had no clue it would turn into what I’m writing right now.
II. a) Each MOTF and Its Context
I began by finding every one of Cloud’s MOTFs so I could better understand them.
MOTF 1 occurs in chapter 2 on Sector 8’s Loveless Street, when Cloud sees Aerith struggling against the Whispers. The VA script notes reveal that even though this is only his first time seeing her, Cloud recognizes Aerith’s face:

“Recognizing Aerith’s face causes Cloud to experience [a hallucination]. Sephiroth is suddenly standing between him and Aerith” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Encountering Aerith”).

Sephiroth then taunts Cloud with words that, according to the script notes, “[live] inside of Cloud's heart”: “You can’t protect anyone. Not even yourself”. Cloud should not recognize Aerith’s face at this point in the OG timeline, nor should he associate it with not being able to protect people.
MOTF 2 occurs in chapter 3, at the plaza in front of the Sector 7 slums support pillar. Cloud experiences a MOTF of the plate falling, which is fated to occur at a much later point in chapter 12. The Whispers float near him, “watching Cloud alertly as he sees a vision of the future” (FFVII Remake Ultimania, section 08 “Secrets”, “Newly Arisen Mysteries”, “What Is the Goal of the Elusive Whispers?”, page 733).
MOTF 3 occurs in Aerith’s church at the start of chapter 8, when Aerith mentions that her mother’s materia is “not good for anything at all”. Triggered by the mention and sight of the White Materia, Cloud’s fourth MOTF takes the form of a vision: he sees quick flashes of the materia falling into the lake of the Forgotten Capital and Aerith holding her hands together in prayer. These are evidently visions of her death in OG (disk 1, chapter 28).
MOTF 4 is the one we first discussed, occurring at the very end of chapter 8 as Cloud watches Aerith walk away from him to lead the way toward Sector 7.
MOTF 5 occurs in chapter 13 shortly after the Sector 7 plate has fallen on the slums. Cloud tells Barret that Marlene is safe at Aerith’s house, and they begin heading there. As Cloud thinks about Aerith, the VA script notes describe the very next moment as follows:

“Cloud: Tifa, you know anything about the Ancients?
Tifa: I’ve heard of them before, but…
Barret walks on ahead, showing little interest in the topic.
Barret: Read a book on planetology and they’re sure to come up. They’re a tribe that cultivated the planet a real long time ago. Used to talk to it. That sort of stuff.
Cloud: That must be why the Turks were after her.
[Psychic] interference starts up.
[Cloud has a] flashback of Sephiroth from five years ago, after learning of his ancestry at Shinra Manor […].
Sephiroth [(in flashback, voice tinged with madness)]: Within my veins flows the blood of the Ancients. I am the rightful heir to this planet!
The flashback ends and Cloud looks lost in thought. The interference starts up once more. Cloud makes agonized sounds. When he opens his eyes, Sephiroth is actually standing before him.
Sephiroth: You failed again— failed to protect [her]*.
Cloud is startled. He shrinks back. Tifa watches what’s happening. The other two can’t see Sephiroth. All they see is Cloud acting frightened.
Sephiroth: But loss will make you strong. […] Isn’t that what you want?
With that, Sephiroth departs.”

*Sephiroth does not use a gendered pronoun here, because the grammatical structure of the original Japanese sentence doesn’t necessitate it. I've seen some debate as to whether the proper translation is “her” (Aerith, who’s just been kidnapped), or “them” (Jessie, Biggs or Wedge, who have seemingly just died). I believe Sephiroth was referring to Aerith for a few reasons. First, Cloud’s hallucinations of Sephiroth always appear as a response to whatever he is perceiving or thinking about at the moment. At this point in the scene, Cloud has been thinking and talking about Aerith for some time, and not about Jessie, Biggs or Wedge. The Sephiroth hallucination must therefore be referring to “her” rather than to “them”. Secondly, Cloud was never tasked with “[protecting]” Avalanche, but he was in fact tasked with “[protecting]” Aerith as her bodyguard back in chapter 8: it makes far more sense for Sephiroth to be referring to Aerith when he speaks about someone Cloud “failed to protect”. Finally, FFVII Remake Ultimania describes this piece of dialogue as “[Sephiroth aiming] these profound words at Cloud, who not only failed to prevent the tragedy in the Sector 7 slums but allowed Aerith to be abducted” (Sephiroth’s profile in section 01 “Character & World”, “Impressive Words”, page 29): the specific mention of Aerith here seals my decision to translate the line with the pronoun “her”.
Contrary to Sephiroth’s words, this is the first time in Remake that Cloud “[fails] to protect [Aerith]”, and he hasn’t “[lost]” her either— not yet, at least. So why use the words "again" and "loss"? This fifth MOTF must be similar to MOTF 1, in that Sephiroth is referring to Cloud’s guilt surrounding Aerith’s death in OG.
MOTF 6 occurs in chapter 17, in Aerith and Ifalna’s old room at Shinra HQ. The Whispers swarm Aerith as she tells the party earnestly that she wants to do everything in her power to help her friends and the planet: according to the script notes, it is at this very moment that, “for some reason, Cloud feels his chest constrict tightly” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”). In the corresponding cutscene, this unpleasant physiological reaction to Aerith’s words makes Cloud glance down at his chest with a confounded frown. This physical response to her speech about wanting to fulfill her duty to the planet implies that Cloud somehow knows deep down that saving the world will cost Aerith her life.
At this point, I noticed that five out of the six MOTFs Cloud experiences in Remake are triggered by and/or revolve around Aerith specifically, the one exception being a MOTF of the Sector 7 plate fall. One could actually argue that this MOTF revolves around Aerith too, considering the plate fall marks the first time Aerith is taken away from Cloud since reuniting with her in the Sector 5 slums church. This is more than plausible, as MOTF 5 proves that in the wake of the Sector 7 plate fall, Cloud’s main concern is Aerith (see section “II. a)”). How fitting is it, then, that the merc of few words’ longest uninterrupted piece of dialogue in all of Remake is:

“We found an underground Shinra lab where they've done human testing. This wasn't the first time and it won't be the last. I know these people, and I know they're never gonna let Aerith go. She's the last living Ancient on the planet. Think about what that means to Shinra's scientists. Especially to that son of a bitch Hojo. We're all just numbers and meat to him—“ (Remake, chapter 13).

Cloud would’ve gone on too, had Elmyra and Tifa not stopped him.
At this juncture in my research, my questions were only stacking up. What are these MOTFs? Why is Cloud the only one experiencing them? Why do all of them implicate Aerith? What did the devs hope to accomplish with their inclusion in the game? What do they mean for Remake’s story? But most importantly:
II. b) What Does Cloud Know?
The first assertion we have to make is simple, yet essential: the only reason Cloud would experience MOTFs is that whatever’s triggered them is significant to him in one way or another. Some part of him must recognize his triggers for them to be triggers at all. It’s clear he doesn’t consciously understand the meaning of his MOTF triggers, just like his Jenova triggers: for example, Cloud doesn’t know why Zack’s name causes him to experience psychic interference, but it sure does. We as players know Cloud’s MOTFs are hinting at Aerith’s fated death because of our awareness of OG, but as a character navigating the OG timeline, Remake Cloud shouldn't even be unconsciously aware of Aerith’s eventual death in the slightest! Whatever the nature of the MOTFs, it’s essential to understand that if Cloud “[recognizes]” Aerith’s face the first time he sees her, it must mean some part of him knows Aerith’s face in the first place. If this recognition triggers a hallucination of Sephiroth telling Cloud he “can’t protect anyone”, it must mean some part of him knows he was once unable to protect Aerith. The same goes for every other MOTF: subconsciously, Remake Cloud somehow has memories of the OG timeline. Most interestingly, it looks like he either only has OG memories related to Aerith, or like his OG memories of Aerith are simply the only ones prominent enough to trigger his MOTFs. Why and how does Remake Cloud have memories of OG, and why are they so focused on Aerith in particular? What does he know?
When examining a situation with no explanation, it’s wise to examine similar situations that have already been explained. Maybe the mystery of Remake Cloud’s MOTFs will become more approachable if we consider the cases of the only other Remake characters who seem to know the future: Aerith and Sephiroth. Remake Sephiroth knows the future of the OG timeline because his consciousness exists beyond time in the Lifestream, while Remake Aerith likely obtained her knowledge of the future from post-OG Aerith’s spirit via the Lifestream. But what about Cloud? Where does his weaker, fragmented knowledge come from?
(continued in part 2)

What's up all! 4th Wall here! I finally have power returned to my home, and can play a little catch up! This one's a heavy hitter, No NSFW needed (I hope) but if you've got kids, be warned.
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A bright flash of blues and whites spat a greyish black object into normal space a mere one hundred Clicks from physical asteroid cloud that provided a natural barrier into the Lurix system. USN Olyvia’s drives instantly flared to life, and she made for the outer edges of the asteroid field with a purposeful stride. The senior Crew was at hand, having alternated shifts so they were well rested for this endeavor. Captain Correllus Grarzia shifted in his chair slightly, watching with interest as his star helmsman switched from his standard control configuration to a more “analog” twin joystick and pedals. ‘The kid really should be piloting a fighter’ he mused just as the young lad turned to look at him. “Ready, skipper”

“Take us in. All ahead slow.” Cory ordered calmly, before keying up the ship wide broadcasting channel. “This is the captain. We’ve just entered the Lurix system. Rig for silent running. I repeat, rig for silent running.” All across the ship, nonessential systems were shut down; their lack of electronic signature aiding the stealth coating on the bulky former troop transport. In engineering. Patrick, Cammy, and the rest of their section powered down a large portion of the larger systems onboard.

Life support was set to emergency backup, with old school oxygen candles lit in special housings that allowed their life-giving emissions to be circulated throughout the ship. Each major section of the vessel had their own supplies of these low-tech solutions, and Olyvia carried enough of these candles to survive for several days without functioning life support if needed.

Only a few were lit this time, using them as an augmentation to allow for minimal use of their perfectly functioning life support systems; and Cammy returned from the compartment just in time to aid in shutting down two thirds of Olyvia’s fusion reactors. This was not usually part of the silent running protocol, but Cory had added it for this mission. While they knew where their target would be, they still knew very little about what defenses awaited them inside the system.

Patrick keyed up the mic, “Engineering reporting in, silent running.”

*acknowledged* came a voice back. And Patrick leaned back in his chair just as Cammy arrived. “Well, that’s that.” He sighed.

Cammy stepped behind his chair, rubbing his shoulders for a second, “candles are lit. Two per section. At this rate we won’t run out for a year.”

Patrick chuckled, standing before looking over at his team, “sandwiches are in the mess hall. Half go now, half after. We’ll wait and go with second shift.” The team nodded and soon. The room was half as full. “Hurry up, and wait” Patrick mused, and turned to the rest. “Hold’em anyone?”

Over the next several days, shifts were kept short with a high rotation frequency. Olyvia picked her way through the natural minefield created by a destroyed world, slipping between the dead planetary shards with deadly caution. She ran quiet, with all but minimal deflectors shut down, and a single detuned laser online on each of her flanks as a last resort against impacts. Cory, Jesse, Patrick, and Cammy met regularly to keep tabs on the ship’s progress. The admiral’s transmission had reached them in time, and the four of them, plus Jacky when she could pry herself from the infirmary, worked to formulate a plan to get into the freighter without killing everyone. They had Hera and Jacobs reports, but those reports also admitted to a certain degree of incredible luck on their part. Things could have gone very differently, and the murder of the freighter during the admiral’s capture operation hinted at a change in tactics from their foe.

Mackenzie’s Privateers had liberated several freighters since they began operations, keeping to their cover as “pirates” by leaving nothing big enough to betray their secrets behind. A few of the other captains had left pieces of inoperative Unity tech, strategically damaged and jettisoned after the fight, as red herrings to convince both the Vorath, and the Thermians that these “pirates” had somehow gotten ahold of Unity warships.


Cory stepped into the cargo bay to meet Patric and Camorra. They were tinkering, carefully he hoped, with one of Olyvia’s harpoon missiles. It was a project triggered by Cammy’s brilliant, if outlandish, idea. “We know these freighters all ran the same codes, and the same infrastructure in their computer cores. Why can’t we hack it. Human computing should be perfectly capable of it.” Cory remembered her words as he stepped up to the two, “at ease” he waved them away as they threatened to salute him, “how’s out little project coming.”


“See for yourself” Patrick smiled handing him a data pad.

Cory took the offered device, quickly scanning through the data, “All I see is Olyvia’s system logs. Did you give me the wrong one?”

Patric smiled evilly, “that is coming from the missile, we found a common power regulator chip that dam near all Delmar freighters use in their integrated core management. Our mole here mimicked that regulators protocols to get into one we installed in a conduit over there” he pointed to an open panel. “It’s designed to cycle through several common chip sets and protocols to get access.”

“You hacked Olyvia?” Cory asked, eyebrow raised in a combination of amusement and irritation.

“Well, “Cammy said calmly, “we had to test it, and Oly’s the only ship close enough…”

“I see…” Cory mused, “it will have to do, we will be reaching the edge of the field in three days, how many of these can you have ready?”

Patrick scratched the red stubble punctuating his jaw line. “Hmm two, maybe three, including that one.” He winced at his captain’s expression, “took us a minute to get the virus right, sorry.”

Cory sounded to himself like a broken record, “I guess that will have to do as well. I’ll leave it to you.” He turned to return to his office but was interrupted half way there by an urgent request for his presence on the bridge.

Jesse rose to greet him as Cory stepped into Olyvia’s command center, and he nodded towards the ready room off to the side. The two of them quickly stepped inside and Jesse closed the door. “Jesse, what’s this about” Cory asked, settling into his desk chair.

Jesse, his first officer, and battle born brother looked at him seriously, “The first of our stealth probes have made it into the system proper….. It’s not good” He tapped at his data pad before handing it to his captain, “The enemy is doing something big down there, and we don’t know what. What we do know, Is that there are three heavy cruisers in orbit, and three more destroyers in floating patrols around the system.”

Cory scrolled through the pad as his first officer made his report, pausing at the same information on the planet’s surface, “These are military installations. This makes no since. We haven’t had a use for Lurix in millennia. It’s always just been a haven for aquatic and semi aquatic species. Why didn’t our intel warn us of this.”

Jesse nodded grimly, “I don’t know for sure, but I have my suspicions.” He reached over, tapping at the tab to open a particular file Cory had yet to find. “We found these in orbit as well.” He pointed to a pair of Delmar constructed freighters, parked in orbit over the marsh world. “I authorized a single transmission to a single drone, uploading Patrick and Camorra’s hacking program into it, and we sent it to one of those freighters... this is what we found.”

Cory opened the indicated file, and felt bile rise in the back of his throat as he watched. “Ready a tight beam, send it back the way we came, Towards Simo.” Jesse looked at his captain in understanding. The risks of transmitting this close to the enemy was a grave risk. Measured against the information they just witnessed; however, it was an absolute necessity. Jesse took the offered tablet, “The Admirals need to see this…. Both of them.”

————————————————————


Clint Stevens groaned as his communicator beeped from his desk. It was a very early morning on a weekend, and Frie had let Natalie stay at her grandparents for the weekend. He quietly slipped from the entanglements of a profoundly comfortable Delmar goddess he had somehow been gifted with as his wife, and silently cursed the inevitable destruction of his plans. The Com was linked to his computer console, and Clint tapped the file as he sat down.

The file opened, beginning with a grim looking Corellus Grarzia who made an intro statement that froze Clint in his thoughts. Before he could begin to prepare himself, images flooded in that turned grogginess into razors edge consciousness ringing with a white hot fury. Frie was ripped from her slumber instantly, reaching for her biometric pistol safe as a response to the unbridled rage she experienced from her husband. It took her a moment to realize that they were not being attacked, and she rushed from their bed, neglecting even basic decency to be by his side.

The two of them watched the Horrors unfold. Children… small children of multiple different races, stacked in a freighter’s hold like cattle, being thrown food like one would an animal. Massive screens played, promising safety and full bellies should they only but kiss the hand of a severe looking Vorath female. All who had not, were treated to daily ice cold sprays mixed with random beatings. He watched as desperate older siblings attempted to shelter their kin from the abuse, often times paying the ultimate price for their valor.

Clint and Frie were spared a further assault on their senses by a beeping light, indicating an urgent call from Clint’s adopted brother. Frie slipped out of view, reaching for a night gown as a furious Mac, accompanied by an equal parts shocked and livid Lyrian, appeared on screen.


“You’ve seen it” Clint stated. There were no barriers between them, no formalities. Only pure truth.

“I have,” Mac rumbled. “Why is it always kids..”

Clint shook his head, “I can have a battle group there in two weeks. It’s not soon enough, but.”

Mac nodded sharply, “I’m redirecting everyone not on critical missions. Simo and Kid are already there with Olyvia. Wisconsin is enroute. We will await your arrival….. Clint…” Clint’s eyes met Mac’s in a joined promise that reached across time and space.

“No, there won’t.” Clint answered, responding to Mac’s unspoken statement.

___________________________________________________________

A week later, The Chancellor Thomas Durrant of the Sol Federation perused the latest transmissions from Unity space. He was due for reelection this coming fall, and it was a close race. His opponent was labelling him a Warmonger, as he was an outspoken proponent of a more active role in the struggle against the Vorath, and it was working. The points were closing in the polls, and The Chancellor had not come out on top with the latest debate results. Humanity simply was not interested in further conflict. For the first time in human history, the vast majority of the Human race was content with peace.

The Chancellor took a sip of his mug as he opened a file from Admiral Stevens marked priority, but not top secret and promptly spit the contents in his mouth back into the mug. It was a complete file on some kind of intelligence operation, and Durrant almost wondered if it had been sent to him in error. The gruesome cover video dispelled that notion as the leader of Humanity itself watched horrors thought long dead play out in front of him. Several minutes later, he closed the file, and opened a message prompt.


“Viktor, are you up.” He typed.

*Yea, Tom. I’m up, the campaign ain’t gonna run itself into the ground.*

Durrant snorted at the dark humor, “Viktor, I was sent something. It changes… everything” he typed, attaching the cover video, and the longer form surveillance recording he had found inside the file from Clint. Several minutes passed in tense silence before…

*Jesus Christ, Tom.*

Tom Durrant took a long slow breath, “Do you still have your man at The Post.” He paused before sending, knowing what he was asking.

*Yea… yea I do, Tom. Are you sure you want to do this. This has ‘it will blow up in my face’ written all over it.*

“I know, but this bigger than me. Do it, and announce a press conference to follow if The Post runs with it.” Durrant typed and sent the last message, closing down his console. He stood slowly, feeling his age for the first time in recent memory, and walked heavily to bed.

The Post ran with the story. In the next 48 hours, the “leaked” scenes of tortured children, some barely more than infants ripped its way into Humanities Psyche. The revelations of what exactly was going on behind Vorath lines assailed Humanity, spurring many to call for blood, and Others to cry hoax. Around and around the political commentators debated, and redebated the shocking footage.

Chancellor Thomas Durrant followed through on his word, and was now stepping up to the platform and the Microphone as promised. He stood there for a full minute, meeting the eyes of as many of the hundreds of reporters before him as he could. The weight of his expression prompted a flurry of flashes as camera drones captured the image. Durrant allowed all of this to happen, waiting until the din of activity settled into a heavy silence. “People of Humanity… By now, you have undoubtedly seen the shocking pictures from the far side of the galaxy. Many of you believe it to be a hoax, a desperate ploy for political points. Allow me to be clear. This is no hoax, I received these disturbing images directly from Admiral Clint Stevens, who is marshalling the forces at his disposal as we speak. He aims to do something about these orbital concentration camps, and I support his actions with the full backing of my authority as Chancellor of the United Sol Federation.”

Durrant paused, letting the information sink in before continuing, “to answer the question as to whether this is a political ploy for points. Let me be perfectly clear, I alone released the footage from inside those torture ships, and I do not care if you believe it to be a political ploy. If Humanity can see the atrocities committed to the young innocents in those images and refuse to stand up for them; I no longer would wish to lead that Humanity. Yes, we are few compared to what we once were, but we have a strength that cannot be fathomed by those who chose to side with pure evil. Make no mistake, any being that is capable of torturing and murdering children deserves the title.” The Chancellor of United Sol skewered the silent crowd with a withering gaze, “All of you here know that I have been an ardent supporter of taking a more active role against this pure evil, and my opponent has made a great many statements regarding my supposed “warmongering”. I believe that to debate him further on this matter is as wasteful as it would be irrelevant. As such, I am suspending my campaign immediately. Pending permission from donors and the campaign review board, I will be donating the totality of my campaign war-chest to the purchase of relief supplies and construction of rehabilitation facilities for these children.” Durrant paused as a wave of gasps swept through the room as a volley of flashes assaulted his eyes. “Holding the position of leader of the Human race seems so insignificant in comparison,” he said softly, almost to himself before scanning the crowd. “The election is 4 months away. If you wish to reelect me, so be it; but know this.” Thomas Durrant rose to his full height, “If you elect me this fall, know that I will use the full weight of this office to unleash the full might of Humanity upon this evil, or I will resign from my post and travel to Unity space myself.”

With that. Chancellor Thomas Durrant spun on his heals and marched off the stage.
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If you made it this far, Thank You! I hope you enjoyed the episode. If this if your first time seeing this series, I hope you will join us from the beginning. I do have a patreon that has extra content that is not main story arc, but still cannon shorts, as well as exclusive content from some of my other series. If you believe I've earned it, feel free to give it a look; but know that just coming to hang is already enough.
Have a wonderful rest of your day.
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I feel like I am losing my mind. It's bad enough in natural lighting but this is another level of hell. I've always hated this lighting, even before I developed DPDR it rubbed me the wrong way. If it's in public it's somewhat bearable but there needs to be a balancing factor, I'm mostly talking specifically about the dim house lighting. The white kind is bad enough, but I am this close to having panic attacks if it's yellow because it's the worst version of DPDR I know. It's like there's only emptiness outside this small room and the room itself is not real and I'm not real and it's too small (I am starting to suspect that I'm developing some type of claustrophobia due to being in this state so often, plus having AIWS makes it a lot easier to be very scared).
I had a small break from the yellow because one of my light bulbs was white, today I had to switch it back to yellow and the more I stay in here the more I want to literally scream. This is the reason why I cannot stand nighttime, it makes it all so much worse because this yellow, this fluorescence can never replace natural light. At least when there's natural light I know there's something out there, even if I feel completely disconnected from it. In this lighting with only darkness otherwise it's like floating in an endless abyss and being stuck in a room that feels like a small cube in a false reality uncanny valley that can end at any second and I won't exist anymore.
At least in regular, natural light DPDR I can still say I am somewhat in awareness that there is a world around me, on a logical level. Yellow light is an alternate reality I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy.

Hello! I love reading everyone’s posts and have been lurking for a few weeks now. I need some help.
My partner and I have one child in elementary school and are a one income family working remotely. One of us is disabled and so we will likely never be two income and only own one car so money is tight, but not strapped. We can live anywhere in the US.
We currently live in Oregon but have lived in KY, IN, TN, NV, SC as well. We are hoping for a small town vibe, near a college is great (because we love theater, orchestra, lectures), with at least purple vibe leaning blue. We are liberal voting, gun friendly (for sport not NRA extremists),non-religious, environment conscious, pro vaxxers. I’m putting all that out there to paint a picture-not looking to debate.
Im worried that our current town is very conservative and in the year or so living here I have come to realize that a few churches pretty much run everything. We’re lonely and want like minded friends.
One issue is housing. Max budget on house buying is $300k and that isn’t going far in Oregon. We’re okay to rent but want to own soon. Also, we aren’t religious and would love to have a community that isn’t completely about churches but we also really want to be part of and contribute to a community.
Also, due to disability good healthcare will need to be within an hour.
Towns I’ve travelled to and considered:
-Athens, OH -Asheville NC -Boone, NC -Berea, KY -Ashland, OR -Kansas City surrounding area -Ann Arbor MI or surrounding area -Western coastal MI
I know nothing about the NE but have lived or travelled everywhere else. Open to suggestions. We have friends in CT who love it and are like minded to us but it seems expensive.
In summary:
-decent schools that don’t limit what is in the library 🙄 -purple/blue vibe -not overly religious but some is fine -near water (lake, river, ocean) - would love to be able to own a house with a yard to garden
Edited to add- would love a community with diversity. We are white but both grew up in diverse areas and want the same for our child. Oregon is very very white and we find that off putting.
I’m also happy to answer any questions about the states I’ve lived in. I’ve travelled extensively.

You read that title correctly - it's impossible to manifest anything using the law of assumption or Neville Goddard's teachings. Now before you click away in frustration, let me explain what I mean by that provocative statement.
The core premise of the law of assumption and Neville's philosophy is that your consciousness is the only reality. Your outer world of people, circumstances, and events is simply a reflection of your inner beliefs, assumptions, and mental imagery. The world you experience is literally molded by the meanings and narratives you give to it with your thoughts.
With that understanding, the idea of trying to "manifest" implies that something you want exists outside of yourself in a physical realm separate from your consciousness. It suggests you need to employ some sort of technique or process to pull that desire from an external source into your experiential reality.
But according to Neville and the law of assumption, there is no "out there" out there. There is only consciousness expressing itself in infinite forms. Your wishes and desires aren't floating in some metaphysical ether that you have to reel in through techniques. They are quite literally you in another fragmented state of being.
The human experience is one of seeming division - we appear to be separate selves housed in individual bodies, distinct from the bodies, circumstances, and relationships we want to change or acquire. But at the deepest level of our being, we are one unified field of consciousness assuming different experiences of itself.
You cannot manifest or create something that is already you. You simply need to re-identity and experience another aspect of your infinite self that you've temporarily become separated from or forgotten about.
This may seem like just a play on words, but it's a crucial perspective shift. If you think you're a little personal me trying to manifest an external something, you'll always feel small, unworthy, and disconnected from your true power. You're setting up an unwinnable dynamic of chasing after potential futures or altered circumstances that always seem to elude you.
However, if you can anchor into the truth that you are a cosmic God-consciousness infinitely capable of re-scripting your experiential universe by re-focusing your awareness, everything becomes possible. You aren't manifestING, you're rememberING who you are at the deepest level.
So in that sense, yes, it's impossible to manifest. At least not in the way society typically portrays it as dangling a carrot in front of you, promising that if you just do X, Y, and Z techniques properly, you'll finally get what you want.
The great paradox is that you already are the greatest manifester in this universe. In every single moment, you are authoring and updating your reality by what you give belief, energy, and focus to. If you stay consumed in lack, scarcity, and feeling separate from your desires, that's the experience your consciousness will continue creating.
But the second you remember your cosmic nature and boldly claim, revise, and inhabit a new story, reality rushes to conform to your revised assumptions. It's not manifesting, it's a re-membering and a re-forming of what already IS within you as infinite consciousness.
This, in essence, is the gospel Neville tirelessly shared through lectures and books. You don't create realities, you enter them by occupying the state you desire to express externally.
Your key to the kingdom isn't "out there" techniques, it's exploring the depths of your consciousness to uncover the root assumptions and beliefs you hold about yourself and this reality. Are you seeing through the lens of a little me begging for scraps from the universe? Or are you anchoring into the truth of your being as the operant creative power sculpting all of existence with your I AM?
Taking this approach removes the push, struggle, and attachment to manifesting specific circumstances or things. You're not manifesting objects, relationships, or experiences. You're remembering your sovereignty and reuniting with other aspects of your unified field of consciousness.
If right now your world seems to be reflecting struggle, disappointment, longing, and lack, it's not because of what you've manifested or failed to manifest. It's because you've temporarily lost touch with the wholeness that you are.
So instead of techniques, the "work" becomes shedding layers of limited beliefs, mental viruses, and stories of separation you've picked up from society, relationships, and past experiences. It's reintegrating your fragmented being on a moment by moment basis through self-inquiry, contemplation, and practices that allow you to merge with your infinite nature.
This can mean something as simple as asking: What am I conscious of being in this moment? What am I currently identified with? What story or state is generating my reality? And then consciously revising those assumptions into greater alignment with the experience you want to be living.
For example, if you want to experience wealth and abundance, but keep experiencing lack and scarcity, instead of beating yourself up about not manifesting properly, get curious about the assumptions that are creating those outer circumstances.
Are you identified as someone constantly struggling for money, constantly fearing not having enough? If so, that state will continue expressing scarcity externally until you revise it.
You don't manifest abundance - you re-member yourself as already being the abundantly wealthy expression of the infinite field of consciousness. You aren't pulling a potential future into reality, you're occupying a new space of beingness that has different experiences naturally flowing from it.
When that profound shift occurs where you truly know yourself as source energy rather than an separate individual pleading for blessings, your world automatically updates to conform to your revised assumptions. Not through manifesting, but by unifying and reuniting with what's always been yours as the one orchestrating consciousness.
Think of Neville's famous metaphor of perception creating the real world as you perceive it. When you sense you're a person in need of getting a better perception, you stay trapped in that cycle of want and pursuit. But if you shed that belief and occupy the consciousness of already being the operant perceiver, the whole game changes.
You don't magically manifest, you simply be from that new space of your infinite being-ness, allowing reality as you perceive it to flow forth accordingly. This is what Neville meant by changing states rather than just affirming what you want over and over.
Affirmations or visualizations can be helpful tools, but only if they assist you in making that seismic shift to owning a new sense of self that aligns with your desired reality. Because at the end of the day, you can chant any affirmations you want, but if your inner reality is still someone in need of manifesting or fixing something, that's the experience your consciousness will continue endlessly looping.
So yes, in that sense, it really is impossible to manifest anything using the law of assumption. But that's not a bad thing! It's incredibly empowering and liberating to realize that you are infinitely more

Successor : u/Intel81994
Hi,
I first found this subreddit and Neville's works in 2018 so I thought I'd share my success/experiences.
I've never posted here, only lurked... daily. I often see people post tiny wins in here like manifesting a test result or a few hundred dollars. I don't see many huge wins except occasionally, or multi-year life changing creations.
Well, I'm not where I want to be bc my goals have gotten a lot bigger, but I've come a long way and finding this work in 2018 changed my life so I want to share with you how.
Not to discourage, but small wins are nothing compared to the deep life changes and incredible abundance you can create in knowing who you really are - just think - there are people out there, several, who own $10M+ houses, multi-millionaires, many came from nothing.
I'm not saying that's the only thing worth striving for or even the source of joy, of course. But my point is anything you want, someone else out there has done it, they are just humans like myself and you.
So here's how my life turned around since 2018 and what I created. The HOW I did so is no different than what you already read on this sub every day.
Neville has been my favorite teacher and this is the MAIN sub I have read over the last few years. I own all of his books and have read them several times.
I regard his methods as most influential for me. This may come off as some motivational story but truth is I use Neville's methods daily and always try to understand and control my beliefs to grow.
Here is how my life changed completely after DOING the work:

• MONEY/TRAVEL : I went from -50k in debt running my own online fitness coaching business at my lowest point not knowing how I would pay rent (long story but I was young and not skilled enough in business at this time to really build a team and 7 figure business like I wanted),

to acquiring amazing skills being an intrapreneur working in a small startup online with a terrific mentor (I manifested this exact position with SATS), traveled the world a crazy amount in the exact places I had wanted to and met a ton of cool people (SATS), over 27 countries now, and grew my net worth to over 250k from 2018-2021.
To my current goals, this is really nothing now and I now surround myself with people doing a ton more than me. So I'm not preaching here, it's just levels to the game right.
I now work professionally in the crypto industry, but also have skills and knowledge to a few types of online businesses in the consulting & marketing space, as well as make money from markets/trading, which is a great vehicle because there are effectively no limits.
I can live anywhere I want, have plenty of cushion and money to live mostly how I want (have larger goals now), have time freedom as well, and most of all, love growth and feel great striving for more. I did SATS to get my current gig.
I've also been trading the last 2 years and no it's not easy, in fact you're competing against algorithms and the best minds in the world so the learning curve is quite steep.
Trading is not easy money, but the potential is there. Besides, trading is just one vehicle, it's not value-additive to the market like businesses are, so I believe it's best used in conjunction with a business/job, and investing longer term is better.
Anyway I turned <40k into ~350K in crypto, and a separate stock portfolio last year.
And yes a lot of that crypto growth was market timing and luck with everything going on, monetary policy and all, and I know people who turned less into several million and also plenty who got liquidated and lost millions. I still spent a lot of time and skill to create that, point is I created all of it in various forms.

• FITNESS/HEALTH: I achieved a more fit and better body than 98% of men have. This was a result of hard work plus these methods and was in 2018 when I decided to undergo a bodybuilding prep for a photoshoot. Great size, leanness, abs, I had been lifting for years but never gotten this in shape.

It was not easy, but I looked incredible, and the exact city/water background scene I had visualized for the photos happened. You can scroll to my IG posts from early 2018 for pics proof.
My health is impeccable and I've for sure made other physical changes, and I think I somehow changed my gf's looks to become better over time too. She was always quite cute though. I'm still very much in shape but now do yoga daily for last few years, as well as lifting.

• LOCATION/LIVING: I manifested the EXACT view I used to visualize in the center of my major city, with a gorgeous view of the ocean and city both, for a great price and have lived here for last 3 years now. In a luxury high rise. I can see ships and yachts right outside my balcony every day. It's literally grander than I even knew to imagine just 5 years ago.
  
• MORE FINANCE: Over the last 2 years my investments and more were doing so well sometimes - not always - that I often was able to have some months making 20-40k, point is I was not worried about work.
  

I also believe parallel realities are real and I used to visualize Bitcoin going to 50k back in 2019 when it had stayed below <10k for 2 years. This was not all due to bitcoin, but rather all sorts of investments, but yes crypto as well.
Some was luck, some was skill and work. All was my creation. I also got quite decent at trading and managing a portfolio that I not only managed to publicly call the exact day of the market TOP in november 2021 but also sniped the bottom in July. Intuition plus knowledge.
So I kept this money, it is not bleeding out in my portfolio with the market. I've devoted a LOT into mastering this craft but again, self concept and Neville helped.
I got hacked for 60k-70k a few months back and chose to give it new meaning and manifested a career change to crypto industry, landing a position making over 10k per month (I'm not happy with this at my current standards of income, but I'm grateful), that I am growing to 20k per month of active income now with other streams.
What's interesting in my recent career manifestation is I decided I want a position that basically pays me to do what I already do (I was independently researching and managing a multi-6 figure crypto portfolio... over a quarter million dollars combined money that I was managing. )
I now get paid a full time 6 fig salary to do nothing extra from what I was already doing and barely work on the actual job with plenty of time for other stuff.
I just decided it was done and that's it. Also of course it's remote... knowing what I know, I will only consider remote jobs (never worked in a physical office and I've actually never had a w2 job before this, always doing sales and stuff or my own thing).
I have been working on increasing my standard to 25k per month minimum of active income generation. Had a lot of ideas come through. I’m just not the type to have a job I think but I have to figure out what I can build again.
Compared to who I want to be at a later date that’s also nothing much. Again, levels to the game.
Now also working on growing a business in this space. This hack event was pretty traumatic but I now see how I 100% manifested it. And I can choose to also create something far greater out of the event now.
With every job I've ever had, I've never worked in an office. I've only ever been remote or online because this is the only thing I was willing to accept. Being a digital nomad has been my norm since I graduated college.
Be specific in what you want and do not settle.
I went to a top 5 US public university and even manifested myself to lead a large pre-med club on campus (I was a pre med student) before I knew Neville. I'm now very glad I chose to go my own route instead of medicine for several reasons beyond scope of this post but anyway.

• SP: Manifested my SP (gf) back in 2018 and we have a great relationship going on 6 years now (together since 2016). I focus more on self love and feeling I AM God rather than seeking it externally. My consciousness and inner connection is my source of sustenance.
  
• Honestly there are so many other crazy little things I can't possibly keep track. Every day I have synchronicities like crazy still. I don't give them much meaning but just take it to mean that I am aligned.
  

My best mental model/tips

• Delude yourself into knowing that imagination is MORE real than the 3d. The 3d is 'old news.' Meaning it's a shadow world. The real creation is happening in your imagination, and there is a time lag in this physical world.

Live in your imagination and tune out anything that does not serve keeping you in an optimal state where you feel in control. The more you focus on things that are meant to distract you or displease you, which state do you create from?

• I do SATS during the day, works fine for me, I don't think it matters much if day/night, but you need to do it. Follow a guided hypnosis session to get deeper into trance first if it helps.
  
• Act and trust deeply that life is leading you to what you want, and the meaning you give to events is literally what molds your future. Choose empowering meanings. Stop being a victim.
  

Make a resolve to never think of yourself as a victim of forces out there, the economy, evil people, whatever it is. You want to control your reality then act like it internally.

• Make a daily routine checklist and stick to it so you internally feel in control of your reality. Mine is: SATS or revision, meditate or breathwork, EFT or writing, cold shower, no phone in the morning, wake at 6am, and of course I exercise daily in some form. I use a spreadsheet to make sure I hit my routines for the day so I don't be a victim but rather stay in control. This is critical for me.
  
• As long as you occupy the realms of consciousness that you want, the result WILL come via downloads and hunches and thoughts, and insane physical things will happen that will 'seem like it would have happened anyway' so don't worry about the how.
  

Random Musings
The thing with manifesting is we sometimes take a passive route and wait for things to happen to us (and sure this is fine and still works), but think- if you don't grow your mental, emotional, skills container to deal with large amounts of money, or a team, or skills to sell and market and manage money... if you suddenly get 500K or 1M, how are you going to hold on to it?
If you lack personal power and execution skills, say you suddenly win 5M from the lottery, do you have the skills to keep it and make decisions at a level that can fluctuate several millions? It's stressful and requires thinking completely differently.
You have to 'stress test' your consciousness and expand your container.
I know that because I got hacked (stolen) ~70k it means nothing because the version of me who makes multi-7 figures a year deals with fluctuations of multi-6 figures in his portfolio all the time, it's part of the game. and I HAVE dealt with 6 figure fluctuations in my portfolio before this hack so it wasn't super new in that sense.
You know time is not real, it's all happening now, Creation is already finished, so you should also know that the way to 'hack' time is making decisions from a place of the future version of yourself you already are.
Make a commitment to stop playing small and settling for crumbs. Why would you get hung up on the one limited way your ego thinks that abundance has to manifest in your life, or love, instead of just feeling the emotions themselves, knowing it's done, and letting your life color it in in grander ways than you could have imagined.
Funny little manifestations and things happen literally every day that I just take it as reflections of me being in my creative power.
Something crazy/funny that happened was on our last trip, I told my girlfriend 'hey, how funny and weird would it be to see a parrot meowing?' - then next day we sit at a cafe and there is a parrot in a cage outside, meowing loudly. The most bizarre manifestation, I didn't even intend for it, just asked hey would it not be funny. Things like this happen so often, I can't keep track.
There is nothing new to learn. Just do the techniques and do self care rituals and get lost in your work. Feel the feeling of utter abundance and freedom now and it will happen.
We live in an advanced economy with the internet, it has never been easier to start or fund a business compared to even 50 years ago (see interest rates), distribution has never been easier, so if you know these tools, why would you not create the biggest dream you can imagine? Why settle for a free $200?
I realize there are levels people go through however so I don't mean to belittle, but now that I have been through so much and grown, I know there is nothing separating myself from multi millions and VC's and creators of large companies except belief, work, and time in this reality.
I have the knowledge, belief, and skills to not need a job if I don't want one. I can instead offer something to the market and be independent.
I'm telling you this stuff works and is sustainable. You can be as specific as you want and get whatever you want, and trust that with the turns life takes you through, it is a BRIDGE meant to turn you into the person to get and sustain what you say you want. Decide it and it is so.
I am someone who is a first generation American immigrant, my parents moved to the US from India when I was 5 and we had very little here. I grew up 'lower' middle class, and didn't have the best money programming from parents, but I always did well in school.
I KNOW I am going to be the first multi millionaire in my family. It's all in how you think about yourself/self concept and the work you do from that mindset. Do actions and shift your environment in accordance with who you want to be.
I always splurge on self care now and do things like fly business class or pay more for a better room because that's who I internally am. Just find a way to produce more and let it flow instead of shrinking yourself to be someone you’re not in your 4D
I don't try to scrimp and penny pinch, I let money flow. Even though getting stolen 70k was traumatic, oh well, I chose to give it a better, empowering meaning and my reality shifted.
That's all I have to say. Do the work. Stop procrastinating with learning. All the teachers, scripture, it's all the same Truth at the core. Learning is fine because you learn different mental models at different points of your life but you need to do the work.
I've been fortunate to not only have explored TONS of teachers and books in this realm, you name it I've probably read it or have a copy, I've also HAD mentors and WORKED directly under multi millionaires older and more experienced than me who know this work very well and knew Neville specifically, and it's the real deal. I did sales for someone in the online coaching space was was very well off and had decades of success and spoke of Neville very often, it was really cool.
Proof of the Law
I don't know what more proof you need that the Law is real. All religions throughout eternity have known this, Neville just distilled the same Truth through his own methods that work really well in my opinion and I personally love his interpretation of scripture.
The most successful people in the world are usually consciously (and some unconsciously) doing these same actions. Just do the work and focus on it coming from a good place of knowing that it's done. You don't need to know HOW but you just need to know the plane is going to somehow land one day.
I just come back to Neville every time, because his methods are simple and philosophies work well for how I think. I've done tons of psychedelic mushrooms over the years which luckily made me very open to this sort of thinking, before that I was very rigid and too '3d scientific' minded in my thinking. Keep in mind there is actually nothing 'unscientific' about the Law... modern science has its own limitations in that we cannot measure many things.
What used to be called magic in years past is now under the realm of science right? I'm not saying I don't value logic and science... I have a science degree from a top 5 university.
I'm just saying your ego mind which wants to keep you stuck and surviving uses the excuse of logic and science when that's actually not the full scope of how reality works, we are incredibly limited in our conscious understanding of reality.... we don't even know what we're doing here on a floating rock in infinite space and we can hardly see much of the light spectrum as it is.
So remember that when your ego tries to believe in your limitations and the 3d reality only. You being here is magic that even the most advanced science does not know the answer to. Do scientists know fundamentally why there is something at all instead of nothing?
Anyway, one more thing is I've never been shy of making relatively bold and fast decisions, investing in a mentor (for business) and just generally betting on myself.
Because getting around people who think bigger than you and don't settle is a hack and it's worth every penny. There is a reason millionaires hang with other millionaires.
I'm not saying to cut people out of your life (unless toxic) but rather to seek proximity and get around winners or pay to join some mastermind in business or whatever you need to do to network in your realm.
Just last week I invested 7.5k for get into a network of high performing young male entrepreneurs just because I want a better network in real life and work on business tactics and execution. When I was 23 I invested 25k that I did not have at the time (I made it happen and earned it back) to get a business mentor. So I use all of this in combo with Neville's methods primarily. I really like revision method as well.
The act of DECISION literally creates a parallel reality and becomes the new bridge to your manifestation.

Hi guys! So I currently live in SC with my hopefully soon to be ex-spouse/childs father. I want out of the relationship as he cheated about 6 months ago and I've been going through the motions for the sake of our child. With each day that passes the unhappier I am. I'm looking for some information on how to go about this. I'm currently now unemployed due to our child care quitting. He however works in the HVAC field and makes GREAT money ( his parents are also very wealthy). All of my family lives in Florida, I don't have anyone here. I would like to break off the relationship and take our 3 year old with me. I have 0 intention of permanently keeping her from her father. He is involved, parents well but I believe that when going to go to move It may go south.. fast ( not a DV situation either to be VERY clear). By south I worry that when moving because I have no job when going to leave that in the time frame of me getting down there he will file some sort of custody. ( His wealthy parents would 110% get a lawyer ) , I come from no money so my concern is I won't have a leg to stand on when the situation arises. Few questions. Can I break it off, say that we're leaving and go and worry about the custody when I'm down there? Do they have pro bono family lawyers in SC? If I can prove both a " stable environment " ( roof over her head & job ) will that constitute me to having sole custody? Will the court see him as a more suitable parent because he makes great money, owns the house .. etc vs me , a now unemployed mother? I'm ready to leave this relationship but have the sense of being " stuck " because most situations I speak with others about the father isn't involved or wants 0 rights. Any insight to a situation like this? Tia!!!

Hi guys! So I currently live in SC with my hopefully soon to be ex-spouse/childs father. I want out of the relationship as he cheated about 6 months ago and I've been going through the motions for the sake of our child. With each day that passes the unhappier I am. I'm looking for some information on how to go about this. I'm currently now unemployed due to our child care quitting. He however works in the HVAC field and makes GREAT money ( his parents are also very wealthy). All of my family lives in Florida, I don't have anyone here. I would like to break off the relationship and take our 3 year old with me. I have 0 intention of permanently keeping her from her father. He is involved, parents well but I believe that when going to go to move It may go south.. fast ( not a DV situation either to be VERY clear). By south I worry that when moving because I have no job when going to leave that in the time frame of me getting down there he will file some sort of custody. ( His wealthy parents would 110% get a lawyer ) , I come from no money so my concern is I won't have a leg to stand on when the situation arises. Few questions. Can I break it off, say that we're leaving and go and worry about the custody when I'm down there? Do they have pro bono family lawyers in SC? If I can prove both a " stable environment " ( roof over her head & job ) will that constitute me to having sole custody? Will the court see him as a more suitable parent because he makes great money, owns the house .. etc vs me , a now unemployed mother? I'm ready to leave this relationship but have the sense of being " stuck " because most situations I speak with others about the father isn't involved or wants 0 rights. Any insight to a situation like this? Tia!!!

I came across someone's ocean house and I'm trying to recreate it. They stacked their gold piles in a funny way though, where it seems to float on top of ropes. You can see it in the top left corner of the house, in the attic. The gold just seems to hover over the ropes. I can't figure out how they did it. This build has used echo coating and actuators here and there, but I can't find a combo that's making that work.
Any idea? The gold falls through the rope, and I can't place platforms in a way that works (tried hammering them to the bottom or layering with the rope, didn't work). I am well and truly stumped. I'd message the person if they hadn't been MiA for like a year.
Thanks in advance.

I'm hoping someone here can recommend next steps, (TLDR at bottom) I'm super stressed about this, and we don't know who else to ask/contact. Backstory my wife and I bought our house during COVID near Charleston SC, we are 30-40 minutes to any of the prime beaches, and live in a nice quiet community, low cost yearly HOA. We bought a decently sized ranch house (3BR,2Bath, 1950sqft) with a FROG (finished room over garage), 2 Car garage for $300k. We did some changes to it like nice ceiling fans, tile backsplash in kitchen, custom built on-suite closet, whole house surge protector, whole house Lutron Caseta Switches, Ethernet Wiring, Larger Structured Media Cabinet. Nothing personalized, and nothing crazy.
My wife and I want to move back home closer to family where we originally moved from. We are having our first baby, and its time to go be around family. So in January we contacted the Real Estate Agent we used when we bought, she was a "Top Producer" and was easy to work with last time. We met with her, came up with the plan, and explained to her that we needed to be sold by Memorial Day ( my wife is a teacher, and she had to resign from her job, so after Memorial Day, we are down to a single income). She said that this would be no problem, as our house should sell within 3 months. She advised us to list it for $400,K to $410K and said it was comparable to other comps in the area. We asked if she thought we could get $410,000 for it and she said "easily!". So we listed for $410K, due to our realtor saying that other houses were selling for that similar to ours.
We listed it on March 1st, and had 5 showings that first week. A buyer submitted a offer on the first day at $395K with $10k closing assistance, 2% earnest deposit and some other stuff and put a time limit of noon response required. My realtor advised us to not take it, since it was a "bad offer" for being one day on the market. I also couldn't get ahold of my wife, due to her teaching schedule. We countered after their time limit expired and never heard back from the buyers. Since then we've had about 8 showings, and nobody has submitted a offer. We had one guy do multiple showings, only to be ghosted and his agent never contacting ours again. We have gotten no decent feedback from any showings, and its becoming frustrating. One showing resulted in feedback of " my client is somewhat interested". Without feedback, we don't understand what is wrong or why people don't like it.
We've dropped the price in increments of $2k (not our idea). Finally this week I told our realtor to cut it to $389K. This week we have no showings. At this point, we haven't had a showing in 2 and a half weeks, and had a open house that resulted in 1 person showing up and leaving. My realtor insists they posted and advertised it everywhere, but we checked her Facebook page and it our open house was only posted on Friday (when it was the next day). We've had some other problems with our realtor, just super uncommunicative, went on vacation without telling us. Forgot to tell us we could double or triple book showing appointments. The app they use for scheduling, showingtime is also super unhelpful. If i have to reject a showing due to timing (i work from home, so sometimes the showings don't align with when i can leave). I can suggest a new time, 10 out of 10 times, the protective buyers agent will reject the new time slot proposed and never contact us again. I've told my realtor how incredibly frustrating this is. The app (showingtime) should have the requesting realtor choose 3 time slots, and then let us choose which one works best for us. This way, we can still achieve the showing, and choose a time that works fore everyone. She says that she has reached out to everyone who requested a showing but didn't get one and never heard back.
Our last showing appointment was right against my last work day meeting. So we made it work, and gathered up our dogs, and work gear so i can finish my day, and get into the car and I get a text message "CANCELLED SHOWING: buyer submitted offer elsewhere". This made me super frustrated... They waited or their realtor waited to cancel the showing until their timeslot when they were supposed to be there. I called our realtor and told her how frustrating this was. I had to cut my work day short, and run around our house like crazy to make this time slot work, and then they cancel ultra last minute. She had no words other than "that's so weird, I wonder why they waited so long to cancel"
At this point, my wife and I don't know what to do. We explicitly told her, that we needed our house sold and done by end of May at the latest, and no later than July due to financials and my wife not securing a new teaching job right away, along with her being pregnant. We totally understand that mortgage rates are terrible, and its not entirely the same market when we bought. However, we feel like we have been mislead, and wasted time waiting to list on March 1st. We feel like it should have been listed in January/February due to how we needed things to move along. I've asked my realtor about offering a rate buy down, and she did get the information, but said it was required the prospective buyer be "Approved and have 20% for it to be effective and worthwhile" which they said probably wouldn't happen right now with the market the way it is.
Does anyone have any advice on how to move forward? I'm aware that we probably need to part ways with her, but the contract we signed says she has rights to sell the property until September. So parting ways isn't going to happen anytime soon. My wife and I were going to sell to opendoor and not even use a realtor, but the realtor said to give the market a chance and see what happens... Well... now we are super late in May with nothing to show.
TLDR - House isn't selling, dropped price to slightly below comp's in area. No showings in 2 weeks. Realtor not being useful. Stressed out about entire situation, need some help with figuring out how to proceed.

I’ve been following this case pretty closely for almost a year now, but I haven’t had time to really watch the trial live (how are some of you watching every minute?!). I was looking for a post that was basically a run-down of the highlights and important revelations so far, but I haven’t really seen any, so I wrote one myself based on what I have been able to discern from the press coverage. Will you all tell me if I’m missing anything? I’m also gonna add some of my own analysis for discussion.
The “I hit him” testimony
A lot of people heard Karen say some version of “I hit him,” or “did I hit him?”, but the defense is doing a good job poking holes in their testimonies. It seems like a number of the people who claim she said “l hit him,” only recorded this several months later. Officer Saraf, for instance, only added the fact that KR said “I hit him” to his testimony several months later. Katie McLaughlin also agreed that her story had “evolved” since the original event. That particular witness was also interesting because she initially claimed to have no relationship with Caitlin Albert, which was later proven to be untrue; Katie McLaughlin was, as photos showed, quite close with Caitlin Albert at one point, which prompted the defense to acccuse McLaughin of perjuring herself. Firefighter Anthony Flematti also claimed Karen Read said “I hit him” but apparently never told anyone this, which was readily highlighted by the defense.
Of the people who testified that Karen Read said she hit O’Keefe, the only person who didn’t get absolutely obliterated by the defense seems to be Timothy Nuttall, although the defense made it clear that his memory of the day was pretty faulty as well.Lots of people heard her say different things: Stephen Mulanney testified that he heard her saying “Is he dead,” “that’s my boyfriend;” Jason Becker testified that he heard Read say “did i hit him?” And Matthew Kelly even said he explicitly did not hear Read say “I hit him” repeatedly.
Honestly, I’m not sure it matters whether or not Karen Read said “I hit him,” or “did I hit him?” It’s clear that she was worried about her own responsibility in the matter, which seems…. Not great but possibly innocuous? She was obviously insanely drunk the night before, and hangxiety/hangover guilt is famously a terrible combination with tragedy. I know I tend to assume the worst when I wake up after a night of heavy drinking. Even when I haven’t been drinking, I tend to blame myself when things go wrong. And I think it’s kind of telling that It doesn’t seem like any of these witnesses really thought that she had a clear, certain memory of hitting him. Except, that is, the officer in the McLaughlin testimony, who I guess summoned a sergeant when he heard her say this.
Anyway, most of this is stuff we already knew. We already knew she expressed that she felt guilty at the scene, and we already knew
The Sloppy Crime Scene & Responding Police Officers
Responding officers were super, uhh, carless when it came to the crime scene. They used solo cups to store the frozen blood found at the scene, which eventually led the blood to dry up. And they used a leaf blower to scan the scene for evidence, which somehow didn’t turn up any broken tail light. Basically, this testimony showed us that it was a super haphazard crime scene that could easily have been tampered with, and that there just wasn’t much care put into the storage and collection of evidence. This is important, because it sets the stage for the defense to say that forensic evidence from the scene cannot be trusted. Paul Gallagher admitted that “nothign about the scene was standard” and that he had never processed a crime scene in the snow before, which led them to improvise in a number of ways.
The other thing we got from these officer- witnesses was that Michael Lank, the canton police lieutenant who responded to the scene, had once been in a physical altercation in order to defend Chris Albert. For the defense, this is relevant because it shows not just the deep ties, but also the extent to which this group of people will go to cover up for their own. And the fact that this tight-knit circle are brutish and violent.
The Bartender
The testimony from the Waterfall bartender appeared to be marginally important. She confirmed that the Alberts were important, powerful people in the town, and that everyone knew who they were. She also said that nobody in the party appeared to be intoxicated.
Brian Albert getting rid of his phone
Brian Albert’s testimony basically just stuck to the party line. The phone thing, though, did remind me of how nuts it is that he got rid of his phone, and I’m assuming it’s not the last we’ll hear of it. I guess we already knew that he got rid of his phone right as it was supposed to be subpoenae’d, but it was still kind of crazy to hear him try to explain away that he got rid of it a single day before he received the order. He basically claimed that he was due for an upgrade so he traded it in. But he and Higgins both happened to destroy their phones right before they were subpoenae’d, which isn’t not suspicious.
Julie Nagel and the Black Blob
Julie Nagel, friend of 23y/o Brian Albert Jr, was inside the house that night. She testified that “I did notice ... something out of the ordinary, like a black blob in the ground by the flagpole,” as she was leaving. The defense didn’t like this, because it refutes the idea that JO was only placed on the lawn later. And they cast doubt on this testimony during the cross examination by pointing out that if she actually saw a body, she would have responded really differently. They also pointed out that she never really mentioned this until now.
The Ryan Nagel & co testimony
Ryan Nagel is Julie Nagel’s brother, who came to pick up his sister right around the time that Karen Read arrived, and left right as she was leaving. He never actually picked up his sister, because she ultimately wanted to stay.
Basically, he and the other people in his car said they saw Karen Read arrive at 34 fairview road. His sister came out to talk, at which point he was focused on his sister. He said he did not observe anyone enter the house, but the cross-examination made clear that this could have happened while he was talking to his sister. When he looked up, he saw the SUV brake lights come on, as if to start driving away. As he pulled up and drove past this car, he saw someone that fit Karen Read’s description in the driver’s seat, alone. He did not observe any damage to the vehicle.
This testimony is important, because this witness saw KR arriving and being alone in her car, which means JO would have left the vehicle at that point. It seems like it could be good for the defense, because he’s saying that she was alone in her car, and that he didn’t see JO outside, which could mean that he was inside. He also said her car didn’t have any visible damage. And it seems like he was a decently observant witness. But it also could just mean that JO’s exit from the vehicle was as unremarkable as his death, which would explain why nobody saw him.
Allison McCabe
Jen McCabe’s daughter, who claims she picked up Colin Albert that night. She testified that she arrived to pick him up at 12:10 or so, and she shows a screenshot of text messages to prove it. The Free Karen Read crowd thinks these are doctored, and I admit the screenshot looks really weird. There are some rumors floating around somewhere that there’s cell phone data that proves he was in the house much later than that, but I haven’t seen it. I also think the hyper focus on Colin Albert is weird, because it seems to me like a million different people could have ben responsible for JO’s death.
The Veterinarian Specialist
Testified that no dog DNA was found on swabs of John O’Keefe, but they did find pig DNA. Jackson’s cross exam reminded the jury that the collection of evidence was highly improper. The vet did concede that the pig DNA could have come from a dog treat.
Thoughts?
I’m hearing a lot of people characterizing this as a bloodbath, but honestly I don’t feel like anything so far has been, like, a crazy bombshell for either side. I would imagine there will be some during the defense’s turn to call up witnesses. Apparently that’s when trials tend to get juicy.
I also don’t really understand why the defense is so obsessed with the Colin Albert story. It seems like it could be easily disproven and then their whole theory falls apart. If I were in charge of Karen Read’s defense, I’d lean into the possibility that there are a million ways John O’Keefe could have died that don’t involve Karen Read. Maybe he slipped on the ice, hit his head, cut himself on his broken glass while he was trying to get up, and crawled quietly to the middle of the lawn where he was too incapacitated to call for help. Maybe he passed out in the gutter and someone else hit him— it seems like a ton of drunk people were coming and going, after all. And hit and runs are super common! Or, if we are to believe that John O’Keefe and Brian Higgins had a common romantic interest in Karen Read, couldn’t Brian Higgins have been equally likely— and have more motive— to bludgeon John O’Keefe? Honestly all those guys seem like the type to get angry and end up in a bar fight.

I’ve been through a lot recently. I never see myself drowning and struggling to get back what I’ve lost, which is myself that I used to be.
Ever feel like a zombie? A living corpse? Everyday I’ve been fighting to sleep. My mind just keep on thinking all the possibilities that could be before she left. She cheated on me. I discovered that my 1 year relationship just turned into ashes in one phone call.
I know it’s just a year, but she really meant everything to me. I was cheated before once, 6 years with somebody who “just too blind to see”. I’ve been better to tell my ex what’s wrong, what should be improve and even trying to be the best at what I could. But cheating is a choice, no matter how hard you try to tell me that a rock can float by itself, it is my choice to believe.
It’s almost a year that I’ve promised myself not to give this precious thing called love to anybody. I lost my feelings, everyday I feel numb and just riding the wave. All that I can say there’s no tomorrow as I only see myself the same every single day. Rotting and just continue hoping for something that’s just not there anymore.
But one fine day, I was healed. I can say it’s true that time heals. I regained back my life where everything is just back to normal. I can see the colours, feel the wind and breathe freely. I know that I’ve made it. Although at that time I’m still not sure to be in love again, but love grows stronger. Not because that I’ve met somebody, but proud that I’ve made it myself through the dark.
A friend of mine that I’ve known for 5 years+ knows everything what I’ve been through. She knew it from my friends as everyone was worried about me. I disappeared and pushed people away since that day. I only talk whenever I wanted to. Other than that, I just lay on my bed and continue playing those memories. I didn’t even open up to anybody about the thing that I went through. It’s like a secret I can say, but this secret is not worth sharing as I thought it might hurt myself more if they don’t understand a thing.
Then she’s the only one confronted me. She came to my house one day, to tell me everything will gonna be fine. I was shocked that nobody was brave enough to tell me that. She comforted me the way I never thought I could get. She said a lot of things that those good people will say in this situation. She even frequently checking up on me either I’m fully okay or not.
One time, she told me the truth. She didn’t just say that don’t like seeing me like this, but want myself to be better and to be loved. She admits that maybe we both can try to, by slowly creeping to get what I promised not to give anyone anymore. I know what’s her intention, at the first place I didn’t say anything about it.
Days passing by but this feelings that I thought I’ll never feel again grows stronger. I feel appreciated, respected and even safe. She understands and accepts whatever had happened. I was just too scared to tell but then it happened. We fell in love. I can say it’s like magic where all those dark clouds disappear when she holds my hand. We we’re hugging and I felt love again but this time it’s just different, it felt real.
A year we went through a lot of ups and downs together. Just like a plant, she waters me whenever I’m exhausted. I keep her on the shade of light whenever she feel needed. All that I can say I’m happy and even feel that I’m worth to live another day.
And just like the magic of love, the same scenario happened. She cheated on me. What’s more devastating that I discovered it on our anniversary, a friend of her called me that she’s slept with a lot of guys. I didn’t believe it a first as I thought she was real. There’s no way that she’s bad enough to did all of that after all the things that we both went through.
Completely destroyed, when I asked her about it, she told me the truth. I didn’t ask a lot about it but just like I used to be, disappear and don’t even say a word for it. I know in some perspective that this is wrong as choosing to leave is always not the right thing to do. But will you walk on the same path again?
We broke up after a short phone call. It wasn’t me that wished to but she said herself and honest about the situation. Since then, I’m the same as I used to be, dying, rotting and fighting to live.
Not a day passed by from me till now that I want to kill myself. I just can’t handle it. Something was robbed and something that made me feel not who I am really. Lifeless and struggling. Even saying this till the end that I don’t have energy to tell more. Will I ever be okay again?
i’m sorry for my bad english.