I want to be a poet/painter so terribly and before the advent of the illness I was going very well with it. My paintings were selling, I could compose poems. Now because of the heavy drugs/meds and damage from the drugs I can’t recall, I can’t think I’m almost always blank minded and there’s a complete dearth of emotion. I struggle to write up a single poem. I am totally vacant before the canvas and nothing propels me. I wanted to study mysticism and poetry deeply but I can’t even feel what the mystical is on these drugs, and as I said I can’t think so I can no longer study. There’s that total lack of motivation and interest too on meds. I’m tired of burying every dream I had. I know you all had to as well and I’m interested in how you coped with that.

I am not the OOP. The OOP is u/Ok-Firefighter602 posting in AmItheAsshole and his user account
Concluded as per OOP
1 update - Medium
Original - 29th April 2023
Update - 22nd May 2023
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AITA for breaking a promise and attending my stepdaughter's graduation?
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I’ll start by explaining some backstory. I (54M) lost my first wife when my son (25M) and daughter (22F) were ages 9 and 12, Both my kids took it as hard as you would expect and to this day have a poor relationship with both my current wife "Doreen (49F)" and my stepdaughter "Amy (18F)". I started dating Doreen about 4 months after my first wife passed, as such my kids believe I cheated on their mom. Amy was 5 when we got together and as such I see her as my own daughter.
On to the actual story, 4 years ago, two days before Kay's high school graduation, Amy got very ill while visiting her grandparents and ended up needing emergency surgery. My wife and I rushed to be with Amy and admittedly I did not communicate well with Kay. At the time Kay didn't pick up my calls, so I left her a voicemail and several text messages explaining what happened and telling Kay I was sorry but I would make it up to her. A few hours go by and I get a call from Kay, she is in hysterics telling me what a terrible father I am and stated that if I did not attend her graduation I would be dead to her. I chose to support Amy.
True to her words, Kay did not contact me on the day of her graduation. And when came home Kay's things had been moved out of the house with a note explaining that we were no longer family and to never contact her again.
Luckily Kay and I were able to reconcile, however, I promised her I would give her absolutely anything in the world to make her forgive me. She said that she would forgive me as long as I refused to attend Amy's graduation as this was the only way to make it fair. I agreed at the time thinking she was just joking or angry and would soon forget.
This leads me to now. Invitations for Amy's graduation went out, and despite all the hostility Amy wanted to make sure Kay got one. Kay called Amy later that day and said she would be unable to attend as she and I would be spending the day together per our agreement. Amy broke down into tears asking me why I was missing her graduation, I assured her I was not and that I would speak to Kay. Later I explained to Kay that I simply could not miss Amy's graduation. Kay launched into a tirade about how I was a liar and an asshole and how could I do this to her again. I told her that we would talk when she calmed down and she said we would never talk again.
My son, and several of our extended family have all taken Kay's side saying I didn't see how hurt she was at graduation. My wife believes I am the asshole for even promising that in the first place as I should have known it would only upset one or both girls. And Amy is just sad and confused wondering why Kay hates her. I know keeping my promise and not attending Amy's graduation is probably the only way to salvage my relationship with Kay, but no matter how I look at it I would feel like I'm punishing Amy for having a medical issue, so am I the asshole?
EDIT to add some relevant info.
I NEVER cheated on my first wife. your accusations are honestly tiring and disgusting.
Amy's Bio father was never in her life. I am NOT Amy's Biological father, that wasn't ever even in question as we are not the same race.
Amy had appendicitis, she was staying over 4 hours away at her grandparent's house. at the time that we left the only info Doreen's mother would give us was she passed out and wouldn't wake up.
My daughter was moved out of our house for about a month and a half after which we made up and she returned to live with us for another 2 years before going away to school.
I did not believe Kay when she said she wanted me to miss Amy's graduation as it seemed like a ridiculous request. despite what you all may believe our relationship was fine after this event we were in near-daily contact and she would frequently visit us.
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Comments
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Angry-trans
YTA And have been for years. You are a bad father. Kay is correct. You are a liar. You've done nothing to prioritize Kay ever since your new family rolled in. Your relationship with your daughter is dead and the blood is on your hands.
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calliatom
Seriously though... you never should have promised Kay that, knowing full well that you had no intention of keeping your word. And now you're being a bad father to Amy too, by trying to use her tears and guilt to dig yourself out of the grave you dug yourself with Kay.
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CryptographerSuch753
Seems like all op cared about was getting his way in the moment. Seems like that may be a pattern
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victoria12345678909
YTA - you replaced your kids mom with a new family 4 months after she died! Your kids lost their mom so young and you don’t seem like you prioritized their feelings or helped them deal with things, instead you moved on fast. Kay didn’t have a mother to attend her graduation and she needed you there. Could you not have driven to the grad then back to the hospital?
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LadyDerri
Ten to One that Amy is his daughter. That's why he favors her.
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Comments from OOP

Amy ended up having to get an emergency appendectomy, but at the time was visiting her Grandparents about a 4 hour drive from where we lived. Her grandmother didn't give us too much relevant information before we left, just that she had passed out and wouldn't wake up. On the way there we didn't know her condition or anything because her grandmother is a non-native English speaker and didn't understand a lot of the medical terms. once we got there and signed off on the surgery she ended up needing an additional 2 days in the hospital and wanted both of us by her side. During this time I repeatedly called and texted both my mother and son who were planning to attend the ceremony. I had every intention of calling/ video calling so that I could still support her, but she told everyone she didn't want me to be a part of it.

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I didn't immediately move in Doreen and Amy once we started dating, we dated for over 2 years before we moved in together. My wife's death was not a sudden thing she battled cancer on and off for years before she passed. My children already knew/ were comfortable with Doreen as she was my late wife's best friend so I thought they would enjoy having her around more. I offered both children grief counseling, my son took me up on it, and I took Kay to a few sessions but she would kick/ scream/ cry every time I took her finally the counselor decided that forcing her before she was ready would only worsen her grief. I offered her therapy many times over the years, but she never took me up on it.

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first of all, I knew Doreen for years before I even met my late wife, in fact, Doreen introduced us. I thought my kids would like having Doreen around as before my wife passed they loved her like an aunt. I did not move her in or make her a permanent part of our daily lives until over 2 years into our relationship. four months after my wife passed we agreed to explore our romantic feelings I explained what was going on in age-appropriate terms so they wouldn't be blindsided if they caught their dad kissing their "aunt".

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**Judgement - YTA*\*
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Update - 1 month later
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I wasn't sure if I wanted to post an update after the reaction I got last time, I can stomach death threats against myself but directing such hatred toward my children was truly disturbing. But the graduation has come and gone and I thought I should share how it all went down. I'm sure most of you will be displeased.
Amy was mad at me for a few days, but we have a strong bond and she quickly got over it. The saint that she is said she would understand if I wanted to miss it to make it up to Kay. I told her I wouldn't do that to her and reassured her that she has done nothing wrong.
As for the elephant in the room, Kay, she and my son live in the same city and work in the same field so they're as close as ever. My son and his partner were giving her a lot of emotional support at this time. In the end, she decided not to attend Amy's graduation but sent flowers and a card with my son. There were a lot of nasty messages directed toward her, which I feel is completely unacceptable. She isn't mean or vindictive. She is a smart, very kind, very empathetic woman. She made a bizarre ultimatum as a confused and hurt teenager I certainly don't think that makes her a bad person.
I know all of you seem to think I hate my children, but the amount of pain I feel at the deterioration of my relationship with my daughter is unexplainable, I've been on and off anti-depressants since the death of my wife and at my therapist's suggestion will be going back on them. it's taking all of my willpower not to reach out to her again, but I've already disrespected her wishes enough. She can choose to reach out to me when and if she ever wants to again and I'll be waiting.
I know it's not the most impactful update and I'm sure most of you wanted to see me left miserable and alone, but I don't live my life for anyone else's entertainment. I can accept that I'm the asshole, maybe I'm an asshole in general, but I'm not some evil monster that you all want me to be. I'm a man that made the mistake of sharing his problems with the internet a mistake I won't be making again. I probably won't delete this account, but I'm not gonna be updating in the future. goodbye.
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Comments
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YogurtclosetWeird789
Look OP I get that you're human, just a man.
But you can't get away with the I made mistakes because you make the same ones over and over again.
I don't understand trolls and stupid people with the death threats or nasty messages about your kids it's wrong and disgusting.
The only issue here is YOU! The fact that claim to love Kay and how it is breaking your heart that she wants nothing to do with you is your own fault, every 'mistake' you made and repeated always seems to be against her. I don't actually think you care about Kay all that much as you still have Amy.
Now you've decided oh well I've fucked up again and made so many mistakes I'll just leave her alone and not confront the fact you failed her as a supportive father. OWN IT, Change your damn ways.
Believe me, you're not the worst dad out there. but you are a shitty one to Kay.
When will you wake up and realise without the self-pity that YOU have to be the one to make amends. Why on earth would she contact you?
Do you not care that one day she will get married and you won't be invited to the wedding or even to walk her down the aisle? When she has her first child and you find out through the grapevine instead of being a Grandpa?
Maybe one day she will forgive you, but not if your solution is to just give her space! seems to me she had a lot of space from you already. All she wanted was your time and sole attention for a bit, and you've never been able to give her that. I feel for both your son and daughter because it seems you have a favourite and you don't care as long as Amy is ok.
Let me guess and say your wife thinks it's best to give her the space? Amy may be a nice girl but I bet your wife has encouraged your behaviour.
It's honestly sad.
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OOP: I'm giving Kay space because that's what she said she wants, I can't do anything other than that. No matter what I'm gonna still be there for her any way I can, but for the time being, I'm not going to pester her or beg for forgiveness because that's not what she wants. I HAVE made mistakes and at the top of that list is not listening to my children when they tell me exactly what they need from me.

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AAP_BH
Even in this follow up post the way you speak about Kay, the disgust you feel for her oozes out. You claim so many people spoke badly of her in your previous post but those comments were minimal compared to the people that spoke badly of YOU, YOUR WIFE AND SAINT AMY but you don’t mention that, you still want Kay to be the “bad” daughter. Saying her request was “sad and bizarre” no it wasn’t.
It’s so convenient that this is when all of a sudden you realize you need to and will listen to Kay, not when she was begging you to choose her for once since your dear saint Amy came into your life. All you had to do was not go to a High School graduation and you couldn’t even do that.
You’re a horrible father to Kay and you will continue to be one. The fact that you still made the decision to put Amy over your freaking daughter is so sad, the fact that you cared so much more over Amy being upset over letting Kay down again says a lot. Leave Kay alone, don’t ever contact her again unless it’s to say flat out to her face that you are stepping down as a father since you know you will never be able to giver her the love and attention you give your true daughter Amy, that Amy will always come first. I had peritonitis, I was in the hospital (at 8yrs old) for almost a year on and off and my mom would leave to work , she was a single mother, and I was fine. Amy was a teenager, had A MOTHER AND GRANDPARENTS, she had appendicitis a common procedure, 2 freaking days before your daughters graduation and you couldn’t leave just for a day bc “Amy wanted me by her side”. My heart aches for Kay, knowing she is pretty much an orphan. Ughh parents like you I don’t freaking understand, you should’ve given up your rights as a father the moment you decided that your new family was more important than your children. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much hate for a stranger on Reddit.
ETA— by the way you sad excuse of a man, you didn’t make a mistake you made various CHOICES and DECISIONS to deliberately hurt your daughter. You DECIDED TO PUT AMY FIRST. You’re no victim, the only victim here is your ex daughter, Kay and probably her brother as well
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Soft_Consequence2262
Oh Amy the Saint.... I got the same vibes. The Father is trying to paint Kay as the bad person that he needs to defend. Yet, can't go past without a shout out to how AMAZING Amy is... actually gives me the creeps. Feels like he has some weird obsession with her perfection.
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[deleted]
Yeah the Amy the Saint really rubbed me the wrong way. It’s sad that despite everything, OP is still so delusional. I wish Kay a life of happiness, even if it means she would go NC with OP for life.
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I am not the OOP. Please do not harass the OOP.
Please remember the No Brigading Rule and to be civil in the comments

Admitting we have a problem is the first step in solving it! Author is a Eugenean talking about her experience with rising crime in the city, never saw this story but hey, still relevant today. Found this little gem by random chance. Title is a hopefully relatable quote from the article. You can agree or disagree with the author, but it's actually pretty well written with sources included. (just including the whole article, for people who don't want to click links!)

I Caught Two Men Stealing From My Home. The Aftermath Was Absurd—and All Too Typical.

This experience crystallized Oregon’s deeper problems.

BY REBECCA SCHUMANJUNE 21, 20225:40 AM
Typically, guys wearing power-company vests don’t leave the houses they’re working on laden down with backpacks—let alone power tools, a scooter, and a Nintendo Switch. But that was the scene I happened upon at 6:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in mid-April when I puttered into my driveway in Eugene, Oregon, my 7-year-old ensconced in the back seat.
For a second, my brain tried to normalize the incident: This is just my daughter’s dad stopping by—except there are two of him, and they’re dressed as electricians for some reason? Then, a second later, everything whooshed into place: Oh, wait, I’m being robbed. Or, rather, I was being burgled. I would get reminded of this distinction later, when I made the dubious choice to join the chorus of aggrieved buttinskies on Nextdoor, where my well-meaning post to warn the neighborhood would turn me into an accidental vigilante hero for a day.
Unfortunately, it’s true: My reaction to this burgle was the lived-out fantasy of many who have been on the business end of a property crime. As the two goons took off on foot down my street, I went into fight-or-flight mode—and I chose fight.
“Well,” I said to my confused child, “let’s go see if we can get our stuff back.”
I peeled my 2005 Subaru back onto the street and easily overtook my two targets, who then hurtled themselves into an alley, whereupon I cornered one by the driver’s side window as the other made haste across the adjacent parking lot.
“Just give it back, bro!” I yelled out my window. “Just give it back! I’m a single mom! Just give it back.”
I repeated this until either I reminded him too much of his meanest teacher or he realized he’d been caught in broad daylight. “Fine,” he said. “Just fucking take it.”
He shoved a backpack through my driver’s side window. Inside it was both my laptops and my daughter’s iPad from school. Back at home, I would discover these guys had used channel lock pliers to force open the back door, but that the general chaos of my home had prevented them from locating my passport, jewelry, or sole item of irreplaceable value: the Montblanc fountain pen that my father, who died in a bicycle accident two years ago, had gotten for his law school graduation. My cat was unfazed.
I can honestly tell you that this little caper of mine was thrilling and deeply satisfying. It was also the exact wrong thing to do. Even this fanatical open-carry gun website implores: “Don’t chase criminals.” What if these two dipsticks had been armed? As unlikely as that was—property crime in my town is often driven by addiction, and weapons are worth money, which can buy drugs—I put myself and my child in potential danger. And for what? Three grand worth of electronics. As any reputable expert will tell you, you’re never to give chase to a thief, because human life is not worth possessions. As much as I admit to enjoying being called a “badass” by everyone I told this story, plus the listeners of KLCC Oregon, I should not have done this.
I did call the police, on the nonemergency line, because the dudes were long gone and nobody was hurt. I declined the dispatcher’s offer to send two officers to fingerprint a bunch of stuff I’d already touched. At best, that would have just added two more sets of prints to my town’s burgeoning roster of perennially at-large property criminals.
There are larger issues here, issues much more important than my would-be cool story. First, it’s an example of how in Eugene, small-scale property crime is now de facto legal. It is largely nonviolent, so it’s rarely seen as worth police resources to track down the goods. At the same time, it is so prevalent that any time one vest-wearing bozo gets nabbed, three more spring up in his place. This was my house’s second break-in in six months, and my fourth property crime total in the three years I’ve lived here as an adult. Eugene is my hometown, so I can also add the four times my childhood house, where my mother still lives, has been burgled since the early 2000s. When I was little, we left our front door unlocked so regularly that I wasn’t aware front doors had locks on them until I was much older. By the time I turned 30, however, every door in my parents’ house had been pried open at least once. (“Time to finally get that alarm system!” said my dad for three straight decades.)
Still, it’s a mistake to treat this trend solely as a vexing crime problem. Eugene’s descent into its property crime epidemic has been concurrent, unsurprisingly, with two addiction epidemics: First, the methamphetamine nightmare of the 1990s—when pseudoephedrine pills were still unregulated—hit Oregon and other Western states particularly hard. That wave segued all too naturally into the opioid and fentanyl crisis of the present. Meanwhile, not only did meth never really leave, but its use in Oregon also surged with the pandemic, with three Oregonians per day currently dying a drug-related death.
Since our conversation was necessarily brief, I don’t know the housing or drug situation of the guys who broke into my place. But local statistics point to them as two more casualties of these plagues. (Granted, those statistics are from nearby Portland, and they are police-sourced, so take them how you wish.)
For all the ambivalent empathy that the opioid epidemic has engendered, the local property crime scourge has set off a fierce public backlash. My incident brought out an unsurprising chorus of bloodlust on Nextdoor and elsewhere, when I shared it because I wanted to give my immediate neighbors a heads-up: “You should have kicked their asses,” they wrote. “We need to rise up and defend our property.”
This town’s petty crime is often attributed, at least in the national conservative press, to our West Coast government’s decision to temporarily allow urban camping during the pandemic. (That policy has now officially ended, for what it’s worth.) Towns like mine have often been characterized in the popular imagination as unlivable crime-addled hellholes. I will be the first to admit that our tent cities are sometimes blatant open-air drug markets, but this is the case even as our property values inflate to absurd proportions—and our crime is actually on the decline. Still, Oregonians like me currently have about a 2.7 percent chance of being burgled, which, at almost 30 percent higher than the national average, is very high. I learned very efficiently how anecdotes like mine get around (I can’t help it if I’m a dynamic storyteller!) and attract the righteous indignation of other former victims, so many often feel, incorrectly, like we few honest vanguards are awash in a sea of riffraff.
This atmosphere, in turn, inspires my locality’s equally unreasonable political extremists to put forth and exacerbate their own untenable solutions. Even in a hyperpolarized American environment, Oregon is more polarized than most. For decades, our liberal enclaves have made Portlandia look understated, while our conservative areas make Texas’ look progressive.
For example, during the heyday of Eugene’s recently dismantled and infamous Washington Jefferson Park tent city, a larger break-in at a bicycle store was traced at least partially back to the encampment. The police swept the tents and made a flurry of arrests. Some of the bikes were found. This resulted in part in outrage over using resources to hassle the city’s most impoverished residents: “A stolen bike, yes, that sucks,” an advocate for the unhoused told a local news outlet. “But what are your priorities? And I’m sorry, but a stolen bike isn’t the priority.”
Well, trust me, in this town, it definitely isn’t. Recovering those bikes was an anomaly; in Eugene, most of these burglaries go unsolved. In fact, 87 percent of burglaries in the whole country do, too. The get-tough-on-property-crime proponents assert that statistically, this sends a message that stealing is fair game, and sure, that is a message I do not condone. But I also agree with a somewhat less rabid version of the opposing view: Property is replaceable, these crimes are nonviolent, and everyone currently rifling through houses and dealing drugs out of tents in my town is human. They deserve a chance to get their lives on track.
So, what should be the town’s priority? Fixing the addiction epidemics is a perilously long way away from happening, for reasons that are as polarizing as addiction’s consequences. In the sobering and excellent Dopesick, author Beth Macy goes into painfully exacting detail about opioids’ near-inescapable hold on the human brain. Macy argues that the true way out of this epidemic is “low-barrier treatment,” which includes supportive housing and medical interventions such as safe injection supplies, fentanyl testing strips, buprenorphine access, and supervised consumption sites. All of these options, however, are a tough sell even in a “progressive” town like Eugene, where supervised consumption sites are what NIMBY nightmares are made of, and low-barrier treatment can run up against deeply held moral stigma: Gas is $5 a gallon, and my taxes are going to some junkie?
In the meantime, while some admirably advocate and vote and wait for those breakthroughs, what should we do about the burglaries themselves? Should we pursue more law enforcement, or more compassion toward the burglars? More arrests that allegedly might deter this, or policies that might alleviate income inequality? Does—as approximately 83 percent of the suggestions from my Nextdoor thread contended—every house in town need a tripwire that handcuffs trespassers on sight? Or should all businesses be taxed at 500 percent, and the proceeds used to furnish every fentanyl dealer in town with a nice apartment and mad cash? The debate has degenerated such that these are the sorts of cartoonish positions each side believes they’re fighting—and, in fact, are the only available choices. Just check out Eugene’s Reddit section any day, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The actual blight on small American towns like mine isn’t property crime. It’s that any tenable solution to it has been swallowed up into a churning abyss of extremism and perceived counterextremism. No one seems to have a convincing answer to the most basic question: So what should we do? What should I do?
Burglaries don’t have to be largely unsolvable, and more property criminals could be apprehended. But while I don’t want those dudes or any of their buddies to come back to my house, I also don’t want them in an American prison, where their “rehabilitation” will consist largely of learning better ways to commit even bigger crimes when they get out, and their options for alternative forms of acquiring money will be even more limited than they are now. Lacking any meaningful restorative justice program for petty thieves in my town (which would, in turn, necessitate locating and apprehending them), I decided my own problems could be solved, for now, with a padlock on my back gate.
And then, not long after the break-in, a Nintendo Switch appeared on my town’s Craigslist. Its included components and color combination were identical to the set stolen from my house. I debated, briefly, bringing my vigilante justice alter ego Super Annoying out of retirement, answering the ad and showing up to shrill my wrongdoers into returning what was mine. But this time, I thought better of it. My life is not worth much, but it’s probably worth more than Mario Kart. I can only hope the console’s new owners enjoy it as much as my daughter did—at least until someone steals it again.

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.
First, Previous, Next
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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.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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.
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Any and all perspectives help more than you know. I don’t have anybody to really talk about this with so any and all guidance or help is appreciated. It’s a lot to read, I might yap but it isn’t without reason lmao.
CONTEXT IS IMPORTANT for the sake of understanding. Sorry if it’s long but any advice/help/opinions would be greatly appreciated, really anything helps. I’m 19 years old and have just finished my spring semester of college. Sort of. I went to a big college first out of town, my main financial aid fucked me over (& didn’t let me know until a week after classes started), so I had to switch at semester to my home state’s university. Anyway, this year was kind of tough for me lost a couple family members & my boyfriend had it rough, lost his best friend and dad within a few months of each other. Then we find out I’m pregnant. I wasn’t sure what I really wanted to do but didn’t get to make that choice either because I miscarried sometime later. The whole situation was hard & my life felt like a fuckfest that came crashing down so I went back to my hometown & figured out stuff with school, finished everything mostly online and passed. While back in my hometown, I stayed with my boyfriend.
My boyfriend is 19 and we’ve been together a year & a half but known and been friends with each other since middle school. We actually dated in the 8th grade until he had to move out of state, then when he came back we started hanging out and here we are. My circle is small & I don’t ever really make or have any friends but he’s my absolute best friend. Even if we wouldn’t have chose to date after he came back to town, I’m convinced we would’ve been good friends. That’s just the type of person he is and we were great friends before (with acknowledgment that we’re not 14 anymore ofc). My family liked him or seemed to at least put on a really good front that they liked him, especially my mom.
It’s a well known fact in my family that my mom and I just don’t get along. She kept me quite literally locked away as the Cinderella child, especially in high school I was kept on a very tight leash when I did go out and do stuff. Yeah I had my fun still when she wasn’t in a bad mood/something didn’t need cleaned/ a child didn’t need to be picked up/dropped off. My friends in high school never invited me ANYWHERE lmao but after a while I just kinda dealt w it to avoid her taking my whole life away. I didn’t know how to use a crosswalk like in intersections until I was 15 lmao I was so sheltered sorry ANYWAYS, I turned 18 and it was like I had a brand new mother for a bit until the fear of me leaving wore off.
Long story short, the summer before I left for college (last summer) I didn’t have anywhere else to go & my only friend wasn’t in any position to help me out so I moved in with boyfriend. My mom did the absolute most, almost got me fired from my job & ambulance ended up being called from how much of a tantrum she threw. It was so ridiculous that she refused to tell anybody what happened when people asked because she said it’s too embarrassing for her.
Just like that, she flipped and was saying some terrible stuff about my boyfriend. He had a VERY rough upbringing which I was honest about when she asked me questions about him & his parents NOT for sympathy but for the sake of understanding just cause he comes & walks from a different line of people. She took that and twisted the narrative to make him seem like some sort of charity case that took advantage of her such generous & good graces. She’s called him the hungry kid who hung out w her daughter. She said he’s no longer allowed at the house just out of spite. He never ever said a word to her or anybody or about her when she had the worst to say about him, he never was disrespectful or like even showed up to the house idrk what that was for. Even when I moved out & she drained my entire savings I had worked for since I was 15, he never said anything bad about her just that i was going to be okay and he’s gonna help me figure it out. Not only that but she shunned me for a long long time & refused to talk and look at me after I moved out, which made me feel incredibly guilty and like I had to see her and my siblings every single day to compensate. My little brother is 5 and doesn’t really understand, but my mom didn’t try to enlighten him or kid proof it and just let him scream and cry and claw at my legs whenever I’d leave the house.
If you’re still reading thank you sm. Fast forward to today, I went to college, I was pregnant & miscarried, finished my semester and am back in my hometown. Over the breaks in college, I’ve stayed at my moms cause she expected me to and our relationship has gotten so much better with distance. Between her and boyfriend, they were my biggest support especially with recent event. The only conversation they’ve had is when him and I went to talk to my mom in person when I found out I was pregnant. Not sure where she stands with him, I’m sure she doesn’t like him still and probably hates him more since we did technically make her worst fear as a mother come true at age 19. Im living with her again mainly cause I don’t want to be shunned again and i physically cant deal with the debilitating anxiety and guilt every single day, I wanted to try to focus my energy on healing from my miscarriage with other stuff before I have to start classes at the community college here. Boyfriends house family is getting very challenging for him and is deteriorating his mental health, so he wants to get a place regardless. I really just want my own space where I’m not feeling constantly overstimulated and I miss living with him a lot if I’m being honest. We make the best team and it’s so easy with him. I catch myself getting so excited looking at furniture even from the thrift or cooking meals with him or decorating with our fkn forest of plants combined lmao. I miss him making breakfast for me before I wake up and folding laundry together and grocery shopping with him. He’s paying 6 months rent in advance so I don’t have to worry about getting enough hours & can enjoy my summer and actually rest, both of us have a pretty thick cushion to fall back on too just in case. So finances aren’t a problem I don’t think tell me if I’m wrong please. My mom isn’t too keen on the idea I think she just doesn’t want me to make the same mistakes she made, which I understand all too well because I was also there and she was left with half of every pair of shoes she owned, I mean he took literally half of everything. Even in the case that we do break up and then I’m stuck with an apartment with my ex and have completely fucked myself over, at least I was able to make my own mistake for the first time and learned from it? I don’t know what to tell my mom or how the conversation should go. I don’t wanna be shunned again but then again I’ve never once been able to just do something and justify it with “it’s my life”. Idk, advice/thoughts/bullshit/opinions please please please help. Have a blessed day, thank you. I appreciate your time & input more than you know, I don’t have anybody to bounce ideas around with.

She is the adoptive mother of my former best friend. In spite of the fact that she is a white woman, she adopted my former best friend, who is a black girl much like myself.
I remember that in middle school, she gave off the impression to me of being fake (which doesn’t mean that I disliked her, exactly. She was just one of those people who seemed noticeably fake in regards to facial expressions, the way she spoke.) She didn’t seem like someone who had actively ill will or anything like that, though I obviously knew her only as my friend’s parent. She was the kind of parent who had her child around other people a lot/raised her child around people (my former best friend has better social skills than I do, and I do think that that is a factor.) She was not married and didn’t seem to be dating anyone, even though as I said, she looked normal for a woman in her age group.
I remember her as being what I considered to be average looking. She had a gap between her teeth, was not overweight, I seem to remember she had blonde hair when younger (it seems she’s started to grey a bit more which makes sense.) I realized recently that she is actually in her early sixties, even though I had thought she was in her fifties in middle school (well, I suppose she was, but I still didn’t expect that she is sixty-two years old. She started college in 1978, so unless she graduated early and it was never mentioned to me, it seems that she is.)
She suggested on her therapy page that she has practiced “personal therapy” to cope with anxiety from moving around frequently as a child, in addition to having had a family member who was addicted to substances in order to help themselves cope with childhood trauma. My former best friend had once implied/suggested that she herself was promiscuous in high school, which I wouldn’t have been able to guess.
I remember that she wasn’t (isn’t) well off - they had a house, which is more than my family has (my family has always lived in an apartment complex) but I remember she encouraged my former best friend to start at community college as she mentioned that they didn’t have the money.
She is now a licensed marriage and family therapist (I remember she was going back to school for her degree in psychology when I was in middle school.) She was simply a therapist around 2021-summer 2022. She has been a paralegal for most of her life.
I remember that she didn’t seem extremely sad after her mother died. I think that it was part of the reason as to why my former best friend changed so much around eighth grade, but she never looked especially depressed, even out in public (but I remember she was helping care for her mother.) Since her mother was very old, it is possible that she had simply been expecting it. However, I also understand that everyone has different ways of grieving.
I remember we were once gossiping about this INTJ girl in middle school and I mentioned the INTJ had a strong stare and the mom actually agreed with this instead of just shutting it down
I do think that something was off about her parenting at some point, even though it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly. I say this because as I mentioned, my former best friend changed a lot in 8th grade and actually became more toxic. I also remember my former best friend would let our friend group talk badly about her mother behind her mother’s back. I believe my former best friend may have undiagnosed depression (I remember in 8th grade she and this girl we hung out with mentioned that they remember being very angry at points in elementary school and throwing things - I heavily had the impression that both were struggling with depression even back then, but my former best friend never mentioned being in therapy.) And in 9th grade my former best friend’s behavior toward me was still quite toxic and unacceptable (I actually remember the mom encouraged us to hang out again, I think she noticed my former best friend’s had changed for the worst.)
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It is in excellent used condition, used for gaming with a 9900k and Z390-I. It is missing one PCIe cable. The included cables are as follows:

• 1x ATX Power
• 1x CPU
• 1x Molex
• 1x PCIe 6+2 (x2) (note this is a single daisy chain cable)
• 1x SATA
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And the following black/white extensions:

• 1x ATX Power
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Looking for $95 shipped, $85 local (College Station area)
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I have a 5 1/2 month old toy poodle. I posted here when I first got him, because I had this huge wave of regret. Now, here we are, and I'm posting again because I don't know if I have the mental fortitude to keep doing this. I've had my baby since he was 9 weeks, and I love him so much. He's so smart, and he has the sweetest, silliest little look on his face like Foo-Foo, the muppet dog. I love him so much, which is what makes this so hard. I severely underestimated how hard raising a puppy would be. I knew it would be a lot of work, but my puppy has not been even an average level of hard. For 3 months I was raising him in an apartment with my partner, and that was hell. I had college classes and had to work a night shift twice a week. I thought it would be okay because my partner agreed to help with him, and we both agreed to share the responsibilities of raising him, but I've had to deal with him most of the time. My partner has been very hands off with him, and my mother and I are usually the ones paying for his supplies and taking care of him. Not that my partner hasn't helped, but this is just how things have worked out and I'm really not okay with it. I feel like a single mom to him. We had a conversation about it, but I know that going forward that he's probably going to mainly be my responsibility. He's extremely attached to me, and pretty much instantly bonded to me. That's why the thought of rehoming him breaks my heart. But he has horrible separation anxiety, and it makes everything so difficult. I'm not equipped to properly handle this. I know he's still really young, but I'm so afraid of damaging him by not accommodating his fears in the right ways. He's so reactive, though some days are better than others. He barks quite a lot, and he's very loud, which is going to make living in a rental with him very difficult. He will scream for sometimes up to 30 minutes when we leave, even with a Kong or some other long-lasting distraction. Regardless of if he's in the crate or left in a puppy-proofed room, he will pace, pant, howl, bark, and yell for so long. He's clearly so stressed when left alone. But he has to be alone. I have to work. Everyone in my life has to work. I would ask my mom to take him, but she's gone for basically 12 hours a day at work. I know he wouldn't get the attention he deserves, even if I continued to take care of him until he's at the age where he can be alone for 8 hours at a time. I just don't know what to do. The thought of rehoming him kills me, and I would have never adopted him if I knew things would be like this for him. I want to enroll him in puppy training, but that's expensive. Everything is so expensive, and he's so stubborn that I know it would take even more work with him. He knows what the words mean, but he doesn't listen. He knows how to drop it, but his resource guarding issues are so bad that he'll "talk back" by barking, rip what he's holding, swallow something before we get the chance to take it, or even worse, bite, when things need to be taken immediately in an emergency. It's an impulse for him, and he doesn't really mean it. He always licks us as an apology after, but it doesn't change the fact that he demonstrates aggressive behavior. I didn't expect any of this when I got him, and his issues will require even more training and time that I don't have. I feel like I don't have any time for myself, and I feel so selfish when I do take time for myself. He's not housebroken yet because he's been used to puppy pads (previous caretakers trained him with those). The resource-guarding issues are really what scare me though, because it means there are some deeper issues that, again, as a first time puppy-owner on top of everything else, I don't know how to handle. I just miss life when it was simpler. When it was just me and my cat, and I could actually play with him and spend time with him and not have to hide all of his toys because the puppy will eat them. All my puppy does now is terrorize him. My puppy chases my cat and my mom's cat, and he'll corner my poor other baby and paw at him. He just wants to play, but my cat wants nothing to do with him. All of this is just so hard. I wanted a dog because I wanted to go on peaceful walks and have another furry companion that I could take on car rides and all kinds of places. But this poor puppy hates the car and hates being alone, along with his crate. He loves destroying his toys, escaping his confinement, and me. And that's what hurts the most. I love him so much and he loves me so much. But I feel like I can't give him the life he deserves anymore.

my mother will make every single excuse to not invite my boyfriend to anything we’re doing. going out to dinner? JUST “family”. going on vacation? JUST “family”. they will never consider him family until we get married, but even then they won’t even approve it cause they just flat out hate him. but GOD FORBID someone doesn’t invite my sister or mom to a party then it’s “so rude of them!!”. my dad gave me attitude when my sister wasn’t invited to a disney trip that my boyfriend’s sister planned. my boyfriend’s niece is turning one soon and my mom is offended that they haven’t met her yet. maybe if they start inviting my boyfriend to things they’ll get invited to something for once.. they think they’re the only ones that exist. anyone else parents like this?

This is just a repost from my other account. If you choose to use this script please let me know I'd love to see how it turns out there is another version of this but M4A which is on my profile if you're interested. Please don't change anything that will change the story, small changes are fine like if you want to add pronouns or anything like that. All SFX is optional what is written is just what I think would fit for the script. Tags: Forest Elf, F4A, Fantasy, Enchanted Forest, Enemies to Lovers [F4A] [Forest Elf] [Fantasy] [Enchanted Forest] [Enemies to Lovers]
Ivory: Look I’m going whether you like it or not I can’t just stand and do nothing after what they did. That isn’t fair they shouldn’t be allowed to just walk freely after all of that. They’ve been doing this for too long and I can’t sit back and do nothing anymore. I’ll be back in a few days. If anything happens I need you to protect the village. Stay safe brother, I'll be back as soon as I can take care of our mother and the rest of the village. I love you too. (footsteps run off and fade out)
(Crickets chirping, leaves crunching, footsteps, owls hooting in the distance)
Ivory: It’s getting dark. I should probably set up camp for the night. Right here should do now let me see if I can actually get this fire rune right for once (Magic sound effects start for a few seconds then stop) Damn it. (Magic sound effects start for a second then stop again) (Ivory sighs heavily) I guess I'm using the humans (Said with disgust) way. (Said as if annoyed) Once I get back to the village I need to work on my rune magic more. (Fire starts) At least I have a fire. I might as well sharpen my arrows (branch snaps, footsteps move away quickly, a few seconds pass) Hi there. ( Thud as if someone fell, everything goes quiet)
(Sounds slowly starts to come back and get louder)
Ivory: Finally your awake human. Now tell me who you are and what you are doing on this side of the kingdom. You should tell me because your life depends on it. If I wanted to, I could shoot you right here right now. And what makes you think I wouldn’t? I don’t have to question you. I am choosing to question you. Now if you would just answer my questions this would be a lot easier. Who are you? A soldier from this king's army, yeah right. I say that because I know what the king’s soldiers look like and you are not one of them. I know because one you don’t have a single scar on you and before you say you just joined his army I know you didn’t you’re too soft and small the king would never recruit you. If anything you look like one of his children. Am I correct? Yeah that's what I thought. Now what are you doing out here? What do you mean getting revenge?
Ivory: Ha you think we killed your mother, the queen? I’m sorry but we never killed your mother. Your people were the ones to kill our queen and your mother is still alive. You don’t know? She saw the wrong your kingdom was doing and came to help us. No, I don't know where she is now. If I had to guess I’d say she’s somewhere in the sun elf village. No one knows exactly where she is, only the Dragon Queen does; she also relocates a lot; you never know where she’ll be next unless she tells you.
Ivory: Why would I cut you loose if you tried to attack me? I don’t trust you. I don't trust any humans after what they did to my village and all the other villages. I can't, I just can’t. Of course you think what they did was for the good of everyone. Tell me what you think of your kingdom's army attacking my village for no reason at all for just living peacefully. We never did anything. You guys killed my father for defending me and my siblings. Even after that they came back and ransacked our village. They drained all the magic from our village, ruined our farms and we couldn’t do anything or else we’d be killed. Tell me do you think doing that was for the good of everyone. Yeah that's what I thought. Your father did that out of fear, fear of some of the most happy and peaceful people all because one elf made a mistake five hundred years ago. It’s not our fault that he killed the prince over five hundred years ago. We shouldn’t have to pay the price of his mistake. My father shouldn’t have to pay the price of his mistake. You can say you're sorry all you want, it won't bring him back, nothing can bring him back.

This is just a repost from my other account. If you choose to use this script please let me know I'd love to see how it turns out there is another version of this but F4A which is on my profile if you're interested. Please don't change anything that will change the story, small changes are fine like if you want to add pronouns or anything like that. All SFX is optional what is written is just what I think would fit for the script.
Tags: Forest Elf, M4A, Fantasy, Enchanted Forest, Enemies to Lovers [M4A] [Forest Elf] [Fantasy] [Enchanted Forest] [Enemies to Lovers]
Calix: Look I’m going whether you like it or not I can’t just stand and do nothing after what they did. That isn’t fair they shouldn’t be allowed to just walk freely after all of that. They’ve been doing this for too long and I can’t sit back and do nothing anymore. I’ll be back in a few days. If anything happens I need you to protect the village. Stay safe brother, I'll be back as soon as I can take care of our mother and the rest of the village. I love you too. (footsteps run off and fade out)
(Crickets chirping, leaves crunching, footsteps, owls hooting in the distance)
Calix: It’s getting dark. I should probably set up camp for the night. Right here should do now let me see if I can actually get this fire rune right for once (Magic sound effects start for a few seconds then stop) Damn it. (Magic sound effects start for a second then stop again) ( Calix sighs heavily) I guess I'm using the humans (Said with disgust) way. (Said as if annoyed) Once I get back to the village I need to work on my rune magic more. (Fire starts) At least I have a fire. I might as well sharpen my arrows (branch snaps, footsteps move away quickly, a few seconds pass) Hi there. ( Thud as if someone fell, everything goes quiet)
(Sounds slowly starts to come back and get louder)
Calix: Finally your awake human. Now tell me who you are and what you are doing on this side of the kingdom. You should tell me because your life depends on it. If I wanted to, I could shoot you right here right now. And what makes you think I wouldn’t? I don’t have to question you. I am choosing to question you. Now if you would just answer my questions this would be a lot easier. Who are you? A soldier from this king's army, yeah right. I say that because I know what the king’s soldiers look like and you are not one of them. I know because one you don’t have a single scar on you and before you say you just joined his army I know you didn’t you’re too soft and small the king would never recruit you. If anything you look like one of his children. Am I correct? Yeah that's what I thought. Now what are you doing out here? What do you mean getting revenge?
Calix: Ha you think we killed your mother, the queen? I’m sorry but we never killed your mother. Your people were the ones to kill our queen and your mother is still alive. You don’t know? She saw the wrong your kingdom was doing and came to help us. No, I don't know where she is now. If I had to guess I’d say she’s somewhere in the sun elf village. No one knows exactly where she is, only the Dragon Queen does; she also relocates a lot; you never know where she’ll be next unless she tells you.
Calix: Why would I cut you loose if you tried to attack me? I don’t trust you. I don't trust any humans after what they did to my village and all the other villages. I can't, I just can’t. Of course you think what they did was for the good of everyone. Tell me what you think of your kingdom's army attacking my village for no reason at all for just living peacefully. We never did anything. You guys killed my father for defending me and my siblings. Even after that they came back and ransacked our village. They drained all the magic from our village, ruined our farms and we couldn’t do anything or else we’d be killed. Tell me do you think doing that was for the good of everyone. Yeah that's what I thought. Your father did that out of fear, fear of some of the most happy and peaceful people all because one elf made a mistake five hundred years ago. It’s not our fault that he killed the prince over five hundred years ago. We shouldn’t have to pay the price of his mistake. My father shouldn’t have to pay the price of his mistake. You can say you're sorry all you want, it won't bring him back, nothing can bring him back.

Shortly before a final paper with pre-assigned topics was due for one of my last courses at Columbia University, our professor sent us an email telling us to forego the previous parameters of the essay, and to instead write about the events that had occurred not even forty-eight hours earlier, as well as our reflections on them, to be done in any manner we chose. Here is a very lightly revised version of what I submitted: read it, ignore it, upvote it, downvote it, hate it, love it.
I am prefacing this essay by stating that it is the culmination of several intense emotions that I have been dealing with over the last few weeks, more specifically, the last several days. It is a free-form expression of the many things occupying my mind, and, as such, it may seem overwhelming or disjointed. Nevertheless, I will do my best to convey my feelings into something representative of my beliefs, and my time at this institution.
My time at Columbia University has been bookended in an almost comically bad way; it started with Zoom classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now it ends with Zoom final exams due to the lockdown of Columbia’s campus after protests regarding the Israel – Palestine conflict reached a fever pitch not just within Morningside Campus, but the international stage. My classmates and I missed in-person orientation, and now, given recent developments, we will not have a University Commencement, a fact I found out not from Columbia, but a New York Times alert, somehow lowering my opinion of this administration’s handling of recent events even more. While the circumstances around my time at Columbia have now both begun and finished in the same manner, I am proud to say that I have not. I do not mean that Columbia has simply made me a better writer, a more critical thinker, or more well read, although it certainly has done those things, sometimes forcing me to when I was not particularly in the mood to do so, but those improvements pale in comparison to the maturity and empathy my time at this university has given me.
When the decision to transition to remote learning during the Spring 2020 semester was made, occurring only a short time after I had received my acceptance letter (email), my first thought was how the pandemic would affect my transfer from community college to Columbia in September. Admittedly, this was a selfish perspective, considering the tremendous challenges that many would endure during the ensuing lockdowns and other upheavals of life. My concerns were solely focused on myself because I was on a simple track to graduate, place my degree on my resumé, and continue my trajectory of military service to college to employment, leaving little else to consideration, to include other people who were not in my immediate circle. Sitting here now, two weeks from graduation, with a job at a Fortune 500 company lined up, I should be happy, with the plans I had made years ago coming to fruition. Yet I cannot help feeling a sense of sadness and concern for the school I have spent years of my life at, and for the world as a whole.
James Hatch, a former member of the United States’s elite Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU, for short, more commonly known by its nickname, Seal Team Six, famous for its involvement in the killing of Osama Bin Laden and the rescue of the Maersk Alabama Captain Richard Phillips from pirates, amongst other things, spent over twenty years in the military. After being wounded on a mission to rescue American serviceman sergeant Bowe Bergdahl from enemy forces, he was medically discharged, and would eventually attend Yale University. While there, he wrote a piece titled My Semester with the Snowflakes (please give this a read, it will help people who have never been in the military understand its culture, along with some of the challenges veterans face when transitioning to college), where he details his initial discomfort with being in a vastly different environment than the military, surrounded by individuals who possessed opinions and beliefs contrary to the ones he was accustomed to. He recalls witnessing a student protest the country he spent over two decades serving by coating her hand in red paint, and leaving a palm print on an American flag, and details his shock when a classmate of his explained to him what a “safe space” was, as well as his pride when he began to understand the nuances of life both inside and outside of the nation he dedicated twenty-six years to.
I can relate to Mr. Hatch, (despite my service paling in comparison to his, as well as the fact that Columbia is far superior to Yale), because, like his friends who make fun of him for attending college with a bunch of “snowflakes,” mine do the same. More significantly, however, his personal growth during his time at school is something that I have experienced myself. When I started at Columbia, I did not even know which major I would choose, and was largely lost in a world very different than the one I had come from. Despite this, I made the decision to avoid communities such as MilVets and the students who made it very clear that they came from a military background, with their style of dress and demeanor, not because those organizations and individuals are a detriment; I know for a fact that MilVets has helped countless students succeed at Columbia and beyond, and the veterans that I have relationships with are all phenomenal people, but because I wanted to pressure myself into being exposed to something different. I was uncomfortable at first, but this turned out to be the right decision. I learned as much from simply talking to people whom I would normally never converse with about topics and ideas that I had never encountered as I did during classes about great works of art, polar and Cartesian coordinates, literature, astronomy, the list goes on.
If the protests about the Israel – Palestine conflict had occurred when I first started at Columbia, I would have been frustrated by the students taking up space, forcing us to be funneled on to campus by restricted access points and identification checks. Likely irritated by the disturbance of the quiet during finals season, I would have agreed with the people who called for students to simply focus on their assignments and stop inconveniencing others by shouting about something occurring on the other side of the world. Instead, I decided to learn about the conflict, educating myself about both sides of a war that has roots extending back millennia. While Columbia University did not agree to the demands of the protestors, they achieved something else they surely desired, reaching a goal they did not state to President Shafik and her advisors: they brought attention to their cause by educating at least one additional person about it.
After reading, talking to people, listening to input from students within various classes, and understanding that things such as the intertwined nature of financial workings, as well as conflicts not just in the Middle East, but all over the world, are a level of complexity that baffles some of the most brilliant minds of ours and previous generations, I will leave my thoughts about Israel and Palestine separate from this paper. I recognize that it is important to choose a side, as remaining impartial helps no one. However, when every news agency, group and individual makes their voice heard, satirical sources such as The Onion make these kind of posts, or Adult Swim’s Rick, the nihilistic, narcissistic, psychopathic, misanthropic lead character from the series Rick and Morty, addresses the conflict in this manner, I feel that it is better to relegate myself to a much smaller part of this debate, namely the occurrences on Columbia University’s Morningside Campus.
During basic training for the United States Army, a sense of brotherhood and camaraderie is hammered into recruits’ identities. When you graduate and are assigned to a unit, one where you could be thousands of miles from home on the opposite side of the country, or even in a completely different country, serving on one of the international bases, approaching someone who you have never met before is easy. Talking to them about shared experiences and stories you have in common, and the bonding that occurs, is the product of an indoctrination process and lifestyle that has existed longer than any of us have been alive, and is proof of its effectiveness. This sense of familiarity tends to continue even when one leaves the military. The Veterans of Foreign Wars community is a place for prior servicemembers of all conflicts to share a drink, a laugh, and sometimes a tear. When I go to the Veterans Administration Hospital for periodic check-ups or the occasional injury, men and woman wearing hats commemorating their service during Vietnam waiting for their appointments greet me with a smile and a handshake, as if we have known each other for years. While working at a golf club’s greens department before I transferred to Columbia from community college, a coworker of mine who had served in the Gulf War had heard from our supervisor that I had been in the Army, and he introduced himself to me on my first day, before anyone else, telling me that if I needed anything, I only had to ask. This camaraderie has expanded to encompass not just veterans, but first responders such as firemen, EMT’s, and the police as well.
Underneath the picture on my driver’s license, the word “veteran” is emblazoned next to a star, written in bright red text and all capital letters. I know for a fact that this one-and-a-half-inch indicator has helped me during interactions with law enforcement on multiple occasions. Only earlier this semester, during Presidents’ Day weekend, I went upstate to spend time with my family. While driving back, in an effort to make the seven-hour trip at a reasonable time, I was stopped for going twenty miles-per-hour over the speed limit. The officer who pulled me over, initially reserved, became noticeably more friendly when I handed him my license and registration. Ultimately, he gave me what amounted to a parking ticket for my actions, rather than the point-incurring, heavily fined moving violation he could have charged me with.
The ‘Thin Blue Line,’ as it is known, is a reference to the idea that the police are the barrier between law abiding citizens and criminals, order and chaos. The most common representation of this concept is a black-and-white American flag, with a single blue line in the place where a red or white stripe would normally be. This style has been expanded to include numerous other colors representing other first-responders: green for the military, red and white no longer to be interpreted as the traditional stripes of the American flag, but instead meant to represent the fire department and paramedics, and even grey for corrections officers. Seeing the appropriation of one of the most iconic symbols in the world, one that flies above the White House, schools, homes, national and international events, and even the Moon, I can say, as someone who has been unwillingly entangled within that appropriation, is nothing short of terrifying.
The fact that these entities and their supporters have literally sewn themselves into the fabric of the symbol of our nation makes one think that there is little room for the countless other occupations, aspects and people that make up this country. The idea of the police being the sole protectors of our society is patently absurd, and all one must do is point out the many instances of police brutality occurring over the years to refute it. I find myself thinking of how much power the officer who stopped me just three months ago had over me. Initially, I was happy that I had received a slap on the wrist, but recently I have found myself wondering what if my license did not state that I was a veteran, would he have charged me with a ticket that would have had much more serious implications? What if he was simply having a bad day, and he decided he did not like the look of me, or the color of my car, and I was the one who he ultimately decided to vent his frustrations on? This traffic infraction, an incredibly small incident compared to all the turmoil in the world, one that involves two strangers, supposedly bonded by our professions, on the side of a quiet, New York highway, serves as a metaphor to me, reminding me of the power structures at play on a much larger scale.
On April 22^nd, 2024, I received this email, one of the many Clery Crime Alerts that students are automatically sent. An affiliate of Columbia University had their car stolen at gunpoint by two masked men on Claremont Avenue, not even a five-minute walk from campus. I skimmed the report, and almost immediately forgot about it, recognizing that crime is an inevitability in major cities, and that I needed to start my commute to school. Days later, on the night of April 30^th, 2024, I received another email from Columbia, containing one of the most ominous messages I had ever seen, one that put the kind of fear in my heart that not even the alert of an armed carjacking could. Columbia’s Emergency Management Operations Team, offering no explanations, specifications, or even a greeting or sign-off, wrote in bold letters these three sentences: “Shelter in place for your safety due to heightened activity on the Morningside campus. Non-compliance may result in disciplinary action. Avoid the area until further notice.” Due to the protests on campus during recent weeks, President Shafik testifying before Congress, Columbia’s role as one of the main catalysts for student protests around the country, and the occupation of Hamilton Hall occurring in the earlier hours of that day, it was not hard to figure out what the email was referencing. Over the next several hours, I followed news agencies, remained glued to the Columbia subreddit, and listened to WKCR, in awe of these eighteen- to twenty-two-year-old students putting themselves at risk to deliver on the ground, accurate, unbiased coverage of one of the most significant events in the school’s history.
While tracking the events from multiple perspectives, to include the social media accounts of those near and on campus live streaming them, I held out hope that the university would make good on their promise from several days earlier to not invite the NYPD back, but a frightening picture began to unfold, one that I was intimately familiar with. One WKCR reporter stated that 114^th street had so many officers on it that he could not see the asphalt of the road beneath them, and I knew that the staging area the NYPD had chosen was one of the best routes for moving towards what the military, and presumably law enforcement, would call an ‘objective.’ The officers cleared the smaller ‘objective,’ the largely unoccupied tents in front of Butler, and then moved towards Hamilton Hall, ordering even those not associated with its occupation to disperse, raising my stress levels and likely those of others, as it is rarely a good sign when police do not want their actions recorded and archived. After the initial entry to campus and clearing of areas and people in the immediate vicinity of Hamilton Hall, came the Long-Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, a device that makes a megaphone sound like a whisper, and one known for its crowd-control potential, capable of producing sounds loud enough to cause damage to ear-drums, nausea, and headaches, ordering individuals to clear away. The NYPD began its execution of tactics in a way that my fellow soldiers and I used to rehearse, tactics I never dreamed that I would witness outside of the military, and certainly not by police officers who vastly outnumbered unarmed students on their own campus. The NYPD created a perimeter, or a ‘second layer of security’ to both provide reinforcements for the officers entering the building, and to prevent the fleeing of what are called ‘squirters,’ or individuals who attempt to escape the building after the raid begins. While the ‘breach’ team moved towards the front doors, using tools from a ‘hooligan kit,’ such as bolt cutters, hand-held battering rams and crowbars, a siege machine was brought in to allow access from a window; when taking over a building, the idea is to overwhelm it from as many different directions as possible to better disorient and overwhelm its occupants. Flash-bang grenades, described as non-lethal, but known to have harmful effects, were thrown inside, presumably before entering any room, hallway, or otherwise enclosed area to minimize the resistance of anyone unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of what can only be described as an assault on the visual and auditory senses. According to the Manhattan District Attorney, one of the officers inside Hamilton Hall had what is called in the military a “negligent discharge,” meaning his firearm went off unintentionally. While no one was hurt, the question remains why at least one, and more likely, numerous other officers were carrying guns loaded with live ammunition in the first place, when they so drastically outmatched the protestors in numbers and equipment. Additionally, a negligent discharge is an act of incompetence that would result in an active-duty soldier facing serious consequences, and derision from his peers. So far, the officer remains defended by his coworkers, and unpunished by his superiors.
As all this unfolded, I communicated with my friends from the past and present. My friends from the military checked on me to ensure that I was okay, as did my friends from school. The difference in how they viewed these events highlights what I believe is the change in myself that I stated I am most proud of at the beginning of this paper. My friends from the military were commenting that the assertion of order and control by way of militarized tactics was necessary, not concerning themselves with the human toll and destruction of trust that came along with it. Conversely, my schoolmates lamented the brutality and overstepping of boundaries that the NYPD and Columbia’s administration committed, one that turned a place meant to be a beacon of free speech, expression, and ideas, into what is now a police-state with strict control over who enters it.
My education inside and outside the classroom at this institution has challenged, thrilled, and changed me. Sitting here now, at the end of this paper, the end of the semester, and the end of my time at Columbia University, I am left feeling confused and sad regarding recent events, but also hopeful for the future. I know from experience that the students, teachers, and culture of this school have the power to encourage critical thinking and initiate personal growth. If it did those things for me, surely it can do the same for others

Hey guys, needing some advice...
Probably going to be homeless in a few months. Worked in nursing for 10 years but due to my diagnosed PTSD, I've found myself unable to even leave the house for days, weeks and sometimes months at a time. Due to my condition I can't share-house and am on a basic Centrelink payment (jobseeker) waiting for the past 4 months to see if I'll be approved for disability. However my lease is up in 3 months and likely won't be renewed because I had to breach the owners for a severe black mould issue around the property. I've resourced all avenues when it comes to free food, community health and other programs but can't find anything that would help my situation and still wouldn't be enough to free up money for bills/rent.
So...
Does anyone know of any communities in Australia that you can live in for free so long as you chip in, like a commune type situation? Or an option similar to this? (NOT Nimbin lol, it used to be good but crystal-meth took over and it's been very dicey since). I'm looking into seeing if I can maybe get a loan for a van to at least have somewhere to sleep. (I'm a 33, single, male, living in QLD Australia)

I made this throwaway bc I don’t know who else to talk to. Today I got home to my boyfriend’s apartment after a long weekend apart, and he told me this couldn’t work anymore. I’m an alcoholic, and I’ve been one for over a year now. We had been together about six months when I first ever got drunk and then over the next year he got to watch me slip further and further into it. I blacked out a lot, I drank whenever we went out, but I mostly drank at home. I had never been part of the party scene in highschool or college and I considered myself a responsible person for the most part. But one night when I had been drinking and hiding how much during our weekly D&D session we had had a fight and I left early. He didn’t know I was drunk and I blacked out as soon as I drove out of the parking lot 9pm. I don’t remember anything until a cop finally pulled me over at 2 and my BAC was over .25. I was covered in vomit. I could have killed someone. He told me then that this couldnt continue. After the DUI I pretended to change but as a real alcoholic now I kept drinking in secret. I didnt drive so what harm would it do right? A month later he left me alone at his apartment for only a few hours and I walked down to the gas station to get alcohol bc he left me his keycard. By the time he came back the liter bottle I bought was gone and I was incoherent. I don’t remember that day either, just waking up in the hospital, my bac almost at a .3. When I got home all my stuff from his apartment was there. After a week of sitting in the tub and crying he came to drop off a few more of my things, and the conversation we had was so painful. He has lived with alcoholics before and this is too much it cannot continue. I thought then that we would just be done, that there was nothing I could do bc I had already had done too much to hurt him, put him in danger, put myself in danger, been so stupid and selfish. But he gave me a second chance. I started an intensive outpatient program as part of my DUI sentence and began trying to put myself back together. I fell off once when I found cider in a room I was cleaning at work, housekeeping. I blacked out and when I came too in the single bathroom. When I had stumbled home he was there since I had drunkenly texted him. Everyone knew I was drunk right away. But even though he told me if I happened again he would be gone he stuck with me. That was October 15th. Since then I’ve been sober. I completed my program on our two year anniversary, and now two months later it’s over. And I don’t blame him at all. How could I? Who wants their kids to see their mom drunk? Who wants that constant fear of coming home to find their spouse unconscious or worse? I won’t list all the reasons he gave but they were good and I don’t disagree. And it still feels like my heart was ripped out of my chest without warning. I don’t want anyone to tell me I don’t deserve this or that he should have given me more chances bc he has already done that a hundred times over what could be expected of anyone. I just needed to dump all this somewhere so I could feel like I was doing something. I love him. I just need to say it one more time before I fall apart.
Happy six months sober everyone.

Just A femboy looking for a serious ltr , so I’ll get to the point 🤗. I’m not here for the games , or ghosting . I’m here for something long term. Dating apps don’t work for me sadly.
Located: Texas . Willing to move to another state or have my future partner live with me .
Appearance :
A thick black femboy who loves dressing up sometimes . Height : 5’3. I wear glasses to read manga . My style is mostly goth/casual clothes from mostly anime shirts and chokers.
💙My hobbies:

• Anime : Some of my favorites animes are Tokyo ghoul , Sword Art Online , Yuri on ice , Future Diary, JJK, MHA, Yaoi(Love stage , Sasaki and Miyano)
• Manga : I’ve completed so many mangas from yaoi , Ouran high school host club , berserk , ect .
• Cosplay : I’ve done Pokémon & a Tokyo Ghoul cosplay before .
• Anime cons: I’ve been to at least 11 anime/Comic cons.
• Dueling (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
• Pokémon
• Yaoi
• Pc gaming
• Overwatch. I love this game have over 500 hrs .
• Marvel/DC
• Tv drama : The Vampire Diaries , Supernatural, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The 100.
• Horror- big fan of tv shows , movies like AHS
• Consoles I have are : Ps5, Nintendo switch , psp, ps vita, Nintendo 3ds , wii, gameboy , ect .

🩷What im looking for in a Relationship🩷

• [ ] Monogamous
• [ ] Single
• [ ] Loyalty
• [ ] Communication
• [ ] No kids
• [ ] Open-minded
• [ ] Common interest : Nerdy (Anime, Games, Star Wars or anything nerdy)
• [ ] Sure on what you want
• [ ] Mature
• [ ] 21+ in age

▶️MY TYPE:
TALL (taller than my own height) , very communicative, masculine(mostly beards and body hair) gamers/anime nerds. These are just preferences not a deal breaker .
✅Ps: for compatibility reasons I’m a 100% bottom.
If you made it this far, please message me an introduction about yourself. This is extremely important as it tells me alot about you and for me to give you a well detailed response. Mostly a name to call you , hobbies, location (state wise) and what you’re looking for . You may send pics in the first message if you may like 😊

my bf(18) and me (18) have gotten free now after all the competitive exams and we have started talking normally... he is a single child and lost his dad this year 3 weeks before his mains... and i was there for him at that time... he was already very mature but his dad's death made him even more mature.. he now has to take care of his mother and learn all the responsibilities...
2 years ago he introduced me to one of his friends... she was also preparing for neet like me... we used to talk rarely but after the exam we have started talking a lott.. and turns out we are actually very similar... our way of thinking and how we grew up are very very similar... today she told me that her dad passed away when she was just 3 years old...
and i have been thinking that people have gone through soo much... they have literally lost people that they love... i can't imagine the pain ...
i have had a pretty good life compared to them... i haven't realky seen the death of anyone that i actually cared about... so it was my first time when my bf lost his dad... i mean i don't know his dad but it was like i could feel all his pain in my heart... i was soo devasted... my life before that had been candies and chocolates... and i used to laugh at basically everything... and even enjoyed dark jokes... that event changed me alott.. but after a few days the pain went away and i was back to normal i think...
soo when today his friend told me about her dad... i relieved it all over again.. and i have been thinking that maybe i need to change my ways... i have lived my life like a child always protected from the reality... but the reality is harsh and i need to understand that...
what changes should i make in myself? i am asking this because people never know what someone in front of you has gone through... and i never want to say or do anything that might upset anyone.. i feel bad about everything.. and i feel like the problems that i cry about are nothing..

10th Moon, 25 AC

Over Greyhelm
Her roar was heard well before she’d been spotted coming over the horizon. The thunderclap of her wings followed quickly soon after as the behemoth that was Veraxes neared the tents. The watchful eyes of those below could see two white blobs, small compared to the massive black dragon sitting between her shoulder blades.
Aelor Belearys had made sure to wear his finest white plate, his face had been painted black to put an emphasis on his eyes and the white plate he’d worn. There his purple eyes moved slowly looking for the perfect place to bring her down.
His kinsmen had left days prior to him to make sure they’d arrived on time, meanwhile Aelor and his younger brother Aegon had stayed behind, the little Conqueror in the making had wanted to fly with his elder brother and while his mother Jeyne had protested it, no-one could stop Aelor from making it so.
They should have landed earlier than they did. Aegon had asked his brother to fly for a bit longer, and so Veraxes did just that, she encircled the campgrounds for six loops. Her roar echoing for all to hear.
The sound of which was one that Aelor knew would cause some tension. It was akin to a shrieking, one made by a hundred beings living giving one final shout as if they were in fear for their life.
Yet it came from a dragon which made it far more heart wrenching.
Eventually Veraxes banked right and moved towards an open field, where the tent of House Belaerys would be put up. Well away from all. A place where Veraxes could slumber and watch over them.
Slowly Aelor undid the chain that kept him on the saddle and aided his younger brother in doing the same. Once that was done, they’d made their way down Veraxes’s back and onto the ground.
There he’d stand, awaiting servants, knights and members of House Belaerys to arrive.
(open to the Belaerys and anyone who wants to chat with a rider next to his beast ig)

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/ThrowRA999333
Originally posted to TrueOffMyChest
I(29F) made my step-father(50M) an outsider at my wedding that he paid for. I need to make it up to him but I dont know how.
Thanks to u/queenlegolas and u/Direct-Caterpillar77 for suggesting this BoRU
Trigger Warnings: child abandonment, emotional manipulation, possible exploitation
Original Post: May 6, 2024
I ruined the memory of the best day of my life because I was too blind to see what I was doing was hurting one of the most important people in my life. I got married 2 months ago to the love of my life, and he finally opened my eyes to what I did. He showed me the perspective I didnt understand.
When I was 5 my father left us. Just disappeared without trace. He and my mom were already separated by that point, but he was still living with us. 3 years later my mom started dating Rob. He was quite a bit younger than she was, I belive she was 34 and he was 26. Today he is very wealthy (he wasnt when he met my mom) and he treats my mother like a queen. Whenever she is around him she looks like the happiest person in the world. My younger sister looks a lot like me and mom, but her personality is for sure a reflexion of her dad, always telling jokes and being just a nice person all around while me and my mom are more serious and cold.
As I got older, Rob became more present in my life he got married to my mom and she got pregnant. But it was still pretty weird seeing him as a father figure mostly because people would asume he was my brother all the time. When I was in HS, I was dating this boy, and he broke up with me at my friends house. My mom was on a night shift and I had to ask Rob to pick me up. When he did, he conforted me, took me to get ice cream, and when we got home he told me something like this (without knowing what happened) "whoever made you sad doesnt understand that you are the best girl in the world, and its their loss. Dont beat yourself up because other people are too stupid to see it"
I just said to him "I wish you were my dad". He smiled and said that he wished that too, and he could be if I wanted to. We left it at that. I never called him dad. But from that point foward I saw him as a father and I think he knows it.
I finally reconected to my biological father about an year ago. It happened because I got engaged. When I came to my mom's house one day, he was there and I couldnt even recongnise him. He was way thiner than he was when I was a kid. He struggled for years with depression and substance abuse. My mom and Rob actually helped him get clean and they even paid for his stay at a great reabilitation center. They decided together that it was time for me to finally meet him again.
I dont want to explore much on how this was, but all I have to say is that im glad to have him back in my life and im glad for being able to help him heal. He sufered a lot, he got lost. But now he is at least trying.
Rob and my mother payed for everything at my wedding, and everything was amaizing. The church was beautiful, my husband looked amaizing. The one mistake I made: I chose my biological father over Rob. I chose the man that did abandon me for over 20 years over the one the took me as his own and gave me everything he could when he didnt have to. I chose the man that broke my mothers heart over the one that saved her. I dont know why I did what I did. Looking back on it I feel so fucking stupid. My dad didnt deserve to walk me down the aisle. My dad dint deserve to be in all the pictures with my mom and my husbands parents. It should have been Rob.
I dont know, I think I was compensating for the time lost with my dad. Everything was still so fresh with him. I was helping him out, he talked to me everyday, I felt like he deserved to be back in my life.
When we were deciding who would give speeches, we had to cut some because it was just too many and me and my husband didnt really like the idea of hearing speeches for and hour and a half. So we decided for 5 people each. When I gave the list to my husband he even asked "no Rob?" And I said "yeah, my mom is already doing one". The others I chose were 2 of my bridesmaids, my mom, my sister (she really pushed for it) and, again, my dad. My husband said I should reconsider, He even thought of giving up one of his to put Rob in. I said it was fine, he didnt need to do that. My whole thinking when doing this was that Rob has my sister. He will have his moment. This was the only chance my dad had.
But I went too far. I completly cut him out of the party basically. If you look at the photos it doesnt even look like he went. My mom looks like she is faking a smile in half the pictures. I dont have a single picture with him. He only apears in group pictures, and some with my husband.
I only realised all of this when I texted Rob 2 days ago, asking him about a gift im giving my husbands for his birthday. He anwsered. Then asked about my car that is with a mecanic friend of his. He awnsered. Then I asked him something about my insurance. He did not anwser. A little over an hour later my mom called me. She just said "do you have no shame? Do you not understand what you did?" I just listend and she told me not to talk to Rob for now. I was just so fucking confused. I got home and told my husband and he just said that he knows what she is referencing but he will talk to her first.
Later, he showed me the wedding photos, he went step by step on everything I have listed here. He talked calmly, and broke it down for me. By the end I was crying so much that I had a headache. What an inconsiderate idiot I am. He told me that he and my mom didnt tell me anything before the party because Rob asked them not to. He understood that it was important for me for my father to be a big part of this day and when they protested he said that they should not make me worry about these small things.
I dont know what changed from before the party to now. My mom only tells me that he needs a bit of time and that he will talk to me soon. My husband keeps telling me that I made a mistake but Rob will be understanding and will forgive me. And I know that he will. He 100% has already forgiven me. He probably felt something when I was texting him that day that broke him down. I dont know what I said to trigger him at that moment, but also it doesnt really matter. I did the real damage at the party probably since he apeared to be fine with everything else before it (It was not fine by any means)
I have to make it up to him. I dont know how but I just do. I guess im just writing this here because im a little lost. Im too ashamed to talk about it with anyone else I know apart from my mom and husband. She doesnt tell me anything and my husband keeps insiting that everything will be fine and for me not to worry too much about it. And he is probably right but I feel like me not worrying about this is just being incosiderate to Rob again. I have to worry. I just dont know what to do.
Im now at work, and the only thing I can think about is this. Nothing else matters to me right now.
If someone has any kind of idea of how I can make it up to him I would greatly appreciate it.
Edit: Literally 40 minutes after I uploaded this, my mom texted me saying that Rob wants to speak to me tonight.
Relevant Comments
OOP on the situation of her insurance and Rob

OOP: Actually, Rob does not pay for my insurance. He only helped me set it up. And this is not about money at all, I make more than enough money and my husband is also very well off. Rob and my mom paid for the wedding because they wanted to. They told me it would be their gift for me and they gave me the money to use it on the wedding. My husbands family gave us a sum to help pay for our new house.
But your comment made me realise that this might be the problem, he might think im using him for money. That just breaks my heart. I do not want his money. I would happly take myself out of the my mom's will and his (if he has me in it, which he probably does), if it means I can fix this.
Also, he was not rich at all when he met my mom. He became successful after their marriage. Just to clarify.

OOP on why she didn’t plan the wedding photos ahead of time

OOP: My plan was that I wanted spontanious pictures and the photographer had to be changed last minute. In my head it worked out fine, what I wanted was to have the "important" pictures taken early, bridesmades, groomsman and family and later on have just spontanious pictures.
It was something I was too stuck on, this notion of "wasting time" doing pictures, speaches, etc.
But that was such dumb thinking. Thats what wedding are for.
At the end of the day though, everything went great apart from this disastrous oversight of mine.

Top Comments
RevolutionaryHat8988: I want to hug Rob. We all need a Rob in our lives.
Deleted Commenter: You’re almost 30 and needed all of this pointed out to you?
You made multiple conscious choices to exclude Rob from your wedding and only cared after you brought up an issue with your insurance: another thing he helped to pay for.
At your age you should know that choices have consequences.
I’m not sure there is anything you can do to make up for the choices you made.
 
Update May 9, 2024
First, I want to say some things before posting:

1. No, I am not Linda, my biological father isnt dying. Got a DM in here asking.
   
2. My sister is mostly just sad, not really mad at me. Just said she understood my situation but it still was really shitty seeing her father taken for granted and sad.
   
3. My mother is the person most pissed off at me at the moment. She is the only one that still does not talk to me. I mean she does, but not really.
   
4. For the people saying my husband and mother were idiots for not talking to me before: they agree and have told me this. My husband specially. Im not trying to shift blame here, just saying this for the people that talked about it
   

I was not going to post anything else on here. Not a fan of being called names and for people to keep saying that Rob should leave our family. Although Im well aware that I deserve most of everything that was said about me. The coments saying "the apple doesnt fall far from the tree" in regaards to me and my biological father were the ones that hurt the most as it is a fear of mine and the reason I dont drink much and dont use any drugs or anything that could be addictive. But seing how there are other things that could make us more similar than I realised is really frightening.
The day I posted here, my mom told me Rob wanted to speak to me and to go to their home after work. I went and waited for Rob to arrive. When he did my mom left us alone and he started off by saying that he was hurt by what I did at the wedding, that he knows he is not my father and that he would never try to force that on me, but that he at least thought he had some sort of importance in my life and seeing me just not give him any importance apart from talking to him when I need help with something made him realise that I do not view him the he thought I did.
At this point I was already crying so much that I couldnt even talk. I waited for him to finish and when he did I just told basically what you all saw in the post. That I fucked up bad, that I was incosiderate, that he is one of the most importante people in my life and that what I did was unforgivable.
The only reason I am posting it here is because of something during the conversation. He said something about my time at college and I went "but that was because..." and stoped. He asked me "what? because of what" I just said "nothing, you are right, that was my fault and I should have done better".
He was pretty angry at that point and he started to smile and we talked about me taking responsibility for my actions. Its something I am terrible at, it was an issue at my old job and since then I have been trying to be better at it but not very successfuly. He asked what changed and I told him about the post. Multiple people in the comments said that I dont take responsibility and yes, they read right through me. I showed it to him and reading the post calmed him down.
And no, he did not read the comments, just the ones I showed it to him, I would not let him see what some of you were saying about my mom.
So yes, he told me if I was going to say something else to thank you people for calling me out for not taking responsibility.
We talked about a lot of other things not related to the wedding. At the end I just told him that there were 2 things I wanted to say for him to take away from this conversation: I really did mean it when I was in HS and said that I wished he was my dad. Even now, with my biological dad in my life. I still feel that way. And the second thing is that I know that it will be hard for him to belive it right now because of what happened, but I will try to prove it to him for as long as it takes.
For those interested, I`ve been going to a therapist with my biological father once every 2 weeks since he came back, but I think I need one for myself so I will try to make it happen soon.
I want to thank 3 particular commenters that helped me.

1. The person that told me to take it slow with Rob and dmed me to stop looking at the thread cause I was spiraling.
   
2. The one that said: "People fuck up. Sometimes badly. But in a loving and caring family it's never the end of things as long as you are willing to own your mistakes."
   
3. And most importantly the best comment that was fair and gave me the right advice: "You are a spoilt, selfish, childish person. I don’t know that rob will forgive you but you can’t simply wait to see if he does. Write him a letter in which you fully own up to your awful behaviour. Do not say “I wish someone had stopped me” - that isn’t taking accountability for the way you treat people. With him and your mom paying for your wedding and your in laws paying for your house - you need to grow up and reflect very seriously on how you interact with everyone around you."
   

I guess the post served as the letter in the scenario, thank you, that was the slap in the face I needed to realise that I need to do a lot of work to improve myself and that the wedding was not its own thing, it was a reflection of who I am right now and I dont like what I see when I look in the mirror. Also, Rob more or less told me something similar, just not as a agressive, so this comment made me take his words as not him atacking me, but trying to help me understand my flaws.
Im not sure how I will make up for this. Rob is telling me that over time, just me being how I was before my biological father showed up will be enough for him. I dont doubt him but its not enough for me. I will live with what I did for the rest of my life. I will always remember.
The way I am now I actually need people to call me out for this kinds of things and its not fair to them. I will work on it, I have to. I will try my hardest to not ever hurt anyone I love this way again. Thankfully now I have someone in my husband to help me do that and call me out if needed. Thank you.
 

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In 1864, Nobel developed an explosives detonator, a small wooden plug placed in a larger charge of nitroglycerin, which ignited and exploded.
This breakthrough was based on his father's experiments in explosives. Alfred Nobel's father, Immanuel, was a self-made engineer and entrepreneur. His mother, Andriette Ahlsell, was an accountant.
The Nobel family moved to St. Petersburg in 1842. Alfred studied natural sciences, languages, literature, and chemistry. He became fluent in six languages by the age of 24.
The Nobel family had a family business selling explosives, so the Nobel brothers had a lifelong interest in explosives.
In the 1860s, they began experimenting with different types of explosives.
By exposing the mixture to moderate heat and shock, it ignited, igniting the larger explosive charge. It was a major breakthrough and helped Nobel's family build a fortune in the explosives industry.
Originally, black powder was the only reliable explosive in mines. But Nobel was also interested in nitroglycerin, a new liquid compound he had discovered.
In addition to building explosives, Alfred also engaged in numerous other business endeavors. He owned a large iron and steel company named Bofors. The company eventually became a leading manufacturer of cannons.
Now the Nobel price is awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace, and economics in respect of Alfred Nobel.

Hey everyone, I'm a highschooler currently on his poetry unit if anyone wants any context behind the possibly retarded things I am about to mention in this post.
Out of the two Ginsberg's I've tried reading, Howl and Kaddish, they both seem bland. Howl seems to be a hour long rant about the 1950s and nothing more. Kaddish seems to be a hour long lament over the death of Ginsberg's mother and nothing more. These poems seem radically different to something like The Raven (with the exception of a dark theme). There is not much rhyme or rhythm. I appreciate the catharsis Ginsberg presents but its presented in such a boring way.
I feel like I'm not getting something. Can someone hopefully correct me on this view?