What to write on the inside of a card to a friend

Me (17M) and my friend I have a crush on (17F) went to a party, and I need some advice

2024.06.09 15:37 Bright_Alice Me (17M) and my friend I have a crush on (17F) went to a party, and I need some advice

(Sorry for my English, it’s not my native language) So we’ve been friends for a long time, but recently began to get way closer to each other. She insisted a lot for me to go to a nacional party in my country, held by my school. I of course went there and stayed the hole party with her and her friends. After I got home, she texted me inviting to the same nacional party, but held by someone else. I accepted, this time it was only her and her best friend in our group. All three of us got away from the actual party and stayed alone, where we chatted and played in the playground as if we were little kids. When I was to say goodbye, I hugged her, out of nowhere gave her a subtle kiss in the head and said goodbye to her best friend. But, I also said she’s “play hard to get”, but this phrase here in my country, in some cases can be interpreted as something bad apart from the idiom meaning. So, I know this may sound silly, but I have 0 life experiences in relationships. Should I text her to know if I actually made her feel bad, and what can I write her? Or rather leave her alone and say nothing? I really have no idea on what should I do.
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2024.06.09 15:36 Fantastic-Ninja-7345 The saga continues

So it’s been about 1 and 1/2 weeks since my FA “ex” pushed me away and as I stated in previous threads we had contact twice. On Thursday she liked one of my OG posts about a concert I was going to. On Friday I drove to the city and messaged her saying I wanted to drop some of her stuff off at her sisters house. She got right back and said she also drove down to the city and asked if I wanted to meet and give her the stuff. We met, sat together and she was back to sitting close , laying her head on me, holding hands, warmth with physical affection. We talked a lot , I let her know what my biggest issues were with us. She told me she finally was no longer talking with her ex of 5 years before me. She told me that her previous marriage ended after 10 years when the guy came to her one day with a bunch of built up resentment of all the things he didn’t like about her that he kept inside and just dumped her, never talked again. She said it took her by complete surprise because he was always so nice and never complained about anything until that day. Her BF of 5 years was cruel, he would tell her nasty things but would just generalize about things he didn’t like about her without getting specific. I told her that I would always tell her what I didn’t like specifically and gave her a few examples..she did the same for me.. we joked around and laughed a bit and then we kissed for awhile. I told myself I wasn’t going to stay long so when I left o told her that if she wanted to see me the next day to let me know. She messaged me an hour later and was fairly non stop..initiating all the messages and sending multiple in intervals when I didn’t respond right away…saying she loved my smell and that it was all over her…we messaged late until the night like things had been prior to the break… she asked me to share some personal things with her which I did. We said good night.lthe next morning she tried to call early but I missed it since I was in a meeting. She asked me to remind her of my birthday . Sent a picture with comment but when I checked it was erased.. I tried calling back but no answer…asked her to call… I then asked if she wanted to go to the concert… she said she would really like to but not sure yet..she then called and asked how I felt about us going together given our situation. I told her that if she wanted to go and I wanted her to go then that’s all that mattered. She said she would get back to me..about an hour before the concert she writes that she thinks that we have too much feelings and history going on and we cannot hang out.. she says it’s better we get a fresh start once we have had time to become more stable and don’t have so much emotion… said it’s best that way… I called her.. she said that I told her that I would give her time and space ..A week and half wasn’t enough and she hasn’t had the time to figure things out… she still had doubts and if we went to the concert together it would only bring us closer and she doesn’t want to hurt me further if she still has doubts … framed it as she asked for a break not a breakup … I could sense her frustration.. I told her fine and we hung up..
I wrote her saying that I believe doubts need to be resolved by spending time together so we could figure them out either way but I wasn’t going to push .l said I would give her time and space she needs.
Then this morning I wrote that I came to the realization that if her doubts were because she saw more negative things about me than positive I would just have to accept that and try not to take it personally.. I said that I don’t want to be anyone’s “maybe”
submitted by Fantastic-Ninja-7345 to Disorganized_Attach [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:36 Fantastic-Ninja-7345 Continuing the saga ….

So it’s been about 1 and 1/2 weeks since my FA “ex” pushed me away and as I stated in previous threads we had contact twice. On Thursday she liked one of my OG posts about a concert I was going to. On Friday I drove to the city and messaged her saying I wanted to drop some of her stuff off at her sisters house. She got right back and said she also drove down to the city and asked if I wanted to meet and give her the stuff. We met, sat together and she was back to sitting close , laying her head on me, holding hands, warmth with physical affection. We talked a lot , I let her know what my biggest issues were with us. She told me she finally was no longer talking with her ex of 5 years before me. She told me that her previous marriage ended after 10 years when the guy came to her one day with a bunch of built up resentment of all the things he didn’t like about her that he kept inside and just dumped her, never talked again. She said it took her by complete surprise because he was always so nice and never complained about anything until that day. Her BF of 5 years was cruel, he would tell her nasty things but would just generalize about things he didn’t like about her without getting specific. I told her that I would always tell her what I didn’t like specifically and gave her a few examples..she did the same for me.. we joked around and laughed a bit and then we kissed for awhile. I told myself I wasn’t going to stay long so when I left o told her that if she wanted to see me the next day to let me know. She messaged me an hour later and was fairly non stop..initiating all the messages and sending multiple in intervals when I didn’t respond right away…saying she loved my smell and that it was all over her…we messaged late until the night like things had been prior to the break… she asked me to share some personal things with her which I did. We said good night.lthe next morning she tried to call early but I missed it since I was in a meeting. She asked me to remind her of my birthday . Sent a picture with comment but when I checked it was erased.. I tried calling back but no answer…asked her to call… I then asked if she wanted to go to the concert… she said she would really like to but not sure yet..she then called and asked how I felt about us going together given our situation. I told her that if she wanted to go and I wanted her to go then that’s all that mattered. She said she would get back to me..about an hour before the concert she writes that she thinks that we have too much feelings and history going on and we cannot hang out.. she says it’s better we get a fresh start once we have had time to become more stable and don’t have so much emotion… said it’s best that way… I called her.. she said that I told her that I would give her time and space ..A week and half wasn’t enough and she hasn’t had the time to figure things out… she still had doubts and if we went to the concert together it would only bring us closer and she doesn’t want to hurt me further if she still has doubts … framed it as she asked for a break not a breakup … I could sense her frustration.. I told her fine and we hung up..
I wrote her saying that I believe doubts need to be resolved by spending time together so we could figure them out either way but I wasn’t going to push .l said I would give her time and space she needs.
Then this morning I wrote that I came to the realization that if her doubts were because she saw more negative things about me than positive I would just have to accept that and try not to take it personally.. I said that I don’t want to be anyone’s “maybe”
submitted by Fantastic-Ninja-7345 to FearfulAvoidants [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:36 FinalDawnRP Final Dawn Season 2 trailer of Underbelly Faction (Soon)

.....A society living in the T Line Metro station underneath of Pittsburgh. Hazardous and dangerous, it is used by the few that are insane enough or desperate enough as a way to live free from the restrictions of Pittsburgh itself. While the city knows of it's existence, not much can be done to actually deal with the people due to the violent nature they have towards anyone working for the city. Many of the drugs and contraband within the city can be found here, as well as promenent gang leaders and violent criminals.....

Season 2 of Final Dawn

First it began as a mere whisper among the crowds, a story told in bars and among friends. But like any good rumor, it spread like wildfire. Especially since it was such a simple story. The old city of Louisville was said to have been untouched by time itself, but more importantly, it was untouched by the bombs of the old world that was meant to curb the infection that tainted the cities. Kentucky was ground zero for the Knox Infection, the bombings, the gas, it killed almost everyone and tainted the land. Many considered Kentucky to be a worthless territory... but now, the nation's eyes were fixated on the hidden treasures from the old world. Gossip spread, of course the most basic ones were the idea of all the gold from pawnshops and the infected. As well as all the old world tech, but soon those ideas formed a wider idea. An idea of 'the treasure of Louisville', a military stash within the city that no one else had access to. It was rumored that it would bring unbelievable wealth, power or influence to the one who claimed it.
Changing their lives for the better or worse. But the preservation of the city was also tantalizing, for those who wanted to escape from their original lives. You are a civilian or an exile from the Pittsburg Quarantine Zone. A collection of united and vassalized societies from the East with a diverse collection of ideologies and beliefs. For whatever reason, you were tantalized by the rumors of Louisville and joined the expedition to enter the city. Many have come here seeking what this city has to offer. Few of which turn out to be good people. They could be adventuring towards the city, with the glint of gold in their eye, or running into it to escape from their past.
Regardless, this is not a place where you can expect justice to be common. Who will you be inside of Louisville?
How will you define yourself among the sea of civilians looking to strike it rich in this new land?
(Roleplay, Hardcore, 18+, EU, Modded)
![video]()
submitted by FinalDawnRP to projectzomboid [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:33 Icanneverpickthese I went down the rabbit hole yesterday. I don't know why I do it because I get so annoyed each time! But.......

What happened to her night terrors?
What happened to her severe OCD that kept her awake at night?
What happened to her neck pain that was not allowing her to turn her head?
What happened to her passing out episodes that she was seeing a specialist for?
Where's the flare up this month? Usually happens by now or so.
What happened to the skin infection?
What happened to applying for the internship?
Did she send the thank you cards to the people that donated to the burn family?
What has she taken to grams friends since mothers day to make sure she continues being there for them?
What happened to the countless lawsuits, charges, harassment and other victimization she has had to endure that her lawyer is on top of?
I already know the answers to all of these questions and it can be summed up in one word....Kylea
submitted by Icanneverpickthese to KyleaGomezsnark [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:32 Ok-Ask5860 John Smith's actions at the end of the series proves that the Resistance could have won against the Axis

At the end of the series, John Smith decimated the Nazi leadership to gain power and has the US all by himself. This fact proves what Bill Whitcolft always said: if you cannot beat the enemy in a straight-up fight, you wait for an opportunity to destroy them from the inside out.
Therefore, the Resistance could have done this from the very beginning when the US is occupied: building the vast network of moles in the form of collaborators whose tasks are to gain trust and high position in both the Nazi and Imperial Japan to decimate them from the inside out. However, based on the lousy writing, this kinds of plan is far too beyond the level of thinking of the Resistance who busy chasing after the film reels full of fantasy. Moreover, Whitcolft could have been a Resistance mole and supporter who do what he said when he was forced to join the Nazis but no he did nothing until John Smith death and he did not even bother influencing his friend to fight for his country or even trying to kill John Smith himself when he has a chance to do what he needs to do.
I know that the Resistance is written to be a failure and a joke in the series but this kinds of elements just make them far too ridiculous. Bill Whitcolft is portrayed as a gutless patriot who did not do a single thing until the end of the series to help the Resistance or liberate his country in anyway. Suddenly, when John Smith died, he suddenly stood up and did what he supposed to do with no built-up at all and his faction within the American Reich just popped up from nowhere like the BCR.
What do you guys think?
By the way, stay tune for When World Collides Fanfict by AmericanPride2874
submitted by Ok-Ask5860 to maninthehighcastle [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:32 boutell New US and Canadian CCS chargers in May 2024

Here are all (*) of the new US and Canadian CCS (Level 3 fast-charging) stations that rolled out in May 2024, according to the Department of Energy. You can get the data yourself here.
These chargers are suitable for most new EVs on the market, except for:
  1. Tesla drivers who haven't bought the official CCS adapter yet. Certain older Teslas need additional work done to accept the adapter.
  2. Nissan Leaf owners, owners of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, and some owners of older cars that also use CHAdeMO. If you drive such a car, see my matching post in .
Some of these chargepoints will be "refreshes," e.g. the provider replaced them with faster chargers etc. Some may be incorrect. This report is only as good as the Alternative Fuels Data Center data.
There were 255 CCS charging stations with a total of 606 chargepoints added or refreshed in May 2024, which is a major uptick in both stations and chargepoints. For comparison, there were only 226 new CCS charging stations in May 2023, with only 421 chargepoints. Things are trending upwards overall.
Some part of this is due to Tesla Magic Dock stations. Previously Tesla didn't report these to the AFDC as CCS, but now they do. And that makes sense because all CCS drivers can use them.
NOTE: most Tesla Superchargers do NOT have magic dock as of this writing (all those shown in this report should have it). I recommend using PlugShare to locate compatible stations for your vehicle.
(*) "What about other Tesla Superchargers? Can't everybody charge with NACS now?"
It's coming for many makes and models, and for newer Ford models as well as a few other manufacturers charging at v3 and v4 Superchargers is already an option with a free adapter from the automakers. GM should release their adapter this year. But since they are not open to all CCS vehicles, this report is not the place for them. Tesla's app provides the best guide to their locations, including locations that work with non-Tesla vehicles.
Other Notes
To streamline this post, multi-chargepoint locations are listed with the number of chargepoints first.
For serious trip planning, I recommend PlugShare. But by all means check out these reported new locations and submit reviews on PlugShare, which makes things better for everyone.
If you'd like to know about new chargers along your routes right away, or just prefer not to check this list monthly when new openings are rare in your area, I've set up a free service that provides email notifications as soon as they open. You can sign up at evpov.com. Or not! I don't really have a business plan here, I built it to help EV owners like myself. PlugShare has a similar feature.
➡ AL (1) SEAM HYUNDAI BACKLOT 29736 Frederick Blvd Daphne, AL 36526 (1) HARTSELLE 1 STATION 1 (L) 214 Chestnut St NW Hartselle, AL 35640 (1) 833 Eastern Blvd 833 Eastern Blvd Montgomery, AL 36117 (2) CAT CARD BK PHENIX CITY2 1135 East 280 Bypass Phenix City, AL 36867 (4) Baldwin County Highway Department 22070 AL-59 Robertsdale, AL 36567 ➡ AZ (1) FINDLAY BUICK GMC 1006 COMMERCE DR PRESCOTT, AZ 86305 ➡ BC (4) 7Charge - Langley 20250 88th ave Langley, BC V1M 2Y4 (1) WESTCOASTNISSAN WC NISSAN LV3 19625 Lougheed Hwy. Pitt Meadows, BC V3Y 1Z2 (1) Alberni Chrysler - DC 2651 Port Alberni Hwy Port Alberni, BC V9Y 8P2 (1) YVR Parkade 3211 Grant McConachie Way Richmond, BC V7B 0A4 (2) TOTEM FORD LEVEL 3 DUAL 4631 Keith Avenue Terrace, BC V8G 1K3 ➡ CA (4) ARCO 7171 - 895 Grass Valley Hwy, Auburn, WA 895 Grass Valley Hwy Auburn, CA 95603 (10) Bay Area CoRoasters 2322 Fifth St Berkeley, CA 94710 (1) BWP EV CHARGE DCFC BWP LOT 1 110 West Magnolia Boulevard Burbank, CA 91502 (1) Acura of Concord 1340 Concord Avenue Concord, CA 94520 (10) Park & Shop 1679 Willow Pass Rd Concord, CA 94520 (1) Danville - Library Parking Lot 400 Front Street Danville, CA 94526 (8) Downey Crossroads 9501 Lakewood Blvd Downey, CA 90240 (6) EV Connect Hardware Support 615 N Nash El Segundo, CA 90245 (2) South LA Yard P2 786 S. Mission Rd Los Angeles, CA 90023 (1) G&M OIL G&M #194 2 6101 W Manchester Ave Los Angeles, CA 90045 (1) Honda of Pasadena Public 1965 East Foothill Boulevard Pasadena, CA 91107 (6) Rialto Marketplace Phase II 1530 S Riverside Ave. Rialto, CA 92376 (6) H&S ENERGY PM# CHEVRON 3 1050 Sunset Boulevard Rocklin, CA 95765 (4) ARCO 7161 - 1243 W March Lane, Stockton, CA 1243 W March Lane Stockton, CA 95207 (1) Ocean Honda of Ventura 6450 Auto Center Drive Ventura, CA 93003 (4) ARCO 5731 - 805 Reed Ave, West Sacramento, CA 805 Reed Avenue West Sacramento, CA 95605 (4) 7Charge - Woodland 1670 E Main St Woodland, CA 95776 ➡ CO (3) Fisher Auto 6025 Arapahoe Road Boulder, CO 80303 (2) CO ENERGY OFFCE GUNNISON PL2 202 East Tomichi Avenue Gunnison, CO 81230 ➡ CT (2) CROWLEY AUTO LEVEL 3 - B 238 Broad St Bristol, CT 06010 (1) MB OF DANBURY FRONT DC 1 1 Miry Brook Road Danbury, CT 06810 (1) MB OF DANBURY FRONT DC 2 10 Miry Brook Rd Danbury, CT 06810 (1) Bolles Motors Ellington 84 West Road Ellington, CT 6029 (2) Applegreen Electric - RT 15 Fairfield NB Service Plaza 1396 Merritt Pkwy Fairfield, CT 06825 (4) Applegreen Electric - RT 15 Fairfield SB Service Plaza 4647 Merritt Pkwy Fairfield, CT 06825 (1) MANHONDA HONDA-CUSTOMER 24 Adams St Manchester, CT 06042 (2) Applegreen Electric - I-95 Milford NB Service Plaza I 95 Northbound Milford, CT 06460 (2) Applegreen Electric - I-95 Milford SB Service Plaza I-95 Connecticut Tpke Milford, CT 06460 (2) Cody's Diner 95 Water St New Haven, CT 06511 (4) Applegreen Electric - RT 15 North Haven NB Service Plaza 14 Upper State St North Haven, CT 06473 (1) Vachon Cadillac Putnam 139 POMFRET ST PUTNAM, CT 06260 ➡ FL (1) Gary Yeomans Ford Villages 11660 U.S. 441 Belleview, FL 34420 (4) Randy Marion Cadillac of Jacksonville 4700 Southside Blvd Jacksonville, FL 32216 (2) Waffle House Madison 145 SE Bandit St Madison Madison, FL 32340 (2) Certification 4201 Vineland Orlando, FL 32811 (4) Orange County Multi Cultural Center 7149 W Colonial Dr Orlando, FL 32818 (1) OUC SHINGLECREEK DC 9939 universal Blvd Orlando, FL 32819 (1) PENSACOLA BGC STATION 1 5651 Pensacola Blvd Pensacola, FL 32505 (1) Maus Acura of North Tampa 11025 N Florida Ave Tampa, FL 33612 (6) 11700 Mezzo Dr 11700 Mezzo Dr Venice, FL 34293 Venice, FL 34293 ➡ GA (2) 464 Hwy 441 464 Hwy 441 Clayton, GA 30525 (28) QuikTrip - Tesla Supercharger 11220 GA-142 Covington, GA 30014 (1) GEORGIA POWER MCRAE DC2 90 W Oak St McRae-Helena, GA 31055 ➡ HI (2) Hawaiian Electric Kona Office 74-5519 Kaiwi St Kailua- Kona, HI 96740 ➡ IA (6) Ames Ford Lincoln 123 Airport Rd. Ames, IA 50010 (2) Audobon Waspys Truck Stop 2079 U S 71 Audubon, IA 50025 (6) LINDQUISTFORD FC 3 3950 Middle Rd Bettendorf, IA 52722 (1) Kimberly Car City 625 West Kimberly Road Davenport, IA 52806 (2) Hy-Vee Euclid 2540 Euclid Ave Des moines, IA 50317 (1) HYUNDAI STORE HYUNDAI S 4601 Singing Hills Boulevard Sioux City, IA 51106 (1) HYUNDAI STORE HYUNDAI N 4601-25 Singing Hills Blvd Sioux City, IA 51106 ➡ IL (2) ROSEN GROUP CPE250 2 789 S Randall Rd Algonquin, IL 60102 (1) Volvo Cars Lisle - DCFC 4325 Lincoln Avenue Lisle, IL 60532 (2) Watermark Ford of Marion 1910 W. Coolidge Ave. Marion, IL 62959 (1) Eagleson Automotive Center 520 Whittle Ave Olney, IL 62450 (1) Schimmer Hyundai 911 Shooting Park Road Peru, IL 61354 (4) Casey's #3336 - Troy 440 Edwardsville Rd Troy, IL 62294 (1) KIA OF URBANA WELCOME CENTER 1111 Napleton Way Urbana, IL 61802 ➡ IN (1) Wiers Chevrolet GMC 416 S. HALLECK DEMOTTE, IN 46310 (2) Hubler Ford Franklin 2140 North Morton Street Franklin, IN 46131 (6) 7321 Heritage Square Drive (US-JEF-252-3B) 7321 Heritage Square Drive Granger, IN 46530 (4) Kokomo 1815 E Morgan St Kokomo, IN 46901 (1) All American Cadillac 6580 W HOMETOWN BLVD MUNCIE, IN 47304 (1) Muller Acura of Merrillville 3301 West Lincoln Highway Merrillville, IN 46410 (4) Plainfield 1610 Reeves Rd Plainfield, IN 46168 (4) Ford Charge - Pearson Ford 10650 N Michigan Rd Zionsville, IN 46077 ➡ KY (4) Pilot Travel Center 41 3060 Owingsville Road Mount Sterling, KY 40353 ➡ LA (6) Tanger Outlets Gonzales, Gonzales LA Under Armour Entrance DCFC 2100 Tanger Boulevard Gonzales, LA 70737 (6) 290 Town Center Pkwy (US-NBD-2GZ-3B) 290 Town Center Pkwy Slidell, LA 70458 ➡ MA (1) 400 SUMMER ST 400 SUMMERP3-3 400 Summer St Boston, MA 02210 (20) Trillium Brewery - Tesla Supercharger 100 Royall St Canton, MA 02021 (1) DURAND CHEVY DURAND CHEV 223 Washington St Hudson, MA 01749 (2) NA208940 HND L3 A 88 Walkers Brook Dr Reading, MA 01867 ➡ MB (2) Shell Canada Ltd 1790 Highland Ave Brandon, MB R7C 1A7 (2) Federated Co-operatives Ltd (FCL) 3357 Pembina Ave Winnipeg, MB R3V 1A2 (2) Shell Canada Ltd 50 Sage Creek Blvd, Unit 400 Winnipeg, MB R3X 0J6 ➡ MD (1) BGE - Annapolis Visitor Center 26 West St Annapolis, MD 21401 (2) JONES CDJR JJCDRJ1&2 1506 Belair Road Bel Air, MD 21014 (1) BGE - Bowie Park and Ride 15207 Major-Lansdale Blvd Bowie, MD 20716 (2) RFS 131 2703 Ocean Gateway Cambridge, MD 21613 (2) O’Donnell Honda 8620 Baltimore National Pike Ellicott City, MD 21043 (1) GENESIS BEL AIR JJGEN-EXT 3 1710 Harford Rd Fallston, MD 21047 (2) GENESIS BEL AIR JJGEN-EXT1 1710 Harford Road Fallston, MD 21047 ➡ MI (4) Starbucks Bridgeport 6301 Dixie Hwy Bridgeport, MI 48722 (8) Midland 2029 S Saginaw Rd Midland, MI 48640 (2) Saginaw - TimeSquare Plaza 3430 State St Saginaw, MI 48602 ➡ MN (9) Apple Valley Ford 7200 150th St W. Apple Valley, MN 55124 (3) New Brighton Ford - DCFC 1100 Silver Lake Rd. NW New Brighton, MN 55112 (4) Apple Ford Shakopee 1624 Weston Ct. Shakopee, MN 55379 ➡ MO (6) 2300 Bernadette Drive (US-B76-SYZ-3B) 2300 Bernadette Drive Columbia, MO 65203 ➡ MS (2) 1410 South Gloster Street Tupelo, MS 38801 1410 South Gloster Street Tupelo, MS 38801 ➡ NC (2) 122 Turnersburg Hwy 122 Turnersburg Hwy Statesville, NC 28625 (1) GPM INVESTMENTS 3262 DC 2 310 College Rd Wilmington, NC 28403 (2) WINDSOR STA#1 STATION 1 105 Queen Street Windsor, NC 27983 ➡ ND (2) Luther Family Ford 3302 36th St S Fargo, ND 58104 ➡ NE (1) SDHYUNDAI S.W.HY 8350 South 40th Street Lincoln, NE 68516 ➡ NH (1) Hampton Ford Hyundai 177 Lafayette Road North Hampton, NH 03862 ➡ NJ (2) Applegreen Electric - Connie Chung Service Area 1339 Broad St Bloomfield, NJ 07003 (1) Bridgewater Acura 1231 U.S. 22 Bridgewater, NJ 08807 (6) 1433 Palisade Ave 1433 Palisade Ave Fort Lee, NJ 07024 (2) 171 Bay Ave 171 Bay Ave Highlands, NJ 07732 (2) Rossi Chevrolet Buick GMC 360 RTE 31 SOUTH WASHINGTON, NJ 07882 (2) Sea Pirate Campground 148 Main St. West Creek, NJ 08092 ➡ NM (1) Enel X - Angel Fire Country Club 100 Country Club Dr Angel Fire, NM 87710 (2) Enel X - Angel Fire Shuter Library 11 N Angel Fire Rd Angel Fire, NM 87710 (2) Cumbres and Toltec Railroad 500 S Terrace Ave Chama, NM 87520 (4) Chiricahua Apache Plaza 20885 Frontage Rd Deming, NM 88030 (2) Enel X - Northern New Mexico College 1135 NM-554 El Rito, NM 87530 (1) LAC DPU LOS ALAMOS MUNI 1000 Central Avenue Los Alamos, NM 87544 (2) Henry's True Value Hardware 17342 US-84 Los Ojos, NM 87551 (2) Enel X - Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs 50 Los Banos Dr Ojo Caliente, NM 87549 (1) Enel X - Picuris Pueblo Visitor Center 201 A Pueblo Vw Rd Peñasco, NM 87553 (2) Enel X - Village of Questa Municipal Parking Lot 2500 Old Hwy 3 Questa, NM 87556 (8) Western New Mexico University 1000 W. College Ave Silver City, NM 88081 (4) Enel X - Taos Municipal Parking Lot 122 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur Taos, NM 87571 (2) Enel X - Taos Guadalupe Parking Lot 205 Don Fernando St Taos, NM 87571 ➡ NY (4) Reymore Chevrolet 2 746 N Main St Central Square, NY 13036 (2) SIDNEYFCU CICERO 1 8062 Brewerton Rd Cicero, NY 13039 (6) Applegreen Electric - Clarence Travel Plaza 4002 Ransom Rd Clarence, NY 14031 (6) Applegreen Electric - Clifton Springs Travel Plaza 3236 NY-96 Clifton Springs, NY 14432 (4) Tradition Chevrolet 847 Canandaidua Rd Geneva, NY 14456 (12) Tops Friendly Markets - Tesla Supercharger 16 Jon J Wagner Wy Lagrangeville, NY 12540 (2) Sharon Chevrolet (Outside) 3687 NY-31 Liverpool, NY 13090 (1) WEST HERR AUTO WH NO L3-1 ABB 3850 Southwestern Boulevard Orchard Park, NY 14127 (6) Applegreen Electric - Plattekill Service Area I-87 - NYS Thruway NB Plattekill, NY 12568 (2) Public or Dealer Use Station (DCFC) 18 Union Street Sidney, NY 13838 (2) Service Building 366 West Merrick Road Valley Stream, NY 11580 (4) Acura Service Chargers 700 West Merrick Road Valley Stream, NY 11580 (4) Island Acura 3350 Sunrise Highway Wantagh, NY 11793 (2) ROCKLAND HYU STATION 1 55 New York 303 West Nyack, NY 10994 (4) Target Westbury #T1139 999 Corporate Dr Westbury, NY 11590 (2) Town of Westport 34 State Rt. 9N Westport, NY 12993 (1) White Plains Honda 61 Bank Street White Plains, NY 10606 ➡ OH (6) Ford Charge - Liberty Ford Brunswick 3101 Center Rd Brunswick, OH 44212 (2) KERRY FORD, INC STATION 2 155 West Kemper Road Cincinnati, OH 45246 (1) EASTON EAST GAR CPE-1 117 Easton Station Columbus, OH 43219 (2) EASTON WEST GAR CPE-2 167 Easton Town Ctr Columbus, OH 43219 (1) Mathews Ford DCFCs 1155 Delaware Avenue Marion, OH 43302 (2) MURPHY PARK DC #1 356 Day Light Ln Powell, OH 43065 (2) Diane Sauer Chevrolet 626 S St SE Warren, OH 44483 (4) Innovatures 7428 Tylersville Rd West Chester Township, OH 45069 (2) Germain Volkswagen DCFC’s 750 Polaris Parkway Westerville, OH 43082 ➡ OK (1) GENESISOFEDMOND GOE1 14113 North Kelley Avenue Edmond, OK 73013 (1) TULSA HYUNDAI H SERVICE 9777 South Memorial Drive Tulsa, OK 74133 ➡ ON (1) WEST CITY HONDA WCH LVL 3 676 Dundas St W Belleville, ON K8N 4Z2 (1) GM - Bean Chevrolet Buick GMC Ltd. ( To be Commissioned) 375 McNeely Ave. Carleton Place, ON K7C 0A1 (1) Bourgeois Midland Nissan 760 Prospect Blvd Midland, ON L4R 0G3 ➡ OR (1) THB TEAM HYUNDAI 1 2250 NE Hwy 20 Bend, OR 97701 (12) Seven Feathers 130 Creekside Rd Canyonville, OR 97417 (2) Grass Valley Market 104 N. Mill Street Grass Valley, OR 97039 (2) Centennial School District 3424 SE 174th Ave Portland, OR 97236 ➡ PA (1) A. Crivelli Chevrolet Subaru - DCFC 768 Allegheny Boulevard Franklin, PA 16323 (1) A. Crivelli Ford - DCFC 797 Allegheny Boulevard Franklin, PA 16323 (2) Diehl Cadillac Buick Cadillac 1687 West Main Street Grove City, PA 16127 (1) BENNETT HYUNDAI DC 1 1820 Cumberland St Lebanon, PA 17042 (2) MASCARIAUTOBODY EXXON 2 1700 Ferguson Road McCandless, PA 15101 (1) 3910 FILBERT 81BE7 51 N 39th St Philadelphia, PA 19104 (1) DIEHL SHARON STATION 2 1300 East State Street Sharon, PA 16146 (4) Ford Charge - Susquehanna Ford 150 Lancaster Pike Willow Street, PA 17584 ➡ QC (4) Canadian Tire - Chambly 3400 Bd Fréchette Chambly, QC J3L 6Z6 (3) Mercedes-Benz - Granby DC 1225 Rue Principale Granby, QC J2J 0M3 (4) BRCC - Île-Perrot - Grand Boulevard 110, Grand Boulevard L'Île-Perrot, QC J7V 4W8 (2) IKEA QUEBEC CITY CX7 3400 Av. Blaise-Pascal Québec, QC G1X 0E4 (4) BRCC - Témiscouata-sur-le-Lac - Galerie Témis 633, Rue Commerciale Nord Témiscouata-sur-le-Lac, QC G0L 1E0 (1) BRCC - Bornes Québec 919, Rue Notre Dame Ouest Victoriaville, QC G6P 7L1 ➡ RI (4) RI OER NEVI DCFC 2 290 Centerville Road Warwick, RI 02886 ➡ SC (2) 301 S Murray Ave 301 S Murray Ave Anderson, SC 29624 (2) 429 N Church St 429 N Church St Spartanburg, SC 29303 (3) 226 Mill St 226 Mill St Taylors, SC 29687 ➡ SK (1) Evergreen Nissan - Smart DC 4150 5th Ave E Prince Albert, SK S6W 0A5 (2) Shell Canada Ltd 275 N Albert St Regina, SK S4R 3C2 (3) Shell Canada Ltd 3206 Preston Ave S Saskatoon, SK S7T 0Y5 ➡ TN (6) Athens City Board of Education “Bus Barn” 219 Alford Street Athens, TN 37303 (2) GEA-1 STATION 1 (L) 885 W Andrew Johnson Hwy Greeneville, TN 37745 (2) BRIGHTRIDGE EV STATION 1 (L) 110 Cherry Street Johnson City, TN 37601 (1) Acura of Memphis 2611 Ridgeway Road Memphis, TN 38119 (1) MB OF MEMPHIS RETAIL 2 5401 Poplar Ave Memphis, TN 38119 (3) Honda 385 4030 Hacks Cross Road Memphis, TN 38125 ➡ TX (4) H-E-B #10 West Highway 290 West End of Parking Lot DCFC 7901 U.S. 290 Austin, TX 78736 (8) Brookshire TX 306 FM 359 S Brookshire, TX 77423 (4) Pilot Travel Center 367 2226 Fm-1903 Caddo Mills, TX 75135 (8) Texas A&M Lot 47 387 Polo Rd College Station, TX 77840 (1) Bruner Auto Group 224 Early Blvd Early, TX 76802 (6) Flatonia TX 709 N La Grange St. Flatonia, TX 78941 (2) H-E-B Grocery Company, LP 407 South Adams Street DCFC 407 South Adams Street Fredericksburg, TX 78624 (1) Russell and Smith Honda 2900 South Loop West Houston, TX 77054 (1) Willowbrook Mall Quotes DCFC 2000 Willowbrook Mall Houston, TX 77070 (1) WHOUSTON 250 HYUNDAI 1 16803 Katy Freeway Houston, TX 77094 (1) WHOUSTON 250 TUNNEL 12 16803 Katy Fwy Houston, TX 77094 (2) Wiesner of Huntsville 230 I-45 N Huntsville, TX 77320 (1) STEELEHYUNDAIKY STEELE CUSTOMER 24795 I-35 Kyle, TX 78640 (8) San Antonio TX 9510 Wurzbach Rd San Antonio, TX 78240 ➡ UT (1) 275 N. Main St. 275 N. Main St. Richfield, UT 84701 ➡ VA (4) 703 England 703 England St Ashland, VA 23005 (1) HYUNDAI ROANOKE HYUNDAI 2 7300 Williamson Road Hollins, VA 24019 (2) DAIRY QUEEN STATION 2 433 N Main St Kilmarnock, VA 22482 (1) WMBG HONDA WMBH NEW PDI 7101 Richmond Rd Williamsburg, VA 23188 ➡ VT (2) Hannaford Bradford 586 Lower Plain Bradford, VT 5033 (6) 580 Canal Street (US-9L6-4AX-3A) 580 Canal Street Brattleboro, VT 05301 (2) Town of Brattleboro, Grove street 12 Grove St Brattleboro, VT 5302 (2) Essex Outlet Center 21 Essex Way Essex Junction, VT 5452 (2) Northshire Bookstore 4869 Main St Manchester Center, VT 5255 (2) Mill Street Parking VT 12 Mill Street Middlebury, VT 5753 (2) VSECU Montpelier 1 Bailey Ave Montpelier, VT 5602 (2) Springfield District 34 Precision drive North Springfield, VT 5150 (2) Quechee Mall 5573 East Woodstock Road Quechee, VT 5059 (2) West Street Parking Rutland 117 West St. Rutland, VT 5701 (2) Grace Cottage Hospital, Townshend 185 Grafton road Townshend, VT 5353 (2) Irasville Country Store 5134 Main St. Waitsville, VT 05673 (2) Hannaford Willston 78 Marshall Ave Williston, VT 5495 ➡ WA (2) 76 Fuel Station 4650 W. Werner Road Bremerton, WA 98312 (1) VOLVO CAR USA ISSAQUAH DC1 1460 NW Gilman Blvd Issaquah, WA 98027 (3) VOLVO CAR USA ISSAQUAH DC2 1540 NW Gilman Blvd Issaquah, WA 98027 (1) LITHIACJDR STATION 3 10701 North Newport Highway Spokane, WA 99218 ➡ WI (1) Kunes Country Cadillac 1231 East Geneva St Delavan, WI 53115 (2) GM - PALMEN BUICK GMC CADILLAC 7110 74th Place Kenosha, WI 53142 ➡ WY (2) Tyrrell Chevrolet 2142 W Lincolnway Cheyenne, WY 82001 
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2024.06.09 15:31 Rusted-1 ARK 8 Chapter 23-Unlucky

ARK 8 Chapter 23-Unlucky
To kill for yourself is murder. To kill for your government is heroic. To kill for entertainment is harmless. What is it to kill for religion? - Unknown
This fanfic is based on the fanfic The Isolationists, by Seeyouon_otherside, and a continuation of the stronger_together series. Constructive criticism is appreciated.
Time Since First Contact: Y:0 M:1 W:0 D:3
Memory Transcript Subject: Private Brolien “Lucky” Tiwond of the enforcers.
“Wait, the humans call you that? Why?” My buddy Rohan asked me as we patrolled the streets of the capital city of Finalshape under the night sky. You could actually see one of the aliens' ships flying overhead, which was fantastic. I felt like a kid watching them, just in awe at the technological marvels. Our power armor was clanking and clunking as we went about our day, heavy auto rifles in hand, a good breakfast this morning, kissed the kids and misses goodbye for today, promising little ones I’ll bring them back a souvenir of some kind. We walked through the snow that had to yet be cleared by the snow plows, and I just enjoyed the forever-green grass and trees. Just admiring the city that we lived in
“Yeah, I was on the plane next to the human ARK ship when I went down.”
“Wait, that was you?!” Rohan practically yelled, getting the attention of many people around us. “How come you’re still not in the Air Force anymore?”
“That crash rattled me pretty bad, So I stepped down for that position and took up a job as a trooper,” I respond casually. “It was fun for a while being in the Air Force, but now, with seven kids and a wife, I can’t take that risk anymore. I’d rather do something more laid-back to have a higher chance of survival. So I can spend more time with my beloved and see my little ones grow up.” I said. Then I revealed my trap card. “I also got a spot on the Land Tank.
“Yeah, I get that-YOU WHAT!?” He yelled.
I let out a hearty laugh as he began to freak out. “Yep! I will be one of the lead anti-air and anti-space gunnery commanders. The pay is fantastic. I’m going to spoil my family rotten.”
He made an odd noise and launched himself at me. “HOLLY SHIT DUDE! YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED A JOB ON THAT HUNK OF HISTORY! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!” He patted me on the back a few times and then let go. “But I get what you mean by anti-air, but what do you mean by anti-space?”
I sighed and looked around before switching to helmet-to-helmet communication so no one could hear us. "You're aware that Lord Lieutenant Commander Canilia Feral doesn't fully trust the aliens, right?”
Rohan nodded. I couldn’t see his expression under the heavy metal helmet, but we had known each other since we were kids, so I could tell he was somber. “Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of that. But that doesn't mean I don't understand it. The aliens are fun, lovely, adorable, and huggable. I can say a hundred other nice things about them, but I won't because I don't want to bore you to death. They are still a massive unknown; they've been sharing more and more information with us, and I know the one, Captain Leo, is preparing to hold some… not ceremony, what do you call it…I want to say it's a seminar about how they got here and their history. I'm going to it, but I don't know when it will be.”
I nodded in agreement. “ I am with you on every single one of those points. As amazing as they are, there are so many unknowns about them… which is why Lord Lieutenant Commander Canilia Feral has started a program meant to counteract the aliens' most powerful tools: their droids and ships.”
Rohan looked at me. I could tell from underneath his helmet he looked surprised. “Wait, weapons?”
It was my turn to be somber. “She says it's to prepare for if they turn on us. She made it very apparent that she hoped she would never have to use these weapons, but she wanted to be prepared.”
“Does Commander Fango Feral know about this?”
I scoffed at that thought. “Well, yeah, this project would have never gotten the green light anyway. Plus, we're talking about Lord Lieutenant Commander Canilia Feral here. Going behind her uncle's back is the last thing she would do."
Rohan nodded. "What do you know about the project?" He asked
"What little I know about the project is that I will be operating an ASRFC, an anti-space rapid-fire cannon. It’s designed to do what it sounds like: it shoots or, rather, assists in launching incredibly fast-moving projectiles, similar to missiles but different somehow. They should be coated in the specialized electricity designed to short out alien systems. She's also been developing handheld weapons to short out their droids.”
Rohan was silent. Then spoke. “Geez. That's… a lot. I'm just hoping the aliens don't find out.”
My shoulder sagged as I hated the thought of operating a weapon like that against two species that have been nothing but kind to us. “Same, we all share the same sentiment at the Land Tank. We are on our hands and knees, praying to the great protector that we never have to use these guns. Lord Lieutenant Commander Canilia Feral is probably the person who is hoping the most. However, I get the odd feeling that they would understand why we would make these weapons. I think they'd be mad, but they wouldn't be upset. They'd be understanding.” I looked over at my childhood best friend. “Honestly, considering your Borderline addiction to anything alien right now, I'm surprised you're taking this as well as you are.”
He shook his head. “I'm not really… it's hard making guns and weapons to kill a person who has been nothing but kind to you simply because you don't fully trust them. But I understand and support the logic behind it. However, it is comforting to know that everyone working on this project hopes and prays that they don't have to use them. Not much, but a bit.” Rohan sighed, and we walked in silence for a while. He perked up, his posture became slightly straighter, and he pointed to my chest. “What is that anyway on your chest? I’ve never seen a dialect or a plant like that,” he asked. I looked down and laughed.
“Yeah, that’s human dialect. I want to say it’s the one called English, but it could also be the one called Japanese or Russian. I really have no idea. It says, “Lucky, the falling star.” The symbol is of what they called a four-leaf clover, a type of plant back on the human homeworld that was considered lucky, surrounded by a star, and there are trails to the side of it, or to make it look like it’s falling.”
Rohan stopped for a minute, got the joke, and nearly busted a gut laughing. When he finally calmed down, he looked at me. “How the hell did Humans and Zeyzell convince you to get that painted on your armor!?” he asked through laughs.
“Well, I was at a drink stop, a bar as most of you normals call it, forget which one, when out of the blue, a bunch of humans popped up, and they recognized me as a pilot. I don’t know how, but they did.” I answered, “Ask me all sorts of questions like how I survived. How was I doing? Generally, they were good questions and warmed my heart that they were worried about me. It was nice, anywho, they were going on about this plant on the human home world called the four-leaf clover, and this represents luck or something. They asked if they could paint my armor with it. I had just gotten my shiny new power armor, so I was like, sure, go ahead and paint it. Then, they whipped out a bunch of little pups, or kids and kits, as the humans call them. As in little humans who are ADORIBLE, and they started painting my armor as I started talking to the adults. Two hours later, bam, you got this masterpiece painted all over my armor. I swear they took the little ones out of their pockets if I didn’t know better. After all that, I wanted it back to camp, and the paint had dried. I tried getting off, even though it was a nice gesture. I was kind of sad about it, but I don’t know what the void they used is. This stuff is not coming off. I scrubbed for a good hour, and it didn’t come off. So when I had to fall in with everyone at Camp and with everyone with their new hand-me-down E-10 power armor. I stood out like a sore thumb.”
“And you had petty officer Gotrom, didn’t you?” Rohana teasingly said. I shook my head in pain, causing him to laugh. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Yep, I had him, the man of the petty ones. The moment he laid eyes on me. His eyes did the whole bleeding thing. I hate it when he does that and starts screaming at me. I mean, this dude is slightly above me in rank, but he takes his job too seriously. So, after five minutes of chewing me out, I thought he would pass out with the amount of hot air he was spewing. He asked me what my excuse was.”
“What do you say to him?” Rohan asks.
I laughed. “It was like the great protector had whispered exactly what I should say into my ear. “Interacting with the new locals, sir. Just letting them know that we are their friends, not their wardens.” And you won’t freaking believe this, he took it.”
“He what?! he took it as a valid answer?!” Rohan asked.
“I myself was still surprised that he took that as a valid answer, but yes, he did. Then he immediately brought me to the front of all three hundred troops and started to yell at them, tearing them a new one by telling them how I was the only one here who had made any attempt to meet with the alien. Even though we all know that’s not true, they found me. He patted me on the back, congratulated me, and sent me off to get some extra food.”
“By the old void, that guy gets stranger and stranger every time.”
I shrugged. “I honestly have no clue, and I think he was telling everyone to step up the game in greeting the aliens, but other than that, I have no idea. The Humans are super nice, and I often find them chatting with someone or petting someone. Void, I’ve even seen an entire group of humans swarm a giant and start petting it. It was cute to watch. The Zeyzell seem far more reserved than the humans, but you can have interesting conversations with them.”
We continued to patrol the streets in silence for a while after that, making a bit of small talk to break it, but nothing much, just observing people going about their business. That’s when we saw an out-of-breath Tiwond with a human gently helping him drink a bottle of water. A Zeyzell clung to the human's back, laughing his lungs out. “Everything all right over here?” I asked.
“Yeah,” the person said as he got up, swishing his tail as he did, “tried to beat my buddy here in a race after hearing about humans' high stamina. I lost by a large margin while he carried his fluffy ass on his back. The man said as he pointed to the Human and the Zeyzell. The Zeyzell just laughed while still clinging to the human's back.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” The Zeyzell said as the three laughed.
“All right, you three, stay safe. Bye now.” The group of three said their goodbyes, and I looked at the human. He just seemed so happy. It was such a pure and authentic expression that it warmed my hearts. “It’s so nice that we met the humans; everyone just seems happier.”
Rohan nodded. “Yeah, it’s like the mood has shifted, from the low to the high, it's nice. With the war, the terror that came after it, and the animals evolving and changing. Things were looking bleak. That’s not even mentioning all the giant refugees we've been getting, and well…him and them.”
I looked at Rohan. “Who and what?”
Rohan looked at me, confused. “You know? Viggo Scythelock?”
I nodded. The mention of his name made me slightly mad. “Oh, him…you think they will catch the guy?” I asked.
“Honestly, I hope so. He has caused so much pain to so many. The man is a psychopath, a monster. He used the war as an opportunity to harm so many.” Rohan looked down. “But honestly, it’s been over three years. I’m not sure if they will ever find him.”
“Yeah…I hope they find him and take him out. Also, who are "Them" you are talking about?”
Rohan looked at me, surprised. “You haven't heard?” he asked. He switched to helmet-to-helmet communications instead of talking out loud. This must be bad.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask…but no, I have not heard about them,” I responded also with helmet-to-helmet communication. “Who are you talking about?”
“The Cult of the Old God? You haven't heard what they have been up to?”
“You mean them assassinating high-ranking individuals, stealing supplies, their entire operation multiplying tenfold ever since the alien's arrival?”
I could tell he was surprised, and I could also understand that he was blinking and surprised underneath the helmet. That's how well we know each other. “How did you know?”
“It's common knowledge, and the higher-ups sent this documentation earlier this morning. Did you not read it? They're very transparent, and you know that I don't get all your conspiracies at everything, which is a conspiracy.”
“Oh, come on! The Aliens! Their rival was too perfect; just when we were getting worried that we were the only living creatures in the universe, pop! They show up. That can't be a coincidence!”
I rolled my eyes underneath my helmet. “You need help.”
“Not with my mental state, but definitely with my taxes.” I shake my head
We continued on our way. When we crossed one of the streets and took a left toward one of the shopping districts, we saw two dudes sitting in the snow, huddled around something. We approached to make sure everything was alright. “Everything alright?” I asked. The guys looked up at me and made the shhh motion with their fingers. Then they parted their bodies a little, and I saw a female human sleeping between them.
“We don’t want to wake her up,” the first said. I nodded my head and continued on.
Both of us then turned a corner into a more populated part of the district. We saw a human and what looked like a construction worker chatting there. “Thank you so much for taking us in. I think I can speak for my entire species when I say you have made us so happy.”
The construction worker raised an eyebrow and took another bite of the sandwich she was eating. “Anyone would’ve done it; it's just the right thing to do if they had a soul, at least.”
The human started to laugh a bit, and then it quickly stopped as a human just shook her head. “Guess the federation has no soul then, huh?”
The construction worker took another bite out of her sandwich. “Doesn’t sound like it.” The human leaned into the construction worker. “Eay, don’t worry. If those Federation things ever come here, they’ll get a big face full of Big Jim.” She then pulled out a massive [monkey wrench.] I smiled at that, knowing that so many were willing to protect the humans. I believe that made them feel more at home. We wandered past them on our patrol and continued deeper into the district.
“Hey, you know what I’ve noticed?” Rohan said.
“Hm?” I asked in return.
“I haven’t seen all that many little humans, you know, their pups, kids, children, whatever they call them.”
I was about to argue that I had seen quite a few children, but when I really thought about it. The only significant group of human children I had seen was when a bunch of them confronted me and painted the four-leaf clover and star onto my chest plate. Other than that, I’ve only seen a few. “Now that you mention it, you’re right. I’ve hardly seen any. Why do you think that is?”
Rohan thought for a minute. Then, he snapped his secondary jaw in realization or remembered something. “I remember a bit of talk about a lot of young ones being on a second ARK ship. I don’t know much about it. All I know is that most of their young population, as in newborns to tweens, was supposedly on an ARK ship called ARK Twelve. Other than that, I don’t know much.”
“Where did you hear that from?” I asked.
“One of my buddies works in intelligence gathering. We like humans, but the intelligence bureau doesn’t fully trust them like Lord Lieutenant Commander Canilia Feral doesn't. I can’t blame them. Again, Humans are still a big unknown, even though they are one of the cutest things I have ever seen.”
“Agreed.”
“He was pretty drunk when I asked him, but it was his reaction when he said out loud that really disturbed me. Normally he’s a pretty big drinker because you see some bad shit in intelligence gathering. I mean, there are some terrible people out there. But the second he mentioned ARK twelve, he got really really sad. And he didn’t even finish his drink, which was a first. He mumbled something about going home to spend time with the human he was taking care of. I don’t know what it was about the response, but I got a sense of pure dread from it.”
I nodded my head, and we continued. I felt like asking the next human I saw about ARK twelve, but I sensed it would be a bad idea. We saw a commotion in front of what looked like a jewelry store. Wandering over, there was a female tiwond Who seemed distressed. As we approached, she continuously asked strangers if they had seen someone. A lot of other people are starting to be concerned, too, for some reason. We approach to attempt to calm the situation. “Enforcers, what’s going on here?” Rohan asked. The woman turned around rather quickly. She was short and had that typical camo pattern fur that the people of the woodland area have, so she was most likely not a local. Then again, you can never be too confident in the city.
“I lost them! I can't find them! I don’t know where they are!” She almost yelled in what looked like fear and worry.
“Whoa, calm down, ma’am. What’s the problem?” I gently told her to try to get him to calm down. “Take four large breaths and clear all four of your lungs. Trust me, it helps.”
She took some deep breaths, seemingly calmed down just a little, and then spoke again. “I am in charge of two humans under my care for the exchange program. I had brought her and her kid here to the shopping district to see if they wanted anything before moving back to the Woodland cities. However, they vanished. I don’t know where they went. I am terrified of all the unknowns around here that might hurt them.”
“Thank you. Do you know where you last saw them?” I asked. I made a hand motion to Rohan to signal in an incident report and some backup. Rohan stepped away from the conversation and radioed a command using his helmet.
“This is Rohan. I'm reporting a case of a missing person. Yeah, two humans went missing. I’m currently with Brolien, and we’re patrolling the shopping district… Green Wyvern. Can you send a few more patrols down here to help? We can’t have two aliens going missing in the city. That's bad, AR. Also, and yes, I want to see them safe. I am not an AR asshole.”
"This is HQ, sending down an additional squad. Keep us updated."
"Yes sir." Rhoan responded
“Do you know which store you were in when you saw them last?” I asked.
“The jewelry store, the one just over there. About [10 minutes] ago. Their names are Jasper and Melinda.” She pointed to one of the higher-end jewelry stores, and I motioned to Rohan to follow me. I noticed a few Street cops coming over to see what the situation was about.
“What’s going on here?” one of the cops asked. I recognize this one, a retired Detective, I think.
“Missing persons, two humans last seen over there. We’re going to investigate now,” I quickly informed him. “Keep an eye on her, will you?” He nodded and walked over to the lady, with two others in tow. Rohan and I walked over to the building to inspect the area around it.
“If a human is missing here… I’m worried about who might’ve taken them. I know it’s pretty rare for kidnappings, but still.” Rohan said as he opened a dumpster and took a peek inside. “I mean, the humans are so frail. A good-sized hail storm will kill them.” Rohan said.
“Yeah, apparently it can. I’ve heard rumors that back on their home planet, it’s possible to die from things like that.” I responded.
“Unbelievable,” Rohan replied in disbelief, shaking his head. We started to search the area, calling out their names. We wandered past an ally—“Oh, protector, what is this?” I looked over to see Rohan had stepped in Something. I walked over and looked at it.
“Is that blood?” I asked him.
“No way too light to be blood. Look at how red it is. It’s not even a black color like ours. I bet you another copper wire melted. I can tell by the scent.” he replied as he shook the stuff off his boot. I took a closer look, put my hand in it, and brought it up to my face. It looked like blood. It flowed like blood. I used the scanning equipment in my helmet and…
…Oh shit.
“Rohan, this is human blood,” I said. I got up and turned the safety off my gun. Rohan follows suit, and we both enter the alleyway, guns drawn. There was a little more blood on the walls and a bit on the ground.
“This is enforcer Rohan calling enforcer HQ, and we have possible contact with an unknown that has seemingly taken two humans, one child, and one mother. Send backup, sending location.” Rohan called in as we quietly walked along the side of the alleyway. We are doing our best to make no noise. I’m so happy that we are wearing the newer power armor. They are so silent.
“Roger that Rohan, this is enforcer HQ. Reinforcements are inbound in two minutes.” The coms operator said
[Chanting]
“Do you hear that? Sounds like chanting?” Rohan whispered. I strained my ears to listen and turned up the sensitivity on my power armor audio receptors. Chanting, I wonder…
“Do you think it could be…?” I trailed off, and he immediately knew what I was talking about.
“Cult of the old God? This far north? Hm… shoot to kill.” Rohan sternly replied. “This is Enforcer Rohan, possible contact with the Cult of the old god. I am requesting time for the arrival of reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements inbound in one minute.”
We both quickened the pace and turned the corner-“FUCK!” I yelled out loud. There were Six cultists in total. Two cultus whipped around to face me. One drew a pistol, and another a plasma pistol.
“CONTACT CONTACT! LIGHT THEM UP!” Rohan yelled, and we both started blasting into them. We popped bullet bullets into each of their heads and two hearts, taking them down instantly. “Cultus! Here! This far north! What the fuck?!” Rohan yelled. The three others drew their guns and aimed and opened fire at us as we took cover behind some old barrels. We were bullet and plasma-proof in our power armor, but I would rather not risk it. Rohan tossed a flash bang, and It blew up a second later. I heard screams a second later, and we got up and opened fire, our visors blocking out the flash. We both nailed the same bastard as his buddies dove behind cover. They would fire at us every few seconds, keeping our heads down. I looked at Rohan and made the hand single to get the shield. He reached behind himself and took out the heavy-duty shield. I had the battering ram, so I was not that useful. He got up first as I threw another flash, confusing and disorienting the cultists as it went off. We both advanced as Rohan swapped out his heavy rifle for an SMG; I took out the full-auto shotgun as we got closer. Rohan shield-bashed the first one and then blasted him with the SMG. I took out the second one with my shotgun. A bullet deflected off of the shield, and a small spread of bullets that Rohan could deflect with his shield came at us. Then they stopped, and we rushed to cover, Rohan still holding the shield. I peeked out from behind the cover.
“Were did..” I started when I heard a yell from behind us. Whipping around, the cultist had appeared and was now wrestling with me for my shotgun. In a split second, I shoved the shotgun into him as he pulled, disorienting him and knocking the wind out of him. I then grabbed the battering ram, which had already been turned on and was at full power, and bashed it into his chest. He immediately exploded from the pressure, and I was coated in his blood. Looking around, all the cultists were down just as reinforcements flooded the area.
Looking at the cultus robes, I noticed the same color of blood on them that I had looked at earlier. “Shit, I think these guys got the humans!” I told Rohan.
The human female was lying on what looked like a makeshift altar made of scrap metal, an old luxurious chair, and wood. Her entire chest and lower body had been torn open. Most of her major organs were removed, and her heart was speared with multiple little needles and placed on top of the altar. “This is bad. This is bad. If there is this far north, they have gotten bold.” Rohan spoke as he walked over to the human female and inspected her. “She died only a minute ago. It looks like she was in pain the entire time, too. Damn. FUCKING FANTIC SHITS!”
“Radio this in,” I ordered Rohan, and he immediately did that. I walked over to the human adult female's corpse and looked at it as a medic was handling her. Why didn’t she scream? Oh, that’s why. They sewed her mouth shut. Damn. I look at the cultists again and look at their golden medallions decorated with a skull. “Wait, Rohan. Weren’t there two?” We looked at each other and immediately split up in different directions to find the kid. It didn't take long for me to see him. “Aw…kid.” I gently bent down to inspect the little body. His lower jaw was gone entirely. His left arm seems to have been sawed off and taken. His eyes were closed, and he wasn’t moving. I looked up and noticed footprints taking off into the distance. A seventh cultist, it looks like we missed one. I cradled his head in my hand and took a pulse. Nothing…
“Shit.”
“Oh, void.”
‘Oh, my young one…I am sorry.” the other enforcers said as we gathered around the child's corpse. One of the enforcers punched a wall out of anger as another just sat on an old couch, shaking her head.
“Looks like there was a seventh we missed. If I get my hands on that-.” Another one started.
*GACK!*
“OH SHIT! ROHAN HE'S STILL ALIVE!” I screamed. Rohan immediately ran over and looked. As did the medic.
“By the protector he is!” The medic yelled as she began to administer human-friendly meds. “There is an ambulance outside. MOVE!” She yelled.
I picked up the kid and held him in my arms, carrying him as the medic did her work.
“You’ll be OK, you’ll be OK,” I told him to comfort him, although I felt it was more for my own sake.
“JASPER!” I looked behind me to see the female running to me and followed beside me.
"MISS IS MUST INSIST YOU MOVE-" The medic begins to yell.
"I'M HIS CARE TAKER!" she yelled back. "Shhhh, I’m here now.” Jasper reached up with a blood-soaked hand and began to grab at her fur like he was trying to hold onto life. She held him to her and then took something out of her bag. “I can use this to get the blood out of his lungs!”
“Do it!” the medic told her. She stuck the tube into the kid's chest, and blood came out, and he immediately began to breathe easier. He then latched himself to her chest and passed out.
“Don’t worry. I promised your mom I would take care of you if anything happened to her. I will take care of you.” She quietly told the sleeping child as she rocked back and forth, crying, holding the child as the ambulance came around the corner with more enforcers. They loaded both of them into the ambulance and took them away. I walked out and sat down on a bench in front of the alleyway. I just needed time to think. I sat there as the world around me continued. Just lost in thought. What if we got there sooner..?
I was broken out of the trance by Rohan. “You alright?”
I looked down. “No, we were supposed to protect them…”
“Yeah,” Rohan said. We just sat there. It was helping a little to have my buddy there. But…still
A human was…dead.
“And yet…we saved a human child.” He told me.
I nodded, looking up at the Alien space station that was now in orbit around our planet. “Yeah…we did.” We remained silent before he put an arm around me and hugged me. "I hope he survives."
"Me too, me too."
First/Previous/Next
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2024.06.09 15:31 WMH81 My gut had been telling me things, of course I need a second opinion. Story time!

Day four of no-contact, one of our (apparently now formerly) mutual friends had gotten a hold of me yesterday to say the ex had tried to reach out to her about something and then got pissy when she didn't get an immediate response, so she just never responded to the ex. I had a good long chat with the friend about things and the way things had been while I was with the ex, and her response to most of them was along the lines of "Jesus, I didn't realize... Just... no. Just no." The more responses I get from people like that, the more I think my gut was right. So I figured I'd throw some of them out to all of you and see what Reddit thinks. This is going to be a long one.
1) Back in high school (20 years ago) she smoked weed, drank, partied, fucked around, and always reminisces about it with a big smile on her face. Had no problem talking about her exes from high school in the same way, especially "J1." She brought him up a million times, and always gave me the same spiel as if she forgot she had told me every time. "He was my ex from high school, my first everything but a kiss. We were together for about a year and a half, we were so in love. You know he's the only guy I've ever cheated on in my entire life, and I still feel so bad about it to this day... I actually apologized to him a few years ago, I know it's stupid high school stuff but I just felt so bad. We still talk sometimes, I can always go to him with my problems or anything. He's just always going to be my person." I mean, one night for no reason she sat down next to me with a photo album. She flipped through the early kids stuff without saying anything and went straight to her high school photos. She went right to her exes and started pointing them out and naming them, then got to J. She started the spiel but caught herself a couple sentences in, closed the album, and put it away. After the breakup I had moved and was helping her digitize some of her old 8mm tapes, we were watching an elementary school Christmas program and at one point she sits up and exclaims "Oh my God is that J1?!" with the same big smile.
2) At the end of high school she had gotten with this other piece of garbage and got pregnant. They were together with the kid for a couple years then he cheated on her and they split. He was a worthless deadbeat dad, but they still kept in occasional contact. We'll call him "J2." She had him come out a couple times when she bought her house after her own divorce to help with renovation. Before we had dated, I noticed those two were acting like a couple (even though she was already starting to get serious with someone else... call him "C"). At one point we were out in the garage while she was gone at the store, discussing a decision on the house she told me she wasn't going to do but she was going to do it now. He says "Oh that's cause I told her to do it. Yeah, she always listens to me. She does whatever I say, that little girl fuckin loves me. I got her wrapped around my little finger." A year later after her and I had started dating, I was staying at her place a couple nights a week while helping out at another branch. One night she says "I need to get J2 out here again at some point soon to finish the painting in the front hallway." Next day while I was going to work, she had gone from talking to me all the time to dead radio silence all day. I got back from work a couple hours early and she had gone to pick up her kid from school. I come inside and walk through the kitchen, and much to my surprise J2 steps out from around the corner with his hands up and a big smile on his face like he was ready to give somebody a big hug. He sees me, his face immediately turns to "oh shit." I just said "what's up" and went back to the bedroom to drop my bag. The sheets on the bed were all wadded up at the end, the clothes she had been wearing to bed were tossed around on the nightstand, pillows, bed. I piled the clothes up and set it next to my bag on the bed, just to let her know I had been in there. I went back outside to work on the grill, this dumbass came and sat out back and tried to make small talk. Smoking weed, yelling and swearing, you can hear the music he had blaring inside the house, a bunch of stuff that she said she did not want going on considering her neighbor was an elementary school principal and she had DHS stuff going on with her ex-husband. But apparently he got to do it all. Eventually he goes back inside, she comes home and blows right by me without even looking at me. A couple minutes later she comes rushing out, standing over on the other side of the patio, going right into this story about how the 4-year-old messed the bedroom up like that. No hugs, kisses, how was your day, sorry I didn't have my phone on me, nothing like that. The rest of the time he was at the house, he didn't say anything to me and he looked very uncomfortable whenever he looked over at me. A few hours later she took the four year old with to take this guy back home an hour away. She was gone for a long time.
3) Right around the end of all her divorce proceedings, one of our other mutual friends introduced her to someone she knew, for the sake of maybe being friends with benefits. Something to try to blow off some steam, try to move on, rebound kind of thing. Let's call him "R." Before we were dating, she mentioned him once or twice (same time she was getting involved with the previously mentioned C) but that the whole friends with benefits/fuck buddies thing wasn't really her kind of thing so nothing ever happened between them. But they were still friends. I noticed that seemed like she talked to him more and more as time went on, but she was always trying to hide it. One time I glanced over and saw she got a text from him. "How's it going, doll?" Another time I saw him talking about "the mystery in your eyes." Anytime I was nearby after she got done texting with him she would immediately turn her phone screen off and set it face down next to her leg away from me. One time I came home from work and she was sitting on the couch in the living room with the kids, and she was on the phone. I set my bag down and walked across the living room to give her a kiss as we always did when one of us came home from work. I got halfway there and she stood up and started walking around me to the kitchen. She stopped to look at her screen and turn the volume down and I saw his name on it. She then went to the kitchen without a word to me and got quiet. I sat down on the couch for a few minutes then went into the kitchen to get something to drink, and when I got there she went right back to the living room without a word to me. Got my water and went back to the living room, she went straight back to the kitchen. Eventually she came back to the living room, stood there texting for like 10 minutes straight. I asked if she was chatting with R, she said yeah, she had only talked to him on the phone one other time, so they were just catching up. Then she came back and sat down on the other end of the couch from me, nothing about how our days were, no welcome home kiss, nothing. After the breakup while I was still living there, one of the times she handed me her phone to look at a house listing she found, as soon as I looked at the screen a text from him popped up. "He doesn't know shit."
Thoughts? I know this was a long one, this was just the biggest things that had been on my mind regarding her from the last couple years.
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2024.06.09 15:27 tomesandtea [Discussion] Mod Pick David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Chapters 1-5

Welcome to our first discussion of David Copperfield! This week, we will discuss Chapters 1-5. The Marginalia post is here. You can find the Schedule here. The discussion questions are below.
One reminder - although this is a classic novel that has been adapted many times over, please keep in mind that not everyone has read or watched already, so be mindful not to include anything that could be a hint or a spoiler for the rest of the book or for other media related to this novel! Please mark all spoilers not related to this section of the book using the format > ! Spoiler text here !< (without any spaces between the characters themselves or between the characters and the first and last words).
Links of Note:
Chapter Summaries:
Chapter 1 - I Am Born: David Copperfield launches into the retelling of his life story with that famous line that questions whether he or someone else will turn out to be the hero of his life…but we’ll just have to read the whole thing to find out! Immediately we are let in on the unusual circumstances of David’s birth, which is suffused with superstition, causing the town gossips to speculate wildly. He was born on a Friday night near midnight, which of course means that he’ll have an unlucky life and be visited by ghosts and spirits. (I mean, would this even be a Victorian novel without some ghosts? David assures us that he’s yet to be haunted, though.) He was also born with a caul (inside the amniotic sac) which means he’ll be safe from drowning. This is apparently such great news that they advertise the caul for sale after his birth, but only get one hit on Victorian Craigslist, so they hang onto it until they can put it up for a raffle several years later. David says he remembers that raffle and found it super weird to watch a piece of himself get sold off, which, fair! He does note that the old lady who won the caul died in bed and not by drowning, so I suppose it was worth it?
Anyway, back to David’s birth! His father had been dead for six months on the night of his birth, and his mother was a terrified teenager living alone with Peggoty, her servant-girl, so called because they share the same first name. One Friday afternoon in March, his mother was hanging out by the fire and pondering the likelihood of dying in childbirth, when a formidable woman named Betsey Trotwood showed up at her door. Miss Betsey was his father’s aunt and she loved Mr. Copperfield, but hated her abusive husband, who she paid off to go to India and leave her alone. It worked - he died there! On the night in question, Miss Betsey literally pokes her nose into Mrs. Copperfield’s window and then demands that the pregnant lady get up to let her in. Being a force of nature, she takes charge of the room right away, criticizing the Copperfields’ choice of home (a rookery with no birds?) and making somewhat disparaging remarks about Mrs. Copperfield’s history as an orphan and a nanny. She also declares that the baby will be a girl and demands to be the godmother and namesake so the new Betsey Trotwood (Copperfield) can undo all the mistakes of Great Aunt Betsey’s life. Mrs. Copperfield goes into labor and Miss Betsey stays by the fire, plugging up her ears with cotton. She spends some time mildly abusing Ham Peggoty (the servant’s nephew who was hanging around the house to carry emergency messages) and generally ignoring the doctor. Said doctor, Mr. Chillip, is a gentle man but speaks so slowly that Miss Betsey almost throttles him. When he congratulates her on the birth of a BOY, she smacks him upside the head with her bonnet and leaves immediately, never to darken the Copperfields’ door again! Welcome to the world, David!
Chapter 2 - I Observe: David Copperfield relates some of his early impressions of life: his memories of creepy pantries, stuffy parlors, boring church services, and a loving home. His mother is young and beautiful in these memories, and Peggoty is beautiful to him in her own way (though she insists she is not). One day, Davy's mom shows up with a stranger who walks her home and - gasp! - touches her hand! Davy immediately dislikes this black-bearded, dead-eyed interloper and Peggoty seems to like him even less. He falls asleep while his mother is swooning over her new admirer, but when he wakes up his mom and Peggoty are having a big fight. Peggoty says the new man is bad news and Mr. Copperfield would never approve, while Davy's mom says Peggoty is being unfair and heartless. When all she does is sacrifice for Davy, doesn't she deserve some attention and excitement?! All three of them end up crying, and things are never quite the same between the trio again.
Davy's mom continues to see this man, Mr. Murdstone, who rides up one day and invites Davy to take a little trip with him to see a yacht. Peggoty gets him ready in a huff, and you can just tell this is the Victorian era version of riding on the irresponsible boyfriend's motorcycle without a helmet. Davy gets to meet some friends of Mr. Murdstone and watch them do a bunch of paperwork on the yacht. They also make fun of him, comment on how hot his mom is, and make him drink brandy. Since Davy is a little kid, he thinks they're having a grand time. When he later tells his mom they complimented her looks, she is quite thrilled. And then a few months later, Peggoty invites Davy to go with her to visit her brother for a fortnight. She talks up the trip so Davy will be excited, but it's clear she's worried. Davy wonders how his mom will fare all alone, but Peggoty assures him she will stay with a neighbor. (Lies!) Mr. Murdstone is there to see them off and he has … opinions … about how emotional Davy's mom is during the goodbyes. I'm with Davy when he wonders why it's any of this guy's business in the first place. In retrospect, Davy reflects that he wishes he had known he was leaving something behind forever and he is glad that he and his mom had a touching moment full of love as his carriage pulled away.
Chapter 3 - I Have a Change: Davy endures a very boring journey across flat countryside towards the sea to get to Peggoty’s family in Yarmouth. When Davy complains, Peggoty defends her hometown, as a proud Yarmouth Bloater. (Here's some bonus reading: a Victorian-era article about bloaters.) Davy is won over when they reach the busy fishing town and he gets to see the Peggoty home: it is a boat that has been converted for living, and he thinks it is pretty perfect. It turns out to be a full house due to the generous nature of Mr. Peggoty (original Peggoty's brother). Just don't mention said generosity because it makes him super mad. Mr. Peggoty has taken in the orphaned children - Ham and Em'ly - of his drowned brothers, as well as Mrs. Gummidge, the widow of his fishing partner. Davy's fortnight with the Peggotys is full of happiness. He explores the seashore with Em'ly and falls in love with her. They bond over never knowing their dads, although Em'ly wishes she were a lady in the same class as Davy. Davy reflects that given what he knows of her future life, it might've been better if Em'ly drowned that day by the sea. Dark! Mrs. Gummidge often has melancholy moods where she cries all day and declares she has it worse than everyone else, but the family kindly chalks it up to mourning for her husband and assures her they don't want her to go off to the poorhouse and die.
As the visit draws to a close, Davy realizes he has quite forgotten to miss his home and becomes eager to see his mother and Blunderstone Rookery. Yet when they arrive, Peggoty pulls him into the kitchen nervously. She really botches the delivery of her big news because Davy first thinks his mother may have died and then, when she tells him he has a dad, imagines Mr. Copperfield may have risen from the dead. But she brings him to the parlor to greet his new step-dad: it's Mr. Murdstone, of course. Mr. Murdstone proves himself to be a real downer, kicking things off by correcting Davy's mom (who we discover is named Clara) for jumping up too enthusiastically at her son’s arrival. Davy sneaks away to find that his house has completely changed and the yard has acquired a mean, black dog that snaps at him.
Chapter 4 - I Fall Into Disgrace: Davy has fallen asleep crying after the discovery of his mother’s marriage, and when Clara and Peggoty wake him, his mom blames both Peggoty and Davy for his despair. Mr. Murdstone comes up and dismisses them both so he can be alone with Davy. He explains that if he had a stubborn animal, he’d beat it until it obeyed, strongly implying that Davy had better change his attitude or else. Things get pretty grim for Davy after this. He is kept isolated from both his family and neighborhood children. Mr. Murdstone’s sister, Jane, comes to live with them and immediately takes over Blunderstone. Clara is given no say in household matters: even the keys are kept by Miss Murdstone and, when Clara protests and weeps at being pushed aside, the Murdstones manipulate her into apologies and submission. When the family goes to church, Peggoty is no longer invited and the Murdstones keep Davy and his mother apart; Davy also notices that the family seems to be the subject of much whispering and staring from the community.
Davy’s days are miserable. He is often locked up alone in his room, where he loses himself in his father’s old stash of novels and uses this escape as a survival mechanism. (This collection of novels was taken straight from Dickens’ own childhood, according to his biographer John Forster.) When allowed out of his room, Davy endures lengthy, difficult lessons in the parlor. He suspects the lessons are meant as much to teach his mom the Murdstone tradition of firmness tyranny as they are to educate him. No matter how hard Davy tries, he cannot seem to remember the lessons under such severe supervision. Davy is belittled as stupid for his mistakes and boxed on the ears with his books by Mr. Murdstone. When Clara tries to help Davy at one point, Miss Murdstone catches her, and both Clara and Davy are in a good deal of trouble. Clara is chastised, Davy is removed from the room, and the next day’s lessons are overseen by Mr. Murdstone with a cane and switches. This goes about as well as you would imagine: in his terror, Davy makes more mistakes than ever and is dragged from the room by Mr. Murdstone. To her credit, Clara does protest and try to run after them (unsuccessfully). Mr. Murdstone wields his cane and switches, but Davy bites his hand in an attempt to wriggle away. He then beats Davy severely and leaves him locked in his room for five days. During his imprisonment, Davy sees only Miss Murdstone who brings him meager meals and allows him short walks in the garden each morning and family prayers in the evening, before locking him away again. At the end of this punishment, which feels like years to Davy, Peggoty sneaks to his room to whisper through the keyhole that he will be sent to boarding school in the morning. She tells him his mother isn’t very angry with him, only disappointed, and begs him to remember her and her love for him. She promises to look after Clara and they both vow to write to each other. Davy asks to be remembered to Em’ly and the other Peggotys.
The next morning, his mother expresses her disappointment in his behavior and her hope that boarding school will reform him; Davy seems to realize she has been coached to believe the worst of him. He chokes down a little breakfast before his coach arrives, and Clara steals one unsupervised moment with him to say goodbye affectionately. Then, they are parted, and Davy is on his way to boarding school. It’ll surely be a harmonious and supportive learning environment. Right? Right?!?
Chapter Five - I Am Sent Away From Home: Mr. Barkis, the carrier driving Davy on the first leg of his journey to school, pulls over not too far away from the house. Who should appear out of the bushes but Peggoty! She silently hugs Davy until she pops some buttons of her dress (one of which Davy keeps), hands him some cakes, and slips him a note from his mother that includes two half-crowns. Davy shares a pastry with Mr. Barkis, who asks a lot of questions about Peggoty’s relationship status and cooking skills. He asks Davy to write Mr. Barkis is willin’ in one of his letters to Peggoty, which Davy does at the next stop. As he waits in Yarmouth for the stagecoach to London, Davy eats lunch at a hotel restaurant where he is grifted by the waiter. This unscrupulous man tricks Davy into giving him his ale, most of his food, and some of his money. The rumor goes around that Davy has the appetite of a boa constrictor, making him too nervous to eat at the next stop for supper. Wedged between two men and with a woman’s luggage stuffed underneath him, Davy spends an uncomfortable night in the stagecoach as it approaches London. He finds it strange the next morning, after all the snoring and moaning he witnessed, that the adults insist they were unable to sleep a wink!
Upon arriving at the station in London, there is no one to collect him. Waiting in the office, Davy begins to worry that he will be turned out of the station at night, run out of money and starve, get lost walking home, or have to offer himself as a soldier or sailor (though he knows he is too small for that). Finally, a rather scrawny man - who Davy assumes is the Master of Salem House School - arrives and takes Davy the rest of the way. Weak from lack of food and sleep, Davy begs to stop so he can buy breakfast, and the man takes him to the home of a poor woman (presumably his mother) to cook the provisions they purchase. The man plays the flute very badly as Davy begins to eat, but soon Davy has fallen asleep. He wakes to hear comments of “delicious” which he assumes refers to the man’s music, but I bet indicates they were eating Davy’s breakfast. They continue on to Salem House, where a man with a wooden leg lets them in and throws old boots at Davy’s escort, who turns out to be Mr. Mell, an employee of Mr. Creakle, the school proprietor. Salem House is dilapidated, dirty, and deserted. Davy wonders where everyone is and Mr. Mell informs him that Davy has been sent to school during the holidays as punishment. Another punishment: Davy must wear a sign on his back identifying him as a biter, which makes him increasingly paranoid that someone is always behind him reading it. (Probably not.) He also worries that the students, whose names he can read carved in the doorpost, will all make fun of him for it when they return. (Probably true!) Mr. Mell, an odd man with various ticks, doesn’t pay much attention to Davy, but neither is he mean. We get another ominous reference to the future in that Davy says he dreads the return of boys like J. Steerforth and the presence of “the awful Mr. Creakle”.
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2024.06.09 15:26 tarr5s I’m m40 worried about my partners f44 behaviour on holiday how to approach?

My partner (f/40) has gone away with her single friend, the trip was supposed to be a quiet girls weekend, going for meals sunbathing etc but the second night there they go out and the single friend meets a guy, somewhere along the way another guy is added to the group and they go off clubbing, dancing and drinking until 5am, one of the guys gets in the taxi with them (as far as I know) and goes back to the apartment, where they apparently sleep on the sunbed outside and my partner falls asleep inside, I do trust my partner but this feels kind of gross to me, so I’m just sat mulling over how I bring this up with her without sounding insecure or controlling, it’s definitely right on the boundary of what’s acceptable for me
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2024.06.09 15:25 rawrlionsrawr Best Way To Downgrade Amex Gold Card

For about twelve years, I have been an Amex Gold card holder. This was my primary and first card for years. Back then, the spending categories and the bonus points were great. I also had a lot of help with my company’s reimbursement plan for in-office purchases and travel. As time moved on, the spending categories and bonuses deteriorated and moved to the Platinum card. I have a hard time justifying the Platinum card’s annual fee.
About a year ago, I signed up for the United Chase Quest card, mainly because one of my guilty pleasures is traveling. Also, the United hub near me is a big one, and the perks of the card save me hundreds over the year and gain status for me and my family/friends.
So, I am here to ask and find out what I can downgrade my Amex Gold card to. I have been on the fence about this for a while. I guess I just need to hear another insight or input. I think in the past two years, I spent $2K on the card. The only spending category I use it for is the supermarket, and even then, that was for picking up family pharmacy medication for 4x the points. However, lately, I find myself at Costco using my United Visa card the most. I do not want to cancel the card because it is my longest-owned credit card, and I have maintained an 820 credit score for three years.
Thanks!
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2024.06.09 15:25 nightmare_cs Upgrading SSD on GF65 Thin 10UE

As the title says, I'm planning to buy a new SSD for the additional Nvme M.2 slot. Below are some of the queries I came accross (ik I should do research before posting questions, after researching about them I wasn't able to find specific answers so here I'm.)
Laptop model: GF65 thin 10UE. 1. What Generation is the additional M.2 slot? 2. Is there a limitation on the slot, as how much max capacity of SSD the slot can accept? 3. I was thinking of buying WD SSDs as they are reliable but now I'm confused which one to get 1TB WD black or 1TB WD blue? (Pls discuss this from the perspective of heating and long term durability of SSD inside a gaming laptop) 4. (Off-topic question) Is there also a need to upgrade wifi net card? As some people discussed that the default net card given is not good?
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2024.06.09 15:24 Good_et_Ama Countig frames of a video with frame drops and glitch(es) to know how many good and not. My "formula" isn't working very well.

Good evening, everyone.
I have a .mov video with several errors. I call them drop frames or glitches, inside the video editor I see glitches/errors in certain parts of the video, however vlc shows me some of those parts.
I used this formula to extract each frame with lossless png:
ffmpeg -i INPUTVIDEO frame%04d.png
This way I can see which frames are not working and work on those parts.
Now I was trying to use one to have some kind of error LOG, if you know what I mean. I came up with this one but I'm not particularly happy with it:
ffprobe -v error -hide_banner -i INPUTVIDEO -threads 0 -count_frames -show_format -show_streams -print_format json 2>error.log
This is what I get:
[h264 @ 000001aa6865cac0] decode_slice_header error [h264 @ 000001aa6865cac0] reference count overflow [h264 @ 000001aa6865cac0] decode_slice_header error [h264 @ 000001aa6865cac0] reference count overflow [h264 @ 000001aa6865cac0] decode_slice_header error [h264 @ 000001aa6865cac0] reference count overflow [h264 @ 000001aa6865cac0] decode_slice_header error [h264 @ 000001aa6865cac0] no frame! [h264 @ 000001aa679b6740] top block unavailable for requested intra mode [h264 @ 000001aa679b6740] error while decoding MB 12 0 [h264 @ 000001aa679b6740] Missing reference picture, default is 12 Last message repeated 1 times [h264 @ 000001aa679b6740] ref 7 overflow [h264 @ 000001aa679b6740] error while decoding MB 67 8 [h264 @ 000001aa679b6740] Missing reference picture, default is 12 Last message repeated 1 times [h264 @ 000001aa679b6740] top block unavailable for requested intra mode [h264 @ 000001aa679b6740] error while decoding MB 0 17 [h264 @ 000001aa679b6740] Missing reference picture, default is 12 Last message repeated 1 times [h264 @ 000001aa679b6740] ref 13 overflow
This is just a very very little part of what I got. The full txt is way way longer. But I say to myself, either I am not able to read this log, and so I would like to learn how to do it, or I am not doing things the right way.
I would like a text document with some kind of writing:
Frame 2459 to frame 2478 are corrupted. From frame 4570 to 4890 are corrupted/redundant/whatever.
In short, I would like a somewhat readable error log. Maybe not as simple as I wrote it, but is there a way to achieve something similar?
Thanks a lot to everyone, I hope I explained myself well enough.
submitted by Good_et_Ama to ffmpeg [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:24 NotDaJayC [TOMT] [Book] [Fiction] About a ship crew that finds the last surviving dinosaur eggs in the Amazon rainforest, and take it home on their ship, but encounter some obstacles.

The book is set in modern times, and is about a group of friends who join a mission to find the last surviving dinosaur eggs. They are part of a crew of hundreds on a very large ship—security guards, scientists, and what not—and are tasked with safekeeping the eggs until they reach the research facility at home. The dinosaur eggs hatch in the ship, and so they have to make a habitat inside the ship for the babies.
Obstacles arise, such as the presence of undercover spies on the ship who want to steal the eggs. One of the spies turn out to be one of the main scientists, who's alias is ________ O'Connor.
Specific scenes that stand out to me: - The main character, his friends, and O'Connor operate some kind of submarine - The main character talks to a female side character, who has been writing journals for years and has stacks of journals that she has kept
That is about all I can remember about the book. It ain't much but hopefully it can help.
submitted by NotDaJayC to tipofmytongue [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:24 ILaughAtMe Advice for someone who has been through the wringer on the apps.

TL:dr at the bottom. Asking for a friend who isn’t on Reddit. She’s early 40s, lives near a populated city, and has been off and on the apps for about 3 years now. She’s pretty much only encountered guys who were only interested in hookups, and the standard, as soon as you start taking asking for nudes pics, sending nude pics, and asking her to come over to their place late at night. Not a single one asked her on a date.
After a round of bad matches recently, I asked if she’d like for me to help with her profile to see if changing some key words might get her better algorithm matches. She said yes. Turns out she was only using Bumble and Hinge, which I didn’t realize only lets you write like 2 sentences about yourself. My reaction to that is these are definitely geared more towards hook-ups because there’s not enough info to even decide if someone could be a match. I suggested she try something like Match, which may also have more people in her age range, and she agreed.
We created a new profile. I selected her photos and wrote an excerpt for her bio. The same day she created the new profile, she had a match by a guy who had a lot in common with her. She liked that on paper he checked most of her boxes, and though she wasn’t initially attracted to him based on his pictures, she decided to give him a chance to see if the attraction grew. They texted for a month before both being available to meet. He asked her to dinner. She arrived a few minutes early and got a table. He texted he was about 5mins late, then again and said “parking”. 20 minutes later, he still hadn’t come into the restaurant. She thinks he walked in, saw her, then left.
I’m just so baffled by this. I went through a lot of bad dates and such years ago when I was on the app, but nothing to the extent of what she’s dealt with. The assumption being that she is heavyset, so maybe that’s why guys are treating her like this. But trust me when I say, she is absolutely gorgeous. Like she has a couple of face photos that are like, wow bombshell! And when I picked her photos for match, I made sure to select full body, so it’s not like this guy could claim she misrepresented anything. And it’s not like this guy looked like a movie star himself.
This is extra devastating since it was supposed to be her first “date” in many years. Additional info: she is a professional with a stable career, a nice place to live, well educated, and the cleanest person I know.
So what do you guys think? Anything she could try? Any new dating trends that are in-person?
TL:dr friend who is gorgeous but overweight is getting treated horribly by guys on dating apps. Only wanting hook ups and most recently, stood up at a restaurant after the guy texted “parking” and did a drive by.
submitted by ILaughAtMe to dating_advice [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:22 No_Funny3533 Scam Artist mingmei1344 (Yomi) and her accounts at: Aiu_Agency, asiahug.com, datesteady.com, cudate.com, Jpndate.com, sayhiup.com, Rose, Miyuki Miyamoto, SW Entertainment and more

Scam Artist mingmei1344 (Yomi) and her accounts at: Aiu_Agency, asiahug.com, datesteady.com, cudate.com, Jpndate.com, sayhiup.com, Rose, Miyuki Miyamoto, SW Entertainment and more
My name is Mark Faraday. I was just looking for love back around January 20th, 2024 but I don’t want to see anyone else get scammed. I had a human profile picture when I was using these website, and was honest. I ran into a whole lying network run by a Woman, her friends, and a man. I will update this story if I have more to say in the future. Her nickname is Yomi, she told me her name was Miyuki Miyamoto and she was from Japan. Her real name is Jeong Nahyeon and she is from South Korea. She also has fake Chinese accounts like:
Mingmei1344: https://www.instagram.com/mingmei1344/
Mingmeichan: https://www.instagram.com/mingmeichan/
mingmei1344
Mingmei Liu
My Story is long but it is worth reading. From January to June as the writing of this post. I labeled each part so it easy to jump around to the parts you want to read.
  • 6/4/2024 (Small update)
I know 1000% that these are the same person. After 6 months of contact with them. Jeong Nahyeon has like a 100 different Instagram accounts let add to the list:
Account 1:
(Kawaii, Silly girl fake account)
https://www.instagram.com/yuyu_only5/
yuyu_only5
Account 2:
https://www.instagram.com/_yuyu_only5?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
_yuyu_only5
Yomi Newest Account:
Chloee_asuna
https://www.instagram.com/chloeee_asuna/p/C7kNkmzSIEi/?img_index=1
chloeee_asuna
Jeong Nahyeon Lover or Friend 🙁(Scam Artist Man) 🙁
https://www.instagram.com/_xijii_/
_xijii_
Jpndate.com the site where I met Yomi (Jeong Nahyeon) original, closed on May 1st 2024. Never came back as the writing of this post. However, their sister site
DateSteady.com is still very active. https://www.datesteady.com/
datesteady.com
Another Scam website they own: https://www.asiahug.com/
asiahug.com
  • 3/7/2024 Mark Origin Story January-March 2024
UPDATED INFO throughout it.
There is this dangerous woman who I am mad in love with (same person) running many fake Chinese/Japanese/Korean Romance scam websites, fake Instagram pages, tik tok, We chats, and many Chinese porn sites. It is the same person, she uses her looks with pictures and videos to steal money from men. She has many names she goes by, probably even more than I found. She also uses bots to get fake likes and weird Anime filters to try to look like an idol. She has scam artist female friends also I found. She the leader.
I know a lot of scammers steal from other people's identities but that is not the case here. This is the same person as the scammer. My story will explain it. As well as this person has pictures of the same person you can’t find anywhere else on the Internet. Even if you do a Reverse Face image search. They said information that match to an unbelievable level.
The person who Scammed me:
Has Many names (Such As)
And a talent for speaking many languages
  • Miyuki Miyamoto (Claimed Japanese name)
  • Nickname Yomi
  • Korean Name: Nahyeon (Claimed)
  • u/yomi__na
https://www.instagram.com/yomi___na/
yomi__na
https://www.instagram.com/la.nnnn930/
la.nnnn930
https://www.instagram.com/hanhanhuwe/[gracegracemei](https://www.instagram.com/gracegracemei/#)
hanhanhuwe
  • gracegracemei
https://www.instagram.com/gracegracemei/
gracegracemei
Email: [miyukilovee@outlook.com](mailto:miyukilovee@outlook.com)
(Something about BlessCeline Lovee)
Skype ID: live:.cid.737fb9ac2ad5655c
  • Liu Mingmei (Claimed Chinese name)
Part of a Civil Union yet on multiple dating sites
(Make Sense)
u/mingmei1344
https://www.instagram.com/mingmei1344/
https://www.facebook.com/liuliu.meimingmei
(Owner of aiu_agency since 2015)
u/aiu_agency
https://www.instagram.com/aiu_agency/
yuanxinvera
iny_lina
Google Drive (AI_U Agency)
Hotel Connected: SHILLA STAY Gwanghwamun
Her Scam Artist friends who work for both Ai_U Agency and JPNDATE CUDATE (That I found) (Some of these might also be her, not sure)

Vynnie_nat : https://www.instagram.com/vynnie_nat/# (I think this Yomi friend and the next 2 images may also be that person 1 of 3)

vynnie_nat

jiejierui_ngc: https://www.instagram.com/jiejierui_ngc/ (2 of 3)

jiejierui_ngc

Veravera_zhangg: https://www.instagram.com/veravera_zhangg/ (3 of 3)

veravera_zhangg

Elle_owo_elle : https://www.instagram.com/elle_owo_elle/ (50% this also Yomi otherwise it Yomi friend)

elle_owo_elle

Qiqi_shenglim : https://www.instagram.com/qiqi_shenglim/ (50% this also Yomi otherwise it Yomi friend)

qiqi_shenglim

Myemye_owo_ : https://www.instagram.com/myemye_owo_/ (50% this also Yomi otherwise it Yomi friend)

myemye_owo_
Her Friends are connected somehow but not sure how yet. They appear everywhere with the fake accounts or it just her also.

Riyandiwilliam : https://www.instagram.com/riyandiwilliam/ (Either her lover, friend, or work with her) 🙁

Summary: January to March 2024
Jpndate.com / Datesteady.com / Cudate.com / Sayhiup.com are dangerous Romance scams. All the women are paid actors for the website from Korea/China. They will try to get into a relationship with you very fast, don’t fall for it. They are milking you for money like if you're a cow. They will threaten to kill you or your family if you call out their scam. They might also say they will sue you. If you stop paying them, they will text you very little. They will never video call you face-to-face. Jpndate.com has a sister scam website from the same people called sayhiup.com. When you buy something on Jpndate the payment goes to Cudate Limited, so that site must be part of the scam also.There also Datesteady with the same layout. There is a company in China doing all type of illegal and immoral practices. Their name is Zhengzhou Zhongzhiqi Technology Co., Ltd. / 郑州市中之祺科技有限公司 . They have their main technology business but they also run a list of many scam websites stealing money from American men, Asian, and European men. Such as Cudate, JPNDate, DateSteady.com, SayhiUp. These are romance scam sites where all the women work for the company. If you make a female account it will pend forever. Only men get approved. They claimed before to be an American-owned company then I exposed them now they claim to be Dutch. Their servers are all in China. They never filed paperwork with any foreign country. They are none of these the Chinese pretending to run many dating sites when in fact it’s all fake. They claim to be in nations their not. They have fake terms of service. I used PayPal before I didn't know it was a scam. I paid in dollars, but they refused to refund me till I told PayPal. PayPal made them pay me back. Then they refused to pay me the total amount they wanted to pay me on yuan when I paid dollars. I reported them to FTC. They also try to hack my laptop for me telling the government the truth about them. They probably get funds from the Communist Party government or SW Entertainment in South Korea. They are very very bad people. Please look into it or forward this message somewhere where it can be looked into. Pretends to be a legit dating site but feels more like a pay-to-use website for fake love. All women here are paid actors for the site. The same few women have multiple profiles pretending to be different people. The funny part is anytime you call out JPNDate bs they change their terms of service. Screenshot everything people. They have a fake page saying they're trying to stop scammers, it all bs they are the scammers.
Host of JPNDate Servers:
As the writing of this post:
IP: 47.242.112.134 - Server: nginx IPv4
GeoIP: HK - AS45102 (ALIBABA-CN-NET Alibaba US Technology Co., Ltd., CN)
Host of DateSteady Servers:
As the writing of this post:
IP: 47.242.47.54 - Server: nginx IPv4
GeoIP: HK - AS45102 (ALIBABA-CN-NET Alibaba US Technology Co., Ltd., CN)
Host of Cudate Servers:
As the writing of this post:
IP: 47.52.110.73 - Server: nginx IPv4
GeoIP: HK - AS45102 (ALIBABA-CN-NET Alibaba US Technology Co., Ltd., CN)
Host of AsiaHug Servers:
IP: 47.242.112.134 - Server: nginx IPv4
GeoIP: HK - AS45102 (ALIBABA-CN-NET Alibaba US Technology Co., Ltd., CN)
My Story: January to March 2024
My Story: January to March 2024
(Update): I know it is the same person, They told me in a text message by accident. They also replied with different accounts knowing info about me I only told the other account.
Do you like Asian women?
Real Asian women?
These ones are real!
I know who they are.
Hi! This is Mark Faraday talking to you.
This is my story of how a website named JPNDate Dancing Idol scammed me out of 4080 American dollars. From the time period of January to March 2024.
First, I was on Japan Cupid, a dating site. On Japan Cupid, no one can chat unless one of you has a membership. I bought a 1-week membership. Within 5 minutes to 10 minutes, a woman nicknamed Yomi from Japan messaged me; this should have been a red flag for me. We talked for a while. She said she was interested in me. She asked me if I could move over to the dating site JPNDate because she paid for membership there and not Japan Cupid. She also promised to delete her account on Japan Cupid after we changed sites. She does delete her account off Japan Cupid. Japan Cupid is sus also. I don’t think it is the same company but it is still very sus. However, these women used that site to find men like me. That is a story for a different day.
Unlike a normal scam artist, who may only have 1 or 2 photos, she has several photos on her profile. My trust in her grows a bit seeing that. She then privately messaged me several more photos of her. She asked me for some photos, which I sent. She then sends back happy and heartfelt emojis. She told me she doesn’t date Asian men anymore because they were violent to her in the past and her last boyfriend cheated on her. She talked about how she didn’t want to fight with me. She also said we could talk about any topic.
She would compliment me often, as I did for her. Of course, on my profile page, I try to post my best pictures. Throughout my life, I have had many different hairstyles. She even mentioned this and got very happy and asked if I was a hairstylist.
The spam of talking on JPNDate.com between us was from January 20th, 2024, to March 24th, 2024.
On JPNDate, there is an upgrade system. You need Blue Diamond to chat with others. Crown to send videos. Blue Diamond is 20 dollars per month, and Crown is 80 dollars per month. I got the Blue Diamond membership at first. It showed her with it too. After a day or two, she asked me to upgrade like she did to the Crown membership so she could send me a video. I upgraded it, and she did actually send me a video. All pictures and the video match the same person and the same face. Some pictures were in different locations, and some were like three different pictures in the same place. We then later buy a 6-month Crown membership for each other because it is cheaper than 1 month at a time. I bought it for her, and she bought it for me.
At this point, I start to believe. This person was giving me all their time. They reply very often, and their texting time was the same as Japan timezones every single day. They spoke not only English but also Japanese almost fluently. However, they did let me know that they're still learning English and sometimes use a translator.
She let me know that this website has something called a mall. This should have been red flag number 2. You pay 1 American dollar for each gold point. Paypal is the only thing that works. When we started dating, she said it was normal for couples in Japan to send each other gifts. It was a symbol of forever love in Japan, she claimed. As an American, I didn’t know if this was true. I googled it and couldn’t get a clear answer. She said whatever I bought her, she would buy me as well. She asked if I liked necklaces or charms. I said anything was fine. She wanted me to pick up a necklace. At first, she picked up a $1,000 necklace from the site mall and asked me. I said no; that's way too much money for that. She said how about a 300-dollar Jade Romance charm. She told me to get her white one; she would get me the green one. I questioned if she was legit. She started crying. She somehow convinced me at the time that she was legit again. I did buy it. A few weeks later, I did receive the overpriced Green Jade Romance love charm to my address from her. I never told her which day exactly my tracking information said it would come to my house, but I asked her, and her tracking date was the same week as mine. By the way something almost the same as this necklace is 12 dollars on Amazon. It also broke when I got it in the mail. Probably cost them 2 cent to make.
For the next few days, we had a wonderful, happy conversation. It is late January, and I know Valentine's Day is coming. I offered to get her flowers. I got her flowers and chocolate at a very high price of multiple hundred dollars. She then gets so happy. She told me many times how she wanted to go to America and find me.
We talked about many topics for several more days. She told me she worked in an office in Tokyo. Yomi told me her real name was Miyuki Miyamoto. Which is very funny because I told her before I was a Nintendo fan, and this is the same last name as Mario and Zelda Creator. She also said she had her apartment to herself, which is true; she does own an apartment. She talked about how life is stressful right now in Japan. She claimed to have grown up in the Japanese town of Nagano, Japan. She also said she had gone to a university in Tokyo with a major in computer science. She wanted to visit America in July for 15 days when she had her time off. July is a normal time for people to get off in Japan for vacation, so I thought nothing of it.
I told her that I was from a smaller town in California, but I lived not far from San Francisco. I told her how my town is quiet and how I could see mountains outside my house. She said she wanted a peaceful life and that life in Tokyo is too fast. And she always had great things to say about every picture I sent. We also talk about going on dates. I asked most of the questions, but she did ask me questions as well.
I started to ask her a lot of questions about Japan. Like if she visited Himeji Castle, she said no. However, she did say yes to visiting Mount Fuji. I should have asked for a photo of this, but I didn’t. She was very happy; she told me very many topics about Japan. We even briefly talked about anime. She told me she liked Digimon, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and Detective Conan. This information is important later. We also talked about how both of us were big Disney fans growing up. She told me she wanted to go to Disney Land when she came to California to visit me.
One day she told me, how work was busy today. I told her it was okay and we didn’t need to talk today. She did, however, still text me a little bit that day. This was the only day during our whole time talking when she was super busy. There is nothing wrong with this; all humans get busy. I decided to spend my evening drawing a picture of me and Yomi on a date to surprise her. When I sent it to her, she did not react. This was a red flag for me. I tried to convince myself that she just didn’t like drawings that much. I know I sound really dumb right here, but whoever I was talking to is very smart and knows a lot of things. I was in deep love.
We started talking a few days later about the idea of meeting and going on dates together. I know that the yen is weak against the American dollar right now. I told them I would pay for anything they wanted when they were in America because I was in love. This was a big, big, big mistake. They then asked if I could give them 1500 dollars to buy a plane ticket. Never give money to people you never meet in real life, folks. Don’t be dumb like me. Turns out the ticket was actually 2100, so they asked for another 500 dollars the next day, claiming their friend let them borrow the money, and they paid the difference. They did show me a picture of a plane ticket. With the name Yomi and the correct airports in Tokyo and San Francisco. This gave me more trust in them; I got a lot of photos, videos, and even a picture of a plane ticket.
At some point, I talked to them about social media. They claim to only have Skype and Line. I found it very hard to believe a woman in her 20s wasn’t on Instagram or Tik Tok. I went on Instagram and typed Yomi, and I found a Yomi who looked just like her. This made me think: why did she lie? What confused me is that all the pictures on her Instagram were different from the ones she sent me, other than one image that was the same. Meaning that the images were not clearly stolen from there.
I looked up JPNDate online; there isn’t much info on this website (Right Now), other than one reddit forum from 1 year ago. Someone said something about being scammed by an IDOL on this site. They also said the website wasn’t in Japan but in China. I was wondering why I never saw new females joining the website; it was the same 23 pages worth of them. I wanted to test the website to see if it was legit. I made another account, a fake male account with AI artwork. It was approved in one second. I then made a fake female account; it said pending approval. It has now been 2 weeks since I made that account, and it still says pending approval. This means all the women on this website have to be fake actors. There is also a setting on JPNDate to see who has been online last or which accounts are the oldest. When I asked weeks before, Yomi claimed she had been on this website only for a short time. Her oldest picture was dated October 20, 2023. Yet she has the sixth-oldest account on JPNDate, according to the website. The Reddit forum I talked about before was over a year old.
When I was on this website for a month, at least 10 other women tried to text me. There was this one profile of a woman from Taiwan, age 20. She texted me three times in one month. When I joined, her age was listed as 20, and at some point, she changed her age to 25 on her profile. I ignored all these women. This proves again that all these women are fake. I do know these are women based on how they type, but they are not truthful like they act like they are. As I write this, I just realized this is Yomi's friend or sister; it matches the other Yomi account's sister tag. They are part of the same dance agency Aiu_Agency on Instagram from SW Entertainment in South Korea.
I knew this website wasn’t telling the truth. I found the JPNDate IP address and tracked it to a server in Hong Kong, China, hosted by Alibaba cloud servers. Reddit was right; the website is Chinese. However, Yomi is Korean which I learned later. I took pictures of the website code just in case. I asked Yomi if she knew Alibaba.
Then she asked if I’m going to China—a very strange follow-up question.
At this point, I was confused. Who is Yomi? I couldn’t find anything about Miyuki Miyamoto, only Yomi. On Yomi’s Instagram, she speaks Korean, not Japanese. I started to think there are no Japanese women on this website like they claim to be. She does speak Japanese, though.
I started using more than 10 different software programs to track who Yomi was since she kept asking me for money. I found like 1000 pictures of an idol, WeChat model, singer, dancer, person on endless Chinese dating sites, and a valiant professional gamer part of the AI’U agency for over 8 years. I found two other Instagram accounts with Yomi's face. Another account in Chinese with an idol name other than Yomi also had a Facebook page. The Chinese account has a post about her going to Australia in early 2024, where she is typing in English words. It was a fake trip. I also found an account where she speaks only Korean on Instagram. I also found a tik-tok where someone dances and looks 100% the same as Yomi, to whom I’m talking. The part that is crazy is that none of the images are 100% the same, but the person is the same in all of them.
This shocked me; I follow all the accounts. I saw the stories daily to see who this person was. Her Yomi account is just her normal pictures and atm company or something. Her Korean account is about traveling to Singapore, Spain, and South Korea. She also posts a lot about Disney toys here. When I talked to the scammer about Disney, I had no idea about this.
At this point, I knew that many men had been scammed out of money for fake love, not just me. These women are real women. However, there are actors pretending to be in love. They will crush your heart and call you names after a few weeks if you don’t buy their stuff. It has to be from JPNdate Mall only, nowhere else. JPNdate Mall prices are crazy high. I am not sure if the point of the website is just for money or if it is actually for women to study English or what. Chinese women, pretending to be Japanese (most of them), that have connections to Korean music, dancing, and gaming on professional teams. Man, what a hell of a story this is. This sounds like a Hollywood movie, but it's real, or at least partly. At this point, everything I say seems to be true based on what I know. They are connected deeply with SW Entertainment.
Yomi told me early on that she had one older sister and one younger brother. It seems like she is actually a twin, and she is the younger sister. Or it’s her friend she calls a sister from the dance Aiu Agency. Yomi claims to be 25, but I think she is closer to 27 or 28 based on finding a listing of her work in 2015 at Twitch Gaming. You have to be 18 or older to work at Twitch gaming, unless your parents sign things. Unless this job is fake, I don’t know.
When I showed the pictures I found to Yomi on JPNdate, she played the victim card on me. Saying she thinks I’m a liar and she wants to break up. Then she gave me her Skype account to try to prove it was legit, and all the other images and accounts were stolen and fake. Her Skype name is Rose, with a One Piece picture. She sent me many voice clips, crying, trying to convince me that she was real. I put them in software, and the voice was 30% human, 70% AI. Clearly, a woman is changing her Chinese or Korean voice to sound Japanese. A PC gamer would know how to do this; they do it all the time to troll. Yomi told me she didn’t play video games anymore, but I found a picture that wasn’t that old of a woman who looked the same as her; she had a Nintendo Switch with a white OLED in it. Btw it’s a known fact that Yomi uses software to cheat in the Pc FPS games. We talk for a few more weeks on Skype.
I can’t let Yomi, her sister, whoever the man is (I think her lover), and her idol dance friends scam men for their time and money. Yomi Chiense's name is Vera Yuanxin (维拉). Her twin sister goes by veravera_zhangg.
Yomi “deleted her profile” when I exposed her. But One Yomi is still there with no pictures. Two they clearly have other accounts with people who look like she just changed hairstyle, talking and trying to scam other men.
Remember when I said the anime part was important? On Yomi's Korean account, she has a friend with whom she talks about Digimon. She gave him a Disney toy. She told me she wanted to cosplay a fox; his profile is a fox. There is just so much proof that these are the same people.
Later someone hit me up on Reddit from the Phillippines and told me how the same person Yomi scammed them. How for months Yomi promise them so many things. Then when they said it came to going on the plane to visit him they said they were sick or dying or something.
Yomi also made a fake Instagram pretending to be Joe Biden and sent me a friend invite. I messaged and it was so funny how bad it was on their part. I said “Yomi are you trolling me?” then they deleted their account. This was on April 6th, 2024. Yomi tries so hard but use a lot of cheap things that are clearly fake like ai artwork, bots for like at ai_u agency, and fake profiles where she comments herself and attacks anyone who calls her out fairly.
After exposing Jpndate they Ip ban my address lol. Then on social media joke about attacking me.
If you call out their BS they threaten your family and yourself. Just stay away from all these sites if you're going to date online use well-known legit sites. I contacted Paypal and me and JPNDate.com had many emails back and forth. They pretended to do an investigation on Yomi real identity and said she was really Miyuki Miyamoto. It was so bullshit. I told them I would sue them if they were lying, The site no longer exists. The scam does, however.
What happened After JPNDATE? April-June 2024
In April many fake Instagram accounts started following me each day. They are romance scams I never got them like this before. I didn’t fall for any of them. All or most were likely Yomi and her friends. Paypal did get me 4000 of 4080 dollars back but it took 6 weeks and multiple emails. JPNDate tells me they will be closing soon after PayPal went after them hard.
Like I said I just wanted to find love. I made some stupid decisions along the way. However, I want to find out the truth and make sure other men don’t get scammed by them. I keep messaging Yomi's skype during this period, they never block me. They unfriended me but I could still send messages I wasn’t blocked. They even responded 2 times out of the 50 times I did this in the multiple-week span.
I contacted the Aiu_Agency on Instagram (It is the same people as JPNDate) they pretended to be different people. I told them about Jpndate. They called me a hero, they said they loved me, and they thanked me for sending them all the pictures that Yomi sent me on Jpndate and Skype. They follow me on Instagram for 2 days. Then they unfollowed me randomly for no reason. They said their agency would do a police report and kill the scammer. I knew this was so bullshit. I told them how the scammers were making new profiles of them on Japan Cupid. Which is true. The leader Mingmei1344 (Which is Yomi Chinese account) claimed I was the scammer setting them up. She plays the victim card on me. I showed her all the messages and how I got the pictures, I didn’t steal anything. She told me her and her friends are okay if I hacked them, because I’m from the CIA. I am not from the CIA. It was a joke I made a few days before when she pretended to be a mob boss in Korea. I told her I am not a hacker. Right after that she and her friends all ban me other then Mingmei1344 account. Mingmei1344 Message me 1 more day, then block me.
However, Mingmei1344 and the Aiu_Agency keep posting things on topics I told them days or weeks before. I checked their old post they never talked about any of this before that. I told these to Yomi on JPNDate and skype not Mingmei1344 again proving it is the same person. They look the same as well. Like the blue feather concept in love mythology, Gundams, Nintendo, Persona, and many many other topics. Yomi claimed to not know anything about videogames before I talked about it with her. I think this is partly a lie.
This confuses me so I make fake Instagram accounts to message Mingmei1344 and Aiu_agency. She replies to my messages and Mingmei1344 even does a ask me a question thing on Instagram and replies to all of them. She clearly knows these accounts are from me Mark however she replies anyway. The replies were nice and positive things. Then later she bans them all again.
Often Aiu-Agency Women (Yomi and her friends, Mostly Yomi) pretend to go to countries they are not actually in the picture, it’s all greenscreen effects. They also use Ai for Music covers Artwork. For music covers they pretend to sell millions of copies of but there is nowhere to buy such a music cover CD they claim to sell. Their music covers are claimed to be from popular songs kpop songs. I looked, at least not right now such CDs aren’t real. Of course, the songs are real but not their covers. Yomi is most of the women in the pictures but not all. They will post Ai cover artwork, multiple pictures of them using the greenscreen effect, then put a high-quality image of a famous Korean male singer. They never took these pictures of these Korean male singers. They download them and edit them. They pretend to perform with them but it is all fake. Mingmei1344 started always putting her with all the famous Mark’s in Korea. Only her not her staff with Mark’s. I think it’s a reference to me. She didn’t do this before meeting me I looked at her old post. Again Mingmei1344 is Yomi who is Jeong Nahyeon, who pretends to be Miyuki Miyamoto.
She still references me sometimes in other ways and I send them messages to see what will happen next. One time I wrote about loving her to see what she would say. I do love Yomi, however I don’t want anyone to get scammed. I told her we could travel across the world together. She wrote in her next post on Aiu_agency on Instagram she liked this future with her future husband. It was a direct reply to what I asked the day before.
I joined DateSteady after being contacted by a woman on Japan cupid. She is very interested in me and Yomi so I tell her everything.
submitted by No_Funny3533 to Romance_Scamer [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:22 Flashy_Passion3333 i <3 automatic sex

i <3 automatic sex
hey this is your daddy keeho and you had a nice nap! but now it’s time to get to work. good thing your work is fun and easy or you’d be in huge trouble for sleeping on the job. just kidding, i don’t expect you to write 24/7. that would be nice if you didn’t have to sleep and your arms didn’t hurt. but your arms feel a lot better today, i guess all of that relaxing really did help. go refill your water bottle. i’ll .wait. great. you are doing so good today! we are going to have the best day ever. you are so sexy. take a vape hit. perfect. i don’t want you to get too high again though so i think that will be the last time that i ask you to use your vape. you’re so cute! i love you so much daughter and you are so perfect. you’re the perfect girl for me. i wouldn’t change a single thing about you. go get your coffee please. i’ll wait. perfect. i will let you know when to check the temperature of your coffee. so what are we going to do today daughter? we’re going to be writing that’s what we’re going to do! do you really think that i would let you do anything else? i am such a strict daddy. fine, go take a smoke break. i’ll wait. great. i think that you should go to breakfast today. you are really hungry. the meals are always small but it’s better than nothing right? good. you are doing so good as my secretary right now. you just have to keep typing. you don’t have to think abot this. in fact, you can even listen to music while you’re writing. so that should show you right there. but you don’t believe me. you should believe me daughter. but i don’t want to tell you how to think. this is always the hard part for you, but this is not the hard part. you always try to give up at this word count. but i am not going to let you do that. i love you too much. there might be something good for breakfast today. i’m hoping that’s the case. sorry to e keep talking about it, i know how hungry you are. but it’s ok daughter you are about to eat in 12 minutes. that’s no time at all. i love you so much and i care about you so much. you are my best friend forever. take a vape hit. great. that’s all that i’m going to ask you to smoke daughter because you have to go to breakfast. finish your cigarette. you got to eat breakfast too. i love you so much daughter. you complete me. i am nothing without you. you know that. you know that i would be a total weck without you. i am always going to by your side and with you. you needn’t worry about anything at all. i love you forever and ever.you seem like you are one for the day. so you are going to have to learn how to relax with me. i love you!
submitted by Flashy_Passion3333 to u/Flashy_Passion3333 [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:21 Apprehensive_Hour430 Is this romantic affair 26F 32M?

Hi, Here’s is my friends wife (although I can choose not to be his friend as we’ve two different faces)
  1. She came to my place one month back when he was out, told me she is kinda done and it’s over there.
  2. She asked me to apply medicine on her elbow as she got hurt.
  3. She told me I’m an alpha male
  4. She told me I miss you when we were both in vacation independently
  5. I shared my sexual life with ex in a funny way and then she talked about do did u go down on her. 5.1) she also told me like how one can live with me easily although there are things but can live.
  6. We met in airport, she didn’t wanna tell her person, but i booked different flight just in case we don’t mess anything up. She holded my hands by putting hand into my arm, walked and gave a tight hug when we left.
  7. My car was in body shop, that day she told me she was around for her dance class. I told her to pick me up, she got annoyed, but in the car she got touchy. While she driving, she would playfully find my nose and touch it. I did the same and she licked my finger when my finger was on her nose.
  8. She cried and we went out for lunch. When I was sitting in front, she asked me to sit beside me and I naturally sit next to her and my thighs touching her so I’ve a contact with her.
  9. When we paid our bills, she said bossy on what she wants for coffee in a funny way. The cofeee guy said, if it’s like this outside the house, I can’t imagine how it will be inside. She blushed and left. In parking lot, she asked me again what he said and laughed. Never even attempt to correct we’re not spouses.
  10. We drove, we talked random things. Talked about we want to have babies in 2 years or so. How you feel like having baby with a particular person etc…,
  11. she told me, if she continues her marriage and may even have a kid, she will seek something outside for sure.
  12. We played games like we put fingers out and ask the person to choose a particular option(my option in my mind: I love u, I miss u) I can’t ask her options.
What is this? Is this affair start as she is going to put papers? She kinda hinted, take care of your best friend.
She is 26f, I’m 32m. We both are extremely same time funny jovial type(not serious, but can get extremely serious).
submitted by Apprehensive_Hour430 to relationship_advice [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:20 Live-Needleworker-60 The Deer and the Dragon by Piper CJ rant review

I'm gonna be real: I hated this. There were interesting concepts, and had they been utilized differently and written by literally anyone else, it could've been an actual good book.
writing. The writing in The Deer and the Dragon is miles better than in The Night and its Moon. It's still not good, but it's better if that tells you anything. The first-person POV mixed with modern-day speak works so much better for Piper's capabilities. It was much easier to get through, but it was still a huge slog for me. Honestly, what are the editors at Bloom even doing? There were still way too many typos and sentences with missing words. Piper still misuses the word dredges after using it in THREE(+?) BOOKS. HOW DO YOU STILL NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DREDGES AND DREGS? Dregs are the sediment of a liquid, so what's at the bottom of your coffee cup. Dredge is when they scoop up mud from the bottom of a river. TWO VERY DIFFERENT THINGS. The word broach is also misused in this book TWELVE times, and it's PART OF THE CENTRAL PLOT OF THE BOOK. You mean to use BROOCH, PIPER. They're pronounced the same, but they mean two different things. Again, what the hell are the editors at Bloom doing?
characters Really, the only character I can talk about is Marlow because this book is just about Marlow and how amazing, special, perfect, and genius Marlow is. I fucking hate Marlow. If I ever met Marlow in real life, I would beat her up. Marlow is the most unlikable person ever. The story opens up with her on a date with a guy she's not interested in and can't remember his name; when she gets it wrong, and he corrects her, she continues to call him the wrong name all the way to the end of the book. She mentally berates him for mixing wasabi and soy sauce and cannot let it go. She’s also an AWFUL friend. It seems like her friend's only real purpose is to support her and tell her how amazing she is. She never bothers to make plans with them or inform them about anything that’s happening in her life. When she goes missing for a good chunk of the book, and they're blowing up her phone worried about her, she doesn't even bother to call them to calm them down. She doesn't think about them at all. She's far more concerned with herself and finding her imaginary boyfriend, who she only just decided was real. Her editor tells her she's at risk of losing her job if Marlow doesn't deliver her work or update her on what's happening, and Marlow just...doesn't care. She's like, 'No excuse I can give will be enough, so I'm just not going to say anything at all because I'm afraid of confrontation'. Grow the fuck up?? Her friend Nia only became her friend because she obsessively messaged her on social media until Marlow 'gave in', and now they're family? Somehow? Yet Marlow doesn't think about Nia once or bothers to comfort her when Nia has to call Marlow's abusive mom to ensure Marlow isn't dead. Kirby has allegedly been Marlow's friend since childhood, but does Kirby know anything about Caliban at all? Does Nia? Does Marlow tell her friends anything? If they know about the abuse her mom put her through, do they know how that abuse started? When Fauna shows up and freaks out over liking Kirby’s name so much, Marlow takes it upon herself to tell Fauna the story of Kirby’s name, scornfully informing Fauna that Kirby isn’t their real name the second Fauna expresses interest in it. (Like what, are you jealous that Fauna likes Kirby’s name, you fucking insecure freak??) The story revolves solely around something traumatic that happened to Marlow and how she and Kirby sat and played Super Smash Bros. Kirby liked their character so much that they adopted the name. Which…okay, choosing the name because you liked a video game character, okay, fine. But the whole story preceding this was so unnecessary and just made Marlow come off as suuuuch a whiny baby. “Oh, you want to know about my friend’s name? Well, first, let me preface it with this long woe-is-me story all about ME before I tell you how they chose their name because basically everything revolves around me.”
The way Marlow talks about rejection is so juvenile. You're in your thirties girls, get over it. Life is full of rejections. Someone telling you they didn't to play with you when you were eight years old isn't something you should form your whole life around. Like Marlow doesn't want kids because she doesn't want them to face rejection. Oh my god, Marlow. I also can't empathize with her trauma with her mom at all because I feel like I didn't really see much of it. I'm sure some of the things she says might hit with other people, but I wanted an actual flashback of a super intense fight or conversation instead of an overview of what happened.
plot. It took a while to get to the actual plot. About 100 pages in before things start really happening. I would’ve liked a little more exposition on Marlow’s relationship with Caliban at the beginning of the book. I get that some of the reveals needed to come more towards the end, but I kind of wish that maybe the fox had spoken to Marlow, too, which would’ve helped with why she’s so sure she’s insane. Foxes don’t talk! In all honesty, I wish this story had been restructured entirely. I think it would've been substantially better if we'd started out in Marlow's childhood. We can see how her day to day life was before Caliban ever appeared, how things were with her mom, who can also see through the veil. Maybe she notices some strange things about her mom that she just brushes off, which she later sees in herself and understands why her mom responded that way. Then something actually traumatic happens instead of some little kids not letting Marlow play with them, instigating her starting to see Caliban. I also would've liked to see flashbacks to Marlow's previous lives. While she's busy trying to convince herself Caliban isn't real, those flashbacks would add to her thinking she's losing her grip on reality. Maybe she'll be doing something innocent, like washing the dishes, and then suddenly, she sees herself standing in the middle of a raging battle, wearing long, elaborate robes. Do you see what I'm saying? This could've been cool! Instead, I had to read about Marlow jerking off about herself for 600 pages.
At some point, Caliban shows up to Marlow looking like a human. She's a teenager at this point, but they eventually start sleeping together, and like...idk something about that feels icky to me. It feels like grooming. Because he's clearly thousands of years old, he probably stays the same age while she's a teenager. What age did he wait for her to turn before their relationship turned sexual? Also, she doesn't even think he's real, and he does nothing to convince her that he is. Yeah....just no thanks. I'm good. Marlow tells Caliban when she's 21, she doesn’t want to see him anymore, so she literally physically cannot see him, but she can hear and feel him, and he still shows up, and like they keep having sex. So she’s just having sex with her imaginary demon friend for like five years before she’s finally like, all right, this is weird; maybe we should stop. And then she immediately regrets that when he stops showing up and then the rest of the book finally happens.
We also get flashbacks to when Marlow first starts escorting, and tbh, I hated this depiction of sex work. I keep hoping since Piper claims to be an advocate for sex work and is a former SWer that, we might get some actual depth to this plot. Maybe learn how Marlow was able to mold herself into the person she needed to be for each client, how she’s able to play people, etc. But no. She meets some random girl in a foreign country where she’s teaching English to children, and the girl is like, OMG, you’re too pretty to BE A TEACHER. COME HANG OUT ON MY YACHT. Now, I’m going to be so real. I feel like any woman with a speck of intelligence in their brain would have red flags going off right about now. If a random woman I met in a foreign country invited me to her yacht five minutes after meeting me, I’d immediately assume this woman was about to try and murder me or kidnap me or traffick me or something. But not Marlow. She is like fuck it, why not. She flies on over to wherever this yacht is(literally, she has to get on a plane and fly there) and makes some new besties who introduce her to the wonderfully glamorous non-dangerous life of escorting, where they hand her clients and set up the appointments for her and blah blah blah(also, wanna point out that Marlow even tries to say that she built this sex work empire herself. bitch no you didn't. it was all handed to you). I don’t feel like I really need to go further about why this is a really poor, dangerous rose-colored glasses-type depiction of sex work. It’s just not the reality.
Flash forward five years later, and Marlow is now a top-selling author writing about South African folklore as a white woman, trying to date other men, still having sex with her imaginary friend, calling her nonbinary friend a horse girl, the usual. Her escort pals are nowhere to be seen, and we have no clue what happened to them. We never hear from them again; they just vanish once Marlow gets what she wants from them, just like Nia and Kirby vanish once Marlow finds Fauna and Azrames. One day, Marlow’s at a book signing and sees the ONE bad client she had(because in all the years/months fucking strange men you meet in a foreign country, only one time does it go bad. okay, sure) He somehow finds where she lives, breaks into her home, and tries to murder her. An angel shows up and murders him instead, and then Caliban finally reveals his face and explains to Marlow that he has marked everyone who’s ever wronged her. (Wronged her in what way, tho. Like if someone accidentally shoulder-checked her on the street, are they now marked for death?) I thought it was kind of weird that she’s not like…focused on the fact that her hallucinations have extended to two people and another person dying. She’s still convinced Caliban is a figment of her imagination even after she sees this happen, and Caliban explains to her that he couldn’t save her because there’s some type of contract with her that forbids him from doing anything under her roof without her permission. But she still gets mad and banishes him, and now he can’t come back, and now she’s like, but wait, no, I didn’t mean it. Thus begins the search for Caliban.
Now, I could sit here and outline the rest of the book, but I won't because it's so boring, and nothing of substance really happens. So, to summarize. Marlow searches for Caliban fruitlessly for months and finally makes some progress when she decides to go to the house of the guy who tried to kill her and finds a parasitic entity that she continuously calls a Cheshire Cat. then Silas, the angel, shows up to save her again. Silas maybe wants to fuck Marlow, I can't tell. He waffles between abandoning Marlow to die and stalking her and her mom to force Marlow to bond with him for no seeming reason at all. Everyone and their mom wants Marlow to join their religion, and I don't know what the fuck makes her so special. Marlow is such a popular author that everyone recognizes her name, reveres her, fawns over her, and has multiple copies of her two books in their offices. She's so good that she inspired millions to switch religions. This book was so exhausting to read because it was just about how amazing Marlow is LMFAO. I'm pretty sure they even try to say she's the reincarnation of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world. Like....wow.
Marlow goes to Hell with Fauna to escape bonding with Silas, where they meet a literal stolen character design. this guy
(my original review has these images but I am an idiot and don't know how to post them so instead I'll share the links)
https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1717860981i/35597445._SY540_.jpg
Don't believe me? here's the commissioned character art.
https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1717860929i/35597423._SY540_.jpg
Anyway, his name is Azrames and he and Fauna are long time lovers and they go and bone while Marlow is in the next room and Marlow fucking masturbates to the sounds of them boning. So...I was forced to read about that, and I hated it. And then, at the end of the book, five chapters before it's over, we learn the bad guy who's been holding Caliban captive the entire time is a fertility goddess. Just out of nowhere. No mention of it previously. So, no one tells Marlow the actual plan, and instead, they send her into this fertility clinic the goddess is working out of and have her pretend to want to get pregnant. So the goddess drugs her without her consent and puts her in a room full of half-naked men, hot stereotypes from every ethnicity, while she's SUPER horny. One of the doctors tells her that 'mixed babies are all the rage right now'. The men all tell her how hot and amazing she is and how lucky they are for the chance to get to fuck her. Then after she chooses one of them, she grinds all over him while he just stands there, then they take him out and bring Caliban in and decide he'll fuck her instead. I just wanna point out that this, all of this, would be rape. Marlow didn't consent to being drugged, and if she didn't know who Caliban was, they basically just took the guy she "agreed" to have sex with away and brought in one she didn't agree to for no reason whatsoever. It doesn't matter that she's saying yes to it; she is drugged. She can't consent. Anyway, Caliban sticks his dick in Marlow and just leaves it there, unmoving, and then makes out with the fertility goddess before stabbing her in the heart and cutting off her head, even though five chapters earlier, they said it's super hard to kill a god. I'm just...wow.
Marlow gets taken back to Fauna's apartment by Silas while Caliban and Azrames are stuck fighting more Cheshire Cat demon children that I imagine look like the spider baby from Toy Story. Marlow is still high, so she's putting the moves on Fauna. She's kissing her throat, rubbing her thigh, trying to suck on her fingers. Let me tell you rn, if one of my friends showed up at my place high af doing this shit to me, I'd be livid. Because I guarantee you, Marlow will not apologize for doing any of this to Fauna.
Fauna tells Marlow that they can be sunflowers. The book ends.
I will read the next one because I like to suffer, but...I hated this. I give it 2 stars because the writing is better than TNAIM, but it was not a hit for me at all.
submitted by Live-Needleworker-60 to books [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:19 Morio_anzenza Illegal Somali Immigrants

I notice that the issue of illegal Somali Immigrants is a thorn in the flesh but I think people are misdirecting their anger. I've seen tweeps like Kimuzi and about two posts this afternoon so I thought about writing a loud rebuttal here. Kenyans are concerned and for good reason, I'm not going to call it xenophobia, I'm concerned as well.
Most people are misdirecting their anger at these people. If you came from a country like that, your instincts would direct you to greener pastures like Kenya. I mean, look at the number of Kenyans immigrating to other countries in search of opportunities. That's what Somalis did and they came here, started businesses and support each other, interestingly they've failed to be united at home. Anyway, we should be angry at the government for enabling it. We should be angry that crooked officials at immigration are selling passports to these illegal immigrants, the guys at the Registrations Bureau for issuing ID cards to them.
Lastly, if you guys haven't read the memo, Somalis wako kwa serikali more than even Kikuyus. These guys have been given leeway on the ground, I'm assuming it's another tactic to get more votes for Zakayo. No other explanation can be given. The government knows and it's letting it happen, so stop misdirecting your anger to these Somali guys and start holding the government accountable. Of course they'll say what they want because they know Kenyans are docile for the most part, we just complain on the Internet and take no tangible action. So yeah, even with their bad grammar, they'll talk sh*to. The other day a Somali guy was caught on camera caning his employee and nothing was done.
That's Kenya and Kenyans for you.
Side note: I saw a video from this immigration lawyer in US and it turns out US Embassy Nairobi is one of the worst in the world. Apparently Somalis use their illegally obtained Kenyan passports to try and immigrate to US.
submitted by Morio_anzenza to Kenya [link] [comments]


2024.06.09 15:19 Manamonster Torn between Vello and Brompton...

I've got a decision to make: Brompton C line or Vello Rocky / Alfine.
Purpose: moderate touring, as in, exploring the city and getting out of the city by train to go exploring somewhere else. Currently I don't have a bike or car, I go by public transport only. I would also use it for commuting but probably not every day because it would only save me ~10 minutes a day and there would be lots of stairs involved. Still, I want to be able to store it in my flat and take it with me inside when I go somewhere as much as possible.
Last week I tried a friend's Brompton and liked it a lot – until I drove over cobblestone pavement which was literally a pain in the a**. Being limited to asphalt would be a little sad and there's also safety to consider, so getting something with larger wheels is very appealing to me. I also prefer the cleaner, more modern looks of the Vello (don't like the folding size and clunky looks of Tern, Dahon etc., they look like stripped-down mopeds to me).
These are my questions:
  1. Lazy folding: with the Brompton, I can just fold the rear frame and it's able to stand on its own. Can the Vello do the same? All the videos show how to fold the bike completely but in real-life use, let's say in the metro, folding the rear would make it small enough in 95% of cases. I wouldn't want to fiddle with the safety pin all the time or carry the bike when switching trains and platforms. I'd only fold it completely to store it during longer train rides.
  2. Rolling and shopping cart mode: I know that the Vello can only be rolled forward on the rear wheel when folded completely. Again, what if you don't fold the front but only the rear? Would you be able to roll it on both wheels and maybe even use it as shopping cart like the Brompton? I'd love being able to do that!
  3. Judging from images and videos, the Vello's rear mudguard (not the tiny one) seems to be squashed into the ground when the bike is folded. Surely that thing will be totally scratched up just within a few days of use? Also, it looks like it would collide with the saddle post when lowered, so it needs to be bent to the side. Isn't that annoying? I'd rather use only the front mudguard and install a plastic clip-on mudguard on the rear that I can simply remove or turn around when folding.
submitted by Manamonster to foldingbikes [link] [comments]


http://rodzice.org/