Hi! This story will require quite a bit of context (that can be found here https://www.reddit.com/AmItheAsshole/s/2Vo9S0QKF1). Long story short, my (F26) ex Fitz (M 32) keeps finding reasons to sue me to get full custody of our son Tim (M5). He sued several times in the past, but now everything went too far.
After a previous fierce custody battle we had an iron tight co parenting agreement. It took ages to reach one as he kept trying to include clauses just to make my life miserable. Right after graduating, when Tim was around 1 yo, in the middle of our custody battle, I would take Tim to work with me a lot. I would have long hours at the beginning, trying to make a name for myself, while Fitz was trying to paint me as a negligent mother for leaving Tim with a nanny while studying, back during finals. Hence, every other day after 4:30, when most people would go home, my mom would drop Tim at my lab and he would stay and play next to me in my office until 8 when we would go home. I would offer him plenty of attention as I would mostly run time consuming simulations that would require little involvement from my side.
Knowing this, Fitz fought tooth and nail to stop me from doing this, knowing how much easier this made our life. I work in a lab that focuses on various incurable diseases research. I almost never get in touch with the biological side as I am in the modelling team, doing mostly maths and coding. My office is in a different building than the lab and Tim has only ever been in my own office, far from the biological material. However, in the end, after arguing that my workplace is dangerous, Fitz managed to get a clause that would prevent me from having Tim with me at work. In order not to have it sound personal, the clause stated that Tim was not to be taken in any place with a BR factor greater than 1, unless his safety would be at play.
Where we are from, the BR factor of an establishment measures the risk of getting an infectious disease. Any biological lab has it greater than 1, by default, even if they do not work with any viruses . During the pandemic, all hospitals got their BR increased over 1.
Now, after an emergency, Fitz sued me for breaching our agreement. He has had a private detective in me for the better part of the past two years and kept trying building a case against me for “repeatedly violating our contract “. He kept using petty situations, like Tim being alone with my dad for 2 minutes into the men’s room at the mall while my mom and I are right in front of the door, waiting for them, even though my dad is not on the pre approved list as he has epilepsy. Or me not having an epi pen at my home because I gave it to Fitz as his was about to expire and it was his turn to pick up Tim who has severe allergies, even though our agreement said to have one at all times. (Just to make it clear, I bought a new one before getting Tim back). He also tried to paint me as a danger for having had seen a psychiatrist in highschool and early college. The reason was an eating disorder, nothing that could be any danger, which Fitz was aware of.
Even though all his so said proofs and breaches of contract were silly, with the most serious one described in the linked post, the trial got very intense, with him attacking me on a personal level. While we live in a big city, it quickly became the biggest gossip in our community, being on the lips of all the moms from pre school, most of them siding with me. Unfortunately, as much as I tried and couldn’t keep it all from Tim, since he was asked lots of questions by the kids at pre-school who heard about the situation. He became very stressed and started having night terrors.
I tried to reason with Fitz for Tim’s sake with no luck. 2 days ago, Fitz’s sister, Mia, came to see me. She wanted to give me something that could end all the stress Tim was under.
Almost 3 years ago, Fitz’s dad had a heart attack and almost died, but made a miraculous recovery. While he was in a coma, Fitz and Mia took Tim to the hospital to see his grandfather for what was thought to be the last time. Fitz’s entire family agreed there was no point in telling me, since I was very empathetic about the entire situation and even suggested that Tim and I could go visit him in the hospital once I picked him up from Fitz. They refused, however, since Tim already visited him, but did not mention this to me. She gave me texts to prove everything she was saying, and showing that Fitz knowingly breached our agreement and hid this from me for years on purpose.
My lawyer says that since this event occurred before all the ones he tries to use against me, it could get the entire case dismissed immediately, since it would have voided the parenting agreement we had. He guarantees me a win nonetheless, it would just take longer if we don’t use this. My parents think I should be the bigger person and not use it, as it is cruel and I should be an example for Tim for when he will be older. They insist that I would be in the wrong, especially since I would win nonetheless. I, however, just want to end this nightmare for good, and take care of the emotional health of my son.
What should I do? Any advice on the matter will be highly appreciated!

I'm (41m) currently sitting here wide awake at 3am, with less than 4 hours to go before work thinking about what I found on Facebook.
This might get long but...
Before all this I found tonight, several months back my wife was getting super pushy to see a band that had a player that was local to us. At first I didn't think anything of it, but she wanted to go see them. Ok cool, except I hate going to the city and wants really interested. But I went anyway because my wife wanted to go.
Anyway, fast forward to tonight and I'm scrolling Facebook and I see a react from my wife on a old high school friends post. Normally I wouldn't think anything of it, but I don't typically see this. She doesn't get on Facebook often so when she does, it's genuinely noticeable. So I dug a bit deeper and saw you commented on his post. Again, odd. Nothing bad, just commenting to a general discussion towards him. But because of her infrequency, it stood out again. So I began looking from my account side and only found comments/likes to his posts that seemingly were proactive.
To be clear, this dude is ripped. Used to be a scrawny dude in school but now he's not only jacked, but has 0 body fat which I could only imagine people on TRT/Steroids could do... Also he's out of state so there's no way they could have been physical
So of course, jealousy kicked in and I needed to know more. Well, she doesn't hide passwords from me and I figured, there's smoke here, so I better go investigate. Sure enough he contacted her late one night and they sort of started chatting about old times and school. However, I saw some comments that broke my heart. I don't remember the specifics, but she definitely made a comment about his looks and how he probably uses it to his advantage at his job.
He at one point later admitted to a crush back in the day, seemingly out of place in the Convo. The Convo continued on with each sharing kid photos. Then eventually a very emoji heavy goodnight. Again nothing sexual, but seemed flirtatious to me...
This was the only Convo she had but I noticed she actively searched him tonight, after seeing her reply to a post (about a pet bunny) at around midnight tonight.
It doesn't appear to have gone super far but I'm worried it may go there...
As I sit here, pondering what Im doing... Clearly tired... Waiting anxiously to see how she responds my text I sent about "us needing to talk"... Am I the asshole for doing any of this? Weve been together forever and I would hate to lose her if it's something we can work out and discuss..
She has no cheating history. Actually I have... We've worked through some tough things. I feel I've gotten better but I fear things may be sliding away from me here...

I'm currently in Berlin, Germany, and about to be homeless for 2 weeks on the streets. I signed up for a study abroad program from my university, which I just graduated from last semester. I paid the application fee, got picked, paid for my own flight here and back, and then got a scholarship from an alumni couple in the department I got my degree in, and that scholarship paid for the rest of the trip.
I worked my ass off doing research and selling a bunch of my stuff to get the plane tickets because I'm pretty broke. I was excited for this trip because I was accepted into a German university for graduate school and figured I'd get a good introduction to living in Germany, and to be honest, Berlin itself has been great, all the locals I've met have been very nice to me, but my professors and everyone working from my university have been really unprofessional and tricky and now I'm in an unsafe position. **EDIT TO ADD, when I say they're trying to make me go home Friday I mean tomorrow, so I have like 1 day until I'm kicked out of the hotel.
Long explanation, skip to the bottom for a TLDR:
Before I even got on a single plane, I found out customer service for my phone carrier and I had a misunderstanding a month ago when I bought my international plan and found out about 3 days in advance that my phone would be a brick here. I told the professor immediately and she said worse case scenario she would help me get a working phone when I landed, since it's kind of needed for basic safety. Just half a day before the first flight, I got bitten by a few deer ticks and said I might also need help scheduling a doctors appointment when I land, because our travel insurance required a working phone number and it was too late for me to make an appointment before my flight. The professor said that was fine and I would be helped with that as well, so I got on the first plane in full confidence.
When I landed, a day passed without either thing being handled, and that was fine by me, but then multiple days passed and the professor kind of just waved it off. I'd started to feel a little unwell and asked the professor to help me find a doctor and she said it was just jetlag.
One of the first days of the program we went to a restaurant, and the seating was a very small reserved room with our entire 20+ cohort in it. I have CPTSD and am claustrophobic and knew immediately that I did not want to sit there, so I asked the professor if she could help me ask the staff request a seat for me in the outside dining area, or, if one wasn't available, that I could just sit outside on a nearby bench and skip dinner. She told me the room was reserved for us and this was on the itinerary so I HAD to sit there, and when I again said I didn't think I could, she demanded I sit there again and condescendingly asked me if I really couldn't or just didn't want to. I started to cry as quietly as possible and then that suddenly made her understand, so we went outside and I explained that, in my opinion, trying to force any adult to do something they're uncomfortable with and have said "No" to is bad enough to me normally, but since I have a disability, it's also ableist. I tried to frame that sentiment in a "I'm sure you didn't mean it this way" kind of way but she still took offence to the criticism and I think that led to the rest of this.
After that happened I was feeling more ill and the professor said, "Oh, do you think it's lyme? Because if it was lyme you'd have a rash. It's probably still jetlag". At this point I said again that I needed some help getting a working phone number and medical advice from a doctor and she told me to take responsibility for myself. I'd bought myself a SIM card but it needed some unexpected trouble shooting and everything was in German (I know some German but only around A2 level and absolutely none is required for this program), so I'd already tried to help myself, and again could not schedule myself an appointment without a working phone.
I asked the professor if she could put her phone number in just to let the appointment scheduling process complete and she said no. I asked if she had any other ideas and she again told me to figure it out. I wound up walking 20 minutes through Berlin alone with no working phone to a doctor's office unannounced, barely able to fill half the sign in sheet and navigate the language barrier, and successfully got the antibiotics I needed and a lyme diagnosis. The nurse even asked why I came alone. Thankfully for me everyone in the doctors office including the doctor was very very nice to me despite the curveball I through them.
Not long after all that the professor sent an email with me cc'd in to the office of international affairs at the university, and the email said, in effect, "This student said they have a disability and can't stick to the itinerary and therefore I think they're not a good fit for this program and should go home." I immediately responded that that wasn't accurate, that I just could not sit inside a restaurant or other very cramped space, etc. Then I figured while I was at it I'd tell them about the total lack of care for my safety or wellbeing here. After sending that email the professor confronted me and tried to pretty much intimidate me into admitting everything was all my fault or something, I honestly have no clue, I think she was just upset and trying to make me feel better somehow. I think my criticism really got to her and made her kind of just hate me and that she wanted to make me make her feelings make sense. No clue honestly.
Anyway, after that the office of international affairs reached back out to me and were acting way nicer than they were when I first enrolled in this program, which felt sus, but I was haggard and miserable and wanted to be able to trust them so I did. They told me if I was considering coming home early for my own health and safety, that I could unenroll that night to make sure the alum who gave me a scholarship would at least be refunded, but that I had to do it that night since it was the last day to drop for a refund. I said I wasn't sure if I wanted to leave the program, and they said if you're considering it unenroll and if you want to stay after further discussion then we can probably just go ahead and re enroll you.
So I did it. The next day I'm scheduled to meet with someone who told me the day or so before that she would be my advocate and that she was there to listen to and represent me, and when I join the zoom meeting, it's her, but also two other people from the international affairs office. They're telling me my return flight has already been scheduled and everything and that they were sending out a person to chaperone me on the flight, because, though it was totally ignored on my flights here, I'd mentioned at the very start of the application process that I'd been a human trafficking victim before and ideally wanted to fly with someone instead of alone. All of this had less than a 24 hour turnaround from me unenrolling.
I realized hours after unenrolling that I don't want to leave the program, I just want to actually be allowed to engage in the program as it was advertised and as it was promised, and that leaving the program, to me, feels like capitulating to the professor being an asshole to me and like removing liability from the university. In short I think I pretty much got tricked into unenrolling. I told them I didn't want to leave early and they told me they already scheduled everything and got a refund for my hotel room, so if I don't take the flight back Friday, I will be homeless on the streets for 2 weeks until the flight that I personally purchased for the 31st, and that since I hit the unenroll button, my housing, health, or safety will no longer be the universities problem after Friday.
So, the fuck do I do with this, ya'll got any advice? I could really use some. Or even just some support haha.
TLDR: Got tricked into hitting unenroll button after damaging professors ego, most likely purposely tricked to absolve the university of responsibility because how the profs were treating me and everything I described probably did make me a liability even if not my fault, but I'm mad and I'm enjoying Berlin and don't want to leave or let the university get away with risking my health and safety multiple times with no apologies. Currently will probably be homeless in Berlin for 2 weeks.

Mexico is the oldest song on the As Above, So Below album! it was actually written about 12 years ago before any of them had even been to Mexico and was being played at restaurants and bars in Cape Cod back when Highly Suspect was writing their original material with Mexico being one of those songs. There was a 10-12 year long period where no one in the band even talked about this song, and then when they were in the Muse studio Johnny just started playing it and Rich and Ryan immediately remembered how it went and they had such a blast replaying it that it made the album!

Sorry if this is worded weirdly, I’m not to sure how to put this all in to words. I (17f) live with my legal guardian K (40f) and I have done for about 10 years now. And over those 10 years she has become considerably worse as a parental figure for me and my sibling. It’s got to the point that this time last year she kicked my 15 year old sister out who then had to go live with our dad who was homeless and recovering from a mental health crisis. And now I’m worried she’s gonna try and kick me out. K is now repeating all the same behaviour that she displayed just before she kicked my sister out, all be it this is all happening in the space of a couple of months and not over a year like she did with my sister. This behaviour includes starting argument over little things, such as giving me food I’ve never liked for dinner then shouting at me how I’ve become so fussy and how she “can’t remember all the foods I don’t like” or randomly shouting at me when I come and ask her something and then she will come and apologise later, saying how she will change and it’s not fair for her to blow up at me like that, these apologies will either only last the rest of the day or end up with her shouting at me again for something completely unrelated and a lot of other things which if I wrote them all down would take forever. All of this came to ahead on Tuesday, when just as my bf was leaving he noticed that K’s car door was open and came back to tell me, he also noted that all the back seats had been pulled down so we worried the car might have been burglarised. So I went to tell K and ask her to come and check to make sure everything was still there and she said no and just to lock the car, and I asked her if she was sure about that and she blew up at me shouting and screaming about how I’m so critical of her and just to close the car door. So I just walked away with her still screaming at me and locked the car door. My bf asked me if I was gonna be okay and if he wanted me to talk to K and I said no and that I’ll be fine. My bf left and my evening continued, until K called me out of my room to ‘apologise’. She began with saying how I know my criticism weren’t out of malice and then proceeded to get more and more angry during the conversation, until I said her screaming at me in front of my bf wasn’t cool and her response to that was “that wasn’t screaming, this is” and proceeded to scream at me for 10 seconds straight. After this I ended the conversation because I wasn’t gonna talk to her after that. I also arranged to stay at my father’s for a night and for my bf to drive me there. Apon telling K all this she told me to stay for as long as I needed and not to come back. It’s been 2 days since then and I’m planning to go back to Ks tonight even though I really don’t want to, but I can’t stay at my dad forever and I have no where else to go.

1. Focus Karma Need Want Of the Society Recreation Stimulation Examination Death 1.1 The noble truth of Focus is Energy, the noble Truth of Karma is Management, the Noble Truth of Need is Kombucha, the Noble Truth of Want is The Second Mental, Your Mental, The Noble Truth of Recreation is Marijuana, The Noble Truth of Simulation is Automatons, the Noble Truth of Examination is the Books on Examination, The Noble Truth of Death is Salt 1.1 There is a Truth of Truth The Truth of Energy is Stockpile, The Truth of Management is Treatment, The Truth of Kombucha is Amino, the Truth of The Second Mental is the Intermediary Mental Between Yourself and the World, The Truth of Automatons is the Plumbing Needed, the truth of the Books on Examination is the truth of the Books of the Ruler and the truth of Salt is the Limit of the Body Is Restored by Healthy Nutrition 1.1.1 There is a truth of the truth energy amino, Truth Starch, Truth Sugar, Truth Glycine, Truth Water, Truth Kombucha, Truth Arginine, Truth Serine, Truth Lysine 1.1.2 There is a truth of the ruler which is related to marijuana, Proline Above Lysine 1.1.3 There is a truth of the society related to only trading, Gold above Proline 1.1.4 All of these truths have intermediary truth below them 1.1.5 There is a truth of the botanist, Prozac And Benadryl and Scopolamine and Atropine and Benzyldiol Around Recreation 1.1.6 There is a truth of the schooler, Directly Ordered Female Voice Your Voice Kick Drum Kick Transient Pots N Pans Pots Content Button Mushroom Morel Cache Stash Marisol Bluewater Febreeze Peroxide Nitrate Ammonium Loam Bud Dirt Wheat Soil Potato Around Focus and Karma 1.1.7 There is a truth of the motorcade Above Karma and Below the Want of the society Muffler Transmission Piston Engine Cargo Chassis Fluids Vaseline Nutraloaf Soylent 1.1.8 Marisol Or Mother is Above All Below it 1.1.9 Button Mushroom is Above All Those Below it Three 1.2.0 Ammonium is Above All Those Below it To Marisol 1.2.1 Potato is Above All Those Below it to Marisol Three 1.2.2 Fire 2Fire 4Fire 8Fire 16Fire - A Fire is 5 Fire, At fire set 5,10,20,40, No Fire, at Fire set 10,20,40,80, On fire 1.2.3 Fire Is Below Focus In Energy and Karma is Below Need in Energy and Need is Below Want of the Society In Energy and Recreation is Below Stimulation In Energy And Stimulation is Below Examination In Energy and Examination is Below Death In Energy 1.2.5 Focus Is Pervasive so Energy Indicates Examination Having Occured or A Crops Grown 1.2.6 Examination Happens In Examination Want of the Society Focus Want of the Society Examination 1.2.7 Examination happens for 333 Hours or About 19 Days 1.2.8 Examination Happens in Sets of 333 Hours for 1332 Hours 1.2.9 At the End of Examination Examination Proceeds Automatically in 333 Hours 1.3.0 Want of the Society occurs as the output of crops 1.3.1 Want of the society yields the Amino Nutrients because it is the agricultural or synthetic output 1.3.2 Recreation Activates Marijuana, But Can Be On its Own 1.3.3 20 Marijuana Exist as a product of the lands 1.3.4 Over 20 Other Plants Exist as a product of the lands 1.3.5 Various tabulature of notes Exists with Standpoint Boards 1.3.6 Houses and apartments exist 1.3.7 Private Baths exist 1.3.8 A ledger exists for holding notes at a distribution point 1.3.9 A ledger exists for reasonable retrieval but not reproduction of notes (need original notes) 1.4.0 A ledger exists for deletion of notes but to a skilled observer they are still seeable 1.4.1 The Time One and One at One and One at Two is the time 333 units for each section 1.4.2 The time offset of the noble truths on the fifth reconstruction yields upon which noble truth they were the whole section 1.4.3 Only noble truths passed through the entire system 5 fold are the actual truth of the land 1.4.4 This is held by the guard which there are maybe 20 guard in the lands each city 1.4.5 There are fire weapon which exist which are hand cannon and have a chamber and a loader 1.4.6 There are fire bomb exist which are bomb which have just a chamber but there are just 4 ever 1.4.7 There are 3 sets of scrolls per city and 3 sets of scroll reader 1.4.8 There is 2 sets of scrolls each city which are city rulers 1.4.9 There are farms which exist which feed each city which grow crops 1.4.9 There are buildings in each city 1.5.0 There are normally 4 houses to a prefecture 1.5.1 There are normally 4 rooms to the house 1.5.2 There are 10 modern petrochemical foundry factory which exploit oil from the lands 1.5.3 There are clothing for at least 30 people in each city putting the bedroom load usually at slightly less than 2 a bedroom 1.5.2 There are around 7 military bases which exist but these numbers used to be inflated 1.5.3 There are medicine for at least 30 people in a city 1.5.4 There are toilets only per four people or wherabouts in the city 1.5.5 There are 98 separate prefecture in maybe 3 city spread out 1.5.6 There are potato, furion bannana, old potato, a rose donut wheat, apple, cabbage, turnip, carrot, another potato type, beets, three flowers, 20 marijuana, and other crops grown 1.5.6 There are zucchini grown 1.5.7 There are medicine poppy and heart tonic herb (blue bonnet) and a root which expresses opium and other minor medicinals grown 1.5.8 There are trees which naturally occur which are the colors of cherry blossom 1.5.9 Seeing the trees blossom is the rarest sight in the lands 1.6.0 The twenty guard of the town know how to protect one another 1.6.1 There are various opium which can be taken 1.6.2 There are various new bags of marijuana spray which are the marijuana active 1.6.3 There is a specific sedative created from Crude Oil, SnoreLax Olestra Ketamine 1.6.4 There are various nutrients created from crude oil 1.6.5 There are various computers created from crude oil 1.6.6 There are various liquids created from crude oil including pepsi cola and molten plastic 1.6.7 There are boxes created from crude oil 1.6.8 There are racing Skis created from crude oil 1.6.9 There is a capacity to run one of the computer 1.7.0 The computer yields a stable process blockchain when propagated 1.7.1 The computer notable yields beautiful colors when its process blockchain is propagated 1.7.2 There is a retrieval system for the other computers token 1.7.3 54 Stores now exist in these lands 1.7.4 These stores accept a specific RFID like currency 1.7.5 These stores accept the Gold of the Land Naturally 1.7.6 These stores have vendors wheater and vendors kitty cat and vendors autovend1 1.7.7 Groceries and resources can be bought from the stores 1.7.8 Automobile Motorcade can be bought from the stores 1.7.9 Concrete Objects can be bought from the stores 1.8.0 Designer clothes can be bought from the store 1.8.1 The foundrys create BDU Lower 1.8.2 The foundrys create I <3 NYC Shirt 1.8.3 The firearms create mittens firearm token en masse 1.8.4 The firearms are created at 20 a city to defend the people 1.8.5 Only 5 High Quality Weapon exist per city 1.8.6 A foundry is creating nonlethal weapons 1.8.7 The foundry makes its nonlethal weapon but there is only one per city 1.8.8 An inventor makes a nonlethal weapon 1.8.9 The foundry now produces 2 kinds of ice cream 1.9.0 The foundry now produces illegal goods like silicone pipes 1.9.1 Somebody is Brewing Amino Out of Starches 1.9.2 The Echo Locator is invented 1.9.3 The echo locator is finalized as a product 1.9.4 The echo locator is shipped out the door at 43 a city 1.9.5 The echo locator replaces the scrolls system 1.9.6 The echo locator can be taxed in the old tax system to make it valid in the old system 1.9.7 Two Cool Cats Take Control of the Power System, NateCat and HakeCat 1.9.8 The cool Cats reinvest in medicine and over 50 meningitis cure are found 1.9.9 The smart toilet is invented 2.0.0 The bombs detonate in ebonia and the people are freed 2.0.1 There is 11 grade flooding in ebonia 2.0.2 The ebonian flooding gets better to 7 ebonian remediator a city which are from the new Clement Dogs Clan 2.0.3 Tattoo Ink is Invented from cherry leaves 2.0.4 A tattoo requires somebody to play wizards chess on your skin to leave an indelible mark without killing it 2.0.5 Alpha squad is formed 2.0.6 A cruiser is in the metteranian gulf 2.0.7 The cruiser operates successfully for at least a month with me onboard 2.0.8 I am mainly using starlink 2.0.9 Starlink is accessible in the APV like it always is 2.1.0 You can fetch a battlefeed with starlink 2.1.1 You can fetch a battlesend with starlink (OSC) 2.1.2 OSC Replaces Starlink and LFO is Formed 2.1.3 LFO Replaces engine gasoline due to jet fuel drinking/snorting danger 2.1.4 Nontoxic weed smoke based gasoline is formed for APV 2.1.5 APVs are overclocked with me nearby 2.1.6 Supercapacitor Based APV Is Used For medical evacuation 2.1.7 Supercapacitor has massive distance versus dangerous IC APV 2.1.8 Supercapacitor powers gauss cannon in danger 2.1.9 Megagauss Cannon Invented for David's Aircraft 2.2.1 Megagauss cannon fits en masse onto the aircraft or in david flanagan or david summery's hands 2.2.2. Total david air superiority 2.2.3 Davids golden UH-1 in service 2.2.4 RQ-9 "David" Reactivated 2.2.5 RQ-9 Reapers Cloned 2.2.6 Spicy Chemical Discovered In Marijuana, Raytracing? 2.2.7 David Treated for Virtual Meningitis 3 Years Ago 2.2.8 Deepfake All Virtual Medical Practice Discovered 2.2.9 Marijuanas CH1 Receptor Renamed CB1 Receptor 2.3.0 Foundries in Business 5000$ A Barrel Many Years Default on Loans to 2111$ Barrel, No Effective Product Change 2.3.1 USR THermal IS-2 Scope Invented 2.3.2 USR THermal FLIR Camera for David UH-1 Invented 2.3.3 Driver for USR THermal FLIR Camera for David UH-1 Invented 2.3.4 Overwatch Mega Anti Crime David Stopper Overflights in Service Across the US And Solid Gold UH-1 Lofted By Broomstick Technology in Transmuggle Transwizard Interference of the Calamity Granted to David Flanagan (RQ-9) 2.3.5. Black Operations in the Persian Gulf Nethers Against Al Baghdadi - HVT Steam User In Custody 2.3.6 AC-130 "IBEX" Piloted by Alex M Lamb in Service in Vallejo and Ecuador to Support 141 Team 2.3.7 Proto Nutrient Fish Oil Factory Raided, Illegal Furion Bannana Discovered 2.3.8 Illegal Blueprinting Operations Cease in Favor of Big 11+ Oil Corporations 2.3.9 Minecraft server found and large amounts of population exiting to virtual reality 2.4.0 All players granted 64 planks and free for all 2.4.1 Doto 0 Bot Guard Lurking in Transnational Buddhist Operation Enable Free Play In Minecraft for Various Players 2.4.2 Siddartha's Secret, His Cow, Discovered in Virtual Reality Elder Scrolls No Crime Faction, Siddartha's Cow Goes Rampant and is Infinity Hidden in Every Directory of Starfield 2 The New Game 2.4.3 Many New Games are found with resemble the structure of the cow in markov chain 2.4.4 A new system is found out of cow which can provide for any item retrieval system intrinsically unlocking the singularity where Big 11+ Splits into infinite corporation 2.4.5 All cows are harvested for a typical user but still infinity exist farther away 2.4.6 The user has typically 500000 cows of Siddhartha as a personal cow 2.4.7 Sulfur futures are at an all time high 2.4.8 Justino Beibers Mandates burning of all cow waste in trash bin 2.4.9 Siddartha's Cow are docile as ever and functioning well when shot, they become well 2.5.0 Siddartha (Renchy, Racey's Friend) Is discovered hiding as a soul in neon district undercity of neon petite 2.5.1 The guard is never abolished and continues protecting us 20 to the citizen to this day 2.5.2 Asteroids are discovered in outer space with many palladium more than ever 2.5.3 A supercomputing cloud is made out of the distributed method which avoids the taxing system that the initial ruler invented and does a method 1-Affinity 2-Person 3-Disease where the affinity of each person treats the pair disease and or environment with only instantaneous transmission (Technological singularity) 2.5.4 Virtual clothes are invented the same way as clothes were initially invented, now in the instantaneous unheard 2.5.5. Virtual Medicines are invented in the same way as medicines were invented initially, now in the instantaneous unheard 2.5.6 There is perfect harmony between two instant universes the virtual medicine universe and the analog medicine universe 2.5.7 All of history's knowledge feeds into one system which encodes all its meaning in some dice which always roll a specific meaning and this creates wish or technology on demand 2.5.8 Wish is discovered as a contaminant on the No Crime Library 2.5.9 Wish has always predated meaning so that Wish is the Rulers Initial Nature 2.6.0 All existence is into one history the history of the singularity which procedurally generates by Wish the Rulers Initial Nature For All Citizen 2.6.1 Jeffybeans is the true ruler of siddartha which is prozac benzyldiol 2.6.2 Siddartha wakes up right before lorne happens to her and avoids the suicide booth because phillip j fry is protecting her. 2.6.3 The story is at a cliffhanger while the Universe is at the second end epoch and is failing succesfully very well for hubert I.

(continuation of part 2)
III. e) The Mobius FF x FFVII collaboration
Alright, back to our suspension world-hopping! Let’s visit the realm of Mobius FF, —more specifically, the collaboration between Mobius FF and FFVII—, where I found the most substantial evidence for my theory.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the Mobius FF (MFF) world and games, let’s begin with a bit of a summary of the parts relevant to us. The story takes place in a world called Palamecia, to which people from other worlds are inexplicably summoned. The vast majority of those who are brought there don’t remember anything from their worlds of origin or their lives before Palamecia except their names: these amnesiac people are called Blanks. The main character is Wol, accompanied by a guiding fairy of Palamecia named Echo. Echo knows a lot about the mechanisms of Palamecia, as she’s tied to the realm. The leader of this world is Vox, a being who manifests only as a voice. The first thing all Blanks remember before they wake in Palamecia is Vox telling them the rules of the realm. Incidentally, the crystals of the MFF world are teleportation crystals.
III. e) i. Devs’ Statements
Let’s review some of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration devs’ statements before diving into its story.
For both the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration and the Remake project, Kitase took on the role of producer while Nojima supervised the screenplay and wrote the scenario. The project leader was none other than the Remake trilogy’s Hamaguchi, who told a SE interviewer the following:

“We would love for you to play the [MFF x FFVII] collaboration event as you look forward to [Remake’s] release” (“Celebration of the Overseas Release of the Steam Version and FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Collaboration Event”, Square Enix).

He later hints at the collaboration’s storyline:

“This collaboration is focused on Cloud, so the other characters will not make an appearance. Players will join Cloud, who has gone astray in Palamecia, on his adventures and see how the story unfolds based on his decisions. Content-wise, FINAL FANTASY VII fans will surely become fraught with emotion as events unfold in-game (laughs).”

Kitase concurs on the emotional aspect of the collaboration in the same interview:

“When it comes to the story, I seek two things– ‘mystery’ and ‘[…] emotional impact’.”

Clearly, fans of FFVII are supposed to react emotionally to the events of the collaboration. With these statements in mind to give us perspective, we can get into the plot points relevant to our analysis. MFF x FFVII Remake comes in two parts, the relevant plot points of which I will describe and analyze one at a time.
III. e) ii. Eclipse Contact
1) Fact-Finding
Part one of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration event is called Eclipse Contact. It came out in 2017 on Aerith’s birthday, February 7th, and its release campaign ran until March. In Eclipse Contact, Palamecia welcomes someone new: Cloud Strife appears in the realm with very little recollection of his core world of FFVII.
Cloud isn’t a Blank, since he recalls the mako reactors in Midgar upon his arrival in Palamecia, and also remembers that he was hired by Avalanche to blow them up:

“Echo: How did you end up in Palamecia?

Cloud: I… That day... I remember now. A job. I had taken a job. I was hired muscle protecting clients. They wanted to stop the reactor... We used a train to get past security... Was it at night? Something happened... Next thing I knew, I was floating through darkness. Then [I woke up here]”.

This piece of dialogue reveals that Eclipse Contact Cloud’s memories end at the very moment when Avalanche arrives at reactor 1 in OG (disk 1, chapter 1): the very beginning of the game. Consequently, Cloud does not remember anything that happened from the beginning of the OG timeline onwards.
Wol and Echo are intrigued by Cloud’s strange case: non-Blanks rarely arrive in Palamecia. The following text appears on the screen shortly after they meet:

“Perhaps he is not truly who he thinks he is.
Perhaps everything is illusory, a dream.
Only one thing is certain, that he must press on, one step at a time, toward the light that shines from the promised land.”

Just like he did in FFT’s Ivalice, Cloud feels the need to find the Promised Land in MFF x FFVII, despite the fact that he lacks memories of the OG timeline. Though Cloud doesn’t remember anything beyond the train ride to reactor 1, he does remember the Promised Land (at least somewhat). This is odd, given that in OG, Cloud didn’t learn about the Promised Land until several chapters into the game.
Wol and Echo agree to help Cloud figure out why he’s here, since there’s clearly something strange going on with his presence in Palamecia. In fact, Cloud brought Midgar’s mako reactors with him somehow, transplanting them onto the landscape of Palamecia. The group decides to bomb these reactors, following Cloud’s instincts in the hopes that it will jog his memory.
Now for my favorite part. After blowing up another reactor, the group is surprised by the appearance of a crystal. A piano rendition of Aerith’s theme begins. When Wol tries to touch the crystal, something akin to a force field rejects him. When Cloud approaches it, however, the crystal responds to his hand by flashing with light. As it begins to glow, Wol concludes that the crystal is linked to Cloud and Cloud alone. Let’s examine the resulting dialogue:

“Echo: This is the light in your memories. The light of home.

Cloud: Home? But I don’t—

Echo: If you don't remember… then your home is lost to you.

Cloud: Then my memories are gone.

Wol: Do you want to reclaim your past?

Cloud: Not interested... I am what I am now. Not what I was.

Wol: Then tell me… This light. If you can’t remember it, what does it mean to you?

Cloud: It's a warm light... I feel at peace. If this place —home— is as warm and peaceful as this light, then I want to go there.

Echo: You can't go there... Not back to the past.

Cloud: I see.

Echo: But even if you can't go back to the past, you can go forward. If you wish for it strongly enough, the crystal will show you the way. The way to a new world. The way to your Promised Land. […]

Cloud: So... Should [I] take [my] chances and make a wish to this crystal?

Wol: Go ahead. It’s your crystal.

Echo: I should warn you that once you start on this journey, there's no coming back.

Cloud: The past is the past. I want to go to a place where everything is new. I’m ready.“

What follows is a moment I call the wishing scene (13:43-14:34). Cloud closes his eyes and wishes on the crystal. It flashes, and suddenly, rainbow-colored ripples of light appear around it. Aerith’s theme is replaced by a slightly modified version of “Midgar, City of Mako”, the track that plays during the opening cutscene of Remake. You can recreate the modification by listening to “Midgar, City of Mako” from 2:00 to 2:23, then skipping to 3:00 and listening until 3:18. You may recognize the musical motif that kicks off the wishing scene as the Lifestream motif, which has become symbolic of the mysteries of the Remake trilogy, as it often plays during scenes where unexplainable plot deviations from OG occur— more specifically, deviations involving multiverse shenanigans. For instance, it plays during MOTF 4. It also plays in Rebirth after Cloud blocks masamune as Aerith is shown dying anyway.
Cloud disappears with his crystal, after which Echo speaks to Wol about Cloud’s journey:

“Echo: Each person gets the Promised Land they justly deserve, not the one they really need. If you’re a bad person, you go to a bad place. If you expect nothing, you get nothing. Even the journey there makes you look deep within yourself to find out who you really are. Cloud should be facing his own past as we speak. It’s cruel, but necessary. That battle was a long time coming”.

Apparently, at least in the context of this collaboration event, the Promised Land can be a reward or a punishment, depending on which you deserve. Echo explains that Cloud will have to face himself and his past on his way to his Promised Land. This means that the Cloud that appears in Eclipse Contact must next embark on a journey that will confront him with his past, test his mettle, and ultimately lead him to the Promised Land he justly deserves.
III. e) ii. 2) Fact Analysis
There’s a lot of vital information to dig into here, mostly provided by Echo. She claims that the crystal’s light is linked to Cloud’s memories of home; Cloud has to have known this home in the past, as it could not otherwise exist in his memories. MFF Cloud must be a post-OG Cloud. Unfortunately, Echo indicates that whatever Cloud’s home is, he’s lost both it and his memories of it. Despite this, Cloud describes his home as warm and peaceful, concluding that he wishes to find it. Though Cloud can’t return to the past, Echo tells him that if he wishes it strongly enough, the crystal can guide him toward a new world, where his home and his Promised Land exist in the future. The fact that Aerith’s theme is playing all throughout these descriptions of Cloud’s lost home, his Promised Land and the past that he can’t return to makes it extremely obvious that these concepts all point to Aerith. Aerith is Cloud’s lost home. Wherever Aerith is, that’s his Promised Land. The time spent with Aerith before her loss is the past he tragically can’t return to. You might have clocked the similarities between Eclipse Contact’s mention of Cloud’s lost home and DFF’s mention of Cloud’s lost dream: in both these titles, Cloud’s home and dream are equivalent to his Promised Land. It’s confirmed yet again that Aerith is the one Cloud hopes to return to, just like every soul returns to the Lifestream. At this juncture of my research, I was curious as to why the last thing Cloud remembers before waking in Palamecia is the run-up to the Reactor 1 bombing mission in OG (disk 1, chapter 1). This mystery will have to persist for a while longer.
The alarm bells in your head might’ve been triggered by the mention of the wishing scene’s rainbow ripple effects— and rightfully so. This visual cue has sparked passionate debate in the fandom since its appearances in Rebirth, as seen in these pictures:
Zack Choosing To Get A Cure For Cloud, Rebirth Chapter 14; Creating a New World/Timeline
Aerith Pushing Cloud Out of that World/Timeline, Remake Chapter 14
Cloud Blocking Masamune, Rebirth Chapter 14; Creating New World/Timeline
You might have read or heard that this rainbow effect signifies that a character has entered another timeline, created a portal to another timeline, created a new timeline or is being shown different timelines. Indeed, whenever the OG timeline is deviated from in a significant way, this effect appears. The pictures above present multiple examples of these shifting realities.
One might propose that the rainbow ripples in Eclipse Contact and Rebirth are unrelated because of the long period between their respective release dates. This long in-between period indeed makes it likelier that the effect was used without forethought in Eclipse Contact, forgotten over the years, and incidentally reused in Rebirth as a plot-important visual cue with no connection to Eclipse Contact. I’m inclined to disagree since the crystal is specifically described as a vessel that can take Cloud “to a new world” by Echo, which is a bit on the nose. Regardless, it’s plausible that there’s no connection. That is, it would be, if the rainbow effect didn’t show up in Remake too.
When the Whispers are finally defeated in chapter 18 of Remake, a burst of the rainbow ripple effects indicate the emergence of multiple worlds, newly freed from the restrictive clutches of fate (1:16:36-1:16:47). Shortly thereafter, Sephiroth takes Cloud to the Edge of Creation and invites him to join forces with him. Cloud refuses, and Sephiroth says the following:

“Seven seconds till the end. Time enough for you. Perhaps. But what will you do with it? Let's see.”

The question “What will you do with it?” implies that the answer is unknown, meaning Cloud is no longer bound to the OG timeline by fate: many alternate futures lay ahead. Sephiroth is telling Cloud and the audience that now, the mystery of the Remake trilogy has become “Which future will Cloud bring into existence? Which among the infinite possible timelines will his choices result in?” After pondering this aloud, Sephiroth leaves Cloud alone to consider the rainbow effects in the sky (1:19:23-1:19:36). Because they generally represent alternate or changing timelines, it’s safe to assume that the rainbow ripples here represent the myriad of possible worlds that Cloud’s actions in those seven seconds could generate. After all, Sephiroth was just talking about them, and chapter 18’s description in Remake reads as follows:

“In a world beyond, Sephiroth shows Cloud a vision of the planet seven seconds before its demise. Having strayed from the course destiny set for them, they strike out on a path towards an unknown future."

This explains why the player is shown Cloud staring at those colors in the apocalyptic sky at world’s end, directly after hearing Sephiroth’s cryptic words: those are all the alternate “unknown future” timelines ahead of him, now unravelled from fate. Amongst those rainbow ripples lies the answer to the question “What will you do with [the seven seconds]?”
Given that Remake was released in 2020 and Eclipse Contact came out in 2017, the major story elements of the Remake trilogy —including the eventuality of alternate timelines— had to have been planned out at the time of Eclipse Contact’s release: while the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration was being made, Remake was also in production. Also recall that the collaboration event and the Remake trilogy share a codirector in Hamaguchi, a writer in Nojima and a producer in Kitase. Based on all this, it’s more than likely that the rainbow ripples in the Remake trilogy and inEclipse Contact represent the very same thing: alternate worlds and timelines. All this to say that when the rainbow effect appears around the crystal in the Eclipse Contact, it means the crystal is acting as a vessel to another world, just like Echo said.
But that’s not all Echo said: she also mentioned that this other world would take Cloud to his home, to his Promised Land. We’ve already established what that means for Cloud, what it’s meant since two whole decades at the time of Eclipse Contact’s release: this crystal will take Cloud to Aerith. So, where exactly did the crystal take Cloud? In what world can he meet Aerith again?
The music that plays during the wishing scene gives us a huge hint. As I noted before, the track playing in the background is a slightly modified version of Remake’s “Midgar, City of Mako”, which plays in the introduction cutscene of Remake. This is a musical cue that the ending of Cloud’s journey in Eclipse Contact and the very beginning of the Remake trilogy are closely related. Add the fact that the devs wanted players to experience this collaboration event before playing Remake, and it becomes undeniable: the crystal that appeared to Cloud in Palamecia —which offers to lead him to his home and Promised Land, meaning to Aerith—, took him to the world of the Remaketrilogy.
Eclipse Contact is huge. The whole crux of my theory lives and dies right here. However, we still have part two of the MFF x FFVII Remake collaboration event to analyze as well as its promotions to look into before I can drop the thesis on you, so bear with me in order to receive the most thorough analysis of all this possible! I want to give you every drop of proof I can!
III. e) ii. MFF x FFVII Remake Fatal Calling
1) Fact-Finding
Fatal Calling came out February 1 of 2018, and its release campaign ended in March. The game opens with a cutscene: Cloud is floating, seemingly unconscious, through a sparkling, green current of light. The current flows into a circle of bright, white light, surrounded by rainbow ripple effects as Cloud is driven toward and into it. An orb floats along with him. The Advent Children theme “The Promised Land” plays, a choir of mournful, aching, mutedly desperate souls engaged in a lamenting prayer. Sephiroth’s voice echoes:

“Sephiroth: It’s time. You may turn your back on the past, lock your memories away. Hide reality beneath a layer of illusion. But destiny will not die so easily. Yes. At memory’s end you may plead for it all to go away. But the past is a curse, binding your soul. It’s time. Wake to your fate. Rise to your destiny.

Cloud: (In a half-conscious grunt) Reunion…

Sephiroth: The light will lead you. Wake to your fate. Rise!”

Sephiroth’s mentions of Cloud hiding under an illusion and repressing his memories are no doubt allusions to Cloud’s past, which was complicated and darkened by Hojo’s experiments. It makes sense, then, that Cloud responds with “Reunion”. Fatal Calling indeed focuses on Cloud’s relationship to his past, his identity and Sephiroth. Everything involving Nibelheim —where everything started—, Sephiroth’s manipulation, and Hojo’s experiments are on the table. Also noteworthy if not out of place is Sephiroth’s evocation of fate.
Cloud enters a battle with Sephiroth with the help of Wol and Echo, who are surprised to see him back in Palamecia. Cloud tells them about the orb seen floating along with him in the opening cutscene: though he calls it a materia, he doesn’t know how or when he acquired it. Based on his behavior, it appears that Cloud remembers just as little about the events of OG as he did by the end of Eclipse Contact. Wol informs Cloud that whoever he heard speaking to him on his way here was probably Vox pretending to be Sephiroth.
As the group advances, Cloud recalls Midgar and decides they should go there next. At one of Midgar’s mako reactors, the group encounters Sephiroth, who speaks to himself:

“It's still not enough. This... this is but a pale imitation of the power I desire.”

Once Sephiroth has disappeared, Cloud explains what he remembers: Sephiroth was the greatest SOLDIER of all and a hero to Cloud, though Cloud can’t remember what exactly ended this admiration. As players of FFVII OG, we know the event in question is the Nibelheim incident, wherein Sephiroth slaughtered the town’s residents, including Cloud’s mother, after learning of his past. The former war hero also severely injured Tifa, whom Cloud presumed dead when he found her in the old mako reactor with a vicious slash on her chest. Cloud is agitated by the gaps in his memory, so the group resolves to follow Sephiroth for answers. When they find him again, Sephiroth causes Cloud to experience a piercing headache with the mere mention of the Reunion. They fight, but Sephiroth is too powerful— he skewers Cloud with the masamune and taunts his unconscious body:

“Sephiroth: A puppet. I won’t kill you. Not yet. Not until you know true despair.
Wol: If you want despair, we got plenty to go around. Palamecia’s full of it.
Sephiroth: Yes, this planet knows suffering. But it is not the world that was promised to me. I must go home. Tell Cloud, if he wants to see me again, he should face his memories. I will await him there, in the land of memory, where it all began. In Nibelheim.”

Sephiroth darkens Cloud’s materia, turning it black. Later, Wol explains to Cloud that Sephiroth stole the light from his materia, taking Cloud’s strength along with it.
Once Cloud has woken up, the group travels to Nibelheim to uncover the truth about Cloud’s memories. Cloud slowly gathers pieces of his past, shown to the player as titled, diary-like text written from various perspectives. Cloud learns the truth about SOLDIER, Jenova cells, Sephiroth, and what happened in Nibelheim. Let’s examine a few of these diary entries:

“A Warrior’s Tale: There's a girl in Nibelheim I think about. Warm. Cheerful. More grown-up than a child. Haven't talked to her much, but she seems nice. She's going to be leading the SOLDIERs to the mountain reactor. Maybe if I get into the survey team I'll get a chance to talk to her? Nah. She's out of my league.”

Young Cloud’s crush on Tifa is on full display! This must be a memory from his time as an infantryman accompanying Zack and Sephiroth to Nibelheim.

“Tale of the Nameless: I drift along in the mako, asleep. Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Give me a number. I… I… I am… The Reunion. The Reunion must happen.”

This entry could be taken from any one of the Nibelheim survivors’ perspectives, as they were all bathed in mako and turned into Sephiroth clones. I would venture to say this is Cloud’s perspective though, given the reference to this iconic line from OG:

“Cloud: Professor... please give me a number. Please, Professor...
Hojo: Shut up, miserable failure.” (disk 2, chapter 2).

The trio encounters Sephiroth near the old Mt. Nibel mako reactor. Because Sephiroth stole the light from his materia earlier, Cloud goes into the confrontation already drained of his strength. However, when Cloud lifts the materia in his hand, it lights up and creates rainbow ripples in the air around him, similar to those seen in Eclipse Contact and Rebirth. Cloud is healed of his injuries: he closes his eyes for a moment, wearing a peaceful expression. Sephiroth is displeased, but recovers quickly:

“Sephiroth: The guiding light… it healed you.

Wol: […] here, near the mako reactor, the materia regained its light. And your strength returned […]. [Sephiroth]’s here so he can steal the power you've stored inside that materia.

Sephiroth, with a short laugh: I have all the power I need. Cloud. What strength you’ve regained is yours. Use it to fight me. It’s time. Let’s decide this, in this land lost to despair. The prize is home. The Promised Land. There to answer the call of destiny.”

With this second evocation of fate, Sephiroth disappears.
Cloud, Wol and Echo find Sephiroth at the Northern Crater. He mocks Cloud for believing the orb in his possession is materia. Sephiroth waves a hand and his signature black and purple fog surrounds Cloud, immobilizing him. Sephiroth claims that the power Cloud regained at the Mt. Nibel reactor was Sephiroth’s all along. Now that it courses through Cloud’s veins, Sephiroth controls him. He calls Cloud his puppet and finishes with the following before the two vanish, leaving Wol and Echo alone:

“Now, let us return. Back to the Promised Land. The time of the Reunion has come.”

After Cloud finally breaks free and defeats Sephiroth with the help of Wol and Echo, the villain makes a final threat:

“Very good, Cloud. You’ve destroyed an illusion. But the time will come to abandon your illusions and face reality. Then, you will know true pain.”

Sephiroth disappears for the last time, his body surrounded by his signature dark fog and the rainbow ripples. A piano rendition of Tifa’s theme begins. Cloud’s orb rises into the air and becomes a crystal, with the same shape and glow as the one we see in Eclipse Contact. The following dialogue is illuminating:

“Cloud: I will fight. The light will lead me where I need to go.

Wol: You sure? Wasn’t that [crystal] Sephiroth’s?

Cloud: I heard Sephiroth's voice, at the end. Inside me. Whatever he put in me, it’s still in there. Someday I’ll settle that score. If I can't avoid destiny, I might as well face it head-on.

Wol: Yeah. That was quite a speech, Cloud. Surprised you made it through without laughing.

Cloud: Yeah, forget I said it. I will too.

Echo: Forgetting won’t make it go away. Even if the words fade from memory, your dream will never disappear. Not until it becomes real.“

The crystal shines as though in response.

“Echo: See? See, that's how the light of hope works. Hope can turn your dreams into reality.

Cloud: Yeah. I guess so. I might forget this world, but I won’t forget hope. And my reality, that’s for me to live.”

Tifa’s theme ends. Cloud approaches the crystal, and disappears in a beam of blinding light. Once Cloud has vanished with the crystal, Aerith’s theme begins playing. A few pale feathers with a slight orange tint (the color of MFF) float down onto the floor where he stood seconds before. The image fades to black. The credits roll, and Aerith’s theme continues all the way through.
Once both the final name in the credits and Aerith’s theme fade, we’re surprised by a sudden, troubling image: Sephiroth appears in a frightening flash, standing amidst the flames of Nibelheim. When his image fades to black, the collaboration title *“Final Fantasy VII x Mobius Final Fantasy”*appears on the screen. The FFVII title is surrounded by the 1997 meteor logo. Then, a flash of light: the titles reappear, except this time, they read “Final Fantasy VII REMAKE x Mobius Final Fantasy”. The new Remake Meteor logo replaces the 1997 version. As soon as these changes to the FFVIItitle and meteor logo occur, Aerith’s theme returns. It plays on until the game ends a few seconds later, the screen fading to black.
III. e) ii. 2) Fact Analysis
The introduction cutscene shows that MFF Cloud travelled from Eclipse Contact to Fatal Calling via Lifestream. It’s unclear how much time has passed in between, but the atemporal nature of the Lifestream makes the question irrelevant. My theory that MFF Cloud has died is corroborated by the way he’s depicted in the opening cutscene: his eyes are closed and his body is limp as the Lifestream carries him.
Eclipse Contact ended with Echo’s claim that Cloud will face his true self and confront his past while he journeys to his Promised Land. This description resembles what Cloud experienced in the OG Lifestream sequence (disk 2, chapter 8). Indeed, Fatal Calling revolves around the same topics the Lifestream sequence addresses: the truth about the Nibelheim incident, Hojo’s experiments, young Cloud’s crush on Tifa, etc. The opening cutscene shows Cloud being transported to his Promised Land and facing his past on the way there, just like Echo said he would.
Let’s now take a long detour to examine the song that plays during the opening cutscene of Fatal Calling: “The Promised Land” theme from Advent Children. The title and general subject of this song are obviously relevant to the cutscene, but there must be more to its inclusion than that. Perhaps the lyrics can help us understand its appearance in the opening cutscene of Fatal Calling. Here are the unofficial English lyrics (translated from the original Japanese lyrics by an anonymous fan and verified by me via DeepL):

“Why do we cling together?
Why do we give punishment to lesser hearts?
The planet did not forgive us
Did not forgive us
The planet did not forgive us
Did not forgive us
The pulse of veins flows through the earth
A faint, faint pulse
Of a heart drawn to death
A gentle life returns to the planet
Is it necessary to sacrifice souls?
Why do we cling together?
Why do we beg for forgiveness
In the Promised Land?” (“‘The Promised Land’ (theme)” by Final Fantasy Wiki).

The song appears to be a regretful lament of human behavior, expressed by the repetition of “Why do we […]?” questions. The behaviors listed are all typically human ones: the terms “[clinging] together” and “[giving] punishment to [the] lesser” express the uniquely human nature of tribalism and the consequences of the fear and hatred it can generate, and “[begging] for forgiveness in the Promised Land” is likely a reference to the human hypocrisy of only feeling sorry for one’s crimes when judgement day arrives. This last line describes a scenario where someone remains passive or ignorant in the face of something important, only to realize its essentiality once it’s too late. The repeated“The planet did not forgive us” lines reflect the fear of being condemned forever because of one’s mistakes, as though the planet is a deity one has sinned against. The lyric describing a pulse in the earth is obviously about the planet being alive— a reference to the Lifestream. But the pulse is faint and weak and the planet is dying, perishing because of mankind’s greed. This is an indictment of mako energy. The line “A gentle life returns to the planet” refers to an innocent’s soul returning to the Lifestream after death, while the next lyric “Is it necessary to sacrifice souls?” protests the “sacrifice” of the planet’s soul energy for mako production. In all this darkness, this song’s mention of “forgiveness in the Promised Land” leaves a modicum of hope for a better place, however meek, even though mankind might not deserve it. The song “The Promised Land” is both a lament of mankind’s ways and a plea for mercy, with religious and/or spiritual undertones. The song’s themes seem to be: the Promised Land itself, regret and shame, the sins and foolishness of mankind, the death of innocents, grief, Cetra spirituality, and a meek, quiet hope despite it all. The most interesting aspect of the song is its antithetical portrayal of death as a thing of both despair and hope, condemnation and salvation, cruelty and mercy, suffering and relief. Maybe we can glean more information about this theme’s significance in the world of FFVII if we examine the contexts in which it appears.
Importantly, the song plays in Marlene’s introductory narration of Advent Children, meaning its themes are related or similar to the film’s. I highly recommend listening and watching it again, even if you remember this iconic segment. Marlene references Aerith’s sacrifice as the image of Cloud lowering her into the water is shown. Note that Marlene says “Sadness was the price to see it end” (2:36) after we are shown Aerith’s death and her subsequent unleashing of the Lifestream (1:49-2:24): Aerith’s innocent life was sacrificed for the planet’s survival. The lyrics “A gentle life returns to the planet” and “Is it necessary to sacrifice souls?” suit Aerith’s situation quite well.
The theme also plays in Advent Children as Kadaj dies in Cloud’s arms (1:45:00-1:47:55), hearing Aerith’s gentle voice and reaching up to take her invisible hand. Here is what Aerith says to him in his dying moments as “The Promised Land” plays:

“Aerith’s voice: Kadaj?
Kadaj: Huh?
The dark sky has gone with Sephiroth. Healing rain starts falling from bright clouds. The rain no longer hurts Kadaj.
Aerith’s voice: You don’t have to hang on any longer.
Kadaj: Mother! Is that…?
Aerith’s voice: Everyone’s waiting, if you’re ready.
Kadaj nods his head slightly in acceptance. He holds out his hand, and slowly evaporates into the Lifestream. Cloud watches […]” (Advent Children).

Kadaj is brought into the Lifestream by Aerith as she provides rain from the Lifestream. All those with geostigma are healed by the rain, and Tifa feels Aerith’s presence as the party celebrates:

“Tifa, looking out at the falling rain […]: Somehow, I knew you were there. Thank you” (Advent Children).

Cloud stands in the rain with a smile —his first in the whole film—, closes his eyes and basks in Aerith’s healing with his face upturned. He is finally at peace:

“Cloud’s expression is one of peace as the [Lifestream] rain patters against him” (Final Fantasy VII Advent Children English script, “[83] Atop the Shinra Building”).

One thing is clear: the track “The Promised Land” accompanies Aerith. It only makes sense, since we’ve seen overwhelming evidence that she is Cloud’s Promised Land, and since she occupies the Lifestream —which some consider the Promised Land as it is where souls go after death— during the events of Advent Children. Note that when the piece plays, Cloud is shown either mourning Aerith and releasing her into the river at the Cetra capital, or basking in her presence, smiling with relief at the peaceful feeling that she’s somewhere near: these two opposing scenes reflect the song’s antithetical portrayal of death.
Additionally, the song’s themes of regret, shame concerning one’s sins and a small hope perfectly describe Cloud’s character arc and feelings in Advent Children. Cloud regrets his inability to save Aerith, which he considers a sin. Further, he only realized how important she is to him once it was too late to tell her. And of course, he harbors a fragile yet important hope that he’ll be reunited with her in the Promised Land:

“‘Can sins ever be forgiven?’ — Cloud asks this to Vincent, who mutters a brief answer. For both of them, ‘I couldn't protect my loved one’ is the sense of guilt that they carry, so their words resonate with weight” (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, “Chapter 2: Character in FFVIIWorld”, “Vincent Valentine”, “In Advent Children”, page 72).

&

"’It is my sin that I couldn't protect my loved one’ — under this assumption, Cloud closes off his heart. What will the reunion with Aerith bring him? ‘I... think I want to be forgiven. Yeah, I just want to be forgiven’” (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, “Chapter 2: Character in FFVIIWorld”, “Cloud Strife”, “In Advent Children”, page 40).

&

“Cloud, after seeing Aerith’s hand reach for him through the Lifestream: … I think I'm beginning to understand.
Tifa: What?

Cloud: An answer from the Planet… the Promised Land... I think I can meet her... there” (disk 3, chapter 3).

Just as the song and Marlene express in the introduction of the film, Aerith was innocent, and her sacrifice generated great grief. Cloud finally experiences peace when he feels her presence in the healing rain, and he smiles: he’s glad to be with her again, even if it’s only for a brief moment of tangential respite.
The scene depicts Aerith guiding Kadaj into the Lifestream as the song plays, tying her to the concept and theme song of the Promised Land once more. This connection is later solidified by Tifa’s thanks to the late flower girl. All of this evidence shows us that this musical theme is intimately linked to Aerith, as it never plays in her absence. After all, the song speaks of sins, the death of innocents, forgiveness, grief, a small sense of hope, regret and the afterlife: all themes relevant to Cloud’s feelings surrounding Aerith’s death in and outside of Advent Children.
The Remake OST also includes a version of this piece called “The Promised Land - Cycle of Life”. This iteration of the theme begins playing in the wake of the first bombing mission, right after Sephiroth taunts Cloud with his mother’s dying words in Sector 8 (chapter 2). Sephiroth appears to Cloud surrounded by flames, evoking the Nibelheim massacre, and the theme begins playing in the background once he disappears, continuing (13:17-15:30) as Cloud walks through the sector, encountering fires and destruction all around him. This version of the Promised Land theme is meant to emphasize the deaths of the innocent Nibelheim townsfolk and the innocents in Sector 8. This dreadful atmosphere is amplified by the cries of despair that ring all around as Cloud passes by NPC Sector 8 residents. Perhaps the themes of tribalism and mankind’s sin are relevant to this scene as well, since Shinra and Avalanche are two distinct and warring groups whose quarrels, regardless of their necessity, result in the deaths of innocents. The theme of guilt also emerges, reflecting the Avalanche members’ feelings upon seeing the unintended collateral damage of the explosion. “The Promised Land - Cycle of Life” plays until Cloud encounters Aerith on Loveless. So it seems in this scenario, the heavy weight of death and despair is lifted when Cloud meets the lively, cheery Aerith. Once more, Aerith is central to the musical theme of the Promised Land, as well as to the concept itself.
I also noticed that a version of the song plays as Cloud and the party ready to enter the Forgotten Capital to save Aerith in Rebirth’s chapter 14: it truly adds the weight of her upcoming death to the scene.
Back to Fatal Calling, the scene where Cloud regains his strength is quite mysterious. Wol says Cloud’s orb regained its “guiding light” light because of its proximity to the mako reactor. In the moment his strength is replenished, Cloud is shown tilting his head back and closing his eyes: this is reminiscent of the scene in Advent Children when he stands under Aerith’s healing Lifestream rain, feeling at peace. The rainbow ripples shining from the orb indicate that something is crossing the boundaries of worlds. Since the mako reactor pumps up the Lifestream, being near a reactor also means being physically near the Lifestream. This means Aerith’s spirit is within proximity. In my opinion, Aerith was able to heal Cloud from the Lifestream, just like in Advent Children. However, Aerith is not in Palamecia with him: her healing had to travel there through the Lifestream, transcending the boundaries of worlds, hence the rainbow ripples.
Let’s now address the appearance of Tifa’s character theme in Fatal Calling. Since Fatal Calling is all about discovering Cloud’s past in Nibelheim and then in Hojo’s lab, it makes lots of sense for Tifa’s theme to play as the crystal appears. In OG’s Lifestream sequence (disk 2 chapter 8), she’s the one there helping Cloud sort through his past instead of Wol and Echo. Cloud even picks up a piece of his childhood crush on Tifa in Fatal Calling as a shard of his memory. After all, this crush was the catalyst for him joining SOLDIER, and everything that transpired in consequence:

“Cloud: That was the first time I heard about Sephiroth. If I got strong like Sephiroth, then everyone might... If I could just get stronger... Then even Tifa would have to notice me” (FFVII OG, disk 2, chapter 8).

Additionally, it’s fitting that her theme should begin right after Sephiroth speaks of “[abandoning] your illusions and [facing] reality”, considering that Cloud’s false persona was concocted by Jenova using Tifa’s mistaken impressions of Cloud:

“While being tended to by a station worker in the Sector 7 Slum train station, [Cloud] was reunited with Tifa, and using the abilities of Jenova’s cells, formed a new personality” (FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, “Chapter 2: Character in FFVII World, “Cloud Strife”, “Cloud Behavior Record, Compilation of FFVII”, page 40).

&

“(Image caption:) A new personality takes shape the moment he sees Tifa” (FFVII Story Playback, “Story Check: Tifa’s Flashback”).

&

“Tifa (to Cloud): Deep down, you're a pretty nice guy. Didn't see it when we were kids, but...” (Remake, chapter 14).

There is a general consensus on main points of the uber-killer one shot kill blood golemancer (Army of the Dead, Shadowblight passive, Blood Golem), but not so much on a general build. There are a lot of variations out there by different content creators, I want to kind of discuss the pros and cons and gather my thoughts on how to shape a minion necro that can still kill uber bosses relatively quickly without hampering the ability to speedfarm gear or push pit levels.
I'm not going to get in to the nitty gritty details about exact paragon placement and such, but more a high level overview of different takes on the Minionmancer.

Sources

• Mega Minion Guide
  • Seetod's Summoner
  • Bactyrael's Thorns Golemancer
• Kripp's Bone Golemancer - Youtube
• Rob's Golemless Minionmancer - Youtube
• Maxroll's Shadow Minionmancer - Youtube
  • Wudi's Variant - Youtube

Considerations

Attack Speed
According to the Mega Minion Guide, there are two buckets that can individually reach separate caps of 100%.

• The first bucket
  • Cult Leader board will almost always provide 10%, as it's on the way to a key legendary node
  • In contrast, the 5% on the Flesh Eater board is kind of out of the way and is likely not worth the 8-ish points required to unlock
  • The 25% on Hulking Monstrosity board can replace a gear roll, but that ONLY applies to Golem attack speed so is only relevant if you're focused on stacking golem damage over mage damage. The golem attack speed nodes are also pretty far away from the glyph slot and legendary node.
  • The rest (65 or 90%) must come from gear. Kalan's Edict key passive can effectively replace 2 gear rolls allowing us to focus masterworking stats on crit and int instead.
• The Second Bucket
  • There is no reasonable way to reach 100% here
  • Rapid and Rathma's Chosen aspects do not apply as minions don't have "basic attacks" and we're not casting overpowered blood skills
  • Enhanced Reap can give 30%, though won't help with single target fights
  • For Accelerating aspect Blight is the only Core skill we may be casting, but we won't be spamming it so it's probably not worth using it over other aspects for 10%
  • Frenzied Dead aspect is going to be an auto-include as it's an extra 45% with almost no restriction

Cooldown Acceleration
We have a few reliable ways of cheating out lower cooldowns

• Blood Orbs
  • Requires sacrificing a ring slot for the Fastblood Aspect and a defensive slot for the Embalmer Aspect
  • Not very many reliable ways to get Blood Orbs, need to run Blighted Corpse Tendrils and/or Hemorrhage basic skill alongside Embalmer
• Reaper Upgrade 1
  • More consistent on bosses and doesn't require two aspects.
  • We won't be able to rely on the other Skeletal Warrior paths to taunt or generate corpses
• Abhorrent Decrepify
  • We don't really want to focus our stats on lucky hit, this can supplement but shouldn't be relied on

Corpse Generation
When farming, corpses will be plentiful from random trash. When fighting bosses where are our corpses going to come from?

• Sever and Decompose basic skills both make corpses. Sever is slower (1 per 4s), but Decomposition (1 per 1s) requires channeling.
• Hulking Aspect spawns corpses on Golem attacks, good pick for a utility aspect
• Bone Golem Upgrade 1 makes 5 corpses on command, but this is a bit painful as many of the various golem upgrades have really good effects
• Army of the Dead is a long cooldown, but generates tons of corpses. Corpses will have to come from trash mobs between bosses. Taking this means losing Bonestorm.
• Reaper Upgrade 2 has pretty nice corpse generation, but would lose out on the lowered cooldowns from upgrade 1

Vulnerable Application

• Decompose basic skill is a reliable way to make the target vulnerable though channeled skills are a pain to use. Would lose out on Sever's attack speed boost in non-boss situations.
• Bone Golem Upgrade 2 applies vulnerable and does pretty decent damage to boot
• Plagued Corpse Tendrils isn't a bad utility option on top of grouping mobs together, but it does have a lengthy cooldown and requires a corpse
• Cold Mage Upgrade 2 is essentially permanent vulnerable, but losing the shadow damage limits our other options severely.
• Bone Prison This is probably only reasonable for the uber-killer one shot variant. Need to pair with Plunging Darkness Aspect

Ultimate Skill

• Army of the Dead
  • Very spiky gameplay going through peaks and valleys of damage.
  • This skill wants to stay unused until you reach a difficult encounter (especially a single target fight). Using this will then end that fight in moments
  • More damage than Bonestorm
• Bonestorm
  • Very reliable, best to use as often as possible
  • More triggers for Shadowblight key passive when paired with Ultimate Shadow Aspect
  • Much more defensive option compared to AotD (natural 15% DR and Shielding Storm Aspect can give barrier generation)

Key Passive

• Kalan's Edict gives a good chunk of Attack Speed, but is only equivalent to 1-2 gear slots worth after masterworking
• Shadowblight does amazing damage paired with Blighted Aspect, but you need enough shadow damage sources to keep it rolling

Support Skills
We have 2 skill slots left after Skeleton, Golem, Generator, and Ultimate. Maybe 3 if we decide to run without a generator.

• Blight (or Bone Prison+Plunging Darkness Aspect) This is almost an auto-include. It gives extra minion damage, plus is an excellent source of shadow damage ticks for Shadowblight.
• Decrepify is a pure survivability option. Very good at reducing incoming damage and is especially useful for pit pushing.
• Corpse Tendrils groups up mobs and can apply vulnerable or generate blood orbs, but this has a cooldown and will consume cooldown acceleration effects making your ultimate take longer to come up.
• (Blighted) Corpse Explosion is purely for more Shadowblight triggers

Book of the Dead

• Warriors
  • Both Reaper options are good. Taunting defenders are great for thorns builds. Skirmishers are bad.
• Mages
  • Shadowblight is such a crucial part of the build that going anything other than one of the two shadow variants seems like the wrong choice. Upgrade 1 is great for Golem focused builds, Upgrade 2 is (slightly) better for mage focused builds. Cold Mages with Upgrade 2 is viable if not running Shadowblight
• Golem (needs more verification on different golem attack speeds)
  • Bone Golem attacks quickly and does surprisingly good damage on top of taunting. Upgrade 2 seems to be the better option but an argument could be made for Upgrade 1 for builds lacking corpse generation and for fueling the Corpse-Eater legendary paragon node
  • Blood Golem Upgrade 1 is a massive amount of DR, with how rare it is now might be worth it in high pit levels. Upgrade 2 is for silly numbers and stacking pure golem damage to the detriment of minions. He attacks slower than the Bone Golem so the difference is not as large as it may appear.
  • Iron Golem Upgrade 1 may provide more damage than the Bone Golem, but loses the Vulnerability or Corpse generation utility.

2h vs 1h
Minions used to just take the weapon damage, so going big 2H scythe was the way to go. Now they also base their attack speed on the weapon speed so the DPS is equalized across all weapon types (verification needed)

• 2H (Scythe) is great for double dipping damage from the most valuable Aspect (usually Blighted)
• 1H (Wand) allows for faster minion attacks, which means more triggers for things like Hulking Aspect and Iron Golem Upgrade 1 which trigger base off of attacks NOT lucky hit. Allows for an additional aspect. Also necro offhands come with an implicit Cooldown reduction which is nice to have.

Aspects

• Offensive
  • Required:
    • Blighted - Shadowblight builds only, good option for the neck or 2H slot for the bonus
    • Frenzied Dead - Massive attack speed boost that does NOT compete with the attack speed cap from gear (verification needed)
    • Reanimation - Huge damage boost, good option for the neck or 2H slot for the bonus
    • Ultimate Shadow - Bonestorm builds only
    • Unyielding Commander's - Army of the Dead builds only
    • Needleflare - Thorns builds only
  • Situational:
    • Plunging Darkness - Bone Prison tech choice only
    • Conceited - Bonestorm builds only, also requires Shielding Storm aspect
    • Inner Calm - An OK choice but nothing amazing, better with Decompose basic skill since you're standing still to channel anyway
• Defensive
  • Required:
    • Hardened Bones - DR is so rare, each point is precious
    • Embalmer - Blood Orb builds only
  • Situational:
    • Shielding Storm - Bonestorm builds only
    • Might - Decent pick if you have nothing better
• Utility
  • Required:
    • Blood Getter's - This is double dips back to your minions!
    • Hulking Aspect - Decent way to get corpses and get your Golem skill off cooldown
    • Occult Dominion - More minions! Put this on the neck if you don't put blighted or reanimation there.
  • Situational:
    • Aphotic - An OK source of Shadow damage for Shadowblight if lacking otherwise
• Mobility/Resource
  • Required:
    • Fastblood - Blood Orb builds only
  • Situational:

Uniques?

• Ring of the Sacrilegious Soul can be a nice quality of life for farming. It also makes it so you can "cast" corpse tendrils without ever putting it on cooldown, meaning it won't eat your cooldown acceleration effects.
• Blood Moon Breeches lets you get some juicy curse effects without taking up a spot on the skill bar, massive extra source of DR as well.
• Razorplate mandatory for thorns builds.

Conclusions

With all that said, where does that leave us with regards to a general minionmancer?

• Kalan's Edict seems underpowered compared to Shadowblight. Maybe early game before you have attack speed rolls on gear, but after that Shadowblight seems like a clear winner. That also means we should probably avoid variations with cold or bone mages.
• Reapers seem like the winner of the melee skeleton options. Upgrade 1 seems especially hard to pass up. Corpse generation can come from elsewhere.
• Golems feel very well balanced to me. Any selection seems reasonable, no golem provides an irreplaceable effect or stands head and shoulders above the others.
• There are an unusually large number of Utility aspects which we want. This makes me lean away from using Blood Orbs as a method for reducing cooldown as it's really hard to fit in the two required aspects.
• 2H builds feel better when paired with AotD style of gameplay as they're both focused on spikes of damage. This is might just be a me thing.
• Some sample variants: https://maxroll.gg/d4/planne8fokq02s#1

I think I might be at my breaking point, and I feel like I need to rant amidst all the uncertainties in my life. At the same time I feel weird sharing about my personal life to others, but sharing a burden of such kind seems like a remedy(maybe?). I will try to be coherent. (TL;DR in the end)

I've always been someone who's struggled with his identity. Even in my mid 20s when most start to grind for their future, I'm here passively failing at almost every juncture in life. I will not lie when I dare mention I was a happy to go child back in my early teen days. Shy & introverted, but at the same time motivated, smart, and a playful kid. Had a lot of friends, no close ones tho, but used to indulge a lot in sports and other activities with them. Once I moved to a different place prior to my 10th grade, it's where life started to shift for worse. I've started to struggle a bit with academics, motivation, friendship and health. Also, I realized how alone I was, as this is the stage in school life where most kids were in strong friendly relationships already, and being an outlier was certainly not helpful. My 12th results were horrible, compared to what I had dreamt in my younger days, with my eyes once set on becoming an astronaut too. No way with such horrible grades I was gonna be able to pursue anything of that sort. I was there lost and confused, gazing outside my window during my 12th break post the results. I had horribly fucked my jee advanced, and not a surprise as my motivation and intellectual for academics had already started a steep decline. Somehow, I still fought back and found a decent college. First year was great, maybe the move to a different city was a fixer, but I thoroughly enjoyed that time. All this was just for the first year tho, as the next three especially last 2 were just horrible. I still remember crying alone in my room during festivals when I had no one to hang out with, everyone was so distant from me. I resorted to video games, and although it was a terrible phase, but I'm happy I was able to enjoy some really great games, and amidst the loneliness it was the only sort of comfort for me.

It became much worse when the corona phase struck, I was still in my last year, but it sucked so much with online because I had planned long back to enjoy my last sem, reach out to friends and go on some hikes or shit. Now, a guy who's already been lonely and depressed grew even more distant to everyone, lost much of contact with everyone. Life was absolutely shit. There was a girl in uni I had a crush on, and maybe I believe she liked me too, we were normal friends, but even she seemed not interested and I didn't felt like forcing it further. Soon, I was in a terrible state, sleeping barely 3 hours, wasted my time watching Youtube and Twitch, playing video games, and listening to just melancholic music and thinking about ending my life, but I just didn't had the courage.

Somehow through all this clusterfuck I was able to find a decent enough job, it's sort of chill on most days, but boring. The work was fine for the first couple of years, but I absolutely don't enjoy the work and the teammates, and wanna move out. Have been job hunting for a couple of months, but no luck so far. During this time, tried to bring in few changes in life, like not spending too much time on any social media, it's been great as I'm not getting constantly bombarded with toxicity online. Also, started to goto gym, it's only been almost 2 months, but already have felt so good, from being a unhealthy loser to a healthy loser is somewhat of an achievement unlocked. So, yeah for the most part my life is just me going to work, goto gym, study for a better job, and repeat. On weekends or off days I spend time with family and play video games. Sadly, there's no part where I got to hangout with friends or s.o. because I got none. I know most people say you don't need those if you got family, but I feel like you need them, since some things are better shared with friends. I've felt like I'm a patient stuck in a high security mental asylum, and with no escape, a deadlock infinite loop. Currently contemplating my life choices about finding a better job, even still not sure which field I wish to pursue in IT, and at the same time thinking about moving to abroad, no I'm not rich, would've to take loan, but thinking maybe that may motivate me again to push further in life. I seriously want some normalcy, but I'm somewhat stuck in life, absolutely hate every fucking day, I'm seeing a dark future. I wish someone could fix me (self-insert Blade Runner 2049 reference).

I know a lot of you might be busy in life and all of this may seem too much of yapping, so here's an ai summary (TL;DR) :-

I am reaching my breaking point and need to vent about the uncertainties in my life. It feels strange to share personal details, but I believe it could be helpful. I have always struggled with my identity, and in my mid-20s, I am failing at almost everything. I used to be a happy and motivated child, but when I moved before 10th grade, my life took a turn for the worse. I struggled with academics, motivation, and friendships. I felt alone and different from my classmates. My 12th-grade results were terrible, crushing my dreams of becoming an astronaut. Despite this setback, I managed to find a decent college. The first year was great, but the next three, especially the last two, were horrible. I found solace in video games during this lonely time. Things worsened during the pandemic as my plans to enjoy my last semester and spend time with friends fell apart. I fell into a deep depression, sleeping only three hours a night and contemplating suicide. Eventually, I found a decent job, but I don't enjoy the work or my colleagues. I've been searching for a new job without success. I have made some positive changes in my life, such as reducing my time on social media and going to the gym. While my life now revolves around work, the gym, and studying for a better job, I miss having friends and a significant other. I feel trapped and uncertain about my future. I am considering changing careers or moving abroad to find motivation. I long for normalcy and someone who can help me.

I (18f) am a senior in high school. Because of covid I lost every friend I had from previous school years (like most people), I ended up doing online school the entirety of my freshman year. Sophomore year I had covid the first 3 weeks of school, so I was late to the friend making game. I ended up eventually making friends with this one kid in one of my class. Or friendship for sophomore year mainly consisted of us working on school assignments together, and eating lunch together. Junior year we had more of the same classes, around 3, one of which is band. We both play the same instrument and while I sucked at it because I started later than most and because of covid, he was no doubtedly the best at our school. I worked really hard into becoming a better player (remember this for later). Since we had more classes we ended up taking more. Whenever I said something that I didn't like I was told I was being sensitive. Whenever I said something regarding school he acted like I'm wrong. He's been a strait A student since the 6th grade, while I, although very good at school and very good grades, have not had a strait As since middle school, mostly due to go through trauma that severely impacted me. He started dating someone about half way though the year.
Senior year starts, I am not as "sensitive" as before, mostly because I just stopped showing that I cared for the most part. Me and him have 5 classes together. And this is where the problem starts.
I had heard a rumor where he tried to sexualy assault his girlfriend at the time (they broke up). I was livid, not at him, once I found out I called him, told him what I heard and that if she dared spread that rumor I would start a fight because that's not something to joke about. He acted calm and just said what he always said "the people who would believe that just aren't real friends, and it's not my problem". He says this is you say any criticism about him. I was so angry at her, until...
One of my friends took me aside and told me what they had heard. They heard that it did happen, and that he (the person who had the rumor about him) had talked about fingering her before. They told me that he had talked shit about me to his (ex)girlfriend, saying that he hated me. Which hurt a lot. I ended up asking her if he did, and because we had never really been on bad terms she said that all he ever really said about me was that I was bad at playing my instrument, but I know she was keeping things from me. Because he is the type of person to do that. From this moment I spotted letting him get away with everything.
Fast forward a couple months, I slowly stopped letting people just get what they want no matter what I want. In my music class my teacher gave us a stack of music to choose from, I had the stack in my hand and someone took it out of my hand and I chose last. Which made me upset but I didn't fight it. The next time we got to choose music I was looking though the stack and I said I would play vibraphone, then looked and it played 3 times and then said I would also play xylophone, which the friend that took me aside was not happy with, (probably should have named them, from this point onward the original guy a x, the friend that pulled me aside is y). Me and y ended up arguing and he ended up with the xylophone and bell part (which both played way more then the 3 notes I got to play). I wasn't happy and I was showing it, after class y started coming at me saying I was being ridiculous and that it was just music and was just talking down to me like I was stupid. I ended up yelling "I am done with the converstation" only after multiple minutes of being talked down to and talked over. People when over to him and asked him what he did which he did not like. A couple days later y text me saying he hated bad blood but it was clear pretty early on he didn't want to work though things he wanted to prove me wrong and say that I was being sensitive and dramatic (which I have been called multiple time since this insident), after this conversation this topic was dropped.
A couple weeks later a different friend (z) gave me a milk carton and called me a very derogatory term that I did not like, and because no one ever takes me seriously I said "I fucking dare you to say that again" which got the work out that I was being serious to most people at lunch, except x who just laugh and then when he looked at me asked "Wait really?", the next Day it was brought up and someone said that should apologize and he did, he then goes to get x and tells x, then x comes out of nowhere, starts talking down to me saying that z doesn't have to apologize and ignoring everyone else who is saying that if you hurt your friends feelings you should apologize. He starts digging into me specifically and I didn't even make him apologize. After several minutes I get so angry I throw my empty milk container at him, and then go to class. (Yes immature I know, but I throw things like pickles at people who are Annoying me, it's funny). After school I final tell him what I'm feeling, granted it though text because of my anxiety. I tell him that he was the asshole, that z dosnt need him fighting his battle, especially if there is no battle to be fought, I reiterated that if you hurt someone feelings, whether or not you think it's ridiculous you should apologize, I told him whether or not he thinks I'm being dramatic (which I have heard them muttering under there breaths) that i have a right to be dramatic. I told him he going to regret putting people on pedestals that don't deserve it. I told him I was tired of feeling like a last choice, and that be makes me feel like garbage. His response to this was "good for you". Which hurt because I thought he would actually take my feelings seriously. The next day I bring it up to y to see what he heard, (because x likes to gossip and spread things more than a girl when it comes to things I say) and he said that he heard that I freaked out after being called the derogatory term, and made z apologize. When trying to tell y my side of the story he said I was being ridiculous, that I wasn't going to make friends in my future if I got offended by being called that term. At some point he asked me who I expected him to believe, x and z or me, and whenever I said ask anyone else who was there his reasons was "of course there gonna take your side". He ends up getting angry that I'm getting upset by what he's saying and says that z hasn't been sitting with the group at lunch because of me, and that z dosnt even like me anymore and dosnt want to be friends. Which made me cry, I ended up walking away after that and cried so hard it gave me a migraine.
Since this event I spotted sitting with them at lunch and if I do sit with them I sit away from x y and z. I don't text them anymore, I block them on Instagram (which I only check once every blue moon). Z found out about this, and confronted me, I said I just needed a little bit of space and done extra privacy and his response was "well I guess I'll just never talk too you again" and then proceed to not say a word to me for a week. During this time x and y have been rolling there eyes and snickering at me.
For the last few weeks I have been getting compliments on how much I have improved on my instrument, like where my band director has yelled out in class telling me good job. It has made me really happy that they see me improving and I really needed someone not think I'm incompetent. Since this has started x has been stand off ish, been arguing with me more. Like I say I'm sad and he says "just don't be sad" or I say i have trouble running the mile because I have server asthma he say "just don't have asthma" and when I say that's not how it works he says I'm closed minded. He said that he has had trama and he's fine, and he doesn't understand that not everyone's perfect. He stared rolling his eyes more and stuff like that.
In my math class for the last unit we are put in group and then we will teach the class a part of the lesson, my group was the first to go up and we go up and x and one of his friends are laughing the whole time. I get in my head about it and loose all my confidence, and as I'm showing how to solve a problem I get my answer and say to the class "I'm sorry if this is wrong but this is what I got" I felt really embarrassed and I hear him say that's not what he got, and then they start laughing. Again he is a start A student and doesn't try. After a minute or two my teacher come up to me and tells me I'm right Which made me feel a little bit better. After me partner was done with her problem I go back up to show one more and I point out that the problem I wasn't sure on, that what I had gotten as an answer was correct.
Last incenident (sorry this is so long) Me x and y are in a group and we preform piece in out instruments (we all play the same) we have a couple events coming up, one of which we were practicing for and x was moving his drum up and down so I started to copy what I saw. My drum sits higher and most of x's body was blocked so I copied what I saw. When they see he they said I look ridiculous, and telling me I'm doing it wrong and I say I'm copying what I'm seeing, and this goes back and forth and y said "yup your right and everyone else is wrong", all I'm trying to do is defend myself that what I see may be something different then what he's doing. Another event is coming up where we preform this one song we spend 2 to 3 months on at out schools talent show, there are 6 of us in the group, 3 of us want to do it, one of us has the SAT and dosnet know when the SAT starts to he doesn't know yet but x and y have been complaining about it saying they don't want to do it because they think that No one will show up and that it will be lame. Auditions are tomorrow and they both say they are bust, granted y has a valid excuse, x hasn't said an excuse just said that he was busy even though he hadn't mention it in previous conversations about this subject and only said it at the last minute which made me said, that they aren't getting out of the talent show and that they can't always get what they want.
So AITA

Any and all perspectives help more than you know. I don’t have anybody to really talk about this with so any guidance is appreciated. It’s a lot to read, I might yap but with reason
I’m 19 years old and have just finished my spring semester of college. I went to a big college out of town, my main financial aid fucked me over so I had to switch at semester to my home state’s university. Anyway, this year was kinda tough for me lost a couple family members & my boyfriend had it rough, lost his best friend and dad within a few months of each other. Then we find out I’m pregnant. I wasn’t sure what I really wanted but didn’t get to make a choice, I miscarried sometime later. It was hard so I went back to hometown & finished semester online while staying with boyfriend until I needed to move my stuff out of dorm.
My boyfriend is 19 and we’ve been together a year & a half, but known each other since middle school. We dated in 8 grade until he had to move out of state, he moved back & we started hanging out again. My circle is small & I don’t really make/have any friends but he’s my best friend. Even if we wouldn’t have chose to date after he came back to town, ik we would’ve been good friends. My family liked him or seemed to at least, especially my mom.
It’s well known in my family that my mom and I just don’t get along. She kept me quite literally locked away as the Cinderella child until I left. I could only do things if she wasn’t in a bad mood/something didn’t need cleaned/ a child didn’t need to be picked up/dropped off. My friends in high school never invited me ANYWHERE lmao but after a while I figured out it’s easier to just deal w it rather than push back harder. I didn’t know how to use a crosswalk until I was 14 lmao I was so sheltered sorry ANYWAYS, I turned 18 and it was like I had a brand new mother until her fear of me leaving wore off.
Long story short, the summer before I left for college (last summer) my mom & I got into a fight, I didn’t have anywhere else to go so I moved in with boyfriend. My mom did the absolute most, almost got me fired from my job & ambulance ended up being called from how much of a tantrum she threw. It was so ridiculous that she refused to tell anybody what happened when people asked because she said it’s too embarrassing for her.
Just like that, she flipped. My boyfriend had a rough upbringing which she knows some stuff about. She took that and twisted the narrative to make him seem like some sort of charity case that took advantage of her generous & good graces. She calls him the hungry kid who hangs out w her daughter behind my back. He’s no longer allowed at her house lmao just out of spite. He never said a word to her or about her when she had the worst to say about him, he never was disrespectful or showed up to the house either so idrk why she said that. Even when I moved out & she drained my entire savings I had worked for since I was 15, he never said anything bad about her just that i was going to be okay & he’s gonna help me figure it out. Not only that but she shunned me for a long time, refused to talk & look at me after I moved out. My little brother was 5 and didn’t really understand but my mom didn’t try to explain or kid proof it, just let him scream, cry, & claw at my legs whenever I’d leave the house to go home. I felt incredibly guilty & like I had to compensate so I’d stress out & make sure to see her and my siblings every single day till I left for college.
If you’re still reading thank you sm.
Fast forward to today, I went to college finished my semester and am back in my hometown. Over breaks in college I’ve stayed at my moms cause she expected me to and her & I’s relationship has gotten so much better with distance. Between her and boyfriend, they were my biggest support especially with the miscarriage. But the only conversation they’ve had is when him and I went to talk to my mom in person when I found out I was pregnant. Not sure where she stands with him idrc but I’m sure she probably hates him more since we did technically make her worst fear as a mother come true.
Im living with her now mainly cause I don’t want to be isolated again & i physically cant deal with the debilitating anxiety and guilt every day, I wanted to try to focus on healing & resting before I start classes in the fall. Boyfriend’s family situation is getting v challenging for him, hes gonna get a place regardless. I really just want a space where I’m not feeling constantly overstimulated & I miss living with him a lot honestly. We make the best team & it’s so easy with him. I catch myself getting so excited looking at furniture even from the thrift or think ab cooking meals w him or decorating. I miss him making breakfast for me before I wake up and folding laundry together and grocery shopping. He’s paying 6 months rent in advance so that I won’t have to worry about getting enough hours & can enjoy summer and actually rest. Both of us independently have a pretty thick cushion to fall back on too just in case. So finances aren’t a problem I think?
My mom isn’t too keen on the idea. I think she doesn’t want me to make the same mistakes she made, which I understand because I was also there when she was left with half of every pair of shoes she owned, I mean he took literally half of everything. Even in the case that we do break up and then I’m stuck with an apartment with my ex and have completely fucked myself over, at least I was able to make my own mistake for the first time and learn from it? Idk what to tell my mom or how the conversation should go. I don’t wanna be shunned again but then again I’ve never once been able to just do something and justify it with “it’s my life”. Idk, advice/thoughts/bullshit/opinions please please help. Have a blessed day, thank you. I appreciate your time & input more than you know, I don’t have anybody to bounce ideas around with.

Any and all perspectives help more than you know. I don’t have anybody to really talk about this with so any guidance is appreciated. It’s a lot to read, I might yap but with reason
I’m 19 years old and have just finished my spring semester of college. I went to a big college out of town, my main financial aid fucked me over so I had to switch at semester to my home state’s university. Anyway, this year was kinda tough for me lost a couple family members & my boyfriend had it rough, lost his best friend and dad within a few months of each other. Then we find out I’m pregnant. I wasn’t sure what I really wanted but didn’t get to make a choice, I miscarried sometime later. It was hard so I went back to hometown & finished semester online while staying with boyfriend until I needed to move my stuff out of dorm.
My boyfriend is 19 and we’ve been together a year & a half, but known each other since middle school. We dated in 8 grade until he had to move out of state, he moved back & we started hanging out again. My circle is small & I don’t really make/have any friends but he’s my best friend. Even if we wouldn’t have chose to date after he came back to town, ik we would’ve been good friends. My family liked him or seemed to at least, especially my mom.
It’s well known in my family that my mom and I just don’t get along. She kept me quite literally locked away as the Cinderella child until I left. I could only do things if she wasn’t in a bad mood/something didn’t need cleaned/ a child didn’t need to be picked up/dropped off. My friends in high school never invited me ANYWHERE lmao but after a while I figured out it’s easier to just deal w it rather than push back harder. I didn’t know how to use a crosswalk until I was 14 lmao I was so sheltered sorry ANYWAYS, I turned 18 and it was like I had a brand new mother until her fear of me leaving wore off.
Long story short, the summer before I left for college (last summer) my mom & I got into a fight, I didn’t have anywhere else to go so I moved in with boyfriend. My mom did the absolute most, almost got me fired from my job & ambulance ended up being called from how much of a tantrum she threw. It was so ridiculous that she refused to tell anybody what happened when people asked because she said it’s too embarrassing for her.
Just like that, she flipped. My boyfriend had a rough upbringing which she knows some stuff about. She took that and twisted the narrative to make him seem like some sort of charity case that took advantage of her generous & good graces. She calls him the hungry kid who hangs out w her daughter behind my back. He’s no longer allowed at her house lmao just out of spite. He never said a word to her or about her when she had the worst to say about him, he never was disrespectful or showed up to the house either so idrk why she said that. Even when I moved out & she drained my entire savings I had worked for since I was 15, he never said anything bad about her just that i was going to be okay & he’s gonna help me figure it out. Not only that but she shunned me for a long time, refused to talk & look at me after I moved out. My little brother was 5 and didn’t really understand but my mom didn’t try to explain or kid proof it, just let him scream, cry, & claw at my legs whenever I’d leave the house to go home. I felt incredibly guilty & like I had to compensate so I’d stress out & make sure to see her and my siblings every single day till I left for college.
If you’re still reading thank you sm.
Fast forward to today, I went to college finished my semester and am back in my hometown. Over breaks in college I’ve stayed at my moms cause she expected me to and her & I’s relationship has gotten so much better with distance. Between her and boyfriend, they were my biggest support especially with the miscarriage. But the only conversation they’ve had is when him and I went to talk to my mom in person when I found out I was pregnant. Not sure where she stands with him idrc but I’m sure she probably hates him more since we did technically make her worst fear as a mother come true.
Im living with her now mainly cause I don’t want to be isolated again & i physically cant deal with the debilitating anxiety and guilt every day, I wanted to try to focus on healing & resting before I start classes in the fall. Boyfriend’s family situation is getting v challenging for him, hes gonna get a place regardless. I really just want a space where I’m not feeling constantly overstimulated & I miss living with him a lot honestly. We make the best team & it’s so easy with him. I catch myself getting so excited looking at furniture even from the thrift or think ab cooking meals w him or decorating. I miss him making breakfast for me before I wake up and folding laundry together and grocery shopping. He’s paying 6 months rent in advance so that I won’t have to worry about getting enough hours & can enjoy summer and actually rest. Both of us independently have a pretty thick cushion to fall back on too just in case. So finances aren’t a problem I think?
My mom isn’t too keen on the idea. I think she doesn’t want me to make the same mistakes she made, which I understand because I was also there when she was left with half of every pair of shoes she owned, I mean he took literally half of everything. Even in the case that we do break up and then I’m stuck with an apartment with my ex and have completely fucked myself over, at least I was able to make my own mistake for the first time and learn from it? Idk what to tell my mom or how the conversation should go. I don’t wanna be shunned again but then again I’ve never once been able to just do something and justify it with “it’s my life”. Idk, advice/thoughts/bullshit/opinions please please help. Have a blessed day, thank you. I appreciate your time & input more than you know, I don’t have anybody to bounce ideas around with.

Warning: Mentions of violence, blood, and some self harm near the end.
While browsing some random conspiracy site, I found what is a supposedly leaked file from the Nevada County Sheriff's Department; however, nothing has been confirmed. According to the OP, it is believed the following is the personal account of a 21 year old Jonathan Ashford of Grass Valley, California. Normally I would write stuff like this off but this one is...different. I’ve done my best to correct most of the grammar and misspelling while at the same time trying to avoid skewing the original account.
-September 15, 2022
I’ve never really been an outdoor person. Well, I guess that’s because I’ve never really been outdoors much in the first place. And that’s because I guess…I've never been invited? I don’t really have any friends. So, needless to say, I was surprised to find myself on a backpacking trip with a group of 5 other students from my university. The plan was five days in Tahoe National Forest some place called Mystery Lake. Monday-Friday. I don’t know why they decided to do it during the week. Most of us had okay grades at best and part time jobs on the side so taking a week off of it all seemed at the very least a bit irresponsible; and yet, I went anyway. Listen, I didn’t plan it, okay? This was one of my only chances to get to know people. The hike wasn’t too long but my genius self who had only been backpacking once when I was around 9 years old or so decided to carry 60 pounds of bullshit up the mountain resulting in my shoulders being sore and raw for the foreseeable future.
-10:11 PM
To be honest, I don’t really know why they let me come with them. I only know one of them and the group has been ignoring me for pretty much the entire trip. I was always bringing up the back on the hike in and I set up my tent outside of the main camp behind some trees. I haven’t eaten any meals with them or talked to them or, now that I think about it, anything really. Regardless. The trip has been an experience. Hopefully things get more exciting tomorrow.
-September 16
I’ve only ever slept in a tent a couple times so the new environment and lack of sleeping pills resulted in quite a restless night. I woke up at about eleven; everyone else was gone. I remembered they were talking about a day hike on a trail headed north so assuming that’s where they went, I hurried to get dressed and grabbed some granola bars. I’m about to head out. I hope I find them.
-12:21 PM
I’d been briskly walking for around an hour and was feeling quite exhausted so when I heard the group’s voices off in the distance I was very relieved. I started to jog in their direction when–when this jolt or–wave of energy flooded my mind. My head instantly started throbbing and my vision went blurry. The best way I could describe it is–TV static? Like the old TVs that would go all staticky when the signal got bad. I could barely make out shapes and a space in the middle of my vision was especially dark to the point where I couldn’t see past it. That wasn’t the worst of it, though. God no, if only I was that lucky. I can still hear the shrieking. That goddamn shrieking. In an instant all I could hear was this sharp, scratchy shrieking. It pierced through my ears and rooted itself in my head. I think I cried out in pain but even if I did I couldn’t have heard it. It was as if the damned souls of hell all cried out in eternal pain all at once and begged for death. I gripped and pulled at my hair, hardly noticing the pain that resulted from it as I fell to my knees in agony before…
I slowly opened my eyes. My head hurt and there was a slight buzzing in my ears. I lay in a pile of ivy next to a fallen log, my back dampened from the cool soil beneath me. I stood up, the hill on which I previously stood was nowhere in sight. As I leaned my shoulder against a tree to steady myself I heard voices. Cautiously, I walked through the foliage as the low vines dragged along my ankles. As I walked, I looked up. The falling sun cast a soft orange glow across the sky. It was probably around five O’clock or so. I climbed up on a large rock only to realize I was near the main camp. I pin-pointed the voices of my fellow campers as they huddled around a low-burning campfire. As I sat down to listen to them speak I could sense a strong feeling of uneasiness resonating from the group. Then it hit me.
“Are you sure you haven’t seen her since earlier this afternoon?” One of them said, I think his name was Matthew? He was tall and lean, by far the tallest in the group.
“I’m sure! It just doesn’t make sense. One minute she was behind me going on about who knows what and then the next when I turn around she’s gone!” A girl with light brown hair said. I didn’t know her name. I could see tears forming at the corner of her eyes as the wind blew her hair into her face.
“We need to find her before it gets dark. Groups of two; stick together!” A shorter man with brown hair said. Ryan. He was the only one I knew. We weren’t friends. Definitely not. But he was nice enough to me in the classes we had together and I was grateful that I was able to go on the trip with him. As he walked past the boulder I sat beside, paying me no mind, I saw his lower lip quiver as his wide eyes looked straight ahead. He was more nervous than he led on. I zoned out for a few seconds, the static from earlier crawling its way into the corners of my vision when a chipmunk climbing a tree snapped me back to reality and I realized I had been left at camp. I looked around at the tall forest but the group was nowhere in sight. I assumed they wanted me to wait at camp in case the missing girl, Alice, came back, but as I moved toward the dying campfire the call of nature occupied my thoughts. I found a spade and a roll of toilet paper and strode briskly into the forest, the cool Autumn air rushing against my chapped lips as I walked. I reached over to scratch an itch on my arm when I saw it.
“The fuck?” I wondered out loud. There on my upper forearm was…a bite mark. I rattled my brain trying to think what could have made that kind of mark. As I examined it more I confirmed my suspicions. It seemed human. At least I think it was human. It’s not like there are any goddamn monkeys native to Middle of Nowhere, California. There was also a dark purple bruise on my lower forearm. Didn’t remember getting that either.
I looked around for a good spot. Stepping over a log, I set my foot down on something soft. It was Alice. Her right hand crushed and mangled and a dried trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth had pooled on a flattened leaf. I screamed, tripping and falling back in the direction I hoped was the camp. As I jumped over a rock I landed hard on my left ankle as a streak of pain shot up through my body. I was trying to get back up when I heard it. The screeching. It steadily yet quickly faded in until it flooded my hearing. My vision was clouded by that same static. I curled up into a ball, kicking at the air. My eyes watered and I felt the urge to vomit…
A wave of dizziness hit me as I opened my eyes and fell on my tailbone, pain shooting up my back. I lay down on my back and looked up at the trees, my nose bloody. It was still dark. Had I been standing? I tried to recall what I had been doing but all I remembered were faded images. One thing I didn’t forget was the screeching. All that I could remember was covered by that screeching and a faint veil of that static. Just thinking about it made my head throb.
A groan. I nearly jumped out of my skin as I turned to look in the sound’s direction. It was David. He looked injured, lying on the ground, but quickly crawled back in what looked like fear when he saw me.
“You bitch!” He muttered between gritted teeth. Before I could react he was up on his feet charging in my direction. I tried to doge him but the wind was quickly knocked out of me as he headbutted me in the stomach. I fell back onto the ground and between coughs I saw him running towards me. Before he could deliver a heavy stomp to my chest I caught his foot and kicked up into his groin. He stumbled back with a low yelp of pain and, taking my chance while he was stunned, I stood up as fast as I could and prepared to block another attack. He ran up to me and attempted to deliver a blow to my stomach with his right fist, leaving his upper body undefended; I used the opportunity to send a hard punch into the side of his neck. He fell back choking, tears in his eyes. As he tried to sit down he tripped on a root and hit his head on a nearby boulder with a sickening crack. He squirmed for a moment, then nothing.
Silence. There was a faint red stain on the side of the rock, and beneath his blood-stained hair, his head seemed unnervingly misshapen. The closer I looked, the more I saw. Bruised neck, flowing blood, even some pinkish bone exposed near the worst of the damage to his skull. The fall must’ve been worse than I thought. Why would he attack me? What was wrong with him? Had he mistaken me for someone else? I sat against the blood-stained boulder and leaned my head back. I’m exhausted. Everything hurts. My ankle is throbbing. I can’t remember how long it’s been since I’ve slept and I don’t know what to do. I should probably go try to find the camp but…I’m too tired. I think I’m going to go to sleep now.
-September 18
I slept through the entire day and most of the night! Or, at least I think I did. The more I think about it I’m not so sure. It’s like 2:30 AM, glad my phone still works even if my brain doesn’t, just wish I had signal. I’m not sure what to do but I might try to go find
-4:29 AM
Something’s definitely out here with us. Or–me. Not sure how many of the others are left out here. I’m sure that shrieking is tied to something. I heard something off in the distance while writing and decided to go check it out. It was Matthew and that other girl. They were walking briskly and their eyes seemed to be darting around frantically. They were talking in hushed tones but from what I heard they found Alice's body, and they were worried. I was about to reveal myself to them when the shrieking came back. It hit me like a train, and sometimes I think a train would have hurt less. It felt like it lasted for hours, I bit a hole through my lip and fell off of the boulder I was sitting on. I couldn’t see anything except a dark patch of static in the middle of my vision surrounded by more static. All the cuts and bruises in my body seemed to amplify and I could barely breathe. I just wanted it to stop but it wouldn’t. It wouldn’t stop.
The two were dead when I came to. I wasn’t much better off myself. No matter how much I spit I can’t get the taste of blood out of my mouth. My arms are covered in cuts and bruises and my shoulder was dislocated. That was a fun half hour figuring out how to put it back in place. I think whatever is out here with us clouds your vision and makes it impossible to hear anything as a way to hunt you. I’m amazed it hasn’t killed me yet. I hope Ryan is still out there.
-6:06 AM
It’s been a long night. A really long night. I found Ryan but–but now I wish I hadn’t. It was around five AM I think, I had been aimlessly wandering through the forest looking for something, anything. By the most unlucky luck Ryan came stumbling around a tree. When he saw me his eyes went wide.
“Jon, what the hell?” Then he squinted his eyes and seemed to notice the wounds on my arm.
“Oh god,” he said. Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small knife, glaring at me during the process. Before I could reply, he charged me, knife in hand. I–I didn't want to kill him. I really didn’t. He tackled me to the ground, forcing the knife close to my chest. I desperately tried to push him away and being the stronger one, I knocked him off me. As he hurried to get back on top of me I sent my right leg flying into his arm, knocking the knife from his hand. Before he realized what was happening I grabbed the knife from the ground. In what seemed like a last desperate attempt he tried to force me down again but, already having the knife in my hand, I quickly slashed his chest and one of his wrists without thinking. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t mean to kill him! I was just defending myself. I don’t know why he attacked me, what’s gotten into him and David? Is that thing controlling them? They didn’t seem like they were under some kind of spell…I don’t think so at least.
After a soft cry of pain he collapsed and rolled down the steep hill we were standing on. I didn’t bother looking for his body. No point. Odds are that thing would use his body as a trap for me or something. I don’t know anymore.
Somehow I found my way back. I don’t remember how, all I remember is collapsing against a tree out of exhaustion but, here I am at the trailhead. I guess my half dead brain forgot most of it. I don’t know what I’ll do now, I don’t think I’ll tell the police. If they hear that some creepy ghost creature is hiding out in the forest killing my friends I’ll probably get locked up in who the fuck knows where for who the fuck knows what. But, no matter how many or how few believe me, I know something is out there. And I know it’s dangerous. I doubt the bodies will ever be found. That forest is huge and I buried Matthew and Elizabeth, found her name in a backpack she had on.
This will be my last entry. My name is Jonathan Ashford, and I survived something dangerous in the Tahoe national forest. Whatever you do, do not go there. Goodbye.
-September 22, 2022, 5:06 PM
Ryan survived. The police are after me. Apparently he told them I stalked them in the forest and picked them off when they weren’t together. I don’t know what’s happening. There are some gaps in my memory but I know that I didn’t kill those people. I only killed David, and that was self defense. I’m not sure what I’ll do. The police don’t know where I am but I’m sure that won’t last long.
-8:19 PM
I saw an interview with Ryan on the local news while browsing channels. He seemed–off. There were bags under his eyes and his skin was pale. He seemed nervous, shaky. I hope he’s ok. I still don’t understand why he thinks I killed them.
-September 23, 3:12 AM
ok ok. I have a theory. I’ve been up all night thinking and it makes so much sense now. That thing can shriek. Terrifying right? But explainable. The static I still can’t make sense of, there’s no feasible way it could naturally do that. What if whatever supernatural force causes the static can also control people? Maybe that’s why Ryan looks so crazy. It must be controlling him. But why would it want me? Am I immune to its effects? Maybe.
-6:04 AM
They didn’t notice it. It didn’t hit them. When I was spying on Matthew and Elizabeth, right before they were–anyways.
The shrieking hit my ears before the static hit my eyes and in those few seconds, they didn’t notice. It didn’t affect them. They didn’t hear the shrieking. Maybe the shrieking is that monster thing's abilities failing to control me. Maybe that's why ryan-whatever’s controlling Ryan wants me. It’s because I’m a threat to it. Because It can’t control me. When I woke up I was injured, but never killed like the others. Maybe it doesn’t have as much power over me as others.
But why would the authorities believe Ryan? There’s no way his story can add up. Even if that creature, that thing, is intelligent, it can’t be that smart to fake a story. Why are they after me?
-11:42 PM
The police came by today. I was about to update this log again when they started banging on my door. I was able to sneak out a window before they noticed me, glad I live on the ground floor.
Something seemed off about them. I can’t say what but, something, like the uncanny valley effect, where something looks human but isn't. Whatever. It’s probably just my imagination. I need sleep.
-September 24, 2:20 AM
Something is wrong–something is definitely wrong. How did they find me? Holy shit that was close! I was dozing by a couple of dumpsters behind a gas station. Figured it was safe enough since it was out of the way and partly blocked by a fence until I heard dogs barking. Not sure how many of them there are, at least two–maybe three, I can still hear them barking. I figured they were just strays that would hopefully leave me alone until I saw the lights. Damn things half-blinded me!
“Son, what are you doing back here? Can we walk to you?” one of the officers said, his face was clammy and pale, he seemed tired, he seemed–off. I didn’t respond or wait for them to try and get closer, I dashed past them before they could call their dogs on me and jumped the fence, running into the tree line. I managed to climb my way up a tree a ways into the woods before they could get around the fence and send their dogs out. They haven’t found me yet, but they’re still looking for me. I can see their flashlights periodically bathing the tree line in a pale glow. I think I’ll try to wait them out and then climb down and run for as long as I can. Not sure where I’ll go yet but they keep finding me so I’ll have to get creative. Not sure how they’re finding me so quickly and easily, but maybe I can come up with something. Is that–thing finding me? Does it always know where I am? Is it controlling the police? Maybe that's why they looked so…wrong. I don’t know. I’m starting to think I don’t know anything anymore. I keep noticing the static in the corner of my vision occasionally, not sure why.
-September 24, 5:03 PM
I fucked up. Big time. Last night, somehow, I fell asleep. I don’t know how, guess I was just too exhausted. The sound of a helicopter pierced through the top of the tree line. Before I could register everything, I slipped and fell down the tree. I was able to slow my fall a bit by dragging my hands along the tree–hurt like a bitch–but I still landed hard. Can barely sit down. I think I was able to avoid being detected by the helicopter. I’m going to start walking. Not sure where but, I need to go somewhere. The static is constantly in the corner of my vision whenever I focus on it now. Why is this happening?
-10:44 PM
This doesn’t make any sense, I don’t know what's happening anymore! I was wandering through the forest when the static came back. God, it was awful, forgot how bad it was. Hell, maybe it was worse this time. Who knows. This isn’t the weirdest, or worst, part. I woke up in my apartment, I’m exhausted, but don’t have any new visible injuries despite how shitty I feel. Not sure why that thing didn’t try to hurt me, maybe it gave up on trying.
The news was on when I woke up, God I’m so fucked. They found the bodies–the ones that I buried. Of course they found my DNA all over them, used their forensics or whatever to try to explain how I killed everyone. I’ll have to admit if it wasn’t all a setup by some evil entity out to get me it would be pretty convincing. Sometimes–I find myself believing it. I don’t know what to think at this point, nothing makes sense anymore. The static is far more noticeable now. My head is starting to hurt, too.
They haven’t come back to my apartment yet, probably don’t think I would return this soon after they searched the place. I know they’ll be here eventually but I’m too tired to care right now. My brother and his kids used to live a few hours out of town, I think he built a treehouse for his kids somewhere behind the house. Maybe I’ll go try and hide out there for as long as I can. As if that will be very long at all.
-September 26, 6:24 PM
Everywhere I look, everything I watch. They’re always out for me. Everyone is looking for me. The things the police and the media keep saying about me–the evidence that gets released every day, the testimonies, officials saying I have symptoms of psychological problems like psychosis and DID, of Bipolar. More and more–I’m starting to believe it myself. Surely it's that thing. Surely it’s getting in my head…right?
-September 27, 1:03 PM
Made it to the treehouse, glad it’s still here. Had a few close calls along the way when trying to steal food from gas stations but I made it ok. Glad I did, the static is starting to really cloud my vision and my head hurts so bad my ears are starting to ring. I’m not out of the woods yet, that’s for sure. I can sense them...it. They’re trailing me. I think they’re getting close.
I’m so tired, so confused. I don’t know what to do, what to think anymore. What’s next? Maybe I’ll try to get some rest…if I can, that is.
I could try to come up with something, some silver bullet or whatever. I have this one idea, it’s not smart or clever, not even close, but it’s an idea, and it won’t let it–them–it, whatever, win. At least I don’t think it will; besides, surely it has a bigger plan for me, right? There’s no way it would go through all this effort just to kill me…
-4:39
They found me. I can hear them outside. They’re getting closer.
To be honest, I don’t know anymore. Maybe I did kill all those people, maybe I am insane. I don’t know what to believe. There’s so much being said, so many people saying it. I’m just so confused, so tired, so scared.
There's a bomb on the chair beside me, homemade. Glad I grabbed enough supplies to build it. Took me a while to figure it out as well as a few close calls but I think I got it working. They’ll have quite the surprise waiting for them once they find me…
They’re at the base of the tree now. The static has almost completely consumed my vision and my head feels like it’s about to explode. I don’t know what’s real and what’s not anymore. I’m not sure why I was made the target of this, why this is happening to me at all, but regardless of the reason, I won’t let them win.
To the creature, or entity, to whatever is doing this to me: I’ll see you in Hell.
Goodbye
Aside from some generic legal stuff to conclude the report, that’s where the document ends. I’m not sure what to make of it. Definitely a lot to take in. I contacted the OP on the site I got this from but haven’t received a response yet, will update if I receive one. For now my only advice is be careful, and don’t go backpacking in Tahoe National Forest. If anyone has any thoughts or info, please, let me know.

I finished uni last year in a degree that specialised things like UX/UI/CX/web design/data visualisation, JavaScript and product design but the only problem is tech market and economy no one is hiring in my country, my mental health wasn’t great last year so I didn’t apply much and I went travelling early this year. Everywhere is being hit even my brother may be laid off as a consultant in a smaller company. I did have a final interview with a company the other day I’m hoping I get but it’s a graduate program and I wouldn’t start until February. If I do get rejected idk what I’ll do I’ve seen people who interned at major tech companies are also struggling to find a job and the market apparently might not improve until next year. I’m currently feeling like a failure I’m living at home but I’m getting $800 a fortnight from the government which is alright so I’m saving some in my bank. Everywhere wants experience even internships want 1 year experience . I have a mentor who’s given me recruiters to reach out ti. I’ve been told my industry is hard to break into and saturated which sucks
Before I started my degree it had a really high rate of employability and there were so many jobs then I graduated at one of the worst times, I know a girl from my degree who’s been looking for a job for 2 years in the industry
I have a portfolio and a resume which I’ve been told both are good and I’ve done things like designathons and contributed to VR research as part of a phd study all I lack is industry experience I’ve been told by people in the industry all my other stuff looks good
So far I’ve only been exploited by businesses that lied to me, one guy even said he wasn’t exploiting me when he was because he said he’s not paying me he wants me to get experience and work 10 hour days for free which is illegal in my country, he also lied about the role. I also worked with a guy that wanted me to be at senior level and I was the only designer there and it was just him and me.
The market is so bad that there’s a company who keeps posting jobs for unpaid work and ask for years of experience for a remote only position and their company has been running for 5 years with no website/posts on linkeldn and the ceo doesn’t even know what his idea is and has nothing to show for it in 5 years. So it’s being run illegally
I’m looking for
customer experience roles, customer support, product expert roles, digital design, product design, CX design, UX/UI roles but there’s nothing or they want experience
Or any other fields I can look into with a degree?
So what job can I do in the meantime? I did after school coding teaching and holiday camp coding teaching but the after school work is only 1 hour and holiday camp was only the school holidays so not much of an income. I’ve previously worked in hospitality but I struggle due to a slight disability where my hands are really shaky. I’ve also done retail for years but I got harassed so much by customers. So does anyone have any other suggestions I was considering swim instructor or something. Thanks! Who knows how long it’ll take to get a job I’m losing hope because of how bad the market is while my siblings have jobs, may take another year then what do I do? Go back to uni and get more debt to change careers?
I’m feeling like a failure at 24 when others have careers and I can’t even start my career I feel like I chose the wrong industry. Hopefully I land the job I think I find out next week

I (f24) left a relationship that was about 13 months long a couple months ago (let’s say 9 months ago), and I’m still obsessing over how I felt betrayed. Basically my LO (26m) love bombed me which I fell for as per usual and isolated me from friends and things I enjoyed doing. I was at a job I hated and started spending most of my time at theirs. They kept reassuring me that it was okay and they would even go out of their way to have me stay longer at theirs. Fast forward they’re asking me to stay more nights at my place, we don’t text, we don’t call, we don’t have sex (it was always “not tonight” or stressed with work, to the point when he was interested I was not). Stopped kissing me like he used to, stopped planning regular dates, gaslight and flip the argument on me whenever he was confronted. The signs were all there yet I gave excuse after excuse because he would say I wasn’t the issue and it was work stressing him but now that I’m healing, I can’t help but think he didn’t know what he wanted and I was collateral. He emotionally cheated on me btw that’s what ended it. (Lied to me about someone he was frequently texting and never told them we were dating, kept lying even tho was confronted with the messages). The disgust I felt is indescribable, this is someone who would cry and cause harm to himself at the slightest question on infidelity. He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Why didn’t I leave sooner ? I know it’s because of my low self esteem at the time but my confidence was high before I met him until he basically ignored me and my needs for months. Thinking about it keeps me up at night. This is the 2nd time I’ve gone through this cycle. Each time I think I’ve learnt my lesson. I meet a carbon copy. This is someone I thought I was going to build a life with. I feel so stupid.
Thanks for reading, honestly just venting.

I finished uni last year in a degree that specialised things like UX/UI/CX/web design/data visualisation, JavaScript and product design but the only problem is tech market and economy no one is hiring in my country, my mental health wasn’t great last year so I didn’t apply much and I went travelling early this year. Everywhere is being hit even my brother may be laid off as a consultant in a smaller company. I did have a final interview with a company the other day I’m hoping I get but it’s a graduate program and I wouldn’t start until February. If I do get rejected idk what I’ll do I’ve seen people who interned at major tech companies are also struggling to find a job and the market apparently might not improve until next year. I’m currently feeling like a failure I’m living at home but I’m getting $800 a fortnight from the government which is alright so I’m saving some in my bank. Everywhere wants experience even internships want 1 year experience . I have a mentor who’s given me recruiters to reach out ti. I’ve been told my industry is hard to break into and saturated which sucks
Before I started my degree it had a really high rate of employability and there were so many jobs then I graduated at one of the worst times, I know a girl from my degree who’s been looking for a job for 2 years in the industry
I have a portfolio and a resume which I’ve been told both are good and I’ve done things like designathons and contributed to VR research as part of a phd study all I lack is industry experience I’ve been told by people in the industry all my other stuff looks good
So far I’ve only been exploited by businesses that lied to me, one guy even said he wasn’t exploiting me when he was because he said he’s not paying me he wants me to get experience and work 10 hour days for free which is illegal in my country, he also lied about the role. I also worked with a guy that wanted me to be at senior level and I was the only designer there and it was just him and me.
The market is so bad that there’s a company who keeps posting jobs for unpaid work and ask for years of experience for a remote only position and their company has been running for 5 years with no website/posts on linkeldn and the ceo doesn’t even know what his idea is and has nothing to show for it in 5 years. So it’s being run illegally
I’m looking for
customer experience roles, customer support, product expert roles, digital design, product design, CX design, UX/UI roles but there’s nothing or they want experience
Or any other fields I can look into with a degree?
So what job can I do in the meantime? I did after school coding teaching and holiday camp coding teaching but the after school work is only 1 hour and holiday camp was only the school holidays so not much of an income. I’ve previously worked in hospitality but I struggle due to a slight disability where my hands are really shaky. I’ve also done retail for years but I got harassed so much by customers. So does anyone have any other suggestions I was considering swim instructor or something. Thanks! Who knows how long it’ll take to get a job I’m losing hope because of how bad the market is while my siblings have jobs, may take another year then what do I do? Go back to uni and get more debt to change careers?
I’m feeling like a failure at 24 when others have careers and I can’t even start my career I feel like I chose the wrong industry. Hopefully I land the job I think I find out next week

Oh Mandela Glitch ! Ok it’s bad enough that I know my life was different & yes better in so many ways BUT finding this out is just insane ….. I was having a long conversation with Mommy Dearest and we began to talk about Nana’s passing. Now I know that she passed away before I started High School because there was a small group of younger cousins that were left outside of the funeral parlor (we were told that we shouldn’t see & remember her in the casket). It’s just not possible, I have no other way to express how WAY OFF this is. Plus that Mother said she got ill and papí took her to the hospital (NO WAY). My pops was on the road and didn’t get back home until after Nana’s funeral, he missed the viewing.
WHAT THE HECK ?

I have mid gun skill and bad recoil control but Twitch is my highest K/D op this season.
I’ll be quick and list the reasons why in bullet points.

• The F2 (from someone who sucks at recoil control) is amazing. My highest K/D gun this season is the F2. Again, I know I’m kicking a dead horse, I’m bad at recoil control. Spend some time using it in shooting range and arcade, get good with it. It is very possible, don’t be discouraged if you don’t have good recoil control. It’s not so much about recoil control, more about having discipline and understanding you can’t compete in most long range fights. I use the holo to help me with taking closer fights. If you can just barely even come close to managing the recoil, and you’re disciplined with the fights you take, you’ll do great with the F2.
  
• If you like DMRs, the 417 is great. However I highly suggest giving the F2 a lengthy shot, I tried it on and off for years but when I finally decided I’m gonna get good at this gun even if it takes a while of playing her.
  
• 4 drones means double the intel. If you’re a support player it’s probably because you’re not very comfortable taking 50/50 fights. 2 more drones means 2 more opportunities to get an advantage on someone.
  
• 4 drones also means you can be impactful for a decent chunk of the round without having to use your gun. Obviously if you’re losing people get in the building and get to work. Use the drones properly, and if your team does their job to take site, it makes it extremely easy to force close range fights as you have space and map control to work with. That last part is why I think the F2 fits Twitch much better.
  
• Obviously, the shock drones are great for clearing utility. Dont undervalue how good this is. You can completely delete very oppressive utility.
  

I know it doesn’t sound like all that much, just try her for a couple weeks. If you want to raise your K/D get good with Twitch. She lets you play easy support and clean up for easy kills in gunfights that are easier than you’d expect because you get to choose the range.

Where are you in your life right now? How old are you? Are you depressed or happy? Are you satisfied with your health? What work do you do irl? Will your work experience help you survive? What kind of skills have you acquired that could help you? What are objects closest to you that you could turn into a weapon? Do you feel that you have survival instincts and can adapt to the new world?
All of these and more are key to how long you are going to make it if a zombie outbreak suddenly happened. If your mindset, health and age are not where it should be, then you wont make it far unless you are really lucky or dependent on others to keep you alive. What skills and tools you have acquired during your worklife does have something to say in how you will do.
If you work with something gun related or have hunting hobbies, you have a very high chance of survival I guess. If you are an engineer or carpenter, you will have knowledge to keep you alive for a while.
So there is no denying that some people have a much higher survival rate than others depending on how your life is.
So Champ, will you become the ultimate survivalist and live in the new world or will you be one of the first to fall before it even starts?