Spots on shoulders and arms back and chest

Forget about his play, we all know what he's done, where he's at.
I used to dislike him when he was younger for his behavior outside the lines - flat earth BS, chip on shoulder about playing with LeBron, declining interviews... In hindsight, he was similar to many of us - young, wanting to prove himself, absolutely sure he's right about anything.
I personally struggle with mental health. I always have, but only recently have begun to admit, call out, and address things I never understood. One thing that has helped me in this new journey is looking to others who might have similar challenges, that I may learn more about their story, and in turn myself. I had a thought a few days ago - some of young buck Kyrie's behaviors that had led me to shun him were also staring back at me when I looked the mirror.
Of late, when I listen to Kyrie, he sounds so damn mature - again, not just basketball stuff. Peace. Harmony. Zen. Pregame, in-game, after a loss, after a win. Just cool, carefully spoken, positive, no media food. Idk what's actually going on in his head, and I won't pretent to know the man, but seeing his ability to compartmentalize internally while performing on a stage I'll never even understand impresses and inspires me. I just wanted to share my thoughts on that, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Hey guys which do you recommend I fly only modern f16 f15c f18 and have the evo premium( which i dont very like) and current modded 3d extreme to nice throttle(enought for not purchase the twecs) Going to use on desk ( no enough room to take chair back for mounts fml) Here my research: Orion 2 catch me cuz of 3pos switches, base full of all binds u need + the stay in place 3 way hat,center spring axis, the vibration feedback also very nice to me Negatives are less good detents and maybe less smooth axis(?) cost: 364 usd for f15ex+fingerlifts
Stecs standard: very customable, smoother axis than all, triggers all over, more ergonomic(?), best detents but no physical finger lifts Negatives are no 3pos switches no spring encoders and no stay in place hats cost :336 usd shipped
Vipril cm3: Good reputation, nice customable base, self center axis, decent customable detents + finger lift Smallest factor huge bonus Negatives not so nice 3 pos switches Cost 320usd shipped
Because im flying modern and doesnt have control panels (or room for them) the base of the orion 2 really catch my eyes as u have bind for everything( ap, lnd gear, flaps, ag/aa, armed) So just looking for final inputs as u see price doeant really matter here all same scale Ty

I didn't know whether to post this on piracy because I'm not sure it's gotten to that level yet.
Two months ago there was a domestic canon blast in my building. I (88F) was coming home when I noticed two pirates waiting for the boat. I would've waited for the next one, but we only have two boats, and one was broken. I sailed with the pirates, and I was surprised to see that we all got off on the same harbour--mine. Apparently the disturbance was the boathouse next to mine. I've only lived here for three months, so I don't know any of my neighbours. I didn't think too much of it at the time, and I went into my boathouse and closed the door.
About 12 hours later, I hear a knock at my door. It was one of the pirates that I had sailed with in the boat. He asked me to open the door, but I was hesitant, so I asked if we could just talk through the closed door. He showed me his eye patch through the peep hole to I guess make me feel randier, but that didn't help. He told me that he needed to see my booty(chest) because I might be a witness to what occurred in the boathouse next to mine. I told him that I saw nothing, so I wouldn't be a big help. He told me that either I talk to him now, or I have to go to the pirate Island in the morning, which could take all day. I'm a student. I couldn't take off a whole day to talk about an incident, so I agreed.
He didn't come inside my boathouse. We chatted at my door. He asked me for a wooden leg, so I gave him my walking cane. He wrote down my information (my number as well), and told me that he would be in contact. Two years later I spotted him at my harbour after coming home from class. He asked me how my neighbours were doing, and I said fine, and tried to get into my boathouse. He stopped me and said that he thought he and I had bloodlust the night we met, and he asked me out to go pirate. I told him that I had a first mate (lie) and I sidestepped him into my harbour.
The next day, I get a call from my grandmother(177M). She tells me that a "nice pirate" came by and was asking very personal questions about me. The person she describes sounds exactly like the pirate who asked me out. My walking cane has my grandmother's address. I was living with her before, and I haven't had time to go and change it. At this point I was freaking out. I told her not to talk to him, and not to answer the door if he comes back. Two weeks ago I'm boating home from class, and I jay-boated to get to my houseboat. I hear someone calling my name, so I turn around, and it's the pirate again. He tells me that he could canon blast me for Jay-boating because it's illegal, but he won't if I go pirating with him. I told him again that I have a first mate, but he tells me that my grandmother told him that I was a lone sailor. I told him that it's a new relation-ship, so she wouldn't know. He said that he would hold off on the jay-boating ticket, but not for long. It's been a few years since that confrontation, but I see him pretty often. I live in a safe haven, but he seems to always be pirating somewhere near my boat school or harbour.
I'm on a student boating visa. I'm Nepali. I can't afford to have a ticket on my record, but I'm also very worried that this pirare will escalate this situation if I don't go out with him. I told one of my closest friend about this, and she told me that what this pirate was doing was romantic, and I'm an asshole for not going out with him?
https://www.reddit.com/AITAH/s/QyRycXUDlI

The back story is long but gives some context.
Back story: I (17 or 18, I have a late bday so it’s hard to remember how old ) was deep asleep while living with Mia at the time (we’ve been together for 2 years about the hit 3), and she went through my phone to take pictures as she normally did, but then she went through my text messages so Snapchat (very important) about found a week old text message from a bot (she didn’t know this at the time), and she took pictures of it on her phone along with screenshots she sent to herself, and just went back to sleep till the morning in witch I find her staring into my soul with her phone and the pictures she took last night, so I just take a second to looking for me glasses before I can even do that she ask me to explain the text I’m having with a another girl, me still waking up and having morning blindness and being heavily confused, I ask what she’s even talking about and I get hit with the “YOU KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT!!” so me being me I go back to looking for my glasses while telling her to explain as I look for my glasses, and immediately get hit with “I don’t have to explain anything” and “your the one who should be explaining here” so I get even more confused (and when I get confused I have a hard time thinking) and just give up on looking for my glasses and ask for the phone to have a look, and I read over the text (which was under 50 words or so, there wasn’t much to look at other then the pictures) and start laughing at the text, witch she didn’t find funny at all but she pulls herself together and asks “what’s funny at this” and that when I notice that those where my text and that it wasn’t my phone on top of that she looking like she wanted to end me on the spot, so I just speaking with out thinking to much about why or how she got them, so I just tell her it’s just a bot and that it’s normal to get them once in a while (I would get about 3 to 4 a month cause I was extremely active on Snapchat), and she didn’t like that answer and told me to try again, so I just told her that it’s not what she thinks it is and that I’m not cheating or anything remotely close to that, but she wasn’t buying it, so I took out my phone and explained it to her by showing the other bots I have blocked (but since it’s Snapchat and text get deleted when someone’s block) and showing lot of of proof that I wasn’t cheating on her, she then go to asking about why I was asking for more pictures form the so called bot EVEN THOUGH I clearly didn’t send anything and that I wasn’t nice to said bot, and the last picture was of a night sky and the following text was just “more of that” witch in my head is me asking for more of the night sky, but to her is me asking for more nudes witch didn’t end well for me, but I did try my best to explain but she thought I was just lying (at the time I wasn’t good with words and could only explain myself though actions witch didn’t work out to well) and because I couldn’t explain myself properly I just asked for some time and left, but she broke up with me the next day after talking with her therapist, and the following month she moved far away and cut everyone off along with dropping off of all social media.
Story: (I was 19 and she was 6 months older) After my break up with my ex, after about 5-6 months we started talking again and the following 2-3 months we would get back together after she got drunk and lonely for about a week or less, and it would happen about 3-4 times but we both knew that it wasn’t a good idea by the end of the week (mostly cause I didn’t trust her after how things ended and she went about it), and on the final week we got together it was different and it was nice we talked about everything that happened and I got to properly explain myself, but one thing led to another and we started talking about our future together and baby stuff so we ended up passionately hugging, so when the week came to an end I went back home and started to get more serious about things, but like clockwork she called me at the same time like any other day and tells me we can’t see each other anymore and that it would be best if we don’t connect each other anymore, and when I asked her why she tells me that she been thinking about abortion but she had miscarriage so we can’t be together anymore, and the whole time I didn’t say a word, more like I couldn’t cause I was processing the whole situation and the information about the abortion, but before I could get my thoughts together she said bye and ended the call and that’s the last I heard of her since.
I’m 20 now and to this day I don’t know what caused all that and why I didn’t try and fix things with my ex, or if it’s too late to do so now, but what worries me most is the possibility of having a child out there that I was told doesn’t exist, and I constantly feel cheated out of a family and that I could have done more.

Back before Minecraft Pre-Classic was released in May 2009, Markus Persson (Notch) worked on a game called RubyDung. It was essentially the precursor to Minecraft, with many of it's textures and elements coming from it. Anyways, here is the story.
I work for a renovation company in Stockholm, Sweden. A few weeks ago we got a call about renovating an old abandoned warehouse. So, we went to the warehouse, and we started to clean out everything. It had been a few hours, and I thought I was done, but it turned out, the place had a basement. I went down the stairs into the basement and it was covered and mold and old cans of soda. But most importantly, there was an old computer. It was a Windows XP. I decided to take it because nobody will care if I take an old computer lying in a basement of an abandoned warehouse.
We got done cleaning the warehouse, and it was time to go home for the night. I plugged in the Windows XP and to my shock, it still worked! God knows how long that thing had been in there. When it booted up, there was no password screen, just loaded straight to the home screen. That seemed a bit weird, but I carried on. I saw a file on the home screen that said, "RubyDung3D 2006-08-04". I was shocked. RubyDung? The lost precursor to Minecraft? On THIS computer?
I booted it up. And there was no title screen, it went straight to the game. I can't really describe what I saw that well, but I will try. It looked WAY different from regular Minecraft. First of all, the graphics were extremely bad, it looked like it was from the Nintendo 64/PSX. Also, the world wasn't composed of blocks. It was made of weird polygons. Also, the trees looked oddly realistic. I don't really know why.
The world was barren, no menus, no icons, no sound effects, no music, no animals or foliage. It looked like a liminal space. After walking around for a few minutes, I reached the end of the map, and when I fell off, the screen went black. White text popped up that said "THE PAIN IS ENDLESS. STOP IT." I was shocked. It then respawned me back into the world. I went to a tall mountain and jumped off. Then, in a voice that sounded like Microsoft Sam, it said, "DESTROY THE SIMULATOR. THE PAIN WON'T STOP."
I then exited out of the game and deleted the file. After I deleted it, the computer started smoking up. The computer proceeded to burst into flames. The Microsoft Sam voice started screaming so loud it pierced my ears. The computer then exploded. I was knocked back and hit my head on the kitchen counter. That was the last thing I remembered before I woke up in the hospital. I was in the Burn Intensive Care Unit. I had second degree burns on my hands and arms, and I had a concussion and a fractured skull.
I kept hearing voices in my head that said, "Thank you". What could this mean? After a few minutes, the voices. I got discharged from the hospital yesterday. I am mostly fine now. I still wonder about what happened with the whole RubyDung 3D incident. My theory is that Notch tried to implement some sort of interactive A.I system into the game, which, for 2006 is very impressive. I think when you took damage in the game, the A.I felt the pain for real.
So, if there is a moral to this story, don't fuck with A.I. And, for the love of God, don't make it sentient. It is a recipe for disaster...

This week I went up to my brother's best friend's ranch with my brother, in hopes that I would keep his friend (lets call him Chris)'s girlfriend of 5 years(Darla) company as shes completely isolated. We were originally just supposed to stay one or two nights, get absolutely slammed and faded those nights, then go home. We ended up staying for almost a week. The first 2 nights were nice, We would do farm chores, Chris would ask me to go smoke w him at noon, my brother would get blackout drunk, Chris and I would make fun of him and record him while Darla slept, then in the morning my brother, Chris, and I woukd watch Baki until Darla woke up. On the 3rd night, Chris showed me how to ride some of the heavy equipment and feed the animals, and after having driven out to god knows where on some private road and getting drunk, we all came home and Chris and I went out to get food as we had just taken dabs 30min prior, our first time being actually fully alone. On the 4th morning, thursday morning, during our usual wake-and-bake Baki binge, I noticed Chris kept looking at me when I wasn't watchjng the screen, he was sitting much closer, and even made an almost flirty joke as I was trying to touch up my makeup. That night Darla suggested we all go out to this private abandoned lake and hang out, so we packed the truck stock full of blunts and wine and other vices and drove out. Turned out there was a pretty steep climb down to the lake from where we parked that Darla couldnt quite handle right, so I helped her the entire way down, holding her hand when she was scared, and even carrying her, but Chris only ever offered to help me. When we got to the lake Chris would offer me drinks by holding them to my mouth and letting me drink as he held the bottle/can; he would ask me first to pass a blunt or drink; he even kept showing me the cool snail shells he found. He barely talked to Darla, and she smoked for the very first time that night. When we got back up to the truck, just before the sun began to set, Chris picked me up and sat me next to him on the truck roof when Darla was upset about something in the passenger seat. You see, Chris and Darla had been fighting the entire time we had visited. Something always upset her, something always meant he didn't love her. He was so clearly stressed. On the roof of that truck, he told me all their problems. How she doesn't listen when he tries to talk, how the relationship feels stagnant, how she spends the money he doesn't have, how she doesn't reach out or talk to anyone but him, how he thinks the view is so pretty and the drinks are so good but he doesn't know what else to do. After that, we decided to head home. Mid-drive home, he pulled over and asked me to go out with him to the nearby hill to look at the sunset. I was too tipsy to walk and my outfit was too delicate and he didnt want it to ruin, so he carried me down. My brother, clearly black-out drunk at this point, didnt get the hint, so we had to keep sending him back to get us drinks that we didnt drink. Between these drinks, Chris confessed to me that he was so attracted to me and that terrified him and he cried. He told me he had been trying to make moves on me each night and felt so guilty. He told me the outfits I'd wear would drive him crazy. He told me he felt like he could confide in me. I told him I liked him back. The problem is, I also have a partner. We're LDR and have never met IRL (dated 6 months). There was seemingly always a reason for him to not come by, either he didn't want to, or was scared, or didn't have the time despite making plans to stop by prior that I consistantly offer to pay in full for. I felt like I could never bring up an issue eithout it turning into him telling me we should probably just break up because he has issues. I couldn't set boundaries, either he'd tell me I was his only support system when I'd say if I couldn't handle his venting ATM but I could later, or he'd coerce me out of sexual boundaries by pouting or repeatedly begging me. He never showed me he cared about me unless he was insecure or horny. He was always mad at me over the slightest things, too. Me apologizing, annoying. Me talking to him st the wrong time, frustrating. Me talking about my friends, jealous. Me needing him to elaborate or reword something because I genuinely couldnt understand him, too much. I didn't feel loved. I felt more like a beat dog than anything human. As we drove back for the final time, Darla and Chris had practically scream fought the entire time (I was in the bed of the truck so I couldn't hear anything of substance). When we got back home, Darla kept bringing out more drinks and even took a small dab. Chris and I stepped out for a moment to grab something from my brother's car (plus I was nauseaous from all the drinks and need air). He kissed me. I didn't expect it, but I didn't stop it. I hate it, but I loved it. So much. He hugged me and asked if I was okay. He kissed me again and we headed back inside. By then, Darla was vomitting and crying for Chris to help her and hold her hair back, but he couldn't be near her without feeling sick, so I went down to help her and he sat next me the entire time. He didn't touch her, even when she said she needed him. I just held her hair and rubbed her back and arm. She lingered downstair when she was done, and Chris and I went back upstairs to watch a movie. He kept rubbing my leg as I sat on the floor by his bench. Apparently, she always does this. She expects him to listen and fix all her problems, but drinks like a fish anytime he needs to bring up an issue and cries for him to take care of her. It was fairly evident they really only really got along when they're both passionately drunk. He was so done but he still loved her so much. They had an arguement, he confronted her about her behavior, she wouldn't listen, so he just took her to their room to hopefully discuss this when shes sober. After sitting in silence for a bit, Chris and I headed out for a walk at around 2 am. We mustve walked for at least a mile or two when we found a place to sit down and chat. He held me in his arms. He rubbed my back and pressed me close into him. We talked about what we wanted for our futures, what was so wrong about our relationships, our issues, what we found so attractive about each other, and any random bullshit. We kissed, we madeout, he cried, but we both agreed this could never be sexual. It was too pure, despite the circumstances. He told me that, if his future ever involved me, he'd want to get to know me first, platonically or not. He told me that even if we don't become anything, he wants me to break up with my bf because he doesn't think I deserve how I'm treated. He told me he doesn't know what I see in him. He asked me when last I'd been properly held. Nobody had ever looked at me like that. Nobody had ever held me like that. I don't think I've ever even had just a conversation that nice before. I hadn't been touched in almost a year. Despite our different views, we got along so well in humor, conversation, wishes for our futures, and of course physical chemistry. It was all so.. nice. It terrified me. We got back to the house at 4am, we smoked some dabs, he hugged me so tight I could feel the tears soak my shirt and his heavy breathing, he showed me old photos and videos he was embarrassed about, and we went to sleep in our respective beds. That morning yesterday he slept in twice as long as usual, he was distant and clearly tired. he wasnt avoiding me, but it wasnt the same. Not to mention, him and Darla seemed closer than ever. I basically spent my entire day avoiding his eye contact, smoking, and crying in my brother's car waiting for us to head out. I honestly don't know what else I expected. I got his number from my brother as he drove and I apologized to him for what I did to him. I apologized for taking advantage of him like that. He told me I shouldn't blame myself and I'm welcome back whenever, but he just couldn't live with himself right now. Today, I told my boyfriend everything and told him I think we should break up. I realized, admittedly partially because of Chris, that while I still love my bf so much, I just can't do this anymore. I still care about him with my entire sould, but I still have so much untreated trauma and mental issues I need to work through, and being in a relationship is just making it all worse. As soon as I told him, he pulled out every line in the book. He compared me to his mom's drinking and cheating. He told me he still sleeps with the stuffed animal I gave him months ago. He told me he can change and that he can help me with my recovery. He told me he wrote a poem for me. He told me that that's 'not the real him'. He's said I love you more than he has in the entire relationship just today. He keeps begging me to say I still love him and that everything will be okay, and I can't stand any of it anymore. I do still love him so much, and I offered to wait until my next therapy appointment in a day to officially break up, but I just want it to be over. I can't be his onky friend, I can't be his 24/7 booty call, I can't be his punching bag when he's pissed. Chris and I are probably never going to happen and he'll probably marry Darla in the end. My bf will block me and I'll end up back to where I was before. I don't know what happened, but I fucked up so bad. I don't cheat, I never drink without people, I don't do these things. I hurt so many people and I don't know how I'll live with myself. I don't know how I'll stay alive. Darla didn't deserve this, Chris didn't deserve this, and my bf didn't deserve this, yet here we are. I honestly I think i just need this all to be out of my head and into the world so I can finally start to breathe again.
I'm so sorry for the whole novel TL;DR↓
My relationship makes me feel helpless. I got drunk with my brother's friend with relationship problems, too. He kissed me 3 times and I liked it but he regrets it. I'm trying to break up with my bf but I don't know what to do with my life after this all.

For a little background my husband (25m) and I (20f) have my husband's best friend and business partner (40m) living with us while he goes through a divorce. Before my husband and I met they both partied at clubs just about every weekend, and for the whole of our relationship he has talked about how much fun he had and how wild it was. BUT he also talks about how he would never do it again because he doesn't want to risk our relationship, or our son's (2 month old) future. We both did come to the conclusion that there is too much inherent risk of cheating at places like this.
Here is what's concerning me; him and his bf (best friend) went to this hotel's restaurant (that is near the area where the clubs are at), do get some work done relating to their business. They have done this often to focus better, and I've even have gone a few times before the baby was born, so I've trusted him.
Well last night (Friday) they did the same thing after we ran our errands, which would have put him there 10:30-11:00pm. That's not out of the ordinary since he's a night owl, and they often do this after their day jobs and stuff. However my husband didn't let me know he got there, only checked in twice the whole time he was out, each one of those tests was 2-5 words, came back at 2:40-ish am when he told me they wouldn't be long, was pretty close to the drunkest I've ever seen him, and smelled a little like alcohol.
When he did get back his bf immediately left, which he said he was going to meet a girl. Then my husband started telling me about things that happened, and some of it just didn't add up; he told me that he had 5 drinks, but the bar at the hotel closses at 11pm so he wouldn't have had enough time to get all of that. He also told me that they coincidentally bumped into another person who works on their business every once in a while when they were there. Her day job used to be a bottle woman and she goes to the clubs a lot still. That is also where they met the woman his bf went back out with.
I've been feeling all uneasy about the situation since then, and today my husband told me a little bit more; apparently his friend and the lady went to my husband's favorite nightclub when they went back out… but that club closes at 2am, and they got back past then. So I asked him about it and he immediately got defensive (clubs have been a little bit of a sore subject before so I'm not ruling it out that that's just why he got defensive), but said that there was a special event after hours. I didn't think clubs did that… especially when there is only about 3 more hours before the sun starts to rise.
At this point I'm thinking they just went to a club since it would take them 20-30isg minutes to get home from there, and they got home almost exactly that after it would have closed. I don't just want to think or accuse him of doing something he didn't do though so I look into it a bit more and find the lady’s Instagram that they work with, and found that she and her friends are clubbing… one of them is also from our of town here celebrating their birthday. On top of that they were clubbing that night, and have pictures of them having dinner at a restaurant (plausibly the one my husband was at, I can't tell) and walking through streets that kinda look like the ones between the hotel and the clubs. I won't take the assumptions I'm making from the Instagram pictures as fact though, since I'm not 100% sure.
The whole gist of the story is that I think my husband might have gone to the hotel, have actually met the girls there, and went with them to the clubs instead of working..
So at this point I'm feeling crushed. If he lied about this then could he have cheated or lusted for another? I'm about average looking, and all of these women are basically models. My husband has often described the bottle women who work at these places as models too… plus I have large shoulders for a woman, and a postpartum body.
I'm praying this is just my insecurities and not the truth, but all of this sits so wrong with me… I've prayed for guidance but idk what to do… should I confront him about it, or is this a situation where God would preach patience? Has anyone been in this position and/or have some advice?

From what we understand, Gul'dan and his Shadow Council pulled the strings on their favorite marionette, Blackhand himself. Doomhammer was forced to challenge Blackhand into a Mak'gora and slay him on the spot because Gul'dan's spies killed his best friend, Durotan, as well as the warlocks' sorcery corrupting the Horde.
As the new Warchief, Doomhammer permitted Rend and Maim Blackhand to question his orders because he knew his answers will filter back to the rest of the Horde, which got me thinking...
Would Doomhammer have tried and explain why he killed their father? Would the brothers have understood that it was their "family-friend," Gul'dan, who pulled the strings on their father?
Would they have forgiven Doomhammer for what was a necessity? Or would they forever resent him and plot to take over the Horde as their "birthright," regardless of morals?
What are your thoughts?

3 years ago I met my bf (A) when we were seated next to each other in a class. From the jump, A would initiate conversation with me and say things that were pretty reminiscent of the whole "boy pulling girls hair because he wants her attention" shtick except in verbal form. For most of our interactions I was unsure whether he was making fun of me, hitting on me or if that was just how he talked to everyone.
A couple of days of this and I tell my friend (B) about A's behaviour, and as it turns out, B and A have actually grown up together and know each other quite well. Despite this, they aren't close since A is kind of douche. B tells me that she's sure that A is hitting on me. She also tells me that she's friends with A's ex, C, who finally dumped him for good after their some-months long on again/off again relationship because A was just a bad bf. This is also how I learned that B sits on A's other side in our shared class.
It kind of clicked for me then that the reason why A was always so eager to talk to me was because B would always be on his other side to hear it. This was confirmed for me some months later when our class ended and A would only ever approach me in the halls if B was there to see it and even that stopped after B took him back. After that, A and I didn't interact at all until last year when we happened to both attend the same college.
A starts talking me up again, going on about how he didn't see me at all the last few years (as if he wouldn't ignore me unless I could help make B jealous?) and how it's so crazy that we happened to be going to the same school and have some lectures together. He tells me that B went to a school a few cities away so they decided to call it quits for good. During our first conversation after a good two years, he makes sure I know that he's single for the foreseeable future and is excited about the larger dating pool college provides.
For a few weeks, our conversations are just like how they were the first time we had class together except now we're seeing each other more frequently, hanging out outside of class, and texting throughout the day. He starts getting more bold, (sitting/standing next to me until there's no space between us, leaning in too close when we're talking, keeping a hand on my knee or shoulder, etc). At this point we're dating without the title so I just straight up ask him "Are we dating?" and he goes "For real? Can we?" As if my question was unexpected and all of his actions weren't a build-up to this point? It's a pretty lame start for our relationship and I fear it set a precedent because I cannot name one solid aspect of our relationship.
To start, just based on A's personality and his relationship with B, I know that he's not your ideal bf. All my friends (and me as well) know him to be kind of a douche, he has so many female friends, is casually flirty, and I can never tell when he's honest, what he's thinking, or how much he actually likes me. At the same time, I feel like he has a lot of good qualities. He's insanely smart and always helps me study (we're in the same program), he's also attractive and I know he's out of my league, and as confusing as he can be, I enjoy the time we spend together.
My big issue is that I don't know how committed I can actually be to this relationship. If I'm being honest, A's character makes him hard for me to trust, and I also know that A could do a lot better than me. Both B and A are more attractive than me and I hardly share any personality traits with B so I'm not sure what he likes about me. I know A and B were sexually active while they were dating but me and A are not due to reluctance on my part. A's also pretty popular and I know he has other relationship prospects.
We've been dating for four months now and I've been trying not to be too vulnerable around him emotionally or otherwise because it feels like I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. As it stands now, if he stops talking to me tomorrow or tells me he wants to see someone else, I wouldn't be broken up about it because I expected so anyway. At the same time, I know if I did the same to him he'd be mad, but not heartbroken. I like what we have now, keeping it casual because neither of us feel like we're in love or anything, but I feel like a fool for thinking that's sustainable. I know he'll eventually get tired of our relationship being stagnant and either want more or to break up and I don't know which one upsets me more.
I like to think that we both have a mutual understanding that we're not too invested in our relationship and are only together to mess around but if that were true why would choose me of all people? I don't think he's romantically invested in me but I don't want to be the reason why we don't work out if I'm wrong. At the same time, I'm scared of advancing our relationship and finding out I'm just expendable to him. What should I do?
TLDR: My bf is known to be kind of a douche and I have no idea how much he likes me or why he's been wanting to date me. We've been keeping our relationship casual and I'm not sure if my next steps should be to maintain my distance or close it.

This week I went up to my brother's best friend's ranch with my brother, in hopes that I would keep his friend (lets call him Chris)'s girlfriend of 5 years(Darla) company as she's completely isolated. We were originally just supposed to stay one or two nights, get absolutely slammed and faded those nights, then go home. We ended up staying for almost a week. The first 2 nights were nice, We would do farm chores, Chris would ask me to go smoke w him at noon, my brother would get blackout drunk, Chris and I would make fun of him and record him while Darla slept, then in the morning my brother, Chris, and I woukd watch Baki until Darla woke up. On the 3rd night, Chris showed me how to ride some of the heavy equipment and feed the animals, and after having driven out to god knows where on some private road and getting drunk, we all came home and Chris and I went out to get food as we had just taken dabs 30min prior, our first time being actually fully alone. On the 4th morning, thursday morning, during our usual wake-and-bake Baki binge, I noticed Chris kept looking at me when I wasn't watchjng the screen, he was sitting much closer, and even made an almost flirty joke as I was trying to touch up my makeup. That night Darla suggested we all go out to this private abandoned lake and hang out, so we packed the truck stock full of blunts and wine and other vices and drove out. Turned out there was a pretty steep climb down to the lake from where we parked that Darla couldnt quite handle right, so I helped her the entire way down, holding her hand when she was scared, and even carrying her, but Chris only ever offered to help me. When we got to the lake Chris would offer me drinks by holding them to my mouth and letting me drink as he held the bottle/can; he would ask me first to pass a blunt or drink; he even kept showing me the cool snail shells he found. He barely talked to Darla, and she smoked for the very first time that night. When we got back up to the truck, just before the sun began to set, Chris picked me up and sat me next to him on the truck roof when Darla was upset about something in the passenger seat. You see, Chris and Darla had been fighting the entire time we had visited. Something always upset her, something always meant he didn't love her. He was so clearly stressed. On the roof of that truck, he told me all their problems. How she doesn't listen when he tries to talk, how the relationship feels stagnant, how she spends the money he doesn't have, how she doesn't reach out or talk to anyone but him, how he thinks the view is so pretty and the drinks are so good but he doesn't know what else to do. After that, we decided to head home. Mid-drive home, he pulled over and asked me to go out with him to the nearby hill to look at the sunset. I was too tipsy to walk and my outfit was too delicate and he didnt want it to ruin, so he carried me down. My brother, clearly black-out drunk at this point, didnt get the hint, so we had to keep sending him back to get us drinks that we didnt drink. Between these drinks, Chris confessed to me that he was so attracted to me and that terrified him and he cried. He told me he had been trying to make moves on me each night and felt so guilty. He told me the outfits I'd wear would drive him crazy. He told me he felt like he could confide in me. I told him I liked him back. The problem is, I also have a partner. We're LDR and have never met IRL (dated 6 months). There was seemingly always a reason for him to not come by, either he didn't want to, or was scared, or didn't have the time despite making plans to stop by prior that I consistantly offer to pay in full for. I felt like I could never bring up an issue eithout it turning into him telling me we should probably just break up because he has issues. I couldn't set boundaries, either he'd tell me I was his only support system when I'd say if I couldn't handle his venting ATM but I could later, or he'd coerce me out of sexual boundaries by pouting or repeatedly begging me. He never showed me he cared about me unless he was insecure or horny. He was always mad at me over the slightest things, too. Me apologizing, annoying. Me talking to him st the wrong time, frustrating. Me talking about my friends, jealous. Me needing him to elaborate or reword something because I genuinely couldnt understand him, too much. I didn't feel loved. I felt more like a beat dog than anything human. As we drove back for the final time, Darla and Chris practically scream fought the entire time (I was in the bed of the truck so I couldn't hear anything of substance). When we got back home, Darla kept bringing out more drinks and even took a small dab. Chris and I stepped out for a moment to grab something from my brother's car (plus I was nauseaous from all the drinks and need air). He kissed me. I didn't expect it, but I didn't stop it. I hate it, but I loved it. So much. He hugged me and asked if I was okay. He kissed me again and we headed back inside. By then, Darla was vomitting and crying for Chris to help her and hold her hair back, but he couldn't be near her without feeling sick, so I went down to help her and he sat next me the entire time. He didn't touch her, even when she said she needed him. I just held her hair and rubbed her back and arm. She lingered downstair when she was done, and Chris and I went back upstairs to watch a movie. He kept rubbing my leg as I sat on the floor by his bench. Apparently, she always does this. She expects him to listen and fix all her problems, but drinks like a fish anytime he needs to bring up an issue and cries for him to take care of her. It was fairly evident they really only really got along when they're both passionately drunk. He was so done but he still loved her so much. They had an arguement, he confronted her about her behavior, she wouldn't listen, so he just took her to their room to hopefully discuss this when shes sober. After sitting in silence for a bit, Chris and I headed out for a walk at around 2 am. We mustve walked for at least a mile or two when we found a place to sit down and chat. He held me in his arms. He rubbed my back and pressed me close into him. We talked about what we wanted for our futures, what was so wrong about our relationships, our issues, what we found so attractive about each other, and any random bullshit. We kissed, we madeout, he cried, but we both agreed this could never be sexual. It was too pure, despite the circumstances. He told me that, if his future ever involved me, he'd want to get to know me first, platonically or not. He told me that even if we don't become anything, he wants me to break up with my bf because he doesn't think I deserve how I'm treated. He told me he doesn't know what I see in him. He asked me when last I'd been properly held. Nobody had ever looked at me like that. Nobody had ever held me like that. I don't think I've ever even had just a conversation that nice before. I hadn't been touched in almost a year. Despite our different views, we got along so well in humor, conversation, wishes for our futures, and of course physical chemistry. It was all so.. nice. It terrified me. We got back to the house at 4am, we smoked some dabs, he hugged me so tight I could feel the tears soak my shirt and his heavy breathing, he showed me old photos and videos he was embarrassed about, and we went to sleep in our respective beds. That morning yesterday he slept in twice as long as usual, he was distant and clearly tired. he wasnt avoiding me, but it wasnt the same. Not to mention, him and Darla seemed closer than ever. I basically spent my entire day avoiding his eye contact, smoking, and crying in my brother's car waiting for us to head out. I honestly don't know what else I expected. I got his number from my brother as he drove and I apologized to him for what I did to him. I apologized for taking advantage of him like that. He told me I shouldn't blame myself and I'm welcome back whenever, but he just couldn't live with himself right now. Today, I told my boyfriend everything and told him I think we should break up. I realized, admittedly partially because of Chris, that while I still love my bf so much, I just can't do this anymore. I still care about him with my entire sould, but I still have so much untreated trauma and mental issues I need to work through, and being in a relationship is just making it all worse. As soon as I told him, he pulled out every line in the book. He compared me to his mom's drinking and cheating. He told me he still sleeps with the stuffed animal I gave him months ago. He told me he can change and that he can help me with my recovery. He told me he wrote a poem for me. He told me that that's 'not the real him'. He's said I love you more than he has in the entire relationship just today. He keeps begging me to say I still love him and that everything will be okay, and I can't stand any of it anymore. I do still love him so much, and I offered to wait until my next therapy appointment in a day to officially break up, but I just want it to be over. I can't be his onky friend, I can't be his 24/7 booty call, I can't be his punching bag when he's pissed. Chris and I are probably never going to happen and he'll probably marry Darla in the end. My bf will block me and I'll end up back to where I was before. I don't know what happened, but I fucked up so bad. I don't cheat, I never drink without people, I don't do these things. I hurt so many people and I don't know how I'll live with myself. Darla didn't deserve this, Chris didn't deserve this, and my bf didn't deserve this, yet here we are. I honestly think i just need this all to be out of my head and into the world so I can finally start to breathe again.
I'm so sorry for the whole novel TL;DR↓
My relationship makes me feel helpless. I got drunk with my brother's friend with relationship problems, too. He kissed me 3 times and I liked it but he regrets it. I'm trying to break up with my bf but I don't know what to do with my life after this all.

Here's some context before this story: My vent : selfharmteens (reddit.com)
Hey! so I've been just sad recently and finding "solace" or whatever you call it in the darkness, alone. I just feel calmer, I guess I just like being my myself. I don't know whether its because I'm depressed or not.. I just haven't realized how peaceful it feels.
Anyway so my parents brought me to their friend's house / my former friends house (They are like neighbor-grandparents) and I brought my kindle with me and just read, kind of avoiding conversation
(They used to be my friends but one time during dinner my brother was saying mean comments about me, and I responded jokingly, trying to avoid it. i was just talking a lot. anyway we were playing uno and the husband of the neighbor-grandma just started yelling in my face about how we needed to be quiet and stop arguing and that he couldn't hear anything because of us. I wasn't even arguing! I was trying to do the opposite! and then i started crying and he just said angrily "stop crying" and nobody, even the daughter of the neighbor-grandma) did anything. I was crying and they didn't care. And then the neighbor-grandma e-mailed my mom saying:
"Wanted to share an incident that occurred here Friday pm. Sanara was unusually actually picking on Samar more than he to her. We were playing a game after dinner and the kids were quarreling so much/loudly that Kevin physically moved himself between them (they'd been sitting together) and raised his voice and gave them both a little reprimand. Samar appeared to be ok with it but Sanara was visibly NOT! She attempted to dispute with Kevin and he told us all to just move forward and continue to play. She cheered up quickly but it was a bit uncomfortable for all for a bit."
(I only know this bc i saw the email on my mom's apple watch)
-I actually didn't cheer up, I just pretended to, because i wanted it all to be over and you fake it till you make it, right?
-Also, I just started saying a quarter of a sentence to plead my case, when he yelled at me and I started to cry.
-Also, I thought these people were my friends, and they betray me. always.)
Anyway, so I continued to read by myself, moved to a different spot away from people, and then we left. My parents brought me on a boat. I read. We got back. I read. I read for many hours straight until i physically couldn't distinguish what facts were from my book and which ones were real. (Does this happen to anyone?)
Anyway they got upset that i wasn't talking to them, but they really didn't put in much effort to make conversation. On the car ride home they started saying how rude I was and embarrassing for reading, which I said sorry, sorry. I said it honestly, i realize it was a bad decision. And then I corrected her grammar when she was ranting on to me (english is not her 1st language) and she started to cry. I felt horrible.
My mom said that the way i act (by myself, in a different room, not really talking, and I don't mean to be rude, i really regret it afterwards) makes her cry 4 times a week and she needs a break from me. She says that she thinks im depressed because everyone in our family is. (She and my dad are depressed bc of me, my brother hates me) So now im staying at my grandparents house for 4 more days, while the rest of my family (my parents and brother) are going to live their more happy lives without me for the next 4 days in the city.
My grandparents house doesn't seem so bad, except there have been many incidents.
Once was when my grandma yelled at me until the point I had a panic attack/was hyperventilating while crying.
Another was when I couldn't focus on my homework and was singing while doing work (I may have Adhd, I haven't gotten tested but i want to) and my mom got so upset and cried and said how immature i was, and how that's why i don't have friends, and how all the ones i have will leave me, and all these mean, mean things, like how i am such a bitch, i never listen. And i just smiled because i smile to hide the pain. And they thought i was mental because they thought i was laughing at them crying. And they were asking about if there was something wrong with me, if i needed help, etc. (they didn't say it in a nice way) and my grandma was next to my mom hearing this and didn't say anything, just agreed with my mom. and then my brother just started punching and throwing me around and then I just hit the dresser and fell. and laughed. Because im insane.
Another time was when i was taking too long in the shower and my dad kept on banging at the door. I yelled, "Later!" but he got angry that i wasn't coming out. He unlocked the bathroom door with a knife from the outside WHILE i was showering but i was wearing a towel luckily by the time i realized what was happening. My grandma barged in with like pure rage, and i was terrified, just there cowering with my towel. She said, "You may think im nice and that I love you, but..." She didn't say anything else, but i wonder if she meant that those things weren't true. Anyway that experience combined with other experiences was the reason I first started to cut myself.
Sooooooo anyway i feel like i shouldn't be acting rude because my parents are trying, but I just cant look at them the same way after all that they have said, (My mom has called me a dumbshit, ugly, stupid, a bitch, she said she wanted to disown me once, etc.) and my dad never did anything when this happened. He agreed with her. he also said "fuck you" to me. I don't really know how i am supposed to act. I just cant be the perfect happy innocent child anymore. Im sorry im not how i used to be. Im sorry im breaking your heart. But you broke mine a while ago.
YOU DESERVE AN AWARD FOR STAYING HERE THIS LONG AND READING MY EXTREMELY LONG ESSAY. (I didn't mean for it to be the length of an essay, the more i wrote the more stuff i wanted to say)

First Prev Next Patreon Ko-fi Discord
PRs: u/anakist & u/BroDogIsMyName
- - - - -
It had been a few weeks since Altier was brought to the run-down shack that his black-scaled companion likely called home, and he could now comfortably say he was accustomed to the…household’s routine. The kobold typically left at the crack of dawn, returned a little after noon, and occasionally left again to forage until nightfall. When the weather was bad or there wasn’t a particular need for something, they half-heartedly chased their rabbit around for a bit, which usually ended with a bout of quiet petting while everyone got ready for the night. It was always amusing to see the energetic side of what he had come to know as a relatively lazy loaf of an animal. As for the routine of the ferrorabbit in question… Well…it was at least more interesting than expected.
Hoppit would begin his own series of activities as soon as his caretaker left—the first of which being a check of every nook and cranny in the shed. He sniffed at anything that caught his interest, varying from morning to morning, but he gave every object or corner its due attention. Once he was satisfied with that, he would eat some of the ragged plants that made up most of his diet, take a drink from his bowl, then jump onto the tro— table and plop himself down, his ears pivoting towards the door. It was hard to say if the lounging spot had been established before Altier’s arrival, but it was somewhat amusing to pretend that the little rabbit was standing guard over his core—if it wasn’t for one particular part of the morning ritual, that is.
Indeed, the ferrorabbit had a habit of licking the obsidian orb that sat in the middle of the room, which thankfully didn’t seem to perturb the system enough to give Altier a headache. He was confused when it first happened, but it was commonplace enough now that he barely acknowledged it. A part of him liked that he was getting attention as a core, even if it was delivered via a strange grooming method. The closest he got to being acknowledged as something other than ‘the dungeon’ was through an unfortunate misunderstanding that he could never properly rectify. He supposed that was hardly worth thinking about now, though; too much time had passed for there to be anyone left to correct. The little oddity of his mornings would have to suffice.
There wasn’t much to comment on as far as the rest of the day’s happenings. Hoppit would end his loafing by shaking his head and ears in a way that filled the silence with soft clacks, give the core a customary tongue bath, then jump off the table to nose his way out of the shed through a hole that was hidden by the storage cart against the wall. Where the rabbit went was anyone’s guess, but he always returned before anyone noticed he was gone, and often did so while covered in small cuts and scratches. Any blood from the lacerations was quickly licked off before it could be seen by the kobold, and in the event that the scaly caretaker happened to return earlier than expected, Hoppit would scurry over to the bundles of blankets to finish the cleanup in secret.
Today looked to be following the usual pattern. The kobold left bright and early with various gardening tools and a wooden pail, and Hoppit had since set off into the great unknown for one reason or another. Hopefully, he returned less injured than usual. It was frustrating to admit that Altier had begun to grow rather fond of the fluffy creature, and seeing the thing come back hurt was bothersome. Was it off looking for food? There wasn’t a whole lot given to it, so that was a possibility, and it could be getting into fights over whatever it found. That still didn’t explain why the animal was so thin, and Altier didn’t have enough to go off of to think of a potential solution. He wanted to help it in some way, like by summoning a creature to act as an escort, or maybe just by manifesting something edible like he once could. No, he could only stare at the ‘Synchronizing…’ that occupied his menu, wishing he had more information to work with.
He never thought he would miss the bombardment of notifications and their lingering presence that filled the edge of his mental vision; at least with that he could surmise enough to hazard some kind of action. Even knowing why the menu was acting the way it did would be a start. Yet, try as he might, there wasn’t a history for him to reference anymore, and he had nothing to work with. He was confident the last message had asked him to ‘accept’ something, then took his befuddled ponderance as an answer, but he was no closer to an explanation for what it wanted, nor why it prompted him in the first place. He just didn’t have another experience to compare against, since nothing like that had ever happened before. Not that he was ever in much of a position to allow it.
The entire purpose of having Altier inhabit a core was for him to become a dungeon of Decay, which entailed all the skeletons, poisons, acids, and whatever else came to mind when one pictured the concept. ‘Living’ creatures were something he only had the chance to experiment with near the beginning of his new existence, though he never dabbled past the first few insects before transitioning to the mindless undead. Having a thinking, feeling, breathing entity touch his core was a rite reserved only for the adventurers and soldiers that bested his trials, and that was usually a painful experience. Now, he had spent what he could only guess was hours being held by a kobold, followed by having a rabbit bump against him, and neither felt like what he came to expect. Instead, both had led to a completely novel reaction from the system. The strange circumstances put him at a bit of a loss as to what it all meant for him.
Sure, he could dismiss the deluge of errors from his companion’s involvement by pointing to the numerous ‘corrupted’ messages before it, and Hoppit was a part of mostly unexplored territory, but the lack of clarity nagged at the back of his mind constantly. Being exposed to activity after potential decades or centuries of unchanging solitude made him despise the informational dead end. If he couldn’t make sense of the rabbit’s circumstances, then he didn’t have much hope of deciphering the reason for why his system was misbehaving so terribly. He also didn't know much about the one who owned the decrepit holdings he was housed inside.
He still wasn’t sure what drove the kobold to take him from the cave. His suspicion of becoming traded goods fell flat after the first week or so, and he hadn’t noticed any cult-like behaviour, which was promising. Granted, a lack of nefarious behaviour didn’t mean there was a lack of nefarious intent, but he didn’t get the impression his companion held that either. The kobold itself didn’t seem quite settled on an opinion of his core, though it was up for debate if the hesitation was due to knowing what he was or not. They seemed to mull something over before bed each night, yet never reached a satisfactory conclusion, staring at the obsidian orb through weary grey eyes until they eventually forced themselves into sleep.
Whatever the underlying reasoning for his abduction was, he had observed enough to know that the kobold didn’t deserve to live in destitution. As beaten as the shed might be, they cared for it as best they could, and did so without a single groan or grimace of complaint. The floors were cleaned with a tattered rag and fresh water, dust was removed regularly, and any stray mess that Hoppit made was dealt with promptly. They even took the time to wipe off his core, which was possibly where the ferrorabbit got the idea to start licking him. The only time Altier had seen discontent from the kobold was when they didn’t find much during their foraging, and thus couldn’t give any treats to the excited and bouncy herbivore.
He wasn’t aware that a creature’s face could make such a painfully broken expression, and he was quick to decide that he never wanted to see it again.
Vexingly, his metaphorical hands were tied; a dungeon could only influence their Domain, and given the state of his system, not even that option was available to him. All he could do was glare at the rotting wooden beams that held up the roof and remember when such an issue didn’t exist. It would have taken a mere flicker of thought and a paltry sum of mana to mend the struts when he was a proper dungeon. He could even outright reinforce the structure by weaving in other materials, leaving the appearance as it was while making everything stronger than iron. Well, he once could. Working with other affinities was something that came to him after absorbing the coloured motes left behind by adventurers, and the accursed stone that stole his mana had taken that ability as well.
An attempt was made anyway, his will ordering the deteriorated wood to absorb any trace metals from the ground, but it was no use. He couldn’t feel the iron or stones beneath the shed like he would have been able to before, all but confirming his suspicion that his connection to the Earth element had slipped away. Nature was much the same; the only way he knew when Hoppit had returned most days was from the subtle noise and the essence of injury. The other attributes—Air, Flame, Luma, Shadow, and so on—were ones he never experimented with to any real extent, so it was less noticeable when he lost his grasp on them. Perhaps they faded early. Either way, all he had left was a waning cognizance of his own alignment, and that wasn’t of much use to him. If he had any appreciable mana income, then perhaps he could do something, but he wasn’t even sure what the upkeep of his current Domain might be. It was entirely possible that he was running on a deficit, which would offer a reason for why his system had been so—
[Do#$@n Ex@#d$%^&d! CRe@#r H-H-H-HoPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP—]
[Errrrrrr—]
[Sy$%^hroni%^$zing…]
[Creeee-tu— Hoppit ha@$ esttttb-hed terrrrrrr-ity f^#% t$e dun@&$n!]
- - - - -
“Well then,” he mumbled to himself, taking in the strange scene behind the shed. For one, he could actually view a small distance beyond the structure now, and two, there was a rather proud-looking Hoppit sitting on his haunches before a pair of significantly less prideful examples of the species. They looked quite a bit bigger than the lazy loaf Altier had come to know, yet they were more cut up and dejected than his furry friend. That answered where the injuries had been coming from, he supposed. Hoppit was probably running off to bash heads with whatever animal population existed here beforehand, and they had only just reached a consensus on who was in charge. Impressive.
One of Hoppit’s ears turned back towards the shed, his head following suit as he gave a lagomorph’s approximation of a ‘Look what I did!’ smile. Altier blanked out mentally, but didn’t have time to question anything before the new leader of the local rabbits imperiously pointed a paw towards the surrounding forest, which was equally surreal to witness. Most surprising of all, the…subordinates? The other ferrorabbits did as commanded, keeping their forms small as they took off into the foliage. Soft clacks came from Hoppit’s pleased shake of his head, then he too left the area with only a slightly lopsided bounce to his stride.
The man-turned-core could only gape at what he saw. Were animals always so…expressive? Had Hoppit heard him? What in the world was happening? Why had Hoppit’s personal conquest led to Altier’s Domain expanding?
He lamented not having fingers, nor temples to rub with them. His system was a garbled mess of errors and inconsistent messages, his residence was falling apart at the seams, his companion was someone who abducted him from the dungeon, yet never did anything past that, and his first real experience with an animal was turning out to be more confusing than he thought possible.
All of this was after an unknown amount of time spent commanding legions of undead to strengthen the very people who he would later learn had lied to and manipulated him, making him into a nightmarish entity just to bolster the power of their forces. He almost missed the days spent gazing out of a mossy window. At least then he knew what to expect.
Nothing made sense anymore.
= = = = =
The soft sound of roots ripping free from soil suddenly stopped, only to be followed by a dull thud of Ceele’s palm slapping against the ground to catch her fall before she landed on her rear. She righted herself with her tail and tossed the stubborn weed into a pile with the others. No matter how many mornings she did this, they always seemed to replace themselves faster than she could remove the pesky things. A sigh slipped from her muzzle as she set about grabbing the next one embedded in the vegetable garden.
Aches and spreading stiffness flared up, but went ignored as she neared the end of her duties, though she was well aware that they would come back with force once she tried to settle down for the day. The impending soreness was an inevitable byproduct of spending so much time working. Still, she knew that if it wasn’t for the kindly old couple that allowed her to call their shed home, she would still be sleeping beneath the stars while making sure nothing tried to get at her Hoppit. Even if it was just a part of the deal, they were owed this much in return, and she would see it done properly.
The sun bore down on her back as she did her usual tasks, which was a departure from the slightly overcast weather as of late. It looked somewhat promising when she checked in the wee hours of the morning, yet as her gardening duties dragged on, so too did the intensity of such a clear sky. A disappointed glance at the empty wooden bucket on the edge of the field was quickly corrected. She hadn’t thought to refill it at the river after watering the crops, and her parched throat was making its protests known, while also reminding her that there wasn’t much water left at home either. One more thing to take care of when she was done.
A gruff cough brought her attention towards the old kobold resting his back against a tree some distance away, safely shaded from the unforgiving rays beaming down. Her displeasure at having yet more to do was hastily wiped away. She was undecided on what to think of the detached audience, but looking so sour while upholding her side of the agreement wouldn’t reflect well on her. Hopefully, he hadn’t seen it. Not that she could tell if he did; he always had the same expression when he watched her work. The elder kobold’s arms were crossed, a finger tapping absently against his bicep, while his tail sat motionless on the grass, the muddy red colour of his scales standing out amongst the greens and browns. ‘Makis,’ was his name, assuming her memory served.
Makis had taken to observing her every so often, usually propping himself against this or that at a distance, the unwavering scowl being as unnerving as it was belying of his age. Somewhat loose skin sagged a bit around his jowls and neck, yet the rest of his face was still taut from how much time he spent examining red-hot metal, and his arms were marred with countless burns and cuts from his profession. He held an oppressive aura, though the crinkles around his eyes and muzzle suggested he smiled as frequently as he glowered, even if Ceele was yet to see the former. There was only the same judgmental expression aimed at her when he was around. She could only hope that he didn’t take offence to some unintended slight, but she didn’t know him well enough to say what might be considered one.
They hadn’t spoken since she took up residence on the outskirts of his land. His wife was the one to introduce them, but it was quickly established that he had no intention of being a chatty individual. He led Ceele to the shed hidden amongst the trees on the edge of the property, then dismissed her with only a grunt coming from the elderly kobold. She supposed that it was for the best. Her experience in socializing was centred around convincing others to employ her, and there hadn’t been much of an opportunity to expand her horizons while living a life on the road. If that had been the end of their interactions, she would have swiftly written the terseness off, but he appeared every few days, taking up residence beneath the shade as he watched her work, never speaking a single word. At least he didn’t openly protest her presence, yet she figured that would be easier to manage. He wouldn’t be such an enigma then.
There wasn’t a whole lot she knew about him besides his penchant for ‘supervision,’ and anything beyond that was what his wife had volunteered during the rare opportunity they had to chat. She was told that Makis worked the smithy out front, and although he had retired from doing so in an official capacity, she could still regularly hear his hammer as she tended to the garden, so she figured he kept himself busy most days. It made her wonder what was so interesting about a vagrant like herself, but when there was so little else to do, she could see how anything could be made worth the attention. It was just him and his wife living in the once bustling home, after all; the couple’s children had long since grown up and made families of their own.
She noticed his gaze shift elsewhere as she tugged yet another stubborn intruder from the soil, his arms falling from across his chest and the perpetually worn displeasure melting to that of curiosity. He wandered off shortly after, and she had to make an effort not to fall onto her tail as the pressure on her shoulders unexpectedly evaporated. Did something happen?
Ceele shook her head free of the distracting thought. It wasn’t her business if he grew bored with watching her work. As long as no one voiced any complaints, she could only assume that she was doing a satisfactory job. Maybe he finally decided that he didn’t need to be so watchful because she was doing well! That could be it, right?
A glance at the somewhat sloppily maintained garden erased the false confidence from her face, but she was just as quick to focus on finishing up, unwilling to allow darker musings to fester. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be anything else that needed her intervention. The weeds were all uprooted, the soil was appropriately dampened, and her check for pesky insects or wildlife turned up nothing to worry about. She was free for the rest of the day!
…Or she would be free—as soon as she finished the last of her tasks, anyway.
The black-scaled kobold got up from her crouch unsteadily, shivering and wincing from the pins and needles in her legs. She would have to remember to stretch more often; it was far too easy to forgo that kind of thing just to make the overall work go slightly faster. Her hand reached out to grab the pile of weeds and put them into the bucket as she ran through what needed to be done before she could properly relax. Hoppit’s food needed to be washed, she needed to bathe, and they were running low on water anyway, so she would have to visit the river. Just the thought of dragging herself into the forest again made her muscles protest, but she wouldn’t have the energy to do it later. She forced the smile that had started to fall and took the first of many steps.
- - - - -
The river wasn’t too far away, only taking a few minutes of traipsing through the dense woodlands until she reached her destination. It was an idyllic little spot. The trees thinned out to allow a grassy bank along the water, and there was an appreciably gentle slope from shallows to depths, making for a convenient place to take care of various needs. She had discovered this place during her travels, and it was where a kind older woman found her.
Ceele was washing off at the time, with Hoppit safely taking shelter from the outside underneath the bundled blankets while he waited. The trickle of the stream brushing against rocks covered the sound of footsteps, so she was rather surprised when an aged voice called out to ask if she was okay. Her first reaction was to distance herself and apologize—the why didn’t matter, but she had learned that most people were more lenient of her presence if she seemed apologetic for it, and she usually was. The elderly kobold just laughed at her scrambling, tacking on an assurance that there was no need for modesty. The woman was blind, apparently, which explained how Ceele’s blackened colours hadn’t deterred her.
Strangely enough, there was a comforting sense of ease around the one who introduced herself as Hira. It was a sort of presence that Ceele could only vaguely remember, and it drew her close enough to speak as she finished bathing. The conversation wasn’t anything profound, of course—they hardly delved deeper than surface-level small talk—but Hira lost her smile as she listened to the younger kobold. By the end of it, the old woman posed a series of questions with a dark inflection to her voice, and Ceele struggled to find an answer.
‘Are you tired of looking for something that only slips away? Are you tired of running? Do you really want to be scared and alone?’
If the silence bothered Hira, then it didn’t show. She had simply held out a hand and offered Ceele a way of life that didn’t involve wondering where she would be spending the night, nor entailed cowering in the brush while fearsome predators roamed freely. It would be a simple existence of few fortunes, but it was safe, and it was honest. All she had to do was say yes.
Ceele denied it at first, partially because she knew most people despised Hobbit's species, and partially because she couldn’t shake the offer being too good to be true. Hira was quick to propose a compromise; Ceele could take residence in the gardening shed that had fallen from use, and to satiate the nagging sense of an unfair deal, she would be put in charge of maintaining the garden itself. All Hira wanted was to ‘see’ her favourite space bloom again, since she couldn’t take care of it anymore. The black-scaled kobold stared longingly at where Hoppit was, his little body shivering from the prolonged cold and fear that he would be hurt if he left the blankets hiding him. It was with a heavy guilt that she accepted Hira’s offer, keeping quiet about her true reason for doing so.
That was in the past, however, though she thought about it every time she stopped by and saw the smooth rocks where she and Hira first met. Eventually, she might gather the courage to admit that she was housing a ‘pest’ and beg for forgiveness. Until then, she would just work her hardest to prove it wasn’t a mistake to give her a home. That her endless efforts weren’t meaningless. That Hoppit deserved to be more than a ‘pest.’
That Ceele was more than something she had no control over being.
She cleared her head a bit and started on the reason she came all this way. Her dress was rather easy to wash in the meandering water, and the trees provided a suitable place for it to dry in the sunlight and light breeze. The weeds were fine with a thorough rinse near in the shallows, but taking care of her own hygiene required her to wade farther in, though it only came up to her chest in the middle of the rill. Still, she could scrub off the soil and grime, which was all she really needed. Perhaps some simple soaps would help rid her of the pervasive black that stained her skin and scales, but that was beyond her meagre means for the time being, as well as being mere wishful thinking.
She worked past the dreary mindset that settled in when she allowed it, focusing on how serene the river was. The soft birdsong from the trees helped make for a peaceful experience, and she could feel the somewhat chilled liquid basically pour into the aches and pains throughout her body, washing away the stiffness from spending so long under the unerring sun. It was nice to escape reality and let thoughts drift while held buoyant by calmer waters.
Yet the bliss was short-lived. Even if winter was gone, spring was still far from warming the waters enough for her to laze about for too long. She dragged herself from the soft current and fetched her dress from the low-lying branch she left it to dry on. It was still a touch damp, but it wasn’t anything a bit of time in front of the fireplace wouldn’t fix.
Ceele was only a short distance away from home when she heard a gravelly male voice, but it was the flicker of sight between the trees that made her drop what was in her arms and lunge into a sprint.
Makis stood just outside the gardening shed, a ferrorabbit held at arm’s length by rusty crimson hands placed on the scruff and haunch, the rabbit’s little ears flattened as fear filled its tiny face. Her eyes widened further when she noticed the small stains of blood in his light brown fur. They found out about him. Ephemeral claws of blackness clutched at her soul, ripping the very fabric she was made of as an unseen beast smiled, eager to take yet one more thing from her. Her Hoppit. Her baby. Her everything.
“Hoppit!” she shrieked, her words all but tearing out of her throat in desperation. Frozen blood coursed through her veins, yet poured into exhausted limbs. She broke through the treeline with no regard for the branches slashing against her flesh, panic making each sting fade before it could be processed. The grizzled glare of the older kobold snapped towards her, his usual scowl picking up an actual air of intensity that she never thought could be absent, the promise of violence lurking in his eyes. She skidded to a stop a few paces away, the lump in her throat threatening to clog her airway. “S-stop hurting him!”
“Didn’t,” he barked back, his tone even yet firm. “Cuts ain’t me. I’d’a done worse if’a had ta mind ta.”
The blatant declaration snapped her from blind panic, although his apparent anger didn’t do her fear any favours. “B-but… Then how…”
“‘Hoppit.’ Named it, did’cha?” he grunted, ignoring her confusion and bobbing the rabbit to get her attention again. His gaze shifted back to the animal, the flames of ire cooling slightly. “I was wonderin’ why yer plots ain’t dead yet. Suppose this critter’s why.”
One of her hands hesitantly reached out until she pulled it back, while the other clutched at her chest to stop her heart from hammering against her ribs. She couldn’t act rashly. Not while her baby was in his arms. “I—”
“Soft thing, ain’t it,” the elder kobold commented curiously, cutting her off.
“Y-yes?” she returned reluctantly, struggling to stop herself from lashing out to reclaim the ferrorabbit in his grasp.
“Like fine silk.” Makis tipped and tilted the animal, inspecting this and that with a deep-seated frown, all while Hoppit silently looked to her for help. The pit in her stomach grew. She needed to get him back, but how?
Ceele swallowed the dense dread as she tried to formulate some sort of plan, stumbling over her words and forced smile. “I-it’s nice! Isn’t it nice?”
His eyes snapped back to burrow into her own with hatred. “Wasn’t a compliment, girly.”
“B-but you—”
He released Hoppit’s lower half to jab a claw at the various spikes around his body, plying them with minimal force. “Look. See this? These’r suppose ta break bone. ‘Specially when he’s stiff like this. Ain’t no way I should be able ta bend ‘em. He’s barely more than a walkin’ carcass—all skin ‘n stick. He’s gonna get picked up by a wandering pecker if he keeps pissin’ about out ‘ere. It’s a wonder he’s still kickin’. What’cha feeding ‘em?” His gaze dropped from her face to the rest of her, disgust curling his muzzle into a snarl. “N’ver mind. I can guess.”
She felt the dampness build at the edges of her vision, unprepared to not only worry for Hoppit's immediate health, but also to face such harsh criticism while she was so vulnerable. “I… I try to make sure he has…”
Makis crouched to release the ferrorabbit onto the ground, Ceele dropping to her knees the moment he did. The terrified lagomorph wasted no time, bolting towards his adoptive mother and leaping into her arms, shaking uncontrollably. The rust-coloured ‘bold stared as she started soothingly stroking the animal’s back.
“Yer given’ em the weeds, aren’t ya?” he stated rather than asked. She gave a teary nod when her voice wouldn’t respond for her. The old kobold drew a breath, letting it go in an exasperated sigh as he stood back up, his expression becoming more impatient than antagonistic. “What else?”
“I— Um…”
“What. Else?”
“W-whatever I c-can find!” she sputtered out. Hoppit tried to hide against her neck, prompting her to tighten her hold. She couldn’t stop herself from shrinking, the guilt and confusion pulling her head down. “R-roots, vegetables, fruits… I give them as often as I can.”
His glare continued unimpeded, his cadence cold. “That it?”
There were a million things Ceele wanted to say. A part of her wanted to beg him not to kick them out of the first safe place she had in longer than she could remember, but she couldn’t find the words. She wanted to deny the judgmental tone that stabbed into her insecurity surrounding how good of a job she was doing with Hoppit, but the deadened void in her chest swallowed her pride whole. She knew he was right to critique her. That she was failing in the only thing that mattered anymore. That the feeling of loss would return.
“I try,” she whispered through the beginnings of a sob. “I try to find more, but he needs someone around, and I have to work the garden, so there’s only so much time I can spend looking. He won’t even eat all of what I bring back…” Tears dripped off her cheeks as she aimed a desolate smile at her furry friend. “He wants to make sure I have some too.”
“Yer killin’ em,” Makis pointed out plainly, crossing his arms. “He’ll be dead ‘fore the summer at this rate.”
“I know!” she shouted, forcing back the memories of insidious murmurs that lurked in the back of her mind, eager to creep into her ears again. The hate-filled stares that followed her, the rumours that arrived in towns before she had the chance to make an impression, and the guilt that loomed over her like an executioner's axe… “I know I am… I just… I don’t know what he needs. I don’t know how to make him happy…but I try. I’m trying…”
“…Yer an idiot, girly.”
She looked up to see the elder kobold walking away without another word. Her eyes fell to Hoppit, the ferrorabbit pressing himself against her as much as he could. He was small, thin, soft, and growing weaker by the day, but he never let it keep him down for long. No, he always showed his best for her, giving her joy that wasn’t provided anywhere else. She saw the thin cuts and dried blood, though she didn’t know where they came from, nor how he got out of the shed in the first place. But that was okay. Hoppit was okay, and she had Hoppit, so everything was okay, right?
…But how much longer would everything stay okay? How much longer until her efforts weren’t enough, and she was left desperately reaching for fading memories of what once was? How much longer until she killed her baby too?
How much longer until she was alone again?
Soft footsteps drew near, pulling her from the spiralling thoughts that threatened to gnaw at her soul. Damp, blurry eyes fell on Makis returning with a small wooden crate, the older kobold stopping a few steps away. He dropped the box, a deep, rattling thud produced as it impacted the ground, making Hoppit flinch in her arms. Ceele blinked as she kept him calm, then blinked again, looking up at the man for answers.
“The name, girly,” he spat in irritation. “Ferrorabbit. Ther’ Earth aligned creatures; they need metals. They don’t care where they get it, but they need lots of it. Iron, copper, tin, lead—raw crystal, if they can find it. You name it, they’ll take a chunk out of it. It's why they bother farmers so much; the best soil’s usually top’a gem deposits, ‘n the little bastards have no issue burrowing deep to get it. Dries up the element’s energy ‘n makes the crops weak.”
Ceele’s mouth opened and closed, each unsuccessful attempt to speak making her feel smaller and smaller. More and more lost. Why was he telling her this? How did he know? What was in the—
He kicked the crate with the side of his foot. “Scraps. Don’t’cha look at me like that. I’m a smith, girly. I might be old and retired, but I still work a forge. Now, this ain’t anything pure—it’s just slag and hunks—but I’m sure the critter won’t mind. Your little gardenin’ project pays off, ‘n I’ll see which of my contacts can get in some better ore.”
She ripped her eyes away from the box and met the perpetual scowl of the old kobold, seeing a warmth behind the hostility that she had never noticed before. “…Why?”
He scoffed in amusement, which looked somewhat menacing on such a hardened expression. “Yer a touch stupid, girly, but the missus adores ya, ‘n yer a good worker.” A shadow of a smile formed on his face. “Hira spent more evenings asking ‘bout how the plots are doin’ than I got time in the day. She’d bite my head off if I noticed a critter like that sufferin’ and didn’t lend a hand. ‘Specially when it’s obvious you ain’t tryin’ ta hurt the thing.”
“B-but the garden… Isn’t he a problem?”
Makis rolled his eyes, turning with a dismissive wave of his hand. “If he was, he’da killed it by now. I’d say he’s been keepin’ the others clear ‘n got scratched up for the trouble. That’s more reason to feed ‘em right in my eyes; pay the poor bastard his dues.” He paused after a few steps, shooting her one last incredulous glance. “‘N the rabbit’s right. You’re not much better off than he is. Eat. Before the missus takes my head, preferably. I ain’t need ta hear her worryin’ over you more than I already do.”
And with that, he walked off back to the house, leaving Ceele to sit stunned on the ground with Hoppit quietly nuzzling into her.
“Hoppit…?”
The ferrorabbit perked an ear and gently licked her collar. Fresh tears ran rivulets down her face, yet they didn’t weigh her down. They felt freeing. She adjusted her hold on the rabbit and held him out, taking in the small cuts and numerous other injuries she had never noticed before. He stared back at her with worried eyes.
“You’ve been busy, huh?” she cooed quietly, doing her best to keep her voice from cracking. He shrunk in her hands. “I told you to stay home, baby. What if something happened to you? I wouldn’t know where you went, and…”
Her protests died out as she saw what was unmistakably guilt on his little face. She brought him back to her chest and cleared her throat.
“It’s alright, Hoppit. If… If you want to help momma, then we can work together, okay? Just…please don’t go off getting hurt… I don’t know what I’d do without you…” The rabbit didn’t reply, and she was pretty sure she had never heard him make any sounds that weren’t his happy little ear clacks, but she chose to interpret the nuzzling as an agreement. “Such a smart boy…”
She took a breath and wiped off the excess moisture from her cheeks, setting Hoppit down on the ground. “Let’s bring Mr. Makis’ gift in, and then I need to go get more water so we can clean you up, okay?”
He bounced his way to the door of their home, waiting patiently for her to lug the surprisingly heavy crate into the shed. He was even still behaving himself by the time she returned from picking up the things she dropped in her haste. There wasn’t a single protest from the ferrorabbit as she washed over his wounds with warm water, nor when she asked him to wait as she cut up a small salad for him using an extra portion of her rationed vegetables. Finally, once everything else was gone, she tentatively sifted through the box until she found a chunk of something that didn’t look so sharp, then offered it to Hoppit skeptically.
As startling as it was to see him bite through metal without issue, she couldn’t help but tear up again at how pleased he looked with the bizarre addition to his diet. He munched through the first piece, then stared at the box while pawing at the air, asking for more. She obliged through wet laughs, feeling lighter than she had since he first gazed at her from his burrow, alone and afraid, just like she was.
Her little baby was happy, and that made it okay.
Next
—
A/N: Thank you to my Patrons, new and returning! No Thanks, Emmanuel, and Megathor join the others who get to read 1 chap ahead!

Our oldest has eczema, since she was about 3 weeks old. When she was a baby we lathered her up with baby soap from head to toe, used regular, scented laundry detergent, and jumped from “miracle cream” to “miracle cream” as the symptoms only seemed to get worse.
She’s 4 now and although we have identified several triggers and found steroid creams and other things that help, it is an ongoing battle. She still wakes up multiple times each night just scratching, and she can’t sleep on her own because she needs one of us nearby to apply cream.
My second was born just over a year ago. We followed the same routine as with our first, but this time with the milder soap and free/clear laundry detergent.
When he was a couple weeks old I started to see those familiar bumps on his face, neck and chest. Exactly the way it started with our first. Desperate, I went back to Google, what can we do? How can we prevent this from happening again?
Then I read the following:
Only use plain water for newborn babies. You can start using unperfumed baby bath from about 4 to 6 weeks, but be careful to only use a little so you don't damage your baby's skin.
How had I never heard this before? Where did we get the idea that we had to cover our baby in soap to make sure they’re clean??
I started putting just a couple of drops of soap in baby’s bath. The bumps cleared up in less than a week and to this day he has had no signs of any skin issues. Not even a diaper rash.
Based on the data I have… I can’t help but feel my daughter’s eczema could have been prevented.
Just needed to get this out in case there is anyone else that might have missed the message about babies only needing a tiny bit of soap, if any.

For a bit of background, I (21m) have been with my boyfriend (19m) for over a year now. He moved in with me last July, and we have been nothing but content with one another since. It started kind of slow, with us talking to each other December 2022, and our relationship went crazy from there. I love this man with my whole heart, and he loves me. But we are totally different, he is the sweetest, kindest guy who will try to do anything to appease anyone. I am the opposite (I'm not mean by any means, but I'm blunt). I don't sugarcoat anything, I am straight to the point, and I try not to beat around the bush. Since he has moved in with me, his mom has made snarky, harsh comments on my livelihood, my personality and who I am as a person. Lately, this has been getting much worse since his mom just met someone back in November and literally married her Friday. The first interaction I had with his mom was her calling at 3pm (at the time, my boyfriend was working night shift, not getting home til 4am), so naturally he chose to sleep in. I was woken up to her screaming and cussing him out on the phone for sleeping in... And this was a slight argument between her and me because she woke me up too, and she had no right to call her son screaming and cursing him out for sleeping in. Moving on to a month after that interaction, she started showing up out of nowhere (his family lives 2 hours away from us, so she was making an appoint to come up on his days off without notice to see him - wrecking any plans we had). Eventually, him and I got tired of it and when we confronted her about at least giving us a notice, she started threatening to kill herself... Fast-forward to January, my boyfriend and I went on a trip with my family to Florida. It was completely paid for by my grandmother and my aunt, and his mom had nothing good to say about it. She insisted that I'm spoiled rotten and I get everything I want (I don't, this was literally a treat). We went to Florida because my aunt and grandfather passed away just a little bit before and left her and my aunt everything they owned, so in remembrance of them - we took a trip which I invited my boyfriend. When we got back from our trip, I decided to take off from work since I have saved up a lot of money to pay my way through school to get my accounting degree.... And oh boy did his mom not like this.. Ever since I chose not to work to instead take on 5-6 classes, she has been nothing but nasty to me and about me. For the past few months she has said that I have been using her son for money, I'm a mooch, I'm lazy, I don't work worth of shit, I'm terrible, I'm abusive, etc. You name it, any insult under the sun she's said about me to him. I've tried to keep my cool about it, venting to him about how much his mom hates me and what she says isn't right. Did she forget he is living under my roof?! I door dash on the side for extra income, but I've said money since high school so I could go to college. It's always been my dream to focus on my education and studies and not worry about working a crappy dead end job.... I've told him to tell her numerous times that I don't use him for money, if anything he still owes me over a grand for me covering his expenses when he moved in with me! Last month, she and her new fiance decided to invite him, and only him, out to lunch. I ended up getting so upset over this because I wasn't invited to an event that should've included me, and I have been with my boyfriend much longer than she's even known this woman. I ended up asking her if she has a problem with me because I wasn't invited, and she just assumed I knew I was invited (I think she deliberately didn't invite me because she doesn't like me...) It's not just the lunch invite that says this, it's the fact she's only says negative things about me, she tells him I am abusive, if she contacts me it's because she wants something from me. God forbid she texts him wanting something, she's told her son that she would kill herself if he didn't send her money.... What kind of mother.... Anyways, onto yesterday. It got bad yesterday. I decided to try to call, and I was responded with voicemail. I wasn't mad at this point, her wife (they got married the day after I mentioned I am going to propose to my boyfriend, it's like she was trying to one up me?!) said to me that I need to work and focus on school, and I told her, "what I need to do is do what I want to do and what's best for me, not what you and his mom keep saying for me to do!" I ended up telling her if they don't fk finance or feed me than they need to stop trying to have a vote in my life because I have done nothing but support and help their son, and they have done nothing but talk crap about me... Oh this went so bad. After saying that (which, no I did not cuss her out. The only curse word I said was that saying of fk feed finance), she went ballistic. She started cursing me out, going off on me. I have never ever read so many curse words, but after she said they don't say "shit" about me this is when I got mad. After all the cursing and name calling she did, I said "say it with your fking chest." It ended up with her going off on me even more, and I told her wife to go fk herself, I don't have to put up with this. Blocked her. His mom started calling him, screaming and cursing at him that I cursed her wife out and that I'm abusive, he needs to break up with me and get out of this "toxic" relationship. I tried to call his mom once I cooled down, and I sent my boyfriend the messages because that isn't what happened whatsoever!! I texted his mom saying she needs to get her facts right, and if she's going to talk shit about me she needs to have something other than lies to stand behind. It didn't go over to well with her, and no I didn't curse her out either (because why would I? I have more self respect than to drop to their level of petty and hurtfulness!!) I have been trying so hard to be good to his mom, but I have absolutely had it with the bashing and name calling and everything else she has been putting me through.... Tonight, when he got off of work, we talked about what was happening. He agrees with me, and is going to be distancing her out of his life for a little bit... I told him that she is only hurting herself and her relationship with her son.... And that I have the final say in what she gets to be apart of, hell she won't be invited to our wedding if she doesn't apologize and make this right. And I have every right to exclude her from any events with her son because it's him and me, and she isn't going to treat me like a 2nd class citizen.... I don't know what's going to happen, but I have tried so hard to be sweet and kind to his mom. After a certain point, I can't take it anymore. I am just glad I had the texts of her and her wife cussing me out and calling me all those terrible names! And after all they told him I better apologize. This is such a mess, but if he loves me he'll stand by my side. And if he doesn't, I'll help him back his bags to go home. But I'm not going to be treated like garbage, and I shouldn't have to put up with the insults, the harassment, the petty comments, all the bs she has been dishing out at me this past year.... I'm done.

Hi guys, I just want to jump on here and ask if anyone can tell me what I might have because this pain has been going on for a while now.
I am 25 years old (F) and I have been having this weird stomach pain for like maybe 6-7 months now. It hurts on my left side; When I sleep at night, everytime I turn, it would hurt. It’s not a bad type of hurt that I can’t stand though. It’s fairly mild and it hurts as if my side is just super super sore. I am a side sleeper, not sure if that might be the problem but I’ve slept on my side for my whole life and I’ve never had issues. Another issue is, after I’m done eating, the left side of my belly button would feel very tight and it hurts. Again, it’s not even a level 5 type of pain but I can say it is so uncomfortable that I would notice it everytime. My stomach (left side again) would hurt even to the slightest touch. If I lean my stomach on the sink or somewhere, I would feel a slight pain and it’s so uncomfortable!
Kind of off topic but my left side of my chest and back right on the shoulder blade would hurt as well. I always have my siblings elbow me on my back but the pain never went away. I notice every pain that I’m having is on the left side. I wonder what could possibly be the issue. Like I said, I am a side sleeper but I do rotate and sleep on both sides throughout the night.
I’ve gone to the ER multiple times. It’s always “nothing” and to follow up with my primary doctor. I do have a CT scheduled after going to my doctor but that’s in like 3 weeks. If anyone have any idea what it might be and what I can do to possibly help, please let me know. Thank you so much and sorry if I’m all over the place. I’m new on here as to I don’t ever post.

My hands, feet, head, and back suddenly start itching randomly, or when in a relatively hot environment, and now these new spots on skin. Is this scabies? Do I need to see a GP or Dermatologist?
Please guide .
Cheers

i (18y) have been abused by my parents and grandparents for as long as i can remember. my first memory is my grandad approaching me as i was sat down on a potty (one of those weird plastic toilets toddlers have) and picking my up by my shoulders. he screams something at me before he puts me down and slaps me across the face. i was about 3 years old. i feel the best way to talk about this lifetime of abuse is to tell it in chronological order from the best of my ability (my memory surrounding certrain things is hazy as for a while i tried to forget as much of this as i could)
firstly i think its important to give some information about my mum and dad. my dad was 17 when i was born and i believe my mum was 21. he lied to her about his age. my dad is addicted to weed and i know for a time he was addicted to coke too. i remember he would often get arrested a lot. he would also say he was leaving us but return hours later very clearly off his face on coke and whatever else. my mum is a very manipulative and emotionally abusive woman. when i was 7, i witnessed her kiss another man in front of me. we later on found out that they had been seeing each other for ages behind my dads back. i havent been able to forgive her for that. it's also important to note i have many siblings (i wont say how many as i have already given a lot of telling information and do not want my family to know ive typed and posted this, many of my family members use reddit).
from the age of 5, i remember getting beatings almost daily from my mum or dad. these would be for the most minor of things such as forgetting to flush the toilet or turning the tv up a little bit too loud. these weren't little taps either, i got fully manhandled and punched. often i remember my dad pinning my down so my back is facing upwards, he would hold my hands around my back while my mum would hit me on my ass until it was red raw. no one can justify that. sometimes it wasn't always my parents though. sometimes they would call my grandad. for such a long time the word grandad evoked so much fear in me. when i was told he was coming over i would run to my room, but on as many layers of clothes as i could and hid under my blanket. when he arrived, he would berate me about how much of a disgusting little cunt i was before he would punch me in my face and all over my body. often i would have bruises as a kid, i dont know how teachers at school didn't pick up on it. i remember one Christmas eve my xbox account wasn't working (cant remember why) and this understandably upset me, i was 8 after all. my dad called my grandad over, and i did the same routine. clothes on, over the covers and pray he doesn't hit me too hard this time. this time was different though. he came into my room and pulled me out of my bed by my arm and threw me down the stairs. i ran into the living room where my nana was. she slapped me in my face so hard i fell to the ground. i tried to run out of the room only for my grandad to push me back into it. i was made to sit on the couch while i got called the most horrific names. i was so scared i wet myself and couldn't stop shaking. i was 8 years old.
not long after Christmas, it was my birthday. i got disney infinity and a bunch of the little figures to go with it. for months this was my hyper fixation, i would play it daily and completed everyone one of the story set things i had. one day my grandad came over, and he started his usual borage of insults. he turns to my organized disney infinity figures resting upon my xbox 360 (jesus im old) and kicks them all over just avoiding the xbox. he then turns around and leaves. he broke so many of the figures, i cried for hours and hours in my room alone. no one came to check on me. the figures being broken hurt so much more than the beatings i was now used to.
from this point onwards, things are a little fuzzy. i move house a few times and am now in secondary school. im 13 years old, and questioning my sexuality heavily. i get into fights both inside and outside of school and have started smoking cigarettes. the physically abuse had stopped, but the emotional abuse had got worse. at the time i was a very fat kid. i would eat to feel better. my dad would often call me fat and insult me for everything i did. every song i played, booked i read and film i watched. he would rip into me daily for no reason at all. he would often say if i wasn't his kid and he saw me when he was a kid he'd beat the fuck out of me. when i was 15, life started to get a bit better. i found a group of friends that liked me, i was no longer questioning my sexuality and was fully comfortable saying i was pan-sexual. i also started to smoke weed with my best friend, which has given us some of the best memories. in the summer of that year, we got evicted from our home and had to move into an emergency house. this was hell, and one of the worst times of my life. i slept on the couch and my pc was in the kitchen where often my little siblings would throw food on it and try to tip if over. my parents did nothing to stop this. the insults still followed and i was made to feel so insignificant and small. the most i slept in the 4 months we lived there was 5 hours a night. one time my dad was berating me and he got in my face because i said something back to him. he pinned me against the wall by my t shirt. for the first time, i felt all of the rage i had kept bottled up since i was a kid overflow and i punched him square in the face. he fell back and looked at me in shock. my mum rushed to his defense and screamed at me to leave. i left for a few hours until my dad called me and told me to come home. we haven't spoken of it since.
now i am 18. i am in the last few days of college then im off to university. the emotional abuse still continues and there are so many things that im leaving out for the sake of length. i could genuinely write a novella about all of this shit. i am not sure what to do moving forward. i really want to block them out and live my life peacefully and free. however, whenever i think about doing this i feel really guilty. luckily i have an amazing and supportive partner who is helping me make sense of all of this. the scars still feel fresh. for anyone who is in a similar situation but has years to wait before they can leave, keep your head up. right now i know it is hell and it seems like there is no end. my best advice is find something you love and cling onto it, passion is found in the darkest of place. in my case, it was films. you are not crazy or being sensitive, it is abuse.
any question feel free to ask, thank you for listening.
EDIT: sorry if some of this makes no sense im dyslexic haha

So, my dog Tinkerbell passed in August 2023, she was 9. We got our puppy Mia at 8 weeks old in March (she is 14 almost 15 weeks now) and she is a black and white sausage dog with a white marking on her chest/throat area just like Tinkie did, they are basically the same. She also screams and cries when my mother leaves the house(Tinkerbell died whilst we were away on our yearly trip to Durban) and only stops when she gets home. She follows her everywhere, cuddles her, and basically is attached to her. Tinkerbell was my mother's best friend and they were always together. We have been so sad, thinking she thought we abandoned her to die, though I know she is watching over us in heaven. I think she knew our pain and came back to us so we could heal. Mia is also very vocal and 'talks' a lot. Tinkerbell was the exact same. She prefers to be held lying on her tummy, just like Tinkie did, Tinkerbell broke her back and was very fragile. Am I just crazy? I haven't told anyone else this, just shared to reddit.

https://bgodinspired.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1717922300.png

Understanding Mercy Through the Lens of the Bible

Have you ever experienced a moment when someone showed you grace when you least expected it? Mercy, a concept deeply embedded in the Bible, offers us a transformative path toward understanding and compassion. This article explores the principle of mercy within the biblical context and its relevance to our daily lives.

What is Mercy in the Bible?

Mercy is God’s loving and compassionate concern for humanity, especially when we are undeserving. The Bible defines mercy as an unmerited favor that goes beyond justice.

• Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV): “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

These verses remind us that God’s mercy is renewed every day, emphasizing its everlasting nature.

Parables That Illustrate Mercy

Jesus frequently used parables to teach about mercy. Two well-known parables serve as prime examples:

1. The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37):

• A Samaritan helps a wounded traveler, showing mercy while religious figures pass by.
• Key Lesson: True mercy transcends societal prejudices and is shown through tangible actions.
  
  1. The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32):
• A father welcomes his wayward son back with open arms despite his past mistakes.
  
• Key Lesson: God’s mercy is always available, no matter how far we stray.
  

Reflect on these stories: How do they challenge your perspective on mercy?

Mercy in Action: Biblical Characters

Several biblical characters serve as beacons of mercy.

• Joseph (Genesis 45:1-15): Joseph forgives his brothers for selling him into slavery.
• Jesus (John 8:1-11): Jesus shows mercy to a woman caught in adultery, advising her to “go and sin no more.”

These examples are a testament to the life-transforming power of mercy. Can you think of moments in your life where showing mercy made a difference?

Applying Mercy in Our Lives Today

Mercy isn’t just a biblical concept; it’s a life principle that can transform our relationships and communities.

• Forgiving Others: Emulate God’s mercy by forgiving those who wrong you, just as He forgives us.
• Helping Those in Need: Like the Good Samaritan, provide assistance without expecting anything in return.
• Empathy and Compassion: Understand the struggles of others and offer support in their times of need.

As you incorporate mercy into your life, ask yourself: In what ways can I be more merciful in my daily interactions?

Interactive Reflection

Let’s take a moment to reflect:

• What area of my life could use more mercy?
• How can I show mercy to someone today?

Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!

Conclusion

In a world that often feels harsh and unforgiving, mercy offers a beacon of hope and healing. Embracing it not only aligns us with biblical teachings but also enriches our lives and the lives of those around us.
Call to Action: Share this article with a friend who might need some encouragement. Comment below with how you plan to incorporate mercy into your life!
By understanding and practicing mercy as taught in the Bible, we open our hearts to profound experiences of grace and compassion. Embrace this timeless principle and watch how it transforms your life and relationships.
Keywords: Mercy in the Bible, biblical mercy, Good Samaritan, Prodigal Son, forgiving others, showing compassion, Bible teachings.
If you want to want to research more Bible Answers on your own, please try our Bible Answers GPT. It’s easy to get lost in the interesting responses you’ll find… every search is like a new treasure hunt 🙂
Source =