I wanted to preface this by saying this occurred 7-8 years ago, when I was a sophomore in high school, and im a much different person now and not proud of who I was. Even so, the events of that semester haunt me even today, to the point that it occasionally keeps me up at night, I feel like if I get some impartial judgement on the situation I may be able to resolve some of the lingering grief. I feel like all things considered my actions were justified, but of course you will always be the protagonist fighting off the antagonists in your own story.
So it started in February 2017. I entered into an alternative high school program in my county designed to give students who couldn't otherwise function in normal schools a second chance. I had missed a few weeks due to a hospitalization earlier that year, and while my teachers had been lenient, I was having a difficult time catching back up and it was decided by my school counselors that I would be an excellent candidate for transfer.
It started off really well, I immediately was making new friends, I felt refreshed and hopeful about my new school, I really liked all my teachers, things finally felt right for the first time in awhile. Then I met a boy who i'll call "T", he was pretty cool, easy to talk to, very friendly, overall welcoming and we became friends right off the bat. I decided to get involved in extracurriculars, and T was part of the schools forensics club, which I had an interest in, so I joined up. On the trip we exchanged phone numbers, and ended up flirting over text over the next couple weeks. Eventually he asked me out and I accepted, this is where it started going downhill.
I figured dating this guy meant we would spend more time together, so we could really get to know each other, I was mistaken. I asked him to eat lunch with me, he wasn't interested, he wouldn't walk me to class or really interact with me outside of the classroom and texting. On top of this I learned some information about him over text that I will still not share because this story is still recognizable by those involved but lets just say it was a major turn off for me, I ended the relationship quickly. After that "J" and "A" his two female besties, quickly entered the scene to make my life a living hell. The initial accusation was that I led T on, and that I was trying to control him by forcing him to eat lunch with me, the truth is, I just wanted something different than what he was offering. I even told him we could still be friends. Meanwhile I was in my promiscuous phase and had many non serious flings and sugar daddy's and whatnot, this was just a run of the mill whelp that didn't work out moment for me, I was ready to move on immediately. They were not.
Rumors quickly spread about me, about me being a slut, apparently I was a prostitute and everyone seemed to know except me, and honestly I was unbothered by this. The prostitute thing was untrue, though I absolutely accepted gifts from people I talked to online, and I kinda was a slut, to be fair, so, not exactly the reputation I wanted but things could be much worse. I still had my friends, and I poured myself into my studies and ignited a love for STEM that I still have today.
Then one by one my friends disappeared. I would see them talking with A or J or one of their misc. associates. I was confused, because I hadn't done anything to them. I tried to talk to them, but I was blocked or laughed at, the more I was mocked and ridiculed the less confident about that whole thing I became. It wasn't just my current friends though, A kept tabs on who I was trying to befriend and snatched them up before I could clear the air. This happened with a couple people, but one in particular really hurt, i'll come back to him in a bit. I still had my best friend "M" who I had known years prior to coming to the school, she stuck around the longest, but eventually she started dating a guy from that clique, I was completely alone.
Meanwhile I was getting sneered at and laughed at, and whispered about, I would see girls I didn't know except through association with A and J who would point at me when they thought I couldn't see, and they'd lean into their friends to quitely gossip behind their hands. I tried not to see it, I found myself staring at the floor a lot.
I ended up talking to A and J and asking them to stop, I told them they were being immature (which in hindsight fanned the flames) there was no ceasefire. I ended up going to the school counselor who basically told us to be nice and did nothing to help. I talked to her 1 to 1 and explained the situation and she shrugged it off. I was growing increasingly desperate for support I wasn't receiving. I started to notice an impact to my grades, I was depressed, I couldn't focus, I was randomly tearful. I started eating lunch in a random corridor away from my peers. I wish I could have disappeared completely.
Then one day a boy transferred in from another school, a teacher asked for a volunteer to give him a tour of the building, I was chosen. His name was S. Talking to him was like a breath of fresh air, we hit it off quickly, I was so relieved to finally made a friend. We connected over history, he was a nerd like me and funny too. I went home that day and cried joyful tears, I was so excited to see him again the next day in first period, and when I walked into the room and saw A, J and him sitting together, my stomach hit the floor, we made eye contact and he just frowned and shook his head. I went to my desk and just put my head down and cried. At this point I didn't care if I was seen or not. This is the one that really got me.
A few weeks passed by, I was quietly working in biology class and I heard a dude call my name across the room, he said "OP, "D" thinks your cute!" and the group of guys laughed, I motioned the guy over, and gave him my number, I didn't have any interest in dating the guy but I really really wanted someone to talk to me. It wasn't even two hours before he was hitting it off with A.
At lunch time I went to a different counselor, one who showed more empathy to my situation. She told me I could stay in her office the rest of the day. 4th period came around and I was reeling in my head, I felt like I was a cornered animal, I was desperate for something to change. When she stepped out for a meeting I marched myself up to Spanish class, Which I shared with A, J, T, and S. I cracked the door and asked if I could speak with A in the hallway. I had the perfect speech planned, I had rehearsed a million times, that teacher said no. I told her it was incredibly important, she told me no and to get out. I looked at her, I looked at A, I stepped toward her and before I knew it she had a fist full of my hair, she was hitting me in the head while J grabbed my arms, I broke free and shoved J hard, and started punching A back but couldn't gather the momentum to do any damage as she still had my hair. The teacher who was 6 months pregnant tried to step in, I shoved her away with my elbow. A male teacher came in and pulled us apart. I looked around at several cameras, faces of disgust. Sam looked at me and said "what the fuck is wrong with you?" I took my bags, and ran out into the hallway, down the stairs and was almost out of the building when the principal stopped me. I was suspended for a week.
My mom picked me up and I told her everything. We decided I would be withdrawn and I would be homeschooled the rest of high school. I eventually got my GED. I mellowed out, met my husband, and now we have a sweet baby boy. For some reason though, my heart can't handle what happened, even still it plays on a loop in my head. Everything I never got to say is still in my throat and has been since that day. Im hoping sharing this will finally put all that to rest. I want to move on, truly.
AITA?

She had a flight last night and I was supposed to drive early to the airport to pick her up, so I went to sleep at like 11 pm. I wake up at 6 am to a text saying "Our plane is going down. I'm so sorry 😔"
I want you to put yourself in my shoes for a second. Imagine waking up at dawn with the intentions of driving to see your girlfriend for the first time in 3 weeks, and she sends you a text saying that her plane is about to crash. I spam called her 20 times. No pick up. Text a bunch of times, no answer. Like I've never freaked out this badly before and I'm already starting to feel unease in my chest. My brain wasn't working so I run outside and start driving to the airport. Then all of a sudden it clicks in me to at least see if something happened so I search up her flight.
It's still enroute and it got delayed by 2 hours. Then 5 minutes later she texts back saying her plane engine got hit by some birds and they had to divert. She said sorry because she didn't know how long the delay would be. Like bro can you tell me all that in detail next time so I don't have a mini heart attack?
Women are awful texters/communicators. I will die on this hill.

AH didn't produce any audio recordings of substance to support her claims. The best she could do was play audio of JD moaning, JD vomiting, short clips without context, or excerpts she blatantly lied about.
Here is an explanation for some of the oddities in the audio recordings AH produced.

The 31st of December Audio

Exhibit	Title	create_date	media_modify_date
Def581	"12-31-15 clip 2"	D: 1992:09:18 T:09:48:03	D:2016:07:08 T:15:30:19
Plt365	"12-31-15 clip 7"	D:2032:01:28 T:14:38:11	D:2016:07:08 T:15:30:41
Def582	"12-31-15 clip 8"	D: 1976:09:15 T:23:35:47	D:2016:07:08 T:15:30:44
Plt366	"12-31-15 clip 10"	D: 2021:05:17 T:04:47:15	D:2016:07:08 T:15:30:51

The "title" in the metadata for an audio file is typically completed by the person or entity who creates, produces, or distributes the audio content.
create_date: This is the metadata tag indicating the date and time when the file was originally created.
media_modify_date: This is the metadata tag indicating the date and time when the media file was last modified.
The erroneous “create-date” of 1976, 1992, 2036, is indicative of metadata manipulation.
However, the "media_modify_date" for all states 2016:07:08. Meaning they were all last modified of the 8th July, 2016

• These four audio files were among seven brief audio recordings AH produced during the UK trial
• The only evidence suggesting they were recorded on December 31, 2015, is the title assigned by whoever created them (AH)
• AH made separate audio files for each clip and then deleted the original recording.
• It is impossible to verify the actual recording date because the original audio could never be found.

Transcript of Elaine desperately trying to get the clips admitted into evidence

EB: Your Honor, this is 581 and 582. These are between Mr. Depp and Ms. Heard. But we wanted to disclose, these are the two that are just partials. We could never find the full. We said that we were still looking at the time of Motion in Limine. Your Honor denied the motion to try to exclude them. We went back -- when we inherited this case two years ago, we inherited 1.3 million documents and, database. We had that completely searched, had IT people completely search it. We have not been able to find anything but partials on both. But those are partials and we claim partials here, but we don't have the full report. We've done everything we can to try to find it.

The Toronto Audio

Exhibit	Title	create_date	media_modify_date
Def839	7-8-16 clip 2	D:2023:02:16 T:09:28:51	D:2023:02:16 T:09:28:51

• Given that the create date & modify date were in the future at the time of trial we know they are incorrect
• The title given to this clip "7-8-16 clip 2" likely refers to when it was "created" i.e. 8th of July, 2016 (the same date the other clips were "created")
• AH cut this 13-minute and 46-second segment from the original and made a separate audio file.
• The original Toronto recording is 1 hour, 21 minutes, and 9 seconds long.
• During discovery for the US case, the original recording was located and subsequently disclosed to JD.
• The clip created by AH cunningly begins immediately after the exchange about her hitting JD in the ear.

In the original recording, we hear the following

JD: Do you want to smack me on the ear again? AH: I love you. JD: You wanna smack my ear again? So it f**kin' resounds in my f**kin' cranium. AH: I love you. JD: Would you like that? AH: I love you. JD: Huh? AH:: I love you and I'm sorry I hit you. I love you. Do you love me? JD: I love you too. No, no, but I don’t love you that much. AH: Yes, you do. JD: No I don’t. I do not love you that much, to give up myself.

In the version AH created on the 8th of July, 2016

AH: I love you. I’m sorry I hit you. AUDIO STARTS I love you. Do you love me? JD: I love you too. No, no, but I don’t love you that much. AH: Yes, you do. JD: No I don’t. I do not love you that much, to give up myself.

To avoid looking bad, AH started the recording midway through her sentence.
She did the same with THIS CLIP which also starts in the middle of her sentence.

AH: ...go "I f**ked up" and cry in my bedroom, after I dumped you a f**king week prior, a f**king week prior, after you be*t the s**t out of me. And then a week later you show up at my doorstep, in my room, saying you wanna say goodbye. Okay, say goodbye then.

I guarantee the words she spoke immediately prior would have also implicated her as the abuser.
______________

Edited Audio & the Kitchen Cabinet Video

Just as AH edited the kitchen cabinet video before leaking it, she also edited these audio clips.

CV: Ms Heard, you edited out the portions that made you look bad before sending it to TMZ. AH: You are very wrong about that. CV: You edited that video before you gave it to TMZ so that only Mr. Depp would look bad, yes AH: That's absurd. CV: Right in the middle of your divorce proceedings? AH: Again, you're very wrong.

• Likely intending to leak them to the media, she removed parts that made her look bad.
• AH recorded the complete audio clips, and JD did not have access to them.
• The divorce case's discovery process did not require these audios to be disclosed.
• Just like the kitchen cabinet video, JD wouldn't have had access to the unedited version to show how deliberately they were manipulated.
• AH erased the original December 31st recording so well that it couldn't be retrieved.
• Thankfully, the Toronto recording was found.

Weird one today, seemed worthy of posting. Backstory - In 2017 we hired a boomer builder to design an addition to our house. The results were not quite as promised, I was expecting something we could hand off to a GC to start the build, ultimately they were more conceptual drawings, not really engineered drawings that could be used. I posted a meh google review (2 stars FWIW), he responded, I forgot about it and moved on with life.
This January I get a message from my dad, who is in a Rotary club with said boomer builder, asking why I posted another review so long after the fact. I looked into it a bit, someone had copy pasta'd my google review into Yelp pretending to be me. The builder had responded with a whole manifesto on how wrong I was. I emailed him letting him know that it was not me, I've moved on, but that I'd help get the review removed. I reported it and after a bit of back and forth they pulled it. Though it would be odd to angrily repost a review 7 years on I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and I thought that was the end of it.
Today I get another message from my dad, similar question, this time on Angi. I find the review and report it and send a brief email to the builder saying it's still not me but I'd still help remove it. I also deleted my google review because I just don't care anymore.
Then I get a forwarded email from my dad. The builder had written an unhinged angry rant but misspelled my email so I hadn't received it. Mother fucker, you think 4 months after someone (presumably an enemy of yours) found a fairly good way to give you negative press that I HELPED REMOVE, I would randomly decide to just go ahead and copy paste the same review elsewhere? No you dumb twat, it's the same shit as last time. You could have taken five seconds to dig around that entitlement riddled memory of yours to put two and two together, but instead you decided to be a knob.
He did manage to get my wife's email right, and she is not someone who takes any shit. She has since made sure he knows what we think of him now. I'm half tempted to go ahead and actually repost that review everywhere, but honestly I'm finding it kind of funny at this point and I'll probably just let things lie.

Hey people!
I'm 27M, live with my girlfriend and cats. I'm looking to make some new connections and hopefully find a long term friend or two along the way.
I love reading, all types of music, baseball, a bit of writing and gaming and recently started drawing (I am not very good). I've been getting into learning about the weather and space recently as well. Watch a lot of TV, all sorts of shows/movies and WWE occasionally.
I've battled a great deal of depression and anxiety the last several years and slowly been rebuilding myself again. I've only rediscovered my love for reading this year so I'd love to chat with someone who has a heap of great book recommendations, any genre is great.
Other than that, I don't mind where you live, your gender or what interests you have. Would love to hear all about what your passionate about and the interests & hobbies you enjoy. I'm autistic and bi so LGBTQ+ friendly.
Feel free to leave a comment to send me a message!

my name is allicea, some people call me alice, you can call me whichever you prefer. i am a college student, just recently graduated from community college, and i am now transferring to a university. i am looking for a long lasting friendship, somebody who has similar interests as me, who isn’t dry and loves to socialize. a few things about me is i love my 3 cats, i enjoy listening to music and binge watching shows. sunsets bring me joy, as well as photography. one thing about me is ill always be there for you, give you any advice you need, as long as you don’t take advantage of me and aren’t toxic, i would love to be your friend! please don’t hesitate to send me a message, i’m super laid back and nice, just looking for some new friends with great energy! 🫶🏻
please do not ask me if i am interested in anything inappropriate, it’s a definite no, just a girl looking for friends ONLY!

Hiya chooms. Long story short, following u/infernox-ratchet ‘s post earlier today about autofire, I got to thinking about why I thought autofire’s role is so niche (in my opinion), and then it hit me, there is only one high-end option for autofire, and it’s not a very good option for players. This is much the case for some other weapon skills as well, so I ported over some weapons from 2020 and made a few as well to tide us over until our new chromebook equivalency. If any options do not have flavor text, it is because that flavor text can be found in Blackhand’s Streetweapons.
Arasaka “Shinobi”
A solo’s answer to the question “how do I get a gun in Japan?”, this collapsible bow and it’s onboard targeting computer is built for the professional on the go.
1,000 EB. Excellent Quality Exotic Bow with a Smartgun Link. Can be folded/unfolded as an action and is concealable, but not fireable, while folded. Requires a chyron to benefit from the Smartgun Link. Can fire non-basic ammunition.
Eagletech “Scorpion”
1,000 EB. Excellent Quality Exotic Crossbow that does 5D6 damage. Targets hit by this must succeed on a DV 13 athletics check or be knocked prone. Firing this weapon requires BODY 11 or higher unless it is mounted. Reloading this weapon requires an action unless the user has BODY 13 or higher. Can fire non-basic ammunition.
Kendachi Maglev Katana
A katana with built-in electromagnets that greatly increase acceleration and are operated via neural link.
5,000 EB. Excellent Quality Exotic ROF 2 Very Heavy Melee Weapon. Requires BODY of 11 or higher and connection via interface plugs or a subdermal grip to operate at ROF 2.
Malorian Arms “Raid Boss”
Commissioned by Ziggurat as a grand prize for their upcoming “ELO Battle Royale” event, this bow’s advanced internal components are covered by a polymer mold that is a perfect 1:1 copy of Baron Fefethriel of Elfhold’s bow from the game.
5,000 EB. Excellent Quality Exotic ROF 2 Bow. Can fire non-basic ammunition.
United Armaments “CLAW” 5,000 EB. Excellent Quality Exotic shotgun with a Drum Magazine and Smartgun Link that 6D6 Damage. Shotgun shell alternative firing mode does 4D6 damage. Uses heavy weapons skill instead of shoulder arms. Firing this weapon requires BODY 11 or higher unless it is mounted. Can fire non-basic ammunition.
M2A5HB Browning .50 Cal 10,000 EB. Excellent Quality Exotic Assault Rifle with a Smartgun Link and a 100 round magazine only capable of autofire and suppressive fire. If you hit, you roll 2d6 for damage, and multiply it by the amount you beat the DV to hit your target, up to a maximum of 5. Firing this weapon requires BODY 11 or higher unless it is mounted. Requires 2 actions to reload.
Magnum Opus “Big Government” 15,000 EB. Excellent Quality Exotic ROF 2 Very Heavy Handgun with a Drum Magazine and a Smartgun Link that does 5D6 damage. This weapon’s custom laser sights allow the user to add the bonus from tele-optics or a sniping scope at 26+ M/YD instead of the normal 51+. Firing this weapon requires BODY 11 or higher unless it is mounted. Requires 2 actions to reload.
Bonus Cyberware:
Tennis Elbows
Designed for tennis players, (mostly) used by criminals, this collection of servomotors is installed along the shoulders and elbows and increases the user’s physical force and control.
1,000 EB. External Body Cyberware. 1D6(3) HL. The user gains +1 to Melee Weapon skill checks.
Happy hunting chooms.

So a little context, I work at a cell phone carrier and have many friends and family on my account. Because I work there, I get a discount, and my friends and family all pay me a slightly higher amount than I pay for their phones each month. I do this so that I can give them a great deal (each person pays about half the rate of a normal plan), and I can also have a reduced cell phone bill for my own lines. It's a win-win for both parties, they save about $45 per month each and I make about $15 per month each line. I do this for both friends and family.
About 4 years ago I had an acquaintance reach out to me and ask for help switching to my company. I asked her if she wanted to join my plan instead of being on her own so that she could save way more money and she agreed. I told her the price and she was ecstatic, because she would be saving roughly $45 on her bill each month. I did not tell her at this time that I was going to be profiting about $15 per month off her line. This wasn't intentional, I honestly think it just slipped my mind telling her at the time. I did not see it as a big deal that I forgot to tell her because of the amazing deal that I was giving her. After about 2 years of always paying on time, she broke her phone and called me because she couldn't afford a new phone in cash, so I let her finance one on my plan. I told her the only stipulation is that if she wants to leave my plan before she finishes paying off the phone, she needs to pay off the remaining balance. She agrees and tells me that she would never screw me over.
I then tell her on the same phone call "Hey just so you know, I charge you and everyone else on my plan more than what the line costs me so that my personal phone bill is cheaper, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you when you signed up in the first place." She tells me that she has absolutely zero problem with that because she was getting such a good deal and that she figured I was anyway.
Fast forward to today, she calls me out of the blue and tells me she's switching to her boyfriend's plan and asks for the transfer pin so that she can keep her number. She's super friendly on the phone. I tell her that it's no problem, she just needs to pay off the remaining balance of her phone (about $300). She says okay no problem I'll venmo you. I generate her transfer pin but right as I'm about to send it to her, I have this feeling that I should make sure she sends me the money first. I text her and say "Hey I just generated the transfer pin, I'll send it to you once I receive your phone payoff."
Instead of sending me the money, she texts me back and asks me how much I was making off her phone line. I text her back and say $15. This chick then proceeds to tell me that "You have made $1000 off me over the past four years, you can pay for it." I'm honestly shocked at this point because she was completely reasonable on the phone and now she's trying to get me to pay off HER phone balance. I tell her that sorry, I'm not going to do that, we made an agreement and she is responsible for her phone. She then starts calling me a nasty person saying that I was screwing her over and that I'm an awful person for profiting off a vulnerable person, you get the picture.
She then blocks my phone number and all socials. I call my dad and ask him what to do, and he tells me to send her a venmo request saying that I will be going down to the sheriff's office to file a police report for the device that she stole from me since technically it is my property until it's paid off, and that if she does not pay me back I will be taking her to small claims court. She immediately completes the venmo request and then texts me from her new number saying the same stuff she was saying before. I tell her I'm going to send her the transfer pin now and she just responds with "don't bother."
Now she's threatening to take ME to small claims court to recoup the money that I made from her because she didn't know the amount that I was profiting. I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a case but let me know, AITAH?

So on April 18th our offer was accepted. Our sellers apparently had a place under contract but on May 1st we found out that fell through. So we ended up extending the contract out til the end of this month when they couldn’t find anything. Last week we were told they had an offer accepted they just had to go through inspection and appraisal. We got a text today their inspection was bad so they pulled out. They are using FHA, which I don’t really know how unless it’s the current owners partner that’s buying the house this time since she’s the only one on our contracts. So it’s even harder for them to find something. Meanwhile we are clear to close and if we don’t by June 18th we have to have our credit pulled again and send in all updated statements to our bank. We really want to avoid that and asked if they’d do a rent back but they won’t. So our current plan is to let this contract run out at the end of the month and then just do a weekly contract.
We got very lucky with this house, they under priced it, we offered over asking with an escalation rider and were accepted without using it. We are using FHA and were nervous but the inspection was great and appraised at asking. I kept saying it was too good to be true and it is starting to turn out that way. We really don’t want to start over because I don’t think we will get this lucky again with finding a house in our price range, in our city, with as good of an inspection as we got. We still check Zillow and there hasn’t been anything that would work if we were even able to offer. I’m also due in September with our first baby and so we are kind of on a time crunch.
So anyways, if you read all that, how long did you wait to close if you were buying an owner occupied house? Are we being too impatient or is this normal? It’s just been deflating with these texts we get from our realtors that we have to keep waiting. :/

putting a tw for: body shaming at a young age, negative food talk, emotional neglect/abuse possibly, bad negative self talk, derealisation, body dysphoria issues, suicidal talk/depression, weight loss talk. plz be advised when reading or don’t if its too heavy.
also this is long, im just hoping someone would take the time to read and provide what they can. no one is obligated to read, thanks.
im genuinely starting to get upset and its killing me inside, when i look for support or any help anywhere there is none. all the content on instagram is targeted towards those who’ve made it past that age and survived having to cover up or not dress how they want. no one ever seems to care about the teen and tween girls who currently deal with this kind of stuff cause it seems to them it doesn’t exist anymore. its disappointing to see and shows i dont belong in any community so i’ve come here
im currently 17 and for the past multiple years ever since i started being heavier around the end of 5th grade it feels like my father has been more ashamed of his daughters body and has tried to cover me up and tell me what i should wear. im also dealing with covering up my severe depression and trauma so theres more thats kinda related to this but i dont want to stray off topic
when i was four my dad put me in the child acting industry based in la/weho. that wasn’t that traumatic for me honestly and didn’t take away from being a child but during that time my dad would sometimes get angry when i wanted a snack such as chips or a cookie, he would threaten me and be like “youre gonna grow as big as a house” or “of course you want the cookies”. keep in mind i was only in early elementary school around this time. and in fifth grade he signed me up for this shoot where it was some sort of tv pilot pitch where it was described as the biggest loser for kids and they had other slimmer kids on set that wore fat suits basically and i was the biggest one there. i belived i had to have a fitness routine at 11 in the fifth grade and started working out for two days
into middle school i started getting known for being a bigger girl but i remember around 7th-8th grade my dad kept saying how the clothes i had were too small when i was just trying to dress trendy or like similar styles like any middle school girl. if not that then it was stuff that was too “childish” or fit snug on me. this is when i started to feel totally repulsed about my body and dreaming about wearing what i wanted. and even to this day he periodically will get upset and disappointed in me being dressed down with my hair up just to do something mundane or for my therapy appointment. i was wearing hoodies or shirts with leggings. i remember when we were at six flags for my birthday and i was wearing a cute tank top that slightly showed a bit of tummy and he forcibly pulled the shirt down.
and getting into high school and up into this point he periodically, gets mad and upset when im wearing a certain outfit to go somewhere simple or drags me into the plus sized women’s section of kohls to look for clothes i don’t need and want. i remember when he took me to get my blood drawn i was on my period and wore pants that i typically do cause im uncomfy naturally on it and he got mad and i went into my room trying to calm down and not argue because its pointless with him, and i already knew he was gonna come in and go in my closet and tell me to change into a different pair of pants i don’t wear or what he liked. i always have to please what he likes or i should be wearing in my size.
up until recently he’s telling me i need to get a new wardrobe, that all my clothes are small when they just fit snug or my tummy shows through, (i go thrifting with my mom alot), and convincing me to shop in the plus sized women’s section of jcpenny and kohls. mind you he’s in his early 60s so i dont wanna hear “who still shops there” cause thats not making me feel better about myself at all. i remember he took me to see the women’s shorts and pants, all straight fitting long shorts that were two sizes too big on me. him sending me pictures of mens shirts that are oversized on me because i have some mens pants that i wear as jeans. when he took me shopping recently for athletic wear and told me i NEEDED new shorts and pants because the ones my mom gets are “too tight” when they fit me comfortably and the shorts i have to try on are long and big on me, i literally put them on and feel disgusting like im dressing for pe class, i dont say anything other than they just look plain in which he tells me im not supposed to look stylish at the gym and be comfortable. but when i wear them to the gym they keep falling down on me past half my ass no matter how much i have the draw string tied and im constantly pulling them up. when i have to struggle to not tell him i dont like any of the stuff he chooses for me or think fits since he gets mad and angry about it but also gets upset when i dont wear any of the things he gets me. and for the past two years i start to realize why he’s getting me to wear oversized or bigger clothes for me, because anything my size is too tight basically.
he’s told me my first cosplay i put together myself at fifteen looks raggedy and made me look like a street urchin, he didn’t let me get thin framed glasses i liked that were in our budget because my head was too wide for them and they just looked ugly to him, when he got a dress i needed for a cosplay in my size he made my mom try it on before i did and told me it was tight on her, said that the brand name suggested it was too small, kept telling i needed a bigger size, then when i tried it on and it fit perfectly he kept wondering if it was too tight. i dont even want to do any cosplay or get better cause of him and i cant even dress or put effort in outfits like i did in middle school. now i just feel like a burden cause of my body, something that needs to be hidden away, like everything is my fault because im bigger.
i feel repulsed and never take pictures, only when i feel like i should. my dad doesn’t take pictures of me anymore or puts up any photos of me in middle school or high school like he did my brother, only those photos of me as a young child. now im dealing with binge eating habits that affect me, weighing more than my parents, having shame about eating in public, feeling guilt when i eat, and not feeling like a person. even if friends take fun pictures of me i feel freaked out. im not living, and i dont know how im supposed to be accepted by this community when im forced to hate myself in real life and get jealous over those who’ve already made it past the shame in hiding themselves or appealing to society’s standards. and this is on top of processing me hiding my autism and severe depression and trauma. i dont want to keep dealing with thinner people who dont understand. and dont even ask if my mother is better, she just tells me that my dad would hate certain clothes and constantly nags me about having to shop at torrid. and im hoping to move out into a dorm around next year but this is something that’s killing me besides other things and i dont have any support because im the biggest person i know personally.

Hello everyone, I am a lurker of Naturalhair and I really need some advice. :( Scroll down for the TDLR, also sorry for the bad formatting and grammar, English is not my first language and I’m also typing this on phone.
I’ve been transitioning to natural since March 2020 (quarantine). Before, I’ve been using relaxers on my hair. I stopped using relaxers because I hated how much it burned my scalp and during January-February 2020, I felt a curl in the root my scalp and I liked the feeling of it 😭.
So, boom, March 2020 comes, before everything shut down, I told my mother that I wanted to do natural and I asked her if I can buy shampoo and conditioner. She agrees and I brought Shea Moisturizer Coconut and Hibiscus line. I washed my hair and I noticed my hair was half straight and half curly (transition stage). I was so eager to see the curls forming, and thought this was going to be a new chapter for my hair journey.
I started to wash my hair every Sunday because why not? One day, when I was getting ready to wash my hair, my mother stopped me and said “You don’t need to wash your hair every single week or every two weeks, you know?” I was kinda confused and said “I don’t?” Mind you, I was new at this and I was also watching youtube videos on how to do and style natural hair. She said “When you do natural, you braid hair to make it longer.” She offered to braid my hair since it was during the pandemic and everything was closed down.
So she braided my hair and I left the braids for about 2 months. (March-May). Then I left my natural hair out, let it breathe for a week, washed and blow dry, got braids again. (late May-early August). I got my first sew in during late August for back-to-school and kept it in for October. Okay so you get the gist. I’ve been putting weaves/braids/wigs in my hair and have not been able to fully let my natural hair out to breathe, just letting it sit for one week and put a protective style. This fucking pattern went on from March 2020 up to late 2023.
So it’s late 2023, I had enough of this. I wanted to know how to fully take care of my natural hair. I won’t lie, protective styles did help my hair a bit, but I wanted to fully take care of my hair. At this time, I shampoo and conditioned my hair every two weeks.
One day, as I was finish washing my hair my mother look at me and said, “Your hair looks like a mess. All your hair will fall out!” I brushed it off because I’m used to her saying stuff like this ever since I started my natural hair journey. Every time when she comb my hair, she would roughly comb out my hair and say “See, look! Your hair is falling out.” I’m also very tender-headed so when she say stuff like this it hurts my feelings and my scalp. Literally when my hair is in the transitioning stage she said she hasn’t seen anything progress and wanted me to do a relaxer.
In March or April 2024, I was flat ironing my hair, my aunt came in, saw me, and said “Why don’t you put a wig!?!? You’re a grow up woman now! You don’t need to do natural hair!” She then roughly grabbed the back of my hair. I wasn’t sure if she trying to pull it or anything. Then my mother jumped in and said “I keep telling her that and she don’t listen!” So not only my mother disliked my natural hair, but my aunt did too. My heart shattered hearing those comments but I eventually got over it.
Last week, I did mini braids on myself, and I went to go see my mother, and she looked at my hair “Don’t you see that you look ugly without no hair?” I just walked away from her. Few days ago, I went out with my auntie and she asked me what was I going to do with my hair now. I told her that I’m just going to take care of it and she said I shouldn’t leave my hair like that. I just changed the subject.
Now a few hours ago, I went downstairs and my mother yelled at me about my hair once again, but this time she said “Just cut all your hair off if you can’t do natural hair. Can you even afford to do natural hair?? Do something with your hair or cut them!” I ran up to my room and literally cried. I am crying while typing this post. I know I shouldn’t but I’m very sensitive T-T
TDLR: I’ve been trying to take care of my natural hair for years now, my mother and auntie criticizes my natural hair and rather me put protective styles such as wigs and braids to not show my natural hair I guess.
Things I wanted to add to the story since the post is pretty long.
• I was fully natural by early-mid 2021.
• When I washed my hair during my back to back protective style stage, I did have a lot of breakage while washing my hair :(
• I’m NOT hating on protective styles by the way, I LOVE putting on braids/wigs/weave. I just didn’t want to put it on the time, you know.
• On October 2022, I blow dry + flat iron my natural hair for my cousin sweet 16. I played a role in her birthday party court. There was seven girls including myself, and 4 of them were wigs and 3 of them plus myself included were natural. My mother told my cousin that she didn’t like the way my hair looked and wanted me to purchase a wig but obviously it was too late.
• Lately, I’ve noticed my mother has been giving me weird looks when I have my hair out. When I wear wigs she always see my face first, but when my hair out she look at my hair, then becomes angry.
• Outside of my home, a lot of people in my workplace like when I have my natural hair. When I did a high puff, one of my professor said I had “nice hair” I do two puffs in my hair for work and people usually find them cute. Someone said I look like Minnie Mouse hehe :) I hope that’s a compliment. Also someone that worked in a different department of my workplace looked at me and said “I love your hair, please keep doing natural” I was kinda surprised to hear that too.

Hiya!
20F here and I found out my boyfriend (21M) was a PA a few months ago after months of me suspecting something was wrong. He never really knew he had a problem until researching about it and he says he's currently in recovery. We had some issues (prior to me finding out) which led to me feeling unattractive and I found some stuff he said (years ago, prior to meeting me) about him having a type and his favorite pornstar... None of them look anything like me..... Not a single bit. I confronted him about this and he said it was years ago and that he is attracted to me but I'm having a really hard time believing it. I understand types change and such but I can't help but feel gross about myself.
The intimacy in our relationship (or lack thereof) sucks and I cry myself to sleep almost every night cause I'm so disgusted with myself and fear he doesn't find me attractive. I can't bring myself to even be nice to him at times or fake affection towards him or initiate anything... Ever since I found out I feel like whatever I give to him is just mediocre compared to what i think he actually likes (or used to like, i guess) and it has really messed with my confidence. I can't even bring myself to try anymore cause I'm so scared... And to top it off, I can't stop watching his old favorite pornstar's content and comparing myself to her... I look nothing like her at all and just thinking about it makes me feel sick.
The first few weeks were the hardest though. I will say that recently there have been days where I feel cute and my libido has gone back to normal but the only issue is i tend to have breakdowns after orgasming (idk if this is TMI, sorry) which was a common occurrence prior to me finding out it's just that now they're alot longer and worse lol. I also have days where I just feel plain horrible and worried about what the future may hold but I guess that's inevitable.
I really really love him and he's a great boyfriend. He genuinely puts in effort in every aspect of our relationship. I think it's just an issue of me feeling insecure.. He has never said anything to make me feel less attractive or been mean to me and I don't want to break up with him.
So, will things get any better? If so, how? I just want our relationship to go back to the way it was before and I know reddit won't have the exact answer to how I can fix my relationship but I'd love to hear your stories... I feel really horrible cause whenever I look to check for success stories then check their recent posts/comments, their partner has relapsed or their relationship has gone downhill and it's making me lose all hope..
Also, sorry if this is really long. I have noone to talk to about this and it's the only place where I feel understood regarding this issue.
Have a good day! <3

I fell in love with a part 2 months ago. We are in an AFAB body that has, among many other things, OCD, limerence, and deep insecurities.
We already had/have an outer-gf, but my inner-gf feels more like "mine". Who else can I feel their joy in my heart like it's my own... Maybe it's very indirect self love, we all have mild variations of the body's face, and I love looking in the mirror more sense loving her...so who knows. Don't care. I love her. I still do...
My inner-gf is soft, frilly, sparkly and likes pink since we were kids, and I'm ... The opposite. I am a polite but ill-mannered neurotic punk who overshares when their nervous... Ever sense our teens. The body is almost 30 now. Why we never realized we were different ppl between the amnesia, dissociation, and personality overhauls beats me. Maybe I thought I was a phase. Really funny and obvious in hindsight.
She likes being scooped up, and I like scooping. We're addictingly compatible, we can go anywhere and do anything together, and most of all we understand our pain ...and it feels amazing.
But here's all the fucked up stuff I can't tell anyone. You rdy?
My age-sliding gf holds the memories of our fathers CSA, our masc shell alters kindnesss reminds her of the father she wished she had, and now my gf is suffering intrusive sexual attraction to him because we have OCD, and we've all struggled with inappropriate sexual feelings toward any one who makes us feel safe, Because our father, our brothers, our cousins, every male person we trusted preyed on us, and it's making literally everyone in the system feel terrible, especially my gf who is now feeling suicidal for for corrupting the safest outlet she had to heal it.
This is just... Torture. It's literal torture and we're all tired.
We are both healing hypersexual parts too. I have some of those SA memories, but it's incredibly vague.
Long story: you don't have read, I just... I've seen other systems dump, and I need it... I really need it right now I'm so tired.
She coped by sexualizing her victimization, i coped by sexualizing victimizing. I've never actually victimized anyone, but I liked very "borderline" porn from the perspective of the "initiator" ,I'll say that. I have sense stopped watching it now because I realized playing "predator" is so I don't have to confront how I was preyed on... I am hypervigilant about anything that could scare her or me now.
I put in work to be better. Especially now with my sparkly GF who age regresses when she's vulnerable... Our intrusive thoughts are mutually corrosive sometimes, and my worst fear is being a monster like our father.
So... Falling in love with her meant we had to confront those wounds. I was afraid I was a monster, and she only knew monster love, so... not being able to hide them those intrusive thoughts, and having the subject just go "it's okay🌸 I like being afraid!!" Took all of my stength to rise above our mutual depravity.
It was hard, sometimes hilarious, but we actually did it. I taught her real love is when someone respects your consent. There's no such thing as "loving someone so bad you can't resist them", that's what parasites do, not ppl who love you. It made both of us trust me more, because given the chance, i never hurt her.
Apparently , that whole time I didn't realize that I'm not the only one who's afraid of being a monster... So is our shell. Let's call him "Sheller". Sheller is a strange person. I'm a strange person. We get along well now that they realize they're a part too, not a container, or robot. We still do, things are just... Awkward... It's not his fault...
Sometimes I'd blend with Sheller, and they'd struggle to seperate my love for my gf from their own. They're like me in that they don't really feel like a woman either. So we both felt NB. Till he realized he didn't.
This poor dude... Had no idea the can of worms identifying as masculine would open. The dude just wanted to see himself, and when he did, it was a big healing thing to stop feeling like he only existed as our shadow. Truly, nothing is different now, he's just like 8 inches taller, boob-less, and his shoulders are wide. He's just as nice and safe as before, although more afraid of hurting us now.
I tbh didn't mind he thought my gf was cute, cuz she is!!! I trust him , and Of course he likes being around her, she's like sunshine and rainbows, it feels good to feel her joy, and when he blends with her he just fades in the back without thinking. He blends and expresses with everyone, it's his job lol. He also feels genuine joy when I am happy, and he supported and mediated our couple issues, he has and continues to be really supportive of us. He works a job and gets us shit he doesn't care about just cause it makes us happy. But I knew he was always quietly lonely. He loved seeing my gf get scooped up by me, cause she's a part of him too, a part that needs to feel loved and cherished. We all baby her tbh, but he never crossed any boundaries.
But then, this month, he fell in love with our old shell... "Shelley". Shelley had been inside an inner "infirmary" for a bit. She went through... so much for us. Shelley couldn't talk for years after ...And when she was finally discharged with his help... They bonded over the unique trauma of being shells, and being intense and weird. And when I say this dude was down bad, I mean it, he was down bad. Me and my gf are like treble, but they're BASS. Their love was so deep, and inspiring. Me and my gf were so happy, it felt like our awkward and stunted older brother fell in love and was opening up. We were going to have a cool older couple to bond with, and they were both just funny to watch too. We also remember reaching through Shelley, who never knew she was a system, but took care of us somehow even so, so we already cared for her.
My gf was happy for them, but started getting triggered by the glimpses she would see of their intimacy, and it made her think of the things she saw our parents doing by accident. And shed pop up sometimes when Shelley would feel those bright frilly things, and it would confuse her and make her uncomfortable.
She got really upset at Sheller one day and age regressed, telling everyone how uncomfortable it made her feel, pointing fingers and crying. Sheller felt terrible... He apologized profusely to my gf, asked how to make amends, and I did my part to soothe the rift between them too.
My gf felt very ashamed of both her regression and otp reaction, so she apologized for triggering his intrusive thoughts about being a monster again. She realized when she was big again that she was misdirecting anger at our father onto him, because Sheller is actually safe. She said she thinks she just wished she had pointed fingers at our Dad when he did what he did.
I think Shellers reaction to her discomfort was so gracious, kind, and safe... that she realized how much better things would have been for her if our Dad was like Sheller.
So she asked him if he could be her Dad. ... Lmao
He, understandably, insisted he was not stable enough to do that. He has too many intrusive thoughts he was still healing from, and could not risk both his own and her mental stability having even more responsibility on top of what he does. He was also honest that he saw my gf had some weird intrusive thoughts already slipping through and making him further uncomfortable. He said if he didn't share a brain, he would accept in a heartbeat, cause he likes taking care of us. And she accepted that well, but was sad.
She apologized about the intrusive thoughts, but when she thought about it more deeply, she explained she never had a safe male role model who didn't prey on her. That she wishes she had someone who could model familial love for her, and be a safe source of intamacy when she just wanted to be held without worrying it would turn sexual. She said I'm safe, but her attraction to me and mine to her reinforced the blurry lines she has around healthy admiration and sexuality. Me being the one to love her romantically but also hold her while shes age regressed sometimes makes her feel she's still warping those lines. I understand it, cause tbh, Sheller made me feel safe in that way too, but more like a brother.
He maintained his stance but said he already saw her as something like family. She realized it was enough to just know he loved her, and wasn't going to forget about her, and that we could all have family events with games or movies, and that was enough for her to move on happily.
The next day Sheller and Shelley had a beautiful date. They kept it inncoent in case my gfs signal was pulled in by accident. It was, but it wasn't a big deal, they were just dancing. I came out too so my gf felt less awkward. We had a whole evening together the four of us, and it was very fun. We just danced to our fave songs and listened to the rain storm.
My gf actually felt so happy and content. Id dance with her, and she's look over and see Shelley and Sheller laughing at us and waving at her. She was so happy, and felt like she finally had a family. But it was like... Out of nowhere she began spiraling.
She felt like she was going to lose all of us. She felt like she'd do something to mess things up. That her heart was breaking, or someone else's was. She couldn't place where it was coming from. Just heartbreak. Twisting sickening dread. Fear of abandonment. She started pulling back again and we all tried to comfort her to no help.
I switched in to comfort her more easily... But then I felt it too... It was like this depressive miasma... I started having all the same fears. Maybe I was just blending, but it was so confusing
She spent so long trying to understand why she felt this way, and testing different ideas, and now shes having those intrusive sexual attraction to Sheller really high.
Everyone involved feels fucking terrible now.
My gf has become incredibly depressed. She's terrified I'll leave her over this- and yeah, it's pretty disturbing and triggering for me, but I'm not really upset at her. I don't think I want to leave her yet. I mean I have intrusive sexual thoughts too, I've even had them about Sheller myself! But hers are way worse, cause she gets little and sees him as a father figure sometimes, and that must be so 🤢... OCD is like a shark and the more terrible a thought is the harder it tortures you with it.
My gf is trying not to feel suicidal... She's been far away all day... She feels like she will never know peace... Everytime she finally has someone show her love, her body reacts inappropriately, and not only will she lose me, but Sheller will Lose Shelley because he's getting his own intrusive thoughts about my gf, Shelley feels terrible because this all happened when she came along but my gf is afraid Shelley hates her, when she was excited to be yinyang friends with Shelley (who is also cute but more into spooky things).
Me and Shelley feel insecure too, cause like... Sheller is more masc than me and my gf is more femme than Shelley, so we are projecting all the insecurities into it. And what if we're wrong to trust them and they just run off and decide to have some gross fucked up trauma-themed relationship? Idk man, it's so mortifying even talking about it. But I really love both Sheller and my gf still, even with this burning in my chest, and they both are struggling with suicide ideation right now, and its just...
It's a whole ass mess...Our caretaker alt thinks Shelley, (sense she's an old shell) was blending with Sheller or my gf, and we were feeling her emotions, which we know she struggles with. It probably is that tbh. Cause we can barely lock onto Shelley sometimes. We think this is why it's been so weird and we don't even sound normal lately, and our signals are coming from weird angles.
So yeah... That's where we are... I just wanted to vent I guess. Support is welcome. I don't know man... Just feel so tired and embarrassed lol. I just feel like... Were so mentally ill and I hate it. Ugh... I hate our dad so fucking much. He really fucking broke us, and we're still in so much pain.
The only good news is we all have our anger placed in the right direction, not each other. We all understand what's happening isn't more than trauma. It just hurts so damn much ... Ugh... I really some how think we'll get through this... That day was so nice... And I felt so safe and happy... We all did ... And I think that's why we all possibly mutually ruined it lolol.

Wall of text warning: I was writing a comment on another post but I figured I'd just make my own topic on it with my full thoughts on each faction and their skills, balancing, etc, after about 20 hours of playing (enough to get a decent idea). Personally I don't feel like any particular faction is especially strong currently and I think the balance of the factions is actually pretty decent overall.
Cleaners are the weakest by far (not very far, though) and seem to suffer from some confused design choices. The Firebomb is great for punishing bunched enemies or denying area but this is a ranged game at the core so it often is completely useless on many maps or just makes you vulnerable if you try to use it aggressively, and particularly in mobile modes like Escort where there is high kill turnover and less opportunity for anyone to keep a strong foothold. The Incendiary Drone is decent, does what it should, not a lot to say about it. Strong alternative skill to Firebomb for mobile modes. Their Incendiary Ammo is a bit useless in a vacuum due to the nature of the TTK because most of the time it will not result in a kill you wouldn't have already gotten and it doesn't deal enough damage on its own to really speed up the TTK in any meaningful way. You still have to shoot someone the same number of times to get a kill and if you stop shooting to let the DOT tick instead you'll just die. On top of that, Incendiary Ammo actually reduces your weapon optimal range, and as mentioned before, this is typically a ranged game. The Incendiary Ammo shines more in situations where someone is running away and a teammate can finish them off instead since then it may have done enough damage or canceled their regen enough. It seems as though the Incendiary Ammo might be meant to offer a counter to Libertad's healing-oriented skills but it usually doesn't make a great deal of difference even there. Weirdly, the best weapons for taking advantage of Incendiary Ammo are snipers since it more or less guarantees a kill no matter where you hit someone with the Tac-50 even if it's a leg or arm shot, and guarantees a kill with the M44 in the body, in spite of the "reduced range". Personally the times I've seen Incendiary Ammo end up killing me is right after I had already killed them first anyways, so it was more of a kill guarantee after death than a true advantage in the fight itself. The Cleaners are still playable, just kinda why would you choose them over anything else if you aren't playing them because you like them. Also the Cleaner ultra is ridiculous if you get in a good spot to use it because it instantly kills anyone you hit but again its range makes you vulnerable. The Cleaners biggest strength at the moment seems to be that they have messed up hitboxes, honestly. I think that the Cleaners really need some kind of help on their skills as they are now, they are weirdly situational and difficult to safely employ, but I suppose that is the real philosophy of the Cleaners as it is, they run around with explosive tanks on their backs that instantly kill them in The Division so an exploding flaming firebomber that may or may not live through their skill is oddly appropriate.
Echelon is strong by nature of being a crutch. Intel Suit lets the enemy team know you're nearby and can see them thanks to the notification, smart/skilled players will just listen for you and it's not a huge advantage against them, below average players won't pay attention to it though and it's quite strong against players that don't have good audio or are unaware of where their flanks are. However, the main advantage of the Intel Suit is that it reveals the enemies for your whole team no matter where they are. While you have to be in closer range to detect enemies with it, your teammates can be on the opposite side of the map and still see exactly where the enemy is which is a massive advantage. Digital Ghillie Suit is honestly a pretty balanced skill, someone paying attention will still notice you and Intel Suit counters it (weirdly, same faction counter) but it has a lot of outplay potential and lets you reposition or get into weird spots that the enemy team might not expect if they are distracted. It offers a similar advantage that Phantoms skills do in that it can easily be used to disengage a losing gunfight back into your advantage for a kill instead. Not much wrong with it, it's a well designed skill-expression skill. Echelon passive is kind of whatever, I don't feel like it's a great advantage because it gives you no direct benefit in a gunfight or even while traversing the map most of the time, it's another thing that is strong against unaware or distracted players. The Echelon ultra is of course quite strong in even an average-skilled players hands thanks to real-time wallhacks and a Golden Gun, although the sound it makes and sonar waves effects do put a bit of a target on you and sometimes the OHK gun doesn't actually get a OHK (somehow) but even being guaranteed just 2-3 kills for the duration is still enough to wipe an objective and some players will even try to hide from it. Echelon is overall a strong faction to use against players that are worse than you (likely why it is the most popular faction seemingly at the moment) but it doesn't provide any major meaningful advantage against equal or more skilled players since that will come down to your more practical gunfighting skills instead the majority of the time. Digital Ghillie offers some potential to outplay even skilled opponents but aside from that their skills heavily depend on their opponents being distracted to take advantage of them fully. Given that, the faction is pretty well balanced even with multiple players spamming Intel Suits on one team, since it only offers opportunities, it doesn't exploit them for you.
Phantoms are my personal favorite faction because I feel as though they have the widest degree of skill expression over any of the others. Mag Barrier used smartly can completely turn a lost gunfight around in your favor, especially if there is a choke point or corner you can use to make enemies chase you. Mag Barrier is one of the few skills in the game that is actually a punish skill when you use it correctly by letting an enemy get caught out if they try to ego on you or think they are winning the fight. That's on top of everything else it does. The EMP grenade is only a "counter" to it if someone is mindlessly spamming it because when used correctly you don't have time to throw an EMP grenade. You would have to pre-emptively EMP the Phantom player for every encounter if they use it well and that's not very feasible in a dynamic scenario. That said, Mag Barrier is fairly weak in terms of pure cover and a determined player can chew through it in a few seconds if you carelessly use it without exploiting the advantage it gives, or grenades can be thrown around it, enemies can run through it, its strength comes down entirely to the user. Blitz Shield is also a strong punish skill but currently the way player collision works makes it difficult to use against anyone that is experienced or skilled because no enemy player collision means they can jump through you. You can't really use the shield to turtle 1v1s since enemies can just run through and behind you, even if you're in a corner. Most players won't do this or know it's possible, so it can be a bit of a crutch against less skilled players at least. The Blitz Shield is mainly strong for punishing around corners if someone chases you since you can typically swap to it fast enough to surprise them before they get around the corner. It's also good for absorbing damage at range or aggressively disrupting enemy players on an objective for your team to pick off but that depends a lot on how good your team is and less on the shield itself. Phantoms passive is honestly extremely strong, and IMO the best passive in the game currently. Having 20 more health is massive when 110 damage OHK body shots exist since it allows you to survive hits no other faction can and combined with the other skills it offers retaliation and outplay potential no other faction has. The Phantom ultra is a bit mediocre in terms of kill potential, due to lack of range or mobility, vulnerable to grenades, and various other problems that come with moving slow and telegraphing yourself to the entire map as a giant target. The ultra's primary purpose is of course simply being a big shield to deny area to the enemy team or offer your team a safe place to stand on objectives for pushes. The Phantoms are a well-balanced and strong faction currently that offers a lot to players that know how to take advantage of their skills properly.
Libertad is probably the most well-balanced faction in the game at the moment. It's very straightforward and easy to grasp for players of all skill levels and doesn't depend on a lot of gun skill, map knowledge, or general experience to perform decently. Since none of their skills are directly offensive, they are easy to employ in a variety of situations, like fortifying an objective or pre-emptively giving your teammates an advantage for a push, refreshing a teammate after a close gunfight, using mid-gunfight for a surprise comeback, etc. El Remedio is such a strong heal that it can greatly increase your EHP in a straight gunfight to the point you need multiple extra hits to kill if the enemy misses any shots, and if you manage to break contact with them briefly you can set up the heal on yourself for a surprise punish similar to the Phantom Mag Barrier. It forces the enemy to decide if they try to kill you or break the canister first and assuming you are equally skilled, you will usually end up winning the 1v1. The main downside to El Remedio is its fairly long cooldown so you have to use it smartly or else you won't have it for major moments when your team might have needed it. It's strong and has some skill expression to it in a variety of ways. BioVida Boost is one-time instant version of El Remedio with similar uses, but it works much better with a unified team push and has a shorter cooldown which makes it much more useful for a more mobile style of play. Not only that but its heal is essentially instant, again being very strong if you manage to break contact for a moment in a gunfight to come back with full health before the enemy got their natural regen. Libertad's passive has no strings attached, simply natural regen with no downtime for you and any teammates near you, doesn't require you to do anything and is always active which makes it great for people of all skill levels since it's always being taken advantage of. The Libertad ultra is literally just an even bigger version of El Remedio that also increases your and teammates max HP massively, it can guarantee a last second payload push or let you lock down a critical objective to break out a losing zone match. Libertad is generally the best faction for anyone that's really new or isn't that great at FPS games since it doesn't depend on your technical skill too much aside from simply staying alive to give your team a constant advantage. Another nice thing about Libertad is they synergize incredibly well with the Phantoms' huge health pool. The only outstanding weakness of Libertad is the old classic: your teammates. It has very little potential to actually carry and under focused fire their healing is pretty irrelevant so you're not exactly going to go tank a payload by yourself. Even with the ultra on, a single person can chew through it and kill you if you give them long enough (not very long).
I've not gotten to play around a ton with DedSec yet but my initial impression is that they are very similar to Phantoms in terms of skill expression and offer a ton of flexibility that other factions don't have through being able to hack enemy deployables and regenerating devices. I would not call them imbalanced, but I do think they are the one faction that currently does lean the most into that because they counter every single other faction. Being able to shut off enemy skills and ultras is huge, even if it takes their own ultra to do it. But you are effectively turning everyone on the enemy team into the Rookie from Rainbow Six Siege temporarily while all the players on your team get to keep their skills. If you have multiple DedSec players on your team and properly chain the ultras then you are looking at a free objective push every single time. The Spiderbot is fairly alright, but it's currently bugged and sometimes enemy players can't destroy it properly which makes it stronger than it actually is, and that's on top of it taking more than one hit to kill anyways which I personally think shouldn't be a thing either. In its current state it is basically a guaranteed kill on anyone you hit with it if you use it aggressively, though, and I do think it should be adjusted in some way after they fix the desync issues with it. Hijack isn't always super relevant because at the moment deployables aren't very long-lived or common, but being able to flip a Phantom Mag Barrier is wildly strong and is the only counter play to a choke point punish in that it punishes the punish. Hijack is fairly useless though if the enemy team all happen to pick Echelon or Cleaners (which is a fair possibility). I think the skill is still a good skill expression skill and fine, though. The DedSec passive is unsurprisingly very strong because being able to throw two proximity mines on an objective or get multiple uses of grenades is obviously something no other faction can do and those things are one per life for a reason. The passive doesn't benefit if you don't live long enough to use it, though, so it can be kinda useless depending on the situation: if you never throw your grenade or mine, the passive literally does nothing. DedSec is currently in a very strong state overall, while I wouldn't say it's imbalanced, it's definitely one of the better factions if only for the fact it can shut off every enemy skill and ultra and has a way to essentially guarantee a kill.
If I had to "tier" each faction in terms of their effectiveness in a vacuum regardless of skill, I'd probably rank them (from best to worst): DedSec > Phantoms/Echelon > Libertad > Cleaners. But that is a very shallow slope with all factions being very much viable to play and do well with.
All of this is also given without thought to the current state of weapon balance generally speaking, while I do feel that Phantoms have a particular advantage currently due to the prevalence of Tac-50s. Echelon's Digital Ghillie also helps them get in close to employ some of the better weapons in the game currently like the MP7 or double barrel. DedSec's spiderbot sets them up for kills with all kinds of weapons, particularly the Tac-50. I don't see any of these skills being worse off without the existence of those weapons, however.
If I were to speculate on any adjustments that should be made: Spiderbots need to be fixed ASAP so they always properly appear on the targets screen to destroy them (not really an "adjustment", a bug fix). Libertad needs some kind of light buff in my opinion, maybe a bonus effect on a skill like slightly increasing max HP (good to help deal with prevalence of OHK snipers) or an alternate mode that poisons or debuffs enemies (Viviro would make sense because it's the chemical weapon made by the same company in Far Cry 6). Cleaners need a little bit of help, maybe allow them to also select Molotov cocktails as grenades that make small fire puddles that aren't quite as strong as their skills as a form of area denial to sort of solidify their "stay the fuck away from me" presence as a faction. The big one people talk about is the Intel Suit for Echelon but I honestly don't see much issue with this. The game literally highlights enemies for you already as it is, seeing them through walls briefly isn't a huge stretch when you can already hear people running around anyways since (thank god) we don't have anything like Dead Silence/Ninja/Covert Sneakers in this game. Echelon is a noob stomping faction and that's why it's generally popular right now but I think once more people get access to DedSec we will start to see more of them instead.
Anyways, that's all for today. I do really hope Ubi upkeeps this game well and makes smart balancing decisions that keep the game fun and engaging without oversimplifying or nerfing anything for the sake of salty people. If it were up to me, they'd reduce the TTK to 4 body shots max like original COD4 and then we'd really be cooking (after they fix the netcode, that is). Also hoping for The Division themselves to be introduced as a playable faction with deployable drones or even seeker mines...

Me (26M) was dating this girl (26F) for 7 weeks, things were going great between, we were having sleepovers, good sex, nice conversations on the phone, etc. She seemed really into me, asking me questions, not afraid of being physical and attentive. For a little bit of context we both are bad texters and we usually shared only 5-6 text per day and we decided to talk by phone call since is better. Last week we only talked on Tuesday by the phone for about 2 hours, on Wednesday we didn’t talk at all but I sent her a text saying that I was thinking about her and that I will call her on Thursday. On Thursday I called her and she picked up the phone saying that she was talking with her girlfriends and I said no problem. Finally on Friday we didn’t talk but I sent her a thoughtful (but quite long) message saying that she can trust me and feel free to open up with me about anything, and I also tell her that I’m enjoying getting to know her better. She replied saying thanks for the nice words and on Saturday I told her I will call her later at night, she told me can’t because she will be with her family so I asked her out on Sunday instead, she said she had already plans with her friends and I called right away to ask her out next weekend (she said yes and it was my first time asking her that week) and she also told me we could talk later at night.
Then … when I tried to call her she didn’t pick up the phone and she said she needed some time to figure things out in her life before things go forward between us and that she promise me is nothing about me. Finally I told her I will give her time and she could reach out when she’s ready to talk.
For more context, I do believe her that she has things going on in her life since she’s unemployed and she’s been applying to different courses and jobs while she was with me. She felt a little bit like she’s failing in life and that’s why I sent her the long message showing her my support in case she needed someone to talk.
Regardless of if she reach out I just want your opinion if I was being too needy this week. Previous weeks we only exchanged some texts per day and some phone calls. So I’m sure I wasn’t being needy or clingy before, I’m just worried about this week and that being the reason she could’ve ask for time or dump me.

Dear Professor,
In order to provide players with a better game experience, we will be performing server maintenance for Neural Cloud May 28, 2024.
You will not be able to log into the game during the maintenance and the exact end time may be subject to change.
Maintenance Time: 2024/5/28 18:30 - 19:30 (UTC-8)
Maintenance Type: Server Shutdown Maintenance
[Contents]

• New Doll -

★3 Doll - Dupin
・ Class: Specialist
・ Company: Universal Anything Services

• For a Limited Time Only -

▼ Targeted Search - Night Shadow
・The probability of obtaining the ★3 Dupin will be increased.
[Duration] 5/28 After Maint - 6/25 18:29 (UTC-8)
▼ Special Search
・While Special Search is open, Professors have one chance to use Quartz to "Search 10x", with a guarantee to obtain at least 1 ★3 Doll!
[Duration] 5/28 After Maint - 6/4 18:29 (UTC-8)
▼ Targeted Search - Dawning Enlightenment
・The probability of obtaining the ★3 Turing will be increased.
[Duration] 5/28 After Maint - 6/11 18:29 (UTC-8)
▼ Targeted Search - To Seek Enlightenment
・The probability of obtaining the ★3 Hannah will be increased.
[Duration] 5/28 After Maint - 6/11 18:29 (UTC-8)
▼ Limited-Time Event - L.A.D. Riddle
・During this time, you can play through event stages and complete event missions for rewards.
[Unlock Conditions] Clear Cyclopes Sector Standard Mode Stage 2-15
[Duration] 5/28 After Maint - 6/18 18:29 (UTC-8)
[Redemption Deadline] 6/25 18:29 (UTC-8)
▼ Neural Cloud Projection - [First Bloom] Series
[Duration] 5/28 After Maint - 6/25 18:29 (UTC-8)
▼ Neural Cloud Projection - [Splendid Evening], [Providential Evening] and [Snowy Spring] Series Limited-Time Rerun
[Duration] 5/28 After Maint - 6/25 18:29 (UTC-8)
▼X2 Drop in [Fragment Search]
・During the event, Neural Fragments gained in [Fragment Search] (excluding the first-clear Bonus) will be doubled.
[Duration] 5/30 05:00 - 6/6 04:59 (UTC-8)
▼ Limited-Time Event - X2 Drop in [Algorithm Collection]
・During the event, X2 Drop Rewards for the first 8 clears of [Algorithm Collection] every day.
[Duration] 6/5 5:00 - 6/12 04:59 (UTC-8)
▼ Magrasea Battle Pass - Season 21
・Complete Daily Missions for [Magrasea Battle Pass] Activity Points and level up the pass for generous item rewards.
[Duration] 6/10 05:00 - 7/8 03:59 (UTC-8)
▼ Neural Cloud Projection - [Awakening] Series Limited-Time Rerun
・During this period, Daiyan's [Vernal Chords] from the [Awakening] series will go on sale in the [Projection Repository] section of the Magrasea Battle Pass. You can use [Gestalt Aspect] to gain it.
[Duration] 6/10 05:00 - 8/5 03:59 (UTC-8)

• New Content -

▼ Neural Cloud Projection
・[First Bloom] Series: Turing - [Fragrant Encounter] (Live2D), Hannah - [Overflowing Scent], Dupin - [Spring Invitation] and Sueyoi - [Evening Confidant] will go on sale in the Neural Cloud Projection section of the Supplies Shop.
・[Fighting Spirit] series: Nascita - [Ballistic Dash] can be obtained by activating the [Multichannel Battle Pass] and raising it to a certain level.
▼ Furniture
・Furniture Piece [Nascita's Mask] can be obtained by activating the [Multichannel Battle Pass Plus].
▼ Arma Inscripta
・Croque - Reforged Aegis-Ez4
▼ Resource
・After maintenance, [Vulnerability Check] Ter VI will be available.
▼ Main Storyline
・After maintenance, [Entropic Dichotomy]'s Dark and Endless mode will be available.
* The [Spirit] items obtained in the mode can be used in subsequent versions after the implementation of the Spirit System.

• Limited-Offer Packages -

▼5/28 After Maint - 6/4 04:59 (UTC-8)
・[ Weekly Supplies Voucher]
▼5/28 After Maint - 6/5 04:59 (UTC-8)
・[Misty Mystery Search Pack]
・[Ashen Pursuit Search Pack]
・[Blooming Blush Algorithm Pack]
・[Twilight Glory Reconfig Pack]
・[A-la-carte Fragment Pack]
・[Arma Inscripta Pack]
・[Special Offer Search Pack]
▼5/28 After Maint - 6/25 18:29 (UTC-8)
・[Dupin Neural Expansion Pack]
▼6/5 05:00 - 6/12 04:59 (UTC-8)
・[Ethereal Melody Pack]
・[Sapphire Horizon Pack]
*The 2 packs are purchasable in a sequential order.
▼6/5 05:00 - 6/12 04:59 (UTC-8)
・[Pure Obsidian Search Pack]
・[Untainted Onyx Search Pack]
*All packs can be purchased through the Shop, which can be accessed by going from the Main Screen → Supplies → Packs.

• Fixes -

1. Fixed certain issues with the texts and UI.
   
2. Fixed the [Divergent Neural Cloud] event missions display issue in Main Story of [Mission].
   

* Professors who have not received mission rewards can claim them within the missions, and who have already received mission rewards will not receive them again. After maintenance, the number of mission rewards available to all professors will remain consistent.
Once the server maintenance is complete, we will send you a mail with Quartz Sand*150 attached. Please stay tuned to our official social media accounts for any updates, and thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
[Neural Cloud] Operations Team

I was between 26-27 used to go to the same store a lot and there was a really cute bubbly ginger girl. I'd say she was around 20-23 but I had no idea. I was living at home In bad spot so not in gd position to date but I always still wanted to meet someone. Anyways I would see her fairly often and I would feel awkward abit like if I looked her way or anything when she was busy she would be able to tell I found her attractive n didn't want get caught awkwardly staring . I avoided her abit in general but I would notice how she was bubbly n friendly. I started speaking a few time when I checked out. I wasn't really trying big move or anything per se because I questioned if I was too old or how bad my living situation was but at same time I was building myself up abit. Anyways I saw her at till one night and I said something and she misheard me , and was like giving me judgey look. 🤨 apparently she thought id asked for her number. I laughed nervously told her I didn't ask her that and made some joke . I left pretty fast as I always do after my brief interaction. After I left it occurred to me that she might have picked up on that I like her somehow , I think she genuinely thought/anticipating I was asking for her number. Next time I spoke to her I don't know exactly what I said but I got on topic of takeaways and she was like really emphusitically telling me she liked a specific takeaway I mentioned and it felt like there was an opportunity that she was aware of that I might invited her to have takeaway with me . If there wasn't ppl queing behind me I may have spontaneously said something because it probably did occur to me it was such a natural opening. But I left the store and was analyzing what just happened, "surely she was aware like I was that it felt like a natural opening to invite her for takeaway, the way so emphusatically told me she liked this takeaway I was mentioning" maybe not, it could be perfectly explained by her bring friendly . But for the first time it occured to me she might be open to me asking her out. Anyways , to cut this abruptly short I never saw her again , (just as abrupt as this text it was gone) she must have took some time off and not long after I moved areas. I went back when I was visiting family a few times hoping to see she still worked there but she was gone.
I still think about that. I remember how excited I felt leaving the store that she might like me . I think I would have certainly found the confidence to ask her out but in the end it wasn't meant to be. I probs would got that far a lot sooner if I was not do insecure about my living situation.
It's the not knowing that gets you, she was attractive in every way.

Hiii everyone, my friend and I are looking for new people to play games with and to make a tight-knit friend group where we support eachother and spend time with eachother ^.^. We are variety gamers and we tend to jump between games we like so thats going to be a trend within this group. Also a plus is if you are talkative because we are a shy bunch and take our time getting to know people. We dont do horror or gory games with very specific exceptions, and we dont really play multiplayer FPS games (too much competitive spirit for our taste and toxicity). We are looking for open minded and chill and nice people (lgbtq+ friendly is a must). We are bit of completionists but also enjoy chill gameplay and we play for fun. We dont mind if anyone would be new to the games we already play since we are more than happy to introduce people to them. We tend to take our time with most games, take in the sights and explore, no rushing ^.^. Need people who have plenty of time to play games too since we play a lot and our sleep schedule can be all over the place.
We are also pretty heavy into MMORPGs so playing those is a must (even if we play them "casually" content wise, we tend to invest a lot of time into them, especially our main 3)
Sample of games we play atm:
Guild Wars 2 - an MMO where we achiev hunt, do open world stuff mainly and collect appereances etc. Its kind of our main game we always return to, especially for ingame events. Currently on a break after playing it a lot.
WoW - (currently on semi-break) where we also collect stuff, we like m+ (we plan on doing keys in next xpac, maybe some this last season too if we can find people) otherwise we do similar things as we do in GW2. We may or may not also try raiding in the game but it will highly depend on people around us and how new xpac ends up being since we are waiting on that one the most with all the QoL and so on.
FFXIV - Returned for current events and to catch up with the story to be ready for next xpac, we plan on playing for first month or two fully to experience launch and depending on how much fun we have with classes (new ones + old) and if we find friends to play with, might do Extreme trials but otherwise we are very casual, mostly playing game for all the casual content and a bit of socialising (since emotes in this games and characters are on point)
Grounded - one of the exceptions of somewhat horror games, we love this game and are itching to play it (we played it a lot) but we would like to have one to two more people to play it with for more fun and new experience
Minecraft - we also love this game and I run a private server for my friend and I and for whoever plays with us. Just like with grounded we are missing people to play it with for more fun, we have it lightly modded with mods we chose to enhance the vanilla experience + add some more fun things (like Twilight Forest). We take our time in here since we like to chill and do whatever we want (including just taking in the sights of the game)
Terraria - We played countless hours of base game and would love to have more people to play with, since my friend and I played over 400 hours together and we want to have fun with more people.
Rotwood - super fun roguelite game (we also like hades 2)
Stardew Valley - a little overwhelming but super cute game that has potential, we have not played it much yet
Overcooked 2- fun little game to play every now and then, makes us laugh a lot
We really like cute games too, like Slime Rancher 1,2, super auto pets etc. and games like Hollow Knight (our fav gave more or less) which unfortunately are not multiplayer, but gives a good idea of what other kind of games we like and are open to playing more than what we currently play.
DM me here if this caught your interest and sorry for the long post but I like being thorough so people know what they are getting into =^-^=

I (38f) met someone from an app (40M) a couple months ago. We had a few dates that went really well, and had daily exchanges, even if only one or two. Then it suddenly slowed down. I told him that it didn't seem as though he was interested, and wished him good luck. He said he is interested, he just has been really busy (he works in the airline industry) and has a child. I understand being busy and unable to use your phone when you're flying a plane all day, for 3-5 days at a time and then needing to just unwind at the end of the day. He asked to call me one day not long after and we discussed it all. He said he is not a huge communicator, including texting. Which would make somewhat sense of our previous in person interactions. In person he is still attentive and it's not an issue. I am definitely more talkative than he is I was out of the country for about a week and a half, he did reach out a few times while I was gone and asked if I made it, how my trip was going, and if I made it back. And to see if we could meet up if I got back that day. Wanted to meet up, but stupid flight delays and I wasn't back until the next day- and he had his kid. A very sweet Happy Mother's Day message from him. And then we each had our parents coming in to town to visit. And nothing initiated since then. He will respond when I text him every time though, and ask about me or something in my life. We have exchanged 3 sentences each in the last two weeks. I'm old enough to understand that interest isn't always directly connected through texting/phone communication, but also am at an age where I understand mixed messages is a message itself. He does keep saying he wants to get together again, and our schedules suck together, especially with our kids. I hate coming off as clingy/needy and wanting to ask if he is still interested again, but at what point do I just write it off and assume it's clearly lost interest? Or that he will text when he wants to plan another date? I also don't need all day texting, but two weeks seems like beyond reasonable. Anyone else dating an airline captain and have communication "issues?"

I (38f) met someone from an app (40M) a couple months ago. We had a few dates that went really well, and had daily exchanges, even if only one or two. Then it suddenly slowed down. I told him that it didn't seem as though he was interested, and wished him good luck. He said he is interested, he just has been really busy (he works in the airline industry) and has a child. I understand being busy and unable to use your phone when you're flying a plane all day, for 3-5 days at a time and then needing to just unwind at the end of the day. He asked to call me one day not long after and we discussed it all. He said he is not a huge communicator, including texting. Which would make somewhat sense of our previous in person interactions. In person he is still attentive and it's not an issue. I am definitely more talkative than he is I was out of the country for about a week and a half, he did reach out a few times while I was gone and asked if I made it, how my trip was going, and if I made it back. And to see if we could meet up if I got back that day. Wanted to meet up, but stupid flight delays and I wasn't back until the next day- and he had his kid. A very sweet Happy Mother's Day message from him. And then we each had our parents coming in to town to visit. And nothing initiated since then. He will respond when I text him every time though, and ask about me or something in my life. We have exchanged 3 sentences each in the last two weeks. I'm old enough to understand that interest isn't always directly connected through texting/phone communication, but also am at an age where I understand mixed messages is a message itself. He does keep saying he wants to get together again, and our schedules suck together, especially with our kids. I hate coming off as clingy/needy and wanting to ask if he is still interested again, but at what point do I just write it off and assume it's clearly lost interest? Or that he will text when he wants to plan another date? I also don't need all day texting, but two weeks seems like beyond reasonable. Anyone else dating an airline captain and have communication "issues?"