Something cute to text your boyfriend while he is at work

I am a 16 year old girl and my brother is 27 years old. Growing up, it was mainly just me and my brother. My dad left shortly after I was born and my mom wasn’t around much. I know that my brother took all of the work to make sure that I was healthy and happy, and I can’t thank him enough for what he has done for me. He got a job at 15 to provide for us both while my mom was off doing God knows what. I was around 9 years old when my brother left for college at the age of 20. I remember he promised me that he would always come every weekend to check up on me and give me groceries for the week. For the first two years he kept true to his word. He would come by with food and hang out with me. I was lonely and sad without him, but I managed as best as I could for a child. It wasn’t until he met his girlfriend (now wife) that he changed. He stopped coming over as often, leaving me going hungry. I would text him, asking when he’d be back, and he would give me vague answers. I remember for two weeks I could only eat plan turkey sandwiches because that’s all I had to eat. Those vague answers soon turned into no answers. He would also make promises to me that he wouldn’t keep (e.g. buying me more food, clothes, money, etc.) I think I was around 12 or 13 when he stopped coming by entirely. He would no longer answer my texts and I would get no information about his life. He even had a kid when I was 14 that I didn’t even know about until a few days ago when he messaged me. I had honestly given up in ever contacting him again because it had been years since we last talked. He says that he wants to make up for lost time and that he misses me. I honestly felt so mad in that moment that I wanted to block him, but I didn’t. I instead agreed to meet with him. We met a few days later at the park we grew up nearby. He was there with his wife and son. When he saw me he got teary eyed and tried to hug me, but I pushed him away and told him I don’t like hugs anymore. He seemed hurt and that made me just the slightest bit happy. He started talking about what life was like in and after college and what he’s doing now. He said that now that I’m older he wants to be able to do more stuff with me that he missed out on. To put it bluntly, I went crazy on him. Here is a gist of what I said: “I’ve missed you a lot. I remember always turning on my phone to see if you had even responded to even one of my countless messages. For years I heard not one word out of you. I went hungry and dirty because you were no longer around. I get that you had to live your own life, but I didn’t know it included kicking me out of it. I was basically an orphan because Mom was never around. I was 13 when my period started and I didn’t have any money to buy what I needed. And why do you think that my texts randomly stopped one day? It’s because I have up on you. I gave up on you ever being able to care about me like you used to. Because of you I can’t trust people and what they promise me because I’m afraid they will leave me like you did. So I don’t care if you want to make up for lost time, and I don’t think you can because it’s your fault.” By the end of my rant he was crying and his wife was giving me the death stare. He started apologizing and saying that he didn’t know that was how I felt. I called BS because there is no way he never saw any of those texts I sent. After that I left and sobbed when I got home. I love my brother, I really do, but I don’t think it’s fair for him to try and come back like nothing happened.

Intro:
Today I am reviewing what I believe to be the most disappointing Dhar Mann video of all time. It had potential, I was invested... then Dhar Mann just completely fumbled it. Expect me to get more scathing and frustrated as this review goes on.
This is also a weird twilight zone moment because Azeem, who famously salvages bad Dhar Mann videos, is one of the main contributors to what made this video awful (His character I mean, not Azeem himself).
Review:
Our story begins in the school theatre. Auditions are happening, and our titular dorky girl, Julie (Cecily Dowd), nails it. She does so well, in fact, that the heads of the drama club close up all remaining auditions for that role. That's pretty fucking mean if you ask me. Next up is our titular hot guy, Chase, a jock who hates being a jock. His audition sucks, and the coaches tell him that he's not getting the role.
What the fuck is going on here? Cutting off an audition early is one thing, but outright telling somebody they're not getting the part??? This is like the inverse problem with the tryouts for Bookside's Football team I covered last week. Between this and dismissing all people who haven't auditioned for Julie's role yet, this is super unprofessional.
Disheartened, Chase goes to the back of the theatre to sit with his unnamed narc friends (Azeem Vecchio and Nathan Ing. Knowing that it's these two good actors in this role makes this video just...). We learn that Chase knows he sucks, but he needs to get a role, otherwise his dad will make him play baseball again. We get a namedrop of Chase's bitch of a girlfriend, who blew him off to go shopping. Julie comes by and gives her condolences to Chase. Once she walks away, the narc friends make fun of her, and Chase gets a call from Bitch bitching about shopping or some bullshit. She verbally abuses him and also insists that he sticks to baseball.
Wow, a sympathetic protagonist! This is rare in Dhar Mann. Chase is a good guy, but he's manipulated by an abusive dad and a controlling girlfriend. It doesn't help that his friends suck too.
We cut to lunchtime at school the next day, and typical Dhar Mann plot contrivances occur. The male lead (the role Chase tried out for) turned down the part because he got cast on Broadway... you didn't have to go that far for an excuse Dhar Mann lmao. Oh but the contrivance gets even worse, because apparently the directors are giving Julie full power over who the male lead will be... Excuse me?
Why are the directors letting some random student decide this? This is especially contrived considering we saw how unprofessional and absolutist they were earlier... what the fuck. Anyway, narc friends pressure Chase into doing yet another bad thing: manipulating Julie into casting him by pretending to be romantically interested. This is made even worse by the fact that Julie has had a crush on Chase since they were little. That's fucked up, narc friends. They at least made Chase sympathetic enough to understand why he went along with this.
I have to give it to Chase here, because he doesn't outright ask Julie for the role or even pressure her to give it to him. He approaches her asking to help him get better. He's sincere in his compliments to her about how great her singing and acting is. He gets her number, and they arrange to hangout and practice together. So far, Chase isn't in the wrong yet.
We cut to the next day, in the theatre, where Chase is auditioning by reading a scene with Julie. Once again, I have to give a Dhar Mann video credit on something. It's annoying how his videos always repeat the message of the video word for word, but here, the message is stated in a fictional play that these are reciting. That's a bit more clever if you ask me, and MUCH more tolerable. Nevertheless, the directors are not impressed with Chase. They ask to speak with Julie in private... why? They've already been so mean to Chase right to his face, why hold back now lmao. In any case, the directors really don't like Chase, and Julie, at least for a moment, begrudgingly resolves to tell him he's not getting the part.
Julie tries to let Chase down lightly, and this is where Chase finally enters "in the wrong" territory. In a last ditch effort to keep his shot at landing this role, he lies to Julie by telling her that he likes her. Leaning on somebody who likes you to improve at something? Sure. Having them help you audition with their endorsement? Fine. Lying to them to manipulate them into nepotism? That's wrong and messed up. He even lies to Julie and tells her that him and Bitch broke up. Unfortunately, Julie falls for all of this, and overrides the director's decision.
We cut to Chase hanging out with Bitch at some salon. She never shuts the fuck up until Chase mentions Julie in passing. Chase... buddy... you fuck up here... He tells Bitch about his master plan to manipulate Julie. Why do characters in Dhar Mann snitch on themselves so fucking much?!
Julie and Chase are reading lines that mimic their situation a little too closely. That in itself is fine, I just reaaaally hope that they don't break the 4th wall (and insult our intelligence) by acknowledging this. Chase and Julie start genuinely bonding and it's actually an immersive romance for once. They find out they have so much in common and we see a spark form. Even having watched this before, I genuinely forgot about Chase's plan. For the first time, ever, Chase is realizing that Bitch doesn't even remotely care about him the same way that Julie does.
For once, I actually enjoy a montage. The music actually fits, and we see a lot of cute romantic moments. It's so heartwarming, in a way that Dhar Mann videos fail to tug at my heartstrings. Like I said, I was sooooo invested in this video and it had so much potential.
We cut to the day of the show, and Chase's narc friends... oh, right, these clowns still exist... they sneak backstage and support Chase... sort of. They don't congratulate him on a job well done, they congratulate him on manipulating Julie and talk mad shit about her... like why don't you guys just fuck off and get a life already? They leave, and Julie walks, with a massive glowup! Literally every other Dhar Mann character glowup sucks except for this one. Not only are 99% of the now "hot" people at the very median of the bell-curve, but even IF they actually were that attractive, NOBODY reacts irl with the hyperbolic drooling that Dhar Mann characters do. This glow up works because they don't put Julie on a pedestal, nobody ogles her, and nobody suddenly acts really nice to her. It's a much more realistic, Chase tells her she's beautiful, and that's it.
Chase and Julie absolutely knock it out of the park on stage, and the crowd goes wild! This is the only time I recall getting shivers from a video in a Dhar Mann video. The chemistry is so real, for one and one time only in Dhar Mann! Backstage again, Chase and Julie share a romantic moment, but they're still in intermission, so Julie leaves momentarily.
We are at 17 minutes of this 22 minute video. It was good for 17 minutes. These last 5 minutes are all completely fucking downhill... Dhar Mann absolutely FUMBLED this video in the remaining time!!!!
I genuinely stopped writing and watching for a minute to brace myself for how enraged I am going to get from this point out...
Narc friends sneak back stage again and... how does this keep happening?! And sure they tell him he's awesome and all, which is new, but other than that, they give the EXACT FUCKING SAME exposition that they did before the play started. Even in the context of this story, why? Why do this again? Oh, and they don't just loudly announce Chase's plan quietly among themseleves, they fucking declare this shit so loud that the entire world can hear. Including Julie...
Julie is obviously devastated, but what's even worse is that the narc friends just fucking skedaddle. Some fucking friends, right? They seriously left Chase alone to endure Julie's wrath. Even IF they don't know that Chase developed genuine feelings for Julie, isn't it still in their best interest to help Chase so he doesn't have to play baseball again?! At the very very very very least, the friends should say something like "dont blame Chase! He's a good guy, this was all our idea and we put him up to it!" but no. They just take off. No retribution. No consequences. Nothing. Chase gets the entirety of the rage and the blame.
The whole "I was using you at first but grew to actually like you" trope is something common in Dhar Mann. Dhar has made complete assholes get off scot-free and have a happy ending. Here you have a genuine guy who made a mistake and knows it, and he gets the absolute worst of it.
Oh, it gets even worse though... because in another extreme coincidence, this is THE ONE AND ONLY TIME that Bitch decides to care about Chase's life, and show up backstage (HOW ARE SO MANY AUDIENCE MEMBERS GOING BACK DURING INTERMISSION???) to give PDA right in front of Julie. Bitch literally says right in front of Julie "Why is she crying? Did she find out you were just pretending to like her?" Like holy fuck this is overkill! You don't need to narc on Chase this goddamn much!
Despite everything I just said post the 17 minute mark... This video had one more chance for redemption. Dhar Mann could have, and came soooooo close to redeeming this mess... I have to brace myself once again.
In the second half of the show, Julie's tone is much more scathing, while Chase's is completely timid. Usually I hate when, in fiction, people resolve their conflicts on stage by "being themselves", but here... it works. Chase breaks character and gives a sincere, honest apology and plea for forgiveness. I know I've used this phrase a lot, but it is such a heartfelt moment. If any character in Dhar Mann ever deserved forgiveness and a second chance for being genuinely repentant, it is Chase. Hell, even the entire damn audience is rooting for Chase and wants Julie to forgive and embrace him!
20 minute mark. 2 minutes remain, and we just had another peak moment after a valley, so surely this video can't fuck it up... right?
Julie runs off stage and the director calls an impromptu intermission. But then we cut to the next day at school... What? No! You can't just not tell us what happened the rest of the night and what became of the show!
Chase goes up to Julie at her locker with a gift of their favorite food. Chase tells Julie that he broke up with Madison, much to Julie's indifference. Chase is wearing a "so you see..." backpack by the way... Dhar Mann was INTENT on ruining this video holy shit.
Julie tells Chase that she talked to the director and they have decided to recast Chase's rol- HUH?! What??? What the fuck do you mean recast his role?? They JUST HAD the show!!! What do you mean for the rest of the run? That's not how school plays work. And no, there's no bullshit about it just going on a few more days of this weekend, because Julie specifically says that she can't bring herself to dance with Chase EVERY weekend!
I started banging my head into my desk once Julie said "Did you not learn anything from the show? Like my character says: The truth doesn't cost you-" AHHHH fuck off. The one and only time you had a somewhat clever way of veiling the message of the video, you had to fuck it up Dhar Mann by having her just outright point to the intended message... Julie takes the food and walks away. The end.
Outro:
...yes... that's actually how they decided to end this. What the fucking fuck? This is so incredibly anticlimactic and absolutely nothing is resolved. Chase is still under the abuse of his dad, his narc friends are off scot free, and Julie is still crushed. Dhar Mann has redeemed absolutely irredeemable scumbags and given happy endings to sociopaths, but Chase of all characters ends up with an EVEN SHITTIER life than how the video started?! This is even worse with the next suggested video being Anna from "Nerds Get Revenge on Cool Teens", an absolute fucking cunt of character who gets off scot-free and suffers no penalties for the shitty things she does INCLUDING USING SOMEBODY ROMANTICALLY, which she neither regrets nor suffers repercussions for. Just get the fuck out of my face already. Fuck this video, fuck the suggested video, and fuck Dhar Mann for ruining one of the only potentially good videos he ever made.
Sorry for how heated I got in this review. I can assure you that no other video even comes close to disappointing me on this level. It just... you know what, nevermind, I've said everything I need to say.
See you all next week for another review! Leave any recommendations below!

Okay so I was a call with some friends on discord and saw that my friend’s profile was green and showing they were playing final fantasy. I was like oh cool they must’ve got home then. They works from like 8 to 1 in the day.
We call later (texted he was gonna do something at 7pm) around 10 pm. and I ask how was your day, played any games with friends? They just says “just went to work and came home. Didn’t play with friends”. I said, “oh cause I saw that you were playing (said game) on discord?” They said no and when? I said the time around 3. They said that he came home around 7 when they texted me. I asked “are you sure?” Cause I mean why lie about it? They said that final fantasy is also mobile but that they came home around 7.
So can discord show you’re playing a mobile game without being in the app?
I’m just curious honestly

I was in Europe for a research conference with my team. We met other students at the conference, and my best friend (who is gay) developed a crush on "Bob" on the first day. I also thought he was cute but wanted my friend to go after him because this doesn't happen too often for him. He flirted with Bob the whole trip, but we were never sure if he was gay/bi.
There was also one night the whole group was trying to go out, and my friend and I were trying to organize with Bob over text. Bob stopped responding to my friend, and he was really bummed about it. He said Bob was most definitely straight, but I encouraged him, saying there was definitely a spark there (which I really did think was true, and my roommates thought so too). It wasn't until later that night when I realized Bob had responded to me instead. I never told my friend because he was already upset.
On the last day of the trip, we all went clubbing together. I spent the whole night trying to wingman my friend (pushing him towards Bob, encouraging him, etc), but to no avail. On the uber back I sat next to Bob in the back. I texted him (teammates were sleeping so it was quiet) hinting that my friend liked him and I was trying to set them up. He seemed surprised and said "and how were you going to do that" and proceeded to put his hand on my thigh, which caught me off guard. I didn't move it. We kept texting, I can't quite remember what we said (we weren't sending the messages, just typing them out and passing the phone back and forth). The last thing I said was "okay but he is my best friend so..." before exiting the uber.
Bob followed my roommate and I back to our hotel room and hung out as we packed for our flight. I couldn't make eye contact with him because I felt so guilty for betraying my friend. Bob and my roommate fell asleep, so I left to enjoy the sunrise and Bob eventually left to get his luggage while I was gone.
We all headed to the airport together, and I just avoided him the whole time. My team took turns saying bye to Bob and I just quietly said "bye" and walked away. He texted me later wishing me a safe flight. I apologized for saying too much the night before, and he apologized for touching without asking. Since then, we've been texting everyday for the past week. My friend doesn't know about any of this.
I don't know what to do or where this is going. Bob goes to a different school so we'll likely never see each other again. I've never been in a relationship and I don't think long distance would really work. I don't know how to bring this up to my friend because every time I FaceTime him, he's in a group setting. How do I go about this?

My boyfriend (22M) and I (22F) have been together for 5 years. We just signed a lease on an apartment to live together for the first time. I’m excited but I’ve been noticing lately he is so weak minded. For context he just graduated college 1 year ago and I graduated just recently. I think I started noticing this behavior after he graduated.
After college, he was unemployed for a while but got a good job at a small insurance agency. I don’t want to judge because I don’t work his job, but its a cushy job. He’s in an air conditioned office and it sounds relatively simple. The other assistant underwriters dont even have college degrees, so you could consider it an unskilled type of job? He sends me tiktoks during the day from his desk so it seems like he doesnt even have a huge workload. This job pays very well imo too.
Yet every evening he texts me for hours about how hes having a mental breakdown over how STRESSED he is for work tomorrow. He cant ever put a reason why he’s stressed: he has no deadlines, no presentations to give, no quotas to meet. He just has to complete tasks and ask for help when he needs it.
My job, alternatively, does have deadlines and is very challenging. I am a woman in tech and my job is competitive and rapidly changing. I dont complain not even 1% as much as he does.
I’ve started to notice he has a bad attitude about EVERYTHING. the other night he got the hiccups while we were on the phone, so bad he had to hang up. He then texted me about how he has “horrible painful hiccups for the last 15 minutes”. I mean seriously, hiccups? I know its a stereotype that men are dramatic about their discomforts but this is ridiculous.
I have a ton more examples but I don’t want to get into it. I need some advice. I already signed a lease but this is just really starting to annoy me, it’s exhausting to have to listen to all the complaining and I don’t know what to do. Sometimes I blow up at him and tell him he has a bad attitude but he says I’m invalidating his feelings. I need some advice.

I held the package close, its precious contents pressed against my spine. The steady beeps that communicated life drove my exhausted legs forward. Even with the combat stimulants running rampant through my blood, my nervous system bringing fibrous polymer muscles to their brink, and a set of assisting servos practically tripling my stride speed, I was exhausted. The sun and its rays bared down on me like a predatory dragon, each ray a fang made of flame, ready to tear open my suit and scorch my skin…but not today.
“Not today!”
I picked my stride up and sent every muscle in my body past overdrive, I tore stone and sand as I sprinted farther forward and collapsed. I had finally made it to one of the only rations of shade on the desolate moon surface. As I hit the ground and retreated into the shade, I removed the pack from my shoulders and gently laid the box down. I opened the zipper that held the sunshade on and looked at the pale figure inside.
“Hello my love, I hope you’re resting well, we finally made it, now just time to wait…and you'll be better again”
I took my helmet off and took a deep breath before beginning to set up camp. I thought back to the mission room, where I was nearly denied entry to Io
“You understand the journey you’re undertaking has never been completed before? This is a mission that as of this moment has a 100% rate of failure. Do you not think it would be wiser to simply say your goodbyes and prepare for a life without her?”
I shook my head as the council stared at me with tired expressions and pained eyes
“I am three times decorated am I not?”
The head minister nodded and shuffled her papers, reading slowly from the top page
“Argon Lethius, 12 tours, 7 rotations, 153 confirmed neutralizations, 3000 pending, strength record unmatched, augmentations class S granted. You’re also the sole surviving candidate of the sky petal program”
The sky petal program, an experimental research project I had taken part in to pay for my wedding. The core concept was simple: graft photovoltaic cells onto our skin and use nanotechnology to create a bio-mechanical ecosystem within the dermis.
The result was going to be humans capable of photosynthesis, making us less susceptible to nutrition based disaster. Rejection however was high in the program and when your body is trying to fight its skin, things get ugly quickly. A dormant gene I had passed on from my mother allowed my body to accept the prosthesis but at great cost, I was now essentially allergic to solar radiation. When I'm planetside I'm just fine, but if I was in an area devoid of atmosphere, the nanotech would go overkill, usually producing energy akin to solar flares from my skin.
“Mr. Lethius, your feats and skills are unmatched, your circumstances are impossible to reproduce and the dedication you’ve shown to this coalition has been unwavering. Which is why we sympathize with your loss, and grieve with you. Crystal was-”
I snapped at her
“Is…she’s still alive”
The minister nodded and corrected herself
“I'm sorry, Crystal is an incredible addition to this council, and we are deeply sorry both internally and externally. But the dragons of Io have no official record, and the sunlight alone could overcharge you in a day, leaving not only our best military asset but also his sick wife stranded without hope of rescue”
I nodded and spoke solemnly
“3 days supply, and a ship to drop me off, if I don't respond in 4 days, come get my body and bury her where we fall. She loves it there. Even if I can't save her, I want her to rest somewhere she would be happy”
I snapped back to the present and finished setting up camp. Unpacking our supplies and connecting a set of solar panels to her cryo-chamber. I watched her take deep breaths through the ventilator as I threw a tarp overhead and began digging into the rockface.
“You’ll be ok my love, by this time tomorrow you’ll be your old self again”
I dug for hours, tearing holes in my suit and flaying the skin from my fingers. As my blood hit the white dirt and stained the cracked surface, I felt a degree of nausea rise up from my stomach. Saliva filled my dry mouth and I bit down on my tongue to prevent the vomit. Bile reached the back of my throat and I dug my fingers into the dirt, searching for the Will to resist my body’s urges. The sun couldn’t take me, my mind couldn’t shake me, I would not buckle before saving her. Before long I couldn't go on, and I needed to rest.
I swallowed hard and sat back, laying down and looking up at the harsh sky.
“Hindsight is 20/20, we can keep trying new things but sometimes this is just how things work out, I’m sorry”
I nodded as the doctor left the room and she sat motionless in her gown.
“That guy didn’t know what he was talking about, there’s so many treatments, we’ll just go to another doctor”
She brushed a strand of hair out of her face and looked up at me
“I’m tired of my love, can we go home?”
I nodded without speaking and embraced her, feeling her slow and weakened heartbeat against my chest, its rhythm in sync with my own.
“Sure, We’ll go home”
That was the last time I saw her awake, she fell asleep on the car ride home…and never woke up. I was able to bring her to the hospital where they revived her, but she was comatose, most likely asleep till the cancer kills her.
“I’m sorry my love”
I looked over at her chamber before bringing my hand up to my face and staring at the mangled flesh of my palms.
“A drop of blood for a question, a thousand heartbeats for an answer”
I heard the voice in my head as if it was a thought I had formulated all on my own, but the voice was different, it didn’t belong to me nor anyone I had ever heard before.
“A single tear for a favor, an entire ocean for its completion”
I crawled to the spot where my blood had dripped into the ground, the sand was stained red but almost completely dry. I leaned over it and thought about my honeymoon, I thought about vacations and work, time together and apart, moments where she was everything. I thought about the idea of my life without her, and then it came like a flood. Tears flowed freely from my eyes and drenched the ground, the first falling square on the red stain in the sand. The liquid pooled on top and a small ribbon of crimson fluid flowed upward into the tear drop. The ribbon danced and waved in a thin line through the microscopic ocean.
“What is your question?”
The voice came from above me now, and as I slowly looked upward, a loomed overhead, blocking the sun from view, and causing my heart to skip a beat.
“What…is your question”
Before me now stood a massive beast, speaking in the voice I had heard in my mind and digging his gargantuan claws into the sand. The tip of each toe ended in a blade that was crystalline and almost translucent. Each blade too had a glowing orange stripe that when shifted, turned the sand underneath him to panes of glass. His arms were broad and powerful, covered in green scales and his maw hung open with a light blue mist emanating from his teeth. He was the dragon, the one from Io who space gods told legends about.
“I…I want to know something about my wife”
He knelt down on his two front arms and brought his eyes to my level, a kindness flowing between his seemingly infinite pupils.
“Your wife. She is a story I myself cannot seem to get over. What do you wish to know?”
I looked up at him and let out a deep breath before gesturing to her
“Can- can she be saved”
His gaze snapped to her case and he slowly moved over to where she slept
“You brought her with you, of course you did, you could never leave her behind.
I crawled over and knelt next to him, tears still flowing from my eyes.
“Please tell me, can she make it?”
He turned around and knelt next to me, putting a massive hand gently on my shoulder and speaking softly.
“My boy, She’s already made it, just not in the direction…you were hoping”
He tapped the monitor screen and it stopped showing vitals, instead displaying a digital sign in dark red letters. I read them aloud to myself.
“Subject deceased, time since last recorded activity. 37 hours 22 minutes 48-49 seconds”
He nodded and spoke calmly
“You wanted to badly for her to live, you saw her living, even when she wasn’t”
I slammed my hand on the crate and opened the lid, picking her up in my arms and putting my ear to her chest.
“Come on, come on. You’re ok, you’re ok”
I clutched her in my arms as silence arrived to my ears. I rocked her and cried into her soft silken hair. Her pale skin had lost its glimmer and I pressed my forehead against her own. I spoke through tears and a tightened throat
‘No, she cant die, I found you! I finally found you! Come on sweetheart you’re ok right? Just wake up. He's here baby we made it, please just wake up, please”
The dragon loomed over head and let out a deep breath, speaking gently, so as not to disturb the silence
“She is gone, and even I cannot save her”
I felt my skin begin flaming as I turned my head back up toward him
“Then what can you do? What can you do if you can’t bring her back to me? Why are you a legend if you cant make her breath again?!?”
He whispered softly into her ears and I felt the wind of the world around me change
“Because I can send you to her”
The planet fell silent and she disappeared along with the dragon. The camp was gone, my hand had been healed, my suit was gone and instead I wore a thin white shirt and loose cotton shorts. I was comfortable, and as I stood to my feet I felt as if my thirst had been quenched, my hunger satiated, I was…ok.
“Hello?”
I called to the emptiness, and before long a soft sullen voice spoke back.
“Hello darling”
She took my face in her hands and turned me around, holding my cheek as my whole body shook
“Hi beautiful”
I brought my hand up to her own and felt her soft warm skin against mine, I pressed my head into her hand and leapt forward, bringing her close and up into the air as I spun her around. She laughed as I gently set her down and wrapped my arms around her.
“I’m sorry you can’t stay”
I looked at her and spoke quickly
“What do you mean I can’t stay? The dragon sent me to you, he sent me to see you, so we can be together again”
She shook her head and kissed my softly, as she pulled away she put her hand on my chest
“It’s not your time hero, I’ll see you eventually, but this is goodbye for now”
I woke up on the sand, the dragon standing over me, holding her body as she began to slowly turn to dust. His tears fell on her degrading body as he handed her to me, and lowered his head.
“I'm sorry, it’s never permanent, did she tell you goodbye?”
I took a deep breath and held her in my arms before walking a few paces forward, and laying her down on the sand. I spoke calmly as tears streamed down my face.
“Yea…she did”
He nodded
“That is more than most get, was she smiling?’
I wiped my eyes and laughed
“Yea…she was”
He fluffed his wings and let the world around us grow heavy with winds
“Then your mission is complete”
I continued to cry as I looked back at him and spoke in a wavering tone
“Did you know I was a general?”
He strolled over and sat next to me, watching her particles flow away with the storm
“You were the most powerful general of all time, incapacitating but never killing, for a man with your rank one must usually commit vast atrocities but you…you never took one life”
I nodded and watched the wind whip and carry sand alongside her body
“I didn’t want to take life, I was reprimanded over and over but I always knew there was a better way, she wanted me to try, to make it so at every opportunity we could fight without ending lives…she hated senseless death…and I think I see why now”
He spoke calmly, wiping his eyes as the last of her bones turned to crystalline dust in the wind
“Her death was not senseless, in fact you'll find that when something as beautiful as her dies, it becomes impossible to make sense of it. That does not mean it happened without sense, and it does not mean her death must be for nothing. When men first meet me, they offer a drop of blood, and that is all I require for the question, but to gain my favor, they must give up a piece of themselves”
I sighed and looked up at him
“What do you need from me then?”
He gestured to where her body had sat moments ago
“You just let the biggest piece of yourself go without a fight. You have paid for more than enough trips to see her”
I nodded and spoke without waiver
“I'm not supposed to keep visiting her though, am I? She won’t be happy till we see eachother again permanently, and if I show up prematurely…she would probably be pissed. So ,I guess now I just live?”
He laid down in the sand and let out a deep groan
“I don’t think I’ve lived in quite some time, I’ve been stranded here for so long, evading capture to exist within my freedom, too afraid to face the cosmos again”
I patted his side and gripped what was essentially his ankle
“You shouldn’t be afraid, fear doesn’t do anything for men like us. Maybe we should sit a while, and see if your fear doesn’t go away”
He let out a deep breath and closed his eyes, laying down as I watched the sun rise over the horizon. My heartbeat continued, but as I watched the last of her ashes swirl through the air, I found a modicum of peace, and I thought about her.

I'm a young woman and I just started college, and I can't talk to anyone. I can't make friends, start a conversation, or anything.I feel like I'm extremely annoying unwanted everywhere I go, and I can't talk to anyone who isn't already my friend or friend of my friends, which in the case of college, are almost non-existent.
I go to the same college as my boyfriend. He worries about me. He loves being by my side but says I need friends and that it's not healthy for me to depend on him for interactions. He is right. I want friends so much. All I want is to make friends, talk to my classmates and maybe hang out afterwards. I cry thinking about how I want friends so f*cking much.
Every time I try to say something I feel like it's a huge shit and that no one cares or will ever care. And then I give up.
This is important context. I was really bullied in elementary school. Nothing physical fortunately, but my mental health went to shit. The girls on my class made me get down on all fours and be the dog in family pretend playing while they were all playing some important part. They laughed at everything I said as if I were stupid. They pretended they were my friends to get answers on tests and then they talked shit about me behind my back. And so much more. At that time, I was so desperate for at least one friend that I thought if I was nicer, If I was a worthy person, it would stop. And it never stopped.
I remember looking at other kids in groups talking and laughing and I cried thinking why I didn't deserve this.
Since then I just can't make friends properly and I hate it. I feel so lonely. Sometimes I cry myself to sleep.
Sorry if this text is not very coherent. English is not my mother tongue and I just wanted to get things out, I didn't think much. Thank you for reading this far.

Hi! I don't normally post on reddit but I am in need of some unbiased advice. My boyfriend(28m) and myself (26f) broke up today after 5 years. He has started his own business in the restaurant world and it has completely taken over his life. This was something we discussed beforehand that his time would limited and his schedule would be crazy so I very much knew what to expect in that regard. Where I think we made a mistake was how we would go about the day to day contact to stay connected and close during this time. BOTH of us have stepped back and taken noticeable space from each other in the past couple weeks. Not answering texts as fast being less engaged everything you would do when pulling back a smidge. I reached out to find time for us to find time to speak in person. My intentions with this talk were to discuss how we should've been proactive at the beginning to have this talk so we both knew exactly what the other person needs and what is expected to keep us reassured and happy that we were doing good! The conversation very quickly turned to him being in a horrible mental space because his long working hours and stress on top of that. I get that 100% and to be fair he doesn't look good he is losing weight and his eyes are bloodshot at all times. He said that I haven't supported him in this new business because I don't go see him at the restaurant often. I go about once a week and sit and wait for him to get off so we can sleep together literally any time together even if it's just sleeping is something at this point. In my situation I am a single mother to a 6year old and I also work as a hairstylist so I have 10 hours days socializing on my feet. I can not leave my daughter with my parents to go sit and watch him work till 1-2 am and then wake up at 7 am to get myself and child ready for the day I need to be home with her and I need to take her to her activities. She is my number 1 priority and this has been 5 years this is very known. We proceeded to argue about how I can't do that right now and how I am willingly to do whatever he needs me to to fix this and that i very much still love him and want this. He would not look me in the eye or break up with me he wouldn't even say we need a break or space he just kept repeating he needs to fix himself and crying. We hugged and sobbed together and he left. I am giving him all his space s till he reaches out to me I do eventually need my things back from his house so I have to break contact at some point if he doesn't. We also have two weddings in a month that we have rsvpd for and bought gifts and clothes for so that needs to be discussed as well.
Sorry for the complete ramble of the situation I am really looking for maybe a male perspective on this or something totally unbiased. I have no idea what to think and I am left in total confusion and plan to take it as an actual break up and wait for him to reach out
extra: this same thing happened 2 1/2 years ago with us he was unhappy i picked up on it initiated a convo and it went the same way no answers no official anything just he is messed up and doesn't know he reached out a week later wanting to fix things and we did and have been great and happy since till this month

Some background, like the title says 27M and have been in relationship with my girlfriend with suspected BPD for a little over 2 years. We moved in together fast about 4 months in, I know don’t come at me, but she seemed solid. Had a job and owns the house we live in. She’s slightly older than me, 28. She had a really rough childhood, trauma, moving all the time, a lot of poverty and abuse (she doesn’t say much what happened to her but talks about her siblings and it’s implied that things were so bad they are unspeakable and she’s very damaged from it). Her biological father is in prison but she didn’t have any contact with him growing up yet she is still very affected by this fact. She has received large sums of money from him prior to his prison sentence. She is, I feel, intentionally vague about the details of all of that (except for when she’s angry and venting where the details change to serve her victim narrative).
I’m exhausted by how different my relationship is from the healthy relationships of my friends. My friends who can go to a concert with their friends and without their girlfriends obsessively checking up on them, or guilting them for going in the first place. My friends who can have lunch with their girlfriends without an abrupt cessation of eating because she’s suddenly triggered and is going to go throw up her food (or covertly threaten to). My friends whose girlfriends can show up to a hangout without having 5 layers of video-game-girl makeup and a wig styled to “perfection”. I’m tired of playing dad, therapist, boyfriend, and bestie to an adult woman with such a weak core sense of who she is that she bends and warps her body and her mind into what she *thinks* I want when what I *actually want* is to be with someone who can simply exist in her own skin and see the world as it really is. See past her own insecurity to actually see me and not whatever projection her trauma is informing her worldview with at the moment.
She can’t be alone. She is insufferable if I do something for myself, without her. She believes she needs to supervise me and make her presence known so that other girls (threats) don’t come onto me. She “knows” that I think other women are cute or beautiful and that I’m “only with her because I know her”. As if this pathologically insecure personality of hers is her winning asset. She’s plenty pretty, and the sex is amazing as you all already know, but even that appeal is lessening due to her intense neediness. She takes my not being in the mood as rejection. She wants sex because she feels bad about herself and needs to feel wanted, regardless of what I want or need. It’s all a reflection of HER. HER needs. HER insecurities. I’m suffocating like there’s no room for me to exist in this relationship. She sucks up all the air in any given room.
She’s obsessed with “thinspo,” body modification, and plastic surgery. I have tattoos myself and do find them attractive on a woman, but I believe she is using tattoos and piercings as self-harm. I hate to say it but I’m starting to question the legitimacy of her eating disorder as she is the attention-seeking type. The attention seeking didn’t used to bother me and I used to be ok with caring for hesoothing her, but she’s just getting worse over time and needing more.
Her spending is out of control and she can’t keep a job. She got herself fired from her job this year because she couldn’t keep her head down enough to keep a paycheck. At a job she was lucky to have (not technically qualified for) and exaggerated to the point of lying on her resume to get into. She now has her own business, which despite my own job is “our” gig in an attempt to future-fake and keep me stuck with her. I can’t say much about the business without giving away too much indentifying information. But there is a lot of frustration here. I am expected to do so much for this business and while I support her, I don’t want this for myself and I do have my own work. She spends so much money she doesn’t have on “the business”. She asks me for money for “business things” which also happen to be expensive hobby gear or the newest iphone, making a case for needing it for social media promotion or whatever else excuse. She can’t tolerate due to her childhood poverty being “without” anything she wants. She has thousands in debt which she finds a way to blame on her parents too (she is estranged from them).
I believed the lies and exaggerations that she was better off than this and more capable than this. But she’s coming apart and I’m not enough to hold her – or us – together. If I stay, I’ll continue to be miserable. If I leave, I’ll be just another asshole who abandons her. And that’s how every story ever ends, she says. Everyone always abandons her. She doesn’t get that she’s the reason. She really believes in her victimhood. She lost a significant friendship last year and I was fully on her side, convinced she was wronged. Now that I’m feeling the weight of knowing her long-term, I honestly kind of get it.
There’s so much more I wanted to write but I’m exhausted. I’m angry. I’m thinking about my future, and I don’t think I want one with her. This has been fun (well it was...) and I care about her, I really do, but I don’t think I can keep doing this.

Call me the Memetranslator, because I speak fluent Meme and can explain every Meme. In reality all of this is nonesense though, so do not take anything here seriously. Als I am not affiliated with anyone, including DFV. You tell me if its correct or not. If DFV sees this and wants me to not post these translations any further, write me a message. If DFV wants me to continue... same.
First Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1789807772542067105
This is a gamer going from his layed back pose to a more concentrated one. It tells us that it is go time now! It has begun!
Second Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790034263603139012
The first Part shows Thanos with the gamestop symbol. It means Gamestop is Thanos and Gamestop did something itself! The second part shows Roaring Kitty as Wolverine awakening. And in case you did not see Keith Gills face superimposed over Wolverine, it is made more clear with the Kitty outline on the Heartratemonitor. So basically this meme tells us, that Gamestop did something, which is why Roaring Kitty/DFV/Keith Gill is back.
What did Roaring Kitty see? Well... just you wait, the memes tell us.
Third Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790041813379850491
We were told it is over. It is not over until we say its over! Roaring Kitty has awakened! Wake up and be ready!
​
Fourth Meme:
https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790049362846117942
This is a big one! It shows a gamestop-coded Car driving back into the green. It means the Buyback from gamestop will leed to the green! This continues the meme from the 4th of June 2021: On June 4th of 2021, Roaring Kitty posted this: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1400124740291923968
It shows the first Part of the Scene from Ready Player one, before he drives back to win basically. But it does not show the second Part. Because Gamestop did not buy BACK Shares!
What does it mean? It means Roaring Kitty wanted to see Gamestop do a buyback of shares. That did not happen though. After that moment he slowed down with memeposting and posted memes of frustration, among them a declaration, that he does not love Ryan Cohen. I will show that meme later, its the "love actually" one, because that one came back also! He expected the Buyback to finish the shorts, but Ryan did not do that, so he fell out of love with him and went silent shortly after, as the buyback was crucial to fucking the shorts somehow.
Fifth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790056912664601031
Get ready to fight, every notch/Options Step brings in more money, because of the Gamma Squeeze! And do not sell all winning options... take as many shares out of the options as possible, to help the Gamma Squeeze. (this is what the Blood on the Blade Part in the beginning is all about) But the opposition is numerous and getting ready to fight. When he moves, everybody needs to move! Coded in Red and Green, so basically he might be telling us to watch out for signals from the memes, as he they will tell us what the stock will do... though I think most people misinterpret the memes anyway and also I am not sure about the signal part. It may just be that we need to find the signals for ourselves. But we definetly need to move!
​
sixth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790064464357724451
He Moves!
Seventh Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790072011810812231
A Reiteration of the "When I say 'run', RUN!"
Eigth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790079562866360327
Everybody needs to work together, this is the LAST TIME! THIS IS IT! THE TIME IS NOW! And apparently some friends also showed up... some whales, that I do not know maybe.
Ninth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790087112282239085
Its the Showdown from "the good the bad the ugly", with the musiv from that showdown played from a live Metallica Concert (They play that before they start their music as an intro) So its Showdown-Time! Unfortunatelly I do not know the Symbol that is superimposed over Thor, but it probably identifies some entity that is in this fight.
Tenth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790094668237259040
A Red coded Meme... could mean stock will go down short term .... maybe reading too much into this though. Also tells us that Hell is coming with this. Omnious!
Eleventh Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790102212619669909
Another Big one. Gamestop pushed the Red Button, that they did not push in 2021. That Button being the Share Buyback? Its Another Continuation from a Meme from June 4th 2021: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1400863669895024643
That same day, right in the meme before that one, he declares he does not love R.C.. This Meme is the explanation why: Gamestop (R.C.) Did NOT Push the Red button back then.
The good news is, now apparently Gamestop did push the red button/do the buyback/maybe something else(Gamestop as a holding company related).
Twelvth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790109766389477525
"No Fighting" means, do not fight the downtrend. Let the memes guide you! You will need your money in the coming weeks!
Thirteenth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790170162265460831
Roaring Kitty is in this and has been waiting and planning all this time that the stock was beat down. But every action is followed by a reaction. Could mean that when stock is beaten down, it WILL go up again. And it will be quite a fuckin thing. Another Red Coded Meme though. Come Hang, chill, wait. And in the End it will be green after the red. Maybe. To be honest, all Memes that could mean that we should do a certain action are not all that super clear and I might be misinterpreting them. Which is funny, considering the "Did I make myself clear" in the end..... because to me that part is not clear at all!
Fourteenth Meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790396654971224430
Dont test me! Go back to sleep! Could mean that Roaring Kitty wanted to go back to sleep by media and the shorts. and he is like "dont test me", cause he is a one hit killer. Probably means he could just openly say what he knows and then shorts would be finished. Because coded meme messages WILL be interpreted wrongly.
Fifteenth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790404203715887238
Kitty/DFV feels Bears, Shorts and Media did fuck around with him and now they will find out. Now he is stopping "being the better person" and trying to follow their "rules". What follows is kitty ranting about the neysayers/Shorts, saying bears are fucking idiots basically!
Sixteenth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790411757120561628
Kitty comes to us. He Needs our help and we need to not ask any questions, not now not later. Seventeenth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790419301976903884
mainly green coded Video.
Eighteenth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790426851409817615 Basically because of the SEC(Security), a lot of planning is/was needed for this, as well as maaaaany people. because this is different because it has never been done before. The Goal is JUST UP.
Nineteenth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790434400494116873
This whole thing needed a whole lot of Paperwork and dancing around. Interestingly it mentions "Loophole", which could just mean that a way for the squeeze was found, building upon the eighteenth memes themes. Could also point towards Loopring, who worked together with Gamestop on the NFT-Marketplace. Could be a stretch though.
Twentieth meme: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790441953659687421
There is a signal that was sent, that was also seen by the bad guys. So I assume, whatever signal DFV saw, he is saying the Shorts also saw that signal.... and they are afraid. And a red coded Message: "FEAR IS A TOOL!" So, he might tell us to not fear the red days. Fear is just a tool. Could also mean that Shorts being afraid is good, because that fear is a tool. Cause when the shorts see the signal, some might flip and buy in. Which would good because THATS WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!
Twentyfirst: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790449499506192405
Coded green: A guy in front of a PC stays with a friend. Could mean Kitty is the friend and redditors collectively in front of their PCs stay and dont leave DFV alone! He may again ask us to be with him in this.
Twentysecond: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790457051115847720
Lots to unpack. A Requel means its happening again.... means the squeeze of 2021 is happening again. This is not just a company turnaround, it indeed is A SQUEEZE! And the Movie about that Sneeze fucking sucked basically.
Twentythird: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790464599575167004
Kitty comes for the Bears. He is back. This time, every bear will be a victim!
Twentyfourth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790472153470759217
DFV is supposed to be the Guy with the haircut. Basically he has the Shorts by the balls now. Now that DFV has seen the Buyback by Gamestop, he has his gun on the Short Sellers. Short Sellers are squirming and trying to shake off paperhands with a bit of money, but he is just grinning because of that ridiculous offer. Of course Shorts/Bears call him names and stuff. Then a Call/Margin Call comes in. This Meme will have a follow up meme! The Follow up Meme will be what happens after the Call, which is the Haircut guy shooting the Short guy and it will be posted once some Short-Hedge-Fund or Bank goes down because of this bet.
Another somewhat related meme was posted on June 9th 2021. https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1402641643694477317
That time DFV is the haircut guy and he is flipping the coin, which is GAMESTOP-coded. So he was waiting for a signal from Gamestop to be able to shoot his shot. He himself could NOT do what he was waiting for from GAMESTOP. I guess he was still waiting for the Buyback back then, but it was evident that it wasnt coming (and too late anyway). I bet DFV was pissed that GME did no buyback, but NOW they did, which is why he has posted the current meme.
Twentyfifth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790532552828289526
The Prisoner says "GAMESTOP"! In case its not clear, that means DFV is talking about GME. And he is ALL IN!
Twentysixth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790713748866371690
Gamestop looking Sexy and throwing us kisses! They send us the signal! (the buyback?)
Twentyseventh: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790717515523658119
Gamestop is doing something extraordinary. They do it in the open and we could see it. Maybe something with electricity. But we are not really looking.
And whatever it is, it will BEAT DOWN the Bears.
Could mean that Gamestop is buying back its stock to put it onto a NFT-Stock Market, which is why Gamestop registered as a holding company. But this is just baseless speculation.
Twentyeigth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790721293089964126
Everybody Hold, gamestop is preping something. It means we should hold, because Gamestop is preping something against whoever tried to kill Short and distort Gamestop and did short and distord Blockbuster and others.
Twentyninth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790725065585439065
Gamestops milk was poisened. Means the short and distord left moles in the company that tried to destroy it from within.
Thirty: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790728848226521547
Against all the odds, Kitty or R.C. went into this short and distort sheme, to try to win against short sellers.
Thirtyfirst: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790732615022195139
Kitty does not take the comments of the Media laying down, he fights back. Kitty mentions Wutang. Maybe it has something to do with the rumor that Wutangs one of a kind Album was somehow unter the control of R.C.. Dont know if its a cheecky call back or if this story is actually real.
Thirtysecond: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790736391124774975
Moon Night-Fortnite-Day n night are the Key motifs. So here is the thing with Fortnite: A Fortnight is 2 Weeks. In 2 Weeks, at the beginning of June, the 3 Year LEAPS expire. Moon Night is invulnerable basically.
Now this could hint towards Shorts being invulnarable because of their LEAPS, until those LEAPS expire in 2 Weeks. Then their silly game is over. Thats why everything happening right now is just the OVERTURE (See Second Meme)
Thirtythird: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790740164848861227
Media are disrespecting Kitty and he is fine with it.
Thirtyfourth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790743946764644659
I think he is saying He is a redditor and Redditors are like him. Reddit brought him Gamestop and he brought Gamestop to redditors. Something like that. And the first thing one should do to follow his Thesis is try to "Defend the Bear Case". Trying to defend the other side of a trade will show how fucked the other side actually is. Maybe that is why he and redditors know that Gamestop will explode into the green. Cause the Bear Case.... its not that good.
​
Thirty fifth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790747714440892825
DFV is telling us he is not following some get rich quick sheme. He is not a gambler degenerate. He has a plan, he makes the memes, he does not follow them! He knows and people should hear his side. Also its a play on parts of the Next Meme, he is telling us he made the memes.
Thirty sixth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790751492451754012
He is telling us that Ryan Cohen did a lot of the planing and the getting the people together, but people listen to "Avocado-in-my-anus", which is an alternate account of DFV. Is it really though? Well he told us in the last meme, that he is the one that made the memes. And Avocado-in-my-anus made 3 Memes on Cat Day.
Thirty-seventh: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790755264733626879
Again a continuation from the last meme. People saying DFV is running the whole GME Thing... meanwhile what is supposed to be DFV is just drawing dicks/making Memes. He tries to tell us, that it is R.C. doing the whole company stuff and that he has nothing to do with it basically.
Thirtieigth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790759048985612468
A continuation from the last few memes. R.C. vs DFV, who is in charge? They both say they will not. Quill is R.C., Thor is DFV. DFV kind of wants to be in charge, but begrudgingly lets R.C. do his thing. I think this plays on DFVs Anger in 2021, that R.C. did not push the red button/do the buyback back then.
Thirtyninth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790762813868175516
This is basically a repeat and rewind of a Meme posted on June 4th 2021: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1400844797229912065
In 2021, DFV was mad, that R.C. did not push the button/do the buyback and told us clearly that he did not like R.C. anymore with this meme. Now in 2024, he rewinds that meme and tells us, that he thought that at the time in 2021, but that the investment thesis evolved over time and he now sees R.C. as a supermode.
So basically he saw what R.C. was doing in 2024, which he did not in 2021 and he likes R.C. again now. Probably because R.C. pushed the button and also did some plan with loopholes and stuff that DFV may not have thought about.
Number Forty: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790766591526735887 So, R.C. had a plan and 3 years later it comes to fruition. He does mirror some of R.C.s emotes. Also he tells us "People say it cant squeeze again"..... he says it will.
​
Fortyone: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790770363627921776 Too many awards on his last post. Maybe too many eyes on him and his plan?
Forty two
https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790774146994966570 DFV transformed fully into his internet persona, because of the last meme.
​
Forty three: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790777913245421806 Too much drama around Kitty in 2021. This might be the explanation why he went dark-mode.
forty four: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790781688848450012 People want to know what the fuck Kitty was doing all these 3 years. He tells us he was waiting for this. Because it is part of the Plan. What is this? I think it is GME Buying back stock before the expiration of the LEAPS in the beginning of June. So yea, thats what he saw and why he came back.
​
Forty five: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790785463118348420 It does not matter that he, DFV, is back. The whole Squeeze Plan matters. And it is getting executed right now. Why does he say we? Because everyone holding GME is part of it. It think the many DRSed hodlers of GME are indeed part of the plan and necessary!
Forty Six: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790789242513433071 The Goofy "I will do it again" Meme. DFV will do it again.... and by "it" I think he means he will again buy a shit ton of options and stock. And I think he will post it. OR Its the shorts that are doing it again. And its shorting, but I dont know if its referring to back in 2021 and their shorting until now, under the cover of LEAPS or if it is now before June, or whatever. We will see.
Forty Seven: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790793012936851665
He tells the GME investors that say they lost money because of DFV: SHUT UP BITCH! Continued in next meme.
Fortyeight: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790796790360363016
He tells us, that last memes "Shut up, Bitch" was too good of a line to not use and that it was not meant for all redditors, but for one guy that apparently was crying about losing money because of DFV. Dont know who, I am not into reddit drama. Basically DFV just liked the line as a meme, because its funny. And he will continue to post coded memes, even if people dont understand them.
Forty-nine: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790800562654691686 DFV thinks everybody thinks he is crazy with his memes and Media slandered him.
Fifty: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790804340673789978 Continues the last meme and that people think he is a freak with his memes. But he tells us the memes bring out the people that are like him... freaks. He is talking to us oldscool redditors and webpeople that the mediapeople cant seem to get their head wrapped around. If you ever rolled your eyes at the media misusing uncomplicated memes.... yea, he is talking about you. You come to twitter to hear his trumpet/Memes!
Fifty one: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790808112741630320
DFV is the Redhanded-guy and that bears can do nothing against him. It is red-coded. But definetly Bears can do nothing against DFV and he is keeping them up. Which I think is definetly true.
Fifty two: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790812277530034448 Jim Cramer asked for this meme and DFV made it in a few minutes, just to fuck with him. Though it does show Kitty behind a chair, coded in Computershare colors and with a teddy, which is the name of R.C. Company of Kids Books. And Kitty behind the whole thing, hiding. Jo, does Teddy play into all of this??? If so this meme is one hundred layers deep. Personally I think Teddy might be important to do some stuff that Gamestop itself can not do, like for example "buy Calls on GME", but this meme is mainly there to fuck with Jim Cramer.
Fifty Three: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790815662203617755 The stock goes down, just to fuck with us.... UNTIL!!!!!!! Well, what happens after "until" will probably follow in a later meme, when shorts lose control of their button. Probably in the beginning of June, or when R.C. announces the buyback and a higher than expected number of shares locked down. No more Mr. Nice Guy for the shorts then. so keep your eyes out. Oh, and the stock will stop going down then.
Fifty four: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790819440617033914 Shorts try to crucify Kitty and Gamestop.... it speaks about the stock going down as a tool from the shorts to make us afraid. And we only ask: Is that the best you can do?
Fifty Five: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790823211745063394 Shorts taunt us, beat us down and try to make us doubt..... but the soundtrack :-D Basically this is a game for us and we will whop their asses, no matter what shorts do.... like the beatdown on the stock right now.
​
Fifty six: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790826988019528035
Now, this is interesting: Shorts made this whole thing happen. They sold before they bought. They dropped it. So it WILL go back up. It... WILL.... GO....... UP!!!!!! You feel it yet?
Fifty Seven: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790830761542664192
Continuation: Do you have a girlfriend that tells you to sell and stop listening to the mad people on Reddit? Do you have people around you, telling you the squeeze-narrative is bullshit? Trust your instinct. This continues the last meme, while you can not see the stock going up right now, it was dropped. So it will go back up. Thats the law of nature, even if it was perverted.... or turned around.
Fifty Eigth: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790834536403574936
A Person is fleeing with a hidden GME Share in his pocket. It means we were running and holding GME for a long time and are tired, but we STAND UP, with GME IN OUR HANDS! I am not really "tired", but thats what the meme says.
Fifty Nine: https://x.com/TheRoaringKitty/status/1790894938277695671
In this meme, DFV explains to us, how he found Gamestop. Due Diligence, time, pressure and making memes, basically. In 2021 they tried to lock away DFV, but all the departments of the state found no wrongdoing... just his reddit posts, tweets and live streams.
It only takes pressure and time and DFV studied meticulously. Now I did not know every mentioned meme, so he may not have posted them. He may have posted them though and it might lead to another account of him. I doubt it would be more fruitful in information than his twitter account. After all, thats where the freaks at! And one last thing. He laments that apparently noone looked at his streams...I guess thats where all the information was after all. I think it shows content from his Gamestop-Explanation video, but I am unsure, because it is quarter before 4 AM and I am tired and I will go to bed after posting this.
Thanks for reading. Everything is made up of course, I have no idea what DFV is thinking, but it seems clear, that when you look at the whole situation, as we all did, we would come to the same conclusion, as we all did. Shorts did not close and GME seems to be a good investment. Also, look closer!.... thats the main theme. And stop doubting yourself.... yea, thats pretty much it.
So TLDR: The first days of June is where some of the magic will happen in the LEAPS. Meanwhile, R.C. has a plan with Gamestop and the buyback plays a role in it. And that plan does enable the ability for a killshot against the shorts. And it will explode in the green like never before. Also: Learn Memeish
To DFV: Write me what you think about it, if you want.

Together for 3 years.
We seem too have by this recurring argument by about him being jealous of my oldest son’s father. Today, I received a call from my son’s school about some trouble he got in with his classmate. I called his dad to inform him, which is something we always do in situations concerning our child. I always communicate matters with my son to his father and vice versa. We strictly discuss our son and nothing else whatsoever. There’s never any inappropriate interaction between my son’s dad and I. EVER. When the phone call was over, we continued the conversation through text. This must’ve rubbed my boyfriend the wrong way because his body language appeared tense all of a sudden. I asked him what was wrong and he responded that he didn’t like the fact that some of my passwords are my son’s name because he has the same name as his dad. I told him my passwords are just that, my CHILD’s name, not his dad’s. He seemingly got over it and we moved on.
Fast forward an hour later, he comes in the room and tells me he will text me later while he’s at band practice and that he wants me to respond back as fast as I responded to my son’s father earlier today. (He never texts me while he’s at band practice, he always calls after or I’ll just see him when he gets home) so I told him I’m not responding at all since he’s comparing himself to my oldest son’s dad again and only texting me just to see if I’ll respond in a certain time. This gets him even more upset and he begins raising his voice. I go to try and leave the room to avoid arguing and he blocks me from leaving and telling me I’m not leaving so I start yelling for him to move out of my way. My boyfriend is a huge guy (6’1 260 lbs) compared to my petite self (5’0 164 lbs). By this point, my 1 year old is crying and I’m trying to get to him. My boyfriend keeps pushing my hand every time I grab the doorknob and using his weight to keep the door from opening so I hit him in his shoulder (not hard at all, he probably barely felt it) and he hit me back wayyy harder and in my stomach! I’m currently 6 months pregnant. So I turned the other way and start to cry. Instead of apologizing, he starts to blame me saying it was a reflex because I hit him first and he didn’t mean to hit my stomach. He also said that he didn’t even hit me that hard which was false. He tries to grab me and I lash out in anger, hitting, yelling and kicking. When he finally let me leave the room, he follows me to the other room demanding we talk RIGHT NOW. I told him no and he proceeds to pull and yank me off of the bed to get me to go with him until I yelled at him to leave me alone. Our 1 year old is next to me while he’s doing this so he screams and cries for me to pick him up. I told my boyfriend he’s scaring the baby and he just keeps trying to take him from me so he can put him down and pull me out of the room. He eventually gave up and said I’m using our son as an excuse to avoid talking.
I’m just at a loss of words right now.
just to clarify, we weren’t in front of my son when I hit and kicked him, I hit and kicked him to get into the room where my son was crying

Okay, I apologize in advance because this is a long and overall kind of intense story.
TW: SA Accusations, Self Harm, like a little bit of every bad thing
So for some context; in my eighth grade to freshman year of high school, I was in a relationship with a girl we'll name Sarah. We met when I had some weird personality shift and fully switched my life around to become extroverted, and I had asked her out. She was "quirky" i guess, and that tended to let me see past her blatant flaws as "fun additions" rather than harmful attributes.
Ever since I was younger, for an irrelevant reason, I've been an extremely emotionally shut off person. There was only one person in my entire life, including every single family member, that i ever told about the aforementioned emotionally shut-off reason. As my relationship with Sarah continued, it slowly descended from playful romantic moments to an emotional dependency where she'd shut herself off from me, and force me to pull her back by supporting her relentlessly. It was pretty blatantly manipulative, but in hindsight it was hard to tell. Our relationship lasted around 9 months. Sarah slowly got more and more brutal to me, until I felt the relationship crack and decided the only way to patch the hole up was to tell her information I'd never told her about myself. A very good example was that I had, for almost half a year, issues with self-harm. This was extremely private, and I told her I never wanted it brought up in conversations that weren't relaxed, because i mentally wouldn't be in the right position.
Less than 2 days later, she said something insensitive and then texted me after not responding in 5 minutes begging me not to commit suicide. Eventually, I got covid and was quarantined for a week or two, and over the time grew to enjoy it because it was fully separate from Sarah. I realized this, and broke up with her.
She then proceeded to tell every person all the private information I'd ever told her, and tried to spread lies related to cheating, sexual assault, etc. This briefly turned some friends against me, before it became blatant she was lying since she just wasn't particularly good at it. I don't know how severe all this sounds to other people, so I'll tell a part that will immediately explain it:
When we broke up from our 3/4ths of a year relationship, in less than a week after our break up, she jerked a guy off in our school's attached library while she made eye contact with my friends.
After all this happened, I vowed not to enter a relationship for at least a year, so I could work on myself. I turned to weightlifting, felt way more confident in my body, lost some weight but still maintained an overall chubby shape, and headed back to therapy for a bit.
Over these 2-2.5 years, I became happy and confident in myself. Then I met, who I'll call, Chloe. In my honest opinion, she's the most attractive person I've ever met and I hope to god its not some limerence or honeymoon phase. She's funny, "quirky" but actually kind, and one of the only people I've met in my age group who's smarter than me in pretty much every way. We met and became at best acquaintances, I was scared to actually progress to a asking-her-out phase so I tried to get help from a friend (We'll call Brick). Brick was overall shitty, and she decided to tell Chloe behind my back. Chloe was going through a hard time with a family friend's kid making unwanted moves on her, in which Chloe ended up telling me this in the same conversation i planned to ask her out. So I waited, some stuff happened with the family friend over summer break and she had to wait until the middle-end of summer to tell this guy they were never dating and he was delusional.
SO. After summer break, another friend told me about Brick telling Chloe, and I confronted Brick, who lied and then almost immediately gave up and got mad at Chloe for *taking my side*. Inevitably, both Chloe and I unfriended Brick and cut her out, but still we weren't close. Eventually, I straight up asked her out and we went from there. Now here's the thing. I wouldn't call this a flaw, but Chloe is an extremely awkward person. She fumbles around physical contact, didn't really address the actual fact we were in a relationship to me, very rarely talked about me to other people. Now I personally am extremely proud of being in a relationship with her, but i understand it just being an innate trait. One big issue is that she doesn't compliment me, ever. She calls me sweet when I do something sappy, and that's it. Honestly though, that's not the biggest issue.
I found, throughout the relationship, there's times where I CAN'T touch her. I don't mean that she won't let me, I mean that I won't let me, like there's something fundamental that screams for me to stop. I get a moment of contemplation thinking back on my relationship with Sarah, and I get scared that maybe Chloe is uncomfortable and I'm pushing a boundary. And this isn't just physical touch; it's everything romantic or even communicative. I've managed to push past it to get her flowers on valentine's day, hug her when she's feeling sad, etc., but in our relationship that's been since October, SIX MONTHS, we've never kissed. I just can't do it. If she made the first move I'd be all for it, but she doesn't and something in my core tells me its because she doesn't want me to. It makes me feel unbelievably unattractive, and it pairs a lot with the fact that she's never once complimented anything but me being "sweet". She's never said I looked good (which is one of the few things i feel genuinely comfortable saying to her and do as much as possible as the only way to remedy the fact that i can't even kiss her), she's never mentioned anything impressive i've ever done. All of this combined makes me feel crazy, like my behavior is unwarranted. Is there any way to overcome this? i understand communication, but i physically can't do it, i genuinely can't bear the thought of making Chloe uncomfortable.

In 1945, the United States underwent Operation Paperclip which gave over 1,600 German scientists, engineers and technicians sanctuary and absolution of their crimes in exchange for the continuation of their research.
In 1953 those same individuals came up with and executed MK Ultra, an illegal human experiment that used its citizens (targeting schools, hospitals and prisons) as test subjects.
In 1954 the Plum Island was turned into a research center for diseases.
In 1975 the first documented case of Lyme disease occurred. Rumored to have escaped Plum Island.
In 2005 the DHS announced that all the work done at Plum Island would be continued in Kansas. Not just the center of the continental United States, but also home to crops seen in grocery stores all over the country.
The following is a true story.
Getting into work, one of the first things I do is check my mail. I’ve been a reporter for years and have amassed fans who like to write in and give me leads. Most of the time these leads don't amount to much (Sometimes I wonder if people send me things because of my apophenia and they are trying to get me off their scent), but every once in a while I strike gold.
I had been working at Whisper Alley Echos for a few months by the time I got my first lead. The package I got was small and when I opened it I saw a DVD that had the words “play me” written in black marker on it. Not knowing what was on it, I waited until I got home to put it on. Not just because I didnt know what was on it, but I was also busy working on a different project about how everyone in a nearby town just went missing. The official story is that they all went on vacation or went to visit a relative and decided to stay. I dont know about you, but I found that suspicious.
After getting home and shifting gears to get into the movie mood (popcorn, blinds pulled, etc…) I popped the DVD in and began watching.
There were dozens of different videos to pick from, some ranging from a minute to half an hour. Instead of picking one at random, I just played them in order. After all, all their titles were dates and times and I didnt want to miss anything that might make sense later.
The first video featured a tardigrade, at the time I didnt know what it was, but the scientist doing the voice over described it as being a microscopic animal as well as being extremely resilient. This went on for several minutes and for a moment it felt as though I was watching a nature documentary instead of something given to me by a government whistleblower.
The next few videos featured footage of the tardigrades being given something called “BB-F828” and the changes it caused.
The voiceover talked about how a tardigrade (this time he called them water bears and the two terms were interchangeable from this point on) was showing signs of several thousand generations of evolution in only a few days. Even though I know nothing about science, I could see that the thing on the television was not the same animal that was shown in the first video.
While they were never “cute”, at least they never looked like predators, but after a few videos I saw that the tardigrades were covered in what appeared to be padding. In a later video this padding would change into being chitin-like armor.
The last video was filmed two months after the water bears were given BB-F828 and in it the scientists could see them even without a microscope.
The next morning I went into work and started writing on my computer, copying notes from my small notebook. However by the time I started the second draft, Andrea, the office secretary, dropped a letter off at my desk.
It was the first time I got a letter about an “inside scoop” two days in a row.
The letter said that they were the ones who sent the DVD and if I wanted to know more I would have to go to The Rats Skeleton (a bar that used to be a speakeasy during prohibition. Because of this the place feels as though its a front for a comic book villain. The owners have leaned into this and did everything they could to reinforce this feeling with sparse lighting and everything that isn't red velvet on the walls being painted black) at a specific time.
Usually I wouldn't go meet strangers after getting an anonymous letter that tells me to come alone, but its a small town and I didn't have much going on that particular Thursday.
Parking behind the Merc (short for mercantile, where most of the grocery and general shopping is done in town), I descended the stairs and made my way to the back of the bar. There I found a woman that didnt look like she slept in days. Since no one else was in that back area I figured she must have been the person I was there to see.
“Hey, I’m Daniel West. Am I—”
“Sit” the woman said, motioning across from her. I sat down and asked her for her name but she didn’t want to answer me and when i asked for it a second time she claimed it was Jane, but there is no doubt that was not her real name.
“What made you reach out, Jane?”
“You saw the video?”
I nodded. “Yup.”
“And?”
“I have a lot of questions” I answered.
“Figured you would” Jane said. “Ask.”
“Well, first” I said, my journalistic inexperience showing as I went through my pocket notebook. “Who are you and why do you know all this?”
“Name isnt important” Jane answered. “Let me start from the beginning. We thought we were working on human survivability” Jane answered. “I thought that I was working for some company that had a government contract. That might be true, it might not be. Either way lots of money and resources have been put into this.”
“I saw the video” I answered. “What exactly was it that I was watching?”
Janes eyes were frantic as she looked at the stairs behind me. When I turned around to see what she was looking at I saw a local descending the steps and approach the bar. She only answered my question when she was convinced that the man wasn't eavesdropping, still, she spoke in whispers.
“We were working on human survivability.”
“You said that. What does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. Consider we civilize mars and the long term effects from the static radiation there. Or another planet that demands thicker bones because of increased gravity? Evolution might give us those things eventually but what if we need it now? In this generation?”
“So you made super humans?”
Jane was annoyed and slapped the table. No one was around to hear or see her but I still looked around anyways.
“We didn’t work on humans. We piggybacked off of some other countries' genetic research and made some breakthroughs of our own. When—-“
“Other countries?” I interrupted instead of letting her talk.
“Yeah” Jane said with a shrug. “Some countries aren’t tied down by the same code of ethics as ours.”
“That’s why you got a hold of me? To tell—-“
“We were working on small parts. At first individual genes, building from that success we went on to more complex organisms. Eventually, hopefully, test on humans.”
“But you never made it that far?”
“No” Jane said, taking a sip from her glass. “We tested BB-F828 on other things, building up towards human testing.”
“Okay, like what?”
Jane inhaled through her nose and looked at me as though she wasnt sure if I could be trusted. Then she sighed when she realized it was too late not to trust me, she had already went too far to turn back. “What do you think has the best chance of not only surviving a planet wide disaster, but also thrive in it?”
“Cockroaches” I answered.
Jane nodded. “Sure. Lots of people would agree with you, however that wouldn't be the best pick.”
“Oh? Then what would be?”
“Rats.”
I laughed.
“They are tough and can thrive anywhere. Even before BB-F828 they are smarter than roaches, plus rats have a complicated social hierarchy, similar to humans. Remember, I didn't just say survive. I said thrive.”
“So you tested all this on rats?”
Jane nodded. “We did.”
I waited for Jane to continue, but thanks to her staring off into space due to lack of sleep, she waited longer.
“What happened?”
Janes eyes drifted back at me, she was running on fumes. “Huh? Oh, yeah. Rats, right?” she asked while pulling a folder out from the seat next to her. She set it on the table and slid it over to me. “Here, take a peek.”
I opened it, expecting redacted pages of ‘evidence’ and while I got some of that, it was the photos that drew my attention the most. At first the photos were individual rats and a designated number they received instead of a name.
“How many rats did you experiment—” I started, but my voice trailed off when I came across a photo of the one rat with unique markings on its back now appearing to be bred for a war on pleasant dreams. Its eyes were pearly gray, teeth became tusks, its whiskers were thick and barbed. According to the scale it was on when the second photo was taken it weighed twenty nine point four kilos.
“A few hundred?” Jane answered, though it was obvious that it was just a guess. “They were paired off and put in different environments to see how they adapt.”
“Why would you pair them off?”
“I think it was to see if some would branch out and become their own species” Jane answered as she checked her watch. Seeing the time she sped up. “See, when something with BB-F828 finds itself in a desert, it might adapt to the point that it grows a hump like a camel. Or grow gills if they are in the ocean. The original purpose was for human survivability on other planets. We thought if we could discover how the adaptations work, and it could be repeated exactly the same over and over again, we could do something for humans. After all you wouldn't want anything unexpected to happen when you're in the middle of growing another set of arms or a dorsal fin, right?”Jane said. “But to do this we needed lots of subjects and all in their own environments. Each one had their own surprises, after all, evolution is random. Favors some things over others. One species can branch out to be dozens or hundreds. Thousands with enough time and environmental factors. When the tardigrades started displaying more predatory behavior we thought it was due to the change in diet and the increase in protein, but now we think its due to the rapid change. It drives them insane. All of this was surprising, but none as surprising as the ‘dirt rats’.”
“Wait. They are all insane? Also, dirt rats?” I asked, flipping the photo over to show the next one. This one revealed what I thought was a bear, but when I was about to flip it over to look at the next one I noticed its teeth. Thats when I noticed that it was a huge, muscular rat.
“Six breeding pairs, all kept in an empty pool full of dirt. They weren't given enough room to get out of the dirt, so they had to adapt to living in it. Anyways, because they are in the dirt its harder to keep track of what they are doing. Because of that, by the time we discovered that they had burrowed their way out of the facility it was too late. They were gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean?”
“Escaped,” Jane whispered. “And they are growing.”
“Growing?”
“Last I heard, they were nearly sixty feet but we honestly don't know. It's not like we can compare them to anything else.”
“Sixty feet?” I laughed. “Someone would have saw them by—”
“Underground” Jane said with a shake of her head. “They are underground. I know it's hard to believe, but how else can you explain those earthquakes in Chicago? New York?”
“Are you saying there are giant rats under those cities?”
“I am saying they aren't rats anymore. They are something else entirely. I am saying six breeding pairs might not sound like a lot, but rats reproduce so quickly it's terrifying. I am saying that they are so big and there are so many of them that they are causing those earthquakes. I am saying that due to their size they burn off lots of calories and some have evolved to hibernating.”
“Why hibernation?”
“No idea, but when they wake up they are going to be very hungry. Ravenous.”
“Any idea when that might be?” I asked.
Jane shrugged. “Some already have. We just covered it up.”
It might have been my apophenia talking, but with that statement I started seeing the bigger picture and asked Jane about the town that went missing (The story I was working on before her DVD reached me). Jane gave me the politician's answer, saying something without actually saying something, and that was enough to confirm that I was indeed on the right track.
Unfortunately Jane and I did not speak for much longer, she got a call that freaked her out and she took off. Before she left she took the folder and the pictures I was still going through. I haven't seen or heard from her since and have dropped the story about the disappearances that have secretly been plaguing our country.
WAE

I’m really, really, starting not to like my hair. It bothers me that there’s all this extra work in order to take care of it properly, since it’s super curly (4b or 4c?)
My hair grows, and it’s quite healthy. The longest I’ve had it was to my butt. Right now, its just below my chest. So it’s not a growth or length issue. I’ve also never had it relaxed, I’ve been natural all my life. My routine and products I use are minimal, and I have the techniques down. I would say I’m quite experienced.
My main issue is that it’s not quite versatile. I know people mention all the things you can do to it, but it’s usually wigs, braids, or silk presses. I hate wigs, I hate braids, and constantly straightening your hair damages it and that’s its own set of upkeep. And if it is natural, the styles require a bunch of gel and tension.
For a few years, I had my hair in twists. That’s how I got my hair to my butt. But because of how long it was getting, I would only touch my hair once a month (I know, disgusting). It was getting to the point that I would start in the morning, and at best, end late in the night. I tried doing it more often, which did cut down on the time, but it still took basically all day just in more frequent intervals. I eventually decided to just take the twists out. Due to basically neglecting my hair, I had so many split ends and single strand knots I had to cut more than half my hair 😭
When I looked online for what to do with my hair, all I saw was wigs and weave. I get hot and sweaty easily, and I don’t like the idea of not having access to my scalp, so wigs are a no. I’ve had braids before, but I don’t like sitting down for hours to do my hair, and I didn’t want to continue waiting a month to do my hair or only having it in for 1-2 weeks and taking it out. I don’t trust myself to use heat, and I hate gel as it’ll make my hair greasy quickly. I also wanted styles where I didn’t have to worry about my hair too much, since I like to swim. But without those styles, it’s hard to have your hair looking decent.
My alternative to gel was to detangle and style my hair everyday. I would detangle it in the shower and style it when I came out. Since I didn’t moisturize it, that end up leaving my hair dry and with single strand knots, so I had to cut my hair again. Then I applied moisture every other day, which stopped the knots, but now my hair was getting dirty easily. Also, the routine of taking the time to section my hair, detangle each section, twist it up, and then find a style was getting tiresome. Finding a style while having kinky hair, there’s only a handful of hairstyles that work with no gel, so it was quite discouraging.
Eventually, I just decided to leave my hair in four braids and wash it once a week. My routine is simple: I detangle it in the shower before I start shampooing, I leave it in sections the whole time, leave the conditioner to sit while I wash myself, detangle and rinse it, use water and oil and braid them up. Throughout the week, as it gets frizzy, I detangle and braid it in the shower (which is about every other day).
I look back and I’m like, why all this work??? I watch people with straight and loose curls a lot and I wish I could do what they could with their hair. I wish I could just wake up, brush it out, and it’s decent looking or I can immediately style it. Or, even if I have to wet and detangle it, I wish I didn’t have to constantly section it off, and only let the water “reset” my curls. Since my curls are tight and can knot easily, I don’t wear it out without detangling it first which isn’t a simple ordeal either.
I wish I could do minimal to no sectioning, and when I’m done detangling I could take it all out and just brush through it. I wish it would stay decently detangled throughout my shampooing, and all I have to do is a quick brush through my head with the conditioner in before rinsing it out. I wish it didn’t take me almost 2 HOURS TO WASH AND BRAID MY HAIR EVERY WEEK! I wish when I styled it, I could leave more hair out and do cute minimal hairstyles, not worry about having to “stretch it out” or do looks that could be achieved with minimal to no gel (my hair just isnt like that lol). I wish I could just moisturize it and let it dry and be done with it.
I’ve had long hair: down my butt, lower back, and now I’m letting it grow out again and it’s about mid back. I can’t show off my length! I’ve always wanted long hair, and now that I do, I can’t even take it out and see it all because it’ll just shrink and be a hassle! I think my curls are pretty, but shrinkage limits styles so much and since they’re tight, wearing my hair out just leaves it vulnerable to breakage.
Another issue I have is cleanliness. I wash my hair once a week, but like I said, I’m hot bodied. I’m also active, so I sweat a bunch. My hair just gets dirty so quickly! My issues always been that I can’t just wash it, since it takes so long. I have a life! I have stuff to do! This is tmi, but I hate that I can’t wash my sweaty head! It grosses me out, and I’m always scratching it. I feel like no matter what I do, I’m a slave to my hair. This has to be my biggest issue, it gives me the ick.
My only hope is to shave it. I don’t mind wearing wigs if I have nothing underneath, if I decide to wear wigs. I can also wash it however often I want to. My only issue is my femininity. I love long hair, I love having long hair. I love measuring my hair from time to time and being happy with how much it’s grown. I love the compliments I get about my hair being (unexpectedly) long. Also, my hair wasn’t always long. Before I learned what to do and how to take care of it, my hair was the same length for years and I envied those whose hair was long and loose. I mean I still do, but it’s more for versatility and ease rather than it is about looks (although that does still play a role). Now that I have it, I feel sad about letting it go. It’s kind of like my identity, which is also a reason why I want to shave it off. I’m also already insecure about looking manly, so while shaving my hair from here on out might be freeing, I feel like it’ll amplify another insecurity.
I don’t know what was the point of me making this or if anybody cares but this is my dilemma and I dunno if anyone’s going through something similar.

Me (f17) and my best friend (m17) have been friends for almost 4 years, ever sinxe high school started. We've had some ups and downs and stretches of time where we don't really communicate (winter depression on both sides).
Around the beginning of the year in 2023, my best friend started talking to this girl in his class, they hit it off pretty well and became friends. Two months later they started dating and i met her for the first time. She was cool and all, i didn't have any problems with her. I didn't see her often simply because she lived in a different city to ours.
About a month after they started dating, my best friend wanted to introduce his girlfriend to our friendgroup, because she didn't have too many close friends, and our friendgroup was tight (at that point we'd been friends for 2 years). It went super well, she didn't clash with anyone, and she seemed like a genuinely nice and good person.
A couple weeks later, the girlfriend and i started hanging out alone, because we had a lot of similar interests and i wanted to truly be her friend (up until then i only really saw her as my bestfriend's girlfriend). We had a couple sleepovers and we hung out a couple times too.
Near august 2023 they started having relationship problems, the girlfriend would always vent to me afterwards about how she was the one doing all the work and how my bestfriend never put in any effort to make the relationship work... Etc etc
I usually heard her side of the story first, because she has Borderline Personality Disorder and she relied on me a lot when she was having episodes/splitting. Of course i did my best to comfort her and try to help her in any way i could, but it always seemed like she was exaggerating her experience. (I never dated my bestfriend so obviously he could have treated her much different than he ever treated me, and i 100% knew that, and always kept this in mind when talking to either of them)
After, my bestfriend would usually text me about their fights, and it always seemed like his version of events was more realistic and in tune with what i knew of both of them. (I could totally be biased tho, bc this was my best friend for 2 1/2 years vs a girl i barely considered a friend)
They kept having problems and it kept getting worse. Early febuary this year, they broke up, it was messy and i was caught in the middle of it playing mesenger man even though i kept telling them to talk their shit out and leave me out of their relationship issues.
I had basically been turned into the therapy friend, not only for the girlfriend but for my best friend too, and it really took a toll on me mentally and physically. The girlfriend was splitting everyday and threatened to kill herself many times but even when we told her parents they did nothing.
She was texting me every day with her problems and her feelings about their break up, even after i asked her to stop because i needed a break from all this stuff. (My mental health tends to get worse when the people around me are upset. Its also extremely draining when every time i checked my phone, there would be several texts just openly venting to me and waiting for my input/reply. It would have been easier on me if i didnt have to play therapist for her, but whenever she texted me she expected some wisdom or some comfort and it just got to be too much for me)
One day i remember her venting and she asked me for my honest opinion about this whole situation. I sent her a pretty long text (which i will100% admit was rude but idrc) where i stated that both of them were being dramatic (she kept spreading rumors about him, and he would always entertain her drama) and that she needed to either start taking my advice (she always asked for advice but never took it) or she needed to stop venting to me because i didnt care anymore.
She never replied to me, but later on instagram she had publicly posted my long text on her stories, with some bs caption like "its always the one you least expect" but she conviniently erased her text asking for my honest opinion.. which turned some of my friends against me until i could properly explain the situation. I texted her on instagram (she was online) and i went off on her for doing that because thats just shitty. If she had a problem with what i said she very much could have told me and we could have figured it out, but instead she chose to whine about it on a public platform and erase her text where she ASKED for my opinion...
We stopped beings friends and i blocked her. Me and my best friend started hanging out more and everything was fine until today. I got a text from my best friend basically stating that he spoke to her again after a month or so of no contact, and that they spent a long time talking and they're gonna try again. He also said he understood if i didnt want to be his friend anymore. I replied and said its fine/idc if youre friends/trying again with her as long as he doesnt talk about her to me or tries to bring her to group hangouts.
Idk, their relationship was really toxic (both sides) and me and my bestfriend haven't been as close as we were before they got together, even when they broke up it wasn't the same. I feel defeated because he knows what the girlfriend did to me and while it might not seem like a big deal it did basically ruin my friendships for a little while. I know that he has the right to hang out with her if he wants but i just don't feel comfortable with that anymore, i know the logical answer is to stop being friends but he's been my best friend for so long and i don't want to end this friendship on something thats probably stupid/doesnt matter anyway.
He's been my best friend for so long, the longest ive actually had a friend for (moved around a lot), and i feel like im being petty by giving up this friendship, but i genuinely do not want to be around this girl at all and i cant just ignore that theyre back together again...
(I do have other friends that arent associated with this friendgroup so its not like hes my only friend, but its not really the same)

“Beasts all over the shop…You’ll be one of them, sooner or later…”
The strange Hunter turned around and exhaled. His breath was visible against the night’s air.
He’s bloodlusted. Aegis, I hope you have a plan.
Shimmer saw Elpis step back slightly, with a shocked expression on her face. She shakily raised a claw and pointed at something on the ground.
No. It… it can’t be.
That’s… horrible.
A shattered red jeweled necklace lay strewn across the ground, beside the mangled corpse of the Silkwing.
The Hivewing in front of the three swung his axe to the side. As it was a trick weapon, he was able to change its form on command. The axe had two forms: a shortened form that acted sort of like a sword, and an extended form specialized in crowd control and reach.
He extended his axe and Shimmer heard a low snarl from his throat.
“Do we kill him?” Elpis asked, a hint of fear in her voice.
“We don't have a choice. Steel yourself.” Aegis muttered and brandished his silksabers. The blades gleamed in the soft light of the three moons.
The hunter was taller than all of them, one head taller than Aegis and two taller than Shimmer and Elpis. Black tattered robes clung to him, marking him a Shadowhunter. Blood from tonight’s hunt stained the black fabric, showcasing his expertise and experience in the hunt. He wore a rounded dark-gray hat, and bloodied bandages covered his eyes. Shimmer wondered if he could even see.
Corpses of both beasts and dragons were scattered about the square-shaped courtyard, an equal amount of gravestones breaking up the open space. His teeth were uneven as if he had been eating and chewing rough bones. Blood dripped from his mouth down his neck, and his Hivewing stingers flexed in anticipation.
“Be careful,” Aegis started, “He’s going to use magic. Elpis, don’t use any of yours.” He told the hybrid dragon beside him, and she nodded.
The hunter walked slowly around them, searching for a weakness in their structure, and then spat out a lump of coagulated blood.
“That stench of squalid blood. No beast will be spared.” He half-muttered and half-growled. He tipped his hat respectfully, before lunging at Elpis. She dove to the side, and tried to retaliate with her scythe, but just slightly missed.
This hunter was agile, surprisingly so considering how old he looked. Shimmer gripped the handle of her silkhammer, knowing it wasn’t the time to strike. She stepped backward, seeking cover behind a grave, while Aegis leaped forward with the intent to pierce the frenzied hunter’s heart. Once again, the hunter rolled to the side and sent his axe hurtling towards the smaller Silkwing. Shimmer felt fear grip her heart, but Aegis avoided the blade. He fell back and motioned for Elpis to stay back.
“A sporting hunt. But alas, I’ve forgotten to ask your name.” Aegis growled, and the hunter laughed a sick, disturbing laugh.
“The name’s Gascoigne.” He shot back, and jumped into the air, slamming his axe down where Aegis was a split second ago. Shimmer’s ears rung from the sound of the impact. Her antennae subconsciously curled in defensively.
“Gascoigne. That’s a nice name. I’ll tell Ludwig you were a proud hunter till the end.” Aegis replied and sent his twin blades slicing into the hunter’s thigh. He recoiled, and a gleeful laugh escaped his bloodied mouth.
“Hehe… the sweet stench of blood. Just… just marvelous!” He exclaimed and raised his off-talon towards Aegis.
“Aegis! Get down!” Shimmer called, and a burst of flame erupted from the hunter’s claws across the courtyard. The limited magic the Hivewing had that he was willing to use in this hunt.
Aegis fell back, hissing in pain as a few stray flames singed his tail. The hunter chuckled under his breath, and Elpis took advantage of the opening he had presented her. She thrust the blade of her scythe toward him, opting for its sword form as of now, and the hunter knocked the blow aside. He countered with a kick to the Ice-Hivewing’s ribs, and she was sent to the ground. She coughed up a spurt of blue Icewing blood, and the hunter lifted his axe for a finishing blow.
Shimmer roared out and swung her hammer toward the hunter. The silk connected it to her wrists as it flew through the air, and it hit the hunter square in his side just as his axe was falling. He was sent into the opposite side of the courtyard, coughing and sputtering, but with a faint smirk on his face. Shimmer was in disbelief; how was he not dead?
“Ooh, what’s that smell… the sweet blood, ooh, it sings to me! It's enough to make a dragon sick.” Gascoigne laughed hollowly. He raised his talon, and Shimmer quickly rolled to the side as a ball of flame soared past her horns.
He’s going to turn at this rate.
Shimmer hid under a gravestone as a tree behind her erupted in flames, and Aegis jumped into the air. He beat his four wings ferociously before diving into the hunter. He caught both of Aegis’ horns, and he twisted his head. Aegis fell to the ground, and Gascoigne slashed his axe down across the Silkwing’s leg. Aegis cried out, and Shimmer’s heart ached. She pushed herself up, ignoring the raging fire around her, and she threw her hammer up in the air and aimed it towards the hunter. He narrowly evaded the heavy impact of the stone before Shimmer heard a metal clang behind her.
Elpis, scythe in one talon, approached Gascoigne. She had the little music box in her other.
Elpis played the music box and a song of eerie notes filled the courtyard.
The hunter stumbled back, clawing at his face, and Elpis shot Shimmer a look, her face telling her to make sure Aegis was okay.
Elpis advanced on the struggling hunter, and Shimmer leaped over to her Silkwing partner, who was injured on the ground. She felt tears welling in her eyes, but she knew this wasn’t the time to cry.
“Aegis. Look at me. Look at me.” She repeated, and he lifted his head weakly. His leg had a massive gash in it, but he could probably still walk, just with a limp.
“Ah, Shimmer. I’m alright. I’ll be back in the fight. Go, help Elpis. I’ll join back soon enough.” He groaned, and the pair heard a roar behind them.
Elpis was locked in a duel with Gascoigne, and the hunter’s stray fireballs met with blasts of frostbreath. For the first time in the battle, the hunter had a slight look of fear on his face. Elpis was relentless, her burial blade swiftly countering and stopping any attempt Gascoigne made at advancing. Aegis crawled back and attempted to stand, using a grave for support.
“Shimmer! I can’t hold him for long!” Elpis called, and Shimmer nodded. She took the hammer in her claws and swung it around her side, and in a clockwise circle in the air. It was the perfect counterweight to her body weight. She hoisted it up further into the air and then brought it crashing down onto the hunter.
It struck Gascoigne directly on the spine, and he fell to the ground.
He screamed in pain.
And then, a bright light flashed from his body.
His screams deepened in tone, morphing to be more animalistic. His posture fell forward, and his muscles rippled through his body. He grew in size, and more of his bloodied garb ripped from the size change.
Fur sprouted from seemingly random places on the Hivewing’s body, and his claws extended. His face shifted, his features becoming more and more distorted. His black hat fell to the ground.
The bandages around his eyes stayed, as well as the black-tattered garb that marked him as once a Hunter.
He was no longer a Hunter. Moons above, he wasn’t even a dragon anymore.
He was now a beast.
Shimmer’s heart pounded in her chest. She stared at the transformation for a split second, before reeling in her hammer. She took it in her right talon and dove behind a gravestone, wary of the spreading flames.
Elpis, on the other claw, held her blade in front of her. Shimmer heard a rasping cough escape the Ice-HiveWing’s throat, but she didn’t break her stance.
The beast that was once Gascoigne whipped around toward Elpis, and launched himself at her, with a ferocity Shimmer had never seen even in beasts.
Elpis sidestepped quickly. The beast slammed into the wall with a loud roar, and Shimmer spied Aegis in her peripheral vision struggling to stand. He winced as he stood on his injured leg, but didn’t cry out. He brandished his two blades as the beast charged at him.
“Aegis!” Shimmer cried.
He’s going to get hit. That beast will kill him.
Aegis ignored her, and as soon as the beast was within a wingspan from him he twisted his body in such a way that he narrowly avoided the savage charge. He elegantly sliced his twin blades across the beast’s hide, and the creature howled before rapidly turning to face him.
Shimmer flew into the air. “Get away from him!” She yelled before bringing the weight of her hammer down on the beast. It flattened part of his ribcage, but it seemed impervious to the pain. It did knock him to the ground, though, giving Aegis a moment to cut through what was once two of the hunter’s wings.
The beast quickly got back on its claws before sending a flurry of swipes towards Shimmer. She dodged to the side and readied her hammer for another strike.
That was before the beast kicked her square in her chest, its sharp, ravenous claws digging in and tearing her scales. Shimmer fell back, a slight gasp escaping her mouth, and she stumbled back into the wall. She lost her footing and fell to the ground, and gazed up at the beast locked on her.
“Aegis! Help!” She yelled, and not even a second later her Silkwing partner crashed into the beast. They fell to the ground, grappling with each other before Shimmer heard a familiar song fill the courtyard.
Elpis was cranking the music box, its ominous lullaby breaking up the noise of the fight. The beast stopped attacking Aegis and instead clawed at its face. It growled and screamed in pain, drawing blood from its very own fur and scales.
“Now! Kill it!” She yelled through the song, and Aegis nodded before driving his two blades through the beast’s skull.
They stuck, and the beast roared before throwing him off. It crawled and thrashed about on the ground, clearly not dead, and the two new blades stuck to his head pointed out like new horns.
Now’s my chance.
Shimmer stumbled to her claws and wound her hammer up into the air. With every last bit of her strength, she brought it down on the flailing beast.
It crushed what was left of the hunter.
Silence filled the courtyard, only broken by a few stray notes from the music box, the pained breathing of the three hunters in the area, and the howls and screams from other places in the Hive.
Shimmer breathed a sigh of relief, before collapsing.
I did it. We did it.
Gascoigne was free.
…
“I brought you water.”
Shimmer opened her eyes and found herself in her familiar hospital room.
The morning sun’s rays lit the room, and Shimmer felt very little pain from her chest.
It had been three days since that night.
Shimmer fixed her gaze on the purple-orange Silkwing sitting beside her and smiled.
“Thanks. I’m feeling much better, we should get going to Bloodworm soon. It’s today, remember?” Shimmer asked, and he nodded. Of course, he remembered.
The summons for every hunter to come to Bloodworm Hive. Ludwig, The Holy Blade had requested them all. He no doubt planned an attack. A shame really, the hive was only newly rebuilt. And now it was going to be the site of a horrid, savage warzone.
“I remember. Are you sure you’re feeling okay? Ludwig would understand if you couldn’t come,” Aegis asked, and she spied a hint of worry on his face.
“I’m fine. I need to make sure you don’t do anything stupid. I’ll come.” She sighed and took a sip from the canteen that Aegis had brought. It tasted wonderful, he had put something in to flavor it.
“Honeydew?” She guessed, and Aegis smiled.
“Yep. It’s your favorite, right?” He asked, and she nodded. She opened her arms, and he hugged her tight.
“I love you,” Shimmer whispered in his ear.
“I love you too. I pray to Clearsight that we’ll both be safe today. I can’t bear to lose you.” Aegis replied. He pulled away and gazed out the window.
Shimmer quickly drank the rest of the honeydew-flavored water before getting out of bed. She joined him at the window and was slightly surprised by what she saw.
Almost all of the hunters of Jewel Hive were preparing, some of them already flying in the direction of Bloodworm. They were all sharpening their trick weapons, mixing poisons, or saying goodbye to loved ones.
“We should get going. It’ll be midmorning when we get there, I don’t want to be late.” Shimmer suggested, and Aegis put a wing around her.
“Now? I need to get my stuff, and you do too. Join me at the workshop.” He asked, and she slid her head in the curve of his neck as he led her out of her sick room.
…
Shimmer beat her wings strong and fast against the morning savanna winds.
She saw what looked to be several hundred, maybe even a thousand dragons gathered around a hill. All of them had a colored garb fluttering proudly from their neck. Around ninety percent of the garbs were white, and the rest were black.
They were all different tribes and a fair amount of hybrids were scattered about as well. The gathered hunters were mostly Pantalan, but a good few were from Pyrrhia as well.
Shimmer and Aegis landed a short distance away from the hill, and all around them the sounds of dragons conversing and laughing with each other.
The sun was high in the sky, but it wasn’t quite noon yet.
“You see anyone you recognize?” Aegis asked, and Shimmer shook her head.
“There’s too many dragons here. It’s too much.” She whimpered, and Aegis pulled her close. He knew she didn’t do well in crowds. That was partly why she became a Shadowhunter. To work alone or with no more than a few other dragons.
“You’re safe with me.” He comforted her, and she leaned against him.
She had always hated being with a lot of other dragons. Aegis said it sounded like she had anxiety, which made sense. It didn’t do much to alleviate that fear, though.
None of them are thinking about you. They’re all busy with their own stuff.
Just take deep breaths.
“Do you want to move away? There’s fewer dragons over there,” He asked and pointed a claw across from them.
“…No, no I’m fine.” She whispered, and Aegis sighed.
“Alright. If you want to move, don’t be afraid to ask. I don’t mind it.”
Shimmer shook her head quickly, before the pair heard a loud voice from the top of the hill. They both looked up and saw the legendary hunter himself: Ludwig.
The menacing Nightwing stood proudly, his holy silver sword slung across his shoulder. His partner Memoria stood beside him, her tail twined around his. She had a bored look on her face as she stared at the crowd. The voices of the dragons fell silent, and Shimmer felt like she could breathe again.
The Nightwing’s loud voice echoed through the plain. “Dear Hunters.” He paused, his heroic voice inspiring pride and triumph in Shimmer, even though he had barely started.
“I’m sure all of you know why we’re here. Behind me, Bloodworm Hive stands proud against the horizon. Yet I am more than certain you all know what lies inside.” He paused and pointed his sword toward the dark shape of the Hive.
“Beasts. A few thousand. I think it’s time we put them out of their misery. That is why we are here. A battle of the ages, one that will go down in history. We, the brave heroes, fighting against evil. We will be reveled, we will be honored. We will protect the dragons we hold dear to our hearts, and save those we can yet save.” His speech roused the crowd, and Shimmer felt herself stand a little taller.
“The plan is simple. The Hunters of the Sun will lead the charge from the front. I have already talked to the leaders of the charge. The Shadowhunters will pick the stray beasts off from behind. We will attack at dusk when half the sun is hidden from the eye.” He gestured with his sword at the rising sun, and he extended his wings. His massive wingspan seemed to fill the sky, and Shimmer's heart swelled with pride.
He held his sword up to the heavens, and it transformed. It grew larger, into the shape of a claymore, and it turned a shade of sacred jade. It glowed with an otherworldly light, and the crowd was enamored by the display.
“Now, hunters. Spend the rest of today preparing. The hunt is on tonight. Ludwig, The Holy Blade will be with all of you in spirit.” He bellowed, and the crowd erupted in applause and cheers.
Shimmer saw a proud, triumphant look in Aegis’ eyes, and she felt the same. Ludwig’s blade captivated her. The blade of legend, inspiring all who lay eyes on it.
Ludwig would be with them tonight. The best, the greatest, the strongest hunter ever.
Tonight, the hunters would not know defeat.
Nor would they ever, with Ludwig alive and at their side.
May the good blood guide your way,
Ultima_8

In 1945, the United States underwent Operation Paperclip which gave over 1,600 German scientists, engineers and technicians sanctuary and absolution of their crimes in exchange for the continuation of their research.
In 1953 those same individuals came up with and executed MK Ultra, an illegal human experiment that used its citizens (targeting schools, hospitals and prisons) as test subjects.
In 1954 the Plum Island was turned into a research center for diseases.
In 1975 the first documented case of Lyme disease occurred. Rumored to have escaped Plum Island.
In 2005 the DHS announced that all the work done at Plum Island would be continued in Kansas. Not just the center of the continental United States, but also home to crops seen in grocery stores all over the country.
The following is a true story.
Getting into work, one of the first things I do is check my mail. I’ve been a reporter for years and have amassed fans who like to write in and give me leads. Most of the time these leads don't amount to much (Sometimes I wonder if people send me things because of my apophenia and they are trying to get me off their scent), but every once in a while I strike gold.
I had been working at Whisper Alley Echos for a few months by the time I got my first lead. The package I got was small and when I opened it I saw a DVD that had the words “play me” written in black marker on it. Not knowing what was on it, I waited until I got home to put it on. Not just because I didnt know what was on it, but I was also busy working on a different project about how everyone in a nearby town just went missing. The official story is that they all went on vacation or went to visit a relative and decided to stay. I dont know about you, but I found that suspicious.
After getting home and shifting gears to get into the movie mood (popcorn, blinds pulled, etc…) I popped the DVD in and began watching.
There were dozens of different videos to pick from, some ranging from a minute to half an hour. Instead of picking one at random, I just played them in order. After all, all their titles were dates and times and I didnt want to miss anything that might make sense later.
The first video featured a tardigrade, at the time I didnt know what it was, but the scientist doing the voice over described it as being a microscopic animal as well as being extremely resilient. This went on for several minutes and for a moment it felt as though I was watching a nature documentary instead of something given to me by a government whistleblower.
The next few videos featured footage of the tardigrades being given something called “BB-F828” and the changes it caused.
The voiceover talked about how a tardigrade (this time he called them water bears and the two terms were interchangeable from this point on) was showing signs of several thousand generations of evolution in only a few days. Even though I know nothing about science, I could see that the thing on the television was not the same animal that was shown in the first video.
While they were never “cute”, at least they never looked like predators, but after a few videos I saw that the tardigrades were covered in what appeared to be padding. In a later video this padding would change into being chitin-like armor.
The last video was filmed two months after the water bears were given BB-F828 and in it the scientists could see them even without a microscope.
The next morning I went into work and started writing on my computer, copying notes from my small notebook. However by the time I started the second draft, Andrea, the office secretary, dropped a letter off at my desk.
It was the first time I got a letter about an “inside scoop” two days in a row.
The letter said that they were the ones who sent the DVD and if I wanted to know more I would have to go to The Rats Skeleton (a bar that used to be a speakeasy during prohibition. Because of this the place feels as though its a front for a comic book villain. The owners have leaned into this and did everything they could to reinforce this feeling with sparse lighting and everything that isn't red velvet on the walls being painted black) at a specific time.
Usually I wouldn't go meet strangers after getting an anonymous letter that tells me to come alone, but its a small town and I didn't have much going on that particular Thursday.
Parking behind the Merc (short for mercantile, where most of the grocery and general shopping is done in town), I descended the stairs and made my way to the back of the bar. There I found a woman that didnt look like she slept in days. Since no one else was in that back area I figured she must have been the person I was there to see.
“Hey, I’m Daniel West. Am I—”
“Sit” the woman said, motioning across from her. I sat down and asked her for her name but she didn’t want to answer me and when i asked for it a second time she claimed it was Jane, but there is no doubt that was not her real name.
“What made you reach out, Jane?”
“You saw the video?”
I nodded. “Yup.”
“And?”
“I have a lot of questions” I answered.
“Figured you would” Jane said. “Ask.”
“Well, first” I said, my journalistic inexperience showing as I went through my pocket notebook. “Who are you and why do you know all this?”
“Name isnt important” Jane answered. “Let me start from the beginning. We thought we were working on human survivability” Jane answered. “I thought that I was working for some company that had a government contract. That might be true, it might not be. Either way lots of money and resources have been put into this.”
“I saw the video” I answered. “What exactly was it that I was watching?”
Janes eyes were frantic as she looked at the stairs behind me. When I turned around to see what she was looking at I saw a local descending the steps and approach the bar. She only answered my question when she was convinced that the man wasn't eavesdropping, still, she spoke in whispers.
“We were working on human survivability.”
“You said that. What does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. Consider we civilize mars and the long term effects from the static radiation there. Or another planet that demands thicker bones because of increased gravity? Evolution might give us those things eventually but what if we need it now? In this generation?”
“So you made super humans?”
Jane was annoyed and slapped the table. No one was around to hear or see her but I still looked around anyways.
“We didn’t work on humans. We piggybacked off of some other countries' genetic research and made some breakthroughs of our own. When—-“
“Other countries?” I interrupted instead of letting her talk.
“Yeah” Jane said with a shrug. “Some countries aren’t tied down by the same code of ethics as ours.”
“That’s why you got a hold of me? To tell—-“
“We were working on small parts. At first individual genes, building from that success we went on to more complex organisms. Eventually, hopefully, test on humans.”
“But you never made it that far?”
“No” Jane said, taking a sip from her glass. “We tested BB-F828 on other things, building up towards human testing.”
“Okay, like what?”
Jane inhaled through her nose and looked at me as though she wasnt sure if I could be trusted. Then she sighed when she realized it was too late not to trust me, she had already went too far to turn back. “What do you think has the best chance of not only surviving a planet wide disaster, but also thrive in it?”
“Cockroaches” I answered.
Jane nodded. “Sure. Lots of people would agree with you, however that wouldn't be the best pick.”
“Oh? Then what would be?”
“Rats.”
I laughed.
“They are tough and can thrive anywhere. Even before BB-F828 they are smarter than roaches, plus rats have a complicated social hierarchy, similar to humans. Remember, I didn't just say survive. I said thrive.”
“So you tested all this on rats?”
Jane nodded. “We did.”
I waited for Jane to continue, but thanks to her staring off into space due to lack of sleep, she waited longer.
“What happened?”
Janes eyes drifted back at me, she was running on fumes. “Huh? Oh, yeah. Rats, right?” she asked while pulling a folder out from the seat next to her. She set it on the table and slid it over to me. “Here, take a peek.”
I opened it, expecting redacted pages of ‘evidence’ and while I got some of that, it was the photos that drew my attention the most. At first the photos were individual rats and a designated number they received instead of a name.
“How many rats did you experiment—” I started, but my voice trailed off when I came across a photo of the one rat with unique markings on its back now appearing to be bred for a war on pleasant dreams. Its eyes were pearly gray, teeth became tusks, its whiskers were thick and barbed. According to the scale it was on when the second photo was taken it weighed twenty nine point four kilos.
“A few hundred?” Jane answered, though it was obvious that it was just a guess. “They were paired off and put in different environments to see how they adapt.”
“Why would you pair them off?”
“I think it was to see if some would branch out and become their own species” Jane answered as she checked her watch. Seeing the time she sped up. “See, when something with BB-F828 finds itself in a desert, it might adapt to the point that it grows a hump like a camel. Or grow gills if they are in the ocean. The original purpose was for human survivability on other planets. We thought if we could discover how the adaptations work, and it could be repeated exactly the same over and over again, we could do something for humans. After all you wouldn't want anything unexpected to happen when you're in the middle of growing another set of arms or a dorsal fin, right?”Jane said. “But to do this we needed lots of subjects and all in their own environments. Each one had their own surprises, after all, evolution is random. Favors some things over others. One species can branch out to be dozens or hundreds. Thousands with enough time and environmental factors. When the tardigrades started displaying more predatory behavior we thought it was due to the change in diet and the increase in protein, but now we think its due to the rapid change. It drives them insane. All of this was surprising, but none as surprising as the ‘dirt rats’.”
“Wait. They are all insane? Also, dirt rats?” I asked, flipping the photo over to show the next one. This one revealed what I thought was a bear, but when I was about to flip it over to look at the next one I noticed its teeth. Thats when I noticed that it was a huge, muscular rat.
“Six breeding pairs, all kept in an empty pool full of dirt. They weren't given enough room to get out of the dirt, so they had to adapt to living in it. Anyways, because they are in the dirt its harder to keep track of what they are doing. Because of that, by the time we discovered that they had burrowed their way out of the facility it was too late. They were gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean?”
“Escaped,” Jane whispered. “And they are growing.”
“Growing?”
“Last I heard, they were nearly sixty feet but we honestly don't know. It's not like we can compare them to anything else.”
“Sixty feet?” I laughed. “Someone would have saw them by—”
“Underground” Jane said with a shake of her head. “They are underground. I know it's hard to believe, but how else can you explain those earthquakes in Chicago? New York?”
“Are you saying there are giant rats under those cities?”
“I am saying they aren't rats anymore. They are something else entirely. I am saying six breeding pairs might not sound like a lot, but rats reproduce so quickly it's terrifying. I am saying that they are so big and there are so many of them that they are causing those earthquakes. I am saying that due to their size they burn off lots of calories and some have evolved to hibernating.”
“Why hibernation?”
“No idea, but when they wake up they are going to be very hungry. Ravenous.”
“Any idea when that might be?” I asked.
Jane shrugged. “Some already have. We just covered it up.”
It might have been my apophenia talking, but with that statement I started seeing the bigger picture and asked Jane about the town that went missing (The story I was working on before her DVD reached me). Jane gave me the politician's answer, saying something without actually saying something, and that was enough to confirm that I was indeed on the right track.
Unfortunately Jane and I did not speak for much longer, she got a call that freaked her out and she took off. Before she left she took the folder and the pictures I was still going through. I haven't seen or heard from her since and have dropped the story about the disappearances that have secretly been plaguing our country.
WAE

My wife and I live in a HOA (which sucks), but we follow the rules. One of the rules is to pick up after your dog as a common courtesy to your neighbors. My wife 44f and myself 40m also have a dog whom I walk and clean up after.
We live in a decent neighborhood and I like to work in my yard and take very good care of it. I also spend a small fortune on it by treating it, weeding it etc. I came home today from a long day's work and found myself drinking a cold beer while walking over the lawn and enjoying the view. I have been working on this yard for six years and have turned it around from the previous owners who really didn't take good care of it.
I was walking through my yard and I stepped on a big pile of steaming shit, which you can tell came from a large dog. I immediately get upset about it and clean it off of my shoes and then clean it from my yard. I was so upset about it that I had to go inside and chill for a minute.
I'm a bit paranoid about home security so I have cameras all around my house on the outside. I did some investigation and found out who didn't clean up their dog poo. After fifteen minutes I have the clip of who let their dog shit in my yard.
I told my wife I was going to walk down the street to the neighbors which is three houses down and confront them about this. I was going to be polite and ask them to clean up after their dog and hand them their dog's big pile of shit. My wife immediately starts to tell me not to do that and that she doesn't want to start a neighbor war. I start to get a little snippy and raise my voice a bit saying, "These are the rules and I want to let them know I caught you and have them apologize for it!".
The part that really upsets me in the clip is that the owner of the dog was about to pick it up with a plastic bag. You can see clearly in the video (which I don't know if I can post it here) that the neighbor bent over and acted like she was cleaning it up. I think that is where I was even more upset about the situation. She had the bag and all!
My wife starts to get really upset that I want to do this and walk down and just have a conversation. She then states, " We don't want to do anything because they might get upset and turn you into the HOA." I disagreed with her about this and stated that I wanted to do it anyways and I did. I politely went down there and asked them to pick up after their dog and that I didn't appreciate it. The husband got his wife who was the one that pretended to pick it up. He apologized and so did she.
After all of this my wife is upset at me. I don't feel like I did anything wrong but wanted to stop something from happening again by owners of pets not taking responsibility for their pets' droppings.

Charlie:
Beth and William came looking for me on the street. They bought me food and rented me a hotel room where I could shower. They supplied me with new clothes. They made me feel like a human again.
They explained that I would work for them on a farm Beth owned. When I inquired about Antonio, Beth got cold and warned me to mind my business.
As the three of us drove west with me in the backseat, Beth brought up the castration.
“Did it hurt?” She asked drawing a laugh from William.
“It did. It was awful.” I said.
“It was awful, Mistress.” William said correcting me.
It had been years since he ruined my life by cutting off my manhood. but still, he didn’t care. He was emotionless and only concerned that I knew my place.
I thought about demanding that he pull over so I could get out of the car. I’d go back to the city of hell, a safer place than with him but I didn’t because I was near Beth.
I studied the back of her head. She had her hair in a ponytail, I saw a few streaks of gray. She was human, she aged too. Of course, she still looked great and fit and tan as always. She knew how to take great care of herself.
“So Charlie, can you, you know. Can you jerk off or even have sex?” She asked giggling slightly.
I told her the truth. I could get an erection, but that was it. William laughed.
“I guess I won’t have to worry about the two of you cucking me!”
Beth laughed too.
“That’s ashame. I would love to cheat on you, William!” She said gently kissing the side of his face.
Beth then turned her head to face me. She looked so sexy in her sunglasses. Despite being ball-less, my dick grew.
“When we get home, I need to see you hard! I have to see what that looks like!” Beth said flashing her beautiful smile.
“Looks like someone is getting a blowy!” William said.
Beth laughed at his joke. She lifted her bare feet up and placed them on the dashboard. I don’t think she did it to draw my attention, It just seemed like something she liked to do while in the passenger seat. How I missed those feet. That little tiny dot on her big toe was still there. I noticed her nails were freshly polished too. Those feet, my foot fetish, the beginning of my downfall. From boyfriend, to husband, to slave to eunuch. It all started because I was more in love with her feet than I was with myself.
Beth:
A sadist doesn’t always wish to dominate or hurt others. I think it’s about certain individuals. In Charlie’s case, I felt the overwhelming need to control him, to humiliate him. Yes, it had been years since I last saw him or even thought about him, but like a black widow, once I had him again, I felt the need to own him.
Willam certainly didn’t disuade me so before we arrived back at the farm, I was already laying down the ground rules. I was the master, William was too. Charlie would again be the servant. It was that or back to the streets for him.
The power made me horny. I could not wait until we returned home so I could give myself totally to William. I had a slave again, so William would have me.
Charlie:
We arrived at the farm, I was overwhelmed by its rural spaciousness, especially after spending the better part of the decade on the streets of New York.
Beth and William were trying to figure out what to do with me. William suggested I be treated as a guest for the time being at least, be given a guest room to sleep in, etc but Beth was unsure.
“He’s dirty and maybe even diseased. He should see a doctor first before we let him inside.”
“Charlie, you’ll need to sleep in the barn. I promise you it won’t be like it was with Tex on his farm, we won’t hurt you but it’s the best I can offer. Beth said.
Not looking to cause any problems, I fell to my knees and crawling behind them, I was led to my new home. Yes, it was a stable for a horse, covered in straw but it had a roof. That night, I slept like a baby.

Hi all,
This is a long one so I do apologise.
Let's start off with some context. Some 6 months ago I signed with a registered builder to install my shed (as is required under our council regulations based on the price of the shed). Upon signing, we were advised once the team arrived on site, it would be a 2 - 3 day job to completion.
We waited some 3 months where we were told that they were flat out at the moment and that the team assigned to us was just finishing off another job. By mid-Feb we finally met our 'team'. The building company were so flat out that they'd started using subcontractors to keep up with their workload.
The team we got was a man named Bill (let's say). Throughout the course of our shed 6 also brought in 3 other guys at different times for varying lengths of time. It all seemed very adhoc. This brings us to the last few weeks. 3 months on since installation began, and the shed still wasn't finished. It got to the point where Bill was ducking the calls of the registered builder and being very non-committal with us--we could never lock down dates to get it completed and there was always a new problem that cropped up. The registered builder showed up at our place yesterday with 2 other guys, and they went over the entire shed top to bottom and fixed so much. Replaced damaged sheets, replaced a damaged PA door and frame, added missing bolts, and re-layered the roof sheets to make it waterproof proof--what should have been done the first time. The builder has been nothing but apologetic and has been incredibly embarrassed by the work of Bill. We're now happy with the state of the shed itself.
This brings us to what I really wanted to ask about. At the start of March, I was talking with Bill while he was on site and I had mentioned in passing that we'd need to sort out windows at some point as they weren't included in our shed kit (nothing to do with the registered builder, we engaged them for installation only). Bill said he'd be happy to order them in and install them for us (note: this was between him and I, separate from the registered builder). He later got back to us saying the windows had a 6 week lead time on them, but that he had to pay for them in full when ordering them, and so issued us with an invoice. I know, I know. We've already learnt our lesson, but we were just so excited at the prospect of the shed finally going up, and we believed him when it was presented that he was giving us a good deal.
We were issued with two invoices: invoice 1 had the order of the windows, plus delivery, plus some $100 worth of gutter hardware pieces, and came to $1,700, and invoice 2 just had a $400 installation fee. We paid invoice 1 via bank transfer. But that wasn't even the problem at the time. Over the next 8 weeks, I followed up with him a few times for the ETA of the windows and I never got much out of him, until he texted me at the beginning of May saying that they'd been stolen off the back of his truck, and that re-ordering them was going to be another 12 weeks. By now, we're well and truly fed up.
I texted him requesting a refund on invoice 1 and a cancellation of services because waiting 20 weeks for windows to be installed is not what we paid for, and we do not deem that reasonable. We're so demoralised by the poor quality of Bill's work on the rest of the shed that we just want to wipe our hands of him. The registered builder even offered to order the windows (only a 6 week lead time, mind you) and install them free of charge because he's embarrassed for having engaged Bill to do the works. Upon my request for a refund, he never responded to my request and instead skirted it by saying that he'll advise when the windows arrive and we can pick them up and end our dealings with him. Except we've also found out when the registered builder ordered the windows that they only cost $950. So we're still not satisfied with having paid $1,700--for what?? I also requested copies of the invoices he paid to the manufacturer to order the windows (both times), and he has refused, so we don't have evidence that they were even ordered the first time.
So I ask, where can I take this from here? Almost all of our communication with him (especially relating to the windows) has been via text, and so I have it all documented. We want a refund on invoice 1 and a cancellation of all further services from him. Do we lodge a Consumer Protection Complaint? Contact a small claims lawyer? Never had to resort to any of these options before.
Thanks for your time if you've made it this far, if I've missed anything out or if any further information would be beneficial, please ask. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

(Long AF, please be patient)
Hey people, just found this community and I really need some place to talk with people that understand me (hopefully). Don't worry, I'm not going to end myself or anything (despite the title).
22 M living with my parents. I'm brazilian so the whole "get out when you are 18" isn't a thing around here. My parents are both from the 60's so old fashioned would be an understatement.
Do you people also stay locked in your room form majority of the day? Because I do. I work fully home office in a company so I have the "best" excuse.
My mother ALWAYS was very very controlling. While in school, always wanting to know what I did in class, how was my day, the name of my friends, etc. But ok, that wasn't that bad. When I started college (2020 🤡) she wanted to know everything also. I studied in the morning, they would pick me up because I still didn't had a car license and getting the bus was a "little" dangerous because of, well, 🇧🇷. And they would always say "why you need to stay on the campus?? We are not going to get you in the middle of the afternoon because of traffic" or some BS. Then came the pandemic, only got worse. My father on the political side, denying the vaccines, my mother completely paranoid with the virus (kinda of understandable) and my sister who married and got out of the house a few years back debating 24/7 with my dad because she is from the health area.
Always that I do something out of the ordinary she just makes as I've killed a person. Such drama. Now I just said to her I'm traveling with my GF to a nearby city and she went "OMG We can't catch a break, when we think everything is OK you do this" and just shut her face off as someone in the family just died or something. And yes, she refers to herself as "we". No, she isn't non binary or anything, I just think she has such a weak mind that can't say "I don't like it".
Why? Because she says the road is dangerous to there (it isn't). Bro I have my license for almost 3 years now, and rode about 30.000Km and a few trips with different cars. I know how to handle myself. She doesn't trust me. She doesn't like if I do anything that she doesn't agree or think "is right". She asks me constantly about my GF and her family, my friends, my coworkers, EVERYTHING. You know why? Because if I say to her "Xavier likes coffee". If I ever say something "Xavier brought his tea bottle today" MONTHS later she will say "what, I was thinking Xavier only liked coffe?"
I have the feeling she wants to know where single thing so she always has something to spit on my face and tell me I'm wrong. Bro, on her BIRTHDAY, we went to a restaurant and I ordered some fried shrimp (the price of regular two plates) because we like as a family but my parents love sea food. I paid it. I'm not kidding, she went about 3 weeks saying stuff like "...I have a rich son that work's at ____" because I bought some shrimp.Just because one time I got my GF to some nice restaurants she does the same. As if I was paying 1000$ per plate. And she talks with so much irony that honestly, doesn't even make me mad anymore. Just sad.
The problem is: I can't go out. I can't get out of my house. The car is mine but if I wanted to sell it to have some cash to start financing a home (don't want to because the car is one of the only forms of freedom I have) I can't. Because the car "is mine". The documents are on my name but you know how it is. They paid for it, it's theirs. Even if legally speaking isn't. Housing is so fucking expensive. Even the first payment (we call it here "Entrada") generally speaking is 20% of the total value of the house, then you finance it for 15,20,30 years depending on your situation). And yes, you can pay that years and years before 30.
The thing is, 20% for a house nowadays in my city in around 50K (300K apartment). My wage is 2,5K/month. How on earth can I do this? Simple, I can't. The only cheaper alternatives are on another cities which is a problem because of my university and job (hybrid).
So here I am, wanting love from my parents, wanting to love them but I can't. My dad is awesome for fixing my car, fixing things around the house, helping me with cosplays. My mom cooks like a chef, I'm little sick now and she went to the market I bought the ingredients that I like for today. But man, that emotional hole, hurts so much.
Yes, their love language is acts of service (both) towards me and my sister but you know, that doesn't compensate. I would rather have a "less loving family" for a more compressible and engaged. In the pandemic I wanted a drumkit, a distant dream. My father built a fucking soundproof studio inside my bedroom and bought me a used drumkit. Best dad ever right?
Yeah, but he also complains about the noise to the neighbors every time that I played and said I could only play until 6pm. Bro the studio is literally SOUNDPROOF. You can only hear a faint sound in the kitchen (right below) because the floor isn't as well isolated. The problem isn't the neighbour. The problem is that they know I'm playing so that troubles them.
My mom said to me "Why won't you sell this drum? You don't even play anymore" well because I'm fucking depressed that's why. She could so much say to me "look, you look sad, why won't you go and play a little? Might cheer you up" or something. Boy I would kill to get this type of love from them.
Everything became "formal". You know, I don't think they love me anymore. They treat me as I was an enemy that wants to spend all my money on futile shit and think the world is all sugar and rainbows. I can't even fake an I love you.
I saw a very pretty quote on Instagram about being a dad, a nice text to send to your old man. But I simply can't. I can't. I want so much because I know they'll be gone "soon" and I want to have pictures. Learn recipes, more about cars and motorcycles. But everything I do is wrong, I'm a dumbass, I'm spending money just on wrong things.
Bro, I wanted freedom. They stared giving me guilt trips.
I didn't want no contact with them, just wanted "go traveling son, go search the unknown, if it ever goes south, you have where to return". No. All they do is shame me for it.
I wanted to do my birthday with my friends in my house. My mom said no. Bro??? But she says going out is "expensive" so How the fuck am I supposed to act?
Sorry for the venting guys, I used the support flair because I hope someone reads this and can identify, and teach me something.