Chris recaps the last episode as the campers dug up their team members pictures to determine the teams, and says that these teams seem "oddly specific" in who is on what team (he rigged the team picking). Hockey Bros on different teams, Chase and Emma on the same team, although some got lucky that they were put together such as Julia and MK, and Ripper and Axel, but it will only be a matter of time until things start going in a different direction. Today is the day they figure out who is going home first in this third season.
The intro plays like usual
On the Far Apart Foxes: Priya is seen staring deep into thought in her bunk about pretty much everything Millie, Caleb, The game, and what her parents are thinking right now. Zee comes in and asks if she's ok, and she claims she is, and that she's not going to let any of this stop her, and Zee could tell something was wrong, but didn't want to say anything as it's only caused him problems in the past. Julia and MK are outside talking about what they could try doing as they believe their team is full of people who are gross, emotional wrecks, not all there, or just hate their guts, Julia knows that she could be booted easily if they lose, she says not if they cheat, MK brings up her cheating idea again, but Julia reminds her that she got caught last time and almost went home, MK believes that if she doesn't mess with anything of Chris', like the hairdryer, they should be fine, plus instead of cheating through challenges, they could cheat through messing with people, Julia likes the sound of that. Meanwhile Raj is seen crying in his bunk claiming he's been crying all night, and then he sees Wayne and Bowie coming in, with Bowie saying Wayne did the same thing in his bunk and he sits the hockey bros and gives them a pep talk, trying to lift up their spirits, but it doesn't work, Bowie tries to think of something. Axel and Ripper are then found talking about their history in the game from going from hating each other to loving each other, Axel then tells him that she and him need to cool down on the making out, as she's been noticing that it's been dragging her and him down, Ripper claims being gross is something he does best, Axel tries to tell him that she may believe that he's not super gross, but if they want to dominate the game, Ripper needs to clean up his act, both literally and figuratively.
On the Separated Serpents sides: Caleb and Millie are seen talking to themselves about Priya and then all of sudden they say the same thing out loud and gasp. Caleb then tells her that he owes her an apology, Millie says what for, and Caleb tells her for taking her best friend away from her, and saying that he was glad she was gone when she was eliminated, Millie tells him that she's said bad things more times than him, and they laugh it off, and decide to form an alliance, and Caleb promises that he will honest and truthful, and won't go behind her back, and all of sudden they hear a scream. We see Damien being chased by Scary Girl, whom somehow brought a jackhammer and said that she wants to have time to catch up, Chase is then seen hiding in a bush filming Damien saying he never knew Damien was so hilarious and would be great footage for his channel. Emma watches Chase from the cabin saying that he only cares about his own fame and the benefits, not the people he films, and still can't believe he's still the same Emma then stops and sits back and remembers season 1, and eventual flashbacks show her blowing up at Bowie, and claims that she was such a jerk to Bowie and that it was all her fault that their friendship ended, not Chase, she wants to talk to him, but she's not sure of when the best time to do so is.
Chris then announces it's challenge time!
Chris announces that he hopes the contestants have had their time to get used to their new teams and that it's time for the first challenge, will be a getting to know you game. Bowie says that isn't a little late since they've all known each other for a few years, but Chris says that he has eyes everywhere and has been watching, and Priya then starts twitching in her seat after hearing the challenge explained, and Millie asked her if she's ok, and claims she's fine she just didn't sleep well last night, Millie doesn't buy it. Julia tells her that even though she hates, she needs to pull herself together, if they don't want to win, Priya snaps at Julia to not tell her what to do, which surprises everyone, even Julia. Caleb said that was even worse than all the times Priya snapped at him combined. Chris says he'd love to keep this going, but he's on a tight schedule and that the challenge is that each person gets a point for every time they press their button admitting to the fact described to the other campers, if they refuse after 10 seconds, the other team gets the point, and that after one team gets 8 points will be the team that wins immunity and the losing team must send someone home.
First: Who was the first one is which camper accidentally peed themselves on their first date?
Emma presses her button, and Chase claims that he had no idea she peed herself, and thought he caused her to get a period, and she just growls at him. (Point for Serpents)
Next Question is: Which camper got suspended from school for going in the opposite gender's restroom?
Ripper presses his button (Point for Foxes), and says he's proud of it, and has no regrets, except for realizing he was wiping himself with pads instead of toilet paper. (Point for Foxes)
Next question is: Claiming they all should have done this at this point, Which camper has never gotten their driver's license?
Scary Girl presses her button, and She says who needs to drive, as she has her own ways of getting around, (Point for the Serpents)
Next question is: Which camper has sleepwalked while naked?
Zee presses his button, and claims that it was the soda, and had no idea what happened, and was not sure why he saw his door unlocked, and police at the door. Raj asks if he went to jail, and Zee said he luckily didn't since he had money from his soda sponsor, although they confiscated that soda from him. (Point for the Foxes)
Next question is: Which camper has never learned to tie their shoes?
Damien starts sweating but presses his button anyway, Millie is kind of surprised despite his intelligence, and Damien claims he just has never been able to figure it out, and sees quite a few of the other campers (Chase, Ripper, Julia, MK start laughing, causing Damien to hide himself in his jacket, with Scary Girl finding this interesting (Point for the Serpents)
Next question is: Which camper once got attacked while stuck in a zoo exhibit? MK sees Julia avoiding eye contact and presses her button for her, and presses her button for her, but Chris tells her that they don't get the point in doing so, but he asks Julia what happened in the exhibit anyway, she says that one of the monkeys came out of the exhibit grabbing her phone and started filming itself, and she got stuck by climbing into the exhibit because it deleted all of her content, Nichelle said that monkey was real for that.
Score is 3 for the Serpents and 2 for the Foxes.
Next question is: Which camper has a playlist on their phone dedicated to lullabies?
Caleb then pushes his button, claiming that his grandmas' love for lullabies is contagious.
Next question: Which camper has never gone a day without crying at least once?
Wayne and Bowie eyed up Raj, knowing it's him, and they give Raj a nod of encouragement from the other team, and he presses his button, MK asks why it's only him and not him and Wayne, and Raj claims that there was one night he didn't cry, the one in which he won the million dollars.
Then we get a montage of the remaining campers getting asked questions:
(Who once died their hair pink)? No one presses
(Who's afraid of rollercoasters)? Axel presses hers
(Who sneezed and got covered in snot during a school picture)? Millie presses hers
(Who broke their leg due to slipping on a banana peel?) Nichelle presses hers
(Who's pants have fallen down in a public mall?) Chase presses his
It was down to one more question, the question from Chris is who despises their parents so much that they want to move away? Priya having been relieved a bit for not having to say anything, all of sudden starts looking very distressed she tries to say it, and just stutters, Julia warns her that if no one admits it then they lose, and says that she's not a total drama expert if she causes the team to lose like that, angered at Julia she proceeds to tackle her, and as Chris watches feeling quite entertained as no one presses their button, that means that the Separated Serpents win the challenge. The team celebrates, but Millie and Caleb eye Priya in concern. Chris tells the Far Apart Foxes that they will see them at elimination.
At the elimination ceremony Chef calls out certain campers:
MK: She pressed Julia's button even though the rules were they could only press their own. MK tells her that she was doing what a "friend" would do.
Julia: She's made a lot of enemies throughout both of her seasons, and refusing to answer to gain a point, and provoking Priya to attack her, Julia tells him that she was just doing what she does best, and it's not good enough for them, then it's their problem.
Priya: Chef's been noticing Priya's not been herself today, and didn't seem to do much to help her team despite being a Total Drama expert, plus attacking Julia instead of securing the point for her team, Priya has no comments.
Chris then says those who get marshmallows are safe like usual, but then explains that since they are on boney island, the one who doesn't get a marshmallow must be carried away in the Casket of Cruelty. He then tosses marshmallows to the following:
Raj
Nichelle
Zee
Ripper
Axel
MK...
and the final marshmallow goes to...
Julia! Which means Priya is eliminated. Julia's jaw dropped when she got her marshmallow.
Chris is intially shocked by this, explains how Priya went from winner, to final 4, to first boot, and says that it's time for her to go. Priya has no comment towards anyone, which surprises even Julia as she thought she'd go ballistic. Priya then takes a breath and starts cursing out at her parents, completely censored and we cut to them watching with flabbergasted expressions, Priya says that Millie was right about them, and she can't believe it only took her till now to realize. She leaves in the casket, hoping that her parents got the message and hopes that her best friend and boyfriend will manage without her. and knows this is for her own mental being.
Priya takes a breath and admits in a confessional, that she told her team to vote her off, so that way she wouldn't have to quit, because she says she's getting the million she rightfully won, and she's not waiting until she's forty. "
Nichelle then appears in a confessional saying that even though Priya's out and she did vote for her, she says Julia better start counting her days, and says MK's not off the hook either.
Chris then closes own by asking how Millie and Caleb will react when the find out Priya's out first, what will Julia and MK do to keep themselves in the game, can Wayne and Raj make it work being on different teams, will any of the information revealed during the challenge impact the future of the game find out on the next episode coming soon.

Hello Ladies Gents and everything in between! I hope you all are having a lovely evening! My name is Jay(21F), I have been playing DND for around 11 years now (Ya I was corrupted young). I started DMing around 5 years ago and haven't looked back since. I currently run a campaign and we play that one on both Friday and Saturday from 6 pm to 10 pm.
Info
1: I already have one person who will be playing in this campaign. We would prefer a later session but can move the time around a bit. We aim to have sessions that run 4 hours at the least, but if everyone is free and wants to keep going, then we are game!
2: The campaign that will be run will be more free-range and sandbox-like. Meaning there is no main questline. The party will meet in some way and will travel together picking up quests and exploring the world to its fullest! This style of campaign can go on for as long as the players want and allows for freedom to do anything you want! From kingdom-making to being the villains!
3: Everyone is welcome! We don't turn anyone away! No matter how new you are or what you identify as you are welcome to apply! Everyone will be looked at equally!
4: Homebrew Rules And World! We don't follow the book like it's law! Where is the fun in that? So you are welcome to use homebrew content but It needs to be run by me first! I don't want any OP characters so I got to read and approve it before you use it!
5: Roleplay Heavy! I'm a sucker for roleplay I won't lie! My campaigns are roleplay-based BUT since this is an open-world campaign you all are welcome to fight your way through whatever you want just know you can almost always try and talk your way out of it!
6: We use Discord and roll20! We use Discord for any pictures or info I may send and many other things and roll20 for maps, character sheets, and rolling. We don't use video chat BUT we do use Voice!
7: We have dogs! I know this is random but that means there are chances for a stray bark to go through. It's just a warning as some get upset by it so before you decide to apply just know we have dogs!
Campaign Plot There are two options for plots and based on who is picked and what the preferred world is will determine which one it will be! You'll get to pick between the two or pick either in the application.
Into The Unknown
“Denus”, is a city that sits in what is believed to be the center of a forest called “Rajani” meaning darkness. A city of around 50,000 people, they all follow Lord Omi a high elf who has been in power for as long as anyone can remember. No one has ever questioned him accepting that they needed a leader at some point and crime was at an all-time low due to the harsh punishments.
The wost is banishment, while normally Lord Omi forbids anyone from entering unless they are told to. The body of the person who had been banished would either appear on the edge of the forest where they had entered a few days later half eaten or would never return. People feared this, not knowing what was killing them. However, when Pentrla and Will two half-elfs who had been banished nearly 50 years ago were found on the edge of the found on the edge of the forest in perfect health people became confused but curious.
Many wanted to travel into the forest in hopes of freedom, in hopes of something more. However. Lord Omi forbade it setting guards up around the edge of the forest and setting a curfew stating he wants to keep his people safe. People tired of getting banished and when he caught onto this he changed the punishment people began to give up hope.
That was all 50 years ago and many speak as if it was a myth or a fairy tale.
The Frontier
“In the past, that is now lost forever, there was a time when the land was sacred and the ancient ones were as one with it. A time when only the children of the great spirit were here, to light their fires in these places with no boundaries, when the forest were as thick as the fur of the winter bear, and when a warrior could walk from horizon to horizon on the backs of the buffalo. And that time when there were only simple ways, I saw with my heart the conflicts to come, and whether it would be for good or bad, there was one thing certain; there would be change.”
This is a wild west, a land of adventure and time for romance, Cowboys/cowgirls roam the plains driving cattle. Gamblers and prostitutes profit from boom towns that rise and fall nearly overnight. Salesmen peddle their wares, while lawmen try their best to keep the peace - yet it scarcely takes more than a stolen horse or a bad hand of poker to put bodies in the ground.
Other about this Prompt
Renames thing:
Wizards are called Magicians, Warlocks are called Contractors, Clerics are called missionaries(might change to peachers), Druids are called Shamans, Rouges are called Outlaws, and Homebrews will be renamed to be more fitting as well.
Potions = Tonics
Other:
Everyone will start with a basic horse.
You will have a reputation that can be affected by a party member
New things added:
Hunting/skinning
Possibilities:
Magic guns for spell casting focus instead of wands and staves.
Magic could just be removed altogether depending on if we want to lean more into a more gun-heavy western instead of a reskinned DND.
Weapon list and eventually weapon upgrades (depends on above)
ALL RIGHT! You did it! You read through all these words! Assuming you finished and are interested please fill out an application! I'll be going threw them and contacting people! I'm hoping to get this running within the next coming month or two but who knows what will happen!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvnOvEfL9nlbclfOcqSlH5qrbP8nC61uYJ4V5XwICuJ5qryA/viewform?usp=sf\_link

Disclaimer: This is going to read like stupid middle school drama because it is
Basically, throughout all of elementary and middle school, I was very good friends with this girl. At some point I realized I developed feelings for her and soon after had heard from a couple of people that she also liked me. A little while after that one night while out of state for thanksgiving I texted her telling her I liked her and she was very happy and reciprocated. We ended up texting for a while and then I went to sleep. I still remember how nervous/excited I was when I was sending the reply and waiting for her to open it.
One thing about me is I legitimately hate texting and especially snapchat texting. I hate the read receipts, I hate the notification when I start typing, I hate seeing their bitmoji waiting in the corner, I hate everything about it. I always overthink my replies and generally it just stresses me out. Even fr imessage I pretty much limit myself to only receiving or sending information that doesnt really necessitate a phone call.
A while later I made an offhand comment to one of my friends who was dating one of this girl's best friends. The comment was essentially "I regret telling this girl I like her, she texts me so much and its really annoying." My friend ended up telling this to his girlfriend who told the girl and when I got home I got a text from her asking if this was true. One of worst traits is that Im horrible at dealing with confrontation in interpersonal conflicts (my whole family is like this) and honestly when I got this text I just kinda shut down. I didn't know how to respond and so I didn't. Looking back I think I was embarassed and kind of ashamed she had found out I said that when its not entirely what I meant so I just ended up never responding. Over the couple months she would very regularly send long texts apologizing and just asking me talk to her. I still had classes where I would sit next to her and very near her but I would just ignore her. I couldn't even look at her because I was so ashamed about ignoring her which just made me ignore her more. The texts she would send me most of the time I wouldn't even read but I would sometimes pass my phone to my group of friends to read them (I know this was an extremely shitty thing to do.)
Eventually she stopped texting me and obviously our friendship was completely over. I don't know if its related but the timeline makes it hard for me to believe it isn't around this time I started getting bad social anxiety, was self conscious, and looking back I think I was pretty depressed through most of highschool (still into college but I've never been to like a therapist or doctor about it so idk) and if it wasn't for the pretty big friendgroup I already had I probably wouldn't have talked to anyone in highschool. Outside of this friendgroup I just didn't engage with other people. Also after I ghosted this girl a few of her friends, who I was also friends with, (one was the girl who told her in the first place, and had also been one of my best friends since kindergarten) asked me out and I turned them down. This pretty much marked the end of serious female friendships in my life.
I think it also really altered the way I view relationships as a whole as I just saw them as unwanted stress in my life so while there were one or two girls I almost dated in highschool, I never did. Besides hooking up with a girl once while I was in early college I never had a girlfriend until this year, sophomore year in college. (I broke up with her after 4 months because it stressed me out and she texted me way too much.)
Without getting too specific, and because I only heard bits and pieces from friends (since I wasn't talking to her) it affected her pretty substantially. Also to my knowledge she didnt really date at all in highschool, despite being an very pretty, smart, athletic, and genuinely sweet girl. She had one kind of relationship in senior year into freshman year of college to my knowledge with a dude who was a friend of friend of mine. Based on how he talked about her he was probably a bigger asshole to her than I was.
We did have some contact into highschool and one thing I always respected/appreciated was she was always extremely kind and friendly with me even though I didn't really return the favor because I just felt too guilty to even look at her straight on. She was on student council and I was pretty notorious for having no knowledge of school events so she would often text me making sure I knew when picture day was, yearbook stuff, important extracurricular stuff, etc. I would respond but that was it. When we were in the same early college class she would unprompted send me her notes from class when I would skip. (Frequently) Genuinely she is one of the sweetest and kindest people I have ever met and I just feel so guilty for blowing up our friendship over basically nothing. I was only 13 so I guess it makes sense I was immature but all I needed to was have like the most basic communication skills and not shut her out completely.
This brings us to present day and I guess I just want to know if I should apologize at this point or not. It was so long ago it honestly seems stupid I even care about this, and we both go to different colleges hours away from eachother so we don't interact at all anymore. Our summer jobs are right next door, but because of how our shifts are the likelyhood of us randomly bumping into eachother are low. (Hasn't happened yet) (Also its a very rural area so right next door isn't like building to building) I'm not looking to necessarily rekindle the friendship or anything, just everytime I think about her or see her car drive by I feel insanely ashamed. Part of me thinks it’s better to just let it go but the other part wants to get it off my chest.
Genuinely really want to hear somebody’s opinion on this. I can’t tell if I’m just obsessing over nothing and should just let it go. If you were on the other end of this would you want an apology like 7 years later?
TLDR: In 8th grade I confessed to my close friend who I was pretty sure liked me that I liked her as well. Later I confided in a friend that I regretted telling her this because I was annoyed she texted me so often. She found out and I proceeded to completely ignore her for years.

This is going to be a long story y’all, buckle up!
My father, Matthew, has always been an unstable man. When I was growing up, he would regularly lash out physically and verbally towards those closest to him, but he would put on a façade when around anyone else. Those who are closest to him know just how awful a person he is yet how good he is a covering it all up to convince people outside the family that everything is ok.
My mother and father had gotten divorced when I was young and I, along with my two siblings, would go to his house on the weekends. When we lived at his house, he would never let us go outside, he would forget to feed us, he would make us do chores to clean up after him, he had cameras all over the house, and he would lash out violently if his standards weren’t met.
When I was 14~, I stopped going to Matt’s house. I had forgotten a book at my mom’s house that I needed for homework over the weekend, and I asked Matt if my stepdad could drop it off out front of the house so that I could get it done still. Matt started to yell at me saying how forgetful I am and how my stepdad is not allowed anywhere near the house and all these other nonsense things and then demanded that I hand over my phone to him and that I was grounded for the weekend.
I yelled back at my dad that he doesn’t pay for the phone, Mom does, so he has no right to take it from me. He did not take this kindly and proceeded to tackle me into the doorframe to get the phone out of my hand.
Now, keep in mind, I was a small kid growing up and he is a very fat man that was much taller than me at the time. I got a serious bruise on my shoulder.
After being tackled, I took off into the street running every which way to hide from him. I did not want to be hurt like that by him ever again. I found solace in an old man’s house after I had run for 20 or so minutes. We called the police and my parents and that was the last day that I would speak to my father for the next four years.

Fast forward 4 years, my great grandmother (Nan) who is Matthew’s grandmother was in the hospital and her condition was grim. Her organs were shutting down one by one due to her age.
Nan meant so much to me, when I got my driver's license her house was the first place that I went to. I would drive to see her as often as I could, and I would keep her up to date on everything that was happening in my life. And when she fell ill was no exception, I was glued to her bedside all day every day.
I was a senior in high school when she was sick and all I needed to graduate was an English credit, so I got out of school at 10:30 every day. Once Nan was hospitalized, I was there by her side from 11am to 11pm on most days. I talked with her for hours about her life, about meeting my Pap, about how her siblings had passed in a fire when she was young, and everything else under the stars.
For almost 30 days in a row, I was there for her, calling off work and putting my life on hold just so that I could be there for what was left of hers. She had many visitors, some family members came from Nebraska, Florida, and hours away by car just to spend time with her in her last days. One person that was absent, however, was Matthew.
Matthew was raised by Nan growing up. His mom had him when she was way too young. In fact, my father was the product of my grandmother’s sister’s husband and my grandmother. So, my Nan raised him instead.
At first, my Nan would ask when Matthew was going to stop by, but over the month she asked less and less.
They moved her to a hospital that was closer to her home and the rest of her family, and I kept going to see her, but this time the commute was an hour instead of 10 minutes. This hospital was conveniently located 5 minutes away from Matthew's house, but still no sign of him. Not until things took a turn for the worst that is.
My Nan’s condition was getting very bad and my grandmother, Matthew’s mom, had asked me to go and pick up my Nan’s husband because everyone thought that this was the last chance that they would have to see each other. Little did I know, as I was out to get Pap, my gram had called my dad and told him that this was it and he had to come and say goodbye.
When I returned with Pap, my dad and his girlfriend were there at her bedside for the first time since she had fallen ill. The moment I saw my dad, I started to shut down. I feared him. Even though it could have been the last time that I could have seen my Nan, I left the room to cry in the hallway. This is the man that had abused me, my siblings, and my mom for so many years yet now all of a sudden, he was there like he was the golden child.
After having only been there for about an hour, my dad and his girlfriend decided that it was time to leave. My gram turned to me and told me that my dad loves me still and he didn’t mean any of that stuff from the past and that he wanted to talk to me. Idiotically, I listened to her and walked after him and his girlfriend and called out, saying, “dad, do you have a minute?”
He snapped back with “no, I don’t” and then grabbed a nurse and told her that “this kid is following me, and I don’t feel safe enough to walk to my car, I need security to make sure he doesn’t harm me”
I broke down and asked him if he even remembered me or if he cared enough to ever want to reconcile with me and his girlfriend chimed that I need to leave him alone and that I don’t understand what he’s going through.
If there was any part of this story that I regret, it is what I said next. My dad’s girlfriend was born and raised in Germany and had talked about German history and that sort of thing with us in the past, and well... she didn’t denounce what the N@zi's did, let's just say that.
I told her “Shut up you stupid kraut, I’m not talking to you”
After this my dad yelled at me in the hospital and said “way to show your true colors, I knew I was right about you all along”
The next morning on my drive to the hospital I got a call from an attorney saying that Matthew had filed an emergency protection from abuse against me (my state doesn’t do restraining orders, but just think that).
In my state there are 2 types of PFA’s, EPFAs and regular ones. The kind that my dad filed against me was the Emergency kind that would get immediately granted in order to protect the person that filed from imminent dangeserious harm, then they would retroactively checkup to see if the EPFA was warranted after it was filed.
This meant that I could not go and see Nan again, not as long as I had this EPFA hanging over my head.
The claim that Matthew made against me, his own son, had so many errors and made-up nonsense. For example, he said that I am 6’2”, 220lbs, brown eyes, mentally unstable/dangerous, threatened his life, that I own guns and that he fears I’d use them on him, that I abuse my brother and sister, that I abuse my Nan, that I followed him to his car and all of these other things. He even spelled my name wrong in the document. A name that HE gave to me.
At most I’m 5’10”, 160lbs, green eyes and never shot a gun before, you get the picture. All of it was nonsense. The judge didn’t know that though when he filed it, he just heard a story of a crazed man who owns guns and wants to use them.
I got in contact with a lawyer once I got off the phone and tried to find any way around this so that I could go and see my Nan before she passed.
Unfortunately, I was too late. My Nan passed the next day, and I could not say goodbye. She had her funeral (which she asked me to sing at) and was buried all before I could get this EPFA overturned so that I could go and see her.
I missed all of it and Matthew got to walk away unscathed.
This happened a year ago and I am just finally getting it off my chest. I don’t even care if anyone reads this, I just wanted to type it.
If it makes anyone feel better, my dad was a middle school music teacher, but wasn’t allowed to go work around kids this year because of another lawsuit that he got himself.

Disclaimer: I'm bringing it here before any shutdown of AMH because lately, there's random stuff being posted there and a lack of control.

*Deals from 2020 onward might still be possible in some ways.
1927:

• Fox Film and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were planning to merge before being called off.

1929:

• Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. called off a merger with Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation.

1956:

• Suitors including what would become Associated Artists Pictures had been bidding for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's back catalog. MGM would eventually enter the TV market themselves.

1957:

• Associated Artists Pictures almost closed a deal to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's shorts library (including the Tom and Jerry shorts) but shut it down due to the (unspecified) price tag.

1958:

• National Telefilm Associates announced plans to buy Associated Artists Pictures, which at this point was a subject of litigation. It would be United Artists who would buy them.

1971:

• 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer considered merging.

1982:

• Orion Pictures looked at buying Embassy Pictures and Allied Artists before settling in on Filmways.
• Warner Communications tried in July to buy back the rights to Metro-Goldwyn-MayeUnited Artists' pre-1950 WB library for the first time. The negotiations fell apart because of dozens of unresolved points, probably relating to the oldest Warner Bros. films. The second time was successful 14 years later with the Turner merger.

1984:

• Reliance Insurance attempted to take over Disney.

1985:

• Turner attempted to take over the Columbia Broadcasting System for $5.4 billion.
• Viacom was looking to buy 50% of MGM/UA from Turner.

1987:

• Carolco Pictures attempted to buy Orion Pictures and Media Home Entertainment.
• NBC considered buying the Turner Broadcasting System.

1989:

• MCA offered to buy Disney.
• Bill Cosby tried to buy a stake in NBC.
• Jim Henson attempted to sell the Muppets to Disney for $150 million.
• Before Time Warner, Paramount Communications, which just rose up from Gulf+Western planned to merge with Time Magazine before the latter went with Warner Communications.
• Viacom itself even planned to merge with Gulf+Western, 5 years before making a full-on successful buyout.
• Viacom was even in talks with MCA Inc., the owner of Universal Studios, according to the same article.
• Ted Turner somehow tried to repurchase Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, this time including the United Artists side.
  • Qintex (which would later become Seven Media) also planned to buy MGM/UA for A$1.5 billion.

1991:

• In March, Brøderbund ended merger talks with Sierra On-Line, and given that date, it most likely started plans in the previous year.
• Turner's New Line Cinema looked into buying Orion, which the interests of Republic Pictures, Savoy Pictures, the American Broadcasting Company, and Polygram would also follow.

1992:

• MCA and Hallmark were originally the buyers for Hanna-Barbera but got outbid by Turner, which merged with Time Warner.

1993:

• In September, QVC tried a hostile $9.6 billion bid for Paramount Communications before a lawsuit came in, and lost to a $9.85 billion bid from Viacom in February.

1994:

• Bell Atlantic planned to buy Tele-Communications Inc. for $33 billion. TCI would later head for AT&T 5 years later.
• Time Warner Communications tried to buy NBC from General Electric for $2 to 2.5 billion.

1995:

• News Corporation, MCA, Time Warner Communications and Cinergi placed bids for Carolco Pictures before Le Studio Canal+ took over.
• Brøderbund bid for the original The Learning Company, before SoftKey bought them and adopted their name. They would buy Brøderbund in 1998.

1996:

• Before fatefully settling its eyes upon Sierra On-Line and Davidson & Associates (Blizzard, Animation Magic, and Knowledge Adventure), Comp-U-Card International, or more unfortunately named, CUC's Walter Forbes had considered a larger company that consisted of not just Sierra and Davidson, but also Brøderbund and LucasArts.
• After having Broadway Video's family library for dinner, Golden Books planned to buy out Nelvana.
• Microsoft nearly acquired Davidson & Associates (Blizzard) on the first try, but they lost to Comp-U-Card. In December 1997, CUC merged with HFS, and the new company was renamed Cendant, which would suffer a big accounting scandal.
• British Telecom, who owned a partial stake since 1994, bid $22 billion for MCI.
• For a year, Polygram attempted to buy out Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Samuel Goldwyn.

1997:

• GTE, which eventually merged with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon 3 years later, bid $28 billion for MCI. Eventually, Worldcom kicked in.
• GoodTimes Interactive planned to buy MicroProse for $250 million before letting Hasbro Interactive take it in. Coincidentally, both GoodTimes AND Hasbro Interactive would be bought out by Infogrames (later Atari SA) in 1999 and 2001, respectively.
• Epic Pictures had offers to be bought by Artisan, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Disney before PolyGram succeeded to buy it. PolyGram would eventually sell it to Metro-Goldwyn-MayeOrion over a year later.

1998:

• Microsoft tried to acquire Davidson & Associates (Blizzard) for the second time from Cendant, but they were beaten by Havas, which was owned by Vivendi.
• Viacom's Paramount Pictures offered to buy French art house studio CiBy 2000 for 500 million francs, or roughly $80 million in USD. The founder's widow, however, refused, and the catalog was dispersed between TF1, MK2, and several companies. Thirty-two years later, Paramount would get an arthouse-type film studio: Miramax.

1999:

• MCI Worldcom tried to buy Sprint for $129 billion. After a 2001 scandal, Worldcom (name since 2000) was renamed to MCI Inc., which would get bought by Verizon in 2006. Sprint merged with T-Mobile US 14 years after MCI went to Verizon.
• Global Crossing offered to buy US West for $37 billion before Qwest outbid them. Coincidentally, the rest seems to have been a big wave of all coming together, as Global Crossing (after a bankruptcy in 2002) would get bought by Level 3 in 2011, which itself would be bought in 2016 by CenturyLink WHO MERGED with Qwest back in 2010.
• Artisan Entertainment and Canal+ were speculated to pick up PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.
• Two years before the release of the Xbox, Microsoft approached Nintendo about buying them. The deal was that they would make the hardware for Nintendo, but the latter's executives "laughed their asses off."
  • They also tried to buy Squaresoft, Electronic Arts, and Midway around this time.
• CanWest Global attempted to acquire NetStar (which consisted of TSN and Discovery Canada), but was vetoed by ESPN. CTV would eventually buy it.
• Francis Ford Coppola planned to buy United Artists from MGM.

2000:

• Activision and partial owner Nintendo bid for Rareware until Microsoft bought them out 2 years later.
• Netflix offers to be bought by Blockbuster for $50 million, but they decline.
• Warner Music Group tried to buy British music label EMI for $20 billion but canceled the merger after pressure. Info here. After EMI's bankruptcy in 2011, Warner would buy Parlophone from it for $765 million, about 40% of EMI's record label.

2001:

• Sesame Workshop was put up for sale, with speculated buyers being Viacom, AOL Time Warner, The Walt Disney Company, and Classic Media.
  • The Jim Henson Company was also up for sale to The Walt Disney Company, Viacom, HIT Entertainment, AOL Time Warner, Haim Saban, and Classic Media.
• Chris-Craft (involved in the United Paramount Network) offered to be bought by Viacom for $3.1 billion until News Corp came in.
• Before NBC came in, the bidders of Telemundo were Viacom, The Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation, The Walt Disney Company, and AOL Time Warner.

2002:

• Viacom and USA Network were originally speculated to buy Fox Family Worldwide before it was sold by News Corp to The Walt Disney Company.

2003:

• Emtv tried to sell The Muppets to Sesame Workshop and ClassicMedia.
• Before Lionsgate took the shot, Marvel and Miramax were placing a bid to pick up Artisan.
• Viacom, Liberty Media Corp, News Corporation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Barry Diller were also bidding to buy Universal Studios and its theme parks.

2004:

• Comcast tried to buy Disney for $66 billion.
• Take-Two Interactive Software considered buying Vivendi Universal Games for $1 billion, which was below what Vivendi Universal wanted. Vivendi Games, after its parent company stripped itself of Universal Studios to make NBC Universal, would merge with Activision Publishing four years later to create Activision Blizzard, now part of Microsoft.
• In June, an unnamed financier offered $10 million for TheFacebook, the first of many attempts over the next three years.
  • Friendster also offered to buy them, according to documents seen by SAI Global.
  • A couple of Google execs visited Facebook's office to see if there was a way to work with Zuckerberg or perhaps even buy his company.
• 2 years after Kirk Kerkorian put Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer up for sale, Time Warner emerged as a bidder for the studio. The bid wasn't unexpected, as Ted Turner was the largest shareholder. After all, his Turner Entertainment Group had risen to success through its ownership of the pre-May 1986 library, which had been acquired by the bidder when they merged with Turner eight years prior.
• Casey-Werner was looking to sell itself to a large media company but would later decide against selling. The potential suitors were General Electric/Vivendi's NBC Universal and the first incarnation of Viacom, which owned CBS.
• Channel 4 considered merging with Channel 5 for nine months before calling it off. Five would later get bought by RTL Group.

2005:

• Viacom offered to buy out TheFacebook for $75 million; the deal would have Mark Zuckerburg earn $35 million "on the spot".
  • MySpace's CEO Chris DeWolfe also visited Mark and his team to buy them.
  • NBC Universal's NBC execs stopped by "for a peek" this year.
  • In the fall, Mark Zuckerberg flew to New York to meet with Viacom CEO Tom Freston. Tom would pitch all sorts of synergies to Mark between MTV and Facebook.
• Before creating an alliance consisting of Pandemic Studios and BioWare, Elevation Partners planned to buy out Eidos Interactive before SCi (no, not Sony Computer Interactive) stepped in and bought them in May. The Pandemic and BioWare alliance would get bought by Electronic Arts 2 years later, with the former studio shutting down two years later.
• Five months before Viacom purchased Dreamworks SKG, there were rumors that NBC Universal would buy the then-independent studio for $2.5 billion. Dreamworks Pictures already used Universal's film distribution and home entertainment divisions to distribute their products.

2006:

• In January, News Corporation's Ross Levinsohn wanted to buy Facebook but was worried the deal might not keep up its growth.
  • Viacom sent the company a $1.5 billion offer--$800 million in cash up front, the rest a payout later. In this case, it's said it "almost sold."
  • In June, Yahoo! offered $1 billion, only to... lower it to $850 million after announcing horrible Q2 earnings.
    • In the fall, they suggested they would pay $1 billion or more.
  • In the middle of the year, AOL's CEO Johnathan Miller wanted to buy the company, convincing Time Inc.'s CEO to come in on the deal they took to their parent company Time Warner. A detailed plan would have AOL sell MapQuest and Tegic, while Time Inc. would sell IPC. Together, they'd offer $1 billion-plus.
• At least according to the YouTuber Hook: before Google came in, the bidders for YouTube were News Corporation, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and even Viacom, the last of which, after the Google purchase, would coldly claim YouTube infringed copyright, losing in the long end, and, after a CEO change, bought VidCon.
• In November, National Transcommunications Limited (or NTL for short) approached ITV plc with a merger bid. However, it would get blocked when British Sky Broadcasting (now Sky UK) bought roughly 18% of ITV for £940 million ($117.3 million in US dollars).
  • RTL Group, who owned Channel 5 at the time, also bid at one point; the plan would have seen RTL acquiring Sky's stake in ITV plc (with the aim of further acquisitions of shares in the future) in exchange for BSkyB taking full control of Channel 5.

2007:

• Google offered to buy Facebook.
  • Microsoft also offered to buy a small stake in the platform at a $15 billion valuation, then have the option, every six months, to buy another 5 percent. The complete takeover would've been well within five to seven years. While it never happened, they did buy 1.6% of the company for about $250 million, a deal which set their value at $15 billion.

2008:

• A reverse merger deal between DHX Media and Entertainment One was considered.
• Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo! for $47.5 billion until the latter let Google display its ads on the site.
• There were later debunked rumors of Viacom buying Take-Two Interactive, around the time of the next one:
• Electronic Arts even tried to buy Take-Two Interactive until September.
• France Télécom (present-day Orange) planned to buy Swedish telco TeliaSonera for $40 billion, but both could not come to an agreement.
• Square Enix planned to buy Tecmo, but the latter insisted on a merger of equals with Koei.

2009:

• Lionsgate announced plans on February 1 to buy Summit Entertainment, but 2 days later, the plans fell through. Lionsgate would end up purchasing Summit in 2012.
• Before Comcast came in, Time Warner and News Corporation were originally interested in buying NBC Universal from General Electric and Vivendi.
• News Corporation, Time Warner, Amir Malin's Qualia Capital, and Lionsgate Entertainment were bidding for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Holdings during its bankruptcy. Time Warner already owned the pre-May 1986 MGM library, had enough cash reserves, and co-produced the Hobbit films with the studio. News Corporation's 20th Century Fox, meanwhile, was Metro Goldwyn Mayer's home entertainment distributor at the time.

2010:

• News Corporation made a plan for the takeover of British Sky Broadcasting (already owning 39.1% until then) in June for 700 pounds per share for the remaining 60.9% shares until two turning points came: the removal of regulatory approval from Vincent Cable in December, and the more infamous 2011 News of the World phone hacking incident, which caused the bid to fall to its face.
• In a part 2, two more bidders, Reliance Entertainment (about $1.8 billion) and Relativity Media (about $1.6 billion) went onboard for MGM Holdings. But by November 3rd, MGM Holdings filed bankruptcy and emerged almost a month later when the Federal Bankruptcy Court approved the reorganization plan.

2011:

• AT&T tried to buy T-Mobile US for $39 billion.
• Hulu found itself in an unsolicited offer that was said to involve Google and Yahoo!. Ultimately, none of the bidders offered an amount satisfactory to its owners.
• World Wrestling Entertainment and the UFC were in separate talks to buy G4 until UFC went into a deal with Fox and WWE built its network.
• Before Mattel chipped in, the other bidders planning to buy HiT Entertainment from Apax Partners were The Walt Disney Company, the second incarnation of Viacom, rival Hasbro, ClassicMedia (which would be bought by Dreamworks Animation, which is now a Comcast company), Chorion, and Saban Brands.

2012:

• CBS was also rumored to buy Sony Pictures from Sony.
• People make a half-truth of an NYT article about Valve into "EA tried to buy Valve."

2013:

• Facebook's Instagram attempted to buy Snapchat for $3 billion in cash due to the latter's introduction of Stories. 3 years later, Instagram made their own Stories.
• Yahoo! considered buying either Netflix or Hulu until they fatefully decided upon Tumblr for $1.1 billion.
  • DirecTV and Time Warner also bid for Hulu.
• Time Warner was stated to be one of the buyers of THQ until its bankruptcy in the same year, followed by Nordic Games buying its trademark in 2014.
  • ZeniMax Media also made a $26.3 million bid for THQ's Relic Entertainment before Sega came in.
• Dish Network considered buying Sprint for $25.5 billion.
• RTL Group's Fremantle attempted to buy out All3Media.
• Microsoft was negotiating to purchase HTC, a fact revealed by former Nokia chairman Risto Siilasmaa during an interview with the Helsingin Sanomat, or Hesari. Microsoft would later buy Nokia's mobile phone business that year.
  • On the topic of mobile phones, Lenovo planned to buy Blackberry Limited, but the Canadian government blocked the deal due to security concerns because prominent members of governments around the world have used Blackberries themselves. They would later buy Motorola Mobility from Google in January 2014 for $2.91 billion.

2014:

• 21st Century Fox offered an $80 billion bid for Time Warner, but a potential CNN spinoff was one of the reasons why it became unattractive and fell.
• Hasbro planned to buy DreamWorks Animation to form Hasbro-Dreamworks, two years before Comcast went in.
  • SoftBank was also planning to buy Dreamworks Animation for $3.4 billion.
• Comcast tried to buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion but faced a ton of madness to the point of abandonment.
• BT, ITV plc, Channel 4, Comcast (through NBCUniversal), Endemol, Time Warner, Viacom, Scripps Network Interactive, Saban Capital Group, and a joint bid of BSkyB and Discovery Communications were all bidders reportedly interested in acquiring Channel 5. Viacom won.

2015:

• There were some fears of Yahoo! buying Dailymotion from Orange, which were soon quelled by Vivendi's purchase of the site.
• Apple had considered buying TimeWarner.

2016:

• Before Viacom bought Telefe from Telefonica, Time Warner and the Cisneros Group were bidding for the network.
• 21st Century Fox tried a $32.5 billion bid for Sky until they were bought by Disney. Comcast eventually kicked in and bought Sky.
• Vivendi attempted a bid to buy out Ubisoft for $6.4 billion before ending the hostile takeover bid 2 years later. Today, Ubisoft is partially owned by Tencent.
• Disney somehow planned to merge with Time Warner before AT&T went into negotiations.
• Activision Blizzard's CEO Bobby Kotick somehow considered buying TimeWarner before AT&T took it.
• National Amusements sends a letter to both CBS Corporation and Viacom asking them to merge back. It's declined... for now.
• ITV plc placed a £1 billion ($1.3 billion USD) offer to buy eOne, which they rejected. Hasbro bought them for $4 billion in 2019.
• The Walt Disney Company planned to buy Twitter but decided not because there were a substantial amount of bots.
  • Microsoft, Salesforce, and Google were also said to bid for Twitter.
• Viacom tried to sell a stake of Paramount Pictures to Dalian Wanda, but it fell through, thankfully.
• Spotify was rumored to be looking into buying SoundCloud. It would be complementary as Spotify targets signed artists, and SoundCloud targets indies.

2017:

• 22 companies comprising but not limited to Viacom, Miramax, Ronald Wayne Burkle's Yucaipa, Lionsgate, A&E, Sony, and MGM all placed bids for The Weinstein Company.
• Viacom was going to take in Scripps Networks Interactive before Discovery Communications came through with a $12 billion outbid.
• Comcast, Sony, and Verizon were the other bidders for 21st Century Fox's assets. Comcast's bid persisted until July 2018, leaving it to The Walt Disney Company in March 2019.
• Tribune Media announced its sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group, but 15 months later, they were sued for a breach of contract. They would merge with future CW majority owner Nexstar Media Group for $4.1 billion.
• Hasbro attempted to buy Lionsgate.

2018:

• Viacom, CBS (both would re-merge in 2019), Verizon, Comcast, Amazon (later would buy MGM in 2022), Sony, and Hasbro again were speculated to buy Lionsgate, and there were rumors that a combined CBS-Viacom would buy out the studio, with Vice Chairman Michael Burns implying in an interview with CNBC that Lionsgate, CBS, and Viacom all merge.
• Google was eyeing Epic Games before starting their own cloud service called "Project Stream", later named Stadia, which lasted until 2023.

2019:

• Univision was speculated to be bought by ViacomCBS in articles like this, before Televisa (sort of) came in 2 years later, to form TelevisaUnivision.
• Before Viacom re-merged with CBS, there were rumors of the latter entity buying Starz from Lionsgate.
• Before ViacomCBS kicked in, the bidders for a 50% stake in Miramax were the second incarnation of Viacom, Lionsgate (which had the home video rights to Miramax, at least in the United States), and Spyglass Media Group, who had been the owner of The Weinstein Company's library a year ago. Spyglass was the first to exit talks, followed by Lionsgate a month later. After two months, Viacom went out of the discussion until the re-merge with CBS Corporation meant they would resume buyout talks with Miramax.
• ViacomCBS was also speculated to buy Discovery pre-announcement of the Warner Bros Discovery deal two years later.
• Continuing on with the post-merger 'nundrum, ViacomCBS was also rumored to buy Sony Pictures and even Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
• Xerox planned until 2020 to buy out Hewlett-Packard for $33.5 (later $35.0 in the second bid) billion. Hewlett-Packard indicated it would make its counteroffer for Xerox.

2020:

• Microsoft not only (and this was very publicized) tried to buy Tiktok, but almost tried to buy out Capcom, Nintendo, and even Warner Bros. Games.
• Apple and Netflix were rumored to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
• Take-Two Interactive was going to buy Codemasters for $994 million and assign it under 2K, before being trumped by Electronic Arts with a billion-dollar bid.
• ViacomCBS initially planned to sell Simon and Schuster to Penguin Random House but ended up in a blockage two years later.
  • Before that announcement, News Corp (HarperCollins) and Vivendi (Editis) were said to be the other bidders for S&S.

Around this time, Lionsgate made an unsolicited offer to merge Starz with ViacomCBS' Showtime.
2021:

• Comcast had some plans to buy Activision Blizzard, at least according to Puck.
• In a better-known attempt, they considered spinning off NBCUniversal and merging it with Electronic Arts, which sadly never materialized.
• Comcast was speculated to merge with ViacomCBS after the announcement of the Warner-Discovery deal, which would only get churned down to SkyShowtime for specific regions.
• Bagdasarian Productions has been reported to have put itself up for sale for about $300 million, with Paramount Global (who has home entertainment rights and Nickelodeon airs the current show) being the most likely bidder.
• Microsoft was interested in acquiring Zynga before it was sold to Take-Two Interactive Software.
• Microsoft was also seriously planning to buy out some of over a hundred developers and nine publishers, and also considered Sega, Square Enix, and IO Interactive in an April 2021 slideshow given out this year's ruling by the FTC on ActivBliz.
• Lionsgate was planning for as long as into the next year to buy STX.

2022:

• Fox Corporation and News Corp were going to merge, only to get called off.
• There were the marathonical rumors of Apple, Disney, and even Amazon buying out Electronic Arts.
• The Washington Post was looking to buy Wordle before The New York Times Company became the buyer.

2023:

• Playtika tried to buy Rovio for $813 million before Sega Sammy took the helm.
• Comcast was speculated to buy out World Wrestling Entertainment before Endeavor Group came in.
  • They were also rumored to buy the remaining 67% of Hulu from The Walt Disney Company, until it became the other way around.
• Legendary, Fremantle, and GoDigital Media Group were bidding to buy Entertainment One from Hasbro until Lionsgate won the bidding.
• In the finale of the Simon and Schuster sale, the other bidder besides Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts was News Corp's HarperCollins.
• Paramount Global planned to sell BET to people including Byron Allen, Shaquille O'Neal, and 50 Cent, until deciding that the networks were a core asset.

This is a bit long.
I had moved into a new apartment with my little dog and cat, and always made sure to ask my downstairs neighbor if he ever heard her and he said he never heard anything from my unit ever. He moved out after about 4 months, and a Karen moved in. At the time I was (27/28F) who had over ten years of experience with toxic neighbors and roommates.
Two months after she moved in my dog was killed by a pit bull as i wrestled to get its jaws open. i still have scars on my fingers from where the pit bull's fangs dug into me as i was prying. (And no i was in so much trauma that I could not bear the idea of killing someone else's puppy when I knew that was a pitbull puppy, that was not receiving proper training and he thought killing my dog was playing with a toy. i later found out someone else called and got animal services to arrive, and the owner had skipped out on the unit disappearing legally and situationally to avoid criminal charges.) I need emotional support dogs because of a very traumatic life, and part of that trauma will be relayed in another story. I waited 6 months for a new puppy to be born after searching carefully for breeders i agreed with and the temperament and sensitivity of their parent dogs. I have owned 3 dogs of the same breed (Larger yorkshire terrier who are sensitive to mood swings, seizures and other medical conditions more than a lot of big dogs 'supposedly' do. I do not tolerate a nitpicky dog they are fully desensitized by me in preparation for my future children ) before this and it was my first time experiencing the next problem.
My downstairs Karen had been friendly with me and chatted a lot but I could tell she was one of those 'no-nonsense' people and she even tried to give me rules like "No noise above me after 6pm" when I work early in the morning and wouldn't be home till after 7 which meant i was not allowed to VACCUME my own home except on my 1 day per month off of work. Usually those one days off were because i was sick from exhaustion and they were recovery days, not cleaning ones.
When she started complaining every single day about how her water was not 'hot enough' and she demanded she should have entitlement to piping hot water I realized she really was a Karen kind of woman. I let her know I had adopted a new puppy and that I was going to do extensive training to make sure it was a good little neighbor but asked her to bear with me. By the time the Karen moved out she had been under me for 2 years. and I got my new puppy around halfway through that.
At first she would lie to me and tell me she 'could never hear my dog' at all. I knew my dog barked in separation anxiety from her personality for the first 30-45 minutes after I left for work around 10 am, and otherwise stopped. 6 months before the Karen moved out, my dog was barking constantly because the Karen would sit on her patio below mine and talk so loudly it was as if she were talking in the middle of my house! I started getting text messages constantly about how my dog would not stop barking and when her friend had a baby over my dog barked so much it traumatized the baby. I told her repeatedly "Do not talk to my dog o r it makes her bark more." I told her repeatedly how LOUDLY she talked on the patio at 6-8 in the morning when I worked a day and a night shift and she was waking ME up. She would then claim I was imagining things as she worked night shift and couldnt POSSIBLY be awake that early. I the discord messages to my friends complaining about her to confirm I was not crazy but never showed her. She then tried to claim that my dog was disturbing all the neighbors and barked all day long. At this point, i had realized she was a very entitled Karen, and thanks to my late hours I found out her 'early morning' or 'nightshifts' were total lies. The hours she would need to be home to impose the '6pm curfew of noise' was ridiculous as she was coming home closer to 10pm. When she switched her tune of saying she needed silence in the morning, is when she was waking ME up at 6 in the morning.
At this point, I put up those cameras that are free and use your internet to monitor whatever to your phone. I could confirm that my dog would bark for the 45 minutes at most and then the only time she barked was maybe 4 or 5 times if someone was making strange loud noises below her. This meant someone pulling a cart or suitcase-type bag clicking across the sidewalk and she would bark until she couldn't hear it anymore so maybe a minute at most. She had been fully trained with sonic noise makers, dog whistles, training, and even that 'open door at odd intervals ' tricks. I refuse to use electric shock on my little girl or drugs when she is just fine for most of the day with her kitty brother. This is when the Karen's lies got worse!
Thats when the construction started. Every day for a week, that Karen was blowing up my phone saying my tiny dog was howling and screaming at all times. She even got the complex ownership to threaten me and tell me to control my dog with training or the complex would either evict me or forcibly remove my dog. This is illegal to do in my state as she is medically signed off on an Emotional support dog. I showed the office proof that my dog did NOT bark every single day and even witness reports that I had been so stressed I had actually been taking my dog to work as a caregiver, and she was making my client really happy, every other day. Further disproving the Karens claims. Over two weeks I discovered that the noises that DID make my dog bark were from the intense roof renovations that were going on, and the extensive painting and landscaping efforts that made it sound like people were trying to break down our walls. I fully understood why my poor girl was freaking! It even scared me so badly that the first time I heard them on the roof i ran to the office with the sound recording and they explained the rooftops were being re-tarred.
The Karen would not give up and the last time she texted me it was something like how "You need to control your dog. I cannot tollerate her barking at all times of the day and night! I will report you to the office and have the other neighbors sign a petition to get you eveicted if you do not put her in doggie daycare or get rid of her!" I replied with "Sure. You pay for the Doggie Daycare which is about $75 per day and then she will be quiet. Also I know for a fact you exaggerate and lie. My dog is wiht me half the times you claim she is barking and I know you are friends with your next-door neighbor whos dog barks worse and louder than mine out on his porch. Do not contact me again or speak to me in passing. If you do i will take this to more legal action" and I blocked her. A week later the office again tried to say they were getting complaints but admitted it was just one neighbor. I had made friends with the office worker and they loved my little dog. I even proved to them she was only making a small amount of noise the days she was left home. The stress this neighbor caused me with my new dog, who was supposed to reduce my clinical depression and anxiety went through the roof. If it weren't for my client letting me bring my dog for him to play with I dont think I would have been able to stay sane.
4 months before Karen moved out she tried one last trick to force me to deal with my dog 'her way' by submitting a proposal to the metro city district that i live in where they order me to cease and desist my dogs noise and that i was 'not compliant' with the required law ordinates. I could tell from the writing she had exaggerated the time, frequency, and duration of my dog's barking, much of which my cameras which were set to noise-sensitive, identified as two separate neighbors' dogs barking, not mine. My latest dog has a VERY unique bark with a pitch that is undeniably hers and is the first dog I ever had with barking or separation issues so i could easily tell the others were a medium and large barking dog. I laughed at the letter which said to further enforce the complaint they would require a petition of all my immediate neighbors, all of which said they couldn't hear my dog in comparison to the other barkers, and would not likely give their signatures to Karen. I decided if she ever did try anything else I would report to the office that she had a breech of contract 3 cats in her house two of which were identical and were grounds for immediate eviction, but I waited to see if she would cross me one last time. I laughed off the city mandate letter and tossed the letter out after the Karen moved away and never faced any repercussions but she gave me so many dirty looks. I started living in my home MY way after the text message that i had sent about 2 weeks prior to getting the notice, and had been vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, and doing any other cleaning i needed and wanted to do, ignoring her 'noise hour' demands. I good-naturedly would not do anything after 9pm as I consider that normal for neighbors who do not have children in a building that is mostly cement blocks per unit.
I am VERY happy to report that the neighbor who replaced the Karen actually LOVES that my dog barks when i go, and whenever someone is passing the area to the stairs of our shared entry. She has some paranoia of ghosts and when they lived on the 2nd floor she kept hearing footsteps on the roof at night. She says hearing my dog bark at normal loud things a dog should bark at helps her feel safe and comfortable because my dog tells her if shes hearing things or actually has someone being too close for comfort in our entryway and outside our mutual porches. The best part is we did a noise test! She couldn't hear my vacuum, my carpet shampooer, my blender OR my TV even when it was at a volume that was painful for MY ears! That Karen was such a dirty liar!!!
I was not overly concerned about Karen's attempts after her first failure, it was mostly just a source of stress because of how often she bombarded me or the wonder if another fake allegation against me would appear. I learned a lot in my teenage years and childhood about what is legally allowed and that was unfortunately given a crash course the year before I found this little paradise complex. I also use legal rights knowledge as a caregiver to help my clients stay safe from abusive sources or ones that would extort them. I know how and when to react and to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have proof to back up my end.

A small thing triggered me to write here because it’s getting to the point where I dont know if I need a break from my partner or not. I’ll call him Phil.
Today started out good! It’s a 3 day weekend, had no big plans because our toddler is sick. Nap time didn’t go as planned and she skipped it for the 3rd Saturday. Bummer but didn’t affect anyone’s mood. We continue our afternoon and Phil asked if his dad can stop by and grab some groceries we bought him last week. I say of course. I dont have the best relationship with his family but that’s a much bigger story than I can include. We get along well but there’s a lot of layers. Anyways he comes over and we’re outside with our toddler playing with chalk. Now we’ve visited his dad a bunch but our daughter has never been comfortable with him. He doesn’t give her space, he bosses her around and snaps his fingers at her or claps loudly at her to get her attention, touches her when she doesn’t want to be touched or is trying to back away, etc. I dont know if he doesn’t understand cues but to me she’s visibly uncomfortable and he doesn’t change his approach dispute Phil apparently telling him to. So after a few minutes she wants to go away from him and take a walk down the little path by our house. I say sure because I know she needs some space. I try to keep her close to the house but she wants to go across the street so I say okay but we have to go back in a minute. We are gone for a couple minutes and Phil calls to say come back. I told our toddler that we need to go back and she says no and she’s scared. I relay the message to Phil and he said “well get her back. Force her if you need to” I said “I’m doing my best but I won’t force her” so I let her play another minute and try to usher her back home but she keeps asking if grandpa is there and I say yes let’s go back and she’s saying she’s scared. I try to clarify if he scares her and she says yes. So I said okay… we don’t have to go back yet. I text Phil that she says she’s scared and he said “she has to be around him to not be scared. We do the same for your family” which isn’t true because my family gives her space to get comfortable and lets her come to them. Only one brother she’s scared of and we’ve seen him a couple times but each time she cries so I end the visit. He’s really tall and larger stature and she says he’s scared because he’s big. No hard feelings. Well anyways we’re on our way back and she sees her grandpa leaving so she gets excited but then he comes back and asks for a picture with her. Phil picks her up and I quietly say “ don’t want him to hold her.” And Phil rolls his eyes and heavily sighs. I take a couple pictures but she’s again visibly uncomfortable and pulling away from him which makes me uncomfortable.
Once he leaves she’s super happy but now Phil is quiet and stewing. The rest of the day (about 5-6 hours) he’s sighing and upset and I can feel his heavy mood. I’m as usual trying to cover up his stress and mood by being excited and positive for my toddler so she doesn’t feel it. Before we go to bed (her and I cosleep) I turn to close the bedroom door and as I look down the hall Phil slams the light switch button and is cursing to himself. I text him after toddler falls asleep and ask what’s up, why is he slamming lights and being angry? He replies “when??” So I respond “before we went to bed” and he says he doesn’t remember doing that. Such a small thing right? Why am I even bothered by it right? Because he wants to be angry or stressed allll day and have his childish outbursts and doesn’t care that our toddler is learning everythihg from his actions. She copies everything I do. She mimics how I talk, how I react to things, everything. She’s watching and learning. I’ve told him he can’t have outbursts and raise his voice at me. He can’t angrily honk at people on the road for having their blinker on. He needs to get his anxieties under control. He won’t. We can have literally no worries and he will find something to worry about and then have this heavy anxious mood all day. It’s exhausting trying to compensate for that when I have my own issues that I keep to myself and away from my daughter. I have near constant stomach issues because I’m trying to walk on egg shells with his moods. I don’t know how to manage this anymore but I’m a SAHM so I feel stuck.

It had been a long time. A long while, indeed, since the hives were removed from Nostramo. In their place came the endless fields of corn, the unwavering sway of the stalks as they rose out of the land. Of course, any person who knew Nostramo knew that this world wasn't truly the Planet of Darkness; it simply shared a name by sheer coincidence. This world was bright, temperate, and fertile. No pollution clogged the rivers and skies, even as bulk machines designed for the sole purpose of moving unimaginable quantities of grain to and fro went about their business. Humanity had learned long ago that the sun was necessary for crops to flourish, so the expense to keep the world clean was made. Nostramo was a world of life. It had to be in order to survive.
Scarecrows, intended to thwart the predations of hungry birds, rose tall above even the crops. They, by themselves, were hardly effective. The birds were too wise to be frightened by inanimate sticks. What was effective, at least for this one tiny part of the world, was the plate the scarecrow had been adorned with. The armor was a faded sapphire, somewhere between the blues of an ocean and the blue of old Nostramo's skies. Yet, the plate was marred with the scars of time. The blue had been worn away by the passage of years with no protection from the elements, and cracks and crevices from battle were many and they were deep. The passage of centuries had only worsened them. Now, it hardly even resembled armor, despite its once-mastercrafted artifice. It was a shadow of its former self. Glory—if the ceramite plates ever truly knew glory—was long gone, now. Rivets that once held pieces of flayed skin and the bones of poor, unfortunate souls now rested happily empty.
There was also a house. It was a simple prefabricated hab unit, only sized up to accommodate a being far larger than any normal human. Time had worn it down, too, but the rockcrete remained strong even as the white paint that once gave it a dash of vibrancy had peeled away and left only a stone gray visage. The roof was little more than a slightly tilted set of squares, designed to remove rain while only necessitating the bare minimum of extra material. Some parts of the unit were splotched with yellow pollen, and an odd vine curled up the side, almost making the place appear rustic.
And a woman emerged. She was tall. Unnervingly so. Even with the enlarged door, she risked slamming her head into the doorframe if she did not exercise caution. Her black hair was tied into a simple braid, though it was long enough to reach the small of her back. Scars—deep ones—crowded the area around her mouth like unwanted guests. Her clothes were simple and unrefined; a plain gray tunic and an unimpressive skirt covered her from her neck to her ankles, leaving only her head and arms exposed. She wore boots underneath it all, but one could only cast small glimpses of them from between the hem of her skirt and the length of the grass she tread upon.
Kassandra Curze was a woman long forgotten. Once, she had been known as the Night Haunter. A long time ago, she had sought justice and enacted it in whichever way she saw fit. Once, she had been seen as a woman who no one could trust. She was a tool to be maintained, to be utilized and then discarded when the work was done. Not any longer. For all anyone knew, the Night Haunter was dead.
She had heard stories, of course, of the Galaxy beyond Nostramo. She knew of her sister Guilliman's return and the wars she fought, how the Avenging Daughter of the Imperium bloodied her hands to keep Mankind safe. Kassandra knew of this. She knew that men and women who called themselves her children died every day, trying to enact the will of a Primarch they believed long dead. Her will.
"Redeem us," she had said. "Protect Mankind."
She sighed as the memories rushed back into her. Yet, despite the pain of those recollections, she spared a half-smile. If she was looking back, it meant she was not looking forward. She had not had a vision in millennia. It was one of many blessings she believed she did not deserve. Yet, she took them, fearing the alternative. Better to bask in rewards unearned than to be soaked in the just punishments. Truthfully, she feared justice. She had no delusions against the reality that, if anyone deserved to be burnt alive or hanged from a rope, it was her.
Yet she still lived. She lived here, by sheer coincidence, on a planet called Nostramo that was not Nostramo. She tended to crops. She repaired bulk movers and operated servo-harvesters. She could predict what the weather in three weeks was going to look like just by smelling the air. Her crops contributed to the war efforts, and she made her contribution to the tithe. She had been doing that for thousands of years. Surely, she had done more for the Imperium than most women could do. Surely she had earned some small piece of redemption, just by staying still and not hurting anyone. Just by eating and drinking alone, without anybody to injure or torture with her presence.
As she made her way toward the field, she whispered to herself, "The Night Haunter is dead."
The stalks were tall enough that they would have surpassed even an armored space marine in height, but she stood a head taller than them. If she looked out while standing in the field, she could see the horizons in all directions, with only a few odd hab units breaking up the perfect solitude of the endless sea of grain. Birds who made their nests amidst the fields swooped around. There were cats who lived in the fields, Kassandra knew. They were put there to hunt the birds, who ate both the crops and the insects who lived on them. She had always wanted to touch one of them, but they refused to draw near, even at the promise of food.
She slipped through the fields with the grace of a butterfly and began to examine the crops. The ones in section 1-A were in good condition. 1-B was struggling with a stalkbeetle infestation. She would have to requistion some pesticide. 1-C was good. 1-D flourished. 1-E was beautiful. She kept going through the sections of her field, scanning for any possible variance, any discrepancy that she needed to be concerned about. The administratum believed that there was a team of ten workers living in her hab unit. They were wrong, but she could do the work of ten men and then still have time left in the day to do other things.
When she finished the final section assigned to her, she departed from the field. She went home. She sat in her empty bedroom (if an empty chamber could be called that) and meditated. She could always feel the pricks of the future gnawing at her mind, trying to force their way in, but something stopped them. Even as her subconscious tried to skim the threads of time, it refused to delve into the deeper waters. Even if she tried to see something, she could not. Her foresight had left her.
Meditation was not something that had come naturally for her. She was once a being who was so utterly lost in her own torment that the idea of any self-reflection physically pained her. When she first struggled with those memories, the attacks had come. Moments where she could not breathe, even though there was air and her superhuman physique should have meant she could have survived even in the vacuum of space. Moments where she felt so small and vulnerable, despite her giant frame and overwhelming strength. Her heart racing even faster than it did in battle because when she was fighting she was in control of herself. When she fought the beast in her mind, she was not in control.
But that hurdle, though it had taken centuries to overcome, was simply an obstacle, and there was no task one of the Emperor's Daughters could not complete. Not that she took any pride in being related to the Emperor, of course; she simply saw the reality.
She opened her eyes. As her mind returned to the sensations of the world, she whispered to herself, "The Night Haunter is dead."
She left her bedroom and went to the kitchen. This was the one luxury she afforded herself, to honor the one person who had ever taken the time to know her. They had loved to bake, so she learned as well. Anyone, given thousands of years with which to practice, would become skilled in any craft.
Soon, the smell of freshly-baked pies and bread wafted out of her open windows. There was no one to smell them, and no one to share them with. She ate alone. Loaves of bread, fruit pies, chocolate tarts, and jams and butters with which to garnish them were all devoured quickly. She could taste every last flavor, could perfect every single modicum of sweetness until it practically melted away in a cloud of bliss, but she never enjoyed this part. It reminded her of all the things she did not have, and then she disliked herself for wanting more mercies than she had already been granted.
Then, when she was done eating and the sun was set, she went to sleep on the floor. Then she woke up the next day.
And she did it all again. Over and over again, without fail, without the slightest instance of change. It was peaceful.
A knock came on her door while she was baking. They called her name, not the false name the governor's inspectors knew her by. It was a woman's voice, boisterous and grizzled. Instantly, she knew who the voice belonged to: Leona El'Jonson. There were other women who sounded like that, but none could match the timbre of the Lion. Kassandra knew it as though the sound were engraved into her very soul.
She pulled a knife from the cabinet. For a normal human, it would have been the size of a longsword.
She whispered to herself as she approached the door slowly, "The Night Haunter is dead."
The door opened, and she saw the Primarch of the First Legion. She was wearing her armor. She was unarmed, however, and she looked... older. Her once pristine blonde hair was flecked with gray. The shadows of wrinkles pulled at her features, like a normal woman in her late thirties. And the steel daggers her eyes once held weren't there. Her face was almost... soft.
"Curze," the Lion said. Her voice, at least, hadn't changed.
"El'Jonson," Kassandra responded.
The sisters looked at each other. Kassandra realized with a chill that the Lion looked awkward. There was no certainty in the woman's eyes. Not like there had been during the Heresy or the Scouring. Not like there had been during the Great Crusade.
Was this really Leona El'Jonson?
"You look different," the Lion commented. "Much calmer. Peaceful."
Kassandra just stared. Surely, the knife in her hand—she had it hidden behind the doorframe—had not escaped her sister's notice. The Lion knew it was there, right?
Then, as the Lion's eyes burrowed into her own, she understood that yes, she did know. What was she thinking? Leona El'Jonson was never a deceitful woman. She had never once told a lie, and her coming to this house unarmed meant she had no intention of causing a ruckus. At least, not yet.
It meant she was vulnerable. Kassandra could get rid of her now. She could plunge the knife into the 1st's throat and no one would ever know. She knew, without her even saying, why she was here. She wanted to bring her back. She wanted her to fight. She wanted her to be at the head of the Night Lords again, to fight against the enemies of the Imperium like she had ten millennia ago. One simple murder would end this before it even began. First it was the Lion, then it would be Guilliman. Then it would be Dorn, maybe, or Corax. Maybe even Aurelia would come down and beg her to turn coat.
No. No more.
Kassandra's brow furrowed in agitation. "I'm staying here. The Night Haunter is dead."
The Lion looked back at her with a thoughtful expression on her face. She pinched the bridge of her nose anxiously—a new habit; perhaps she picked it up from Guilliman—and asked, "May I come in?"
She wanted to say no. More than anything, she wanted to say no. But she smelled the peanut butter pie from the kitchen that she knew she would normally have eaten by herself and something cracked. Something poked at her eyes, then. It was an unfamiliar feeling, one that she hadn't experienced in millennia. She kept her face even, but her mouth betrayed her: "Yes," she answered.
She guided the Lion into the kitchen and stabbed the knife into the cutting board—a warning—then she pulled out a chair for her sister to sit in. The table was far larger than a woman living alone needed. Thirty-seven chairs, all evenly spaced, rested in a perfect circle around the table. Pies and loaves of bread adorned it like decorations, despite their smell. These details did not escape the Lion's notice as she sat down. "I did not take you for the sentimental type, Curze."
"I am not," Kassandra responded. She pulled another set of pies out of the oven—lemon—and moved them to the table.
The Lion spared one last gaze at the expansive table and the feast that had been laid out before her and chanced a sad smile. "No. No, you're not."
Kassandra handed her sister a plate, a knife, a spoon, and a fork, then sat down. She pulled a slice of apple pie onto her plate, then slapped a dollop of ice cream onto it. She then grabbed one of the seasoned loaves of bread and set it down next to her plate. "Eat," she said. "They're better fresh."
There was discomfort in the way the Lion picked items to add to her plate. She placed a cinnamon roll in front of her, took small bites of it until it was gone, then quietly grabbed another. The sisters, for a time, ate in silence.
Almost, Kassandra wished the Lion would just eat her sweets and leave. She hoped El'Jonson would get the picture: Kassandra Curze was a new woman, living a life that she wanted, not the one that had been forced onto her. But, of course, she had to ask. "Why are you here, El'Jonson?"
The response came quickly. The Lion seemed to ease up, the territory becoming more familiar than sitting quietly and eating sweets. "I came to fetch you."
Kassandra set her fork down with a distinct clink. She stood and pulled a jar of strawberry jam from her cabinet. "Would you like some?"
Anger began to spread across the Lion's face. "You mock me."
"What if I do? What are you going to do about it, El'Jonson? Are you going to send your Angels here to destroy my crops and raze my home to the ground? Such measures are not beneath you." Kassandra's tone was even and controlled. Her heart, however, began to race. Thoughts began to swarm her, too many to control. What if she were persuaded? What if the Lion forces her? What if she destroys her new Nostramo just to get her to leave? What if she already informed her Legion, and her children are on their way to take her back to the wars?
She turned back to the cabinet to put the jam away.
"The Imperium is dying, Curze. It is split asunder. I've yet to even see Guilliman, but she and I are the only ones left, aside from you."
"What?" Kassandra wheeled around to face her sister. She looked for some semblance of dishonesty in the Lion's face, but there was none. She told the truth. "Only us three remain?"
"All the others are dead or missing. Even Aurelia has disappeared, gone in pursuit of Little Light. There is no one left to fight."
"Even Sanguinia?"
"I'm told she has not left Baal since her Dove died during the Siege of Terra." The Lion looked weary for a moment. "I'm sorry, Curze. I wish our reunion could have been done under better circumstances, but-"
"Better circumstances?"
The Lion looked shocked, both by the sentiment that had come out of her own mouth and by the venom with which Kassandra had spewed her reply. Her body tensed, preparing for a fight.
"For ten thousand years, I have tended to this farm. I have not harmed a soul in all that time. I have done my duty as a citizen of the Imperium. I have done everything in my power to make sure that my sins are wiped away, and all you do to wipe away my grievances with you are some honeyed words of apology for bothering me? Odd for you, granted, but no less unwanted. Perhaps I should have turned coat with Aurelia when I had the chance. Then, at least, my wishes would be treated with some respect."
The Lion, taken aback, sighed. "Kassandra." She stood and moved around the table toward Kassandra, doing her best to make the motion seem gentle. She wanted to appear kind. "I made mistakes. Too many to count. I hurt my children, I hurt my loved one, and I hurt you. I see that now. Every day, I wish I had not."
Kassandra watched as tears slipped down Leona El'Jonson's face. She watched as the stone slab of a woman began to cry. Wetness made lines down the 1st Primarch's face, leaving stains that would take hours to leave her skin. Even as she cried, however, her face remained still.
The shock manifested in half-spoken words. "Leona, what are you-"
"I know I have no right to come down to your home and ask you to take up your sword again. I know you have found a measure of peace here. Believe me when I say I do not want to destroy that. To destroy this." She motioned to the sweets arrayed on the table. This was the closest thing the sisters had ever been to being a family. Suddenly, Kassandra knew that Leona understood. "This is what all of us have been fighting for all of this time. A chance to be together. We might not have said it, but that is what really caused all of this. Our chance to be a family has passed us by, but we can stop others from feeling that pain. The Imperium is made up of daughters and sons. Of mothers and fathers. Of brothers and sisters. I fight to protect them, Curze, and so do your children."
Finally, something to pick at. "You lie. The Night Lords would never-"
"The VIIIth has changed. They have taken your words to heart, Kassandra."
"What are you talking about?"
Leona reminded her of words that she had not heard for millennia. "Protect Mankind. That is what you told them, isn't it? All this time, they have followed the words of their Primarch."
"You... You're lying. That Legion of madmen would never listen to me. It's impossible. El'Jonson, you are lying to me!"
"I am not."
"You are. You've come to take me back to them. They want me to lead them, to be the lunatic that leads their merry band of insane scum. I refuse. I refuse to play that role again. The Night Haunter is dead! She is dead!"
"Kassandra Curze!"
The shout stopped Kassandra. She turned away from Leona and looked into the empty sink, seeing her reflection in the metal basin. "The Night Haunter is dead."
"I do not want the Night Haunter. I want you, Kassandra. But we must go soon. Beyond Nostramo, the Galaxy burns. It needs you."
As she stared into the basin, Kassandra had a vision. She watched as she gazed into the eyes of Leona, with the 1st plunging knife into her throat. The knife currently resting in her cutting board. She watched, with cloudy eyes, as she squirmed and fought only to be overpowered by her armored sister. The 1st came here to kill her. She is a traitor.
She reached for the knife.
For a brief moment, she felt something touch her hand. It was a feeling she had not felt in a long time. She smelled the sweets on the table. She listened to the swaying of the fields outside. She felt her own breath, moving in and out gently. She looked at her sister, stern as ever. She heard a voice. Stop, my love, it said. I am here. I will keep you safe.
She stopped herself from replying. She knew it was just a trick of the mind. It was a hallucination to be ignored. Her lover was dead.
Leona came over and grabbed her. At some point, Kassandra had fallen to the ground. She had her arms wrapped around her, squeezing her tightly. What was she doing? Was she trying to suffocate her? Was this an attempted murder?
Then the memories. The flashes of warmth, of love. The brief moments of respite amidst the sea of pain. She remembered her love, and how they used to hold her. How they used to hug her, to embrace her with their little arms and somehow make her feel like she wasn't the worst woman in the universe. She felt Leona holding her tightly, securely, like she was afraid to let go, and she felt that again.
And, for the first time in ten thousand years, Kassanadra Curze cried.
As she cried, she had another vision.
There was a house. It was a simple prefabricated hab unit, only sized up to accommodate beings far larger than any normal human, but also large enough to hold a lot of people. There was a fresh coat of white paint on the outside, and inside there were many rooms. There was a bedroom with a large bed fit for a Primarch and her lover. There was a nursery painted dark blue, like the midnight sky hanging over Nostramo. There was a kitchen, where Kassandra was hard at work making pie and bread and other baked goods. There was the sound of happy mingling coming from the dining room, where the table was already stacked full with food. And, filling all of the chairs, were her family. Smiling. Happy. Together.
And her belly was swollen with the light of new life. And as she carried the last pie into the dining room, she felt the warm gazes of her sisters, of their spouses, of her father, and of her love, and she smiled.
Then she was back in reality. She looked at Leona.
"This dream that I have," she said. "Is it worth fighting for?"
Leona placed her forehead against Kassandra's. "If even Kassandra Curze can have hope, then Humanity's dream is not yet dead." She pulled away, "But to reach that, we must fight."
Kassandra looked out her window. She saw her old armor hanging on the scarecrow, as beat up as it was. "Tell me," she began, "where is my Legion?"

I need to preface this by saying that I am not interested in having a back-and-forth in the comment section. If you are interested in speaking with me, kindly message me in DMs.
I'm told women want a man who knows what he wants, so here's the whole nine yards. If there is anything here that you are not willing to accept, then don't. You will not change me now or years down the line. Obviously I intend to grow and mature (as one ought to), but I have decided who I am and what I want out of a relationship.
I am looking for a woman that I can make a permanent covenant bond with; I have no interest in flings or "long-term relationships."
I don't intend to come across as bitter or angry with any of this, just clear and up-front. It makes things easier for both of us.
Age gap is not mandatory. Don't be put off contacting me if you are closer to my age.
A bit about me:
My faith in Christ is paramount in my life. I would not be where I am without him. In taking interests in various things, I've learned a lot about God's character and design. Each new thing I learn fills me with more worship of him and wonder at his works. It is very important to me that you share this admiration of God.
I have a full-time job that I am very satisfied with, but what I feel truly passionate about is art and storytelling. To be honest, I've hit a bit of a block lately as far as my output. But I've been trying to find my feet so I can make something valuable to share with the world. I think that art and stories are a fundamental part of being human, not just a luxury. So pretty much any kind of art will spark passion in me, be it music, cinema, video games, literature, video essay, sculpture, etc. I could go back and forth for hours on a lot of things. My hope is that you and I will be able to enjoy art together and create some of our own.
I frequently spend time with another gentleman from my Church and we enjoy conversations about personal projects and contemporary issues, along with walks along beaches and park trails. He is a very important friend in my life, and I am lucky to know such a kind soul. Things aren't well with my family, so I really need that kind of presence.
While I rely on my bicycle for transport (no car), it's not a problem for me. I've been riding bikes since I was in elementary school (maybe even before). It would be really nice to ride down some trails with you.
What I expect from you:
-You need to be a follower of Jesus Christ. God needs to be an active part of your life because I intend to raise our children under Biblical values.
-You need hobbies and interests apart from me. I'm fine with helping you find things you like.
-You need to be a virgin.
-You must be humble and respectful. "Boss babe" attitudes are not attractive to me.
-You cannot have any tattoos or piercings, or have undergone any kind of surgery that affects your reproductive organs (reassignment, colpocleisis, FGM, tubal ligation, etc). I am not a doctor, so I don't know every situation that could require surgery. If you've had to undergo surgery or medication because of circumstances beyond your control, please let me know; I'm willing to hear your side of things.
-No cosmetic products. It's not good for your body and I am attracted women, not makeup. This includes fake nails and fake eyelashes. I don't need you to look "pretty." You character is more important to me.
-Related to the previous, no use of image filters in photos. I do not like the type of people who are vain and vapid enough to feel the need to use filters on their photos.
-Again related to the previous, you need to have a limited social media presence. If you have a business or post something of value (like art, for example), then I have no problem. What I'm talking about is having an Instagram or Facebook account where you make random posts to nobody in particular to "update" the internet on your life or post tons of pictures of yourself online. Basing your self-worth on the comments and likes from strangers on the internet is unhealthy, and I find people's obsessive need to take pictures of themselves very unattractive and vain.
-If we marry, I expect you treat me as the head of the house. There can't be two leaders in a household because one will have to defer to the other.
-I expect you to view marriage as something that you put work into. Marriages are a team effort, so I expect you to be a help meet.
-You need to treat me like a partner, not an adversary. Getting into arguments and nagging me helps neither of us. You must have conflict-resolution skills and a solution mindset.
-You need excellent communication skills. This means understanding yourself, putting your thoughts into words other people can understand, and verbalizing things rather than expecting me to read your thoughts.
-You cannot play games with me. Telling me about other guys to make me jealous or planning dates for specific days to pressure me into committing to you are wicked and manipulative.
-While we are dating, you cannot have a "backup plan." I expect you to not be splitting your attention between me and other men. This includes spending time outside of work with other men (family excluded).
-You must be in shape. Don't be dishonest with yourself about your weight; check your BMI. This includes being underweight, anorexic, and bulimic.
-You cannot have taken any COVID-19 vaccinations from any provider.
-No smoking, drugs, or drunkenness.
-I expect you to completely renounce fast food if we date or marry. We will never feed our children McDonald's.
What you can expect from me:
-While we are dating, I will not be speaking to other women.
-I cannot meet your height, money, or attractiveness expectations. I am simply an average dude. I am critical, abstract, and imaginative in my thinking though.
-I will not ask you to do something that is unreasonable or demeaning. I will only ask of you what I expect from myself. No relationship is going to be 50/50 100% of the time, but I will put forth the effort I am able to. I expect the same out of you.
-I will not raise my hand against you. My hands will be a safe place for you.
-I will be available to listen to your troubles and help you bear through them.
-I will not demean you or humiliate you, whether or not you are in the room.
-I will show leadership in our house and exercise restraint with a mild temper.
-I will cherish you and treat you as my own body.
-I will devote myself to displaying my love for you in a language you understand, even if I am feeling distant from you because of troubles we face. I expect the same from you.
-I will not turn to another woman and betray you.
-I intend to keep every promise that I make with you.
-I will treat our children with patience and kindness, but diligently discipline them and instruct them appropriately.
Please tell me a bit about yourself and what you expect out of a relationship, but be practical and clear. A list of platitudes like "loyal, honest, etc" does not help me understand what you're looking for. Think about what your expectations look like in a tangible, everyday way.

Disclaimer: This is going to read like stupid middle school drama because it is
Basically, throughout all of elementary and middle school, I was very good friends with this girl. At some point I realized I developed feelings for her and soon after had heard from a couple of people that she also liked me. A little while after that one night while out of state for thanksgiving I texted her telling her I liked her and she was very happy and reciprocated. We ended up texting for a while and then I went to sleep. I still remember how nervous/excited I was when I was sending the reply and waiting for her to open it.
One thing about me is I legitimately hate texting and especially snapchat texting. I hate the read receipts, I hate the notification when I start typing, I hate seeing their bitmoji waiting in the corner, I hate everything about it. I always overthink my replies and generally it just stresses me out. Even fr imessage I pretty much limit myself to only receiving or sending information that doesnt really necessitate a phone call.
A while later I made an offhand comment to one of my friends who was dating one of this girl's best friends. The comment was essentially "I regret telling this girl I like her, she texts me so much and its really annoying." My friend ended up telling this to his girlfriend who told the girl and when I got home I got a text from her asking if this was true. One of worst traits is that Im horrible at dealing with confrontation in interpersonal conflicts (my whole family is like this) and honestly when I got this text I just kinda shut down. I didn't know how to respond and so I didn't. Looking back I think I was embarassed and kind of ashamed she had found out I said that when its not entirely what I meant so I just ended up never responding. Over the couple months she would very regularly send long texts apologizing and just asking me talk to her. I still had classes where I would sit next to her and very near her but I would just ignore her. I couldn't even look at her because I was so ashamed about ignoring her which just made me ignore her more. The texts she would send me most of the time I wouldn't even read but I would sometimes pass my phone to my group of friends to read them (I know this was an extremely shitty thing to do.)
Eventually she stopped texting me and obviously our friendship was completely over. I don't know if its related but the timeline makes it hard for me to believe it isn't around this time I started getting bad social anxiety, was self conscious, and looking back I think I was pretty depressed through most of highschool (still into college but I've never been to like a therapist or doctor about it so idk) and if it wasn't for the pretty big friendgroup I already had I probably wouldn't have talked to anyone in highschool. Outside of this friendgroup I just didn't engage with other people. Also after I ghosted this girl a few of her friends, who I was also friends with, (one was the girl who told her in the first place, and had also been one of my best friends since kindergarten) asked me out and I turned them down. This pretty much marked the end of serious female friendships in my life.
I think it also really altered the way I view relationships as a whole as I just saw them as unwanted stress in my life so while there were one or two girls I almost dated in highschool, I never did. Besides hooking up with a girl once while I was in early college I never had a girlfriend until this year, sophomore year in college. (I broke up with her after 4 months because it stressed me out and she texted me way too much.)
Without getting too specific, and because I only heard bits and pieces from friends (since I wasn't talking to her) it affected her pretty substantially. Also to my knowledge she didnt really date at all in highschool, despite being an very pretty, smart, athletic, and genuinely sweet girl. She had one kind of relationship in senior year into freshman year of college to my knowledge with a dude who was a friend of friend of mine. Based on how he talked about her he was probably a bigger asshole to her than I was.
We did have some contact into highschool and one thing I always respected/appreciated was she was always extremely kind and friendly with me even though I didn't really return the favor because I just felt too guilty to even look at her straight on. She was on student council and I was pretty notorious for having no knowledge of school events so she would often text me making sure I knew when picture day was, yearbook stuff, important extracurricular stuff, etc. I would respond but that was it. When we were in the same early college class she would unprompted send me her notes from class when I would skip. (Frequently) Genuinely she is one of the sweetest and kindest people I have ever met and I just feel so guilty for blowing up our friendship over basically nothing. I was only 13 so I guess it makes sense I was immature but all I needed to was have like the most basic communication skills and not shut her out completely.
This brings us to present day and I guess I just want to know if I should apologize at this point or not. It was so long ago it honestly seems stupid I even care about this, and we both go to different colleges hours away from eachother so we don't interact at all anymore. Our summer jobs are right next door, but because of how our shifts are the likelyhood of us randomly bumping into eachother are low. (Hasn't happened yet) (Also its a very rural area so right next door isn't like building to building) I'm not looking to necessarily rekindle the friendship or anything, just everytime I think about her or see her car drive by I feel insanely ashamed. Part of me thinks its better to just let it go but the other part wants to get it off my chest.
TLDR: In 8th grade I confessed to my close friend who I was pretty sure liked me that I liked her as well. Later I confided in a friend that I regretted telling her this because I was annoyed she texted me so often. She found out and I proceeded to completely ignore her for years.
Edit: Genuinely really want to hear somebody’s opinion on this. I can’t tell if I’m just obsessing over nothing and should just let it go. If you were on the other end of this would you want an apology like 7 years later?

Hello all, I am David, chief of the medical ward, and I think everyone this is aimed at knows who I am. In the wake of our newfound Consortium allies and the construction of our new surface city Tellus has been getting a lot of visitors, including quite a few who have come to work here which has led to a new bit of interaction we had not quite expected: Children.
Our our very few daycares have already been swamped, particularly due to the krev visitors, and issues have arisen so I come to inform you about the idiosyncrasies of the infants of our alien friends, both should you be their caretakers for any reason or also should you or your own children be interacting with them:
Krev

• Yes, they’re actually that small. No, you were not lied about their age. Krev do not have a growth spurt like we do, instead growing evenly throughout their entire life, continuing to grow well past adulthood before they reach their full size.
• Despite what you might initially imagine, krev are adept climbers much like we are. Which means kids will attempt to get everywhere they should not be, they will try to climb on furniture and windows.
• Though krev children are hardier than human children, their nascent scales are still rather soft. Scale fractures are dangerous and prone to infection, treat them like you would a deep cut despite the appearance of superficial damage.
• Krev claws are not particularly sharp, but they are not harmless. It is how they interact with the world, so make sure to wear something that can handle them.
• When holding a krev baby, they are to be held with the belly down and with support under their chin. They will instinctively wrap their tails around your arm. Do not hold them on their back, having an exposed belly makes them nervous and uncomfortable.
• Much like human children, krev children are likely to put anything in their mouths so treat them the same. No, do not allow them to just eat any rock either.
• The krev do rely on consuming hard objects to assist with digestion, however, children especially should not consume any random one. Please ensure they have access to proper, clean and sanitized digestion stones. Attached to this message is a list of all the best options as well as budget options, including especially digestible ones.
• They eat rocks to aid digestion, those are going to make their way out the other way. Do not be surprised. PS: Humans are not built for that, if I get another one in the medical ward with that problem I will let them deal with it the hard way. If you absolutely must please try the children’s pellets at least those won’t hurt you.
• Yes, they are very cute and delightfully round when they curl up. But they are not balls to be played with and you should ensure the children under your care are aware of that, remember they might be very small but human feet are weaker than krev scales. To those of you worried, Mary and Rikki are well and recovering from the broken foot and arm, respectively. PS: No, the fact you’re consenting adults changes nothing. In fact it makes it worse, krev are dense and built to not be moved. At least I learned where the kids got it from, shame on the both of you.
• Krev have a gland in their tails capable of spraying an incredibly foul-smelling fluid. Do not be fooled, its usage is not a type of instinctive or fear reaction as they are fully in control of it. It is in fact extremely rude to employ it and because kids will be kids ensure to keep a can of neutralizer available. Should you not be able to find any in the local pharmacies, citric smells do a decent job at counteracting it.

Resket

• It has come to my attention that some eggs have been put in the care of our daycares. Those require specific care, being kept on a soft surface (if you do not have nesting fiber a stack of bedsheets will do) as well as away from direct sunlight for extended periods of time. Resket eggs are harder than you think and they can handle an appreciable thermal variance, but avoid allowing the local temperature to fall below 17C.
• The youngest resket chicks will be featherless and baby clothes for them are available. They are very vulnerable in this stage of life so do not be fooled by the older ones’ lack of procilivity for clothing and ensure the parent has brought their chick’s clothes.
• Resket are not mammals, however, as avians they are fed with crop milk. Our own sensibilities about it aside, ensure that proper crop formula is available for your resket wards below the age of five. Should none of it be available for some reason, attached to this warning are a few interim recipes useable in an urgency.
• Resket are adept runners, they are even born knowing how to walk and learn to run very quickly and this means one thing: They get the zoomies. Yes, it is very cute to watch the young resket sprinting around and chirping without a care but you must ensure they have either a wide open field in which to exercise or that your interior’s surfaces are well padded as they will run into things, including furniture and walls.
• During rest time resket will feel most at ease with something both soft and heavy on their bodies as they will usually be nested on by their parents. Weighted blankets are the preferable solution, with artificial feather weighted blankets being available.
• Resket chicks are moody, much more so than human ones, and often prone to tantrums and fits. Do not be afraid to be stern or even loud as they respond better than we do to such tactics but make sure to always temper it with praise afterwards.
• Resket are large and as such so are their children, always be cautious when they are around children the same age and for the love of god tell our children to stop trying to ride them. Especially if they allow it. Yes, it’s cute, but only until they topple over and crush the other child with their weight. PS: Yes, I know you’ve seen adults doing that. Those were trained (and irresponsible) soldiers. Chicks do not have as good sense of balance yet.

Ulchid

• Above all else make sure to have the parents’ documentation on hand when receiving or handing off the children. Yes, I know it’s standard procedure but pay extra attention with the ulchid, there will be twenty different people coming for the same children and yes they are all legal guardians of them.
• Should the unthinkable happen and a child be handed over to the wrong family be sure to call your contact with the family as soon as possible, chances are the child has already been returned to them. The party responsible for this warning has already been fired.
• Our installations are not built to ulchid specifications, as such vertical mobility is particularly burdensome for them, triply so for children. When moving between floors without an elevator you will be required to carry the ulchids.
• Portable pools have been made available for any place that sees ulchid children, it is important to give them access to water with at minimum shallow diving depth in order to foster healthy growth. Yes, you can let the other kids play in the pool, but remember to give priority to the properly aquatic species.
• Ulchid come in groups and so do their children, if one of them has come to your daycare expect at least another eight.
• Ulchid children are as social as their parents and in turn need extensive playtime. Should be noted that ulchid require even more varied play than other species and in general are better served with handling it themselves even at a young age without caretaker intervention.
• If you are experiencing consistent headaches, please experiment with using the special headphones made available for you. Ulchid language uses sounds that can cause headache in specially sensitive individuals and their infants’ need for communication leads to a consistently noisy environment.
• When taking care of groups with multiple species, ensure to moderate the ulchid natural communal nature to avoid them becoming overbearing to others, this young stage of life is the most important for them to learn the different limits of different species.
• On the same topic, always be cautious of ulchid children who are in smaller groups. We do not naturally process a group of three as being isolated but to them it is the same, one should approach with caution (ulchid introverts are difficult to notice for humans as they will seem wildly extroverted to our standards) however the psychosomatic effects of loneliness and ostracism on ulchid are not to be underestimated. “Death by loneliness” is a real, tangible problem in the species and a situation that should be watched for.

Trombil

• First and foremost, I do not care what your ethics say about it. You do not have an argument in front of the children. Period. The usage of bionics on young is a sticking point for many caretakers, but no matter what you are not helping the children by blowing up on their parents on the door of the daycare in front of time. What is done is done, the priority is the wellbeing of your wards! If you must, take your argumentation to a separate place where it will not upset the youngsters who can’t even understand what is going on.
• Do not accept taking care of trombil eggs. Trombil eggs are incredibly fragile and require specialized equipment for proper care, you are not prepared for this kind of work and the dangers of handling such fragile beings are not acceptable. Should there be any unusual circumstances requiring the care of an egg please get in contact with the medical ward or the administration.
• Similarly to the ulchid, ensure a presence of an aquatic environment for any trombil under your care. Though not as water-dependant the earliest life stages of the trombil suffer from reduced mobility due to the excess weight of their shells as they are not born fully capable of holding their own weight and aquatic exercise is necessary for them to properly develop.
• Trombil babies are fully capable of digesting both meat and vegetables, not being mammals, but those must be properly prepared. Remember that those must be cut into the smallest possible portions and fed slowly, it is not until their third year that their capacity to cut into things is developed.
• Those who are just starting to walk should be kept under watch at all times, it takes approximately six months between learning to walk and being capable of righting themselves should they fall on their back. However, the experience is important to them to learn how to right themselves, so it is recommended to let them continue to attempt until they are starting to become upset.
• Trombil bioluminescence is not simply pretty, it is an important form of communication used from an early age. While the colors do not become stable and easily readable until they are teenagers a few standards are to be observed: Warmer colors such as reds and oranges indicate fear and distress, trombil babies will generally shift to warmer colors instead of crying, generally only beginning to cry if left without attention for a long time. Cooler colors indicate excitement and energy, but can also indicate overstimulation that can be painful and distressing. PS: This is children, when they become adults they have almost full control over their bioluminescence. Applying those standards to adults is equivalent of making babytalk to grown men.
• Do not panic if you notice their shells bending slightly, they are more flexible than they appear at first glance, however be on the lookout for not just cracks but possible bends in the plates that do not right themselves within a minute as those indicate possible wounds. Remember that their shells are effectively their skin, unlike krev scales there is no skin underneath, so any damage is to be treated with caution.
• You will invariably get to care for children with cybernetics, children augmentations are generally training models that are more resilient than their natural body parts while being incapable of creating more force than the natural equivalents, they are also made to be simple to repair in case of damage. In those situations the parent are expected to furnish you with repair kits alongside the other materials every child has to bring along, those kits are easy enough to use in case of an emergency, but remember you do not have the skillset for anything other than the equivalent of first-aid.
• It is perfectly safe for children with augmentations to play with others, child cybernetics are specifically designed to have similar capacities to their organic counterparts as children aren’t capable of regulating themselves yet.
• Childcare services are not under my purview as they’re not officially medical but if I hear even one more of you out there even tried to shame a child because of body parts they had no choice in having or not I do not care about regulations I will teach you those flesh and blood hands of mine are still very fucking dangerous. Even my professionalism has a limit. Those are kids. Keep your bullshit to yourself.
• There is a large number of Evinites (body-purist trombil who prefer not to have modifications) who have come to reside and work on Tellus. Should you have the child of any of them in your care be on the lookout for cases of bullying from other trombil children. Children learn from their parents, and unfortunately not all parents have good lessons to teach as I’m sure quite a few of you are aware. Please do your best to foster an environment of acceptance among the children. PS: I said acceptance, trying to turn the bullying in the other direction is not acceptance, it’s just being an asshole to someone else. See the previous bullet point.
• You may have trombil children with braces marked with blue and red and the following symbol [a tri-point star-like symbol]. Those are training braces utilized to prepare for augmentations later in life, it is perfectly safe to remove them as they are not of medical need. Remember that they are clearly marked for a reason, if they do not have the training brace marks they are a medical requirement.

Jaslip

• Remember that those are arctic people, and that Tellus’ desertic climate is already a challenge for them. When housing jaslip children ensure that the ambient temperature is at maximum at 18C, in the unlikely chance you are handling only jaslip kits -10C is preferable but in a mixed environment 14C is the best average for all needs.
• Jaslip kits have a preference for small spaces and crawling under things as well as being naturally adept at disguising and hiding themselves. Sure, it might be really cute watching the kit thinking they can hide behind the transparent curtains, but when you can’t find them anywhere when the parents come to pick them up or you find that they got themselves under some furniture they cannot get out from under it is distressing.
• Jaslip have a keen sense of smell, multiple times more powerful than ours, and in turn respond much more strongly to those. Environments for jaslip must be kept a little bit more clean, ensuring that the kitchens are kept with their organics bins always empty and caretakers should utilize only mild perfumes. Though the required cooler temperatures makes it easier, remember that our sweat is also considerably strong in its smell for them and prepare accordingly. PS: We are lucky it has happened with the parent and not the child but please, please do not under any circumstance utilize the stuff Rebecca’s been improvising back when we were in the caves. The sneezes continued until he required a visit to the hospital.
• Though not any more likely to get in trouble than any other group of children, krev are wont to use their tail spray when annoyed and should this situation involve a jaslip take action as soon as possible with neutralizer, failing that any citric odoriferous compound available and if that is also not available thorough washing of the sprayed area. Though not damaging, the intensity of the smell is sufficient to be blinding, especially to a kit.
• You can, and in fact are encouraged to, give them chewtoys. Their maws are a big portion of how they interact with the world and particularly during early teething their teeth are very discomfortable. No, this is not treating them like animals, we all used pacifiers when we were babies and if you look at the pens on your desk you are likely to find enough bite marks on them, let’s not forget chewing gum either. Make sure to have age-appropriate toys and make sure they are thoroughly washed with neutral soap after a kit is finished with it. PS: Yes, the kit chewtoys are also very good for adult humans. Do avoid the flavorful ones, they might well enjoy their sweets but their carnivore palate makes every flavor option a russian roulette game.
• An adult jaslip’s tails are very dextrous limbs capable of grasping and fine motor control, much like our hands. Much like our babies’ hands, a kit’s tails are uncoordinated messes. They can and will get smacked into objects, stuck in furniture and even tie themselves into blind knots. Though usually the most you need to deal with is a slight bruise or a panicked kit, should they manage to truly tangle their tails first ensure that the kit is sufficiently calm and relaxed before you attempt to disentangle as they will stop tensing them. Humming, holding and other assurances are as effective to them as they are to us.
• Jaslip kits (jaslip in general) are incredibly cuddly due to their natural habit of seeking communal warmth, particularly when sleeping. If you notice kits being very insistent on being near, consistently following you and being whiny they are most likely feeling sleepy and, as kids are wont to do, refusing to sleep. Simply laying down will usually prompt every sleepy kit to gather on you to nap, however, making them considerably easier to convince to bed than our own children. They will also seek other children to cuddle with to nap, particularly ulchid children are very receptive to this arrangement but ensure that they are properly dry if you can catch them in time.
• Grooming and brushing time is important for the kits, it is how their parents show affection and helps with bonding. Usually in a daycare it should not be required, however, some parents have asked our workers, particularly those of the night shift, to groom the kits. It should be noted this is, particularly, social grooming- It is a social activity not unlike any other form of playtime and not a matter of cleanliness. Therefore, usage of bare hands is preferable, but soft brushes are also acceptable.
• We all like sharing treats with the children from time to time, however, it has come to the attention of the medical ward that some jaslip kits have convinced their caretakers that the sweet-tasting slushie known as ‘kelai’ is an appropriate treat. I would like to remind all caretakers that kelai is a powerful energetic that, while not immediately harmful to children in small doses, is roughly equivalent to five times its volume in coffee. It has all the expected effects of such as well. One should not give those to children below seven, between seven and twelve (or older than eleven for krev) kelai with concentration of active components no more than 10mg once a day at maximum, and thirteen and above no more than 13mg. Whose those thresholds ensure the children’s health, also ask yourself: Do you truly want kids hopped up on super coffee?
• Jaslip use their tails to hold their kits, particularly the younger ones, same way as we carry them in our arms. The lack of that particular touch can make some kits refuse to sleep and be incapable of relaxing in the long term, therefore, a way to help simulate it is wrap them completely in soft blankets and hold them in your arms. It will often be enough to lull fussy kits of single-digit age to sleep and the attempt will generally be enough to win the trust of older ones.
• Jaslip are deep sleepers, even the young ones, so if they do not awaken with ease when required simply be more insistent. Their famous hibernation habit is weather-related, not time-related, and it only starts to trigger when the local temperature is below -40C. They are, probably, just pretending to be asleep. PS: As I’ve said, it is temperature related. The one incident in which we had jaslip kits in deep sleep state involved a badly installed AC unit that managed to freeze the entire building to -80C making it effectively unlivable for any other species. The parties involved had been properly punished.
• Whenever you are picking up or returning jaslip kits, it has become regrettably necessary to remain on guard for other parents, particularly should you realize the jaslip parents have the fur pattern attached in the following image. Though we should avoid joining any possible situation that develops, certain aspects of Consortium society might cause fights between parents to occur at times, during those times it is suggested to keep the kids away from the developing situation and do not get involved until it has resolved. Should it escalate please attempt to, first, call the human law enforcement.

Smigli

• I must begin this one with a warning: If you are going to work on daycare, you must be willing to accept all species. Our kind lies on the verge of extinction because some assholes weren’t willing to accept us, we are not going to do the same others. There has only been three incidents but that is three too many, all three of which have been fired.
• The smigli are beyond even being omnivores, being quite capable of consuming virtually anything, however that capacity only develops with time and smigli youths are considerably more sensitive to nutrient intake. It is recommended to have the specific food pellets for their age range available, however, should that prove to be unfeasible at the moment any food for any species within the same age range is acceptable. PS: The adults will be more than willing to entertain you with eating all manner of strange stuff. Do not endanger the children’s health just because it is “cute”! Particularly when it involves any particularly large object! Those kids are still small!
• Humans and smigli are remarkably similar in their skin for multiple reasons, despite not being the same. One such similarity is the fragility of our skin, in fact they are even more fragile than we are and are very prone to cuts and scrapes, the smigli under your care will inevitably find themselves with small wounds. However, their protective coating is considerably good at preventing infection and bleeding, there is no need to panic at any small wounds. However, please utilize smigli-specific medicine for treating them, items such as bandages, medical gel and disinfectants may not behave as expected in contact with their protective coating.
• Yes, they are somewhat slimy. That is a necessary protective coating they cannot do without, they are clean. This coating might be viscous but it does not stick to fur nor does it stick to most surfaces- Unfortunately, it will stick to some kinds of fabric. Attached is a list of fabric that is unsafe around smigli, thankfully a short list.
• When cleaning a smigli make sure to use specialized cleaning towels made specifically for the care of their young and do so with caution and a gentle touch when cleaning their skin as it is fragile without its layers of viscous protection. The properly made smigli towels will quickly replace their protective layer, attached to this is a list of good brands available for quick delivery. Linked, as well, is a recipe for an old and tried homemade cleaning towel and protective dip should you somehow find yourself with no access to proper towels.
• Smigli are not particularly physically active people, even as children. If the smigli under your care show lessened interest in physical play, preferring instead creative endeavors such as drawing and reading do not apply to them the human standards. You will not have the skillset to gauge what is a healthy amount of exercise to them, please be sure to confer with the parents should you find any behaviour worrisome, they will appreciate the care. Additionally, there are links in this file on verified studies for those willing to take a step further on the particularities of smigli needs.
• Mud is to the smigli as fabric is to us, it is a necessary protection to their skin. No, they can’t just wear clothes, the porous and humid nature of mud is a necessity for their natural processes. You will need to clean it off during bath but they will need to be re-coated later, as well as you will need to be a bit more attentive with cleaning of the environment.
• This ‘dirty’ mud is a necessity for them, in fact it is not considered dirty at all. And you were all children one day I am certain none of you complained about mud back then either. It is acceptable for the floors to be cleaned only during closing time when housing smigli, plus the mud they utilize is easy to clean once it has dried off.
• When we speak of mud we do not speak if any mud, smigli children are more fragile and sensitive than adults and both the soil and water utilized needs to be not just clean but also carefully controlled for their good health. Attached is a list of both good options and cheap options for mud coats for varying ages, it is preferable to use the pre-mixed coats in most circumstances but the soil mixes are cheaper and, in some circumstances involving health, preferable.
• Smigli manipulators are sufficiently good and dextrous for every task, but they are also the second clumsiest manipulators of the Consortium, losing only to jaslip forepaws. As such, do not be alarmed if the smigli under your care take longer to master them than we take to master our own hands, that is expected development speed.

This list contains only things which have become egregious enough to require public announcement, there are many more things to keep in mind of course and for those there are further articles on childcare of every species attached to this announcement.
As a final word, I remind you of the most important practice for a caretake: Listen to the children and believe them when they are worried. Your focus is their wellbeing and if you must make a mistake, let it be the mistake of taking them too seriously over the mistake of ignoring them. Your first task is to see to their wellbeing, and remember: They are the ones who will live in the future we build, let’s make sure both them and that future are good.
Good ol' mention to u/MrMopp8, who dared me to do this one.
Amusingly I wrote this because I was having a hard time having the brains to actually write my fic, and then I got subsumed at like midnight and did like a 3000 words in an hour. Hopefully it is entertaining.

I was born in a small pocket of a big city up north. Single mom and couple siblings, lived with my grandparents most of my life. We didn’t have much and what we did we had by the skin of our teeth really.
I worked really hard, got into a good school, graduated, did an internship and made it out of my hometown! Thrilling!
And then I met my partner. He was like nobody I’d ever met. Audacious in most ways and then he’d surprise me with shyness. Bold and friendly, always making conversation.
We’d had really similar upbringings and had taken total different paths and still found each other. That’s pretty cool!
When we started dating, my mom flipped out. I was in my mid twenties, like fully out of the house, off the insurance type deal. She voluntarily and unexpectedly went no contact with me for two years from a picture. It was painful. But my partner put on a brave face, and he waited it out. Which was another surprise, for me and my mom. He and I drove up and he shook her hand on her property, and they immediately hit it off.
We laughed that day, about how much time she wasted. Look what you’ve been missing!!! He went above and beyond for me in ways people hadn’t before, and that was never lost on me. And I had actually had so much fun. Her loss!
At least now we could play catch up: I was going to be home with him on and off all year for a slew of weddings and accompanying events. You know, as one does when your childhood friends all settle down in the same summer 😀 what could possibly go wrong?
We made it to the first wedding. September. A great time! Someone broke their leg dancing and the dj played them off to evacuate the dance floor? I cannot make this shit up, but these kids share catholic school trauma and we cope with humor. Largely. Usually? I’ll get back to that. My partner and I spent a bit more time with my family, then packed up and drove home. We had just started vending at markets locally and had booked a steampunk event, hoping to find a crossover audience for our art. Neither of us is particularly into steampunk? At all. But he, in particular, fucking hated steampunk. (Seems so extraneous but I swear, this will be important later.)
We were slotted to be back in a few months for the next. And we’d see my family! My aging grandmother, who raised me. My aging dog! Sweet boy! Everything’s okay! I just got the job I’ve been vying for since my move (it’s a glorified carny role and I couldn’t be happier) things are looking up!
On a Friday, I had a panic attack after work. Which, with this new exciting job, was around 3 am. I came home, woke him up, sweaty and crying and stressed out and asked him to wash my hair? Which I had never done. I guess I was just really tired. And he said no, because he had to be up early for a get together with some friends. I cried though about all my fears. My grandma my dog my teeth and he talked me down, like no one else had ever bothered to.
We went to bed late, and I think as a kindness, he left without saying goodbye. I had to work that day, it’s why I wasn’t going along with him.
Then a few hours later, he just died. I say that, not to be crude, just because that’s my concept of how it went.
Communication was so poorly handled by everyone involved and it was so devastating, in retrospect. Genuinely removed my agency from the situation entirely from go. For example, I got the call from family about six hours after the fact, and they had only just received a knock at the door so off to a great start. I got DMs, actually, from people I hardly knew, asking what was going on. And I was like?? You tell me ? You know more than I do if you’re even reaching out, because at this point I haven’t heard from anyone who was at the scene. I had to request a number through Instagram, despite my number— and his mothers— being readily available to them by way of a well-known emergency contact card. Neither of us contacted directly, but people found out through ig somehow. Has never sat right with me. Felt so violating because basically everyone in a 30 mile radius knew what was going on before I was processing that it had happened.
And I knew he died the second I answered the phone. “Are you sitting down?” was a patronizing enough cold open, and the bullshit I was fed about a search was pretty transparent. The circumstances made thing cut and dry, he must be dead. So that’s that.
And he was, but they wouldn’t tell us officially till noon the next day. They found him with sonar 👍 something I wish I didn’t know. Idk why, I just don’t like it much. So impersonal. Not him.
This is where things get complicated and deeply uncomfortable for me. At this point, I’d experienced a lot of devastating loss in my immediate household as a kid. I grew up with disease and morbidity as a constant but not in a weird way? Think Addams? We used to call my grandma morticia, literally. My grandpa was paralyzed from the waist down. TWICE! Because he was drafted after healing his initial spinal cord injury from an auto accident. My family all lived on the same block and my grandfather watched all of us growing up. Which means all of us, at varying ages, watched one of the cousins wither and pass from cancer at 5. My grandma lost the use of her right arm but still had it, limp and swollen. She realearned pretty much everything on her left. We are nothing if not resilient!
And from childhood, I was well accustomed with saying goodbye to people I loved. I didn’t expect people in my life to treat me so differently after this specific death.
And goddamn it I’ve been to my fair share of funerals, if I could do anything for my partner as young widow with Roman Catholic roots, it’s to throw a decent and respectable funerals. With heavy food and good sweets, the butter cookies to distract the kids. And my partner loves funerals— in theory. He collected funereal antiques and oddities (I mean who doesn’t in 2024 am I right? /j?) we have matching his and hers model vaults, they’re out on the porch right now.
They told me to bring pictures. I’m a fine artist and he was self trained, so we had a lot of material and I came stacked to plan with them.
But it was already done. I was sitting his parents and siblings, and his least favorite aunt. I hardly ever saw her, red flag immediately. She is not particularly friendly to me, but she’s smiling. The only one lol.
Tell me why this lady was in charge of decorating, and was so excited about the WAIT FOR IT STEAMPUNK DECOR she picked up at fucking party city for a 35 year old man’s FUNERAL! A man who, in life, vehemently hated steampunk. And I laughed! Hard, because it was genuinely so funny. It is still so funny. Like, even my partner would find that hilarious kinda just by circumstance lol like in retrospect it’s kinda giving camp no? A funeral at the local teamsters hall with generic deli subs, and that aunt taking pictures with friends in the sorority pose for some reason.
This did set a devastating trend of completely bypassing me in any conversation, despite my partner and I sharing a home and bills for years prior to his death. We are not in a common law state and we hadn’t updated our information to reflect otherwise.
I didn’t communicate with the funeral home, I found out after the fact that they made the arrangements without me. The request was that we would receive back one lock of his hair, and his whole beard and his dentures (long story). While we did get the teeth, we only got back a (1) lock of his beard to share 😃 and he was cremated 😃 so that was a fun conversation, again, after the fact.
The GFM, the meal train, the life insurance all went across the street to his family’s house, where it largely stayed for almost whole the first year. Just long enough to burn all of my savings paying all the rent on a lease we signed a month before he died. Coupled with the economy, I’m setback so far on so many levels I feel like genuinely hope it’s but finances are the worst. I was getting regular eviction notices despite constant communication with my complex’s office about the situation, and I was never even technically late on my rent— by contract tenants have til the fourth and I never paid later than hat. Anyway it affected me like mental warfare and now I have crippling anxiety about housing.
His mom did help me, I think on the DL and only after they had remodeled their kitchen and gotten a new puppy. I was able to scrape by and get out, now I’m thriving in a studio with two cats in tow. A great look for a single woman in her thirties! I actually love the studio, and it puts me closer to the city, which I know is better for me opportunity wise (and boy howdy could I use an opportunity lol)
It also puts closer to the people who saw what happened and never had the good sense to tell me like I was a person. These were mostly old buddies, a decent handful of them and I didn’t know them well because my partner just didn’t really run in that circle anymore I guess. But they are all pretty well known in town. And within a few weeks of his death, it got back to me that my name was circling in the zeitgeist.
Over the past few years, it has been proven to me that these people have connections in every avenue of interest, even my profession. That sounds crazy maybe but it is true, mainly because I’m a transplant on their turf. But I moved here for the job? Which I wanted long before I met my partner. Why should I feel pushed out of an arena I fought so hard to play in? It’s been very isolating— I avoid most of the things I used to love because I cannot avoid an awkward run in. Conventions, themed events, even places we like to shop.
Anyway these are the basics but my phone is lagging so bad I almost can’t functionally type so I’m calling it for now... I hope this doesn’t sound too gruff, I’m just trying to live it as it comes. May add some context or anecdotes later. It’s been a wild couple of years and the people I thought would care just don’t seem to. So I appreciate anyone with the wherewithal to read this mess. Thanks.

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/Parking_Breadfruit80
Originally posted to AITAH
Previous BoRU
[New Update]: AITA for refusing to have my dad in my life after he chose his new family?
Editor’s Note: changed letters to names for readability, originally used Logan, but now switched to Luke based on OOP’s latest update.
Editor’s Note 2: Also have removed some older relevant comments as they have been covered in the further updates and needing more space to fit all posts here.
Thanks to u/queenlegolas and u/Direct-Caterpillar77 for suggesting this BoRU
Trigger Warnings: verbal abuse, emotional abuse and manipulation, infidelity, gaslighting, betrayal. vandalism, obsessive behavior
RECAP
Original Post (rareddit): April 20, 2024
When I was 13 my dad had an affair and left my mom and moved in with his affair partner who ill call Jane.
At first me and my sister would visit every weekend and I will admit he was a good dad although I never liked Jane.
When Jane got pregnant and had their son our visits became less frequent and my dad was more concerned with his new family. He would miss some of my my recitals or my sisters competitions because he was busy with his son.
When I was 16. Jane decided she wanted to move for a new job opportunity. Me and my sister begged him not to leave us bit he just said "I need to prioritise my family". He moved 10 hours away. That pretty much ended our relationship and I decided to go no contact as it was clear he did not consider me family.
My younger sister stayed in contact with him. He would try and call me and offer for me to come and visit with my sister but I refused. When he came back to see my sister I would refuse to speak to him when he turned up at the house. I didn't invite him to my high school or college graduation.
I'm now 33 and have remained no contact with him, he has over the years repeatedly tried contacting me and getting his family to contact me on his behalf to reconcile. I have avoided family events in case he attended including my sisters wedding and baby showers.
My dad and his family moved back to our home town 3 months ago and he has been relentless trying to reconcile.
I have received messages from my half brother and sister wanting a relationship saying he's a great dad. My dad found out I'm getting married and keeps trying to contact me and has even tried to speak to my fiancé.
Jane messaged me saying I have broke my dads heart repeatedly and I'm pathetic and should get therapy. I replied back that she was nothing but a home wrecking whore and then blocked her.
Everyone seems to be wanting me to let him back in my life. I'm sick of all the harassment and accidentally bumping into my dad and his family in the town. Whenever I see him I just walk away and refuse to speak to them. Everyone is saying he's a good dad and tried his best to remain in contact but I pushed him away.
Everyone is pressuring me my mom, sister. Grandparents aunts and uncles, even some of my friends. My fiancé has even started saying I'm the AH for shutting him out. Its all starting to get to me so am I aita?
Edit:
Thank you for your comments I haven't got through all of them but I'm glad to know that most of you think I'm NTA which is a huge relief as I thought I was going insane.
I'm going to have a serious conversation with my fiancé as most of you pointed out he should have my back. If he continues to defend my dad then I'm going to have to think if this relationship should go any further. We are 12 weeks out from the wedding but need to sort this out sooner than later.
For information
I own a local business moving away is not an option
I live in a small town where everyone knows everyone and he is friends with a lot of people including my fiancé family.
My dad did not come back for me - he came back because Jane’s parents need help and care.
He has not financially supported me since I was 17 he withheld my college fund to try and blackmail me into having a relationship with him so I had to work and get loans.
I've avoided events because my family use it as a chance to force reconciliation. He also won't leave me alone and makes scenes - hell come up to me talking as if nothing has happened try to hug me or starts crying.
I cant simply cut everyone off - everyone is on his side and against me including my own mother.
Edit 2
To give you all a bit more context when he left my mom for Jane he only wanted us on the weekend my mom offered him 50/50 but refused.
I didn't like Jane and was standoffish with her because I knew what they had done- my sister was too young to understand and was more accepting of her. Jane was mean to me but nice to my sister when I was at my dad's I felt uncomfortable and she would purposefully leave me out of fun activities or plan things purely for my sister. We had a few arguments over minor things but my dad always took her side. My dad and me used to have daddy daughter date at least once every 2 weeks. Jane put a stop to that.
When she had my half brother we went from going every weekend to once every 6 weeks. My dad was MIA and had finally gotten his precious son. He stopped trying with me.
When they moved I was so upset he chose to leave us. He didn't want custody just for us to visit him every now and again and speak to him on the phone. Parenting at a distance so all of his focus was on his new family
When I graduated from high school and refused to invite him everything blew up Jane called me some terrible names and so did my dad and he refused to give me my college fund unless I started being part of the family again. From what I gathered, he spent it on his new family.
I'm sick of being the one to miss out on events with my family. I would be willing to be in the same room but not interact or even be civil but he pushes things and makes it impossible
Edit 3
Have spoken to my fiancé. Update will be posted shortly
AITAH has no consensus bot, OOP was NTA
OOP on staying away from the father and his family and blocking Jane

OOP: I've tried my best to stay away from him and his family but with it being a small town its impossible to avoid them. Some of the times I've bumped into him seemed a bit too coincidental and feel like it was a set up.
I have blocked Jane can't stand the woman she was always mean to me even when I was a child because I was standoffish. My sister is 5 years younger and was more accepting of her so my sister and Jane have a good relationship.

 
Update #1 (rareddit): April 20, 2024 (10 hours later)
Thank you for all of the comments although most seem to be NTA some were YTA. Some of you gave helpful suggestions which I am planning to take on board.
I have just spoken to my fiancé and unfortunately it has not gone well but at this point in time I've had enough and want to runaway and never come back.
My fiancé knows my history with my dad and Jane. I explained to him that him siding with my father and pressuring me was hurting me and as my fiancé he should be supporting me.
My fiancé who I'll call Luke told me he can't support me in doing something that he knows is wrong. Luke told me that he had spoke to my father and had an understanding of both sides of the story and believes that if we both sit down and talk we can sort this out and reconcile.
I told Luke I don't want this and want no contact and asked why he is even speaking to my father. Luke admitted his father who is friends with my dad encouraged Luke to speak to him and hear him out.
Luke told me my dad loved me very much and always wanted to be in my life and has pictures of me (I'm guessing he got these from my family as my social media is set to private). Luke said my dad is heartbroken at the state of our relationship because I was being unreasonable about him moving away when I was young. Luke stated I got on the wrong foot with Jane and that I was not innocent in the breakdown of the relationship. He told me that everyone can see the truth but me and to look in the mirror because I'm the problem.
Needless to say I broke down crying and asked him why he was doing this to me and not supporting me. Luke claims to love me but won't stand by and watch me be "a heartless bitch".
After he said this I stood up told him that he shouldn't marry a heartless bitch and walked out. I'm currently sat in my car. My phone is blowing up with Luke trying to contact me but I don’t want to speak to him. I feel like I'm losing everything and everyone I dont understand what is happening.
 
Update #2 (rareddit): April 21, 2024
Hi everyone thanks for the comments and letting me sound off on you as I desperately need an outside perspective.
I know a lot of you are telling me to cut all contact with my family and leave town. That is not an option for me financially and I would not be able to set up business elsewhere all my money is invested in it and I have only managed to get established recently with steady income, relocating is not an option for me. I love my friends and family and don't want to cut everyone off, I love my hometown I grew up here this is my life and I'm not willing to walk away from it.
I didn't expect to write another update this fast but a lot has happened today.
So firstly I agreed to meet my dad to talk and try and get him to back off and leave me alone. I asked my mom to arrange it, just him no one else. I wasn't sure if he would agree to that but within 15 minutes of her calling he was at the door.
I asked my mom to stay and mediate. To summarize the conversation. These are a bit messed up because it's a lot to remember.
Me: * I asked him to give me space and stop trying to get everyone on his side and let me live my life.

• I told him he stopped being my father when he moved 10 hrs away
  
• I told him Jane was mean to me and told him about all the horrible things she has said to me over the years.
  
• I hate how he chose Jane and his new family over me and how he told me he had to prioritise them and how he basically told me I wasn't family
  
• He was an AH for withholding my college fund and trying to blackmail me and then spending it on his new family
  
• I hate how I have missed major family events because he attended the events and would make them awkward.
  
• I don't see his son and daughter as my family and I'm sick of them trying to speak to me and approach me
  
• he keeps making scenes every time he sees me and making me look the bad guy
  
• he keeps inserting himself into my life going to my fiancé’s family events, going behind my back to talk and sway Luke to his side
  
• I hate how he cheated on my mom and broke our family up and then listened to Jane who stopped our dates, missed my recitals, reduced contact and was more concerned about his son.
  

Him * He loves me and always has he is never going to give up trying to reconnect and he has given me enough space over the years and he is done hearing about my life from 2nd hand knowledge and is not willing to miss any more if it.

• he loves Jane and and can't regret his past because he wouldn't have her or his 2 kids. He wishes he had done it differently and ended his marriage with my mom first.

*his kids are innocent and I shouldn't be taking it out on them they just want to know their big sister

• I was difficult child who was rude and disrespectful to Jane breaking her belongings, calling her names, ruining day trips.
  
• when Jane got pregnant she was high risk and me coming every week and starting arguments was stressing her out so for her and his sons sake he stopped the weekend visitation. He still spoke to us on the phone and took us out for dinner and days out but just didn't let us sleep over.
  
• when his son was born he was premature and had health complications which meant him staying in hospital for weeks and frequent hospital admissions. Jane was also going through PPD so he wasn't able to see us as much and had to miss some events when he was taking care of Jane and his son.
  
• Jane was unable to get a job locally and the opportunity was too good to pass up so they had to move. He pointed out that he came back to town for weekends as much as he could to see us and would always invite us to fly out and spend vacations with him. He phoned everyday but I refused to speak or see him.
  
• They had flown in for my graduation but I refused to invite him and he lost his temper and refused to give me my college fund. He apologised for this and tried to fix this a few weeks later and give me the money but I refused it. He has not spent the money he still has it and I have only to ask and I can have it.
  
• he had visited me at my college to try and talk to me but I refused to see him.
  
• He is not going to miss family events
  
• he makes a scene because he misses me and just wants to talk to me and reconcile but I always end up running way or shouting insults at him and Jane.
  
• He has been trying for 16years to reconnect but I shut him down at every turn he just wants to be my dad.
  
• He is old friends with my fiancé dad and he hoped my fiancé could talk some sense into me and open a line of communication.
  
• he feels I never gave Jane a chance no matter how she tried in the beginning and hoped we could be civil. Jane hates knowing I talk bad about her, am mean to her children and won't speak to him.
  

He wants:
My dad is in therapy and wants me to join him for family sessions.
He wants me to spend time with him 1-1
To stop being rude and mean to his children and spend time with them.
Stop trash talking Jane to everyone and actually give her a chance
Invite for him and my family to my wedding and to walk me down the aisle.
I want:
Him to stop talking to my friends and getting others to try and talk to me on his behalf
Keep Jane away from me completely
To be be civil at events or in town providing he does not try and hug me or talk to me.
My mom told him he was being unrealistic with some of the things he wants especially regarding Jane and his other children so we have agreed for now.
I will attend 3 therapy sessions with him when he arranges it. (my mom thinks I need individual therapy as well) He will stop trying to interfere in my life and relationships He will keep Jane away from me and talk to his kids to give me space. I will be civil to him in public as long as he respects my personal space and does not approach or pressure me.
As for my fiancé - I still havent spoken to him, he turned up at my moms but she refused to let him in. He keeps blowing up my phone and so does his family and friends telling me to hear him out.
During my conversation with my dad I found out my dad has paid for most of the vendors and services for my upcoming wedding and they have been on speaking terms for quite some time ( longer than I thought). Luke told me his family had paid for these and i believed him. I feel betrayed by him and that I can't trust him. I'm going to have to speak to him eventually but I dont feel ready.
Relevant Comments
OOP on if she can block her father and if she can have an order on him to stay away from her

OOP: I wouldn't be able to get a restraining order against him. What am I going to do tell the police my dad is talking to people in the town and my friends about me. He is showing up to parties and events he's invited to. He's trying to talk to me when he bumps into me in town?
He is not on my social media , he is blocked on my phone other than events and meeting in town that can be chalked up to coincidence I have nothing to report

 
Update #3 - April 27, 2024
Firstly I'd like to apologise for taking down my posts. I was really upset and felt under lot of pressure and needed space to think without constant messages. Some of you were trying to be helpful and I apreciate that but some of the abusive messages I received was terrible.
I'm updating for those who have asked for an update and were supportive to me. This will be my last post and I wont be posting again.
Firstly the deal with my dad is off the table. He couldn't even manage a week without overstepping my boundaries. So there will be no therapy sessions with him and I will remain no contact.
As you are all aware after speaking to my dad and agreeing a way forward and my conditions.
Keep Jane away from me Tell his kids to back off Don't pressure me or invade my space
It lasted all of 3 days. Everyone seemed happy I had "forgiven" my dad and told me so. My sister was excited I was willing to give him a chance and with some pressure I agreed to have dinner with just her and my dad.
When my sister and I arrived at the restaurant to meet our dad he was not alone. He had invited Jane, my grandparents his son and daughter. He got up and tried to hug me.
I immediately became upset asking why they were there. My dad told me that if we have any hope of repairing our relationship I had to accept Jane and my younger siblings. I told him he just broke our deal and to never contact me again and tried to leave. He refused to let me leave and grabbed hold of me.
When I say all hell broke loose I mean it. I started shouting at them. My Dad, Jane and grandparents tried to gaslight me and convince me to sit down when that didn't work things got very heated and a shouting match started and a lot of unforgivable things were said by my dad and Jane including remarks about my appearance and calling me a psychopath. My half brother walked out of the restaurant and my half sister started to cry.
My sister actually surprised me and defended me, shouting at my dad for ruining things after all this time when I had finally given him a chance. She even slapped Jane. She got me out of there and apologised to me. I think this was the first time she had really seen how Jane was with me and how she treat me. She kept saying she couldn't understand how dad had spent years saying he would do anything to have me back and then would do this when he finally got his chance to rebuild the relationship.
My dad has been trying to contact me but I have blocked him and refused to talk to him. I have also refused to speak to my grandparents. My dad has tried to convince my mom and sister to speak to me but I think he's burned his bridges with them.
The incident from the restaurant has spread and some people seem to be backing off. Like I said what my dad and Jane shouted at me was unforgiveable and they were overheard and this is a small town. Hopefully people will back off and those who won't Im going to have to cut them out.
My sister is very unhappy with my dad and Jane and not speaking to them. She is blaming them for me going no contact again. My sister is not letting them see her kids. I don't know if my sister will reconcile but right now she is furious. My mom is also furious and apparently had a few choice word with my dad and Jane and has promised she will never pressure me again to speak to him.
I am going to go to individual therapy I think I definitely need it. I do feel bad about my half siblings as they havnt done anything wrong and am maybe open to having a distanced kind of relationship with them in the future but I'm not ready yet or if I'll ever be. I did send them a message on Facebook to apologise and tell them they've done nothing wrong.
Lastly to update you all - in regards to my fiance well I spoke to him yesterday about everything I had been radio silent since walking out on him.
Basically he was pressured by his father to speak to my dad and was fed a sob story of a misunderstood father desperately wanting to be in his daughters life. Luke had become annoyed with me refusing to attend his family events and walking out of his mother's birthday party when I realised my dad and Jane was there as he was getting pressure from his family about me ruining their events.
He just wanted everyone to be happy and get along clearly at my expense.
Luke admitted my dad had paid for some of the vendors for the wedding but he did not know this until after it was already paid. His father had told Luke that him and his mom had paid. My dad had told Luke it was a gift and his way of contributing. Luke admitted my dad had asked him to speak to me on his behalf.
I told Luke he had betrayed my trust and I couldn't see myself marrying someone who does not support me. He broke down crying and apologising to me and promising to never do it again. Luke was heartbroken and begged for a 2nd chance.
To those of you who wanted me to break up with him, I'm sorry to disappoint you but we are going to try and work through this. Apart from this issue he had been the best partner and I genuinely think that he had been manipulated by his family and my dad. Luke has promised to stand up to his family and go no contact with my dad.
I'm still living at my moms as I still need some space which I wont have if I move home. We are going to contact our wedding vendors and see what our options are next week. Luke is begging for a postponement rather than cancel it altogether. We may still break up as actions speak louder than words and I need to see if he can rebuild what we had and show me I can trust and depend on him.
Relevant Comments
OOP on if she is able to change her contact information and what about Luke

OOP: There's no point changing my number when I've done this before he always manages to get it again.
As for Luke - breaking up is not off the table. I'm giving him a chance to show me he means what he says. I always thought I had a decent relationship with Luke’s family, but clearly not. I'm not asking him to go NC with them thats for him to decide. I'm certainly going to distance myself from them and any further incidents no contact.
As for any future children if we are still together I won't be trusting them with my children at all

 
Update #4: May 4, 2024
Hi everyone I did not plan to make another update at all but I'm still getting messages for an update and thought I would let you know the recent developments.
Firstly I have cancelled the wedding I was able to get some partial refunds but have lost some money. Luke begged me not to cancel the wedding but there was no way I could marry him after what he did.
I was set on giving him a 2nd chance and he promised me he would go low contact and stand up to his parents and issue an ultimatum that we would not tolerate any contact with my dad and Jane. Basically he would tell them we would not attend any event or party if they were invited and we would not tolerate any attempt to force contact or relationship with my dad.
He met with them to explain this to them. When he came back from this meeting he was quite irritable with me and appeared to have had a change of heart to summarize it - he was trying to convince me his family only meant well and that he can't go low contact with his family because he loves them and he can't dictate their friendships. He then tried to convince me it won't be an issue in the future and his father would speak to my dad and tell him to be on his best behaviour in my presence.
As soon as I heard this people's comments went through my head and the main one being if we had children he would take them to his family where my dad and Jane would be and I would have no control over this. At that moment
I realised I couldn't trust Luke and never would be able to.
I broke up with him, he is not taking it well and keeps begging me to take him back and that he would go no contact with his family. His family and friends are trying to convince me on his behalf not to end our relationship. He has made his choice and proven to me he is spineless. I don't need him in my life.
In regards to my dad I'm looking into getting a restraining order given what happened in the restaurant I might be able to but i dont know yet a friend of mine is helping me look into this.
My dad has kept a low profile since last week apart from a couple of attempts to apologize to me I havnt heard much from him. My sister still won't speak to him or Jane. Unlike me my sister is highly confrontational and has blasted him and Jane on social media with what happened at the restaurant and things that have happened in the past which I didn't know about.
My sister and Jane had a very public screaming match when she had seen them in town due to my sisters posts and demanding to take them down it ended up with Jane assaulting my sister. My dad apparently sided with Jane in this. My sister now hates Jane and refuses to speak to our dad who is also trying to contact her.
My dad and Jane’s reputation seems to have taken a hit and between the incident in the restaurant and my sisters fight with Jane and het numerous Facebook posts about them, People are gossiping. This has worked well for me because some people have backed off which Im happy about unfortunately there are a few people still on his side including my ex's parents.
As for my half siblings there's not much of an update in regards to them.
I've found a therapist however there is a bit of a waiting list before I can start my therapy. I'm still living with my mom who is completely on my side and I have found a kitten and pick her up next week.

 

----NEW UPDATE----

Update #5: May 19, 2024 (2 weeks later)
Hi everyone thought I would give you an update as to what's been happening the last couple of weeks for those of you who are still interested.
Firstly I'm still at my moms and I got my little kitten. I've named her sascha and she is the sweetest thing but very energetic. For those of you asking for pictures I'll try, but she refuses to stay still long enough to get a one that's not blurred. I love her already. My mom continues to be my rock. IM still waiting for therapy but am finding reddit useful and therapeutic and the support I've received from most of the people on here has been great and helped me see things more clearly so a big thankyou to everyone.
As for my ex now that we've broken up I feel lighter and free and being away from him has made me see all the red flags that I was blind to in our relationship and feel like I've dodged a bullet. Luke (using real names because my posts were discovered) is not taking the breakup well and has taken over from my father constantly bothering me.
If you read this Luke we are DONE and I'm not changing my mind so stop calling me, stop coming to the house and stop sending me flowers! I'm moving on so you should too.
My sister Emma is still firmly on my side and has washed her hands of Jane (stepmonster) and they are not on speaking terms after my sister told everyone about Janes affairs.
Jane is still trying to save face saying my sister is lying and telling everyone she can how we are just the worst and that we have treated her terrible over the years and trying to ruin her marriage. Don't think anyone is buying what she is saying. She has sent abusive messages to me and my sister and when we've bumped into her she's been screaming at us and threatening us. My sisters car had been keyed and my store windows were smashed. We can't prove its her unfortunately but she is the most likely culprit.
My half siblings are definitely my dads children they tested then years ago when she was a baby. From what I've heard they're not speaking to Jane at all.
As for my dad he seems to have grown a spine and has kicked out Jane she is now living with her parents. From what I've heard he's thinking about divorce. I havnt had any contact with my dad except for a text saying he was sorry for everything. As for getting a restraining order I'm more concerned about getting one against Jane at the moment.
Relevant Comments
OOP on if she has cameras at her place

OOP: I have cameras but you can't see if it her because of the angle I'm getting more fitted for better coverage

OOP on if she has been speaking to her half siblings (father’s side) and how their relationships are with Jane now that the truth got out. And how the family is reacting

OOP: I'm not speaking to my dad or Jane or my half siblings. I've gotten this info from a cousin on my dad's side so not sure if it's true or if there is more to this. + The only people who knew were my grandparents and sister. Unfortunately when Jane and my sister fell out my sister decided to expose her on social media to everyone. My half siblings knew about her recent affair but not the one years ago.
As for my dad I don't know and I'm not going to reach out to ask

OOP on if she will forgive her father and if he would get a second chance without Jane present

OOP: Yep- hes destroyed my relationship, his and janes relationship with Emma and by sounds of it his own relationship. All because he couldn't respect my boundaries
No the damage is already done. He had his chance to fix things with me and he blew it. I just want to be left alone and get on with my life

 

DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP

Here's a story that happened to me recently. For 2.5 years I worked in a local IT company. Also, during these years I studied at the university, which cost me my health. At work, I was burdened with double work because a lot of people were leaving. I started working during lunches and weekends. But I loved my job and the people I worked with, so coming to work was a joy for me, despite the fact that the company was introducing cruel performance tracking systems, salary cuts for some employees, and the environment itself was full of rumours and drama. Once I was even publicly ridiculed by the director for what I ate for lunch (she didn't like the smell of certain foods).
Three months ago, I found out that I was paid the lowest salary, although I was constantly praised for my productivity and was also involved in mentoring other employees. And at that time, I received a job offer from a larger company. I wasn't sure about this step, but I decided to try it anyway, and many friends and family members persuaded me to do it.
During the process of leaving my job, I found out that the company had plans for me: a managerial position, more responsibilities, and involvement in training new employees. But the number of interesting projects and events in the company itself has also increased. So I doubted my actions, I didn't want to leave my team in a difficult situation, and I had a lot of respect for everyone. But I still went to the new company.
The new company turned out to be good: modern technology, encouragement for continuous learning and gifts from the management, the manager and HR were constantly asking how I fell, if everything is okay , and how they could help me. But the online work was too much for me, I couldn't stand passive-aggressive CEO, also I was exhausted after working at my previous job and my recent diploma defence. For two months at my new job, I hardly slept, deeply missed my old job, and couldn't cope with the workload. So I decided to go back and give myself a break, because I start getting massive health issues. After I contacted my old job and agreed to return, many people from my new job began to persuade me to stay and were shocked to hear the news, because I fit in well with the team and did my job well. Later, people who used to work for the old company called and said that it is just step backwards in terms of development, and that my old place did not value returning people, actually making their lives a nightmare. In addition, I was informed that the salary I was promised could be reduced at any time. So I got scared and cancelled my return, and the new company was very happy.
But now I'm beating myself up a lot. I promised to come back, but I didn't keep my word, I let people down who hoped for me. I really wanted to come back because I liked the projects, my team, my routine, my friends and the opportunity to grow in company. I realised that I had no chance of returning. I apologised to my old HR, but she told me that it’s okay and I’m still welcomed in the future (which is not true, I know). I feel so terrible and second guessing my behaviour. I wish I could be more strong in my decision. I cause so much trouble. My family said that I look horrible right now and I should really grow up, accept the situation and make better choices in the future. And I should focus on new job only. But I don’t like it at all… Should I ask for my position back one more time?

Here's a story that happened to me recently. For 2.5 years I worked in a local IT company. Also, during these years I studied at the university, which cost me my health. At work, I was burdened with double work because a lot of people were leaving. I started working during lunches and weekends. But I loved my job and the people I worked with, so coming to work was a joy for me, despite the fact that the company was introducing cruel performance tracking systems, salary cuts for some employees, and the environment itself was full of rumours and drama. Once I was even publicly ridiculed by the director for what I ate for lunch (she didn't like the smell of certain foods).
Three months ago, I found out that I was paid the lowest salary, although I was constantly praised for my productivity and was also involved in mentoring other employees. And at that time, I received a job offer from a larger company. I wasn't sure about this step, but I decided to try it anyway, and many friends and family members persuaded me to do it.
During the process of leaving my job, I found out that the company had plans for me: a managerial position, more responsibilities, and involvement in training new employees. But the number of interesting projects and events in the company itself has also increased. So I doubted my actions, I didn't want to leave my team in a difficult situation, and I had a lot of respect for everyone. But I still went to the new company.
The new company turned out to be good: modern technology, encouragement for continuous learning and gifts from the management, the manager and HR were constantly asking how I fell, if everything is okay , and how they could help me. But the online work was too much for me, I couldn't stand passive-aggressive CEO, also I was exhausted after working at my previous job and my recent diploma defence. For two months at my new job, I hardly slept, deeply missed my old job, and couldn't cope with the workload. So I decided to go back and give myself a break, because I start getting massive health issues. After I contacted my old job and agreed to return, many people from my new job began to persuade me to stay and were shocked to hear the news, because I fit in well with the team and did my job well. Later, people who used to work for the old company called and said that it is just step backwards in terms of development, and that my old place did not value returning people, actually making their lives a nightmare. In addition, I was informed that the salary I was promised could be reduced at any time. So I got scared and cancelled my return, and the new company was very happy.
But now I'm beating myself up a lot. I promised to come back, but I didn't keep my word, I let people down who hoped for me. I really wanted to come back because I liked the projects, my team, my routine, my friends and the opportunity to grow in company. I realised that I had no chance of returning. I apologised to my old HR, but she told me that it’s okay and I’m still welcomed in the future (which is not true, I know). I feel so terrible and second guessing my behaviour. I wish I could be more strong in my decision. I cause so much trouble. My family said that I look horrible right now and I should really grow up, accept the situation and make better choices in the future. And I should focus on new job only. But I don’t like it at all… Should I ask for my position back one more time?

Here's a story that happened to me recently. For 2.5 years I worked in a local IT company. Also, during these years I studied at the university, which cost me my health. At work, I was burdened with double work because a lot of people were leaving. I started working during lunches and weekends. But I loved my job and the people I worked with, so coming to work was a joy for me, despite the fact that the company was introducing cruel performance tracking systems, salary cuts for some employees, and the environment itself was full of rumours and drama. Once I was even publicly ridiculed by the director for what I ate for lunch (she didn't like the smell of certain foods).
Three months ago, I found out that I was paid the lowest salary, although I was constantly praised for my productivity and was also involved in mentoring other employees. And at that time, I received a job offer from a larger company. I wasn't sure about this step, but I decided to try it anyway, and many friends and family members persuaded me to do it.
During the process of leaving my job, I found out that the company had plans for me: a managerial position, more responsibilities, and involvement in training new employees. But the number of interesting projects and events in the company itself has also increased. So I doubted my actions, I didn't want to leave my team in a difficult situation, and I had a lot of respect for everyone. But I still went to the new company.
The new company turned out to be good: modern technology, encouragement for continuous learning and gifts from the management, the manager and HR were constantly asking how I fell, if everything is okay, and how they could help me. But the online work was too much for me, I couldn't stand passive-aggressive CEO, also I was exhausted after working at my previous job and my recent diploma defence. For two months at my new job, I hardly slept, deeply missed my old job, and couldn't cope with the workload. So I decided to go back and give myself a break, because I start getting massive health issues. After I contacted my old job and agreed to return, many people from my new job began to persuade me to stay and were shocked to hear the news, because I fit in well with the team and did my job well. Later, people who used to work for the old company called and said that it is just step backwards in terms of development, and that my old place did not value returning people, actually making their lives a nightmare. In addition, I was informed that the salary I was promised could be reduced at any time. So I got scared and cancelled my return, and the new company was very happy.
But now I'm beating myself up a lot. I promised to come back, but I didn't keep my word, I let people down who hoped for me. I really wanted to come back because I liked the projects, my team, my routine, my friends and the opportunity to grow in company. I realised that I had no chance of returning. I apologised to my old HR, but she told me that it’s okay and I’m still welcomed in the future (which is not true, I know). I feel so terrible and second guessing my behaviour. I wish I could be more strong in my decision. I cause so much trouble. My family said that I look horrible right now and I should really grow up, accept the situation and make better choices in the future. And I should focus on a new job only. But I don’t like it at all… Should I ask for my position back one more time?