Facebook album names for boyfriend
jellybeans
2013.02.01 18:52 jellybeans
jellybeans
2017.07.22 19:02 zbf 13 or 30
When you can't tell the age of the person.
2011.05.22 13:06 captureMMstature Oasis - are ya mad for it?
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2024.05.22 01:49 Mrmander20 [Vell Harlan and the Doomsday Dorms] 4 C7.1: The Elephant in the Room
At the world’s top college of magic and technology, every day brings a new discovery -and a new disaster. The advanced experiments of the college students tend to be both ambitious and apocalyptic, with the end of the world only prevented by a mysterious time loop, and a small handful of students who retain their memories.
Surviving the loops was hard enough, but now, in his senior year, Vell Harlan must take charge of them, and deal with the fact that the whole world now knows his secrets. Everyone knows about Vell’s death and resurrection, along with the divine game he is a part of. Now Vell must contend with overly curious scientists and evil billionaires hungry for divine power while the daily doomsday cycle bombards him with terrorists, talking elephants, and the Grim Reaper himself -but if he can endure it all, the Last Goddess’s game promises the ultimate prize: power over life itself.
[Previous Chapter][Patreon][Cover Art]
“Should I be worried?”
Why would you be worried?” Kim said. “Dean Lichman loves us.”
Dean Lichman had asked the two of them to stop by his office, though his brief message had not said what for. That left Vell to concoct nightmare scenarios in his head.
“He doesn’t love all of us.”
“Alex doesn’t count as ‘us’,” Kim said. She was a looper in purely a technical sense, mostly due to her own refusal to be a team player. “Besides, she’s been behaving lately. She’s only been an asshole, not an active liability.”
“That we know of.”
“If we don’t know about it, Dean probably doesn’t either,” Kim said. “It’s fine, Vell, he probably just wants to ask us for advice or deal with some problem he has.”
“That’s not much better,” Vell said. “How weird would things have to be that the Dean is asking us for help personally?”
“Only one way to find out,” Kim said. She gestured to the door to the Dean’s office.
Kim entered first, and found it in much the same state as it always was. The desk piled high with paperwork, a small bowl of assorted candies shoved into the corner of the desk, and Dean Lichman behind it, frantically tapping away on a laptop. Vell had not been in this office for several years, and it was vastly different than the last time he’d been here.
“Ah, there you are, come in, have a seat,” Dean Lichman said. “Unless you’d rather we have our conversation elsewhere, Vell.”
“Why would I want that?”
“Well, it’s my understanding you haven’t been in this office since my, uh, predecessor,” Dean Lichman said.
“Oh, right, the kidnapping,” Vell said. “No, I’m good, I don’t really get traumatized by things anymore.”
Vell had been killed too many different ways in too many different places to have a functional trauma response. A few days ago he’d gotten his legs chewed off by a vending machine, and still stopped by it to pick up a soda on his way to the office.
“That’s a very concerning response, Mr. Harlan.”
“Yeah. Anyway, what did you need?”
Dean Lichman gestured for the duo to take a seat, and both did so. He folded desiccated hands in front of himself before beginning to speak.
“I would like to ask you two to take a look at an experiment that will be occurring later this week,” Dean Lichman said. “I don’t have any reason to believe it poses a threat, but I would like to be assured it is a safe and ethical environment, and, well, you two have a knack for identifying trouble spots.”
“You could say that,” Kim said. It was more accurate to say that trouble had a way of identifying them -and then leaping at them and ripping their heads off.
“I’d appreciate it if the two of you could simply examine the laboratory and give it your approval, or disapproval, as the case may be,” Dean Lichman said. “Though if you’re too busy, I fully understand.”
“If you don’t think this is dangerous, why are you asking for our help anyway?”
“Simply for my own peace of mind, frankly,” Dean Lichman said. “The school’s policies on animal experimentation are...satisfactory, I suppose, but I do want to take extra precautions when the subject is a creature as smart as an elephant.”
“An elephant?”
“Yes, a resident of a reserve in Thailand,” Dean Lichman said. “An older elephant by the name of Mae Noi. She has cancer, apparently, and she is submitting to experimental treatment in the hopes it will be useful for younger elephants.”
Kim’s digital face briefly flashed with a facial expression of concerned skepticism.
“‘She’ is submitting to treatment? As in the elephant?”
“Yes. Apparently the elephant can talk,” Dean Lichman said. “No, I don’t know how it works, they said it was ‘more impressive in person’.”
“Well now I kind of want to go just to see the talking elephant,” Vell said.
“Same.”
“Well, do try to take a few glances at the experiment’s safety while you’re there,” Dean Lichman said.
“Sounds like a plan,” Vell said. “Thanks for the heads up.”
“I’ll be there too,” Kim said.
“Excellent. Thank you both, and I’ll try not to take up too much of your time,” the Dean said. He then bid them both a polite goodbye and returned to his mountains of paperwork. Vell took a step out of the office and then took a sip from the soda he’d recently retrieved from the evil vending machine.
“So, what do you think?”
“I think I really do want to see the talking elephant,” Kim said.
“Obviously, yeah, we all want to see the talking elephant,” Vell said. “I mean the whole situation. You think the elephant thing is going to be the daily apocalypse for that day?”
“Well, on the one hand, an elephant seems like the kind of thing that would kill us,” Kim said. “But on the other, I feel like the fact we have advance warning means it’s not going to happen.”
“True. The universe probably wouldn’t make it that easy for us.”
“Yeah, but the elephant thing still feels pretty threatening,” Kim said. “Only way to find out is to wait a few days, I guess.”
A FEW DAYS LATER
“Hello you two,” Dean Lichman said. “And Hawke.”
“Hey,” Hawke said.
“He also wanted to see the talking elephant,” Kim explained.
“Well, that’s not a problem, it was an open invitation,” Dean Lichman said.
“Thanks. Still, sorry for not saying I was going to show up in advance,” Hawke said. “It took me a long time to make up my mind whether I was more interested in or afraid of a talking elephant.”
“They are rather large, aren’t they? I suppose that could be intimidating.”
“I’m okay with elephants on their own, it’s the talking part that doesn’t sit right with me,” Hawke said. “What if the elephant doesn’t like me? What if I’m the first person to ever get insulted by an elephant?”
“You’re less afraid of getting trampled by an elephant than insulted by one?”
“I’m a little afraid of trampling, but elephants are chill,” Hawke explained. “They wouldn’t attack unless provoked. I kind of feel like one might call me a dipshit unprovoked, though.”
“You have oddly specifics fears, Mr. Hughes,” Dean Lichman said.
“Yeah.”
In spite of those fears, Hawke happily stepped through the door to the zoology lab. It did not take a long time to locate the elephant in the room, as it was a literal elephant. The towering pachyderm was in a makeshift pen in the center of the lab, with an ample supply of food and a strange pedestal in front of her.
“Dr. Chanthara,” Dean Lichman said, with a polite wave to one of the researchers in the room. “Good to see you. These are the students I told you about.”
“Hm. Nice to meet you,” Dr. Chanthara said. He was, perhaps not unreasonably, skeptical of why three seemingly random students were in charge of a safety inspection. The fact that one of the three was a robot made him even more skeptical.
“Hi, nice to meet you too, and, uh, don’t mind us,” Vell said. “We just have an eye for weird things other people might miss.”
“Sure. I- wait. Aren’t you that kid who got chosen by a god?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” Vell said. “And her too, technically.”
Kim shrugged. She didn’t care for any extra attention on that point.
“Right,” Chanthara said. He was beginning to see why these students might know their stuff. “I suppose we should start by introducing you to Mae Noi. Say hello, Mae.”
The elephant shifted on her feet and poked her trunk at the wide pedestal in front of her twice.
“Hello. Friends,” a synthesized voice droned. Vell stepped a little closer to the pedestal, just enough to see that there were an array of buttons on the side facing Mae Noi.
“Oh, it’s kind of like a keyboard,” Vell said. He’d seen similar things used with dogs, though usually in a much simpler fashion. Mae Noi seemed to have a few dozen buttons at her disposal.
“Smart,” Mae Noi said, with another prod of her trunk.
“We initially put it into our sanctuary as a bit of a novelty, something elephants could choose to interact with,” Dr. Chanthara explained. “Mae Noi took to it a bit better than most. Especially once she found out she could use it to ask for food.”
“Food. Pumpkin. Pumpkin. Pumpkin.”
“No, Mae, no food until after experiment,” Dr. Chanthara scolded.
“Experiment,” Mae Niko said with a prod. “Pumpkin.”
“Yes, experiment then pumpkin,” Dr. Chanthara said.
“That’s not really a talking elephant, is it?” Hawke said.
“It’s more talking than most elephants,” Dr. Chanthara said.
“Elephant. Smart,” Mae Niko said. “Smart.”
“Yes, uh, right, elephant smart,” Hawke said. He took a step back, to avoid any further offense and any further risk of being insulted by Mae Noi.
“You’re very impressive, Mae, don’t mind him,” Kim said. “How many words does she know?”
“Our platform back home has around three hundred words, though she’s still learning some of them,” Dr. Chanthara said. “The ‘travel’ version we put together only has a hundred, just enough to make sure she can get her basic needs met and communicate about the experiment.”
“Right, speaking of, I do believe we should put some time into our reason for being here,” Dean Lichman interjected. “You’re welcome to stick around afterwards, at Dr. Chanthara and Mae Noi’s discretion, of course, but we should get underway.”
“We probably should get to business, yeah,” Kim said. She tapped the side of her metal head. “I’m going to scan the lab. Vell, you talk to the elephant and make sure everything’s above-board.”
“Abov- oh, right,” Vell said. “Sorry, not exactly used to being able to ask animals if they agree to animal experimentation.”
“Experiment,” Mae said.
“Yeah, experiment,” Vell said, as he turned to Mae. “So, Mae Noi, this experiment might hurt, do you know that?”
“Experiment. Hurt. Elephant,” Mae Noi prodded. “Experiment. Help. Elephant. Help. Baby.”
“Help baby?”
“Baby. Baby. Elephant. Sick. Baby. Sick.”
“We’ve explained the nature of her condition to Mae Noi as best we can,” Dr. Chanthara said. “She has several children, and is concerned they might be similarly affected.”
“Help. Baby,” Mae Noi said. “Experiment. Help.”
The way Mae Noi frantically tapped the buttons tugged at Vell’s heartstrings, but he choked those emotions down.
“So you want to do this experiment to help baby, got it,” Vell said. “Even if it hurts you?”
“Elephant. Old,” Mae Noi said. “Hurt. Okay. Help. Baby.”
“Huh. Well, that does sound like informed consent to me,” Vell said. “Passes ethical muster, at least.”
The campus rules allowed students to be experimented on, with their consent, so Vell saw no reason not to apply the same standard to an elephant.
“You speak up if you change your mind about the experiment, okay?”
“Stop. Stop. Stop,” Mae said, mashing the same button a few times. “Yes.”
“You got it. I’m going to go help my friends check things out,” Vell said. “Good talking to you, Mae.”
“Good. Talk. Friend,” Mae said. She waved goodbye with her trunk, and Vell waved back. He wandered away from Mae Noi’s pedestal and found Kim and Hawke carefully examining rows of beakers and various other supplies.
“Nothing sus yet, boss,” Hawke said.
“Nothing caustic, mutagenic, or explosive?”
“Well, something mutagenic, but it’s supposed to be,” Kim said. She had scanners built into her body much like those that had once been in Vell’s glasses, allowing her to analyze the complex chemical formulas at a glance. “They’re going for some gene editing similar to what we’ve tried to do on human cancer patients. Low success rate, but not harmful. Some adaptations to work on elephants, of course.”
“Run it by any of our chemistry and biology student friends yet?”
“A few,” Kim said. “Haven’t gotten anything back yet, though.”
“Maybe run it by Skye, too,” Vell said. “She’d recognize anything that’d mutate an animal.”
“She does love to mutate things,” Kim said.
“Benevolently,” Vell insisted. “Just show her. I’m going to check for any stray equipment.”
The presence of an unusually large test subject had resulted in the lab being rearranged and reshuffled, so Vell did a quick scan for any misplaced equipment that might pose a threat. He found, to his surprise, a tidy and well-organized environment, with any and all extraneous materials securely locked away. There wasn’t so much as a shrink ray out of place. Vell did another loop just to be sure, but returned to his friends empty-handed.
“This place has less safety hazards than my lab,” Vell said. Hawke stared at him for a while.
“Why does your lab have safety hazards?’
“I do runecarving, there’s like, hammers and chisels,” Vell said. “Those can hurt people.”
“Mm, true,” Hawke said. “So you really didn’t find anything?”
“Nothing,” Vell said. “This place is secure as I’ve ever seen a lab be.”
“It’s like I said,” Kim began. “We got an actual warning about it, so obviously nothing’s going to go wrong. That’d be too easy.”
“Maybe,” Vell said. “Things can get teleported in, or someone could cast a spell, or something.”
“Yeah, but that applies to anywhere, at any time,” Kim said.
“Kim’s right,” Hawke said. “I say we go business as usual.”
“I guess,” Vell said. “We have to branch out a little, at least. Can’t keep an eye on one room all day.”
The trio stopped sulking around the outskirts of the lab and returned to Dean Lichman and Dr. Chanthara.
“Everything looks good,” Kim said. “Probably the safest lab I’ve ever seen.”
“I’ll choose to take that as a compliment,” Dr. Chanthara said.
“We have very high safety standards here at the Einstein-Odinson,” Dean Lichman said, defensively. “Relatively speaking. Innovation requires some risk.”
“I understand perfectly. So does Mae.”
“Hurt. Okay,” Mae said.
“Not that okay,” Vell said. “Nice meeting you, Dr. Chanthara. You too, Mae.”
“Wait.”
Mae prodded one of the buttons on her pedestal and then pointed her trunk at the three of them. Hawke looked deeply concerned, but stepped forward alongside Vell and Kim. Mae Noi appraised them with massive brown eyes, and then moved her trunk back towards the pedestal. Vell noticed a distinctive scar on the bridge of her long nose just as Mae Noi pressed another button.
“Joke.”
“...Joke?”
Dr. Chanthara sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Just go along with it,” he said. “She likes to tell her joke.”
“Uh, okay,” Vell said. “Let’s hear it.”
“What. Elephant. Favorite. Part. Tree.”
“Umm...I don’t know, Mae,” Vell lied. He’d heard this joke from a kid, once. “What part?”
“Trunk,” Mae said. She gave a loud bray of amusement and then slammed her trunk down a few more times to emphasize the punchline. “Trunk. Trunk.”
“Oh, ha, I get it,” Kim said, hoping her feigned laugh was convincing. She’d never tried to lie to an elephant before. “Good one, Mae.”
Mae Noi shifted from side to side, looking pleased with herself, while the trio took a step back and stopped their feigned laughter.
“Did you give her buttons just to tell that joke with?”
“She gets upset,” Dr. Chanthara said. “I’m not even sure she understands the pun, she just likes people’s reactions.”
“As long as she’s having fun,” Hawke said.
“We’ll get out of your hair now,” Vell said. “Good luck with the experiment, feel free to let us know if you need a hand with anything.”
“I’ll keep it in mind,” Dr. Chanthara said. Some of his earlier skepticism seemed to have softened, but he did not seem entirely onboard with three strangers mucking about with his experiment. Vell and his friends left before they stretched what little goodwill they had any further. Mae Noi waved her trunk goodbye as the three left the lab and stepped back onto the quad.
“I’m going to try and sneak some classes in,” Hawke said. “Later.”
“I’ll check some of our usual hot spots,” Kim said, before she too left. Once again alone, Vell headed to one of his own classes, and called up Samson.
“Hey, Samson,” Vell began. “See anything interesting while we were playing with the elephant?”
“Well, I thought I clocked someone acting suspicious, but it turns out he was only sneaking around to go see his boyfriend,” Samson said. “Nothing apocalyptic, but I did get called a homophobe, which is pretty emotionally devastating.”
“I’m sure you’ll recover someday,” Vell said. “Keep an eye out. Usually the safer things look, the more dangerous things end up being.”
“Will do,” Samson said, before saying goodbye and hanging up.
***
Vell got increasingly nervous the longer the day went without its daily disaster. He thought about checking in on Mae Noi again, but then recalled Kim’s warning about it being too obvious, but then remembered that nobody had seen anything suspicious anywhere else, but then remember that Mae Noi’s lab had looked perfectly safe-
“Vell.”
“Huh?”
“You’re spiraling,” Kim said.
“I’m not spiraling, I’m just,” Vell said, with a pause for contemplation. “Considering multiple options.”
“In a spiral fashion,” Kim said. “Eat the damn french fries. Honestly, what’s the point of ordering so many if you’re just going to let them get cold?”
“It’s not like they’re going to go to waste,” Vell said. The same time loop that allowed him to eat massive amounts of french fries without fear of gaining weight also allowed him to avoid food waste. One of the upsides of life in a time loop.
“Just eat, Vell,” Kim said. “You worry too much about all this shit.”
“I’m in charge, it’s my job to worry about it,” Vell said.
“It’s your job to handle it,” Kim said. “There’s no point thinking about this shit before it happens, you spend all day thinking about an elephant and then the universe drops, like, a bat with tentacles on your head. Just deal with as it comes, Vell.”
Vell leaned on the table and managed to chomp down on a french fry or two.
“You know, next year, when I’m not running the show anymore, I’m going to call and see if you still think it’s that easy.”
“I sure hope so,” Kim said. “I’m saying all this shit trying to make myself believe it too.”
“Oh good, you’re lying to both of us,” Vell said. “That’s cool.”
“Fake it ‘til you make it, Vell, that’s how it goes,” Kim said. “Eat your damn french fries.”
Vell rolled his eyes and returned to his fries, which were now starting to cool. Thankfully he would not have to worry about finishing them. A loud crash from across campus interrupted him mid-bite and nearly made Vell choke on his fries. He painfully swallowed the half-chewed food and then looked over his shoulder.
“Son of a bitch, finally,” Vell said. A few years ago he’d found it weird whenever he was relieved about a disaster, but now he was just genuinely glad to get it over with. The waiting was as killer as the apocalypse. He tossed his fries in the trash and headed toward the sound of chaos, with Kim right behind him.
“Already told everybody?”
“Well, I may or may not have left Alex and Helena out of the loop…”
“Kim.”
“They’d find out anyway,” Kim said. “I got to use my brain parts to get in touch with them, even over wi-fi that shit feels dirty.”
“Just get in- stop.”
Vell held out his hand. Kim froze in place and did not move. Not intentionally, at least. There was a small amount of unintentional movement. The ground was vibrating.
“Always love a good earthquake,” Kim said.
“That’s not a quake,” Vell said. “That’s...footsteps!”
Vell grabbed Kim and dove out of the way just in time for something to barrel through the walls of the dining hall and stampede across the room. Tables, chairs, and more than a few students were crushed under the feet of a hulking, brown-furred behemoth as it charged. Kim picked herself and Vell up off the floor and tried to trail its progress.
“That’s a- oh fuck me,” Kim said. “Please don’t say you told me so.”
Vell got his bearings and looked across the room at the titanic form of a woolly mammoth. Though it was definitely recognizable as an archaic mammoth, the ancient creature was also heavily mutated, unnaturally large even by mammoth standards, and with multiple curled, jagged tusks protruding from a slobbering maw.
“Well that could be unrelated,” Vell said. “Mammoths can come from a lot of places, cloning accidents, time machines…”
The mammoth reached a wall, and rather than barreling through, turned around, facing directly towards Vell. A prominent scar covered the bridge of its broad trunk.
“Oh, nope, that’s definitely Mae,” Vell said. The scar was in the same place and at the same angle. Even a clone wouldn’t have an identical scar.
Once the revelation had struck, Mae took her turn. Vell found himself staring straight down the barrel of a very angry mammoth coming right at him at Vell-squishing velocity. Luckily he’d been charged at by a lot of creatures over four years of looping.
Vell jumped up and to the side, and latched on to one of the curled tusks, which made for very convenient handlebars. Kim did the same on the opposite side of Mae, and punched her in the head.
“Wait, wait, hold off on the violence for a second,” Vell shouted. He tried to wave at Kim to stop, but Mae was thrashing so violently he had to grip the tusks with both hands.
“Good plan,” Kim shouted. “Can you get Mae on board?”
Another set of tables got crushed underfoot. Thankfully the other students were out of trampling range by now, but Mae Noi’s feet were still coated in the blood of earlier victims.
“Mae’s smart, maybe we can calm her down,” Vell said. He then ducked to dodge a swat from Mae’s mutated trunk.
“Call me crazy, Vell, but I think this is more than just a bad mood,” Kim said, as she climbed up Mae’s seven jagged tusks like a ladder.
“We have to try,” Vell said. The loopers rule against hurting other intelligent life forms had some flexibility for blood-crazed mutants on violent rampages, but they had to at least try to reason first. Vell climbed up on of Mae’s tusks and looked into one of her bloodshot eyes for any sign of recognition. “Mae! It’s Vell, do you remember?”
The only response Vell got was an enraged trumpet, which he didn’t think was a “yes”.
“Come on, bud,” Vell said. “What’s an elephant’s favorite part of a tree, right? The trunk?”
The massive brown eye staring at Vell blinked, and he felt a brief glimmer of hope. He then felt a brief glimmer of his lungs being crushed as Mae swung her head and slammed her tusks into the wall, and Vell along with them. Kim punched Mae in the throat and then jumped across the tusks to grab Vell and carry him to safety.
“You okay, Vell?”
He opened his mouth to respond, and a pint or two of blood came out instead.
“Apparently not,” he mumbled. “I might be down a few ribs. And a lung. Or two.”
Kim carried Vell a safe distance from the fight and set him down on the ground, where he promptly spat out another mouthful of blood.
“Okay, uh, you just lie there and try to die peacefully, I guess,” Kim said.
“Way ahead of you.”
***
“Was that last bit as funny as I thought it was?” Vell asked. “I think the blood loss was affecting my sense of humor.”
“It was kind of hard to appreciate in the moment,” Kim said. “But as far as dying jokes go, it was pretty good.”
Vell and Kim walked into the lair for their morning meeting and joined the loopers that had already gathered.
“Okay, what’d I miss while I was dead?”
“Well, after Alex was done getting herself killed,” Samson began.
“You’re saying that as if it’s something to be ashamed of,” Alex said. “Vell also died.”
“Yeah, but he got killed trying to do something good. You got killed trying to do something stupid.”
“Trying to eliminate a threat is not stupid,” Alex said.
“We don’t kill intelligent creatures,” Hawke said. “Sometimes we punch them into a coma, but we don’t kill them.”
“When a dog bites, you put it down, I don’t see why the same principle doesn’t apply to a mammoth that’s crushed seventy people.”
“That wasn’t Mae’s fault,” Vell said. “She got mutated, or something. On that note: did you guys figure out what happened to Mae Noi?”
“Nothing,” Hawke said. “Looked like Mae smashed up the entire lab, trampled everyone involved in the experiment too. Nothing left to investigate, and nobody left alive to interrogate.”
“Typical,” Vell sighed. “At least we have an easy out. Dean Lichman was really concerned about the ethics of that whole experiment. We raise some kind of complaint, we could probably get the whole thing shut down.”
“The problem is getting the complaint,” Hawke said. “That lab was airtight, Vell.”
“Apparently not completely airtight,” Kim said. “I can camp out in the lab and raise an entirely justifiable stink whenever something capable of making a murder-mammoth shows up.”
“And what if it happens so suddenly you can’t complain about it?” Samson asked. “For all we know that could’ve been some kind of dimensional rift, or time anomaly, or something. It might not be as simple as somebody just putting in the wrong syringe at the wrong time.”
“He’s got a point,” Vell said. “We might want to shut this down before it gets there.”
“Seems like our best option is to plant evidence, then,” Alex said.
Everyone else at the table spent a few seconds brainstorming ways to prove her wrong, and much to their frustration, could not.
“Okay, fine,” Vell said. “But it needs to be something incidental, not something anyone would get blamed for. We want to cancel the experiment, not get anyone in trouble.”
“I could have a seizure on some sensitive equipment,” Helena offered. “It’ll break something and nobody would dare get mad at me.”
“Can you fake a seizure?”
“No, but I’m allergic to elephants, so I’d probably have one anyway the moment I stepped in the lab,” Helena said.
“I don’t feel entirely comfortable sending you into anaphylactic shock for a bit,” Vell said.
“Offer’s on the table,” Helena said. “I’ll live. Wouldn’t have made it through that trip to the zoo otherwise.”
“Anybody have any non-medical emergency suggestions?”
“Seagull in the air vents,” Kim said.
“Will that work?”
“It happens now and then,” Kim said. “Seagull gets in, and Dean has to close down the whole lab for potential material damage and biohazard risks if they shit in the vents.”
“Really? We’ve never had to deal with anything like that,” Hawke said.
“It may shock you to learn that sometimes minor, tedious bullshit happens that we have nothing to do with,” Kim said.
“That is kind of surprising, actually.”
“Enough. Kim, can you grab a seagull?” Vell asked. He shouldered his bookbag, and stuck a hand into the extradimensional pocket that existed within it. “I can probably smuggle it in with my bag.”
“Yeah, I can get you a seagull,” Kim said. Since she did not need to sleep, she had to find ways to keep herself entertained at night, seagull-grabbing being among them.
“Alright, we’ll go grab one and put it in the bag,” Vell said. “The rest of you, be ready to meet us when I call.”
***
Roughly three minutes later, Vell put out the call and they reconvened in front of the biology lab.
“Yeah, that was much faster than I thought it would be,” Vell said.
“I’m great at grabbin’ birds,” Kim said. Seagulls were among the easier birds to snatch, even. They were suckers for food, and many of them were attracted to her shiny metallic body anyway.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Vell said. “I want this thing out of my bag ASAP.”
Even though the seagull was safely within a pocket dimension, Vell would swear he could still feel the bird thrashing and squawking inside his bag. He tightened his grip on the shoulder strap and led the way towards the zoology lab entrance. He grabbed the handle and held it as he froze for a second.
“Vell, what’s up? Is this bird escaping?”
“No, the handle’s vibrating,” Vell said. It was shaking the same way a wall near an incredibly loud speaker might. He pressed his ear to the door and listened closely. He opened the door immediately, and let all his friends hear the frantic trumpeting of a panicked elephant.
Inside the lab, Mae Noi was stomping her feet and trumpeting as loud as he long trunk would allow. She swayed from side to side in her pen, bumping against the walls not quite hard enough to damage them, but hard enough that it was clear she was doing it on purpose.
“What the heck is happening here?”
“Ah, Vell,” Dean Lichman said. He hustled over to Vell’s side and gestured to the entire room. “Maybe you can figure out what’s going on.”
Mae Noi stopped braying long enough to start mashing her trunk against her pedestal, mashing out the word “Bad” over and over again.
“Our test subject, Mae Noi, has been throwing an absolute fit ever since she got here,” Dean Lichman said. “Dr. Chanthara, these are the students I was telling you about earlier.”
While Vell reintroduced himself to Dr. Chanthara, Kim and Hawke stepped up to examine Mae Noi and her enclosure. It was a far cry from the peaceful, orderly scene they had examined on the first loop. They were half an hour earlier this time than before, but Kim found it unlikely that they had been able to calm Mae Noi down, clean everything up, and get back to work in such a short amount of time. They hadn’t mentioned any of this panic on the first loop either. They were soon joined in their confusion by Chanthara and Vell.
“We’ve tried everything; food, water, her favorite toys, even videos of her children,” Dr. Chanthara said. “We’ve even offered to call off the experiment, but she won’t listen.”
“She is an animal,” Alex said. “Sometimes they do things arbitrarily.”
“Not Mae,” Dr. Chanthara said. “Some of our sanctuaries residents from traumatic backgrounds can have outbursts, but Mae was injured in the wild. She’s never been like this.”
“Maybe some experiment on the island is upsetting her,” Vell said. “A sonic experiment only she can hear, or something…”
Vell stopped and thought about it. If there had been such an irritant, it would’ve been there on the first loop too. Everything always repeated exactly the same, except for-
“Could you, uh, take a step back for a second?” Vell mumbled. “I want to try talking to her.”
“Don’t get close,” Chanthara warned him.
“I’m not, I’m not,” Vell said. He didn’t need to get very close to tell a joke.
The massive brown eyes of Mae Noi stayed locked on Vell as he approached, and she continued to mash the “Bad” button on her pedestal.
“I know, I know, bad,” Vell said. “But, uh, do you want to hear a joke?”
Mae Noi stopped. She locked eyes with Vell for a few seconds, and then cautiously tapped a button on her pedestal.
“Joke.”
“Right, joke,” Vell said. He tried to recall the exact sequence of words Mae had used on the first loop. “What elephant favorite part tree?”
Mae didn’t blink.
“Trunk,” Vell said.
After a moment of contemplation, Mae Noi let out one final, fervent, trumpet, and then started mashing buttons on her pedestal again.
“Bad. Help. Help. Experiment. Bad. Help. Bad. Help.”
“Yeah, bad help, one second,” Vell said. He turned away from Mae Noi to look at Dean Lichman. “Hey, uh, excuse me, Dean? Hey, uh, if I remember correctly there are some pretty complicated rules on having intelligent animals on campus, yes?”
“Well, yes,” Dean Lichman said. After hearing of some questionable ethical practices involving an octopus back in first year, he had instituted a few clauses into the school’s ethical code of conduct regarding intelligent animals like elephants, octopuses, and dolphins. “Mae’s presence here is a bit of an outlier, but there were workaround, given her apparent consent to the experiment.”
“Yeah, about that, is she, uh,” Vell began. “Is she registered as a student?”
“Yes.”
Vell pursed his lips. It took a few seconds for his friends to catch on.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Samson snapped. He turned his back on the crowd and leaned against a wall while Hawke put his head in his hands.
“The first rule of looping,” Alex said quietly. “Loopers are randomly selected-”
She looked up and locked eyes with Mae Noi.
“From all registered students.”
submitted by Mrmander20 to redditserials [link] [comments]
Surviving the loops was hard enough, but now, in his senior year, Vell Harlan must take charge of them, and deal with the fact that the whole world now knows his secrets. Everyone knows about Vell’s death and resurrection, along with the divine game he is a part of. Now Vell must contend with overly curious scientists and evil billionaires hungry for divine power while the daily doomsday cycle bombards him with terrorists, talking elephants, and the Grim Reaper himself -but if he can endure it all, the Last Goddess’s game promises the ultimate prize: power over life itself.
[Previous Chapter][Patreon][Cover Art]
“Should I be worried?”
Why would you be worried?” Kim said. “Dean Lichman loves us.”
Dean Lichman had asked the two of them to stop by his office, though his brief message had not said what for. That left Vell to concoct nightmare scenarios in his head.
“He doesn’t love all of us.”
“Alex doesn’t count as ‘us’,” Kim said. She was a looper in purely a technical sense, mostly due to her own refusal to be a team player. “Besides, she’s been behaving lately. She’s only been an asshole, not an active liability.”
“That we know of.”
“If we don’t know about it, Dean probably doesn’t either,” Kim said. “It’s fine, Vell, he probably just wants to ask us for advice or deal with some problem he has.”
“That’s not much better,” Vell said. “How weird would things have to be that the Dean is asking us for help personally?”
“Only one way to find out,” Kim said. She gestured to the door to the Dean’s office.
Kim entered first, and found it in much the same state as it always was. The desk piled high with paperwork, a small bowl of assorted candies shoved into the corner of the desk, and Dean Lichman behind it, frantically tapping away on a laptop. Vell had not been in this office for several years, and it was vastly different than the last time he’d been here.
“Ah, there you are, come in, have a seat,” Dean Lichman said. “Unless you’d rather we have our conversation elsewhere, Vell.”
“Why would I want that?”
“Well, it’s my understanding you haven’t been in this office since my, uh, predecessor,” Dean Lichman said.
“Oh, right, the kidnapping,” Vell said. “No, I’m good, I don’t really get traumatized by things anymore.”
Vell had been killed too many different ways in too many different places to have a functional trauma response. A few days ago he’d gotten his legs chewed off by a vending machine, and still stopped by it to pick up a soda on his way to the office.
“That’s a very concerning response, Mr. Harlan.”
“Yeah. Anyway, what did you need?”
Dean Lichman gestured for the duo to take a seat, and both did so. He folded desiccated hands in front of himself before beginning to speak.
“I would like to ask you two to take a look at an experiment that will be occurring later this week,” Dean Lichman said. “I don’t have any reason to believe it poses a threat, but I would like to be assured it is a safe and ethical environment, and, well, you two have a knack for identifying trouble spots.”
“You could say that,” Kim said. It was more accurate to say that trouble had a way of identifying them -and then leaping at them and ripping their heads off.
“I’d appreciate it if the two of you could simply examine the laboratory and give it your approval, or disapproval, as the case may be,” Dean Lichman said. “Though if you’re too busy, I fully understand.”
“If you don’t think this is dangerous, why are you asking for our help anyway?”
“Simply for my own peace of mind, frankly,” Dean Lichman said. “The school’s policies on animal experimentation are...satisfactory, I suppose, but I do want to take extra precautions when the subject is a creature as smart as an elephant.”
“An elephant?”
“Yes, a resident of a reserve in Thailand,” Dean Lichman said. “An older elephant by the name of Mae Noi. She has cancer, apparently, and she is submitting to experimental treatment in the hopes it will be useful for younger elephants.”
Kim’s digital face briefly flashed with a facial expression of concerned skepticism.
“‘She’ is submitting to treatment? As in the elephant?”
“Yes. Apparently the elephant can talk,” Dean Lichman said. “No, I don’t know how it works, they said it was ‘more impressive in person’.”
“Well now I kind of want to go just to see the talking elephant,” Vell said.
“Same.”
“Well, do try to take a few glances at the experiment’s safety while you’re there,” Dean Lichman said.
“Sounds like a plan,” Vell said. “Thanks for the heads up.”
“I’ll be there too,” Kim said.
“Excellent. Thank you both, and I’ll try not to take up too much of your time,” the Dean said. He then bid them both a polite goodbye and returned to his mountains of paperwork. Vell took a step out of the office and then took a sip from the soda he’d recently retrieved from the evil vending machine.
“So, what do you think?”
“I think I really do want to see the talking elephant,” Kim said.
“Obviously, yeah, we all want to see the talking elephant,” Vell said. “I mean the whole situation. You think the elephant thing is going to be the daily apocalypse for that day?”
“Well, on the one hand, an elephant seems like the kind of thing that would kill us,” Kim said. “But on the other, I feel like the fact we have advance warning means it’s not going to happen.”
“True. The universe probably wouldn’t make it that easy for us.”
“Yeah, but the elephant thing still feels pretty threatening,” Kim said. “Only way to find out is to wait a few days, I guess.”
A FEW DAYS LATER
“Hello you two,” Dean Lichman said. “And Hawke.”
“Hey,” Hawke said.
“He also wanted to see the talking elephant,” Kim explained.
“Well, that’s not a problem, it was an open invitation,” Dean Lichman said.
“Thanks. Still, sorry for not saying I was going to show up in advance,” Hawke said. “It took me a long time to make up my mind whether I was more interested in or afraid of a talking elephant.”
“They are rather large, aren’t they? I suppose that could be intimidating.”
“I’m okay with elephants on their own, it’s the talking part that doesn’t sit right with me,” Hawke said. “What if the elephant doesn’t like me? What if I’m the first person to ever get insulted by an elephant?”
“You’re less afraid of getting trampled by an elephant than insulted by one?”
“I’m a little afraid of trampling, but elephants are chill,” Hawke explained. “They wouldn’t attack unless provoked. I kind of feel like one might call me a dipshit unprovoked, though.”
“You have oddly specifics fears, Mr. Hughes,” Dean Lichman said.
“Yeah.”
In spite of those fears, Hawke happily stepped through the door to the zoology lab. It did not take a long time to locate the elephant in the room, as it was a literal elephant. The towering pachyderm was in a makeshift pen in the center of the lab, with an ample supply of food and a strange pedestal in front of her.
“Dr. Chanthara,” Dean Lichman said, with a polite wave to one of the researchers in the room. “Good to see you. These are the students I told you about.”
“Hm. Nice to meet you,” Dr. Chanthara said. He was, perhaps not unreasonably, skeptical of why three seemingly random students were in charge of a safety inspection. The fact that one of the three was a robot made him even more skeptical.
“Hi, nice to meet you too, and, uh, don’t mind us,” Vell said. “We just have an eye for weird things other people might miss.”
“Sure. I- wait. Aren’t you that kid who got chosen by a god?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” Vell said. “And her too, technically.”
Kim shrugged. She didn’t care for any extra attention on that point.
“Right,” Chanthara said. He was beginning to see why these students might know their stuff. “I suppose we should start by introducing you to Mae Noi. Say hello, Mae.”
The elephant shifted on her feet and poked her trunk at the wide pedestal in front of her twice.
“Hello. Friends,” a synthesized voice droned. Vell stepped a little closer to the pedestal, just enough to see that there were an array of buttons on the side facing Mae Noi.
“Oh, it’s kind of like a keyboard,” Vell said. He’d seen similar things used with dogs, though usually in a much simpler fashion. Mae Noi seemed to have a few dozen buttons at her disposal.
“Smart,” Mae Noi said, with another prod of her trunk.
“We initially put it into our sanctuary as a bit of a novelty, something elephants could choose to interact with,” Dr. Chanthara explained. “Mae Noi took to it a bit better than most. Especially once she found out she could use it to ask for food.”
“Food. Pumpkin. Pumpkin. Pumpkin.”
“No, Mae, no food until after experiment,” Dr. Chanthara scolded.
“Experiment,” Mae Niko said with a prod. “Pumpkin.”
“Yes, experiment then pumpkin,” Dr. Chanthara said.
“That’s not really a talking elephant, is it?” Hawke said.
“It’s more talking than most elephants,” Dr. Chanthara said.
“Elephant. Smart,” Mae Niko said. “Smart.”
“Yes, uh, right, elephant smart,” Hawke said. He took a step back, to avoid any further offense and any further risk of being insulted by Mae Noi.
“You’re very impressive, Mae, don’t mind him,” Kim said. “How many words does she know?”
“Our platform back home has around three hundred words, though she’s still learning some of them,” Dr. Chanthara said. “The ‘travel’ version we put together only has a hundred, just enough to make sure she can get her basic needs met and communicate about the experiment.”
“Right, speaking of, I do believe we should put some time into our reason for being here,” Dean Lichman interjected. “You’re welcome to stick around afterwards, at Dr. Chanthara and Mae Noi’s discretion, of course, but we should get underway.”
“We probably should get to business, yeah,” Kim said. She tapped the side of her metal head. “I’m going to scan the lab. Vell, you talk to the elephant and make sure everything’s above-board.”
“Abov- oh, right,” Vell said. “Sorry, not exactly used to being able to ask animals if they agree to animal experimentation.”
“Experiment,” Mae said.
“Yeah, experiment,” Vell said, as he turned to Mae. “So, Mae Noi, this experiment might hurt, do you know that?”
“Experiment. Hurt. Elephant,” Mae Noi prodded. “Experiment. Help. Elephant. Help. Baby.”
“Help baby?”
“Baby. Baby. Elephant. Sick. Baby. Sick.”
“We’ve explained the nature of her condition to Mae Noi as best we can,” Dr. Chanthara said. “She has several children, and is concerned they might be similarly affected.”
“Help. Baby,” Mae Noi said. “Experiment. Help.”
The way Mae Noi frantically tapped the buttons tugged at Vell’s heartstrings, but he choked those emotions down.
“So you want to do this experiment to help baby, got it,” Vell said. “Even if it hurts you?”
“Elephant. Old,” Mae Noi said. “Hurt. Okay. Help. Baby.”
“Huh. Well, that does sound like informed consent to me,” Vell said. “Passes ethical muster, at least.”
The campus rules allowed students to be experimented on, with their consent, so Vell saw no reason not to apply the same standard to an elephant.
“You speak up if you change your mind about the experiment, okay?”
“Stop. Stop. Stop,” Mae said, mashing the same button a few times. “Yes.”
“You got it. I’m going to go help my friends check things out,” Vell said. “Good talking to you, Mae.”
“Good. Talk. Friend,” Mae said. She waved goodbye with her trunk, and Vell waved back. He wandered away from Mae Noi’s pedestal and found Kim and Hawke carefully examining rows of beakers and various other supplies.
“Nothing sus yet, boss,” Hawke said.
“Nothing caustic, mutagenic, or explosive?”
“Well, something mutagenic, but it’s supposed to be,” Kim said. She had scanners built into her body much like those that had once been in Vell’s glasses, allowing her to analyze the complex chemical formulas at a glance. “They’re going for some gene editing similar to what we’ve tried to do on human cancer patients. Low success rate, but not harmful. Some adaptations to work on elephants, of course.”
“Run it by any of our chemistry and biology student friends yet?”
“A few,” Kim said. “Haven’t gotten anything back yet, though.”
“Maybe run it by Skye, too,” Vell said. “She’d recognize anything that’d mutate an animal.”
“She does love to mutate things,” Kim said.
“Benevolently,” Vell insisted. “Just show her. I’m going to check for any stray equipment.”
The presence of an unusually large test subject had resulted in the lab being rearranged and reshuffled, so Vell did a quick scan for any misplaced equipment that might pose a threat. He found, to his surprise, a tidy and well-organized environment, with any and all extraneous materials securely locked away. There wasn’t so much as a shrink ray out of place. Vell did another loop just to be sure, but returned to his friends empty-handed.
“This place has less safety hazards than my lab,” Vell said. Hawke stared at him for a while.
“Why does your lab have safety hazards?’
“I do runecarving, there’s like, hammers and chisels,” Vell said. “Those can hurt people.”
“Mm, true,” Hawke said. “So you really didn’t find anything?”
“Nothing,” Vell said. “This place is secure as I’ve ever seen a lab be.”
“It’s like I said,” Kim began. “We got an actual warning about it, so obviously nothing’s going to go wrong. That’d be too easy.”
“Maybe,” Vell said. “Things can get teleported in, or someone could cast a spell, or something.”
“Yeah, but that applies to anywhere, at any time,” Kim said.
“Kim’s right,” Hawke said. “I say we go business as usual.”
“I guess,” Vell said. “We have to branch out a little, at least. Can’t keep an eye on one room all day.”
The trio stopped sulking around the outskirts of the lab and returned to Dean Lichman and Dr. Chanthara.
“Everything looks good,” Kim said. “Probably the safest lab I’ve ever seen.”
“I’ll choose to take that as a compliment,” Dr. Chanthara said.
“We have very high safety standards here at the Einstein-Odinson,” Dean Lichman said, defensively. “Relatively speaking. Innovation requires some risk.”
“I understand perfectly. So does Mae.”
“Hurt. Okay,” Mae said.
“Not that okay,” Vell said. “Nice meeting you, Dr. Chanthara. You too, Mae.”
“Wait.”
Mae prodded one of the buttons on her pedestal and then pointed her trunk at the three of them. Hawke looked deeply concerned, but stepped forward alongside Vell and Kim. Mae Noi appraised them with massive brown eyes, and then moved her trunk back towards the pedestal. Vell noticed a distinctive scar on the bridge of her long nose just as Mae Noi pressed another button.
“Joke.”
“...Joke?”
Dr. Chanthara sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Just go along with it,” he said. “She likes to tell her joke.”
“Uh, okay,” Vell said. “Let’s hear it.”
“What. Elephant. Favorite. Part. Tree.”
“Umm...I don’t know, Mae,” Vell lied. He’d heard this joke from a kid, once. “What part?”
“Trunk,” Mae said. She gave a loud bray of amusement and then slammed her trunk down a few more times to emphasize the punchline. “Trunk. Trunk.”
“Oh, ha, I get it,” Kim said, hoping her feigned laugh was convincing. She’d never tried to lie to an elephant before. “Good one, Mae.”
Mae Noi shifted from side to side, looking pleased with herself, while the trio took a step back and stopped their feigned laughter.
“Did you give her buttons just to tell that joke with?”
“She gets upset,” Dr. Chanthara said. “I’m not even sure she understands the pun, she just likes people’s reactions.”
“As long as she’s having fun,” Hawke said.
“We’ll get out of your hair now,” Vell said. “Good luck with the experiment, feel free to let us know if you need a hand with anything.”
“I’ll keep it in mind,” Dr. Chanthara said. Some of his earlier skepticism seemed to have softened, but he did not seem entirely onboard with three strangers mucking about with his experiment. Vell and his friends left before they stretched what little goodwill they had any further. Mae Noi waved her trunk goodbye as the three left the lab and stepped back onto the quad.
“I’m going to try and sneak some classes in,” Hawke said. “Later.”
“I’ll check some of our usual hot spots,” Kim said, before she too left. Once again alone, Vell headed to one of his own classes, and called up Samson.
“Hey, Samson,” Vell began. “See anything interesting while we were playing with the elephant?”
“Well, I thought I clocked someone acting suspicious, but it turns out he was only sneaking around to go see his boyfriend,” Samson said. “Nothing apocalyptic, but I did get called a homophobe, which is pretty emotionally devastating.”
“I’m sure you’ll recover someday,” Vell said. “Keep an eye out. Usually the safer things look, the more dangerous things end up being.”
“Will do,” Samson said, before saying goodbye and hanging up.
***
Vell got increasingly nervous the longer the day went without its daily disaster. He thought about checking in on Mae Noi again, but then recalled Kim’s warning about it being too obvious, but then remembered that nobody had seen anything suspicious anywhere else, but then remember that Mae Noi’s lab had looked perfectly safe-
“Vell.”
“Huh?”
“You’re spiraling,” Kim said.
“I’m not spiraling, I’m just,” Vell said, with a pause for contemplation. “Considering multiple options.”
“In a spiral fashion,” Kim said. “Eat the damn french fries. Honestly, what’s the point of ordering so many if you’re just going to let them get cold?”
“It’s not like they’re going to go to waste,” Vell said. The same time loop that allowed him to eat massive amounts of french fries without fear of gaining weight also allowed him to avoid food waste. One of the upsides of life in a time loop.
“Just eat, Vell,” Kim said. “You worry too much about all this shit.”
“I’m in charge, it’s my job to worry about it,” Vell said.
“It’s your job to handle it,” Kim said. “There’s no point thinking about this shit before it happens, you spend all day thinking about an elephant and then the universe drops, like, a bat with tentacles on your head. Just deal with as it comes, Vell.”
Vell leaned on the table and managed to chomp down on a french fry or two.
“You know, next year, when I’m not running the show anymore, I’m going to call and see if you still think it’s that easy.”
“I sure hope so,” Kim said. “I’m saying all this shit trying to make myself believe it too.”
“Oh good, you’re lying to both of us,” Vell said. “That’s cool.”
“Fake it ‘til you make it, Vell, that’s how it goes,” Kim said. “Eat your damn french fries.”
Vell rolled his eyes and returned to his fries, which were now starting to cool. Thankfully he would not have to worry about finishing them. A loud crash from across campus interrupted him mid-bite and nearly made Vell choke on his fries. He painfully swallowed the half-chewed food and then looked over his shoulder.
“Son of a bitch, finally,” Vell said. A few years ago he’d found it weird whenever he was relieved about a disaster, but now he was just genuinely glad to get it over with. The waiting was as killer as the apocalypse. He tossed his fries in the trash and headed toward the sound of chaos, with Kim right behind him.
“Already told everybody?”
“Well, I may or may not have left Alex and Helena out of the loop…”
“Kim.”
“They’d find out anyway,” Kim said. “I got to use my brain parts to get in touch with them, even over wi-fi that shit feels dirty.”
“Just get in- stop.”
Vell held out his hand. Kim froze in place and did not move. Not intentionally, at least. There was a small amount of unintentional movement. The ground was vibrating.
“Always love a good earthquake,” Kim said.
“That’s not a quake,” Vell said. “That’s...footsteps!”
Vell grabbed Kim and dove out of the way just in time for something to barrel through the walls of the dining hall and stampede across the room. Tables, chairs, and more than a few students were crushed under the feet of a hulking, brown-furred behemoth as it charged. Kim picked herself and Vell up off the floor and tried to trail its progress.
“That’s a- oh fuck me,” Kim said. “Please don’t say you told me so.”
Vell got his bearings and looked across the room at the titanic form of a woolly mammoth. Though it was definitely recognizable as an archaic mammoth, the ancient creature was also heavily mutated, unnaturally large even by mammoth standards, and with multiple curled, jagged tusks protruding from a slobbering maw.
“Well that could be unrelated,” Vell said. “Mammoths can come from a lot of places, cloning accidents, time machines…”
The mammoth reached a wall, and rather than barreling through, turned around, facing directly towards Vell. A prominent scar covered the bridge of its broad trunk.
“Oh, nope, that’s definitely Mae,” Vell said. The scar was in the same place and at the same angle. Even a clone wouldn’t have an identical scar.
Once the revelation had struck, Mae took her turn. Vell found himself staring straight down the barrel of a very angry mammoth coming right at him at Vell-squishing velocity. Luckily he’d been charged at by a lot of creatures over four years of looping.
Vell jumped up and to the side, and latched on to one of the curled tusks, which made for very convenient handlebars. Kim did the same on the opposite side of Mae, and punched her in the head.
“Wait, wait, hold off on the violence for a second,” Vell shouted. He tried to wave at Kim to stop, but Mae was thrashing so violently he had to grip the tusks with both hands.
“Good plan,” Kim shouted. “Can you get Mae on board?”
Another set of tables got crushed underfoot. Thankfully the other students were out of trampling range by now, but Mae Noi’s feet were still coated in the blood of earlier victims.
“Mae’s smart, maybe we can calm her down,” Vell said. He then ducked to dodge a swat from Mae’s mutated trunk.
“Call me crazy, Vell, but I think this is more than just a bad mood,” Kim said, as she climbed up Mae’s seven jagged tusks like a ladder.
“We have to try,” Vell said. The loopers rule against hurting other intelligent life forms had some flexibility for blood-crazed mutants on violent rampages, but they had to at least try to reason first. Vell climbed up on of Mae’s tusks and looked into one of her bloodshot eyes for any sign of recognition. “Mae! It’s Vell, do you remember?”
The only response Vell got was an enraged trumpet, which he didn’t think was a “yes”.
“Come on, bud,” Vell said. “What’s an elephant’s favorite part of a tree, right? The trunk?”
The massive brown eye staring at Vell blinked, and he felt a brief glimmer of hope. He then felt a brief glimmer of his lungs being crushed as Mae swung her head and slammed her tusks into the wall, and Vell along with them. Kim punched Mae in the throat and then jumped across the tusks to grab Vell and carry him to safety.
“You okay, Vell?”
He opened his mouth to respond, and a pint or two of blood came out instead.
“Apparently not,” he mumbled. “I might be down a few ribs. And a lung. Or two.”
Kim carried Vell a safe distance from the fight and set him down on the ground, where he promptly spat out another mouthful of blood.
“Okay, uh, you just lie there and try to die peacefully, I guess,” Kim said.
“Way ahead of you.”
***
“Was that last bit as funny as I thought it was?” Vell asked. “I think the blood loss was affecting my sense of humor.”
“It was kind of hard to appreciate in the moment,” Kim said. “But as far as dying jokes go, it was pretty good.”
Vell and Kim walked into the lair for their morning meeting and joined the loopers that had already gathered.
“Okay, what’d I miss while I was dead?”
“Well, after Alex was done getting herself killed,” Samson began.
“You’re saying that as if it’s something to be ashamed of,” Alex said. “Vell also died.”
“Yeah, but he got killed trying to do something good. You got killed trying to do something stupid.”
“Trying to eliminate a threat is not stupid,” Alex said.
“We don’t kill intelligent creatures,” Hawke said. “Sometimes we punch them into a coma, but we don’t kill them.”
“When a dog bites, you put it down, I don’t see why the same principle doesn’t apply to a mammoth that’s crushed seventy people.”
“That wasn’t Mae’s fault,” Vell said. “She got mutated, or something. On that note: did you guys figure out what happened to Mae Noi?”
“Nothing,” Hawke said. “Looked like Mae smashed up the entire lab, trampled everyone involved in the experiment too. Nothing left to investigate, and nobody left alive to interrogate.”
“Typical,” Vell sighed. “At least we have an easy out. Dean Lichman was really concerned about the ethics of that whole experiment. We raise some kind of complaint, we could probably get the whole thing shut down.”
“The problem is getting the complaint,” Hawke said. “That lab was airtight, Vell.”
“Apparently not completely airtight,” Kim said. “I can camp out in the lab and raise an entirely justifiable stink whenever something capable of making a murder-mammoth shows up.”
“And what if it happens so suddenly you can’t complain about it?” Samson asked. “For all we know that could’ve been some kind of dimensional rift, or time anomaly, or something. It might not be as simple as somebody just putting in the wrong syringe at the wrong time.”
“He’s got a point,” Vell said. “We might want to shut this down before it gets there.”
“Seems like our best option is to plant evidence, then,” Alex said.
Everyone else at the table spent a few seconds brainstorming ways to prove her wrong, and much to their frustration, could not.
“Okay, fine,” Vell said. “But it needs to be something incidental, not something anyone would get blamed for. We want to cancel the experiment, not get anyone in trouble.”
“I could have a seizure on some sensitive equipment,” Helena offered. “It’ll break something and nobody would dare get mad at me.”
“Can you fake a seizure?”
“No, but I’m allergic to elephants, so I’d probably have one anyway the moment I stepped in the lab,” Helena said.
“I don’t feel entirely comfortable sending you into anaphylactic shock for a bit,” Vell said.
“Offer’s on the table,” Helena said. “I’ll live. Wouldn’t have made it through that trip to the zoo otherwise.”
“Anybody have any non-medical emergency suggestions?”
“Seagull in the air vents,” Kim said.
“Will that work?”
“It happens now and then,” Kim said. “Seagull gets in, and Dean has to close down the whole lab for potential material damage and biohazard risks if they shit in the vents.”
“Really? We’ve never had to deal with anything like that,” Hawke said.
“It may shock you to learn that sometimes minor, tedious bullshit happens that we have nothing to do with,” Kim said.
“That is kind of surprising, actually.”
“Enough. Kim, can you grab a seagull?” Vell asked. He shouldered his bookbag, and stuck a hand into the extradimensional pocket that existed within it. “I can probably smuggle it in with my bag.”
“Yeah, I can get you a seagull,” Kim said. Since she did not need to sleep, she had to find ways to keep herself entertained at night, seagull-grabbing being among them.
“Alright, we’ll go grab one and put it in the bag,” Vell said. “The rest of you, be ready to meet us when I call.”
***
Roughly three minutes later, Vell put out the call and they reconvened in front of the biology lab.
“Yeah, that was much faster than I thought it would be,” Vell said.
“I’m great at grabbin’ birds,” Kim said. Seagulls were among the easier birds to snatch, even. They were suckers for food, and many of them were attracted to her shiny metallic body anyway.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Vell said. “I want this thing out of my bag ASAP.”
Even though the seagull was safely within a pocket dimension, Vell would swear he could still feel the bird thrashing and squawking inside his bag. He tightened his grip on the shoulder strap and led the way towards the zoology lab entrance. He grabbed the handle and held it as he froze for a second.
“Vell, what’s up? Is this bird escaping?”
“No, the handle’s vibrating,” Vell said. It was shaking the same way a wall near an incredibly loud speaker might. He pressed his ear to the door and listened closely. He opened the door immediately, and let all his friends hear the frantic trumpeting of a panicked elephant.
Inside the lab, Mae Noi was stomping her feet and trumpeting as loud as he long trunk would allow. She swayed from side to side in her pen, bumping against the walls not quite hard enough to damage them, but hard enough that it was clear she was doing it on purpose.
“What the heck is happening here?”
“Ah, Vell,” Dean Lichman said. He hustled over to Vell’s side and gestured to the entire room. “Maybe you can figure out what’s going on.”
Mae Noi stopped braying long enough to start mashing her trunk against her pedestal, mashing out the word “Bad” over and over again.
“Our test subject, Mae Noi, has been throwing an absolute fit ever since she got here,” Dean Lichman said. “Dr. Chanthara, these are the students I was telling you about earlier.”
While Vell reintroduced himself to Dr. Chanthara, Kim and Hawke stepped up to examine Mae Noi and her enclosure. It was a far cry from the peaceful, orderly scene they had examined on the first loop. They were half an hour earlier this time than before, but Kim found it unlikely that they had been able to calm Mae Noi down, clean everything up, and get back to work in such a short amount of time. They hadn’t mentioned any of this panic on the first loop either. They were soon joined in their confusion by Chanthara and Vell.
“We’ve tried everything; food, water, her favorite toys, even videos of her children,” Dr. Chanthara said. “We’ve even offered to call off the experiment, but she won’t listen.”
“She is an animal,” Alex said. “Sometimes they do things arbitrarily.”
“Not Mae,” Dr. Chanthara said. “Some of our sanctuaries residents from traumatic backgrounds can have outbursts, but Mae was injured in the wild. She’s never been like this.”
“Maybe some experiment on the island is upsetting her,” Vell said. “A sonic experiment only she can hear, or something…”
Vell stopped and thought about it. If there had been such an irritant, it would’ve been there on the first loop too. Everything always repeated exactly the same, except for-
“Could you, uh, take a step back for a second?” Vell mumbled. “I want to try talking to her.”
“Don’t get close,” Chanthara warned him.
“I’m not, I’m not,” Vell said. He didn’t need to get very close to tell a joke.
The massive brown eyes of Mae Noi stayed locked on Vell as he approached, and she continued to mash the “Bad” button on her pedestal.
“I know, I know, bad,” Vell said. “But, uh, do you want to hear a joke?”
Mae Noi stopped. She locked eyes with Vell for a few seconds, and then cautiously tapped a button on her pedestal.
“Joke.”
“Right, joke,” Vell said. He tried to recall the exact sequence of words Mae had used on the first loop. “What elephant favorite part tree?”
Mae didn’t blink.
“Trunk,” Vell said.
After a moment of contemplation, Mae Noi let out one final, fervent, trumpet, and then started mashing buttons on her pedestal again.
“Bad. Help. Help. Experiment. Bad. Help. Bad. Help.”
“Yeah, bad help, one second,” Vell said. He turned away from Mae Noi to look at Dean Lichman. “Hey, uh, excuse me, Dean? Hey, uh, if I remember correctly there are some pretty complicated rules on having intelligent animals on campus, yes?”
“Well, yes,” Dean Lichman said. After hearing of some questionable ethical practices involving an octopus back in first year, he had instituted a few clauses into the school’s ethical code of conduct regarding intelligent animals like elephants, octopuses, and dolphins. “Mae’s presence here is a bit of an outlier, but there were workaround, given her apparent consent to the experiment.”
“Yeah, about that, is she, uh,” Vell began. “Is she registered as a student?”
“Yes.”
Vell pursed his lips. It took a few seconds for his friends to catch on.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Samson snapped. He turned his back on the crowd and leaned against a wall while Hawke put his head in his hands.
“The first rule of looping,” Alex said quietly. “Loopers are randomly selected-”
She looked up and locked eyes with Mae Noi.
“From all registered students.”
2024.05.22 01:43 Ok-Development-5810 My (27M) boyfriend using me (25F) while I'm sleeping?
I didn't know what else to do, so here I am for some brutal, honest advice.
TLDR: My boyfriend uses my hand and mouth to jerk him off while I'm sleeping to help his high sex drive.
My boyfriend, Jack 27M (fake name) and I 25F have been dating since late 2022 but have known each other since 2021. I believe our relationship is going pretty well. We ran into bumps a couple of times, but that is normal in every relationship. We are honestly pretty similar with a couple of differences. One big difference is our own sex drive. He has a pretty high libido while mine is low. I feel like mine was higher a couple of years ago, but I noticed lately the past year it's been really low. This, of course, has us both, especially Jack, feeling frustrated. I'm just... never in the mood. I have tried forcing myself in the past but Jack found out and asked me to never force myself to have sex with him. So... we just don't do it often. He does ask and sometimes he will try to slowly initiate sex but I would shut it down most of the time. I feel terrible about it.
So, leading with that info, we get to last night. I got home from a long day at work. Jack was on his PC playing games with his friends and drinking. He was having a great time and seemed like he was enjoying himself. He saw me walk in and got up to greet me. He kisses and hugs me and then starts groping my ass. Temptation is there, I get it, plus this part wasn't new. I'm glad he finds me attractive lol. I tell Jack that I'm going to workout for a little bit. He pouted for a little bit but let me go. So I changed, worked out, showered and got into sleepwear. I get back downstairs and Jack is playing games and drinking still, you know, having fun. We ate leftovers, I hopped on to my PC and started playing solo games. Jack progressively gets more drunk. Every once in a while, he will stop what he is doing, turns to me and just starts touching me sexually. Immediately goes for my private areas. I asked him to stop, as I wasn't really feeling it, plus I was also in a middle of a game I can't pause. Jack keeps on doing it. Just goes straight to groping me or trying to finger me, which just makes me mad. He wouldn't stop, even when I asked. When I ask him to stop, he will whine before going back to trying or back to gaming. I was uncomfortable the entire time. So after a while, I decided to just start heading for bed. He was in the middle of something in his game so I gave Jack a back hug, forehead kiss and told him I'm going to bed.
I get to our bedroom and sit on the bed for like 2 minutes to look at my phone. After that, I was gonna go brush my teeth then turn out the lights. Jack comes in not long after I got there and immediately lays on me on our bed, trying to initiate sex. I, of course, say, "I'm sorry no I have work in the morning, I need to go to bed." He gets upset, refusing to let me go brush my teeth, not even letting me get up. I finally got up and went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth while he laid on my side of the bed. I finish brushing, came back to our bed, and asked Jack to scoot over so I can lay down with him. He did complain but eventually scooted over and I laid on his arm. Jack tries grabbing me, either trying to grope my breast again or trying to reach under my nightgown to touch my private area but I politely told him "No, please I have work in the morning" and I would move his hands away. He got upset and just got up and left the room in a slight huff.
So... I was pretty upset and even more uncomfortable at that point. I called my friend crying and told her what happened. She eventually calmed me down and I fell asleep, maybe 30 minutes later? Anyway, I don't know how much time went by before I starting waking up to something touching my lips. I realize... it's Jack's penis. He's trying to put it in my mouth while I was sleeping. As soon as I realized, I turned over the way. It was dark, so he didn't notice that I was awake. For the next who knows how long, he was trying jerk off using me. Either it was him trying to shove his dick in my mouth, using my hand to jerk him off, or lifting my clothes up trying to see my body to jerk off. I moved everytime, hoping it would be the last and he would stop but it took a while. He eventually passed out half naked on our bed. I eventually passed out, crying myself to sleep. We both woke up at the same time, I got ready for work and left. We didn't say much to each other before I left other than a I love you and have a good day.
I feel extremely uncomfortable. I didn't even want to talk to him this morning but I pretended everything was okay. This isn't the first time this has happened though. He has done this a couple of times the past almost 2 years we have been dating but... I haven't said anything. Jack probably doesn't even know that I know what he tries to do at night. Why haven't I said anything. I don't know.... I guess I felt like this should make up a little bit for the action he doesn't get. I hated it everytime. And now I am even more uncomfortable than ever before.
Thank for reading and offering any/all advice ya'll have...
submitted by Ok-Development-5810 to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
TLDR: My boyfriend uses my hand and mouth to jerk him off while I'm sleeping to help his high sex drive.
My boyfriend, Jack 27M (fake name) and I 25F have been dating since late 2022 but have known each other since 2021. I believe our relationship is going pretty well. We ran into bumps a couple of times, but that is normal in every relationship. We are honestly pretty similar with a couple of differences. One big difference is our own sex drive. He has a pretty high libido while mine is low. I feel like mine was higher a couple of years ago, but I noticed lately the past year it's been really low. This, of course, has us both, especially Jack, feeling frustrated. I'm just... never in the mood. I have tried forcing myself in the past but Jack found out and asked me to never force myself to have sex with him. So... we just don't do it often. He does ask and sometimes he will try to slowly initiate sex but I would shut it down most of the time. I feel terrible about it.
So, leading with that info, we get to last night. I got home from a long day at work. Jack was on his PC playing games with his friends and drinking. He was having a great time and seemed like he was enjoying himself. He saw me walk in and got up to greet me. He kisses and hugs me and then starts groping my ass. Temptation is there, I get it, plus this part wasn't new. I'm glad he finds me attractive lol. I tell Jack that I'm going to workout for a little bit. He pouted for a little bit but let me go. So I changed, worked out, showered and got into sleepwear. I get back downstairs and Jack is playing games and drinking still, you know, having fun. We ate leftovers, I hopped on to my PC and started playing solo games. Jack progressively gets more drunk. Every once in a while, he will stop what he is doing, turns to me and just starts touching me sexually. Immediately goes for my private areas. I asked him to stop, as I wasn't really feeling it, plus I was also in a middle of a game I can't pause. Jack keeps on doing it. Just goes straight to groping me or trying to finger me, which just makes me mad. He wouldn't stop, even when I asked. When I ask him to stop, he will whine before going back to trying or back to gaming. I was uncomfortable the entire time. So after a while, I decided to just start heading for bed. He was in the middle of something in his game so I gave Jack a back hug, forehead kiss and told him I'm going to bed.
I get to our bedroom and sit on the bed for like 2 minutes to look at my phone. After that, I was gonna go brush my teeth then turn out the lights. Jack comes in not long after I got there and immediately lays on me on our bed, trying to initiate sex. I, of course, say, "I'm sorry no I have work in the morning, I need to go to bed." He gets upset, refusing to let me go brush my teeth, not even letting me get up. I finally got up and went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth while he laid on my side of the bed. I finish brushing, came back to our bed, and asked Jack to scoot over so I can lay down with him. He did complain but eventually scooted over and I laid on his arm. Jack tries grabbing me, either trying to grope my breast again or trying to reach under my nightgown to touch my private area but I politely told him "No, please I have work in the morning" and I would move his hands away. He got upset and just got up and left the room in a slight huff.
So... I was pretty upset and even more uncomfortable at that point. I called my friend crying and told her what happened. She eventually calmed me down and I fell asleep, maybe 30 minutes later? Anyway, I don't know how much time went by before I starting waking up to something touching my lips. I realize... it's Jack's penis. He's trying to put it in my mouth while I was sleeping. As soon as I realized, I turned over the way. It was dark, so he didn't notice that I was awake. For the next who knows how long, he was trying jerk off using me. Either it was him trying to shove his dick in my mouth, using my hand to jerk him off, or lifting my clothes up trying to see my body to jerk off. I moved everytime, hoping it would be the last and he would stop but it took a while. He eventually passed out half naked on our bed. I eventually passed out, crying myself to sleep. We both woke up at the same time, I got ready for work and left. We didn't say much to each other before I left other than a I love you and have a good day.
I feel extremely uncomfortable. I didn't even want to talk to him this morning but I pretended everything was okay. This isn't the first time this has happened though. He has done this a couple of times the past almost 2 years we have been dating but... I haven't said anything. Jack probably doesn't even know that I know what he tries to do at night. Why haven't I said anything. I don't know.... I guess I felt like this should make up a little bit for the action he doesn't get. I hated it everytime. And now I am even more uncomfortable than ever before.
Thank for reading and offering any/all advice ya'll have...
2024.05.22 01:42 Ornery_Catch_2075 I 19M am starting to fall for a guy 25M and i am scared shittles. What should i do?
Hi there,
I did something really stupid. I met someone on Grindr, and it was the quickest meetup I’ve ever done. It was like, “Hey, hey,” and he called me. I saw his face for about 5 seconds, and we decided to meet up. He was waiting for me in his car, and I got in, which, in hindsight, was really dangerous because I had no idea who he was. He started driving and talking. I replied, but I was acting shy because, to be honest, I wasn’t comfortable with what I had done. But I thought, “Screw it. Let’s see where this leads.”
We stopped at the side of the road, and I started blowing him. It was good, not gonna lie. After some time, I suggested we go to a hotel. So we did. This is where it all went to shit for me.
When we got to the hotel, we got naked. The man was blessed, but the thing was that we just ended up talking for hours. Somehow, I kind of liked him, which is something unheard of for me. I’m the kind of person who can separate feelings from sex, but with him, I just couldn’t. I was getting ready to apply to med school, learning a ton of stuff, and trying to manage all of that while also working. It was really hard, but here comes someone who knows a ton about med school and science. All we talked about that night was science, and I thought he was a doctor because he knew so much.
The Grindr community is really secretive, so I learned not to trust anyone and not to believe a word they say. When I get the feeling someone is lying to me, I’m 99% right. Based on his knowledge and the way he was formulating every sentence, I knew he was a healthcare worker, even though he didn’t admit it.
After the hotel, we went to get coffee, and I started pushing him to tell me what he did for a living. He told me he was a detective, but I wasn’t buying it. After some time, I decided to give him my number. I think it was more the mystery of this man that drew me to him. He was a case I needed to solve. The next two weeks went really fast. We went out at least five times, and every time we did, I would set up these little traps for him, which he fell for every time.
The sex was amazing, the best I’ve ever had. But it was the level of understanding and something about him that kept me interested. He used to call me with his caller ID hidden, and it drove me crazy, not gonna lie. But I was determined to figure him out. I had to call the phone company, get all the records of the incoming calls, and cross-examine them. Finally, I had a number.
After that, I had to figure out who he was. I looked online for his number, but I couldn’t find anything. So, I went to one of the local stores of the phone company and said that a friend of mine was out of the country and I needed to make a payment in his name. I gave the lady his number, and when she said his full name, I acted like it wasn’t the name of my friend, but inside, I was screaming. Now I had a name. So, let the work begin. I went on Instagram and Facebook because I knew those would be the best places to find him.
After half an hour, I finally found his Facebook profile. There, I found his workplace, and as I suspected, he was a healthcare professional, but I still didn’t know what type. So I did more digging. I searched the internet about him but came up with nothing.
I met up with him that night, and to be honest, I was scared of how he would react because you never know with people. So I was trying to be subtle, but he said something that angered me a lot, so I told him. I said, “Okay, I know who you are. I know where you work, and I know where you studied.” He said that I was bluffing. I said, “Nope, your name is this, you work here,” and everything else I could find about him. To my surprise, he started laughing hysterically.
Basically, he was impressed with my skills. He teased me, saying that he must have really meant something to me for me to go to all that trouble just to find him. I, of course, denied it categorically, but we both knew he did.
After this confrontation, I got to ask every question I wanted to know, and he answered truthfully because he knew I would find out either way. The more I learned about him, the more I liked him, and that scared the shit out of me. We started texting every day, and with each text, I saw myself falling more and more for him.
We met a few more times, but I can’t risk it more with him. The next time we meet, I think i need to tell him that this is getting too comfortable for me, and I am not someone who gets comfortable. So now i am here asking strangers what i should do.
P.S. the text was edited by ChatGBT.
submitted by Ornery_Catch_2075 to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
I did something really stupid. I met someone on Grindr, and it was the quickest meetup I’ve ever done. It was like, “Hey, hey,” and he called me. I saw his face for about 5 seconds, and we decided to meet up. He was waiting for me in his car, and I got in, which, in hindsight, was really dangerous because I had no idea who he was. He started driving and talking. I replied, but I was acting shy because, to be honest, I wasn’t comfortable with what I had done. But I thought, “Screw it. Let’s see where this leads.”
We stopped at the side of the road, and I started blowing him. It was good, not gonna lie. After some time, I suggested we go to a hotel. So we did. This is where it all went to shit for me.
When we got to the hotel, we got naked. The man was blessed, but the thing was that we just ended up talking for hours. Somehow, I kind of liked him, which is something unheard of for me. I’m the kind of person who can separate feelings from sex, but with him, I just couldn’t. I was getting ready to apply to med school, learning a ton of stuff, and trying to manage all of that while also working. It was really hard, but here comes someone who knows a ton about med school and science. All we talked about that night was science, and I thought he was a doctor because he knew so much.
The Grindr community is really secretive, so I learned not to trust anyone and not to believe a word they say. When I get the feeling someone is lying to me, I’m 99% right. Based on his knowledge and the way he was formulating every sentence, I knew he was a healthcare worker, even though he didn’t admit it.
After the hotel, we went to get coffee, and I started pushing him to tell me what he did for a living. He told me he was a detective, but I wasn’t buying it. After some time, I decided to give him my number. I think it was more the mystery of this man that drew me to him. He was a case I needed to solve. The next two weeks went really fast. We went out at least five times, and every time we did, I would set up these little traps for him, which he fell for every time.
The sex was amazing, the best I’ve ever had. But it was the level of understanding and something about him that kept me interested. He used to call me with his caller ID hidden, and it drove me crazy, not gonna lie. But I was determined to figure him out. I had to call the phone company, get all the records of the incoming calls, and cross-examine them. Finally, I had a number.
After that, I had to figure out who he was. I looked online for his number, but I couldn’t find anything. So, I went to one of the local stores of the phone company and said that a friend of mine was out of the country and I needed to make a payment in his name. I gave the lady his number, and when she said his full name, I acted like it wasn’t the name of my friend, but inside, I was screaming. Now I had a name. So, let the work begin. I went on Instagram and Facebook because I knew those would be the best places to find him.
After half an hour, I finally found his Facebook profile. There, I found his workplace, and as I suspected, he was a healthcare professional, but I still didn’t know what type. So I did more digging. I searched the internet about him but came up with nothing.
I met up with him that night, and to be honest, I was scared of how he would react because you never know with people. So I was trying to be subtle, but he said something that angered me a lot, so I told him. I said, “Okay, I know who you are. I know where you work, and I know where you studied.” He said that I was bluffing. I said, “Nope, your name is this, you work here,” and everything else I could find about him. To my surprise, he started laughing hysterically.
Basically, he was impressed with my skills. He teased me, saying that he must have really meant something to me for me to go to all that trouble just to find him. I, of course, denied it categorically, but we both knew he did.
After this confrontation, I got to ask every question I wanted to know, and he answered truthfully because he knew I would find out either way. The more I learned about him, the more I liked him, and that scared the shit out of me. We started texting every day, and with each text, I saw myself falling more and more for him.
We met a few more times, but I can’t risk it more with him. The next time we meet, I think i need to tell him that this is getting too comfortable for me, and I am not someone who gets comfortable. So now i am here asking strangers what i should do.
P.S. the text was edited by ChatGBT.
2024.05.22 01:25 SixStarz6 Birthday Yesterday and super sad
No family , no friends and now I know why I have given up more than once before. My wife tells me there were all kinds of birthday wishes on facebook. When it was actually 2 of her friends that I don’t know and one friend that I have known for as long as I have known my wife. I am not out to her.
I am out to nobody but my wife. It’s been a rough few years. Last time(done it a few times) I quit hormones we moved and when I finally realized it’s not going away and HRT had to be permanent, I lost contact with all my close trans friends and now I hate myself.
The guilt my wife makes me feel when I do something towards my transition just brings me so far down I don’t want to wake up in the morning.
My main dysphoria is hair. Any hair drives me nuts. Body hair is manageable with an epilator now that I have been doing it so long. But the face is truly driving me nuts. I am about to do a 3 hour Electrolosis appointment. And adk for forgiveness after. And what do I do instead of focusing on myself. I start a charity. I take money I don’t have so I can get my charity a legally a 501c3 tax exempt status. I don’t know how to run a charity. All I want to do is help others. But I am so sad for myself I can barely keep things afloat.
My wife does not know how to talk to someone. Without seeing all the negatives and none if the good things.
She knows nothing about my charity. And really nothing about my transition. What I do instead of discussing things with her is I just go do it and ask forgiveness later. Told her when I started HRT just enough to get my mind right. Knowing full well I would need enough to make my breasts grow. I knew I wanted full dose including progesterone. If she found out I was taking progesterone. She would want to know why. Not sure she would like it if she knew I wanted big breasts in the first place and that’s what I actually planned. She did not like it when the nipples got Huge but she got used to them.
She keeps saying she is still attracted to me. But she never makes the first move. And when I try she doesn’t want it. Damn I am horny and my libido has not changed. I can still perform well. It sucks so bad.
Got my nails don’t light pink. She made me feel like crap and then the next day got over it. Got my toes white. Gave me crap about them then 30 mins later said she really likes them. She always asks why I want something. I tell her because it makes me happy. She just does not get it at all.
She really does not get why a man like me wants to get my nails done. Yes I said man. If I even tried my female name and pronouns with/around her it would be a big fight.
When all this came to light she told me she likes men. And she is not attracted to women. And not sure she would stay with me if I transitioned fully. So fast forward and no body hair. Painted toes and hands. 38D and still growing. I have way more women’s clothes than male clothes. I wear capris and flip flops almost everyday. I am pretty feminine except for my face. She said she would not stop me but probably won’t stay if I go all the way.
She also said the I can experiment with makeup and get a wig and leave the house en fem if I was going out with other girls. But I know the first time she saw me fully made up it would not be a good experience for me. Already told me I would be an ugly woman. So that’s why I am scared to death to go out fully dressed. Besides I know nobody in Southern California any more to go out with.
You know I would just leave but I do love her very much and I am financially secure with her. I know I would survive without her. But no more vacations and etc. I thought a slow approach would work. It seems it is but the time it is taking is getting to me.
Sorry I am just rambling about things that make no sense. Probably better if I quit existing. No body fucking cares!!
submitted by SixStarz6 to TransLater [link] [comments]
I am out to nobody but my wife. It’s been a rough few years. Last time(done it a few times) I quit hormones we moved and when I finally realized it’s not going away and HRT had to be permanent, I lost contact with all my close trans friends and now I hate myself.
The guilt my wife makes me feel when I do something towards my transition just brings me so far down I don’t want to wake up in the morning.
My main dysphoria is hair. Any hair drives me nuts. Body hair is manageable with an epilator now that I have been doing it so long. But the face is truly driving me nuts. I am about to do a 3 hour Electrolosis appointment. And adk for forgiveness after. And what do I do instead of focusing on myself. I start a charity. I take money I don’t have so I can get my charity a legally a 501c3 tax exempt status. I don’t know how to run a charity. All I want to do is help others. But I am so sad for myself I can barely keep things afloat.
My wife does not know how to talk to someone. Without seeing all the negatives and none if the good things.
She knows nothing about my charity. And really nothing about my transition. What I do instead of discussing things with her is I just go do it and ask forgiveness later. Told her when I started HRT just enough to get my mind right. Knowing full well I would need enough to make my breasts grow. I knew I wanted full dose including progesterone. If she found out I was taking progesterone. She would want to know why. Not sure she would like it if she knew I wanted big breasts in the first place and that’s what I actually planned. She did not like it when the nipples got Huge but she got used to them.
She keeps saying she is still attracted to me. But she never makes the first move. And when I try she doesn’t want it. Damn I am horny and my libido has not changed. I can still perform well. It sucks so bad.
Got my nails don’t light pink. She made me feel like crap and then the next day got over it. Got my toes white. Gave me crap about them then 30 mins later said she really likes them. She always asks why I want something. I tell her because it makes me happy. She just does not get it at all.
She really does not get why a man like me wants to get my nails done. Yes I said man. If I even tried my female name and pronouns with/around her it would be a big fight.
When all this came to light she told me she likes men. And she is not attracted to women. And not sure she would stay with me if I transitioned fully. So fast forward and no body hair. Painted toes and hands. 38D and still growing. I have way more women’s clothes than male clothes. I wear capris and flip flops almost everyday. I am pretty feminine except for my face. She said she would not stop me but probably won’t stay if I go all the way.
She also said the I can experiment with makeup and get a wig and leave the house en fem if I was going out with other girls. But I know the first time she saw me fully made up it would not be a good experience for me. Already told me I would be an ugly woman. So that’s why I am scared to death to go out fully dressed. Besides I know nobody in Southern California any more to go out with.
You know I would just leave but I do love her very much and I am financially secure with her. I know I would survive without her. But no more vacations and etc. I thought a slow approach would work. It seems it is but the time it is taking is getting to me.
Sorry I am just rambling about things that make no sense. Probably better if I quit existing. No body fucking cares!!
2024.05.22 01:23 Whole_Intention8654 AITAH for creating a "bad enviroment " on the aparment i share?
My roommate (25F) and I (23F) met each other on our job. We quickly start a friendship with other girls, creating our own friend group. After my ex-boyfriend and I broke up, I moved out to a room very close to our workplace. After that, we really became close, and we started to meet after work for drinks and talks, but I didn`t really think of them as my best friends. Yeah, we were friends, but not very close. I mean, we knew each other for like 5 months and didn't have a lot of friends in common.
One night, while we were having a drink (I don`t drink, but I don`t mind being around), I commend that I was searching for a new place because in the one where I was, there was a pub litterally down my room, and I couldn't sleep on the weekends. She asked me if I thought about shearing with a friend and proposing herself. TBH, I didn`t really tell her how I liked to live, but we kind of talked about the important stuff, like how it needed to be a place with 2 rooms and where she could have her dog, and how it needed to be close and in our price range (700 euros in total, or about 350 euros).
After searching, we found a cute apartment near our place of work for 670 euros. The only problem was that it was very small, about 50 m2, and one of the rooms was very small, like, it had a twin bed and a little wardrobe, and that was it. no more room. We decided that we would pay the same, but we would change rooms every 3 months. To be honest, I don`t know how we think that was a good idea, but at that time, it seemed good.
The problems start about a month after moving in. She asked me to cover the security deposit during that part of the first month when we started, and I was starting to see how I was the one paying for everything (food, cleaning, needed electronics like a microwave), and she didn`t really look like she was going to pay. So I started to comment about it, not really pushing it but keeping it in mind. Maybe that is not the best, but I have to say that I did not have money. I was being paid at least 800 euros while hers was 1000, and I was having to ask my mother for money to eat at the end of the month because she never paid me back and was eating everything I bought for me. But one day, about 2 months ago, I got super stressed because, after she got fired from her job and resigned for the other 2 months, I started getting mad because it was the 5th and I had 29 euros on my name for the rest of the month. I am very bad at confronting so I decided to lie and tell her that I had a family emergency and I needed her to send me some of the money she own me. At that time, the total of the debt was about 500 euros. She started to tell me that I was very inconsiderate because she didn't have a job and was also helping to pay her parents rent.
After that, I decided that I didn't really want to keep the friendship; we didn't really have anything in common (culturally, about relationships, boundaries, etc.), and she didn't talk to me for a week. After that, we stay cordial, but we start to have big problems. Her dog.
She didn't take care of him; he peed and pooped in the living room or kitchen and didn't get clean for hours; he ate two different pairs of my shoes; he ate all the sofa cushions; and he bit every inch of the table, chairs, and wood he could find.
I just told her she should start cleaning after her dog and even offered to take him for a walk if she was working. A week passes, and one day, while I was cooking, she got out of her room and started telling me that she was tired of cleaning my sh*t. I have to admit that I am not the most tidy, but I try to keep everything clean, even if it is not organiced. After she tells me that I kind of exploded, I tell her that I was tired of living with her dog sh*t.
After that, we start to argue about why I'm not clean or organiced, i repond how I'm being ordering take away to not have to cook whit her dogs dirt, and why I haven't even been in the living room in a week because it's full of shit and oddor of her dog. After that, she started to scream (tbh, I don't remember how she started screaming, but we both ended up doing it) about how I didn't have the right to tell her how to take care of her dog, and I yell back that I was the one living with it because she was ether at work, sleeping, or parting (nothing wrong with that life, but if you don't have a dog to take care of),. After that, we just insulted each other, and she ended up going to work. and was the start of a 3-week strait where we didn't have any interaction.
A week ago, we started to talk and kind of say sorry to each other, but that was it.
But now it's time to change rooms, like we talked about at the beginning, and she decided not to. So now, I am stuck with the small room, without my money, and having to pay for food for two.
But regardless of the state we are in, she invited "our" friends, who, btw, don't talk to me anymore, to our house at 2/3 am and listen to loud music or talk bad about me (the door of my room leads directly to the living room, so I listen to everything). But now they are telling me that I am the one creating a bad vibe in the home while I am the one who tries to keep everything calm because I don't like confrontation, but maybe that's the problem. Idk
So AITAH?
PD: Sorry for any mistakes; English is not my first language.
submitted by Whole_Intention8654 to AITAH [link] [comments]
One night, while we were having a drink (I don`t drink, but I don`t mind being around), I commend that I was searching for a new place because in the one where I was, there was a pub litterally down my room, and I couldn't sleep on the weekends. She asked me if I thought about shearing with a friend and proposing herself. TBH, I didn`t really tell her how I liked to live, but we kind of talked about the important stuff, like how it needed to be a place with 2 rooms and where she could have her dog, and how it needed to be close and in our price range (700 euros in total, or about 350 euros).
After searching, we found a cute apartment near our place of work for 670 euros. The only problem was that it was very small, about 50 m2, and one of the rooms was very small, like, it had a twin bed and a little wardrobe, and that was it. no more room. We decided that we would pay the same, but we would change rooms every 3 months. To be honest, I don`t know how we think that was a good idea, but at that time, it seemed good.
The problems start about a month after moving in. She asked me to cover the security deposit during that part of the first month when we started, and I was starting to see how I was the one paying for everything (food, cleaning, needed electronics like a microwave), and she didn`t really look like she was going to pay. So I started to comment about it, not really pushing it but keeping it in mind. Maybe that is not the best, but I have to say that I did not have money. I was being paid at least 800 euros while hers was 1000, and I was having to ask my mother for money to eat at the end of the month because she never paid me back and was eating everything I bought for me. But one day, about 2 months ago, I got super stressed because, after she got fired from her job and resigned for the other 2 months, I started getting mad because it was the 5th and I had 29 euros on my name for the rest of the month. I am very bad at confronting so I decided to lie and tell her that I had a family emergency and I needed her to send me some of the money she own me. At that time, the total of the debt was about 500 euros. She started to tell me that I was very inconsiderate because she didn't have a job and was also helping to pay her parents rent.
After that, I decided that I didn't really want to keep the friendship; we didn't really have anything in common (culturally, about relationships, boundaries, etc.), and she didn't talk to me for a week. After that, we stay cordial, but we start to have big problems. Her dog.
She didn't take care of him; he peed and pooped in the living room or kitchen and didn't get clean for hours; he ate two different pairs of my shoes; he ate all the sofa cushions; and he bit every inch of the table, chairs, and wood he could find.
I just told her she should start cleaning after her dog and even offered to take him for a walk if she was working. A week passes, and one day, while I was cooking, she got out of her room and started telling me that she was tired of cleaning my sh*t. I have to admit that I am not the most tidy, but I try to keep everything clean, even if it is not organiced. After she tells me that I kind of exploded, I tell her that I was tired of living with her dog sh*t.
After that, we start to argue about why I'm not clean or organiced, i repond how I'm being ordering take away to not have to cook whit her dogs dirt, and why I haven't even been in the living room in a week because it's full of shit and oddor of her dog. After that, she started to scream (tbh, I don't remember how she started screaming, but we both ended up doing it) about how I didn't have the right to tell her how to take care of her dog, and I yell back that I was the one living with it because she was ether at work, sleeping, or parting (nothing wrong with that life, but if you don't have a dog to take care of),. After that, we just insulted each other, and she ended up going to work. and was the start of a 3-week strait where we didn't have any interaction.
A week ago, we started to talk and kind of say sorry to each other, but that was it.
But now it's time to change rooms, like we talked about at the beginning, and she decided not to. So now, I am stuck with the small room, without my money, and having to pay for food for two.
But regardless of the state we are in, she invited "our" friends, who, btw, don't talk to me anymore, to our house at 2/3 am and listen to loud music or talk bad about me (the door of my room leads directly to the living room, so I listen to everything). But now they are telling me that I am the one creating a bad vibe in the home while I am the one who tries to keep everything calm because I don't like confrontation, but maybe that's the problem. Idk
So AITAH?
PD: Sorry for any mistakes; English is not my first language.
2024.05.22 01:20 Decent_Cow_8917 Hello fellow apes, I’d like to introduce myself.
 | Hi to whomever is taking the minute or two to read this. My name is Conner and I joined this movement last week, I can’t remember how I came across it but I’m beyond happy I did. Seeing this community so involved and focused on one common interest, and sticking together to achieve that interest has lit a fire in my soul! I think at the pace of things it’s easy to get consumed and forget that most of us are just everyday folks trying to create a better life for themselves. submitted by Decent_Cow_8917 to FFIE [link] [comments] Right now I’m just a server at applebees in a small town in Pennsylvania, I’m here helping my little sister and boyfriend with their newborn. I’m a bit in debt but not too overwhelming, and I struggle a good bit with my mental health. I just wanted to share this with you to remind you that we’re all just the little guys banding together to create better futures for our families. I’ve learned a lot from some very intelligent people on this thread and all the math seems to check out, we win this by sticking together, remaining positive, and holding the line. They have expiring contracts, we do not. I Love you all, and greatly appreciate all the energy you bring to this. Now let’s finish our ground work, strap up, and lift this motherfucker off together. Hey, what can we say? We like the stock. 🚀🌙 |
2024.05.22 01:01 klownbonnie1 A confusing thing I’ve noticed while collecting
I haven’t been collecting long at all. Roughly 2 years, which is a fraction of the time most people in this hobby has been collecting. Recently I’ve noticed this weird trend with pricing.
I’m not here to complain about pricing or anything. I know that’s a tired complaint in these circles.
Usually, it’s far cheaper to collect locally then buy online for these types of hobbies. Funkos, trading cards, you name it. Usually it’s always cheaper to buy from Facebook Marketplace or Goodwill. You may not always get the best condition, but usually buying locally is far cheaper than eBay or Mercari.
However, the past year, everything I find locally is twice if not more than you can buy it from eBay with shipping included.
I found Super Mario Land 2 for the Gameboy is pretty beat up condition for $55 and Michael Jackson on the Wii for $60 at Goodwill the other day. Video game stores up-charge a good 20% on even the cheap, unwanted license crap. I found Shrek 4 on the Wii at a local game store for $35. I found someone selling tons of used games on Facebook and for most of their stock they were charging an extra $10-$15. (The worst being Zelda Link To The Past for $65) On the games I found to be fairly priced, I wanted 18 of them. I asked if he’d offer a discount since I’m buying quite a few and he said no. I still bought a few from him, but still.
I’m genuinely not upset or anything. Collecting for me is about patience and trying to find the best deals. Finding a game you’ve been hunting for at a good bargain is the best feeling in this hobby. I just find it so odd. Do these games even sell for those prices? Do people not do research on the items they’re buying? Or do they prefer to pay twice as much to have the item now instead of waiting for shipping?
submitted by klownbonnie1 to gamecollecting [link] [comments]
I’m not here to complain about pricing or anything. I know that’s a tired complaint in these circles.
Usually, it’s far cheaper to collect locally then buy online for these types of hobbies. Funkos, trading cards, you name it. Usually it’s always cheaper to buy from Facebook Marketplace or Goodwill. You may not always get the best condition, but usually buying locally is far cheaper than eBay or Mercari.
However, the past year, everything I find locally is twice if not more than you can buy it from eBay with shipping included.
I found Super Mario Land 2 for the Gameboy is pretty beat up condition for $55 and Michael Jackson on the Wii for $60 at Goodwill the other day. Video game stores up-charge a good 20% on even the cheap, unwanted license crap. I found Shrek 4 on the Wii at a local game store for $35. I found someone selling tons of used games on Facebook and for most of their stock they were charging an extra $10-$15. (The worst being Zelda Link To The Past for $65) On the games I found to be fairly priced, I wanted 18 of them. I asked if he’d offer a discount since I’m buying quite a few and he said no. I still bought a few from him, but still.
I’m genuinely not upset or anything. Collecting for me is about patience and trying to find the best deals. Finding a game you’ve been hunting for at a good bargain is the best feeling in this hobby. I just find it so odd. Do these games even sell for those prices? Do people not do research on the items they’re buying? Or do they prefer to pay twice as much to have the item now instead of waiting for shipping?
2024.05.22 00:59 123999123999 Please stop spreading misinformation about HyunA's boyfriend, Yong Junhyung
[TW for mention of SA]
Making this post because lots of people are still actively spreading misinformation and lies about Hyuna's boyfriend, Junhyung, and it's harmful in many ways, because as opposed to what many people think and tell, the investigation concluded that Junhyung never shared SA videos or received SA videos, or hidden camera videos, or sex-tapes, and that he was never part of the JJY group chats.
Jong Joonyoung (JJY)'s group chats in which hidden camera videos were shared without the consent of the girls (molka) and the Burning Sun scandal are two different things, but JJY's group chat was discovered through the Burning Sun investigation (2019). If you want to learn about it, the BBC has just released a documentary on Burning Sun, JJY & the molka chatrooms are also adressed in it. (You can already note that JJY & Junhyung's names are pretty close, therefore lots of people mistaked them when the news of his relationship with Hyuna came out in January. There were enough people to clarify that and make it clear that JJY ≠ Junhyung though, but not so many know what was actually Junhyung's part and are therefore still spreading misleading information.)
When SBS's '8'O'Clock News' news first shared screenshots of messages JJY and other idols had exchanged in the chatrooms, Junhyung's message was added and edited, which made it seem like he was part of the groupchats when he wasn't.
In 2015, he was sent one video by JJY (1-1) that was not a sex-tape but a video of a girl taken in a pub in which he (JJY) was touching her (or she was touching him) (no nudity or intercourse in the video), the video was made with her consent but was not sent with her consent. This is the video he's talking about in his statement about leaving Highlight, and the video he made crude comments about. There are no other videos.
(see first line of the table: kbs court documents translation*, he is not mentioned again *original article link)
He later on received a message from JJY that was something like "I got caught sending the video", to which Junhyung replied "You got caught by her? (the girl from the video)" (that's the message that was edited by SBS that made it seem like he was part of the groupchats), and didn't report him.
I'm adding a part of a comment of another redditor that went through the case's files, as it sums up things well: "[...] The video in question was of JJY engaged in making out with a woman in a bar and that she put her hand on a "certain part of his anatomy". The police transcript went on to say that the video was taken with the woman's knowledge and consent, but she did not consent to having it shared. There was no nudity or intercourse shown in the video. I don't know if Yong Junhyung knew it was sent without the woman's consent. The transcript did not reveal what the text of the messages about the video said, however Yong Junhyung has said he feels embarrassed and ashamed about what he said in response to receiving this video. So no doubt it was something douchy, but not necessarily worse than what you would expect guys texting about such a video would be. There is no evidence in the transcripts to suggest that Yong Junhyung knew that women were being [SA'd] or that illegal videos were being made and shared. The video he received was not exactly something you could take to the police as its not illegal to make out in a bar."
He did not go to jail and wasn't sentenced, he was called in as a witness and fully cooparated with the police, left his group to atone and protect Highlight from the backlash.
Also Junhyung is NOT the guy (Choi Jong Bum) that abused and blackmailed Goo Hara back in 2018/2019. Junhyung and Hara dated for about 2 years in 2011, anyone claiming he abused her is making things up (according to official sources, Junhyung was a supportive boyfriend who helped Hara through some hard times, and the two ended things amicably and decided to remain friends).
I've seen people on Twitter, on Reddit, on Youtube, in Hyuna's comments section, call him a rapist, saying he was involved in 'non-consensual gang bangs', watched 'SA videos of young girls', is a 'sex traffickant', 'sex criminal' or that he admitted "watching SA videos", and to what we know by the investigation that was led, that is NOT TRUE.
That's for the actual facts, please do not spread misinformation and don't buy in everything you read. It's ok not to support their relationship but spreading lies or misinformation is not.
more sources: Statement from Around Us Ent. before Junhyung left HIGHLIGHT (before clarification): "Hello, this is Around Us Ent. We are writing in regards to the news of the reveal of singer Jung Joon Young’s KakaoTalk chatroom, which was reported on SBS’s ‘8 O’Clock News’ on March 11, 2019. We are aware that people are saying that Highlight member Yong Junhyung is the ‘Singer Yong’ that is shown in the contents of the conversation from the group chatroom with illegal hidden camera footage that was revealed on the news. Yong Junhyung has no connection to the filming or sharing of illegal videos. Also, Yong Junhyung has never been in a chatroom where Jung Joon Young’s illegal hidden camera videos were shared. In addition to that, we have confirmed that he has never been in any group chatroom at all with Jung Joon Young. We directly confirmed with Yong Junhyung after the news report and found out that conversation that was shared in the news was originally the content of a one-on-one conversation between Jung Joon Young and Yong Junhyung. Previously in 2016 [actually 2015 but Around Us Ent. didn't have this information at the moment, cf Junhyung's declaration coming after] when Jung Joon Young was having a hard time due to a personal matter, Yong Junhyung asked him what was happening. Jung Joon Young replied ‘I got caught taking a video and sending it [the message included symbols for laughter],” and [Yong Junhyung] asked in return, ‘You mean you were caught by the woman?’ In regards to the simulated group chatroom screenshot that was shared in the news, we plan to verify with SBS News about the authenticity. [...]" referring to the fact that in the screenshots first shared by SBS, it made it seem like he was part of the chatroom
Junhyung's declaration when leaving Highlight: "Hello, this is Yong Jun-hyung. First, I sincerely apologize to the members and all fans who have had a hard time because of me these past few days. After the SBS 8 o'clock news on the 11th, I received a call from the company to check the facts. At that time, I didn't understand the point well and only conveyed that I wasn't in [the] group chat. Therefore, the company, taking my side, officially stated that the report was not accurate, but it was based on the wrong information I provided. In the process of preparing the official statement with the company, I mentioned that the incident was in 2016 because the conversation with Jung Joon-young wasn't saved in my KakaoTalk, so I couldn't accurately check the date at that time. I apologize for adding to everyone's confusion on this as well.
Regarding the KakaoTalk content from late 2015 reported in the news, the conversation with Jung Joon-young was after we drank together the previous day. He told me about an incident (being caught sharing illegal video recording), and I replied, "You got caught by the girl?" I did not receive that video at that time, but I did receive one on a different occasion. In addition, I had inappropriate conversations regarding it. All these actions were extremely immoral, and I was foolish. I failed to recognize this as a crime and illegal behavior, and was complacent about it, and I regret not firmly stopping it.
Yesterday, I went for a reference person investigation related to this issue. I spoke truthfully about everything I knew and cooperated with the investigation. While receiving the witness interview, I saw exactly what conversations I had in the past, and I felt indescribably ashamed and [horrified/regretful].
I have never engaged in illegal acts like taking or spreading hidden camera videos. Since the end of 2016, my relationship with Jung Joon-young was just occasionally asking about each other's well-being. However, knowing about it, I thought and acted too easily and carelessly, being an onlooker to this serious issue that could've led to more victims.
I'm truly sorry for betraying the trust of the members and fans who believed in me, failing to reciprocate the love given to me. I realize the severity of this matter, and I do not want any further harm to be done to my fans and members who must have been disappointed because of me, so I will leave the group Highlight as of March 14, 2019. I will live while reflecting on myself again and again. I apologize sincerely once again."
(edited for typo/better wording)
submitted by 123999123999 to kpopthoughts [link] [comments]
Making this post because lots of people are still actively spreading misinformation and lies about Hyuna's boyfriend, Junhyung, and it's harmful in many ways, because as opposed to what many people think and tell, the investigation concluded that Junhyung never shared SA videos or received SA videos, or hidden camera videos, or sex-tapes, and that he was never part of the JJY group chats.
Jong Joonyoung (JJY)'s group chats in which hidden camera videos were shared without the consent of the girls (molka) and the Burning Sun scandal are two different things, but JJY's group chat was discovered through the Burning Sun investigation (2019). If you want to learn about it, the BBC has just released a documentary on Burning Sun, JJY & the molka chatrooms are also adressed in it. (You can already note that JJY & Junhyung's names are pretty close, therefore lots of people mistaked them when the news of his relationship with Hyuna came out in January. There were enough people to clarify that and make it clear that JJY ≠ Junhyung though, but not so many know what was actually Junhyung's part and are therefore still spreading misleading information.)
When SBS's '8'O'Clock News' news first shared screenshots of messages JJY and other idols had exchanged in the chatrooms, Junhyung's message was added and edited, which made it seem like he was part of the groupchats when he wasn't.
In 2015, he was sent one video by JJY (1-1) that was not a sex-tape but a video of a girl taken in a pub in which he (JJY) was touching her (or she was touching him) (no nudity or intercourse in the video), the video was made with her consent but was not sent with her consent. This is the video he's talking about in his statement about leaving Highlight, and the video he made crude comments about. There are no other videos.
(see first line of the table: kbs court documents translation*, he is not mentioned again *original article link)
He later on received a message from JJY that was something like "I got caught sending the video", to which Junhyung replied "You got caught by her? (the girl from the video)" (that's the message that was edited by SBS that made it seem like he was part of the groupchats), and didn't report him.
I'm adding a part of a comment of another redditor that went through the case's files, as it sums up things well: "[...] The video in question was of JJY engaged in making out with a woman in a bar and that she put her hand on a "certain part of his anatomy". The police transcript went on to say that the video was taken with the woman's knowledge and consent, but she did not consent to having it shared. There was no nudity or intercourse shown in the video. I don't know if Yong Junhyung knew it was sent without the woman's consent. The transcript did not reveal what the text of the messages about the video said, however Yong Junhyung has said he feels embarrassed and ashamed about what he said in response to receiving this video. So no doubt it was something douchy, but not necessarily worse than what you would expect guys texting about such a video would be. There is no evidence in the transcripts to suggest that Yong Junhyung knew that women were being [SA'd] or that illegal videos were being made and shared. The video he received was not exactly something you could take to the police as its not illegal to make out in a bar."
He did not go to jail and wasn't sentenced, he was called in as a witness and fully cooparated with the police, left his group to atone and protect Highlight from the backlash.
Also Junhyung is NOT the guy (Choi Jong Bum) that abused and blackmailed Goo Hara back in 2018/2019. Junhyung and Hara dated for about 2 years in 2011, anyone claiming he abused her is making things up (according to official sources, Junhyung was a supportive boyfriend who helped Hara through some hard times, and the two ended things amicably and decided to remain friends).
I've seen people on Twitter, on Reddit, on Youtube, in Hyuna's comments section, call him a rapist, saying he was involved in 'non-consensual gang bangs', watched 'SA videos of young girls', is a 'sex traffickant', 'sex criminal' or that he admitted "watching SA videos", and to what we know by the investigation that was led, that is NOT TRUE.
That's for the actual facts, please do not spread misinformation and don't buy in everything you read. It's ok not to support their relationship but spreading lies or misinformation is not.
more sources: Statement from Around Us Ent. before Junhyung left HIGHLIGHT (before clarification): "Hello, this is Around Us Ent. We are writing in regards to the news of the reveal of singer Jung Joon Young’s KakaoTalk chatroom, which was reported on SBS’s ‘8 O’Clock News’ on March 11, 2019. We are aware that people are saying that Highlight member Yong Junhyung is the ‘Singer Yong’ that is shown in the contents of the conversation from the group chatroom with illegal hidden camera footage that was revealed on the news. Yong Junhyung has no connection to the filming or sharing of illegal videos. Also, Yong Junhyung has never been in a chatroom where Jung Joon Young’s illegal hidden camera videos were shared. In addition to that, we have confirmed that he has never been in any group chatroom at all with Jung Joon Young. We directly confirmed with Yong Junhyung after the news report and found out that conversation that was shared in the news was originally the content of a one-on-one conversation between Jung Joon Young and Yong Junhyung. Previously in 2016 [actually 2015 but Around Us Ent. didn't have this information at the moment, cf Junhyung's declaration coming after] when Jung Joon Young was having a hard time due to a personal matter, Yong Junhyung asked him what was happening. Jung Joon Young replied ‘I got caught taking a video and sending it [the message included symbols for laughter],” and [Yong Junhyung] asked in return, ‘You mean you were caught by the woman?’ In regards to the simulated group chatroom screenshot that was shared in the news, we plan to verify with SBS News about the authenticity. [...]" referring to the fact that in the screenshots first shared by SBS, it made it seem like he was part of the chatroom
Junhyung's declaration when leaving Highlight: "Hello, this is Yong Jun-hyung. First, I sincerely apologize to the members and all fans who have had a hard time because of me these past few days. After the SBS 8 o'clock news on the 11th, I received a call from the company to check the facts. At that time, I didn't understand the point well and only conveyed that I wasn't in [the] group chat. Therefore, the company, taking my side, officially stated that the report was not accurate, but it was based on the wrong information I provided. In the process of preparing the official statement with the company, I mentioned that the incident was in 2016 because the conversation with Jung Joon-young wasn't saved in my KakaoTalk, so I couldn't accurately check the date at that time. I apologize for adding to everyone's confusion on this as well.
Regarding the KakaoTalk content from late 2015 reported in the news, the conversation with Jung Joon-young was after we drank together the previous day. He told me about an incident (being caught sharing illegal video recording), and I replied, "You got caught by the girl?" I did not receive that video at that time, but I did receive one on a different occasion. In addition, I had inappropriate conversations regarding it. All these actions were extremely immoral, and I was foolish. I failed to recognize this as a crime and illegal behavior, and was complacent about it, and I regret not firmly stopping it.
Yesterday, I went for a reference person investigation related to this issue. I spoke truthfully about everything I knew and cooperated with the investigation. While receiving the witness interview, I saw exactly what conversations I had in the past, and I felt indescribably ashamed and [horrified/regretful].
I have never engaged in illegal acts like taking or spreading hidden camera videos. Since the end of 2016, my relationship with Jung Joon-young was just occasionally asking about each other's well-being. However, knowing about it, I thought and acted too easily and carelessly, being an onlooker to this serious issue that could've led to more victims.
I'm truly sorry for betraying the trust of the members and fans who believed in me, failing to reciprocate the love given to me. I realize the severity of this matter, and I do not want any further harm to be done to my fans and members who must have been disappointed because of me, so I will leave the group Highlight as of March 14, 2019. I will live while reflecting on myself again and again. I apologize sincerely once again."
(edited for typo/better wording)
2024.05.22 00:58 LadyMinks Is there any way I could find someone's address?
I know I sound like a massive stalker in the title, but I promise I am not. I can prove I actually know, and am on good terms with, this woman if I have to.
Backstory;
About 10 years ago I(28f) made a penpall, named Paula. There was this meme on 9GAG about penpalls, and this idiot (I wanna say James?) posted his address in the comments (somewhere in Yorkshire), saying he was open for penpalls. Back then I was studying to become an English teacher (in the Netherlands, where I'm from/still living), and was compelled to write a letter.
So I wrote one, and on the back of the envelope, I wrote something along the lines of: 'if you're not James, some idiot put your address in a 9GAG comment.'
Well, turns out James was away for the weekend and his housemates were freaking out about the pile of clearly handwritten letters showing up (I've always imagined a Harry Potter situation with the hogwarts letters in my mind). Apparently I was the only one to have mentioned anything on the envelope, so they opened mine. I got a message from one of his housemates, Paula, explaining the situation. She mentioned James had gotten a bunch of letters and would have all the penpals he'd need for the rest of his life , and if I'd like to be penpalls with her instead.
We exchanged letters for a while, mental health got in my way and we lost touch.
I've been thinking about her a lot lately, and I would love to surprise her with a letter. I hardly use Facebook, but apparently we're still friends and she seems quite active. So I could totally ask her for her address, as I assume she no longer lives in the same house as 8 years ago. But I'd really love to surprise her instead.
While i don't want to put out too much information about her out here on Reddit, I think her fiance is called Jake, and they're somewhere in Yorkshire, somewhere near Leeds.
I'm just wondering if i could find her address with her name (first and last) and the area? Her last name is uncommon, as she's not originally from the UK.
Again, I can prove (Facebook messenger screenshots) that I know her, that I am not bothering her, and that we were friends
Apologies if I'm in the wrong subreddit for this and I'd totally understand if this would get removed.
submitted by LadyMinks to AskUK [link] [comments]
Backstory;
About 10 years ago I(28f) made a penpall, named Paula. There was this meme on 9GAG about penpalls, and this idiot (I wanna say James?) posted his address in the comments (somewhere in Yorkshire), saying he was open for penpalls. Back then I was studying to become an English teacher (in the Netherlands, where I'm from/still living), and was compelled to write a letter.
So I wrote one, and on the back of the envelope, I wrote something along the lines of: 'if you're not James, some idiot put your address in a 9GAG comment.'
Well, turns out James was away for the weekend and his housemates were freaking out about the pile of clearly handwritten letters showing up (I've always imagined a Harry Potter situation with the hogwarts letters in my mind). Apparently I was the only one to have mentioned anything on the envelope, so they opened mine. I got a message from one of his housemates, Paula, explaining the situation. She mentioned James had gotten a bunch of letters and would have all the penpals he'd need for the rest of his life , and if I'd like to be penpalls with her instead.
We exchanged letters for a while, mental health got in my way and we lost touch.
I've been thinking about her a lot lately, and I would love to surprise her with a letter. I hardly use Facebook, but apparently we're still friends and she seems quite active. So I could totally ask her for her address, as I assume she no longer lives in the same house as 8 years ago. But I'd really love to surprise her instead.
While i don't want to put out too much information about her out here on Reddit, I think her fiance is called Jake, and they're somewhere in Yorkshire, somewhere near Leeds.
I'm just wondering if i could find her address with her name (first and last) and the area? Her last name is uncommon, as she's not originally from the UK.
Again, I can prove (Facebook messenger screenshots) that I know her, that I am not bothering her, and that we were friends
Apologies if I'm in the wrong subreddit for this and I'd totally understand if this would get removed.
2024.05.22 00:56 beardlesshipster Daily Song Discussion #295: Strays of the World
This is the twentieth track from Prince’s 20th album, Crystal Ball. Originally recorded in 1993, the song was intended for inclusion on Come. How do you feel about this song? What are some of your favorite lyrics? How would you rank it among the rest of Prince’s discography? How would you rate it out of 10 (decimals allowed)?
Studio version
SUGGESTED SCALE: 1-4: Not good. Regularly skip. 5: It’s okay, but I might have to be in the right mood to listen to it. 6: Slightly better than average. I won’t skip it, but I wouldn’t choose to put it on. 7: This is a good song. I enjoy it quite a bit. 8-9: Really enjoyable songs. I rank them pretty high overall. 10: Masterpiece, magnum opus, or similar terminology.
Rating Results 1. Crystal Ball: 9.45/10 2. Dream Factory: 8.43/10 3. Acknowledge Me: 8.51/10 4. Ripopgodazippa: 7.74/10 5. Love Sign (Shock G's Silky Remix): 7.55/10 6. Hide the Bone: 8/10 7. 2morrow: 7.47/10 8. So Dark: 7.69/10 9. Movie Star: 9.48/10 10. Tell Me How U Wanna B Done: 6.07/10 11. Interactive: 8.91/10 12. Da Bang: 7.63/10 13. Calhoun Square: 8.74/10 14. What’s My Name: 6.35/10 15. Crucial: 8.53/10 16. An Honest Man: 4.82/10 17. Sexual Suicide: 7.99/10 18. Cloreen Bacon Skin: 6.49/10 19. Good Love: 20. Strays of the World:
Disc 2 Overall Rating:
submitted by beardlesshipster to PRINCE [link] [comments]
Studio version
SUGGESTED SCALE: 1-4: Not good. Regularly skip. 5: It’s okay, but I might have to be in the right mood to listen to it. 6: Slightly better than average. I won’t skip it, but I wouldn’t choose to put it on. 7: This is a good song. I enjoy it quite a bit. 8-9: Really enjoyable songs. I rank them pretty high overall. 10: Masterpiece, magnum opus, or similar terminology.
Rating Results 1. Crystal Ball: 9.45/10 2. Dream Factory: 8.43/10 3. Acknowledge Me: 8.51/10 4. Ripopgodazippa: 7.74/10 5. Love Sign (Shock G's Silky Remix): 7.55/10 6. Hide the Bone: 8/10 7. 2morrow: 7.47/10 8. So Dark: 7.69/10 9. Movie Star: 9.48/10 10. Tell Me How U Wanna B Done: 6.07/10 11. Interactive: 8.91/10 12. Da Bang: 7.63/10 13. Calhoun Square: 8.74/10 14. What’s My Name: 6.35/10 15. Crucial: 8.53/10 16. An Honest Man: 4.82/10 17. Sexual Suicide: 7.99/10 18. Cloreen Bacon Skin: 6.49/10 19. Good Love: 20. Strays of the World:
Disc 2 Overall Rating:
2024.05.22 00:45 xiomara_82 NOTB (New Kids On The Block)
New Kids on the Block is an American boy band from Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Members:
Jonathan Knight
Jordan Knight
Donnie Wahlberg
Danny Wood
Joe McIntyre
In the early 1980s, Maurice Starr discovered pop/R&B quintet New Edition, and guided their early success. After breaking ties with them, Starr and his business partner, Mary Alford, sought to create a white counterpart act. Fifteen-year-old Donnie Wahlberg impressed Starr and Alford with his rapping skills, becoming the group's first member. He was initially joined by his younger brother Mark, who left the group after only a few months. Donnie then recruited his school friends Jamie Kelly, Jordan Knight, and Danny Wood to join the group; Knight was followed into the group by his older brother Jonathan Knight, while Kelly left the group early on.
When a search was made to find a Michael Jackson-esque singer to replace Kelly, Starr recruited 12-year-old Joey McIntyre, who initially struggled to fit in with the group. With the final lineup in place, Starr rehearsed the boys after school and on weekends and eventually secured the group a recording contract at Columbia Records.
Originally, the group was called Nynuk (pronounced "na-nook"). Nikki Van Noy, the author of the group's official biography, wrote in 2012 that the name Nynuk is "meaningless", although a 1989 article by Rolling Stone suggested a possible connection to Nanook of the North. Columbia demanded Starr change the name of the group. Subsequently, they settled on New Kids on the Block, after a rap song that Donnie Wahlberg had written and arranged for their first album. The group was signed to Columbia's black music division and originally marketed to black audiences.
submitted by xiomara_82 to u/xiomara_82 [link] [comments]
Members:
Jonathan Knight
Jordan Knight
Donnie Wahlberg
Danny Wood
Joe McIntyre
In the early 1980s, Maurice Starr discovered pop/R&B quintet New Edition, and guided their early success. After breaking ties with them, Starr and his business partner, Mary Alford, sought to create a white counterpart act. Fifteen-year-old Donnie Wahlberg impressed Starr and Alford with his rapping skills, becoming the group's first member. He was initially joined by his younger brother Mark, who left the group after only a few months. Donnie then recruited his school friends Jamie Kelly, Jordan Knight, and Danny Wood to join the group; Knight was followed into the group by his older brother Jonathan Knight, while Kelly left the group early on.
When a search was made to find a Michael Jackson-esque singer to replace Kelly, Starr recruited 12-year-old Joey McIntyre, who initially struggled to fit in with the group. With the final lineup in place, Starr rehearsed the boys after school and on weekends and eventually secured the group a recording contract at Columbia Records.
Originally, the group was called Nynuk (pronounced "na-nook"). Nikki Van Noy, the author of the group's official biography, wrote in 2012 that the name Nynuk is "meaningless", although a 1989 article by Rolling Stone suggested a possible connection to Nanook of the North. Columbia demanded Starr change the name of the group. Subsequently, they settled on New Kids on the Block, after a rap song that Donnie Wahlberg had written and arranged for their first album. The group was signed to Columbia's black music division and originally marketed to black audiences.
2024.05.22 00:40 Fit-Switch-8768 Does Travis not know who TTPD is about??
I’m sorry but seeing the video of Travis saying that he’s bias to love the TTPD set on the eras tour….. is he delusional or has he just not listened to the album???😭😭 sir the entire thing is how she’s still in love with her ex boyfriend and you’re basically a rebound who had 1 last minute song about him thrown on there. Honestly at this point I’m so embarrassed for him.
Link to video if you haven’t seen it: https://www.threads.net/@tswiftedits_13/post/C7I5xDUuwat
submitted by Fit-Switch-8768 to disappointedswifties [link] [comments]
Link to video if you haven’t seen it: https://www.threads.net/@tswiftedits_13/post/C7I5xDUuwat
2024.05.22 00:33 DapperLee My Brother-in-law has caused entire family to want him gone.
Okay, so for this post there are a lot of people involved (this has been going on for a while) so I'll list up here who's who. This is my wife's family. I'll be using code names when appropriate:
Father-in-law - FIL
Mother-in-law - MIL
Wife(oldest daughter) - Wife
Second daughter - Sarah
Third daughter - Lana
Fourth daughter - Ruth
Second daughter's husband - BIL
Third daughter's fiancee - Karl
My daughter - daughter
Second daughter's older son - Danny
Second daughter's younger son - Aaron
And me as me
I know this is long but bear with me TL;DR Brother-in-law has snapped the last straw for the family and we are all starting to cut ties with him
submitted by DapperLee to u/DapperLee [link] [comments]
Father-in-law - FIL
Mother-in-law - MIL
Wife(oldest daughter) - Wife
Second daughter - Sarah
Third daughter - Lana
Fourth daughter - Ruth
Second daughter's husband - BIL
Third daughter's fiancee - Karl
My daughter - daughter
Second daughter's older son - Danny
Second daughter's younger son - Aaron
And me as me
I know this is long but bear with me TL;DR Brother-in-law has snapped the last straw for the family and we are all starting to cut ties with him
BIL's family has their own side of the story that I'm barely familiar with, so it won't be brought up here. We first met BIL way before they got together; Sarah bought a house as a group of friends with her boyfriend at the time, and BIL and his second wife at the time. We didn't interact with him much. We just heard a few stories about him from their friend group. Eventually this situation broke down and BIL and his second wife left and vandalized Sarah's home on the way out. They let their dogs poop all over the floor, stole some miscellaneous items, poured water in their lawn mower gas tank, etc. He did this to Sarah, his future third wife. We thought this guy was out of our lives forever. Sarah eventually came to stay on my couch after she sold the house. She lived with me and my wife for roughly 3 months. Then she went and rented an apartment a few miles away. No sooner than a few weeks did we find out she was dating future BIL, and a few weeks after that we found she was pregnant. He met the family and stated that he wanted to be a part of it. He blamed all his past transgressions on his second wife. We questioned him at the time if he was still with his second wife. He said no, and that he was officially divorced. My wife looked up the public court records and found out that he didn't file divorce papers until 11 days after we asked that question. A small lie but considering our history of knowing him it was concerning. BIL is a big gun enthusiast. About 1 months after they told us Sarah was pregnant, while cleaning a gun at home he shot himself in the hand. Again, we were concerned but Sarah assured us he was a changed man and this was just an unfortunate accident. His hand healed but he didn't do his physical therapy that seriously so his hand is still kind of jacked up. I feel this is important because he kind of has a history of not following through on what he says. During Sarah's pregnancy we found out that BIL seriously beat one of their dogs back when they bought the house together. We also figured out he diagnosed himself with bipolar, but refused to go to a doctor to get an actual diagnosis. The whole family at the time was distracted by all of this because during Sarah's pregnancy my wife went through a major medical struggle that resulted in multiple surgeries and a months-long stay in the hospital. We were so focused on that the BIL details just kind of came and went at that moment. Sarah gave birth to Danny during COVID lockdown. We were so excited and we all were very active in Danny's life. Time would pass and we just kind of got used to BIL being despite the fact that he often would miss family events. BIL and Sarah would move into a house on my in-laws property just down the road from in-laws house. MIL became their primary caregiver as she could work it around her job and still make decent money. As 4 years have passed my MIL, FIL, Lana, my Wife and I all take shifts of watching their now 2 kids for them, for free. MIL also watches my daughter but significantly less that their son's. 2 years would pass after Danny was born and everything seemed OK. There would just be hints in they way he talked about who he really was. He would say something in casual conversation like "man, there seems like there are too many black people in commercials these days" or "I don't know why we are forcing women's sports to be a thing." Bigoted stuff like that, but veiled enough so there was plausible deniability. I would often call him out on it, so he really grew to not like me. This all changed at his 30th bday. He had a big party with a lot of alcohol and weed with dozens of friends. My wife and I didn't go because we are not party people. Lana and Ruth went to the party. Sarah was also there. During this party BIL went outside and decided to "mud" his jeep through the creek beside their house. This was possibly with Karl but I'm not sure of that to this day. Karl has recently come into the picture prior to this event and was previously friends with BIL for a long time. The jeep got stuck and flooded for obvious reasons. After trying to get it out of the creek by multiple means, they gave up and left it there. I believe it took almost 2 days to get it out. He went back to the party and as everyone got progressively drunk and high, my 2 sister-in-laws Lana and Ruth (I believe) criticized BIL for getting his car stuck in a creek while playing. BIL verbally assaulted them and demanded they get out of his house. They left in tears. They drove separately, and Lana had gotten buzzed so they both got in Ruth's car and drove to my house. They sat and vented to my wife and I for a while, and eventually I offered that we should go do something fun to take their minds off of it. My wife and I drove them to Taco Bell and we got some food and drove around town for a while and made jokes in the car. After they cooled off and were in a better mood they said that Lana needed to go get her car from the party. In a flurry she accidentally left her keys inside her sister's and BIL's house. We drove them over just in case anything sketchy happened but Lana and Ruth didn't want us to go inside, so we waited out in the car. She didn't think it would be a big deal to walk in, but as her and Ruth did BIL immediately got in her face and demanding she gets out or else. Ruth went to talk to someone else at the party and didn't notice this at first. BIL shoved Lana against a wall and held her there. Everyone apparently stood in stunned silence as this happened. He then shoved her to the ground, grabbed her around the ankles and started pulling her across the floor. As he was threatening to do even worse, Ruth ran up and jumped on his back and gave him a head lock. She screamed at him to stop but before BIL could anything about this everyone finally woke up and pulled them apart. Ruth helped Lana up and they ran out of the house onto the front porch sobbing. My wife saw this and got out of the car and yelled at them to get back in our car. We drove up to the in-laws house. By then it was past midnight. MIL was about an hour away working her job and FIL was up in his room asleep. The sisters went and woke him up and explained the situation through tears. They also called MIL to inform her of the situation. He got ready and ask me to go with him down to the house to get some answers. The sisters stayed up at the house. We drove down in his car and when we got out the entire party was ready for us and greeted us at the car. Literally over a dozen people, most of whom I did not recognize started screaming what happened at both of us simultaneously. Everyone was clearly very drunk. FIL looked overwhelmed, so I raised my hands and tried asking everyone to stop for a second and go one by one telling their bit of the story. BIL stopped me mid sentence and pointed his finger in my face. I noticed he had his other hand on a holstered hand gun. He yelled out "You don't have a say here! You're barely even part of this family." For context, I had been with my wife for over 11 years at that time and he hadn't even married Sarah yet and had been there about 2 1/2 years. FIL backed up and told me that I need to stop talking and that I was being a problem. I backed off and went over the yard to Sarah and Karl. I asked Sarah what happened and she told me that she didn't see what happened and that she wasn't very aware of what was going on now. Karl would barely answer the same question. I walked back over to FIL but he told me to back off and that I really wasn't needed there. Admittedly I felt pretty insulted and just decided to walk back to his house and get my car and go home with my wife. We eventually left after FIL came back to the house. We found out later that BIL had pulled his gun out and threatened to kill himself if FIL didn't leave. Out of fear of what he would do, my in-laws were pretty afraid to take action at this point. A lot of the situation was his word against someone else's and Sarah went on a tour around to the friends and convinced them not to take any of this to the police. She then tried to smooth things over with the family and offered that BIL would apologize to everyone. He then refused, stating that Ruth was the real aggressor and that she assaulted him. He eventually agreed to apologize to just FIL for causing a problem and I think some half-hearted apologies to Lana and Ruth. The whole situation was swept under the rug but an unease has existed over the family since then. He stopped coming to family events pretty much altogether. About 4 months after this situation, prior to my daughter being born, he told MIL he was going to bring Danny up to their house so she could watch him for a few hours while he took a nap. His job works long hours so this wasn't out of the ordinary. However, he didn't show up for a while and my MIL started questioning what going on. She called but there was no answer. She drove down to his house and knocked but there wasn't an answer, only Danny crying in the background. She let herself in and found BIL asleep on the couch with Danny actively trying to wake him up. MIL tried to wake him up but nothing for a few minutes. She gave up and wrote a note to let him know where Danny was. BIL didn't notice Danny was gone for 2 hours. He finally woke up, drove up to in-laws house, and yelled at my MIL for just taking Danny without informing him. He took Danny and then left. A few months after that, after my daughter was born, He fell asleep while watching Danny again. This time we found out because when he woke up the front door was open and Danny was gone. He called in-laws for help finding him. My in-laws have a large property (about 200 acres) with a ton of it forested. Danny wandered 1/4 of a mile into the woods and I believe it took roughly a little over an hour to find him. Family questioned him hard this time but he just recoiled back into their house and didn't talk to us much. Sarah continued to defend him and said it was just an accident. Again the police were not notified about any of this. There was always this idea that if we went to authorities about any of this they would just run for it. They would then surprise everyone with the news that they were pregnant again, despite the fact that Sarah had used the morning after pill. This whole time they hadn't married yet. They announced that they were getting married but Sarah told Lana that it was mostly just to help BIL not have to go through bankruptcy a second time. I wasn't sure if this would do anything to help that situation, but that's what Sarah said at one point leading up to the wedding. About a month before the wedding, however, he threatened Sarah that if she insisted on inviting my wife to the wedding he would demand to invite a friend of his that Sarah hated. This friend also used to date BIL I believe. This was his ploy to force Sarah to not invite my Wife or me. The 2 other sisters and MIL all stood in solidarity with us and said that they would also not go if we weren't invited. He eventually relented and they got married a little before Aaron was born. As more kids were added, MIL's childcare duties got much harder. Eventually my wife and I started paying her (not much but something at least. $150 a month) to watch our daughter, but we also did chores for her, bought her food often, and eventually my Wife started taking a few shifts to watch all 3 children. To date, BIL and Sarah have never compensated any of us for our work. It's a little frustrating but we've tried to understand because Sarah and BIL seem to be bad with money. They objectively make more than us yet can't afford to pay MIL anything. Last Thanksgiving, in the middle of dinner, Sarah and BIL decided to have an "intervention" and talk about how we were not treating BIL fairly. They addressed everybody but really honed in on me specifically. This seemed to be because the rest of the family kind of dance in eggshells around them, while to be frank I'm pretty honest about how I feel about them. They seemed to think I was causing the family to turn against him and questioned why I would do that. I told him he lacked humility. He said he didn't understand. I told him that if he admitted to his mistakes and actually apologized about any of the stuff I previously wrote, instead of blaming everyone and everything else then the whole family would feel a bit different about him. A lot of talk was about the 30th b-day and other times when I just ignored him and how he had already apologized about the party. I reminded him that he didn't apologize to most of the family and he blamed Ruth. He then stated that Ruth was the cause of a lot of the problems at that party. He also made a big deal about how the family doesn't trust him with my daughter and kept emphasizing how he has never held her. We finally tried to come to an agreement. I told him I would try to talk to him more and try to understand him better and he said he would try to come to family events more. He also wanted more of a relationship with my daughter. We left and my wife and I were skeptical but we said that if this is who Sarah really wanted to be with, as long as BIL wasn't perceived as a threat he could have more contact with our daughter. We have had way more of a relationship with his kids than he has had with our daughter so I tried to sympathize with that imbalance. Karl also stated later that having known BIL for a long time, he thought he was very sincere. To date, BIL has not asked or tried at any family events to spend any time with my daughter, despite having numerous opportunities. Now to the current situation. About a month ago Lana and Karl announced that Lana was pregnant. This was a revelation due to Lana having a medical condition that made it harder to get pregnant. A lot of excitement was brewing in the family because of this. Karl has been seeming like a good partner to Lana, and proposed to her a little before the pregnancy happened. This is especially pertinent because Lana and Karl moved into a house together right beside BIL and Sarah. A few days ago they were over at Sarah and BIL's house when an argument broke out between Sarah and BIL. BIL demanded that Sarah wasn't an "obedient enough wife" and that if she wanted there marriage to work then she was going to have to get better at serving him. She was upset and they weren't coming to an agreement so he was going to leave, but apparently he was very high so Sarah refused to give him the keys to his car. He got extremely mad and then got a gun, held it to his head, and threatened to kill himself if she didn't hand over the keys. Fortunately, Danny and Aaron were taking a nap during all of this. Sarah called the police during this whole exchange and the operator heard a lot of what BIL said over the phone so based on that they arrived at the house. He apparently drove away and it took the police a bit to find him but once they did he turned himself over. They admitted him to a mandatory 72-hour stay at a psychiatric ward for a mental health assessment. Sarah then came up to the rest of the family (not me or my Wife) and gave them Danny and Aaron. She then went and confided with Lana and Karl about how abusive BIL had been and how life was just miserable right now. A lot of us, especially Karl and my in-laws, were telling her that she needs to leave BIL and file for emergency custody of her children. She seemed to be listening to us and turning a corner, but inexplicably the psychiatric ward allowed BIL to have a phone call with Sarah and they had a long conversation. Suddenly, Sarah shut us all out and completely changed her story. She started defending BIL again. BIL was then let out of the psychiatric ward a day early. Since Karl was working at the time, Lana came to stay with us and then over at her in-laws. We are especially concerned about her safety around BIL due to her being pregnant. They have since cut nearly all contact with us for 4 days now. They have only told Karl that they were getting a new TV because the old one mysteriously broke somehow. They have continued to post on social media like nothing has happened. They have spent 2 days with BIL's family so we aren't sure what their opinion of this is, though we do know a sibling of his has also told Sarah to leave him prior to this latest situation. We don't know what their plans for childcare is because they are wholly reliant upon us. Lana is very reluctant to ever be home alone. Ruth is as well. There are so many other details I haven't mentioned. There have been holes in walls they've had to fix. There is some evidence that BIL is cheating on Sarah, but that evidence is somewhat inconclusive. The bigoted comments for a while now have gotten increasingly misogynistic. It's a lot of 'we need to respect proper gender roles' kind of stuff. There's just too much and I've already written a book on here. I don't really know what to do at this point. Because a lot of this stuff has been swept under the rug it's hard to tell how seriously CPS or police would take our claims. FIL has threatened to kick them out of their very cheap rental they're in now. Who knows what they would do in that scenario. I know this post is detailed and because of that BIL or Sarah might see it, but at this point I wonder if I even give a shit. They've already eluded to keeping their sons from us in the past and the vibes we are getting now is that they are already doing it. And from the bottom of my heart, fuck BIL.
2024.05.22 00:28 Syedmqali First time buyer Rolex Explorer 39 214270
 | Hi guys - first time buyer looking for much needed help with QC. Thanks in advance for all the help. submitted by Syedmqali to RepTimeQC [link] [comments]
|
2024.05.22 00:23 Venus_art My BF’s friends are bullying him - how can I help?
For a while, my boyfriend’s (M19) felt his friends were excluding him or didn’t like him which I didn’t think much of as he does have self-esteem issues, and there hadn’t been any evidence as to why he felt that way till recently when one of our mutual ‘friends’ began messaging more.
He was actually right, and the ‘friend’ told me that they’ve been avoiding him, not wanting to go out with him because some of them have issues with him, which I think are due to some jealousy- as he’s very athletic and wins at these most of the time, when others don’t, he’s also the only one of them with a girlfriend, which they’ve mentioned before.
However when I asked what the issues were he couldn’t name any other than the banter they all have with each other. I think he’s liked by most of his friends, but a particular one or two dominant ones are turning everyone else against him - one of them even lied to his face when he met him to give him a gift and told him that he wasn’t going out to celebrate his Graduation with friends, when he was.
I’ve watched the dynamics and he really isn’t a bad person, he’s never been cruel to any one of them and when I’m with him he talks about them witch such compassion. He’s got severe depression and sometimes that can effect him while he’s out, but I think they’re using that as to why they don’t want to be friends with him rather than supporting him - which he’s done for them when they’ve been in similar positions.
While he has his insecurities about his friends not liking him, he doesn’t know to the extent, as till now I’ve always reassured him. Despite this, to him they are like family (which he doesn’t have) and he would be absolutely heartbroken to hear this. The two dominant ones are doing more each day to deliberately hurt him and make him feel excluded.
I understand that if he was in a well-enough place he’d get that they aren’t good friends and look elsewhere, but with his present state of mental health he wouldn’t be able to cope hearing this at all and I’m not sure how I can help / protect him.
This is especially on my mind as I have a party coming up which I invited all of his friends to, before I knew this was happening and with the way they are now I think they’ll use that as an opportunity to hurt him further, but I don’t think I can uninvite them without him being suspicious of the reason and some of his friends aren’t even aware some of them don’t like my boyfriend- but I can’t only invite them now.
I’d be grateful for some kind advice on this, thank you in advance.
submitted by Venus_art to Truthoffmychest [link] [comments]
He was actually right, and the ‘friend’ told me that they’ve been avoiding him, not wanting to go out with him because some of them have issues with him, which I think are due to some jealousy- as he’s very athletic and wins at these most of the time, when others don’t, he’s also the only one of them with a girlfriend, which they’ve mentioned before.
However when I asked what the issues were he couldn’t name any other than the banter they all have with each other. I think he’s liked by most of his friends, but a particular one or two dominant ones are turning everyone else against him - one of them even lied to his face when he met him to give him a gift and told him that he wasn’t going out to celebrate his Graduation with friends, when he was.
I’ve watched the dynamics and he really isn’t a bad person, he’s never been cruel to any one of them and when I’m with him he talks about them witch such compassion. He’s got severe depression and sometimes that can effect him while he’s out, but I think they’re using that as to why they don’t want to be friends with him rather than supporting him - which he’s done for them when they’ve been in similar positions.
While he has his insecurities about his friends not liking him, he doesn’t know to the extent, as till now I’ve always reassured him. Despite this, to him they are like family (which he doesn’t have) and he would be absolutely heartbroken to hear this. The two dominant ones are doing more each day to deliberately hurt him and make him feel excluded.
I understand that if he was in a well-enough place he’d get that they aren’t good friends and look elsewhere, but with his present state of mental health he wouldn’t be able to cope hearing this at all and I’m not sure how I can help / protect him.
This is especially on my mind as I have a party coming up which I invited all of his friends to, before I knew this was happening and with the way they are now I think they’ll use that as an opportunity to hurt him further, but I don’t think I can uninvite them without him being suspicious of the reason and some of his friends aren’t even aware some of them don’t like my boyfriend- but I can’t only invite them now.
I’d be grateful for some kind advice on this, thank you in advance.
2024.05.22 00:22 Quattro234 Album has been “Delivered” by DistroKid but not received by Spotify
Hi peeps,
I’ve had quite a few frustrating weeks with DistroKid and I’m posting here because I think I’m flat out of options. I hope this isn’t a repetitive issue but I really don’t know what to do from this point onwards.
I uploaded an album to DistroKid on April 16th, with 5 covers and 3 originals. Luckily, all the cover licenses came within a few days and the album was successfully processed and delivered to stores on April 20th, or so I thought.
The original release date was set to May 10th, as I figured leaving a few weeks was a safe bet. I am writing this post on May 22nd and the album still isn’t live in ANY store. Not Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, instagram, even TikTok! 😂
Out of curiosity I had a chat with Spotify for artists support team, gave them the album name and UPC and they say that the album has not be received and they have no record of it ever being received.
As the album isn’t live in any stores, and it’s confirmed from Spotify that it hasn’t been received, I think it’s a fair assumption to say that despite DistroKid claiming the album is processed and has been sent to stores, that it just simply not true.
I’ve tried contacting support through their stupid chat bot but they just send me the clearly templated email with links to articles about the 5 working day wait time.
At this point, I’m so so frustrated with Distrokid, I’d even take a refund so I can hop onto a service with better support, but I don’t know if they do refunds for the cover songs.
Anyone have any ideas on what I can do next? Is there any other way to contact them? Or should I just give up and give Ditto the business?
Thanks in advanced peeps. I hope this doesn’t come across as too ranty, just a frustrated musician here! :)
TLDR Spotify hasn’t received album despite it being supposedly “delivered” by DistroKid over a month ago. Not sure what to do next.
submitted by Quattro234 to DistroKidHelpDesk [link] [comments]
I’ve had quite a few frustrating weeks with DistroKid and I’m posting here because I think I’m flat out of options. I hope this isn’t a repetitive issue but I really don’t know what to do from this point onwards.
I uploaded an album to DistroKid on April 16th, with 5 covers and 3 originals. Luckily, all the cover licenses came within a few days and the album was successfully processed and delivered to stores on April 20th, or so I thought.
The original release date was set to May 10th, as I figured leaving a few weeks was a safe bet. I am writing this post on May 22nd and the album still isn’t live in ANY store. Not Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, instagram, even TikTok! 😂
Out of curiosity I had a chat with Spotify for artists support team, gave them the album name and UPC and they say that the album has not be received and they have no record of it ever being received.
As the album isn’t live in any stores, and it’s confirmed from Spotify that it hasn’t been received, I think it’s a fair assumption to say that despite DistroKid claiming the album is processed and has been sent to stores, that it just simply not true.
I’ve tried contacting support through their stupid chat bot but they just send me the clearly templated email with links to articles about the 5 working day wait time.
At this point, I’m so so frustrated with Distrokid, I’d even take a refund so I can hop onto a service with better support, but I don’t know if they do refunds for the cover songs.
Anyone have any ideas on what I can do next? Is there any other way to contact them? Or should I just give up and give Ditto the business?
Thanks in advanced peeps. I hope this doesn’t come across as too ranty, just a frustrated musician here! :)
TLDR Spotify hasn’t received album despite it being supposedly “delivered” by DistroKid over a month ago. Not sure what to do next.
2024.05.22 00:20 throwawayy17625 Need help for Facebook/Meta monetization program for content creators
I’m a content creator on Facebook and recently got invited to be paid by turning ads on reels. To set up my payment stuff they’re asking for my full legal name and other personal info. Does anyone know if this information is accessible to the public at all? Is there any way for someone to find my identity out once I set up this monetization on my Facebook? I am an anonymous content creator and have crazy fans that I am very worried about finding out my identity. Facebooks support is insanely hard to navigate so I figured I’d ask here. Does anyone know?
submitted by throwawayy17625 to FacebookAds [link] [comments]
2024.05.22 00:11 twitlesshales My (27F) boyfriend (26M) lied to me about something insignificant and he doesn’t know that I know. Is this something I should be cautious of or does it simply show that he’s human?
Hi all, I’m going to do my best to make a long story short. We have a happy and healthy relationship.
My boyfriend’s family has been in town visiting and they dropped some pretty tough (family related) news that my boyfriend has been processing, all while trying to host and entertain them. After dropping the news, my boyfriend was a bit distant for about a week - he had never acted like this with me before and I tried to not read too much into it and just be supportive as I know he was overwhelmed and dealing with a lot. It should be noted that they were out of the state on a family trip at this time.
During the week that he was distant, it was pretty out of character for me but I did take a look at his Instagram following and noticed that he followed a girl I didn’t recognize. She followed him back the next day. I didn’t read too much into this as I’m a secure person and more so was just curious about who this girl was. My boyfriend typically only follows people he knows/has met and I know this because we’ve have conversations before about our boundaries with social media.
The weekend comes and things are back to normal with us once we we’re reconnected and able to finally see each other. He tells me he went to take his mom to get a facial at a spa that’s connected to his gym (he won a free spa day during a gym raffle) and later at dinner his mom mentioned that the esthetician that gave her a facial kept asking questions about my boyfriend (I.e. does he have a girlfriend) and also told his mom to tell him to come in anytime for a free facial. His mom encouraged him to go get the free facial. My boyfriend’s response was that he has noticed this girl looking at him various times in passing at the gym, she is clearly interested in him so 1. Why would he put himself in that position and 2. He doesn’t get facials. Mom said she understood.
For his mom to suggest my boyfriend to go entertain this girl and get the free facial, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. So I was a bit bothered about this, asked my boyfriend if he knows this girl (obviously other than the fact that she works at the gym spa) and he told me no, doesn’t know her or her name.
I shrugged it off, a couple days later my mind brought me back to this situation and felt that it was my intuition. I looked at the spa’s Instagram page and saw that the girl my boyfriend randomly followed during the week he was being distant with me was the esthetician that is also interested in him. I brought it up to him that I see he follows her, I mention that it seems odd since he told me he didn’t know who she was or her name but he went out of his way to find and follow her on Instagram. He told me that she followed him first and he just followed her back, it wasn’t deeper than that.
But I knew he was lying here since I originally noticed when he first followed this girl, and that she followed him back a day or so later. I didn’t tell him that I knew he was lying because I didn’t want to admit that I had checked his Instagram following because it’s quite embarrassing and out of character, I don’t want him to get the wrong idea. Things have been good between us since this conversation but a part of me is really upset to know that he would lie to me. I’ve had full trust in him and this seems like something so insignificant to lie about but I’m sure it was because he wouldn’t want to admit that he followed this girl first and went out of his way to do so. Simply because I know for a fact if I did this, my boyfriend would also find it strange.
I’m really curious if there seems like a bigger issue here or if I’m thinking too deeply into this.
submitted by twitlesshales to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
My boyfriend’s family has been in town visiting and they dropped some pretty tough (family related) news that my boyfriend has been processing, all while trying to host and entertain them. After dropping the news, my boyfriend was a bit distant for about a week - he had never acted like this with me before and I tried to not read too much into it and just be supportive as I know he was overwhelmed and dealing with a lot. It should be noted that they were out of the state on a family trip at this time.
During the week that he was distant, it was pretty out of character for me but I did take a look at his Instagram following and noticed that he followed a girl I didn’t recognize. She followed him back the next day. I didn’t read too much into this as I’m a secure person and more so was just curious about who this girl was. My boyfriend typically only follows people he knows/has met and I know this because we’ve have conversations before about our boundaries with social media.
The weekend comes and things are back to normal with us once we we’re reconnected and able to finally see each other. He tells me he went to take his mom to get a facial at a spa that’s connected to his gym (he won a free spa day during a gym raffle) and later at dinner his mom mentioned that the esthetician that gave her a facial kept asking questions about my boyfriend (I.e. does he have a girlfriend) and also told his mom to tell him to come in anytime for a free facial. His mom encouraged him to go get the free facial. My boyfriend’s response was that he has noticed this girl looking at him various times in passing at the gym, she is clearly interested in him so 1. Why would he put himself in that position and 2. He doesn’t get facials. Mom said she understood.
For his mom to suggest my boyfriend to go entertain this girl and get the free facial, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. So I was a bit bothered about this, asked my boyfriend if he knows this girl (obviously other than the fact that she works at the gym spa) and he told me no, doesn’t know her or her name.
I shrugged it off, a couple days later my mind brought me back to this situation and felt that it was my intuition. I looked at the spa’s Instagram page and saw that the girl my boyfriend randomly followed during the week he was being distant with me was the esthetician that is also interested in him. I brought it up to him that I see he follows her, I mention that it seems odd since he told me he didn’t know who she was or her name but he went out of his way to find and follow her on Instagram. He told me that she followed him first and he just followed her back, it wasn’t deeper than that.
But I knew he was lying here since I originally noticed when he first followed this girl, and that she followed him back a day or so later. I didn’t tell him that I knew he was lying because I didn’t want to admit that I had checked his Instagram following because it’s quite embarrassing and out of character, I don’t want him to get the wrong idea. Things have been good between us since this conversation but a part of me is really upset to know that he would lie to me. I’ve had full trust in him and this seems like something so insignificant to lie about but I’m sure it was because he wouldn’t want to admit that he followed this girl first and went out of his way to do so. Simply because I know for a fact if I did this, my boyfriend would also find it strange.
I’m really curious if there seems like a bigger issue here or if I’m thinking too deeply into this.
2024.05.22 00:11 Unable_Noise_6455 Me 21F got in an heated argument with my bf 20M
Me 21F and my boyfriend 20M about to be 21 soon). Got in an heated argument where he wanted to breakup with me due to my attitude. So here’s the background we’ve been together a year and 5 months. In the beginning of our relationship I would be non chalant because he’s my first bf and I just wasn’t used to being so opened to love. After 2-4 months I actually started to like him more and more. Yes we had arguments many times where he felt he wasn’t loved because of my nonchalance and just many other things with him too. Overall we always tried to come to terms because we were young and both new to relationships. I feel like we struggled to come together because of our childhood trauma. Yesterday I was mad at him for different. And usually I would shut down and say nothing to him when I’m mad because I grew up in a family that when they were mad at me, they would just never speak to me. They never talked things out. I try to talk things out and he just makes it hard to do that because he just gets mad at me and wants to just end the conversation. So he got mad me and started calling me names, telling me to leave, pushing me away. He claims he’s tired of me and that he’s been thinking about leaving for a while. I recorded the conversation so I can look back on it. He didn’t want to continue the relationship but I was able to convince him to give me a chance. We both apologized I can tell he truly felt bad about last night. But u can’t help but to feel like he really doesn’t want to be with me and he’s just saying let’s work on it just to not hurt me. I just feel like I’m walking on eggshells. I don’t want another argument for him to just leave me but, at the same time I feel so uncomfortable like anything would just set him off leaving me alone and hurt. Even today he keeps apologizing for how he acted and I just feel so bad for him and for me. Cause I know he wants this to work and so do I but, it’s just so hard for us. I just wanted to ask is this worth it? Or should I just leave him alone. What can I do to change outta my trauma ways?We’ve been through a lot of things but I just can’t help but to think of the things he told me last night.
submitted by Unable_Noise_6455 to relationships_advice [link] [comments]
2024.05.22 00:01 ikieneng My fanfiction - episode 4!
 | The next part is here! This episode is so long that I had to split it, and today, you're finally getting part 3 of 3. submitted by ikieneng to teamleanne [link] [comments] You can find the previous episodes in the side bar! (Community info page in the app) DISCLAIMERS (the same ones as before) The point of this fanfiction is not to be a straight-up continuation of events with the same themes, intensity, and tone. If you go into it with those expectations, you are probably not going to like it. Rather, it’s supposed to be how I wish things went if these events were real life. The resolution you want for a real-life situation isn’t often the right choice for a show, but it can be incredibly beautiful. Think of what you’re about to read to be a separate show then. Episode 1 of this fanfiction begins after the episode “2:00” (season 2 episode 4), so it replaces the episode “Cake” and the ones that follow it. This fanfiction expects you to have seen the entirety of seasons 1 and 2, so you should watch those first. I myself am bursting into the story here. The narrator and me are the same. While my character is like 95% real me, don’t take events about my life described here as facts. Some aspects of my life have been changed for the story. In my head, I started writing like an “alternate me” character in 2016, fulfilling a lot of the things that I wish I had in life, adding that to my story. I’m not really from Ukraine. I speak fluent Ukrainian as a foreign language, I started learning it in 2014, and I’ve talked to tons of people from there, but I’m not from Ukraine. I also don’t have as much money as I do in the story. I wish lmao. If you want to post your own fanfiction, feel free to do so! To get your own post flair for your fanfic, and to appear in the side bar, please message me. Part 3 (days 3 and 4) We’d wake up on day three, and still, nothing would be any different - we’re still locked up. We’d both feel really worried not knowing if we’ll have to forfeit our whole plan because we might run out of food and water and take the risky route - calling the police and getting ourselves into a situation where we’d have to be freed by force, which would be so dangerous because the Turners have proven that there’s nothing they’re not prepared to do to us to “get Jericho back”. Leanne would ask me “What do we do if we call the police, and Mrs. Turner comes up here and tries to hurt us?” At first, I’d insist that we start thinking about that when we do run out of food the next day, but she’d insist we should come up with a plan. I’d point at the corner on the edge of the attic facing Spruce Street, the corner that’s to one’s right when coming up into the attic, https://preview.redd.it/knoz0zwpou1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=bd1694f292bb546ea45339ebecea7ffacfe33541 and say “Then you’d curl up and hide over there, and I’d take the radio, you’d take the metronome, and I’d sit down in front of you, shielding you, and if she gets in here before the cops do, we’ll defend ourselves. And we’d record everything on my phone. And we should probably hide behind the sofa. Maybe then, she might not notice we’re still up here at first. She’d probably be in a state of panic.” She’d look at me with sad, but touched eyes and just hug me and say thank you. I’d reply “Of course”. After some silence, I’d tell her “If anything happens to me… Please bring me back”. She’d be touched by that, but say that if she reanimates me, the Church of Lesser Saints will come after ME as well because they’ll believe that I’ll be obligated to join. With a worried smile, I’d say “I know... But they’re probably already gonna do that, right? Because I won’t let them get to you!” We’d both nod with the same half-happy, half-worried expression. “And if things go terribly wrong and you have to bring me back, we can try again!” I’d ask if I’m getting it right that the “great sins” they think she’s committing are not spending time with the Church and helping another family from the one that was assigned to her. She’d say yes and add that there’s a lot more they hate her for, like her “disobedient and rebellious streak”, disobeying their instructions, putting curses on people, and now, leaving the Marinos. https://preview.redd.it/4obn4r9uou1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=1e77adafbde221c320999ba1169adb0a1c6b2b17 After a few seconds of silence (out of shock that this is how the Church of Lesser Saints frames it), I’d be like “If you disobey so many of their instructions, then...”, look her directly in the eyes, and go “Good! Keep on disobeying them! I’m actually kind of stunned that this is how they frame your actions, because that is so manipulative. Wanting to have a life where you don’t have to worry about your every step being watched and controlled, where you can actually freely explore what you believe – not what they tell you to believe, but what YOU believe, where you can do totally normal human things like listen to music, and where you can go wherever you want and make some basic decisions for yourself and work wherever you want, that doesn’t make you...” (doing the “quote-on-quote” with my hands while I say it) “quote-on-quote ‘disobedient’ or ‘rebellious’, it makes you a normal human being. If they forbid every little thing that people do that makes you happy, if you then look for happiness elsewhere, that’s on them. You can’t take every bit of joy away from people and then expect them to just deal with it. You wanting to run away, that’s the logical result of their bullshit. And you didn’t ‘leave’ the Marinos, you were taken. Don’t let them think you’re at fault in any way!” She might have never heard any verbal confirmation before that her feelings about leaving are valid, and this would be so reassuring to her. She’d tell me that whenever she did things like not be there for meals at the Church, skip assemblies, or curse people without permission, she would be brought before May and the rest of the community, get questioned about her behavior, and she’d have to self-flagellate to receive forgiveness. https://preview.redd.it/roex7c20pu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=32cecf94a41a97e66b1c74967cb074ca89321777 I’d go really still and quiet when she mentions the self-flagellation, which she’d then explain is a frequent punishment. That would freaking break my heart... I’d ask her when was the last time she hurt herself, and it was a little less than two weeks ago, before she was forced to leave the Turners. Very carefully and quietly, I’d ask her if it would be okay if she can show me her scars and add “You do NOT have to if you’re not comfortable, PLEASE don’t do it if you’re not”, and after a second, she’d nod and show me her back. My heart would break for her even more seeing her scars, I’d just express how horrible it is that they made her do that… I’d show her some of my cut wounds from when I self-harmed, which I hadn’t done in like three and a half years at that point. I’d want her to know that way that I get the urge, that I really do, but I’d tell her that hurting oneself achieves nothing. All it does is make you feel horrible mentally and physically, and every time you do it, there’s a risk of infection and even death. I’d just tell her I understand while taking her in my arms. I’d ask her to please look me in the eyes and tell me she won’t hurt herself again, and that when she feels like doing it again, to please talk to me first. She’d quietly say “I promise” while looking me in the eyes, and after some longer embraces, we’d both smile a bit, that would make me really happy to hear! I’d ask that when we’re out of here, if we can call a doctor sometime soon and get them to look at her scars to make sure none of them are infected, if she’s comfortable enough, and she’d nod and smile at me a little bit some more. We’d eat after that. We’d run out of tomato soup that meal, and I’d tell her that when we’re getting out of there, I’d get her all the tomato soup in the world! “We’re gonna fill a whole hotel fridge with tomato soup!” “And with Ben & Jerry’s?”, she’d ask, and I’d say yes and say that we’re probably gonna need more than one fridge. I’d say we’re gonna pick the nicest and most expensive hotel to stay at, an idea that she’d love! “You still think Allentown is a good idea?”, I’d ask her, and she’d think my reasoning from the day before makes sense and say yes. We’d look for the nicest hotel in Allentown online and see that there are “only” three-star hotels in Allentown. Leanne would ask if getting such an expensive place to stay is really okay, and I’d say “Money is not an issue, don’t worry about it” while reaching across her back and like caressing her right shoulder, looking her in the eyes, and smiling. “And besides, let’s spoil you, you fucking deserve it after all this!” We wouldn’t book anything yet because we wouldn’t know when we can get out of there yet, but looking at all those insanely nice hotels would lift our spirits a bit. After eating the first half of that day’s rations (only two half day’s rations would be left after that…), we’d think that it would probably be a good idea if we started writing the document for the police right now. Writing it can take hours upon hours, and there’s no point in delaying the rescue to write the document after I leave if we can do it right now, so we’d begin right that moment. It would begin something like “My name is Daria Horenko, born July 30, 1999 in Odesa, Ukraine, residing in 501 Pembroke Ave, Philadelphia 19050, Pennsylvania...” (I don’t live there. I have no idea who does. Please leave them alone lmao) “...I sent this statement to my Facebook friend Liam [...] (residing in Tipperary, Ireland, using Facebook as Liam [...]) as a PDF file and told him to call the Philadelphia police and read this statement to them if I don’t come back online and confirm that I’m okay by 10 PM Philadelphia time / 3 PM London, UK time on December 22, 2022. If he is reading this to you, it probably means that there was no sign of life from me by that time, and that I’m not safe, probably kidnapped and locked up by Dorothy Turner, Sean Turner, Julian (I’m not sure about his surname, but I’m referring to Dorothy Turner’s brother - redhead, not very tall, moderately overweight) in the attic of their residence at 9780 Spruce Street, Philadelphia 19139, Pennsylvania”, and then document everything I’ve seen in chronological order and everything that Leanne has told me, with a link to our video and photographic evidence, references to DNA evidence that can probably be found in the hole in the basement if they haven’t covered it up by now, and a statement at the end saying that I’ve written it together with Leanne to make sure that everything is correct. That would take a really long time, hours for sure. But when it’s done, I’d run spell- and grammar checks on it and send it to my printer at home, to be queued for printing when I get home and turn it on. We’d also know that today (December 21) or tomorrow will be the day when we leave one way or another, so I’d schedule a text message to 911 in 30 hours from that moment. The message would say “This is a scheduled message. If you’ve received it, then Leanne Grayson (born October 13, 2001)...” (We only ever learn Leanne’s birth year from the gravestone. October 13 is Nell Tiger Free’s birthday, so October 13, 2001 being Leanne’s birthday is kind of my headcanon) https://preview.redd.it/0hr9niq1pu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=4dbead2015781ed8beee236188b8273aac1b3fb0 “...and me (Daria Horenko, born July 30, 1999) are probably not safe, abducted and locked up against our will by Dorothy Turner, her brother Julian, and Sean Turner in the attic of their house at 9780 Spruce Street, Philadelphia 19139, Pennsylvania or somewhere else on the property. We need help immediately. The Turners should be considered dangerous and very clearly willing to use violence and intimidation. We need help NOW. Details in our prepared statement: [the link]”. Because we’re holding out hope that we won’t have to call the police from inside the attic, the document would include information on what our plan is to get Leanne (and me) out of there as safely as possible and call the police from the taxi, but that if we run out of rations, we won’t have a choice but to call the police while we’re unarmed and while the Turners still have the upper hand. We would debate whether we should include information about the Church of Lesser Saints right away or tell the police about them later because we know how that sounds, considering that this would hurt the credibility of our testimony, https://preview.redd.it/sinvabf3pu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=e37811b53eb90cb8a066bfcb30f6244bb9f34ad4 but we’d modify the document and include the most important information about them as well, with more believable explanations - how they forced Leanne and other members to self-harm (meaning that current members or those who recently left), where they’re currently operating from in Lancaster, https://preview.redd.it/mxbm8445pu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=1f9b5f1c671c15afce7149eeb90926c2c29b9bdb that they faked their deaths, that they forced Leanne to leave the Turners, and the necessary lie that they took the real baby, and that Leanne hasn’t seen it since that day and doesn’t know where they’ve taken it. We’d also include names and stuff, and most importantly, reference the baptism tape and say that it shows May and George watching us from the sidewalk outside the church less than three weeks ago, and that piece of evidence would change everything in regards to investigating the Church of Lesser Saints and make the police believe us. We’d add that it’s probably among the other DVDs in the Turners’ living room, and that I’ll try to get it when leaving the building if our original plan is still going to be an option, rip the DVD at home, and add a link to the video file to the document. We’d modify the scheduled text message as well, and we’d charge both phones, mine first because the scheduled message is so important, but it’s an iPhone, so we could charge it to 100% rather quickly and then charge hers. And we’d add that we’d want the police to get Leanne’s things from the Marino estate. All her stuff being there would be further evidence that she was taken suddenly and against her will. We’d also add what number Leanne can be reached at for now with the Samsung Galaxy phone. And then, I’d send the document to Liam on all platforms where I know how to reach him, followed by a message to alert the authorities if I’m not back online confirming that we’re both okay in what’s now probably more like 29 hours, the phone number of the Philadelphia police, and caps at the beginning saying that it’s an actual emergency. Out of nowhere, I’d ask her if she’s seen “Titanic” lmao, and with her near total isolation growing up, she wouldn’t have seen it. “I’ve only seen movies on TV”. I’d be like “I can show you lots of movies if you want! I got several subscriptions to streaming services, and also a bunch of stuff offline on an external drive at home.” https://preview.redd.it/lr58woa7pu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=63537b149270faeebb2c3f1be9ba2af0d259e1b7 Back on talking about “Titanic”, I’d tell her it’s wonderful and so freaking romantic, albeit over-the-top at times for sure and a bit overrated. It has that glossy feeling and some superficial characters to it that all James Cameron movies have, but it’s still really wonderful. After explaining the plot to her (since she’s grown up so isolated), I’d tell her about one scene that I’m thinking about a lot from time to time - near the end of the movie, when old Rose is done telling the researchers her story, she says that she doesn’t even have a picture of Jack, and that has hit me so hard from the first time I’ve seen the movie. https://preview.redd.it/96bgw8s8pu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=476c1a4cbee498c26a0be4651ef83258f0aa7748 She has no physical memories of him, she can never see his face again, and she can never show people what he looked like. That just rips my heart. I’d ask Leanne if we can take some pictures together. We’d look pretty horrible because we haven’t been able to shower in days, but we wouldn’t care and take them anyway and really, genuinely smile so hard. I’d send them to her email address (leanne_grayson@icloud.com, that email address is on her resume in the show), https://preview.redd.it/frfz9e7apu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=1b65065ab622e71f52edc6e9b84a2974e7efe9cb manually sync my gallery with iCloud, and I’d send them to Liam. I’d ask what phone she got back at the Marinos’ and if she’s got any pictures of herself in her iCloud gallery, but she’d tell me she’s rarely ever taken pictures of herself, only for the resume she applied at the Turners’ for, and I’d be like “Whaaaaat? But you’re so beautiful!”, and she’d smile hard, a bit embarrassed. I’d look her straight in the eyes and say it again and say that I mean it for real, she is so incredibly beautiful! It’s probably so rare that anyone’s ever said that to her in her entire life (her mother definitely didn’t, and given that the Church of Lesser Saints believes that anything that feels good is dangerous, https://preview.redd.it/msylzejbpu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=b343bf8d10b86f7c731eed3c8a5204460daec4d4 it’s rather unlikely that they did), Tobe saying it in “Balloon” might even have been the only time ever… https://preview.redd.it/jdce6tndpu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=c9edaacd72634c3dbe7dbf29abcc84f2412a10d4 I’d then add “Inside AND out!”, and she’d smile some more in a bit of embarrassment and then look me in the eyes and say “You, too, Daria!”, and as you’d expect, I’d smile so hard and even with my eyes! It would be rather late by then, so we’d eat and listen to some more music together from the Spotify playlist I created for her and talk so much about what we’re hearing. After dinner, she’d bring the topic up on her own (this is kind of making fun of these fan theories) - she’d tell me that some in the Church of Lesser Saints think she’s the Devil or Lilith because of her rebelliousness, and how she’s inspired doubt in some people in the Church. I’d make such a weirded-out face. After realizing she’s serious, I’d say “If you are the Devil, then hail Satan! Like, seriously, if YOU are what God is threatening will happen if we don’t follow him, then that’s literally the weakest threat I’ve ever heard of. Then God is the villain here. We need more people like you in the world!” Shy as she still is, she’d still be almost embarrassed to hear this (she’s so not used to compliments), and I’d make it clear I’m serious, that I really think she’s fricking wonderful and the sweetest, and that she clearly has a huge heart full of so much love, and that she deserves so much better than what she’s ever experienced! Almost in denial, she’d see in my eyes that I really mean it and just smile and hug me, and then, we’d both smile even more! I’d rub her back a lot in that moment and promise her again that everything will be okay. “I’ll make sure of that!” After some more music together, knowing that tomorrow will be the day we leave, no matter which plan we’ll go with, we’d make sure we haven’t forgotten anything. Looking around, I’d realize I have to give her my earphones with a cord because the internal mic of my Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini is essentially useless. I’d tell her that when I call her the next day to tell her it’s safe to come downstairs now, she should answer the call, plug in the earphones, and then, it will take a few seconds until I can hear her, but then, it should be fine. We’d set a code phrase that I’ll mention to let her know if the Turners got me and it’s NOT safe to come down. She’d suggest “tomato soup”, and I’d smile and say yes, that’s gonna be our code phrase. “And if it IS safe to come down?”, she’d ask, and I’d suggest “ice cream”. I’d realize that we should probably find her fresh clothes in the attic and a coat right now, so as I said, it’s not too obvious that she’s been locked up for a long time the second she walks out of the door, because if she’s in dirty clothes or nightwear, with it being obvious that she hasn’t showered in days, and I get her out of there and into a taxi to drive off while I got a gun, it would look as if I was kidnapping her, so we’d find her a nice dress and coat up there, and I’d turn around and close my eyes while she puts it on, and when she’s done, I’d tell her again that she looks amazing! 😊 https://preview.redd.it/zp5gbjwfpu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=777d2120f72b5002e2d5e5e9ffe4760ab2d5fada And she’d smile and thank me this time, sort of the way she says it to the makeup artist at the street fair in S3E5 “Tiger” in that typical way of hers that’s so adorable for real, https://preview.redd.it/fuu6x7ohpu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec5f23b8de4568996bd6e4c706ab4f95b8f98063 and she’d look in my direction and say “You look really beautiful, too!”, really shy, before peeking me in the eyes for a moment, and we’d just look at each other for a moment. “Can I have your pictures?”, she’d ask me, and I’d say yeah, open my iPhone, and select ALL pictures of myself in my gallery and send them to her email address, and send her those that are too large via a Google Drive link (iCloud isn’t great for sharing files lol), and then, I’d take her Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini, download them all (which would take a while because that phone is ancient), and set one of the pictures we’ve taken together as her wallpaper, and then set it as my wallpaper on my iPhone as well! 😊 We’d consider if there’s anything else we’ve missed. She’d mention that parts of the floor screech, especially one tile, so when I sneak out, I gotta be careful on the stairs, especially with that one tile. https://preview.redd.it/nijqz08jpu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f6756ae6c304a5f5133c21ef857e0f91c6c91d7 After a few seconds, she’d ask me if we wanna book a hotel now, and I’d smile and say sure! “Did you like any hotels in particular, out of the ones we looked at?” She’d say “The one with the big jacuzzi looks great” with big eyes and enthusiasm in her voice, like she does during some of her conversations with Tobe in S3E5 “Tiger”. “You’ve ever been in a jacuzzi?”, I’d ask her, and she’d go “Nooo, but I wanna try!” in the same tone, https://preview.redd.it/6rh2p63lpu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=987a19161b85fe5ee6a500f452c168ba7dec961b and so, after lying down now, we’d look up which hotel she was talking about and book a two-room suite in that hotel in Allentown for three weeks. I’d add “So we can easily look out for each other, and so you’ll also have some privacy.”, and she’d smile and nod, that consideration would probably mean a lot to her. We’d then get ready for bed. For the next day, I’d get some better clothes as well and put them on while she’s turned around with her eyes closed. I’d take the last ration of food out of my backpack, put the clothes I just took off at the bottom of it, above Leanne’s Bible (the porcelain baby and card are already in one of the other pockets), and put my phone and the chargers in another pocket. I’d look around and ask her if there’s anything else I should take with me to safeguard, and at first, she’d also look around because she wouldn’t know how to answer right away, but she’d then point at Mrs. Barrington with her face, https://preview.redd.it/amqsh2mmpu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=12d0bfe376210a8798671d45f31e96e28037870b and I’d be like “Well, I think she’s a little too big for my backpack, but I can talk to the police when we’re out of here, maybe we can try to get her!”, and Leanne would nod with a big smile again. We’d lie down on the mattress and share the covers again. Just like the night before, I’d lie down on the side of the mattress that’s closer to the stairs, in case Dorothy changes her mind and tries to assault Leanne again… On the mattress, she’d suddenly hug me really tight, break into tears, and thank me over and over again, and I’d just hold her tight, say “Of course”, and assure her that everything’s gonna be okay, that we’ll get out of there tomorrow. I’d wipe some of her tears off her face 🥺 On the mattress, we’d just look each other in the eyes and both just smile more and more, and after a minute or two, she’d kiss me on the lips for a tiiiiny moment and then, we’d just smile at each other even harder! She’d say “I’m not supposed to do that” while still smiling just as hard and looking me directly in the eyes! “Says who?”, I’d reply. She goes “My aunts and uncles”, and I’d say “I don’t think they’re a reliable source!”, and we’d kiss each other some more and longer, and both feel each other’s smile on our lips, and peek at each other a few times in between 😊🥰❤️ We’d both put our arms around each other before telling each other good night and before I promise her one more time it’s all going to be okay! https://preview.redd.it/08fqmdqspu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=477498f6f3e6260f2a0429defebf98475b14eda1 At some point during the night, she’d wake me up, and when she does, I’d realize I had a nightmare, like, not from my night terrors, and she’d tell me I had a nightmare, that I was sniffling in my sleep, and that I told her two days earlier to wake me up if this happens. Still feeling terrible (the feeling of immediate dread always takes a while to subside for me), I’d thank her. I’d ask what I was saying, and she’d say that I wasn’t speaking English. I’d consider if I should tell her for a moment, but then, I’d take a deep breath, look up for a second, and with a heavy voice, slowly say “What if we try plan A tomorrow, and I fail? I’m scared… I don’t wanna mess this up… I don’t wanna fail you…” And she’d slowly look at me and just say two words: “You haven’t!” I’d look at her and almost laugh a bit out of joy. I’d smile and just cuddle up to her a bit, and she’d do it back. I’d say I’ll try to listen to music for a while to calm down because doing something else makes it much easier for me to zone out of the feeling of dread again. “Why only you?”, she’d ask. “I don’t wanna keep you awake”, I’d say, “You need the sleep”, and she’d say “It’s okay” and just smile a bit, and so, we’d listen to some music together for about half an hour. I’d tell her that my sleep is so horrible (she’d say she can tell) because I don’t have my meds, and I’m really fricking looking forward to taking them again. Without them, the quality of my sleep is terrible, and it takes so long for me to fall asleep at all if I don’t take them. She’d ask if I’ve taken them for a long time, and I’d say that I haven’t taken these particular meds for long because whatever I take, my body builds up some resistance to them pretty quickly, so after a while, I always have to get new ones, but I’ve taken sleeping meds for years now. “It sounds like they’re really helping you, right?”, she’d ask, and I’d nod and say “Yeah, they really do. I’m also taking antidepressants, and they were an absolute gamechanger for me. It’s okay if I don’t take them for a few days because they don’t work in the moment, but they like rewire your brain over time, and they’re the best thing that’s ever happened to my mental health. Before I started taking them, it was so hard for me to avoid bad thoughts or resist them, like, it was hell, but ever since then, it got sooo much easier, and not letting things get to me or not letting bad things really take over me is just so much easier now.” After a while, I’d say “I was at a psychiatric clinic voluntarily for six months, but I also had nowhere else to go, and the doctors and employees really abused their power. They only intervened when there was physical violence, they didn’t intervene in any other conflicts, so because of them, the patients constantly bullied each other. My doctor switched to another department while I was there, so I got a new one, and the new one wasn’t perfect, but at least, she cared. I got really lucky to get a place at a living group for mentally ill people, which was when I could finally leave. But honestly, all my experiences with mental health professionals since then have been better. I went to a different clinic for four or five days voluntarily in 2019, and even they were far better. “That sounds scary…”, she’d say. I’d reply “It was. But things got much better after that. I had lots of setbacks, like, you know, but if you get help, it’s always better.” After the current song’s over, we’d lie down to try and sleep again. We’d smile at each other again in bed, and I’d give her a short-ish kiss before saying good night, and we’d both smile even harder after that 😁 And we would fall asleep for good after a while (it would still take me longer than her). In the morning, Leanne would wake me up again. She’d show me that the door is unlocked and open by a little bit now (they’re “letting” her out for a few hours…), https://preview.redd.it/sqql9udupu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=b2505bc6f7795639777433a1897f0d31e5753d67 and we’d both just embrace and chuckle in huge joy, as we can go with plan A now, the less risky one! We’d remember to quiet down after a few seconds and whisper from then on out. I’d go to the toilet roll, take eight pieces, rip them into two bands of four pieces each, and roll each of them up into a little bunch. I’d give them to her and tell her to put them into the wall pieces of the door when she gets out (so it looks like the door is closed while it can’t actually lock) and give me an audible signal when the third floor is clear, so I’ll get out with my backpack, take out the toilet paper, and hide in her room. https://preview.redd.it/bzze2o6wpu1d1.png?width=304&format=png&auto=webp&s=aaa155b611408db6e9960485f6f726125fc2698d “Is there anything you want me to get from there?”, I’d ask. “No. Everything is here or at the Marinos’.” I’d go “Okay” and move on - since I’m almost definitely unable to come down to the second floor right away (I’m using American English in all of these episodes. “First floor” in American English = “ground floor” in British English; “Second floor” in American English = “first floor” in British English; “Third floor” in American English = “second floor” in British English, etc.), she’d give me a signal when coming back upstairs. We’d agree that when she comes back upstairs, if it’s safe to go to the second floor, she’d shout something, maybe in conversation, maybe some sort of cry, doesn’t matter, and if not, she’d kick something. She’d be locked upstairs again after that, so I’ll have to tell when to get further downstairs myself, which I’d do as soon as I’ve heard absolutely no sounds from inside the house for at least a few minutes. On the first floor, I’d get the DVD from March 11, 2001, and if the baptism tape isn’t clearly labeled among the tapes, I’d unplug the DVD player from the TV, turn on the player, open the DVD slot, and if the tape isn’t in there, I’d take all unlabeled tapes. I’d then listen in on the basement door for a few seconds, and if I hear no sounds from down there, I’d quietly open the basement door and go downstairs, and if no one’s there, I’d get out through the side entrance down there, out through the back gate, walk back to Spruce Street, drive my bike home, take a shower, watch the tape from March 11, 2011 like she told me I could, hide it somewhere at home, print out the document for the police, take it with me in an envelope, print out a second version of it to give to the taxi driver, so I can say “If I’m not back in an hour, please call the police for me and read this to them”. I’d then call a taxi (a taxi with a large trunk whose driver is allowed to drive to Allentown and back), load my gun, and leave for the Turners’ and get Leanne. We’d see that Liam has replied by now. Of course, he’d be super worried, but he’s got our backs for the plan, and that would be really reassuring. We’d look each other in the eyes, and then, I’d hug her sooo tight for several seconds, and we’d have one loooong kiss (hoping it’s not the last time we see each other…) before she goes downstairs while looking back at me on the way before putting the toilet paper in the door. I’d then put on my backpack. Once Leanne loudly shouts “Mister Turner?”, that would be my signal, and I’d hide in her room for about 45 minutes before she’s “let” back upstairs and shouts “You can lock me in now, Mrs. Turner”, https://preview.redd.it/uy9loclypu1d1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=16abd51170405f1ef3123ff22f4559642a0c0c92 which is when I’d sneak into the storage/guest room and wait. It would take like five hours until I hear nothing for a while, which is when I’d sneak onto the first floor, look around to make extra sure no one’s there, and go to the living room. I’d get the tape from March 11, 2011, and the baptism tape would be among the labeled DVDs, and I’d put it into the box of the March 11, 2011 tape (I’d put the original DVD loose in there and use the spot inside the box for the baptism tape because it’s probably more important. I then wouldn’t hear anything from the basement, so I’d slowly and quietly go down there. No one would be there, so I’d leave as planned and go home and take a shower. I’d watch the March 11, 2011 DVD. I’d be surprised to see the interaction between Leanne and Dorothy for sure, but sort of knowing her, I wouldn’t think anything bad of it. I’d actually get it because of my past celebrity crushes (which I know isn’t what she was feeling for Dorothy) and the desire to meet them, especially with Blanche. I’d get why Leanne wouldn’t want the police to see it, it would look bad for her. I’d wrap up the DVD in a thick piece of paper and tape it to the back of my closet, between the closet and the wall. I’d burn the piece of paper in the DVD case in my bathtub with a bucket of water next to me just in case. I’d test if the DVD of the baptism tape still works (it does), rip it, upload the video file to Google Drive, add it to the document for the police, cancel my printing queue, print the document (two versions of it. The one for the taxi driver would just have a short introduction at the beginning, like, that I’m the person who ordered the taxi), order the taxi, pack my things for the next couple of weeks and anything that Leanne might need, so I’d include any clothes that I think could fit her, and go to the taxi. I’d tell the driver to get me one block away from 9780 Spruce Street (which isn’t actually a real address, by the way) and wait there for me. Before leaving for the Turner house, I’d give him the envelope with his version of the letter for the police and tell him what I said I would tell him. I’d then get my backpack with the gun in it from my luggage in the trunk, and walk to the Turners’ house. I have already "written" so much more in my head, but I've now reached the end of what I've actually written down, so it will take longer until the next episode is out now! Hope you've enjooooyed this one! |
2024.05.21 23:55 SplendidDuck Was Lost Not Forgotten named for Portnoy?
Though the lyrics don't seem to be even remotely about him or the situation at the time, I have always wondered this. Not only does the name seem to fit this theory, but the melancholy piano theme at the beginning is quite poignant and also has a Portnoyesque feel to it for me (think beginning of The Best of Times). Further to this, the album seems to be named after the events that transpired, so why not a song? Anyone else ever had similar thoughts?
submitted by SplendidDuck to Dreamtheater [link] [comments]
2024.05.21 23:45 WhatCanIMakeToday ComputerShare Confirms DSPP Details (Both in DTC and Beneficially Owned)
 | ComputerShare has generously updated their FAQ on holding registered shares and Paul Conn has generously answered some questions on video about DRS and DSPP shares. [1] submitted by WhatCanIMakeToday to Superstonk [link] [comments] Chain Of CustodyA chain of custody [Wikipedia] represents the documentation of ownership and/or control as an item may pass through various parties. Applied here to registered shares, a chain of custody can detail who owns a share and through whom, if applicable. As is generally well known on this subreddit, “street name” shares all have a chain of custody from Cede & Co through DTC to broker to a “street name” shareholder as the ultimate beneficial owner. Based on ComputerShare’s answer outlining the chain of custody and ownership for Pure DRS and DSPP shares, we can identify 3 separate categories of ownership with 3 different chains of custody as shown and described here with color coding:Illustrating Chain Of Custody For DRS & DSPP Shares per ComputerShare 1. DRS or Pure DRS shares (Purple) have no “chain of custody” as “investors hold the shares in their own name” with “no intermediary”. This is as clean and clear as you can get for ownership of property where investors have both title and possession (see below for more details on these terms). 2. DSPP Shares @ ComputerShare (Light Purple) For DSPP shares, there can be 2 different chains of custody for shares which I’ll denote as “DSPP @ CS” or “DSPP @ DTC”. The “DSPP @ CS” shares comprise 80%-90% of Plan shares which are “held on the register in the main class”. The chain of custody for this “DSPP @ CS” group of shares is “CPU Nominee” to Investor where CPU is shorthand for ComputerShare as their ticker symbol is CPU [Wikipedia]. ComputerShare’s nominee is Dingo & Co. For this group of 80-90% of DSPP shares, ComputerShare’s ledger identifies ComputerShare’s nominee. As ComputerShare (or their nominee) are the only intermediary, title and possession of these shares is clean and clear. 3. DSPP Shares @ DTC (Light Pink) For DSPP shares held via ComputerShare’s broker at DTC (denoted as “DSPP @ DTC”), the chain of custody is Cede & Co to ComputerShare’s broker to ComputerShare to Investor. For this group of 10-20% of DSPP shares, ComputerShare’s ledger identifies Cede & Co (who holds shares for the DTC which is a subsidiary of the DTCC). DSPP Shares @ DTC ARE Beneficially Owned By InvestorsWe can build upon that Overview diagram with more detailed information from ComputerShare who directly answers questions about DSPP shares held at DTC for Operational Efficiency and which, if any, shares may be beneficially owned.For the DSPP @ DTC shares, “Computershare holds the title for the benefit of the underlying plan participants” where shares are held with ComputerShare’s broker who has an account at the “DTC [who] holds shares on the register through Cede & Co”. (Red) ComputerShare also says a “portion of shares will be beneficially owned by the investors” referring to “any portion of the Plan shares in a brokerage account through DTC”, which corresponds to the DSPP@DTC category. (No other chain of custody meets that description and there are only two possibilities for Plan shares.) Thus, the DSPP@DTC shares are beneficially owned by investors. (From the previously available FAQ text, we also know that “[t]hese particular shares are maintained by [ComputerShare’s] broker (for the benefit of Computershare, and in turn, for the benefit of plan participants” so the line from Broker to ComputerShare is also labeled FBO designating “for the benefit of” for beneficial ownership [Wikipedia]. Detailed Illustration Of Chain Of Custody for DRS & DSPP Shares per ComputerShare To be abundantly clear regarding the “DSPP shares held at the DTC for Operational Efficiency” (denoted DSPP@DTC), “On the ledger, the title for this specific portion of the shares falls within the Cede & Co holding”. TADR: ComputerShare Has Confirmed
Title & PossessionTitle identifies who has rights to ownership and possession of property.https://preview.redd.it/6ja7ax0piu1d1.png?width=1732&format=png&auto=webp&s=d951547572ffa97cebdc72e025596c96961a41cd “Title is distinct from possession)” where “possession and title may each be transferred independently of the other.” [Wikipedia: Title (property))] The concept of separating title from possession for property (including securities) may not be well known or familiar to everyone and, I suspect, was a huge fundamental source of confusion. Title basically identifies who owns property while possession is who holds property. Here are a couple (hopefully) relatable examples to illustrate this concept to help clear up confusion: Example 1: Your Wife’s Boyfriend Driving Your Car Imagine your wife and her boyfriend are speeding down Lover’s Lane when they’re pulled over by a cop. The cop will ask for license and registration because those two documents identify who is in possession of the car (i.e. your wife’s boyfriend as the driver) and who is the registered owner with title to the car (i.e., you), respectively. Applying this to stocks, we can ask the “license & registration” question of every party in possession of GameStop stock to determine who has title and/or possession. Apes have title and possession of pure DRS shares. But for DSPP@DTC shares, title for shares begin at Cede & Co passing down to ComputerShare; while apes only have possession of beneficial rights to shares. (See, e.g., “On the ledger, the title for this specific portion of the shares falls within the Cede & Co holding”, “Computershare holds the title for the benefit of the underlying plan participants”, and “that portion of shares will be beneficially owned by the investors”. [Updated FAQ]) Example 2: Your Home Imagine you are renting your home. As a renter, you probably tell people the place is “yours” because you have possession by renting even though your landlord is the owner with title to “your” home. This is an example where we use the term “your” to refer to having possession without title. At the same time, if someone were to ask your landlord if the place you rent is theirs, your landlord would also say yes. Me to Your Landlord: Is that your place where the ape lives?In this case, the same term “your” refers to having title without possession. Which means that two different parties, you and your landlord, can simultaneously claim ownership of your home depending solely on having either title or possession; without needing both. Applying this to the various Chains of Custody shown above for GameStop, we can see how both Cede & Co and ComputerShare have title to DSPP@DTC shares (see, e.g., “On the ledger, the title for this specific portion of the shares falls within the Cede & Co holding” and “Computershare holds the title for the benefit of the underlying plan participants”). And for DSPP@CS shares, we can see how both Dingo and apes hold shares (i.e., possession; see, e.g., “Dingo holds assets but does not own any of them” and “all plan holders are treated as registered holders of the company”) with ownership by apes (see, e.g., “As a nominee, Dingo & Co has no interest in and no rights to the property it holds in its name on behalf of Computershare” and “While Dingo & Co holds plan shares on the registers of Computershare’s issuer clients, the owners are treated as the registered owners of the plan shares”). [Updated FAQ] DSPP in TWO PARTSBased on the above, we can visualize the aggregate DSPP “Plan” shares as divided into two parts: (a) 80-90% held by ComputerShare through their nominee, Dingo, and (b) 10-20% held in DTC; with the corresponding chain of custody.DSPP Holdings Are Split In Two Portions BUT BUT BUT… SEC email!A previous post summarized an email response from the SEC as “PLAN SHARES ARE OUT OF DTC” [SuperStonk]. Unfortunately, that was a mis-reading of the SEC email with a misleading post title. We can illustrate the SEC response with color coding as shown below (and with comparison to ComputerShare's disclosure):Slightly different words, but similar overall description The SEC clearly states that “the overall count of issuer plan shares includes” (orange) two parts (a) investor shares held at the transfer agent (light purple) and (b) non-investor shares (light pink); thus we can divide up a box representing issuer plan shares (orange) into two parts labeled investor shares (light purple) and non-investor shares (light pink). The investor shares portion is described by the email with two statements: “The investor’s shares are not held at DTC” and “investor shares held at the transfer agent”. We can annotate the investor shares portion with both of those statements. The non-investor shares portion is described by a single statement: “The non-investor shares are held by the transfer agent’s broker at DTC in order to facilitate settlement for plan sales that occur” which can be similarly annotated for the non-investor shares portion (light pink). Visualizing statements in the SEC email allows comparing the SEC’s description and ComputerShare’s description, where we see striking similarities for the description of Plan shares.
Part 2, the shares held at DTC, is described by the SEC as “non-investor shares” (where the prefix non- literally means “not” so literally "not investor shares"). Part 2 of the Plan shares is quite clearly described by ComputerShare and the SEC as held at DTC by ComputerShare’s broker; corroborated by the Chain of Custody above with the ledger identifying Cede & Co as holding these shares for DTC who holds shares for ComputerShare’s broker where Plan Participants are beneficial owners of these shares (per ComputerShare, above). The main difference between the two descriptions is that ComputerShare says they typically have 10-20% of Plan shares in DTC, which yields a split between 80-20 or 90-10, whereas the SEC provides no information on the proportion of the two portions (thus illustrated simply as 50/50). Hopefully, this settles the long-running debate once and for all. One last thing… BE NICEApes are not exactly making friends with Wall St and the securities industry; and most are not the kind of friends we would want anyway. ComputerShare works as a transfer agent for issuers like GameStop so ComputerShare is pretty much the closest thing we have to a friend in industry. Paul Conn pretty clearly doesn’t like how some are accusing them of wrongdoing.Transfer Agents, like ComputerShare, are in a fairly heavily regulated industry. There’s been no indication ComputerShare is breaking any regulations. If there’s a failure, check for gaps in the regulations first. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. And, instead of blaming transfer agents, the SEC has already directed responsibility to the DTCC and NSCC in the SEC GameStop Report. [SuperStonk DD see section “So… who’s bag holding?”] Not the transfer agent. Paul Conn and ComputerShare have provided time and resources engaging with and answering questions from the community. Be nice and don’t fling brown semi-solids until you’re 110% sure it’s deserved. (We must be better than Wall St.) To Paul Conn & ComputerShare, thank you for having answered our community questions. We appreciate the clarity provided especially given the position you’re in. s/WhatCanIMakeToday/ [1] All quotes and citations within (including the post and images) are to ComputerShare’s updated FAQ on holding registered shares (which are corroborated by Paul Conn’s Q&A video); unless otherwise noted. |