When I was in my early 20s, I was living with my nmom and had a toddler. I really wanted to go to school online and better our lives. I had a talk with my mom and she told me how great of an idea that was! We talked about what I wanted to go to school for. It was such a good conversation.
She told me that if I got everything set up for school and get the grants that I needed that she would buy me a laptop that I could use. I was so excited. It seemed like she was excited too! I thought this was the start of my life becoming better. I was so ready!
I got everything set up. My dad even helped me and was excited because I was going to the same online college as he was at the time. We even went out to a nice dinner and he congratulated me for making this decision to change my life.
I told her everything was set up. I was going to start soon and needed the laptop. She was a little cold. Didn't really say much at all. I wasn't sure what was going on but I just left her alone after that.
My classes were set to start in two weeks. She came home one day with a laptop box in hand. I was so happy. She pulls the laptop out of the box right infront of me. It was even my favorite color, red! I couldn't believe it! She sees how excited I am, and I ask her if that's mine. She looks at me and smiles. She holds it up and points to it. She says this is my computer. Her face is now contorted into a demon smile and says, don't you fucking touch it.
I just sat there. I can remember my toddler playing with his toys off in the distance making noises, while my mother laughs. Why did I once again fall for that? Was she angry because my dad helped me get things set up? I don't even think I said anything to her. I just was in shock I guess. I knew I was screwed.
I tried using my friends tablet and that didn't work. I couldn't take my toddler to the library and I didn't have a babysitter or a job. I was fucked. I was so young and literally didn't know jack shit about anything. She knew that. She wanted that.
She never fucking once used that laptop. I am not kidding you. It sat on her computer desk out in the living room where it probably still sits today.
She has made it her life's mission for me to fail. That is not her first or last thing she's done to see it happen either. Just the one thing im stuck on right now.
For what? That's the question that runs through my mind all the time. She claims to have had a horrible childhood. Her mother was so terrible. For me, going through what I did has taught me how not to be a mother.
...Oh p.s.! She paid for my sibling to go to college. A physical college not online. This was actually happening when she told me to get things set up. She's still paying off that debt to this day. He never graduated. Ha-ha! Stupid bitch. Eat shit.

At a young age my siblings and I had to leave where we live in Virginia and move to North Carolina. I being the oldest F(26)Maria,M(21)Juan,M(19)Santiago, & F(17)Sofia our current ages. Do to having been diagnosed with a chronic disease at a very young age I wasn’t to moved thanks to what I was having to go through. I went through my life each day at a time not caring how it went for me. When my medical bills became to much for both my step-dad and mother. They talked to my father and agreed to not ask for child support for my younger two siblings if my father took care of my brother Juan (12) and I (16) since at the time I had started developing seizures both absent and compulsive my brother came along with me to help my father understand what was going on. We grew up together we would go visit my mother and younger siblings when we had the chance or they would come over and we’d do what we could to spend the time they were here with them. After my father got a better job with a new company we got more stable home and better income thanks to that change.
Since I graduated in 2016 but my health declined in those years I got taken under my father’s wing and sadly still am a leech to him but while my father worked hard I help with the house keeping and to welcome both my father and boyfriend to a warm meal. I made sure to keep both my father and brother feed I worried for my brother’s health. When Juan graduated high school sadly it was during the COVID pandemic 2020. He had to accept that his graduation was going to be us sitting in the vehicle while they called their name through the radio in the schools parking lot. My mother and siblings couldn’t come for the same COVID restrictions going on in the states. We spent the summer at a family vacation with our father and our siblings from NC. My father told us that he knew this was the last we would be together in a while since we were growing up and everyone would be going their way soon.
Well that summer Juan got things ready and got accepted to William & Mary College it was hard for both of my father and I but we knew it was important for his future. Just a few days ago we came back from his undergrad graduation but during the dinner after his final ceremony my mother nearly caused me a breakdown. After putting in our orders they had just dropped off our drinks. When our mother asked “what was my brother planning to do now?”
He answered “That he wanted to stay for a while there until his lease was up at which point we would go pick him up. During that time he would let loose and look into what he could but he would be staying in his old room before he left for college when he came home. While we both will go to NC to visit and spend time with them for a week. Then come back home from where he will start to look into the internship opportunities near our home”
My mother like always said We were welcome at the house during our visit but if he didn’t find an internship here he was welcome into a room at their house with my brother Santiago.” I took a sip of water but went silent and just listened to Juan’s answer Closely. My brother laughed while answering “thanks but if he couldn’t find one near he’s willing to drive an hour out if he needed too” I got up told them I needed to use the bathroom As soon as I got in the stall I broke down he’s been gone 4 years I can’t lose my brother again so soon. I can’t stop breaking down even my boyfriend nearly caught me crying silently. He comes from Mexico no family here since 7 years ago almost as soon as he got here we met. I want to sit my brother down and ask him to please try to find both a job and internship near where we live currently. Would I be asking to much of him?

My first time posting and I just need to get this off my chest to have a better understanding. So buckle up this is going to be a long post… Names and dates have changed for protection of myself and others.
So back in 2013 I started college. I meet my core group of friends and one in particular had a very single good looking best friend. I was introduced to him. We hit it off! And ended up dating through college. We both graduated and got our degrees. There was a few hiccups that made the relationship rocky. Unfortunately we fell to the hiccups and our relationship ended in 2017. The years to follow I had asked my close friend about how he was doing and hoped all was well. I wished him nothing but the best and hoped he’d find someone to marry and have kids with. I had spoke to him once or twice after him and I had broke up. Once I found out he was dating someone I cut contact with him. By that I mean, I no longer texted him or reached out. We were more acquaintances than anything. I still had my ex’s family on Facebook after all these years. We ended things on good terms. The last thing he said to me was if you need anything give me a call. Well I would ask my friend how he was doing and what not. He told me he found a girl.(2021) I verbatim said I hope he is happy with her and hope she makes him happy. A year later they were engaged, married and had a kid all in less than a year.
I know I may sound odd/crazy for doing this. Hear me out. But when I heard they were expecting I sent them a baby gift addressed to the family. Note: I was also having very traumatic nightmares for like 2 years involving my ex. To the point I never thought they were going to go away. Also keep in mind by this point in our lives I have NOT spoken to or reached out in any way shape or form in nearly 4 years. So I thought for some dumb reason this would help the night mares go away. I boxed it up and mailed it. And I felt some type of weight lift off my shoulders. Why I couldn’t tell ya. Oddly enough nightmares stopped.
Fast forward to present day. I scrolled though my Facebook and notice my ex’s grandpa passed away on his moms side. I’m still friend with his mom on Facebook she is a very sweet kind Lady! She reminds me a lot of my own mom! Our friendship never really ended. We didn’t speak on a daily basis but still knew each other. So when I found out her father had passed away I reached out to her and shared my condolences and sympathy via private message. Note:(my own father has passed 2 years back. I can in a way relate to what she may or may not be feeling.) Everyone experience grief on multiple levels and in different ways. I kept the message very simple and to the point I quote “I’m so sorry to hear about your dad! my heart aches for you! Sending hugs!” Not but 30 min later I get a very unexpected nasty gram from my exes wife. In a very short sentence to sum up the whole “story” of her message is: “you have inserted yourself into our life multiple time on big events and it need to stop and you need to know your place. Have a great night. “ I have never spoken to this woman ever. Nor do I know who she is. And I know I haven’t inserted myself into thier life. she is putting me there and allowing the thought of me to take up space. I didn’t reply. Not because I don’t want to but because I don’t feel like wasting much more time on being nice to someone who doesn’t appreciate it. If you made it this far thanks for coming to by Ted talk.

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I just bocked a new friend online. Nothing's wrong naman. We have good topics to talk about, and overall that person is kind. But i blocked that person when i found out na friend nya yun classmate ko noong hs.
I started being a loner since shs. From then i started blocking and unfriending all my hs classmates. Why, because i live in a toxic household. Which means having friends or having fun is forbidden.
When i graduated shs i did the same, cutof, unfriend, block. During college i never accepted any friend request.
Now when i get to befriend with people online and malaman kong may mutual connection I'll cut them off sooner or later depende if it triggers me.
I never want people to recognize me again anymore. I just want to be a side character. I don't want to be talked about. I don't have any bad reason naman para pag chismisan, but still ayoko na talaga balikan ang past hanggat nakatira ako dito sa bahay.
Maybe once i get to live away from this toxic household I'll be able to slowly get normal in terms of my social circle. Maybe I'll allow people to enter my social circle again. And if not, maybe I'm just the way i am. Maybe anti social lang talaga ako. Ayaw ko ng may pananagutan. Ayaw ko mapilitan makisama. Gusto ko na lang mapag isa para wala akong ma disappoint.

She got up in the dark, with only the dim ambience of soft blue lighting to accompany her. She stretched all four arms, her two legs, and rolled her neck. It struck her as mildly interesting in that moment, how something so small could connect them to humans, The thought was fleeting as she took another step forward to kneel down on the floor. There, in a little alcove in the wall, she had set a volcanic rock from Anin, dried moss, and other paraphernalia from her home world. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath resting her hands together.
Praise and respect to the spirits of Anin. Praise the fathers and mothers of war gone to their rest below the moss and the earth. Praise their spirits that watch from the sky and peer through the ether down upon us.
She continued the slow mantra in the style of Prayer learned from Naktan and pulled her concentration to her core, ignoring anything and everything around her. A deep state of meditation overtook her. She would never have done this if she thought there were any chance that she was in danger, but below she knew Earth glowed like a sphere before their orbiting ship. There was no worry of invasion.
She thought she heard something at one point, but chose to ignore it as she continued her mantra.
Eventually, and after an unknown amount of minutes, she stood and turned slowly to find-
She stopped, and crossed her arms over her chest.
"What are you doing?”
Adam burrowed his way further down into her blankets, nuzzling his head up against her pillow,
"So warm, and comfy!"
She tried not to smile,
"You dumbass."
He pulled the blankets tighter around himself,
"You know, I did come here to talk to you, but now I actually am really comfortable, so come back in two hours."
"I- This is MY home!"
He closed his eyes and pretended to snore loudly.
She rolled her eyes as she watched him theatrically pretend to sleep. She looked around mildly for a moment, before picking up another pillow and glancing at the door. She casually walked over, dropped the pillow on his head and then held it down as if she intended to smother him.
”Die human scum!”
That got him up and moving.
Before long the two of them were grappling for the upper hand, him trying to put her in a choke hold, and her using her lower arms to pinch him.
He yelped,
"Ouch! Pinching is illegal!”
"Sissy."
He clamped his legs around her lower arms, pinning them in place.
She struggled for a minute and then went limp.
She could feel his smug smile,
"I win, I beat the saint of Anin. Everyone bow at my feet."
"You say that, but if this were a real fight, since you’re a human male, you're the one with a self-destruct button."
"Self-destruct button...?"
"Meaning if this were a real fight, I would have punched you in the balls."
"Yaoooutch… Oh god… Please don't."
Finally, he let her go, leaving the two of them to lay on her bed, sheets scattered on the floor around them, and her pillows in disarray. Adam put his hands behind his head and sighed.
She glanced over at him,
"I don't suppose you came to just hang out. Here on Admiral-ly business?"
He groaned, pulling one of her pillows over his face,
"Please smother me for real this time."
She leaned up on one of her elbows,
"Why?"
"I don't wanna be an adult anymore!"
She tilted her head to the side, watching in amusement as he attempted to throw a childlike tantrum, but only really had the energy to kick his feet once,
"It's boring and lame and they won’t let me wear heelies to important meetings... also children don't have to pay taxes."
She laughed, pulling the pillow from his face,
"Adam you are many things, but 'adult' is not one of them."
He grinned slightly,
"True enough."
He sighed again and rested his head back against the pillows,
"I just want to get back to what we are supposed to be doing, exploring the universe and making cool alien friends."
He threw up his hands in frustration,
"But suddenly I find myself embroiled in stupid annoying politics that I don't understand, being used by people who are, let’s face it, WAY smarter than me, constantly finding myself getting manipulated."
She huffed,
"They aren't smarter than you Adam, they're just manipulative, and you aren't."
He sighed,
"Fair enough."
Then he looked at her, bright green eyes reflecting the soft ambient blue light,
"I just, I miss this, I miss us, I miss hanging out and doing stupid shit, and all of the things I could do when I wasn't so important and this operation was smaller."
She smiled rather sadly reaching one hand over for his, lacing the four of her fingers through the five of his,
"Well someone has to do the hard things, who better than you?”
He glanced over at her, raising an eyebrow,
"Or you, miss saint?”
She rolled her eyes again,
"Can't seem to get you off of that. I'm still the same person I used to be."
"But with power."
She elbowed him gently and he grinned,
"But really, I am proud and impressed and... Let's be honest super super smug that 'I' know you personally."
"I know, I am pretty terrific."
The two of them laughed for a minute before settling down again. He glanced over to her little shrine on the wall,
"What were you doing just then?"
She looked up at the ceiling, following the lines of metal and rivets with her eyes,
"Praying to the spirits of Anin."
Embarrassed, he shifted,
"I didn't know you were... Well I didn't think you were all that religious?"
She shrugged,
"Don't feel bad, it's sort of a new thing. Back before all this, it was sort of just stories to me. Like I believed it because that was what everyone believed, but I didn't really accept it, or feel it the way I do now. After everything with my mother, it was hard to feel connected to something I felt I wasn't a part of... But then after visiting my mother, after becoming a saint for a religion I never really followed... Well, it started to make more sense. It feels real now in a way that it never did."
She turned to look at him, finding him watching her, the UV blue stripes in his skin glowing blue.
"I believe in the spirits of Anin more than I ever have."
He smiled at her and squeezed her hand,
"I'm glad to hear it."
They lapsed into silence for a long moment, staring up at the ceiling before, inevitably he broke it,
"So this makes you like, space Moses right?”
She frowned and turned to look at him,
"What is a “Moses”?"
He grinned,
"A guy from one of the Earth Religions. You know, guy follows god's directions to lead his people away from slavery, climbs a mountain, receives the word of god, comes down to give it to the people, that sort of thing."
Sunny tilted her head slightly to the side,
"Are you religious?"
He paused, frowning,
"I... well I... don't really know. My family has been some flavor of Christian for a long time."
"Christian?"
"Uh yeah, the general idea is that there is one all-powerful deity who created everything. He has rules and laws that you are supposed to follow, the general tenants of this specific religion mostly boil down to: love everyone and don't be a dick, which humans are notoriously bad at. You sin you go to hell, a very bad place after you die, and if you are a good person you go to heaven. Problem is everyone is a sinner and breaks the rules, so really no one was going to get into heaven."
"That sounds bleak..."
"Well, that's where the other stuff comes in. Basically, this all-powerful deity sent down his son in human form to live a perfect life, so when he was martyred he took on the sins of all of humanity and paid for them in the greatest act of mercy to open the gate for the rest of us into heaven."
Sunny shifted as he tilted to the side to lay in the crook of her arms,
"Of course that is just one religion among tons on earth, we aren't really as cohesive in our beliefs as Drev are... As for me... I'm not really sure."
She tilted her head to the side, cheek resting against his hair,
"After seeing space, I become more and more convinced of some... Thing that created everything, but beyond that it's sort of a tossup."
She ran one hand through his hair, coarse but still soft somehow.
"You know my name comes from that religion?”
She turned her head to look at him,
"Oh, really?”
"Adam was the first man."
"What do you mean!?”
Adam shrugged,
"He was supposedly the first man that god created, from the dust of the earth... I think?"
She gave him a sidelong glance,
"Look, and you get to be the first idiot in space."
He snorted and poked her in the ribs.
"There were PLENTY of idiots in space before me, believe you me."
"Mmm I don't know, you are pretty dumb."
He laughed, grabbing a pillow and hitting her with it. She rolled over so she was lying on top of him and then went limp.
He struggled,
"Get your big ass off me."
"Oh no, I have been attacked by a sudden acute case of the “my spine doesn't work anymore”-disease."
"If you don't move, you'll suddenly find yourself with a case of “fist in your face”-disease."
She laughed and rolled off him, making sure the hard parts of her carapace were sticking down for maximum discomfort.
He grunted.
They returned to lying down next to each other in the half darkness. Sunny reached over and turned on some quiet music in the background as the two of them sat and talked, and laughed.
"I can't wait to get back to deep space."
He closed his eyes and hummed softly at the thought,
"Just the crew and the darkness and nothing ahead of us but an endless frontier."
Surprisingly, she found the thought to be more than a little comforting, and closed her eyes thinking about the vast reaches of blackness and the endless spinning galaxies.
"And while we are out, we can drop Conn into a pulsar."
He snorted,
“Why? Well first of for scientific reasons! If a marshmallow causes a nuclear blast, I wonder what dropping Conn would do… but at least he’d be dead.”
"That billowy bastard would survive and you know it."
She huffed,
"Still though, if I have to hear one more smug lecture how he has a child with you, I'm gonna wring his scrawny neck."
He grinned teeth flashing blue in the light,
"Is someone... Jealous?"
Sunny laughed, almost tipping him off the bed and onto the floor with her mirth,
"Yes Adam, I am totally jealous, really I am, ‘kay?. I mean who wouldn't want to have a child with YOU, big dumb, dork. Really the perfect place to put my superior genes."
"Superior genes, says someone who can't reach the top shelf."
She kicked him, foot clanging off his prosthetic,
"I am a foot taller than you."
He placed his hand next to his ear,
"What was that, I can't hear you over how short you are."
Sunny shook her head,
"At least I have binocular vision and both my knees."
"So we are gonna ignore that that binocular vision is due to a prosthetic now after the whole “your mom” incident? And also, veeery important: weird neck nostrils, don't forget about those!"
"Oh yes, so I can’t house them on my face like you and your bigass nose."
"Low blow, low blow."
"There are... Lower things... I could make fun of."
He snorted,
"Can't make fun of it if you've never seen it. You on the other hand, walking around in the nude..."
"You're welcome. Who wouldn't love…"
She gestured to herself,
"This."
"Mmm yeah... chitin, very sexy."
"I am a gift to the universe, and should be appreciated by everyone."
He brushed a hand through his hair,
"Well I find that real gifts are gift wrapped, so jot that down."
"Oh yeah, like a prank gift when you put something lame in a box for something cool."
He frowned at her,
"You wound me. My feelings are so very very hurt. I might even cry."
"I drink human tears."
"That… that's really gross.'
She laughed and then they lapsed into silence. She could hear him breathing quietly next to her in the darkness, his chest rising and falling under the ambient blue light. She looked across the room to where her saint armor was hanging in its climate-controlled case illuminated to a pearly sheen.
"Adam?"
"Yeah?”
"You know I'm just kidding about calling you dumb right?"
"Yeah I know."
"I'm proud of what you've been doing."
Adam turned to look at her rather incredulous,
"Me, of what? I haven't been doing shit."
"So, we are just going to ignore you overthrowing a maniacal politician while simultaneously piloting a 2,000 year old spacecraft?"
"That was more Conn and Eris than it was me."
"It was your idea."
"Let’s not forget Admiral Kelly."
Sunny pulled him closer,
"I am sorry, I will not be accepting anything other than you acknowledging that you did a good job."
"Screw you!”
"You'd like that wouldn't you?”
He sighed,
"You've been talking to Ramirez WAY too much."
She was only slightly smug as she rested her head back against the pillow,
"I really should get up and train..."
"We should yeah..."
Neither of them moved.
"Alternatively, we could just... Lay here... All day and do... nothing."
She looked up at the ceiling for a long moment and pretended to be in deep contemplation before…
"Well it's official, you have convinced me. You and your silver tongue."
"I am a master negotiator."
He shifted position putting one arm behind his head,
"Think about it, by this time tomorrow we will be back to space exploring and doing what we should have been doing all along. I can't wait."
"That makes two of us."
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Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author

Hi all, let me give you a brief summary of my background thus far. I grew up in the south and ended up pursuing an Econ bachelors degree from a lib arts college in the northeast. Since graduation I’ve been working in a support role at an investment bank; I’m almost at my third anniversary.
I’ve been trying nearly all my cards to internally transfer to a position better aligned for career growth in the future. My position at the moment pays quite well for a first job, but I can’t see myself doing this forever. I’ve been strongly considering doing the GRE and getting my MBA, but I’m just not 100% sure what field of finance would even be right for me if I did pursue a top MBA. As a result, I know have a plan C: a cheap MS that involves coding (Data/Computer Science).
Even though I don’t have a strong math background in undergrad, there are programs that would accept me. There are a few online programs that could cost upwards of 60k, which frankly aren’t that tempting. However, I can attend a local university which would cost 17k. My employer would cover 15k of the cost, so it should be nearly fully covered as well for an MS in Business Analytics. This program would cover Python, SQL, and R. As a young 25 year old looking to progress long term in a career, is this a good idea?

FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800 u/BakeGullible9975 u/Didnotseemecomein and u/medium_jock
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Awwwww! So cute!
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
She got up in the dark, with only the dim ambience of soft blue lighting to accompany her. She stretched all four arms, her two legs, and rolled her neck. It struck her as mildly interesting in that moment, how something so small could connect them to humans, The thought was fleeting as she took another step forward to kneel down on the floor. There, in a little alcove in the wall, she had set a volcanic rock from Anin, dried moss, and other paraphernalia from her home world. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath resting her hands together.
Praise and respect to the spirits of Anin. Praise the fathers and mothers of war gone to their rest below the moss and the earth. Praise their spirits that watch from the sky and peer through the ether down upon us.
She continued the slow mantra in the style of Prayer learned from Naktan and pulled her concentration to her core, ignoring anything and everything around her. A deep state of meditation overtook her. She would never have done this if she thought there were any chance that she was in danger, but below she knew Earth glowed like a sphere before their orbiting ship. There was no worry of invasion.
She thought she heard something at one point, but chose to ignore it as she continued her mantra.
Eventually, and after an unknown amount of minutes, she stood and turned slowly to find-
She stopped, and crossed her arms over her chest.
"What are you doing?”
Adam burrowed his way further down into her blankets, nuzzling his head up against her pillow,
"So warm, and comfy!"
She tried not to smile,
"You dumbass."
He pulled the blankets tighter around himself,
"You know, I did come here to talk to you, but now I actually am really comfortable, so come back in two hours."
"I- This is MY home!"
He closed his eyes and pretended to snore loudly.
She rolled her eyes as she watched him theatrically pretend to sleep. She looked around mildly for a moment, before picking up another pillow and glancing at the door. She casually walked over, dropped the pillow on his head and then held it down as if she intended to smother him.
”Die human scum!”
That got him up and moving.
Before long the two of them were grappling for the upper hand, him trying to put her in a choke hold, and her using her lower arms to pinch him.
He yelped,
"Ouch! Pinching is illegal!”
"Sissy."
He clamped his legs around her lower arms, pinning them in place.
She struggled for a minute and then went limp.
She could feel his smug smile,
"I win, I beat the saint of Anin. Everyone bow at my feet."
"You say that, but if this were a real fight, since you’re a human male, you're the one with a self-destruct button."
"Self-destruct button...?"
"Meaning if this were a real fight, I would have punched you in the balls."
"Yaoooutch… Oh god… Please don't."
Finally, he let her go, leaving the two of them to lay on her bed, sheets scattered on the floor around them, and her pillows in disarray. Adam put his hands behind his head and sighed.
She glanced over at him,
"I don't suppose you came to just hang out. Here on Admiral-ly business?"
He groaned, pulling one of her pillows over his face,
"Please smother me for real this time."
She leaned up on one of her elbows,
"Why?"
"I don't wanna be an adult anymore!"
She tilted her head to the side, watching in amusement as he attempted to throw a childlike tantrum, but only really had the energy to kick his feet once,
"It's boring and lame and they won’t let me wear heelies to important meetings... also children don't have to pay taxes."
She laughed, pulling the pillow from his face,
"Adam you are many things, but 'adult' is not one of them."
He grinned slightly,
"True enough."
He sighed again and rested his head back against the pillows,
"I just want to get back to what we are supposed to be doing, exploring the universe and making cool alien friends."
He threw up his hands in frustration,
"But suddenly I find myself embroiled in stupid annoying politics that I don't understand, being used by people who are, let’s face it, WAY smarter than me, constantly finding myself getting manipulated."
She huffed,
"They aren't smarter than you Adam, they're just manipulative, and you aren't."
He sighed,
"Fair enough."
Then he looked at her, bright green eyes reflecting the soft ambient blue light,
"I just, I miss this, I miss us, I miss hanging out and doing stupid shit, and all of the things I could do when I wasn't so important and this operation was smaller."
She smiled rather sadly reaching one hand over for his, lacing the four of her fingers through the five of his,
"Well someone has to do the hard things, who better than you?”
He glanced over at her, raising an eyebrow,
"Or you, miss saint?”
She rolled her eyes again,
"Can't seem to get you off of that. I'm still the same person I used to be."
"But with power."
She elbowed him gently and he grinned,
"But really, I am proud and impressed and... Let's be honest super super smug that 'I' know you personally."
"I know, I am pretty terrific."
The two of them laughed for a minute before settling down again. He glanced over to her little shrine on the wall,
"What were you doing just then?"
She looked up at the ceiling, following the lines of metal and rivets with her eyes,
"Praying to the spirits of Anin."
Embarrassed, he shifted,
"I didn't know you were... Well I didn't think you were all that religious?"
She shrugged,
"Don't feel bad, it's sort of a new thing. Back before all this, it was sort of just stories to me. Like I believed it because that was what everyone believed, but I didn't really accept it, or feel it the way I do now. After everything with my mother, it was hard to feel connected to something I felt I wasn't a part of... But then after visiting my mother, after becoming a saint for a religion I never really followed... Well, it started to make more sense. It feels real now in a way that it never did."
She turned to look at him, finding him watching her, the UV blue stripes in his skin glowing blue.
"I believe in the spirits of Anin more than I ever have."
He smiled at her and squeezed her hand,
"I'm glad to hear it."
They lapsed into silence for a long moment, staring up at the ceiling before, inevitably he broke it,
"So this makes you like, space Moses right?”
She frowned and turned to look at him,
"What is a “Moses”?"
He grinned,
"A guy from one of the Earth Religions. You know, guy follows god's directions to lead his people away from slavery, climbs a mountain, receives the word of god, comes down to give it to the people, that sort of thing."
Sunny tilted her head slightly to the side,
"Are you religious?"
He paused, frowning,
"I... well I... don't really know. My family has been some flavor of Christian for a long time."
"Christian?"
"Uh yeah, the general idea is that there is one all-powerful deity who created everything. He has rules and laws that you are supposed to follow, the general tenants of this specific religion mostly boil down to: love everyone and don't be a dick, which humans are notoriously bad at. You sin you go to hell, a very bad place after you die, and if you are a good person you go to heaven. Problem is everyone is a sinner and breaks the rules, so really no one was going to get into heaven."
"That sounds bleak..."
"Well, that's where the other stuff comes in. Basically, this all-powerful deity sent down his son in human form to live a perfect life, so when he was martyred he took on the sins of all of humanity and paid for them in the greatest act of mercy to open the gate for the rest of us into heaven."
Sunny shifted as he tilted to the side to lay in the crook of her arms,
"Of course that is just one religion among tons on earth, we aren't really as cohesive in our beliefs as Drev are... As for me... I'm not really sure."
She tilted her head to the side, cheek resting against his hair,
"After seeing space, I become more and more convinced of some... Thing that created everything, but beyond that it's sort of a tossup."
She ran one hand through his hair, coarse but still soft somehow.
"You know my name comes from that religion?”
She turned her head to look at him,
"Oh, really?”
"Adam was the first man."
"What do you mean!?”
Adam shrugged,
"He was supposedly the first man that god created, from the dust of the earth... I think?"
She gave him a sidelong glance,
"Look, and you get to be the first idiot in space."
He snorted and poked her in the ribs.
"There were PLENTY of idiots in space before me, believe you me."
"Mmm I don't know, you are pretty dumb."
He laughed, grabbing a pillow and hitting her with it. She rolled over so she was lying on top of him and then went limp.
He struggled,
"Get your big ass off me."
"Oh no, I have been attacked by a sudden acute case of the “my spine doesn't work anymore”-disease."
"If you don't move, you'll suddenly find yourself with a case of “fist in your face”-disease."
She laughed and rolled off him, making sure the hard parts of her carapace were sticking down for maximum discomfort.
He grunted.
They returned to lying down next to each other in the half darkness. Sunny reached over and turned on some quiet music in the background as the two of them sat and talked, and laughed.
"I can't wait to get back to deep space."
He closed his eyes and hummed softly at the thought,
"Just the crew and the darkness and nothing ahead of us but an endless frontier."
Surprisingly, she found the thought to be more than a little comforting, and closed her eyes thinking about the vast reaches of blackness and the endless spinning galaxies.
"And while we are out, we can drop Conn into a pulsar."
He snorted,
“Why? Well first of for scientific reasons! If a marshmallow causes a nuclear blast, I wonder what dropping Conn would do… but at least he’d be dead.”
"That billowy bastard would survive and you know it."
She huffed,
"Still though, if I have to hear one more smug lecture how he has a child with you, I'm gonna wring his scrawny neck."
He grinned teeth flashing blue in the light,
"Is someone... Jealous?"
Sunny laughed, almost tipping him off the bed and onto the floor with her mirth,
"Yes Adam, I am totally jealous, really I am, ‘kay?. I mean who wouldn't want to have a child with YOU, big dumb, dork. Really the perfect place to put my superior genes."
"Superior genes, says someone who can't reach the top shelf."
She kicked him, foot clanging off his prosthetic,
"I am a foot taller than you."
He placed his hand next to his ear,
"What was that, I can't hear you over how short you are."
Sunny shook her head,
"At least I have binocular vision and both my knees."
"So we are gonna ignore that that binocular vision is due to a prosthetic now after the whole “your mom” incident? And also, veeery important: weird neck nostrils, don't forget about those!"
"Oh yes, so I can’t house them on my face like you and your bigass nose."
"Low blow, low blow."
"There are... Lower things... I could make fun of."
He snorted,
"Can't make fun of it if you've never seen it. You on the other hand, walking around in the nude..."
"You're welcome. Who wouldn't love…"
She gestured to herself,
"This."
"Mmm yeah... chitin, very sexy."
"I am a gift to the universe, and should be appreciated by everyone."
He brushed a hand through his hair,
"Well I find that real gifts are gift wrapped, so jot that down."
"Oh yeah, like a prank gift when you put something lame in a box for something cool."
He frowned at her,
"You wound me. My feelings are so very very hurt. I might even cry."
"I drink human tears."
"That… that's really gross.'
She laughed and then they lapsed into silence. She could hear him breathing quietly next to her in the darkness, his chest rising and falling under the ambient blue light. She looked across the room to where her saint armor was hanging in its climate-controlled case illuminated to a pearly sheen.
"Adam?"
"Yeah?”
"You know I'm just kidding about calling you dumb right?"
"Yeah I know."
"I'm proud of what you've been doing."
Adam turned to look at her rather incredulous,
"Me, of what? I haven't been doing shit."
"So, we are just going to ignore you overthrowing a maniacal politician while simultaneously piloting a 2,000 year old spacecraft?"
"That was more Conn and Eris than it was me."
"It was your idea."
"Let’s not forget Admiral Kelly."
Sunny pulled him closer,
"I am sorry, I will not be accepting anything other than you acknowledging that you did a good job."
"Screw you!”
"You'd like that wouldn't you?”
He sighed,
"You've been talking to Ramirez WAY too much."
She was only slightly smug as she rested her head back against the pillow,
"I really should get up and train..."
"We should yeah..."
Neither of them moved.
"Alternatively, we could just... Lay here... All day and do... nothing."
She looked up at the ceiling for a long moment and pretended to be in deep contemplation before…
"Well it's official, you have convinced me. You and your silver tongue."
"I am a master negotiator."
He shifted position putting one arm behind his head,
"Think about it, by this time tomorrow we will be back to space exploring and doing what we should have been doing all along. I can't wait."
"That makes two of us."
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.

Hi everyone! I'm here to ask some experienced wolfdog owners about what to do and how to prep for a wolfdog, and how to get one, and so on. I've been wanting one for quite some time, maybe less than 5 years and I've been doing my own digging to learn, but I feel that it would be best to learn from experienced owners!
I got inspired to post this because of someone posting something related to if you're interested in a wolfdog, and that's when I realized that I should definitely start preparing for the future since I'm about to graduate high school in 2 years.
Currently, I'm in no way ready for a wolfdog, I would like to firmly state that! I'm about to be 18 and I'm still in school, and I live with my Dad still, and I will probably continue to live with him for quite awhile. I would also like to add that I have had a family member who owned quite a few high content wolfdogs, but due to the laws in our state, he had them taken away from him. (This happened many many years ago)
Now, when it comes to pretty much ANYTHING, I take lots of notes and that's exactly what I want to do here! I understand the issues that may come with a wolfdog but I am definitely still wanting to do this in the future, maybe in my late 20's to early 30's so that I'm out of college, have a good job, land to build my home and build something big enough for the wolfdog.
Any advice is greatly appreciated and I hope this is the right place to ask!
First, I have a few questions:
1.) What amount of wolf content is best suited? (Especially for a beginner)
2.) I'm assuming the enclosure probably depends on the percentage, but what kind of enclosure would be best and what should be with it? And if possible, please include a price range!
3.) I know that in my state you have to have a wildlife license to own a wolfdog, and if that is true in general, what is that process like and what is the best approach to it?
4.) I would like to do the best diet possible but also want it to be semi affordable, so what is the best diet plan would a wolfdog?
That's all I could think of for now, please feel free to give me some criticism or advice! I wouldn't mind knowing the pros and cons as well, this would definitely be greatly appreciated.
Thank you and have a great day/night!!

Around exactly a year ago, when I was fifteen, I attempted suicide.
I tried to overdose on my meds, but I didn't end up taking enough to overdose.
I'm doing a bit better now, I think, though I still have crippling depression. It's hard to find motivation to do anything, even when it's things I like. I want to do things, but I just can't find myself caring enough.
Same thing with my school life. I'm graduating next school year and the thought kinda terrifies me because I've been so behind ever since quarantine because of my anxiety and depression (both diagnosed), and I don't know what college I'm planning on going to or if I'll ever succeed in life.
But, I'm trying, slowly but surely, to put my life together. I'm trying out new hobbies and attempting to go outside more (since my skin is too pale...even the lightest foundation is noticably dark against my skin), I'm also working on attending school more, getting my driver's licence, and trying to make more friends, since I have about four or five.
If you're still here, thanks for reading :)

Kailan ba ako makakatulog ng mahimbing????
I'm 23F, breadwinner. 4 kami magkakapatid and lahat nag-aaral pa and im the eldest. no parents, our mother passed away when i was 15 years old, and father naman namin nung 2021 sila tita lang ang nagpalaki at nag-guide sakin lalo sa mga kapatid ko kaya at a very young age (15 years old) i was forced to be independent and save myself since then.
Ilang buwan na akong literal na puyat at walang tulog. Im working in a BPO sa gabi and OJT naman sa umaga. So after ng work sa umaga deretso naman ng work sa gabi halos 2-3 hours lang tulog and vice versa. Nasweldo ka pero parang dadaan lang sa kamay mo. Graduating na din naman ako this June but sobrang nabuburn out lang ako sa setup this past few months, yung wala kang magawa kasi kapag huminto ka sa pagkayod wala kayong makakain. Yung sister ko na sumunod sa akin di ko naman ma-forced na magwork din while studying kahit minsan iniisip ko na sana may natulong din sakin, sana katulad ko din marealize nila na they need to strive and work for themselves kasi wala kaming ibang aasahan. Yung pangatlo naman kapatid ko, magcocollege palang recently natutunan na din magwork, naguilty pa nga ako kasi alam ko ang pakiramdam na nagttrabaho habang nag-aaral sobra akong naaawa kasi dapat sana naproprovide ko lahat ng needs nila but sobrang kulang talaga. Yung bunso naman namin, highschool minsan sinasalo ni tita yung pambaon (laking tulong din talaga ng mga tita namin sa amin since bata kami)
Feeling ko ang dami dami kong issues sa sarili ko na ultimo ako di ko mafigure out kung ano, lalo na sa future path na gusto ko tahakin, sa sobrang focus ko makatapos ng pag-aaral at magkadiploma nalang, makpaagtrabaho at makapagprovide, now ko lang narerealize na hindi pala ito yung path (psychology) na gusto ko, i was focused back then on surviving without considering what i really want to do for the rest of my life.
Sobrang naiinggit talaga ko sa mga may mga magulang na sumusuporta sa kanila. Iniisip ko palagi hanggang kailan ako ganito? May nagawa ba akong masama sa past life ko kaya ganito kabigat na responsibilidad ang binigay sa akin? Or puro inconvenience lang lagi ko naattract talaga.
I'm just so tired and i feel so lost. Bakit ngayon pa, ngayon pa na malapit na ko sa finish line ng kolehiyo?

i have always been a numbers guy. math came quick to me, specifically arithmetic. In 2nd grade when we did those pages full of addition or subtraction they had to give me two pages because I’d finish a paper (albeit one or two mistakes out of 50ish problems) and just be sitting there. Then in 4th grade I had 2 multiplication or division papers as well. I didn’t enjoy the theory based math nearly as much, so I didn’t pursue past Calculus II. I liked it because it was still math, but I couldn’t see it being useful to continue into, at least for me.
Now I am in my 4/4 year of college and I should be graduating with my Undergrad this year. I have figured Accounting was it after a grueling two years of economics/finance, again not into theory. Since then, accounting has just become natural to me, i like debits/credits, i understand depreciation, i actually enjoy doing taxes whether it be individual, business, or even not for profit, i feel like I am finding that i genuinely enjoy accounting topics that i am being introduced to.
To be more clear, I had a tax internship this past tax season, first time i had dipped my toes in the actual career field. I enjoyed every second of it. I was working at my other job 30+ hours a week and did 15 hours of taxes every week, I can actually say, I can picture myself doing taxes for 10hrs a day or 55+ hours a week.
For context, internship offered me full time starting april 16th right after my internship. Mcol on West coast and making 55k while i still have 1 year left in college.
Am I going to hit a roadblock at some point? Or has this reigned true for others during the start of their careers? Is this maybe foreshadowing an enjoyment filled career? Or will I eventually crash and fall, maybe when my CPA desires start to approach. I just feel like I do not resonate with a lot of people on this subreddit and i want to know if it’s a me problem. Ty for your input

Hello! I’m looking for a flexible online job since I’m still a student. For context, I’m an 18-year-old college freshman. Gusto ko lang mag ipon so I could move out as soon as I graduate and in case gusto ko ituloy yung law school. I can’t have physical jobs since ayoko malaman ng parents ko dahil papatigilin nila ako, and health problems. They are not abusive naman they just get on my nerves sometimes. Marami akong nakikita or nababasa na mga college student na nag wowork online pero ‘di naman nila sinasabi kung ano. Yung mga alam ko most of them do art commission, I have no talent in arts hahaha. I know I may sound choosy here but I need to keep this a secret from everyone I know. I know yung mga struggles ng mga fresh grads sa paghahanap ng work. So I thought I should start as early as I can. May mga classmates ako na kumikita but mukhang shady yung pinagkakakitaan nila and delikado. Hirap maging mahirap hahahah pag ‘di ko na kaya hanahanap na ako ng sugar daddy! char
Any advice is welcome

the app is crap , sudarshan sir teaching style might be good for some but here is my take

1. amount of lectures and it's time vs outcome : takes 2 hrs per lecture , 20 for mapping , 37 for physical geography , 32 for Indian geography( are you kidding me) , 10 for resources , 42 lectures for environment. now this sums upto how much? almost 140 lectures of 2 hours or 5 mths per day lecture .
2. after spending 5 months of your time you realise he mainly caters to those aspirants who are mainly Hindi speaking , are aiming for upsc 2 or 3 years later are at college.

For instance at start of environment he said don't read any book exam pattern has changed it is more current based. Literally 42 lectures later I can prove it , he almost made videos out of Shankar ias + he makes us remember protected area networks ( Bhai Kasam se 1 question aata h yaha se aur ispr meiney 30 hrs dia )
He didn't teach species , he didn't teach current , he said go to my YouTube for it.
Faltu bakwas krke book ko easy banakr sikha doge lekin question nhi banengay waha se I confirm
Baat ye h ki Bhai physical aur Indian if you do from any book and see pyqs , you will be able to solve , it is easy. But not the same for environment. And Bhai itna time Dena h kya is what you should think over.
Totally refrain doing sidhart arora , hima bindu s&t ( literally she called autism as mental re*ardation and claims herself as PhD biology).
We are very gullible , prone to manipulation and these faculties a bunch of them are very expert at manipulation , coz if 18 lakh people appear in this exam and 600 crack it , these don't survive teaching 600 , these target remaining population as it would be more profitable to cater evryone, taking everyone means being slow at pace , less information, less serious, more bakchodi. Choose wisely.

I have to decide between which to firm and insure and I would like some information on both, hopefully from current students or graduates, especially for economics or PPE. I was wondering which university would be considered as more employable, better recognized abroad, higher quality and which presents the most opportunities. Also I was wondering whether King’s College offers placement for PPE because I didn’t find any information about it on the website. Thanks in advance!

I'm disappointed by the very small number of video game lovers who feel "ashamed" that they have not achieved anything in life and feel "ashamed" about their love for video games (whether that is Baldur's Gate 3 or otherwise).
To give you a very brief story about myself, I studied law here in Australia quite some time ago. I was basically obsessed with video games but at the time I was more of a Halo / Call of Duty fan (as most people were at the time, to be honest).
Coming into law school, I felt inferior, ashamed of myself and thought that everyone else was better than me. My first year of law was surprisingly successful and after several years I realised that I was one of the top students in my class (this is a fairly prestigious university). Completing my law degree was a big vindication for me. I felt as though I had disproven all the "nay-sayers" and everyone who was so negative about my love for video games.
I live a fairly standard life, with a normal 9-5 job, but I still play video games quite a lot. And there is no shame in doing so. I know quite a few people who did not even attend university (or college for those American folks), and they are some of the most talented players I have ever seen (in League of Legends, CS GO, or otherwise).
Never feel ashamed for your love for video games. The reality is that if you are smart enough to play Baldur's Gate 3, you are smart enough to complete a law degree, because there are plenty of lawyers and law graduates that I know who struggle with using a computer and lack digital literacy.
This whole stigma about "nerds" and "video games" needs to go away. I think over time it has eroded. You can very much live a normal white-collar job life and still be super interested in video games.

Perfect Thyroid was my first introduction to ska, and it blew my mind.
I was walking throught the Student Union at my college in 1993 on my way to class when I noticed a band playing literally in the corner of the room, on a Tuesday afternoon with not a single person paying any mind whatsoever, just people rushing back and forth heading to and from Econ 101 or whatever. I saw the banner and went over. I was strictly a metal and hardcore punk guy at the time, but I wanted to buy a t-shirt, because my stepmother had a serious thyroid condition, and I thought it would be a funny gift for her. And then I heard the horns. One of my favorite bands at the time (and still is) was White Trash. They were fairly big on MTV in the summer of 1991. They're not ska, so not applicable here, but they're a metal/hard rock band with a three-piece horn section, the Badass Brass. So I was already attuned to the horns, but the rhythm and style was new to me. And thus began a descent into ska madness. I devoured everything from the Skatalites to Less Than Jake to Ruder Than You to Bim Skala Bim to Magadog to the Toasters to the Specials and on and on. But Perfect Thyroid was my first ska love. I worked in NYC after college, and I had to walk down Park Ave or Fifth Ave every day down from Grand Central to 19th Street, and I remember with such clarity listening to Musical Barnacles on my headphones every day.
Needless to say, I missed my class that day. If you would like to respond with TL/DR, save yourself the trouble, I already know.
Have a nice day.

(I'm not sure if I flared this correctly, so please let me know if it needs to be changed!)
Hello all! I am a Highschool senior who will likely be repeating another year next year due to previous years(not enough credits to graduate yet.)
To make a long story short, I want to show some appreciation for the amazing teachers I have this year. I'm passing every class I'm in now with A's and that is largely thanks to them being so understanding and kind and lenient when it comes to my genuine mental health struggles.
I frequent this sub a lot and see all the horror stories that teachers go through, and I see a lot of overlap with what my teachers are dealing with regularly. It truly makes me sad to see them being disrespected when they're genuinely so kind and helpful, so as the year is coming to an end I want to get them something to show my appreciation.
So I ask you all, what are some nice gifts I could make/get for them that they'd most likely appreciate? What would you all recommend, as teachers? And what should I absolutely avoid getting them?
If you have ideas for something crafty, I would love to hear them! I'm a very crafty person so I'd love to make them something! I just don't want to give them stuff they wouldn't actually like.

I’m new to this subreddit and by the looks of it most of you in here can relate in some way so I figured why not confide in those who share my struggles even if it’s barely.
So I 19M am currently just wondering what the point is at this point. I’ve got some goods going for me, if you could even call them that. I have a job that not only pays amazing for someone who graduated from highschool 2 years ago, but also doesn’t need to have a degree to have so that’s an upside I guess. I have 1 one my dream cars (even though it doesn’t fucking drive at the moment). And that’s really it.

 Nothing else is going good for me and it’s making think what to do. I got injured at work and am currently in a lawsuit with the state because of it. Due to missing work so much because of this injury I am around $3,000 in debt because of a loan I had to take out to pay for the medical expenses. I’m at risk of losing my job also due to my attendance because of this injury. I haven’t had car insurance in almost 3 months now because once again, no money. Very few friends 1-2 of which don’t feel comfortable around me because i don’t express myself or act like they do in public (im a very introverted person and have to keep my behavior in check because if i just let loose and let my mind and body act as they want im probably gonna kill someone), no girlfriend (for a number of reasons but primarily im not good looking and trust issues). I barely talk to my parents because i feel as if they’re disappointed in me and that’s why they wanted another son so badly. I’m not particularly smart. Dropped out of college before the semester even started because I knew I would fail since I barely graduated high school. And am in constant pain for various reasons. And to top ALL OF THAT OFF, I’m also black (mixed but it’s not like people can tell the difference) so I also have to deal with racism and discrimination everywhere I go. So to sum all of that up, I’m broke, lonely, have trauma because of a bunch of other shit, depressed, tired, in pain, ugly, hated because of my skin, stupid, and a disappointment. So I ask you people of Reddit. What the fuck is the point of going on with life. I know it’s not all sunshine and rainbows and the world’s not fair. But idk how to keep going. I’ve been dealing with depression for the past 15 years and the other day my mom asked me while i was visiting her if i was depressed because im also constantly tired. KNOWING I WAS. I didn’t even answer I just looked at her. And when I told her why she stared at me and didn’t know what to say. Not even my grandmother who is a licensed therapist had any words to give me. Makes me think that if not only a therapist can help me then what’s the point. Here’s the other thing that sucks. I have so MANY thoughts that run through my head but if I share them with family or friends. I’ll lose the last bit of familiar interaction I have. I have a lizard to keep me company at my apartment but I’m barely taking care of him. He’s doing even better than me. Free food, water, shelter, entertainment. 

I want nothing more than to die but nothing scares me more than death. Ironic isn’t it, how the thing I want most is also my greatest fear. Almost poetic. So please, tell me what to do suggestions are welcome.
PS: for those who wonder what my job is I’m a correctional officer. I can’t say what state for a few reasons but it’s in the Midwest.

Age: Now 14, when complaint appeared 11 Gender: Female Weight: Normal Height: Normal Race: white Location: Europe (with free healthcare)
Past & current medical history: History of bedwetting until 12 years old, frequent nosebleeds, frequent stomachaches due to being scared of school
Family medical history: Brother (me) diagnosed with ADHD, family history of mental illness
I am asking this for my lil sis because my mom seems to think it's totally normal and wants to sweep it under the rug.
Quick backstory: I had very bad mental health problems as a kid, struggled a lot with feeling different and not doing well in a school environment, even went inpatient once. Multiple psychiatrists talked to my mom and afterwards diagnosed me with depression. When I was 18, my mom finally opened up to me and said that more than 5!! of my teachers talked to her about a suspected ADHD diagnosis, which she apparently purposefully did not mention to psychiatrists as I 'cannot have ADHD because [my] grades are too good'. Went to see a new psychiatrist, did testing, got an ADHD diagnosis. Now I'm doing way better in life, no more suicide attempts, even on my way to graduating university. So this history might bias me, of course. My mom says I am projecting my feelings onto my sister, which is very much possible.
So, onto the complaint:
My sister used to struggle a lot with frequent bedwetting, up until she was 12 years old. I had the same thing when I was a kid due to anxiety, so they thought it was the same for her. She also gets stomachaches sometimes because shes so scared of school and does not want to go. Her grades are very bad, and she struggles a lot with doing her homework and paying attention. She also does not have any friends.
During Covid, I used to help her with online school and realized that she would sometimes completely forget about classes happening, would daydream during the entire class, and when doing her homework would sometimes forget what she was writing in the middle of the sentence and finish it with a completely different sentence. Her homework often came back as 'unintelligible', 'unreadable', 'lots of careless mistakes'.
When I started being more strict with her, aka tracking all her homework, waking her up in the morning, taking away her phone during class and reminding her to pay attention every 30 minutes, she got drastically better grades in the span of two months. Sadly, due to Covid ending I had to return to my college city and her grades started slipping again.
All these things to me point to an ADHD diagnosis or at least something going on, especially due to my diagnosis. But the most worrying thing to me was:
Up until she was around 11 or 12 years old, she would sometimes be so focused on playing video games that she would pee her pants a little because she didnt realise she needed to go. If you would tell her to go pee, she would get upset/annoyed and tell you 'just 5 more minutes' over and over again, until it was too late. She's also really bad with hygiene, when she's visiting I have to remind her to brush her teeth daily, to shower and to wash her hair, otherwise she just won't do it. She's honestly sometimes really stinky and her hair is always a mess.
My mom said that's a normal things kids do, but I annoyed her so much about it that she took my sister to one therapist who talked to my sister 3 times and then said she does not have adhd and that shes healthy.
So now my mom is really angry with me every time I say that I am concerned, because this one therapist said shes a normal kid so if I'm doubting that it means I think I know better than the professionals.
I honestly have no fucking clue, maybe this is a normal developmental stage? My mom says all of us were stinky and icky as teenagers and she will grow out of it, but I think its hurting my sister, because she does not have friends and I think every kid needs friends right?
So I am just asking here because I honestly don't know if I'm actually just projecting and should listen to the professionals and if I dont that makes me a bad brother somehow. I am not trying to imply shes a bad kid, I love her a lot, I want to make that super clear. I promise I'm just worried for her.
It would mean the world to me if you could reply, no matter if it is to dissuade my worries or by confirming to me that that's actually something to worry about.

Hey everyone! I've never made a post on reddit before so bear with me friends. This is also gonna be long because I physically cannot restrain myself from overexplaining.
Ok, SO me (24F) and my guy best friend (25M) have known each other since about sophomore year of college. Let's call him Tony alright. I met him through my college roommate and best friend, we'll call her Tina (Tony is Tina's cousin's husband's best friend). He went to a different college in a city about 2 1/2 hours away, but he came and hung out with his friend a lot and he lived with them during COVID. I'm a pretty socially awkward and shy person so it takes me a while to get comfortable around someone and be myself so I didn't really engage with him at first. It should also be mentioned, I've never been in a relationship or in love befoe; I've been on dates and done a thing or two here and there with some people, but I've always been shy so I'm kind of a late bloomer in the relationship aspect. He is not and he's been in relationships before and has experience doing the horizontal tango; an activity I do not have experience in!
Fast forward, tail end of junior year or beginning of senior year of college we start actually interacting and I open up a bit more. I then develop a small "schoolgirl" kinda type crush because he was a new friend and funny and nice, and I never really had any guy friends growing up so it was new to me and you know the daddy issues of it all. Ok so BOOM spring break senior year right (March 2022), we go on a vacation to NOLA with our friend group. My crush is in full swing at this point and during said trip, my bff Tina and I share a hotel room with Tony and his best friend Ted (sharing bc we are poor). So we get a lot of quality time and get a lot closer as friends. Skip to May 2022, we graduate college and my BFF Tina moves to the bigger city in the state we live in (where he lives) in June (we went to college in a small town). So, naturally I go to the city a lot to visit her and so in turn we start hanging with him more frequently since he's closer now. At this point, I'm over my crush and he's just my really good friend (I promise). Fast forward to December 2022, I move to the city as well and my bff Tina and I move in together so we see him even more, and he's spending nights at our place (on the couch). We get a lot closer and the main thing we do in our friendship is talk. He's a level 100 yapper, and I didn't used to be at all until we became friends honestly, but he just brings out the yap in me. We talk about anything and everything; we even argue about a variety of topics, but it's not with malice or rudeness at all; we're just talking. He's just genuinely the easiest person to talk to I've ever met; strangers just talk to him all the time.
So now we're gonna jump to December of 2023 (sorry for the jumping around, I'm an ADHD warrior). I've had mental health issues off and on since high school, but they got worse around this time. Around this same time, he started getting depressed as well as a few months prior he had been fired from a job and his car got towed amongst other things. My BFF is also going through it.We are all just going through some trials and tribulations lemme tell ya. So, we've all been leaning on each other emotionally pretty heavily lately. Recently, he spends multiple days in a row at our house. So, I've been working through the prior mentioned mental health issues these past months and I'm think I'm finally coming out the other side. I've actually been the happiest I've been in a very long time, but I'm also still struggling a bit because I feel as though my personality has changed drastically since this ordeal or maybe I'm finally feeling secure enough in myself to show my true personality idk, but in a nutshell I'm feeling open and brave which are qualities I don't have experience in whatsoever. As I'm finding myself, I think I'm also becoming more in touch with my feelings which is how I realized I had feelings for him, but anyways back to the nitty gritty. So I'm feeling all these new feelings and all, and my crush on Tony comes back with a terrible new twist: 100% real uncut feelings 😔. But, I am terrible at reading social cues and understanding other people's feelings so I genuinely can't tell if he feels the same or not. But, ever since I've realized my feelings, I've been noticing things more. Me, Tina, and Tony have always been very open with each other in the sense that we talk about anything and everything. We talk about sex, relationships, our bodies, etc. But, lately, I feel like him and I talk even more about sex and relationships and he makes more jokes or funny remarks about sexual or romantic things between us. To be fair, I have too (😝), so it may just be in response, but come on, it's to the point like, we jokin anymore?? So, the other day, I was joking about how I was gonna be a virgin at 40, and he said, "Nah, we'll figure something out before then." like what you mean by that?? And another time, we were riding in the backseat together, and the whole car was talking about eating a girl's kitty cat and I had made a joke about not knowing the feeling and he said, "What?? That's so sad bro" and then under his breath said, "we'll have to do something about it" like huh???? And I also have this crop top with butterflies on it that may be a lil revealing (🙈) that he complimented when he first saw me wear it. And now, whenever I wear it, he'll say something about it like, "Ohhh, return of the shirt" or something along those lines. Also a while back, I had told him about how my late grandpa would always sneak me Ho-Hos as a kid and how I missed him a lot, and in the next few days, he brought some over when he came to hang out like brooo 😩. He didn't say that was the reason or anything, but that would be a crazy coincidence I feel. He's also always showing me something on his phone like a video he thought was funny, a movie he liked, pop culture we talk about, music he likes, etc. He'll just appear in front of me with his phone 2.3 cm from my face saying, "look 👁👄👁". Also, we've both been talking a lot lately about how lonely we are and how we miss sleeping and cuddling with another person in the bed. I feel like I've been dropping hints, but I'm also scared to tip him off so the hints I think I'm dropping could be more like office friendly chit-chat in reality!
It should also be noted that after I got over my initial crush, I didn't find him attractive. I really didn't find him attractive when I had a crush tbh. He's definitely not my usual type at all; I'm a fat bi girl who usually goes for masc women or feminine men and he's a short skinny lil fella with a permed mullet 😭. I'm definitely not his usual type either which is another reason I have doubts about his interest in me. He usually dates skinnier girls. I'm finally okay with my body, but if you're a fat person, you know how absolutely anxiety-inducing it is thinking about shooting your shot and someone rejecting you because of your body. I don't think he would do that, but there's still that fear there. He's also mentioned recently how he doesn't care about looks and body and I'm like 🤨 you hinting at something?? Cause I've talked to him before about struggling with loving my body so he knows im self-conscious about it at times. I'm also hesitant because besides Tina, he's my best friend in the world. I would never want to do anything to jeopardize that friendship. I've been trying to get over it and/or ignore it. But, God, idk what to do anymore. It's driving me insane, and I hate that I'm looking for things and reading into things. And I feel like I'm acting weird or changing my behavior which sucks cause it's hard to control cause I'm nervous. But, I really don't think it's all in my head. I don't even know if I want to pursue anything and change our relationship forever, but I feel like I'm going crazy. If anyone has any insight or advice, it would be much appreciated. Thanks a bunch!
TL;DR: I (24F) think I'm in love with my guy best friend (25). We met when I was 20, and I think he may be flirting and secretly feel the same, but I truly can't tell. We hang out almost everyday, but I don't want to be seeing things that aren't really happening. I also don't want to ruin our friendship. I would really just like some insight on the situation or advice on how to tell if he's also interested. TIA! 🫶

Apple TV+ is one of the strangest streamers out there, with almost no licensed TV or film content and a small number of originals. That makes the best movies on Apple TV+ easy to find. There simply aren’t that many! Apple is clearly taking a “quality over quantity” approach, with its money spread across genres and targeted at making its subscribers (many roped in with a deal that came with one of the company’s tech products) treat it like a real contender. It also helps that it’s only $4.99 a month, or free for a year if you’ve just purchased a new (and eligible) device.
With films from up-and-comers like Minhal Baig, arthouse favorites like Sofia Coppola and Werner Herzog, some A-list music docs, one of the best animated movies of the 2020s and Martin Scorsese’s latest, Apple TV+ is actually making the case that it belongs in the conversation alongside the more established services. As long as it keeps adding good movies to its roster, that is. It recently snagged a few critical darlings like Killers of the Flower Moon and Wolfwalkers.

10. The Pigeon Tunnel

For a documentary about one of the most celebrated writers of spy fiction, The Pigeon Tunnel can seem—at first glance—deceptively placid. Clocking in at just over 90 minutes, the film features an extended conversation between David Cornwell, AKA John le Carre, and Oscar-winning docmaker Errol Morris. It’s just that. Two people talking, with Morris off-screen, their parrying question-and-answers broken up with archival images and re-enactments of Cornwell’s past, as well as snippets from the classic movies or TV adaptations based on his spy universe: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and A Perfect Spy.

9. Hala

Writedirector Minhal Baig’s Hala is an intimate coming-of-age drama held up by its personal writerly touches and a star-making turn from Geraldine Viswanathan as the title character. Hala’s struggling with the same kinds of things we normally see high school characters struggle with: What to do after graduation, how to manage a relationship with her parents that’s not quite adult and not quite childish, and (of course) boys. Viswanathan’s understated quiet and the warmth in which the situations are shot (almost always centered on her face)—be they at a family dinner or a walk in a Chicago park or a reading of a high school English assignment—make the dramatic ricochet of Hala’s minor rebellion rattle us all the harder.

8. Boys State

The tendency to read too much into Boys State as a representative of American politics—contemporary, functional, broken and otherwise—doesn’t quite line up with the event itself, in which every year the American Legion sponsors a sort of mock government sleepaway camp in Texas for high school boys (girls get a similar program of their own), where attendees join parties, run for office, craft platforms, run campaigns, hold debates, then ultimately exercise their right to vote.

7. On the Rocks

Sofia Coppola’s new movie On the Rocks starts out as a story of possessive fatherhood, with Felix (Bill Murray) narrating to his teenage daughter, Laura: “And remember, don’t give your heart to any boys. You are mine until you get married. Then you’re still mine.” The girl laughs off the declaration as a jape, which turns out to be a catastrophic tactical mistake. In her womanhood, Laura (Rashida Jones), does indeed get married to a man, Dean (Marlon Wayans), and they have two beautiful daughters of their own, eldest Maya (Liyanna Muscat) and youngest Theo (Alexandra Mary Reimer).

6. Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You

The black-and-white behind-the-scenes documentary accompaniment to Bruce Springsteen’s album of the same name, Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You is a beautiful and companionable tour through the music and its making from an American master. Director Thom Zimny buys into the album’s concept, which focuses on just how long Springsteen’s been at this thing. Poignant juxtaposition with archival footage and pictures emphasizes just how long the E Streeters have been at this—and reminds us of who and what was lost along the way.
Also Read: The Last Duel

5. Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds

Werner Herzog will show you multiple clips from Mimi Leader’s Deep Impact for no other reason than because he likes them, he finds them well-done and evocative—he says as much in that even-keeled, oddly accented voice over—then soon after chastise “film school doctrine” when complimenting a field video shot by a South Korean meteor specialist in Antarctica. Like Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin, his documentary from earlier in the year, Fireball (co-directed with Clive Oppenheimer, with whom he made 2016’s Into the Inferno) is less about what it’s about (meteorites, shooting stars, cosmic debris—and the people who love them) than it is about Werner Herzog’s life, which is his filmography, which is a heavily manipulated search for ultimate truth.

4. CODA

Sometimes a movie so successfully plunges you into its world that it completely engulfs you in a lived-in experience. From the gorgeous, scenic opening moments of CODA, you can almost smell the Atlantic salt air and pungent scent of the daily catch. The movie transports you to Gloucester, Massachusetts and lovingly drops you into the life of one family. Seventeen-year-old Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) is what the title of the movie refers to—a child of deaf adults.

3. A Charlie Brown Christmas

We could get into plenty of arguments over which Charlie Brown animated special is best, but A Charlie Brown Christmas is my favorite pull of the bunch. Charlie Brown’s confrontation with the Christmas season’s commercialism (back in 1965 no less) and a sad little fir tree make this a cartoon classic, as the ultimate funny-pages shlimazel suffers endless social indignities (no Christmas cards) and the holiday blues.

2. Wolfwalkers

Wolfwalkers is filmmaker and animator Tomm Moore’s latest project out of Cartoon Saloon, the animation studio he co-founded in 1999 with Paul Young, and the capper to his loosely bound Irish folklore trilogy (begun with 2009’s The Secret of Kells and continued with 2014’s Song of the Sea). At first blush, the film appears burdened with too much in mind—chiefly thoughts on everything from English colonialism to earnest portraiture of Irish myths, the keystones of Moore’s storytelling for the last decade.

1. Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese has made a career telling stories that tackle issues of justice, retribution and betrayal. From his overt and poetic crime films, through to his dark comedies, religious parables and character pieces, he has long been drawn to stories where the ambiguities of life collide with the complexities of survival, and where day-to-day choices result in consequences sometimes obvious, and sometimes far more subtle and insidious.