My partner of 2 years broke up with me last night. A few weeks ago he asked me about my "transition goals" and made it seem like he wanted to know in order to better support me and see if I wanted him to be involved. He's always been extremely supportive even though when we originally got together he had only dated cis women and was pretty cagey about identifying his sexuality one way or another. I presented very neutrally then, and still do now for the most part. I maybe have a slightly more masc look because I've been on a low dose of T for about a year.
Last night I tried to clarify what he meant in asking me about my goals and he revealed that he felt if I transitioned past a certain point he might not be attracted to me anymore and "we might not be compatible". I asked for details / specifics and he couldn't tell me, he said he didn't know and it was more of a general feeling.
We have had other relationship issues (communication, making time for each other), but deal with conflict quickly and productively, and I always thought we were on the same page about wanting to make things work. For me, these issues weren't at a point I would have considered relationship-ending.
I feel totally blindsided, especially since he's always been so supportive of me especially with trans stuff (started T about a year ago, he's been completely supportive and affirming about that)
To be clear, we still have great chemistry and love each other (I think?) but he says that since at an imagined point in the future we might not be compatible, it's time to break up. I wonder if some of this is transphobia-related. His family is transphobic but he has queer friends / community and is very sensitive and knowledgeable about trans issues. He recently started hanging out with a new group of friends, majority of whom are queer / trans.... I wonder also if it could be more about his own conflicted feelings about his identity or sexuality? i wonder how long he has been feeling this way -- has he hidden it from me and felt less attracted to me as I became more masc-presenting?
Just feeling so so hurt and confused. Mostly looking to vent but curious if Anyone else experienced this or have any thoughts? Please be kind, this is really hard.

I originally dated my partner for almost two years before she broke up with me at the start of September 2023. We reconnected in January, and she told me that she regretted breaking up with me. She also told me that she had a rebound relationship with one of her friends.
This friend was a friend I was worried about before we broke up. She reconnected with him in May 2023, and instantly, I was worried about it. She seemed to always answer his messages immediately when we were together while simultaneously not answering and trying to distance herself from me.
We got back together in January and had a very long talk regarding the relationship. I told her I would leave if she ever reconnected with this man again. We agreed that while we were not officially dating, we were to be exclusive.
Come to mid-March this year, he reached out to her. She reconnected with him. She said she originally reconnected to get closure, but then it spiraled. From mid-March to the end of April, she had sex with him multiple times. During this time, she would avoid answering my messages and told me she did not have time to see me, all while seeing him.
She broke up with me at the start of May, telling me it "wasn't working" and that we should take some time apart while she goes to therapy and that we could maybe try couples therapy at the end of the summer.
In mid-May, she messaged me and told me to call her. I ended up calling her, and we, once again, started to reconnect. She spent 4 days absolutely fawning over me. Then she comes over and tells me that she cheated on me. The first time she told me, she made it seem like a one-time thing. I called her yesterday and asked her how many times, and I came to find out that she lied to me about how many times and that they had sex multiple times.
She broke both an implicit and explicit boundary. Obviously, cheating is a boundary that doesn't need to be mentioned in a relationship. However, I did mention it, and she went against it.
Part of me still loves this girl. She was the light of my life before she broke up with me. But I also don't know how I can be self-respecting and not walk away from her breaking this boundary. I also can't guarantee that she won't do this again, which also keeps me from wanting to return to her.
Part of the mitigating factors is that she has been having episodes of psychosis and mania starting in May 2023, which started from a traumatizing event with her dad. While it doesn't excuse her actions, it might help to rationalize her breaking up with me and then reconnecting to cheat. But I don't know if that is enough to let me want to rebuild. She has been in therapy for about a month, so it seems like she's putting in work.
I don't know what to do. Is it possible, at least in theory, to completely rebuild the relationship? Am I able to have dignity if I take her back? Is her mental issues significant enough of a reason to be willing to try now that they are finally getting addressed?

You want to get signed by the big labels, rock it full-time, have the most expensive synths, earn top fees and be the centre of the party. But rarely does anyone talk about the insane amount of work to get there lol. Even if those are sort of sarcastic "goals", just making high quality professional music for the sake of goal achievements is super effing hard. Friends, family and peers ask: where is the music? when are you gonna become Kygo lol. But in all seriousness, never in my wildest dreams would I expect it to be this hard, take this long, and also see so many people fall off during the journey and never release anything. Music production quickly filters out the ones who just dress the part. And I think since no one is talking about how long it realistically takes to get very good a ton of "hobbyists" and bedroom producers are suffering and tearing their hair out, before eventually caving in and starting selling some tribal drum pack instead. Would you agree or disagree? Nearly every "overnight" success Dj I see is a guy that has started a completely new alias but has 10+ years on their belt once I start digging.

It's a common trope, especially in older media it seems, where a way of characterizing a...character's shiftiness, moral neutrality or otherwise less than sterling philosophy was to have a scene showing them very willfully looking for things to pilfer, especially things that are more plunder than practical (a gold stopwatch vs a weapon to defend one's self or food/water kinda thing).
It'd either be accompanied by a comedic "wtf?" look from other characters with maybe a pause or brief hesitation on the part of the looter and a "what? he don't need it no more" sort of reply from them before carrying on, or maybe moments showing such sorts in isolation as a "look at this shady bastard" or "these vultures" kinda thing. Sometimes it got more moralizing with a "what the fuck is wrong with you? You're a terrible person" delivered in a more eloquent way, but y'all get the picture.
I've always been of the mind that outside of certain circumstances (the body of a friend/loved one of you or someone in your group, maybe a child, maybe going overly out of one's way to do such things, like actual buried-in-the-ground graverobbing), it's reasonable and pragmatic to do such things. After all, they really don't need their former possessions on account of them being, well, former.
I've also long since been under the impression that historically and realistically speaking, that most people through time probably felt more like I do (exceptions included) regarding this concept and would do what they wanted/felt they needed to to better their lives, at least as long as it didn't straight up multilate the body or something. What's the story here?
If anyone's curious, the thing that finally got me to ask this instead of wondering was watching the main Mexican dude in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly steal a gold pocketwatch from a Confederate soldier's corpse after coming upon a wagonful of them, hence my specific example earlier lol.
TL;DR - Media portrays it as a universally frowned upon thing to take from the dead, except by shady characters or those with less than perfect morals. Does this reflect reality, and if it's a bit of both, when/where were times/places where one couldn't (or could?) do such things?

This video is 22:56 long just unsettling "US Marines witness PARANORMAL event in Afghanistan Observation Post Rock"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVZRtDzcba0&list=PLgRgJrlop--N6KgAaqA12wq1uz-P1NSbn&index=11&ab_channel=MrBallen

Hoping this post of just sharing my experience doesn’t break any rules but let me know if it does and I can revise. None of this is intended to be medical advice. Obviously consult your healthcare professional. I'm also not advocating for lying on a health screener; I'm just telling you how it works.
I’m not going to opine on whether you need / don’t need / should take / shouldn’t take Paxlovid. There are plenty of posts on that already (just search Paxlovid on this sub). This post is assuming you’ve determined you do indeed want or need it. I’m just sharing my experience in case others are wondering how to do the same thing or what the process looks like.
This was extremely easy and only took about 10 minutes.
Here’s the link that should go straight to the Covid-19 treatment online visit page: https://clinic.amazon.com/dp/B0BL1Z6VXB?ref_=sf_ac_covid
If for some reason that doesn’t work, go to the main clinic page, click “Find a treatment,” and then click Covid-19. https://clinic.amazon.com/
Click “Get Started.”
I did “Message Only.” No phone or video call. Basically just a chat screen. Messages also go to your email and phone if you choose and you can exit out of the chat window and return later if you need to.
I had 2 choices of an “online clinic” - Curai and Wheel. Both were the same price. Curai quoted me a shorter wait time. This probably depends on your home state because it asks that first.
The health screening questionnaire is basically a maze that you have to navigate correctly to get to your desired destination (a Paxlovid prescription), and the correct path is pretty narrow. It’s looking for a high-risk individual with a positive test in the last 5 days who doesn’t have immediate risk of a cardiac event. That last part is important because on my first attempt I checked the box for “chest tightness” and it kicked me out and told me to go to the ER. Pretty sure a lot of the initial symptoms it asks about are serious ones where it will just tell you to go to the ER. You’ll probably answer something wrong. Don’t worry; you can just click the back button in your browser and stay inside the questionnaire. BMI was my high risk qualifier.
Cost for the “visit” was $34 billed to my credit card saved with Amazon.
A family medicine MD replied in about 10 min. asking for timeline of positive home test and symptom onset. 10 min. later he replied with a proposed treatment protocol of a Paxlovid prescription and asked if I agreed with the proposed treatment plan. I agreed and the prescription was immediately sent to my local CVS and I got it within hours.
Neither Amazon nor the pharmacy will deliver Paxlovid to your house. You have to go pick it up in person. Both Amazon and my pharmacy explicitly stated this on the screen.
Pharmacist told me the 5-day course (10 packs of 3 pills each) would have been $1,500 without insurance, $325 with my insurance, and I happened to Google “Paxlovid coupon” and stumbled upon the Paxcess program/coupon and that made it completely free. American healthcare; go figure. Coupon is here: https://www.paxlovid.com/enroll-in-co-pay-program
Also, obligatory reminder to thoroughly check all the interactions and contraindications before taking this drug. There's a pretty long list.
Keep your heads up.

Hi. I have experienced some unusual symptoms, I believe something is wrong with me, and I am trying to figure out how to overcome these symptoms. I am 21/f and have always been very emotional and shy. I can still remember being in kindergarten and feeling scared and lost in my thoughts about everything. I would often sit alone and speak very little.
I didn’t notice it then, but now I see other kids doing kids things without overthinking, and it makes me wonder if something has always been wrong with me. I was always in my head, imagining things, and I never approached other people. I was(and still am, unfortunately not in my advantage) an overly empathetic child, but I couldn't help but notice that other kids didn't seem to worry about how others perceived them as much as I did.
Every social occasion would stress me out so much that my stomach would hurt. By the time I reached 7th grade, my hands suddenly started shaking. My mom took me to the doctor, who said I was just too emotional. The symptoms have worsened as I’ve aged. Now, I always have this strange feeling in my stomach and chest, like heavy butterflies on steroids.
I recently noticed that I hold my breath when I'm near others. My hands still shake but stop when I’m alone. I feel so self-conscious that it’s driving me crazy. I sweat a lot, and depending on the situation, I get so stressed that I can’t even hear what others are saying, which makes things worse because I end up ashamed of not hearing/understanding what they say.
The worst part is that I experience the most severe brain fog and start to act awkward, unintelligent and I feel extremely weird, like my whole body is on fire, I lose control of it and I feel like I have a disability. My logical thinking vanishes like poof. It takes me a long time to get comfortable with new people, and it’s even harder when there’s more than one person. My symptoms are so intense that sometimes I can’t concentrate on literally anything, I can't write my name, I can't add numbers in my head, and my vision gets bad and blurry.
I have managed to hide this well, but I am ready to try and get rid of these symptoms, because I will soon be starting work and I dont want to leave a bad impression on my colleagues. I've had people laugh or give strange looks at my behaviouclumsiness before and it felt sooo bad. Is anyone experiencing the same things? Is this anxiety? Am I sick? Is there something wrong with me? Can I get rid of this? Can social interactions ever be fun and not scary? Can I trick myself into enjoying social interactions? I want to clarify that I also have some days(unfortunately, not many) when I have none of the symptoms but I don't do anything different and I feel soo good. Does anyone know why?

This video is 20:45 long, just unsettling "Police photograph DEMON in basement The Ammons haunting"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo4t3ONJNFg&list=PLgRgJrlop--N6KgAaqA12wq1uz-P1NSbn&index=10&ab_channel=MrBallen

So I'm applying to numerical and high performance computing jobs, and this is about the most relevant experience I have. I haven't gotten a lot of responses to my resume since my work experience is mostly just teaching part time, so I wanted feedback on this section since I'm keeping this at the top of my resume, right under my education section. Is it weird to include... everything? Like libraries and stuff too? And my "projects" are mostly just really long homework assignments for some classes, but it's really all that's relevant...
https://preview.redd.it/6aopu8y0fu1d1.png?width=1001&format=png&auto=webp&s=1bc61b9e0e07494b590a85ead29c5f6a02707220

The three things that mattered to me. Nothing more, nothing less.
Love has forsaken me not telling me why. It was not something I did, not something I am. It's just not happening, were her parting words. Maybe it's a lie out of kindness, but it hurts just the same.
I found passion in my stories. Sometimes I clicked, sometimes typed, sometimes together with a lot more. It didn't pay much, but it kept my soul happy. Not for long. The ugliness of the world kept me on my toes. I have to do more, echoed in my bones. I stood amidst a forest being burnt, and it was the last photo I clicked. A sacrifice was needed I felt, or so i was tricked.
To do more, to save the world, to do the best I can, with the tools and gifts that I have. IFoS. I knew nothing more than the calling. Started from dust. Did everything I can for years and years through. Pre.. mains and finally interview. Destiny at the door, waiting to start the fight. Wait more, says the world, as I missed the call by 4 marks. Do I have it in me to go through this again? With pre around the corner, is there enough time? You are enough, but just not quite says the score. Is this the end?
The three things that mattered to me. Gave everything for them. One was lost without reason. One was forsaken in an idealist fit. One says you are worthy but you won't get it. A life with all the noble choices made, hardwork done, resilience shown.. just to end up a failure..

Round 11 deadline: Wednesday 22nd May, 9pm GMT

Hi peopleee! Sorry it's been so long since I last posted, I've been pretty busy with stuff. But anyway, let's find out which episodes got the most votes in round 10...
...
Perfect Day. There wasn't really anything interesting about the results this time, but Perfect Day got 4 votes.
Which episode will be eliminated next? It's up to youuuuu.
Vote for the episode that you like *the least. The episode that gathers the most votes will be eliminated with the **22nd place in this game. Make sure you have watched all episodes before voting and don't vote more than once. (I don't think you can anyway)*

VOTE IN ROUND 11 HERE

Round 10 results
Perfect Episodes: (SPOILERS!!!)
S1E1 - Who Do You Think You Are?:

• Alison and Mike inherit Button House
• Ghosts haunt them
• Captain annoyed at Fanny screaming

S1E2 - Gorilla War:

• Mike starts renovating house
• Ghosts annoy Alison
• Alison accepts ghosts as real

S1E3 - Happy Death Day:

• Pat's death day, family visit
• Kitty asks where babies come from
• Captain & Julian try to get rid of builders

S1E5 - Moonah Ston:

• Beg-Chetwyns visit for dinner party
• Captain & Mary help kill/prepare pheasant
• Ghosts do Moonah Ston ritual & watch Friends

S2E3 - Redding Weddy:

• Captain flashback
• A&M clear garden
• Fanny fancies Mike
• Pat keeps ghosts occupied (moon landing video, volleyball)

S2E4 - The Thomas Thorne Affair:

• Thomas death flashbacks
• Mike worries about meeting Alison's ex

S2E5 - Bump in the Night:

• Alison goes out
• Burglars break into house
• Ghosts try to warn Mike

S2E7 - The Ghost of Christmas:

• Mike's family visit for Xmas, parents help too much
• Julian feels guilty about avoiding family at Xmas
• Alison gets presents for ghosts

S3E1 - The Bone Plot:

• TV crew making documentary about Humphrey (death flashback)
• Julian thinks Barclay is having heart attack
• Pat tries to make Fanny & Captain laugh
• Thomas prepares Alison for interview

S3E2 - A Lot to Take In:

• Alison meets Lucy
• Julian remembers first day as ghost
• Mike starts new job
• Kitty & Pat dance

S3E3 - The Woodworm Men:

• A&M camp outside during fumigation
• Kitty watches Grease

S3E4 - I Love Lucy:

• Captain spies on Lucy
• Julian changes Mike's emails
• Fanny has affair with Humphrey's body

S3E5 - Something to Share?:

• Kitty shares story about ball
• Mike tries to find way to see ghosts

S3E6 - Part of the Family:

• Mike films promotional video
• Ghosts find out Lucy is lying
• Ghosts do drama/improvisation club

S4E2 - Speak as ye Choose:

• Annie teaching Mary to say what she wants flashback
• Kitty shows Captain how to live in moment
• Thomas goes cold turkey on Alison addiction
• Mike's old friends stay at gatehouse

S4E3 - The Hardest Word:

• A&M try to have relaxing day
• Ghosts make apology song

S4E4 - Gone Gone:

• Pat cheers Kitty up over Mary moving on
• Mike organises children's birthday party last minute
• Alison helps ghosts deal with their feelings about Mary

S4E6 - Not Again:

• Robin's death flashback
• Mike buys giant bear
• Kitty starts talking by saying opposite of what she means

S4E7 - It's Behind You:

• Ghosts put on panto
• Alison shows Pat old VHS recordings
• A&M get stuck in traffic on way to parents

S5E1 - Fools:

• Alison does April Fool's pranks on ghosts
• Insurance company person investigates insurance claim for fire

S5E3 - Pineapple Day:

• Ghosts figure out how Kitty died
• Mike discusses selling land with Barclay
• Thomas, Julian & Humphrey want blue plaque
• Kitty watches 'Is It Cake?'

S5E5 - Carpe Diem:

• A&M have spontaneous night out
• Robin thinks someone will move on before midnight
• Fanny & Julian make most of possible last day
• Captain's death flashback

Eliminated Episodes:*
34th place: S5E7 - A Christmas Gift
33rd place: S3E7- He Came!
32nd place: S2E1 - The Grey Lady
31st place: S2E2 - About Last Night
30th place: S4E5 - Poached Guests
29th place: S4E1 - Happy Holiday
28th place: S1E4 - Free Pass
27th place: S5E2 - Home
26th place: S1E6 - Getting Out
25th place: S5E4 - En Français
24th place: S5E6 - Last Resort
23rd place: S2E6 - Perfect Day

I'm using this to get my thoughts together and figure out what I exactly believe and if there is a word for it.
I feel like I believe in a god that doesn't interfere in the lives of intelligent beings. I think that it's more like in Futurama when Bender becomes God to those little fellas and he eventually drifts finding God. God in the show says, "when you do things right people will wonder if you did anything at all."
I don't believe that this God created life on planets. I believe that God created the fundamentals for life to develop on its own. I believe that they are a neutral observer to the universe and put rules (physics/astrophysics) to the chaos.
I believe that science is the understanding of God as a natural being. I don't believe that the supernatural is unnatural but is part of the natural world. And I've had encounters with things that would be considered to other people as supernatural. I've knew someone was going to die before they were even sick yet. I've seen a few ghosts too. And I don't have schizophrenia I've been told so by my psychiatrist. And every other psychiatrist I've had. Because seeing ghosts made me think I was crazy at first so I asked the professionals about it. And low and behold I'm not crazy.
I believe in the natural order of the universe. I believe human sexuality should not be repressed but celebrated as a part of the human experience. I believe that the human experience is very important and I think that we should be kind and compassionate towards others.I believe that hardship teaches us lessons in life. Not that hardship is good, don't get me wrong please. It's just a chance to learn and grow. I've had a hard life up until 5 years ago so I know hardship. But without it I wouldn't know my boundaries. I would not know what I value in family and friends. I mean I could do without the C-PTSD but that's out of my control and no use in tearing myself up over it.
I don't believe in Jesus. If he was a real man I believe he was just an apocalyptic cult leader that's ideology exploded after his death. I also don't believe in the abrahamic God. He is evil.
So I'm sure my beliefs will grow as time goes on but this is just the basic stuff I guess. If there is a word for how I believe let me know. And I'm sorry this is so long. I hope you have a wonderful day/ night.

I am looking for advise for the best career that would match my skills/interests. Generally I am looking for a job that is in my interests that i can have long term and have a decent life doing. Once the career is found and can ensure it will pay the bills, then I will go back to college or get the training needed to make it happen. But finding the correct job is proving to be difficult.
Education: I have attempted to get a engineering degree but have determined that the higher level math (calc 3 etc) is out of my league to understand. I would love to go back to school but need to determine an acceptable major or career goal first. So far this has made me wonder if i would need to stop at associates for an engineering technician level or change degree paths altogether.
Work Experience: Assembler - I once worked assembling large press machines, I enjoyed it and learned a lot. The only downside was the pay, commute, and union vs management squabbles. If i could get a better paying version of this it would probably be nice. Carpenter - enjoyed the building parts and design but hated the amount of mess. the mess of all the stains and paints, the dependency of good weather, all of that is not for me. I do not enjoy being outside for work or being covered in grime, paint, dirt, etc. Chemical bonding operator- used chemicals to glue small pieces of circuits to small metal parts that had to be extremely precise. it was the same thing over and over again of tiny little parts of assembly. very very boring. step 1 glue 1 little piece. step 2-50 repeat. put in kiln to cure. now do again 50+ more times today. super dull. Computer operator - designing ppts, spreadsheets, etc. paid really well, indoors, but very boring and was very much custom service. tried my hand at this during COVID and I could do it well, but it burns me out to be so customer service focus and just the same little ppts and spreadsheets every day.
From what I have experienced in many other jobs, I prefer controlled environments aka indoor work, even if it is a large factory or something, just not outdoors, and i love hands on work that slightly changes daily. building and assembling things has been really nice.
​
Any career advice or job ideas would be apreciated.

i all, 28WS on a throw away account in the US.
I'll try and spark note this.
I've been addicted to porn for over half my life. This lead to me looking/desiring to sleep around and have the sexual college experience in my early 20's. Spouse found emails and confronted me. We stayed together but I still kept hunting. BS kept finding out.
Eventually we had a talk, BS was bi curious at the time and said they'd be willing to try looking for a unicorn. We eventually did, twice. But it came with a long burnout and lots of talking on both ends. The second one was almost two years ago. We started looking when I was 23.
I've recently (relatively speeking) been getting therapy to quit the porn as I saw it as the root cause of all my sexual issues. BS and I tried looking for one last unicorn, but I noticed the hunting (sensing a securing theme here?) Was making the cravings worse.
I made the decision to quit the swinging life all together and focus on me and healing my mind. But nothing has changed. I've fallen right back into my old habits of wanting to sleep around and finding away not to be caught.
It was just a day or two ago that I realized I'm fighting two addictions. I want to make peace with this part of my life and move on from it. But the unfulfilled desire is extremely hard for me to let go.
Aside from using blocking aps which only make me hunt harder as I thrive on a challenge (i.e. looking for the blockers weak points). What can I do to stop this desire? How do I give that part of me the closure it needs?

This video is 4:58 long, not scary "The real life horror story that inspired a movie"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o9F7FW8Lzc&list=PLgRgJrlop--N6KgAaqA12wq1uz-P1NSbn&index=7&ab_channel=MrBallen

Based on the title it might sound bad but hear me out.
My friends and I have been close since freshman year of college and we all currently live together. Due to some setbacks, both of my friends did not get to graduate this semester, but I did. We knew that the day of my graduation would be the last day we were all in the same place for the summer as we all had summer positions in different places.
My roommates, a month in advance, asked if they could go to my graduation. I had a limited number of tickets so I suggested that they come to the school tradition part of graduation where all the graduates jump into the river on campus. I have gone to see my friends jump in the past and it is just a really special time and highlight of graduating. They said they would attend and I thought that was it.
The closer we got to graduation they both kept talking about how they couldn’t wait to graduate and how sick of school they were. They never asked me how I was feeling about my own graduation. The week of my graduation they both informed me that they had stuff to do that day. Friend A needed to drive 2 hours to another friends graduation and Friend B had work that night at 5. They still insisted they could come.
I woke up the morning of my graduation to friend A with packed bags telling me she’s leaving. I leave to my ceremony without a word from Friend B and she does not show up to the river jumping ceremony. I come home at 3 and she is just in her room, and does not say congrats.
Neither one of them asked me about how my graduation was, or attended after they said they would. I told them I was disappointed and they gave me long sorry messages but they didn’t feel very genuine. I don’t know if I can feel the same closeness to them anymore and idk what to do or if I can forgive them. Is there any advice on how to proceed with our friendship?
TLD my friends said they would come to my graduation and then they didn’t show up

Tom took another look at the dwindling encampment as his dismay began to fade away. "Whoever's left to hang out with are the most committed to the cause" he thought to himself. "If anything, I'll have more fun than I did before." And after all, they had a good lineup of activists scheduled to visit in the next few days, and an anarchist band had even agreed to play this afternoon. He had definitely noticed a rapid drop in the number of campers since the end of the semester, and had even begun to doubt that they would be able to get any sort of concessions out of the university. But his thinking had changed after hearing the speeches that morning.
First to speak was Tom's friend and comrade, Eric. His impassioned indictment of the Israeli government reminded Tom of the importance of their activism. Then came the married grad students, the Trotskyist Abdou and the pan-Arabist Farida. They were international students studying English and anthropology, respectively. Or was it anthropology and sociology? Abdou lectured on the university's connection to the military-industrial complex. His speech was filled with threats to the administration that Tom was sure the limp-dicked Trot had no means of fulfilling. Even so, he had to admit that despite all his other inadequacies, Abdou was a powerful speaker. Finally came Farida. Tom had always considered her the best speaker of them all, but frankly he had a hard time taking his eyes off her whether she was speaking or not. He had tried flirting with her before, and he got the feeling that Abdou was even more into it than she was. Thinking about it now, he couldn't quite remember what her speech had been about, but it had certainly improved his spirits.
As the "Bacon Brigade" began setting up their instruments, Tom decided to make a point of dancing with Farida that afternoon. As the average tent now held two campers rather than five, he even thought he might get a chance to enjoy some of the newfound privacy.
...
When there was a break in the music, Tom sauntered over to the table where Abdou was sitting. As an ML, Tom could hardly stand Trotskyists, but he put on a smile for the sake of "left unity."
"She's a good dancer isn't she?" said Abdou.
"Oh yes, the best," agreed Tom. He was trying to think of a way of progressing his slow seduction of this Muslim woman and decided to be bold. "Look Abdou, the band will be winding down soon, why don't you both come back to my tent and I'll show you some comradely hospitality. I also have some suggestions that I know you'll love."
Abdou's mind was racing with the possibilities of the situation. Would this be the chance to see his wife seduced and taken by this big stud? Supposing Farida won't agree? Before he could engage his brain Abdou found himself agreeing to Tom's offer. "Wonderful, wonderful," beamed Tom and he could feel his big cock twitch at the thought of bedding Abdou's beautiful wife.
Just then Farida reappeared. "What are you two talking about?" she said.
Before Abdou could say a word, Tom said "Well my dear, your husband has kindly accepted my invitation of hospitality at my tent."
Farida didn't know what to say. She had thought Abdou would whisk her off back to the hotel and give her the fucking she desperately needed. Rubbing up against Tom's manhood had taken its toll. "Well I suppose we could come and see where you camp," she said, "but we mustn't stay too late must we Abdou?"
"What? I err no, I suppose not," stammered Abdou as Tom rose and offered Farida his arm.
And the three of them found themselves heading off to tent where the lives of Abdou and Farida would be changed forever. As they walked along Abdou held one of Farida's arms and Tom the other. However, after a while Abdou consciously let go of his wife's arm and stepped behind Tom.
This was not lost on the big white and he put his big protective arm around Abdou's wife as if to say to everyone "she's mine." If Farida hadn't been so dazed by the afternoon's events, she might have noticed various other white students smiling at Tom with knowing grins. They had recognized the situation immediately; a Muslim couple with cuckold husband following on as a big powerful white man led the wife to his cot.
Soon they reached Tom's tent and both Abdou and Farida were pleasantly surprised at how spacious it was. "Let me get you some coffee," said Tom as both Abdou and Farida collapsed onto a big sleeping bag.
Having sorted the drinks, Tom put some music on, and crawling over to Farida he said, "Can we have another dance Farida, you're such a good dancer?"
Before Farida could answer she felt her husband pushing her up. "Go on Farida, you know how much you enjoy it."
Abdou secretly wanted to see his wife in the arms of this Adonis again and who knows maybe more. Having no real reason to object, Farida agreed and as she accepted Toms hand she couldn't help but feel a shiver at the thought of being reacquainted with his penis, albeit covered by his trousers. However, as they left the tent she had a suspicion that he wasn't wearing any under garments since his penis had seemed so clearly outlined earlier.
As he clasped her to himself Tom could feel his big cock twitch once again. He moved one hand down to the small of her back, just to test the waters and meeting no resistance after another minute or so he moved his hand onto her sexy bottom. He could feel through the thin dress that Farida wasn't wearing thick pants, or perhaps only very skimpy ones and he couldn't wait to see her naked.
Farida felt lost in a different world as she circled round with this big man. Not only could she feel his penis growing hard against her once more, but she felt his big hand on her bottom pulling her onto his hardness. When she looked at her husband (still sitting in the tent), she noticed that he was just rubbing his own penis through his trousers. "My goodness," she thought, "he's getting turned on watching us. Supposing I flirt a bit more and show him what he's missing?"
With that Farida deliberately started to open her legs and let Tom's muscular leg rub against her inflamed sex.
This change in Farida's demeanor was not lost on Tom. As he led her back to the tent, he let his hands roam all over the back of this sexy hijabi Muslim wife and he leaned down to kiss and nibble her neck and ears. He heard Farida sigh and knew that he was close to capturing this sexy wife. "Fatima, let's give Abdou a show to remember shall we?"
Farida was brought back from her dreamlike state by Tom's question. "What do you mean?" she asked.
Almost in a whisper Tom said, "You know, a bit of thesis-antithesis-synthesis."
He had already found the zipper that ran down the back of Farida's dress and he had it in his hands as he spoke to her. He slowly started to pull the zipper down and it was half way down her back before Farida realised what was happening. "Wait Tom, we can't do this, I'm married."
"So what of it, Abdou wants me to undress you, don't you Abdou?"
Abdou had no hesitation in replying in the affirmative. This is what he had wanted for so long.
Caught in the confusion and surprise of hearing her husband say that he wanted to see another man, undress her, Farida just lay there while Tom pulled the zipper right down and then eased the dress off her shoulders. Suddenly she realised that she was lying in only her stockings, garter belt, and thong panties.
As she looked up at Tom she saw something that she hadn't seen in a man for years and that was undisguised lust. This man was lusting after her, this married women! She should have felt ashamed at her feelings but she didn't. Having got half-naked, she realised that she was enjoying the attention of this muscular white man. In fact she decided to crawl around in front of him as if to say 'look at what my husband has and you haven't'.
This might have been a foolish act, but it merely served to confirm what both men knew. For Tom it confirmed that Farida was absolutely gorgeous, the sexiest Muslim woman he had ever seen and that she needed to be loved sexually. For Abdou as he fingered his painfully erect cock, he knew that he was just a few steps away from pushing his wife into a sleeping bag with another man. He was close to realizing his fantasy.
Tom pulled Farida to him, lifted her face to his and he kissed her. Farida would always remember that first kiss since it was both passionate but more significantly the precursor to her crossing a line that could not be re- crossed, and to setting in motion events that would last her and her husband a lifetime. She accepted his big tongue into her mouth and her tongue fenced with his. She could feel his big hands roaming all over body now.
In her trance-like state it seemed quite natural that Tom should start to remove his clothing. Both Farida and Abdou watched as the big man removed his shirt to reveal a hugely-muscled chest and then he dropped his trousers and just as Farida had suspected he wore no underwear. His big cock reared up in all is magnificence and Tom was gratified to hear both husband and wife express surprise at his size.
Tom crawled over to the sleeping bag where Farida was sitting and crouched in front of her, his big cock semi erect. Farida's head was at the same level as the big man's groin and she was amazed at the whole size and muscularity of this man. Her trance-like state was broken by Tom who said softly "Take my cock into your mouth."
Farida was aghast, "I can't! It's dirty and I've never done that before."
Tom laughed to himself. This wife was indeed naive and yet he was gratified that he would be the first man to have his cock sucked by her. Lifting her face so that she could look into his eyes, Tom said, "As we hear from German ideologists, Germany has in the last few years gone through an unparalleled revolution. The decomposition of the Hegelian philosophy, which began with Strauss, has developed into a universal ferment into which all the “powers of the past” are swept. In the general chaos mighty empires have arisen only to meet with immediate doom, heroes have emerged momentarily only to be hurled back into obscurity by bolder and stronger rivals. It was a revolution beside which the French Revolution was child’s play, a world struggle beside which the struggles of the Diadochi [successors of Alexander the Great] appear insignificant. Principles ousted one another, heroes of the mind overthrew each other with unheard-of rapidity, and in the three years 1842-45 more of the past was swept away in Germany than at other times in three centuries.
"All this is supposed to have taken place in the realm of pure thought.
"Certainly it is an interesting event we are dealing with: the putrescence of the absolute spirit. When the last spark of its life had failed, the various components of this caput mortuum began to decompose, entered into new combinations and formed new substances. The industrialists of philosophy, who till then had lived on the exploitation of the absolute spirit, now seized upon the new combinations. Each with all possible zeal set about retailing his apportioned share. This naturally gave rise to competition, which, to start with, was carried on in moderately staid bourgeois fashion. Later when the German market was glutted, and the commodity in spite of all efforts found no response in the world market, the business was spoiled in the usual German manner by fabricated and fictitious production, deterioration in quality, adulteration of the raw materials, falsification of labels, fictitious purchases, bill-jobbing and a credit system devoid of any real basis. The competition turned into a bitter struggle, which is now being extolled and interpreted to us as a revolution of world significance, the begetter of the most prodigious results and achievements.
"If we wish to rate at its true value this philosophic charlatanry, which awakens even in the breast of the honest German citizen a glow of national pride, if we wish to bring out clearly the pettiness, the parochial narrowness of this whole Young-Hegelian movement and in particular the tragicomic contrast between the illusions of these heroes about their achievements and the actual achievements themselves, we must look at the whole spectacle from a standpoint beyond the frontiers of Germany.
"Ideology in General, German Ideology in Particular: German criticism has, right up to its latest efforts, never quitted the realm of philosophy. Far from examining its general philosophic premises, the whole body of its inquiries has actually sprung from the soil of a definite philosophical system, that of Hegel. Not only in their answers but in their very questions there was a mystification. This dependence on Hegel is the reason why not one of these modern critics has even attempted a comprehensive criticism of the Hegelian system, however much each professes to have advanced beyond Hegel. Their polemics against Hegel and against one another are confined to this – each extracts one side of the Hegelian system and turns this against the whole system as well as against the sides extracted by the others. To begin with they extracted pure unfalsified Hegelian categories such as “substance” and “self-consciousness,” later they desecrated these categories with more secular names such as species “the Unique,” “Man,” etc.
"The entire body of German philosophical criticism from Strauss to Stirner is confined to criticism of religious conceptions. [The following passage is crossed out in the manuscript:] claiming to be the absolute redeemer of the world from all evil. Religion was continually regarded and treated as the arch-enemy, as the ultimate cause of all relations repugnant to these philosophers. The critics started from real religion and actual theology. What religious consciousness and a religious conception really meant was determined variously as they went along. Their advance consisted in subsuming the allegedly dominant metaphysical, political, juridical, moral and other conceptions under the class of religious or theological conceptions; and similarly in pronouncing political, juridical, moral consciousness as religious or theological, and the political, juridical, moral man – “man” in the last resort – as religious. The dominance of religion was taken for granted. Gradually every dominant relationship was pronounced a religious relationship and transformed into a cult, a cult of law, a cult of the State, etc. On all sides it was only a question of dogmas and belief in dogmas. The world was sanctified to an ever-increasing extent till at last our venerable Saint Max was able to canonise it en bloc and thus dispose of it once for all.
"The Old Hegelians had comprehended everything as soon as it was reduced to an Hegelian logical category. The Young Hegelians criticised everything by attributing to it religious conceptions or by pronouncing it a theological matter. The Young Hegelians are in agreement with the Old Hegelians in their belief in the rule of religion, of concepts, of a universal principle in the existing world. Only, the one party attacks this dominion as usurpation, while the other extols it as legitimate.
"Since the Young Hegelians consider conceptions, thoughts, ideas, in fact all the products of consciousness, to which they attribute an independent existence, as the real chains of men (just as the Old Hegelians declared them the true bonds of human society) it is evident that the Young Hegelians have to fight only against these illusions of consciousness. Since, according to their fantasy, the relationships of men, all their doings, their chains and their limitations are products of their consciousness, the Young Hegelians logically put to men the moral postulate of exchanging their present consciousness for human, critical or egoistic consciousness, and thus of removing their limitations. This demand to change consciousness amounts to a demand to interpret reality in another way, i.e. to recognise it by means of another interpretation. The Young-Hegelian ideologists, in spite of their allegedly “world-shattering" statements, are the staunchest conservatives. The most recent of them have found the correct expression for their activity when they declare they are only fighting against “phrases.” They forget, however, that to these phrases they themselves are only opposing other phrases, and that they are in no way combating the real existing world when they are merely combating the phrases of this world. The only results which this philosophic criticism could achieve were a few (and at that thoroughly one-sided) elucidations of Christianity from the point of view of religious history; all the rest of their assertions are only further embellishments of their claim to have furnished, in these unimportant elucidations, discoveries of universal importance.
"It has not occurred to any one of these philosophers to inquire into the connection of German philosophy with German reality, the relation of their criticism to their own material surroundings.
"First Premises of Materialist Method: The premises from which we begin are not arbitrary ones, not dogmas, but real premises from which abstraction can only be made in the imagination. They are the real individuals, their activity and the material conditions under which they live, both those which they find already existing and those produced by their activity. These premises can thus be verified in a purely empirical way.
"The first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living human individuals. Thus the first fact to be established is the physical organisation of these individuals and their consequent relation to the rest of nature. Of course, we cannot here go either into the actual physical nature of man, or into the natural conditions in which man finds himself – geological, hydrographical, climatic and so on. The writing of history must always set out from these natural bases and their modification in the course of history through the action of men.
"Men can be distinguished from animals by consciousness, by religion or anything else you like. They themselves begin to distinguish themselves from animals as soon as they begin to produce their means of subsistence, a step which is conditioned by their physical organisation. By producing their means of subsistence men are indirectly producing their actual material life.
"The way in which men produce their means of subsistence depends first of all on the nature of the actual means of subsistence they find in existence and have to reproduce. This mode of production must not be considered simply as being the production of the physical existence of the individuals. Rather it is a definite form of activity of these individuals, a definite form of expressing their life, a definite mode of life on their part. As individuals express their life, so they are. What they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce. The nature of individuals thus depends on the material conditions determining their production.
"This production only makes its appearance with the increase of population. In its turn this presupposes the intercourse [Verkehr] of individuals with one another. The form of this intercourse is again determined by production.
[continues in comment]

Tá, esse texto vai ser besta, tipo, "nossa quem liga pra My Little Pony?" Mas eu gosto de falar sobre coisas que não importam na vida real (afinal estamos no Reddit)
Muita gente pode achar que My Little Pony tem fãs tranquilos e legais que só gostam desse desenho. Mas isso tá longe da realidade, a maioria da fanbase de MLP se resume a A) homens de meia idade que fazem animações gore/nsfw pra enganar crianças B) crianças, que de fato são o público alvo Nunca na vida eu conheci uma fandom com a maior concentração de gente podre por metro quadrado, eu tinha 8 anos quando fazia parte daquele inferno e só saí de lá quando meu cérebro decidiu se viciar em outra coisa
Eu já não interagia com nada de MLP desde quando o desenho acabou e achava que com a nova cultura de fandom da internet o povo ia ser menos pior agora, mas eu tava enganada. Uma só fanart da Pinkie Pie humana foi o bastante pra desencadear o apocalipse naquele fandom, desmascarando que no final, os fãs desse desenho continuam sendo misóginos, racistas, transfobicos e coisas piores. Agora eu tô vendo crianças sendo infectadas com essa visão nojenta de mundo e fiquei genuinamente irritada que essa gente não aprendeu nada com o fandom de 2010. Esses novos fãs de MLP se dariam muito bem com os fãs antigos na época do 4chan, como pode nada ter mudado nesses 14 anos?
Enfim a maioria das pessoas não vai entender uma palavra que saiu da minha boca (ou dedos) e tá tudo bem, só acho que essa fandom podia queimar de uma vez pra gente ter paz no mundo, nenhuma fandom vai ser pior que MLP. E minha vida tá boa demais e eu preciso me irritar com algo fútil pq eu sobrevivo de energia negativa, abraços!

18f and aside from when I was younger I have not once had any goals or aspirations for my current/future career. I’ve always done ok in school but never cared for any of the subjects. I would mostly just talk to my friends, and refused to wear glasses to school for 5 years so I barely even knew what the lessons were about. I picked my 2 GCSE selectives based on what I thought I would have to put the least amount of effort into, and then when I had to continue my education, I picked a low effort college course where I would only have to go in 3 days a week, and my attendance is still >60%.
I finish college next month and my mum wants me to get a part time job but I cannot find a single thing I would care to do. I don’t believe I have any skills, and would probably be particularly bad in customer service which makes up most available part time jobs near me.
Long term, I would like to go to uni and get a degree as have most of my family but I have still I have no idea what I want to do.
The only thing I enjoy spending time doing is hanging out with my friends. Aside from that I sit at home and do nothing, I have no hobbies etc, and get bored after a week when I try to pick anything up.
Any advice? Ty

I have a list of 11 schools I’m planning to apply to. However, there’s one school on my list that I’m considering applying ED to because of the following reasons: 1. If accepted ED, I’d get a full ride. 2. They’re decently ranked (6th highest of all the schools I’m applying to). 3. My long-term partner lives in the area.
Applying ED makes sense to me considering the pros of doing so, but part of me is worried I’d be missing out on potentially getting a better offer at a better school. Having as little debt as possible is important to me and I would preferably want to live near my partner, so I know logically it makes sense to apply ED but I can’t stop thinking about the other possibilities I’d be missing out on (even though the chances of actually getting in to the program I’d be applying to are like .025%). If anyone has advice I’d love to hear it EDIT: The school in question has good outcomes for my desired path

Hopefully this isn’t downvoted instantly, because I know people seem to get strangely very defensive about Beast’s characterization in this run. I think there is a lot of miscommunication whenever a Beast fan complains about how he was depicted here. Often times people will discount those complaints because they think Beast fans just don’t want him to go bad, when that doesn’t really seem to be the whole truth from what I’ve seen. Ultimately, the complaints I raise and I have seen others raise are more about thinking the writing of his spiral in X-Force 2019 was not done well rather than that said spiral shouldn’t have happened at all. With the Krakoa era coming to an end, and “From the Ashes” having the now-rebooted Beast who is pulled all the way from his time on The Defenders, I don’t see any of the flaws here being addressed beyond characters casually referring to how bad he became. So I wanted to take this time in the in-between, where our new Beast is apparently just chilling on Wonder Man’s couch while the rest of the X-Men fight against Orchis and Nimrod, to once and for all lay out the flaws of Beast’s villainous era, and establish not that it shouldn’t have happened, but that it could have been way better.
Problem 1: A Lack of Pathos:
Most X-Men fans who have been reading for awhile will agree that it’s honestly surprising more mutants haven’t gone down a dark path. Their history is one of striving for acceptance, putting their lives on the line for people who would rather see them dead, and being rewarded with not one but multiple genocides on their population. Some of the most interesting stories can actually come from a formally “upstanding” mutant finally deciding enough is enough. When Cyclops went down his “villainous” path, it made a lot of sense. We’d seen him becoming more disenfranchised with the dream for years. We’d seen his trust in Xavier erode time and time again, and so when he decided to stop asking for acceptance and start demanding it, it was hard to blame him. Even as we saw most of his friends turn against him, that didn’t stop people from declaring “Cyclops Was Right,” because his perspective could easily be understood, and he did achieve results. More recently in X-Men ‘97, we saw Rogue go down a dark path in the wake of Genosha being wiped out, including Magneto and Gambit. Again, this was understood, and it was an interesting direction for her character.
This sort of turn would also make a ton of sense for Hank McCoy. Did you know that back towards the start of the original Uncanny X-Men run, Hank was actually the first X-Men we ever saw to leave the team and say that Magneto was right, after he and Bobby were attacked by an angry mob because Hank used his powers to save a young child? Over the years, one of Hank’s most recurring struggles and arcs is self-loathing and eventual acceptance of his condition. Hank has always been at his darkest when he’s trapped in his spiral of self-loathing, but when he comes out the other side, he tends to be one of the most optimistic mutants when it comes to coexistence with humans. He was out making connections and fighting alongside non-mutants before anyone else. Joining the Avengers and Defenders, speaking on behalf of mutant rights before congress, dating human women who were able to accept his appearance, blue fur and all. Until they weren’t… looking at you, Trish Tilby.
So with all of this in mind, it would honestly be an extremely interesting arc to see Hank, this optimistic mutant who has spent his life building bridges and making connections with humanity, to be slowly beaten down and start to believe peace is not an option. As one of the original X-Men, he has been there through every tragedy that struck the mutant population. And as one of the smartest X-Men, he has usually been at the center of these crises. He has seen advancements in science meant to eradicate the mutants. He has fought against viruses that threaten to drive them extinct. He was there in the wreckage of Genosha. He has seen countless friends killed again and again. He has suffered his own mutation evolving and making him less and less human-looking. He saw the development of a mutant “cure” and was tempted to take it. He has seen it all.
And so that brings us to Krakoa. This is the moment where the mutants as a whole decided enough was enough. If they could not be accepted by humanity, they would pack up and form their own nation, and they would force humanity to accept that they exist by developing life-saving drugs that other nations would have to rely on. And what is one of the first things that happens after the establishment of Krakoa? Hank witnesses assassins infiltrate the island and assassinate Charles Xavier. This right here is honestly the perfect setup for Hank to go darker than he has before. Even after literally segregating the mutant population from humanity, like humanity seemed to want, they still decided to come and kill the man at the forefront of the movement. And Hank, recently placed in charge of mutant black-ops, would likely see that all options are on the table.
Unfortunately, Hank’s actual pathos surrounding the decisions he would go on to make is not explored by the book itself. The book has no interest in detailing Hank’s fall from grace as we saw with Cyclops before him. The book just wants us to accept that Hank has already fallen. And in fact, according to the writing, maybe he never had anywhere to fall from. Any time a character in X-Force tries to ask important questions to understand Hank’s thought process, they are cut off. Usually by Wolverine saying “He’s always been like this.” And then on one occasion, when Wolverine asked Hank why he was doing all this dark shit, Hank said, “Didn’t you read the script? I’ve always been like this.” There is no attempt to examine Hank as a character. We don’t need to know why Hank makes the decisions he does, because this book wants Hank to be a black and white villain and so that’s what he will be. Why? Because he’s always been like this.
Problem 2: Rapid Escalation:
One of the major defenses people have when it comes to Krakoan Hank is that he has apparently been on the road to his villainous self for over a decade. The X-Force run itself loved to have characters spout a list of Hank’s previous “crimes” without any context involved, as justification for why he was acting the way he did in the current run. The problem is, that context is very important. Because it shows the disparity in the Hank of previous stories who made mistakes with good intentions vs the Hank of X-Force who did heinous shit because he wanted to. This was less a plane making a slow descent and more a plane that was slowly descending, but then its engines shut off and it plummeted into a fiery explosion.
To make this case, we need to briefly analyze the previous perceived transgressions of Hank McCoy to show what they actually meant for his character and how they differ from the Bond villain X-Force would present us with. Let’s start with Threnody. Somehow, Threnody became a bit of a buzzword for the beginning of the end for Hank. When people talk about the history of Hank and Threnody, they will usually present it as one of Hank’s worst sins, saying something like “Hank callously handed Threnody over to Mr. Sinister so he could experiment on and abuse her!!!” It kind of makes for some whiplash when you actually read the Threnody story people are talking about. Here is a brief rundown of what actually happens:
Threnody is a young woman who cannot control her powers. It causes her no end of grief, and when we are introduced to her, she is homeless and constantly in danger of hurting herself or others. Beast, Rogue, and Iceman come across Threnody who has been found first by Mr. Sinister. Sinister actually has a vested interest in curing the Legacy Virus, and believes he can help Threnody master her powers, at which point she will prove vital in his efforts to study said Virus. Notably, Threnody wants to go with Sinister here. While Rogue disapproves, Hank does believe that Sinister is actually Threnody’s best option, openly stating Sinister can actually help her gain control and the X-Men cannot, because, as Hank directly says, Sinister is willing to damn parts of his soul in pursuit of scientific enlightenment, and the X-Men are not. A few issues later, when breaking into Sinister’s base, Hank encounters Threnody again. She’s happy. Sinister did indeed help her control her powers, and she has been able to use her abilities to help mutants the world over, while also undermining Sinister’s more evil operations from the inside. Hank expresses relief, saying he was kept up at night by his decision to let her go with Sinister, but Threnody actually thanks him for letting her. And that’s it. That’s Hank’s big “crime” here.
Hank’s other “sins” are also of varying levels of severity. There’s the time “Hank worked with his evil self to cure the Legacy Virus!” when the actual story in question is Hank asserting that he won’t stoop to the levels of Dark Beast and compromise his values in the name of science. There’s the time “Hank sided with the Inhumans against the X-Men!” when the actual story is Storm sending Hank to Attilan to find a way to end the conflict between mutants and inhumans before war broke out. Hank runs out of time to find a cure for the terrigen mist cloud, suggests mutants get off-world in the meantime rather than go to war with the inhumans, is thrown into a cell by the other X-Men for his “betrayal”, and then freed at the conclusion of the war by a repentant Storm when it comes to light that the whole conflict was manipulated by Emma Frost. There’s the time “Hank risked the timestream by bringing the original X-Men to the present day!” A decision that was made on his perceived deathbed with the hopes of bringing his old friend Cyclops back to his side. Hank wants to take the young mutants back right away, but they refuse. And instead of others enforcing that they need to return, we actually see Kitty Pride decide to lead them in the present in memory of Charles Xavier. Notably, Kitty would be one of the many mutants in future issues who would yell at Hank about this.
The point of this post isn’t to absolve Hank of all fault. He has made countless mistakes and bad decisions. Regardless of the culpability of others, the pulling of the O5 to the present was his decision. During Secret Empire, Hank would turn a blind eye to Hydra’s activity simply to keep the mutants under his care safe. During all of this, however, Hank’s character was not compromised. He expressed despair and regret over his worse choices, and struggled with thinking he was a good person any longer. Again, going back to his recurring struggle with self-loathing. He had pathos behind his decisions and how they affected him, and would often reunite with Wonder Man as an opportunity to recenter and declare he would “be better tomorrow than he was yesterday.”
You would think, if the aim of X-Force was to turn Hank into a full-on villain, it would take advantage of the long-form storytelling of comics to chronicle that escalation. Like I said, the assassination of Charles Xavier is a great starting point for Hank to start going darker than he ever has before. The problem is, we don’t get an escalation. Hank starts the run by doing some of the most heinous shit imaginable. Regardless of your thoughts on the severity of Hank’s previous mistakes, none of them compare to his opening volley in this run. Hank uses telefloronics to override and genocide an entire country, leaving various people either completely dead or braindead. We later find out that during this time he also established a space station where he ran unethical experiments on prisoners like Krakoa’s very own Dr. Mengele. He then accuses his old ally Colossus of conspiring with Russia against Krakoa, and calls forth the mutant population to witness as he parades a shamed Colossus through its streets. Then he kills Wolverine and resurrects him as a mindless animal who he uses as an attack dog against his perceived enemies. This isn’t an escalation, this is a different character. And the aforementioned lack of pathos means that we don’t get to see him struggle with these choices. We don’t see his thought process as he becomes darker and darker. Why would we? “He’s always been like this.”
Problem 3: No Personality:
One of the most fun aspects of turning a protagonist into an antagonist is seeing how their personality works with a more villainous mindset. When Cyclops became an “antagonist” to the X-Men, he was still Cyclops. He stuck to his convictions, he was a great leader and tactician, and he was able to turn many mutants to his side because of this. We’ve seen an evil Beast before. The creatively-named Dark Beast is from an alternate future where Beast went down a dark path lacking ethics. The fun of this character, besides comparing his ideologies with our Hank McCoy, is seeing how Hank’s penchant for jokes or quotes now become far more sinister and cutting.
There’s a strange narrative that the jokey Hank is reserved for the Avengers while the Hank with the X-Men is all business and science. This isn’t entirely true. Early on when he was a member of the Defenders, Hank talks about this sort of thing. He essentially says that he wears different hats. While working with the X-Men, he used big words essentially to gain respect from both his teammates and humanity. But with other teams, and in his then-new furry form, he dropped all of that. His speech became more naturalistic and he was much more of a goofball. The thing is, it’s the speech patterns that truly change depending on who Hank is hanging with, not his personality. Hank with the X-Men and Hank with the Avengers are both jovial characters who like to tell jokes and quote philosophy. You can see Hank being a bit of a clown among the X-Men in various runs. So it’s not like it’s a given that Hank is some entirely different dry doctor devoid of any sense of humor when among the X-Men.
But this is how Hank is portrayed in X-Force. Part of why this version of Hank is so hard to reconcile with the rest of his history for fans of the character is that he just doesn’t act like himself, even when he isn’t actively committing war crimes. In one early issue of the run, we get a glimpse at Beast’s journal where he accounts a meeting he had with Forge. Now, Beast has been known to be a very physical character. He is often known to sweep others into a hug, or even plant a big kiss on their face in the case of characters like Wonder Man or Iceman. Meanwhile this one page where we read his thoughts on Forge is clearly pretending this is not the case:

I paid Forge a visit in the Armory – and I must say that he can be, like Logan, rather impossible. There is a certain locker room bravado about him I find perplexing, like a language I only half understand. For instance, he refused to shake my hand but instead dragged me into what he called a “bro hug.” Then he challenged me to a “feat of strength,” asking if I would test out this sappy “muck bomb” he had developed that – or so I gather – glues one in place. He wondered if a “big boy” like me might be able to thrash free of the binding. I refused him and said I very much would prefer to get down to business. He then referred to me as a “bookish peckerwood @#$%” but did so with a friendly laugh and clapped me on the shoulder hard enough to make me stagger. I’m not sure how to process this, honestly. Is he being friendly or cruel? Is it possible to be both?

Needless to say, this doesn’t read like Beast. It reads like an android that has never before felt human emotion. I remember before reading this I was theorizing that Hank had been switched with Dark Beast once more to explain his sudden escalation, but after this I realized that couldn’t be the case. Because this sounds like neither Beast nor Dark Beast. Dark Beast understood how to properly write Hank as a villain. He doesn’t suddenly become your typical made scientist devoid of emotion, humor, or basic human understanding. He still makes jokes that are now cruel. He still quotes literature in a way that paints him as a god among men. Hank going bad can be a fun read, but this run was not.
Problem 4: No One Cares:
Another important angle to consider when writing a story of a good person breaking bad is how it affects those around them. Those who are close friends to the person and find themselves disturbed by their current actions. Again, I return to Cyclops. Regardless of where you stand on if he was right or not, he was very much positioned as an antagonist to the mutants at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Yet we see various friends of Cyclops still caring for him and wanting to pull him back from what they perceive as the dark side. Like I previously said, Beast’s whole reason for messing with the timeline was because he felt he was going to die and wanted to try to appeal to his old friend and bring him back around before he passed on. When someone good goes bad, part of the emotional core is seeing former friends try to appeal to their better nature, and even eventually deciding they’ve gone too far to turn back.
Not so with Hank in X-Force. Like I said, this run posits that this is not any kind of heel turn for Hank. This is how he’s always been. “Hank this isn’t you!” “No, he’s always been like this.” “Hank, turn back before it’s too late!” “Turn back where? He’s always been like this.” None of Hank’s friends give a shit. Hank’s best friend amongst the X-Men is Bobby Drake, Iceman, and we never once see any kind of confrontation there. Cyclops and Angel similarly doesn’t care. Now you could argue this is because X-Force is a secretive organization. Bobby and Scott don’t even know what Hank is doing. There are two issues with this. First, things reach a point where they would know. Hank’s actions become public knowledge, and Wolverine goes off to hunt him down while the rest of the X-Men just kinda look the other way. And second, there is someone with a lot of history with Hank that was a part of X-Force and did see everything that was going on. Jean Grey.
But we never get to see Jean wonder what’s happened to her close friend. Jean who was always incredibly close to Hank. Jean who, it was confirmed during the All-New X-Men era, had mutual feelings for Hank and might have started dating him had things been different. But no, Jean, like every character in this run, accepts that Hank has always been like this. That’s the answer to everything. So instead of some kind of emotional confrontation where she tries to appeal to his better nature, we instead have Jean yell at Hank, use her powers to throw him against a wall, and quit X-Force. And then most recently, we see her tell Firestar without hesitation to throw Hank under the bus for any heat that comes her way from her undercover mission. Because everyone will believe Hank is responsible for all the bad shit. Who the hell cares about Hank? According to this run, no one.
Conclusion:
I hope you can see the larger issue here. When Beast fans complain about his Krakoan era, people assume they just don’t want to see their favorite do bad things. But it’s practically accepted at this point in comics that most heroes will have a villain arc. Hell, Iceman is the only one of the original five X-Men who hasn’t gone down a dark path at this point. The problem is that everything about the writing of Hank during this time was just not done well. There is no exploration of Hank’s descent into villainy, and any questioning down that line is immediately shut down by the assertion that this is just who he’s always been. There isn’t any slow escalation because his first move is genocide. Hank is not even written as himself during this era, but rather as a generic bond villain. And none of Hank’s former close friends even show any emotion about his turn to villainy. An evil Hank story could easily work. We saw it with Dark Beast. A story where the former optimistic member of the X-Men has been beaten down so many times that he takes on a “whatever it takes” mentality could be interesting and emotionally resonant as we both understand what drove him here yet hate the man he’s become. But that isn’t what we got. We got a run that wrote him as a complete stranger and then had all the characters tell the reader that they were wrong for ever thinking he was anyone else.

Please can someone read and share their thoughts. Would really appreciate it.
I’m a young 21 male who got married at 19 to a beautiful woman the same age as me. From the very start, we were unable to have sex as it would just be really painful to the point where I felt bad looking at her go through the pain so I stop every time we try (we used to try at the start but not anymore). Before marriage, there was a lot of chemistry between us and we would both get turned on from just being close to each other. When we got married, we would try and try but it wouldn’t get anywhere at all. We tried to seek help from doctors who say that it is a psychological problem rather than a physical one. My wife and her ex boyfriend were having fun one time and he put it inside of her which she didn’t want to happen but didn’t exactly say for it not to happen at the time however she did state previously to him that she did not want to have sex before marriage for religious reasons. When she was explaining it to me, her words were “before I had even got the chance to say no, it was already in and I didn’t even feel it. As soon as I realised, I told him to get off.” I don’t really agree with that part because she was naked infront him at the end of the day. I know men and when they’re in a relationship in that situation, shit will happen because the tension is so high from both sides. I understand it was a mistake from her part and she understands that too which is why I’m not hung up about it.
Anyways, she had opened up to me about it during our talking stage, which I appreciated and accepted her for it but did not realise how badly it was going to affect our relationship.
We’re now coming up to 2 years into our marriage and we haven’t tried doing it for the past 5 months.
I’ve always wanted to flirt with my wife and send dirty messages and pictures but it’s like what is all that for if we cant have sex? I really do love her and can’t see my life without her but at the end of the day, I have urges which are not being fulfilled. Can I really go my whole life in a marriage without sex? Am I just expecting sex to be this amazing thing as I haven’t had it before? If I leave her, it’ll make me feel like shit leaving her out to dry by herself.
We’ve been through therapy for a short while which only got a conversation going but didn’t really help the way I expected it to. We’ve spoken to a couple people who have had vaginismus about our situation but they say the usual things like oh it will get better and you guys will be able to have sex. How will that happen if there’s no effort being put into it? We’re both tired of trying and using dilators all for it to just be painful and not get any improvement whatsoever.
It’s messing me up inside. I’ve become soo moody to a point where I don’t want to go out. I would rather just stay at home and do nothing. My friends ask me all the time how marriage is and I have to lie and say it’s going good because our situation is so messed up. They even joke about sex and I have to go along with it because I can’t just tell them oh we haven’t had sex yet because they wouldn’t understand.
I haven’t cried in the past 6+ years even during family deaths but I cried about this. Shows how messed up I am inside about this whole situation.
I’m not the type of person to go out of my way and speak to someone about it because I’ve always been a reserved person. I keep things to myself which isn’t turning out good because it’s all just being bottled up. How long can I keep this up for? My wife and I have questioned how long will we last like this?
We’ve talked about divorce about 3-4 times and she has told me many times that she’ll leave me if it makes me feel better as I will just get married again and be able to have my needs met. I don’t want that but I want that. Somehow it makes sense to want both. I want her in my life and to be able to have sex. It feels like I’m asking for too much but isn’t that just the basic needs of men?
There’s a surgery called Botox or something which numbs the muscle that contracts in the vagina which has 100% success stories. It’s costing £3,000 but we can’t afford that. Both our families can’t pay for it. Seems like it’s costing £3,000 to fix our marriage but it’s something no one can afford. I don’t want to cry for help and beg for money.
Can someone tell me something. Anything please.