Hi everyone, I am a Canadian MS2 debating if I should write the Step 1 exam this summer. I will be away all of August, so I will only have June and July to study for it. I will also be working a remote job "full time" during those two months (but I believe the hours won't be super strict after mid June, ex. I could study from like 8am-12pm and then do my remote work in the afternoon - dinner, and maybe study a bit after dinner).
I am sure about doing residency in Canada, but I kind of would like to have the Step 1 under my belt in case I want to do a fellowship/practice in the states, as well as to prepare me a bit content-wise for clerkship (I've heard in general too that summer after MS2 is the best time to do it). However, I am worried that I a) don't have enough time to study given my job and time constraints, b) will be super burnt out studying for it and working at the same time (especially before clerkship). Though I know I don't have a lot of time, I will say that my usual learning style is to cram, and that even when I start things early, I end up pushing 90% of my studying to the short time frame before a test (due to ADHD/poor time management/a decent short term memory). So I'm kind of hoping to just treat my 2 months as pure-cram mode if I do commit to it (but please feel free to correct me if that is too ambitious).
I'm also wondering if I do take it and fail it, if there will be any negative repercussions at all for the Canadian CaRMS match. I haven't really heard that scenario talked about too much (i.e. someone wanting step 1 not for US residency worrying about the impact of a fail in Canada lol).
Any advice would be appreciated!

Soo, I'm pretty well just realizing how I've been emotionally neglected most of my life growing up. Not to mention the lack of respect my mom and sister have towards me anymore..
Tiny Background: My family has always been the "tough love" type of family. Didn't tell each other that we loved each other much, we just kinda knew we did. Didn't hear it from mom much.. never was the lovey dovey type of family with all the hugs and kisses and such. You fall over "ahhh, get up you're finee.." Never was emotionally open with each other.. if we were it somehow lead into some kind of argument.
Anywayyy...
A lot of the time growing up and even currently to this day I am deemed as the "sensitive" one. I cant take a "joke." So on and so forth.. Times I would come to my mom about things going on in my life and instead of the listening to me with support and understanding I was met with criticism or judgment. Anytime I would go to my sister to tell her things you should want to talk to your sister about and trust that she would keep in confidentiality she would break that trust and go to mom about whatever it was. And lately I have noticed that since moving out in 2020 that my family never really has checked up on me.. they don't even text to ask how I am doing, only time that I hear from them is if there is some family event that occurs in us having to talk and plan out whats going on, and who's coming or who is driving etc. Not only that but anytime I am with my family (mainly my mom and sister) I am suddenly the butt of the jokes that they make, usually including my dating life.
Most of the time I would be excited to tell my family about some new interest I have whether that be with someone new in my life or whatever new hobby I may have picked up. But it always would result in them laughing and claiming how apparently an ex of mine looked like my dad (my parents divorced when i was approximately 8yrs old) and laugh about how I have a type in the men I choose...
Something that pushed me over the edge this past 2023 family Christmas was a comment my sister made and then my mom chimed in with some other "joke"/hurtful comment. We were all playing Cards Against Humanity as we do most holidays and something about the card that I had pulled brought up the topic of my dating life.. and my sister brought up apparently having "daddy issues" and then my mom chimed in with her comment, I don't remember what she said because I was simply over here being stuck mentally about why tf my sister would make a "joke" like that, and they both were laughing about it. THAT HURT! I played the game for like 5 more mins and I said I was done and moved out of the way to sit across the room. Anyway as the day went on I was driving back home to my place from my moms since we had all carpooled at the time. And all I could think about was what my sister had said earlier that day and was bawling on the way home hurt by her "joke."
At that point I had told myself to never tell my family anything about my life that essentially had made me happy within my dating life. Cause all that they would do is "tease me" and make fun of my life and the people I was enjoying life with.
I will say that it hurts though.. cause I had dealt with this bs from my family my whole life, and to not feel safe in telling them personal things anymore has been more of a grieving process for me.
First it was my sister betraying my trust in telling her things I would think a sister would keep to herself, and continuing to even do so today. And then it was the fact that my sister and my mom now essentially team up against me anytime i see them just to make me feel like shit. Now anytime there is a family event all I can think is what bs are they gonna pull out of their asses to make fun of me this time?
I just never understood it.. why me?

Paramount: Deal Rumors Aside, What About The Operations? Can The Company Turn A Profit?
May 21, 2024 2:41 PM ET
Summary
Paramount Global remains my worst investment, but I still believe in its potential for success.
Paramount's "lack of scale" is not the reason for its underperformance as it spends about as much on content as industry leader Netflix.
Paramount's loss last year was largely the result of one-off writedowns, both domestically and internationally. These losses will not repeat going forward.
Paramount's streaming operation suffers not from lack of scale, but an abundance of overload waste, which may be alleviated under new management.
The sports slate remains best-in-class, and CBS is still the leader in broadcast scripted. CBS Television City in Los Angeles, Ca, USA. JHVEPhoto/iStock Editorial via Getty Images
Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) (NASDAQ:PARAA) remains my worst investment. Let's just get that clear from the start. I said two years ago it was madness not to buy Paramount. That was wrong, wrong, wrong. The fact that I recommended against buying the new Warner Discovery at the same time, and heeding that warning saved a lot of money, makes me feel a little better, but not much.
And no, the fact that Warren Buffett made the exact same mistake as me doesn't help much, either. Mr. Buffett and I are about to part ways, anyway. He is now completely sold out of Paramount, while I am hanging in. Yes, I am still buying. Get all the ribbing out of your systems, and then read on.
Although a few rounds remain to be played in the game, it is no longer inconceivable that none of the various deal permutations that have been put forward for Paramount will pan out, and that it will continue as an independent company. Essentially, Redstone will block a deal with Apollo Global Management, Inc. (APO) and Sony Group Corporation (SONY) and the 'B' shareholders will litigate a Skydance deal to death.
Because so many Seeking Alpha articles are already offering a blow-by-blow analysis of the deal talks - and I absolutely encourage you to read them - I wanted to turn back for just a minute to a more in-depth look at Paramount's actual operations. If it stays independent, can it turn itself around?
Scale Is Not The Issue I'm angry. Usually, when an investment goes wrong, I can manage to be philosophical or even dispassionate about it. Risks of the trade, can't win 'em all, pick your maxim.
But this one is really getting to me. I'm sure part of that is simply the sheer amount of my portfolio that has suffered - I bet a lot more on Paramount than I did on my typical investment, so sure was I that it had the tools needed for success. Fortunately, some of my other media investments have worked out much, much better, or I'd really be hurting. In fact, my Netflix buy has repaired all the damage my Paramount buy has done.
Still, I'm unusually angry, partly because of the sheer amount lost. But it's also that I still don't believe there is anything wrong with Paramount, at its core. It has become quite commonplace to speak of Paramount's "lack of scale" as the reason for its apparent impending demise, or at least subsumption. But I would still argue that that isn't born out by the numbers. Paramount spent roughly $16 billion on content in 2023, the same total as 2022, when $4 billion of it was spent on streaming. That is only slightly less than Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) which leads the industry in market cap and performance, if not in spending. While the gap with other studio peers is larger, I'm not sure spending at Netflix levels equals a "lack of scale."
What's more, a lot of that extra spending by other traditional industry players like Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) and The Walt Disney Company (DIS) is not spending that investors should necessarily cheer. As I've explained before, Paramount's lower spending total is almost entirely accounted for by its far more profitable approach to sports rights; a lot of that extra spending that Disney and Warner are doing isn't particularly profitable or even sensible.
What then, does account for Paramount's underperformance?
Stock Performance That depends on which underperformance you're talking about. First, the stock price. Paramount cut its dividend in spring 2023. That announcement, with its Q1 earnings, was enough to cause half of the past-year decline in a single day. Paramount went from $21 to $16 with the dividend cut and was still at $16 as late as December.
Since then, the other half of the decline has reflected the increasing evidence that Paramount is more or less ready to throw in the towel, and intends to be a distressed seller to another studio or private equity firm soon. More specifically, it is actually Shari Redstone, who exercises control over Paramount through her 77.3% share of Paramount's Class A voting stock, who is ready to call it quits. The perception that she has no leverage and will be forced to accept a fire sale offer has driven the stock lower.
Operations All that, however, merely explains the stock market decline; what is the operational explanation for Paramount's troubles? The company reported a $600 million loss for full year 2023. How is it that one of the Big Five movie studios, with the most popular of the Big Four broadcast networks, the most popular show on cable (Yellowstone) and the only profitable sports slate in American television, can't make money?
Accounting Element First, we need to acknowledge that there are some accounting factors in that 2023 loss. Paramount took a "programming charge," i.e., a write-down of the value of programming assets, of roughly $2.4 billion in Q1 and Q2 last year. That is money that would ordinarily be amortized over a period of years - it's mostly streaming originals, which Paramount usually amortizes over a 4-year period - that instead saw its red ink taken all at once. Had it been amortized normally, Paramount would have reported an operating profit of roughly $1.2 billion, more or less identical to 2022, instead of reporting an operating loss of the same amount.
Still, that write-down reflects the fact that the content isn't performing well, so those losses were always going to happen, and they're quite real; the accounting change is simply a timing issue. So Paramount is operationally deficient, even if perhaps not quite as operationally deficient as this one-time write-down makes it look. We cannot dismiss Paramount's operational issues by putting them down to accounting distortions.
TV Scripted Content Difficulties Paramount did not break down the programming charge, but outside reports have about half of it owing to the integration of Showtime in Paramount+ as a single service. It's not entirely clear which side of the ledger those losses are coming from; one of the less understood things about merging services is that it potentially makes content on both sides less valuable as it is replaced by more popular content from the other side. Showtime's Q1 2023 viewership was very top-heavy, with just two shows, Yellowjackets and Your Honor constituting 30% of all viewership. Presumably, those two shows reduced the value of some Paramount+ existing content while the rest of Showtime's library may have suffered from competition with P+ content.
Regardless of the exact source, Paramount's content is not performing. That's a little surprising considering that, as I said, CBS content is actually quite popular on the linear side. In fact, in the earnings call following the annual report now-former CEO Bob Bakish reported that CBS had the top 16 scripted programs and 18 of the top 20 in the first week of post-strike broadcasts. Paramount has disclosed in the past that CBS content makes up roughly half of the viewership on Paramount+; and this is despite the fact that P+ isn't even the sole beneficiary of CBS content; roughly $600 million per quarter of Paramount's licensing revenue comes from CBS shows as well.
One possibility that I perhaps did not consider sufficiently was the chance that the unique characteristics of CBS would make it harder for that channel to transition to streaming than its other broadcast peers. CBS is the most popular of all broadcast networks, but that popularity owes disproportionately to more elderly viewers; in the demo, it is actually Comcast Corporation's (CMCSA) NBC which takes the top crown.
With elderly viewers both less appealing to advertisers and less likely to make the transition to streaming, it is perhaps not so surprising that CBS is continuing to perform well on linear but having trouble translating that to streaming.
International Shortfall The damage isn't through yet, either. Paramount disclosed that it took another $1.2 billion impairment charge on content in the first quarter. This one has to do with the international side; a few years ago Paramount commissioned 150 new, original international shows and movies to try to boost international growth. Now, Paramount reveals that even international consumers spend no less than 90% of their time streaming Hollywood content; the local originals aren't doing very much for growth or retention.
About the only good thing that can be said about this complete and utter debacle is that it is a one-off; unlike Paramount's US content spending, which is ongoing and therefore must be made more efficient if Paramount is to survive and thrive, Paramount is gradually exiting International production. In fact, to help cover the losses on its international originals it is selling its share in Viacom18, the network that formerly served as Paramount's onshore operation in India, to its partner Reliance for a little over $500 million.
Where Are The Children? Yet another factor is children's programming. While many have essentially written off Paramount's entire cable channel group, and I agree the prognosis for MTV and Comedy Central is rather grim, I have argued that Nickelodeon remains a real asset, as one of the top two children's channels in linear TV. I believed that would be a powerful subscriber acquisition tool, alongside sports, as the streaming transition continued.
It hasn't worked out. Surveys consistently show the Big 3 for parents with children are Netflix, Disney, and the third is Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) of all things. Neither Paramount+ nor Warner Discovery's Max make the cut, despite ownership of top children's linear platforms/libraries Nickelodeon and Looney Tunes, respectively.
The prognosis here isn't entirely grim. Paramount has reported that half of their streaming subscribers touch kids' content regularly, so clearly Nickelodeon does mean something to the subscribers. It's possible it helps with retention, even if it doesn't drive acquisition. Paramount owns the number one brand for pre-school kids, Paw Patrol.
Paramount has shut down the separate Noggin streaming service and will presumably be amplifying the kids content on P+ as a result, so perhaps this trend will yet turn around. With so many other things going wrong, though, the inability to make kids content more central to the strategy is a painful blow.
The Mismanagement Of Streaming I suspect, however, that Paramount's single biggest defect over the past few years has been the competency of its management. In a streaming world, success hinges overwhelmingly on the efficiency with which a content budget is deployed. That efficiency, in turn, requires avoiding the trap of "overload," something cable doesn't have to worry about but which can kill a streaming service.
What Is Overload? In brief, overload is when a streaming service spends money on content that appeals primarily to those subscribers who were already subscribed and intending to remain subscribed, even without that content. Because revenue does not increase with more viewership, such spending is essentially wasted money. I have been arguing for several years that some economic models of streaming profitability fail to take account of this significant element.
Paramount seems to have had a lot of overload in the last few years. Specifically, its single most broadly appealing piece of content is the NFL, which Paramount is an anchor broadcaster for. Because NFL fans are accustomed to spending upwards of $100 a month on cable just to watch the NFL - over 10% of cable subscribers say that the NFL is the only reason they're still subscribing - Paramount's $6-$12 a month fee for streaming really doesn't need anything more than NFL games to attract these 40-50 million fans.
The Earnings Jaw-Dropper And yet, it seems that's where a lot of the extra streaming money has been going. On the Q2 earnings call last year, CEO Bob Bakish, watching the stock price steadily decline, seemed to be eager to reassure he had a handle on the situation and began describing some of the changes he'd be making. It started out well enough, really; he told investors that NFL viewers churn drops dramatically if they also engage with entertainment titles, which is what you'd expect.
But then, he stunned me and I expect just about everyone listening when he said, "we probably need to do less for [the NFL viewer] in the fall, and more outside the fall because we can rely on the NFL." Compounding the almost Looking Glass-feeling, he then went on to reassure everyone he would be "fine-tuning" the content strategy to address that point in the years to come.
It was, frankly, stunning. Both me and I suspect just about every analyst who was modeling Paramount had just assumed it went without saying that of course, any entertainment content targeted at retaining NFL viewers should drop in the other half of the year when the NFL wasn't playing on TV. My own calculations of the profit margin on CBS's NFL deal had always incorporated that.
And while that was bad enough, it also raised the concern that a management team that didn't understand that going in might have put a lot of other overload in other categories as well. Suddenly, it wasn't so hard to see how the best-scripted shop with the most profitable sports contracts was having trouble making money. Double-loading for 50 million households would be a major drag on the financial performance for streaming.
Light At The End Of The Tunnel Despite all of this, I still think there are bright spots in the Paramount picture, even without a merger. Its operations, as well as its merger discussions, don't seem to lack potential.

1: My Usual Paramount Bull Argument: Sports Profits

One thing that continues to go right is sports content. A few years ago, I wrote that Paramount was a strong contender to become a sustainable streaming business because it had the only profitable sports slate in the business. The stock hasn't gone where I wanted it to go, but that is the one part of my thesis that has been definitively borne out. In fact, many now say that it is CBS's sports deals, at least as much as Paramount's film/TV studio, that the prospective buyers of Paramount are after.
I've covered these in other articles already. The March Madness deal runs until 2032 and the NFL deal runs until 2033, although the NFL has an opt out after 2029 that it will probably exercise given the utterly ludicrous bids the NBA is receiving, so the last four years of that deal might have to be chopped off the profit projections. Even so, Paramount can probably generate $1.25 billion a year in profit just off of those two deals for the next six years.
Those are probably the biggest, but it doesn't stop there. Almost every sports deal Paramount has is profitable. For all the flak management has deservedly taken, Paramount continues to show discipline and focus on sports. You won't find Paramount throwing $2.5 billion a year at the NBA's 'B' package, which is more money than the NFL gets for its 'B' package despite having 10x the viewership.
For all its many, many missteps, a Paramount that can just manage to stay afloat long enough for some of these ludicrous sports bets at other companies to blow up may yet find itself with cards to play later in the decade.

2: Recouping Write-downs Via Preferred Conversion

Another small boon has been the official conversion of the preferred shares. The Paramount mandatory convertible formerly trading under the PARAP ticker was capped at 0.85 shares per common share. Given the initial price of the convertible at $100 per share, that effectively means that a preferred share that was carrying a $100 liquidation value has just been converted into 1.1765 shares of a common stock currently trading around $12. A total value per preferred share of around $14.
And they sold for $1 billion, so that's basically $860 million back into the common equity that management was able to get at the peak of the boom. That actually repairs almost all of the red ink from Paramount's doomed international originals push on its own.

3: An End To Streaming Waste

Finally, a lot of the waste in streaming may soon be ending. Bob Bakish was finally fired a few weeks ago, and while I never want someone to lose their job, he frankly had looked overmatched for a while. Bakish was a lifetime cable executive who seemed to be having trouble making the transition to a streaming-world mindset. Frankly, if I knew about it in 2021, the CEO has no business fine-tuning it into the strategy in 2023.
With international originals no longer draining the coffers and overloaded entertainment programming shifted to months of the calendar where it can be more productive, streaming may yet turn the corner.
Investment Summary I recognize fully that each fall in Paramount stock makes my bullish optimism seem ever more out of step. I do believe, however, that Paramount's failures are more failures of execution than lack of scale or structural disadvantage. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish simply wasn't up to the job. Ironically that wasn't what got him fired; Bakish was almost certainly fired for opposing Redstone's plan to enrich herself at the expense of other shareholders, probably the most competent thing he did in the last few years of his whole tenure.
Paramount has everything it needs to be successful; profitable sports contracts, which is just unbelievable in this day and age, a thriving scripted TV operation, and a viable, if recently somewhat mismanaged, streaming service. An end to overload waste, the continued exploitation of its favorable sports slate, throttling back unhelpful international originals and boosting kids content engagement may yet produce a different streaming picture going forward. Should older viewers start to get more comfortable with streaming going forward and following their favorite programs to Paramount+, that would just be icing on the cake.
It's been a depressing ride the last few years, but I'm sticking with Paramount.

Please someone tell me this isn't normal. He's admitted to getting off in the background of a video call without me knowing before. He keeps getting disappointed when I say I don't want to do anything sexual at any time and then goes on to say that "you don't have to do too much, you could just pop a titty" and once asked me why I don't get changed on camera in front of him anymore and then said "it's only getting changed, it's no big deal" when I explained that I don't think about it and don't WANT to show off to him all the time. He keeps telling me how hard he is every single night when I call him and told me tonight that he has the "urge to get off to me right there and then cuz he was horny". He said he wants us to do that stuff more so he can express his love to me in a different way. He admitted to me that he had a porn addiction at 16 years old and even now still uses porn to get off because "you don't give me any material so I go to the next best thing" even when I told him that the thought of him using porn just because I won't give him any material makes me uncomfortable.
I've been with this guy for 10 months, known him for 2 years. Never met but we talk every day via video and were friends before getting into this relationship, we're very close and attached (although I will admit I've emotionally started checking out and need the courage to leave). He's not aggressive or mean in nature but he is incredibly insecure and lacks emotional intelligence and can really be emotionally manipulative. He genuinely adores me and believes we're going to be together forever and doesn't see any issue with what he says or does (even if I've expressed my feelings and bothers about certain behaviour). He's not a big bad bully of a man, he's more like a stray puppy that doesn't know any better and hasn't been taught better.
I have tried to break it off 3 times already and felt guilty and coerced to "not give up on us". Someone PLEASE tell me that this is all not okay and give me an external point of view to help me gain the courage to end it and not tolerate the things I've been dealing with because it's not just this I've had to face, it's a lot of other stuff that I won't explain here as I don't want the post to be too long. I talk to my counsellor about what I've been through so I am seeking support

***TW: Domestic Abuse, feathreat to life, light mention of child abuse***
Someone asked in another comment for me to explain the system in the UK with regards to harassment/stalking, as I have personal experience with it. So, here’s my attempt. 😄
Ok, so, for context, my situation was a few years ago now. But certain aspects of the system I know for a fact are still the same and others may be slightly different now, but not so much as to make DD’s story even close to plausibly true.
The most clear description from DD about what happened was in this latest YT video introducing ‘Soren’. They claimed that someone ‘showed up at their door’.
So, to start, if this person came from out of country, it’s not stalking. It might be harassment if they have been bothering DD a lot prior to showing up at their property. BUT a VERY quick internet search will tell you just how hard it is to get a harassment case tried in the UK.
In my case, it took a YEAR of numerous police reports, threats from him, fear for my life, having to move multiple times, him standing outside my house, calling my work place etc. Just straight up trying to ruin my life. And it took a YEAR before they would arrest him. I was sure he would kill me before they did anything. And if you look it up, you will see those same words over and over and over.
So, based on what they’ve said, they don’t have anywhere near enough to get an arrest on harassment or stalking.
If this person turned up at their door at random, I highly doubt they just opened the door for them and they’ve been very careful of their wording. They’ve implied SA, but made no actual claims that could be construed as assault of any kind, even despite the clear embellishing. So, there’s a high likelihood they did not open the door. Instead they just called the police.
Here’s where I think the facts end. I believe this person arrived at their home, DD called the police, the police told him ‘go home’. The end.
There’s a chance he maybe got arrested for attempted breaking and entering, but again, unlikely unless he was blatantly attempting to force his way through their door, which… they would have used!
What could happen next? Nothing. My ex didn’t get remanded and I feared for my life (with legitimate reason, he had multiple arrests previously for violent acts AND domestic violence against his ex before me). One instance of harassment likely wouldn’t even get you arrested, never mind remanded (I speak from experience!).
Crown court… is a joke lol. I don’t know why they felt the need to add that in. Only the most extreme cases make it to crown court. Mine was tried in magistrates. And again, showing up at someone’s door once, is not something the CPS will touch with a barge pole. Even if that person has sent you some mean messages before doing that.
Then there’s their timeline - they claimed that they cant change the ‘kya&co’ name cause it’s ‘part of the case’ and ‘because, evidence’. But that they hope it’ll be sorted ‘by the end of the year’.
1, your social media name is having ZERO impact on any criminal case, unless you are the defendant. As the ‘victim’ they wouldn’t be saying to them ‘don’t change your @ ok?’ 🤣 (I am genuinely laughing at this, this was the dumbest lie ever. Just be honest, it’ll screw up your view count!).
2, Unless the person is pleading guilty, in which case evidence is irrelevant (and the case would be resolved within a couple of months tops), no criminal case in the UK is seen through, start to finish in 18 months LOL. You’re talking YEARS. Even kiddy fiddlers get bailed to have their cases heard 2+ years down the line.
That’s just the system here, especially for minor offences… and a creep turning up at your door, isn’t fun. But it IS a minor offence, that I still don’t believe for a second the police would arrest for. Because the stalking/harassment laws in the UK aren’t fit for purpose and women die EVERY day because they are failed by these laws.
I was told, he had to 'do something' in order to arrest him (meaning hurt me). It was only after the moron provided unquestionable proof, on top of my year’s worth of police reports of his constant stalking and the fear I lived in, that he could be arrested. I literally knew the cops that were handling my case because I was in contact with them like once a week. And they could do NOTHING.
I am sharing this because DD cannot unring this bell. They have made these statements now and they can’t really pull off changing them.
Happy to answer any questions or anything I missed.

I started this series about 2 weeks ago and devoured it. It was so good, one of my favorites I’ve read. But now I’m dying for book 4!
I usually don’t really incomplete series because I’m impatient and get way too attached to the characters and that’s exactly what happened😅
There are so many things I need to know and I’m not ok with the cliffhanger at the end of book 3! I need Loren and Darien and Roman and Shay to be reunited and have a HEA or I will be so sad.
I saw someone on here write “if I had more self control I’d wait until book 5 came out” and I feel that so hard! But waiting 2 years for more of this story is way too long 😭
Anyway, just wanted to come on here and share my love for this series since apparently it’s grossly underrated

Did someone get top surgery with dr. Rausky as a foreigner? How much did it cost? People here says he’s not so expensive but he told me by e-mail that for foreigners without French health insurance it’s about 6000€, maybe he got more expensive?

I recently accepted a dash order from Subway. It said as it is from an external app, I won't be able to see what the customer ordered. When I got to Subway, it was a single cookie (ikr). When I got to the customer's address (standard apt building no unit no buzzer code). I gave the customer a call to get those details. Someone answered claiming to be from Doordash support saying they intercepted my call as the order was booked using a fraudulent credit card and should not be delivered to the client. It seemed legit until they asked me to verify myself. I gave them my phone number, and I got the 6 digit verification code sent to my phone. I was just about to provide that to the person but something clicked and I ended the call as it seemed sus. They kept calling me back.
I called the "real" Doordash support and asked if someone was trying to get in touch with me regarding the subway order. They said no and told me I shouldn't have provided the verification code as the supposed "customer" was trying to get into my dasher account to get my banking info and possibly steal all my earnings for that week.
Sucks that people are willing to stoop down to that level stealing from a hardworking individual who's just trying to pay his student loans. I quickly changed my password and goddamit I ate that cookie.

Still struggling 8 months later from addict and or potentially avoidant ex…
Hey guys, I just need to vent and maybe hope to get some advice/support for the situation I am going through.
For a bit of a backstory, here is what happened…
Back in December of last year, I reached out to an ex of mine who abruptly ended our relationship back in September because he had “relapsed”. He totally cut me off with no real explanation or closure.
I had seen him in person. I was crying, but he didn’t comfort me at all, he claimed he didn’t even know I was crying… he just sat there.
We had exchanged messages over the period of a few weeks and things seemed to be “better”. He told me that he loved me still. I thought there may have been a chance of things working out, back to how it was before the break-up happened…
To my dismay, he got angry with me, saying I felt he didn’t care, because, of course, I had extreme trust issues after him abandoning me, and he didn’t seem to be going the extra mile to prove that, so in response to this he ignored me for a week because apparently he has “anger“ issues and didn’t want to say things he’d regret so just blanked me.
We spoke again after this. He said he was hurt that I claimed he didn’t “care” and he knows he needs to get help etc.
But once again, he just didn’t seem to be proving that he genuinely cares and has my best interest.
So I mentioned this, and well, he got angry again, except this time he was calling me names, which of course upset me and had me crying, while telling me what a “drain” I am and how he doesn’t need this in his life. He then blocked me. I haven't heard anything since and am still blocked.
I’ve been trying to heal from this situation but even months later, I am struggling immensely. I just have constant “ifs” and “buts” going around in my mind, not understanding how this person once claimed to have loved me and then suddenly switched up on me.
None of this makes any sense, and it hurts. I don’t understand it. I think that’s what makes healing even harder is not having the answers I wanted to get. I still care deeply for this person even after all they have done to me. I’m just feeling broken emotionally, my self-worth and esteem have taken a massive toll due to all of this, and I’m doing all I can to move forward, but it’s not easy as I still love this person.
I’ve been reading books and looking at different forums about addictions and how many people have been in a similar situation to me, but it doesn't make the pain any less. I just don’t get how someone can act this way and why.
I hate that I still love this person and wonder if I'll ever get over them, because all I can do is think of them and wish things could go back to how they once were.

I'm new here so I gotta have my turn of venting about Emily. actually have an annoyingly big amount of friends that LIKE emily. How is that? Is that someone you would want in your life, to be your friends? Unless this friends is Mandy, otherwise you are screwed.
She claims she didn't know Camille and Gabriel were together when they FIRST ksised. But that's it. She later kissed him again at that party with that TV star, even tho she already knew. She had sex with him (she swears its ok since he was leaving). She made that promise with Camille and later bang on his door to declare herself (I KNOW CAMILLE BROKE THE PROMISE TOO BUT DONT FORGET IT WAS HIS MAN! FOR YEARS! SO SHE WAS ONE ALLOWED TO BREAK). Later on,, they have sex in his kitchen, even tho him and camille were having that whole situation.
It annoys me SO MUCH that people give all kinds of answers to justify why she did. I have seen people complaining about CAMILLE, the VICTIM, only cuz she broke that promise and pretended to be Emily's friend to have him back (?). She was with him for years. She knew Emily for months and yet she had already betrayed her. Not saying camille should forgive that dick, but come on.
Also Alfie? I dont care they "don't match" or "have no chemistry", NOTHING is an excuse for her to do him like that.
Nah, for me, it's the first a shitty main character just cant get their way with me. I can't accept how dislikeable she is. Can't see why people like her (?)
Also this post is meant to discuss about this. Dont come here with 'ohhh its just a show we shouldn't get deep interpretations about it' NO this is a whole place for discussion of "a show" for god sakes, so yeah Imma rant about that.

I’ll try to keep it as short as possible, for sake of understanding.
Since about a year, the relationship with one of my best friends (me 31M, her 32F) evolved into being a very deep and connected romantic one.
Since day one it started as being poly on her side, as she had a previous (long term, distance) relationship. I was of course aware of it and I know the guy, given our friendship. They had an agreement of being poly, but this is the first time one of them has another committed relationship.
Apart from the first couple of months, in which it didn’t bother me much, it started being a bigger issue. Just for context, I was always interested in the ENM/poly lifestyle, but never really put it in practice apart from a couple of kinda open relationship, that were too short anyway. This is a major point for me, because in the last 5-6 years I just had casual things and short (not more than 2-3 months) relationships. And I struggled with it. So, speaking about it after around a year it started, it’s already a big achievement for me :) I realize that I missed so many tools to handle a relationship by itself, let alone a poly one. Luckily, we have great communication.
She has been really loving and great, while standing behind her need of being poly as she sees it as an integral part of her identity. We had although so many arguments and fights and were several times close to break up due to me struggling with accepting it (in many shapes). Now we are on a much better wave and after some time of having an agreement of her not looking for other partners of any kind, she expressed the need to change it and went on a first date with someone she got a crush on, a few days ago. Even if nothing sexual happened, it was really hard for me. ah, some months ago I’ve also seen a couple of other persons but both faded away quickly, she encouraged me to but things didn’t click much. It was nice and exciting, but I feel it wasn’t a deep need of mine.
That’s more or less the context :)
What I’m asking here is a bit of advice on how to more deeply embrace and truly accept her poly identity, without hoping that it will somehow go away one day. We have grown a lot during this time, individually and together, I know that I deeply love her and we have a future together. But I feel dying inside every time she is with her other partner (every 1-1.5 months), even though things got better. Yet, the idea of her starting dating someone new regularly really scares me and I freaked out with her after the date.
I’ve read a few books on the topic and suggested content here (thanks!) but I feel like is not helping much, as the whole situation is not really what I’ve chosen myself in the first place, but had to accept it to be with her. On top, I guess it might stay on this kind of mono/poly setup for a while, as I feel like I don’t want another committed relationship atm and don’t feel much drawn to being poly myself.
Thanks for reading till here and to whoever might answer! Xx

TLDR: Irrationally texted my ex parents after a breakup saying mean shit about her no threats just emotional dumb shit. Regret how childish I came off and feel like part of my healing even to move on fully is apologizing to grow. But I don’t want to bother as other redditors have exclaimed I should be lucky no restraining orders have been put out or I’m not in jail. I admit I said ugly shit but nothing that comes to threats or harm. Lmk please
Ex texted a bestfriend behind my back ending of last year ruining the friendship. Broke up with her, during that time I rekindled with someone else while occasionally texting my ex still not back together. Felt like I missed the warmth of my ex and dropped the new girl going back to my ex fully beginning of this year. Missed the support and love from my ex that I never truly got. Girl told me ex about our dirty laundry, causing trust issues in the whole relationship. Trust me when I tell you I felt more than guilty. I balled my eyes out with her and not even for getting caught for the reaction she had and how fragile she always was to me. I mention what she had does because stupidly I should have left when I had the chance. Even other instances where she had initiated things, I knew it might have not been the healthiest but she showed other signs of real true love. Tried fixing them by removing girls, sharing location, etc. I felt scared my ex is gonna get revenge and started being distant at the end which pushed her away as well. I thought we would get back together as always, found out she’s been adding guys she removed a long time ago. I got upset and texted her ugly nasty shit, and texted her dad saying his daughter is nasty etc. I thought by doing this I’d move on quicker by burning bridges, he told me to leave them alone I’m being childish. I understand I fucked up and fully agree. She’s done things and I know I shouldn’t have let be, but staying and getting revenge wasn’t the way. I’m realizing that as the hours even go by everyday I think about it. I want to apologize to the parents for the lack of character I had because I never ONCE disrespected them in their house, to their face. I called them Mr and Mrs always and always asked if they needed anything. I talked to a close female friend who said this stuff needs time and I can apologize if I’d like and if it makes me feel better, or write a letter and burn it. My parents said that’s not my character and said apologize if you feel necessary as I wasn’t raised like that. I feel like it’s too late to backtrack on the stupid shit I said. Am I being selfish by sending a text? I just want this weight off my chest of being the shitty person at the end at least to her parents who didn’t need any of that.
Is it smart to reach back out to the parents to show respect as an adult or just let them be? I know this was a lot but it’s on my heart and brain everyday since. I was emotional on how she moved on so quick and added everyone she removed for me. But no excuse cause I had done my part in this and my blowing up made it a million times worse. Just want to fix the image with the parents as they were respectful to me and same to them up until I was acting stupid. Let them be?

I think it's pretty hard to narrow it down to just one singular verse to call my favorite honestly. AB tends to massacre any track she actually gets around to recording, to the point where I struggle to actually think of a verse of hers that didn't leave my wig snatched and my children starving. The one that gets stuck in my head the most often though would be the start to Be My Guest, which i admittedly skip the rest of as soon as she finishes saying "I'll blam if you run up I'll be damned if a bitch play me". Big Pamela Ans in your camera lens is also something I think about frequently. If I was doing honorable mentions this post would quickly turn into a dissertation.
If I had to pick a least favorite, I guess I'd have to go with something from the Yung Rapunxel pt II mixtape, and that's mainly just due to its length coupled with its audio quality being so poor that it sounds like it was recorded by someone who couldn't afford the show so they're listening through a Dixie cup attached with a piece of string to another dixie cup being held by stage security. Even then, its got some good shit going on lyrically at points. Maybe the chorus to Skylar Diggins, if that even counts?

First and foremost, I don’t care if this gets downvoted to oblivion. Idgaf about reddit and karma points or what not so please have at it.
okay so here goes my rant, for the love of god. if you walk into an establishment that lets you seat yourself. please don’t sit at the only dirty table around. there are many tables that are set up and ready to be used. if you would like a certain table, please wait until it gets bussed and cleaned before you sit down. if you however decide to sit at a dirty table, please have some patience until someone comes and buses your table. don’t be a fool and start waving people down.
similarly, if you do sit at a table that is set up for a number of people, and you have more. please refrain from taking menus and utensils from the near by table. if you want menus and more utensils please for us to come around and we will give you everything you need.
also, tipping. people will say why do I have to tip they already get paid. while that may be true, i get paid to do my job. not put up with people’s shit. Tip your servers folks. they work hard. i’m not talking about mcdonalds or some fast food establishment where u get ur food at the counter and leave. iam talking about sitdown restaurants where u get served. don’t eat 100$ worth of food and leave the person that served you. 0$. if you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat out.
same with to go orders, I usually tip less, because i get helped less. but at the same time that person is taking time away from his tables to be able to help you order, or give you your food. yes it takes a few minutes to do that but that is time taken away from tables that will actually tip them. so the time they take to serve you might decrease their tip for “ being late” or not being attentive. please tip them to compensate.
last but not least, stop asking for one thing at a time. there’s alot to be done, no one wants to walk back and forth for the same table for things they could’ve brought the first time.
alright now that you’ve read all of this, you can now go out to eat lol.

With the game being popular and leaving a few choice questions unanswered I think there’s one point that’s been bugging me since I finished the game that I think answers a lot of those unanswered questions
Of course spoilers from here out and sorry for weird formatting I’m on mobile also TLDR at the bottom
So I’ll go over the widely accepted points leading up to this. The pool was created by people from the future to prevent some kind of Mass Extinction event from destroying humanity as we know it and Edward Crow’s father disrupted the process of bringing people back while Edward himself continued the process of mining the roots and further disrupted the time travel device. Pretty much all of that is confirmed in game very explicitly. But there are a few questions that remain unanswered; why choose 1988 to come back? What was the disaster that cause the process to begin with? What are the numbers 2106 supposed to mean?
Now a lot of what I’ve seen for theory’s on the answers above are fairly in line, the disaster was some kind of global warming or climate crisis because it parallels with the Crows abuse of the roots as corroborated with some paintings in blood that appear later in the game. But I have one question that I haven’t seen anywhere else in discussions about the game (not that it isn’t there I just haven’t seen it) that I think provides a better argument for the disaster being a plague caused by a bootstrap paradox.
My question is……..Why in that location specifically? Maybe it’s just bc I’m from the ATL area I was super curious why the British devs chose that area for the setting of the game. Imagine your world is dying and you HAVE to find a way to prevent it from ever happening, (presumably after trying everything else bc I doubt time travel and potentially destroying all of reality is anyone’s first pick) why build your saving grace in Atlanta, Georgia? It isn’t a major metropolitan area, it’s not the capital of the U.S or some huge political force and it’s certainly NOT super open to change especially in the later 80’s. So why Atlanta? My theory is because it’s the home for the Center of Disease Control. That’s the only real reason to pick the ATL area for your last ditch effort to prevent a disaster. If they could get the disease in front of medical experts and have them analyze the infection and create a cure then the disaster would never really happen in the first place.
But then that begs the question of why 1988? Now here’s where I think the bootstrap paradox comes into play.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term it basically describes a thought experiment of time travel when an event is repeated due to itself causing a causal loop. Say a time traveler was a huge fan of Mozart, so he travels back in time to see him but when he gets to the time period where Mozart was popular he finds there is no Mozart. So he decides to write all of Mozart’s music and perform them himself under the name Mozart, thus “creating” the persona of the famous artist. The question becomes who originally wrote Mozarts music? It’s a surprisingly common trope in pop culture: Back to the Future with Chuck Berry’s song “Johnny B. Good” all of Skynet from the Terminator series, even my example above is stolen from Dr. Who.
So how is Crow Country a BSP? I think the time travelers from the future picked 1988 because it was the first time the disease was documented in official records, from Elaine’s trip to the hospital. I also think the disease was caused from the disruption of the pool which is why they never understood its origin enough to re-engineer a cure and why Edward Crow could. In my theory as well I don’t think the tougher and more diverse enemies later in the game were caused by the CC team further excavating the roots, I think it was caused by people who were already infected coming through the portal. It doesn’t really make sense for them to be from Edward digging up more of the roots, he had been doing that for years up until the start of the game. So something else had to change over the short period of time shown in the game itself and I think that’s infected people coming through hoping to be cured since it should have been long enough from when the first “Guest” arrived that the cure had been developed.
Finally for the two endings of the game. The bad ending obviously is the one where you don’t take the cure and decide to (presumably) let everyone die from the infection, thus burying the cure and dooming all of humanity. The good ending is you decide to trust Crow and take the cure, thus saving yourself and potentially others by the cure being able to be synthesized from your blood. I think that’s also why Crow isn’t able to describe the future yet when he comes back out of the pool, because by that point in the timeline you haven’t picked whether to save everyone or not.
TLDR; Crow Country is a bootstrap paradox cause by the bacterial disease that develops from coming out of the pool. That’s why the pool was built(?) in the ATL area, why the time travelers chose 1988 and why the two endings have greater meaning beyond just the fate of your characters that survived.
Feel free to tell me if I’m wrong or poke holes in this theory I just couldn’t stop thinking about it and wanted to put it out there!

My husband(28) and I (31F) are first time parents now let me start by saying yes I know I’m overly anxious about safety I understand that kids get hurt but my husband and I have such polar opposite opinions about the boundaries of safety for our 13 month old son
He will walk away when our son is eating his food sometimes he’s gone for 5 minutes
he will leave our son in the living room alone knowing he wants to climb the tv cabinet (that he hasn’t anchored to the wall despite asking 50x)
Leaves our son alone not properly strapped in to the high chair lets him stand on the coffee table and doesn’t stand in arms reach when I say he could fall my husband just tells me he needs to learn how to fall properly or he needs to learn what happens when he gets hurt
I even caught our son reaching for the Tylenol my husband left on the end table the other day my husband just said he didn’t think he could reach the end table
I have found my son with batteries from my husbands gaming controller or the remote from his gaming lights that have button batteries in it when I say he shouldn’t have the remote my husband again down plays the safety issue saying he can’t even get it open it’s really difficult
I’m really really sick of being called dramatic when I genuinely think these as actually safety issues for a 13 month old
Or hell maybe I am wrong but can someone point me in the direction of something that has guidance of good safety guidelines for a baby
Ps I’m not allowed to use articles about other children my husband thinks I’m worrying myself too much

Azren
Azren Alarick, or as she prefers to be called, Ren, is a cambion, born from the venereal union of human and demon. Her conception was actually brought to by a satanic cult, who sacrificed one of their younger female members to birth her. They planned to raise her into a powerful soldier, however, a wizard busted into their base and killed all of them, for good reason. The wizard, Alarick, considered killing Ren too, but his heart was too big for that, so he took her home to raise as his own. Over the years, Alarick taught Ren to harness and control her demonic magic, and did the best he could to raise her until he died of old age when she was 16. After that, Ren took to traveling the world, intending on collecting a talisman from every continent of the world to place around her father's grave. Certain demons were attracted to her throughout her journey, attempting to either kill her, recruit her, or some other weird satanic thing, however, she had no trouble slaying them. One day, when she was 21, she was fooled by a serpentine shapeshifting demon taking the form of a little girl, who asked her to help find the girl's mother. The demon dragged Ren across seven different towns before the E.C.U, a task force devoted to neutralizing demonic beings, ambushed them and attempted to bring them both down. Ren assumed they were crazy until the girl revealed her true serpentine form and tried to kill her, to which Ren responded by cleaving it in half with one swing. She tried to leave after but the E.C.U soldiers were intent on questioning her, as they believed all demons were in alliance. She told them what she was and that she hated demons as well, purely to get them off her back, but eventually, a commander made an appearance and asked Ren to join the E.C.U, to which Ren said no. But after visiting her father's grave, she persuaded herself to join, just to see if she could finally rid Earth of demons for good.
Ren is a relatively laid-back, calm individual, save for a few random bursts of energy and hype. She has trouble taking stuff seriously sometimes, and grasping the importance of certain things. Like seriously, if you're panicking about something, unless you're having a goddamn panic attack, she'll just tell you to calm down. She's kind of a show off...okay she's a total show off, she'll hit you with a flashy ass move and then drop a one-liner like she's straight from an MCU film.
Something else about her is that she's gender-fluid, most of the time she's fem-presenting but sometimes she feels like a boy. Being a cambion, she has the ability to shapeshift, it's limited, but she can do it, so when she does feel like a boy she just shapeshifts into one. Thing is, she barely changes herself, she just flattens her chest, shortens her hair a bit, and makes her voice deeper. So some days, she'll just walk out of her barracks in her male form and everyone will be like "...what the fu-". She WON'T tell anyone until someone asks either.
She's also aromantic, so romance isn't really her thang, but sex is cool. Ren views sex in a weird way. She sees it as...how do I say this, an activity. A fun little sport to do with a cool person. She's the type of person to rock your goddamn world and then dap you up and call you 'buddy'. She tries her best not to lead people on but sometimes it can't be helped.
Last thing I want to mention about her before I throw her to the wolves (cough cough, y'all) , is that her demonic and human genes mix together to give her a weird mutation. It's an ability that allows her to compact a demonic being's body and magical essence into an energy orb and eat it. Afterwards, her body will mutate physically and she'll be able to use the demon's magic. She can turn the mutation on and off at will, and she can only use one demon's powers at a time, but it's still a formidable power.
Alright, now, if any of you have any questions about my girl/boy (sometimes), put em in the comments below!

First / Previous / Royal Road / Patreon (Read 12 Chapters Ahead)

Together, Pale and Kayla dragged the mage back to the cave they'd been using for shelter, barely managing to get him inside before the snowfall began again. Pale tied his hands behind his back and his legs together using some paracord she had in her pack, and the two of them stood over the man, staring down at him.
"What now?" Kayla asked. "Do we wait for him to-"
Pale cut her off by bringing the stock of her shotgun across the berserker's face. He reeled from the strike, suddenly catapulting awake, his eyes wide as several of his teeth came spilling out across the stone cave floor. He coughed, spitting out a glob of blood before fixing her with a harsh glare. Smoke began to rise from his palms, but Pale stopped him by putting the barrel of her gun flush with his crotch.
"Unless you want to lose something, I'd suggest keeping your magic under control," she threatened. "Because if I pull this trigger, there isn't a healer alive who'll be able to give back what you'll lose."
The man snarled at her, but the smoke curling up from his hands stopped all the same. He spat out more blood. "The fuck am I still alive for?"
"I think you know exactly what you're alive for. Now, are you going to play nice and tell us what we want to know, or am I going to have to force it out of you piece by piece?"
The mage grinned at her, showing off a mouth full of missing teeth and liquid crimson. "You really think I'd betray my brothers like that?"
"Last I checked, your brothers are all dead," Pale said absentmindedly. "But still, I was hoping you'd pick the hard way; I needed to relieve some stress."
She let her shotgun hang from its sling, then drew her knife. With her free hand, she grabbed one of his fingers, then positioned the blade at the tip.
"Last chance to offer up what you know," she threatened.
The mage barked out a laugh. "Fuck off. You really think I'd ever-"
His bravado suddenly gave way to an agonized scream as Pale forced the blade of her knife underneath his fingernail. He thrashed in agony as she twisted the knife before roughly yanking it free, taking the fingernail with it. She held the disembodied nail up to him, then flicked it away.
"Have I made my point?" she said evenly. "Because last I checked, you've still got nine fingers and ten toes, not to mention a variety of other things I could poke at and prod at and cut off. And when you run out of those, I can just start skinning you bit by bit."
"Fuck you…" he breathed through gritted teeth. "I'll never-"
She took another fingernail for his troubles. Idly, Pale was aware of Kayla flinching with every scream that erupted out of the man's throat, but that didn't bother her.
Kayla had specified no death, but that didn't mean she couldn't make this hurt like hell.
She again positioned the knife at one of his fingertips, only for him to give a weak, shuddering, pain-filled cough.
"W-wait…" he croaked.
"I see your tongue has been thoroughly loosened," she surmised, though she didn't dare to move the blade even a millimeter away from his next finger.
"What do you have for me?"
"I can give you our leader's name."
"And?"
"What do you mean, and? He doesn't tell us anything, he just pays us and feeds us, like any good leader should."
Pale's expression narrowed. "You had better give me something more substantial to go on, otherwise I have no reason to keep you around."
"Pale-" Kayla began, only to fall silent when she held up a hand. Reluctantly, Kayla backed down, though she continued to look on with concern as Pale's grip around her blade turned white-knuckled.
"Tell me something useful," Pale demanded. "Unless you want to see exactly how much pain I can commit to before I get bored."
"Okay, okay!" the bandit growled. "Fine… our leader's name is Sven Greymane, the warrior-king of the northern isles. He's the one who ordered us to attack certain towns on this continent."
"Is that why you sacked some and completely bypassed others?"
He nodded. "Yes. That was all part of the plan – he'd give us locations to attack, pay us in gold and food to attack them, and then let us keep whatever valuables we wanted afterwards."
"And did he tell you why he only wanted specific locations attacked, while others were to be spared?"
The mage shook his head. "No, and we knew better than to ask questions given how good of a deal it was."
Kayla suddenly stepped forwards. "One of those towns was my village," she growled. "Your friends captured several people, including my father, and took them back to the northern isles."
The mage leaned in, squinting to get a better look at her, before finally shrugging. "I don't know anything about that."
"Liar," Pale hissed.
"It's the truth. I wasn't involved with the attack on any Beastkin town."
"Of course, you'd say that," Kayla said through gritted teeth. "You're worried about what will happen to you if you admit to us here and now that you had something to do with it."
"Don't know what else to tell you. I had nothing to do with the attack on you and yours, and I didn't take any Beastkin slaves."
"Enough of this," Pale snapped. "How long do we have to find her father?"
The bandit cracked a wide grin at her. "You're probably already too late. If the girl's father is anything like her, then he's already been deemed to be useless as a slave – too mouthy for his own good, and mouthy slaves don't last very long among my people."
A vein pulsed in Kayla's forehead as she clenched and unclenched her fists. "Answer the question," she demanded. "Assuming he isn't murdered before we can get there, how long do slaves typically last while with your people?"
"Depends on the slave. Men tend to last longer, provided they're young enough and in good health. Of course, he was taken in the first place, so I assume that someone saw some value in him, at least enough to want him for themselves. Now, that only accounts for a berserker warrior having a bad day and killing someone as a result. If he's unlucky, he'll succumb to the elements before long." The mage shrugged. "It wouldn't make any sense for us to spend all that time capturing and enslaving someone only to let them die so soon, unless they just so happened to be a massive pain in the ass."
"So you claim," Pale said dismissively. "What else do you have for us?"
"I've told you enough," the man grunted. "Now hurry up and let me go."
"And why would I do that?" Pale demanded. "So you can go back to robbing and killing the innocent? Is your life really worth the lives of the people you'd kill if we let you go?"
"It is to her." He motioned towards Kayla, who was staring at him and trembling as she bit her lip, deep in thought.
Pale's eyes narrowed. "Kayla."
Kayla jumped slightly at the sound of her name being called. She hesitated for a moment before letting out a sigh. "...You should let him go."
"You know I can't do that, Kayla. If we let him go, he'll just go right back to doing what brought him here. Either we end this here and now and prevent him from taking more innocent lives, or he goes on for however long it takes for someone else to put him down."
"I know!" Kayla spat. "It's just… I don't know what to do… I don't want to be responsible for someone's death like this…"
"I understand that, but this is war," Pale insisted. "Death is an unavoidable part of that."
"What do you mean, war?" Kayla asked, horrified at the prospects of what Pale had just suggested. "You… you really are a soldier, aren't you? That's why you're doing this – it's a chance to do what you were made to do…"
"War is in my nature," Pale insisted. "It is why I was created. You are correct that this is a chance to fulfill my prime directive, but not in the way that you think." She turned her gaze back towards the bandit. "I need to get off this planet and back into the war I left behind before it's too late to save my creators. If killing this man will get me there faster, then I will not hesitate to do that."
"But… you can't know that killing him will help with that," Kayla pointed out. "He's just one man…"
"Every second spent debating his existence is one not spent working towards my ultimate goal. I ask for your input on what to do with him because I value your opinion as my ally, and do not wish to alienate you by leaving you out of major decisions such as that, but that does not mean I will not try to make you see reason when I think you are about to make a terrible decision." Pale sheathed her knife and hefted her shotgun. "You are concerned with the loss of innocent life, yes? Well, letting me kill this man will save an untold number of them. Is his life really worth all of theirs?"
"You can't think of it that way! He's still a person, too!"
"He is," Pale agreed. "But as far as I am concerned, his right to life is now forfeit, as he used it to torture and murder other people."
The bandit suddenly burst out laughing. "Listen to you two! You're honestly debating whether or not to take a life. How quaint, not to mention innocent. Consider me entertained."
Pale bashed him with the stock of her gun once more, knocking a few more of his teeth out in the process. As he coughed on blood and bone shards, she turned back to Kayla.
"See reason in this," she implored. "Letting him live means-"
"I know!" Kayla interrupted. Her wolf ears flattened against her skull, and in a quieter voice, she repeated, "...I know."
Her tail lashed behind her, and finally, she shook her head. "...I was willing to fight for you," she said softly. "I tried to convince you that you weren't just a killing machine – that you had a sjel, and that it was worth something. And maybe I was right. But even if I was… even if you're not just a killing machine… you seem dead-set on trying to be one. And if that's what you want, then who am I to stop you? Do what you want with him, Pale; after all, it's what you were programmed to do."
Kayla turned and marched out of the cave. Pale watched her go, waiting until she was completely gone before acting.
A single gunshot split the night.

Special thanks to my good friend and co-writer, Ickbard for the help with writing this story.

So for context I am in a long distance marriage and we have been so for about 7 ish months now. I am a 26 M and my wife is a 24 F. The reason we are apart is because she is doing her masters now.
I have done everything humanly possible to make this long distance thing easier on both of us. I try to facetime everyday, I send her good morning texts, I send her voice notes randomly. I send her bouquets of flowers for her birthday or if she's feeling ill. I Uber Eats her food.
This past eid, I send her a giant care package of all the things she likes. Perfume, her favorite makeup stuff. some cute outfits, etc. And I got nothing.
I'm no saying that I do all these things with the expectation that I get stuff back. I just want the acknowledgment and may some effort?
The thing that ticks me off the most is her entitlement. Like I'll miss a facetime call one day, and then I'll get messages from her asking why I missed calling her and I become the villain. Like you have hands. You can click on my name and call me too.
I'm a hopeless romantic and its so painful to be with someone who does not reciprocate the effort or energy or even a fraction of it.
I think people will comment that I need to tell her this instead of writing it on reddit, but the thing is that I don't want to beg for it, nor do I want to guilt her into it. She should want to.
Anyways, if you read this, thank you. Just needed to vent a bit.

He couldn’t live anymore. 30 years of addiction and he’s said his goodbyes. He couldn’t keep on going. He said his goodbyes pretending to go away to find himself. Posting messages through music videos on Facebook. Truth is he bought a gun a few months ago. He said it made him feel better knowing he couldn’t miss his goal this time. After 3 serious attempts (not counting drugs) he wanted to make sure he wouldn’t fuck it up. Thing is I can’t do anything about it. We’ve been secret because he didn’t want me to be in the drama that was his life. He had another partner and didn’t want her to get to me. I knew everything. Some of his friends know me but that’s it. But I have to respect his decision. Who am I to say “thou shalt live and suffer”?

I was almost followed into my apartment building last night but I'm not clear what this person's intentions were. I'm a woman in my 20s living in Brooklyn, I'm from NY, and have heard and been warned about walking home alone, but still have never experienced something like being followed, until last night. I was coming home from work and I got off at my regular train stop and started to walk to my apartment which is about 2 avenues from the train. I had both my earbuds in, but I wasn't listening to anything. I start to pass the park that is about a block away from me and I can feel and hear someone behind me, shuffling their feet as they walk. Not a problem, there was plenty of people around, both in the park and on the streets and sidewalks around it. It was about 7:30pm and still light out but the sun was going down. I get to the traffic light at the corner of the park when I notice this person is still behind me. I turned my head to the left slightly so I can see this person in my peripheral vision and I could see they were wearing a brown hoodie and had long brown hair, but still couldn't tell if it was a man or woman. I turned back to the street, crossed when the light changed and made a left, the next block was my street. I wanted to test if this person would pass me or walk in the same direction, so as I made it to my block I abruptly turned right and this person did the same. I'm now on the right side of my street but would have to cross to the left side where my apartment is, so as I was walking straight up my block I really quickly turned left and squeezed through a tiny space between two parked cars to cross the street, and I notice this person speeds up and does the exact same thing in the exact same spot!! This is when my heart started pounding. I started speeding up a little bit and I'm about 4 apartment buildings away from mine, and I hear this person's shuffling feet keeping pace with mine and speed up as I do, and I hear a single manly deep breath behind me. This is where I feel a little dumb, instead of continuing to walk up the street to a cafe or stop and tell someone (there was a few people walking on the sidewalk) I thought, "ok, our front lobby door locks whenever it's closed all the way, and if you don't have a key you can't get in, I'll just get inside there, close the door, and see what happens." So I get to my front 2 steps, jump inside the open lobby door, and immediately turn around and slam it shut. As I do this, this MAN WALKED RIGHT INTO THE DOOR and I come face to face with this man behind the glass. He was maybe in his late 20s to early 30s, light-skinned black man, with long brown almost waist length braids. He looked feminine and was actually quite pretty, but the look on his face was strange, like he was not fully there. His eyes were wide but the rest of his face blank, and he never looked away from me. Now get this, he never opens his mouth to say anything, but instead keeps those wide eyes on mine, holds up both of his hands, in one he's holding his iphone, which has a dead battery symbol on it and in the other hand is an ID, but it doesn't look like him on it. I totally should have read it, maybe it had the address to the same apartment on it, but I didn't even care, I just yelled "NO!" The thing is he readily had the ID in his hand, he didn't go into a pocket or a bag, he just had his hands up and ready to show me. I watched him never change his face, turn to his right and leave. I called my roommate to let her know, and she had a friend walk her home about two hours after I got in, so I wasn't alone for the rest of the night. I wish I took a picture of him with the ID and phone, but I was just weirded out that he tried to step inside right behind me but didn't try to come back in again or say a single word. I thought maybe I dropped my ID and he was returning it, but I checked and mine was in my wallet. Maybe he was asking for me to lend him a phone charger, but why would he follow me inside for that?! Was I overreacting?