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I was working my THIRD ever night shift at this job. Mind you I do not know any owners or anyone higher than my GM. So some dude called about an hour into my shift and introduced himself as the owner while he did this he aslo texted my actual phone saying he was my actual manager but her phone had broke so she was using a different number and said the boss should be calling for a partial payment and to get into the safe. I didn’t think much of it and listened to what he had to say and he started off with saying there was an inspection coming within 30 minutes with a tracking number and their names. Sure enough they showed up and they were legit , they came in and did a BUNCH of cleaning. While they were cleaning he told me to call him from my actual phone , so I gave him a text now number. Through there he directed me to the office where the safe was and told me that he wanted me to get into the safe for when he arrives to pay for a partial payment for a shipment. He directed me to where to find the hammer and then wanted me to download WhatsApp to video call him. So I did and when he answered he looked legit , so I set the phone up and beat the shit out of and flipped a 300 pound safe from 1 to 6 o’clock in the fucking morning. NOT once thought to contact either manager through their actual number. I feel absolutely fucking stupid and played he also got a pic of my ID front and BACK along with my SSN. How do I atleast stop any fraud?

Two years ago, I took a part-time job that still haunts me to this day. I decided to finally write about my experience, hoping it might help me process everything. I was a college student, and like a lot of you, I needed a part-time job to help cover tuition and other expenses. After a long search, I found what seemed like the perfect job. It was a caregiver position, working from 5 PM to 9 PM, taking care of elderly people. The job was pretty straightforward, make sure they took their meds, had their meals, and just hang out with them for a few hours.
I got assigned to take care of this 85-year-old lady. Let's call her Mrs. Eleanor to keep things anonymous. She lived alone in this quaint little house on the edge of town. The place was old but well-kept, with a charming, slightly overgrown garden that probably hadn't seen a gardener in a few years. She had a small poodle named Max who was always by her side, following her around everywhere she went.
From the start, the house felt... off. There were no family pictures anywhere. I mean, you'd think at her age, she'd have photos of kids, grandkids, maybe an old lover or something. But no, nothing. It was weird. The walls were bare except for a few generic paintings. I asked her about it once, just casually during a conversation, but she brushed it off and changed the subject real quick. She had this look in her eyes, a mix of sadness and something I couldn’t quite place. I didn't push it because I didn't want to lose the job, but it definitely made me curious.
My daily routine was simple enough. I'd get there around 5 PM, cook dinner, make sure she took her meds, and just keep her company for a few hours. Max, the poodle, was a friendly little guy, always happy to see me, wagging his tail and jumping around despite his age. Mrs. Eleanor, though, was polite but pretty reserved. She didn’t talk much about her past or family, which just added to the mystery. Our conversations were always pretty basic, like talking about the weather or what was on the news.
Every evening, as I cleaned up after dinner, I'd hear Mrs. Eleanor singing a lullaby. It was the same soft, melodic tune every night, echoing through the quiet house. While the song was gentle, it really creeped me out. It felt so out of place in the otherwise silent house. She sang it every night, like clockwork, and it always made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Sometimes, I would find myself pausing my cleaning just to listen. The whole situation was unsettling. The house, the lack of family photos, the nightly lullaby, it all felt like pieces of a puzzle that didn't quite fit together. I couldn't shake the feeling that there was a deeper, darker story behind those melodies. It was like the house held secrets that it wasn’t ready to share, and I was just an outsider peeking in.
As the weeks went by, my curiosity grew stronger. Why was she singing this lullaby every night? Who was it for? The routine stayed the same, but the sense of unease kept building. I had been given strict instructions by my employer not to go into Mrs. Eleanor's room. It was one of the non-negotiable rules of the job, probably to respect her privacy and maintain professional boundaries. One evening, while I was cleaning the dishes, I noticed that the door to Mrs. Eleanor's small office was slightly opened. She had always kept it closed and had told me it was just a mess she didn't want me to fuss around with. But that evening, the door was invitingly open. Hearing her close the bathroom door upstairs, I decided to take the chance and peek inside the office.
The room looked straight out of the 1960s. Blue walls, a small single bed, and a wooden desk cluttered with old papers. There was a small closet to the left that caught my eye. The whole setup struck me as odd. This room, which looked like it belonged to a young boy, was in the home of an elderly woman living alone. There were no pictures, no personal belongings, nothing to explain why this room was here. I couldn't explore more because I heard footsteps right above me, making my heart race. Panicking, I quickly closed the door and hurried back to the kitchen. The rest of the evening went by uneventfully. I gave her the necessary pills, made sure she was comfortable, and left for the night. But I couldn’t stop thinking about that room. Why would she have a boy's room in her house if she had no children? The thought gnawed at me, creating a whirlwind of questions.
The next day, my curiosity got the better of me. I decided to do some research on Mrs. Eleanor. I spent hours online, searching for any information about her. But nothing came up. No social media profiles, no news articles, nothing. Not a single piece of information about her life.
It was baffling and left me with more questions than answers. I returned to work after the weekend, determined to find out more. That evening, as usual, I prepared dinner and ensured Mrs. Eleanor took her medication. Then I waited for her to go to the bathroom. The moment I heard the bathroom door close, I quickly made my way to the office. The room was just as I had left it, with that same lingering, musty smell hanging in the air. This time, I opened the closet. Inside, I found small boxes, stacked neatly but covered in a thin layer of dust. My heart pounded as I opened one to find baby clothes, tiny socks, pants, and sweaters, all meant for a baby boy. They were neatly folded and seemed well-preserved, despite their apparent age. But why would Mrs. Eleanor have these?
The discovery left me with more questions than answers. I went back to making dinner, trying to process what I had found. My mind was racing with possibilities, but none of them made any sense. Was it possible she had a child once? If so, where was he now? That night, as usual, Mrs. Eleanor began singing her lullaby. Normally, this song would send shivers down my spine, creeping me out every time. But this night was different. Instead of fear, I felt a surge of curiosity that I couldn’t ignore. I went upstairs quietly and with each step up, the lullaby grew louder. The door to her bedroom was almost closed but had a small gap, just enough for me to peek through. She always left a gap, saying it was to let Max come and go as he pleased. I peered through the gap and was shocked by what I saw.
There, Mrs. Eleanor was sitting in a rocking chair, gently swaying back and forth. She was holding Max in her arms, cradling him like a baby, and singing softly to him. Next to her was a small wooden cradle, old and worn, as if it hadn't been used in years. She continued her lullaby, her voice soft and melodic, but now it felt more sad than creepy. Her gentle rocking, the way she cradled Max, and the soft melody of the lullaby created an image that was hard to shake. I slowly backed away from the door, not wanting to intrude any further. I went back downstairs, my mind spinning from what I had just seen.
This made me think and start connecting all the dots. Was she pretending her dog was a baby? A baby she never had? I could be wrong, but that would make sense, right? The boy’s room, the baby clothes, no pictures, no husband, no children, just her and her dog, whom she pretended was her own son.
There are many possibilities. Maybe she lost her child during a miscarriage, or the son died somehow. It’s heartbreaking to think about, but I had no way of knowing for sure since there was nothing about her online. I even asked my boss about Mrs. Eleanor, trying to get some information about her past. My boss didn’t know much either, just that Mrs. Eleanor had always been a bit reserved and private. She mentioned that Mrs. Eleanor had experienced some tragic losses and that she was now quite lonely, with some health issues typical for her age, but nothing specific.
I worked out the rest of the week, but everything felt so creepy and intense. The quiet dinners together, the silence in the house, the haunting lullaby, it all felt like I was living in some kind of ghost story. Each night, as I lay in bed, I couldn't stop thinking about what I had seen. The pieces seemed to fit together, but they painted a picture that was too tragic and eerie for me to handle. Even during the day, I found myself distracted, replaying conversations with Mrs. Eleanor in my mind, looking for clues I might have missed. I thought about asking her directly but quickly dismissed the idea. It felt too intrusive, and honestly, I was scared of what I might uncover. There was a part of me that didn't want to know the full story because the fragments I had were already too much.
I noticed more details that added to the unsettling atmosphere. The way Mrs. Eleanor would sometimes pause mid-sentence as if lost in a distant memory, or how she would stroke Max's fur with a faraway look in her eyes. The house itself seemed to hold its breath.
I made my decision, I sent a text message to my boss saying I couldn’t continue with the job and that I was quitting immediately. I didn’t even say goodbye to Mrs. Eleanor. It felt wrong and I knew it was rude, but I just couldn’t bring myself to face her again. The thought of another day in that house, surrounded by haunting memories and unanswered questions, was too much for me to handle.
I felt a mix of guilt and relief. Guilt for leaving without a proper goodbye, for abandoning Mrs. Eleanor when she clearly needed someone. But also relief, knowing that I wouldn’t have to endure another evening of lullabies and unsettling silences. I knew I was being cowardly, but I just couldn’t do it. The experience had taken a toll on me, and I needed to get out. The whole experience was something I couldn’t shake off easily. It made me think a lot about the hidden struggles people face and the ways they cope with their pain. Mrs. Eleanor's story, whatever the full truth was, taught me that sometimes, the past can cast a long shadow over the present.
So, that's my story. It was a job I thought would be simple, but it ended up being one of the most emotionally intense experiences of my life.

Hey there everyone! I’m Z (he/they) & I’m looking to run a slow-paced, roleplay-heavy game with a focus on queer players & narratives. Experience doesn't matter, I love having newer players in my games!
I know this is long, but please read it throughly! The application isn't much shorter and I don't want to waste your time. I will be keeping the application up and reposting through the week, so there's no rush!
I also really shouldn't have to say this, but considering the only comments I got on my first post were negative: please don't harass me for wanting to run a safe table for people. Or, if you do, at least acknowledge the irony. . . This is a handicapped parking space; I know it's empty, but so are the dozens of spaces around it.
A little more about me - I'm 32 and I’ve been playing since 2017, mostly as a DM. Before the pandemic I ran a lot of local store games and ‘how to DM events’ for adults, as well as library games for kids. It took me a while to adjust to playing online but now I prefer it, as it’s allowed me to find a whole new love for the game playing with different kinds of people and focusing on intentionally creating a safe space for those who don’t feel comfortable at most tables.
Format - I would like to run weekly voice sessions on discord (with optional cameras) using roll20 as our VTT & the option to roleplay via text on the server throughout the week, with either other PCs or NPCs - I also like doing lore drops this way, or giving previews to other things that are happening in the world. I like dndbeyond for character sheets (and I’m happy to share all my content), but as long as I can see them, you can run them wherever. I am bad about using music bots on discord, so I would love it if someone knew how that all worked and could help with that, otherwise I can share playlists on spotify.
Scheduling - I would like to play anytime between 8am MST in the mornings and let’s say 4pm or so on Saturdays, and again we’d be shooting for every week, but obviously life happens and we might need to take a week off. It would also be lovely if you have a slightly flexible schedule just in case, as I can occasionally play on Sundays or Mondays as well. Sessions can be anywhere from 2 hours to 4 or 5 hours, depending on the amount of roleplay. I leave a lot of space in my game for in-character conversations, so if you are someone who gets bored easily / doesn’t care about the game if it doesn’t directly involve your character, this is not the game for you.
For this reason, I prefer running smaller groups, 3-4 being the sweet spot.
Mechanics - we’re playing 5e* and the asterisk represents all the stupid rules that make the game less fun that I ignore or change. I care more about the story and roleplaying than the mechanics, I very much default to the ‘rule of cool’ or letting the dice decide your fate. I am very much on your side and if it ever feels like I’m not, please let me know. The basics are I don’t make you track food/arrows/ etc. and if you forget or misunderstand something major I’ll remind you or clarify. I also don’t care too much about times for donning / doffing armor and using action economy to pull out a weapon - we’ve all woken up well past our alarm and still made it to work on time; you can get your armor on for that middle of the night combat.
In a similar manner, we’re playing Dragons of Shipwreck Isle* where the asterisk represents all the parts of the adventure that I’m gonna change and try to make more interesting. I would ask for y’all not to metagame and look up the adventure, but mostly because if you’re comparing the module to what I run, it’s not going to line up and it will probably end up frustrating you. I am also looking at other modules as well but instead of listing them all, in the question on the form where I ask if you’ve played this specific module before, please list all of the ones you’ve played instead of just saying yes or no. I don't like feeling like I need to trick my players into playing attention during the game, so I like players who pick up on these details.
Hard lines / veils in game - racism / sexism / homophobia / transphobia are NOT built into my fantasy worlds; we deal with that enough irl. I also don’t fuck with slavery, SA (this includes during combat, assault is assault even if they are a ‘bad guy’) or ERP. Anything sexual will be implied / fade to black, but I would prefer things not get too sexual. I don’t mind in character romance between PCs, but I would appreciate a heads up if you want an NPC romance for your character - and I will be checking in with everyone about your comfort level with this, if you want absolutely no flirting towards your character from any NPC please let me know that as well.
I will also stay away from harming kids / pets / elderly, and anything you would like to list as a hard line (something you don’t want showing up in the game at all) or veil (something that can be alluded to, just not graphically detailed). I will say there are heavy themes of undead present in the module at the beginning, and zombies / undead are a personal favorite monster of mine to use so PLEASE do not apply to this game if you don’t like fighting undead! My descriptions can get graphic at times when it comes to monsters & combat, but I will likely gross myself out before it becomes too gratuitous.
Triggers - even if you don’t think it will come up in game, triggers can unfortunately pop up with silly memes or jokes ooc. If there’s a certain image / idea that totally squicks you out and you don’t want them included ANYWHERE on the server, please let me know! Everyone’s comfort is a top priority to me, and keeping your triggers out of our safe space is really important to me.
Morality - I love moral ambiguity, but I genuinely don’t want any evil aligned characters. This is a collaborative game that requires everyone to work together to some extent; you don’t have to be instant best friends in character, but you will need you to communicate and check in ooc if tensions rise up in character. Play your character true to their actions, but make sure that their actions are fun and interesting for everyone involved, not just you.
I also always allow non-lethal combat options, such as knocking sentient creatures unconscious. I encourage trying to persuade / lie / bargain with those you have captured, but I will not condone outright torture. That said, there will be humanoid bad guys who won’t always be the most reasonable people, and may not collaborate.
Safety Tools - outside of open communication in discussing boundaries & triggers, I encourage the ‘X card’ method - whenever anyone gets uncomfortable and wants to immediately stop a scene, you can send a literal ‘X’ in either the main chat or to me privately and we will stop immediately. Ideally, we can get on the same page easily about comfort levels and everyone here will feel okay coming to me with any issues they have, but we are all human and things can pop up.
Expectations - The only thing I really ask out of y’all as my player is for open communication and I will always try my best to do the same. If something isn’t vibing with you or it makes you uncomfortable, even if it’s something little, please tell me. I expect you to be engaged with the story, and encourage you to keep some sort of notes / inventory / ‘to do list’ for the game. I also would really appreciate feedback - not just for how I run the game, but what you want to see in the game so I can put it in there. If someone’s character is interested in a specific realm of study in history / arcana / nature, I can build that into the lore. Same thing if you want to find a specific item or learn how to do a certain skill - let me know either in or out of character and I’ll try to make it happen!
Starting point - I am intentionally keeping this part loosey-goosey to accommodate players backstories & experiences! Mechanically, you will start at either level 1 or 2 with Point Buy for stats, and I am imagining getting to at least level 5, but it really depends. The loose idea I have right now is that y’all are traveling on a ship from Neverwinter to an island where you will likely be for several weeks in character, but I want to leave the overall ‘why’ up to the individual players and group. It will likely take about a dozen or so sessions, but I am happy to play for as long as my players want to keep doing things in character!
If you haven’t been put off by the amount of text, please click the link below to apply. If you thought this was too much and you skimmed the post to find this link, you’re probably going to get bored before you finish applying lol
best of luck!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSefOJuSFuzromCph2g6eBmeMEoIEH1t2grCuIbLa6O_i-9CWw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Ever since I was young, I've enjoyed watching these freaks of nature suffer. Back in the day I'd create backstories for the cockroach I'd kill, so the death was more enjoyable. I'd pretend they were all underdogs that left the sewers to complete this insane task, and back home they had a female love interested and a mum or something waiting for them. It brought me joy to imagine the cockroaches waiting anxiously at the sewer for the cockroach I'd just killed to return.
One of my most recent tortures, however, I was cleaning my room and opened up the drawer to my wardrobe. When I opened it, a stupid fucking cockroach was just standing there like it owned the place. Usually, I'd bring cockroaches mercy by killing them right away, but this jackass of a cockroach pissed me off and I needed to make an example out of it. I went off to get a container, and when I came back the fucker hadn't even moved. I put the container on it, went to grab a paper plate so I could flip it and put the lid on. The container had an airtight lid, and I'd learnt from previous experiences that not giving the cockroaches oxygen would kill them too quickly.
I had the cockroach in the container sitting in my room for about a day when I remembered it probably needed food and water. So, I turned on the tap and let the container fill up. I still have the image of the cockroach drinking burnt in my head. I also shoved a chip in there, but the ungrateful shit didn't even try to eat it.
It was so funny leaving the cockroach in there, it kept on crawling around and shit trying to find a way to escape.
The cockroach in the container eventually became really smelly so I took it out of my room and placed it on the hallway table. Sadly, one of my family members shut the seal for the container so the cockroach ended up dying of suffocation. I wish I could've dragged out it's death, made it more painful or some shit. I'm yet to find another cockroach I can torture, but I can keep you guys updated if you want.

I've been dating my partner for 3 years now, our relationship is pretty ok for the most part. I work an overnight job, have a bedridden mother and stress from other circumstances. So when we first started dating, there were no signs of insecurity or lack of self esteem. When it reared its head, I've always been on top of reassuring but now it's tiring. I'm an emotional repressed man due to my upbringing(currently seeking therapy). I've offered love through several means, ordered food, given massages, spending quality time with her. But when I keep getting the, do you still love me texts or the constant need for reassurance. I've almost flipped my lid because it feels like she authentically is ungrateful. I also hate having to play therapist or being accused of feeling some type of way because of intrusive thoughts/feelings. Plus with my overnight job, she will drop hard conversations and intrusive thoughts on me while at work. Call me because she can't sleep, text me insecure thoughts seeking reassurance at 4 am, go off on me because the imps in her head are telling her one thing. I've tried putting up these boundaries of not bothering me during my shift. But it's never going to be listened to.
TLDR:Gf seeks constant reassurance from and I'm at my wits end. Any advice will help

Im looking for some help understanding how to set up an AGM StingIR as a clip on mounted in front of a LVPO. Couple of questions: Does the image/thermal have to be “zeroed” to my day scope? The ADM flip mount I am using & my scope are aligned in height. (1.54” scope mount) If so what’s the best way to go about this? Does one turn on the retical & move it until lines up with the day optic? If this is the method, will it retain zero after being turned on & off, removed etc ? Or am I over thinking this? Trying to avoid shooting it the first time & missing in a bad way……

When I first started my journey into digital marketing, one of the biggest challenges I faced was figuring out how to get my business to show up in Google search results. The online landscape felt like an enormous, tangled jungle where my website seemed to be lost among the undergrowth. However, with determination and a few strategic moves, I managed to clear a path and make my business visible on Google.
Getting your business to show up in Google search isn't just about luck—it's about strategy, consistency, and understanding how Google works. The first crucial step is to claim and optimize your Google My Business (GMB) listing. This might seem basic, but it’s the cornerstone of local SEO. Think of GMB as your digital storefront; it’s the first impression many potential customers will have of your business. Ensure your business name, address, and phone number are accurate and up to date. Add high-quality photos, respond to reviews, and regularly update your business information.
I remember when I first updated my GMB listing. It was like flipping a switch—suddenly, my business started to show up more frequently in local searches. This small but significant step can make a huge difference, answering the question of how do you get your business to show up on Google search.
Next, let’s talk about your website. Your site needs to be optimized not only for search engines but also for the user experience. When people ask how to get my business to appear on Google, I tell them to start with their website’s content. Use relevant keywords naturally within your content. Don’t just stuff them in; they need to flow organically. For example, if you run a coffee shop, your blog posts might include phrases like “best coffee in [your city]” or “how to brew the perfect cup of coffee.” These keywords help Google understand what your site is about.
I once worked with a small bakery that struggled to get their website to show up on Google. We revamped their content, focusing on long-tail keywords and providing valuable, engaging information about baking techniques, recipes, and local sourcing. Slowly but surely, they began to climb the search rankings. Their persistence paid off, demonstrating that getting your business to appear on Google search business is not an overnight task but a gradual climb.
Another key aspect is backlinks. When other reputable websites link to your content, it signals to Google that your site is trustworthy and relevant. Think of it like this: if your website is a ship, backlinks are the wind in your sails. They push you forward in the vast ocean of the internet. Reach out to industry blogs, local news sites, or other businesses for guest posting opportunities or collaborations. These backlinks will boost your SEO significantly.
In the early days of my career, I focused on building relationships with local influencers and bloggers. Their mentions and links back to my site provided a significant boost, helping to answer that burning question of how do I get my business to show up in a Google search.
Furthermore, technical SEO cannot be ignored. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly, as Google now uses mobile-first indexing. This means that the mobile version of your site is considered the primary version. Speed is also crucial; a slow website can hurt your rankings. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to test and improve your site’s load time.
I recall a time when a slow-loading website almost cost me a major client. After optimizing the images and cleaning up the code, the site’s speed improved drastically. It was a clear lesson in the importance of technical SEO for getting your website to show up on Google.
Lastly, always keep your audience engaged. Regularly update your website with fresh content. This could be blog posts, news about your business, or customer testimonials. Fresh content not only keeps your audience engaged but also tells Google that your site is active and relevant.
In summary, getting your business to show up in Google search involves a mix of claiming your Google My Business listing, optimizing your website content, building backlinks, focusing on technical SEO, and consistently updating your site. By taking these steps, you can ensure that when people search for your services, your business appears prominently in the results. This journey requires effort and patience, but the rewards—more visibility, more traffic, and ultimately, more customers—are well worth it.
So, if you’re wondering how to get your business to show up on Google, start with these foundational steps and watch your visibility grow.
Take Action Now: Want to see your business at the top of Google search? Find out how to get business to show up in Google search like a pro. Click here!

I have ADHD and have increasingly found that my stress levels and ability to get things done are much better the more I offload stuff from my brain into some sort of digital repository.
I'm an iPad power-user (basically live on this thing) so I've been using the iOS Reminders app for most of this stuff. But while reminders has been great for, well, reminders/tasks, I'm finding I'm increasingly trying to use it for stuff it's not really well-suited for (like making lists of thoughts/info that I want to keep, not check off). I tried using Notes to fill in the gaps, but I just don't find it as pleasant and intuitive to use (reminders feels very structured, and color-coding in the sidebar helps keep me focused/find things). Plus there's stuff neither app does that I'd really like to find a good solution for.
Basically I think what I'm looking for is a personal knowledge/document/data management system. I've looked at a whole bunch and am frankly overwhelmed and struggling to figure out which would be best suited for my needs. Ideally the features I want (if possible to do all this in 1 app) are:

• Wiki type feature or decent linking allows me to connect related notes/docs. Can be offline but the ability to export to pdf or something would be cool so I can share stuff with people (like a topic ref doc for my kid, or a show viewing guide I'm making for my parents)
• Some sort of basic outline tools within the above docs/wiki (this doesn't have to be fancier than what Notes can do)
• WYSIWYG/rich text editor with decent/clear UI (I do NOT want to have to use markdown just to make entries. I'm fine copy/pasting stuff for unique formatting situations, but I am very much a visual person and not a programmer)
• Web clipper if possible/some way to send webpages to the database as a pdf or similar
• Annotation abilities, ideally with the ability to highlight bits of text and use the Apple Pencil to draw on top of these clips/pdfs.
• Ability to place images and other things into pages, but also the ability to browse a gallery of images with thumbnails (I'm an artist and while I use Visref for active ref while working, I need a better ref organization solution than the Photos app)
• Tagging (nested tagging is cool but not a requirement) with the ability to search/filter by tags
• Folders or workspaces with nesting/hierarchy. I just really need stuff "boxed" like this for my brain to keep track of it. I like to have a few basic folders and then dig down into detailed organizational systems within one. If this isn't possible, then nested tagging becomes much more important.
• Ability to put links to stuff in some sort of database/offline bookmarks managed where I can click them to open them in Safari. Basically I want to remove most of my bookmarks from Safari (I bookmark a lot of stuff just in case I need to refer back to it someday) and keep only frequently visited sites in there.
• Lists, like wishlists, with some basic organization/tagging (this might be accomplished the same way as the bookmarks database, basically I just want to be able to have like, a list of AppStore apps I may want to check out someday with links to them, or a list of books, or some other product and a link to where they can be purchased).
• Cloud sync/backup. Even though I mostly only use this one device, it would be nice to be able to at least reference my database on the rare occasion I need it on my iPhone or MacBook. Also I do not trust myself to remember to manually back it up.

Some stuff that would be nice to have but isn't absolutely required:

• Thumbnail views in image galleries display animations when there's an animated gif
• Modular layout tools (i enjoy stuff like kanban, cards, blocks, anything I can drag and drop and easily rearrange)
• Popup images/notes when a particular link is clicked (without navigating away from the current page/document)

I don't need tasks or calendar tools, fine using the iOS apps for those. Also a paid app is something I'm willing to consider if it's good enough. Infinite canvas is also not necessary and may be a detriment as I can easily forget about stuff that's drifted off-screen.
Some of the apps I've looked at are:

• Notion - I like the blocks that can be dragged and dropped, and the templates are cool. I'm not sure how I feel about the sidebar UI and the bare-bones look. Can stuff be nested on the left into folders and is there some way to add some more colostyling to the UI or documents? I also worry about it being online only.
• LiquidText - This doesn't do most of what I need but I like the select and drag out text snippet feature a lot.
• Evernote - I used this years ago and haven't looked at it in a while but I wasn't a huge fan of the UI back then.
• Others I know very little about: Obsidian, Anytype, Craft, Raindrop (is this just links/bookmarks?), Muse, Logsec, Devonthink, Flexcil, Funnel, Heptabase, Notesnook, Noto, Siyuan? Like I said, I'm overwhelmed.

Thinking about productivity app experiences I’ve enjoyed, Reminders and Trello come to mind. Plus that drag and drop snippit feature in LiquidText…I guess I like modular stuff? My brain likes stuff to be neatly boxed in a visually clear way.
Sorry I know that was a lot! Thank you to anyone who made it through all that. I welcome your recommendations if there are any apps that do what I'm looking for.

I have ADHD and and have increasingly found that my stress levels and ability to get things done are much better the more I offload stuff from my brain into some sort of digital repository.
I'm an iPad power-user (basically live on this thing) so I've been using the iOS Reminders app for most of this stuff. But while reminders has been great for, well, reminders/tasks, I'm finding I'm increasingly trying to use it for stuff it's not really well-suited for (like making lists of thoughts/info that I want to keep, not check off). I tried using Notes to fill in the gaps, but I just don't find it as pleasant and intuitive to use (reminders feels very structured, and color-coding in the sidebar helps keep me focused/find things). Plus there's stuff neither app does that I'd really like to find a good solution for.
Basically I think what I'm looking for is a personal knowledge/document/data management system. I've looked at a whole bunch and am frankly overwhelmed and struggling to figure out which would be best suited for my needs. Ideally the features I want (if possible to do all this in 1 app) are:

• Wiki type feature or decent linking allows me to connect related notes/docs. Can be offline but the ability to export to pdf or something would be cool so I can share stuff with people (like a topic ref doc for my kid, or a show viewing guide I'm making for my parents)
• Some sort of basic outline tools within the above docs/wiki (this doesn't have to be fancier than what Notes can do)
• WYSIWYG/rich text editor with decent/clear UI (I do NOT want to have to use markdown just to make entries. I'm fine copy/pasting stuff for unique formatting situations, but I am very much a visual person and not a programmer)
• Web clipper if possible/some way to send webpages to the database as a pdf or similar
• Annotation abilities, ideally with the ability to highlight bits of text and use the Apple Pencil to draw on top of these clips/pdfs.
• Ability to place images and other things into pages, but also the ability to browse a gallery of images with thumbnails (I'm an artist and while I use Visref for active ref while working, I need a better ref organization solution than the Photos app)
• Tagging (nested tagging is cool but not a requirement) with the ability to search/filter by tags
• Folders or workspaces with nesting/hierarchy. I just really need stuff "boxed" like this for my brain to keep track of it. I like to have a few basic folders and then dig down into detailed organizational systems within one. If this isn't possible, then nested tagging becomes much more important.
• Ability to put links to stuff in some sort of database/offline bookmarks managed where I can click them to open them in Safari. Basically I want to remove most of my bookmarks from Safari (I bookmark a lot of stuff just in case I need to refer back to it someday) and keep only frequently visited sites in there.
• Lists, like wishlists, with some basic organization/tagging (this might be accomplished the same way as the bookmarks database, basically I just want to be able to have like, a list of AppStore apps I may want to check out someday with links to them, or a list of books, or some other product and a link to where they can be purchased).

Some stuff that would be nice to have but isn't absolutely required:

• Thumbnail views in image galleries display animations when there's an animated gif
• Modular layout tools (i enjoy stuff like kanban, cards, blocks, anything I can drag and drop and easily rearrange)
• Popup images/notes when a particular link is clicked (without navigating away from the current page/document)

I don't need tasks or calendar tools, fine using the iOS apps for those. Also a paid app is something I'm willing to consider if it's good enough. Infinite canvas is also not necessary and may be a detriment as I can easily forget about stuff that's drifted off-screen.
Some of the apps I've looked at are:

• Notion - I like the blocks that can be dragged and dropped, and the templates are cool. I'm not sure how I feel about the sidebar UI and the bare-bones look. Can stuff be nested on the left into folders and is there some way to add some more colostyling to the UI or documents? I also worry about it being online only.
• LiquidText - This doesn't do most of what I need but I like the select and drag out text snippet feature a lot.
• Evernote - I used this years ago and haven't looked at it in a while but I wasn't a huge fan of the UI back then.
• Others I know very little about: Obsidian, Anytype, Craft, Raindrop (is this just links/bookmarks?), Muse, Logsec, Devonthink, Flexcil, Funnel, Heptabase, Notesnook, Noto, Siyuan? Like I said, I'm overwhelmed.

Sorry I know that was a lot! Thank you to anyone who made it through all that. I welcome your recommendations if there are any apps that do what I'm looking for.
Thinking about productivity app experiences I’ve enjoyed, Reminders and Trello come to mind. Plus that drag and drop snippit feature in LiquidText…I guess I like modular stuff? My brain likes stuff to be neatly boxed in a visually clear way.
Also as a side question: I recently tried Drafts, literally just as a drafts app (for when I'm replying to something and worried about losing my comment, or the web's editor is frustrating to use, like reddit). But is there any way to use rich text in it, or is it markdown only? Is there a similar app as smooth as this for this basic use with basic formatting tools? Just bolding, bulleted lists, stuff like that. I can go back to using Notes for this but just wondering if there's something better.

Hong Kong Dharma Talk by Master Lu
2016-07-03
Editor’s note: Dharma Master Jun Hong Lu has a powerful Dharma eye. He can clearly diagnose karma sources by reading the patient’s totem. The participants ask questions at the Dharma Convention, and Master Lu answers them by reading their totems. For living individuals, please tell Master Lu their zodiac and birth year; for deceased individuals, please tell Master Lu their names and death year. Master Lu will acquire their totems through these messages. By reading their totems, Master Lu will find the causes of their illness, helping them treat their diseases.
Patient's wife: This is my husband. He was born in 1969, and his zodiac sign is a rooster. Since being diagnosed with ALS in 2013, he has lost all mobility in his limbs.
Master Lu: No strength in the waist, the whole spine looks like completely paralyzed.
Patient's wife: Yes.
Master Lu: Ouch! Two spirits are pulling him, two rope-like wires pulling his waist, just pulling it upward, so he often gets cramps.
Patient's wife: Yes, yes.
Master Lu: He can still live for one year and three months. You have to tell him to change himself and recite Buddhist scriptures well. I'm telling you, he's here to pay his debt. This is his mother, isn't it?
Patient's wife: His mother.
Master Lu: You tell his mother to recite Buddhist scriptures for him properly. He is here to pay off his karmic debt, and he will be passing away very soon, so you have to recite the Little House to him now. His mother was very strict with him since he was a child, scolding and beating him constantly. Your mother-in-law is very fierce. As soon as the debt is paid off, he will pass away. Thus, I told you (the audience in the convention hall) to take it easy on yourselves about everything. Even if you know that your wife owes you debt, you should not force her to desperately pay. Many wives say, "Ouch, my husband owes me." They abuse their husbands every day, and one day the husband runs away because it's paid off. Do you understand?
Patient's wife: Understand.
Master Lu: You tell his mother to recite the Little House for him every day, a total of 384 sheets, this is the first set so far.
Patient's wife: I have already burned 800 Little House for his karmic creditors, and released 7000 fish.
Master Lu: Well, he's getting a little better. You tell him to take calcium tablets, and eat lecithin. Also, he has poison in his body and is often constipated.
Patient's wife: Yes, yes.
Master Lu: His brain is often messed up.
Patient's wife: Yes, yes, yes.
Master Lu: He often has painful feelings. Keep his mother from bothering him. What do you know, granny? You cast spell over his head, as if you were really doing something. Do you want me to get rid of your soul ah?
Patient's wife: She didn't learn any spells.
Master Lu: You see she just scratched over her son's head like this. Don't scratch, do you understand? Really, alas! (He) owes her. Do you know who his mother's face looks like, do you know? Like an official of the underworld ah? I tell you, (the mother) is to ask for debts. When her son is about to pay off his debt, he will be taken away. (The mother is) very powerful. Alas, you just let fate take its course. In your family, mother has the highest status, and the second is your husband, you are the third.
Patient's wife: Yes yes.
Master Lu: If you have a dog in your family, you will become the fourth. Do you understand? Recite Buddhist scriptures properly!
Patient's wife: Master, how many more Little Houses do we need to recite for him? How many fish to liberate for him?
Master Lu: 18,000 fish.
Patient's wife: Okay.
Master Lu: Continue reciting Little Houses for him until you reach the target of about 890 sheets.
Patient's wife: Now we have finished 800 sheets.
Master Lu: Keep reciting until he recovers. He will be able to stand up later, but he is weak and needs crutches.
Patient's wife: Okay.
Master Lu: If reciting Buddhist scriptures well he can stand up. No big problem. He just has a severe atrophy.
Patient's wife: Yes, yes, yes.
Master Lu: His muscles are all atrophied. With time, all muscles will completely close up.
Patient's wife: He is now having difficulty swallowing, and eating is a problem.
Master Lu: There is a way to help him. Serve him great compassion water every morning, and then ask his mother to give him a throat massage by hand. When you do massage for your husband, you recite the Great Compassion Mantra. Every time he can not swallow, you do massage for him with your mouth reciting the Great Compassion Mantra. You try, each time you can help him to be able to swallow. This is a temporary solution.
Patient's wife: Okay, thank you, Master!
Statement by translator
The dialogue was translated from Chinese into English by meaning, not word by word. If there is anything that is not rational or in line with the true meaning of the Chinese version, I pray for forgiveness from the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Dharma protectors and Master Jun Hong Lu.
Propagation
It would be greatly appreciated if you would forward this presentation to all sentient beings you know, sick or healthy. You will accumulate immeasurable merits and virtues. Saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-floor pagoda!
Would you like to change your destiny?
We will show you how to do the Five Golden Buddhist Practices of Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door: (1) making vows, (2) reciting Buddhist scriptures (sutras and mantras), (3) performing life liberation, (4) reading Buddhism in Plain Terms, and (5) repenting. You will personally witness how you and your family can achieve physical and mental stability, relief from illness and grievances, wisdom growth, academic progress, career advancement, and family happiness through Dharma. It’s free of charge.
Contact
Buddhist practitioner: Lily
Email: [sunnypurplelily@gmail.com](mailto:sunnypurplelily@gmail.com)
WeChat: HanJing20210820
原文如下：
2016年7月3日 中国香港《玄艺综述》大型现场解答会看图腾
病人妻子：这是我的丈夫。他是1969年属鸡的，2013年医院检查出渐冻症，现在已经发展到四肢没有任何的活动能力。
台长师父：腰没有力量，整个脊背完全瘫掉一样。
病人妻子：对。
台长师父：哎哟！两个灵性拉他的，两根绳子一样的铁丝拉他的腰，就是往上牵，所以他经常会抽筋。
病人妻子：是的是的。
台长师父：他还能活一年零三个月。你要叫他变化，好好地念经。我告诉你，他是来还债的。这是他妈妈是吧？
病人妻子：他妈。
台长师父：你叫他妈好好帮他念经，这个孩子是来还债的，他很快就要走的，所以你现在要给他念小房子。妈妈从小对他很严格，骂啊、打啊什么都要做的。你这个婆婆很厉害的，还完了，这个孩子就走掉了。所以我叫你们自己什么事情要悠着点，就是知道这个老婆来还债的，你也不要怎么样，就是知道怎么样，你也不要拼命地去叫人家还。很多老婆说：“哎哟，我老公欠我的。”对他整天不好、整天不好，到最后有一天老公跑掉了，因为还完了。听得懂吗？
病人妻子：明白了。
台长师父：你叫他妈妈每天要念小房子，一共要念384张，这是目前第一拨。
病人妻子：我已经为他烧送了800张小房子了，放生7000条鱼。
台长师父：嗯，他好了一点点。你叫他要吃钙片，还要叫他吃卵磷脂。还有他身上有毒，经常便秘。
病人妻子：是的是的。
台长师父：脑子已经经常转不过弯来。
病人妻子：对对对。
台长师父：经常有痛苦感觉，叫他的妈妈不要再乱弄他了。你懂什么，老婆婆？还要搞这种法术呢，头上拉拉下来，像真的一样，你要不要我把你魂弄掉啊？
病人妻子：她没学什么法术。
台长师父：你看她刚才在她儿子头上这么抓。不要抓，听得懂吗？真的，唉！欠她的。你知道他妈妈……你看看他妈妈的脸像谁，你们知道吗？像不像地府的官啊？我告诉你，就是来要债，把她儿子弄弄弄，还债，还得差不多了，把他带走。很厉害的，弄到最后还是她。你就是……唉，你就随缘吧，你就这种孩子了，没办法。你们家里，老大是他妈，老二是你老公，你是老三。
病人妻子：是的是的。
台长师父：如果你们家再养条狗，你就变老四了。听得懂吗？好好念经了！
病人妻子：师父，我们再为他念多少小房子？放多少鱼？
台长师父：放18000条鱼。
病人妻子：好的。
台长师父：小房子要帮他不停地念，最后大概要念到890张。
病人妻子：现在已经达到800张了。
台长师父：还要念，念到他好。他以后能站起来，但是浑身无力，要拄拐棍的。
病人妻子：好的。
台长师父：他如果好好念经，能站起来的，没什么大问题，他只是萎缩症很厉害。
病人妻子：对对对。
台长师父：他的肌肉都在萎缩，萎缩到后来完全收起来了。
病人妻子：他现在的吞咽都很困难，吃饭都成问题了。
台长师父：有一个方法，每天早上给他喝大悲水，然后叫他妈妈给他做手部按摩。你给你老公做，手部按摩的时候给他念《大悲咒》，每一次吞不下去，你就手帮他这里按摩，嘴巴里念《大悲咒》。你试试看，每一次帮你叫他吞得下去，这是暂时的办法。
病人妻子：好的，感恩师父！
您想改变命运吗？
我们手把手传授您观世音菩萨的心灵法门五大法宝：“许愿”、“放生”、“念经”、“读《白话佛法》、大忏悔”。您将亲自见证如何通过佛法让自己及家人获得身心安定、病苦解除、冤结化解、智慧增长、学业进步、事业提升、家庭幸福。
欢迎联络Lily佛友：
电邮：sunnypurplelily@gmail.com
微信：HanJing20210820
Disclaimer of Liability:
The contents of the presentation and answers, including text, images, and other information obtained from Dharma practitioners, are provided strictly for reference purposes. Due to the unique nature of individual karma, results similar to those experienced by the authors may not be replicated. The experiences and advice shared should not be construed as medical advice or a diagnosis.
In the event of an emergency, it is crucial to promptly contact your doctor or emergency services by dialing 911. Relying on any information found in the answers is done solely at your own risk. The translator and answerer bear no responsibility for the consequences. By using or misusing the contents, you accept liability for any personal injury, including death. It is imperative to exercise caution and seek professional medical guidance for health-related concerns.

Hello everyone and welcome to my post. In the following few paragraphs, you'll learn a few basics about myself as well as what I'm looking for in a partner. If any of it interests you, please don't hesitate to message me or start a chat. I look forward to hearing from all of you!
To begin with a little about myself, I'm 24M and currently living in NoVA for just over 1.5 years. Before that, I spent most of my life in Massachusetts but eventually ran out of new things to do there. Now, I work in AI research and spend most of my free time either playing board games or exploring nature. I also love to travel and see the world whenever possible. My trip last year was to Portugal (pictures available) which was such a beautiful country with such delicious food. I'm currently in Croatia for the next two weeks. Also, one cool and unique facts about me is that I have aphantasia which means I can't see images in my head. Oh and physically, I'm 5'8 with an average build and dark brown hair and eyes.
As for what I'm looking for, I really don't have many expectations in terms of appearance. By far the most important thing to me is that we are able to share each other's hobbies and enjoy time together. For example, I'd love someone I can take on hikes before ending off the day with a board game night at home. And, of course, I'd be interested in sharing and trying your hobbies as well. I also really value communication and people who can keep a conversation going in person and over text.
If you're still interested and made it this far, I've got a LIMITED TIME OFFER for you. In exchange for three unique facts about yourself, I will reply with three pet pictures. These pictures are guaranteed to be extra adorable and come with a 100% money-back guarantee if they don't make you smile.

Hello everyone and welcome to my post. In the following few paragraphs, you'll learn a few basics about myself as well as what I'm looking for in a partner. If any of it interests you, please don't hesitate to message me or start a chat. I look forward to hearing from all of you!
To begin with a little about myself, I'm 24M and currently living in NoVA for just over 1.5 years. Before that, I spent most of my life in Massachusetts but eventually ran out of new things to do there. Now, I work in AI research and spend most of my free time either playing board games or exploring nature. I also love to travel and see the world whenever possible. My trip last year was to Portugal (pictures available) which was such a beautiful country with such delicious food. I'm currently in Croatia for the next two weeks. Also, one cool and unique facts about me is that I have aphantasia which means I can't see images in my head. Oh and physically, I'm 5'8 with an average build and dark brown hair and eyes.
As for what I'm looking for, I really don't have many expectations in terms of appearance. By far the most important thing to me is that we are able to share each other's hobbies and enjoy time together. For example, I'd love someone I can take on hikes before ending off the day with a board game night at home. And, of course, I'd be interested in sharing and trying your hobbies as well. I also really value communication and people who can keep a conversation going in person and over text.
If you're still interested and made it this far, I've got a LIMITED TIME OFFER for you. In exchange for three unique facts about yourself, I will reply with three pet pictures. These pictures are guaranteed to be extra adorable and come with a 100% money-back guarantee if they don't make you smile.

"Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross?"

The main reason Jesus died on the cross was to defeat Satan and set us free from his oppressive rule. Everything else that Jesus accomplished was to be understood as an aspect and consequence of this victory (e.g., Recapitulation, Moral Influence, etc.).
This understanding of why Jesus had to die is called the Christus Victor (Latin for “Christ is Victorious”) view of the atonement. But, what exactly was Christ victorious from, and why? To find out the answers to these questions, we have to turn to the Old Testament, as that's what the apostles would often allude to in order to properly teach their audience the message they were trying to convey (Rom. 15:4).
The OT is full of conflict between the Father (YHVH) and false gods, between YHVH and cosmic forces of chaos. The Psalms speak of this conflict between YHVH and water monsters of the deeps (an ancient image for chaos) (Psa. 29:3-4; 74:10-14; 77:16, 19; 89:9-10; 104:2-9, etc).
The liberation of Israel from Egypt wasn’t just a conflict between Pharaoh and Moses. It was really between YHVH and the false gods of Egypt.
Regardless of whether you think the aforementioned descriptions are literal or metaphorical, the reality that the Old Testament describes is that humanity lived in a “cosmic war zone.”
The Christus Victor motif is about Christ reigning victorious over wicked principalities and Satan's kingdom, and is strongly emphasized throughout the New Testament. Scripture declares that Jesus came to drive out "the prince of this world” (John 12:31), to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), to “destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14) and to “put all enemies under his feet” (1 Cor 15:25). Jesus came to overpower the “strong man” (Satan) who held the world in bondage and worked with his Church to plunder his "palace" (Luke 11:21-22). He came to end the reign of the cosmic “thief” who seized the world to “steal, and to kill, and to destroy” the life YHVH intended for us (John 10:10). Jesus came and died on the cross to disarm “the principalities and powers” and make a “shew of them openly [i.e., public spectacle]” by “triumphing over them in [the cross]” (Col. 2:15).
Beyond these explicit statements, there are many other passages that express the Christus Victor motif as well. For example, the first prophecy in the Bible foretells that a descendent of Eve (Jesus) would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). The first Christian sermon ever preached proclaimed that Jesus in principle conquered all YHVH's enemies (Acts 2:32-36). And the single most frequently quoted Old Testament passage by New Testament authors is Psalm 110:1 which predicts that Christ would conquer all YHVH’s opponents. (Psalm 110 is quoted or alluded to in Matthew 22:41-45; 26:64, Mark 12:35-37; 14:62, Luke 20:41-44; 22:69, Acts 5:31; 7:55-56, Romans 8:34, 1st Corinthians 15:22-25, Ephesians 1:20, Hebrews 1:3; 1:13; 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:11, 15, 17, 21; 8:1; 10:12-13, 1st Peter 3:22, and Revelation 3:21.) According to New Testament scholar Oscar Cullman, the frequency with which New Testament authors cite this Psalm is the greatest proof that Christ’s “victory over the angel powers stands at the very center of early Christian thought.”
Because of man's rebellion, the Messiah's coming involved a rescue mission that included a strategy for vanquishing the powers of darkness.
Since YHVH is a God of love who gives genuine “say-so” to both angels and humans, YHVH rarely accomplishes His providential plans through coercion. YHVH relies on His infinite wisdom to achieve His goals. Nowhere is YHVH's wisdom put more on display than in the manner in which He outsmarted Satan and the powers of evil, using their own evil to bring about their defeat.
Most readers probably know the famous story from ancient Greece about the Trojan Horse. To recap the story, Troy and Greece had been locked in a ten-year-long vicious war when, according to Homer and Virgil, the Greeks came up with a brilliant idea. They built an enormous wooden horse, hid soldiers inside and offered it to the Trojans as a gift, claiming they were conceding defeat and going home. The delighted Trojans accepted the gift and proceeded to celebrate by drinking themselves into a drunken stupor. When night came and the Trojan warriors were too wasted to fight, the Greeks exited the horse, unlocked the city gates to quietly let all their compatriots in, and easily conquered the city, thus winning the war.
Historians debate whether any of this actually happened. But either way, as military strategies go, it’s brilliant.
Now, there are five clues in the New Testament that suggest YHVH was using something like this Trojan Horse strategy against the powers when he sent Jesus into the world:
1) The Bible tells us that YHVH's victory over the powers of darkness was achieved by the employment of YHVH’s wisdom, and was centered on that wisdom having become reality in Jesus Christ (Rom. 16:25, 1 Cor. 2:7, Eph. 3:9-10, Col. 1:26). It also tells us that, for some reason, this Christ-centered wisdom was kept “secret and hidden” throughout the ages. It’s clear from this that YHVH's strategy was to outsmart and surprise the powers by sending Jesus.
2) While humans don’t generally know Jesus’ true identity during his ministry, demons do. They recognize Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, but, interestingly enough, they have no idea what he’s doing (Mark 1:24; 3:11; 5:7, Luke 8:21). Again, the wisdom of YHVH in sending Jesus was hidden from them.
3) We’re told that, while humans certainly share in the responsibility for the crucifixion, Satan and the powers were working behind the scenes to bring it about (John 13:27 cf. 1 Cor. 2:6-8). These forces of evil helped orchestrate the crucifixion.
4) We’re taught that if the “princes of this world [age]” had understood the secret wisdom of YHVH, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:8 cf. vss 6-7). Apparently, Satan and the powers regretted orchestrating Christ’s crucifixion once they learned of the wisdom of YHVH that was behind it.
5) Finally, we can begin to understand why the powers came to regret crucifying “the Lord of glory” when we read that it was by means of the crucifixion that the “handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us [i.e., the charge of our legal indebtedness]” was “[taken] out of the way [i.e., canceled]” as the powers were disarmed. In this way Christ “triumph[ed] over” the powers by "his cross” and even “made a shew of them openly” (Col. 2:14-15). Through Christ’s death and resurrection YHVH's enemies were vanquished and placed under his Messiah's feet, and ultimately His own in the end (1 Cor. 15:23-28).
Putting these five clues together, we can discern YHVH's Trojan Horse strategy in sending Jesus.
The powers couldn’t discern why Jesus came because YHVH's wisdom was hidden from them. YHVH's wisdom was motivated by unfathomable love, and since Satan and the other powers were evil, they lacked the capacity to understand it. Their evil hearts prevented them from suspecting what YHVH was up to.
What the powers did understand was that Jesus was mortal. This meant he was killable. Lacking the capacity to understand that this was the means by which YHVH would ultimately bring about the defeat of death (and thus, pave the road for the resurrection itself), they never suspected that making Jesus vulnerable to their evil might actually be part of YHVH's infinitely wise plan.
And so they took the bait (or "ransom"; Matt. 20:28, Mark 10:45, 1 Tim. 2:5-6). Utilizing Judas and other willing human agents, the powers played right into YHVH’s secret plan and orchestrated the crucifixion of the Messiah (Acts 2:22-23; 4:28). YHVH thus brilliantly used the self-inflicted incapacity of evil to understand love against itself. And, like light dispelling darkness, the unfathomably beautiful act of YHVH's love in sending the willing Messiah as a "ransom" to these blood-thirsty powers defeated them. The whole creation was in principle freed and reconciled to YHVH, while everything written against us humans was nailed to the cross, thus robbing the powers of the only legal claim they had on us. They were “spoiled [i.e., disempowered]” (Col. 2:14-15).
As happened to the Trojans in accepting the gift from the Greeks, in seizing on Christ’s vulnerability and orchestrating his crucifixion, the powers unwittingly cooperated with YHVH to unleash the one power in the world that dispels all evil and sets captives free. It’s the power of self-sacrificial love.

Why Penal Substitution Is Unbiblical

For the sake of keeping this already lengthy post as short as possible I'm not going to spend too much time on why exactly PSA (Penal Substitutionary Atonement) is inconsistent with Scripture, but I'll go ahead and point out the main reasons why I believe this is so, and let the reader look further into this subject by themselves, being that there are many resources out there which have devoted much more time than I ever could here in supporting this premise.

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:"-1 Corinthians 5:7

The Passover is one of the two most prominent images in the New Testament given as a comparison to Christ's atonement and what it accomplished, (the other most common image being the Day of Atonement sacrifice).
In the Passover, the blood of the lamb on the door posts of the Hebrews in the book of Exodus was meant to mark out those who were YHVH's, not be a symbol of PSA, as the lamb itself was not being punished by God in place of the Hebrews, but rather the kingdom of Egypt (and thus, allegorically speaking, the kingdom of darkness which opposed YHVH) was what was being judged and punished, because those who were not "covered" by the blood of the lamb could be easily identified as not part of God's kingdom/covenant and liberated people.
Looking at the Day of Atonement sacrifice (which, again, Christ's death is repeatedly compared to throughout the New Testament), this ritual required a ram, a bull, and two goats (Lev. 16:3-5). The ram was for a burnt offering intended to please God (Lev. 16:3-4). The bull served as a sin offering for Aaron, the high priest, and his family. In this case, the sin offering restored the priest to ritual purity, allowing him to occupy sacred space and be near YHVH’s presence. Two goats taken from "the congregation” were needed for the single sin offering for the people (Lev. 16:5). So why two goats?
The high priest would cast lots over the two goats, with one chosen as a sacrifice “for the Lord” (Lev. 16:8). The blood of that goat would purify the people. The second goat was not sacrificed or designated “for the Lord.” On the contrary, this goat—the one that symbolically carried the sins away from the camp of Israel into the wilderness—was “for Azazel” (Lev. 16:8-10).
What—or who—is Azazel?
The Hebrew term azazel (עזאזל) occurs four times in Leviticus 16 but nowhere else in most people's canon of the Bible, (and I say "most people's canon," because some people do include 1 Enoch in their canon of Scripture, which of course goes into great detail about this "Azazel" figure). Many translations prefer to translate the term as a phrase, “the goat that goes away,” which is the same idea conveyed in the King James Version’s “scapegoat.” Other translations treat the word as a name: Azazel. The “scapegoat” option is possible, but since the phrase “for Azazel” parallels the phrase “for YHVH” (“for the Lord”), the wording suggests that two divine figures are being contrasted by the two goats.
A strong case can be made for translating the term as the name Azazel. Ancient Jewish texts show that Azazel was understood as a demonic figure associated with the wilderness. The Mishnah (ca. AD 200; Yoma 6:6) records that the goat for Azazel was led to a cliff and pushed over, ensuring it would not return with its death. This association of the wilderness with evil is also evident in the New Testament, as this was where Jesus met the devil (Matt. 4:1). Also, in Leviticus 17:1-7 we learn that some Israelites had been accustomed to sacrificing offerings to "devils" (alternatively translated as “goat demons”). The Day of Atonement replaced this illegitimate practice.
The second goat was not sent into the wilderness as a sacrifice to a foreign god or demon. The act of sending the live goat out into the wilderness, which was unholy ground, was to send the sins of the people where they belonged—to the demonic domain. With one goat sacrificed to bring purification and access to YHVH and one goat sent to carry the people’s sins to the demonic domain, this annual ritual reinforced the identity of the true God and His mercy and holiness.
When Jesus died on the cross for all of humanity’s sins, he was crucified outside the city, paralleling the sins of the people being cast to the wilderness via the goat to Azazel. Jesus died once for all sinners, negating the need for this ritual.
As previously stated, the goat which had all the sin put on it was sent alive off to the wilderness, while the blood of the goat which was blameless was used to purify the temple and the people. Penal substitution would necessitate the killing of the goat which had the sin put on it.
Mind you, this is the only sacrificial ritual of any kind in the Torah in which sins are placed on an animal. The only time it happens is this, and that animal is not sacrificed. Most PSA proponents unwittingly point to this ritual as evidence of their view, despite it actually serving as evidence to the contrary, because most people don't read their Old Testament and don't familiarize themselves with the "boring parts" like Leviticus (when it's actually rather important to do so, since that book explains how exactly animal offerings were to be carried out and why they were done in the first place).
In the New Testament, Christ's blood was not only meant to mark out those who were his, but also expel the presence of sin and ritual uncleanness so as to make the presence of YHVH manifest in the believer's life. Notice how God's wrath isn't poured out on Christ in our stead on this view, but rather His wrath was poured out on those who weren't covered, and the presence of sin and evil were merely removed by that which is pure and blameless (Christ's blood) for the believer.
All this is the difference between expiation and propitiation.

The Content of Paul's Gospel Message

When the New Testament writers talked about “the gospel,” they referred not to the Protestant doctrine of justification sola fide–the proposition that if we will stop trying to win God’s favor and only just believe that God has exchanged our sin for Christ’s perfect righteousness, then in God’s eyes we will have the perfect righteousness required both for salvation and for assuaging our guilty consciences–but rather they referred to the simple but explosive proposition Kyrios Christos, “Christ is Lord.” That is to say, the gospel was, properly speaking, the royal announcement that Jesus of Nazareth was the God of Israel’s promised Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The New Testament writers were not writing in a cultural or linguistic vacuum and their language of euangelion (good news) and euangelizomai would have been understood by their audience in fairly specific ways. Namely, in the Greco-Roman world for which the New Testament authors wrote, euangelion/euangelizomai language typically had to do with either A) the announcement of the accession of a ruler, or B) the announcement of a victory in battle, and would probably have been understood along those lines.
Let’s take the announcements of a new ruler first. The classic example of such a language is the Priene Calendar Inscription, dating to circa 9 BC, which celebrates the rule (and birthday) of Caesar Augustus as follows:
"It was seeming to the Greeks in Asia, in the opinion of the high priest Apollonius of Menophilus Azanitus: Since Providence, which has ordered all things of our life and is very much interested in our life, has ordered things in sending Augustus, whom she filled with virtue for the benefit of men, sending him as a savior [soter] both for us and for those after us, him who would end war and order all things, and since Caesar by his appearance [epiphanein] surpassed the hopes of all those who received the good tidings [euangelia], not only those who were benefactors before him, but even the hope among those who will be left afterward, and the birthday of the god [he genethlios tou theou] was for the world the beginning of the good tidings [euangelion] through him; and Asia resolved it in Smyrna."
The association of the term euangelion with the announcement of Augustus’ rule is clear enough and is typical of how this language is used elsewhere. To give another example, Josephus records that at the news of the accession of the new emperor Vespasian (69 AD) “every city kept festival for the good news (euangelia) and offered sacrifices on his behalf.” (The Jewish War, IV.618). Finally, a papyrus dating to ca. 498 AD begins:
"Since I have become aware of the good news (euangeliou) about the proclamation as Caesar (of Gaius Julius Verus Maximus Augustus)…"
This usage occurs also in the Septuagint, the Greek translations of the Jewish Scriptures. For instance LXX Isaiah 52:7 reads, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news (euangelizomenou), who publishes peace, who brings good news (euangelizomenos) of salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.'" Similarly, LXX Isaiah 40:9-10 reads:

"…Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good tidings (ho euangelizomenos) to Sion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings (ho euangelizomenos); lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Ioudas, “See your God!” Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with authority (kyrieias)…."-NETS, Esaias 40:9-10

This consistent close connection between euangelion/euangelizomai language and announcements of rule strongly suggests that many of the initial hearers/readers of the early Christians’ evangelical language would likely have understood that language as the announcement of a new ruler (see, e.g., Acts 17:7), and, unless there is strong NT evidence to the contrary, we should presume that the NT writers probably intended their language to be so understood.
However, the other main way in which euangelion/euangelizomai language was used in the Greco-Roman world was with reference to battle reports, announcements of victory in war. A classic example of this sort of usage can be found in LXX 2 Samuel 18:19ff, where David receives word that his traitorous son, Absalom, has been defeated in battle. Euangelion/euangelizomai is used throughout the passage for the communications from the front.
As already shown throughout this post, the NT speaks of Jesus’s death and resurrection as a great victory over the powers that existed at that time and, most importantly, over death itself. Jesus’ conquest of the principalities and powers was the establishment of his rule and comprehensive authority over heaven and earth, that is, of his Lordship over all things (again, at that time).
This was the content of Paul's gospel message...

Justification, and the "New" Perspective on Paul

The following quotation is from The Gospel Coalition, and I believe it to be a decently accurate summary of the NPP (New Perspective on Paul), despite it being from a source which is in opposition to it:

The New Perspective on Paul, a major scholarly shift that began in the 1980s, argues that the Jewish context of the New Testament has been wrongly understood and that this misunderstand[ing] has led to errors in the traditional-Protestant understanding of justification. According to the New Perspective, the Jewish systems of salvation were not based on works-righteousness but rather on covenantal nomism, the belief that one enters the people of God by grace and stays in through obedience to the covenant. This means that Paul could not have been referring to works-righteousness by his phrase “works of the law”; instead, he was referring to Jewish boundary markers that made clear who was or was not within the people of God. For the New Perspective, this is the issue that Paul opposes in the NT. Thus, justification takes on two aspects for the New Perspective rather than one; initial justification is by faith (grace) and recognizes covenant status (ecclesiology), while final justification is partially by works, albeit works produced by the Spirit.

I believe what's called the "new perspective" is actually rather old, and that the Reformers' view of Paul is what is truly new, being that the Lutheran understanding of Paul is simply not Biblical.
The Reformation perspective understands Paul to be arguing against a legalistic Jewish culture that seeks to earn their salvation through works. However, supporters of the NPP argue that Paul has been misread. We contend he was actually combating Jews who were boasting because they were God's people, the "elect" or the "chosen ones." Their "works," so to speak, were done to show they were God's covenant people and not to earn their salvation.
The key questions involve Paul’s view(s) of the law and the meaning of the controversy in which Paul was engaged. Paul strongly argued that we are “justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law” (Gal. 2:16b). Since the time of Martin Luther, this has been understood as an indictment of legalistic efforts to merit favor before God. Judaism was cast in the role of the medieval "church," and so Paul’s protests became very Lutheran, with traditional-Protestant theology reinforced in all its particulars (along with its limitations) as a result. In hermeneutical terms, then, the historical context of Paul’s debate will answer the questions we have about what exactly the apostle meant by the phrase "works of the law," along with other phrases often used as support by the Reformers for their doctrine of Sola Fide (justification by faith alone), like when Paul mentions "the righteousness of God."
Obviously an in-depth analysis of the Pauline corpus and its place in the context of first-century Judaism would take us far beyond the scope of this brief post. We can, however, quickly survey the topography of Paul’s thought in context, particularly as it has emerged through the efforts of recent scholarship, and note some salient points which may be used as the basis of a refurbished soteriology.
[Note: The more popular scholars associated with the NPP are E.P. Sanders, James Dunn, and N.T. Wright. Dunn was the first to coin the term "The New Perspective" in a 1983 Manson Memorial Lecture, The New Perspective on Paul and the Law.]
Varying authors since the early 1900's have brought up the charge that Paul was misread by those in the tradition of Martin Luther and other Protestant Reformers. Yet, it wasn't until E.P. Sanders' 1977 book, Paul and Palestinian Judaism, that scholars began to pay much attention to the issue. In his book, Sanders argues that the Judaism of Paul's day has been wrongly criticized as a religion of "works-salvation" by those in the Protestant tradition.
A fundamental premise in the NPP is that Judaism was actually a religion of grace. Sander's puts it clearly:
"On the point at which many have found the decisive contrast between Paul and Judaism - grace and works - Paul is in agreement with Palestinian Judaism... Salvation is by grace but judgment is according to works'...God saves by grace, but... within the framework established by grace he rewards good deeds and punishes transgression." (Paul and Palestinian Judaism, p. 543)
N.T. Wright adds that, "we have misjudged early Judaism, especially Pharisaism, if we have thought of it as an early version of Pelagianism," (Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said, p. 32).
Sanders has coined a now well-known phrase to describe the character of first-century Palestinian Judaism: “covenantal nomism.” The meaning of “covenantal nomism” is that human obedience is not construed as the means of entering into God’s covenant. That cannot be earned; inclusion within the covenant body is by the grace of God. Rather, obedience is the means of maintaining one’s status within the covenant. And with its emphasis on divine grace and forgiveness, Judaism was never a religion of legalism.
If covenantal nomism was operating as the primary category under which Jews understood the Law, then when Jews spoke of obeying commandments, or when they required strict obedience of themselves and fellow Jews, it was because they were "keeping the covenant," rather than out of legalism.
More recently, N.T. Wright has made a significant contribution in his little book, What Saint Paul Really Said. Wright’s focus is the gospel and the doctrine of justification. With incisive clarity he demonstrates that the core of Paul’s gospel was not justification by faith, but the death and resurrection of Christ and his exaltation as Lord. The proclamation of the gospel was the proclamation of Jesus as Lord, the Messiah who fulfilled Israel’s expectations. Romans 1:3-4, not 1:16-17, is the gospel, contrary to traditional thinking. Justification is not the center of Paul’s thought, but an outworking of it:
"[T]he doctrine of justification by faith is not what Paul means by ‘the gospel’. It is implied by the gospel; when the gospel is proclaimed, people come to faith and so are regarded by God as members of his people. But ‘the gospel’ is not an account of how people get saved. It is, as we saw in an earlier chapter, the proclamation of the lordship of Jesus Christ….Let us be quite clear. ‘The gospel’ is the announcement of Jesus’ lordship, which works with power to bring people into the family of Abraham, now redefined around Jesus Christ and characterized solely by faith in him. ‘Justification’ is the doctrine which insists that all those who have this faith belong as full members of this family, on this basis and no other." (pp. 132, 133)
Wright brings us to this point by showing what “justification” would have meant in Paul’s Jewish context, bound up as it was in law-court terminology, eschatology, and God’s faithfulness to God’s covenant.
Specifically, Wright explodes the myth that the pre-Christian Saul was a pious, proto-Pelagian moralist seeking to earn his individual passage into heaven. Wright capitalizes on Paul’s autobiographical confessions to paint rather a picture of a zealous Jewish nationalist whose driving concern was to cleanse Israel of Gentiles as well as Jews who had lax attitudes toward the Torah. Running the risk of anachronism, Wright points to a contemporary version of the pre-Christian Saul: Yigal Amir, the zealous Torah-loyal Jew who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for exchanging Israel’s land for peace. Wright writes:
"Jews like Saul of Tarsus were not interested in an abstract, ahistorical system of salvation... They were interested in the salvation which, they believed, the one true God had promised to his people Israel." (pp. 32, 33)
Wright maintains that as a Christian, Paul continued to challenge paganism by taking the moral high ground of the creational monotheist. The doctrine of justification was not what Paul preached to the Gentiles as the main thrust of his gospel message; it was rather “the thing his converts most needed to know in order to be assured that they really were part of God’s people” after they had responded to the gospel message.
Even while taking the gospel to the Gentiles, however, Paul continued to criticize Judaism “from within” even as he had as a zealous Pharisee. But whereas his mission before was to root out those with lax attitudes toward the Torah, now his mission was to demonstrate that God’s covenant faithfulness (righteousness) has already been revealed in Jesus Christ.
At this point Wright carefully documents Paul’s use of the controversial phrase “God’s righteousness” and draws out the implications of his meaning against the background of a Jewish concept of justification. The righteousness of God and the righteousness of the party who is “justified” cannot be confused because the term bears different connotations for the judge than for the plaintiff or defendant. The judge is “righteous” if his or her judgment is fair and impartial; the plaintiff or defendant is “righteous” if the judge rules in his or her favor. Hence:
"If we use the language of the law court, it makes no sense whatsoever to say that the judge imputes, imparts, bequeaths, conveys or otherwise transfers his righteousness to either the plaintiff or the defendant. Righteousness is not an object, a substance or a gas which can be passed across the courtroom. For the judge to be righteous does not mean that the court has found in his favor. For the plaintiff or defendant to be righteous does not mean that he or she has tried the case properly or impartially. To imagine the defendant somehow receiving the judge’s righteousness is simply a category mistake. That is not how the language works." (p. 98)
However, Wright makes the important observation that even with the forensic metaphor, Paul’s theology is not so much about the courtroom as it is about God’s love.
Righteousness is not an impersonal, abstract standard, a measuring-stick or a balancing scale. That was, and still is, a Greek view. Righteousness, Biblically speaking, grows out of covenant relationship. We forgive because we have been forgiven (Matt. 18:21-35); “we love" because God “first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:8, 10, Gal 5:14, Jam. 2:8). Paul even looked forward to a day when “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10), and he acknowledged that his clear conscience did not necessarily ensure this verdict (1 Cor. 4:4), but he was confident nevertheless. Paul did in fact testify of his clear conscience: “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation [i.e., behavior] in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward” (2 Cor. 1:12). He was aware that he had not yet “attained” (Phil. 3:12-14), that he still struggled with the flesh, yet he was confident of the value of his performance (1 Cor. 9:27). These are hardly the convictions of someone who intends to rest entirely on the merits of an alien righteousness imputed to his or her account.
Wright went on to flesh out the doctrine of justification in Galatians, Philippians, and Romans. The “works of the law” are not proto-Pelagian efforts to earn salvation, but rather “sabbath [keeping], food-laws, circumcision” (p. 132). Considering the controversy in Galatia, Wright writes:
"Despite a long tradition to the contrary, the problem Paul addresses in Galatians is not the question of how precisely someone becomes a Christian, or attains to a relationship with God….The problem he addresses is: should his ex-pagan converts be circumcised or not? Now this question is by no means obviously to do with the questions faced by Augustine and Pelagius, or by Luther and Erasmus. On anyone’s reading, but especially within its first-century context, it has to do quite obviously with the question of how you define the people of God: are they to be defined by the badges of Jewish race, or in some other way? Circumcision is not a ‘moral’ issue; it does not have to do with moral effort, or earning salvation by good deeds. Nor can we simply treat it as a religious ritual, then designate all religious ritual as crypto-Pelagian good works, and so smuggle Pelagius into Galatia as the arch-opponent after all. First-century thought, both Jewish and Christian, simply doesn’t work like that…. [T]he polemic against the Torah in Galatians simply will not work if we ‘translate’ it into polemic either against straightforward self-help moralism or against the more subtle snare of ‘legalism’, as some have suggested. The passages about the law only work — and by ‘work’ I mean they will only make full sense in their contexts, which is what counts in the last analysis — when we take them as references to the Jewish law, the Torah, seen as the national charter of the Jewish race." (pp. 120-122)
The debate about justification, then, “wasn’t so much about soteriology as about ecclesiology; not so much about salvation as about the church.” (p. 119)
To summarize the theology of Paul in his epistles, the apostle mainly spent time arguing to those whom he were sending letters that salvation in Christ was available to all men without distinction. Jews and Gentiles alike may accept the free gift; it was not limited to any one group. Paul was vehement about this, especially in his letter to the Romans. As such, I will finish this post off by summarizing the letter itself, so as to provide Biblical support for the premises of the NPP and for what the scholars I referenced have thus far argued.
After his introduction in the epistle to an already believing and mostly Gentile audience (who would've already been familiar with the gospel proclaimed in verses 3-4), Paul makes a thematic statement in 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” This statement is just one of many key statements littered throughout the book of Romans that give us proper understanding of the point Paul wished to make to the interlocutors of his day, namely, salvation is available to all, whether Jew or Gentile.
In 1:16 Paul sets out a basic theme of his message in the letter to the Romans. All who believed, whether they be Jew or Gentile, were saved by the power of the gospel. The universal nature of salvation was explicitly stated. The gospel saved all without distinction, whether Jew or Greek; salvation was through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Immediately after this thematic declaration, Paul undertakes to show the universal nature of sin and guilt. In 1:18-32 Paul shows how the Gentile is guilty before God. Despite evidence of God and his attributes, which is readily available to all, they have failed to honor YHVH as God and have exchanged His glory for idolatrous worship and self-promotion. As a consequence, God handed them over in judgment (1:18-32). Paul moves to denunciation of those who would judge others while themselves being guilty of the very same offenses (2:1-5) and argues that all will be judged according to their deeds (2:6). This judgment applies to all, namely, Jew and Greek (2:9-10). This section serves as somewhat of a transition in Paul’s argument. He has highlighted the guilt of the Gentiles (1:18ff) and will shortly outline the guilt of the Jew (2:17-24). The universal statement of 2:1-11 sets the stage for Paul’s rebuke of Jewish presumption. It was not possession of the Law which delivered; it was faithful obedience. It is better to have no Law and yet to obey the essence of the Law (2:12-16) than to have the Law and not obey (2:17-3:4). Paul then defends the justice of God’s judgment (3:5-8), which leads to the conclusion that all (Jew and Gentile) are guilty before God (3:9).
Paul argues that it was a mistaken notion to think that salvation was the prerogative of the Jew only. This presumption is wrong for two reasons. First, it leads to the mistaken assumption that only Jews were eligible for this vindication (Paul deals with this misunderstanding in chapter 4 where he demonstrates that Abraham was justified by faith independently of the Law and is therefore the father of all who believe, Jew and Gentile alike). Second, it leads to the equally mistaken conclusion that all who were Jews are guaranteed of vindication. Paul demonstrates how this perspective, which would call God’s integrity into question since Paul was assuming many Jews would not experience this vindication, was misguided. He did this by demonstrating that it was never the case that all physical descendants of Israel (Jacob) were likewise recipients of the promise. In the past (9:6-33) as in the present (at that time; 11:1-10), only a remnant was preserved and only a remnant would experience vindication. Paul also argued that the unbelief of national Israel (the non-remnant) had the purpose of extending the compass of salvation. The unbelief of one group made the universal scope of the gospel possible. This universalism was itself intended to bring about the vindication of the unbelieving group (11:11-16). As a result of faith, all (Jew and Gentile) could be branches of the olive tree (11:17-24). Since faith in Christ was necessary to remain grafted into the tree, no one could boast of his position. All, Jew and Gentile alike, were dependent upon the mercy and grace of God. As a result of God’s mysterious plan, He would bring about the vindication of His people (11:25-27). [Note: It is this author's belief that this vindication occurred around 66-70 AD, with the Parousia of Christ's Church; this author is Full-Preterist in their Eschatology.]

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Wade held Jasmine in his arms as he flew a low height down the long road to another section of the staryard, Tina on his back and Nathan and F right behind them in the air. Together, the five glided across the base grounds, taking care as to not irritate the aerial security during their search for the meeting room. Being outside for the flight, the group considered it a blessing that Wade's 'enhanced cooling unit' allowed his body to tolerate the breaching sun in the still cloudy sky, which, according to F, was dangerous to drones like her due to the inefficient cooling she and disassembly drones like her suffered from. Given F's physical fault, she had to fly under shady areas in order to safely traverse the base at day.
Originally, Wade and his friends had planned to walk to the meeting zone, but after running into a trooper experiencing a health mishap, the group did what they could to help the distressed officer. By the time he was brought to the medical ward by other soldiers, Wade found that him and his team would be at least a few minutes late if they kept on their way with their walk.
Deciding to speed things up, Wade, understanding the concern for performing such an effort, opted to carry the Fowleys around the base to the meeting area. Reluctantly, F decided to come along, carrying Nathan in a similar manner that Wade was carrying Jasmine. Taking notice of the time on his HUD, which read, "9:47 AM", Wade scouted for the building he and his friends were directed to. "8072" He said to himself, the number being for the building that would house the imminent meeting.
"They said it was down here, right?" Wade asked aloud to Tina before stopping himself in mid-air, the girl holding onto him tightly as he tried to speak over the growing sound of a retrofit Apache flying overhead.
Looking about, Tina nodded as she spotted the target building. "Yes, I believe that's the one over there!" Pointing past his head, Wade followed her finger to a large building ahead at his right. The structure was moderately tall, only about two stories high, with several soldiers and officers going in and out of the building. Wade smiled as he noticed the target number, as well as the big, bold words describing the building's designation. "8072, Briefing Center B"
"Good eye, honey. Hang on!" Continuing his low glide, Wade zoomed towards the building's entrance before stopping just meters above the ground, his two friends close behind as they slowed down as well. The troopers around them initially looked startled by the sudden arrival of Wade and his group, but quickly regained their composure as Wade hovered still above them.
"At ease! Just visitors." One of the soldiers declared as they identified the newcomers, who touched down before Wade let Jasmine down to her feet, Tina hopping onto the ground along with her.
Putting his hands up, Wade apologized for his swift surprise. "Sorry for the scare, we got delayed for a meeting we're invited to."
The soldier gave an understanding nod as he replied to the former worker drone sternly. "I can see that, just be a bit more careful next time, Mr. Carter. You gave the boys here quite a scare."
Wade returned the gesture in embarrassment as F put a hand to his back, chuckling at his efforts as Tina questioned the officer. "Is Mrs. J in there? She's the one who called for us."
The guard gave his reply as Wade and Tina pulled out their IDs for clearance. "Yes she is, Miss. The meeting's set to begin in under ten minutes." Checking the two drones' IDs, Jasmine and the others pulled out theirs as well, the watchman motioning another trooper over to verify the group. Once the guard finished checking the five's cards, he nodded in approval as the watchman spoke once more. "You're clear to enter."
"Thank you Sir, again, sorry about that spook back there." Wade replied with a smile as the trooper gave one of his own, the disassembly drone and his allies making their way towards the office door before stopping upon the call of a voice.
"Hey, Felice!" Wade turned to find the origin of the voice, F doing the same as the two quickly spotted a quartet of soldiers walking excitedly towards F. The disassembly drone glanced to her friends with a smile before turning back to the approaching entourage.
Wade examined the four troops as they got closer: Two human men, one woman, and a male worker drone. One of the male soldiers had short, blonde hair, and a small scar to the right side of their face. The second man bore a tan skin tone and had black hair, with blue strips that went down slightly in a mullet style. The woman bore a set of long, dark green hair, with the hair going down and over her left shoulder. As for the worker drone, he wore the standard green soldier helmet, single eye visor and all. He had no hair on him from what Wade could tell, and bore a pair of whiteish purple eyes on his visor.
As F walked over to the soldiers, the same one that called to her spoke again. "Felicity, I didn't expect to see you around here today! Where you been?"
The girl soldier interrupted his initial chatter. "Hang on Carlos, do you even know if she remembers us?"
"Aye, don't she have one o' them memory locks, or sumthin?" The drone added in a heavy Scottish accent.
F waved her hand as she replied to the group. "Easy, everyone. Thankfully I still got my memories, courtesy of my technician back at Central." Lowering her hand, F let down her usual persona as she gave a wide smirk to the soldiers, clearly pleased to see them. "Good to see you guys around here."
The soldiers gave light cheers to F as they all embraced her, the group having a surprise reunion as Wade and the others watched in surprise. These must've been F's old colleagues from when she was in the service, Wade thought. Quite the coincidence for them to be here at this base of all places.
Not bothering with the convenience of the matter, Wade shook the thought off as he and his friends watched F and her old friends breaking the hug, Tina wrapping an arm around her boyfriend as the second male human spoke to her in what the two discerned as Spanish. "Ay, who your new friends, F?"
"Oh, these guys?" F replied in the same language, quietly startling Wade and the others as they had never heard her speak like that until now. Glancing over to Wade, F motioned him and the others to come over. "Everyone, these are some friends I made in the past few days. Wade, Nathan, Tina, and Jasmine." She pointed her hand to the four as she said each of their names. "I met the boys here during my time on Ceres. Jasmine and Tina here are sisters."
The four soldiers gave various forms of excitement, ranging from hearty laughs to low woops and even a whistle from one of the guys. As F stood next to her old teammates, they each introduced themselves to Wade and his friends. The blonde soldier went first. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all, name's Carlos, Lieutenant Marksman."
"I'm Private Alvaros, good with close-range and stealth operations." Said the tan soldier with a salute.
"Sergeant Lucia Vasquez, usually the one who leads this bunch around these days." The female warrior stated with a humorous smirk.
"And Corporal Duncan Wallace, at your service!" The soldier drone stated proudly as he saluted to the bunch in front of him, who gave warm smiles as Wade shook his hand.
"Quite honored to meet you all, seems you have quite the history with F." The former worker drone said as Carlos patted F on her back.
"Oh, we do! She's the one who took charge when we didn't! Did you all hear of the Pasting of Nola VI?" Jasmine and Tina gave nods of affirmation while Wade, not as familiar with such history, held his hand up in a questioning manner.
"I think, wasn't that the battle where the Navy just barely held the outpost in that system? From the Stryker Clan?" Wade asked as Carlos nodded approvingly to him.
"That's right, and if Felice weren't there, WE would've been the ones getting pasted!" Carlos' statement brought victorious cheers and "oorahs" from the group, F letting a blush loose as she chuckled at her team's praise of her efforts.
"Well, that's not wrong." Although she didn't want to break off from her friends and discuss the past few years since they'd last met, F remembered the briefing. Clearing her throat, she continued. "And as much as I'd like to chat about the good times, I've been called to a meeting here, as have Wade and his crew."
The soldier group gave understanding looks to F as Lucia spoke up. "Thought so, Carl here was real eager to see you, though."
"Maybe we can talk after the meeting?" Nathan proposed as the soldiers collectively nodded in agreement, F readying a smartcomm attachment before turning to face her friends again.
"We're probably getting low on time, you all go in, I'll catch up in a sec." Wade nodded in acknowledgement before taking Tina's hand, the lover drones continuing towards the briefing center as Jasmine and Nathan followed behind them.
Passing through the door, the four guests observed a short hallway, which seemed to split into two paths as they came closer to the other end. Looking to a sign on the wall above, they saw arrows pointing to two separate areas, "Primary Briefing Room; Main Lobby + Secondary & Tertiary" Going to the right, they entered the moderately active lobby, several officers walking and standing about in mass chatter. Walking over to the desk up against the wall to their left, Wade and his group waved a hand to the occupying attendant.
"Welcome, what do you need?" The desk attendant asked as Tina raised a finger to reply.
"We're here for a meeting, Mrs. J called us here."
The attendant nodded in understanding before directing an arm towards the other end of the room, where a single door stood. "She should be in the second briefing room down that way."
"Thank you." Tina replied warmly before she and Wade began walking towards the door, their friends behind them as they proceeded into the room.
The room beyond the door was quite sizable, a large circular table occupying the middle with several chairs surrounding it. The walls went up a few meters, with four whiteish blue lights illuminating the room. On the wall opposite to Wade and Tina were three monitor screens, all of which showed the USN in bright blue. In several of the seats were faces both familiar and unfamiliar, several men and women in varying styles of uniforms conversing about quietly or taking notice of the recent visitors. Standing up near the monitors were three people: A decorated officer whom Tina identified as a ship captain, and the so-called operatives, Tessa, albeit as a hologram, and J.
Walking slowly into the room, Wade gave a low wave of his hand as he tried to hide his nervousness. Noticing his shyness in front of the officers, Tina held his hand and rubbed his arm comfortingly while returning a pleasant smile to the staff in the room.
"Ah, Wade, Tina. Glad to see you all here." J stated with a smile as she scanned the group, raising a digital eyebrow as she noticed one missing guest. "Or, most of you, I see. Did F run off somewhere?"
Wade shook his head as he replied to his fellow disassembly drone. "Oh, no. She just ran into some old friends, she should be back-"
"Right now." F finished aloud as she entered the room, seemingly having heard Wade speaking about her absence. The warrior drone fast walked to Wade's team, taking a seat near them as they prepared to do the same. "Not too late, are we?"
"Not at all." The standing officer answered as the group took their seats, Wade and Tina sitting next to each other as they got comfortable. The captain examined the lot for a moment, glancing to J as he asked about them. "So, these are the ones you helped rescue from the Mojave?"
"Yes Captain, and they helped us out greatly in turn. This is Wade Carter, one of the captured drones whom became a disassembly drone before we could mount the rescue. The luckiest one, if you ask me." Motioning her arm over the others, she continued. "And there's his girlfriend, Mrs. Tina Fowley, and her sister Jasmine." Smirking to F and Nathan, she finished her friends' introductions. "And these two are Serial Designation F and Mr. Nathan, whom I've heard were once under your ranks."
The military captain gave a welcoming smile to the five as they returned the gesture, eyeing F and Nathan specifically before speaking to them. "Indeed they were, we still have records on their contributions to the colonies." Eyeing F, he continued. "Though, in Mrs. F's case, I won't blame her if she doesn't remember us. We've been very well aware of JCJenson's 'memory suppression' protocols when it comes to their DDs."
F laid back in her seat with a smug look as she replied to her former superior. "Well, my friend on the station's a good tech gal. She's... waived that hindrance from me."
"I see, that means your still with us, am I right, Mrs. Lee?" Unlike her friends next to her, F was not startled by her original name being said aloud, rather smiling proudly as she saluted to the captain. "Good to see you again."
"Pleased to be here, Sir." F replied as she lowered her arm, glancing to her companions next to her as J spoke up.
"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Captain Preston Mitchell, commander of the USNV Vickers down at the stardock."
Wade gave a respectful salute to Preston as he spoke first. "It's an honor to meet you, Sir."
"Thank you, Mr. Carter. I've heard about your efforts from J, you did an admirable job back there, son." Wade failed to hide an embarrassed blush from the compliment, but it quickly faded as a beep sounded from a small device on the table. It was swiftly silenced by the captain as he tapped a button on the small, pyramid shaped timer, then facing Wade's group before continuing. "Though, as much as we could use some small talk, it'll have to wait till later."
"Indeed, we're running late at this point." Said another officer, a highly decorated member of the base with dark skin, dark grey hair and a thin beard. He immediately won the attention of everyone in the room as he spoke up. "I'm General Hugh Hood, overseer of this base. I'm certain you know some of the reasons you're here with us, correct?"
Wade nodded as he spoke to Hood. "Yeah, it's cause of those rogue agents from the JCJenson corporation." Glancing to J, the corporate drone nodded in affirmation before speaking herself.
"Tessa and I spent the last hours of yesterday evening clearing up the matter with General Hood, along with several other officials stationed here." She stopped as the middle monitor behind her flashed with a banner at the top, reading, "INCOMING TRANSMISSION", and in place of the USN emblem was a textless version of the JCJenson logo. Below the profile image was another two lines of text. "N. Jenson (Company Exec); Comms Source: Yottrite IV"
"And also told our boss about what happened here too, he wanted to give his say on this ordeal." Looking to the general, J asked him, "May I put him on?"
Hood only gave a nod of approval to the corporate drone before she picked up a remote on the table and tapped a button, accepting the call as the picture shifted to show a middle-aged man in a pristine-looking business suit on the screen.
Wade and Tina glanced to each other before J introduced their guest on the screen. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the CEO of JCJenson: Mr. Noor Jenson."
Jenson gave a pleased nod to his subordinate as he spoke to J. "Thank you for the pleasantries, J. I see we are ready to discuss our plans on dealing with this 'recall' disaster I've bore witness to on the news this morning?"
J nodded as she replied to her boss. "Indeed, I've explained to General Hood here about our efforts yesterday, and, as of recent, we've just received a message from a source we believe to be close to the company."
Mr. Jenson looked down to J attentively as he spoke to her. "Well, that's quite intriguing news, J. Do you have this message available for us to view?" J and Hood both nodded in affirmation, but didn't get an immediate reply as Jenson gazed to Wade and his friends. "...And I presume these are some of the drones rescued from one of the factories?"
Again, J nodded to her superior before explaining her colleagues. "Yes Mr. Jenson, the two drones at the front in particular were among those taken by the Administrator and their subordinates." Pointing an arm to Wade and Tina, she introduced the drone couple. "The disassembly drone here is Mr. Wade Carter, a brother to his-technically speaking-owner, the late Ron Carter. The latter helped us recover Wade during an initial raid inside the Nevada facility." When bringing up Ron, J gave an apologetic look to Wade as to show she did not mean to be offending on him and his brother's relationship. "And this is his romantic partner, Mrs. Tina Fowley. I heard she and her sister Jasmine are pilots."
Jenson looked over the two drones as his obedient employee described them to him, quietly sighing as Wade and Tina returned the gaze with nervous smiles. Once J finished, Jenson spoke to Wade. "I... would say it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Carter. But, given recent events, I don't hold fault to you for feeling frustrated at me for my... former subordinate's actions."
Wade shook his head lightly, taking Jenson's light apology with a faint smile as he replied to the CEO. "Actually, I don't. The only person I have such feelings put towards is," He hesitated for a moment, his anger at Dr. Halloway returning for a short moment before he eased himself. "..That bastard Halloway."
"The feeling's mutual, Mr. Carter. Dr. Halloway has been trying my patience for years now, especially with you and your fellow disassembly drones." Looking to J, then F, he returned his gaze to Wade before questioning him on his new body. "I don't know if J has told you of this, but if there's one truth my company has admittedly not held up to for a while, it's our quality. Recently, some of my research staff here made blueprints for an upgraded variant of the disassembly drone design. It's intended to fix several faults we expected to be nonexistent previously, most notably that atrocious cooling unit."
As a schematic pulled up on the left monitor, everyone glanced to the improved design before F spoke up about it. "If I may ask, Mr. Jenson, how big of an improvement is this new cooling unit supposed to be?"
"Good question, F. Frankly, it's supposed to do away with the issue entirely. Saves us from sacrificing enormous supplies of oil for the poorly built unit in the previous iterations. We even tested it with a repaired drone just a few days ago, and it worked flawlessly." Then, glancing to Wade again, he questioned the former worker drone on his new form. "Speaking of, how does your enhanced body feel, Mr. Carter? I'm certain it feels better to not have to-"
"Actually, Mr. Jenson," Wade interrupted, pulling out one of his canteens as he answered the CEO on his upgrades. "I guess Halloway changed up the blueprints, cause unfortunately this new cooling unit didn't cure the overheating problem. I... kinda learned that the hard way." Wade glanced to Tina apologetically, still feeling bad from her seeing him eat the corpse of the dead murder drone back at the factory.
The corporate CEO grimaced in frustration as he took in Wade's statement, already intolerant of the head researcher's actions as he replied. "...I was worried about that, Edgar always likes to run things his own way, making excuses for that 'Administrator' he watches over." Taking an agitated breath, he continued on with his spew on the two culprits of yesterday's events. "It was only because of all the very impressive creations and enhancements she and her research team provided that I tolerated them for so long, but this..." Sitting up straight in front of the camera, Jenson finished sternly. "J said the Administrator... Cyn, I believe? She was apparently something worse than we presumed originally, and I'm very inclined to believe so after yesterday."
"As well as the program tied to the Administrator, the AbsoluteSolver." J clarified before receiving an agreeing nod from Mr. Jenson, standing corrected on his placing of blame.
Raising a hand, Nathan asked about the supposed plans. "Yeah, about this "Solver Project", what do we plan to do about that?"
"Good question, Nate." Tessa replied as she crossed her arms before looking to Jenson and beginning her explanation. "Initially, we were going to investigate the other factories spread across Earth in order to get some more info on the Administrator before things get worse. But, just this morning, it seems someone else saved us the trouble." Just as Tessa neared the end of her sentence, J held up the remote again, tapping a few buttons before the left monitor shifted to show a slightly grainy video onscreen.
The video only showed a single being, a worker drone, dressed in a chrome suit and bearing a set of yellow eyes. Behind them was what appeared to be a vacant room, a few shelves holding many books within them standing still in the back. The drone's visage indicated they were filled with immense anxiety, terrified of being caught as they spoke quietly to the camera.
"I can only hope someone gets this in time, they're gonna be on me once they find out the transmitter screens are down!" Turning the camera, he showed what appeared to be a large factory room, several more of the mysterious conveyor belts like at the factory slotted next to each other. It was hard to discern every detail due to not only the window reflection, but also the dark lighting in the inactive conveyor room. Filming the room beyond, the drone continued. "Dr. Halloway's a madman, he's got more of those stolen drones being brought here and he's going to be overseeing it in the afternoon tomorrow! I've seen what happened back in Nevada, I can't take this any longer! I'm at coordinates ##.######, -###.###### Please, send someo-"
The suspicious, partially scrambled transmission immediately cut off to static, leaving Wade, Tina, and their friends with confused expressions as Tessa spoke up. "Yeah, that caught me by surprise too."
"So, that guy says they got more drones being sent 'there', but... where is there, exactly?" Jasmine asked with immense curiosity.
"I was hoping you'd ask that, Mrs. Fowley." The technician replied as she glanced to J, who tapped a few more buttons on the remote before speaking over her boss-friend.
"While the transmission itself isn't much to work off of, our friends from Comms over here managed to intercept the signal earlier, and even better, discern where it originated from." As J started her explanation, the screen shifted once more to show a large city, with one skyscraper highlighted in red as it was zoomed towards on the screen. "That scrambled audio wasn't a simple glitch, it was intentionally done so as to hide key information for us to uncover. Upon cleaning up the message, we managed to recover a set of coordinates, which direct to this structure here, in San Francisco."
Wade and his friends stared at the building in shock, examining the tall structure as it stood over the shorter buildings in the city. Tina broke the silence in her gaze. "So, this is another factory? It looks... terribly different from the one we got out of."
"Not exactly, Mrs. Fowley." Mr. Jenson answered, Tina and the others looking to him as he continued. "THAT is the Administrator's main laboratory, its location was kept on the down low so other authorities and terrorist groups wouldn't find out what the buildings true purpose was." Sighing, Jenson completed his reply. "But, with this recent mistake of Halloway's, that place has lost all purpose for us at the company."
Wade raised a hand to speak. "So, we're going to pounce on that place? Get Halloway before he runs off again?"
"Exactly." General Hood replied as he looked up to Mr. Jenson. "This whole 'recovery/recruitment' effort has gotten out of hand all across Sol. We've gotten countless reports of people being killed because of this, be it the brutal robberies here in Nevada or the bloodbath on Ceres. Even if Mr. Jenson refuses to cooperate, this has become a dire matter for us now. One way or another, this insanity will be stopped with due haste."
The CEO nodded in acknowledgement before explaining his own plans for the mission. "Speaking of cooperation, upon seeing what was happening at Earth, I ordered a detachment of our corporate starships in orbit at the time to depart for Sol in order to help with investigating the situation. They're not warships, but they are well-armed. I'll dispatch them to your authority upon concluding this call." Glancing to Wade and his team for a moment, Jenson continued. "As for the mission, I may not have much of a say, but let it be known that you have my blessing to do whatever it takes to end this madness. I don't care what you do with Halloway or any of his lackeys, or what happens to that facility down there... I want that program shut down."
"Thank you for the extra hands, Mr. Jenson. We'll make sure this Administrator is dealt with." Hood replied gratefully as Wade sat firm in his seat, Tina and the others following suite.
"General?" The former worker drone said aloud, catching Hood's attention before he made his request. "I know I'm not a soldier, but I want to help with dealing with Halloway and his grunts. After what he did, after losing my brother, I can't rest until I see that man stopped."
Tina raised a finger as well. "As do I, Wade could use a hand with those people, and given how we did during our escape run out of that place, I think the two of us make quite the duo." She glanced to Wade with a smirk as she referenced their combat prowess when flying together.
Nathan and F stood up before the latter gave her own request. "Sir, I wish to take part in this mission as well. I can also recommend Wade for you too, as I fought alongside him during the factory raid."
"Wouldn't mind giving a hand myself! And I'm sure my pal Kurtis would love to help, he's here at the base too!" Nathan added with a confident smirk, the group's determination encouraging Jasmine to stand up as well.
"I'd like to help too." She stated simply, a smile on her face as the general and his companions observed the five guests.
Admittedly, Hood knew it would be a bit absurd to allow these people to take part in an operation which would certainly involve bloodshed, especially considering most of them merely had civilian status at the moment. But, upon careful evaluation of the five, their desire to see this problem dealt with, and the fact that some of them had experience on the field...
He paused his train of thought as Captain Mitchell spoke to him. "General? I read up on the Fowleys' files when we recovered Mrs. Jasmine here, they provided service in their early careers." He smirked to the pilot sisters as he finished adding his say. "And to be frank, we need more people like them here. The records we have of them showed them to be damn fine pilots."
Tina blushed at the praise from Mitchell as she spoke to the general. "That is true, we uh... did get discharged for our... 'fancy maneuvering'."
"Sir?" Jasmine said, the general's attention on her as she added to the conversation. "Even if our flying is a bit out of protocol, Tina saved a lot of people on that starjet a few days back. I can promise you, she's an excellent woman to have at the wheel."
Glancing to Wade again, Hood took in his face, one of begging desperation as he spoke once more. "Please, Sir. My brother, the troops he brought from the Coalition, Halloway's gotten them all killed cause of this. I want to do this. I HAVE to do this, at least for them."
The good general took a deep, quiet breath, considering his decision once more before finally revealing it to Wade and his friends. "Mr. Carter, Fowleys? I'm probably making myself a fool for saying this, but you're permitted to assist us in this mission."
The drone couple contained their gratefulness in the form of ecstatic grins as Wade replied to the general. "Thanks, General. We won't let you down."
"And Mrs. Lee?" Hood said as he glanced to F, who returned the gesture as he told her, "You're technically under Mr. Jenson's authority, whatever his answer is, it's mine as well."
Bringing her yellow-orange eyes to her CEO, F awaited Mr. Jenson's answer. "F, yes? I heard Mr. Hood call you by a different name just now, I assume you have some experience with the army?"
The warrior drone nodded as she explained herself. "I once inherited the name of Felicity Lee, Mr. Jenson. I served under the USN Defense Forces before joining the DD Division." Then, glancing to the military staff near her, she finished with, "I had hoped to provide my enhancements to the Force one day."
Jenson gave a hint of a proud smile as he finally gave his decision. "Well, it seems you'll finally get that chance. From now on, even after this mission on Earth is over with, you're hereby dispatched to serve under the USN."
F admittedly couldn't hide her excited smirk as she flung a salute to her now former boss. "Thank you Sir!"
Looking up to Jenson, General Hood asked the CEO, "Mr. Jenson, how long until your ships can reach Earth?"
Jenson glanced down at his communication console as he answered the military leader. "At max speed, their Ion drives should be able to bring them into orbit in as little as one to two days. I believe there should be some ships within the system that could help as well."
"Signal them when you can, Mr. Jenson. We could use all the help we can get from them." The CEO nodded to Hood as he stood firmly to the viewer, the general turning to face Wade and his colleagues. "And Mr. Carter? We'll be mobilizing our forces immediately after this meeting concludes. It'll be a minute, but I want you to gather whatever items and belongings you'll need for this operation. Be ready to head to the flight pads in no more than three hours."
"Understood Sir!" Wade said with a salute, Tina, Jasmine and Nathan giving their own as Jasmine raised a finger.
"What about the area around the lab? That place looks like it's in the middle of the city."
J raised a finger as she told Jasmine and the others about their resolution of the civilian obstacle. "Shortly after reporting our findings on the transmission, Hood told us that they were sending in some teams to clear out the civilian population within several miles of the facility. Once we get there, it should be of no concern."
Jasmine sighed in relief as Tina spoke up. "So the people should be safe from any sort of danger?"
"Correct, Mrs. Tina." Preston answered before continuing. "Given the resistance Halloway and his men showed during the Coalition's raid, they most certainly won't hold back there."
"One more thing, Sir." Nathan asked. "The Coalition's going to help us out with this too, right?"
"You can count on it, Mr. Nathan." The Vickers' captain replied as he looked to J, then to Jenson as he spoke further. "I met the leader of the Coalition's detachment working with us when I was introduced to J and Mrs. Elliott here, they intend to see this conflict finished. I highly doubt they're willing to sit back and let us do this by ourselves."
"And their help will be much appreciated." Hood added, everyone's attention returned to him as he looked to Tessa, curious eyes scanning her holographic form. "And Mrs. Elliott, if I may. Do you mind heading down here to assist us in our investigations later on?"
"Funny you say that, General. I'm almost done with my own snooping around on the JCJ up in orbit, Cyn has some small departments of hers aboard, and I thought I'd gather some more intel before coming down." Glancing to Mr. Jenson, she saw him giving an understanding nod before returning her gaze to the military staff. "I should be down there by the evening, judging by where you're located."
"Do what you must, Mrs. Elliott. We could use whatever you find." Hood replied firmly as he turned once more to the JCJenson CEO. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Jenson. We will get to the bottom of this."
"It's my pleasure, General." Glancing to J and Tessa, he spoke to them once more. "J? Contact me when you've finished with Halloway and his Administrator."
"It'll be done, Mr. Jenson." The obedient servant answered before saluting firmly, receiving a final nod from her boss before he ended the transmission.
With their off-world guest out of the way, Hood looked to Wade and his friends, J, Tessa and Captain Mitchells sharing the gaze with them as the general spoke to them in finality. "Well, you know what comes next everyone. You're all dismissed for now. And remember, landing zone by 1300."
"We'll be there Sir." Wade said with a nod as he and his friends stood up, pushing in their chairs before making their way out to the door.
As they neared it, Wade stopped for a moment as they heard Hood call to one of his friends. "And F?" The soldier drone looked to the general as he continued. "Before we depart, would you mind changing your uniform? I believe it could help with identifying you from the other disassembly drones more easily." Glancing to J, then back to F, he finished with, "I recall hearing about the most formidable drones having clones prepared, yes?"
"Correct, Sir. I'll stop by the nearest barracks while I can." F replied before turning back to the door with her colleagues, Wade opening the door for them all as they passed through. After them, Wade passed through himself, shutting the door to the meeting room as he returned to the lobby.
Walking about together, F spoke to Wade and the others. "Well, that went smoothly. I'll be heading down to the barracks, then head over to your place to help out."
"Actually," Wade replied, raising a finger up as he asked his fellow murder drone, "You think you could bring your friends over? We could get to know each other while we're getting ready."
F glanced to Nathan with a smile before returning her eyes to Wade. "I could see about that. You're gonna like them, I can promise you that."
Taking Tina's hand, Wade walked with his girlfriend alongside Jasmine and the others, nearing the hallway they came through as they prepared for the walk back to the apartment.

TW: references to suicidal thinking, discussions of harm toward others, mental health challenges
When I (23f) was a freshman in college, I had a friend, Amanda (name changed), who was in the same program as me and lived down the hall from me, and we hit it off. She had her quirks, and she made gruesome comments a lot, but mostly it was stuff you could easily take as a joke without thinking twice about her intentions. I considered her a friend.
Towards the end of spring break, she called me and asked if I could take her to pick up her glasses that were being fixed as she couldn’t drive herself without them. I agreed and when I got back to campus that Saturday around noon, we headed out to get her glasses. Turns out it was a trap.
As soon as we got off campus, she went from acting totally normal to practically sobbing. She was over the top emotional, explaining how her partner had just broken up with her and how she was so hurt and broken. I was caught off guard by the sudden mood swing to say the least. But then she kept going. She proceeded to make remarks about driving to the ex’s place of employment to physically confront them, but wouldn’t it be a shame if she were to wreck and off herself intentionally along the way? Her pattern of thinking went off the deep end so fast I felt like I was getting whiplash. She went from laughing and joking to talking about offing herself to make her ex feel bad within literal minutes.
I did my best to calm Amanda. We got her glasses picked up, got her food, and then I told her she could come back to my dorm room when we got back to campus because her words made me scared to leave her alone. When we got back to my dorm I started to unpack from going to visit my parents over the break, and she sat on my floor and started telling me, in graphic detail, how she could off herself that night. I tried my best to calm her down, tried to lighten the mood, and text a mutual friend to come help me because Amanda was spiraling very rapidly.
Before the friend arrived, Amanda started describing how she could kill her ex and how easy it would be to kill me. Amanda was pretty athletic, and she worked out with our campus ROTC, so she was pretty agile. I knew if she had any intention of hurting me, I wouldn’t win in the fight. So when she was not paying as much attention or was looking at her phone, I started hiding anything and everything in my room I could think of that she could use to hurt herself or me: scissors, charging cables, my cutlery. And she kept flipping the conversation to hurting somebody (herself and/or me or her ex) the whole time. This spiral in my dorm lasted about three hours.
Finally my friend arrived and we were able to convince Amanda she needed help and drove her to the hospital around midnight. After waiting for almost 6 hours, Amanda was released and our mutual friend who had gone back with Amanda so she wasn’t alone pulled me aside and said Amanda had lied to the doctors and said we forced her there against her will and she was totally fine. The doctors released her with a prescription for an anxiety medication and a note to my friend to have Amanda give us all her sharp items.
We go back to the dorms, Amanda voluntarily gives us any sharp or weapon-like objects she has in her dorm, and separate to go to sleep. Not even two hours after I fall asleep that morning (it was almost 7 AM when we got back from the hospital), I wake up to noises in my room. I lived alone. Amanda had broken into my dorm room and was scurrying around in the dark. To say it scared the absolute crap out of me would be an understatement. Amanda claimed my door was unlocked, but I know it wasn’t. She also claimed she was only in there to get her leftovers from the day prior, but something didn’t feel right to me.
I distanced myself that next day because she was honesty scaring me and I needed space to sort out my thoughts. When I wouldn’t answer her messages, she started bombarding me with calls and texts. When I let her know I wasn’t answering because I was with other friends on campus, she requested that I let her into their dorm so she wasn’t alone. I said I couldn’t do that and she said she was going to harm herself. I called the RA on duty and informed them of her statements and sent screenshots of the message from Amanda saying she would hurt herself to them. When the RA went to check in on Amanda, they told me she was chilling in her room completely normal. No odd behavior or heightened emotions.
That Sunday night when I returned to my dorm, I had stepped in my room to put down my bag and turn on my light and then walked down the hallway to use the communal restroom. Her dorm room was on a hallway angled to my own and she could see my window from hers. She was watching and saw my light come on and was pounding at my door within minutes. She was knocking and yelling so loud I could hear her in the bathroom. It scared me, and I didn’t know what to do so I messaged another girl on our hallway and asked her to intervene so I could leave without Amanda spotting me.
When the girl went out to see what Amanda was doing and tell her to quit, Amanda told her that she was just going to pick my lock and wait for me to get back from wherever I had gone. My friend managed to distract Amanda enough that I slipped out of the dorm unnoticed.
I slept in another dorm that night with a friend, but went to my schools Title IX the next morning to report the break in and harassment. The school took four days, with around five meetings, including one with a campus counselor and several with the dean of student affairs to finally allow me a no contact order with Amanda, but the damage to me was done. I fell into what was one of the worst depressive episodes of my life. I was scared to leave my dorm room. I was scared to be alone. I woke up panicking thinking somebody was in my room. I didn’t leave my dorm room for almost two weeks unless my friends dragged me to the cafeteria for food but I rarely let them.
My grades plummeted because I wasn’t attending class or doing my homework. Amanda started telling anybody who was in the program with us that I had abandoned her for no reason and even told the dean of student affairs that we had been in a relationship and I didn’t want to break up with her to her face so I went to Title IX and made it all up. She was lying to anybody and everybody who would listen.
I almost lost my scholarships, I lost friends, and I lost myself because of all of this. It’s been five years now, and while I am better, I still have triggers related to what Amanda put me through. I’m slower to trust, more calculated when making plans with friends, and if anybody around me has a negative emotional response (aka anger or frustration or sadness) I panic into a spiral by automatically fearing that they will off themself.
The bright side of the situation ended up being a love of psychology that I discovered while trying to overcome my mental health struggles brought on by this situation. I changed my major to psychology, got my bachelors of science, and am now content working on my masters and looking forward to getting my PH.D. in the near future.
I don’t think I’ll ever fully emotionally recover from the fear and trauma of that weekend, but I forgave Amanda a long time ago because the reality of the situation is that she needed help. And I did all I could to try and get her that help, but if she wasn’t ready to accept it then there was truly nothing more I could have done. I only removed myself when it became harmful to myself. And I hope wherever Amanda ended up today that she is safe and content with her life and her choices.

Best way to succeed in startups is copying already successful startups. You don't need to be a genius to find an original idea. After all, everything is a remix.
But where do you find these successful startups making millions? Well, its quite simple.
100s of Indiehackers have been tooting their own revenue on Twitter with the #buildinpublic hashtag. You can find them through it but its a tedious process. We can make it much simpler.
Enter Acquire.com, previously known as MicroAcquire.
Acquire is a marketplace for Startup Founders to sell their profit-generating Startups. These are usually small ones that are made by a team of 1-10 people. Since they are small, they are easy to copy.
Acquire shows you everything from Revenue to Profit to Competitors to the Cost it takes to run. What they don't tell you is the exact startup domain.
But if you are smart enough, you can find the exact domain through your OSINT and SOCMINT Skills.
Just sign up at Acquire. Click on your Avatar on top right and click Explore Marketplace.
You can find extremely good ideas on Acquire but I'll list a few that caught my eye:

1. Twitter outreach tool to find, reach and nurture prospects as well as grow your audience

Link: https://app.acquire.com/startup/zq3DbEFLHnZscyLRbTlxE1BosXv2/0wfJfThkimzDeVmJuieS?source=marketplace
This product is a Cold DM tool that has $185 mrr.
The total profit is $1k and the asking price is $30k.
If you scroll down a bit, you'll find the founding date, the team size, the tech stack, the business model, the competitors, and the growth opportunities.
The best part is when you scroll down a little further. You can find the exact Acquisition channels as it connects with Google Analytics.
This is a good idea to build because let's be honest, every business needs leads.
And what better way to get leads than to automate it with a Twitter outreach tool.

2. AI-Powered Roleplay Site running custom LLM model based off Meta's Llama

Link: https://app.acquire.com/startup/fMWCklAW4PPxiJ4xxpGKzu2Prct2/gvkmQYR8o3GFhG9pbYkS?source=marketplace
Notice on the right there are 15 buyers interested. This shows demand. Investors are mostly interested in the fastest-growing startups.
AI-Powered Roleplay is a huge market. AI Girlfriends are a massive Billion Dollar Business and with the recent release of Llama 3, there will be more alternatives like this.
This product is a 1-person product launched last year in June 2023. It has $5k in profit and $520 mrr but massive potential. If you scroll a bit, we get a Chartmogul graph of ARR, MRR, Customers, and Churn rate.

3. AI Photography Studio

Link: https://app.acquire.com/startup/daNCPe3tsEOyluwxQ5PybYIRVA53/KI3d9vSNWsE499iQjQqW?source=marketplace
AI Photography Studios are all the rage launched during the 2nd wave (text-to-image) of AI.
This one made $2.1m profit and $76k MRR. It had a TikTok go viral so you can assume they are acquiring customers to TikTok. Shouldn't be too hard to find, eh?
They have said the competitors are Aragon and Headshot so you can cut those of your list now. There are only so many alternatives. You can nail this startup down even further. The metrics are 100,000+ customers. I'm sure they are boasting it on their landing pages. You can easily find this one.

4. A lead generation platform for businesses to generate and build email lists. 100% Organic Traffic.

Link: https://app.acquire.com/startup/nEOrnThIWNgtBK07TTdQ4Wbn3f73/eB78ZuQwKlVXFaszdnVJ?source=marketplace
This one has 43 serious buyers. The description is extremely enticing. Hands-off and automated with traffic from Google? Of course, who doesn't like that.
4.7 rating on Trustpilot with 380 reviews. And the competitor is Uplead.
Metrics are incredible. ~$50k mrr ($578k / 12 months) with 100-1000 customers. The traffic is consistent.
Try copying the description we found above and paste it into Google:

An all-in-one platform designed for businesses aiming to generate leads by extracting data from various social media channels and quickly building email lists, with an amazing Trustpilot rating of 4.7 based on over 380 reviews from satisfied customers.

And scroll down a bit to see Outscraper and LeadSwift recommended. Open them both up in the New Tab.
Remember the listing had Tech Stack? Yep, we'll use that to nail it down further.
Install Wappalyzer on your platform of choice. I use Chrome so I installed the Chrome Extension.
Reload the websites (Outscraper and LeadSwift) so the extension loads. Now, you'll see only Outscraper is using WordPress and jQuery while LeadSwift only uses jQuery.
But remember, they might be using React for their dashboard which you can only find after login. But I've found an important datapoint. Outscraper was founded earlier than 2022. You can check the Oldest Tab on their YouTube channel.
Therefore, it might be Leadswift.
A few tips:

1. Find their founding date and compare.
2. Find Trustpilot ratings and sort by reviews. Don't forget to search for "leads"
3. Stalk the founders on Linkedin to find their company starting date. You can also do that through YouTube Oldest Search.
4. Reverse-engineer their SEO strategy
5. Check their location on the website. The location in the listing is United States (Florida)

If you just want to build a startup in this niche, then the approximation is more than enough to get an idea of what to build.
However, every listing gives enough info to find them. Some numbers might be misinterpreted to misdirect you. This is basically how you find successful startup ideas. Now you can build them and start marketing them. If you build it and nobody buys it, then you know your marketing sucks. Once you know that, you can improve your marketing skills by reverse-engineering your competitors.
What do you use to reverse-engineer companies? Semrush, SimilarWeb, SensorTower, Chrome Extensions, or anything else?
PS: If you'd like to read the full post with images, you can do so here.
PPS: Bdw, you can also see another post on reverse-engineering business model here.

It's common agreement that the peak so far was the whole Malevoleon Creek narrative. The memes, created story, payoff. It's also agreed that many feel turned off by a lack of impact and agency. Ever since 'the bots returned', nothing really has felt as special. We get orders and nothing changed except a few planets shifting status.
The problem is that we get little information on the why, and the results of our day to day actions. Sometimes a voiceline but that only plays oncd and only after a major, major order.
What is the point of a dungeon master im TTRPGs? To create and share a story. They don't tell the party the cliff notes, they expand on it and create an entire narrative.
Helldivers 2 needs it to get that sense of agency back, and It's not even that hard to pull off. You don't need fancy animations or extra voice acting. All you need is an in-game newsletter, perhaps using the unused console opposite the armory. Regularly produced text+image pages that gives the expanded story, dramatized efforts, and results beyond 'planet is liberated'. A feeling that the universe is alive and not just a simulation.

Wow, this one might me a long one.
So I moved to (undisclosed location) sometime in the beginning of last year. When I moved here I really had no friends but became heavily involved in this yoga studio I went to and slowly but surely started to make friends/acquaintances with the teacher that instructed me.
From afar she seemed super cool and I became pretty enthralled with her and her life. I would look forward so heavily to going to her classes every week and was quite intrigued by her. I thought she was funny, bubbly, spunky, cool, and always made jokes during class that made me laugh. As months went by I found myself wanting to get closer and closer to her, and she even invited me out one time to one of her “events” she was hosting. Here’s the thing;
It seemed like we had a lot in common and was just generally craving camaraderie and connection. I felt a sense of belonging with her and wanted to expand that energy in my life, and wanted to do anything I could to get closer to her for those reasons. But I guess this is where we have the first red flag;
One day after class, she extended an invitation to me to a meet up of sorts, (I’m being sparing with details just out of fear she might read this) and when she invited me it seemed like it was gonna be this big thing with lots of people invited, and just in general in talking to her it seemed as if she was very well connected and respected within her community, had lots of friends and connects, and I thought this was gonna be a huge thing that I was even lucky to be invited to. I was super stoked and exited about it.
However when the day of the event came, I was super tired and slow to getting up that morning. I figured I would just make my way over whenever I could since it seemed causal and like you could drop in whenever. I also figured there would be more than enough people that no one would really even notice my arrival or departure. (Plus, sometimes it’s chic to be fashionably late ;) ). Well…. I was most definitely wrong.
When I showed up I heard someone excitedly shout my name, which was her, and she waved me down to the “meet up”…. There was literally only one person there and it had been going on for 2+ hours. I was definitely a bit unnerved, but also didn’t want to be rude, and like I said I was just kind of happy to be there and be getting invited to things. But it was kinda like, damn…. Are these all the friends you have?
I had dressed up and looked cute but they were just kind of wearing whatever and I felt awkward and overdressed and also embarrassed now that I was even this late because it was clearly much more intimate than I expected and my arrival/absence was DEFINITELY felt. We had chatted a bit and that was cool but then I remember her confessing me that she had cried to her husband earlier that morning that she was scared nobody was going to show up and how thrilled she was that not only one, but TWO people had showed up and that it felt like she had friends. I wasn’t really sure what to say or make of that.
She also…. The whole time (and mind you, this is our first legitimate interaction out of yoga class) just kind of kept talking maniacally AT me, not to me, and was coming off almost even manic, and she had formed a white crust of spit around her mouth probably from talking so much that I couldn’t look away from. To say the least, I was a bit disturbed coming away from this interaction but I just kept telling myself that I was being too judgmental of her and to give it a chance and that maybe she was just hyper that day and that I had probably had unintentional embarrassing hygiene moments as well. So I keep going to class and that’s that.
There were several other red flag moments between this first interaction and the next one, mostly just her incredibly cringey social media presence that I genuinely almost couldn’t stand to see without feeling like I was withering away inside, but maybe I’ll save that for later. It’s almost like I couldn’t just see that the person I thought was so cool in class and the person I was seeing her be online and outside of class were the same people. But I digress.
She had actually ended up inviting me to go with her on one of her international yoga retreats, and I was actually very excited about this. I had very little time with her in between classes, and my attraction (but also repulsion) with her was growing stronger and I wanted to figure her out and see what she was really about and what the pull I was feeling towards her was about. Plus, I love travelling and just thought it would be fun.
I had a pretty good time, but we didn’t get to talk much, HOWEVER, I do remember this distinct point during the trip where it was myself, 2-3 other fiends I had made, her brother, and her “best friend” who had happened to be her brother’s Gf in a room together, talking. the brother, the best friend, and the other friend I made just all completely started talking shit about her and I was so confused.
I felt super hurt by this actually, bc I felt like I had a inexplicable bond with the teacher who had invited me, she was the reason we were all there in that beautiful place, and I just couldn’t understand why they were choosing to be so negative about someone I thought they had claimed (at least by title) to love. They would say things like “I can’t fucking stand your sister” (one of the friends I made to the brother) and everyone would just sigh and put their hands in their head and be like “I know…. I know. It’s a lot. She’s a lot”. And I didn’t have anything to add to the conversation because I was just so confused and I knew the girl would just be so upset if she heard them saying this. Anyway… that confusion stuck with me for a while after.
Fast forward maybe a month or two, I started hanging out with her more regularly myself outside of class. I would say this is when we became more “friends”. She would invite me to other teachers classes and we would talk a lot about our lives.
I learned how she felt about her close friend and family connections, and how she often felt hurt and betrayed by people close to her and how some of her friends were actually really shady. I just got a general sense of her feeling scapegoated and libeled against by ppl that got close to her and how she had walls up for that reason.
She also shared to me that most of her family was cut off, with the exception of her brother who she had recently rekindled a connection with, hence why he was on that trip. I felt very bad for her and wanted to be a source of comfort and support, and she would often comment on how she felt a sense of camaraderie with me since I also (LITERALLY) had no family and how we have to make our chosen family. This was a sweet sentiment, for sure, but I was still sussing out how I felt about her.
So one day, a mutual friend that had been on the trip with us was having a birthday party and I guess that she was invited to it, too. She sat down next to me and I was SUPER excited to see her as I was craving her energy and hadn’t seen her in some time. But then… idk. She had had a lot to drink. I’m fully aware that she’s kind of a quirky individual, and has a way of socializing which I can sometimes find a bit uncomfortable or even intense, (like the first meetup I spoke of) but this time it was even more and seemed to be heightened by the drinking.
Her husband was sitting on her other side and kept trying to interject and insinuate that maybe she was doing a bit much, but I think she was drunk enough to the point that she just found it funny and had no awareness of how she was coming off. There’s not even a way I can describe it really, but she just seemed a bit obsessive over me and kept making jokes that were literally not funny and seemed to have lost all ability to read the room. I also had noticed that she had only had TWO beers and was acting like this already which I found… really strange.
So at some point she goes to the bathroom, and I also get in line for the bathroom about 5 mins later. When I get up to the bathroom, she’s still in there, and there’s a line of about 2 or 3 people ahead of me. When she exits the bathroom she immediately spots me and rushes up to me and just starts… drunkenly spewing.
I can’t even remember what she was saying, but we were in a pretty high class establishment and I remember her gushing over me and was saying “I just want to let you know that I don’t really have friends or let people close to me in my circle but I just want to let you know that YOU are officially in my circle and you have earned friend status to me and I’ve let you in my circle…” or something like that. And I just kept thinking, who tf even says that??? I’m pretty sure the last time I checked that friendship is a two way street and it’s not just a title we bestow onto some “lucky” person and that’s that. Like girl… let ME decide if I want to be friends too first.
It was partially that, and also the way she was drunkenly spewing was so awkward and embarrassing bc I could tell all the other women in line were like who tf is this bitch and why is she saying all this weird stuff and like, does she even know you?? Lol. Just a very odd interaction which again, I kind of wrote off, but the unsettling feeling kind of just kept growing after that point.
Then, the time that I REALLY knew something was up came up about a month later, but there are still some key details of this story that are missing. Perhaps I will discuss them later.
SO. About a month later, she invited me last minute to this concert of sorts. When I got there, I was super excited to be there, the vibes were amazing and we were having so much fun. But she had definitely had a lot, A LOT to drink. I didn’t mind at first, because everyone there seemed severely under the influence, but she would just start randomly kind of lashing out at people in the crowd and she thought it was funny? She first loudly and audibly started making fun of some guys shoes in front of us, and was trying to laugh with me as if I would join in, but when his girl friend turned around and shot her a dirty look, she had the nerve to be self conscious and mad about it. She would loudly poke fun at other people in the crowd too, but not in a ha-ha way, just in a straight up mean and asshole way and I could not understand why she would even do that or why she thought that was funny.
Again, I kind of just awkwardly laughed and brushed it off. But when all was said and done and the concert was closing, she enthusiastically invited me back to go to her house and soak in her hot tub. I kept saying are you sure?? But she was like please, PLEASE come, we have weed, we’ll smoke you out and other things and I wanted to continue the vibes because it sounded fun. And then….. completely downhill.
I had arrived back at their place before she did, but as soon as I saw them go in I knocked. When I walked in, she was pale faced up on the floor, non verbal, pretty much motionless, and staring at the ceiling. I was like oh no… it seemed like she got a bit too much to drink. I waited patiently there for a few mins, unsure of what to do as I had just drove for 45 mins and I was still 25 mins in the opposite direction away from home.
I kind of just sat around, and hoped that she would sober up. I asked if she was drunk… she said no. She ran to her bathroom multiple times while her husband (a complete socially awkward case himself) tried to take care of her while she threw up. I asked her if she puked and she also said no. So I didn’t really know what to do. I was trying to offer support/ empathy but she just kept denying any claims of anything being amiss. Her husband left to pick up a pizza and I probably just should’ve left but I’m telling you I had no idea how to exit their house without making it weird or awkward. And I also was hungry. So I just stayed… and waited for the pizza.
What happened in those 20-30 mins, I don’t even know if I can fully explain. She just became… so FUCKING WEIRD. she clearly was embarrassed that I was seeing her drunk, and I think was trying to over compensate. But she just turned into an absolute freak show and I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life.
She started hoola hooping in my face, and making these weird gremlin faces and noises at me, fell to the floor, rolled round on the floor while continuing to make the noises, convulsed on the floor, but tried to do it in a funny way, tried to make an interpretive dance for me… I’ve truly never experienced something so uncomfortable in my life. I probably do sound like an asshole, but I swear you would just have to be there to see how a) gross and b) weird and actually scary it was. I was genuinely frightened.
I’ve never seen anyone act like that and I didn’t want to make her more uncomfortable or weird by showing her how clearly uncomfortable I actually was. so I just sat there and tried to laugh. But it probably came off as more of a grimace. And for the record, this woman is 33. I am 26. It was just. Obscene.
And she’s tried to act like and say multiple times that she’s like my “big sister”. Now I’ve seen a lot of drunk behavior, but not this. I wolfed down my pizza, and so did she, and she started to get even more philosophical and weird on me, showing me songs and art which were quite frankly some of the worst things I’ve ever heard in my life, and I left as soon as I could.
I was so shaken and disturbed coming away from this, because like I said earlier, I thought she was a cool girl, but honestly her behavior and lack of control over herself completely terrified me. And it’s not like she was drinking liquor, it was just damn IPAs. And I just did not know what to do.
Some details I will try to add to this story, even though I know it’s monolithic at this point , is that 2 months prior to this she had gotten fired from the studio she worked at.
She had a mental breakdown during class because the manager was being mean to her, and he fired her on the spot. I remember being so angry with the owner, (honestly he IS a piece of shit human being) but I thought he was being sexist by calling her mentally unstable and I thought the way he handled things was unfair.
I went so far as to boycott the studio and completely remove myself from it in support of her and followed her to her new one. After the drunk #2 incident, I didn’t hang out with her very much, and only saw her during her class as I was locked into a certain number of classes I had paid for.
I remember her telling me that she had just started at ANOTHER studio, and got fired 3 days after on her birthday and she was talking about how unfair it was and how much of an asshole that new girl was for firing her… and I believed her. AGAIN.
I went so far as to block that girl on Instagram too, but deep down I kind of knew that she had probably just been fired bc let’s face it… as I was starting to discover, she WAS a lot. and the studio was in an upper class area , catered towards more upper echelon people, and I just don’t think she was fitting that image. I lent her an empathetic ear, because that’s all I would want in that situation.
But where she fucked up was sending me screenshot proof of the text exchange between her and that girl, thinking I would take her side, and later sending me screenshots of another conversation she had with the OTHER manager. She told me that this new girl fired her for bringing her husband to class. In my mind I was like, oh no, is she racist!?! Because her husband was black. But no, that’s not what I read at all.
It was the most reasonable, level headed response to someone ever, and laid out multiple offenses and reasons she didn’t want her at the studio. The reasons were honestly so embarrassing that I don’t know why she would send it to me and think I would side with her. She recently also sent me messages with the other boss and the last thing he says to her is “I hope you get help for your mental illness because whatever you have is serious and will impact all your relationships and business and things that you do”. And honestly I can now say in retrospect that those were the truest words ever spoken.
When I read these texts, I had a look back at my whole relationship with and how she would always paint everyone else to be the villain and how everyone is so mean to HER… and the whole time the common denominator was her. It was always her. And it made me rethink everything.
I’ve even had extensive conversations with some of the other people on her trip that were talking shit and couldn’t stand her and they all told me the same things. How it seemed like she was the coolest person ever and had her shit together and seemed like she was going places… but deep down she was just an absolute mess and pushed everyone away from her. And I no longer felt like I was going crazy.
But like I said, she formed a really close bond with me (I think from her perspective) and said she felt like my big sister and family, and shared all these stories about her feeling isolated and shut out by people, but now here I am, doing the exact same thing to her. Icing her out of my life. And I just wanna ask you guys…
Am the asshole?

Tl;dr: My (29F) husband (30M) was emotionally, financially, technologically, and spiritually abusive—and borderline physically abusive—all throughout my pregnancy and postpartum. It’s made me feel so detached as a mother. I take good care of my baby (3mo) but I feel like a robot. Looking for commiseration, advice on how to cope, suggestions for how to bond, etc.
I’ve gotten myself into a complete mess. My husband pretty much shat the bed during my pregnancy. It’s both of our first child. The very first day I found out I was pregnant he was in my face over a really, really trivial problem, accusing me of being a liar and then berating me when I cried, telling me I was acting like a victim when I had wronged him so badly (really, I had just misremembered a detail of a completely benign conversation he and I had had when I texted friends to ask for advice on how to handle the issue). He checked my phone all through my pregnancy and when I was 8.5 months along he cut off my cell service because he was upset that a male friend from college had called me to congratulate me on my pregnancy. I spent the first 4.5 months of pregnancy deeply ill and unable to do much because my blood count tanked, but when I finally got some energy back I began to have panic attacks because I was so stressed about his anger and how it was affecting the baby. When I would have an attack, he would get in my face and tell me, “You are so fucking weak.” I am a Christian and in those moments he would often dismiss me saying I should take my pain to God, or he would tell me I’m a bad Christian because we talk big talk about peace but I can’t even handle criticism from him without panicking. He suspected I was trying to leave and he said he would cut off my access to my credit cards. He told me repeatedly he didn’t care about me and only cared that I was carrying his daughter. He watched porn in our bed while I slept and continued to look at pornographic images of women throughout the pregnancy even though he promised me before we got married that he wouldn’t look at porn anymore. After we had the baby things continued… for instance, I have been exclusively pumping to feed our baby, and it has been extremely stressful, so when I went to talk to him about stopping or only pumping a few times a day and supplementing breast milk with formula, he said that if I did that he could leave with my daughter and she wouldn’t need me anymore. These days when we fight he often will take my belongings off of my person and stand in my face, boss me around, and threaten me saying, “Do X or see what happens.”
I feel like he attacked me in the most vulnerable season of my whole life and injured a really deep and central part of who I am, the part of me that is a mother. I feel robbed of these times that I wanted to be so joyful.
The worst part is that the cumulative effect of this constant stress and pain has impacted my ability to feel bonded to my daughter. I am so worried all the time that he’s going to take her from me that I almost feel like I can’t fully emotionally invest. I can’t focus, I’m exhausted and on edge all the time. I feel like the “motherhood” part of my identity is so wounded that I have had to close that part of me off and detach from it to avoid being hurt there anymore.
I don’t have a job and we live overseas where we don’t know anybody. I feel completely broken down psychologically. He has recently admitted he has been abusive and said he will change, and partly out of hope, partly out of necessity, and partly out of love I have decided to give him a chance to prove to himself, to our daughter, and to me that he can be a better man, even though I cannot be optimistic.
But I feel awful that I’m in a fog when I care for and spend time with our daughter. I take good care of her at least on paper: I pick her up when she cries and change her and feed her and bathe her and read and sing to her, but I think some deep part of her knows that I am not fully “there.” I know that must be affecting her pretty deeply and will likely have an impact on the whole rest of her life. I want to be better for her but I truly don’t know how. When I think about opening my heart up to her more I begin to cry and feel like I’m on the verge of another panic attack. I look at her and I do feel love and protectiveness but it’s as if it’s stifled and scattered and maimed, for both of our sakes, and the positive feelings I have for her are full of sadness.
Has anyone been through anything like this? How do you even begin to heal a mother-child bond that has been violated and all but severed in this way?
Thanks everyone and sorry this is such a huge bummer of a post.