Just wanted to thank everyone on here for all the insight. This last weekend my TN application was approved under the accounting profession. My case was fairly open and shut so there really wasn’t anything I was concerned about. The documents I brought to the border were: Passport, Support letter drafted by the company’s lawyer, Employment contract (which was really an extension of the support letter as it had all the position details on it other than duties), my accounting designation (original) and my Resume. The position itself was a “Staff accountant” position. The CBP officer didn’t even want my resume and gave it back to me right away. They first had me write down all my duties and responsibilities on a piece of paper which also allocated certain percentage of time spent in those categories. Then once I completed that I was sent over to a different officer who asked me to explain ‘What my day looks like in my own words’. I had prepared for this so I gave him 6-7 bullet points and brief explanations. They had me sit down for about 30 minutes after that and stamped me through and had me pay the $56.
I don’t suggest going on a weekend if possible (it wasn’t possible for me because I started work on monday and I was in Europe the week before). At first when I was there on the sunday, I could sense their agitation with me being there on a sunday rather than on a weekday (it also didn’t help it was a long weekend). I even overheard the two officers talking amongst themselves while I was sitting down if they should just reject me and have me come back on a weekday. I feel if my case wasn’t so open and shut (accounting profession, staff accountant job, accountant designation) they would have rejected me for this reason.
My support letter did not have wet ink signature and also did not have a company phone number on it. (I wouldn’t suggest doing this as I’m sure they could have easily rejected me on this basis).
Anyway, thank you again everyone and goodluck!

Alright apes, it has been a while since I've posted in these parts. I'm one of the "zen" apes that used to spend hours here every day, but over the past couple of years I've mostly just focused on other things.
By now most of you have probably seen the Reverse Uno hypothesis. https://x.com/malone_wealth/status/1792665092338638900?s=46&t=pjhQaAPGjAVkr0C7r4RCMg
What if the endgame in this is RC creating a giant atomic bomb that he can shove down the short's throat while being in full control of the outcome? Let me break it down for you.
RC is fully aware of DRS, our thoughts on the infinity pool, etc. RC also has the benefit of knowing at least pretty close to the REAL number of shares are out there. He 100% knows what is DRS'd, and I think it's pretty likely that he has access to the number of shares held in other brokerages.
So, RC is a pretty smart guy, and he's surrounded by pretty smart people. He probably has at least a couple of quants, and combined these people can figure out some shit. So what if the latest action we've seen was just another bear trap of epic proportions set up by RC to get us over what he considers the point of no return by the shorts? The place where no matter how hard they try they just can't get out of their bad positions...
RC knows there are shares held by people that will sell when the price is at $50, $80, $100, $500, $1,000. But he also knows that there are a lot of us that are looking for phone numbers OR that live by the No Cell, No Sell mantra.
RC also knows that the government/powers that be will be looking for someone to blame for all of this. So what if, and this is the good part, RC and his geniuses have done the math and they have a pretty good idea that when things ramp up X amount of shares will be sold at X levels, but that isn't enough to stop the MOASS from ramping up. So when the price is at say $10k, $50k, $100k RC can step in and be the good guy and offer up GME's 45 million shares?
I'll tell you what happens. None of us need to sell anymore. The cash holdings of GME could theoretically be in the trillions. Divide whatever you think that number ends up at by 350 million shares. It's a BIG number per share, and you own that piece of the company. So forever and always your shares are worth at minimum in the thousands, or tens of thousands per share. Your great, great, great, grandchildren will be getting massive dividends from the largest holding company in the world and you didn't have to do anything but hold.
As always, not financial advice. Have a great day apes!

I have a friend who was last seen in Tacoma. He is missing, I created a missing person 's case with Tacoma PD, it's been 3 days now and I've got no word back from the police. Any suggestions? My concern is my friend camps out of his car a lot and was planning to drive to New York, he may have gone to a remote camping destination and his car won't start. And he has no power. I just want the police to look at his last known position for his cell phone and check out that area to see if maybe he's stranded.
My friend is not suicidal and it's very unlike him not to be connected. He and I run a company together, The company is entirely virtual and he's very well connected often speaking within our company chats hundreds of times daily. In the past 7 days he has not communicated at all, this is very much unlike him, The fact that he didn't even mention that he would be gone for such an extended period is what is raising the red flags. All of his friends and his family are reaching out to me to find out where he is.

idk maybe i’ll get into how we met later on if y’all are interested in the story.
but background information; we met at an event/ party on the 31st of september 2023 and i tapped his shoulder because i was drunk and he looked hella cute. So after that we started talking and we later found out we were in the same school and yeah. He’s 18M and i’m 16F
so he cold at first and i hadn’t really liked him like that. I was just talking to him to he polite because you can’t just ask for someone’s number and ditch them like that. So he was cold but i could handle it because everyone deserves kindness. we talked and it was okay, until the first visit. The first visit was on a thursday and i hadn’t gone to school. And on the previous day he had told me he was not going so we decided to link up. So i went to his house and i thought we were going to chill since that’s what he said. ooo boy i got that wrong. after we had finally linked up, he was cold. Really cold but as i said, i could handle it. I was quiet while we walked to his house because we had a meeting place since i didn’t really know his house. okay great, i was quiet and he asked me what was on my mind and i responded with “i’m wondering is i made a mistake coming here” he said “you can turn if you want” (example of how he was😂)
great so we get to his house and it’s a cozy little house. He lived with his mom alone but she was at work since this was like at 9-10 am. so we got there and we sat in his living room and u was just cuddling my purse in my lap.😂he sat on another seat and out of thin air this man pulls out a vape and he’s just scanning me head to toe. so he questions me a bit and i swear it was like i was in an interview but okay. So he says can you give me a hug and i stand up yknow being polite, and i hug him. And then boom kissing. so he says let’s go to his bedroom and that day i was on my periods. again my dunbass thinks nothing of it and we go. i walk in and i’m mesmerized cs this guy is CLEAN. so aight we carry on and his hand goes inside my pants. and i was wearing tights under my pants yknow. So long story short i tell him i’m on my period and he says it’s okay.
And after that i was soul tied🙃✨. Great so after the second time we had met and done it, i think the second time was the day i fell for this dude. Because it was 2 days after our first meetup and he was much more lighter. He was happier before we had even done it. So yeah after that we he progressively got warmer but he was still cold don’t get me wrong. He hated phone calls but would make an exception if i begged yknow. cool, until he just changed. We started arguing a lot and before christmas 2023 (if y’all want i can get into detail in another story )we broke up… well went on a break but later the day before Christmas, his ex posted him. We weren’t really known, he didn’t want to be seen with me but i was head over heels in love so i said okay because i didn’t want to jeopardize what we had.
we went on a few on and offs until i just couldn’t do it because he had been physically cheating on me right in front of my eyes. so we just stopped talking and it really broke me. Till present day. This happened in February so all these months i’ve been thinking about him and how he was nice before. I still want him, all of him with his imperfections and coldness and smalll kindness. and the weird way of him expressing his feelings. i have accept him and love him the way he is but ig he isn’t looking for that. Should i go back ? even though i’m exhausted, i have hope he’ll become the guy i’ve known. Cold but has a soft little spot for me.
if yalll like this, i can do more details about the 9 times we’ve met up and done shit. (maybe he’s just tired of me hey)

idk maybe i’ll get into how we met later on.. on my profile if y’all like it.
but background information; we met at an event/ party on the 31-Sep-23 and i tapped his shoulder because i was drunk and he looked hella cute. So after that we started talking and we later found out we were in the same school and yeah. He’s a 18M and i’m a 16F.
so he cold at first and i hadn’t really liked him like that. I was just talking to him to he polite because you can’t just ask for someone’s number and ditch them like that. So he was cold but i could handle it because everyone deserves kindness. we talked and it was okay, until the first visit. The first visit was on a thursday and i hadn’t gone to school. And on the previous day he had told me he was not going so we decided to link up. So i went to his house and i thought we were going to chill since that’s what he said. ooo boy i got that wrong. after we had finally linked up, he was cold. Really cold but as i said, i could handle it. I was quiet while we walked to his house because we had a meeting place since i didn’t really know his house. okay great, i was quiet and he asked me what was on my mind and i responded with “i’m wondering is i made a mistake coming here” he said “you can turn if you want” (example of how he was😂)
great so we get to his house and it’s a cozy little house. He lived with his mom alone but she was at work since this was like at 9-10 am. so we got there and we sat in his living room and u was just cuddling my purse in my lap.😂he sat on another seat and out of thin air this man pulls out a vape and he’s just scanning me head to toe. so he questions me a bit and i swear it was like i was in an interview but okay. So he says can you give me a hug and i stand up yknow being polite, and i hug him. And then boom kissing. so he says let’s go to his bedroom and that day i was on my periods. again my dunbass thinks nothing of it and we go. i walk in and i’m mesmerized cs this guy is CLEAN. so aight we carry on and his hand goes inside my pants. and i was wearing tights under my pants yknow. So long story short i tell him i’m on my period and he says it’s okay.
And after that i was soul tied🙃✨. Great so after the second time we had met and done it, i think the second time was the day i fell for this dude. Because it was 2 days after our first meetup and he was much more lighter. He was happier before we had even done it. So yeah after that we he progressively got warmer but he was still cold don’t get me wrong. He hated phone calls but would make an exception if i begged yknow. cool, until he just changed. We started arguing a lot and before christmas 2023 (if y’all want i can get into detail in another story )we broke up… well went on a break but later the day before Christmas, his ex posted him. We weren’t really known, he didn’t want to be seen with me but i was head over heels in love so i said okay because i didn’t want to jeopardize what we had.
we went on a few on and offs until i just couldn’t do it because he had been physically cheating on me right in front of my eyes. so we just stopped talking and it really broke me. Till May-24. This happened in feb-24 so all these months i’ve been thinking about him and how he was nice before. I still want him, all of him with his imperfections and coldness and smalll kindness. and the weird way of him expressing his feelings. i have accept him and love him the way he is but ig he isn’t looking for that. Should i go back ? even though i’m exhausted, i have hope he’ll become the guy i’ve known. Cold but has a soft little spot for me. I really wanna go back and i’ve went back i think like 3 times. He’s probably thinking i’m an easy target right? and i was in a relationship for a month but i was secretly hoping he’d leave me because i was still constantly thinking about my ex. I treated the guy okay but i really want my ex back.
if yalll like this, i can do more details about the 9 times we’ve met up and done shit. (maybe he’s just tired of me hey) we were approximately together for 5 months with the fights included.

I currently have 200 MPBS Comcast Internet, with a cap of 1Tb for $45/mo. Which has been fine. My Internet promotion is over and the cost will double. I own my own modem, which is five years old, so probably could stand to be upgraded but I would have any idea what to upgrade to, so I’ve never done it!. I have six security cameras, two of us live in the house and have a few TVs. (No more than 2 watched at a time) , a laptop, and two cell phones. My Internet promotion is over and the cost will double, and still without unlimited data. Of course I am considering going to the now but I would not have any idea what to upgrade to, so I’ve never done it! Naturally I am considering going to the NOW Internet service, but I’m reading a lot of you talk about a bridge and I don’t understand any of the terminology. No idea what a bridge is! Can someone give me some recommendations in layman‘s terms? I’m hoping all I have to do is unplug what is currently plugged into my modem and then plug it into the new modem. Is there more to this that I’m missing? Comcast has agreed to extend my current promotion for one more year, but I would still be without unlimited data. I can live with that, but if the NOW internet is a better deal, then maybe I should consider making the switch as they’re just going to bump up my price next year . Thanks

I had a severe pain deep in my right groin a couple of times. It was "wiping out" pain. Nothing else existed. But it didn't last long. Hmmm I thought as my wife watched me writhe, I better see a doc." I wrote 'em a note about it on one of those new whiz bang clinic interfaces we have now. Naw, they didn't wanna see me. Just come in at my regular appointment time. I would rate the tone of it as God to worms.
That forced me to get nasty so I pointed out tendon pain was a possible side effect of prescribed drugs. “Don't you read the literature that accompanies the drugs you prescribe,” I asked. If you have to declare war against the turkey doctor fate has given you sometimes you just have to. I HATE having to do it. I hate being driven into incivility. The only thing that the medical community now fears is a lawsuit, and they've managed to water down those in Texas, in return for campaign contributions. So anyway, a veiled reference brought them around
No complaints about the waiting time and all, but I was again asked about a debt of $130 for which I had previously produced the cancelled check. The negotiations have been poisoned at all times by a front end phone system that doesn't work. You basically can't call anyone, and when the desk gives you a number, it's obsolete.
I was also concerned about two drugs my doctor had prescribed. X, 10 mg. per day, and Y, 180 milligrams per day. I’ve had bad triglycerides and blood fat forever. We used to control it with statins but then the doc cut them off because the statins were eating my muscles. The cholesterol went up, the CPK went down. This doc retires, the second one moved away and I basically took what was available.
I am worried about the drugs, because the counter indications or side effects seem targeted to chronic conditions I already have. “So why would you prescribe a drug to me that seems custom designed to drive nails into my coffin.” You might as well talk to a brick and that includes the cardiologist and the primary physician. Not only that, three of the side effects the literature warned patients to look out for began soon after I began taking the drugs, or that is: Chronic conditions worsened or re-emerged. I had to knock out a lung infection with steroids and antibiotics. My right shoulder got stiff. Hip pain peaked. First big leg cramp in months. A doozie. So I’m concerned. In addition there’s a debate about whether treating patients with cholesterol reducing drugs improves outcomes in people my age. But others disagree. Especially for people like me who have every early indicator of heart disease, and a family history where the only escape from arterial disease was accidental death, which many achieved.
For now I’m going to take the drugs. I still respect the opinions of doctors but my God some of them are challenging.
So here’s my beef. The doc performs the examination and concludes that I passed kidney stones. It took all I could do to not say: “Doc, those are my nuts, my kidneys are up a ways in my back.” But I would do what I always do. Read and then decide. Yep, ya can’t get kidney stones in yer nutsack. During his to examination, he did manage to find a super tender spot on one of my nut cords I was unaware of. I’ll Google it. This guy just withdrew his hand. Nothing, not another word. I’ll read about it and decide. Medicine in corpus.
But then I’ve lived a long life, I’m nearly 80, and only have a few months to go to make it and the thinking that went into this writing makes me wonder about the high percentage of pure craziness I have encountered in my life that has been in medical offices. This is probably normal everywhere. Welcome to America.

I know that for example in Japan, they are even installing a barrier to obstruct the view of Mt. Fuji, because the nearby towns (and a Lawson) are starting to get fed up with an overflow of tourists who stop at one particular spot just to take pictures of the mountain. That is not the only issue with the overflow of tourists within their country, in Kyoto specifically, it is way too crowded. What annoys me the most is them taking pictures of Geisha everywhere, I get it they want to snap a picture, but keep in mind that they are humans and need some space. (They are now issuing a ¥10000 fine for violators.)
Especially with the geisha, like “Leave them alone, geez!” (Give them the right for privacy at least!) They do not like an iPhone right in front of their faces just to be snapped all the time, the thing is that Kyoto is highly dependent on tourist revenue but the local populace ain’t having it, as there are cases of people obstructing roads, tourists filling in the seats on local buses or public transportation that the locals there use daily, most of the demographic living there are old people. (senior citizens) They are even banning tourists on entering Geisha (or Maiko) districts.
During the time Logan Paul visited Japan was the worst, as he went to the suicide forest and recorded footage of a DEAD BODY then proceed to laugh, he took the video down after receiving a ton of backlash. He's not the only one, Johnny Somali also did some shit that landed him in jail, such as entering a construction site, using a random guests room number to get himself 'free' breakfast without realizing that guest will be billed upon them checking out, all due to his stupid actions. Streamers like him who visit Japan are just dumb, taking advantage of others.
Japan is now enforcing stricter rules regarding filming in public, there are even businesses that forbid both video and photography, so no streaming IRL. In general, Japanese are fed up and pissed off about tourists who disrespect their customs or completely disregard their culture, there are even foreigners who throw trash on the floor (due to Japan not having bins everywhere, even in public, they only exist at designated areas) so you have no choice but to carry your trash with you. They even throw trash not from the konbini into their bins!
Even cities such as Osaka or Hakone are imposing tourism taxes, to curb their presence. Since Japan is one of the countries Westerners fetishize a lot, weeaboos think the country is like anime, but it does not mean that people there act like anime characters. There are instances of foreigners bringing in medication or drugs that are banned or deemed illegal (like medical marijuana / ADHD pills) in Japan but not in their home countries, so that means they are subjected to prison and deportation, like... come on, do some research about the country you are traveling to prior to entering their soil.
here are even sacred sites in Japan (like shrines or temples) that have been vandalized, desecrated all because of tourist interaction, which is sad because it’s damaged, losing the integrity on why it’s important. There was a bamboo forest in which someone CARVED their initials on it, like “Don’t destroy the bamboo!” It pisses me off that they desecrate a site you are NOT meant to be treading on at all.
In hindsight:

• Does the Netherlands have an over tourism problem? If so, how bad is it?
• Are there instances of behaviors coming from tourists that annoy Dutch people to the point the authorities are cracking down on bad behavior imposing harsher penalties or deportation?
• Do you know any cases in where tourists have desecrated an important landmark, monument vital to Dutch history or culture?
• Do you know any sites that often get photographed way too often that people are considering on creating a barricade to obstruct the view of said place or site?

So this has been an issue I‘ve had forever, I‘m diagnosed with ADHD and take medication for it and that helps most of my symptoms but on and off my meds I still have a really annoying issue. I always say that I simply can‘t "hear" people when they talk to me but it‘s not literal, I can have a 1on1 fave to face convo and I can hear them talking to me but my brain doesn‘t register the words they‘re saying or if it does it‘s delayed and I often find myself starring into the eyes of the person I‘m talking to with a blank expression on my fave because I‘m trying to figure out what they just said to me. I become aware and self conscious that I do that now because I‘ll literally stare at some for like 1-2 seconds after they finished saying something to me and then I‘ll respond. Oftentimes I‘ll have missed like 50% of what they said so I‘m not even aure what they said to me and I just kinda try to figure it out but I also catch myself giving the wrong reactions sometimes or not realizing I was aksed a question or something.
I‘ve also noticed that people will say something to me and I‘ll respond but then 2 seconds later I‘ll be walking away or aomething and then it hits me and I realize what they actually said and what I thought they said and I responded to was wrong. It‘s like everything is delayed if I even understand what they said at all. Sometimes I just draw a blank on 80% of the words they just said to my face. I‘ve had this same issue im school too where the teacher will explain something and I cannot for the life of me repeat what the teacher just said 2 seconds after they said it, my brain just doesn‘t retain words or something. I also have memory issues where I‘ll literally forget what I did yesterday, I can‘t remember past conversations and sometimes I‘ll say something to my girlfriend along the lines of "I think I had that paper 4 days ago when we hung out", and my girlfriend will respond "We hung out yesterday, we didnt hang out for a week prior" and I‘ll respond "Oh ya, that was yesterday".
I also can‘t process two things at once, I can‘t multi-task, I can only focus on one thing at a time. If two people talk to me at the same time my brain will go into limbo and I won‘t process a single word from either people. I‘m also a very visual person, I struggle to sit and listen as nothing registers but say watching a video or documentary works great for me, images rather than spoken words work for me.
Also If I‘m reading something on my phone or looking at something, my girlfriend will often ask me a question and then geg mad at me when I "Ignored her" but I didnt even process she asked anything sometimes its like I kinda heard her but it didnt register in my brain that she spoke to me and soemtimes I just didnt hear her at all, not because she was quiet, she can be right next to me but its like it didnt reach my brain.
My gym trainer will give me clear instructions, "4 sets of 10 reps" Then 5 seconds later I‘ll grab a dumbbell and I‘ll have to ask again how many reps, and then I‘ll also forget how many sets he told me and sometimes if I‘m setting up equipment or something I‘ll forget the number multiple times and it‘s aggravating I always have to ask again for the instructions, it‘s really troublesome and I find it makes me look stupid.
I get hyper fixated on topics and I read a lot but unless I‘m super into what I‘m reading I‘ll often have to re-read the same sentences 2-3 times before my brain understands what I read.
Is this still just my ADHD or could it be something else, it‘s made me struggle really badly im school in the past but now I notice it affects my social life a lot more where I always have awkward pauses, blank stares or I just cant for the life of me understand what someone said to me.
I‘m 25yo male btw
TIA

I want to preface this by noting that this is a ramble. I have a lot of thoughts, this is probably too many unnecessary details but at this point that’s one of the things Im struggling with as a (SAH) parent of a little with T1D.
So my daughter was diagnosed June of last year when she was still 3. It’s been a crazy journey, and while I’m grateful we haven’t had to deal with any life threatening incidences since her first DKA and diagnosis I can’t help but worry about her sugar all day, every day.
She’s on MDI, we’re doing a pump class next month (a requirement before her endo will approve), just recently changed her long acting and was seeing improvement in her glucose—but now it feels like we’re back to the beginning somehow?
She’s had so many days where she’s above 200. When I looked at her libre 3 ‘time in ranges,’ she was for the longest only ‘in range’ 38% of the time, any other time was way above. However, a few weeks ago (around the beginning of the month) I played around with her breakfast ratio and it seemed as if I found the ratio that REALLY worked for her—and then two days later she had her endo appointment and they changed her long acting because her sugar was going over 350 3-4 hours after eating lunch. For the first two weeks of this month she went from being in range 38% of the time to 67% of the time! It was so… great? But for the last week, she’s been pushing back into the 300s.
Now, one of the things that makes me feel like a helicopter parent: since she’s only 4 (5 in July ), I prefer to check her sugar myself and do all of her injections myself—one of the reasons being that I’ve noticed during this year that when my husband does her injections her glucose levels are even worse (there was one incident —early weeks of diagnosis— where he didn’t even inject her, the medicine literally sat on her skin and she was about to eat). Recently my little one tried to (very quickly) help me set up her needle and she bent the needle that goes into the pen (unbeknownst to me), and I tried to prime it like 3 times and I thought the pen broke. When i went to disassemble it to toss it was when I noticed the bent needle. Tried again with new one, went to prime and sooo much insulin came out, like there was so much pressure. It was an extremely stressful morning, and I no longer wanted her to help me get her medicine ready.
She knows how to check her sugar, but when it comes to cleaning her finger really well, she does not do a good job and I go behind her and recheck when the number from her test comes back 40+ different from her CGM.
Since she has a libre 3, her cgm is connected to my phone. We have a reader, have not yet used it because my phone stays in her room over night to be within range of her while I have it also connected to my iPad. When she goes low, she doesn’t wake up with the device blaring right next to her—but the notifications coming to my iPad inform me to check her.
I’m at a point where I’m…lost. She doesn’t seem to fully grasp certain parts of this journey? Should I make her check herself throughout the day until she gets the hang of that first? When should I let her give herself medicine (this part scares the ever loving life out of me because I’m terrified she’ll over do it and not want to drink/eat something to fix it because she’s full or something)?
And since she’s turning 5, she ought to be going to school in autumn—but I’m so unbelievably terrified because we live in a small town and it feels like so many people are ignorant to type 1 and assume it’s type 2. I plan to homeschool, but with her attention span I know it’s going to be difficult. But teachers mindlessly hand out candy, and while not everyone has diabetes, I know it’s going to be another crap experience for her because she was dealt a shitty hand. I even struggle with the judgment when we’re at the store trying to check out and she throws a fit for one of those gourmet lollipops that don’t have the carbs listed on it and there’s no guarantee she’s even going to finish it. When I say no, people just look at me like “what a bad mom, let that baby have a lollipop.”
I don’t restrict her diet. If she wants a piece of chocolate or cookie, or whatever: she can have it— if it’s more than 5carbs, I make her understand she has to have medicine for it. She’s a kid. She loves carbs, all the bread, noodles, desserts—I’m trying to do everything right for her.
She’s a kid, she should have all those experiences and privileges allotted to kids—but how am I to navigated this without dictating every single moment of her life?
If you got this far, I’m sorry for the rambling and thank you.

Preface: This is kind of a lot, but this is all very simplistic. There's a lot more to all of the things I'm venting about than could be contained in one post. I just kind of need to get this out there, scream into the void or something, you know? Don't judge my ex too harshly for any of this, we're all just young and inexperienced and a lot of this is just feelings, I'm too raw to really interpret this in a reational way.
About Me
Fuck man, I don’t even know what to say. I feel so small and pathetic. I’ve been so passive my whole life, and I don’t know how to change it. I don’t really have any close friends, and it’s hard to meet people who share the same interests as me. I have a job that I’m probably going to quit when I get in contact with my boss. It’s not a bad work environment on the boss/coworkers side of things. The customers trend around the mildly dismissive/kind shitty side though. They’re mostly wealthy so I’m not really expecting much honestly. But after all the stuff that’s happened in my life as of late I just need to get out of there. It’s full time work and it takes me 90 minutes on average to get there and back, and being alone with your thoughts on the (unreliable) subway for that long really isn’t helping my mental state. This is the most mentally unwell I’ve felt since grade 12. I need to get out. I was walking back from the station yesterday and the thought of quitting was intoxicating. I could feel the air in my lungs, the sun on my skin, I felt like the world was colourful and mine to explore. It made me feel big, like a person again. People keep telling me that things will get better, and that I just have to wait. Well, I’ve been waiting almost my entire life and I’ve yet to see a major improvement. I’m not going to sit around and wait for life to happen to me. If life is going to get better, it’ll be because of me.
About B (my ex)
She broke my fucking heart twice man. It feels so shitty. There’s just so much I feel and think about it and it makes me hurt so much. She’s so passive about a lot of things. Why did she just wait until her breaking point in our relationship to really bring up her big concerns? Why does she keep letting E treat her the way he does? I feel like we could have salvaged our relationship if she’d seriously brought it up around Christmas when she started to feel that way about it instead of just waiting for things to improve on their own. Looking back at it, she started to change the way she was talking to me (especially over text) in the months leading up to her dumping me. There was no more, like, “ohh you want to come over so bad” type stuff, it became very dry and matter of fact. She reacts really harshly to criticism too (granted I don’t take criticism very well at times either, but I don’t turn every mention of a concerning behaviour into how it’s actually wrong for anyone to bring these things up at all because of x y z reasons). It really did feel like I couldn’t bring things like that up at times. And that one thing she said to me not too long ago, something along the lines of getting on her ass about job hunting once she graduates from school. It’s like, fucking what? You hate it when I do that! When I was bringing up the dishes you had in the sink, trying to get you to do even just some of them instead of playing Stardew Valley in bed all day you fucking exploded at me! (Clarification, this was during school, I was not at hers during this. If I was, I would have done them). What the fuck are you talking about? And that shit about “I haven’t felt like myself in a long time, I changed myself very early in our relationship to be with you” what does that even mean? It’s such weird behaviour to bring that up in the process of the breakup instead of, I don’t know, when you realise you feel that way? So we can work it out? I want to scream and yell at her, tell her all the things I’ve dumped in this dumb little rant I’ve made, I hurt so much. But that won’t help anything, and as much as I hurt, I don’t want to hurt her, not really. She still wants to be friends, but after all this… fuck, man… I just need to get out and find myself again.
About E (the ass) (tw: some sexual assault)
Fuck man, E makes me so fucking angry. He’s such an ass. He never fucking respected my and B’s relationship. All that shit he did was so fucking weird and gross and hurtful. And the way B reacted to my concerns about it really doesn’t make me feel any better about it. Like I get that she seriously considered cutting him out of her life on multiple occasions after the things he did (getting drunk and groping her, getting drunk and almost kissing her, constantly forgetting that she was in a committed relationship for nearly three fucking years, “oh did you get that guy's number” “No I’ve been dating my boyfriend for almost three years” “oh oops I forgot lol”). But the constant downplaying and deflecting (oh he’s just kind of a flirt, he has/had a really bad drinking problem, the constant casual sex he has actually makes him feel sad and empty, he’s just had a rough life) she did really makes it feel like she wasn’t considering the hurt it was causing. And that shit he did while we were still in the process of breaking up (She brought up that she was considering breaking up on Monday April 22nd, he comes over on Tuesday April 23rd to cheer her up a bit and then forces a kiss on her (completely sober btw), she dumps me for real on Wednesday April 24th). And she still wants to hang out with him? And even more downplaying of his weird behaviour (“That’s not groping when he did that”, “What? That’s not assault, I know he forced a kiss that I didn’t want on me and then I had to push him off, but like, that’s not assault because I’ve known him for 6 years”) It’s so confusing. What the fuck am I supposed to make of all this? And she’s clearly interested in him on some level, she gets all cagey whenever I bring him up. I caught a glance at her phone and he was in there as “Pretty Boy”. Fucking “Pretty Boy”? I can’t even tell if it’s sarcastic or not. Like Jesus Christ, it feels like she doesn’t really care at all about how he treated me or her. It just hurts so much, I’m so angry about it. And I know how this will end, regardless of whether or not she sleeps with him. He’ll continue his weird shitty behaviour (not just with her, he's a fucking weirdo), she’ll get let down for the millionth time, and then she’ll either keep letting him get away with it, or she’ll finally cut him out of her life. And honestly, I don’t know if I want to be friends with her if she stays friends with him. It just hurts too much.

One night around 3 months ago I went out and was drunk at a bar, my partner lost her phones at the bar, I found a phone on the bar and picked it up, thinking it was hers, we had only been together for 3 weeks at this point and it was an IPhone which was close enough for me, so I picked it up and put it in my coat, as we was leaving they handed my partner her phone back, I forgot I had this phone until we got into the taxi, we live about 5 mine from the bar in a car so we got home and I put the phone on the kitchen side and said I’ll sort that in the morning 20 mins later there is a knock at the door and it’s the girl who’s phone it is I invite her in and she collects the phone and leaves all very polite.
Fast forward to today and the police have been at my partners house investigating the theft, they have my phone number and want to arrange to meet with me.
Basically what am I looking at here? Am I going to be criminally charged?
I’m 28 and have never had any contact with the police at all and I am DBS checked for my work, and I don’t want to lose my job.
Yes it was a silly mistake but it was innocently done and has no intention of keeping the phone but at the end of the day I did take it out of the bar and back to my house, am I best saying that or not confirming or denying anything at the moment?
Thanks in advance

What’s Dua Lipa’s phone number? I want to call her and hug her

What’s Dua Lipa’s phone number? I want to call her and hug her

Act 1 Scene 1
Int. Edd's Apartment Room - Bedroom - Morning
Edd (In sleep bed) SNORE, SNORE, SNORE- (EDD’S face is sprayed with Cola) I SUREDDER! (Looks around room) Oh.
(Cut to) Edd Int. Edd's Apartment room - Closet - Morning (Edd Choses which Hoodie to wear) [Hoodies references to different Hoodie designs] (Picks his Modern Hoodie design)
(Cut to) Int. Edd's Apartment Room - Bathroom Edd (Grabs toothbrush) (Zooms in to show that's it’s Cola flavored) (Brushes teeth) (Grabs cup of Cola) (Gurgles it) (Spits it out) (Makes a big wide smile showing his horrible teeth)
(Cut to) Edd Int. Edd's Apartment Room - Kitchen - Morning (Edd takes bacon in a Oven) (Puts it on a plate) (Edd sits at his table) (Holds up fork and spoon and licks his lips before shoving the entire plate into his mouth) NOM, NOM, NOM MM! The plate is always the best part! Act 1 Scene 2
(Transition to) Int. Edd's Apartment Room - Living Room - Morning Edd (Sits on couch) Ah.. it is a good day to watch Return of the Insane Zombeh Pirates from Hell 4! SLAM (The door goes as MATT and TOM come in)
Matt (Overlapping Tom) BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH I FOUND THIS GUY AND HE SOLD ME CRACK SO I GAVE IT TO A TWO YEAR OLD THEN IT STARTED TO-
Tom (Overlapping Matt) BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH I PULLED AND PULLED BUT IT WOULDN'T COME OUT, SO I GOT A PLANT AND STARTED SAYING NEVER GONNA GIVE-
Edd SHUT UP! (Matt and Tom look at each other) What is it…
Matt He broke mirror #1028!
Tom Nuh Uh!
Edd (Sigh) Tom, did you break the mirror?
Tom No!
Matt Liar, Liar, Dance on Pliers!
Tom (re: notice) Uh, Edd I found this by your door. (Hands to Edd)
Edd (Grabs) Blah, Blah, Blah. Your landlord will require possession of your apartment in 16 days, if rent is not paid! Oh no, I can't afford to paid rent!
Tom Don't worry- well actually do worry bc we all got it.
Matt Can't we mooch off of that crackhead down the street again?
Tom I’ve run out of crack to give to him, and I don't got enough to buy any either.
Edd Can't we get a job?
Tom Don’t you remember what happened last time we got a job!
Edd Oh yeah, we got fired for “immaturity, and irresponsible” or whatever bogus they said.
Matt We’re perfectly mature! They have to have a screw loose!
Tom One time I agree with you Matt. Right Edd… Edd?
Edd (Face plants onto couch) It’s hopeless…
Tom Come on Edd, things could be better!
Edd Do you mean worse?
Tom No, I meant better.
Matt Yeah, you could be friends with a stupid, narcissist and an unsupportive, alcoholic.
Edd (Annoyed, or disappointed face) Well… I guess- TOM WHAT ARE YOU DOING!
Tom (Standing on a chair with a hanging rope hanging from the ceiling fan) Who’s going second bc I'm going first.
Edd Tom, we promised to commit suicide when we get kids!
Tom Oh yeah.
Edd Tom, do you remember that safe in our old house?
Tom Yeah, the one that we left behind when it got destroyed?
Edd Yeah, that one. I was thinking we could go back and break into it. There’s bound to be some cash left in there.
Matt But what if the cops catch us?
Tom Relax, Matt. We’ll make sure no one sees us.
Edd We’ll go at night and make sure to cover our tracks.
Edd But we have no mask- (Tom, Matt are suddenly in Goofy Villain outfit) Edd Where did you even get those
Matt Dumpster!
Edd There's no way I'm wearing one of those! Act 1 Scene 3
(Cuts To) Ext. Old House - Backyard
The three friends stand in the backyard, wearing their goofy villain outfits, as Edd adjusts his costume with annoyance.
Edd (Cont'D) "This is ridiculous. I can't believe you two made me wear this."
Matt (Excitedly) "You look great! We're like the Three Stooges of crime!"
Tom (Grinning) "Yeah, but instead of just being fools, we're gonna be rich fools!”
Edd Matt did you cover our tracks?
Matt Yeah, look. (Shows an path of purple path leading right up to their location)
Tom Matt you know when I said I hated you?
Matt Yeah?
Tom I DIDN'T LIE!
Matt Aw...
Edd "Alright, let's just get this over with. We break into the safe, grab the cash, and get out. Simple enough."
Tom (Cocky) "Piece of cake, guys. We're professional criminals now."
Matt (Excitedly) "We're going to be rich!"
(The friends approach the safe and begin trying to open it.)
Edd Uh, does anyone remember the code?
Tom Not me!
Edd Matt?
(Camera pans to Matt admiring a picture of himself)
Matt I thought I lost you forever baby (Matt says as kissing it)
Edd
Tom(drunk) My idea is to blow up an orphanage!
Edd How do you get drunk off of Smirnoff in 4 seconds!?
Tom(drunk) Idk ask the unicorn in the sky!
Edd (Sigh) I'm going home.
As Edd turns to leave, Tom comes to his senses.
Tom "Guys, hang on. What if we try a brute force attack? Like, really give it a good ol' college try?"
Edd (Sarcastically) “Oh yes, because that's so much better than blowing up an orphanage.”
Tom (Ignoring the comment) “Just hear me out. We all know that safes have a maximum number of combination attempts before they lock us out. So, what if we just brute force it?”Edd But what brute force would... (Edd's eyes spark up with an idea, and a devious smile form's on his face)
Tom So... what's the idea?
Edd (Raises his eyebrows)
Tom I don't speak eyebrows?
Matt (Raises eyebrows)
Tom What!?
Edd (Overlapping Matt) THROW TOM!
Matt (Overlapping Edd) THROW TOM!
Tom Did I ever tell yall I HATE ALL OF YOU!As Matt and Edd start shoving Tom towards the safe, he starts resisting and shouting obscenities at them.
Tom (Yelling) "What the hell is wrong with you guys?! I'm not a goddamn battering ram!"
Matt (Laughing) "Oh come on, it'll be fine! What's the worst that could happen?"
Edd (Shoving Tom) "Just go with it, Tom. You'll thank us later."
Tom (Reluctantly) "Fine, but if I break anything, I'm suing you two.”(Edd and Matt lift Tom over their head and chuck him head first into the safe making a extremely loud smash)
Edd See Tom, that wasn't so bad!
Tom I think broke one of my hair bones
Matt Is it open?
Edd Nope. It's dented tho!Edd Still dented.
Matt Again-
(The gang hear police sirens)
Matt OH NO I'M TOO PRETTY TO GO TO JAIL!
(The police pull up and get out of the cop car with gun)
Cop 1 PUT YOUR HANDS UP!
(The entire gang puts their hands up with a ton of Matt's pictures falling out of his clothes)
(The police officers look confused as they witness the sight in front of them.*)
Officer 1 (Perplexed) “What the hell happened here?”
Matt (Innocently) “We were just trying to break into a safe. No big deal.” Act 1 Scene 4 Int. Cop Car - Midnight
Tom (Drowsy) “Why do my eyelids feel like heavy rocks…?”
Matt (Looking confused) “Hey, does anyone else smell pickles?”
Edd (Snickering) I knew I shouldn't have put on pickle deodorant!
Cop 1 (Driving) “Quiet, back there!”
Edd (Mumbling) Sorry Angry Mcgee!
Matt (Whisper) Pss, Edd!
Edd What?
Matt Get this! (Quickly throws a picture to Edd with his mouth)
Edd What is- Holy S**t I thought I lost this forever!
Camera pans down to show Edd, Matt, and Tom when they first moved in, including a old friend named Tord)*As the camera pans down to the picture, we see a glimpse of a time long ago. Three friends – Edd, Matt, and Tom – are laughing and smiling, with a fourth boy, Tord, standing beside them. They're holding balloons and standing in front of a house they recently moved into. Act 1 Scene 5
(Transition to) Jail - Cell - Midnight
Edd TOM! I'M DYING HELP ME!
Edd is dramatically lying on his back, holding an empty Cola can, pretending to have a heart attack. Meanwhile, Tom is sitting on a bunk bed and rolls his eyes.
Tom (Sarcastically) “Oh, yes, because your Cola addiction is definitely the biggest concern here. Not us being thrown in jail overnight.”
Edd OH WOE IS ME!
Edd writhes around on the bed in despair, while Tom just sits there, clearly agitated by Edd's melodrama.
Tom "Edd, you've been going on about your cola running out for hours now. Can you give it a rest, please?"
Edd (Frantically) "You don't understand, Tom! My cola was my life! How am I supposed to survive here without it?"
Tom (Tired) "Perhaps you should try sleeping or something?”Matt Uh, guys why is there a dude in helicopter trying to shoot us with a bazooka?
Edd (Sarcastically) Well thats just great.
(The group is flung back as the cell window is blasted open)
The man with the bazooka comes through the smoke.
Paul Hello, uh sorry I don't know your names. The Red Leader only refers people as code names.
Tom The Red who?
Matt My name is the beautiful Matt-
Edd covers Matt's mouth
Edd Don't tell him your name idiot!
Paul My name is Paul.
Camera Pans to Matt
Matt Why are your eyebrows 20 feet tall?
Camera Pans back to Paul
Paul They aren't even that big are you blind!?
Camera Pans back to Matt
Matt suddenly wearing blind glasses
Matt Yes
Patryk Hi my name is Patryk-
Paul PATRYK YOUR FLYING THE HELICOPTER!
Patryk Oh.
We hear a Helicopter explosion from outside. Paul and Patryk look down from the exposed cell wall, showing the burning half-destroyed Helicopter.
Patryk Don't worry I'll fix those scratches!
Paul Whatever.
Edd So, are you here to save us?
Paul Nah, we're gonna capture you!
Edd Aw, Bugger
Paul pulls out a "Super cool taser gun" as the label on the taser gun says.
Tom Lame.
(Tom is shocked and knocked out by the taser gun)
(The group watches in shock as Tom goes down from the taser-gun.)
Matt (Panicking) "Oh no, Tom! Edd, do something!!"
Edd (In shock) "What can I do? There's two nut jobs with a taser gun and an assault rifle who are trying to capture us!"
Paul (Casually) "Don't worry, if you don't resist, you'll be safe. The Red Leader just wants you guys for a special project.”
Edd Whatever.
Edd blacks out
(Cut to) Helicopter - Backseat - Morning
Edd wakes up
Edd (Distraught) Ow my head hurts!
Tom (Confused) What happened?
Edd (Deep Voice) Hey Babe.
Tom (Angry) Wtf Edd!
Matt is making muffled sounds because of a mask on his face that says "Beware ugly fish monster behind mask." Edd takes the mask off of Matt.
Edd (Disturbed) EW, the mask was right!
Matt (Angry) Hey!
Paul So you finally woke up!
Matt Uh, yeah
Edd This reminds me of when I flew a Helicopter when I was in the Uk Army!
Paul (Confused) You were in the army!?
Matt We all were can't you tell just by looking at us!
Camera pans to show all of the three boys looking exaggeratedly more stupid than usual.
Paul No.
The three friends look at each other in annoyance, feeling belittled by Paul's remark. Tom speaks up.
Tom (Sarcastically) "Oh wow, thanks for the compliment. Nice to know we look like a bunch of army rejects."
Matt (Defensively) "Excuse me, we are actually highly trained and intelligent individuals... in our own special way.”
Tom (Sarcastically) At least two of us are!
Tom and Edd high-five. Matt not realizing that they are inferring that he's the stupid one, keeps a smile on his face
Edd (Amused) Wait didn't your Helicopter crash like a few hours ago?
Patryk (Proudly) This is my 857th Helicopter!
Edd's Amused face goes to worried.
Edd (Unsettled) “Oh boy, this is going to be one bumpy ride…”
Edd At least we're away from the HELI-COP-TER
Everyone looks at Edd because of the horrible pun.
Tom So, where are we going?
Paul To the "SUPER EVIL EDGY VILLAINOUS BASE!"
The camera zooms out of the Helicopter to show that the place is actually called "SUPER EVIL EDGY VILLAINOUS BASE!"
Edd Well that's just silly.

Noah The Pilgrim
Previous First Next
'Noah.'
You can't feel your body, you try to move but receive no feedback from your arms and legs. You open our eyes, or were they always opened? It's difficult to tell when only darkness surrounds you.
'You're here again.'
It's that same voice you heard before waking up in that pod. You try to speak but fail. It feels like you left your body behind, existing only inside your mind.
'Allow me.'
From the dark, a circle of light emerges, filling your vision. The light is not blinding, nor is it too bright to obfuscate the dark, it's just bright enough to reach your eyes without prompting discomfort.
It's the Star. That much, you know for certain.
Normally, you'd feel hopelessly scared, but somehow, all you feel is soothed by its light.
'I remember telling you we wouldn't see each other for a long time. Why are you here?'
Although you wished to answer the question, you could not. Both because you have no control over your body, and because you don't know the answer.
'...'
You recall the AI telling you the purpose of the ship you're in. It was to study this star.
Why? What's so special about this particular star? Sure, it's on the very edge of the ever-expanding universe, but aside from that, it's just a star. A very odd-looking star, but a star nonetheless.
'What's so special about me... Nothing.'
A shiver runs down your spine. It feels as though you've forgotten a significant thing about yourself, and you're sure this star has something to do with it.
'How are you feeling, Noah?'
Like shit. That is what you wanted to answer.
You've been going with the flow ever since you woke up in that pod, not asking yourself neither how or why you've been put in that place, only nodding your way to the bridge.
You've been bombarded with memories that you're sure aren't yours, but your own memories also feel shrouded in a thick haze, and yet, you didn't bother to even think about why it was, only accepting that as truth without understanding this strange phenomenon.
When confronted with things beyond your current knowledge you refuse to acknowledge it by not asking yourself what it is, or by illuding yourself into thinking it's a dream.
Even now, you refuse to acknowledge this impossible place you've found yourself in.
'Why is it that you turn away?'
What to blame for that? You didn't even feel the need to ask anything about yourself. Randomly remembering things as though you were reading them off a manual, taking whatever FYARN says as an absolute truth, and not even reacting to the abhorrent state of the Odyssey.
When FYARN told you about the relationship between the alien and the human races, it told you how superior humans were, and it also told you that the human race lost the war. You didn't bother to call out that clear discrepancy then because you felt as though it didn't concern you, despite being clearly at the forefront of that conflict.
When FYARN asked what you remembered, you simply stated you didn't remember nearly anything, and yet you've made no strive to fix that issue, accepting it as the absolute truth.
All there was left to blame was yourself.
'You're doing it again, turning away from the truth.'
Was it because your situation was impossibly bizarre?
Waking up in a half-blown spaceship could be enough to drive a man to the brink with how random and impossible that notion was. Especially when that man was just a salary man, living month to month, working an unfulfilling job, all while being called the best.
'Perhaps. But I believe that the issue lies much, much deeper.'
The utter darkness shifts and contorts unexplainably. Moving shadows take formless shapes before you. From black to grey, and from grey to different shades of it. Those shapes of impossible geometry cast shadows downwards, as the star stared at you from above.
The shapes expanded and contracted into euclidean and understandable structures. Tall rectangular towers filled the horizon, decorating a path akin to buildings in a busy city.
On the foot of one of those structures, you see a man dwarfed by the sheer size of the scenery.
'Who do you think that is?'
You approach him.
You see a young man that looks to be in his mid-twenties. Your brown eyes stare back at it, analyzing the bags beneath his eye sockets. The dark hair is neither too long nor too short, hastily combed to hide the laziness behind his look. You see a beard that has not been trimmed for weeks, but also lacks thickness, each singular hair isn't particularly long either; and some even appear to be in-grown.
He's wearing a white tuckered-in buttoned shirt with a pair of jeans. A black backpack weighed on his back as he walked through this empty street.
A position you could imagine yourself in, every day of the week.
If you had failed to piece together who that was, it became clear once you noticed the empty look on his face.
It's obvious who that is.
He is a man whose bright dreams have been crushed under the weight of mankind.
How cruel, to be forced to gaze into a dirty mirror...
'You are starting to see it. Let's go further.'
The ractangular towers floated away, as the man continued to walk into the grey void.
Four white walls covered both you and the man, grey shapes transformed into a chair and desk, inviting the man to sit on it.
It was a plain desk and a plain chair, and when the shapes stopped transmogrifying themselves, a plain computer, monitor, keyboard, and mouse rested atop the desk.
Fitting for a plain man. You watch him sitting down in the chair, putting his backpack on the floor beneath the table.
From the backpack, he conjured a notebook and a set of pencils and erasers. He quickly turned the computer on.
This was his job.
The monitor remained grey despite how the man typed on the keyboard. The notebook remained grey despite how the man scribbled on it with the pencil.
A humanoid figure came to be from the geometric mess of grey nearby. It passed by the working man. "G'day Noah." It spoke, as he vanished into the white walls that surround you.
The man didn't bother to respond, he didn't bother to stop his work, and he didn't even bother to look up from his notebook.
Another humanoid figure passed by, holding what looked to be sheets of paper. "Hey Noah, could you sort these documents out for me? I'm swamped today..."
The man looks at the thick collection of papers in the figure's hands. He just started his shift and already lacks the energy and motivation to keep going with his day.
And despite that, he did not want to disappoint.
He points to the empty space on his desk, motioning for the figure to leave it there.
The figure places the paperwork on the man's desk. "Thanks, I owe you big time for this!" After saying that, the figure disappeared into the white walls of the room.
He did not speak a singular word.
You recall this... Feeling.
'Do you remember their names, Noah?'
You could not.
'Do you remember their faces, Noah?'
You could not.
'These people, you used to see them every day. Why do you not know who they are?'
What was the point of it? Why did it matter? Why did they matter?
'Because they are people.'
To you, those figures were nothing but placeholders for those who did the same thing as you. They were nothing special, just like you. So why bother to recall their faces?
'We must go further.'
The white cubicle ceased to be, alongside the man in plain clothing.
The towering rectangles swiftly returned, and with it came a young adult in his early twenties.
Your brown eyes stare back at his. The short dark hair looked as though it was combed for hours until it was perfect. You see a trimmed beard, neatly cut with a blade most sharp. You see that his face has been recently subjected to a daily skin-care regime.
This young man looks to be full of energy.
He's wearing a white tuckered-in buttoned shirt with a pair of jeans. A black backpack was strapped to his back as he walked through this empty street.
Again, you know who this is, yet you don't have the guts to accept it.
'...'
The ringing tune of a cell phone came from the young man's pockets. He promptly picked it up.
"Hey, Noah!" You hear the voice coming from the other side of the call. "The boys and I are going to throw a party today in my place to celebrate finishing high school. You better show up tonight!" It sounds like the voice originates from a man. He is yelling at the phone.
You watch as the young man smirks. "You can bet I'll be there." He answered. "I'll be done with today's interview and head there as soon as possible."
"Great... Something came up, catch you later bud!" And just like that, the call ended. The young man pocketed his phone.
You know how the rest of that day went. The young man passed the interview and secured his spot in a large IT company, then he went to his friend's place and had the best night of his life.
Those memories were the ones you revisited endlessly.
The grey shapes and humanoid figures vanish, returning to utter blackness.
Once again, all you see is the star.
'What happened, Noah?'
You couldn't say. Maybe it wasn't some big thing that happened, but rather a large quantity of small things that eventually crashed down upon you like an avalanche that built up for a long time.
Friends leaving to live their own lives.
Underappreciation of your career.
Your incapacity to form meaningful relationships.
The feeling of being small in the greater scheme of things.
The notion of your life being wasted for nothing.
A lack of accomplishment that was caused by a lack of problems.
You letting your physical appearance go.
But, even amongst all of those aggravating motives, there was one thing that always pained your heart to even recall. For that reason, you refused to acknowledge and even think about it. A trend that would continue for the upcoming years of your life.
Your dream.
Once adulthood came and expectations weighed on you, you had to choose. Live a comfortable life, or throw it all away in exchange for an idea that probably wouldn't even work, to begin with.
You refused to let go at first. Holding unto what little hope there was left for that dream of yours.
In three short years, your life shifted completely.
Friends grew distant, and now all you had as a replacement for them were faceless figures who spoke to you about a job you never really wanted.
Those very same figures held you in high regard, always saying how talented you were or how impressive your skills were. In truth, you never felt like what you did was worth the effort or the praise.
All you ever did in that company was half-assed at best, yet they praised you like their savior. You grew complacent under those who put you on a pedestal.
Your salary increased, and so did the responsibilities, but never were it challenging or engaging. It felt tasteless and odorless.
You refused to even respond to small talk from those people. How could you? If you did, they would shower you with praises you didn't deserve. That theory was proven time and time again.
All you did every day was sitting on a chair, eyes glued to the screen to meet an assortment of numbers and labels. This was nothing. There were people out there, changing the world, fixing the real problems, and you're there, sorting out numbers for a company created to sort out data for a company created to sort out data.
A null uroboros.
Twenty-eight years of a human's life, and for what? To waste away like a gear on a machine?
You remained ignorant of your ignorance. There were no problems since you had more than enough money from your ever-increasing salary you felt you didn't deserve.
You couldn't even bring yourself to quit, afraid to face the consequences, afraid to be replaced. A fact you understood fully well, yet you refused to acknowledge.
Clinging to a feeling of guilt, you couldn't help but hold on to this life. Your life, Noah.
You longed for a change, but wouldn't bring yourself to change it.
Your dream that you lived for so long ago, is something you couldn't even remember. You hid it away in a dark corner of your mind, hoping to never face it again, or else you would break down.
That is what happened.
The coldness of the world is what happened.
You wouldn't go as far as to say that you were a victim of fate.
Instead, you'd say you were a victim of yourself.
'And yet, you're here now. In an impossible place. In an impossible life.'
Are you to waste away on this place as well?
'You had conviction, but lacked guidance.'
Can you even muster that much courage? You fear what the future could bring.
'I presented you this chance for a reason, so you may show them that your soul is the brightest of them all.'
Fear is born for there is hope, but bravery is born for there is fear. You recall someone telling you that once, but...
'Remember this, Noah.'
Where does the courage to take a step forward come from? When it's so dark that you can't see the path ahead, how should one muster enough courage to make the right call?
'Whenever you feel lost, or alone; Whenever you feel like there is no way forward;'
Your vision starts to blur. The star begins to fade.
'So you may never lose your way again;'
Looks like it's time to return to reality.
'I, am your...'
This is my first HFY story, and also my very first OC story. I plan to post at least one of these per week while also posting it on my Patreon. Noah The Pilgrim will always be two to three chapters ahead in there, so if you'd like to directly support this writer, or just want to read more, feel free to check it out.
This has been Lushi, and I'll see you next week.

About a year ago, I started having a change in my bowel habits. I went from going 2-3/day with normal solid stool, to 8-20/day with loose/yellow/floating/mucous combination stool. No matter what I eat I continue to go straight to the bathroom. My stomach pains were unbearable at times and I have a constant fear of not making it to the bathroom on time every single day. I could not go out to eat with family. There was no eating before going anywhere. No trips anywhere, nothing. I finally went to the doctor about 3 months in. I went to my primary care to get a referral for a GI doctor. At my primary care appointment, they drew labs to check my white blood cell count, electrolytes, gallbladder labs, and even checked to see if my thyroid was causing any of this. Then they hit me with giving them a stool sample to check for C-diff… I am a nurse and knew what types of stool C-diff can look like, and i DEFINITELY know what it smells like. I knew I didn’t have it and I never turned in my stool sample. I just thought it was a total waste of time. My other labs came back normal, everything did. She referred me to a GI doctor and the earliest appointment was 3 months away. I waited and continued to try and deal with this completely awful new way of life. I changed my diet to absolutely no sugar, no gluten, no dairy, and high protein/fiber STRICT diet…. This of course did nothing for me. The time has come and I go to the GI appointment, finally. I went on to tell them all of my issues I had been having for the past 6 months. There was the stomach pain, change in bowl habits, constantly having to have a bowel movement, the cololook of the stool, and the 10 pounds of weight loss that had taken place since this has started. They checked the same labs on me as my primary care doc did, did an ultrasound of my abdomen/pelvis, and gave me a stool testing kit. I told them I didn’t have C-diff, but they wanted to check anyways. They also scheduled for me to have colonoscopy and an upper GI scope. The only problem was that the earliest possible appointment was 6 months away…. I begged for them to find a way for it to be pushed up because I had started becoming depressed, developed anxiety, and became a total recluse. I even started taking anxiety medication solely because of this. They said since my ultrasound was normal (other than extreme gas in my abdomen) and my labs didn’t reflect anything serious, they can’t move it up due to being so booked up. I drove home and cried the whole way home. I’ve never felt so defeated in my life. I took my stool sample items and threw them away. The only thought I had was, “what a waste of my time”. I thought nothing was going to be normal again. I had forgotten what even normal was. I decided to call my primary care doctor to see if she could refer me to another GI office. They did, and the earliest appointment was 3 months away…. Yes, another delay. I waited and waited. Still no socializing, staying home, going to work ONLY, barely eating, more weight loss, and now the presence of blood that started to appear in my stool…. Did I mention that I had been taking a box/more of immodium every month in order to be able to work my full time night shift ICU nurse job…??? Yep… not kidding, and every NP/doctor I had talked to thus far knew this… Finally, after 9 months I had my appointment with the other GI office. They again did the same as the other office except order an ultrasound. The only thing different was they told me that I would be priority over anyone on receiving a colonoscopy due to my s/s. They scheduled it 2 weeks away which was their earliest appointment possible at the time. I was so relieved it was unreal. I was finally taken seriously. They also said they MUST have a stool sample on me before I had the scope done. So i grabbed the supplies they gave me and went home to have a BM, placed it into the fridge (absolutely disgusting), and then drove it up to the clinic the next day. 3 days went by and I had a phone call. They called to tell me my labs came back normal, but that I tested positive for C-diff…… I couldn’t speak. I was in such shock and disbelief. They also called to tell me that they were canceling my scope and sending in 2 weeks worth of Vancomycin that I need to take 4/times. I cried and cried and cried. I just knew it wasn’t C-diff and they had gotten my samples mixed. I was so disgusted and angry at them for canceling my scope because I knew that would give me the answers that I needed to possibly get back to normal again. I got over it. Started taking the antibiotics, and stopped taking the immodium. My bowel movements decreased. Stomach pains went away. Blood stopped appearing in my stool. I was almost back to my old self…. Then after the Vanc was done and I had completed the prescribed course, all of my awful, no good symptoms I had before the meds… started again in full force. I have now lost 7 pounds in 3 days. I have not stopped going to the bathroom. I have very pale yellow colored stools. I now have 20 bowl movements a day. I have intense, not being able to even breathe stomach pains. And now a toilet bowl full of blood with a select few of those bowel movements. I called the GI office and they told me they are sending me in a 10 day dose of some other medication that I have yet to figure out due to this occurring today and the med not even being able to be picked up from the pharmacy yet. I am disappointed and mad. I can’t do this anymore. I can barely preform my job which takes ALL of my focus and energy and doesn’t share those things with anything. I have talked myself out of going to the emergency room every time, I guess that’s the nurse in me. I am miserable. I’m going to take these meds and if this doesn’t help I’m telling them I am headed to the emergency room and I don’t care what happens. I just will not let this be me for the rest of my life. I can’t do this another day. Please… can someone help me. I have had C-diff for a total of a year and only known I’ve had this for 1-2 months now. Please tell there is hope of getting rid of this. Anything is helpful at this point…. (Yes I take probiotics and prebiotics. Intake fiber. Even drink Kefer. I also eat yogurt with probiotics every day. None of this helps.) * I also have pictures of my stool that I did show each and every doc * - I know that is insanely weird but I just wanted to be take seriously…..

*Committed Relationships*
I wanted to get your thoughts on something that's been on my mind lately. What do you guys think about open cell phone policies in committed relationships? Scrolling through Reddit, it seems like the consensus is that a phone should remain private, almost like a diary, and that partners don't have the right to snoop around. However, looking at my friends who are in seemingly strong and transparent relationships, most of them practice some form of open cell phone policy.
It's not just about sharing passcodes or location data. I know a couple who would periodically read each other's texts once a week at the end of the day, especially when they were working on strengthening their bond. These folks tend to be more on the Christian side, so maybe faith plays a role in their approach?
I’m not necessarily advocating for that level of openness, though I can't deny there's something reassuring about it—like it's a way to really get to know and trust each other. One of my friends won't even consider moving in with someone unless they've had a chance to go through each other’s phones.
Personally, I’m a bit torn. On one hand, I see the value in building trust and openness, but on the other, I feel uneasy about the idea that being intimate with someone means nothing is off-limits, not even our cell phones.
What do you all think? Is this kind of transparency helpful, or does it infringe too much on personal privacy?

Previous Part
The next day went by in a blur. Rocco was walking the perimeter of the camp, keeping an eye out for Brooke when I woke up. I didn’t really think he’d leave, but it seemed to give Rocco something to do other than being a general menace to society. All of us ate breakfast as normal but no one really said much. I’m not sure if they were still reeling from things they saw yesterday or if they just weren’t in a talking mood. The thought occurred to me that Shaoni may have payed a visit to each of them as well. Prying into what they saw and answering questions they might have. Honestly the whole thing felt like we were guinea pigs. Shaoni didn’t really seem to have a great handle on the trials so far. It was… mildly concerning that the ringmaster of all this didn’t seem 100% in control anymore.
Actually, I’d thought about that a lot last night. Shaoni just sort of left us to our own devices when we went through those “visions” yesterday. It’s not like she backed up her claim that she’d know what we’d seen either. If anything the fact that she came to ask me about it made me even more suspicious that she wasn’t really sure what she was doing. It was the first time I’d ever thought of Shaoni as anything other than in complete control. Slowly but surely it was becoming glaringly obvious that wasn’t the case.
If I was remembering correctly today’s trial was the trial of strength. I sincerely hoped that was a metaphor for something. You’ve got to understand, I’m not a very strong person, not physically anyways. I hoped Shaoni wanted to test mental strength or strength of will something like that. My hopes shattered as we arrived at the coliseum and saw an arena set up. There were several dummies in a corner, the kind you would see used in martial arts or HEMA or something to that effect. At the foot of the dummies were several wooden clubs. I couldn’t see them to clearly but they almost looked clawed from a distance. The real centerpiece was the platform in the middle of the coliseum. It looked like a stage and I’m sure that’s exactly how we were going to use it. The raised wooden platform had been constructed with boards placed across the top. It looked like those boards could be removed and under that was simply the cold hard ground about two feet below.
Katrina’s eyes lit up as she looked over the room.
“Now this is what I’m talking about, a real trial!”
She just about shrieked in excitement, throwing one fist in the air and startling the rest of us to attention. Katrina was the only one that really seemed excited about this. John and Robert just looked accepting and I’m not sure Brooke had put two and two together yet. I’d seen the clubs laid out by the dummies and already figured we’d be sparing with each other.
“Good morning everyone, I hope your ready for today.”
Called Shaoni, emerging unseen from behind us. Anyone who wasn’t fully awake at that point sure was then. There’s just something about Shaoni that makes you really really not want her to show up behind you unannounced. Probably why she kept doing it to us.
“Today I will test your strength, while I’d rather avoid conflict it’s sometimes unavoidable. My ideal candidate not only knows themselves but can handle themselves as well. We will allow you some time to familiarize yourself with the war clubs you’ll be using. Then you will compete against each other to find the strongest, most skilled warrior among you.”
Shaoni explained, Katrina’ excitement growing with every word.
I wasn’t to keen to participate in any of this but, like usual, I didn’t really have much of a choice at this point.
“So will you be sticking around this time then?”
I asked, wondering if Shaoni was going to cut and run again.
“I have other matters to attend to today. While I would like to stay and observe the whole day I need to prepare things for the final trial tomorrow. I’ll be back in time to see you test each other though.”
She replied dismissively, already on her way out. Shaoni seemed almost uninterested in us now. For someone evaluating us she seemed awful happy to pass off the evaluation to her followers. I didn’t say anything else as she walked out of the coliseum and towards the exit.
As I walked over to the little training area I saw the clubs were actually ornate masterpieces. They were carved from a hard dark wood. The handles resembled an eagles talon, curving near the end to grip a wooden orb. Whoever made these was beyond skilled, these things were works of art. I didn’t have much time to admire them before Katrina interrupted me.
“Hey, Keith was it? Want me to show you how to use these things?”
She called over to me, it was more of a command than a question but that’s pretty par for the course with her.
“If you want, sure. I’m uh… I’m kinda a fish out of water with this find of thing.”
I told her, rubbing the back of my neck with one hand in embarrassment. I wasn’t sure why she was singling me out for that but she answered that question for me.
“Good, Those two creep me out and that one has been drooling over me since we got here.”
She said, pointing over at Robert and John who had already started practicing, then at Brooke. Katrina showed absolutely no subtly in any of this, earning us looks from all three of the others.
I was a little afraid of Katrina teaching me anything, if someone was gonna kill me by accident it would be her. That and she still had that gun on her. Despite my misgivings she was actually a pretty good teacher. She was a bit like a drill instructor but I learned a thing or two. By the time we were done I felt like I might stand half a chance in this trial.
“Just remember your footwork, keep your balance and the rest should come natural. Oh, and if we get paired up, take a dive, it’ll be less painful.”
Katrina added with a smirk, walking over towards the group by the stage in the center of the room. Shaoni had just come back in and was up on the balcony. A few of her followers had collected us and informed us we were about to start the, ”practical part”, as they put it.
“There’s five of you so for the first matchup one of my own will serve as the opponent. Anyone what to go first?”
Shaoni asked us, looking down with a raised eyebrow and waiting for a response. Before I realized what I’d done my hand was in the air, my body subconsciously wanting to get this over with as fast as possible. Shaoni actually looked surprised as she gestured for me to take my place on the stage. Two of the boards had been removed on either side leaving us something like six feet of space to work with before falling off the platform. But I was far less concerned about that after I saw the guy walking over. It was the driver from a few days ago when Shaoni had me brought out to the camp. The guy that had his friend stabbed by Bianca, he didn’t look like he’d forgotten about that as they gave him his club.
As I took my place on the stage the only thing I was thinking was exactly how bad it hurt when you got hit with one of these things.
“Begin when you are ready.”
Called Shaoni from her place on the balcony. The guy across from me took absolutely no time to think, charging at me wildly right away. I tried to brace myself and remember Katrina’s training, taking an even stance and angling my club for the coming blow. I did manage to block his strike but the force of it threw me to the ground. My mind went into full survival mode as he swung down at me. He was way less fluid than Katrina had been when she was showing me the ropes. He just seemed like he wanted to hurt me by any means necessary. As I rolled from side to side avoiding his blows I waited for an opening. He took a particularly hard swing at my head and I rolled at the last possible second. He lost his balance, giving me a chance to slip between his legs and get back to my feet. I stood back up narrowly avoiding a swing for my head as my opponent regained his balance and swung back at me. His wide hate fueled swing carried his whole body around with it and gave me another opening. I planted my feet and took one hard swing at the man’s turned shoulder hitting him right on the bone with a sickening crack. He stumbled around towards the edge, turning his back to me. I took one final swing, hoisting the club above my head and bringing it down in between his shoulder blades with a hollow thud. The blow sent him tumbling forward over the edge and off the stage, falling to the floor below.
Katrina shot me a quick thumbs up as I walked off the stage while Shaoni looked down at me and gave me an approving nod. No one else seemed to pay me any mind as I rejoined the group. I felt empowered, I hadn’t expected to get even that far, maybe there was a chance for me in this trial after all. Robert and John fought next and despite their age they each held their own. In the end John forced Robert off the edge, his age and weight throwing off his balance. I was still impressed either of them could move like they had, I guess I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Then Katrina fought Brooke in the last… round I guess I’d call it. The smile on her face was unsettling from the moment she realized she’d be paired up with him, like a shark smelling blood in the water. You could just tell that she was going to take pleasure in what happened next.
That smile was still on her face as she walked up onto the stage and took her place across from Brooke.
“I hope you like it rough baby, cause I’m not going easy on you!”
Brooke called to her from the other side of the stage making a point to puff out his chest and flex his muscles. That set her off like a bomb, the smile disappeared and she exploded towards Brooke. I saw the exact moment that false confidence left his eyes and he actually turned to run, he was far to late and way to slow. Her first strike went low, shooting out in front of Brooke and coming back to catch his knee sending him tripping forward. He tried to regain his balance but she had no intention of letting him. Katrina swung out in front of him again, this time catching his neck with the club on its way back. That sent him flat onto his back, the club falling form his hand and rolling off the edge of the stage was the only sound in the whole coliseum. All eyes focused on Katrina as she took a breath then delivered a kick to Brooke’s ribs so hard that he went rolling off the edge, following his club. I returned her thumbs up she had given me as she rejoined the group.
Next, those of us who remained got matched up with each other. Shaoni wanted to use another one of her followers to stand in but Katrina insisted on just going twice. That meant I’d fight her and then the winner would fight John to see who the victor of the day was. As I stood across from Katrina I considered taking her advice from before, “…Just take a dive…” she had said. I thought about it, I really did, but I’d done so well earlier right? Why stop now? While I’d been thinking Katrina had walked up to me and started to swing. I had just enough time to realize my mistake before she cracked me across the head so hard she knocked me out.
I came to an hour later, alone on an animal skin cot. I was still in the coliseum but everyone else had left apparently. The only thing I saw when I got up from the ground was the torchlight illuminating the passage that lead back outside. That and the note scribbled on a scrap of a sticky note taped to my fore head.
“I told you to take a dive.”
Well at least she might feel bad about knocking me out. I figured we must be done for the day given how dead the camp seemed when I emerged back into the light. With nothing better to do, I walked off towards the forest to clear my head. I wondered what Bianca had been up to since I’d been gone as I aimlessly wandered around the forest’s edge.
“No that wouldn’t work! We don’t know what’s up there and we are not just waltzing in through the front gates!”
Stein yelled at me as I went over my most recent idea for breaking Keith out of whatever trials were going on out by the old mine. It had been two days since I watched him get kidnapped in front of me and I was getting drastic, aaaannd maybe a little dramatic.
“But I could do it guys! Remember back at the reservation? Those guys were willing to do anything for me and there can’t be that many guards in one place. Maybe I just convince a small group to lead us in and make an excuse for us.”
“For the last time Bianca, They’re just about cultists far as I can tell. You ain’t gonna be able to fight the kinda conviction they have to that bird, even if ya could its to much of a risk.”
Tuck protested from his seat at the kitchen table.
The kitchen table had become our war room over the past few days. A map of Eagles Peak Frank had made lay across it with dozens of pins stuck in around where the old mine would be.
“I don’t think an approach from the front is a good idea at all. You and Keith got to the mine through the forest once. Could we follow that path, approach without anyone knowing we were there?”
Stein theorized as he paced back and forth at the head of the table.
“Well, we really just wandered around for a bit and ended up there. We didn’t find the mine either, it was a hole that lead down to an old cavern near the mine. They turned out to be connected but that was just dumb luck.”
I explained to the group. Tuck looked like that had given him an idea.
“So you two got some backdoor entrance figured out that you’re only just tellin’ me about? That could be perfect! The four of us could make our way out and drop through that hole, take em all by surprise!”
Tuck exclaimed, leaping to his feet. His enthusiasm was nice but it wasn’t going to be that easy.
“We… kinda made a bit of a scene when we were there, they might be watching for something like that to happen again.”
“True, but it’s the best entrance strategy I’ve heard so far, I think following up on it is worth a try.”
Frank added with a nod. Stein then started pacing up and down the length of the table for a bit. He was coming up with something, that much was obvious.
“So we’ll enter through this hole leading into a cave connected to the old mine. From what you told us about your time there its some sort of staging area for these trials, at least that’s my best guess. Odds are there won’t be many people there overnight so we make our way out there during the night. From there we move through the cave and into the mine but after that we know nothing about what we’re running into.”
Stein lectured to his audience.
“But I think we have a solution for that. Frank do we still have that drone?”
An hour later the four of us were gathered at the edge of town on that path Keith and I had taken into the forest. The trees growing together forming a sort of arch over our head’s were unsettling but I couldn’t decide why. It just didn’t sit well with me, it looked unnatural I guess and that just gave me the creeps. I get that’s rich coming from a literal succubus but its how I felt.
“Alright, just watch the trees as you take it up, I don’t want a repeat of Missouri.”
Stein instructed Frank as he got the drone in the air.
“You’re never going to let me live that down are you?”
Frank chuckled, shaking his head.
“It was the first time we used this thing, there was bound to be a few unexpected variables.”
“If you call “unexpected variables” an itchy finger on the throttle. We had to have Rocco untangle it from the branches.”
Stein joked as he checked to make sure the drones camera was feeding back into the app on his phone.
I hadn’t seen them like this, being friendly with each other. There was never a time where they hated each other or anything like that but they’d been so… business like with for a long time now. It was nice to see them act like real people again. Leaning over Stein’s shoulder I got a birds eye view from the drone.
“ Just go East, its what we did. Just walked East till we stumbled into everything.”
Frank followed my advice and flew the drone due East. Eventually a campsite came into view, there were a bunch of tepees and a bunch of people just walking around.
“What, they just look normal?!”
I blurted out, a little louder and a bit more distressed than I meant to.
“How’re they supposed ta look then?”
Tuck asked
“They’re just people like you n’ me. Nothin to special about em other than the fact they worship some big ass bird.”
He continued with mild annoyance.
“I don’t know, I guess I expected these creepy guys in tarps, like from Keith’s story. These are just… well they’re just people!”
I responded, Throwing my arms out to my sides in exasperation. Tuck was right, I shouldn’t have expected everything to be just as Keith had said. Still, something just didn’t fit together for me about that whole thing. What had the deal been with those people in Imalone then? I shook my head, clearing the question from my mind, it wasn’t important now.
“There! That’s the entrance to the old mine.”
Tuck told Stein as he looked at screen. I looked over myself and felt my entire being freeze. It was Brooke, walking out from the entrance with some bitchy looking girl and two older guys that I’d seen around town before. How could he be here? After all this time why, why was he anywhere near me?
My vision swam, when it came back Frank was standing in front of me. His mouth was moving but I couldn’t hear anything.
“…anca! Are you ok, what’s going on? Bianca!”
I finally heard over the sudden ringing in my ears.
“Him.”
Was the only thing the escaped my lips as I pointed one finger at the screen. I felt warmth coming back into my limbs as that frozen feeling slowly left me.
“He’s here…. Shouldn’t be here… why.”
I mumbled to myself as Frank helped me into the back of the SUV twenty minutes later. I was still nearly catatonic as we headed back into town.
“So… that was him, the one you were running from when we found you.”
Stein said, breaking the silence that had fallen. I could talk normally again but I still only managed a quick “yes”.
“You know you don’t have to come with us, I’d understand.”
Frank said, snapping me to attention again.
“NO! I’ve got to help Keith, I don’t care if… if Brooke’s up there too.”
I tripped over my words just mentioning his name.
“I can do it, I can do this Frank, please.”
I begged, taking deep breaths to try and calm myself down. We pulled into the driveway before Frank said anything back. As we were all getting out he muttered something under his breath. He didn’t mean for me to hear him but I did.
“I’m not sure you can girl.”
I went straight up to my room after that, I didn’t want to be around anyone. All I caught before I left Frank, Stein, and Tuck before running up the stairs was the hard look Stein shot both of them. A look that said “We need to talk” and told me that he finally had a real plan. I spent the rest of that night thinking about the past and what I’d been through. Could I go out to that mine and rescue Keith if I had to face Brooke again? The last time I’d seen him had been as I leapt out of a moving car as my eyes turned to meet his one last time, rolling down that hill to freedom. I’d never seen him since and it was rare for him to even cross my mind. I wanted to go with the rest of them but despite what I said I really wasn’t sure I could do this anymore. Eventually I just decided only time would tell, hopefully Stein’s plan was a good one and we could put this whole thing behind us.
“Ey! Ey Keith!”
Someone yelled out as I came back from my little hike around the edge of the forest. My eyes darted around behind me before they finally focused on a rustling bush. Rocco jumped out of it holding a cigar in his mouth.
“That Brooke asshole hasn’t gone anywhere, I found him out by that trail the trucks drove in on with this.”
He said, tossing the cigar up in the air where it twirled around before he caught it in his mouth again.
“I figured I should frisk him just in case. I took a bite of his pants and stole this little number out of his coat pocket.”
He continued, shaking a silver lighter with a gold inlayed image of a lion in his paw.
“Oh and the cigar, I took that too. Cuban so the guy’s got taste, still a prick. Anyways, it looked like someone got to him before me. The guy was pretty beaten up, had some nasty bruises.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was just trying to picture Brooke getting mugged by a raccoon In my head and I burst out laughing. Rocco walked back to the camp in toe with me, only stopping to look up at some weird buzzing sound we both heard above us. Probably some rickety old plane or something way up there. I think I was finally starting to get why Frank and Stein had kept Rocco around. He may be a furry criminal mastermind but when he was motivated he could actually be really helpful. I never would’ve been able to keep any sort of tabs on Brooke without his help.
We made our way back to the long tent that still had remnants of lunch sitting on the table. Usually I would’ve tried to hide Rocco but at this point I figured he deserved the free food. Plus I just didn’t want to argue with him after getting my shit rocked most of the morning. Someone walked up behind me and I heard Shaoni’s voice, of course she was creeping up behind me again.
“Your feeling alright after today I hope?”
She asked me, taking a seat next to me.
“I’ll be alright, I’m sure I’ll have a killer headache in the morning but I’ll manage.”
“Good, good. We’ll be gathering in a few hours so I can announce the final trial. I expect you out by the entrance to the mine by 6.”
“What’s the matter? No cryptic questions this time Shaoni?”
I asked, paying no mind to what was sitting next to me.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you always stop by to check in after these trials. You don’t have any questions this time?”
“No, Katrina was the victor today, there is no question about that, the woman is… brutal. I just wanted to make sure she didn’t hit you to hard, you were unconscious for some time.”
She answered, some genuine concern slipping into her voice again.
“Heh careful, I might start to think you actually care.”
I joked, less nervous than I should’ve been.
“I’ll see you tonight with the rest for the announcement.”
She said with a deep sigh, standing up and walking off toward where ever she came from.
I took a nap and just barely managed to wake up in time for this “meeting” Shaoni had planned. I couldn’t find Rocco before I left but I wasn’t all that concerned about that anymore. When I got to the entrance a massive bonfire was lit and Shaoni stood alone in front of it. Robert and John were already there and Katrina showed up a little after me. Brooke hadn’t arrived before Shaoni started her speech.
“I thank all of you for coming here tonight. Regrettably one of you is missing but I won’t be waylaid by his absence.”
She spoke with clear annoyance in her voice.
“Tomorrow marks your final trial, the most important of the three. The trial of justice. Tomorrow there will be a murder in Eagles Peak. I want you all to work together to stop it. Then, succeed or fail, pass judgment on those involved in the murder. Afterwards I will select which among you will receive my gift. But for tonight, talk amongst yourselves, plan, and rest. Prepare yourselves for tomorrow, I will have my eye on each of you.”
With that Shaoni stepped away from the fire and into the night. Not accepting any questions about anything she had said.
“What do you think she has planned?”
Robert asked me as I took a seat by the bonfire to think over everything Shaoni had said.
“I don’t know, a murder apparently. Shouldn’t you know more about it? You’re one of her followers after all.”
I said as I turned my head to see John walking off into the night. That man was weird, really weird. I knew next to nothing about him and he seemed to never speak.
“Usually sure, but she hasn’t said anything to us about this. It’s why she hasn’t directly overseen all the trials, she’s set this last one up all on her own. I guess there’s nothing to do but wait, we’re all in this together for the first part of the trial I guess.”
Robert explained, leaning back and sprawling out on the ground. He was right, there wasn’t much we could do until we were in the middle of it.
I looked around, searching for Katrina in the firelight. I found her leaning against the rocky wall that made up the entrance of the mine. I stood up, leaving Robert to relax and made my way over.
“How’s the head?”
She asked, feigning taking a swing at me again with an evil grin on her face.
“I told you to take a dive.”
“Yeah, I should’ve listened.”
I admitted, rubbing the goose egg that had formed on my head over the course of my nap.
“So what do you thin about this last trial?”
“Well, I can say that If that Brooke guy tries flirting with me one more time the murder won’t be that hard to solve. Seriously though, I think she’s gone off the deep end. How does she know there’s going to be a murder?”
Katrina made a really good point, how was Shaoni so sure?
“That’s… hmmmm, you’re right.”
“Well I’m gonna head to bed then. Something tells me tomorrow is gonna be a headache. Just try to stay out of my way when we’re all forced to work together and you should be fine. All goes well and maybe we’ll be out of here tomorrow, I know I will.”
Katrina said as she pushed herself off the rock wall she’d been leaning against. Something about the way she said that last part, it made me think she was up to something. Like she was leaving no matter what or she had some sort of exit strategy.
As I left Robert relaxing by the fire and hiked back to my own tepee for the night I spied Katrina. She had climbed up a tree and had her legs wrapped around the trunk and one of her arms gripped a branch above her. There was some kind of box in her other hand, a radio maybe. I had no idea what she was saying, she was too far off, but it had to mean something. As far as I knew none of us had any contact with the outside world since we got here. My gut feeling was that she wasn’t meant to be doing that. I wasn’t going to bother her at this point though so I went my own way and settled down for the night.

Taken from: https://www.theringer.com/movies/2024/5/21/24161120/greatest-movie-car-chase-scenes-ranked-furiosa-mad-max-saga
In honor of the imminent ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,’ we’re shifting into high gear to determine the best chase scene in cinema history
By Miles Surrey May 21, 2024, 6:30am EDTGetty Images/Ringer illustration
After wowing audiences with Mad Max: Fury Road, director George Miller returns to the franchise’s post-apocalyptic wastelands for Furiosa, the epic origin story of the eponymous heroine (now played by Anya Taylor-Joy), premiering on Friday. As the follow-up to one of the greatest action films ever made, it’s hard to overstate the hype for Furiosa, and that was before word got out about a showstopping 15-minute sequence that required nearly 200 stuntpeople and took 78 days to shoot. While Furiosa will have its own distinct flavor, as is true of every Mad Max movie, there’s one thing that unites these projects: intense, jaw-dropping scenes of vehicular mayhem. And what better way to honor the franchise than by celebrating what it does best?
Ahead of Furiosa’s release, we’ve put together our definitive ranking of the best car chases in cinema. There weren’t any strict rules in place, other than capping the list at 20—mostly for my own sanity—and limiting every franchise to one entry. (Apologies to Fury Road’s kickass predecessor The Road Warrior.) We also won’t discriminate against scenes that feature motorbikes, so long as cars (and/or trucks) remain part of the equation. As for what, exactly, constitutes a good car chase? Like list making, it’s bound to be subjective, but I tend to gravitate toward two key elements: the skill of the stuntwork on display and the ways in which a filmmaker conveys the action in relation to the story. (Also, the less CGI, the better.) Buckle up, ’cause we’re not wasting any time shifting into high gear.

20. Quantum of Solace (2008)

There have been some memorable car chases in the James Bond franchise: the first sequence featuring the iconic Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger, the corkscrew jump in The Man With the Golden Gun, the Lotus Esprit submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me. But I’m going with a somewhat controversial pick here: Quantum of Solace. There are many issues with Quantum of Solace—namely, it was one of the most high-profile blockbusters affected by the 2007-08 writers strike—but its opening scene isn’t one of them. Picking up right where Casino Royale left off, we find Bond (Daniel Craig) evading henchmen through the narrow roads around Italy’s Lake Garda. The frenetic, furious chase mirrors Bond’s sense of anguish after losing Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), the woman he opened his heart to, and his relentless quest for answers. It’s a thrilling tone-setter for Quantum of Solace and one that doesn’t overstay its welcome, capped off by Bond sending his final pursuers flying off a cliff:
If we’re being honest, though, it feels like James Bond has yet to create a franchise-defining car chase. Perhaps that’s a mission the newest 007, whoever it ends up being, can undertake.

19. Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation (2015)

The Mission: Impossible franchise is no stranger to electrifying chase scenes, the best of which find Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt working up his heart rate. When it comes to action behind the wheel, though, Fallout tends to dominate the discussion—even on this very website. But I think the vehicular chase in Rogue Nation is being slept on. What we have is effectively two sequences for the price of one: The first finds Hunt pursuing Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) by car through the narrow streets of Casablanca alongside some nefarious henchmen; the second sees him continue the chase outside the city on motorbike. (Adding to the chaos: Hunt had only just been resuscitated, and he’s clearly not all there.) In terms of death-defying stunts for the audience’s entertainment, a helmetless Cruise taking corners like a MotoGP racer is child’s play compared to his other exploits, but the actor’s authentic reaction to scraping his knee on the road underlines that there’s no one else in Hollywood doing it like him:
We’ll be sure to update this ranking if and when Cruise does something even more dangerous down the road, pun unintended.

18. Vanishing Point (1971)

A movie that counts the likes of Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino among its biggest fans, Vanishing Point is the first of a few entries on this ranking that’s essentially one extended car chase. The film stars Barry Newman as Kowalski, a man tasked with delivering a Dodge Challenger T 440 Magnum from Colorado to California while eluding police across four states. One of Kowalski’s most memorable run-ins comes when a guy driving a Jaguar E-Type convertible challenges him to an impromptu race. Incredibly, we’re expected to believe the man in the Jag comes out of this crash in one piece:
Vanishing Point might not boast the impressive production values of other movies on this list, but considering Tarantino would go on to feature a white Challenger in Death Proof, its influence in the car cinema canon is undeniable.

17. Fast Five (2011)

Let’s face it, Fast & Furious has seen better days. Some believe the franchise’s dip in quality coincided with the death of Paul Walker; others are dismayed by the pivot from street racing to absurd feats of superherodom—emphasis on the Dom. Perhaps it’s a bit of both, but the very best movie in the series, Fast Five, manages to strike the perfect balance: It’s a relatively grounded heist thriller that nevertheless takes the franchise to ridiculous new heights. After Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew steal $100 million from a Brazilian kingpin, they drag the entire bank vault holding the money through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, all while being pursued by authorities. It’s a delightfully destructive sequence that does untold damage to Rio’s infrastructure and features some of the most bone-crunching crashes committed to film:
If the Fast franchise is going to break out of its recent slump, it would do well to remember that there’s nothing better than letting its heroes live their lives a quarter mile at a time—no detours to outer space required.

16. The Blues Brothers (1980)

A good car chase isn’t reserved just for action flicks: Comedies can get in on the act, too. In The Blues Brothers, starring the recurring Saturday Night Live characters played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, the beloved bandmates must prevent the foreclosure of the orphanage where they were raised by scrounging together $5,000. Naturally, that’s easier said than done: Along the way, the Blues Brothers draw the attention of neo-Nazis, a country-and-western band, and local police. While The Blues Brothers has amusing gags and musical numbers, its chase sequences with the Brothers behind the wheel of a 1974 Dodge Monaco are what really steal the show—and none are better than a climactic pursuit across Chicago. More than 60 old police cars were used in the film, some of which are wrecked in a comically over-the-top pileup:
The sheer scale of The Blues Brothers’ final set piece is commendable in and of itself—as is the movie’s commitment to treating real-life cars like a bunch of Hot Wheels.

15. Baby Driver (2017)

For good and for ill, Edgar Wright’s movies exude an abundance of style, and Baby Driver is no exception. Baby Driver is centered on a clever gimmick: The action works in tandem with its soundtrack because the film’s protagonist, Baby (Ansel Elgort), suffers from tinnitus and constantly plays music to drown out the ringing. When everything’s clicking into place, Baby Driver feels like a supersized series of music videos, and nothing hits quite like its opening sequence. Baby acts as the getaway driver for a bank robbery while listening to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bellbottoms.” The ensuing chase works around rhythms of the song, as if Baby’s Subaru WRX were the star of its own dance number. Take nothing away from the actual driving, either, which puts the rally car to good use:
Baby Driver’s gimmick stretches a little thin by the end, but it’s hard to deny the crowd-pleasing power of Wright’s film when it’s firing on all cylinders.

14. The Raid 2 (2014)

With a trio of kickass Indonesian martial arts films under his belt, Gareth Evans has established himself as one of the most exciting action directors on the planet—someone who seems most in his element staging positively brutal hand-to-hand combat. In The Raid 2, however, Evans also brought his signature brand of carnage to the road. While there’s some cleverly executed close-quarters fighting within the confines of an SUV, courtesy of Iko Uwais’s hard-hitting protagonist, what really cements this sequence’s greatness are the moments when Evans turns the cars into an extension of the characters’ fists:
This belongs in an entirely new category of combat: car fights. There are so many action scenes in The Raid 2 worth writing home about—the kitchen showdown is an all-timer—but the fact that Evans casually tossed in an unforgettable car chase shows why he’s one of one.

13. The Driver (1978)

I’ll say this for Walter Hill’s The Driver: It sure lives up to its title. In this stripped-down thriller—one where none of the characters have a name—we follow the Driver (Ryan O’Neal), a getaway driver who has become a thorn in the side of the LAPD. In the film’s best scene, we see its taciturn protagonist living up to his reputation. With the Driver behind the wheel of a 1974 Ford Galaxie, a cat-and-mouse game unfolds when a handful of police cars are hot on his tail. What I love about this sequence is the pared-down nature of it all: The Driver outwits the cops as much as he outraces them. (Though, ironically, that wasn’t entirely by design: As Hill later explained, an accident on the last night of shooting meant they had to cobble together what had already been filmed.) Frankly, you’d never know the difference from the finished article:
If the general vibes of The Driver seem familiar, that’s because it was a major inspiration for Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, which just so happened to feature an unnamed protagonist (Ryan Gosling) evading police through the streets of Los Angeles.

12. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

The shaky-cam style of the Bourne franchise isn’t for everyone—just ask John Woo—but credit where it’s due: These movies know how to deliver a good chase scene. (A friendly reminder that The Bourne Legacy is an underrated gem with an awesome motorbike sequence to boot.) But there’s one Bourne chase that stands above the rest: the Moscow getaway in The Bourne Supremacy. After being wounded by the Russian assassin Kirill (Karl Urban), Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) hijacks a taxi, with both the police and Kirill in hot pursuit. This isn’t the kind of sequence that lingers on any one shot; instead, what makes it work is the frenetic nature of the editing, which allows the viewer to feel like they’re in Bourne’s fight-or-flight headspace:
If I’m being honest, I’m usually one of those people who doesn’t like the Bourne movies’ shaky-cam style, but when it’s executed with such craftsmanship, you can’t help but get caught up in its adrenaline-pumping power.

11. The Seven-Ups (1973)

Philip D’Antoni was the producer of two movies featuring Hall of Fame car chases, Bullitt and The French Connection, the latter of which won him an Oscar for Best Picture. And with his lone directorial feature, The Seven-Ups, D’Antoni sought to craft an iconic sequence of his own. The film stars Roy Scheider as NYPD detective Buddy Mannuci (elite Italian American name; I can practically smell the gabagool), who commands a unit handling major felony cases that lead to seven-plus-year prison sentences; that’s why they’re known as the Seven-Ups. Midway through the movie, when one of the team members is killed by two shooters who flee the scene, Buddy chases after them. The 10-minute sequence, which starts in the Upper West Side before moving out of the city, is thrillingly immersive, alternating between close-ups of the characters and wider shots of all the damage they’ve caused. But the chase’s defining moment comes right at the end, when Buddy narrowly avoids a grisly death:
The sequence isn’t quite at the level of Bullitt or The French Connection—very few are—but D’Antoni still manages to leave an unmistakable imprint on the car chase canon.

10. Death Proof (2007)

If you ask Quentin Tarantino, Death Proof, his knowingly trashy tribute to exploitation cinema, is the worst movie he’s ever made. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to admire about the film, which honors the unsung heroes of Hollywood: stunt performers. The first half of Death Proof follows three female friends who cross paths with Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), a misogynistic serial killer who takes them out in his “death-proof” Chevy Nova. Fourteen months later, a group that includes stuntwoman Zoë Bell, playing herself, also lands on Mike’s radar. As Bell and her friends test out a ’70s Challenger, she performs a “ship’s mast” stunt, clinging onto the hood of the car with fastening belts. Unfortunately, when Mike pursues the women, it puts Bell in a precarious situation. Most of the entries on this list celebrate some next-level driving skills, but Death Proof’s inclusion is all about Bell pulling off one of the wildest stunts you’ll ever see. She’s quite literally hanging on for dear life:
If the Academy handed out Oscars to stunt performers—and let’s hope it does happen one day—Bell would’ve won in a landslide.

9. To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

William Friedkin was already responsible for an all-time great car chase in The French Connection (more on that later), but the filmmaker made a commendable bid to outdo himself with To Live and Die in L.A. In this neo-noir thriller, Secret Service agent Richard Chance (William L. Petersen) is hell-bent on arresting an expert counterfeiter, Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe), who kills Chance’s partner days before his retirement. To capture Masters, Chance and his new partner, John Vukovich (John Pankow), attempt to steal $50,000 from a jewelry buyer for an undercover operation. The sting goes bad when the buyer, who is later revealed to be an undercover FBI agent, is killed and a group of gunmen goes after Chance and Vukovich. It’s a clever inversion of the usual car chase formula—this time, it’s the lawmen running away from the criminals. The outside-the-box thinking extends to the film’s most astonishing stretch, in which Chance evades the gunmen by driving into oncoming traffic:
The fact that Friedkin shot the chase at the end of filming—in case anything disastrous happened to the actors—underscores just how risky the endeavor was. The pulse-pounding results speak for themselves.

8. The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The Matrix sequels have never been held in high esteem, but I’m ready to live my truth: The Matrix Reloaded fucking rules. (If anyone’s got a problem with this take, file your complaints with the Architect.) What’s more, the film happens to boast the finest action set piece of the franchise: the highway chase. After Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) free the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim), a program capable of creating shortcuts within the Matrix, they’re pursued by the Twins (Neil and Adrian Rayment). Morpheus once warned that going on the freeway was “suicide,” and it doesn’t take long to see why: The chase draws the attention of several Agents, who repeatedly take over the bodies of other drivers on the road. The scene is the best of both worlds: There’s some incredible stuntwork on display, including when Moss weaves around on a Ducati, and CGI augments some feats of superhuman strength. But the most jaw-dropping aspect of the sequence is how it came together, as the production spent $2.5 million to construct its own highway (!) on California’s Alameda Island. If that weren’t unique enough, I’m pretty sure Reloaded is also the only movie in existence in which a katana takes out an SUV:
The Matrix remains the Wachowskis’ masterpiece, but don’t get it twisted: The filmmakers were still cooking with gas in the sequel.

7. Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

Size isn’t everything, but for H. B. Halicki, who produced, wrote, directed, and starred in Gone in 60 Seconds, it’s certainly part of the package. The indie action flick follows Maindrian Pace (Halicki), a Los Angeles insurance investigator who has a lucrative side hustle jacking high-end cars. The plot kicks into motion when a South American drug lord enlists Pace to nab 48 cars within five days in exchange for $400,000. Of course, Gone in 60 Seconds is best known for what happens after Pace is caught stealing a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1, when he leads police on a chase that lasts a whopping 40 minutes. (More than 90 cars were destroyed in the process.) Halicki, for his part, did all the driving himself, including a spectacular jump off a makeshift ramp of crashed cars:
While Halicki wound up making a few more indies after Gone in 60 Seconds, he died in an accident on the set of its sequel. His legacy as a do-it-all daredevil, however, lives on.

6. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Long before James Cameron immersed himself in the world of Pandora, he was a pioneer of state-of-the-art visual effects. Case in point: Terminator 2: Judgment Day is credited for having the first CGI character in a blockbuster, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), a killing machine composed of a futuristic liquid metal. But Cameron also understood that the CGI of that era shouldn’t be the main attraction: It worked best as a complement to the practical effects, as seen in Judgment Day’s epic viaduct chase. When the T-1000 tracks down a young John Connor (Edward Furlong) in a shopping mall, he’s saved at the last minute by the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), giving John a chance to escape on his dirt bike. As the T-1000 gives chase, the David and Goliath vibes between man and machine are further epitomized by the T-1000’s commandeering of a truck. The sequence already has a terrifying sense of urgency, but it hits another level when the T-1000 crashes through the viaduct like the Kool-Aid Man:
Big Jim is still revolutionizing what can be achieved with visual effects in the Avatar franchise, and while I cherish those movies, nothing beats his old-school showmanship.

5. Duel (1971)

The feature-length debut of Steven Spielberg—perhaps you’ve heard of him—the TV movie Duel is essentially one extended chase sequence between salesman David Mann (Dennis Weaver) and a sinister trucker determined to drive him off the road. I’ve attached a clip from the ending of the film, but that doesn’t do Duel justice. What cements this movie’s greatness is how it sustains an unbearable level of tension across its 90-minute running time—with a budget under $500,000, no less. Spielberg’s masterstroke is never once showing us the other driver, anthropomorphizing the truck itself as a monster. (You can see a lot of similarities with how he would build suspense in Jaws.) When Mann finally gets the upper hand, tricking his adversary into driving off a cliff, it feels like you can breathe again:
Spielberg would move on to bigger and better things after Duel, but considering how much the director accomplished with so little, you can’t help but wonder what else he could conjure up with limited resources.

4. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Like Duel, Fury Road is basically one long car chase—the difference is Miller got to work with a blockbuster budget, and made every cent of it count. It’s hard to pick a single standout sequence in Fury Road, but if I had to choose, I’d go with the first attack on the War Rig after Furiosa (Charlize Theron) flees with the wives of Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Here’s why: Think back to when you saw Fury Road for the first time, before you fully grasped the vehicular carnage that was in store. And then stuff like this kept happening:
To quote Steven Soderbergh’s thoughts on Fury Road: “I don’t understand how they’re not still shooting that film and I don’t understand how hundreds of people aren’t dead.” Whether or not Miller manages to one-up the action in Furiosa, the director is already in the pantheon.

3. The French Connection (1971)

We return to the Friedkin-verse for what may be his best film, The French Connection, the crime thriller based on Robin Moore’s 1969 nonfiction book of the same name. The story concerns two NYPD detectives, Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Scheider), and their tireless pursuit of a French heroin smuggler. But while there’s plenty to admire about how The French Connection illustrates the thin line between police and criminals, its greatest claim to fame is its car chase. After Popeye narrowly survives a sniper attack, he goes after the shooter, who escapes on an elevated train. The ensuing sequence is true daredevil filmmaking that Friedkin shot without permits, leading to real crashes with New Yorkers that made the final cut. But Friedkin’s finest touch was mounting a camera to the front of the car, making the audience feel like they’re part of the action:
My Ringer colleague Justin Sayles believes The French Connection’s chase should’ve landed at no. 1, and I’m sure many folks will agree with him. Being the only film on this list to win Best Picture, however, is a solid consolation prize.

2. Bullitt (1968)

When it comes to modern car chases, all roads lead back to Bullitt. A Dad Cinema classic, the film stars Steve McQueen as Frank Bullitt, a San Francisco detective who pursues a group of mobsters after a key witness is killed in protective custody. In his search for answers, Bullitt realizes he’s being tailed by a couple of hitmen, and then turns the tables on them. From there, the chase is on. Aside from McQueen doing most of his own stunts behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang GT 390 Fastback, what’s so impressive about the sequence is how timeless it is. Even the little imperfections, like hubcaps repeatedly coming off the wheels, work to the film’s advantage, stressing just how much these drivers are living on a razor’s edge. It’s been more than 50 years since Bullitt revolutionized the car chase, and yet few movies since have felt like they’re pushing the envelope to such an exhilarating degree:
That the car driven by McQueen was recently sold at auction for $3.74 million, a then-record price for a Mustang, underlines Bullitt’s enduring legacy.

1. Ronin (1998)

“If I’m going to do a car chase,” filmmaker John Frankenheimer said in an interview with the American Society of Cinematographers, “I’m going to do a car chase that’s going to make somebody think about whether or not they want to do another one!” Boy, did he ever. In Frankenheimer’s late-career masterpiece, Ronin, the director actually incorporated several chases, but it’s the climactic sequence that stands alone as the greatest ever filmed. The movie concerns an international group of mercenaries who are hired to steal a mysterious briefcase; a series of double-crosses and double-bluffs ensue. But for the final chase, all you need to know is that Sam (Robert De Niro), a mercenary with ties to the CIA, is in pursuit of Deirdre (Natascha McElhone), an IRA operative in possession of the case. Winding through the streets and tunnels of Paris, what’s most striking is just how fluid it all feels. You’re completely engrossed in the chase’s forward momentum, captured from every conceivable angle; a symphony of controlled chaos. The driving styles even reflect the characters: Deirdre is reckless and impulsive, while Sam remains calm and controlled.
There are many worthy car chases in this ranking, but in my view, Ronin takes pole position. And while I can’t imagine a movie ever topping what Frankenheimer achieved, I’d love nothing more than to be proved wrong.

This is in Texas, United States. I (39m) filed to divorce my wife (38f). We have two children (4 and 1). We are fighting to be the custodial parent of our children. This has become a war between her, her parents and me, my parents. The temporary order hearing was originally scheduled on May 10th, 2024 over zoom. On May 9th, my STBXW gave me two children to care for, while she and her parents went out for the entire day. I guessed they went to her lawyers and then prepared the hearing somewhere undisturbed. I guessed both her parents would testify in the hearing. I spent the entire day caring for two children and it was the younger one’s birthday. I spent less than 1 hour reviewing the questions from my lawyer. In the evening of May 9, I told STBXW that tomorrow I would be in the office room to join the zoom hearing, and my parents would watch the 1 yo because children were not allowed in the hearing. I asked her, could her parents watch the 4 yo if the 4 yo doesn’t go to daycare? She answered: the 4 yo can go to daycare. I asked her, could you please drive them to the daycare tomorrow morning? She was silent. I took it as a yes. Since in the previous 7 to 10 consecutive days, I was watching our 1 yo who was sick at night. On the night of May 9, I went to our 4 yo child’s room to sleep. The door was locked from inside. I called STBXW cell phone. But she hung up. I messaged her that I was standing outside the room, and she should watch our 1yo that night, and what she did (leaving both children to me and preparing the hearing outside for the entire day) during the day was very bad. She didn’t respond. Her dad saw me and quickly went into his room. Yes, her parents have lived in our house since late 2019, and possibly plan to live here to the end, while I pay everything. I went back to the 1 yo’s room to sleep.
On May 10th, around 6:30am, I heard a showering sound from the 4 yo’s room. Before 7am, I heard the garage door opening. I turned the blinds and saw the van was backing out to the alley, and her mom was on the passenger seat. At that moment I knew her mom would definitely testify in the hearing. I went to 4 yo’s room and saw STBXW’s dad sitting outside the room. So STBXW didn’t drive our 4 yo child to daycare. Starting at 8:30am I sat in the office to wait for the hearing. My parents were watching my 1 yo. My 4yo child came to the dining table and saw me in the office and wanted to enter the office. STBXW’s dad couldn’t hold on to my 4 yo child. My dad came and was able to prevent my 4 yo from entering the office. Around 9:30am I was pulled into a break room on Zoom. I saw the judge, my lawyer, my wife sitting with her lawyer in an office, and an interpreter, who would translate for STBXW’s mom I guessed. The judge announced that he couldn’t do the hearing today because he didn’t know there would be an interpreter. The hearing was postponed to June 10th in person at the courthouse. STBXW and her mom came back around 1pm. My parents and I watched both children that morning. Later my lawyer told me that she told the judge what my wife did on May 9 day and night, but the judge didn’t say anything.
I want to prevent what happened on May 9 and 10 from happening again on June 10 and June 7. I predict that STBXW would pull the same trick again to let me or my parents to watch both children in the morning of June 10. She and her mom will go to the courthouse on that day. Her dad is not capable of watching our 1 yo alone at home. I plan to tell STBXW in writing that she needs to watch our 1 yo on June 10 and the night before, and I will be responsible to drive our 4 yo to daycare before I drive to the courthouse on June 10. My parents plan to go to the courthouse to observe. They won’t be able to watch our 1 yo that day. My lawyer told me that I could propose this arrangement to STBXW, but she is not obligated to comply. I guess my lawyer is useless in this scenario, where STBXW is playing dirty. How should I approach this? Should I tell the judge the story of May 9 and 10, and possibly June 10 if she does again? Can this be used to approve that STBXW doesn’t care about our children, and do things in a way that is convenient to her? What kind things that I can do now, to make sure she takes care of our 1 yo on June 10 hearing? Thank you very much.