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

Messages between A and B

Context: A reaches out to B after B stopped talking to A for 2 years over a disagreement. A now wants to reconnect with B again. When discussing each other's plans, A mentions that they have been sober for 7 months and that they plan to drink again in the summer. A begins to notice a shift in B's energy towards them in text messages, and perceives this as B misinterpreting A's intentions for reaching out again. A pinpoints B's behaviour to the meme, subliminal messaging, and intentional misspelling of words.
B- Sends Meme which says “Me 5 mins into Alcoholics Anonymous trying to convince everyone to come to the pub”
A- “Listen man I’ve been getting the vibe that you may think me reaching out to you again wasn’t coming from a genuine place. My therapist has been telling me I need to communicate more, so I’m gonna try be as transparent as possible here. I thought there was no point in tryna reach out to you again as you wouldn’t respond, but then you liked my post back on New Year’s Eve, so I was happy and thought maybe there’s a chance we could still reconnect again, but I still wasn’t sure if you were gonna respond so I kept putting it off until I finally messaged you at the end of March. During my meetings we constantly discuss seeking healthy friendships as a pose to my old ones and I knew it just made sense to message you again, you’ve always been the realist out of all our old friendship group, so why not do it now I’m sober…
When I told you I’d been sober since the end of September, and that I will drink in the summer again I said that not because I was looking for drinking mates but because I wanted to be honest with you and myself about my sobriety, I mention it all the time at weekly group meetings. Right now I’m at a space where I don’t really wanna drink and I’m not really as keen as I was before on drinking in the summer like I said to you but the point is, I say I will drink again, because if I do end up drinking in the summer or whenever, I won’t feel as guilty about it, as a pose to me saying I’m staying sober…. If that makes sense? Also I know I wasn’t exactly the best mate to have when drinking so I just wanted to make it clear with where I may be headed, rather than surprise you down the line. If you don’t really like the sound of that, that’s fine I get it, maybe reconnecting again isn’t the best idea. But I just wanted to be as honest and direct as possible, man. I hope you can understand.”
B- “Honestly mate I haven’t given you messaging me again too much thought other than you tryna reconnect.
When we last spoke properly I was just annoyed as I felt like you handle things in a kinda selfish way and I’m ngl I did a thing I’m good at and just ignored you other than talk to you about it. But yeah even though ignored you I haven’t said a bad thing about you to anyone cause I honestly had no bad blood for ya at all.
I can’t promise I’m gonna be available to hang out all the time or anything as I’m working a lot atm plus having the mrs it does limit my time but I was honest when I said I am definitely up for us hanging out again at some point”
A- “I’ll hold myself accountable and admit I was acting selfishly, so I understand why you reacted they way you did looking back. Yh when I spoke to **** about it I got that same impression off him, and it was likewise for me, I spoke good of you and said it was a shame how things turned out.
That’s completely understandable you being busy with work and the Mrs, I never doubted that, and I don’t wanna come across as pushy. My messages earlier came from a place of wanting to address any misunderstandings that you may have had, as I know it can lead to unnecessary resentment or conflict. But from what you’re saying I can now see it’s not the case, so I’m just glad we communicated and are on the same page man ”
B- “Yeah man we’re cool if you’re free next week at some point lmk and we can hang out”
A- “Yh I’ll be real I still get the feeling you think I’m not being genuine. What you gotta understand is me reaching out comes from a place of wanting to find connection again- healthy connection anyways, the going out drinking and all that is only a by-product of it all, and I’d be lying if I said I don’t miss going out club or pub with you, but it’s bigger than that.
Idk if ***** maybe tried to tell you a different narrative (I’ll dis-prove anything if he has), but I cut off everyone at the end of September, I reached my lowest point. Since then I’ve been working on myself I don’t meet anyone I don’t have any social interactions other than when I’m at therapy/group meetings, or talking to people in the gym, and that way I’m able to stay focused and keep my peace. I only do streaks with **** on snap, and when he asked me to meet before I told him no I can’t at the moment, as i’m focused on myself. I don’t want sympathy btw, I’m letting you know how it is, so there isn’t any confusion. When I reached out, this was me coming out of hibernation, more healthy, taking the first step towards interacting with people again- the right people anyways.
I’m happy to meet next week but I have one condition. I’ve been played with enough times to know about that game where they pretend everything’s fine then they strike when you’re least expecting it, and I’m not saying you’re gonna do that but I have trust issues and I’m drained mentally, and I won’t be a part of any unnecessary conflict. So if we’re gonna meet I’m gonna need your word before please, that you’re not gonna try to be passive agressive with me in any shape or form? If you feel a type of way about me, you still don’t believe I’m genuine, I’m more than happy to have an open respectful discussion face to face about it.”
B- “Look mate I’m happy to see you again, it’s been a while but like I said I am really busy, try not to read too much into my replies. I mean what I’m saying”
A- “Apologies for not responding sooner. I’ve been reflecting on the whole situation, trying to be as honest as I can with myself about my intentions. I stand with most of what I said before. I swear I wasn’t lying when I saw you liking my picture in January I wanted to reach out, and I genuinely did keep putting off messaging you until March in fear you wouldn’t respond. When it reached the end of March I told myself I just had to do it as I said. But looking back now, I think I wasn’t being as honest as I thought with myself in regards to my intentions towards messaging you. I definitely wanted to reconnect but I also badly wanted to have a social life and meet people again, (NOT specifically drinking, but understandably the drinking would naturally become a part of it, that’s just how things go).
I feel this other reason became more pressing for me as I became ready to go back to normal life again. But obviously I shouldn’t have had the idea of desperately wanting a social life in mind when messaging you, and actually just messaging you specifically for the sake of reconnecting, to keep the intentions fully genuine. So for that I am sorry. Now I don’t want you to mistake this as me only messaging you again for that sole purpose of having a social life because it was not just that at all, and it genuinely made a big difference not having you as a mate in my life, like I said you were the most real mate I had out of all my mates, and I knew I messed that up, so seeing there was a chance we could be mates again made me real happy.
Obviously in regards to how you perceived my intentions I’ve gathered you are pretty annoyed with me, I can’t change your opinion but I can tell you my truth which I have just said. Unfortunately reconnecting hasn’t worked out so well which I guess I am to blame for with my approach. I think this is God’s sign that it’s not meant to be. I’m sorry I haven’t been as genuine as I thought I was being. I also respect how you never spoke bad of me before even when we weren’t on the best of terms, that demonstrates how real of a mate you were. I don’t have any ill feelings towards you, even if you might do now. I honestly wish you the best on your journey and I’ll always have ratings for you B ”
B- “You what mate good luck yo ya”

Lately, both in person and on this sub, I have seen a worrying amount of misinformation spreading about the political party Aon Tu. This misinformation either states that they are a left/liberal party or that they are not right/conservative. This is however clearly wrong as any amount of introspection of their statements and social media makes clear; any clear dive into their policies and statements make it clear that they are instead very right wing, if not far right. They use the many familiar terms associated with similar parties, hold the same stances, and even retweet them and their content.
In order to illustrate this below I am presenting the various tweets made by Peadar Tóibín (the current leader of the party, their founder, and currently sole elected official) as well as their official twitter account. I have limited it solely to tweets due to time and space constraints, I have also had to limit the amount of tweets due to the same constraints There is more and I strongly encourage anyway to check their accounts for themselves. If there is interest I can do a deep dive into their other socials and statements, however I do not think there is a way to access the backlog of debates they have had on RTE and radio unfortunately. I believe this thread will stand on it's own however and other such threads won't be needed.
I will present the below tweets without comment, sorting them only into sections for ease of reading. Some may contain a note below in order to give more context as to what the tweet is referencing. The one section I did not include was the various tweets on the referendum, this is because due to recency I did not think it was needed.
Vaccine Denial:
Tweeted by Aon Tu; 12/07/2021

Aontú opposes vaccine Passports for indoor Hospitality.
Its discrimination against many people mostly the young.
Its mandatory vaccination through the back door.
Again the Irish Gov is alone in the whole of Europe in the extreme path it's taking.

Tweeted by Toibin; 17/10/2021

99.7% of the adult population in Waterford is fully vaccinated, yet it has one of the highest Covid-19 incidence rates in the country.
The truth is the Gov don't know why this is happening.](https://x.com/Toibin1/status/1449783978802794502)
Now they will refuse entry to pubs to 0.3% unvaccinated to see does that work. #NPHET

Tweeted by Toibin; 10/01/2022

No, it's not April Fools day.
That people being paid by the state are actually discussing this is incredible.
FF/FG/Greens need to knock this madness on the head ASAP.

Note: Linked news article can be found here; Nphet to consider mandatory vaccination, department preparing paper on legal and ethical aspects
Anti Covid Lockdown:
Tweeted by Toibin; 15/11/2020

480 people got Cancer today.
24 people died of Cancer today
27 people died of Heart Disease and Stroke today.
This will hardly get a mention in the media today.
#COVID19

Tweeted by Toibin; 13/05/2021

8 deaths related to Covid were reported yesterday.
We share our deepest sympathies with these families.
The manner in which Covid deaths are being reported is concerning.
They were all from March or earlier.
Reporting them yesterday gives people a false impression of risk.

Tweeted by Toibin; 26/05/2021

The majority of people who died from Covid caught Covid in a Nursing Home or a Hospital.
So while the whole country was shut closed most people died in locations that were run by or regulated by the government.
This is an incredible situation.

Note: A video is attached.
Tweeted by Toibin; 05/06/2021

All the the people with Covid in Hospital in Ireland would fit on 1 Double Decker Bus.
Yet people were baton charged in Dublin last night and
Pubs and Restaurants wont open indoors for another month.
#ItsTimeForCommonSense #OpenHospitality #southwilliamst #Aontú

Tweeted by Toibin; 14/07/2021

The Government's Hospitality Discrimination Bill has passed all stages in the Dáil after only a few hours of debate.

Tweeted by Aon Tu; 30/10/2021

Some citizens are allowed into pubs.
Some citizens are not.
It's stunning that this has happened in the 21st century.
It's stunning that so much of society has just accepted it.
Worst of all, it's not even working.

Tweeted by Toibin; 24/11/2021

I have recieved information that the Goverment,
has carried out NO scientific research into the effectiveness or otherwise of the Covid Pass.
At all.
#FollowTheScience #TheySaid
It will be now legal to discriminate against certain Irish citizens.
A sad day for Ireland.

Note: The bill which has a picture taken of it in the tweet can be read here.
Tweeted by Toibin; 17/12/2021

Are the Gov going to say that a healthy young person thats triple vaccinated along with their Covid Pass can't have a pint after 5pm.
What's the point of it all so?

Tweeted by Toibin; 21/01/2022

Very interesting to see Nphet and the Dept of Health go from researching Mandatory Vaccines to lifting restrictions in 10 days!

Tweeted by Toibin; 12/10/2022

I have submitted this question;
To ask the Minister for Health, has he or his department ever received any data, evidence or information from Pfizer that indicates that that the Pfizer Covid Vaccine was ever tested in terms of its ability to stop the transmission of Covid?

Anti LGBT:
Tweeted by Aon Tu; 24/10/2022

Women live in period poverty just a few miles from the Dáil.
Instead of helping them,
your virtual signalling political establishment
put a tampon machine in the men's toilet in the Dáil.

Tweeted by Toibin; 16/02/2023

Plans by FF, FG & Greens to change the law to allow 16 year olds to legally change gender, against advice of medical experts,
shows how completely alienated the political bubble is from the people of Ireland.
Aontú will oppose this and seek a return to commonsense and science.

Tweeted by Aon Tu; 05/03/2023

When Minister O Gorman refused redress to many who had been in Mother and Baby Homes because of the 'lack of money', he raided hundreds of thousands from the Magdalene Scheme and Travellers supports & diverted the funding towards the LGBTQ+ Community.

Note: There is an article linked in the tweet, about an accusation made by Toibin. Read it here
Tweeted by Aon Tu; 06/03/2023

Varadkar is wrong. 9 &10 year old children are too young to be taught about transgenderism. We have a duty of care to children.
No research has been has been carried out on the impact of such education.

Tweeted by Toibin; 07/03/2023

I've asked the Minister for Ed what research has the Dept of Education carried out
on the impact on primary school children of delivering material on Transgenderism to them in the classroom?
We've a duty of care to children.
Education should be based on evidence not ideology.

Tweeted by Aon Tu; 08/03/2023

Tóibín asked Varadkar if his Gov had carried out any research as to the impact on 8 & 9 year old children of teaching about transgenderism in primary school.
Leo refused to answer the question.
Radical changes are being introduced against majority consent.

Note: There is an attached video.
Tweeted by Aon Tu; 15/03/2023

Many people have been shocked by Paul Murphy's announcement.
But what's more shocking is that FF, FG, SF and the Greens,
are on exactly the same page as the hard left parties on teaching this ideology in every primary school in the country.

Tweeted by Toibin; 21/05/2023

This is incredible. All the actual crime that is happening on our streets and Gardaí are wasting time like this.
Even though there was no arrest here, this harassment creates a clear chilling effect on free speech and political discourse.

Note: There is an attached video in the tweet retweeted by Toibin, in it a Gardai is holding a polite conversation with an American holding a sign against "Gender Ideology." In their Twitter bio they describe themselves; "Father of two girls. Traveling the world to expose gender ideology and why children cannot consent to medical transition."
Tweeted by Aon Tu; 07/07/2023

Growing concern among parents that the new curriculum for 12 & 13 years in school is not age appropriate & is not science based.
Gender identity ideology is now mandatory for schools & thousands of parents will have no option but to withdraw their child from class.

Note: This article is linked on the topic of a statement made by Toibin.
Tweeted by Aon Tu; 23/07/2023

This is why so many are angry with the Minister for Culture Wars, Helen McEntee.
Homicides are up, murder attempts are up, rape & sexual assaults are up, theft is up. Yet....
Gardaí management are focused on allowing male born Gardaí use women’s toilets.

Note: There is an attached article; here
Tweeted by Aon Tu; 28/09/2023

The Green Party are becoming increasingly authoritarian in nature.
If you dissent from government sanctioned views, you will be investigated.
This is the opposite of a liberal democracy.

Note: There is a linked article; it pertains to an investigation by the IABA into the usage of their premises by a "Christian Group" advocating for the removal of all LGBT+ content from the SPHE curriculum.
Tweeted by Toibin; 14/03/2024

It is reckless beyond belief to give dangerous chemicals and irreversible surgery to children with gender dysphoria.
This must be made illegal in Ireland immediately.

Note: Includes a retweet of this news article.
Anti Hatespeech bill:
Tweeted by Aon Tu; 15/06/2023

Helen McEntee has become the Minister for Culture Wars.
Incredibly Varadkar accused PBP of being a threat to Free Speech.
FG, FF & the Greens are the biggest threat to free speech.

Note: There is a link article here.
Tweeted by Toibin; 26/07/2023

US gives Dublin a security warning for US citizens travelling to Ireland.
Meanwhile Minister McEntee is too busy with the Hate Speech Bill and Safe Zone Bill to worry about real people suffering actual crime.

Tweeted by Toibin; 28/03/2024

Helen McEntee is distracted by the Culture Wars.
People just want her to do her job, & make the streets safer.
Instead, she spent the last two years on a Hate Crime Bill no one wants. #BinTheBill

Note: There is an attached video.
Other:
Tweeted by Aon Tu; 15/02/2023

In the Dáil yesterday the hard left tried to close down a discussion on migration by calling people names.
This issue is too important. People have a right to respectfully ask questions and challange government policy.

Note: There is an attached video; it does not depict such name calling but rather Toibin accusing the government of name calling.
Tweeted by Aon Tu; 24/07/2023

Another day and another culture war imported by the government from America.

Note: A retweet from Gript media with an attached video.
Tweeted by Toibin; 12/03/2024

There is a battle over the narrative of the referendum defeat happening at the moment.
Some within the political & media bubble want to erase the fact that so many people have had enough of the culture wars and want the country to get back to commonsense and bread and butter.

Tweeted by Aon Tu; 19/03/2024

At a Dept of Education 'In Service' day,
their staff told secondary school teachers not to use the word 'Mother' in class as they said it was not inclusive.
They are implementing Gov policy.
Aontú disagrees wholeheartedly with this policy.
Happy Mothers Day.

Tweeted by Toibin; 10/04/2024

Says the man who seeks to delete more Irish sovereignty with the EU migration pact.

Note: A retweet from Simon Harris talking about the need to defend Ukraine's sovereignty.
Tweeted by Aon Tu; 11/04/2024

The decision by FG, FF and Green MEPs to cede the power to control immigration into Ireland to Brussels was a serious mistake. Aontú oppose this pact and will fight to retain and regain sovereignty in Europe #aontú

If you read my last post, you will see that my conversations with Bobby toward the end of my time at South Grove were not exactly going well. Throughout the process of leaving and meeting with him, I kept wondering “when is he going to let go?” It felt as though he was going to cling to me until I eventually caved and came back. He had allowed my wife and I to stop serving and even attend other churches to take a break. I’m not sure if he thought I would attend somewhere else, be reminded that God only moves at South Grove, and then come back. That was not the case at all. We attended a church in Sandy Springs, GA and then one in Athens, GA which I had attended before. I had never heard preaching like that in person before. Those pastors gave me Christ each Sunday that I attended. That, coupled with my conscience, made it impossible to even think about going back to South Grove.
As a somewhat funny side note, Bobby apparently changed the music that was played on Sunday(s)? I had mentioned in passing during one of our conversations that I had issues with Bethel, Hillsong, and Elevation Church. Interestingly I was discipled by the preaching at each of those churches early on in my Christian life. However, I had become highly concerned with their theology and how other members might read their name on the lyric screen, and listen to their preaching. Anyway, Bobby brought up the fact that they changed the music “for me.” Honestly, the music was one of my last worries.
Before my last conversation with Bobby, he wanted to know why I couldn’t disagree with issues concerning spiritual gifts and the other issues I had and still be a member in good conscience. I remember the first time I brought conscience up to him, he seemed puzzled. I tried to explain to him that because of the way I felt about certain doctrines, I could not be a member because I believed that I was going against my conscience. That did not register with him.
Up to our final conversation, I felt like I was in a vice grip. I really thought Bobby was going to draw out the painful process of trying to get me to stay at South Grove over several months. That and him trying to pit my wife against me (probably a story for another time). But finally, over lunch at the Blind Pig, something changed. In our last lunch, the vice grip seemed to be loosened completely. Bobby asked if I had heard of the “Leaving the Network” website. I had no idea what he was talking about, but he said he addressed it at a team meeting. I thought nothing of it. He also said “I’m sorry if I’ve ever hurt you in any way.” Pretty vague, but I guess I appreciated it? He blessed me to leave at that point. A few months later, he grabbed lunch with my new pastor at Cleveland Road Baptist Church to “check in” on my wife and I. I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall, but unfortunately I don’t know much about that conversation other than some of the awkwardness.
That was the last of the excruciating process of leaving South Grove. From being told I had a demon, to “where else are you going to go?”, to Bobby planting seeds of doubt in my wife’s mind, to “I need protected from the sheep,” to anger even mentioning my doubts about Steve Morgan, to “I bless you to leave.” If I said everything was smooth sailing after that, I would be a liar. I think about my time at South Grove everyday. I think of those who I hurt and I think about those who were hurt just like me. I think about those who are deceived and blindly follow. I think about the people who were once my family who would no longer and still no longer talk to me. I think about what was said about me after I left, if anything. I’m angry most days and sometimes I don’t know why. Except I do know why. I was a fool. Who moves across the country for something like that? Who gives up everything for something like that? Apparently someone like me. And for what? If nothing, it makes me long for justice. It makes me long for the day that I will be brought home to the One who loves me. That day seems really far away now though. Until then, I’m tormented by my time in the Network.

For the past couple years, I've lived with two friends (siblings of each other), and one of them (38 trans) is becoming particularly obnoxious.
So, I'm a non confrontational introvert. I avoid any and all conflict when ever possible, and while this has made me seem like a push over to many people; I'm not one to easily roll over and let folks just walk over me. Dave (not real name) however, is another story. So Dave has, over the past eight or nine months, started to get particularly annoying toward me. They're well aware of my introvertive nature, and yet they behave as though they simply don't care.
I mean seriously, don't care.
For example, a common problem centers around my bedroom door. Without going into a great bit of detail, I have this obsession with privacy. I like to keep my bedroom door closed at all times. Regardless of if I'm in the room or not, my door is closed. Furthermore, I prefer people to knock prior to entering. I've had issues with privacy in the past that prompted this, but basically I feel 'safe' when the door is closed.
Dave however, doesn't seem to agree with this. They will routinely just shove my door open, pushing it hard enough to make it swing fully open, then they'll walk in and regardless of what I may be doing, whether watching a show, working on something, reading, or just trying to decompress with a good rain sound video, plant their ass in one of my chairs and start playing around on their phone. They don't directly interact with me, just shove open my door (no knocking), and sit down.
Dave also has this tendency to take any and all conversations, whether they be with my family members, my own friends (not part of Dave and their sibling's friend group), or even total strangers, and attempt to steer that conversation in such a way that Dave becomes the center of attention. For example, a conversation with a friend of mine regarding college football and coaching choices, caused Dave to seem to decide that this was a perfect time to start on some long winded rant about religion, politics, and their struggles. This kind of thing happens on such a regular basis, that my own friends go out of their way to avoid any interaction with Dave; while my significant other has simply stopped spending time over at my place.
I really don't know how to handle this. I mean they're a close friend, but their behavior is starting to anger or alienate a large number of people, and I'm at a loss as how to handle things without it turning into yet another bout of Dave screaming at the top of their lungs about how I'm wrong for... well whatever. I've even been screamed at for things that weren't even within my purview to control, like when Dave's phone got cut off because they forgot to pay their bill. Even though I had nothing to do with that, it was automatically my fault.
Yeah, I'm reasonably certain Dave is abusive, I don't need to figure that out. My question is, what is your advice for dealing with this relationship, short of packing everything I own and running for the hills?

CONTEXT: noncredibledefense is a shitposting subreddit with a heavy focus on Western militaries which exploded in popularity during the War in Ukraine. Most members were lock-step in their views with each other, e.g. NATO good, China bad, Russia lmfao... until October 7th and the invasion of Gaza. While reddit generally skews to supporting Palestinian causes, noncredibledefense has been generally supportive of Israel and their war against Hamas, although not to say that there isn't contention with the topic having a noticeable split. One meme is shared that is remarkably critical of Israel for the sub, and it is immediately ratio'd with the top armchair generals arguing over the good, the bad and the ugly.
One user suggests that life in Gaza was fine

people in gaza lived fine before hamas. who built their houses?

Who bombed them?

maybe don't cross a border to slaughter 1300 innocent people. belgium doesn't do that shit, no one is invading belgium. why can't gaza be more like belgium? if you don't want war, don't start one. atleast then when someone else decides to start a war in your place of the world, you can have the moral highground. how many israeli's would be dead if israel did not have iron dome?

FFS, look back a few decades. Look at how the Israelis treat them. Terrorism is never right but they have a good reason to be mad.

Just don't look back more than like 5 years or you'll see all the resolutions ignored, rockets launched, terror attacks committed, or if you go then further then literal wars.

And do two wrongs make a right?

Who is launching rockets from them? You know, doing a war crime that removes protection from civilian objects.

So Israel can stoop to Hamas' level? Hamas did it so Isreal can?

Launching attacks from civilian areas = war crime. Use of non-targeted munitions = war crime. Using targeted munitions to destroy missile bases in civilian areas =/= war crime. Israel isn't stooping to Hamas's level at all

And can both sides be wrong in a conflict?

Yeah sorry, this is a CIA-ass subreddit. Israel can do as much genocide as it likes as far as the people here are concerned, it's the wrong target audience for this meme.

Or, perhaps maybe, Israel should stop using civilians as meat shields. Maybe both sides are bad (wild, i know), and not wanting to support terrorists is good

Lmao, both sides are bad, I don't support hamas, but you must realise that this subreddit thinks that Israel are the good guys right? You're literally already being downvoted for saying that... (or maybe it's the freudian slip at the start of your comment)

Lmao, both sides are bad, I don't support hamas, but you must realise that this subreddit thinks that Israel are the good guys right? You're literally already being downvoted for saying that... (or maybe it's the freudian slip at the start of your comment)

One user sarcastically responds to the idea of showing mercy to your enemy, and misses the irony

Ah yes they should go the "be nice to people slaughtering you" route. Then the extremist beliefs have no reason to exist so you will pretend they don't exist.

Novel idea I know but maybe clear out the building with people. Fallujah wasn't exactly leveled by the end of it and we too, to the best of my memory refrained from sending hospitals, places of worship, and schools (the places civilians normally run to as the opposite of military targets) 500kg explosive care packages from orbit.

Is it antisemitic to be against Israel existing?

Israel gets away with too much shit. It’s apparently antisemitism to be against Israel or voice opposition to their policies.

It's antisemitism to be against the existence of Israel because it is the only country that protects jews. And it has to do a lot of protecting. They're fighting terrorists who target civilians and use human shields. That is not Israel's choice. It's antisemitism to think jews evil because they are forced to deal with a problem that you would do worse at. I don't know where you're from but I could say your country HAS done far worse than Israel and I'd probably be right. more follows

Fuck off with that bullshit, ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing no matter the context, you’re coping hard for shit the likes of Russia does and routinely gets condemned for. Hamas commits terrorist attacks, Israel responds consistently by bombing civilians/neighborhoods/hospitals trying to kill said terrorist group and blockaids the region, only to ensure the radicalization of the population while strengthening the hand of said terrorists in the long run.

As usual, the I/P war cannot be discussed without some drama occurring and it demonstrates how divisive it is when a subreddit meant to support Western defense is thrown into chaos over the topic.

Motion to amend the Gender Recognition Act 2004

To move– that the House of Commons recognises
(1) That any individual who is over the age of 18 is able to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate to change their official biological sex under the law to reflect their preferred one;
(2) That there are concerns that the current way in which a GRC is obtained are too expensive, too intrusive and decisions too often are not reached in a timely fashion within the courts;
(3) That it is necessary to act on ammendng the GRA to avoid the risk of unnecessary contravention of our obligations to the protected characteristic of Gender Reassignment in the Equality Act of 2010;
(4) That it is also necessary to consider ensuring the correct balance between a system of only Self-ID and the convoluted documented evidence currently required to be reviewed by a panel of Judges.
Therefore–the House of Commons calls upon the Government to
(1) Change the cost of obtaining a GRC from £140 to £5;
(2) Replace the current criteria for obtaining a GRC to a legally binding statutory declaration signed by the applicant and the following witnesses:
A solicitor of the Crown; A judge of the Crown; A statement of agreement from an independent psychologist selected by the courts; All or over 50% of the members of the applicant’s Integrated Healthcare Professionals Team, which may include but not be exclusively limited to the following:- Licensed mental health therapist Endocrinologist Plastic Surgeon General Practitioner A close family member of the applicant; Alternatively or in addition to a romantic partner of 12 months or longer or spouse of the applicant.
(3) The statutory declaration as named above should confirm that the applicant is confident in their choice of preferred biological sex;
(4) The applicant’s intention can thus be interpreted as wanting to live as their preferred biological sex for the remainder of their life, with the understanding that it is permanent.

This motion was written by the Rt. Hon. Gimmecatspls, Conservative and Unionist MP for Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset South

Deputy Speaker,
I rise to present this motion on behalf of my constituents and my party to highlight an issue close to my heart - the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 and its role in equity of the law for binary transgendered individuals (also known by the outdated term transsexuals). Whilst I understand some will be wondering why I am not also including into the discussion nonbinary individuals, it is simply because the GRA as it stands caters only for those who identify within the binary gender scale, and my expertise does not extend to how the provisions may be replicated for that demographic. Nevertheless, I believe the proposed changes in the bill as it stands to be necessary, and would be willing to support consideration of extending the scope to those outside the gender binary.
There is another reason that I feel so proud of being the one to introduce this motion and it is because I believe this ammendment finally covers ground that prior to this had proved too hard to solve. That is the conflict between those who have genuine reasons to seek out a Gender Recognition Certificate and those for whom it may not be in their best interests to do so. The latter group is composed of those who are either non-binary or those who are still questioning their gender; and the former is a much smaller and very rare group of opportunists who seek to exploit the system by claiming to be transgender when they are not.
In relation to the former group, one of the proposed solutions that had been put forward in the past to resolve the issues with the GRA overall was one of only using Self-ID, which removes the medical aspects of what is otherwise a medical condition altogether in favour of self identification. The main reason I don’t support this, and is also the source of concern for some of those who oppose reform altogether, is because opportunists can then exploit the system with no checks and balances. In summative terms and in terms of my solution to this issue, I believe that we need medical confirmation of an individuals’ transgender identity to provide the necessary checks and balances not just to weed out the fakers, but also to make sure it can work as intended for those who do need it.
In terms of the latter group, the provisions of this motion serve to make even clearer the fact that as the law stands, the GRA is not appropriate for those who are still deciding which gender they identify as, or if they are nonbinary. By making certainty of congruence of an individual’s gender identity one of the eligibility criteria needed to get a GRA, I believe we will safeguard from hasty decisions being made that will be hard to reverse, and thus have solved the issue that so many were concerned by.
In conclusion, I hope those who have found the current system intrusive or found obtaining a GRC too expensive know that someone in Parliament has their back. I hope colleagues on both sides of the house will join me in showing that we have listened to their concerns and acted on them, and I commend this motion to the house.
This debate shall end on Friday 24th at 10PM BST

TL;DR - selfish asshole of an older brother scams me and my parents out of $200.
Okay, so I’m not doing too well financially, but I live with my Mom and Pops so we try to make ends meet. A couple weeks back we were in such rough shape financially, that I had to juggle three day jobs just to cover rent and suppress the collector’s from knocking on the door regarding our collective debts. We so broke I literally can’t even afford to sleep because in the night=I can get freelance work done. “I can sleep when I’m dead,” has become my full-time motto (unfortunately). Anyways, to try to bring some income in my household I offer services as a freelance video editor.
A while back, my older brother (who’s a career criminal and has flee’d multiple countries when authorities were after him for violent offences) hit me up and asked if I’d be down to edit for him. I was hesitant at first, being as last time I heard from him was after he beat our Mum to a pulp when I was only 12. For context bro or sis, whoever you are that is reading this: if I was only three years older I wouldn’t have let that slide—I would have mobbed his ass right then and there, pinned him down and done him so fucking dirty… IDGAF if my 15 year old ass had gone to juvie for it, I would do anything for my mother, including take a life. But instead, all that’s been imprinted in my brain is how much of a bitch I was at 12–cowering under the dining table as he took multiple shots with a shoe, at our crying helpless mother on the ground.
Anyways it’s been a few years, I’m 24 now and he gave me a big sob story how he has changed. I bought it up like the good little sheeple I am… started editing for him under the guise that he’d pay me $200 per video: SCORE! That’s a lot of money!!!
I got to know his business (shady as fuck) and got to find out he now dreams of being a finance influencer (double shady) but alas, he’s my big bro and no matter what wrong-doing he’s doing, he convinced me that he was a good man. Ight, bet, I’ma edit for him and make some money for the fam! In between his ‘takes’ of videos he sends me, I piece together that his “wife” films the videos, and he’s still an extremely abusive person. He tries not to let it show on camera, but I’m really good with people, emotions and hidden trauma so I can feel the sickening ‘abuser-of-people’ energy SEEPING off of him, still, to this day. I feel sick to my stomach editing for him, but shit, he’s promised me $200 per video. Over the course of a few weeks I can see why he never told us about his wife, it seems he keeps her pent up somewhere in Georgia, Batumi, and forces her to do whatever he wants. He once referred to her as “his slave” which I originally thought was A JOKE, but now in the grand scheme of things… I don’t think it was a joke. I pray that authorities get to them before he does something to her, but idek where to begin to put a ‘concerned citizen tip’ in a foreign country.
Some context as to why I put up with all the red flags: Mom’s not working as she has to take care of the house and she’s also trying to make money online, any ways possible. She’s starting to sell her favourite clothes. It fucking breaks my heart that I can’t do shit about it… at 24 years old, with all the social media influencing and advertising, I feel like garbage that I can’t fully support my parents… at least not yet! Dad is constantly depressed because he’s almost 80 years old and can’t retire ‘cuz my parent’s are in too much debt.
Okay, anyways, three BIG videos done for him (by big, I mean I spent +8 hours on each vid) and brother’s paid me for ONE via PayPal… no worries, he keeps leading me on saying the money will come, the money will come. And PayPal says I got $200 coming my way from him! Uhh ight, bet? Mind you, I start PLANNING my life around this $200 notification because that’s a hot stack for me and my family!!! Takes PayPal about 20 days to actually let me use the money… ridiculous because we NEEDED it… but that’s okay, I work around the problems in life, much like we all have to.
Here comes the turning point: I’m a little overworked and a little coo-coo sometimes, and one night I start telling him personal shit, kinda pouring out my heart to him, venting almost. I don’t really remember about what, just life I guess, nothing negative towards him. Somehow he misconstrues it, gets upset with me, and ‘tells me off.’ I get upset with him, tell him his business is a sham and I’ma change the rules that we agreed upon. Since his fake-ass can’t pay me what was agreed upon, (maybe $200 is a lot for him, as well) so I ask him if we can do $10 per hour instead. I pitch to him that moving forward, anytime I edit more than five hours ($50), I will refuse to edit until the money gets sent. The conversation turns hostile, QUICK. He calls me a ton of bad names with an underlying message that I’m the biggest loser on earth for pursuing a dream in working in Entertainment & he ends it with a sweet “you’ll never be anything.” LOL WHAT? Completely out of pocket and out of left field, so naturally, I tell him to eat shit, I won’t be doing anymore free work and he can pay me a mere $30 (yes, thirty dollars) for the entire portfolio of audios, texts/scripts, videos, and clips I’ve taken from the internet that ‘match’ the vibe he wants in his videos.
Context: at this point I’ve completed SIX FULL VIDEOS FOR THIS DUDE and he’s only paid me the one payment of $200. Not good at maths? Me neither, lemme help you out. He owes me $1,200 from our original agreement because I’ve spent more than 48 collective hours working on his videos, and he’s only paid me $200. But I tell him: I’ll let it all slide if he pays me $30 for the portfolio of about 50 gigabytes, and then moving forward, he’d pay me the $10 per hour if he wanted more content from me. He already has the six full videos in his possession. The ‘portfolio’ is stuff I’ve found that’s free-use on the internet, stuff that I’ve compiled, and even some scripts that I’ve written out! ALL MINE that I did for HIS business. So it seems logical for me to give this portfolio as an option, just incase he wants to say nah moving forward on me editing for him, and just take the material & go our separate ways…
In response, my (35 year old) brother files a complaint on PayPal claiming he only hired me for a channel encompassing trailer that I did not provide and that I’m attempting to extort him for more money. LOL, WHAT? PayPal’s like BET and automatically attempts to deduct from MY chequing account, without even getting to the bottom of it. Obviously doesn’t work, my account (not PayPal account, my fucking bank account. these mf so overzealous that they reached right into my mf pocket!!!!) gets put in the negatives and I attempt to appeal, with no sweat on my brow ‘cuz I’m like no way PayPal finna let this slide. I then proceed to message my terrible relative multiple times, with texts, videos and audio recordings and I’m in a hysterical mess. I begin threatening him, I begin begging to him, pleading with him, saying anything under the sun just for the hope that he has some heart and would send back the $200 if PayPal does end up taking it from me. Already my chequing was fricked but I could do some damage control… I was cocky, thinking PayPal would obviously side with me once they heard the whole story, so I also told him since he’s caused such pain for me out of absolutely nothing, like completely unprovoked, then shit: I want the original $200 PLUS an extra $200 for all this trauma. He responds by blocking me on everything. It’s 4 A.M. and I’m shaking as I’m typing this…
Somehow after all the information I provided, PayPal sides with him. Wow, wait, what? PayPal has since tried to deduct my PERSONAL CHEQUING ACCOUNT multiple times in order to fish back the $200 which I ALREADY HAD TO USE!!! Idk if you ever had a payment tried to be taken out of an account which already has a negative balance, but the payment doesn’t go (it does a minus then a plus) but usually the bank is like WTF and charges you fees. Multiple times = Multiple fees…
Before, I was in the negatives on my ONE chequing account I own… now I’m in the NEGATIVE-NEGATIVES… no clue how tf I’ma get out of it, but we all persevere eventually! I’ve reached out to PayPal but I’m almost sure nothing will come of it.. I’m considering taking PayPal to small claims court to somehow try to fix all this mess, but I fear it’ll break me off more trouble than repair anything. If you want to DM me, I’ll gladly give you my brother’s socials to send a report to his accounts on Instagram or TikTok, or even leave him a not-so-nice comment if you’d like. Also let me know if you know how I can get in contact with the authorities in the country of ‘Georgia.’
I have absolutely no issues posting his socials, address, doxxxing his ass to the fullest extent, all to do whatever’s necessary: because I fear he will one day gain notoriety and scam a shit ton of people. Praying that never happens.
Let me know what y’all think!!!

I (24F) am having issues with my friend group over the man (31M) that I picked. I’ll have to provide the long background story for context.
My friend group consists of several individuals. The specific few I will talk about I will refer to as “J” “M” and “A.” They are all (24F). J and M are a couple. These girls seem to have the strongest opinion about the ordeal. I met my friends in middle/high school. We didn’t become close until our college years. I love these people and we’ve gone on many trips and shared many experiences together.
In early 2023, I was asked out by a guy who frequented my place of work. He had apparently noticed me for some time. It is quite rare for me to “date,” but something about him gave me the sense I could trust him. He gave off good vibes overall. We went on a date a few days later and discovered we have everything in common. EVERYTHING. From our morals, values, hobbies, childhood upbringing, family dilemmas, favorite foods, love for traveling, etc. we are the same person in two separate bodies. The date was such a success and I knew then in my gut that he was going to be someone special.
Unfortunately, our beginning took a turn. We initiated dates back and forth that fell through due to valid reasons dealing with weather, conflicting schedules, etc. During this break between dates, he took the time to think if he was ready to start a new relationship. Although he liked me a lot, he was a little unsure unbeknownst to me. He’d been in several relationships before and they ended with him getting hurt whether they ended on good or bad terms. He was getting cold feet and didn’t know how to communicate that to me. He didn’t want to officially end it and he also didn’t want to lead me on so he said nothing for awhile. Although it wasn’t necessarily thought out, he was buying himself time until he knew how he felt (I learned all this later on). Then came about a month with no contact. During this time, he was dealing with family drama and I was becoming anemic. I eventually did need a blood transfusion. I mention this because that month apart went by fast and we didn’t have much time to linger over the thought of each other. I did notice he hadn’t reached out though. I’m certain now that he wouldn’t have ignored my messages had I sent any, but I was honestly waiting for him to reach out first. I was a little hurt to think that he had changed his mind and didn’t have the guts to tell me.
Sometime in that next month, when I returned to work after my hospital stay, I saw him at my job. I thought he saw me. He left and said nothing. I was actually devastated. He had been so kind and I didn’t know why he had a change of heart. At least he should’ve told me about it anyway. I decided that I was going to text him that night. I mentioned I had seen him at work, thanked him for the initial first date, apologized for not reaching out on my end, and I sort of wished him farewell under the assumption he wasn’t interested. It was very professional and I let him know that there were no hard feelings had he changed his mind. I was expecting some lame, typical excuse response if I even got one. He sent back this long text message apologizing, explaining himself, and asking me questions. He explained his fears and asked if we could start a “friendship” of sorts to keep a slow pace. There was chemistry of course, but he was afraid of me and now I was afraid of him. There was enough there to where we wanted to spend time together, but I needed to be sure I could trust him with my feelings and he also needed to be sure he could trust me with his heart. To this, I agreed to see him again.
We spent time going on casual dates and talking a lot. He became my friend. We talked a lot about what happened with the break over the following months. I told him how hurt I was and how communication is important to me. He understands the impact of going no contact abruptly. It has been entirely resolved and I also take responsibility in my part of not reaching out to him either. Ever since the break, he became consistent. We’ve talked every single day since. He was patient with me and I was patient with him. We earned each other’s trust and are now madly in love. It happened slowly and quietly. I have never met such a soft, kind, understanding, sensitive man. I am more myself with him than I ever have been before. If soulmates are real, then he is mine.
Now to the tea. Of course, my friends knew (most) all of this. I told them about the big events as they were happening. They were excited for me on my first date, they sympathized with me when he no longer reached out, etc. They were surely surprised when I decided to spend time with him again. I asked them to trust me. I didn’t think he was a bad guy. What happened was a mistake. As my man and I spent more time, my friend J would reach out asking me questions about him. I told only her about my concerns in the beginning. Back then, I was guarded and nervous to proceed, but it was something I knew I had to do. I had to find out for sure what kind of person he was.
Now, J, she’s a fireball. I love that girl, but I’ll admit she’s one to hold a grudge, keep score, and quietly judge. She’d never admit it. I made a mistake in choosing her as my confidant in those early days. I was looking for advice when speaking to her because I do value her opinion. She then went and told the other friends in my group, M and A included, about my man—what a bad person he seems to be, using her words, which frankly, are very different from mine. What makes me mad is she got to tell them about him, not me. Not even any of the positives either. This was all before they had even met him and they already didn’t like him. They had no problem scolding me for being with him.
Months down the road, I arranged a meeting for everyone. My friends thought a bar would be a great place. Still not sure about that. It was awkward. Nobody talked more than a few words. My man was shy and my friends didn’t really do anything to make him feel welcome. I was the only one babbling all night it seems like. You’d think that as time goes on, it’d be different. More meetings will help everyone be comfortable. Nope. Every time after was awkward. They haven’t spoken more than a few words to him at a time. It’s very “surface level” talk even now—a year later.
My last birthday had come around and J, M, and A took me out for drinks. It turned into a lecture session about how I seriously need to break up with him. They scolded me on “allowing a man to waste my time.” They criticized his career choice, our age difference, his “character,” etc. Mind you, this is based off of this one experience and a few other things that I mentioned to J in private that were no longer an issue. I cried myself to sleep that night thinking I was going to have to break up with him to please them.
Of course, I couldn’t. They still invite him to events and friend functions out of politeness, but it’s always the same. They don’t acknowledge him. It makes me especially sad when my man makes comments like, “I’ve never seen so many shy people in one room” (He thinks my friends are just shy when they’re really just ignoring him). He’s printed out their pictures for our scrapbook and labeled them as “new friends.” I haven’t told him the truth and I probably never will.
A few months ago, J, M, me, and my man had plans to go to this local indie concert. Tickets are free. The concert was on a Friday. The next day, Saturday, was scheduled for my man’s nephew’s 2nd Birthday Party. His brother’s family would be traveling from out of town to celebrate their son. Well, things didn’t go according to plan. The brother decided to come a day early, the day of the concert. I should have cancelled the concert date then when I learned this news, but I told J and M we were still coming because my man still wanted to go. We figured we’d be able to sneak away since the brother had come by himself and wanted to come over and take a nap since he works odd hours. Well, my man’s dad dropped by and the brother didn’t take his nap as he’d planned. Now, having company over with expectations, I made the difficult decision to cancel with my friends last minute. I realize it is rude, but something came up. I didn’t see how we could go anymore.
My friends let me have it. J and M were so angry. They told me how rude we were and how disrespectful it was to their time to opt out of the concert which was free and in town by the way. There was also the two of them and they could have easily gone on a date. I think it would’ve been equally rude to leave our company or rush them out the door. I picked my battle. I should have gave them more notice, but I didn’t know we weren’t going until the last minute. It couldn’t have happened any other way. We fought over text for awhile. She accused me of being so different now, saying and doing things out of the ordinary for me. The truth is, I’m just growing up. J ended the conversation saying, “Well, we’re just going to stay mad.” She claimed to understand my circumstance, but she didn’t. We didn’t talk for weeks after.
I eventually got invited to a breakfast date to which I declined. I have been avoiding all of them for awhile. I keep getting “I miss yous” from J. She keeps asking when we’re gonna hang out next. It’s also true that J and M are now moving 4 hours away at the end of the month. My problem may solve itself. That does sound awful though. I feel like an asshole. I have not been a good or present friend lately. I’m so busy, tired, and I have no room for petty drama. I’m not giving up my friends yet, but I will gladly choose this boy over them. He’s given me more peace in one year than they have in five years.
My boy and I are now engaged. I told my friends the news. They said some nice things I guess. J texted to let me know “If I’m really happy, she’ll support me.” This would be nicer if it was coming from a concerned friend. To me, this whole situation feels controlling. It’s more than concern. There’s venom behind it. They don’t care about the wedding either. They don’t ask me fun questions or get excited when it comes up. When I eventually explained how he proposed, they seemed disinterested. I could tell they were judging the experience. When I finally showed J the engagement ring in person all she said was, “Take it off” in a snippy tone so she could try it on.
I’m so disappointed in my friends. I always wanted a big friend group and especially to share this big milestone with. I haven’t even gotten excited about wedding planning because I’m dreading going over the bridesmaids list. Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, thanks for listening. I definitely need to get this off my chest and outta my life. I can’t believe I’m losing my friends over a boy.

Hello everyone! I want to share a personal project of mine and would like some feedback on the idea.
I am very much a noob player, I’ve played for a few years and definitely don’t consider myself an expert. Yet I’ve been working on a campaign story for quite some time and I’ve always had trouble with the settings so here is my plan.
I’d love to write and describe the world I’m building in a DnD campaign book like thing. Let me explain. In this book there would be the description of every town, the world map, and the population/races. You’d find the economy of the world, main religions, main events (festivals, etc etc), the diplomacy of the cities and pretty much the world description. I’d love to also add a NPC chapter where in every town there’s a list of major NPC and relevant people, who they are, what they do and what’s their status in the city/world.
Then, at the end, there would be a “build your campaign” chapter where I’d list important informations that can make building a campaign easier. Let’s say you wanted to play a campaign in a Vampire setting, I’d tell you where is the most likely spot for a vampire castle to be, how to get there, etc etc. Of course it’s impossible to do that for every setting/monster but having an already built world, outside of the Forgotten Realm, really helps me feel free to do what I want without spoilering other campaigns or ruining the lore of a pre existing world. Goblins? You’d find them here. Orcs? That way. Etc etc.
I’ll be doing this for myself but I’ve talked to a couple friends and they’d like to get their hands on something like that. What do you people think? What would you want to find in such a book if you had it? What were the things you needed the most when you created a home brew world for your campaigns? Besides a long list of NPC names to use when they players ask for a name of a random person lol
Ps: before anyone asks there are no money involved in this. Im doing it because i like it and enjoy the process lol I still would want it to turn up pretty good though.

Our food pantry is very lucky that a local grocery chain donates their unwanted or overflow baked goods twice a week. This ranges from garlic bread loafs, to donuts, or pies. Whatever doesn't sell within a specified time frame, they truck to us twice a week at 5 am. Our team puts together a box for each family; we try to be fair and give everyone a little of what's available. At 7 am, you walk up to the front door, sign the paper with your name and we hand you a box. It's first come first served until we run out and our policy is we turn no one away as long as we have food to give.
This morning a boomer was in line behind a woman with two small children. The boomer had nice clothes, very nice watch, jewelry. I'm not trying to judge but she was clearly not in need and she isn't taking it to give to others (because of her comment later) The two kids were 5 and 7 I'd estimate and probably hungry, because they were pretty jumpy while mom was trying to sign the form. It took maybe, MAYBE, 2 minutes for this lady to get her box, sign, thank us and leave. As soon as Ms. Boomer gets her box, she starts complaining about the awful wait and how 'she shouldn't have those kids if she can't feed them' Ma'am you are standing there taking the same food this woman was here for, you are in no position to pass judgment. She then left, no thanks, and came back later to complain that she didn't get any donuts and wanted any we had left over. There were no donuts for any one today, some bakery cookies which everyone else was happy to take.

An update to my post from before...
Our case unfortunately ended in the worst possible out come...
At 13 weeks, our NIPT came back flagged high risk for the 22q11.2 - DiGeorge Microdeletion, with Maternal deletion suspected. For 7 weeks we sat in limbo, holding hope that we would fall in the "false positive" category, especially with already having 2 perfectly healthy children.
20 week ultrasound, "we are concerned with the low level of amniotic fluid" we were then sent to a level 2 ultrasound a week later where the same was discovered, little to no amniotic fluid..
We were told what this would likely mean....and as we moved forward it would be discovered that due to the micro deletion (which we were later told it was not believed to be DiGeorge but a different microdeletion that slightly overlapped with the DiGeorge deletion) our baby's kidneys were not developing...
Her right kidney had not developed at all and her left was Multicystic (MCDK) - the prognosis was not good.
No kidneys - No Fluid - No lungs... No Chance.
We were faced with a decision. We could TMFR or move forward knowing what we know.
We chose to keep our baby with us, maybe hoping for a miracle, but so we could have proper closure and not regret anything.
We had transferred our care to a high risk unit, in the event a miracle would happen they would be equipped to give her what she needed.
May 7th, 32 weeks in. We had several appointments. a few of which included talking about comfort care options for when she arrived. To make sure she was as comfortable as possible and to arrange for some other things to be set up for us to be able to make some memories with her and our other children. (Clay handprints, Pictures, etc.)
We were also supposed to meet with some people to help us tell our 5 year old son what was coming as we had not yet figured out how to do that (He was so excited to be a big brother again, our 2 year old daughter still too young to understand)
None of this would matter however... the next day my wife came home from work with stomach pains that progressed into the evening (she thought it was constipation) around 9:30 Wednesday evening we went to the ER to have her checked out. (Other than the obvious, the ultrasounds the day before showed no signs of anything abnormal)
Our Daughter came at 11:30... she did not make it.. we knew what we were facing. Expecting the worst, yet it still came unexpectedly...
She never knew pain... only love. Her time here was short, but it changed us forever.
Our sweet Callie Mae 💗👼
Wanted to update and tell her story.
I hope and pray that no one else ever has to face this, as it is the most heartbreaking experience I will ever face in life.
Thank you for reading.. I will keep all of you in my thoughts. Praying no one else has to go through this
https://www.reddit.com/NIPT/comments/1abgoyu/chance_of_digeorge_syndromemicrodeletion/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

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

Some of my readers know that I wrote the Michael and Farrah story before I wrote about Bethany and Gabriel. But M&F felt incomplete and kind of boring in my first attempt. Somehow Bethany came into being. I wrote her during a time of massive changes in the world. Changes came to so many people. All that they knew before has been disrupted and now we're all asked to function normally. Rather than write about world events, I focused on massive changes to one person. I focused on the aftermath of the catastrophe and how it might change her. Of course, such a person cannot be alone in the world. She needed someone to give her hope for a brighter future.
Gabriel is that someone for her. Yes, he also happens to be rich and good-looking. We're writing fiction, not a biography. While, I know it's popular to write about the angsty, loner billionaire, but most involved in business do not do so in a vacuum. Even the most introverted tech billionaires have a trusted group of other talented people they can trust and rely on. M&F were brought into the story to give it layers and depth. The story grew and grew.
And as I wrote these secondary characters, I thought about their original story. So when Relentless ended, I didn't want to leave the world that I had crafted for them. These are completely different people. They should sound different, behave differently and react to their set of circumstances with nuances that make them feel real.
Rather than wait to release the thing after it's all written, this time I decided to give my readers what I have so far. One chapter a week is the current release tempo, but that's to give me more time to write/ rewrite/ edit, edit, and edit some more, the rest of the story.
So far so good!

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

10. The Pigeon Tunnel

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

9. Hala

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

8. Boys State

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

7. On the Rocks

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

6. Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You

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

5. Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds

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

4. CODA

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

3. A Charlie Brown Christmas

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

2. Wolfwalkers

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

1. Killers of the Flower Moon

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

TL;DR - selfish asshole of an older brother scams me and my parents out of $200.
Okay, so I’m not doing too well financially, but I live with my Mom and Pops so we try to make ends meet. A couple weeks back we were in such rough shape financially, that I had to juggle three day jobs just to cover rent and suppress the collector’s from knocking on the door regarding our collective debts. We so broke I literally can’t even afford to sleep because in the night=I can get freelance work done. “I can sleep when I’m dead,” has become my full-time motto (unfortunately). Anyways, to try to bring some income in my household I offer services as a freelance video editor.
A while back, my older brother (who’s a career criminal and has flee’d multiple countries when authorities were after him for violent offences) hit me up and asked if I’d be down to edit for him. I was hesitant at first, being as last time I heard from him was after he beat our Mum to a pulp when I was only 12. For context bro or sis, whoever you are that is reading this: if I was only three years older I wouldn’t have let that slide—I would have mobbed his ass right then and there, pinned him down and done him so fucking dirty… IDGAF if my 15 year old ass had gone to juvie for it, I would do anything for my mother, including take a life. But instead, all that’s been imprinted in my brain is how much of a bitch I was at 12–cowering under the dining table as he took multiple shots with a shoe, at our crying helpless mother on the ground.
Anyways it’s been a few years, I’m 24 now and he gave me a big sob story how he has changed. I bought it up like the good little sheeple I am… started editing for him under the guise that he’d pay me $200 per video: SCORE! That’s a lot of money!!!
I got to know his business (shady as fuck) and got to find out he now dreams of being a finance influencer (double shady) but alas, he’s my big bro and no matter what wrong-doing he’s doing, he convinced me that he was a good man. Ight, bet, I’ma edit for him and make some money for the fam! In between his ‘takes’ of videos he sends me, I piece together that his “wife” films the videos, and he’s still an extremely abusive person. He tries not to let it show on camera, but I’m really good with people, emotions and hidden trauma so I can feel the sickening ‘abuser-of-people’ energy SEEPING off of him, still, to this day. I feel sick to my stomach editing for him, but shit, he’s promised me $200 per video. Over the course of a few weeks I can see why he never told us about his wife, it seems he keeps her pent up somewhere in Georgia, Batumi, and forces her to do whatever he wants. He once referred to her as “his slave” which I originally thought was A JOKE, but now in the grand scheme of things… I don’t think it was a joke. I pray that authorities get to them before he does something to her, but idek where to begin to put a ‘concerned citizen tip’ in a foreign country.
Some context as to why I put up with all the red flags: Mom’s not working as she has to take care of the house and she’s also trying to make money online, any ways possible. She’s starting to sell her favourite clothes. It fucking breaks my heart that I can’t do shit about it… at 24 years old, with all the social media influencing and advertising, I feel like garbage that I can’t fully support my parents… at least not yet! Dad is constantly depressed because he’s almost 80 years old and can’t retire ‘cuz my parent’s are in too much debt.
Okay, anyways, three BIG videos done for him (by big, I mean I spent +8 hours on each vid) and brother’s paid me for ONE via PayPal… no worries, he keeps leading me on saying the money will come, the money will come. And PayPal says I got $200 coming my way from him! Uhh ight, bet? Mind you, I start PLANNING my life around this $200 notification because that’s a hot stack for me and my family!!! Takes PayPal about 20 days to actually let me use the money… ridiculous because we NEEDED it… but that’s okay, I work around the problems in life, much like we all have to.
Here comes the turning point: I’m a little overworked and a little coo-coo sometimes, and one night I start telling him personal shit, kinda pouring out my heart to him, venting almost. I don’t really remember about what, just life I guess, nothing negative towards him. Somehow he misconstrues it, gets upset with me, and ‘tells me off.’ I get upset with him, tell him his business is a sham and I’ma change the rules that we agreed upon. Since his fake-ass can’t pay me what was agreed upon, (maybe $200 is a lot for him, as well) so I ask him if we can do $10 per hour instead. I pitch to him that moving forward, anytime I edit more than five hours ($50), I will refuse to edit until the money gets sent. The conversation turns hostile, QUICK. He calls me a ton of bad names with an underlying message that I’m the biggest loser on earth for pursuing a dream in working in Entertainment & he ends it with a sweet “you’ll never be anything.” LOL WHAT? Completely out of pocket and out of left field, so naturally, I tell him to eat shit, I won’t be doing anymore free work and he can pay me a mere $30 (yes, thirty dollars) for the entire portfolio of audios, texts/scripts, videos, and clips I’ve taken from the internet that ‘match’ the vibe he wants in his videos.
Context: at this point I’ve completed SIX FULL VIDEOS FOR THIS DUDE and he’s only paid me the one payment of $200. Not good at maths? Me neither, lemme help you out. He owes me $1,200 from our original agreement because I’ve spent more than 48 collective hours working on his videos, and he’s only paid me $200. But I tell him: I’ll let it all slide if he pays me $30 for the portfolio of about 50 gigabytes, and then moving forward, he’d pay me the $10 per hour if he wanted more content from me. He already has the six full videos in his possession. The ‘portfolio’ is stuff I’ve found that’s free-use on the internet, stuff that I’ve compiled, and even some scripts that I’ve written out! ALL MINE that I did for HIS business. So it seems logical for me to give this portfolio as an option, just incase he wants to say nah moving forward on me editing for him, and just take the material & go our separate ways…
In response, my (35 year old) brother files a complaint on PayPal claiming he only hired me for a channel encompassing trailer that I did not provide and that I’m attempting to extort him for more money. LOL, WHAT? PayPal’s like BET and automatically attempts to deduct from MY chequing account, without even getting to the bottom of it. Obviously doesn’t work, my account (not PayPal account, my fucking bank account. these mf so overzealous that they reached right into my mf pocket!!!!) gets put in the negatives and I attempt to appeal, with no sweat on my brow ‘cuz I’m like no way PayPal finna let this slide. I then proceed to message my terrible relative multiple times, with texts, videos and audio recordings and I’m in a hysterical mess. I begin threatening him, I begin begging to him, pleading with him, saying anything under the sun just for the hope that he has some heart and would send back the $200 if PayPal does end up taking it from me. Already my chequing was fricked but I could do some damage control… I was cocky, thinking PayPal would obviously side with me once they heard the whole story, so I also told him since he’s caused such pain for me out of absolutely nothing, like completely unprovoked, then shit: I want the original $200 PLUS an extra $200 for all this trauma. He responds by blocking me on everything. It’s 4 A.M. and I’m shaking as I’m typing this…
Somehow after all the information I provided, PayPal sides with him. Wow, wait, what? PayPal has since tried to deduct my PERSONAL CHEQUING ACCOUNT multiple times in order to fish back the $200 which I ALREADY HAD TO USE!!! Idk if you ever had a payment tried to be taken out of an account which already has a negative balance, but the payment doesn’t go (it does a minus then a plus) but usually the bank is like WTF and charges you fees. Multiple times = Multiple fees…
Before, I was in the negatives on my ONE chequing account I own… now I’m in the NEGATIVE-NEGATIVES… no clue how tf I’ma get out of it, but we all persevere eventually! I’ve reached out to PayPal but I’m almost sure nothing will come of it.. I’m considering taking PayPal to small claims court to somehow try to fix all this mess, but I fear it’ll break me off more trouble than repair anything. If you want to DM me, I’ll gladly give you my brother’s socials to send a report to his accounts on Instagram or TikTok, or even leave him a not-so-nice comment if you’d like. Also let me know if you know how I can get in contact with the authorities in the country of ‘Georgia.’
I have absolutely no issues posting his socials, address, doxxxing his ass to the fullest extent, all to do whatever’s necessary: because I fear he will one day gain notoriety and scam a shit ton of people. Praying that never happens.
Let me know what y’all think!!!

Besides reaching the Champions League semifinals, it cannot be denied that Bayern has had a horrific season. Lost the DFB-Pokal and finished third in the Bundesliga. But, after over a decade of domination, losing once isn't really the end of the world. However, what worries me is what is happening at a higher level at Bayern.
It all started when Nagelsmann was sacked right before the first leg against City last season. I don't think there was anything wrong with bringing Tuchel himself, but doing it right before a huge game was a massive, massive disaster. It takes time for coaches to implement their tactics, and a change right before a game like this is guaranteed to bring disaster, so the 3-0 loss really was no coincidence.
But, despite his terrible start at Bayern, where he also lost the cup, he stayed at the team, probably thanks to just barely winning the Bundesliga because of a huge Dortmund bottle job. But, this season it became clear that Tuchel isn't the right coach for a team of Bayern's profile, and he needs to be changed.
This is where I really don't understand what the ones running Bayern are thinking. After being rejected by some big names like Zidane, Flick, Xabi Alonso, and their former coach Nagelsmann, they've turned to some choices that make you think the ones there are smoking substances.
First, they were interested in Ragnick, the current coach of Austria. Sure, he has been doing great with them, but just two years ago everyone wanted him out from Man United because of terrible results. Then, they turned to Lopetegui, whose last coached teams were Sevilla and Wolves. But this is where it gets truly bizarre. After failing to bring both these two, they turned to ERIC TEN FREAKING HAG. I mean, who in their right mind is at Bayern, and thinks of bringing in the coach that has been having a disastrous time at United?! Most recently, the news of them being interested in Vincent Kompany have appeared, the coach of Burnley who have just been relegated from the Premier League. Could you imagine the next coach of Bayern being someone coming from a relegated Premier League club?
To me, it just doesn't make sense. I am not necessarily calling these managers bad, their teams certainly didn't help them perform, but still, when it comes to Bayern, you should be looking for a manager who has actually had good results lately at another big club, certainly not managers coming from second half of the table teams like Wolves, relegated teams like Burnley, second-hand national teams like Austria or clubs in a disastrous situation like United.
This leads me to ask, what in the world is happening at Bayern?!

Back in Grade 3 I found this book in my school library and picked it up to read, now unfortunately the school year ended before I could finish the book and I never found it again.
But when I found it online again I just had to pick it up and I don’t regret it.
Taking place in the near future hover cars have taken over the world utilising magnetic technology to sit roughly a foot of the ground. Now hover car racing is the premier sport of the world and that’s when our protagonist, 14 year old Jason Chaser enters the fray with his 12 year old borderline autistic Brother, The Bug (his actual name and he is described as borderline autistic).
The two are a power duo with Jason being the daredevil who can expertly fly the car and the Bug being a mathematical whizz making him perfect as the navigator.
As a racing nerd I was able to give it some leeway but also some criticisms.
For one, all safety regulations are thrown out the window with the only safety coming from the racing circuits end being ‘dead zones’ which catch the cars if they go too far of track. But aren’t present everywhere. The hover cars are fitted with reinforced cockpits and assumably a roll cage with an ejection seat on the side. However the tracks seems to make the sport more dangerous by adding things like ‘demag strips’ which remove power from the mag drives (the things that make the cars float and move, essentially the tyres of the new era) which make the cars crash out most of the time past the speed of sound. Then there are occasionally extra hazards such as a ‘meat grinder’ which is a tunnel that closes in on the driver until only the cockpit can fit. Now as a racing nerd, the governing body of most Motorsports, the FIA would NEVER allow this at 300 KM/H, let alone 800!
What I did love about the book was the use of racing terms, being Motorsport is underrepresented in fictional media I loved seeing terms like hairpin and apex being thrown into the fray and it was great! Another thing I loved was the characters, the good guys were well thought out and had some great character development. Now the bad guys are comically evil, and this isn’t a bad thing given the demographic, spoiler >!i.e a race fixing bookkeeper or a Frenchman named Fabian who uses dirty tactics Now being the book was made for younger kids it was way below my reading level and I saw all the twists coming, this isn’t a complaint per-se because I was reading the book to tie up a loose end more than anything but it was still an enjoyable read and I do recommend it to you if you want to turn off most of your brain and enjoy the vroom vroom of hover cars! It’s also a great book for younger kids if you ignore the swearing (shit being the worst word) as it gives some good life lessons!

Background: Me and my boyfriend met each other last year in June 2023 online through mutual friends. We met inrl and spent the whole summer together (June & July). We also flew to the country where we met during winter break (Dec 2023) and spent a week or so together.
Our relationship was pretty healthy until a few months ago. We always managed a way to resolve conflict without holding any grudge against each other.
I admit that I have the tendency to be controlling and get mad at small things, and my boyfriend tends to be dense and shut down whenever he is upset or when we have disagreements. We both worked through our issues till I got into bad terms with his now Ex Best Friend.
It is so silly so please bear with me. My boyfriends ex best friend (lets call him Liam) and a girl that is his ex bffs ex girlfriend (lets call her Ava) got matching bracelets on a trip. My boyfriend decided to get a similar one for me as a gift. He accidentally crushed mine one day and decided to just give his friendship bracelet to me. A few weeks after, I was on a video call with his whole friend group because we used to be very close, and then Ava saw my bracelet. She told Liam and they both started getting mad at my bf for giving the bracelet to me. I tried to tell them they did not have to be mean towards my boyfriend but they insulted me instead (My boyfriend witnessed it but did not defend me). Shit went down and they posed this question, "Us or her", and my boyfriend said "ofc you guys, ive known you my whole life". Then he secretly messaged me saying he just said that to make them feel better and he knew that I know he is gonna choose me always. We talked it out and I ended up forgiving him, but would bring up the issue a few times. I already told him his friends are not good for him, a lot of them cheat on their partners, especially his ex bff, who still has feelings for Ava regardless of having a gf now for 2 years.
Fast forward to January 3, 2024. We gave our instagram accounts to each other prior to this for fun. We had nothing to hide. I had gotten curious if he still talked to Liam, and I saw their chats. It shattered my world. Liam was encouraging my bf to break up with me, and my boyfriend seemed to just agreed?? (This was between September- October 2023). The chats of them was just Liam who kept telling my boyfriend to break up with me while he just agreed. Liam also encouraged my bf to talk to this girl because "sometimes its good to talk to girls that are not your girlfriend". That is what he said word for word. I actually wanted to leave him at that point for that betrayal, but he kept asking for a second chance and that he would be better. I forgave him, but of course he broke my trust and the grudges against him started to build up. I demanded some type of compensation to make up for what he did, but it was never enough since we were LDR.
I started to become more irritated towards him and one day he snapped and ignored me for a full day. From then on we just argued and argued and I kept demanding him to chage and be better for me. He said he lost his patience because no matter what he did it was never enough for me to forgive him so he stoped trying altogether. He also now holds a lot of grudges towards me because of all the times ive wanted to fix arguments now instead of letting him sleep. The thing about me is Im the type of person who does not like prolonging problems and wanna fix things now. He also just sleep while im crying and having a mental breakdown. He would always leave call nowadays and give me the silent teeatment no matter how much I apologise, when sometimes it is not even my fault. Everything I do just annoys him and he is constanly mad at me. When he is at his peak he kept breaking up with me and I would always beg for him back, this has happened more than 5 times. Out of pure anger, he would also tell me he hates me and does not love me and I am annoying and say "fuck you". I admit I have swore at him but I immediately stopped and havent done it the moment I did. I miss how he treated me in the beginning. I feel like im the only one trying to save this relationship.
I havent seen him since January 3, 2024, and I will see him again on July, if we are together still. I really dont want to break up because I still love him so much no matter what he did.
What do I do? How do we both fix our relationship? Is it too late? Are his actions forgivable?

Hey so this is a big rant but I need to get this off my chest and don't really have anyone in real life to talk about this stuff to.
I've had a string of bad luck recently in terms of an abusive relationship and moving homes, getting a restraining order against them, and being dropped by a close friend group unexpectedly a few months ago.
I've also become a total shut-in, I can't help but feel like everyone hates me or something like that even when I have no reason to believe that.. Maybe this is related to the friend group stuff and some unprocessed trauma I don't know but now I'm in this place where I really want friends and to have a solid friend group again but I'm losing the motivation to try as whenever I go out to events I'll have conversations with mutual friends and they always say something like "we gotta do something soon!" but the plans always fall through. I'm so over putting in effort and feeling like its one-sided or getting played, both platonic and romantic relationships.
I have people mention to me that I must be so busy all the time and that I must have lots of friends. I tell them I don't really have friends or that I feel like everyone hates me people are always really confused to hear it and say that it's actually the opposite, but I just can't shake that paranoia that people just put up with me to be polite or something. I've only felt this social anxiety this bad in this last year.
I am tired all the time, although I sleep a lot. I used to wake up early and sleep 7-8 hours, exercise, hang out with people, work 5 days a week, study well, and now I go to bed at 4am (I can't fall asleep well anymore) and then I wake up at midday, feel bad about myself for that, don't exercise anymore because I'm still tired, never hang out with anyone, and quit one of my jobs because my mental health got so bad at one point I couldn't work as well as I used to. So now I only work 1-2 shifts a week, which weirdly feels like the biggest effort. I have become so exhausted and lack any motivation to do anything nowadays.
This is all stressing me out because I'm finding it hard to focus with my studies which isn't the best timing because I've got exams in a month and I must do well this semester.
I just feel like a failure because I'm 22, am only just in my first year of a bachelor degree (I switched degrees recently so I have to restart my whole degree again), don't really have friends, not really on good terms or close with my family and haven't become good or skilled at anything because I'm so disorganised and tired all the time, I've got an ex who keeps harassing me and although I'm really trying to stay positive about it all I'm really feeling a bit like life keeps trying to turn me into a villain or something.
Just curious what everyone else does for their depression, anxiety, trauma etc?
Been dealing with bouts of all the above lately and the things I usually do (art, music) aren't really fixing it like they used to.

Not sure if I'll even post this, but I thought it would be good to write down my feelings and vent a bit about this day. So much was written yet so little about the magical little cat named Luna. Sorry about the long text and the jumpiness.
Yesterday(Monday) around 2 in the morning my cat came home after been missing since Wednesday (most she's been gone was 3 days up until that point). She came and woke me, telling me as per usual that she's back. Went to the kitchen, but didn't come to bed. I checked when she didn't return and notice her laying on her back on one of my backpacks. She lifts her hind leg and Its dark so I only see a really big dark spot where there shouldn't be one. I get my glasses and notice there is a big chunk of skin missing and a hole the size of 1-2 fingers. I check for bleeding and see no traces.
I quickly google vets around and see if there is anything I should be doing.
Then there is this look... It's so serene. She's calm and she's happy. She was not much of a purrerr but she purred like never before when I was trying to comfort her.
I got my blankets and spent that night on the floor checking her breathing and petting her.
In the morning 8-10ish, we went to the vet clinic and they admitted her and told me that if they didn't call I would be able to pick her up around 16.
Around 14 I got a call saying that the muscle has been torn more than they can manage and the hole is 7cm deep so they felt inadequate to help and told me, that he called a former colleague to see if they could admit her at another, bigger vet hospital. He told me that it didn't look good and that the use of her muscle might/probably can't be fully restored. I went to pick her up, talked to the vet and explained options. I told him that this cat lives for the outdoors and she's already small and a target as it is. Without the full use of her legs to escape it just seems cruel. A life needs living in my opinion and becoming and inside cat was not an option for her.
My friend offered to pick me up and take me to the bigger vet, which meant so much. Needless to say I've been ugly crying alot during the talk with the vet, but I broke down again straight away when he gave me a hug.
I asked to talk about anything else. It became silent and he broke it with "kinda tense don't know what to come up with". Got me good with a laugh, it is one of those situations where nothing seems good enough to say. We small talked and stayed clear of the situation until we arrived. Hugged goodbye and off, me and Luna went to the last place she would ever be...
There were some dogs there in the waitroom, happy and seemingly healthy. I did my best not to breakdown in front of them and this one dog... Think it knew because he tried to come over with a comforting look. The owner held it back, which in retrospect was good, I wouldn't have been able to hold back if it reached me.
I came in to the room and had to wait a bit more to talk to a nurse. Luna was starting to come out of her drowsiness and I got her out of her bag.
She was visibly getting a bit worried so I put my chin on the top of her head and scratched her with my stubby beard (she always loved that) and it calmed her down.
The nurse came in and told me that they had to redo a check because it was hard to estimate the damage. But she was positive that she would be able to "walk" again. I broke down again.
Now I've lived 35 years without a diagnosis, and my masking is through the roof, but I was recently diagnosed with ADD and Autism. Reason for telling this is the fact that my analytical skills of words being used and body language needs to be top notch for my life in the society (and a hellish upbringing, but that's another story).
The words she used were those of "she can be alive, but probably not fully restored". I stressed that Luna is a outdoors cat and is not meant for the indoor life. She was a cautious explorer. Once she felt the outdoors, I knew it would never be possible to keep her indoors.
I told her that I need an expert opinion of the surgeon on the odds of being fully restored so there is no pain and no lingering effect.
The other issue was that since we didn't know the time of the damage, the wound was so close to the abdomen that it was possible that an infection could have gotten in but closed up.
She told me that once they sedate her and check, there won't be much time to talk, but that she would tell the surgeon the importance of her leg for the outdoors.
We came to an agreement that after the check, she would immediately call and give me some odds to decide.
I gave my cat all my love and scratched her in all the places she always loved. They took her to the surgery.
I was walking outside the hospital and called my mom. Thing is, these past 6 months have already been kind of hell (with the two upsides of finding a gf and getting diagnosed with medication). I had been unemployed at the worst timing and economically I am in a bad spot. Luna was uninsured and the costs was already above 1000euros at this point. And the surgery was gonna cost 2-4k more. My mom reinsured me that money is not a problem and to make my decision for the love of my cat and not the need to have her in my life nor money. This was so important because it was with out of doubt on my mind as well.
I went to the store nearby after a while to get something to drink and then the call comes in.
She told me that the muscle is torn off and will be hard to reattach properly, the wound was too big to stitch up in one go, which meant that she would have to be back again for more surgery. Maybe transplanting skin as well. I stopped her and asked, what percentage do you give her to be back to full health and be able to use her leg like before. I told her that I understand that it's an estimate and I can't count It as a guarantee. She told me that she was positive that she would be "ok"... Again I understood that we had a different opinion in what ok means. She said that she can give 70-80% that she will be "ok" with using it... My heart dropped... My cat won't survive the outdoors on "ok". She is already tiny and has a disadvantage, and to add the "without full use of her ability to run or jump" to that... The exactness is a bit hazy, but the jist for me was that there was a lower % of her being happy and fully restored.
"The only thing equal is that we are born unequal" My entire life I've lived in those 20% of bad luck. I remember when I met and got Luna, 2019. I remember the thought of things turning out "exactly" as they had unfolded now. I believe firmly in the thought of risking a short lifespan for a great life, rather than long but alive.
I thought about the fact of the unknown infection that could be in her abdomen. The possiblity of her not being able to regain full use of her leg. The infection risks of going back and forth at least two more times after this. The fact that even if, and it's a big if, things work out great, the healing process would be a long one.
I thought about all of these things and decided that I wouldn't let her experience all that hell. I asked them to put her to sleep for good.
I call it a "video graphic" memory and I will always be able to playback the loving times I had with her... The one that owned my entire heart. The cat that chose me as her human...
I feel bad that I killed my cat. I feel bad that I feel at ease. I feel bad that I didn't take the risk. I feel bad because I now don't have to worry evey time she is out longer than usual. I feel bad because now I don't have to check for her everytime she doesn't show up at regular hours.
I hate the paradoxal feelings of wanting my cat to be alive and thinking of the perks of not being responsible for another life.
I don't believe in good or evil. But I do believe in human selfishness... Did I just kill my cat because I couldn't bear the burden of her recouperation and the thought of having to go through that again? Did the fact that money was going to put me in even more stress than I'm already in sway me? Did my experience in the 20% decide her fate? Why did I only get literally 5minutes to calculate life vs death?
There is so much more in my mind and memory, so much of dots missing to connect everything and for anyone actually reading, I'm sorry for that.
This was written more for me than anything else. My acceptance of killing my cat.
Thank you for coming home one last time to say everything will be ok. You meant the world to me.