~Player always get better or cooler reward for helping other~
Player race - fiver options for customization
Ghoul
No radiation damage + slow regeneration + npc more mefiant and discrimination
Glowing ghoul =
No radiation damage + slow regeneration + npc shoot on sight need to convinced them you’re sane
Super mutant =
No radiation damage + Npc are scared and treat you like an idiot and discriminate
Synthétique =
The compount will hunt you down eventually
Human = no malus or bonus

Character background :
Ghoul / glowing ghoul : Old ghoul ; new ghoul ; vault
Human : Vault ; settler ; brotherhood ; institute
Super mutant: amnesiac
Synthétique : Railroad ; Mister handy (Miss nanny) Old, new, vault.
START
New arrivant decided to etablished themselves in an old farm close to the local town and become farmer.
First objectif :
- rebuilt home by scavenging in delapited town

• scavenging town to find seed (First seed of the player)
  
• Scavenging town to find gardening tool
  

Mechanics

Upgrade house by collecting enough scavenging material (metal, stone, tape, glue, etc…) and paid the town entrepreneur to do so.
Possibility to upgrade town by the same way : drinkable water ; defense ; radio tower ; museum ; school ; etc…
Defend home from wild attack (animal, raiders, super mutant, ect…) with gun and eventually autonomous turrets (later game) and engage mercenary to defed (late game). The more the player amass money, the more frequent the attack will be.
Scavenger will gossip about big event and some minor event that occurred in the settlement that you participated in.
Settlement gestion :

• Happiness (Festival ? ; npc request ; …)
  
• Sanitaire (Water access)
  
• Defense (Millitia ; autonomous turrets ; dogs)
  

Thirst gestion.
Can recolt skin, meat (and bones?) of wild animal.
Can recolt material, used to very used weapond, (rarely) health item, (meat and corpse body parts?) on intelligent humanoïds ennemy
Carrying can either be by weight of the item or by the number of item player can carry.

Farming

Season : Spring (middle season) ; Summer (high season) ; Automn (middle season) ; Winter (low season)
Tool: Hoe ; Scynthe ; Watering can ; Pickaxe hamme
Base crop value vs transform product :
Spring : -- ++
Summer : --- +++
Automn : ++ --
Winter : +++ ---

Can sell crop and other to nearest settlement (help with settlement relationship at first) or to traveling marchant.
The river close to your home have fish in it. It take two day for fish to repopulate. If seasonal fish have all be take out, it will take two years
Can raise different mutated animal. Sell them to the town for meat (or kill them and sell them yourself ?) or keep them alive for animal product. (Animal have life span?)
Transform product : Wine ; beer ; jelly ; dried spice,meat, fish ; cheese ; mayo ; butter
Farm building :

• Coop and barn
  
• Forge to fix used weapon
  

- Wind mill

• Food storage (?)
  
• Money storage (no bank, credit card or debit card. Need to carry in your inventary the money life in fallout)
  

Crop seed that can be found in the town :

• Potato
  
• Melon
  
• Wheat
  
• Corn
  
• Carrot
  
• Gourd
  

Seed you can buy for traveling marchants :

• Spice seed (basilic ; persil; etc..)
  
• Fruit seed
  
• Legume seed
  

( - Flower and house plant seed ? (Aloes??))

Fight

No power armor for the player :(
Can buy stimpack and radaway from settlement healer or from scavenger in the town (for a more expensive price). When reach high enough relationship with healer, he will give you the recipe for both. The only way to regain life and get rid of radiation (sleep and food don’t heal). (Sickness (malus) if health too low for too long?)
Gain radiation by drinking
The main fight zone of the game is the town. In the edge : house, a small commerce (tiny to small dungeon) ; Closer to the center: Office, appartement (small to medium dungeon) ; Center : Commercial center, sky scrapper, (subway?) (normal to big dungeon.
Some raiders and some synth will drop their weapons and beg for their life if the health is low enough. Spare enough of them and you will receive letter from either : the minuteman ; the brotherhood or the railroad to thank you for sending more recruit their way. Two or three will regularly visit town.

Relationship

Can get a dog as a perm. Companion (can choose race?) (Can breed you dog and gitf puppy to the settlement?)
Npc relationship possible bonus :
- Discount (from marchant)
- Recipe
- Special cut scene
- (Sometime) help on the farm

• (Sometime) help to defend the farm

Some npc love receving gift other will be inconfortable with it. But after (wedding?) no adverse reaction to receive gift.

• 2 gift a week
  
• 1 gift a month (After the first gift wil react more and more incomfortable, will start to lower relationship)
  

MAX : 2 gift a week
Might meet some settler in the edge of the town, scavenging like you.
Cause of relationship decay :

• Unlike gift
  
• (for some) offer to many gift
  
• 1 month with no interraction
  
• Answer choice
  
• Attacking townie (unkillable)
  
• Question choice
  

There’s a vault “near” the settlement. Gain their trust by doing quest (# depend on race of the player). Once they trust you and when you become mayor, they will become full allied and allow circulation between their vault and the settlement.
Romanceable npc
- # Ghoul

• Robot (Synth and miste handy (miss nanny)

• Super mutant

• Settler

- 1 Traveling npc
Special romance
- Mysterious stranger (need 10 Luck and insert condition)
Will randomly pop out of your house and pop back in. Will tell you about a lone wanderer, courrier or vault survivor he helped. Will come to your help in combat with baby in hand (if kid in the game)

• intelligent deathclaw (insert conditions)

Rival ? Date ?
If there’s kid in the game
Player will be able to have two kids. (Hatchling deathclaw will count as one if in a relationship with Deathclaw).
If player or spouse can’t have a kid (Super mutant ; ghoul ; Synth); player will get a quest about a raider camp in town. Discover all prisoner are dead except one human baby hidden by the body of his dead mother.
Quest reward : Congradulation you are a parent :D
If player can have kid; if spouse is a women, player will have to catter to their wife food craving (nothing with rare item) or face a penality in the relationship. If player is a women ; Malus in health, energy, slower deplacement and carrying capacity decrease the more and more the pregnancy advance. New choice of answer : pissed as fuck and hormonal. Spouse will insist to become a companion until end of pregnancy
Kid will go to school (town upgrade) for three day, help on the farm for three other and have a free day.

Stats

Strenght : carrying capacity (?) ; combat ; energy ; health ; defense
Perception : detect ennemy ; scavenging ; npc interraction
Endurence : health ; energy ; resistance
Charisma : batter ; persuasion ; Npc weariness ; # limit of resident npc in settlement
Intelligence : crafting farm upgrade (fertilizer ; spinkler) ; used weapon fixing
Agility : sneak ; weapon ; defense
Luck : loot quality ; gambling (?) ; crit chance (max starting points : 5)

Skill

Tree skill style possibility : Path of exile ; Outer world
Farming: Tilling - Watering
Fight: Heavy weapons- Light weapons- Melee
Defence : Dodge - Block
Stealth: Sneak- Lockpick - Hack
Endurance : Poison resistance - Radiation resistance - Thirst resistance
Persuasion: Batter - Intimidation - Persuation (?)
Scavenging : Deconstruct - Descerning eyes
Thinkering : Crafting - Engineering - Medecine
(Upgrade skill to upgrade stat? Once you upgrade a skill enough, it allow you to upgrade the stat?)

Quest :
Attempt murder on the player by the mayor once town upgrade and settler relationship high enough. Scare that they would lose their place to you to engage mercenary or try to poison you to keep their place. Force the mercenary to tell you who paid them or find a note on one of them or talk to the mayor after the attack (will be surprise to see you alive). You can :
- Bring him to justice and let the settler decide of his fate. (Will be possible to talk to him in prison)
- Execute him (will have to prove to the settler that this was auto-defense. Lose some relationship with settler)

• Let him life (will leave town. Grateful to be alive but bitter to have lose his title)

Result : Become mayor next election!
Raides have created a camp close to the settlement. Remove them. Player will find two npc in cage. You can :

• Let them there

-Help them out
-Kill them inside the cage
Result :

• They die
  
• Will eventually die of thirsth
  
• Will come to the town and become settlers
  

You’ve find a mister handy (or miss nanny) in the town. Why not fix them?
Result : They will propose you to help you on the farm. Accept and they’ll start working the day after. Refuse and they’ll becom settler. (Possibility to make them synth when relationship high enough?)

Find a sorry scene : deadraiders; a dead deathclaw; a nest with two crushed egg a one intact egg. You can :

• Sell the egg
  
• Eat the egg
  

-Hatch the egg
Result :

• Money
  
• Bost in one stat? Level upgrade?
  
• Get a baby deathclaw. Will be able to switch with you dog as perm companion. (If romanced the deathclaw, you spouse will leave with the hachtling for a season. When back the hatchling statut will change from animal to children and gain dialogue)
  

The river close to your house is drying. Discover the reason. The river goes into a cavern and to a lake.
Result : new fish
There’s a thirsthy and hungry homeless man at the edge of the settlement. You can :
-Give him food and water for a week
-Let him there
-kill him
Result :
-They get back on their feet and eventually open an inn in town. Will sometime offer you free drink an talk to you about stranger he hepled by following your exemple.
-They will slowly die an talk with more and more difficulty. (Which led to kill him)
-Burry him and make a small tomb or let him root there. Will get eaten by wild animal.

Guiding an injured npc to the town
Result :??

The settlement don’t have enough food for the winter and ask for your help. You can :

• Refuse
  
• Accept
  

Result :

• -- relationship with settler and some settler will die
  
• ++ reward if accept
  

Help to defend the settlement (before settlement defense upgrande)
Result :??

The scientist of the vault ## think they can help you rediscover old world crop see.
Result : new seeds :D

End game quest :
The vault now trust you enough to tell you about the G.E.C.K.S. The received one that ended up defective and never received the second. They want you to go to the vault building in the center of the town and see if you can find any information about it. Vault tower will be the most difficult dungeon in the game. Beat it to find that the G.E.C.K.S was sent to a second vault that was either unfinished or an experimentation. Go the the vault ## to discover that the G.E.C.K.S had taken some damage from bad condition and bad storage. Get all the item to fix it and either fix it yourself (no money cost) or ask to a vault scientist to fix it (+++ money cost)
Result : The map surrounding your house, the vault and the town will become more and more green with beautiful tree (Process will take ### day or month or years)

I have a contract with an agency last 2018 pa. It is a J1 internship, but I got refused for visa twice so I decided to just withdraw the application in 2020 before the Pandemic. Stated in the contract that they will return the money (my refund less the expenses) 45 days after they received the letter but its been 4 years already and puro lang sila pangako na mag rerefund, they even emailed me na before 2023 ends, they will give my refund. Talked to the owner already last Feb 2024 and he asked me to give him a month to settle it, I asked for an update after a month and of course another excuse na naman. I have all the evidence naman na they should return my money, I even contacted their partner agency in US already and they confirmed that they already refunded my placement fee last 2020 pa, and this agency here sa PH are saying na till now di na daw nila ma contact and di pa rin nila na rerefund money ko sa US. lol!!
I really don’t know my next action na since sobrang nakaka stress na silang kausap, tried filing a complaint sa DTI pero they endorsed me to Dole which is di naman nila tinanggap since di siya pasok sa jurisdiction nila.
Can I file this sa small claims court? Super desperate na since pinahiram lang siya ng tita ko sakin and sinisingil niya na ko 😩

Here is the recap of the 11 monetized posts from Kylea G Weight loss Journey on 05/18/24.
"Greed is a never-ending hunger, that drives people to sacrifice morals and values for personal gain." -Unknown
⚠️ Compulsive Buying Disorder (CBD), aka shopping addiction, Disordered Eating, Gaslighting, Grief, Illness, Infertility, TTC (trying to conceive) Community, and Religion will be discussed.
Disclaimers: I am not a physician, influencer, or paid content creator. I am not affiliated with WW. I am semi-retired from the healthcare field with multiple college degrees. These opinions are my own based on social media content. I wish no harm to Kylea or Joseph "Joe" Gomez.
☎️ If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, please call or text 988 for assistance.
Behind the Scenes Family Update: Kylea Gomez has been exploiting a life-changing medical diagnosis of a close relative (without their permission and against their wishes) to internet strangers in social media messages. She has claimed that she is supporting this relative (which is a lie) to justify her work ethic, productivity, and even basic hygiene issues. Let that sink in for a moment...
To this relative: You, your family, and your medical team are in my prayers. ✝️
To Kylea's Biological Parents: Your daughter disparages your name and relationship for personal and financial gain frequently. No concert, trip, or gift provided to you with money obtained under (allegedly) false and deceptive pretenses justifies Kylea's disturbing behaviors. Stop enabling her.
California Clarification: Kylea was rejected by a Cavapoo breeder from adopting the Original Birdie (OB) during her California trip. I am thankful to the breeders of OB for making a tough decision in the best interest of the puppy. For me, this seals the deal that Kylea falsified details of this California trip and rushed home to find Backup Birdie (BB), who is the focus of today's content.
The tagline of Kylea G Weight loss Journey is, "I changed my entire life with prayer and a playlist of songs. No surgery, no meds. Just Jesus."
DAILY STATS: 05/18/24
0/11 posts discussed prayer
0/11 posts discussed music
0/11 posts discussed exercise
3/11 posts discussed a recipe
1/11 posts was about takeout "coffee" at 5 am
7/11 posts were about Birdie Mae 🐶
📢 For our friends at Meta, that means 63% of Kylea's monetized content had nothing to do with weight loss, which is the tagline and purpose of her page. Her weight loss journey ended July 2023 per her content. Why do you continue to pay her for non-weight loss content?
⚠️ Disordered Eating- Daily WW Points Used (Data compiled from monetized content):
1 WW Point: Crazy Llama "coffee" with almond milk, sugar-free vanilla, sugar-free peppermint, and sugar-free white chocolate
3 WW Points: Taco Soup with 12 Trader Joe's Rolled Corn Chili & Lime flavored Tortilla Chips
📢 For our friends at Meta, Kylea consumed 4 WW points out of (up to) 30 daily WW points= SEVERE disordered eating. This messaging is deadly for those on a weight loss journey. Follow your policies and take action.
Recipes Shared: 1. Taco Soup: 🚨 This recipe has dangerous sodium levels. Please know your daily sodium recommendations before making this recipe. 🚨

1. Taco Rice Bowls: The soup is drained and added to 1 minute jalapeño rice with cheese. 🚨 The sodium alert is the same as above. 🚨

☎️ Please speak with a medical professional about any questions or concerns you have about your health.
Comments: To the animal lovers, I am sending you good vibes to get through this nonsense. Here we go...

1. Coffee at 5am: Kylea and Joe are pictured in their vehicle outside Crazy Llama Coffee with the sun shining bright. Kylea claims she was home at 5 am, and Joe took her right away to get her "favorite coffee."

⏸️ The sun rises in Joplin after 6 am. Why lie? ⏸️ Her facial sunburn that disappeared yesterday is back today. How did that happen? ⏸️ Kylea claims she does not have cravings or temptations. However, she is addicted to sweet. Her "coffee" is beige colored at best, and she needed it right away...

1. Backup Birdie Part 1: Her airline approved pet travel accessory backpack is shown in the vehicle. "All my dog mom dreams are coming true today 💖 🐶"
   
2. Backup Birdie Part 2: "My heart is so full!!! 💖 🐶 I got the cuddliest, cutest, sweetest girl. 😭 I cried when I met my puppy for the first time because I love her so much already!!"
   

⏸️ Kylea's followers immediately started asking to see pictures and were told they needed to wait until after Kylea's family met her first. HoWeVeR, some influencers (bestie Drue Basham, Drue's SIL Sierra, Brittany Bryant, etc.) got to see her first and comment from their influencer accounts about Birdie. I'm sorry, loyal top fans and followers, possible cross-engagement from "trusted" influencers is more important than respecting your loyalty. Welcome inside the mind of a 🐈 🐟 er. Always trying to boost engagement, the algorithm, and gain new followers...

1. Taco Soup Recipe: 🚨 This sodium monstrosity has canned beans, jarred salsa, enchilada sauce, rotel, roasted corn, a ranch seasoning packet, a taco seasoning packet, fresh chicken, and water. 😲
   
2. Backup Birdie Part 3: "Welcome home 🏠 to our forever girl 🎀 Birdie Mae 🐶 She's already following Joseph and I around and has brought us so much joy. 🌈 🎀"
   

⏸️ The puppy shown does not appear to be a Cavapoo, and Kylea refuses to answer follower questions about her breed. Remember, Birdie was not supposed to come home until May 20th, then May 19th.
To all individuals in the TTC Community, I know the 🌈 is a powerful symbol for you. I have experienced pregnancy loss and fertility care. My heart hurts for anyone triggered by the language Kylea uses and humanizing pets in reference to pregnancy loss. 🙏

1. Backup Birdie Part 4: "The moment I held her, I just knew she was meant for me.🎀 🐶 She loves all of the cuddles which is good because I do too. 💖"

⏸️ Not one reference of her "sweet boy" Oliver or Alice. Where are the cats? BB is asleep on Kylea.

1. Taco Soup Part 2: 🚨 Since it wasn't salty enough, why not put some chili & lime tortilla chips on top? Chef's 💋. Kylea held the bowl, showing her barefoot on the floor. I did NOT miss her feet content. 🤢
   
2. Backup Birdie Part 5: "We already love her so much 🎀 💖" BB is asleep in a fuzzy blanket on her puppy bed.
   
3. Backup Birdie Part 6: Within 30 minutes of this writer posting info in Reddit chat of how to file an animal complaint in Joplin, MO as a PSA (not a threat) encouraging Kylea & Joe to be crystal clear about Alice's whereabouts, a picture of Joe cuddling BB with Alice behind him on the couch is posted. "Joseph loves Birdie Mae too 💖 🐶 So far she loves to sleep 😴"
   

⏸️ 3 animals are now housed in a small apartment. Two cats with behavioral issues and a young puppy. Kylea can claim she will have no issues because "it will be fine," but she is ignorant, immature, and selfish. Wise followers will remove their rose-colored glasses and see the truth. There is a theory Alice was edited into the photo again...

1. Taco Soup Part 3: 🚨 No more takeout for Joe! He gets to eat Taco Soup Rice Bowls for work lunches this week.

⏸️ On the recent McDonalds post, a smart follower asked what Joe eating McDonalds had to do with WW. Kylea replied it was a "balanced lifestyle." Remember, Kylea & Joe want you to believe Joe has not gained weight no matter what he eats, with photo evidence (even modified) proving differently. Kylea's chains were broken 07/05/21. No cravings, temptations, plateaus, weight gain...a perfect journey to this day (and forever). 😇 Please disregard her obvious eating disorder and mental illnesses. Seek medical care, Kylea Gomez. ☮️

1. Backup Birdie Part 7: A 12-second video is shared of BB playing with a squeaky toy on the carpet.

⏸️ No Oliver, Grams, or Gibson content today. Kylea told her followers (in a comment) that Oliver had not met the puppy. It's good to see your "sweet boy" and subject of a ridiculous amount of monetized content is already booted engagement wise.
Final thoughts: Money reveals people's true colors. 👀 Buckle in for a nauseating amount of BB nontent.
Takeout: Crazy Llama takeout for 2: $16 est + tip;
All info from Reddit. ✌️

The fireworks themselves didn't bother her, the noises at all. There was a new firework I've never heard, sounds like a little toy car you pull backwards a few times then you can let it rip.
She didn't stop barking for over an hour. Every noise after that she barked at, people on the streets or doors closing. A house on our block had a dog they let outside every 20 minutes would just bark and would rile her up.
It was a very, very long night.

Dog owners are just as bad as the shit dog itself. My mom brought her dog to my house (800 mile drive) after I politely requested she doesn’t ( it chews things, barks constantly, chases my car). She brings the dog, it immediately chews one of my kinds stuffed animals, corners the car and barks at her,leaves drool and chunks of its chew toys all over my house, and digs holes in my backyard, and my mom is completely oblivious that the dog needs training, “oh she’s just a puppy lol’. Well yesterday she got loose , got into the neighbours yard and attacked one of their chickens, and she yells at my son for accidentally letting it out. (That’s the moment I realized, although I’ve never liked dogs, dog owners and this weird dog phase society in are the problem.) I immediately told my mom it’s ‘not my kids fault you don’t train your dog, this is on you ‘. She lost her mind on me and said she was going to leave and that I hate her dog (I do), and it was just sad and revealing how much denial she and so many dog owners are in that dog ownership is so much more than walking and feeding it. You as a dog owner need to train it, and also be fucking accountable for your fur baby when it does something dumb.

Just interested in people's thoughts of how to approach this. Located in England. There is a lady who has a large dog who lives nearby who is always off leash. She seems to have no control over the dog, and every time she is out it sees my dog and runs over barking and growling, it take her a good 30 seconds to a minute to be able to call it away. This has happened maybe a dozen times over the last few months. My dog will not do anything but gets quite stressed by this, particularly when he's on a lead. Off lead he tries to run away from it and this dog chases him and doesn't let up. This has happened on the road and my local parks to the point that I now don't feel it is safe to walk my dog in my local neighbourhood in case this dog attacks mine. This happened again this morning and I said to her simply, your dog really needs to be on a leash. Cue a barrage of insults and her trying to follow me home. This area is right outside my home and so I'm a bit stuck in terms of walking my dog, and honestly worried about even taking him out to the verge to use the bathroom. I suspect the lady may have mental health issues which I sympathise with, but there is essentially a huge no go area directly around my home that is off limits to me if I don't want my dog harassed and potentially bitten.

Hi all, I am looking for some advice and guidance. I originally got a Collie x GSD male at 10 weeks old. Apart from the barking at strangers and nipping he was great. I read up and visited the vets where I found that fact he is male and perhaps underestimated could be a factor. I decided to get him a friend, slightly older puppy which is a female and lab x collie. I was told that female dogs and a lab temperament would be ideal. However, the second Puppy is not what I expected at all. She was 5 months old when I got her, barks more than the male, has severe separation anxiety to the point she breaks out of crates and overall ironically much worse thany male dog. I am looking for advice on where to go from here, while they are the best of friends, never fight and keep each other company I can't help but feel regret of whether I should of got what I originally wanted which was a female GSDxCollie. The lab is dirtier, messier with food and also jumps up on people with no manners. I have no children, live at home and also work from home. Not sure what I'm here for really but both are treated the same, yet I feel a significant resentment towards the lab pup. Thanks in advance.

This happened about 2 years ago, and we are still no contact because of this issue. Protagonists: my mother (F72), who had 8 dogs at the moment of the event, and I (F39)
A little bit of background:
My mother was a horrible mom to me. She didn't like me very much. When she went out for the weekend going on agility tournaments (dog sport competitions) with my sisters and their dogs, she would leave me alone at home without any money or food. I was lucky when I could find some oats in a cupboard and eat them with water.
As a kid growing up I thought we were just poor, but as an adult I understand she just blew all her money on these tournaments and the trips to them (including gas money and hotel costs as well as the registration fees for the runs).
When I was sick, she never took me to the doctor's. She just didn't care enough about me. I grew up in Germany, going to the doctor's would have been free for her. But it was too much of a hassle to care for a sick child.
On the other hand, she would of course go to the vet as soon as one of her dogs were ill. The dogs were vaccinated, I was not. I wasn't important enough to get vaccinations.
After running away from home with 16, I didn't have much contact to my mother for a long time.
A few years ago, around 2018, I made a conscious effort to mend our relationship. Or to create a relationship at all.
I live about 1000 km away from her in another country, so we mostly called each other. I took the main part in calling her because she is very poor and inter-country calls are very expensive. Her old-age pension is ridiculously low (about 800 Euros, roughly 870 USD per month).
We talked a lot, and I had the feeling we were getting close for the first time in my whole life. It felt good. I finally had the feeling of having a mother. We talked about major events in our life. I shared with her how I was managing to get out of dept (my restaurant went under, and I had a lot of debt to repay).
She was very aware of how much I make and that I was working two fulltime jobs at the same time to pay back my debt. And she also knew how demanding and tiring the workload was for me, but how proud I was of myself.
Now to the event:
One day in October 2022 my mother called me with joy and excitement in her voice.
She said: 'I have a fantastic idea, but I need your help!'
I was excited about her obvious happiness and asked eagerly what it was about and how I could help her.
She: 'There is this dog in the rescue center of your sister. I thought you could buy it for me. You would pay all the big bills like the buying price and the vet. I would provide food and the dog would be living with me up until I am to weak too hold her any longer. Then your dog would be living with you.'
I needed a moment to process this ridiculous proposal. I asked to be sure I understood everything correctly: 'So I would buy the dog, it would be living with you, but I would have to pay any bigger costs for the dog? And in a few years I will have to take it in?'
She, delighted: 'Yes! Isn't that an awesome idea?'
I: 'No, absolutely not. I don't have any spare money. I can't provide for a dog which isn't even mine, and you already have 8 dogs! You are broke, you can't buy yourself good food. You can't provide for the dog, either.'
(English isn't my first language. I told her the points nicely. If it's sounding harsh that's because of my bad translation.)
She went quiet. Then said she had to go and hung up.
I tried calling her a couple of times over the next few weeks. She didn't take my calls nor did she call me back.
Christmas came and went. No call from my mom, no letter, nothing. My birthday came. Still radio silence.
I called a last time at her birthday last year and she picked up. She talked 15 minutes about herself, I couldn't get a word in. She didn't ask how I was doing, nothing. When we ended the call, I knew the relationship was over.
So, that's how I lost my mom for good. Because I didn't want to buy her a ninth dog.
TLDR: My mother wanted me to buy her an additional dog and to cover all bigger costs for the dog as well. When I refused, she basically ghosted me.

I had a strange relationship with deconstruction as my dad was trained at a university level to do apologetics. He was an LDS chaplain in the Army, and every night for scripture study, we got discourses on the nuances of our faith and justifications for every question we ever had. I didn’t swear until I was 18 years old, or drink caffinated anything until about that time as well, because it was never a matter of justification. It was what my family, my tribe, my people did, to go to church on Sunday, and to be worthy. I was senior patrol leader and assistant to the bishop if that clarifies who I was. I didn’t have “God will reveal it in due time” parents. I had “Here’s the answer, here’s contemporary discussion about it. Here’s some reading material if you want to learn more” parents, except for they were wicked smart, and had biased conclusions.
I was called to serve in the Mexico City East mission. Shortly before opening my mission call, I broke up with my girlfriend at the time. i left BYU-I and went home to prepare. I received my endowments after lying to my stake president about my worthiness to enter the house of the lord. I came clean, and he threatened to not let me go out for a year because I was unclean. The prick made me talk to a therapist to be cleared for the mission field. The therapist had a brain and let me go out. When I was giving my mission farewell speech, I wrote it to include the teachings of many religions in it. I had drawn inspiration from the 13th article of faith “We believe all things, hope all things-“ and wrote a poem about how Adam and Eve related to the Resurection and Atonement of christ. My dad tells me the stake president was shifting in his seat like he wanted to pull me down from the pulpit. Prick.
The CCM was a pleasure to attend because of my district. The guys in my district there held a secret thanksgiving feast after hours when we were supposed to be in bed with food we had smuggled out of the cafeteria. We had look outs so we wouldn’t be caught by the patrolling teachers. My district was placed under surveillance because of politics against our spanish teacher who we could tell actually cared about us, and we were transferred into a classroom with one sided mirrors, and microphones hanging from the ceiling. An apostle came to speak to the entire CCM, and I thought we would get a chance to meet with him directly, or that he would be even remotely accessible in some way. He was kept away from us, separate and removed even though we had the same mission. I played a lot of volley ball, and got into shape enough that I touched the rim of a basketball hoop for the first time while I was there.
My first companion was a native speaker, and liked to spend the mornings in the cyber (Internet Cafe). He would make sure I was on LDS.org while he looked at softcore porn on instagram. We would spend hours there, and I was disappointed that this was the mission.
We went to a previous investigators house, and while there, we saw preparations for an animal sacrifice. These guys were putting alcohol, cocaine, and blowing smoke onto a white chicken, and placed in into a cardboard box with a bunch of black chickens. They showed us a room full of weapons, with blood and feathers strewn all over the floor. We noped the fuck out, and went home.
I requested an emergency transfer after spending most days in the cyber, watching my companion deface JW’s property, and being an all around dick to me by telling me how to shower and how to sleep.
For his replacement, the person that would help me with his bastion of knowledge, they gave me a white guy who spoke as much Spanish as I did because he was only a transfer further into his mission than me. They made this poor kid senior companion to me before his first transfer was over. Why? Because the kid was a workaholic.
The first thing this elder and I did when we got to our apartment was to pick up and leave to go to the house of a member who had just died. We sang at the wake. I sang in a language I didn’t know, for people I didn’t know, with a companion I didn’t know. We sounded pretty damn good. The elder began setting appointments with the non-believing family members during the service. I just sat and watched the mindless kids chase the family dog.
This elder skipped lunch every day, and made me do the same. We knocked every door in our area twice that transfer. One time, he got very sick, and was delirious out in the sun with me while we were walking. I made us go home for lunch that day, and he made me promise to wake him up after thirty minutes so we could get back to the Lord’s work. Three hours later he woke up, chewed me out for letting him sleep that long, and then begrudgingly thanked me for making him rest.
One time, while walking, this Elder expressed to me that he also had some questions, but he was afraid to share the details because he knew my own testimony was fragile. I pressed him for details of his plight, and he revealed to me the darkest part of church history that he had learned while we were in the CCM, that Joseph Smith had drank alcohol while in Carthage Jail before he died. Thoughts of Fanny Alger, of Mountain Meadows Massacre, and of my own mother’s rather recently implemented looser interpretation of the word of wisdom all flashed through my head. This guy was supposed to be my teacher? All I could do was express how sorry I was for his confusion, and told him to have faith. Heaven knew I couldn’t help him.
One night with this companion, it was storming hard, and the streets were flooded. This guy refused to let us go home. We climbed along fences to avoid getting our already wet shoes soaked, and waded through a foot of water to get to the doors that were slammed in our faces. There was a loose wire on a door bell, and when I rang it, I was shocked by the completed circuit the water made. Rejection after rejection piled up. Finally, my “senior” companion said that this was the last row of houses. On the last house of the last row, there was a family that was all deaf. The father opened the door, and was suprised to see us and didn’t know who we were. I remembered the sign for Jesus from my grandparents who started and ran the ASL endowment ceremony in the Saint George temple. The family was thrilled we knew the sign. When I asked if we could come in, the family politely waved goodbye and closed the door on our faces.
Another time when it rained, something fell into my eye. It was one of those freak nature accidents, and small enough that I couldn’t figure out how to get it out without a mirror. The thing stayed wedged in the corner of my eye for hours before we got home and I could finally get the foreign object out. Looking at it on my finger, I could see it was a small green spider. Days later, still in pain, I pulled what I can only assume was accumulated webbing from the spider that I’d crushed against my eyeball off of my lower eye lid. The pain stopped after that.
I bought a $500 camera. It was stolen within a month.
This Elder and I had the good luck before transfers to baptize two children. They would have been baptized anyways, so I didn’t do any actual converting, but I taught a few lessons, got in the water and did the dunk. Bucket list item, check.
I didn’t have enough time for laundry on P-Day, so I’d wash my outfit and dry in on the radiator through the night. Transfers happen, and my new companion lied to our land lords about the electricity bill, paying it in full but not giving a reason as to why it was so high. I didn’t care anymore, I just needed something clean to wear, but these land lord had treated me and my previous companion well, better than the previous landlord who had stolen our cleaning supplies. I felt these people deserved honesty. My senior companion capitulated eventually, and he and I butted heads regularly after that on the morality of things. I think in hindsight he was a smarter and better man than I was.
The new land lords, the “Lagunez Family”, were wonderful. They included us in their activities, and I felt like I had some people in my corner. When I eventually came home from my mission, a daughter of the family had written me a goodbye letter. She is currently serving a mission. They made some great music, and I have “Infiltradors” on CD, the official name of the band the father of the family was a part of (he was the drummer).
I knew the whole area by heart by that point, so I navigated us to our appointments. Half of the landmarks I watched for to know our location were interesting buildings with unique colors. The other half of my landmarks were dead dogs whose decaying corpses had become second nature to see. I began marking how much time had passed by how deeply a certain dog on a certain dirt path’s chest was caved in.
There was an apartment complex in my area that I had been told not to proselytize in because “It’s dangerous.” Turns out, those people didn’t have any money, so the church didn’t want them. That complex was past the dog and to the east about ten blocks.
My companion and I knocked on a door, and visited a man who was missing his legs. His daughter was there, putting dirty water on the aching wounds. He had a single room for a house, and wheezed when he spoke. He couldn’t afford medication. He still went out and worked all day for his daughter, and gave her whatever money he made, trusting her to keep him alive somehow. The church expected this man to pay tithing. The church expected me to tell this man to pay tithing.
I got the chance to hike up a mountain. At the top, I played chess with a chess set I’d procured from one of the best rapid chess players I’ve ever met. He had been the ward mission leader. He was a good man, a good father, and I wish him the best.
I found another man who was deaf and spoke sign language. I sat with him, and convinced him to come to church all by myself while my companion talked with some tienda tender. I was so excited because this was my own personal project and it was going well. The man came to church, and I sat with him through sacrament meeting. In Sunday school (I can’t believe I did this), I accidentally drooled on the guy. I was just talking so he could read my lips, and I guess I forgot to swallow at some point because a dolup of spit landed on his arm. I apologized profusely, and he played it off, but I never saw that investigator again.
My companion and I knocked a door one day, and a man answered. He wore tattered clothes, and maggots were burrowing into and out of his feet. He muttered something about the stars, missing his wife, and he began to tear up. My eyes stung from the stench. The door closed. Somehow, I knew the man would be dead in a matter of weeks.
I had lost hope that I was doing anything worth while. I looked down on the Doc Martins that had stayed with me five months at this point. I was angry with myself for being so useless in the field, angry with the church for giving me leaders that didn’t listen to my needs or perspective, angry with my mom for drinking while I had to teach people that it was a sin, angry with my dad for giving me the skills and knowledge to justify anything, even pedophilia in the early days of the church, to the point where I could look someone in the eye, and knowing the kind of man Smith was, tell them he was a good man and a true prophet of God. Suddenly a man approached us. He said he recognized us as missionaries, and asked about our message. This never happened. People didn’t just come up to us unless they were crazy or dangerous. But this was a public place, and this guy was genuine. My companion talked to him, and gathered his story, but I was plotting something else. I was done with not caring about these people in a way that mattered. I was tired of walking in another man’s shoes, a man who wasn’t me, who believed different things than me. The chopped leg, the rotting dogs, the infested feet, it all swirled into a single thought in that moment.
What would Jesus do?
I walked over to the man, and in broken Spanish asked him to stand next to me. He did so, and I compared my shoe size to his foot. It was a perfect match. He protested, but I didn’t let him get a word in edge wise. I took off my shoes, put them on his dirty feet, and laced them up nice and tight. Those shoes had cost a ton, and had been meant to last the whole mission. All I had left at this point were my fancy dress shoes that gave my blisters back at the apartment. I didn’t care. I walked home in my socks that day, happy as a lark.
Covid-19 hit a month later. I was one of the few they brought home instead of quarantining. After having served only 6 months. I told God if he wanted me to stay home, he’d have to make them release me.
They released me. I think I was one of maybe a hundred missionaries that were released due to Covid. The church realized their mistake pretty soon after I was released. Once Covid infrastructure began to develop, they didn’t release any more. I guess I didn’t serve a full two years, but I did serve a full mission.
My brother served, and he nearly killed himself due to intense depression brought on by Covid quarantine and poor leadership (I’ve got a few mission president stories, but those are for another time).
I learned lying to someone’s face from my mission, and spent the rest of my time at BYU-I as “nuanced” until the last two years, over which the most epic hoe phase imaginable became my new mission. I spent those years terrified of getting a call from the honor code office.
I’m married now, with my degree irrevocably in my possession. I have friends and loved ones that are in the church and are working on their mission papers. I’m beginning to feel powerless again. I’m seeing the decay again, not on legs, feet, or dogs anymore, but in the souls of the people who the church raises to do their dirty volunteer work. I see them like the animal sacrifices I saw being prepared. I’m not sure what shoes I have left to give to those people that I know are going to be in pain.
My parents are out completely now. It was a long time coming, but they are out and so much happier. I’m working on building a new relationship with my family, one based off of the fact that we won’t be together forever, so we have to make the most of our time together now.
Happy Sunday guys, best of luck to you all. And most importantly, chupa la piña.

Hey guys, I’ve had my 3yo lab/pit, Lucky, for two years. The first summer I had him, he was attacked at a dog park and developed severe reactivity. I’ve been taking him to reactive classes weekly and he has been (slowly) improving and I’m insanely proud of him. I love him so much but honestly, I’ve just about had it and I don’t know what to do.
Despite being an early riser, I wait until after midnight to take my dog to the park when it will not be populated since there are no other fenced areas for him to run in. This evening someone pulled up on us so I put him on the leash but before I could get out of the park the newcomer let their dog out of the vehicle. Lucky instantly started lunging and barking and pulled me to the ground, dragging me halfway across the park before I could get a hold on him. During the scuffle my middle finger got caught in the leash and snapped. I’m looking at a month of recovery time, and with one hand, I cannot take him anywhere. Hell, I broke down and cried when I got back from the ER because it was almost impossible to fasten his harness and get him out of the car. I’m so embarrassed. I know it was just a stranger but when he drags me I feel like the BIGGEST CLOWN. It’s gotten better since using a front clip harness but he outweighs me and I can’t always react before he does.
And I wouldn’t be AS upset about it if there were any form of remorse from him, but there isn’t. He’s not an affectionate dog to begin with and whenever I start crying, he leaves the room. He doesn’t like to cuddle and he FLIPS OUT anytime anyone comes over, and as I live alone I’m fucking LONELY. The idea of trying to get someone in my house with only one hand, much less have any control on Lucky when they’re inside, is impossible. I can’t even stick him in a crate because he gets mad and starts stripping his toes. I don’t know what to do guys. I just feel like an idiot and so alone.

Hey, so I've been using FL Studio in order to create more dynamic mumble-speak esque voicelines for my games (for those not familiar with the specific term, it's the Banjo Kazooie 'every letter is a different toned SFX' approach). I originally did it this way so I could manually create a few specific 'audio phrases' using the SFX of choice, pitched up and down to communicate mood and intonation.
However, I want to go a little further, and I'd like advice on how I should go about this, as an amateur audio engineer.
Right now, I've mostly just been importing the 'voices' of specific characters into FL studio, fiddling around with the settings until I like it. However, I don't really like how my 'voicelines' are just one note/tone, and I wanted to add more into the mix. I want to do this by effectively, getting more samples from whatever I was using as the character's 'voice' and thus creating different syllables for them.
Problem is, I'm not sure how I should go about this more efficiently in FL Studio's workflow. I've previously just used one track per voiceline, but I'm not sure how I can coordinate multiple different instruments on the same track as I'm very inexperienced with music/sound software.
I'm not even sure if it's possible to have multiple instruments on the same track - but the process of switching back and forth on the instruments to try and coordinate it sounds like a really tiring affair, as if I want to make even the most minute change, I'd have to flip between two tracks over and over to make adjustments. Am I missing something? Either way, I hope someone can point me toward a better approach.

Buster growled softly, baring his teeth at me as he stood in defiance. His stance rigid and unyielding, his tail stiff, and ears pinned back - he watched my every move with alert eyes.
My 3-year-old German shepherd had intuitively figured out the prospect of an upcoming bath when he saw me reach for the towel, and decided to give me a hard time over it.
“I know buddy. I am not happy about it either. But I will make it quick. I promise,” I tried to reason, holding up both hands to reassure him.
‘But it’s not even been a week…’ I could almost imagine him saying those exact words to me when he growled back in protest.
“You’re right...But listen, man. You’re dirty. I can feel your presence from here,” I said, standing ten feet away and pretending to cover my nostrils with my finger.
Buster, of course, didn’t care and continued to defy without hesitation.
I put my hands on my hip and sighed. My glance immediately shifted to a hose attached to a tap outside my quarters.
“Tell you what. I’ll make it worth your while. You don’t mind the jet spray, right? In fact, you even tolerate it sometimes,” I said, pointing to the hose located only a few feet away.
“How about a little cooperation now, and I’ll make you your favorite meal a little later?” I asked him, while reaching out to pick a can of chicken liver from the kitchen.
As I dangled the can in my hand, I could see it slowly chipping away at his resolve, his mind grappling with the pros and cons of my new proposal.
A moment later, Buster barked at me twice and slowly made his way out of the house. He sat by the garden tap, ready to receive his bath.
I took a handful of lotion and began to rub it against his torso to remove all the muck and grime that was sticking to his body. We had been quite busy lately, guarding the base and conducting multiple patrols along the perimeter every day. The rain a few hours ago certainly didn't help matters, with Buster leaping over puddles of water and actively rolling in the mud to escape the desert heat. I had to use a brush to remove the layers of dirt that had caked all over his body.
It’s been a strange week, to say the least. The days were busy but peaceful, while the nights brought scattered, random sounds. Their origins were a mystery, as they appeared not to originate from the base. But I wasn’t too worried about it, not yet anyway.
There is an air base located a couple of hours away from the facility, and it wasn’t unusual for them to conduct sorties at odd hours in the night. I assumed they were probably testing out some new technology.
My colleague Joe thought the same thing as well. But we couldn’t take any chances, and we both had a job to do. So we conducted regular patrols around the base just as a precautionary measure.
But deep down, I felt something nagging at me, like I was being watched by someone or something. I couldn’t exactly put it into words.
For a second, I wondered if Buster too felt the same way when I saw him suddenly lift his head up, listening intently with his ears up in attention.
I quickly turned back to check if there was anybody standing behind me, but I found no one. When I turned around to face him again, I saw him looking up at the night sky, his gaze focused and unwavering.
“What’s it buddy? You see something?” I asked him as I cleared away the foam from his face. Moments went by slowly. And then, just like that, as if nothing had happened, he put his head down and began pawing my leg, urging me to finish his bath. I sighed again and turned on the hose, to wash off all the soap.
He finally looked presentable and I have to admit, his coat glistened beautifully under the moonlight.
Before I could reach for his towel, Buster swiftly moved in to close the gap between us and looked me in the eye dead serious. He then shook his body vigorously, much like a wet dog trying to rid itself of wetness, and trotted off without bothering to look back.
I laughed out loud as I sat there, drenched in water. I knew I should have seen that coming. However, my smile quickly faded, as it also reminded me of Jessica, my ailing wife.
Before another thought could take shape in my mind, I heard a familiar voice blare across the radio.
“Mike, I need you down here. Get to the post quick.”
It was my colleague Joe and I replied back in the affirmative. I quickly grabbed my gear and signaled Buster to follow after me.
When I reached the post, I saw Joe standing there armed with his rifle. As a seasoned war veteran with two tours under his belt, Joe was a dangerous man and not to be trifled with. But he was also compassionate and wise beyond his years.
“What’s up Joe?” I inquired, as I approached him near the entrance of the base.
“I am not sure yet. I thought I heard something at a distance. It could well be nothing.” he replied, after a brief pause.
‘Well, we’ve had a lot of that going around all week’, I thought to myself.
He then turned around to look at me. “I want you to run a perimeter sweep first. Then go on patrol again. Take Buster with you” he said, before heading back to his post.
I started the jeep and drove out towards the perimeter. The engine hummed softly as I navigated the rough terrain, with Buster sitting alertly beside me. After finding nothing suspicious during my initial sweep, I decided to broaden my search radius.
A mile into the drive, Buster suddenly started barking, prompting me to stop the jeep immediately. He leaped onto the ground and dashed towards a boulder located a short distance away. I picked up my rifle and cautiously followed after him.
When I reached the spot, I keyed the mic attached to my shirt and said, "Boss, you need to come see this."
I knew he wasn’t going to be happy about leaving the guard post unmanned, but I thought he would prefer to come and inspect this himself.
Joe arrived ten minutes later, parking his vehicle next to mine. He walked towards the boulder overlooking a small pond, and switched on his torch to get a better look at the skeletal remains of an animal dumped nearby. Three other animal remains lay next to it, all appearing to be in a similar condition.
“These look like coyotes, probably stopping by to drink water from the pond before they were killed,” he observed, his voice expressing concern. “Did you find them like this?”
“Yes”, I replied. “And they weren’t here when I drove through the same place this morning. I thought it was quite odd to be honest, to find four of them out here all at once in the middle of the desert, that too at this hour.”
Joe simply nodded in agreement.
“What sort of creature do you think did this Joe?”
“I mean it must have a ravenous appetite to chew every sinew of flesh from the bone, and lick it this clean.” I said, leaning in take another look.
“Do you think it could be the Chupacabra or something similar?” I continued, knowing fully well my question was a bit far-fetched, but I had to still get it off my chest.
Joe finally stood up, switched off his torch, and looked around the vast open desert in quiet contemplation.
“This is in fact the fifth sighting in less than a week, Mike, and all have occurred in close proximity to secure government installations. The one before this was even stranger, and happened near a military base, where an old buddy of mine continues to serve.”
“He told me in that instance, the remains belonged to a dog. There were no signs of flesh or connecting tissue from the nasal region to the abdominal section, while the region spanning from the abdominal cavity to the tail bone was left fully intact. The whole thing was carried out with surgical precision, and drew morbid praise from even the medic back at the base.”
"But how is that even possible? What are you suggesting, Joe?" I asked, surprised by the tone of my own voice and my inability to hide my disappointment upon hearing about it for the first time.
“This is not a hunt for prey, Mike. This is a hunt for attention. Somebody is trying to make a point. And I’d say they are accomplishing their objective.” Joe said.

This is more retribution than revenge, but it's still...
When I was studying for an M.A. in Psychology, we had to take one of two courses: advanced statistics (conventional statistics, boring as boring can be) or a course in a kind of alternate analysis. The second course was given by a professor who had developed a brilliant method for tabulating variables and defining predicted relationships between them and I chose his course. Wrong move. While the guy was brilliant, he was also megalomanic and nasty. He spent most of the lectures badmouthing conventional statistics and rarely taught anything. His T.A. weren’t very good at answering questions, and writing papers for the course was a nightmare.
One of the things the professor was hung up on was language – he had invented terms for the elements of his theory (some of them were invented words, some of them were common words that he gave new meanings) and insisted on using them - and woe betide any student who tried to use his/her own words to explain the concepts! During one lecture, he spouted a sentence full of his terms – common words but with his meaning – and most of the class didn’t understand what on earth he meant. (Incidentally, I was one of the few who did understand). A student raised his hand, said he didn’t understand and asked the lecturer to repeat it. The professor repeated what he had said word for word. Ths student said he still didn’t understand. The Professor barked out: “do you know what X means? Do you know what Y means?” etc (X and Y being the words he used). The student said “I understand each word, but I still don’t understand the sentence, could you explain it in other words?” The professor exploded: “These are scientific terms, there are no other words”. I raised my hand, he called me (his mistake) and I said: “Excuse me, but this course is required for M.A. students of Psychology and Sociology. The students here are M.A. students of Psychology and Sociology. If most of us don’t understand, there must be another way to explain it”. The Professor turned DARK PURPLE – I thought he was having a heart attack - but he went to the blackboard, drew a sketch and explained and everyone understood.
By the end of the year, I failed the course. Not that I didn’t understand – but I insisted on using my own words, and that was unacceptable. Next year I took the conventional statistics course.
After that year when I failed, I went to the head of the Psychology department, and reported. I said that it was unacceptable that a required course was one that was given so badly, and graded so unfairly. He asked me to interview other students about the course and write him a report – it could be anonymous. Some students were afraid to express their concerns (he was very powerful at the University) but I got a long list of complaints, and wrote a detailed report – problems with the course, problems with the T.A., problems with the assignments. And I signed it and handed it in.
Two other students were braver than me. They wrote an open letter: “If you want to be insulted all year. If you want to hear one gospel from the teacher and the opposite one from the T.A. etc. etc. This course is for you!”
And they signed it, and hung it up on the bulletin board. Other students added their signatures and endorsements.
Well - the course wasn’t removed. But I found out that the professor had insisted on his course being made compulsory for all Psychology students, and with his clout at the university he would have succeeded. However, due to our protests, his demand was blocked. At least half a win.
By the way, his method was BRILLIANT! I used it countless times over my years working in research support, and even consulted with him. He either didn't know or didn't remember that I had snitched on him...

🪞
Welcome back to the Asylum write-up, where we explore the decade-long slow-motion car crash that is the Emilie Autumn fandom.
Sorry this installment took so long to upload! Just a heads-up, I may take some time to deliver the last one too – these posts take forever to format on Reddit's finicky-ass editor, and my dumb real life is currently keeping me from precious Internet time. Thank you for your patience! You have my word that everyone who pre-ordered the final installment will receive a PERSONAL, HANDWRITTEN letter autographed and illustrated by me, a list of the snacks I consumed while composing this write-up, some exclusive behind-the-scenes secrets, and a pony.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4.1 – Part 4.2 Part 5

Places, everyone This is a test Throw your stones Do your damage Your worst, and your best (...) And if I had a dollar For every time I repented the sin And commit the same crime I'd be sitting on top of the world today (“God Help Me”, 2006🎵)

Quick recap of where we left off. First, there were five to ten halcyon years of pleasant and meaningful interactions between EA and her blossoming fanbase, prominently by way of her official forum. Then, circa 2009-2010, EA's online presence shifted towards sudden anger outbursts, ban-hammering, and an increasingly top-down communication style.
This created a sort of primordial rift within the fanbase, between those who supported EA's right to speak her mind and regulate her own fan spaces however she pleased – and those who thought that her reactions were rude and inappropriate (at best), and that even fan spaces should allow for reasonable, non-abusive criticism of the artist.
Between a poorly-handled book release (see Part 3), the controversial (Part 2) or dubiously true (Part 4) contents of said book, and serious shade from various former collaborators (Part 5), more and more fans had pressing thoughts about EA's work ethic and choices. EA attempted damage control through drastic forum rules that made it virtually impossible to voice any “serious” critical opinion. It didn't work, of course: instead of squashing the mutiny, she created a schism.
Critical fans and active haters started congregating on unofficial platforms.

“WITH MUFFINS LIKE THIS, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?”: TROLL LIKE A GIRL

So here we were, the early 2010s. The official forum (which had about 700 members in 2006, if you recall) was now thousands-strong, reaching just over 12,000 registered users in 2012 – not all of them active, but still. In terms of sheer numbers and content creation, the party was POPPIN'... but increasingly in parts of the Asylum that escaped EA's jurisdiction, such as Tumblr, where they could speak their mind freely.

You play the victim very well You've built your self-indulgent hell You wanted someone to understand you Well, be careful what you wish for, because I do (“I Know Where You Sleep”, 2006🎵)

In one wing of Asylum Tumblr, a smattering of call-out blogs emerged, which laid out EA's various lies, faux pas, shitty takes, and general deep-seated terribleness in detailed timelines and screenshots (or, short of that, long-winded bullet points). While many such blogs framed it as “serious” whistleblowing and did their best to remain as fact-based and neutral as they could, there was some genuine disgust, animosity and creepiness towards EA on that side of Tumblr; for some ex-fans, “exposing the truth” was mostly justify obsessive hatred, prying and verbal abuse. Some, for instance, felt the bizarre need to side with EA's mother in their estrangement. (One user, with the URL “emilyautumnfischkopf”, argued in a serious and down-to-earth tone - but with zero sources - that EA's upbringing had been nothing but peaceful and supportive until she ungratefully kicked her loving family to the curb for no reason at all. They were later revealed 🔍 to have an alternate handle as “eaisalyingcunt”.)
Either way, through these blogs, a number of potential drama bombs that had mostly flown under the radar were dredged up from over the years – some of which were hard to ignore, even for supportive fans. Where to begin?
There was that nonsense in-joke song, captured twice on camera during the 2009 tour (to very little outrage, at the time), crassly called “Manatee Retard”📺. Or EA's scathing response, in print, to a wheelchair user who found it insensitive that she used a bedazzled wheelchair as a prop to do sexy acrobatics on stage. (“Your offence taken at my hard-won self-acceptance proves that I indeed have something to fight against”, she wrote). Spoken word tracks where she made trivializing knock-knock jokes about serious mental illnesses she didn't have, like schizophrenia and OCD. Multiple instances of calling Britney Spears a “bimbo” and a “Hollywood fucked-up”, resentfully claiming that she only shaved her head because she was “hopped up on drugs” and certainly not because she was “bipolar”, a word the press liked to wield as an insult anyway. (“That's almost like calling someone a retard!” Yeah, heaven forbid.) The meanest, most distasteful paragraphs in the book. Basically everything problematic EA had ever said or written.📝 In retrospect, it had been a long time coming, but it was a lot to take in – and certainly more off-putting, even to less emotionally invested fans, than silly lies about her age and last name.
In another wing of Asylum Tumblr, some fans had had it up to here and just wanted to have fun. 🎵 If Plague Rats had learned one valuable lesson from EA, it was how to crack a joke in the face of absurd tragedy – and the general state of the EA fandom certainly warranted a few.
In 2012, Fight Like a Girl was released. After six long years, three of which had been peaceful, the Opheliac era was officially over. The new album and ensuing tour confirmed that the Asylum had entered a process of glamorous Broadway-style militarization. 🎵📺
The mood board was “Roman general meets Vegas showgirl meets Victorian street urchin”.🪞 The color palette was, to naysayers, “musty pink and rotten, stale piss yellow”. 🐀 The keyword was “REVENGE” (through the power of... self-expression! sorority! brutal assault with rusty medical implements!). The chorus of the title song had an intriguing run-on line about getting “revenge on the world, or at least 49% of the people in it” 🎵 – which seemed like an awful lot, and was widely interpreted (to cheers, boos, or uncomfortable sighs) as a misandrist jab at literally all men on Earth.
The show was essentially a demo version of the musical, in that the setlist vaguely reflected the order of events in the story – but prior reading was essential in order to get what the hell was going on on stage. This one Broadway reviewer had not perused the literature before seeing the show 🔍, and hated: the set, the choreography, the skits, the plot, the lyrics, the music, the concept. (Seriously, you should read the review. It's not even my show and I feel like quitting show business.)
Pre-show VIP encounters, now violin-free, were lorded over by EA's new manager🐀, whose official title was “Asylum Headmistress”. (Interesting choice – she sounds fun!) The swag bags were less substantial than before, and the “greet” part of the meet-and-greet was rarely more than a quick hug and photo op.
On Twitter, EA continued to embrace her “I am very badass” fronting attitude...

Often wonder if cyberbullies r aware they’re fucking w/ a girl who’s BFs w/ maker of the SAW films & is marrying a knife-throwing scorpion. (🐀📝)

...and her taste for needlessly inflammatory statements. About an aisle sign in a supermarket:

If this does not infuriate you, then you're a fucking potato.

(Again with the confounding crypto-ableism, EA! 🔍) She also went through a phase of raging against Lady Gaga 📝, who had stolen her idea of using a wheelchair on stage as an able-bodied woman. 🔍 That failed to convince anyone that she wasn't the histrionic diva that haters made her out to be.
Spurred on by EA's rallying cries and “us vs them” mentality, loyalists turned the white-knighting up to 11. On Twitter, some Plague Rats got into cat fights with Lady Gaga's Little Monsters (what a time to be alive). Others tried to balance out the Tumblr negativity with initiatives like “Spreading a Plague of Love” – a “positive-only” confession blog, whose extreme fangirling, comically drastic rules and hyper-defensive tone📝 did not debunk the increasingly popular notion that “true Plague Rats” were a bunch of authoritarian and hopelessly brainwashed fanatics.
EA truthers and other anti-fans started lashing out at anyone who dared express any positive opinion of EA, solidifying claims that the backlash against EA was just a conspiracy of bitter, hysterical bullies.
All this to say: every passing day brought new reasons for fans to get mad at EA and each other, and everyone in the Asylum was in need of a laugh. It's not easy having a good time.🦠
Leading up to Fight Like a Girl and in the years that followed, user-submission-based meme blogs took off, most notably “Spreading a Plague of Lulz / Troll Like a Girl”. A lot of the early submissions were absurdist humor and toothless, cheezburger-Impact memes (a style that was, oddly, already dated at the time). Those often originated in good fun, and from loyal fans, on the official forum. But there was also true snark, satirizing EA's questionable ethics, outrageous claims, and easily spoofed artistic gimmicks. A new slang of Asylumspeak emerged: Glittertits (slight NSFW), GAGA!!, EA Gusta and all its memeface variants, Get outta mah house!, Are You Suffering?, Fight Like A Goat, [Random celebrity] copied EA (a subgenre in its own right), ...
Most of the “trolling” was directed at unrepentant bootlickers and, to a lesser extent, red-in-the-face haters and creeps. Meme blogs would post joke comments under “serious” or gushing submissions on Wayward Victorian Confessions, and taunt loyalist accounts by tagging them in their posts. When a few people complained on WVC that almost all of the Bloody Crumpets to date had been thin white able-bodied women, and a few fans responded by sharing their dream-casts for a more diverse line-up, the blog was flooded for days with confessions that “X should be a Crumpet” (candidates included RuPaul, Mitt Romney, Nicki Minaj, EA's therapist, and the WVC admins). Farcical shenanigans like that.
Ah, but some people will always cross the line, won't they. EA threads popped up on merciless, bully-friendly snark platforms like Lolcow, Pretty Ugly Little Liar, and Encyclopedia Dramatica. Snarkers with a mean streak and obsessive haters mingled in some of the more aggressive, 4-chan-spirited retaliation against EA – which would be called “brigading” in modern parlance. This included flooding EA's Goodreads page with one-star reviews (see part 4), repeatedly editing her Wikipedia page to include her legal name and birth year, and ensuring that Googling said name would bring up current pictures of her.
All of this compounded agitation fragmented the once-united fandom beyond recognition.🦠 Through substantial disagreements among fans, personal bickerings, layers upon layers of inscrutable in-jokes, and cross-platform telephone games, the Asylum morphed into a booby-trapped Escher room.
Satire blogs were taken in earnest. Earnest fan blogs scanned as satire. Memes would get called out as abuse. Appreciation without attached criticism would get mocked as bootlicking. Obvious jokes made by EA would be taken at face value. One divisive confession could trigger days and days of debate, to the point that WVC eventually banned confessions in response to other confessions. New waves of infighting created a confusing web of rival sub-factions🐀, each accusing the others of being toxic, cliquish, and delusional.
The shared fantasy was broken, the collective vision had crumbled, no onez was speaking the same language anymore. Fans would jump down the throat of other fans who held almost identical views about EA, except for that one thing she said or did that one time. Everyone had differing thoughts on what should or shouldn't acceptable to discuss, question, excuse, make fun of.
War is hell.

SCORCHED EARTH SHENANIGANS: HONEY, I SHRUNK THE ASYLUM

Would you tear my castle down Stone by stone And let the wind run through my windows Till there was nothing left But a battered rose? (“Castle Down”, 2003🎵)

Haters vs sycophants is not really the kind of conflict where one side can come out on top (if you're participating, you've already lost). But in the long tug-of-war between “grassroots” and “EA-sponsored” fan spaces, the ultimate winner is obvious – in that the former is gasping in agony, a shriveled husk of its former glory, while the latter... is non-existent. This is due in no small part to EA's tendency, like the Czars of old, to settle conflicts by setting Moscow on fire.🔍)
That's not entirely fair: unlike EA, the czar only did it that once.
By early 2013, as EA was gearing up for her third Fight Like a Girl tour at the end of the year, the official forum was... not as lively as it once had been. Not just because of the stifling rules and disgruntlement towards EA, or because EA herself hadn't really posted anything on there in years; the Internet was also changing, and forums in general were fast becoming passé.
This made it difficult for EA to create a safe space where she could talk to fans, and fans could talk to and about her, in a way she deemed suitable (ie, a space she could gate-keep and regulate enough to keep it completely free from negative criticism). Social media was a minefield; she still posted regularly, but didn't interact very much. So EA and the Headmistress came up with a way to filter out the unbelievers: an official fan club📝, aptly called the “Asylum Army”, with a $100 entry price.
Joining the AA came with a dog tag, a sew-on patch, and a lifetime membership certificate signed by EA and – for some reason – the Headmistress. (Unlike EA's best friend and sound engineer back in the forum's heyday, I don't think fans ever really embraced the FLAG-era manager as part of the Asylum in-group. She came across more as a coordinator / businessperson / adult chaperone, at best.🐀) So, slightly better goodies than you'd get by joining the other AA 🔍 ... but not by much. The main appeal was that members would have access to exclusive content, special merch, giveaways, early bird tickets for future shows, and regular video chats with EA.
The concept itself drew a fair amount of criticism, as you can imagine. Between the name🐀, the price, and the inherent gatekeeping of a pay-to-join fanclub, many balked at the monetizing of a concept that had once (like, three years back) been significantly more DIY, grassroots, and inclusive. 📝🐀
Then again, many also longed for a positive, drama-free space where fans could just be fans. And while the creation of the AA was generally recognized as a quick cashgrab, a lot of people were surprisingly cool with it. EA was trying to finance her dream musical, after all – although a number of fans wished she had gone about raising funds in a less sketchy way.
So around 400 fans shelled out (which, according to the Headmistress📝, “basically cover[ed] the cost of running the fanclub itself – keeping the database up, website, etc.”). Enough for a close-knit, but sizable community. But already, there was a conflict of interest: a high fanclub entry fee essentially demands that you pledge loyalty to the artist over loyalty to your fellow fans, who wish to join but can't afford to. Sharing, caring, and ensuring no one felt left out were some of the more positive values cultivated in the fandom... but leaking exclusive content would surely piss off other paying members🐀, and make EA feel betrayed all over again. (And she had barely just started to mellow out on social media!)
...But then again, this is the internet. After the first month of secret AA drops (lyric sheets, some photoshoot outtakes – nothing too juicy, really), there were, yes, some leaks. EA was predictably miffed, and retaliated by... ghosting the fanclub for weeks at a time in its first few months of existence (great look!). She eventually found the “solution” to her problem, by providing something you couldn't right-click-save (and which had been part of the promised perks to begin with): live interaction.
Over webcam, she was her usual in-person bubbly, charming, funny self. Everyone seemingly had a good time during the fanclub video chat, and this gave people faith and hope.
There were a few more events, giveaways, etc. As promised, ahead of the fall 2013 tour (the last one to date, it would turn out), AA members got priority access to show tickets and VIP bundles. The latter were much pricier than before, and only included soundcheck, a photo-op, and three goodies: a tin of loose-leaf tea, a signed printer-paper setlist, and a small flag that said “F.L.A.G.”.🔍 Some stuff continued to leak – but, as some of the outlaws pointed out (scroll down to the Disqus comments), they were mostly relaying information that was relevant to the entire fanbase, such as updates about ongoing projects (the dragged-out recording of the audiobook, for one).
In early 2014, lifetime memberships were closed, and replaced with monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription tiers. Bizarrely, you ended up paying $3 more per month if you bought a $99 yearly subscription📝 – but it did include the patch, dog tag, and piece of paper!

Sometimes I kind of want to be part of the cool kids and register to the Asylum Army. Then I remember how it came about, what you could get for the same price a couple years ago, how the whole thing was and is handled, and that I won’t support any of this bullshit. (And then I roll around naked in all the money I’m saving.) (🐀)

Still, a number of fans rejoiced at the affordable monthly option, and joined – if not for the exclusive content and merch (which were... okay, but not much to write home about), then for the friendly, drama-free exchanges with an artist they actually did love, in spite of all the frustration.
For the still-too-poor or still-undecided, there was always the forum! It wasn't as active as it used to be, but a few die-hards still managed to keep the lights on... until, inevitably, Someone Did Something and Ruined Everything. (Once again: EA's wrath is spectacular, but rarely completely unprovoked.) The incident features one notable figure in the Asylum community. Let's call him the Collector.
OK, so maybe you remember the meme I linked to in Part 4, with Christian Grey and the ginormous EA hoard. Well, that's the Collector's collection. The “Violin” promo that I called the "Holy Grail of the fandom" in the same paragraph? Also his. The handwritten lyrics that went for $940? Guess who won that auction. Over the years, the Collector had probably spent five figures on EA merch and shows, and although that fact was a little unsettling, he was a very active, easy-going, and generally well-liked fixture of the fandom.
One day in 2012, shortly after the Headmistress had replaced EA's old Chicago BFF as main forum admin, the Collector's account got banned or restricted over something dumb. When the ban wasn't lifted as quickly as he hoped, he took it... the way one takes things when one is unhealthily invested: he started spamming Headmistress and the mod team with increasingly rambling and abusive emails (lost to time, probably for the best). When that didn't work quickly enough, he tried a different route.
One of the many auctions that the Collector had won, some years prior, was EA's old iPod Touch📝 – which contained all of her favorite tunes and, buried somewhere in the data cache... a phone number. Which the Collector tried calling. And wouldn't you know it: EA picked up. She congratulated him on his sleuthing skills, listened patiently as he made his case, apologized for any distress caused by the unfair account restriction, and then they got married.
Kidding! She freaked the fuck out, hung up, and banned him for life from the forum and all EA shows and events.
After his ban, the Collector allegedly still tried to attend at least one VIP pre-show (one source in the comments says he was allowed to buy some merch, refunded for his ticket, and escorted out). He joined the Reform forum to bitch about EA and try to rally people to his cause, possibly made revenge posts about her on darker snark forums, and continued to hound the Asylum mod team. So in June 2014, EA came up with a radical and unexpected fix to the Collector problem.

The official Asylum Fan Forum has been shut down permanently. I have personally paid thousands of dollars each year to keep the forum safe and secure for you ... Unfortunately, the forum has not been kept safe and secure for me, a truth which disappoints me greatly, instead becoming a place where people who have physically threatened myself and my staff prey upon forum members, pressuring them to contact me and my staff on their behalf. If the gullible wish to humor my stalkers (who live in their parent’s basement at age 30 something) and thus put me in danger, they may do it on their own dime. They may also fuck off, because stupidity can kill, and I won’t be your victim. To those who enjoyed the forum, you know who to thank for its closure. (“On the closing of the Asylum Forum”)

Voilà! This is how a decade-long archive of shared history ends: not with a bang, but with a dirty delete and a sod-off communiqué.
The obliteration of the forum took everyone by surprise...

I was actually on the forum when it was taken down. I was navigating between posts and when I went to click on a different board, an error message came up. I honestly cried a little, I'm not ashamed to say. (WVC admin on Reddit, 2024)

...and I do mean everyone:

Chicago BFF / ex-admin, the next morning: Whoa, EA forum shut down? Ex-mod: It turns out that if someone spends enough years actively “waging war” to destroy what they can’t have, eventually they’ll be successful. * eye roll * Not even mods got prior warning. Just all the sudden, poof, gone. BFF: Really? She did not let the moderators know?! This is sounding worse and worse. Uggh. I’m so sorry. Such a loss. (...) Ok, threats are serious, but why not just put it in archive mode so no one can post? (...) Sad. I shall light a candle in the forum's honor. (Facebook posts; scroll down for screenshots)

It was a gut punch, especially for people who had poured countless hours into the community, or could have used some prior warning to save years of their own writing from the role-playing threads. One last chance to take a look around the place that had meant so much to so many.

From the wording of the announcement of closing the forum and a number of other things, it sometimes seems like EA doesn't like her fans much. :/ (🐀)

Three months after the forum was nuked, Battered Rose (a venerable EA fansite, which had been around since the Enchant era and had one of the most complete EA galleries online) announced that it was shutting down too.📝 The admin, who had also been a long-time forum mod, cited a lack of “time, energy, passion, or money” to keep the website going... and being upset at the sudden disappearance of the forum. It was, truly, the end of an era for the Asylum.
...Well, no point in living in the past. For those who could afford it, and still wanted to talk to/about EA after that (not everyone did 🐀), there was always the Asylum Army fanclub!
Over the summer of 2014, EA held regular live chats and Q&A's, and... many attendees really enjoyed them, and thought the AA was well worth the money after all. She also quietly parted ways with the much poo-pooed Headmistress around that time.

Just spent over 4 hours giggling, drinking tea and playing guessing games in chat with EA and other Asylum Army members ... No griping, no downers, just lots of fun. I think I like the way the ‘new fandom’ is going and now I’m really glad I finally decided to join the Army. (September 4, 2014🐀; Battered Rose had closed the day before)

The forum was lost forever, but perhaps that was a chance for a fresh start. Could this fanclub thing really be the Asylum Renaissance that fans had been longing for?

...I have come today to a very difficult but necessary decision, and that is to discontinue the Emilie Autumn Official Fanclub. The site itself, and the community chatroom, will remain open to you indefinitely, but I will no longer be making updates to the site. (Newsletter, September 8, 2014📝)

...Never mind, then.
Turns out the fanclub had been the Headmistress' idea all along. EA had been reluctant from the start, and although she really enjoyed the live chats with a safe community of people “who are there for the right reasons”, she couldn't overcome her fundamental discomfort with the concept. Lifetime and regular members would receive a bunch of digital downloads and a -35% coupon on the Asylum Emporium for their troubles. EA said she would definitely pop back once in a while for live chats, for free, just for fun, but to my knowledge, she never did.
And so the most devoted fans were left standing in the rain...

She is happy, she made it. She is fulfilling her dreams, found love and happiness after all the pain. I understand that she now doesn’t need “us” anymore ... That doesn’t change the fact she broke my heart with taking the Asylum Army and the forum from me. Yet, I am happy for her. (🐀)

...while naysayers pointed and laughed, Nelson-style.🦠

I don’t feel sorry at all for the people that paid for the Asylum Army fan club. Most of them knew that EA is an atrocious business woman and has broken many promises before. In fact, I laugh at them. They seriously thought that EA would actually stay consistent with this? (🐀)

EVERYTHING MUST GO: THE ASYLUM WHOLESALE

EA fans were left without an “official” home for about three years. This gave them plenty of time to be annoyed at EA for: not releasing the audiobook on time, not materializing any new project for a while... and the new sin of peddling random, ridiculously marked-up AliBaba jewelry as “merch” on her official store. Think faux-antique cameo pendants and $30 Big Ben rings (...because the Asylum story is set in London, get it?).

The whole accessories section looks like a tacky overpriced English souvenir shop. (🐀)

The fanbase lost a lost of steam in those in-between years, because there wasn't much to stick around for. As evidenced by the positive reception of the AA live chats, even in the midst of unresolved drama, out-loud interactions in a friendly environment have always been EA's saving grace. Considering the amount of online hate, there are shockingly few accounts of bad IRL encounters with EA: most people say that in live conversation, she comes across as a fun, warm, and genuinely sweet person. Some report that their negative opinion shifted after meeting her.
But there were no chats or live shows anymore. There was only social media, where she ignored questions and vague-posted about overdue projects – and the newsletter📝, which was all saccharine love-bombing to promote bland dropshipped trinkets. For fans who remembered the handcrafted merch (and two-way communication) of the early years, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

CONTINUED IN COMMENTS

​

I am an international student residing in the Bavarian countryside. As usual on Sundays, I went for a run to soak up the sun. Afterwards, I was peacefully practicing yoga and meditation under a tree about 100 meters away from any homes not causing any ruckus, near an empty grassland. I heard a few barks and initially ignored them. However, when I looked back, I saw a dog very close to me. Luckily, it ran away. The dog's owner was at the other end of the empty area. He saw both me and the dog but didn't seem to care. The dog approached me a few more times before the owner finally took it away in a small truck to some farm. The dog owner appeared to be an old farmer, probably in his 60s.
What should I do in situations like this to protect myself ?
Edit: The dog came running towards me few times and barking and that wasn't really friendly bark !,since some are asking do was not ding anything.

I found out I was pregnant in October 2022, and in July 2023 I’ve delivered my little girl the whole time I had my insurance from my employer that I had had for years. My husband had picked up insurance on me as a secondary insurance. I had no problems with billing the entire time I was pregnant. I had to see specialist have extra scans, bloodwork, etc. anytime I had anything to pay out of pocket. I did so in office and then after my daughter was born, I went for my check up. I was told I had an outstanding balance, which didn’t make sense because I always paid so I followed up and come to find out my primary insurance that had paid all my bills had unpaid everything. I had never heard of this so I I tried to get a hold of the insurance company, but I had already terminated the insurance as I did not go back to work after I gave birth. They did not want to speak with me because I no longer remember and give them my information. Finally I found my member number. I was able to talk to someone explain the situation to them. They argued with me. I told them that this was my primary it always has been. Why would they pay my bills? I never got any answer they told me they would put it down as a dispute And a request for repayment, but I was never sent a letter or informed them paying any bills. They’ve never told me if they are going to cover any of the bill. I’ve tried to call back and talk to someone but I just had to keep telling the same story over and I never get anywhere. I’m getting bills and collection notices for other doctors offices. Come to find out they have unpaid every bill. They have paid from the date that I took a pregnancy test at the doctor, but I was never informed of anything. Just bills and collection notices. How should I resolve this? Should I reach out to a lawyer or should I write them a letter? If so, would anyone have any sample letters? I could try to follow my credit score is in the 805 have worked very hard to get it there and I don’t want the years worth of medical bills piling up. Also, my daughter is 10 months old now I’m worried that my insurance is going to tell me. I’ve waited too long to dispute this, but I’ve tried to contact them over the phone several times and I get nowhere with them.

My dog doesn’t sleep in my bedroom but his sharp ears know I’m putting something on my face when I go to bed. He scolds me for it. I thought it was just a clue that I was going to bed for good for the night and he thinks that’s not fair but I noticed he dislikes it even more if he hears me run the machine before my mask goes on. Dog hates hairdryers and other things that blow air, guess he thinks that makes it bad for humans!
He has a pretty good vocabulary so I tried “this Machine is HELP for SLEEP” a couple times and he still fussed but wasn’t barking like it was an emergency anymore so that was progress.
Tonight I lied and said “okay no machine, I’ll do it later” and pretended to put the mask away and he grumbled and went to bed.
(He also scolded me and woke me up from apnea in the past!)

Hello: I am debating whether to take landlords to civil or criminal court. I don't know how to pursue a CRIMINAL case, and police tell me it's a "CIVIL courts matter".
I just did a civil court attempt, and the summons was sent by the summons dept at the civil courthouse by certified mail, but they did not respond, so the judge dismissed it and told me to get a lawyer and serve them by a sheriff or process server.
The court date was Aprl 8th, and on April 30th, the case info page stated the summons was sent back "return to sender".
Do you think that they saw it was from the court, did not open it, and that was somehow legal? The address was correct, and if the court said they were sending it certified mail, what I thought had to be a letter delivered i-person and signed for, was that legal?
If I pursue it as a CRIMINAL, regular court matter, do I need an attorney, and could the court appoint me one?
I was locked out of my apt, lost $ 1,000s, and landlord tried to attack me after I confronted them personally for the theft. They had also said for a month they'd let me back to retrieve my possessions, after first telling me they'd help me move, and stalled that for a month, then claimed that after 30 days of my things being at the apt, they magically became their property. AGAIN, I was LOCKED OUT, and spent a month expecting them to allow me to move my things. It was clearly a lied-about scheme.
I lost not just monetarily-costly things, but all my medicines, medical equipment, personal documents, family photos and heirlooms, work-related material when I did work, diplomas, , even my dead dog's ashes in an urn, etc.
They knew this, me BEGGING and PLEADING to be allowed in, and when I confronted them, they laughed and made a joke of it. I had lived there for almost a decade, not late on rent ever, and was being evicted "for mice" when they were there day-one, and being "messy".
Turned out, they were selling the bldg, and wanted me and my stuff out asap. They showed up the day before I was told i'd be evicted by email, demanding to take most of my possessions, and brought their truck w/ a trailer attatched.
They are extended family, and I was dealing with my nephew, we having what was a great relationship, so I trusted him when he asked if he could "use my keys" when I was on the way out of my apt to meet the landlord at the new apt. He told me we'd meet tomorrow to start moig my things, but that became a week, then month. It;s clear they ghosted me and then belieived 30 days meant I had sort of abandoed my stuff, when they locked me out and told me falsely that was the law.
What could I do? They refused to talk to me, and still do. The apt was cleaned out, so my things are gone, sold, in the trash, or furninshing their home.
My bro and I moved in 2014, and they ironically evicted him for stealing and doing drugs in 2016, and I was there until Nov of 2023.
I was only dealing with him, when his parents- the landlords- came to the apt three days after the stated eviction, and threatened me with retaliation and began banging and kicking on the door. I made a police report and sought help through the disability-related govt services.
IF I do a CIVIL case, and I win, as I'm pretty sure I would, I've read that it's my responsibility to follow up and make sure they pay the judgement. Is that true? I can easily see them not paying. I cannot afford an attorney, am disabled and on SS.
The REASON they were so ugly, doing what a regular, business-minded, non-family-related landlord would sink down to, was it was not just harmful but PERSONAL.
I have depression as well, and losing everything, including my relationship with my nephew, nearly put me over the edge. It took me nearly a month to even FIND an apt. I've sought therapy on-line to deal with it. I was in contact with a homeless shelter too, thinking i'd be homeless when no typical landlord would give a poor, broke, just-evicted, disabled person the time-of-day.
Any advice would be appreciated.

We feel AWFUL. Our greyhound bit our friends’ greyhound and he had to go to the vets. This was while we were dog sitting and their dog was spending 2 nights at our place.
We think the other greyhound was trying to get ours to play, but sleep startled him last night. Our dog was sleeping in his own bed. The other grey is a lot sillier and more playful & goofy than our grey. Our grey doesn’t really (know how to) play with other dogs; he’ll just coexist with them, but would rather not get involved in play. He’s barked before as a “just leave me alone” warning when our friend’s grey tried to engage him in play, and he usually gets the message.
We didn’t notice last night but only saw the wound this morning when I tried to pet the other grey on the side and he cried a little. The wound wasn’t bleeding, but looked like there had been small bleeding as there was some dried up blood around it. We cleaned it up with salty water, and we then met his mom (they only live 5 minutes away) and went to the vets to get him looked at.
He’s on antibiotics and painkillers and they’re letting the wound heal on its own. Only in case it doesn’t look good in the next few days they’ll take him back to be sedated and sutured.
But in all this, I feel so so awful that our grey did this to another grey, who now has a small wound (less than an inch) that required a vet visit.
For some more background on the relationship: the dogs have known each other for about 9 months now, both ex racers, both adopted around 3-4 years ago. They see each other roughly about once a week, either our grey spends the day at their house, or the other way around. They’ve also spent the night together under the same roof plenty of times in the past; our grey spent a whole week at our friends’ house over Christmas with their other grey there as well, and their grey has had many sleepovers at our place before.
Has anyone else been in any similar situations before with your greys? Any advice and thoughts are welcome!